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There was a slight chill in the air. The subtle changing of the seasons that made Daniel miss Newark.
The seasons wouldn’t ever fully change in LA.
There’d be subtle shifts, but he’d gotten used to the new seasons.
Fire season.
Drought.
Santa Ana winds.
Blistering heat.
A few days with some rain.
But he missed the Newark autumns, the cherry blossom springs, the snowy winters and the joy of summer after a long soggy, dirty, snow filled winter.
He wondered if his kids held any appreciation for the summer because they didn’t know the bite of winter.
If they cared that their pumpkins in the fall weren’t in front of a backdrop of orange and brown leaves molding in the gutters.
If holidays and new years not reflected in glittering lights over sparkling snow did anything.
It made him wonder if LA was like Hotel California. Never changing, making people never change, and before you knew it your whole life was lived in those sunny streets and only the past taste of winter was a fleeting memory on his tongue.
He drove the same way every day.
He stopped at the same place to pick up sushi.
He got donuts at the same shop, he drove out of his way on an early Sunday morning for some bagels and lox at the one place he trusted to do it right on the other end of town.
He’d tried to build a community in those traditions.
He knew to ask after Joey’s grandparents whenever he called to put in a pizza order.
He knew to ask the manager at the grocery store about how her garden was doing.
All these little things that made it feel like he was filling in all those missing gaps in his life.
They had class and he got coffee from the cafe he liked.
He got coffee for himself and for Johnny, a peace offering for whatever they were fighting about today.
He was too tired to keep track.
He got the donuts the kids liked, a few extra for him and Johnny, hoping that before the students arrived they could just sit on the deck for a few moments of peace, eat their donuts and drink their coffee and Daniel could just enjoy.
But the van wasn’t there when he arrived and as he set the coffee down and started setting up the dojo for the day, those little pinpricks of frustration started up.
He wasn’t there, even though they agreed they’d both arrive early so that Daniel wasn’t the only one setting up.
He’d probably be late.
Probably out drinking or over slept even though Daniel had gotten him an alarm clock for his last birthday, even though he’d taken the time to show him how to use it, had sat on that awful bed of Johnny’s and ensured it would go off every morning at the same time so Johnny could get a schedule underway.
He’d probably show up part way through class with that wince on his face. Like Daniel was going to nag. Like in some twisted version of the Odd Couple Daniel was suddenly a nagger, suddenly a shrill wife type caricature to play to some befuddled old husband who couldn’t seem to remember to put on a clean shirt for the day.
It wasn’t what Daniel had wanted.
At least that odd couple got to have sex—
He heard the chimes and the sound of wheels on gravel and darted up.
They could still salvage the morning, they could still eat donuts and joke about old movies and they could still start their dance on the right foot and he could see that look Johnny got on his face when he was surprised in a good way over something small that made Daniel’s chest warm and—
It was Sam.
It was their students, arriving early and he turned for a moment, to quickly hide his disappointment, to plaster a smile on his face, to start the acceptance that Johnny would be late.
He went through the motions, passed out the donuts, saving and setting aside one for Johnny and he taught.
He could feel their eyes slide off of him and towards the empty spot at his side.
The quiet realization that Johnny wasn’t there. That Johnny was going to be late.
The air was static filled, charged, they were all so tense.
They tried though. And Daniel was relieved they tried.
That they went through the motions.
That they still showed up, that they still put in the work.
“Hey Dad?” Sam said softly while the kids were taking a break.
“Yeah?”
“It’s time to go,” Sam said trying to subtly show Daniel the time.
Daniel looked towards the gate that Johnny hadn’t walked through with a frown.
“Thanks,” he said softly to her, he hadn’t noticed.
He kept waiting for Johnny so he just kept teaching, kept scraping the bottom of the barrel he’d exhausted for ideas, for lessons, to just keep the ball going while he waited, like he was just so close, if he just held out a little longer than maybe Johnny would arrive and they could settle in.
But class was over.
He wished them well, and told Sam he’d see her next weekend after she reminded him of the school break and he started to clean up before picking up an old Coors Banquet underneath the deck and slumping down on the deck staring at it.
He’d never shown.
He tried to quell the worry.
How many times had he worried for nothing?
There was no point.
Johnny was a grown man and Daniel wasn’t in charge of him.
He crushed the can in his hand, wincing when the metal warped and broke, cutting his palm.
He got up and cursed, throwing the can in the trash and quickly rinsing off the cut before taking a quick shower and going to bed.
He was done for the day. With everything.
“Write down your plans for the future Mr. LaRusso,” Mr. Harris said.
Daniel focused as hard as he could on the paper in front of him. It was almost summer and he looked up at his teacher.
He looked around the room, at Ali and Susan and Barbara, talking and giggling and talking about the future. At Freddy and his friends who Daniel couldn’t remember their names. At the cobras. At Johnny, who glanced up at him, then frowned, and turned back to his paper.
“I dunno Mr. Harris.” Daniel said. “I mean Ma wants to move to Fresno so even just tomorrow could be a completely different future from today.”
“Then write both, write all of them. Any and all futures. Work out the theoretical physics in your mind. Your future could be anything Mr. LaRusso, and it will be something, but what do you want it to be?”
Daniel stared as hard as he could at that paper. Weighing Fresno, weighing LA, weighing going back to Newark down.
He’d even looked up how much the bus ticket would cost and he started to write but he couldn’t focus enough on what he wrote to remember it, instead focusing on Johnny who seemed to be there but not be there.
He seemed to be himself but older. Tired. Hunched over and broken.
He seemed to be himself but not.
That smiling Johnny he’d seen in the parking lot, the angry one, a thousand fractured little pieces and yet nothing at all.
“Times up Mr. LaRusso.”
“Wait! I’m not done yet!” Daniel said quickly turning his attention back to the page, there was nothing on it.
He scrambled to get his pencil and start writing but his pencil was upside down and when he flipped it his hand it just wouldn’t work right and it flew from his hand and rolled across the floor.
He reached for it an when he got it back Mr. Harris picked up his paper and he lunged for it.
“Mr. LaRusso, don’t make me give you detention.”
“But Mr. Harris I’m not done!”
And then Daniel was staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten detention. He could just write that up now and turn it in—
“I haven’t been in school for forty years,” Daniel grumbled sitting up and rubbing his eyes as the hold of the dream faded.
“That’s for sure.”
Johnny.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“Chill LaRusso, you just got up, no need to be so…you already.”
“Excuse you?”
“You got some coffee?”
Daniel sat up with a frown.
Johnny was wearing a messy shirt, his hair was long and his face was covered with a beard.
“Listen man, LaRusso, whatever.”
He was drunk, Daniel could smell him from across the room.
“I need you to like keep yourself like chill or whatever okay?”
“What happened?” Daniel asked.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“That like tired I’ve gotta fix Johnny’s shit thing you do. Like I get I’m a fuck up or whatever but like this isn’t about me…well it is…but it’s not,” Johnny said looking rather lost in his kitchen.
“You know where the coffee is,” Daniel said arms crossed.
“Don’t be a dick.”
Daniel huffed, walking past him, gathering up the coffee maker and making coffee.
He was hungry. He’d skipped dinner he’d been so upset.
“You really forgot how to chill didn’t you?” Johnny asked. “Oh, my favorite.”
Daniel turned and watched Johnny shove the doughnut Daniel had set aside for him in his mouth in one big bite.
“Wait—“
Daniel stopped, frowning, hand reaching towards Johnny.
“What?” Johnny asked around the mouthful of doughnut.
He’d nearly said “That’s not for you.”
But it was.
He’d set it aside for Johnny.
Yet for some reason despite knowing that, despite listening to Johnny hum while he ate the doughnut, he felt like someone had just stolen the doughnut he’d saved for Johnny.
“Sorry,” Johnny said finishing the last bite. “Were you saving that for yourself?”
“No…it wasn’t for me,” Daniel said frowning as he poured hot water over the coffee grounds watching it drip, smelling the coffee.
“Hmm,” Johnny said thoughtfully walking up close, smelling strongly of beer.
“What hmm?”
“Nothing. You should get dressed. we’ve got stuff to do.”
Daniel wanted to snap back that he should shower at the very least for both their sakes but he just told Johnny to finish his coffee and headed off to his room, getting dressed.
When he returned the creamer wasn’t out.
Neither was the sugar.
“What, you need me to fix it all for you too?” Daniel grumbled only to see Johnny sipping his coffee black.
“Nah, I’m good. Let’s go okay?”
Daniel frowned following him out towards the front then stopped arms crossed.
“We should talk about yesterday,” Daniel said.
“No. Hurry up.”
“What do you mean no?”
“Listen, we don’t have a ton of time. I’d rather this be a quick one and done so I can go back to doing my own shit.”
“Your own shit?” Daniel asked getting close to the car. “Give me the keys. I’ll drive, just tell me where to go.”
“You don’t trust me to drive?”
“You reek Johnny, no, I don’t trust you to drive.”
“Fine, you drive then,” Johnny said tossing the keys. “But let’s stop being pussies and start moving.”
Daniel rolled his eyes, taking the keys and getting settled.
He started up the car and drove in the direction Johnny told him to.
“Where are we going?”
“Just drive.”
“Johnny—“
Daniel glanced at him, the way he was all curled up in on himself around his coffee.
He was paler than normal…thinner, more haggard.
He’d was scrambling in his mind.
When was the last time he’d seen Johnny?
A few days ago?
