About an hour or so after practicing with the crossbows, Tigress decided to go into the kitchen for some tea. She cleaned up the training hall and headed out into the nighttime air, walking slowly towards the kitchen. She felt a lot better knowing that the strange feelings she had weren't deadly and she felt an overwhelming sense of joy knowing that Shifu did love her like his own. (The idea that he didn't bothered her a lot growing up as she was never quite sure how to act around him besides as a student). She admitted to herself that while she did view Shifu as a father, there was almost no bond between them growing up so sometimes she would forget. Most days she saw him as her master even though she did wish he would care for her a little more. Briefly, when she was fifteen, she felt a small attraction to him since she was going through a small rough patch, (what with trying to master difficult moves, deal with newcomers in the Jade Palace, and deal with new hormones she was trying to get control over), but once she was back into balance, her view of him went back to the normal master/father.

I am so glad I didn't do anything stupid! Tigress thought to herself. Otherwise who knows what would have happened! I'm just glad only Crane and Viper found out and helped me to get through that phase.

The master reached the kitchen and headed inside where she found Po busy fixing himself a snack. She walked over to the counter where Po spotted her and gave her a happy wave.

"Hey, Tigress!" he exclaimed. "How was your training?"

"Fine," Tigress told him. She eyed the small plate of cookies, adding, "Hungry?"

"You know me," Po said with a sheepish grin. "Always in the mood for some food. Want anything?"

"I just came in to get some tea," Tigress replied. She walked over to the teapot where she filled the kettle and put it on the stove so as to heat the water up.

"You seem a little distracted," Po noted as she got out a tea cup.

"I'm perfectly fine," Tigress assured him. "I'm just...a little worn out."

Po eyed her curiously as she waited a moment and then poured herself a cup. He then went to go sit down, Tigress soon following suit and sitting right beside him. They sat in silence for a moment, Tigress sipping her tea and Po stuffing the cookies in his mouth.

"How was the mahjong game?" Tigress asked him.

"It was fine," Po replied. "Viper beat me by one game and then we totally crushed Monkey and Mantis."

"I'm assuming Crane didn't pop in then."

"Nah, he didn't. Although considering the fact that Monkey and Mantis have been bothering him a lot lately, I'm not that surprised."

"I noticed," Tigress remarked. "I've heard them snickering around him and then he goes storming off."

"I'm surprised Shifu hasn't noticed," Po commented curiously.

"I'm sure he wants to stay out of it," Tigress answered. "As long as they're not causing trouble."

"I guess that's understandable."

Tigress eyed him. "What are they bugging him about?" she asked. "Or is this another embarrassing secret I'm not allowed to know?"

"Well, I don't know if it's a secret," Po told her. "But I don't know if Crane wants me to go around spreading fuel for the fire."

"Why, what's wrong?"

"Mantis and Monkey think that it would be cool if he started dating Viper, and lately they've just been driving him up the wall about it."

Tigress rolled her eyes. "Those two can be very immature sometimes," she noted. "Although you can be the same way on occasion."

"Hey!" Po exclaimed with an irritated look.

"I didn't say you were as immature," Tigress told him with an eye roll.

"Oh yeah, like you've never done anything immature!"
"Maybe when I was ten, never when I was over thirty."

Po grinned. "Says she who decided it would be funny to get revenge on Mantis by trapping him inside of a pot and then sitting on him," he reminded the master.

Tigress turned a subtle shade of red. "Right," she said. "I forgot about that."

She went back to sipping her tea as Po eased into a sad frown upon seeing her blank, absent-minded look.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked her gently.

"Hm?" Tigress said, glancing at him. "Oh. Yeah. I'm fine."

"You seem pretty distracted though."

"Funny, that's what Shifu said."

Po eyed her. "So...what's going on?" he asked again.

"Nothing," Tigress assured him. "I just...I just wish that I wouldn't remember the battle of Gongmen City as vividly as I do."

"Well I guess that explains why you keep waking up in the middle of the night," Po commented.

Tigress felt her cheeks turn a darker shade of red which made her embarrassed and made them even darker. "I hope I didn't disturb you," she stammered in embarrassment.

"Of course you didn't," Po assured her. He smiled. "And don't worry about it. I know they'll stop bothering you soon."

He went to poke the master in the side only for her to jump and try to stifle a laugh. Po began to grin again. "Oh, you're ticklish?" he asked.

"No," Tigress lied. "You just sta-AHHHAAHAA!"

She jumped away from Po when he tried to tickle her again. She saw a mischievous look in his eyes and got up from her seat. "Po," she warned, backing up slowly as the Dragon Warrior started to approach her. "Don't you dare...."

Po began to run towards her, causing the master to run towards the door. He then leaped on top of her, knocking her to the floor began to tickle her on her stomach and under her arms.

"PO!" Tigress screamed in between laughs. "STOP....IT....PLEEAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!"

"I don't think so!" Po told her. "It's been a while since I've heard you laugh and enjoy yourself, so I am not going to stop it!"

"Co-AHAHA! POOOOO!!!! STOOOOHHHP IIIIIT!"

"Make me!" Po challenged.

Tigress laid on the floor practically dying from laughter, curled into a ball in order to prevent Po from tickling her. Po continued to tickle her until she quickly extended her legs and kicked him off of her. Po sat up in order to have another go, but Tigress leaped onto him and began to tickle him back. Po crashed onto the floor, letting out howls of laughter. "AWW COOOOME OOOOON" Po cried, trying to avoid the tickling as well. "THAAAAAAAHHT'S MY SENS-AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"You tickled me first!" Tigress reminded him with a wide grin spread across her face. "So I get to return the favor!"

