A heart-to-heart talk with Reiko and Max about how far he's come...

Chapter 9: How Much You've Grown

Soon after the talk about the birds and the bees, Max walks downstairs with a few things pondering in his head about that talk he had with Mako in terms of how to present himself as a gentleman around a girl and how to wait for his very first kiss as he gets older and that they won't end up having kids while they're still kids. Still though, he does wonder what it's gonna be like when he reaches his full teen years and how he's gonna get through a lot of crazy stuff that happens during that time, but he knows that he'll never fall into a trap where the thinks he knows more than anyone else does and that he will remain his true, humble self and have that around him soon.

As he makes it downstairs, he walks to the wall where he sees the lines in which most of the younger kids measure themselves based on height and he walks over to his and sees that he's grown above almost 9 inches. Very quickly, Reiko walks over and puts another mark on the wall near Max's head that fits almost his height and she was still surprised that Max has gotten so taller and said, "Max...I can't believe that you're growing up so quickly."

"Me neither. And so fast too." Max said, with a slight chuckle.

"In just 7 weeks, you will be 12. I can hardly believe it in my own eyes." Reiko said, amazed.

Max blinks his eyes a few times and is really thinking about getting older and said, "I know I'm growing up, but I hardly feel any older."

"It always happens to the best of us. We may not even know it, but time goes by so fast that it's hard to figure it all out in one moment until you realize that it's coming true. Not many people stay young forever, but we will always carry the memories we have so we can tell our future children about the times we had when we were young, but of course...the mistakes we may make along the way so that we wouldn't see the same ones we made into them." Reiko added.

Max nodded at this and he knows a much more personal wish that he would want for his future cubs one day and he said, "If I had kids, I wouldn't want them to go through what I went through as a cub; feeling like they were worthless. And I would never, ever do anything to hurt them at all...like my birth father did to me."

Reiko nods her head and knowing that Max had been through a tremendous amount of hell when he was younger with his birth parents and she can tell that he's acknowledging that he'll never follow in his birth father's footsteps when he gets married and have kids of his own and she said, "Sometimes, most people aren't meant to be parents because they don't know what it's like to have a parent's love and I feel so sorry for the kids that have to live with it. And I'm proud of the fact that you're gonna put their first interests soon."

"I would want them to enjoy their childhood and love them the way they're supposed to be loved." Max added.

"You're very mature, Maximus."

Both of them turned around to see Shifu coming in and as he walked by, Reiko and Max bowed to him and Shifu chuckled modestly and said, "Forgive me for intruding like this, but I couldn't help but overhear what Max has elaborated with you."

"How did you hear us?" asked Reiko, very surprised.

"My ears capture everything...and your door was open." Shifu answered.

Max blinked his eyes at this and he asked Shifu, "You didn't quite hear the part about dad giving me the talk, did you?"

"No." Shifu answered.

"Okay then." Max said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Would you and the masters like to stay for lunch?" asked Reiko.

"Lunch?! We'll stay!" Po said, coming in immediately along with the rest of the Five, the Elemental Hazards and Blaze.

"Seems as if we should stick around for a while." Shifu added, with an amused chuckle.

Sweet and funny! Stay tuned for more!