Evangelion: The Second Coming

Chapter 1 – School Days

Shinji Ikari sighed as he shifted his gaze to the classroom ceiling, the black dotted tiles adding to the boredom and confinement of the institution. Shinji wanted nothing more than to skip class and head to the arcade in the downtown mall. Normally he would have done just that; being employed by NERV had its privileges – such as the ability to skip out on class whenever you so desired and not have to explain yourself. Something Misato would get onto him about when she would find him home early. As of right now, however, he was shackled. Today he was sync test free. As was Touji for that matter, a fact that Kensuke intended to use to spend some time with his friends at said arcade. Shinji actually felt more than a little bad about all the times he and Touji would skip claiming that NERV called for them, leaving Kensuke bored and alone.

Touji was at first a little hesitant about using his NERV privileges for skipping class. Ironic, considering his less than stellar grades. He himself had only become a pilot about a year and a half ago, when the Americans had finally finished EVA-03 and NERV had coincidentally found the fourth child. Eventually though, the jock came around once he realized that he was too valuable to NERV to receive any substantial punishment, other than a wordy lecture. However, he as well felt bad for having to leave Kensuke behind.

The class bell rang out suddenly, jarring Shinji from his thoughts and sending his fellow classmates flooding to the door. Shinji and Touji however made their way to Kensuke who was still packing up.

"Ya' ready for tonight, Ken?" Touji asked, sitting on the top of his desk.

"It's been a while since we all got to hang out together," Shinji agreed, feeling a bit excited at the prospect of his free time.

"Yeah," Kensuke replied, "I'm ready. Man, you guys are always so busy, the three of us never really get to see each other outside of class anymore."

"And it looks like you'll have to wait a bit longer!" Spoke a familiar, voice from the front of the class room. It was Hikari Horaki, the class representative who had, unsurprisingly, remained as by the books and as much of a teacher's pet as she had the day Shinji had met her. The third child inwardly groaned.

"Why's that?" He asked, playing innocent. He knew why.

"In case, you've forgotten, Ikari," she spoke, placing her fists on her hips, "It's your turn to clean up after class today, so you'll have to catch up to Touji and Kensuke later," She ordered.

"Oh, right," Shinji replied, acting as if he had forgotten. "Well, you see- "

"Oh no," Hikari interrupted him, "No excuses. Your NERV business may work on Ms. Taguchi, but they won't work on me! You and Rei are scheduled together today! You aren't going to just shift the load on her!"

Shinji frowned as his eye's shifted to the left, spotting Rei, who had already begun sweeping the floor. "You're right, Hikari. You're right, of course! I just, you know," he leaned forward to whisper, "I have to go to the boy's room."

Hikari's cheeks turned a little red before she sighed and crossed her arms, "Fine."

Shinji bowed slightly and made his way for the door, carrying his backpack, causally walking out, whistling a little tune, as Hikari watched him leave. A minute passed before the boys caught on and bid the class rep their farewells, following Shinji's example. It took about ten before Hikari caught on as well, leaving her red and fuming.

"I don't believe him!" She exclaimed, stomping her feet, as Rei continued to sweep. She then spun on her heels and marched towards the classroom closet to get a broom. "I'm so sorry that you were paired with such a lazy jerk today."

"It is of no consequence, class representative." Rei replied, continuing to go about her tasks.

"It is!" she insisted. "Geez. I don't know what happened to make Shinji such a delinquent! He used to be the saving grace of the three stooges, now he's just as bad as… As Touji! No! He's worse! Touji may skip class, but at least he still does his classroom duties!"

The more she thought about it, however, maybe there was more than simple laziness at work with Shinji's refusal to clean today. Sure, he and the other stooges were already planning on heading to the arcade, but it was no secret that Shinji didn't like Rei. Hikari wondered why though. At one time the two had been close, but something had happened and Shinji began to stop talking with her entirely. She'd wondered if she'd shot him down, but it wasn't like Shinji to be brave enough to ask anyone out, at least not back then. He'd had relationships before, too, even with Hikari though she loath to admit it, but he didn't act that way when they split up. He wasn't even upset. It must have been something else. Something NERV Related. Meaning that they maybe weren't allowed to talk about whatever it was. Still, it was a little sad to see what was at one-time Rei's only real friend treat her so poorly.

