A/N: Yes, I know this update took forever. Yes, I know this is disappointingly short. Truth be told, high school has been busy, I've been writing on original material, and... well, somehow forgotten about this. =( So... yeah, if you're reading this, and if you've followed the story till now, I'm grateful! Really, I am, lol.
I wanted this chapter to be a bit of exposition, therefore it's... well, short. Anyway, I hope you'll like it. ^w^

Shifu opened his eyes. It was very early… or late… Nevertheless, the sun hadn't come up yet. Shifu rolled onto his back and stared into the ceiling. Last night had been weird – the night of the Lantern Festival had been quite something compared to the other years, to say the least.

Thinking back, it all seemed weird how Junjie would come to become someone, Shifu would feel this way about.

"Alright, son," the adult red fox told his son. "Your mother and I will take out leave. We will come back in three full moons, to see how you are doing."

A young Shifu, watching from a distance, was somewhat intimidated by the little family of red foxes; they were all wearing very expensive-looking clothes – most likely silk, or some other expensive fabric.

Even their body language was… so gentle and graceful, yet firm and determined. The adult fox wore some white robes with black trims, and there was even gold on the ends of his sleeves. His facial expressions almost gave away how formal, and assumedly wealthy this family was.

The vixen wore a red dress with similar golden trimming and various vine designs on it. Her facial expressions were different from her husband; she looked much kinder, in a sense, and even gentler – almost as if she was afraid to break anything she touched.

Their son seemed to be a mixture of both. He seemed to radiate an aura of intellect, if anything. Shifu couldn't quite determine whom, of his parents, he looked the most like. He did seem to have that 'superior' look in his eyes that his father had, but also seemed to have a gentle nature to him, like his mom.

After a quick goodbye, the younger red fox walked towards Shifu and Oogway as the Palace gate shut behind him. As the young fox walked towards them, Shifu found him just as intimidating as his parents. He wore some dark blue robes with black trims and a pair of small glasses.

"Welcome, young one," Master Oogway greeted the red fox. "You must be Junjie – we have been expecting you."

"I am," the red fox said and bowed. His bow was short, and not as respecting as Shifu's (According to Shifu himself), but it was a bow nonetheless. He then looked at Shifu.

Shifu felt a little embarrassed as his clothes weren't nearly as fine as Junjie's, and the latter seemed to take note of this. It seemed to make him smile a smile, which Shifu didn't like the look of… But the red panda remained silent.

Even despite a somewhat poor first impression, Junjie had somehow managed to make his way into Shifu's heart – in more ways than one – and the two had ended up becoming friendly rivals, even friends. It had been a long process though.

Shifu frowned, remembering a specific time they had been fighting…

"See what you did!" Junjie said in a hard tone of voice, a blaming look on the red fox's face.

"What I did?" Shifu was angry, no furious! It had clearly been Junjie who had broken the ancient vase in the Hall of Warriors. "It was your tail that hit the vase!"

Shifu annoyed walked towards the exit. Junjie called to him, "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to tell Master Oogway," Shifu said in a stiff tone of voice. He opened the door. "It seems that you lack the proper self-discipline to take responsibility yourself."

Just as Shifu got out of the palace, something suddenly hit him in the back. The young red panda stumbled down the staircase with Junjie on his back. Shifu was taken by surprise, but as he realized that Junjie was falling as well, he hoped the young fox would be somewhat hurt as well.

Once the two landed on the ground, Junjie got on top of Shifu, putting him into a somewhat simple Kung Fu hold, which locked Shifu's arms behind his back.

"Apologize," Junjie demanded, wanting to humiliate Shifu.

"Or what will you do?" Shifu asked through gritting teeth.

"I don't know, maybe keep you here for the rest of the day," Junjie replied coldly. However, Shifu managed to get his one hand free and in a split second he turned the tables; Shifu knocked Junjie into the air, got up and grabbed the fox by his right wrist, locking his arm in place.

"Or maybe I'll keep you here," Shifu grinned victoriously. Junjie desperately tried to use his left hand to get back at Shifu, but due to the awkward position he was in, Junjie's rather pathetic try was stopped by Shifu's other hand.

Shifu just kept grinning. This was, at least according to his memory, the only time he had ever won over Junjie in one of their kiddy fights; Junjie often cheated, which explained it. Junjie would always say that he saved the honest fighting for the more 'important' fights, but Shifu really couldn't tell the difference.

Suddenly Shifu's door opened. Surprised Shifu turned his head to see Junjie stand in the door opening. The red fox smiled rather tenderly at Shifu and entered his room. He closed the door behind him.

"Good morning," Junjie said with a smile. Even though it was very early, it seemed like Junjie's fur and had already been groomed and seemingly he had also washed himself, as there was no sleep in his eyes.

"Good morning," Shifu said, feeling slightly embarrassed by being caught in bed. Shifu also came to realize that his own fur hadn't even been done and also realized that he probably looked terrible.

"Slept well?" Junjie asked with his signature smile. He slowly approached Shifu and sat down on the latter's bed. Shifu sat up as well and Junjie leaned in and gently kissed Shifu on the cheek.

"Yes, I guess," Shifu said, blushing slightly. "You?"

"I didn't get much sleep," Junjie said, though still smiling. Shifu asked why. "Well, because I thought of you."