Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights got to there respective owners. Also all OC's are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.

SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd Try" and it's sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should definitely stop right here and check those out first before continuing.

Summary:

When a storm hits Tokyo 3, Rei ends up staying at Misato's apartment and Asuka and Shinji try to tire Aki out for the night.

"Laughter"

As night finally set on Neo Tokyo 3, a loud squeal echoed throughout the Katsuragi apartment, one that came from an excited four year old girl.

"YAAY! Rei's staying over, Rei's staying over!" Aki exclaimed say as she continued to jump up and down repeatedly while running around the apartment in excitement that her friend was staying for the night.

"If it's too much of an inconvenience I could.." Rei tried to say but was promptly cut off.

"Oh for the love of..Rei it's fine you can stay over, there's no trouble at all. Besides do you want to go and break her little heart by telling her that you won't be staying over now?" Asuka questioned as she gestured a look towards Aki and both girls saw that the little rascal, who still in her excitement of Rei staying was now chasing PenPen around the room in an attempt to hug the bird. "Plus you're definitely not going to be walking all the way home in that." Asuka finished saying as she gestured at the apartment balcony windows and seeing the storm outside raging on.

Just as Aki was in grasp reach of catching the runaway penguin, a loud sound of thunder was heard, startling Aki enough to make her jump in fright and stop her pursuit of the bird who took the opportunity to retreat back into the safety of his fridge. Hearing another sound of thunder Aki went up to the balcony window, looking out in the night and occasionally seeing more lightening strikes and waiting for the thunder after them.

The storm in question had literally came out of nowhere and was the main reason why Rei was now staying over. Originally the blue haired teen was more than willing to wait till the storm settled but after many hours having passed the storm not only hadn't settle down but had gotten worse to the point that the news on the tv had just issued a weather warning to the people of Tokyo 3 to stay indoors and that all train transports were to be halted.

At that Shinji and Asuka had then decided to offer Rei to stay for the night and the blue haired teen finally accepted, though only after Aki had used her ultimate weapon, her puppy dog pout look while she begged Rei to stay.

Asuka chuckled at remembering that. Even the stoic Rei looked helpless against Aki when she brought out the big guns, something Asuka silently admitted that she had taught Aki. Mostly to let her daughter get her way over her husband but it eventually became a problem for herself when Aki started using it on her and Asuka cursed to herself on her plan backfiring on her.

As Asuka sighed while smiling weary at the memory, Shinji had finished talking to whoever was on the phone.

"Hey, I just finished talking to Misato. Looks like she's staying at NERV HQ tonight due to both her workload and the storm." Shinji told everyone. "I also told her that Rei was staying over and she said it's fine..though she did say, and I quote; 'make sure the little terror doesn't get to excited and trash the apartment again'." Shinji finished saying.

"Geez she's really never going to let that one go, is she? Besides that whole incident started mostly because of her anyway." Asuka stated while slightly defending her daughter, remembering when the apartment was trashed by Aki due to the little one being on an extreme high sugar rush by one of Misato's energy drinks she had left lying around her messy room.

It had taken nearly a whole week to fix the apartment after that and a new absolute rule that was established was that Aki was never to drink anything with too much sugar and that caffeine drinks were completely out of the question also.

"Rei!" Aki's short cry got everyone's attention before the child latched onto the leg of the blue haired teen. "This is gonna be totally wicked! We can stay up late, tell many many bedtime stories and in the morning, Papa!" Aki exclaimed as she let go of Rei and turned towards her father.

"Er..yes honey?" Shinji asked a bit confused on why she suddenly called attention to him.

"You're making waffles," Aki stated while having an all too familiar grin that reminded Shinji of Asuka.

"First of all, kleines Fräulein, you're not staying up late. Next, you will have one bedtime story and lastly yes, Papa will be make waffles or else!" Asuka said while she gave Shinji a smirk and a wink on with the last part. "And speaking of bedtime, it's about time you started getting ready, Schätzchen."

Aki pouted, clearly wanting to stay up a bit more. "Oh, but Mama, I want to play with Rei more..and I'm not even tired yet." the little girl complained.

"Well, if you're not tired yet then I guess me and Mama will make you tired then." Shinji told as Aki saw a smirk on her Papa's face while also seeing his fingers wiggling as he approached her.

Knowing what he was planning to do, Aki ran, giggling and laughing as Shinji was chasing her around the apartment while Asuka smiled as she looked on along with a confused Rei. Turning towards her former blue haired pilot before passing her some clothes. "Here Rei, I got some nightclothes for you to wear."

"Thank you." Rei gave her thanks before wordlessly walking to the bathroom to change.

Just as Asuka watched Rei go into the bathroom she turned back to see that Shinji had finally managed to catch the runaway girl and began tickling her relentlessly, making Aki squeal and laugh like crazy as it went on while also falling on the floor.

"Haha..haha! Papa, stop! Stop! I give! I give! Haha!" Aki squealed out giving the signal to surrender.

"Ha..ha..so..you're finally..tired and ready..for bed…sweetie?" Shinji said while gasping for air. Clearly the chase wore and tired him out more than Aki.

