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The Jade Palace, although beautiful on the inside, wasn’t known to be decorated inside. In fact the only “decoration” they had were a few lanterns that hung in the Student Barracks.
The artifacts in the Hall of Heroes didn’t really count as decoration as they were on display to show off many legendary masters and their accomplishments.
Although, ever since Po became the teacher of The Furious Five, the warriors had more leisure time they could use to relax and do as they pleased around the palace or in the valley for the day. Po still made them train really hard but he was more laid back than Master Shifu that’s for sure.
Po liked to use his free time to redecorate the kitchen and the Furious Five had noticed how more organized the kitchen looked now. It was actually looking very nice and fresh for the first time in years. They were quite impressed to say the least.
That’s why when Viper and Tigress had gone out to run errands, the two women had come across a flower shop that had a beautiful arrangement of the in season cherry blossoms, they both instantly thought of buying it for the newly renovated kitchen.
This arrangement was by no means small but not too big either. There were at least five dozen of the pink blossoms on its branches being held up by a small vase. Each flower fully bloomed, showing off its beautiful petals and pollen exposed.
The two women were pretty proud of how they placed it in the center of the dining table. They both left it there, deciding to leave it as a surprise for their master. He loved surprises after all.
When dinner time came around, the Furious Five were not expecting to not find dinner prepared and their master slumped in the corner of the kitchen looking as if he had just taken a ruthless beating.
“Po are you alright?” Monkey walked over to him. Po looked up at him, his eyes swollen red and his nose equally red too.
“What?” He sounded as if he had gotten a cold. Which was weird considering they had only seen him just a few minutes ago and he was just fine.
“You don’t look so good man.” Monkey placed a hand on Po’s shoulder.
“No. No.” Po protested. “I’m fine.” He sniffled as he stood up. “Just-ACHOO!” The force of the sneeze caused the Dragon Warrior to fall backwards, crashing into the cupboard and knocking down one of the bowls from the top to break on his head. “Ow.” Po groaned, rubbing his head in pain.
“We’ll take care of dinner tonight, Po.” Tigress helped him stand.
“Are you sure?” Po sniffled looking up at her.
“Yes. You should rest up.” Tigress smiled softly. Po sneezed again, luckily Tigress kept him from falling back again.
“Alright.” Po sniffled before Monkey and Crane took him to his room. Tigress and Viper had thankfully learned a few things about cooking from Po in the past years. They would be fine. And they were, dinner wasn’t terrible.
The next morning Po was feeling better when he woke up. Not a single sign of a cold or fever. No stuffy nose and no drowsiness. Unfortunately that didn’t last long because the moment he stepped into the kitchen he felt a tickle in his nose and his vision became blurry.
He sat down on his regular seat at the dining table in hopes he could calm whatever was truly happening to him. Only, once he sat down, it got worse. He sneezed once again, knocking him off his chair.
Po groaned as he sat up and looked towards the table, spotting what was causing him this torture. Cherry Blossoms.
When did those get here? And how did he not see them before?
His friends must have brought them in when he wasn’t looking. Cherry Blossoms were his worst enemy, besides stairs of course. They were number two on his list of enemies.
Ever since he was five he could remember not liking the damn flower. His dad had grown a few at the front of the shop and he remembered how pretty they looked. They lost their beauty the second he went up to them to sniff them. Before he could reach them, he felt a strong tickle in his nose and his vision became blurry before he let out a big loud sneeze that made him tumble to an empty table and broke it in half.
It took him and his father a while to figure out what was making him sneeze so harshly and making his eyes swollen. Eventually after some trial and error they traced it to the Cherry Blossoms and Mr. Ping quickly had them removed and replaced them with peach blossoms instead. Luckily he wasn’t allergic to those. From the moment the two learned he was allergic to cherry blossoms, Po had grown a strong dislike towards them. He couldn’t tell his friends though! They brought something in for the nice and brand new kitchen he had renovated.
No. He will work through this allergy and not let his friends know of it. They were thoughtful enough to get the beautiful arrangement there and he is not about to let their efforts go to waste.
Bad idea.
The moment the Dragon Warrior stood up he unwillingly inhaled the pollen of the cherry blossoms and let out a loud sneeze. The force of it sent him through the kitchen doors, breaking them and crashing into the wall. Po groaned, sitting up and staring at the cherry blossoms from a distance. How is he going to work through this?
“Good morning Po!” Monkey greeted him as he walked into the kitchen. Monkey’s smile fell, noticing Po with his back turned to him and a large red scarf around his neck. Was it winter already? Even if it was, it certainly wasn’t cold inside the kitchen.
“Morning.” Po didn’t turn to him, his voice sounding stuffy still.
“Are you feeling any better?” Monkey asked.
“Yup.” Po gave him a thumbs up. Monkey raised a brow and was about to ask about the scarf when the rest of the five walked in greeting the two. Po only waved at them, still not turning around.
“What’s with the scarf?” Mantis asked. Po froze in his spot, he didn’t answer, only serving the food and passing it out to all of them.
“See you at trai-training! ACHOO!” Po quickly ran out, hoping the five missed his sneeze but, really, it was difficult to miss a sneeze like that.
Po sighed in relief as his allergy had finally cooled off when his friends arrived at the training hall. Each one of them expressed worry for him but he assured them he was doing just fine. Not exactly lying as he was feeling better, as long he didn’t step foot in the kitchen he would be just fine.
