Po sat down at the table as his friends anxiously crowded around him, unable to contain themselves.

"Come on!" Monkey encouraged. "Tell us how you've been! And if you're still hungry!"

"I don't mind making another batch," Viper promised. "I would have made more if I knew you were coming."

"It's okay, I'll be fine," Po promised, scarfing down his dumplings. "I don't want to inconvenience you guy simply because I decided to surprise you."

"Did Tigress slap you?" Mantis inquired.

"No, but she hit me. Does that count?"

"Close enough. Though she did say she was going to slap you the next time she saw you."

"In the moment, a punch was well-deserved," Tigress piped up from her seat. "But now that everything's out of my system, Po can rest easier."

The master chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I'm still gonna' keep an eye on you. You know, in case you feel like sparring later...."

The masters chuckled at this idea, but then quickly directed the conversation back to how Po had been and what he had been up to since the last time he had written.

"Nothing really happened," Po assured them. "Jinna is getting better at her kicks and the rest of the kids are almost ready to master back flips with splits and double punches...."

"That's great, Po," Viper told him with a smile.

"And then I can teach them chi moves, front flips, splits, and then they can get really good at style mastering...."

"Sounds like you've got your hands full, Po," Master Shifu said.

"Yeah, but it's a fun handful," the master promised.

"How's Rai doing?" Monkey asked with a grin. "Anything between you guys yet?"

"Nah," Po said, stuffing more dumplings into his mouth. "She's a really nice woman, but her and I are strictly friends. Besides, she has a fiance in Gongmen City so it wouldn't work out anyway."

"When did you find this out?" Tigress asked in surprise.

"Between now and the last letter I sent," came the reply. "He came down to visit and the two of them stopped by my class to say hi. He's a nice guy; he helped one of the kids when he scraped his knee."

"He sounds nice," Viper remarked.

"Yeah. But that's all that's new. What about up here? Anything new with you guys?"

"Not much," Mantis replied. "Minus Tigress still trying to be a tough Dragon Warrior."

"It's a tough job," Tigress told him simply. "I have to keep up the best I can."

"And you're doing a good job at maintaining that balance," Shifu told her. "Which I'm sure everyone appreciates."

Tigress smiled, but said nothing else.

"Viper's also got a secret boyfriend," Monkey offered.

Po eyed the serpent. "A secret boyfriend?" he asked in surprise.

"We're trying to keep a low profile," Viper explained. "Since he's nervous about people's reactions if we go public."

"Why, is he a goat? Cuz that would be an awesome guy...."

"She won't tell us, so we don't know," Monkey repeated.

"Yeah, and it doesn't help that Crane keeps stalking her," Mantis added with an eye roll.

"I'm not stalking her!" the avian protested. "I'm just following her around the village and watching her closely in her sleep in case this guy is bad news."

"You watch me sleep?!" Viper exclaimed.

Crane turned a dark shade of red. "Uh...did I say I watch you sleep?" he stammered. "I meant I watch you...sneak. Like, sneak around in under the cover of darkness when we've all gone to bed."

"That counts as stalking, buddy," Mantis told him.

"Does not!"

Seeing the slight look of concern on Po's face, Viper interrupted the boys to tell him, "Shifu handled the problem, so he doesn't bother me as much as before."

"This is correct," Shifu seconded. "I've had various guards posted around in order to prevent Crane from bothering Viper."

"Even though you don't know who her boyfriend is?" Po questioned.

"We all...well, most of us, respect their privacy and if this will help, I'm more than willing to do so."

Po stuffed some more dumplings into his mouth before asking, "So besides Crane being a stalker,..."

"Attentive investigator," Crane corrected, slightly annoyed.

"What else have you guys been up to?"

"Nothing much," Mantis assured him. "Except I still can't beat your 'spiciest dumpling eaten without water' challenge."

"Too bad, because I just recently ate something hotter than ghost pepper seasoning," Po bragged. "Without water."

"Hotter?!! What the heck is hotter than ghost pepper flakes?!"

"You should try Reaper Dumplings. WHEW those are hot! I thought my entire mouth was going to fall off!"

