"I just don't see the point in this."

It had seemed such an out-of-the-blue question, and Tigress couldn't help but freeze up when it was asked. Of course, Po had been assaulting her with all kinds of pointless questions all day- "What's your favorite color? What's your position on the Emperor? Dumplings or bean buns?"- but this just seemed too much.

"Oh c'mon!" the panda persisted. "This is important stuff to know if we're gonna be friends!"

"Call me insane, but I don't see how knowing who I had a crush on as a cub is going to be relevant at ANY point in the future."

Arms crossed, Tigress strode on ahead through the forest; Po's clumsy footsteps followed a few paces behind.

"I'm just curious!"

"And I'm not going to talk about it."

"So you DID like someone!"

"I never said that!"

"You just implied you're trying to hide something~!"

Sometimes it was hard to remember that they were almost the same age. He often behaved like a hyperactive teenager.

"Hey, Ti, I've got-"

Her fur bristled, and she almost stopped dead in her tracks. "Don't *call* me that."

"-an idea!"

She walked faster.

"I think it would be beneficial to both of us, y'know, like a win-win, and I think it's actually a really good idea this time and I could tell you what that idea is if you would PLEASE SLOW DOWN!"

Tigress stopped completely; she felt a thud. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that Po had just run into her and was likely sprawled out on the ground, trying to catch his breath from the unexpected workout. A glance over her shoulder confirmed this suspicion. Unfortunately, the foremost part of her mind was filled with a muted curiosity at this 'idea' of his, which was probably going to be just as bad as every other idea he'd come up with since his arrival at the Jade Palace. Nevertheless...

"Alright. My curiosity is piqued." She could hear Po grunting as he struggled to pull all 300 pounds of himself back to his feet. It was almost enough to elicit a smile. "Tell me what you have in mind," she finished over her shoulder.

For a short moment the silence was filled only with Po's heavy breathing as the air came back to him; at last, on he continued. "Okay. What iiiiif... I told YOU who I had a crush on first?"

That was it?

"What if I don't care?"

"B-but-" To her great amusement, he actually sounded *hurt* at that comment. "I-I *do* care! Tigress, what's the big deal? We're talking ten to twenty years ago! Nothing to be ashamed of now!"

Shame. That was a good word for it.

"And I'm getting the vibe you've never told anyone. Y'know, if you never tell anyone, it'll just stay bottled up until EVERYONE knows. Like this one time when I tried to tell my dad I cleaned my room when it was really a huge mess and pretty soon it got so bad that everything fell out of my room and into the kitchen and oh man the look on my dad's-"

Perhaps if she humored him, she might find her own confession to be... A bit less shameful.

"Very well." Tigress turned on her feet, arms still crossed, and leaned in until their faces were inches apart, something between a snarl and a smirk on her lips. "Who was lucky enough to hold the heart of the young Dragon Warrior?"

Of the many things he had yet to pick up, malicious sarcasm was among them.

Inhaling deeply, the clueless panda began: "Okay, so when I was a cub- I dunno, like ten, maybe?- I had the BIGGEST crush on- ready for this?" A long pause followed, and Po eagerly watched Tigress' face, as if expecting her to actually react. He took a deep breath- "Mrs. Xiang."

While it might not have been the reaction he was going for, there *was* a reaction. "...Mrs. Xiang?" Tigress blinked a few times; for the second time that day, she'd genuinely been caught off guard. (How did he do that?!) "The cloth maker?"

"Yeah, heh." Po nervously scratched the back of his head, averting his eyes up into the clouds. "But I can explain! Every time she came to my dad's shop since I was, like, five, she'd always bring me a cookie, then one time she brought me a Master Thundering Rhino action figure- which I still have! I'll show it to you sometime!-"

"No thanks."

"-So one day, I gave her a flower, and she was like-" in a falsetto- "'Oh, thank you, deary! You really are a sweetheart!' And oh MAN, I really liked her!"

To her disappointment, Tigress noted a sheer lack of embarrassment or shame on his face. He seemed... Almost nostalgic, even humored. He even began laughing as of it had truly been no big deal as his arm returned to his side. "But come on, I was ten! I didn't know she was fifty or that she was married. Or maybe I did, but maybe I didn't care. Anyway, my dad brought it up a few months ago and she admitted that always she knew. She said it was the cutest thing! And get this-" he brought his paws up to his mouth in fists, loudly chuckling 'Oh-hohohoho'- "She gave me another cookie! AND said she'd start bringing them again! Nearly twenty years and she never forgot! And her backing never got any worse!"

