From Scratch

by Marie Goos

The Dragon Warrior has finally brought peace to the Valley, and to Shifu- although, with an old flame's return, Tai Lung alive and less than repentant, and the threat of war looming over China, you could have fooled him. Sequel to Blue Plate Special.

21. Not for All the Tea in China

Chapter 21: Not for All the Tea in China

---

Shifu woke slowly and, with a tired yawn, reached out beside him. He felt around his bed a moment, confused to find it empty, until his sleep-addled mind finally recalled his and Lin's epic fight. He didn't know why he'd even looked for her in the first place, regardless of having forgotten yesterday's events. He hadn't shared a bed with her in months. Perhaps it was simply that she was on his mind. Lin had a tendency to get under his skin, and not just in the irritating sense. Thoughts of her overran his mind and took over his focus, even haunted his dreams. Having her near only made it worse, in spite of their argument. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't had a few fantasies about what it would be like, when Lin returned to him.

Not that he'd had anything untoward in mind. Well, with Lin involved, something untoward was bound to happen sooner or later. But he'd more fantasized about how, once Tai Lung had settled in, he would plan a romantic evening for her. Perhaps she would have taken a moonlit stroll across the mountain with him, and their dinner could have been a candlelit picnic under the stars. Or he could have taken her to a restaurant, one of those tiny, intimate spots. They could have stayed up all night talking and spent the morning dozing in each other's arms.

Instead they'd fought. He didn't know why he'd even bothered to hope for anything else. He certainly hadn't been going on their track record. She hadn't let him have a moment of peace yet, and this instance was no different. Though he had to wonder what on earth she was thinking. How could she have treated her own daughter so hatefully, without even bothering to get to know her? He'd expected Lin to be angry at him for not writing to her about Gia, but he hadn't expected the vitriol she'd displayed. And it was a rare occurrence indeed that she ever walked out on a fight with him like she had the night before. He didn't expect she'd have the nerve to show her face to him any time soon, though he could always be wrong. He'd let her cool off for the time being. He needed to focus on how he might handle Tai Lung's rehabilitation, anyway.

Shifu groaned to himself as he prepared for the day. It appeared, due to Lin's negligence out of either ineptitude or indifference, that he would be starting from square one with Tai Lung. To make things even more difficult for him, Tai Lung already knew all his kung fu teachings and his style. Tai Lung's knowledge of the thousand scrolls would only add to his pride and stubbornness. He hadn't interacted much with his son in the past day, but it didn't look like he would have an easy time getting through to the man. He took hold of Master Oogway's staff and paused to think back on his fervent and recurring wish that his master guide him. He hadn't been the only one to benefit from Master Oogway's guidance. After all, Tai Lung had learned lessons from the ancient tortoise. Perhaps it was time that Tai Lung learned some lessons from a few other masters.

He took his place in the barracks hallway, perfectly calm and presentable by the time the morning gong rang and his students all stepped into the hall to give their morning salutes. All save one. Shifu eyed the door to Tai Lung's room, waiting for a belated appearance, but none seemed forthcoming. There were a few choice words he would have liked to mutter in the face of such disobedience, but he remained calm in front of his students. "I see Master Tai Lung has decided not to join us this morning," he observed loudly as he marched down the hall and planted himself firmly in front of the closed door. "Perhaps he has forgotten a kung fu master's way of life." Which would, again, be Lin's fault.

He shoved the door open, disgruntled to see Tai Lung still fast asleep, face planted in his pillow and legs bent at the knee while his feet rested on the wall. He looked as though he'd fallen from the window above and simply passed out where he'd landed, he was positioned so haphazardly. He didn't even sleep properly anymore. "Tai Lung!" Shifu snapped, and only got a muffled grunt in response. "You will peel yourself off that bed and stand at attention with your fellow masters, now."

With a loud sniff, Tai Lung finally lifted his face from the pillow to glare at him, more haggard than even the previous day. "Have you got any clue what time it is?" he asked impetuously.

Shifu realized that this would not be an easy task for him. "Po!" he called, and the panda joined them promptly, though remained hovering by the door. Shifu would have expected some enraged reaction from Tai Lung, facing the object of his ire and humiliation once more, but the cat only turned the same flat stare on Po.

"Go away, panda," he ordered.

"Uhhh," Po managed to work out nervously before Shifu stepped in.

"You do not give my students orders!" He grabbed Tai Lung's blanket and tore it off the man, not that it had any effect. "And you will rise for the day, before Po and I force you."

Tai Lung gave one last irritated sniff, then plopped his face back into his pillow. "Try it," came the muffled response.

"Very well. You have left me with no choice." He turned to Po, who gave him a helpless shrug in response. Shifu couldn't help but sigh in frustration. "Sit on him."

"What?" Tai Lung shot to his feet so quickly that he nearly overbalanced and fell. "That panda will not sit on me again! Do you hear me, you wrinkled little buffoon?"

"Ah, excellent, you're up," Shifu observed, then gestured to the door with his staff. "Your fellow students await your arrival. Unless, of course, you feel the need for more beauty sleep." That suggestion of vanity had Tai Lung's hackles rising, but the snow leopard stomped out into the hallway all the same. Shifu followed him, Po on his heels, pleased to finally have all his students now with him. "Students," he addressed them, and though they remained at attention, there were more than a few nervous glances in Tai Lung's direction. Or, in Tigress's case, furious glances. "I know you have faced Tai Lung as enemies in the past, but I hope that you will be able to overcome that grudge in order to achieve a greater good. While Tai Lung is by no means completely forgiven, it is our duty as masters of kung fu and examples to the people of China to give him the opportunity to repent for his actions. If you should have any questions, now would be the time."

Silence met the announcement. It looked, initially, like no one had anything to say, until Po slowly raised a hand in the air.

Shifu ignored Tai Lung's derisive snort. "Yes?"

"So we're gonna be trainin' together?" Po asked, pointing back and forth between himself and Tai Lung.

"That is the idea." He took note of the fact that while Tai Lung glowered, as expected, Po actually looked excited at the prospect. "Now, I want you all to take care of your usual morning chores. Tai Lung, you may help Po for the morning."

"Cool," Po accepted.

"Over my dead body," Tai Lung said.

"Or imprisoned body," Shifu threatened. "Your choice, really."

After several long moments of glaring at each other, Tai Lung finally conceded. "Fine. Panda, let's go." He strode imperiously out of the barracks, Po following after him while weakly reminding the snow leopard of his name.

He dismissed the rest of his students as well, though it didn't take him long to notice that Tigress lingered behind. He could only guess that she had a complaint for him. Lately, it seemed that was all she ever had to say to him. "Yes, Tigress?"

She gave him a salute before speaking hesitantly. "Master, you... Speak to Gia often. Correct?"

That was not what he'd expected to hear. "I do," he confirmed, furrowing his brow. "Why do you ask?"

"I only wanted to know if she was well. Considering the circumstances." Tigress's tone softened slightly at that last statement.

Shifu blinked up at her, taken aback at the fact that Tigress knew of Gia and Lin's disastrous meeting. Exactly what she knew of the previous night's events was unclear, so he decided to stay tight-lipped so as to avoid revealing any uncomfortable details. "I see." He hadn't even realized that Tigress and Gia had gotten close enough to warrant such concern. "I have not spoken to her yet today. I imagine she will still be a bit... Weepy."

"Yes," Tigress agreed, then awkwardly cleared her throat. "In that case, I should see to my chores." With one more salute, she left the barracks.

He still found it unusual that Tigress had shown more concern over Gia's emotional state than Tai Lung's return, but he didn't press the issue. Better not to instigate her. He had more pressing worries on his plate. He set out to the scroll library to prepare for Tai Lung's first lesson, and hopefully, the snow leopard's first chance to show that he was willing to change.

---

Lin grunted as she managed to lift herself out of the low-set bed, which had begun to droop in the middle over the years- she was pretty sure the thing was older than Po. She took a moment to look at the prints of each member of the Furious Five hanging around the room- not to mention the posed wooden figures, the drawings from the panda's childhood of his kung fu heroes, and the countless other toys and play-weapons strewn about the room. It must have been nice for him, growing up with a room of his own. Or maybe she was wrong- maybe it had been lonely. She had realized some years ago that for most people, family was generally considered a good thing.

She shook her head and walked out; just because she was staying in a childhood room, didn't mean it was a sign that she needed to reflect upon her own life. She'd done plenty of that in Shanghai, already. Really, she just wanted to work so she didn't have to think about the night before. "Hey, Ping!" she called down the stairs as she rubbed at her knuckles, then her knees to relieve some of the stiffness there. "You gonna put me on prep?" Her knife skills were solid, and using a gigantic cleaver sounded great at the moment.

"Oh, you are awake already?" The goose appeared at the bottom of the staircase, carrying a giant empty pot as he peered up at her.

"I'm an early riser."

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed with a little jump, then bustled out of sight. "Come down here, I just got the produce shipment in!" His good mood was, admittedly, infectious. Somehow he always seemed upbeat- in fact, the only thing that ever seemed capable of bringing the old bird out of the clouds was some sort of slight from his son. From what little she'd witnessed, those arguments were few and far between, and were usually resolved within the day- not at all like the fights she tended to get into.

She grinned as she entered the kitchen and saw him bustling around already, preparing for the long day ahead. She noticed the crates full of seasonal vegetables near the door, so pulled them over to the wash basin and went about giving it a hard scrub. "So this's all for today, right?" she asked.

"Yes, yes," he replied harriedly as he went about pouring copious amounts of flour into a gigantic mixing bowl. "I'm impressed that you're showing such initiative. I assumed when you said you had professional kitchen experience it was probably a lie."

"What, 'cause I'm a woman?" she asked flatly.

"No, because you're a friend of Po's."

She snorted in laughter, then went about rinsing the wash basin and filling it with fresh water. "Yeah, he's a young guy, he's bound to have some deadbeat friends." Which still technically described her.

"Well, if you've got any questions, just ask," Ping said as he seasoned his flour, then used a wing to slowly stir in some water. "Remember, though, that the noodles are my domain. Once we're done with morning prep, I can teach you the system set up for orders and serving, and show you more of the kitchen."

"Sounds good." She'd certainly worked in larger and more confusing establishments than Ping's, and only working with one other person would ease the transition.

She went about scrubbing vegetables while Ping used a thin rolling pin to pound out the dough, telling story after story of Po's childhood. Apparently the panda had been quite the little rebel, trying to escape his familial obligation to the restaurant with a new passion every other week. Ping spoke about how he was actually relieved when Po discovered kung fu, because then at least his son had stuck with something and he would no longer have to pay for new dancing ribbons, or a beginner's acupuncture kit, or singing lessons. She wondered, briefly, if these were the types of stories she might have heard about Gia if she'd ever been able to see Anna again. She pushed the thought from her mind. She didn't want to think about the girl at the moment.

The next hour passed by quickly, with her chopping vegetables and Ping making batch after batch of his noodle dough, then leaving it to rest until it was ready to be cut and stretched into noodles. Once the dough had finished, Ping took inventory of his spices and other ingredients, then excused himself to run out to the market. It was just as well, as Lin had plenty more vegetables still to peel and dice. It was a meditative act, standing alone in the kitchen, enjoying the fresh air of the courtyard-style restaurant while she diced.

"Welcome to Mr. Ping's Noodles! Come on down an' see what ya won!" Po's voice suddenly announced as the panda entered the restaurant, Tai Lung trailing behind him with his trademark sourpuss on. He held up the fine wool-lined cloak with the cerulean sea woven into it, the one from Yan-Yan, and did a twirl.

Lin laughed at the gesture. She figured that was meant to cheer her up. "Hey, thanks! You guys didn't hafta grab my stuff for me." She paused in her duty to gesture back and forth between the two with her cleaver. "You two're together now, huh?"

"Unfortunately," Tai Lung replied as he approached the order counter. He was carrying her things in a wicker basket, like a little old lady. "And I see what you did, there. Ha ha." He pointedly set the basket down.

"Shifu wanted Tai Lung to help me with my morning chores," Po explained, then seemed to realize he'd said something insensitive and slapped a hand to his mouth.

"You can say his name in front'a me," Lin said with a roll of her eyes. "Jeez, I'm not that fragile. Not this morning, anyway. Though I don't see how bringing me my stuff counts as one of your chores."

"He doesn't exactly know about that," Po admitted sheepishly. "Y'know, I dunno if he even realizes you're gone, so-"

"Not gonna talk to him," Lin interrupted. The last thing she needed at the moment was someone meddling in her personal life, and no matter how much Po had helped her, the sentiment applied to him, too.

"What is all this junk, anyway?" Tai Lung asked, thankfully changing the subject. He reached into the basket and pulled out a half-empty bottle of wine. "Really?" He asked flatly. "It looks expired. And this-" He reached back in and pulled out a small codex bound in plain black. "What's this, your diary?"

Lin snatched it from him and tucked it back into the basket. "Read that and you'll lose your fingers," she threatened, brandishing the cleaver at him. He didn't need to know all the deeply personal things she'd written in that book. No one did. In fact, if she had any sense in her she would burn it to ensure its secrets would die with her.

