Requested by: blitzer546

Prompt: Self Given

Warnings: None

Extra: The romance is just a bit lacking so I apologize for that. I found it really hard to tie in the Reader to all three movies while keeping up the romance at the same time, but I tried my best. Enjoy!

~*~

Peace, at any moment in time is completely unattainable. Perhaps in an overall sense, it can be. But even if every country in the world agrees to stop their disagreements and end all tension, within those countries, within those cities, there will still be unrest, big or small.

So when I was growing up, it was strange to me, and everyone around me that I wanted to become a Kung-Fu Master. There was just something about it. Of helping the world reach that point of 'more peace' instead of 'less peace' that entice me.

All of this was extremely comical considering I lived in the Valley of Peace- perhaps one of the most unrestful places in China.

Of course everyone thought I was crazy for it. Not only because of the way I saw things, but because being a snake without arms and becoming a Kung-Fu Master seemed as impossible as the peace concept I spoke about.

My spirits were depleted, and I was ready to give up. That is, until I met Viper. Not only was she a snake like me, but she held the same goal of becoming a Kung-Fu Master, and didn't let her lack of certain appendages slow her down from her dream.

We were kids then, and in the same class. Ironically, the seating chart indicated that we were to sit next to each other. Expecting nothing but the classic seat-buddies conversations that happen in childhood, I tried to move on with my life. Until I saw her lunch box.

"A Master Shifu lunch box? That's so cool!" I beamed, moving closer to get a better look.

"Really? Everyone else thinks it's kind of weird," she replied sheepishly, "People don't understand how cool Kung Fu masters are."

"I think all of them are really cool! I want to be one when I grow up."

I waited for the disapproving comment, for mocking words or a scornful look. Instead of any negative reaction, all I got was even more pure, unsarcastic excitement from the snake in front of me.

"No way! I do too! I never thought I'd find anyone who'd want to be a Master like me, much less another snake! This is so cool. Have you practiced before? How much do you know? I don't know a lot, honestly. But sometimes I like to sneak around the training grounds and watch the Masters while they work. It's really cool what they do in there..."

The two of us became best friends as soon as our first conversation came and went. From that point on, we were each others rock, sparring buddies, and motivation to keep going. She showed me how she was able to sneak into the temple, and I showed her everything I had learned from observation and what I had taught myself.

For years, we worked tirelessly to improve our skills and hopefully impress the masters enough so we'd be recruited to train at the temple. Our dreams came true on the fateful day Master Shifu himself came to our homes and revealed that we'd been chosen to train along with a few others.

Tigress, Mantis, Crane, Viper, Monkey, and I became fast friends, despite our clashing personalities. In a group of six, it was hard to play the 'opposites attract' trope because there were so many different opposites to compare to each other.

Still, we trained together, fought together, and improved upon each other until the day we were told that the Dragon Master would be chosen to lead our group to the future and eventually train the next generation and continue the cycle of strides toward peace.

"Who do you think it'll be?" Viper questioned excitedly as we slithered back to our rooms, post-life-changing-announcement.

If I had shoulders I would have shrugged, "I'd love to say it'll be me or you, but Tigress works harder than all of us. Deep down, I think all of us knew we were competing for that spot, and she's in the first place."

"That's really true. It kind of sucks that none of us will get it. But you're right by saying that she deserves it."

"The ceremony is tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we'll be surprised," I suggested, trying to cheer her up. It worked, and she gave me a small smile before retreating to her room for the night.

Surprised we were. Rather than Oogway choosing any of the trained, professional,  more than ready six, he chose Po. A panda, who could have burnt down the temple and- quite literally- crashed into our lives with a bang. Interesting, and although Tigress was piping mad, and the other three were just confused, Viper was excited- beaming about how I must have been psychic.

That day was, at the time, the longest of my life. Although I couldn't recall most of that night. It was a blur of questions, talks, and trying to introduce Po into his new life as the Dragon Master. Still, I could recall a conversation with Viper word for word.

"It's crazy! You said that something unexpected could happen and it did! Maybe part of your journey is being able to see into the future. Wouldn't that be cool? I think it'd be really cool."

"Viper-"

"Can you do it right now? Say how you think training tomorrow is going to go," Viper paused, blinking expectantly, "Go on."

Sighing, then smiling, I gave in, "Bad. I think tomorrow will go very bad."

"Well that's pessimistic," Viper grumbled, "But I trust your Future Vision... Is it gonna be bad cause Po's here now?"

