Rei looked at her reflection in the mirror, amazed at what she saw before her. Her hair had been dampened slightly and combed back, with only slight wisps of her normally-overbearing fringe remaining. Her lips had been covered in pale lipstick, which now stood out from the rest of her face. Her shoulders were bare except for the thin straps that supported the midnight blue dress Asuka had given to her. The satin material brushed against her skin as she moved. Her feet were propped up on high-heeled shoes.
'So...what do you think?' Asuka asked from behind her.
'I don't recognise myself,' Rei said, stunned, and Asuka couldn't help smiling.
'I only wish...' Rei said softly.
'What?' Asuka asked, mishearing.
'Hmm?' The memory of a face seeped out of Rei's mind, a phantom image that was quickly forgotten.
'You said something...didn't you?'
'Oh...do I have to wear these shoes?'
------------------
Misato opened her door on a tall boy who stood nervously on her doorstep.
'Is, uh, Rei here?' he asked.
'Oh, hi! You're Toshiro, right?' Misato stuck out her hand.
'That's right.' He shook her hand.
'Come in! Rei'll be ready in just a moment.'
'Actually...' came Rei's voice from down the hall. Misato turned around, unblocking Toshiro's view of the hallway, and in turn allowing him to see Rei. She looked...stunning, far different to the girl who had approached him, urged on by her friends, in her athletics uniform, fresh from her training for javelin throwing. The dress she wore made her look...radiant, sophisticated...beautiful. Toshiro only hoped that his jaw had remained in a stationary position.
'I'm ready now,' she said, finishing her sentence.
------------------
'Have fun, you two!' Misato shouted out the door as Rei and Toshiro left.
'Did I miss him?' Asuka asked, running out of her room with a towel still wrapped around her wet hair.
'Mm-hmm. Do you know much about him?'
'Toshiro? He's one of Toji's friends. He plays basketball. He's a bit older than her, too...'
'By how much?' Misato asked from the kitchen, over the sound of a can of Yebisu being opened.
'I don't know...' In truth, she did: Toshiro would turn nineteen before Rei would sixteen, but she didn't want to bother Misato. Asuka walked into the kitchen, and it then registered to her what Misato was wearing: her cut-off shorts and bright yellow top that she always wore around the house.
'You didn't answer the door in that, did you?'
Misato eyed Asuka over her beer can. 'Yes...why?'
'Mi-sa-to!'
'What?'
------------------
Rei leant in close to Hikari from across the table as Toji and Toshiro left and whispered sharply to her, 'Do you think he likes me?'
Hikari smiled. 'Yes.'
'Really?'
'Yes.'
'I'm not...doing anything wrong...am I?'
'No...but you might want to let him put his arm around you when he comes back to the table.'
Rei smiled, and then leaned back into her chair.
------------------
'What're you going to do on the team now?' Toshiro asked Toji. Toji grinned at him.
'I'll be the mascot.' Toshiro and Toji shared a short laugh, but he quickly sobered. 'As soon as I'm free of these crutches, I'll be back on the court.' He looked up at Toshiro and grinned again. 'And ready to kick your sorry butt any time, anywhere.'
'Always so sure of yourself, huh? I guess that's what Hikari sees in you, 'cause I certainly can't figure out what she hangs around such a big dumb lunk for.'
A grin crossed Toji's face again, and glanced back at the table where Hikari and Rei were sitting. 'So...what do you think of Rei?'
Toshiro now looked where Toji's gaze was, and said, 'She's nice. A little quiet, but nice. And very pretty in that dress.'
A few moments were spent in silence until Toji said, 'C'mon...let's return to our lovely ladies.'
------------------
'I had a great time tonight, Rei.'
'Me too,' she said, smiling as she looked up at Toshiro.
'Well...I guess this is goodnight,' he said as they reached the door of Misato's apartment.
'...Goodnight,' Rei said, noticing that they were both hesitant to separate.
Toshiro bent down a little to give Rei a goodnight kiss, a first-date kiss, her first kiss. Their lips brushed for a moment...then pressed together for a moment...and another...and another...
