"She's avoiding me..."

The young panda slumped his head against the wooden table in the cozy Jade Palace kitchen. "Calls me 'Master' one minute and then acts like I don't even exist the next."

"Tigress is just the stoic type, you know that, Po..." The ape accompanying him jested, stuffing his hand in his cookie jar.

"I know, it's just...! It seemed like she was more interested in actually talking to me when she hated me! Now, when I think she finally respects me... absolutely NOTHING! It's been a week!" He turns to Monkey with distress in his eyes.

But the simian simply gave him an odd glance, "Why do you care so much, anyway? She was hot over your radar! I thought you would be thankful to be off the hook now."

"I would if there wasn't any... well... tension.."

"Oh~?" Monkey smirked, making Po roll his eyes. "Not like that! I mean... okay, you guys apologised to me and are now on good terms with me. I got a moment of approval with Shifu and was already on good terms with him... but with Tigress—"

"You didn't get that closure?" The bear nodded eagerly.

"I know she respects me," Po continued, "At least... I think she does... I just don't want anything left in the air! I'm officially the Dragon Warrior now, I'm literally living with you guys in the Jade Palace—which by the way, is AWESOME—but not so awesome if I don't have a clear cut relationship with, you know, my roommates and coworkers?... Am I being too entitled to assume that?"

Monkey shrugged, "You just wanna make sure she still doesn't hate you, that makes sense. I know she gave you the hardest time out of all of us."

"And I know why... it's no surprise that she was the most capable to be the Dragon Warrior before I crashed the party, heh.." Po chuckled sadly before Monkey comfortingly patted him on the back with a soft smile. "Give yourself a little credit, buddy, you crashing the party turned out to be exactly what we needed to stop Tai Lung!"

"I just wish we could talk, but I'm not even sure who needs the closure most... her or me? And, ugh, that's assuming if I even know how to approach her!" The panda ran his fingers down his face in irritation.

As the two warriors continued to chat, a red panda flicked his ears just outside the kitchen. He didn't mean to easedrop, as he was just trying to grab some tea, unaware of the metaphorical 'tea' he was just about to gather. As he listened on, gears started to turn in his head as he pulled a small grin, "Looks like I'm going to have to pull a little... forced proximity practice."

He chuckled to himself before he ominously walked off, a plan now fully in motion. "Haven't pulled that lesson in a long while.."

The six warriors of the Jade Palace waited at the base of the bridge at the ripe sight of dawn, Po still a little sleepy as he wasn't used to the sleep schedule of the palace just yet. Nevertheless, he and the Furious Five stood with their limbs behind their backs in preparations of Shifu's orders of the day. They've been spending the days since Tai Lung's defeat restoring the ruined buildings of the Valley in pairs or groups, and have thankfully made great process already.

"We are about as close to finishing the repairs of the Valley. You should be proud of yourselves and your dedication, I suspect we will finish restorations in about a week with the current pace we're going. Still, our business is not done. We continue to spread out and help the villagers with clean up. Here are your pairs for the day; Masters Mantis and Viper, who will be covering the areas leading from the bridge to the vendor shops. Masters Monkey and Crane, who will be covering the fallen roofs down south. And finally... Master Tigress and Po, who will tackle the area near Mr. Ping's shop and his broken entrance. Questions?"

The feline and ursine respectively tensed up their shoulders and glanced at the red panda with wide eyes. Monkey worriedly turned towards Po while he looked back at the simian in a brief panic. The panda turned back to Shifu and raised up one of his fingers to object, "Uh—"

"Excellent. You all are dismissed. I expect to see you back at the palace by sunset as usual." The red panda bowed and went on his way, trying to hide a mischievous smile he had after turning away from his students.

Tigress, quite noticeably hurried so, headed down the rest of the stairs and instantly made a beeline to Mr. Ping's shop before Po could get a word with her. He sighed and turned to the queasily smiling Master Monkey, "Hey, look on the bright side! This could be your chance to 'approach her', you know?"

"Yeah... yeah, you're probably right!" Po's bright smile soon returned to him before he turned to the already fast tiger and ran after her, "M-Master Tigress, wait up!"

Looking on, Monkey chuckled nervously, "...Or she could rip you to shreds."

As everyone else worked in tandem with their partners, the Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress seemed to work simply in co-existence. They decided to first clean up the ruins by piling them up and then finding the pieces for them to rebuild, and try as Po might with starting any conversation with his partner, he was only met with grunts of annoyance, odd glances or a hum of thought.