They’d had dinner, watched Iron Eagle while eating pasta Daniel had made and hid some broccoli in.
He hadn’t been that thin.
And he hated black coffee. Whined when Daniel made him espresso, said it was too bitter. So Daniel had found his old drip set up and Johnny had watched fascinated and the next time wanted to do it himself, and Daniel had watched him heap cream and sugar in, and then he made coffee every time since, for the both of them.
He could’ve sworn—
“Make a right up here,” Johnny said. “And park will ya?”
Daniel did looking up at the old building.
“Thanks,” Johnny said getting out. He heard a snick of metal, and looked over, eyes wide watching Johnny light up a cigarette.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Johnny looked at Daniel then at the cigarette in his hand.
“You want some?” Johnny asked holding out the cigarette.
“No I don’t want it!” Daniel said.
Johnny shrugged, moving to sit on the car and looking up at the building with a frown, sucking in a lungful of smoke and letting out smoke rings.
“You sure are different.”
“What do you mean I’m different, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing any more than normal. Hey. Tell me something. Are we…cool?”
“Are we cool?” Daniel asked feeling his patience snap. “You completely bailed on our lesson yesterday. I thought we were cool, I thought we were in a good place and yet I feel like all I do is nag and bother you and we’re just supposed to be friends. Is this how guy friends are? Like I don’t want to be the dad friend. I’m already a dad. Or hell, I don’t want to be my ma, but I want you to live a long time, and I want you to be happy in this life and you just don’t show up and I was scared shitless, like clearly you went out and got drunk as hell and, you drove? Seriously Johnny you drove? While this drunk? I went straight to bed last night after the kids left. You worried them Johnny. You made them worry and you made me worry and I’m so fucking mad at you and—“
Johnny was smiling, he inhaled his cigarette and grabbed Daniel by the collar, pulling him in like he was going to kiss him.
“What are you—“
Shotgunning.
Daniel breathed in the smoke.
Spluttered and smacked Johnny’s arm.
It had no right to be that hot.
“You know, just seeing you made me feel better,” Johnny said.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to go in there, and I’m going to finally go home,” Johnny said. “If I don’t come out…if I don’t come out then go home and…go to bed.”
“What? You’re not making any sense,” Daniel said.
“I’ll meet you back at Mr. Miyagi’s okay?” Johnny said with a soft smile that made Daniel’s heart flip flop. “I hope.”
Daniel didn’t like the sound of that, but there was something in the way Johnny moved that made him look like this wasn’t up for debate, that stopping him would hurt even worse. So Daniel sat on the hood of the car and waited, smelling the cigarette smoke in the air, tasting it on his tongue.
He waited.
And he waited.
And he thought about going in, but there’d been that plea, that almost beg not to follow that Johnny would see him later at home, especially if he went to bed.
Like some weird Christmas gift or money from the tooth-fairy. So Daniel went home, ate something and took a nap.
“Shit, damn it. Of course I fucking burnt it.”
Daniel awoke to the sound of the fire alarm beeping and he got up, moving automatically to open the windows and to climb up on a chair and turn the beeping off.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to burn it.”
Johnny.
He’d made his way home.
But he’d shaved.
And cut his hair.
He was wearing a tie and a little ID.
Daniel frowned.
Had he gotten a job?
Was that what that place was?
Why’d he make it sound like the world was ending?
Maybe that was why he hadn’t shown up for class.
Johnny had gotten a pencil pusher office job.
“Sorry, I wanted to talk to you over dinner, but it’s been a mess. And I mean this is like practice right? Good practice for me. Good practice for you? Like…shit, what does Miguel call it? A practice run in one of his games? Yeah. That. You mind uh- sitting and I’ll grab…shit maybe you like a different one. You…uh…still like wine?”
Daniel laughed. “Okay what’s wrong? You made me dinner and now are asking if I still like wine?”
“I’ll explain just sit down okay?”
“Fine fine.”
“What did I look like this morning?” Johnny asked.
“Haggard, like you’d just crawled out of a gutter after an all night bender.”
“And before that?”
“I dunno, your usual self.”
“Was it like this?”
“No.”
“I have been working in an office for almost a full year now. I kinda hate it, but it paid enough to take care of things. And you and I…well we hit it off. You were worried about the kids, I was worried about the kids, you got pissed at me in the hospital and then you told me how hard you saw me working and realized everything had gotten so blown out of proportion and asked if we could start over again. And we did. We were supposed to have our anniversary dinner. I was going to make this dish you like, but then…things went to shit.”
Daniel stared at him like Johnny had lost his marbles.
“You know Silver and Kreese right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well Silver pulled up on my walk home from work to see you and threw me in the back of a van and drove off to Dynatox and I met…me.”
“You met you.”
“Yeah. That haggard one. I guess he’s been trying to find his way home for a while now. I think there’s a few of us. My understanding from the last time we ran into one another, because it has been sadly quite a while, is that I need you to keep an open mind Daniel, he’s trying to find something and I don’t know what. But in the morning I need you to take me to Dyantox and I need to go in and see if I can get home.”
“So…you’ve lost it? Should I call Bobby?”
“No. Uh okay. He said there’s differences. Let me see,” Johnny said thoughtfully. “Ah,” he pulled out his wallet and handed a photo to Daniel.
It was a cheesy photo in a photo booth, a group of them.
Daniel sitting in there alone, looking kinda sad, Johnny popped into the next one, and then Robby and Miguel and Sam crammed in and by the last one Daniel was laughing and Johnny had his arm around him.
Daniel didn’t remember that.
He’d never taken the kids, all the kids to Golf 'n Stuff.
He felt dizzy.
He sat down.
“I— what?”
Johnny found wine, opened it and poured Daniel a glass and then sat down next to him, hand familiar but wrong on his arm.
“Like I said, we got together when Miguel and Sam were in the hospital. We found Robby, managed to avoid, from what I heard from other versions of myself, him going to jail.”
Johnny’s eyes looked misty. “We moved in together, Robby moved in with us. I’m like this weird soccer mom I guess? I drive the van and teach karate still but I also like drive Robby to his skate events and Sam’s doing cheer-leading this year and man that girl can soar like an eagle and I’m so proud, and I just want to get home, to you, to us, to our little family and all my students who are becoming such badasses. Hell even to Anthony because he promised to teach me the combo move that rips a guys spine out on that game we've been playing.”
“Are you crying?”
“Shut up, I can still kick your ass,” Johnny grumbled with a sniff, rubbing his face.
There was no bite to it. Just a sniff.
It wasn’t his Johnny.
Just like he’d known the last Johnny wasn’t his Johnny.
“So, where’s…my Johnny then?” Daniel asked.
“Eat something,” Johnny said. “It’s not all burnt.”
Daniel looked at the noodles Johnny heaped onto his plate and ate.
It wasn’t bad.
“Needs more cheese.”
“Good note,” Johnny said murmured.
Johnny was quiet beside him for a moment before eating. And Daniel waited, listening to the sounds of the house.
“So we don’t live at Mr. Miyagi’s old place?”
“No, but…it seems to be a spawning point?”
“A spawning point?”
“In the morning you’ll drive me to Dyantox and I’ll go in, kick ass, make my way to the machine, try and switch the dials to home and go home. And when I walk through I’ll be in Mr. Miyagi’s place, wherever that is and you’ll be there, but you might be different.”
“Different?”
“Yeah, my Daniel’s got a beard, not a lot of Daniel’s have beards. I think you kinda suck at growing them, so like you’re ego’s got to be through the roof when I get home if each version of me tells you that.”
“It just takes a while,” Daniel grumbled rubbing his chin.
“Yeah, I mean I did meet one version of you with a great beard but…”
“But what?”
“He was a huge dick.”
Johnny spoke as if he was stunned by that. Like no version of Daniel was awful except one.
“He like knew immediately that I wasn’t…me. Most of you, at least until you get used to the idea, which I’m generally not first, are still trying to figure it out and like understand why your version of me isn't the way I am. But that Daniel…I want to meet the Johnny that lives in his world because that was spooky.”
“Spooky?” Daniel asked. He felt like he should defend himself but he didn’t know how.
“When do I get…when does my Johnny come back? We’ve got classes next week.”
Johnny laughed softly. “Ah so you guys teach together? That’s cute.”
“What? It’s not cute. You’re a pain in the ass.”
“Not together yet then,” Johnny noted taking a sip of Daniel’s wine.
“What do you mean yet?”
“I used to think it was kinda just pure luck that we are as happy as we are, but I’m starting to think it’s fate,” Johnny said. “You meet enough mes and enough yous and realize somehow it all works out.”
He couldn’t imagine any version of himself with the Johnny that’d just been through reeking of alcohol and just an utter mess.
Sure he still looked nice, but he had standards.
He assumed every version of himself had standards.
He had a thousand more questions but Johnny looked so sad, so he sent him off to shower and change into some pajamas, let him sleep in the bed and Daniel took the couch even though Johnny said they could share.
He needed time to himself to think. To wonder if he was losing it.
He woke up in the morning to the smell of pancakes. His pancakes.
Johnny was humming, hard at work making bananrama pancakes.
“Oh you’re awake. I won Anthony over finally by mastering these. Your signature pancakes and now we tease them asking him who makes them better. I think he secretly picks me because I add vanilla extract and you don’t. Here give it a try,” Johnny said sliding some onto a plate.
“So you cook.”
