She was clever, crafty, and quick. One swift movement was all it ever took to land him flat on his face; the only question was which one would see her to victory. Of course, she didn't win every day. She certainly never went easy on him either. No; keeping the simian on his toes, quite literally, was indeed one of her many talents.

The two masters had always been good friends, and had trained and fought alongside one another for years now. It had only been over the past few months, however, that they had begun a new endeavor of one-on-one training - just the two of them, in agreement to grow and better themselves in new ways, together. The plan had blossomed brilliantly in no time.

Even in ways that neither of them had seen coming.

Never had they learned more about one another, in all their years as teammates, as in the few months they'd now been honoring this new training agreement. Never had they wanted to learn more still, despite all the personal knowledge they had already discovered. And despite all they also knew about their paths as kung fu masters and friends alike...the line only seemed to be growing thinner and thinner.

That...was their first big mistake.

"Four out of five, I win again!" the blunt-fanged serpent flicked her tongue out triumphantly, keeping her place atop the fallen Monkey only for a second before slithering down to reposition herself into a friendly bow.

Her teammate grinned and brought his hands together for a bow of his own - the traditional fist-to-palm they were all very familiar with, though he stayed right where he had landed. "Heh. You got me, alright."

In a proper training battle, one that Master Shifu would have been present for, a bowing posture on the ground was unheard of. But Monkey and Viper had decided from the beginning to keep things casual, or rather, neither of them had made much of an effort to apply Shifu's strict disciplines to their own sessions. They got enough of such things as it were.

There was no real need for strict etiquette in friendly training sessions like these - especially not when the only real rule was "don't fall over". It was a challenge, and had helped both of them to build more balance, but at the end of the day, severity was not the point.

Focus, however, was quite an important one.

One that both of them had found just a liiiiittle more difficult lately...for...reasons.

Viper took a moment to stretch her body out with a satisfying grunt before she spoke again. "Ah, that felt great! Just what I needed."

"Totally," the primate agreed. He then steadied his hands and feet, lifting up into a plank pose and ducking forward into a somersault. The roll landed him back on his feet and he stretched an arm into the air with a sigh.

When Viper finished her own stretching, she turned her attention to the pastel glowing of purples and reds that would soon take over the whole sky. "It will be dark before too much longer. We should get back to the palace," she said, flicking her tongue again. "I can smell something good, too - no doubt Po's cooking tonight!"

"Wha? ...I can't smell anything," Monkey sniffed the air with more intent, but his confused expression remained intact.

His serpentine comrade only giggled knowingly.

"You will," she assured him. Monkey continued his futile attempts at catching the scent for a few more seconds, until he noticed that Viper was already slithering her way back to the Jade Palace. Quickly, his inevitably inferior sense of smell was forgotten.

He leapt after her. "Hey! Viper!"

The snake blinked in surprise at the sudden exclamation and swiftly turned back around to her friend, who narrowly missed slamming right into her.

"Agh!" he regained his balance quite easily, though the two of them now stood much too close for comfort. "Er...heh." Monkey blushed with a second grin before politely taking a step back, and bowing his head to her in apology.

Viper blinked once more, unable to stop the warmth coming to her own cheeks as well.

"...Yes?" she asked.

"Before we go back, I uh," the simian began ever so awkwardly. He lifted a hand to the back of his head, averting his gaze for a second. "I was wondering if you, uh, wanted to...y'know...hang out sometime, maybe? ...Outside of training?"

Viper's eyes widened a bit. She hesitated before carefully looking back and forth around them, and then directed a somewhat suspicious gaze in his direction. "You mean...like..."

"NOT a date!" he immediately retorted, putting both hands out in front of himself. "Definitely NOT a date! Just...friends! Hanging out...like friends do...not...dating..."

His explanation trailed off into silence as he lowered down to rest on his knuckles and glanced around, trying (and failing) to remain inconspicuous. His comrade only stood hesitant, her mouth agape, stumped on what to say next. If anyone else were to find out... She finally softened with a sigh, and edged just a hair closer to him.

She quietly said, "Monkey... You know we can't..."

"It's not a date!" he insisted again before Viper could finish her sentence. She shot him a familiar look that earned another few seconds of silence as he stammered on his next words, the blush returning to his cheeks. "I...I mean, y'know, it's...not exactly...I just thought..." He quickly trailed off again, and paused. Then he sighed, "Agh, do you want to or not?"

The snake blinked in surprise at the sudden change of words. She held Monkey's hopeful gaze for a moment before averting her own more conflicted one. The silence that now passed between them was longer than the previous ones as Viper weighed the pros, cons, and possibilities in her mind. She'd always been so abidant to the rules of kung fu mastery. But...Monkey certainly wasn't the only one who'd been feeling differently about it lately. And they both knew it, even if she was hesitant.

"Ah...nevermind...you're right, I'm sorry."

Viper was snapped wide-eyed out of her thoughts and back into the moment, to Monkey now sadly making his way past her and back up toward the Jade Palace. He'd accepted their fate...but Viper had not.

She called back, "Monkey, no, wait!" She quickly followed him, slithering around and in front of him, and lifting herself up again. They stared at one another, Viper now blushing slightly. She averted her eyes, but only for a second. "It's...not a date, right?"

Monkey blinked.

"Absolutely not a date," he affirmed.

Viper smiled with a brave sigh.

"Alright...I accept."

Author's Note:

My apologies for the length...or...lack thereof. I get distracted easily & unfortunately lack the motivation to see bigger projects through to the end. Soooo I've decided to embrace what I'm significantly better at! - short, shippy stuff. No promises when I'll update, but I'm vibrating with the MoVi feels right now so hopefully it'll be...sometime this...year...or...uhh...yEAH, thanks for reading! :') Hope you're enjoying so far, my friends.

P.S. I know "abidant" isn't a word. Rip.