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Someday
#ff steakwine#steakwine#food fantasy steak#food fantasy fanart#food fantasy#food fantasy red wine#ff red wine#ff steak#rat king talks#kittymeow draws#this was a super small doodle in my sketchbook that i colored over in fire alpaca on a whim djsjjw#one day theyll stop being dense nerds and realize their feelings#and them being the softest bitches is a god tier concept#dont @ me im right#and i was thinkin anout it and ended up drawin them chillin and talking probably flirting#aaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Drawing the line
For a fic I had no plot idea for, this turned out quite long :D It’s an artist au with some inspiration from @over-the-pink-moon lovely moodboards *-* Also thanks to @miris-xo for helping me to find anything related to a plot. I hope you enjoy this, especially since I might not have a lot of internet to post new things over the next two months at the end of the world ^^
Word count: 2.9k
///
She always leaves a trace when she walks out of his place. A pencil or a brush on the kitchen table, a quick sketch or color study left to dry on his desk. Once he finds a cup with paint water forgotten by the sink. Her thoughts remind Matteo of the TV screens in a tech store – five different movies playing and without the sound, nothing makes sense. As soon as she begins to pack up, new ideas flicker through her mind, so she simply forgets what remains out of her immediate sight.
But he doesn’t mind cleaning up after her.
Instead, he puts on the playlist inspired by her and wanders through every room, searching for her clues. If he’s lucky she forgot something important and asks him to meet up between classes. Some days (mostly Tuesdays) she even asks him if he wants to tag along to the cafeteria. He never says no.
Today, she forgot her notebook on the couch. Luna has been doodling in it while he discussed the grocery list with Gastón, and the moment he walked up to the couch again, she tossed it away like it was on fire. Before he could ask, she pretended to be deeply lost in filling the canvas with colors.
In moments like these he’d trade his first guitar for a glance into her mind.
The notebook feels heavy in his hands as he picks it up. It’s not the small sketchbook she uses for first drafts and carries around everywhere. And, from experience, forgets everywhere too. He’s only seen the fancy sketchbook two times before, and both times she threatened him to not even blink at it or she’ll ruin his mom’s gift the night before her birthday.
Nothing tempts him more than to sneak a glimpse at whatever Luna is trying to hide from him.
///
To Luna: How much is your nice sketchbook worth to you?
///
The moment she holds it in her hands again, she sighs so loud that the people around them turn around and stare. “And you didn’t look inside? Not even once?”
“Is that how little faith you have in me? After all the times I brought you your other sketchbook, or your brushes, or those funny little sponges and…”
“Okay, okay,” Luna mutters, one hand playing with her hair, “I get it. I shouldn’t come over to work on that painting for your mom anymore, given how much stuff I forget every time.”
She wants to walk right past him, into the cafeteria, but Matteo follows her with ease. A smirk rests on his mouth. “That’s not what we agreed on, and you know that.”
With an eyeroll, she takes a step back to let three guys leave the aisle with their heavy trays. When she’s by Matteo’s side again, a corner of her mouth twitches slightly upward. “Just for the record, none of the people I made commissions for so far asked to watch me while I’m working. Only you did.”
“Because I’m curious to see how the magic happens. And didn’t you say you usually don’t do commissions? That this was an exception for being the hero who gave you your sketchbook back?” Five times, to be exact. How anyone could forget the same thing, in the same classroom, five weeks in a row, remains a miracle to Matteo. But no matter the reasons why, he’s happy to have found her along with the book.
They reach the dessert bar. Luna begins to heap chocolate pudding into a bowl, one arm awkwardly clenching her sketchbook. Matteo watches her for a moment, then snickers. “Do you want me to hold this for…”
“No!” She doesn’t even let him get to the end of the question. “I’m good, you don’t have to.” Realizing she had just shouted at him, she flinches. “Thanks, but no. Just pick a dessert, okay? I’ll pay.”
He chooses a strawberry cheesecake.
