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chibirenamon · 7 years ago

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Within her grasp: Chapter 8

Fandom: Kung Fu Panda

Rating: T

Pairing: Crane/Tigress

Also on: Fanfiction.net, AO3

The first day after his dramatic departure from the Jade Palace had been easy. A simple exercise in self delusion: Crane had left to vent, had found a tavern, had gotten smashed, and was on the way back, due to arrive any minute now. The second day had been much, much harder: Crane had left for good, Master Shifu was going to pin the blame on her, and he would be right. Today, on day three, the name of the game was paranoia: Crane was probably in the next country by now, and any sound outside was caused by Master Shifu, obviously preparing to banish her in some humiliating and maybe painful way. She had even had the foresight to pack her few belongings into a small bag, and the servants had been instructed to smuggle it out if Master Shifu didn't give her time to get it. The moment of truth arrived during lunch. The kitchen staff had prepared a somewhat fancy and rather sweet meal in the hopes of cheering her up a little bit, but she couldn't really enjoy it, what with the whole banishment business and all that. The door behind her slid open noisily, and Tigress closed her eyes. The servants never made any noise with the doors, so this just left her severely aggravated Master. Or a robber. That'd actually be preferable. When nobody stabbed her or tried to shove her to the ground, she sighed. Was worth a shot. The person behind her didn't speak, and Tigress knew that she was supposed to turn around. After taking her last deep breath as a student of the Jade Palace, she looked over her shoulder. "Yes, it's my fault that he's-" She froze when she found herself looking not into Master Shifu's eyes, but rather at two spindly legs. "-Crane!?" "Well, I'm pretty sure it's my parents fault that I'm Crane," the bird mused calmly, and Tigress finally looked up. "Regarding the name, they probably conspired with the parents of a tigress named Tigress." When she just opened and closed her mouth in disbelief, he gave her a weak smile. "Hey." "...hey," Tigress finally managed to reply and had to laugh at the banality of it. Crane shifted his weight and looked past her. "You mind if I help myself to a quick bite? I didn't have anything to eat today." He paused. "...at least I think so. How long have I been gone?" Well, sounds like I wasn't the only one who was adrift for a while there. "You have been gone for three nights," she informed him, then frowned. "How little sleep did you get in order to lose track of the time so badly?" "Hrm," he just replied and reached past her with one leg to pick up a dumpling. Then he stopped right before putting it into his mouth. "Actually, no. Wait." He put it back down. "Let me apologize first. Then I can eat while you chew me out." Tigress gave him a long stare. "Apologize? You?" He stared back. "...yes? Absolutely?" He took off his hat - his head looked small without it somehow - and took a deep breath. "Tigress, I would like to apologize for letting my emotions get in the way of your training. A Master is not supposed to walk out on his student, much less throw some idiotic hissy fit. I have never had students of my own - I just got my title recently - and it shows. I lack the... the wisdom and the patience of a true Master." He bowed deeply. "I will leave it up to you if you want to continue training under such a rookie teacher or if you want to stick to the tried and true methods of your real Master." I... wow. He almost took this worse than I did. And he's not exactly wrong, but... I'm wronger. I mean, I'm worse. But he's in a bad place now, emotionally. Master Shifu already chewed him out before he left, and now here we are, apparently with proof that he had been right all along. I need to handle this with all the tact that I got. She picked up his dumpling and casually tossed it in his general direction. "Catch." "Wha-" Crane, in his apparently sleep-deprived state, almost dropped it and had to snap it up with his beak just before it hit the ground. "Food's getting cold, you blabbering idiot," she muttered, hoping that he'd notice her slight smile. "Also, I hope you at least wiped your feet before you touched my food." Chewing slowly, it was now Crane's turn to give her a look of disbelief. "Oh, just sit down." He did as he was told - it was a weird sight, given that what she thought of as knees bent the wrong way - and when he