#Imagine little boy RJ growing up on the beach though

[junglekarmapippa]

“Just because you got something wrong, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you human.”

(prompt by @dialouge-prompts)

RJ sat next to Master Finn on the sand. The older master was staring out at the sea. His son was staring at his feet, now bare after he had taken his shoes off.

“Thank you, RJ,” Master Finn said after a long silence. “You saved my life.”

“No problem, dad,” the Wolf Master answered with a smile. “It was the least I could do.”

“You didn’t have to do it.”

“Of course I did, you’re my father!”

“I came into your home, shamed you...”

“Threw away a pair of perfectly good socks...”

“I took your student from you. I was arrogant and cruel, RJ, and yet, you saved me.”

“Of course I did. You’re my father, what happened 7 years ago doesn’t change that.”

“I didn’t realize how much I was hurting you,” the older man said in a broken voice.

RJ wrapped an arm around his shoulders, affectionately. “I wouldn’t be where I am if you hadn’t done what you did.”

His father looked at him with a pleased smile. “You have changed so much since I last saw you.”

“When you last saw me, I was an arrogant seventeen-years-old who thought he knew better and wasn’t willing to listen. I was also very mean and unfair to you. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, you were just a kid.”

They fell silent again. RJ looked back at his father’s beach shack, where he stayed when he was building a boat and remembered something he had wanted to tell him if they ever started talking to each other again.

“Do you remember that story you used to tell me all the time? The one about the magic shark and the fisherman?” he asked.

Master Finn smiled. “I never thought you actually listened to it.”

“I always listened but I was too young to understand what it meant.”

Master Finn turned to his son and smiled. “What do you mean?”

“You always changed the details. Sometimes it was daytime, sometimes, night. Sometimes the fisherman was alone, sometimes he was with others but refused to let them kill the shark,” RJ remembered him with a smile. “But there was one thing that always remained the same. When the shark offered the fisherman eternal life, the fisherman always asked if those he loved would get it too and the shark always said no. So the fisherman refused the offer. He always refused the offer.”

“It was a story I made up when you were a little boy, you used to love it.”

“But you didn’t make it up out of nowhere. You were trying to tell me something you couldn’t tell me. That’s why you kept retelling this to me, even after I was too old for bedtime stories,” RJ said. He turned to his father and the older man turned to him. “I understand now, dad. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Through what, exactly?” the Shark Master asked, looking at the ocean again.

“Losing your loved ones to immortality.” RJ whispered, turning to the ocean as well.

“Oh, son...”

“No, I mean, it must have been terrible,” RJ insisted. “Because your shark didn’t ask if you wanted eternal life, it just gave it to you.”

“As did your wolf, I guess.”

“Yes.” RJ swallowed hard and blinked back tears. “I always wanted to be a Pai Zhua master, it was always my dream. There was nothing I wanted more than to be like you.”

“Why would you want to be like me?” The older man asked, surprised.

“Because you were an amazing father,” RJ said honestly, turning to him again. “What happened seven years ago doesn’t change that. You always cared for me, gave me everything you could. Under your care, I was never scared, I was never cold and I was never hungry. I received a formal education. You taught me how to swim, how to surf, how to sail. You taught me to be kind and respectful to others and to love nature and animals. You were a fantastic father and I was very fortunate to have you.”

It was Master Finn’s turn to have tears in his eyes as he pulled his son to him for a hug. “I was just so desperate not to lose you,” he admitted. “So desperate, I drove you away.”

RJ pulled away from his father’s embrace. “I did want to be a Pai Zhua master, dad, I just felt the shark was not my spirit, that was all,” he pulled his sleeve up and showed him his master stripes. “I am a Pai Zhua master now. The Wolf Master. But just because I’m not a shark it doesn’t mean I will leave you. We are in this together, we are both immortal now.”

“I am sorry, RJ.”

“For what? For not wanting to lose me too?”

“Immortality is not a gift,” Master Finn scoffed. “It is a curse.”

“Only if you are alone. And even when I start losing friends, lovers and children to immortality, I will have my father there to support me. You have been through that, you can guide me.”

“I didn’t know you needed me so much now.”

“I’m sorry I was arrogant enough to walk out of the home you gave me,” RJ said, looking at his father’s eyes. “And I’m sorry I was too arrogant to say I was sorry and come back.” He loooked down at his master stripes. “When I got my stripes, when I was told everything you couldn’t tell me, I only wanted to taalk to you and ask for your guidance,” he looked at the ocean again. “But I guessed you were really hurt and didn’t feel like talking to me anymore.”

“Seven years for me are a heartbeat, RJ,” Master Finn whispered. “But those were the longest years of my life. I had lost children to death before but never to my own stubbornness and unwillingness to listen to them. Knowing you would rather carry on with your life away from me was harder than losing you to death.”

“Dad, you are an amazing father,” RJ told him, his face serious. “I can only hope that when I have children, I can be as good as you.”

“You won’t be as good as me,” Master Finn said. “You will be better, because you won’t make the same mistakes.”

“No, I will other mistakes. Maybe worse ones,” RJ said. “We all do,” he shrugged. “But from this I learned that just because you got something wrong it doesn’t make you a bad person, or erase all the good you did before that. It only makes you human.”

Father and son hugged tightly where they sat and smiled at each other when they let go.

“I am so proud of you, Robert.”

“Thank you, dad.”

“Maybe you can teach me how to make a pizza? I know what I taught you didn’t stick, but perhaps you will prove to be a better master than me, as well as a better human being.”

“What you taught me did stick, dad,” RJ said, getting up and brushing the sand off his pants. “I know the shark technique almost to perfection.”

“Your moves were very sloppy the last time I saw them,” the Shark Master reminded him, imitating his son.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t like the speed,” RJ admitted with a shrug. “And I was sort of rebelling against the technique in general. But I missed you so I kept going back to it, until I got it right.”

“You kept practicing a technique you despised?” Master Finn asked, wrapping an arm over his son’s shoulders as they made their way back to the shack. “After you left my side?”

“Yes. While I learned the wolf technique.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the technique of my father and my father’s father, I am proud of it,” RJ explained. “Besides, what if I am the odd one out and my child has the spirit of the shark and not the wolf?”

“That sounded very close to you saying you’re proud to be my son.”

“I am,” RJ said with a smile. “I’m very proud to be your son, dad. I take with me everything you ever taught me and I live by it.” He vowed his head respectfully. “And I am honored to work with you in Casey’s training.”

“Ah, yes, Casey.” The fisherman said, taking his armor off and leaving only his shirt and pants. “He’ll be our new father and son project, like when you used to help me build boats.”

“Oh, trust me,” RJ said with a mischievous smile. “This will be much more fun than building a boat.”