ELLLOOO Trusty readers!

It's been like, a week right?

Well, if you must know, this weekend I got kinda sick. I'm pretty sure I caught Tigress' river fever.

Wait, you don't know what I'm talking about!

Well, the new TV show just put up previews! Yes—previews! We get to watch 4 clips of the first episode now! I won't ruin it for you but it's actually kind of funny (well, anything with Tigress is anyway) and also rather cheesy, but at the same time quite awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Also, on Sept. 19th there's going to be a special preview at 11am!

I'm not going to go deeper into it, for the sake that this author's note isn't as long as the chapter XD

But one last thing: If you watch Scorpion's Sting: Tigress' cold PAUSE AT :24. That face just kills me for some reason or another XD

This chapter is named for that one episode of Drake and Josh that almost had me in tears.

Po is Done

...

"I'm going to kill her."

Po winced as the pressure Viper placed on his eye increased. The black-haired girl was maintaining a scary calm, despite seeing blood and bruises in varying amounts all over Po's body.

"You don't have to do that," he chuckled, though it died quickly when she glared at him.

He sighed and rested his head back on her couch cushion, trying to erase the vivid memory of the beating out of his mind. Tai Lung had left him curled in the fetal position on the floor of the library, sneering and dragged Tigress and Dai Li with him. His idiotic girlfriend threw insults at him left and right—half he hadn't heard due to the overwhelming pain—and Tigress had simply stared. It was an unnerving stare—like she was trying to stab him and hug him at the same time, while also wanting to drop to her knees and cry or maybe punch the nearest wall.

But, he could've been hallucinating.

It was a stroke of luck Mantis had come to the library when he did. Po was in too much pain to move, and in no state to bike home. Mantis had freaked out, then slung the taller boy over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and taken him to the car, raging about idiots all the while.

Viper went nurse mode almost immediately upon seeing her broken friend, she had Mantis lay him on the couch, get a first aid kit, an ice pack, and call Mr. Ping to let him know Po would be spending the night (no need to let the sweet old man know what had happened).

"I'm going to kill her," Viper repeated, dabbing at his lip with a damp rag. Her voice was breaking and tears had started to well in her eyes. "And I'm going to celebrate and sleep like a baby afterwards."

And then, to Po's surprise, she collapsed and grabbed onto his shoulders and started to bawl. Mantis returned at the same time, a bottle of water in hand—which he dropped at the sight of seeing his sister shake with sobs. "What happened, Vi?" he asked gently, putting a protective arm around her shoulders.

Viper balled the fabric of Po's shirt in her fists. "She was my best friend, my best friend in the whole frigging world and she just sat there and watched – frigging watched Tai Lung and didn't even try to stop him!" The girl seethed. Her head shot up, glaring daggers at Po. "And you! You're an idiot, you hear me? Why didn't you fight back? You could've defended yourself—and…and…" she trailed off with a weak curse, shoulders shaking.

"Hey," Mantis said quietly, "It's all good. We can kill Tai Lung and his little girlfriend at practice…and," He paused and looked at Po, desperate for something else to say.

Po shrugged; don't look at me.

Mantis grunted and resumed his little speech, "I dunno what Tigress can do, but it'll be painful and caused by you."

To his relief, Viper managed a chuckle. "Gee Mantis, that's so reassuring."

"I try."

The girl pushed him away, smiling slightly. Her expression turned guilty as she looked at Po. "I'm sorry," she said, taking an ice pack and pressing it to his eye. "You're the one with the shit beaten out of him and here I am, bawling like a child."

"It's okay." Po cracked a weak smile. "I've never had someone cry for me before. It's kind of nice."

"Don't get used to it."

"Wasn't planning to."

Strangely enough, a time that should've been miserable and agonizing ended up bearable. Po Ping decided he loved having friends.

He also decided not to drag them into his problems.

When Monday rolled around, he was sporting a magnificently black eye, a swollen lip, a sprained wrist, and two bruised ribs. He walked with a slight limp down the halls, giving kids another thing to stare or snicker at.

