The first few months after getting out of the infirmary Po had refused to take his clothes off. He didn't want Tigress to see what was underneath. Not because he thought she would be repulsed, but because he didn't want to give her another reminder of that horrible week.

But of course, he realized he couldn't hide everything forever. They were husband and wife after all. And it's been close to half a year since they last time they…-

"Are you ready for this today?" Tigress' voice interrupted his musing. She smoothed her hands across his back as he laid on their bed, her claws tracing over the scars on the part of his exposed skin which she had memorized.

He looked at her, finding her amber eyes staring at him with a soft look that he had seen her giving to anyone else except those she loved.

"Of course," he replied, smiling. Today was their wedding anniversary, and he thought a date would help to set everything back to normalcy.

It had been a long time since they had gone on a proper date since the cub was born, and while the nature of his and Tigress' job made it quite different than a typical date, it still felt a little monumental, and he was excited. A night spent some way that didn't put them at risk of being killed was a rare thing, and he was going to enjoy every second of it.

Half an hour later, Po was leaning up against the wall with his hands in the pockets of his formal robe, and he turned his head when his wife walked out their bedroom.

His mouth parted but no words came out, and Tigress gave herself a mental pat on the back. Render him speechless, off to a good start.

Her outfit consisted of a sleek blood red qipao that bared a small slice of her skin where the two pieces failed to meet. The dress was her birthday present more than a decade ago, undoubtedly a little snug on the chest and hip section, but it was definitely a positive thing. It was quite a departure from her usual two-piece training outfit, and it was nice to dress up again. She was happy to just feel like a normal person.

They arrived in one of Valley of Peace posh restaurant, one that definitely could rack a bill as much as Dragon Warrior's annual income. Tigress had immediately appreciated the cream-colored atmosphere illuminated softly by dimmed lighting, their table situated in an alcove to give them some privacy.

The next thirty minutes was absolute bliss until Zheng emerged and informed them that their newborn cub puking profusely all over the Hall of Heroes, and Shifu began to lose his mind. On the positive note, Po got to keep his salary for the night.

They ended up spending the night at home, nursing a sick baby which according to Po could be somewhat romantic depended on how they looked at it.

Next morning, Tigress went out of the bedroom, fur ruffled in all kind of direction, yawning softly as she padded into the kitchen. Po smiled at the scene, fifteen years of marriage and she still took his breath away every single time he laid eyes on her.

"You were up early," she commented as she settled in at the table. Po was busily sauntering in front of the stove while their newborn cub already sat daintily on her breakfast stool, cooing happily when she recognized her mom emerging from her view.

"I got up when I heard her starting to fuss," he checked the time, "about 2 hours ago." He put a caressing hand on Xia's soft striped fur, and she gave him a toothless smile.

"Bao and Lei Lei?"

"They are still in bed. I doubt they'll wake up anytime soon considering last night Shifu took them to the festival until late."

Tigress parked herself in front of the table, stroking Xia's head and whispering good morning before peering to see what her husband was cooking. "So, what's for breakfast?"

"I've made your favorite," he said presenting a bowl. "Consider this as a makeup for last night failed attempt for a date."

She took a bite of her stir fry tofu and moaned. "Oh... So good. No wonder I agree to marry you."

He grinned. "I don't think my cooking skills are a solid enough foundation for marriage. However, I'm well aware your stomach is passionately in love with me."

"That could be a prophetic truth," she commented between the chew. "Although the first couple of years, I was nothing but a jealous jerk over that stupid Dragon Warrior title," she chuckled humorlessly. "...so silly of me."

"That's mean you are one very honest, direct person, Tigress. You don't sugarcoat the truth, and you speak from the heart," he said, now joining on the table "...and that's what I admire about you."

She was overwhelmed by the love and tenderness she read in his eyes. "Thank you for crash-landed on the arena that day. I know we are a changed person now since - but when I think…" she laughed softly, feeling emotional. "My life without you is just inconceivable now."

Po brought his knuckles to her cheek, caressing it softly. "I think everything we've done, everything that happened to us, led us to this moment. Even if I had never been chosen as Dragon Warrior, we would have found our way to each other," he finished in a whisper. "Some things are meant to be."

Po picked Xia and bounced the baby gently on his lap.

"What do you plan after breakfast?" she asked while washing down the food with tea, starting to feel more awake and alert.

