A gasp broke the tentative silence as the Masters took a turn on the road, finally allowing them to leave the western hills and reach an ever-ending plain. Great mountains towered over the area from the north, the Yangtze, already in its full power, ran its course on the south and the East China Sea greeted the Masters in the horizon on the, well, east.

What was in the middle you ask? Well, none other than Lin'an herself.

"This is…" Viper said, breathlessly.

"Ginormous?" Monkey supplied, his broad eyes never leaving the massive spectacle.

"I've never been to the capital…" the snake said, her face shining with spellbound wonder.

While his friends ambled forward on the road to their final destination, Crane pushed up his rice hat, letting him gaze freely with nothing posing an obstacle. The sight of the place where he grew up stood before him, greeting him with its awe-inspiring aura. His golden eyes roamed over every building, plant, people, his mind slowly recognizing every single aspect, putting names and connecting hazy, clouded memories to them. His chest swelled in the amount of nostalgia this mere picture bombarded him with.

A lone, old goat was watering his flowers behind a quaint cottage at the very corner of Lin'an, and Crane recognized him as the man, who had been selling fresh fruit at the market back in the day. The avian had chatted with him once at length, when he was still nothing but a curious colt, and he remembered the goat claiming to want his own house in the suburbs, where he could live in peace while 'his horns dried up and his hooves cracked all over'.

"Guess he got his wish," Crane whispered, his soft eyes following the small figure in the distance.

They passed a bulky green apple tree on the way, one that the avian knew the people dubbed as the 'Guardian of Lin'an', thanks to its natural position next to the road and right before the official border of the city. Crane mused, the tree definitely looked thicker than twenty years ago, its crown was also bigger and more widespread. He remembered his best friend and him occasionally flying over to this very tree, playing tag, hide-and-seek, or whatever they desired, while his mom and dad watched over them, sometimes even joining in the fun. His mind helpfully supplied him a picture of his best friend standing tall and proud, gesturing to a part of the tree, where a spot on the bark had the following line carved in:

Property of Bao and Jia. Keep out!

"And we had a squabble about why your name was first…" Crane said, his bittersweet smile stretching, his heart restless. He glanced over to his friends, making sure that they wouldn't notice him diverging for a bit. Seeing that they were unaware of his intentions, he followed his heart's wish. He deviated off the road and walked into the cool shadow of the tree, and after circling said tree, he found the spot he had been hoping to find. Sleek wings reached out and stroked the crusty, hard surface, the caramel letters greeting him amidst the chocolate of the bark.

"Did you… use your beak to carve this in?"

"Of course not! Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Yes. A certified degenerate."

"You little!"

"We wrestled after and mom had to separate us. Gosh..." Crane whispered, his wing sliding down until it hung powerless next to him.

"Crane, you coming?" Po's voice called out, and the avian's head snapped up so fast, the hat skewed on him.

"Eeerm, yeah!" he shouted back, fixing his rice hat hurriedly.

As they stepped into the suburbs, his eye caught a glint from the sky. Looking up to see where it had come from, he chuckled under his breath. Turns out, the glint was the sun's reflection on the circular window of a tower, built somewhere in the city's heart.

Oh, that tower was his favorite. For the masses, it was nothing but the highest point of Lin'an, the golden beacon of the Emperor's Palace. To him and his family, it had been a fond little scene; they would camp out on a mountain's side, north to the city, and that tower would always play some kind of role there. A joke or a comment about their camping site being at the exact height as that tower, or how funny it would be if the Emperor himself lived there, and they could peek in through one of the four circular windows, getting some juicy secrets unbeknownst to His Majesty. His best friend and him almost attempted it once until his mother herself ordered them to stand down.

They had gotten the scolding of their lives, but after that, his mom did admit she would have done the same at his age.

"Everything, as it was…" he murmured, his face brightening tenfold. His eyes shined up for a single second, and the dull plant life of the suburbs greened, flourished in a wave; like they gained a new life.

The municipality of Lin'an was already an imposing piece of architecture from a distance, but up close, things gained magnitude. The city was, as Monkey put it, ginormous; it spread all over the northern bank of the Yangtze delta, buildings upon buildings from small cottages to luxurious and grand interconnected compounds stretching the city's limits for miles. The highlight of the capital was of course the Emperor's Palace, situated right at the center of everything, a legendary architectural feat. Foreign leaders came to this very place, and no matter the nature of the meeting, they would always carry a hint of envy in their hearts as they left, the building's golden color scheme, marble floor, pillars, and statues intimidating and awing anyone, who stepped inside.

The suburb region was the first part of the shining city that the Masters reached. Wooden compounds and cottages stood orderly on both sides of the streets, with the compounds built in the traditional sanheyuan formation. Smaller, yet important avenues and byways branched from the main road, allowing more houses to exist and the city to reach the mountains and the river. As they went deeper into the city following Master Shifu, the one who knew where they were told to go, people of all professions hustled and bustled over them.

