Anrui / Kanrui: Chapter 02

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in regards to Evangelion.

A/N: Well, thanks go out to everyone who read my little teaser, and a little extra luvvin' to those who reviewed. Y'buncha sweeties. ^_^ I'm not sure if this has been done before but I don't recall having read anything like it except vaguely. This chapter will clear up SOME... of the questions people have... (maybe) and will also probably decide who stays to read and who hits 'Back' to find something more interesting. I decided that this is going to be longer than I originally intended so it's going to be intentionally... vague-ish... at the start. I want to give people pieces and wait for them to say "Oooh! _I_ know!" and speculate and such. (I'm a dork, sue me) Also, I don't know how well this will come across but the style of writing may change according to situation. I'm hoping it comes out interesting rather than hard to read.

Honestly, none of this is coming out as well as I wanted but I want to get it out of my head before I explode. Maybe I'll re-write it when I'm done if I'm unhappy with the final results. So far it's 0-2. Why can't I just have a plug that I can download what I THINK directly into an easy to view format? *sigh*

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Asuka groggily rolled over, inadvertantly twisting her shirt more securely around herself in the process. The constricting tightness biting into her upper arm and shoulder as a result. This, in turn, pulled her further from the the implied comforts of sleep. With her eyes still closed she was trying to decide if sleep had helped in any way, but groaned to herself when she realized that the jury was still out on that one.

Groaning a bit more loudly Asuka was able to disentangle herself from the bedsheets and clothing which had wound themselves around her in her fitful sleep. At some point in the previous evening, while thinking about all that happened in the past couple weeks, she had fallen asleep atop her made bed while fully clothed. She was painfully aware of how much tossing and turning she had done, which was evident in the mess she made of her bed. Unfortunately it was the cause of all that restlessness that pained her so.

'I don't know what my dreams were about,' she thought to herself, 'but I know I didn't like them.'

There were many contributing factors to her current state of irritation. For one, that baka-Shinji had outright defied her. This in and of itself would cause her vexation, but there was so much more to go along with it. Careful planning went into making the perfect Shinji-roast and nothing went according to her calculations. She had failed. Failed... because of HIM.

Thoughts from the previous evening's meditation began to trickle back to Asuka's conscious mind. Her brow darkened as more revelations made themselves known, no doubt the cause of her bad dreams.

Sitting up on her bed she scratched her fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp to relieve herself of the feeling of tangled bed-head. Hoping this would create a respite of sorts from her thought processes, she was let down when more and more came back as blood began to circulate more easily. Asuka's brow darkened further as she recalled more and more of her thoughts from the night before.

'That... that BAKA!' her inner voice shouted. All her planning was for nothing, not only that it was as if she had wasted two weeks of her life that... here she faltered and a tiny, almost insignificant voice inside her head said, '...was it really a waste?' but she conveniently ignored it and smothered it with verbal abuse at the situation.

The previous night's revelations would not leave her so quickly though. Any and all thoughts that could be construed as a weakness were fuel for her irate fire. They were all his fault. Even the fact that she didn't feel as she had projected. That... intensity... within her chest, where did that come from? It had felt like someone had her heart in a deathgrip and was slowly twisting it. She had felt it before but couldn't remember where. A sinking feeling... as though all was not well...

'All WAS not well!' She thought to herself. Her lips curled slowly into a smirk. Maybe that's what it had been, knowledge that her plan had failed. She prided herself on being the best and that plan hadn't gone nearly as smoothly as she had hoped. Failure, obviously, felt even worse than she had ever imagined.

Rising from her bed, Asuka mulled over a few of the other points she had thought to torture herself with the night before. As if on autopilot she gathered what she needed for her morning ritual and devoted her now nearly-fully-awake brain to sorting through the things that had... well, pissed her off so much.

'I really thought he would be a simpering wreck.' she thought, opening her door and heading towards the bathroom. 'What was that look in his eyes? I expected him to cry, I thought I did a good job of getting him to open up and care about me-' she paused wondering why that sounded so... well, evil. She pushed it aside and decided not to think about it. She did what she did because she was bored and wanted Shinji to suffer... always apologizing, always muttering, always acting like a little child. '...teach him to not be such a weakling... Teach him not to compete with ME! Teach him... who's boss.'

'Everything went wrong because of HIM... pissed myself off thinking about it... slept in my clothes... had irritating dreams...'

The door to the bathroom slamming shut was like a loud exclamation point at the end of her last thought on the subject, '...and noone called me for dinner!'

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Shinji sat at the kitchen table and ate quietly, as he did most mornings. After feeding Pen-Pen he had made his lunch and began breakfast. He had made just enough so that he had not made breakfast specifically for both his roommates, but rather depending on how much they ate there might be enough for both. Just as he was finishing up he heard the door to the bathroom open and Asuka make her way back to her room. He had hoped that Misato would be up before Asuka but decided, in the end, it didn't really matter.

