Welcome to my first official full length story! Quick note before we get started: I've had this idea for a story for something like 3 years now so timeline wise, this'll take place after KFP 2 and before the events of 3.

Also, because I'm only allowed to list, I want to mention that this story is planned to be far more than Romance and Adventure. The full listing would be something like Adventure/Romance/Mystery/Family/Friendship. I REALLY like what I have planned to happen, so I really hope you enjoy this.

Obvious Disclaimer is obvious: I of course own no rights to Kung Fu Panda, that belongs to Dreamworks, or the Inception quote below.

What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria, a virus, an intestinal worm? No, an idea...resilient, highly contagious. One fully formed is almost impossible to eradicate... All it takes is one simple idea to change everything... –Cobb, Inception

What's a life without conflict? Is it boring? Uneventful? All around dull?

Many would agree that yes, it is. The warriors of the Jade palace being among them. Some of them at least.

A couple in particular, namely Master Po, Grand Master Shifu, and Master Tigress to some extent, were ok with the peace and tranquility that had been in the valley for the past several months. Po and Shifu because they both had attained what was called inner peace. Which explained simply, meant you had dealt with your innermost and largest problems, and either came to terms with it or solved the problem itself.

Shifu had to deal with his adopted son, a snow leopard named Tai Lung, which was in all respects, a Kung Fu legend. But like many, he had darkness in him and sadly, he was consumed by it. Like all of those with power, he was tempted by the unquenchable thirst to gain more, and sought after the dragon scroll, which he believed would allow him to attain the ultimate power. This lead to a confrontation between father and son, and during it Shifu admitted to the mistakes that he made that indirectly caused Tai Lung to fall to darkness, but Tai Lung wouldn't let it go. In the end, he was sent to the spirit realm by the newly appointed Dragon Warrior, a fat flabby panda named simply...Po.

Then along came a psychopathic peacock named Lord Shen, and Po had to face his inner demons. Turned out that peacock had been responsible for massacring the village that Po had been born into. He had also been directly involved with the death of his mother and possibly his father too. Shen was the reason why Po ended up so far away from what would've been his home, and caused an unusual amount of frustration to crop up inside Po. Though he tried to get Shen to see the error of his ways, like he tried to do with all of his enemies, Shen couldn't let go of his past, and ended up getting crushed by his own demons.

Now, several months later, what demons were there to fight? Well of course not all warriors of the Jade palace had attained inner peace, but one in particular, namely Master Tigress, sure seemed awfully close to starting that adventure. And all because of that blasted Panda.

That stupid flabby panda, who had somehow managed to master some of the highest level techniques in Kung Fu and defeated the fiercest enemies in all of China. Who had also managed to melt a few layers of ice around her heart, which was perhaps the most impressive feat of all.

And she wasn't sure she was comfortable with that fact. One thing she did know, however...she was really growing to like his hugs. She had hugged him in the basement of Gongmen jail before she and the rest of the five were planning on destroying Shen's weapons. Po had been adamant on wanting to go, and when he said the hardcore couldn't understand his reasons for hunting Shen down, Tigress had to console him, she did understand, but she didn't want to see him get hurt by the weapon that was able to kill Master Thundering Rhino.

Later he had hugged her in return after she pulled him out of the water in Gongmen bay just after he had defeated Shen's fleet, and indirectly caused his death.

There had been a night only a few days after they returned to the Jade Palace, things had just began to return to normalcy when Tigress noticed Po being less chipper than his usual self during dinner.

After he had had several servings of his famous noodle soup, while everyone else was chatting away about...Well whatever it was, Tigress didn't care, because Po kept having these staring matches with his empty bowl.

Now of course everyone dozes off into their own mind for some introspection, but for Po...well, one that was really rare. And two, it was even more unsettling that his brows were furrowed and eyes were narrowed, like instead of a friendly staring match he was trying to glare holes through his bowl.