carefully reached for another dumpling with his wing, she waved impatiently. "Yes, yes, yes." A sigh. "Look, I appreciate that you apologized, but we both know that I'm the one who caused this mess in the first place. I spied on you, I lied about it, and then I let it slip in a way that probably looked as if I wanted to rub it in. I'm... I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable like that. I'm sorry for apparently making you doubt yourself and your methods. If you want to inform Master Shifu that my people skills are complete garbage and that I caused you grief, I will accept it without protest." Not that that'd be news to him... For long seconds, neither of them spoke. Finally, Crane took a deep breath, and Tigress braced herself for the worst. "Tigress..." He sighed and shook his head. "These dumplings are terrible." The bird smiled when Tigress broke out into an utterly confused laugh. "I mean, really, did you tell the staff to make them extra-sweet?" He's not mad! He's not mad! The revelation made her feel giddy. We both apologized, and things can go back to normal now, maybe? "I'm afraid the staff tried to cheer me up with sweets, but I actually kinda like them, so you can leave the rest-" She waved at the bowl of dumplings and froze when she realized that it was now just a bowl, period. "YOU STILL ATE THEM? ALL OF THEM?" When? How? ...gah, I forgot about that giant beak again! "I was hungry! I suffered through the entire bowl!" He was grinning widely, even while pretending to be a poor, tortured soul. "You jerk!" She playfully punched his shoulder, and the two engaged in a brief slap fight. "So, we're... good?" Crane carefully asked when both of them were panting lightly from the sudden workout. Tigress smiled. "I think so, yes," she finally answered. "We both could've handled this one better, and I think we both learned from it." "And we'd both be dead if Master Shifu ever learned about this," Crane added and reached for another bowl of food. Tigress forced herself not to react as she watched the entire content disappearing in his beak. He's hungry, and you just settled on being friends again. It would be bad manners to openly fight over the food. Still, she reached for a bowl herself - now that her anxiety was gone, her appetite was returning. "Yes, it'd be best if we didn't mention this to him," she agreed. "Mh." He chewed, nodded and swallowed. "I suppose I still owe you an answer, though." When he noticed her confused look, he shrugged. "Mei Ling?" Tigress immediately tensed up. She had spent quite a bit of the last few days thinking about this name. "It's fine," she cut him off, "you don't have to say it. The wound is probably too fresh and too painful." Crane gave her an odd look. "It... wasn't that bad...? And it's not exactly what I'd call a fresh wound, either." "It's... not?" She blinked. "I... I figured that you-" Loved? "-liked her a lot, but didn't dare to ask her out, and that she then died in the avalanche?" There was the subtlest twitch underneath his feathers when Tigress mentioned the avalanche that had destroyed his old school, and she made a mental note not to throw that word around so carelessly anymore. "I indeed liked Mei Ling. A lot, yes. And you're right that I never dared to ask her out. It wouldn't have worked out, really. She had skill, she had class, she had admirers, and I... was pretty much the opposite of that. Sure, we were good friends, but I was reasonably certain that I would have pushed her away if I had tried to turn it into more than that. And then..." He sighed, and Tigress cringed. "I'm sorry, Crane, I never should have brought this up. You don't have to-" "...I changed schools." "-finish this if it's too-" Tigress froze. "You what?" Crane chuckled quietly. "I told you that I changed schools. You know, when I ranted about my Master and how he was horrible and all that." He waved his wing. "Mei Ling had been an advanced student at that first school. She's the one who helped me get started with Kung Fu, which is maybe why I never felt good enough for her. There were worlds between us, and not just in terms of skill. It was a crush that didn't work out. Maybe with more time, maybe if I hadn't changed schools, maybe, maybe, maybe." "I'm sorry," she whispered and, following an instinct, held out her hand. "It's fine," Crane muttered and reached out with his wing... to drop a half-filled bowl in her hand. Tigress was torn between laughing and clubbing Crane to death with the bowl. In the end, she settled for a dramatic gasp. "For me? Oh, you shouldn't