A/N: In which the KFP 3 concept art of Po and Tigress sparring in front of a particularly romantic-looking moon replaces their canon sparring scene. This is my take on what it could've looked like had KFP3 ended up taking them in a different direction.
Happy New Year! Here's to 2025 and hoping for good things.
I'm so back with the one-shots. Please enjoy! :)
After Po leaves Li on the rope bridge between their huts, he isn't sure where to go. A storm of emotions brews within him—frustration, confusion, and an urgent need to release the pent-up energy that rages through his veins, hot and turbulent like wildfire. The village full of scared, frantic pandas around him blurs, his thoughts completely consumed by the impending threat of Kai's arrival.
He searches for a secluded spot to unleash his frustration and reclaim some sense of sanity amid the feelings reaping chaos behind his sternum. Upon finding a stone outcrop on the outskirts of the panda village and once atop it, he starts to train. He bursts into sets of strikes and kicks, leaping and punching the air and watching as his breath unfurls in the frigid space in front of him like smoke from a dragon's maw.
The moon hangs in the sky behind him, lingering large and soft in the cloud-spotted, purple-ish night sky. It looks too serene, completely unfitting for Po's current mood. Even so, it shines on, illuminating the stone outcrop he stands on and the snow-capped mountain range surrounding it.
He breathes heavily, lungs burning and arms both cold and aching. He squeezes his eyes shut and bursts into another set of punches, but his fist connects with a warm, familiar wall—Tigress's palm.
His eyes fly open and meet hers, and he pauses. She looks as bothered as he would've assumed, eyes narrowed and glowing against the cool backdrop of the mountains. A breeze rushes past the outcrop.
Tigress grasps Po's clenched fist with a telling force and moves closer, stepping to border his space.
"This isn't going to work," she tells him, pushing his arm to the side.
"It has to," he retorts.
"You're not thinking straight," she says intently, pushing in closer like she's trying to physically talk some sense into him.
"I am!" Po insists with barely concealed frustration.
He tries to step past the tiger, but she kicks at his leading leg. He moves an arm forward but she pins it to his side just as quickly. The beginnings of an unnecessarily emotionally charged spar start to brew.
"You're not."
"Yes, I am."
He throws a weak punch—it intentionally goes far past her side—and she deflects it, pulling the pin move again and sidling up to the panda's shoulder.
"No."
"Yes."
He spins out of her grasp and tries to sweep out her feet from underneath her, but she's predictably too fast for him. She leaps into the air and comes back down with tame yet precise strikes, which Po deflects and returns.
"No," Tigress says, "I've seen Kai. I've seen what he can do."
She grabs his arm and holds it down, pushing him backward. He scowls indignantly and pushes back. He points a finger at Tigress, then at his chest in defiance.
"But he hasn't seen what I can do," the panda retorts, "I'll send him back to the Spirit Realm with his yak-tail between his legs. I've done it before."
He flips over her and pinches her pinky between his fingers, pulling his signature move: the Wuxi Finger Hold. The tiger looks less than impressed, meeting the panda's gaze with an expressionless stare.
"With the Wuxi Finger Hold?" she asks.
"It's my best move," Po says, defensively, "all I need to do is get to Kai, grab his finger, and then, skadoosh! He won't know what hit him."
Tigress grabs Po's hand and squeezes, and he falls to his knees in an admittedly comical surrender. His other hand flaps in discomfort as she maintains the pressure. She lets him twist out of her hold a few seconds later.
"You won't get to him," Tigress hisses, "not before he turns everyone in this village into jade minions."
"I won't let that happen," Po says.
She pushes a hand into his chest and he deflects it, pushing her arms down. She flips the script and pulls the same move. He tries to pull away but she holds him in place.
"You don't have a say," Tigress retorts. Her expression steels and her eyes narrow into slits. "Do you think I did?"
Po recoils a little. He says, "We'll get them back."
He punches the air near her shoulder but she blocks it like it's second nature.
"How?" Tigress asks, her voice strained. Po blinks and worry laces his gaze. She composes herself within seconds and squares her shoulders. She says, resolutely, "We're here. Our duty now is to protect your people."
