A/N - All right, before I say anything else, I'm going to come right out and declare it: if you are not familiar with my other fanfictions (Long Shot/Keeping a Secret/A Great Escape) this story will probably confuse you. It has OCs and reformed!Shen and people who are alive even though the canon says they're dead and all that other good stuff. So if you're unfamiliar with me but you don't mind not knowing a few things, feel free to keep reading...

Anyway, I took a break from A Great Escape so that I can work on this, my holiday story. Not Christmas story; I've seen a ton of Kung Fu Panda Christmas fics, but the canon says that they don't celebrate Christmas, they celebrate the Winter Feast or whatever it's technically called, so eh. Mostly, this story is a retelling of "A Christmas Carol" with Lord Shen as Scrooge and other characters as...some other people. (It's a surprise!) This is set after A Great Escape, so there may be some spoilers but probably not.

Enjoy and review and stuff.

The Song of Winter

Part I: Shen begins a story

Once upon a time, the annual Winter Feast at the Jade Palace had been an elegant, traditional affair, as unchanging and stodgy as many of the old kung fu masters who attended it. But several years ago, the Dragon Warrior had changed all that, altering the traditions to reflect the warm family atmosphere that he was accustomed to during the holidays. After a little experimentation to see what felt right, it was decided that each year, the Winter Feast would now be a relatively informal gathering of the kung fu masters and any family members they wanted to bring with them. It was also open to any villagers from the Valley of Peace who wanted to attend…so it was really no surprise that the Winter Feast was a usually large, sometimes chaotic, and always enjoyable event.

It was especially so this year, Shen thought fondly as he looked around the dining hall of the Jade Palace. Dinner was over, and while servants cleared the many large tables spread about the decorated room, masters and commoners mingled and exchanged pleasantries and stories. Shen had been to this celebration for a few years now, but it seemed that every year, his peculiar mixed-up family got bigger. Last year, Lady Biming and Xun had been the new additions. This year, he had been gifted with the companionship of the peahen who now stood beside him, her wing threaded through his.

"Are you enjoying the feast, Lanying?" he asked with a smile.

"Oh, yes, it's quite fun," she replied, smiling back at him a bit nervously. She didn't say so, but this was probably one of the first times she'd attended such an event. Lanying hailed from Gongmen City, where her frequent panic attacks had classified her as a cripple and caused her parents to keep her more or less shut up in her room. She'd only been able to prove herself competent after becoming engaged to Shen and moving to the Valley of Peace, where she'd lived for less than a month now.

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Oh, and I'm sorry that you had to invite my parents…I know how they are." She rolled her eyes

"It's no trouble at all," he answered, not wanting to admit that he found his soon-to-be-in-laws ungodly irritating. He leaned towards her and lowered his voice to a mock whisper. "I have a present for you."

"A present?" She smirked. "A real present, or…something else?"

His wings slipped around her waist. "Both."

Lanying giggled a bit, arching her long neck towards him. Her beak parted slightly, and just as Shen prepared to receive the kiss…

"Hey, ugly chicken!"

He felt a sharp yank on his robes and stumbled back a few steps, releasing his grip on the now-startled Lanying. Kurisu had appeared next to him, scowling and tugging on his silk dress clothes. "Shen, you promised last year that you'd tell a story at the Winter Feast this year!" she declared somewhat unhappily. "And everyone's getting ready to tell stories now, and you're over here smooching with her!"

Shen sighed. He knew that ever since he'd brought his fiancée back home with him, Kurisu had been rather hurt that he didn't have nearly as much time for her anymore. The kitten always refused to speak to Lanying or even say the peahen's name, always referring to her as just 'her' or 'she.' Even though he wanted to spend a bit of time with his future wife during the holiday, he didn't want his itty bitty kitty to keep feeling left out…and a promise was a promise.

"You don't mind if I go over there, do you, Lanying?" he asked, smiling in resignation even though his crest had flattened a bit. "I did promise her…"

"You're going to tell a story?" Lanying laughed. "This I have to hear."

Shen scooped Kurisu into his arms and headed back towards the cluster of tables. Kurisu wrinkled her nose a bit when she saw Lanying following them, but overall she looked rather triumphant and smug that Shen was finally paying attention to her. He carried her over to where a cluster of guests had gathered to exchange stories, some real, some fictitious, and some simply embellished; at the moment, Master Storming Ox was relaying a spine-tingling account of his encounter with some bandits, which was particularly entertaining to the children seated in excited bunches on the floor.

"…and I took my trusty axe and swung it at the crocodile, and he flew backwards into the wall, knocked out cold! We won the battle, and he and the rest of his gang were all sent to prison." The children cheered at this happy ending to the tale, while the adults applauded politely. Storming Ox bowed. "Thank you, thank you. Now, who wants to go next?"

"Shen does!" announced Kurisu. She looked at the peacock meaningfully. "I bet he has a real good story to tell, riiiiight, Shen?"

"Of course I do," Shen assured her, even though at that very moment he was wondering what exactly he was going to say. He seated himself on the table so that everyone could see him, positioning Kurisu in his lap. It seemed that everyone he knew had wandered over to hear the stories being told; he saw Po, Master Shifu, the Furious Five, Xun, Lady Biming, Mr. Ping, the soothsayer, and many more…all of them looking at him curiously, wondering what he was going to do.

It wasn't as if the past year had been devoid of interesting events for him, far from it. He'd had many exciting experiences, such as having multiple panic attacks, getting engaged, starting his career as a defense contractor, and nearly being assassinated by a spiteful adversary. Yet none of those were exactly brimming with holiday cheer. He found his thoughts turning to an old folk tale he'd heard during his travels. Surely if he just changed a few things around, no one would mind…

"My story is about a cruel villain and how he learned to reform," Shen announced.

"Oh really?" called Master Croc from the back.

"Is this your accurate, nonfiction account?" quipped Xun.

"Not exactly." Shen settled in and cleared his throat. "Once upon a time, there was an albino peacock named Sheng Li, who was a wealthy businessman."

"A businessman?" snorted Po.

"What exactly was his business?" asked Lady Biming.

"He was a defense contractor," answered Shen without missing a beat.

Master Storming Ox arched an eyebrow. "And however did he get that job?"

"Funny you should ask that." Shen gave a slight, embarrassed smile. "He was always good with fireworks and gunpowder and cannons and such, but he, uh, knew these two kung fu masters who set him up as a contractor, because clearly that was a more intelligent line of work than trying to take over China or any stupid thing like that."

This drew reserved chuckles from his audience, particularly from Masters Storming Ox and Croc. Indeed, they'd been the first ones to give him a chance to test his defense expertise. They had also recommended him to other city leaders they knew, and Shen had found that contracts were now rolling in. He straightened up and continued:

"Despite the help of these two kung fu masters – which he was very grateful for, by the way – Sheng Li, or Shen, cared more about money than he did any person in the world. He was a cruel, heartless miser who, although he was quite rich, never spent a penny more than he had to. He barely paid his employees, and his clients always found that he charged exorbitant amounts of money for his services. Everyone in the Valley of Peace knew that his heart was as cold and black as a piece of coal…"