Hey guys!

Yeah, this is a chapter that I've been waiting so long to write down, I'm so glad that it's finally over! Please tell me if you like it and enjoy the story ^^''

I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Chapter 14 – Just ask and I will answer

The fat panda didn't seem to be comfortable standing in Tigress' room. He looked like he was going to tell her something really bad, so of course Tigress went worried, the moment she saw him. "Po, what's wrong? Has something happened?"

"Yeah, no… maybe," Po saw Tigress' confused glance and started talking again; "It's just that… That mark on the leather-bag. It was the same mark as on the other bandits' weapons."

So he had noticed too… It was pretty obvious but still, Master Shifu and the others didn't seem to think about it. Po wasn't the most intelligent person but he could out two and two together. Even if he didn't know who the Rulers of the Four Winds were. "I know. I saw that too…" was all Tigress managed to say.

"Do you think it's the same bandits? I mean, didn't we stop the bandits?" Po was nervous; you could hear that in his voice. Tigress shook her head while answering; "I can't be sure. Maybe the thief took it from one of the bandits. But I doubt that."

"Many of us got really hurt back then… But now when Proelio's back, it won't be a problem if it really is one of the bandits," Po was now smiling. He was pretty naive, to think that Master Proelio was the one to help them and not the one bringing the problems inside.

"It's probably not a bandit. But could you please leave my room? I need to rest," Tigress said and walked toward her bed. Po quickly nodded, mumbled sorry and hurried out of the room. Tigress didn't watch him leave, but lied down in her bed. Not that she could sleep. She didn't want to sleep because every single night, she dreamt about Master Proelio. She didn't remember her dreams very well but she remembered Master Proelio and the feeling of being safe. And she didn't like that; because she wasn't supposed to feel safe with Master Proelio.

She lied in her bed in a few hours when she finally gave up and left her room. She always took a walk when she couldn't sleep. Not a huge walk into the forest but a simple walk through the palace. It was very beautiful at night, almost like a magical place. It was so silent that Tigress could hear her own heart beat and she was almost afraid of waking the others when walking on the creaking floor. But it didn't take long before she stopped. The room beside her was normally empty and was only used by guests. She could just check if Madam Jun was in there and awake – if not, then the feline could just leave without anyone noticing.

She quietly walked to the sliding door and very carefully, she opened it and took a step inside. It didn't take long before she realized that this wasn't Madam Jun's bedroom and she froze.

Master Proelio seemed so peaceful when sleeping. He lied on his side with only his head and one arm being outside his duvet while breathing deep and slowly. It was odd seeing him sleeping – Tigress was almost completely sure that he couldn't do such thing. But she liked him like this. He wasn't teasing or annoying, just serene, boyish and innocent, just as if he hadn't been making trouble in Tigress mind and life. He actually seemed likeable.

Tigress caught herself starring at him and quickly looked around his room instead. It was dark but Tigress didn't mind that. Maybe she could find the information, she wanted from Madam Jun, in here. Without Master Proelio waking up, of course.

The first thing, she checked, was in his closet. There was some few shirts and pants in there and Tigress was about to close when she noticed something leaning up against the back wall of the closet; the sword that the male-tiger used when fighting against the bears for just a week ago. She was about to grab it but decided not to in fear of making too much noise. So she just closed the closet again and walked over to his desk. She opened up his drawer to see a book written in Latin and some throwing knifes but not anything else. The feline frowned and opened up the next drawer. There were so many papers with drawings, sketches, paintings and pictures. Many of them were hard to see in the dark but those at the top were clear to see.

The first thing, she noticed, was a painting of an almost green lake and a semi-circle of mountains behind it – it was the place where Tigress and the others had been walking with Master Proelio. But this painting seemed old and dirty. Like it was many years since it was painted by whoever did it.

The other paper was a sketch of a big house. Outside of the house there was a playground with little children playing at. The sketch was clearly unfinished when some of the building wasn't drawn completely and some of the playground was painted when nothing else was. Tigress was about to put it back in the drawer when she saw that in the corner of the sketch there was a squiggle, like someone had overwritten what was supposed to have been drawn. And under the squiggle stood: "I miss you".

Tigress immediately put down the paper and took up another. That was a drawing. It almost didn't seem like a drawing, it really did look like two realistic baby-tigers. Two boys if Tigress guessed right. One of them was laughing and pulling the other's tail, while the other seemed unhappy and maybe even a little confused.

She heard Master Proelio mumble something dim and quickly turned around to see him sitting up and stroking his head like he was trying to think clearly. "Tigress?" he murmured with fatigue in his voice, "What are you doing in my room?"

