She had very rarely seen Po lose it.
So, when Tigress entered the training hall just before morning light, she was surprised to many of the dummies completely obliterated. He had his back to her, digging into a wooden dummy and sending chunks of wood flying as the wrecked piece of equipment tumbled to the ground. And almost instantly, he began going toe to toe with another. From the dim moonlight from the windows and the single lit lantern, she could see the tightness in his limbs, the sweat glistening off of his fur.
She didn't want to disturb him, so she made to leave, but a sudden creak of the wooden floor betrayed her presence.
He whipped around, obviously startled, and she saw something in his eyes she hadn't really seen before.
It was nothing less than pure rage.
"I'm sorry. I-"
"It's okay." The anger faded from his face and he just looked….tired.
It was obvious what he was doing, so she asked the next question on her list.
"You alright?"
He turned all the way around now, and began brushing wood dust from his fur, searching for the flask of water he had put on the ground when he first came in. She noticed it sitting on the steps, and picked it up to give to him.
"I guess." He took a swig and sighed as he swallowed.
"Spill."
He knew she wasn't going to leave until she had an answer, so he watched her sit with a mix of dread and exhaustion.
"I can't sleep."
"Well that much is obvious." She replied, leaning against a wooden beam. No getting out of this one without an explanation.
"It's just, ever since Kai," his shoulders fell,"I keep having this dream. I'm walking up the palace steps and it's like I know he's destroying the palace, but when I try to run up to stop him, my feet feel like they are stuck in mud. I can't move. And then there's this screaming and I-" He broke off, suddenly feeling stupid for this admission. "I must sound crazy to you."
"Crazy is relative, Po." She replied with a small smile. "But considering what you've been through, it's not a surprise that you have nightmares."
"Do they stop?" His eyes met hers for the first time, and for a moment he looked like a scared little kid.
"No." He deflated a bit. "But eventually, they become tolerable. And, at some point you find something or someone that makes the pain go away."
"Have you found it?"
"Yeah, Po." She smiled, a rare sight. "I think I have."
OoOoOoO
"This is crazy."
The wood was familiar under her paws, as was the dust rising from the abandoned training equipment that tickled her nose, like it did when she came back from days away. Although, now, the training hall didn't excite her the way it had back then.
"Understatement." She replied shortly, her gaze drifting around the room.
"You used to train here?" Kai moved down the steps ahead of her, looking at all of the equipment with wide eyes. She hummed her reply, watching him peruse around the jade tortoise, gently drawing his paws across the cool stone.
"Hey look!" She turned at Po's voice as he entered, Yu following. In his hands he held a familiar object. "My nunchucks!"
Yu took off down the stairs to join her friend, leaving the masters to glance around with mixed emotions.
"You okay?" He glanced to her out of of the corner of his eye.
"Are you?"
Po sighed. "We should get to work. It's looking like it might storm."
"Yu, Kai, we need to get moving." Tigress called them over. They scurried up the stairs and met the two warriors outside, where the clouds were gathering and blocking the sun.
They continued to the main palace and moved quickly through the Hall of Statues. While Kai marveled at the Jade dragon hanging from the ceiling, Po and Tigress moved into the Oogway's old room.
"Creepy." Po muttered under his breath.
Everything was exactly they way it had been left, as though Oogway himself would be entering any moment. Dust swirled in the air. Even his bed was messy, as though he had left and forgotten to make it.
It was a simple room, but the bookshelf on the far wall contained more scrolls than were in the great hall. Po began searching his desk, while Tigress searched the scrolls on his bedside table.
"What can we do to help?" Yu poked her head in, and her nose scrunched up in disgust at the amount of dust that was being kicked up.
"There are a ton of scrolls in the great hall. Start going through them. Look for anything having to do with the Weixing stone or anything related to the story." Tigress commanded and the two youngsters nodded in sync before disappearing through the door.
A moment was passed in a hectic silence while they searched quickly, but all the while, Tigress felt like he had something to say and was just waiting for the right moment to say it.
"Tigress-"
"What is it Po?" Her voice was harsher than she intended, and she winced. "Sorry."
"I'm sorry, about this morning." He murmured, eyes distant. He held a journal, but didn't seem to actually being looking at it.
"Why are you apologizing?" She turned towards him, eyebrow raised.
"Well, I kind of held a knife to you. That wasn't cool." He shrugged and lowered the book back to the desk, avoiding her gaze.
"Po, I startled you. Considering what you've been through, it's not a surprise that you have nightmares." She paused. "I'll just have to be careful not to startle you again."
