The doors were opened by a small parade of various creatures, most of them geese, if only for the sake of symmetry. The six were graciously welcomed and immediately taken to the main palace, a flat, long three-story creation of red and gold and green over white stone. Not quite as conspicuous as the Tower of Sacred Flame in Gongmen, but clever in its design - right on a corner of the city, unless seen from very, very high up its size would be disguised and, thanks to the walls, it would look exactly the same as the other, if smaller, palaces and palace walls that were housed in the great city. The six had little time to admire the finery and decoration, taken straight to the throne room. High-ceilinged, round in shape, natural light brightened inlaid gold and gilt decoration until the room itself seemed to glow with gold and anything that reflected in it. They were welcomed again by servants and clerks, before humbly bowing their head to the lord and lady of the city, who welcomed them. This was as very welcoming city indeed.

"Welcome, Dragon Warrior and Furious Five, to the palace of _. It is an honor to have you attend our request, and we are very thankful that you are come," said the lord.

The lord of the city was, in Po's opinion, the creepiest looking creature he had ever seen in his entire life, and that included the old swine lady with the hairy moles and bent teeth who looked like a witch and visited the noodle shop every Tuesday and Thursday and mysteriously disappeared when Po was seventeen. He'd shivered every time he saw her; this creature would give him nightmares, and his wife was almost as bad, if not worse. The lord of _ was a little more than half Po's height, with coarse, wiry black hair and a grey face, impossibly long whiskers and short but sharp claws. A very thick tail swished behind him, curling and uncurling in a way that made the panda a little queasy, but the eyes had it. The eyes were black, with the depth of an ocean, shining and endless and staring.

His wife was scarier because she was rather taller than her husband, and looked even meaner.

It was to Po's fortune that the lord and his lady were nice, otherwise he would not be able to sleep in this place.

"You have our eternal gratitude, Masters, for coming here and protecting our daughter from the harm threatened to her. We cannot express our thanks enough-" the lady turned to her husband, who nodded. His voice was pleasant enough to push Po away from the edge a bit.

"We will do everything we can to compensate the trip and make your stay as comfortable as possible."
Master Tigress inclined her head.

"Thanks you, milord, but-"

Interrupted by another voice, she looked up.

"Oh, Father, they're here?"

From the shadows that blended well with her fur another one of the creatures emerged, as tall as the lady but not near so scary. She smiled at the six warriors as she went to stand by her mother. The lord smiled, kindly holding onto her arm.

"This is my dear daughter, against whom the threats were made. May I introduce the princess, Daiyu?"

The warriors bowed resectfully, but the princesss held up a clawed paw.

"Oh, no, Masters, it is I who bow to YOU. I cannot express my thanks enough, especially at having such prestigious warriors to protect me."

"I trust very much in your abilities to keep her safe until those who threaten her are neutralized," her father said, beaming with absolute trust. The daughter, at her mother's encouragement to make introductions, stepped forward. She was much prettier than either of her parents, her fur softer, face more silver than grey, eyes more brown than bottomless black. Like her parents she had a face like an upside-down triangle, tufts of fur giving her wide and pointed cheeks. She had a cheeky grin and a slightly curvy figure, accentuated by soft silks and pale pastels. Her gracious smiled beamed upon them all like a ray of sunshine. Her voice was low and kind and echoed politeness around the entire hall.

"I am sincerely thankful that you all are here, Master Tigress, Master Monkey," she smiled at them all in turn, inclining her head at each name. "Master Mantis, Master Viper, Master Crane - Dragon Warrior," she said, a smirk on her lips for a brief moment. Her eyes had caught a hold of Po.

Caught, held, and hammered on with nails. Arms clasped behind her back, she stood before them all, but talked to Po.

"Though I know you are here for a singular reason I see no reason why we cannot make your stay as comfortable as we can afford," she said to the panda. "I fear this mission of yours shall be rather boring - no doubt my father's guard and investigators will find the sources of trouble soon. I fear that this mission will not be particularly interesting."

