Wanna know what Tigress and Quiang have in common? Both of them were in the Bao Gu Orphanage and that they were bullied. But...what would happen if Tigress sees Quiang feeling immune to his bullying?
On the last chapter, I may have overdone Tigress' anger a whole lot and I've got a lot of criticism for it...which was expected to happen. So...I'm hoping this makes it up.
Chapter 11: Unaffected by Bullies
As the day goes on, the doctor analyzes Quiang's leg and tries to find the solution to his joints and when he did, the doctor said, "Have you slowed down yet?"
"I tried to. I can barely sleep let alone slow myself down." Quiang said, with a chuckle.
The doctor looked at the other masters and Shifu asked, "So...what should we do?"
"Maybe he should take a few days off of kung-fu for a while just so that he can ease himself down. Maybe rest up a little." he replied, in a calm tone.
Shifu nodded his head in agreement and he said, "Absoultely."
Travis decided it was best to stick with him as well and he told Shifu, "I'll take care of him."
Quiang chuckled softly and patted Travis in the shoulder and said, "It's okay, you don't have to. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."
He gets up and tries to walk back, but he winces at every step and Travis went over to him and held him tightly as they made their way to the room. Shifu turned to the doctor and he said, "Thank you very much. I'll make sure Quiang is taken care of."
Soon enough, Quiang was on his bed, laying down on his back and Travis sat next to him and just thought about everything that had happened throughout the day and he looks at his big brother and it pains him to endure that confrontation with Tigress because it was totally uncalled for. He sighed heavily and said, "I'm sorry, Quiang. I just don't want to endure this kind of hate all over again. I know you didn't do anything, but they just don't really understand. I wish I could've done something to not let this happen again."
Quiang puts his paw on his shoulder and he whispered, "Little brother...all is forgiven. It's not your fault that it happened."
Travis dropped his shoulders down like he was feeling deep emotional pain over this conflict and he just stared at him with so much guilt coming out of his eyes and said, "But I just feel so responsible for this...like it was my fault for letting this happen."
Todd popped up out of nowhere with concern and he said, "I heard about what happened. You guys okay?"
"We're fine." Quiang said, with a smile.
Todd grew a little worried about Quiang and he went up to him and said, "You're gonna beat this, right?"
Quiang smiled at him and said, "I'll crush it. But you know...it will be what it will be. When I'm gone, don't mourn for me because I'll be in a happy place."
Travis went over to him and just hugged him tightly with tears coming down on his face and he said, "I love you, Quiang."
"I love you too, Travs."
Later on, Musaki and Arizona walked into the room, feeling completely guilty about what had happened earlier that day about that fight with Tigress and that it really should've been handled in a calm manner. Travis looked up and saw them standing there and he quietly went up to them as if wanting to ask them why it happened, but Arizona went first and said, "We came here to say that we're sorry."
"Sorry for what?" asked Travis.
Musaki cleared this throat and then replied, "For screaming at Tigress earlier. It's just that...when I saw her fighting and yelling at you because of your cancer, I just lost my cool and...ended up saying things I don't mean. When I see someone get berated or yelled at like that, I just couldn't stand there and let that person take it. Maybe I should've handled it without getting so pissed off over this."
Arizona sighed in regret as well and he stared at them with a guilty look on his face and added, "And maybe I shouldn't have jumped in by calling her a coward. I realize that was very wrong of me and that I just should've gotten some self-control. "
Quiang went to them and he could see in their faces that their apology was sincere and replied, "All is forgiven. But why did you do that?"
"We were defending you. We've never met someone who had cancer and could look at the bright side of it at the same time." Arizona explained.
Musaki took a deep breath and said to them, "But I guess we took it too far and just lost it. We didn't mean to hurt anyone or even intend to. It was just wrong of us and we're really sorry."
They accepted their apology and Travis went up to them and he looked at them straight in the eye and said, "Also, thanks for sticking for my brother."
Musaki and Arizona nodded their heads and then, Arizona told them, "We also apologized to Tigress a few minutes ago for our outbursts and she pretty much accepted our apology for what we said to her earlier. We then tried to handle the situation the way it should've handled and after that, she just said nothing and just told us to leave us alone. I'm thinking she must feel so much remorse over this."
Musaki sighed heavily and replied, "That's what we were thinking too. Hopefully, she'll apologize to you and be cool with it."
Travis sighed heavily and wasn't really quite sure about this and figured that after what had happened, he's unsure if she'll ever be that understanding to Quiang.
The next day, Quiang was walking by the Valley of Peace to just take a little walk and all of a sudden, a bunch of teenagers from the orphanage; 4 boars, 5 tigers, 3 monkeys and 1 dog; came towards him and one of the boars went up to him and he said, "Look guys, it's the pukemia freak!"
The teenagers just laughed at him and Quiang wasn't affected by it as he shook his head and said, "Takes one to know one."
A female tiger came to him, shoved him down the ground and she said, "We heard that you and your brother and that Todd are living in the Jade Palace. Why would they care about someone like you?"
