This chapter contains extremely mature and violent content. Reader discretion advised.
Rated NC-17
What are you doing? Unit-01 asked curiously.
I turned the welding tool off and shoved the face guard up onto my head, sighing in exasperation as I wiped sweat off my forehead. "At the moment, nothing!" I told it acidly. I was glad that I was the only one working in the EVA bay right now. "I can't do anything when you're talking to me, because I can't risk having you in my head when I'm attempting to work with such a dangerous tool!" I shook the welder almost angrily. "So just be quiet and let me fix you up, alright?"
No reponse. I sighed again, slammed the face guard down and got back to work.
Unit-01 and I had had a bit of an accident, only one in a long series of accidents. It wasn't major compared to the plug incident, but it was serious enough to warrant me having to get up super early and do what I could to fix it.
We had been above ground again, looking for supplies, and I had gone by the lake. I was not prepared at all to have found a few archaic pieces of artillery waiting for me. They looked like big boxes attempted to be cut into a rounder, ovular shape and rolled about on nice long treads that were in their death throes of productive use. Huge guns were attached to the fronts. They had fired on me. None of the shells did damage when they hit, but they did disrupt my thought patterens or the relays in the Unit to them enough that I tripped and stumbled into several buildings and the remainder of a rather formidable wall. Unit-01's shins had been scraped fairly badly and I needed to replace a toe plate. I was doing the toe plate now, provided that the Unit could keep from talking to me long enough for me to get anything productive done.
As it was, I didn't really want Tashi, Risa or Kyle finding out that I'd fallen like that. Tashi was likely to give me a Look that said, "You should be more careful." Risa would check to see if I was alright, and truthfully, my back did kind of hurt. I must have twisted when I fell. Kyle would laugh.
I finished the toe plate as the lights in C&C came on; I packed up the tools and put them back in their closet. By the time I had gotten that done, Tashi had come down to the floor level and was waiting for me.
"What are you doing up so early?" he asked, yawning.
I grinned at him. "Minor repairs," I replied. "The air above is positively acidic."
He only stared at me, the expression on his face unreadable. Then he reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Looks good," he approved, which was followed quickly by a yawn. "It's too damn early," he complained.
"Then what are you doing up?" I asked.
"Couldn't sleep. Besides, we have those joint tests today." Today was a special kind of test. Tashi wanted to see the plug suits really affected our performance in the Units or not. "Come help me set up before the other two get up." He turned and started across the bay again. I followed.
We worked in silence for a long time. It was nice, just the two of us, working together just like we used to before Risa had joined us. There was this sense of infinite friendship between us at this moment as we worked; the knowledge that we would always have this special affinity for each other, and that nothing could really destroy it.
Kyle was up next; he was always a zombie in the morning, so he didn't even try talking to us right away. Risa followed soon after, and she was all ready to help with the final preperations.
Finally, the test was set up and we took the time out then to have some breakfast and relax before starting. Kyle was more sociable, and while Tashi and Risa discussed something about the Units, he started talking to me.
It wasn't as though we hadn't talked before. It was that we hadn't as much of an opportunity to talk since he had gotten better.
"So what's the plan?" he asked. His eyes held mine.
"We're going to see if plug suits really affect our performance in the EVA's," I said, managing to get my gaze back to what I was eating, so I missed the gleam that stole into his eyes. He hid it very well; I only caught a glimpse of that look when I turned back to him. I wondered if I had even seen it at all.
He laid his hand on my arm; it lingered there as he spoke, leaning closer to me. "I'm sure you'll do fine," he whispered, an odd grin stretched across his face.
The test took place later that morning. Risa and I had to strip down completely in the curtained off area Tashi and I had prepared, and then relax ourselves as completely as we could before getting into the entry plugs.
I remember this, the Unit -- Shinji -- said.
That's fantastic, I shot back at him, not really knowing if I was annoyed at him or just plain annoyed.
It was an uneventful test, at least for Risa and I. All we had to do was sit there like any other test. Tashi sounded completely neutral when he said we could get out, so I couldn't even speculate as to how the results turned out.
Risa and I had to take a bath afterwards. The LCL felt so slimy against our bare skin and in our hair that we just ran straight to the bath room. We took a nice long soak in our "tub", which was really just a remnant of a tub, but a fairly large one, so we could both sit in it at the same time. It was a little crowded, but we managed.
Risa got out when she felt sufficiently clean; I stayed longer, wanting to relax a bit more. Plus I was feeling a little bit tired now. I tried not to fall asleep in the tub, but I did.
Kyle found me; I don't know how much later. It didn't feel like it had been very long at all, but it could have been.
"Hey, sleepyhead, wake up," he said, shaking me by the shoulder.
I jerked awake, splashing water out of the tub. The water left was cool, so it must have been a fairly long time since I had fallen asleep. "Huh? What -- ?"
"Relax," he assured me, laughing. "Tashi said you were up super early, so he said it would be okay for you to sleep for awhile, although when Risa told him where you were likely to be sleeping, he didn't think it would be very nice for you to drown. So he sent me."
