the light off dying stars

by VellichorVibes

Summary:

Daniel watched, trapped in a vacuum with no air, as Johnny whateverhislastnamewas dropped his hand to get back into a fighting stance.

Gold was sprinkled all across the bridge of his nose and cheeks like sun-kissed freckles.

“Holy shit.”

|| soulmate AU ||

Chapter 1: nebula

Summary:

NEBULA: a vast, ethereal cloud drifting in the depths of space, where the whispers of creation stir

Daniel glanced out the corner of his eye at his mother singing in the driver's seat. Even after days of motels and push starting the car and his own sullen silence Lucille LaRusso still looked happy and invigorated to navigate the bustling streets of Reseda. She was laughing and chatting enthusiastically, her warm smile a sharp contrast to Daniel's sour scowl. She’d promised there would be palm trees and swimming pools where they were going; a whole new life. Daniel had to admit the California sun did agree with her auburn hair and rosy cheeks, but even more so with her soulmark.

Along the shell of his mother’s ear was a vine of golden oak and maple leaves, all twisted and sparkly trailing down the lobe to her neck. It was where his father had touched her for the first time, moving to brush her hair away from her face before going in for a kiss. Daniel could vaguely remember a similar pattern of gold foliage that trailed along his dad’s fingertips and knuckles, making his hand twinkle when it caught the sunlight. 

Not everyone's soulmarks looked the same. Some people had flowers or river maps bumping along the bend of their knees. Some even had lines of poetry dripping down their arms, tracking where their soulmates had first brushed against them skin to skin. Daniel had asked once, after his dad was gone, why his mom thought the two of them had gotten maple and oak. She’d contemplated it for some time, her eyes glassy and distant the way they always were when she discussed her late husband, but eventually she’d said that their first date had been in Branch Brook Park which was filled with lots of gorgeous trees but mostly oak and maple.

“I guess it was just a big part of the moment,” she’d concluded, shrugging. “I remember it was fall, just before Halloween, and the leaves were falling down all around us. Hardly even felt the mark form before he kissed me.”

The Larusso’s had left Branch Brook and maple leaves all behind on the East coast though. As they’d driven cross country, the scenery had changed from congested city to grassy fields to barren deserts to sprawling mountains and then right back to a congested city. It was different though; shinier. Everywhere Daniel looked there were slick cars and blonde girls and signs calling them towards Encino or Hollywood. In August it was still swelteringly hot and so people walked around in barely their bathing suits, their tanned skin on full display. Daniel caught the golden glare off people’s marks as they cruised through with their windows down.

When they pulled up in front of the South Seas Apartments, Daniel entertained his mothers gushing about the weather and the palm trees and the swimming pool for what felt like the hundredth time as they moved to start unpacking. They hadn’t crammed too much into their station wagon, but it was clear it’d take more than one trip to get everything settled in. Daniel struggled with his bike as his mother grabbed the first box and made for the gate. 

“We’re in apartment twenty! One floor up!” she called back to him, already moving on ahead. Daniel huffed and puffed and decided to grab at least one suitcase before trudging after her, his hands full with his handlebars. His skin was hot and tight from the long drive and sweat stuck to his back and arms. As he moved towards the gate his mother had just walked through, he realized his hands were full and decided a standing kick would do the job. Open the thing and also let out some pent up frustration; two birds, one stone and all that.

Of course it was just Daniel‘s luck that right behind the gate was a new neighbor who promptly fell to the ground with a shout when he was hit with the swinging door. The Newark native grimaced with embarrassment and immediately started dropping apologies as he pushed his way into the apartment complex. He stood by awkwardly as the young man struggled back to his feet. He looked about Daniel’s age and actually had a very similar complexion and coloring. He could’ve been a LaRusso. Once he was standing straight, the other teen apologized again.

“Sorry about that, really,” he insisted, moving a closed fist forward only to be met with an open palm. They both shuffled awkwardly, not knowing how to proceed. 

Way back when, when soulmarks were still new and exciting, people touched without thinking and boom, now you had a flurry of snowflakes all along your back from a friendly pat. When society started catching up with the phenomenon, touches became a bit more intentional. You didn't lay your hand on anyone unless you thought you’d strike gold, hence Daniel’s parents being friendly for years before his dad dared to brush his mom’s cheek on their first date. Now, the general consensus was you could meet your soulmate anywhere, at any time and so you should try to greet everyone with a neutral touch the first time you met them, just to be sure. In Newark, new friends said hello with a closed fist, bumping knuckles together, but apparently in Reseda strangers greeted each other palm to palm.

After a time, Daniel acquiesced and delivered a sliding slap to the other boy’s hand.

Nothing happened; not a soulmate match.

“No worries,” the guy assured, pulling his hand back as quickly as he had offered it. He didn’t seem put off by their lack of connection and only shrugged introducing himself, “I’m Freddy Fernandez, apartment seventeen. You must be the new people in apartment twenty?”

“Daniel LaRusso, and yeah we must be.” 

Freddy nodded amicably before glancing down at Daniel's suitcase. “Let me help you with that!”

Daniel tried to beg off, but before he knew it, he and Freddie were walking through the lower levels of the South Seas Apartments. There was the usual small talk of where they were from, what they were doing here and Daniel only half considered his answers as he noticed the near empty pool right in the middle of the courtyard. Freddy asked about his karate and he pretended to know more than he did. At the bottom of the stairs, he met an old woman from Parsippany and felt homesick as they briefly discussed the many Louie’s that could be found in the area. He pet her dog and was halfway up the stairs when he glanced back and noticed that her soulmark twisted up the back of her neck. It looked like the jagged lines of the mountain ranges he and his mother had driven past on their way from New Jersey. Freddy called her crazy, but Daniel decided then and there that he quite liked the old woman. And her little dog too.

As they reached the second floor landing, Daniel paused, glancing around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Freddy was still hauling the suitcase. He asked, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel replied lamely, palms sweaty over his handlebars, “I guess nothing.”

“We’re having a beach party, sort of an ‘ Adios, Summer ’. You wanna come?”

The young Italian’s brows picked up in surprise. He hadn’t expected to meet anyone his own age until school on Monday, and he really hadn’t expected to be invited out. He’d always figured making new friends would be slow and awkward, but here was his new neighbor offering a leg up. “Yeah, sure, sounds cool.”

Freddy smiled. They were at apartment twenty now. “Great! I’ll come get you in the morning, alright?”

“Alright.”

The two teens shook hands again and then Freddy was gone. Daniel let himself into his new home, suitcase now weighing down his arm, and barely heard his mother‘s note about the pool as he looked around with interest. With sparse furnishings and the boxes they’d shipped ahead stacked against the walls, it was bigger than their place back in Jersey. However, it didn’t have the little homey touches he had gotten used to while growing up. There weren’t any pictures of them enjoying winter with his cousins hanging up. All the cushions didn’t subtly smell like a million home cooked meals from his grandparents and there certainly weren’t any pasta sauce stains. None of his dad’s things were there. It just wasn’t home.

And the faucet was broken

The youngest LaRusso kept his several opinions to himself. He didn’t want his mother to worry anymore than he knew she already was. Deep down, his bad attitude aside, he knew it hadn’t been easy for her to decide to move them. He was bitter she hadn't asked him, sure, but he knew everything she did was to give them a better life. So instead of complaining any more he told his mom about the party, filled a bowl of water for the old woman’s dog, and agreed to hunt down the maintenance man. 

Back down the stairs, back to the woman with her dog. Left then right then left again? Behind a set of green doors he found a tiny room with tiny trees and only a tiny bit of light to help him see. Daniel saw an older man, short and somewhat frail-looking, in faded work clothes, poking at the air with chopsticks. His movements were deliberate, each gesture precise as he jabbed at something Daniel couldn’t see from behind the screen door. He could hear the buzzing of a fly somewhere. 

Curiosity and apprehension battled in Daniel’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he should break this man's concentration on…whatever he was doing. Maybe he was as crazy as Freddy thought the old woman was. Maybe all the old people in California were crazy. Clearing his throat, he ventured, "Hey, are you the maintenance man?”

“Hai.”

Yes?

“Yeah, our faucet’s really leaking there,” the teen informed, pushing his way through the screen. 

The man finally turned, revealing a weathered face. He was some kind of Asian and his eyes, sharp and observant, assessed Daniel with a calm scrutiny until he carefully stepped back over the threshold. He had a scarf wrapped around his forehead, but just beneath it Daniel could see the very edges of a shimmering soulmark. The man turned away again.

“Can you come fix it?”

“Hai.”

Silence. 

Daniel frowned.

“Well, can I tell my mom when?”

“When what?”

The man had an accent.

“When are you gonna fix the faucet?”

“After.”

“After what?”

“After, after !”

Sweaty and exhausted, Daniel decided this conversation was going next to nowhere and so huffed and left. The old man seemed annoyed anyway and he didn’t want to risk him not coming at all. There was stuff to unpack and rooms to clean and apparently a party to get ready for tomorrow. He didn’t have time to sit around, trying to make sense of the maintenance man's mood. Fuck it, he could wait for after after . 

Back passed the old woman, back up the stairs, back to number twenty. The evening sun cast a warm glow through the window, painting their new living room in hues of orange and gold, but it hadn’t changed anything. The apartment was still empty and strange and not a home and Daniel sighed tiredly, hearing his mother moving around in the rooms somewhere down the narrow hall.

She called out to him, “You know, I really think we're qonna do good here! I never felt so positive about anything in my life. This was really the right move, I’m tellin’ ya, Dan!”

Daniel didn’t agree. 

---

The next day Daniel was tired and homesick and cranky and sore, but also open and thoughtful and busy and free. The beach wasn’t like anything they had back in Newark and the second generation Italian thought the smell of the ocean without the smog of the city was actually kind of nice. Freddy and his friends had brought them to a secluded strip of sand at the bottom of a steep brush covered hill. Secluded because there were no prying adults around, but several teens splashed in the waves and kicked a soccer ball around. Danny chased after a wide kick and spotted a group of pretty girls gathered on a blanket.

One of the girls, blonde and sweet looking, tossed him the ball and Danny made a show of bouncing it from knee to knee, onto his head, and back off his foot. She looked impressed enough. When she scampered off to the water with the rest of them, Daniel watched her go with a smile. He nudged Freddy when he got back to the group. “Who’s that?”

Freddy glanced over and gave an amused scoff, “The hills.”

“What’s the hills?”

“Rich,” one of the others, Alan, informed before rushing off to start the game again.

Hours passed and they played and swam and snacked and drank. Everyone that came seemed to know each other and it was a little clique-y, but Daniel supposed they were friendly enough. Everyone talked and everyone shared and everyone liked the same songs on the radio; it was just teenagers. Some of them had soulmarks cradled in their palms and the Jersey native took note of those pairs with interest. The cute blonde from earlier didn’t have one, at least that he could see, and he found opportunities to wander into her eyeline or catch snippets of her conversations. Her name was Ali.

When the sun went down some of the boys fed long dead fire pits they all huddled around for warmth, still damp and cool from swimming. Daniel watched with interest as some older kids pulled beer and weed out of hidden stashes and passed them around. He declined, but didn’t begrudge Freddy and the others for indulging in the joint that started to make a quick pattern around the circle. He noticed Ali didn’t take a hit either and smiled to himself. There was lots of talking and laughing and it was surprisingly loud for a breezy beach night. Still though, the approaching rumble of motorcycles was hard to miss and Danny’s interest peaked as he saw a group of riders come speeding over the hill. 

Plenty of people quickly gathered their belongings and started to slink away as the bikes pulled right up to their small fires, sand kicking up all around. It was more teenagers Daniel was surprised to notice, none of them looking much older than anyone else once their helmets were off. One guy in jeans and a red jacket had a tie wrapped around his head kind of like the maintenance man at South Seas. Daniel watched him approach Ali and felt his stomach flip as the two got to talking; it didn’t sound friendly.

“We’ve been over this, alright?” she grouched, pretty face marred with a frown, “I don’t wanna talk.”

“Well, I wanna talk to you, alright?” 

The guy was tall and broad, not like really any of the boys Daniel had grown up with back home. Skinny and sly with dark foreign features. The blonde looked made for the ocean waves and sunny days. He had a proud nose and big hands and the Italian suddenly felt inadequate by comparison. He watched the apparent old flames bicker back and forth, Ali’s radio being flipped on and off and snatched hand to hand before being smashed into the sand.

“You just broke my radio!”

That was about as much as Danny could stand to watch. For whatever reason everyone else was acting like they didn’t see the guy acting like a total prick and it didn’t sit right with him. He hated a bully and even more so when they bullied a girl. Stepping over to the situation, he picked up the boombox and immediately earned the blonde’s ire. Eyes as blue as a summer sky glared at him. If not for the radio between them, they’d be chest to chest and Daniel was embarrassed and intimidated to have to look up into those eyes. Guy had a few inches on him.

“What’s your problem, man?”

“Oh, what, you want it?” His voice was higher and more grating than Danny had expected. At least he had something to smile about.

Behind them people were watching and the other guys were holding Ali back. Her friends looked unimpressed. Daniel huffed, “Yeah, just give it!”

“You got it!”

The radio wasn’t heavy, but having it shoved back into his chest by this musclehead sent the newcomer tumbling into the sand. Freddy and the others were there then, yanking him up and pushing him forward and telling him to use his karate moves. His first lunge found him sprawling face first in the sand. The blonde had tripped him, his ankle hooking the smaller boy’s easily. His next attempt ended much the same and then there was a spinning kick to his gut that dropped Daniel like a pile of bricks. Hunched there, breathing in huffs of sand, it occurred to him that this kid actually knew karate and he grimaced. Even if he hadn’t been totally exaggerating his own prowess with the sport, the brunette knew there was no way to beat this guy in a fair fight.

His sucker punch caught the jerk right in the nose.

Pain lit across his knuckles.

Daniel spun away, shaking out his hand because shit- shit ! Had he busted a knuckle? A searing sting was dancing over his fingers and the teen skirted the small crowd to get to a fire. The other guy -his friends were calling him Johnny- had reeled back from the hit, hand to his face, and now seemed to be processing the building pain of it. His head was thrown back and his too blue eyes were squeezed shut. Good. Daniel hoped he’d broken his stupid, perfect nose as he got close enough to the firelight to get a good look at his hand.

Gold glinted up at him, smattered over his pointer, middle and ring fingers in tiny specks that looked like stars.

A soulmark.

The strangled gasp that escaped Daniel sounded like something from the made-for-TV chick flicks his mom liked to watch and his only comfort was that not a single person on that beach gave enough of a shit about him to be listening in. Freddy and his group had started to clear out when they realized their new ‘friend’ was a total loser. Ali’s posse were trying to coax her away from the drama, stating neither boy was worth the trouble. Then there was the blonde, Johnny, hand still over his face, and his goons trying to convince him to get back into the fight.

“Come on, Johnny, no mercy!” one of them crowed. 

His voice sounded like it was coming from galaxies away as Daniel watched his opponent come back to himself. His eyes were open now, scrunching and unscrunching as he adjusted to what the New Jersey native now knew was the burning ache of a soulmark appearing. No one had come over to see his hand, but he was too far away to tell the guy to not uncover his stupid fucking face. Daniel watched, trapped in a vacuum with no air, as Johnny whateverhislastnamewas dropped his hand to get back into a fighting stance.

Gold was sprinkled all across the bridge of his nose and cheeks like sun-kissed freckles.

“Holy shit.”

It was impossible to know who had said it; who had noticed the golden glitter on the boy’s face first. His gang all staggered away like it was a disease that was catching. Daniel stepped back and around when they stumbled into his space, still watching warily as Johnny blinked confusedly across the circle. Everyone who caught sight of his face gasped in shock or looked totally gobsmacked. Ali looked like she was about to throw up honestly and she was the only one to look from Johnny to Daniel, eyes brimming with an odd sort of accusation. The blonde followed her gaze and then the two soulmates locked eyes. 

“Dude,” Johnny scoffed, fight momentarily forgotten amidst everyone’s incredulous staring. His nose was bleeding. He couldn’t see his own face; he thought this was about just Daniel. “Who the hell are you?”

Chapter 2: star cluster

Summary:

STAR CLUSTER: a dazzling congregation of stars bound together in a celestial embrace

When Daniel woke up in bed the next day, the first thing he did was look at his hand. Some teeny, tiny part of him almost believed that maybe it had all been an elaborate nightmare. That he hadn’t gotten into a brawl with some shitty hothead at the beach and gotten a soulmark for sucker punching the guy. Better yet, maybe he hadn’t even really left Newark. Maybe outside his bedroom door right then was their old home with their old furniture and their old Italian relatives ambling in to start cooking. Maybe…

The gold along his knuckles caught the light from his window and reflected back into his eyes.

Maybe not.

To say he didn’t want to get up and face the day would have been the understatement of the century. He briefly considered faking nausea to avoid ever leaving his room. It was the first day of school and Daniel already knew that everyone he had met at the party would be attending. Freddy and his fair weather flunkies, Ali and her gaggle of girls, Johnny…

Daniel didn’t have to fake the nausea.

His stomach rolled uncomfortably remembering the tall, angry blonde from the night before. While he had been limping home, going the same direction as Freddy simply because they had to, his new neighbor had muttered a bit about the real karate kid at their school. Johnny Lawrence was apparently a rich, popular, and aggressive jerk that was a rising senior just like them. He and his gang ran the school, dominating fields and halls through fear and intimidation and just generally being loud assholes. They all knew karate for real, Freddy assured, they all attended some dojo in the city.

“That’s where they get that ‘no mercy’ crap they kept spewing,” he’d sighed as they finally reached their front gate. He wasn’t looking at Daniel or helping him hobble along. Like everyone else on the beach, he’d decided the newcomer had leprosy. “Good luck with that, LaRusso.”

And just like that Daniel’s first friend in California became his first former-friend.

Sleep hadn’t come easy and the East coast teen spent much of the night staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling, absentmindedly itching at his gold dusted knuckles. It was definitely stars he had decided after squinting at the mark under his bedside lamp. An unfamiliar constellation of stars that spread over the backs of his fingers and just crested the top of his fist. They were small but clustered tightly together so that when Daniel held his hand out in front of him the mark was little more than a smear. A Rorschach test, everyone looking at it would see something different. Up close, however, he could spot about eighteen of the stars that were bigger and ‘brighter’ than the rest. They made a sort of curly V up the back of his fingers when he held them together, totally undistinguishable when he spread them apart. He’d wondered briefly what Johnny’s stars looked like up close.

Johnny.

Johnny Lawrence.

What a nightmare.

Getting up and out the apartment was an exercise in timing because Daniel had to wait for just the right moment to do everything. The right moment to slip across the hall to the bathroom, the right moment to catch his mom unawares at breakfast and give a quickie excuse, the right moment to swing his hand this way or that, never in her line of sight until he was out the front door. The brunette figured his patience had been tested also because he had so many questions and accusations he wanted to hurl at his mother.

Why hadn’t she made him stay home and unpack?

Why had she even brought them here?

Why hadn’t she told him the mark would hurt?

Why didn’t she just lay off and let him go?

Why didn’t she notice he was going fucking crazy?

Nothing, nothing she could have said would have made Daniel feel any better, so instead of asking he slunk away on his bike, head low and stomach sick as he pedaled toward a school he’d only glimpsed on their drive into the city. West Valley High School was flat and sprawling and made Danny miss the cramped, high rise style of his inner-city school back home. In the parking lot every spot was taken up by foreign sports cars, chromed bikes, and customized hot rods. Out front, kids milled about everywhere, greeting each other after a long summer break and bemoaning the return to academics. The Jersey-born boy cruised through the crowd, head on a swivel for anyone from the beach. He hadn’t seen Freddy on his way and was hoping to avoid any other familiar faces.

Daniel had searched high and low as quietly as he could the night before for where he had packed his winter clothes. He’d been praying to find some gloves to cut the fingers off of to simultaneously hide his soulmark and make what was sure to be a polarizing fashion statement on his first day. No luck. So he locked up his bike and hiked up his backpack with naked hands and a soulmark that glittered everytime it caught the sun. He’d at least found his sunglasses and so ducked his head as he scurried through the other students, hoping he’d go relatively unnoticed.

‘This Building is Dedicated to Truth, Liberty, and Toleration’

“Yeah right,” Daniel muttered to himself as he read the plague beside the main entrance. He didn’t know who the Native Sons of the Golden West were, but he guessed they’d never met their soulmate in a fist fight and then had to try and avoid the guy at school the next day.

Try and fail cause there was Johnny right goddamn there.

Johnny Lawrence, a night sky’s worth of stars splashed over his face, was propped up against his Kawasaki KZ1000, listening listlessly as his friends prattled on about something or other. He wore a crisp, white jacket with the collar popped and headphones dangling around his neck. Disgustingly enough it made him look even broader and complimented his impossibly blonde hair unfairly. Leveling the playing field though, Johnny looked like he’d gotten about as much sleep as Daniel. He had dark smudges under his eyes which made the bruising blooming up from his nose look that much harsher. Unfortunately, the purplish tinge of his skin only made his soulmark more visible and Danny was suddenly extra thankful for his sunglasses. The shine off Johnny’s starlight could blind a guy. 

