Zeng leads Po to the dining hall, making animated gestures as he gives the panda wholesome explanations of the rooms they pass through and the amusing stories behind each one of them. He tries to listen to the goose, but his mind is still numb—he really is in the Jade Palace, home of heroes. He'll also be here every day from now on, serving food for the most talented young Masters of this generation. Most importantly, he'll see Tigress again and serve her breakfasts, lunches and dinners. She must remember him if she requested his presence as a cook, after all. He'll ask all the questions he can later. He doesn't know if the Masters are allowed appetizers, desserts or snacks, but he still plans the menus in his head.

No one has ever called Po a pessimist, after all, for better or for worse.

"Right, the Furious Five should be done with their morning meditation right about now." Zeng says, sliding open the door to a surprisingly humble looking dining room. "They'd like to welcome you personally. Oh, such humility..."

Po hears the sound of a door sliding open. "Thank you for the compliment, Zeng." Says a woman with a smooth, sweet voice. Po turns around to face the green viper who gives both him and Zeng a hospitable smile—a toothless one. Po gasps audibly, knowing that there is only one of the Masters of all the serpentine styles of Kung Fu who has that quirk.

A little dash of green flashes onto Zeng's shoulder. "I swear, this guy's gonna make my head grow so big I'm just gonna fall over one day." The mantis laughs and pats his shoulder.

A monkey with caramel colored fur somersaults over Viper's shoulder in a hurry, landing perfectly on his feet in front of Po. "Ah, finally!" He gushes, giving Po a friendly grin. "No more waking up before dawn to make breakfast for everyone!"

From next to the viper, a crane straightens his straw hat and punches the monkey jokingly. "Hey, I'm the one who's got to clean everything up."

And then, behind everyone else, is Tigress. She walks past the chattering Masters at a steady pace. Oh, how she's grown—there's the fiery orange fur and inky black stripes, rich with color and shining healthily in the morning light. Po can see the hard, painstakingly built muscles tense and relax as she moves towards him.

The only parts he doesn't recognize are the solid, unflinching glare and the stiff face that seems like it's just almost crossed into a frown.

And she's still walking towards him. Po is caught between excitement and a nervous sweat—the tiger seems like she's going to cook him for dinner if he so much as looks at her wrong. Po can definitely see that she's shorter than him, yet he feels like he's shrinking with every one of her steps.

That's exactly why he's pleasantly surprised when Tigress stops at an arm's length away from him, bowing respectfully.

"Welcome to the Jade Palace." Tigress says after she rises back. Her voice has gotten deeper, and her words sound neither welcoming nor displeased. "Thank you, Po, for-"

Po beams."You remember me!" An impossibly large grin threatens to split his face. "I can't believe it, oh, I knew you wouldn't forget!" He begins to pace around the kitchen aimlessly. "All this time, I kept wondering why you didn't come and-" He turns around to find the other four Masters giving him puzzled looks and Tigress seemingly shocked with him cutting her off. He coughs embarrassedly. "Uh, I mean... you guys haven't had breakfast yet, right?"

"No thanks to Monkey here." Mantis snickers. "He's on breakfast duty and he snoozed off this morning. Again."

"But it's the most important meal of the day!" Po reasons worriedly.

"I believe you." Crane rubs his shoulders with a sigh. "I'm having a hard time trying to deflect arrows as it is and having an empty stomach doesn't help."

Po can't tell if he's joking or not. He decides to take it literall, reasoning that Crane is a Kung Fu Master.

"Oh, yeah!" Viper's head shoots up. "Please keep the oil, sugar and salt to a minimum. They make us sluggish."

Monkey lifts himself off the ground with his tail. "What she means if you gotta make everything taste horrible so it's healthy."

"I believe Po will be able to handle his task." Tigress suddenly says, making everyone look to her in astonishment.

"Well, if lady iron fists says it's true, then it's got to be true." Mantis hops onto the avian's shoulder and whispers into his ear.

Tigress's eyes flit towards him. "I can still hear you, Mantis."

Mantis forces a smile and his carapace goes a shade lighter.

"Well, I guess I'll show Po to the kitchen." Zeng nods towards the panda. "If we hurry, he might be able to whip something up by the time you all have your breaks."


"So, how long have you been working here?" Po casually asks as he and Zeng walk briskly through rooms and halls.

"Since I was a young man." Zeng replies. "I think it's been fifteen years, now."

"You've been here since Tigress moved in?" Po's eyes widen inquisitively.

"Curious about Master Tigress, are you?" Zeng raises an eyebrow. "A lot of people are."

