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Johnny's ex-degenerate resolution is going surprisingly well. It's only been two weeks since their senior year started, and he has managed to cut down on the booze and the weed, to make a better impression on his teachers and to get back on track with his wrestling training.
He's even tried to not push Sid’s buttons so much in order to keep the confrontations to a minimum. He still has to deal with degrading comments and nasty remarks every single day but he is trying really hard to not let them get to him.
He can make it all work. All of it.
Well, all of it except for the little blue paper thingies he keeps finding everywhere.
It started about a week ago. First there was one in his locker, then he found another one during lunch at his usual spot in the school cafeteria. Whoever is doing this, is really good at sneaking their way into Johnny’s personal space.
He’s sitting through precalculus now and when Johnny slips a hand inside his bag to take out his textbook his fingers brush against something thin and pointy.
“I found another-” he says, showing the thing to Bobby, who’s sitting next to him. “What is this anyway?”
“It’s an origami crane,” Bobby replies matter-of-factly.
Johnny just stares at him.
“How the hell do you know that, Bobby?”
“Origami sculptures were in that movie, Blade Runner. The one with the androids that came out a couple of years ago.”
Ugh. Bobby Brown and his stupid man-crush on that hot nerd from that space opera.
Wow. It must be contagious, Johnny thinks, if he finds him hot too.
Bobby wouldn’t miss a thing that actor is in. It's hilarious cause Bobby even looks like that other dude, whatshisname, Luke Starwalker or something. Johnny snickers at the thought of the two of them kissing.
Anyway. Those origami cranes are really starting to throw him off his game.
Those and the new kid, of course.
Johnny can’t really comprehend which planet he descended from. He’s never seen anyone like him his whole life. It isn’t just the atrocious accent or the way he dresses; like he puts on his clothes in the dark, picking random items, mixing them together. Or how he can’t keep his mouth shut (seriously, the sound of his voice is always there in the background, driving Johnny crazy).
It’s the way he's always looking at Johnny. Like he goes over a list of things in his head that make Johnny so interesting to look at. Uhm. Maybe Johnny should stop staring at him as well.
Dutch tried to intimidate him at some point, but this kid is so freaking cocky; never backing off, never cowering in fear, he just takes all the fun out of it. Dutch lost interest soon after that.
Next class of the day is biology and the new kid is staring at Johnny again and Johnny tries really hard but he can’t look away from him and oh shit he’s coming over now --
“You’re Johnny Lawrence, right?”
“Umm.” Okay that wasn’t very eloquent. Let him try again. “I am. I mean. Yes. Johnny. I'm Johnny!”
“Johnny Lawrence?” he asks again and Johnny wishes he’d stop saying his last name. It sounds weird coming from his mouth.
“Yeah.”
“Cool. I’m Daniel LaRusso, we' re supposed to be partners for this.”
Johnny jumps a little in his seat.
“What? Why?”
“Because they listed us alphabetically, the teacher just said so.”
“Oh, yeah right.”
They spend the rest of the hour poking at frog guts and Johnny tries really hard not to throw up. He fucking hates biology. LaRusso doesn’t seem to mind though, he’s just sitting there trying to answer all the questions, talking his ass off.
Johnny’s definitely going home with a headache.
It turns out to be a frequent occurrence. They get paired up for projects a lot and in some classes they even have to sit next to each other. After the first couple of times Johnny decides that he doesn’t mind much. LaRusso lets him copy his homework and frankly he’s doing most of the work when it comes to shared assignments, not complaining once. Johnny ends up spending more and more time with him, brainstorming over a book in the library, their heads and shoulders slightly brushing against each other, or dissecting all kinds of tiny creatures which Johnny still finds kind of gross but he cracks up every time with LaRusso’s crude observations.
LaRusso is a straight up guy, concludes Johnny. Even if he has to endure his friends’ endless teasing (Running off to your little girlfriend again, Johnny?), the actual delight that is spending time with Daniel is worth it.
Bobby definitely infected him with his bullshit.
The paper birds thing gets worse. Johnny finds one every day now. Twice a day, sometimes. Johnny thinks about stalking the usual spots he hangs out in order to catch the culprit red-handed but those things never appear at the same location. And it’s like whoever is doing this has Johnny’s schedule down to the last detail. Always knowing where Johnny is going to be next in order to find the folded crane but also when he’s going to be there in order to avoid getting caught.
“Okay, so I did some research on it,” Bobby says as he plops next to him at their usual lunch table.
LaRusso’s either eating lunch alone most of the time, which is sad but he’s still the new kid, or occasionally being surrounded by the girls in their class, who have taken an interest in him.
And Johnny tries really, really hard to resist the urge to invite him over sometime. The guys would be on his case for days.
