Year of the Tiger
By corset-rebellion-follower
Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 36- Recollections
"WHY DIDN'T YOU EVER TELL ME THAT YOU WERE AT MY PARENTS' WEDDING?" Tigress yelled.
Shifu calmly sipped at his cup of tea. "The topic was never brought up." Her jaw almost hit the floor.
"The topic was never brought up? That's your excuse? What kind of answer is that?!?"
"Look, it doesn't matter, okay? The point is, we know now, so we should make the best of it," Clover said. She walked over to face Master Shifu and cleared her throat. "Master Shifu…" She picked him up by the front of his tunic and squashed their noses together. "Spill the beans or I'll punt you all the way to Shanghai, Shorty."
"Clover!" Tigress scolded.
He chuckled. "It's alright. You both have the right to know. And I especially owe it to Clover since I am her godfather." Clover suddenly dropped him, her face paling considerably.
"… You're… you're her godfather?" Tigress asked.
He nodded. "Master Oogway was yours. We met your mother and father not too long after they first arrived. We were in the village, shopping for groceries. At the time I thought it was pointless because the Palace workers usually do the shopping for us, but Master Oogway insisted that we go out and enjoy the day. He said he had a feeling that something good was going to happen, and I didn't question it. We had just started towards one of the stalls when someone actually tripped over me. I was going to ask where their manners were, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise once your mother started talking."
"Oh, goodness, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, propping herself up on her paws, "I'm a complete klutz." In no less than a second, your father was there, helping her up.
"Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"
"I'm fine, Shan."
Master Oogway smiled at them. "Well, isn't this a surprise? Two young tigers. We haven't had tigers in this valley for quite some time."
Mingxia smiled brightly. "We just moved here. I'm Mingxia, and this is Shan, my fiancé."
"I am Oogway, and this is my student, Shifu."
Her eyes suddenly doubled in size, and she bowed, lightly kicking Shan to do the same. "Forgive me! I didn't recognize you. And I'm very sorry for tripping over you, Master Shifu. I'm not as graceful as I could be." Shifu merely grunted and waved it off.
"Congratulations on your betrothal. Love can be one of the most enjoyable adventures of all," Oogway observed.
"More or less," Shan noted. Mingxia stuck his tongue out at him.
"Do you have somewhere to stay? You would be more than welcome to take lodging at the Jade Palace," Oogway offered.
"Thank you, but we have a room rented temporarily. I'm going to build a house once I get enough money to start construction," Shan explained.
Oogway smiled. "A carpenter? Well, I might just have to have you come work for me. I've been meaning to build some new additions to the Jade Palace."
"Maybe I will."
"Probably about a week after that, Master Oogway gave your father his first job in the Valley. And now that I think about it, he was the one who built most of the dormitories where you sleep," Master Shifu told.
"Forget about that, what about the wedding? What was our mother wearing, where did it happen? Are you going to give us the good stuff, or what?" Clover asked.
He chuckled. "You didn't have much patience when you were born, either."
"I can't believe that Mama tripped over you," Tigress muttered, a light blush gracing her cheeks.
"Are you kidding? Where do you think I get my clumsiness from?" Clover asked.
"First impressions aside, after the first meeting your parents spent a lot of time here. Your mother always went to have tea with Master Oogway ever Sunday at two, and Shan was always working on one project or another. And to answer one of your questions, they had the wedding here," Shifu said.
Tigress' face brightened. "Really? What did it look like? What kind of flowers did my mother have? I know her favorites are daffodils, but she might not have wanted to use them in a wedding…"
"It was a very simple ceremony. But it was at night. Your mother insisted on getting married under the stars. And your father didn't really care one way or the other, as long as they were married. He was completely devoted to her."
Tigress paused. "But… Mama said they weren't in love when they first got married."
"She might not have been, I wouldn't know how to decode what goes on in your mother's head, but I know Shan was. He and I were close friends, and he took out all his pre-wedding fears on me."
The red panda watched his friend pace back and forth, muttering to himself. "You know, if you keep going on like that, you'll break out in a rash," Shifu warned.
"What a blessing that would be. I can't marry Mingxia, what the hell was I thinking?" Shan asked, running a paw through the fur on his head.
"Why can't you? She was the one who introduced you to us as your fiancé. I'm very sure that she wants to marry you."
"Shifu, you don't understand. Mingxia is a lady. She's classy, and smart, and beautiful. I am the son of a poor carpenter. She was born into silk gowns, manners, fancy food and all that. How am I ever going to be good enough? It's probably payback—it's my fault we had to run away in the first place. If I could have only controlled myself…"
"A man has little control over those feelings. Besides, would she have gone halfway across China with you if she didn't care for you?"
"She came here and agreed to marry me because she had to. It was either this or suicide, and there was no way that Mingxia would ever have the guts to kill herself. What could she possibly see in me? What could I possibly have to offer her, except a roof over her head?" Shan asked.
"Love, affection, protection, friendship," he listed.
"That amounts to nothing in the real world, Shifu. How am I supposed to support her on my salary? I barely make enough to pay rent. If Master Oogway weren't so charitable, we would have starved by now. What kind of life is that for her, having to live in poverty?"
"Shan, listen to me, she loves you. She wants to get married, and in a few minutes she's going to walk up to you and pledge her life to you, so either tell her that the wedding is off or be a man and say 'I do'," Shifu said.
