Part 3

"Hey! Get back here! Stop crying!"

"You know, it's strange seeing you as a mom, Hikari."

"You really think so?"

It was a shock to see her freckled, brown haired friend as anything other than the class representative she had first met in middle school, a girl who took charge of her classes with her loud, occasionally militaristic orders. Still, Hikari Suzuhara, as Asuka still had to remember was now her full name, looked almost a little comical after a few weeks of being a mom. She was clinging to her little boy, whom Hikari called Shinji, but Asuka called Shin-chan, who was putting up quite a fit. They had changed his diaper, but it looked like he was more interested in something else, specifically the fluid contents of Hikari's plumped breasts.

Asuka had to admit that, for a woman who had only given birth a couple weeks ago, she sure had adjusted well to the new situations related to motherhood. Sure, she hadn't lost all the baby fat that she had accumulated while bringing her bouncing rugrat into the world, but she had lost a good deal of it, enough to the point where she looked much like her old self again. With a smile on her face, she pressed her child's lips against her exposed breast, and breastfed him. It was only after a few seconds that she realized that Asuka was in the room with her, watching this somewhat personal moment. Blushing, she said, "Sorry about this."

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's natural," she shrugged, "Nothin' awkward about feeding your baby."

"Thanks. Where's Shinji?"

"He's sucking on your—"

"Not that one!"

"Oh! You mean the idiot! Well, he's at work right now," Asuka replied, scratching her cheek absentmindedly. The idiot. The words seemed to ring off her tongue, almost in an affectionate sort of way, as though she were beating him with a smile on her face. It was strange. Sure, she could be abusive, but he never did leave her, did he? He never did abandon her. Sure, in the past they had their struggles, but now, everything had balanced itself out just about right, hadn't it?

"You really like him, don't you?" Hikari replied, smiling.

"He's just an idiot," Asuka restated.

"Yeah, but he cooks, helps clean around the house while you just laze there eating potato chips," Hikari pointed out.

"Blunt today, are we?"

Hikari giggled again, blushing deep red. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Hey, where's that other stooge, Toji?" Asuka hadn't seen him once since she set foot in the Suzuhara residence. It was strange. It wasn't uncommon for Toji to spend time with Shinji while she was here, but at least she saw him. Now it was as though he had been a ghost that had recently been exorcised.

"Well, he's out getting stuff for the baby, or at least that's what he said the moment he heard you were coming," Hikari replied.

"Dummkopf," Asuka murmured, resentfully. That idiot just took off an ran just because of her arrival? What an asshole! He was all fun and games with Shinji, but the moment Shinji's soon-to-be wife arrived, he had to get out of there! Figures. What an asshole. Sure, she wasn't always the sweetest person to him, but still, did he have to prove to her that he was an asshole?

"Well, in all fairness, you do have a tendency to yell at him," Hikari said.

"Well, yeah, but that's only when he's being a complete and utter moron."

"But it's half of the time you're with us?"

"Er ist ein Idiot!" Asuka replied, bluntly.

"Come again?"

"He's an idiot!" she replied, a laugh on her tongue, but, midway through her giggle, she clasped her hand on her mouth as she struggled to hold back a sudden wave of nausea, a wave that had hit her without warning, without any previous signs, without any sort of ANYTHING preceding it. She darted to the bathroom, where she knelt down by the toilet seat as she threw it open, lowering her mouth to the open water, waiting for vomit to spill from her mouth.

Thankfully, after waiting for a few minutes, the sudden urge to vomit faded away, but the nausea hadn't.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Hikari asked, darting into the room after placing her baby safely into his crib.

"Yeah, just felt a little sick all of a sudden," she replied, holding a hand on her lower belly as she rose to her feet.

"Are you sick?"

"A little, I think. I'm not sure. This has been happening for the last few days, since last Monday, so I guess I'm just having a stomach virus or something like that, you know? It's nothing to be too worried about. Just a little bit of medicine and—"

"Uh, are you sure about that?" Hikari asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't get sick too often," Hikari replied.

"Yeah, so this is just one of those infrequent times I'm actually feeling under the—"

"When was the last time you had your period?"

"Well—wait a second! Just what're you implying by that!?" snapped Asuka, staring dumbfounded at her friend, her eyes wavering in their sockets.

"Well, you might be pregnant for all we know," Hikari replied, "I mean, I felt really nauseous, and if you've been feeling nauseous since last Monday, and today's Sunday, that means you've been feeling this way for a week!"

"So?"

"That's a little more than a few days," Hikari replied, "Look, maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, but have you and Shinji, er, well, have you—" Asuka's face, which had turned a darker shade of red than the hair on her head, answered Hikari's question for her. "You know, I have a pregnancy test think left over from when I was pregnant. I should probably get that right now."

"I'm not pregnant! I'd know if I was pregnant!"

