+++++ NERV Tokyo-3, Akagi Lab. Monday, +6.

Ritsuko wasn't in the best of moods when Misato stormed into her lab breathing fire. The leggy blonde had been forced to discipline Rei, due to Fuyutsuki's meeting with SEELE and Gendo's absence in the Antarctic expedition. She didn't deal well with most teenagers as a general rule, with the glowing exception of Shinji. Dealing with the half-human half-Angel hybrid clone of her boss' dead wife and the progenitor of all life on Earth just added to the crawling sense of disgust she felt at having to explain to a drug-addled teenager why slapping someone wasn't generally smiled upon in polite society. When she'd begun to order the special dinner she'd be having the next day with Shinji, her mood had almost begun to improve when her best friend kicked the door open and began unleashing curses.

"Those gorillas the UN hired to guard Shinji-kun just tossed me out and told me I would be considered 'persona non grata' until further notice!" She slammed the door, then began to gesticulate wildly. "Like I was somehow going to be a threat to him with the pistol they just fucking left lying on the table! We were having a wonderful fucking conversation! We were jiving with one another, sharing how it felt to enter the world after missing years of life, and then that little bitch comes in and starts arguing with me!"

Thousands of responses offered themselves to Ritsuko. She wanted, very badly, to upbraid her oldest friend and explain that one did not simply barge into their superior's office as if it were a dorm room. She wanted to ask why Misato was leading with a clearly biased chain of events, and not with how the young man she'd been sent to check on was doing. She wanted to curse her as thrice a fool for managing to screw up something so simple as a health and welfare check! Instead, she tried to be the woman Shinji seemed to see her as. "Those 'gorillas' called me and informed me that the pistol was disassembled, there was no live ammunition in the room, and the firing pin was on S.A. Dojima's person which rendered the entire weapon little more than a fancy paperweight." Smothering a sigh, she turned her chair slightly towards a scowling Misato. "The report I received, regarding your interaction with S.A. Dojima, was backed up by video and audio recordings."

"Recordings? In the place he's living?" She seemed disgusted at the thought. "That's not right."

"It is, however, useful in this particular instance." Reaching over and tapping a few buttons, she played the video without the audio. "Why are you showing him the girls when you're supposed to be checking that he's doing ok?"

Misato, forced to see her physical movements from a third person perspective, sucked her breath in through her teeth. "I…I don't remember doing that." She saw, plain as day, a woman flirting heavily with a man. She saw Shinji trying his utmost to be polite. She also saw, however, interest. "I really don't."

"You generally don't," Ritsuko blew out with the sigh she'd been suppressing. "Misato, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in psychology to know why he was able to push your flirty-girl buttons. He's kind, he's considerate, and he's experienced the same type of traumas you have. Why did you let your guard down that much, that is the question I really think I should ask." She paused the footage, standing up and forcing herself to not be accusatory. "Was it because he's harmless? Because you've discovered a soft spot for tall, dark, and wounded?"

"He's…he's like seventeen, Rits."

"He is seventeen. He's legally allowed to engage in sexual congress with whomever he chooses, so long as they are also of the appropriate age. But that's not my question, now is it?"

Misato's scowl became a frown. "I don't know."

"You don't know, or you don't want to know?" Ritsuko tilted her head slightly to the side, less angry with a genuine puzzle to solve. "I'm not judging you. I think he's cute, myself. He has this…total lack of guile that makes every interaction with him refreshing. He'll give you his entire attention so long as you are engaging with him, and he puts actual thought into your questions even if he doesn't understand them." She shrugged. "Maya won't shut up about him. She's waiting until tomorrow to text him some questions, but that hasn't stopped her from demonstrating genuine enthusiasm every time he's mentioned. I'm not setting you up for a trap, I'm genuinely curious as to whether or not you're looking at him as more than a coworker."

"It wouldn't work out." The evasion was obvious, even to her, but the non-answer gave her a way to shift the conversation away from where it had gone. "Besides, he's probably already caught the eye of several of his classmates."

"Right," Ritsuko deadpanned. "Because there's never been any recorded incidents of a healthy teenaged male falling for an attractive older woman. Completely unprecedented." Rolling her eyes and dismissing Misato with a wave, she turned back to her desk. "By the way, those 'gorillas' also specifically asked that you not be written up for what happened…provided you give an apology to Shinji for making him worry." Holding out one finger to silence her friend, she added, "Which I expect, in writing, before you go home."

