Hello a quick request before I start the story – I am tryng out a new avatar: Is it any good? Or does it look meh?
chapter 1
Shinji leaned back on the bench outside the train station. He had tried calling the phone number that his dad had provided, but he hadn't gotten through. So he leaned back to wait for this Misato person to come pick him up. It wasn't like he was in a rush to get anywhere. To all appearances, an average bored teenager. But Shinji was not your typical teen – he had an imaginary friend - a teenage girl who piloted a giant mecha, fighting aliens. They have been communicating for about 6 months now.
'Inia?' The one frustrating thing was that he couldn't initiate the conversation – they only talked when she was off duty. According to Ina, Shinji was actually *her* imaginary friend. Which was probably true. There was no way that Shinji could have come up with somebody like Inia Sestina – somebody so unfailingly cheerful and friendly, despite all the hardships she had described, such as being forced to fight in the front lines against an alien invader bent on destroying all humanity. Compared to that (well, compared to anything, really), his own life was quite unremarkable, to the point of boredom.
Take now, for instance: he had spent the past ten years living with his teacher, seeing his father once or twice a year. Now, all of a sudden his father asks him to come to Tokyo-3, but when he got off of the train, there is nobody here. He had been expecting some sort of reunion, or maybe family drama (Inia had told him to give his dad an earful, but he wasn't certain that he was ready to do that). But then, nothing. The city was having some sort of drill, and there was nobody here to pick him up from the station.
'Shinji, I can't talk, but we just got word that we're being transferred from Kamchatka to a multi-national base over in Alaska. We're going to meet Americans! And eat hamburgers! Have you ever had a hamburger?' Inia's voice filled his head. It took some getting used to, but now it was as natural as a regular conversation. And even better, he never had to worry about actually meeting her, so there was never any awkwardness.
'Yeah. I cook, remember? Just be aware that if they are advertised as 'all meat', that doesn't make them the best. Good burgers have some bread mixed in to retain the fat. Wait a minute. Something is going on.'
'What happening?'
'Something just blew up! Oh, shit!' Shinji had gotten up onto a rubbish bin to get a better view, 'there's a giant robot-thing fighting a bunch of VTOLs!'
'What?' Ina called out faintly. In his excitement, Shinji was slipping out of the calm, almost meditative state that he had to be in to receive Inia's communications.
"Oh, crap!" Shinji dived for cover as a VTOL spun by overhead, out of control, before clipping a building and dropping two streets over.
There was the screech of tires and a blue Renault slammed to the curb inches from where Shinji was cowering, "Hey, you Shinji Ikari?" the purple haired driver called out as she pushed the passenger side door open.
At Shinji's tentative affirmative, she reached out and grabbed his arm, "Come on, then! This is a war zone!"
Shinji had just righted himself in the car's bucket seat when she slammed the gas peddle, and the car shot like rocket down the (thankfully) empty street, careening slightly.
"Shinji, you ok?" Came Inia's voice, faintly.
" Yeiie Yeii Yi!" Gibbered the teen in question.
"Oh, you think this is fast, wait until I get you into a Trainer. Oh, I'm Misato Katsuragi, incidentally. I sent you the directions and the selfie."
Shinji vaguely remembered that selfie, as if it was in another life - one where he wasn't about to die. "Uhm, was that an appropriate thing to send?"
Misato just laughed, as she pulled hard on the wheel to send the hardy little car into a right skid. "Oh, you're a teenager, I bet you've seen racier things than that." She stomped on the accelerator again as soon as the car was more or less lined up with the cross street.
'I am not going to whine. Ina has to do this sort of thing everyday.' It wasn't clear what Shinji was clenching tighter – His teeth, his hands to the seat under him, or his butt cheeks.
"Oh, crap! Get down" Misato threw herself over the teen just as he was becoming used to the 'high rate of speed' and the disregard for laws (both of traffic and physics) that they were traveling under.
BOOM!
The shock wave flipped their car over, dislodging one of Shinji's hands from the car seat.
"Miss Misato! Are you ok?" He called as he struggled to squirm out of the car through the window.
"Yeah, I thinks so. I just took a little knock to the head. Here, help me flip the car over." As they righted the car, and 'borrowed' a battery from the hardware store up the street to jump start it, Misato seemed a little wobbly,
"Um, Miss Misato, do you want me to drive the rest of the way?" Shinji asked.
