Tigress smiled as she meditated, sitting in a lotus position in the Hall of Heroes in the Opal Place. She really needed a breather after the events of the last couple of days. It had been nearly two weeks since she and Po arrived at the Opal Palace now and MaSha's birthday was approaching fairly quickly. She and Po had gone to the valley to pick something out to give her as a gift.

Po hadn't mentioned anything about the scroll when they went shopping though. She found it kind of odd knowing how he would be every time he read a new scroll. Especially since it was a scroll she herself had written. Not only that she had written the scroll herself, it was a scroll about a past that wasn't known to the public. Perhaps that was why he didn't speak about it when they were out in public.

Still when they returned, he didn't say a word. Not even when they were sparring alone earlier that morning. Maybe he wasn't done reading it? No. That couldn't be it. Po always finishes what he is reading. He also reads scrolls multiple times to gain a better understanding of them. Yes. That was it. He was likely reading the scroll again before he asked her any questions. Questions she admittedly feared she wouldn't be able to answer.

Tigress noticed how MaSha's behavior changed towards Po. She still refused to call him just 'Po' though. Either called him 'Master Po' or 'Dragon Warrior'. But she was willing to talk to him more often and listen to his stories. Tigress had even caught a smile on MaSha's face when she walked in the kitchen where they were working on a small painting.

Tigress had to admit, Po made a good art teacher. She had never noticed how artistic he truly was. His way with the brush was truly magnificent and elegant. She never thought those would be words to describe anything Po did. It made her smile knowing that the two most important creatures in her life were getting along nicely. Finally.

Tigress blamed herself a bit for MaSha's hesitance to give Po a chance. The first year that Po had become Dragon Warrior Tigress respected him since he had defeated Tai-Lung, but she still didn't accept his way of doing things. He was a dedicated Kung Fu Warrior and was excited to learn something new everyday. But to her, he was a bit too jokester about certain things. He and Monkey would play pranks on each other around the palace way too often. sometimes the prank would fail and accidentally trap someone else into them.

She had grown frustrated with his behavior one day and left to train with Mistress Mugan. Completely forgetting about The Opal Palace and her younger sister. Luckily after two weeks of training she came to her senses and returned to the Jade Palace and sent a scroll out to MaSha, telling her about her little misadventure.

MaSha then demanded she came to visit her for at least two weeks after that. Tigress had managed to convince Shifu to allow her to go over and see her sister, fearing MaSha would find a way to leave Wung Ho Valley and come find her.

Tigress smiled at the memory of MaSha enveloping her in a hug for hours when she arrived. The two sisters weren't very physically emotional with each other but when they were, it was because something had happened. This time the reason that Tigress was being stubborn was because of one really bad day she nearly went away forever to The Garnet Palace where she was very likely not going to be allowed to go see her sister. MaSha was only fourteen and her chi was very off balanced as old wounds from her past had opened.

Even at the age of six-teen MaSha still had scars. When she was six the doctors had told them it was going to be a long recovery but they hadn't expected it to be this long. Most of her wounds were gone and the ones she still had were mainly in her stomach and were surprisingly minor. It was part of the reason she wasn't allowed to leave Wung Ho Valley. The other part was that it was her punishment for the lives she took as a child. At least the Emperor was reasonable to not put the young child in prison. She had suffered enough from her mother and would have been dead within a week of being there.

Tigress had wished she could have done something more for MaSha and do a lighter punishment but it was the Emperor's word. To say anything against him would have brought dishonor to her and her sister.

Tigress sighed as she finished her meditation and opened her eyes. Thinking about everything was nice once in a while. Made her reflect on how much she had changed. MaSha was the very reason she was fond of children. Tigress would have probably raised her if they had allowed her at The Jade Palace. Her little sister, although filled with mistrust and trauma, she was a kind hearted tiger. Their Aunts and Uncle said that they took after their father. That was a relief to say the least.

"Mind if I join you?" Po asked softly, taking a seat beside her.

"Not really." She smiled softly at him. Po smiled back looking at her.

"Hopefully I didn't interrupt you." He chuckled softly. Tigress shook her head.

"I was just finishing actually." The two warriors looked at each other with soft eyes and a calm smile. Tigress wasn't sure what had gotten into her lately whenever he came around. Po had somehow put her in a trance for a while now. Multiple times. She would find herself thinking about him in the most inappropriate times. MaSha had mentioned how she had chosen Po as her mate but she wasn't too sure she had. MaSha saw tigers more often than Tigress did so she didn't exactly know how a Tiger chooses its mate. She could feel her cheeks warm up at the thought of accidentally doing something that had her claim him as her mate. Gosh! Did she do the wrong gesture one time that had claimed him?! Did he know?!

