Questions & Answers
Fireworks exploded over the night sky of Gongmen City. Colors of red, green, blue, and gold lit up the harbor and surrounding area and could be seen for miles around. The celebrations had been going on since the day before, and showed no signs of slowing down. All around the city, the citizens of Gongmen City continued to feast and dance the night away.
They were honoring of the liberation of the city from Lord Shen and his wolf army who had seized the city by force and captured the Kung Fu Masters entrusted with its care, killing one of the revered masters in the process. But through the efforts of six warriors from the Valley of Peace order had once again been restored, and the peacock warlord's ambitions to use the city as a base to conquer China had been thwarted.
It was well after midnight as two of these warriors made their way through the still crowded streets towards the harbor. Happy citizens streamed past the pair smiling and waving while children laughed and played in the streets well past their bedtimes. Food vendors and restaurants were still in operation ignoring their closing times. Po and Tigress looked around at the reverie then back up at the sky as yet another fireball lit up the narrow streets.
It had been a very long day for the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior. Earlier that day, they had participated in a solemn ceremony commemorating the life of Master Thundering Rhino who had died protecting the city during Shen's initial attack. Master Rhino's sacred hammer was given to the teacher of the Five and the Dragon Warrior, Master Shifu, for safekeeping at the Jade Palace. Then, on orders of the remaining members of the Kung Fu Council, a period of feasting and celebration was declared and the stewards of the city-along with their guests-spread out all over the city to mingle with the grateful population.
Back in the present, it appeared that the events of the past few days were beginning to catch up to the Dragon Warrior. Po tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn with his large paw, earning him a smirk and slight chuckle from his feline companion.
"Looks like the Dragon Warrior will sleep well tonight," Tigress remarked.
"Me…nah, I'm not that tired," Po assured her. "All I need is some food in me and this party animal's fire will keep burning all night long!"
He quickly grabbed a dumpling offered to him by a passing merchant and stuffed it into his mouth. Tigress just rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Regardless," she continued. "We'll be leaving later on today and it's a long journey back." The female tiger turned to head back to the inn where they were staying.
"Aw, come on Tigress! This is our chance to have some fun for once!" Po protested. "You can't spend all your time training…you have to loosen up a bit!"
Tigress glared at Po after that last remark.
"Ok…I mean, not that you're not able to have any fun or anything," he quickly countered. "It's just…I mean, you can be slightly less hardcore but still be hardcore at the same time right…?"
"I have no idea what you just said…" a familiar voice spoke up behind them. Po turned around and saw Master Shifu standing in the street behind them.
"She's right Dragon Warrior; it's time to get some rest. We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow…" the diminutive red panda dodged a group of children running by as he approached his two students "…and frankly we're leaving not a minute too soon."
"But Master, we're having so much fun right now!" Po protested. "I mean, look at this place…its awesome here! Its way bigger than our village back home and there's so much to see and do… and eat…"
"All the better reason to get out of here," Shifu interrupted. "Gongmen City is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here. It disrupts my inner peace."
"But Master Shifu…" Po was cut off by a stern look from his master.
"Where are the others?" he asked Tigress.
"Last I recall Mantis and Monkey were still in some tavern entertaining the locals. I don't know what happened to Crane and Viper though."
"You'd better go fetch them then," Shifu announced. "I'm not waiting for them when it's time to leave tomorrow. As for the other two…"
Shifu was interrupted by a loud noise overhead. Against the outline of the continuing flashing of fireworks, there appeared the silhouette of a large crane flying around in the night sky. Upon further inspection, there also appeared to be a little green snake coiled around the crane's upper body hanging on for dear life. The bird was flying high in the air just out of the reach of the exploding projectiles then suddenly reversed course so he was diving towards the ground at a high speed.
Just as it seemed he would crash into the roof of a house, the crane spread his wings and pulled out of his dive and skimmed along the tops of the buildings at breakneck speed. As he approached the ground he again spread his wings and with a gust of wind came to a sliding stop right in front of the group of awed onlookers-including two pandas and a tigress.
