The Countdown

The longest night

Tigress and Po took a while to head back to the training hall since Li was a bit slow and still out of breath from his arduous climb up the stairs. Mr. Ping, clearly not happy with seeing the panda there, didn't say much to him. Li was very talkative however and he kept making various comments about how nice the layout of the Jade Palace was on top of asking almost a thousand questions. (Which annoyed Mr. Ping thoroughly.

"What do you do for a hobby?" Li asked as the four went up the slope, beginning to huff a bit from the walk. "Eating? Flute making? Oh, and what's your favorite color, Po? And your favorite food?! I'll have to cook you something one of these days!"

"You can ask those questions later!" Mr. Ping snapped. "My son has an important task to do!"

"Is that why you were just up here offering to stay the night and cook?" Po asked the old goose.

"And what's more important than bonding with your father?" Mr. Ping asked expertly.

"Perfect!" Li exclaimed happily. "I could spend the night too! Then we can all bond with him!"

"Um, actually dad...and dad..." Po began, but the two had already began a heated argument which he didn't want to bother getting into. The Dragon Warrior turned to Tigress with a sheepish look. "It looks like our plans to hang out might have been cancelled," he told her.

Tigress smiled at him. "It's fine," she assured him. "It can wait until tomorrow. It's not like your dads are staying for a week."

Po let out a happy sigh of relief. "You're right," he said. "I guess once we get this whole thing sorted out, I'll be okay."

The four reached the training hall upon which Tigress and Po began to enter it. Po turned to Li and Mr. Ping and said, "Can you two wait here a moment?"

"Of course," the two answered in unison.

Po ducked into the training hall, spotting Tigress walking over to Master Shifu who was impatiently tapping his foot.

"There you are," he said with a groan. "That took particularly long."

"And it kind of might take longer," Po told him slowly. "I...have a slight problem."

Shifu eyed him. "And what exactly would that problem be?" he asked.

"It's about my dad."

Shifu sighed. "What does your father want this time?" he asked.

Po winced, trying to think of an answer for that. "Um..." he stammered. "Which one?"

Shifu looked at him funny and was about to ask what Po meant when the training hall doors flew open and Li poked his head inside.

"Hey!" Mr. Ping could be heard yelling. "My son is busy in there! Get your big fat head out here and fight me like a goose!"

"I'm just checking on things," Li assured the old goose, turning back to look at Po. He waved. "Hi, son! How's it going?"

"Fine," Po replied. "Um...give me a second."

Li shrugged and shut the door. Po turned to give Shifu a look that meant, Now you get it?

"Was that your real dad?" Mantis asked his friend.

"Yep," Po told him.

"I'm afraid I can't quite see the problem, Po," Shifu admitted. "You'll have to elaborate."

"I have two dads who want to talk to me," the Dragon Warrior explained. "Dad wants to hang out later, Li...my other dad...wants to learn about me and talk to me now and I don't know what to do with them! We're in the middle of training but I don't want to just...leave them hanging."