“Yeah. I saw how hard you were working trying to cook and run a business, and while like I was exhausted from work it was kinda nice to cook. And you’d teach me,” Johnny’s face reddened at some memory. “You were a good teacher, and I think teaching me to cook made it less stressful to cook after work. Though, when the kids aren’t around we tend to burn shit. So we’ve had to replace the fire extinguisher like 3 times this year alone.”
He was insinuating.
So…a version of himself and this version of Johnny…had sex. Enough so that they nearly destroyed the house because they’d have sex instead of paying attention to what they were cooking.
Daniel frowned looking at his pancakes that were perfectly golden.
He could see it.
Teaching Johnny to cook would be, frustrating, but a perfect excuse to put his hands on him. Correcting his knife technique, hands on his hips for no good reason other than to just leave his hands on his hips, to lean in close and watch him cook. Taste testing the things he’d made. And having Johnny actually want to learn something from him? Actually listen?
Daniel knew himself too well.
That’d be catnip. He’d probably behaved once, twice, but then after that there’d be no reason to behave.
How easy that life seemed.
“These are good,” Daniel said.
Johnny smiled, so warm and bright, delighted by the praise that Daniel’s heart hurt.
Had he ever seen that smile on his own Johnny?
The Johnny that wasn’t actually his?
That he didn’t know if maybe this was the universe, the world, the timeline, where they didn’t get together.
Did that seem more tragic?
More lonely?
Was there something wrong with him then? With Johnny?
That they hadn’t gotten together when this Johnny made it sound like they had in every other timeline?
Johnny kissed the top of his forehead. “I’m going to go change. I washed my stuff, thanks for the pajamas, and then I’ll be ready to go.”
Daniel ate, then grabbed his keys and drove them to Dynatox.
“Do I have to go home and sleep?” Daniel asked.
“No, but do be home, just in case it’s a new version of me that doesn’t know what’s going on. Be…nice to me okay? It’s disconcerting and confusing and I still don’t fully understand what’s going on here.”
Daniel nodded, surprised when Johnny squeezed his hand before leaving.
He wanted to call out to him, to ask more questions about him and Johnny.
Who’d made the first move?
Had they said I love you?
How long had Johnny known he liked Daniel?
How did he know he could make a move?
What sort of tell should he look for?
He waited for a bit, looking up at the building, before driving back to Mr. Miyagi’s.
He cleaned up the pan and bowls and put things away.
He washed the pajamas and set them out to dry.
He made some tea and sat outside and waited.
The door to the gate opened and Johnny popped his head through the gate.
He looked like his Johnny, almost.
Close.
He knew though, as soon as he saw him, that it wasn’t.
“Tea?”
“You know I hate that crap,” Johnny said. “Who wants to drink hot leaf water. You got any beer?”
“So where were you?”
Johnny paused, in his walk towards the house, mouth a flat line, waiting, to see if he’d stepped into a trap.
“When you disappeared, where were you?”
“Ah, we were on a date, can’t you tell? This is my nice flannel. Date flannel.”
He fingered the edge of the blue flannel with a frown, a light blush on his cheeks.
“You said it made my eyes look nice so I wear it on our dates…maybe too much. But you always seem happy to see it. It’s actually a little stained, um you got anything to get blood out?”
“Oh, sure,” Daniel said getting up and taking the flannel from Johnny. “So we were on a date?”
“Yeah, you finally agreed to go to a wrestling match with me. I had to promise you like a shit ton of blow jobs and then like you ran in to get our seats and I was off getting us snacks and these goons grabbed me and well…now I’m here and you’re, well, my you is not.”
“How could you tell?”
“Oh you would’ve chewed me out for being missing for a few days but you looked like so bummed as soon as you saw me like you knew. Which is funny because you generally do. You get this like really lonely look on your face. Resignation, which kinda hurts a guy you know? Well except for the dick version of you. He was pissed. He knew as soon as he saw me, before I even opened my mouth. If I see that version of myself I’ve got a thousand questions, because like you’re obnoxious in general but that version of you is like a thousand times worse. And I have no clue how any version of I and you get along that way. It’s like oil and a fire.”
“I don’t think that’s the saying.”
“Oil and water I know, but nah, you ever meet that version of yourself and you’ll know there’s no water anywhere, it’s all fire.”
“Is that the one with a great beard?”
“Ah, so you heard about that. Yeah. He’s got a great beard, but don’t worry his personality is shit, so every other version of you is more charming.”
“I’m charming?”
“Why are you laughing of course your charming. What, charming mean something weird? New slang? I swear I cannot keep up with the kids and their slang. I always thought it was funny that our teachers didn’t know what chill or dude or anything like that meant, but holy shit the kids have like twelve new words every week. Like what the hell is sus? S.O.S.? Is it like that? I don’t know.”
“It’s shorthand for suspicious.”
“Okay, that makes sense. See. This is why I like you. You calmly tell me what things mean and don’t make me feel like an ass. Your patient and chill and I appreciate that.”
“I am not patient or chill you’ve never called me that ever.”
“No? Huh. Maybe that’ll come later, oh well,” Johnny said stripping next to the washing machine and tossing everything in but his blood covered shirt.
“Why don’t you just buy a new one?” Daniel asked looking at the blood with a frown trying very hard not to look at Johnny or the fact he was standing naked next to the machine without seeming aware.
Like this was normal.
Like Johnny was so used to being naked around Daniel, so comfortable in his own skin.
“What? No way man, this is my date shirt. You like this one. I gotta save it. I need it to try and like talk you into a redo of the wrestling date.”
“So that you don’t have to give me so many blow jobs?” Daniel asked taking the shirt and working on the stain.
“I mean…I don’t mind,” Johnny said and Daniel looked at his reddish face, the way he shifted, leaning against the washer. “You always get so speechless at first when I do it and then you can’t stop touching my hair or my face and then you like…praise me for it for long time and I’m sure it’s just babbling because you’re in too much pleasure but then you seem like so happy and like I dunno, you’re happy because of me and I just…I like that.”
Daniel felt his own face burn, finishing the shirt and tossing it in the wash before grabbing a robe and tossing it to Johnny.
“My version of you and I aren’t together, so please cover up.”
“What?” Johnny asked. “No, seriously? Why not?”
“I dunno. You’re a pain in my ass, I feel like all I do is nag you and you look pissed off about it and we just are always fighting,” Daniel said retreating to the kitchen to heat up leftover pasta from the night before for lunch.
“Ah,” Johnny said putting the robe on. “But you like me.”
“What? No! I mean…”
Johnny smiled warmly. “That’s okay, a world where we’re not together has to exist right?”
“But that’s so sad! I mean, the last one, his life seemed so nice.”
“What getting blow jobs all the time doesn’t seem nice to you?” Johnny asked folding his arms and pouting.
“No, it does, I just, how? How’d we end up together?”
“You got drunk and kissed me and said you couldn’t handle it any more. The sexual tension was through the roof and we could go on a date or we could fuck or we could do neither but you needed to know where this was going or you were going to just flip.”
“So we went on a date?”
“Oh no, we had a whole weekend where we did nothing but fuck like wild animals,”
“I gave you a choice to be wined and dined and you picked Animal Planet?”
“Hell yeah I did,” Johnny said with a grin.
He fiddled with a glass of water Daniel poured him suddenly shy.
“You asked if we could continue this and go on a date, because you liked dates, and it took a few weeks of just…wild sex before I caved. I didn’t think you’d actually like me outside of the bedroom and I hadn’t…haven’t ever been good at dating. I mean my track record is total shit. So I was nervous, like probably more nervous then Miguel was when he asked out Sam or tried to. But we had so much fun. It was absolutely ridiculous.”
Johnny’s face turned red and he drank his water.
“What? What did we do?”
“Oh, um, you railed me in the back of your car afterwards and I cried because I was so happy you’d also had fun and the date wasn’t a flop and I’d been so overwhelmed about it, and I think you like seeing me cry or something because you’re weird but now we have like weekly date nights and go on trips and I’m glad you made me go on a date with you.”
“Made you, you had fun.”
“Yeah I got to watch you fight a hockey team. It was so hot.”
“Wait our date was to the hockey game?”
“Yeah, wait you also went on a hockey date?”
“No, we went to watch a hockey game as part of you teaching me your version of karate. I got into a fight but you were like off eating a pretzel and not helping.”
“Oh, that really sucks for the me of this world.”
“What do you mean that really sucks for you. It sucks for me! You didn’t back me up.”
“No I mean, I didn’t get to witness you being a badass. That’s a huge bummer. Poor me. Also poor you. That was a great date.”
Daniel filled up Johnny’s plate and they ate. He wanted to ask more questions but it felt like any and all questions would lead to filth and he couldn’t handle that. They watched a movie and Daniel tried not to wonder about what his life could be.
He let Johnny take the bed again and slept on the couch, he didn’t sleep instead staring up at the ceiling wondering about his Johnny and how his Johnny was handling the other Daniel’s.
Did they know him better and thus were able to actually handle his Johnny better?
Where was his Johnny?
Which Daniel was he with?
Were they nice to him? Nicer than he was? Was he opening up to them about things he hadn’t told Daniel? Was he the one Johnny that didn’t like Daniel?
In the morning he made more coffee and drank it, before giving Johnny back his clothes and driving him to Dynatox.
On the way home he bought more donuts.
All Johnny’s favorite and he waited.
And he waited.
And he waited.
“Newark, hey…Newark wake up.”
Daniel peeled his eyes open with a wince, everything hurt from sleeping on the counter.