Misato Katsuragi sighed as she rested against her couch, an open beer in her left hand, and her right arm draped over its back. She smiled warmly after taking a sip and smiled at the television blaring in her living room. It was her favorite past time – getting drunk on Yebisu and watching shitty game shows. NERV had been as boring as usual today. Misato almost missed the Angels; she hated them, but at least when they showed their ugly faces it gave her something to do besides paper work. The three Angels that had shown up four years ago – Sachiel and Samshel, and Ramiel – They had been quite the bastards. Sachiel was tough, and Shinji almost couldn't beat it. Samshel wasn't so tough but he was dangerous. He used his whip-like tentacles to slice most anything in his path and would have cut up Shinji too, if he hadn't killed it in time. Ramiel, on the other hand… Ramiel was a nightmarish beast. Not in appearance but in ability. The diamond shaped Angel was a floating fortress, a fortress that had boiled Shinji alive and was only slain after all the power in japan had been used to break through its AT-field and destroy the core inside.

No more had come since then but NERV knew that didn't mean they were gone. There were more. There had to be more. When the first angel appeared in Antarctica during her father's expedition she saw it. She saw that giant of light and it looked right at her with its white hot glowing eye's and it screamed and she screamed – There had to be more.

Suddenly, on the wood coffee table, Misato phone began to vibrate, the fast-paced beating of plastic against wood creating a low drumming sound that removed Misato from her thoughts, prompting her answer it. "Hello?"

"Hello? Miss Katsuragi? It's Hikari."

Misato smiled, then returned the greeting. "Hikari! How are you?" Misato had always liked the girl. She and Shinji had been in… something resembling a relationship a few years ago, but that didn't really go anywhere. It was a good thing they had ended it early though, so there weren't any hurt feelings. Besides, Misato could tell it wouldn't last. She'd been worried that Shinji wouldn't handle it so well but, by that time, Shinji had grown out of his frightened self and had a little more self-confidence.

"I-" Hikari paused, "I'm doing well, I called to talk about Shinji."

Misato frowned at the way she said that. Recently she'd been getting these calls a little too frequently. Shinji skipping out of class, claiming that NERV had messaged him. She'd told those damned spineless teachers a hundred times that they had a set schedule and it did NOT interfere with schooling. They were all too scared of NERV to question him, though. Even Touji did the same thing. It was embarrassing and most of all reflected poorly on her. What's more sometimes he didn't even show up! It was good that he grew a spine, but sometimes she thought he'd grown a little too much of one. "I see," she acknowledged through gritted teeth, "He's skipping class again?"

"Not exactly," Hikari explained, "He actually finished the school day today but, when I told him that he had to stay after for his class duties, he shirked them! He left poor Rei by herself!"

Misato pressed her free hand to her temples and sighed. With Shinji's personality change also came another change. For some reason the boy had developed a distaste for Rei. Misato honestly had thought that they, or at least Shinji, would hit it off well; he had done the whole white knight and everything when he piloted unit-01 for her when she was wheeled in on the cart to pilot. For a while it seemed like they did. Then, one day, Shinji began to outright ignore her and on the occasion, he would acknowledge her, his voice was always filled with disdain for her. Whenever Misato tried asking him what had happened he would dodge the question, giving her answers like 'I just don't like her' or 'she's weird' something along those lines, things people around the base would say. She knew there was more to it. Even so, she'd given up trying to figure out what had happened. "Alright," she replied, "I'll do something about him when he gets home."

"Alright," Hikari replied hesitantly, "Have a good night, Misato."

"You as well."

Touji stretched as the pair exited the mall. "Dammit! How are you so good at those fighting games, Kensuke?" he groaned in annoyance at Kensuke's video game prowess. "I just can't figure out the combos. It's too complicated for me. Racing games are more my style."

"You can't figure out a few simple button combinations, but you can pilot an Eva?" Kensuke asked in amusement.

"Eva's really aren't that hard to pilot once you get the hang of it. It's just like moving your own bodies when you sync with one. Really, you can't tell the difference between the Eva and yourself when your sync ration gets high enough," Shinji replied, then paused, adding somewhat grimly, "Though, that's not always a good thing."

