Creation began on 09-18-16

Creation ended on 10-09-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Maternal Regrets, Paternal Relations

Yui Ikari couldn't remember, for the longest time, where and when she thought that everything she strived for would be worth the sacrifices she made to ensure a bright future for all of mankind. She couldn't even remember the last time she saw her son as anything but her son, not some pawn in a twisted, unjustifiable game of chess. Even when he was inside the Eva, he was not with her, despite the smallest gap between them. She couldn't even reach out to him without inviting his pain from the deepest corners of his maimed heart.

His memories were nothing but agony with only the smallest bits of comfort that existed in the form of another child that had a resemblance to him. A girl he called Shado, his daughter.

He was raped, she realized, seeing his memory of the day it happened, and a woman who was old enough to be his mother. He begged her to stop, even though he didn't understand what she was doing to him at the time.

It didn't even matter if the woman had died in prison almost a year later when she was arrested; the damage was done…and the little reminder of her existence was breathing the same air as her son was. But Shinji hardly saw any of his rapist in his child's features (and Yui couldn't understand how anyone could try and claim the girl looked anything like her mother when it was the complete opposite), only seeing her as a little child he had fathered from an undesired union with an older woman.

"We really shouldn't be bothered with another child after what happened with this one that got kidnapped," Yui's sister had explained her excuse to a policeman who brought over Shado as an infant sometime after her mother died in prison. "I mean, we wouldn't even know the first thing about dealing with a girl like this, anyway."

"What do you mean, a girl like this?" The policeman questioned her.

She didn't even try to defend the fact that she didn't want her living with them, Yui thought, but Shinji gave her no choice when he found out.

"You're saying that…she's mine? This baby's my girl?" He asked the policeman. "Doesn't that mean that I have a say in what happens to her?"

And even when nobody would stop questioning him about what happened to him that day (or even how it felt to be with a woman, especially when it was his aunt that caused the majority of his stress during the time he was supposed to be recovering), Shinji was the one whose choice had the greatest impact, meaning that, despite his aunt and uncle's excuses, they had to open their home to Shado, even though Shinji had no idea what to do with a baby, except for what he had seen others did with their babies.

But Shinji adjusted to his fatherhood and learned on the fly, Yui saw how Shinji accepted his little girl's existence from the depths of his heart. He fell in love with her the moment he laid eyes upon her, even though nobody else did.

One of the worst memories Yui saw was how Shinji gave up his school education after he realized that his aunt was purposely neglecting his daughter during the entire time he was at school one day…and realized that if anything happened to her that wasn't right, it would have shattered him. Her son, despite his youth, his pain, his disassociation with others, had to rely on his paternal instincts when dealing with Shado.

"She's your problem," her sister told Shinji, expressing her contempt towards the both of them. "She's your mess. You and that dead woman's. I don't need to be troubled by either of you."

"Is that all we are to you?" He asked her, making no hint of his own disgust with her choice of words. "We're just a pair of problems? A mess? Maybe we are…but then the same can be said about everyone else. I can understand that Shado may seem like an unnecessary waste of space to someone like you…and probably that woman that chose to have her, too. But that doesn't change the fact that she's my daughter, my waste of space that you view as unnecessary. You keep saying that I'm like my parents, but I'm nothing like either of them. You call them scientists and politicians, and I don't care about those at all. I might not even live long enough to even care about whatever profession there is out there for me. You can hate me all you want to, but she didn't do anything to you or anyone else to deserve the same level of hatred."

His maturity ever since that day had alienated his already-alienated existence from most others of his age. But he was fine with that; even when he was isolated from others, he had Shado.

All that contempt, all that hatred, thought Yui, seeing the memory of her son getting his chest carved into by his rapist. So…much…pain that he keeps bottled up so that he doesn't lash out at his daughter. He never wants her to see the side of him that he fears would hurt her…because he's afraid of turning out just like his parents…whom he has come to detest for their sins.

-x-

Gasp! Shinji awoke from yet another nightmare derived from his past memories.

Drenched in sweat and panting, he clutched his shirt, just below his neck, feeling the burning, phantom sensation of his scar.

The silence of the night brought no comfort to his tortured soul.

"Ahh…" He quietly whimpered.

It was his father and rapist. They had ganged up on him in the park on a nice and just started stabbing him in his chest and back, all the while making Shado watch helplessly. He laid back on his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. The phantom pain subsided and he slowly drifted back to sleep at two-seventeen in the morning.

He wouldn't wake until at least eight-thirty.

-x-

"… I take it the Third Child's taking another day off of synchronization testing?" Shigeru asked Maya in the testing room where the First and Second Children were currently.

"Doctor Akagi and I examined his synchronization scores last night," she informed him, "and she concluded that he needed a few days away from the Eva. Take a look."

She sent the data to his monitor, and he found it uneasy to comprehend.

"It looks unstable," he suggested; the recorded scores were fluctuating between ninety, one-hundred-sixty and almost two-hundred-ninety percent.

"That's because it is unstable," she revealed. "Some of the personnel suggested getting him therapy, but Commander Ikari was adamant that it was unnecessary. Others are starting to worry about what could happen in the next Angel attack and Shinji's involved."

"The next time an Angel attacks, the word 'doomsday' comes to mind," Shigeru expressed; his mind was already made up about the potential consequences in store for NERV if they put the Third Child in the Eva again. "But he's been suspended until the Eva could be reworked so that if he goes wild, it won't end up being unpredictable."