The blonde blinked slowly at his posse and his soulmate shuffled away, metaphorical tail between his legs. Daniel couldn’t imagine something worse than running into Johnny after the previous night and so diligently spent the day avoiding him. At lunch he was careful to hug the wall and find some far off corner to nibble his cardboard flavored pizza in. Between classes he faded in and out of halls like a shadow, keeping a keen eye out for blue eyes and shooting stars. A few people he brushed by had seen the fight and pointed him out to their huddles with little subtlety. Even more people took note of him as a new kid and then pointed to his soulmark with no subtlety at all. His only stroke of luck was that Johnny hadn’t sat down in any of his classes. Neither had Freddy or Ali or any of their friends; the school was huge

Daniel managed to avoid the object of his irritation for over half the day, but then nearly the entire senior class was herded to physical education. There was blessedly no incident while changing in the locker room, but the Italian teen soon found himself outdoors with nothing to hide behind. Everyone else had changed too and immediately split off into groups and teams clearly established from the years prior. The girls all crowded a coach lady with pompoms piled at her feet, while the guys either started up laps around the track, lazed out on the grass, or approached different coaches posted up around the field. Daniel’s baby browns looked all around, spotted a bag of soccer balls clutched in one man’s fist, and decided that’s where he needed to be. He liked soccer, he was good at soccer. Actually good, not karate good.

“Hey, karate kid!” The turn of Daniel’s head was more a startled cringe than anything. Freddy and the other boys from the party jogged up all around him, faces bright in amusement. “Let’s see them moves!”

“The only move he knows is how to get his ass kicked,” Alan goaded. They shadow boxed the brunette and feinted kicks to his side.

Freddy scoffed, “Well, lucky his soulmate already knows that move.”

A chorus of ‘oohs’ played the boys out and Daniel watched them go with a hot coal burning in his gut. He hadn’t even told his mom his soulmark had appeared yet, but half his school knew and were being total assholes about it. He hated the way his eyes felt hot and itchy as he turned to head in the opposite direction only to bump right into Ali. Ali Mills if word around school was to be believed; head cheerleader and ex-girlfriend of none other than Johnny Fucking Lawrence. Daniel blinked rapidly down into green eyes and tried to grasp at all the pretty thoughts he’d had of her the night before. They were gone though, left beaten in the sand just like his dignity.

“Oh,” he said in way of greeting, taking a step back. Last time he’d gotten too close he’d gotten stars branded over his knuckles. “Hey.”

“Hi,” the girl breathed, looking him up and down and all over his face before letting her eyes drift down to his marked hand. Daniel shoved it into the pocket of his sweatpants. “I realized I never said thanks…for standing up for me last night.”

“Oh,” Daniel repeated eloquently, talking to her left ear rather than her. The sun was in his eyes; he squinted them shut. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry about…everything else…”

“Not as sorry as me,” the boy grumbled, scuffing his shoes in the grass. Not too far off, Johnny was there with his karate buddies, all of them big and loud and looking like they thankfully had no interest in soccer. His soulmate’s legs were long and toned. Daniel looked away. “You seemed kinda pissed last night?”

“Oh, that,” Ali admitted absently, face bashful as she nodded once, her ponytail bouncing behind her. “Yeah, sorry, I guess I was just a bit…jealous.”

The new kid’s ears perked up and he shot the cheerleader an incredulous look. He hedged, “Look, I’m wasn’t tryin’a steal your guy or anything-”

“No, no !” she insisted, eyes blown wide with disbelief. She looked like maybe she wanted to laugh but wouldn’t dare to do it in his face. “It’s just…my best friends have known they were soulmates since kindergarten and now you move here and find yours your first night out.”

Daniel peered over her shoulder when she gestured vaguely behind her. At the edge of the cheerleader group were two girls he’d seen with Ali the day before, one blonde and one brunette. They stood side by side, obviously watching their friend’s conversation, and Danny was interested to see they each had a soulmark on opposite cheeks. Like two little kids who had probably hugged and rubbed their faces together the first time they met. From this far he couldn’t see the shapes, but the glint of gold was unmistakable. When he turned back to Ali she was still talking. Rambling really.

“-and you know Johnny and I dated for almost a whole year and obviously we weren’t soulmates, but it’s still a shock to see him meet his. Not bad or anything! But I mean, jeeze , you clocked him right in the face and it just wasn’t what I was expecting-”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Daniel interrupted, waving his hand to call her attention back to him. “It’s no big deal, but if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think either of us is that thrilled about it.”

They turned simultaneously to look at Johnny and as if to prove Danny’s point, the blonde was glaring in their direction, soulmark half scrunched into his scowl. He was also shirtless for some stupid reason and Daniel huffed as he spied a muscled chest, thick arms, and abs the skinny boy could only dream of building up. He huffed and turned back to Ali who was already looking up at him contemplatively. She was cute when she was thinking, but it had no effect on Daniel anymore.

“Well, just cause it’s a bumpy start doesn’t mean it’ll be all bad,” she tried to reason, nodding encouragingly as if telling him this was a test and if he just studied hard enough, he’d ace it. “You guys are soulmates after all.”

“Yeah, sure,” the seventeen year old sighed, shifting his weight around to try and dispel the rattling energy that had settled into his bones when he’d looked at his soulmate. He pondered, “You dated him, what was so wrong with his soul that you couldn’t make it work?”

“Nothing.” The girl sounded genuinely surprised by the question. “Johnny was great, but I was looking for my soulmate.”

“Figures.”

The cheer coach called the team back and Ali was off, barely remembering to double back and get his name before she was gone. Daniel watched her go, her words slowly churning around in his head. He hadn’t seen much of Johnny Lawrence to make him think the guy could ever be great, but he hadn’t seen much of him period. Maybe she was right; they were soulmates after all. If his mother was to be believed, your soulmate was like a best friend, but more. The one person in the world who would know you better than anyone else. Someone that wouldn’t make you a better person, but would inspire you to do it yourself. A soulmate was someone to carry with you forever; someone who would know you and accept you and believe in you even when no one else did or would.

Maybe that could be Johnny Lawrence?

Daniel looked over at the blonde’s smirking face and didn’t really think so.

Then he got kicked out of soccer tryouts and knew it definitely couldn’t be.

“This school sucks!” he shouted, all heart and hurt and fist aching from where he’d punched that bastard Bobby in his smirking face. He went to stalk off the field, sweaty and grass stained, only to be blocked by the broad chest of none other than Johnny Lawrence. The blonde looked down at him, hands fisted in the shirt slung over his shoulders and biceps bulging. With all the bruising, his soulmark looked almost angry this close.

“Better watch your step next time, LaRusso.”

Daniel had no idea where, in all his careful avoidance, Johnny had managed to pick up on his name, but hearing it out of the smug prick’s mouth set him on edge all over again. No. No way this guy would be his best friend, his one and only, his everything. The shorter teen pushed the idea away metaphorically and literally. Hands flat against his soulmate’s chest, he shoved him back with an irritated, “Fuck you, man!”

For someone so big, Johnny Lawrence was damn quick. One second Daniel was glaring up at the guy, the next he was flat on the grass, an impossibly heavy body pressing down on him. Fists rained down faster than he could block, but all that suave karate bullshit had apparently been tossed out the window as the blonde just straight up pummeled the smaller boy, his anger exploding out of him like a supernova. He was shouting, indistinct, indecipherable curses in his rage and the Newark native thought for the first time that maybe Johnny was even more upset about this whole mess than he was.

“You ruined everything, you idiot!” he seethed, gripping Daniel by his shoulders when the brunette threw his arms up to protect his face. He shook him roughly. “Why’d you have to do that?!”

The coaches couldn’t drag them apart fast enough. They were frog marched down to the office and Daniel spent the whole walk stubbornly looking in the opposite direction of the other boy. Johnny only looked angrier the closer they got to the principal’s office and when they were dropped off in uncomfortable plastic chairs to wait, the blonde kicked the empty one on his other side square into the wall. It clattered and fell onto its side, clipping the end table on the way down, and then there was silence. Out in the hall students were passing between periods and behind the front desk the clerk was answering the phone, but between the two of them it was utterly silent.

Daniel tucked his fists up under his armpits partially because he didn’t think he could stop himself from throttling his companion, but also partially because he didn’t want any of the adults to see his soulmark. They’d call his mom, it’d go on his medical file, it’d be a whole thing and then absolutely everyone would know and there’d be no more denying it. Not that he’d had much luck doing that so far. The other kids, his neighbor, Ali, they all fucking knew about this, but he didn’t want it to be on his permanent record or anything. In that regard he guessed he was lucky his mark had shown up on a more common and easy to hide spot. Glancing over at his soulmate, Daniel maybe felt the teeniest, tiniest, twinge of pity that the guy had to walk around with proof of their connection tattooed on his face.

“I didn’t hit you that hard,” he grumbled, giving himself a migraine from watching Johnny out of the corner of his eye. The taller teen was flexing his hands open and closed, open and closed, his breathing deep and steady like he was thinking about each breath before taking it. “Why’s your face so messed up?”

It was true. Daniel had punched Johnny in the nose, hard enough to bloody, but definitely not hard enough to break. The bruising around the California teen’s bridge and inner eyes hinted at a nose that had been broken and reset, the blood vessels all around the area bursting from impact. Daniel hadn’t hit him that hard.

The blue-eyed boy sighed, “Mind your business, LaRusso.”

“Well, why didn’t you put on makeup or something?”

“To cover my black eyes?”

“I mean if you want, but I was talking about-” the brunette gestured vaguely at the constellation on the other boy’s face. Johnny scowled at him. “What, you don’t got a ma that keeps makeup around?”

The question was stupid and rude and he regretted it as soon as he asked it and he was smart to because his soulmate immediately snapped back with, “What, you don’t have an old man to teach you not to sucker punch a guy?”

“Nope.”

They lapsed back into tense silence, both too stubborn to admit they had been wrong in turn. Daniel didn’t know if or when they’d get called back into the office. It was possible they’d just call their parents right off to pick them up without even bothering to talk to them. God, he hoped not. In the chair next to him, Johnny shifted about uncomfortably, large frame hardly fitting in the seat. He was still shirtless. Heaving a huge sigh, Daniel dropped his chin into his hand, the migraine reaching its peak behind his eyes.

At the exact same moment they both huffed, “This is all your fault.”

Chapter 3: solar flair

Summary:

SOLAR FLAIR: a radiant burst that reaches out across the solar system, a dance of intense light and energy

Apparently the principal of West Valley High School was too busy on the very first day of classes to be bothered with fights on the soccer field, so Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence were spared from the frying pan of a lecture and thrown into the fire of their parents being called. When the office clerk had let them know their mothers were both on the way, Danny had thrown his head back in despair but couldn’t help but notice that Johnny actually looked relieved. The two sat and waited in affected silence until the office door swung open and perhaps the prettiest woman Daniel had ever seen walked in. 

Johnny’s mom had silky golden hair and soft eyes the color of a stormy sea. She was dressed in clothes that looked more expensive than the LaRussos’ car and the sweet scent of perfume had wafted into the room with her. Instead of slamming into the office in a fury like Danny suspected his own mother would, she peered around with concern, pink mouth curved down sadly. The office clerk greeted her like they were old friends and when she spotted her son sitting there she tilted her head at him bemusedly. Daniel got to watch in fascination as the big tough guy wilted under her gaze, eyes downcast as he stood and moved to her side.

Frustratingly enough, standing next to his mother, Danny could see all the best qualities Johnny had inherited from her. They had the same hair, eyes, and mouth. Johnny was of course taller and broader with a sharper nose and chin, but his mother was there in the curve of his brow, in the length of his lashes. The New Jersey native scowled as he realized his soulmate was pretty of all things. He even looked less threatening standing next to the woman who had birthed him and it was all just so unfair. Twin pairs of blue eyes turned to him and he flinched.

“Oh,” the woman said. The clerk had called her Laura. “Is this him?”

Daniel felt as if the seat had dropped out from under him when Johnny nodded and he realized all at once what they were talking about. Johnny Lawrence had gone out the night before and come home with a soulmark on his face . His mom had definitely seen it and definitely asked about it and Johnny had definitely told her enough that now she recognized Daniel at a glance. She was assessing him openly but not unkindly. She looked amused.

“He’s very handsome.”

“Mom!”

“Daniel LaRusso!”

Just like Daniel had predicted, Lucille LaRusso crashed into the office like a hurricane hitting the shoreline. She nearly bashed the blondes with the door as she stormed in, eyes already locked on her unruly son while he frantically looked for an escape route far too late. Rapid fire Italian filled the tiny space and the brunette felt his face growing hot as he noticed Johnny and Laura watching their interaction with unhidden interest. 

“Il primo giorno di scuola?! Davvero, Daniel?!”

“Non è stata colpa mia, mamma-!”

“Non voglio sentirlo! Andiamo!”

Daniel considered himself lucky that his mother grabbed him by the scruff of his gym shirt and not the shell of his ear when she hauled him out of the chair. He nearly fell with no way to balance or catch himself, his hands shoved deep into his sweatpants pockets. Moving to exit, both LaRussos pulled up short when Lucille noticed the other two people in the room with them for the first time. Johnny, still frustratingly shirtless, had shrunk a bit behind his mom’s shoulder, eyes wide with surprise since Danny’s mom had thundered by them. Laura Lawrence looked politely petrified and Danny felt his soul leaving his body as his mother assessed the two, focusing in on Johnny in particular.

“Is this him?”

It was not asked in the same awed interest that Laura had asked Johnny. The brunette hoped the Californians heard the tone and understood that he had gone out the night before and had not come home with a soulmark on his face. His mom had definitely not seen it and definitely not asked about it and Daniel had definitely not told her enough that now she would recognize Johnny at a glance. He didn’t know what he would do if they outed him, but luckily they remained all clammed up even in the face of open scrutiny. Lucille LaRusso saw the soulmark along Johnny’s nose, noticed the bruising, and assumed her son was responsible for the latter.

“I’m sorry about this,” she said sincerely enough, brown eyes trained on Laura now. The other woman nodded slowly, looking dazed. “I’ll talk to him.”

The east coasters excused themselves and Danny hurried after his mother, head ducked and brown eyes averted when he crossed right in front of Johnny. He wasn’t sure if his mom was expected to stay and talk to someone, but the woman clearly had no interest in such proceedings. She stomped through the halls, her son hot on her heels thanking God no one said anything even when they looked up and noticed him being picked up by his mommy . In a hushed, angry voice she told him to go get his clothes and bag out of his locker, grab his bike, and meet her by the car. Part of the teenager wanted to dally and avoid the incoming confrontation as long as possible, but another, smarter part of him knew his mom would not appreciate being made to wait. 

“Entra,” she huffed when he came rolling across the parking lot, bookbag hastily shoved full of the jeans and flannel he had worn that morning. “Adesso.”

She didn’t help him strap his bike to the roof like she usually would’ve and Daniel didn’t think his day could get any worse until his classmates all started pouring into the parking lot and hopping into their custom cars. School was out. The seventeen year old hurried into the front seat, just barely restraining himself from slamming the door, and prayed to disappear into the upholstery. Whether because of sincere defensive driving, or because she enjoyed drawing out her son’s torture, Lucille took just short of forever to get out of the school zone. She motioned every person she saw ahead of them with an enigmatic twirl of her hand. Some people waved in thanks, most just crossed without even looking, but some peered through the windshield and smiled delightedly when they spotted the new kid in the front seat. 

Ali’s friends from cheer, their soulmarks facing each other while they walked, dipped their heads together to whisper, eyes trained on the troublemaker from soccer. One of Johnny’s friends, astride his own motorcycle but not wearing a helmet, smirked wickedly at him, all sharp teeth and hateful eyes. Freddy and Alan passed, the latter waving his limp wrist through the glass before they hurried off laughing, and Daniel about died. He watched his mom’s brow furrow as she tried and failed to interpret the taunt before deciding it was too nonsensical. Finally, finally , they drove beyond the bus lane and the road opened up to the streets and traffic that would lead them home to South Seas Apartments. Trapped in the passenger seat with no way to escape, Danny enjoyed the silence while he could; it wouldn’t last long.

“So what was it?” she finally asked when they were five minutes on the road, the teenagers outside the window starting to peter out as they drove through Reseda. Daniel frowned at her. Another roll of the wrist. “Go ahead, give me the great story that’ll explain away whatever it is you did back there.”

“Come on, ma-”

“No, really, Daniel!” the woman pressed, cutting sharp eyes at him before refocusing on the road. Her soulmark looked luminous against her cheeks flushed with anger. “Really, I need you to explain to me how you got into some schoolyard brawl your very first day!”

“You don't even know what happened-!”

“Did you do that to his nose?” 

“No!” Daniel’s reply shocked out of him like a sneeze. He pictured Johnny’s nose, bruised and angry, and felt sick his mom thought he could do something like that. She shot him a suspicious look and he insisted, “I didn’t !”

“I sure hope not, Dan,” she huffed, tone shifting from annoyed to exhausted. Her hands were gripped tight around the steering wheel, knuckles white. Her son only thought to be thankful just then that they hadn’t needed to push start the car for once. “That looked awful.”

The young man imagined his soulmate’s battered face again and winced. Johnny’s nose had been swollen and shiny, the bridge fattened so that it lost the sharp definition Daniel had first noticed the night before. The subsequent bruising had spread up and around his inner eyes, the dark purple making his gold soulmark and blue irises seem impossibly bright. Maybe there had been a cut too? A spot where whatever or whoever had done that split the skin on Johnny Lawrence’s face? Daniel couldn’t remember. He simply agreed, “Yeah.”

The Italian woman seemed to be calming the closer they got to home and she sighed, releasing one hand off the wheel to brush her hair away from her face. Her son still only dared to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. She pondered, “I just don’t understand what could provoke either of you to start the year off this way. Il buongiorno si vede dal mattin.”

The old proverb, familiar from how often his nonno had used to throw it around, made Danny grumble, embarrassment tickling the back of his neck at his mother’s disappointed air. He shrugged, eyes glued out the passenger window and marked hand fisted in his pocket. He assured, “It wasn’t a big deal. I was…mad about not making the soccer team.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, tesoro ,” his mom soothed, eyes going soft and sympathetic. The teenager felt like a jackass. “I know you love soccer.”

“It’s not a big deal,” he repeated, wiping his cheek on his shoulder to avoid pulling his hand out. “That guy just said something that kinda pissed me off and we got into it.”

“Well, I want you to try and make nice with him,” Lucille announced as they pulled into their apartment complex. By the sound the car made when they parked, they’d definitely have to give it a push next time they went anywhere. “If he’s a jerk don’t bother, but we can’t afford any Beverly Hills types suing us for assault.”

“Okay, ma,” Daniel muttered, not moving as his mom got out of the car. She shut the door behind her, muttering to herself and not even noticing that he hung back. She disappeared behind the entrance gate. The young man sighed, “Perfect.”

---

The next day at school, Daniel LaRusso was called into the nurse’s office and was absolutely appalled to find Johnny Lawrence sitting in there waiting for him. He preempted, “I didn’t break his damn nose!”

“Please sit, Mister LaRusso,” the nurse sighed from behind her nearly-too-big-for-the-desk desktop. A dull green glow illuminated her face and Daniel grumbled irately as he took the empty seat beside his soulmate. “Mister Lawrence tells me we may need to update your medical file.”

Anger, hot and molten, poured all through Daniel’s body making his face feel like it was on fire as he glared at the blonde. “Seriously, man!? You told her?!”

“It’s on my face, dumbass,” Johnny sniped, gesturing uselessly at his nose and cheeks. The bruising looked a bit better. A bit green. Daniel had woken up with a black eye from their spat on the soccer field. “It’s not like I can hide it.”

“You didn’t have to tell her it was me,” the Newark native countered, petulantly, “Asshole!”

“Soulmates and soulmarks aren’t something you should be trying to hide,” the nurse cut in before the other boy could respond. Her name plate said ‘Miss Kamen’ . “They’re important highlights of your medical history.”

The smaller teen couldn’t figure how a smattering of stars across their skin could be considered crucial information for future surgeries or whatever, but he remained seated anyway. He gamely allowed Miss Kamen to study his hand, flexing and turning his fingers on command so that the gold caught the light. He had to guess Johnny had already undergone this pseudo-procedure with minimal hassle and so didn’t kick up too much of a fuss as she pulled out a polaroid camera and snapped a photo for his file. The flash made his mark look reflective and bright. As she slapped it into a folder he spotted a similar snapshot of his soulmate’s face. It looked like a firework had gone off right when the shutter closed.

“Pisces,” she muttered, jotting something down. Daniel blinked, ripped away from the pictures.

“Sagitarrius actually,” he corrected, brow pinched with confusion. Beside him, Johnny huffed, annoyance rolling off him in waves.

“No, Pisces is the constellation the two of you got as your soulmark,” Miss Kamen corrected, picking up a piece of paper she had printed before Daniel arrived. It showed a faded star map with a curly V Daniel had grown quite familiar with outlined. “The two fishes.”

“Oh,” the brunette acquiesced, trying to feign interest but failing miserably. He glanced over and just barely caught a flash of blue as Johnny looked away. “What’s it mean?”