He didn't answer, but his eyes did. As she poured herself another cup of tea, she was aware of his gaze lingering on her ass and legs. The fact that they had been married for so long didn't mean they were blind to each other's attributes. He was definitely aware of how attractive she was.

She smiled and whispered mischievously. "For the record, there are another person(s) in this house besides the two us. So, if s-e-x is what you want, you need to find a sitter."

Po grinned and looked at his daughter who perched on his lap and staring back at him with eyes twinkling with curiosity and adoration. "I don't think she understands that word yet. Hell, she perhaps won't have any idea what we are doing even when we left her in her crib."

Tigress narrowed her eyes. "You are unbelievable."

He laughed at the scandalized look on his wife's face. "That's Dragon Warrior for you."

"Shifu has scheduled for a morning drill for us today - I bet you forgot all about it," she noted.

Po groaned loudly at the reminder. "Oh, man!" As an exchange for babysitting Lei Lei and Bao last night, he had agreed to come for morning training and taught the class today. "Fine," he said with a pout. Tigress shook her head, biting her smile at her husband's childishness. At times like this, she often forgot that he was indeed the mighty protector of China.

After the incident that nearly took his life premature, Po was a changed man. He was still dedicated to his job and his title as the Defender of the Valley, but he won't reluctantly admitted if he needed help and immediately called for reinforcement. No matter how busy he was, he would always make time to bathe their children, tucked them into bed and took them to school. He was a perfect husband, more so a perfect dad.

So the adoration she saw in her daughter's eyes was earned and justified.

After a hearty breakfast, they headed to the Jade Palace - seeking for the much-needed babysitter in question.

"Let's see what torture Master Shifu has thought up for us today," Po muttered, picking up the practice scroll.

"I heard that Panda," Shifu remarked from where he was standing along the side of the Training Hall.

Tigress stood on her feet and rested her chin on his shoulder so she could see the list of drill Shifu had written.

"100 kicks, 50 backflips and 20 times around the training course. How exciting, all of our favorite sets!" she gushed.

Po scoffed and turned to face her, "Please tell me that was sarcasm."

She crossed her arms, "What? You can't handle it?"

He stepped closer to her and looked down into her eyes, "Are you questioning my stamina? Because I think you know exactly what I'm capable of handling."

"I thought the only stamina you have is in bed," she grinned.

"You'll be sorry you say that," he muttered. "After three children, I bet you'll be slower than me running the entire course. Not… that you ate them… of course," he mumbled self-consciously after looking down to the size of his belly compared to Tigress. Even her previous pregnancy hardly imprinted any trace on her tight figure.

"Ok," Tigress replied a little impatiently. "If I lose, I take your kitchen shift, if you lose, you go to that assignment in Jiangwen," she challenged, in which Mantis moaned in protest. While Po was a fun and amusing friend to be with, doing a mission in a remote village with him was bound to have more implication than solutions. The last time he was on a similar quest with Po, they missed their transport because Po was far too engrossed cooking for the entire village. And their boat only arrived once a week!

"Of course. With your luck, if you do the patrol in Jiangwen you'd probably get stranded somewhere and have a romantic adventure with a ruggedly handsome, small-town noodle maker. And we can't have that," he teased, eliciting sarcastic snort from her.

"Tigress! Po! The rest of us would like to get started with practice if that's alright with you." Shifu called out before dropping his voice to a mutter, "I was mistaken to think that things would improve when they are married…."

Po blushed when he realized that the rest of the team was watching them with various shades of amusement and annoyance on their faces, and hurried back over to the end of the Training Hall, Tigress right behind him. Adjusting his patchy pants, he watched as Mantis flagged a signal to start before throwing himself into the training contraption.

To Mantis' relief, the husband and wife competition ended with a tie. (No offense there, Po).

After the training, the rest of the team went for lunch, while Po decided to linger around his favorite room - the Hall of Heroes.

He walked past a door to the room that Shifu had reserved to be Dragon Warrior's office. The room was a lot tidier now, there were no piles of correspondence that screamed for his attention, there was no clutter of his supper bowls, and there was no trace of a man whose life had been solely enslaved by responsibility and obligation. It was sobering to think how easily he could have been stuck in his position if Qiang didn't attack him and his life never had never been hung on a thin thread like it did.

All because there was no accident - there was a purpose for everything that happened in the universe.