have..." Crane gave her a grin. "I didn't come here to have you feel sorry for me. I've done plenty of that already." "Yeah, you just came here to eat all my food." "Exactly!" Crane nodded eagerly. "And maybe to teach me how to properly snag annoying birds out of the air." "Oh, right, that whole Kung Fu thing." He waved his wing dismissively. "Sure, whatever." "Couldn't have wished for a more passionate Master," she snarked, and he grinned again. Of course, there were things that still needed to be addressed. Important things. Crucial things. Things where Crane apparently thought that Tigress was... beautiful? How do you even talk about something like that? Hey, Crane, I heard you find me beautiful, please tell me more? Yeah, no. Last time I tried to chat about personal issues without a proper plan, I made him flip over tables and leave for several days. She looked into his eyes... and found him looking at her. Both quickly averted their eyes. "So," they said simultaneously and laughed sheepishly. "You go first," Tigress quickly told him before the situation could become any more awkward. "Well." He stood up and put on his hat. "I'm not sure how disappointed you're going to be, but I'd suggest that we both get an extra dose of sleep today. Maybe a little bit of light training or meditation, and then a good twelve hours of sleep. I slept very little while I was out and about, and you don't exactly look well-rested, either." He paused. "No offense." "I... could probably use some sleep, yes," she admitted. Anything to give me more time to figure out if or how I should broach that subject. They decided to call it a day less than three hours later, having passed the early afternoon mostly with exercises that would normally count as mild warm-up. Neither of them spoke much during that time; Tigress knew the reason for her own silence, but she was less sure if her Master avoided longer exchanges for a similar reason. It felt weird to lie on her thin mattress while the sun was still up, but she knew she'd be fast asleep soon- Crane had been absolutely right in that she hadn't had a good night's rest since he had left. Still, she felt the desire to say something, anything. Going by the sounds coming from Crane's room, the bird wasn't fully at peace yet himself. "Hey," she finally said loud enough for him to hear through the thin walls. Crane apparently froze, or at least the sounds stopped. "...hey," he finally answered, sounding cautious. "I... I just wanted to say thanks," she said, praying that her conversational skills wouldn't fail her again. "For coming back, I mean." He chuckled quietly and seemed to relax. "You're welcome. I guess Master Shifu would've been mad about you causing your poor, traumatized replacement Master to exile himself into the hostile wilderness." Tigress let out a short laugh. "My poor, traumatized Master cheated and then tried to make me run into a tripwire - I think Master Shifu would have understood," she lied. "But no, I'm thankful because-" I like you? "-I like having you around. You're a fun guy, and you were right that I'm actually enjoying my training again now that my closest comparison in terms of skill isn't infinitely far away." She waited for him to answer, but he was silent. "You're a good teacher, Crane. Much better than you give yourself credit for. If anything, I'm the problem here." She sighed quietly. "I'm stubborn. I'm arrogant. I'm impulsive. I'm... I'm not good with people. Never really learned it, I suppose. I got Kung Fu, and I cling to it. I want to become a Master so badly because... because I don't know what else to want. Does that make sense? No, don't answer that. It probably doesn't. But... I haven't really been thinking all that much about the title during the last couple of days. Maybe I've just needed someone like you. Or... just you. As a friend. Maybe more? I don't even know, this is uncharted territory for me." She smacked her forehead with one hand and dragged it down over her face, groaning in frustration. "I'm rambling, I'm sorry. You must think I'm crazy, right?" A few seconds passed. "Right? ...Crane?" She got up and held her breath. Crane was breathing softly... Breathing in, breathing out. In, out. A nice, slow, even rhythm. The rhythm of somebody who had fallen asleep minutes ago. Tigress smiled ruefully and lay back down. "Goodnight, Crane." Their plan to catch up on sleep almost worked. Having picked up on a quiet whine and a sudden pop, Tigress's brain was still considering whether or not to check it out when her door was yanked open with