"So it is a diary," he concluded, wrinkling his nose. "Don't worry, I have no desire to read all your girlish thoughts and feelings."

"Actually, I mostly filled that up when I'd first been widowed." It was the truth, and while she didn't normally like to bring the subject up, she thought she'd teach Tai Lung a lesson in sensitivity by making him uncomfortable.

As she'd predicted, both men fell into an awkward silence, shuffling their feet and clearing their throats in a surprisingly similar manner.

"Yeah," she observed lightly. "That's what I thought."

"You're such a miserable little lint ball," Tai Lung grumbled, then snatched the basket back up. "I don't know why I bothered to help you out at all."

"Hey," Po interjected, grinning in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Lookit what I got, by the way." He pulled Lin's ruan off his back and presented it to the two of them. "When're we gonna hear a song, Lin?"

"When I'm not working," she replied.

"Burn it," Tai Lung said at the same time.

"Oh, you're such a pill. When you're sober, at least."

"Tai Lung!" Po gasped, apparently scandalized by this information. "You drink?"

"Shut the hell up," Tai Lung said. "And let's go put these things up in that horrifying shrine to arrested development you once called your bedroom."

"My what, now?" Po asked cluelessly as he led Tai Lung upstairs.

"Ugh."

Lin snorted in amusement at the exchange. She never would have expected Tai Lung to tolerate Po so well, especially considering they'd just arrived back in the valley. She didn't entirely trust him to have put aside his little revenge plan, but the fact that he hadn't flipped out and attacked the panda on sight showed significant improvement. She wondered how indignant he'd get if she commended his restraint. It probably wasn't a good idea, as amusing as she found the thought.

"I am telling you, panda, that odor isn't natural." Tai Lung returned with Po, waving his hand in front of his nose despite having left Po's room.

"What odor?" Po asked, clearly confused. "I don't smell anything up there."

"Even I think you're gross for that, panda," Lin said. "And I've had my fingers up other people's buttholes."

"How nice of you to mention that while you're preparing food," Tai Lung replied, casting a wary eye over the vegetables on her cutting board.

"That's pretty yucky," Po added.

Lin snorted at the criticism. "You get a little further with Tigress and then try to tell me that."

"Wha- nah- nope!" Po choked out, while Tai Lung rolled his eyes.

She liked teasing him with comments like that, though sometimes the panda's embarrassed reaction made her wonder if there were indeed some feelings there. "By the way, that smell was an old bowl of noodles I found under the mattress in the middle of the night. It was gray and fuzzy."

Tai Lung gagged, and she wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't faked it.

Po laughed, a childish grin crossing his face. "Oh, gross! You still got it?"

"I threw it out the window," she replied. She didn't think she could be blamed for such a reaction, especially when the reason she'd found the old bowl in the first place was that she kept feeling a weird lump in that saggy bed.

"I wonder if I could find it out there."

"I wouldn't count on it if I were you. I got a strong arm."

"So you released it to the universe," Tai Lung concluded, and she snorted at the joke.

As pleased as she was that there were people in the valley who cared enough to pay her a visit, they had distracted her too much. She could feel a heavy melancholy settling over her, and the only thing that dulled it was focusing her attention entirely on her work. "Alright, time to get going."

"Aw, and my dad's still not back," Po complained, though if he'd planned to stick around, that much was prevented by Tai Lung grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and dragging him toward the door.

"Come on, panda," he growled as Po waved goodbye. "If Shifu notices we're gone he'll start acting like he's got mustard up his little sphincter."

"Ew!"

Lin grinned at Tai Lung's use of one of her turns of phrase, then turned her attention back to prepping her vegetables. When it came to working a kitchen, there were no thoughts of Shifu's betrayal, or that half-wolf's weepy little act, or what the future might hold for her. There was only one task after another, each requiring her full attention, yet rote at the same time. That was what she needed most, so she was grateful to have it.

---

Tigress sighed to herself as she finished filling the barracks' water stores for the day, then headed toward the training hall. She'd made more than a few social missteps the night before, and they still hung over her head. She couldn't wait to get started with training for the day, so she could put her regrets out of her mind. Nothing else in the world distracted her from her problems like training did. She paused a moment when she realized that someone was walking behind her, and turned.

"Ah, good morning," she greeted Gia stiffly.

Gia looked up at her with wide eyes and nodded, then turned her gaze to the ground.

She hadn't expected forgiveness to come so easily, and so she accepted the hesitant greeting and turned to leave.

"Tigress," Gia called out weakly, and she turned on her heel to give the girl her full attention. "I... I liked your note." She held up the drawing Tigress had done of her with a warm smile.

Tigress winced at the sight of the drawing. It looked like it had been done by a toddler with an unusually unsteady hand. The black and white lump wouldn't have even been recognizable as Gia if she hadn't labeled it. "Thank you," she replied shortly, blushing in embarrassment. The drawing had looked a lot better in the low light of her lantern in the middle of the night than it did now in broad daylight.

Gia held the paper close to her chest, as if it were the most precious thing she had ever owned. "I should not have snapped at you."

"It's alright, Gia. You were right." She bowed to Gia, to show that she was truly contrite. "I realized, once you chastised me, how difficult it must have been for you to learn a new language, and to be treated like you were simple or childish for the way you spoke it. I was the one who was out of line. I'm sorry." It was what she'd wanted to write to Gia, but had feared would be lost in translation.

Gia's eyes glistened at the apology, though she managed to hold in her tears. "Non sai quanto significhi per me."

"Sorry, what?"

"I only wanted to say that our friendship is... Is..." She trailed off, blushing lightly as she tried to think of the right words.

Tigress would have stepped in immediately before, but now she waited respectfully for some indication that her help was wanted.

"Important," Gia finally finished with a decisive nod.

"Thank you," Tigress accepted, then cleared her throat. She wasn't used to such emotional conversations. "By the way, I've got a new exercise for you, now that you're familiar with a good amount of characters."

"What is it?" She luckily didn't point out the sudden change of subject, though she must have noticed its awkwardness.

"I have some work sheets with only partially completed characters on them, and you'll complete them from memory. It's one that I used to do, back when I learned." She watched Gia for any sign that the rudimentary exercise might insult her, wary after her call-out.

Gia seemed pleased with the idea, though. "That sounds good. A simpler lesson will work well with my... Current distraction."

Tigress knew she should keep her mouth shut, but her temper flared at the reminder of how heartbroken Gia was because of her own mother. "Forget about Lin," she ordered tersely. "She had her chance. You should move on."

Gia gasped, as if this advice were totally unexpected. "I could not do that! She is my mother. And however angry she was, she will calm down in time."

"So you plan to speak with her again?"

"Yes, if it is possible." The young wolf looked more determined than ever, her narrow shoulders squared as she spoke. "I must not give up with such little effort. I have traveled too far to run away with my tail between my legs now."

As ill-advised as she thought another encounter with Lin was, she couldn't help but admire Gia's determination. She had said more than her piece already, and so she let the matter go. After all, it was not her place to get involved in Gia's relationship with Lin, no matter the temptation. "Has anyone ever told you that you have the spirit of a kung fu warrior?"

Gia turned bright red at the compliment, and when she replied she stumbled over her words. "Oh, no! Not me, certainly no."

"So you're flattered," Tigress observed. "Perhaps you harbor some desire to learn, then?"

"No, no," Gia continued to argue, now redder than ever. "I could never be a strong and honorable warrior like you, no." Inexplicably, she paused to clutch her prayer beads and signed the shape of a cross in front of her. "I must attend to my work now, Master Tigress. It was lovely to speak with you."

Tigress watched her go, a bit taken aback by the reaction. Although, she was in no position to judge. She didn't have the best track record when it came to social interaction, which had been the cause of the tension between her and Gia in the first place. She was glad that she had been forgiven so quickly. It still stunned her, sometimes, how caring a person the young wolf could be. It made her feel as though she should be doing more for her new friend, though most would say their reading lessons were enough. Still, she felt guilty that she'd only proposed the idea to begin with as a cover for her study of nerve strikes. It had been a selfish thing to do, using Gia in such a way.

She didn't have much more time for feeling guilty, as she was joined by yet another companion on the path to the training hall. "Oh, uh, hey," Po greeted awkwardly as he joined her from a side path that led from the entrance to the grounds.

She couldn't blame him for his behavior. She'd been feeling the same way, ever since their embrace in the scroll library, and they hadn't spoken of it since. In fact, they hadn't had a chance to study nerve strikes together since, either. "Hello," she replied, surprised by how meek her greeting sounded.

They walked together in uncomfortable silence for a bit before Po broke it. "So, I got somethin' I wanna ask ya."

For some reason, her heartbeat quickened at the request. "Go on."

"Whaddaya know about the Wu Sisters?" Po asked her, his voice lowered to a whisper.

Tigress looked sideways at him, confused by both the question and his secrecy. She didn't know what she'd expected, but it certainly hadn't been this. "Your knowledge of the world of kung fu is usually impressive, Po. Why don't you tell me what you know first?"

He nodded, launching happily into a recitation of his encyclopedic knowledge. "The Wu Sisters are a trio of elite assassins, the most fearsome and deadly in all of China. They were trained by the legendary Lady Wu, a former student of Oogway himself, in the arts of subterfuge and combat. The three are snow leopards, each fight with two wind and fire wheels, and once they're paid to eliminate a mark-" He paused here to gulp, as though the subject made him nervous. "Uhm. They always follow through."

Tigress nodded to him. "I believe you've covered everything."

"But, you've actually faced 'em," he argued. "Ya know more 'an I could ever learn from reading scrolls."

"Thank you, Po." She tried to suppress her flattered blush, but her body betrayed her.

"Hey, what're we talking about?" Viper suddenly slithered up alongside them, glancing curiously back and forth between the two.

Tigress would have audibly groaned if it weren't for Po's presence. She could tell from the mischievous glint in Viper's eyes that she thought there was something romantic happening. "Matters of kung fu," Tigress replied pointedly. "Specifically, the Wu Sisters."

"Oh, them!" Viper waved her tail dismissively. "You don't have to worry about them right now, Po. In fact, it's been quite a while since they've stirred up trouble for us."

"Yeah," he accepted hesitantly. "I just, uhm... Well, I was readin' about 'em, and I wanted to know more. From, y'know, first-hand experiences and all. Like, for instance, do they always kill people?"

Tigress exchanged a confused glance with Viper, who shrugged her body bemusedly. She supposed they both would need some clarification. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, like, maybe sometimes they get hired to follow someone? Or maybe beat 'em up, but not kill 'em?"

"They've been known to kidnap. Is that what you mean?" Tigress found herself only more confused as Po became increasingly uneasy.

"Sorta," he replied, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "It's just, how long do they take to strike, usually? I mean, do they normally stake someone out a long time, or...?"

"They will follow someone as long as they feel is necessary," Viper answered slowly, narrowing her eyes at the panda. "Are you worried they might strike here in the valley? Because they haven't been known to do that."

"Except that one time," Tigress corrected her, wincing when Po let out a high-pitched whine in response. "Po, what are you so frightened about? Have you heard something?"

"What? Me?" He let out an awkwardly loud, rehearsed chuckle. "Nah, naaaaah. No way! Nope."

"Right." Tigress continued to watch him as he fiddled his thumbs and studiously avoided eye contact. "What do you know?" She gave him a light poke, which caused him to jump in place. He was definitely hiding something.

"Yeah, spill it," Viper added, then slithered to his other side and poked at him with her tail. "We've got you surrounded."

"Oh, man." Po glanced back and forth between them, and Tigress could swear she saw sweat beading at his temples.

"You know I could wrap you up like a holiday gift and throw you clear across this mountain," Viper said conversationally. "Don't make me do it."

"Okay, okay," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "I know somethin'. But you gotta act like ya don't know anything at all."

"On my honor as a kung fu master," Viper replied.

Tigress thought she was taking her title a little less seriously than was proper, but let it go. "I promise, Po."

He took a deep breath, then spoke so quickly on exhale that it was difficult to make out what he'd said. "ShifukickedLinoutnowshe'satmydad'syoudidn'thearitfromme." He finished the run-on sentence by gasping for air.

"...What?" Tigress couldn't say she'd quite understood him.

"Shifu kicked Lin out?" Viper gasped, apparently fluent in Po's nervous rambling. "And she's at your dad's? What in the world happened?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. She won't say."

Tigress wondered if this meant that their master had finally come to his senses. Perhaps he'd witnessed Lin's rejection of Gia, or maybe he'd been unimpressed with Tai Lung's progress in Shanghai. Maybe he'd simply realized that Lin was a shiftless liar, and they were all better off without her around. She would have proposed some of these theories, if they hadn't already reached the training hall's courtyard, where the rest of their team awaited.

"Hey, what's up?" Monkey greeted with a casual wave.

"Shifu kicked Lin out," Viper replied without a moment's hesitation. "Now she's staying with Po's dad."

