Chapter 3: What the eyes can't hide

The doors to Rei Ayanami's apartment slides open, she takes in the smell of cigarette smoke and steamed vegetables. Crossing the threshold from a blue metallic floor to soft carpeted one, she hangs her denim jacket on one of the hooks.

"I'm home." She says, not loud for the whole apartment to hear, but it still catches the attention of the two resident cats. Apricat, the large ginger tabby stares at Rei briefly before jumping at her swaying bag of chips while the smaller, dull grey cat with blue eyes, Sindy approaches tentatively.

Her extra red eyes are mesmerized, she hangs the plastic bag absent mindedly on her coat hanger and contorts her hands into claw shapes for them to play with.

Maya and Ritsuko both watch from the dinner table for about a minute, "Care to join us, Rei?"

Rei looks up at them and then down to her hands to realize that they've been shredded red from playing with the cats. Weirdly enough it was easier to ignore while high. She opts to leave the bag behind on the coat hanger and walks to the kitchen to wash her hands, squeezing the cat theme soap bottle. For some reason unbeknownst to her, her heart was twisting slightly faster than normal in her chest and her lungs felt stiff. She could feel the inquisitive gaze of her foster parents at the back of her head. Rei bites back a wince at the stinging sensation from her hands, a price most cat owners have to pay in the name of play time.

"Perhaps this feeling is social-anxiety?" Shinji described the feeling to her before, the only time she felt something akin to that was when someone walking in front of her moved too fast to walk around but too slow to walk behind. She also recalled it being somewhat present when she stood as a witness in a UN court. But neither of those top being busted by your adoptive mother's.

"I thought that Indica is a relaxant based substance? Why would it cause my heart to palpitate? Perhaps they suspect that I am elevated? But how could they know? I have thoroughly covered every-"

"Just, play it cool, okay?" Suzuhara's voice echoes throughout her head, making the flutters fade away as easily as they came.

She nods to herself, "I shall do that, thank you, Suzuhara."

"You're welcome." She thought to herself, also in Suzuhara's voice.

Rei chuckled to herself, another phenomenon for the journal. She turns to the two staring at her in disbelief, "What's… so funny?" Maya asks.

There's no chance she could explain the real reason and sound sane, "Oh, I just thought of a funny joke I heard today." Maya nods and mouths something to Ritsuko.

Maya gestures to the plate on her left, "Well, I hope you saved some room, we made your favorite." Just as she said that, the aroma of yam, broccoli and mushroom stir fry hit Rei's nose. She resists the urge to drool, trying to blow her cover, "I could eat." Rei quietly sets her backpack down and joins the two at the table.

Ritsuko peers over from the table, "Where did you go out for so long, kiddo? We weren't sure when you would be back." Rei perks up, something was definitely off for Ritsuko to use an affectionate term. They were far better off then they were years ago, when the doctor once tried to strangle her with a stethoscope in a fit of rage, which to be expected led to a very awkward and tense environment for the first year. She tried perhaps too hard to be friendly then but as rules and boundaries became set (And lots of teenage parental advice from Misato), things started to normalize and deflate. Still, it took a few minutes of silence before the room felt thawed enough.

Rei scans the dinner table and sees a glass of red liquid next to Akagi's ashtray. Wine, that would explain it. She supposed everyone needed their way to unwind, drinking was never for the bluenette, despite her friend's best efforts. Maybe if she opts for bluntness, she can skip this song and dance espionage of sneaking in and out. Or get herself barred for life.

She opts for a leap of faith, she takes a tong full of stir fry. "I went to Tokyo-02 to smoke marijuana with Shinji and Suzuhara."

Ritsuko chews slowly, then covers her mouth to hide a chuckle. "Was that supposed to be the joke?" Rei shakes her head before taking a bite from her chopsticks.

"Did they… pressure you to go with them?" Maya asks.

Rei shakes her head again, "I overheard them talking about it and asked them if I could come along. I wanted to try it before, but there was no one else at the time I trusted to try it with. I think I'll do it again."

The two parents exchange glances at each other, Maya looks concerned and darts her eyes to Rei, then to Ritsuko as if to ask her what she thinks. "I thought she had pink-eye for a second."

"We were so focused on giving the eye drops to Shinji, Myself and Suzuhara forgot to put it on ourselves. Hikari will be furious." She giggled to herself again, thankfully they thought it was a response to Ritsuko's comment. "I tried to hide the smell with Febreze."

Maya shakes her head, "Oh, that were okay with. We don't mind if you keep it to a reasonable amount. So long as you keep an eye on the boys when you do. This is a given, but don't smoke it in the building." Rei nods.

The Doctor lays her utensils to the side "Just let us know next time, okay? I'm glad you're going out and having fun with your brother, but be careful around Tokyo-02. There's all kinds of delinquents hanging out around there." She nods again, as far as lectures go, this wasn't as bad as she expected. Ritsuko wasn't wrong, it might have been quiet in the early evening, but the acclimatization of the mainland and the Geofront becoming open to the public has invited all sorts of newcomers to the once deserted city.

Rei breathes a sigh of relief, her gambit was worth it.

It was hard to believe that this was the daughter of the woman who strangled her former self to death when she was a small child, not to mention giving over prescribing her drugs to keep her docile and essentially flush all of her fellow clones down a toilet. And attacked her with a stethoscope. So when Ritsuko offered to be her guardian, you could imagine her surprise. Then again, this was the woman who took a bullet for her. And destroyed information that could've been used in court to testify relocating her in government "custody".

At first it seemed like a forced attempt at redemption, but thanks to their shared love of cats and Maya being a master at breaking ice, the strange trio has bonded into quite the family. In the wake of an Apocalypse, that's more than most people ever get.

While she grabs another haul of stir fry, she looks to the entrance to see the cats standing there. Sindy, the shy grey hesitantly approaches his female companion, Apricot with his ears tucked back. She hisses and paws at him in retaliation for his affectionate gesture. Oddly this is an uncanny resemblance to the dynamic between her two former co-pilots and she wonders how Shinji is handling his evening before turning to her foster parents.

"Coincidentally enough, I made some new friends too that I'm quite sure were delinquents."

A/N: Thanks for reading! This was meant to a part of longer chapter than is still underway, but it's been a while and a break from POV is a good place to end a chapter if any. Also, I'm gonna take a bit of story aspects from the Manga and Rebuilds, but not majorly. I'm gonna try my best not to shy away from EVA's darker side and sprinkle some humor and healing to it.

Stay tuned!