"I'm starting to have my doubts that anything we try will ever be enough," Maya confessed.

Standing behind the two and Hyuga, Misato watched one the screens as Rei and Asuka were going through the synchronization testing for the umpteenth time. She, too, had her doubts about whether or not what they were currently doing with Unit-01 would reduce the chances of Shinji going off like a nuke if he went up against the next Angel. There was a lot of fear being exhibited by the personnel about the commander's estranged son that spent most of his time taking care of a little girl.

But if the next Angel doesn't show up, we won't have to worry about what he might do, she thought, unable to keep from imagining the brutality Shinji could unleash against an Angel that he most likely wished he could just unleash upon his father or his other relatives, excluding his daughter, for all the things they either said or did to him.

"…But it looks like for the time being, the Third Child is enjoying his time away from NERV in the company of this teen girl with a boy around his daughter's age," she heard Hyuga say to Maya and Shigeru, recalling that the boy and his daughter were currently at the park almost heading away from the city where there were less buildings and more greenery by the lake. "If you ignore his mild paleness, you could say that he's rather average."

Misato couldn't deny that ever since the Fifth Angel incident, Shinji started to look rather sickly in his tone of skin, like he was dying or had contracted an anemic condition.

Ritsuko, who was investigating this, was unlikely to find the exact cause without suggesting that the Eva was somehow responsible.

-x-

Rumiko didn't think his scar was hideous at all when she asked to see it. In her mind, it just meant he had suffered from abuse that no child should suffer from. And then, she showed him her scarred back, as it was only fair; even though it was family-related, Shinji had to express that there was no such thing as a mother that would harm her children so brutally and say she did it out of love. An abusive mother or father, even an absentee one was not one at all.

"We're damned because of our parents, aren't we, Shinji?" She asked him as they sat on the bench, watching their children play with the tower viewer that allowed one a grander view of the other side of the lake.

"I can't say for certain," he responded, "but I say that we've been hurt by them in ways I know I can't forgive them for. Either physical or emotional, the damage is inexcusable and cannot be overlooked just because of other problems."

"The last time my mother ever touched me, she used the hairbrush on my back so hard, I bled."

"My aunt, may her soul burn in agony one day, tried to get Shado to crawl into an oven because she claimed it was dirty. She knew that it wasn't dirty. I should know. I cleaned it the day before. She wouldn't say it to me outright, but I suspected she was trying to do worse than hurt my daughter, make it look like an accident."

"That's some cold bull, Shinji. Did you ever try to report it?"

"How could I prove what she was trying to do back then? She would deny everything…and the police would believe her over Shado or I because nobody would take the words of Yui and Gendo Ikari's son and granddaughter serious. All I could do was keep a closer watch on Shado. It also made me reevaluate both the paternal and the maternal side of the family I found us revolving around. If someone like that man could just walk away from his duties as a father and not even be concerned with his own son getting kidnapped or… Then anyone like his wife and her relatives were just as capable of anything…and they could get away with foul play."

They looked at each other and Rumiko knew he was right. If she could be made a victim of sexual abuse by her father and brother, who both went as far as to go and take turns on her, then her mother was likely able to do away with her and claim it was an accident after everything that happened before she packed what she could of her and Toya's things and ran away in the dead of the night to get away from the abuse. And the only reason she went and made her have Toya was because she felt it was only right when she found out Toya's gender.

"You helped lock up the two men in our family," she told her. "You owe us a new one."

I wonder what she might've done if Toya was a girl instead? She wondered.

"Whoa!" She heard Shado gasp as she fell on the ground.

"Sorry, Shado," Toya apologized to her, helping her back up.

"I don't think I've said this before, but Toya's quite a gentleman," said Shinji to Rumiko.

"Thank you. I've taught him how it is necessary to be respectful towards girls. If you treat them with kindness, they will treat you with kindness in return."

"Thank you, Toya," they heard Shado say.

Shinji chuckled a little, but then felt like his left shoulder was bruised a little because it started to feel sore.

"Are you okay, Shinji?" Rumiko asked him.

"Just a little sore," he stated. "It comes and goes."

"Maybe you should see a doctor for it."

"No, it's nothing. I'm sure by tomorrow, I'll be alright."

Rumiko then looked away from their children…and noticed a black Sedan with that ridiculous insignia of that organization Shinji worked.

"Okay, I don't know if they're spying on you…or if they're spying on me," she told him, pointing the car out.

"Son of a…" He muttered.

-x-

"Uh-oh," went Shigeru, seeing the girl Shinji was with pointing at the Section Two car.

"You wanna get out of here, Rumiko?" Shinji asked her.

"Yes, please," she answered back, getting up off the bench. "We really don't need this to aggravate us further. They showed up at the tea shop once, but this is just wrong."

"Probably that man's idea of keeping an eye on me. But he's not really doing anything."

The two picked up their children and left the park.

"Well, we know that both teen parents don't like being followed or spied on," went Hyuga, watching the two teens carry their children further away from the surveillance cameras present.

"But who were we really watching?" Maya asked. "The Third Child…or his friend?"

-x-

"…Well, this is my room," said Toya to Shado, showing the little girl around his room above the tea shop, albeit nervously.

