The next morning, Po made his way to the breakfast table with a new idea for the day. He had decided he was going to take the morning to try and relax and clear his head before trying again with Zhen. It was just hard with someone who was just as bad as Shifu when it came to getting along with him.

Actually, that reminded him of something else he wanted to do.....

Po eventually reached the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and started making breakfast. The five, smelling the pleasing aromas, soon trickled into the kitchen one by one, and before long they were all sitting around the table eating.

"Where's Monkey?" Viper asked, glancing around the table. "He's usually awake by now."

Po puzzles over that for a minute. "Not sure," he admitted. "Maybe he was out late. He does like hanging out Yi and Wen-Dao."

"True."

As if on cue, Monkey arrived in the kitchen with a loud yawn to accompany it. Right behind him was Zhen who looked equally tired.

"Well that's an interesting sight," Viper remarked. "What were you two doing up late?"

"What makes you think we were up foolin' around?" Zhen remarked.

"Because you're both exhausted and you never get up this late in the morning," Tigress pointed out flatly. Looking at them individually, she added, "You're too energetic, and you're always plotting something."

Zhen rolled her eyes. "Oh ya' caught me, Master tigress. I was up scheming away with Master monkey to undo your entire kung fu structure!"

"We did some sparring and talked," Monkey corrected. "Don't worry about it."

He and Zhen sat down at the table and began to eat the breakfast Po made. They did a lot of yawning and not a lot of talking, so the rest of the masters were the ones who kept up the conversation at the table. Eventually Zhen, after eating most of the breakfast dumplings, asked Po what he was plotting for the day.

"Actually, I thought you guys could use a rest day today," Po said. He ate some more dumplings before adding that he had Dragon Warrior stuff to do, so they should enjoy the nice weather and relax.

"Pretty sure that's not a word in Tigress' vocabulary," Monkey joked.

"You don't have Dragon Warrior days," Tigress noted suspiciously, completely ignoring Monkey. "What are you up to?"

"What do you mean? Of course I do!"

"Really? Like when?"

"Uh...like...eating dumplings. And...hanging out with kids...and blowing bubbles to see what shapes they make."

Monkey nudged Zhen and grinned. She held in a laugh.

"You do that every other day of the week," Tigress pointed out.

"Shhhh!" Mantis shushed. "Po doesn't give us days off! Just roll with it!"

Tigress rolled her eyes, but complied and kept her mouth shut for the rest of breakfast. Afterwards she and the masters waved Po goodbye and headed into the village.

"I still think he's up to something," Tigress remarked as she headed down the stairs with her friends.

"Well, I love my free time, so works for me," Mantis told her.

Zhen looked at them, frowned in thought, and asked them how long they had trained under Po.

"Four years," Viper told her. "Our original master retired, but he trained Po as his replacement."

"Really?" Zhen asked in surprise. "What was he like?"

"Stricter than Po," Mantis answered. "But gave us random days off. Po doesn't do that, not even on festival days."

"We do get to sleep in later though," Monkey added. "Shifu made us get up right at sunrise."

The masters eventually made their way into the village where they were greeted by the sight of happy villagers bustling around and trading with others. A few of them glared at Zhen, but made no further remarks as they went about their day.   Zhen ignored them however and just looked around at everyone. Tigress stated that she would see them later and then made her way down the street to a big building with red shutters and blue windows where a small panda kid ran out and immediately engulfed her in a hug. Viper said she would go shopping and Mantis decided he was going to relax over by the river. Monkey offered to walk Zhen around, but she decided to walk the streets alone and left him and Crane to their own devices. Zhen watched them leave before slowly walking down the road and making her way to a tiny little store by one of the valley's rivers. She bumped shoulders with a few villagers before eventually making her way into the shop where she was immediately greeted by a familiar face. 

"Zhen!" cried a tall pelican who was sweeping the shelves. 

Zhen ran over and hugged him. "How are you doing, Orion?" she asked happily. 

"Doing great! Haven't had a real job since layoffs, so kinda' weird. But I miss this. And no strenuous labor on my back! So bonus!" 

Zhen laughed lightly. "Well, I'm glad you're settling in well," she admitted. "And how's your brother?"

"Carrying the hard stuff, like usual!" laughed a little green fish from the counter. He waved over to Zhen who immediately walked over and high fived him. 

"Nice to see you too, Len," she said. She moved out of the way so Len could check out a customer. The fish then turned to her and asked what it was like being up there with the big kung fu masters. 