Misato looked skeptically at the 15 year old. "Do you even have a license?"
"No, but I am worried about you driving a car in your state" 'and me being a passenger in the said car.'
"Nah, I'm fine. Or I will be once I sit down. I've had worse" She tactfully omitted that it was after a 3 day bender back in college. "Let's go – I have to get you back to HQ – you're dads dying to see you!" Actually, Misato suspected that Gendo had the same emotional range as the sardines that she served Penpen for dinner, but it was (distantly) possible that his flat glare was actually an expression of excitement.
/\ PoC /\
"The docking cages are somewhere this way" Misato turned left. They were in the geofront, and had been for some time now. It was deep enough underground that they no longer heard the explosions as the VTOLs tried to slow the third Angel. Shinji glanced at the marking of the cross-corridor as he tried to make heads or tails of the map that Misato had given him. It didn't have any detail – the corridor they were in didn't even appear to be on the map (which was why Misato was relying on dead reckoning).
Shinji had just turned to follow the purple haired woman when an elevator door slid open behind him. "Misato! What are you doing here – you're supposed to be down in the Cages!" A blond woman in a wet-suit with a lab coat draped over it accosted them.
"They aren't over this way?"
"You're not even on the correct level!" she sighed in exasperation, making it seem that the entire world was somehow disappointing her. "Here, follow me!" As she motioned the pair into the elevator, she turned to Shinji, "I'm Ritsuko, incidentally. I am the chief scientist here. I work closely with your father."
As they rode down, Shinji tried to organize his thoughts. Ever since he had gotten the summons to appear before his father, he had debated how he should react. Ina had had a lot to say about it: As an orphan, she was a big proponent of trying to reach out and reconcile (after giving his father an earful). She just didn't understand how big of a jerk his dad was.
He vaguely heard a loudspeaker blaring something in the background about a read alert and battle stations.
"Do you know why you're here?" Ritsuko asked. At Shinji negative expression, she expostulated as they walked out of the elevator through a utility tunnel into the Cages. "It is to pilot that - the Evangelion Unit 01!"
The lights flickered from a particularly powerful explosion just as they entered the docking cages, 'It's a giant robot!' Shinji's attention was drawn to the purple behemoth strapped into a support frame that was immersed halfway in a reddish goo. "Is this what my father has been working on all this time?"
"Yes." Shinji looked up to catwalk that he had not even noticed earlier. Standing there was Gendo, a pair of his flunkies in the background. "It's been a long time."
"Yes." Shinji looked around. This wasn't at all like he had planned out with Inia. He had expected an opportunity to talk to his dad on person, one on one. Not like this, with his father looking down on him from twenty feet up, like some monarch from ancient times. "Um, yeah. I don't know if this is the right time, but uh, we should talk about..."
"Get in the robot, Shinji."
"Wha?"
"You're here to pilot the Evangelion."
"You will be protecting all of the human race," Misato added.
Shinji looked over at the giant machine. 'It's the same as what Inia has to do.'
"We have no other choice," Ritsuko added. It wasn't clear if she intended it as an apology to Shinji or a statement of frustration.
"Is this the only reason you called me here?" Shinji cried out.
"Yes."
Shinji glared up at his father, who stood looking down impassively, the the light glaring off of his tinted glasses.
Gendo was just turning to call out a command to his flunky when Shinji voice rang out out "I'll do it." 'I'm not going to be a wimp. If Inia has to do this, I can too.'
Gendo shut his jaw with an audible snap. He eyed his son in surprise, 'that did not fit the profile.'
/\ PoC /\
Shinji sat in the uncomfortably hard pilot seat, in the too-tight plug suite as his control module FILLED WITH LIQUID. "Misato! Anybody! There is a leak! The control module is flooding!"
"Don't panic, Shinji," Ritsuko's voice came over the com, "That's super-oxygenated LCL. It will feel a little strange, but you can actually get oxygen from it."
"That means you can breath it!" Interrupted Misato.
"Yes, you can breath it," continued Ritsuko, "It will help you sync with the Evangelion, and it will cushion impact better than air, should you get hit." The way she was rhapsodically describing it, you would think it was some miracle fluid. But all Shinji could think of was that if anything went wrong, he was going to drown.
"See that wasn't so bad," Misato coached through the com system as Shinji's head disappeared under the liquid. She had apparently displaced Ritsuko. "Now you will sortie through the number 3 elevator. Once you're out, you will see a container with a pallet rifle on your right. That will be your weapon."
