Just a little one-shot I wrote. This takes place before Heart of a Warrior, and right now, it's just comic relief.

Enjoy!

Balance

He would never say it, but it was obvious how proud of himself he was. If his perfect sense of balance was ever mentioned, his scrawny chest would puff out a bit, and he would walk with a bit more swagger. Or, well, about as much swagger has his skinny legs could manage.

There was one thing each member of the Furious Five had to call their own. Mantis, his speed; Monkey his jokes; Viper her flexibility; Tigress her scary intimidation. Well, even the clumsy Po had a thing (which was being generally destructive without meaning to) but it was his "thunder" nonetheless.

And for Crane, it was balance.

If there was a time when he could relax, always, one leg would bend at the knee, leaving the other to support his weight. And always, that one leg would do its job perfectly, in turn giving Crane his ability to stay perfectly upright at all times.

In fact, it was rare to see Crane fall. So rare, that two masters at the Jade Palace felt like something had to be done to correct this…

It was early in the morning; not early enough to get sucker punched by Po if you tried to wake him up, but early enough to see that the sun had risen and would hang in the sky all day, never ceasing its shine. For our balanced bird, that meant it was the perfect day to meditate.

Unlike the other masters, Crane had always had a love for meditating on top of the Palace.

Yes, on the very highest point of the roof.

It wasn't very crazy, considering he had wings and loved to use them, but it was still rather strange. Everyone had grown accustomed to his strange habit to the point where it became normal.

Too normal.

"This is just stupid," an annoyed insect huffed as he gazed up at the avian. Crane was, like always, standing upright on one leg alone, his wings tucked in around his sides and his head dipped in a bowing motion. "Have you ever seen him fall? Just once?"

The simian next to shrugged, lazily swatting a buzzing fly away. "No. But I don't really want him to. He could get hurt."

Mantis looked incredulously at his friend. "No, he actually can't! He has wings for gods' sakes! They're not just there for show!"

"I guess," Monkey said shortly, too engrossed in trying to swat that stupid fly.

Mantis however, smiled. By the looks of it, he was getting an idea. "Monkey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

There was a smacking sound, followed by angry buzzing.

"That I should be worried that the fly I just swatted started cussing me out?" Monkey asked absentmindedly. He was peering closely at the fallen bug as it squealed high-pitched obscenities at him.

"No…no that's not what I was thinking at all." Mantis looked at Monkey with a rather disturbed expression.

"Then forget I said anything. What were you thinking?" The primate expertly flicked the fly away, ignoring its angry cries.

A creepy smile crawled onto Mantis' face. "We each get three tries to scare the crap out of Crane. First to make him trip wins. Loser has to be the manservant of the winner for a week."

Monkey let the idea sit in. "Does the winner get bragging rights?"

"Of course!"

An equally creepy smile stretched across Monkey's face. "You've got yourself a deal, Jeeves!"

Shortly after that exchange, Mantis was scurrying across the roof as silently as he could. He had the competition in the bag. Snickering to himself, he jumped and flipped, coming to a rest on Crane's straw hat.

Before he could say a word, the bird whipped his head to the side; sending his hat (and consequentially Mantis) sailing off the roof.

"You'll have to try harder then that!" He called after the flying – and screaming – insect.

Luckily, the hat came to rest on the treetops surrounding the courtyard. Unfortunately, it was a very tall tree, and took Mantis a good hour to get down. Monkey was nearly dying from laughter, clutching his sides and going slightly purple in the face.

"Okay hot-shot, why don't you try!" Mantis yelled as he tossed the hat over his shoulder. Monkey's hoots of laughter became infrequent giggles and he shrugged.

"Watch and learn," he said with an easy smile, before clambering inside the Palace. Mantis sat back with a smirk, knowing Monkey wouldn't be able to succeed.

The primate approached his task optimistically. He placed himself in a room below Crane's perch. He cleared his throat.

"Crane!" Monkey snapped in his best impression of Master Shifu. "You need to clean the toilets in the men's bathhouse!"

Monkey covered his mouth to muffle the small giggles that followed. His laughter was cut short by the sudden flurry of wings that had appeared in front of the window. He raised his arms to block, but was too late; Crane had already placed a powerful kick to his forehead, sending him flying across the room.

"Why don't you go clean the damn toilets, 'Master'!" Crane snapped sarcastically. With a glare, he flew upwards, leaving the monkey to keep his head from spinning.

Ten minutes, two girlish screams, and three death-threats later, the competitors were exhausted as they sat under the shade of a tree. Both watched Crane as he stood, perfectly stable, in meditation.

"This," Mantis deadpanned, "is retarded."

Monkey nodded, trying to catch his breath. "You can say that again. I didn't know Crane could fly fast. And frankly, I didn't know I could run that fast."

"It's amazing what you can do when your staring angry avian death machine in the eyes," his companion sighed loudly. "Both of us don't have any chances…let's just say it's a tie."

"What's a tie?"

Both men looked up at the source of the voice, meeting the curious gazes of Tigress and Viper, who had been walking by them and overheard the conversation.

"Nothing," they replied quickly.

Tigress raised an eyebrow. "It's obviously something. You'll save yourselves a lot of pain by just saying it now."

Her threat got a across crystal clear; both of the guys nearly jumped to their feet in the excitement to tell the story.

"So you're trying to make Crane lose his balance?" Viper summed up the tale.

"Pretty much."

"But failing horribly."

A smug smile played lightly on her lips. "Can I try? I bet I'll be able to do it on my first chance."

Mantis glared at her. "We've been at it for hours!"

"But it you want to risk your life, I guess we can't stop you," Monkey added.

Viper nodded her thanks as she slithered to the front of the Palace. She cleared her throat girlishly.

"She can't do it," Mantis whispered to his friend, chuckling.

Tigress shushed him. "Just watch."

The tree viper looked upwards. "Crane—you got a letter from Mei Ling!"

It took a moment or two for the news to reach the avian, but the reaction was nearly immediate. Crane's head snapped up, while at the same time he tried to take a step forward. He realized, too late, that moving forward would send him plummeting off the roof and tried to stabilize himself with a backwards step. This just got his spindly legs tangled with each other, and as a result, sent him crashing backwards on his head.

Viper and Tigress both fell into a fit of laughter, whereas the two boys could only gape.

"How the hell did you do that?" Monkey gasped, gazing at Viper like she was a goddess.

"You just have to know the right thing to say," Viper replied with a wink. Tigress scoffed and started to laugh again.

A ball of flustered, frenzied feathers suddenly landed in the middle of them. "What? I got a letter? Where is it?"

The look on Viper's face said that, had she owned shoulders, she would've shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Ask Jeeves." She pointed her tail in the direction of Monkey and Mantis before slithering away with her feline friend. The two met Crane's suspicious stare with wide, innocent eyes.

"Who the heck is Jeeves?"

Both simian and insects' hand flew up, pointing and accusatory finger/pincher at the other.

"He is!"

After that terrifying experience, Mantis and Monkey never, ever, tried to make Crane lose his balance.

They stated it was because they had matured, but in reality, it was just because they had seen the wrath of Crane—and never wanted to witness it again.

The End

This was actually a lot of fun to write. I didn't mean to make it so short though…

I hope you liked it as much I do. Please review!

-Awesome =D