Spend Your Life Asleep

Summary: As the saying goes, "To believe in one's dreams is to spend all of one's life asleep."

Characters: Oogway, Shifu

A/N: I recently realized that I've never written Oogway before, and that's going to bite me in the butt when I try to write I Beg To Differ because he's actually a character in it. So I threw this together. As a bonus, I made it as serious as possible and threw in my version of the First Generation!Furious Five; the former because I can't write just humor forever, and the latter because I wanted some feedback on their character before I wrote them in a story.

Oogway has seen China at her worst. He has seen her in shambles, broken and dying. He has seen her scars; he knows of her fear that they may reopen. There are times when he looks into the sky, and the rain that falls are the tears she can no longer hold back.

Oogway turns away from the burned village before him; away from the screams and the cries. Beside him, a comrade sobs. He sobs with China, as her tears wash away ashes and charred homes.

This is China at her worst. That is the only thing he is sure of.

.

Fire is final.

Oogway knows this from past experiences.

It's a lesson he knows is necessary to know, but not easy to teach. Something like guilt twists inside his stomach as he looks down at his innocent student—son—and he can't bring himself to say a word.

"Master…" Shifu says in a small, shaking voice. "Master, where's my home?"

Oogway opens his mouth. No sound comes out. He looks at the village, once striving and now…now gone; dead, in ashes, scarred forever. Burned. With one hand he clutches his staff, and with the other he touches the five year old's shoulder.

"It is…gone, Shifu," he says, with difficulty.

A small part of him dies when Shifu looks up at him with tears welling up in his childlike eyes.

.

He often thinks of immortality.

He wonders if he is immortal; if he will have to watch his students die one day, by the hands of an enemy or illness he does not know or wish to find out. The thought is morbid and very, very depressing, but once he's thought it he knows it will never go away.

To never die. What does it mean? Will he simply rot away after thousands of years? Will it be a gradual change; he simply vanishes a little more with each passing day? Do his students ponder this as well?

He can imagine Fenghuang doing so, purple eyes narrowing in concentration as they so often do. She will think of it for days, until she can deduce an answer that pleases her. She is intelligent enough, he knows, that her answer will be the sadder choice, and also the right one.

Shifu would never do such a thing. Oogway knows the amount of trust and awe that he sees in his students' eyes runs deep into heart, into his very will to live. It's awful to think that his boy can love him so much that his judgment is clouded. It is awful, and yet Oogway can't shake the thought.

There's Phan, and Rong, and Ruon Li—but they are too innocent, too loving. Phan has wide eyes that soar when she sees her master; Ruon Li has an unstoppable grin; and Rong sighs, happily, like the sight will never get old.

Oogway wonders if becoming their parental figure is a blessing or a curse, and though he dwells on it for days, cannot come to a conclusion.

.

Oogway looks to his left, and realizes with a start that his boy has become a man overnight.

His chest if puffed, his chin held high, and a moustache he's obviously proud grows right beside his nose. His large ear flicks and he pauses his stretching, eyebrows lifted and staring at his master.

"Is everything okay, Master?"

Oogway chuckles and nods. "Everything is fine, Shifu. I was simply noticing how much you've grown—and it seems I missed the change."

Shifu bites his lip while his leg shoots above his head. "I don't think you missed it, Master," he says slowly. "I think you were expecting it for so long, it didn't take you by surprise when it actually happened."

Oogway blinks.

"And," Shifu goes on, gaining confidence now, "you have to consider the fact that you see me everyday, and the days blur together, and so it only looks like I've magically aged, when it reality, it's been taking place right under your nose."

Oogway wishes someone else was around to witness this.

Shifu isn't done yet. "There's one last thing, Master."

"By all means, do share it."

"Well…" Shifu inhales deeply. "Well, it occurred to me that maybe it's a parent thing and all, but fathers are always longing for the day that their sons turn into men. But…but, it's like you've missed that day for me, so does that mean you weren't pining for it? You wanted me to stay a boy forever?"

"No," Oogway answers softly. "I wanted to merit the day that you became a man, so I could remember it forever. And Shifu, it is very clear to me that today, right now, you are truly a man."

Shifu nearly falls over in surprise, but when he rights himself there's an enormous smile on his face and a proud glint in his eye.

.

Thick tension settles over the room like a blanket.

Oogway watches in amusement as his students glare over their dinners. Phan hasn't blinked for nearly two minutes, and Shifu's eye has developed his infamous twitch. The staring contest could go all night, he knows, but frankly, there's no time for that.

"So," Oogway starts pleasantly, "can I rightfully assume you two are fighting?"

Phan answer's first, eyes never leaving Shifu's; "Of course not, Master. We aren't children anymore."

"Adults fight as well," Oogway points out.

"Yes, I suppose, but we aren't." The table shakes, Oogway hears a thump and Shifu winces and rubs where Phan has kicked his shin. "Tell him, Fu, tell him we're not fighting."

Shifu glares daggers at her. "We're not fighting," he says through gritted teeth.

Phan kicks him again.

Oogway still hasn't risen to stop them. He doesn't address the lie, simply works around it. "And what are you fighting about?" he asks as if they're discussing the weather.