///
“So, did you cook this or did your mom make that for you?” he asks after they sit down at the only free table for two, nodding towards her lunchbox.
“My mom. If I tried this, everything would look like a giant mess of green pasta.”
Matteo shakes his head in amusement and chews on his homemade sandwich. “Damn, the poor spinach.”
“How’s your sandwich?” She drowns the latest bite with a sip from her water bottle, and her eyes linger on his cheesecake long enough for him to consider teasing her about it.
Instead, he puts on a smirk. “Good, of course. I just prepared it before my first class.”
They eat in silence. It’s a nice contrast, Matteo thinks, because so far, they have always been interrupted by one of her friends. And they were nice, they chatted and laughed with him, but he’d rather sit in silence with Luna alone than to engage in meaningless small talk with her friends.
“So, you haven’t answered my question yet.”
The first spoon with chocolate pudding just went into her mouth, and she looks at him out of wide, beautiful eyes. “Huh?”
“I asked you if you lied to me when you said you didn’t do commissions.”
“Oh.” Another spoon of pudding. She’s still staring at him, half lost in thought again. He wonders if she’d let him get away with stealing a taste of her dessert. (Or of her lips.) “Well, I didn’t lie. I used to make a few back in high school. But I’ve only drawn for fun since I started uni.”
“Then I’m glad you made that exception for me.”
“You mean for your mom?”
“Yeah.”
///
She’s biting her lip again. She always does when she’s thinking about which part to paint next, and in those moments, Matteo has to remind himself that he should appear interested in what she’s doing, and not in her. Perhaps she believes he actually wants to learn about the right paper, or proper colors, but mostly he wants to learn about her. About the dimples in her cheek when she laughs, and the sensation of her fingertips on his skin. One time she forgot her hair tie, so some strands of her opened curls kept falling into her face, like a frame to a masterpiece, and in that moment, he wished he knew how to pin her beauty down on paper.
“Do you draw people too?”
“Is that your way of asking if I would draw you?” She doesn’t even look up from her canvas, just frowns at it as she dips her brush into her mixed shade of light blue again.
Matteo huffs, robbing an inch closer to her with his chair while he scans her face for a reaction. “Is that your way of telling me you thought about drawing me? Because I was just curious, to be honest.” And if, in fact, she did want to stare at him for hours to get the most delicate lines of his smile right, he’d be the last person to object.
No reply. The movements of her brush are the only sound in the living room. By now Matteo finds a rhythm in those movements, a melody he misses when she’s gone, sometimes.
Luna sighs. The brush pauses in its dance over the canvas. “Your curls would be a nightmare to sketch.”
“Wow, thanks. What have I done for you to be in such a good mood today?” (So far, she barely smiled at him, and he longs for a fraction of her focus.)
For the first time this afternoon, she turns away from her painting and gives him her full attention. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I like your hair.”
“You do?”
Her eyes pin down the paper on the table. “Yeah. I mean, the curls suit you, and they look super soft somehow. But I couldn’t do them justice on paper.”
Luckily, she already focuses on her painting again before he can’t contain the smile on his lips.
///
He thinks of her constantly. Not as much when he has a task to focus on, or when he’s with his friends or classmates. His imagination waits for him to be alone, when he stands in the middle of the supermarket aisle and can’t decide on what kind of pasta to buy, when his thoughts stray away from the lecture he’s supposed to follow. As soon as he’s alone with his mind, she’s everywhere.
Right now, Matteo walks home from the bus stop down the street and plays through a conversation where she admits she likes him just as much. Then, he makes up a scene where he catches her drawing him. As he opens the door to the apartment building and fumbles with the key for his mailbox, the Luna from his imagination is blushing wildly while he tells her how wonderful exactly he thinks she is.
There’s a yellow envelope in his mailbox. Bright yellow, the color of sunflowers in August, and no post stamp. It surprises him enough to shush every thought of Luna, at least for a moment. As he takes the stairs, he reads his name written in neat, cursive letters again and again, as if they’d reveal their secret like that. Finally, he glances at the back of the envelope, to discover Luna’s signature.