+++++ Tokyo-3 Intercontinental. Tuesday, +7.

Another evening had come and gone, filled with the sensations and emotions that he couldn't name or define. He'd lain in Nanako's arms, asleep, for several hours. The dark hours had arrived, and had brought with them the familiar nightmares. Standing as he was, in the spacious bathroom with his hands braced on the edges of the ornate sink, Shinji fought back the terror as he stared at himself in the mirror. He wasn't dead. He wasn't missing an eye. He wasn't unconscious in an empty void. Those things he'd seen, the same things he'd seen his entire life in the land between, were not real.

His scars were real. The trenches and hills the lash had created were real. The jagged cut and clean slice were real. The pain, so often remembered when he thought he'd forgotten, was real. He knew where each blemish was without looking. He knew where each road began and ended, and what he'd done to earn them. They were marks of his life, before the glory he'd discovered in service to an alien empire. They were reminders that everything was fragile, and he could lose it all if he didn't put everything he had into doing everything he could. The motion behind him failed to startle or frighten him. Death held no sway in his waking life, and pain caused no fear. He resolved who it was after a brief consideration, and greeted them accordingly, "Good morning, sensei."

"Trouble sleeping?" Washu moved slowly over to his side, not so close as to crowd him, but not so far as to seem distant.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Shinji shook his head slowly. "No. Not really. It's just nightmares."

"What about?"

He glanced over to her, noting her genuine curiosity. That she seemed to actually care changed his answer, "Death. War. Loss." Standing upright, he flexed his fingers to work blood back into them. "I'm a giant with one eye and the universe on my shoulders, watching as everyone close to me dies in my stead. I'm trapped inside a coffin of steel and flesh, kept alive only by hatred and chaos. I'm asleep in the boundless void, half of my mind active enough to know it shouldn't be. I'm sure everyone has nightmares like that…mine aren't special."

While she knew better, Washu decided that now wasn't the time to make a point. "Stress can induce nightmares, and it wasn't like yesterday was sunshine and roses." Lightly touching his back, to make sure that touch wasn't unwelcome, she watched for any sign of distress before soothing him more fully. "What do you want to do? Try and get more sleep with that adorable little girl back in your bed, or come with me into the kitchen and learn how to cook?"

That he was being given a choice was magical. His life had been so regimented, so totally dictated to him by outside influences, that the simple act of choosing how to spend an hour or so of his own time caused him joy. Looking himself over in the mirror again, noting that his body had begun to change its shape, he chose, "I'd like to learn how to cook, if you don't mind."

Washu hugged him from the side, smiling happily so that her face was shown clearly in the mirror alongside his. "I wouldn't have offered if I minded, silly."

Joy. It was a word he'd learned recently, and it fit this situation well. "I should probably get dressed."

"Don't bother on my account," Washu countered with wide-eyed innocence falsely dripping off her. "You're putting on some muscle, and I do so love watching it move."

+++++ Tokyo-3 Academy. Tuesday, +7.

Shinji waited, like he had each day since starting school, in his chair for class to start. He watched Hikari, Sasami, and Washu discuss things with one another in voices too low to be heard. He watched the weather change outside the huge windows on one side of the classroom. He listened to the school come to life slowly as students filled the hall outside on their way to class. The reassuring familiarity building in his day helped him overcome the anxiety caused by being surrounded by so many people. When Ayanami entered the classroom, he experienced a sudden and unexpected surge in that anxiety. When he saw Sasami and Hikari eyeing her hard, he felt embarrassed. When his fellow NERV employee, whose status he remained unaware of, stopped in front of his desk, he clenched his fingers together tightly. "Good morning, Ayanami-san."

His greeting was clearly unexpected, as it took the strange bluenette several moments before she spoke what was clearly a pre-rehearsed statement, "Good morning, Ikari-san. I want to apologize for ending our discussion yesterday with violence. While your perspective does not match my own, I should not have presumed malice on your part without first verifying your actual intent. I hope that we can continue to work together, despite my unwarranted assault."

