Story: Evangelion, The Children of Humanity: Guardian Angel Chapter 8: Children are Born to Play

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Evangelion and its characters. Again, I do not have the rights to Metallica or their songs. All I own are my own characters and the plot. I'm just a fan ok? Not making any profits here so don't sue me!

A/N: Here's chapter eight, enjoy, and be prepared for a lot of really cute romance!

"So the school is hosting a concert in a month?" Asuka asked with interest.

"Yep, all students wishing to perform can sign up! I have a sign up sheet! Let's join, we all play instruments!" Hikari said, still looking over the flyer in her hand.

It was Saturday morning, Shinji had managed to recover a great deal during the night and can now move around though he is by no means in shape for a rough day at the gym or anything like that. The seven members of the house were eating breakfast around the dinning room table when Hikari announced the news as she was going over some of the papers she got the day before, being class rep, she was to tell the other students about these things after she red through her papers.

"What are we gonna do?" Shinji asked looking at the flyer from behind Hikari's shoulder.

George came up as well, "Hmmm, well, we do have an interesting mix here, I play guitar, so does Asuka who also plays the violin, Toji can play drums and trumpet, Kensuke can play base guitar and Rei plays piano, Shinji does cello, and Hikari plays flute." He mused, "I've got it!" All six children look at him. "About sixteen years ago, Metallica did a concert called S&M, Symphony and Metallica. They combined their heavy metal with the instruments of the symphony and it came out really good."

"Do you have a recording of it?" Rei asked.

"Of course, I have all of their albums." He went up to his room to fetch said CDs and returned in little time.

He put the first disk in the stereo system and played track two, the Call of Ktulu. They listened to the music, which started out pretty slow and picked up, the heavy guitar tone and the ones of the symphony's various instruments blended perfectly.

"Hey, that's good! We can combine all our instruments for it!" Hikari exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's the one." Kensuke added.

"Then we will perform this song at the concert." Rei said.

"Yea!" Everyone yelled.

"Hey, Kensuke, Toji and Asuka." George interrupted.

"You guys want to do another song with just the rock instruments?"

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Toji asked.

George said nothing, he popped another CD into the stereo and pressed play. This song started strong and stayed that way throughout the whole thing, it was cool.

"What was that?" Kensuke asked.

"I Disappear." George answered, "Also by Metallica."

"Cool, we'll do it." Asuka said.

Thus decided, the group went off to find and tune their respective instruments. They met in the gym and set up the amplifiers and cords. Then they did a run through with the tab sheets Asuka printed out. It sounded bad compared to the CD but they knew they were going to improve in the week they had until the concert.

So it went for a month, on weekdays it was training in the morning, school, then they would go home and practice. On weekends they would practice for most of the day. They also had to drop in at Nerv every now and then for synch tests to make sure that they were in condition in case another Angel pops up. Akagi was insisted that they went again on the Saturday before the concert to test the new weapons for the Evas coming from Nerv's China branch, they had made several more weapons on the data from the Dragon Blade and were rushing them over.

Shinji also had the extra training sessions he requested added that, he and George had decided on midnight so as not to alert the others. Shinji did not want the others to know about his new burden and George thought he knew why.

'The idiot is probably afraid that if the others find out, they'll be expecting a lot of him and he would fail them.' He sighed 'He has no self- confidence at all, I was hoping Asuka could change that.'

George thought that Shinji was a fool, he could see that Shinji had managed to grasp the teachings at an asounding speed, he was at the very least able to go against George in single hand to hand combat for four minutes before being smacked the floor by one of his opponent's punches. That was very good considering who his opponent was, and Shinji had moved up to being able to bench press seventy pounds rather than his old thirty pounds. Indeed, Shinji had come a long way since the beginning of his training, never had George witness anyone improving at that kind of speed. In fact George had hope that Shinji could soon surpass him.

'I wonder what drives him?' he thought, then he chuckled inwardly. 'Of course, how could I have forgotten? It is his desire to protect others that does it, yes, that must be it.'

On Friday night after the night session was over Shinji prepared to leave but George stopped him.

"Shinji, come and let's go get a drink."

Shinji looked at him, "Er...isn't it kind of late?"

"No matter, plenty of cafes still open and you don't have to wake up early tomorrow." George said.

"Oh, uh, okay I guess."

They drove to the city and went to a restaurant that was still open, after ordering orange juice for Shinji and champagne for himself, George found a table and sat down with Shinji. They sat in silence, looking around the place until the drinks came. Shinji stirred his little drink umbrella and finally decided to ask,

"So, is there a reason you asked me to come here with you?"