His feet freeze on the spot.
She sent him something, and it’s definitely not his mom’s birthday gift. They had lunch together yesterday, and she didn’t mention anything that could explain why she left an envelope in his mailbox. He has no idea what it hides, and now his heart is beating against his chest as he takes two steps at a time.
///
It’s a sketch. Of him.
There’s no note attached, not even a date. Just his face on an otherwise blank sheet. The smile she drew radiates the same feeling he gets in his stomach every time she laughs, and she added a sparkle to his eyes he never found in them himself. He wonders how she managed to make his curls look like they’re about to bounce out of the paper, and how long she studied him without him noticing. The mere idea heats his chest up.
If this is how Luna sees him, he might be the luckiest guy in this world.
///
Matteo thanks her for this drawing five times, and one more time as she walks through his door two days later. A smile graces her lips, and her hug surrounds him with her scent that never quite seems like perfume.
“How are you?” she asks, spreading brushes on the living room table.
“Fine. And you?” Do you randomly draw your friends all the time? Or is there the tiniest chance I’m more than just a weird guy who pays you for drawing a picture in front of him?
Those questions don’t leave his mouth. Instead, Matteo sits down next to her and listens to her explanations on drawing open water. Meanwhile, he imagines taking her to his parents’ beach house in Italy.
“So, I think I could be finished with this next week. When was your mom’s birthday again?”
In the last moment, he holds back the sigh that tries to slip over his lips. “In two weeks.” In two weeks, this will be over. Luna will draw at her desk at her home, and exams will be inching too close to waste a full hour with him in the cafeteria. The semester is coming to an end, merciless in its rush of time, and he still has no idea how he’s going to see her again.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Yellow,” Luna replies. “And yours?”
Matteo twirls his spoon in the coffee cup. (She almost dipped her brush into it three times today.) “Blue. Mixed with yellow, it’d be green, right?”
She rewards him with a smile along with her nod. “Yeah.” While she goes on about green and turquoise and color names he never heard of before, his gaze gets lost on her, dragging his thoughts along to the moon. The delicate skin around her eyes wrinkles because she’s smiling so much. Between teal and seaweed green, he stumbles upon the realization of how bright and clear her iris is. Like a gem stone carved out of the earth, polished just so the light could bring his miniature reflection in them alive.
“Like your eyes”, he mumbles, not fully aware his mouth turned his thoughts into words for her to hear.
Luna pauses. “What?”
Matteo clears his throat. “They’re super green.” Quieter, he adds, “And they’re beautiful.”
“Thanks.” Nothing more than a whisper, but her blushing cheeks say enough.
///
The week passes too quickly. He can’t afford to daydream during classes yet curses himself for letting time run out of his hands. Friday night brings him dreams of her, and he shrieks up an hour before his alarm clock. His mind is a Ferris wheel, high and low, Luna and his finals take turns riding it up to the moment she finally rings his door.
For the first time since they met, she’s wearing a dress. Mentally, he congratulates himself for changing into jeans and a decent shirt a few minutes ago, while he also has to fight the urge to stare at her for too long. He’s almost afraid of embracing her during their hug.
“That dress looks amazing,” he says. She hugs him tighter.
///
“I’m gonna miss you sitting here.”
Luna is almost finished, the last strokes of the brush, the last corrections and soon, she’ll scribble her signature into the corner. He doesn’t want her to leave, he doesn’t want to say goodbye to her after handing her the money he still owes her, and he doesn’t want to admit to himself that he screwed this up. It’s a desperate statement he lets slip out in resignation, and it’s of little comfort that his voice doesn’t tremble.
A hesitant smile sits on her lips as she glances at him. “I’m gonna miss you too.” Her honesty catches him off guard, allows him to hope, to search for right way to ask her out, but before he gathers a single word, she clears her throat. “It’s gonna be weird not having you watch me anymore. I mean, not that I’ll have time to draw during finals.”
