Bao Bao was just glad to be home. After a standard length but excruciatingly strenuous day of leaping across high-altitude chasms and fighting off abominable mountain goats living on the snowy top, he just wanted to curl up next to a radiator and take a fluffy snooze. Putting away his giant broadsword next to his bed, he then took off the rest of his hero gear until he finally felt like a free dog again. The temptation for a nap was still there, but he had remembered having asked a favor of his mother a day before he left for his adventure. He left his room and traversed the expansive Mao residence until he found her, the older female black cat quietly musing to herself while looking out a window.

"Hey mom," Bao Bao quietly called out, careful not to startle her. His mom turned around casually to see her adoptive son standing in front of her.

"Oh, Bao Bao, you're back earlier than you said you would." She smiled at the sight of her adoptive son back at home and in good condition.

The tan-furred dog shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, those mountain goats put up a hard fight, but their moves were easy to read."

His mom nodded, giving a humorous huff. "I can see that happening. Good to know you made it."

Bao Bao nodded and gave a little smile in return, but he then looked down to the floor at his side, a paw holding the elbow of his other arm while his tail wagged somewhat rapidly. He was rather tight-lipped, his face held in a tense expression out of some mixed desires between saying something more and keeping quiet. Not that he was trying to hide it from his mom of all people, but her face relaxed into a show of analytical empathy.

"Is something on your mind, Bao Bao?"

The dog sighed inaudibly without opening his mouth. "Well, about what I asked you earlier…did he say anything?"

In return, his mom looked away and closed her eyes, making a quiet sigh of her own. "He was…rather quiet the whole time. I had to ask him things just to get him to even make a sound…" She said nothing afterwards, opting to look back out the window. But Bao Bao wasn't going to take the silence.

"Well? Then what did he say?"

She shut her eyes tighter, hoping vainly that he would just drop it and go on his merry way. But as a mom, she knew whether or not her adoptive son was still in the room, and she could still feel his presence every passing second. She turned to look at Bao Bao again and trotted her way towards him until she stood just several inches in front of him. She knelt down until she looked at him face to face at his eye level and took both his paws into hers. "Bao Bao…he…didn't want to talk to you." For a moment, she averted her eyes away from Bao Bao's, whose gaze slowly fell. "I tried to reason with him, if not convince him to because you and he are brothers, but he still said no. He wouldn't even tell me where exactly in Pure Heart Valley he lived."

"Oh…"

Bao Bao turned his face away to look at nothing, feeling particularly dismayed that he still continued to be haunted by that memory, of when he and his big brother were together for the last time. But he felt fingertips gently press against his cheek that pushed his line of sight back towards his mother's eyes.

"Sweetie, I know it's hard, and it hasn't been easy for you even after so long, but…" She gently squeezed the dog's paws, "…just have hope. Maybe he'll hear you out another time."

"Yeah," Bao Bao answered quietly, feeling as though he had to push himself extra hard to agree because he didn't quite believe what his mom said to him.

The next day was nothing special, just another day of patrolling and possible training, with a good amount of random fun stuff in between. Bao Bao simply took to strolling at the side of the round dojo, occasionally glancing between the scenery and the towering draconian statue that sat in the center. This place was the same one where his father, Shin Mao, had officially and ceremonially awarded his older sisters their golden weapons, the 'cool' weapons, as he heard the big cat call them.

He remembered seeing Mao Mao there too, hearing him ask their father about his legendary weapon. Seeing his big brother holding that golden sword made Bao Bao feel a little envious inside, as he wondered when he would get his legendary weapon too. It even made him laugh a little over looking at how silly his brother looked trying to hold that thing. Sure, he was bigger now, but that memory of the more distant past still got a reaction out of him.

His ears perked at the sound of rockets flaring in the air, prompting him to look in the direction of its source to find his father in the distance flying towards him, calling out his name.

