The Apology
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KFP
(I am just doing this to pass the time and am unsure whether or not I shall be continuing to upload fanfics at a frequent pace or whenever the mood strikes me.)
It was midnight. The moon shone brightly even though it was moderately obscured by dark grey clouds and settled its serene light upon a cliff with a peach tree, where a lone figure stood with her crimson-red eyes and a stiff posture overlooking the mountains and dense fog that were adjacent to the Valley of Peace.
Tigress.
She tried to suppress the growl that was gradually rising from deep within her throat to no avail, but at least managed to retract her claws back into their respective sockets as she thought about the events that happened prior to her humiliation.
"Alright Stripes, I'm ready whenever you are," taunted Po as he got into a basic defense stance with a slight gleam of enthusiasm and challenge in his eyes. It had been an unusually long time since Tigress had decided to spar with him. It was noon, as the sun was at its highest peak and Crane, Mantis, Monkey, and Viper were secretly betting between the two opponents that were calmly sizing each other up, mentally trying to expose a weakness from the other and utilize it to their own advantage.
The air was still in the Jade Palace courtyard and even the nearby trees' leaves seemed to have held their breaths, anticipating the coming action between the warriors standing five feet away from each other.
Tigress didn't respond to Po's childish attempts to rile her emotions and merely popped both sides of her neck, simply standing there with her arms crossed.
She had learned the hard way after the said panda (euphemistically of course), indirectly killed the murderous peacock Shen with his own weapon of destruction.The irony wasn't lost that day either.
Whenever Tigress would launch an aggressive assault on the panda's face (or tenders), or seemed to have the intent of hurting him more than usual in a sparring match, the Dragon Warrior would instantly activate his "Inner Peace Mode" as he oh-so-famously called it.
This resulted in every punch, kick, headbutt, and practically every Kung Fu maneuver Tigress would throw at him to be frustratingly blocked or deflected as if she were a mere child play-fighting against her peers until Po decided to pin her to the ground while she was tired, or Tigress would pass out in exhaustion due to her overwhelmingly large pride as she was never the type of feline to call it quits.
This time however, Tigress waited on "THE Big Fat Panda" to let his impatience get the better of him and for him to strike first.
It had been several months after the defeat of Kai in which Po was still tampering and experimenting with his newfound powers to harness chi.
Knowing this, Tigress had refrained from sparring with Po in order to allow him to better understand the nature of his potential. In her mind, she had also predicted that his Inner Peace Mode would slowly deteriorate from lack of practice and was to be proven true at the upcoming match.
Both masters were waiting for the other to send an attack first but this time, Tigress managed to hold her casual stance.
She even raised an eyebrow mockingly at the panda with the slightest hint of a smirk on her face, as if her sudden lack of aggression was as usual as the day and night.
Po didn't need anymore incentives and initiated the fight with a simple yet unexpected double leg sweep causing Tigress, who at that point was prepared for a strong upfront elbow to the jaw, to nearly fall face-first into the ground but managed to catch herself and backwards somersault until she was a safe distance away from the Dragon Warrior.
The smug grin on his face was misinterpreted as a victorious smile by the four spectators but did not go unseen by the feline that was now glaring at him.
"He'll get what's coming to him one way or another..." mused Tigress. She lunged at Po with a vicious palm-strike only to have it dodged narrowly and for the panda to retaliate with a roundhouse kick followed by a series of quick jabs.
Fortunately, Tigress managed to catch or block most of his assault and only got hit on her shoulder, leaving it with a slight feeling of pain and numbness.
Little did she know that her nuisance shoulder would eventually lead to her downfall.
Both fighters were a fair fifteen feet apart and slowly circling one another trying to plan their next maneuver.
As Po's gentle, yet playful eyes glanced at his opponent's determined and calculating stare, he came to a conclusion.