Small shoulders shrugged and the star map was filed away with their pictures and other paperwork. Daniel frowned as he noticed he and the blonde now appeared to be sharing one folder, but didn’t say anything as the nurse began speaking. “Every soulmark is different, only you two can really know the significance of it and maybe not for a while still. From what Mister Lawrence tells me you had an…interesting meeting on the beach Sunday night.”

“You could say that.”

“Well then the two fish could represent the nearby ocean, or maybe Pisces was just especially bright that night. I don’t know.”

Daniel imagined a vine of golden oak and maple leaves.

“Hey, you’re not gonna call our parents or anything, right?” the east coast youth pressed, scooting to the edge of his seat. He didn’t know if it was a good or bad idea to confide in this woman but he admitted, “I haven’t told my mom.”

Sharp eyes caught his before sliding over to the taller teen on his left. Danny looked over as well and was surprised to see Johnny Lawrence literally twiddling his thumbs. He looked small and nervous suddenly and some weird emotion pricked at Daniel’s chest. The nurse intoned, “It’s your choice, but if you feel unsafe sharing your soulmark with someone in your household I am a mandated reporter.”

“Woah, it’s nothing like that!” the Italian insisted, shocked by the heavy handedness of her warning. Or was it an accusation? Brown eyes turned to his soulmate and suddenly the green tinged bruises on his face looked a little more ominous. The prick turned into a stab. Then he remembered his own black eye and blanched. “I just…haven’t found the right moment, okay?”

“Hm.”

After a few more questions and an absolutely mortifying crash course on safe sex the two boys were free to go, both clutching hall passes to excuse the near entire class period they had missed. It was almost lunchtime and Daniel counted himself lucky; he felt about ready to faint from embarrassment. At his shoulder, Johnny’s whole face was flushed pink and the mix of anger and humiliation he wore made him look constipated. Danny could’ve laughed. He didn’t.

“This sucks,” he mumbled to the empty hall, quick to shove his marked hand back into his pocket. He felt naked with it out.

“You’re tellin’ me.”

The two wandered down the hall, unfortunately headed in the same direction, and the shorter senior couldn’t help but keep glancing over at the blue-eyed boy. His nose had definitely been broken, but whoever had set it after clearly knew what they were doing. It was still perfectly straight and Daniel had remembered right, there was a cut high up on the bridge, but not deep enough to scar. A few weeks and Johnny Lawrence would be back to normal just so long as no one took another swing at him. Who had taken a swing at him? Besides Daniel of course.

“Hey, man-”

“So about-”

They stumbled over each other, both looking equally shocked to hear the other's voice as well as their own. After a moment of awkward silence, Daniel waved the other boy on first and he cleared his throat in place of a thanks.

“So…your folks wouldn’t be okay with your soulmate being a guy?” he guessed, eyes trained on the ground ahead of them. Daniel blinked in bemusement.

“Oh, no, I don’t think she’d care,” he mused, having never really given it much thought. “My dad’s dead, but his brother, my Uncle Louie, his soulmate’s a guy and she never said anything bad about it.”

“Oh.”

Daniel tested warily, “Are…your folks not okay with it?”

The sneer Johnny sent him was made uglier by his blackened eyes. “Obviously.”

“Oh…but…your mom seemed so nice?”

Mention of Laura Lawrence seemed to be the key to reigning in her son’s temper because the blonde huffed and suddenly looked as if fifty pounds had been lifted off his shoulders. His ocean eyes scanned the awning above them. “She is. She’s not the one with the problem.”

The news gave Daniel an unearned sense of relief. He hadn’t officially met his soulmate’s mom, but he’d kind of been hoping to like her and that would be hard if she were secretly a bigot. He tried to joke, “So just your dad’s an asshole then?”

He was slammed against a nearby locker so suddenly that his head spun and he hardly had a moment to catch his breath before he was yanked forward and slammed back into it again. Johnny loomed over him, hands fisted in the collar of his shirt, and got right up in his face so that he nearly kissed Pisces. He growled, “Sid’s not my fucking dad, you got that? And you can stay the fuck away from me if you know what’s good for you, LaRusso.”

One more teeth-clacking slam and he was released. The brunette slumped to the ground unceremoniously, back aching and mouth open in shock. Johnny stomped away down the hall and around some corner and Daniel was alone. For a brief, frenzied moment he thought about marching right back to the nurse’s office. If she wanted to be a mandated reporter, she could report this; soulmate abuse! However, then he thought about a swollen nose and a healing cut and two fishes and just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He huffed, taking a moment to catch his breath there on the floor. 

“Il buongiorno si vede dal mattin,” he muttered to himself, easing back to his feet while leaning heavily on the locker that had just been an accessory to his battery. “So much for making nice.”

The lunch bell rang.

Chapter 4: comet

Summary:

comet: a wanderer of the solar system, trailing a glittering veil of ice and dust.

The first week of Daniel’s senior year started tense and stressful and ended on much the same note. After their trip to the nurse’s office, Johnny seemed to swing wildly between the opposite poles of ignoring his soulmate to the point of avoidance and singling him out for personalized torture. On Wednesday Ali ate lunch with him and it was fine and good and Daniel didn’t feel a hot blue glare on his back all day, but Thursday the blonde lurked around every corner. He knocked books out of the brunette’s hands in the halls, tripped him on the field, spilled milk all over his lunch tray, and body checked him into no less than five lockers. 

If Johnny couldn’t be there to stir the shit, one of his flunkies would do it. The new kid on the block had heard from Ali and the very few other people willing to talk to him that the boys that followed his soulmate around like pitbulls on a leash were Bobby, Tommy, Dutch, and Jimmy. Danny knew Bobby well enough, their encounter at soccer tryouts still left a bad taste in his mouth, but the others just seemed happy to follow the example of their leader and his right hand. Dutch in particular was especially vicious whenever he ‘accidentally’ bumped Daniel in the hall, and the New Jersey native quickly learned to skitter out of his way when he saw the other senior coming.

Friday he was left alone again, the schoolyard bullies all apparently preoccupied with something more important than harassing the weaker boy, but Daniel still kept an eye out and swung by the library before dismissal. He didn’t know where the nearest YMCA was yet, but he figured at least a book on karate could help him get into some form of fighting shape. He shoved the book -really a magazine- in his bag and pedaled home with his head on a swivel. Ali had told him Johnny drove a bright red Avanti when he wasn’t on his motorcycle and between that, his bike, and his leather jacket, the color was quickly becoming Danny’s least favorite. 

His mom was still at work when he got home, and the teen made quick work of rushing through his homework before moving furniture around in the living room so he could practice his admittedly mediocre karate moves. The first few pages of the thin paperback were easy enough to remember from his old lessons; balance, posture, following through with your punches, stuff like that. Daniel skimmed it hurriedly until he got to a page about how to do something called a front snap kick. He studied the forms, mumbling to himself as he stood straight and tried to copy what he was looking at.

“...One foot facing forward,” he muttered, shifting so that his weight rested on his right leg. His kicking leg. “Lift back knee to just below target…snap up with toes pointed.”

His first attempt, slow in its newness, sent him tumbling backwards onto his rear, but he popped up quickly, only his pride hurting. He tried again and managed a wobbly kick in the direction of the kitchen. He tried again and again and again, putting more force and momentum behind each go the more confident he became. The book had given short instructions, illustrated examples, and then preached the need for practice, practice, practice. So Danny kicked and kicked and kicked until he grew tired. Then he switched legs and kicked and kicked and kicked some more. Back and forth until his knees were shaky and he had sweat dampening the front of his shirt. 

As he kicked he thought about his soulmate. Johnny Lawrence could probably do a hundred front snap kicks without needing to catch his breath. Their embarrassingly short round on the beach was proof enough the Californian had pretty solid footwork; tripping Daniel into the sand any time he made a move. His spinning kick that night had brought the skinny Italian to his knees and his punches on the soccer field still echoed dull aches all over his body. Johnny was strong and powerful and untethered and unpredictable. He reminded Daniel a bit of the comets he had learned about in science class his sophomore year.

A comet was a lonely hunk of rock hurtling through space trailing a glittering veil of ice and dust. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shooting star that could be beautiful if observed from a distance, but surprisingly prone to destruction if on the wrong path. A collision bound comet could lead to meteor showers, bits of its broken mass sizzling up as it entered a planet’s atmosphere, or even get caught in a tidal wave event; when a comet drifted too close to a black hole and was subsequently torn apart. Recalling that, Danny reconsidered that maybe he was the comet and Johnny a black hole.

The sweaty teen was all wrapped up in thoughts of falling stars and black holes when there was a knock at the door. He had propped it open to stay cool, the screen still shut to keep out bugs, and so quickly recognized their apartment handyman outside. Daniel waved him in, trying and failing to remain focused on his kicks as he noticed the man wasn’t wearing the same headband he’d had on the other day. His soulmark was uncovered now and in quick, furtive glances the karate hopeful noted the gold formed the shape of a tree. It was short with a twisted trunk and wide reaching branches that bloomed up into the man’s receding hairline. It looked a bit like the little trees Daniel had noticed in his maintenance office. 

“Oh, karate,” the guy mused, noting his tenant’s kicks as he shuffled through the tiny living room area. His eyes scanned the magazine, his mouth pinched. In his heavy accent he asked, “Learn from book?”

Danny couldn’t read his tone - wasn’t sure if he was being judged or not. He offered, “Yeah and a couple classes at the Y back in Newark.”

The man gave a thoughtful little hum and Daniel suspected he was definitely being judged but still allowed the handyman to make his way into the kitchen. He continued his kicks with more verve, pointedly not looking over as the old man pulled out his toolbox and got to work under the sink. His little tree poked out above the counter top and his voice floated over, “What happened eye?”

“Oh, I…fell off my bike.” 

“Lucky no hurt hand.”

The young Italian blanched, nearly losing his balance on his last kick as he simultaneously tried to stay on one leg and hide his marked hand behind him. Alone in the apartment, he wasn’t constantly shoving his star map into his pocket or surreptitiously scratching the back of his neck. He hadn’t really been super worried about anyone here noticing besides his mom, but the maintenance guy had a point; if he’d really fallen off his bike like he kept telling people, he would have cut and bruised hands from trying to catch himself. The uncomfortable feeling of getting caught in a lie wriggled through his stomach. He kept kicking. He kept kicking and the handyman kept fixing and soon the faucet was working and Daniel was alone in the apartment again. He showered off the sweat from practicing and was just rubbing a towel roughly over his hair when the phone rang. 

His mom wanted them to have dinner at her job so they could talk about their weeks and did he think he could bike into the city and meet her on her break? Here was the address, don’t get lost, and don’t goof around on the road, tesoro . The teen agreed and was quick to hang up and dress before hopping back on his bike outside. As he eased in and around the evening traffic, Danny thought about their first week in California. His had definitely not been the best, but he hoped his mom at least was enjoying her new job. Lucille LaRusso was smart and passionate and it irked her son to no end that she was forced to wait tables to make ends meet, but she’d said this was just a stepping stone. Soon she’d find an opening that actually used her computer skills and then they’d have real money and maybe a real house and a real chance to make something of themselves. Her words, not his; Daniel thought they already were something.

The Orient Express Restaurant was nestled on a busy corner in North Hollywood and Daniel spotted it as soon as he turned onto Wilshire Boulevard. Of course, the very next thing he noticed was the facade of a giant snake looming over the building on the opposite side of the street. In large red and yellow lettering the place was labeled as Cobra Kai Karate Dojo and it invited people to come and learn to ‘ strike like a cobra ’. Interest peaked, Danny glided his bike over to his mom’s restaurant first, finding her pretty face through the glass front. Motioning to where he was off too and assuring he’d be quick, he locked his bike to a lampost and hurried over to the dojo to see if maybe this place could teach him kicks better than a book.

Inside Cobra Kai, the walls were white and the air was musty. There were pictures and posters and trophies all over and even a cardboard cut out of some big guy in a white uniform. The high school senior let his eyes roam over everything while making his way towards where he could hear a class going on. They weren’t screaming, but they were pretty damn loud.

“Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?”

“NO, SENSEI!”

“Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?”

“NO, SENSEI!”

“Defeat does not exist in this dojo, does it?”

“NO, SENSEI!”

“Prepare!” A room full of young men all sprang to their feet just as Daniel wandered in and he watched with interest as the dojo master prowled through each of them like a panther stalking his prey. It was the man from all the pictures. He was broad and even bigger than his cutout, his uniform a contrasting black to all his students. “What do we study here?”

“THE WAY OF THE FIST, SIR!”

“And what is that way?”

“STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY, SIR!”

The words made the bottom drop out of Danny’s stomach. They sounded oddly familiar. Easing himself to an observing bench, he looked from body to body and thought maybe some of them looked oddly familiar as well? The sensei stopped right beside one of his students, stony face pulled down in a scowl. “I can’t hear you!”

“ STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY, SIR !”

“Mister Lawrence!”

Daniel sucked in a breath through his nose, jaw clenched shut when his soulmate’s voice piped up from the front of the room. “Yes, sensei!”

“Warm them up.”

From his seat, the boy from Newark watched in dulled horror as a head of blonde hair moved to the front of the class and turned to face them. Johnny Lawrence stood tall and proud in his white uniform and his voice carried as he got the others into fighting positions. He bowed to them and they bowed right back in a show of respect Daniel would have never expected to see from the other boy. Over a sea of black snakes, brown eyes met blue and the small smile Johnny sent his way could only be described as predatory. His stars were glittering. A sensation like ice pouring down his back had Daniel standing quickly only to remain frozen in place when those eyes finally released him. He watched Johnny take his class through jab punches -now he could spot Bobby and Dutch and the others. His form was perfect and his aim was true and Daniel felt sick all of a sudden.

He was the comet.

He was too close to the blackhole.

---

Dinner with his mom was shorter than Daniel wanted it to be. She was happy and training to become a manager and probably didn’t want to hear about her son’s horrible experience with a soulmate hellbent on either ignoring him or beating him to a pulp. He’d kept his hands squeezed between his knees the entire time, only taking out his left one to pick at his plate occasionally. Lucille didn’t notice, or if she did she didn’t say anything. She didn’t ask about school, but she asked about pretty blondes and if any had caught his eye. Daniel had admitted that sure, there was one maybe. Pretty and smart and perhaps funny and also the guy she had seen in the office with him on the first day, did she remember?

He didn’t say the last bit.

No, Daniel just let his mom have her moment and comforted himself studying the lines of her face. She smiled more here and that made him happy he guessed. She wore her hair back and away from her face so that her soulmark was always catching the sunlight and that made him happy too. Back home, everyone knew his dad was dead and was sad for them so he’d always figured she’d covered it to save them the trouble of people always giving their condolences even years later. Here it was a fresh start and for all the patrons of The Orient Express Restaurant knew, their lovely waitress’ soulmate was at home waiting for her. For all anyone here knew, their family was still whole.

When her break had been over, Lucille had kissed her son on the head and told him to get home safe and Daniel had lingered for a few minutes just trying to breathe. Cobra Kai Dojo glared at him through the window, but he figured classes had ended a bit ago and didn’t have to worry about running into Johnny Lawrence or his gang out on the street. They were all from the Hills anyway, they wouldn’t be heading his direction. Still, Danny waited until the sun was almost gone, watching the karate school’s entrance, before finally taking his leave. His mom and her admittedly friendly coworkers waved him goodbye and he wandered out into the dusk on his own.

He was over half way home when the Cobras found him.

It was distant at first, the sound of motorcycles approaching, but too soon it was a roar that chased up behind Daniel. The other boys pulled around him on all sides, their taunts and jeers barely carrying over the sound of their engines, eased to keep pace with him. He pedaled for all he was worth, but there was no breaking free. They swerved at him, cut across his lane, and slowly drove him to the edge of the street. Just before he went tumbling down the darkened hillside, the terrified teen looked over and caught his soulmate’s eyes. They were wide and blue inside his helmet, the starlight tucked away somewhere he couldn’t see. He didn’t say anything, didn’t call out, just revved his bike louder as Daniel slipped off the road.

Down, down, down he fell, almost immediately thrown from his bike. Rocks and sticks cut at his skin and clothes as he tumbled off the shallow cliff face, dirt and dust flying into his eyes. The night sky blurred in front of him, every star a comet, until he jolted to a stop. Daniel gasped, pain shooting up his back from whatever he had landed on, and right away he noticed the sensation of blood pooling into his hairline. His breath came in short, panicked inhales with no exhales to ease the ache in his chest. He’d bruised a rib, he already knew, and his knee was throbbing. The sound of revving engines and vicious laughter was growing fainter and fainter and instead the sound of night splashed up to cover him. There were no cars, no city noise, no people around to help him. 

He felt sick, he felt shaken, he felt sore. 

And he still had to walk home.

Daniel didn’t know how long he laid there crying and dry heaving. Wasn’t sure how slow he was to drag himself and his bike back up the hill. Had no idea the extra time it took to walk his bent and broken bike home. However, right as he was heaving the piece of junk into the dumpster behind their apartment building his mom was pulling up and she’d worked the late shift. Too soon the Newark native was sobbing, shouting nonsense and pushing off his mother’s worried hands frantically. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think.

“Would you tell me what’s going on here?!” Lucille LaRusso pleaded, looking at her son’s bruised and battered form with horror. “And don’t say it’s not a big deal!”

“Why didn’t you tell me it was gonna be this way?!” he accused, yanking away, the dirt and blood on him staining his mom’s hand. Her soulmark glowed in the moonlight, making her confused eyes look even wider, and it made him furious. “IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS!”

“Daniel, baby, you’re not makin’ any sense!” The young Italian scoffed in disgust, the sound just barely not registering as a sob, and threw his hand over his eyes. It was only when he heard his mother’s startled gasp that he realized his mistake. “Daniel…is that a…?”

“A soulmark,” he clarified, voice bitter and tired as he scrubbed at his face furiously. Everything hurt and he was so exhausted of all this. “Yeah, and it burned like hell gettin’ it!”

The older LaRusso blinked in shock and Danny could tell she was trying to reign in her own temper; trying not to shout at him when she could see he was hurting. “Dan…why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, whatddya wanna hear, ma?!”

“The truth!”

“No, you don’t!” the teen insisted, pulling back again when she reached for him. He could feel his tears tracking through the dust on his face and he felt humiliated. He pointed a gold painted finger in her gold painted face. “All you wanna hear is how great it is out here and maybe it’s great for you, but it sucks for me!”

He lashed out at the wall then, kicking and punching and yelling to go home and his mom shushed him gently, trying and failing to quell his anger. Too loud and someone would complain. Too many complaints and their residency could be in danger. Good, Daniel thought, fisting his hands in his hair, agitated beyond belief. The action reopened the cut on his head. Good. “I wanna go home! ”

She was in his face then, hands all over his dirty cheeks, and she was crying and Daniel was crying and he felt awful and he’d made her feel awful. He was awful, but still she soothed, “ Tesoro, I can't help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong!”

“HIM!” the youth shouted, crazed, manic. The word echoed. “He’s what’s wrong!”

“Who , Dan?”

“My-!” his voice caught in his throat and Daniel realized all at once it was late and the stars were watching them but they were also flying home on a red motorcycle and his stomach rolled. He breathed shakily, “My soulmate.”

“Is that who did this to you?” Brown eyes identical to his scanned Danny up and down in wounded bemusement. When he didn't answer, keeping his own eyes firmly downcast, Lucille sighed. “Was it the boy from the office? The one with the stars on his face?”

Something about the way she described Johnny finally tipped Daniel over the edge and he wasn’t just crying then, he was weeping. Deep, mournful cries welled up from his chest and he wailed into his mom’s shoulder, hands fisted in her shawl. It wasn’t supposed to be this way he moaned. He wasn’t supposed to have gold smeared across his fist that matched some poor soul’s face. He was meant to find someone like she had found his dad; someone happy and kind who wanted him as much as he wanted them. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, it wasn’t supposed to feel this way. He wasn’t meant to be a comet. 

His cries took all the fight out of him and the boy let his mom just hold him, let her try to convince him they would figure out what to do together. She guided him into the complex, up the stairs, and into their apartment. With the type of gentleness only a mother could manage, she eased Daniel into bed and stroked his hair while he cried. At some point she left and came back with tools to clean him up. She washed his face and bandaged his forehead all while he spilled salt water onto his pillows and by the time she was done he was spent. She promised him they’d work everything out tomorrow; he didn’t need to be sad, he didn’t need to cry.

Daniel fell asleep with his marked hand cradled in hers.

Chapter 5: protostar

Summary:

protostar: a young, burgeoning star in the cradle of its formation, surrounded by a cocoon of gas and dust

Daniel startled awake on a gasp with stars falling behind his eyes and pain aching deep down in his bones. As he exhaled, the breath wheezing out of him like air from a tire, he recalled flashes of the night before and groaned. He’d gone to Cobra Kai, been chased near off a mountain, and told his mom about his soulmate all in one horrendous evening the teen wasn’t sure he’d ever come back from. Flopping back down on his mattress, he held his marked hand up to the light streaming in through his window. The stars glittered and flashed through floating dust particles and there was a speck of blood crusted onto his third knuckle. It reminded him of the night he had gotten it to be honest.

