A Friend Indeed (Kung Fu Panda)

A Meeting. A Beginning

(For those that don't know about Secrets of the Scroll, the basic plot is that the Furious Five were originally formed when Shifu got food poisoning by eating from Mr. Ping's noodle shop on the same day that Po had to take over. This fic pics up after the end of the short. Might continue if enough people are interested. [Read; one person is actually interested.])

Tigress was in a bad mood. Granted, that tended to happen quite a lot, but knowing that didn't really help. Tigress had a few more new training mates. Good. Shifu's gotten over his food poisoning. Even better. All the same, some incompetent chef had gotten him sick in the first place. And an accident like that simply could not stand. (She was in too bad of a mood to consider that they simply could have chosen a different take-out place.) 

Oogway, of course, had been frustrating blithe about it. "There are no accidents," he was always fond of saying. For as much love as she held for the old turtle, she sometimes found her patience wearing thin with him around. It would probably get worse with the carefree, oh-so-funny Monkey around.

She didn't quite know what to think of her new allies either. Sure, she had picked them on complete accident (which, of course, Oogway had to say didn't exist), but they had proven themselves to have impressive potential. However it turned out, she would have to at least make an attempt to put up with their eccentricities; and for that, she would need every ounce of patience, she could give them. Better to get her frustrations out of her system now before they became a problem.

She stopped a random citizen and pulled out the slip of paper that set today's disaster dominoes in motion. "Could you tell me where this is?"

***

Po's day had been rough at first. Poisoning a master of the Jade Palace had to be one of the worst mistakes that he had made, but at least he had discovered what he wanted to do with his life. Kung Fu looked hard, but it was so cool. Something about it spoke to him far more than what he had wrote down earlier that day. (Seriously, in what world could he make it as a comedian.) Even better, his dad had been ecstatic for all of the free advertising that resulted. Po chuckled to himself as he started to close up the shop. Leave it to his dad to look on the bright side of business.

He was just wondering how he was going to do some research on Kung Fu when he saw her. Just a flash of orange fur and tan clothes out of the corner of his eye at first. He took a quick glance on autopilot. "Sorry, but the shop's closed for the day. Maybe try again tomorrow."

"I've tried your product," she said, arms crossed. 'I'm not impressed."

Po quickly snapped around. Not impressed? Po's dad's noodles were the best in the entire Valley of Peace! He opened his mouth, fully intent on defending his family honor, only for it to hang limply as he noticed just who it was that was speaking. "You're. . . you're that strong tiger lady that kicked that boar in the face. Like, a lot." This had to be some kind of heavenly gift, or a dream. (He'd had far weirder dreams in comparison.)

The obvious admiration in the panda's voice surprised her. Her anger disappeared in surprise, but only for a minute. "And you must be the chef that poisoned my master," she said, trying her best to imitate one of Shifu's infamous disappointed stares.

Po felt his mouth void itself of any and all moisture. He took it back; clearly, this was divine retribution, or failing that, a nightmare. (Which was almost as bad as the one he had that one time about radishes. Seriously, why radishes? His dad didn't even cook with them.)  Weakly, he raised his paw in a wave and let out a nervous wheeze of a laugh. "Uhm. . . Hi?. . . Welcome to. . . Ping Dynasty Noodle House. I'm sorry that . . . well I'm sorry you got stuck with me as your cook. Heh heh."