Hello there!

Yes, it's just me again! I come to you today with a sense of bitter sweetness.

Sweet because the time has come for me to present my one-shot to you all, but bitter because this is the last one-shot I have available for the collection. Of course, this will always remain open, but I haven't received any messages from anybody else who wishes to participate, and while someone may surprise me in the future, I don't often get my hopes up. So, this will be the final one-shot for now unless someone else offers a work (again, it can be any time, so no pressure for anyone who is considering adding a one-shot)

Well, I think my biggest fear is closing this thing off. To write a one-shot that can stand next to what has already been displayed here is a daunting task. Oh, while I'm on that subject…

Thank you, You kfp weeb.

Thank you, S.T. Necro.

Thank you, JustAnotherWriter140.

Thank you, MijumaruFan.

Thank you to everyone who was on the forums helping with setting this up, thank you to everyone who supported this, thank you all you readers and writers of this fandom.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Notes: This is a post KFP-3 fic and I don't own Dreamworks or KFP. The title of this one-shot is taken (whoops, I mean borrowed) from Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence."

It is my turn to present to you…

Starless Echoes'

The Sound of Silence

Lei Lei opened her eyes and listened.

She looked around the dark room and tried to remember why it looked so different from her small room that was in her grandma's new house.

She then broke into a toothy smile as she remembered that Stripy Baby and Cuddles let her stay for the night in the big, shiny place.

Lei Lei had become a frequent visitor of the Jade Palace ever since the pandas had moved to the Valley of Peace. They had been hidden in their secluded village for so many years that they had begun to forget what the outside world was like. Sure, there may have been a few crazy people like the psychopathic peacock, but people like that were not all that common. Most people would just smile or wave at the pandas.

Grandma Panda and Lei Lei now had their own little house in the Valley, and the villagers were getting to recognize Lei Lei by sight as she routinely made her way up across the Valley streets and up the Thousand Steps. To the other pandas, it was a miracle that she could do something that made them tired just to think about. It was even more impressive since the steps were much larger to someone of Lei Lei's small size. But Lei Lei was still a young child, and even though she was a panda, she still had the limitless energy of a child.

She didn't know it, but she had become a much larger part of Po, Shifu, and the Five's life then any of them had imagined. Her daily arrival at noon meant that they needed to have finished training before then. While it did still leave plenty of time in the morning for training, Tigress had initially been worried that Lei Lei's presence would slow down their progress, especially since Po was trying his hardest to become their new master. He still had… work to do if he wanted to become the kind of teacher that Shifu had been.

But, they soon found out that her presence there was actually good for them all. Before, Tigress would spend most of her free time at the Training Hall, defeating all kinds of training devices, pushing herself to her limit. While Po had been improving in his success rate in coaxing her out of the Training Hall, he was still usually unsuccessful.

But Lei Lei had managed a feat Po had, while made progress with, could not do. She got Tigress to spend more and more of her free time with her, and she got her to do more and more things which she might consider "silly."

Playing tag? Lei Lei got her to do it.

Getting Tigress to sing her a song? It was hard, but Lei Lei got her to do it.

Tickling Tigress? Lei Lei had done it. Po had seen this one and had tried it himself later, but it hadn't been met with the same response. He hadn't tried to tickle her again since that small mishap.

Feeding Tigress? Lei Lei had done it. Po had also seen this one, but the memories of his tickle attempt were still fresh in his head, so he didn't even think about attempting it.

For better or worse, Lei Lei was changing Tigress. If Po had opened the doors for her previously shut-in self, then Lei Lei had dragged her outside of those doors.

Going to the Jade Palace for a few hours was always the highlight of everyone's day. Which was why she had been so excited when they had let her stay one night. One whole night! Lei Lei had been beyond ecstatic.

So now, Lei Lei found herself in bed, after a night of eating supper with Po and the Five, playing silly games, and doing all kinds of crazy things. In fact, in fact, Lei Lei even did it. She did the one thing she never thought she was going to be able to do in her lifetime. She never dreamed it in a million years. Not once. It always seemed like a crazy dream, a fantasy.

She stayed up past her bedtime.

This absolutely excited Lei Lei beyond mortal comprehension.

But, all good things must come to an end, and the time had come for them to go to bed.

