Stage 2: Just Another Day
The next morning, Misato and Kaji were fighting over who gets the bathroom first. After that Misato grabbed Shinji and they all headed to the kitchen. Yui was there finishing up making breakfast while Gendo was nowhere to be found.
"Good morning you three." Yui beamed.
"Mommy," Shinji somewhat tiredly said.
Misato yawned and Kaji rubbed his eyes. "Good morning."
They all sat down at the table when Misato asked "How can you be so happy in the morning?"
Yui placed breakfast on the table and responded "I'm just a morning person."
"Morning people are so peppy, without soda I can't even make it through the day." The purple haired teen said while starting to chow down.
Kaji laughed "That says a lot Misato."
"Shut up Kaji."
"Make me."
Yui looked on and signed. Shinji did the same and asked "Mommy why are they fighting?"
"Their not fighting, they're just using their words."
"Oh, okay."
Once the arguing stopped the teens left for school. Half way there they met Ritsuko and started talking.
"Hey Rits," Misato said more upbeat after taking a swig of her orange soda.
"Hello Misato, Ryoji, isn't a bit early to be hitting the soda?" she motioned to the can in her friend's hand.
Misato shook her head. "Now way, you know I need this stuff or I'm just as spiteful and pissed off like the rest of the world."
"Well in that case why don't you drink coffee like Ryoji or myself?" the brunette asked while taking a sipping on her drink.
"Yeah Katsuragi, you know what they say, drinking soda early in the morning is a sign you're going to become a drinker in the future." Kaji butted in.
Misato smacked him on the head. "Who says that crap?"
"Again with the hitting, what's with you?" Kaji growled.
Misato smirked impishly. "Because its fun. Wouldn't you agree Rits?"
Rolling her eyes Ritsuko just said "No comment."
When the trio arrived at school they went to their respected classes. As the day went on the three met back up in gym class. It was the Second year class against the Third year class as they played a game of baseball. It was the ninth inning and the Second year class was up by 2, all they needed to do was strike out one more player and they would win. Even though the bases were loaded everybody on the field was focused as a Third year boy came up to bat. When the pitcher threw a fastball the boy hit it with all his might. The ball was headed for second base which just happen to be Misato's position. As she ran to the left to try and catch the ball she wasn't paying attention as the shortstop, Kaji was running in her direction as well. Other kids yelled at them to watch out but neither was listening as they crashed into each other. As they fell to the ground the ball did the same as their hopes for victory were lost. Misato tried to recover and throw the ball to home plate but it was no use, three kids already made it home safely and scored for their team. The Third year class had won.
Misato growled out of frustration at Kaji. "WHAT THE HELL! You know I had the ball, why do you have to try and be a showoff?" she stormed off and headed towards the locker room and grumbled under her breath.
Kaji looked on dumbfounded and said one word. "Damn."
Ritsuko was cheering with her team when she noticed her friend storming off, she decided to follow her.
"Misato you need to calm down, its just a game." Ritsuko came up to her friend's side.
Seeing who it was, Misato let up and took a deep breath. "You probably right Rits, but Kaji needs to learn the meaning of teamwork and fast. Just 'cause he's a boy he thinks he can do everything by himself."
Ritsuko smiled warmly and tried to defend her other friend "Its just who he is Misato, give him time and he'll realize that he needs others."
"I hope so because at times like these we need other's to support us."
After everybody was changed back into their school uniforms, school was over. Misato and Ritsuko decided to head to the arcade but Kaji headed home. He thought it was better if he kept away from Misato right now and let her blow off some steam. As the ponytailed haired boy was walking home he was left with his thoughts.
[Why do you have to try and be a showoff?] Misato's voice boomed in his head.
'Because Misato, I want to prove myself to you. Why can't you see that? Why can't you see I act the way I do is for you? I can't help it if I act a little childish, but at the same time you do the same thing and yet you judge me. This is why I show the few emotions that I do.'
As Kaji was caught up in his thoughts he stumbled along an alleyway which he used as a shortcut to get home quicker. As he walked through the abandon alleyway which was littered with trash and garbage cans, Kaji noticed a huge unpainted wall. The wall was white and about 20x20 feet, as he stirred at the wall an idea was forming in his head.
"I think I just found a way to prove myself Misato, all I need to do is learn how to draw first."
With that Kaji continued walking down the path and ended up a block away from the Ikari's home. Once there he took off his shoes and got settled in. "Shinji and the sitter must be at the park." He shrugged and walked into his room which he shared with Misato and Shinji. He walked over to the bookshelf which had many baby books on them for Shinji and a lot of assorted pictures. He picked up a photo which was of him and Misato at last year's summer festival when they were both 15. Kaji was wearing a fedora hat, black tee shirt and blue jeans with his arm around Misato's shoulder. She on the other hand was wearing a traditional kimono and had two fingers up to form the victory 'V' they both were smiling and were very happy.
As Kaji looked at the picture he thought 'why can't things go back to the way they were before we knew about our impending doom?'
Meanwhile at a nearby arcade, Ritsuko was accompanying her best friend while she blew off some steam. In the dimly lit arcade filled by many kids of all ages Misato was playing a virtual reality boxing game. After finally losing Misato smiled and looked at her friend.
"Hey Rits, wanna play a racing game?"
