A/N: Yea, well I would first like to thank all the folks that reviewed and
hope this lives up to what you were expected. Of course this isn't the
whole day, just part of it. I thought it was getting too long and should
break it into two chapters instead of one.
Also I want you guys to tell me what you think about those flasback like things. I kinda went crazy with them in this chapter, but I'll try to cut down in the next.
One more thing: I'd like to thank Foolish wise monk for their idea on a day spent with Gendou. I honestly had no idea and that sounds like a great one.
Standard Disclaimer applies. Disclaimer: No I don't!
Kmoney: Yes you do! *grabs disclaimer and gags it* Unless of course otherwise noted! HA HA HA HA!
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Day 1: Part One: The Misadventures With Ritsuko
Asuka Langley Sohyru was, in simple terms, annoyed. Why was s Wthat answer was quite simple. Instead of being able to hang out with her friends, she had been ordered by Dr. Akagi to occupying Third Child, Shinji Ikari to obtain the First Child.
If your weren't aware then know this; Asuka was not a big fan of the First Child.
"So, do you even know where the First lives?" Asuka asked the quiet Shinji.
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I've been there a couple of times..."
Asuka's eyebrow rose. "Really? Why?" she then grinned. "Are you and Wondergirl doing some extra curriculum activities?" she teased.
Shinji blushed, and stumbled with his words. "Wha...we-we're not....doing...anything!"
Asuka shook her head as they walked up the stairs to Rei's apartment. The construction noise not oblivious to neither of them.
"And just why in the hell does Wondergirl stay here of all places?" she grimaced, "you would think with the way she was she wouldn't like a place this...this dirty." she looked around and refrained from touching the rail on the stairs when she saw the dust and grime coated over it.
Shinji shrugged. "I think she just doesn't care." He took a look around and then at his hand that he let grabbed the rail and frowned lightly while he wiped it on his pants and kept walking.
Asuka was a little ahead looking at each apartment number and glancing back at Shinji to see when he would stop. Finally he stopped and stood in front of a door. Asuka walked back and decided she would be the one to ring the doorbell.
Had Shinji really been paying attention he would have noticed the red head over to his left pressing the doorbell button furiously and growling at the same time. Instead he was lost in his own thoughts as he took in the view of the run down apartment building. 'Maybe I should talk to Misato about getting NERV to move Ayanami to a better area of the city. Not only is it really dirty and falling apart, but its really out of the way when going to school.'
"For CHRIST SAKE! Answer the door!" Asuka screamed.
The noise was more than enough to snap Shinji back to reality. He looked over at Asuka and gave a small smile. "I'm sorry..."
Asuka snapped her attention to him, glaring all the while. "FOR WHAT!? Why are you apologizing!?"
"..B-because I should have told you earlier...t-that the doorbell is broke..." he stammered under Asuka's glare.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll knock." And with that, she knocked. And knocked, and knocked some more. "I know she's a little...well, ya know, but can't she hear the door when someone knocks?"
Shinji looked at Asuka with a blank stare. "She's a little what?" he inquired, his curiosity starting to peak.
Asuka smirked. "Ah, the words I think I shall not say to such an immature, lost, and idiot boy such as yourself, Shinji."
"Oh....o-okay." he muttered looking away.
With that out of the way, she knocked once more. "Open this door, First Child, or I'll kick it down!" she warned.
"We could always just open it." Shinji suggested remembering all the times he came over and the First Child's door not being locked. "Its not like its locked or anything."
Asuka rolled her eyes in Shinji's general direction. "And how would you know that?"
Shinji blushed slightly. "Well...we-well, I...the times I've come over it was always open." he explained.
"And how would you know it was open if you had not just opened it yourself?"
Shinji blushed harder. "Well, when...she never answered, I just kinda walked in...."
"You little PERV-"
Before she could finish that comment, Shinji quickly twisted the door to Rei's apartment and walked inside. Asuka stopped in mid-sentence as she started inside.
"Wow, err...cozy?" she said, not quite sure how else to describe the apartment, while following Shinji.
Without looking at her, Shinji continued down the hall and into the main area. His voice was heard from there. "Don't forget to take off your shoes."
Asuka looked down and indeed she had forgot to do that. It was one the habits she was still unaccustomed to no matter how many times Misato screamed to her about taking off her shoes.
{Flash; Sometime at Misato's place}
"Geeze," Asuka said, looking down at her feet still in shoes. Why was this such a big deal again? "there just shoes..." she finished shrugging.
