AN: Don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion, If I did, I'd scrap the Illustrious. Again, big damn thanks to Broken Wings healed, just the best person in the verse to have as the second pair of eyes on your fic and terrific person overall. Again, thanks to everybody that commented, it's heartwarming that the fic got this universally warm reception so far.
As of the status of the next chapter, It is done and the one after that is well underway. But I am sticking to my releasing schedule. I may tighten it up to one chapter a week after the next release if I am certain I can keep it up. But I want to sit on the chapter or two in case that real-life or writing block decides to intervene.
Some seriously dark themes in this chapter. But you all knew what you signed for when you joined the fandom.
Without any more ado, here it is, read, enjoy, comment, give me any constructive criticism you can think of. Have fun.
Suite No. 3,03 You can (not) refuse
Shinji stood by the stove watching the fried rice with eagle-eyed precision and just a hint of a smile. Asuka grinned and tiptoed right behind him. She reached in the wok with a fork and stole a piece of chicken before making a run for it.
"Asuka! Leave the rice alone, it's not done yet, if you are hungry have a pancake," protested Shinji, giving her a disapproving look. She stuck out her tongue and waved the cut of chicken around like a war price. "Make me, Baka!"
Truth be told she did not feel all that cheerful. 'But moping will help nobody and we won't manage anything on empty stomachs either,' she told herself.
She had at least the start of a plan…
"Shinji, you still think you could find the place where Wundergirl is squatting?" she asked as she did as she was told and grabbed a pancake, putting orange jam on it.
Shinji frowned but nodded. "Yes, I think so, if we get lost, Hikari should know for sure," he said with the same certainty as he would have said that water is wet.
Asuka nodded absent-mindedly: "Yes, she would." One thing Asuka was completely sure of was that Hikari had never set foot in that house: 'No way, she would put up a racket if she had...'
Shinji shot Asuka a glance when she picked up her phone and dialled a number. After a while, the other person picked up.
"Hello, Ayanami, are you at home?" After a moment, Asuka nodded. She listened for a moment longer and rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I am at home, Baka too. I don't know, where do you think he is: attending a wild illegal party with drugs, booze and strippers?" she asked rhetorically before forging onwards. She motioned to Shinji to come closer so he could hear Rei too.
"See, Wundergirl, would you mind if I swing by your place in the afternoon? I'd bring the Baka along"
"I have no interest in that, Pilot Sohryu, it is supernumerary to the needs and requirements of my assignment, if there was need for us to cooperate, Major Katsuragi would call," said the bluenette in her polite but galaxies-away tone.
Shinji frowned, 'Is that really the only purpose she sees?' His mood sank to the abyss when he thought about it: 'for as long as I've known her, she has done exactly two things that were not necessary to her assignment...'
He listened to Asuka again. The redhead looked more like a pressure cooker by the minute now. "Why am I calling if there is no need for us to cooperate at the moment?" Asuka made her best, and almost successful, effort not to fume, pace around or ball her free hand into a fist.
"Wundergirl, I'm calling because we, that is to say, me and Baka Shinji, are coming over for a visit. We're bringing some fried rice too-"
"That is not necessary, Pilot Sohryu, I am well stocked with food, and you should not leave the apartment during the state of emergency," replied Rei.
Asuka nearly enough kicked the kitchen counter, stopping at the last possible moment. "First of all, I believe it is necessary because Baka Shinji says your food is cooked rice, cooked rice and more cooked rice with nothing to it, that's not normal. Second, we are doing it because we want to, not because we were ordered. Third, you can not stop us: I am calling you to let you know we are coming, not to ask, and last, if you stop being so obstinate and simply take some food Shinji cooked it will make him happy and me less pissed, got me? Rei?" She set the phone on the counter, hitting the speaker mode, and folded her hands.
"That is, I think, agreeable," said Rei with just a hint more emotion than usual. Asuka nodded and looked at Shinji: "How far away is the place?" She noted that Shinji wore a ghost of a smile, she matched it in full to cheer him up and waited for his answer before turning back to the phone.
"Alright, Rei, Baka says forty minutes, we will be there in an hour, see you later."
