The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

A Fresh Breath

The next morning, Po made his way to the breakfast table with a new idea for the day. He had decided he was going to take the morning to try and relax and clear his head before trying again with Zhen. It was just hard with someone who was just as bad as Shifu when it came to getting along with him.

Actually, that reminded him of something else he wanted to do.....

Po eventually reached the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and started making breakfast. The five, smelling the pleasing aromas, soon trickled into the kitchen one by one, and before long they were all sitting around the table eating.

"Where's Monkey?" Viper asked, glancing around the table. "He's usually awake by now."

Po puzzles over that for a minute. "Not sure," he admitted. "Maybe he was out late. He does like hanging out Yi and Wen-Dao."

"True."

As if on cue, Monkey arrived in the kitchen with a loud yawn to accompany it. Right behind him was Zhen who looked equally tired.

"Well that's an interesting sight," Viper remarked. "What were you two doing up late?"

"What makes you think we were up foolin' around?" Zhen remarked.

"Because you're both exhausted and you never get up this late in the morning," Tigress pointed out flatly. Looking at them individually, she added, "You're too energetic, and you're always plotting something."

Zhen rolled her eyes. "Oh ya' caught me, Master tigress. I was up scheming away with Master monkey to undo your entire kung fu structure!"

"We did some sparring and talked," Monkey corrected. "Don't worry about it."

He and Zhen sat down at the table and began to eat the breakfast Po made. They did a lot of yawning and not a lot of talking, so the rest of the masters were the ones who kept up the conversation at the table. Eventually Zhen, after eating most of the breakfast dumplings, asked Po what he was plotting for the day.

"Actually, I thought you guys could use a rest day today," Po said. He ate some more dumplings before adding that he had Dragon Warrior stuff to do, so they should enjoy the nice weather and relax.

"Pretty sure that's not a word in Tigress' vocabulary," Monkey joked.

"You don't have Dragon Warrior days," Tigress noted suspiciously, completely ignoring Monkey. "What are you up to?"

"What do you mean? Of course I do!"

"Really? Like when?"

"Uh...like...eating dumplings. And...hanging out with kids...and blowing bubbles to see what shapes they make."

Monkey nudged Zhen and grinned. She held in a laugh.

"You do that every other day of the week," Tigress pointed out.

"Shhhh!" Mantis shushed. "Po doesn't give us days off! Just roll with it!"

Tigress rolled her eyes, but complied and kept her mouth shut for the rest of breakfast. Afterwards she and the masters waved Po goodbye and headed into the village.

"I still think he's up to something," Tigress remarked as she headed down the stairs with her friends.

"Well, I love my free time, so works for me," Mantis told her.

Zhen looked at them, frowned in thought, and asked them how long they had trained under Po.

"Four years," Viper told her. "Our original master retired, but he trained Po as his replacement."