Chapter Text
“Are you planning to sleep with Daniel anytime soon, or are you going to wait for the turn of the next century?”
With the sound of speeding go-carts somewhere nearby, all the screaming kids behind him, and some modern pop song playing over the Golf N’ Stuff speakers, Johnny was sure that he’d misheard Amanda’s question. He slurped at his Icee, looked across the table at her, frowning in confusion, and realized: nope. He’d heard right. The look in her face said it all somehow. She smirked at him, chin resting in one hand, eyes pinning him to the spot like an eagle staring down a cornered rabbit.
Johnny had never thought of himself as a rabbit, ever, except for that moment with Amanda because apparently she just had that effect on people.
“Are you asking me if I’m going to sleep with your husband?” He asked, because he definitely needed clarification there.
“Ex-husband,” Amanda corrected briskly. “And I’m asking when are you going to sleep with him. There’s no if. I think we all know it’s happening.”
“Bullshit,” Johnny said, because he wasn’t scared of her. Then she gave him a look, and he decided to maybe cut back on the cursing just a little bit, to be polite and all. Not because she was scary. “What even makes you think I wanna bang that twerp?”
“There just isn’t enough time left in the day to lay out all the evidence,” she said, deadpan. “I mean, am I wrong?”
She didn’t even have the decency to direct this question at Johnny. She looked instead at Carmen, who was sitting close by Amanda’s side. Carmen gave a little smile as she sipped from a cup of iced tea.
“You are being a little obvious,” she said.
“Obvious?” Johnny looked between both of them, face scrunching up in confusion. “Come on. How am I being obvious.”
“Johnny,” Amanda said. “What were you doing ten seconds ago?”
“I was--” He cut himself off with a scowl and narrowed his eyes at the women smiling at him.
Alright, okay, so he’d been staring at Daniel. That didn’t mean he was being obvious about anything. What was he supposed to do, not look at him? They ran a dojo together. Sometimes they ate lunch together. Last night they’d watched an X-Files marathon at Johnny’s place and had pizza. Not looking at him was just impossible.
Currently, the guy was standing by the snack bar, surrounded by eight of their students, handing out tokens for the games and those paper bracelets for the rides. It was funny and a little frustrating. Being surrounded by a bunch of teenagers clamoring for tokens was Daniel’s own fault, and he’d have a much easier time of it if he’d only take a page out of Johnny’s book and yell at them all to be QUIET and get in line already. As it was, he’d given up almost immediately on trying to get the kids to wait patiently and was now just dropping tokens and bracelets into outstretched hands and calling after the kids that ran off to “remember to stay together, be back in an hour, we’ll have pizza!”
Johnny wasn’t going to lie--Daniel’s patience was admirable. He still managed to smile through the onslaught of chatting teenagers demanding tokens and hadn’t yelled once. Dumb, but impressive, and kind of cute.
Ok, maybe Johnny thought of Daniel as “cute” more and more often now. Which, if you asked Johnny, was kind of a stupid thing for one middle aged guy to call another middle aged guy who had kicked him in the face over thirty years ago. But then again he just really did not give a shit, because he was Johnny fucking Lawrence, and Johnny fucking Lawrence could use the word “cute” as freely as he wanted to--as long as he didn’t say it out loud, and as long as Daniel never found out.
The staring thing and the cute thing kind of went hand in hand at this point. With all the time they spent together, Johnny just couldn’t help but notice stupid little details that stuck in his mind for hours after their interaction--the way Daniel’s eyes were a different shade of brown in the sunlight, or how his hair looked really nice all ruffled after sparring, or how even Johnny’s dumbest jokes never failed to make him laugh. He was a slender guy with delicate looking wrists but he could still toss Johnny around on the mat when he wanted to, and he also had a really nice neck, which Johnny sometimes had a close up view of during sparring.
“How long has he been staring at him now?” Amanda asked.
“Long enough,” Carmen answered, and Johnny felt a blush heat its way up to the tips of his ears.
