Shinji.

- 1 -

The night falls again.

Time is just a never ending struggle between night and day. Both struggle for control, dominance, to fill the entire sky with its color, its own kind. The same, senseless cycle continues for weeks, months, years, eons.

I am a witness of this senseless cycle.

Meaningless drum beats and guitar riffs danced in my ears. The music player was stuck in an cycle of infinity, alternating between track 25 and track 26. The same songs have ran in my head for hours. My ears were sore from the ear buds, but I simply can't gather enough intention to pull them out.

I lay motionless on my bed. The room was filled with darkness. I rarely use lights. There will be light tomorrow morning.

Even though my door was closed, loud, violent screams and gunshots could still be heard from the TV set in the living room. Asuka. Could she turn the thing up any louder?

I can complain, but I can't gather enough intention to do so.

Misato-san wasn't back yet, which is fine with me. The house would be cleaner anyways.

The phone in the living room rang.

Ring. Ring.

Ignoring it, I turned up the volume on my disc player. The normally welcoming pop-music gradually gathered power and amplitude, and began to turn fierce and threatening.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

I gritted my teeth. The volume of my disc player went up once more.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

The music was tearing pieces off my ear drums.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

I tucked my head under the pillow.

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RingRingRingRingRingRingRingRingRingRing --

-- I threw the pillow at the wall.

The pillow, tangled by the cables, carried the discman with it. The machine smacked hard against the wall. Pieces of plastic broke off and fell limply onto the floor.

The phone was still ringing, relentlessly.

I threw open my room door and raged out of my room. Asuka. I'm going to kill that self-serving bitch --

"Shinji, get the phone."

Asuka commanded, leisurely lying in front of the TV.

I felt my anger surging violently, ready to overflow anytime. It stirred like boiling hot lava inside of me. I held my breath and kept it in as hard as I could, trying to keep my cool.

Avoiding eye contact with her, I brushed past Asuka and headed for the phone set. I answered the call. It was Misato.

"Hey, Shinji! How are you feeling?"

Somehow, hearing Misato's cheerful, reassuring voice, I cooled down a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just looking for something for dinner."

"Good. That's what I am calling about, glad to hear you kids are able to take care of yourselves. I won't be back until later tonight, so go ahead and figure something out, okay?"

"Okay."

"There's also money in the kitchen drawer. Feel free to use it for delivery."

"Okay."

"Any troubles?"

I instinctively glanced at Asuka, whose mind is still lost in the bloody gunfight on TV, and totally unaware of her surroundings. "No problems."

"Great. Anyways, stay alive 'till I come back, okay?"

I let loose an insincere laugh, "Okay."

Through the phone set, I can feel Misato descending away from the phone. "How do you turn this thing off?" Misato's distant voice could be heard. A man answered. There were giggles.

Then she hung up.

I sighed as I put the phone set back into place. I turned around, unsurprised to find the totally inert Asuka, still in the same dumb position as I last saw her, and probably for the past three or four hours as well. Light from the television flashed on and off of her completely dazed face. She was surrounded by an impossible collection of junk food, everything I could and couldn't possibly think of. They were all open, but none of them finished.

I couldn't hide the expression of disgust on my face. Asuka's pretty face combined with her behavior has to be the biggest irony in the world.

I walked slowing and carefully, trying to avoid the scattered bags of snack food on the floor.

"SHINJI!" Asuka suddenly cried out.

I spun around at the instant I heard her voice. Thoughts began to race in my head. Did something happen to her? Did she get hurt?

Before I even had the time to digest the thoughts, my clumsy foot slipped on a bag of potato chips, and I landed with a hard thump, flat on my face.

Asuka sat up, staring at me with a blank expression on her face. I cursed in my thoughts - I know this expression well, and what will follow. Sure enough, the blank expression turned into a smile, then eventually, an unstoppable flood of insane laughter.

I flushed. Why am I such an idiot? She already thinks lowly enough of me as it is. I quickly stood up and brushed the chip crumbs off my shirt. Asuka saw my red face and stopped laughing, but a satisfied smile still hanged on her face.

I secretly gritted my teeth. I swear one day I'm going to rip off that smile off of her face, and make her swallow it.

I spun around, and headed towards my room.

"Shinji!" Asuka called again. I stopped to look at her. Her face was still pink from laughter, and her body still quivering from trying to hold them back. "You want some corn chips?" I glared at her, and slammed the door behind me.

In the living room, Asuka couldn't help but burst into laughter again.

I picked up my discman and examined it under the moonlight. It was still working, playing the same tracks. I plugged the ear buds into my ears.

The music began to cool my boiling magma heart. But when magma cools, all that is left behind is cold, hard rock.

I turned the volume up and rejoined the stream of infinity between of the two songs. The names of the songs were Night and Day.