Tigress stepped forward again.

"With all respect, princess, we are not here to have fun. Our singular duty is to the protection of China and, currently, you." The princess tore her eyes away from Po and gave the tiger a kind and above all POLITE smile.

"Of course. How silly of me - forgive me. I know little of the ways of the martial artists." She turned from them and, gesturing to the hallway across, began to lead them forward. As Po followed the Five all raised eyebrows. As they followed, the princess had already latched herself onto Po's arm. Oh, that flirt.

Evening rays had already begun to filter in through the open windows and doors; the palace hallways glowed with reds and golds and greens until one felt surrounded by bright color. The princess gave them a small tour, leading them slowly to their chambers.

"ChamBER, actually," announced the princess, looking back at them. "I am extremely sorry to say that half the guest wing was destroyed during a storm the week before last - most of the rooms are roped off and we only have one suite fit to be lived in for any amount of time." She stopped outside of red and black double doors, a small, annoyed grimace on her face as she regarded the huge tree limb half-covered amongst debris on the other side of the hallway.

"After such a long journey I am certain that your group is fatigued and I will not hear a word against this," she said calmy, her perpetual polite smile of perfect hostess never leaving her face - even her eyes smiled with sincerity. "The bathouse is within a hundred yards, and servents will attend within the hour with dinner - otherwise you will not be disturbed. I bid you all goodnight and hope that your evening will be more than tolerable. If you have anything you need or desire," her eyes rested on Po, where they had been for most of her tour, "you only need ask. Goodnight, Masters." She inclined her head and they returned the gesture, and with a last subtle flourish of silk the princess left, her long tail swishing behind her. Po and Mantis smiled at her departure.

"Well," the panda said. "She was nice."

"Pleasant enough," the mantis replied. He was grinning. "She sure seemed attached to you." They entered the room, a spacious suite with pale papered windows and six beds, each designed for six different animals, arranged neatly.
Po pulled at a bed next to the decorated wall, tugging it until he'd arranged near the corner where Tigress was settling in.

"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe she was just trying to be polite," he said. Tigress, pausing as she put her own closer to his, smirked at him.

"You really didn't notice, did you?" She said, quietly amused. Po looked at her oddly.

"Notice what?"

"Nevermind, sweetie," Viper interrupted, smacking Mantis lightly. "Stop spoiling his fun."
"I was increasing it!"

"Ignore them, Po," Tigress said, pulling her bed a few feet beside his.

Crane watched them as they settled in. A year ago Tigress had been almost ready to murder the poor panda - now they were practically inseparable. Especially after the events of Gongmen city. Nothing like a good life-threatening event to pull people together.

Fatigue and good food distracted the others enough that jokes about Po and the princess were put to rest soon enough. With guards posted, numbers doubled, around the princess and her family to let the warriors rest for a night, sleep was finally found, uninterrupted.

For some. For some, rest just wasn't on the agenda tonight. Barely had she been asleep an hour before she'd awoken to the slightest sound; Po had gotten out of bed. Silent enough not to wake the others she followed, occasionally creeping on all fours, watching through a carved window as Po made for the bathhouse. Of course; he had never felt particularly comfortable bathing around his heroes, and usually tried to sneak out later in the night for some privacy. As the newcomer and their friend, they respected his privacy as much as he respected theirs, but tonight Tigress ignored the silent rule and decided to invade. She followed a few meters behind, waiting a minute after he had made it into the bathhouse before going in herself. Grabbing a robe and towel she undressed behind a screen and handed her clothes to the attending duck, who would wash them and lay them to dry by hot coals for when she was finished. Tying the robe, the tiger waited until she heard a soft splash. Looking around the wall, Po had taken one of the pools to himself, up to his nose in water, eyes closed, soaking with time and privacy to finally think by himself. He looked like a white face rising out of the floor, the rest of him sunken, as the pool had been dug out of the floor, unlike the other tubs standing on stubby legs or flat bottoms. He looked beat, and an un-Po-like defeat to his face. Momentarily she felt guilty for not letting him alone, for invading, especially in the one moment where he usually had time to himself, but she padded softly to a waiting tub close to the pool, the water inside already warm. Po opened his eyes and yelped when he noticed her there, quickly grabbing his towel and pulling it over himself, sinking up to his eyeballs in the warm pool. Water made dark by the black tiles she really couldn't see much past his shoulders but adverted her eyes anyway, practically ignoring him. He looked to his other side as she sank into her own bath, momentarily enjoying the hot water.