"And you're sure you didn't wash it down with something else?" Tigress asked suspiciously.

"Aw, come on, Tigress. Don't you know me by now?" Po said jokingly. "My tongue is invincible to practically everything!"

"What about that time we rescued those villagers in the southern province and we stopped by the healer's hut to eat?"

"Hey! We agreed to never bring that up again. Ever."

The masters snickered, remembering the incident as clear as a bell.

"Okay, okay. So my tongue's not invincible. But it's still a tough tongue."

Monkey let out a howl of laughter. "Man, I miss you being here," he remarked. "I haven't laughed this hard since that one time Viper kicked Crane into that mud puddle!"

"Okay, can we drop the subject now?" the avian asked in slight annoyance.

"We should totally just take the day off to hang out," Mantis said, glancing over at Master Shifu. "Right? Anyone?"

The grandmaster gave him a look of annoyance. "Instead of flitting about," he scolded. "You would do best to ask me directly."

"Sorry. Um...hey, Master Shifu, can we take the whole day off to spend with Po?"

"I'll think about it."

Po laughed. "I can see you guys haven't changed that much since I've been gone," he noted. "Minus Crane being a stalker."

"Po, you are a good friend of mine," Crane told him. "But I swear...if you bring that up again, you'll be running out of here faster than you can eat."

"Maybe we'd stop bringing it up if you would leave me alone," Viper told him.

"We'll drop it, we promise," Po assured his friend. "I just find that really weird, that's all."
He turned to Viper and asked, "So, how long have you and your mystery guy been dating?"

"A little over a year," Viper answered with a happy smile. "He's really nice and very romantic. And he even knows advance kung fu. I'd say you'd probably like him, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Well, when you're ready to bring him over, we'll be ready. Let him know I'll be ready for awesome sparring if he's really good at kung fu."

Viper giggled. "I'll be sure to do that," she promised.

The students continued to finish up their lunch and talk about what had been happening recently. The topic of conversation soon switched to the days before Po left which led to everyone reminiscing about his various exploits and anything stupid they sometimes did.

"I still will never forget my first day here," Po said, thinking back on the matter. "You know, when I got beaten up by The Adversary."

Monkey laughed. "You're never going to live that down," he remarked.

"Well, you've certainly come along way from level zero," Shifu told the panda. "In fact, you've surpassed us in almost every single way."

"Except for stealth mode," Po said.

"Yes, except for that one."

"Still?" Mantis asked in surprise. "I would have thought you would have picked up on that by now."

"Yeah, I don't think that's ever going to be my thing."

"How about your Phoenix Dip Kick?" Crane asked. "You were having some trouble with that before you left."

"Oh that?" Po asked. "I've got that one under control now. Which is awesome because the kids really like it."

"That's nice," Viper commented.

Master Shifu cleared his throat. "I know we'd love to talk further," he said. "But I do have another training exercise scheduled for this afternoon. If Po would like, though, he can join in. "

"Really?!" Po exclaimed. "Awesome! I just need to put my bag down and get situated first."

"You're staying in the barracks, right?" Monkey asked.

"Well, I was going to stay at dad's since I didn't want to intrude, but-"

"Are you kidding?! You're staying in the barracks with us for old time's sake!"

"Well, if you insist...." Po said, getting dragged out of his chair by his friend. "If it won't bother you guys...."

"Of course it won't," Shifu promised. "Welcome back, Master Po."

Po and Monkey soon disappeared, leaving the rest of the masters to clean up their dishes.

"I'm glad he hasn't changed much," Tigress remarked with a smile as she got up.

"I know," Mantis replied. "I miss him cracking jokes and falling onto people. Speaking of which, we should get him to trip and fall down the stairs, like old times."

"Absolutely not!" Shifu scolded. "I won't allow Po to be greeted in the manner of practical jokes! Now clean up and meet me in the training hall!"

Mantis got up and Crane slowly followed suit to watch Viper. As the insect hopped over to the sink where Tigress was, the tiger master said in an undertone, "I'll distract Shifu, you guys trip Po."

Mantis grinned. "With pleasure," he said.