Look at Me
By Night

At the domed, dirt mound, Ryu stood, throwing the baseball into his worn-leather glove repeatedly. He looked straight ahead with stoic eyes at the blond American at bat. Underneath his cap he could see shiny glint emitting from his teeth as he grinned at his life-long rival...

"Heh heh... this time Ryu, it's certainly clear who's better!"

The score was 10 to 9 with Ryu's team in the lead. It was the ninth inning. The first batter got a lucky base hit, and in retaliation, Ryu had struck out the next two batters with ease. Now the only person to stand in his way of victory just had to be Ken Masters... one homerun was all he needed.

Looking at first base, he could see that the runner was ready to take off once he threw the ball. Next to him was Ryu's larger countryman who was nodding at him, silently giving him the message to strike the arrogant boy out. Ryu nodded back at E. Honda and looked towards the stands and the dugout. In the dugout sat the rest of Ken's teammates. They all consisted of Ken's college friends whom Ryu didn't know too well, but he was honored to always compete with and against many different people. In the stands sat familiar faces, such as the British exchange student Cammy White, Ken's girlfriend Eliza, Guy's girlfriend Rena along with Maki, and finally the young high school student Sakura. There was one person missing from the usual crowd, and Ryu looked down a bit. < If only she didn't have to go to that law enforcement class meeting today... >

Ryu's steady girlfriend Chun-Li couldn't make it to the game. Her law enforcement class was having a meeting that was too important for her to miss. Ryu was hoping that she could come and watch him play, but she said they could make up the lost time to go to dinner that night. < For you Chun-Li, I will win this game... > Looking over back to the batter, he looked lower to the signaling fingers of the catcher.

"Hmph," Ryu sneered. With his empty hand, he threw his baseball cap hard against the ground, causing the dirt to rise... and with a lightning quick motion, he took the baseball in his glove. Cocking his arm back, he snapped it forward, releasing it into a blinding fastball.

"STEEEEEEEE-RIKE ONE!" the umpire yelled as the ball found its way into the glove of the demon crouched behind the blond American. Showing a sinister sharp-toothed grin of victory, Akuma threw the ball back to Ryu who caught it without even looking.

"You're right Masters," Ryu continued, "it IS clear who's better."

Grumbling in response, Ken tightened his grip on the bat. < That was a good pitch... I didn't even swing... > Spitting on the ground, Ken readied himself for Ryu's next windup. >

"You can do it, Ryu!!!" came a female voice in the stands.

The young Japanese looked up to see Sakura smiling and cheering him on. < I wish I could hear that from Chun-Li... > Taking a deep breath, he reeled himself backwards and launched the ball forward once again. "KAKATTE KOI! (COME AND GET IT!)"

"STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-RIKE TWO!!!"

"Wooooooooooooooo!!!" hollered a voice from behind. At second base, the Hong Kong action superstar Fei Long stood in a horse stance flexing his muscles.

"Katta!!! We won we won!!!" yelled a voice from the right. Standing on third base, with his fist raised in the air and tears streaming down his face, Dan flexed his muscles as well, knowing victory was coming soon!

Turning his head to the side, Ryu closed his eyes and held his left arm out, catching the ball once again from Akuma. When he felt it clap into his mitt he opened his eyes, and let a small gust of wind brush against him. Looking up, he took another breath and could see another one of his teammates looking at him coolly. Guy stood at his shortstop position with his arms crossed and nodding for that third strike.

Back at the plate Ken gritted his teeth. < I MUST show Ryu I'm not gonna strike out this easily!!! > Looking up at the stands behind him he could see his girlfriend standing up smiling at him. "Heh..." Ken stood fully upright, and pointed to left field with the bat.

"OH MY GOD!!!" screamed a female in the stands, "He's promising a HOMERUN!!!"

The gaijin winked and grinned up at Eliza that made her cheer like crazy. "For you Eliza... I dedicate this home run!!!" Lowering the bat and getting back into position to hit the ball, Ken looked sharply into Ryu's eyes.

Ryu wrapped his fingers tightly around the ball as he faced his rival. Both men had women to win for. And there could only be one winner. "Third strike... NOW!" The ball left Ryu's hand with speed that threatened to ignite it on fire as it headed towards the glove of the demon, its intended destination...

*CRACK!!!*

"YES!!!" The ball was so fast and was nailed so hard that the wooden bat split in two. Tossing the broken piece of his bat aside Ken dashed for first base, letting the cheers of the spectators lead him on.