"How do I move in this thing?"
"Just concentrate on moving like you would your own body."
"O-ok" Shinji clenched his teeth as the cage pulled his Evangelion into elevator 3 and he began to shoot up towards the surface. 'Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic.'
Meanwhile, in the control room, Misato was peering over Ritsuko's shoulder as the blond ran the main monitor, having displaced Makoto from his usual post, "How does he look?"
"Shinji's sync score is holding at almost 60%. It dropped a little, probably from tension."
"Isn't that really high for a first attempt?
"Mm." Ritsuko nodded absently as she adjusted a few things, bringing Shinji's EKG up on the screen. "His mind is unusually receptive." The EKG showed a very fast heart beat, and they could hear Shinji panting over the mike.
"Yaaa!"
BADDA BADDA BADDA
The sound of Shinji yelling was almost muffled by the sound of the Pallet rifle on full auto spraying.
"Shinji! Wait until the Angel comes closer – you're not in range yet." Ritsuko commented, "You have to let it come close enough for your AT fields to cancel out."
"Yaaaaaa!"
BADDA BADDA BADDA
"Shinji, switch the Pallet rifle to burst mode," Misato interrupted.
BADDA BADDA click click click
"Yeah?"
Misato sighed, "there is a second Pallet rifle in the weapons elevator 100 meters to your left. And fire it in burst mode so you don't use up all your ammo."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji directed his Eva to race towards where Misato told him the closest weapon locker was: It was even indicated by a red dot on his GPS screen. It was kind of amazing, really - he felt like he was running in his own body, not in a giant robot. This was nothing like what he expected.
But just as he was getting comfortable, he noticed how close the Angel was. Just as he was reaching for the new Pallet rifle he came face to face with the enemy. As he flinched back in surprise, the Angel lashed out with its spear-like arm, driving the tip into the Evangelion's shoulder.
"Aaarg!" Shinji learned the draw back of having a high sync score. He tried to get the Angel away, pushing on its head, but the monster grabbed his shoulder with one pincer-like hand and hammered away like a pile driver at the Evangelion with a bone spur mounted on the other.
/\ PoC /\
When he next awoke, Shinji was surprised to see a hospital ceiling. 'I'm alive'. And from the clock on the opposite wall, it was early morning, so at least one night had passed.
He took a moment to check to see if he was all there – the attacks from the angel had felt like they were tearing chunks out of his body. 'And Inia has to deal with getting injured like this all the time. I hadn't appreciated...'
He slipped into his meditate state, laying quietly, breathing in and out and not thinking about anything. Finally, he tried reaching out 'Inia? Are you there?'
'Yes! Are you ok? Last I heard, there were explosions around you! What happened?' the excitable girl broadcast.
'I, uh, got asked to pilot a giant robot – TSF, I guess – to fight aliens.' There was a pause as Inia processed this, and then Shinji added 'It hurt.'
'Oh.' Inia replied, again not saying anything.
'Inia? Are you ok? I'm fine – It hurt a lot at the time, but I'm not injured or anything. I don't know exactly what happened at the end – I blacked out, but hopefully the monster is dead.' Shinji started babbling. Inia was usually so cheerful and upbeat. Her vivaciousness is what helped him muster the energy to keep going. To have her fall silent and withdraw like that.. was very scary. He wasn't certain he could survive without her presence.
'I'm fine. It's just... I thought there was at least one place out there in the universe that didn't have BETA.' Inia paused, 'talking to you let me escape reality, for a little while.'
'I don't think what I fought was a BETA – it was much bigger than what you described, and there was only one of them.' Shinji described his battle, or as much of it as he could remember.
'And you felt everything that happened to your TSF, this Evangelion?' At Shinji affirmative, Inia mused, 'It must be mentally connected to you, and those A10 connectors and the fluid must be there to increase your connection. Huh. I bet they chose you because you're a latent telepath.'
'Like you?'
'I'm more than latent. I was designed... I mean raised, to have my telepathy be functional. That's what lets me talk to you.' Shinji let Inia's slip go without commenting. He knew she had had a pretty awful childhood, worse than his. He wasn't certain about the details, but he wasn't going to push for them unless she was ready to talk about it. Besides, he wasn't certain if he was ready to reciprocate and talk about how he felt about his father abandoning him. He didn't want to sound like a whiny loser. Just knowing that she had survived to be a cheerful teenager was enough to give him hope.