The main street was almost always busy, today especially; a group of muscled oxen passed the Masters, a large plank balanced on their shoulders as they carried it to a nearby construction site. An antelope family of hat makers made a stand at the side, the mother and the children sewing and weaving while the father controlled the sales themselves. A group of kids of many species distracted the Masters' marveling attention for a moment with their appearance and ran a circle around them in a loop, laughing boisterously. Po and Viper laughed with them, Mantis, Monkey and Crane just smiled, the former two handing out high-fives and encouraging words. Tigress ignored all of them, her chin held high as she followed Shifu. Her obvious facade broke when a little tiger girl, almost alike to Tigress, fell over her own tail.

"Owwie," the little tigress said, cradling her lithe elbow. Mantis tensed his legs to jump in and help, but a picture of Birdbrain's pathetically lying body flashed in his mind, the one he was the perpetrator of. Closing his eyes, he stepped back with his mouth in a thin line, his forelegs crossed in front.

The Masters and the child's group of friends simultaneously stopped and observed as the adult tiger knelt down, and with surprising softness, took hold of the kid's elbow. The little tigress watched her with curious and a little wet eyes, as her appendage was looked over.

When Tigress finished, she smiled and let go.

"Not even a scar," she said, standing up and clasping her paws behind her back, "Be careful next time, all right?"

The little tiger just nodded and smiled, before running back to her group of friends. Said children loudly exclaimed their gratefulness, before continuing their trek on the streets of suburban Lin'an. Tigress could feel the stares on her back and Shifu's own on her face.

"Well," Mantis spoke up, his twinkling eyes squinted and a smirk on his lips, "Somebody is good with kids."

"One more word from any of you, and I will personally make your lives hell," An effective way of shutting everyone up. She knew that they were exchanging knowing looks behind her back, but she let them be. Those were the most she allowed.

They continued their way towards the heart of the city. While the kids had occupied them, a chariot rolled ahead, dragged by four, rough-looking rhinos. The chariot itself was wildly decorated, with shields, chains and weapons of all sorts embellishing its metallic frame. It was also basically a tent on wheels, with an unidentified flag swinging on a metal pole, perched on the top of the tent.

"That looks important," Po remarked, his friends nodding along.

"They are probably going to the palace," Tigress said, her eyes narrowed at all the weaponry.

"Just like us…" Crane added, a lump forming in his throat.

Their journey to the heart took about half an hour; the old dynasties built Lin'an in a way that the main commercial road went right into downtown and only ended before the walls of the Emperor's Palace. It was an almost straight path between the border and the palace, the only detour it did was at the local market, but that was understandable considering that it is a commercial road. As they neared the downtown area, the surrounding buildings started changing; they gained storeys, space, wall height and family fineries. The Masters noted some compounds were so heavily decorated with family and/or clan symbols; they blinded the eyes with their thematic extravagance.

When they passed a clan property, which had its walls painted orange and blue, Viper and Crane had to keep their mouths shut, so as not to barf in the middle of the street.

"This must be a very elaborate prank, it cannot be real," Crane said with his tense face twisted in disgust, while his eyes tried to blink away the picture of that monstrosity.

"I'm no longer hungry…" Viper said, whimpering as she felt her stomach convulse.

The rest ignored them, though Monkey did send a glance at Shifu, his head motioning towards the two. The red panda just sighed and rolled his eyes.

They built the Emperor's Palace in a way, that it emphasized its importance to Lin'an, what with it being in the middle of the city. The property of the Palace extended in all directions thrice as far as the actual building width. The property also had a continuous fiery red wall around itself, with the main road ending in the wall's only gate, which now stood before the Masters with its golden coloration, greatly armored guards and statues depicting dragons crawling up the side.

What filled that area between the walls and the Palace you ask?

Well, nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Smooth marble ground surrounded the building from all sides, but nothing else. From a bird's-eye view, this part of downtown would look like compounds upon compounds with streets and people in between them, while there was this rectangular spot in the middle with the palace and its surrounding white, but blank space.

"This looks like… wasting," Monkey said, frowning. He was leaning to the side so he could look through the gate while the guards let the chariot inside.

"Birdbrain?" Mantis asked, unable to look at said avian while he copied his best friend's activity.

"Huh?" Crane asked caught off-guard, clear by his rapid blinking. For the last few moments, he had been under the spell of amazement, his focused eyes roaming the draconic shapes on the gate.

"Have any idea why all the wasted space?"

"Oh," the avian said dumbly, before he too craned his head above Monkey's, catching sight of the blank courtyard, "I'm guessing it's for the sake of symbolism."

"Symbolism?" Monkey asked. his face scrunching up and his eyes squinting, Mantis doing the same.

"Yeah. Its secluded nature may symbolize that it is not part of the rest of the buildings, that it ascended and couldn't be thought on the same plain as the rest of the city," Crane said, retracting his neck as the guards closed the door after the chariot. He took a breath after his explanation and waited for a response. When it did not come, he looked back to his right, and saw both his friends still leant sideways, but now staring at him with tilted heads, and so many unspoken questions.

"What?" Crane asked, his feathers puffing up.

The two Masters held his gaze, before turning away and shaking their heads. Crane couldn't decide whether it was fond or mocking, but he refrained from asking. He did not know whether he would like the answer.

What happened next is… hard to explain.