"Because they're wise, intelligent and very good at kung-fu." Quiang responded.
The tiger growls at him with a disgusted look on her face and she said, "You just make me sick."
The three teenage monkeys; all males; went towards Quiang's face, each of them saying that he doesn't deserve to be adopted and one even said, "Who would adopt a half breed like you?"
One teenage dog came in and puts his paws on his shoulder and said, "We don't like half-breeders like you and your brother! They shouldn't even exist!"
He shoved him down to the ground and Quiang smiled at them and said, "You know your words will never hurt me."
Then, they all ganged up on him and the boar said, "But our knuckles will."
Suddenly, they resorted to beating the crap out of Quiang, but he knew when to stay calm in situations like this. Then, as if out of nowhere, in comes Tigress coming in to stop the fight and that made the teenage orphans ticked. One boar snorted at her and asked, "Who the hell are you to stop the fight?"
"Your worst nightmare." Tigress said, in a menacing tone.
"I've heard about you...you're the monster from the orphanage, aren't you?" one tiger asked.
That made Tigress infuriated by that comment and she said, "You better take that back!"
Quiang stops the fight and he said, "Tigress...it's not worth it. They're not worth our time."
Tigress totally turned to Quiang, all shocked and dumbfounded that he's gonna let that slide and she asked, "Are you gonna take what they said to you?"
"They say unkind words to me and I know none of those are true, but I'm used to it and it never bothered me at all. The last thing I would do is fight them beause it would mean making them win the battle." Quiang answered.
"Who cares about your words? Your monster girlfriend shouldn't have stepped into our fight!" the boar shouted.
She wanted to claw the boar for that comment, but Quaing stopped her by grabbing her fist and saying to her, "It's okay. Let's just go."
He starts walking away from this and Tigress was still stunned by his reaction by it, then she turned to the orphans and growled at them as she caught up with him. Quiang dusted himself off and he said, "So...wanna head back to the palace? I have the need for some training after lunch."
Tigress stared at him as if the altercation didn't even matter to him and she asked, "How can you be calm when they said some lies about you?"
"Let them say what they want. I really don't care about what other people think of me and we can't control what they say or do. The best thing to do in a situation is to walk away from it." Quiang added.
She then felt completely offended by Quiang's lack of concern over this situation and she shouted, "I can't believe you. You're not even mad over that?"
Quiang lets out a chuckle and asked, "Why should I be?"
Tigress didn't quite understand why Quiang was still calm, cool and collected and that being bullied meant nothing to him. She seemed pretty confused about it and she just stood there, looking at him and she just said nothing and just backed away from him, almost as if he doesn't understand what the impact of bullying is like.
She walks away from him and Quiang sighed heavily as he shook his head over something like this and went on with his day. As soon as he came back, Travis quickly went up to him and hugged him tightly and asked, "How much damage did they do to you?"
"A little, but I'm cool." Quiang answered, calmly.
Quiang walks back in the bunkhouse and as Travis went to the Sacred Peach Tree, Tigress went up towards him and just said to him, "Why would you still be there for him?"
It made Travis feel like his spirit has been crushed too many times before and all he could do is just say, "Because I'm here for my brother. I'm his younger brother, but I gotta look out for him because I love him."
She said to him, "Well, you know what? Your brother didn't even tackle those mean bullies from the orphanage after they picked on him! He should've fought back when he had the chance."
"He shouldn't have to. Why take it out on me?" Travis asked, a little calmly.
"Because he never told me about his leukemia! I hate being the last to know and yet you knew this the whole time." Tigress replied, as if Travis was to blame for something he didn't do.
Travis stared at her with a confused look and he said, "You weren't even there! Don't make this my fault!"
Tigress just sneered at him and felt like she didn't wanna waste her time talking to him and she only said, "Let that be a lesson...stranger."
Travis sighed heavily and felt like this was getting nowhere because she was still resentful towards Quaing and he glared at Tigress in anger and he said, "Come on! Why would you hate my brother because he has cancer?"
She got to his face, making him a slight bit intimidated at her and replied, "It's like he's looking at it like it's all a big joke! He can't do anything with that diagnosis and he'll never do anything and yet he spends his time feeling happy about it? He feels as if none of that matters to him!"
Travis figured out that she thinks because Quiang has cancer, he can't do anything and he said, "My brother doesn't believe in 'can't.' He can do anything he sets his mind to! Whether he's sick or not, I will stand by him until the very end because that's what brothers do!"
He walks off from the situation knowing that he took a stand for his brother. He didn't care if she was the strongest warrior because with words like that, why would he? Tigress walked back to the training hall to just hit something and within an hour, Shifu immediately burst through the door and he shouted, "Quiang's unconscious!"
That made her stop and with a bit of shock, she asked, "What?"
Sounds like her anger towards him might come back to haunt her. Think so? Let's find out! I kinda removed some parts of her rage and planned to make her a little bit upset because on the last chapter, I've got some negative responses on how Tigress should've handled her temper this way, so I decided to make up for it by editing this chapter out. I hope it fares better.