Just to the Right of My Heart

By: Lacey52

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A Note: See? **waves** Still alive :) Please enjoy...not sure where this came from...

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

Po has almost forgotten the dull ache, caused by the very deep and empty hole in his chest, just to the right of where he can feel his heart beat from time to time. It is still there, however, though lessened by good friends, a caring master, and a loving father.

The gratitude and admiration that shines from the eyes of happy children, beaming merchants, and gently smiling elderly helps a great deal as well, and he can almost feel that deep and empty hole shrinking and closing up, bit by bit and tiny piece by tiny piece.

Lately, the ache has come to have a perhaps several names if he wanted to delve deeply into his own emotions.

The loss of his heritage and birth parents had always hung over him, though he hadn't understood that until recently. The want to be more than just a noodle-maker's son, only, he now had a fond view of the tranquility found in the repetition of stretching noodles, or the motions of making soup or serving tables that he didn't have to ever think about. The lack of companionship for a creature as large as he was in a world that was more suited to the smaller species, those of which he had to be very careful to never tread upon, or knock over, or hug too tightly.

When his father hugged him, soft feathers brushing over his rough, wiry coat, Po could only feel the movement of his fur, as barely any pressure came from the gander's wings.

It had been a compete shock at how tightly Tigress had hugged him the first time, how solid a hug could actually feel compared to the airy quality he associated the action with normally. That shock came with a tug in his chest, just to the right of his heart, and completely overpowered the gaping emptiness for the span of time that her arms encircled him.

Had everything, and everyone, not been so frenzied, anxious, and strange, he would have asked her to do it again, though he knew she would most likely have declined and pushed him away. A full strength interaction with another creature had been impossible until he met the Furious Five, and even then he had to be careful. Masters though they may be, an accident could easily injure most of those who resided with him in the Jade Palace.

Most, but not all.

Tigress opened his eyes to not just the rough play, or free for all sparring, or harsh training they all underwent with one another, but the quizzical paradox of being strong and gentle at the same time. A hug, something in itself that is generally soft and caring, and an opening of one's self to another based on trust; her one action, fierce, bold, tightly gripping him in an open display of rough affection to force him into reconsidering putting himself at risk, threw everything he knew about tenderness right out the window.

Never before had a creature been so intimately close and caused such a reaction at the same time.

Just to the right of his heart, at that very moment, the constriction of her arms seemed to also constrict the hole, the pressure of her squeezing that gap so tightly that for a single instance it collapsed in on itself and a spark lit in its place.

.o.O.o.o.O.o.