"My people are protected," he tells her, sending a quick kick toward her feet, which she dodges, "and our people will be fine. Once I get to Kai, he won't stand a chance. I'll figure it out from there."
"That isn't a plan."
"It's better than doing nothing."
She strikes in his direction but it loses momentum in its journey, meeting his shoulder in a half-hearted shove. He moves to grasp her arm but she beats him to the punch, holding him firmly by the forearm.
"Kai has an army of jade warriors. Everything they see, he sees. There's no sneaking up on him," she says.
The moment is as fleeting as any other and Po resumes the spar, grabbing her hand with his. She twists her arm and sends him belly-first into the stone beneath them, pulling an arm behind his back for leverage.
"You will never get close enough," she says, softer than he had anticipated.
"It's gonna work!" he argues.
He pushes himself from the ground and grabs Tigress's arms, likely in what would've been an attempt to flip her to the side. She beats him to it and lays him on his back.
"He can only be stopped by a master of chi," Tigress insists harshly.
Po groans and the tiger watches him get up, regarding him with a wary stare.
"Do you know how much you sound like Shifu?" Po asks, his tone a mix between biting and frustrated. He scoffs and gestures wildly. "With the 'chi-chi-chi, chi, this, chi, that—I don't understand chi. I'm not a master of chi. Okay? I don't feel like a master at all, I don't feel like the Dragon Warrior, I—I don't even feel like a panda. I don't know who I am."
His anger crumples in the wake of his dismay. Po pushes his palms into his eyes and drags them down his face. He places his hands on his hips and looks down. He looks distraught as the crushing weight of the situation seems to further settle on his shoulders. Defeat sinks low in his stomach.
"You're right, I couldn't stop him. Oogway couldn't stop him. Who am I kidding?" he says with a sad sardonicism, "And now, because of me, the palace and everyone is—it's all gone, and—and out of everyone, I'm still here. Why am I still here?"
Tigress stares at him in disbelief, something fragile within her gaining a crack with every word the panda utters. She wants to help and say something right yet far too ambiguous and fairly unhelpful in the moment, just like Shifu might— "You're where you're meant to be."
Offhandedly, she wonders why she's here, too. In the mortal realm, in the panda village. In front of Po, standing warm, alive, and close, with a beautiful view of snow-dusted mountains stretching around them. The answer hits her just as quickly.
"You're right," Po says simply, his voice cracking with defeat.
The fragile something in her breaks. Tigress's ears fall. This isn't Po; he doesn't give up. He doesn't know the meaning of the phrase. She opens her mouth to say something but decides against it.
Instead, she puts a hand on his shoulder, pulling him close and hugging him tightly in the same motion. She lets her eyes close and leans into him a little more than she might've in the past. Actions speak louder than words, she tells herself.
"I don't know why you're still here," she says, her voice tinged with affection, "but I have faith in the universe's ability to make the right choice."
Actions speak louder than most words, anyway, but this is just for them. Po's heart drops and explodes. He returns the hug, his touch hesitant at first, but it quickly gives way to floodgates of emotion. He wraps his arms around her and squeezes like she's the last sliver of light in the world.
As he stares at the migrating clouds in the distance, watching the way they swirl with updrafts and catch the moon's glow, he just now processes that Tigress is here. She escaped Kai. She's in the panda village, but Po never told her where it was—not so much as a hint, a nod in any given direction.
He closes his eyes and somehow draws her closer, deeper into the embrace, enveloping her further in his arms. He finds himself wondering, in the middle of everything, if there's somewhere he could go where Tigress wouldn't follow. He prays he never finds it.
She pulls away but keeps a hand on his shoulder. Whether it's to ground him or herself, she'll never say. Po's gaze drifts to the floor.
Tigress says, "With change, we move forward."
"But I don't want change," Po says, mournfully. "I love my role, I love kung fu, and I love defending the valley with you and the five—I couldn't ask for more. Everything is perfect.