Rubbing roughly at his face, the battered boy rolled out of bed and hobbled out into the hall. Out in the kitchen he could hear his mom fiddling with their old coffee pot and grimaced. She knew. She knew about Johnny and Pisces and Daniel and bruises and it felt like someone was standing on his chest. He hurried into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly on that problem until later, and took the shower he should have taken the night before. Blood and dirt swirled around the drain and the hot water made his muscles ache. He stayed in there until the whole building would be taking cold showers for the rest of the day and then he limped back to his room to dress. Nothing tight or form fitting, he was too sore for that; sweatpants and a tank top would work. His arms were black and blue.

After fiddling with his hair, scowling at his scabbed head, and noting that his black eye was nearly gone, Daniel realized there was nothing else keeping him from going to confront his mother. Still, he lingered in his doorway, muttering to himself trying to practice what he’d say. He couldn’t just act like nothing had happened, there was too much on the table. Part of him wanted to apologize for his nasty outburst, but another part knew he’d gotten the shit end of the stick in all this. Maybe he could slip out and spend the day avoiding her, but that seemed cowardly and he’d barely gotten to see her all week. No, no, he just had to balls up and go out there.

In the kitchen, his mom had already set down a mug of coffee for him and was stirring a criminal amount of sugar into her own. She looked fine, clothes clean, hair brushed back from her face. Her soulmark was a smooth tattoo down her jawline and Daniel studied it with envy. He lowered himself carefully onto the chair in front of where his mug sat and watched his mother flitter around trying to kill time the same way he had. When her coffee was done and the machine was off and the filter was in the trash, the New Jersey woman just stood there, hands empty and eyes far off as she seemed to think. Her son couldn’t remember too much about his father after all this time, but he recalled how his parents used to almost dance around each other in the kitchen; one flicking on the stove while the other whisked eggs. A hand sliding across a shoulder while another passed a glass of milk. The teen wondered if his mom missed having a dance partner in the morning; missed seeing someone else’s oak and maple leaves.

She must.

“Finish quick,” the woman announced suddenly, falling back into her own body with a start. She rushed all around the living room, tidying an already tidy area. “We’ve got somewhere to be.”

Daniel blinked, black coffee held before his face. He hadn’t suspected his mother would be the one to brush the previous night under the rug, but he was more than happy to follow her lead. He asked, “Where we goin’?”

“You’ll see when we get there.” She soothed the brusqueness of the statement by planting a kiss in his hair before disappearing down the hall towards her room. “We’ll have breakfast while we’re out!”

When Daniel had washed his mug, brushed his teeth, and his mom had checked her purse three times, the LaRusso’s pushed their old green hooptie out onto the road and started making their way only Lucille knew where. They made small talk at first, not addressing the elephant in the front seat as Danny used his marked hand to fiddle with the radio. It felt weird to have his soulmark out in front of his mom, but it felt even weirder to shift between static and unfamiliar songs as they drove through Saturday morning traffic. Back home, everyone was listening to Tina Turner and Prince, but here the stations all seemed to focus on either poppy love songs or summer jams. Daniel couldn’t count how many times he’d heard ‘ Cruel Summer ’ at the beach the previous weekend. 

“ She wants to lead the glamorous life! She don't need a man's touch-”

He switched it.

“I wear my sunglasses at night-”

More static.

“ The city is crowded, my friends are away-”

“Dan, forget the music for a sec,” Lucille said. Her son regretfully left on Bananarama and turned to face her. Her eyes were still trained on the road. “We really should talk about all this.”

Daniel sighed but nodded his agreement. He’d known the silence over coffee had been too good to last and wherever they were going didn’t bode well with him either. He addressed his mother’s soulmark, “Ok, shoot.”

“When did this happen?”

“At the beach last Sunday,” the teen muttered, flexing his marked hand open and closed.  “Johnny…my…the guy, was being a jerk to one of the girls there and we got into it. I suckerpunched him and that's when it showed up.”

“Jesus,” Lucille sighed, briefly closing her eyes before snapping them open again. Traffic was crawling. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I dunno,” Danny deflected, brown eyes wandering into the footwell as he recalled the night. There’d been fear and pain and humiliation when he’d first noticed his soulmark. The appearance of those tiny gold stars had stolen his breath away and he just couldn’t make himself talk about it then; could still barely manage it. “I guess I was embarrassed, it wasn’t a pretty story.”

His mother hummed thoughtfully, her slender fingers tapping at the steering wheel. They were making a lot of turns up streets Daniel didn’t recognize. The song on the radio changed and some guy was singing about making love out of nothing at all by the time Lucille spoke again. “I wish you’d said something, but I get why you didn’t. I’m sorry this move has been hard for you and I’m really sorry your soulmate isn’t what you were expecting.”

Tears, hot and heavy, threatened to fall then, but Daniel sniffled them back, shrugging his slender shoulders exaggeratedly. The AC was broken and it was hot in their car. “Nah, Johnny’s just…Johnny.”

“Have you gotten to talk to him at all?”

“Not really, no.” He thought for a moment. “We had to go to the nurse to update our medical file together.”

“Well, that’s nice, the school nurse knows my son has a soulmate, but I don’t?” The woman was trying to force levity into her tone, but her son could hear the strain there. She was hurt. The teenager felt like a jackass again. “Did she tell you what your mark is?”

“Oh yeah, it’s Pisces,” Daniel informed, holding his hand up near the windshield so his mom could see without taking her eyes totally off the road. With his fingers held together the curvy V was just visible in the sunlight. “The fishes.”

“You’re a Sagitarrius,” she noted, mind catching on the same random detail his had. “What about Johnny?”

“Dunno, but he didn’t say he was so he probably isn’t, right?” the east coast youth reasoned, brow quirked. Lucille’s head wobbled back and forth in cautious agreement. “The nurse said it could mean anything.”

The radio played on and filled the silence for a time and Daniel thought the talk was over until his mother quipped, “Well, I hope you two figure it out and can start getting along soon.”

It was a weird, random, unlikely thing to say and the Newark native threw his mom a funny look as their car started to slow. Glancing out the window, Dan did a double take as he noticed they’d driven into a residential area and not one like the neighborhood around South Seas Apartments. Instead of dingy little duplexes, there were tall, expensive looking houses with sprawling lawns and high roofs. All over were white pillars and exposed brick and it was like looking at a magazine or something. Daniel ogled everything in poorly hidden envy and only dragged his eyes away when they pulled to a stop. Jerking around, he looked at his mother and then the dashboard in confusion. They were in park.

“Did we break down?”

“Nope,” Lucille said cheerfully, pulling the keys from the ignition before swinging herself out of the car. Daniel scrambled to follow, jerking painfully against his seatbelt before he freed himself and chased after her. 

She was striding with purpose up the paved driveway of the house they had stopped in front of. It was big and white with way too many windows and a fountain and a garage that was closed but looked big enough to fit three cars inside. Daniel let his eyes fly in every direction, ready for someone to yell at them for trespassing, but his mom just marched up to the enormous front door and rang the doorbell. Even from outside, the sound of a melodious chime echoed and the LaRussos were left waiting on the front step. Lucille looked cool, calm, and collected, and her son tried to mirror the expression but failed miserably as the door swung open and the prettiest woman he had ever seen poked her head out. 

“Lucille,” Laura Lawrence greeted with a dazzling smile. “I’m so glad you and Daniel could make it.”

His mother’s response sounded like it was coming from underwater as Daniel turned on her in shocked betrayal. His eyes, wide like dinner plates, followed her as she stepped over the threshold and into Johnny Fucking Lawrence’s house, clearly expecting him to follow. The New Jersey native considered dashing back to the car, but knew he couldn’t push start it himself. He could always cut through the dozens of lawns to freedom, but he was sure at least one uptight housewife would call the cops on him. With nowhere to run and the length of time he was hovering in the doorway starting to grow awkward, the young man smiled manically at their host and eased himself inside.

The door shut behind them with an ominous click and he was in his soulmate's home then. Laura was welcoming them and asking about the drive like she’d expected all along that they would come, but Daniel couldn’t focus on her. He was checking the corners and shadows for a flash of gold to appear, but Johnny wasn’t around. Yet. The entrance smelled like him though, like soft leather and expensive cologne Daniel hadn’t even known he’d recognize, but there it was. A guy spends a week pushing up on you with threats and suddenly you know what he smells like.

“Johnny’s just outside setting the table for us,” Laura noted, the first words Daniel could really process since seeing her face. She was watching him with too blue eyes just like her son’s, glancing over his bruised arms. “I figured we could eat in the backyard, it’s so nice out today.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Lucille enthused, stepping around to aim a quick elbow into her own child’s side. The teen winced. “Will your husband be joining us?”

“Oh, no,” the blonde laughed, the sound strained and relieved and sad and lovely all at once. “No, Sid is at work today so it’ll just be us.”

Daniel’s mom made some note of agreement, but the New Jersey teen was busy recalling how violently his soulmate had reacted to mention of this Sid guy a few days ago. Not his dad, but his mom’s husband, and definitely not a fan of Johnny’s soulmark if the reset nose had been anything to go by. The young Italian was frankly glad the man wouldn’t be in attendance for all their sakes. He followed the two women through the huge house towards the backyard. Everything around him looked too expensive to touch and he got a feeling like walking through a museum instead of a home. It was all for show.

The Lawrence’s backyard was bigger than some parks Daniel had gone to in Jersey. With lush grass and two giant palm trees that stretched out over a glittering pool, it looked like a fantasy oasis and the LaRussos shared a look. This was rich, this was money, this was what they’d come to California for and Daniel’s soulmate had it. It made his knuckles itch. It was painfully unfair to spot the blonde boy over by a pair of white iron tables and chairs, fiddling with cloth napkins. He looked irritated and put out and like he didn’t even notice the splendor he was living in as he looked up and spotted their guests.

The bruising around his nose and eyes was nearly gone and his stars shone extra bright. He stalked over to them, shoulders high and tight when his mother reached out to squeeze his arm encouragingly. He greeted, “Hello, Miss Larusso, I’m Johnny.”

“Nice to meet you, Johnny.” The words almost sounded sincere, but Daniel could hear his mother’s carefully constrained anger, could see the way her brown eyes searched the boy up and down. “Daniel’s told me a bit about you.”

A blush, red like rose petals, splashed over Johnny Lawrence’s face and Pisces was in sunset now. Laura’s smile went stockstill, but she didn’t jump to her son’s aid, didn’t defend his behavior, only ran a comforting hand quickly over his back before inviting them all to sit. There were two tables pulled together so that they nearly touched and the teenage boys did an awkward shuffle when their mothers sat together at one. It was obvious the idea was they would sit together at the other, but they both just stared at each other unmoving until Laura cleared her throat delicately. Johnny sat first, back straight like an ironing board, and Daniel followed soon after, perching on the very edge of his seat incase he needed to spring up and run. There were napkins and cutlery set out, but no food and the LaRussos peaked around confusedly while the Lawrences simply waited. A big white umbrella shaded them all.

“Here he is,” Laura said after a moment, turned to a different door than the one they had walked out of. It looked like it went into a kitchen. A man was stepping through it, two large covered trays balanced carefully on his hands as he headed towards them, taking slow steps around the edge of the pool. He looked a bit older than the ladies, with laugh lines and graying hair. “This is Victor, he and his wife help out around here.”

“Good morning, Laura, Johnny,” the man greeted, a soft accent curling the edge of his words. He set the trays down, one on each table, and Daniel noticed a soulmark wrapped around his right forearm; a map of somewhere he’d never been. “I hope our guests are hungry.”

He pulled the lids off the trays and Daniel had to pick his jaw up from his lap. It was like the continental breakfasts they served at nice hotels. Each tray was near overflowing with fruits, pastries, meats and cheeses, nuts and berries, and what looked suspiciously like the lox they’d had at the deli’s back in Newark. The teen shot his mother a glance over at the other table and saw she looked just as surprised and was having just as much trouble trying to hide it. Laura and Johnny thanked Victor, assured juice and coffee would be fine for drinks and began to pick at the trays almost in unison. 

“I hope a little of everything is alright,” Laura said, nibbling demurely on a croissant that looked like it had come straight out of a French painting. “I wasn’t sure what either of you liked, but you said no allergies besides avocado right?”

“Right,” Lucille agreed, still eyeing the spread with a dazed expression, pulling her napkin into her lap in slow motion. “Daniel can’t even touch one of those without blowing up like a balloon.”

“Ma!” Daniel hissed, “ Sul serio? Così imbarazzante -"

“No Italian when we’re with friends, Daniel,” his mother chided, blinking out of her stupor to shoot him a glare. “It’s rude.”

“ Amici?! ”

“It’s so lovely you two speak another language,” Laura piped up then, wiping her hands on her napkin. Her nails were painted the dark blue of a night sky. “Are you from Italy originally?”

As Daniel’s mother launched into the story of his grandparents immigrating to the states, a story he had heard about a hundred times, the teen turned back to his own breakfast. While distracted, Johnny had grabbed a blueberry muffin and placed it right in front of him. Brown eyes scanned the pastry suspiciously before glancing over at the other boy. His soulmate was carefully peeling an orange, the citrus spray catching the sunlight and making their little area smell heavenly. The brunette considered ignoring his wordless offer just to be difficult, his whole body was still aching after all…but blueberry was his favorite.

“You allergic to anything?” he asked, picking up the pastry and starting to tear at its top. 

“Why do you wanna know?”

Daniel scoffed and tossed the first piece of muffin into his mouth. It was delicious; warm and soft with chunks of sugary crumbles that cut through the tartness of the blueberries. Damnit. “Maybe I’ll poison you.”

He’d grumbled low around his mouthful so their mother’s wouldn’t hear him, but Johnny still kicked the leg of his chair warningly. Iron scraped along the concrete deck way too loud and they settled down. Half way through his orange the blonde finally responded, “Cats.”

“Damn,” Daniel huffed, chewing the muffin slowly so it’d last. “Can’t sneak a cat into your lunch.”

Johnny’s laugh was low and halting like he hadn’t meant to do it and Daniel sat up a little straighter. Victor brought out a carafe of coffee and a jug of some of the best juice Daniel had ever had. His soulmate said it was guava and the Newark native declared it his new favorite fruit. Laura and Lucille chatted amongst themselves, rarely looping their sons into it, but the two teens only spared each other brief observations over their breakfast. Their house was big. It was Sids. School kind of sucked. Only for losers. His nose looked better. His arms didn’t. Victor brought Danny more juice.

“About last night,” Johnny whispered as their tray started to look empty and picked over. Daniel stiffened, eyes wide as he looked at his soulmate, glancing warningly over to their mothers. The blonde just shrugged. “That wasn’t, like…my idea. Bobby saw you at the restaurant and said it’d be fun to mess with you.”

“Yeah, real fun nearly breaking my neck,” Daniel seethed lowly, hands fisted in his lap and hunger forgotten. “I had to tell my mom everything because of that stunt you guys pulled!”

“Why didn’t you tell her before?” the taller boy accused, eyes guarded and mouth downturned. He looked like a sad version of his mother who he clearly adored and told everything and his soulmate only grumbled some excuse of waiting for the right moment. Whatever he had said to the nurse at school, he said it again and Johnny looked wholly unimpressed. 

“Whatever, man, it’s not your business anyhow,” the former east coaster griped, avoiding big eyes and falling stars by scanning the yard. It was really nice out, just like Laura had said. Perfect day for a bike ride or a swim or a quick game of soccer with friends; all things Daniel couldn’t do thanks to the boy sitting next to him. “This shit sucks.”

“Yeah, well, get used to it,” Johnny bitched right back, settling low in his chair with his big arms crossed over his chest. Muscles pulled at his shirt sleeves and Daniel scowled.

“What do you mean?”

Blue eyes met brown and starlight danced between them for a moment before Johnny informed, “Didn’t your mom tell you? They want us to get together every Saturday.”

Chapter 6: pulsar

Summary:

pulsar: a stellar beacon spinning in the void, casting rhythmic pulses of light across the dark sea of space

After chasing Daniel LaRusso off a cliff Johnny Lawrence, apparently weighed down by guilt, had gone home and told his mother everything. Laura Lawrence had already known about her hot headed son’s soulmate, but the boy told her about the bullying and the soccer tryouts and the dojo and about driving off into the night not knowing if the kid with stars in his hand was alright. Laura, appalled and saddened by all this news, had immediately found the LaRussos’ number the next morning, called up Lucille LaRusso, and coaxed the other woman into working this out with her. While they both agreed Johnny was the bigger issue here, his temper and aggression lighting little fires everywhere, it was clear neither of their children were taking the appearance of their soulmarks well. 

“They’ll never get used to each other if they don’t find some common ground,” Laura had insisted, phone cord twisted around her slender fingers. Lucille agreed and that’s when she had actually been the one to suggest some mandated quality time between the two teens. When she’d told her son this after their first breakfast at the Lawrence home he could have just died at the betrayal.

“It’ll help you get to know each other,” Lucille insisted as she pulled up to the big white house the next Saturday, Daniel sat surly in the seat beside her. “Soulmates are forever, tesoro , you can’t just avoid or harass each other til you die.”

“He was harassing me ,” Daniel grumbled, slamming the car door behind him as they made their way up to the front door. He’d spent the whole week trying to convince his mom this was a terrible idea, but she’d hear none of it and now there they were again. At school, he’d avoided the bigger teen who’d seemed in an even worse mood than usual and now his soulmate knew why.

Johnny Lawrence was grounded.

No beach nights, no bike rides, no Golf ‘N’ Stuff with his friends as punishment for how he had treated his soulmate. He was to go school and karate lessons and then straight home with only one exception. Every Saturday he had to spend three hours with Daniel LaRusso in an attempt to get the two young men more familiar with each other. These interactions would start off at the Lawrence home for now, but pending good behavior, the teens would be allowed to socialize outside, but only if they stayed together. If Daniel wanted to go to the mall, Johnny would take him. If Johnny wanted to see a movie, he had to get Daniel a ticket too. If either of them wanted to do anything fun on any Saturday in the near future they had to include the other.

“Lucille, Daniel, so good to see you!” Laura beamed as she opened the door for them. Johnny haunted the hall just behind her and he and Daniel made furious eye contact before both looking away. Their bruises were all gone now. “There’s some food and drinks in the parlor for us ladies, but I figured you boys could head up to Johnny’s room maybe?”

The New Jersey teen’s only comfort was that his soulmate looked as horrified as him at the suggestion, but their moms were insistent. Amidst their many mumbled protests, the star struck boys were shuffled upstairs and Daniel followed at a safe distance as Johnny stomped into a room that looked like it had come out of a TV commercial about a teenage hotshot. It was cluttered with personality. There were posters of designer cars, about a dozen cassettes scattered all around, and more sports and karate paraphernalia than Danny could name. A surfboard leaned against a desk that actually had a computer sitting on it and the smell of that pricey cologne hung in the air again. He watched the blonde flop onto his mattress, back propped against the wall where he sat horizontally across the thing, and he just stood there at the door.

They spent three hours staring at each other.

Daniel’s eyes occasionally wandered around the room, taking stock of everything he’d never be able to afford, but they’d always eventually be drawn back to his soulmate. In those three hours he was able to notice Johnny twitched his right foot periodically, nibbled his nailbeds not unlike Daniel, and he had eighty-six stars scattered over his nose. He of course had the eighteen brighter ones that made up the curly V of Pisces, but all together there were eighty-six little gold flecks on his cheeks and Daniel counted each of them twice just to be sure. He supposed that meant there were eight-six stars smeared over his fist as well, but he didn’t feel as compelled to count those. 

For as awkward and tense as their silence was, there was something horrifyingly intimate about letting his eyes roam the valleys of his soulmate’s face without interruption. Johnny was so obviously contrasting to Daniel in looks that the idea of them as a fated pair was almost laughable. Not just in size and muscle mass either. The east coaster was all olive skin and dark hair and eyes while the California boy was the total opposite. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, what a revelation. When their moms came knocking, Daniel was startled out of his observation only to realize Johnny had been observing him too. He wondered what he saw.

The next Saturday wasn’t much better at first. His mom dropped him off, apologizing to Laura who was apparently her new best friend, because she had to work an extra shift at the restaurant. The blonde woman had walked Daniel up to her son’s room, barely knocking before pushing the door open. Johnny was there, headphones over his ears and a Sony Walkman clutched in his fist. His mother approached, undeterred, and slipped the device off his head gently. Tiny music beats blared into the room and blue eyes locked. She said, “Your guest is here, please be nice.”

They spent the first hour staring at each other again.

Johnny had immediately pulled his headphones back on as soon as his mom left and Daniel had scowled incredulously. He hated this arrangement just as much as the next guy, but at least he was showing up and trying like their mothers wanted. His sour expression apparently ate away at his soulmate’s resolve because eventually the taller teen huffed and popped the Walkman open. Grabbing the tape in a grip so tight it was a wonder the thing didn’t snap, he skulked over to a stereo sat on the floor in the opposite corner and shoved it in. Brown eyes watched him curiously and bugged wide when a voice screamed out of the speakers.