Po kept cracking up as Tigress continued to mercilessly tickle him on his sides. After a minute of the tickle torture, Po managed to flip himself over and push Tigress off, sprinting towards her so as to tickle her again. However, Tigress managed to block him, Po losing his balance and the two crashing to the floor as a result. Tigress pushed Po off as he kept trying to tickle her, grinning and exclaiming, "Not so fast, Dragon Warrior!"

"You can't tickle me, Master Tigress!" Po teased, practically wrestling with her in order to get the chance to tickle her.

The two continued to wrestle around on the floor, laughing away and having a ball until they were interrupted by an "Ahem..."

Startled, the two warriors quickly glanced up and saw Viper sitting in surprise in the door frame. Tigress, who was on top of Po trying to pin him to the floor, turned slightly red in embarrassment as she had never been the playful type and being caught like that wasn't exactly normal for her.

"Uh, hey Viper," Po said nervously, glancing up at Tigress.

"Am I missing something?" Viper asked.

"No, just..fooling around," Po answered.

Tigress quickly got off of him and stood up in order to ward off some of the embarrassment. Po stood up as well as Viper entered the kitchen.

"What are you doing up so late?" Tigress asked her friend.

"Monkey and Mantis decided to play some rounds of checkers," Viper answered. "I offered to grab some tea while they finished up one of the rounds."

"Oh," Po said. He glanced over at Tigress and added, "Um, could you not tell them that you saw us playing around?"

"I had no intention of telling them," Viper promised the panda. "They already bother Crane enough with those stupid jokes."

"Wait, you knew about that?!" Po exclaimed as the serpent went to the counter in order to make some tea.

"I've known those two for almost twenty years," Viper answered. "So I can always tell whenever they to pull those kind of jokes."

The teapot whistled loudly, indicating to Viper to take it off of the stove. The serpent put it on a tray alongside three tea cups.

"Where is Crane?" Po asked.

"Trying to draw the peach tree outside," Viper answered immediately. "So he's out of the way of any betting wars or jokes."

"That's good to hear," Tigress stated flatly, leaning against the counter.

"Well, I'd better be off before either of those two troublemakers get in here," Viper told them. "Good night, you two." She then slithered away, closing the kitchen door behind her.
Po and Tigress glanced over at each other as an awkward silence fell over them, briefly locking eyes before they turned their heads away to avoid making the silence more awkward.

"So..." Po said after a long while.

"So..." Tigress answered.

"I had fun," the panda added with a smile. "Even though we were interrupted."

Tigress smiled at him. "It was kind of fun," she admitted. She coughed gently and added, "But the next time you try that, make sure no one's awake."

"Yeah, that might give Monkey and Mantis some ideas," Po agreed.

The two stood there in more awkward silence until Po said, "You know, I need to teach you how to cook one of these days."

"Only if you want me to blow the kitchen up," Tigress answered with a small smile. "As I've done before."

"You've blown up the kitchen?!" Po exclaimed. "When did you do that?!"

"When I was fifteen," Tigress replied. "Shifu was surprisingly cool about the whole thing."

"That is surprising," Po noted. "Well, I guess that's just one more excuse to help you learn."

"Excuse?" Tigress asked with a small grin.

"Uh, yeah," Po answered sheepishly. "Like, my dad likes to teach me how to cook, but I've never taught anyone how to cook besides B.Z and you know how to do almost everything, so...yeah, excuse."

Tigress smiled and shook her head. "It's going to take more than that to convince me to use the stove again, Po," she said.

"Then I'll have to convince you one of these days," Po replied simply.

"Good luck with that," Tigress told him.

"I accept your challenge of doubt!" Po exclaimed with a wide grin.

Tigress let out a light laugh of amusement.

"Hey, there's that laugh!" Po said excitedly.

Tigress felt a small blush creep across her cheeks and she quickly disguised it by heading back over to the table so as to wash her cup.

"You should get some sleep," Tigress told him. "Don't we have training early tomorrow morning?"

Po groaned. "Right," he muttered. "I forgot." He let out a small sigh and turned towards the door. "Well, good night, Tigress," he told her.

"Good night, Po."

When Po left the kitchen, Tigress put her cup away and quickly splashed water on her face in order to wake herself up. She had felt her eyes grow dizzy again, this time accompanied by hot blush that wouldn't go away. What is wrong with me?! she thought to myself. She thought back to the conversation she had with Shifu, thinking over the answers to the questions she had asked Shifu:

"Not feeling a hundred percent? How exactly?"

"Sometimes I get a little dizzy and my head gets really heavy. And it's like time seems to just freeze and I'm not even a part of what's going on."

"And when did you experience these symptoms?"

"During the festival dance a few days ago and then yesterday when we were splashing around in the lake."

"Hmmm.... What were you doing when these symptoms occurred?"

"Well the first time I was dancing with Po. Just because we had a bet and he beat me."

"That's fine, Tigress. And the second time?"

"We were splashing around in the lake and someone knocked Po into me and we both got knocked underwater."

"Both of those situations were around Po?"

"I guess you could say that. Either that's a weird coincidence or he's eating some weird noodles. Or I'm sick."

Tigress blinked, trying to figure out what was wrong. Shifu seemed to have some idea about what the problem was, so why couldn't she figure it out?! Why am getting these weird symptoms around Po? she thought to herself. I've never experienced them around him before! Why now? I'm so confused! Unable to figure it out, she decided to give her mind a rest and go to bed, blowing out the lantern in the kitchen before locking it up for the night.