Lei Lei had quickly drifted off to sleep as the excitement of the night finally caught up with her.

But now she was awake.

For the first time, she noticed how dark it was.

And she noticed how quiet it was.

She simply had forgotten to tell them about it. She was afraid of the dark.

She had been planning to tell them. To ask them if they could leave a single candle in her room that would burn on through the night. That was how she always fell asleep in her home. But what with all the excitement, she had simply forgotten.

Lei Lei strained her ears, but she couldn't hear anything. She blinked her eyes again and again, but she couldn't see very well in the dim moonlight that filtered its way past the windows covered with paper.

At first, Lei Lei decided that she was going to tough it out. She was a big girl, she thought to herself. Surely she could handle a little darkness? Right?

But, as she laid there, the less and less confident she became. She gripped the sheets and hugged them to her chin. Her grandma had often asked her why she was afraid of the dark, but, when she really thought about it, she could never come up with a good answer.

"It's just scary," she always replied.

And it definitely seemed scary now. As the silence began to turn into a steady hum in her ears, and the darkness finally started to get to her, she decided that she wasn't quite old enough yet to handle the dark on her own. So, she quickly threw the sheets off of her, hopped out of the bed, walked to her door, and slid it open.

She looked outside in the hallway. It was dark, but she could make out the outlines of the other rooms.

She spotted Tigress' room, which was two rooms to the left across the hall. She quickly crossed the hallway and slid open her door.

Tigress was asleep on her bed. Not for long.

Lei Lei walked over to the bed. From her height, she had to tilt her head up a little to see Tigress' face.

She didn't want to wake anyone else up, so she softly whispered, "Stripy Baby."

There was no response, so she tried again, a little louder this time. "Stripy Baby."

Tigress still didn't move, so Lei Lei reached up and tugged on Tigress' golden hanfu with her small paws.

Tigress quickly shot up, not used to being woken from her sleep like that. Her head darted back and forth as she looked for the source of her interrupted sleep. When she finally saw Lei Lei below her, she relaxed and smiled.

"Oh, Lei Lei. It's just you." Then, a look of concern appeared on her face. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Lei Lei put her paws together in front of her. She expected Tigress to be somewhat grumpy once she told her why she had woken her up. People were usually like that when they got woken up for a silly reason. Lei Lei hadn't wanted to, but she simply couldn't take the sound of the silence anymore.

"Umm, Stripy Baby?" she began in an apologetic tone. Tigress raised her brow, eager to know what was so important that it had caused her to wake her up in the middle of the night.

"I'm… I'm," she tried to say. Finally, she got it out. "I'm afraid of the dark. I can't sleep."

Tigress looked at Lei Lei for a few seconds in silence. Lei Lei expected her to roll her eyes any second and groan with frustration.

But instead, she sighed with relief, as she had been worried that something bad had happened, and then she broke into a quiet laughter. She threw her legs over the bed and sat up.

"Oh," Tigress said as her laughter faded away. "That's fine. You can sleep with me if you want."

At that moment, Lei Lei's mind nearly exploded with joy. She had only wanted her to light a candle for her, but she had never dreamed about sleeping with her. She jumped up and down with joy, doing her best to whisper-shout, "Oh, please, please, please, please!"

Tigress put one paw on her shoulder to calm her down.

She chuckled. "Whoa, relax. You'll never fall asleep like that. Just calm down." Tigress laid back down and scooted over in her bed, making room for the panda cub.

Lei Lei excitedly climbed up, ready to snuggle with her Stripey Baby, but suddenly, the side door slid open and Viper poked her head through the opening.

"I heard something jumping up and down," she started with some concern. "Everything okay?"

Tigress looked over at Viper, and Viper squinted her eyes as they adjusted to the dim light. When she finally saw Lei Lei in Tigress' bed, she smiled.

"Oh," she mischievously said. "Never mind."

Tigress was prepared to defend herself and tell her how it was Lei Lei's idea, but then the door across the hall opened up and Po peeked through. Lei Lei had left Tigress' door open, so he could see Tigress and Lei Lei on the bed, and also Viper's head from the side.

"What's going on?" he asked, a confused and sleepy smile on his face.

Tigress groaned, as she knew she wasn't going to hear the end of this anytime soon.

