I hate LCL

by Outlaw-Rin

something strange happens to Shinji Ikari at a 400% sync, a strange girl comes into being. Who is she? And can people come from EVAs?

8. nge8

1:00 AM-Nerv Hq

Misato helps herself to another one of Ritsuko's cigarettes. Misato couldn't beleive her blindness. She didn't even think about this girl, where she came from, an Eva. How was that possible? Misato had looked through every file. Ritsuko grew tired, bored and flustered.
" Call it a night, Misato." She suggests tiredly.
Misato shakes her head. " Not yet...you can go if you want to, Ritsuko. You were here earlier anyways.." Misato murmers, letting the cigarette dangle between her lips as she flips through the files slowly.
" Nah. I'll make coffee. Besides, Maya is still working as well. She insisted." Ritsuko stands, stretches, and seeks out the coffee maker.

*****

Yuzika wakes up to a ringing tone. Her phone. Yuzika picks it up groggily. It's raining heavily. " Hallo?" She hoarsly whispers into the phone.
" Er...Yuzika..sorry to call this late but-Can I come over?" It was Asuka, who sounded sad, yet releived to hear Yuzika's voice on the other end of the line. Yuzika sighs.
" Sure. You know where I live? Are you sure you want to walk here?" Yuzika asks quietly.
" Yes..I went through Shinji's books and papers..I found your number. I'd just like to stay ove..r...you..y..you..help me.." Asuka whispers, breaking up.
" Asuka, it's ok with me, and I'm the only one here. See you here than?" She asks quietly.
" Thanks..." Asuka hangs up.
This was odd. Very odd. First, she acts unfriendly twards her, than she needs her all of a sudden. Why? Yuzika looks twards the window. Rain was pouring down. " Where is Maya in all of this?" She murmers to herself.

*****

Shinji watches, unknowingly to Asuka, as she hangs up the phone and steps out the door. " Where did she go to?" Shinji wonders. He can't follow her. He just can't. He lurks back into his room, and flops onto his bed listening to the rain. " I hate rain..." He murmers.

***

1:30AM Yuzika's appartment

Yuzika hears the buzzer for the appartment building. She presses the green accept button, not even speaking into the speaker. Moments later Asuka is at the door, rapping lightly. Yuzika opens the door. Asuka is rain-soaked. " Asuka! You're soaked!" Yuzika gasps. She shrugs.
" I..couldn't find an umbrella." She murmers. Yuzika leads Asuka to her room, and hands her a T-shirt and shorts.
" Here, you can wear theese..and I'll hang up your clothes. Than we should get some sleep." Yuzika smiles. Asuka peels off her wet clothes, and quickly changes. Yuzika hangs the clothes over a chair. She climbs into her bed, and pulls back the quilt.
" My bed is warm, you're freezing." Yuzika says warmly.
" I-I can sleep on the floor. It's ok. I don't want to inconvinience you." She murmers.
" Nah, I won't have it. There's more than enough room, and you're my guest. I insist." Yuzika says.
Asuka shrugs, smiling, and crawls carefully under the quilt next to Yuzika.
" I'm sorry to bug you...but I just couldn't stay there..." She whispers.
Yuzika sighs, and smiles at Asuka. " It's alright. Company is nice." She whispers.
Asuka feels numb. She doesn't know what is it, but it's numb. Like the beating rythm of the falling rain, it's unknown musical beats, just numb.

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

6:30 AM- Yuzika's Appartment

Asuka slowly awakes to find Yuzika cuddled up against her, sleeping soudnly. Asuka gently pulls back the covers and slowly creeps out of the bed. She slips her clothes over Yuzika's borrowed ones and quietly sneaks out after writing a message on her fridge board.
" I want to stay, but if Misato is awake before I am, and Shinji, who know what they'll think." Asuka murmers to herself walking down the quiet dim streets twards home. She longed to stay there with Yuzika but couldn't bring herself to breaking down her ego and return home late in the afternoon and explain it. Fat chance. Asuka sighs and keeps walking untill she is securely back into her room, changing her clothes and slipping back asleep.

Shinji closes his cracked open door, and sighs. Asuka came back early. Misato didn't come back at all. What was going on around here? He couldn't sleep anymore so, he decides to make breakfast and go to his sync test. He starts to dress, and notices that his books are misplaced and his papers are messed up. He ruffles through them and finds the small book where Yuzika's number is suppose to be. He flips it open and is releived to find it was still there. " How strange." He wonders.