I was uncomfortable without really knowing why. Why couldn't Tashi have come, or Risa? Then I remembered that they were still doing final repairs on Unit-00. It had had a bulkhead or something equally heavy fall from the ceiling onto it's shoulder. The long plate rising off the shoulder was bent inwards.
I got of the tub then, reaching down and pulling the plug out. The water drained downwards with a slurping sound. I didn't really mind that Kyle was still in the room.
My body caused me no shame. I had spent too many years in the ranks of the work force and big communal baths -- when we got them -- to be ashamed of it. I thought about that as I dried myself off from my bath with the scrap of sheet we used for a towel.
Tashi had always respected my privacy, even when we very small. When we had been chained together, he had always looked the other way when I needed to go to the bathroom and I had done likewise for him. We had least helped each other with our baths without feeling guilty...
I stopped drying myself and looked down at my body. I was very slender, but that was to be expected. I had been underfed my whole life -- poor feeding did not do wonders for one's muscle structure. The best thing was, since leaving the work force, we had eaten better, and the flesh around my ribs had filled out. I always thought they had looked rather silly, poking out like they had been.
Tashi had once said that I was small and compact -- I could believe him. I had a narrow waist and hips, my arms and legs were stronger than they appeared, which wasn't saying much, and my breasts were very small -- at least they weren't squished by the hard chest plate of my plug suit. I didn't think that I was anything special, or any great attraction (at least physically) for Tashi or Kyle. With a shrug, I began rubbing the towel over my wet skin again.
"You do yourself wrong to hide that body beneath clothing all the time," Kyle said from behind me, unexpectedly.
I stopped, drawing the towel closer about myself instinctively. He was sitting on the egde of the drained tub, his eyes gleaming in an unsettling way.
I laughed shortly after a moment, hoping that I didn't sound like I was forcing it. "You've got to be kidding me," I said, turning my back to him and unwrapping the towel slowly to continue drying myself off, although more cautiously. "I don't have the kind of figure Risa has."
He came up behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "You don't need the kind of figure Risa has," he said, his voice too near to my ear for any kind of comfort. "You're fine just the way you are," he whispered in my ear, using one hand to pull my wet hair away from my skin.
I tensed, though I couldn't tell if it was in nervousness or anticipation. His breath tickled my ear and neck, and a shiver ran over and through my body. "What makes you say that?" I asked, drawing the towel closer again.
He slid his hands down my arms to where my hands were clasped together, between my breasts. "Because you're fine just the way you are," he repeated before touching his lips to my neck. His hands slid off mine and onto my breasts, rubbing them through the damp towel.
I gasped, my body arching of its own accord away from Kyle. I couldn't tell if it was from fear, revulsion or actual need.
"Kyle, stop it," I said, trying to slip out underneath his arm.
I hadn't counted on him moving his arms to keep me in his embrace.
He clamped a hand over my mouth, the other resting on my waist tightly as he pressed me back into him. "You're not going to fight me, are you, Mei?" he whispered hoarsely, his breath tickling my skin. Eyes wide, I nodded. His hands hurt.
"Good," he answered shortly and then licked my cheek.
I felt sickened and twisted my face into a mask of disgust. "Kyle, please, stop!" I begged, trying to twist away again.
"Be quiet, Mei," he ordered roughly, one hand pulling away the towel I still held to my body. Exposed, I wanted to cover up for the first time in my life.
"Oh yeah," Kyle breathed, his hands more roughly over my body. One hand came up to play with my breasts again as the other travelled down to stroke my thigh.
I wanted to throw up. I felt violated and like I had somehow brought this down upon myself.
When his hand came up between my legs and his fingers began to stroke me at my most secret self, I forgot about not fighting him and tried to get away as quickly as I possibly could.
"Help me!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Tashi! Risa! Someone please!" That was all I was able to get out before Kyle cursed and came around in front of me, backhanding me violently.
"You little bitch!" he snarled as I fell beneath the force of his blow. I had almost managed to stay upright, but my foot slipped in a puddle of water and I crashed to the floor, landing on a piece of the wall no one had gotten around to picking up yet. It dug deeply into my hip and I knew that there would be a bruise there. I twisted to remove the piece, tossing it aside and forgetting about Kyle for a moment.
He didn't stay forgotten for long. He was in front of me again in moments, placing his knee between my legs and right up against my body. "You like that, slut?" he growled, shoving his knee harder against me; I cried out in pain. "You think I don't notice the way you look at Tashi, the way you move your body when he's around? Here's a news flash, whore -- he's too good for you. You are not worth the flesh you live in and call a body. All you are good for is looking for is looking pretty in that suit you're so fond of. And it's no wonder you like it so much. It was made for a boy, right? It's the only one that would fit you properly with this figure of yours." He waved his hand over me and then slapped me a few more times before grabbing my breast again.
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Characters & concept: © 1997-2002 Katsura /\ Evangelion © Gainax