She couldn't believe it.

For the first time to her immediate memory, Po had followed his heart and it failed.

Any more pain and his heart would literally fail; after all, if he ate any more, he could have easily prone himself to a heart attack from the sudden excess weight he was taking onto himself. Heck, no one trusted him to cook dinner anymore, for they were worried that he would eat the meal before they could even share it with as miserable as he was.

If he had not spent so much time with Tigress prior to the ordeal, maybe they would have to go to Mr. Ping's every night. Sure, he gave them discounts, but Mr. Ping's cooking wasn't the same as Po's cooking, even if Tigress did get tips from Mr. Ping about making food after learning more about cooking from Po.

Yes, she took it upon herself to learn how to cook - she thought it might be fun, and Po was happy to show her how it was done. However, it was the reason why she, and everyone else, knew about why Po was so sad now. What had happened that night was the reason why no one asked.

It was the reason why no one needed to ask - that was the same night Po's beloved girlfriend, Song, had practically broken up with him in their public view.

No one even knew what Po did wrong in the first place, but what happened that night was pretty clear in their heads.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, Po."

"It's okay, you were just holding my paw a little hard."

Everyone at the table watched with amusement as the panda tried to show Tigress about how to cut the veggies into a decent size that was good for serving. After all, it amazed them at the same time that Tigress had come so far in cooking. Sure, she wasn't a professional, like Po, but the fact that she had a good stance when it came to noodles was enough, and even learning more made the scene more amusing.

She had to remember that this was cooking, not Kung-Fu.

Her opponent wasn't going to hurt her - at least when she knew how to control the situation, like a relapse of the self-control Master Shifu taught her when she was a cub, except it was much easier this time.

She considered herself fortunate though, to have someone like Po to be so patient with her with all the questions that she had. She didn't mind learning new things - she just needed someone who was willing to put up with her until she got it. Most were afraid of her, but there were a select few that were able to push that aside - Shifu and Po were such individuals.

Tigress would only admit to Po that she felt a little embarrassed to be asking him how to cook, but Po totally understood where she was coming from. In fact, when she actually confronted him with what she wanted, he was pretty darn happy to having the honor of showing one of his best friends how to do something, even if it was cooking.

The night of teaching the mighty master how to cook was interrupted by a light clearing of the throat that caused everyone's attention to turn.

There, at the door, with a soft smile and sadness in her eyes, was Song.

No one seemed to catch on the second emotion, since Po was happy to see his girlfriend, casually going over to her with his typical, big smile. It was the fact their relationship was established was the reason why no one was surprised that she was there, and the feline continued to chop away at the food as Po was about to get affectionate with his girlfriend - the typical thing to expect from the panda.

However, even though he wanted to give her a kiss, it didn't happen, for before could even get his lips remotely close to hers, she put her paw in between her own lips and kiss, preventing any possible kiss for ever happening.

Monkey and Mantis muttered to themselves and Tigress caught on to their incoherent words of confusion, looking over at them before looking at Song and a rather confused Po. For the record, she had assumed that the night was going to go its usual way - Po kissing his girlfriend silly and Song laughing about how ticklish he was. However, that didn't happen, and Tigress slowed down her chopping to where she was still cutting up vegetables for the noodle soup, but only so slow as to she could tell what she was doing without having to look.

Po looked bewildered - in fact, everyone was - but he seemed to panic a little bit when those fateful words left Song's lips.

"We need to talk."

The panda looked over his girlfriend, rather confused about the predicament, but allowed himself to be lead outside of the kitchen. Since his physical presence was outside of the room, Tigress turned her attention back to the last of the essential ingredients for the soup, sighing in annoyance when she felt her friends get up and look outside the kitchen and at the couple.

"Will you guys stop?" she asked, "What they're doing is none of our business."

"Didn't you see how distraught Po looked when Song told them that they needed to talk?" Mantis asked, "Trust me, I've seen it happen - whenever a girl says that, it means trouble."

Deep down, Tigress hoped that there was no trouble between Song and her best friend. In fact, they had been at a pretty good relationship for almost a year. With some of the stuff she had seen Po go through with her, she sincerely doubted that anything could break those two apart...

"What do you mean, 'we're done'?"

...Or at least she thought.

Tigress felt her heart stop for a minute by Po's question.

What did Song mean by 'done'?

She was surprised that their voices were at normal level, and not in a hushed tone when it came to conversations like this. As much as she didn't want to eavesdrop, her ears were too keen to not hear what came next.

"I mean exactly that," Song said in a manner that implied that her decision was final, "I'm sorry, Po, but even though I do like you, a lot, I can't keep going with this. I don't think either of us are committed to this relationship enough to make it last."

