It was a day like the rest. A day came and went. The sun was settling, indicating the end of the work with its orange gradient to the people of China. And the Valley of Peace was - as its name suggests - peaceful for the most part. The only thing disturbing the quiet village was the two figures descending an absurdly long stair. Or to be more precise just one of the two figures.

Unlikely best friends, who couldn't be more different from each other. Po and Tigress were going on a mandatory patrol during the afternoon. Although it was her turn to walk the same streets for the thousandth time, Po was eager to accompany her. This wasn't new from the panda. Whenever he could find an excuse to spend time with her, he would dive on it like a hawk. The only difference this time was the peculiar circumstances leading up to the present.

As they descended the stairs, and Po kept rambling about a new recipe he wants to try out tonight, Tigress fell into deep thought. Monkey and Mantis, while occasionally teased the two of them, never pushed it too hard, until now. Crane was also starting to avoid the pair whenever possible and Viper kept telling Tigress about how Po is likely planning something for her, which he only told the "boys" about. However, Tigress wasn't one to come to conclusions that were solely based on rumors even if it came from a trusted companion. They were best friends for sure, and he was also a massive fanboy of her, but she never thought he would view her as anything more. Although she could not lie about how Po's reason for joining her this time was curious. He claimed to want to check out a shop down in the valley that opened recently, while previously he was always upfront about it and said he just wanted to talk.

By the time they crossed the bridge, the village became empty, with only a few citizens still lingering about on the streets shaded in the retreating sun's amber.

Before passing Mr. Ping's noodle shop Po wanted to pick something up from his room. So they took a little detour, entered the shop, scaled the bamboo stairs, and entered his room. Po was looking around for his item of interest, that is until Tigress started to close the door. The moment it began creaking, moments before its closure, Po quickly turned around in panic and threw away everything he had in his hands to try and reach the handle. But it was in vain. With a singular click sound, the door closed before he could get to it. "Uh oh."

Tigress not understanding the situation, asked "What?"

"I uh, forgot to tell you not to close the door." He said with an uneasy grin.

"Why?" She tried to open the door, but something was wrong. It wouldn't budge even if she put her weight into it. "Po, what's going on?" She asked with an elevated tone and furrowed brows.

"You remember that time I mentioned how my dad refuses to renovate the house? Well…"

"It's stuck." She cut him off with a flat face.

"Yeah." He nodded.

She tried to open it again using more force this time however, the only thing that displayed any motion was the wall surrounding it. Noticing the odd movement, she abandoned her retried attempt at unlocking the entry to the hallway. "I better not force this or the whole wall might come down."

"You know we could just leave through the window."
"Alright, lead the way."
"Just let me find my… ah here it is!" He claimed with enthusiasm as he raised his bag of coins from behind his bed.
"Let's go!" Tigress ordered, and Po followed, however as he tried to go through the window frame, the logistics made itself clear. "Uh, we have a problem."
With an exasperated sigh she noted "Now you are stuck too." as she tried to cover her view of Po's rear and to cope with the secondhand embarrassment.

"Maybe you could give me a little push?" He asked with urgency in his uncomfortable position. Tigress with great reluctance put her hand where she really didn't want to, but was required, and gradually started to push harder and harder. However, even with her strength, he wouldn't budge but only get squashed more against the window's wooden frame. The pain becoming increasingly unbearable from being effectively crushed, he wanted to abandon the idea. "Wait, wait, wait, wait! Forget it, just pull me back in!" He squealed with the little air that was yet to be squeezed out of his lungs.

And so she pulled Po back in by the leg, with him plumping down in the middle of the room.

Now free of pressure, he was gasping for precious air that had been denied from him recently. While his recovery was happening, Tigress stepped with one leg on the window frame. "I'll go alone then."

"Wait, don't! I…" he paused when she raised her eyebrow.
"... I just wanted to hang out y'know." Said the panda now sitting on the floor in defeat, his eyes avoiding her.

She stood still, contemplating what to do next. To leave or not to. Eventually deciding on it while asking herself why she is doing this. With an eye roll and a small smirk, she returned to the room and sat in front of her companion in a lotus position. "So, what now?" She asked in a calm tone.

"I guess we wait until my dad comes back, he was able to open it last time this happened." His eyes were fixated on the floor to avoid her gaze and his expression wasn't his usual happy energetic one, but something resembling a child that was caught. The feline reading the situation decided to stay silent and give her friend time to recover from the embarrassment and guilt. Guilt he felt because of getting stuck in the room and for revealing his motive for joining her and then also guilt-tripping her into staying.

They sat in complete silence for a moment, until it became clear the panda was suffering from such a severe case of shame he couldn't return to his usual self. Tigress decided to break the ice. To find a topic she looked around his room. Seeing an overabundance of kung fu items, memorabilia, posters, and writings, she stood up to take a closer look. But before proceeding she asked the panda for his permission with a gesture aimed at the shelves. „May I?"

„Oh, yeah go ahead." The panda replied. The cat's curiosity absolving him from the pressure.

She slowly paced towards his shelves that contained his collections while looking through them from closer. The panda's eyes attentively followed her every move.

