Tigress woke up the next morning with butterflies in her stomach. She had gone to bed the night before trying to get Po out of her mind, only to get vivid dreams about being beside him and being comforted by the peach tree. (Which Tigress, as much as she hated to admit it, enjoyed a lot). The master groaned and sat up, stretching her arms out and then leaving her room. She walked out of the barracks where her friends laid sleeping and proceeded to head to the kitchen. In two days, her time of resting from training would be over, much to her relief, and she would be back sparring with her friends with various weapons. Tigress actually felt like she hadn't been doing much training lately. To her, a week felt like five years and she didn't want those "five years" to not be worth anything.

Besides, she thought to herself. Some long meditation and hard-core kung fu will put my brain back where it should be.

She went into the kitchen in order to make herself a small cup of tea, only to be greeted by Po who had been crossing by the doors to grab some spices on the opposite shelf.

"Po?!"the master exclaimed in surprise as Po stopped short of bumping into her. "What are you doing up this early?"

"I can't sleep," Po admitted sourly, walking over to grab the jar he needed. "I'm still not used to my dad dating Scorpion. I mean, she hasn't done anything bad as far as I'm concerned, but it still makes me uncomfortable that she's here freely roaming around the valley."

"I can understand," Tigress told him. She walked over to the counter to grab some tea as Po came back over and tended to the noodle soup on the stove. "But if Scorpion is planning anything, we'll be ready for her. There's no need to worry."

Po sighed. "I know," he grumbled, stirring the noodles. "I'm trying."

Tigress waited for the teapot to boil and looked at him in concern. Her stomach fluttered a bit, irritating her to no end. Stop it! This is your friend! Don't you dare do anything stupid!

"Something else is bothering you, isn't there?" she asked him.

Po bit his lip and glanced around the kitchen. He then leaned into Tigress and said in an undertone, "Promise you won't say anything to the others?"

"My lips are sealed."

"I'm a little afraid they might get married if things get too serious."

The master eyed him in surprise. "What's so bad about that?" she asked.

"It's just...it's always been me and dad. I barely remember my parents, and the only mom I've known sacrificed her life for mine. So...I don't know...the idea of possibly getting a new mom who was once an old enemy of mine who also tried to kill me at one point...that doesn't agree too well with me. I've tried getting along with her the last time her and dad dated, but then she tricked me into eating a moon cake and she almost killed all of you!"

The Dragon Warrior moodily added in some more spices and Tigress gave him a gently squeeze on the shoulders. "Things can change, Po," she reminded him. "And sometimes those changes can be hard. Like when you first moved into the Jade Palace. Remember how I treated you when you officially moved in?"

Po grinned. "Of course not," he replied. "I had to stay on bed-rest for two days because you beat me up so hard during the sparring."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"It's okay. You weren't very happy with me being here. Probably because I took "your" title."

"Exactly," Tigress said. "To me, you seemed like competition and everything you did seemed to leave me in the dust. You changed everything in this temple. Everyone seemed happier and more willing to relax instead of seriously train. I mean, even Shifu seemed happier. I didn't want you ruining anything that we've worked so hard to do because I didn't want the rug swept out under me."

"You just wanted everything to be the hard-core training it was," Po finished.

Tigress nodded. "And in a way, it still is," she admitted. "But now that you've been here longer and things have changed...it's actually been kind of nice. I still do train hard but there doesn't seem to be so much pressure to be perfect as it was then. I mean, we obviously have to strive towards perfection but, it isn't the main issue at hand."

"Yep," Po joked. "Now the main issue is spring rolls and stopping Monkey from playing too many pranks on me in the morning."

Tigress laughed. "Exactly," she said. "And if your dad and Scorpion get married, there might be a change, but everything will work out fine in the end."

"I hope your right," Po replied with a small smile. "Thanks, Tigress." The Dragon Warrior reached over and engulfed her in a brief hug before hurriedly going back to his soup, saying, "Right. You probably want to get to your tea."

The master playfully rolled her eyes and began to pour herself a cup. As Po tended to the soup, the kitchen doors swung open to reveal Master Shifu.

"Ah, there you two are," he said. "I thought you'd be in here."

"Is something wrong, master?" Tigress asked.

"Fortunately no. But I wanted to find you before the others woke up so that I could inform you that you'll both be training today."

"What?!" Po exclaimed. "But we still have two days off!"

"I know," Shifu apologized. "Normally I would follow through with my orders, but as the rest of the training equipment has arrived, I would like for you both to participate in it so that you're not two days behind training."

"Understandable," Tigress answered.