In other words, it was like he was working with a stale piece of bread.

Zooming forward to the moment they were having, the panda heaved as he carried a hefty piece of wood onto the now towering and swaying pile of junk they collected. He finally sighed with relief after releasing it and wiped the sweat off his brow with his hand, "Whoo! Talk about hefty damage, am I right Master Tigress?" He cheesily smiled to the tiger who carried another hefty piece to the pile without even breaking a sweat.

"I mean, I'm definitely not surprised that you could handle it so well. You probably deal with property damage all the time, with all those awesome kung fu battles you guys go through!"

Without even so much as a glance towards him, Tigress let out a simple "Hm." Before turning away to pick up another piece of cement.

Po pouted with himself and collected more tiny pieces into his arm, trying to think of another conversation starter. "Heh... great weather we're having, huh? Clear skies, not too hot, sun shining. Can't say I'm gonna complain about a nice summer atmosphere, you know? What do you think?"

Tigress simply turned to him with her eyebrow raised and her frown narrow. Even though she didn't say anything, the bear could smell her judgement from a mile away.

He shrunk his head into his shoulders slightly, "Not a weather person, I see.." He dismissively threw the tiny ruin pieces onto the pile, making the top of it shake unsteadily.

Po then raised up some planks of broken roof tiles, still trying to think of ways to break the ice, literally anything!

'Maybe I just haven't asked the right questions about her! She's probably sick of me talking and I haven't given her a chance to speak, yet!' He thought to himself, throwing the tiles and clapping his paws together, "So... how've you... been? I mean, I know we now live together and all but uh, I haven't seen you around much so... you know—how's life? How's it going for ya?" He rested his chin on his paw as his arm rested on the junk pile, grinning like an oaf as he did so.

''How's it going for ya'!? Gods, Po, you sound like a total dunce!'

Meanwhile the hardcore feline flicked her tail in mild annoyance, "Fine." She simply said, but it was all the panda needed to make him stumble in shock, almost knocking over the unstable pile in the process. Slowly, his slacked jaw morphed into a huge, beamy grin.

'Finally! A word! We've made progress!' He thought excitedly. "Cool, cool, it's been fine for me too! You know, whole Dragon Warrior life, and all, heheh. How's it uh—how's it been 'fine' for you? Heard any juicy valley gossip lately—"

"I don't know how you work with the others, Dragon Warrior..." Tigress softly snapped, "But I'm not the type for 'small talk'. It's a distraction. I would rather work in silence with my peers. If you want to ramble on about whatever, you can do so somewhere else." She turned away from the bear to grab a few more tile planks.

Feeling his hopes quite literally shatter, his ears faltered before his expression formed a furious kind of hurt. He bitterly turned away and picked up another piece of cement ruin, "Tch. Whatever."

This evident sound from the panda struck Tigress, making her straighten her back, flick her ears and narrow her eyes in a glare as she slowly turned to the bear, "Excuse me?"

"No, no, whatever, message received. You don't wanna talk, we just... won't talk." He threw the piece he held behind him onto the pile, making it quake quite more severely this time.

Finally having her body turned fully towards him, she also threw her tile onto the pile, which made the stability of it weaken even more. "Do you happen to have an issue with my clearly set boundary, Dragon Warrior?"

"Did I say I did?" The panda narrowed his eyes at the feline, who now had her arms crossed. "I mean jeez, I'm sorry for trying to break the ice, I forgot it literally radiated from your eyes."

"Are you trying to say I'm cold, panda?" She growled lowly.

"Well that's all I've been feeling from you lately!" Po exclaimed, throwing his arms out exasperatedly. But as he walked closer to her, Tigress finally noted the shakiness from the now looming piled of hard cement and tiles, and felt her eyes widen.

"Uh, panda—"

"I mean, I know you don't talk much in general, but aren't you now realising that this is the first genuine conversation we have had since Tai Lung was banished?"

As he ranted on, the pile was officially starting to fall apart. Nearby villagers who've been helping have already been alerted and took cover as soon as it started to cave and lean forward. Still, Po was none the wiser.

"Dragon Warrior—!"

"And with the distant names, gosh! It's been a week, surely you can say my name now! I mean how hard is it to say my two-letter name!—"

"PO, WATCH OUT!"