"Lovely," she expressed, looking at the small collection of action figures and board games that were present on the small table by a window. "Are these what you were talking about before?"

"Uh, no, those are from the Godzilla franchise."

"The giant dinosaur that breathes blue fire?"

"Yeah."

As Toya sat on the floor and showed Shado his action figures as she grabbed a board game for them to play, in his mother's room, Rumiko and Shinji sat down on the floor and started drinking tea as said boy looked around said girl's room.

"Hey, you have a great place," he told her. "Really."

"Thank you," she praised him, pouring him a cup of herbal tea. "My boss, he's…very caring and understanding. I owe him a lot for taking my son and I in."

Shinji then looked up at her small mantle of pictures and noticed the one she seemed to admire a bit more than the other ones.

"Is…is that your boss?" He pointed to the picture.

She looked at it…and answered, "Yeah. That's him."

"Uh… I hope this is alright if we see him later. I would've invited you and Toya to our place, but with the unwanted followers…"

"Oh, no, no, it's nothing like that. I don't… You and Shado are the only ones that have ever been up here. I don't have anyone besides Toya and my boss that I could call a friend or confidant, and there aren't that many kids in this city that are around Toya's age for him to play with. It's…been a long time."

Shinji sipped his tea and then set his cup down on the table.

"Can I ask you something that is a little personal, Shinji?" She asked him.

"You can, but I can't promise to answer," he replied.

"When you saw me that day after more than a year since we last met… Did you ever…think that we wouldn't meet again?"

Shinji remained silent, in thought of the question…and then sighed.

"I never thought I'd get to see you again. You were the only one that didn't discriminate me because of my relatives or my early parenthood. I respected and sympathized with your agony and everything you went through because of… When you disappeared, nobody bothered to ask me if I knew where you went. I read the papers in hope that there was some mention of you, but I never saw anything about any kidnapping or runaways. So I tried to forget about you…to keep from feeling any further pain. When you forget about a certain amount of things, places and people…you can forget about the related pain to a certain extent."

"I hurt you…and I am sorry."

"I don't blame you. I blame your mother. There was something I read that was written a long time ago about honoring one's parents, but I don't believe that. 'Honor thy father and mother'. How do you honor the people that you don't even know or remember…or have caused you some form of harm? Do you know how?"

"You don't, Shinji. It's not like they honor you or anything. It's a mad world with people without a shred of mercy or remorse for whatever they do, whoever they choose to harm."

Shinji then drank the remainder of his cup of tea.

"Is it alright if I ask you a personal question? Which you're free to not answer at all, of course." He asked her.

"Yeah, sure," she replied.

"I'm a guy, so I can never understand why or how… What was it like…when you had Toya?"

Rumiko would've been fooling herself if she pretended not to hear that question. She would've thought herself a greater fool if she told Shinji that he wasn't the first person to ask her what childbirth was like for her. Of course, he was the first person to ask her, to really bother asking her, and his reason for doing so was simply because he couldn't understand the why or how that revolved around it all, simply because he was a guy. And, of course, being a girl, she would know from personal experience.

"Don't get me wrong, though," she started. "I do love my son. My mother, however, she went and decided everything for me, whether I agreed with her decisions or not."

She then refilled his cup and her own with more tea.

"Go on," he encouraged her.

"When it was discovered I was pregnant, the doctors went and told my mother and suggested that I get an abortion on account of my age and development, not just because of…who Toya's father might've been. Of course, she said no, even when I felt I should get it. Part of the reason she wouldn't… She always found a reason to blame me for whatever reason that involved me. I helped put my father and brother away, and she said I owed our family a new man when she found out Toya would be a boy. So…for eight-and-a-half months…while I should have been looking forward to seeing him, I felt suffering with every breath I took. My single regret back then…was that I didn't try to go to a neighbor's place or run to the hospital. When you have a mother that works as a nurse, a hospital pretty much becomes meaningless."

Shinji, his left hand trembling with the tea cup, couldn't believe what he was hearing about her past experience. He quickly set the cup down and uttered what he knew had happened to her.

"She made you have Toya at home," he sighed in revelation.

"Yeah," she revealed, remembering how her water broke in her sleep that night. "Worst thing of it was that she didn't do much in helping me, not even encouraging me properly. I screamed and cried…and all she did was grab and pull. I never felt more pain than anything else in my life up to the present day. It was like my skin down there was being peeled away, slowly and painfully. It went on for five hours…and I just wanted to die, right there and then because I felt like that was happening to me. I was dying."

Rumiko then drank the rest of her second cup and placed it down on the table.

"She had some nerve to tell me how women had to endure the pain of childbirth long before an epidural was even a reality. Anyhow, when it was finally over, I must've passed out sometime during or after he was born because the next thing I knew, I was waking up to the new day…with a sore pair of legs with blood on my inner thighs. I didn't start lactating until a month later, despite my chest being sore, and so my mother slapped me around, thinking she could get me to do what nature does at a chosen time and course. My personal experience with pregnancy and childbirth is that of agony…and resentment towards my parents and brother. I really do love my son, regardless of the way he came to life…but I hate my parents and my brother. Truth be told, I don't ever want to see them again for as long as I may live on what's left of this mortal coil."

Shinji saw a tear escape from her left eye…and slowly, calmly…placed his left hand upon hers across the table.

"I am sorry for the way you and Toya have suffered," he told her.

