Chapter 2 - Roomies
"The fifth child!" Asuka and Shinji yelled at once. Rei just stood there with a blank expression on her face.
In walked Kaworu. He was slim and tall, taller than Shinji. But what stood out was that he looked like Rei. He was albino, his skin was the same white silk as Rei but his hair was a different color, it seemed to be more gray then Rei's and a longer cut. But he was still a beautiful sight. Shinji caught himself staring. He couldn't take his eyes off him. The way his off-white cotton shirt hung off one slender shoulder and how the strings from it hung loose across his chest almost seemed flirty but his composure gave away the fear he was really feeling. He was shy and wasn't really comfortable with these strangers staring at him but he tried to remain brave in front his new colleagues.
"Kaworu is an excellent pilot and has passed all his test missions with flying colors. He will be a fine addition to NERV and may even give ol' Rei over there a run for her money." he said gesturing her way. "Well everyone welcome the newest child to our group" Dr. Ikari said putting an arm around Kaworu's shoulders. "Shinji..."
"Huh?" Shinji stammered, being knocked out his dream world. "Oh, hi Kaworu. Welcome to Nerv. I hope you like the place. But be aware of Asuka...she's kind of a slut" he whispered in his ear with a giggle.
"Hey I heard that!!!" Asuka screamed jumping out of her chair.
"Heehee I was just kidding"
"Shinji..." Dr. Ikari cut in "...would show Kaworu around the place and get him settled in. And show him to his new room, he'll be staying in the male quarters, Room 396."
"Oh you poor guy...you have to stay in quarters."
"What wrong with them?" Kaworu asked, still staring at his feet.
'Man this guy really is sigh!' "Well there really small and cold and there's never any hot water, that is if your lucky enough to get to the showers in the morning. Must of the guys that stay there are workers and stuff so they can get pretty stinky..."
"SHINJI!" his father chimed in, cutting him off in mid sentence.
"What? It's true!" he argued in his defense
"Don't listen to him Kaworu, the make quarters aren't that bad. You'll find them just fine until we find you a permanent residence."
"Um sir" Misato, who'd been marvelously quiet this whole time, chimed in "If it's OK with yourself and Shinji, for that matter, Kaworu is welcome to stay with us. I know it's difficult being new and all so may be it'd be best if he had someone around to show him the ropes and I know Shinji would be happy to do it."
"That's not a bad idea. If you have the room I don't see why he couldn't stay with you. Shinji hasn't complained yet..." 'That's what you think father, you haven't tasted her cooking!' "...So what you think? turning to Kaworu who still remained there staring at his shoes "Would you like to live with Misato and Shinji or would you prefer living by yourself?"
Shyly looking up from his shoes he catch Shinji's eye. 'Those eyes...those beautiful crimson eyes...those blood red eyes'
"I think..." he started unsure of himself, "I'd like to stay with Miss Katsuragi and Third Child Shinji Ikari, that is if they don't mind" He hadn't yet broken his gaze with Shinji.
"Hey! How about he stays with me" Asuka broken in, strolling over to Kaworu and pushing Shinji out of way, breaking the albino's hold on him. "I'm all alone, I need some...company" she said seductively clinging onto Kaworu's arm.
"I told you she was a slut!" Shinji whispered into Kaworu's ear as he stared at her with a look of distress on his face. 'Good ol' Asuka.'
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
During this whole introduction process Rei remained in her corner. No longer staring out the window though, her eyes were fixed of this new child. Who was he? What did these people see in him? Why was he being had such a fuss over? Rei for some reason disliked him already but couldn't figure out why. There was just something about him or about how everyone acted around him, especially Shinji, that just rubbed her the wrong way. 'He's new, that's why. In a few weeks he'll just be one of us, no one special and everything will go back to normal' she thought, trying to reassure herself of her procession here at NERV. She was the best and no new kid was going to take that away from her. Even if he did resemble her, he was never going to be better than her.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Oh man my feet are sore!" Shinji complained, knocking off a pile of junk onto the floor that Misato had left on the small yellow foot stool. "Awwww that's better!" he said making himself comfortable in the big chair and putting his feet up on the stool.
The exertions of the day had taken there toll on Shinji's poor feet. They had spent the day, Shinji, Misato and Kaworu...Oh and Asuka (of course, hanging on Kaworu like a lost child) They walked around the entire Nerv center. Some parts of it Shinji hadn't even seen before. They showed him everything from the Main control center to the mess hall (where they'd forced down many horrible meals in their years at Nerv) but the high-light of the tour had to be Eva docking bay. Where Asuka's Eva, Unit-02, slept.
"Your going to be piloting Unit-02 for the time being Kaworu, until your Eva is up and running" said Ritsuko. Kaworu didn't respond. He was mesmerized by the sight of it. He stood there staring with those blood red eyes for what seemed like hours. He couldn't wait until tomorrow so he could finally get to pilot the monstrous machine. Shinji stood there staring at him staring at the Eva 'He's like a kid in a toy store window. So innocent, so carefree'
It was about this time that Asuka got tired of Kaworu's coldness toward her affections and had retired from the tour and returned to her room in the woman's quarters for a little R&R, well at least that's what she said. It was a surprise to Shinji that she could be rejected for that long without loosing her cool. But even when her consistent cooing and clinging to his arm he never said a word. It was almost scary the way he remained quiet the entire tour, but, Shinji could see from his facial expressions that he was utterly amazed by what he saw. The shear size and technological genius of the compound was enough to amaze anyone for that matter. Well, until your there for 3/4 of your life.
Even on their drive back to Misato's apartment Kaworu remain placid. Quietly staring out the passenger side window, a small smile creased his small, almost pouty, lips. He seemed to be enjoying just sitting there taking in his surroundings.
