Fei-Long stood in the doorway, wearing a white T-shirt and some blue jeans, holding two brown bags, obviously the Chinese food. Ryu looked over at Chun Li and saw that she had tears in her eyes. “Fei…” She said softly. Fei-Long suddenly dropped the bags and swept Chun off her feet and planted a kiss on her lips.

Ryu, on the other hand, was kissing dirt. He dove after the bags after Fei-Long had dropped them and face planted on the concrete. “Ow…” He slowly got up and looked at the bags. “At least I the food wasn’t crushed,” he said.

Ryu set the food down on the table, rubbing his nose. “Wait till after you’re inside the house to greet Chun Li from now on, okay? If my face wasn’t used to taking punches, I could’ve broken my nose, and I left the hospital this morning,” Ryu said, sitting down in a chair in the kitchen. Chun Li and Fei-Long did like wise. “Question. Fei-Long, why are you delivering Chinese food? I thought you were some actor.”

“A student of my teacher’s, Yang, delivers Chinese food. I ran into him on the way here. When I learned Chun here had ordered the food, I offered to take it up for him. He was all to glad to get it off his hands.”

Ryu just nodded. “So, when does training start? I’m anxious to start.”

Fei-Long just smiled. “First, we’re going to see what kind of shape your in. This is just so we know you’re limits, and push you beyond them. That’s what limit’s are for.”

Ryu smiled in return. “I’m sure I won’t disappoint.”

Next Day

Fei-Long was standing in his back yard, wearing a pair of navy sweat pants. He was waiting for Ryu, who was currently eating him out of house and home. ‘At this rate, I’ll have to empty my bank account just to get him a light snack,’ Fei-Long thought as he impatiently tapped his foot. Soon Ryu came out, clad in his white gi and red headband. “Bout time,” Fei-Long said, “if I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn that we were feeding a small country, and I’m sure one eats less then you Ryu.”

Ryu just smiled and rubbed the back of his head. “So what’s the first order of business?” Ryu asked, returning to his stone face.

Fei-Long just shook his head. ‘He’s constantly shifting between granite-face and being a Goku wannabe,’ he thought. “First order of business is a short jog. We’ll be going along a path that will take us through the woods.” He said, motioning to a parting in the tree’s, the opening to the path obviously.

Fei-Long turned and at a slow steady jog, made his way to the path. Ryu followed. The moment the entered the woods, Ryu nearly froze with awe. It was one of the most beautiful sights he ever saw. There were thin trees surrounding them, reaching for up towards the sky. There was plenty of green, not gray, like some of the woods Ryu had seen. It wasn’t too dark, but provided plenty of shade. Ryu didn’t miss a beat, though, and still followed after Fei-Long.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair had come across a bridge, which was by a waterfall. The wood was tarnished in order to stand the spray of water as it came down, which Ryu felt from how close they were. They were forty feet in the air. Ryu looked over the bridge and whistled. He saw the forest in its entirety. The trees seemed to go on forever and he could make out a mountain range in the distance. However, Fei-Long just ignored the seen and continued jogging. Ryu still didn’t stop and followed after him, leaving the beautiful scene behind.

Half an hour later

Ryu and Fei-Long had gotten back from their jog. Ryu was pretty winded, while Fei-Long was just doing a breathing exercise to slow down his heart. Ryu looked at him and was able to say in between his gasps of breath, “How is it I’m on the floor and you’re still up there.”

Fei-Long just shrugged. “I jog for forty-five minutes everyday. I’m used to it. I know you walk everywhere Ryu, but just because you can walk for two hours and still be okay doesn’t mean you can jog five minutes. We will be jogging every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On the other days, we will be riding bikes. On Sunday, we take a break, okay.”

Ryu just looked up at him. Jogging for that long every other day? He also got the impression Fei-Long would expect more from him on the bikes. Slowly, Ryu started to do some stretches.

Fei-Long looked over at him. “Ryu, I have a question.”

Ryu stopped and looked at him. “Shoot.”

“How do you stay in shape? You travel the world, and unless you carry a weight bench on your back, you must have some exercise routine.”

Ryu rubbed the back of his head and looked at the ground, then at Fei-Long. “Sensei taught me and Ken exercises that develop the muscles without the help of weights.”

Fei-Long just nodded. “I should’ve guessed. Gen never knew anything like that, so I have to buy a weight bench. Problem is I have to take it with me everywhere I go. Maybe you could teach me these exercises of yours.”

