Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Evangelion or its characters in any way. I do however, own the plot and a bunch of metal CD's to get the creative juices flowing (for me anyway). I also own no rights to Cradle Of Filth, much to my dismay.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

Chapter 01: Weird Boy, Mad Asuka

It seemed like a typical day of the week for the Tokyo-3 High School; however, there seemed to be a few things that were making it a very unusual day for anyone, though, in particular, one Asuka Langley-Soryu. She was quietly sitting at her desk, which was unusual for her, waiting for the day to begin so that it could end.

Hikari walked into the classroom and found her friend being unusually quiet. "Something wrong, Asuka?"

The red headed German huffed loudly before answering with, "I just have an extremely weird feeling about today. And I almost broke my ankle this morning! Damn that Misato…" She said the last part somewhat quietly, as she didn't really want Hikari to know how she (actually) almost died this morning by tripping over Misato's trash and then poor Pen-pen, and wound up hitting her head on several things before actually making it out the door. 'Well, maybe being at school isn't too bad. There's no Misato, or her drunkenness to deal with. And it's certainly cleaner than the apartment. Hmmm…'

Her train of thought was de-railed as two gossiping girls walked past saying, "Did you hear? There's supposed to be a new student coming here. It's supposed to be a guy, according to Aida." "Really? I hope he's cute!"

Hikari then spotted the stooges duo (Suzuhara and Aida) just walking in the door and heading to their seats while they fought over which one was better a choice to be the next pilot of an Evangelion, though neither one really wanted to admit that they wouldn't be chosen in the first place. The Teacher then walked in and class would normally start, but the teacher had an announcement.

"Class, quiet down; we have a new student today." he motions beyond the door, and the new student walked in as he was ordered. He had straight, long dark brown hair down to his shoulders, blue-grey eyes, and a trimmed mustache and beard (one that is similar to a goatee, but with no hair connecting the upper lip and chin hair). He wore all black, with a shirt that said 'Cradle Of Filth' on the front with a picture and on the back it said 'Jesus was a cunt' in white letters. Something that all the girls noticed immediately was his apparent handsomeness and his height; he was a good 6'6".

"Class, this is…" the teacher paused a moment to allow the student to say his name for the class, as he couldn't quite pronounce it. "Leif Svela (first name pronounced lay-iff. Last name pronounced Suh-vee-lah.)

'Wow, he's…really…' Asuka thought until her thoughts were once again interrupted by the teacher, except this time, the teacher was pointing to Leif's seat, which, just happened to be beside Asuka. All of the other girls were feeling rather jealous of her at that moment, but she didn't really care, though she normally didn't fall in love with someone on first sight, this was one of those extremely (and the first time for her) rare times.

Leif took his seat and the after a slight introduction of what the teacher would be talking about that day (usually something about Second Impact) for the sake of the new student, he then began his lecture.

Kensuke and Toji were quick to dislike him, but, at the moment, only because he was already more popular with the girls than either of them would be in a lifetime of schooling.

As he sat there in the desk, the string of instant messages were non-stop. He chose to ignore most of them until he came upon one from the fiery red-head that was sitting beside him. He had heard her name mentioned earlier when the teacher was pointing out his seat. He leaned forward a bit his seat to better read the message;

Nobody transfers into Tokyo-3. Only out, so why are you here?

He quickly smirked, though he made it disappear as he started typing his response;

I'm afraid I cannot tell you, that is classified information.

When Asuka read the message, she jumped a little in her seat. He then let his smirk show through, though it was wiped off his face at the next message from her.

Let me guess, you're an Evangelion pilot?

He thought that no one would really know what the giant mecha were that protected the city, but then he quickly surmised that she must be a pilot as well.

Answer me this and I will answer your question. Are you a pilot?

Asuka hadn't quite been prepared for that, but she responded post-haste.

Yes.

Leif was quick to respond when he found out that she was as he thought.

Yes, I am a pilot as well. In this country, I am designated the Third Child.

Asuka was surprised, only someone who was designated the Third Child could pilot the treacherous Unit 01.

You mean that you pilot Unit 01, probably the most treacherous of all the Evangelion units?

I don't really see anything so treacherous about a giant purple robot. The LCL, however, is a different story. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was poison or something.

Asuka wasn't even really sure that she was reading his words correctly, but she was. Eva Unit 01 was to be piloted from someone that was from somewhere very far from both America and Japan. Hell, she was sure that he wouldn't last too long, especially since she had seen first hand what could happen with that thing.

[Flashback

Asuka was standing in Central Dogma, watching as the start up of Unit 01 was beginning to proceed as usual, until…

Sirens were blaring, people were starting to run for their lives, and she saw the giant purple mecha go berserk in the test chamber. It started to bash in the walls, and all that could really be done was having the umbilical chord cut and waiting for the batteries to run out.

However…

"What's going on in the Eva!" Misato yelled.

"We can't connect to the internal monitors!" one of the bridge crew yelled.