"Of course I am, it's Master Tigress." Po stresses the words, baffled. "And I haven't seen her in years."

It's Zeng's turn to "You used to know her?"

Used to. "Yeah." Doubts shows on his face. "I guess. She went to my dad's noodle shop once."

"Once."

"Yep. Once. But she promised to come back!" Po reasons enthusiastically.

Zeng chuckles. Oh, the young and their hero worship. "I'm sure Master Tigress has her reasons."

Po tells the goose that he agrees, but a little voice in the back of his mind says otherwise, a voice that's soon swept aside as the panda gets to work. The kitchen is definitely bigger than Mr. Ping's, but he doesn't even feel the fatigue caused by more running around than he's ever done in his father's noodle shop. He gets to work pulling the wheat noodles, mixing the spices, stirring the broth and sorting tea leaves with a swiftness that would make his father proud.

When he's finally done, he wipes his brow and giddily picks up the large pot of broth in one hand and the one filled to the brim with noodles in the other. The grin doesn't leave his face, not even when he nearly tips over under the combined weight. He grunts as he uses the tip of his foot to slide the door open, sighing in relief when he sees that the Furious Five aren't here yet. Setting both pots on the table, he dashes back to the kitchen to fetch the tea and the large pile of vegetables and tofu for the noodles. When he returns, he's balancing five very large bowls on his head, the one on top containing five sets of chopsticks and spoons. Po skillfully sets them up neatly on the table and wonders if he has time to make some sesame balls for desserts when the door suddenly slams to the side.

"Something smells good!" Monkey sniffs, suddenly on top of Po's shoulders. The cook jumps in surprise, just barely managing to catch the teapot he nearly knocks down. Monkey leaps off just in time to save a cup that nearly crashes into the ground. "Oops. Sorry, pal." He scratches the back of his head.

"Damn, Monkey, we get a proper meal for once and you were about to ruin it!" Mantis guffaws and jumps to the edge of the pot full of hot broth. "Oh, yeah, noodles!" He says, rubbing his front legs together hungrily until his face suddenly freezes. "Hot! Hot!" He hollers as he somehow ends up on jumping around on the table and clutching his feet in pain.

"Hey, I didn't even come close to touching the pot." Monkey pouts.

"How about we all start eating instead of talking about eating?" Crane prods, trying his hard not to drool at the wonderful scent. Either this panda is very good at cooking or he's just so hungry that even Tigress' bland cooking seems like something out of the Emperor's dinner table. He decides that he'll decide later, when his belly is full.

"I'm with Crane on this one, boys." Viper chuckles calmly.

And then there's the obvious lack of a certain feline's presence in the room. "So... where's Tigress?" Po asks, as the four seat themselves down. "And Master Shifu?"

Any others would correct him with a blasphemed stare before adding 'Master' before her name, but the new masters don't even bat an eye as the panda proceeds to pick up a bowl and scoop a generous portion of noodles into it.

"Ah, you don't need to do that." Crane clears his throat, clearly flattered by the gesture.

"Of course I do, you're the Furious Five." Po absolutely beams, pouring a steaming ladle's worth of broth in the bowl and handing it to the avian.

Monkey shrugs as he hurriedly receives his bowl. "Master Shifu doesn't usually eat with us." He shoves a pair of chopsticks' worth of noodles in this mouth. "More of a loner, that guy." He says unclearly as he chews, his eyes snapping wide open. His jaw stops moving before he chews once, and once more.

"Uh," Po hands the final bowl to Viper. "Does it taste bad?"

Monkey doesn't answer. Instead, he cocks his head back and buries his face inside the bowl, forgetting all about the chopsticks as he casts them to the side.

"I guess not." Crane raises an eyebrow and shrugs, bringing the chopsticks to his beak. Just like Monkey, he chews, and then he completely ignores the chopsticks as he dips his beak in the bowl and slurps for all he's worth, bits of soup escaping out onto the table.

"Tigress..." Viper's eyes widen. "We forgot to clean up the training hall."

"More for me!" Mantis garbles incoherently from inside the bowl. He had leapt into it before Po could notice, literally swimming in the broth as he rabidly chomps down on pieces of tofu and vegetables.

Viper looks at Po with a bleak smile.

"You go eat, all that smashing," Po strikes a punching pose. "And striking," He chops his hand in the air. "And everything else must have you starved. I'll look for Tigress."

And it's during that exact moment that Tigress enters the room. "Sorry for being late. I was cleaning the hall, I hope I didn't keep anyone..." The tiger stares with a look of utter disbelief at her fellow masters. Viper doesn't have her face buried in soup, but she looks just like she's this close to swallowing the bowl whole. As for Mantis, she would have missed him if it wasn't from the splashing coming from his bowl. "Waiting..."