"Viper!" Po whined.

"Oh, right. And I didn't hear that from Po," she added as an afterthought.

"Wow, thanks."

Normally Tigress would have reminded Viper that sharing gossip about their master was inappropriate, but she rather enjoyed this particular piece of news. She didn't express this sentiment, of course. She was fully aware of how petty it would sound, and she wouldn't want their master overhearing her.

Speaking of whom, Master Shifu joined them in the courtyard then, Tai Lung in tow. The curmudgeonly frowns on their faces were almost identical, and the sight would have been funny if it weren't for Tai Lung's past and the threat he posed.

Shifu's ear twitched ominously. "Did I overhear your conversation correctly?" he asked harshly, though his question was met with nervous silence. "Po," he snapped, turning on the panda.

Of course, it didn't take much to make Po break. "I'm sorry, Master! I was gonna tell ya about Lin and the restaurant. Or, well, I was gonna see if I could get her to say somethin', but I mean, I had to do somethin'-"

"Stop rambling," Shifu ordered, rubbing at his temples. "We will not discuss this. It isn't appropriate." Shifu reached into his sleeve and produced a scroll, then presented it to Tai Lung, interrupting the snow leopard in the midst of his eye-rolling.

"What is this?" he grumbled dubiously as he unrolled the scroll and peered down at the contents. "You must be going senile," he grumbled. "I already know Dragon Style."

"True," Shifu accepted, then held out his hand to gesture toward Po, "but he doesn't."

"I been workin' on it," Po argued sheepishly.

"And you could use some help," Shifu concluded, raising his eyebrows at Tai Lung.

"You cannot be serious," Tai Lung replied flatly.

"Before now you have only been a student," he continued, unintimidated by Tai Lung's resistance. "You have thought only of your own education and your own advancement. It was foolish of me to think this would not cause you to harbor selfish impulses. So, from now on, your concern shall be for the panda's education. It is time you learned to teach."

"Really? The panda?"

"Yes, the panda!"

Tai Lung scoffed at the order. "And what have I got to teach the great and powerful Dragon Warrior?" The sarcasm in his voice at Po's title was not lost on Tigress.

Shifu used his master's staff to point at the scroll still in Tai Lung's hands. "Dragon Style," he replied casually, though he still frowned.

"Master," Tigress finally interrupted, unable to stand silently by any longer. "I have been working with Po on Dragon Style up until now, and he has come a long way! Would it truly be wise to leave him in the hands of someone we're not even sure we can trust?"

"She means me," Tai Lung pointed out in a mocking stage whisper.

Tigress glared at him, but didn't dignify the comment with a reply.

"Enough," Shifu scolded Tai Lung, not that he looked at all incensed.

"Master, I demand you take my protest seriously!" Tigress snapped, knowing the moment the words left her mouth that she'd only made more trouble for herself.

Shifu's eye twitched as he rounded on her. "And as for you, Tigress, if you do not trust in your master's judgment, then you may leave. Don't return until you've completed fifty laps around the mountain."

Gritting her teeth, she accepted the punishment with a salute and a bow. She had let her temper flare and stepped up to defend her own efforts. She could accept that it hadn't been her place to defend territory which had never technically been hers. But she didn't see how Master Shifu could justify endangering Po's education in order to try to force Tai Lung's rehabilitation. She began her laps around the grounds, focusing on her task in order to calm her thoughts.

She had barely finished her tenth lap when she reached the front of the Jade Palace once more to see Gia standing on the front steps, wiping at her face with her sleeve. Tigress slowed to a stop, surprised to see Gia outside of the library of scrolls during the day. "Gia? What are you doing out here?"

"I began to cry in the archives," she replied with a sniff. "Master Zeng told me to take a personal day."

So they both had been turned out. She felt heartened by the coincidence. At least she wasn't alone in her inability to perform her work. "Sorry to hear that. I imagine that keeping to your usual routine would have helped more than spending the day wallowing."

"Yes!" Gia agreed with a small frown. "There is not much to do, now." She wiped at her face, her tears finally subsided. "You are training?"

"Somewhat," Tigress said with a frustrated sigh. She supposed there was no reason to try to hide her transgression. "I spoke out of turn and questioned Master Shifu's judgment, so I must do laps as a punishment."

Gia gasped, a hand to her mouth as she regarded Tigress with wide eyes. "So you broke the rules?"

She supposed it would seem out of character to someone who had yet to become familiar with her temper. "Yes. I should not have, but sometimes I let my anger get the best of me."

Slowly, Gia nodded. "Just as I let my emotions overwhelm me."

Tigress blinked at the comparison. She hadn't thought of her outbursts as similar to Gia's, but she supposed the wolf had a point. Whether her anger or Gia's distress, they both tended to let their emotions take over from time to time. "Yes, that's true. I can't say it's pleasant, being punished, but at least running these laps is clearing my head a little."

"Laps?"

"Yes, I'm running around the perimeter of the mountain."

"Perhaps I shall go lapping with you, then."

Tigress opened her mouth to tell Gia, in the gentlest way possible, that she would never be able to keep up with a trained master of kung fu. Then she hesitated. Why deny Gia some physical activity, if that was what she wanted? Tigress wasn't accustomed to slowing herself down to keep pace with others, but if she'd be at her laps most of the day, then why not make the task more pleasant with some company? "Alright," she accepted with a nod. "Let's see what you've got."

Gia made as if to run forward right then, but Tigress stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.

"You can't run laps in a dress," she pointed out. "You should change out of it first. Otherwise the layers will get in the way, and you'll have chafing all the way down to your knees."

Gia turned bright red at the admonishment. "Ch-chafing?" she repeated breathlessly.

"Yes, it's quite painful. Trust me, you won't want me rubbing cream onto your sore thighs all night. Master Shifu keeps some spare sets of clothing in the bath house for new students. Why don't you change into one of those and meet me here?"

"Very well," Gia agreed quietly, then stiffly walked away in the direction of the bath house.

Tigress didn't know what she'd said to make Gia feel awkward this time, though looking back on their conversation, she could see how her comments about chafing and wearing pants could have been ill-received. After all, Gia was a religious woman, and likely unused to speaking candidly about her body. Not to mention the suggestion that she should change into pants, which many more conservative types still considered inappropriate for women to wear. She'd actually had her doubts about whether Gia would return in proper clothing, but soon enough she was back and wearing the plain burlap men's hanfu and pants which all new students at the Jade Palace were issued.

Shy and reserved was not normally how she would describe Gia, but that was how she appeared now with her gaze turned to the ground and her hands clasped. "It is... Alright?"

"Of course," Tigress assured her. "Let's begin."

Blushing, she nodded, and then broke into a run to follow her down the path.

Tigress found herself surprised not only by Gia's ability to keep up, but her determination to complete every single lap with her. Of course, Gia couldn't keep up for all forty remaining laps, but when she began to slow Tigress stayed with her and encouraged her. It took much longer than a solo run would have, and required many more breaks for water and rest, but it was worth the delay to see how focused Gia had become. When they completed the laps for the day, Tigress felt satisfaction, too, at the proud smile on her friend's face. "Have you ever run this many laps before?"

"Truthfully, I have not lapped at all before," Gia replied, still out of breath and flushed from their run. She looked and sounded exhausted, though it was still an outlandish statement after what she had accomplished.

"That can't be true."

"I have run in a straight line, I suppose," she corrected. "And growing up on a mountain has given me... What is the word? Stamina. Yes."

Tigress returned Gia's tired smile, then gave her a pat on the back and steered her back toward the bath house. "You achieved quite a lofty goal today. I think that warrants a reward."

"Oh." Gia's face had become redder, though that wasn't unusual for someone who'd pushed herself so hard. "Is this about-" She paused, then lowered her voice as if she were saying something scandalous. "The chafing?"

"No, unless you have some. I was talking about taking a bath." She noticed that Gia remained uncharacteristically silent on their walk, and once they entered the bath house she appeared to hesitate. "What's wrong? You've never been in a communal bath before?"

"I have," Gia replied, shyly turning away as Tigress began to disrobe. "I suppose- it is embarrassing, is it not, with just us two?"

"I don't think so, no," Tigress said thoughtfully as she quickly finished undressing, then grabbed a bucket of water to give herself a pre-bath rinse. "But then, it's always just been Viper and me using this bath house." She tried not to look in Gia's direction as she prepared for the bath, as well, considering her shyness. However, once she'd entered the bath and Gia approached to join her, she caught sight of the large, shining scar on the wolf's thigh. The way her thick gray fur stopped growing abruptly around the edges of the fist-sized patch of skin made it seem like a gleaming stamp that had been pressed into her body. "That scar... Is it from your fall, when you were a child?"

Gia nodded, then quickly lowered herself into the water, likely to cover herself up. "It is ugly, and I never cared for it," she replied quietly. "But Mama Anna said to think of it as a memory."

"In that case, I have quite a few memories," she said as she thought over the late nun's words. It was true, in the sense that a scar was a reminder of the wound that had caused it, and how that wound had come about. She got the sense that there might have been a deeper meaning to the comment, meant only for Gia.

"Yes, I suppose so," Gia agreed, then finally looked her in the eye. "This is nice."

"Agreed." It wasn't often that Tigress put aside the time for a long soak in a hot bath, and she had a feeling that it was a rare treat for Gia, as well.

"I would like to stay here forever," she said with a sigh, relaxing against the side of the bath. "As long as no one will be able to find me. Except for you, of course."

"No one else?" Tigress repeated, raising her eyebrows. "Why is that?"

Gia cupped water in her hands and carefully wet her head. "I am sure this sounds timid to you, but I cannot help but feel afraid that I will run into my mother today."

"Oh." She'd forgotten that Gia had yet to hear about Lin's departure from the Jade Palace. She decided there was no use in keeping it a secret. Besides, if anyone deserved to hear such news, it was Gia. "Don't worry. You won't."

"I won't?"

"She left the Jade Palace," Tigress clarified. "From what I understand, Master Shifu made her leave. Po said she's working at his father's restaurant now, though I can't imagine why Po would do such a thing for her."

"Master Shifu did this?" Gia asked, her voice tight like it had been when she'd fought with Tigress.

"That is what I heard." She couldn't understand why Gia was so angry at this turn of events, considering how Lin had treated her.

Gia brought her fists down into the bath water, causing a large splash. "I told him not to intervene!" she snapped, then seemed to realize Tigress was watching her and turned bright red. "I apologize," she added, speaking more meekly now. "I did not mean to make a scene."

"That's alright," she accepted. She'd be a hypocrite not to.

"It is just that I wanted to handle this matter on my own!" Gia continued heatedly. "It is my own responsibility! I am not a helpless child!"

"I know," Tigress replied, suppressing the pang of jealousy that arose within her. She didn't think Shifu had ever, or would ever, behave in such a way toward her. He had taught her to fight her own battles, and if she were in trouble, he would expect her to take care of it on her own. It was a lesson she'd been expected to learn at a young age.

"And now my mother has left the Jade Palace," Gia kept fuming. "What if she believes that I put Master Shifu up to such a thing? Surely this will make everything more difficult."

She knew she should keep her opinion to herself. She had tried so hard, but she couldn't stand Gia worrying over Lin's actions after what she'd been put through. "Why do you care what Lin thinks? She abandoned you! She doesn't care about anyone but herself, and she's not worth knowing in the first place-"

"Enough, Tigress!" Gia said firmly. "I know that my mother is a flawed woman, but I want to give her a chance. My relationship with her is no one's business but mine."

Incensed, Tigress lowered her voice. "...Yes, Gia, you're right. I'm sorry."

Gia hugged herself, sinking down into the water as she stared intently into her own reflection. "I am going to give her a chance," she repeated firmly. "I am going to speak to her." She sounded as though she were repeating a mantra for inner strength.

Tigress felt that any words of encouragement she could offer would be too obviously insincere, considering what she had just said about Lin, so instead she placed a hand on Gia's shoulder.

Gia turned her face away, but didn't shrug Tigress' hand off, either. "If only I could be as strong as you," she said, her voice wavering.

If anything in the world could make her feel more like a fraud than Gia's blind admiration, she certainly couldn't name it. "I am not strong. Only hardened." Through her upbringing, her training, her battles, she had learned to close off her heart. She had learned to suppress herself. "You shouldn't want to be like me. I'm not admirable. I'm only a bad-tempered failure."

"Not so in the eyes of God. Not in my eyes, either." Gia clasped her hands together, as though in prayer, but only briefly. Then, she pulled herself out of the tub and wrapped herself tightly in a towel. "I feel I must be alone, now. Please do not take offense."

"No, I don't." Tigress didn't look at her, knowing it would make her uncomfortable, but she had a feeling that she still felt tense about her mother. "I'll see you at your lessons."

"Perhaps it would be best for me to take some time away from them, after all." Gia walked back into her line of sight, now in her usual black and white hanfu, but still avoiding eye contact. "I thank you for your understanding, Master Tigress. I will tell you when I am ready to return to my lessons, if you will be kind enough to have me back." She fled the bath house before Tigress could say anything in return.

