"No."

Master Shifu froze in surprise before regaining his composure. "You're walking on a fine line," he seethed.

"I didn't do this on purpose," Tai Lung told him.

"You just came barrelling through here injuring students, destroying ancient training equipment, and attacking honorable masters for selfish gains!"

"Selfish gains?" Tai Lung repeated. He hopped down to the dug out floor of the training hall and leaned against the side. "Alright then, master. What am I here for?"

"What are you here for?! You could be here for multiple things! The Dragon Scroll, revenge against Po, the chance to prove your strength as very clearly demonstrated!!!"

Tai Lung looked over at Po. "You want to give him the honest truth, or shall I?" he questioned. 

"Hey, I don't know what happened before I caught you and Tigress in a fight, so you can tell that part," Po answered. 

"Perfect. I survived the Wuxi Finger miraculously and I had plenty of time to think over what happened. I came all the way back here to apologize for the bad choices I made." 

"Oh please!" Shifu grumbled. 

"I was on my way back to say hello and apologize when I saw Tigress, so I thought I'd say hi and explain myself. You know, trying to break the ice. Naturally it didn't go over well, so I thought I'd drop by personally and apologize for that." He laughed nervously. "I probably should have just stuck to the original plan and talked to you, Shifu, but I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment." 

"But you and Tigress were fighting when I walked in," Po pointed out. 

"She wanted to fight me because she thought I was a threat. And I naturally can't resist a kung fu match." 

"How moving," Shifu told him. "That does not excuse the fact that you were banished from the Valley of Peace for the same reasons you've been caught now!"

"I was banished because I made the mistake of waking up a very cranky kung fu master with the intent of saying, Sorry for scaring you and being a jerk?" Tai-Lung half-joked. 

"You couldn't wait until morning to do any of this?" Monkey asked him with an exasperated wave of his hands. 

"I didn't want to deal with all of you chasing me and trying to Wuxi Finger me before I could explain myself."

Shifu gave the snow leopard a hard look. "Were you standing in the corner creepily staring at people again?" he accused. 

Tai Lung turned a little red. "I mean...I was...sort of...." he admitted. "But she was already awake when I tried talking to her, so she probably just didn't hear me come in and got startled." 

"You really need to stop doing that! That was creepy when you were a toddler and it's still creepy now!" 

"I know, I'm sorry. It's a bad habit." 

"That sounds creepy," Po commented. "Waking up and some kid is just staring at you."

"There was more to it than just standing silently in the dark, trust me," Shifu tacked on with a mild shudder. 

Tigress interrupted the conversation with some groaning and slight twitching, but she didn't stir awake. 

"We really should get her to bed," Mantis observed. "And make sure she doesn't have anything broken." 

"I can carry her to bed," Tai Lung offered. 

"After the mess you made?!" Shifu snapped. 

"I'll fix it. You can fix a building, but not the people in it."   As Shifu blinked in surprise, he added, "I may have lost my honor, but I haven't lost the lessons you taught me." 

After a quick assessment of Tigress' bones and discovering that only the left arm was broken, (miraculously), Tai Lung carried the master back to her bedroom with the other masters in tow. The entire group was silent the whole way there and they mostly remained that way as Tai Lung settled Tigress in her bedroom. He and the remaining Furious Five offered to keep an eye on the master while Po and Shifu went to the doctor. Before making the trip, Po prompted the grandmaster about Tai Lung's strange 'wake-up people' behavior. Shifu then proceeded to relay a story about how Tai Lung, a month prior to his assessment, decided to wake Shifu up by poking him in the back and keeping his face right in the grandmaster's. Naturally Shifu had woken up and shrieked about seeing nothing but someone else's face in front of him, and the masters listening to the story couldn't resist chuckling at the idea of their master screaming like a girl. 