With the hand that wasn't wrapped in a make-shift cast, Po opened his locker and organized himself for the day. He acted preoccupied, which gave him a good excuse to ignore the girl standing behind him.

"Po," she said again, her voice less confident then it had been the first time. If he had turned around, he would see that she was an absolute wreck—untidy hair shoved underneath a wool hat, baggy sweats hanging loosely on her body; eyes bloodshot with purple bags beneath them, like she hadn't slept in days.

He whistled pleasantly, shut his locker, and walked away without even giving her the time of day.

However, she refused to give up. "Po!" she ran after him, dropping papers and books in her wake and not bothering to pick them up. She said his name again, to no avail, and simply slowed her run—hand still out in front of her like she was reaching for someone.

For him.

"Shit," she whispered. Her fingers curled in a way that said they were repulsed by her too, and then her knees joined in by giving way beneath her.

There was a cry of her name ("Tigress!") and footsteps running in her direction, hands shaking her shoulders, but honestly she didn't care. Her stomach felt like it was imploding and muscles had simply melted. She wasn't crying – she didn't cry, ever – but she squeezed her eyes shut because they felt like they were melting in their sockets.

Next Week, Tuesday

Po had to admit, she was persistent. Annoyingly so. She sat next to him at lunch, pushing her tray beside his, trying to find his eyes.

"Please, just hear me out—"

He didn't respond—simply stood and walked away; brushing by Viper on his way out the door. She tried to question him, but he just kept walking as if he hadn't heard.

He left her at the table, hand outstretched, looking worse then she had the day before, and the contents of her lunch spilled in front of her. For one, fleeting moment, she met Viper's eye—but the girl glared and spun on her heel, turning away from Tigress just like everyone else seemed to be doing.

The worst part was he almost felt bad about doing it too. Then his wrist started throbbing and he remembered that he was doing this for a reason.

Wednesday

Crane was the first to confront her.

"Are you sick?" he asked worriedly, a hand gently on her shoulder. She didn't have the strength to shove him off. "You haven't eaten in like, three days."

"I'm fine," she said coldly, trying to brush by him to leave the empty math class.

"That's bull." A frown etched itself deeply into his features. His grip on her shoulder tightened, spun her around and forced her to face him. "What's wrong?"

Her fists clenched. "Nothing." For some reason, Tai Lung and Dai Li had kept the little 'incident' to themselves, for a reason she couldn't put her finger on. There was no way Crane knew what was going on. "I'm fine, really."

"Stop lying."

Her fight left her in a whoosh of air. "I…I screwed up," she said quietly, dejectedly. "I royally screwed up, Crane—I hurt someone that didn't deserve to be hurt, and it's driving me crazy." Never had she sounded so weak.

Crane hadn't been expecting the sudden explanation, but he recovered from his shock quickly. "Listen," his tone was kind, understanding, "I know you Tigress, and I know you're going to fix whatever happened. But do me a favor and eat something—you're looking like a stick and Shifu's not going to be happy if you collapse from starvation during practice."

She smiled weakly. "You're a good friend, Crane," she said quietly. After promising to have lunch, he let her go—but she could still feel his gaze on her back and the worry that seemed to radiate off him.

It was unfortunate that her next class was biology—where Mr. Shen had given them a seating chart. Without knowing her inner turmoil, he had placed her next to Po.

It was torture, to say the least.

Her hands shook visibly, her voice cracked whenever she spoke, and she pulled tirelessly at her hair to the point where it came out in sickly clumps. Maybe the talk with Crane gave her hope, or maybe she just hadn't had enough, but she scribbled out a note and placed it gently on his desk.

Just listen to me. Please.

She received a response, surprisingly.

What, no more warnings? No more threats to keep me away from Viper? I don't care what you have to say anymore. Leave me alone.

He circled alone and underlined it and went over it at least fifty times. She could only stare at the paper, certain no response would've hurt less then that.

Thursday

Po skipped History that day.

It was surprising he hadn't done it before, seeing how he spent the class buried in a book anyway, detached from the world.

