A Flower in War

Chapter Fourty-Two: Beach Day Blues

"We need to turn this around." Cal states softly, cuddling further into bed with Robby, showing him her phone. On the screen is the Cobra Kai takeover with a bunch of comments about how Miyagi Do looks like it's for pussies.
"We will. I know we will. But right now, we need to sleep." Robby says softly, taking the phone from her hands and placing it on her bedside table. He looms over her, watching her pout.
"Don't pout flower, it'll all work out. We will make it work, okay?" Robby holds her cheek in his hand, rubbing his thumb over her cheek bone.
Cal sighs, nodding in agreement, "You're right. You're right. I'm sorry." Cal smiles.
"You don't have to apologize. No need. For now just focus on getting a good nights rest so we can figure things out for Miyagi-Do tomorrow." Cal nods, pulling him down to her lips to give him a soft kiss.
"I love you." Cal whispers, her hand on the back of his neck.
"I love you too flower." Robby smiles, giving her another kiss before falling to her side.

Cal curls into him, her arm going over his waist and her head laying on his chest.
"I'm proud of you, Robby." Cal whispers against his skin.
"For what?"
"You've matured. The Robby I met the first time would have caused a scene over what they did, wouldn't let it go - you stayed by my side, you didn't let me stew over it. You've grown so much. So I'm proud of you." Robby smiles broadly, rubbing his hand over her back as he attempts to hide the smile from her.
"It's all thanks to your influence. You should be proud of yourself for bringing out the good in me."
"I'm proud of me for sticking to it, to you."

"I think sometimes that was to your detriment." Robby chuckles.
"Yeah, sometimes." Cal nods, laughing.
"But I knew you would learn from it. If I left you, I would have ruined all the hard work we did to get you to where you are now."
"I hope you're not just with me to keep me like this." Robby worries.
"I'm not. I'm with you because I love you. I feel safe with you and you feel safe with me. You respect me and you communicate with me. I'm proud of all the work you've put into yourself and our relationship, but I'm not with you for that."
"Good." Robby nods to himself.

"Get some sleep flower. Tomorrow we figure out our counterattack."
"Night Robby." Cal yawns, cuddling further into him.
"Goodnight flower, sleep well."

-

"Uncle Danny really wants to get that lemon up and running." Cal laughs, placing her bag down inside the dojo before heading towards Sam who is stretching out. Robby walks over to the punching bag, starting to get out any aggression like Cal had taught him so he could make better contributions.
"Apparently." Sam shrugs.
"Huh... well, any ideas on how to counter the travesty that was Valley Fest?" Cal prompts, looking between Sam and Robby.
"Maybe we could take a video of all of us sparring and post it on Instagram?" Robby suggests.
"Everybody already saw us at Valley Fest. No one cared." Sam says defeatedly.
"They didn't care because Cobra Kai came in and stole our thunder." Cal points out.

"You know what the problem is? Miyagi-Do's all about defense." Robby explains, stepping towards the two stretching girls.
Sam looks to Cal, "Defense wins championships." Sam explains, earning a nod of agreement from Cal.
"Yeah, but people show up for the offense. That's why Cobra Kai is more popular. All right? We need to show them we can fight too."

"So what exactly are we supposed to do? Go to the mall and pick a fight? Record us defending ourselves?" Sam asks sarcastically.
"It's not the worst idea."
"It's a terrible idea." Sam scoffs.
"She's right. It may not be the worst but it's not going to achieve what we all want. We want people here to learn, to grow - we don't need hot heads who just want to beat down others. We want kids who will build each other up. Protect each other. Defend each other. We don't need to pick fights. If there's a fight, we defend, we don't attack." Cal explains, earning a reluctant nod from Robby who goes back to hitting the bag.