A/N: Thanks everyone for the feedback I got recently! I like to hear constructive criticism and new ideas so make sure you review and tell me how you think the story is going!

Anyway, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Chapter 7

Regret and Forgiveness

Tigress meditated peacefully at the summit of the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, for half an hour she used the tranquility of this sacred place to relax and ponder many of her thoughts. At the present moment she was thinking about what Po had told her earlier, 'they seem so real, and each one of them is linked in some way'. She had been worried for Po for several months now, initially it had been everyone who had been worried for the Panda, however it was apparent to her that she was the one who was the most concerned. Her thoughts then went back to the moment that she shared with the Panda earlier, Tigress had never been one to express her feelings much less admit them to someone else. In truth, she hadn't really admired the Panda when he first came to the Palace, rather she had despised him. In her mind he was just a lucky fool who had no real talent, In fact she not only thought these things, but she also expressed them...

Flashback to KFP 1 in the Jade Palace Barracks

"Master Tigress! I didn't mean to wake you, just a-" Po said apologetically before he was interrupted by the female Tiger "You don't belong here." She said in a cold and rude manner. "Ah ya. Ya of course, cause this is your room-" He began to get a bit nervous as she approached him. "I mean, you don't belong in the Jade Palace, you're a disgrace to Kung Fu, and if you have ANY respect for who we are and what we do, you will be gone by morning." She said before she closed her doors in his face.

Back in the present time

"I can't believe I was so rude to him, and despite what I said, he stuck with it and proved everyone wrong… He proved me wrong..." She whispered to herself with a sad expression on her face. "He deserves better people in his life than m-" However before she could finish, a strong voice interrupted her and said "I have everyone that I could ever want in my life, and I also believe in allowing the mistakes of the past to wash away." Tigress then quickly turned around and hugged Po, tears streaming down her eyes as she said "I'm so sorry Po." Po simply embraced the female Tiger and whispered into her ear "It's alright Tigress, besides I can't really blame you for saying those things." "But I was selfish. And cold. I should have at least given you a chance first!" She countered. "But here I came, right as Oogway was just about to choose you as the Dragon Warrior. A Panda, with no experience in Kung Fu, or any martial arts for that matter." He countered back. "Don't blame yourself for what happened Tigress, after all, master Oogway said many times that 'there are no accidents' and I believe him. It wasn't an accident that I came here, it wasn't an accident that you blocked that cannonball for me, and it wasn't an accident that we met each other." Tigress still hugged Po as he said this, listening to the Panda's words gave her comfort and she began to feel slightly less guilty, but only a little. "You know, when I first came to this place, I had initially come here to eat, at the time when I would eat when I was stressed. Then Oogway came to speak to me and he told me 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they call it the present'." He let go of Tigress and looked in to her eyes "I have forgiven you, now it is time for you to forgive yourself." "I guess I can do that." She said hopefully while looking into his eyes.

"Now why did you want me to meet you here today?" Po questioned. In truth Tigress had wanted to speak to Po about the Tiger cub they had met at the Orphanage the day before, however she now wanted to address something else with her Panda friend. "Po, what do you think of us being more than just friends?" She said now looking off into the mountains in the distance. Po stood there dumbstruck, he could not believe what his Tiger friend was saying. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?" Po nervously questioned. Tigress now began to blush slightly, she wasn't very experienced in confessing her feelings to others, in fact she wasn't experienced at all. "Po, it's alright if you don't want to, but I just thought it could be an option." She replied. "Tigress I don't know if you knew this, but I've had a crush on you for years now. Ever since I first saw you and the Five defeat Boar I not only fell in love with not only the ideal of Kung Fu, but I also fell in love with a strong, determined and beautiful Tiger Master." He said smiling and blushing slightly. "You're such a sweet person Po, this is exactly what I love about you, your compassion." Tigress said dreamily. Po just smiled and took a seat beside Tigress who was still looking towards the mountains.

"It's a beautiful view isn't it?" She said happily. Po simply nodded and replied "maybe so, but it doesn't compare to you." Tigress giggled and said "Charmer." Po chuckled and kept looking towards the mountains, he then felt Tigress lean her head on his shoulders. "To answer your question from earlier, I would love to be more than 'just friends'." Po said with a hint of suggestiveness. "Although I know that Shifu might be a bit skeptical, and if I ever did something wrong he'd have my head for it." Po said while chuckling. Tigress simply laughed and said sarcastically "and here I thought you didn't consider him to be your Master anymore" Po laughed at this and Tigress continued "well I'm glad you want us to be together like I do Po."