Matteo silently nods. Inside, everything screams at him to take a chance before the paint dries and the ending can’t be changed anymore. “What’s the weirdest thing for you about drawing?”
A few seconds pass before she answers. Their knees bump into each other under the table, and he apologizes without meaning it one bit.
“Sometimes, when I look at people, I don’t really see them because I start to think about how I’d draw them. It’s like… picking them apart into single shades. Circles and squares and all that.”
His eyes dart towards the window, to buildings hiding the clear blue sky. He holds the air in his lungs, thinks twice, then jumps into the cold water. “Is that what you did too when you drew me?”
“Kinda.”
Silence. He catches her gaze. His breath hitches. “Drawing you was… different.”
“How so?” He knows they’re tip-toeing around each other, round and round, closer to a moment that’ll inevitably change something. Maybe even them. Hopefully.
“I’m not sure I can explain it.”
He doesn’t ask a second time.
///
The last brush is clean, the sketchbook back in her bag. He watches her as she puts on her shoes, heart racing in his chest. The clock next to the wardrobe ticks mercilessly, he can count along when Luna faces him, and they stare at each other out of words. Out of time.
“Thank you.”
She smiles. “Thank you too. I hope your mom will like it.”
“I’m sure she will.”
Her arms around his neck, one last time. Her scent in his nose, her curls falling into her face as they break apart. She hasn’t even left, and he already misses her.
“So, I guess I’m gonna go home now.” Her hand lingers on the doorknob.
“Good luck for studying,” he replies. The door opens. Ask her, say it, keep her here, if only for a second. With one step, she’s in the hallway. Turns around, grimaces. “Bye, then.”
His voice sounds hoarse. “Bye.”
The door closes. He let her go, he didn’t do any of the things he’s been dreaming, hoping for, and he’s the only one to blame. Matteo sighs, closes his eyes, curses.
The doorbell rings. With a frown on his forehead, he opens.
“Luna?”
“I forgot my bag.”
He steps away, and she hushes inside. “I’m sorry, sometimes I don’t know where my head is,” she says. Rambles. Her cheeks have turned into a soft pink. “Anyway, I’m gonna leave you alone now. Greet Gastón from me, okay?”
“Wait.” A plea, crossing his lips at the speed of light. Suddenly, Matteo feels afraid and brave at once, hesitant and determined. If this is his last chance, he won’t waste it. “Can I see you again?”
///
He still searches for her traces when she leaves. They’re not scattered around his apartment anymore, though, they’re all over his skin. A soft kiss, a delicate touch. Sometimes, a hint of paint when he got a little too impatient. Once, between his bedsheets, she whispers that he could be her new canvas. Matteo presses his lips on her temple and prays that she’ll never be done with him.
#soy luna#lutteo#my sl fanfiction#mandy gives no ducks#It took embarrassingly long to finish this but also I am not surprised with all the things I had to do lately#also thinking of a stupid title was way too hard
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Some doodles, detailed and not. I filled out my entire sketchbook and filled a third of it last week alone. I still don’t think they’re all that good, but I at least feel like I’m improving slightly.
If you’d like to know anything about these characters, just look below, or if you’re satisfied with the snap captions, that’s fine too.
Okay so every story needs a protagonist and this one happens to have 2! The top two are Wade and Kite, brothers who aren’t really brothers but will kick your ass if you assume otherwise.
Wade Michael “Monty” Montague is reserved and usually likes to take things from a slower or relaxed pace, which is extremely difficult to do when your brother has perpetual zest to train. Wade has two swords that allows him to bend light itself to his will and even create solid objects put of them. Ironically, defense is his better trait than offense, but that’s what Kite is for. Wade is super intelligent after awakening to his powers but is also super oblivious to anyone with feelings for him, yet ironically he gets very flustered once he realizes someone is flirting with him. He also has an unhealthy obsession with money and once watched paint dry for 12 hours for $20 bucks.