They had been waiting in front of the gate to the palace yard, around them luxurious, grandeur buildings and the streets standing tall, the most influential families lived there. All the buildings had this creamy sheen to them at all times, and the people leaving and entering the compounds wore expensive silk, sometimes even heavy armor. The latter was obviously the heads of the families, minding their own important business, especially after the attack on their home. The eye-piercing part of their surroundings was this random compound right next to them, with its walls barely standing, the main building and its side buildings grey and overgrown with the plant-life, at some places they looked straight up rotten and corroded. The courtyard was a complete jungle, and Po would stubborn claim that he had seen something move among the lush grass.

At this moment, one side building of the compound straight up blew up.

The Masters jumped back from the exploding debris and flames, shaking off the sonorous sound, and readied themselves for a fight. Crane instinctually took up his starting stance too, his fastened movements sending a burst of wind towards the flames and particles that were about to hit the Masters, blowing them away.

"Wohooooooooooooooooooyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!"

The shout came from above the burning building, and a figure flew out of the growing smoke. It was an avian creature, and the Masters followed how the figure stopped their gliding, and rapidly descended towards them. Their bodies tensed, ready to fight, but then the bird did a backflip and touched the ground. Spinning on its long and thin leg and facing them again, the figure bowed deeply.

"Tadaaa."

To enhance the ridiculousness of the situation, a well-dressed crocodile also appeared out of thin air with a tanggu strapped to her front, a kind of drum which she oh-so enthusiastically started hitting to an unknown rhythm, one Po would call 'action rhythm' if he weren't so flabbergasted (or was that awed?) of the situation. Unfortunately for the croc, a flying piece of plank collided with her long head, knocking her out mid-drum hit. The big animal fell over, crushing the tanggu under her weight and the newcomer avian visibly cringed.

"Damnit," the unknown bird said in a hiss, straightening out. A pair of sharp light-blue eyes gazed out from under the hood of the blond, silken tunic, meeting Crane's own yellow ones, and the Master's heart missed a beat.

Those eyes…

The newcomer's gaze swept over their group, and raised both his wings, the top feather visibly sticking out while the feathers under were more bent, like if he were trying to hold up both index fingers.

"Contempt, that's it, contempt! The right emotion I deserve after such a failure of an entrance," the unknown said, the voice dramatic, playful, and male with a hint of flossy and honey-covered vibrato, "And speaking of entrances, could you guys, like, forget this last minute while I try it again?"

While he talked, half of the Masters were busy watching the burning compound behind the bird, the other was busy following the unknown's animated movements that were surprisingly not fake. It's like every word of his had a movement assigned.

"No?" he said, looking between the faces, unfazed by the shellshocked silence his question received as a response, "Oh well, guess now I have to live with this embarrassment for the rest of my life. Which is fine! Just, y'know..."

Tigress was the first to shake off the stupor the spectacle gave. Her muscles tensed further, still amidst the stance of one of the most deadly and efficient tiger stances, and her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, zeroing on the newcomer.

"Who are you?" she said, a snarl entangling her words.

The unknown turned to her and, holding her powerful gaze without so much as a flinch, slowly dusted off some debris from his narrow shoulder.

"I would be His Majesty the Emperor's right-hand man, but call me Bao," he said, his words steely and sharp. Tigress was ready to answer this verbal challenge, but then the unknown, or 'Bao' as he called himself, suddenly relaxed his posture, and with his wings spread out wide and inviting, he joyously exclaimed, "I will be your tour guide on a very exciting journey in the Palace. Fair warning though, we might accidentally fall into a tea party on the way, so look out!"

Tigress' head reared back in the sudden explosion of not the expected reaction. She blinked at the exhilarated Bao.

"Bao…" Crane whispered, letting his wings drop from his stance.

"Hmmm?" Bao said, turning to him with a beaming smile, "Yes, that would be my name. Tastes fine on the tongue, I hope?"

"O-oh, well... I was just wondering. Had a friend here with the same name, back in the day," Crane said, rearranging his limbs and ending up as the second one to break his fighting stance. Shifu had quit ever since the young bird introduced himself as the Emperor's trustee. The yellow tunic with the red belt also sealed the deal, especially with the Emperor's insignia showing at the place of the bird's heart.

"And you were wondering whether or not I knew him?" Bao asked, his voice turning mischievous, his eyes half-lid.

"Yeah," Crane said, scratching his chest with his taloned feet.

"Hmm…" Bao began, his head bobbing side-to-side, while his eyes looked up, "Lin'an is vast, and it would happen that I am acquainted with several other Baos. We actually have weekly poetry night, it's pretty chill if I can say without sounding humble. Maybe a little more detail and I could point you the right way?"

"Um, right? He… had blue eyes, I think a lighter shade. His full name was also Bao Luo, and he was a white-naped crane."

All playfulness drained from Bao's black feathered face. His body tensed and his blue eyes narrowed, suspicious instead of challenging. The Masters watched the Emperor's trustee raise his wings, said appendages stopping once, likely asking himself if he were sure about it. It seemed the answer was yes; the wings resumed their path toward the bird's head and slid under the yellow hood. He raised the fabric and dropped it behind his person. With the hoodie gone, Bao's narrow face and long neck was exposed to the world to see. Patches of red plumage surrounded his eyes, the one on his right eye disturbed by a still currently healing scar. Black line of feathers crawled down on his neck from the patches, greying on the way and disappearing under the tunic's collar.