Not to far from the Peach Tree Summit

"What do you think they're talking about now?" said an impatient simian said to the rest of the furious five who were watching the two what they would call 'lovebirds' from afar. "All I know is that you guys really should back off and give them their privacy." Viper said trying to reason with the others. "Privacy? I can't imagine what they would do in private..." Mantis joked, this earned him a swat on the head by Viper's tail. "Ow! What was that for?" the insect complained. "That was for your vulgar comment Mantis." Viper replied. Crane then interjected "I'm with Viper on this one guys, we really shouldn't spy on them, I'm sure you guys wouldn't like for people to to the same to you." Monkey seemed to have ignored what Crane had just said as he said "I bet 50 almond cookies that Po won't have the guts to ask her out!" Mantis then laughed and said "Have you seen them? I bet 100 cookies that he asks her out right now! They look like they need to share a room!" This earned him yet another swat on the back of the head by Viper. "Ow! Why do you keep doing that?!" He said seeming to think it was unfair. "Whatever, you perverts can keep watching them but Crane and I are going back to the grounds to train." Viper said as her and Crane left. Once they left, Mantis looked back at Monkey and said "wanna shake on it bud?" Monkey replied "you bet, I'll be drowning in cookies for an entire month after this is over!"

Back at the Peach Tree Summit

"You know Tigress, I've been thinking on how to train Hao on how to control his strength, and I'd like if you would come with me to help train him. After all, you had similar training when you were his age." Po said as he still looked towards the mountains in the distance. "I'd love to Po, plus it'll give us more time to be together." She said with a slight purr as she leaned her head on Po's shoulder. He simply smiled as he took Tigress' hand in his own and said "I love you."

6 Hours later at the Pool of Sacred Tears

As Po looked at his reflection in the waters of the Pool of Sacred Tears he thought of the moments that him and Tigress had shared that day, he also thought of the progress that he had made in teaching Hao to control his strength. 'I can't believe she feels the same way about me that I have felt towards her for years' 'and she wants me to be her soulmate?' 'this was the best day I've had in months!' He thought happily. 'I'm so proud of Hao, he deserves the best in his life.' To train Hao earlier, he had brought some light cloths and instructed Hao to attempt to hit the cloths as hard he could, however he told Hao to imagine his punch not damaging the cloth at all. As many things go, Hao failed the first attempts punching right through the cloth accidentally, however after many practice attempts, Hao took a hard punch at the cloth and his hand bounced off without damaging the cloth at all. The thing that impressed Po the most however, was that over the day that Hao had been alone at the orphanage, he hadn't damaged the action figure of Master Tigress at all. This increased the Tiger cub's confidence greatly, and made Po very proud of his new pupil.

Looking back at his reflection in the water Po noticed something, the hair on his forehead had darkened slightly which made it look like he had a widows peak, the hair on his chin had also grown supstantially making a ducktail beard. As with most Panda's Po knew in China, they did not like their facial hair to grow very long and so they shaved regularly, however with all the stress he had been under this week, Po seemed to have forgotten to shave for the whole week. This was the first time since he was a teen that his hair had gotten this long, his father always preferred to have a 'clean shaven waiter' attending to the orders of the customers back when he worked in his father's restaurant. After a while, it had become second nature to shave, however looking at himself now he didn't dislike the look, it made him look wise and also more like a warrior.

"A Yuan (Yuan is Chinese currency) for your thoughts Dragon Warrior?" Said a voice behind him which startled him slightly. "Oh, Shifu! Forgive me but I wasn't expecting to see you up here at this hour." Po responded respectfully to the wise Red Panda. "I see, I came up here to speak to you about a couple of things, do you have a minute?" The Red Panda questioned. "Absolutely, what would you like to talk about?" Po answered. "I would like to ask how your second trip to the Orphanage went, Tigress told me that Hao improved significantly in just a short time, is that true?" He said. Po smiled and responded "he is definitely a fast learner, I've been teaching him self belief and restraint and he seemed to catch on quickly. He is beginning to gain confidence and it brings me great pride to see him content in his learning." Shifu smiled slightly "very good Po, you truly are a great teacher. I am sure you know that I once taught Tigress to control when she was in a similar position as this little one. However I hope you do not make the same mistake that I made when teaching Tigress, I refrained from showing emotion towards her and in doing that I deprived her of the one thing she needed most from me, love and care." Shifu now looked distraught, no doubt he was reflecting on his life choices. "Shifu, you did no such thing, after all, Tigress has become one of the most renowned Kung Fu Masters of all time thanks to mainly your teachings." Po tried to counter Shifu's negativity. "I understand that Panda, however, there are many things that she does not understand in this world because of my lack of proper parenting, did you ever wonder why she only ever ate those tofu cubes for the longest time? Or why she rarely laughs or smiles?" Shifu recollected. "That may be so, but I can't imagine what would have happened had you not taught her to control her strength and adopt her from the Orphanage" Po countered again. Shifu couldn't help but smile, no matter how many flaws someone had, the Panda always managed to see the good in people. "Oogway truly did choose the right person to be Dragon Warrior Po, I couldn't be more proud that you were once my student."