enough force to make it jump off its rail. "WAKE UP!" She was on her feet and in a defensive stance before the door hit the floor. "Wha-" "COME ON!" Tigress blinked. What just happened? She heard the scratching sounds of talons on wood. Crane? What's going on? She shook her head and got dressed in seconds. The she sprinted along the corridor and jumped dow the stairs. Moments later, she was outside. "Crane!" The bird was frantically searching the night sky. "Where'd it come from? Why was nobody on guard? This is insanity!" What? Tigress squinted at her Master. Is this some sort of prank? No, probably not, he looks legitimately spooked. "Crane?" she asked softly. "Please, what are you talking about?" He shot her an angry glare, and Tigress actually took a step backwards. "What am I talking about?" He flapped his wings in agitation and leaned forward menacingly. "What am I talking about?" Okay, wow, he's losing it. Or maybe he already lost it. Either way, he's in a very bad place right now. "Crane, please, could you just-" "THE ALARM!" Crane roared, making her back off further. "Are you such a spoiled rookie brat that you literally slept through the alarm fireworks? REALLY?" He angrily jabbed a wing against her chest, making her stumble. "And you dream of becoming a Master with this kind of attitude?" He kept on ranting, but Tigress was barely listening to him anymore - something was bothering her. Well, a lot was bothering her, but one thing in particular stood out: "Alarm fireworks?" Crane raised one wing menacingly, and for a moment, Tigress was convinced that he was going to slap her. But then he froze as her question was being processed by his brain, giving Tigress a chance to take a closer look at the bird's face. Yeah, he's gone. They probably used fireworks as alarm signals back at the Floating Temple, and now he's, what, having some sort of flashback? Trauma? Tigress had little knowledge of psychology, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that a catastrophic event like losing the entire school in an avalanche had left a few scars. Crane blinked, as if he was only now realizing who he was talking to. "Yes... of course. The alarm fireworks. Why don't... you..." He slowly lowered his wing as his brain dragged his consciousness back into the here and now. "You... you don't use fireworks for the alarm, do you?" Okay, easy now... She gently reached out with one hand and put it on his wing. It was trembling. "The Valley of Peace and the surrounding villages use gongs to signal for help." "But what about-" "The village is preparing for a festival tomorrow. The fireworks were probably set off by some over-eager kids." "Ah." Crane shifted his weight to the other foot. His wings twitched. "So there was no reason for me to-" His beak clicked shut as he reviewed what he had said and done during the last couple of minutes. "Great, that's just..." He was obviously struggling to hold back stronger language. "I'm sorry, I need to-" Tigress closed the distance and pulled him into a tight hug before he could take off. "It's fine," she whispered and closed her eyes. "Don't go." "But-" She felt him trying to spread his wings, but there was no strength behind the gesture. "But-" He let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry," he finally whispered back. "Don't worry about it," she told him. "We both said things during the last few days we regretted, and you still have a better excuse than I did." "I suppose." It took him a few minutes to calm down. Finally, he chuckled. "Now... are you still hugging me because you're afraid I'll fly off again?" Tigress's eyes flew open as she realized she still had her arms wrapped around him. Say yes. No, wait, say no. Say something heartfelt! ...right, like what? Ugh. Okay, fine, do what you do best. "We both know you'd do it just spite me." "Oh, I'm sure Master Shifu wouldn't mind if I left as long as it wasn't your fault. After all... how did you put it again...? Oh, right, I cheated and then tried to make you run into a tripwire. I'm such a villain." Tigress let go of him, if just to playfully slap his wing. "Very funny." As it turned out, not hugging did not make the situation less awkward. "So," Crane said, one of his talons idly scratching the ground. "So," Tigress echoed and gave him a look. Her Master was smiling, but she could tell that it was just a mask. "We... should probably go back to bed." Crane accompanied the suggestion with a lame gesture to point at the house, as if he feared that she might have forgotten where she had slept for the majority of her life. "Right," Tigress agreed, but held out her arm to stop Crane from moving past her. "But first, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you are going to get any sleep." She could see him tensing up, and for a split-second, he shot her an angry glare out of the corner of his eye. But then he composed himself, carefully putting on a neutral mask. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. "Of course I-" His wing twitched visibly. After a long second of silence, he looked down. "At least you should get some sleep," he finally muttered. "You're right, I'll surely get a good night's sleep, knowing that you'll spend the entire time tossing and turning as you live through your worst-" "FINE," Crane snapped, only to immediately look around guiltily. "Sorry, sorry..." He sighed. "So what do you suggest?" "C'mon!" Tigress smiled and led the way towards one of the larger buildings. "At this point, I feel that I should've seen this one coming," Crane commented drily when they arrived in the kitchen. "Food seems to your answer to everything." "Considering that you keep eating my food, you're in no position to complain," Tigress answered and wagged her finger. "Besides, I got an active metabolism, I can't help it." The stove hadn't been used in a few hours, but Tigress had little trouble getting a small fire going. Crane tilted his head as he watched her pour water into a kettle. "We're making... tea?" "Well, right now, I'm making tea," she corrected him and smirked. "You're just watching." "Fine," he conceded. "Do you need a hand?" Tigress opened her mouth, then paused. "...you don't have hands." "Well, I can't help you, I don't have-..." He cocked his head as his brain finally processed her answer, then he laughed. "You're good! I honestly thought I'd be able to make that joke at least once. You'd be surprised how often people fell for this back at..." He looked down. At the Floating Temple. Poor Crane. Tigress sighed quietly. At this rate, he'll have left before the water is boiling. "Do you know why I'm making tea?" "You want to have an excuse to eat?" He shifted uncomfortably under her scowl. "You intend to mix some knock-out drug into the tea because I'm clearly not well and you're worried about me doing something stupid while you're asleep?" Tigress's eyes widened at that. Either the Floating Temple had harsher methods than I thought, or Crane has a really low opinion of me. "Sorry, I don't do poison, but I could drive your dumb beak through a wall to knock you out," she offered. "I think I'll pass, thanks." He rolled his eyes. "So why are you making tea?" "Well, I was thinking of tea and cookies in the fancy sitting room so we can... talk?" Crane was staring openly, and Tigress wasn't sure if it was because of the suggestion or because he had not expected her to use words like "tea and cookies" or "fancy" without irony. "It feels weird to be the one asking this, but... are you feeling well?" he finally asked, and she wasn't sure if he was actually concerned or if he was mocking her. "I'm serious, Crane," she informed him curtly. "You... want to... talk? At goodness knows when in the middle of the night?" "Well, it's not like either of us will be sleeping well for the next hour or two," she muttered. This was a stupid idea. Just call it quits and tell him that you were kidding. Make up something about a combat challenge. That'll be stupid, but less stupid than fancy tea time. I mean, really, did you- She roughly shoved her self-doubt out of the way. "We can talk about the Floating-" Crane turned to leave. Stupid, Tigress! "Crane!" Stupid, stupid, Tigress! "WHAT!?" he screamed, giving her an enraged look over his shoulder. Tigress stumbled backwards, her hand barely missing the hot stove top. "FLOATING TEMPLE THIS, FLOATING TEMPLE THAT! YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT THE FLOATING TEMPLE SO BADLY?" He leaped over to her with one flap of his giant wings and stood in front of her at full height, glaring down at her. Tigress leaned backwards, and she felt herself sliding into an awkward crouch to put at least a few inches of distance between them. Yeah, I definitely pushed too far, too quickly. But really, he can't keep this bottled up forever. "Crane, I'm sorry-" "IT'S GONE!" he roared, and only now could she see the tears running down his cheeks. "AN AVALANCHE TOOK IT! SEVERAL OF MY FRIENDS DIED!" The bird was gasping for breath and cursed under his breath. "They're dead. My school is gone, people I knew are now gone, and I'm alone." He roughly wiped