Eventually the blossoms will die and he will be able to go back inside. Surely his friends will forget to change the water for those flowers at some point. Right?
He doesn’t need to worry. Nope. Not at all…..
Wrong.
His friends did know how to take care of those damn blossoms. Unknowingly letting the poor panda suffer with his allergies.
It had been two weeks now since the blossoms first appeared in the kitchen and Po wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it from his friends. He didn’t want to upset them though! He really liked that they decided to bring in something for the kitchen. Po just didn’t want to keep feeling like he was living in an allergy prison. He was no longer just feeling in the kitchen anymore.
In fact, Monkey and Mantis had liked the cherry blossoms so much they bought some themselves and planted them just outside in the training hall’s arena, only spreading the cherry blossoms throughout the Jade Palace further. Po felt like he was ready to collapse and die at any given moment. He needed to do something about the cherry blossoms without his friends finding out he didn’t like them.
He had come up with a plan to secretly get rid of them at night when his friends weren’t looking, only he sneezed very loudly when he tried cutting them down in the middle of the night. Monkey had found him leaning against the wall, outside of the kitchen, upside down.
“Are you getting into my cookie jar again?” Monkey quickly assumed. Po let himself tumble forwards onto his stomach, sniffling once again. Thanks to the moonlight, Monkey noticed how swollen Po’s eyes were and how red his nose was. “Are you sick again ?”
Po could have lied. He could have. But he's basically been lying to his friends for two weeks now. Eventually the truth about his allergies was going to come out right? Soon he won’t be able to hide it anymore as the season is growing worse for the poor panda.
“No.” Po sighed sniffling in defeat. “It’s those.” Po pointed towards the cherry blossoms. Monkey looked confused for a moment before realizing what he meant.
“Po. Are you allergic to them?” Monkey frowned. Po smiled sheepishly before sneezing once again. “Bro, they’ve been everywhere for two weeks and you didn’t say anything?”
“I’m sooorry.” Po frowned before sneezing again. Monkey shook his head unbelievably at his friend and master. The poor panda was suffering. How had they gone so many years without knowing about his allergy.
Monkey quickly helped Po get back to bed before disposing of the Cherry Blossoms in the kitchen and heading back to bed.
The next morning, The Furious Five, aside from Monkey, wondered why Po hadn’t woken up to greet them. Sure they were used to him sleeping in often but usually he would let them know the day before if he was going to let them have a day off so he could sleep in a little more.
It all made sense when Monkey told them about what he learned the previous night so they decided to not bother the poor panda. They, instead, spent the entire day cleaning up all the cherry blossoms all over the Jade Palace, making sure there wasn’t a single trace of it anywhere.
They couldn’t believe that Po would hide something like this from them. They also couldn’t believe they didn’t notice in the five years the Dragon Warrior had been living with them.
Perhaps that’s why Po didn’t visit his dad often this time of year. The Valley was usually full of cherry blossoms during the season. The Jade Palace never got any of it because Oogway only planted peach trees, so only peach blossoms floated around.
Once the five warriors finished clearing them out, they decided to meditate out in the training hall’s arena, hoping their master got the much needed rest from a problem they unwillingly caused.
It wasn’t until well past noon that The Dragon Warrior finally woke up, feeling quite refreshed like every morning. Though he wasn’t looking forward to walking around the Palace and sneezing up a storm again, completely forgetting his sleep deprived self had told Monkey about his allergy. He had a class to teach and he was already late to greet his students.
Walking around the Jade Palace he noticed how he wasn’t getting stuffy anymore. He went to the kitchen seeing that the cherry blossoms were gone, replaced with peach blossoms instead. He was finally able to breathe normally in the kitchen.
He continued his way to the trading hall where he found his friends and students meditating in the courtyard. They were all very relaxed and surprisingly, he didn’t feel the tickle in his nose anymore. The cherry blossom trees were gone. Had he said something or did they notice? Or perhaps the season was over? No. That’s not it. The season just started.
“Hey Po!” Monkey waved at him from his spot. Guess he was done meditating. Upon hearing Monkey greet him, the rest of the five opened their eyes and greeted him as well with a smile. “How did you sleep?”
“I slept alright. Thanks.” Po looked around, still thinking he would find a cherry blossom that was waiting to torture him. “What happened to the cherry blossoms?”
“We got rid of them.” Mantis hopped on his shoulder.
“Monkey told us about your allergy.” Viper smiled.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tigress crossed her arms.
“I didn’t want to get rid of them.” Po smiled sheepishly. “You guys brought something in so I didn’t want to seem unappreciative.”
“So you allowed yourself to suffer for two weeks?” Crane frowned.
“Cherry blossoms aren’t dangerous.” Po chuckled. “Sure they make me a bit queasy and cause me to get a small fever but it’s fiiine. I’m fine.”
“They can kill you Po.” Tigress scolded. Po only chuckled nervously. “Cherry blossoms are officially banned from the Jade Palace. Anyone opposed?” Po went to raise his hand but lowered it when his five friends glared at him.
“Hey I brought new blossoms for the palace.” Master Shifu walked into the courtyard carrying a small cherry blossom tree. “Thought we could use new flowers to decorate.” One of the blossoms casually popped off and floated towards Po and stuck to his nose, causing the poor panda to sneeze loudly and harshly. The Furious Five could only glare at their grandmaster as Po sneezed uncontrollably.
“What?” Shifu looked at them innocently.