A dramatic heart to heart angsty moment between Max and Arizona as he sees Max cutting himself.

Chapter 10: Why Do You Care About Me?

As the days passed by, Max started to get to know most of the kung-fu masters more and seemed really comfortable with them, but he's still struggling to open up to Tigress and Shifu about anything, including his troubled past which he keeps it very personal.

Along the way, he and Arizona get along really well and Musaki is keeping a close eye on him at all times to make sure he's okay, but is growing worried that his birth mom will come back to kill him any moment.

One morning in the training hall, Shifu told him to spar with the other warriors starting with Monkey. Max became incredibly excited and just happy that he gets to spar with one of his heroes. He stares at him in the eyes as Monkey breaks out his stick and both of them clacked their sticks to each other while Max incorporates some of his moves. He does a combat-style move where he sets his legs apart and flips around a lot, trying to dodge his moves and from being targeted as well.

Monkey tries to pull the final blow, but Max jumped up to his feet with his stick and lands on the other side with his feet on the ground, surprising him. Monkey stood there stunned and surprised that this 12 year old tiger cub actually did it.

He chuckled and said, "Excellent work, kid."

"Thanks." Max said, smiling.

Within the next hour, He sparred with Viper, Mantis, Crane and also Po. Max never really thought that he'd spar with the Dragon Warrior face-to-face and Po was running towards him, swinging, punching, kicking and using every move to find Max's weak spots, but Max dodged every move he made except where Po slams his with his belly, but that didn't stop Max from flying towards him and punching him in the stomach.

Po groans in agonizing pain and landed on his knees and said, "I'm gonna lose my lunch."

"Which isn't the only thing he's lost." Mantis muttered.

Po then got up and Max was still going for it and he did a backflip and kicked him in the head, causing him to fall down on his face and then Max went in and gave him a swift kick in the butt.

"Right on the fat dough!" Musaki exclaimed.

Everyone stood there awestruck and Shifu's jaw was dropped when Max did that to Po and he told him, "Max, that move was underhanded and one of the most lowest ones I've ever seen."

Max kinda felt like he did something wrong and got chastised by it, but Shifu smiled at him and said, "Excellent work."

He took a deep breath of relief when he complimented his moves and Shifu went on to say, "I wish I would've done that."

"Don't we all?" asked Monkey, laughing.

"Break time, students."

10 minutes later...

Max was sitting at the Sacred peach Tree, just chilling out and looking at all the villages of the Valley of Peace and he's wondering why is it so peaceful there. It's been like 10 days since he came to the palace and he's starting to miss his adopted family very much and he's still struggling with the fact that the memories of being molested by his birth mom is starting to consume his head.

It just made him feel like he's still trapped in a sea of darkness that he's drowning in and the images still haunt him.

All the shame, guilt and ultimate self-blaming are crawling back into his head and he felt like he wanted to deal with that kind of pain-by feeling it.

He went to the kitchen and he proceeded to grab a pocketknife, sat down on the floor and started cutting himself again. As he began, he closed his eyes as he cuts his wrists and blood starts coming in. He just didn't mind the pain because that's what he's used to.

Just then, he heard someone walking in the kitchen and when he looked up, he saw a very stunned and dumbfounded Arizona standing there.

"Wh-what are you doing to yourself?" asked Arizona.

Max sighed heavily and said, "Cutting myself."

Arizona sees the drops of blood on the floor and from the looks of it, he was shock to see that it's not his first time. He tries to grab the pocketknife away from him, but Max reluctantly gives it to him. Arizona hands Max a paper towel to wipe the blood away from him and he asked him, "Why would you do this to yourself?"

Max didn't say anything because he knew that Arizona probably wouldn't understand it anyway. He only looked at him in the eye and looked away. That made Arizona a little frustrated to see that he's putting up a wall against others and told him, "Max...don't shut me out."

There was tension coming in between the two of them and Max looks at Arizona with a half-angry and half-sad look and he asked, "Why am I shutting you out? I just...don't wanna talk about it, okay?"

