What is a Friend?

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

The giggling annoyed her. She struggled to read the text message and glanced up at the two annoying snow leopards. The female was Song, her best friend since high school. And the 'friend' status was currently teetering on the edge if the spotted feline kept making noisy giggles with charming smiles.

Song's flirting always annoyed her. It was obvious except to boys captured by her charm. It only stoked their egos. Tigress looked at the male snow leopard across the round indoor cafe table. Buff and athletic, Tai Lung was Song's most recent fling. Or crush. The tiger couldn't tell. As her eyes tried to stay on her phone, the male snow leopard would perk her ears up by calling her name. "Hey, Tigress, what do you think?"

"Hm?"

"You think I can lift Song?" Tai Lung smirked. Tigress gave a dull, listless stare.

"I think so," Tigress replied politely. Song was practically a stick. A bunny could lift her.

"I'm not that light," Song cutely huffed. "Lifting me might be harder than you think."

"Please," Tai Lung said, flexing his arms in his tight-fitting purple T-shirt, "I could probably lift both of you in either hand."

"Hehehe," Song giggled. Tigress secretly rolled her eyes until the snow leopards suddenly rose from their seats. "Anyways, Tigress and I should get going. We've got a lot of work to do."

"Hm," Tigress hummed. She made the mistake of glancing at Tai Lung and saw his attempt at a charming grin. That's what made this fling worse than the others.

He was trying to go after her, not Song.

The tiger and female snow leopard left the cafe at the corner of the city block. Song waved goodbye to Tai Lung before turning another city corner with Tigress. "Mm, soooo what do you think about him?"

"A bit much. Are you really hung up about this guy?" Tigress mused.

"Like you don't like a little muscle on your men?" Song smirked.

"I'm more invested in what a man has to offer."

"And Tai Lung doesn't have anything to offer?"

"He's... different."

"Different how?"

"A little... rough around the edges... and sides... and insides."

"You never like the guys I flirt with," Song huffed.

"Because you have a bad track record," Tigress smirked. "Besides, I thought you wanted to talk about work, you know since we work together."

"You know I only say that to get you outside," Song grinned.

The tiger rolled her eyes. "If I had known that, I would've just left him with you."

"But I feel better when you're around, Tigress."

"Why?"

"I... I just do," Song quickly said. Tigress narrowed her eyes, trying to detect the truth behind Song's words. The spotted feline quickly covered it up. "Sure he might be a little rough around the edges, but maybe this is the one."

"For me or you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind," Tigress grumbled but smirked. "What about the one before that? And the one-"

"Tigress!"

The tiger sighed, rubbing her temples. "You know what? It's been a long day, and I'm tired. I'm going home, alright?" Tigress walked passed the snow leopard.

"Fine," Song sighed in defeat, "Just keep your weekend open. Tai Lung wanted to go work out."

"Super," Tigress grumbled under her breath as she traveled down the steps to the subway. Her feet carried her to the Red Line; red like the blouse under her dark winter jacket with her dull blue jeans. As she made it to the train, she sighed and sat down in relief at a slightly empty subway car. A few women were chatting on her far left, and a large panda in a dark hoodie with his hood over his ears stared at his phone for a while before glancing up at Tigress. Her breathing hitched. For the briefest moment, deep jade eyes stared into her soul before returning to his phone.

She shook her head as the subway started to move. Tigress didn't know why it caused her to react like that. Glancing at her own phone, she looked at the text from her other friend, Viper.

Is the torture over?

Tigress smiled and texted back.

Yeah, I really don't know how long I can keep this up. I want to tell her.

Last time you told her she didn't talk to you and then cried to you for a week. Better to skip the phase, right? Besides, she needs to learn to find the right man.

Tigress sighed. It wasn't the best point. As a friend, she should tell Song what Tai Lung was doing. But the last time this happened, it almost broke their friendship.

Whether or not their friendship was worth saving was a different discussion, and Song was stubborn when she was in love.

We'll see. Tigress replied.

She put her phone away and felt the train come to a stop. She watched the panda in the black hoodie grab his gym bag and walk off. She walked through a different subway door and saw the panda go up the opposite set of stairs, disappearing into the crowd of the city.

Tigress shook her head and carried on.

Strange. She usually didn't stare like that. From the look of his exit, the panda and her lived near the same block or two. As she walked up the stairs and to her apartment, the tiger couldn't figure out why she hadn't seen this panda in the ten years she had been living in the city.

Or why she cared.

She shook her head again and entered her apartment complex. Going to the ninth floor, she stumbled into her lonely apartment where her phone rang again. A picture of Tai Lung at the gym came to her view with the words, 'Song said you were up for some gym time. Can't wait to see you.' The picture was him strutting his stuff, thankfully clothed, in front of a gym mirror.