"Just as I'm sorry for the way you and Shado have suffered," she responded.

It was a moment later that…a maternal rape and incest victim and runaway…and a paternal rape and neglected victim…closed the gap in between them.

-x-

"…You and Toya have suffered," Shinji's voice in the recording from the Section Two agents that were watching outside the tea shop uttered on the tape player in Gendo's office.

"…You and Shado have suffered," Rumiko's voice came and went.

Gendo, Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko were all listening to the tape recording.

"…Shinji…I've really missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Rumiko."

"Well, it appears that these two have many things in common," suggested Ritsuko to Gendo.

"They both feel they've suffered because of their respective parents or other relatives," Fuyutsuki defended. "Miss Gaidoku was forced into a hurtful position by her mother because of what her father and brother did to her, and Shinji can relate to her suffering."

"Except his rapist was unrelated to him."

"It was still rape if they didn't consent…or were even fully aware of what was happening to them, and they were both abused by other relatives later on, either physically, verbally or even emotionally. They're both scarred by their trauma and both have to live with the end result, being their children."

"Where is the Third Child now?" Gendo, who remained silent during the entire recording being played, asked them.

"According to Section Two, he and his daughter spent the night at the apartment above the tea shop," said Fuyutsuki to him.

Gendo flexed the fingers of his right hand, feeling threatened by this turn of events.

-x-

It was the first sleep he had in months that was good without the feeling of mild pain. It was also the fourth time in a while that Shinji awoke to find himself in a different setting.

Did I fall asleep after drinking all that tea? He wondered, getting up off the floor of Rumiko's room. I can't remember anything after hugging her.

"Ahh… Shinji?" Rumiko's voice was heard as she awoke, having fallen onto her futon before passing out last night. "What happened?"

"I think we drank too much tea…and passed out as a result," he suggested, relieved to be wearing his clothes from the previous day still. "Uh, Shado. I've neglected her."

"Same here with Toya," she realized, and both got up and left out her room and into the kitchen, where both children were, eating cereal at the table.

"Good morning, Mommy," Toya greeted his mother.

"Hey, Daddy," said Shado to her father. "Did you two sleep well?"

"Uh, I… I slept fine, sweetie," Shinji confessed. "Are you two alright?"

"We're fine," Toya answered. "We got up a few minutes before you two did. Since you were still asleep, we just went and had cereal."

Rumiko went over to the kitchen stove and started heating a teakettle.

"We're not big on coffee these days because of the shortage," she told Shinji.

"It's okay, really," he accepted. "I'm not a coffee person myself and I don't let Shado have any because of the possibility of caffeine addiction."

Five minutes later, the two teen parents were waking up to the new day with jasmine tea.

"Why tea, Rumiko?" Shinji asked her.

"Tea is good for the body and soul. The remedies rejuvenate the cells in the heart and bones and revitalize the harmony in the spiritual aura. Tea is Mother Earth's blessing to all of mankind."

"That probably explains why I prefer tea over other beverages, including milk."

HONK-HONK! A vehicle's horn was heard, and Rumiko walked over towards a window that looked out the back of the building into the empty alleyway, seeing a blue and white truck pulling into the driveway of the tea shop's space.

"My boss has returned," she told them.

-x-

"Section Two has reported that a truck has parked in the alleyway behind the tea shop," Ritsuko informed Gendo. "It's registered to Tendo Rokubungi."

"Have they obtained footage of the man?" He asked her.

"They're about to."

-x-

As Rumiko opened up the garage door for the restocking to be done, she saw Tendo stepping out of the truck, rotating his right arm a few times.

"Good morning, Tendo," she greeted him as he reached into the truck and pulled out something small and shiny.

"Good morning, Rumiko," he responded back, and approached her with the small item in his left hand. "I was able to find you one like mine on the way back."

It was a gold medallion or pendant with a man's face and designation engraved into it, dangling from a silver chain.

"Truly?" She asked him. "They still had trinkets associated with the saint?"

"Wouldn't spend my time looking for another saint. It has to be this particular saint or no saint at all. He was responsible for my taking you and Toya in, even when there was reason to."

Rumiko held out her right hand and Tendo gave her the trinket. She looked at it and smiled. It was Jude, one of the Apostles and the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. Both she and her boss had the belief that, regardless of the religious aspects surrounding the ancient man, Jude was a great example of any lost cause that could still have a place in the world that existed; even though her chances for a good education were slim to nonexistent, Tendo still saw potential in Rumiko to be something great in her later years, even if she started motherhood prematurely and against her will because of the actions of her family.

"Thank you," she praised Tendo. "There is someone I feel you should meet."

"Oh?"

"Yes." She led him into the building and stopped between the stairway and the apartment it led to, spotting Shinji, who had waited there at Rumiko's request. "Tendo, this is Shinji. Shinji, this is Tendo, my boss."

"Hello, sir," Shinji greeted, bowing his head to the elder.

"Well, hello, Shinji," Tendo responded. No, it couldn't be. While the resemblance is mild, maybe less than mild, he can't be related to him. I always thought he was dead.

-x-

"This is him?" Gendo asked Ritsuko, looking at the picture of the elder that had gotten out of the truck.

"Yes, sir," she answered him.

Gendo couldn't believe this. Of all the people fortunate enough to survive Second Impact, he had to be one of them.

"Where is the Third Child now?" He demanded.