"I-I was just uhm…" Tigress couldn't come up with a single excuse. All she could do was to wait for Master Proelio to send her out… but he didn't. Instead he stood up and walked towards her. It was too dark to actually see his body, it was just a silhouette but his golden eyes glowed in the dark.

"What are you looking at?" he asked and he still seemed tired like he still wasn't fully awake yet. He took the drawing out of Tigress' hands and looked down at it. "Hm… Have you been looking through my drawings?"

"I only looked at some few," Tigress quickly said without really thinking about how idiotic it sounded.

"Let me guess," Master Proelio looked up at her again now with a faint smile, "You came in here to learn more about me… and my past?" Tigress nodded hesitatingly. It was like he could read her mind.

He looked down at the drawing again and examined it. "I like to draw as you can see," he said, "I've been doing it since I was a cub. But I didn't draw this picture. That would be hard when I'm one of the tigers on it."

Tigress looked surprised of him. It was stupid of her not to think that Master Proelio once have been a baby. It just seemed unreal to her that Master Proelio had been weak and innocent. "But who is the other tiger then?" she asked carefully.

"He was my brother. A really loveable kid. He always wanted to play and was never boring… he's dead though." Tigress couldn't be mistaken; there was a bit of sadness in Master Proelio's eyes when he talked about his dead brother, even when you couldn't hear it in his voice. He put down the drawing and closed the drawer before looking at Tigress again. His smile never left his lips. "So Tigress… You want to know about my past, huh? Just ask and I will answer."

Tigress was quite a few seconds, waiting for him to laugh and say that he was kidding but no. Master Proelio really wanted her to ask questions about his past. He also offered her to sit on the bed and Tigress sat down on the foot of the bed just to be polite. He sat down in the middle of the bed, cross-legged.

"I know that you already know about me living at an orphanage," he said and continued when seeing Tigress' surprised glance, "I saw Madam Jun outside the Jade Palace and either she was here to tell you about it face-to-face or you would have been sneaky enough to hide and listen. Am I right?"

Tigress nodded and asked the first question, that she could think of; "Why are you hiding from Madam Jun? She said that she hasn't seen you since you left the orphanage."

Master Proelio was quick to answer. "Madam Jun was like a second mother when growing up at the orphanage. But to be more mature, I had to leave her because with her, I held on to the childhood that I had to forget."

"But…" the male-tiger interrupted Tigress before she managed to finish her sentence: "No buts. I answered your question with an honest answer and you can't comment on that."

"Fine then," Tigress muttered and asked the next question: "Do you remember how your parents died?"

Master Proelio's smile was gone and now the sorrow wasn't hiding except that he looked away from her. Instead he looked down on his hands: "They were murdered. By Xi, Bei, Dong and Nan, the Rulers of the Four Winds." Tigress was stunned. It was cruel of her to think this, but she couldn't help but wonder that maybe Master Proelio didn't do it for only the Valley of Peace but to get revenge over the murderers of his parents. "But the leaders are almost dead by now. The Nan who killed my parents died of age and Bei got killed by one of his owns. Still they do have descendants who took their place as the leaders. Dong is old now but he is probably going to live for a long time if someone doesn't kill him first. And you killed Xi a week ago."

"How do you know all these things? And why did I have to kill Xi?" Tigress had so many questions that she needed to get an answer to.

The master laughed without a sound while saying; "I'm only going to answer one of your questions now and then you have to go to sleep… The reason why it was you, who needed to kill Xi, was that it was to complete the first part of your training. And it worked. Now you have more power than ever before." Tigress was about to interrupt him and he lifted his hand to cut her off. "Let me finish. I could also have killed Xi with ease but I had promised him not to do it. And as said before, I am a man of my word."

"I don't like your training methods. It's foolish of you to think that killing a bandit will help with getting my strength back," Tigress said. She wasn't fond of him not answering the other and clearly more important question.

"But it did help you, didn't it?" Master Proelio smiled friendly at her maybe just because he knew how annoyed she was, "But I would like you to leave now. We both have an exhausting day waiting ahead and we need all the energy we can get." Tigress just nodded and was about to stand up when Master Proelio grabbed her around the wrist and pulled her down in the bed again. "Speaking of training," he said while looking into her eyes, his smile was now teasing, "Meet me tomorrow night in the training hall. It's time to begin the second level to perfect control of your anger and strength."

Tigress just pushed his hand away from her and quickly stood up. "I'm not coming," she said while hurrying out of the room. Like she was going to spend more time getting insulted and angry! Maybe he had told about his past but she still couldn't trust him because she knew almost nothing about his present. And that's why she was worried. You don't have to fear the past or the future because it's the present that can ruin both.

A/N: Whohooo! This must be the first time in like forever where I've updated so quickly! I'm so proud of myself ^^'' So tell me, what do you think about Master Proelio answers about his past?