As long as she was real. He didn't know what he would do if she turned out to be imaginary.
"Hello, Shinji!" It took Shinji a moment to realize that the cheerful voice calling out to him wasn't all in his head now. He turned to look – standing in the doorway, exuding good cheer, was Misato.
"Are you ready to get up? We need to find out where your assigned quarters are. Have you had breakfast yet?" Misato had seen Shinji through the open doorway as she had approached, just sitting there, either moping or in shock. He needed somebody to connect with him, to draw him out.
"Uhm Misato.. what happened? The last thing I remember is blacking out..."
Misato turned it down a notch, "just before you blacked out you manged to get in a kill shot in. You did good." Her smile was a little artificial looking now, but Shinji lacked the people skills to tell the difference. "Now, how about you get up, and I'll take you to breakfast, and then we can go see about your housing." She waited patiently for Shinji to get out of bed.
"Um, can you, you know, let me get dressed?" He gestured to the standard issue hospital onesy.
"Oh, right: teenager. I'll be right outside!" She closed the door behind her, only to re-open it immediately, "Don't take too long!"
'Did you catch any of that?' Shinji asked.
'No – remember, I can only 'hear' what you say, not what you hear, and then only when you're calm.'
"Oh, right. The woman who picked me up from the train station want to get me set up for housing and stuff. I think she works for my father."
'Is she a jerk too?' Inia asked. Shinji had made no mention of the photo that Misato had inserted with the summons, so she had no indication of the woman's personality.
'No, she's like an older version of you.'
'How much older?' Came the immediate response.
'I don't know. Maybe 30? I got to go.' Shinji couldn't concentrate on maintaining his link to Inia and doing regular things, like pulling on his socks.
/\ PoC /\
"What do you mean, he'll be living by himself in block 24-B?" Misato demanded of the clerk in the housing administration office. "That's out in the new construction area. It's a dump. That's no place for a teenager to living. Especially on their own."
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but that is what the NRJP-11-b form calls for." The clerk shrugged noncommittally. Once the form was filled out and signed, it was gospel. Nobody except god himself could change it.
"Um, Misato, it's oke..." began Shinji.
"Well, change it. Put him in for block 11-C, that's the section I'm in, and I know that there are still empty apartments there."
"An empty apartment would have to be found, and then it would have to be allocated to operations, and then designated as a high security residence." The clerk replied.
"So? Go ahead and do that."
"I can't do that. You would have to get form ARJP-10-c from operations, then have it signed by Shinji's superior officer, and then have it signed by the head of operations." The clerk typed away for a minute, being helpful, "I'm not certain who Pilot Ikari's commanding officer is – he's not set up correctly in the command structure. I guess you would have to go up to Commander Ikari."
"In that case, forget the form. Shinji will be staying with me. My apartment is already set up as a high security residence, and I got a spare room."
As the argument went on around him, Shinji zoned out. He had his SDAT player in his ears so that people wouldn't give him funny looks, but it wasn't turned on.
'Do you think that I should argue?' He asked Inia.
'No, If this Misato person wants to have you room with her, it's probably for the best. Living with someone else is always better than living by yourself.'
'I would have you.'
There was a pause before Inia continued, 'Yeah, but we can only talk when we make an effort. Its nice to have somebody around, banging about, making noise and just being there.'
Misato glanced at the Third child as he stood there, completely oblivious, 'That kid is as withdrawn as the psych report said. He needs to have people around him or he will become a basket case.'
She finished filling out the forms that the clerk shoved at her and grabbed Shinji's arm, "Come on, Shinji, Let's go see your new home!" Misato overdid the 'cheerful' a little, grabbing Shinji's arm in such a way that he blushed all they way to to the tips of his ears. Not that it was difficult to achieve - Shinji still wasn't used to human physical contact.
/\ PoC /\
'She's an utter slob!' Shinji was lying in bed, exhausted, 'I think she actually wanted a roommate because she needs somebody to clean up after her.'
'She can't be that bad.'
'Want to bet? I had to go down to the basement and get a snow shovel in order to clear a path to my room. You know what I was doing the last four hours ? Putting empty beer cans into trash bags.'