But it was too late, When Po looked up, the tower of ruin came crashing down right over him. Before he could even consider his fate, he suddenly felt a powerful force push him in the chest far back and away from the crumbling junk pile, his eyes shut tight as everything seemed to flash before him. Finally, when his back harshly met the ground, he opened his eyes wide as he still felt that powerful force on him.

And that's when he saw it. The tiger he idolised for a good decade, the warrior that made him fall in love with kung fu, the woman who inspired him and the creature who criticised him the most... was resting on top of his form, panting as the small panic she experienced finally washed over. It then occurred to him, as she looked back at the fallen junk pile, that she was the person that pushed him away before he was crushed by it. She saved him.

And the most insane part, in all of this, in his mind...

"... You said my name." He quietly stated, breathing heavily himself as he looked up at the great Master Tigress in complete awe and adoration.

But she angrily looked down at the clueless panda, "WHY DIDN'T YOU MOVE!?"

Po was at a loss for words at this point. "I..."

Tigress arched her back up straight and simply kneeled in front of the panda, "Don't you know you could have been crushed under that!? You could have been hurt, or WORSE! We need you at your best health as Dragon Warrior, dammit!"

The panda lifted his head up slightly, resting his weight onto his adjusted arms. His eyes quietly searched Tigress' facial expression. She looked angry, but she sounded more... concerned with his well-being? It greatly confused him.

".. I'm sorry..." He meekly said.

Tigress' eye twitched as she flared her nostrils in frustration. Just then, as the tower of ruin did before, everything finally came crashing down for her; she took his shoulders and pinned him down to the ground beneath him, hard.

"YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE SORRY!"

Silence was all that lingered between them. But this silence felt different. It felt... fresher.

But that was when Po looked again at her face. Regret. As much as Tigress tried holding her ferocious expression, a quiver in her lip instantly exposed her.

At long last, she got off the poor bear, intending to turn away and walk off to who knows where.

But then she heard a voice. "Thanks for saving me."

She looked back and saw the panda, back to resting on his arms, still looking at her softly.

And that look he gave her, drove her absolutely insane. It was the same look he had been giving her since she met him. When she told him he was a disgrace, when she told him about Tai Lung and how Shifu's chance of his only do-over was with a 'big, fat panda who treated everything like a joke'... it was that same innocent, genuine look, that meant the panda was hanging on her every word, as if even her greatest insults towards him was crafted with as much grace as silk fabric in his eyes.

And she absolutely hated it.

'Why does he always look at me like THAT!?' The tiger thought. She hated how the panda never looked at her with hate, with distain or with resentment. How could he not? How could he continue to guilt her subconsciously by not hating her!? How could he still look at her as if she was on a pedestal of gold when she treated him like dirt? How could he not hate her?

Trying not to let any of these doubts slip through her, she straightened her back with a sharp frown on her face. "Well... I hope this makes us even."

And with that, she was gone within a blink. Where she walked off to, Po would never know. All he knew was that he had to awkwardly explain to his dad, who came out with nice cold lemonade for him and Tigress, why she suddenly vanished, before proceeding to continue to work on the site... all by himself.

Po had a LOT of time to himself fixing up Tigress' slack and walking up the steps to think over everything. And the more he thought about everything... the angrier he felt.

Now everyone acknowledges that Po doesn't get angry easily. Irritated, yes. Tired, of course. Hungry, very often. But angry? He was a patient panda, he felt, considering he took a lot of crap from literally everyone from his life.

But his patience was gone at this point. He was irritated, tired, AND hungry. Since his 'partner' essentially ghosted him mid-work, he had to take extra time out of the day to finish what was obviously a two-person job, making him end up climbing up the stairs well into the evening! And for what? because said-partner blew up at him for apologising—which, ironically, made the most sense, because why was he even apologising!? For trying to converse with her? For trying to express his upset before everything came crashing down? For not looking where he was standing!?

At this point, he didn't even stop to catch his breath on the steps, he felt too driven by anger's adrenaline to even be aware of where he was walking, just that he instantly took strides to the barracks and confront a certain feline.

He looked into the kitchen and saw all his friends and teammates laughing over their slices of tofu and cookies. Since their favourite 'cook' was nowhere to be found, they decided to just enjoy some evening snacks and converse about their days. Finally, Mantis spotted the obviously off-put panda at the entrance.

"Hey-hey, Po! Where've you been, dude? It's already close to curfew!"

"Valley. Where's Master Tigress" The bear sharply asked, taking everyone aback.