"Understood, see you later, pilot Sohryu, Shinji," said Rei and hung up the phone. There was just a hint of pleasant surprise in her voice, though Asuka. 'Only someone used to talk to her daily could hear it,' she mused.
She was too lost in thoughts and too glad that it made Shinji's mood lift again, that she did not even get irritated over Shinji being called by his name while she was "pilot Sohryu".
fifty-seven minutes later
They were standing at the entry door to Rei's building. 'Well the good news is it is no longer gaping open for any mugger, murderer, assassin, or molester,' thought Asuka. The bad news of course was that somebody had nailed big boards over the entrance up to Asuka's shoulders. She frowned as she made a plan. 'Good thing I chose to wear jeans,' she thought.
"OK, we are not pulling these out, and we are not finding whatever other entry Wundergirl is using," she said, setting the box with food on the ground.
"I go first, give me a lift, will you?" she pointed to the makeshift barricade.
Shinji nodded, knelt and made a bridge to help Asuka get over the barricade. On her count of three, he helped her to jump over.
"Huh, looks like Rei had some wonderful neighbours recently, the place looks like hobos and druggies had their way with it. Hand me the food, now, I don't want to stand here alone for a moment longer than I have to!" she demanded.
He did that instantly. Then she helped him across the obstacle. If Asuka flew over it with grace, then Shinji just about scraped it and landed on both knees and left hand.
"Nice attempt at a superhero landing," said Asuka with a chuckle, "just don't try it again at places like this, I really don't want needles or shards anywhere near your hands, got me?"
Shinji shot her a smile and got up "No messing with your music evenings, right?"
"Nope, if you need messing up, I do it - anyone else can go jump off a cliff," she smiled back and reached into her purse, pulling out two black cylinders with naked wires at one end and handing one to Shinji. "We run into any weirdos, Rei excluded, we tase them first, run second, and ask questions later."
When she saw Shinji's expression, she added: "Rei is our loon that's totally different from the others, come on, let's move!" As they did, however, Asuka grew visibly more disturbed.
"Shinji? You remember I said I trust you, but I have to see this for myself to really accept it?" she asked as they went up the stairs as the elevator obviously was not working, probably since before the Second Impact.
Shinji recalled her words: 'She said, "I completely believe you tell me the truth, as you understand it, I just can't accept it can be possible without seeing it," and I can totally understand that I would not believe that someone would treat an Eva pilot like that.' Shinji nodded and noticed an empty broken fridge left the staircase, as much as he remembered this was Rei's floor.
"Well, I do really fucking believe it now and we are going to do something to unfuck it today!" Asuka snarled. 'I don't know what yet, but we are doing something, even if only to make Baka feel less shit about himself.'
Shinji could not remember which door was Rei's but then he noticed that all but two were boarded and one of the remaining ones was kicked in and filled with garbage. Then he realised Asuka's words.
"Uh, maybe we could help her clean up a bit, and fix the door?" he asked with a hopeful smile and walked down the corridor.
"Baka, the only way I am cleaning this is with the Flammenwerfer!" Asuka kicked an empty beer can so hard it flew the length of the corridor and hit the wall at the end.
Shinji halted in front of the door. "What did you mean then?" he asked. 'But now that Asuka said it, yeah, let's take a flamethrower to this,' he thought, thinking about just how much of the fiery German had rubbed off on him already.
"Well, I can get her a decent living place from my pocket, if you can help me to make her move," she said offhandedly.
That made Shinji's jaw drop: "That's a lot of money, Asuka, fifty grand Yen is the minimum around here, seventy grand more like it!" She only nodded. "Shinji, I don't like to boast about THAT, but it won't put a dent into my account - to put things in perspective, my ennobled progenitor steals millions of Euros from me each year." Then she smirked: "Besides, when this gets done, there will be books, movies, anime, and dating sims - all that means royalties. We either get filthy rich or die trying."
Shinji smiled back. "I'll try, but It's Rei, so... who knows what will happen." She nodded and raised an eyebrow: "We are supposed to come in, you know?"
Shinji looked at her: "Uh, maybe it's better you go in first?" he asked. Asuka nodded and knocked, and when that drew no response, she opened the door wide and walked in, taser in hand, Shinji noted.
