How will Tigress handle the meal, if at all?! What about Po?! Read and find out!


Tigress breathed steadily as she looked over the counter. There were a few ladles, a pot of soup filled with vegetable broth and noodles already, but to the right were about eight containers of stuff in addition to a few uncut vegetables lying on cutting boards beside that.
Tigress thought back to her past, trying to remember anything she could about cooking. She only remembered a lonely childhood in a friendless orphanage, and a hopeless upbringing by Shifu, who addressed her more as a pupil (a pupil who never seemed to be good enough) than a daughter.
Tigress had forgiven Shifu of his sins a long time ago, and had truly come to terms with her foster father’s mistake. But still she shook her head, discouraged. Though it wouldn’t be a total disaster to have dinner later, once Po woke up, it had always been Tigress’ duty as a kung fu master to never leave a job to someone else. How hard could it be? Tigress asked herself, then picked up a vegetable.
It appeared to be a purple turnip, one Tigress quickly diced with her claws then threw into the pot. No fire was beneath it, but Tigress felt it’d be easier on her to light the fire later, instead of having to battle with the ingredients AND a flame.
Now what had Po said? Something about diced garlic and onions…. Tigress quickly diced the garlic and onions (‘dicing’ is cutting it into really small pieces, isn’t it? Tigress asked herself) and added them to the soup. Looking through the other ingredients, she cornered the tomatoes and sliced them finely, putting them in the soup as well.
She narrowed down the rest of the ingredients. The stood there, in formation, almost as fierce as the first wave of a demon army, taunting her with indecision. Tigress barred her teeth, then stopped. She was going to growl at vegetables…
Tigress sighed, then picked up one of the containers. It held some brown dirt-like substance. She set it down, then had an idea. Quickly lighting the fire, she started stirring the soup. Perhaps if she added ingredients as she went along, it’d be easier.
One taste of the soup sent the tiger’s long pink tongue rolling out of her mouth, wagging in the air like a seal. She placed the ladle a little too forcefully on the counter. Po moaned and rolled over. Tigress looked down and sighed. Poor Po. He was such a servant, to disregard sleep (something he practically considered as important as food) to feed the rest of them.
Tigress knelt down, lifted Po up to a sitting position, then leaned him up against the table, so he faced her. Tigress quickly went to the medicine cupboard and got bandages. There was little she could do for Po’s head wound than simply apply pressure to it, which would cause it to subside.
She quickly bandaged Po’s head, looking at her sleeping clown with a smile. IF she were honest (It was a very big IF), she’d amid that she very much enjoyed Po most of the time. It took awhile for her to accept Po at first. After he seemed to unjustly steal her title of Dragon Warrior from her, Tigress felt no need to care about Po one way or the other. But after he defeated Tai Lang, and after Tigress forgave Master Shifu to herself of his past mistakes, she felt a lot less weighted down by feelings of inadequacy from her foster father, which was the whole reason that she wanted to be the Dragon Warrior.
No, over the past few months she really grew to like Po for all that he was, even his quirks or even irksome character traits. Tigress smiled, pecked the panda on the cheek (and got a moaned response), then turned towards the stove with a confidence that could only be described as legendary. It was time to cook.
After twirling her ladle for a few moments, Tigress set to work making sure the soup continued to be stirred while she added some of the other spices and ingredients. Beans (she went light on these, knowing Monkey), sage, peas, basil, rosemary, olive oil (though she didn’t understand the anti-adhesive properties of the oil, it seemed to her to give a richer taste to the soup), all the while tasting after each new ingredient was added to see how it was fairing.
Finally, after taking a step back, she took a spoonful of soup to Po, who was beginning to come around. “Here Po,” she said, “taste this.” Po moaned, a sign that he would be able to function correctly, and she tipped his head back, dumping the ladleful into his mouth. Po licked his lips and thought for a moment.
“Mm, that’s good soup.” He said simply, looking groggy still. Tigress smiled. That’s all she needed.

A couple hours later, the rest of the Five shuffled out to dinner, which was sitting ready for them. Tigress was already sitting at the table, soup bowl in front of her.
“Where’s Po?” Monkey asked as he climbed into his chair.
“The Dragon Warrior was pretty tired after finishing our dinner,” Tigress said, poking at the vegetables in her soup, “so he is sleeping now. I’ll bring him his soup afterwards.”
That was a lie, of course. Tigress had to drag Po’s limp figure to his bed. Most likely he’d recover in about half an hour or so.
The rest of the Five shrugged at Po’s absence and started eating Tigress’ soup. Tigress looked tentatively from one master to the other, awaiting their decision.
“Wow,” Mantis said, “Po’s done it again.”
“Mmhmm.” Monkey said with a mouth-full of noodles, which he promptly consumed.
“Too bad he’s so tired. The poor panda.” Tigress said, looking sad in her face but happy in her eyes, her happiness being towards the soup as well.
Tigress sat back, amazed. She’d done it. It was a success! Here, her friends were enjoying it before her eyes, thinking it was Po’s!
“Po may want his dinner in a little while, I’ll get it to him.” Tigress said, scooping up a bowl of soup and leaving for the dorms.
The rest of the Five took no notice of Tigress’ leave, which was a good thing. With the large grin on Tigress’ face, the others would have gotten suspicious. Tigress quietly opened Po’s door, entering. She lit a lamp and saw Po had already sat up, snoring against the wall of his dorm.
Tigress came up to him quietly and put a hand on his shoulder. “Po.” She said softly.
Po woke up, looking at Tigress. “Master Tigress.” Tigress put a gentle finger to Po’s lips.
“Please don’t talk, you need your strength. Just eat.” Tigress took out the bowl and chopsticks and began dishing the food up to Po, who obediently took the food from her chopsticks.
“Why are you doing this?” Po asked with a mouthful of food.
Tigress smiled. “Because I do care about you, Po.” Tigress set the bowl down and explained. “It took me awhile to believe you were the Dragon Warrior, a title that I foresaw as mine and mine alone. I had felt it was the only way to have Master Shifu be proud of me, especially after his discontent with me compared to Tai Lang.”
“But, Tigress,” Po said, still looking hurt, “Shifu loves you. You’re his daughter.”
Tigress nodded, “yes yes,” she picked up the bowl again, “I know. I forgave Shifu of that a long time ago. I also came to truly believe that YOU are the Dragon Warrior.”
“Thank you.” Po said after a pause.
“I just hope you can forgive me of my actions when you first arrived here. The irony of it is, I’ve grown to be quite fond of you since the defeat of Tai Lang.” Tigress chuckled to herself as she continued feeding Po.
Once the food was done, she tipped the bowl back for Po to drink the broth. “You said you like me?” Po asked once the bowl was consumed. Tigress nodded.
“Mmhmm. You said-” she started to say, sitting down beside Po, “that I didn’t know what romance was. I would say my cooking fiasco this afternoon proves otherwise.”
Po looked confused. “Wait, you made that soup?”
Tigress chuckled. “And the others don’t know it. Wouldn’t you say that’s ‘romantic’?” Tigress leaned forwards and pecked Po on the mouth. Po sat there, staring ahead, face blank.
“Goodnight Po.” Tigress said, standing up and returning to the kitchen with the empty bowl and chopsticks.
Po grinned, letting himself settle back on the affection he had just partaken of as he drifted back to sleep. “Goodnight Tigress.”

END!

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