"Hey son!" Shin Mao called loudly over the air blowing past him. He stopped just as he was in front of Bao Bao and landed down onto the stone floor of the open dojo. He stood in all his golden glory, his golden armor adorning his tall figure of heroic build, his red cape frayed at the edges fluttering in the wind. His hands were on his hips and his back arched as though he was doing a casual cool pose.

Bao Bao was used to this glim-glam at that point, but he couldn't just ignore it every time it came to him. "Hey dad," he greeted just as casually, giving a little wave and a smile.

"How's it going? I heard you took down all the abominable mountain rams of the northern mountains yesterday."

"Goats, actually. But yeah, took them all down. They won't be bothering the villagers of the cliff's edge anymore."

Shin Mao gave a hearty laugh. "See? I told you they wouldn't be a problem!" As he spoke, he was giving very heavy pats on Bao Bao's shoulder. Bao Bao winced slightly under the heavy touches. They felt like they would have gradually pushed him down into the floor if this continued. But that was dad, and it was probably a good thing. After all, in what other ways would he know his dad was happy with him?

Bao Bao gave a little sarcastic smile of his own. He always knew that his dad believed he could do anything. It just gets tiring after a while, especially when you hear it almost every time. "Of course," he shrugged his shoulders. "Why would they be, considering I showed them the moves I happened to get from a master?"

Shin Mao gave a muffled chuckle. "Well sure, I taught you the moves. But you perfected them, I'm sure." He then moved his hand over the dog's head to give a rubbing pat. "I watched you the whole time you trained, you know. You got so smart that I'm sure you could do anything."

That made Bao Bao's ears perk up. "You think so?"

Shin Mao laughed at how sudden his son asked that question. "Of course, son! Why else would I've wanted to take you on your first adventure, especially after I found out you made your own sword from scratch?"

Bao Bao turned his gaze away to the side as his father brought up that memory. He did make the giant sword that he commonly carried in a hilt on his back, but he didn't make it all by himself. He recalled his mother having walked in on him trying to figure out how to make the blade stay the way it did. At the time, his first several attempts looked rather messy, like he was trying to mold his weapon from clay. It took his mom telling him the entire actual smelting process from the very beginning while giving a few other on-the-side pointers as she walked him through it all. While the blade turned out exactly the way he wanted, he wanted to brag about mom to his father. It took him peeking in on his brother Mao Mao being brushed off by Shin Mao to reconsider. If his brother, the only other son in the family, could be brushed off for not being impressive enough for dad, what if Bao Bao could fall short too? He couldn't bring himself to admit that he couldn't figure out how to make a sword, so he let his father do the guesswork.

Bao Bao faced his father again, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, I was really proud of that one. I guess you were too." He was met with another pat on the back by his father. He then took the next opportunity, "Hey dad? You know what Mao Mao's up to?"

"Who?"

"Mao Mao, my brother, your other son?" Bao Bao looked deadpan.

"M-…Oh! Mew Mew, of course! Sorry son, but I haven't got any word from him in ages, so I got no idea." Shin Mao held his hands up in cluelessness as he spoke. Bao Bao sighed, disappointed that even his father proved to be another dead-end; he thought for sure that if his mother couldn't help, his father certainly would. But what was even more disheartening was the fact that even while his father had not tried to contact Mao Mao, the other way around was just as true.

But then again, thinking back to that day… "Of course he wouldn't. But still…" His thoughts were interrupted by Shin Mao kneeling down to look at him at eye level.

"Eh, don't sweat it, son. I'm sure if he saw you again now, he'd be climbing all over you." He gave Bao Bao a confident wink. "He knows you're one dynamo dawg!"

That made Bao Bao laugh nervously. "Yeah, dad…dynamo dawg…right…all over me…" He waited for Shin Mao to get up and walk past him. Listening with his twitching ears, he waited until his father was absolutely absent from the area. He gave out a soft sigh. "Well, he won't talk on the phone, but…maybe it wouldn't hurt to check out Pure Heart Valley. Kinda wanted to go exploring there after hearing it was back on the map…" He then turned to go back inside.

"I wonder how different Mao Mao is now…"