"Ayanami, you are here, right?" she called. Shinji followed. The place was exactly as he remembered, down to the piles of bandages in the corners and broken glasses on the table.
Rei was sitting at the table doing something, their math homework, Shinji supposed. She looked at them with just a hint of surprise.
"You came," she said as if that was all that needed saying. Asuka gave her a surprised look, realising she was still in the school uniform even when it was almost three in the afternoon, "Ugh, Rei, why do you still wear the uniform?"
Rei looked at her quizzically: "I figured I should be wearing something since you called and said you would be coming over."
Shinji muttered something that sounded a lot like "Thank god for that" while Asuka was just flabbergasted. She looked at Rei: "This doll outfit is all you wear?"
"That and plugsuits as needed, and the PT uniform," responded the bluenette.
"And what do you wear when at home?" asked Asuka once she trusted her voice again.
Rei looked surprised. "I don't see the need for it: I wear uniforms to school because they are required and plugsuits when piloting because they are part of the mission." She looked at the redhead with mild interest now. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"Damn, there are all kinds of WRONG with that, Rei. You should have clothes that you like, you should have clothes that you need, and you should not run around nude at home, especially when you don't even have a damned lock on your door. That's like an invite for some Hentai asshole to come in and hurt you, if they notice you, damn it." She looked at Rei.
Then she looked at Shinji and saw that he was blushing furiously. 'So that was why you thought you needed to apologise to her the whole way from here to NERV - we will need to talk about it once and then to not talk about it ever again,' she thought.
Shinji wanted to become invisible, to become one with a wall, or to simply disappear in any way possible. He ended up picking a trash can and started cleaning the place, for all the difference that would have made. 'At least Asuka is not trying to kill or neuter me yet,' he thought.
Rei looked at Asuka. "Why do you worry so much?" She just sat there and looked at Asuka.
'Huh, that's a good question - half an hour ago, I'd say to help Baka and then long time nothing, and then to both fuck with the Commander and help you… Now helping you is starting to look more important.'
Rei felt genuinely confused. She understood that humans that shared a parent formed bonds, so a bond between her and Shinji made sense. She also understood that humans living in the same place shared a bond too, so the bond between Shinji, Asuka and, she guessed, major Katsuragi made sense too. 'But Pilot Sohryu has no need for concern for me beyond my piloting capabilities, so why?'
"Because Shinji wants to help, but can't," she said eventually - it was a part of the reason and it was true, that would have to do for now.
"That is agreeable," said Rei with a barely perceptible nod. "How do you intend to go about your mission, Pilot Sohryu?"
"We start by introducing you to actual food. Shinji made fried rice, actually, he made a part of it especially for you without meat." Asuka put the container on the table, satisfied that it kept the rice hot. "Rei Ayanami, meet fried rice. Fried rice, meet Rei Ayanami. Eat," she put the sticks in the container and turned to Shinji: "And you, stop, I got an idea."
She started taking photos of every mould and cracks in the walls and some of the rubbish but made sure not to snap a photo of anything that looked like it was Rei's doing.
Shinji did as told and found a rare relatively clean patch of wall to lean against. He decided that he could wait out the time until his inevitable impending doom by doing something familiar and looked at Rei.
She got to eat with the same vigour she did most things, at first, but as she ate the first bits Rei looked less and less detached.
"How is it, Rei-Chan?" he asked, smiling when she looked up. "It is really quite agreeable - Thank you, Shinji," she said with the ghost of a smile.
Asuka looked at the two of them, and she thought to give Rei a talking-to about Shinji's food being way better than agreeable. 'But for her, this is giving glowing praise and standing ovations,' thought Asuka and opened the fridge. Afraid as she was of it, it was nowhere near as bad as the rest of the flat. Just some bland cheese, soy sauce and a few other bits of bland stock foods she did not care to identify.
And…
"What are those, Wundergirl?" she demanded as she placed a box with mostly unmarked bottles of pills and liquids. The only text on the etiquettes was the correct dosing.
"My medicines, please, Pilot Sohryu, return them to the fridge, I was told that some need refrigeration for storage." The previous ghost of a smile was now very definitely gone from her face.