He tore his eyes from Daniel to narrow them again at Amanda.
“Am I not supposed to look at him or something?” He asked, more than a little grouchy.
“Oh, look all you want, I didn’t say to stop,” Amanda said. “All I’m trying to say is it’s clear that you want to sleep--”
“Jesus. Do you just imagine me fucking your ex all the time?” Johnny sneered. “That’s gross, Amanda.”
“Watch the language--this is a family establishment, there are kids nearby,” Amanda said as if she wasn’t trying to get her ex-husband laid by his ex-bully. Then she smiled. “But also--don’t you?”
“I--” Johnny’s words caught in his throat. If anything, his face went redder.
When he didn’t answer, Amanda said with a self-satisfied smirk, “M-hmm, thought so.”
“Oh, Johnny,” Carmen sighed while Johnny scowled at Amanda. “You should just ask him out.”
“We hang out all the time,” Johnny said, which would have sounded unbelievable to Johnny a year ago. But now it felt natural.
“But this is going to be different. This is going to be a date. And this needs to be like, a third date type of date,” Amanda said, to which Carmen nodded sagely and said, “Yes. Definitely.”
Johnny leaned forward, fists clenched on the table and face no less red than it was a minute ago. “Why are you so desperate for me to fu--” Amanda’s eyebrow twitched. Johnny caught himself and started over. “To, uh, to do him anyway, huh?”
Amanda leaned forward, expression so intense that Johnny leaned back for his own safety. “Because if I have to sit through another get together with all the UST between you too, I’m going to lose my mind. It’s almost indecent.” Then she paused and leaned back, and her expression went soft. “But I also want Daniel to be happy. And I want you to be happy. And though physical intimacy isn’t a necessary part of any relationship, I think it’s what both of you want.”
“Really, really want,” Carmen added, and Amanda nodded.
“You’re indecent,” Johnny shot back at them sullenly, and then turned his scowl to the table top. He ran his fingers down the condensation on his cold Icee cup for a few seconds before looking up to find both women still staring at him--Carmen sympathetically, and Amanda expectantly.
“Who’s staring at who, now?” He grunted.
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Do you want our help or not?”
“What?” Johnny sat up. “No. Why?” He paused. Then, “How can you, uh, help?”
“Well,” Carmen began. “We think you may be a little nervous to ask him out on your own.”
“I’m not nervous,” Johnny lied. He’d been Cobra Kai for years. Cobra Kai didn’t allow nervousness, frailty, or fear. And neither did Johnny Lawrence. “I’m never nervous. I’m--”
“Strike first, strike hard, yes, we know,” Carmen said, stealing the words right out of Johnny’s mouth.
“So then why haven’t you?” Amanda asked.
“Because it’s Daniel LaRusso,” Johnny said, surprising himself.
He’d lived by “Strike First, Strike Hard” most of his life. Except now, because the prospect of asking Daniel LaRusso out on a date made his gut twist into giant nervous knots. Maybe it was the thought that Daniel might turn him down, or be disgusted, or laugh in his face, or just accuse Johnny of being indecent and handsy during all their sparring matches and then turn him down. Maybe it was because it would just be weird going out with the guy he’d nearly killed in high school, which was something he still hadn’t apologized for.
Carmen frowned. She didn’t know too much about their history, but Amanda did, and she sighed and shook her head like she understood where he was coming from but didn’t quite agree with his sentiments.
“Come on,” Johnny continued. “I can’t just ask him out. I kicked his ass in high school--”
“And then he kicked yours, yes, we know,” Amanda said. “And then you two made each other miserable with warring dojos. Everyone knows at this point.”
“But Johnny,” Carmen said. “You two seem to be pretty good friends now.”
“Yeah,” Johnny admitted. She wasn’t wrong. After agreeing to work together to take Kreese and Cobra Kai down, they’d become friends pretty quickly. Johnny wasn’t going to deny it. But still. “It’s LaRusso, though.”
