11:20am, Monday the 27th of June, Tokyo-3, Sengokuhara high school.
Outside, the rain pattered on the window, causing some students to run back in doors as they had been enjoying the merciless Japanese sun being blocked out by thick grey clouds.
However, within the class, one particular boy ignored it.
Kensuke Aida had always been a person who was easily distracted, primarily because there were more interesting things in this universe than whatever people usually prattled on about. After years of hearing the words "I'm sorry" or the ever favoured "I'll make it up to you next time," he'd become a master of descending into his own little world on demand.
He continued to quite fondly look down at what was probably his most preferred toy as people called it. But a toy it was not, for this small model of the mighty World War Two Battleship, Yamato, was worth far more than that.
It was a gift, from a long lost loved one.
However, he did not associate this boat with sad memories, oh no, this brought him happiness unlike anything else. Even his massive and hand made model of an Imperial Dauntless class Dreadnought, paled before the fifty centimetre long piece of tin before him. However upon looking to his left, Kensuke sighed.
Toji sat at his desk looking rather down, as he had done for the past few days.
The geek could understand.
The jock was worried about that Shinji boy.
To be frank so was he, as ever since that "incident" nearly a week ago they hadn't heard hide nor hair of him. This wasn't helped by the sheer weight guilt on Toji's shoulders over the whole "beating the ever living shit out of the messed up kid who'd saved the fucking planet twice" thing.
Deciding to lighten his best friend's mood, Kensuke brought up Toji's fun sounding activity.
"So...how's Sakura?"
"I explained what happened the other day...she's furious with me." The black haired boy shook his head with a chuckle.
The twelve year old, after raving for five minutes straight, demanded that he apologise at the earliest convenience or else face the beating of a life time when she was fully healed.
If she was ever fully healed.
"Hell hath no fury eh?" Kensuke smiled as he patted his best friend on the back.
"Yes." A voice every person in the class feared boomed.
Toji and Kensuke's smiles vanished, as Hikari Horaki walked over with her target locked expression.
A few minutes previously, she'd been talking to the girl with short, dark red hair, who sat at the back of the class, in a very tender and comforting manner as the girl in question had quietly sobbed whilst holding a colour photo of herself being hugged by a middle aged man in air force Captain's uniform...
She stopped just in front of Toji's desk, one hand hanging loosely and the other on her hip.
He gulped.
"Oh...um...Horaki-san. is there anything I can do for you-" He was stopped mid sentence as the palm of her hand impacted his cheek.
She stared at him for a few moments with her brown eyes narrowed, before informing him of the reason he'd been struck. In voice that heralded a hurricane.
"Your treatment of Ikari-san the other day is almost reason enough for you to be expelled. You have one warning, Suzuhara-san, one. And Spirits help you if you need another. You will apologise at the earliest opportunity, no later." She turned around and strode away, sitting down at the front of the class whilst everyone else sniggered.
To his shame, Kensuke included.
"Well you have always wanted her to touch you..."
The jock turned his face towards Kensuke, completely red from Hikari's hand and blushing.
"Shut the fuck up."
Hikari sat at her desk, with a frown. Honestly she'd expected more of the classroom jock. She knew he was actually quite a gentle giant, anyone who was best friends with Kensuke Aida couldn't be anything but. In all her five years of knowing Toji, this sort of behaviour was unheard of. Of course she felt a little bad over the whole hitting him thing, but ultimately Hikari felt he deserved and required it. After all, compared to what "Shinji" had been put through, it was a facade.
She didn't know the boy personally, but nonetheless he was a student in her class and under her jurisdiction, therefore her protection.
But from the look in his eyes, she felt the message was understood. Granted she'd wished to administer this on the day the incident had occurred, but with all the chaos that thing had caused, a few days off were in order.
And considering what she'd heard about the whole affair, Ikari, Aida and Suzuhara had all earned a bit of piece and quiet...for now.
Still need to kick their assess for sneaking out like that...She smirked to herself. For Hikari Horaki was not called "The Pig Tailed Dictator" for nothing.
Toji tapped his desk in thought, as he had done for the past few days. Him being him, he couldn't get past his guilt over what had happened between him and Shinji the previous week.