Of anything he was unprepared for, being the recipient of an actual apology ranked pretty high on the list. "I…uh, I…." A quick glance at the trio of Juraians standing near the teacher's podium made it perfectly clear that if he apologized for being hit, the chances of him being hit again were near absolute. "I hope we can work together too, Ayanami-san. Maybe, sometime, we can try yesterday's conversation again?"

"I would appreciate the opportunity to learn your reasoning." After a bow appropriate for an apology, she moved towards her desk and resumed her traditional posture of calm indifference to the world around her.

She was an odd sort, of that he had no doubt. However, she had apologized to him. There wasn't more that he could have asked for, really. The chance to try making his case again was a bonus, further improving his mood and brightening the day. He'd managed to navigate a conflict without collapsing in on himself, and he'd managed to gain a concession from his opponent in the bargain!

Washu, after watching his mood stabilize and brighten, breathed a sigh of relief and urged Sasami and Hikari over to keep him from flying apart again. She'd dreaded the interaction, knowing what she did about the unique physiology of the temporary antagonist, but the situation was once more manageable.

+++++ Tokyo-3 Academy. Tuesday, +7.

The lunch hour was spent surrounded by a small cadre of his classmates, carefully walking them through a sanitized version of yesterday's drama. He never once said who from work had struck him, nor had he even so much as glanced over at Ayanami, and so everyone was left with the impression that it was some stranger that had 'misunderstood' his statement and struck him in reprisal.

"Gonna have to teach ya to protect yerself," one of the more athletically inclined students mused. "Not much on ya, yet, but I'm sure Gen-sensei will fix that. We can probably use some of our lunch time going over basic defensive stances. Work on reaction speed, deflection, and maintaining distance."

From her position on Shinji's desk, a female student whose name he couldn't seem to remember even after having been told it held her hands out level with the ground. "I can play a rhythm game with him to help reaction times." Pantomiming motions that would include slapping hands with another person in a pattern, she received nods from several others. "Mai-chan, from 1-C, taught me how to do that when we were in first grade. Her dad taught her so that she'd learn control and speed, and I practiced in short bursts with her. Between classes, more than enough time to teach him and practice it."

"We can also work on confidence, just by having more conversations about stuff," Morimoto added. "I know I sucked at speaking when I was younger, because I thought everyone would make fun of me. It took getting involved in team sports, and being pushed to be a captain, to teach me that everyone is afraid of talking in public. Enough confidence, and people sort of lose interest in starting things with you."

"If it happens here at school," another young woman said, patting Shinji's shoulder and giving him a warm, encouraging, smile, "you come and tell me. I'll make sure everyone knows they slapped you for no reason, and social pressure will get them to back down. Nobody wants the jocks and the cheerleaders angry with them."

Morisato laughed with good humor, "Yeah, man. We're all supposed to be family here, y'know? Everybody pays in good vibes, everyone gets paid in good vibes. The smarter kids help us bricks not fail, we make sure nobody roughs them up, everybody wins!"

Now even more grateful that he hadn't told them who it was, Shinji agreed with the ideas to move the discussion along if nothing else, "Th-thank you. I…I think it's like Morimoto said yesterday, I'm confident that I can handle giant aliens inside Unit-01…but I'm really lost with how to handle more human-sized issues."

"Teamwork, Shinji-kun," the girl on his desk stated confidently, cupping his cheek in her hand and winking, "none of us can handle everything ourselves. But if we all work together, we can handle anything."

"Maya Amano," Hikari's voice cut over everything from her position in the doorway, "why are you sitting on Shinji-kun's desk?" Stepping into the room, trailed by Sasami, she pointed firmly for her classmate to move. "There's a perfectly good seat that I wasn't using."

Stretching languidly as she stood up, Maya trailed her fingers along Shinji's jaw before she turned to face the Class Representative more fully. "Because Shinji-kun needs more positive interactions with his classmates, and by sitting on his desk I was able to give him that more easily than sitting in your chair."

Whatever else was to be said happened outside of Shinji's purview, as his phone rang with the now-familiar cat chorus that indicated Ritsuko Akagi was calling him. Scooping up his phone and hurrying out into the hall, he answered, "Hello, this is Shinji."