He chuckled a moment and she raised an eyebrow.
"That's not the first time you've said that to me." He replied to her quizzical look.
"Well, I mean it." She smirked and returned the journal back to the shelf.
She paused againwhen that feeling came back….the one where he needed to say something. But this time, she waited for him to speak, glancing through a journal.
"The last time you said it, you said there was something, or someone that helped with the nightmares. What was it?"
She froze, feeling the air of the room suddenly become dense with a tension she didn't quite know the origin of. That conversation he was remembering….it was one of the last real conversations they had had before all of this went down. And maybe back then, that statement had had a different connotation than it did right at this moment...or maybe it didn't? Confliction swirled in her stomach, making her feel exposed and confused. She didn't quite know the words to say, especially when she turned and found his green eyes intensely watching her. He had only moved towards her a few steps, but even that proximity formed a lump in her throat.
What was happening to her?
"Po, I-"
"Tigress!" Kai came running in, and the tension was dismissed to be analyzed later."You guys need to come see this. Now."
Tigress and Po looked at one another and ran out of the study, following Kai to the great hall, where Yu was staring wide-eyed at a box.
"What the hell?" Po breathed.
Symbols on the lid of the box began to glow a little. There was a mechanical sort of noise, and then the lid sprung open.
"What did you do?" Tigress frowned at the fox in confusion.
"I just-I picked it up and it-it started glowing." Yu was still staring at it wide eyed, paws clenched into fists at her side.
"Well, it was obviously meant for you." Po gestured to it. She jerked her head up in surprise, as if the thought hadn't occurred to her.
"I-" She didn't finish what she was going to say, crouching instead to take the small scroll from its case.
"What is it?" Kai crouched next to her, looking over her shoulder.
"I don't know." Yu opened it carefully, as though she were afraid it were going to bite her. "It's in an old language I can't-" She froze, squinting at it.
"It's changing." Kai whispered.
A clap of thunder startled them all. Or at least, that's what they thought it was.
"Is that...what I think it was?" PO barely got the words out before they heard a deafening explosion, and the ground rumbled under their feet.
"Everyone into the study. Now!"
Yu scooped up the scroll and it's box, and together the four of them barred themselves in the small room.
"We need to get out of here."
"Really? I thought about making a cup of tea." Kai replied sarcastically.
"Watch it kid." Tigress sent him a warning glare and grabbed her pack from where she had set it when they first walked in. "Yu, put the box in here." She handed the bag to the fox who proceeded to try and stuff the box in."
"What are you planning?" Po questioned her.
"We send them out the window and meet them in the woods later."
"Are you insane? I'm not leaving you!" Kai protested, anger flaring up in his eyes.
"Yeah, that's kind of insane there, Ti." Po agreed.
"Do you have a better idea?" She quipped. "Because from where I'm standing, the best chance they have is if we split up and draw the cannon fire away."
As if clockwork, another explosion racked the courtyard, although this time they could hear the sound of the wooden doors of the great hall beginning to crumble.
"Okay, let's do it." Yu shouldered the bag. Kai and Po looked at her in surprise.
"Head for the grotto. You can descend the falls from there and it'll mask your scent. Follow the river into the woods and then you can meet up with us later."
Yu nodded at the tiger's instructions. "You coming, Kai?"
"Kai," Tigress called the attention of her son,"keep her safe."
Kai nodded, a flash of determination crossing his face. Another explosion, and they could hear the collapse of stone, the fragments of jade falling from the columns and onto the floor.
Tigress moved to the window and helped them open it, then watched as they climbed out and disappeared around the side of the building.
"Tigress, this is insane!" Po argued.
"You should go with them. They need someone to protect them." Her gaze was focused on the window.
"I am not leaving you." He gripped her arms, spinning them so she had her back pressed against the wall. The action was so quick that it took her a second to realize what had happened. The feeling returned, the butterflies, the tension. Except this time he was so close that she could feel his cold breath tickling her muzzle.
"Not again." It was barely above a murmur.
The massive door to the great hall was blown off its hinges, and in the thundering sound of wood cracking and splintering against the columns, he kissed her. Hard.
It was over in such a short time that she barely had time to react before he pulled away and said "We need to go."
He launched himself up and over the window sill, disappearing through the window.
Reluctantly, she followed him, with a whole new slew of emotions to contend with.
OoOoOoO
A/N: Nothing says "I'm back to writing fanfiction" like an intense kiss, amirite?
I am sorry that I took such a long hiatus, but I did promise to finish this story, and I will try my damndest to do so. Thanks for being awesome