In the seconds that passed, endless commotion was about in the stands and on the field.

"GO GO GO!"

"TO THIRD!!! THIRD!!!"

"RUN RUN!!!"

The ball had flown in between center and left field. It wasn't a homerun, but it was certainly enough to tie the game and into a tenth inning!

The Guy was much, much faster and was also closer to the ball than the outfielders. With unmatched speed, he reached the ball and threw it directly to third with a strong arm. The runner on first had already cleared third base and with Ken's fast speed he had already cleared Honda and Fei Long, and was VERY close to nearing third. Their only hope was to get Ken out before the other runner could reach home! Hope... that relied none other than Dan Hibiki.

Standing at third base, Dan stood waiting for the ball to come to him. "I GOT IT OYAJI! I GOT IT!" As the ball came it hit Dan's glove... and flew right out.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Ken didn't even need to slide. He just kept on running looking up at the stands, seeing that Eliza was waving him in.

"HOME!!! THROW IT TO HOME OR WE LOSE!!!" screamed Ryu.

Dan looked in all directions for the dropped ball, but couldn't find it anywhere. "OYAJI! Help me find the ball!!!" Spinning around in quick circles Dan hopelessly looked for the lost ball and with no luck, he began to get dizzy which caused to look down... right where he could see the ball underneath his legs. Being a bit dizzy, he finally picked up the ball...

"HOME!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!" the team yelled.

The Saikyo-Ryu student couldn't quite regain his bearings from the dizziness... but threw the ball anyway...

Ken grinned in victory as he headed straight for the plate, but saw that the demon that stood there exploded in a burst of fire as he stomped into a horse stance with one hand out ready to receive the ball. Not taking any chances, Ken closed his eyes dived into a slide...

The ball was in the air, heading in a perfect straight line...

...right to the pitcher.

"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!"

Ken opened his eyes... seeing that his hands were barely touching home plate. Standing up to dust himself off, he closed his eyes and raised his hands in victory, completely unaware of what's going on around him. "YES!!! OHHHHH YES!!! INSIDE THE PARK HOMERUN!!! FOR YOU ELIZA!!! FOR YOU!!! HAHAHAHAH!!! HOW OFTEN DO YOU SEE THAT, RYU???"

Opening his eyes once again, he looked at the stands and saw that Eliza was gone, and those that were still there weren't looking at him. Looking at the dugout, he could see that all his fellow players were gone too. "Uh..."

"Mr. Masters..." the umpire tapped on Ken's shoulder and pointed towards the center of the field. There was a whole crowed in a huge circle.

"Uh... what happened? We won, right?"

"Well..." the umpire replied, "as far as the rules go, it's a tie. Your hit only counts as a triple because of Mr. Hibiki's error. And since it looks like we have a player down and out, the game is pretty much over, so it looks like the game is considered a draw."

"Whaaaaaaat?" Ken couldn't believe it! An inside the park home run thwarted all because of Dan! But then when he heard the umpire saying a player was down, he finally figured out why there was such a large crowd and immediately ran over to it. Pushing his way into the crowd, his eyes widened at what he saw once he reached the center.

Ryu was on the floor groaning in pain and his hands covering his right eye. Dan was on the floor right next to him curled up into a ball crying. "Gomen nasai gomen nasai gomen nasai!"

Sakura was right over him shaking his shoulders with her hands. "Are you okay Ryu?! Please tell me you're okay!!!"

"What the h*ll happened?!" Ken asked frantically.

"This idiot..." Akuma answered, pointing to the crying Dan, "He dropped the ball, and when he finally found it he tried to throw it to me, but his incompetent inaccuracy had directed the ball straight into the eye our rival."

"Whoa... buddy, are you all right?" Ken knelt down beside Ryu offering him a hand.

"Gomen nasai Ryu! I will do anything to make it up to you! Karaoke night will be on me next time! I promise!" Dan wept.

"I-it's okay... I... I'm all right..." Ryu weakly replied. Slowly standing up on his legs, the crowed back away to give him some room and Ken and Sakura helped support him up. "It's okay guys... I can stand up on my own..."

"You sure, buddy?"

"Yeah, I'm fine..." With that, Ryu took his hand off his eye.

There was a long silence...

...and the entire crowd gasped and back away even more.

Rena screamed a bit and hid her face into Guy's chest. Guy hugged her close and also tried his best to avoid looking directly at Ryu.