"What else would it be? I trust Oogway, but that doesn't mean Po's journey to become a worthy Dragon Master is going to be easy. It'll be long, and stressful on all of us."

"Oh, that was another prediction!" Viper stopped in front of her room door, "I'll hold you to that Future Vision."

"I'm sure you will."

My "Future Vision" was right. Morale was on the fritz because everyone was still shocked over what happened the day before. No one was at their best, even Viper and I slacked on our sparring, preferring to chat over how our families were doing instead.

Po had the worst day out of all of us. Which was to be expected. He earned a hard F in every possible category for Kung Fu. While yes, that meant he could only improve, I wondered if he would instead dig himself an even deeper hole.

Our string of bad luck came to a climax when we learned of Tai Lung's escape from prison. Our team would always stand by each other and work well together, but with a new edition who had no idea what was going on, we thought we were doomed.

"Cut it!"

Through weeks of turbulent training and subsequent bonding with our resident Dragon Warrior and soon to be friend we gained a little more hope than we originally had. All of us but Tigress. But that peace was temporary, and was replaced by the battle of our lives soon enough.

Monkey and Crane sliced the rope holding the bridge Tai Lung was bounding across. But it was too late. Tigress leapt into action and we hurried to regain hold on the bridge to secure her while she fought our foe.

"Where's the Dragon Warrior?"

"How do you know you aren't looking at her?"

Tai Lung laughed, "You think I'm a fool? I know you're not the Dragon Warrior. None of you are! I heard how he fell out of the sky in a ball of fire. That he's a warrior unlike anything the world has ever seen."

"Po?" Monkey questioned in confusion. While Tai Lung was correct, he had taken all that information completely our of context.

"So that is his name. Po. Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!"

Tigress struck, exchanging blow after blow with Tai Lung. Consequently, the rest of us struggled to keep hold of the bridge and not get dragged off of the cliff edge.

"We got this, help her!" Monkey prompted, taking the rope from me, Viper, and Crane.

Springing into action, Viper and I exchanged nods and struck Tai Lung at the same time. Tigress fell from the bridge and Crane dove to catch her. Working in tandem, our combined forces could do little to beat the rage-fueled master.

"I got you guys!" Monkey came up from behind, striking him in the chest and helping both of us out. I sighed in relief, the help was greatly appreciated.

"Mantis!"

Mantis swung the bridge. We jumped in time, but Tai Lung was thrown with it. Crane sniped one of the ropes, and wrapped Tai Lung within. Tigress broke the other rope, and we all held on, landing safely on the cliff-edge while Tai Lung was let go.

"We did it," I breathed out.

But we didn't. The rope groaned, and swung, then snapped. Before any of us could process the realization, Tai Lung was smirking in front of us.

"Shifu taught you well, but he didn't teach you enough."

All seemed hopeless. Our team was out for the count, and the only hope we had was for Po to face him. So... needless to say there wasn't much hope.

Po did it. He used The Pinky to defeat Tai Lung and proved all of our earliest assumptions wrong about his abilities to become the Dragon Warrior. From that point on, he was more than welcome in our group. And became more than a teammate. He was a friend.

For a short amount of time there was peace. Small mishaps that we had to handle, but easy ones that we could deal with in an hour or two at most. Most of our time was spent training and hanging out together.

The wolves were the first sign of a larger unrest in Peace Valley. They were terrorizing a town and stealing their valuables. Fighting them was the same as always, quick and relatively easy.

Until they mentioned something about Po being a panda as impossible, then their leader beat the crap out of Po after he saw a symbol on their arm. Weird, unusual, and disconcerting.

"What do you think is going on with Po?" Viper asked later that night.

Humming in thought, I answered "Hard to say. But he seemed really put off by that symbol. He went to talk to his dad earlier, so it probably has something to do with his family."

"I just hope he knows that he can always talk to us. It'd be hard not to have people you can talk to."

"Yeah... yeah it would. Which is why I'm glad we've always had each other." tStaring into Viper's eyes, I made sure she knew how genuine my statement was. Without her, I likely would have given up on my dream and moved on with my life. I would have struggled through training and suffered alone. But she was there through everything, and for that, I truly appreciated her.

The next day we were summoned to Gongmen city due to reports of the Master Council there being overturned. The journey was tiring, but good endurance training. Po suffered the worst- endurance never being his best subject.

Once we arrived at the city, the funniest and most embarrassing stealth mission of my life occurred. Viper and I had to hide our laughter behind our tails it was so funny. But the embarrassment paid off, and we met with the two Kung Fu Masters that would assist us in defeated Shen. (After another embarrassing couple of hours where we had to pretend to surrender and Po threw up on the stairs).

