I saw Kung Fu Panda 3 twice. It was super good!
Anyways, more TiPo for yall.
Punch, kick, block. Punch, kick, another kick, block.
River water flowed calmly besides them. Crickets chirped loudly along the edge of the water; setting the scene of this late night sparring session far from the Jade Palace.
But the sound of trickling water and cricket songs was barely audible to the two warriors; the soundtrack for the evening consisted of fists colliding and labored breaths.
Kick, block, punch. Block, block, another block, kick. Aerial dodge. Punch.
Thud.
"Don't get discouraged, you're doing much better."
"I might as well should stay down here and eat grass."
Tigress helped Po to his feet. "I'd prefer you stick to the food back at the Palace," she replied. "Besides, what would your dad say?"
Po dusted his arms. "You got me there. I can imagine him screaming his head off and probably blame Shifu or somethin'." The panda let out a sigh as he got back into fighting position. "Anywho, I think I'm getting the hang of it now!" He charged towards the tiger with a loud yell. Tigress rolled her eyes as she prepared to defend. Po seemed to be a big fan of charge attacks, but he couldn't seem to get the hang of using it in a way that wasn't easily thwarted. Po brought his fist forward, ready to strike, and Tigress stretched out her palm ready to once again grab it and bring him to his knees. But then, Po quickly retracted and backflipped gracefully behind her, hoping to attack with a swift kick while she was temporarily stunned.
Unfortunately for Po, she figured out his movement and turned around fast enough to grab his foot midair and pull him to the ground. Po once again landed face first into the ground, blades of grass tickling his muzzle.
"Your moves are becoming predictable, Po." Tigress said with a frown. "Don't be afraid to mix it up, or enemies will read you instantly."
Po lifted himself off the ground, once again having to brush dirt and grass off his body. "I was kinda hoping that like, you would think I was doing the same moves again, but then have second thoughts that maybe I was gonna do something different, but then think again that I wouldn't be smart enough to do something new, but then remember that I am pretty smart, so at that point you'd be too distracted by your overload of thoughts to block me, so-"
"I think I get your point, Po."
The panda chuckled. "Good because that was starting to confuse me, and I was the one saying it!"
"Enough fooling around. Again."
—
The clouds separated and let the moon's beams lighten the area. The river's peaceful water sparkled as it splashed over rocks, and the path towards the stairs of the mountain was visible once more.
The training session had ceased and the pair had settled along the water to meditate. The sounds of trickling water filled Po with much needed tranquility, and he inhaled and exhaled deeply to regain his strength. Tigress, on the other hand, had laid back onto the dancing grass to gaze at the moon.
"Would you like to hear another story about my time at Bao Gu?" she asked.
Po fell backwards onto the grass besides her. "You know I love hearin' your stories! Even though…some of them are pretty sad." He rolled onto his side to face Tigress as she prepared to share her story.
"On some nights, when I was feeling more lonely than usual, I would stare outside my window if the moon wasn't blocked by the clouds. Being a small child with no friends, I felt like my only companion was the moon. My life was looking very dark, but the moon shone through my window and the light was there to remind me that there was something good out there for me."
Po's eyes went wide. "That's so weird, usually moonlight would annoy me because it would shine on my face when I was trying to sleep. Then again, sunlight's no better."
Tigress sighed. "There's just something about the moon that brought me a small sense of peace. There would be nights when I would lash out and destroy my room, but then the moonlight came in and told me to calm down." She turned over to Po, a pained expression suddenly spreading across her face. "If only I could go up into the sky and thank the moon for giving me a small bit of hope to get me through the night," she said.
It hurt Po to see Tigress like that; even though she had been taken in by the greatest kung fu master in all of China and was raised to become one of the coolest fighters in, well, the universe, Tigress still held a lot of pain from her past and it would hinder her from true happiness. He saw it during the rare moments when she would cry in her sleep, he heard it whenever the two of them were having an argument about either something as trivial as a broken weapon stand or as serious as coming up with a battle plan (On one hand, he thought she was even more attractive when she got angry, but on the other hand he needed to get his mind out of the gutter and take her feelings seriously). But Po truly loved hearing her talk about her past because to him, it meant his beloved was happy to find someone she related to and could fully trust with her buried thoughts,
Po placed his paw over hers. "Well, look at it this way. Now you've got a whole bunch of awesome kung fu buddies, AND the moon," he told Tigress with a big grin. Tigress returned the compliment with one of her small yet award winning (in Po's personal opinion) smiles, and the panda could've sworn her face had lit up so brightly she was rivaling the moon itself.
"You know," Po began. "I find it kinda funny that you'd share a story about the moon being your only friend growing up."
"Why's that?"
"Cuz to me the moon means something completely different."
She inched closer. "Well you're going to have to tell me what you mean."
"Well, uh, it's like…" Po was beginning to turn red. "This might come out weird but…it kinda…makes me think of you? I mean-" He started to mumble as he tried to calm his embarrassment and put his words together. Tigress let out a quiet laugh; she couldn't help but find the whole thing cute.
"Anyways, uh, so the moon is all big and bright and cool and stuff? So sometimes I stare at it and I'm just… really amazed! There's this big shiny thing in the sky at night that doesn't blind me like the sun does and it makes me think about a lot of nice stuff-"
"I amaze you and make you think of nice things, in other words?" Tigress interrupted to ask.
"Yeah, something…along those lines…totally!" Po replied with a nervous laugh. "Also the moon is like, really pretty and you're really pretty so it works."
"Well, if I'm the moon, then would that make you the sun?"
"I'm super hot, so yes."
They both laughed.
—
Realizing how late it actually was, the exhausted Tigress and Po made their way back towards the Palace, hand in hand. On their way up, their conversation went from the moon to reflecting on other late night adventures they've had, thoughts about upcoming missions and other things. As they made their way inside the Palace gates and past the halls into the barracks, they quietly snuck into Tigress' room and laid down side by side to rest. Tigress let out a yawn and moved closer to place her head under Po's. "I'm glad we have these nights to ourselves," she said. "I always feel as if another small load is lifted from my body whenever we do this."
Po smiled and brought his arms around her. "You gotta have some kind of outlet after weeks of punching bandits and stuff." Sleep was beginning to overtake them both, but not before they wished each other a good night.
"Night, my sparkley moon."
Po heard a small chuckle. "That's different," Tigress replied.
"I'm trying to be romantic, just roll with it!" Po said. Tigress moved up to give Po a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm only teasing."
"Yeah. I know. But one day I'm gonna give you a nickname so awesome you're gonna wanna tell everybody about it."
"Uh, no. Never."
"Never say never!"
"I just did."
"Augh!"