It was filled with everything imaginable. Posters, drawings, scrolls, cheezy magazines, books most of which seemed like merchandise rather than anything official. Most of it of her. Even the furious five figurines were there. These items told her a lot about something she strongly suspected already. His attitude towards her made more sense now. „How long till your dad gets home?"

„I don't know, it takes hours for him to make these supply runs." He said anxiously. He cared about what she thinks about his room, or what she might find.

She reached for the Tigress figurine to examine it from closer. It was new, which raised a question in her mind. „Did you make these yourself?"

Almost as if she lit up a candle, Po's usual behavior returned. „Yeah, I did! There are ones that you can buy, but… they are always so expensive. So I learned how to make them instead.

„Impressive. This… action figure…of me is precise. Your woodworking skills are remarkable." At this an ear-to-ear smile splattered on his face. Tigress was always short on praise, but he knew when she did give it out, it was genuine. „Thanks."

Tigress, with a slight nod, acknowledged his thanks, and after putting the figure back in its place, she turned her attention back to the collection. As she sorted through more items she said "We have gone through a lot, and technically you are my master now, and yet… sometimes you still talk to me as if you were a fan."

Baffled by the mere suggestion that he shouldn't look up to her, "Well of course I do!" he said while raising his in disbelief. "You are like the awesomest person I know!" I mean you can punch through anything, are fast, and can jump as high as a building without effort! Seeing you fight is like the coolest thing ever and…" He continued his praise of her, which although Tigress found annoying at times, she couldn't lie it felt good to have someone deeply appreciate the effort she put into being a kung fu master and a protector. She turned her attention back to the shelves to ignore yet another unfiltered speech of her legends and achievements. As she sorted through the mountains of scrolls and magazines, her eyes narrowed with interest on an item that stood out.

"… like that battle too was so cool and I mean, even if all of this stuff wasn't enough, you are literally the reason I-..." He suddenly stopped talking as he noticed what Tigress had been eyeing on his shelf. It was a small, simple wooden box. As she grabbed it and reached to open it, she asked "What was I the reason for?"

The moment she started opening its little lid, which seemed comically small compared to the size of her paws, time slowed down to the point of slow motion. Po really didn't want her to know what was in that box as he presumed she might not like it. However, whenever his conscience wanted him to intervene, he knew he couldn't as she already set her mind to opening it. No power could stop that. It was inevitable.

As the lid completely opened, Po mentally prepared himself for the worst. "What is she going to think? Is she going to kill me? No, she never hurt me before, at least outside of sparring, but even then she was careful to not injure me. She never wanted to kill me either, or anyone for that matter. Maybe the reason we don't know is because those she did want to kill just disappeared! Oh man, how are my dads going to know what happened to me? I should tell Shifu about this, so he could save me, that is if I make it out of here alive. CALM DOWN! She is reasonable. Always has been. So she should react reasonably, right? What's the worst that could happen then? Do I lose my best friend because of it? Or she somehow forgives me? I know deep down she is one of the most compassionate people I know. Or she might just call me a fr-"

Po's thoughts ceased as he noticed her expression. It was rare to be able to read her emotions easily. At first, her eyes narrowed in confusion at the contents of the little box, but slowly they widened to their fullest extent with her eyebrows raising high on her forehead. Finally, they made eye contact which caused his mind and body to completely shut down.

She pinched one of the contents of the box with her fingers and held it out in front of her showing it to Po. She asked while raising an eyebrow. "What... is... this?" Her eyes fixated on his own, looking for answers. To him, it felt like they were piercing through his soul with the intent of finding the answer.

Po bit his lips as a desperate measure to protect himself, from accidentally making this worse for himself by trying to lie or come up with an explanation or a reason why that specific object is within her fingers now.

"You are collecting my whiskers?"

Still sitting on the floor, he took a big gulp, closed his eyes, and braced himself for his doom. However, there was nothing. A moment passed before Po heard something he had only heard once before… a muffled… chuckle?

When he opened his eyes he saw her covering her mouth trying to hold down her laughter, only letting out chuckles. "You are unbelievable. Do you know that?" She said while smiling as she composed herself.

Needless to say, Po was surprised by her reaction. Maybe there is more to her than he knows. "You are not mad?"

"Why would I be? I know you, although I didn't think you would go this far." She put the box back in its rightful place and she started scanning over the shelves again. "You could have just asked me to give you a couple."

But before Po could calm down, the real crisis began. She found a magazine. She is not the kind of person who would be familiar with magazines, so the book form itself was foreign to her. As she unsuspectingly picked it up, she said "Are these the Kung Fu magazines you learned so much from?" with intrigue. The moment she finished the sentence, she realized what was on the front cover of it. Something she didn't think could exist even in her wildest dreams.

"Yeah, most of the stuff I know is from…" Po stopped when he noticed which „magazine" she found, and started berating himself for bringing her here in the first place before hiding all the stuff he didn't want her to see. "...those." He instinctively got up to try and take it out of her hand, but he realized it was too late.

Tigress was frozen in place, second and third guessing if her eyes had just deceived her or not. The more reality set in, the more her ears laid flat against her head, just as her shock gradually transformed into embarrassment.

