Once all of the ice breakers were out of the way, it became a little easier to open up conversations with the entire group. Kay was still very shy and not talkative, but she felt a little better about answering questions and every once and a blue moon would actually try and start up a conversation with others. (Though it was clear she was more comfortable talking to Destiny, Po, Xiao-Niao, and Tigress). A few of the girls got a little bolder with asking Po to hang out personally, though these usually just involved small strolls through the valley of peace. Ordai, who was very particular, decided to proposition Po to have a very specific date.

"I was thinking about a nice little picnic under the stars," she told the master while the two were walking back to the barracks after breakfast. "I know we've considered it before in passing conversation, but I figured we should actually do it."

"That's be nice," Po admitted. "Though maybe we should take plenty of lanterns just in case we fall down the cliff or something in the dark."

Ordai squeezed his shoulder. "You can't let tragedy turn a passion into a fear," she told Po sternly. "I've been trying to not think of that. Otherwise I'd never stargaze again."

Po agreed to the idea and the two decided to go to bed early so that they would be more awake to stargaze and yet not too tired to get up in the morning. Since the picnic was to be really early in the morning, they decided it would be unnecessary to prep everything before bed and instead chose to wake up and quickly pack some tea and almond cookies to go. Po had tried to quietly make his way out of the barracks, but he had never been good at being quiet when he was the only one awake, and this accidentally squeaked the floor a few times and caused a few of the masters to stir. He managed to get out of the barracks without anyone getting up to check out the noise, and once Ordai had come down and helped him finish their small picnic, they were off to the Wu Dan mountains. They each took a lantern as a safety precaution and waved to one of the guards they happened to see as they passed by. The guard was clearly starved of entertainment because Po noticed they were being watched like a hawk up until they turned the one corner of the mountain pass to their picnic spot.

"Being a guard must be so boring," Ordai noted aloud. "You don't get to do anything unless somebody tried to ambush you. And then it's nothing but chaos!"

"Well, if I was a guard I'd tell you about it, but that's not my area of specialty," Po said. "Though if I ever was I'd probably love to talk your ear off."

Ordai giggled. "I don't mind," she assured him. "I could listen to you talk all day long. Except then you might get a sore throat, and I'd hate to let that happen to you."

Po just smiled sheepishly, unsure of how to reply, and the two continued to walk up the slope until they came to the grassy mountaintop. He and Ordai walked through the darkness with their lanterns until they came across a rather nice spot where a few trees stood quietly behind them and the sky was open for them to look at. Ordai put the basket down and set everything up before getting some tea for herself and for Po.

"This is actually really nice," Po said looking up at the night sky. "It's been a while since I've stargazed. Dad and I did that sometimes if it was warm enough outside."

"Do you stargaze at all in the Tsung village?" Ordai asked.

"From time to time. It's sort of hard to because it's surrounded by trees, so you I don't get as good of a view of the sky as you do here in the valley. But there's a really nice lake nearby, and if you sit under one of the trees you can look up at the stars on a good night from there."

Ordai smiled. "That sounds lovely," she told him. "It's too bad you can't show me right now; I'd love to see it."

"It definitely sounds like a nice idea, but even if the Tsung village was close, I don't want to risk exposing it to any danger. It's a high target for potential thieves and bandits."

"Oh, I see. Well, if we get married, you'll have to take me there as part of your village tour."

Po turned slightly red at the thought, but Ordai didn't notice since he was out of the light from her lantern. The master took a sip of tea and leaned back a bit to rest on his elbows. It was very quiet with little to no sound but the gentle rustling of the wind through the grass, so low it created a subtle but beautiful hum that helped paint the relaxed atmosphere. Po just sighed and smiled. It was definitely a nice break from all the daily chaos. Hearing him, Ordai smiled as well and leaned against the master and took a sip of tea. "We reall should do this more often," she suggested. "Our group is so big it's hard to really talk one on one."

"Yeah, I'm trying to get better with that. I've neve actually been on a date before, so I'm more used to group activities rather than personal ones."

"Aw! Well we'll have to fix that!"

Ordai poured herself more tea and took an almond cookie from the small tray she had packed. "I have to say," she admitted. "This has actually been quite fun! I was expecting some drama and biting and backstabbing, but everyone's been quite pleasant! Well, aside from Ming and Ella, but they were only here for a day."

Po groaned. "And I'm hoping the emperor's son gets better soon so that she and Superintendent Woo can finally leave!" he complained. "He's very difficult to impress much less reason with and it's annoying to always get yelled at over the littlest things."

"That's understandable." Ordai looked across the night sky and sighed, admiring the colors created from the far off galaxies imprinted into the black atmosphere. "I don't suppose you have any group favorites so far?" she asked hopefully.

"Hey, that's not fair, Ordai. I think you're all pretty awesome. I can't just say if someone is cooler or better than the other. You're all awesome!"

Ordai smiled and laughed. "And you're abundantly sweet," she remarked. "I'll accept that answer."

The two stared quietly up at the sky again, pointing out a few shapes they happened to see before Po asked Ordai what her romance plans were before the contest happened. Ordai didn't have much of an idea, though there were definitely a few guys asking after her health in the village. They drank most of the tea and finished off the plate of cookies as they asked about each other's parents and other little details about their personal lives, such as their favorite memory or their favorite flower. Eventually Ordai became really tired and leaned on Po as if to fall asleep. However, Po needed to use the bathroom and was quick to get up so that they could both go to sleep. Ordai was clearly a little upset by this though.

"Song was right; you're not very subtle," she noted.

Po turned bright red, not wanting to admit he just needed to pee, and he simply just walked down the cliff with Ordai, the lanterns, and the picnic basket in tow. As they rounded the slope and reached the bottom of the mountain and the grounds of the Jade Palace, Ordai asked Po if she could make a suggestion to him.

"Sure," Po said. "What is it?"

"Not that I should be telling you who to go after or who to avoid," Ordai said. "But I have a lot of concerns with Tai Lin. Her behavior makes me nervous."

Po eyed her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"She has a weird twisted idea of love and romance. She doesn't seem to care much about getting to know a man before she marries him and she's always talking about getting swept off her feet to a life of no worries, which to me says she'd marry the first guy that drops down on one knee as long as he's rich."

Po frowned in confusion. "That doesn't sound like Tai Lin," he said.

"Oh, I don't have anything against her," Ordai corrected. "She's really nice and she's very helpful and a good voice of reason. And everyone has their negative points, after all, like Lam being a hot-head, or Jai-Rong being insensitive, or Destiny...well, she's a whole case on her own...and Xiao Niao-....actually, I'm not sure about her. She's kind of a sweetie. But Tai Lin concerns me specifically because she seems finicky, and the last thing I'd want to see is you form an attachment to her and then she just goes and accepts the hand of some random guy who calls her cute, that's all."

"Oh, I see," Po replied. "Well, thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind."

The two then headed back to the Jade Palace kitchen to put everything away and clean up before heading to the barracks and saying goodnight. Po thought over his conversation with Ordai and racked his brain for about an hour or so before deciding to just roll over and go to sleep. Quite frankly, he never saw anything finicky about Tai Lin, and though he knew he could be a bit oblivious, he wasn't going to send her away just based on a generalized observation. He'd figure that out himself in due time.