Hi,

Hope you enjoy this chapter, please remember to review :)

It had been hours since the battle. How many? The warriors didn't know.

They were stuck down in the earth, to injured to continue fighting or to look for the Spirit Yin, it was feared she'd been lost forever.

The atmosphere in the basement was as damp as the walls, no one said a word to each other, they just healed their friends and sat in silence and darkness.

"I think she's alive, Spirit Yin I mean." Mantis commented.

The others all glanced at him, surprised someone had actually spoken after such a long period of silence.

"I think she probably isn't." Master Shifu sighed, pulling his sleeves over his hands. "It's unlikely."

"But not impossible."

"The one thing worse than death is uncertainty of it." Crane stated quietly, his head hidden under his wing.

"Do you reckon?" Viper asked, looking up at him.

He nodded carefully. "Sometimes hope isn't a good thing, not always, but sometimes. It's better to know and not be left with only hope."

"I suppose you're right in some respects." Susan exasperated, sitting against the wall, watching Monkey's chest rise and fall slowly.

"What are we going to do master?" Tigress inquired, slowly changing over the conversation. "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know Tigress; I just don't know." Sighed Master Shifu. "I don't know if we're going to get out of here alive, I don't know when we'll eat next, I don't know anything."

"That's not true Master," Mantis crowed, rightfully thinking Master Shifu was blaming his own invisible stupidity on this situation. "You couldn't have known they were going to attack the Yin and Yang palace, no one did."

"Mantis is right, you shouldn't go blaming yourself." Viper added kindly.

Master Shifu gave them both a weak smile.

"I don't, I don't blame anyone, the future is laid out a certain way and we must come to terms with it, whether it works in our favour or not."

The other warriors nodded and fell silent again, understanding Master Shifu's wise words.

"Is there any food?" Po asked groggily, waking up from a restless sleep.

"No," Tigress replied and she gave Po a little squeeze as she watched his face fall.

The warriors continued to sit there, hour after hour after hour.

No one really knew what they were waiting for, for someone to leap in and save them like always? Or where they simply waiting till they collapsed from dehydration and hunger?

The atmosphere was tight and thick with despair. No one opened their mouth to speak, and if they did it was to shut it soon after, not even making a sound.

Mantis didn't crack a joke, Po didn't laugh, Tigress and Viper didn't chat, Master Shifu didn't order anyone. It felt as if they were all sitting in a funeral, but with no body to burry.

All the life was drained out of them, so much so that they all felt dizzy and sick and dead inside. They all felt injured, even the ones with no visible wounds.

It was many hours later, no one knew if it was night yet but they'd decided to sleep anyway.

Everyone was fast asleep, everyone except Susan that is.

She leant her head up from where it was hidden in her knees and glanced at Monkey.

His eyes were open now but he hadn't said anything, he just sat there, staring out into the darkness, no Monkey life or happiness left in him.

"Monkey are you ok?" she asked him kindly.

"I don't think so, what are we going to do now?" he replied, his voice cracked.

Susan leant back against the wall.

"I don't know," she sighed and ripped off a few strips of her nightie, attempting to busy herself with making another woven braid, but she couldn't gather enough mental or physical energy to start it.

Monkey sighed too and also leant back. "I don't know either. We die I suppose."

Susan instantly turned to face him. "I really wouldn't like that," she grimaced.

"Obviously." Grunted Monkey dismissively.

"No, I mean I really wouldn't like it. For you to die, I mean." As she said it, she felt her cheeks flush.

Oh dear god, what was she doing?

Monkey twisted around to face her now too.

"You see Monkey," she began, her cheeks getting rosier by the minute. "I like you, like actually really, really like you."

There she'd said it, now prepare for the rejection in 3,2,1.

"You like me?" Monkey blinked at her.

Well this was a new tactic of rejection.

"Yes,"

"That's good." He grinned.

Good? What did he mean by good?

"What's good, sorry?"

"It's good that you like me because I also like you very much."

"You do?"

"Yeah."

She let out a little chuckle and Monkey did too, it was a relief to finally say it, and to laugh as well.

And that was when she leaned in, and kissed him.

At first, he didn't do anything, like he was surprised by the kiss. But then he did and he deepened it.

After a couple of minutes they broke apart. Monkey looked nervous at first, as if afraid he'd done something wrong, but Susan smiled a little at him and it was hard not to smile back.

They smiled a little at each other again and lay down, closing their eyes while the smile stayed etched on their faces.

Both of them, dog and monkey alike, were content at that moment. Even though their was a war going on, even though they might not come out of it alive, they were happy, they were happy because they knew that nothing could ever spoil that moment now, it was perfectly rounded, engrained in their memories for the fight ahead, so they could always look back on it and smile.

Quite a short chapter tonight I'm afraid, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Do you think I went too cheesy in this chapter? I've never really been in a relationship so I had to use just what I knew from books and the media, hope it's ok!

Stay tuned, more chapters will come out soon,

xx