Seeing that the situation was only getting worse by the moment. Po started panicking. "uh... Uhm... it's not what it looks like! Okay, maybe it is, but not completely I'm sure you already think something horrible, but it isn't, I swear, and that shouldn't have been out there like that anyway and you also have to understand that I was very young and even dumber at the time, like much dumber and... and I never really looked into it much so I didn't see a lot of what's in it and I also never thought you would ever be in this room, let alone be my friend and... uh I forgot about it and uhh…"

He stopped, realizing how his bumbling didn't help. She was still just standing there staring at the front of the magazine, clearly in deep thought. Po didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to do or what will happen now. All he knew was that it wasn't his moment to start the conversation.

After what seemed like an eternity she opened up. "Is this... how you see me?" She shyly inquired, slowly turning her head towards him with a not-so-inconspicuous blush on her cheeks, which Po found adorable.

"What? No! No, definitely not. Look, as I said I was young and-" She interrupted "Alright, Po." as she composed herself.

But he continued to explain himself. "You know how it is with teenagers anyway, you've been one once too right? So-" She interrupted again, with a frown this time "Enough! It's fine. It's just... shocking to see myself in lingerie. I never wore one once." She rubbed her temples in an attempt to calm down.

"Oh, I know, these are just made by artists. You are quite popular among them." Po said while pointing to the magazine she was still holding in her hand.

At this, she narrowed her eyes at him. This room tour has drained her emotional reserves. She wished he didn't have more surprises for her. "Don't tell me you have more."

"Oh no, no I don't." Po said as he prayed that she wouldn't find the other ones. However, he didn't want to stop her curiosity after this, as that would have raised suspicion over his statement.

He didn't need to worry about it though, as she was a quick learner and was going to stay away from these magazines from now on. She continued her curiosity-driven search, although there was no need for it as the ice definitely had been broken by now, maybe even boiled. Eventually, she found a scroll that grabbed her attention. It appeared to be a legend of one of her adventures. As she began reading it, she remembered this assignment she once had, and not to her surprise, the scroll completely sensationalised an otherwise rather dull and common situation. „No wonder you put me on a pedestal." She murmured.

Po, who was on alert due to the recent events, snapped his head towards her „Hmm?"

Tigress now turning towards him with the opened scroll in her hands elaborated. „Oh, it's just that the story this scroll is telling is a blatant exaggeration."

"OH COME ON! We talked about this before. Stop downplaying yourself."

"Po, it was a couple of deserters looting. This is an everyday occurrence. You should know this."

"I know, but that doesnt make it less awesome how you dealt with them!"

"Breaking a kneecap as a warning?"

"Exactly, that was super hardcore." He said with sparkling eyes.

With a heavy sigh, she admits her defeat in trying to contain his fanboyish enthusiasm. She should have learned by now how impossible of a task that is. After putting the scroll back in its place, she paused to think. How is it possible that even after everything they have been through, everything they have experienced, and after building a special bond, he still views her as some otherworldly being? She couldn't wrap her head around this. Almost as if this is more than she thinks it is. The way he acts, the shop he wants to „check out", the bag of coins, her whiskers, and even that magazine. She figured this is as best of a time as ever to find out. „Why are you like this?" she inquired with her back to him.

„Like what?" He got scared she was going to bring up the magazine again.

„Why do I deserve this treatment from you?" she asked as she turned to face him.

„Uuuhhh..." That's not what he was expecting. Is she really asking what he thinks or not? And now? „...I ... I fell in love...with..." Po mumbled slowly as he was searching for each individual word in real-time. He really had no idea how to avoid this. Maybe if he tried to derail the topic. „... with kung fu because of you?" He managed to falter out.

„I... I didn't know that..." She said, shocked by the revelation. That's not what she thought that sentence was going to turn out to be. However, she pondered on it for a moment. She felt the heat rising as she realised just how much she might mean to him. „Po, I didn't know, but that wasn't what I was... alluding-"

"Hey, what are you two arguing about in there?" Mr. Ping's voice came from outside, abruptly interrupting their conversation. Po's shoulders slouched forward and he exhaled in relief that he doesnt have to have this conversation now. "Hey, Dad! The door got stuck again."

"Oh, hold on." Not long after the door magically opens. Revealing the 2 entrapped individuals to the goose. "See? All you needed to do was slide a magazine between the door and the frame. I'm sure I told you before." Said Mr. Ping at which Tigress gave Po a very frustrated glare. "By the way, hello my dear!" Tigress bowed "Good afternoon !" and with that, she was took off.

"Where is she going?" Mr. Ping asked, but Po didn't answer his father, just ran past him to catch up with her. "Hey, be careful out there!"

By now the sun retreated behind the horizon, and the moon began to cover the valley in its blue hues.

Tigress was already waiting under the archway, she looked back at the panda running after her with the same coin bag in his hands that brought the recent problems. Once Po reached her they could finally finish the patrol, although with a significant delay.

The streets lay empty before them. The pair walking side by side, remained quiet until Tigress broke the silence. "So, what are you going to buy me?" She asked the panda with a mischievous smile.

"Uhhh…"