Tigress understood why Gia might want to be alone, although the sudden change of heart about her reading lessons seemed out of character. She had probably offended Gia once more with her comments about Lin, too. She shouldn't have butted in. She sank down into the hot bath water, closing her eyes as she soaked. She had to admit to herself, as much as it pained her, that she was jealous. It seemed that she was fading more and more into the background in Shifu's eyes with each new day, especially with Tai Lung's return. Yet he always seemed to have enough time and attention for Lin. Po had gone out of his way for the old dog, yet Tigress still struggled to properly connect with him. Even Gia, her friend who admired her, was distracted by Lin. She had been overshadowed her whole life, but that didn't stop the fire in her belly when she thought of the little lint ball. She could only hope that she never needed to see the old woman again. That, at least, would comfort her.

---

Wu Zhin crouched low as she and her sisters traveled through darkness across the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Now that Tibet was under Chinese rule, the Empire shared its western border with India. Considering the unrest happening there, and the slow takeover by the British Empire, she didn't look forward to advancing toward this particular border. However, if they ever hoped to squeeze any yuan out of their latest client, they would need to meet him where he'd instructed them to. She couldn't understand why Captain Zhengsheng had chosen to travel so far west, except perhaps in an attempt to observe the unrest at the border for himself. She suspected that he likely was low on money and aimed to intercept some of the opium that had been crossing the border illegally.

There was another reason she didn't particularly like traveling through the region. Although mountains left many crevices, ravines, and caves that might conceal them in their trade, the plateau was largely tundra. Conifers grew from the arid land in small copses dotting the plateau and the mountainsides, but they did not have access to the lush forests they were used to. The grass didn't grow tall here, either. Their only option was to pass through the plains as quickly as possible, then take shelter in the hills. The landscape would grow more mountainous as they continued west, though Zengsheng would not remain hidden as he awaited their return to him. He was not what one might call subtle.

They found Zhengsheng's encampment fairly easily. He'd set out subtle markers for them, stone beads in the dry grass that looked as though they'd been cut from a monk's string of malas. She hadn't stopped to think too hard on where they had come from, only picked them up and handed them to Bai as she found them. Zhengsheng awaited them at the edge of his encampment, at the mouth of a pass between two rocky hills. If it hadn't been for his fluffy fur, the gray of his armor plating in the darkness of night could have been mistaken for any other boulder amidst the hills.

Reluctantly, they bowed before the hulking chow-chow. Rather than return the gesture, he simply handed Zhin a guru bead, the larger head bead commonly found on a string of malas. It matched the others. She wasn't a stupid woman, and so she knew this gesture was not a greeting, but a threat. He wanted results, and would not take kindly to the news they had to offer. If they disappointed him, he intended they meet the same fate as the nameless monk who had once prayed with these beads. She glanced sideways at Bai, then at Qiang; both had understood the threat, as well, judging by their glares.

Zhin cleared her throat and began their meeting, since the Captain didn't seem to have anything to say. "We've come about the matter of our payment," she stated bluntly. After his threat, she wasn't in the mood for games.

"I believe I hired you to find information for me," he returned harshly. He had something up his sleeve, something that was boosting his confidence.

Perhaps if she played her cards right, she could coax him into revealing his hand. "And so we did," Zhin told him. "We discovered quite a few interesting facts that are not common knowledge. They would likely aid you greatly in your vendetta."

"Yeah," Qiang added, squaring her shoulders. "We're full of useful facts!"

"Facts which cost money," Bai emphasized coldly. "Of course, we could always find a paying customer."

"You promised us payment in Shanghai," Zhin pointed out. "I don't believe our reputation is that of a volunteer service."

The Captain seemed irritated at being pressed for payment, but nonetheless he produced a coin purse and tossed it into her waiting hands. "The information?"

Zhin could feel from the weight of the purse alone that the payment was meager, an insult to herself and her sisters. She carefully tucked it into her belt, double-checking that it was secure. She owed this man no urgency. When she was done, she slowly returned her gaze to her so-called client. "This is not our usual rate."

"As I told you before, you will receive the rest of your payment once that mutt is within my grasp." His hand rested on something that had been tucked into his belt, a scroll. "Besides, I may have found information on my own which is much more valuable than what you have to offer."

Zhin glanced down at the scroll in his belt. "A message," she concluded.

"Yes," Zhengsheng confirmed. "My men intercepted it. It would seem that the Bandit King of the North is headed this way, and has intentions of visiting my target in the Valley of Peace."

She narrowed her eyes at the information. She supposed the Captain was sharing the news with her since he intended to keep them in his employ, though she'd frankly had enough of this particular mission. She had crossed paths with Guotin many times before, as their two professions were not so exclusive from one another. Frankly, she wasn't surprised the wolf had given himself away. He'd never been the brightest lantern in the bunch. "That corroborates what we have discovered. It would appear Lin has traveled to the Valley of Peace with a companion."

"Companion?" Zhengsheng's black eyes glittered ominously in the moonlight, his bloodlust obvious in his growl.

Zhin spared a stern look for her sisters, to warn them not to interrupt. She'd decided to withhold the news about Tai Lung. She had a feeling that Captain Zhengsheng was not the one to relay this information to. "A dock worker from the city," she replied. "By the name of Keung. Large man, but simple. A leopard. Perhaps she has lost interest in Shifu and taken a lover, I would not know."

"I mean, he is hotter," Bai muttered under her breath, and Zhin elbowed her in the side.

"Yet you did not ascertain her purpose in Shanghai," Zhengsheng stated.

"It appeared to be a personal visit," Zhin added, frowning at his assumption that they had not done their job properly. "She is an acquaintance of Master Chen's. It would appear that she is also close to Master Wei-Shan, along with a divorcee who seemed to be of no particular importance. Most likely, Lin is one of Chen's former art students." She crossed her arms as she regarded their client coldly. "We have now officially covered all the information your payment warrants." She probably should not have instigated him with that last comment, but she was losing her patience. "Unless you feel you can afford more."

"I'm afraid that will not be necessary," he replied, then drew his sword. He moved more quickly than one would expect of a dog of his size, but Zhin had been expecting his attack and dodged it easily. "Your services are no longer needed. And as members of the Imperial Guard, it is our duty to neutralize threats to the Empire, such as yourselves." His men had been waiting in the hills, their spears at the ready.

Two archers aimed arrows at them, but Qiang deflected the projectiles with quick swipes of her wind and fire wheels.

Zhengsheng's men were approaching from up in the hills to flank them, so though they wouldn't find any shelter out on the open tundra, they retreated toward it so as not to be cornered. Better to give up any hope they might have of a defensive advantage than get trapped and overwhelmed in the hills.

Once they'd gotten some space to themselves, Zhin assessed the soldiers heading toward them. "Try to break their ranks," she ordered. "And don't let their archers get a clear shot!" She linked arms with Bai and Qiang, and with their combined strength they launched her into the air. She soared gracefully over the nine or ten men who'd been approaching, landing beyond them to target their leader.

Zhengsheng was ready for her, and used his sword to block a powerful blow from her wind and fire wheel.

She already had him on the defensive with that first blow, so she used her strength and speed to overwhelm him with a furious onslaught of attacks. She leaped and spun easily through the air, moving as fluidly and circuitously as her weapons, landing a blow on his sword and pushing him back each time. She didn't relent, leaving only moments between each attack before spinning her body like a top and landing a blow with her other arm. She could see she was wearing him down from the sweat on his brow, the worried frown on his face, the way his sword trembled a little more with each block. She almost had him.

She sensed a sudden rush of air at her cheek, and leapt back just in time to dodge two arrows from the archers. To her great frustration, this left Zhengsheng just enough breathing room to gather himself and go on the offensive.

He swung his sword broadly, across her chest, and she leapt backward to dodge again. She could tell he planned to back her into his men so they could provide backup and overwhelm her. She couldn't allow him to succeed. He aimed yet another broad stroke of his sword at her chest, but she'd been prepared this time, and leapt down to tumble between his legs and stand up behind him.

As an assassin, she had no qualms over fighting dishonorably, so she slashed at his back with her wind and fire wheel, satisfied to see the wet, red evidence that her blow had landed. She spun around to slash him with her other hand, but an arrow from an archer made contact with her weapon. She just barely managed to hang on to her wind and fire wheel, but missed Zhengsheng with her second attack as a result. She cursed to herself under her breath. Those archers were proving themselves problematic.

Zhengsheng had turned to face her, and he charged with his sword pointed directly at her stomach, obviously aiming to impale her. She leapt out of his way and over his head, just barely fast enough to dodge three more arrows. She then flattened herself on the ground to duck beneath two spears. Some of the soldiers had escaped their battle with Bai and Qiang to provide reinforcements to Zhengsheng. She had made a rookie mistake, allowing herself to be flanked. She'd gotten rusty in the months since her last job. While she was on the ground, she aimed her wind and fire wheels at the men's ankles, cutting one so deeply that he cried out and crumpled like the dead, dried leaves of the season.

That left her just enough of an opening to run back toward the open tundra and rejoin her sisters. Bai and Qiang had severely wounded three soldiers already, but she'd had enough trouble for one night. She sprinted between the confused men, easily dodging their spears, and signaled to her companions to follow her. She noticed that as they retreated, while the archers continued to aim arrows their way, the rest did not follow.

It was for the best. She didn't need the Emperor sending forces after them for the murder of a Captain of the Imperial Guard. Zhengsheng simply wasn't worth the problems he would cause them, let alone the problems he had already caused them. It had been a mistake to approach him in the first place. She'd let her desperation overcome her better judgment.

They continued to run until Zhengsheng's camp disappeared beyond the horizon and they reached a rocky slope where they could shelter themselves beneath the uneven side of a particularly large boulder. They gathered together in the shadows there, none of them daring to propose venturing out for firewood, regardless of the cold.

"Well that went straight to hell," Bai finally commented, though she kept her voice quiet.

"I don't like this," Zhin told her sisters. "Not in the least. Zhengsheng said he'd intercepted a message from Guotin, that he no longer needed us. He's got something planned, and I can bet you it won't be good for any of us."

They nodded quietly.

"We should help," Qiang added.

"That Guotin's always screwing up," Bai grumbled in return. "Who says we should be the ones to bail him out this time?"

"It's the right thing to do," she insisted. "He's never crossed us, has he? And he was writing to that Lin person, right? He's going to get caught up in the middle of all this if we don't intervene."

"True," Zhin sighed in agreement. "Perhaps the Captain means to hire Guotin and his hundred men. But if Guotin holds any kind of sentimentality for that old dog, Lin, he'll refuse outright. I doubt it will go over well."

"But Guotin's got a hundred men," Bai pointed out.

"And Zhengsheng is likely going to intercept illegal opium shipments at the border to keep the profit for himself," Zhin pointed out. "He'll have all the money he wants to hire Guotin's hundred men, whether Guotin himself agrees to it or not. You really think a big bunch of lunkheaded bandits like that wouldn't stab their leader in the back for the right price?"

"I can't believe this," Bai grumbled with a roll of her eyes. "You're both worried over that dumb old wolf? What's he got that's any good to us?"

"If we don't try to help, Zhengsheng could end up with a hundred bandits marching on the Valley of Peace," Qiang argued determinedly. "We can't just turn a blind eye."

Bai crossed her arms and huffed, but didn't argue any further. It was a sign that she'd given in.

"Let's get our rest, for now," Zhin said. "We'll tail Zhengsheng at a fair distance come morning. Hopefully our suspicions are not correct." Judging by what had transpired already, that hope would likely prove in vain. She didn't give the matter any further thought, though. She needed her rest, if she intended to take on the unlikely role of protector.

"Next time, let's just take an easy political assassination job," Bai grumbled as they huddled up for warmth.

Zhin didn't reply, but she couldn't help but agree.

---

Po stretched his sore muscles as he made his way down into the village to check in on his dad and Lin. He didn't just have their well-being in mind, as much as he'd like to say he did. He wanted to ask Lin for the details of her sudden departure from the Jade Palace. He hadn't felt right asking Gia, considering how upset she'd seemed, and he didn't have the nerve to confront Master Shifu. He knew dinner service would long be over by the time he got to his dad's, and hopefully Lin would still be awake to talk.

When Po arrived at the restaurant, he had to smile at the sight of his dad and Lin finishing up a game of mahjong at a table set right in front of the kitchen to take advantage of the light from its lanterns. His dad's clueless grin and Lin's begrudging expression made it easy to conclude who had won. "Hey, can I play?" he asked by way of greeting.

"Aha!" his dad exclaimed, then began setting up a new game. "Came to play the winner, I see!"

"Actually, I was wondering if I could play the loser," he corrected sheepishly, avoiding Lin's suspicious gaze.

"She's not very good," his father warned, earning a glare from the old dog that anyone else who knew her would run screaming from. "And a sore loser," he added.

"The only reason I ain't saying anything," she said in a huff, "is 'cause you're putting me up."