Suddenly, Ritsuko began to wonder if there was more to this tea shop owner than what Gendo wasn't telling her. And based upon the guy's picture, he was past his prime, a pushover, nobody to be concerned about because he was going to die, eventually.

"He left the tea shop with his daughter an hour after helping the Gaidoku girl carry several crates into the building," she answered him. "They returned to their unit."

"Bring him here," he ordered. "Immediately."

-x-

"…Her boss seemed like a really nice man, Daddy," Shado told Shinji as she sat on the stool whilst her father scrubbed her back in the bathroom.

"Yeah, he did seem nice," he agreed with her.

"But?"

"But?"

"Isn't there a 'but'?"

"Yes, but it's probably nothing."

"But?"

Scrubbing her left shoulder, Shinji sighed and expressed, "I don't think he liked me when he saw me. It's just a feeling."

Since she wasn't there when they met, Shado couldn't say for sure if her father was right about Rumiko's boss at the tea shop. All she could assume, however, was that maybe the elderly man was unlike the other elderly people she had seen. Maybe even the first elder she actually had a positive opinion on due to him owning and running a tea shop and sharing his home with Toya and his mother.

"Okay, your back is all washed up, dear," Shinji told her, handing her the wash cloth before he turned around to face the bathroom wall.

"Thank you, Daddy," she told him, getting up off the stool and climbing into the bathtub. "Okay, you can turn back."

He turned back and sat down on the floor beside the tub, raising his left hand to his neck, tugging at his shirt.

"Is your chest hurting again?" She asked him.

"Just a little bit," he explained. "It's nothing serious."

She looked at the top of the scar that stuck out from under his shirt and noticed it seemed bruised and almost reddish, like it was burning or something. It didn't look like that before over a month ago, but it was starting to seem like it getting irritated from that giant robot that he operated and used to protect her (and Toya and his mother, when she thought about it) from the giant monsters that nobody seemed to know more about.

"Daddy, it could be bad," she told him, pointing to the old injury.

Shinji couldn't help but feel like he was lying to his daughter about how bad his past injury was starting to look.

"Okay, when you're done here, we'll go see a doctor about it," he promised.

-x-

Misato, fearful of what Shinji might do if he tried to resist, brought the four Section Two agents assigned to watch him, and rang the doorbell; the thought of calling him was deemed ineffective because Commander Ikari ordered him brought to NERV HQ, immediately.

There was the minor sound of footsteps and the door opened, revealing Shinji with a half-wet shirt and the top portion of his scar visible, looking bruised and red. The chain was still on, since Shinji didn't have time to remove it and this was an unexpected visit from unwanted visitors.

"Hey, Shinji," she greeted.

"Unless this is just an unwanted social call or because of an Angel attack, give me one reason not to shut the door," he told her.

"I'm here under orders from your father to escort you to him, immediately," she explained.

Shinji frowned and responded, "What does he want?"

Before she could even answer him, she reacted to something different and unexpected.

"Oh, dear," she gasped, covering her mouth.

Shinji felt a bad taste in his mouth and something on the right side of it. He reached up and felt around it, pulling his right hand back and seeing a smear of red on his fingers and palm.

"Okay," he sighed, closing the door to remove the chain, letting her inside. "I promised Shado I would see a doctor, anyway. For my scar."

She stepped inside and followed him to his room where he grabbed his jacket, but decided to change his shirt and removed it.

"Shinji," Misato gasped, seeing his scar looking like it was burning because of its reddish coloring. "Your… You really need to see a doctor."

"Daddy?" Misato turned around and saw Shado by the door, still drying off and dressed in a brown shirt and blue shorts. "Oh!"

He quickly covered his torso up with a gray shirt and put on his coat.

"She's here because of that man, isn't she, Daddy?" She asked, referring to Misato.

-x-

"…People that experience bouts of abuse are often attracted to those that have suffered from an identical or similar form of abuse," Tendo expressed, helping Rumiko prepare eight cups of tea for their customers currently waiting.

"I'm sorry?" Rumiko responded, confused by his choice of words.

"Your friend, Shinji. You like him a lot, don't you?"

"Well, yeah. He's a friend, we have similar interests, he's easy to talk to… What's not to like about him. Plus, he has that little girl of his."

As he placed three pastries on one serving tray, Tendo questioned, "Is that all, Rumiko?"

"Oh," she went as she placed the five cups on the second tray for the five patrons. "You're asking if I…like him in that way?"

Tendo nodded in the positive.

"It's a question I don't think about, Tendo. You know my reasons for never wanting to think about boys like that. I know that not everyone is like that, but there are always consequences…a price that can't be paid in ways you wish they could."

"At least your honesty answers for questions difficult for you to answer. Heh. Personally, Rumiko, I believe that young father is lucky to know where to find you. Even if a person likes tea, it takes more than a beverage made from hot water and leaf and flower bits to motivate a person to come around here. Even if two people who were victims to the cruelties of society and are surrounded by those that will often look the other way, even have people they look after because nobody else will do right by them… They have the same right to be happy."

"Uh, Mommy? Mister Tendo, sir?" They turned to face Toya, who came running into the back. "One of those black cars with the men in black suits is outside the shop again."

Tendo sighed and uttered, "I'd better see what these suits want…if they're not here for tea and pastries. The sooner they leave, the better."

