Recalled to Life... Ch.2 (Part 1)- One Step Down
By Pearl/Bean

An hour later Ken walked through the garage door with two duffel bags around both shoulders seeing his wife helping her son on his homework from school. "Are you running away?" Eliza playfully asked. Ken smiled, "No, we have more company. She's my old friend from tournaments." "Really?" Eliza stood up happy.

Ken knew she's always wanted to meet a female fighter. Anyone could detect Eliza had a fighting spirit, but she would never hurt a fly. "Chun-Li walked in carrying her last duffel bag. Eliza recognized Chun-Li, *This is the strongest woman in the world!* Chun-Li looked at the very happy woman. The woman's smile made her smile and feel welcomed. "Oh, let me help you with that, " Eliza said coming over to Chun-Li and taking her duffel bag.

Eliza didn't know how heavy it was until she tried to put it on her shoulder and she nearly fell backwards on the floor. Ken spotted her and lifted the duffel bag up holding all three of them. Chun-Li felt bad, "My extreme apologies. I should of said something about the weight. I try to pack as much as I can in one bag so I don't have to carry more than I need to."

"I know how that goes," Eliza said with another grin, "You must be Chun-Li, the strongest woman in the world." Chun-Li blushed at the same compliment that Ken gave her earlier today also. She didn't feel like she earned such a title. Not until her Kikoken was stronger, "Um… I really don't know what to say."

Eliza, leading Chun-Li into the living room decided to give her a tour, "Ken, would you mind dropping those bags off at our other guest room?" "Which one?" Eliza paused for a moment and looked at Chun-Li, "Oh why don't we let you decide." "Oh, that's really ok, I'll be fine with-" Eliza quickly yanked Chun-Li's arm into the direction of the guest rooms.

Chun-Li sensed a very pure aurora from Eliza. It was obvious she was always bending over backwards to help her guests feel comfortable. This caused Chun-Li to brighten up. Ken followed the two ladies. Eliza showed Chun-Li three guest rooms until she found a room with a nice view of a golfcourse through an opened window. Chun-Li was in awe by the beauty of it. Eliza looked at Ken and nodded.

Ken put her luggage on the bed, "Very well, then. Chun-Li are you hungry or something?" "No, I had lunch a few hours ago with Liz and her aunt. I should be fine until dinner." "Then you must come and meet Ryu in the dojo," Ken grinned knowing Chun-Li's warrior side would jump at the fact he had a dojo.

Chun-Li's eye brightened up even more, then she thought. *Dojo? The two will obviously want to fight me.* "I'll go see it," She said in a normal, monotone voice. Ken was kind of surprised at her lack of enthusiasm. Eliza noticed it too, "Oh well, while you fighters of the world are off killing eachother, I'll be in the kitchen working with Mel if you need me." She left toward the kitchen.

Ken and Chun-Li made their way toward the dojo. "I can't believe you built yourself a dojo," Chun-Li said. "Well, I guess we needed to do something with the extra money," Ken replied grinning. Chun-Li formed a smirk, "If I didn't know you that well, I'd say you weren't bragging." Ken smiled wryly in response.

Ryu heard that laugh and thought his bestfriend and Eliza were coming. He had been training hard. Not at Chi or any specific moves, but at his concentration and speed. He had been practicing his worldly known roundhouse for over two hours.

He had just about had it perfectly until he heard an interrupting irritating noise- "Hey bestfriend!" Ryu, distracted fell against the mat totally missing the punching bag that was designed to be the target. He knew Ken all too well to assume that his bestfriend interrupted his concentration accidentally. He took off his gloves and unwrapped his hands not answering.

Ken and the guest of honor walked through the entrance. Chun-Li bit her lip. "Ryu! We've got some company." "I hear you, Ken. Just one second," The Japanese warrior replied, his back still to his life long competitors. Chun-Li smiled seeing Ryu didn't change. She slowly approached him figuring he would detect her presence. He didn't. She then decided to give him a warm smile as she reached out to touch his shoulder.

This, Ryu detected and quickly turned around grabbing the outstretched hand. Shocked, he saw how close Chun-Li was and slightly jumped letting go of her hand. "Boo," she said quickly and with a grin. Ryu, paused briefly then finally all this thoughts collected together, "Chun-Li?" "Naw, it's the tooth fairy." She didn't know if Ryu believed in western children tales. Ryu beamed a smile, "It's actually you, Chun-Li!" The two hugged finally. Chun-Li felt something totally different when he hugged her and picked her up off the ground. She felt safe, happy and warm all over. Then all the secondary thoughts came. He was sweaty and probably smelled a little. She didn't care. He's been like this his whole life. When they stopped their hug, which was for a long time, atleast long enough to make Ken think otherwise, they both looked at eachother with excitement in their eyes.