"Yeah. Piloting Eva's not hard like those button combos are," Touji agreed, omitting the last part of Shinji's statement.

Kensuke just sighed and, a little disappointed, said, "Well, I doubt I'll ever get to know if that's true or not."

Shinji looked towards the sky which had turned a dark violet hue. It was late and Misato would get mad if he got home too late. She didn't like him staying out past midnight, it was the one rule she was strict about with him, so he tended not to break it. On the occasion he would, however, he would stay out late until Misato had gone to bed or passed out and would sneak back in, then leave for school in the morning before she woke up. She generally would forget about it. Tonight, however, he figured he was already on one too many people's shit list. "I should get going," he spoke, looking over to Touji, "We actually have sync test tomorrow, remember."

Touji groaned in annoyance. "Yeah, I remember. Damn, those tests are so boring!"

Shinji shrugged and began to head off in Misato's direction. "You get used to it. Later, Kensuke."

"Later! Are you going too, Touji?"

"Ah… yeah," Touji replied, "Got some o-where to be."

Kensuke raised a brow. "Alright, see you at school."

"Yeah, later!"

Shinji entered his shared apartment with Misato. "I'm home!" he called out in typical Japanese tradition and began to slip off his uniform slippers, he didn't even realize that Misato didn't reply back by the time he was making his way into the living room. What he found there surprised him. Misato, more or less sober, with an agitated look on her face and a beer can sitting on a coaster on the table.

"Ah," he paused, "something the matter?"

"My beers warm," Misato stated, dryly.

"We… have a fridge," Shinji suggested.

"And you have responsibilities you are expected to take care of," she added, her voice raising, "regardless of whether or not you have to do them with Rei!"

Shinji momentarily grimaced at the mention of the girl, then sighed realizing that someone, someone being Hikari, had ratted on him to Misato. "Yeah," he replied, "yeah, I know," he agreed trying to appease her.

"Then why didn't you!?" She asked, standing up, then sighing and folding her arms over her chest. "Look, Shinji, I get it. Something happened between the two of you; I don't know what and frankly, at this point, it no longer matters, but you have to put that aside sometimes. Like it or not, you two are bound together as long as NERV exists and that includes in school. That's another thing! You can't just skip or leave class whenever you want! You know you're NERV responsibilities rarely, if ever, overlap with you school responsibilities! If you keep skipping class-"

"What's the point of going to school for me anymore, Misato?" Shinji asked, interrupting Misato, his voice slightly raised in annoying.

Misato blinked in confusion, "What?"

"I'm an Eva pilot, Misato," he explained, "I'm a 'guardian of humanity' as you and Ritsuko always keep reminding me. On top of that I'm a senior now, it's not like I need to try; what's the point of me going to school anymore?"

Misato blinked once more. "When NERV is no longer needed, what are you going to do, Shinji? You realize this won't last forever, right? Eventually, the Angels are going to be gone and then-"

"I think they're gone already!" Shinji replied, "But NERV is still having me undergo sync tests, practically every other day, even though I've clearly plateaued! An Angel hasn't appeared in five years, Misato! There's no way they're coming back!"

Misato frowned, "That's what we told ourselves for fifteen years, Shinji," She muttered almost silently.

Shinji softened the look on his face. He'd gone a bit too far in his reaction to Misato's accusations. She was only doing what a guardian should do. "Alright… Alright, I'll stop skipping class," he agreed, sighing and moving past her to his room. "I'm going to bed, I'm tired," he dismissed himself, a bit of an edge still in his voice.

Misato sighed in exasperation.

Hikari sighed as she entered the classroom, as usual she was the first one here. The afternoon before she had stayed behind in place of Shinji to help Rei clean and she was still fuming about it. Not that she had to stay behind, but that Shinji had disregarded his responsibilities like that!... He had also so easily outwitted her, along with Aida and Touji. Touji! That was another thing! Touji hadn't even tried to stick up for her! Sure, they weren't really dating, but… She had given him a good lashing later that night after he'd blown all his money at the arcade.

