(The Author's Note will be at the end - for a reason. ;) )
"Dragon Warrior! Please, allow us to congratulate you and your comrades with the superb victory today!" Master Ox and Master Croc both bowed for the six, spreading a smile on Po's cheeks.
Seeing the two remaining members of the Kung Fu Council of Gongmen City at the party had been quite the surprise.
"Thank you both very much," Po said proudly. "It's great that you could show up!"
"How could we miss out on it?" Ox asked with a smile. "After what you all did for Gongmen City, how could we not repay the favor by wishing you all the best of luck?"
Po and his friends thanked the duo again, then went onto greet some of the other Masters that had showed up at the party as Shifu started conversing with the two.
Po was surprised and amused to find Masters he had never met, but heard so much about. Po almost went fanboy on all of them, but he decided to try his best and keep his cool – he could always ask for their autographs once the tournament was over.
Not only them, but also all the wealthy families of Beijing and other cities were at the party, most of them wearing clothes that almost appeared too formal to be real clothes – their outfit themselves looked like art!
Tigress was also rather thrilled by meeting all these great Masters, whom she had read and heard about. But as Po eventually ended up having lots of long conversations with most of them, she walked over to a window and took a look outside as well as some fresh air.
Needless to say, Beijing was beautiful by night – all of the city lights looked like stars in the sky against the dark, almost black background. The moonlight cast a dim light over the city, casting it entirely in a bluish shade.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tigress turned her head and saw Jinshu standing by the wall. The silver fox wore some formal robes, but not ones she had seen before. These consisted of a white Kung Fu Jacket with blue trims and black silk pants.
"I suppose…" Tigress replied, unsure of what else to say.
"Just like you," Jinshu said, surprising Tigress greatly. Tigress looked into his eyes for a moment. She then looked out the window again.
"So you decided to show up after all?" Shifu asked Junjie. The two Grandmasters were standing a little away from the life of the party – Po. The two had randomly stumbled upon one another and it had surprised Shifu – mainly because of what he had heard his students say – about the Six's behavior in that bar where the two teams had met.
"Of course – just what do you think of me?" Junjie asked in an insulted growl.
"Not quite honorable," Shifu said, stating his opinion.
"Well… at least I…"
"There is no reason what so ever to be fighting, you two." The two Grandmasters turned their heads and saw Master Chao. The two felt equally embarrassed – due to master Chao talking to them like children.
"Sorry, Master Chao," Junjie said, bowing quickly. "There are just some… negative vibrations in this atmosphere, I suppose."
Master Chao didn't seem utterly thrilled with Junjie's comment, but eventually chose to ignore it. "You two are acting like children. Aren't you the least bit ashamed of yourselves?"
"I am sorry, Master," Shifu said and bowed. "Please forgive me."
"Me as well," Junjie said, bowing as well.
"Very well – your apologies are accepted," Master Chao said, though still looking somewhat unimpressed. "But please behave you two. I know you've had your problems, but please try and see through it."
"Of course," the two said in unison and bowed once again, still feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Shifu and Junjie then decided to leave each other alone as it would only cause the two to quarrel. Shifu instead watched as his students also interacted with Junjie's students; for example Crane, who was playing a chess game against Gorilla.
Surprisingly, it seemed that the primate seemed to give Shifu's student a hard time. This somewhat shocked him, given that Crane was as good, if not better, than Shifu was.
Moving on, Shifu found Lynx performing to get some attention, throwing various things into the air and balancing it by catching them on top of one another. The small feline had managed to balance a chair, a small table and a vase with one hand.
The people around him, mainly some of the young ladies seemed very amused, but Shifu didn't let himself be impressed by this childish behavior.
Moving on, Shifu also found Mantis arguing with Cobra and Stag. Mantis was seemingly having a hard time structuring his opinions against the two. Shifu had no idea about what they were talking about, but obviously not anything he would understand.
"You know me and you – we should head out." The last thing Shifu had expected was to find that Monkey had been smitten with some young women. Furthermore, Shifu found the primate flirting with some of them!
"Oh, you heard that?!" one of the young women, a feline of some sort squealed. "He just asked me out!"
"You? Ha, he totally asked me out!" a white swan said.
It was still somewhat odd for Shifu to see something like this, given his students had never really had the chance of getting smitten with anyone. But nonetheless, he sent Monkey a somewhat stern look, warning him that he should just be 'careful' about what he would get himself involved in.
"Ah, don't worry, ladies," Eagle said in a cocky tone of voice as she entered the scene. "He isn't worth it. He won't even last a minute in the arena – but I guess you'll see tomorrow!"