He had gone up to the classroom, placed a hand on the doorknob and made to turn it, but couldn't gather the strength. He sighed, loudly and heavily, before letting go. Through the door's window, he could see Viper. She was talking to Crane, looking happy, but every now and then her gaze would leave him, flicker to the door, and she would sigh.

He winced. Staying away from her was the hardest part.

Then, without meaning to, he saw Tigress. She was staring at nothing, hand idly tracing circles in her desk. A pile of crumpled up papers were pushed on the edge of her desk, and it would only occur to him later what it was.

The girl he was convinced he hated was pulled out of whatever evil thoughts she'd been thinking by her father, who brought a fist down on her desk and pointed at the papers. He yelled something, he could tell by the vein popping out in Shifu's neck, and she simply nodded at him, as if in a trance.

Seconds later, Po was running down the empty hall. It made his ankle burn like fire and is breath bubble in his chest, but he needed to get away from her as fast as possible.

Friday

"Tigress, something's wrong."

She looked up from the nails she'd been gnawing, meeting the worried eyes of Monkey and Mei Ling. She looked down again, scoffing, "Did Crane tell you to ask me that?"

"No," Mei Ling shook her head, sand-colored curls bouncing as she did so. "It's obvious. You look like death warmed over."

Tigress scoffed again. "Maybe I want a new look."

"A new look?" Monkey's brow furrowed. "Tigress, you look like a zombie. That's the dumbest look I've ever heard of."

She got mad. It was a stupid thing to get mad about, really, but she did anyway. Her hands slammed down bench they were sitting on, and she screamed—loudly. A roar, really. Both her friends flinched and jerked back.

"I screwed up, okay? I screwed up badly and now I have no idea how the hell I'm supposed to make things right!" her eyes were burning, that melting sensation returned. Quieter, she repeated, "I have no freaking idea, and it's killing me." She looked at them, voice cracking. "You don't know what it's like to have someone hate you—and they should hate you, and you know that you deserve every last drop of what they dish at you but it still hurts like hell anyway."

Then she simply stood and walked away, ignoring their calls and apologies and just walked.

Fate struck then, though to her it felt like a brick wall. She looked up to meet the golden eyes of the idiot who started this. "Hey," Tai Lung said amiably, as if he hadn't ruined her sense of right and wrong at all.

She responded with a swift knee to his gut and a spin-kick to his back. Seething, she stepped over his wheezing form. "Go," she hissed, "die."

Oblivious to what was going on in the cafeteria, Po walked shamelessly to the principal's office. He rubbed his wrist and chewed his lip, trying to figure out if maybe, just maybe, the principal had figure out he had Viper had skipped class that one day.

His fist hadn't even knocked when he heard the kind old man on the other side of the door. "Come in."

Trying to calm himself, Po turned open the doorknob and stepped inside. "You wanted to see me, Principal Oogway?"

"Yes Mr. Ping. Please, have a seat."

Saturday

Viper spent her afternoon playing card games with her family.

Mantis was about to win the game of Spoons when the phone rang. Smiling, Viper got to her feet. "I'll get it," she said sweetly, hopping over her mom to reach the landline.

"Hello?"

On the other end of the phone came a sigh, and then a voice so quiet she had to strain to hear it. "Viper, I need to talk to you."

If she hadn't been so shocked, Viper would've screamed. Instead, her voice squeaked, "Tigress?"

"Can we meet somewhere? I really need your help."

"Now just why the hell would I want to talk to you—"

"Please, Viper. I can't have you ignore me too."

Viper glanced over to her family, who was laughing at something Mantis had said. She frowned, took a deep breath. "Fine. Be at the dojo in twenty minutes." She couldn't help but throw in, "And I swear to every god that exists, if you're lying to me again, I'm going to make your life hell."

But as angry as she was, Viper's heart still broke as Tigress' cracking voice carried into her ear. "As it is, my life is already hell. But thanks. I appreciate this."

The dial tone followed, and Viper was looked awfully confused as she explained to her family just why she had to leave, and just why she was taking a bo staff with her.

"I do not -ACHOOO- have a co...co..ACHOOO- a cold!"