Johnny stood in front of him but he was not even close to his Johnny.
He was different in almost every possible way.
He had a beard, more of a beard than that first Johnny that had come through.
There was a scar on his brow and cheek, he wore a necklace with a ring on it and his left arm had a tattoo, little spots and lines that Daniel couldn’t place with his bleary eyes.
“You’re not my Johnny.”
“Of course not Newark, but you’re the end of the line.”
“End of the line?”
Johnny sat down on the chair across from him taking a deep breath.
“How many Johnny’s have you met?”
“Haggard Johnny, office job Johnny, date night Johnny and now you. Where’s my Johnny? What’s he doing?”
“I need you to just stay quiet and listen okay? Breathe, thankfully all of you know how to breathe. Deep breathes. You know, just follow me okay?”
Daniel watched Johnny put his palms together and breathe, deep breathes in, deep breaths out, moving his hands up and then back down to his chest, then outwards, just like Mr. Miyagi had taught Daniel oh so long ago.
“Did I teach you that?” Daniel asked.
Johnny laughed. “You always ask that. No, Mr. Miyagi taught me that. We gotta make a plan okay? Like I said it seems like this is the world it stops in.”
“It stops in?”
“Yeah, I circled back to Dynatox after landing here and did some investigating. The Johnny’s you mentioned are all there. Locked up and the one you called Haggard Johnny, man this is my fourth time meeting him and he thinks we gotta find your Johnny.”
“So we have to go to the other worlds to find him?”
“No, he never left, he’s still at Dynatox, stuck.”
“What do you mean he’s stuck?”
“So a lot of the time we get kidnapped and then wake up in Mr. Miyagi’s house with you, but it’s not our you. That’s all we generally remember. But that first Johnny and me. I was out fishing and you were on the beach and you got into a fight with the men who came. You had talked to them before and you told me not to come ashore, but I couldn’t just leave you there to fight them alone so I came too, and realized I recognized the fighting style. Cobra Kai. Which meant Kreese, which meant Silver. And there were just too many of them and they’d come prepared with tranq guns. But they like got the dosage wrong for me and I woke up in Dynatox. Saw Silver. But he wasn’t like the Silver I remembered. I mean this is from Silver,” Johnny said motioning to his face. “He wanted you to do it but you refused. And well Kreese tried to kill you for disobeying both of them but Mr. Miyagi got both of us back then. Swept us away to Okinawa to heal and recover because your Ma had left when she got a new job and well I was already living with Mr. Miyagi. So we went to Okinawa and you tried learning all that, Miyagi-do crap you called it and you were just this angry little shit over everything, but I mean you’d also nearly died. You’d been Kreese’s like pride and joy for coming in from Newark with all your street smarts and ferocity.”
“Wait…I’m sorry what? Me? I was Cobra Kai?”
“Yeah. I just hung out with Mr. Miyagi because he’d been in charge of our building since I was little and my mom was working so many shifts to keep food on our table and Mr. Miyagi was like my babysitter, but then you got to town and,” Johnny laughed. “You just hated my guts. Well you told me later it was because you thought I was pretty and didn’t know how to handle it and had gotten swept up in Cobra Kai because you wanted to learn karate.”
Daniel stared at Johnny flabbergasted.
“We lived with Mr. Miyagi in Okinawa until my mom got sick, it was a shit couple of years. I left first, to come home and take care of her, and then you called to tell me Mr. Miyagi was sick so after I buried my mother I rushed back, and I expected you to still kinda be dickish about it, but you met me at the airport and hugged me so damn tight that I broke down and embarrassed Kumiko and Chozen.”
“Wait did you have to fight Chozen?”
“No, why, did you?”
“Yeah he tried to fight me to the death.”
“Chozen Toguchi?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because of some thing with Sato from a long time ago.”
“Sato was the first to welcome us to the island, you and him got along perfectly. You would run away to learn karate from him when you got fed up with Mr. Miyagi’s peaceful bullshit,” Johnny said looking amused. “Chozen’s like your best friend. You two had so much fun playing tricks on people.”
“We’re we awful to you?”
“Chozen’s the one who told me you were flirting, but doing a shit job at it. We’d probably still be fighting if he hadn’t gotten so fed up with us. You suck at flirting. You thought fighting was flirting. Though I probably should’ve figured it out when half your fighting moves ended up with you like grabbing my ass for some reason,” Johnny said thoughtfully. “But no, he taught me how to use these when we first moved to Okinawa,” Johnny said setting a sai on the table. “Mr. Miyagi didn’t teach weapons, but Chozen was worried I might need more offensive training, especially when Silver moved to the island and started causing trouble with Kreese. I thought we’d left them behind forever, but apparently not.”
Daniel saw the tattoo in all it’s glory on Johnny’s arm, the design of the hachimaki from Mr. Miyagi. He reached out gently to Johnny’s arm.
“That’s—“
“Yeah, you gave that to me as an anniversary gift. You learned how to tattoo because you thought it was bad ass. And it meant a lot to me, because it’s the design Mr. Miyagi gave me for my hachimaki.”
“So Mr. Miyagi wasn’t my best friend?” Daniel whispered.
“You guys got a long, eventually,” Johnny said. “You just had so much anger in you for so long that dealing with kindness was hard. Hell you liked me and were such a dick about it. You have, as you like to say, very selective taste in who you like. Which was your way of avoiding telling me you liked me, I thought it was your way of saying you hated my guts and that’s why I got roped into the All-Valley where you nearly broke my knee. But you showed up at my apartment and like helped me out afterwards, I assumed your mom was furious, and I learned she was, because she’d come to watch and I heard her chew you out after the game, but then Kreese also went for you and…life’s been rough for you. For me. For both of us.”
“Are we…married? That’s…that’s Ma’s wedding ring,” Daniel said.
“Yeah,” Johnny said reaching for it. “She gave it to you to give to me. You wear your dad’s. Chozen was your best man, and you invited those cobras of yours. Both our mom’s came, Mr. Miyagi and Yukie and Sato cried with them. And then afterwards you like picked me up and ran. It wasn’t part of the plan but you yelled “No take backs” and just sort of laughed the whole way to the car which was not nearby. It was more like a cackle though. The elders in the village still laugh about it. They tease you for how much you love me. It’s like the one thing you don’t argue about,” Johnny laughed warmly, a sparkle of mirth in his eyes.
“So we still argue and fight?”
“Oh of course, all the time,” Johnny said. “But I wouldn’t consider it fighting, more like banter. It’s like you find it amusing to wind me up, but then if I call you out on it you’re so very sweet. Which every time I tell anyone they ask me if I’ve lost it because only your ma thinks your sweet. But you are. To me.”
“Apparently I have a beard?”
“Yeah, you got so pissed that I could grow one so easily that you started growing one and it’s now your pride and joy of like a decade or more? You’re like more proud of that then anything else.”
“You said Silver did this?” Daniel asked nearly reaching out to the scar on Johnny's face.
“Yeah, that first Johnny thinks he’s looking for something. Not sure what. But normally we sneak into Dynatox and go back through the machine and end up in a different reality. Show up at Mr. Miyagi’s, wherever that may be. Seems like I might be the odd one out, maybe it was just my reality where we live in Okinawa, but the rest of the time we end up here,” Johnny said. “So we talk to you, drive out to Dynatox in the morning and try it again. We all just want to get home you know?”
“The other Johnny’s say your version of me is a dick.”
Johnny laughed. A big warm hearty laugh.
“Oh that tracks. The rest of you Daniel’s are pretty warm and chill in comparison to mine. I’m sure there’s similarities but he’s like the dark horse of the bunch. He doesn’t like people, hasn’t ever since his dad died and he moved to LA. I mean he tried, but his social skills are kinda lacking and he’s a fight first type if you offend him. It sounds like the rest of y’all got Mr. Miyagi whose this nice calming influence, but my Daniel didn’t get that, he got Kreese and so the spitfire in him just turned into a whole inferno and…well it’s fairly obvious if it’s not me walking through that door right? Even if I shaved my beard off I can’t cover up the scar Silver gave me or that tattoo. And you all know, real fast if we’re not right.”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I thought for sure I was wrong, because that wouldn’t make sense, but I knew that first one, that he wasn’t the right Johnny almost immediately.”
“See? So the plan is we’re going to go in tomorrow but we’re going to sneak in and we’re going to let the other Johnny’s out of their cells, find out what happened and see where we can find your Johnny and how to get home. You think you’re up for kicking ass and helping?”
“What time do you want to get up?”
“Five am.”
“Holy shit you are not my Johnny at all.”
Johnny laughed. “Mr. Miyagi got me into a habit of getting up early to go fishing with him and I’ve never been able to break it. It’s nice though, I catch fish, come home and find you awake glaring that you were woken up because I wasn’t beside you though you’re loathe to admit it. But you’ve made coffee and we generally watch the sunrise together before doing a run along the beach. Though have the time it turns into a race or a chase and I never can tell which. It’s peaceful and nice and I think the island’s done you a lot of good.”
“I just can’t believe I wasn’t close with Mr. Miyagi.”
“Oh, did I make it seem like you two didn’t get along? You did. You both had fun pulling practical jokes on Sato. A joke shop opened up in Naha and you’d drive him down like once a week to add to your bag of tricks.”
Daniel nodded, relaxing. “So five am huh?”
“Yup.”
“Do you know why Silver’s gone for you? Like why are you guys affected?”
