Tigress couldn't help but admit it: it felt a little nice to be wearing loose clothing for once.
She pulled one of the sleeves of Po's shirt further down her arm as she watched Po fill another bowl. It would be her sixth one tonight.
Several hours had passed since she'd awoken, and she was feeling a lot better since then. She blamed the soup. Though she had to endure a bit of pain, with Po's assistance she had adjusted her weakened body into a sitting position, making it easier to eat the soup Po kept giving her. Normally she would never eat this much (her diet wouldn't allow it), but Po insisted she get as much food as she can in her, and he was right. She hadn't eaten since she'd fallen unconscious several days ago, and would need her strength for the return trip to the fortress.
Even so, after her third bowl and change in body position, she'd insisted on waiting a little before her next bowl.
And so they had talked. Actually it was more of an interrogation, as Tigress wanted to know all that had happened while she had been unconscious. As Po explained, he hadn't seen Crane, Viper or Mantis since they'd separated, and there was still no sign of Monkey. The Yeti had also made no appearance since their confrontation. In turn, Tigress told Po what had happened after he had been knocked out during the battle. She told him how the Yeti had clawed her, mentioned something called the 'order', before Tigress managed to push it over a cliff. Po's reaction to Tigress's recollection of the Yeti's defeat was unsurprising; he'd yelled "AWESOME!" and barely resisted the urge to pat her on the back. However, his grin had faded somewhat when she had informed him that she wasn't certain the Yeti was dead.
"So it might still be alive?" He'd asked. "Aw darn."
"It hasn't shown up since I defeated it." Tigress stated. "That may be a good sign."
Po didn't answer, unconvinced. Instead he'd decided that it was time for bowl number four.
And now, he was handing bowl number six to her. It smelled as delicious as its predecessor.
"I'd like to make this my last bowl, if that's okay." She spoke, and almost regretted it. Sitting in a warm cave near a small campfire with a bowl of Mr. Ping's secret ingredient soup in hand, her lower half wrapped in soft blankets, she hadn't felt this comfortable in years.
"Sure, it's okay." Po said, a moment before he started his tenth bowl.
"Are you sure there were no spoons?" Tigress asked.
"None so far, thought I did find some chopsticks. If you want, I can visit the city tomorrow and try and find some." Po replied.
"That would be great, as long as you be careful."
There was silence as the pair finished their bowls. Then Po stacked them away in the corner and kneeled down next to Tigress, a roll of bandages in hand.
"Okay, I'm gonna have to change your wrappings." Po said. "You don't mind if I take my- I mean your shirt off, do you?" He was blushing.
Tigress shook her head.
"Where did you get those bandages?" She asked.
"I found them in the city. Don't worry, I put them in boiling water before putting them on you."
"Good, you remembered Viper's lessons on hygiene. Wish I could say the same for table manners."
"Hey! In case you haven't noticed, I've started chewing with my mouth shut a lot more than I usually do! And I drink my soup with my pinky sticking out!"
"Relax, I'm just teasing!" Tigress started to laugh, but gasped as pain stabbed at her side. Po gripped her shoulder, as if worried she would pass out again.
"Well don't." Po said. "You never tease, and when you do it freaks me out. Now hold still so I can change your wrappings."
Tigress wanted to protest, but the recent bout of pain from her stitching informed her that she wouldn't be able to get the shirt off by herself. And so, with extreme reluctance, she let Po slowly pull the shirt over her head. She felt a little relieved when she saw that he hadn't taken off her undergarments.
The wrappings covered over half her body, and was stained red in the area where her wound was. The exposure of her skin to the air chilled her a little, but that chill vanished the moment Po put his paws on her torso as he began unwrapping the bandages. Tigress's face felt hotter than the fire that filled the cave with light and warmth, and her heart was racing. No-one had ever touched her like this before, not even her comrades when they treated her that time she got shot by a bandit's arrow. She felt no pain as Po worked, yet still she was biting her lip. Maybe it was because he was technically seeing her half-naked, but right she was having an abnormal reaction to having a comrade follow standard medical procedure.
She glanced at Po's face; he was grimacing at the four gashes, stitched closed with the same thread he'd used to repair his pants. Tigress felt a little stunned herself; the longest gash must be nearly twenty centimeters long.
"Aren't you going to wrap me back up again?" Tigress had just realized that he had been staring at her maimed body for ten seconds.
"I'm just checking for signs of infection." Po said.
"Ah. Good job with the stitches, by the way."
"You know, I had actually considered cauterizing them." Po spoke.
"What?"
"I had the knife and the fire in the lantern to do it." Po went on. He looked more than a little ashamed. "But I couldn't do it. So I went for stitching instead."
Tigress had been burned a couple of times before, both times on the field of fiery death. Both times the pain had been indescribable.
"A good choice." She said eventually. "There're a lot of risks that come with cauterization anyway." Po still looked ashamed, so she added, "Thank you by the way."
Po looked up from her gashes.
"For what?"
"For keeping me alive."
The corners of Po's mouth twitched upwards.
"Your welcome. Try and keep your body straight." He replied, and began administering fresh bandages. Tigress's heart began pumping again as he repeatedly put his arms around her as he wrapped the bandages round and round again. A couple of minutes later she was once more wearing Po's shirt.
"Are you sure you're okay with just your coat?" She'd asked before getting redressed.
"Yeah, don't forget I still have 250 pounds of fat to protect me." Po patted his belly, which rumbled in response. Tigress bit back a laugh, not wanting to pull at her stitches.
Po then sat down beside her, so close their bodies touched. Together they stared through the exit of the cave. It was pitch dark out, save for the tiny snowflakes that drifted lazily past the cave like petals on a river.