He turns his attention back to Bobby. “What? The ogami thing?”
“Origami, Johnny.”
“Whatever.”
“Just listen, it’s pretty interesting, actually,” Bobby says and starts reading from a notebook. “The paper crane is considered the most classic of all Japanese origami. Traditionally, it's believed that if someone folds a thousand cranes, they' re granted one wish.”
He closes his notebook and looks up at Johnny triumphantly.
Johnny shrugs and Bobby rolls his eyes.
“Don’t you see, you moron?! You’re somebody’s wish!”
Johnny doesn’t want to think too much about it. He’s somebody’s wish? What does that even mean?
It means that someone wants him, a voice inside his head replies. And Johnny isn’t really surprised at that. He knows how he looks; girls have been throwing themselves at his feet since he hit puberty.
He hasn’t been really interested in these kinds of things, though. Sure, he can appreciate a good-looking chick, he kissed a couple of hot babes before but that’s about it. He's never really felt he wanted anyone in return.
But the main reason he doesn’t want to think about it is because maybe this year is for doing something new and he honestly doesn’t think he could handle getting his hopes up and then being crushed under the realization that his secret admirer isn’t the one he secretly admires back. Does that even make sense?
The next time he and LaRusso get together for a common assignment Johnny has a hard time looking him in the eye.
“Where’s your mom, anyway?” he asks LaRusso to distract himself. Daniel said at some point that he’s not living with her anymore. He can’t possibly remember everything that comes out of LaRusso’s mouth but for some reason this stuck with him.
“She had to go back to New Jersey. One of my uncles is really sick and she’s taking care of him. I’m staying with this friend of mine.”
Johnny raises an eyebrow at that.
“He’s the fix-it guy at our old apartment complex.”
“So, you' re staying with your maintenance man?”
Daniel rolls his eyes. “Don’t make it sound weird. He’s a really good man and he’s just trying to help me.”
There is a brief moment of silence before Daniel speaks again. “He’s also teaching me karate.”
Okay. Out of that whole string of nonsense that poured out of LaRusso’s mouth this little detail is the most absurd.
Johnny points a finger at him. “You. You' re learning karate?”
“Hey, just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I can’t learn how to fight,” Daniel snaps.
Johnny hasn’t really thought about it. He’s been involved with wrestling since the ninth grade. Most of the guys are built like him.
“I guess you could use the lessons,” Johnny says eventually and Daniel shoves him with a playful smile on his face.
Johnny keeps the paper cranes now. In a metallic box inside his locker. He doesn’t bring it back to his place because he doesn’t want Sid to find it. He’s always snooping around Johnny’s stuff looking for excuses to turn Johnny over to the cops or something.
At some point Daniel finds out about Johnny’s stinky home situation. He invites him over almost every weekend after that. Johnny doesn’t show it much but he’s grateful out of his freaking mind.
All of his friends’ parents are in the same social circles with Sid and his mother. He’s been to so many sleepovers through the years they are bound to get suspicious. And Johnny doesn’t want anyone to get through their perfect, upper class family cover. He can’t even begin to imagine what that would do to his mother.
LaRusso knows now but as Johnny has said he’s a straight up kid. He’s not going to do anything stupid, he’s just providing Johnny with a place he can hide away from his evil stepfather’s rage.
Johnny finally meets this Miyagi dude Daniel is always rambling on about. Johnny is relieved, actually. He’s not some creepy old man, inclined to prey upon the flesh of innocent, sweet boys like LaRusso. He’s just a nice, kind man that needed some company as much as Daniel had.
Daniel’s smug expression screams 'I told you so' to Johnny and he just rolls his eyes.
Johnny usually spends his days at Miyagi’s place watching Daniel and Mr. Miyagi doing kata in the backyard. The place is really impressive if he’s being honest and he lives in a freaking mansion up the hills. But this place has a calming quality to it. There is no yelling going on here, no threats muttered through gritted teeth, no hushed female voices trying to sound soothing and appeasing.
The only time he witnessed the old man getting close to something that resembled annoyance was when that twerp LaRusso, being naturally good at everything, managed to catch a fly with his chopsticks. And seriously how is that part of karate training?
Other times Daniel teaches him to trim the little trees (bonsai they’re called bonsai Johnny) and, of course, they repeatedly paint the fence, or wax the cars, or scrub the floors and other similar activities that could only be described as child labor.
And most of the time they end up watching action movies on the small TV Daniel keeps in his room and fall asleep in LaRusso’s futon bed.
Johnny hates being a pussy about any of this but he’s starting to grasp what happy feels like.
He often contemplates telling Daniel about the origami cranes but every time he decides against it. Also, for some inexplicable reason when he spends his whole day with Daniel, he doesn’t find even a single one of those things.