Kite Van Halen is super excitable and has an insatiable urge to fight for his friends and make girtls laugh while looking cool and awesome, but he’s also a major dork. He relies a lot on Wade to create effective strats to fight opponents, and his ability to manipulate fire energy into his massive sword, there’s not much he can’t cut or blow up. Whereas Wade specializes in creation, Kite erases, and can literally decimate a mountain if he’s mad enough. He flirts and flirts respectfully to most women he finds attractive, but is super respectful of boundaries and is totally prepared for rejection, but is also known dmfor one night stands on occasion. However, it should be noted that he totally shuts down if any girl flirts with him first.
Below them are their powered up “Soul Modes,” essentially super forms to their powers that makes over their clothes and bodies. They have two different forms that reflect their hearts.
Wade has the “incomplete” Remorse form. This is formed with anyone that holds on tightly to their past baggage, hates themselves, blames themselves for something, or has depression, all of which apply to Wade. He’s lost people he cares for, he blames himself for not being able to stop the pain his friends feel, and ultimately holds onto a lot of hatred imprinted onto him from abusive teachers, guardians, and classmates. Ultimately, Remorse form is just as powerful as it’s sister form, but anyone with this form makes their baggage plain to see with clothing of different color schemes to their prior forms, and in Wade’s case, a fantasy version of the clothes he worn before his life was changed for the better. Also, while your hair does weird stuff, your hair color ultimately stays the same. This form is somewhat shamed upon by some people, but ultimately encompasses 33% of Aura Type wielders that use Soul Mode. In this form, Wade is far stronger and faster and can create and implode a variety of geometrical shapes, including swords and four additional arms to wield them with a maximum sword wielding potential of six swords at once, but can also see into the hearts of others to track emotions, see lies from truths, track energy signals, and even telescopic x-ray vision, to some extent.
Kite has the “Perfection” form, indicated by small wardrobe changes, and most notably a change in hair color where it applies (Wade’s stays brown, while Kite changes from blond to bright red). This is formed in someone who generally has a good outlook on life and has come to terms with any baggage they have. Yes, you’ll always have it, but whereas Remorse is perpetual guilt and anger towards oneself, Perfection is the embodiment of the hatred towards wrong doers through the nurturing of self love and willingness to fight for the ones you love. In other words, even after the neglect and abuse from his own father and from some of his peers, his ability to keep moving on and persevere is what allows his heart to shine the brightest. In this form, Kite is a literal living nuke with the power to form massive energy bombs at will that erases anything it touches to a subatomic level, and his natural strength skyrockets to diamond crushing extremes. He can also see moves his enemies make roughly 2 and a half seconds before they can do anything about it, but doesn’t bother training the other stuff because Wade has it covered for him.
These two, brains and brawn, are unstoppable when paired together and have never had an incomplete mission or loss of a bounty on any team where they are both assigned to. No matter how crazy, Kite always delivers to Wade’s commands without hesitation, and have a strategy of “leap frog” to attack with Kite, block with Wade, and so on.
Wade also happens to be in a polyamorous relationship with the two below. I researched it a bit online and asked questions to those I know or others that have been or are in polyamorous relationships, and to be honest I decided I didn’t want a love triangle where anyone got their heart broken, so I did my best with what I knew.
Luna Lockhelm is a quick witted lady and has a sharp eye for detective work and mystery. In fights, she employs healing magic, limited control of shadows, and puppet like control over a suit of armor (poorly drawn) that has massive power and defense at its disposal in exchange for her being left wide open behind it, usually requiring some guarding assistance either from her twin sister, Silvia, or Wade. She seems perfect, pretty, lady like, a good cook, an excellent healer, and a great investigator, but ultimately Luna also has baggage, specifically indicated by her armor puppet. The death of her parents weighs heavy on her mind at all times, and she stays quiet about most of it and bottles it up until it just can’t be contained anymore. Yet ironically, she’s always there for others with a polite personality with the occasional snippy line for Kite now and then, and can be surprisingly aggressive when flirting or intimidating others.
