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Tigress couldn’t sleep. Her eyes were glued to the ceiling as she tried to catch the wild herd of thoughts running around in her mind as the day as it had occurred played on loop. The good, the bad (though she had to admit there was little that was upsetting) … and the kiss.
Well: It hadn’t been a real kiss, but close to it. She tried to focus on the feeling of the party that was mostly one of happiness and peace.
Though her brain conveniently accentuated the “mostly” quite expertly.
It crept around, launching its dirty fingers around her heart and emptying it, filling all of which was filled with satisfaction from her day with a desire.
A deep-seated desire that had existed for a while, but that she only realized existed today: She wanted a real kiss.
She wanted a real kiss from Po. She had wanted him to be bold and go ahead.
She thought about it and decided to be a little mad at him for it, but quickly recognized she had been quite the chicken too.
Tigress could’ve gone ahead too. Made the move, not back down when they were humiliated. She should’ve stood up for their shared feelings.
Then again, she hadn’t been sure in that moment what she was feeling.
But she sure as heck was now! ‘At just the right time!’, she thought in a very sarcastic tone to herself.
After another hour of tossing and turning (it probably had only been five minutes, but an hour sounded more dramatic and not as pathetically rushed to her), she had enough, ‘asleep or not, I gotta confront him now’.
With trembling limbs, Tigress slowly shuffled over the wooden floor to Po’s room. Her paw stretched out and backed away over and over before she finally opened the paper door.
Instead of a sleeping Po, she however was confronted by a wide-awake Panda, standing in front of the door, looking at her with a questioning look which made her shriek a little too loudly, at which she shut her own mouth with the paw that hadn’t opened the door.
“You know the floor is creaky and the paper walls are thin: Hectically prancing back and forth my door isn’t exactly stealthy”, Po commented with a half serious, half very bemused expression, delivered with a surprisingly stern and quiet voice.
“I was not prancing!”, Tigress exclaimed defensively with a strong yell-screaming. She also felt quite flustered, thinking of the reason she was here again and decided this might’ve been a bad idea. But she wouldn’t show that: She was too proud for that.
“Ok ok, chill”, he answered his voice quieting down even more, “it’s all good… though…just… what exactly are you doing here at this time?”
“I…ugh…I”, she started, but didn’t know how to express it. Po recognized her distress and immediately felt a peng in his chest. All he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and rock her back and forth… ‘No! That is a no’, he thought to himself and felt as is cheeks reddened.
“Wh- what’s wrong?”, he asked instead with a very strong stutter that almost made him cursed.
He was a mess. Though what he didn’t know was, that Tigress was as well: A gigantic mess.
How was she supposed to initiate this? What was she thinking when she planned to ask him for a kiss?
Both of them thinking led them to look at each other. But not just briefly like they usually did. It was not an amiable look, nor stern, nor annoyed or angry, nor secretly admiring. It was a deep kind of glance that bore itself deep into your soul when you use it, and any kind of ability to think melts away and you are only filled with calm and distress. Sadness and happiness. Everything and nothing at once and at the end, when you’ve looked long enough, you recognize peace within your own stormy sea. A light at the end of your dark tunnel.
You are pulled towards it and you feel you are coming closer to the source.
And so, Po and Tigress came walking towards each other. Slowly but surely. Small and slow steps, but firm as well and with a subconscious intent.
Po felt his hands finding its way up to Tigresses face, cupping her soft, orange furred cheeks whilst Tigresses paws began to rest on Po’s chest. It just felt natural.
They were so close to each other now, that they could feel each other’s hot breath and they could swear they could hear each other’s thoughts. And so, when their gazes met even stronger Po could read her fiery eyes like a book. They were gently pleading. His heart was pounding so strongly against his chest, that he was sure she could feel it, and that she could. But it felt almost calming to her, reassuring, that she wasn’t the only one that was unsure and nervous.
But then finally, this magnetic pull had him in his grasp and even his pounding heart couldn’t stop him from the mutually desired action: He kissed her. And she, with more fiery passion than she had anticipated.
After about a minute of staying in this pleasant and satisfactory position they broke apart for air, and also because there were small things unsaid.
“Glad we could finish what we had started”, Po simply whispered.
“I’m glad you went ahead this time”, Tigress answered with a cheeky smile, “though I have to admit: I wasn’t quite brave either, and I behaved like a teenager after we were caught by your dads and I shouldn’t-“
“Hey hey hey”, Po interrupted her unusually chattery flow of words. He had to smile: He loved how fluttered she was, “it’s all ok. It’s all good now. You were brave enough to just go to my room for this, weren’t you? I would’ve never done that”,
“How did you know that’s what I came here for?”, she asked curiously
“What else would you be here for? All stuttering and flustered? In the middle of the night? Admittedly, I didn’t know at first, but after that fire work of a kiss I’m pretty sure of it”
“I gotta say: Your people reading skills are better than a I thought”, Tigress smiled.
Then they got quiet again. Now they had their kiss and everything was said.
A wave of tiredness washed over Tigress as well as Po.
She slowly got out of the tangled kind of embrace they had for the kiss to leave when she heard Po whisper, “wait”
She turned around, her eyes meeting his once again.
He didn’t say anything, but his soft gaze and hand gesture towards the bed was all she needed to know.
She smiled sweetly at him, which is a kind of look he hadn’t seen her wear often, and for that it was all the more special.
Slowly, they adjusted themselves to his bed and decided for a loose embrace, facing each other.
Before they fell asleep, gazes meeting one last time, Tigress whispered
“I love you”
And Po muttered “As I love you”, back.
They looked so at peace as they finally found rest. Finally, and officially being together. No more hiding or denying their feelings. No more oblivious pining.
They were one now, with each other, as it should be…