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smallfandomflsh2014-01-28 09:46 am
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Entry tags:
Kung Fu Panda, Po&Shifu, #127: Weight, KatLeePT
Title: The Heart of a Giant
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Kung Fu Panda
Characters/Pairing: Po, Shifu
Rating: G/K
Challenge/Prompt: #127: Weight
Word Count: 2,105
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners, not the author.
He stopped walking the moment he heard movement up ahead. The lumbering panda didn't know who it was, but he knew two things for certain: They wouldn't want his company, and if he continued along his current pathway, they'd complain yet again that he was too big, noisy, and cumbersome.
He sighed and looked down at his body. It wasn't that he'd never tried to lose weight or learn to be quieter. He had -- many times, especially as a cub when the villagers had poked fun at his chubbiness, but nothing worked. He remembered blacking out one time when he'd pretended to be eating his father's delicious noodles and rolls but had, in truth, been trying to starve himself into losing weight and hiding them beneath the rugs in the noodle shop that served as their home.
It had been then that his father had sat him down and explained that, as a panda, he was naturally larger and heavier than the rest of the villagers. Having never been around them, they didn't understand his species, but his father did and explained to him that he was a fine speciman of a panda bear. Po sniffled at the memory. He was supposed to be big, but everybody hated his size, including him.
People were so cruel, but he expected that from strangers, not from his friends, not from kung fu masters who were supposed to be so wise in both mind and heart. He snorted and rolled his dark eyes. Whoever had first said that clearly had never known anybody like Tigress. She was the worst, but then, they'd all been on his case today. Even Viper had complained of getting no peaceful sleep the night before because of his snoring. He didn't snore that loudly, and besides, the little snake could have surely found something to stuff into her ears, wherever they were, to block out his voice.
Why did he have to be so big? Why did a big body have to make so much noise? Why did he have to have friends who didn't understand him? Were they really his friends? Why did he have to be a panda in the first place? Heck, for that matter, why did he have to be the Dragon Warrior when the Furious Five were nowhere near as cool as he'd always thought they were growing up?
He let the strength go from his body and just fell down on his bum where he had previously stood. He didn't care that he was sitting in the middle of a trail in a forest. He didn't care that a stone was sticking him in the tail. He just didn't want to go any further. He didn't want to be the Dragon Warrior any longer. He wanted somebody besides his father who would truly understand him, and he feared, as tears rolled down his big, furry face, that he would never get that special friend.
Then something whispered in the woods. A song sang on the leaves of the trees surrounding him. It was a sad song, a melancholy tune fitting to his mood, but he wasn't interested until the forest seemed to part before him to show him just who was up ahead . . . and that the individual was also sitting, looking as downtrodden as though he'd just fallen into a pile of goop left over from his father's cooking on a busy weekend night. No, Po thought, his head lifting slowly as he studied the older male before him, it was worse than that. In truth, he looked like he suffered from the weight of the entire world having come down upon his small shoulders.
Po cocked his head. "Shifu," he whispered. Shifu was also a panda, but he was a red panda. They were naturally far smaller than Po's type of panda, whatever that was. They were smaller, cooler, calmer, brighter, and naturally more agile, too. Po started to look away, thinking that Shifu didn't need his lumbering, noisy self to bother him, but then he looked back and gazed for a long time before he finally rose and left, for the first time in a long while, not making a single sound as he moved back amongst the forest path.
It wasn't long before he was again running down that same trail, but when he reached the spot where he'd seen Shifu sitting so still and sad, he forced himself to stop. He heaved in several great gasps of air, filling his aching lungs, and once more looked through the trees. Just as he'd partially only suspected and half hoped, Shifu was still sitting in the same spot. Cherry blossoms circled the little panda's head on the cool, Summer breeze, but he didn't look up.
He wanted to be alone. Po hesitated. Shifu did want to be alone, but there were times when people didn't need to be alone no matter how much they wanted it to be otherwise. There were times when a guy needed a friend, and right now, his Kung Fu Master looked like he was in serious need of one.
Still, he warned himself, he had to go about this right. He'd only matters worse if he was his normal cumbersome self, but he didn't have to be loud and accidental prone. He could be quiet. He could be calm. He could be, he told himself sternly, the friend the great Shifu needed.
Quietly, he edged his way through the wood. He tried to be quiet when he sat down beside his Sensei, but his bum fell heavier than he intended and the forest ground quaked a little beneath his weight. He grimaced and looked sideways at Shifu, hoping the noise hadn't bothered him and cringing inside as he prepared to be berated by him for making a racket and being clumsy.
Shifu did not appear to have noticed Po. He waited until his pupil's head dropped back down before taking a sideways glance at him. His spirit, he noted with one glance, was also cascading downward. He straightened instantly, hoping Po would get his silent message and leave him alone. The matters weighing on his mind, the Kung Fu Master told himself, were far too great for him to waste time with a lumbering oaf who never should have been awarded the title of the Dragon Warrior.