"Po?" Tigress finally said barely above a whisper so as to not attract the attention of the other five who were still happily chatting, oblivious to the trouble.

She knew he heard her, after all, she was sitting right next to him. Something she never would've seen herself doing little more than a year ago. Back when she hated the Panda's guts for stealing her chance at becoming the dragon warrior. But now it just felt natural, if both seats next to him were taken she'd glare daggers at one of them until he or she would get the obvious message.

After a few seconds of her question hanging in the air, the haze in his Jade green eyes vanished and he looked up at her with a smile.

"Huh, yeah what is it?" He said with forced cheeriness that Tigress saw right through.

"You ok?" She asked simply. "Looked like you were trying to destroy the bowl with your eyes."

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Ya see, I was...I was trying to...I was testing out this technique Master Shifu taught me the other day the piercing eyes of Kodang!" He then proceeded to demonstrate this "technique" by glaring at the bowl in a far less convincing manner than before. Po was always such a god awful liar. But it did manage to make the corner of Tigress' mouth curve upwards in a smirk.

He then looked back at her with a giddy grin, checking to see if she fell for it. She arched a brow in return, silently pressing the question.

Avoiding her glance and suddenly finding the nearby cabinets interesting, she knew she had him. Just one more push.

"Po...?" She said in that tone. The tone that she used when she was being friendly and yet serious. The one that clearly told him, you're not fooling me Panda.

Po suddenly looked up, but not at her. Curiously, she turned to follow his gaze to whatever caught his attention. She then noticed that the background noise had died, the others had ended their conversation and turned towards them with curious glances of their own.

"What's wrong Po?" Viper now asked in a similarly soft tone to the one Tigress had used. The other guys nodded in agreeance.

Knowing there was truly no escape now, Po let out a hefty sigh. "I just...worry there was something more I could've done for Shen. If I could've said something different and saved him..."

They all understood immediately. This was always one of the warriors' struggles, all the "what-if's" that followed a battle. Granted they all had far less severe cases of this than soldiers of war who had to kill. But if a citizen got hurt, or if they were forced to kill, which had only happened in a couple of extreme cases, a few of them would be bothered for a handful of days, thinking over the events over and over.

Emotions were still not one the Tiger's many skills that she had mastered. As she opened and closed her mouth, trying to find something to console her best friend, her other friends came to rescue her. Crane in particular decided to take this one.

"Hey come on now Po. You told us already what you had said to him, there was no possible better thing to say than that. He couldn't let go of his anger, of his hate, he couldn't let his wounds heal, just like you told him." Letting his words sink in a for a moment, he started to see the Giant Panda start to inflate with the energy he always held with him. So as icing on the cake, he added. "You did the best you could, and it was a better choice than we all could've made."

Po looked up at that and nodded with a smile, already back to his usual self.

"Preach man. Preach!" Mantis added. That got a heartfelt chuckle out of all them. One of his rare well timed moments of levity. No, really, they truly were really rare.

The rest of the night went exactly how they all enjoyed it to be, filled with much more light-hearted chatter and Po was back to his usual cheery self.

Since that night there have been no other cases of Po assuming a more serious state of being, not that they knew about at least. But they doubted anything else came up anyways, Po wasn't one to fret about the past. Some of the others were more prone to that sort of activity, like Tigress for an example.

Like all the times that her mind would wander back to those hugs they shared. Never had she been very emotionally comfortable with anyone, even her adopted father. But for some reason, she absolutely loved the last hug Po had given her. She just could not get her mind to drop it. She'd occasionally even catch herself imagining it as she tried to fall asleep at night.

While to most of the others it was a relief that Po hadn't entered a serious mode ever again, after several months passed of him constantly being his happy go-lucky self, having achieved inner peace and solved all of his own inner turmoil problems. Tigress couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Not like anything she felt when he first became the Dragon Warrior, but it was still there. And it was amplified by a small desire to see the more serious side of Po.