Rumiko feared for her boss. All Shinji told her about these men was that they were an eyesore, worked at NERV (and by extension, worked for his father), and weren't the type of company anyone wanted around. And if what she suspected was accurate, then it was most likely the reason these Section Two agents was because of a personal reason and not a professional one. These days, personal reasons for anything outweighed the professional ones.

"Ahh…" She hissed a little, feeling a little pain on her back.

"Are you okay, Mommy?" Toya asked her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she answered him.

-x-

"…What's wrong with him?" Asuka asked Misato, seeing Shinji being carted off by a medical team.

"An old injury he got from over five years ago started acting up," she explained.

Asuka then noticed the Third Child's daughter sitting by herself in the waiting area, holding a small object in her hands.

"What's the worst-case scenario if he becomes incapacitated?" She questioned.

Misato looked over at Shado and came to the assumption that Asuka's question wasn't exactly out of concern for either the little girl or her father.

"Let's not go there, Asuka," she told her. "It's not worth it."

-x-

"…His high synchronization may be the cause of his injuries," went Ritsuko to Gendo in the latter's office.

"Is there any way to remedy this?" Fuyutsuki questioned her.

"We're still trying to adjust the Eva and reduce his synchronization to below one-hundred-ten, but we're still looking at another day before any improvement occurs."

"What is his current medical status?" Gendo asked.

"At present, he's in stable condition, but the doctor requests that he be kept overnight in case his scars starts bleeding again."

"Again?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"It started bleeding the second he arrived here."

"Any chance his injuries were self-inflicted?" Gendo questioned her.

"No, sir, and there's been no indication that the Third Child so much as practices self-mutilation, whatsoever." She answered him

Ring-ring! The cell phone in Ritsuko's pocket rang and she answered it.

"Yes?" She responded. "What do you mean, he has a visitor? Very well, then. Let her in."

As she hung up, she informed the two men that Ms. Gaidoku was currently here and had been requested to show up by the Third Child's daughter.

-x-

Shinji awoke from his drug-induced stupor and looked up at a blurry figure that his vision focused on until it became the form of a young woman with shoulder-length, brownish-black hair and gray eyes. He saw Rumiko looking down at him.

"Rumi…ko…" He uttered, raising his right hand up to her face.

"Hey," she responded, taking hold of his hand. "How are you feeling?"

He tried to rise up, but couldn't. Also, his chest felt like someone had cut into it all over again. If anything, both teens assumed that the doctors probably applied some sort of pain-relieving paste on his torso and covered him in bandages.

"Shado?" He asked her; he really didn't care about himself right now.

"She's fine," she answered him. "Toya's with her right now."

"How…did you…"

"Shado called and requested I should be here to support your recovery."

"She did?"

"She said you'd probably get your spirits lifted if you saw a friendly face your age."

Shinji chuckled at his daughter's concern over his medical status.

"Could you tell her that my spirits have been lifted?" He asked her.

"Sure," she answered him.

-x-

"…Looks like you can't ask him whatever he knows about the tea house owner until after he recovers," Fuyutsuki told Gendo.

"His old injury inconveniently saved him from being questioned," he expressed bitterly.

"Why the suspicion about a tea shop owner?"

"It's not your concern."

"Well, it's a major misuse of time and personnel if there's no reason for wanting to know why. From my perception, this is just a man that runs a small business meant for the sole purpose of providing tea and pastries to paying customers…unless it's personal…and you think your son or his friend knows something about him that you might also know and suspect them of knowing."

"Again, it's not…your…concern."

Fuyutsuki knew right then and there that he struck a nerve in Gendo's attitude about this mysterious man that he wanted to know whatever it was his son knew.

"He may not know anything," he told him, "and it would be hazardous if we were to stress him with asking if he even had one conversation with him or not. It's already most likely that piloting the Eva has caused him his past injury to become a current issue."

-x-

Even though Rumiko had offered to watch Shado for the night and morning after, Shinji was adamant that she be kept within his sight; it wasn't that he didn't trust her, but that he lived with the fear of what could happen to her every time she was out of his sight on account of him not trusting adults.

She couldn't blame him, though; she had the same trust issues, with Tendo being the only exception because he wasn't… Because her boss was a trustworthy person that hadn't laid a bad hand on her or her son.

"Mommy, do you think Shado and her father will be alright in that place for the night?" Toya asked his mother as they walked behind the tea shop to enter Tendo's residence.

"I'm not sure, baby," she responded, just hoping that Shinji would recover from his unexpected injury. "Shado's father's gotta be a fighter, though. He wouldn't leave her alone."

"Maybe we should've stayed with them."

"Believe me, I wanted us to stay with them, but I didn't trust those people there. And then, there were those men in the suits again."

"Ugh! Those men were scary, always looking at you."

Unlocking the back door, she made Toya enter the residence first. She turned back to look around the alleyway and saw nobody around. Paranoia had a tendency to make her feel threatened by possible stalkers. Then, she closed and locked the door.

-x-

"…You really shouldn't be out of bed, young man," a female nurse told Shinji, seeing him sitting in a chair with his daughter on his lap, looking out the window.

Shinji looked up at her and she hesitated from going near him; if his daughter wasn't asleep and holding him or even in the same room as he, he probably would've raised his voiced at the woman to simply go away, that he was fine, and that just having his child close by helped him a little more than medication could on an emotional level.