Hearing the silence, Dan looked up at Ryu, and from what he saw, he instantly scooted himself away. "WAAAAAAAAAH...!" Not even Dan himself had suffered such an injury to his eye ever in his life...

"W-w-what...?" Ryu asked, looking around him. He could see the wincing faces of the people looking at him, and could see Rena peeking out to look at him and burying her face back into Guy's chest once she saw.

< Uh oh... > Still feeling the numbing pain from his eye, he knew what had caused the uncomfortable silence. "Mirror..."

***

"Oh MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Ryu groaned looked into the mirror in his dorm room once again. His eye was terrible. It was almost completely black and covered his entire eye.

"It's okay man! It'll heal! There's no internal or permanent damage thankfully! Besides, Dan said he'd make it up to you by paying for karaoke night next time!" Ken tried to console Ryu, but he knew his efforts weren't working.

"It's not that!"

"What is it then?"

"..." Looking at Ken with a worried face, he finally answered, "I'll give you one guess..."

Ken's eyes widened in realization. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh..."

"I can't see her like THIS!"

"Awwww don't give me that! You two have been steady since high school and you're letting a little thing like this freak you out?"

"But I've never looked THIS bad!"

"Awwww..." Ken said sympathetically as he patted his friend's shoulder, "Look buddy, what you and Chun have got is so strong, a little thing like this won't do a thing! Trust me!"

"Well yeah, but... I mean you've never went on a date with Eliza looking like mess!"

"Whoa, stop right there! Remember that New Year's festival where I needed to borrow a yukata from you?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Wellllll... you didn't tell me that there was Chun's lipstick stain on it!"

"HUH?!"

"Yep... it was the one you forgot to wash, and when I wore it Eliza thought I was seeing someone else!!!"

Ryu thought back to that day and finally realized what he was referring to. "Ohhhhhh...! So THAT'S why you two seemed so mad at each other..."

"Yup. I never told you cuz I didn't wanna make you guys feel guilty about it."

"Oh... sorry about that!"

"Naw it's okay, she understood! What I'm trying to say that no matter what the situation, when two people care so much about each other, anything can be resolved by just talking! I mean, the truth IS that Dan hit you with a baseball! It's not like some girl punched you right there for tryin' to mack on her or something!"

Ryu smiled for the first time after the incident. "Heh... I guess you're right about that Masters... whaddya know I'm actually listening to you for once!"

"Hey, my last name isn't MASTERS just because of family history you know! Hahaha."

"Yeah yeah, whatever..."

"Hahaha you know it's true! But say... how DID Chun's lipstick get on that d*mn yukata anyway?"

"Oh uh..." Ryu answered, "well... just that one day when we were holding each other and she was pressing her face against me and she stained it I guess..."

"That's IT? Are you sure nothing ELSE happened???"

"Aw jeez Ken, YES I'm sure nothing else happened!"

"Heh heh heh, just foolin' with ya. I knew you wouldn't have the guts to pull anything more anyway HAHAHA!"

< Cheap shot... > Ryu thought. "Okay okay enough... I gotta get ready for dinner tonight."

"Heh heh, When is it?"

"7 o' clock."

***

It was 6:55 and Ryu sat at the table of the restaurant, looking at clock making sure of the time. He was dressed casually in a simple blue shirt, black jacket and grey khakis. The place he was in was a simple Chinese restaurant that Chun-Li always loved eat at, and since she knew all the good dishes, he always let her do the ordering.

After taking a sip of his tea, Ryu looked back down at the table tapping his fingers against the surface. He originally arrived at 6:30 to make sure that he wouldn't be late and he killed time by just thinking to himself and drinking tea. The teapot was almost empty now, and he lifted up the lid and placed it on the edge of the table.

"What tea would you like this time?" a waitress asked as she picked up the empty teakettle.

"Heurng pin," Ryu answered in Cantonese. Jasmine petal tea was both their favorite and Ryu decided to get another kettle full before Chun-Li would arrive.

"Ho ah (okay)," the waitress acknowledged, "Oh... and what is with the sunglasses?"

"Uh..." Ryu was wearing dark shades to cover up his eye. He was still a bit insecure about how his eye looked and he didn't want people to be staring at him either. Taking his hand to his sunglasses, he lightly lifted them up a bit to reveal his black eye.

The waitress winced a bit, but smiled. "Ho duck yi ah!"