Johnny reached gently to the scar on his cheek. “I dunno. I thought I’d seen the last of him a long time ago. I wasn’t Cobra Kai so I don’t understand the whole history all the other Johnny’s have.”
“At least you didn’t have to fight Chozen to the death or against Mike Barnes.”
“Yeah,” Johnny said, mouth small, hidden practically by his mustache. “You mind if I head to bed? I’d like to use your shower if that’s okay.”
“Yeah of course.”
Daniel watched him get up and head towards the bathroom, pausing for a moment to smile faintly at a picture of Mr. Miyagi on the wall, straightening it and pressing his fingertips gently against the glass before bowing his head and then he disappeared into the bathroom.
Daniel did not want to sleep on the couch again. His back was hurting and he was tired of it.
He didn’t want to sleep next to this chill zen version of Johnny either.
He just wanted it all to be a bad dream.
Maybe going to bed without eating much more than a doughnut and being so pissed off at Johnny not showing up to class had made him sick.
Maybe cutting his hand on Coors can had given him like tetanus or something and he was just having an awful nightmare.
“You can sleep in the bed,” Johnny said towel hanging low around his waist drying his hair with another. “I’ll take the couch.”
“But—“
“You can’t sleep in Mr. Miyagi’s old room right? I can’t either. It hurts too much. So the only options are your bed which is my old bed, or the couch which I assume you’ve been sleeping on all week and you were sleeping at the counter when I arrived. You’re not young enough for that anymore, so get some sleep in the bed. I need you ready to run and possibly fight tomorrow.”
“Fight?”
“Yeah there’s usually Silver’s staff and security in Dynatox that I always hope to avoid but there’s like a 50% chance of having to fight them and they’re a pain in the ass.”
“Oh…okay.”
“I know, it’s a lot, and you don’t have to, but it’s like the one thing we haven’t tried. Sleep on it okay?” Johnny said, hand warm on Daniel’s shoulder pushing him gently towards his bedroom.
He slept.
He dreamt of the bed dipping and Johnny flopping down next to him with a tired groan.
Normally he’d be a pain, normally he’d ask him where he’d been and why he was in Daniel’s bed but he instead he pulled Johnny to him and held him close, determined to not let him out of his sight again.
Johnny grumbled a little. About how tight he was holding on, asked what he’d done wrong, if Daniel was okay, but eventually he settled, wrapped his arms around Daniel and slept like that, curled up in his arms, safe and sound.
When he woke up to a hand on his shoulder he was hugging his pillow tight to his chest and nearly burst into tears when he realized it’d just been a dream.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Johnny said. “You’re totally fine, you don’t have to go with me. I know the way and I can handle it.”
“No, I’m coming with you,” Daniel said carefully pushing himself up, putting on jeans and a red shirt, rubbing at his eyes.
They drove to the Dynatox and Daniel parked a ways away, following Johnny in through the back.
It was unlocked much to Daniel’s surprise.
Johnny led him through the halls until he managed to open a door. Everything was dim with emergency lights only.
It smelled strongly like bleach and disinfectant.
Daniel followed Johnny into the room. In the bed was a form, he sat up and rubbed at his eyes at the sounds.
“Either of you got a light?” Johnny asked.
“Nope, smoking’s bad for you bud,” the other Johnny said. “Door was unlocked, why?”
“Chained,” Johnny said pulling back the covers to show his ankle restrained to the bed. “Thought about dislocating it but that’d be a bitch to recover from.”
“Don’t you dare,” Johnny said.
“Bastards filled the fridge over there with Coors and it’s just out of reach. Did the same with my damn cigarettes. Hey Danielle, you bring me anymore of them doughnuts?”
“This is the worst one,” Daniel mumbled opening the fridge and studying all the beers.
“There we go, that should’ve done it.”
Daniel turned watching the haggard Johnny get up and stretch, walk over and grab a beer from the fridge, twist off the top and chug it.
“For a moment you didn’t smell like beer,” Daniel said.
“I can see why your Johnny and you aren’t together yet,” Johnny said slamming the bottle down and holding up the broken half’s jagged edges at him.
“Hey,” Daniel said holding his hands up.
“Calm down, this isn’t for you, I’m just getting ready. Now let me have a cigarette.”
He opened up the packet from the top of the fridge and lit a match, carefully lighting his cigarette and shaking the match to blow out the fire on it.
“We should get princess here a weapon.”
“I don’t need a weapon.”
“You need a weapon.”
“I’ll be fine,” Daniel huffed. “Let’s hurry up and release the rest of you.”
He hurried out of the room and down the hall opening the next door.
On the way home from work Johnny was held up by his wrists. The other Johnny’s let him out and they moved on to the next room. Until they had all the Johnny’s but Daniel’s.
He must be in the next room. Right around the corner.
Daniel ran, turned the corner.
He’d take Johnny home.
He’d hug him.
He’d fuss over him like he wanted.
He’d bicker.
They’d watch some dumb movie that Johnny liked and just laze around and—
He got hit, hard in the face twice.
He went down.
“The fuck?” Daniel murmured looking up at a group of people in suits.
“Silver’s security team. This is why you needed a weapon.”
“Here,” Johnny said kneeling beside him, pulling him back away from the fray.
Office Johnny stuck a band-aid on his cheek. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of this.”
He tried dabbing at Daniel’s face but then he was up and joining the fight.
Weapon.
He needed a weapon.
There’d been an empty room with a bo staff on it. A kun, Chozen had called it.
He grabbed it off the wall and ran back to see the fight over.
They pushed the doors open to the next room. The room where they must’ve traveled from. Sitting near a desk was Silver, hair pulled back, wearing a lab coat, he turned when the doors opened.
“Ah, you all broke out…again,” he said with a sigh, pushing a button. “I really do wonder why you all are so desperate to get home. Like a bunch of cockroaches.”
Daniel looked around the room, past the signs warning of restricted access, past all the pipes and tubes and gears to a container in the middle of the room, floating in it, eyes shut with mask over his face was Johnny.
His Johnny.
He lifted the kun, read to smack the glass, to break it when Silver stepped in front of him.
“Well well Mr. LaRusso, this is the first time I’ve seen one of you show up. I’m surprised actually, not that the others didn’t come, but, my records show you and this Johnny aren’t together, which this late in the game feels like you might as well just give up. How about that actually? I’m done with the rest of you. Finally found what I was looking for. Why don’t I just pop open the gate, send you all back home and we can all move on, hmm?”
“What about him?” Daniel asked motioning to his Johnny.
“Think of it as spa day,” Silver said with a shrug. “He gets to have a nice relaxing time and you get to have a nice relaxing life without him.”
“No, give him back.”
“Why do you even want him?” Silver asked. “All you two do is fight. You never figured it out. Didn’t ever learn how to be a team, wouldn’t it be better if you took over your lessons with the students solo and not have to worry about him anymore? That’s what I’m offering you, less headaches, less stress. Hell you won’t even see me or John anymore. We’ll just wrap up this Johnny and be on our way. You can pick up the pieces of that family you shattered, that ex-wife of yours might take you back, and continue on as if Johnny never existed. Take Robby in, teach him and Miguel about cars. You’ll have a grand life. These other guys will go home, back to their own lives and it’ll be perfect, happy ending for everyone.”
“What do you want with him?” Daniel asked.
“Nothing really. I mean he’s just so useless isn’t he? In every single world. Every single plane of reality. But John’s got this soft spot for him. Says he was nearly perfect. His life's work, so I went in search for it. The perfect version of his life’s work. You would not believe how many planes of reality I’ve searched and this batch was the closest I got, following them from plane to plane until I finally found him.” He tapped the container. “This is the Johnny that my John dreams of. The one that oozes Cobra Kai karate, all the lessons and hard work John instilled in him. This is the one that’ll make John happy.”
“So what you’re going to put a bow on that container and hand him over?”
“That’s actually a great idea. So come on, let’s get the rest of you home, you’re not useful anymore,” Terry said pushing some more buttons and a bright light flashed.
What would he do if they left?
How would he fight Silver, get Johnny out of there and get home safely? Especially if Silver called for back up?
Their last fight had been bad enough.
“Let that Johnny go,” the haggard looking Johnny said, brandishing his broken bottle at Terry.
“Really? No takers to get to go home? Not even you beach boy?”
“I think one thing we can all agree on is, not to leave anyone behind with you.”
Daniel swung his bo, smacking Terry with it, watching him stumble, surprised.
A world without Johnny was too much.
Not after learning how wonderful a world with him could be.
He wanted to teach Johnny to cook and get handsy in the kitchen.
He wanted to drag him awake bright and early for a run and to go fishing in Mr. Miyagi’s old boat.
Hell, he wanted to take Johnny to Okinawa.
He wanted to go on awful dates.
He wanted to see his own Johnny smile and laugh and eat the doughtnuts he got him.
He slammed the bo staff down on the edge of the tank, water rushing out.
“Terry, why’d you buzz me?”
Daniel turned to see Kreese, yawning and standing on top of the stairs.
“No, go back, the surprise is ruined,” Terry said. “Give me a few more days.”
“Terrance we don’t have a couple of days. Remember? We have a limited window before they realize I broke you out of jail and that I’m not actually dead.”
“But I’m almost done with your gift, It’s almost ready. I just need a few more days.”
“Terry, we don’t need to do gifts.”
“But you came back for me, you—“
“Of course I did. I— wait. Is that Johnny? Why’s Lawrence here? Why’s there. One, two, Jesus Terry what did you do?”
