Wait For It


"Hooray!" Shouted the crowd. The masters all gathered round, leaning and pressing onto the soft white and black fur of their hero. Another day saved by the Dragon Warrior. As cups and mugs splashed their contents around and happy stories were laughed at, Po stood in the midst of it all, celebrating with the Kung Fu masters across China. The Hall of Heroes was packed, banners with Po's image lined the jade columns, and the Furious Five recounted their part of helping the giant panda save all of China.

Most of the Furious Five.

Tigress watched from the great doors of the Jade Palace. Her arms were crossed as she leaned on the doorpost. The bright happy cheers and laughs of her fellow friends could probably be heard around the mountainside. Viper slapped Mantis with the tip of her tail after telling another bad joke about Po's weight, and Crane and Monkey laughed at Po's blushing face when a female gazelle warrior greeted him with an eager smile. Everyone was happy and safe. It was enough to make the old red panda smile as he played, and lost, a game of Mahjong with Mr. Ping.

But it wasn't enough for Tigress to smile.

Her lips were bent in a frown as she turned her back on the jollification. She took a few steps away from the door, towards the darkness that made the night, before looking over her shoulder. She could see Po's happy grinning face stretching from ear to ear.

The frown cracked a bit. She couldn't stay upset with that face, but reality came crashing in and the dark voices with it. She turned left, away from the hollowing noises of victory.

"Po's victory," Tigress muttered. She shook her head. "I shouldn't feel this way. He sacrificed a lot to protect us... again." Her attempt at dismissing her bitterness failed with a growl. Her feet took her to the back of the Hall of Heroes, where the Ten thousand scrolls of Kung Fu rested on the other side of the deep red wall. She looked out past the V of the valley where the sun disappeared just a few moments ago.

"What's my purpose here?" She asked herself. "Am I just...stuck? Why... why am I not..." She shook her head again, planting her rear on the stone steps. She picked up loose pebbles and chucked them into the far dense woods in the back of the hall.

"It's not fair," She muttered. "It's... It's just not fair!" She stormed up to her feet. "I've worked so hard for this and now... now I'm just... stuck!" Tigress growled, regretting that she wasn't near any ironwood trees. She looked at her hands and clenched them.

No, punching the ironwood trees wouldn't help. One, they were very brittle and hard to find by now. Two, she didn't want to lose any more feeling.

But any feeling was better than this one.

"I... I don't understand." Tigress looked up at the night sky. The stars shined down on her or maybe she was just too close to Po's glory; she was in the way. Just like the universe seemed to think she wasn't worthy of being the Dragon Warrior and picked a big eager panda instead. "I... I don't hate him, but..." She didn't. Her feelings weren't against him. She appreciated and felt proud of Po's training and growth.

"But," She clutched her hands to her sides and gritted her teeth. "Why can't I grow? Why not me? What... what was I trained for? What was I saved for?!" She looked up at the silent peaceful sky. "Death and life don't discriminate between the good and bad and they take and take and take and we keep living anyway. We rise and we fall and we... break," She looked at her hand and shut her eyes. "And we make our mistakes. But if there's a reason why I'm still alive when everyone who would have loved me is gone then I'm willing to wait for it. But what is it?"

Tigress picked up another pebble and chucked it out into the dark forest below. She gave a light scoff. "But not Po. Of course not. Po always is on an uphill climb. His pace is relentless; he wastes no time." She stopped chucking rocks and looked down at the ground. "What is it like? To be him? To be in his shoes."

She couldn't comprehend it. Years of training and discipline and Po. Po was a complete natural. The best of the best. And it hurt. It hurt because as much as she wanted to be glad for him and treat him well, she couldn't help but feel slighted, forgotten, a mistake.

Tigress shut her eyes. An unknown sting burned her eyes. "Po doesn't hesitate. He has no restraint and he takes and he takes and he takes, and he keeps winning anyway. He changes the game, he plays and he raises the stakes," She opened her eyes and stared straight at the sky. "Well, if there's a reason he seems to thrive where so few survive then I'm willing to wait for it." Then she growled, "And if there's a reason I'm still alive when so many have died, then I'm willing to-"

She heard a noise. Her head spun to her right. There before her eyes was Po, sadly gazing at her. He hung his head. Tigress gasped, "Po, I... What did you hear?"

"E-Everything," He said in a small voice.

"Po, I-"

"I'm sorry."

Tigress's ears rose up. "Wh-What?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I took the title away from you. I wish you didn't have to... to wait for your time to shine."

"Po, I... It's nothing."

"No it's not! Otherwise you wouldn't have red eyes from crying about it!" Po shouted. Tigress quickly rubbed her eyes dry before staring back at the panda's sad and angry face. "I'm... I'm sorry you hate me but-"

"I don't hate you, Po. I just," Tigress paused for a moment, turning away. "Po, you've had things so easy. You understand Kung Fu concepts in minutes what would've taken others years to learn. You've taken down more villains of consequence than any warrior I know. I don't hate you." She looked at her hand. "I just... don't like myself."

"Because you're wondering what's the reason you're not growing?" Tigress turned around, facing him. His eyes, normally filled with joy, looked tired and heavy like he would cry himself to sleep. And yet there was a deep mutual understanding that she could see in those jade eyes. She wasn't sure if he walked through the same darkness she was going through, but he could definitely see it.

Why?

