Mako gives Max a little bit of the birds and bees talk...very common for an 11-year old.

Chapter 8: The Talk

Mako takes Max to his room and the minute they entered the room, Max was a little anxious to hear about the birds and bees talk from his dad, but it's also very difficult to Mako to explain every single details of it to a young tiger cub, yet he also knows it's not the first time he's ever given the talk to his kids before so that they can learn what it all boils down to. Mako and Max sat down on the edge of the bed and Mako took a deep breath and knows that there's no turning back and looks at Max and said, "I saw you kissing Saori on the window earlier. It kinda got me thinking that I need to tell you about the birds and the bees."

Max nodded his head as he gets to hear everything his panda father is trying to say without making it seem awkward or weird, but it does seem weird to tell this to an 11 year old, but it's just in order to make sure Max doesn't make a mistake when he gets to the teen years because his hormones may come into the forefront soon when it comes to girls and Mako jumped straight into it.

While taking a deep breath and said, "You know, you're at the age where you start to like girls a lot...like a whole lot. And I know you have feelings for Saori, but I just hope that it doesn't lead to...you know, starting something too early."

"Like mating?" asked Max.

And that kinda stunned Mako to know that Max has already figured it out himself and he wasn't sure what else to say, but he asked, "How'd you know that?"

"Sometimes I would catch Akashi talking about it and I had no idea what it meant." Max answered.

"Well...what that term means is that guy and a girl come together to make babies. But that do that when they're married on that one special moment they have together. Some young kids don't want to wait that long and they just go for it...like I used to when I was a teenager. I was 17 when I had Cody and it just became a huge deal in my life knowing that I could've controlled myself back then. At the time, I just didn't think about things, but now...I only wished I knew now what I could've back then." Mako added.

Just hearing that revelation from Mako made Max completely surprised that he was that young when Cody was born and that's the trap that he doesn't want to get in as he gets older and he blinks his eyes in response to that and Mako looks at Max and said, "You see, you're a young cub and you have the freedom to just enjoy your childhood, but when you reach your later teen years, things are gonna be different and I just want you to make good decisions for yourself. If someone wants you to mate a girl early, just have the courage to say no. Some kids have their own kids too early because they never know what's right and wrong. You understand my point, right?"

"I think I'm halfway there." Max said, scratching the back of his neck.

Mako sighed at that response and he replied, "Maybe this might help a little. Do you like cookies?"

"Of course I love cookies." Max replied, his ears perked.

"Well...you know when you see a cookie, you can eat it to your heart's desire with no limits. But there's this one special cookie that has your sights set on and you just want to eat it immediately, but it's just too special to have it yet. Because there's something very important with that cookie that you may not have noticed and you have to take your time to really fall in love with it...until that one special day when you can finally eat it. It may take months, even years to even savor that cookie, but once you realize how important it is to you, the end result is well worth the wait. It's the same way as kissing a girl on a special day, you just wait until you're fully committed to her and then you kiss her on that day." Mako explained.

Max slowly got the message all filled in already and he said, "I see. So...I just have to wait until it's okay?"

"Yes. I know that cookie part sounds kinda confusing to you, but that's the point I'm trying to make. Whatever's important, you just have to have patience until that special day comes. Understand?" asked Mako.

"Yes, dad." Max replied.

"And if you have any more questions about this, don't hesitate to come to me. It's a very hard subject to talk about to a cub, but it's the only way to tell you before you come to the point where you have kids too early. So just enjoy your childhood when you can." Mako responded.

"I will." Max said, with a smile.

Max walked out of his father's room, but when the door opened, in comes Samurai and Phoenix who tumbled down to the floor and Max and Mako were surprised to know that they've been eavesdropping the whole time and Samurai grunted and said, "I told you to back up, Phoenix!"

"Well, I would if you hadn't have got your big gut on the other side of the door!" Phoenix exclaimed.

"I wanted to get a better hearing." Samurai said, with a sneer.

Mako folded his arms and cleard his throat loudly, which caused both Samurai and Phoenix to look at thier father with a very stern look on his face and realized that they got caught and they said, "Hey, dad."

"Were you boys eavesdropping?" asked Mako.

"I told Phoenix it was a bad idea!" Samurai said, pointing to Phoenix.

Phoenix looked completely offended by that and said, "It was your idea in the first place. You said 'Let's hear every little morsel that dad is telling Max about mating' before we went upstairs!"

"That's a lie!" Samurai exclaimed.

"Enough! You boys know better than to eavesdrop!" Mako exclaimed.

Max can tell that Samurai and Phoenix are busted and at that moment, he walked out of the room without saying another word and as he walked downstairs, he began thinking about what Mako said and he understood that very quickly that he has to wait until that special time where they can kiss, but it'll take some time for that to happen. Tsunami noticed Max walking by and he said, "How'd it go?"

"It was pretty good. I think I just got some lessons learned from dad about waiting for the right time for me to kiss Saori...although it might be hard because I have feelings for her and I'm almost a pre-teen." Max answered.

Tsunami chucked in agreement and said, "Welcome to the complicated time period we call adolescence, dude."

Very interesting! This chapter became the most important part for me because I started it one Saturday morning; February 6th, 2016...which was the day that I saw 'Kung Fu Panda 3' and after I saw it, I finished it up! My first story with a KFP 3 tie-in is coming soon! Till then, stay tuned for more!