Here's where Musaki and Naomi start to get to know a little bit more about each other. I hope I got most of Naomi's backstory right.
Chapter 3: Getting to Know Each Other
Later on, Musaki and Naomi were walking towards town and suddenly, she hears Musaki's stomach growling. Musaki chuckled nervously and said, "Guess I'm hungry."
"You know somewhere to eat?" asked Naomi.
"How about the noodle shop?"
"Sounds good to me."
Not long after, they headed to Mr. Ping's noodle shop and Naomi looks around and seems pretty excited about it and she said, "Wow. This is the most coolest place I ever stepped in."
"You know, the owner of this place is actually the Dragon Warrior's father."
Naomi gasped in excitement as she looked around the place and said, "No way."
"Oh yeah."
Then, Mr. Ping sees Musaki walking by and he said, "Hello, Musaki!"
"How ya been, Mr. Ping?" Musaki said, with a smile.
"Doing fine. Who's your friend?"
"This is Naomi."
"Hi. Nice to meet you." Naomi said, with a smile.
"Nice to meet you as well." Mr. Ping answered.
"So, you're really the Dragon Warrior's dad?"
"Oh, yes I am."
Naomi seemed surprised that a goose would be Po's father but she immediately knew that the reason for that is he adopted him and she said, "I bet you must be proud of him."
"Absolutely. So what can I help you with?"
"Just some noodles would do." Musaki added.
"Perfect!"
Minutes later, he brought in two bowls of noodles and not long after, they started eating them and Naomi seemed a little hesitant to see if it's good, but she tried it out and within a few minutes, she grew to like it. She chuckled and said, "This is really good."
"I can tell you like it."
"At least it's a lot better than what I had at the orphanage."
"What did you used to eat?"
"Some of the food are good there, but it's nothing like this."
"That's how I felt when I first tried these out. Most times, I would just stay in my room at the orphanage because most of them don't understand me at all."
"How so?"
"Well...I'm kinda different from most pandas probably because I'm skinny and they would just like...give me a hard time with it and they would often tell me that I'll never be adopted because of the way I am and also, I've been called Dragon Warrior wannabe. I don't look like the Dragon Warrior at all and I'm sick of being compared to him."
"When did that happen?"
"Before I was adopted."
"Man...you really did live a hard life. But not as harder as mine."
"How so?"
"I was adopted the first time, but when I was singing one time, they would use my singing talent to make some money for themselves; just for selfish greedy purposes and when I was 13, I often blackmailed someone to get me out of their place just so I could escape from that mean person that's been making my life miserable."
Musaki looked at Naomi in the eyes with a blank expression and hearing her story made him feel more sorry for her. He sighed heavily and said, "I don't know what to say about that."
"I never had any real friends...until I met you."
That brightened Musaki a little and he smiled at her and told her, "Sometimes things like this happen and sometimes we don't know why, but sometimes we can't let our past get in the way of who we are now."
"Yeah, I know."
Suddenly, Musaki notices some cuts on her arms and he asked, "What's with the cuts?"
Naomi suddenly sees that some of her arms had little scars in them and she said, "I did it to myself."
"For what?"
She was hesitant to answer it at first, but Musaki immediately notices it right away and he asked, "You cut yourself, didn't you?"
Naomi sighed heavily and replied, "Yeah, I did."
"Why?"
"Because of my singing and the way I am, people would tell me that I should have a cutting disorder. It would hurt, but sometimes it's my stress reliever to just get away from the the bullying."
"I don't think that's how you'll deal with it."
"But I don't know how else to get over the pain that I'm in."
"It's hard to ignore it, but how to deal with it is just try not to let it get to you too much and be strong no matter what."
Naomi has never heard words like that and she actually let out a tear and Musaki went and wiped the tear off of her eye and she said, "I wish I'd met you before."
"Hey, we're best friends."
"We are?"
"Yeah."
Naomi sniffled and wiped her eyes and told him, "Thanks."
Both of them continued eating their noodles and as soon as they're almost done, they see Wolf Guido come in the noodle shop. Musaki waved at him and he recognized them coming and he invited them to sit with them.
Wolf Guido has never been invited to sit with anyone and he felt overjoyed by this greeting and he sat down next to them and Naomi asked, "How ya been?"
"Fine, I guess." Wolf Guido replied.
"So, tell us about yourself." Musaki said.
"Well...my mom named me Guido when I was born and somehow, my parents abandoned me for some reason. Something about being a burden to them or whatever because I'm so different than other wolves. After that, I've been teased and tormented and also abused by other wolves that I never even knew since then until I walked to the Bao Gu Orphanage by myself when I was only 8."
"That's a tragic story."
"It gets worse. Bullies would often pick on me and the bully had the same name as me, which made it worse. I've been a loner since then and I never had any friends because I'm so weird."
"We don't think you're weird. We think you're special." Naomi said.
"Are you saying that to feel sorry for me?"
"No, we mean it."
"If anyone deserves a friend, it's you."
Wolf Guido felt his heart has been warmed up and he let out a smile and said, "Again, thanks for sticking up for me."
"You're welcome."
"So...where do you live?"
"At the Jade Palace."
Wolf Guido gasped in shock and asked, "Home of the kung-fu masters?"
"Yep."
"Me too." Naomi added.
"I wish I could meet them."
"I have a feeling you can. So what do you like to do?"
"I read manga, draw, practice kung-fu and write poems."
"That's super-cool."
Soon enough, all three of them were talking and laughing with each other until it was time to go back home to the Jade Palace and Wolf Guido went back to the orphanage and Naomi and Musaki felt like they have each other's backs no matter what life throws at them.
If you got any suggestions where Wolf Guido might be adopted to later in the story, let me know. In the meantime, the next chapter will have a new characterand it's gonna be really awesome! Laterz!