"How dare you say that?" the swan asked. "He is the great Master Monkey!"
"So? I'm Master Eagle the Second," Eagle said cockily. "It's only natural that I'm the greater one here."
Shifu hurried away, leaving Monkey with that… situation to take care of, so to speak.
One thing that didn't surprise him was to find Viper surrounded by children. She was seemingly telling them all stories about her and her five friends. This put a smile on Shifu's face – simply seeing how entertained it kept the children.
As Shifu walked closer, Viper sent him a little smile, but kept telling whatever she was telling the children. "Oh look, kids, it's Master Shifu!"
The children's attention quickly got turned towards the old master, who just smiled warmly at them.
One of them, seemingly the youngest one, a cat, for some reason, had a pair of small bowls and held them up to his head. This way they looked like round ears and he joyously squealed, "She-pu!"
Master Shifu chuckled at the little child's 'Shifu-impersonation'. "Haha, so you told them about that?"
"Yes," Viper replied, happy that her master also found it somewhat funny. "The kids wanted to hear about the Dragon Warrior, so I told them about the first days that Po was with us."
"Is that so," Shifu said in a low tone of voice, still smiling.
"Yeah!" one of the older children said. He was a rabbit and most likely around six or seven years old. "I want to be just like the Dragon Warrior!"
"Is that so?" Shifu chuckled. "I guess you might as well start your… training." Shifu gently patted the young rabbit's tummy, causing the group to laugh.
Eventually Shifu noticed something; Tigress stood by a window, all alone. It wasn't much of a surprise, but suddenly he saw Jinshu approach her. Raising an eyebrow, Shifu left the children with Viper and walked a little closer.
"Sweet thing of you to say," Tigress said, somewhat coldly. "But it won't get you anywhere."
"A shame," Jinshu said in a somewhat sleek voice. Tigress didn't quite trust him – he was a member of the competitive team, besides, he hadn't acted quite happy earlier in that bar.
"Yes, a shame." Tigress looked back out at the city.
"Is something wrong, Tigress?" Jinshu asked, surprising Tigress a bit – the fact that he had bothered to remember her name.
"No… Why?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, I just figured," Jinshu asked and looked out the window as well. "I mean, that look in your eyes and all… I just assumed."
Tigress found herself confused. She turned to the silver fox. "What are you talking about?"
"There is no reason to put on your angry voice, beautiful," Jinshu teased her with a sleek smile. "But what I was talking about is the look in your eyes."
"Yes, I understood that," Tigress said, a little annoyed, though ignoring the fact that he had just called her 'beautiful'. "But what about it?"
"You just seem longingly," Jinshu said, surprising Tigress again. How had he known? "What is it that you miss?"
"Nothing you would ever understand," Tigress said, avoiding his gaze by looking out the window again.
"Is that so…" Jinshu chuckled. "What about we play guess the tigress' thoughts?"
Tigress didn't reply, which Jinshu took as an okay. "Does it have anything to do with your personal life?"
Tigress simply nodded, not intending on even telling him what it was. It was still strange that he had somehow managed to figure her out. Even her friends that she had been with for years hadn't learned to quite figure her out – at least not as fast as Jinshu had. Maybe it was some kind of special talent that the silver fox possessed.
"Alright, let's see… does it have anything to do with your friends – the other five?" Jinshu asked then, looked at Tigress' face as to see if it brought up any special feelings in her.
"No," Tigress replied with a straight face.
Jinshu thought about it for a moment. It seemed that he would have to try guessing with a different perspective. That perspective turned out to be one he could relate to; "Does it have something to do with your Master?"
There was no response and Jinshu couldn't read anything in her face. "So I guess that's it, huh?"
"Why do you even care?" Tigress hissed and walked over to the window again. "It's nothing you understand… Or any of your business for that matter."
"False, true," Jinshu said, commenting on her two statements. "In fact, I do know how it feels. Yes, I know what it's about. You want attention, am I right?"
"…" Tigress looked out the window again, not responding. "It's just that this tournament is a chance to finally make him proud of me."
"Let me guess, he's always tried to hold up that cold, professional attitude, right?" Jinshu asked. Without waiting for an answer, Jinshu continued, "I know how it is with those Grandmasters – they don't display any pride for their students and what they do unless it is truly remarkable."
"How'd you know?" Tigress asked. "I don't see Junjie act like that towards you of all people."
"Yes, but sometimes there is more than what meets the eye, Tigress." Jinshu carefully took a step closer. "You want to know why I'm here at this tournament?"