He paused momentarily before taking the final bite of his toast. Things were certainly going to get difficult in his life, even more difficult than before. He was sure of it. He stared at the triangular corner of toast in his hand. Was he doing the right thing? He hoped so. No time to think on it now though...

Asuka rounded the corner half expecting Shinji to be there and half not wanting him to be. Her morning habits not even dimming the raging fire that was coursing through her. She wasn't able to get the answers she wanted the night before, and thinking about it had caused her nothing but irritation. She felt she should share the feeling.

"Good morning, Shinji." she stated fiercely. She stood just inside the doorway with her hands on her hips, a veritable wall of determined purpose. Her lips were twisted into an insult to smiles everywhere.

Shinji silently placed the triangle of toasted bread in his mouth and chewed it as he had every other time... seemingly unaware of the redhead's entrance.

A scowl crossed Asuka's face as she glared openly at the boy, "Are you deaf, baka?" she nearly yelled, "I said, 'Good morning!'"

After a quiet pause where Shinji lifted his orange juice to his mouth and took a sip he placed the glass back down and... sat silently.

Within the acoustics of the kitchen only two sounds could be heard. One was a slight scraping as the warm water penguin ate from his bowl, the bottom of it gently sliding against the floor. The other sound was much quieter, but so much more menacing. Asuka's teeth were grinding together with enough force from her jaw to actually be audible.

Still Shinji sat.

"GODDAMNIT, SHIN-" Asuka was suddenly cut off by the appearance of the household's other occupant. Katsuragi Misato, having been woken by the girl's earlier outburst, staggered into the kitchen after wedging herself through the space between Asuka and the doorway frame.

"Asuka! It's too early for that, yell later..." Misato grumbled as she passed. "Shinji-kun, good morning."

Shinji turned in his seat, to the surprise of Asuka, and said, "Misato-san, good morning." with his usual muted cheer. He raised up out of his seat and began collecting his table settings.

Misato yawned loudly, rubbing her temple with the ball of her palm. "Asuka, good morning to you too... if you can keep from responding in a shout."

Asuka stared at Shinji as he went about cleaning his plate and glass in the sink. Compared to how she felt after seeing that, her earlier irritation was considerably minor. He... had ignored her! Completely! Asuka growled out a low, "Good morning, Misato." before stalking forward and taking a seat at the table.

M. Katsuragi, director of operations at NERV, knew when something was amiss. This was obviously one of those times. Forgoing a beer for this morning she made her way over to the coffee machine which had thoughtfully been prepared for her arrival by Shinji. She inhaled the rich aroma of the brewing coffee and turned to Shinji, "Shinji-kun! Thank you!"

Shinji smiled awkwardly, "You're welcome. I wasn't sure if you wanted coffee or... something else instead, so thought to make it just in case." Shinji was a bit worried that his guardian had shown herself to have a considerable lack of judgement when it came to her drinking. He wasn't positive but was fairly convinced that alcohol in the morning was a bad sign. He hoped having coffee ready in the mornings instead might... well... might help in some way.

Misato smiled brightly as she rummaged through the cupboards for an appropriate mug. She decided that the "I *heart* Cats" mug given to her by Ritsuko would be the most easily accepted one. Her others, having been given to her on birthdays by friends who considered themselves practical jokers, wouldn't be received so well by her two charges.

Asuka glared at her two roommates, fuming to herself. 'Don't THEY look happy' her sarcastic inner voice said. Apparently the little baka wanted to fight. Ignoring her... the nerve! So he really WAS pissed off about what happened. Good! He deserved it. Feeling slightly better about at least getting a reaction out of her target she frowned when she realized noone was getting her breakfast.

Misato had already filled a plate for herself and thanked Shinji again. She sat down across from Asuka and began eating.

"Where's mine!?" Asuka asked suddenly.

Misato looked up from her plate and said, "There's still some left, don't worry."

Asuka's brow knitted close as she turned to Shinji. Usually he'd get everything for her. She stared at him, waiting expectantly and was surprised to see him pick up his bento from the counter and start walking out of the kitchen.

Misato's eyes flickered from Asuka to Shinji and back repeatedly, she took in what she saw and filed everything away for later perusal. Something was definitely wrong. She continued to eat, opening her senses to what was happening around her. Contrary to what people thought, she wasn't as dumb as she was pretty.

Just as Shinji was making his way out of the kitchen he called over his shoulder, "I'm leaving for school now, Misato-san. Have a good day at work."

Misato swallowed what she had been chewing and said, "Have a good day at school, Shinji-kun." She also noticed Asuka's irate stare aimed at the boy.

Asuka bristled, "Baka! You're not going to wait for me!?" she got up and stomped over to get what she could for breakfast out of what was left. Apparently Shinji thought he could just ignore her and everything would be fine. Well, she would certainly teach him a lesson or two.

After gathering what he needed and putting his shoes on Shinji called out from the entranceway, "I'm leaving."

Misato called back, "Have a safe trip."

As the door closed Misato returned her attention to the fuming redhead before her and finally asked, "Care to talk about it?"