"No." her friend deadpanned
"Why not? Afraid I'm gonna win?" the purple hair teen sighed.
"No way, you always crash and mostly on purpose too. But its getting late, I have homework to do, and I thought you had chores you needed to finish."
Misato scowled at Ritsuko. "Can't you be a normal teen and not worry about all that crap? I mean when I go home I'm just going to trick Kaji into doing my chores and take a nap."
"You are so lazy." Ritsuko rolled her eyes.
"I know and I stick by that." She smiled.
The duo left the arcade and headed home.
When Misato returned home she saw Shinji taking a nap on Kaji's lap. She went over to the teen and said "Hey Kaji you wanna…"
"No." Kaji bluntly stated. He knew what Misato was going to ask and straight up told her he wasn't going to do it.
With a sigh Misato knew it was useless to argue and dropped her stuff and went right to her chores. "You're a pain sometimes."
Kaji leaned back on the sofa and replied "I know."
In an hour time Misato only had one chore left, cleaning the bathroom. Out of all of her chores she hated this one the most, the backbreaking task of scrubbing and scrapings and mopping the floor. When she went for the cleaning solution to start her task and unscrewed the cap she realized something. The cleaning solution smelt funny, she took a waif and then recognized the smell, the smell of urine.
"WHAT THE HELL!" she yelled as she ran out of the bathroom.
Both boys jumped at the yell and Kaji soon realized what it was for.
'Oh hell, I totally forgot about that prank was going to play on Misato! She's gonna kick my ass for sure!'
Kaji quickly maneuvered off the couch and tried to escape Misato's wrath.
"H-hey Misa-chan I totally didn't mean for you to find that. It was a joke but I didn't me to pull it on you."
Misato started running after Kaji and yelled "Laying bastard! Of course you'd something stupid like that! When I catch you you're dead!"
While the teens were running around the house they didn't notice that Gendo had walked through the front door. He came home early that day after working all of the night before at the GeoFront.
He saw the teens running amuck in his home and yelled "What is the meaning of this?"
The duo stopped in their tracks and their hearts sank as well.
"S-sorry Sir, there was just a minor conflict." Misato softly spoke.
"If there was a conflict Katsuragi I don't expect you and the boy to be running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Understand?"
"Yes Sir." Misato said.
Gendo then faced Kaji. "This no doubt your doing Ryoji, so I see fit to punish you."
Kaji put his head down. "Yes Sir."
"Whatever the case maybe Ryoji you aren't allowed to go to that party tomorrow night and are to stay here and babysit my son. Is that clear?"
"Yes Sir." Kaji nodded.
Gendo pushed his sunglasses up on his face and said "Both of go to your room."
"Yes Sir." they both said in unison and went to their room.
Inwardly Gendo thought 'If it weren't for Yui you both would end up on the streets.'
Inside their room nether Misato or Kaji talked to each other. But they both were thinking things about the other.
'Baka Kaji, serves him right.' Misato thought while writing in her journal. 'Like hell he wasn't trying to prank me, he was trying to get back at me for yelling at him. Why can't he act less childish or at least why can't he be completely honest with me? It just doesn't make any sense.'
Across the room Kaji was reading one of his botany magazines that he kept secret form Misato. 'Dammit! What the hell is wrong with me?'
'I'll tell you what's wrong with you.'
Kaji jumped a bit, which caused Misato to look over her shoulder and roll her eyes.
'What the hell, who said that?' Kaji thought to himself.
'I did. I'm your inner thoughts…your deeper inner thoughts.'
'Will...that's interesting, but why are you talking to me now?' Kaji asked his inner self.
'Isn't obvious? You want Misato to like you, but you keep on pissing her off and pushing her away.'
'Get to the point.' Kaji mentally growled knowing that his inner self was right.
'Geez someone's pissed. But anyway I'm here to tell you how to make Misato to like you.'
'Okay so you're like my wingman? Fine, I'll shoot, how you gonna make Misato like me?'
'Isn't in obvious? Just tell her how you feel, tell her that you love her! Its that simple.'
'What! Are you crazy? I can't do that…its…'
'Its what? Too hare for Ryoji Kaji to express human emotion? With that attitude you'll never get Misato.'
'Its not like that! Why should I have to tell her that? She should know how I feel about her.'
'Are you really that dense? Girls aren't like guys, their more sensitive and want you to express your feelings with words. Not with childish pranks and hitting on every other girl you see to make her jealous. Why can't you understand that?'
'…' Kaji had no response to his inner self.
'You know what? Screw it, I'm done with you until you get your head out your ass and man up.'
With that Kaji was alone again and just said one word. "Damn."
This got Misato's attention and she asked "What?"
Kaji just looked at her and said "Its nothing." Then he looked away.
Misato sighed and thought 'That's what you always say. Why can't you be more open with me? Is it that hard or is it that you don't feel the same way I do?'
Misato looked out of the window in their room not wanting to think such thoughts about Kaji anymore.
For the rest of the evening neither teen said anything and their room was silent.
A/N: I'm sorry if anyone felt this chapter was a little dry or patched together but this chapter just didn't want to be written but that doesn't mean I just wrote to get it out of the way. I wanted to use this chapter to explore more of Kaji's and Misato's inner thoughts about the other and set things up for future chapters. Hopefully this works out as I introduce more drama to the story. So with that any reviews will be appricated and I'll try to update soon.
