She always hated doing work she found tedious even if it was for only for a short period of time. Tigress ran on all fours across the civilians rooftops as she made her way to the last bar in the small town. Shifu gave her orders to do the weekly checkup incase any rowdy bandits or passing thugs decided to make a scene.

No one at the palace liked this chore, since it took most of the night to finish a thorough checking. Even though a member of the Furious Five's presence kept the people in check, didn't mean that they enjoyed doing it. Po was given the lovely chance to contribute to the duty for the first time last week, thinking it wasn't as hard as the Five proclaimed. An hour after midnight later with a tired and bruised Po making his way up they steps before passing out at the top made the panda begin to think otherwise.

Tigress growled in irritation as rain began to pelt against her fur, madding it down into wet clumps against her skin. She hated the job more so than any of the others did presiding in the Jade Palace. Some of the more drunk patrons thought they had a chance with her and every time she politely declined with a punch to their faces, especially if they tried getting touchy.

In a way she was also happy to be doing something other than training. It had gotten quite after the attack of Tai Lung, and most of the bandits laid low until they were out of the Valley of Peace completely. Sure they went out of the valley to deal with an overly powerful man or group that was dealing trouble, but that was also a rarity now a days.

She jumped off the roof and landed on her hands and feet in front of the last tavern for the night. She stood below the overhang and shook herself to rid of the majority of rain water, before walking inside and pushing open the double doors.

Some chairs were overturned as gators and bulls stood either yelling or laughing with each other drunkenly. Some fist fights began as the scared rabbits and pigs that waited table tried to stop them from ruining the establishment. A large boar sat in the corner laughing loudly with snorting squeals at the predicament along with two wolves. All of them brandishing weapons whether they were daggers holstered to there hip or spears strapped to their back.

This all stopped when the front doors closed with a loud thud and they saw tigress standing there, yellow eyes ablaze threateningly. This caused a lot of them to sober up and stop their fighting and tone down to a more mild behavior. Some glared back at her seeming like they were itching to proclaim a challenge which, unfortunately for Tigress's hoping they did so, they smartly didn't.

She walked past the tables and sat down in her own in the far left corner of the room to see the whole place clearly and without risk of having someone sneak behind her. As she did so, a few of the males noticed her wet appearance and couldn't help but leer pervertedly, even with the obvious species difference.

Before long the bar went back into swing; ignoring, but not forgetting the presence of the kung fu specialist. This was the same as it always was for Tigress which made her even more bored and itching for a fight. Her prayers were answered in not the way she thought.

The creek of the wooden doors indicated another presences entrance. A rather large, black wolf lumbered inside toward the counter, sitting himself down in an unoccupied stool. He was adorned in a black cloak that sat on his shoulders and covering over his brown tunic and green pants all of which were slightly wet from the rain.

"Excuse me, miss?" he spoke in a growling tone, not unlike his other brethren but more like gravel was being mixed in his esophagus.

The Waitress working the counter turned to him, "y-yes? What can I get y-you." her voice portraying the obvious fear she felt.

The wolf raised an eyebrow before shaking his head, "I'm not here to cause trouble I only want to get myself a little bit of that liquid heaven."

"Oh, my sincerest apologies b-but we only have the cheap stuff left in stock. We ran out of the rest of the g-good brands." She stuttered out with still obvious fear, especially since they were low on choices of alcohol.

Tigress was going to intervene. She already saw the reactions that arose when the tavern didn't supply what the customer wanted. She never tried they stuff before, and after seeing what it did to people she planned on never drinking. When she was about to stand she stopped in surprise at the scraggly laugh that erupted from the wolf's throat.

"That's fine, any liquor is good liquor." he barked out with a large grin.

It seemed to have been contagious because the waitress bunny began to smile, "right away sir!"

She rushed into the back and returned with a large glass of beer, "here you go."

It didn't take long for the large canine to pour it all down into his gullet, signs of a experienced drinker. This went on for a while, ending when the wolf was on his twelfth glass.

"Thanks for that, miss?" he ended questionably.

The waitress smiled again and answered, "my names Mei. I never got yours by the way and isn't it polite to give your name first?" she said teasingly.