"Hold on, now, Po." Viper slithered towards him in worry, "You've been gone for much longer than us! We were concerned! Whoa, and what happened to you? You look—"

"Like crap? Yeah, I know." Po deadpanned. "I had to pick up the slack at my dad's site after Tigress ditched me."

Crane's eyes widened. "Wait, what!? That doesn't sound like something Tigress would do!"

Monkey creased, "It would explain why we found her in the Training Hall already when we came back. But what happened, Po?"

"She's at the Training Hall? Got it." Po turned and made a beeline to the Training Hall, further confusing everyone as they darted their heads towards each other.

"So..." Mantis finally piped up. "... I'm guessing it's a 'long story' situation."

Just as Po thought it, the feline was still there. It seemed that she was sparring with the wooden warriors specifically considering about eighty-five percent of them were already blown to bits, with her still fighting off the ones left standing.

"MASTER TIGRESS!" The panda called out to her, with an amount of venom lathering his words that surprised the both of them, with Tigress instantly placing her paw on one of the spinning limbs to stop it.

She panted heavily, her adrenaline after fighting for hours on end cooling down, but she couldn't dare to turn her head at who was calling her. She knew exactly who called her.

"One doesn't bother another warrior when they're training, Dragon Warrior." She simply replied.

Po's tired eye twitched as he jumped into the pit, "And one doesn't abandon another warrior when they're supposed to be working together!"

Tigress' paw gripped tightly over the limb she stopped, threatening to break it in her grasp. Po saw this yet still held no fear.

"I apologise for my immature behaviour earlier." She half-hasardly muttered, gritting through her teeth as she did so.

"OH, so THAT'S what you say sorry for!?"

"What do you want from me, Dragon Warrior?" She finally bitterly turned towards him, unexpectant to him suddenly getting close to her face and swiping her paw off the wooden warrior.

"I WANT YOU TO FINALLY FACE ME!"

Tigress had to admit, there were few things in her adult years that took her aback, but funnily enough, recently the only times she has been was when he was around, and this time was no exception.

"I... beg your finest pardon?" Tigress blinked, confused to whether or not she should feel angry at this sudden boundary break between them.

"FACE ME, MASTER TIGRESS! EVER SINCE TAI LUNG, YOU HAVEN'T SO MUCH ASLOOKED ME IN THE EYE!ALL I GET WAS YOU CALLING ME 'MASTER' AND THEN YOU SUDDENLY AVOID ME FOR THE DAYS AFTER? DO YOU KNOW HOW CONFUSING THAT IS!? ARE YOU STILL MAD AT ME OR SOMETHING!? GIVE ME A DAMN CLUE ALREADY, WOMAN!"

"Who do you think you're talking to!?" The feline said a little louder, not feeling as infuriated as she just felt more appalled than anything.

"I'm talking to someone who needs to respect me as a warrior as MUCH as I respect her! Do you even know how much you mean to me as a kung fu master? As a guide on my new journey!? Do you know how much your prior criticism HURT ME!? How that criticism came at a time for me where I ALREADY didn't believe in myself and felt, like, the pressure of the ENTIRETY OF CHINA!? And the worst part is, you don't even seem to care! I mean I've been trying and trying with you just to get a moment of closure between us! Or at least a moment where it doesn't feel like you hate my guts! For goodness sake, what more do I have to do just to get a hint of you respecting me other than that one word you threw towards me in front of everyone!? Was that even genuine!? Or was that to just save your image from the rest of the town!? I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE! BECAUSE YOU REFUSE TO TELL ME!

"Do you think I'm just a creature with no feelings!? I know I disappointed everyone in the Jade Palace when I got chosen, and I know I hurt you the most as honestly, I wholeheartedly believe that you deserve to be chosen WAY MORE than I do, too! BUT YOU DEFINITELY GAVE ME A TASTE OF MY OWN MEDICINE BY HURTING ME THEN AND CONTINUING TO HURT ME NOW BY AVOIDING ME! I can't take it anymore! I get you're not a 'feelings' type of woman but I'm a 'feelings' type of guy! I've been raised to TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY if I upset someone and APOLOGISE, and I know you did too because the man who clearly raised you, as stubborn as he is, TOOK ACCOUNTABILITY OF HIS OWN TOO! I'm not asking for you to be my best friend, Master Tigress, but for Gods sake AT LEAST SAY SOMETHING TO ME! ANYTHING!"

