Chapter 3 -Test drive

Chapter 3 -Test drive

The stars twinkled little a million diamonds on the inky black background of space as Shinji glided effortlessly through the nothingness. The spectacular colors of distant planets and the bright shining of the stars were mesmerizing. Until, all at once, the stars began to combined to a mass of white light that, almost seemingly by magic, took the form of human being. The slender form was so familiar now. 'May be it is Rei' As he tried to reach for her hand the dream faded and was replaced by the annoying BUZZ of his alarm clock on the night stand beside him.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"What the fffff....?" Shinji groaned, rolling over to give his alarm clock a piece of his mind. 'What time is it?'

"Hurry up in there, we're going to be late!" Misato yelled from the kitchen. Shinji could smell bacon cooking on the stove, the only thing Misato could manage to make a not screw up.

"I'm coming" he replied with a yawn. 'Hey where's Kaworu?'

Kaworu's little cot was empty. His blankets were all folded and piled neatly at the end of it with the pajamas that Shinji had lent him placed nicely on the top of the pile.

'I didn't even hear him get up this morning'

'Oh Man! I had that dream again, I hope I didn't do anything "weird" last night. Just go out there and act normal...just act normal!'

Hoping out of bed he jogged to the door and threw it open to see Misato and Kaworu sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a delicious looking plate of bacon and scrambled eggs. Kaworu looked up at Shinji with a piece of bacon hanging from his mouth.

"Good...oops!" dropping the bacon back onto his plate "Good morning Shinji. Did you sleep well?"

'Oh man what's that supposed to mean. Did I do something? Act normal'

"Yeah, fine. Thanks. When did you get up anyways? I didn't even heard you get up."

"Oh I've been up for awhile. Couldn't sleep. Too excited!"

This was the first time since arriving in Tokyo-3 that Kaworu has shown any amount of emotion towards anything. But the thought of piloting the Unit-02 today has got him down right giddy.

After breakfast and a nice shower, a cold one in Shinji's case, they were off.

"Here ya go Kaworu" said Ritsuko handing him his brand new plug suit. It was pretty much like Shinji's except for the obvious size difference and slight variation in color.

"Just go in the dressing room over there" she said motioning to the door on the opposite side of the docking bay "If you have trouble Shinji'll help you out."

Walking over to the row of lockers in the dressing room to retrieve his own suit Shinji noticed a new locker had been added to the row. The letters 'K. Nagisa' had been printed in gold on the blue metal door.

"Hey Kaworu" Shinji called him over "Look you've got your own locker now too, right beside mine" he said showing him the front his own locker.

"Who's 'S. ka i'?" Kaworu asked with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, I need to get that fixed" he giggled removing his plug suit from the hook.

"I'll be right back"

Shinji was a little shy about undressing in front of people so he retired to the bathroom stall to put on his plug suit. When he returned though Kaworu was still struggling to figure out how to put it on.

"How do you put this stupid thing on" he said with a growl

"Well first you have to take off your clothes" Shinji said holding up his bundle of clothes.

"Oh! Everything?"

"Afraid so" he said throwing the bundle into his locker.

"OK" he said pulling his shirt off over his head, then his pants which he through in a pile on the floor. Then came his socks and underwear. He wasn't shy in the least. He didn't even bother turning his back when he undressed. Well, he had to be shy about, he was very well endowed. 'Wow! What? What am I doing? He's a guy! Stop looking!!' But Shinji couldn't. he was very handsome. Even with his slender physic he was in great shape. His abs and pecs were strong and well defined....along with something else. And his white skin seemed to glow under the florescent lights, kind of like it had the night before in the moonlight of Shinji's room.

"Shinji?"

"Huh?" Shinji was catch off guard, he had slipped back into his dream world.

Kaworu stood there in his plug suit without it 'vacuum sealed' (as they like to call it).

"I think it's a little big" he said as he stood there with his suit hanging off him like a little kid in there parents clothes.

"Oh here" Shinji pushed a small bottom on the wrist of his suit and it immediately sealed itself to the contours of his body. "There your all set to go!"

Shinji took a deep breath so he turned to leave the dressing room trying to compose himself again. 'What was that? He's a guy for god sakes! But he's so...NO!! STOP IT!!! Stop thinking like that!!...'

"Test run #4570. Eva: Unit-02. Pilot: Fifth Child Kaworu Nagisa, is about to commence. Everyone please evacuate the docking bay" Misato announced over the intercom as Kaworu began his start-up procedures for his test run of Unit-02. Shinji knew that Kaworu was tremendously excited about that test run but he remained completely professional the entire time. He'd be waiting for this moment for a long time but he couldn't believe how calm he'd been this whole time, his heart rate never fluctuated as the LCL was injected into the cabin of Unit-02. 'How can he stay so calm? The first time I piloted an Eva I almost died! I thought I was going to drowned in that LCL, so how can he be so calm? He's not even acting brave...he is genuinely brave!'