The most important thing was Bao's nape.

It was pure white.

"It may seem that I can spare my frail muscles from pointing at a simple direction, because you have already found your Bao."

Crane took a step back, his eyes flashing for a fragment of a second. The resulting wind moved the edges of every cloth, dying out as quickly as it came. The Masters shared a glance, their lips pursed, hoping Bao didn't notice the phenomenon. Unfortunately he did, evident by the way those light-blue depths darted to Tigress' shaking outfit, and his pupils tightened. But as quickly as the wind had come and gone, this change in demeanor disappeared, replaced by that blinding smile.

"B-Bao?" Crane said, tipping his hat up while he stepped forward, his friends making him way. Bao didn't react to this sudden decrease of distance between the two avians, though his smile may have turned into a smirk for a flash.

"True, 's still my name. You gotta excuse me though, while you clearly know me, I have not an idea who you would be - besides the obvious Master Crane schtick," Bao said, also striding forward, so now the two avians stood in front of one another.

Crane was slightly taller than Bao, his beak also a bit longer. Their plumage also differed on multiple body parts, but none of these differences mattered now, only the biggest. Though it was nothing of the usual; while Bao's eyes shone with the sky's soft illumination at a sunrise, Crane's vigorous honey-shaded depths swirled in a wide range of negative emotions, trying to hold off hope. The hope that, upon realizing itself, would ascend the avian Master's eyes into the sun, the one that lit up Bao's endless sky.

"I can…" Crane said, his voice ragged and forced, and he had to gulp to continue, "I can be at a d-distance, I can be at the shore, with you in my mind, I won't be alone nevermore."

While the fact that Crane sang took aback his ex-students, Master Shifu closed his eyes, enjoying the shy melody of a voice that has almost never been trained or used. He may have also enjoyed how the Emperor's trustee lost all his confident aura, his beak opening up, trying to find his voice. Shifu could see the world disappearing in Bao's eyes, as the tunes and the lyrics took away his undivided attention.

"The moon is a partner, the sun is a friend, but neither is enough, our love cannot bend. And when moon leaves on a brough, and sun drowns in tea a, pair of friends will stand together-"

"Just Bao, and Jia…" Bao murmured, his wide eyes losing focus. His head angled itself down, right until it found a spot on the ground to latch onto.

"You know…" Bao said, his voice low and slow. With a single blink, the focus returned to his eyes, "I actually woke up today with the thought; the universe can't surprise me, nope, no way. Guess I was my own doomsayer, huh?"

Bao took a step even closer to Crane, almost invading his personal space, and began looking Crane up and down.

"Little Jia, the artsy pants is back in home, ready to take over with brushes and scrolls," the smaller of the cranes said, his voice painted with laughter, "At the topic of pants though, I just have to say - this shade of blue and that purple sash are a genius fashion idea. And the rice hat, my god, how do you even figure something like that? Just simply mind-blowing."

Crane blinked at the sudden change of air, and he looked down on himself. When he realized that he was still in his Kung Fu gear, which meant half-naked, he awkwardly crossed his wings before his chest, trying to hide his feathers.

"I j-just thought they looked nice..."

Bao's posture dropped, while his gaze snapped up to Crane's face. He seemed to ignore Crane's plain prudish behavior in favor of looking absolutely scandalized.

"'I just thought they looked nice' he says, while he revolutionizes China's fashion for a decade. What the hell Jia?!" Bao raised his voice. Crane was ready to defend himself, but before he could open his beak, the smaller bird simply snatched his hat with a swift swipe.

On the sidelines, the Masters tensed, ready for a bloodbath. The last time someone took that piece of fabric away, they got put down into the ground. The fact that the compound was still on fire and it was spreading, while they could taste the fresh aroma of Elemental Chi lurking in the air did not help anyone's rabidly destabilizing calmness.

"Damnit, now I want a hat like this too. I would also need a better get up, because while I do look marvelous in this robe, no question's asked, my normal clothes are - OKAY, we are hugging," while he was rambling, Crane suddenly couldn't take it anymore, and engulfed Bao in a powerful embrace, further astonishing the Masters, Monkey and Mantis staring at the scene with open mouths. The white-naped bird bit his lip, his wings shaking in indecision, before giving into his own desires. Gripping the Master back, he rested his head on the feathered and apparently decently muscled shoulder and closed his eyes, savoring the moment.

The surroundings disappeared for the pair of avians, while they let the moment finally manifest itself in their minds. China could have melted from the face of the earth, these two wouldn't have cared.

"I missed you, Little Jia," Bao whispered, his eyes closed as the soft scent of his long-time best friend pervaded his senses.

"I missed you too, Ballistic Bao…"

"Oh, not that stupid name," the Emperor's trustee bit down a groan.

"Shut it, you know you love it."

"When I was small," he huffed, before going back to enjoying the sensation of security he never realized he missed so frickin' much. The giggling Crane patted Bao's back, enjoying the way his best friend's body shook with his own chuckles.

Suddenly, Bao ripped his body away and raised his wings.

"You know what this is? Mushy. It's sap. I am fighting a bile rising in my throat at the moment," he said, gesturing to his long neck.

Crane squinted. "Are you... trying to use dry humor?"

