Sick Day
By Evilkeen
Not that anyone had ever needed to know where the commander of NERV lived, no one knew him at all outside of work. But then no one knew him inside of work. Except perhaps two people.
"Dr. Akagi?"
"Yes Maya?" she answered from her executive chair. Ritsuko wore the usual get-up, a zipper top, and black mini-skirt with a white lab coat draped almost absently over her tall frame. In any other place it would have (minus the coat) been a hot get up. Here she was Ice Queen.
"SEELE wants us to give this encoded message to Commander Ikari himself, and he's... well Commander Ikari's taken... the day off."
Simultaneously everybody in the room shot bolt upright in their seats "WHAT?" Thought everyone in the room. One person sprayed his tea all over the console station and was furiously trying to wipe it up with a NERV uniform shirtsleeve before the liquid damaged something.
Everyone had their own image of Gendo Ikari they ranged from 'distant' to 'Blood Junkie' he was not a man to take a day off. He was dedicated, he was driven...
He was crazy.
Ritsuko was somewhat less surprised then the rest of the staff and recovered first, "Very well," she said, "he left a number for us to call in case of emergencies."
She punched up the number into her deskphone, and put the receiver up to her ear. It didn't even ring once when a recording of Gendo's voice, slightly muffled, came on.
"Moshi-MoshiAAAAAAAACHOOOOO sniffle Dis is Commander Ikari speaking, I'm sick and hab turd off the phone to ged some rest AAAAACHOO. Blease leave a message after the beeb [the voice dropped in volume] I'm gonna barf."
The machine dutifully recorded almost thirty seconds of Ritsuko breathing in shock and surprise, before she clicked down the receiver and stared into space.
The command room staff stared back at her.
"Err, Sub-Commander Fuyutski should know where his apartment is," she finally said.
Maya cleared her throat, "Um, he's at the second impact site at the moment and can't be reached."
Great.
Ritsuko shook her head angrily. Dammit, she was a scientist, she had to think up something.
"Analyse the background noise of the recording through the MAGI," she said, "let the computer pinpoint his location."
The recording was inputted, and three seconds later, a message Flashed up on Dr. Akagi's screen.
FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF DAUGHTER DEAREST It read.
Ritsuko hurriedly cleared the screen, "Erm, uh, the MAGI are too busy to calculate this," she lied to Maya.
Someplace else, Gendo hurled up his ramen breakfast into a large bowl sitting beside his bed. He groped on his bedside table around his 'sick kit' for the plastic wrap. He found it and ripped off a portion, he covered the top of the bowl to keep the stench in.
In a sudden dizzy spell he lay back on the bed, and he would have kept that same comfortable position except for one tiny problem...
"God I have to pee," he said to himself.
He tried to get up, couldn't, and started to frown to himself. "Enough," he told himself, "I am a powerful man, I run NERV, the most important and influential organization in the world, I will not be defeated by a mere virus." And on sheer willpower he propelled himself out of bed and started towards the bathroom.
He made it about three steps.
It was a good thing that he managed to rip the plastic wrap off the bowl in time.
"...Ayanami, Rei," called out the Sensei at morning roll call.
No answer.
"Ayanami, Rei", he repeated.
Still nothing.
"Rei Ayanami," he called out, exhausting all different word-order possibilities.
Finally the teacher in irritation ripped his gaze from the window and looked at her desk. She wasn't there as usual.
"She's absent again," said a boy helpfully at the back of the class.
The teacher sniffed, "Thank you Mr. Aida for pointing that out." He gazed over the room, " Who will give her this week's notes after school?" He picked out the most visible person in the class, "Miss Langley."
"Oh great," she moaned, "I've got to clean up Wonderchild's mess again."
The Sensei ignored her, he ignored everybody. "Now it's time for a lecture on the Second Impact..."
The entire class moaned.
Gendo Ikari had finally solved his bathroom problem. But now he needed to empty his 'sick bowl' it was close to overflowing.
He felt like screaming, he hurt in places he never knew he had before, his face hurt, his eyes hurt, his belly button ached, his teeth itched, and his hair was all cramped up. He needed some way to distract himself, something to make him feel happy.
He knew what.
Grabbing the remote control from the bedside table, he turned on the TV and activated the VCR which he always had one tape in all the time and never changed. Onscreen the home videos of him and his wife Yui Ikari played for him. At the picnic by the lake, on the vacation. Pictures of him and his young wife were shown, they were smiling, laughing, joking with each other; being content.