"Hi Shinji, this is Ritsuko. I was calling to make sure that you were still available for an early dinner tonight?" The sounds of machinery working in the background told a story of a woman hard at work, yet her voice spoke clearly of that same woman making an effort to include him in her life.

"A-absolutely! Funaho-san told me that it was very important that I establish a good…uhm…what was the word she used…." He dug through his mind for the odd bit of vocabulary. "Rat port? No, that's not it…."

"A rapport," Ritsuko supplied amicably. "And I agree with her fully. We're going to be working together to save the world, after all. No reason we shouldn't try to develop a strong bond that will see us through these trials." The phone on her end was muffled suddenly, her voice audible but clearly not directed at him, "No! Take the damn arm plate off and put the shoulder actuator on first! I know it's harder to do, but the point of the actuator is to support the arm plate!" With a groan of disgust, she returned to him, "Sorry about that, Shinji. We're working on getting Unit-00 fully functional again, and since it's the prototype version there are some differences between how it and Unit-01 are properly outfitted. I'll have Maya-kun contact Dojima-san to provide directions to my apartment, ok?"

"Yes ma'am. Please…uhm, please be careful. I'd feel really bad if you got hurt at work."

"Ritsuko, Shinji. Or just 'Rits'," she corrected gently. "We're friends, not supervisor and subordinate. As far as I understand, you don't fall under my command which means we can be on a first name basis without any complications. Study hard, I look forward to talking to you tonight."

After an exchange of farewells, he hung up the phone and contemplated what he had just learned. One, there was a Unit-00. That meant, logically, that there was a pilot for Unit-00. Two, Hikari had said that Ayanami had been seriously injured. Considering what he had gone through in Unit-01, that meant it was likely that Unit-00's pilot had been seriously injured at some point. Looking back over his shoulder, he caught Ayanami considering him from her chair. She's a pilot. She was the pilot of the prototype. He wasn't the Earth's only hope…. The sense of weight on his shoulders lightened noticeably, the need to befriend his fellow pilot filled his heart. Teamwork.

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3, Akagi lab. Tuesday, +7.

Maya Ibuki, while working on her project of the day, was also enjoying speaking over the MAGI network with Shinji. Once she'd figured out how to tunnel into Tokyo Academy's unified sub-network, she'd found him and started a thread to help him with the topics the teacher was presenting. Then, once she had a secure tunnel between his terminal and hers, she turned on the integrated camera on his notebook so she could get a sense for when he was struggling with something in advance. In the middle of typing out an explanation on the utility of tangents mathematically, she caught sight of Ritsuko's return from the Evangelion hangars and greeted her immediate supervisor with typical enthusiasm, "Welcome back, senpai!"

Amused more than annoyed, Ritsuko asked, "And what has my best employee in such a good mood?" Coming around the corner of the set of terminals, she saw Shinji's face as he concentrated on keeping up with classwork. She then saw the stream of notes between him and Maya, and the picture grew clearer. Assuming a teasing tone, she needled Maya, "Why, exactly, are you using NERV resources to facetime with your crush?"

"I do not have a crush on him!" Maya's protest was undercut by the warm flush of blood to her face. "Girls have crushes, senpai. I'm not a child anymore. Besides," she looked away in embarrassment, "he doesn't know I'm watching him."

"Oh, of course," Ritsuko asserted as if it were perfectly natural. "You don't have a crush…you're stalking him." Ignoring the squawks of protestation from her subordinate, she leaned in to see that Shinji really was paying good attention in class. "His body posture is very stiff."

"I think the chair is uncomfortable," Maya replied, grateful that the teasing had stopped. "I mean, I remember school chairs being the hardest material known to man."

"He'd be fidgeting if that were the case." Pointing at the way he only moved what was absolutely essential for a task, she shook her head sadly. "He was trained to sit like this. It's 'normal' to him. He doesn't touch his face, or scratch his hair, or move to relieve pressure on his posterior. I wonder what he looks like asleep, when the conscious mind lets go."

"We could bring him in for a sleep study. Spend an evening here, monitor his…sleep…." Trailing off as Ritsuko arched an eyebrow at her, Maya re-entered defensive mode. "Purely for his health, senpai! I mean, we already know he's a good candidate for physical and occupational therapy. We'd just…you know, make sure that he was sleeping properly."