"I call it Jia humor. I have been rigorously practicing, day by day, and - does it work?" Bao asked, whispering the last part.

Crane's shoulders and eyelids dropped, his voice monotone, almost bored. "You sound like a vendor trying to sell paper lamps for the price of pottery."

"I mean," Bao began, scratching his neck with his taloned feet, "if they are really nice lamps…"

"They are paper lamps."

"Oh. But what if they are absrect?" Bao asked, his eyes twinkling.

One of Crane's eyelids rose. "You mean abstract."

"That's what I said."

"No, you did n-" Crane was about to heavily disagree, before he saw the white-naped crane's beak stretching into a smirk, "Ugh, whatever."

Bao's wings raised once again, his posture shaking in his trials to suffocate his laughs. "Disappointment, exactly! That's the perfect-"

He couldn't finish his sentence as like lightning, Crane's wings shot out, and sandwiched his beak, keeping it together and not allowing Bao to utter a word.

"Shut it."

Bao just smiled, immensely satisfied, and now he was the one who started the hug. This one had less of that aura of intimacy, and more 'come'ere you little rascal!' in it.

Both birds laughed, breathless, free.

The sidelined Masters shared a dumb glance and several clueless shrugs. The spectacle may have been rather unusual, but seeing Crane honestly smile and laugh, it made the edges of their lips to curl and their hearts swell.

"Ah yeah, these guys are here too," Bao said, disconnecting the hug. He waved, "Hi! Sorry for the holdup, it's a… best friend kinda deal."

Crane turned on his heels fast, his body freezing up upon seeing his idle friends, standing where they had been for the last few minutes. Did he seriously forget they were there?

"Oh, we did not mean to impose. You can continue your heartfelt reunion in peace," Shifu said, his raspy voice colored by humor.

Crane massaged his exposed head, his wings itching for his hat so he could tip it. Bao simply snorted at the elderly red panda's tone, uncaring. "Well, my boss wouldn't find it heartfelt or amusing, so we gotta move."

Tigress bristled unknown to all, and Bao easily threw the rice hat back onto the head of its owner, before beginning the walk towards the gate. Crane huffed after rearranging his favorite piece of clothing in a way that didn't make him look lousy, and was about to follow him, when Mantis spoke up.

"Is nobody going to comment on the burning building?"

Both avians stopped mid-step and turned back to the compound, its right side building cracking on amber fire. What the Masters didn't understand is why nobody, besides them, cared that a fire was this close to them, or that there was a fire at all. Nobles and the such only spared a glance, some smiled, some scoffed, but nonetheless continued on their business.

"Ah, yeah, that could be a problem. But fret not, I've got a solution," Bao said, before hooking his leg under a piece of brick, and launching it towards the still knocked out crocodile's head with an easy swing. The piece hit its mark dead-on and the crocodile lady woke up with a start, snapping his head around, her wary eyes jumping all over the place.

"Wake up, you big oaf! Didn't we agree on something?"

Bao's voice gathered the crocodile's attention. The white-naped crane motioned with his wing, pointing it behind her. Upon turning and realizing the severity of a problem, she scrambled up from the ground, sprinted behind some thick bushes on the street corner, came out with sheep-sized buckets, and began dumping their contents on the flames.

"That's it. Next time I tell you that I wanna make a grand entrance to important people, try not to fall asleep!" Bao shouted, shaking his head, "I swear, she does that every time. It's like she could sleep over an explosion."

Po was looking at the diligent alligator, slowly killing the licks of flames. "Didn't she?"

His question made Bao blink. "...Oh yeah. That's true. Whatever, it's time for the anticipated tour!"

Taking on the lead, the Masters sent a last glance at the busted compound, before following the Emperor's trustee in his journey to the guarded gate. Crane walked up to Bao, falling in line with him. The Masters noted the closeness between the avians, and the way the smaller bird sent a curious look to his side, to which the bigger bird replied with a raised eyebrow, daring the fellow to question his actions. Bao smiled and stuck his tongue out, to which Crane looked up, exasperated, but smiled nonetheless while nudging his long-lost best friend.

"Jerk," Bao whispered.

"Child," Crane countered, to which both chuckled.

"And that is the Council room. That's where all the boring politics go on between the lords, the civil government, His Majesty the Emperor, and the Eunuchs," Bao said, shuddering, "Grumpy bunch."

"Eunuchs? Who?" Po asked, looking into the spacious room of the palace, marveling at the number of fancy seats.

"Men who felt like their worthless opinions were not annoying enough for the common ear, so they decided to lose a very important part of their body in order to promote their words from worthless to annoying and useless. And no, I'm not going into details there, just believe me when I say that the price for becoming an Eunuch would be your future kids and your dignity."

Viper and Tigress looked between his friends, wondering why they were crossing their legs.

"So yeah, boring stuff is there, the room is fancy, yada yada," Bao said in a bored voice, while motioning to the inside of the room.

Tigress was actively clenching her fists.

"Is this where we'll be meeting His Majesty?" Shifu asked, using his staff to regain the attention of their group.

Bao tilted his head. "This? Why would we be? Didn't I say that we are going to have a tea with His Majesty the Emperor?"

Shifu's eyebrows rose. "I thought that was just an expression."

