Advice from the Hardcore

Own Nothing, do I

Crane came in upset and sad. He had just suffered a break-up with a recent girlfriend of his. Seven months down the drain. He sighed longingly as he went to Po's room. Normally, he would go to Po for anything that was emotionally trying. Po was the best person to deal with stuff like this. He was a good distraction from the pain, and he normally knew what people were going through. He looked inside of Po's room and saw he wasn't there. "Great," Crane muttered as he went to the kitchen to eat. Whenever he's sad, Crane would just paint and practice his writing. He thought he would get something to eat before doing that. He rounded the corner to see Tigress eating her small, small portion of food. You would think she would eat more being around Po so much, but that wasn't the case.

"Hello, Crane," She greeted very generally. Nothing new to Crane. He simply replied back.

"Hello, Tigress," He sighed, getting some food from the pantry. "Tell me when Po comes back, okay. I need to talk to him."

"About what?" Tigress asked curiously.

"It's... something personal. You wouldn't understand," Crane said, trying to get away from the conversation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Crane lied.

"Well, Po's on a mission for a day. You're going to be waiting for a while," Tigress explained. Crane grumbled under his breath. "Sure you don't want to talk about it?" Crane looked back at the smug tiger.

"What the heck? I don't have anything to lose," Crane sighed as he sat down.

"What happened?"

"I... broke up with my girlfriend. Actually, she broke up with me," Crane explained.

"I'm sorry," Tigress said emotionlessly. Crane didn't expect anything different. "This is Aya, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why did she break up with you?"

"She said that I was just too... clingy for her," Crane explained.

"Have your previous girlfriends said that in the past?" Tigress asked. Crane thought about it. In total, he had three girlfriends and several female friends. And they all said the same thing.

"Well... yeah."

"Do you think you are?" Tigress asked. Crane stayed quiet. "Well, I can understand breaking up with someone." Crane spat out his tea. His eyes bugged out as he stared at Tigress's mildly surprised face. "Interesting, you have the same face that Po made when I told him." Then Crane's face turned sad when she mentioned Po.

"You... you told Po," Crane slowly said. Tigress nodded. "And how did he act?"

"He was surprised at first. He kept asking what were they like and how did I hide it from Shifu," Tigress explained.

"How did you?"

"Simple, they didn't last long enough for Shifu to figure out," Tigress replied calmly. Crane was confused. "My longest 'dating' experience only been for three months."

"That's still a long time to get past Shifu. And considering that we formed the Furious Five at a young age, how come we didn't notice?" Crane asked.

"Actually, it was better with you guys because Shifu would start to train us individually from time to time," Tigress explained, "But back to the point. I understand what you're going through."

"Why did you only have boyfriends for a short period of time?" Crane asked.

"Majority of them couldn't handle me," Tigress confessed. "Rough exterior tends to scare people off. There was one that seemed to handle me, but I started to find that we weren't compatible."

"Who?"

"That's personal," Tigress growled. Crane rolled his eyes. Figures.

"You said you told Po. Did he ask you anything else?" Crane cautiously asked. Tigress eyed him suspiciously.

"Why are you so worried about what Po asked me?"

"I... I can't tell you. For Po's sake," Crane stuttered. Tigress's eyes widened. Crud, she figured it out, Crane thought. Tigress remained composed and simply answered.

"I see."

"But on to my problem. How did you get over it?" Crane asked, thinking he knew the answer.

"Time... and fixing," She explained. That threw Crane off. Tigress could see him amazed. "Crane, I know that most times I'm an enigma to read."

"Try unsolvable puzzle," Crane added.

"But I do have the same feelings and emotions as everyone else. I just don't show them as much, if at all," Tigress sighed. "But with Po-"

"You're expressing them more?" Crane guessed. Tigress nodded. Po was different. Tigress could be a solid brick at times. She wasn't mean. She was just like that and while the others had lived with her for a while, no one could really figure out why she was so...emotionless. But Po could figure out how to get nearly anyone to come out of their shell. He was just that kind of guy. "You said something about fixing. What about it?"

"That came along when Po came into the Jade Palace. I normally just hid the emotions I had towards my ex-boyfriends. But Po showed me that wasn't healthy. I couldn't just repress the feelings and forget about them. I had to face them, learn from them, and conquer them, in a sense."

"Wow, Po's really helped you a lot," Crane mentioned. Tigress simply looked at her empty plate as she remained quiet. "Can I ask you a... Po question?"

"A Po question?"

"A question that's pretty direct and can be very personal yet tends to make us search for the answer and come out a better person," Crane explained. Tigress smiled. That did sound like Po.

"You may."

"Do you... like Po? And yes, I mean in That sense," Crane asked. Tigress sat there silently.

"I can't answer," Tigress replied. "For Po's sake."

"I understand. Thank you, Tigress. You were... surprisingly helpful. Not that you aren't but you're just kind of-"

"Hardcore?" Tigress smirked. Crane gave a honk of laughter.

"Yeah, I guess so." With that, Crane walked out, feeling better about things. Tigress, on the other hand, had trouble sleeping until early in the morning when Po came back from his mission. He was walking to his room when Tigress met him in the hall.

"Sleepy?" Tigress guessed.

"Hey, Tigress," Po yawned. "Yeah, I just got back. I really need some zzz's." Tigress mustered up the courage to ask another question.

"Po, can I ask you a question? Please be honest with me," Tigress said.

"Of course, Tigress," Po replied, snapping awake at Tigress's sudden seriousness. "What's up?"

"Do... do you like me in a... romantic way?" Tigress asked. Po's eyes widened. His cheeks reddened as he nervously scratched the back of his head. Finally, he told her the truth. What was it? Well, that's another story.

=)

The End.