His labored breaths echoed through the hall, stunning Tigress to the point where her eyes were wide, her jaw was slacked and her tail fell flat against the ground. She matched his breathing but not for the same reason. She just felt, as rare as it was... shocked.

"Well!? Say something!" Po begged. Though his eyes filled with tears, he never felt so relieved. He said everything he wanted to say to Tigress for the past week, and no matter what she said, he could at least walk away knowing that the air was finally cleared, at least on his part.

But then, something happened that in turn, ended up shocking him.

The almighty, hardcore Tigress... knelt down on the ground in front of him and bowed her head in shame and respect, finally letting words leave her mouth.

"You're right."

"Wha-huh?" The panda mumbled in confusion.

"You are right... on so many fronts." Tigress' ears dipped low, "I'm not one to cower away, but I will admit, I was... afraid to face you. I'm not a person to talk about my... 'feelings', as you described, but I felt such guilt over the way I treated you that I just... doubled down and starting avoiding you. I simply had no idea how to approach you, let alone begin to tell you how..." She hesitated, finally closing her eyes and taking a breath, "... How sorry I was—how sorry I am... I treated you the most unfairly. But you have been nothing but kind and understanding to all of us your entire stay here. You still put in the effort to cook for us, to make the others laugh, and to work just as hard as us. I will admit, it perplexed me as well as impressed me how you had so much determination to stay and continue to train, even when we were all against you... especially because I knew..."

She finally looked up, her ember eyes meeting his soft jade eyes, "I knew that the reason you stayed... was because it was better than you living everyday of your life being you."

Po's eyes widened especially at this confession.

"I couldn't stop thinking about what you said to Shifu that night. It has kept me up and ate away at me every night since, to the point where I haven't slept for days because of it."

"Y-you heard that..?" Po asked, falling back to his timid stature.

"And yet I still treated you so harshly. And it filled me with so much shame considering I..." Tigress stopped herself. She couldn't reveal that part of herself at that moment. She was already in a vulnerable position, to give a panda she barely knows a means to her weaknesses would be self-destruction. She took another breath and looked down again, filled with remorse. "I just hope you can forgive me for all the pain I caused for you. I can't mend my mistakes, but I will spend the rest of my life devoting it to making up to you in any way I could, if you accept."

At last, Po's face softened. He felt so many emotions of his own at this moment. He had no idea how to handle this type of reply. He simply wiped the tears lingering in his eyes, adjusted his pants, and knelt down to get on the same level as Tigress.

He tilted his head into her view, making her perk her head up to see him sadly smile.

"You know... a simple 'I'm sorry' would have been more than enough." Tigress gave him a more curious look as he continued. "But... thank you for your apology. Now, I don't expect you to do the whole 'life devotion' thing but... I can definitely forgive you."

Tigress took a deep sigh of relief before seeing Po raise his arm up towards her. "So... truce?" He asked. The feline took a good bit to look at his held up hand, and finally joined it in official comradery.

"Truce." She showed a ghost of a smile before they both stood up together, a newfound mutual respect towards one another.

"You know, I never had anyone yell at me like that before." Tigress finally retreated her paw and crossed her arms, a little playful in her statement, making Po instantly nervous.

"Ahah, right, I uh... don't know what came over me then—guess I was hangry, heh. Sorry?"

"Don't apologise. Just know I'm not going to show mercy for that when we finally get to spar." She mysteriously stated before walking off to leave the hall.

Despite the panda having obvious fear for this, he couldn't help but feel excited and follow after her. "Wait, you mean I get to spar you now!?"

"Maybe," Tigress smirked. "We shall see what comes out of this. Baby steps."

"Hah, right, of course~!" Po chuckled, feeling a rush of giddiness as they walked out of the hall together.

~THE END~

~~a/n; one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to this fandom, if you guys couldn't already tell, is in-between movie moments for Po and Tigress, and I am definitely obsessed with the dynamic of kfp1-kfp2 TiPo! like, is no one else curious as to how we got Tigress simply smiling at Po in the ending of the first film to them being all smiley and touchy and REALLY close in kfp2? HOW did that happen? WHY did that happen? what moments between those 2 films made their bond so strong! welp, that's what this one-shot book is about! this is mostly going to be based off my own headcanons for them so I hope you enjoy peeking into my insane ahh brain and seeing how I perceive them as a growing couple(?) throughout the films! until next chapter, have a good day/night, live laugh love and Yarart out! ;D~~