This is an idea that cropped up into my head one night, and I was dying to write it. So, enjoy!

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a trademark of Hideaki Anno and Studio Khara, this is purely a fan work.


NGE: The Cat and the Puppy

Mari Illustrious Makinami floated in the sea of LCL, the decaying face of Lilith with it's frozen smile breaking the horizon.

"That's not gone well." She sighed, quite bored of being seemingly the only human not dissolved.

'Not gone well', of course, was a hideous understatement. The world had ended. Third Impact had happened and holy crapbaskets, it wasn't pretty.

And now she was alone.

Or so she thought, as Rei... or what may be Rei, gently approached her floating through the air, her body with a faint white glow.

" 'sup Blue. Sorry I couldn't help more." She shrugged, not worried about sinking in the extra-buoyant liquid.

"Do not blame yourself, Makinami. Few cycles manage to avoid a full impact, it tends to happen sooner or later." The image of Ayanami answered, a kind expression on her face.

"Cycles?" The brown-haired pilot asked, raising an eyebrow. At least she had someone to talk to now.

"Cycles. Timelines. None of these definitions are entirely correct, yet they are not wrong either. Suffice to say, this is not the only reality." The bluenette explained as best as she could with her newfound knowledge.

"So it is a multiverse. Hah, Red owes me 2000 yen." She chuckled.

"However, this cycle ended in a... most unusual way. No souls should have been left out of instrumentality, yet yours was. I do not know why." 'Rei' seemed troubled.

Sniffing, Mari blinked. "Well, balls. I've been turned away at paradise's door and the manager doesn't know why. So, what do we do, Blue?" She asked, curious.

"I cannot influence a completed instrumentality. Yet, this cycle cannot continue properly with you still here. I can, however, send you to another one. You would not carry any memories, but your personality would still be the same. Do you have any preference?"

The glowing, floating being asked, suddenly upbeat.

"Hmm.." The brit wondered, recalling everything that had happened leading up to the end of the world. "I kinda want to try and make Puppy-kun happy somehow. He was so miserable, despite always trying his best. He deserves better. And he is quite cute in a way."

"Very well, Mari Illustrious Makinami. I wish you good luck in your next life. Farewell." At that, the smiling being gently touched her cheek, a strong drowsiness sending her into a deep sleep.


"Hmmmm..." The Second Child groaned as she woke up in her cabin. Dangit, she did not sleep well last night. The excitement was getting to her.

She would finally meet the Third Child! Mari had poured over his file several times in the last few days. 3 Angel kills, 2 of those solo and one with no training whatsoever. Then again, there was something else that seemed to attract her to him. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she wanted to be his friend. Of course that came with relentless teasing from Kaji, her so-called Guardian, but then again she had also been teasing him about his old girlfriend and Shinji's own Guardian, Misato Katsuragi.

All in all, the Makinami/Kaji household was a brother and sister relationship, and one she'd miss.

"Oh godsdamnit."

She had, in all her thinking, missed that fact that it was already 9 AM and that the helicopter with the NERV-Tokyo party would be arriving in half an hour. Jumping out of bed and all but flying to the bathroom, she hurriedly tried to make herself presentable.

Sure, one could say she was still ridiculously well developed and pretty for her age regardless of her state of readiness, but she wanted to look nice.

As the helicopter approached the deck of the supercarrier Over the Rainbow, Shinji could see the crew running back and forth preparing to receive them. Somewhere behind him Kensuke was still gushing about all the military hardware on show (as he had been doing for a solid 7 minutes previously since the fleet had came into view), while Toji had, mercifully, given up on his hitting on Misato, realizing that she was so out of his league it wasn't even funny.

After a somewhat bumpy landing, the stooges, as they were called in class, were heading towards the bridge with Katsuragi when a strong gust of wind picked up Toji's new hat, sending it sprawling forward across the Deck. Before he could even get into a full sprint after it, however, a carefully manicured hand stopped the hat in it's tracks, handing it to the jock when he caught up.

Shinji had seen some pretty girls in his life, Ayanami one of the foremost among them, but the visage in front of him was enough to make his heart stop beating for a few seconds.

Boots, tights and a turtleneck with a furry collar in a mix of black with some pink accents surrounded the body of a green eyes, bespectacled girl with dual long brown tails that moved in the wind. And then, she turned towards him and smiled. A smile so warm he wish he could've melted in it.

However, the voice of his Guardian broke him out of his reverie. "MARI! Come here, girl!" Misato said happily, opening her arms.

In response, Makinami threw herself in her old friend's embrace, hugging her warmly. "Misa-chan! Gods, I've missed you so much! It's been far too long." The Second Child reluctantly broke the hug, still holding the Major's hands.

"You've GROWN! Look at you! I better watch out or you'll steal all the guys!" The purple haired woman praised, giving the girl a princess spin to check her out properly. It wasn't empty praise; the last time Misato had seen Mari had been 4 years ago, and she had definitely grown since then, and not only up.

Turning her attention to the two boys besides her friend (Toji was still where he was given his hat back, seemingly unable to move out of sheer shock), she pointed at Shinji with a confident smile.

"Shinji Ikari! Third Child, and Pilot of Unit 01." Approaching him, she happily extended a hand in greeting. "Mari Makinami, Second Child, Pilot of Unit 02. Nice to meet you, I've been looking forward to it."

For a fraction of a second, Shinji's brain was trying to deal with everything that was happening in front of him. When he finally managed to snap himself out of the deep and warm green pools that were behind the red-framed glasses of the girl that seemed to completely eclipse everything in her vicinity, he hurriedly took her hand. It was soft.