Rei felt Toshiro's hands draw in to hold her close, and she responded by clasping her hands around the back of his neck. She was warmed by the heat radiating out of his body on the cold night as he held her closer to his chest. The door to Misato's apartment pressed against Rei's back as both she and Toshiro found their balance resting against the structure. Their kiss broke, and as Toshiro's lips touched the skin of Rei's neck, she dug her fingers into his back in a sudden burst of lust that had replaced the love created inside of her a moment ago. The kiss outside the door by the glow of the moon had awakened a raging beast of an emotion from inside her heart, one that had gained the taste of blood and craved and hungered for more...
'Rei? Is that you? I thought I heard something out here...' came the voice from inside the apartment as the door slid open. Rei instantly began to grab at the door frame for balance, but faltered as Toshiro was pulled down on her by the tangle their feet made, and finally they both fell on top of each other.
Misato, caught in a rare situation, was lost for words. Asuka, who had come into the hallway to see what had made the noise, saw Toshiro lying on top of Rei, both with a bright red colouring creeping across their faces, and began screaming in mock-horror, 'Perverts! You haven't even finished your first date and you're already on top of each other!' Asuka's furious expression held for a second, and then was ruined by her collapsing into the hallway, laughing and adding to the red flush on Rei and Toshiro's faces.
------------------
'Miss Ibuki? I need you to run these to the copier on level seven.'
Maya looked up from her terminal as several papers were dropped onto her desk.
'Oh...yes, sir.' She hopped to her feet, picked up the folder of paperwork and headed to the elevator. It was a welcome change to where she had worked in her time with Nerv: no sterile walls, no warning signs every five paces, no questioning if you were going to live out the day or not. Maya thought back to the letter in the mail, asking her if she was available to work. The letter had made mention of a Doctor Akagi, and that had brought a smile to her face to know that Ritsuko had personally referred her to them: she hadn't seen her since the Geofront had been sealed off. Maya sometimes wondered what everyone else was doing; she had heard Hyuga say on the morning she heard the Commander was dead that he was planning to catch a train west to Kyoto, to see his family, and that he might just not show up for work after that. She also remembered the Sub-Commander mentioning something about his old teaching degree in conversation a few days later, after the media people had begun to show up. As for all the others...she did not know.
The elevator slowed, and opened its doors on a woman in her early thirties. Her hair way dyed blonde. Her face was unmarked, except for the dark spot of a mole near the corner of her left eye.
'...Doctor Akagi?'
Ritsuko's eyes widened. 'Maya?' She nodded emphatically. Ritsuko stepped aside so that Maya could exit the elevator. Maya noticed absently that in Ritsuko's hand was a coffee mug.
'So you did take the job after all,' Ritsuko remarked. 'I hadn't seen you here at all, I thought the recommendation never reached you.'
'No, it got to me...how did you end up working here?' They had stopped by a desk was clearly the territory of Ritsuko Akagi, as it was covered in small cat trinkets and stained coffee coasters.
'I was sent for personally. Even when you work for a secret organisation, people still find out who you are.' Ritsuko smiled at her humour, and Maya joined her.
'So tell me,' Ritsuko said, taking a sip of her coffee. 'When do you leave for lunch? We have a lot of catching up to do.'
Maya glanced at one of the clocks on the wall. 'Just as soon as I run these-' She indicated the folder in her hand. '-To be copied.'
The two left in the direction of the copy room, Ritsuko setting her coffee mug on her desk.
------------------
Sitting on the desk was a pen, paper, and an article torn from a newspaper giving details on the rebuilding of Japan's capital, Toyko-3. Shinji regarded the clipping for a moment, noting the yellowing colour around the edges, showing its age against the white of the plain paper on the desk. He picked up the pen, and wrote down an address that still came easy to his mind. The pen jumped two lines, wrote down, 'Dear Misato,' and stopped.
Shinji stared at the paper, almost nothing registering in his brain except the low noise of traffic in the background. The pen touched to the paper again, pressing in and making a black dot, before Shinji picked up the letter and crushed it in his hand.
------------------
Toji gripped the bars, feeling their flesh-like composition give way slightly under his grasp. He gritted his teeth, focusing his left arm more than anything else in his body, as it was not really his left arm, but a mechanical duplicate wired into his nerve network. It was a year and a half since he had been put on the waiting list for the operation to have a genetically-grown arm and leg reattached to the twisted stumps the Eva had left with him, and so had to learn how to use the prosthetic limbs in the same manner as a person who is learning how to walk again. Slowly, he rose out of his wheelchair that he used for convenience in the hospital, and was propped up on the two bars. He put his right leg forward, and then slowly took the weight off it and transferred it to his left. The leg was always harder, but something was telling him inside that this time, he could manage to do it, and do it right...