There was no way Po could really be a grown man.

"Soooooo..." An innocent smiled beamed from him. "What about you?"

This whole idea had been a bust. Po was too cheerful and accepting of his past mistakes for his own good. Tigress knew her confession was much worse. She'd wanted to murder herself every time she even thought about it for years, and even now she couldn't help but dwell on how *stupid* she was as a child.

But one look into those hard, sparkling jade eyes said it all: She made a promise. She never went back on promises.

And even if it was PO, of all people, she wasn't about to go back on one today.

"You tell *no one* about this or I will find you and I will maul your face and render you unrecognizable."

As she looked away, she heard Po laugh, perhaps a bit nervously. "Don't worry! Friends always keep each other's secrets! And even if they didn't, I really like my face, so..."

A dense silence filled the forest air as Tigress leaned against a bamboo tree, tightening her arms over her chest and staring hard at the ground. It shouldn't have bothered her so much, she was aware, but... How did she know he'd keep it a secret? He had only been around for about a month. She didn't know just how much integrity he truly held; for all she knew, he didn't have any.

No. She wouldn't tell him. She couldn't. She'd vowed never to tell anyone, not even-

"Hey, you prom-"

"Shifu."

"What about Shifu?"

Once again, the silence returned. He was waiting for her to continue.

Was he that dense?

Tigress shifted and found herself glaring at the panda- that stupid panda, that ignorant innocence radiating from his face.

"Oh."

But the longer she glared, the more that ignorance subsided, replaced with almost a kind of enlightenment.

"OH."

His face contorted into shock. This was the part where she most expected the taunting.

"...So you... Had a crush on... Master-"

"I was thirteen," Tigress growled as she turned her back, sinking to the ground against the bamboo. "I should've known better, but I didn't. Yes, I'm ashamed of myself."

She glared off into the distance, wanting nothing more than to just turn back around, claw his mouth shut, and walk away. This was a mistake. He might have been a great warrior, but he still acted like a child. Of course he couldn't-

"Aw, nothing to be ashamed of!"

Her ear twitched. She heard a thud, and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the panda sitting right next to her. "Maybe kind of embarrassing, but hey, you were a teenager. Not really a kind of feeling a teen can control. Trust me, I know it's hard to believe, but I was a teenager too at one point too!"

The tiger craned her neck so that her flat nose was pointed skyward. The sun still wouldn't set for a few hours, but the forest was already getting quiet, and the distant rumble of activity in the Valley was becoming less audible, even to her sensitive ears. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, throwing asymmetrical patterns against the bamboo stalks. For however long she observed her surroundings, the silence was never broken. No taunting, no 'I-can't-believe's, no quirky comments, nothing.

Wondering if he had died, Tigress glanced over; Po quickly returned her gaze, and he smiled, a big closed-lip grin that made his face squish up and his eyes squint.

Somehow, she felt that, for all his immaturity, he really was planning to keep her secret just that.

"Just remember what happens if you tell anyone."

Po offered a thumbs-up. "I just sat there and didn't talk for, like, twenty minutes! If I can do that I can do anything."

Tigress felt something tugging on the corners of her mouth: She quickly whirled around and pulled herself up before he had a chance to see her smile. Okay, so could be trusted. She still didn't trust him *that* much, though. That would take much more time and convincing, if it even happened at all.

"The others will be wondering where we went. I don't feel like answering even more questions." As she began to walk back in the direction of the Valley, she heard the struggle begin once again behind her; forcing back another smile, she returned and offered an outstretched paw, which the evidently flustered panda took and yanked himself up off the ground with. It was possible his fat wasn't all that was involved in his difficulties going from sitting to standing. Tigress had never noticed just how short his legs were in comparison with the rest of him.

Once more she headed for the Valley, this time with Po at her heels as the sun began to dip toward the horizon.

...

"So just how long did you have a crush on Shifu?"

"Don't push it."

"Right. Sorry."

...Hi, everyone! I'm Peaches. I used to be pretty active here on FF, but I received a... Well, I doubt it was really serious, but the last few stories I published, someone sent me a note telling me to kill myself because my writing was so bad. And three years later, I've finally convinced myself to suck it up and start writing again.

Since this is the first story I've written in a while, it's probably got errors strewn about, so I would deeply appreciate any comments or criticisms (including "This sucked, here's how to make it suck less", but PLEASE no death threats. I've come to take those seriously- perhaps a but more than I should, but still. *shrug*)

Thank you for reading and I hope I'll be posting more in the future!