Bao continued blinking at the red panda, before letting out an incredulous laugh, his chest shaking as the air escaped him.

"No, no no, seriously, we will have a tea party with my boss. It's there, at the Emperor's tea room, behind the blue door," Bao said amidst his laughter, pointing to the end of the hall they were in.

The hall itself had a high ceiling, the walls covered with a layer of red silk. Occasionally, scrolls disrupted the continuous crimson, with pictures of former Emperors and famous life-bettering-quotes from Confucius himself. The ceiling had yet another dragon, this one made from pure gold, crawling all over the length of the hall. The Masters followed Bao's wing, and a dark-blue double-door with a golden frame greeted them. Just as he said it, two massive rhino guards in heavy armors and Tigress-sized maces took positions at the two sides of the door, guarding it with stony dark looks.

"Wow, we honestly thought you are joking," Mantis mumbled, when Bao grasped the metallic latches of the Council Room's own double doors.

"Yeah, well-" the white-naped crane began, the doors closing with a thud, sighing after he made sure the door wouldn't open, "Back in the day, I would have made it sounds more 'joke-y', but now I got responsibilities and other stuff. I miss when I could prank around, burn and blow stuff freely and just not care about what happened in the world."

He looked back, finding Crane's yellow depths, and smirked.

"With my Jia of course."

Crane groaned, already covering tipping his hat, as Mantis and Monkey looked between the two birds.

"H-hold up! You mean Birdbrain was pranking? Like the 'getting people covered in paint' kinda pranking?" Monkey asked with wide, urgent eyes, his voice coated in a layer of pure disbelief.

"Burning and blowing up…?" Viper whispered next to them with her body tightening into a curl.

Bao's smirk widened and Crane honestly wanted to cry. The Emperor's trustee stepped forward, making his way down the hall, and the Masters reluctantly followed him.

"Let me kill two birds with one stone then with an example, one I hope Jia still remembers."

Crane squinted at him, before his face jumped in alert. "You are not going to tell them that!"

"Oh boy, but I will. Gotta give the audience what they want, now don't we?" And he wasn't wrong, even Tigress looked intrigued about the most peaceful member of theirs being involved in pranks out of all things.

Crane went back to watching the carpeted floor under his rice hat and trailed the group instead of walking beside them. Or at least that would have been the plan, but Bao was a child, a clingy one, and he snatched the Master by the waist, ignoring the yelp of startlement. Crane found himself planted next to his best friend, forced to follow the white-naped crane's tempo.

The Master of the Fujian White Crane Technique took a hold on the two sides of his strawhat, pulled them onto his head, and surrendered to madness.

"Story time! So, there was this grumpy old antelope, part of the civil government, filthy rich, filthy in general. I once happened to cross paths with the guy, and he didn't like how I looked or I dunno, but he started saying nasty things at my face and pushing me around. Once again, nothing happened before, he just attacked."

"What did you do?" surprisingly, Shifu was the one asking, his eyes hard.

Bao liked this old man.

"Well…" the Emperor's trustee drawled, looking at his best friend who utterly gave up on this situation, and he snickered, "I went up to Jia and told him what happened and how much I want to blow up the old man's house and incinerate everything that was dear to him. Sorry, I'm kind of a sucker for watching things burn."

His ears caught several gulps and wasn't that a satisfying thing to hear.

"What did Crane do?" Mantis asked, his antennas twitching.

"Well-"

"I told him it was a bad idea and that he should leave it. Then he left it and we lived happily ever after. The End," Crane said, his words quick and almost unintelligible.

Bao's face dipped, his eyes twinkling in mischief. "Is that so? I remember some extra parts before the 'happily ever after'. Such when you got two bags of black henbane, found the dude's house, sneaked in alone, and put it in his tea."

Mantis's boisterous, deep laugh echoed in the hall. Monkey frowned on the other hand, big mental gymnastics ongoing. "What does henbane do?" the simian asked.

"Let me answer that…" Mantis said, barely able to catch his breath, "Black henbane is a herb, capable of making anyone communicate with spirits. Taken in raw though, it causes vivid hallucinations of sparks and flames."

Monkey's frozen face turned to Crane, who just shrugged.

"I just thought the guy deserved to see his things burn down, but just to see, nothing else."

"Old man was tripping balls so bad, he was screaming and drenching his own house! BEST PRANK EVER!" Bao shouted as his wings tightly hooked around the embarrassed Crane, giving him an enthusiastic half hug. His laughter joined in on Monkey's and Mantis' mirth. Viper openly giggled, no matter how much she tried to resist it, while Shifu concealed his own chuckles with coughs. Tigress massaged her jaw, looking indifferent as ever, but in reality she just tried to cover her smile.

"Oh man, nice one Crane," Mantis said, jumping onto the bird's shoulder and slapping it.

"T-thank you," Crane replied, and he for once really hoped that the warmth of under his skin was the Elemental Chi working.

"And that was only an example, me and Jia did so many pranks back in the day! Jia was the mastermind, I was the action. 't was well balanced system if you ask me. No Jia, I go to jail for burning down something actually important. No me, well, no prank," Bao continued as they arrived in front of the dark-blue door, the guards stepping out of the way with a huff.