“WATCH OUT! You might get what your after-
COOL BABIES! Strange, but not a stranger-
I’m an ordinary guy - BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE!”

They spent the next hour listening to the Speaking in Tongues album. Danny had never heard of The Talking Heads and when he told Johnny this the blonde called him a square before hunting through the other cassettes all around his room. After a time he sat just beside the stereo, four more albums in his lap, and waved Daniel over to sit beside him. The music was turned down to a volume that actually allowed for conversation and the teens spent the last hour of their mom-mandated visit discussing music preferences. Johnny liked something called new-wave while Daniel was more used to hearing disco. His soulmate was quick to correct him that the artists he was listing were actually considered post -disco, but the brunette didn’t mind. They both liked rock.

When his mom came to pick him up that afternoon, Daniel asked if he could pop in a cassette on the way home. After some light grilling the teen admitted Johnny had let him borrow it and suffered his mother’s smug smile as they listened to the Remain in Light album for the rest of the drive. His favorite song was 'Once in a Lifetime’.

---

The next Saturday they listened to some group called Duran Duran.

The Saturday after that they played Donkey Kong on Johnny’s Nintendo.

The next Saturday Johnny had a cold and missed school Friday so Daniel brought him his homework.

The Saturday after that Daniel caught Johnny’s cold and so the blonde drove over and walked him through his homework.

One Saturday they had to miss because Sid stayed home from work.

The Saturday after that Johnny’s Nintendo was smashed to pieces on the floor.

It was humanizing to see his soulmate in so many innocent and vulnerable instances. Daniel LaRusso would have never guessed Johnny Lawrence liked to play air guitar, or was so good at explaining pre-calculus, or that he was a super sore loser over videogames. He also never would have guessed the older boy had a collection of broken things piled in his closet, all waiting for the time and money to be fixed and used again. His Nintendo, an older Walkman, a ripped up astronomy book and even a child’s magic set. Pieces of a person that Sid apparently didn’t like very much but that Daniel was just starting to get to know. He thought maybe he could like that person.

At school the two teens carried on as usual, giving each other a wide berth. They didn’t need or want anyone to know they were spending their weekends together, the common knowledge of their soulmarks already too exposing, and so avoided each other with exceeding caution. Occasionally they had to break character, Johnny begrudgingly dropping off a bag of blueberry muffins from his mother at Daniel’s desk, or the brunette seeking out the blonde to quietly explain he’d be late coming over the next day since they were having car trouble, but for the most part they acted as perfect strangers.

Ali Mills found this new arrangement wholly unsatisfying, often badgering Daniel about it at their shared lunch table. She and the New Jersey native had become fast friends and it was one of the more surprising developments in his life. The cheerleader was fun and friendly and honest and smart. She was always quick to defend Daniel, but also to put him in his place in turn. She didn’t know about their Saturdays, but she spoke about Johnny with the fond air of someone who had grown up with him. Daniel was oddly jealous of the closeness that must have brought. She didn’t usually talk about their brief time dating except to say it had never really clicked.

“I guess he was waiting for you, huh?” she joked one Friday lunch period in early October, pretty face scrunched up in a giggle while Daniel just shook his head at her in exasperation. He had one eye across the lunchroom on Johnny and his friends.

The boys from Cobra Kai seemed to exist in agitated confusion about their leader's sudden indifference towards the scrawny new kid. Here was Johnny Lawrence, resident bad boy and all around king of karate, grounded for a seemingly indefinite amount of time because of Daniel LaRusso and yet he wasn’t pounding the punk to a pulp every chance he got. Bobby, Tommy, Jimmy and Dutch also didn’t know about their Saturdays, but they’d taken it upon themselves to exact revenge for their friend every chance they got. Nothing too extreme, just glares and shoulder checks and rumors and a flat bike tire once, but it still irritated the Newark native to no end. Johnny had backed off, thank fuck, but he really was looking forward to the day he became old news and could just have a regular senior year. In early October there was still hope…

Not with Johnny walking right up to him though.

“LaRusso,” the blonde acknowledged, tone stiff and awkward as he shot Ali a nervous look. She’d frozen with a bite of salad halfway to her mouth. “Can we talk?”

Daniel stared, not sure what could call for such an egregious breach in protocol, but nodded nonetheless, making quick goodbyes to Ali before abandoning his tray and following the blonde out of the lunch room. He could feel dozens of eyes on them and he grimaced, marked hand itching as he pushed it through his hair. Once they were out in the hallway he blinked up at his soulmate bemusedly. He prompted, “What is it?”

Johnny looked as tense as he felt, blue eyes focusing somewhere just over his head rather than on him. He did that a lot when they spoke. “Your mom’s working late.”

The brunette waited for more, but when nothing came he frowned in confusion. He pressed, “Alright…and? How do you even know that?”

The taller teen huffed like this was all some great imposition to him before he pulled a face at the other boy; calling him stupid with just the furrow of his brows. Danny was getting pretty decent at reading his soulmate’s facial expressions. The blonde explained, “She called my mom who called the school to tell me. She’s working really late, like past midnight and so asked if it’d be okay if I bring you home with me so you can stay the night since it's Saturday tomorrow anyway.”

Daniel’s lunch made a valiant effort to escape him then and he had to choke back a gag, one hand clutching his stomach as panic rose up in his gut. He’d been spending every Saturday with Johnny for over a month and it hadn’t been the worst thing in the world, but spending the night? What was his mom even thinking? He choked out, “What about your step-dad?”

“Out of town on business,” Johnny sighed like that had been his first thought too only to have it dashed. “Left this morning.”

“Don’t you have karate?”

“I guess I gotta miss it.”

“I’m not a kid,” Danny insisted instead, grasping at straws and wishing he was talking to his mother instead of his soulmate. It’s not like he could do anything about it and he seemed just as put out if not more by all this. “I can stay home alone, I used to do it all the time in Newark.”

“Your mom’s worried about the neighborhood or something,” the blonde dismissed, bouncing his shoulders with pent up energy before he pointed at the shorter teen. He looked angry but he was also blushing oddly enough. “Look, it’s not a big deal so just grab your shit and meet me by my car after class.”

He stalked off then, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his stupid red leather jacket and Daniel let a string of curses fall from his lips in quick Italian. So unfair, so unfair, so unfair ! The thought of spending the whole night in the Lawrence house with all its empty corners and too nice furnishings made his skin crawl and he shuddered off to his next class when a bell rang to signal the end of lunch. The last few periods of the day were a wash since the Jersey born boy couldn’t focus on a single thing his teachers were saying and before he knew it, school was over. The teen grappled with the thought of just taking his bike and heading home on his own, damn anything else, but he didn’t want to upset his mom or worry Miss Lawrence. Plus it’d likely just land him and Johnny in even bigger trouble than they were already in so he grabbed everything he needed from his locker, unlocked his bike from the bar in the lot, and slowly rolled towards where he knew a bright red Avanti was parked.

“What would’ve happened if you rode your bike today?” he mused, coming up on Johnny where he leaned against his driver’s side door. All around them their classmates were rushing off to start their weekends, but they stood frozen trying to drag out the school day just a little bit longer. The Cobras were nowhere in sight, probably already on their way to karate. Blue eyes scanned Daniel up and down and eighty-six stars winked out at him.

“Moms been making me bring the car ever since you started coming over,” Johnny explained, motioning his soulmate towards the backseat. The convertible top was down. “Incase you ever needed a ride.”

Daniel pulled up short, searching back in his memories of the last several weeks and realized he hadn’t spotted his soulmate's red Honda XL 600R in the school lot in quite some time. He stammered, “Oh…well, that’s…nice of her?”

“Whatever,” the taller teen sighed, lifting the blue wheeled bicycle into his backseat with ease, carefully leaning it against the leather seats before he paused, studying it more closely. “You got it fixed?”

The former east coaster was confused at first, not knowing what the other boy meant before he recalled his tumble down a certain hillside and how he’d had to push his busted bike all the way home. Tense, he answered, “Oh. Yeah, our maintenance man at the apartment fixed it for me.”

Blue eyes traced all along the spokes and seat and body of the bike before Johnny nodded and moved away, keys jangly in his hand as he hopped into the driver’s seat. Absently he noted, “That was nice of him.”

“Yeah,” Dan agreed, moving to get in on the passenger side, easing into the car like it was going to bite him. He’d never been in Johnny’s car before. It was as nice and expensive and isolating as everything else he had. “It was.”

It was true. The handyman, who Daniel had learned was called Mister Miyagi, had fixed and returned the bike to the teen practically good as new the night after it’d been trashed by the Cobra Kai boys’ stunt. Fresh from his first visit to Johnny’s house and still horribly banged up himself, the Newark native had sought the man out to thank him. Down the stairs, passed that old woman’s usual seat, left then right then left again. Behind a set of green doors in a tiny room with tiny trees and only a tiny bit of light to help him see, Daniel had found Mister Miyagi. He’d thanked him profusely and the two had talked about life and balance and Daniel had left with a tiny tree all his own. A bonsai that now lived on a sunny shelf in his room and that he cared for diligently and that he wouldn’t be home to tend to until some time the next day because he was spending the night at Johnny Lawrence’s house. 

“Seatbelt.”

Daniel’s stomach dropped in time with the engine rolling over and then they were off in the Avanti. Johnny drove with a careful confidence and maneuvered them smoothly out onto the street with little fanfare. A few kids spotted them together, pointing and staring and the brunette knew there’d be tons of talk on Monday, but it was out of his control. Glancing over, he saw his soulmate had slid on a pair of sunglasses, his shiny soulmark still peeking out under the frames, and tried to absorb some of his cool aloofness to shield himself with. He reached for the radio, a nervous habit, only to be slapped away.

“Driver picks music,” Johnny announced, eyes still on the road as Daniel shook out his abused hand. His stars stung.

“In what universe?” he grouched without venom, “Everyone knows shotgun picks music.”

“Shotgun navigates.”

“What, you need directions to your house?”

“Hands off,” the other boy insisted, reaching over himself to fiddle with the knobs before cranking it up way too loud which he always did with the stereo in his room. Apparently the Avanti was no different. A funky, familiar beat started to fly out onto the road behind them and Danny perked up with interest. 

“Hey, you got it!” he enthused, raising his voice to be heard over the wind and music. ‘Little Red Corvette’ by Prince was pouring through the sound system and the brunette recalled a conversation from three Saturdays ago where the blonde had insisted he didn’t need to get the '1999' album because it wasn’t his style and it was nearly two years old already and what could he be missing? “Are you liking it?”

“It’s alright,” Johnny dismissed, one hand on the wheel while the other dangled out his open window. The wind whipped their hair around. Daniel smirked knowingly because if the cassette had made it from the store, to Johnny’s room, and now to the Avanti and was starting midway through a track then his soulmate had to be enjoying it quite a bit. 

“A body like yours outta be in jail-
'Cause it's on the verge of being' obscene
Move over, baby - gimme the keys
I'm gonna try to tame your little red love machine!”

The young Italian relaxed in his seat, letting his arm hang out of his window too. His stars sparkled in the sunlight and he surfed his hand up and down, up and down on the breeze, flashing a light show all around them. He was still a little put out that their moms were making them do this whole thing, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world and it was humanizing and it was maybe fun sometimes. He’d survive a night of it at least and tomorrow they could get back to their new normal.

“Little red Corvette!
Baby, you're much too fast
Little red Corvette!
You need to find a love that's gonna last.”

Notes:

sorry for all the lyrics these last 2 chapters, I just suddenly remembered I love 80s music

Chapter 7: proxima centauri

Summary:

proxima centauri: the closest of distant suns, a quiet sentinel in the night sky, guiding dreams and curiosity across the light-years.

“Boys, you’re home!” Laura Lawrence greeted as soon as her son and his soulmate stepped into the house. Daniel only had a moment to snicker smugly about Johnny getting a kiss placed messily on his cheek before one was being placed on his as well. He balked as the pretty blonde woman pulled away, eyes bright and smile wide. “A sleepover, how exciting! What do you two want to get up to?”

The New Jersey native turned to his soulmate with curiosity. He’d been to the Lawrence house plenty of times, but only in three hour stints. A short enough amount of time that one video game, a few cassettes, or even just one nasty argument could soak up the minutes no problem. Now a whole night and day stretched out ahead of them and the brunette had no clue how they were going to fill those hours. Thankfully, Johnny looked unconcerned, brows perked up as he shrugged.

“We gotta do our homework first, then we can figure it out.”

“Ah, work then play,” Laura mused in a good humor while Daniel frowned bemusedly. “Good call.”

Starting the weekend off with homework was not his idea of a good time, he usually left all his assignments for late Sunday night. Still, he was a guest and he begrudgingly followed the taller teen to a little alcove just off their main dining area; Laura called it a breakfast nook. The woman left them there, stating she was off to make some phone calls and then they were alone. They worked quietly for the first bit, both of them deciding to tackle different subjects, but occasionally they’d talk. Johnny would grumble that their English Literature teacher was a real piece of work and Daniel would argue she was better than their anatomy teacher. As it turned out, the two seniors had all the same teachers and classes just on a totally different schedule. It explained how, like ships in the night, they had always just managed to avoid each other those first few awkward days after their soulmarks appeared.

Their knees knocked under the table as they got their backpacks situated and Daniel suddenly found himself huffing like he’d just sprinted the length of a soccer field. Johnny was close, just on the other side of the nook, and sunlight from the window behind them made his hair glow. The stars on his face winked and sparkled as he shifted about and the glare blinded Daniel momentarily. With their books and papers scattered all around it was hard to tell where Dan’s area ended and Johnny’s began. They kept bumping their fingers together reaching for pencils and calculators and after a time Daniel pulled his hands under the table to press between his knees.

He didn’t know why he was feeling so twitchy. He and Johnny had been having their little visits for going on two months, but he still couldn’t fully relax around the other boy. It wasn’t the fear and anger he’d felt in the beginning, that was long gone, but something else struck down his back like a match every time their skin touched or blue eyes caught his. The Newark teen didn’t care for these new sensations at all and so sat warily on the other side of the breakfast nook, watching his soulmate power through a history paper, and keeping his hands carefully to himself. It was the night he told himself, letting his eyes drift away. The sun was still up, but he was nervous about the night ahead of them.

“Are you stuck?”

Daniel glanced over at Johnny and noted the boy was staring at him staring at nothing. He had no idea how long he’d been doing that and so dropped his gaze to his pre-calculus homework to see if maybe he could be stuck. It’d be a convenient excuse. It was a review sheet for an upcoming test specifically focused on the formula the blonde had explained to him while he’d been home sick. He’d explained and modeled and coached Danny through each step until he could do it on his own, surprisingly invested in the other teen’s progress. To say he was stuck on it now would open up a can of worms that frankly wasn’t worth the trouble. Plus it wasn’t true, Johnny had explained it perfectly.  

He dismissed, “Nah, I know this stuff.”

 “Just dickin’ around then?”

“This is boring, man, can’t it wait?” the young Italian switched tactics, throwing a plaintive whine into his voice as he faced his soulmate. Blue eyes narrowed at him. “We have all tomorrow to get it done.”

Daniel LaRusso had learned a lot about Johnny Lawrence over the course of several Saturdays. He loved music, particularly new-wave and rock, but he was starting to appreciate some post-disco. He’d wanted to try magic as a kid but staunchly refused to perform any tricks now. He was allergic to cats but desperately wanted a dog and …he was a huge fucking nerd. In addition to karate trophies, his soulmate had Honor Roll and perfect attendance certificates displayed all around his room. Seriously, Daniel would not have been more surprised if someone had told him his soulmate sang in a choir on Sundays. Johnny was extremely dedicated to his grades and schooling and never missed an opportunity to let the other teen know he was sorely lacking in those departments.

It was a long shot to try and pull the blonde away from homework, but Daniel couldn’t stand the confined space anymore. He blinked at the other boy, trying to weaponize his baby-browns that his mom was always complaining about, and did his best to look pleading. Across their tiny table Johnny gripped his pencil hard, but then huffed. He rolled his eyes and nodded his agreement so slowly it was clear the action pained him, but Daniel hardly noticed. With a celebratory clap, he slid from the bench seat and shifted his weight around excitedly as he waited for Johnny to join him.They’d leave the work there, they’d be back to it in the morning.

“So what should we do?”

It turned out big houses in the hills had lots to do.

Daniel had never gotten a full tour of the Lawrence home, just passed through the rooms that would take him to Johnny, but the place was even bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. They had all the standard rooms of course, living room, dining, kitchen, but they also had extra rooms. A den for Sid’s work computers, formal living and dining rooms for hosting, and an honest to God home theater with an actual movie projector hung up on the wall. Apparently they had VHS and LaserDisk and a ton of new films on hand. Danny insisted they had to watch a movie in there that night and then followed his soulmate out onto their basketball court. The two teens chased each other up and down the drive, laughing in short bursts of stolen breath. Johnny was better, faster, but Daniel could rile him into letting his guard down sometimes and steal the ball away. Victor’s wife, Trudy, brought them some glasses of guava juice and asked if they’d like to cool off in the pool.

They swam in their underwear.

Daniel watched Johnny take leaping dives into the far end and tracked the blur of him under the water closely. The Lawrence pool was bigger and deeper than the one at the Y back in Newark, but the skinnier teen didn’t mind hanging off the side. It was much later in the afternoon now, the sun receding, and it was cooling down this late in the year, but the pool was heated and their play kept them warm. They splashed and dunked each other under and their wet slippery gripping left Daniel panting even more so than the physical exertion. He dragged himself out of the water to flop on a deck chair, his skinny chest heaving up and down and his boxers clinging to him. His soulmate hopped out as well, but stayed seated on the edge, legs still in the water and back to the other boy.

The New Jersey native took that time to study his soulmate's form. Johnny was tall and chorded with muscle, but not big and bulky. He was still lean enough to be quick and light and he’d been able to chase Daniel down on the court and in the pool as easily as he'd been able to at the beach and on the soccer field. He was strong and he was vicious, but he was really just a boy. He had a messy room and a too lovey mother and he wanted good grades. He’d gotten himself grounded for doing something stupid, but he was trying to make up for it. He was a lot like Daniel while still remaining his polar opposite and the young Italian found the juxtaposition both fascinating and frustrating. He glared at a defined back and broad shoulders until the other boy turned around and then he was caught in too blue eyes.

“I’m starving.”

“Me too.”

It turned out the calls Laura Lawrence had gone off to make included ordering pizza and all the extras that came with it that Daniel and his mom usually couldn’t swing for. There was garlic bread and salad and he hadn’t even known Pizza Hut had spaghetti, but there was that too. The two teens toweled off at the back door, Laura handing them each t-shirts and sweatpants while Victor and Trudy set out all the food and drinks that had been delivered. A familiar cologne tickling his nose, Daniel hurried over and grabbed one of the bottles of Coke and a slice of cheese and meatball sub just because he could. He felt like a fat happy king, his plate piled high with spoils as he followed the blondes and their helpers out into the smaller dining room. They all ate together around the table and it was surprisingly nice; a bit like a family.

After dinner his mom called to check in from the restaurant and Daniel filled her in on all they had done. He was rambling, he could feel it, but he couldn’t stop describing the amazing house and the amazing dinner and the amazing people that were all nestled away up in the hills. Winding down the end of his rant he sighed, “I wish you could be here too.”

“ I’m just glad you and Johnny are having a good time, baby, ” Lucille assured, her voice warm and happy through the receiver. 

They chatted a bit more and then the teen passed the phone to Miss Lawrence, the two adults touching base on plans for the next day while their sons hurried towards the home theater, wet feet slipping and sliding on the tile floor. There were dozens of movies to pick from, but Johnny declared the only good options were The Thing, Bladerunner, or Alien . It was dark, the sun finally gone, and they were all scary sci-fi action movies the blonde explained, the only types of films worth watching. Daniel had never seen any of them, but chose the case with the spookiest cover. The inky black of space cut by the neon green of some egg splitting open looked promising and so the two teens settled in to watch Alien .

It was right around the point when the titular alien was bursting its way out of Kane’s chest that the New Jersey native realized he’d chosen wrong. Between the haunting music, horrifying creatures, and about a million jump scares, the movie had him screaming his head off. Johnny laughed every time he jumped, already knowing when the scariest parts were coming, but said nothing when his soulmate gripped onto his shirt sleeve in fright. It was dark in the room and they were in there all alone. Daniel reached for the other boy unconsciously, skinny fingers gripping his sleeve and then his arm when Parker and Lambert were cornered by the monster, the flashing red of their ship making the whole room glow.

“Holy shit, man,” the brunette whispered, pulse thundering from the film and his proximity to the other teen. He’d practically jumped over the arm rest to hold onto him. He smelled like chlorine. “That fuckin’ cat better survive after all this.”

“Cats suck,” Johnny dismissed, unphased, but he reached up and patted his soulmate’s marked hand. Daniel thought he was maybe trying to be comforting. Their stars were muted in the dark, only catching light off the screen in flashes. “Shut up, it’s almost over.”

More jumpscares, a doomsday countdown and one fake out ending later, Sigourney Weaver finally said, “ This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off .”