For a moment, Oogway's voice came to him on the breeze. Shifu's ears and tail twitched. Then he turned his face to the side and tried his best to ignore the guilt beginning to ride on his conscience. His tail flopped out from underneath the hem of his robe and lay straight and still upon the rock on which he sat.
The forest was again quiet. He knew, although his eyes were closed, the moment Po moved, and to his dismay, it wasn't to move away from him. It was instead to slide closer to him and place something before him. The Master cracked one eye open and surveyed the pink, ornamental bowl with scrutinity. He was hungry, but if he ate that which Po offered, he feared he might never get rid of him. Quickly, his eye shut again.
Po didn't know how long he waited, but he was determined. He hadn't been so determined, in fact, since he had managed to finish his collection of Furious Five action figures. He sat as still as he could, though he quivered inside with barely controlled excitement, and kept the bowl right at the level of Shifu's sniffing, brown nose.
He didn't know how much time passed, but it seemed like an eternity while the forest also seemed to be alive with noise. His friends always said he made a racket, but as he waited, it sounded to Po as though every being in the forest was making a greater racket than he had since the last time he'd played with pots and pans. Crickets chirped. Breezes blew. Tiny, almost invisible animals skittered across the ground. Birds sang. He could even hear the individual blades of grass as they moved back and forward according to how the wind blew.
But finally, finally, Shifu's paw darted out, grabbed one of the rolls, and popped it into his mouth. Po's broad grin filled his face. Still, he didn't speak, but he did move the bowl a little closer. He was dismayed when Shifu didn't move another muscle or open his eyes. He simply sat there, so Po sat there as well, silently keeping him company until Shifu's paw again darted to the bowl and took another roll.
Po's mouth opened with glee, but he slapped his other paw over his mouth before he could squeal. He was making progress! He was actually keeping his Master company and proving he could be quiet and understanding and compassionate and behave and still be a real friend! He shook from head to foot and shoved his fist down his mouth to keep himself quiet. Even when he managed to still the rest of his body, his small, black, and bushy stub of a tail continued to wag.
The sun descended slowly over the forest, and just as slow as its descent was Shifu's removal of rolls from the bowl. He reached for a ninth one just as sunset fell. The clickity-clack of his nails as they skittered over the smooth surface of the bowl echoed in their small part of the forest. He opened first one eye and then the other and frowned at the empty bowl.
Po was quiet a minute longer, determined to prove he could be a friend without being a disruptive burden, but when Shifu finally looked at him and spoke, "Panda," he could contain himself no longer.
Grinning from ear to ear, he burst out, "I can make you some more! I can so totally make you some more if we go back to the palace!" He was shaking all over, but he managed to curtail his impulse to leap to his feet, dance in place, and hold the bowl triumphantly aloft.
He grew still as Shifu remained quiet. His grin began to fade, turning instead into a frown, but just as he'd almost given up hope, Shifu finally relented with a soft, shy smile that was even more rewarding to the unusually patient panda. "It is getting late, and these rolls are rather delicious, Panda-san."
"Yes!" Po jumped to his feet. "Yes!" His massive, black fists pumped upward into the air. "YES!" The sound of Shifu's tail impatiently striking his rock made him look back down. "I mean," he gulped and tried hard to still the eagerness making his big body tremble, "I'll be happy to make you however many you want, Shifu Master, Sir."
Shifu smiled and inclined his head into a slight nod. "Well done, Panda-san," he admitted. He took his stick and rose from his rock.
Po waited until his Master had turned toward home before leaping into the air again. "Yes!" he mouthed. "Yes! Yes! YES!" He landed, jerking both fists back against his body in the start of a victory dance, but moved swiftly instead to a normal, standing pose when Shifu looked back at him.
"Are you coming, Panda-san?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, I'm coming! I'm just, you know, letting you go first and all."
"I see." But Shifu was still smiling when he turned back toward home. It was the first smile Po had seen him wear all day. He continued to shout inside but kept himself normal and calm on the outside so as not to bother his Master and friend.
As they journeyed home together, Po finally remembered what kind of panda his father had told him he was. He was a Giant Panda. Giants were supposed to be cumbersome, large, and noisy. They couldn't help their size, not the size of their bodies or the size of their vocal chords. Or, Po thought to himself, the size of their enthusiasm.
But he'd proven something else today. Despite all the things he did that were wrong, despite all the noise he made, despite his size making him look like a big, lumbering idiot, despite everything the villagers and his friends said about him, despite all his wrongs, he had a heart just as big as the rest of him. His grin remained big and bold, and he danced silently behind Shifu all the way home except when the Kung Fu Master looked back at him. Every time he did, Po was ready and calm and waiting until he could dare be himself again.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Kung Fu Panda
Characters/Pairing: Po, Shifu
Rating: G/K
Challenge/Prompt: #127: Weight
Word Count: 2,105
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners, not the author.