However the cheeky smirk Aki gave him said otherwise and seeing an opening Aki quickly got up again and ran away from her father's grasp. "Nope, not tired yet!"

Shinji sighed heavily before restarting the chase again though this time Shinji was unable to catch his energetic little girl and after a few minutes ended up gasping heavy as he collapsed down on the floor. Regaining enough of his senses, he looked up to see Asuka giving him a slight look of disappointment.

"Um..hey Asuka..ha..tag in?" Shinji weakly asked, still somewhat winded and now extremely tired. His request made Asuka sigh.

"Honestly Shinji, what good is all that exercise you been doing lately if you get this tired from a simple game of chase." Asuka complained and mocked her husband while nudging him with her foot.

Not receiving a response other then a now slight snoring. Asuka blinked for a second in surprise before rolling her eyes at her now sleeping husband, though to be fair both of them have been more tired today then any other. The fact that Aki had woken them both much earlier in then morning than normal and adding in the activities of travelling to the shops, the playground while walking and running around all day, it wasn't a surprise that the two teenage parents were tired.

Despite her own tiredness, Asuka intended to finish what Shinji had started and set to catch Aki, who came back into the living room after now noticing her Papa wasn't trying to tickle catch her.

"Is Papa really sleeping Mama?" Aki asked her mother a bit surprised that her Papa was down for the count while also making sure that this wasn't a trap set by him to make her drop her guard.

"Yep, he's sleeping like a little baby, Schätzchen," Asuka said with Aki giggling at her sleeping father. "You tired him out more than he did you. Which means I have to finish job." Asuka announced with a playful tone as she turned fully to her daughter with her hands ready. Aki, seeing this, was already backing away.

"No..no..NOOO!" Aki screamed and laughed as Asuka continued the chase. Being more athletic than Shinji, Asuka was able to catch her little one after a quick run around the apartment and began tickle torture her baby.

"HAHA! MAMA STOP STOP! HAHAHA" Aki squealing and laughing.

"Oh so are you finally going to surrender and go to bed now, Schätzchen?" Asuka asked Aki as she paused her tickle assault.

Unfortunately Aki broke free from her mother's grasp and ran again. "No surrender!"

Asuka sighed but felt a small amount of pride of Aki saying that before getting to her feet and resuming the chase. Hopefully she would eventually tire out her Aki after a few minutes before she, Shinji and their guest could hit the hay.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Mama, Mama, are we still playing?" Aki asked her now sleeping mother who was now lying next to her still sleeping Papa on the living room floor.

Rei had watched the whole thing play out while she sat on the couch. After changing into the nightwear provided, Rei had seen that Soryu had resumed the chase which Ikari had started but it seemed the young mother had underestimated Aki's youthful stamina. A chase which should have been a few minutes turned into thirty minutes. Asuka had caught Aki dozens of times but Aki still refused to tire out. It got to the point that even Asuka herself collapsed and dozed off to to being knackered from chasing her hyperactive four year old.

"Are they really sleeping Rei?" Aki honesty asked her friend. Not sure if this was still a new tactic to jump her when she wasn't prepared.

Rei nodded to her. "Yes, both of them were already tired from before, so it's no surprise that they are sleeping now."

"Oh ok..well their plan backfired as I'm not sleepy at all." Aki proudly stated, feeling like she had won over her parents at this. "So let's play, Rei!"

Knowing that her little friend wouldn't take no for an answer, she simply agreed with a nod. "Very well. What do you want us to do?"

Aki had a thoughtful look for a moment before perking up, clearly she had something in mind. "Let me tickle chase you!"

Rei was baffled for a second, clearly she had thought that Aki would choose another game to play. "You wish to continue playing what your parents had started?"

"Yep! But this time I'm the one going to be chasing you. So get ready Rei!" Aki said and for some reason Rei Ayanami felt a sense of dread, especially when Aki grinned as she slowly advanced towards her with her hands ready.

x-x-x-x-x

Shinji was have a very pleasant dream of Asuka in a playboy bunny suit before he felt being roughly shaken repeatedly.

"Baka, get your ass up already. You need to see this." Shinji heard Asuka's voice.

"Wha..what is it?" Shinji asked groggily, before he was yanked up by his shirt by his wife and was forcibly dragged unsteadily to his feet and moving along with her rushed movements, nearly tripping up a few times before they both stood at the entrance to Aki's room.

It took Shinji a moment realise what Asuka wanted to show him upon both seeing and even hearing it himself. In their past life, he had seen Rei smile only a total of three times. One being directed towards his father during a synch test, the next one when he himself had told Rei herself to smile after their battle with the fifth angel and the third was during Instrumentality.

What Shinji and Asuka were seeing now in front of them was Rei not only genuinely smiling but she was laughing too. Granted it was soft laughing but Rei was actually laughing and from Aki tickling her. From her underarms to her bare feet which seemed to be the main reason for Rei laughing.

"Well I'll be, would you look at that." Shinji said, amazed at what he was witnessing, sharing a look with Asuka who he knew was likewise amazed at the scene before them. Shinji had always wished for Rei to have more in her life, a bit of happiness rather then being a tool for his father's plans. Now thanks to his daughter Aki, Rei surely was getting that happiness she rightfully deserved.

End.