Toji quickly found his internal instinct to be wrong as his left leg buckled under his weight. He tightened his grip on the bars, but in a couple of seconds, he knew his arm would also relent under the stress and drop him to the ground.
Hands, soft and light, rushed to support him, and Toji felt the weight of his body decrease somewhat. He looked up from the floor, and realised he was looking into Hikari's eyes, filled with concern for him.
'You know you shouldn't do that,' she said tenderly, 'Why do you keep on trying?'
'I just...' Toji sank back into his chair. 'I thought I could do it today.'
'Are you hurt?'
'No...it just...it pisses me off so much! Every time I touch something with this hand...'
He raised his left hand from the arm of the wheelchair, and then slammed it back down.
'...I know what I'm feeling isn't real.
Hikari touched the side of his face, caressing it and bringing his view back into her eyes again.
'It will be soon.'
'It's always soon.'
Hikari leaned in close to him to give him a hug of support, close enough so he could smell the sweet scent of the shampoo in her hair. Toji hugged her back...but it still felt as if he was only using one of his hands.
------------------
Asuka tapped her pen against the kitchen table, concentrating on how to word a response to her literature homework. She always excelled at all of her mathematical subjects...however, those that were of a less technical and more creative nature she still had to concentrate to complete. It was good atmosphere for study, actually: the afternoon sun shone through the balcony window, through the living room where Rei was, and into the kitchen, casting an orange-tinted shadow of her across the papers that lay on the table. Rei was listening to a compilation of classical music on the mini-stereo system that had been a joint purchase between them some time last year. From then on, Asuka's collection of music had increase drastically, now that she had something to play it on. Rei also owned a handful of albums, with wide variation between them, opposing and reflecting Asuka's focused taste in music. However, the two of them rarely argued over the subject of music, as Rei was impartial to practically any genre of it (except pop music, the Japanese version of which Asuka despised, so there was a mutual agreement on that ground), and Asuka thought that Rei was the perfect selector of background music...
'Focus on your work, Asuka,' she muttered to herself, mentally scolding herself for her wandering mind.
The distraction had provided her with something, at least. She began to write down the next handful of lines for her homework. A bombastic cannoning of drums signalled the end of the sixth piece on the classical album in the background.
The sound of violins rose up over the sound of pen on paper...a tune that seemed very familiar...
'Ha-llelujah! Ha-llelujah!'
'No...'
'Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Ha-lle-lu-jah!'
Her hand clamped down on the pen she held, turning the tips of her fingers a sickly white.
'Ha-llelujah! Ha-llelujah!'
The pressure on the pen increased.
'Hallelujah! Hallelujah!'
Beneath the notes of the chorus and the violins, the pen made a hollow snapping noise as it broke in two.
'Ha-lle-lu-jah!'
Asuka brought her hands over her ears, trying desperately to block out the noise. However, just like in the entry plug, it kept coming, seeking, invading, searching...finding...seeing...knowing...
Her eyes screwed up, and her hands clenched at her hair, but she was oblivious to the pain that it brought.
'Shut it off! Shut it off! Shut it off!'
For one moment of pure terror, Asuka thought the noise would never end, that she would be trapped in this choral hell for eternity, forced to expose herself to that blinding white light again...and it was silent. The only noise brought to Asuka ears was the sound of her heavy breathing.
'Asuka? What happened?' asked a shocked Rei, who had ran into the kitchen after delivering a rapid twist to the volume dial.
'Don't ever play that song again,' Asuka said, her head laying on the kitchen table, her cheeks hot with fear and moist with tears. 'Ever.'
------------------
'Hikari?'
Hikari paused in the doorway of the classroom. 'Yes?'
'Where was Toji today?' asked Asuka.
'Didn't I tell you?' Asuka shook her head, mildly puzzled, as several other students in their class filed out past them. 'He's going into the hospital today to get his grafting done.'
'Oh, wow! So he'll be off his crutches for good now?'
