Forced to Stay

Chapter 15

While the blizzard was tombing outside, the cave walls were keeping the warmth inside. The storm had it's good side though. It made it imposible for anyone to follwo them and cowered their footprints. That somehow calmed Tigress.

That and Su's heartbeat.

She enjoyed the gentel, regualr sound. Smiling to herself, Tigress closed her eyes again. She recalled the stories Po told about the snow leopardess. Many of them described Su as a heartless monster, who only cares about her own victory and would do anything to get what she want. But it didn't seem like that. The past days, Su was more carring than nacasisstic. Sure, she still was an annoying, sarcastic jerk but that was nothing Tigress couldn't handle. In fact, she could handel it a lot better than she would have liked to.

It was something the striped feline just couldn't undertand, no matter how hard she tried. Did she even want to understand? Did she need to understand it? No. Tigress feared the answer. It was as if she just didn't want to hear what would have been obvious for anyone else.  She remebered how the stories about the snow leopard drew her in. Never before did anything fascinate her that way.

And now the person she only knew trough legends about was laying right beneath her. Something that was against all her moral now became totally okay with her? It was worrying her but then again, she started to mind less and less the more time she spend around Su. Without noticing, Tigress nuzzeled the snow leopard's chest. It took her a moment to realize what she was doing and she only truly stopped when she heard a soft, yet growl-like sound. She imidiatly sat up. It was more of a reflex tham a free choice. Tigress blinked rapidly, trying to make out why she caused to sound in the first place. But before she could get her answer, a loud, anoyed groand interrupted her train of thoughts.

Su forcefully pulled her back down, whispering, "What's to matter?"

"Uh...you growled at me?"

"When the heck did I do that?"

"A second ago?" Even in the dark, she could clearly see how the snow leopard's face slowly turned red. "A-are you okay?"

"Wha- what? Oh y-eah! I'm uh... I'm perfectly fine", Su stuttered, smiling like an idiot. She then murmered something Tigress couldn't understand. 

"Pardon?"

"Iwasjustpurring", she said trough her teeth. "It's nothing you need to mind. Look, I...ehem...I explain it in the morning as soon as we get going, okay?"

Nodding her head, Tigress responded with, "I...suppose so?" After those words, left her mouth, her head was gentely pushed down onto the soft fur. She didn't mind all that much but her blood still froze when Su stroke the back of her head.  "W-what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Growling in fustration, she flipped  the table before spinning around and scratching the wall. She kicked one of the scrolls, that were thrown on the ground, sending it flying trough the room. Su let herself fall into her chair, sighing.  She rubbed her eyes and hoped it would either calm her down or make her become blind for a second and pull her out of this madness if she'd put enough pressure on them.
Escape from all of this, that was what she needed. Just to leave it all behind for a moment.

She picked up the scroll that was closest to her foot. Unrolling it, the spotted feline eyed the her notes. Although she believed most of the words she wrote down to be anything but usefull and still, she didn't want to get rid of them. Su had countless bookshelves full of her old notes. From the day she could write, she fielled scroll after scroll if there was anything she needed to wrap her brain around. It used to help her to read old scrolls that had anything to do with the problems she needed to fix but this time, she had nothing related to the situation. The snow leoaprd tried to recall if there was anything standing in the scrolls in the Jade Palace, right.

"It makes no sense! I copied every single thing that was standing in those scrolls! I have the exactly same information as Master Oogway had!" , she hissed. Su picked up another scroll, violently ripping it open. "I guess this is the closest thing I have."  For some reason, she was fascinated by how she copied the painting that was in the original. Still, it wasn't helping her. "i have all the knowle-"  A deep growl left her troath. "Except something is still there, hidden from everyone."

"Su?"  His voice pulled her back to reality, preventing her from raging even more than she already did that night.

Sighting, she let the scroll fall back to the ground. But before she said anything, she forced a smile onto her face. "Tai, what the hell do you want from me in the middle of the night?"

"Why are  you still dealing with all that in the midle of the night?", was the conter.

"Because I'm not tired and thsi all needs to be fixed as soon as possible, that's why."

There was a quiet chuckle before a response came. "You do realize that I am the one who doesn't need any sleep, right? So why don't you just go to bed and continue tomorrow."

"Continue tomorrow?! This isn't just something I can lay aside and work on whenever I want!", Su growled.

"Su, listen. This all is about me and I don't mind waiting a bit longer. Look, I'm sorry, okay? I never wanted it all to end up like this and I don't want you to stress so much about fixing all of this so why don you do it anyways?"

"Because this is all my fault!", she shouted from the top of her lungs. "I am the one that should be apologizing, not you!" Hot tears ran down her face. She was tired of it all. Tired of failing, tired of trying, tired of having to pretend everything was fine and that she was fine. It was just...exhausting.

Su's face was fielled with a mix of sadness, anger and simple fustration. The spotted feline breathed heavily, trying to calm herself. Such things stopped working a longtime ago but for some reason she kept trying. Deep down she knew she would have just needed to let it all out. Cry her eyes out again.

No.

She couldn't. It would have helped her but not him.

Raising her head again, she looked right into his bright golden eyes. They were glowing heavily, stronger than her own. In the past, those eyes used to be so warm and calming but now, they were rather harsh and unsetteling.

He softly touched the side of her face, wiping away a tear. "Stop saying that. None of this was your fault."

Turning her head away, she closed her eyes again. His hands were cold like...jade. That was what they were . Su slowly pushed it away and turned back around to were her table was usually staning, eyeing all the scrolls that were laying on the ground. "Tai, please stop mimicking me", she sighed.

"How am I mimicking you?"

"You are pretending that it's all fine."

The snow leopard's eyes opened widely. Her hand automatically moved to where Tai Lung's amulet usually used to be. But instead of meeting the amulet, her paw met Tigress' head.

"Right", she whispered.

Su carefully watched her, trying to figure out what she was dreaming about. Watched how her tail slowly moved from side to side. She didn't mind how her head would move now and again. The feeling of fur brushing against fur wasn't anything that bothered her either. In fact, it only reminded her of good things. It reminded her of fighting with her sisters. It reminded her of hugs. It cuased her to recall old memories.

"What am I even doing here?"