Ryu nodded. “Maybe I will.”

Fei-Long smiled. “You have more energy, lets see how many of pushups you can do.”

12:00

Fei-Long and Ryu were out in the sun, eating lunch. Lunch consisted of salad, white bread, and steak. Fei-Long said they would eat from the food group’s everyday, to keep healthy. It was no big change for Ryu, he already did.

While they were eating, Fei-Long asked Ryu a question. “Why do you want to train under me?”

Ryu thought about it for a moment, swallowed the food he was chewing and responded, “I figure, if you’re this good, than may be some are out there that are even better. So, I want a better chance to beat them.”

Fei-Long shook his head. “Like every one else, you want to learn the way to win. There is no diffident way to win. The only thing you can do is try your best. Believe it or not, I lose matches every once in a while, just like everyone else. You are about to enter a different league Ryu. You’ll face opponents more powerful than Bison could ever be. Try to remember this Ryu when you lose against an opponent, and you will lose, even after this training. The rain may be coming down today, but baby tomorrow the sun is gonna come out and shine.”

Ryu sat there, thinking about it. ‘Just do your best.’ He heard the words before, often from his teacher, but he always settled for the best, not his. Ryu looked back up at Fei-Long. “You mean no matter what happens, tomorrow always brings gifts of it’s own.”

Fei-Long smiled. “Exactly.”

Ryu smiled, glad to see that he was getting somewhere. When he had gotten into this, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to understand or anything, not that he told anyone, or showed it. Now he felt ready for anything.

Fei-Long stood up and looked down at Ryu. “Ready to continue.”

Ryu nodded. “You bet.”

Fei-Long smiled. “Let’s hop to it.”

Ryu jumped up to his feet. “Now what do we do?”

Fei-Long looked at him. “I will show you one of the most painful kicks you could use. It’s the shin kick.”

Ryu looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “The shin kick?”

Fei-Long nodded. “Take a front stance Ryu.”

Ryu proceeded to spread his legs out to shoulder length, and took a big forward step with one leg, and made the stance longer. He then locked the rear leg and bowed his back. He then put his hands on his hips. (AN: I probably pointed a poor picture here, so just image the stance Ryu takes when he fires his hadoken, with the rear heel placed flat on ground, arching his back.)

“Like this?”

Fei-Long nodded and went into his stance. He suddenly brought his rear leg up to his forward leg. He then brought his forward leg up and launched a sidekick directly at Ryu’s heavily exposed shin. He stopped it just short of contact and then brought it back along the same path, and returned to his stance.

Ryu came out of the stance. He wasn’t amazed by anything really. He just shrugged. “What’s the big deal with the kick? It didn’t look too powerful.”

Fei-Long just came out of stance and gave Ryu an annoyed look. “The kick doesn’t need to be powerful, the shin is vulnerable and is very sensitive. A well place kick there could affect the whole fight. Keep that in mind.”

Ryu nodded, still not entirely convinced.

Fei-Long seemed to notice this, but didn’t attend to the matter. “Come on, let’s examine your stance.”

10:00 PM

Fei-Long was sitting in the study reading a book, when Chun Li came in. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and adjusted her head so she could kiss him on the cheek. He just smiled, put down his book, and placed a hand on hers. Chun Li looked into his eyes and saw that they were tired. “What’s wrong, Siu Long?” Fei-Long smiled. “I haven’t been called that for so long. As for your question, Ryu’s training started today. It started well enough, but after I showed him the Shin kick, it all went down hill. He seems so determined to stick to tradition rather than pick what works best. This is gonna harder than I thought.”

Chun Li sat in his lap. “I know this is your first pupil, Siu Long, and that this is as big a step for you as it is for Ryu. But don’t worry. He will understand later. You did. It took years but you finally understand what sifu was telling you for all those years.”

Fei-Long smiled as he remembered Gen. “I miss him.”

Chun Li smiled. “So do I.”

Fei-Long smiled too. “I remember my first lesson. I thought I was all that, even though I never won a fight. When he told me to fight him, I thought I could beat him. I mean, he was a forty- year old man asking me to fight me, a strong youth. If I recall, he threw me around for fifteen minutes.”

“Twenty,” Chun Li corrected.

Fei-Long smiled again. His problems with Ryu forgotten, as he talked with his love about time long past.