“I tried to find the best one to take with us. I thought you’d like that, but it’s this one, and that Danny-boy there just broke the container I was going to use to transport him.”
“Terry, leave him, your guards are coming. It looks like,” John put on a pair of glasses and squinted at a screen. “Like a fire alarm was set off and now the fire department is on its way. Neither you nor I can be here when that happens.”
“But—“
“It’s okay, we gotta go,”
“You’re going nowhere, we need to get home,” Johnny said.
Terry looked at them, at the broken pool, the water-flooding the floor, up at Kreese.
He smashed a button and Johnny’s eyes opened, he started thrashing in the tube, the remaining water turning red.
Terry bolted, towards John who held out a hand, grabbing his and pulling him out through the exit.
“I should’ve stabbed him,” Johnny muttered
Daniel focused on Johnny’s blue eyes wide eyed and panicked, banging on the glass, kicking, hitting broken glass.
“Stop it,” Daniel said. “I’m going to get you out, just stay still.”
“Breathe,” one of the Johnny’s said as Daniel kept smashing glass, prying it away with his hands.
“Shit, Daniel, don’t do that with your bare hands.”
Daniel shoved them away.
That was his Johnny.
He wasn’t going to lose him because of Silver.
He had to get him out of there asap.
Before he drowned or whatever else Terry did to him.
The Johnny’s helped, carefully helping remove the rest of the glass until Johnny spilled out into his arms, amongst bloody water and sparkling glass.
Daniel removed the mask over Johnny’s face, throwing it aside and holding him.
His skin was cold, he was shivering, teeth rattling and he clung to Daniel, face pressed against his neck.
Daniel heard footsteps, boots, more security.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Daniel said gently rubbing Johnny’s back, looking around for anything to throw over Johnny.
“This way,” the first Johnny said motioning towards a door.
Daniel shifted Johnny in his arms, carefully standing, hooking his arms under him, holding the bo staff and hurrying the way that Johnny told him to go.
It spilled out into the parking lot and Daniel rushed Johnny to the car, setting him down carefully in the backseat, grabbing a blanket and pulling it over him. There was glass, so much glass, so many cuts.
He’d have to get him home soon.
“How are you all going to get home?” he asked.
“We’ll try again tomorrow. You get him home and patched up, we know our way there.”
“I’ll borrow your wash again, I’ve got blood all over this shirt…again.”
“Me too.”
“Hurry up.”
Daniel nodded, getting in, driving, reaching his hand back to put it on Johnny, to ensure he didn’t roll off the seat when Daniel turned or stopped or changed lanes.
He got home, gathered Johnny up in his blanket and bee lined straight for the bath, he worked on getting out the glass, Johnny staring at him hugging himself from the bottom of the tub he’d slipped into.
“I don’t know what was in that water, but you’re taking a bath and I’ll bandage these up and if you need stitches, well…I know how to do that.”
He worked quickly getting Johnny in warm water, washing his hair and body, trying not to linger too long. Then he hauled Johnny out of the tub, into warm blankets and carried him off to bed.
He was still too cold. So Daniel plugged in his hair dryer and sat with Johnny on the bed, drying his hair.
He had a glazed look in his eyes and Daniel wondered if Terry did something.
Broke him.
Johnny shouldn’t have been so quiet, so complacent.
He wrapped Johnny up tight with more blankets, setting aside the hair dryer and wrapping his arms around him, holding him close and tight.
“I’ve got you okay? It’s going to be okay. You’re safe here, I’ve got your back, you know that right?”
He sniffed shifting his grip, his hold, until there was no space for Johnny to pull away, holding him tight.
He fell asleep like that, waking up later, in the morning, the smell of breakfast cooking and soft conversation. He worried for a moment that he’d awaken to an empty bed, but Johnny was sleeping peacefully beside him.
Daniel relaxed, then got up slowly, carefully so not to wake him.
He checked the bandages and work he’d done before heading out to the kitchen.
“How’s he doing?”
“Sleeping,” Daniel said. “He hasn’t said a word.”
“Probably in shock. Give him time.”
“You need to take care of yourself too, look at your hands.”
Daniel looked at the cuts and shrugged.
He’d seen himself in the mirror when carrying Johnny in the night before, covered in blood, his own and other’s.
He didn’t recognize himself.
Gone, wild.
He’d panicked.
He was still somewhat panicked.
“I don’t think I can drive you all back to Dynatox today. I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“We don’t have to go to Dynatox.”
“You don’t?”
“No, uh that Johnny that’s been here awhile? He thinks there’s got to be a way back through from here, since we all ended up here. So we’re going to try it.”
“After breakfast.”
Daniel listened to them talk a little, not fully digesting the words until suddenly it was silent and he looked up to see Johnny, his Johnny, standing in the doorway of the bed, wrapped partially in a blanket.
Daniel was up in an instant.
“What are you doing out of bed? You’re feet are all torn up! You need to be careful, let me get you some slippers or something, don’t move.”
He grabbed some slippers and carefully helped Johnny balance, putting one slipper on then another, watching the way he shuffled out into the kitchen before freezing and tensing. Eyes wide while he took in the other Johnny’s.
“It’s weird,” the Johnny with the scar and tattoo said. “I know. But it’s okay. We’ll be going home soon. Hopefully. Hey we made breakfast you want some?”
Johnny sat in the seat Daniel pulled out for him staring at the office Johnny who smiled warmly at him.
“No thanks,” he murmured, fingers tightening around the blanket.
Daniel went over to the cabinets and pulled down the doughnuts he’d gotten and set them down in front of Johnny.
Johnny looked at them, surprised, then up at Daniel.
How hadn’t he realized it before?
Because he was waiting? Who was he to wait?
Johnny looked like he was going to cry, but he grit his teeth, and looked away, eyes glassy, picking up a doughnut, eating it.
One then another.
More than he’d ever seen Johnny eat before frowning, mouth full like a chipmunk looking at the eyes on him and offering to share.
A few Johnny's took him up on it.
Daniel went to work making coffee, his hands stinging but he knew the right way to do it. The way his Johnny liked and there was something nice about going through those motions.
He set the coffee full of cream and sugar in front of Johnny who held it carefully in both hands that were sticky from the doughnuts.
“Well. Let’s send working boy home first,” the haggard Johnny said.
Daniel followed them outside to the old fence he’d painted a thousand times and the bearded reeking of Coors Johnny tugged on the fence. It swung open like there was a new door in it.
Johnny, his Johnny, stood close beside him.
The Johnny in his tie took a deep breath and smoothed his white shirt, smiled at Daniel and pecked him on the cheek before waving at the others and stepping through.
For a moment Daniel saw himself.
He was feeding the koi in the pond. Miguel, Robby, Sam and Anthony were sitting around doing homework.
“Maybe we should call the police,” Miguel said.
“Dad’ll be home again,” Robby said.
“But what if he’s stuck somewhere or hurt?” Miguel asked.
“Mr. LaRusso wouldn’t be so calm.”
Daniel straightened at the creak of the fence and turned, dropping the bag of fish food.
“Dad, you’re going overfeed them,” Anthony said, sitting closest, having gotten showered in a few pellets and frowning.
But Daniel rushed over to the gate, grabbing Johnny and pulling him into his arms.
“It’s finally you,” Daniel breathed.
The gate swung shut and they were gone and the fence seemed like just a fence again.
Daniel shivered.
There was something that made his hair stand on end by seeing himself and knowing it wasn’t him. That he didn’t part his hair that way or wear that style of clothing. That those were his kids but not. It was that disconcerting feeling he felt whenever he saw the wrong Johnny.
“Date Johnny you’re up next,” Haggard Johnny said.
Johnny searched over his plaid shirt, winked at Daniel and then once the gate opened in the fence he walked through.
“Daniel?” Johnny called.
Daniel could smell dinner. A dinner he only cooked when he was nervous and needed something to take his mind off of things. Beef rib bolognese.
He heard footsteps, watched Johnny run towards Daniel and the way the two tumbled into the grass.
“Can we try the wrestling date again?”
“You really want to go huh?” Daniel asked arms wrapped around him tight, hand slipping down to cup Johnny’s ass. “As long as you promise not to leave my side we can do whatever you want.”
The gate shut and Daniel glanced at his Johnny whose face was burning bright red.
Daniel knew before the gate opened again where it was, which Johnny it was for.
The smell of a salty sea breeze, a thick floral scent and fruit.
The gate opened and a sai whizzed past, embedding itself in the side of Mr. Miyagi’s house.
“If it’s not my Johnny then get your ass back wherever you came from.”
Daniel had hefted a bag of rice onto his shoulder, hand on one hip.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt and the muscle he’d put on made Daniel feel weak in comparison.
His beard was intense.
“Why do you have to be like that? Every other version of you was welcoming and hospitable,” Johnny called.
“Hey! Come through that gate, don’t you dare hesitate. Get back here. Do you know how much rice I’ve poured into the damn sea? I have fish that follow me on my morning runs now.”
Johnny laughed turning back to them.
“Promise you’ll get home safe,” he said to the haggard looking Johnny.
“Get home before he wrecks the gate, the haggard Johnny said holding up a bottle of Coors.
“Be good to each other,” Johnny said to Daniel and his Johnny.
“What are you even doing?” Daniel called. “You should be running straight into my arms.”
“I’m being polite and saying goodbye.”