Misato's left eye twitch and she reached to place her arm around the second child. Asuka watched her every move unaffected and waiting for something to happen. Misato smiled...or forced herself to smile politely at the Pilot of Unit 02. "Asuka..." she started sweetly, patting the girls shoulder understanding. "I know your not use to the Japanese ways with you not being Japanese and all, so let me help you remember this one" Asuka suddenly felt Misato's arm encircle around the girls head and pull her till she was at the Captain's side and being squeezed in a headlock. "When entering a house, or pretty much a lot of places you remove your shoes! GOT IT!?
Asuka nodded while failing her arms about cursing in German. She finally switched back to Japanese. "Let go you crazy woman! I get it! I get it! Take off my shoes!"
Misato nodded, but did not remove Asuka from the headlock.
"You can let go now!" Asuka growled, trying to reach to punch the captain.
"Your still wearing your shoes..." came calm the reply.
Asuka groaned.
{Flashback over; Rei's apartment}
Asuka rolled her eyes at the memory and took off her shoes, placing them by the front door with Shinji's and the other pair of shoes she just had to assumed were Rei's. As she laid her shoes down she noticed the mailbox stuffed till it could be stuffed no more with mail.
******
In the other room Shinji was looking around with a somewhat frown upon his face. 'With her personality you would think she was a little neater.' he commented himself.
That's when he heard the scream.
"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Asuka cried, pointing at the mailbox. "Wondergirl's got so much shit here you could harbor a criminal in it."
Shinji only sighed and frowned again when he saw what Asuka was talking about. "So she doesn't check her mail? Big deal!"
Asuka turned around. "I bet you the lights don't work in this place!"
Shinji proved her wrong when he reached over and flicked on the light switch and the light came on.
"Okay, so she pays her bills online..." Asuka muttered as she walked pass Shinji with a handful of mail in her hand.
Shinji looked at her nervously confused. "Wh-what are you doing? You can't just go through Ayanami's mail."
Asuka rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to open any of it. I have some form of respect and manners. Unlike you, Mr. 'I'll just walk into her house without permission'"
"Bu-but this has nothing to do with what we're here for..."
"Yeah, well," Asuka replied searching through the letters, "what we're here for isn't here, so while we're waiting I'll keep myself busy."
Knowing full well that he couldn't change her mind Shinji just kept quiet and looked around. 'This is frustrating...' he thought as he continued to look around. "That's it!"
Asuka looked up from looking through Rei's mail. "What's it?"
Instead of replying, Shinji grabbed a plastic bag that was lying on the floor and started picking the balled up paper on the floor.
Asuka said nothing. She just returned her attention to flipping through the mail.
******
Shinji had managed to end up back in the hall following the trail of papers. He paused in his work when he heard water running. Then the blood in his body ran cold as he remembered the last time he was in Rei's apartment when she got out of the shower.
{Flashback; Rei's apartment sometime ago}
THUD!
Shinji knew he had fallen and didn't want to open his eyes in fear of watching Rei laugh at him, but eventually he did. He opened one then the other and screamed like a little girl.
"OH MY GOD!"
Rei just appeared to be staring at the ceiling not really paying him any mind. Eventually he'd get off she figured.
"Oh-oh...ahh...crap....I'm..I-I-I'm s-sorry Aya..."
"Will you get off?" Rei demand quietly.
Shinji slowly stopped speaking and stepped back. 'This blows...this really blows.' he thought. 'Well if I'm gonna die at least I'm sort of happy about why.'
{Flashback over; Rei's apartment present time}
*********
It was now Asuka's turn to blinked and walk to the hall when she heard a wail. She blinked several more times after that when she caught Shinji in the hall screaming and pointing at the bathroom door.
"Um...dork, are you all right?" she asked.
"Aya-Aya...Ayana..." Shinji stuttered, pointing the door. Asuka waited for him to finish his sentence. Finally Shinji calmed down long enough to speak coherently. "Ayanami's in the bathroom." he whispered.
Asuka shook her head. "You mean to tell me I've wasted a good ten minutes of my life waiting for Wondergirl when she's in the bathroom!?" Shinji nodded. He was for sure Asuka was about to take her angry out on him. But to his surprise she simply shrugged and waved the hand with some letters in her at him. "Well, I noticed that a nice portion of the letters that I did grab are from guys in our class. Wondergirl's got admirers."
Shinji turned his head from the door to Asuka again. "Really?" he squeaked, but then cleared his throat. "I mean, you don't say?"
"Oh, yeeeaaaa, Aida even sent her some mail."
Shinji's curiosity was at its peak and he started over to Asuka. "Really!?"