'Um.. yeah,' Slovenliness was really outside of Inia's experience, as her entire life had been in a tightly regimented environment - first at the research facility, and then in the military. 'Have you remembered how you ended up defeating that alien Angel?'
'Not really, but Misato claims that I got a couple of good shots in before getting banged upside the head, and that I lost a couple of minutes of memory.'
'Yeah, that happens.'
'Except my last memory was of losing, badly, as the angel pounded me into the pavement.' Shinji sighed, 'but enough of the chaos that is my life. How is the move to Alaska?'
'It's been great! We haven't had leave yet, so I haven't been able to get any real burgers, but we met the other test pilots. They are really nice, especially this American, Yuuya Bridges. I think Cryska likes him.'
"Huh," Shinji snorted, not certain how to respond.
'He also just transferred up to Alaska. The weird thing is he's working with the Japanese test flight, so he went with us as we went on a tour of the facilities. At least the parts that all the test flights share. He was really polite.'
Shinji paused, before replying 'Are you certain it's Cryska who's the one who likes him?'
'Well, obviously.'
Before Shinji could reply, Misato jerked open his door, "Hey, Shinji, I got you signed up for school, so you're all set for next week!" She looked expectantly at the teen who was lying on his bed , headphones on his ears, and for all the world oblivious to the world.
"Um, ok?"
"Great! So do you need any school supplies? NERV will provide all the school books and such, but do you want colorful binders or notepads? The store down the street has some rally cute ones!"
"... No, I'm good."
Misato nodded and looked at the socially withdrawn teen, "Ok, that just leaves figuring out the chores. Since we're roommates, we should split up the cooking and cleaning. We'll rock-paper-scissors for them?"
"Ok?"
Shortly, Shinji found himself on the hook for all the cleaning, with him and Misato alternating turns doing the cooking. He wasn't certain how that had happened, unless Misato had cheated, but he was actually fine with that, as he knew he was going to end up doing all the cleaning anyway. There was no way he way he could deal with living in the sort of disaster that Misato deemed 'acceptable'.
As Shinji headed back to his room, Misato interrupted ,"dinner is going to be ready in 10 minuted. Why don't you stay here so you can cheer me up?"
Shinji raised an eyebrow as Misato bounded about the kitchen preparing … something "Me, cheer _you_ up?"
"Right... You kind of a quiet kid. But that's ok! It's the quiet ones that have great depths. Wait until you have a girlfriend. It'll all work out for the best!" She dabbed some hot sauce onto instant Raman and stuck in the microwave, her mouth apparently on autopilot as she worked. "So, tell me what you planned to do for the next two days until your school starts."
"Um... Nothing?"
"Great, great! So you can come down to NERV and start on some pilot training!" Misato slammed a pair of steaming bowels in front of each of them, one containing a hot sauce spiced chicken Raman, and the other containing some sort of smoked fish floating in … beer? "Dinner is served!"
"Misato, I'm too young to drink," Shinji pointed to his fish bowl.
"Oh, oops – that's for Penpen." She swapped bowls, putting Shinji's on the floor and replacing it with one that had plain sardines.
As Shinji took a spoonful of Raman, it was like somebody had jammed a hot poker right through his mouth and out the other side of his head, 'I remember!' His memory of the battle returned, starting with the 3rd Angel pistoning a bony spur through the Evangelion's head
As the bony spur smashed through the armor on the Eva's head, Shinji's eyes swam from pain. After the third blow, the pain decreased as he became a distant observer in his own body, watching what happened through a straw. He couldn't move his arms or legs, not that he really tried. Everything was starting to fade to black.
He vaguely saw the Evangelion's hand come up on its own and grab the red orb hanging from the Angel's lower torso and SQUEEZE it until, in a panic, the Angel tried to pull free, but it was too late – the orb shattered in Evangelion 01's grasp.
/\ PoC /\
'Now aim and squeeze the trigger gently,' Shinji was at NERV, trying out the virtual shooting range. He was strapped into his Entry Plug as he practiced against a recreation of the 3rd angel.
'One burst, then reposition.' Inia's voice sounded in his mind. 'Nice and calm. You know, the connection when you are in the entry plug is really good!' She was correct – Shinji could hear her voice much more clearly, to the point that he was having a hard time differentiating it from what was coming in over the com.
'I really appreciate you taking the time to coach me like this. I imagine it's pretty boring for you,' Shinji commented in a break between scenarios.
