Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

147 - Machine

It's been a month since I agreed to bring the Sekai Taikai back. I've only been training harder since then. I've been at the dojang more. I've finally started going back to sparring classes. I haven't been able to bring myself to teach it though. I just... can't. I've been training with Robby, Miguel, and Sam more than ever. It's been nice, I suppose. The four of us work well together. Training, once again, has been at the forefront of my mind for the past month, especially now that competition season in show choir is over. I go to school, go to work at the dealership if I'm scheduled, go to the dojang for work and class, eat a little something, then head to the beach to continue training. Some mornings and evenings, I'll go to the gym to train speed and strengthen my legs. So much speed training. I've never been faster in my entire life. On weekends, I go to the Miyagi-Do dojo and work with Mr LaRusso and Mr Lawrence, as well as my peers.

And every single night for the past month, I've watched every piece of footage of Zara fighting that I can possibly find and studied every second of it closely. I look for strengths. Weaknesses. Patterns. I wrote down everything I could recall from our fight, including what I did and what I could've done better. In helping refine Eli and Demetri's sparring simulator, I ran countless simulations using Zara's footage to cross check the software and make sure it's accurate across multiple fighters. In dull moments, I'm running sequences in my head, imagining how I could counter certain techniques. I've been doing the same for my own fighting. I don't have many videos of me sparring, but I've taken what I do have and pinpointed weak spots. I've also been sparring more and more with Cameron and Mr Abelardo, and recording each time so all three of us can look back on it. Then Cameron will try different things, and I won't repeat the same mistakes.

I've got it all down to a science, and science is something I understand, something I excel at.

Robby peppers gentle kisses along my neck and jawline, bringing my attention back to reality. This is my favorite way to start the day. It's another heavy training day. Robby's gonna work with Eli and Demetri and their newly finished sparring simulator. It should be a good way to test Robby's skills. I was planning on going to the Miyagi-Do dojo, and I'll probably hit the gym and end my day at the beach, like I have been regularly as of late. He rests his forehead against mine.

"Good morning," he says, then presses a light kiss to my lips. I smile.

"Buenos días," I return. I'm glad he spent the night with me. It was much needed. I didn't sleep much, but what little sleep I did get was much better because he was here with me.

"You were awake way after I fell asleep, weren't you?" he asks. Mierda, he caught me. I didn't realize he'd notice. I almost always fall asleep after he does. Normally, however, I wouldn't stay up for hours past then. But I had to keep reviewing footage, especially right before such a big training day.

"Yeah... but don't worry about me, okay? I slept really well because you were here with me, so gracias, mi amor," I say, trying to deflect a little. The finals are getting close. He needs to put all his focus into his training. I'll be fine. I always am. It's not like the voices have been getting louder throughout the past month, or that I've barely been sleeping, or that Abuelita still isn't awake and even if she does wake up, she'll have severe brain damage, or that I haven't been eating very well, or that if I'm not distracting myself at every waking moment of the day, I'm at risk of spiraling into the deep end. It also doesn't help that I've been getting nightmares again, as if I needed reminders of what happened in Barcelona. That aside, come August, I'll be starting anew at Stanford, but this is his opportunity to start anew. That's the only reason I agreed to come back to this nightmare situation. I don't want him to blow it because he's distracted by me— not again.