"Must be a lot of fun!" he noted. "We got a lot of reports about what the masters are like from all over the villagers. You must be killing it up there!" 

Zhen felt embarrassed but tried to hide it by nonchalantly stating that she was doing her best. 

"They've got some weird stuff up there, but not much I haven't see," she said. 

"Well, I can't wait to see the day when you become Master Zhen. That would be so cool!"

"She'd fit the role perfectly!" Orion remarked, putting down the dusting to think about it. "She did such a great job with leading us through all the rough patches. Imagine the possibilities! She'd stop those big shots within a heartbeat!" 

Zhen chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well, we'll see," she said. "You know how these big shots are. And we got a rep here, so...ya' know.... we'll see." She quickly ducked out of the shop telling them she'd catch them later. 

"Kick some butt!!!" Orion called after her. 

Zhen walked around the village for a little while saying hello to her fellow thieves. However, a lot of the questions were primarily focused on her training to be a kung fu warrior. Considering how badly she got along with Po and the fact that she hadn't actually tried to learn anything from him, Zhen realized she didn't have much to say aside for the fact that she and Monkey had similar fighting styles. Soon lunchtime approached and Zhen found herself hiding out behind one of the alleys between the houses to try and think over everything. She had done quite enough chitchatting for the day. 

"What's up with you?" suddenly came Tigress' voice. 

Zhen jumped a little but then rolled her eyes. "Whattaya' want?" she mumbled. 

"You can drop the tough guy act," Tigress told her, sitting down on the ground beside her. "I know a pity party when I see it." 

"I'm not having a pity party," Zhen retorted irritably. "I'm just...thinking." 

"About?"

Zhen growled. Then sighed. "Everyone I know keeps going on about how exciting I am that I'm gonna' be a master. I didn't realize that's what they were all thinking! I literally just went up there to prove to the Dumpling Warrior that kung fu is nothing compared to the skills I picked up!"

Tigress gave her a knowing expression. "And now...what? You're embarrassed that you're losing?"

"No! Well...kinda'. I just didn't realize people actually were thinking I went up there to be a real master. I ain't the type! I'm a country girl turned thief! Sure, I can make grown men cry, but that ain't warrior material, ya' know?"

"Tigress!!!" came a cute cry from a panda girl who ran into the alley and jumped right onto Tigress. 

The master hugged her back but then gently nudged her away and squeezed her paws gently. "Lei-Lei, give us a minute, okay?" she told the little panda cub. 

"But you said we could eat hot pot with Bee and Mister Greenie!" 

"We will. I just need to talk to Zhen really quick. Can you wait right there?" and she pointed to a small box just outside the alley. Lei-Lei agreed and made her way out. 

"She's cute," Zhen admitted. 

"Lei-Lei's an orphan living in a group home right now," Tigress admitted. "I've been visiting her until she finds a real family."

Zhen smirked. "Well lookie lookie," she teased. "The big stoic tiger master is a huge softie." 

"I never said I wasn't." 

Tigress leaned against the wall and looked at Zhen with a firm expression. "You know, Po wasn't so great when he first showed up either," she told her. "He didn't even know how to punch a training dummy without getting his butt kicked." 

Zhen burst out laughing. "Seriously?!" she exclaimed. 

"It took him a while to get the hang of it and then years to get to where he is now. And he started off as a kitchen boy in a noodle shop. In fact, none of us started as masters. Well, except for Viper, but Viper didn't learn kung fu at first because her dad thought not having venom didn't make her strong enough." 

"Oh...." 

I grew up in an orphanage before Shifu...our original master...took me in. Monkey grew up in a small poor community, Mantis came from a river farm, and Crane worked as a janitor for over fifteen years and never bothered taking up kung fu because people made fun of how he looked."

Zhen looked at her in surprise. "That's... she started. "Wow....I didn't know that. Guess Monkey was right. I wouldn't have guessed." 

"You're incredibly obnoxious and arrogant," Tigress told her bluntly. "Po isn't going to say that because he's nice, but that's the truth. Maybe if you could swallow the pride and actually try....you might see that we're not as bad as you think." 

Zhen frowned, but sat there quietly for a minute. "I guess I'm just used to big whigs being jerks," she admitted. "I'm sorry." 

Tigress nudged her. "Don't worry about it," she said. "Just focus on actually trying and maybe we can get along better." She stood up and added, "For now, why don't you come join us for lunch? We're eating some hot pot at Mr. Ping's...." 

Zhen smiled. "Sounds good to me," she admitted. "I haven't had that in years!"