"Wings of justice!" he proclaimed with raised feathers as his snake passenger proceeded to slither down his body laughing hysterically the entire time.
"That…was…hilarious!" Viper could barely get the words out of her mouth she was laughing so hard.
"Yeah, that's right!" Crane shouted to no one in particular. "Who's the big bird now?!" He was stumbling around slightly and leaned on a nearby wall for support.
"Crane!" Shifu cried out. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Master Shifu!" Crane looked down at the red panda in terror. "I was…I mean we were…I mean Viper wanted to see the fireworks so…"
"Sorry Master," Viper wiped the tears from her eyes with her tail. "We were in the main square watching the fireworks and I had a hard time seeing them since I'm so low to the ground so Crane offered to fly me up to where we could both see them and well…" she began to giggle again.
"Crane look at me!" Shifu ordered his student to face him. Crane's eyes had a glassy appearance to them. "Are you drunk?" the old master inquired sternly.
"What, me drunk? No way, I just had a few drinks that's all…" Crane slurred his speech slightly. "Nothing I can't handle," he waved his wings around clumsily and nearly lost his balance. Right away the other three moved swiftly to keep him from falling over in the middle of the street.
"This is entirely Monkey and Mantis' fault," Viper grumbled. "We were all at a tavern and Monkey and Mantis decided to have a drinking competition with raspberry liquor and of course they had to challenge Crane as well, saying that he couldn't keep up with them. Wouldn't you know it though? He actually answered the challenge and even managed to keep pace for a while but then he got sick so I took him outside."
The little snake got a guilty look on her face. "Maybe it was my fault as well, I was encouraging him a bit…I mean come on, you guys know what he's like!" She looked at both Po and Tigress. "He's actually a lot of fun when he's drunk," she admitted to Po and Tigress in a low voice. "Although maybe…I shouldn't have suggested that we get closer to the fireworks…"
"Regardless of whose fault it was…" Shifu interjected in a tone that indicated he was none too pleased with his students "…get him back to the inn on the double! I will be having a talk with all of you tomorrow on the boat about how we conduct ourselves!"
He turned to walk away but then stopped and turned back to the group. "I will also be using our trip back to the Valley of Peace to come up with a suitable punishment for you all! Now then, I expect you all back and in your beds in half an hour. Find Mantis and Monkey and get them back to the inn as well, I don't care how you do it!" Shifu stalked away leaving the four kung fu masters wide eyed with fear on what awaited them when they returned home.
The three non-inebriated masters did their best to get Crane back to the inn they were staying at before he created any more of a scene. Luckily for them the innkeeper kept his place open to coincide with the celebrations, so they weren't locked out for the night. He was just waving goodbye to late staying guests when an irritated red panda walked in the door and climbed up the steps to the second floor without even saying hello.
Following close behind was a group of kung fu masters trying to guide their friend through the doorway. Crane was rocking and swaying and the others were having all sorts of trouble keeping him upright.
"Ah, Dragon Warrior!" the pig innkeeper addressed Po. "I see someone has enjoyed himself a little too much this evening?"
"Yeah, you could say that," Po replied. "Hey! Are those bean buns?" Po eyed the basket of buns the innkeeper was holding.
"I made some for the guests and there's a few left if you'd like some." The pig offered.
"Would I?" Po exclaimed. "I never waste good food!" He grabbed a handful and popped them in his mouth.
"A little help here Dragon Warrior?" Tigress and Viper were struggling to get Crane up the steps.
"There's no way I'm going up those stairs!" Crane protested. "I'll just sleep here tonight."
"Forget it Crane! Po, get over here now!" Tigress snapped. Po stuffed a few more buns in his mouth then ran over to the stairs.
"Ok Po, grab his legs!" Tigress instructed. "I'll grab his head and beak. Viper, you open the door to his room. Let's do this quietly so we don't' wake up the entire inn!"