Post that giant final battle was another era of peace. Bla, bla, bla. It was amazing, but because of my mentality I was a realist and knew it wouldn't last forever.

However, one thing that came out of that time was my relationship with Viper shifting. We'd been friends since childhood, but slowly, things felt different. Conversations were riddled with stutters and blushes.

Strangely enough, the person I felt most comfortable with going to for advice was Po. So the night before I planned to do so, I steeled my nerves, mediatated, and admitted to myself that I liked- loved, Viper. And the advice was on how to act in the future.

The day I planned to ask was the day things went downhill for the last time. Jade Zombies, "Jombies" per Monkey and Po's renaming, appeared in the town, setting all of us on edge. Not only that, but one of the zombies revealed that it was a past master named Kai who was controlling them.

Shifu himself seemed frightened, and that didn't help any of us. Still, life had to go on, and I still wanted to ask Po advice. But the universe stacked its odds against me and he left for some, Secret Panda Village!

All I could do we push on and try to act as though everything was fine. It was hard considering that normally when everything was fine, I was hanging out with Viper more often than not, and she was the source of my strange behavior.

Needless to say it was a stressful time before Po came back. My stress increased tenfold the day Kai invaded the Jade Palace, turning Crane and Mantis into his Jombie soldiers. He destroyed our home, decimated the statue of Oogway, and turned us into his Jombies.

The next thing I could remember was waking up in that hidden Panda Village alongside the other masters and our team.

"Viper? Are you okay?" I slithered over to her worridley.

"Fine, yeah. Well, as fine as I can be, but you get the picture."

For the first time in a long time, I believed that the peace we had achieved would last.

Days later, I approached Po after training, "Hey, Po. Can we talk for a sec?"

"Sure, (Y/n)."

We walked together as I tried to explain my situation. The fumbling, the awkwardness, the certainty of my feelings, but most of all, my uncertainty on how to proceed with things.

"And you came to me for advice?"

"Well, yeah. You're my friend and I trust you with this kind of stuff."

Eyes tearing up, Po pulled me into a back breaking hug. I groaned in pain, easily slipping out of his grip thanks to my thin body.

"Oh, sorry, Panda Hug. It's just really sweet," Po wiped his eyes and pulled himself together, "I think you should just tell her. From what I've seen, she probably feels the same way. You two were made for each other."

"Really?'

"Yeah. Go get her tiger! Or, well, snake."

Po's reassurance was all I needed. Rushing off, I searched for Viper, only to end up slamming into her. Both of us yelped in surprise and fell back.

"I was looking for you!" We exclaimed at the same time, "You go first, no you go first, no you!"

"Okay I will, I like you!" Viper cried, "Like a lot."

I smiled, mostly in relief, "I like you too."

"... are you serious?"

"Yes! I have for a while, but I've been unsure. But I talked to Po for advice and he said to just go for and so here I am."

"No way! I talked to Tigress for advice. Our chat was a lot more long winded but I read between the lines and she basically said that I should do the same thing... I'm glad you like me too."

"What's there not to like?" I chuckled, "So... what now?"

~*~

The years after our final battle with Kai, and after my shared confession with Viper seemed short in comparison to everything else. Perhaps it was because we were lost in a happy bliss. But that didn't mean I didn't remember anything.

I could remember falling in love with Viper even more as we continued our relationship, I remembered getting married and training the next generation of Kung Fu Masters, and I remembered the day both of us stepped back from the Master life and settled down in the valley together in a semi-retirement.

That, of course, didn't mean we stopped talking to our friends. Every chance we got we would visit them and train together so we'd stay sharp and alert in case there was ever an event where we'd be needed again.

There never was.

"Here you all are, enjoy your food. It's on the house."

"Thank you."

The team had agreed to meet at Po's dad's restaurant to catch up. It was nice seeing everyone so happy and content with where their lives had gone.

"How's the domestic life?" Monkey asked me and Viper.

"Nice, less hectic than the temple is I'm sure," Viper giggled, and I nodded in agreement.

Mantis cut in, "Next time we should eat at your place."

"And risk having you lot make a giant mess? No thank you. I'm looking at you Po," I joked, gaining loud laughs from everyone else.

The subject shifted to something else, but the team was just as interested in it. Taking the first bite of my food, I looked up at the setting sun and rising moon. There'd be plenty more of those that I could watch. No more fighting through them and losing the chance to appreciate their beauty.

Peace. It was more attainable than I thought. And it was nice.