"Come on, Song," Po said as those who saw noticed Po taking one of her paws into his own, "We can work this out, you just need to-"

"-'Need to' what, Po?" Song asked, "I've been trying to meet you at the middle, but I see now that it isn't going to work if you can't meet in the middle with me..."

She pulled her hand from his grip.

"I'm sorry, Po... but we're done...
I asked for this relationship, but now I'm breaking it...
We're no longer boyfriend and girlfriend."

The silence was only broken by the light patting of Song's feet making her way towards the nearest door, clearly indicating that she wasn't going to come back.

After that, there was nothing to break the silence, only the beak of Crane completely open and Mantis' smart mouth.

"Well, that was a harsh way to break up."

That earned him a hiss from Viper.

"What do you think happened to make Song feel that she needed to break up with Po?" Monkey asked.

However, his response came from Po himself, turning his head over to his friends with a few tears in his eyes.

"I don't know, guys..." was all he could say, "I... don't know..."

Only a day after that did it become known that Song was dating someone else. It pissed off Tigress so much, and she was just as confused, if not more, than Po about why not only Song broke up with him without a second thought, but went about life as if it didn't mean anything. Sure, she didn't trust her before, but she didn't think that she would go so low as to be a bitch to the same panda who helped her change her ways in the first place.

It was as if she had been cheating on him this whole time... like Song had used Po.

She couldn't bear with that idea, and it made her fur stand on end thinking about it. It was such emotions that lead her to the mission she was on right now as she made her way in the Valley of Peace during one of their breaks. Tigress wanted to hear from Song's own lips why she had put Po through this mess.

She couldn't bear the idea of Po being used...
She wouldn't have allowed it to slip if he was...
Because more than she cared to admit...
Tigress, too, loved that annoying panda.

Yes, she, too, had come to feeling the same thing Song had felt for Po. However, the prime difference between the snow leopard and the feline master was the fact that one of them actually got to Po. Song was the one that had confessed her feelings and Po had accepted her advantages. It was only proper that after Po made it known to his friends about the wonderful news did Tigress use her meditation to cease certain thoughts she was having about the panda. After all, Po and Song were what Po called 'an item'. She didn't quite understand where physical objects came into play concerning feelings (at least to describe the relationship), but she understood enough about his feelings and her own that it was better that there was no conflict between them and get over the thoughts of romance with the panda not because of her, but for him.

If Po was happy without her, then she would learn to deal with it, just like how she had learned to deal with everything else.

Ironically, it was her love for the panda that taught her how to be happy with his newfound relationship. It wasn't until their fifth month together that Tigress found it in herself to be genuinely happy for him and learn her place in the panda's heart, even though it had been extremely different from her own.

Now that it was gone, she didn't know what to make of it. From Po being so happy to downright distraught in a matter of days worried her enough, but fears that Song may not have been committed to the relationship in the first place made her mad - mad about the idea that maybe Po had used his happiness on someone who really didn't want his happiness in the first place. Perhaps it was her love for him that kept her going, but her mind was still as stubborn as always after she was able to find peace in just their friendship. After all, if someone hit one's best friend, and they saw it, it wasn't common for them to go without the bully receiving a few blows himself.

That was the best way to describe it - it was as if out of nowhere, Song decided to give Po a fatal wound that he had not yet recovered from.

She new that Po was in pain because he kept doing one of two extremes - either eating too much or not enough. Tigress was well aware of this because ever since the breakup, she took it upon herself to act upon what she had learned prior to the ordeal: the cooking skills that she had learned from Po so that no one would be hungry or throw up from having too much in their system. One thing she hoped would never happen was the panda starving himself or getting a heart attack from too much.

After all, she still loved him - be it friends or the lost thoughts of being lovers, Tigress knew she loved him.

If she had not been out there to hear from Song, then she would've probably went to the same place to learn more from Mr. Ping on the topic of cooking. Yes, Tigress put her paw on the idea that maybe Song would be there - no one had to be dating the Dragon Warrior to love Mr. Ping's food. Anyone would have known that, but not many people knew that Tigress was also going to be there for a completely different reason.

"Oh, hello, Tigress!" Mr. Ping exclaimed as he caught sight of the famous tiger, "Would you like your usual today?"

"No thank you, Mr. Ping," Tigress said, "I was wondering if you had seen Song. I wish to speak with her."

"Well, she hasn't left, that's for sure," the goose said a little flatly, turning his head not too far from Tigress, "If she wasn't a customer, perhaps I would have kicked her out a long time ago."

Oh no... Mr. Ping was mad about the whole affair too.

That could very well explain why he disappeared for a few days: to seek comfort in his father or fresh-made noodles. Apparently, that didn't work, not only because of the fact he had been under the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom every night before he went to bed, but he started to seem a little different in training, and not in a good way, either. Normally, a visit to the peach tree wasn't a bad thing, since he had become accustom to visiting it as his prime place to meditate after dinner sometime after obtaining inner peace, but here's where the problem was - that's the only place he could be found when he wasn't cooking, training, or sleeping. It seemed as if he had taken this new idea as his new coping mechanism, and Tigress caught onto it very fast.