Tigress leaned back further against the wall, taking in the warmth of the fire and the peacefulness of the moment. It was just the two of them, all alone in the firelight, waiting for the dawn that she hadn't seen in days.
Just the two of them, Tigress suddenly realized.
Yes, they were alone. No Furious Five to interrupt their conversation. No Monkey and Mantis to make a crack at either of them.
Maybe, now that they were alone, it wouldn't cause much harm to finish a conversation that they had started long ago, back when they had yet to truly understand each other.
Tigress clenched her fists. She had been meaning to ask this question for a long time.
"Po…" She hesitated. She felt Po shift as he turned his head. "Back when you first came to the palace… was I really that heartless towards you?"
"Heartless?" Though she couldn't see, she could hear the surprise. "I wouldn't say heartless. A little mean, maybe, but-"
"Back on the boat, you said that I was so hardcore I couldn't feel anything." Tigress cut him off. She was being rude, but she so desperately needed to get this out while there was no chance of being interrupted yet again. "Back then, did I really come across as so cruel and emotionless that I didn't have a soul? Be honest with me!"
"If being mad at me doesn't count as an emotion, then yeah." Po replied. "Tigress, I will admit that you weren't the nicest person back then, but the past must remain in the past." He put a thick but very warm arm around her shoulders, propped between the wall and her head like a pillow. "I'm a little glad that you know that the way you treated me was wrong, but that was years ago! What happened between us was a bad first impression, nothing more."
"How can you be so forgiving?!" Tigress demanded. "I treated you like crap for weeks, even after you defeated Tai Lung, I still treated you like a burden!"
"Well I was!" Po replied casually.
"Wait, what?" Tigress finally turned her head to face him. To her disbelief, he was smiling slightly.
"Tigress, you remember how many mistakes I used to make after I became Dragon Warrior?" Po went on. "I wiped all your memories to try and get out of chores! I once let a crazy inventor into the training hall and he turned it into a killing machine! My table manners were so bad I was the only one not invited to a banquet! And I actually once drove you from the Jade Palace! Personally, I think even I would be ticked off with myself."
"What's your point?" Tigress demanded.
"My point is that the reason it was so easy to forgive you was because I don't blame you for being mad at me. A lot of the time, I think back on the things I did, and I say to myself, 'you probably wouldn't have gotten off on the wrong foot if you weren't such an idiot.' And then I do more stupid stuff and think back on them, and it goes on and on and on and on and on…"
"Are you saying that you blame yourself?" Tigress asked. "But what about what happened during the tournament, when you became chosen as the Dragon Warrior? We had never met before."
"Aside from that time I set a table on fire when you came to the noodle shop." Po mentioned.
"Never mind that!"
"Alright. Anyway, that time I sorta took away your chance at becoming the Dragon Warrior. At first I did wonder why you hated me more than the others. But when I found out about the orphanage exactly what your relationship with Shifu was, I realized just how badly I screwed you over."
Tigress remained silent as she took this in.
"Look, that was years ago, and things between us have gotten a lot better since then." Po gently pulled Tigress closer to him with his arm. "If it means that much to you, then I forgive you for being mean to me. And I'm sorry about what I said on the boat. I didn't mean it the way you think I did."
Tigress brought her knees up to her chest despite the pain.
"I actually needed to hear that." She whispered. "Thank you."
"I think it's time we let this go, do you?"
For the first time since they'd started this conversation, Tigress smiled. It was a small smile, but she still felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She no longer needed to beat herself up. She understood at last why Po had been so forgiving to her. Maybe now she could let her mind rest.
Suddenly Po let out a massive yawn.
"Ahhh… I think it's time we get some sleep." Po said. "Do you want me to help you lie down?"
Though a little miffed that he thought she needed help with such a mundane task, Tigress remembered how painful it had been when sitting up and bit back her sarcasm.
"Actually, this is comfortable enough already." She replied softly. She hadn't been sarcastic when she thought of Po's arm as like a pillow. She let her head rest against his shoulder, and felt Po stiffen slightly. A moment later he relaxed, and with his other arm pulled the makeshift sleeping bag further up her body.
"Goodnight, Tigress." Po said. "We'll see if you're well enough to travel tomorrow."
"Goodnight Po." Tigress replied.
Silence fell as they both began to let their eyelids droop.
Po was the first to fall asleep.
Once she was sure his eyes were fully shut, Tigress carefully reached into the blankets and found the pocket of her pants. She didn't think he'd found it while she was unconscious, otherwise he would have brought it up already.
Tigress pulled out a stick. It was an unusual stick, bent into an L shape and hollow. Tigress let the paw holding the stick rest on her legs as she gazed at it.
She thought of that terrible moment the chamber in the Temple of Heroes had flooded completely, and she'd run out of air, and then Po, the only other occupant in the chamber, had saved her life with this very stick. She had been a jerk to him that time, too.
And yet again he forgave me, and now I know why. He would always see both sides of the same coin, and even if he didn't he would always assume that my treatment was justified, and forgive me anyway. Perhaps one day, I can follow his example.
She put the stick back where she'd hidden it and allowed tiredness to take over.
Po was truly an amazing guy. Despite his quirks, he would always find a way to make up for it. Even though at times he had a funny way of showing it, it was obvious that he cared for her unconditionally, and for Tigress this was a first. So were her unusual reactions to Po touching her so tenderly, to those moments when he would unintentionally embarrass himself but in an endearing manner. What she wouldn't give to tell Po how she felt, how much his friendship meant to her, how his very presence would warm her heart like a black and white sun…
That was when Tigress realized that she was in love with him.