George looked up from his glass and smiled, "Oh, just to spend time with my little brother and congratulate him on his great improvement and hard effort over the past month or so."

"Thank you, but you speak too highly of me, I have not gotten as good as you say." Shinji said, his head down.

George was a little annoyed now, "Shinji, don't you speak too lowly of yourself! I have watched you these few weeks and I am telling you that it is true that you have achieved much in a short time!"

"..." was all that could be heard from Shinji.

George, frankly angered now, punched across the table. Shinji on reflex grabbed the fist and stopped it, it took him a moment to realize what he had done.

"I..."

George smiled, "Still think I'm stretching the truth?"

"I'm sorry." Shinji said.

"It's alright, but Shinji, buddy, you must believe in yourself. If you think before you even try that you will fail, then you will fail. And I don't believe that you want to fail your friends."

"You're right, I don't. I'm sorry for being so stupid." Shinji said.

"Shinji," George said looking out the window next to their table. "I know you wish to protect others, and you can. Just don't think that you can't."

"Yeah, I understand, thanks George."

"Good, now that you've gotten your head out of your ass, let's go home."

The next day the children slept in, George never insisted on training on the weekends and since they had to go to Nerv at 2:00pm, he didn't even bothered to wake them until noon.

"Yawnnn...good morning George..." They said as they dragged themselves into the dinning room and sat down, trying not to fall asleep again and failing.

George looked over his charges, "What the hell happened to you guys? It's noon! Did you guys have a pillow fight or something?"

"No...just...tired." Hikari responded with her face still on the table.

George sighed and went into the kitchen, he brought out a pot of stew and distributed it in bowls to the kids. They each took a spoonful and instantly woke up with their mouths feeling like they were on fire.

"AHHHHHHHH! GEORGE! WHAT DID YOU ADD TO THE SOUP?" Toji yelled.

"Special 'Very Very Hot' brand hot sauce." He said.

"WHY!?" Asuka screamed with steam coming out of her mouth, which, along with her red hair, made it look like she was on fire.

"Well, I promised Dr. Akagi that we would be on time. So I had to wake you guys up somehow." George was met with six death glares from six different children. "What? You're not sleepy anymore are you?" he said defensively.

The children rushed at him together and tackled him into the living room. They got on top of him and laughed at him trying to get out from under the pile.

"Hey! Ok! I'm sorry ok!? I won't use the hot sauce again! Get off of me!" he yelled.

Laughter continued, even George was laughing at himself under the mass of bodies.

"Ok, ok." He said glancing at the clock. "It's almost one, I want you all changed and ready to go in half an hour, you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah ok." Asuka said.

The children flopped on the couches and watched TV for a few minutes before heading to they rooms to change. George went to the van first and just listened to his CDs until the children came out, and then they were off. They arrived in good time and well before the time the doctor had appointed. So the kids went to the cafeteria to get some snacks while George went to the restroom. Rei looked into the window of the snack machine and wondered what she should decide on.

"Sweet or salty?" she asked herself.

"I think sweets are a good choice." Someone said.

Rei looked behind her to see Kensuke.

"Oh, hi Kensuke, you think I should have candy?"

"Yeah, candy is always good." He said smiling.

Rei looked at the machine, still unsure. Kensuke realized that she probably hasn't tried too many kinds of candy, thus her indecision. He moved past her to the machine and put some coins in and purchased a bag of M&Ms for her and a packet of Starburst for himself. She thanked him and they went to sit down with the others. Hikari had now dragged Toji to the vending machine and were making their selections, Asuka and Shinji were sharing some strawberry candies and kisses to the nose in between. Kensuke looked at the pair and stole a glance at Rei, who also had her eyes on her roommates.

'I wonder what she's thinking?' he thought.

Rei felt his eyes on her and turned around. They sat there like they were having a staring contest, each studying the other's facial expression. Obviously, Kensuke was at a disadvantage at this since Rei usually had a blank look on her face though she had positively been expressing more emotions in the few weeks they had spent together as roommates so far. Kensuke was begging some higher power to reveal to him what she was think when she asked, rather bluntly.

"Kensuke, how do you feel about me?" He looked surprised but quickly recovered and answered

"Me? I like you of course, you're my friend."

Rei was not sure this answer was what she wanted, she asked him another question.

"Just as friends?"

He was unsure why she was asking such direct questions but he decided to answer the way he really felt,

"No, it's probably not limited to just that, why?"

Rei glanced at Asuka and Shinji again and look back at Kensuke in the eyes.

"Do you...can we have a relationship more similar to theirs?" she said looking at Shinji and Asuka

Kensuke was lost in her eyes, but then what she had said clicked, he turned his head to see where she was indicating. He saw and stumbled to find words.