-----

Shinji was sitting behind his desk, staring up at the ceiling as he always did during these slow days. The fact that he was a former pilot of the Evangelion seemed to be enough reason for him to be given a job at NERV, but the fact that he had been assigned as one of the heads of the newly instated NERV seemed a little extreme. He wasn't a soldier, didn't know anything about the new society, which had focused itself on militaristic defense and the aid of nations throughout the world who were recovering after the horrors of Third Impact. His job essentially meant working out peace treaties between nations NERV seemed to like, proposing to his superiors to veto other peace treaties in order to eliminate cruel and abusive governments, and, of course, searching for souls returning from the sea of LCL, which had shrunk in the years following Third Impact. It had shrunk from a massive planet-sized ocean to a sea located near the Tigris and Eurphrates Rivers, where, according to the numerous religious cults that had sprang up following the horrors of Instrumentality, that the Abrahamic Bible designated that the Garden of Eden existed.

Garden of Eden? What a joke.

The phone at his desk rang. As he answered it, he expected to hear his superiors on the other line. "Hello, this is Shinji Ikari speaking." He expected some order, some new job for him to handle. However, he DIDN'T expect a high pitched female voice to shout at him from the top of her lungs, a voice so loud that she had to draw the phone at least an arm's length away from his ear to actually hear properly.

"You stupid idiot! How could you?! You stupid, stupid, jerk! You disgusting pervert, I should've never trusted you for a second! Schwein! Dummkopf! Bastard! Seducer! Schmutz der Erde!"

"Wait, just hold on a second Asuka—!"

"Don't you just tell me to hold on a second, you stupid idiot!"

"Just what're you yelling about?"

"Oh! Don't act like you don't know you idiot!"

"I don't know! You just started yelling at me and—" Shinji was interrupted when the door opened. In walked the elderly Commander Fuyutsuki, a man who had miraculously managed to keep his job, no, be promoted to head of NERV following the controversy NERV received following Third Impact.

"Ikari-san, we have—"

"Don't you just play stupid and act like the innocent little oaf everyone thinks you are! Schwein!"

"On second thought, I'll leave you two alone." Fuyutsuki backed out of the room, closed the door over, and, if Shinji's ears didn't deceive him, sprinted as far away from the room as possible.

Why did he have to leave him alone with this insanity?

"But what's going on? I don't understand what's happening."

On the other side of the line, Shinji could hear a second voice speak. He barely made out, "Asuka, let me speak to him for a second. You're being hysterical!" only to have the rest of Hikari Suzuhara's interruption blocked out by more of his fiancé's shouting.

"You made me—you made me—"

"Made you what?"

"Pregnant!"

Shinji stared at the phone for a moment or two, confused. Pregnant? Oh, wasn't that supposed to be a joyous event, filled with smiling and laughter, with a deeper connection of love and passion, without shouting and screaming? Why did everything have to be painful? "Uh, congratulations?"

"Don't you 'congratulations' me, you jerk! You made me pregnant! You seducing little—"

"Seducing? I didn't seduce you!"

"Well, what about a few weeks ago when you essentially raped me in your bed? Hmmm?"

"Raped you? What the hell are you talking about? You went into the bed with no clothing on and we made love!"

"Oh, don't use that old blame me routine of yours! You need to accept responsibility for your actions, you jerk!"

"How about you accept responsibilities for once? You went into a bed wearing nothing!"

"I was too wearing something!"

"You were wearing panties and a bra, and were using the same tactics you used when we were kids when you made me kiss you! What was I supposed to think!?"

"Oh, don't use that old excuse on me again!"

"When was the last time I ever made that excuse before, anyway?"

"Oh! Don't change the subject!"

"I didn't!"

"Oh, you stupid—Hey! Hikari! What're you—?"

The other end of the line began to ruffle and tremble. Shinji drew the phone closer to his ear, sure to hear Hikari's voice as opposed to Asuka's high pitched shrill. Thankfully, his expectations were fulfilled. "Hey, listen, don't mind her, she's just a little upset right now. She'll cool off once she adjusts to everything."

"Uh, okay." Cool off? He hoped that happened soon. If Asuka was upset with him, chances are he wouldn't even be let into the house, left outside of a barricaded door in the dark. The weatherman forecasted thunderstorms, too. "Listen, uh, how did you guys find out she was pregnant, exactly?"

"A pregnancy test."

"Oh, uh, how accurate is it?"

"Pretty accurate."

"I see. Uh, thanks, Hikari."

"Don't mention it."

"I'm going to hang up now—"

"Dummkopf! Don't you dare hang up on me you idiot!" Shinji pulled the phone away from his ear in shock, staring at it, his eyes wide with fear, as though the wires would come alive to strangle him.

"I'm at work! I can't keep talking on the phone! I have to hang up now!"

"I hope they fire you, you son of a—" Shinji slammed the receiver down, exhaling slowly as he leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling once more.

Pregnant?

A child?

Asuka?

Father.