Not long after Hikari had arrived, as well as a few more students, Rei had entered the classroom as well, taking her regular seat at the back of the class, near the window, Hikari tracking her the whole way there. Rei was never really someone who talked often, but that afternoon she was uncomfortably silent. Whenever Hikari had looked at her, the girl's back was always too her. She couldn't help but blame Shinji for that too. When they had finally finished and Hikari had tried to say goodbye to the girl and had apologized for Shinji's dismissal of his duties, Rei had looked surprised for a moment before returning to her normal, apathetic expression.

Hikari's eye's lingered on the girl as she pulled out a small brown book and flipped open the book and began to read. That's new. As long as Hikari had known the girl – which had been since middle school – Rei never had an interest in anything, never any extra curriculars, any hobbies… When did she start reading?

Then, the three stooges entered the room. Shinji and Aida continued to converse while Touji looked out of the corner of his eye to Hikari, who glared at him with venom in her eye's, prompting him to look away in a dejected manner. Hikari then looked over to Shinji, who nonchalantly plopped down in his seat. She watched discreetly as his eye's shifted towards Rei for a moment and a look of annoyance or even anger appeared on his face for a moment before he leaned over his desk and brought out the new, sleeker classroom laptop model.

Later, during lunch hour, when her fellow students had dispersed about the campus, Hikari moved to the back of the classroom. Normally she would eat with the larger student groups, or even the stooges, a fact which shocked many, as they knew the history between Shinji and herself. Even though Shinji was jerk however, he made it easy to still be his friend after the fact. Instead, though, she had decided to try and eat with Rei today.

"Ah," she started off awkwardly as she approached the albino's desk, "Hello, Rei."

The bluenette shifted for a moment as she dug her lunch from her bag and looked back over her shoulder, bringing the box up with her. "Class representative," she greeted in kind.

Hikari frowned slightly, then smiled a friendly smile, "Rei, you don't really have to call me that, you can just call me by my given name."

"Very well, class representative," Rei replied, as she opened her Bento box, unknowingly causing the brunette to sigh in slight exasperation.

"Rei," Hikari started, "You do… know my name, right?"

The albino nodded. "You are Hikari Horaki – our class representative."

"Right," she nodded, a little off put, "I would prefer it if you would call me by that name."

Rei paused for a moment, then picked up the wrapped chopsticks and opened them. "Very well, Hikari."

Hikari smiled brightly, then began to blush slightly. "I, ah, I was wondering," she started, "If you would mind if I shared my lunch with you?" she waited to be shot down.

Rei seemed to hesitate for a moment as she stared d own at the rice, tofu, and vegetables in her lunch. Then, she silently answered, "I would not mind."

Hikari exhaled silently and sat her lunch down momentarily on Rei's desk, moved a desk over to sit across from her and took her seat in said desk. The traditional girl then did the traditional idetakimasu of Japanese culture, and began to eat.

Minutes later, after an awkward silence, Hikari spoke up, hoping to get Rei speaking. "I, um, I noticed you reading a book today," she pointed out, "I didn't… know you liked to read."

Rei nodded as she continued to eat, swallowed and then spoke. "It is a hobby I have recently acquired."

Hikari smiled, Now we're getting somewhere, "Oh, what made you take an interest in books?"

"I… do not know…"

Hikari frowned. "Well… what do you like about them?"

Rei was silent for a moment, thinking it over, Hikari presumed, then the girl answered. "I-" she paused for a moment, "I enjoy the tales of other people. I enjoy seeing the elements of a person's self in their writing. It is their bond to the world – it is what they give to it."

What they give to it?

"I also enjoy seeing characters grow as the move along. I enjoy not knowing what lies ahead for them. It is something I wish to experience."

Hikari frowned, then spoke up. "You want to grow?" she asked the bluenette, "I think you already have… a little. I mean, you started reading, right? Before I'd never known you to have any other hobbies… But then, I don't know you that well."

Rei blinked at her a few times before she continued to eat.

Touji grumbled to himself as he, Aida, and Shinji ate on the roof. Hikari was mad at him, and he knew why. He'd done nothing while Shinji so obviously tricked her. It was understandable, he supposed but, it was one of their few days off and they hadn't hung out with Aida in a long time. Even so, he still felt bad. He didn't know how to deal with this. This was his and Hikari's first real fight as a… thing. Sighing, he shifted his gaze over to Shinji and frowned. He knew someone who might, however.