***********

Hours later, a complete traditional Japanese breakfast sits on the table in huge epic size portions. Miso soup, fish, rice, and green tea. Shinji scoops himself up some food and eats quietly as Asuka approaches from her room to the table.
" Shinji? You made all this food?" Asuka asks flinging herself into the chair across from him.
" Yeah. I just felt like cooking. You...slept in late this morning." Shinji murmers between mouthfulls of rice, hoping she didn't hear that last sly remark.
"Yeah..so?" She asks. " I was just tired." She snaps, clumbsily scooping food onto her plate with chopsticks. She still hadn't quite mastered the art of chopsticks yet. Shinji sighs.
"We have a sync test at noon," Shinji murmers. "Just to let you know." He clears his plate and places it in the sink. " Yuzika is stopping by. It's 11:30 at the moment." He says.
Asuka's eyes widen. " ELEVEN THIRTY?" She screams. " BAKA! You IDIOT! You should have WOKE ME UP!" She runs into her room, and quickly dresses. Shinji grabs his NERV-ID card, as well as Asuka's. There's a knock at the door. Shinji answers.
" Hikari?" He asks, stunned.
" I-I-I just wanted to stop by to see how Asuka was.." She murmers shyly.
" Oh, Ok. Come in." Shinji murmers. He notices Yuzika comming twards his door, waving. Shinji smiles.
" Hi." She says. " I'm a little tired." She murmers, chuckling a little bit. Asuka appears from her room, dressed and ready to go.
She snatches her card from Shinji's hand. " GIMME THAT!" She snarls. Yuzika makes eye contact with Asuka and there is an ackward silence, than Asuka notices Hikari.
" Hikari!" Asuka stammers, suprised.
" I came by..to see you." Hikari murmers. " Are you..in a hurry?" She asks.
Shinji and Yuzika shrug at Asuka.
" Go ahead. I'll leave later." Asuka mutters waving at the two. Shinji and Yuzika leave without asking.

" I just wanted to know if you were okay. I was really worried about you, since I didn't hear from you..I was just worried. I barely got any sleep last night.." Hikari says, blushing.
Asuka looks utterly shocked. " Hikari..." She whispers.
" You probably haft to go to Nerv now..so I can talk to you later.." Hikari begins to leave. Asuka places her hand on her shoulder quiclky. Hikari turns around to face her. Asuka looks into her eyes, and embraces her.
" Hikari I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Asuka whispers. Hikari looks up at her numbly.
" Are you going to be able to go to the school dance tonight?" Hikari asks suddenly, breaking the hug.
" School dance? That's tonight?" Asuka asks.
" Yeah..." Hikari nods.
" You bet!" Asuka laughs. " I better leave now or they'll fry my ass for sure." Asuka chuckles. Hikari nods, smiling.
" Okay. I'll walk you part ways there." Hikari smiles. They leave.

Misato jolts awake to the smell of food, and follows it to the kitchen table. She begins to gourge herself and drink beere, untill she remembers she was suppose to go to NERV. It's now 12:15. Misato races through the house and runs out the door half-dressed. " DAMMIT! NO ONE WAKES UP MISATO! NO ONE BOTHERS TO WAKE UP MISATO!" She screams racing down the hall, fummbling with her keys. " MISATO IS RESPONSIBLE! MISATO IS ABLE TO WAKE UP AFTER WORKING ALL NIGHT!!!" She starts her car quickly and zooms off avoiding the pedestrians crossing the intersection, leaving them to ponder on the horrible bloody death they narrowly escaped.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!***!*!*!*!

Yuzika and Shinji arrive at NERV, with Asuka following behind them. Rei is already there, of course.
" Okay," Ritsuko starts. " Everyone change and get into your EVAs for testing." Ritsuko orders.
" Yes ma'am." They shout and head off to the locker rooms.
In the girl's locker room:
" Do you have it down today?" Rei asks Yuzika,emotionless as usual. Yuzika takes her suit out of her locker and holds it up with a confused face.
" I hope so." She smiles ackwardly. Asuka walks in moments later and begins to dress quickly. Yuzika fummbles with her plug suit. Asuka stares ackwardly at the half dressed pilot. Yuzika manages to get her plug suit on to her needs and walks out, with Asuka and Rei following. Shinji is inside his Eva.

" Okay, I want you all to-" Ritsuko begins, but it stopped when Misato enters noisily. " Hello, Katsuragi.No need for an excuse today. I want you all to sync. with your Evas now. Go ahead." She commands.
Misato just smiles and shrugs.

" Shinji is up 3%, Yuziaka is looking very well, Rei is up 1%, and Asuka...is..down 10%..." Maya murmers.
" Ten Percent? Are you sure that's correct?" Ritsuko asks.
" Yes ma'am, that's what the readings are and they are correct. Asuka went down 10% she's even below Yuzika at the moment." Maya replies.
" Asuka! Concentrate on your sync!" Ritsuko orders sharply.
" I am!" She replies.

" The rest of you can go, Yuzika and Asuka I need you to stay behind for further testing." Ritsuko commands.
" What?" Asuka blurts out.

Ritsuko appears onto Asuka's screen. " You need to try harder. This is pathetic. Your sync. is lower than when you first started..." Ritsuko huffs.

Asuka frowns back at her. " I'm trying as hard as I can!" Asuka whines. Ritsuko sighs.
" Just go home, relax and take a break for a while." Ritsuko murmers. " That's an order." She adds suddenly, before dissapearing off the screen. Asuka sulks in her entry plug and huffs, thinking of Yuzika's perfect sync.