On his working bureau now there was a couple of paintings instead. A painting of him, the Five and Shifu at his father's restaurant celebrating the New Year, there was a picture of him and his two father and a picture of smiling Tigress hugging Bao and Lei Lei in her arms. And finally, there was a picture of him and Tigress, holding paw, in front of Gongmen bay.

He smiled thinking how far they had come from that day, when they were dancing around the feelings that were developing between them, unsure that anything was ever meant to truly happen between them beyond their friendship. And now he had expressed his feeling, and she had been given time to respond. Since the day they first met, he had always imagined a future with her, sharing his dream, having a family and growing old with her.

"Hey," a voice behind him beckoned. "May I come in?"

He smiled and nodded.

"What are you doing?" Tigress peered closer. "Walking down some memory lane?"

"Yeah, it's been the most impossible and dramatic experience," he said. "Some may not be the sweetest," he recollected the tragedy in Secret Panda Village and Gongmen Pier. "But I won't trade it for the world."

She smiled, touching his shoulder and rubbing it comfortingly. "Yeah. I mean, I like to think that the way our scroll was swapped wasn't just an accident, but the way that two people who were meant to be, but might have never met otherwise, got their chance. A story like that deserves a happy ending, and for five years after I left your restaurant, you came back again - although I wasn't the most supportive when Oogway inaugurated you as Dragon Warrior."

"Not the most supportive?" he raised his brows with mock annoyance. "You are bitter, Tigress! You kicked my ass constantly in the Training Hall."

"Hell yeah, I was a total jerk," she sighed. "Thank you for not giving up on me. On us."

He couldn't help but smile, pulling her closer to him. "Now you sound uncharacteristically sappy; you know that right?"

"That's a good sign we'd been married too long, some of this 'getting all emotional' business of yours has become mine."

His smile grew into a grin, and he pulled her in for a kiss.

They got a little distracted making out when Viper went in to tell them she'll be babysitting Xia while Shifu had Bao and Lei Lei for the rest of the day. But eventually, they made it back into their home.

That evening, both of them lazing around the living room to finish off their checklist for the day by reading a few correspondence and preparing Kung Fu material for tomorrow's class.

Half an hour in, his hand was on her thigh, and she snuck a glance over at him. He was seemingly completely absorbed by what was on the scroll but his thumb started stroking her skin. Turning her attention back to her own reading, she tried to pay attention to the content and not the slow torture that he was intent on causing.

She swallowed when his hand moved up a little higher a few minutes later and slipped underneath the bottom hem of the qipao she was wearing. A part of her wanted to swat his hand away until she was finished reading but the side of her that wanted him to continue his teasing won out.

"This is a fascinating Kung Fu technique," he remarked nonchalantly as if he wasn't making it completely impossible for her to pay any attention to what was going on.

"Mhmm," she mumbled as a sign of agreement, attempting not to squirm as his paw inched up further.

Finally, he discovered that she wasn't wearing anything underneath the qipao and his paw stilled, the faintest of groans escaping him.

Biting her lip in satisfaction that she had turned the tables ever so slightly on him, she looked over at him and commented on the scroll she was currently reading, "It is indeed so disappointing that Master Croc has to close the Academy for two weeks while he is recuperating."

He blinked at her, his paws still frozen in place between her chest, "Tragic," he added absently without understanding the entire context.

She wrapped her claws around his wrist, "We're probably at a good spot to pause our reading."

"Yeah. Just a quick intermission."

She snorted, "Quick is right, you've had me ready for the past 45 minutes. I'm dying here."

"Sorry," he replied in a tone that was definitely not apologetic as she released his wrist so he could pause the reading before finally touching her where she needed him.

There laughed quietly, more vibration than sound, as they discovered each other, fumbling only a little before they found a rhythm that suited them both.

There was not much talking after that, just moans and sighs and whispered words of love and Tigress hoped every reincarnation of herself got to feel love like this.

After their "intermission," she rested her head on his lap, a blanket draped over her to finish reading her scroll. His claws combed through her fur, and she sighed in contentment. "Love you, Big Guy."

Her husband chuckled at the name before sharing her sentiment. "Love you too, Stripey Girl."

They both reflected on their life, the days behind, the present and the days ahead and they both understood - the most well-rounded heroes were those who had known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

It made them not just warriors and fighter.

It made them survivors.