Po woke up the next morning with a bunch of weird feelings fluttering in his stomach. His mind was still racing from the kiss. He definitely was determined to get rid of this evil and vicious ex of Tai Lin's. At the very least, she could finally have a normal life without worrying of stalking or leaving with only the clothes on her back in desperate efforts to not be found. He didn't want her to vanish into the unknown. He was afraid for her safety.

The master laid in bed for a while before finally signing and getting up. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he could still hear the rain pounding on the window outside, so it wasn't going to be easy for him to really tell anyway. He decided to just get up and head into the kitchen to eat. Some tea and food would help wake him up fully before he planned out talking to Shifu on the matter. As he made his way down the hallway though, he was interrupted out of his sleepy fog brain by humming. Po listened for a second before realizing it was coming from Viper's room. He walked over to her door and knocked.

"Viper?" he asked.

There was quiet before the door opened. "Oh, Po! Good morning!" Viper exclaimed sheepishly. "I hope I didn't wake you up! I forgot you were still sleeping."

"No, no, it's cool. I just heard you being chipper and all...aren't you guys supposed to be training? Or is it really early?"

Viper laughed. "It's early, but not that early," she told him. "Shifu canceled training this morning on account of the weather being really foul."

"Really? It doesn't sound stormy at all."

"From the way the clouds look, he's expecting it, so he's letting us have a rest day."

"Oh, cool. Well, I'm glad you guys have the morning off. Are you just hanging out then?"

"Yeah. I decided I'm going to go shopping this morning. I just need to find my parasol. I left it in one of my chests, but I can't remember which one...."

"I can help you look if you want me to," Po offered.

"That's sweet, Po, thanks. Just don't make a big mess."

Po walked into her room and glanced at the numerous chests scattered on the floor. Viper normally had them stacked in a very nice pattern along the wall, so she must have really misplaced it to be opening every box.

"I hope the parasol didn't go missing either..." Po remarked, taking a blue box from a top the others and opening it to see what was inside.

"I would hope not. But I'm pretty sure I just forgot what I did with it. I came back from my date in a rush the other day and I brought it because it looked like rain. Normally I'd put it on the wall to dry off, but the weather was fine, so I just threw it in one of the boxes before Crane found out. I didn't pay much attention to which color though."

"Wouldn't it have been the one on top?"

"That's what I thought, but I forgot I took them all down to get to my silk box on the very bottom, and I didn't feel like putting them back before I left...." Viper dug around in a box of ribbons she had out before sighing, closing it, and moving onto another box, this one a dull red with black trim. "It was a bit chaotic that day, what with the emperor leaving and me being late and rushing about trying to get ready, and whatever else was going on that day."

Seeing that his box also didn't have a parasol, Po put it back in the floor and grabbed a green box. It was one out of three left to look for. He didn't say anything for a little bit, but eventually his thoughts drifted back and forth over the conversation and he glanced over at the master with a concerned look. "I hope this doesn't sound like an odd or uncomfortable question," Po told her with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "But...well, I was talking with Tai Lin yesterday about Xiaobo, and I told her maybe we could get a restraining order or something better, and...well, she asked how come Crane was still allowed to stay at the Jade Palace and harass you, and...well, I didn't have an answer for that."

"Oh!" Viper exclaimed in surprise, pausing in her search through the box. She smiled sadly and then sighed. "That was actually my doing."

"It was?"

"I knew the reason Crane was upset was because he had never gone through a breakup before, so I decided to cut him some slack and just let him work things out. The guards definitely helped and honestly, I didn't think he was doing much harm. But then I got a new boyfriend, and then I found out shortly after you got here about the nighttime stalking and...." She sighed again. "I wonder if it would have been better to have gone in the other direction sometimes, but I keep telling myself he's usually pretty reasonable and to not worry about it. But I suppose that's just wishful thinking?"

"Well, we're not used to him doing this, so no not really."

"Thanks. Honestly, I think the big reason I let him hang around was because I thought he'd recover and start going out with Tigress," Viper admitted. She finished searching the red box with no luck, and then moved onto the second-to-last one along the wall.

Po paused in his search through the trunk and looked up at his friend in surprise. "With Tigress?" he repeated. "Why Tigress? Seems a bit random."

