One day, at the Jade Palace, everyone was assigned their special task for the week. With Crane and Viper on clean up duty, Monkey and Mantis on inventory, but Po and Tigress got the most dreaded job of all. Training the village children. Now, it wasn't that the children were unwelcome, they were just rowdy and, in Po's opinion, unteachable. But it had to be done once a week, and this week Po and Tigress got the job.
In the court-yard, Po was chasing the small rabbit kids, trying to get them to stop jumping and running amuck. Tigress rolled her eyes, knowing this was going to be a long day.
" A little help?" Po asked pointedly, Tigress turned with a start, but then saw the look in Po's eyes saying ' Help '.
" Alright, everyone sit!" Tigress yelled, gently enough not to startle anyone but firm enough to get their attention. " Now, you are here to learn, not play." She stated.
All the kids sat down and listen to the female tiger, waiting for her command. Tigress nodded in satisfaction.
" Alrighty, any questions?" Po asked, happy the children were cooperating.
One of the smaller bunnies raised her hand. Po looked and smiled, signaling for her to proceed.
" Are you and Miss Tigress in love?" The little girl asked. Both Po and Tigress stiffened, blushing madly and not knowing how to respond. Their lack of an answer however, caused more questions to be asked.
" Are you going to get married?"
" Do you kiss sometimes?"
" Will you have kids!?"
" Are you going to make babies?" Po straightened more at this point.
" Whoa-ho-ho! Who gave you kids ' The talk' ?" Po asked frantically, beyond embarrassed at the idea of him and Tigress making cubs together.
" I will answer all your questions with one answer. No." Tigress said angrily, not knowing how to deal with her embarrassment or the fact that she was not repulsed by the ideas the children had.
A collective 'Awwwwwww' rang out through the yard as those words were said.
The lesson continued, with little progress, all Po and Tigress had been able to do was, get the children to stop asking questions. But then Po had an idea to help.
Po walked near Tigress, " Hey, why don't we sing a song?" He whispered, Tigress looked at him like he was crazy.
" Absolutely not." The feline shot down the idea before it even had a chance to come up. Po pouted.
" Come on, Ti. My dad used to sing to help me learn how to make noodles, and now I'm awesome at it. I even remember the song!" Po exclaimed, " Noodles, noodles, noodles! We're making noodles, oh yeah we're making noodles!" After that Po just improvised, singing about any and everything that came to his mind.
" And I have a Tigress friend who is freakin' hot!" Po stopped immediately, " Did I say that out loud!?" He asked himself horrified. Tigress blushed and stared at Po, making him more embarrassed. A few minutes of awkward silence passed.
Po cleared his throat, " So, how about it?" He asked casually. Tigress knew Po wouldn't leave her alone, so she agreed, but not without threatening to murder him if he told. Po gulped and nodded, not wanting to rub her the wrong way.
" Okay kiddies! We're going to sing a song to help you learn kung fu, Okay?" Po announced.
All the bunnies cheered, loving songs and things like that, they were excited to hear their heros sing for them.
Po looked to Tigress, nodding towards her, telling her to start. Tigress blinked, piecing together the song in her head.
She walked over to a small rabbit, no taller than her calf, and knelt in front of her.
" Earth, Sky. Day, night. Sound and silence. Dark and light. One alone is not enough, you need both together. Winter, summer. Moon and sun. Lesson number one." Tigress sang, feeling mildly self-conscious since Po was watching. She had no reason to fear however, because Po was in complete awe of her voice. It wasn't exactly perfect, it was a bit gruff and deep. But it was obviously feminine, and to Po, it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.
Tigress grabbed one of the bo-staffs off the rack for demonstration.
" Like a rock, hah hah, you must be hard. Huh huh, like an oak, mmm-mah, you must stand firm. Cut quick! Like a blade, think fast, unafraid." The feline sung to the rabbits, urging them to do the same. They repeated the chorus Tigress had sung, adding a few more kicks than necessary.
Po then jumped in, knowing kung fu was not all hard and tough.
" Like cloud, you are soft. Like bamboo, you bend in the wind. Creeping slow, you're at peace because you know, it's okay to be afraid." Po joined, singing softly in, what Tigress thought was a beautiful voice.
The children once again repeated, a little less gracefully than Po but they repeated none the less.
Then Po and Tigress sang a duet, " One alone is not enough, you need both together." They sung, looking at one another. " Winter, summer. Moon and sun. Lesson number one!"
The children repeated both choruses, over lapping nicely with the rest.
Po and Tigress sang the last note together. " You have begun!"
After the song was finished, Po and Tigress were completely out of breath, and the bunnies were still as rowdy as ever.
Po groaned and Tigress sighed. Master Shifu came in, as the lesson was over.
" Hello young students, what have you learned?" Shifu asked them. The kids stopped playing looked at Shifu blankly, one of them putting a finger in their nose.
Master Shifu glared softly in the so called ' Teachers' direction. That is until a boy bunny pulled on his robe, he looked down to see what he had to say.
" Kung fu is when you're being tough a-and gentle at the same time?" He said uncertainly.
Another rabbit spoke up as well.
" Yeah, you have to stay balanced to be a good Warrior!"
Shifu smiled proudly at both the bunnies and his students.
" Good work." He told them, making Po and Tigress smile widely.
" I may start giving you this task more often." Shifu added.
Po and Tigress widened their eyes at this, as Shifu left, Po fell to his knees.
" Nooooooooooooo!" He screamed melo-dramatically towards the sky.
This was a request from one of my watchers on DeviantART, check her out on there, her username is "Envytheskunk". And if your reading this Envy, I hope you liked it!