"And Shifu says that if I only do what I can do, I'll never be more than I am now, but I like who I am—who I was. Who I thought I was. For the first time ever, I could say that. I don't want to let that go."
Tigress squeezes his shoulder and he looks up. Evergreen meets fire and two emotional typhoons crash into one another. There's an odd kind of solace in the chaos.
"You don't have to," Tigress tells him, "but only doing what you can do isn't what got you to where you are now—who you are now."
Po's eyes widen almost unnoticeably, a glint of something akin to hope striking a proverbial match. There he is.
"I think highly of you, we all do, but it was only by proving that you will consistently challenge and best your limitations that our respect was earned. You have grown as a person and warrior and become someone I—" she says, hesitates, and continues, "I—I feel truly honored to know."
Maybe it's just in his head, but he thinks the moon shines a little brighter. Po places his hand over Tigress's, which still rests solidly on his shoulder, and lets his fingers fold around hers as they have only once before, under similarly dire circumstances. He squeezes her hand with just enough pressure to make his intent clear, and Tigress returns it.
Just as quickly as Po's heart could gain the shine of warmth and distant hope, thoughts of doubt and destruction seep into the otherwise sweet moment like poison. His hope falls back under the surface and the bit of joy in his eyes fades.
"I don't know who that is," Po says. His face falls and the dust speck of optimism in Tigress's follows suit. He drops her hand. "So, I can't stop Kai," he says, defeat crawling back into his tone. "He sees everything and has even more jombies than when you faced him. I won't get close. There's no way I can stop him and his army."
Tigress doesn't have an answer for that. She looks down in thought, her hand now empty, clenched, and cold. No solutions come to her.
"Unless you had an army of your own," a voice says.
Po turns around and Tigress follows his gaze. Li stands at the other end of the outcrop, looking timid and reserved, holding his straw hat in front of his belly and fidgeting with its edges.
"You?" Po inquires, brow furrowed.
"Not just me," Li says.
Mr. Ping emerges from behind Li, his wings folded politely. He sends Po an understanding, sad smile.
"Us," the goose corrects.
"All of us."
Li gestures to below the outcrop. When Po peers over the edge, he sees the amassed panda villagers gathering supplies and waving. The tension in Po's expression eases by a hair, replaced by an air of bewilderment.
"Son," the older panda says, huskily, "Po, I—I want you to know that I'm so proud of the man you grew up to be."
Tigress watches as Po's posture straightens and his shoulders tense.
"I love you and I will always worry about you," Li continues, "but a wise, if not irreverent, little birdie made me realize that trusting you to do what you do, to be the Dragon Warrior, isn't less for me. It's more for you."
Mr. Ping rolls his eyes at the jab, but there's a fondness in it. The anger Po had thought to be rooted in his bones starts to evaporate, giving way to the upset and dread brewing underneath.
"I—I know I'm the last guy you want to trust right now," Li continues still, "but—but I finally found you after all these years. It's gonna take a lot more than the end of the world to keep me from my son."
A short, teary sigh leaves Po before he strides to Li with quick, purposeful steps. He embraces the older panda in a loving and bone-crushing hug. Li returns it with a sound of great relief and Mr. Ping watches with a weepy smile. Tigress senses a story, but she knows she'll hear about it later—which she's now almost convinced there will be.
When Li briefly meets Tigress's eye and smiles gratefully, she finds it in herself to smile back. Then he hugs his son impossibly tighter, and something lodged deep behind her sternum warms—and while nothing can be guaranteed, it lets her hope that everything might be okay.
A/N:
The original scene isn't much of a spar at all, just mostly shoving. It's similar to the KFP 2 jail scene but noticeably softer in all the right ways, which I did my best to maintain.
Please let me know if Tigress seems OOC. I don't want her dialogue to reduce her to "motivational love interest" status—you know the type. It's also hard to write bits where she talks more, but I felt this scene needed a little more from her. It's a jump from how she is in the trilogy, though, so…?
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any thoughts, please feel free to leave them in the comments/reviews. I love hearing from you all. Until next time, Happy New Year! :)