"I'd better end this sparring session as fast, safe, and of course the most AWESOMELY BODACIOUS way possible... With my just-as-awesome Inner Peace Mode! Even though I haven't done anything to annoy Tigress for the past four days, something seems to be slightly off... There's no way Tigress would refuse to spar with me for an extended duration of time and then just challenge me out-of-the-blue while we are eating lunch. She also could have easily landed a couple punches of her own while we were in the heat of the moment, but she strangely didn't. I just know that Stripes is planning something..."
The Dragon Warrior suddenly stopped his brisk pace while circling Tigress, causing her to pause in a pretend state of confusion.
Po's nose lightly twitched in an adorable fashion as he prepared to perform the motions for inner peace.
Truthfully, Tigress had hoped that the panda would realize her odd behavior and would try to turn their match into a one-sided spar with his Inner Peace technique, but she recently discovered a minuscule opening in his stance just barely big enough for her to break through and finally win against the panda.
She had also made sure to enlarge her chances as much a possible by tiring him out as much as possible before initiating the stance.
Tigress thought her attempts were successful as she felt the speed behind his jabs and the unnecessary strength of the roundhouse kick that she blocked.
As Po closed his eyes to concentrate on channeling his Inner Peace Mode, Tigress stood there with her paws loosely curled into fists.
The four spectators were puzzled as to why Tigress was seemingly immobile. It was as if she was admitting defeat, which was highly unusual. They grumbled as money and almond cookies were being exchanged as they all agreed the matched had already been settled, but still stayed to watch the end of the match.
Tigress paid no attention to her friends and concentrated on watching Po's expanding and deflating belly as he performed the movements for Inner Peace. Comically enough, that panda's stomach was the key to setting off her entire plan to beat the panda in a sparring match.
Tigress noticed periodically that whenever Po would exhale for the third time, his sense of focus would be completely fixated on himself, no matter what distractions occurred.
Launching attacks when he least expected it was considered slightly dishonorable in Tigress's mind, but she convinced herself otherwise.
"This is your one shot to beat him Tigress. All those weeks of struggling to not sock him in the face, tripling your efforts in the training hall and spending even more time punching Ironwood trees led to this moment. I WILL NOT butcher this opportunity, much less let it go to waste."
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Ex-*
And that's when it happened.
As Po was halfway through his movements, he felt an unexpected pain in his gut and gasped sharply only to be sent backward gracelessly with a grueling combination of advanced Kung Fu techniques only a master would know.
As Po groaned, opening his eyes while laying with his back on the hard stone, he noticed that Tigress was advancing towards him.
Tigress was pleased that her plan worked so well in her favor, but didn't reveal any emotions across her face.
She still had to finish the match.
Po noticed her afterward and quickly sat up to talk his way out of his dire situation or at least beg her not to knock his lights out.
The Five (excluding Tigress), were shocked at the turn of events and reluctantly exchanged their betting items once more.
The feline paid them no attention as she sprinted towards the panda's pleading face with a double palm strike, ready to conclude the match. Po, having realized the destination of Tigress's pent-up fury, quickly brought up his paws with his pads facing outwards to shield himself.
He knew neglecting his Inner Peace Mode while trying to perfect his power to harness Chi was a rookie mistake and was about to pay the price dearly with an embarrassing launch out of the courtyard and into the Valley below.
Tigress savored this moment, from the excited look on her spectators' faces to Po cringing and trying to use his paws as cover.
And that's when everything went downhill.
The Dragon Warrior (due to force of habit), unconsciously used his chi powers and a burst of golden light emitted from his palms similar to the Thundering Wind Hammer and headed straight for the tiger that was still in mid-flight from the supposed "concluding strike".
Since Po wasn't looking where his chi attack was going and Tigress could not stop her double palm strike, a blast of chi hit her square in her weakened shoulder.
Normally, she would have been able to hold her ground but due to the receiving shoulder already feeling weakened and numb, Tigress was sent flying out of the courtyard similar to Po on his second day at the Jade Palace and gasped in pain from every single step she managed to unfortunately bounce off of.
