It was a peaceful morning in the valley, hence the name Valley of Peace. Everything was bustling about, people buying, selling and trading, families going out for breakfast and all the warriors at the Jade Palace waiting for the morning gong to sound. Well, almost all of them.

Master Shifu came down to his students' barracks to give them his usual morning greeting. As the gong sounded, all of his students were in front of their doors bowing in respect to their master.

" Good morning, Master." They recited in harmony, but there was one voice Master Shifu's keen ears did not detect, and that voice belonged to Po, the Dragon Warrior.
You'd think that after eleven months the panda would know to be awake by now, but alas that would not happen.

The small red panda sighed, rubbing his temple. " Would someone please wake up the Dragon Warrior?" The master requested. The five students looked from one to the other, trying to figure out who was going to have to wake up the giant panda.

Tigress, seeing no one else would step up to the challenge, said, " I will wake him, Master." Everyone turned to her, silently wishing her luck, Po was not the lightest sleeping and Tigress was not the most patient person.

Once Tigress entered the room, she saw the Dragon warrior curled into a large monochrome ball of fluff, which one would usually call cute, if that one was not Master Tigress.

She walked over to the said ball, and shook him a bit.

" Po, it's time to wake up." Tigress stated, Po only stretched and mumbled something about a noodle monster. Tigress was beginning to get annoyed.

" Panda, wake. Up." She told Po, more forcefully than her last attempt. Then Po did something he'd never do if he was awake, he grabbed Tigress' arm and snuggled his face into it, shocking the tiger. Tigress blushed at the sudden contact, but also felt something else stir inside her, pushing the feeling aside she tried to free her paw from the panda's grip, making him hold on even tighter.

By now, the other masters had come to watch the scene, save for Shifu, who had decided to wait for them in the training hall. All the masters were struggling to keep their amusement to themselves because of the scene in front of them.

Po finally awoke to see a very frustrated Tigress looking at him, and the said tigers paw in his.

" Oh, Tigress I-I'm sorry I di-" He tried to apologise, but was interrupted by the tiger raising her now free paw up to him.

" It's fine, just don't let it happen again." She said, and with that she was off to train.

The rest of the five quickly scattered, pretending not to have seen anything, Tigress just walked past them to the training hall.

After the morning incident, everyone gathered into the training hall for their daily work-out, but Master Shifu had other plans for his students.

" Ah, Po glad you could join us." Shifu started, " It has come to my attention that all of you have worked hard, and for that you should be rewarded. So I am giving you all the day off, whether you like it or not." He added, looking pointedly at Tigress " You are dismissed." He finished, leaving his students to their own devices.

" Aw, sweet a whole day with training, WOO!" Po cheered, everyone agreed with him it had been quite some time since they'd had the day off, and they were already cooking up plans for the special day. Except for Tigress, even after everyone had left she stayed, not knowing what else to do, Po noticed this and stayed behind with her.

" Hey, you coming?" He asked her, she turned to face him.

" Po, why aren't you with the others?" Tigress countered.

" I should asked you the same thing Ti." He said, sneaking in the pet name he had for her.

" I don't have any plans Po, I was just going to train or study my scrolls today." She replied, Po shook his head, he should have known she would use her day off to train, being the hardcore, super-mega awesome, beautif- uh cool master that she was.
Well, Po was not having it, his friend was going to have fun no matter what.

" Oh, no you're not. You can hang out with me!" Po said excitedly, the tiger tried to think of a way to say no,without hurting the panda's feelings.

" Po, I do-" she began,

" Great! Come on,let's go!" Po said, not giving her time to object, he began dragging her by her arm down the one thousand steps.

Once they were down in the valley, Po took Tigress straight to the noodle shop.

" Oh, Po what a pleasant surprise son." Said a very happy Mr. Ping, the elderly goose ran over to his adoptive son to give him a hug.

" Hey, dad!" Po replied, hugging his small goose father.

Tigress smiled at the father-son display. Mr. Ping, who had just noticed she was there, said,

" Son, why didn't you tell me you brought a girl, and a pretty one at that!" The goose gushed, " So, you and Tigress finally tied the knot, son?" He asked as he jabbed his son in his belly. Both Po and Tigress blushed at Mr. Ping's statement,

" No, dad me and Ti are just friends." Po said embarrassed, Tigress looked away to hide her blush, that had started to show though her red fur.

" Hmmmmm. That's to bad, you're quite the catch son." Mr. Ping complimented, making Po groan in embarrassment.

" Okay, dad we were just leaving so see ya! Love you, bye." Po rushed as he pushed Tigress along with him.

" Goodbye son, bring me back some grandcubs next time!" Mr. Ping said innocently.

Po sighed in relief as they left the restaurant, turning to Tigress he said, " Sorry about that, he gets a little excited sometimes." Tigress just smiled at the panda.

" It's alright Po, but I think it's about time we head back." She stated, as the sun had already begun too set.

" Wait, I have one more thing to show you first!" Po said taking her paw once more, causing the same feeling Tigress had that morning to stir again.

He finally stopped walking once they reached a large clearing, Po stood back and let the scenery speak for it's self. Tigress was in awe of the lush terrain, it was beautiful, with green grass and tiger lilies growing all around and a perfect view of the sunset.

" Oh, Po this is beautiful." Tigress said, voicing her thoughts, Po let her enjoy the scene a little longer before he decided to play a game that would probably be childish in her eyes.

" Tag you're it!" Po said, as soon as the words left his mouth he was off like a bullet. Tigress, who had indeed played tag before, she let her instincts take over and soon she was in hot pursuit of th panda.

They chased each other like well into the hours of night laughing and growling playfully.

Later that night after everyone got home, they realized Po and Tigress were missing from the group and went searching for them including Master Shifu. They found them in a peculiar position, with Po's head in Tigress' lap and Tigress laying her head atop his back, no one said a word a about finding the two like that, but they knew that it was only a matter of time before friendship blossomed into something more.