For all the kid had known, he'd simply been taking a breath of fresh air, and then someone who was related to someone he'd accidentally hurt, was beating the snot of him.
Yes, Sakura's right. Real mature man...real mature...
"You know, if you just want to say sorry to the guy you could always call him?" Kensuke smashed his moment of reflection with a prod of his finger.
"Hmm, what?"
"I said if you wanted to apologise, you could always call him. I got his number off the class Rep."
Toji hadn't really thought about using modern technology to solve his problem, but the idea seemed sound. And thus with a few minutes before break's end, with a new contact in his phone's memory banks, he pressed the call button.
11:20am, residential district 9
Someone was knocking on the door.
Seiichi slowly turned his head towards it, as he washed the dishes upon which resided the remnants of the meal he and his girlfriend had just eaten. Rice and sweet and sour chicken...as much as he despised the nation it heralded from, he couldn't help but admit it was delicious.
And of course it was cooked by his girlfriend, so he couldn't say otherwise.
"I'll get it!" The most beautiful woman in the world called out to him, as she swiftly walked over to the door.
Today, Mikasa had dressed casually, yet she still looked like ten billion yen to Seiichi. He could have stood there all day, drinking in her image.
In his uniform.
Today had been deemed a special case for the Tokyo-3 garrison. Half of them got a day of leave, and the other half would tomorrow. So the young man had got himself prepared for the evening when he would have to return to barracks.
Mikasa's shoulders slumped as she looked through the peephole in her door.
"It's them."
"I can tell them to go away if you want..." Seiichi said awkwardly.
"No...they're your friends. For you and me to work..." She looked thoughtful for a moment then continued.
"I can't keep you away from your friends, especially when you won't keep me from mine. And anyway, those two are good fun after all." She smiled a little, upon remembering that evening some few days previous.
During the battle between the Seraph and the Evangelion, the entrance to her sector's shelter had caved in, forcing the JSA to pull aside the rubble. And part of that unit, a volunteer, was her boyfriend. Their reunion had been...emotional...and then ruined by his comrades mockery. All this had led to a night camped outside the Akuma, with Eiji and Kiyoshi sharing embarrassing stories about Seiichi's past. Such as pissing himself upon their first engagement, the stick incident, and the mumblings he would make in his sleep.
Their language, save for that of the Sergeant, had been foul, and their humour crude. Yet Mikasa had taken to them with a liking, and unlike most civilians, had not been intimidated by the Sergeant's scarred and burned face.
Upon Seiichi getting a day of leave, and having another night of passion, during one of their bed talks she'd even described them as "funny."
So the two JSA soldiers were let in, with Eiji holding some bottles of wine, and Kiyoshi having his eyebrows raised at his subordinates' enthusiasm.
"Ah, Torogi-san, pleasure as always!" The driver beamed, and Mikasa could tell by his breath that he was a little drunk.
"I hope we aren't intruding, but my comrade here practically insisted on paying you both a visit." The Sergeant rolled his eyes in apparent annoyance behind Eiji's back, causing Mikasa to smile, and her boyfriend to chuckle.
"You all love me and you know it..." The driver loudly grumbled before taking a non-offered seat, and setting the bottles on the table.
"Both of them are Italian, not easy to get hold of these days I might add. Had to call in a favour or two for them, and they're both red. So...knock yourselves out." He opened a bottle and reached out to grab a glass.
"Eiji." Kiyoshi said sharply.
"Oh...right...hai..." Eiji quickly turned his head to face Mikasa, who was leaning against the wall with her arms folded.
"Do you mind if I use one of your glasses?"
"Go ahead." She nodded, before resigning herself to another day of dealing with JSA troopers, and brought herself over to the table, filling up a glass for herself.
"Torogi-san, do you mind if get myself a glass of water." Kiyoshi put forward in a manner so shockingly polite for him, his men stared at him in wonder.
"Yes of course. It's not the year 2000 anymore, we don't ration water these days." She laughed a little, with the sergeant bowing his head politely and gratefully.
Seiichi shot Eiji a look.
What the hell was that?
The driver, with widened eyes, simply shrugged.
I don't fucking know!
With Kiyoshi getting his drink, and Seiichi finishing washing up, all four sat at the small table, talking among each other.