Johnny isn’t that much of a dumb blonde. But he’s afraid the magic would break if he opens his big, stupid mouth. It doesn’t really bother him, though. He can wait.
It’s November, when Daniel runs to him and shoves a poster in his face. “Look Johnny, look!”
It’s an ugly thing with a spider web looking mat and a holographic column with two fists. Under 18 All Valley Karate Championships, it says. December 19th. Little more than a month.
“You’re not actually considering this? LaRusso, you’ve been doing karate for what? Two months maybe? You can’t enter a tournament!”
“Oh, come on Johnny. It’d be fun!” Daniel says smiling at him and Johnny just wants to shake him into seeing reason.
“Trust me, LaRusso. I know about these kind of things. There are always some assholes willing to draw blood.”
“Don’t you worry about me, man. I’m Jersey tough.”
Johnny feels the blood rushing to his cheeks. “I’m not worried. We got a good thing going with the shared assignments and shit. Just trying to keep my grades up here. Would hate it if they took a downfall just because you got murdered at a stupid karate tournament.”
“Wow. Thanks for the encouragement, Johnny. You know what, I thought you’d be happy for me,” Daniel says and turns his back to him, jogging away. Johnny follows him with his eyes for a moment, shaking his head.
The truth is Johnny isn’t, in fact, worried. He’s petrified. LaRusso is a shrimpy little dude. He’s been doing karate for less than three months. And he’s still not convinced that the old man is actually teaching him a martial art and not just looking for someone to do his chores for free. So, the outcome of the tournament is, most likely, LaRusso bloody on a stinky mat.
And Johnny doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want to see Daniel hurt. He doesn’t even want to think about how Daniel could get seriously injured. But at the end of the day, he’ll go to the stupid tournament and he will cheer for him and clap and freaking cartwheel in the middle of the arena like a freaking cheerleader if he has to. And if Daniel wins, unlikely as it sounds, he will pick him up and keep him high above the crowd that will want to congratulate him and maybe afterwards, when Daniel is all cleaned up and in fresh clothes he could stoop down and give him one brief and soft celebratory kiss.
Ugh. Stupid daydreams.
Daniel doesn’t stay mad at him for long. He even invites Johnny to some of his training sessions to appease his fears.
One of those weekends that Johnny is staying over at Miyagi’s, they go to the beach.
Johnny has been watching LaRusso all morning trying to maintain his balance against the Californian waves. And if his eyes linger for a little longer than they should at his naked chest, smooth and dripping, well, he can always pretend that he’s interested in the intricate karate technique of getting splashed in the face.
As soon as Daniel gives up and gets out of the water, Johnny hands him a yellow towel. LaRusso's eyes search for his sensei and Johnny follows his gaze.
Johnny eyes widen at the sight. Sure, the old man is impressive, standing on one leg on that stump, delivering that kick with force and elegance.
But what’s more impressive is LaRusso. His headband all wet, a fond expression on his face, the corners of his mouth curled upwards in a smile. He’s probably thinking how he could aim that kick at some poor asshole’s face and for the first time Johnny thinks that Daniel might actually have a shot at this.
And Johnny just stands there, staring at LaRusso, smitten out of his mind and completely, utterly fascinated.
LaRusso is simply fascinating.
Johnny clears his throat. “What’s the name of that move, anyway?”
Daniel doesn’t answer him right away. He looks straight ahead, at the crashing of the waves and the few seagulls and at the old man standing on one leg on a tree stump. When he opens his mouth to speak again, it comes out barely louder than a whisper.
“The crane kick.”
Later when they are back at the house, they take turns showering and when Johnny is done LaRusso is already lying on his bed, barefoot, his ridiculous camo pants all rumpled up, his plaid shirt open, exposing his chest. There’s something hidden in the palm of his hand.
“What you got there?” Johnny asks.
Daniel stays silent. He keeps his eyes away from Johnny’s face, his teeth biting hard at his bottom lip. Johnny only hopes he doesn’t draw blood.
“I think you know what,” he says finally, lifting his gaze to look at Johnny's blue eyes.
Johnny nods and takes off his own shirt. Daniel’s eyes widen and clutches the sheet hard with his free hand.
Johnny is between LaRusso’s legs in a second, his fingers searching for the blue paper crane.
“Give it up, LaRusso. You’re not gonna make it to a thousand,” he says, lifting it up and holding it in front of Daniel’s face.
LaRusso is smiling widely now, crooked teeth and all and Johnny’s chest flutters at the thought that he’s the cause of that.
“Doesn’t matter, I already got my wish.”
Johnny leans down and kisses him, with all the tenderness he can pour into it, his fingers still gripping the paper crane, a huge smile of his own forming against Daniel’s soft lips.
Because Johnny got his wish too.