We see Max hanging out with Kovu and most of the gang.
Chapter 14: Younger Crowd
After the whole battle, everyone was about to head back to the bookstore except for Taisuki in which he was gonna hang with his other friends; Kovu and Borko and as he was heading to find them, he sees them walking towards parts of the village and he quickly caught up with them and said, "Hey, guys."
Kovu turns around and sees Taisuki coming this way and said, "Hey, Tai. How ya doing?"
Taisuki exhaled deeply and replied, "Crazy. We just had this fight with some buffalo bandits, but we all showed them who's boss around here."
Borko widened his eyes at that and said, "Wow...that's awesome."
The three of them resumed walking and Taisuki asked Kovu, "So where we going?"
"Kalia told us to meet us in the Jade Palace, so we're on our way there to see what's up." Kovu replied.
Taisuki smiled at this and wanted to tag along with them and as they make their way to the steps of the palace, they see Kalia standing there in front of the palace and she said, "Hey, what took ya so long?"
Kovu takes a deep breath and he replied, "Taisuki wanted to tag along with us."
Kalia smiled at Kovu and she said, "That's okay, Kovu."
As the four made their way into the courtyard, they were surprised to see Max playing hide and seek with Po and as Max chased him around, Max jumped on top of his back and started laughing, saying, "I got you, Po!"
"Oh no! Max, you're too strong!" Po said, playfully.
Both Po and Max were laughing as Po carried him by his shoulders and just ran around, having some fun and then fell down on the ground, still laughing. Po looks up at Max and said, "You're a lot of fun, little guy."
Max smiled at him and replied, "Me and Arizona always play that game whenever we visit."
Kovu clears his throat and both of them turned around to see them all standing there and Po said, "Hey, guys. How's it going?"
Kalia stepped forward and she went in front of Max and said, "Hey, nice to meet you again."
"Hi." Max said, very bashful.
Po could see that Max is very shy around Kalia and he lets out a smile and said, "Sounds like someone has a little crush. How cute."
Max began blushing a little bit and he looked at Po and said, "Po..."
"I guess you guys wanna play a few games, huh? No worries. The Dragon Warrior's gonna do some training for a little while." Po said.
Max looked at him, seeing Po walk out and he said, "Aren't you gonna play with us?"
Po stopped for a second and he looked up at Max and said, "Wish I could. But Shifu told me that I was gonna do some chores for him after I train."
"Can't ya do it later?"
Po looked at Max in the eyes and said, "We'll play tomorrow, okay?"
Max sighed softly and replied, "Okay."
Po does give Max a hug and he told him, "You're the most fun person I've known in like...ever. Have fun, Maxie."
As Po walks off, Kovu walks up to Max and he said, "This is our friend, Taisuki. Taisuki, Max...Max, Taisuki."
Taisuki looks up at the littlw white tiger cub and said, "How's it going, kid?"
"Fine, I guess. You're a raccoon, aren't ya?" asked Max.
Taisuki nods his head and he replied, "You're a white tiger, aren't ya?"
"Mm-hmm."
Not long after, all of them played a little bit of kickball and as everyone kiced the ball towards each other, all of them had a lot of fun, just laughing and goofing around. Many of them were surprised on Max kicking, catching and throwing the ball and Taisuki chuckled at this and said, "You got skills, kid."
"Thanks. But don't call me kid." Max said.
"How old are you anyway?" asked Kalia.
"I just turned 8."
Kovu widened his eyes at hear that age come out of Max and he said, "Starting to become a big kid, aren't ya?"
Max chuckled at that and said, "I'm not that big...am I?"
"No, you're cool." Kovu said, with a smile.
Borko caught the ball and passed him onto to Max and then, throws it to Kalia and rolls it to Kovu who passes it onto Borko and then, as Borko throws it to Max, he does a power-kick that sent flying out of nowhere and landed on Tigress' face, in which shocked and surprised everyone.
Taisuki looked at Max and suddenly, he could tell that Max looked a little horrified at what he just did and he said, "Whoa..."
Tigress gets herself up and she seemed a little bit miffed and asked, "Who threw that?!"
Max could tell how angry she got and he slowly backed away until Tigress noticed him walking back and she went over to him and asked, "Did you do this?"
Max was hesitant to admit it, but he eventually said, "Yes, I did. I'm sorry."
"Just watch what you're doing next time." Tigress said, then walking away.
"It was an accident. I didn't mean to."
Tigress just ignored him as she went into the training hall and Kovu seemed a little bit concerned by what had transpired a few minutes ago and he said, "We know you didn't mean to do it."
"Yeah, just give her some time to cool off." Kalia answered.
Taisuki walked inside the training hall to set this straight and when he entered, he saw Tigress getting ready to train and he said, "You know this kid's really sorry, right?"
"Yes, I know he is. And I know he didn't mean to do it." Tigress replied.
"Then why didn't you just apologize to him? I mean, he's only a kid." Taisuki added.
Not long after, Max walks inside the training hall, feeling scared and when Tigress saw the look on his face, she could tell that ignoring what he said to her was the wrong move and she went to him and said, "I accept your apology, Max. Just try to be more careful, okay?"
"Uh-huh." Max said.
She patted his head and all of his fears quickly melted away and she told him, "Go back and play, guys."
Taisuki and Max walked out of the training hall and the young raccoon said, "It's all good."
Borko went over to Max and he said, "Still wanna play with us?"
Max smiled and said, "Yeah, I am."
All five of them resumed playing with each other, just having fun playing the ball and laughing and it lasted all through the day, all unaware that the Dragon Warrior walked past them and he was happy seem them having fun and as he looked at Max, he thought to himself, 'Have fun, Maxie-buddy.'
We've got more coming your way!