"Ayanimi! What...do you, what are you saying?" He regretted his words when Rei looked hurt by his reaction, he gathered what nerve he had and, placing his hand on hers, said "I mean, if you really want to, I don't see why not."

She looked up at him and could tell he was genuine about this, "Kensuke..."

Kensuke decided that he might as well be the man and say it, he had wanted to for a long time anyway, "Rei, will you be my girlfriend?" She smiled, a full smile that you could trace all the way to her crimson eyes.

"Yes Kensuke, I would like that." He smiled and hugged her, also getting hugged in return.

Asuka and Shinji were so absorbed in their flirting they had no idea what just transpired just five feet from them. Hikari however, had looked in that direction at the right time to see their embrace. At first she was mildly surprised and then she was happy for her friends, but then she was a little envious of them.

'Asuka and Shinji could come together despite their personalities, both usually hiding their real feeling inside their hearts though in different ways, could confess to each other their love. And Rei and Kensuke, they were always shy and quiet. If they could, what's keeping this idiot hulk?' she thought. She looked back at Toji who was now cursing and kicking the machine for having taken his money and not dispensed the food. She sighed and kept her thoughts to herself for the time being but she felt no peace.

George came back in awhile, he complained that in the whole Nerv, he could only find one restroom, the one in the boys locker room , which was a good walk from here. He noticed that Kensuke and Rei were smiling and rather close to each other and Hikari on the other hand seemed to be sulking. He decided not to pry about it and instructed them to change into their plug suits and go to the briefing room. In the locker room the four boys changed into their new plug suits, since last time's Angel fight, Nerv decided that their suits needed to protect their pilots better. T

he new ones seemed like a regular plug suit with armor plates on most of the areas except for joints. This suit was not that much heavier but that really was not too much of a concern to anyone except George who's Entry Plug was designed to have him fight as the Eva in a 360 degree environment. Kensuke, however, had the smallest frame of the four and complained that it weighted him down. They heard the girls outside their locker hurrying them so they ran out to catch up with them. The briefing room was occupied by only the Commander, with Fuyuzuki next to him as always, Dr. Akagi, and Maya.

The pilots seated themselves in the indicated chairs and listened to the Doctor explain the new spears that had been delivered. Apparently they were very much improved than the old ones. These heavier and longer spears had been made for spearing and cutting only while the old one had to make room so that it could launch an explosive at the end, therefore limiting it's close combat effectiveness. Maya brought up the pictures and specifications on the computer and projector while Akagi went on with her lecture. Gendo and Kozo watched in silence. Soon the pilots were inserted into their Evas for battle simulations with the actual spears.

This took easily a few hours and the pilots, tired and sore, were dismissed at last around 6:10pm. They showered, changed and left Nerv in their van. They decided to go out to eat since it was Saturday and none of them wanted to work in the kitchen today. They agreed on beef pot but ordered a single person veggie dish for Rei and they all had a merry time. They laughed at George's complete ignorance of Japanese cuisine when he poked carefully at everything, completely at lost at what the big pot of boiling ingredients were all while telling them that he'd preferred a good'o simple hamburger any day.

After dinner it was home and then sitting in front of the TV for two hours watching a live concert being performed by Koco Ji, a new pop star that was staring in Hong Kong. Then they went up to prepare for bed, George had his duties to attend to, then he turned into bed himself.

In another room of the house, a girl was sitting up in bed, pondering weather she should take the initial step and ask the one she liked out. But she had always had a reserved personality, she didn't know what she would say to him even when she had the chance. She sat there, her mind going through all the possibilities and fell asleep with thoughts of him soothing her slumber. Strangely enough, the object of this girl's troubles is also up in bed, his mind also on similar thoughts. He asked himself why she looked distracted today, and whether it had anything to do with him. He had always had a liking for her, and seeing his friend's progress in his relationship made him kick himself mentally for being so slow and pathetic at making any form of advance on her. He walked to his desk's drawer and pulled out a picture of her from a class picnic last year, he placed it on his bedside table next to the clock and lay on his bed looking over it until he fell asleep.

A/N: Chapter 8 is here now, enjoy. Noticed how my chapters get longer and longer? That's a good thing, it's not intentional but I hope I can keep it up. And for the really stupid one's, the last part was about Toji and Hikari. DIE FLAMERS! DIE! BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELLLLLLL!!!!!! YOU AND YOUR STUPID FLAMING REVIEWS! BUUUURRRRNNNNN!!!!!!!! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

Next Chapter: Of Music and Angels