Chapter Text
As the sun starts to set over the panda village its exhausted inhabitants are starting to disperse into their homes for the night, their spirits surprisingly high, though that might have a bit to do with Po’s affirmations that they’ve accomplished a great start with their training.
To be honest, Tigress still isn’t sure what exactly the plan is. She knows Po has a plan, but every time he’s attempted to explain it to her or to anybody else, it leaves more questions than answers.
A slight squeezing of her neck pulls Tigress from her thoughts, and back to the question which is currently weighing on her mind. She’d picked up Lei Lei a few moments ago – well, more like relocated her, from her leg to her hip. The young panda’s eyes are drooping and now she is nuzzling her cheek into Tigress’s chest, her arms looped lazily around her shoulders.
“Hey,” Po’s voice catches her ear, him making his way towards her. “My dad’s hut is one of the ones over on the side of the mountain. I’ve been staying in that bottom one next to it. You can get some sleep in there. I’ll take the first watch.”
She nods, and she barely considers arguing. The two of them discussed, briefly, that they’ll split up the duty of keeping watch for Kai and his “jombies” during the night. They hadn’t had time earlier to determine who would take which shift, but given the condition she arrived here in, she isn’t surprised he’s volunteering to go first.
“Do you know who she belongs to?” She asks, jostling Lei Lei as to demonstrate who she is talking about, as if the point needed clarity.
Po frowns, “Sorry,” he says, “I’m still kind of figuring out who exactly is related to who around here.”
Tigress frowns herself, but she isn’t all that surprised. From what she’s observed so far, the pandas seem to consider themselves all one large extended family, and the children most of all bound around freely during the day; walking through open doors and gathering food and toys seemingly regardless of who those things actually belong to.
Still, now that the sun is setting, adults are ushering along slow-walking children with gentle commands to say goodnight to their playmates, that is getting to be time for bed.
“No one’s tried to take her from me.” Tigress observes, surveying the thinning crowd once again, but there isn’t so much as a lingering stare being thrown her or Lei Lei’s way.
There is, however, “Grandma Panda” shuffling by, and if she isn’t overhearing, she is at least noticing Tigress and Po scanning their surroundings and both looking a bit like lost children themselves, in search of a parent.
“Lei Lei wanders.” She supplies, not even stopping, even as Tigress looks to Po, who simply looks back to her, equally confused.
“What?” He asks the elderly woman.
“She wanders.” Grandma answers, shrugging one shoulder. “Happens from time to time. We lost her mother last winter, but we all make sure Lei Lei is cared for.”
Tigress looks down at the little girl in her arms, now deeply, peacefully, asleep.
“Just set her down.” Grandma calls over her shoulder as she restarts on her path towards her own hut. “She’ll find a bed.”
Tigress could swear there is a trace of a smirk in the old woman’s voice, but that is hardly where her thoughts lie.
Instead of setting Lei Lei down, Tigress tightens her grip on her. She looks up to Po, intending to ask if he minds the child accompanying her into the space his father had designated for him.
However, she finds this… this complex look on his face.
There is still the confusion, and some sorrow, but also… revelation?
He blinks it all away before she can properly question it, before she can properly question anything, and he offers her an easy smile and an inclination of his head towards the mountain.
“Go on,” He encourages her, his eyes and smile flicking to Lei Lei one final time before he takes a step towards the main gate. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
She doesn’t move, not right away. She stands where she is long enough to watch him disappear into the mist at the edge of the village, and many of the candle lights in the houses surrounding her to have been blown out. There are only a few stray villagers now; pandas whose names she hasn’t learned yet, most of them gathering up the lasts of their things for the night, or a few climbing into trees. She stands there in the middle of this calm before the storm until her still injured-from-the-attack body starts to ache once again, a whispered protest to the sleeping weight she is still holding.
She makes her way to the hut Po had indicated. Lei Lei doesn’t stir once during the short journey, not even over the rope bridge. The closest she comes to waking happens only once they are inside the hut, and Tigress is carefully laying the child onto the bed.
Lei Lei grunts, her little eyes remaining closed and her arms drawing in close to her chest; her hug a vice on Po’s Tigress action figure.
Tigress smiles to herself as she pulls the blanket over Lei Lei.
“Sweet dreams little one.” She whispers, and in reply she gets a soft snore.
She chuckles, and then sits herself down on the floor, her back against the wall and her eyes on Lei Lei; curled up without a care in the world.
A thought whispers at the corner of her mind, but she pushes it away for now; for the next few hours.
