Tigress took a deep breath as she let the wind slowly breeze past her. After the defeat of Kai, meditating in the fields away from everyone's sights was exactly what she needed.

It was the perfect scenery too. The panda village certainly prided itself with it's beautiful plants and greens photosynthesizing under the warm sun contrasted with the cool snowy mountains just above her head. In short, the whole view was simply... peaceful.

It felt oddly fitting with the aura of the pandas, now that she thought about it.

Her eyes were softly shut as she drew in another heavy breath, letting all the tension from the recent battle she just had at last leave her body.

She could finally feel herself... relaxing.

Unfortunately, that relaxation was short-lived when she felt a small-being plop by her side, just near her lap. Her ear twitched and she opened one of her eyes to glance down at her left knee to see the little creature disturbing her.

The panda cub beamed back at her, her violet eyes gleaming with joy at her Stripey Baby. Tigress never understood how she does it, but Lei Lei always seemed to find ways to find her even when she thought there was safe enough distance between them.

But even so, while it did bother Tigress at first, she couldn't help but warm up to the presence of the small panda cub. It wasn't like she was too bothered by it in the first place anyway, she was just confused as to how a child could find themselves so... attached to her. Usually, Tigress would have to put in effort to get a child to warm up to her thanks to her 'rough edges'. Smile at them (though that was no problem for her), retract her claws and reassure them it's okay to come closer, that 'she won't bite'. She had to earn the trust of a child, usually.

But with Lei Lei... she didn't even do anything to warrant that attachment. One look at the feline and the cub was already all over her.

The tiger at last opened her eyes and fully turned her head down at the smiling Lei Lei. She tilted her head curiously at the small cub, and said cub immediately mimicked her head tilt.

Tigress tilted her head back again and spoke in her rare gentle tone, "Hello Lei Lei... what's the matter?"

Lei Lei didn't really reply to the feline's rhetoric, not that Tigress expected her to. Lei Lei just stood up right, Tigress action figure in clutch, and raised her paws up. "Stripey Baby!" She called out happily, before flipping in an unexpected mini cartwheel right in the space between Tigress' crossed legs.

The hardcore tiger released her meditation hold and put her arms straight behind her. She planted her paws against the grass and slumped her back against them, tilting her head again at the tiny creature in her grasp.

"You know I was meditating, right?" Though the question seemed stern, Tigress held a big, genuine smile when looking at Lei Lei. It was one of those smiles that Tigress would save specifically for the presence of children. They just have a way to bring out a sugary-sweet side to her that not even her closest friends could bring out.

Lei Lei stood between the tiger's legs, surprisingly dropping the action figure and raising her arms out towards her. "Up! Up! Up, please!" She asked excitedly.

She guessed the panda preferred the real thing rather than the toy version of Tigress.

Happy to oblige, the strong master picked up the cub by the arm pits and lifted her to her eye level. Tigress then tucked her own legs up against her chest before gently resting Lei Lei on them so that the panda would be under her utmost protection.

"What you need, sweetie?" Tigress asked gently, using purposeful simplicity for Lei Lei. A child's mind is quite unpredictable, and their needs sporadic. Even if you were a sophisticated kung fu warrior, absolutely nothing could prepare you for what a child wanted or needed. They were the true antithesis of 'expecting the unexpected'. And Tigress loved them just for that in of itself. So, naturally, she was preparing herself for whatever absurd desire or crazy story Lei Lei wished to share with her one and only Stripey Baby.

But what she did next somehow still caught Tigress off guard. More than any other wild thing a child has done to or for her in the past.

Lei Lei, still quiet on her intentions, simply reached out... and touched Tigress' face.

The tiger felt her smile slowly drop as she sat completely still. Lei Lei's smile dropped too as her expression switched to one of concentration, her tiny fingers grasping on her white face ruffles and caressing them gently. She then slowly moved from the ruffles and squished her face cheeks together, moving them around in a massaging motion. She then stretched Tigress' cheeks a bit to widen her lips before mercifully releasing them.

"Soft." Was all she mumbled. She even started to tug on her whiskers. Tigress didn't mind it, though. She knew the cub had no intention of hurting her, and even if she did... she kinda couldn't, with her current strength and stature. So Tigress just silently took the tugging and gentle grippings of her face, intrigued by the panda's intense stare, almost as if Lei Lei was absorbing every emotion and feeling from the feline. She then lightly traced her fingers along Tigress' face stripes, finding herself fascinated by the pretty shapes that decorated the tiger, almost like natural henna makeup was permanently on her face.

"... So beautiful." Lei Lei slowly felt her smile come back, as if she was satisfied with the conclusion of some scientific experiment she was performing. She giggled and cupped the big cat's face, "Beautiful Stripey Baby!"

Tigress kicked herself for being this surprised. She knew that kids represented 'expecting the unexpected', but this was... different.

She was called lots of things in her entire life by kids around her. 'Cool', 'awesome', 'scary', 'mysterious', 'strong', 'hardcore'... 'monster'. But no child has ever, ever, called her... 'beautiful' before. It would seem like a superficial comment from anyone else, but children have a special way of being honest. Having no filter, more like. So it just... felt like the most genuine compliment she has ever received in her entire life. Especially from a child who already fell in love with her without Tigress even needing to try. The most genuine compliment from the one child she felt like was her own daughter. From the one child she almost lost had it not been for Po's sacrifice with Kai.

Maybe that's why she felt her eyes involuntarily glaze over with tears. Maybe that's why she felt tears stain her cheeks as they slipped down her face before her brain could even process what she was feeling.

Lei Lei's smile quickly disappeared into one of confusion and concern for her favorite tiger, as she pulled herself forward to wrap her arms around Tigress' neck and attempted to cheer her up the best way she knew how.

A panda hug.

"Don't cry, Stripey Baby. You're beautiful!" She stated matter of factly, the feline still mentally catching up with the feelings pouring out of her.

With all the children she has met and held before, they have certainly never... done this before.

Finally, Tigress broke. Her lips quivered, her nose twitched to sniff some snot back up her nose, and her paws shook as she wrapped it around the cub. She hunched her back forward as she gently brought Lei Lei as close to her as morally possible.

She smiled through the heavy tears and laid her chin on the cub's head, sighing shakily as she did.

"... Thank you, Lei Lei. You're beautiful, too."

Lei Lei couldn't help but squeal a bit and giggle when her Stripey Baby returned the compliment, and it simply made her heart melt even more.

... Peaceful. An aura definitely fitting for the pandas, Tigress concluded.

~~THE END~~

~~A/N; I started working at a daycare recently and some of the toddlers like being held close to me sometimes. there have been times where they would just sit on my lap, rest their head close to my chest and play with my face or necklace. this one-shot was actually inspired by that, since being around kids just bring another kind of happiness and calmness to me that I haven't felt with anything else. kids just have that effect LOL
hoping to post another Lotus chapter soon! until then, hope you're having a wonderful day/night when reading this, remember to live, laugh, love, and until next time... Yarart out! ;D~~