Tigress scoffed and threw the phone to her couch, plopping her butt onto it. She sighed, rubbing her forehead. Her needless stress wasn't helped by the empty apartment, save for a couch a couple of feet in front of the entrance and a kitchen behind her right side. She couldn't help but be envious of Song's social skills at times.

Tigress looked up at the ceiling. Why were she and Song friends again?

Her mind drifted to high school, trying her best to stay out of trouble and excel in her classes. The girl with perfect A's read at the lunch hall in the corner, where no one disturbed her. Flipping through pages, she suddenly jumped when a large platter of food dropped onto her science book.

"Hey!"

"Aww, what's the matter?" said a snobbish female black panther, "The little bookworm upset that I messed with her drug?"

"Better than the drugs you probably take, Malia," the tiger growled back. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, just wondering what a loser like you was doing."

"Homework. You know, the thing you charm the nerds to do because you can't do it yourself."

The black panther shrugged while her posse of three girls giggled, "It's not my fault that I have something that you don't."

"Brains?"

"Good looks."

"I wouldn't call blending into the night a 'look'."

The girls behind the panther made the mistake of giggling at the joke. Malia snapped her head back, glaring them into silence.

"Well," Malia turned back. "At least I'm likable."

"Is that and pretty the only personality traits you have?"

"And your traits are sooo inviting?" Malia teased, "Like loner, creep, nerd?"

"You really are the stereotypical high school bully," Tigress smirked. "No wonder your legs are always wide open for the football team."

"Why you-"

"Stop it," said a different voice. A snow leopard stepped over to the scene. "She's not doing anything to you. Leave her alone."

"Oh, and what's the new kid gonna do about it?" Malia said to the snow leopard. She was half a foot taller than the spotted feline. Tigress was ready to stand and fight. The snow leopard simply pulled out her phone and showed the panther a picture. Tigress never figured out what the picture was, but Malia's cocky attitude disappeared. "Where did you find that?!"

"I have a thing for stuff like this," the snow leopard smirked. She quickly moved her phone away from Malia's grasp. "Don't bother. It's saved to my computer and the cloud."

"You're bluffing."

"You really think you know me enough to gamble on that?"

Malia grumbled under her breath and left the table with her lackeys following in quick succession. The snow leopard watched her go away before slowly sitting down at Tigress's table. "Whew, that was close."

"You were bluffing?"

"No, but exposing her would've exposed how I got the picture."

"Thanks, but you didn't have to risk your neck for me like that," Tigress said.

"I know what it's like to be the picked-on smart kid."

"Really?" Tigress scanned the snow leopard up and down. She was pretty, had easy blue eyes with a sultry stare, and a confident smile. "You don't look like the type to-"

"You know looks are deceiving. A tough girl like Malia would cry on command just to make sure that the principal didn't suspend her again."

Tigress raised an eyebrow. "How did you know that? I don't think you've been here long." It was a relatively small school.

"A week. And I know my way around computer security codes."

"You too?" Tigress smirked.

"No need to thank me."

"I could've handled it."

"Really?" The snow leopard chuckled.

"Second-degree black belt. Of course, self-defense doesn't fly over with the 'school policy'," the tiger said, annoyed. "I'm Tigress, by the way."

"Song, mind if I sit here?"

"If you can get me out of fist fights with Malia, you can be one of my best friends," Tigress smiled, offering her hand.

Song smiled back and shook the tiger's hand. "It's a deal."

And so a nine-year friendship began. Song's technical skills landed her a job as the head of cyber security at their company while Tigress's stringent discipline and hard work got her the executive assistant of operations position.

But things change.

People change.

And yet, this game that Tigress had to play with Song and her flings made her groan as she headed for the kitchen. She sat on a stool at the kitchen counter, pulling out her laptop as she went through her work. "You really shouldn't work too much," her supervisor told her one time. "It's making me look bad."

"You mean it's making you look lazy," Tigress smirked back. The tiger chuckled a bit at the memory. Shifu, her supervisor, was very nice to her. Treated her like his daughter.

Tigress looked over the final touches on a paper and signed off of the computer. She sighed and got up from her stool, cracking her back in several places as she stretched back.

She glanced at the clock. Eleven P.M.

Tigress sighed again. "You can't keep working yourself to the bone." She remembered Viper told her that.

And her other co-worker Mantis.

And Shifu.

And Song.

And her mom.

Tigress shook her head and did some late-night cleaning before heading to bed. She sat on the bedside. She looked vaguely at the darkness of her bedroom closet. Shaking her head again, she stuffed herself under her bedsheets and muscled her way to sleep.

Continued...