SURPRISE! I'm still not done with this series, lol! I got this idea soon after finishing Solstice Sun and it just wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to do it. I think this really will be the last though, so enjoy it while you can and I hope you enjoy it just as much as the other three :) I suggest reading Eternal Flame, The Fire Within and Solstice Sun first if you are new so things make sense!

Baba: Chinese for "daddy"

xxxx

Po loved mornings. He loved how fresh they felt, how he could look forward to whatever the day was going to bring next. He loved to wake up and see the love of his life sleeping next to him in their own private room that Shifu (surprisingly,) the Furious Five and even his dads had helped set up for them. It was all theirs at the Jade Palace, and they could go here whenever they wanted to or needed space—and they needed a lot of space nowadays.

He'd woken earlier than usual, and Tigress along with him by accident. Thankfully, she seemed to be in a forgiving mood.

"What's wrong?" She questioned. She could always tell when something was wrong no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

Po had already come up with an explanation. It wasn't really a lie, either. While he was finally back where he belonged in his own time, he was still having trouble with getting used to it all. It had been a very long time, and though it was his time, he was still experiencing a bit of culture shock by going from one time to the next, that he truly hadn't lost everyone he cared about.

He attempted to pull off the most serious look that he could muster without breaking eye contact with her, though every muscle in his face strained.

"I had this crazy dream. I was stuck in my dragon form and had to go to sleep for a thousand years. I woke up in the year 2016 where I met your descendent and he showed me TV and electricity."

He continued staring at her without blinking. He really hadn't taken his eyes off of her ever since he had returned to his time—too afraid that if he looked away, she would disappear for a thousand years again. It really hadn't been a dream, but Tigress didn't know that and she never would.

She laughed. When Tigress laughed, it was music to his ears; it wasn't every day that she laughed, but she was laughing more and more as time went on. He guessed that it had something to do with the fact that they were married now and had two kids.

One of which started crying.

"I'll get him," Tigress sighed. Before she could roll over to get up, Po placed a paw on her shoulder.

"No, I got this. You go back to sleep."

She smiled her thanks, rolling back over to the other side.

It was usually Chao who was the loud one. Sometimes he would just cry and cry, and all Po or Tigress could do was try to calm him down by holding him and patting his back until his tears subsided. He was white with black stripes and eye patches, and he had faint black freckles around his nose with Tigress's beautiful yellow eyes; there were big and small orange spots that randomly splattered his tiny body against the white, just like his sister who had the same markings except for having no freckles around her nose and sharing her father's bright green eyes.

She lay soundly in their crib, and Po reached in to take out her brother quietly as he was able so as not to disturb her sleep.

"Hey little guy, it's okay," Po soothed the best that he could with Chao over his shoulder, patting the baby's back gently.

Chao. Po still thought of the other Chao every day—the Chao that his Chao was named after, the Chao who had been Tigress's descendent and had helped introduce him to 2016. They had started out in the Forbidden Zone—the place where the Jade Palace had once been but was destroyed after he had gone to sleep—and then had showed him the wonders of TV and electricity like in his 'dream' that he'd told Tigress.

Then there was Lotus who he also couldn't forget, and who his daughter was named after. Lotus who had been Chao's adopted brother, who had somehow managed to change him back into a panda after he had been sure that he was stuck in his dragon form.

But now that he had the ability to switch between his panda and dragon form at will and he didn't have to go back to sleep since returning, Po made sure that the bandits and anyone else who wanted to try and take over the Valley learned their lesson. It didn't take much—all he had to do was change into a massive, golden dragon to scare them off, and word quickly got around that there was a real, live dragon protecting the Jade Palace. While it was actually pretty entertaining, he was going to make sure that the Forbidden Zone never came to be again.

His daughter was still sleeping soundly in the crib, though her brother was sure to wake up the entire palace with his crying, something that Shifu wouldn't be happy about and would probably never get used to.

"Hey, hey. Can you say 'daddy?'" Po said in an attempt to distract Chao, glancing at Tigress to make sure that she was still asleep. Since the kids were just about old enough to start speaking, Po would take every chance he got to try and get either Chao or Lotus to say daddy. He was sure that whenever Tigress had a chance, she too would also try and get them to say 'mommy.' It wasn't a competition by any means, but Po was determined to have either Chao or Lotus' first word be daddy.

"Come on, you can do it!" Po encouraged Chao through the child's crying. "Say 'baba.'"

"Po, you better not be trying to get him to say daddy again," Tigress said drowsily from the bed.

"Dang it," he pouted. She always knew whenever he was attempting to get the kids to say his name first. But what he didn't notice was that Chao's crying had ceased and he had completely relaxed in his arms.

"Baba."

Po froze and his heart nearly stopped. Tigress sat up in bed, her eyes wide. He raised Chao up lightly so they were face-to-face, and Po found that he was smiling.

"Can you say that again?" Po asked gently.

Chao obliged. "Baba," he giggled, reaching his arms out as though he wanted a hug.

Po wanted nothing more than to shout with joy and run through the Jade Palace exclaiming proudly that his son had finally said his name first, but the last thing he wanted to do was disturb Lotus. So he obliged himself, cradling Lotus closer to him.

Then the tears came.