"Enjoy your three days of dish duty," he replied cheerfully, then stood to allow Po to sit and headed for the kitchen. "Who wants tea?"

"Sounds awesome to me," Po replied, then took his dad's place at the table across from Lin and finished setting up the tiles. "So you like to bet on these games?"

"Oh, great, now you wanna swindle me," she sighed. "What'd you have in mind?"

"Nothin' much," he answered casually. "Just some info on why you're livin' with my dad."

"I thought I was living with your dad 'cause you were doing me a favor," she shot back, peering down at the thirteen tiles he'd dealt her as if they were booby-trapped.

"Well, yeah, that too," he admitted. "But, y'know, I was talking about the other reason. The reason ya left the Jade Palace- or Shifu threw ya out?"

"I'm tired of gambling," she grumbled. "I'll just tellya."

"Oh, good, 'cause I got a winnin' hand, anyway."

She narrowed her eyes at him, pursing her lips. "You counted the tiles," she accused.

"Wow, you really are a sore loser."

"This kinda stuff ain't even worth gambling on, anyway," she dismissed irritably, clearly only upset over her loss. "It ain't got the same kinda excitement as betting on fights. Then again, there ain't any loan sharks to deal with, so I guess that's a plus."

"Uhuh. So the reason you live with my dad...?"

"Right, right." She casually leaned forward on her elbows, as if she were about to tell him a long and detailed story. "Gia."

"Whuh?" he asked, confused.

"It all comes back to Gia," she reiterated. "First the girl was a pain in my cooch, now she's a pain in my ass. Shows up here outta nowhere, acting like I'm her mommy and she's still some little baby- and Shifu takes her side!"

"But, uh... You are technically her mommy," Po pointed out, then shrank under her intense glare. "Kinda."

"I did right by that girl," Lin said sharply. "And in return I expected to never hafta set eyes on her again."

"I don't mean to sound harsh or anything, but... Harsh."

"The truth is the truth. If it sounds harsh t'ya, then so be it." She got up from the table, cracking her back as she stood. "Anyway, Shifu didn't like hearing that anymore'n you did. So here I am."

"Wait- are ya sayin' he kicked ya out just over that?" Po watched as she headed into the kitchen and started rummaging around in cabinets.

"Yeah," she answered flippantly, then pulled out a gigantic bottle adorned in nothing more than a warning label and uncorked it. "What's your point?" She then began to drink straight from the bottle.

Po was pretty sure Lin had just taken a long swig of furniture polish, but he let that go for the moment. "But I thought you and Shifu were totally solid. I thought ya were, like... In love and stuff."

"Me too," Lin replied. "But I've been wrong on that front before."

Po's dad grabbed the bottle from her hands before she could drink any more of it, squinting at the label. "I thought I was out of disinfectant."

"Huh? That's disinfectant?" Lin joined him in finally reading the warning label. "That's the weakest disinfectant I've ever seen. I got wine stronger'n this stuff."

"I took a chance on a new vendor, this is what it got me," he replied with a shake of his head. "Whatever happened to quality in a product, hm?"

Po waved at them from where he still sat at the table, now alone. "Uh, hello? Remember the conversation we were having, Lin?"

"I'm not a complete ditz, so yeah, I do remember," Lin snapped at him, then turned to the stove. "This water's boiling, Ping. Where's the tea?"

"Green or black?" the goose asked.

"You got any jasmine?"

"I think so, it's been a while."

Po watched their back and forth as the two puttered around the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets. They easily dodged each other, as in sync as if they had been working together for years. He wondered if there was something generational about it, what with his dad and Lin being around the same age. Or maybe they just got along well. "Man, lookit you two. Like two peas in a pod, huh?"

"You're exaggerating, Po," his dad dismissed with a wave of his wing. "Lin has experience working in a kitchen, she knows how to move around one."

"Among other rooms," she added with a waggle of her eyebrows.

"C'mon, Lin, not in front'a my dad," Po begged.

"Oh, I don't mind if you flirt with your girlfriend," his dad said with a kind smile.

"Yeah, sweetie," Lin chimed in, playing along with his father's misconception with a mischievous grin. "You don't gotta act so formal around Dad now that we're so well acquainted. In fact, why dontchya c'mere and gimme a kiss?" She leered at him, beckoning him forward.

"We're not dating, Dad!" Po protested, disturbed by Lin's gleeful willingness to pretend otherwise. "And Lin, don't call my Dad 'Dad!' You're just gonna make him think we're gonna get married or somethin'-"

"See, this's the problem with dating a younger man," Lin interrupted him, while his dad nodded sympathetically. "No desire for commitment. I ain't getting any younger, panda!"

"Quit stringing her along, Po," his dad scolded. "I mean, things are obviously getting serious, if you wanted her to live and work here. What's the hold-up? And, more importantly, am I getting grandbabies out of this?"

"I'm a little old for kids," she replied. "Though I never get tired of trying. Right, panda?" She waggled her eyebrows at Po, and he buried his now red face in his hands.

"We're not even together," he groaned in the hopes that his dad would finally believe him. "I dunno why she's lyin', but she is!"

"Hey, it's just a joke." Lin finally seemed ready to give up her ruse. "You don't gotta act like I'm so repugnant, by the way," she added with an indignant sniff.

"No, you're not, I just got frustrated-"

"Uh oh, lovers' quarrel," his dad muttered under his breath.

Po decided to just let the misunderstanding go, so he could get back to their original conversation. "Lin, ya still haven't told me exactly what happened," he pointed out as gently as possible. "I mean, you and Shifu didn't go from bein' totally in love to broken up overnight for no reason."

Lin slammed a cast iron teapot on the counter, glaring silently at him, then went about brewing some jasmine tea.

After a few moments of this tense silence, his dad raised a feather and pointed toward the restaurant's side entrance, into the alley where he received his produce deliveries. "I'm going to leave a special note for the delivery guy," he announced as he backed away from the two of them. "He should know there's a new employee who might receive shipments now and then." Then he retreated into the alley.

"You happy, now?" Lin grumbled, then poured herself a cup of tea. "We were having a nice time untilya brought that shit back up."

"Lin, c'mon," he pleaded, then got up from the table and approached the counter. "You're the only one who can tell me what's goin' on with ya." He leaned down on the counter, practically kneeling, so he could be eye level with her. "Please?"

Lin regarded him coolly, then poured a second cup of tea and pushed it toward him. "There's not much to tell," she finally said. "I didn't react well to Gia. I... I wasn't what you'd call a 'natural mother' in the first place. And it... Wasn't easy. To see her again. To remember, y'know, everything." She turned her eyes down to her tea, and he could swear they'd gotten watery. "Anyway, Shifu didn't get that. He didn't even try. So here I am." She cleared her throat, then finished off her cup and turned around to clean up the pot she'd boiled her water in. "Anything else deeply personal you'd like me to whine to you about, or nah?"

"Nah," Po answered quietly, wondering exactly what "everything" was, that Lin had remembered. It couldn't have been good, from her description. But he'd upset her enough already by asking about her fight with Shifu, so he let it rest. "How're ya doin', by the way? In general. And adjusting to the restaurant, I guess."

She shrugged. "This ain't my first restaurant gig, panda, so don't worry that fuzzy head over me. If I do something wrong or forget something, your dad'll lemme know. I learned that much today." When she turned to face him again, her eyes were dry, and though her grin wasn't quite as wide as usual, at least she felt well enough to smile. "You and Tai Lung worry so much over me lately it's sickening, y'know that?"

"Me and Tai Lung?" he asked, slack-jawed for a moment.

"Don't gimme that look," she ordered, reaching across the counter to give him a hard poke. "And drink your tea. I didn't just make it for fun."

Po obediently sipped at his tea, the pause giving him a chance to think a bit. Mostly about Tai Lung, and the different ways in which they'd interacted over the past day. "He's real different from how I imagined."

"Whaddaya mean?" Lin asked, gulping down her own tea as heartily as she did alcohol.

"I mean... I thought he'd wanna kill me on sight or somethin'." He held back from telling Lin about the Wu Sisters, though he did have his doubts about even more secrecy in his life. "He's not exactly friendly, o'course. But he's more... Regular, I guess. Like this mornin', it was his idea to bring ya your stuff. And then he was jokin' around with ya. I dunno, it's like he's not exactly repentant, but he's not so angry anymore, either."

"You think?" Lin asked, as though she hadn't noticed, herself. "Maybe there's some hope there, then."

"Yeah, maybe," Po agreed as his dad joined them again.

"Po, when are you going to help out around here again?" the goose asked the moment he'd entered the kitchen.

"Ya got Lin now, though," Po argued, though he knew there was really no arguing with his dad.

"She's still in her training period." He joined Lin at the counter, and she poured him a cup of tea without bothering to ask if he wanted any. "I need you to help show her the ropes."

"Oh, I know my way around a bit of rope," Lin replied with a cackle.

"This's like a disease with ya, isn't it?" Po asked with a shake of his head. He tried not to let a mental picture form, but sadly failed.

"Hey, I just take an opportunity to wisecrack when I see one." She finished off her tea, then pulled her flask from her belt. "Anyway, I'm done acting like a real person. Time to drink 'til I sleep." She opened the flask and a strong scent of pine wafted from it. "Don't wait up, Ping."

"I never do," his dad replied.

Po watched Lin go, already draining her flask as she went. "Wow, she's... Not doing great."

His dad shrugged, then refilled his tea. "Like I told you, son, this is the restaurant business. I wasn't expecting to find anyone who drank any less."

He wondered what else his father hadn't taught him about the restaurant business, but decided not to ask. "I guess I should head back for the night. I'll see if I can come by during lunch service one of these days, okay?"

"Make it soon," the goose ordered as he sipped at his tea. "She could use your guidance in the customer service department. Although, she was right when she said that frightened customers tip more."

He'd had a feeling about that. He bid his dad goodnight and headed out of the restaurant, yawning as he rounded the corner. He could really use some sleep. As he yawned, he walked straight into something fuzzy, yet hard. He jumped and let out a startled shout. "Jeez! You're really good at this stalkin' stuff, huh?"

Tai Lung's usual flat glare remained unchanged. "Your life means nothing to me, panda. I could kill you right here."

"Could ya, though?" he asked, thinking of their last fight. He shut his mouth after he caught sight of the angry frown on Tai Lung's face, though.

"And where do you think you're going in such a hurry? I thought we had an agreement."

He blinked back at the snow leopard as he realized what was happening. "Wow," he mused. "You're really worried over Lin, huh?"

Tai Lung's whiskers twitched irritably. "You should be, too. You're the one who took her away from the Jade Palace, and now I have to spend my nights guarding over this gods-forsaken restaurant."

"Look, I got somewhere to go," Po argued. He was probably already running late for his meeting with Tigress in the scroll library as it was. "But I'll come back here to relieve ya before dawn. Is that okay?" He thought he'd sounded reasonable, but he needed to duck quickly to avoid a swipe aimed at his head. "Hey!"

"Don't disappoint me," Tai Lung threatened, then leapt into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

"Man, he's creepy," Po muttered under his breath, squinting up at the rooftops to no avail. He gave up on trying to spot Tai Lung and hurried back toward the Jade Palace. It looked like his nights were about to get a lot longer.

---

Lin wove her way through the narrow spaces between the long communal tables at Mr. Ping's, taking orders and serving noodles for the lunch rush. She didn't particularly like taking on the duties of a server, but at least it was an opportunity to collect tips. Ping split all the tips from the day evenly with her, so as long as she collected a decent amount of coins for the tip jar, he didn't particularly care about her less-than-cheerful attitude. She dropped three bowls of soup onto a table in front of a group of men her age, two pigs and the old goat from the apothecary. She interrupted their conversation on which herbs were best for relieving muscle pain to rap her knuckles on the wooden table. "C'mon, I don't got all day," she ordered.

They had already gone through two lunch services with her, so they knew well enough by now to obediently empty their pockets for her tip jar. It had also helped that they'd witnessed her drag a young man who'd stiffed her out of the restaurant by his tail and toss him in the dirt. The old goat smiled at her and tipped a little extra, but she didn't have the time or the temperament to flirt at the moment.

"Eat it or wear it," she snapped, referring to their food, and they all quickly grabbed hold of their spoons. She turned on her heel and hustled back to the kitchen, where a queue had already formed to put in more orders.

"Lin, take over the order counter," Ping called out as she joined him. "We're getting so much business today! I'll have to run out for some emergency ingredients. Isn't that exciting? I'll need to bulk up my produce orders starting this week." His goofy smile widened when she dropped her tips into their jar. "Look at this! You're going to make me a wealthy man."

She snorted at the praise, then waved forward the next customer as Ping ran out to take care of his chores. She took orders from several regulars and served them at the counter, since she couldn't get out from the kitchen while handling such a rush alone. Once she'd served the last customer in line, she ducked down to make sure she put all the yuan she'd just been paid in the lock box for the day.

"Aha!"