"Nothing," Phan snarls, while Shifu admits, "My father," and contorts his face in pain when Phan's foot collides with his knee.

"I see." Oogway looks at Phan. "Is there something I've done wrong?"

"No, not you," Phans explains with a slight edge to her voice, "you're doing fine, Master. I'm referring to his other father—the one with stumpy legs and a jowly face and a prudish attitude and that awful rice hat."

Oogway looks at his son; that definition won't sit well with him. As expected, Shifu slams his fist on the table. "Do not talk about my father that way! Just because you two do not see eye to eye—"

"Save it for someone who cares," Phan interrupts with a loud snort.

"No, you are going to listen to me—"

"—What makes you say that?"

"Because, sooner or later all simpletons see reason."

"I'm sorry, did you just call me a simpleton? I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of your begging to get punched in the face."

"I did call you a simpleton, Phan. As you would put it, I'm 'saying it like it is'."

"Shifu, don't make me kill you in front of your own father."

"As if you could even lay a finger on me!"

"Is that a challenge?"

"No, I was stating a fact. Much like saying 'the sun shines', or 'fish swim', or 'Phan is an idiot'."

"Oh, I'm an idiot now?"

"You've always been one!"

"I feel like you're mistaking me for yourself!"

Oogway interrupts their argument with a loud chuckle.

They stare at him, and he stares back, smiling into his cup of tea. "Well, that is one way to answer my question."

Phan, who has stood in her seat to yell into Shifu's face, sits back down with a huff. "My apologies, Master," she grumbled. "We are civilly discussing an issue about Mr. Liao."

"Ah. And this issue is…?"

Shifu looks as if he's about to explode. "There is no issue," he spits. "There's none at all." His gaze his fixed on Phan now, eyes bright like coals. "My father loves me, and he only acts the way he does because it is a part of his personality. Everything he's ever done is because he cares about me, my mother, and the rest of my family, so please do everyone in this palace a favor and stop arguing about topics you don't understand." Then he stands, knocking his chair over in the process, and storms out of the kitchen.

Phan sinks into her seat. "Well…" she stammers, searching for the words. "Well fine," she says lamely, and Oogway pretends to not notice that she's crying. She turns to him. "You see I'm right, don't you, Master? Shifu's father isn't capable of love—not like you are! Shifu ought to break away from his family and…and just be done with that wretched old bat! Not a single Liao could love him like I- like, all of us could!"

Her voice cracks and Oogway embraces her just in time to comfort her sobs.

.

It's strange to witness his son mature so greatly; to see him spending time with his own son. Oogway isn't sure whether to cry or smile, so he does both.

Tai Lung notices this and squirms away from Shifu to toddle up to the turtle and nuzzle him until the tears stop. Even though he a child, he knows a sad man when he sees one, and Oogway can't help but think that this child will be great one day. Later, when he expresses the thought to Shifu, the red panda nods proudly and says, "I think so too," like it's the most obvious fact in the world.

.

Oogway is calm because he has to be, not because that's how he feels.

He swallows and shakes his head. Shifu's eyes find his son's and they share a look of horror—and look that Oogway himself has caused, a look that is going to haunt him forever.

"There is a darkness in his heart," Oogway tells Shifu with something like resignation in his eyes. He doesn't want this to happen- but it must.

"…but…"

"I'm sorry," Oogway says. He means it. There is nothing else to say and he cannot stand another second of the murderous glare Tai Lung has fixated on him, so Oogway walks away and is ultimately neutral when Shifu falls into step beside him.

They are silent. There is nothing either of them can think of to say.

.

Oogway came very close to doubting himself once. He knew the panda was the Dragon Warrior, even if no one else believed it, but seeing him train made the turtle wince and honestly wonder if he had gone senile without realizing it.

Shifu is glaring at him as he too watches Po fumble about the Training Hall. Oogway feels a tug at his heart, and suddenly he can't stomach the sight of this untrained goofball anymore.

As he retreats to his chambers, he hears Shifu grumble one sentence that he will never apologize for: "Tai Lung would've been greater."

And Oogway actually pauses to contemplate if he's right.

.

It pains him to watch Shifu stumble blindly through life, but it's a very humbling experience He knew Shifu relief on him…though he wasn't aware just how much he was truly needed. Not until it was too late.

There's a look of utter terror in Shifu's eyes as he prepares to fight his son, his son, and Oogway wants nothing more then to take back his earthly form and make the world right. However, he knows he can't, that he'll never be able to and watches with a growing dread as Tai Lung steps forward to finish a fight he'd started twenty years ago.

Just when Tai Lung is going for the kill, when Oogway really doubts his own piece of advice, the one he had told Shifu countless times before, there are no accidents, Po waddles in and Oogway wants to chide him for his lateness.

He doesn't. He can't.

Though, he can smile when Po—the Dragon Warrior for certain—defeats his opponent. It's a sad, morose smile, but a smile nonetheless.

.

Oogway never lived to see China at her greatest.

Shifu made sure it was perfect anyway, just in case his master was watching from above.