It was a sunny, lukewarm day at the Jade Palace. It was rather empty there as five masters were currently away on other errands. That left two masters which were currently heard at some spot in the palace yards.
"Hiyaa!"
There seems to be nothing or no one in the Hall of Heroes.
"Shaka-booey!"
No one at the master's garden, OR the barracks.
"Ha!"
No one at the peach tree either. But of course, it sounds like fighting. And who would be so crazy to fight at that cliff with a steep side of god knows how deep down.
That leaves only one place. The courtyard/training hall.
And yes, there they are!
A monochrome bear stood and held his ground against a fearsome black-striped feline. They were none other than Masters Po (Also known as the Dragon Warrior) and Tigress (unofficially known as the Leader of the Furious Five)
"Haha! Is that all you got, Tigress?" Po yelled and maintained a defensive pose with his staff of wisdom by his side. "Yeah I know, she's struggling." Po whispered to the staff, all the while he kept his eyes on Tigress.
Tigress held a defensive pose. Her face got quite confused. "Are.. You talking to your stick..?" She asked, quite not believing what she was witnessing.
"Uhh, no..? Of course not, why would I talk to my stic- whoops sorry my friend I did not mean to call you tha- I mean, AHH!"
The tiger smirked. While Po seemed to be.. not focused.. She figured she would take her chance. She lunged at him.
Po was caught off guard but he quickly blocked her attack by putting his staff inbetween.
"You really thought, huh?" Po said and smiled.
Tigress was launched backwards. "I admit, I did not quite see that coming." She said.
Po got into a defensive pose and awaited her next move, but he underestimated this one, the tiger simply went low and caught him off guard by sweeping the ground under him, causing him to fall. While Tigress took her chance and pounced, Po quickly rolled away and got up.
Po threw a fist at her which she simply caught with her paw. She looked at him with a straight face, as if it said *really, is that all you got?*
Tigress, having caught Po's paw simply guided him onto the ground by rotating him several times and down onto the hard surface. She locked him down by placing a paw onto him.
"Fine, you got me." Po said.
Tigress smirked and looked down at him. "Even with your stick you can't take me down."
"Gah, Tigress it's THE staff of wisdom. It's not a stick." Po replied in a irritated tone.
Tigress ceased her hold of him and offered him a paw, which he gladly took. Po allowed her to lift him up onto his feet.
They stood there for a solid 15 seconds of awkward silence until Po spoke: "Shall I make ourselves some food?"
Tigress gazed at him. "Yeah."
Po nodded and started heading for the door out of the courtyard, with Tigress following beside.
Afternoon passed and the others have still not showed up, but of course, they said it could take a while, perhaps even into the next day.
As Po had nothing to do, he figured he could walk up to the Dragon Grotto to meditate, as that is still a tiny bit amusing to do instead of sitting at the kitchen table having the most boring day of his life.
That left the tiger master at the table. She was also out of ideas. The sun wouldn't be setting within the next thirty minutes or so, so she headed up into her room to rest a while, something she hadn't done since she was young. She had only learned to do it and appreciate it after Po had taught her.
She headed up the stairs and into her room, closing the paper door behind her and walked up to the bed.
She stretched before eventually laying down onto her bed, allowing herself to rest for half an hour or so.
_____ _____
Meanwhile, Po sat outside the puddle underneath the dragon grotto, pondering over what the meaning of life truly is.
Po, being the social and talkative person he is, spoke his thoughts out loud instead of keeping them to himself, like many others, Masters Shifu and Oogway do, for example.
"Is the meaning of life to have friends..?"
A drip from the stone-carved dragon landed in the water below, echoing inside the grotto.
"Could it be overcoming evilness and your fears?"
*drip*
"Or finding the true love of your life?"
A chill, summer evening breeze blew though Po's fur, gently adding to the ambience of the dragon grotto.
"Mm.. I understand why Shifu loves to meditate here..."