“That was so scary,” Daniel breathed without shame as the credits began to roll. He released Johnny to press a hand to his chest. It felt like an alien had popped out of him , his heart had been racing so fast. “We shoulda watched The Thing instead.”

Johnny looked suspiciously amused by the suggestion and promised they could watch it next time. Mind lingering on the idea of a next time, Danny followed his soulmate out of the movie room, the closing music fading slowly, and stuck right behind him as they wandered the halls of the big house. Victor and Trudy had left after dinner and shut off many of the lights on their way out. Laura was nowhere to be seen and the Lawrence residence suddenly seemed eerily cavernous, like the hull of an interstellar ship. Daniel shuddered, imagining a facehugger skittering around every corner and bumped into Johnny’s back when he came to a sudden stop.

“Can I help you, LaRusso?” the blonde asked, brow furrowed with what could have been confusion or annoyance or both.  “Stop breathing down my neck.”

“I’m following you, genius, I dunno where we’re going.”

“Well, why’re you so close and hiding behind me?”

“I’m not hiding behind you!”

“So then walk next to me like a normal person!” the Californian griped with an exaggerated frown. His soulmate mirrored the face right back and they both scoffed at each other, but Daniel did fall into step beside him rather than lingering just behind. His brown eyes scanned every room they passed through closely and he twitched at every noise as they made their way up the stairs.

There were lots of rooms on the second level of the Lawrence house that Daniel had never seen before, but he wasn’t really sure why Johnny thought now was the time to show him any. The blonde walked them past his own room and further down into the dark hall before coming to a door that he pushed open without knocking. It was too dark to see inside and Danny suddenly worried Johnny was about to turn on him like Ash had turned on Ripley but then a light flicked on. Blinking the spots in his eyes away, the brunette realized they were looking into a bedroom. A guest bedroom if the lack of any personal touches was a clue. There was a bed and two nightstands and a wardrobe and even an armchair near the window, but not too much else. No art, or clutter, or character like he was used to seeing in Johnny’s room. He blinked at his soulmate confusedly. 

“You can sleep here tonight,” the blonde sighed, sounding tired. It was only a bit past nine, but they’d had a full afternoon after a whole day of school. Daniel wondered what the other teen usually did after karate on these days -what time he usually went to bed. “Trudy threw your clothes in the wash so they’ll be clean tomorrow.”

The Newark native reeled a little to learn the Lawrence’s had a washer and dryer somewhere in their house, but quickly refocused on the room in front of him. It was neat and clean and way bigger than his room back home, but it was also cold and unfamiliar and pretty far from Johnny’s if an alien should suddenly decide to attach itself to his face. He didn’t even know where the master bedroom was to run to Laura if there was some sort of emergency and it made him feel a little isolated. Face feeling hot, he lingered in the doorway, glancing back and forth between the room and his soulmate until the blonde seemed to suss out the reason for his hesitation. 

Blue eyes wide in disbelief, he groaned, “You cannot be serious.”

"Come on, that movie was super scary!” the shorter boy griped, arms crossed over his chest defensively. “You can’t expect me to stay here alone after seein’ that!”

“What, you wanna sleep in my bed?” It was hard to tell, his face was still half cast in the shadow of the hallway, but Daniel thought his soulmate may have been blushing.

Still he scoffed, “No, man, I’ll sleep on the floor, haven’t you ever had a sleepover?”

The question made the blonde scowl for some reason, the shadows twisting the expression into something even uglier, but he didn’t say anything. Just huffed and puffed and rolled his eyes and flicked off the guest room light and went stomping back up the hall. Daniel followed close behind and slipped into his room with relief, the familiar sights and smells making him feel more at ease as Johnny started moving around preparing for bed. He tossed one pillow and his top blanket onto the floor in a semi clear spot and then shut the door and shucked his shirt off. Daniel’s breath caught and his vision tunneled, but only for a moment because the next he was dropping down onto his makeshift bed, back firmly facing the other boy. He listened to his soulmate scoff from near the closed door and then the lights went out, cloaking them in darkness.

It should have been scary, the sudden snuffing of the light, but Daniel could hear his soulmate stepping carefully over his discarded items to make it to bed. Could smell him as he stepped right over him to crawl into his sheets, shuffling around to get comfortable. Johnny’s breathing just so happened to fall into sync with his own and then Daniel could feel his heartbeat and imagined he could feel the other teen’s too. Everything, everywhere was singing, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny and it weirdly enough made the boy on the floor feel safe. They were quiet, just nestled in the dark like two distant stars, whole galaxies between them, but it was comforting to know someone was out there somewhere. 

Sleep was creeping in on the edges of his mind, but when he closed his eyes Daniel saw Johnny’s scowl from up the hall. He whispered up into the night, “So you’ve never had a sleepover?”

“Sid doesn’t like people coming over.”

He hadn’t expected the response to be so quick and so honest and the brunette frowned at nothing. He tested, “He kinda sounds like a dick.”

“He is.”

“So…why'd your mom marry him?” It was a risky question, Johnny was viciously defensive of his mother, but his soulmate just had to know. This man, this Sid, seemed to haunt everything the blondes did and yet Daniel had never even seen him in almost two whole months. Just traces of him, just glimpses; a broken nose, a smashed Nintendo, a nervous laugh. 

Johnny was quiet for a long time and Dan was worried he’d either upset him or he’d fallen asleep, but then the mattress groaned; Johnny rolled over. When he spoke again his voice was closer, clearer. He’d turned to face Daniel. He mused, “I think…he pretended to be someone he wasn’t. He was cool and charming and did all this nice shit for us, but then when they got married it all changed. He acted like one person, but when you got closer, he was actually someone else.”

Daniel thought he knew a bit about that, just perhaps moving in the opposite direction. Someone who acted cruel and aloof but then helped you with your homework and let you borrow cassette tapes. Someone who, when you got closer, patted your hand during scary movies and let you sleep in his room because he knew you didn’t want to be alone. Johnny Lawrence seemed like he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t and Daniel LaRusso realized then and there that he wanted to know the real him.

Chapter 8: eclipse

Summary:

ECLIPSE: a dramatic cosmic embrace where one celestial body cloaks another in shadow.

Waking up on Johnny Lawrence’s bedroom floor was a new experience Daniel LaRusso wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to put into words. One moment he was asleep and the next he was awake staring up at a strange ceiling and breathing deeply. The pillow and blanket and clothes he had borrowed from his soulmate smelled like the taller boy and the familiar scent curled all around him, tickling his nose and sticking to his skin and hair. The remnants of a dream were fleeing at the edges of his mind, closely tied in with that smell, but Daniel was already forgetting it as he blinked sleep from his eyes. The Newark native sat up with a groan, back and neck stiff and a dirty sock stuck to his elbow. He just knew his hair was a mess as he turned to squint up into the bed. 

Johnny was still asleep.

With no top cover and no shirt, the blonde was sprawled out across his mattress, chest rising and falling slowly in the pattern of slumber. Daniel let his tired eyes trek the length of his soulmate’s body slowly and thought maybe he was still dreaming. Everything about the moment seemed fuzzy and soft around the edges, even Johnny. In sleep he was so much less intense than the brunette had gotten used to. His face was totally at ease and it made him look younger; he wasn’t scowling or scoffing at anything, just breathing in and out. His blonde hair was fluffy and unkept and Daniel had the disturbing urge to run his fingers through it. Instead he counted his eighty-six favorite stars again just to make sure none had fallen in the night.

Brown eyes were just tracing the curling V of Pisces when blue ones fluttered open and caught them. Still half asleep and still partially believing it was all a dream, Daniel could only feel the shame of being caught in a muted, distant sort of way. He thought maybe he should be embarrassed, but couldn’t manage the emotion outright. Not since their first Saturday together had he gotten a chance to just stare at Johnny uninterrupted, to count his stars. At school and even in the privacy of their weekend encounters, looking too long at the blonde was a sure way to gain his irritation plus make people talk. Johnny wasn’t bad to look at, but he seemed to hate the experience. Daniel couldn’t really imagine why; he wished he was so nice to look at.

He and Johnny stared at each other for an immeasurable amount of time before the brunette greeted, “Morning.”

Johnny looked startled, like maybe he’d thought he’d been dreaming too, but then collected himself and huffed, “Morning.”

Getting up and ready was an awkward shamble of bodies. They took turns in the bathroom, Johnny having to hurry off to another part of the house only to come back with a brand new toothbrush for Daniel. The two stayed in the clothes they had slept in and the blonde thankfully found a shirt before they went trudging downstairs. In the kitchen the dreamlike state the shorter senior had experienced upstairs continued. Early morning light poured through every window his soulmate walked by and caught his hair and eyes and stars just the right way each time. It was honestly a bit infuriating how good and glowy the other boy looked so early in the morning. Danny stalked closely behind him, mind slow and sleep addled and singing Johnny, Johnny, Johnny . 

“We should finish our homework,” the blonde noted, leading them towards the breakfast nook. His soulmate groaned his protests, but the taller teen just spoke over him. “Victor and Trudy will be here soon to make breakfast. If we finish before then we can clear the table.”

So they squeezed back into the small window bench, knees and elbows bumping. They shuffled around a bit, trying to rearrange and reorganize the chaos they had left behind the evening before. Johnny grabbed a textbook only to find Dan’s doodles scribbled into the margins. Daniel picked up a half finished essay just to notice John’s name printed across the top in neat, cramped script. Supplies could belong to anyone and the boys nibbled on erasers and pen caps that maybe another set of teeth had nibbled before. Danny found the jumpiness he had experienced the previous day returning tenfold, the protective barrier of his own shirt and jeans now missing. Johnny’s sweatpants and shirt were thin and soft and left the brunette feeling hot and exposed as the two worked side by side, only mumbling occasionally to each other. 

“Can you pass the sharpener?”

“I’m definitely gonna fail this test.”

“Did you finish question five yet?

“This paper was due last week, why do you still have it?”

In time Laura found her way downstairs and Daniel was reminded his soulmate got all his good looks from his mother. Laura Lawrence looked just as soft and glowy as her son as she wandered into the kitchen, hair mussed and face pink from sleep. She had no make-up on first thing and the east coast teen thought she looked even prettier than usual. She swooped in to kiss Johnny’s cheek, ruffling his hair as she did so, and then quickly did the same to their houseguest. Danny was blushing something fierce as she headed towards a fancy looking coffee maker crowded onto the counter.

“So,” she mused, fiddling with buttons and knobs, “What have you two got planned for today? Think maybe it's time to take this show on the road?”

The two teens looked at each other and shifted awkwardly. At the start of their arrangement, their mothers had made it clear they were strictly confined to the house, Johnny still on serious punishment for driving Daniel off the road. However, the plan had always been that eventually they’d be out on the town together, learning how to interact and include each other in their regular social lives. Neither had broached the subject in all those weeks because neither of them really thought it was a good idea. The California native still had shreds of a reputation to maintain, even walking around with a soulmark on his face. Actually hanging out with Daniel in public could quickly set those shreds aflame. Plus Daniel thought Johnny’s crowd was a bunch of pricks anyway.

“We don’t have to-”

“I don’t think-”

“Oh, come on!” Laura insisted, leaving the machine to its business to turn and glare playfully at them, “You’ve been hanging out on your best behavior for weeks; color me and Lucille impressed. Don’t you want to get out of this house?”

“I went to the LaRusso’s that one time,” the blonde boy muttered, turning his eyes back to an assignment his soulmate knew he’d perfected the night before. 

“That was weeks ago!”

“It’s cool, Miss Lawrence,” Daniel assured, trying to throw the woman the casually charming smile that always worked on his own mother. Sometimes it worked on Johnny too. Laura just frowned. “I like hanging out here, your guys’ house has everything!”

“That’s no fun though,” the woman mused. The smell of coffee was starting to fill the room adding to the strangely domestic feeling of the morning. “And that’s not what your mother and I discussed. You two can’t just hide away forever.”

“Who's hiding?” Johnny asked, sounding like the question had been punched out of him. When Dan glanced over, the blonde boy was twisted around to look at his mom, brow furrowed. “Everyone already knows we’re soulmates.”

“But do they know you’re friends?”

“We’re not-!”

Whatever the two teens had been about to shout in perfect unison was interrupted by the sound of some far off door opening. Daniel blinked in confusion to see the two blondes freeze up with what looked like barely muted horror. He turned in his seat, trying to see through the kitchen entrance to the main hall. He expected Victor, or maybe Trudy to call out a greeting, but instead a voice he’d never heard before came booming through the house. 

“I’m home!”

“It’s Sid.”

Daniel turned to the taller teen across from him, brows up high in shock. This man, this Sid, seemed to haunt everything the blondes did and yet Daniel had never even seen him in almost two whole months. Just traces of him, just glimpses; a broken nose, a smashed Nintendo, a nervous laugh. He had to clarify, “Your old man?”

“Daniel, start grabbing your things,” Laura rushed out in a whisper, thin fingers combing roughly through her hair in a rush to get presentable. When she spoke next, it was in a totally different voice, “We’re in here, honey!”

Heavy footsteps approached and Danny tried to focus on shuffling his papers and books together, but he couldn’t stop glancing up at Johnny. His soulmate looked…pale. His stars stood out starkly on his face and his blue eyes were too wide. His body was tense, his muscles bunched up like he was ready to pounce, but instead he just sat there, breathing audibly, a quick in-out, in-out, in-out. Keeping an eye on him, Daniel only succeeded in shifting their school work into an indiscernible mess before a man stepped into the kitchen, the brightness of the morning fleeing out behind him.

Sid Weinberg was short but broad. His shoulders looked like they could just brush each side of a doorframe as he came sauntering into the room. He was bald with a squared jaw and he wore a suit and tie and had a cellphone in his big meaty hand. Dan had never even seen one in real life before, they were too new and too expensive for anyone back home to afford yet. That was notable, but the thing that caught the young Italian’s attention the most was how much older Sid looked than Laura; at least a decade her senior if not more. He had no hair on his head but his eyebrows were already salt and pepper and he had wrinkles etched deep into his face where his wife only had charming laugh lines.

Sid Wieberg, to put it plainly, wasn’t handsome enough for a woman like Laura Lawrence.

Daniel figured that’s where the money and charming facade had come in handy.

“They called off the conference,” the man said in place of greeting, voice low and rumbly. He sounded like he smoked a pack a day. He wasn’t looking at his wife, eyes instead on the clunky Motorola in his hand. “Those fucks don’t do anything but waste my damn time-”

“Honey, we have a guest,” Laura interrupted, flinching when her husband looked up at her, big brows pinched. “This is Daniel LaRusso from Johnny’s class. They had a little sleep over last night.”

The table shook when Laura gestured at him and Daniel realized Johnny had jerked in some aborted movement and was now holding the edge of the table in a white knuckled grip. Without thinking, he stretched a leg out and hooked his ankle around the other boy’s while keeping his eyes up to track Sid. The big man seemed to notice for the first time that other people were in the room and blinked bemusedly at the unexpected guest. A skinny, swarthy, sleep softened boy in his step-son’s clothes.

“Nice to meet you, sir.”

Sid’s eyebrows rose, his scrutinizing eyes becoming more visible and Daniel watched in sickened fascination as the man appeared to pull on a mask right in front of them. The hard cut of his mouth and brow smoothed over into a benign, open expression, his fisted grip on his phone easing. He’d stomped into the kitchen with an agitated and tight stance that now loosened, his shoulders falling back in a posture that appeared casual and relaxed. He shifted his weight onto his back foot and looked at the teenager head on, his chest puffed and his chin up. He smiled and if not for everything he had just seen, Danny would have sworn it was genuine.

“So this is the young man I’ve heard so much about.” His voice was different now. Still booming, but falsely friendly. Pleasantly intrigued while his eyes remained sharp and focused. “Johnny said you’re new in town?”

Daniel glanced at the blonde and knew whatever information Sid had gotten out of his step-son about his soulmate had not been given willingly. Johnny looked like he was struggling to swallow back the urge to gag, his jaw clenched tight and his throat working. The ankle Daniel still had his hooked around shook and he had the sudden recollection of a bruised, swollen nose with a cut high up on the bridge. A spot where whatever or whoever had done that split the skin on Johnny Lawrence’s face.

I didn’t hit you that hard. Why’s your face so messed up?

The brunette nodded jerkily. Offered, “That’s right. We just moved from New Jersey.”

“Jersey!” Sid enthused, moving forward like a lion starting off on a hunt. In three big steps he was right beside Johnny in the breakfast nook, looming over the teenager and blocking his exit from the seat. His eyes stayed glued on Daniel as he set his phone down on top of their schoolwork. “Now that’s a city. Been there a few times for work. Where in Jersey?”

“N-Newark,” the young man answered, his mouth suddenly feeling dry as he watched Sid casually reach out and place a hand on Johnny’s shoulder. It was subtle, but Daniel could see the way the man tightened his grip on the juncture between the blonde’s arm and neck, the skin there flushing red from the pressure. He winced and tried to keep his voice calm and measured. He swore the sun had retreated behind a cloud. “My…parents grew up in Forest Hill.”

“Lovely place,” Sid mused, pressing down onto Johnny as he subtly shoved the teen over so he could squeeze himself down onto the bench. His large belly pushed and bumped the table making their school supplies shake and monopolizing all the breathing room. Johnny shifted over, his side sliding along Daniel’s so that the shorter teen could feel the way he quivered and quaked. Sid still kept a hand on his shoulder. “What do you parents do?”

“My dad passed away a few years ago.” Daniel thought about reaching a hand out to place on Johnny’s knee but couldn’t make himself move. It was like the gravity in the room had increased with Sid’s presence and now he could barely lift a finger. Laura was still at the counter, back turned again as she rushed to prepare a cup of coffee. Utensils clattered. “But my mom’s a waitress.”

“Oh, sorry to hear it, son.” Sid’s face bent and curved over an impression of regretful empathy. He looked like a melting painting. He shook Johnny around. “John here knows how that feels. His dad up and left before this one could barely walk.”

Danny failed to see how that was quite the same as his situation, but didn’t say so, instead nodding his head appreciatively the way he’d been doing since his father passed. “Yeah, it was really hard on my mom.”

“Were they soulmates?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where were their marks?”

“Sid!” Laura’s admonishment couldn’t have sounded more hesitant, her husband’s name wobbly on her lips, but it was no surprise. Even Daniel knew Sid's question was incredibly invasive and rude, regardless of how public most soulmarks were. If you could see someone's mark, you could see it. If you couldn’t, you didn’t ask to. If you’d never even met the person, there was absolutely no reason to even consider it. 

Daniel didn’t want to continue the conversation, his insides already feeling warm and wriggly like snakes, but he wanted Sid off Johnny. The blonde was still concerningly silent and rigid next to him, having not said a single word since he announced who had entered the house. Danny reached up with his star smattered hand, that thankfully didn’t shake, and traced a swirling pattern along the shell of his own ear, jawline, and down his neck where his mother’s flowers bloomed. He explained, “It’s here. It’s leaves from the park they had their first kiss in. My dad’s was on his fingers.”

“Like yours.”

What little air had been left in the room was sucked out leaving them all adrift. Daniel swore he could feel his ears popping with the pressure as Johnny and Laura turned matching pairs of wide blue eyes on Sid. The man just kept studying Daniel, the facade of a friendly face dropping a bit as his expression pinched with distaste. It was back in an instant. He nodded at the young Italian’s marked hand, still poised up near his ear and then tilted his head in Johnny’s direction. 

“You punched him and got a mark on your fingers while he took it square in the face.”

“I’m sorry-”

“It wasn’t like that-”

“Sid, honestly-”

“No, no, no, it’s alright!” the large man cut over all of them, the chuckle he forced out sounding like a death rattle. He leaned in, his free arm coming to rest over all the school work that had been forgotten on the table. His smile was cruel and conspiratorial, like he and Daniel were sharing some sick joke. “I get the urge to sucker punch this kid sometimes, trust me. It’s just interesting he and your mom both got marks on their face while you and your dad both got it on your hands. Funny coincidence don’t you think?”

What he was insinuating made Daniel feel absolutely sick to his stomach and he turned big brown eyes to Laura Lawrence. He couldn’t take it anymore. The woman thankfully noted his tortured expression and finally, finally hurried over to the table, a large mug of coffee clutched in her hand. She set it down right in front of her husband, right over her son’s essay. She smiled, sickeningly sweet. “Sweetheart, how about I fix you breakfast? Victor and Trudy have a late start today and Johnny and Daniel have plans.”

“Aw, no,” the bald man complained, face shifting again into exaggerated sadness. He still had a hold on his step-son, his arm stretched out near over the table between them. It was growing obviously awkward. “I was hoping to get to know a bit more about Johnny’s soulmate here.”

The word sounded like a slur from his mouth. It put every nerve in Daniel’s body on edge, a strange mixture of anger and fear twisting in his guts. He was used to fights and threats, had gotten enough from the boy beside him for a lifetime, but Sid’s quiet intensity was something else—a palpable weight that lingered in the space between them, impossible to shake off like a too heavy arm around his shoulders. He couldn’t breathe right. What made it worse was just how calm and cool the man seemed, totally at ease in his complete control of the situation and everyone in it. He could play friendly and harmless while putting everyone on guard if he wanted to, but he could also not. He could snap and scream and smash and he clearly had and would again if Johnny’s closet of broken things was any indication.

