Cherry Blossoms

His friends must have brought them in when he wasn't looking. Cherry Blossoms were his worst enemy, besides stairs of course. They were number two on his list of enemies.

Ever since he was five he could remember not liking the damn flower. His dad had grown a few at the front of the shop and he remembered how pretty they looked. They lost their beauty the second he went up to them to sniff them. Before he could reach them, he felt a strong tickle in his nose and his vision became blurry before he let out a big loud sneeze that made him tumble to an empty table and broke it in half.

It took him and his father a while to figure out what was making him sneeze so harshly and making his eyes swollen. Eventually after some trial and error they traced it to the Cherry Blossoms and Mr. Ping quickly had them removed and replaced them with peach blossoms instead. Luckily he wasn't allergic to those. From the moment the two learned he was allergic to cherry blossoms, Po had grown a strong dislike towards them. He couldn't tell his friends though! They brought something in for the nice and brand new kitchen he had renovated.

No. He will work through this allergy and not let his friends know of it. They were thoughtful enough to get the beautiful arrangement there and he is not about to let their efforts go to waste.

Bad idea.

The moment the Dragon Warrior stood up he unwillingly inhaled the pollen of the cherry blossoms and let out a loud sneeze. The force of it sent him through the kitchen doors, breaking them and crashing into the wall. Po groaned, sitting up and staring at the cherry blossoms from a distance. How is he going to work through this?

"Good morning Po!" Monkey greeted him as he walked into the kitchen. Monkey's smile fell, noticing Po with his back turned to him and a large red scarf around his neck. Was it winter already? Even if it was, it certainly wasn't cold inside the kitchen.

"Morning." Po didn't turn to him, his voice sounding stuffy still.

"Are you feeling any better?" Monkey asked.

"Yup." Po gave him a thumbs up. Monkey raised a brow and was about to ask about the scarf when the rest of the five walked in greeting the two. Po only waved at them, still not turning around.

"What's with the scarf?" Mantis asked. Po froze in his spot, he didn't answer, only serving the food and passing it out to all of them.

"See you at trai-training! ACHOO!" Po quickly ran out, hoping the five missed his sneeze but, really, it was difficult to miss a sneeze like that.

Po sighed in relief as his allergy had finally cooled off when his friends arrived at the training hall. Each one of them expressed worry for him but he assured them he was doing just fine. Not exactly lying as he was feeling better, as long he didn't step foot in the kitchen he would be just fine.

Eventually the blossoms will die and he will be able to go back inside. Surely his friends will forget to change the water for those flowers at some point. Right?

He doesn't need to worry. Nope. Not at all.....

Wrong.

His friends did know how to take care of those damn blossoms. Unknowingly letting the poor panda suffer with his allergies.

It had been two weeks now since the blossoms first appeared in the kitchen and Po wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it from his friends. He didn't want to upset them though! He really liked that they decided to bring in something for the kitchen. Po just didn't want to keep feeling like he was living in an allergy prison. He was no longer just feeling in the kitchen anymore.

In fact, Monkey and Mantis had liked the cherry blossoms so much they bought some themselves and planted them just outside in the training hall's arena, only spreading the cherry blossoms throughout the Jade Palace further. Po felt like he was ready to collapse and die at any given moment. He needed to do something about the cherry blossoms without his friends finding out he didn't like them.