“Who gives a shit about niceties? You’ve been gone a whole damn week. I’ve had to shoo sad versions of you out of my house and bed for a whole week. They’re all obnoxious as hell.”
“Are you just grumpy because you haven’t gotten laid in a week? Or because no one has complimented your beard in a week?” Johnny called back.
“I’m pissed off because my husband went missing and it felt like a damn horror story that all these wrong versions of you kept showing up. Did you not listen to all those fairy tales Mr. Miyagi used to tell us? You’re supposed to kill those when that happens, and I couldn’t, because they were you and not you.”
“Well thank you for not killing me. They all got home safely to their Daniel’s, or most have so far.”
“Why’d you have to see them off first? Why didn’t you come running straight to me?”
“Because I’m old. I don’t run like that any more.”
“Old? Old!” Daniel huffed. “Sato was still running laps around us at our age. So was Mr. Miyagi! This isn’t old.” He dropped the bag of rice on the ground and picked Johnny up over his shoulder grinning when Johnny yelped.
“See? I’m not old. Now, let’s get home huh? And I’ll show you just how young we actually are.”
The gate shut and Daniel and Johnny looked at the haggard Johnny who rubbed his hand through his beard.
“Ready?” Daniel asked. “What do I have to do? Open the gate for you?”
“Thanks,” he said voice small, trying to smooth his hair, his hands were shaking.
“Johnny,” Daniel said softly. “You okay?”
“No,” he said blue eyes watery with tears. “Maybe I shouldn’t go home.”
“What?” Daniel asked. “You gotta go home.”
“But, maybe it’d be better if I didn’t?”
“Why, do we have issues?”
“No…you’re…great…you’re wonderful. We’re…we were quite happy. But, Daniel, it’s been a whole fucking year.”
Daniel stared at him. The tears that fell down his cheeks.
“A year?”
“My student’s have probably all moved on right? Silver probably got them or Kreese did. They probably think I abandoned them. And you’ve probably moved on. No one ever went to visit my Daniel so he doesn’t know. He probably thinks I ran off once things were getting too official. We’d moved in together and…then Silver just showed up, threatened you. We fought at the old dojo and I blacked out. He caught me off guard and I spent a year in Dynatox being…experimented on. He couldn’t figure out why Kreese cared so much about getting me back, or my being the one to continue the legacy or why I was the best student, so he tried to figure it out and then when I didn’t hold up to all of Kreese’s talk, he started looking elsewhere. I tried to go home, but I just couldn’t go home. Every time I tried I ended up somewhere else. But I’ve missed everything haven’t I? Miguel’s graduation, Robby’s. I’ve missed probably even sending them all off to college. I was planning to like gather up the guys and we’d be embarrassing about it and I missed it. I’ve missed…everything and they probably think I ran away or…I’m dead…and if I show up like this…”
“I’m sure they’re worried sick,” Daniel said taking the Coors from his hand. “Just go on through and we’ll hold the door open and I’ll try to wave. That’ll freak him out enough that he’ll believe you.”
“He doesn’t believe in this type of thing.”
“We’ll both wave,” Johnny said.
“And we can yell.”
“Thanks,” Johnny said hugging them both.
Daniel opened the door and looked out at an overgrown lawn. The grass usually meticulously kept was up to Daniel’s waist.
Johnny took a deep breath and stepped through, carefully wading his way through the tall grass towards the house.
“What if he’s not home?” he called back. “It looks abandoned.”
“Then call the house. Wherever you moved. Or the dealership. We’ll wait!” Daniel said holding onto the gate.
It wanted to shut. It was trying to swing, stiffening in his arms, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't let go until he was sure.
“Daniel!” Johnny called stepping towards the house then sinking into the grass.
Daniel heard something break, the sound of ceramic hitting the wooden floors before he saw himself dart out of the house then stop about a foot away.
“Johnny?”
Daniel ran, grabbed Johnny’s face in his hands, fingers running over his beard.
“Where have you been? What happened to you? I—“ Daniel cut himself off, voice thick before pulling him close.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Johnny said, thin arms holding onto Daniel tight.
“Silver got him!” Daniel called over the fence.
Daniel looked up, saw himself and his face paled, he gripped Johnny closer to him, tighter.
“Some sort of science thing,” Johnny called. “He was kidnapped. Sorry it took so long to get him home to you.”
Daniel looked away back at the Johnny he was hugging in the tall grass, who was shaking, crying.
“I missed everything didn’t I? I…I didn’t run away. I wouldn’t. I promise. Not from you or our kids or—“
“Johnny,” Daniel said, cupping his face in his hands. “I believe you. We’ve been worried sick.”
“You moved on didn’t you?”
Daniel laughed, but it was wet sounding, almost like a sob. “Does this look like I moved on?” he asked motioning to the tall grass around him. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I even asked Silver and Kreese where you were and it seems like that bastard lied to me. I’m going to sic Carmen, Ma and Amanda on him if I ever see them again. I’m just, so glad you’re home and you’re safe and you’re here.”
“Bye!” Daniel called. “Take care of him, feed him lots.”
“I know that!” Daniel called back.
Daniel looked at his Johnny who nodded and they let the door shut. It snapped shut.
“Was that…real?” Johnny asked.
“Yeah,” Daniel said looking at his hand.
It stung. It’d burned as the gate tried to close and he’d had to keep it open.
“Come on, let’s sit together okay? You can tell me what happened.”
The sat on the couch, Daniel applying some of Mr. Miyagi’s old healing goop on to Johnny’s cuts and scrapes and Johnny applying them to Daniel’s, fussing over the cut on his brow and cheek and Johnny told him what he remembered.
“I got up and was heading here, and I stopped off to get lox, you know that place you won’t shut up about? I was passing it so I stopped and went in to get you a bagel and lox and then all of a sudden a van pulled up and I was just grabbed and tossed in and chloroformed. I didn’t wake up until I was in that tank and you were banging on the glass and I was panicking. It was…awful in there. I couldn’t breathe and I panicked because I saw Kreese and yeah, not as exciting a time as you have probably had, hosting a bunch of me’s and playing the hero.”
“Am I?” Daniel asked, putting a final band-aid over Johnny’s shin and letting his hand rest warmly on his knee.
“Are you what?”
“Your hero?”
Johnny burned red.
“I could’ve gotten out.”
“Sure,” Daniel said watching Johnny scramble for excuses, face turning redder.
“I could’ve taken Silver and Kreese whenever we got to where we were going.”
“Oh of course,” Daniel said.
“But—“
“Yeah?”
Johnny looked down at the blanket covering him, fiddling with the edges of it, legs in Daniel’s lap, head bowed and every inch of skin Daniel could see of his head and neck were a bright red.
“You were pretty cool.”
Daniel gasped, clutching his chest.
“The great Johnny Lawrence telling me I’m cool?”
“Oh god, don’t let that go to your head,” Johnny said. “You already think you know best about everything.”
Daniel laughed softly. Normally that would sting, normally it’d lead to bickering and nagging but instead he just leaned in close, letting his finger tips slide along Johnny’s inner thighs.
“What I do know,” Daniel said brushing back some of Johnny’s fringe with his other hand. “Is that give me a thousand Johnny’s and you’d be the only one I’d want. And that you and me, work together quite perfectly if we try. And I’m ready to try, how about you?”
He hovered, lips almost touching Johnny’s but not quite, with each word.
Johnny looked at him, searching, then very slowly, very carefully, tilted his head their lips brushing, a soft sweet press, innocent for just a moment, a fleeting moment before Daniel pulled back, looking triumphant.
“I was right! You do like me!”
“Yeah, so? You like me too…right?”
“Look what I did to my hands for you?” Daniel said holding up the bandaged hands.
Johnny’s gaze softened, the unsurety soothed, he grabbed Daniel’s wrists, gently kissing his bandaged hands.
“My hero.”
Daniel liked that.
He liked that a lot. He dove for Johnny’s lips, grinning when he caught Johnny off guard and got a gasp. Got to taste the sweetness of the donuts on his tongue.
“When we’re better, we’ll go on a date,” Daniel promised kissing him hard. “We’ll get bagel and lox for me and a maple bar for you.”
Johnny wrapped his arms around him, pulling him close, down onto the couch with him, kissing him back.
He’d prefer the bed, but Daniel didn’t want to pass up an opportunity.
Johnny always understood action better than words, and they misunderstood each other so frequently, but this...
Johnny moved, touching Daniel’s face so gingerly, so sweetly as they kissed, as Daniel’s hands took off Johnny’s shirt, he wanted to touch, to squeeze but his hands, his finger tips were too cut up to do what he wanted, so he pulled away from Johnny’s lips, ducked his head and licked at one of Johnny’s nipples until it pebbled and hardened then gently got it pinched between his teeth.
Johnny moaned and Daniel glanced up at him, grinning at the aroused look on his face, the parted lips, the blush.
“Like that? Good,” Daniel said, not waiting for an answer and dipping down to bite down on Johnny’s other nipple. The sound Johnny made sent a shiver down Daniel’s spine.
All the other versions of themselves had figured this out already.
They were behind, just a little, just enough and Daniel was curious, insatiably curious about what other sounds Johnny would make. What would his face look like when he was lost in pleasure?
Daniel shifted, letting his thigh press tight against Johnny’s crotch, rubbing against him, hard.
He’d barely done anything.
Maybe just he idea was enough.
Maybe Johnny’s tit’s were just that sensitive.
