I Talk To An Action Figure

The only problem was getting the figure from Lei-Lei. Po had been watching her carefully all day long while she was visiting. He knew that she liked the figure of Tigress, as he had clearly seen when he first met her. But he never really knew how much she liked it. She never seemed to be apart from it. It was always clutched in her chubby little hand. Always. But surely she must leave it somewhere, Po had thought to himself in the morning. Now, the Sun had just set and he was beginning to doubt the thought.

"Does she take it with her to the bathroom?" Po thought with some exasperation. Then again, he bathed with them whenever he bathed in the back of his dad's noodle shop, so he couldn't really complain. So, Po decided to go for a method he hadn't wanted to use. He would just ask her for it.

When it was time for her to go home, she approached the top of the Thousand Steps to head down with Viper close by to accompany her. But Po's voice could be heard from the side.

"Hey, Lei-Lei! Wait up!" Po jogged over to Lei-Lei, who was looked up at him with an adorable smile and bright eyes. Her face almost made Po lose his courage. He could just walk away, he briefly thought.

"No, I need to do this." He wasn't really sure why he needed to do this specific thing, but his feelings told him he had to.

Po put his fingers together like a boy about to tell his mother exactly what stupid thing he did which led to some expensive item breaking.

"Hey, Lei-Lei, would you mind if I borrowed your Tigress? Just for tonight, of course." Immediately, he could see her face show something between wanting it for herself and wanting to make Po happy. She hesitated for a few seconds, so Po added,

"I need to... clean it." Po knew it was a terrible lie, but fortunately, Lei-Lei was far too innocent to suspect that. After a few seconds, she seemed convinced, and handed it to Po. He lifted up his eyes, and saw Viper using her tail to cover her mouth, which was undoubtedly about to burst out laughing. He looked back down to Lei-Lei.

"Thanks, Lei-Lei. I really appreciate it. I promise you can have it back tomorrow morning." Happy at the prospect, Lei-Lei started skipping down the stairs. Viper gave Po a knowing glance, but, before he could defend himself, she slithered down the steps after Lei-Lei.

With the action figure in hand, Po thought about the next place he should go. The Peach Tree? No, he thought. Everyone knew that he went there to think, and he needed to be alone for this. But where? After thinking, Po headed around the Palace. There was an area on the left side of the Palace that wasn't used and he thought he might seek some privacy there. It would be time for bed soon, and he knew that his friends were probably each doing some relaxing activity to get them ready for bed. Viper was taking Lei-Lei down to her grandmother, which was a job Tigress usually did, but Viper wouldn't let Tigress have all of Lei-Lei for herself, so they took turns in accompanying her down the Thousand Steps. Mantis would be catching up on his books on acupuncture and medicine. Monkey would be brainstorming more bad jokes to give the next morning. Crane would be going on his nightly flight. Tigress would be over at the Training Hall.

"Ah, Tigress." The word, which was nothing but two syllables uttered in the one of many dialects of the world, meant so much to Po. But enough of that, he thought. Better not to keep his thoughts inside his head. He was sure his head would explode from thinking about her. It would be best to say the words out loud, even if it wasn't to anyone in particular. After walking for a few minutes, he finally came to a small, flat area of the Palace grounds that didn't have anything but grass. He sat down in the center and looked at his old action figure. It was starting to get old, but he had certainly taken care of it while it was his. In fact, Po noticed that Lei-Lei had taken care of it as well as a girl her age could. A few scratches here and there, but it was clean.