"Tigress, you're here!" Po's face lights up and he bows and gestures to the empty seat with her still hot breakfast. "Eat them while they're hot." He says, before his stomach rumbles with a mighty growl.

Almost immediately, Crane and Monkey remove their faces from their dishes, the latter's face completely soaked. Mantis' head pops out into the air and Viper stops with her mouth open, a piece of spinach just one closed mouth away from sliding into her hungry stomach.

Po laughs awkwardly. "Oops."

"Po," Tigress calls out his name. His attention is immediately on her. "When did you set out to the Jade Palace this morning?"

"Before the sun even rose." He answers proudly, holding a fist to his chest. His belly bounces as he does this, knocking an adjacent chair an inch away.

Tigress deduces that it must have taken him two hours at least to make it up here. "And did you have breakfast?"

"No," He scratches his own chin a bit self-consciously. "I guess I got too excited to see you guys!" He follows enthusiastically.

"Then please have breakfast with us." Tigress sits down on the chair next to Mantis. "It's important to eat in the morning or else you'll lose your strength."

Po makes a sound of excitement, even with Tigress' toneless words. He shakes Monkey's shoulder, nearly making him choke. "Did you see that?!" Po says, his face close enough to smell the tofu on him. "Did you see that?!" He does the same thing to Crane, nearly poking his eye out with the sharp beak. "Oh, this is the best day of my life!" He shakes the bowl with Mantis still inside it. He bounces around, gasping for air as he reaches the surface. Po makes an attempt to grab Viper's shoulders, but as she had none, he settles for wrapping his large fingers around her body. "Tigress asked me to have breakfast with all of you!"

Tigress finds herself staring dumbly again as Po sweeps her into a massive hug that lifts her off her feet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He squeezes harder with each word.

She pushes his chest away, soft enough to just make him back away. She coughs. "Personal space." She says, stepping back a little bit.

"Sorry." Po slumps a little dejectedly.

"Do not be. One should be honest in all their expressions."

Po thanks her one more time before he rushes off to fetch himself some breakfast.

Tigress remembers the last time she was hugged, but she doesn't know how long ago it was.


Mantis, Crane and Monkey all lie back on their chairs as they rub their stomachs. Viper is curled peacefully around her chair, looking as if she's on the brink of falling asleep. Her eyes certainly droop enough.

Tigress, however, is still on her third serving and she doesn't look like she's going to stop any time soon.

Po's chopsticks are neatly placed on his completely clean bowl after one extra meal. The only reason he doesn't go on is because the noodles are running low and Tigress is still eating like she hasn't had anything before.

Although she eats at an average pace, without the slightest hint of rushing, Po swears he can see the corner of her lips rise just a little bit after each bite. He thinks he's seeing things at first, but then he looks closer and finds that he's right.

"One more, please." Tigress holds out her bowl again.

"You're joking." Mantis gapes. "How can you still eat? I mean, those noodles are good, but there's no way anyone can eat this much."

"I am not joking, Mantis." Tigress pays no attention to him as Po gladly gives her more.

"Nobody can resist my dad's noodles." Po tells him.

"Must be for all those insane muscles." Monkey reasons.

"That makes sense." Viper nods. "I mean, I've heard lots of stories about Tigress' killer strength, but I didn't know how strong she was until I saw her do that thing yesterday."

"I know, right?" Crane wipes his mouth with a napkin. He gives Tigress a curious look. "How do your fists not hurt from doing that?"

"Practice." Tigress answers simply, arranging her cup inside her bowl neatly. "Thank you for the food, Po."

"Any time!"

"Hey Po, you should watch her do that thing with the steel balls after break." Mantis burps loudly. "You won't believe your virgin eyes."

That's an invitation that Po intends to accept. It takes a while to haul back everything to the kitchen, wash them spotless and put them back, but he immediately bolts to the training hall, wherever it is. It's only when Zeng points out that he's been running in circles does he run to the right direction.

He opens the door, ready to witness the awesomeness of 'the thing', and the thing flies at his face in maximum velocity. Something very hard and heavy hits him square in the forehead and Po's head flies back. He panics, hoping his head hasn't practically flown off because he can't feel his legs and he's falling down.


Okay, reception has been pretty good. I'll have to do a couple of chapters to see if this fanfic racks up enough regular readers to continue.

I update all my stories based on how much attention they get. Stories with less attention get updated less because I prioritize the ones that more people are waiting for, so make sure to drop in for a review if you're interested in this story!

Thanks for reading, R&R :)