Po sighed. "Alright," he said slowly. "can I at least tell dad I won't be helping him today?"

"Just be quick about it, Dragon Warrior."

Po turned to Tigress and added, "Hey, Tigress, do me a quick favor and put the chives in when the soup boils. Then just turn the heat off and let it sit there until I get back."

"Um...s-sure?" Tigress stammered.

"Thanks!" Po exclaimed. He quickly squeezed her in a tight hug before darting out of the kitchen and out of the Jade Palace.

"I'm assuming your cooking skills have improved?" Shifu asked the master.

"Not really," Tigress told him, going over to watch the soup. "I can barely cut vegetables right."

"If Po can trust you with a pot of soup, I'm sure you're doing just fine."

Tigress smiled. "Thank you master," she said. An awkward moment of silence passed over the two before Tigress hesitantly added, "Um, master...about yesterday when you went over the falls...."

"You mean when the blasts first went off?"

"Yes. Um...I hope I didn't upset you in anyway when I called out for you...."

"Quite the contrary Tigress. I didn't mind the title."

"Oh, alright." She grinned. "I'm still calling you master though," she told him.

"I figured that much," Shifu admitted with a small smile. "I'll take a cup of tea and dart out of here and I'll meet you in the training hall later."

"Alright."

Sometime afterwards, the masters woke up and came into the kitchen to find Tigress cooking. The master managed to follow Po's instructions and cooked the rest of the food perfectly fine just in time for the panda to come into the kitchen and eat. (He said his dad was a bit disappointed about not being able to spend more time with Po). The Five were a bit surprised that Shifu requested Tigress and Po in the training hall, but were perfectly fine with the idea of them taking an early break to come and spar with them in the training hall. Tigress was obviously the happiest about the idea since she preferred training over lounging around. After breakfast, the masters washed their dishes and walked to the training hall where Master Shifu waited for them along with the new weapons stocked carefully in the arena.

"Welcome to the new and improved training hall," the red panda announced, standing in front of the training hall door. "As you all should know by now, this training hall is full of advanced equipment for the highest level of kung fu masters. As you have mastered all of the training equipment and weapons I have provided for you in the past few years, I feel you are ready to undertake and master the highest level of kung fu available."

He opened the doors and revealed a completely refurnished training hall. It was emitted in a red glow from the darkness of the room complimented with large fire-holders lit around every die of the training hall. The equipment was moved about to make room for sharp blades swinging about from the ceiling as well as spiked balls and logs that hung menacingly in front of the students' faces.

"Allow me to introduce the Slicing Blades of Fear and the Earthen Marks of Eternity."

Po gulped as he looked out at the intimidating weapons. "I'm sensing more blood baths in my future," he whimpered nervously.

"You'll be perfectly fine once you've mastered everything," Shifu assured him. He dubbed a serious expression and added, "Starting today, you will all be training hard to master this new training hall. Unless I think it absolutely necessary, there will be no more days off! You'll begin your training immediately and we shall be working on these new exercises from dawn to dusk with little breaks. Am I clear?"

"Yes, master," the students said, bowing and casting glances over at the intimidating machinery.

"Good. lets begin by testing your speed. I won't be setting you towards the Slicing Blades of Fear until I know you won't kill yourselves trying to get by them."

"K-k-kill?" Po stammered.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Mantis seconded.

"Can you dodge an arrow?" Shifu asked simply.

"Yes," the two answered in unison.

"Then yes, it is safe. A little more speed and you'll manage no more than a simple nick. Now everyone to the center. We'll begin our training."

The masters walked into the center of the training hall and waited for more instructions. They were glad they weren't going against the blades because they could already tell that they moved faster than the masters themselves could sprint. (Unless of course it was Master Shifu doing the kung fu). The grandmaster began the lesson telling them that they had to avoid several sharp objects that would be thrown at them from above. On cue, the archers who were in the training hall began to fire steel arrows at the masters along with knives, boulders, and wok pans. The six warriors worked on dodging the mess all day, getting hit and nicked every once in a while. After almost two hours of the ordeal, Shifu had them work their way around the Earthen Marks of Eternity, something that proved difficult for Po as he had some trouble doing the fancy footwork to avoid getting crushed. (Something that proved to be bad later as he got hit off of one of the logs and crash-landed into Tigress, prompting Monkey to let out an inappropriate, "I see why they called it the Mark of Eternity!"). Afterwards, the masters were let loose back on the Blushing Spikes of Impending Demise, getting more bruises and scrapes and even gashes in their arms. By the time training ended that afternoon, they were bleeding, sore, and for Po, slightly discombobulated.