"Hey, Shin-man," Touji spoke up, interrupting his and Aida's conversation. "When you and Hikari were… you know, dating… how did you deal with her getting mad at ya'?"

Shinji paused for a moment, then matter-of-factly answered him with, "I didn't."

"Wha'?!" Touji replied, "Whaddya' mean 'I didn't'?!"

"Just that," Shinji off-handedly replied, "That's why we didn't really work out, I guess," he reflected, looking up to the sky, "I just, well, I didn't take it all that seriously," Shinji then paused and looked over to Touji. "Why? Is she mad at you about something?"

"Yeah! Because of you!" Touji, slightly read faced replied.

"Oh, she's mad because you didn't side with her last night," Shinji put two and two together. "Well, that sounds like it's your problem, you shouldn't have chosen me over your girlfriend. You should have stayed to help her… or something. You could have met up with us later."

"I-" Touji started, realizing his mistake, "I didn't… You were the one who ran out on his duties!"

"Oh, Touji," he replied, "You know how lazy I can be."

"That's true," Kensuke chimed in, "Shinji isn't well known for his worth ethic."

"Whatever!" Touji replied, eliciting a laugh from Shinji.

Ritsuko and Misato stood in the pribnow box of unit-00's holding cell, the giant cyclopean war machine staring blankly ahead at them. Touji and Shinji had already finished their sync tests and, while the latter had already headed home, the former had stayed behind. It was odd to Ritsuko, the boy and Rei were acquainted but never really seemed close to one another. Shinji on the other hand, well, he seemed to detest Rei as much as she did, although, admittedly, Shinji had a far better reason.

Speaking of the albino. "Strange…" Ritsuko murmured, leaning over Maya's shoulder, placing her hand on the mousey techs back.

"Isn't it?" Maya acknowledged, "Normally Rei's sync score remains the same forty to forty-five percent, but now it's dipped down to thirty-seven…"

Misato didn't understand much of the pairs sciencey techno babble, but she did know that when a pilot's percentage had lowered, it was usually a bad sign. "What do you think is causing it?" she asked. Misato was also aware that a sync score could be the result of a personal, everyday issue – a multitude of things, really. But, this was Rei. Misato had never known her to let life trouble her. It must've been something else.

"Well," Ritsuko replied, straightening up, "I can't say… It's possible she's had her," she looked to Touji, who was busy with his phone "Monthly visitor, but-,"

"Rei doesn't… menstruate, right… Maybe she's a late bloomer?"

"It's possible," Ritsuko admitted, "I'll have to give her a checkup, soon, it's more than likely something wrong with her constitution. Rei has never really been a healthy girl."

Misato then moved closer to Ritsuko and began to whisper to her. "Last night I got a call from Hikari, you know, Shinji's old girlfriend? Anyway, she said that Shinji, just left Rei to do all that work by herself! Lucky for her, Hikari is such a good girl, but still, do you think that maybe upset Rei a little?" The Major threw out there.

Ritsuko seemed to consider this for a moment before shrugging lightly. "I doubt it. Shinji being mean to Rei isn't exactly news or anything…"

Misato sighed, "Well, you're not wrong there, but even she has to have her days…"

Ritsuko then leaned over and activated the com systems. "Ok, Rei. We're finished today."

"Yes ma'am," came the quiet reply.

Rei shut the door to her apartment, but did not close it. There was no need. Ever since she'd moved here the lock had been broken. The few guests she had received would often make note of it, warning her that someone could simply barge in and harm or rob her. No such thing ever happened. However, at the moment, Rei wasn't concerned with the lock or the lack of robberies committed. Instead, she looked to the stack of books lying at the foot of her bed. The stack reached almost half the height of the bed, containing books she had read and books she hadn't yet. The question replayed itself in her mind – 'why did you take an interest in books?'

Why had she indeed? Rei hadn't ever question the hobby that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, only that it had happened around the time she began her tertiary education. Upon reflection, she supposed she perhaps had simply began to read to pass the time, she has read on occasion beforehand. That did not sound right, however. Rei had never had a problem with sitting idle until the time came to perform a task – such as going to school or sync testing. So why had she begun reading?