Kaitlyn Koda Holton is a childhood friend to Wade and Kite before they left Earth and arrived to Gaeos. Kate considers Kite like a weird brother she never had, but has had a thing for Wade for most of the time they’ve known each other. She’s very bubbly and a bit tomboyish in personality, and was a star soccer and softball player in high school, and even had decent grades to top it off. She’s a very country girl with an odd culmination of accents from all the state’s she’s grown up in before her father settled to their last home. She’s very flirty when she likes someone, often serious about marriage and the like hidden under sarcasm and witt. She’s quick on the uptake when it comes to emotions and hidden intent and is a great people person, and also refuses to let any boy pass her up. She’s just as powerful as either Wade or Kite with power over wind AND electricity, a power rare even for Gaeosian Arts Wielders. When combined, she can move faster than the eye can follow, and has an armored form that allows her to tank most hits while attacking with deadly precision. Yet she can’t handle spooky stuff like ghosts.
How the three got into their relationship is complicated, but it ultimately boiled down to a simplistic love for one another. Kate has always crushed on Wade for as long as they’ve known each other, but he was very oblivious because of his own self hatred and unwillingness to take her marriage proposals and date nights as anything more than just friendliness. When Wade met Luna, he was smitten, but it was ultimately Luna’s guts that allowed her to (albeit forcefully) take him out on dates. Luna admired his intellect, and his face didn’t hurt either. Wade admired her personality and her hair. Luna and Kate accidentally fell for each other after hanging out and just finding out their common traits that ultimately just couldn’t be retained to friendship. Eventually, Wade finally started to realize K8’s feelings for him, and somehow or another this romantic triad was formed. Luna and Kate like to tease him for being lucky enough to have two cute girlfriends or by pointing out cute guys for him (he is bi but strongly leans to girls), but Wade and Luna also mess with Kate with small pranks and open displays of affection, and Wade and Kate mess with Luna by linking arms in public or by trying to spoil a book she hasn’t read yet with fake spoilers. Bless this happy mess.
The next guy is a dick. Cale Masters is a very intelligent jock that regularly messed with Wade and Kite regularly in high school and harassed Kate constantly. He would persistently ask her out despite her clear opposition to him due to his highly entitled, rude, and spoiled attitude, but he would never tale no for an answer. He bullied Wade regularly because of an incident in middle school involving ants and accidents in front of a girl he liked, which was inadvertedly caused by Wade by accident. Wade usually used social norms or Cale’s general gullibility to throw him off, but ultimately wasn’t as good of a fighter as he was until they left Earth. Kite on the other hand was more than a match for him, and Cale has never won a fight fairly to him. He has, however, lied and cheated to get Kite in tr double with family and authorities, even in situations where Cale was to blame. In other words, he’s the standard popular jock that that hid a very sociopathic side.
Somehow, Cale is able to manipulate all Crafts to his command when most people can only use one or two, and controls fire, water, earth, and darkness elements. Despite that, he and Wade are fairly matched in power, which endlessly irritates him. Kite and Kate, however, can easily kick his ass before and after earth.
The last guy is the main villain of the story that Cale serves directly under. Commander W leads a coalition known as the Anti MA to kill and suppress Arts wielders in an attempt to level the playing field to the 80% of people who cannot use Arts. However, he also uses dark forces and demons that ultimately does more harm than good, and is a wanted terrorist by most New Aeropean bureaus. He is incredibly intelligent and crafty with speech skills that rival most politicians, and knows very specifically which strings to pull to get his way. He us also studendously powerful with control over all elements and a very power Haze demon, and together the two have enough power to decimate towns and cities within seconds, and thinks nothing of killing civilians who parents politically important to his goals or sympathise with Artists. Nobody knows what’s under his helmet, nor what his true goal is if he were to have his way. Those who believe him call him charismatic, witty, and charming, while those that oppose know him to by psychotic, sociopathic, manipulative, and monstrous.