Eventually, however, those hours pass, and she finds herself faced with a dilemma.
What is she supposed to do with the little girl right now?
It’s already passed the interval at which she should have gone to switch places with Po. She’s sure that Po – of all people – is if anything pleased that she’s late, especially after the state she turned up in. He’s probably down there smirking to himself, gloating to no one that she must see he is adept enough at the watch position that she hasn’t come rushing down to take over the post herself.
She’s sure even he can surmise that his reasoning is all in his head, and that her true delay is a lack of a suitable solution for Lei Lei.
It doesn’t feel right to leave her here all alone, even for a short time. Yes, she could leave, and instruct Po not to dawdle on his way back. Lei Lei wouldn’t be alone for very long, and she will more than likely remain asleep the entire time.
But, there is the off chance she won’t.
She could wake in the few minutes between her and Po switching posts, it would be their luck. Tigress doubts she knows this room. When she “wanders” at night, usually, it’s probably into homes with other children, or perhaps up into the trees so that she can look at the stars. She doubts if Lei Lei were to wake in here that she would know it’s Li Shan’s home. Not to mention – dare she think it – what if Kai were to attack? Say Kai does find them sooner rather than later, much sooner. Say he shows up before Po returns to the hut? Especially being on the side of the mountain, if this hut is hit in a fight, it will fall and it will fall hard.
Tigress swallows, her eyes trained on the young panda who now has sprawled out on her back, kicked at her blankets, and dangled an arm over the edge of the bed; blissfully unaware of any incoming danger.
She should just take her with her.
It might be a needless complication; to carry a sleeping child down the cliffside across and the village, only to hand her to Po to for him to carry her all the way back here. But, the alternative is to leave her here, and if she does that and something happens, Tigress knows she won’t be able to live with herself.
She debates it another moment, though now it is more a debate of the best way to do it without accidentally waking Lei Lei. She decides to open the hut’s door before she tries moving the cub; that way she won’t have to deal with shuffling her around.
So, Tigress opens the door, and immediately she sees the outline of a goose slumped against one of the posts at the end of the bridge.
“Mr. Ping?” She asks, her voice carrying easily in the quiet of the night.
Mr. Ping turns and looks over his shoulder, his eyes squinting in the dark.
“Oh, Tigress.” He says, and gets to his feet, waddling his way across the bridge to her. “Po mentioned you were in there. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
She smiles softly, and a part of her whispers that she should tell him he could have come in. Yes, she’d slept some, and she would have woken had he entered, but she wouldn’t have minded.
But, it’s Mr. Ping, and he would have minded.
“Not at all.” She assures him, “You’re waiting for Po, I take it?”
“Hmm,” The answer comes as a half hum, half yawn. “I offered to stay down there with him as a lookout, but he insisted I come get some sleep. I can’t sleep, though, not until I know he’s safe.”
Tigress hums, and then an idea comes to her; a much better plan than dragging Lei Lei out with her.
“I’m going to switch places with him now.” She informs him, and as she does she steps aside, allowing him to see behind her. “If you’re going to be waiting here anyway, would you mind watching over Lei Lei?”
“Lei Lei?” He asks, though his squinting eyes are practically transfixed on the shape of the young girl in the bed, his feet already carrying him over the threshold of the door.
“One of the village children.” She begins to explain, “She… She followed me back, sort of. She fell asleep, and the Grandmother Panda told me her parents are gone-”
“Oh yes, yes.” Mr. Ping starts to babble over her awkward explanation – which was barely an explanation at all. “Yes, that one. Of course I will watch over her, Tigress. I’d be delighted.”
Tigress smiles, silently grateful that she doesn’t need to continue explaining herself for the decision to watch Lei Lei for the night. “Thank you, Mr. Ping. I’ll make sure Po hurries back.”
Mr. Ping calls a thanks after her and waves her off as she goes, a small smile on her face and enough relief in her chest that she can tell herself the cub asleep in Po’s bed is safe as she can be, and Kai likely won’t attack before Po returns to the hut anyway.
And, as for Mr. Ping? As Tigress’s footsteps fade into the night beyond the now-closed door to the hut, he watches over Lei Lei just as she’s asked. He smiles at the sleeping child in much the same way he often would at Po when he was young; trying to commit every detail to memory.
He doesn’t fret, however, if he doesn’t memorize everything tonight. Tigress will always be a warrior and, he would like to think, she will always be a friend.
He’s sure there will be more nights of babysitting in his future.