He chuckled out, "Mines Lang." He bowed his head as low as the counter, "my sincerest apologies for the impoliteness." Lang still chuckled lightheartedly even when doing so.

"You don't need to do that, you've been the nicest customer I've had besides the regular towns people."

Their conversation was beginning to bore Tigress. She turned her head and scanned the room again, still no one acting too out of place. Tigress laid back against the chair and began to doze off. The nights events of doing nothing but inspecting the taverns taking its toll on her.

It was a dreamless sleep, leaving her seeing nothing but a black void as she snoozed. It was very relaxing to her sore muscles and right when she was about in complete peaceful sleep a loud crash awoke her. Tigress leaped up and took her infamous tiger stance, but it was for not.

Two wolves laid sprawled out on the floor atop the remains of a table. A cloak less Lang stood between her and them and he didn't seem happy. "What the hell do you pups think you're doing," he growled dangerously. Tigress padded forward a few steps to ask what was going on, but stopped when she felt a heavy fabric fall off her shoulders. It was Lang's cloak, why was she wearing it?

"What are we doing? What are you doing! We had a chance to kill a member of the Furious Five and you stopped us!" On yelled as they both got up.

They next one began, "Ignore him brother, lets just finish her off before she wakes up!"

They stopped as they heard a dangerously low growl from behind Lang. All three wolves turned to see Tigress striding forward, eyes promising murder. The two brothers shared a look before quickly running out, tails between their legs. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of Tigress's skills.

About to give chase, Tigress stopped prematurely after hearing Lang's gravel voice boomed with uncontained laughter. Soon the rest of the bar joined in at the display they just witnessed. An unforgettably squeal and snort of laughter coming from the boar made the rest of the customers begin to laugh even harder than before.

She stiffened and almost lashed out at the hand placed on her shoulder. "Girl, that was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!" Lang roared out.

Tigress was slightly confused at the bar's unusual reaction to her anger at the wolf brothers which they found funny. Lang lead her back to the table she originally sat at and picked up his cloak. He ushered her to a seat before sitting oppositely on the other end of the table. She normally wouldn't have complied so easily, but she wanted answers.

As the rest of the men calmed down, Mei walked over with two mugs of beer in hand. Lang took the mugs and placed them on the table while thanking her, "and here's a little something for the table I broke and the previous drinks I had." The small bag of money clinked together when it fell in her hand. She gave a quick thanks before returning to continue her job.

With Lang sitting right across from her she noticed a few more thing about him that she didn't from a distance. He was a head taller than her and half of his left ear was missing, whether from a fight or not she didn't know. A leather eye patch wrapped around his head and settled over his right eye. The black fur that covered his body was lighter in some places and grey below his chin and around his face. He was older then Tigress originally thought.

"That was pretty funny, do you always end fights in such a comical way?" he questioned, his voice showing more of his older age.

Tigress didn't take the question well, "Are you belittling my ability to fight?"

"No, not at all," Lang said quickly. "It was just very amusing watching the reaction of those two pups. I was asking if your enemy's all ran away so comically."

A snicker broke through his muzzle while he took another gulp of his beer. Tigress only looked at him blankly, not seeing it as amusing as Lang did.

"I want to know what happened and why your cloak was on me." She demanded, authority laced in her voice.

Lang peeked around his mug and raised an eyebrow, he placed the glass down. "Well you passed out in the corner over here and was shivering from your wet clothes. I gave you my cloak to warm you up and when I was gunna sit down again those pups charged and tried to jump ya," He took another sip of his brew, "so I stopped them. Leading to you waking up and giving this bar's patrons a side ache."

A giggle escaped his throat that didn't sound right to come from a wolf, " now here we are."

Tigress leered untrustingly, but excepted the explanation none the less. The sound of glass scraping against wood gained her attention. Seeing that Lang pushed his second glass to her, "have a drink it's on me."

She pushed it away with the back of her hand, "I don't drink."

"Who comes to a bar and doesn't drink?" he smiled and pushed it back.

"I do, and I have a job to do," she rejected it again.