At that point, the giant purple mecha was starting to pound in the part of the wall that was "protecting" the bridge crew. The glass finally broke and most of the bridge crew was killed by the first swipe of the fist.

Asuka just stood there, watching in horror as it seemed that her life was about to end. Misato was on the ground, which was the only reason why she was still alive as the fist continued to breach the wall a little more each time it entered after it exited.

Once the Eva had finally powered down, when it seemed to be aiming for her and had stopped just short of actually hitting her, the pilot was found to be dead.

"Damn, that's the sixth pilot. Commander, we have to quit using Unit 01 for a while. I need some time to investigate what is wrong with it." Ritsuko said just after the incident in which she herself had just barely escaped death.

After a few minutes of what appeared to be contemplation, the commander had finally agreed. "Until such time as the next child is chosen to be a pilot, you can investigate what's wrong with Unit 01. However, I would hurry if I were you, Doctor."

[End Flashback

She had barely heard the lunch bell through her sudden memory of the last incident with Unit 01. She had gotten lost in thought until Leif finally said something to her.

"Hey, you wanna join me for lunch?"

Surprised at his boldness (it seemed that no one had told him of what she was like), she responded with, "I do have a name you know!"

"Sorry" he said in a faintly sarcastic tone. "Apparently everyone I asked about you was right." He shook his head slightly before saying, "And I was really hoping they were wrong too…foreign girls these days…"and he walked out after he said that.

'Foreign! He's one to talk! What kind of a name is Leif Svela, anyway!?' she thought very madly in her head. She continued to think very angry thoughts as she just sat there, ignoring Hikari as she came in to eat lunch with her.

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As the last bell of the day rang, Asuka thought 'Finally!'. She wasn't exactly being all that friendly to Leif anymore, and even sent him a few death threats via instant messenger on the school laptops that were provided to every student. He laughed at her death threats, and then made a funny, but derogatory remark in response and even went so far as to laugh at his own joke out loud in class.

'He smarter than I gave him credit for, but I'll find a way to get him back. I'll get you, Leif!'

She thought of ways that she could probably get him back for the joke as she walked towards the NERV headquarters for her routine test. She had, however, noticed something unusual; he was able to get Rei to talk. Not as in a few required responses that she would normally give, but actually talk as if she were an actual person. Needless to say, that really pissed off Asuka.

'How could he get that doll to actually talk like a person could!? The nerve of some people!" she thought, not noticing the pun that she had made as she walked in the entrance to the NERV building.

When she reached Central Dogma, it seemed that Leif had somehow gotten there faster. She scowled at the thought that he had gotten a ride when she had to walk, but then Misato cut in.

"Asuka, where were you?"

"I walked here, how else was I supposed to get here, by flapping my arms!?"

"Actually, I came to pick up you and Leif, but you had already stormed off, and you apparently weren't listening as I was calling your name, but you didn't listen."

At Misato's comment, she didn't say anything, but scowled further. "Once the start up test for Unit 01 is finished, go get changed into your plug suit."

She only watched as the giant purple machine started up with its pilot in the plug. Nothing went wrong.

"Status?" Misato and Ritsuko questioned.

"Nominal. Everything appears normal."

"So far so good." The blonde doctor said.

"Yeah." Misato said before she opened the comm. link. "Alright, once the plug in ejected, you can go to the locker room and get changed."

"Yes, Major."

"Oh, and be sure to take a shower. Wouldn't want you to smell of LCL, now would we Asuka?" She turned around to find Asuka, only to discover that she was gone.

xxxxxxxx

"He's WHAT!!?" Asuka yelled as she and Misato were waiting in front of the 'MENS' locker room.

"As I just said, he's our new roommate, so be nice, Asuka."

"Why should I, you're the one that invited him to stay!"

"Because, I'm your guardian, and you have to listen to me."

"Oh, since when have you been a guardian?" Asuka said sarcastically. Leif walked up at that moment and inquired as to the reason for the fight.

"Trouble in paradise?"

"You stay out of this, Third Child!"

"Ouch, what did I ever do to you?"

"Don't mind her, she is always like this." Misato said so that only Leif could hear her.

"What a way to greet a roommate."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"Are you sure she's always like this?" Leif asked as Asuka only seemed to get more and more mad at each passing second.

Misato just shook her head before saying, "Unfortunately. She'd probably have a boyfriend by now if she wasn't."

'Hmm…no boyfriend, eh? I guess there's hope for me yet. It's a good thing I love a challenge, and she'll probably be tougher than those 'Angels', as I recall them being called.' He thought.

"Shall we get going, then?" Misato asked and pointed in the direction of the exit

AN: Yes, I know, it always seems to start with the whole 'typical day, but not really' thing. Also, in case no one has noticed, Shinji does not exist in this story. The character that I made for this story basically fills in for him as far as the Angels go, but out classes him in other respects. In case any of you were wondering, the character Leif is Norwegian, his first and last name is as well. No, seriously, they are real names.