"No! Not the beak!" Crane continued to protest as Tigress wrapped her arms around his head.
"Mmph…I hate you guys!"
Po grabbed Crane's legs and he and Tigress carried the bird up the stairs as quietly as possible to the second floor. Once they had made it up the stairs, Viper opened the door to Crane's room and the panda and tiger deposited their friend on his bed.
"You guys are so dead when we get back to the Jade Palace!" Crane exclaimed once Tigress let go of his head. Viper meanwhile opened a window to let some fresh air in.
"Not as dead as you'll be," Tigress smirked at Crane. The bird's eyes grew wide at the realization that he'd be punished for his behavior that evening.
"I'll stay with him for a bit to make sure he's ok," the green snake told them. "Don't worry, I'll get back to my room as soon as possible."
"Fine," Tigress stated. "Let's go Po." Po followed her out of the room into the hallway.
As they shut the door, down the hall Shifu stuck his head out his door. He glared at the two for a moment but then quickly retreated back into his room. Tigress and Po looked at each other nervously.
"What about Mantis and Monkey?" Po asked.
"They're all yours Po," she stated flatly. "They're probably still at that tavern by the main square. Either way they won't be hard to find."
"Now then," she announced with a yawn. "I'm going to sleep. Try not to wake me up when you get back with them…got it?"
Po rubbed the back of his head nervously as Tigress entered her room and shut the door.
Po managed to get the insect and monkey masters back to the inn in relatively quick time, although it wasn't without protest. It was apparent that Mantis and Monkey had had an even better time than Crane and Viper based on their boisterousness.
"So why do we have to stay at this place anyway?" Monkey protested as the three climbed the stairs to their rooms.
"Uh…because we destroyed the palace trying to stop Shen, remember?" Mantis shot back.
"Guys…keep it down!" Po whispered fiercely. "We're already in big trouble with Shifu!"
"I wish we could've stayed out later," Monkey lamented. "That Mountain Cat at the tavern was totally into me."
"No way…" Mantis retorted. "She was totally into me! You were wasting your time trying to impress her with your stories about all the pranks you used to pull back in your village!"
"My stories aren't boring!" Monkey shot back. "You were the one trying to pick her up talking about acupuncture. That's really interesting…I almost fell asleep while you were droning on and on!"
"You better watch out or I'll screw up your chi while you're sleeping!" Mantis threatened Monkey.
"Guys shut up!" Po whispered as loud as he could. "You'll wake everybody up!"
"Too late…"
The three masters froze as a pair of yellow eyes gazed upon them sternly from down the hallway. Tigress was standing in front of the door to the balcony with her arms crossed.
"I uh…brought them back like you asked." Po addressed the feline nervously.
"Looks like you two had a good time tonight…" Tigress addressed the two delinquents. "I was sitting on the balcony and I heard you three from all the way down the street."
"It's awesome here!" Mantis exclaimed. "I wish we could stay here longer!" Monkey nodded his head enthusiastically as well.
Both of their expressions fell, however, when Tigress didn't share in their enthusiasm for Gongman City's vibrant nightlife. The tiger master instead glared at the three of them.
"Well…" Monkey suddenly announced. "I'm feeling kind of tired right about now…how about you Mantis?"
"I think I could hit the sack," the insect agreed. "Goodnight guys." Both he and Monkey quickly darted into the room they both shared and shut the door leaving Po and Tigress out in the hallway.
"What a night…" Tigress sighed as she exited onto the balcony. Po thought about heading to his room and turning in for the night but something in his head compelled him to follow Tigress onto the balcony. Passing through the doorway, the giant panda could see his friend sitting on a chair alone in the darkness.
"I thought you were going to sleep," Po inquired.
"I thought you'd be going bed after you came back with them," she replied. Tigress sighed again, "What do you want Po?"
"Nothing…" Po said. "Well…maybe I'm just wondering why my friend is sitting out here alone in the middle of night." He slid onto the adjacent chair next to Tigress.
