i also have this old for-fun fic i was writing at in probably 2015 or so that i randomly decided to try rewriting and while i'm having a ball with it tbh i'm also. Hesitant to share it just bc i've never been super confident in my ability to write po and especially po against shen lmao and also this entire fic was extremely self-indulgent
“How did you even get here anyway? How are you still alive?”
Something here in Shen’s face changes quite starkly, surprise perhaps, confusion more likely. He regards Po for a long moment in silence, straightening and letting his mean-spirited mirth die away. In the end, it’s an oddly thoughtful, if numb, look he’s left with, and that uncharacteristic consideration carries into his voice when he finally responds.
“...What do you think ‘here’ is, panda?”
Ah— Po freezes, and up his rarely-used defenses go, a facet of theirs he assumes must be obvious to someone as guarded as Shen.
As he’d feared, it’s this which proves to be the wrong answer, though in this moment he can not imagine what could have been the right one. Shen smiles a familiar smile, all spiteful amusement and vitriol and trembling only slightly in his evident fatigue.
“Why— oh, do let me include you in the secret, then— poor thing, it must be so troubling for you to be so terribly uninformed, after all— I arrived here because I didn’t survive. I am here as a permanent resident, if you will, and so is your poor, wretched father.”
“He's not,” Po interrupts. “I know he's not— you’re thinking of the wrong dad..! It's not that one— it's the one who found me and raised me after you— you did your thing. He’s not supposed to be here. Something dragged him here against his will, and that’s why I’m here. I’m here to take him back home.”
Shen laughs, just a single loud laugh, as if caught off-guard. “Here to take him home! How morbid!”