Lin looked up from the counter to see Shifu pushing through the crowd of noodle shop patrons, his eye twitching. "Oh, boy." She couldn't say she was happy to see him. This was the first time Shifu had bothered to show his face since he'd kicked her out, and she hadn't been willing to go crawling back to the Jade Palace to see him. To be honest, she'd been hoping for a clean break, to never see him again. She should have known Shifu wouldn't make things that easy for her. She took a deep breath, suppressing her anger and sorrow as well as she could manage for the moment. If it were up to her, she'd have chased him out with a cleaver. As it stood, she couldn't guarantee even to herself that she wouldn't resort to that.

He reached the counter and slammed his hands down on it, leaning so far forward that it looked like he'd tried jumping over but had gotten stuck. "You!"

She rolled her eyes and grabbed her cleaver to start chopping up vegetables. "Might wanna push that vein back into your forehead." She felt her muscles tighten. What did he have to be angry about? What had she ever done to him, besides support him and dedicate the last few months of her life to helping his son?

"Where have you been?" he demanded.

"Here." She chopped the vegetables a little too hard and sent some pieces flying off the cutting board.

"Do you really think you can walk away from our fight and not return for days on end without a single word to me since?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Seeing as I'm a grown woman who can do as I please and all." She noticed how he left out the part where he'd told her to leave and not come back.

He glared at a patron who'd been trying to sidle up to the counter to put in an order, causing the rabbit to back away. "Lin, this is absolutely absurd. You cannot just run off and start cooking soup and waiting tables!"

She dropped her vegetables into a pot of broth, then returned to the counter with the cleaver still in hand. "You kicked me out."

"I didn't mean that! We were fighting and I-"

"I'm leaving you," she interrupted, since he apparently thought he could dump her and then come strolling on back like he'd never done anything.

"Leaving me?" he repeated incredulously. "You're leaving me?"

"It was a mistake, rushing into a relationship so soon after I came back," she clarified. "Obviously we don't really know each other as well as we thought. Plus I'm so angry atya that I can't even think of a word to describe the depth of my rage."

"You are leaving me over one fight!" he snapped. "That is insane!"

"D'you still think I was wrong to give up Gia?" she asked, knowing his answer would be the same as the last time they'd spoken.

"Of course!"

It was still disappointing to hear, though. She couldn't deny the heartache that deepened at his admission that he didn't understand her, or particularly care to. "Then there's nothing more for us to discuss. Now move aside so I can make some tips."

"No! You are coming back to the Jade Palace with me whether you like it or not, and we are going to discuss a lot!" He leaned back and gestured to the exit. "Now come along, you've wasted enough time here."

"I see." Lin clenched her jaw in anger at his attitude. She could have screamed in his face, point out that he had a lot of nerve to walk into her job and treat her like a child who couldn't make her own decisions, but she didn't think it would make any difference. She grabbed the largest ladle in the place, filled it with soup, and tossed it directly in his face. "Get out."

He opened his mouth to scream at her, but stopped dead as Mr. Ping walked up to the counter with an armful of produce.

"Oh my," the goose observed at the sight of Shifu, soaking wet and covered in noodles. "That is certainly a new way to eat noodles. That will be five yuan, please."

Without another word, Shifu slapped five yuan onto the counter and stormed out of the restaurant.

"He's got some nerve coming in here and trying to order me around!" Lin ranted, scooping up the coins. "And he didn't even tip! Next!"

The rabbit who'd been trying to order through the entire argument stepped up. "One secret ingredient-"

"Yeah, yeah, five yuan," she dismissed, still fuming at the way Shifu had stormed into the restaurant and completely disregarded her feelings. And he'd told her that it was ridiculous of her to work at a restaurant, that she was wasting time, as if everything she did was foolish. "Sometimes I just wanna tear out that little rat's ear hair and make him eat it!" She dropped the soup onto the counter and held out her hand. "How about a tip, huh? I don't do this for my health!"

The man hastily dropped some coins in her hand and ran off to sit at a table.

"Wasn't Shifu your previous boss?" Mr. Ping asked hesitantly from where he'd been seasoning some noodles.

"Yeah, technically, but after we banged it was all downhill from there," she grumbled.

"Oh," he said shortly. "Well at least I have nothing to worry about."

She would have laughed at the comment if she were in a better mood. As it was, she could only manage a vaguely amused grunt in response. She could feel her anger fading already, replaced by the heavy melancholy that had hung over her since she'd left the Jade Palace. She tried to say something pithy back to Ping, but the words caught in her throat. She shook slightly as she returned to her prep work, and she had to chop vegetables more slowly and deliberately due to it.

Ping walked up beside her and held out his wing for the cleaver. "You're not suited to prep right now," he told her bluntly, so she handed the knife over. "Go take a quick smoke break, then bus the tables and catch up on dishes."

She nodded, still unable to speak for fear of the words pushing tears out along with them. She walked out to the front of the restaurant and squatted on the street, leaning against the stone wall while she stuffed and lit her long-stemmed pipe. Part of her wanted to run after Shifu, grab him and force him to listen while she berated him. She wanted to ask him how he could abandon her, when she'd missed him so much. How could he discard her like old trash, after he'd promised that he never would. She wanted to tell him what a liar he was. She wanted to cry and say she was sorry and beg him to forgive her, even though she didn't think she was in the wrong. She knew she wasn't in the wrong.

She didn't do any of that. She squatted and smoked her pipe. She knew she hadn't seen the last of Shifu, so she could always fight with him later. Really, though, she didn't want to spill her guts like that. She didn't want him to know how much he'd hurt her. She didn't want him to have the satisfaction of seeing her tears. If she could have, she would have curled up right there in the dirt like it was her own bed. Instead, she put out her pipe and went to bus tables.

---

Shifu walked home from Mr. Ping's restaurant fuming, as well as wet and clammy from the soup that had been splashed all over him. If Lin thought he was just going to go crawling back home to hide from her, then she had another thing coming. He'd visit that damn noodle shop every day if he had to. He wouldn't allow her to dismiss him so easily. He'd show her the tenacity possessed by a master of kung fu.

Truthfully, he'd been blind-sided when he'd first heard that Lin had taken his admonishment seriously and left the Jade Palace. He hadn't been able to believe it. The moment his lessons with his students had ended, he'd gone straight to Lin's room to check for her. He hadn't expected to find it bare, her belongings already gone. All that was left of her in that room now was the fur she'd shed, and even that would get cleaned up by the staff soon enough. They had fought before, and she'd threatened to leave before, but she had never followed through. Not out of anger, anyway. After he'd gotten over his shock, he'd felt angry all over again at her actions. After recklessly abandoning her own child, and then treating the girl like dirt the moment they'd been reunited, she didn't get to run away from everything like it had never happened. She didn't get to run away from him, not again. She owed him, at the very least, an explanation.

When Shifu reached the top of the thousand steps, he was surprised to see that his students had moved their practice into the arena. Mostly, Tai Lung was making Po squat while holding a large bucket of water in each hand, and the Furious Five were watching and loudly discussing his form. Tigress appeared to be absent from the spectacle, not that he'd expect her to take part in such an obvious waste of time. He would have scolded them for slacking while Po took part in what was clearly only a simple exercise of endurance, but he didn't have the energy at the moment.

Shifu scowled as his students all fell silent at the sight of him walking across the arena covered in noodles and dripping wet with the broth of Mr. Ping's secret ingredient soup. "Not one word," he warned them darkly as he passed. His ear twitched when he heard Po's overly loud whisper behind his back.

"Either he went to see Lin, or he finally beat my dad at mahjong."

Monkey whispered back, "Well, everyone knows Master Shifu sucks at mahjong, so-"

"Enough!" he snapped over his shoulder. "And return to the kwoon before I decide your next exercise for you!" He continued on to the bath house while his students disbanded like a group of guilty children. He didn't like that Tai Lung's presence had already had such an influence on them, though mostly he didn't like that Tai Lung had become the kind of person to negatively influence his other students. He would need to speak to all of them about the matter, but in due time. First he needed to figure out what, exactly, to do about Lin.

He washed himself off and changed into fresh clothing, then headed to the Hall of Warriors to meditate in front of the Moon Pool as his master had once done. Well, he wouldn't be properly meditating. He simply needed a quiet place to think. As he sat, resting Oogway's staff gently across his lap, he felt a wave of resentment toward Lin come over him. He was supposed to be focusing his time and energy on Tai Lung, and here she was distracting him. She'd been nothing but a distraction from the moment he'd met her. Maybe he should be grateful that she'd run off to Mr. Ping's. He rubbed at his forehead, frowning to himself at that thought. He shouldn't think such a thing, no matter how obtusely Lin chose to behave. He loved her.

Shifu frowned to himself. Lin had said she was leaving him, and she'd seemed serious. He'd never seen her so apathetic toward him. Sure, she'd thrown soup in his face, but only after he'd pushed her. And she'd done worse to him before. What her curt tone had conveyed most to him was that she'd found him to be an annoyance. He'd been angry, and he'd spoken to her harshly, true, but he'd thought she wanted him to come and get her. He'd thought she'd put up a fight for show, but she'd go with him and they'd make up like they always had. He'd even stayed away a few days in the hopes that she'd calm down, or at least that he would calm down. It appeared that hadn't happened on either side, yet.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps, and he stood to face his visitor. "Hello, Gia," he greeted hesitantly. It had been some time since he'd seen her, though she looked no less upset now than she had the night she'd met her mother.

"My mother is gone. Yes?" It was unlike her to eschew a formal greeting, though it was probably due to the stress of her ordeal.

"Yes," Shifu confirmed hesitantly, then took out his handkerchief and offered it to her.

Although her eyes were already watery, she snatched the handkerchief from his hand and threw it, though the force of her throw was diminished by the cloth's slow descent to the ground. "You interfered!" Gia accused, her face now red and blotchy. "You did not listen to my request! E l'hai spinta via! Come ti permetti?"

"Gia, I was only trying to help you," he attempted to reason with her, but she whirled around and stomped away.

"Non sono cose che ti riguardano, quindi lasciami in pace!" she screamed, then slammed one of the Jade Palace's massive doors behind her. It would have been an impressive feat of strength, if not for the fact that she'd been berating him.

At least, he was fairly sure she'd berated him. He had no idea what she'd actually said, but it seemed likely. Slowly, he sat back down in front of the Moon Pool. He'd thought that Gia would have appreciated his effort to stand up for her. After all, he'd taken her in off the street and had clearly shown her more kindness than Lin ever had. He'd thought a lot of things, lately, that had turned out to be painfully incorrect. It was all connected to Lin, of course. Sometimes he thought she wouldn't be satisfied until she'd driven him to madness.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose in an attempt to calm himself. He wished this could all be over. He wanted nothing more than to skip forward in time, to when he and Lin had made up, when Tai Lung had mended his ways and he could finally know some semblance of peace. Forcing Tai Lung to teach seemed to him like the correct path to take, though he could only hope it would work. Master Oogway had tamed Shifu's young ego with the same technique, which had led to his lifetime vocation. Teaching others would lead Tai Lung down a better path than whatever Lin had been teaching him, that much was certain. There were times when he seemed less disciplined and more obstinate than he'd been before his time with Lin. Shifu wondered if he would ever know the truth of what she had taught the snow leopard in their time together, or why.

One thing he did know was that he wasn't going to let Lin's irresponsibility derail his efforts with Tai Lung, no matter how much of his time or effort she diverted. Surely she couldn't stay angry with him forever, though. In due time, Lin would realize how unreasonably she was behaving and return to the Jade Palace. After all, why in the world would she want to run off to Mr. Ping's noodle restaurant to chop vegetables and wait tables? What kind of job was that for her to take, at her age? She was behaving like a child. He would wait her out, until she tired of her tantrum. Then he would bring her home with him, where she belonged.

---

Lin woke one night from a dreamless sleep and pushed herself out of the droopy cot and onto the floor, the dull headache and dry throat of a hangover already forming. She sat on the floor cradling her head a while, and though she didn't have anything in particular on her mind, her grief overtook her once more and she cried until she retched into her chamber pot. When she was done, she washed the sickly taste out of her mouth with the meager remains left in one of the bottles of wine she'd bought herself, then changed into a clean set of clothes. She hadn't made any plans, but she moved now with purpose, taken over by instinct. Maybe this feeling was what had woken her.

She packed what little she had and counted the money she'd made in her short time at Mr. Ping's. She didn't know where she would go. If she returned to Shanghai, Chen would surely be waiting for her with an agitated "I told you so." Yan-Yan, too, though she would smile and hug her along with it. And Wei-Shan might still be in town. Maybe she should just go back up to the mountains with him, like he'd asked. It would be a nice way to spend her remaining years. Although, it had been a long time since she'd been to sea. And she'd never had the chance to sail the Pacific. If she was going to leave, she might as well go someplace and see something she never had before.

She stopped thinking of the possibilities. There were so many, it almost felt suffocating. She would get on the road, and go wherever it was that her heart took her. It might not always be right, but it always led her down an interesting path. On her way out of the restaurant, she paused to leave a note for Mr. Ping on the serving counter. Nothing special, really, just a thanks for how he'd helped her and a quick goodbye. She walked away, then, and didn't look back. That was her rule. Looking back weakened her resolve, and so she refused to do it.