Tigress finally came round after almost two hours had passed. Her entire body was sore and there was a lot of pain going through the left side of her body. She used her right arm to prop herself up and look around the room. Po was sleeping soundly in the one corner, (because of course he was), snoring rather loudly. In the other corner, staring at Po, was Tai Lung. When he noticed the master was up, he immediately looked over at her with a faint smile. 

"You're awake finally," he said in a low voice. "You're a very lucky person you know." 

"Why are you in here?" Tigress asked wearily. 

"I offered to carry you back so you could rest. I figured it's the least I could do after all the ruckus I caused." 

Tigress weakly sat over the edge of the bed and rubbed her eyes. "How long have I been out?" she asked. 

"A few hours. Though to be fair, you were under the rubble for a while." 

"And Shifu let you keep an eye on me?" 

"I'm being well-guarded by Po as you can clearly see."

Tigress looked over at the snoring panda for a moment before she resumed talking to Tai Lung. "And where is Shifu exactly?" she asked warningly. 

"He went out to talk to the doctor while the rest of your friends are fixing the training hall. They don't trust me to fix anything up in there."

"But they let you sit in the same room as me?"

"I'm chained up so that I can't just attack someone and run," Tai Lung pointed out, gesturing to some acu-pressure ankle cuffs the master hadn't noticed earlier. "You don't need to worry about me."

Tigress relaxed a little. The two didn't have much else to say, so they sat there and just listened to Po snoring. Tai Lung did explain to Tigress that her left arm was broken and the doctor needed special tools to set it. But that was all the information he had to offer. Tigress eventually just laid back down on her bed and waited for the doctor to come. Tai Lung was then surprised when she asked if bone setting hurt. 

"Are you telling me you've never broken a bone?" he asked. 

"I've twisted ankles, sprained wrists, and torn muscles, but never broken a bone." 

Tai Lung chuckled in astonishment. "Well that's an amazing feat," he admitted. 

"I'll gladly take it. Even Viper broke something once, and that was just from dancing." 

Tai Lung got up from his spot in the corner and shuffled over to the master to sit on her bed. "Well bone setting will definitely hurt a bit since all your bones are out of place," he explained. "But it's only for a second."    He smirked ever-so-slightly. "I could always hold your hand if you're scared," he offered. 

"I'm a grown woman. I can handle a little pain." 

Tai Lung shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said. He decided to look at the master's arm to see how broken it was. It was definitely swollen at the elbow and shoulder, but aside from that it didn't look too bad. 

Tigress watched him carefully for a second before sighing. "I'm going to regret saying this," she told him. "But you're cute when you care." 

Tai Lung looked at her in surprise, taken aback by the sudden compliment. "After all that, now you're going to say that I'm attractive?!" he exclaimed. 

Tigress rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean it like that," she corrected. "I meant it's nice to see you being kind and helpful. Usually you're just selfish and destructive." 

"Losing my character once in the past doesn't mean I don't care," Tai Lung reminded her. "I've grown since then and I'm trying to do better. That's why I came back again: to apologize. Honest." 

A pause.

"Stop staring at me, please," Tigress suddenly interjected. 

Tai Lung blinked. "I'm not staring." 

"Yes you are. You're looking right at me with some stupid hypnotic look, and if you don't stop, I'll do something we'll both regret." 

"Like what? You'll scratch me? Wake up Po? Kick me through the wall?"

Tigress responded to that by pulling him down with her good arm and kissing him. Tai Lung was initially surprised but very quickly had no problem with going along with the moment. The pair relaxed into the passionate kiss until they were suddenly interrupted by the door opening. 

"I leave you alone with my students for two seconds, Tai Lung!" Shifu snapped. 

"I didn't do anything to her." 

"I'm not blind. Now I need to get her arm fixed if you don't mind." 

Tai Lung shuffled away obediently, though not before turning back to Tigress. "Sure you don't want me to hold your hand?" he repeated.

"No," the master responded immediately.

"Okay." 

Tai Lung then shuffled back to his corner of the room and sat back down as the doctor finally came in to help Tigress. 

THE END

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