'Yeah, but it would really stink if my best friend died because he didn't know what he was doing,' came the cheerful reply.
Shinji froze 'wait – best..' just as another scenario stated.
"Shinji, don't zone out." Ritsuko interrupted, "you've been doing great, but that doesn't mean you can slack off. This time, I'm changing it up and giving the Angel ranged weapons."
Shinji's adrenaline spiked as he realized the angel was lining up something on him, and he was out in the open.
"Yeaah!" He dived behind a building.
'Stay calm,' reminded Inia.
Shinji rolled from behind the building. 'It has some sort of cannon! I got to get it first!'
BADDA BADDA BADDA
.
.
.
The scenario ended with the Angel pile driving the spike through the Eva's head again.
And this was Shinji's life until school began: training under Inia's (and Ritsuko's) tutelage, eating the toxic sludge that Misato claimed was food, and picking up skimpy pieces of clothing that he really, really didn't want to be thinking about from the floor of the apartment and flinging them quickly into Misato's room.
Going back to school was a relief.
/\ PoC /\
'So we had a joint test with Argos flight. Remember I thought that they were a Japanese test pilot group, but it turns out just the commander is Japanese but the rest are from all over. The only reason we aren't officially part of it is because of politics. It was a lot of fun! The test, I mean, we had to play catch with the prototype through the training course. ' Inia was bubbling away as Shinji sat in class, head resting on his hands as he listened to the teacher drone on. He had been here for less than a day, but he could tell that his history teacher was a colossal bore. The only thing that was piquing his interest was the blue haired girl sitting by the window. He was certain he had seen her at NERV – she was probably another pilot., 'But now we have a meeting. Meh. At least Yuuya will be there. So what are you doing right now?'
'looking at Rei.' As soon as the words formed in his head, Shinji snapped out of his almost trance. 'I mean, I think she's also a pilot, but I am not certain, because I can't ask because we're stuck in history class.'
'It's ok,' Inia reassured him. 'Go ahead and talk to her – you should get to know girls your own age, instead of just 30ish year old women.' The words sounded stiff, almost rehearsed.
'I can't do that,' Shinji's palms began to sweat as he clutched at his desk in a panic. 'I mean..' At that point, a message popped up on his IM app.
Kensuke: are you the pilot of the giant robot.
'Ina – Somebody just asked if I'm the pilot of the Eva. Should I tell them?'
'Of course not. Didn't you tell me that it was top secret?'
'Oh, yeah, sort of. But everybody who lives in Tokyo-3 saw it. And they're my age.' He obviously meant the people pestering him over the chat. Fortunately, Inia had become accustomed to his stream of conscious babbling when nervous.
'Yet your a pilot, at your age. Who's to say that one of them isn't a spy.'
'I guess,' sulked Shinji. He REALLY didn't like disappointing people. Because then they might not like him.
'Hey, I got to go – Yuuya finally walked in, so the meeting is about to start.' Inia faded out, leaving Shinji to suffer the teacher's incessant monologue on his own. His IM pinged again.
Kensuke: Hey, new kid. You want to hit the arcade after class?
Shinji gave one last glance at Rei - she was still staring out the window – before turning back to his laptop. "Sure" Hanging out with one of the guys was a LOT safer than talking to the silent girl. And if he wasn't mistaken, Kensuke was the geek sitting two rows behind him, at the back of the room. He probably didn't have any social skills either.
/\ PoC /\
It was a relief when the school bell rang. The air conditioning in the school was turned off – it was a miracle that nobody fell asleep during class. Though if they had, the teacher would have never noticed.
"So, where do you want to go?" Shinji asked the eyeglass wearing Otaku. Apparently the jock sitting on the desk next to him was also going – the three of them were the last ones left, as the other students had poured out of the classroom as soon as the final bell had rung.
"There's a new shooting game down at the mall. I Don't know what it's called – I just caught a glimpse of it on my way to school today, but it looks awesome!"
"You and guns." The jock rolled his eyes as he jumped off of the desk.
"What? They have Street Fighter too. And a bunch of other games" This last was directed at Shinji, who nodded mutely.
The trio had just turned to go when Rei walked in. "We have to go" she pronounced.
"What?" before Shinji could say anything, his phone buzzed as a message came in.
Report to NERV -Misato
He looked up to see Rei walking off. As he ran after her, the two other boys glanced at each other.
"Dude. They're totally dating!" Kensuke volunteered.