Chapter Text
Early morning. Tai Lung was up first. Tigress was fast asleep, facing the wall. He closed the window to shut out the autumn wind, then slipped out without a sound.
The old goose arrived with a letter. The envelope was of unusually fine quality. He watched with trusting eyes as Tai Lung opened it, then took his leave.
Tai Lung said nothing. He went back to the room and woke her, then sat in silence as she packed. A whole summer, and only one bundle. Everything else she left for Tai Fu.
He spoke before she had the chance.
"We're heading for the mountains in the southwest. There's a martial arts master there."
Tai Fu was already waiting at the door. She wanted to hold him tight, but he hugged her first, taking in a soft breath. Over the summer, he had grown tall enough to reach her waist.
"See you next time, Mama."
He was still blissfully unaware of it all. He only asked for the cloth doll she'd kept all summer, wanting to draw on it.
She asked if they could wait for her in Jiangnan. He refused.
"Then how will I find Tai Fu?"
He paused for a moment, then said, "If you can find us."
She didn't look back.
The jade green of the water deepened. The trees along the bank had begun losing their leaves—she couldn't say exactly when it started. She folded the silk shirt and pressed it to the bottom of her bundle.
Po saw her at the gates. He nearly dropped the bun in his hand.
"You're back!"
He ran over. She didn't pull away. He stopped in front of her and scratched the back of his head.
"I talked to Shifu. You should come back and teach. The Jade Palace can't do without you."
"He didn't say yes right away, but he didn't say no either. I think he will. You know how Shifu is."
He smiled. That open, unguarded smile that laid his whole heart bare.
"Thank you, Po."
She smiled back. It was warm.
But underneath, something small and cold surfaced.
What if he didn't.
She returned to her room. The cup was exactly where she'd left it. The cushion was where she'd left it. The blanket was still neatly folded, shaped by her own hands before she left. No cicadas, no scent of osmanthus.
Muffled voices drifted through the walls in fragments. Po's and Shifu's. She couldn't make out the words, but she could tell Po was speaking and Shifu was answering. Neither a yes, nor a no.
She changed into her training clothes, tied the leg wraps, fastened the belt. Without a moment of hesitation.
She went back to the training hall and stood in her usual spot. A deep breath, then a spinning kick. The kinetic force traveled from her waist, through her hip, past her knee, and out through her instep—in one fluid motion. No sluggishness, no rust. Her muscles remembered every wall in this room, every inch of distance.
She was still Tigress. Her body always remembered everything.
Her foot struck the wooden post, off by a single millimeter. She looked at her right arm.
The arm that had carried Tai Fu all summer. From the bed to the stove, from the alley to the docks, with him draped over her shoulder, growing heavier by the day. Her right arm had gained a sliver of new muscle, invisible beneath her clothes.
The strike marks on the post were still there, densely packed. They represented every deviation she had ever corrected—and she could correct this one, too. A micro-adjustment each day, a few weeks of repetition, and that millimeter would disappear.
It was worth it. But no matter how many deviations she corrected, there would always be new marks. Expectations from Po, from Shifu, from Oogway—or from none of them at all.
She just didn't know, when the next prophecy arrived, how far off the mark she would be.
Outside, Po was calling her to eat.
She didn't go.
She left.