*drip*
"Oh, stupid me, don't let your thoughts drift away! Where were I, ah, it was the meaning of life."
Po inhaled and exhaled deeply. Savouring the cool summer air.
"Is it to appreciate what you have...?"
_____ _____
Tigress woke up, feeling well rested for once, she figured she wanted to see what Po was up to, and she had a question that seemed to come to mind now.
She rose up and headed out of the barracks. Po was not heard in the kitchen, nor the training hall. If he were to meditate at the peach tree he would surely be heard. Po was rarely at the Hall of Heroes all by himself.
That only left the Dragon Grotto. She took rapid steps up the mountain.
Tigress had a question that emerged after her rest. It involved her and Po's sparring.
She was starting to get really curious now. The only way to get her answer is to ask him.
After finally reaching the sacred meditation spot she simply tiptoed her way to Po and sat down gently beside him.
She smirked at him. *How doesn't he feel my presence..?* She thought.
She decided to catch him off guard with a quick hug from behind.
"Hello, panda." she said.
"AHH!" Po jumped.
"Yeez, Tigress, you scared me there." Po said and covered his chest.
Tigress chuckled.
"You are so easy to catch off guard. Do you know that?" she said, smirking.
"You know, I'm actually not. The only person who succeeds in scaring me this hard is you, no one comes remotely close."
"Is that so?" She asks.
Po nodded.
"Oh and also what are you doing up here?" Po asked, curiously looking at her.
"Yes, I was just about to explain."
"Go on."
"You know, this recent conversation is actually a great example."
"What?"
"Let me get to the point."
Po nodded.
"Since you left the kitchen, I took a short rest where I had this dream of yet another sparring match between us. In the end I won. That brings me to the question, how are you so oblivious of me and why do always I come out on top during our sparring matches..?" Tigress asked, gazing at the panda beside her.
"Huh. That's a great question."
Po's eyes looked into the sky. He seemed to be coming up with an answer, so she let him take his time.
"I... Don't really know. For some reason my guard is always down around you, but never around others."
"That would explain how you are so easily scared by me." Tigress muttered.
"Yeah. As for the sparring, I don't really know either. I guess it's just my guard yet again failing around you."
"But why?"
"Because... Err.. I look up to you and I wish you no harm at all. If stuff gets real serious, I get serious aswell. I know that you have never harmed me in any way, so you are one of the only persons out there I can truly keep my guard down for. Because I know they'd never hurt me. The only other people being my dads."
Po sighed.
"And that doesn't mean I don't trust the others, like Mantis, Shifu and the rest. I trust them aswell, it's just, you are the special cases."
Tigress smiled at the panda.
Po looked at her. Oh how her smile made him happy. Po barely had time to think before she had already gone in for a hug.
Po was caught off guard yet again. But he quickly embraced it and fell into the hug.
Tigress broke contact but maintained her smile and gazing.
"You are as important to me aswell Po, and I am glad to have someone by my side, truly."
Po smiled.
"But that does not mean I will go easy on you during sparring. If I went easy on you it wouldn't be considered real training, so I suggest you do the same. It'd only be better for the both of us if you for once tried."
"I, will try."
Tigress smiled at the panda and blinked.
A cool breeze blew through them.
"Come on, shall we go back down?" Tigress asked, looking at the panda.
Po nodded.
The pair then walked down the mountain, back to the barracks.
They went into the barracks and up the stairs into the hall where their rooms were. Before Po walked into his room, he felt a paw stop him from behind.
"You know.. Since, err, the others aren't here and probably won't be until tomorrow, I figured we could, like.. You know.." The tiger tried to mumble out the last words but to no avail.
"-Sleep together..?" Po asked.
"Mmhmm." The tiger mumbled and anxiously glared at the panda.
"Okay." Po said and smiled, the tiger returning the same expression back.
"But I still won't go easy on you during tomorrow's sparring, panda." Tigress said and smirked.
"I know, I know." Po said and closed the door behind them.