It has been forever since they saw eachother. Both remembered their experiences through eachother's eyes. They both experienced similar losses, victories, and over all the same life. Maybe that's why they felt some bond between eachother.

Eliza walked in content and saw Ryu and Chun-Li just staring at eachother smiling. Ken stood at the doorway and wrapped his arm around his wife. "They look really happy the see eachother." Ken responded in a peculiar tone, "Yes, the do."

"Anyway," Eliza said turning to Ken, "Dinner is about to be ready. Mel says it's your turn to set the table." She grinned. Ken was confused at first, but realized what Eliza was saying, "Eliza…" He said in a flat tone, but then looked at Chun-Li and Ryu. They were both blushing and with big smiles. He nodded, "You might be right." Eliza nodded, "Of course…" and the two married couple left hand in hand.

"I've never been to the Mediterranean," Chun-Li said once Ryu talked about where his fight with Gill was held. "It was a very beautiful scenery. I was feeling uneasy that we had to fight in a beautiful, peaceful place. -But what had to be done was done. When our fight was over the sun was setting and…" Ryu remembered Akuma appeared, but he didn't feel Chun-Li would understand if he explained Akuma, therefore, he said he, "just walked away."

"Speaking of walking away," Chun-Li looked around. "Where's Ken?" They both said in unison. Over a loud speaker they both heard, "Dinner is ready." "Great! I'm starved," Ryu said escorting Chun-Li out of the dojo toward the mansion. "Uh oh. I hoped they cooked extra," Chun-Li began. "Oh, they always do. Ever since I came." "Well, if two warriors are bad enough too cook for, think about three." Ryu laughed.

He remembered eating with Chun-Li once at after the tournament that ended Bison's life. She bought lunch for him… it was basically her way of saying, "Thank-you." She remembered staring at how Ryu gulped down three Chinese meals in less than a minute.

Ryu felt somewhat embarrassed and slowed down. Then he watched her as she stuffed her face with a huge eggroll. Ryu looked at her puffy cheeks filled with food. *That is so cute.* He thought, but he quickly dismissed the idea because the strongest woman in the world didn't deserve such a small word as 'cute' to describe her… especially when she ate.

During dinner, Chun-Li was having trouble using a weird device called a ''spork''. She found chopsticks to be the easiest to use. Eliza smiled on how cute she was. Ken and Ryu just ate their hearts out.

"Would you like some chop sticks, Ms. Xiang?" Chun-Li looked up hungry and desperate, "Do you have any?" Eliza smiled and quickly took out a pair from a drawer and handed them to her. "Oh, thank-you so much," Chun-Li said taking them.

Ryu looked up at Chun-Li carefully eating picking through the foreign foods. "Chirp, chirp," Ken said grinning. Ryu, Eliza and Mel looked at Chun-Li picking through her food like a bird.

Later that night Ken, Mel and Ryu went to get a Christmas tree. Chun-Li and Eliza decided to get out the ornaments from the attic. "I'm sorry you have to work like this on your first day to the United States. I would get the maids, but we always give them the end of December off to visit their families," Eliza said heaving a big box of red bows down and hearing a loud thud once it hit the floor.

"Oh it's fine with me," Chun-Li responded picking up a box that said 'delicate' on it, "I should carry this down by myself." "Oh just throw it downstairs. We mix up these boxes every year." Chun-Li paused thinking, shook the box hearing sound of delicate glass, and threw it through the attic hole to the second story floor.

Crash! Chun-Li made a bitter beer face when she heard the clanking sounds of broken rinky dinks. Eliza paused shocked, "Uh oh… I think you were supposed to carry that box down. Shhh, we won't tell Ken."

~~~ Outside ~~~

A jet black van pulled up and slowly went by the house. "You sure you have the gate code?" One voice asked in a pitch as low as a gruff whisper. "Oh yes," the second voice replied coarse and raspy. "Good," the first voice said. "I saw the guys leaving about an hour ago. By the time they're back, we'll be long gone." The voice smirked and blew cigarette smoke on the window.