Shinji yawned as he awoke from a night where his thoughts were as muddled as the garbage in Misato's room. His mini-adventure during the night with Asuka had complete domination of his thoughts, with other insignificant things were vainly attempting to battle back and regain some semblance of control.

By instinct, Shinji forced himself to walk to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. His brain power being focused elsewhere, the breakfast he prepared was not up to his usual standards. Absently setting the table, Shinji was startled out of his thoughts by hearing the shower sputter to life. Knowing that Asuka and Misato would soon be arriving, he busied him with breakfast.

Sure enough, after about five minutes, Misato came yawning into the room, groggy and disheveled. Of course, that was all cured by her "traditional" morning sake. "(Misato's yell)"

"Konnichiwa, Misato-san!" exclaimed Shinji as he greeted her warmly.

"Konnichiwa, Shinji-kun.." Misato yawned in response. "Where's Asuka? She should be here by now."

"Uhm.s-she's still in the shower, I think." Shinji stammered in response. It only took a few seconds for the finely tuned mind of NERV's Operations Director to detect the slightly flustered condition of one Shinji Ikari. Misato gave Shinji a curious look as she began to recall the events of the previous night.

"So, remind me what happened last night again, Shinji-kun."



Asuka sighed as she returned to her room, flopping down on her bed. Her thoughts ran rampant with many images, almost all of Shinji. 'Why am I still thinking of him!? He's just a stupid hentai, anyway.' Asuka groaned as her stomach called for its share of nutrition. She began to internally debate going out and eating, but quickly shook the thought free due to the prospect of seeing Shinji. Yet her hunger kept wearing away her defenses, whispering in her ear; you haven't had anything to eat for over ten hours. think how good a good omelet sounds. Before long, she cracked, and went out in search of food.



Misato's ruthless teasing of Shinji quickly ended when the object of their conversation walked out of her room. Walking slowly to her seat, Asuka sat down quietly, not making eye contact.

"." was all that Shinji could muster up for a while. An awkward silence ensued, until Asuka couldn't take it any longer.

"CAN I HAVE SOMETHING TO EAT OR ARE YOU GOING TO STARE AT ME ALL DAY!?" she screamed at the top of her lungs. His ears ringing, Shinji instantly sprang to his feet, and sprinted into the kitchen to fix something to sate the dreaded Der Redhead. Misato, for the second time in a day, was blasted into the wall, in shock. She remained in that position until Shinji returned from the kitchen, with a plate of toast.

Ravenously attacking the lightly browned bread, Asuka finished the food in seconds, then sighed as she leaned in her chair, lightly resting her hand on her stomach. Misato decided that this was a good time to remove herself from the wall and resume her position at the table. After staring a bit more at Asuka, she gestured for Shinji to sit down.

"All right, you two. TODAY IS D-DAY. I'd like to see you do a final round of synch training before we head to NERV." Misato said, wisely ignoring all that had happened a few seconds ago. "Hai." Replied Shinji, quickly.

"Yeah, Yeah, whatever," yawned Asuka. Misato raised her eyebrows in concern about this, but quickly dismissed it as irrelevant.





Shinji and Asuka stepped on their respective synch pads, and prepared themselves for a final round of synchronization (dancing?). Shinji, wearing a slightly nervous expression, was the stark opposite of Asuka, completely confident, and seemingly bored.

"Okay people, I'm turning on the music now," Misato said as she turned the stereo knob. "Dance!" Asuka and Shinji began the move, each slowly turning in perfect synchronization, before both darting forward in a choreographed move designed for assaulting the angel.

'Heh. The angel won't know what hit them.' Misato thought with a grin.

Returning to their standing position, Asuka preformed a flawless roundhouse kick, while Shinji did the same. Then, Shinji stumbled on the mat, slipping for a moment before regaining his balance. Together, they jumped into the air and came flying down, their bodies perfectly aligned, feet aimed straight towards the fake target below. Shinji, locked in concentration, didn't notice Asuka slightly drifting to the left, and impacted the target dead center. He dropped onto the floor, exhilarated with the feeling. He glanced over at Asuka, expected to see her standing with her hands on hips, staring at him with a superior look.

Instead, she was crumpled on the floor, groaning. Afraid of the contact between their bodies, she had instinctively pushed off his body and missed the target completely. Misato's eyes widened in shock, and a large sweatdrop appeared on her face.

'How can this happen!? They had a 100% Synch percentile yesterday!' Misato's mind screamed at her. She felt a incoming headache, and wished that she could get smashed today.

"That's.Not going to work." Misato stated quietly. Groaning, Asuka hauled herself from the floor, and speared Misato in a look of anger and annoyance.

"OF COURSE IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK." I just hate have my body pressed against baka-Shinji." Asuka defended herself.

"Then I hope that the plan will work in your evas, where you WON'T be pressed against him?" Misato responded.

"Of Course!" Asuka instinctively stated. Shinji, feeling left out, simply nodded.





NERV Headquarters was not usually a busy place, but today was an exception. With Operation (What was it called?) taking place in just over twelve hours, technicians, operators, and many others were working frantically to prepare everything.

Misato and her makeshift family arrived at the briefing room to find Ritsuko and Sub-Commander Fuyutski waiting impatiently for them. Quickly, the briefing started.

"I assume that you already know what today's operation will be." Fuyutski started. "We will launch your eva units at the same time, and you will be performing this choreographed 'dance.'" Fuyutski frowned, and glanced at Misato. "Understood?" "Hai." "Hai."



Ryouji Kaji groaned as he rose from his desk, muscles protesting against the sudden movement. Working so long on his computer wasn't healthy, he mused. Checking his watch, he slowly walked to the outside balcony. Smiling lightly, he said to himself, "About time they moved out, eh?"



Kensuke Aida and Touji Suzuhara momentarily paused between videogames, hearing a slight rumbling coming from the left. Kensuke rose and bounded excitedly to the window. "Oh my God!" Kensuke exclaimed, tears running down his face. Touji, curious to see what his friend was so excited about, quickly glanced over-and froze. "They've started." he whispered in quiet voice.



Asuka sat in her entry plug as the NERV technicians began prepping the eva for combat. Staring into the distance with a blank look on her face, she relaxed her mind and allowed herself to almost merge with the eva; a master of a great puppet.

The red lights and alarms of an angel alarm startled her out of her reverie, and brought to her focus the image of Major Katsuragi informing them of their current status.

"Shinji, Asuka, the target has now completely regenerated and is moving towards Toyko-3. We launch in 60 seconds."

Asuka looked at Shinji; his face a shade of orange, the color of LCL. She whispered to herself, "Just who are you, Shinji Ikari.?" She was startled when he turned toward her and questioned "What was that, Asuka?"

"Uh.," momentarily at a loss for words, Asuka floundered for a moment, then quickly recovered. "I said you'd better not mess up, baka!" she shouted, feeling pleased with the quick recovery.

Shinji smiled softly and muttered to himself, "No, never, Asuka."

Not the end.

Authors Notes: I know I promised to have the fight in this chapter, but I think I'll make this a trilogy. Hope you enjoy.