Unlike Po, who took pride in these circumstances and was accustomed to tripping down them almost every day, Tigress did not have his fa-... or erm... "padding" and was reduced to closing her eyes and wishing it all ended soon.
Once she came to a stop at the foot of the stairs (which proudly possessed one thousand steps on them), the feline felt immense pain on her limbs and blacked out just before seeing her friends' worried faces and Po's guilty one.
The day after, Tigress had woken up in a bed at the local infirmary down at the Valley of Peace and was greeted by Grandmaster Shifu (A.K.A her adoptive father), who explained her the extent of her injuries.
She had broken a wrist and an ankle and her bad shoulder was dislocated for quite some time until Mantis, master of Kung Fu, amateur acupuncture practitioner, and slightly professional doctor, set it back in place.
She was ordered by Shifu to remain there until she was well enough for training, which took a decent amount of expressing authority, cajoling, and straight-up threats in which left the crippled feline crestfallen.
The rest of the members of the five would occasionally visit her from time to time, but whenever Po came in her room he would quickly leave with multiple bruises and a steady stream of curses trailing after him.
Inwardly, the panda knew that he deserved it, but had faith that his best friend (and secret crush since forever), would eventually forgive him. That day has still yet to come and Po was slowly losing hope for the situation.
After a month of rest and recuperation, Tigress was cleared to leave the infirmary and at midnight went towards the Sacred Peach Tree to meditate, hence her current situation.
She was remorseful. So remorseful it was bothering her. Bothering her so much that meditation wasn't working and the striped feline was pacing back and forth between the peach tree and the cliff with much agitation.
She had felt guilty when remembering all the times Po tried to approach her while she lay in bed and only to be met with words and actions she wished she could have traveled back in time to take back.
Tigress decided to do the next best thing; she was going to apologize to Po.
But how?
That was was source of her problems. How could she, a great master of Tiger Style, mutual leader of the Furious Five, the feline with stone hard fists and an even harder heart, apologize to someone who was gentle, carefree, and the one whom she had wronged so unfairly ever since the first day he arrived at the Jade Palace?
At this point, Tigress was fuming.
She had stopped pacing and just stood there at the edge of the cliff. Her breaths were coming in short pants, claws desperately needing to sink into someone's neck, and crimson red pupils that turned into narrow slits.
She was about to roar in frustration of her inner imbalance to the sky and anyone within a mile radius from her when she heard the voice she dreaded to hear the most.
"Uhmmm, Tigress?"
Fifty minutes prior, Po too was pacing in circles in his room at the student barracks. He knew he had to find a way to make amends with Tigress after "the incident" before things got out of hand and he ended up losing her forever as a companion and best friend.
Out of ideas, Po went to Viper, Tigress's closest friend besides himself and quietly knocked on her paper door thrice.
Oddly enough, there was a faint glowing outlining her room as if she was staying up late, which she rarely did. "Hang on, I've gotta- *loud shuffling could be heard from inside her room*... Ok, annnnnnnnnd... done.
The door was opened softly and Viper was surprised at her late-night visitor.
"Po?"
"Viper, can we please talk in private? It's... about me and Tigress. Can I come in?"
"Sure, but what exactly do you need to talk about that can't wait in the morning?"
As Po entered Viper's room he noticed there was a small candle burning in the center with the end of a poorly concealed scroll lying underneath her bed mat.
She shut the door discreetly, but not before peeking out to look if there were any eavesdroppers, in which she only heard the soft snores and breaths coming from her sleeping roommates. Viper turned around and glanced inquiringly at the suddenly nervous Dragon Warrior that was slowly tapping his fingers together.
"Po," Viper stated,"if you're gonna just keep me waiting, I have better things to do."
Po looked at the ceiling for a while then finally let out a defeated sigh.
"I really need to apologize to Tigress about my clumsy mishap at the courtyard and was hoping that you would know what to do in these situations. I've been thinking for a while, but I'm pretty sure most of my plans will end with my premature death..."