Anyway if you read all of this, thanks! And sorry. There are more characters, but I want to try redrawing them before showing them. Once I’m finished with all of these damn papers, I’m going to actually write again. Sadly, not until then. I will try to draw now and then to relax and improve! This is very relaxing for me.
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A shy kiss Po and Tigress
@lightningwolfomega
Tigress made her way though the palace barracks. Everyone was away, and she and Po had pulled the short straws for watching the Jade Palace while master Shifu and the rest of the five played arbitrators and peace keepers for two feuding family’s over land disputes. And since Po was off trying to meditate at the Dragon Grotto, she was on her lonesome. So she decided to be a bit mischievous and peruse though her friends belonging.
Monkey’s room was spartan and a tad plain. She surmised it had to be his love of hiding his belongings out of sight were he could meditate, secure in their safety from prying eyes. Po was still having trouble finding his almond cookies after he moved their hiding spot for the third time.
Cranes room was filled with walls covered in his beautiful calligraphy. Words and symbols conveying perfect meaning and definition. He had tutored all of them at one point or other. Po was his newest project. His once sloppy but legible writing was now starting to rival Cranes own brush work.
Mantis’s room could be considered a full scale model of the training hall. And even more fit on the table in the center that contained his whole living space. Small scrolls on the basic physiology of all morphological builds of the species that lived across China. With four or five comparably large ones donated by the Pandas. Mantis was ecstatic to finally have scrolls that helped him on a pandas heath needs instead of drawing on, and potentially ruining, perfectly good scrolls just to accommodate one panda.
Vipers room was perfectly clean and filled with everything that had even a remote relation to her. Her dancing ribbons. Pictures of her family. Dry, but well preserved flowers from her mother. And a letter Po sent her asking about when Mei Mei was going to need his support for her performance for the valley. The reply in short said, no. Mei Mei was fine and just needed practice in rehearsal.
Finally she came upon Po’s room. Which could be described as a well organized mess. The wall lined with posters of Kung-fu masters present and past. More then a few of the Furious Five, obviously featuring her. In fact they made up the majority of the posters. And on his desk were his hand carved wooden figures. All of the five, save her, in a battle ready Kung-fu pose. Her figure was in a relaxed tai-chi pose. She suddenly found herself realizing the special treatment she was receiving from Po. He made no secret that she was his favorite in his days before knowing the five more personally.
Then their was the revelation that she was his first experience with Kung-fu, the day he saw her take down the villain Boar. She was his idol from day one. She was his first crush. So of course he would be awkward around her. If you just straight up told your hero upfront that they were the object of ��your desire it would cause major problems. But Po handled it pretty well, dropping it on her sooner rather then later that he harbored feelings for her that, in his own words, “Id soon grow out of.” She had to wonder how much of it he actually grew out of. He always seemed…enthusiastic to be around her.
Well she had to have feeling about him too. Seeing that he had become something she had desired. The Dragon Warrior. And he was the only other animal her size in the whole valley. She had to guess that her being the same to him was a factor of his infatuation. They were both giants in a place filled with, and built for animals smaller then the two of them. She once believed that she was the largest living thing in the valley. Meeting Po changed that. He was taller, and wider.
Fine by her though. He was as soft as he was big. And Po loved hugs. She never realized how touch deprived she was before she learned to accept that Po was a very physical animal. Once again she had to realize that being as big as he was at a young age must have kept him from being able to play rough. She was lucky. Her adoption into the palace gave her a place to cut loose. Po? He must have lived his whole life being careful with his strength. It showed with his claws. He chewed them down into blunt stubs. Normal panda claws were as deadly as tigers. And non-retractable to boot.
Her eyes fell upon a book on his desk. She opened it. Inside were…admirably well drawn sketches of her, the five, Shifu, Mr Ping, the villains they faced, and himself. All of it well inked with flowing lines and curves and the dates in small symbols next to each doodle.. The style was simplistic, yet also carried weight. The dynamic poses. The addition of plants like reeds and bamboo shoots at their feet. All of it made the contents from cooking and dancing to relaxation and fighting stand out.
