Because I forgot to say it before, I do not condone underage drinking. That is not to say I am strictly against it. That is not to say I have an opinion at all. I just don't want Layra-chan thinking that she can add alcohol to her long list of things to stick in her mouth in order to annoy me.

Disclaimer: I think I said something about a really detailed disclaimer a few chapters back. See if you can dredge it up and read it.

Fourth Impact

Chapter 43: Movement

Misato woke up with a smile on her face. What a wonderful dream. She smiled at the rising sun outside her window. Adamu actually proposed to me, and I accepted, and we kissed…Then she noticed the ring on her finger.

"EEEEK!"

"…Sorry." She said sheepishly to her irate mother. "I just forgot, I guess."

"You forgot?" Her mother exclaimed. "The most important thing that's happened to you since your birth and you forgot?" She let out an angry breath. "I knew that your Idiot heritage would arise someday, but on this of all things!"

Misato couldn't help but giggle at her mother. Even after all those years of marriage her mother still called Shinji "Idiot," in front of everyone, and not always affectionately. "Well, then, mother, I'm going to go visit my fiancé, see if Lilli-kun and Takoru-kun have left enough of him to marry." She skipped past her mother and out the door, off to the Nagisas'.

She knocked on the door and Adamu appeared almost instantly. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his room, locking the door.

"Good. You're finally here." He said softly, sitting on the bed next to her. "Now we can elope."

"What?" Misato asked. They had consent, they didn't need to run away. "Our parents are fine with us getting married."

"It's not to get away from our parents, but from my sister and her boyfriend. They are driving me insane!" he slumped down, sighing heavily. "Takoru is prying into everything I do, asking me when's the wedding, when's the wedding, when's the wedding…"

Misato laughed, and Adamu shot her a glare. "My sister's even worse. She thinks that my rapid proposal is a sign that we…that I…" his face turned red. Misato's laughter stopped, turning into a semi-horrified grin.

"You don't mean…" he nodded.

"Yes. She thinks I got you pregnant during the party."

Misato's laughter burst forth even louder than before. "Oh, that's priceless!" she exclaimed falling back onto his bed. "Oh, to see the look on her face when you tell her that you did!"

"What?" he exclaimed in an almost perfect imitation of her previous outburst. "When I tell her that I did?"

She nodded. "You tell her that, I deny it, we let them come to the their own conclusions. Then we let them stew for a while, and when they're all riled up about it, we spring the truth on them."

"But…" She sat up and kissed him, and his resistance wavered. "Remember what happened last time we tried to pull something like this." Her forced out as their lips parted. Misato sighed.

"You're right. But in case we ever need to get revenge on them for something, we have it in storage." He nodded.

"So, what do you want to do today?" he asked.

"Well, I was thinking of spending some nice, romantic time with my fiancé." Misato told him sultrily. "Maybe take a walk in the park, have a picnic…" she grinned at Adamu, "Then later tonight we could make out in the moonlight…"

He merely watched her impassively. "Alright, so I'm being fuzzy right now." She said, letting the mood die. "I just woke up, what do you expect?" 

"I expected you to kiss me, tell me to stop being so cold and stubborn, and then drag me off somewhere so that you can make me do ridiculous things for your amusement." He replied bluntly. She smiled.

"I could do that." She flung her arms about him and kissed him soundly, pushing him back so that she was lying on top of him. She absently wondered if they would actually need to part, as neither of them used their lungs.

She pulled back out of a feeling that she should more than from any need. She couldn't get up, though, as his arms were firmly wrapped around her.

"Hey, Adamu-chan," she said, "why don't you come live with me? We could wake up like this every morning, and go to sleep in each other's arms…"

"No." Misato frowned at her father. "After the party, I don't trust you with my daughter."

"Father!" Misato exclaimed. "Look, we just got engaged. Unlike some people I could name, our first priority isn't to have children." Shinji and Asuka blushed. "We just want to be with each other more, and get a romantic setting that won't be interrupted by Lilli-kun and Takoru-kun." She turned pleading eyes on her parents. "Please?"