Not that she didn't love, no scratch that, she had the utmost respect for Po and who he was, but she couldn't resist the desire to see both sides of the coin, much like her comrades. Who she has witnessed just about every shard of character about them, ones that she cared to witness at least.

Now as she was circling the giant panda in the training hall in the sparring ring, she was happy to witness the slightly more serious side of Po once more. Though he was still entirely himself, and wouldn't keep that serious expression for long, it was there and it almost made her smile had she not kept those facial muscles from moving.

Surprisingly, Po decided to end the stare down first, officially reassuming their spar. They had already been fighting for a couple minutes, no clear winner being chosen, while the others continued with their own respective training. Or so the two thought, as often as the others could they'd stop and watch the two masters go at each other.

No doubt thanks to the inner peace he achieved, ever Po's humiliating defeat that night in the Gongmen jail, Po has become a far stronger opponent...though Tigress could still beat him on occasion. But it was becoming worryingly less frequent.

As the two continued to trade punches, kicks, attempted to grapple each other to the ground via wrist locks and other controls, the others finally gave up on attempting their own training and simply watched the spectacle. And they had noticed him yet, but Shifu too was rather enthralled by the impressive equality of their fight.

In the midst of their fight, both sets of arms got entangled so they were face to face, both wincing as they had to try their hardest to not be moved. Po was incredibly strong given his size, but Tigress at the current moment was going for his wrists which were significantly weaker on him and not as flexible. Meanwhile Tigress was losing her grip on Po's other arm as his elbow was inching closer and closer to her face, if he started forcing her head down, he'd be able to deal some blows in rapid succession.

Both refusing to be moved and give up the strength contest, they locked eyes and Tigress couldn't resist the temptation to challenge him, despite the fact they were evenly matched. Though she did start to notice Po's arms starting to shake, he was getting tired.

"Scared Po?" She managed to get out with a very strained sounding voice.

"Heh, you wish." Finally changing tactics, Po quickly kicked out with his right leg towards her knee and it surprisingly made contact, buckling it. Which resulted in Tigress letting go to escape but Po wasn't having it, and forced her to the ground that she was already leaning towards.

Throwing all of his weight onto her as fast as possible, he placed his knee into her side, grabbed her wrist into a lock, and kept her head down with the other arm. She didn't even bother struggling, she knew it was over and tapped out.

Letting her go, Po offered his paw out and pulled her up onto her feet with a grunt from both of them.

Shifu then hit the floor with his staff twice. THUD. THUD. All six students snapped their heads towards the noise, never having noticed Shifu's presence.

"Well done Po. Though, you could've done that far earlier while you and Tigress where in a grappling lock. And you four!"

The others looked sheepishly at Shifu. Caught!

"Care to explain to me why you stopped training while these two exhibited excellent fighting techniques and continued to train their hardest with each other?"

Hearing the rare praise, Po and Tigress smiled warmly at each other. That was definitely one of their most intense spars in a while. After a few moments of silence as Shifu glared at the other four, Mantis dared to speak up.

"Did you not see how awesome that fight was Master Shifu?! I wish I could watch that again!"

Shifu had to debate on whether or not to tell them he was watching almost the entire time, and was slightly thrown by the Po like statement coming from Mantis.

"I...did in fact. It was impressive yes, but perhaps next time, instead of ogling your eyes, you should start sparring yourselves! Now, you are all dismissed for the night. I imagine Master Po will be happy to cook dinner. I will join in later."

"Yes Master." They all said and bowed in practiced unison.

Granted the four had not been training in the last section of the evening, but before Po and Tigress' spar had caught their eyes they had been training hard like they do every day. So they were all quite tired. Trudging their way back to the barracks and the kitchen appeared to be quite the task.

And as per usual, Po entered fanboy mode before they even exited the training hall. Complimenting all the others on what they had been doing. They always tried to not let it get to their head but after a few months of this, they all started to love it.