"What? Why are they not marked? That's illegal, Rei! And why are you even taking that many meds? You are fifteen and healthy, right?" Asuka's voice rose higher with every sentence.
"They are marked, Doctor Akagi sees to that personally, she is very precise," said Rei as if taking dozens of different prescription meds with no information other than the dosing was the most natural thing in the universe.
Shinji did not really understand what that meant, but one look at Asuka was enough to tell him "nothing good."
"Es gibt nichts, was wir alleine tun können, wir brauchen Misato," said the redhead eventually and placed the meds back in the fridge.
Shinji walked to her, completely forgetting about feeling mortally embarrassed but a moment ago. "Asuka, can you use Japanese, please? I can't speak German."
But the redhead was lost in her world for the moment.
Rei looked up from her food: "She said you two can not proceed on your own, that Misato needs to be brought in."
Shinji thought that over and nodded: if before, Rei's problems had felt almost certainly way too big for them to solve, that changed to complete certainty now.
"Wundergirl, du sprichst Deutch?" Asuka asked and turned around as she closed the fridge.
"Ja, aber ich spreche nur ein wenig. Ich habe niemand zu chatten." she said, finishing the last of the rice.
Asuka smiled: "Vergess darüber, Wundergirl. Jetzt hygrom hast du mir zu chatten. Ich haben nicht Deutsch zu sprechen fur viel zu lange."
"Guys, Japanese please?" Shinji asked, confused.
"Du kannst auch Deutsch lernen," said both girls in unison.
That was close enough to English for Shinji to understand. "But we don't have German in school, not even as an elective."
Asuka shook her head, "If you want to, and you put in the work, I'll teach you," then she surprised herself and thought 'gladly, Baka Shinji, gladly.'
She put the meds back in the fridge and fetched two boxes to go with one chair Rei was sitting on so they could all sit at the table.
Shinji sat down and smiled at Rei again. "If you would like to, I can start making Bentos for you as well, or cook you something to take home a few times a week," he offered.
Asuka felt a rise of jealousy. 'Shinji's cooking is something I only share with Misato and that's only because we live with her!' she thought.
But then she thought that it was just Shinji's thing to offer help like that and expect nothing back - 'And you've taken advantage of that aplenty, Sohryu.'
Rei nodded and closed the dose. "I don't want to impose on you, but I would like that, Shinji," she smiled. It was the first time Asuka had seen Rei Ayanami smile. Not a hint of a smile, not a half-smile, but a proper joyful smile.
'And it is glorious,' Asuka thought, catching herself smiling as well. 'Well, if Shinji can make ME feel good about myself, of course, he can make miss-I-don't-feel-a-thing Ayanami smile.' She let them have the moment before clearing her throat:
"Alright, I see three problems here, two dangerous and one that only pisses me off, so we deal with that one first!" she announced.
"Pilot Sohryu, why would you want to deal with a problem you do not consider dangerous first while leaving two that you do consider dangerous for later?" asked Rei with an air of honest curiosity about her.
"It is called sarcasm, read about it or ask an adult, Wundergirl!"
Shinji laughed when Rei pulled out a small notebook and wrote: "Sarcasm, research the meaning and application, possibly Germany related."
Asuka was about half a microsecond from facepalming when she saw that Rei wore her ghost of a smile again. 'Have I been made fun of by Rei? Inconceivable!'
At any rate, she would have to get on with her plan or else her status as the leader of the pilots would be eroded. "Well, you having no clothes of your own pisses me off, so today we are taking you back with us, and I'm going to raid my wardrobe to find you something you can wear until we get you some new clothes. You are with me so far, First?" She waited till Rei nodded her assent, and was about to move on to the actually dangerous things when Rei cut in. "Will I be required to return the outfits when I have my own clothes?" she asked.
"No, I meant that I am not going to fit you with an entire wardrobe out of my own, anything I give you is yours to keep," said Asuka in reply.
"Guess the other problems are the apartment and the meds," pitched in Shinji. "You said we need Misato to get anything done about the pills, right?" he asked Asuka.
"Yes, we need to get Doctor Akagi talking about What and Why is Rei using - I can't imagine it's anything good, but we can not try to wean her off on our own."