"Ah, uh... hi. I'm Shinji Ikari, although you already know that... it's nice to meet you too, Makinami-san." He managed to stutter out with much effort, willing every fiber of his being to not freeze completely on the spot. Misato was honestly thinking he might short-circuit.

"Hmmmm, that sounds so formal though...Ah, I know how to fix that!" And then she hugged him.

Literally, full-on hugged him.

He was trying to process the rose perfume, the warmth and especially the softness pressing against his chest, but it was simply too much, and all he could do was instinctively hug back weakly.

Breaking the hug, she smiled at him happily. "See? Now I can call you Shinji and you can call me Mari!"

However, he didn't answer, on account of being frozen in place. Waving her hand in front of his face, Katsuragi sighed. "Please slow down Mari. I think you broke him." Chuckling, she switched her attention out of politeness and greeted the other stooges with waves of her hand and smiles, which were returned, if dazedly, in kind.

As the party made their way to the bridge, with the girls in front, they missed Toji and Kensuke suddenly bombarding Shinji with questions ranging from "Dude what colony or shit are you using" and "Can I have some".

"Lady Katsuragi, I presume. Welcome to the Over the Rainbow, pride of the UN Pacific Fleet, and carrier of Evangelion Unit 02." The old grizzled captain spoke with his deep voice, a polite bow signaling his respect.

"Thank you, Captain Anderson. It is an honor to be aboard." Giving a sharp salute, the Major and Commander of Operations of NERV was very relieved that the captain was not one of those stuffy old guards that refused to give NERV respect.

Noticing Shinji and the stooges also coming into the bridge, he threw a quick questioning look at Mari, who simply pointed at the one in the middle. Walking over to Shinji, the difference in size between Captain and Pilot was very evident.

"Pilot Shinji Ikari. I, in the name of all of my men, thank you for your bravery in combat in NERV's efforts to save humanity." At that, all the crew currently in the bridge followed their captain at giving the Third Child a sharp salute.

For the second time today, Shinji was speechless. People he didn't even knew were saluting him. Quickly making sure he wasn't going to cry, he did his best to salute back.

"I.. uh... thank you, everyone. I will do my best." He stuttered, completely amazed that he was, for the first time in his life, feeling proud at something he'd done. As the crew went back to their work, Misato approached and patted his shoulder,

"Told you, kid. What you do, it's something to be proud of. No matter what the commander says or don't says, know that there are people who trust you and believe in you." At hearing his guardian's words, the Third's eyes became misty again. Today was a very memorable day so far.

"Indeed, Shinji. You're a bit of a hero around these parts."

The voice was unmistakable for Katsuragi, who turned towards the stairs to see who she knew would be there. "Kaji. Long... time no see." The forlorn voice of the Operations Director was easy for Shinji to notice, which made him feel a pang of pain for her inside.

"Katsuragi... indeed, long time. It is good to see you again." The spy said softly, the look in his eyes one of guilt, regret, and hope.

Fully aware of the climate shift in the room, Mari pulled one of the lower crewman aside and told him to babysit the stooges for a bit. Turning to Shinji, however, she beamed warmly. "Hey, Shinji, wanna come see my Eva?" At her very obvious wink and head tilt towards the old couple, even he got the hint.

"Oh, uhmm... sure." He agreed, wanting to give the adults some privacy. However, he was not prepared to what he saw when he reached Mari at the start of the stairs. There she was, hand extended to him, looking up at him in such a kind way that for a second, he thought she might be an Angel, a real one and not one of the abominations they were forced to fight. Managing a shy smile back between his heart's furious beating, he took her hand and followed her down.


"Haahh... hahhh..." Makinami breathed heavily into the LCL, adrenaline leaving her body as they were reeled back. Gaghiel had attacked with no warning, which meant Shinji had to go inside the entry plug with her, and since he was shorter, sit on her lap as they controlled the pink Evangelion in unison. Now that the Angel's corpse was sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the boy went oddly quiet, however.

Curious and somewhat worried, Mari spoke up. "Hey, Shinji, you ok?" She quietly asked, moving her head over his shoulder to be able to see him somewhat.

Shinji Ikari was ok. In fact, he was very ok. After they delivered the killing blow on Gaghiel, he had simply relaxed into the Second Child's lap, her hands still covering his own on the Induction Levers. For the first time since all this mess started, he felt safe. It was such a nice and rare feeling that he allowed himself to simply enjoy it, not even fully aware of how close he was to Mari. Her voice near his ear, however, had two effects:

One, it snapped him out of his trance and jolted him back into reality.

Two, the whole situation of being in an extremely attractive girl's lap finally clicked in, which in turn fiercely awoke a... certain part of his anatomy. Which was double unfortunate considering he was wearing one of her plugsuits, who were quite tight in that area for him.

Hurriedly, he crossed his legs and excused himself repeatedly as he tried to explain that he simply zoned out, while Mari simply chuckled. Before the plug was ejected as they were lifted back into the carrier however, he felt a pair of pink-covered arms wrapping him into an embrace from behind. As he froze completely, the pilot of Unit 02 whispered warmly into his ear.

"You're cute, Third."

At that, the plug finished draining and she sneaked out from under him, heading towards the hatch. Before she stepped out however, she gave the bewildered boy one last caring smile and a wink.

Shinji Ikari would remember this day forever.


Surprise! This is a little side project I've been wanting to do. I actually really like the Shinji x Mari couple, and thought it needed some love. The chapters will be shorter than GotBM and will focus more on their relationship than the plot as a whole.

Yes, Mari is the Second Child in this verse, substituting Asuka. It was the best way I found to avoid conflict and be able to just focus on them.

As always, please review if you can, it really motivates me! And feel free to follow if you wish to be notified when a new chapter is uploaded.

Cover Image is by the amazing yuuShino on deviantart.

Ciao!