Po was silent. Tigress had never come for a bath the same time as him. Monkey twice, and Mantis once just to bother him, and Viper once in a disastrous attempt to curb his shyness by pointing out that she and Mantis were naked all the time (which only made it worse), but never Tigress.

Eyes looking back and forth across the empty bathhouse, the panda muttered 'hey' underwater. The tiger looked up for a moment, then sat up and deftly snatched a few herbs from a jar on the floor, tossing them into the water and swishing them around until the water had a light foam.

"Hey yourself," she said quietly, sitting up until the water was around her shoulders.

"Whattcha doin'," he said. She looked up, rubbing some of the soap onto her arm. No answer was necessary, she felt. Po pouted slightly.

"Yeah, me too," he said, and sank back up to his chin.

"Interesting palace," he observed. Very good, she thought. Starting a conversation all by himself. Good boy. "Apparently they pipe the water from some hot springs, that's why it's already warm." And I didn't even say anything.

"Interesting city as well," she said, looking down at him in his pool cut into the floor. Without looking at her he sank a bit farther into the dark waters. Delicate subject, was it?

"Yeah-heh," he said. "Real cool. Lots of people."
"Indeed there are. I've never seen so many myself."

Grunt. And there it goes, she thought. Using her tail she scooted the little pot of herbs close to the edge of his sunken pool. He dared to raise a hand out the water and grab some.

Oh my gosh, an elbow.

"I admit, I've never seen so many tigers in one place. We usually stick to ourselves, in general."

Grunt. Hmm. Shrug.

She sighed. It was unlike him to be moody like this. Delicate subject indeed.

"Monkey had a point, Po. Neither he nor I nor any of the others saw any pandas." Don't you dare grunt, furball.

Grunt. Hmm. Shrug. Swish leaves. Soap.
Eyes adverted.

"Po."

"Hmm."

"Po."

Eyes adverted. Tigress leaned her arms on the edge of the round tub, watching him seriously. Perhaps the bathhouse wasn't the best place to do this. Maybe she should have waited and gotten him sparring again...

"Po, why were you not surprised when he pointed out that there were no pandas around?"

Gru-

"And if you don't say anything this time I'm coming into the pool."

-nt...Sigh.

"It's like you said about tigers. Same, uh, same thing. We keep to ourselves," he whispered, looking down at his hands. With a look of lying and despair he swished the leaves around some more, but they had already given their soap.

"You're a terrible liar, Po," she murmered. He looked up at her.

"So what if I am? I'd just rather not talk about it, Tigress, please." His ears flattened against the back of his head and he sank a little further. "Not now, anyway. Not yet."

About to argue, she instead paused, and rested her chin on her arms. After several moments he looked up at her, and then did not look away. Having caught the other's gaze, they stared at each other for a while, until Tigress finally turned back and dipped under the water, shaking the soap bubbles from her fur. Underwater, she grinned.

He was dourly playing with his water when she emerged and, wiping droplets out of her eyes, she turned back to him. For Pete's sake, panda.

"Po, are you wearing your pants underwater?"

His face brought her back to when she had reminded him of the Rice Incident in Gongmen. Old Po is back for a bit.

"...Maaaybe..."

Laughter rang through the bathhouse that night.

I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Though Daiyu is mine

Daiyu = black jade

Binturongs, they are. I was going to make her a lynx, but I wanted my girl to have a tail and I haven't seen many binturongs on here.