"Huh...?" Ryu asked, completely baffled. "Cute?"

"Hai... trying so hard to make yourself presentable to your girlfriend! Loi yao ho choi ah! (your girlfriend is so lucky!)"

"Heh... m goi sai (thank you very much)," Ryu replied, smiling back. Seeing that the waitress wasn't too freaked about his eye, he began to feel a little better, but still decided to leave them on.

As the waitress walked back towards the kitchen with the teakettle, Ryu looked over towards entrance of the restaurant and saw the doors open. A man and woman walked in with two children, and Ryu sighed, looking back over to the table. < Hope nothing happened... >

"Ryu!!! I'm here!!!" a voice came immediately after.

Turning his head back towards the doors, it was her! Chun-Li walked in right after the family and was now walking towards his table. Her hair was down today, flowing right down the middle of her back and she was wearing a white tank top underneath a blue jacket and jeans shorts. She still had her backpack on her shoulders from her class meeting, indicating she didn't return back to her dorm afterward.

< Hey... what's with those sunglasses? Does he think he looks cool or something...? > was the first thought that immediately came to her head once she saw him. "Uh..." she started as she set her backpack down after sitting.

"Oh... it... it's a long story..." Ryu said, trying to find the right words to say. < Aw screw it... > Deciding to finally be direct and not hide himself anymore, he took off his sunglasses, revealing his entire face to her.

"..." Chun-Li's eyes widened in shock at the sight for a bit, but finally reached over to touch his face... "Oh my god... Ryu! What happened?"

"Like I said... it's a long story..."

***

Ryu explained the entire baseball game to Chun-Li as they talked over dinner. Chun-Li couldn't help but laugh a few times after hearing about Dan's mess-ups.

"And because of that little error, that's why my eye is in it's current condition..." Ryu finished.

"Awwww... you poor thing." Chun-Li reached over to touch his cheek, and Ryu blushed a bit, leaning against it. "So who won in the tenth inning?" she asked.

"Well... since the game was tied and I couldn't pitch anymore, it was declared as a draw since we didn't have any backups."

"Well, I'm still proud of you! You did your best and that's all that matters!" Reaching over to him, she gave him a quick peck on the lips and sat back down.

With his face still red from the blushing, Ryu tried his best to gather himself together, "So how was that class meeting?"

"Oh, I learned soooooooo much today!" Chun-Li loved her law enforcement classes. It was definitely her field and Ryu knew she'd definitely take a career into it by the way she always talks about it. And tonight was no different... she talked endlessly about the day's events while Ryu listened to each word.

***

"So Ryu..." Chun-Li said with her head against his shoulder, "why were you wearing those sunglasses anyway?"

They were walking through the longer, more scenic path back to the dorm. No one was around except for them.

"Well, I guess I didn't want you to see how bad it looked..." he answered.

"Well you know that ancient saying... it doesn't matter how you look on the outside, it's the inside that counts..."

"Yeah... but I mean, being presented to you like this is not something I'm too comfortable with..."

"Why not?"

"It's just that at first, it seems like a sight that would scare people away... I mean, it's not exactly what you call pleasant..."

"Awww... well... maybe not. But I still know that underneath that it's still you! And that's all that matters!"

"Yeah... and I'm just glad that the first sight of me didn't send you running away. And I'm glad that we got to talk things through... since that always seems to be the best way to get through things... especially with two people who are as close as us..."

After saying that, Ryu suddenly felt Chun-Li stop her walking. Turning to face her, she could see that she was looking directly into his eyes. Ryu immediately started looking down, still not wanting her to see.

Chun-Li placed both hands on Ryu's face and brought it upwards. "Look at me," she whispered.

"..." Her hands felt like they were on fire, and they instantly warmed his face so much that he felt he could just melt into them. Feeling his face burn into a shade of red, he complied with her request and looked back into her eyes.

Chun-Li took a few moments to study every detail of each of his facial features and let her hands travel past his cheeks to the back of his neck, gently massaging it.

Ryu felt his idle arms rise in response and wrap around her waist, drawing her close. Looking at her face he also studied it, loving how it looked so beautiful, especially in the dim lighting of the lamps along the walkway. Then he could see her full, red lips begin to move...

"You're beautiful, no matter how you look, Ryu... and you always will be..." Bringing her arms closer to her, she closed her eyes as their lips met, and they were soon brought together in a long, deep, passionate kiss.