"I still don't trust him." Shinji told her. Misato turned to her mother, giving her the well-known forlorn puppy look. Her mother just smirked at her, and Misato then remembered that that expression had never worked on her mother, given how often Asuka used it herself on her husband.

But Asuka took her side anyway. "Shinji-chan, I'm starting to get tired of your whining. Let him stay here for at least some nights." She turned to Adamu. "You did ask your parents, right?"

"They agreed." He told her. "Mother pretty much kicked me out of the house."

"See?" Asuka said to her husband, "They want him here, I want him here, she wants him here, he wants to be here, you're the only one who has any objections, and a stupid one at that." She put an arm around his shoulders and squeezed. "Now do as I say or I will have to hurt you."

"Yes dear."

"So this is where you have been hiding!" She pulled the boy out of the little cubbyhole and into the sunlight. "You shouldn't hide from me, Raisho. What would Kiran think if I told him that I let you escape?"

He didn't reply.

"We need to stay together so that when we attack, we'll have the strength to defeat Adam's minions." She told him sweetly. "Now get up. Kiran is making us something to eat."

They strolled over to where another boy was holding a pot in his hand. The bottom of the pot was bright red as he held his other hand beneath it. From his palm sprouted little tongues of flame that licked at the pot, causing the soup inside to boil.

"Raiterasho, Ilissalra." Kiran greeted the two of them. "The soup will be done soon."

"Please," the girl protested, "call me Issa. My name is too long."

"I like Ilissalra better." Kiran told her, placing the pot onto a small pile of rocks. "And Raiterasho doesn't mind my using his full name."

"That's because Raisho doesn't like talking to anyone," Issa replied, "and in order to tell you not to call him Raiterasho, he'd have to talk to you."

"Either way, the soup's done." He served out the soup and sat back to watch as his two traveling companions ate. He didn't understand them. Raiterasho kept running off, and Ilissalra always insisted on finding him. And Raiterasho never spoke, in any language. Ilissalra was always the one to talk for him. Raiterasho's expression was always neutral, he moved as if he didn't care, and he never spoke.

Ilissalra spoke more than enough. "Well, I think that we must be nearing Unit 17. I can feel its presence." She said, blowing on her hot soup. "Raiterasho thinks so too."

"I have no idea." Kiran admitted. "But if you think so," he finished off his soup, "then I guess we should speed up." Issa nodded. Raiterasho didn't respond, only sipped quietly at his soup.

"I've been getting odd signals from Lillith." Issa remarked. "Apparently she's taken a host, and has gotten a lot closer to Adam recently."

"They aren't in the same body, are they?" asked Kiran. Issa shook her head.

"No, silly. If they were, Fourth Impact would have happened already, and they would both be dead." She told him. "No, they're close, but in different bodies."

"Good. If they were to trigger Fourth Impact that way…" he shuddered. Lillith's Chosen had been created during Third Impact, born nine months after. They had been given sixteen years to develop their powers, though some, like Jenny and Searai, decided to keep younger bodies by modifying their AT fields.

Another Impact would wipe them out, possibly replacing them by yet another group of Angel-like humans. Each Impact would do so, until Humanis was resurrected. Or at least, that's what Lillith said. But if she died…

The Tenth Chosen shook his head. He was supposed to be the cheerful one of the trio. The Fifth was the cold, serious one. The Eighth ended up in the middle, a position she always hated.

He waited for Ilissalra to finish her soup before getting up. "So, shall we go? We still have plenty of daylight left."

"Let's go."

Deep underwater Unit 17 lay in waiting. They were coming. Its pilot was pleased. Unit 17 was concerned, however. Something about helping Lillith's Chosen felt wrong, but the Eva was unable to discern what.

AN: Guess what this chapter was for! Bingo, Character Introduction!

By the way, I realized that the original Children's birthdays would have to be very close together if they were all born nine months after Second Impact. Oh well, I'm not going to do anything about it, not this far into the story.

I just watched Hoshi No Koe (Voices of a Distant Star.) Lots of emotion, lots of romance, and angst, and things going BOOM. Very beautiful. Watch it.