He stopped walking the moment he heard movement up ahead. The lumbering panda didn't know who it was, but he knew two things for certain: They wouldn't want his company, and if he continued along his current pathway, they'd complain yet again that he was too big, noisy, and cumbersome.
He sighed and looked down at his body. It wasn't that he'd never tried to lose weight or learn to be quieter. He had -- many times, especially as a cub when the villagers had poked fun at his chubbiness, but nothing worked. He remembered blacking out one time when he'd pretended to be eating his father's delicious noodles and rolls but had, in truth, been trying to starve himself into losing weight and hiding them beneath the rugs in the noodle shop that served as their home.
It had been then that his father had sat him down and explained that, as a panda, he was naturally larger and heavier than the rest of the villagers. Having never been around them, they didn't understand his species, but his father did and explained to him that he was a fine speciman of a panda bear. Po sniffled at the memory. He was supposed to be big, but everybody hated his size, including him.
People were so cruel, but he expected that from strangers, not from his friends, not from kung fu masters who were supposed to be so wise in both mind and heart. He snorted and rolled his dark eyes. Whoever had first said that clearly had never known anybody like Tigress. She was the worst, but then, they'd all been on his case today. Even Viper had complained of getting no peaceful sleep the night before because of his snoring. He didn't snore that loudly, and besides, the little snake could have surely found something to stuff into her ears, wherever they were, to block out his voice.
Why did he have to be so big? Why did a big body have to make so much noise? Why did he have to have friends who didn't understand him? Were they really his friends? Why did he have to be a panda in the first place? Heck, for that matter, why did he have to be the Dragon Warrior when the Furious Five were nowhere near as cool as he'd always thought they were growing up?
He let the strength go from his body and just fell down on his bum where he had previously stood. He didn't care that he was sitting in the middle of a trail in a forest. He didn't care that a stone was sticking him in the tail. He just didn't want to go any further. He didn't want to be the Dragon Warrior any longer. He wanted somebody besides his father who would truly understand him, and he feared, as tears rolled down his big, furry face, that he would never get that special friend.
Then something whispered in the woods. A song sang on the leaves of the trees surrounding him. It was a sad song, a melancholy tune fitting to his mood, but he wasn't interested until the forest seemed to part before him to show him just who was up ahead . . . and that the individual was also sitting, looking as downtrodden as though he'd just fallen into a pile of goop left over from his father's cooking on a busy weekend night. No, Po thought, his head lifting slowly as he studied the older male before him, it was worse than that. In truth, he looked like he suffered from the weight of the entire world having come down upon his small shoulders.
Po cocked his head. "Shifu," he whispered. Shifu was also a panda, but he was a red panda. They were naturally far smaller than Po's type of panda, whatever that was. They were smaller, cooler, calmer, brighter, and naturally more agile, too. Po started to look away, thinking that Shifu didn't need his lumbering, noisy self to bother him, but then he looked back and gazed for a long time before he finally rose and left, for the first time in a long while, not making a single sound as he moved back amongst the forest path.
It wasn't long before he was again running down that same trail, but when he reached the spot where he'd seen Shifu sitting so still and sad, he forced himself to stop. He heaved in several great gasps of air, filling his aching lungs, and once more looked through the trees. Just as he'd partially only suspected and half hoped, Shifu was still sitting in the same spot. Cherry blossoms circled the little panda's head on the cool, Summer breeze, but he didn't look up.
He wanted to be alone. Po hesitated. Shifu did want to be alone, but there were times when people didn't need to be alone no matter how much they wanted it to be otherwise. There were times when a guy needed a friend, and right now, his Kung Fu Master looked like he was in serious need of one.
Still, he warned himself, he had to go about this right. He'd only matters worse if he was his normal cumbersome self, but he didn't have to be loud and accidental prone. He could be quiet. He could be calm. He could be, he told himself sternly, the friend the great Shifu needed.
Quietly, he edged his way through the wood. He tried to be quiet when he sat down beside his Sensei, but his bum fell heavier than he intended and the forest ground quaked a little beneath his weight. He grimaced and looked sideways at Shifu, hoping the noise hadn't bothered him and cringing inside as he prepared to be berated by him for making a racket and being clumsy.
Shifu did not appear to have noticed Po. He waited until his pupil's head dropped back down before taking a sideways glance at him. His spirit, he noted with one glance, was also cascading downward. He straightened instantly, hoping Po would get his silent message and leave him alone. The matters weighing on his mind, the Kung Fu Master told himself, were far too great for him to waste time with a lumbering oaf who never should have been awarded the title of the Dragon Warrior.