And Gendo felt happy. Yui was Happiness.
Suddenly the Picture went out.
Static, then:
Fuyutski's voice: Hey! Is this thing on?
The picture shakes
Fuyutski's voice: Guess not.
More picture shaking. Then the viewpoint clatters to a rest staring sideways at a doorframe. A fuzzy picture of a butt obscures the picture for a second.
Fuyutski's voice: Dammit, where's that little prick Gendo?
The butt shrinks down to become a man's back, which exits the door and moves down the hallway out of sight.
The picture remained fixed on the doorway.
Gendo whimpered into his pillow.
It was 3:10 and Shinji was going home, or rather that was his intention. He was being gripped on both shoulders from behind.
"Shinji, you're coming with me," ordered a very familiar voice.
"Asuka," he complained, "why do you need me to help you give Rei her notes."
From behind she got real close up, and hugged him. No it wasn't a hug; people who gave you hugs didn't cut off your air supply. Her lips were right by his earlobe, she whispered into his ear, her breath tickling his neck, "Because Baka," she hissed, "I don't know where Wonderchild's place is."
Shinji was feeling both frightened and pleasant, it was always a good policy to be afraid of Soryu Asuka Langley, but he liked the feeling of someone--especially her--holding him. He had never been hugged by anyone since mother.
His pleasant feeling finally won over his fright, and he spent the next ten seconds enjoying the feeling until he passed out from oxygen depravation.
By the time they reached the apartment complex where Rei's apartment was, Shinji was still a bit dizzy, and he had a red mark around his neck, which looked like an angry red sunburn. When he had first woken up, Asuka was sitting in a chair at the nursing room at school looking almost as if she was concerned.
"Are you OK?" she had asked him. When he had said yes, she exhaled noisily, tried to mask her relief, and then proceeded to drag him brutally from the bed.
He rang the bell. No answer, Asuka gave him a look of disdain--as if he were somehow ringing it wrong--and then gave the button a push as well.
No answer.
Shinji--hoping that his walking in unannounced in the past hadn't prompted Rei to install a security system, or worse, invest in a handgun--opened the door.
Asuka was inside, and following Shinji's lead, took off her footwear. "This place is creepy," she thought, "it fits right in with everything else about Wonderchild." She tried to tell herself that she was only sticking close to Shinji because it was a cramped hallway.
Finally they got to Rei's room, it was just as dirty as it had been before Shinji had cleaned it up with Suzahara, not that Suzahara actually helped.
"Fooooohhyyy," exclaimed Asuka in disgust, "what a pig Ayanami is, and that smell..." She rambled on a few minutes while thinking in her head. "She's not even here! I wonder why she gets to always skip while I'd get in trouble, I'm gonna get her brought down."
"Well?" asked Shinji.
"Well what?" she said annoyed.
"Are we going to drop off the notes and GO now?" he said exasperated (well as exasperated as he could get.)
"No, Baka, we're not."
"What?"
"Because I'm so considerate, we're going to deliver the notes in person, wherever she may be."
"What's all this we stuff?" he accused, "You've already been shown where Ayanami's apartment is, so you certainly don't need me."
"Dammit, he's becoming more and more difficult to manage all the time." She thought annoyed. "Because, Baka!" she spit at him, "Misato gave me a note before she left to God knows where, and this note said we were to stick together." She whirled and stalked out of the apartment, reappearing about ten seconds later to put on her shoes.
"If I can find out where Wonderchild is playing hooky, I can report to the principle and get her in the trouble she deserves," she didn't know why, two people going the opposite direction down the sidewalk past her stumbled and nearly fell.
But then, she couldn't see the maniac grin she has plastered on her face.
* * *
"Sister Katsuragi?"
Misato looked up towards the voice, Sister Lisa was staring in concern at her. Misato grinned inwardly, It worked, they actually think I'm a nun. "Yes?"
"Your bags have arrived from...Uh-."
"Seppuku Monastery," Misato supplied. I am SO glad that no one here knows Japanese.
"..right," finished Sister Lisa.
Misato bowed, thanked her, and made the sign of the cross on her chest just to be sure, and went to her quarters. This was a great idea, just the sort of thing to get rid of stress and drain the refuse from my body. She opened the door to her Spartan sleeping quarters and sat down on the small bed. Taking off the robe she had managed to procure in such short notice, she then slipped on the Habit left for her in the drawer. Great, all set Misato frowned except that I've never read the Bible...
End of Chapter One.