As Viper continued to listen to Po ramble on about the details of his suicidal attempts to get Tigress to forgive him, the gears in her head were on hyper-drive and she suddenly asked,
"Do you love her?"
Po stopped mid-sentence with his mouth hanging open as Viper stared coolly back with a look of extreme seriousness that could even rival a certain feline.
Po, not realizing that everyone in the Jade Palace already knew about his supposed "secret" crush on the hard-core tiger master besides the said feline and Shifu, decided to play dumb.
"What? Me? Pfffft, nah. There's no way that I have a crush on Tigress. Besides, even if I did theoretically have one on that person-in-question it's impossible for her to like me back. She and I are total opposites anyways. I like to think of myself as the more relaxed, friendly, go-with-the-flow kind of guy while Tigress is-"
"Intelligent, beautiful, strong, coordinated, and just waiting for a male like yourself to whisk her off her feet and carry her towards the sunset of love and passion while she's still in the prime of her life?" Viper interrupted tactfully.
Her saying that caused the giant panda to blush furiously and for him to mutter incomprehensible nonsense until Viper redirected the subject towards her original question.
"So, Po," she began, "I will ask this again. And don't make me have to force you to tell me the truth. Do you genuinely love her?"
Po's shoulders dropped and he looked at the floor this time instead of at Viper's azure-blue eyes.
He remembered a time when he was ten, and he was telling his dad, Mr. Ping, the goose, and owner of a popular noodle shop, about his feelings of his favorite member of the Furious Five only to be cut off with a light chuckle and the response he'll never forget.
"Oh son, this is just a phase you're experiencing; you'll get over it soon enough, trust me..."
But Po never did.
Whenever Tigress showed up at the village for some errands, Po would always run out from the shop to sneak glances at her and maybe if he was lucky, watch her defeat bandits with ease as her Kung Fu skills were like none other.
Even though he admired her greatly, he was always too shy to approach the feline as he never was the type of guy that could easily win girls over with his appearance. He still had the same doubts from when he was ten to his current age about Tigress.
Current Po mumbled quite pathetically, "yeaiguessyoucansaythati'vehadacrushontigresseversinceifirstlaideyesonher."
Viper was not amused by his confession and snapped (with as loud as a whisper as she would risk without waking everyone up),
"There's no shame in loving someone else unless you think you're soooooo high above them all because you are the 'Legendary Dragon Warrior' and that you just can't bear to admit it!"
Po looked up at Viper with shock and slight hurt in his gaze. Viper said more sympathetically, "Come on, just say it. I need to hear it before I give you my advice on patching things up with Tigress."
Po sighed once more but complied with Viper's request.
"I... I lo-... That is.. I'm in-"
"Just spit it out!"
"I'M IN LOVE WITH TIGRESS!"
Po put his paws over his mouth quickly and both him and Viper listened for movement from their friends signaling that they were awake.
Fortunately, none did.
Both masters let out a sigh of relief and Viper smiled widely at Po.
"There we go. Was that so hard?"
Po grinned back and replied, "Now can you help me?"
"You'll be pleased to know that Tigress has fallen for you as well."
"Really?! Since when?"
"I believe she has had feelings for you for a long time, but she came to tell me just after we arrived home after the whole 'psychotic peacock' ordeal."
"Heheh, I can't believe this. Now all I have to do is fix things with Tigress first, then confess my love to her, and after that, I'll be the luckiest panda alive!"
"Right... about that. I need you come closer Po. What I'm about to tell you must NOT be heard by anyone but us by ANY means necessary..."
Author's Note: BTW, pls, pls, plsx50 tell me if there are any general errors, location errors, or grammatical errors. I hope that there wasn't anything too bad with the story. Also, there WILL be a Chapter 2, but again, I do not know when it will come out. Anyways, I'll talk to you all later!(or eventually... or hopefully... maybe).