"Not if you've been paying attention to them," Viper told him matter-of-factly. "And I've seen enough to decide that I am absolutely determined to get those two paired up!"

Po just kept staring at her. This was the last person he would have thought would wind up as a couple. "Crane and Tigress?" he repeated. He tried to imagine it in his head, but nothing concrete came up. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Am I sure?!" Viper exclaimed, though she was quick to lower her voice just to make sure no one happened to eavesdrop. "Of course I'm sure! Haven't you noticed how they've been acting around each other?"

Po looked slightly embarrassed at this comment. "Uh...not really, no," he admitted. "Especially since Crane keeps following you everywhere."

"Tigress has been sort of having...to put it in the simplest way I can...the blues, for the past few years. And I thought that maybe she wanted companionship, though that clearly didn't work from what she's told you."

"Right."

"Well I couldn't figure out what on earth it was until just a few months ago. The way she hangs around Crane, how she smirks at him....Crane got her to laugh when she was in a bad mood! And no one's ever done that without needing to fight her first!"

Po pondered over this idea. "Huh," he said. "Gee, I really hadn't noticed. I guess with all the commotion going on, I haven't been paying much attention."

"Tigress is totally in love with him!" Viper said firmly. "The problem is that Crane is so obsessed with me he won't consider her, which I think is why she's been so moody for the past few years. She knows Crane and I aren't in a relationship and he won't even consider dating anybody else!"

"That's why you keep name-dropping her in your side conversations!" Po exclaimed, though he was quick to lower his voice.

"Tigress is my friend and I don't want my friends to suffer like that," Viper said. "Especially when there's a solution right there and somebody is too stubborn to take it!"

She let out an exasperated huff and just plopped the ribbon she had back in the trunk she had open. "I just can't understand what goes through that man's mind sometimes!'

"I wish I could answer that."

Viper just sighed and slithered over to the last two trunks on the wall, opening one and exclaiming, "Oh! There it is!" and pulled out a green and pink parasol with lotus patterns decorating the border. She set it off to the side and started to put all the trunks back against the wall with Po's help. She then turned to him and asked, "So, changing the subject to more pleasant things, how's it going with Tai Lin? You guys seem to be really hitting it off."

Po turned a light shade of red. "Oh, um...I think it's going okay," he told her. "I just think things would go better with the psycho ex boyfriend out of the way. Then at the very least Tai Lin can get some stress off her back. I was thinking about talking to Shifu about it this morning to see if there's something we could do."

"There should be something," Viper agreed. "I mean, he's been stalking her, harassing her, lying and deceiving hired guards of a Sacred Temple, thievery, breaking and entering with possible intent of assault, blackmail, threat of vandalism and destruction of private property, not to mention mental and emotional trauma. I think that should be plenty to get him a restraining order if not put him in prison for some time. Preferably both." She thought for a second. "Actually, you know what? I think I'll come with you. I want to plot this man's comeuppance."

The two left Viper's room and headed out of the barracks to see if they could find Shifu. Viper used her parasol to keep them both dry from the rain while Po asked her if she would be planning Crane's comeuppance anytime soon. Viper said she'd play matchmaker for a little longer before making any final decisions on that one. Both masters figured that Shifu would most likely be in the Sacred Hall of Warriors since they could smell the mouth-watering aromas of breakfast off in the far distance and knew Shifu was always the last to arrive to eat. At the very least, they could catch him on the way over. As they made their way past the kitchens, a faint scream caught Po's attention, though since the rain was falling really hard, the master thought for a second that he might have imagined it. He and Viper shared a look of concern and quickly ran through the muddy grass past the kitchen to figure out where the sound had come from. As they made their way to the path that wound towards the front of the grounds, keeping an ear out for any more possible screams, they noticed a guard come flying at them huffing and puffing and wheezing with a terrified look on his face.

"Master Po!" he huffed. "Master Viper! Come quick! Where's grandmaster Shifu?!"

"Isn't he in the Sacred Hall of Warriors?" Po asked worriedly. "Why, what's g-"

"He's not there," the guard interrupted. "Unasuri is looking for him. Tai Lin just fell off the cliff by the peach tree!"

Will resume September 22, 2024 after the release of Kung Fu Panda 4.