"So, how long exactly have you two been together?" The sergeant took a sip of his water, whilst quietly chastising his other subordinate, whom had already gulped down a glass of wine.
Kiyoshi had never like alcohol, it had always been too strong for him. Even some of the western cider made him wrinkle his nose up in disgust.
"January 19th 2015. That was when we met." Seiichi smiled a little, taking his girlfriend's hand in his own. He vividly remembered it, on one of his weeks of leave when he'd been left standing around at some sort of societal function, and then she'd come over to him and asked for a dance.
One thing had led to another, and they'd traded phone numbers before the night was done. Not to mention kissed in the moon's light.
"That makes sense. You started mumbling about her two years ago." Kiyoshi nodded, whilst Eiji almost spat his wine out.
"Two years? I thought you'd been crushing on her for a bit, not going out with her from the word go. Two years? What's a ravishing young lady like you doing going out with this plum for the past two years?"
"Oh shut up before I bash your brains out with my helmet."
"Calm your fucking tits, Private lover boy, it was just a joke..."
"Both of you, mind your language. We're in the presence of a lady." Their superior officer strictly commanded, as if he were some sort of father.
In a response that indicated the two may well have been his children, Seiichi and Eiji paled, yelled "Hai!" then went quiet.
Mikasa, with a black eyebrow raised, made a mental note to write down advice from the Sergeant on how to deal with undisciplined troops such as her boyfriend, and laughed.
Soon enough, the other three joined her.
It is often said that a man swoons when he sees the girl he loves smile. But Mikasa's heart would always skip a beat when her boyfriend smiled that sweet one of his. The one that had made her fall in love with him all those years ago.
11:25am, Sengokuhara high school.
Standing outside the building to get a good signal, Toji held his phone to his ear for a while. In times gone by he would have worried about using up all his credit, but with these contracts and unlimited texts and calls, there was no issue. And yet he still stood there for a minute straight, the rain hammering down around him.
He was about to put the phone down, assuming the boy he wished to speak to wasn't into that sort of thing, only for it to be answered at the last second.
"Um...hello? Who...who is this?"
"Uh, hey, Ikari-san. It's Suzuhara. I was just wondering how you were because you haven't been in for the past few days and you weren't so good the last time I saw you and..."
Spirits, I sound like a nervous wreck.
Having always hated showing weakness, the black haired boy gritted his teeth and awaited the reply of someone he'd wanted to murder with his bare hands only a week before.
"Well...thanks for your concern. I'm fine, I've just had to skip a few days of school, debriefing, synch training and all that. I'll be coming back tomorrow."
"Cool...just wanted to see if you were alright. I'll see you tomorrow then."
Toji would have ended the conversation then, yet something kept nagging at him.
"Yeah...see you then."
You will apologise at the earliest opportunity, no later The phrase echoed in Toji's brain as he mustered the courage to say what had to be said.
"Um...Ikari-san?" He scratched the back of his head whilst trying to find the right words.
"Yes, Suzuhara-san?"
"About the other day...I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. That was me being a complete jack ass. You didn't deserve any of it..." He swallowed, whilst closing his eyes and sighing.
"Just wanted to say."
There was silence for a few moments, before Shinji Ikari managed to overcome his shock and respond.
"I-I-It's okay...you were going through quite a bit."
"Gah, that doesn't make it right!"
"Perhaps... anyway...I've got to go now. I think my room mate is trying to cook lunch again..." What sounded like a shudder echoed on the other end.
"That bad huh?" Toji chuckled. Having sampled his father's cooking, he knew all too well what that kind of garbage tasted like.
"You have no idea."
"Well, I suppose you'll just have to tell me all about it next time you come into school. See you then." The jock began to take the phone away from his ear, a strange smile on his face.
"Yeah...bye."
The most forced conversation both teenagers had ever experienced, ended when Toji pressed the end call button on his Samsung.
He exhaled through his nose and shook his head.
Damn, that didn't go like how I planned at all. But oh well...the guy seems nice. And after everything he did the other day...I think I like him.
11:28am, NERV quarters.
Shinji put his phone down, and stared at his bedroom wall in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.
Did I just...make friends with someone?