"Come on Tigress…" he prodded. "There's something bothering you, I can feel it."
Tigress was silent for long time. "How do you do it?" she finally asked him.
"Do what?" Po replied somewhat confused.
"How do you manage to be you?" Po had no idea how to respond to such a question
"That's…kind of deep," he finally replied. "I don't understand…is this some sort of Kung Fu master test?"
"No it's not a test," she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'd just like to know how my friend can be the way he is considering all that we've been through."
Po said nothing so she continued. "Think about it…we were on our way to our executions courtesy of Lord Shen and we thought for sure that you were already dead or at least severely injured, but then you reappeared and fought by yourself to free us."
"Actually…" he interrupted. "I did have some help from Shifu and the Masters, and of course the five of you guys."
"True, but even all of us combined were no match for his cannon. When he blasted all of us into the water I thought for sure that it was over for all of us." Tigress paused. "Yet, you managed to do something incredible…I've never seen anyone do an open handed technique like that, against flaming cannonballs no less…"
"Yeah, I kind of surprised myself as well," he admitted sheepishly. Tigress raised an eyebrow.
"You mean you don't know how you did it?" she inquired incredulously.
"Well…I did achieve inner peace. According to Master Shifu the key to the technique is inner peace."
"That's all?" Tigress asked surprised. "All you need to handle flaming cannon fire barehanded is inner peace?"
"Apparently…" was Po's only reply. They sat in silence for a few moments more.
"Can you teach me?" Tigress finally broke the silence.
"I already said I didn't know how I did it."
"Not the open handed technique, I mean inner peace," Tigress responded in an annoyed tone.
"Uh…well…you see Tigress…" Po stammered. "It's not really something that can be taught…"
"Why not…?" The feline kung fu master glared at the panda from the darkness. "All kung fu techniques were developed and taught over time."
"Inner peace isn't really like any of the techniques we've learned," Po countered. The panda thought for a moment. "You need to be able to reflect on and let go of certain things in your life that are holding you back."
Tigress thought long and hard at what Po was getting at. "Go on…" she encouraged him to continue in a soft voice.
The panda looked out on the Gongman City harbor. "After I was hit with the cannon, I woke up downriver in front of the Soothsayer's house. She was the one who helped me reflect and let go of what had been holding me back for a while now."
"The truth about what happened to your parents…" Tigress let her statement linger. Even though he hadn't told any of the five yet about what had happened to his parents, for whatever reason Tigress seemed to know the story of what happened to his parents. Whether it was years of Kung Fu training, or perhaps the connection that she'd developed with Po over time, she just knew.
"Exactly," Po replied seemingly unaware of her knowledge. "My parents sacrificed themselves for me so could live. I've been carrying around that guilt all my life, but she helped me come to terms with it and in doing so I was able to achieve inner peace."
"You're very lucky Po…" the feline master replied after a moment of silence.
"Yeah," he replied. "If Shen hadn't shot that cannonball at me I wouldn't have ended up downriver and I wouldn't have encountered the Soothsayer. I just wish I could have ended up there in a less painful way…not to mention scaring all my friends into thinking I was dead…"
"That's not what I meant Po," Tigress rubbed her head in frustration. "What I mean is that you found out whether by pure luck or because the gods meant it for you about who you are and where you come from."
She sighed heavily. "I should be so lucky…"
"What do you mean?" Po asked innocently.
Tigress turned to him with a fire in her eyes that Po only saw when she was really angry, usually at him.
"You know about your past…unlike me. You know where you came from and who your parents were…unlike me. You were found by Mr. Ping who loved and raised you as own son. I was dumped in an orphanage and treated like a monster by everyone around me!"
"You know that's not completely true," Po interrupted. "Shifu took you in and raised you as his daughter."
"It's true, he did raise me as his daughter" Tigress sighed. "His daughter who tried so hard to impress her father and who wanted nothing more in return than his love and approval…but never got it because he was too busy feeling sorry for himself that he misjudged his son and lost him forever."