"Why do you say that?"

"You were shouting it."

"You heard that," She stated more than asked.

"And... I wish I could give you what you want but... I don't think I'd want this burden on anyone else."

"Burden?" Tigress rose her eyebrow.

Now the panda sat down, heavy and somewhat drowning in a sadness that couldn't be described, not because it was too great, but because it was too peculiar. The tiger sat down next to him. Po aimlessly stared into the abyss of the dense dark forest below, weighed down by either sleep or grief. "Tigress, I've been through more stuff than any warrior I know. I mean, I can tell that you want to make Master Shifu proud. That you feel like you don't know what you were trained for. That you wish you could find your purpose. That you feel useless."

The growl she gave told Po that he was running out of time for his implied 'but'

"Try," He continued, "feeling all of that at one point and then getting thrown onto the other end of the seesaw." Tigress only blinked. "You at least had Shifu look at you with mild approval. He hated me. I still don't know what I'm trained for. Half the time I'm trying to figure out what to do. And every time, people look at me thinking I know exactly what to do because of my 'great and awesome' talent when I don't know what I'm doing half the time!" His cheek rested against his hand. "I never know what I'm doing. There's no script, no manual, no rulebook, Nothing! The only reason why I even played along with being chosen the first time was because I figured Oogway would come to his senses! It was never ever my plan to be Dragon Warrior! Just a guy that learned some stuff from Shifu! And what you learned at a nice easy pace, I have to learn in 3 days because of some villain. There's ALWAYS someone causing me to feel the pressure! And I'm sick of it! The idea of dying or my friends and family dying is always on my mind and I have to look like I have it all put together? I can't even get myself put together because I don't know who I am most of the time! People keep expecting me to know what to do because I'm the Dragon Warrior, but I'm not! I'm PO!"

His panting slowly turned mild breathing as he threw his head into his hands. Tigress rested her hand on his shoulder, patiently waiting for more. "I like Kung Fu, but I hate being the Dragon Warrior. I wish more than ever I could switch this out for something a little easier, but I can't." He wiped his eyes free from the tears. "I'm sorry Tigress. I just-"

"No, don't be," Tigress interrupted. "You're right. I never thought about the burden you have, Po. I'm... I'm sorry I was so caught up in my ego that I didn't see the pain you're in." She gently lifted his head up from looking at his feet. "You're not alone in this, Po."

"I know. I just... You don't know how much I would love to just take things a little slower. I peaked so early that I just don't know how to get down now."

"You can always fall down like you do on the steps."

"Ha ha, hehe," Po chuckled a bit. They said nothing for a moment. They couldn't really. What was said was a lot for both of them.

But it helped. In some weird way, it helped.

"Tigress," Po grunted out from a throat full of mucus. "Please, take your time. Don't get caught up in my pace that you start to take the hits like me. That's what Tai-Lung tried to do. He tried to get to his peak as fast as me. I'm just me. It's okay to take your time. Odds are if we traded places, we'd get depressed or hurt."

"Hmmm, well, I do like my solitary life. I guess I'd have to give that up if I were the Dragon Warrior."

"And I don't know if I could live with Shifu post... you know... me."

Tigress chuckled. Another moment of silence passed. "Po," the feline said. "I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't get caught up in your progress. Comparison is a bad thing."

"Well, to be honest, there's no way I'm comparable to you. You're too awesome to compare," Po said with a goofy smile. Tigress smiled back and stood back up.

"Come on, let's get back to your celebration, Dragon Warrior."

"Please," Po sighed with a grin as he got back to his feet. "Just call me Po."

"Then come, Po. Your party is still going on."

"Aww, but I was having a nice time with you. Do I have to?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

Tigress smiled. "Because this is your time to shine. Mine will come, but right now, it's your time."

With that, the two, previously soaked by the darkness's dread and gloom, came back into the light and warmth of the Hall of Heroes and shared a great time with their friends.

As time passed, Po stood with a staff by his side as he watched his star pupil fighting the punching dummy. The small black and white tiger boy fiercely collided his foot with the dummy when a loud clang distracted him. Po looked too and smiled. "You're back."

"Another battle won," Tigress smiled grandly as the tiger boy ran up to her.

"Wow, that makes 20. What are you trying to set a record?" Po smirked.

Tigress picked her son up and carried him over to his father. "And how did Lotus do?"

"Getting better and better like his mother who can't seem to stop winning wars for China."

"I never knew I had a knack for it until now," Tigress smiled. She slowly placed Lotus down, letting the child run off to his training again. "Which reminds me, I have to say thank you."

Po narrowed his eyes but smiled. "For what?"

"I just... I remember when I was upset that you seemed to just soar all the time."

"Oh you mean when you were jealous of me," Po smirked. Tigress rolled her eyes but held her smirk.

"And when you told me the woes of being Dragon Warrior? Yes, that. You were right, though. I just need to take my time."

"Of course, I'm right, General Tigress," Po grinned. "All you had to do was wait for it."

Tigress simply smiled.

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.-2 Corinthians 10:12

Are you willing to wait for it?

The end

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****F*****

"You got Alexander Hamilton stuck in your head, don't you?" Demi muttered.

"I won't let you ruin my... shot!" I sang. "I won't let you ruin my... shot! Eh yo, I'm just like a new tree, I'm young, scrappy, and hungry, and I won't let you ruin my... shot!"