The Things I Can Do Without [Karate Kid Fanfic]

It's Not Too Late

Danielle seemed to be doing much better. She was having less depressed moments, and snapped less at Terry and himself these days. She also seemed livelier and more herself (at least what John assumed was like herself, since he hadn't really known her before all this and Terry wouldn't talk about his past with her).

She had also, amusingly, asked to see all four current Rocky movies. Taking that as a cue that maybe she was back on track and hopefully getting better, Terry had cheerfully agreed and procured the movies. They were also kind of thankful it wasn't going to be a marathon of chick flicks.

"Any reason for the Rocky movies?"

"My therapist brought it up. I thought it'd be nice to check them out."

While not sure why they'd be brought up in a therapy session, it seemed to be a good way for Danielle to just try for normality and hopefully help herself get her life to normal. So they had a marathon planned out for that Friday night, and John was in charge of buying snacks from the store. To be honest, he was being a little biased and just getting snacks that he liked, but he did sneak in a few of Danielle's favorites.

"Sensei?"

That made him freeze and he turned slowly to the familiar voice. Seeing his old student Bobby (thank God it wasn't Johnny), John forced himself to nod.

"Bobby," he muttered. "And you don't have to call me 'Sensei.' I'm not your teacher anymore. Just John is fine." Lord knows if he heard 'Mr. Kreese', he'll be his fucking dad.

Bobby bit his lip. "Um, how have you been?"

"Alright," John answered gruffly, trying to keep his answers short.

The younger male glanced at John's cart.

"That's a lot of snacks," he noted. He saw a particular one. "Are those marshmallows? I thought you hated marshmallows?"

"Danielle likes s'mores," he answered before shutting his mouth. He hadn't meant to blurt that out.

Bobby looked surprised. "Danielle? Danielle LaRusso?"

John pursed his lips, but kept his tone neutral. "Yeah...She's been staying with me and a friend of mine recently. It's a long story."

Bobby nodded awkwardly. For a moment, they just stood there. John was just about to excuse himself when Bobby spoke up.

"So how's she been doing?"

John swallowed heavily. He thought back to all that had happened and how Danielle had been coping. But he thought back to recent days and how Danielle was actually seeming to be much better than before.

"Good," he decided on recently. "Her mentor died kind of recently and...there were other things going on. But she's better now."

He looked oddly relieved, but John didn't ask.

"That's...that's good. Um...could you...could you tell her I'm sorry? About before?" he asked, remorse seeping into his voice.

That caught him off guard, but it wasn't too surprising. Bobby had always been the more understanding and sympathetic of the group, and regarding the situation with Danielle before, Bobby had been the least aggressive. That gave him an idea though. A hesitant one, but still an idea.

"You could do that yourself," John said. "We're having a movie marathon tonight. You could join us?"

Bobby looked surprised but then hesitant. Then he was grinning widely.

"Sure, sounds good to me!"

John hoped it would help Danielle open up to more people and get her feeling more secure.