The nurse got the message and raised her hands defensively as she backed away and left the room. It was his eyes. They were like knives, but they were blunt…and very directed.

"Is something wrong with the boy?" Ritsuko, who was present in the hallway, asked the retreating nurse.

"That young man doesn't want to be disturbed when he's sitting with his girl on his lap," she told her as she walked away. "He puts that kid before himself."

Ritsuko stuck her head inside and saw Shinji just trying to ignore the world around him as he sat in the chair with his daughter's sleeping body. And then his head turned to face her…and she saw no comparison between him and his father as she left.

I'm beginning to wonder if piloting the Eva affects this boy much differently than the First or Second Children, she thought, since Shinji was the only boy NERV had (not to mention, he was the first boy to ever pilot an Evangelion). Synchronization isn't affected by physical changes in the body, but we never studied the psychological effects it may have on the pilots, especially one that is so damaged from trauma.

"He was kidnapped."

"He was tortured…"

"The woman raped him…"

"…The police didn't find him until a few days later…"

"…His aunt and uncle didn't seem all that concerned about what happened to him when he was found and taken to the hospital…"

"He looked like he saw Hell wrapped in wrath and lust."

Ritsuko had read the reports of what happened to Shinji a little more and found the trauma to be a bit more than what any child could handle. And with everything that has happened so far, she had to consider the option of cutting the boy loose so that he may live peacefully with his daughter. Unfortunately, she knew that was unlikely to happen because of one fatal problem with that option: Gendo wouldn't consider it, no matter what happened to his son.

-x-

Rumiko wanted to regret asking Tendo what she had suspected, but couldn't shake off the assumption she had.

Tendo wanted to disregard Rumiko's assumption, but didn't deny what she suggested in her questions. Even he had to admit that it was possible, as stranger things have happened in the last fifteen years. He had lost his friends, his father, his wife and daughter because of Second Impact, threw himself into his tea shop business in an attempt to numb the pain he felt, even found some comfort in the presence of Rumiko and her son. The mere suggestion that he had some family out there in a world maimed by a mysterious disaster was somewhat ludicrous to him, but it was hard to disbelieve.

"What would make you believe such a thing?" He asked her as they sat at the kitchen table.

"The comparisons I tried to see between you two every time I look at your photos and when I'm with him," she explained. "It's common knowledge that some people often look alike, but what are the chances that the resemblance is more than just a coincidence?"

"Even so, I've never met him before. He probably has no idea I even exist beyond our initial encounter. Why would he want anything to do with an elderly man such as myself?"

"If it is possible, Tendo… You'd probably be the first person he could believe in that wouldn't hurt him that happens to be an adult, something we both have issues with. I trust you. Maybe he can, too."

"But that would mean I would have to accept the possibility of something else that has been a very large disgrace that has been weighing heavily on my past."

"Which is?"

"The possibility that we're both related to a monster that brings nothing but grief."

Rumiko had to accept that, as well.

"I won't pressure you into the possibility," she assured him. "All I ask is that you think about it."

"Okay," he agreed with her, and she got up and retired to her room. "Shinji Ikari sounds like someone that has spent everyday of his life knowing nothing but suffering with very few pleasures. How does anyone endure it all?"

"Like me, he devotes what time he has to someone that gives him purpose," Rumiko answered him, and then closed her door.

-x-

Shado stepped out of the women's bathroom after using the toilet and washing her hands (which was difficult, due to her size and the lack of a stool or ladder), but hesitated from walking away a bit after seeing the purple-haired woman from before and the woman with the yellow hair…and the girl with the blue hair and red eyes, standing a few feet away from the restroom.

"Gah," she shuddered at the sight of them before walking away to return to her father's hospital room before he awoke from his slumber.

"Uh, Shado?" She heard one of them, the purple-haired one, speak to her, and she sped up. "Uh, wait, I just want to ask you something!"

Then, frightened by her, Shado ran as fast as her legs could take her and returned to her father's room and cowered under the medical bed.

"Shado, please, I just want to talk with you," Misato tried to clarify, not seeing that she was terrifying the girl.

Shinji was still asleep in the chair by the window, oblivious to what was happening just several feet away from him.

"Did you and Shinji see an elderly man the other day?" Misato asked her, looking under the bed and seeing her there. "He was probably a lot older than me?"

Shado saw her reach out to her with her right hand, and freaked out.

"Daddy!" She cried.

Suddenly, Misato was yanked away…by Shinji, who looked angry.

"What do you think you're doing with her?" He demanded, ignoring the fact that his chest was now looking red under his bandages.

"Shinji, I…" Misato was unable to explain when Shinji grabbed her by her red coat and yanked her up to her feet, blood flowing out of his mouth.

"Speak up! What were you doing?!" He demanded, and she was now terrified because of his grip on her.

She couldn't say anything. She couldn't even look at him.

Shinji then threw her aside out of the room, onto the floor.

"I see you anywhere near her again," he threatened her, now panting, "I'll break your fingers."

He then fell to palms and knees, never taking his eyes off her.

-x-

"…Well, neither one's going to be talking now," Ritsuko told Misato, as Shinji was getting re-bandaged after his original ones got soaked in blood from the stress he got from earlier because of the perceived threat he believed his daughter to be under because of Misato. "He actually threw you out of the room?"