" This is pathetic...even Shinji is beating me...even the newbie...but why isn't she bothering me as much as Shinji? What's wrong with me? " She ponders, as the entry plug rids itself of LCL. She exits the entry plug and leaves for the locker rooms, along with Yuzika. She wonders what Ritsuko told her.
" Hey, Asuka." Yuzika smiles.
" Hey." Asuka replies.
They enter the locker room, and Yuzika messes around with her plug suit while Asuka quickly changes into her clothes. Yuzika glances around, searching for Rei. She is long gone. She sighs. Yuzika curiously glances at Asuka quickly with a confused face.
" Um..." Yuzika quietly breaks the silence. " Asuka?" She asks shyly. Asuka looks up from putting her shoe on.
" Yeah?" She replies.
" Well, I know that Rei showed me how yesterday..and..well...I can't quite remember how to get the plug suit off, although I know how to put it on. I was wondering if you could show me which button it was again..sorry to bother you.." Yuzika says shyly.
Asuka's eyebrows raise, and a goofy grin spreads across her face. " It's no bother. After you helped me, it's the least I could do after all." Asuka says. She couldn't beleive her own tone of voice. Had she ever sounded this nice, ever? Asuka quickly snatches Yuzika's left arm and shows her the button on the side of her wrist. "You push it just like this." Asuka instructs, pushing it for her. The top of her plug suit becomes loose, and falls down, revealing her naked chest to Asuka. She stares for a moment, than quickly turns away, cheeks scarlet. Yuzika also blushes and quickly changes her clothes. An ackward silence fills the locker room again.

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

" Do you have any idea who this girl is, and why she came out of EVA-01 after Shinji came back?" Aoba asks curiously.
" Those are good questions. We searched pretty much the whole damn night and came up with a few answers, but we can't be sure, we do know that she's not an angel...at least we don't think. It's pretty clear at the moment that's she's not an angel." Misato murmers holding a steaming cup of coffee and taking small sips once and a while.
" We did find some very old files on the subject of human tissue possibly comming from the EVA's but..it's just usually massive clumps of dried LCL that come out of the entry plug once and a while. Think of cat's hairballs." Ritsuko explains looking through the children's sync. sheilds.
" You're saying she's a hairball?" Maya asks, looking up from her computer screen at Ritsuko.
" Well, not quite." Ritsuko half smiles. Maya grins.
" Than what is she?" Aoba asks. Ritsuko gives him a look.
" I said we're working on it, Aoba." She frowns. " About Asuka, Misato. She's dropped quite a bit in her sync." Ritsuko comments.
" You're worried about the pilots? Damn." Misato comments sarcasticly.
" Misato. Seriously. What could be affecting her?" She asks.
" PMS. New pilot. I don't know." Misato shrugs, annoyed by the question.
" I suggest you probe and find out." Ritsuko says.
" That..is asking for trouble," Misato groans. " We'll just see how she is in a week." Misato yawns.
" We can't afford that. What if we have another angel attack and she can't synchronize with Unit-02? Than Misato-how do you say-we're royaly screwed." Ritsuko mutters, waving her hand.
Misato rolls her eyes to the heavens and leans back in her chair. " Well, we haven't heard much from Mr.Ikari." She murmers to herself.

******

Asuka walks home and enters the bathroom quicly to sulk in the tub about her crappy sync. She couldn't beleive she went down even more, pretty soon she wouldn't even be able to sync. with EVA-02 at all. That couldn't happen. She couldn't let Shinji defeat her again and again. She couldn't let him become the best. Because that's where she came in. That's where she would get her revenge on those guys. She would squash them all with her EVA. She'd do it, even if it mean killing their whole school to do it and being suspended from NERV. She was going to get them. She was going to get them with every cell in her body. She sunk further into the tub and sighed. Even if it was the last thing she ever did.
But for now she had to get ready to meet Hikari tonight.

*****

Gendoh Ikari made eye contact with Rei as she entered his office, with her report.
" Hello, Rei. Have a seat anywhere." Gendoh smiles kindly. She chooses the seat dirrectly in fron of his desk.
" Is this the report on observing the new pilot?" He asks.
" Yes," She replies. "I wasn' t able to observe her very well." She hands him the five page report.
" Thank you, Rei," He says, flipping through it. " I will read it. Is there anything else you need?" He asks. Rei becomes silent and seems to ponder for a moment.
" No, I don't think so. Thank you,sir." She exits as quickly as she came in.
Genoh reads some paragraphs of her written report.

' Yuzika complains of the suit being too small for her needs in the chest area, and experiences difficulties removing suit without help. '

Gendoh smiles. "This doesn't tell me anything, but I gotta give the girl credit." Gendoh smiles, resting his chin on his hand.

TBC.....

Next Chapter things will begin to heat up a little bit as some confused people hook up, and it may not be the people you think will get together...or not get together! Sorry for any errors on this chapter. Gomen nasai. Please R+R please no flames. : Thanks to all who reviewed. Much peace. Till' next time.