Year of the Tiger

By corset-rebellion-follower

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda

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Chapter 9- Gateways

Ow. Ow. Ow. Damn it, I am never drinking again. Clover clutched at her head and grit her teeth. She was outside helping Mingxia with the wash, but as she did every sound around her seemed to be amplified by tenfold and held right next to her ear, irritating her head and making her dizzy.

"Clover?"

She cringed as her mother addressed her. "Yeah, Mom?"

"You might want to loosen the grip on your sheets before you permanently twist them like that," Mingxia warned, working the cloth out of her hands. She sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Sorry, Mom."

Mingxia glanced at her youngest daughter. "Are you alright, dear? You seem a bit… tense."

"I'm fine, Mom," Clover snapped.

"…Okay. If you're sure." They spent the next few minutes in silence, the only sounds the swish of water.

"Clover? Are you home?"

Clover straightened up. Oh gods, no, not now! Mingxia started to get up, but Clover pulled her back down. "No, Mom! I bet it's no one. Let's just finish the wash so that we can get it dry before sundown," she said.

"But Clover, someone's calling for you!"

"Clover?" Clover cringed and slowly turned around. Ning was standing at the back gate.

"Isn't that the Tangs son? I haven't seen him since he was small—he's grown quite a bit, hasn't he?" Mingxia whispered.

"Yes, Mom, he's very tall, can we go inside?" she pleaded.

"I think he wants to talk to you."

"That would be a good observation."

"Well don't you want to at least go say hi or something?"

"No! Now can we please go in before he sees me?" Clover pleaded.

"Clover!" Ning waved to her from the gate.

"Too late," Mingxia giggled.

Clover sighed and stood up. "Hello, Ning," she sighed, coming over to the gate.

"Hello. Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, thank you. Not that it's any of your business," she snapped.

"Well, you seemed pretty drunk last night."

Clover froze. "You… you saw me last night?"

He nodded. "You were out with your sister, Master Tigress."

Clover hid her face in her hands and shook her head. "Oh gods. Look, Ning, whatever stupid stuff you saw me doing, I don't remember it, so please don't ridicule me, and please keep it down because my mother is behind us and my parents don't know I went out drinking last night."

"I'm not here to poke fun at you. But since you don't remember what happened… well…" He was quiet for a few moments. "You see… you and me… we, um, we…"

Clover prayed that he wasn't going to say what she thought he was going to say. "Ning… you and I didn't… you know, have sex, right?" she whispered.

"Oh, gods no! I would never do that to you when you were drunk! But, we did um… we did kiss."

Clover stared at him a deadpan look on her face. "We kissed?"

Ning nodded. "I'm sorry if you thought I was taking advantage of you, or if you thought I just wanted to try and get you in bed, I just… I was just overcome with emotion. You know how I feel about you," he explained, gently stroking her cheek. She pushed his hands away.

"Yeah, like I remember what I felt last night. I was wasted. And keep your hands to yourself."

Ning sighed. "Clover, please. Let me take you out to dinner tonight, to make up for my dishonor."

"So now it's a dishonor to kiss me? Are you saying that I'm disgusting?" Clover asked angrily, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No, no! I think you're the opposite of disgusting. You know, pretty. Very pretty. I don't feel right about taking advantage of you when you were drunk. I want to do something nice for you."

Clover sighed and turned away from him. "Go home, Ning. I have things to do other than waste my time listening to you." She went back to the wash and scrubbed a shirt until she saw the snow leopard leave out of the corner of her eye.

"He likes you," Mingxia noted, taking the shirt from her and ringing the water out.

"Well I wish he would jump down a bottomless pit that leads to hell," Clover muttered.

"Clover! That's a horrible thing to say. He's trying to be nice."

"I don't care if he buys me the Jade Palace, I don't like him! At least I was safe here, but now he knows where I live somehow, and I'm going to be annoyed for the rest of my life. Unless I agree to marry him and have his babies against my will," Clover insisted.

Mingxia immediately dropped her wash and took the sides of Clover's face in her paws, forcing her daughter to look her in the eye. "Clover, don't you EVER think about doing something like that against your will. You always have a choice of when and who to marry, and you NEVER have to be pressured into something, do you understand?"

Clover nodded quickly. "Mom, I was just kidding. I didn't really mean it," she said softly, taking her mother into her arms and hugging her. Mingxia returned the hug.

"I know… but I despise arranged marriage. And I hate that people marry for something other than love. Promise me that before you get married, or even consider getting married, you make sure that you're really in love and that you're not doing it for any other reason."

Clover nodded. "Of course, Mom. Why else would I want to marry, other than for love?" Mingxia was silent, but then picked up her wash.

"You're right. We should finish. It's almost time for lunch."

Clover nodded and picked up a basket of damp clothes and started hanging them up on the clothesline. I kissed Ning. Oh gods, I'm tainted! What the hell was I thinking? And why didn't Tigress stop me? I guess she's too busy being queen of the world and the perfect, angelic blushing bride to pay any attention to me. And why did I even go to that stupid tavern? And why was Ning there in the first place? Was he following me or something? The creep. I'd better start digging that bottomless pit.

The wind blew one of her cotton dresses out of her hands and it smacked her in the face. Seething, she ripped the dripping cloth off her face and threw it back into the basket. She sat down next to it, hugging her knees to her chest and letting the warm summer air caress her face.

Great gods and goddesses above, what's happening to me?

A/N: Well, we see how wonderful things are going for Clover and Ning. And what's Mingxia so uptight about when it comes to marriage... I love leaving tantilizing plot hints in author's notes. Please review! I'm seriously worried that people don't like this story and don't want me to continue, since I'm only getting like, one or two reviews per chapter (and one of those reviews is always from the ever-faithful Luna Goldsun--thanks so much, sweetie!). So REVIEW!!! I mean it! Click that button right underneath this! Do it! Please? Okay, that's all I've got to say. Holla!