She flipped back to the pages of the book. She wanted to see what Po drew before he lived with them. The drawings were slightly more amateurish. But still well done for what must have been his growing skill. But she began to notice a running theme. Some of the painting were colored. Reds and whites and vertical black streaks dominated everyone of them. Like a snowy forest bathed in a sunset or fire.
And she saw it. In everyone of them. A great white smear, like a formless monster, dotted with red eyes. Accompanied by smaller shadows with similar red eyes.
On the days following his defeat of Tai-Lung and his moving into the Jade Palace. When Po began sleeping in the barracks after moving, she often noticed at some nights he would wake up suddenly, get up to sketch, then eat. Not the hungry eating that she saw everyday. The upset eating every time Po felt distressed.
She then heard the wood floor creaking under the weight of a three hundred pound bear.
“You know if you wanted to look you just had to ask.” Po said. His unoffended expression said he was just a bit annoyed with her breaking into his privacy. And more then greatly amused that she could even be doing what she was doing.
She was once again hit by how much older they had become after their last great victory. Her fur on her cheeks were just a bit droopy and longer. It had been a while since Viper took her out for “Girl time.” And the white fur of Po’s chin was starting to sport the beginnings of a longer beard. So he must have neglected or ignored his grooming rituals.
Tigress spoke. “So, Dragon Warrior, how did you know about my…snooping.” Po walked over next to her. “Oh it’s just my super awesome Enlightened superpower of knowing when someone is in my room messing with my stuff.”
Tigress wore a puzzled but equally amused expression. “Also, Zeng saw you and told me after my meditation. That little snitch needs a hobby.” Tigress chuffed a laugh. “You are the grand master of the palace. Should you not be informed of what happens in your Dominion?” Po smiled broadened. “If it means I get to catch snooping tigers then I guess so.”
He looked past her to the open page of his sketchbook. “Oh look at that! You found my little collection of bad dreams!” Now was the time to ask. “How long had you’ve had dreams about him?” Po’s expression grew somber. “Since I was a little cub. I couldn’t understand any of it. My dad never let me sleep alone until I got myself under control. Its kinda hard to be a kid if your dreading going to sleep.” He sighed “I don’t think ill ever be OK with what happened that night.”
She halted. “What about your inner peace?” Po smiled. She had just walked herself into another moment of Po being unexpectedly profound. “Inner peace isn’t a lifetime deal Ti. You have to constantly reevaluate yourself, your state of mind. Becoming enlightened or having an epiphany doesn’t mean all your inner strife is magically solved. It means that you understand why you are the way you are.”
Tigress absorbed her master’s wisdom. Digesting every word. “Your right Po. It is strange to hear you becoming the next Oogway.” Po laughed. “Well at least I’m not becoming Shifu. I don’t think I can act like I’m constantly about to kick someone down the stairs.” She blew a stifled laugh through her nose. “There is only room for one Shifu. And a second might tear a hole in space and time.”
Po smiled and sighed “You know it’s you saying stuff like that that makes it hard to get over my crush for you.”
Tigress considered her thoughts. “Well Po…you becoming wiser and more mature has…showed me how I might find someone like…you…worthy of my attention.” Po was paused. And then he was unpaused. “Are you saying that you consider me, attractive?”
“In small doses.” He smiled a smile that became dangerously coquettish. “What about me do you find attractive?”
“your heart mostly. You know how to speak to people. Even if they wont listen. In body, id say your belly. Its your best feature.”
“No kidding that’s what pandas love best!” He looked her directly in the eyes. “But you still have reservations…on me as a partner.”
“I’m not looking for a relationship Po. But I can…attempt to…sample what its like. But even if it fails. We’ll still be friend?”
“Yeah Ti. We’ll always be friends.”
She moved over towards him, slowly. She had never done this before and was more than a little nervous. And gave him a kiss on his cheek.
The smile plastered on his face spoke volumes “So just to be sure, you’re not just looking to be the one who deflowered the Dragon warrior right?”
“Don’t make it weird.”
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