"I think you're being too hard on yourself and Shifu," Po tried to sympathize with her.
"Am I Dragon Warrior…?" The feline questioned. "The reason I'm so hardcore-as you so eloquently put it-is because it's my way of coping with situations and even people when I'm scared or unsure about them."
Po looked at her in surprise.
"Don't look so surprised Po. I've never been much of a people person; you of all people should know that by now." She looked down at the floor. "I guess I'm more comfortable with building walls around me than letting people see the real me."
She sighed again. "It's why I treated you so badly when we first met. I mean sure, you had taken away something that I'd been working towards my whole life, but in hindsight that was no reason to make you want to quit."
Po was too shocked at this revelation to say anything. The feline master never raised her head and instead continued talking.
"When we were fighting Tai Lung and were defeated by him…" she trailed off. "That was when I knew that you were the only one that could stop him…and you did. You also proved all of us wrong…you have real courage Po to stand up to adversity, whether it was to us, Tai Lung, or even Lord Shen."
Suddenly Tigress felt a warm paw cover her own. She looked up and to her left and saw Po smiling at her.
"You just opened yourself up to me…that took a lot of courage as well," he assured her. Tigress gave him a hard stare that caused him to withdraw his paw. "Sorry." He looked at her nervously.
Her features softened. "No Po, I should be the one who's apologizing for treating you badly sometimes."
"Hey," he replied with another smile. "It's no big deal…we're friends and kung fu warriors now, right?"
Tigress returned the smile with a small one of her own. She couldn't understand why, but she was beginning to feel something stronger than friendship for the panda who she initially despised when he literally fell from the sky and into their lives. True, he could be immature and unfocused most of the time, but after the events of the past few days Tigress could also say that was incredibly loyal to his friends and a true warrior.
He also had a hidden talent at getting her to reveal her feelings, or at least the ones that she was willing to let him to know about. There were other feelings that had been growing since they had left the Valley of Peace that she was wrestling with and she had no intention of revealing them to anyone, Po notwithstanding.
Tigress stood up abruptly. "Well Po, I think it's time to go to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow, not to mention Shifu is going to be very unhappy. I can only imagine the punishment that awaits us when we return to the Jade Palace." She turned to leave.
"Tigress…" Po caused her to stop. "When we get back home and Shifu's done punishing us, can I get you to promise me something?"
"Like what?" She turned to face him.
"Promise me that you'll let me help you."
"I don't understand Po."
"I want to help you find out who you are and where you came from. I want to help you with your feelings. You let your defenses down around me twice now…I know that you're capable of feeling and not just being hardcore all the time. Let me help you…as a friend."
Standing in the dark, Po couldn't see the expression on the tiger master's face. But for Tigress emotions that had been pushed down for so long were beginning to bubble back up to the surface. Quickly though, the kung fu master was able to bring her emotions back under control including ones that she really didn't want to deal with at this time concerning the panda sitting in front of her.
"Thank you Dragon Warrior…I don't know if I can make that promise to you though." She stated simply.
"I understand Master Tigress," Po seemed a bit dejected. Perhaps he had asked too much of her too soon.
"I will take it under advisement," Tigress offered. "Now…if you'll excuse me I must return to my room."
"Goodnight Tigress," Po called to her but she had disappeared. Even though he was beginning to feel tired himself, Po didn't want to go back to his room just yet. As he was enjoying looking up at the night sky which was now clear of fireworks, a noise behind him made the fur on his neck stand up. With his senses on high alert Po spun around to face his unexpected visitor, and came face to face with Tigress.
"Goodnight Po. Thank you for being who you are…" Before Po could respond the tiger master enveloped him in a hug. Then, as quickly as she appeared she disappeared into the darkness of the inn leaving the bewildered panda alone on the balcony.
FIN
A/N: This was something I've been working on for a while but I never published it until now. I don't usually write KFP, but I got the idea for this one-shot after watching the second movie. I hope you all like it.
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jkrust78