Shaking her head and chuckling wryly, Ritsuko stood up and turned away. "You're adorable, Maya-kun. Transparent, but adorable."

+++++ Ritsuko's apartment. Tuesday, +7.

"Ok," Nanako said as they pulled up to the sidewalk outside Ritsuko's apartment building, "what do you do if an Angel attacks?"

Shinji rattled off the memorized response, "I contact you, and tell you what Akagi-sensei asks me to do so you can coordinate."

"And what do you do if someone attacks her apartment?"

"Blue button."

"And what do you do if you get too anxious to think straight?"

"Ask her for help."

"And what do you do if she comes on to you?"

His eyes grew huge as he mentally repeated the absurd statement. "I-I-I-I-"

"Should do what feels right. Minaho and I aren't going to be upset if she shows interest in you. She's attractive, she wants to help you, and if she's open to playing ball there are worse people for us to bolster our crew with." Leaning over, she kissed him softly then opened the door for him. "Go get 'em, Tiger."

Barely managing to make it out of the vehicle with any degree of natural grace, Shinji shambled towards the front door of the complex with overwhelming confusion swimming through his mind. He knew for certain that Nanako wasn't joking around, because she'd told him expressly that if she was joking about something she'd be laughing while saying it. What that implied, logically, was that she believed Ritsuko might be interested in him. While that would explain the way she and Minaho had argued over what to dress him in to best flatter his features, it didn't explain how on Earth they thought someone like Ritsuko…. Mina-chan and Nana-chan are no less beautiful. No less brilliant. He reached the doorman, realizing he needed to say something. "Good afternoon, sir. I'm here to see Doctor Ritsuko Akagi?"

"Ah, yes," the elderly gentleman stood up from the stool in his little office, moving towards the door with keys in hand. "Doctor Akagi told me to expect you. Top floor, door on the right as you exit the elevator. The button in the elevator marked 'Pe' will get you right up there." Swinging the door open, he bowed politely to Shinji with a smile that the younger man couldn't quite make heads or tails of.

"Thank you, sir." Shinji bowed in return, displaying the type of manners that had been literally beaten into him for anyone older than him. "I hope you have a good evening."

"And you as well, young master."

The long hallway of the entrance, filled with doors, became the next challenge to overcome. He could see what he knew would be the elevator on the other end of the hall, but the thought of passing so many doors suddenly seemed very worrying. He was a stranger moving through an area where people lived. How close was he supposed to get to their doors, if he was just passing through? Deciding that speed would make up for proximity, he hurried down the hallway and smashed the button to summon the elevator.

Fortunately, the doors opened immediately, and he was given refuge from his fears momentarily as he rode the car up alone. Twelve soft beeps followed him pressing the button he was told to, each beep assuring him that he was further and further from the 'problem' below. His problem, though, was that each beep indicated he was moving towards a new problem of a similar nature. "There were…dozens of doors? At least two dozen. He said 'door on the right as I exit', though…which door is…." The elevator opened on the top floor of the building, with only three available doors to choose. The one at the far end of the hall looked to open up onto a patio of some sort. That clearly wasn't the correct one. Stepping lightly out of the elevator, he looked between the two remaining doors, mirrored across from one another in the center of the equally long hallway. With firm knowledge of his left from his right, he moved towards his purported destination only to find that the doorbell had a small placard tastefully declaring the occupant's name.

One bell press later, the door swung open to reveal Ritsuko Akagi standing in a fashionable pinafore with a slightly more garish t-shirt underneath. "Hey, I'm glad you found the place ok!" Urging him inside, she gestured to where he could set his shoes and then towards where a pair of house slippers would be found. "I'm actually glad you dressed semi-casual, because I was arguing with myself over how to set the tone with you to start."

To Shinji, she looked perfect. "I, well…uhm, I had help."

"I don't doubt that, but you still accepted that help which is the important part." Urging him onto a barstool at an island in the middle of the kitchen, she winked approvingly. "You see, one of the biggest weaknesses anyone can have is being too proud to accept help. Nobody can ever know everything about everything. I mean, look at me," she pulled some hors d'oeuvres out of the refrigerator, setting the platter down and taking the thin plastic lid off, "I have more degrees than I can count on both hands, and I honestly could not tell you what the purpose of a necktie is anymore in polite society."