Lang slightly frowned, "and what job is that, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I have orders from my master Shifu to patrol the towns taverns and make sure that there's no trouble." She answered with a slightly bored tone. "It's one of the duties the Five and the Dragon Warrior do to help preserve the peace."

"how many left you gotta check?" asked Lang. "By the way you're telling me it doesn't sound like much fun."

Tigress rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of feeling tired. "This is the last one."

Lang gave another big smile, "well then your pretty much done and you sound like you deserve a drink." He pushed the glass to her yet again.

Tigress was getting annoyed, "I told you I don't drink."

"Well, why dont'ya?" innocent curiosity coming from his words.

"For many reasons, you're a prime example of why I shouldn't drink. Along with the other people here." She said, not caring about her words.

Lang's ears dropped a little along with his head, "awww, that's not very nice to say."

Tigress looked slightly surprised at his reaction. Most people would have been down right mad at her proclamation. She almost felt compelled to apologize, till Lang started to giggle.

"Just think, I'm not even drunk yet!" He smiled wolfishly. Tigress rubbed her head, imagining the migraine that could come if she continued to talk to this insane canine.

"Ya know? I use to have a friend like you." he said while absentmindedly picking at his sharp teeth. "He was a big gator, Jun, and we use to wrestle when we were younger and our parents lived close together."

Lang sat back and began to smile fondly, gaining Tigress's attention. "I got a hold of some real heavy stuff my father hid away In the kitchen cabinet and I dared Jun to drink it. He was almost impossible to convince, but when I finally did get him to drink! HaHa! For being so big he couldn't hold his liquor."

Tigress snorted slightly in amusement before Lang continued. "He was so drunk he thought I was a giant, overgrown fish! That was his favorite food and he tried to eat me!" Lang gave another laugh and pointed at his torn ear. "That's how I got this. He ripped it right off, and boy did it hurt!"

Tigress couldn't help keeping the small grin on her face, even as Lang continued. "He was chasing me all over those hills and our parents thought we were playing a game of tag and were laughing as I screamed!"

Tigress accidentally let a giggle escape at the complete absurdity of Lang's situation with his friend. To bad for her that Lang noticed. "I knew I would break through to ya with that old story"

With slight surprise of losing her normally stoic façade, Tigress bit back her tongue to refrain from continuing her giggles. "Well It's about time I go now. I want to get some sleep after such a long night."

Lang held up his hand to stop her, "before you go you mind giving me your name, mines Lang." He than took his hand and held it out to Tigress to shake.

Tigress stood there weighing her options if she should or shouldn't give him her name, but decided no harm of it. "Tigress, it's nice to meet you Lane."

"You know, If you do ever get bored you can come back here any time and talk to me. I plan on renting out a room on the second floor for a while." He made the suggestion while give her his cloak. "and here, you'll need this for the walk more than I do."

Tigress was yet again surprised by the man and was about to refuse. "Nope, don't even say it. I wont take 'no' for an answer. It would be a shame if you caught a cold."

Just accepting it, Tigress walked out the door and sprinted through the streets under the overhang of the houses and stores. Trying to stay out of the rain as much as possible before reaching the stairs to the Jade Palace. The entire way there she was thinking of her conversation with the older wolf. His behavior was absolutely absurd compared to ones she usually fought.

Always trying to appear threatening and ferocious to any one to look intimidating. But Lang, Lang was so laid back and seemed to ooze his feeling of being happy. His laugh was contagious to the waitress and the fellow drinkers in the tavern and even herself to a certain extant. It might have been because of his age that made him the way he is but she couldn't be sure. She was seriously considering his offer, not like she had anything better to do but train and the rare hunt for bandits.

Reaching the top of the stairs she jumped over the wall and made her way to the sleeping quarters for the night.

Back at the tavern Lang stood at the doorway where Tigress left, hand halfway in a waving motion. "Wow, ran so fast she couldn't even say goodbye." He just smiled and shook his head.

"Kids these days."

A/N

HI! My computer sucks so don't expect a lot of regular updates!

I own nothing! Not even the shirt on my back or the underwear covering my ass!

Insert happy face, don't know why.