Chapter 4

"How was this even possible?" Mei Mei asked curiously, as she took hold of Tigress... out of Lei Lei's reach, who giggled and babbled things like 'stripey baby! My stripy baby... gimme stripy baby!' Continuously with determination while jumping up to grasp at the baby tiger's waggling tail, laughing between her words. Mei Mei had to twist her body from one side to the other while joining Po and the others at the table, while the others tried to explain how it came to be. Tigress on the other hand was enjoying Lei Lei's attention, and was giggling hysterically, fueling Lei Lei's motivation.

"We know who did it- they poisoned her with a potion we are unsure of, and this was the result." Crane stated, gesturing at Tigress, who raised herself away from Mei Mei's tight chest hold to face him briefly, before getting distracted by Lei Lei again. Mei Mei was intrigued, but seemed to get a little vexed with Lei Lei, although being quite fond of the child, but maybe not as much as... well, the adult Tigress loved.

"Have you caught the culprit yet? This..." Her looked a little confused. "Granter?"

Shifu nodded. "Yes, a creature with no distinct features. It follows a mist... but no one has seen what it truly looks like."

"Could it be a shape shifter of some kind? Like someone with the Shift Stones?"

"It's unlikely for one who has the gift of a supernatural power to bring back youth to... well, the youth." Mantis frowned at his own format of words. "Anywho, they turned Tigress into a baby... because the Granter... granted someone's deepest desire."

"Well that sucks." Monkey motioned at Tigress for the bug while the panda gave her remark, making Mei Mei to stare right down at her, the flab of her chin expanding itself. Tigress looked up at her and smiled... before cuddling into her.

"She's so cuddly!" Mei mei held her tighter without hesitation, swaying side to side to sync with her gentle humming. As for Lei Lei, she was starting to get tired of trying to get to Tigress, so she sat down, trying to catch her breath. "Why can't her adult self be like this? Then I could totally get her into makeup, and ribbon dancing-"

"If she ever woke up hugging everyone for no reason whatsoever? I'd be very worried..." Mantis didn't at Viper little hiss, but focused on Shifu, who was pacing back and forth. "Not being mean or anything, it's just not in her character... you know, hugging everyone all the time for no reason and such. It was never in her character... seriously, you tried hugging her three years ago? That spells out a death sentence!"

"We can still dream," Mei Mei muttered, before smiling down at Tigress when she started pawing at her face. "Well... what can we do about Tigress in her situation? Will she be turned back into an adult?"

"Of course... that's if we follow what the Granter wants." Crane statement firmly, making everyone turn to him. "Even though he gave us no instruction, I have a theory. Tigress is turned to a baby to have another chance at childhood... one where Shifu is more..." noticing his master's gaze on him, Crane's eyes rolled towards the ceiling. "Ya know..."

"Fatherly?" Mr. Ping suggested innocently. Shifu glared at him slightly, but Crane nodded, turning back to face his Master, gesturing towards the goose with an open wing.

"Exactly."

Po placed a paw on Li's shoulder. "This is where my dad's come in- you both had me- one for three months, and the other for twenty years after that... they have the experience you need! Right dads?" Po gazed at both his father's pleadingly.

"Of course!" Mr. Ping and Li replied gleefully.

"What about a motherly figure? Doesn't Tigress need one of them?" Mei Mei asked, in an almost 'touch wood' kind of way. Crane glanced at Mei Mei's hopeful look as she cuddled the cub who spoke just plain, spittle filled gibberish. Mei Mei noticed him, and smiled sweetly, and hugging Tigress again, but this time, the cub was almost suffocating in chin flab.

"We already have Master Viper on that..." He replied slowly, seeing the hope in her eyes slowly die and letting the cub sit on the floor. "But we want Tigress as... well, Tigress she was before this... and it's she needs Shifu the most... if she wished to have a mom involved, we would've heard from that. She was fine without a mother for a long time... but we're focusing on Shifu and Tigress now... that's the most important part."

Tigress crawled across the floor towards Shifu, sitting in front the older red panda, staring up at him. He looked back down at her, watching a smile crawl along her lips, pleased to see his attention on her. Everyone's talking eventually died down, and watched the scene. Shifu's ears twitched at the sound of nothing, until Tigress laughed, and reached out for him. Knowing everyone was waiting, Shifu reluctantly picked her up again, excused himself, and left the room. Everybody in the room remained mute, up until Lei Lei ran out after Shifu to try and get at Tigress again.

"The one thing that worries me," Crane picks up after a while, wringing one wing over the other tightly, as if to rub off something from his feathers. Viper glanced at this. "Is if Master Shifu is even ready for this..."

"Do you all believe he is?" Li asked softly.

"Personally I feel divided," Crane replied, balling his wings together. "That's why I'm trying to rub off my doubts."

Sorry for the short chapter guys! When I got back from the Language school I was off again the following Friday for the weekend! I'll make the next chapter longer I promise! Hope everyone's having a good summer so far!

Please review and tell me what you think!