"Rest up and be back after lunch," Master Shifu told them. "We need to work on our weapons training."

Po stumbled back to the kitchen with his friends, a gash on his forearm, stomach, and shin, and the rest of his body covered in scrapes and bruises. (As well as claw marks from where Tigress accidentally scratched him on the Earthen Marks of Eternity). "I forgot what a real work out feels like," he moaned in exhaustion.

"Welcome back to training," Tigress told him, most of her gashes on her arms. She was glad to be back into action even though she was badly injured from the new training extremities and lack of training for a week.

The masters stumbled into the kitchen where Viper began to tend to everyone's wounds. Monkey offered to help out as he was the least injured out of the whole group.

"We're going down to the village to eat," the primate announced. "Anyone interested in coming?"

"Sounds like fun," Viper answered. "I could use some fresh air for a little bit."

"I'm good," Mantis piped up, resting on the table from the migraine he had.

"I'll stay here," Crane said, stretching out his wings. "I want to rest as much as possible before we do more extensive training with those new weapons."

Monkey shrugged. "Suit yourself," he replied, applying ointment to a cut on his leg. He then went over to Po to tend to the nasty gashes on the master's body.

The Dragon Warrior winced as he was getting fixed up. "I'll make some noodles once I'm done over here," he told his friends.

"Sounds good to me," Mantis groaned. He held his pincers tightly to his head in order to get the painful throbbing to go away.

"Do you want some medicine?" Viper asked him.

"No, I'm fine. My migraines only last for a few hours."

"We don't have a few hours," Po told the insect.

"Fine! I'll take the medicine!"

Viper slithered over to the counter and got the medicine bottle, pouring it onto a small spoon to give to the bug for his headache. Mantis gagged on the taste. "They need to flavor this stuff!" he complained. "It's nasty!"

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," Viper told him, putting the bottle away.

After everyone had been tended to, Monkey and Viper disappeared out of the kitchen to go and eat in the village. Po then got up to make the soup, Tigress and Crane helping him out as he was so sore he could barely keep up with the food. They then ate at the table, barely discussing anything due to being fatigued and wanting to save their energy for later in the afternoon. As the meal began to wind down, Tigress noticed Po laying his head down on the table and his bowl tipped against his head. He was emitting gentle snores and his closed eyes relayed a sense of pure exhaustion. The master smirked as a playful idea crossed her mind.

"What do you think?" she asked Crane and Mantis as she looked at her friend. "Is he resting or sleeping?"

Crane looked at the panda. "Hard to tell," he admitted.

Mantis grinned, his migraine having slightly gone down since taking the medicine and said, "Lets test it with some noise."

Tigress quietly got up from the table and grabbed two wok pans from the shelf. She then crept up behind Po and banged the two together, waking him up instantly.

"AHHH!" he screamed in alarm.

"Yep, definitely resting," Tigress concluded, putting the woks away.

"TIGRESS!!!!!" Po yelled angrily as Crane and Mantis let out amused laughs. "Come on! I'm tired!"

"You can rest later after we finish the weapons training. I'm not carrying you to the training hall."

The master then walked over to the sink to wash her dishes, Po groaning and now in an obviously grumpy mood.

"You're looking a little red in the face there, Tigress!" Mantis called over with an amused grin. "Anything you'd like to share?"

"Like the fact that you're annoying me to no end?" the tiger retorted flatly.

"Yep, you've got it bad."

"Don't make me hurl the bowl at you."

"Hey, easy there! Crane doesn't complain when I tease him!"

"Yes I do," Crane protested angrily. "Look, we're all getting tired of your little shenanigans and we'd like you to please stop."

Mantis shook his head. "You'll all get it in time," he told them. "Just you wait and see."

Tigress could feel a full-on flush coming onto her face and she kept it turned away so as to avoid more inappropriate jokes from Mantis. "Do you think Quan-Ying would be pleased to know you're being immature?" she asked him.

"Just trying to be a good friend and help out," Mantis replied with a shrug.

"Then help us out by shutting up!"

The raised tone of voice got everyone at the table to quiet down, Po slinking quietly into his seat to avoid the master's wrath. Tigress quickly turned on her heels and went to walk out of the kitchen, biting her lip when her head was turned and adding, "I'll be meditating."

"Meditating or resting?" Po asked in slight irritation, a faint grin on his face.

"Po, I swear if you clang those wok pans behind me, I will pummel you into the hospital."

"You two have it bad," Mantis commented.

"Mantis!" Po yelled. "Do us all a favor and just stop!"

Mantis then started humming Sitting in a tree, not nearly as intimidated by Po as he was by Tigress, but Crane, having enough out of him, hit him backwards into the wall.