"I'm kind of glad they decided against having me wear one," he pointed at the collarless dress shirt he was wearing, and the ornate leather bolo they'd given him, "because it looked like it would choke me all the time."

Placing a selection of cheeses and two slabs of bread on a plate, she set it before him with a winsome laugh. "Exactly. I mean, I wear a choker because I enjoy the sensation of having something tight enough on my neck to feel like it's there, but it's not going to get caught on something and hang me."

Carefully picking up one of the pieces of cheese, Shinji took a small bite while he looked at the choker she was wearing. Inset on the front of the black velvet strap was two cats, each crouched down with their rump higher than their head, with one paw raised as if to slap at the other. "It looks very nice on you. I guess that explains your ringtone."

With a curious frown, Ritsuko pulled her own phone out of some unknowable location on her person and quickly dialed Shinji's. When the theme song to a children's anime as sung by a nyanko genki girl played, she rolled her eyes and sighed out, "Maya Ibuki…." Hanging up, she smiled with shared suffering and leaned down onto the countertop to pop a piece of cheese into her mouth. "So," she said while chewing, "Maya-kun apparently should not have been allowed to set the ringtones on your phone."

Finding what he had tried to his liking, Shinji took another larger bite and shrugged. "I don't mind. It's distinctive, and I always know it's you calling me."

"What's hers?"

"She's never called me, that I can think of. She's only ever called Nanako-san."

Clicking her tongue in disapproval, she urged him to try another type of cheese. "Bet you two thousand Yen it's the theme from 'Playful Kiss'." Realizing after a second that he wouldn't know anything about the show, she bunched her lips off to one side. "You know what, I think I just came up with a better plan for the evening than mindless small talk while we feel each other out." Scooping up the platter, she pointed to the plate he'd been given. "Grab that, let's go sit on the couch."

Dutifully following instructions, Shinji made his way over to the couch while avoiding staring at the immaculately shaped posterior swaying tantalizingly before him. "I…uhm, I wouldn't know how to start feeling you out. I'm not even really sure what that includes."

Ritsuko set the platter down and nudged the coffee table closer to the sofa before scooping up the remote and scrolling through her library of television and cinema. "It means that you are gaining a sense of how I am as a person. You're learning how I act and react, and you're picking up what I expect from you in kind." Flashing a smile at him over her shoulder, she encouraged him, "And you were doing it just fine. I commented on my choker, you gave me your opinion on it. I spoke about the ringtone, and you told me how it impacted your perception of me. You weren't intentionally doing it, but you were still doing it." Settling on a particular movie, she tossed the remote over onto the part of the couch where she'd sit and waved him down onto the sofa. "Sit, sit. I'll be back with our drinks."

Sitting down, Shinji contemplated the screen before him. The monitor was enormous. Laid flat, it would have been easily twice the size of his former room. On it was depicted an enormous silver machine standing behind what he assumed was Earth as viewed from space. With little to no knowledge of English, he couldn't make out what the movie was called in that language. Appearing before him, breaking his line of sight, a large glass with a red-colored liquid and a soothing scent was offered by Ritsuko. "Oh, uhm…thank you."

"It's glühwein. Which is a German word for 'smoldering wine'. It has a number of spices thrown into it, and is served warm to enhance both the flavor and aroma." Sitting down next to him, she began what she felt would be a needed explanation. "Yes, it has alcohol. No, I don't care about silly laws that are intended to stop society from devolving into chaos. Yes, it's German and not Italian, which was our dinner theme for the evening. But I don't care that it's German, I like it."

Shinji nodded along, only really understanding half of the concepts she'd just thrown out. "It does smell very nice."

"Tastes better." She took a sip, encouraging him to do the same. When he followed suit, she watched his eyes for an honest reaction. Instead of the scowl and face of disgust she'd expected, she was delighted when she saw him carefully considering the flavors involved. "So?"

"It's…sweet, but not over sweet. It tastes…it tastes like it's stabbing my tongue, but in a good way."

"That'd be the cinnamon. You could call that 'sharp', or 'spiced'."

Taking another, larger, drink, he nodded in approval. "It is a very nice drink. What's alcohol?"