Love of the Dragon Warrior

A day of leisure

After dessert was finished, (which was just a simple chocolate cake that Po had prepared earlier), the girls retired to their rooms for the evening. They were given the rooms on the top floor of the masters' barracks where a few of the guards would be posted for the night shift. Still a bit worn out from dealing with Ming and Ella's tantrums and departure, Po simply said good night to the girls and retired to the peach tree for the evening. Understanding that he needed some time to relax, the masters left him to his own devices and headed to bed.

Po sat at the peach tree and let out a heavy sigh. He wondered if this was such a good idea after all. Granted, he understood that the source of the daily stress came from Ella and Ming's bickering, but he was still a little bit worried about what the rest of the girls would do over the course of their stay at the Jade Palace. Especially Madame Zhou.

As he laid against the trunk of the tree, he hear a sudden and loud, "Found you!"

Startled, the master turned around, seeing a startled Tigress looking over at Neikan. He hadn't even realized that they were behind him.

"Neikan!" Tigress scolded. "Don't do that again!"

"Hey, I told you I'd see you after my shift was over," Neikan told her with a laugh.

"What brings you over here?" Po asked Tigress with a look of surprise.

"Your day started out a bit rough, so I thought maybe you wanted to talk about it," Tigress explained. "But you looked relaxed just sitting there, so I decided not to bother you."

Po smiled at her. "Well, thanks for the concern," he told her. "I mean, I think I'm okay, but it was nice of you to think about me."

"Well, you used to help me when I wouldn't talk, so I thought I'd return the favor."

Neikan nudged Tigress. "Hellooo!" she said, a fake look of insult on her face. "What about me, the friend who got you to loosen up and take walks and splash in the Goruden River and talk to the cute guy at the restaurant?"

"Neikan!" Tigress exclaimed. "I mean, I wasn't forgetting about you, but do we really need to bring Shichiro up?! That guy turned out to be a jerk anyway, remember?"

"Who's Shichiro?" Po asked curiously, making Tigress turn a deeper shade of red.

"A really cute but not so chivalrous boy at a restaurant in Japan," Neikan explained. "To make the story short for Tigress' sake, we got into a fight over him but then he turned out to be the biggest jerk. So we just avoided him all together."  She turned to Tigress and smirked. "But that was a long time ago," she pointed out. "Which means that you and I have more stories to swap."

"And let you tell my friends all my secrets?" Tigress asked, smiling through her flush. "What makes you think it'll be that easy?"

Neikan wrapped an arm around Tigress and began pull her away. "Honey, it isn't a friendship until you can balance out embarrassing stories and dark secrets that would make your master faint. Trust me, my master wouldn't last two seconds listening to my stuff."

Tigress laughed and began to walk away, waving goodbye to Po. "Goodnight, D-Po," she called out.

"Goodnight!" Po called out. "Don't tell her anything bad about me!"

Neikan and Tigress laughed and walked off, Neikan giving Po a very brief wave before she disappeared around the corner with Tigress. Po chuckled and stretched his arms out before heading back to the barracks. He had a long day tomorrow trying to get to know eleven girls and he wanted to get as much sleep as possible.