“And?”
“And what am I supposed to do?” Johnny said, because they were past the point of denying that he really did want to bang his co-sensei. Badly.
And also date him. Despite what others might think, Johnny’s life wasn’t ruled by his dick. He didn’t just want to fuck Daniel like some one night stand. He wanted to do it on the reg--and also just be with him. Not as friends, not as dojo partners, but as partner partners. Boyfriends? He didn’t even know what to call them. But whatever it was, Johnny wanted it.
He didn’t exactly hide his bisexuality, and he didn’t really announce it to the world, either, but he wouldn’t mind walking around with people knowing Daniel was his.
He glanced again at Daniel, who had escaped the pack of clamoring teenagers and was now speaking to Samantha and Miguel about something.
“Just ask him out for a drink?” Johnny continued. “We’ve done that. Pizza? We do that all the time. A walk down the beach? That’s embarrassing--”
Carmen slapped her hand down on the table top, startling Johnny and Amanda. She stared at Johnny with this excited sparkle in her eyes. “Johnny. You should cook for him.”
“Yes,” Amanda gasped. She clapped her hands together once with wide eyed glee, drawing Daniel’s gaze from the snack bar. Johnny winced and waved a hand subtly at Amanda, trying to get her to quiet down, but she rolled right on. “God. Johnny, if you cook for Daniel, I guarantee he will drop his pants for you the first chance he gets.”
“Cooking for someone can be so romantic and intimate,” Carmen said.
“And Daniel’s big on cooking,” Amanda added. “He loves cooking for everyone--but if someone cooks something for him? He just melts like butter. Gets all sappy and soft and pliable--”
“I can’t cook,” Johnny said quickly. Samantha and Miguel were walking away, and Daniel was looking over at the adults as he waited for a drink at the snack bar, just moments from heading over to join them, and Johnny thought he’d burn to a crisp from sheer embarrassment if Daniel walked in on the current conversation. “Fuck, I’ll just--I’ll just come on to him during a spar, okay, I--”
“No, you have to cook for him now,” Amanda said primly. “You’re going to cook for him, and then you’re going to show him a very good time.”
“But--”
“You just need someone to teach you,” Carmen said kindly. “Maybe watch a tutorial on Youtube?”
“But--”
“He needs something more hands-on,” Amanda said. “That’s his learning style. And I know the perfect teacher.”
She smiled conspiratorially at Carmen, who smiled conspiratorially back. Johnny looked between them, confusion growing.
“Who?”
“Just wait,” Amanda said. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Daniel pay for his drink and begin heading their way, sipping from a cup of water, completely innocent and oblivious to the deviousness involving his next lay happening at their table. With a hard look, Amanda turned back to Johnny and placed a hand over his own. “So you do want our help, right?”
Johnny didn’t answer. He looked at Daniel, who smiled that bright LaRusso smile at him, cheeks dimpling, looking less harried now in his casual t-shirt and jeans that didn’t fit quite right. He thought about taking a quick cooking lesson from one of Amanda’s fancy Encino friends--maybe a chef from some high-end restaurant, or someone who catered to movie stars, or a judge from one of those cooking shows--and showing off in front of Daniel, feeding him some fancy Italian dish and then watching him melt and get all pliable the way Amanda had said. His face went impossibly hotter.
“Johnny?” Amanda prompted urgently as Daniel walked closer.
Johnny felt his words catch in his throat again. He nodded, eyes meeting Daniel’s, and Amanda leaned back with a satisfied nod.
“I am never promising free tokens to whoever can perform eight full kata on the balance wheel ever again,” Daniel said by way of greeting as he reached them. He scooted onto the bench next to Johnny until their hips touched, and set his drink on the tabletop with a huff. “Nobody fell into the pond today, which means everyone got a ton of tokens, and I’m sure they’re all going to be back for more. We might be here a while.” He turned to Johnny and nudged him in the side with his elbow, grinning. “I guess that just means our lesson plans really paid off, huh?”