The village was eerily quiet at night. At least, it seemed eerie to her now that she'd gotten used to Shanghai. Nobody else walked out on the darkened street, and few lanterns remained lit in the windows above her. She jumped a little, once, when a baby's cry pierced the heavy silence, then snorted to herself. Even if she could get away from Gia, even once Gia became as old and wrinkled as she was, the girl would still haunt her. Her memories were specters that reared their heads from the shadows and clawed at her with gaping, ravenous mouths. There would never be anything that could satisfy them. She could only keep running.

She paused at the top of the bluff outside the village, staring out into the darkness ahead of her. She wanted nothing more than to leave, but she couldn't bring herself to go on. Against her better judgment, she turned to look out at the Valley, the night sky filled with stars she'd never been able to see in the city. The Jade Palace and the village below were just visible in their light, and the light of the bright white moon. It was the clearest night she'd seen in weeks.

She remembered her first journey, when she had left the lemon orchard. The stars had been out on that final day, because she had always risen early. Marco had told her to give herself enough time to pack her things, but it hadn't been a long or a difficult task, since she hadn't owned much. She had packed her one spare dress, along with what few effects had any meaning to her still. From Gia, she'd packed the brush her sister had once used to brush her fur on those noisy, crowded evenings when she hadn't been alone. Her grandmother hadn't left her anything but bits of her wisdom, so she had packed one of the dull old kitchen knives her grandmother had liked to use best. She had always told Lin that when one traveled, a weapon was a necessary precaution.

Lastly, she had packed a gift from Vino, the printmaker in town and the closest thing to a teacher she'd had at the time. When he'd heard she was leaving for faraway places, he'd handed her a slim booklet of papers he had sewn together and carefully wrapped in waxed cloth, telling her to draw all the interesting things she would see so as never to forget them. Vino had been a middle-aged man, and so he didn't understand that to a young girl who had lost as much as she had, it would have been more comforting to hear someone say, "I don't want you to go." But Vino had never quite understood things like that, which explained why he never seemed to have any company besides her.

She had packed her things and eaten breakfast with Marco and her parents that early morning. Her parents had only eaten with them because they had always woken up early, not because they would miss her. There had been no conversations between them, no goodbyes. She had followed Marco to the village, where he had docked his ship, and as the orchard had faded into the distance she had stopped once to look back. There had been no one watching her, no one missing her. Not her parents, not her brothers. And so she'd left the only home she had ever known, and she hadn't felt sad to leave it behind.

She remembered a lot more than that, too, but she didn't focus on it so much. She thought back instead on when she'd first left Shanghai. She'd washed up on the shore of Shangba, and she'd coughed up so much sea water that it had felt like it was shredding up her throat and taking it along. Tears had run from her eyes, then, but she hadn't counted it as crying. Not really. When she'd finished, she'd wiped her face with her sleeve, even though it was soaking wet and covered in rough grains of sand which clung to her fur. Then she'd laid back down on the beach and closed her eyes. She'd been so tired, then. It hadn't seemed real to her, that her whole life had been torn from her again. This time, though, it had been a life she'd wanted, no matter how imperfect. She'd clasped her hands together tightly between her knees and prayed to her grandmother's spirit, even though she hadn't really believed her nonna would hear her.

It was interesting to her, how she could remember so many things in a single instant, and then leave them all behind in the next. It was like that when she created art. She knew everything, her process and the finished piece she wanted, in only a moment. Instinctually, almost. And yet to create it, to bring it to life, those ideas needed to rise to the surface of her mind, worked over and over like Ping's noodle dough. By the time it existed on paper or canvas or a wall, that first magical moment of its existence had faded away, and it had become a different thing entirely. Well, maybe the moment hadn't faded, since she thought each moment in time and in thought remained in existence infinitely, but she could never make her way back to it.

The Valley of Peace was like that, now. It had been suspended in time to her, forever existing in that one summer of her youth. Then she had tried to return to that moment, and worked it over and over until it had become completely different and unrecognizable to her. Her relationship with Shifu had gone that way, too. It seemed like the harder she tried, the worse things turned out for her. She wondered if Oogway would have had something Zen to say about that, if he were still appearing to her. Probably.

With a long sigh, she carefully made her way back down the steep hill and toward the village again. This was what happened when she looked back at a place. She thought and thought about it forever, and in the end she didn't want to leave. But her thoughts had made her wonder if maybe the Valley would continue to change, if maybe the next day it would be different than today, and so on. Or maybe it would just be her. She was always different from one day to the next, one moment to the next, but nobody else seemed to keep up with her. It was one of the things about her that drove people away. Nobody liked a person who was always changing, because then that person required attention, and paying attention to people rather than drawing a conclusion about them that could be relied upon forever was bothersome. That was what she figured, anyway.

But if she were thinking in Zen Buddhist terms, which she was since she'd been musing about Oogway, then different and the same were the same as each other. Different, same, same thing. That was what Oogway would tell her. And then he'd give her that toothless smile that quivered on his face, because even in her visions he quivered like very old people tended to do. She knew Zen Buddhism pretty well, because of Chen. Sure, Chen could never actually be Zen, but even among monks it was rare to find someone who was. It wasn't like she could point to herself as an example, though. She'd always been too frantic and impatient for Zen anything, except Zen painting. Zen painting was the closest one could ever get to capturing the moment of a piece of art as it first appeared in the mind, because it encouraged the artist to waste no time planning or worrying about mistakes. One stroke could be a mountain, a plum, a tree, the entire landscape. That was true Zen, or at least the only way she'd ever been able to practice it.

She stopped outside Ping's restaurant in the dim light of pre-dawn, blinking as she realized she'd returned without really noticing her surroundings. It had been a while since she'd gotten lost in thought like that, rather than feeling sorry for herself. She wondered if that could be considered Zen, too, though probably not.

"That was a short trip." Ping was standing at the counter when she entered, her note clutched in his feathers.

"Oh, yeah. That." She should have known better than to leave a note behind. "Changed my mind."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're not going to change your mind again, are you?"

"If you're gonna fire me, go on and do it."

"You'd deserve it." He paused to consider her, glancing down a few times at the note. "But you bring in a lot more tips than Po does." With that, he grabbed an apron from under the counter and tossed it at her. "So how did you change your mind?" he asked, which caught her off-guard, since he rarely asked questions.

She didn't mind answering this one, though. "I'm not the same person from one moment to the next," she replied. "Well, I am the same, but not the same. Anyway, the decision to leave was the decision made by the me of that moment. And the decision to stay was the decision made by the me of that moment."

"And the you of this moment-"

"Is already in the past by the time you ask your question," she finished for him.

He snorted in laughter at her statement. "So intellectual. Sounds like something a monk would say." He said it the way any working class person would, a bit dismissively but with no real malice. People who worked day to day didn't have the time for such musings, or any use for them, even those who practiced a religion.

Lin understood that life, and had lived that life more often than not. But she also understood philosophical thinking, even if she had no real use for it. Still, Ping had given her an answer to one of her many problems without even meaning to. Oogway, above all else, had been a monk. Nobody have ever called him that, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. Maybe to get back to her visions, she needed to think more spiritually. Or maybe more philosophically. She should probably just try to be a little more Zen, whatever the state of being Zen was. She'd gotten to a point where she could seriously meditate every day, but when she'd decided to go to Shanghai and help Tai Lung, she hadn't thought much about it. She'd put aside the parts of herself that took up her time and energy in order to focus on someone else, even though she'd vowed to stop doing things like that. Now it was time to take herself off the back burner.

She might have expressed all this to Ping, but she didn't think it would make sense to anyone besides herself. "The me of a past moment," she repeated to herself as she thought back on her visions. "Y'know, some Japanese Zen Buddhist once said there were sixty-five moments in the snap of a finger."

"I don't measure time in snaps," Ping replied matter-of-factly as he got to work on his noodle dough for the day. "I measure it in noodles."

"Now who sounds like a monk?" she teased, then put on her apron and started work, too. There were plenty of vegetables for her to prep, and in the snap of a finger it would be time for the restaurant to open.

---

The days passed by in a slow trickle, and Lin settled into life at Mr. Ping's noodle restaurant. She didn't have much of a social life yet, not that she'd had much of one for the past few months. Shifu visited the restaurant, but she'd been too busy ignoring him to have another conversation. She focused on her work when she was working, and at night she drank until she either fell asleep or started crying. In the case of the latter, she just cried herself to sleep, anyway. It wasn't ideal, but it was a routine, and it was all she could do for herself for the time being. She spent a lot of her downtime thinking about the Buddhist principle of one is all and all is one, but it didn't help much with her messy personal life. She was still heartbroken, the child she'd never wanted to see again was still in town, and she still needed a more permanent place to live than Po's old bedroom.

Lin stifled a yawn as she puttered around the restaurant after closing, bussing the last of the leftover dishes from the tables. Then she began the long task of washing the dishes. She could have sworn she'd had a winning hand in that mahjong match against Ping. She'd get him next time, for sure, and then he'd be the one stuck with the dishes. Not that he wasn't working at all. He'd walked home with Mrs. Hua, the grocer, in an attempt to negotiate a lower rate on the produce deliveries. He had a goofy type of charm that appealed to Mrs. Hua, so he was best suited to the task. Besides, Lin liked closing the restaurant on her own. She could hear the neighbors gossiping in the distance, their indistinct words occasionally truncated by a sharp bit of laughter, and the air still smelled of broth. Sometimes, when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the wash basin, she envisioned her grandmother standing there.

She had always washed dishes in slow, deliberate circles while her pipe smoke had filled the kitchen. Her eyes had looked into a faraway place that no one else could see, and she hadn't taken kindly to being disturbed. Lin wondered if her nonna had ever thought of the same things she did, like memories as infinite moments and the nature of the universe.

Approaching footsteps brought her back to reality, and she could tell immediately it wasn't Ping's webbed gait. "We're closed," she called out without even looking up, but paused in her dishwashing at the voice that replied to her.

"That is fine. I am not here to eat."

Lin tossed her dish rag into the wash basin and turned around to glare at the girl, only slightly satisfied to see her shrink under the cold gaze. "Then get on outta here," she ordered.

To her credit, Gia didn't leave. "I wanted to speak to you again, Mother."

"Don't friggin' call me that." She could feel her fur bristling at the term. "Do I look like anyone's mother to you?"

"No," Gia admitted, then went so far as to take a seat at the table nearest to the kitchen. "But what do I call you?"

"Call me what everyone else does," she grumbled as she realized she wouldn't be getting rid of the young wolf anytime soon. "Just call me Lin."

"I could never," she insisted, sounding scandalized at the idea. "It would not be respectful."

"Hah," Lin scoffed at the suggestion that she owed her any respect, then left the kitchen to join her at the table. "Then add a 'Master' to it ifya really wanna."

"I could do that."

She eyed Gia for a moment before sitting down next to her. It was strange to notice the features Gia had inherited from her, in particular her big brown eyes- though the girl looked more like her father. Thankfully, she didn't have a reaction like she had the first time she'd seen the girl. She still felt on edge, and had a cold, sinking feeling in her stomach. But she could at least concentrate on the present. "What'd you wanna talk to me for, anyway?"

"I have so many questions."

"Great," Lin huffed as she realized what she was in for. "You think coming here and finding me's gonna answer all your questions? You think I'm gonna giveya some magic bandage on your life that'll tie up all your loose ends and tellya exactly who you are? Is that it?"

Gia was silent for a moment, an annoyed frown on her face. "Well, I did not think it would work quite like that."

"First Tai Lung and now you," she grumbled, crossing her arms. "How many times am I gonna hafta give the 'your inner self has nothing to do with whoever's mistake you are' speech?"

Gia stared at her, her mouth hanging open a moment, and Lin had no idea what her problem was until she choked out, "I was a mistake?"

"And now this," she huffed, throwing her hands up in her frustration. She should have never left a letter for the girl, should have never mentioned anything about Shifu or the Valley of Peace to anyone. Of course, at the time she'd never expected to actually return to the valley, but she should have known better.

"I am a mistake!"

"Well, yeah," Lin confirmed, annoyed by the genuine surprise in the exclamation. "That's kinda why I gaveya up. Isn't it obvious?"

"I thought- I just- you-" she sputtered before falling silent and pursing her lips, clearly upset.

"Never assume," Lin advised. "You'll always end up disappointed."

"How could you?"

"Whaddaya mean how could I?" she snapped. "If I got knocked up on purpose, then it wouldn'ta been a mistake! Maybe you should spend less time getting pissy about me leaving you in a home where you were safe and loved, and more time being grateful I didn't abort your whiny, self-righteous ass!"

"You are a heartless, evil woman!" Gia accused shrilly. "Perhaps you are the one who should stop getting piss on me!"

Lin couldn't help but snort at the mistake the girl had made with her wording.

"Do not laugh at me!" She slammed her fist down on the table and shot to her feet. "It is not funny!"