"Not really, but I have the feeling that you're going to tell me," Tigress replied, looking over at Jinshu, but then looked back out at the city, accepting his presence. "But I suppose it isn't just to win, anyway…"
"Correct," Jinshu said, now standing right beside her. He wasn't as tall as her, only reaching her shoulders, not including his ears. "The reason is that my grandpa wants to win this tournament… he wants to prove something to himself, I think…"
"Your grandpa?" Tigress asked confused.
"Yes… Junjie," Jinshu explained.
"But what about your parents?"
"My parents died when I was a baby; my mother died while giving birth to me and my father took his own life in grief." Jinshu stopped for a moment. As cold as he usually seemed, this subject actually seemed to touch him deeply.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Tigress said, surprised to find that she actually meant it. But none the less, she could relate to it.
"I grew up with my uncle," Jinshu explained. "He was a tailor and he gave me these clothes when Junjie started training me."
"How old were you?" Tigress asked. "When you started training, that is."
"I was thirteen when Junjie came for me," Jinshu said, almost making it sound like he had been abducted. "Since that day it was just training and training… up until this day."
"I know how it is," Tigress said. "I've also always trained – nothing more, nothing less."
"Yes, but at least you always had Shifu," Jinshu said.
"What do you mean?" Tigress asked, finding herself more drawn towards Jinshu's life story.
"One day, back when I was fifteen, Junjie left me at a Kung Fu academy," Jinshu explained. "Just left me there. And you know what? He just comes back for me six years later as if it had just been a few days!"
Jinshu stopped himself, feeling frustrated. He felt himself getting angry, but he didn't know why. "And here we are – eight years after that…"
Tigress was shocked – to say the least. She had always felt ignored by Shifu, but she had never felt used – which Jinshu seemed to have. To be honest, Tigress understood why; Junjie hadn't quite treated him like a grandfather would treat his grandson.
"Sorry I had an outburst like that," Jinshu excused himself. "I should probably go…"
"Jinshu…" Tigress was unsure of what to say. Why had the silver fox just blurted out his entire life story? Was he really honest or was he trying to win her over?
"Tigress, I think it's best if we just act like this conversation never happened; we're on different sides after all," Jinshu told Tigress and was about to leave. Tigress just stood there, not saying a single word. In a sense he had been right about his last statement – Shifu or any of Tigress' other teammates probably wouldn't like it, if they found her talking to Jinshu.
As Jinshu left, he gently let his hand caress her shoulder for a short moment before disappearing into the crowd. Tigress barely reacted, though it had sent a chill down her spine.
But the silver fox sure had left her with a lot to think about. Now she finally understood why he seemed so cold – at least somewhat understood. But why had he chosen to talk to Tigress about it… of all people in the world? Had it been part of his flirting? Had it all just been an act to try and win her over?
Either way, Tigress couldn't allow herself to buy into any of it… but she could always think it through without the least bit of consideration to join the Selected Six's ranks.
No, Jinshu had seemed too out of character for it to ever be real; Tigress knew that!
"Tigress?" Tigress jumped slightly by the sound of Shifu's voice.
"Master," she replied, hoping that he hadn't heard any of the conversation she had just had with Jinshu.
"What did he want?" Shifu wanted to know, asking in a somewhat suspicious tone of voice.
"Nothing, he just tried to flirt with me," Tigress said, trying her best to make it sound like she thought that Jinshu was pathetic. Obviously it worked, since it seemed to calm Shifu a little.
"Is that so," Shifu asked. "I'm glad it didn't work – you're out of his league."
"I am?" Tigress asked, somewhat surprised, but quickly replaced it with, "Of course, Master."
Shifu walked back towards where Po was, now telling stories instead of Viper. Except now, not only the children at the party, but also the adults were listening as well.
It actually suited Po to be telling stories like that – being surrounded by children made him look kind of mature in Tigress opinion as she followed her Master towards the story-telling panda.
And Tigress knew for a fact that the panda would probably end up telling stories the rest of the night until his voice disappeared. Mr.
Ping was there as well, looking proud as ever – he also seemed to have some fun with the party.
A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you liked this chapter! Kind of like Dining Danger - a little pointless, though we're starting to get somewhere with the plot - and it only took eight chapters - well done, me... and there is more to come in the next chapter, so stay tuned! ;) I hope you enjoyed! Oh, and TigressxJinshu? Most likely NOT going to happen. But if I do hcnage my mind, which will most likely happen, please don't be surprised. ;)