"Test run #4570. Eva: Unit-01. Pilot: Second Child Shinji Ikari, is about to commence start-up procedures." she announced over the intercom.

"OK Shinji that's your call" she said turning to me, motioning me to get going.

"How do you like it?" Shinji asked Kaworu as they practiced for battle against each other in the training field.

"I love it!" replied an excited Kaworu from the cockpit of Unit-02.

Dr. Ikari was right. This guy was going to give Rei a run for her money. Every punch Shinji threw he blocked, every blow was deflected. 'This guy is really good! OK I have to concentrate!'

He through another series of blows and strikes, all deflected by the very skillful Kaworu.

'Oh god this guy has awesome mental control, his Sync Ratio must be amazing! Just like the rest of him...What! NO!! Don't think like that!'

"Shinji..." Misato's voice came over the intercom. "your losing mental control...you have to concentrate"

'I am concentrating...kind of. But this guy is amazing! He's so mentally strong...and physically...No Stop thinking like that! I'm not gay!'

"Shinji! Concentrate! What's going on?" Misato yelled with a hint of concern in her voice.

"Nothing...just didn't sleep well last night" Shinji lied

"Well keep your head up...the new kid is kicking your ass!" she teased.

'OK gotta concentrate...keep my eye on the ball...or balls. NO!! Brain stop it! Stop thinking like that! What the...?'

BANG!! Kaworu hit him in the chest of the Eva while Shinji argued with himself, knocking him off his feet. He landed with a crash on the grass. Dirt and dust flew sky high as Shinji lay there stunned not knowing what hit him.

"OUCH! Hey be gentle!" Shinji hollered as Ritsuko cleaned a wound on Shinji's forehead. He'd hit his head when he hit the ground after Kaworu's blow.

"I think you'll live. Here..." she said putting a band-aid over the cut, which was a lot smaller that it first appeared.

"Are you OK?" Kaworu asked as he jogged into the infirmary from the docking bay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little cut" Shinji replied rubbing the sore spot on his forehead.

"Oh I'm sorry!" Kaworu said sympathetically laying one hand on Shinji's leg and the other on the band-aid on his forehead.

'His hand is on my leg...Oh god why do I feel so nervous? God what's up with me?'

Kaworu gently ran his finger tips along the length of the bandage, sending a tingle up Shinji's spine. Not purposely, Shinji let out a little sigh of pleasure. 'Oh no, I hope he didn't hear that! He didn't seem too...phew!'

The rest of the day seemed to pass quite quickly. Kaworu continued he's training of the Unit-02 well Shinji watched from the monitors in the control room. 'This guy is really good. He hasn't had a mistake once yet!' Unit-01 had been damaged slightly in the course of Shinji's fall so he remained behind for the rest of the day. Not really wanting to go up against Kaworu again anyway. 'I'm glad that guy is on our side!'

But all day the thought of what he was feeling around Kaworu nagged at him the whole day. What was this he was feeling? Was he nervous around him because he was an excellent fighter or was it because he had a crush on him? 'It can't be a crush! I'm not gay! Well, not that I know of. This has never happened before'

The thought was confusing. He didn't know how to approaching the situation. 'May be if I just ignore it this feeling will go away'

And that's what he did for the remainder of the afternoon, or tried to. He kept himself busy as best he could. Going over training schedules and exercises and even poked fun at Asuka, who'd popped in to see how Kaworu was treating her baby, along with Rei, who stayed relatively quiet during the whole session. Actually, Rei hadn't very much of anything since Kaworu showed up.

"Rei…" Shinji asked concerned "are you OK? You haven't said a word in hours?"

Rei just flashed Shinji a worried glance and walked out of the room.

"What's wrong with her?" Asuka asked in a snobby tone as she followed after her.

"Rei! Rei wait up!!" Asuka yelled jogging up to her as she swiftly walked down the corridor. "Wait up would ya? What's wrong?" she asked catching up to her.

Rei looked at her with a worried expression on her face. "Asuka...there's something about Kaworu..."

"Yeah I know!" Asuka chimed in

"You know?" Rei asked surprised

"Yeah. He's Hot!!!" she replied wiping her forehead "Phew!"

"No! I don't mean it like that"

"What he's not hot?"

"No...well yes...but...Stop it! That's not what I was talking about" Rei said heatedly "There's something not...not right about him. I keep getting this weird feeling whenever I'm around him."

"I know what it is! You like him!" Asuka joked. "Kaworu and Rei sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G" She sang dancing around.

Her song echoed in the empty corridor as Rei, disgusted by the whole thought, shook her head and began walking away. But there was something about Kaworu that she could figure out. What was it that was so different? What was this feeling? "I couldn't be attracted to him, could I?" she asked herself, looking at her feet as she walked. "I've never had a crush on anyone so...so this what it is? No there something else there! But what?"