"Someone had to look out for you. It's not my fault you were a certified idiot who regularly got himself almost killed," Crane said, his skin no longer feeling hot.

"Just almost! And you know it well, you were the one who articulated my favorite life motto."

"What motto?" Monkey asked, anticipating the answer.

"Too stupid to live, but too dumb to die," Crane said, emphasizing every word. Bao opened his wings and bowed, immensely proud smile gracing his beak.

"Bao Luo, certified idiot, careful pyromaniac, doesn't know how to die. That's me." he said, to which Crane rolled his eyes and raised Bao's head by the beak, straightening him out. His wing lingered there for one moment too long, and the cranes exchanged a pair of nods and smiles.

"All righty! Please, Masters of the Jade Palace, take a seat inside. His Majesty the Emperor will soon be joining you," Bao piped up, motioning towards the now open double-doors. The Masters moved together and piled into the wide room one after the other. Except for Crane, who was stopped by Bao's wing.

"Huh?"

"Ah-ah, pretty boy. You can't get in without pretty clothes," Bao said, smirking at the cluelessness of his friend.

"P-pretty clothes?"

"Yeah. Can't meet my boss half-naked now, can you?" Crane hated how much Bao was obviously enjoying his confusion.

"B-but, Po and Monkey-!"

"Master Crane, are you going against the Emperor's words? That's presumptuous!"

Crane frowned, his mind feeling numb from the amount of missing information. "The Emperor's words? Did His Majesty the Emperor explicitly say that 'Master Crane cannot go there without a robe'? Seriously?"

Bao smirk widened, a feat Crane didn't think was possible.

"Oh, darling Jia, if you thought I was today's big twist, then let me tell you…" he said with a voice sweet as a hornet invested beehive. He took a firm hold on the Master's wing and dragged him away from the door, right back into the halls, "I was just the appetizer."

Not understanding either the situation or the context, Crane let himself be dragged away, the double-doors closing behind him.

"So… none of us are going to question where the lovebirds are?" Mantis asked from atop of the table.

The 'Emperor's tea room' as Bao called it had an easy, relaxing atmosphere to it. The room was very wide, but exceedingly short when you looked at it from the frame of the double-doors. The opposite side had shining windows, reaching until the room's high ceiling. In the middle of the room were two long tables, both situated parallel to the long wall and the windows, a little gap between them. In the corner, there was a small, wooden tea table, with its modest surface and small legs, currently empty. The actual walls had fancy golden lanterns hanging from metal spikes, the pointy ends curving upwards. The spikes came out of the wall, they carved the underside of them in a way that it evenly arched in that ninety degrees between the spike and the noble purple walls.

The Masters sat at the right table, waiting for His Majesty, His Majesty's Right-Hand Man, and their missing teammate.

"Bao Luo said that Crane was told to get a new outfit, while His Majesty is coming," Tigress replied from her seat, her hands clasped together on the table.

Monkey squinted at her from the left. "You are pretty snappy today. What's up?"

"It's nothing."

Her indifferent voice was perfect, no one would have guessed that it was actually something. But family surrounded her, and they knew her tells by now.

"Uhum, now let's try again. What's up Tigress?" Mantis asked from Monkey's left, his question intentionally pressed.

"None of your business," she growled at him, her intertwined paws gripping one another.

Mantis reared back with broad eyes, sharing a look with Monkey. Viper pursed her lips, watching the tense tiger, his tail rattling.

"What's your problem?" the insect said, raising his voice.

"As I said, none of your business, bug."

Mantis' eye twitched, his legs readied to jump at the tiger, while Monkey readied himself to catch his best buddy. Tigress also tensed her own set of muscles, Viper already circling around her right arm soothingly, though the blind could see it was also for the sake of stopping the appendage if push comes to shove.

Suddenly, a loud thunk cut through the suffocating tension in the air. Four sets of eyes turned to the other side of the table where Shifu was glaring back at them, his staff firmly placed on the ground.

"Dragon Warrior, if you would be so kind." the red panda said, not removing his eyes from the four Masters.

The attention turned to the panda on the seat next to Shifu. Looking around awkwardly, Po fumbled with his fingers under the table as he cleared his throat.

"Guys please, this is kinda serious. The first time any of us meets the Emperor, and I'm not sure about you guys, but I'd rather give him a good first impression. So could we all just… calm down? You can fight it out after this meeting?"

The delinquents didn't look happier, but they nodded without energy nonetheless.

"We are sorry, Dragon Warrior."

Po, for once in his life, didn't smile hearing his awesome title.

"Master Tigress," Shifu spoke up, his brow still furrowed but his eyes no longer strict, "What ires you?"

Said tiger clenched her jaw and looked to the side, her eyes telling millions of thoughts. Those thoughts disappeared with a resigned sigh.

"I just… can't fathom how one can act so blatantly disrespectful like this Bao character. He calls His Majesty the Emperor 'my boss', talks about China's most crucial room and people like they are unworthy of even mentioning, and then abuses his rank to… sustain his crazed desires. I'm shocked that people would just let him run around like that, much less in such a high position of power."

"I mean," Monkey spoke up, "I understand your problem with the 'my boss' part, that's a big taboo, yeah, but the rest are…"

"The rest are what?" Tigress asked pointedly, turning to the simian.

