A Reminder

By corset-rebellion-follower

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda

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Chapter 10- I'm not a backstabber

Tigress immediately went back up the steps toward the Jade Palace. She didn't wait for Lian to help her, and she wouldn't even look at Tai Lung.

He will understand. Once I tell him my side of the story, he'll forgive me and then probably kill Tai Lung. Everything will be fine. And part of her wanted to believe that. But there was that annoying, naggy little voice who told her otherwise.

You're kidding me, right? Your relationship with Shifu was already on thin ice with the fact that you might be carrying Tai Lung's child, and that ice got thinner when your father found out you two were married. And it didn't help that you let Tai Lung stay until the baby was born, either.

Tigress squeezed her eyes shut. You're wrong. Shifu will forgive me. He loves me.

The inner voice scoffed. That's not the point. Now he thinks that you don't love him. He's doubting your entire marriage. I mean, it was a stretch at first, marrying someone so much older than you. He probably has been worried all this time that you would leave him for someone younger, far before Tai Lung came back and probably before you knew you were pregnant. And you think that everything is just going to turn out peachy keen? Welcome to the real world.

Tigress growled. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She stormed through the Jade Palace to the training hall, expecting Shifu to be in there, directing the rest of his students. But he was not.

"Do you know where Master Shifu is?" Tigress asked, her patience wearing ever thinner.

"He hasn't been in here yet today. He went to check on you down in the Valley," Viper said. Tigress sighed. I couldn't have known this before I went down there?

"Well where is he then?" she asked. "Don't know. He disappeared after he heard that Tai Lung went with you," Mantis reported. She pushed the doors to the training hall open with a bang, making everyone inside jump. She would find Shifu if it was the last thing she did.

The truth was that Shifu was at the Pool of Sacred Tears. He was clutching Oogway's staff, which Po had fixed with bright pink duct tape as a gift to the master. It's the thought that counts. He sighed and looked at the water in front of him.

Tigress… and Tai Lung… how could she? I love her! And she betrayed me. For Tai Lung! That doesn't even make sense! He hurt her. But I guess it explains why she let him stay. A stray tear fell out of his eye, joining the Pool. I love her. And she betrayed me.

"Shifu!" It was Tigress. She was breathing hard and clutching at her chest, like she was having a heart attack. A rush of extreme worry ran through Shifu, but he smooshed it down.

She betrayed you. Don't let appearances and false words fool you. He clutched the staff harder. "Shifu, I'm begging you, please forgive me! I'm not going to lie to you, Tai Lung was kissing me, but I swear that I didn't want to!" she pleaded. Shifu felt his heart breaking. She sounded hurt. Both emotionally and physically, as she was still breathing heavily. "Please Shifu, you have to believe me!"

"I have to believe you? That's what you tell me after you cheat on me? That I have to believe you? How can I trust you about anything anymore?" he accused, turning around swiftly to face her. Tigress felt tears pinch at her eyelids.

"I know what I've done is dishonorable, and that I don't even deserve to be looking at you right now, but I am and I'm asking you to forgive me," she defended.

"How do I know if everything—anything—you've ever said to me is the truth?" Shifu demanded. Tigress's eyes were burning, her tears wanting to escape confinement and see daylight. But Tigress wouldn't let them. She didn't want Shifu to think that she was just using her tears to drum up sympathy.

"You should believe me because I'm your wife. And—and because you love me." Shifu didn't say anything.

Everything she was saying was perfectly rational. She was right, as always. And everything she had done in the past was proof that she despised Tai Lung with a passion. But he had stood there for at least five minutes, watching her kiss Tai Lung, before finally accepting that he was actually seeing it and not just dreaming. She could have pushed him away at any point in those five long minutes, but she didn't. It wasn't until her brother stepped in that she pulled away from the leopard.

"Shifu… you do love me, don't you?" Tigress asked, her voice cracking. No answer. Tigress lifted Shifu's head up so that he would look her in the eyes.

"Shifu! Do you love me?" she asked, on the breaking point of total insanity.

Shifu inspected her face. Her golden fire eyes were brimming with tears, and her lower lip was quivering. She shook him a little.

"Shifu!"

Shifu stole one last glance of her eyes before stepping away from her, almost falling into the Pool of Sacred Tears. He stared at the ground.

"I don't know."

That shattered what was left of Tigress's slowly bleeding heart. She stood up and stepped away from him. "Well I wish you only the greatest happiness, Master Shifu." Shifu flinched a little at that. It had been the first time she had called him Master Shifu since they were married. "And if that means that I have to step out of the picture to preserve your happiness, then so be it."

She bowed to him before leaving him by the clear, shimmering pool. She ran back down to the Jade Palace, despite the fact that she was still in pain from running up the first time. She took a minute to catch her breath before appearing before her father, who was practicing his own kung fu in the arena. "Father."

He stopped mid-kick. "What is it, Tigress? Is everything alright?" he asked.

She nodded, but then shook her head. "Father, everything is horrible. I feel as if my heart has been ripped out and chopped up with a butcher knife." He looked into his daughter's eyes. They were bloodshot and slightly wet.

"What happened?" he asked, taking her paws in his. Tigress finally let some of her tears out of their prison. And once they started, they would not be stopped.

"Daddy, I don't know if Shifu loves me anymore."

She threw herself into his arms and sobbed. He hugged his daughter tightly. "It's alright. Everything will be fine. I won't let anything happen to you. No one's going to hurt you." Tigress flinched. Shifu had promised her that.

But I guess now that he doesn't love me, his promises become invalid. Or at least exclude him.