"OW!" Mantis exclaimed. "This is doing nothing to help my migraine, Crane!"

"You're welcome," Crane muttered, turning back to his food.

"Thanks, Crane," Tigress called from the door.

"No problem."

Po saw her hesitate by the door for a moment taking a small breath before slowly getting up to go see what was wrong. (A bit hesitantly as Mantis was still in the room and the master was probably still angry). Before he could reach her however, the doors flew open, taking Tigress off guard and lunging her back into Po. Po caught the master and held onto the edge of the table so that they didn't fall down.

"Sorry, Tigress," Viper apologized, walking over to the stove. "We didn't see you there."

"It's okay; I'm fine," Tigress answered, getting put back on her feet and standing a bit away from Po.

"You guys just had lunch," Crane noted. "What are you doing in here?"

"The tea from that restaurant was awful!" Viper complained. "We're getting some here before we go back to the training hall."

Mantis crawled back onto the table, Monkey looking at him curiously.

"What happened to you?" the master asked.

"Ask Crane," the bug complained, resting his head on the table.

"He was teasing everyone at the table and he wouldn't shut up," Crane answered. "So I made him."

Monkey snickered. "I would have thought Tigress would have done that," he admitted.

"I was too far away," the master replied from the end of the table. "But I did threaten to hit him with a bowl."

She then began to walk away, repeating that she was going to meditate.

"I'll see if I can pop down to see dad real quick," Po said, getting up as well. (Mostly becuase he actually wanted to check on Tigress without Mantis interfering). The reaction to that took him by surprise.

"I wouldn't go down there if I were you," Viper warned him. "Tigress too, for that matter."

Tigress, who had just disappeared from sight, came back into the kitchen and looked at the master alongside Po.

"Why?" Po asked the serpent.

"I'm actually surprised you haven't heard already," Monkey admitted. "There's a rumor floating around in the valley that you and Tigress are secretly dating."

"WHAT?!" the two warriors exclaimed angrily.

"Where did you hear that from?!" Tigress demanded.

"One of the customers in the restaurant," Monkey answered. "Viper and I were sitting at the table eating lunch when one of them came up to us to congratulate us on you two finally getting together."

"We asked him about it," Viper added. "And apparently the rumor started circulating around earlier this morning. Everyone in the valley is talking about it."

"Who started the rumor?" Po asked.

"Not sure," Monkey said. "But we heard it started at the noodle shop."

Po clapped a paw to his head. "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!" he yelled angrily, marching out of the room. Tigress quickly followed suit, mainly to get out of the kitchen. When they exited the building, she asked, "Where are you going?"

"To visit dad, obviously," Po responded. "I told him to stop this stuff!"

Tigress clapped a hand to his shoulder, keeping a firm hold on it so that Po didn't go anywhere. "Before you even think about going there," she told him firmly. "You're going to calm down."

"I'm calm!"

"Clenching your fists and walking around with that scowl isn't calm. Now just wait a minute, take a few deep breaths, and let go of the anger."

Po grumbled, but did as he was told. After a minute, he finally calmed down and let out a sigh. "Sorry," he apologized.

"It's okay to be upset or angry Po," Tigress told him gently. "But you tend to be stubborn when you're really angry."

"Is that why you guys don't like it when I get mad?" Po asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"That and you're not as fun with the frown," the master told him with a smile.

"Really?" Po asked. "Thanks."

Tigress felt herself turn a subtle shade of red, but Po failed to see this (much to her relief), and continued to rant about his dad and the whole incident of trying to pair him and Tigress together.

"I just...I told dad to stop trying to insinuate that we're...you know...in a relationship...but it seems that just keeps encouraging him. I don't know why! I mean...am I doing something that's provoking it?"

"I don't know, Po," Tigress admitted. "I don't know what's changed over these past few months that has everyone in this frenzy, but I'm sure it'll die down soon. Hopefully."

"I hope so too. We already have fan fictional tales going around; we don't need anything else to pop up."

The Dragon warrior looked at his friend in embarrassment. "Um...I'm sorry you're all roped into whatever this stuff is. It's probably making you pretty uncomfortable."

"To a certain degree, yes," Tigress admitted. She squeezed Po's shoulder and added, "But don't worry about it too much. Once this whole incident dies down, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Po asked worriedly.

"Yes. Although...." Tigress bit her lip with a subtle wince. "Maybe we should...avoid each other until everything dies down."

The panda did a double-take. "Avoid each other?!" he exclaimed. "But we live in the same...palace....We train and eat together! Heck, we even sleep right across the hallway from each other! How are we supposed to avoid each other?!"