'He has ten days in the hospital for recovery and physical training. After that...he never has to go back there.'
'What are you two girls waiting for? School has finished for today,' said a passing teacher to Asuka and Hikari.
'Oh...sorry, sir,' Asuka said, and quickly walked with Hikari up the corridor.
------------------
The door to Misato's apartment slid open.
"Rei? You home?' Asuka called as she walked into the kitchen, Hikari following behind her. There was no response, aside from a rustling sound that came from Misato's fridge as Pen Pen climbed out of the flap built into the door.
'She must be with Toshiro somewhere,' Hikari offered, sitting down beside Asuka at the table.
'That must be it.'
'...Oh!' Hikari exclaimed softly as she felt something brush by her leg. She looked down to see Misato's warm-water penguin standing beside her. Pen Pen looked up at her for a moment, and then walked off again.
'What's with him?' Hikari asked. 'Normally Pen Pen's happy to see me.'
'Who knows?' Asuka replied. 'He's weird.'
Pen Pen paused in climbing back into his fridge to turn around and give Asuka what Hikari thought was a dirty look. She giggled as she saw a surprised look cross Asuka's face.
'I've been thinking about giving Toji...a present...for when he comes out of the hospital,' Hikari told Asuka, who was still starting at Pen Pen's fridge.
'Hmm? What sort of present?' she asked, missing Hikari's implication.
'A...present, Asuka...'
'A...oh.' She turned around to face Hikari. 'Are you sure it's...it's the right time?'
Hikari nodded her head, slowly, closing her eyes as she did so. 'I've thought about it a lot...and that's something special I want to share with him.'
------------------
'...Rei?'
Rei heard footsteps come closer to where she sat on one of the bean bags in Misato's living room, curled up into a ball and staring at her legs. She didn't raise her head to make eye contact with Asuka, as she knew her eyes would give away instantly what she had been doing in silence in the apartment: crying.
'Rei? What's wrong?'
'Go away,' Rei remarked, shocked a little by the hoarseness of her voice. She saw Asuka's leg appear in her vision as she sat down near her, and after a moment, it was clear that Asuka wasn't going to leave without an answer.
'Toshiro...he broke up with me.'
'Oh...are you going to be alright?'
Rei took a deep breath. 'Yes...just...let me be alone now, okay?'
A moment passed before Asuka said softly, 'Okay.'
------------------
The rain made gentle liquid noises against the window panes of the house that Toji's family had bought outside of the city. Hikari and Toji, the only two people in the house, sat on an old and faded couch close to the close of Toji's first day after being discharged from the hospital, watching the television in each other's arms but not paying any attention to it. Hikari had planned in her mind that they would go to one of the lookouts at the outskirts of the city and watch at the sun set behind the buildings, but they had been rained out, and had both agreed to take the train back to Toji's house. As the pair broke their embrace momentarily, Hikari asked Toji, 'So...has it been a good day?'
Toji kissed her once more, and said, 'Perfect,' smiling as his eye flickered to the wet window.
They settled back down into the couch to watch another segment of the film showing on the television, both knowing that in a few minutes they would be oblivious to it again...and yet neither minding at all. Hikari was comfortable to lie inside the protection of Toji's embrace for a moment, as the rain made gentle liquid noises against the window panes.
Hikari reached up to touch Toji's hand that was holding her close with her own, and caressed it gently for a moment, before leading it close to her mouth. She felt Toji shift position slightly, bringing them closer together. She kissed the first finger of his left hand, taking it in to her mouth slightly as she did so, and she felt Toji's breath hitch slightly. She moved on to the second finger, closing her eyes, feeling his heart beat stronger close to her. When she opened her eyes again, after taking her lips from the fourth finger, she found herself gazing into Toji's own.
Not a word was spoken between them, as both knew fully what the other would be thinking without the need to speak. Toji questioned by brushing the hair from Hikari's face, and she answered by meeting his lips with her own, confirming and crossing the final threshold.
The two rose in synchronised movements, still in embrace. The silence was finally broken by Hikari as Toji lay her down, as she said, 'Please...be gentle.' Gentle he was, as her kissed her, as he held her, as he entered her, as he loved her, as the rain made gentle noises against the window panes.
------------------
-A year passes-