She had to admit, she would have never expected such a downright aggressive display from the naive girl, even with the most aggravating provocation. She eyed Gia critically, crossing her arms in a clear refusal to back down; although she hated to admit it, she was impressed. "Sit your ass back down," she ordered.

Disappointingly enough, Gia obeyed her.

"Y'know, I never expected to seeya again," Lin admitted. "When I left... I thought that was it. So tell me, why'd you come all the way here?"

"I wanted to meet my family," she replied, her perpetually sweet tone somewhat embittered. "I want to start a family of my own, and I had hoped to find out where I come from. I had hoped to find my parents, and perhaps have them involved in the lives of my own children, as they never were with me. But all I found was you, a hateful shrew of a woman, and I still do not know who my father is."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Lin sighed, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the girl for the first time since meeting her. "You might not believe it, but I get where you're coming from. My parents were a coupla bitter assholes who hated kids, and me especially. So in a way, you really did get to find out where you come from. Why you'd ever leave Anna behind, I got no clue." Even though she hadn't planned on ever seeing the baby again, she'd still had her doubts about leaving her child in the care of a religious establishment. However, after knowing Anna, a woman who had never once judged her, she'd known the right thing to do. "She's your real mother. Not me."

"She is also dead," Gia informed her, though she should have seen it coming; most people didn't live long lives, especially in a place as unforgiving as the mountains. "She died just before I would have taken my vows. After that, I left the mountain. I traveled for many years, and learned many things, but all I wanted to do was meet my family. You took that away from me, when you lied about who and where my family is."

"I never lied about a damn thing," Lin argued, and she'd continue the argument to her grave if need be. "I never said anyone here was related to you. B'sides, family isn't about blood, it's about love. You should be old enough to understand that by now."

"Perhaps I would, if you had been around to teach me." That had been a pretty good insult, but it would take a lot more to get to her.

"I stand by my decision to giveya away," she replied firmly. "You said yourself I'm a mean, heartless woman. Y'think I woulda treated you any different if I'd raised you?" The question was met with silence, and she could tell from the frown on Gia's face that she believed its implication. "I can't say that I ever lovedya, to be honest. I knew you'd never really be my kid, so I guess I never bonded. But I did what I thought would be best for you. And I'll never apologize for that."

Tears had formed in the young girl's eyes as she listened to the short speech, and she shook her head as she reached up to wipe them away. "You did not want me?" she asked quietly.

"No," Lin admitted, as difficult as it was to tell someone something so harsh. "I didn't." It was the truth, though, and she couldn't lie to a person who'd traveled so far just for answers. "It has nothing to do with you, though. You can't think that. I never wanted kids of my own to begin with, and that's why I knew you'd have a better life if I gaveya up. Even if I'd made a bunch of money and settled down in a picturesque cottage in the woods, I knew you woulda been better off elsewhere. I was raised by people who never wanted children, and I know what it's like. I know what it does to a person, growing up convinced that you're completely worthless and unwanted, and I didn't wanna do that to you. I leftya with a person who loved you, more'n anything else in the world, 'cause that's what's important. Maybe I didn't wantya, but I at least cared enough to want a good life forya."

As silent tears continued to pour down her face, Gia suddenly lunged forward to wrap her arms around Lin.

"Ah, shit," she cursed, though it was muffled, what with her face squished into the girl's shoulder. "Leggo of me, already!"

Thankfully, Gia released her and sat back down with a loud sniff. "I want to know you," she insisted. "Perhaps you would have been horrible at raising me, but I am grown now. All I want is for you to give me a chance."

She had to admit, it was hard to look into those watery puppy dog eyes and tell the kid no; as harsh as she could be, she'd always felt a compulsion to try to help people, especially when they had nowhere else to turn. And if the best way she could help someone was by getting to know them, it didn't seem like too much to ask. "Okay, but promise me we'll take it slow."

"I promise," the wolf agreed, a tentative smile spreading across her face. "Whatever will make you comfortable, I will do it."

"Don't be a pushover, either," Lin ordered. "If I pissya off, you go ahead and scream at me likeya just did earlier. I don't wantya thinking that you need to walk on eggshells around me just to keep me around; I'm not that kinda person. Okay?"

"Okay," she agreed. "And what about my father?"

That was a tricky subject to broach. "He ain't around," she settled on, just to see what kind of questions the girl would ask.

"Why not? Is he dead?"

"I wouldn't know," she answered, and it was technically the truth. "I left before I even knew I was pregnant. He's about my age, and he didn't exactly live the healthiest lifestyle- had a lotta enemies, too. So don't get your hopes up."

"Why did you leave him?" Gia pressed, leaning forward in her eagerness.

Lin wasn't sure if she was ready to tell the whole truth yet, though, nor was she sure if Gia was ready to hear the truth. "It's kinda a long story," she sighed. "And to be honest, I think you should get to know me a little bit better before I tellya the whole thing. For now, let's just say that things didn't work out and leave it at that."

Gia didn't look too happy about the answer, but she accepted it anyway. "Very well."

"Got any more questions for me?" she asked, since she knew the girl would definitely have several hours' worth of them, and wanted to get some out of the way.

Gia stared at the table, her brow furrowed in thought, then tremulously asked, "Why do you hate me?"

"Ah jeez," she grumbled, rubbing at her temple; the girl was relentless. "I don't hateya."

"You were angry that I came here."

Lin hesitated; she didn't know how to answer Gia. She debated on how much of the truth she should tell. She knew she hadn't reacted well to Gia's presence in the Valley of Peace, and part of her felt bad for it. At the same time, she couldn't lie and say that seeing her estranged daughter for the first time in twenty-five years had been a pleasant experience. "There's a lotta reasons for that," she finally admitted. "I always thoughta you as a part of my past, long gone. And I hated being pregnant. Being pregnant and giving birth were up there on the scale of most horrible things that ever happened to me... So I guess I don't have a lotta good associations."

Gia started tearing up, of course. "That is a terrible thing to say!"

"Breast feeding was awful, too. I always found it really painful and exhausting- painful on the nipples, plus it makesya cramp like crazy after birth- the nuns used to force me to do it, and I'd cry the whole time."

"Stop it!"

"Well, you asked," she snapped. "Don't ask me for the truth and then yell at me for telling it."

"It is just difficult to hear," Gia replied tremulously, wiping at her eyes. "I know you endured a lot of pain for me, but hearing it from you is different."

"It's best ifya hear it from me," Lin said. "'Cause I got no reason to lie about it. B'sides, maybe ifya know how bad I was withya you'll understand why it was best that I left. I mean, it was a trial for anyone to try to get me to feedya and cleanya up. I was sick for a long time after giving birth and in pain for a long time, too. I... Never had a very good temper, and even though you were just a baby and I knew it wouldn't help, I still screamed atya a lot. And I never tended to you when you cried, even if you were sick. Which you were a lot, so you cried a lot. B'sides, parents are supposed to take care of their children, and while we're being brutally honest there were a lotta times when I couldn't even take care of myself. That list long enough forya?"

Gia sniffed loudly. "I was always told that you loved me very much and did not want to leave me."

"I know." Lin sighed at the shocked expression on the girl's face. "The lie was my idea in the first place. You were a kid, you didn't need to knowya had a shitty mom. What good could it've ever doneya to know that rejection was the first thingya had a chance to experience in the world?"

She remained silent at the response.

"I'm telling you the truth now 'cause you're old enough to hear it, and 'cause you clearly wanna know. So there it is. Maybe I didn't do all the right things, but I stand by my decisions. I did my best. It seemed to me, at least at the time, that you'd be alright."

"I was," she admitted. "I... I never wanted for much growing up, that is true. But I thought about you, and my father, and my family... All the time. I always wanted to meet you, until now. Now I wonder if it would have been better to never know all of this."

"Maybe. But you said it yourself, you're grown now, andya want me in your life. This stuff's part of the package, like it or not."

"Then perhaps it was a bad idea to meet you," she replied, then immediately teared up. "But I cannot say that," she sniffed. "You are my mother, I should not say that. I could not ever say it would be better not to know you."

"You just did," Lin pointed out, mostly because she was getting a little irritated.

Gia sniffed again.

"You wanna be babied, go running back to Shifu," she dismissed. "I ain't got time to coddle anyone, least of all a grown woman."

"It is just a lot," she said with one last sniff. "Coming here, meeting you, not knowing what my future will hold... It is not wrong to feel overwhelmed."

"I guess." Now she felt bad again for losing her temper with the kid. And it wasn't like she hadn't cried over the whole situation herself already. "I still ain't gonna coddleya every time you go crying like that. But, uh... Here." She pulled her relatively clean dish towel out from her belt and tossed it to Gia, who immediately started wiping up tears and blowing her nose.

"At least you stayed with me a whole year."

"Uh, about that..." Lin wasn't sure if it was right to break so much bad news to her at once, but she had resolved to tell the truth. "I didn't stick around that convent that long just 'cause of you."

Gia blinked down at her, a confused frown on her face. "W-what do you mean?"

"Look, I normally wouldn't say anything, but I don't wantya going around thinking I was some nurturing mother who didn't wanna leaveya. It's not the truth, and I don't wanna mislead you. Sister Anna mostly took care ofya. And I stayed... Mostly for her."

Gia started turning red and looked away from her. "You- You mean-"

"We got real close real fast," Lin said. "She was my best friend, back then, and I guess I wasn't ready to give that up and be alone again."

"Ah, yes," she sputtered out, turning her back to Lin with a nervous laugh.

"...Okay." Lin crossed her arms, eyeing the girl. "We done here? 'Cause I got a lotta cleaning to do still."

"I suppose I should let you go back to work," Gia accepted with a nod, then turned her watery eyes back on Lin. "I wish we could talk more. I... I would like this to last longer. Perhaps we could talk more some other time?"

"I guess we'd hafta," Lin said, then grabbed another dish towel from her belt and started wiping down the table. She hadn't been lying, about needing to clean. "If we wanna do this whole, y'know, thing." She scrubbed at the table, even though she knew it was totally unnecessary. "So, I dunno. This's kinda a shitty time for me. Overall. But come visit me during a shift or something when I'm less exhausted and, uh... We'll take it from there, I guess."

"I guess," Gia repeated thoughtfully. "So, you only guess. You do not know."

Lin snorted. "I guess not."

"Ah, I see. You are being that word Master Shifu taught me. Snotty." She seemed to realize immediately what she'd said, and started to blush.

She wasn't surprised, but she also didn't want to talk about Shifu at the moment. "Yeah, you could say that. I prefer smart-ass, though. Now go home."

"Okay." She stood there and stared at Lin, watching her wipe tables down.

"You can't go home if you're watching me wipe tables."

"Ah, yes. Goodnight." She still didn't move, though.

"Okay," Lin sighed, then threw her dish rag at Gia, pleased to see her catch it. "Finish wiping the tables, I got dishes to get to."

"Yes! Of course!" She practically dove onto the nearest table with the rag.

"And no talking," Lin added, since she didn't want to answer a million and one questions while working. She wasn't sure how well it would work, but she was prepared to yell if need be. She was surprised, though, at the girl's ability to stay quiet as they cleaned up for the night. Once everything was done, she counted out a few coins from her half of the tips and handed them over. "Here, you earned 'em."

Gia tried to refuse the yuan. "No, I could not-"

"Stop it, now," Lin interrupted, then shoved the money into her hands. "If I get paid for this shit, then you get a cut for helping. End of story."

"Yes, ma'am," she accepted quietly.

"Get on home, now," Lin ordered. "I need my sleep."

"Yes, ma'am," she repeated, then after a moment's hesitation, bowed. "Goodnight."

Lin sighed at the sight. "Stand up. You don't gotta bow to me. You don't even gotta be polite to me. Okay?"

"Okay," Gia replied with a nod.

"'Night, then." Lin turned around and walked upstairs, not bothering to look over her shoulder to see if the kid had left yet. At this point, she was so tired that she wouldn't care if the girl spent all night down in the restaurant, so long as she was quiet. She probably wouldn't get much sleep, but maybe if she measured it in moments it would seem like plenty.

---

A/N: Let me start off here with references: "Really? The panda?" is of course the line from the first KFP movie (still my favorite one). The goat from the apothecary is a shout out to Nievelion's Ning Guo from his fic A Different Lesson, and some of you may remember he showed up earlier in the fic, too. The Zen master Lin mentions is a real historical figure, Zen Master Dōgen, who lived in 13th century Japan. I was also influence by the book A Tale for the Time Being, hence how I even know about Dōgen. Finally, some translations for Gia's Italian in case anyone wants them:

Non sai quanto significhi per me. - You don't know how much you mean to me.

E l'hai spinta via! - And you drove her away!

Come ti permetti? - How dare you?

Non sono cose che ti riguardano, quindi lasciami in pace! - It has nothing to do with you, so just leave me alone!

The author's note hasn't been this long in a while! Anyway, I'll end it like I always do, by thanking everyone for reading and reviewing. I hope to bring you another update soon!