"Yeah, and the worst part of it was that he actually frightened me," Misato told her; she left out how the damaged boy nearly made her soil herself. "Despite his injury, he was absolutely intimidating. And all because a little girl screamed for her father."

Inside the room, as he was being re-bandaged, Shinji's daughter sat in the chair by the window, watching him as the male nurses disposed of his blood-soaked bandages. This was the fifth time she had been kept safe from possible harm by her father. First, it was the woman that tried to make her get into an oven, then the boy that was his cousin, then the Angel they saw when they first arrived in Tokyo-3, followed a stray dog, and now the purple-haired woman.

Cough! She heard him cough, and saw the male nurse on his left back away, covered in red splotches that had to be her father's blood.

Daddy, she feared.

-x-

"…Well, because of the stress he was under when he saw Captain Katsuragi near his daughter, he might require heart surgery," a male doctor explained to Ritsuko and Misato later that afternoon. "One of the male nurses claims that he coughed up almost two pints of blood. Also, he might need a skin graft, as well."

"Really?" Misato asked him.

"I had to look at the area where he was bleeding through his bandages. The flesh looked completely raw. And you say he was kidnapped over five years ago and they just decided to cut his skin off in the shape of a five-pointed star? You have to be a goddamn sadist of the worst kind to do that to a child, not just commit rape on them."

"Where is he now?" Ritsuko asked him.

"He took his daughter and left out to the garden area."

"By himself?" Misato questioned.

"I believe a girl with red hair attempted to follow them."

Misato then ran off to the garden area; Shinji might've cast her aside just for trying to question his daughter, but she didn't need to see Asuka experience a similar repercussion because of her ego or because she wanted to see what he would do to her. Worst, she could've caused Shinji even further pain that his body may not be able to put up with.

And if he dies, who will be left to take care of his daughter? She thought, running into an elevator, ignoring Kaji as she unknowingly shoved him out of her way. If he dies, she won't have anyoneand it'll be our fault.

Once she made it to the floor the garden was accessible on, she ran out…and saw Asuka, nursing her left wrist as she walked her way.

"Asuka? What happened?" She asked her.

Asuka looked up at her and said, "Some girl with a little boy came over and told me to leave the Third Child and his little brat alone."

"Where are they right now?"

"In the garden. That…that boy looked like he rather be with someone like her than in my presence. She didn't even look all that attractive."

Deciding to disregard her ego, Misato ran past her and outside the building, entering a large, artificial garden with small walkways and indents full of water flowing away from a large fountain. Several feet away from the fountain was a large tree and a gazebo…where she could see four people (two male, two female) laying on their backs.

"If you're going to go over there and bother them, lady, I suggest you don't," she heard a man's voice say to her, and she turned to her right, seeing an elderly man with a cane sitting on a small bench. "A young vixen with red hair made that mistake until my employee sent her away."

"Your employee? You mean, the girl with the little boy?"

"That's right. This is time that should be spent on two young, single parents and their children, not people bothering other people for petty reasons. The young man already seems to be in bad shape because of whatever it is that he does that doesn't agree with him. He doesn't need more stress than he already has."

"I'm sorry, but who are you, exactly? Do you have a permit to be here?" Misato questioned him.

"Where are my manners? My name is Tendo Rokubungi. I'm just a simple tea shop owner that was invited by his teenage mother of an employee after she received a call from the young man's daughter to come back and see him. I'm just minding my business while watching them from a relative distance."

Tendo turned to face her and made it no hint that he believed that she should either turn away or sit down.

"Who are you?" He asked her.

"Captain Misato Katsurgai of NERV," she answered him.

"Katsuragi? As in Dr. Shinichi Katsurgai?"

Misato turned to face him directly, surprised by his question.

"You knew him?" She asked.

"Met him a handful of times," he answered. "I take it you're a relative of his?"

"He was my father."

"Oh? He never mentioned having any family. Only talked about his work every time I brought him his tea and pastries. Whatever happened to him?"

"He's dead. Died fifteen years ago."

"I'd offer you my sympathy, but something tells you don't need any."

"Much appreciated."

They then returned their gaze to the four kids in the gazebo.

Shinji, rising up momentarily to stretch his arms, looked and saw Misato. He clutched his chest with his right hand before trying to get up, but Rumiko stopped him from doing so.

"I take it your status as a captain means you have some association with my employee's friend?" Tendo asked her.

"Sort of," Misato explained, seeing Shinji lay back down to stay in the shade.

"He's damaged, you know. The more stress you put on him, the more he will break from the pressure. You do that to a young man as maimed as this one…and you might as well dig his grave for him."

"You talk as if we're killing him," she accused him.

"Well, what are you doing to him, exactly?"

"I'm afraid that's classified information."

"Bull."

"Plus, he threw me out of his room just for trying to ask his daughter a question."

"And I'm sure he had every right to feel that his daughter was being harmed by someone he didn't know or trust. What exactly was the question, Ms. Katsuragi?"

"If either of them had met an elderly man."

"That's no question. There are a lot of elderly men around the city."

"Well, the commander of this agency wanted to know if they met one that owned a tea shop."

Tendo then sighed and got up off the bench.

"I'm the only elder within this entire city that owns a tea shop," he told her. "Now, I feel I need to have words with your superior to ascertain whatever this is about."

To be continued…

A/N: Uh-oh! Comments are welcomed! I want to hear from you what you think is what now!