Po nodded and suddenly remembered that he had something he also wanted to speak about with Shifu "That reminds me Shifu, the other day you asked me if it was possible for me to take you to the spirit realm and back." "Oh yes. I nearly forgot about that, did you manage to speak to Master Oogway Dragon Warrior?" The Red Panda answered enthusiastically. "I did and he told me that it is possible for anyone to go to the spirit realm as long as they believe that they can, however you might want to bring your staff with you just in case." Po replied. The staff that he had referred to was Shifu's wooden staff, which had been past on to him by his former master Oogway, the staff was said to be constructed with the wood of the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom to ward off evil. During the battle against Tai Lung, the staff had been snapped in two, however Po had repaired the staff for his former master. "Oh and by the way...There will most likely be someone waiting for you there." Po told Shifu as he began to leave the Pool of Sacred Tears. "If by that you mean Oogway is waiting for me than I already know." the Red Panda replied. "No, I wasn't talking about Oogway." Po said with a slight grin. "Then who?" The Red Panda questioned curiously. "You'll find out when you get there." Po said still with a grin on his face. "Oh, before you leave Dragon Warrior, I'd like you to know that you and Tigress have my blessing." Shifu said with a bit of a chuckle. "Wait, What? How did you k-" Po said as Shifu cut him off "Know? I have my ways Dragon Warrior." The old Red Panda said as he chuckled.

Meanwhile In the Jade Palace Student Barracks

Tigress was returning to the Palace Barracks after having helped Po to train Hao at the Bao Gu Orphanage, as she strolled through the hallways she reminisced about the moments she had shared with the Panda that day. Thinking about Po made her heart feel warmer, she couldn't believe that Po had actually wanted to be her soulmate, she hadn't known that he held feelings for her for so long, if she was honest with herself she couldn't believe how well the whole situation worked out. As she was returning to her room in the student barracks, she was stopped in the hallway by Viper who whispered "girl talk, now."

So Tigress nodded and entered Viper's Room, Viper's room was very beautiful, she used her shelves and tables to display the many ribbons that she used to use when she ribbon danced as a child. As they entered the room, Viper closed the doors to the room, even though the girl's rooms were on the opposite side of the hallway from the guys, they still didn't want anyone to hear them. "Oh my Gods! You two looked absolutely adorable together!" Viper quietly said in a very exited voice. Tigress just smiled and said "something tells me that you wanted us to be together from the start." Viper then chuckled and said "can you blame me though? He's perfect for you!" Tigress kept smiling and dreamily said "that, he is." "I can't believe it! Pretty soon we'll be planning the wedding and-" Viper said before she was interrupted "okay Viper, it's a little early to be talking about that." Tigress getting a little annoyed with where Viper was going with the conversation. "Okay Tigress, but just remember that Crane loves preparing weddings, so if you ever-" Viper was once again interrupted by Tigress "don't remind me of that." Tigress rolled her eyes while putting her palm on her face almost trying to forget a bad memory. "Anyway, has he asked you out yet?" Viper asked. "He has." Tigress replied. If Viper could jump for joy, she would, except for the fact that she didn't have legs to jump with. This news made her overjoyed for her 'sister' as Viper had always wanted for Tigress to find the right person for her. "Wow! Already!? When will you guys go?" Viper asked excitedly. Tigress just chuckled at how engrossed the female Snake was in her personal life and said "Tomorrow afternoon, he wants to take me to some place he used to visit when he was young. At least, that's what he told me." Viper just squealed like a teenage girl and said "Oh my Gods, this is so awesome! My sister has finally found the man she loves and they're going out on their first date tomorrow!" Tigress just laughed and said "you focus way too much on my life Viper, how about we talk about you and Crane?" At this, Viper began to blush "Wha-What? I don't know what you're talking about..." Viper said nervously. "Don't worry Viper, I wont tell a soul." Tigress said with a wink. To which Viper mouthed a 'thank you'. As Tigress got up to leave she went to slide open the door, however she was interrupted by Viper who said "Wait up Tigress, I have something for you." She slithered over to her cabinet and picked up a flower bulb with her tail and handed it to Tigress, it was a beautiful Tiger Lily flower. "Thank you Viper! It's beautiful!" Tigress thanked her reptilian friend. "No problem, I'm sure Po will like it on you." Viper said reassuringly. Tigress simply smiled and exited Viper's room to go and get some rest for the next day.

A/N: Finally done! Sorry it took a little longer to finish than the other chapters, I'll try my best to upload another chapter sometime on the weekend. If any of you were wondering what bad memory Tigress was trying to forget, watch an episode of KFP LOA called 'Bride of Po'

Stay tuned for the next chapter! Make sure to Follow, Favorite and Review!