"By not hanging out as much as we do," Tigress told him. "See, you and I do a lot of one-on-one training together and we usually talk about things when everyone's asleep. Especially since we've gotten back from Gongmen City. If hanging around each other a lot is causing this problem, maybe taking some time to ourselves can undo the problem."

"Hmm...." Po said, thinking it over. "You do have a good point." He then shrugged and told her, "Alright. I guess we can try it. Just...um...this isn't going to be permanent, right?"

"Of course not," the master assured him.

"Alright then. When do you want to this thing?"

"Lets start now and see what happens. I'll see you at training in a few minutes."

Tigress then quickly walked away, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. She, as much as she hated to admit it, enjoyed spending time with Po. Even though they were both pretty stubborn and refused to talk about their deepest fears unless pushed by the other, it felt good to talk to someone who could understand what was going on and wasn't afraid to pester her with questions so that he could help her. She also enjoyed training with him, helping him to improve his skills and even coming up with their own moves to use during battle. But it was a necessary sacrifice to get the rumors and teasings from Monkey and Mantis under control, so she shoved the feelings aside and continued to walk to the training hall to meditate.

Down in the noodle shop, Mr. Ping was busy serving his customers, anxiously glancing around at the entrance. Scorpion, now happily settled into the business and tending to the soup, looked over at him and asked, "What's wrong, Teqiao?"

"Nothing," Mr. Ping lied, quickly chopping up some vegetables with his cleaver.

Scorpion watched him chop and said, "You're doing that thing you do when you're nervous. What's the matter?"

"I'm just waiting for Po to barge in," the goose sighed. "One of my customers misheard what I said this morning when I was talking to them and now everyone in the valley thinks that their dating."

"They're not?!" Scorpion asked in surprise. "They seemed pretty close when they were over here cooking."

"Po likes her," Mr. Ping told her. "But he's afraid to tell Tigress that so they're not dating yet."

"What did you tell the customer?"

"They mentioned how close the two have gotten since the battle against Lord Shen and I told them that I had noticed it as well and that I wish that they would be in a relationship. Well, Mr. Io thought I said they were in a relationship and the next thing I knew, everyone in the noodle shop was talking about it!"

"Where was I for all of that?" Scorpion asked.

"You just went into the basement to grab some flour," Mr. Ping told her.

"Oh, that's why you looked so frantic when I came back up," Scorpion noted. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"I didn't know what to do!" Mr. Ping protested. "And I know that when this gets to Po-"

"DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!"

Mr. Ping ducked behind the counter and into the radish basket where he had found Po almost 32 years earlier. Scorpion went to tending to the soup as Po came barging into the noodle shop, obviously not happy.

"Where's dad?" the panda demanded, a small scowl on his face.

"I take it you heard the rumor?" Scorpion asked him with a sad smile on her face.

"Yeah, I did. And I'd like to know why it's floating around!"

"Sweetheart, I can well assure you it's all a simple misunderstanding," Scorpion told the warrior.

Po eyed her. "A misunderstanding?" he asked.

"Yes. Your father can explain it. He's hiding in the radish basket.

Mr. Ping popped his head out to glare at his girlfriend. "Scorpion!" he exclaimed in an undertone so that the customers couldn't hear anything. "I'm trying to avoid getting lectured again!"

"I'm not lecturing you, dad," Po complained as the old goose got out of the box to face him. "But I hate having to keep telling you that I don't need any help in my love life! Especially with this new thing that just came up!"

"If you're referring to the rumor, it wasn't me," Mr. Ping corrected him. "Everyone in the valley is wondering when you two are going to get together. It just so happened that the one customer I was tending to, Mr. Io, misheard me when I said I wished you two would get together. He told people in the shop that you two were dating and before I could correct him and everyone else, the rumor got spread outside to everyone else!"

"Isn't Mr. Io the partially deaf guy who thought you said I was a rabbit?" Po asked him.

"Yep, that's him."

The Dragon Warrior sighed. "Is there anyway to stop the rumor?" he asked.

"I've been working on that all morning," Mr. Ping promised. "But it might take a while."

The gong by the Jade Palace rang, indicating it was time to train. Po let out a cry of alarm.

"I'm late for training!" he cried, dashing out of the noodle shop. "Talk to you later, dad!"

"Bye son!" Mr. Ping called after him.

"Master Po!" one of the customers called out as Po dashed away. "Congratulations on your relationship!"

"I'm not in a relationship!" Po corrected him, running as fast as he could back to the Jade Palace.

I am so glad Tigress wasn't down here. That would have just made things awkward.