"I dunno. There must be a lot of things we don't know or weren't told, so who knows? Maybe His Majesty allowed Bao to do as he pleases. Maybe not," Monkey said with a shrug by the end.

"Don't be ridiculous," Tigress said, scoffing, "What I see is an obvious maniac ignoring all the important traditions past generations have set up for a reason."

"So…" Po began, shattering the silence, "Whatcha gonna do about it then?"

Tigress sighed. "Probably take it up with Crane. He seems to find a common voice with Bao."

"Yeah, they are really close," Viper said, happy that the tension is over, "What do you think happened that they had to separate?"

Mantis rubbed his chin. "True, they look like a package deal."

"OH MY GOD WHAT'S UP, MISTER BOOMBASTIC?"

"GODDAMNIT BAO, DON'T LAUGH!"

Bao's roaring laugh and Crane's borderline screech made several Masters jump. Before they could turn on their chair to look behind, their friend's voice spoke again, right as the latches of the double-door moved.

"Please guys, don't turn around."

Turn around they did either way.

"Duuude, you look..." Mantis said, his jaw slack.

Crane's long legs marched up to the table, to the place right to Tigress and opposite to Shifu, and head-butted the expensive furniture. The Masters tracked the spectacle with their eyes, not really finding the right words to make a comment on Crane's new appearance.

"I feel like exactly the words you think I look like," Crane mumbled lowly as Bao also stepped through the doors, tears in his eyes.

"Flamboyant?" Monkey asked, having one hand covering his mouth so as not to snicker.

"Outlandish?" Po asked, looking at his friend's new outfit with owlish eyes.

"Dressed for the occasion?" Tigress also spoke up, a smile finally finding its way onto her face.

Crane raised his head, his face passive and unimpressed.

"It doesn't look bad actually," Viper spoke, smiling widely at that amazing piece of clothing on his friend's body, "It's just... weird seeing you in a formal clothing."

It really was weird. The only time they had seen Crane without the purple sash-blue pants combination was at the Winter Festival, when the sash turned red and the pants turned to a whiter shade. The current outfit was a vibrant crimson robe. Similar to Lord Shen's, it covered the avian's legs, and the sleeves were wide enough to dangle from his wings. But while they made Shen's robe for a peacock's stooping form, this robe was narrower, made for the taller and more uptight cranes. The wall of the outside hall was a lively shade of red, but Crane's robe reflected the sun's reaching shine and just itself gave a new light to the room;

Also, vibrant red and Master Crane didn't look that good together, like, at all.

The avian Master covered his face with his wings, whimpering pitifully as the expensive material rubbed over his feathers. This was also the time when Bao, who had been idling at the side of the double doors, heard the handles turn and smiled a knowing smile.

"The goat who picked this out had serious murder vibes. Her eyes were looking into my soul I swear."

"Having problems with the people of the Palace, Jia?"

The never-before-heard voice distracted the occupants of the room, making them turn towards the door. There stood Bao in all its amused glory, right next to yet another avian, this one wearing a vesture similar to Crane's, but golden colored, and a cloak that reached the ground behind his person, also golden. The Masters didn't need much time to realize who this was; the dark circular hat with the askew board on top and the interwoven pearls hanging from both sides of the board could mean only one person.

His Majesty.

The Emperor.

Po gasped when the two made eye contact. "Woah, he looks like Crane but older."

The Emperor's worn but still strong features lit up in his laughter, hauntingly similar to the aforementioned Master's own.

"Astute observation, Dragon Warrior. Maybe... 'Master Crane' could shed some light on the reason," he said, his hand gesturing to the person in question.

The rest looked at their friend for answers. Bao's being was shaking, his cheeks puffing up in his trials not to laugh at the comical disorientation of absolute befuddlement paired with that somehow visible paling and unhinged beak.

„F-father?!"

Story Miscellaneous
#13:With Crane's name revealed, the Author decided not to confuse the readers and keep on refering to him as Crane with a capital C. The name 'Jia' will be used frequently enough, as now we start getting personal with our beloved protagonist.
#14:My other work, 'Crane's hat' is a kind of prequel to this story, even if the events there have no influence on this story. It plays right before Chapter 1.
#15:Turns out, calling the Chinese Emperor his name was a giant taboo. So much so, even the Emperor's mother couldn't call him on his name. 'His Majesty the Emperor' was a common way of calling them when they weren't present.
#15A:Imagine not being able to call the heads of your countries by their real name, not even in private, instead you have to murder your vocabulary.

Chapter 5 Miscellaneous
#1:Young cranes are called 'colts'. The Author did extensive research on that, since as far as he knew, young horses were called colts. Lo and behold, they are named the same.
#2:Sanheyuan buildings were widely spread in the southern part of China, especially in the Fujian region. These compounds were inverted U-shaped horizontally with the main building in the middle, and a wall linking the two forward-thrusting side wings. The wall obscured the small courtyard in the middle.
#3:This chapter was the Author's first trial at world building. It was also the first time the Author introduced a crucial character with the use of his studies in the art of Writing.
#3A:Worldbuilding wasn't as bad as I thought it would be to be honest. And writing Bao was a joy, best friendships are amazing!