Before he made it over to her, she held out her hand to stop him. "Hey, idiot, its not like we can open it, so why don't you just knock on the door and tell Wondergirl to come on."
"S-sorry." He replied and returned the door. After a second he knocked. There was no reply. "Hmm, that's strange."
Asuka looked up once again. "What's wrong now!?"
"She didn't answer." He replied, knocking once more.
Asuka finally losing her attention on Rei's mail went next to the door with Shinji. "Are you sure she's even in there?"
"Well, the shower's running." he replied. "Can't you hear it?"
Asuka quieted down and listened. Indeed she heard the shower. "Okay, so maybe she is in there. She might be one of them type of people that can't hear anything when distracted. I mean look at her at school. She's completely oblivious of things when she's staring out that window." 'Mental note: Find out what's so damn interesting outside.' Asuka thought.
'Note to self: Find out what Ayanami is staring at and why.' Shinji noted.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Asuka rushed. "Go in and tell her to hurry up."
Shinji flushed, turning very red. "I-I can't just walked in..."
Asuka looked at him dully while blinking. "This coming from the same guy that just let's himself into her apartment. Now you want to think about how morally wrong and perverted your actions are."
Shinji looked downcast. She was right. Walking in her apartment was just as bad as walking into the bathroom. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you're probably going to walk in on while I'm getting dress, so don't apologizes to me." Before he could say anything, she continued. "Anyways, I'll go in if it makes you so very upset."
She could see the relief wash over his face at her comment. With a roll of her eyes and a loud sigh, she reached for the door to open it. Turning the knob, she noticed that it wouldn't move and the door was not opening.
"Wonderful! Who the hell bothers locking their bathroom door when they totally disregard locking the front door...and anyways who locks the bathroom when they live alone! Wondergirl is confusing!"
Shinji could not reply. He was in fact engrossed in trying to read the letter Kensuke sent Rei by holding it up to the light. So far all he caught was 'My dearest Rei...'
"Shinji give me a card!" Asuka interrupted, holding her hand out, but not looking at him.
Shinji quickly lowered the letter and blushed lightly thinking Asuka saw what he was doing, but when he saw she wasn't looking his sighed in relief. "What did you want?" he asked.
"A card!" she repeated, holding her hand out.
Shinji blinked. "A credit card?"
"Yes! Give me a credit card."
Shinji frowned. "I don't have one..."
Asuka growled and finally turned to Shinji. "Listen, dork! Just give me a freakin' card. Give me your NERV card."
"W-why?" he questioned.
"So I can open the door, catch the First Child off guard, take exposing pictures of her and blackmail her into doing my bidding, and then sell the pictures on ebay." Asuka watched as Shinji held his mouth slightly opened after her answered and she growled when he was even more reluctant to hand it over.
After a minute of staring at Asuka, Shinji placed his NERV ID card back into his wallet. "Well, I know your not really going to do all that, but I'm still not going to give you my card."
Asuka placed a hand on her hip and glared. "And why not?"
"Because if you break it, I'll have to pay for a replacement and get scolded for being careless with this one. But you can have this card."
Not caring what kind of card it was, Asuka snatched it out of the Third Child's hand and turned back to the door. Shinji returned to trying to read the letter still in the envelop. He had heard when Asuka got the door open and he felt when she flicked his card back at him. But still he squinted up at the letter and tried to read. "Ever since the day I saw you enter..." he made out.
Asuka made her way into the bathroom and towards the shower where the curtains were blocking her view. She slowly pulled them apart and her eyes widen. "Well, I guess that kinda explains why she didn't answer the door..."
Still in the hall and trying to read, Shinji's attention was finally diverted when Asuka called him.
"Third Child get in here! And bring a stick!" was the called.
Shinji came, though he didn't comply with bringing the stick, but none the less he entered the bathroom still not aware that he was doing the very thing he didn't want to do in the first place. He looked around at the scattered clothes and absently picked them up and dropped them in the hamper before making his way next to Asuka. "So what's up?"
Asuka looked at him and noticed he had yet to look down. She also noticed he didn't get the stick like she ordered him too. "Where's the stick?"
Shinji blinked at her and gave her a shy smile. "I thought you were kidding."
Rolling her eyes, Asuka decided not to make a big deal about a stick, instead she just pointed down. Naturally Shinji's eyes followed her hand and that's when he relies where he was.
"AHHH!" he screamed stumbling back, "You tricked me into coming the bathroom! And...and....and now you made me look a Ayanami while she was naked! AHH! IT LIKES LAST TIME!"
Asuka growled and smacked Shinji across the back of his head not fully comprehending his wails. "Calm down and besides I think we've got bigger problems than you seeing her naked. I think she's dead."
