They found Li with the kids the next morning in their room, just where they had left them the night before. The only difference was that Li was lying belly-up, and Chao was curled into a ball on his stomach in their bed while Lotus had found a warm and cozy sanctuary under one of his arms.

Po had to stop himself from laughing; Tigress frowned at the sight, glancing towards the crib where the kids should have been sleeping. Under no circumstances were they ever allowed to sleep with mommy and daddy. They would cry and try to get attention, but no matter how much Po wanted to let them sleep in their bed as an entire family, Tigress had objected; they needed to learn that they wouldn't always get what they wanted. She or Po would get up to calm them, of course—but otherwise they stayed where they were.

"Psst. Dad," Po whispered so as not to wake the kids. Li opened his eyes, blinking wearily until he could see better.

"You two are back," he grinned. "How was your night off?"

Tigress, despite her annoyance that Li had broken the rules about having the kids sleep with him, smiled as she recalled the night before and how Po had taken her for a flight amongst the stars. Li groaned slightly and attempted to get up, taking her smile as a yes—that their night off had gone well.

Po reached down to grab Chao, Tigress following suit to grab Lotus. The two bundles remained sound asleep, much to their relief.

"Thank you for watching them," Tigress said gratefully. "I take it your night went well?"

Li nodded. "Oh, yeah. They were a little scared without mom and dad, but I got them to calm down. He told me not to tell you this, but Shifu came in to play his flute. I think they liked it."

Po grinned at the fact that Shifu had actually gone in to help Li; of course he wouldn't want them to know what a softie he really was. Besides, who could resist two adorable little panda-tiger cubs? Maybe one day they would even call him Uncle Shifu; he was perfect for the role of the cool uncle.

Chao squirmed in his arms, his bright yellow eyes flickering open.

"Hey, daddy's home," Po cooed, gently patting his back.

Chao's expression lit up as he recognized that yes, his father was home.

"Baba," he babbled, snuggling his face into Po's chest. The Dragon Warrior's heart warmed, and he wondered how he could have gone an entire night without his newborn son and daughter, though he had to admit that a night alone with Tigress all to himself was worth it, especially since it was something that didn't happen too often now that they had Chao and Lotus to look after.

"I think it's time for breakfast," Po figured aloud, reaching to grab a milk bottle from beside the bed. Before he had become a father, training would have started by now, especially since he was a teacher. But since Tigress had given birth, Shifu had gone easier on the two of them; more proof that he was a softie deep down.

Li smiled as Po began to bottle feed his son, heading towards their bedroom door. "I'll leave you to it."

Tigress smiled her thanks again, cradling Lotus in her arms. She had just begun to wake, shivering and burying herself into her mother's chest just as Chao had done with his father.

"There you go, little guy," Po praised softly as he held the milk bottle steadily for him to eat. Chao sucked on the bottle, the milk slowly disappearing into his tummy. When he was done, a milk mustache had covered the black freckles around his nose.

Tigress frowned when Lotus refused her own bottle. "She's not eating..."

"Maybe there's something wrong..."

It was hard to ignore a cough and a bubble that came out of her nose.

xxxx

She had a fever, and a high one. He and Tigress had done everything they could to try and bring it down, but nothing was working—the fever remained the same, if not worse. The healer that they'd brought in hadn't been much help, and Tigress had all but thrown her out when a simple, grave expression told them that there was nothing more to be done, that she had never seen a fever like it before and that Lotus most likely wouldn't make it through the night, much to their horror.

"Maybe I could try and use Chi to help her..." Po murmured, deep in thought as he stared at his daughter resting in the crib while Tigress held her brother to keep him away from the sickness. Though Lotus was far from resting—the fever was making her delirious, and she was crying as loud as she possibly could through the pounding rain and thunder that flashed outside.

"When you were sick without your Chi," Tigress said, holding Chao closer to her. "Li told me a story about how you were sick when you were just a cub."

"Did he say anything about how I recovered?" Po questioned, hope sparking in his chest. If he had recovered from a terrible sickness when he was young, then there was a good chance that Lotus would recover, too.

"No, he said that they did everything they could...just like us. But they didn't know how to use Chi back then, so maybe it really could help..."

She looked like she was about to burst into tears at the thought of losing their daughter in one night. Who wouldn't? Po glanced back at Lotus, then placed a paw on his wife's shoulder, giving her the most comforting and determined smile that he could. They weren't going to lose their daughter that easily; he would make sure of it. He wouldn't take one look at her and say that it was over.

Po knew that he had to ask her permission first before he went through with it. "Do you trust me?"

Tigress stared at their crying daughter in the crib, then back to Po. Of course she trusted him; she trusted him with her life, and their daughter's life. There was no one else that she would ever trust more with using such a technique to heal their baby girl. But if he did this, there was also the chance that something could happen to him if he used too much. She took a deep breath, knowing that he would be careful.

She nodded, and Po moved closer to the crib. "Take Chao out of here."

Nodding once more, Tigress opened their door to wait outside with Chao. The Furious Five were waiting along with Li and Shifu. Even Mr. Ping had come to make sure that his granddaughter was somehow going to make it through the night.

Li was just as horrified as the others as he was stolen back to a time when Po himself had barely survived a grueling fever, but Tigress sent him a reassuring expression that it wasn't over yet, that Po was doing the best that he could to save their daughter.

The Dragon Warrior closed his eyes. He concentrated and relaxed, tuning out Lotus' wails that felt like an attacker punching him in the chest. He reached an arm into the crib, settling his paw gently as he could on her forehead. He breathed in and out slowly, preparing to filter his energy into her. His paw glowed a bright gold, and he grunted as he merged his Chi with hers; he was horrified to find that it was dimming, just like his Chi had almost gone out after flying at top speed around the world not so long ago.

He continued to concentrate nonetheless, reaching deeper into Lotus' soul. Heart hammering, he could feel her pain and distress caused by the fever. He gasped at how it had nearly taken her under already, that she was hanging on by only a thread. He took hold of the thread before it could completely disappear, wrapping his Chi around it until he was sure that it was strong enough for him to let go. Her crying had quieted and her tears had subsided, and Po could feel her Chi strengthening again. Feeling her forehead, he found that it was no longer burning to the touch.

Ready to let go, he loosened his own Chi bit by bit until he was sure that she would recover well enough on her own.

He let go completely at last, and he could hear Lotus letting out a quiet sigh of relief. He released a sigh himself, tired from the work he had done but satisfied; she was going to make it. They wouldn't lose her so quickly during the night like they had feared.

"Come in," he said as a knock on the door sounded, keeping his eyes trained on Lotus to make sure that she was faring well without the help of his Chi. In that moment, he made a promise to himself that he would never be away from his children for an entire night again, no matter how much he and Tigress needed time by themselves. He should have known that something was wrong with Lotus with how quiet she had been that morning compared to her brother.

"It wasn't your fault," Tigress whispered into his ear after she had entered the room, leaving Chao with Li and Mr. Ping in case the room was still contaminated with sickness.

"It wasn't your fault, either," Po whispered back to her reassuringly.

"We're learning," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. She smiled in relief when Lotus opened her bright, emerald eyes and stared up at the two of them. She was wide awake, hardly the child who had been sick and suffering only moments ago.

"Yeah, you're going to be okay," Po laughed as Lotus reached her arms out like she wanted a hug.

Before he could reach in to grab Lotus gently and bring her out, he had to jump back when she unexpectedly sneezed out a small burst of fire.