Laura insisted, “Maybe some other time.”

There was a tense moment where it seemed like maybe he wouldn’t let them go. Where he would finally drop the act and demand they stay and continue with his vaguely sinister line of questioning. Daniel, who had moved to sit on his hands he-didn’t-know-when, watched Sid's broad face pantomime thinking it through, his bald head tilting back and forth in feigned consideration. Johnny and Laura watched him carefully, Johnny forced to lean in under his step-father’s crushing grip. Finally, the man smiled, too wide to be real, and threw his hands up. The one that had been gripping Johnny was red and sweaty. He shrugged exaggeratedly.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll see you around,” he acquiesced, picking up the coffee his wife had set down. No thank you, no acknowledgement. “I know you two must keep a busy schedule, but don’t be a stranger.”

“You two go get dressed and I’ll walk you out, hm?” Laura Lawrence was still using the same artificially sweet tone she’d used with her husband as she moved to usher the two teens out of their seats. Sid blocked one whole side of the breakfast nook, so Johnny and Daniel had to slide out from the other, their bodies pushing and pulling in a poorly concealed rush to get away from the man. He just continued smiling at them, mug poised right in front of his face. Steam rose and swirled in front of him, catching the sunlight that had highlighted Johnny’s bedhead just a short time before.

“See you soon, Danny.”

Chapter 9: aurora

Summary:

AURORA: the sky’s dance of light and color, a celestial ballet painting the night with ethereal hues

“Oh, Daniel-san, happy Halloween.” Daniel looked over his shoulder as the South Seas Apartments’ handyman entered the room. Mister Miyagi was wearing his usual work shirt and headband and carrying a handsomely carved jack-o-lantern. He held it up for the teen’s inspection. “You like?”

“Yeah, that’s nice,” Daniel noted with a tired smile, turning back to the cart where he’d been trimming the stems of his bonsai tree. The little plant had thrived under careful attention over the last several weeks and the Newark native was unusually proud in his progress keeping it alive.

Bonsais, Daniel had learned, could be very stubborn in their growth. They needed patience and gentle coaxing to do what the young man would have thought should just come naturally to them. There was a delicate balance always in play while he cared for his little tree and he’d grown to appreciate Mister Miyagi for keeping so many healthy at once. They needed sunlight, but not too much for too long. Overwatering could lead to root rot, but underwatering could weaken the tree. It was good if the branches grew but not too high, they could misshape everything beneath them.

"Growth take time,” Miyagi had told him at one point, hovering over his shoulder as he wound a tiny wire along the base of his bonsai to prop it up. “The tree not rush, neither should you."

“Passed school today,” the man announced, pulling Daniel from his musings as he moved further into the room. “Lots happening.”

The Jersey teen cringed, looking around for something to busy his hands. He knew what his older friend was talking about; West Valley High School was preparing for their annual Halloween dance. There were posters and decorations canvased through the halls and dance supplies and installations had been parked out in the school lot all week. There was a stage and a fog machine and an arch just waiting to be covered in balloons. Ali was on the dance committee and she’d told Daniel hiring a photographer for the night had cost the school three hundred dollars and that didn’t even cover the additional prints they’d want for the yearbook later on. All in all, it was a big, much anticipated event that the East coaster had been pointedly not thinking about all month.

“What’s the matter?” Miyagi questioned, noting the boy’s uncharacteristic silence. “You’re not going?”

 “No.”

“How come?”

Daniel cut eyes at him, turning the edges of his mouth down in an over exaggerated frown. He’d already heard this exact line of questioning from his mother. Just like with her, he dismissed, “I’m not into dancing that much. I don’t feel like it anyway.”

Miyagi’s eyes stayed on his pumpkin, a small army of them standing guard on his table as Daniel navigated the room aimlessly. He’d already tidied up when he first wandered in after school and his bonsai was pruned to perfection. He moved to grab himself a drink from the mini fridge and the old man noted, “You’re too much by self. Not good.” 

The observation registered as a dull sting, but the young brunette only shrugged. “I’m not by myself, I’m with you.”

“This about soulmate?”

Immediately Daniel was thrown back into a sunkissed morning filled with stars and too blue eyes shiny with fear. A blush splashed over his face like someone had thrown a drink on him and the dull sting turned into a sharp stab. He shoved his marked hand into his pocket, a knee-jerk reaction to mentions of Johnny Lawrence ever since their last Saturday together, and scowled down at his feet. Mister Miyagi only hummed, the teenager’s silence all the answer he needed as he started to stick candles into the jack-o-lanterns.

He mused, “Can’t avoid him forever.”

“ He’s avoiding me ,” Danny corrected petulantly, shifting around with agitation and cracking his soda open with a star clustered hand before slipping it back in his pocket.

It was true.

Ever since spending the night at the Lawrence house and meeting Johnny’s step-father, the blonde had been treating him like he had the plague. After their encounter with Sid, the two teens had hurried back upstairs. The walk back up to his soulmate’s room had been a weirdly distorted trek in Daniel’s mind. It’d seemed to be over immediately and yet drag on for several minutes longer than it should have. On the stairs he had felt as if they were merely stepping in place, their legs pumping but getting them nowhere. The hall was a blink but also about fifty miles longer than he’d remembered it being. The house had been quiet but the silence was deafening and everytime Daniel had looked over Johnny had been there, eyes cast low and the side of his neck starting to bruise and purple. When they’d finally stepped into the room they’d slept in the night before, the sound of the door closing was like an atomic bomb going off three counties away.

The youngest LaRusso had tried to talk about what the hell happened squished there in that breakfast nook, but the youngest Lawrence would hear none of it. Johnny had just moved around his room turning random things over; a shirt folded, a cassette put away, his surfboard scooted to one side. He’d looked like he’d had half a mind to pack up a bag but had no idea where he was going. What was the weather like nowhere? Eventually Laura Lawrence had come in, face a disconcerting mask of put upon calm and apologized to Daniel for the inconvenience, but would it be alright if Johnny drove him home early?

The next day he called, but Victor said no one could come to the phone.

The day after that Johnny didn’t come to school.

The next day Daniel visited Johnny’s teachers and grabbed his missing homework.

The day after that Ali awkwardly asked him for it and said Johnny had called her.

One day Miss Kamen called Daniel into the nurse’s office to ask after his soulmate’s health.

The day after that Trudy turned him away when he showed up at his usual time.

Since then it had been two whole weeks and Johnny Lawrence had returned to school but he had also returned to acting like Daniel LaRusso didn’t exist. The boy with stars on his fist hadn’t thought there could be anything worse than his soulmate harassing him everyday, but as it turned out his soulmate ignoring him was somehow so, so much worse. Whenever he managed to catch sight of the blonde he was cutting a quick path in the opposite direction and he was arriving late and leaving early so there was no catching him outside of class. The other members of Cobra Kai Karate Dojo also seemed to be giving Danny a confusingly wide berth and the Italian figured this was actually a pretty smart move on Johnny’s part. He was actually willing to ask Bobby what the hell was up at this point.

He just didn’t understand it.

What had changed?

“Soulmate like bonsai,” Mister Miyagi observed, pulling out matches while Daniel just stared into nothing, mood and expression sour. He sipped at his soda silently. “If push too hard, will break. But if leave alone too long, will break.”

“I didn’t leave him alone,” Daniel argued, offended, “He ran away!” 

“Johnny-san get scared and grow away from sun,” the old man pressed on, infuriatingly patient and still seeming entirely focused on the pumpkins. He moved from one to the other, lighting the inner wicks with careful hands. Fwick-tsss, fwick-tsss . “If bonsai do that, how help?”

The skinny youth huffed and puffed and rolled his eyes, free fingers yanking through his hair as he thought. He shrugged his shoulders up and down, a melodramatic display that was a complete waste since Mister Miyagi had his back to him. He grouched, “I guess…turn the pot? See if that helps and if it doesn’t…maybe move it somewhere else?”

“Answer is many answers,” the handyman announced, shaking his match out and standing tall once more. He glanced over his shoulder and shot Daniel an amused smirk. The teen only blinked. “Maybe move, maybe trim, maybe wire, maybe just wait and see. Every bonsai different and one problem may have many answers. Only person who knows what best is you.”

“Me?” Daniel tested. That didn’t sound right at all.

“Try turning pot first and if not work try something else. But give time to work. Be patient. Be gentle.”

Danny mulled this over in his head, working his jaw back and forth as Miyagi moved to start putting the jack-o-lanterns out near the stairwell. He supposed he had really only tried one approach to getting anything out of his soulmate and had sort of given up when the results weren’t immediate. That wasn’t how you got anything to grow. He pondered what he could possibly do to turn the pot on this situation and then remembered the dance. It would be a different, hopefully relaxed environment to approach Johnny in and would have plenty of opportunities for them both to withdraw if it all got to be too much. He wanted to talk to the other teen not start a fight. But…

“I don't have a costume anyway,” he bemoaned when the maintenance man wandered back into his office. 

“If have costume, you go?”

Daniel shrugged, already losing the small kindling of hope he’d sparked just a moment ago. He flicked at the tab on his drink, his stars flashing quickly in the dim lighting. “Yeah, if I could go as the Invisible Man .”

Shrewd eyes assessed him. “Invisible man?”

The young man sighed, “Yeah, you know, so no one would see me?”

The handyman hummed thoughtfully.

---

The school gym was packed wall to wall with teenagers and Halloween decor and Daniel was impressed by the glimpses of everything he caught from within his last minute costume. There were ghosts hanging from the ceiling and everything was orange and black. The flashing lights made his soulmark twinkle. His classmates were dancing all around him dressed as gypsies and cowboys and he spied more than one Zorro from behind his curtain. He tripped along, bumping into people and unbalanced by all the rigging Mister Miyagi had fitted him with. The old man’s idea to dress up as a shower, curtain and all, had been poorly received at first, but the more the young Italian had considered it, the more he had been swayed.

He had to go to the dance to talk to Johnny.

Johnny wouldn’t talk to him if he saw Daniel coming.

Johnny wouldn’t know it was Daniel if all he saw was a curtain.

No one would know it was Daniel if all they saw was a curtain.

Perfect plan.

“Help me, my flower needs water!” a giggling voice said from right ahead of him, a hand shooting into his shower stall, a small daisy shoved into his face. The Newark native laughed despite himself, pulling his curtain back to reveal Ali Mills standing there dressed up as what he thought may be an angel. Her pretty face twinkled with glitter and Daniel noticed she had more flowers woven into her hair as she stepped into his stall.

“You’ve come to the right place, stranger,” he played along, pulling the curtain closed behind her when she was close enough. The old polka dotted sheet did nothing to muffle the noise all around them -thrumming music and booming voices- but it gave a sense of privacy as they were closed off from everything and everyone else.

“I didn’t think you were coming,” Ali said, smiling up at him before looking all around his makeshift costume. The light was low, but her eyes were bright. “Shower?”

“Yeah, a friend of mine made this for me,” he informed, smug and proud and happy to see her. She had been there for him throughout the last few weeks of Johnny keeping his distance and Daniel realized all at once that Ali Mills may actually be his best friend. “I came to talk to Johnny.”

Her whole face lit up with excitement, green eyes going big like saucers. She’d been pushing of course for the two of them to talk, the tragedy of literal star-crossed soulmates not speaking grating on her romantic nerves. Every school day she would spend their lunch period waxing poetic about how nothing could come between two souls meant to be, nothing, Daniel! The East coaster was pretty sure she’d been haranging her ex-boyfriend about the issue as well, but she’d remained suspiciously hush-hush about the matter when Danny had pressed. Now she looked like a veritable river of bubbly babble would come pouring out of her, but she pressed slender fingers to her lips and just nodded emphatically up at him.

“That’s wonderful!” she enthused, gaze shifting all about in a way that let Daniel know she was thinking; pondering where she’d seen Johnny Lawrence last. They were both swaying unconsciously, still following the beat of the music standing there in front of each other. “He was just heading to the punch bowl with Dutch!”

“Probably spiking it,” Daniel sighed, making sure to smile as he pulled open the curtain so the young woman knew he was joking. Ali had worked her ass off putting this dance together and would absolutely flip if someone got it shut down with booze. “Catch you later?”

“Good luck, Daniel!” the angel cheered, waving charmingly before disappearing into the crowd again. 

Their classmates had morphed into one large mass that swallowed her whole and coughed up a crazy looking chicken in her place. Daniel narrowly avoided getting an honest to God egg smashed into his hair as he drifted towards the snack table. On his way over he spotted Bobby and Tommy and Jimmy, all dressed like skeletons with painted faces. They were wobbly and giggly and smelled like fresh cut grass as they plowed past Danny, knocking his curtain all askew but luckily not noticing him behind it. He skirted around the other kids and a few dead eyed chaperones and soon he was standing at the far end of a long streamer covered table, peeking through his shower curtain cautiously as he spotted two more skeletons on the opposite end.

Dutch was standing in front of the punch and definitely spiking it, a tiny flask appearing and then quickly disappearing into his jumpsuit pocket. He laughed loudly, slapping Johnny on the arm before heading back out onto the dance floor. Daniel watched with interest as Johnny scowled after his friend, pretty face painted in harsh lines of black and white. Johnny’s eyes were covered over to look like the gaping holes of a skull, but the skinnier teen could still see the way his too blue eyes studied the punch bowl for an immeasurable moment before he reached out and snatched it off the table. A few boys who had just been staggering over to refill their cups grouched irately, but Johnny just stomped away.

Daniel followed after him, shower curtain swaying in big back and forth swings as he dodged around more inebriated teens. Johnny carried the bowl over to one of the school's ginormous trash cans and his soulmate gawked as the blonde poured out all the liquored up juice before setting the glass carefully on the ground off to the side where no one would trip over it. He then went and haltingly told one of the teachers milling about, obviously not paying much attention, that the snack table needed more drinks and Daniel had actually seen enough. He waited until the blonde was making his way back across the dance floor, following the same path the other Cobras had gone, before he moved in.

The shorter teen yanked his curtain back at the same moment he stepped right into Johnny’s path and got the satisfaction of seeing shock flash onto the blonde’s face before he could hide it behind his usual mask of indifference. He hadn’t gotten to see as much of his soulmate in recent weeks, and the Jersey boy found himself drinking in the sight almost greedily as he stepped right up into the guy’s face and space. That same cologne he’d gotten so familiar with was still there, but something was different about Johnny. Something Daniel couldn’t put his finger on.

“We need to talk,” he declared, trying to lace his voice with determined demand rather than nervous doubt. He crossed his skinny arms over his chest and attempted to look as serious as he felt, but Johnny hardly noticed.

“Jesus, LaRusso!” he hissed, crowding into the shower stall with no warning and jerking the curtain closed behind him. The shriek of the rings on the metal rail made Daniel wince and he tried to step away. The curtain caught Johnny’s shoulder. “What’re you doing!?”

“What’re you doing?” he bickered back, snatching the curtain open, cheeks suddenly warm. 

Johnny ripped it closed again. He grumbled, “I don’t want anyone to see us talking!”

Daniel swatted the curtain back open with a huff. “They already know we’re soulmates, dumbass!”

Johnny frowned at him and forced it closed once more, eyes sharp and pointed as he kept a fisted hand on the fabric so Daniel couldn’t pull it open again. The old polka dotted sheet did nothing to muffle the noise all around them -thrumming music and booming voices- but it gave a sense of privacy as they were closed off from everything and everyone else. With Ali it had felt cozy and fun, but with Johnny it felt hot and far, far too intimate. The brunette huffed in annoyance, already sweaty from their little back and forth with his costume, but let the curtain stay closed to have done with it.

“Fine, whatever,” he grouched, rolling his eyes for the blonde's benefit. Johnny just crossed his arms, somehow looking satisfied, irritated, and afraid all at once. 

“What do you want, LaRusso?”

“Good to see you too,” Daniel grumbled, rolling his shoulders, the straps from his costume digging into his back uncomfortably. He’d have to take it off soon. “I wanna know what gives, man, you disappeared on me for weeks!”

“I thought you’d prefer that,” Johnny sniped mockingly, the paint on his face making his sneer all the more ugly, “All you did was bitch when our moms made us start hanging out.”

“So did you!” the brown eyed boy defended, flapping a hand in his soulmate’s direction. “And don’t bullshit me, Johnny, neither of us has been bitching much recently.”

“Maybe not to your face,” the other teen scoffed, darting his eyes away. Daniel scowled at him, trying to remember why he’d wanted to talk to this jackass at all when suddenly he put his finger on it; the thing that was different about Johnny Lawrence tonight.

Without really meaning to, he blurted out, “You covered your stars.”

His soulmate actually looked stricken by this and Daniel was interested to see the way the blonde reached for his face before stopping himself. He blinked, crossing his arms again, more tightly, and explained, “I’m a skeleton, genius, had to paint my face.”

“Yeah, well, you look weird,” the other boy complained, casting his eyes away but having nowhere to look except for down at their feet. They were both swaying unconsciously, still following the beat of the music standing there in front of each other. The flashing lights made his soulmark twinkle. 

“Mom said the same thing,” Johnny sighed, the fight seemingly going out of him, his tense stance easing, his shoulders dropping down. Daniel raised an eyebrow at him. “She’s been busy recently, but…she misses you coming over or whatever.”

“ ‘Or whatever’, this fuckin’ guy,” Daniel huffed, eyes glancing imploringly upwards before settling on the taller teen again. Johnny looked straight back at him, but without his stars he looked incomplete. “So what happened, man, seriously? I thought things were going good.”

“Christ, Daniel-” Johnny breathed out like a bull, stepping back only to bump his head on the railing of the shower. Daniel reached up automatically, about to grab the other boy’s head and pull it down for inspection, but realised what he was doing mid-reach. He course corrected and ended up landing his hands on Johnny’s broad shoulders, steadying the blonde as he cursed and fussed about his soulmate’s stupid fucking costume.

“Easy, killer,” Daniel comforted sarcastically, not releasing his hold as Johnny steadied himself, hands reaching out to grip Daniel lightly as he straightened up. “It’s just a question.”

“You remember meeting Sid, right?” Johnny pressed, glaring down at him, “I wasn’t high or something and just imagined that?”

“‘Course I remember, guy was a total prick,” Daniel assuaged, recalling the ugly mark on his soulmate’s neck that had disappeared slowly over days where they weren’t speaking. Johnny raised his brows as if he’d just answered his own question. The shorter teen just blinked at him. 

“Obviously he said no more playdates at our place,” the young man explained slowly like he was talking to a child, “And he’s got friends with kids all over this fuckin’ school, he’d have a cow if he found out we were hanging out.”

“But…” Daniel trailed off, not really sure what his argument should be here. He’d known, he’d known Johnny’s step-father had a problem with them, but what was he supposed to do? Never talk to Johnny again? Or until Sid was out of the picture? When would that even happen? Instead he fell back on a classic, “But we’re soulmates.”

Johnny Lawrence looked right at him, blue eyes pinning him to the spot and eighty-six stars covered over with black and white paint. He said, “Sid doesn’t care about any of that.”

“But you do, right?”

A few weeks ago, Daniel was positive a question like that would have gotten him punched right in the face, but now Johnny just kept looking at him. The brunette still had his hands raised up onto his shoulders and the two of them were still swaying unconsciously to music Daniel realized for the first time had gone slow and steady while they weren’t paying attention. He also realized Johnny hadn’t lowered his own hands from where he’d reached out and caught himself on Daniel’s waist. 

They were dancing. 

They were dancing like a couple of eighth graders who’d been told to leave room for the Holy Spirit, but they were dancing. 

Who's gonna hold you down
When you shake?
Who's gonna come around
When you break?

The space inside the shower stall got ten times hotter and smaller and Daniel wanted to get out but he didn’t want Johnny to want to get out so he didn’t call attention to their situation, just tried to focus on the song playing to exit his body for a bit. He’d never heard it before, but the soft synth backdrop created a dreamlike quality, floating and ethereal, while the steady drumbeat grounded the song with a slow, deliberate rhythm. He liked it.

You can't go on thinking
Nothing's wrong, oh oh
Who's gonna drive you home
Tonight?

Danny had gotten way more familiar with music during his time with Johnny and he guessed his soulmate would say this song was bittersweet, carrying an undercurrent of sadness but wrapped in a gentle warmth. Johnny was good with words like that. Still, the lyrics were hitting a bit too close to home for him and the New Jersey native sighed through his nose irately. Back in his body and ready to throw focus, he grumbled, “What the hell even is this song?”

Johnny blinked, finally breaking his fixed gaze on the other boy’s face. He tilted his head, listening, then shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, keeping his eyes averted now. “It’s The Cars .”

Daniel could have laughed because of course, of course Johnny recognized a song about driving by a band called The Cars , but nothing really felt funny. Nothing had felt funny in three weeks and the boy with stars on his fist suddenly felt all three of those weeks weighing down on his already tired shoulders. He wanted to rest with his back leaned up against Johnny’s bed. He wanted to relax with some other band he’d never heard of blaring from a boombox in the corner. He wanted blueberry muffins and guava juice.

“I do.”