Maybe Daniel should’ve moved into this position when they were kissing so he’d have known what exactly got Johnny so hot and bothered.
But he’d figure it out, eventually, every little detail.
Johnny moved his hips, rutting against Daniel’s leg and Daniel grinned, carefully pushing himself up to watch.
Once his hands healed he’d have those tits in his hands and would squeeze them the way he tested to see if fruit was ripe in the grocery.
He’d savor it, but for now, he leaned back, studying Johnny, trying to figure out the best way to get the rest of his clothes off without hurting his hands.
“Johnny, can you carefully take these of for me?” Daniel asked gently tapping his knuckle against Johnny’s shorts.
Johnny shimmied, trying to not put any weight on his feet and Daniel scooted out of the way while Johnny lifted his legs and carefully pried off his shorts, letting them fall on the floor.
“Could you hold your legs up?”
“Like this?” Johnny asked, looking confused, legs hugged to his chest.
“Yeah,” Daniel said dipping his head down again, one kiss to Johnny’s lips, then trailing his way down in the small amount of space Johnny gave him until he sat back, looking at Johnny’s dick, hard and leaking pre-cum and his ass.
There were probably other ways to do it. But Daniel dove down, licking along Johnny’s length down his shaft, along the perineum and then between his cheeks. It took a little bit of probing before he got his tongue inside.
Johnny moaned, spreading his legs, holding them apart for Daniel.
It didn’t take long to be able to move his tongue around, shallow thrusts that made Johnny shiver.
Daniel pulled back when his jaw got tired, looking down at Johnny whose gaze was glazed, pleasure ridden, lips parted.
Now was a good a time to try as any.
He carefully tried to push down his sweats, until he got his dick out, relieved that he’d worn something easy that didn’t require the use of his fingers and fine motor skills to get himself out of. He held himself gingerly pressing against Johnny’s wet hole.
He was still too tight and trying to push himself in required holding himself too firmly.
“Damn,” Daniel said with a sigh.
Johnny blinked, pushing himself up and gazing between them before seeming to realize and swatting at Daniel’s hands.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Johnny said, “Just tell me what to do.”
“It’ll work better, if you’re a little looser.”
“How do I do that?”
“Your fingers,” Daniel said. “Wait, use that first.”
Johnny frowned, shifting himself carefully and pouring oil into his hand from the oil Daniel had set out for the bread with dinner the night before. There was a lot of clean up to do. But it could wait.
He watched as Johnny’s fingers, slick with oil searched for his hole, rubbed against it, and the one finger slid in, knuckle deep and easy and Johnny looked surprised.
“Another one,” Daniel said watching, mouth going dry, as Johnny fingered himself. The second didn’t go in quite so easily but Johnny was determined.
Daniel slipped back down and once Johnny slid his fingers apart a little he shoved his tongue back in, delighted at the way Johnny bucked at that intrusion. The way he cried out.
“Little more,” Daniel said when he pulled away, slipping back down to watch a third finger join the rest and running his tongue along Johnny’s fingers, against the ring of muscles until he could slip at least part of his tongue inside.
Johnny stretched his fingers carefully, working himself open and Daniel slid his tongue in deeper until Johnny shivered.
“Now?” Johnny asked voice thick, almost a plea.
Daniel pulled away, shifting closer, pressing against him about to reach for himself when Johnny beat him to it, oil covered hand holding him, guiding the tip inside.
Daniel shifted, smiling at Johnny.
“That’s perfect, thank you, keep doing that,” Daniel said.
Johnny, shifted his legs apart a little more and Daniel pushed further, deeper until he was in, all the way in and Johnny was looking at him with those blue eyes wide with surprise as he bottomed out.
Daniel kissed his jaw, his neck, biting bruises on Johnny’s skin, savoring the warmth of his embrace, the way Johnny’s thighs had tightened around him, holding him closer. He wanted to grab those thighs, dig his finger prints into them, into his hips while he slammed into Johnny.
He’d have to make up for it when his hands healed.
When they'd both healed.
He laid down onto his forearms on either side of Johnny and thrusted his hips, watching Johnny closely.
There was so much Daniel wanted to do.
He wanted to go on dates, embarrass their kids by holding Johnny’s hand at all the date spots.
He wanted to win him arcade plush toys and watch Johnny hug it to his chest and try to bury his face in it to keep the sounds he made from escaping while Daniel bent him over, just barely in the house unable to wait long enough to make it to the bed, or even better, in the back of the car trying not to draw attention to themselves.
He wanted to go out dancing or dance just around the house, he wanted to make dinner and food together and watch movies. He wanted to try and do the balance wheel together until they figured out how to read one another and be in sync.
Johnny’s arms reached for him, wrapping around his shoulders, trying to muffle his cries by biting down on Daniel’s shoulder.
He wanted to wake up with Johnny curled up in his arms.
He wanted to give the other Johnny’s and Daniel’s a run for their money.
He wanted to bicker without any bite to it.
He wanted to tease Johnny and watch him get all wound up, to get stressed himself, and then after a good fuck, maybe Johnny riding him in their bed, to realize the stress was gone, that he’d just been irrevocably horny.
That he’d just needed this, exactly this, to watch the way Johnny arched when he came, fingers digging into Daniel’s back, scratching and tight and not letting him go, not loosening his grip until Daniel came deep inside of him and they lay tangled up together on the couch, sticky and messy but comforted by the sound of one another's heartbeats and breath.
Daniel asked Johnny to move in probably earlier than they would’ve otherwise planned. But he was nervous about Johnny being alone, since every Johnny got kidnapped while on their own.
When he wasn’t around or was busy he asked the kids to hang out with him or Amanda.
“I saw the other Johnny,” Amanda said. “He swung by in the morning at the dealership for coffee and he just…wasn’t our Johnny, I don’t know if that makes sense, but—“
She believed him, immediately, and Daniel loved her more for it. For how quickly the others believed him, even the students. Though that might’ve been in part because sometimes the fence creaked a little and they heard sounds that sounded familiar.
Daniel calling for Sam and Sam answering that she and Tory would be there in just a moment but neither Tory or Sam speaking and the class just staring at the gate horrified.
Or Eli telling a loud joke and Demetri’s laughter echoing from the other side of the gate when Demetri hadn’t gotten there yet.
Or the smell of the sea.
Or dinner being cooked.
On the anniversary of Mr. Miyagi’s death food appeared at the gate with a little note.
“Don’t know if this will work but thought it might be a difficult day for you as it is for us. Made his favorites, the way he taught me.”
And Daniel bundled them up and went with Johnny to the grave, leaving some for Mr. Miyagi and eating some himself, tears pouring down his cheeks, because it tasted just the way Mr. Miyagi used to make them.
And sometimes Daniel bought extra doughnuts when he got some for Johnny, opening the gate and setting them on the other side on a plate.
Once, he opened the gate and held a doughnut through only for it to get snatched up with a gruff thanks babe.
It was disconcerting but also comforting. Especially when Daniel woke up late at night in a sweat checking to ensure Johnny was by his side, nightmares about Silver and Kreese, only to be relieved that Johnny was by his side, sleeping soundly, snoring lightly.
Then one afternoon while laughing because Johnny had slipped into the koi pond and was soaked and pouting, his shirt clinging to his nipples the mail arrived.
A postcard from Tahiti with a snake on it made him shudder and Johnny walked over footsteps heavy and waterlogged.
“What is it?”
“It’s for you,” Daniel said seeing the “Dear Johnny.”
Johnny plopped down on the deck, feet brushing against the grass reading the messily scrawled ink.
Daniel sat next to him, waiting and Johnny handed him the post card.
Dear Johnny,
I’m not one to write, but I figured you and that LaRusso punk probably have your guards up for no reason. We’re away. Promised him we’d travel again one day and being in jail for a crime I didn’t commit reminded me of the last time I was imprisoned, and how I’d promised we’d go see the world. It meant more then, but its still an old promise and you gotta keep those. Especially to the people who will scorch the earth for you.
I can’t explain what he was doing because as often as I try and figure it out I find myself even more confused. All I know is he meant well. Maybe not to you, because you don’t get him. But to me, he meant well. He meant the best. He meant a lot.
The best way to keep him from trying again is to do this. To hang out in the rain forests and climb mountains and test our metal and see how primal and instinctive we can get.
You all have gotten soft. And I fear it’s infectious, and we’ve gotten soft. So we’re going to work on that. Avoid getting soft despite our old age because it’s important to always be light on our feet and watch our backs.
Don’t let that punk lure you into a soft life full of comfort. He’s a tricky little bastard and I think he’s even more invasive than I ever thought. Boot him out of your life because I fear he’s after your ass, quite literally, which I thought he was long ago, and now I’m quite sure I’m right. Twig agrees. He can tell that shit better than I can. But even I’m not that blind. So kick him to the curb this time and keep your guard up. Maybe I’ll send you a few of these. Burn ‘em if you like. Don’t care.
Sensei.
“You going to burn it?” Daniel asked.
“Don’t know. It’s nice to know he’s half across the world.”
“And that he’s right?” Daniel asked.
“About what?” Johnny asked as Daniel tossed the postcard into the house.
Daniel grabbed Johnny’s ass in his hands. “That I’m a punk after your ass? You going to follow his advice?”
“No way, he’s got shit advice, always has. Told me the best way to get Ali was to just show her my muscles by giving her directions to the beach.”
Daniel laughed, delighted when Johnny echoed it, meeting him for a warm kiss before helping him out of all his wet clothes.