'I guess he's never been to Toyko-3 before? Man his not even complaining about almost being killed by Misato's horrible driving on his first day. I wish I had that guys composer'
Shinji couldn't help but be amazed. 'This guy must be an awesome fighter, Father was right, he is going to get Rei and run for her money if he fights like I imagine... OUCH!!'
"OUCH!!!" Shinji yelled after hitting his head on the seat in front of him when Misato slammed the breaks in her parking spot in the parking garage of her apartment building.
"Make yourself at home Kaworu, you can grab anything out of the fridge and the TV's over there" Misato said pointing to the television sitting in the corner, but at first glace it would have been hard to find since it was covered with Misato's usual mess of clothes, garbage and the occasional newspaper here and there.
"It's OK man, you'll get used to the mess after awhile...hey if not you can go stay with Asuka" Shinji joked. No mess could ever force him to do that again.
"Go on have a seat, supper'll be done in a few...minutes?" she said realizing there was nothing in the fridge except baking soda, a couple cans of beer and a two hot dogs from the night before. "May be I'll order pizza"
Slowly, unsure of where to sit due to the excessive amounts of dirty laundry which covered 70% of the apartment, Kaworu put down his small leather bag, which was the only bag he'd brought, and took a seat on the soft forest green couch across from Shinji. Whom was still pampering his sore feet.
"So..." Shinji started, not really knowing what to say to the guy "..how do ya like the place? I know it's a little messy but don't worry after wash day it'll be clean for the 3 hours it takes to wash it all, at least it'll be a clean smelling mess" he joked and to his shear amazement and faint smile crossed his face as he looked up at him. 'Yes it worked!'
"Kaworu, you can go put your stuff in Shinji's room, it just through that door and get cleaned up before the pizza guy gets here."
'My Room!! Oh man! I never really thought about him staying with ME! What if I have that dream again and I say or do "something" in my sleep. Oh man!'
"Ummmm, my room? Are...are you sure there's...room in there for both of us? Like...well...I snore and I might keep him up and my floor is kinda hard. Don't you think it's be better if he...?"
"Oh stop it, there lots of room in there and I'll put in cot in there until I can get something better. Hey, you guys'll have fun. You can talk and listen to music and paint each others toe nails...err...whatever guys do when they sleep over. It'll be fun! We'll have a slumber play!! Just like went we were kids!" she said bouncing up and down like a little girl who had too much sugar.
Kaworu giggled slightly at her as he got up to get his bag.
"We'll have fun" he teased, as he past Shinji on his way to their room, with a smile on his face.
During supper Kaworu began to open up more. He wasn't quite as reserved as he was and joined in on Shinji and Misato's small talk on the whether and the future of their company softball team (which they convinced Kaworu to join), but he back out during there argument but the best pizza toppings. Since Misato's choice of pineapple and anchovies hadn't gone over to well with Shinji. Yet he seemed to enjoy watching Misato turn red in the face when Shinji started throwing the tiny fish across the table at her.
By bedtime they were all pretty exhausted. Misato had been sitting there nodding off in front of the TV for about a half and hour and Shinji could barely keep his eyes open long enough to finish his Chemistry project. Kaworu, on the other hand, sat silently reading a book he'd brought with him. It was an old brown covered novel of some sort but it had no title on it so Shinji wasn't sure what it was. He seemed to be deeply involved in the storyline cause he never once looked up from it in the hour or more that he'd reading it, that Shinji noticed that is.
"Good book?" Shinji asked trying more than anything to break the boredom of his homework.
Kaworu looked up surprised. "Oh! yes it is"
"What's it about?"
"Oh it's a romance"
"Romance? How can you read that stuff?" Shinji wrinkled his nose in disgust at the notion of a guy reading a romantic novel.
"It's really good actually" he said trying to defend himself, "Lots of fighting and jealous lovers and stuff...very good"
"Ummmm, OK I'll take your word for it" he said going back to his homework.
At that moment Misato pealed herself from her spot in front of the television and walked over to them. "OK guys I think it's time you to get to bed, we have to get up early in the morning for Kaworu's test drive of Unit-04. So scoot! Get to bed!"
After brushing their teeth they both entered Shinji's room to see Misato had made up a small cot with a pillow and a couple blankets from the hall closet beside Shinji's.
"Well, goodnight Shinji" Kaworu said as he crawled onto his little cot fully clothed.
"Aren't you going to get on your pajamas or something?" Shinji asked puzzled.
"Well, I don't have any" he replied staring at the ceiling.
"You don't? Well I think I have an extra pair around here somewhere.
Shinji opened the drawer of his dresser and pulled out a nicely folded pair of blue and white stripped ones. His room was a far cry from the rest of the apartment, everything was neat and clean. Not the typical teenage boys room by far.
"Here ya go" he said handing them to him.
Seemingly unshy about undressing in front of others, Kaworu stripped off down to his white boxers which seemed to fade into the white of his skin in the dim moonlight. The figure of the slender albino seemed to glow like the figure in his dream. The thought gave Shinji a jolt but was dismissed as quickly as came.
"I think they're a little small" Kaworu giggled turning to Shinji, looking down at the legs of bottoms which were a good 2 inches too short. Along with the arms of the shirt.
Shinji had noticed how much taller Kaworu was then him. He looked to be about the same age as him but he was a good 2 or 3 inches shorter.
"We'll have to go get you something better tomorrow" Shinji said also giggling at the sight of him. Kaworu did look pretty silly, like a kid that didn't want to give up his favor PJ's even after he was way to big for them.
Both exhausted by now they crawled into bed and covered up.
"Goodniff Kaworufff" Shinji said with his head buried in his pillow.
"Goodnight Shinji"