“Huh?” Daniel blinked, zoning back into the conversation (and the dance) with a dazed expression. He squinted up at Johnny. His stars glittered on the other teen’s shoulder. “Do what?”

“I do care.” Johnny looked as tense as he felt, blue eyes focusing somewhere just over his head rather than on him. He did that a lot when they spoke. “About soulmates.”

“Oh.” The song was drawing to a close, or at least Danny thought it was, he’d never heard it before. It felt like the end though. He waggled his head back and forth before settling on a nod. “I do too, Johnny.”

Chapter 10: tidal wave

Summary:

TIDAL WAVE: a cosmic disruption where a star ventures too close to a black hole and is torn apart

Daniel glanced out the corner of his eye at his soulmate swaying dreamily beside him. In the cool October night Johnny Lawrence had a smoldering blunt between his fingers and a crooked smile twitching across his lips, fighting a giggle that had already echoed around them more times than Danny had ever thought he’d hear it. The two seniors were leaning against a ramp rail out the backside of the school, the gym doors still thumping with bass behind them, music from the Halloween dance muffled by distance and brick. The lyrics were still audible though if they listened hard enough.

“You can't start a fire
You can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancin' in the dark”

They had danced.

Just a little, just to a song or two, but they had danced. Secreted away inside the New Jersey native’s shower costume and with nothing between them but tension, the two boys had danced and talked a bit and then Daniel had convinced Johnny to go and wash all the skeleton paint off his face. He’d looked weird and warped and his stars were hidden away in the night which was actually the time they were meant to shine, didn’t Johnny know that? The blonde had bitched and groaned but ultimately agreed with the addendum that if he was going to undo all his hard work then Daniel was going to try some of the weed John and the other Cobras had snuck in.

“You dump spiked punch but now you wanna go smoke the devil’s lettuce? For shame, Johnny,” Daniel had teased. Johnny had punched him in the arm.

Smoking pot with his soulmate was almost like an out of body experience for Daniel.

Johnny had lit them up, shown the smaller teen how to inhale deeply, hold the smoke in his lungs, and then puff it out in a fit of frankly painful coughing that the young Italian hadn’t liked at all. Still, the feeling of his limbs slowly getting light and floaty while his mind seemed to almost release from itself was interesting. Fun. Looking at Johnny and seeing the stars on his cheeks, now smeared with poorly washed paint, glitter and glow in the night was enchanting and the shorter boy found his own face growing tight and sore from how much he was smiling.

“Y’know,” he chuckled out of nowhere, not even remembering what they’d been talking about just a moment ago. If they’d been talking at all. “You’re like…a bonsai tree.”

Too blue eyes flickered over to him, pupils blown wide in the dim and Johnny Lawrence snorted through his nose, Pisces crinkling then smoothing again. The older teen asked, “The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Like,” Daniel began, breaking off to giggle about nothing and everything before continuing, “You’re like…kind of twisted, but like, on purpose? Like someone trained you to grow a certain way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t grow different later…Or something…I dunno, sounded smarter when he said it.”

“Who?” Johnny pressed, brow creased as he passed the roll back towards Daniel. His soulmate took it with a shrug, the tingle he felt in his finger tips when he touched the other boy making him giggle again. His own stars looked like they were floating right off his hand and he smiled at them.

“Mister Miyagi,” he answered, head wobbling back and forth as he watched the crazy constellation. The two fishes were dancing. “Neighbor that fixed my bike.”

“The maintenance man,” John recalled with a nod. He tilted his head up, gaze flinging up to the stars that burned down at them from millions of miles away and looked content enough. Dan studied the line of his soulmate’s neck, feeling like he was standing at an angle, head tilted too far to the side to compensate. He noticed the other boy had a freckle at the hollow of his throat and straightened up.

“You sit around gettin' older
There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
I'll shake this world off my shoulders
Come on, baby, the laugh's on me”

“I feel funny,” he announced to no one in particular, blunt slowly burning itself out in his hand. 

Johnny cut eyes at him, blinking rapidly. “You’re high.”

“Oh…are you high?”

“Definitely, man.”

“...Oh.”

“Yeah...”

The two teens lapsed into silence and the night breeze rustled all through their hair and clothes. Daniel had shrugged off his shower costume as soon as they’d made it outside, his shoulders thankful for the release. He was just in jeans and a jersey with no undershirt and the wind made him shiver, his knees literally knocking. John’s costume looked like a giant baby onesie but it was thick and warm and even had a hood that the bigger boy had pulled up to protect his ears. He watched the other teen quake like he was embarrassed for him and sucked loudly at his teeth.

“Why didn’t you bring a jacket?” he questioned, his tone making it sound like he was calling Dan a fucking idiot without actually saying it. The brunette shrugged, noticed the motion warmed his sides up a bit plus made it feel like his arms wouldn’t float away, and so kept doing it over and over.

“Dunno,” he chattered, shoulders jumping, “Didn’t think I’d be outside much.”

It was true. Daniel had figured he’d get to the dance, hunt down Johnny, and whether the other senior agreed to talk to him or not, he’d be inside the dance either reconciling with his soulmate or sulking by the punch bowl. Reconciling, sharing a dance or two, and then stepping outside to get high and laugh at each other hadn’t even occurred to him as an option and now he was trembling and watching John watch the stars. Brown eyes jumped all over the taller teen’s face, up to the sky, and then bounced back down as if drawn by a magnet.

With his hood pulled up and some streaks of paint still clinging to his jaw and hairline Johnny looked kind of messy. Not the perfect blonde-haired, blue-eyed California heartthrob Daniel had pegged him as at first meeting. It may have been the night or the weed or the weeks apart, but Daniel thought he’d never seen his soulmate look quite so real and he was almost tempted to reach out and poke the other boy’s face just to make sure he was there.

Definitely the weed.

"Did you know there’s eighty-six stars in Pisces?" Johnny broke the silence, eyes still turned upwards into the inky black speckled with light.  "Eighty-six stars on your hand?"

Daniel blinked bemusedly. “Yeah…how’d you know that?”

“Read it in a book.” 

“Before we met?”

John pinned him with an exaggerated frown. “No?”

There was no swagger behind the words, no teasing. If anything the older boy sounded almost defensive, like he hadn’t meant to say anything out loud. Daniel huffed a surprised little laugh, cheeks hot. Johnny had done the sensible thing and just gone and found the information somewhere. Meanwhile, the brunette had counted each little smear of gold on his soulmate’s face in quiet moments and then repeated that routine whenever he got the chance thereafter. Had been thrown off kilter when they’d been trapped in his shower curtain, music flowing all around them, and realized he couldn’t count his eighty-six favorite stars because someone had painted over them. 

And Johnny Lawrence had just read it in a book. 

Daniel’s heart did a funny little stutter step and he thrust the blunt, pinched near to ruin between his fingers, back at the taller teen.

“I’m good,” he said, teeth chattering as Johnny reached out and took the roll. He looked like he was moving in slow motion. “I don’t need anymore, I’m…toasted.”

Blue eyes squinted at him, red around the edges, and Johnny snickered, sticking the blunt between his teeth as he started patting his pockets for his lighter to spark back up. He sniped, “You couldn’t toast bread.”

“Y’know—”

Danny’s no doubt clever and hilarious bite back was cut off by the gym doors being pushed open. Daniel tensed and John turned sharply toward the sound. Music spilled out into the night, louder without the barrier, and they could hear Michael Jackson clear as crystal yelling, “ Cause this is thriller! Thriller night— !” before the doors slammed shut again. Bobby, Tommy, Dutch, and Jimmy had all come loping out of the gym, matching costumes making it look like they were about to break out in a choreographed dance routine. The thought made a still pretty high Daniel snicker hysterically, brown eyes turning wide to the boy beside him. This seemed like trouble.

“Look what we have here,” Dutch leered, wide face painted over but platinum hair still peaking out from beneath his hood. “This pussy botherin’ you, Johnny?”

“Nah, man,” the boy denied, gaze falling to the floor and skittering away. He dropped the dead roach to the ground and crushed it under his sneaker, ash smearing the ramp’s concrete. “LaRusso was just leaving.”

“I was?” Daniel tested, one brow quirked up. He shifted his weight and watched all the other teens mirror the motion, their bodies tuned into his like a radio station broadcasting static. The wind picked up around them and then died down again.

“Aw, don’t go, Danny,” Jimmy tittered, seeming as giggly as the New Jersey native himself. High and maybe a bit drunk too. “Fun’s just gettin’ started.”

Jimmy and Dutch and Tommy fell into the laughter and teasing, but Dan was more hyperfocused on Bobby. The dirty blonde wasn’t puffing up or poking fun like the other three, he was just glaring at Johnny, his brow creased in what looked like confusion. Johnny, for his part, was avoiding his best friend’s gaze and glancing all up and over the gym behind him, refusing to make eye contact. Time seemed to stretch wide and nonsensical as Daniel watched them, not sure what to make of the exchange or lack thereof.

Finally, Bobby prompted, “What’re you doing out here, man?”

“Nothing,” Johnny sighed, pushing away from the railing he’d been leaning against. Daniel looked up, up, up at him. Guy was tall. “Getting some air.”

“With LaRusso ?” 

There were more ‘ooh’s and ‘aww’s from the peanut gallery and the Jersey teen felt like his time to exit was fast approaching. He stepped away from the railing as well, raising his hands innocently when five pairs of eyes flew to him. He felt more giggles clawing their way up his chest at the absurdity of the Cobras’ synchronization, but he fought them back. His mouth felt dry as the desert.

“I’m gonna go,” he declared, unable to keep a lazy smirk from sliding onto his face while his eyelids drooped and dozed. The other teens all looked like shaky shadows to him and he was suddenly desperately tired. “Seems like you guys got some things to discuss.”

Dutch’s lip curled and he waved between them, pointing out how close Daniel and Johnny were standing. He sneered, voice dripping with cruel amusement, “What? Did we interrupt your little date?”

Tommy barked out a laugh far too loud, “Honeymoon phase, huh?” 

Daniel’s face burned and he instinctively retreated half a pace, putting a few more inches between himself and his soulmate. He hadn’t noticed their proximity and didn’t think Johnny had either. His shift rippled through the group and the Cobra Kai boys dogged his step, all of them moving forward when he moved back and his breath hitched. Beside him Johnny straightened further and his weight actually shifted to the side, his shoulder drifting just in front of Daniel somehow subtle and obvious at the same time. Brown eyes honed onto the side of the blonde’s face, sticking on paint flakes still smudged in certain spots.

“What the hell, dude?” Jimmy all but whined, skinny face crumbling behind his skull make up. “This wimp’s been messing things up all year and now, what? You’re friends?”

“He’s my soulmate, dumbass,” Johnny drawled, tone too casual to be sincere, “Not my friend.”

A strange thrill shot through Daniel’s sternum at the declaration, not even minding the clarification that they weren’t friends. Johnny had said they were soulmates—in front of other people! Daniel wasn’t sure if the blonde had ever admitted that out loud to anyone besides his mother, but from the way the guy was standing as stiff as rebar with his fists clenched at his sides, he didn’t think so. 

“So what?” Bobby challenged, tone petulant, his eyes searching Johnny’s face. “You been acting different, man.”

“Yeah, Johnny, what happened to no mercy?” Tommy bitched, scratchy voice grating Daniel’s ears that felt like they were full of cotton or water or something. Everything was muffled.

Johnny didn’t flinch or look away. Daniel could see the muscle in the older teen’s jaw tightening, could trace a vein standing out in his neck. There was hurt in his blue eyes at the insults, hurt and betrayal, but the California native masked it quickly beneath a hard glare.  It may have been the night or the weed or the weeks apart, but Johnny didn’t seem interested in entertaining his friend’s bullshit or putting up the front he and Daniel had kept with the last few months. From the way he stepped forward, right into Bobby’s space and face, it was suddenly very clear that the blonde was done with just about everything and Danny felt his palms begin to sweat in anxious anticipation. 

When he spoke, John’s voice came out low and even, “Step off, man.”

The silence that followed was as cold and thin as the wind. Everyone froze like they were holding their breath. No one else said anything, Johnny seemingly having had the final word, but no one ‘stepped off’ either. The two friends were right in each other’s face, sharing air and tension and Daniel’s stomach swooped and dived. A mix of emotions were swirling in his chest: shock, panic, residual hilarity, and an unexpected warmth. His soulmate had stood up for him and it made the Italian feel like he maybe needed to sit down. His knees were weak.

Johnny’s stance was solid, but Daniel wondered if he was as calm as he looked. He’d told Daniel inside the dance that he cared about soulmates, but this was something different. This was the older teen standing up to his friends and declaring plainly that there was a connection here that deserved to be…what? 

Acknowledged? 

Accepted? 

Protected? 

The seventeen year old wasn’t sure and he also wasn’t sure if Johnny would like the way this had all shaken out once the weed wore off. With that literally sobering thought in mind, the skinny teen stepped around his soulmate, hands up again and trying to paint his face into an exaggerated expression of chagrin so that everyone could read it through their different hazes. 

“Hey, guys,” he pandered, drawing five gazes again and sweating more for his troubles, “He’s high, he doesn’t mean it.”

“Daniel—”

“You speak for him now?” Dutch accused, cutting Johnny off, his beady eyes narrowed with annoyance. “Who asked you?”

“You literally asked me,” Daniel couldn’t help but sass, dropping his hands with a huff and rolling his painfully dry eyes as Johnny shouldered him back again. “Jackass.”

“What’d you call me?!”

“Cool it, Dutch,” Johnny warned, shoving the burly boy back in a knee jerk reaction that sent him stumbling into the other Cobras. The gang of teens balked and gasped and guffawed, all their auras stained with a sense of ‘ Why, I never !’ and Daniel was giggling again, clutching at his belly and wishing his high would just end already. It wasn’t helping matters.

“Something funny, twerp?” Tommy pressed, moving to get around Johnny to the shorter teen only to get the same thing Dutch got though much more intentional. Johnny didn’t just react and throw his hands up; he planted his feet, squared his shoulders, and pushed from the center of the other boy’s chest, disturbing his balance so that Jimmy had to catch him from falling completely to the ground.

“I said back off!” the blonde seethed.

“And I’m saying put ‘em up, Lawrence,” Bobby bit back, dropping into a fighting stance right there on the ramp as the other Cobras fell behind him. The boy’s eyes were hard but wet and there was nothing to giggle about anymore as he gestured his friend forward. “C’mon, no mercy!”

Daniel blinked at him, astonished, ready to say he was straight up crazy until he saw Johnny giving a small bow and also positioning himself into a karate pose. The brunette jumped at him. “Woah, woah, woah, you guys can’t fight?!”

“Stay out of it, Daniel,” Johnny growled through his teeth, jaw clamped and fists up near his chin. His whole form was trembling with kinetic energy ready to burst out at any moment like a firework fizzing down the wick. “I’ve got this.”

“Get ‘im good, Bobby!”

“Yeah, strike first!”

“This is crazy!” Dan insisted, still trying to step between his soulmate and the other boy, the two of them simply shifting around him while Jimmy tried to pull him out of the way. The New Jersey native shook him off. “You guys can’t fight each other!”

“Don’t be such a pussy, LaRusso,” Dutch scoffed, big arms crossed over his chest and painted face carved into a frown. Music and laughter still thrummed from the gym just behind them but it sounded miles away. “They gotta work this out.”

“Not like this!”

“ Fight!”

Johnny and Bobby responded to Tommy’s order like a bell had rung and lunged at each other. Jimmy was just fast enough to yank Daniel out of the way as Bobby moved first, fast and precise. He threw a front kick toward Johnny’s midsection that the other boy caught cleanly under his arm, twisting hard and using his friend’s momentum to toss him off balance. The dirty blonde hit the concrete with a grunt, but rolled back to his feet quick as a spring.

Johnny pressed his advantage, striking forward with quick jabs that forced Bobby backward, ducking and deflecting, his arms tight in front of him. Daniel felt like he could barely follow the blur of their movements, their arms and legs flying quicker than he could track. On the beach the night he’d met Johnny the older teen had barely needed to flex any karate muscles to get Daniel down, but it was clear he was facing Bobby as a real opponent. The two were trained and what was more than that, they were trained together ; they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Every pivot, every angle of attack, every breath in their stances carried the muscle memory of hours spent side by side in a serious dojo. Bobby anticipated Johnny’s high punch and ducked not because he saw it, but because he knew it was coming. Johnny countered a sweep before Bobby had even committed to it, shifting his weight off his back leg to keep from being taken down.

They were exploiting each other in the way only friends could and it was like watching a chess match played at a thousand miles an hour—with bruises. And it was more than technique, Daniel could see it in their faces. Bobby’s stung betrayal, Johnny’s stubborn defiance. This wasn’t just fighting. This was Bobby demanding to know who Johnny was now and Johnny answering with his fists.

Daniel felt sick.

“Seriously, guys, break it up,” he stammered, half hefted up by Jimmy who was still holding him back. “We’re gonna get in trouble.”

They split momentarily, circling each other with arms poised to block or attack in turn. Bobby favored his left, angling himself towards Johnny so he had to glare at him sideways. He goaded, “I thought we were a team, Johnny? Friends!”

“We are,” the blonde insisted, but his blue eyes cut to Daniel momentarily before refocusing. “I can still be your friend and his soulmate at the same time.”

“Bullshit,” the other teen spat, fists shaking with his fury, “You know how Sid feels about him. And Kreese too!”

Daniel balked, wondering what the hell Johnny’s shitty step dad had to do with any of this. And who the hell was Kreese? His soulmate seemed unbothered. Locking his position, the blonde refused to give any more ground as he faced Bobby head on. “I don’t give a shit.”

“You used to.”

Johnny’s jaw clenched. “That was then.”

He didn’t flinch when Bobby surged forward again.

“Hey!” All six seniors startled as the security light over the rear gym door flickered on with a buzz. “What the hell is going on back here?!”

From around the side of the building, Ali’s cheer coach came stomping forward, flashlight in hand and the soccer coach lumbering right behind her, acting as her muscle apparently. Jimmy quickly shoved Daniel away, sending the skinny kid sprawling as Dutch booked it towards the field, ignoring the adult’s voices calling after him. Bobby and Johnny didn’t straighten from their fighting stances, still eyeing each other warily as Tommy held his hands up like the school staff were cops with guns.

“Alright, you idiots, take it off of school property,” Coach Thomas grouched, a cigarette jammed between his lips and burnt down near to the filter. “And that better not be pot I smell!”

“Ah, man,” Tommy whined, his voice thin and reedy as all the students shifted about, giving the coaches a wide berth as they passed each other on the ramp.

“I’ll see all of you in the principal’s office on Monday,” Coach Sparks declared, hands on hips and heels clicking ominously. “And tell Dutch to be there.”

Adults and teenagers passed like ships in the night, the seniors making their way down the ramp while the teachers made for the back gym door. Daniel had been so shocked to see them both it had hardly registered that they were dressed up as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia from Star Wars. The East coaster didn’t need any further proof that his high had finally worn off; nothing was even remotely funny about the situation anymore. He followed Johnny and Bobby into the dark, Tommy and Jimmy trailing behind him making him feel trapped. They stumbled around the side of the school and started towards the front lot, silence clinging to them like smoke stink.

“See you guys Monday I guess,” Tommy huffed, already slouching off, hands buried in the pockets of his costume. Jimmy glanced back at Bobby and Johnny, thick brows pinched together, before following after his friend. That just left Daniel, Johnny, and Bobby and the Cobra Kai students faced off with each other. 

“I’m gonna tell sensei everything,” Bobby announced, jaw set like he wanted to spit something much nastier. “You’re out of the dojo for sure.”

“Do what you gotta do, man,” John dismissed, the constellation on his face dulled in the dim light. “I don’t care.”

They weren’t poised to fight any more, but they held themselves at a stiff distance, malice and ill will zipping between them like an electric current Daniel swore he could see sparking in the night. Big brown eyes flashed back and forth between the two before he hesitantly reached out towards his soulmate’s sleeve. He’d left his shower costume flung down behind the gym. 

“C’mon, Johnny,” he tested, tugging lightly on the skeleton’s arm. “Let’s get outta here.”

Too blue eyes stayed glued on their opponent, staring Bobby down until he left first, tossing his head in obvious agitation as he walked off into the night in a totally different direction than the others had gone. Daniel realized all at once they must have all arrived in Johnny’s car and now were forced to get home on foot. No wonder they were so pissed off. 

He watched Bobby disappear and waited until Johnny started stomping toward the Avanti, parked haphazardly near the street, before getting himself into gear. He’d ridden his bike to the dance, but wasn’t too keen on heading back around the school to the rack and risking the teachers seeing him again. The seventeen year old was hyping himself up to hoof it home or maybe even hitchhike when a sharp voice called out to him from a rapidly retreating shadow.

“Let’s go, LaRusso!”

Notes:

sorry for the long wait but I owe my life (this chapter) to LUCKY_888 and fairyprincesshippie for commenting and reminding me that this story deserves more love and attention because ITS WONDERFUL

thank you, thank you, thank you for reading

Notes:

COMMENTS || KUDOS || BOOKMARKS

(Alice, if you find this text me 😚)