She didn't try to do anything at first because Po insisted that he needed to do this alone - it was his relationship, and thus his problem.

Even when things seemed off, she wanted to trust Po that he could get through this, like how he went through every other ordeal. From Tai-Lung, to Shen, to Kai - Po always had this crazy idea that seemed to get everyone out and make everything okay again. She didn't understand, but that wasn't a good reason not to trust him. Now it was as if he couldn't pull himself through this. The irony of the matter was that before he pulled himself through two of the most popular enemies of China, Tigress had a talk with him. For Shen, it was during their incomplete conversation on the boat. With Kai, it was when Po was trying to train but his head was too drowned in fear.

It's like, in a weird sense, she was partially responsible for helping Po to get to that place he needed to be to take on his enemies. It was like, in some twisted way, they took them on together.

Perhaps that was why she felt obligated to help Po now.

Sure, it was a personal affair, but seeing Po like this broke her heart, and more than she was willing to admit. After all, this was about someone he thought would be a potential mate. Song wasn't a bad person, so why the sudden change?

That's why she was here, and after bowing to Mr. Ping in respect, she went over to the corner where Song and her cryptic boyfriend was.

She knew that it was her boyfriend - they were kissing just a few seconds ago.

It didn't really matter who her boyfriend was now, because Tigress wasn't here for that. Being with someone else is one thing, but breaking up was something completely different, no matter how closely correlated they were. After all, it only confirmed in Tigress' mind that Song didn't have any remorse about breaking up with Po.

That's why she was here.

"Song?"

The female snow leopard's smile turned into a frown. It wasn't a frown that had any bitterness or resentment. In fact, it was almost as if Song was expecting the female tiger master to eventually approach her - she just looked disappointed that of all times, it was now.

"Master Tigress," Song said, her tone in the terms of simple acknowledgement.

She didn't seem bitter, so Tigress continued.

"Forgive my intrusion," Tigress said politely, "But I was wondering if we could talk."

Tigress didn't say anything as Song looked over at her boyfriend with a smile, assuring him that she would be right back before she gave him another kiss and got up, gesturing with her hand for Tigress to lead the way.

She didn't want to talk here - that was fine for Tigress. She just needed to talk.

Ironically, there were no words between the tigress and the snow leopard as they made their way out of the village and into the open field just outside of the Valley of Peace. There wasn't any danger, and if there was, they could protect themselves, but as the sun was passing its afternoon point, but not yet dark enough to be evening, Song and Tigress were able to come to a stop in their walking and finally speak what was on their mind. After all, Tigress was trying to think about what she wanted to say and how to say it, least she offend the snow leopard.

"So what brings us all the way out here during my date?" Song asked, "You're not here to kill me, are you?"

"I figured as much that you would have been on a date," Tigress replied, "But if I really wanted to kill you, I would've already done it."

The yellow-clad female tiger turned to look at her companion, not a streak of amusement on her face.

"I just have a few questions."

"And you couldn't ask me in the noodle shop?"

"It involves Po, so I assumed it would be best if you and I were the only ones around to discuss the whole affair."

A light, but rather long, "Oh," left Song's lips, her eyes lighting up in realization about what was on Tigress' mind before shrugging, "What do I possibly know about Po that you don't?"

Was she getting cocky, or was she really serious? Tigress tried not to growl at her remark, but a little left her lips anyway.

"Oh, I think you definitely know something about Po that I don't," Tigress said, trying hard not to snap at her, but her tone clearly indicating that she was about to if Song wanted to keep playing around like this, her entire form facing Song as she spoke, "Like why he's always trying to be alone when he isn't performing his duties at the Jade Palace."

"It's a good change of pace for him," Song said, "Maybe he'll finally come to terms with what I realized a long time ago."

"What are you talking about?" Tigress demanded.

"So I do know something about him that you don't?" Song asked, a little surprised yet it seemed intentional, "Wow, this is different."

"And for the record, I think it's your fault, Song."

"That's where you're wrong."

"Then elaborate."

Song twirled the umbrella in her paws as she glanced at Tigress from the side of her eyes, whom was growling a little. From what she knew of Tigress, she didn't like it when things were beaten around the bush. Heck, with the kind of strength Song was aware of, Tigress never had to - she could just reach through or just beat down the bush: that was Tigress.

Still, at the same time, she didn't want any trouble with the female tiger master than she had already been in. With a sigh, and her humor all gone, since Tigress clearly didn't want the mood to be lightened up, it was probably the best if she got to the point.

"If you really want to know who's fault it is, it's all Po's fault...
But you can say that you had a paw in it too..."