Shan shook his head. "You don't get it! Mingxia is… amazing, beautiful, lovely, witty, smarter than I am, funny, resourceful, warm, loving, and completely sexy and gorgeous. And I'm just me! How could I ever make her happy? And tonight… tonight is our wedding night! And we haven't… done anything together like that since our first time! How am I supposed to know what to do then when I don't have half a clue as to what's going on now?" Shifu smirked.
"Trust me Shan, if she wants anything from you, she'll make it known. And even if she doesn't love you, which I doubt, if you tell her everything you just told me, about her being so wonderful, she'll start to love you. Or at the least think you're sweet. So go out there and make her your wife."
"But she deserves better than me!"
Shifu sighed and shook his head. "Fine. Let her go. Leave her to go out and find a new man, someone she'll be happy with. But will you be able to live with the fact that another man may be holding her tightly against his chest, kissing her passionately, and having children with her, when you came so close to having her?" he asked.
Shan growled and curled his paws into fists. "I'd kill any man who comes near her."
"Good. Now go marry her."
"I will, goddamnit!"
"You know, it's kind of ironic that after all that, Dad was the one who moved out," Clover noted.
Shifu nodded gravely. "I'm surprised as well. Mingxia looked like the picture of a blushing bride. And he couldn't take his eyes off her the entire time. Of course, neither could the rest of the single men in the village. But your father was almost always at her side, so they all kept their distance. You may get your short fuse from your mother, but you definitely get your undying rage from your father," he explained. He sighed. "But of course, there's always one idiot."
"What do you mean? Mom… Mom didn't have an affair, did she?" Clover asked.
"No, of course not. Your mother is an honest woman. But there was one young man who just had his heart set on your mother. He knew that she and your father were married, but that didn't stop him from trying to win her heart. He would send her flowers, gifts, anything that he thought would impress her."
"Jerkwad. I hate guys like that, who think that they are so amazing that they can get any woman they want," Clover spat.
"Well, he kept pursuing her, and for quite a while your mother kept it a secret from your father. She didn't want him to fly into a rage and kill the man for thinking of her in such a way. So she just tried to ignore his advances. But one day, after she finished having tea with Master Oogway, he cornered her in the courtyard and proclaimed his undying love for her. He begged her to leave Shan and be his wife, and he promised to take care of her in a way that Shan couldn't. He said he would give her whatever her heart desired. But she refused him."
"Good! He deserved to have his heart stomped on!" Clover exclaimed.
"However," Master Shifu continued, looking pointedly at his goddaughter, "It turns out that your father stumbled upon some of the letters that her suitor had sent her while she was gone, and when she arrived home, he starting raging at her and accused her of cheating on him and planning to leave him for another man. She denied it, and told him that the young man wouldn't leave her alone. And since his mind was still clouded over from feeling betrayed and angry, he tracked down the man and they nearly killed each other in a fight. If Mingxia hadn't begged Shan to stop and promised that she would never do such a thing, I have no doubt in my mind that Shan would have killed him."
"You know what, Dad should have! What kind of sick creep goes up to a married woman and asks her to leave her husband for him?" Clover asked.
Shifu smirked. "You need to let me finish. You see, this particular young man recognized your mother as a lady of high birth. He knew she had married beneath her. He even tried to use this as an argument to try and win her over. He was an up-and-coming business man who is now very prosperous. In fact, Clover, I think you may have met him."
"What? I don't associate with jerks like him," she insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.
He chuckled. "You already are associated with him. You're dating his son." There was a moment of dead silence.
Then Clover shrieked, "THE JERKWAD WAS NING'S FATHER?"
He nodded. "Ying is his first name. Of course, after she rejected him and Shan beat him to a bloody pulp, he married another woman, Ning's mother. I don't think he ever really loved her. She was just a replacement for Mingxia."
Clover's cheeks burned with embarrassment. "Oh gods, oh gods… do you know what this does to my love life? Now Ning and I can't be together! Do you know how awkward it would be if we got married and made his father and my mother in-laws? It would be a disaster!"
She sunk to the floor and buried her face in her paws. Tigress knelt down next to her and gently hugged her. "Come on, it's alright. You told me that Ning basically cut himself off from his parents."
"That's not the point! I thought that Mr. Tang was an okay guy! And it's no wonder that Ning's mother hates me, it's because she knows that her husband still has a thing for my mom!"
"And that's why Papa had that fight with Mama. Maybe he thought that she really did have something with Ning's father, and now she was going behind his back again," Tigress whispered. She helped Clover stand up. "So… what are we going to do?" she asked.
"What do you mean 'What are we going to do'? You were the one who said that the plan was perfect!" Clover pointed out.
"I mean about Mama and Papa! If Papa thinks this is the second time he's cheated on her, things may not go according to the plan! We need to think up of something quick, before it's too late."
Clover was silent for a few moments, but then an evil smirk spread over her lips. She had something brewing in her head.
And we all know how dangerous that is…
A/N: Yayyy, more flashbacks! Who doesn't love a good flashback?
These chapters are multiplying like bunnies. But don't worry, the fic will be ending soon. I'd say... no more than 10-15 chapters, but probably less than that. Remember to review! Or just drop by a note to say hi. Or to tell me what your favorite cheese is. Or to explain why you so desperately hate shoelaces. Anything. Just click the button down below...
Holla!