Her eye's shifted to the floor for a moment before she entered her bathroom and began to undress herself. When she had finished, stripped down completely, she began to examine herself. Upon further reflection, she had been undergoing more changes than in behavior. She was taller now; her breasts had grown and her figure had more curvature than before. Looking at herself in the mirror, she had now noticed, for the first time in fact, that her hair had gotten quite long; not as long as some of the other females in her class, but still it had noticeably lengthened. What had once been a mop of blue hair had grown out, down her neck and the sides of her face. Her bangs had remained more or less the same however.

Taking a few strands of blue hair in her hand she began to examine herself further. Her face had changed from how she had remembered it as well. It was longer now, and more angular. Rei was almost shocked as she placed another hand on her face gently. How had she not noticed the changes before? Why was she noticing them now?

The bluenette removed her hands from her head and went to the shower to wash off the sweat she had worked up during her march home from the high school. She didn't bother with the heat handle as it had never worked in the first place. She remained under the icy water for a good while before she finally decided she'd been properly washed off.

Afterwards, Rei dried herself off and walked back into the living room/bedroom of her apartment, allowing the towel to fall lifelessly to the floor in a crumpled, soggy heap and fell against her mattress, staring blankly at the ceiling for a moment, before looking over to her nightstand where a baby blue book and a pen lay.

After much hesitation, Rei reached for the pair.

Shinji yawned as he entered the classroom, following Touji and Kensuke. Yesterday's sync tests had been unbearably draining, he'd never known that sitting in a tube for hours on end thinking of nothing could be so exhausting. What was even more puzzling however, is why Touji had decided to stay after his testing was done. He was first and even though he normally did wait for Shinji and vice versa, he didn't normally wait for Rei. Upon the thought of the girl Shinji's eye's shifted over to her seat at the back by the window, where he found her looking at him, hand on cheek, and a blank stare on her face.

Shinji blinked in surprise before that surprise turned to annoyance and a scowl formed on his face. "What?" he asked aloud, the annoyance evident in his voice, gaining the attention of his classmates, who there were not much of.

Rei kept her stare on him, not in a challenging way, of course, but as if she hadn't heard him to begin with.

Shinji frowned and shook his head. "Whatever, freak," he dismissed her and moved towards his seat unaware of the daggers being glared into him by Hikari. He then angrily moved towards his desk and just as he was about to seat himself, Rei spoke.

"You're taller," she spoke simply, earning her a look from the rest of the class that she didn't pay attention to, she just kept her gaze on Shinji who looked over at her, the scowl still on his face. She then calmly shifted her face out towards the window and examined the outside world.

The day passed as usual, with their teacher continuing her lectures and Rei continuing to listen to a world more alien than the one she lived in now until the lunch bell rang and she prepared for lunch.

To her surprise, however, Hikari had once again decided to eat with her. Unlike before however, instead of smile on her face, she bore a frown – a fact that made Rei puzzled.

"Hello, Rei," she spoke softly, pulling up a desk and sitting across from the bluenette.

"Hello, Cla… Hikari."

Hikari smiled softly for a moment before she frowned. "I'm sorry about how Shinji treated you this morning…" she apologized on the pilot's behalf, "But, I was wondering, what you meant when you said that he was taller?"

Rei halted her eating of rice, holding a ball of it together with her chopsticks and staring down at the vegetarian bento box. "I was making a simple observation," she explained, "Ikari has grown taller since he first arrived in Tokyo-3."

Hikari raised a brow. Well, yeah? Hikari mentally commented, Of course he has, that was four years ago.

"You have changed as well, Hikari," Rei spoke once more.

Hikari's cheeks flushed, "O-oh?" she asked, "R-really?"

Rei nodded once simply, "You are also taller."

Hikari smiled slight and sighed in a bit of annoyance mixed in with relief. "I suppose I am, yeah."

"You no longer style your hair in pig tails, your figure has curved more, and your chest has also grown in size," Rei once again stated so simply.

Hikari's flush turned into a full-on blush as she threw her arms over her chest and lowered her head. "Rei!" she hissed.

Rei blinked in surprise as she observed Hikari before speaking once again. "Forgive me, I seem to have made another social mistake," she stated in a monotone voice.

"You weren't so quite descriptive with Shinji," she muttered.

"Ikari did not ask," she stated simply.