“Yeah,” Johnny said with a half-grin.
Daniel frowned a little at his lackluster response. “Hey, man, is everything okay? Did I miss something?” He turned a smirk on Amanda. “Is Amanda being mean again?”
Yes, Johnny wanted to say, but Amanda made an insulted scoff and said, “Never!”
“But we did have an interesting conversation,” Carmen said as casually as you please.
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah,” Amanda said. “Didn’t we, Johnny?”
Daniel looked at Johnny, who snorted. “Not that interesting. Just about something stupid.”
“Stupid, huh?” Daniel huffed a laugh. “From Johnny Lawrence, that could mean anything.”
“Yeah, it was about you,” Johnny said before he could stop himself. In moments of panic, bully Daniel LaRusso--that usually got Johnny through the day.
Daniel gave him an exasperated look. “I’m not the stupid one, here.”
“Yeah, you--”
“Actually,” Amanda cut in sharply. “We were talking about you.”
They both looked at her--Daniel with a frown, and Johnny with growing panic. He’d just been fucking with Daniel when he said they were talking about him. He didn’t want Amanda to expose him right there and then and tell Daniel the truth. What was her problem?
“Oh, boy,” Daniel said. “What did I do?”
“It’s nothing you did. It’s just that Johnny wants to make a home-cooked meal for a hot date this weekend,” Amanda said while Johnny floundered. “But he’s useless in the kitchen. Lucky for him, he knows a great cook, right Daniel?”
Johnny was still staring at her when Daniel turned a surprised look on him, and Amanda just smiled.
He couldn’t believe he had ever, ever trusted her.
“Oh, yeah!” Daniel said after a second of shocked silence. He looked again at Johnny with some weird emotion in his eyes that Johnny couldn’t pinpoint. “I definitely could teach you a few tricks in the kitchen.”
“You could teach him more than a few tricks in the kitchen,” Amanda said, to which Johnny’s heart flew up into his throat, but she continued innocently, “He needs to make a whole meal. Something really nice, Daniel--he’s really hung up over this date.”
“Really,” Daniel said lightly. Johnny might have been imagining it, but he sounded a little insulted. “I didn’t even know you were back in the game, Johnny.”
“Yeah, I didn’t, either,” Johnny groused, giving Amanda the stink eye.
“Well, do you have a dish in mind?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know,” Johnny said truthfully. He hadn’t even known what to expect from a stranger teaching him how to cook, and now he was going to have the very subject of his latest wet dreams in his kitchen--what was he supposed to ask for?
And what was Amanda even expecting to happen by getting Daniel to teach Johnny how to cook for Daniel? What even was that plan?
“Just teach him what you like,” Carmen suggested, and Amanda nodded.
“I agree. I’m sure his date will love whatever you come up with.”
“Well, alright,” Daniel said. “I think I’m coming up with a few ideas already.” He elbowed Johnny again, cheek dimpling in a lopsided grin. “Eyy, ready to have some fun in the kitchen, Johnny?”
The thought of canceling the whole thing flitted through Johnny’s mind. How was he even supposed to tell Daniel that the date was him without sounding stupid and awkward? God, Amanda was mean. Maybe she’d planned the whole thing just to embarrass him.
But he glanced at her, and the expectant look in her eyes, and then elbowed Daniel back. “Only if you’re ready, LaRusso. Just don’t teach me something stupid and gross.”
“There’s no such thing as a stupid or gross Italian meal,” Daniel said with an insulted scoff. “Because it will be Italian, and it’s going to taste amazing, and--actually, you know what? Let me show you a few pictures of some stuff I’ve made in the past, see what you think--”
And so Johnny spent the next thirty minutes looking at carefully taken photos of food that Daniel had on something called an Instagram, and did his best to ignore the delighted grins on Amanda’s and Carmen’s faces as the rest of the night wore on.