Shinji gulped as he looked at the very still Rei, floating in the bathtub while the shower water rained down on her.
"And on a lighter note: Who the held takes a shower and a bath? I mean its either one or the other. You can't do both."
"It actually looks kinda relaxing. Floating in the tub while the shower rains down on your body..." Shinji whispered with a small grin as he continued to stare at Rei.
"Well, of course its relaxing when your dead!" Asuka screamed. Shinji snapped out his fantasy and looked up at Asuka from his spot still on the floor.
"You don't really think...?" he questioned, unable to finished his question. Instead he just gestured with his eyes to finish it for him.
Asuka shrugged. "She looks dead to me! So what do we do! Where are we gonna hide the body?"
Shinji looked thoughtfully at the roof. "Gee, I don't know--HEY! Wait a damn minute, we can't hide the body! That'll make it seem like we killed her."
"With all the crap we just touched in her apartment, they'll probably think it was us." she countered. "Besides, we can clone her."
Shinji looked up at Asuka annoyed. "We are NOT, I repeat NOT cloning Ayanami." he let out a deep breath. "Besides, do you even know how to clone people?" he added mockingly.
"Well, in theory." She answered. "But not practice and what better person to practice on then the First Child?"
"Asuka..." Shinji growled low.
"Okay, fine we won't clone her..." she said. "But what are we going to do?"
Shinji stood up and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe call the cops."
"I would like to first let you know that when they get here and they start pointing fingers I'm going to say you did it." She admitted.
"Wow, Asuka, and here I thought we'd both just go down together." he commented dryly.
"Hey, you're the one that doesn't want to hide the body." she said simply.
He glared at her, she didn't see it because she was thinking of a nice hiding spot for Rei's body, but he did. After a second something dawned on him. "Hey, maybe we could bring her back."
"If we're not cloning then I don't see how." Asuka threw back.
"How about we try the old-fashioned way? Ya know CPR?" he suggested.
"And if this doesn't work, then could we hide the body?"
Shinji's left eye twitched. "NO! There will be no more body hiding talk while we're standing around this particular body." To add to his order he pointed at Rei.
Asuka looked slightly annoyed at his outburst, but she nodded and kept quiet.
"So anyways, go give her CPR, Asuka." Shinji suddenly said, gesturing lightly over his shoulder.
"Why me!?"
"Because she'll probably think I'm a pervert if I do it!" he explained.
"Oh, and it won't look weird when I do it. I mean if I was in her position I'd want the guy in the room to perform it than another girl. I mean unless of course, Wondergirl is, well, ya know?"
Shinji shook his head. "I have no idea, but you can still go do it."
"Oh, no, you're not wimpin' your way out of this. If we ain't hiding nothin' and I ain't blowing any air into anyone!" she folded her arms over her chest and looked off to the side.
After a minute Shinji gave up and headed over to the body of Rei Ayanami. He leaned down in the tub and pinch her nose. Behind him Asuka was looking at how things were going so far. That's when her eyes widen and a very guilty grin spread across her face.
Shinji hadn't seen what Asuka saw because his eyes were closed, but his blood froze at what happened next.
"What are you doing, Ikari?" the soft voice demanded..
Shinji knew that you just can't get away with certain things twice and being over Rei for a second time while she was naked was a sure way to sign a death warrant.
"Well, hey," Asuka spoke sheepishly, "at least she's not dead..."
Rei for her part was still lying in the bathtub. Well, with a boy still hanging over you and all, it was pretty hard to sit up. She also noticed that he was still pinching her nose and reached up to remove his hand.
"Ah...ah..." Shinji stutter as he watched Rei remove his hand from her nose. "I....I...."
"Will you move, please?" Rei asked quietly and politely.
Asuka figured she'd better help Shinji move since he was having a bit of trouble doing so himself. So she grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him like a master pulled their dog. He stumbled back on the floor still in shock as Rei rose up from the bath. Finally Asuka was able to see why it was so hard for her to hear them. She had headphones on.
"Wow, and the whole time I thought you were just goin' deaf." she muttered.
Rei heard her, despite Asuka being low about, but choose not to say anything. Instead she turned off the shower and pulled the curtains closed. She decided that she should find out just why they were there. "Why are you here?"
Asuka finally snapped out of her surprise and shook her head clear. "Well, we were sent by Dr. Akagi to get you so we could go to the meeting. I think we're all going to be in trouble for being late." Asuka stopped trying to see if that's all she wanted to say and remember it wasn't. "Oh, yeah, you might want to check your mail once in awhile, you've tons of letters from the guys in our class and some random other crap that I care not to remember about." Before Rei could or if she even cared to reply, Asuka continued. "Well, anyways, we'll be waiting outside for you. Hurry up."
