Shinji Ikari lay in the darkness staring at his bedroom ceiling, unable to sleep despite an exhausting day. He'd wanted to say something to Asuka - it felt strange to think so familiarly of a girl he'd only just met, but it felt even stranger not to - as she came out of her debriefing, but the thunderous look on her face as she stalked down the hallway made him hold his tongue. Misato had come out a few minutes later, apologized to him for having "all the paperwork ever" to do, and asked a Section Two agent to drive him home.

Now he was stuck with only his racing thoughts for company. Synchronizing to Asuka's Unit 02 had been a very different experience to synchronizing to Unit 01, yet even that paled in comparison to the strangeness of having someone else in the loop. He'd tried to concentrate on the sensory inputs of the Evangelion itself, but keeping Asuka's thoughts out of his head entirely had proven impossible. Given the way she'd looked at him after they finally got out of the Entry Plug, he suspected she'd had exactly the same problem in reverse.

Some of those thoughts wouldn't leave his head. For her, piloting Eva was the best possible thing in the world. She was fascinated by the ponytailed man accompanying her - Mr Kaji - and determined to win his favour, even though it had been perfectly clear to Shinji that Kaji was far more interested in Misato, who he'd obviously met before. Her thoughts about Shinji, in turn, were a confusing muddle he couldn't follow and couldn't forget.

That was a little, he conceded, like his own thoughts about Asuka. She was pretty. She was good at piloting Eva. She was full of herself. She had a very short temper. He didn't really like her, but he still wanted to get to know her better. He wanted to understand where those thoughts stuck in his head came from.

Shaking his head, he got up and walked through to the kitchen. Maybe a glass of water would help.

Asuka Langley Sōryū lay in the darkness staring at the ceiling of Kaji's guest bedroom, her eyes still red from crying. She'd tried to make another pass at Kaji when they got to his apartment, and it had gone even worse than the first. It would have been easier if he'd said the same things she was thinking about herself now, or even if he'd just been cold and blunt, but no. He'd had to be kind about it and point out his own vices.

Her luggage being a casualty of the battle didn't help. NERV had provided a change of clothes for her so she could get out of her plugsuit and shower away the LCL, of course, but going to her debriefing in a T-shirt and sweatpants - because even though this was Japan, the quartermaster didn't have a regular uniform in her size - was not an experience she wanted to repeat.

Shinji had been fine, of course. He'd gone to his debriefing in a perfectly normal shirt and slacks. Perks of being the Commander's son, she wanted to say, but the unwanted thoughts that had leaked into her head during the battle made it impossible to believe. Even she had more of a connection with her adulterous father than Shinji did with his.

Oh yes, those thoughts. She wanted them out of her head. She didn't want to know what it felt like to have your Evangelion blasted with a particle beam that made a mockery of AT Fields, and she certainly didn't want to know what that other female pilot's breast felt like - he was a pervert remembering something like that so sharply - but she couldn't quite make herself hate someone who'd watched his mother...

Someone who'd watched his mother...

She thought she'd run out of tears for one night.

Shinji was standing by the sink when the kitchen light came on. He blinked, wincing in the sudden brightness, and turned towards the door. His guardian stood there, a slightly dumbfounded look on her face. "M-Misato-san?"

"Are you all right, Shinji?"

"I'm..." Shinji glanced down at his half-empty glass. "Misato-san, is... is Asuka all right? She looked really angry when she came out of her debriefing."

Misato smirked and opened her mouth as if to crack wise, then stopped and shook her head. "I don't know. Kaji lined himself up a two-bedroom apartment. I think he took her back there. I don't think she'll be staying there long."

"You were going to say something else, weren't you?"

"I was going to say something stupid, Shinji. Grown-ups are good at that." She pulled off her beret and tossed it over her shoulder. "We say things like 'I need a beer'. Want one? It might help you sleep."

Shinji shook his head vigorously. Watching her pour cans of the stuff down her throat every night was enough to make him very sure he didn't want to try it himself. "I'll be all right. Just needed to clear my head. Good night, Misato-san. Sleep well."