For a moment, Oogway's voice came to him on the breeze. Shifu's ears and tail twitched. Then he turned his face to the side and tried his best to ignore the guilt beginning to ride on his conscience. His tail flopped out from underneath the hem of his robe and lay straight and still upon the rock on which he sat.
The forest was again quiet. He knew, although his eyes were closed, the moment Po moved, and to his dismay, it wasn't to move away from him. It was instead to slide closer to him and place something before him. The Master cracked one eye open and surveyed the pink, ornamental bowl with scrutinity. He was hungry, but if he ate that which Po offered, he feared he might never get rid of him. Quickly, his eye shut again.
Po didn't know how long he waited, but he was determined. He hadn't been so determined, in fact, since he had managed to finish his collection of Furious Five action figures. He sat as still as he could, though he quivered inside with barely controlled excitement, and kept the bowl right at the level of Shifu's sniffing, brown nose.
He didn't know how much time passed, but it seemed like an eternity while the forest also seemed to be alive with noise. His friends always said he made a racket, but as he waited, it sounded to Po as though every being in the forest was making a greater racket than he had since the last time he'd played with pots and pans. Crickets chirped. Breezes blew. Tiny, almost invisible animals skittered across the ground. Birds sang. He could even hear the individual blades of grass as they moved back and forward according to how the wind blew.
But finally, finally, Shifu's paw darted out, grabbed one of the rolls, and popped it into his mouth. Po's broad grin filled his face. Still, he didn't speak, but he did move the bowl a little closer. He was dismayed when Shifu didn't move another muscle or open his eyes. He simply sat there, so Po sat there as well, silently keeping him company until Shifu's paw again darted to the bowl and took another roll.
Po's mouth opened with glee, but he slapped his other paw over his mouth before he could squeal. He was making progress! He was actually keeping his Master company and proving he could be quiet and understanding and compassionate and behave and still be a real friend! He shook from head to foot and shoved his fist down his mouth to keep himself quiet. Even when he managed to still the rest of his body, his small, black, and bushy stub of a tail continued to wag.
The sun descended slowly over the forest, and just as slow as its descent was Shifu's removal of rolls from the bowl. He reached for a ninth one just as sunset fell. The clickity-clack of his nails as they skittered over the smooth surface of the bowl echoed in their small part of the forest. He opened first one eye and then the other and frowned at the empty bowl.
Po was quiet a minute longer, determined to prove he could be a friend without being a disruptive burden, but when Shifu finally looked at him and spoke, "Panda," he could contain himself no longer.
Grinning from ear to ear, he burst out, "I can make you some more! I can so totally make you some more if we go back to the palace!" He was shaking all over, but he managed to curtail his impulse to leap to his feet, dance in place, and hold the bowl triumphantly aloft.
He grew still as Shifu remained quiet. His grin began to fade, turning instead into a frown, but just as he'd almost given up hope, Shifu finally relented with a soft, shy smile that was even more rewarding to the unusually patient panda. "It is getting late, and these rolls are rather delicious, Panda-san."
"Yes!" Po jumped to his feet. "Yes!" His massive, black fists pumped upward into the air. "YES!" The sound of Shifu's tail impatiently striking his rock made him look back down. "I mean," he gulped and tried hard to still the eagerness making his big body tremble, "I'll be happy to make you however many you want, Shifu Master, Sir."
Shifu smiled and inclined his head into a slight nod. "Well done, Panda-san," he admitted. He took his stick and rose from his rock.
Po waited until his Master had turned toward home before leaping into the air again. "Yes!" he mouthed. "Yes! Yes! YES!" He landed, jerking both fists back against his body in the start of a victory dance, but moved swiftly instead to a normal, standing pose when Shifu looked back at him.
"Are you coming, Panda-san?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, I'm coming! I'm just, you know, letting you go first and all."
"I see." But Shifu was still smiling when he turned back toward home. It was the first smile Po had seen him wear all day. He continued to shout inside but kept himself normal and calm on the outside so as not to bother his Master and friend.
As they journeyed home together, Po finally remembered what kind of panda his father had told him he was. He was a Giant Panda. Giants were supposed to be cumbersome, large, and noisy. They couldn't help their size, not the size of their bodies or the size of their vocal chords. Or, Po thought to himself, the size of their enthusiasm.
But he'd proven something else today. Despite all the things he did that were wrong, despite all the noise he made, despite his size making him look like a big, lumbering idiot, despite everything the villagers and his friends said about him, despite all his wrongs, he had a heart just as big as the rest of him. His grin remained big and bold, and he danced silently behind Shifu all the way home except when the Kung Fu Master looked back at him. Every time he did, Po was ready and calm and waiting until he could dare be himself again.
The End