Arizona tensed up for a minute and asked again, "Why don't you?"

"Because it's not that important."

Arizona pounded his fist on the table and shouted angrily, "It is to me!"

Max groans in anger and hurt and asked, "Why does that matter to you anyway?"

Then, Arizona shouted in tears, "Because I care about you!"

Max froze for a second and he can see through Arizona's eyes that he's desperate to get through to him. He asked, "Why do you care about me anyway?"

Arizona sighs heavily, sits down on the floor with him and answered, "Because I've been where you are. I know what that feels like, when you want to shut everyone out. I've put a wall against myself because people don't understand me at all. Dai Ling kept calling me 'monster', 'ugly' and that no one will ever be friends with someone like me. And those stupid comrades of his...they made my life worse...like when one tried to...tried to..."

"Tried to what?"

Arizona covered his face and his paws went down to his muzzle, takes a heavy breath and said, "Tried to molest me. Remember when I told you that I was molested? It's true because one wolf member touched my entire body in 10 minutes and got on top of me for no reason. It only happened once, but the feeling stays with you forever and I had to suffer through it."

"How did you deal with it?"

"I didn't. It made me feel like I meant it to happen, like it was my fault. I know it's a personal subject that no one's ready to talk about, but we both have something in common. You're like a little brother to me and I would give my life up just for you."

Max smiled at Arizona to know that he cared for him that much and he shows him the scars under his fur that he made by himself and he also told him, "I used to cut myself when I was younger, but my fur kept growing so I had to stop. Just because I was called worthless or a nobody, it doesn't make you who you are. You're really special and that's what I like about you."

Arizona immediately gave him a hug and tears started coming out of his face and Max accepted the hug and he said, "I'm sorry if I worried you."

"Cutting yourself isn't gonna make it any better. I just want you to know that no matter what anyone says, you'll always be special to me."

They were unaware that Musaki overheard the whole thing and he came in the kitchen to see them hugging and he said, "That's sweet."

To their embarassment, Arizona and Max saw Musaki standing in and Max asked, "How much did you hear?"

"Just everything." Musaki replied.

Max walked out of the kitchen and Musaki was surprised to hear that Arizona was molested too and he asked, "Why didn't you tell me you were molested before?"

Arizona let out a heavy sigh, knowing that that subject was personal and horrifying for him to remember and he responded, "I didn't know how. I thought I'd forgotten, but then as I heard that Max was molested, the memories of that happening to me played in my head, so I know exactly what he's going through. I just wasn't ready to tell anyone else yet because I would be judged or rejected for anyone that would be my friends."

"Wow. There's a lot of things about you that I didn't even know."

"Well, there are millions and I wish I can share you stories."

"But I could never judge you. I know you've been through a lot and I can see what that feels like. I've never been molested before, but if I was, that'd be horrible."

"I'm really glad you came into my life, Musaki."

"Me too. Anyways, I received a letter from my uncle. He says that him and the others are gonna come home a little early, like maybe 2 days."

"2 days?"

"Yep. Said something about the finalization of the adoption has been submitted or something. I think it'll make Max really happy when I tell him the good news."

"That's great."

Musaki walks out of the room and Arizona stood there with many mixed emotions about his memories and relating to Max and everything and he felt like he's connecting with him more. He sighed heavily and said, "I would really give my life for you, Max. No doubt in my mind I will always have your back."

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Valley of Peace, Max's bio mom became obsessed with getting Max back and she held her knife and a whip and decided to go on an angry tirade to get her revenge on her son.

She growls lowly and said, "If I can't have Max back, nobody can protect him. I'll make sure that if I catch him, he's gonna wish he'd never live again!"

She threw the knife on the side of the mountain, grabs it and said, "Mark my words, Max...I'll get you back and when I do...you will die...if it's the last thing I do."

How awesome am I with drama? Guess you didn't expect that at the end of this chapter, huh? Well, you can expect that to happen. (sinister laugh) When will it unfold? You'll just have to wait...