"Hey Ti?" Po waved his hand in front of her face. Tigress blinked, finally coming back to reality, realizing where she was. "Are you okay? You blanked out for a second there."

"Oh uh…yeah." Tigress smiled. "I'm just a little tired."

"From meditating?" Po raised a brow.

"I've just been thinking about a lot of things, okay Po?" Tigress sighed.

"If you say so." Po frowned. He glanced at her once again before shifting to be in a lotus position. "Anyway, if it's okay with you and MaSha, Tigress, can we talk about the scroll later?" He finally asked. "I admit I still have some questions."

"I had a feeling you were going to have questions." Tigress sighed. "We can talk about it over dinner." Po nodded in response before closing his eyes and relaxing. Tigress decided to join him in the meditation after all. She was going to need to prepare for whatever questions he may have.

MaSha looked at her plate blankly. Po had made steamed carrots, bean buns, dumplings, stir fried tofu and noodles. Quite an odd combination especially since he served it all on one plate. Po sat next to Tigress with his own plate as they all looked at the odd combination of food.

Tigress didn't want to look too much into it but she did recall this was the exact combination of food they had first given MaSha when they met her. Po had paid attention to the food details in the scroll apparently.

MaSha stared at her food, unsure if she should eat it. Why did the Dragon Warrior think it was necessary to make a plate like this?

"This looks great Master Po." Yang commented. Po didn't say anything as he watched MaSha, She didn't even touch her chopsticks. It was as if she was having a staring contest with the food.

"It's not going to kill you MaSha." Tigress scolded impatiently.

"I know it's not." MaSha finally spoke. "The Dragon Warrior has been cooking for us since you guys got here." She crossed her arms, still looking at the food in front of her.

Po didn't say a word. He didn't even eat. He just looked at MaSha in hopes that she would eat it. His face was expressionless but his eyes wandered to her plate as if asking her to eat it.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you Dragon Warrior?" MaSha looked at him. He simply nodded. "Why? You read that stupid scroll once and you think this dish is going to get me to like you?"

"You gave him the scroll?" Yang looked at the sisters.

"Not now Yang." MaSha rolled her eyes.

"Fifth-teen" Po spoke softly.

"What?" MaSha glared at him.

"Fifth-teen." Po repeated. "I've gone over that scroll fifth-teen times." Po looked down at his food. "I'm surprised the scroll even mentioned what kind of food they gave you when they brought you to the Imperial Palace." Po looked back at her. "I've eaten there a couple of times. Even helped with the cooking a few other dozen times. So I thought perhaps replicating the recipes of the food they gave you, would at least allow me to ask you some questions about your 'curse'." MaSha blinked a couple of times while looking at Dragon Warrior. Who did this panda think he is?

The two sisters turned to each other, MaSha was unsure of what to do. It had been years since she had spoken about that stupid scroll. About the stupid past she wanted to forget about.

"I understand it's a sensitive topic around here." Po frowned. "But I truly want to help out." MaSha looked towards him in shock. Why was he trying so hard? She was nothing special to learn about. Why was the Dragon Warrior, legendary Kung Fu Warrior chosen by the universe, interested in learning about her stupid past.

"If you've read the scroll fifth-teen times like you've said," MaSha finally spoke, "why aren't you afraid?"

"I'm afraid of a lot of things." Po admitted. "But growing up I've learned that you're only afraid of things you don't know anything about. Your 'curse' is something only your mother knows about. You only know a few things about yourself because your mother didn't want you to completely lose control over it." Po looked at her arms. "I honestly believe your mother hurt you not because you can destroy half of China with one blow, but because it was the only way to keep you from using it against her."

The three tigers looked at The Dragon Warrior in shock. He had gotten that from reading the scroll?

"When your mother had you…deface all those creatures, you were only six and already very powerful. Now ten years later, I see that you've grown to control it. You struggle cus you don't want to accept it as the Tiger's Chi and that's okay. But eventually you'll have to accept that even though your mother gave it to you, it's part of you. Refusing its power, you're refusing your body to control it." Po looked to see MaSha's face full of shock. Their food had certainly gotten cold by now.

"You got all that from reading the scroll?" Yang asked in shock.

"He's smarter than you think." Tigress smiled, quite pleased he actually took the time to read further into the scroll. Po smiled softly back at her, feeling a sudden urge to take her paw but decided against it.

MaSha looked down at her paws. The scars of her mother's torture staring back at her. MaSha sighed before looking up at him. "What do you want to know?"

"I want to know more about your mother, Mistress Daiyu."

Who's ready for some Daiyu backstory? xD

Cus we ain't getting one...yet