As they went through the large dual doors with Crane and Monkey in the front, Mantis and Viper shortly behind them and Po and Tigress in the back, Tigress spoke up quietly enough so that only Po would hear while the others went on their way.

"Po.." She had said in a rather demure sounding voice that was truly not in character for her. Sensing it, Po turned to her immediately with concern. "Yeah? What is it Ti, are you hurt? Oh did I kick your leg too hard?!"

"No, no not at all. Nerves of steel remember?" She said with a small smile, referencing their talk on the boat to Gongmen. Po smiled too at the memory.

"Anyways, I just wanted to know if..." Before she could complete her sentence, her mind and mouth froze. She couldn't get herself to say it! Just ask him! It's not that hard!

I know it's not! But friends like us don't just talk in private, especially by the peach tree!

As Po cast a curious glance at the open ended sentence, she looked up at him once more, with only a ghost of the beautiful smile that was there before.

"I just wanted to know if you planned on cooking your noodle soup again?"

Not bothering to investigate, Po fell for the obvious substitute. "Yup! Just like always. Now come on, let's go!" He said turning around to the others and pumping himself up to run the rest of the way. A white and black blur soon blasted past the others who were already a fair ways ahead of them.

They all smiled at this. Even after a long day of exercising and training, Po somehow still found the energy to run towards the kitchen and get cooking at the end of it.

Realizing she was still smiling long after Po had ran ahead; she stopped walking and berated herself. Stop! Stop it! You can't get attached to any member of the team more so than the others. Don't let emotions in. Not that deep anyways. I've gotta control this. I gotta stop this!

Steeling her features, she was about to continue on her way when Shifu seemingly teleported in front of her again. How did he always manage to do that!?

Dad...

"Everything alright Master Tigress?" He asked, voice full of concern, eyes gazing up at her in curiosity.

Knowing this was definitely not a topic to be discussed with him. She quickly responded with a bow and a "yes master" before continuing on her way.

Once she entered the kitchen, she could already smell the salivating delicious aroma of Po's magical soup.

"Hey there she is!" Monkey called out, raising a hand to her in greeting, always an animal of few words. She just nodded and sat down in her usual chair, right next to Po's at the end of the table.

After engaging in some small talk for a few minutes, which even with them she really wasn't fond of, she watched Po as he expertly diced up numerous vegetables and herbs she'd never know the name of. Suddenly Crane called out to Po.

"Hey Po, I was just wondering, do you know how to cook anything else?"

Po slowly turned towards the avian with his mouth slightly agape. "Of course I do. I was raised by a chef Crane. I just always cook this because I thought it was always everyone's favorite."

Sensing he had struck a nerve in the Panda's rarely shown pride, Crane quickly amended. "Oh yeah no don't worry, of course it is! I was just curious."

"Yeah man, I never get tired of that stuff!" Mantis added in.

All the others voiced their agreement as well; Tigress' was especially vocal with her well said nod. Seemingly satisfied with the outcome of that, Po returned to adding all the various components to the soup.

As they all ate their dinner in relative silence due to the speed at which they were gobbling up Po's delicious soup. Like a reversal of that time a few months back, Po noticed that Tigress was looking rather seriously at her already emptied bowl. But unlike himself, this wasn't entirely unusual so he let it be.

For a moment at least. Then he thought of a move she did during their spar and the fan-boy moment he almost had.

"Oh Tigress!" He yelled out so suddenly that it startled her along with everybody else. "Remember that back flip kick thing you did earlier? It was SO cool how'd you do that? How long did it take ya to learn that? Can you teach me?"

The others softly laughed and went back to their meal. Not being able to resist the smile again approaching from the praise, she smiled for a split second before the thoughts that were racing through her mind a second ago returned.

In all honesty she would have loved to teach him that technique. But her thoughts had been about trying to not pick favorites among her team like she had been lately. She realized she wouldn't practically give a private lesson to anyone else on the team.

Taking a breath and refusing to look at Po for the fear of how he'd respond, she spoke with a bit colder of a tone than she had been using for quite some time. "Perhaps some time in the future Dragon Warrior."

