The Countdown

Fired Up

After discovering that Po had a crush on Tigress, Monkey and Mantis had a field day with teasing him on the matter. Po didn't really appreciate it, although he was glad that they made no mention of it in front of either Tigress or Viper. He noticed that Crane didn't get much teasing from Monkey or Mantis, but the avion noted that the reason for that was because, unlike Po, he didn't have anyone stating that he actually had a crush on Viper or the other way around. Po asked him if he did like Viper, but Crane answered by saying that he liked her as a friend, not romantically as Monkey and Mantis were trying to imply.

Monkey and Mantis were aware that Po did not want Tigress to know that he liked her, so when they went to tease the panda, they would do it very quietly so that no one besides Po really noticed. For example, they would whisper, "Hordes of bandits?" during the moments when Tigress was too busy sparring to eavesdrop which made Po turn red, they would snicker whenever Tigress left Po by himself after the two finished some sort of task, and of course, they would tease him about the matter whenever the boys were actually by themselves.

About two weeks after the teasing had been going on, Po walked down to the noodle shop so as to talk to his dad. It was after lunch and the students had the afternoon off as Shifu had to visit the Master's Council so as to help evaluate the clean-up of Gongmen City. When Po announced that he was going down to help his dad, Monkey offered to come along, obviously eager to hear more stories about his friend. However, Po declined, wanting a chance to remind his dad to not tell anymore embarrassing stories about him, and he had then headed down to the village.

"Dad?" the Dragon Warrior announced, entering the noodle shop.

The customers who were already inside of the noodle shop let out cries of joy upon seeing Po and eagerly welcomed him there. Mr. Ping, who was in the kitchen, let out an excited wave and called out, "Son! Come on in! I was just thinking about when you were going to come back down and see me!"

Po carefully made his way through the crowd of villagers and over towards where his dad was waiting to greet him by the front door of the kitchen. Po gave his dad a hug before saying, "Dad, is it okay if I talk to you for a second?"

Mr. Ping looked a little nervous, but managed to smile and said, "Of course, son."

The two headed into the kitchen where Mr. Ping began to chop up some vegetables. "What's the matter?" he asked nervously.

"Nothing really," Po assured him. "But I just wanted to talk to you about the embarrassing stuff you've been telling my friends lately."

"Oh," Mr. Ping said. He put the cleaver he had on the counter and then turned to face Po. "Why, what's wrong with me telling a few little stories about you?"

"I don't mind you telling stories, dad, but I'd prefer that you didn't tell the ones that could kind of...I don't know...be used for blackmail!"

Mr. Ping laughed. "Oh, Po," he said. "No one's going to use those stories as blackmail!"

"Ever since you told Monkey and Mantis that I liked Tigress, they've been teasing me left and right! Yesterday, Mantis tried to get me to kiss my Tigress action figure while I was sleeping! Fortunately, the gong went off so I didn't have to be spared that embarrassment!"

Mr. Ping held covered his mouth so as to avoid laughing at the idea of Mantis trying something like that.

"It's not funny, dad! Do you know what might have happened if I started kissing it and Tigress walked into my room to wake me up or something?!"

"She might think you really like her and she might be flattered?"

"Maybe. Or maybe she may get annoyed that I'm kissing an action figure of her and stop being my friend because I'm weird. Or something else."