over his face with one wing. "There. End of story. Good talk." He turned around again and headed for the door, leaving Tigress with a horrible sense of déjà vu. He's leaving. Again. Because I screwed up. Again. She gritted her teeth. I believe I did the right thing, but he's... he's lost in his own world. She got up and hurried after him. This is going to be the dumbest or smartest thing ever - so let's see whether I'm right or horribly wrong. "Crane, please stay," she said and put her hand on his shoulder just as he was about to leave the kitchen. She knew what was coming even before she felt the sudden shift of his muscles. "LEAVE-" Crane snapped even as he whirled around, his outstretched wing slamming straight... into Tigress's palm. Before he could process what had happened, she tightened her grip and twisted the wing upwards behind his back, forcing him to bend over. "Anger is the biggest enemy of a warrior," Tigress recited one of the earliest lessons Master Shifu had taught her. The struggle was short and extremely one-sided: Crane was a Kung Fu Master, but he was acting mostly on emotions at the moment, and Tigress was not exactly a novice when it came to close-range brawling on firm ground. "Okay, fine, I give up!" he finally conceded, and she let go. "Will you stay?" He gave her a dark look, but then sighed. "Fine, I'll stay. At least until I calmed down enough to not lose a stupid fight against you." Oh, thank goodness! "That's good enough for me." She smiled. If he calms down that far, he won't try to leave in a fit of rage, anyway. Probably. Crane rolled his eyes. "Ugh, this is like my first year all over again." "What is?" Tigress asked as she slowly moved towards the stove again, keeping an eye on Crane in case that he decided to make a dash for it. The water was almost boiling, and she fetched a large tea pot. "Bullying by jerks," Crane replied, but she could tell that he was trying to lighten the mood. "Picking on rookies? That's low." She put tea leaves in the pot and poured some hot water over them. Master Shifu hadn't really focused on teaching her the finer details of a proper tea ceremony, but she had picked up a few pointers here and there. She emptied the pot again, leaving only the wet leaves inside, and then filled the pot with the rest of the hot water. "I hadn't been a rookie," Crane muttered and came over to smell the tea. "Oh, right, I forgot, you had been slightly advanced when you got there." He gave her a look and smirked. "No, I meant my first school, the Lee Da Academy. First year there, I hadn't been a rookie." "Did you-" "I had been a janitor." A janitor? Tigress gawked. "Did you maybe hit your head when we were scuffling...?" Giving your temporary Master brain damage would probably make Master Shifu mad, no matter how much he dislikes the bird. He laughed quietly. "I'm not delirious, I assure you. I just got into Kung Fu in a weird way." "As... a janitor." "As a janitor," he confirmed. She frowned lightly. "At the risk of making you mad again, I feel like pointing out-" "Yes, yes, I know." Crane waved his wing impatiently. "I'm not doing this to avoid talking about the Floating Temple. I just figure that, if we got a few hours to kill, I might as well start at the beginning." "Very well, but if I figure you're stalling-" "-you'll beat me up again, yes." He rolled his eyes and smirked. "Bully." "Cheater," she replied and stuck out her tongue. "Just tell me where to find those cookies." He dramatically covered his face with one of his wings. "Maybe I shall escape further beatings if you have something to eat." "In that case, you take care of the tea here and I get the cookies. That way, at least a few of them will actually make it to the sitting room." "Oh, how I miss the good old times when you respected your Master instead of accusing him of eating more than his well-earned share of food." He sighed deeply, and Tigress made a mental note to ask which of his two schools had also offered acting classes. "What good old times?" Tigress scoffed. "The good old times when I was falling to my death, the good old times when you shot a few hundred arrows at me, or the good old times when you tossed me down the stairs while we were sparring?" He smirked. "I said that you respected me, not that liked me." "Good." She crossed her arms. "Because I indeed don't like you." Liar. He huffed at this. "Likewise." And with that, he grabbed the teapot and two cups and headed out of the kitchen. "Liar," Tigress whispered and smiled.

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