It was already quiet in the kitchen due to the fact everybody was just eating, but now it was as silent as a graveyard. Not without a light flavor of tension. Seeing as this was because of her, she then stood up, scooting her chair back noisily.

Everyone followed her with their heads as she put her bowl into the sink then started heading towards their rooms without another word.

"Hitting the hay already?" Viper called out.

"Yes." She simply said. "Goodnight everyone."

"Uh ok, good night Tigress." Po said in a forlorn voice.

"What was that about?" Crane asked after a few moments.

Slithering out of her chair, Viper departed as well with a simple, "I'll go see what's up."

Shrugging it off, the guys, excluding Po, then went into a conversation about their respective interests in the female kind. Po wasn't listening though. He was too consumed by thoughts once more. He wanted to go after Tigress himself, but Viper beat him to it. And what was up with her anyways? She seemed happy a little bit ago. Smiling her beautiful smile every other minute. Did he say something?

He'd always heard that females would always misinterpret things and get upset for reasons that you, as a guy, could never explain. But this had never happened before. Is this what just happened or did-

He was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed several pairs of eyes looking at him expectantly.

"What?"

"We asked you something buddy." Monkey says.

"Right, yeah of course, I was listening, can you just...repeat the question?"

"We asked if you agree." Mantis said, a smirk on his features. The other two looked at him in surprise but then nodded in agreement, an entire silent conversation taking place.

Po, of course not having understood what had been going on, decided to just go with it. "Uh...sure?"

The others then burst into hysterics. Po just looked at them in confusion. What was going on?

Several moments later of Po waiting impatiently for their laughter to die down, Mantis finally spoke, a few chuckles still present. "You...buddy, you just admitted you have feelings for Tigress!" Aaaannd there they go again laughing their mouths off.

"Oh come on! I do not!" This got the other guys' attention. "I mean, guys come on, she's practically the leader of the Furious Five! We all know there's no chance she'll ever want to settle down with someone like me."

"Don't beat yourself up Po." Crane said. "It's not that. Knowing her she probably wouldn't want to be with anyone outside her species. She'd need someone as strong as her."

The other two nod. They did know that. But it didn't stop them from hoping she'd settle with less though. Specifically, settle with someone like Po. As much as they could without directly telling him, they were all in honesty cheering Po on to get closer to Tigress.

"Maybe we need to find her a strapping traveling Tiger?" Mantis suggests with a deep chuckle.

Po noticeably perked up at this for several reasons. Did he feel a hint of jealousy that someone else may win her heart over? Nah, he knew he was right. She'd never fall for anyone that wasn't a tiger to be sure.

But what if they really did find some traveling merchant that was a tiger? Maybe they could set the two up? It'd be great to see Tigress finally happy with someone else...wouldn't it?

Maybe...I could get him to talk to her for me...and like...find out how she feels about...the others. Yeah of course, she what she thinks of the others...Oh who am I kidding? How she thinks of me is what I'd want to know.

A yawn breaks up his thought train, and soon the others are yawning too. After they all put their dishes away and say their farewells, Po starts cleaning up the kitchen. Often he was either the last or the first to bed.

Standing there, idly cleaning the dishes, he found his thoughts back at the idea of another tiger coming into all their lives. How would that change things? Would it be for the better of everyone? Would I ever have a chance after she got a taste of the bodacity of another tiger?

But why would she fall for me anyways? A panda, one of the slowest animals around, and a tiger, one of the fastest and most elite animals. There'd be no competition... Best just let these thoughts fade over time.. Inner peace...Inner peace...

And with that, he headed to his own bed, hoping to rid his mind of such negative thoughts and return to his usual happy self. He would be soon; he'd be just fine tomorrow he told himself.

Before you beam out please do tell me what you think, if anything needs fixing, thoughts, what you liked/didn't like, etc. Feedback is the best and it's great motivation.