"Why not?" asked Shinji.
"Wundergirl, what are possible outcomes of violently messing with a treatment regimen you know nothing about?" asked Asuka.
The bluenette looked at her: "I do not know, I had no need to until today. But I agree with Pilot Sohryu, I should not make any rash choices until I know what I am medicated for."
Asuka looked like she was going to murder the first faux-blonde multidisciplinarian doctor she would come across.
"They range from a mild headache to severe shock and death, Shinji, It'd be like defusing a bomb by cutting wires at random."
Shinji gulped. He pondered the problem: 'Well, if we ask officially, that is just like telling my father what we are doing - anything we go to Doctor Akagi for is something he will find out about.'
Then he got an idea: "Asuka, you got my measurements out of my file, right? How?" The redhead turned to him and said: "I bribed Maya with some swiss chocolate and a paper Doctor Akagi wrote back in college."
Shinji frowned. "You think that if Rei is the one that asks, she will at least look?"
Asuka nodded. "As a MAGI Sysop she can get everywhere - if she can't find it, it's not in the system. Yes, I think she might help, and she is our best chance that does not include laboratory sampling of the meds, or hanging Doctor Akagi from a cliff until she sings," reasoned Asuka.
"The last solution seems somewhat extreme: is Major Katsuragi not a friend of Doctor Akagi?" asked Rei, almost managing to sound like the subject of the talk was not her getting pumped with unknown drugs.
"We are keeping that for the last, Rei, first we run it by Maya and see what she can tell us," Asuka answered, forming a battle plan as she spoke.
"And the third point?" asked Rei.
Asuka looked at Shinji for a moment. "Shinji, we do this, we don't do it by half measure: I got your back if you got mine," she said.
He nodded; for better or worse, they were committed. 'I will NOT run away,' he told himself. "Rei, Asuka has a good point, you can not stay here. They would have to repair the entire building for it to be safe!"
"And I looked, the building is scheduled for demolition! Rei, there is no fixing this," added Asuka. She did not know that for certain, but it was a reasonable informed guess - 'and if Wundergirl does not look for it, she won't ever know.'
"But Commander Ikari ordered me to take residence here, he was quite specific," Rei objected serenely.
'Must not murder my commanding officer, must not slap Wundergirl,' Asuka thought as he massaged her temple. 'But at least if we get her to leave today, we get more time to find some way to help her see reason.' Asuka started thinking about how to make that happen when Shinji beat her to it.
"Did he forbid you from having sleepovers?" he asked, linking his fingers on the table in a surprisingly Gendo-like way.
"Commander Ikari has neither forbidden nor permitted sleepovers," Rei answered.
Shinji would gladly bet his allowance that the only reason Commander Ikari did not expressly forbid Rei to have sleepovers was that he could not imagine she would choose to.
Asuka saw the opportunity and threw Shinji a smile before turning to Rei: "But he ordered you to attend high school as a normal student, did he not?"
Rei nodded.
"Well, then as per the order of Fuhrer Gendo Ikari, pack up whatever you need, you are having a sleepover!" announced Asuka with a bit more cheer than she really felt. 'This will be nasty before it ends, and for once I'll have no AT field to hide behind.' But she had had enough of what the Commander had done to Shinji, especially having found out he did Rei even worse.
Rei looked at her with her head tilted "Are those not supposed to be voluntary, Pilot Sohryu?" she asked, wearing her ghost of a smile again…
"They are mandatory when your best friend tells you to come over for one," replied Asuka without missing a beat.
Rei frowned. "Are you claiming to be my best friend, Pilot Sohryu?"
Asuka shook her head. That was one big fat lie too far for her, even to help Shinji and Rei.
She looked at Shinji, who smiled brightly, thinking: 'What are you going to do about it, Baka?'
"I am, I'm not much of a best friend, but I am yours, Rei, and I want you to come with us," he said, looking into Rei's red eyes. 'And say Sayonara to this dump, please,' he thought.
"Then I can not refuse?" asked Rei, looking at Shinji.
"No, you can not refuse," said Shinji and Asuka in sync and Rei smiled again.