"Lei Lei doesn't like the dark," she explained, "so I thought I would let her sleep with me tonight."

Po was about to chuckle and then wish them a goodnight, but an idea came to him. Oh, it was a cheap idea, and a dirty one at that, but he thought he might just pull it off.

"Oh, a sleepover? I love sleepovers! Mind if I join?"

Tigress was about to tell Po to get himself back in bed or else, but Lei Lei quickly jumped at the prospect.

"Oh, yes, please, please!"

Now Tigress had reached a dilemma. On one hand, she could see right through Po's attempt to sleep with her, but she also didn't want to disappoint Lei Lei.

She glanced at Viper, who was stifling a laugh, and looked back at Po.

"Oh, that was a dirty move, Po," Tigress thought to herself. "I'll definitely return the favor tomorrow during our sparring session."

But, she looked down and Lei Lei, who was looking back up with such an adorable expression that she couldn't resist.

She looked back at Po with an expression that said, "I'll get you back later."

A smile lighting up Po's face, Po raised his voice to a normal volume. "Hey guys! We're having a sleepover in Tigress' room! Anyone want to join us?"

After some shuffling from their rooms, Monkey, Crane, and Mantis came out into the hall.

"What happened?" Crane was the first to sleepily ask.

Po had already gone back to his room and now held his mattress in his arms.

"Come on, we're having a sleepover with Lei Lei in Tigress' room!"

Viper was the first to reply. "I'm in!" She slithered her way inside Tigress' room.

"A sleepover?" Monkey asked. "Ah, sure, why not? We've never done it before. Might be fun." He turned around and grabbed his mattress as Crane and Mantis also agreed.

As Po and Monkey went to everyone's rooms, picked up the mattresses off of the stands, and placed them on the floor in Tigress' room in a row that made one large mattress, Lei Lei was bouncing around with excitement. She was about to have a sleepover!

Finally, after all the mattresses were laid out, Po rested on the mattress.

He gestured for everyone to rest on top of him, especially since he was the heaviest by far. "Alright, everyone aboard!"

Lei Lei was the first to jump on Po's belly. Tigress, much more for Lei Lei's sake then Po's, climbed down beside them and rested stomach down, resting her arm over Lei Lei, but also resting it over Po in the process. Po turned his head to the side to look at Tigress, who mouthed the words-

"I'll get you for this."

Po only gave her a cheeky smile in return. Then, Monkey rested on the other side of Po, Viper coiled herself all the way around Lei Lei, Crane spread himself out so he was on top of Po and Monkey, as he would never dream of getting on Tigress' side of the pile in a million years, and Mantis was the cherry on top, resting on the very top of the pile.

For the first time, Tigress and the rest of the Five realized that Po made a really soft, warm pillow. In fact, it was so comfortable that they quickly found themselves drifting off to sleep.

As Tigress began to fall asleep once again, she briefly thought to herself, "This isn't so bad. I could get used to this."

It occurred to Po that he had to go to the bathroom, and that he probably should have gone before he let everyone get on top of him and fall asleep, but it seemed too late for that now. He was simply going to have to wait until morning.

Meanwhile, Lei Lei was in the center of the pile, directly resting on Po. She had been smiling the entire time as she began to drift off to sleep. She didn't have to be afraid anymore, she thought. The sound of silence and the scary darkness couldn't get to her anymore now that she had Stripy Baby's arm around her, resting on Cuddles, with the Monkey Man and Bird Man on the other side, Snakey Wakey wrapped around her, and Teeny Greenie on the top.

Eventually, her excitement died down as she became the last one in the pile to fall asleep.

And that's that! I hope you enjoyed my contribution to this one-shot collection! Note: All those nicknames in the second to last paragraph are really canon nicknames that Lei Lei calls them. Except for "Bird Man," as Crane's the only one who's not included, so I just made that one up.

But most importantly, I hope you enjoyed this entire one-shot collection! Again, thank you to everyone involved, including the readers and writers of the fandom!

Just one more time, I'll remind you that this will always remain open and this doesn't have to be the last one-shot. Remember: anytime and anything (except for M rated things) is fine!

I'm sure I speak for all the writers here when I tell you all to…

Keep being awesome!