Hikari raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? What would you have told him if he had asked?"

Rei seemed to pause for a moment as she processed Hikari's question before speaking. Then she answered, "He has grown more muscular as well," she spoke. That was because of the physical exercises the pilots had to undergo occasionally and the healthy diet they were required to have, but Hikari had not asked why.

Hikari seemed to flush again. "I-I suppose he has… He's also grown ruder," she murmured then changed the subject. "What about Touji?"

Rei paused once again. "He has not grown as tall as Ikari, strange considering he used to be taller, but he has grown more muscular as well, he is also… smarter than he used to seem to be. He is kinder than I remember him being."

Hikari giggled at that, "Well, I think he was always kind."

Rei simply nodded in acknowledgment, but she felt a strange emotion inside her. Strange but pleasant. She could only describe it as happiness. She'd only ever felt this way twice before that she could recall. Odd…

Shinji Ikari sighed as he kicked his shoes off, the smell of the LCL that had soaked into his skin all but washed away. "I'm home," he called out to no one, as a few moments later Misato arrived and gave the same greeting. Shinji then made his way to the couch and plummeted down on it. Today had been… annoying for lack of a better word. The sync tests had felt twice as long and he couldn't stop thinking about what Rei had said, even though it wasn't all that much to think about. 'You're taller' he mentally repeated to himself. They hadn't so much as spoken in years, and out of the blue she comes and says that? Why?

Misato, who had already gotten undressed and into her 'regular' clothes, which consisted of nothing more than a yellow half-tank and an incredibly short pair of short shorts, was already delving into her fridge, looking for more of that precious Yebisu that she so vigorously drank. Sighing in relief as she pulled out a can, she looked over to Shinji, who was laying against the couch, exhausted.

He'd been in an odd mood since he'd shown up for his sync test that afternoon and had remained in it even after leaving the plug. He'd been silent during the car ride home as well, staring out the window as if he were deep in thought. It kind of concerned Misato. Shinji was normally a bit more… social. Misato blinked once. Four years ago, I never thought I'd make that statement.

Smirking, she leaned in and grabbed another can of Yebisu and made her way to the living room, stopping just before she passed Shinji and held the can to his face. His eyes were closed and he wasn't paying attention, so Misato shook the can about a bit, the sloshing liquid inside breaking him from his trance.

"Huh?" Shinji asked, before spotting the yellow can and giving Misato an incredulous look.

The raven-haired Major rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be such a baby, just take it. When I was your age, I was already a tried and true alcoholic, and I won't tell if you don't ~," she told him in a sing-song tune. Shinji seemed to hesitate at first, then sighed and took it.

"You don't take this guardian business very seriously do you?" He rhetorically joked to Misato.

"On the contrary, I take being your guardian quite seriously," she replied, taking a seat on the couch, facing herself towards Shinji crossing her legs. "What's bothering you?"

Shinji looked surprised for a moment then silently scoffed as if she were acting ridiculous. "What? Nothing…" he replied then popped the can open and took a small sip of the Yebisu before shuddering slightly and wincing. He never really did like the taste of the stuff, he was more interest in the side effects, and unbeknownst to Misato this wasn't the first time he'd had a taste. Of course, he hadn't taken from her stash, he knew how, despite her having hundreds of cans in reserve, when one was out of place, she could tell. He didn't quite know how, though.

"Mm," she replied, opening her own can now. "Girl trouble?" She teased.

Shinji paused, looking at his can and sighed silently, "Something like that, I guess."

"Oh? What's the matter won't she talk to you?" Misato inquired, still teasing a bit.

"No," Shinji murmured, "The problem is that she did,"

"What's wrong?" Misato asked, not having heard.

"Nothing's wrong Misato," Shinji reassured her, "Just… class is annoying is all."

Misato shrugged. Well I tried, he'll come around eventually and tell me what's wrong. She then turned serious. "You are going, aren't you? To class?"

Shinji sighed in silent relief as he leaned against the couch. "Yeah. I told you I would start going and not skip or leave early anymore, right?"

"Well… bad habits are hard to break."

Shinji smirked and began to slosh his cup at Misato, "And some can't be broken."

"Nyehh," Misato stuck her tongue out at him childishly and continued to guzzle down her beer.