"Very well." Rei spoke up.
Asuka didn't reply she just dragged the still very much stunned Shinji out of the bathroom and closed the door.
********
Ritsuko Akagi was a little annoyed today, so when Major Misato Katsuragi popped up at her apartment to just tease her it didn't help the situation.
"Misato..." Ritsuko groaned.
"Hey, don't get mad at me because you drew the bad card!" Misato replied defensively. "I was actually surprise it wasn't me that drew the card."
Ritsuko sighed when Misato brought up that particular event. It was not one of her more happier memories of late.
{Flashback; The NERV conference room}
"So, who goes first?" Kaji Ryouji asked.
When no one seemed to want to volunteer themselves to show the Children a good time Sub-commander Fuyutsuki found a great way to pick the unfortunate soul. With a clear of his throat he had the attention of the people in the room and from behind his back he drew a stack of playing cards.
"These shall determine who will be first." he started. With that remark he slowly pulled out the number of cards to match the number of people who were to be involved in the task of showing the Children that they care. "The one to draw the Ace of Spade is the one that takes the first day."
And with that the members pulled cards.
{Flash; Ritsuko Akagi's apartment}
She sighed again when she recalled how everyone around her started breathing again when she pulled the Ace of Spade on the first go. It was a trick. It had to be a trick. She figured all the cards were Aces of Spade, but upon turning them over she relies that her luck just sucked and she should just stick to knowledge instead of luck.
"Poor Ritsu..." Misato started, grinning from ear to ear.
Something then dawned on Ritsuko as she looked over at Misato. It was a realization. "Why aren't you jumping at the opportunity to spend a day with the Children?"
Misato looked at the roof in deep thought. "That's quite simple my friend. I'm ALWAYS spending time with the kids. I now think a day...or six without them is what I need."
"But that's just Asuka and Shinji you're always around what about the other three?"
Misato shrugged and picked up one of Ritsuko's passing cats. "Well, let's see here. Going down the list I'll tell you why. First the First Child. Now tell me can you really picture Rei anywhere actually acting NORMAL?"
Ritsuko thought over the question for a moment before shaking her head. "No. No I suppose I cannot."
"So what's the point of even trying?" Misato continued.
"I have no clue."
"Exactly. And its not like I didn't try. I mean I really tried to spend a day with Rei."
Ritsuko blinked in confusion. "When was this? I've never heard about it."
Misato glared slightly at the doctor. "That's because I told Rei that if she ever mention the events that transpired that day I'd feed her to a llama."
Ritsuko was about to comment on just how that threat actually kept the First Child quiet, but Misato continued.
"You would think NOTHING would have happen, but EVERYTHING possible did."
"Care to share?"
Misato sighed. "Fine, but if you mention this to anyone I'll-"
Ritsuko nodded while chuckling. "Feed me to a llama, right? Got it."
Misato would have replied, but she just decided to go into the story.
{Flashback; Adventures with Misato and Rei.}
Rei was absently walking down the corridors of NERV when someone grabbed her and pulled her into a room. After getting over the initial shock of being pulled into a random room and by a random person Rei went into defense mode and fought back.
"Hey, let's-" started the voice.
She was cut off when Rei right hooked her.
"Ow...why'd you-"
This was followed by a good punch to the gut from the blue-hair girl to which the person doubled over and grunted in frustration.
"You're pretty strong for such a small-"
Rei followed up the attack by a roundhouse, knocking her attacker to the floor with a unpleasant thud. With that she stepped on their stomach and reached up to pull the chain that would turn on the light. The light came on and Rei's eyes widen just the slightest when she saw who she was standing on.
Misato groaned under the girl's weight and lifted her head ever so slightly.
"Rei?" she started painfully.
Rei stepped off her commanding officer and acknowledge the call of her name. "Yes, Major?"
"Ow..." came the Major's reply and she started to rise off the floor. "Who the hell taught you how to fight?" she rubbed her jaw.
"I took several different fighting styles over the years as ordered by the Commander." came the explanation.
Misato nodded still rubbing her jaw. "Right. I suppose pulling you into a closet would kinda freak you out so this was all my fault."
Rei didn't reply. She had no reason to reply. The Major was talking more to herself than the girl anyway.
Finally Misato rose to her feet, dusted herself off and looked at the First Child. "Well, anyway I need to talk to you."
Rei blinked for a second as she looked at the Major. "Why did you not just call for me?"
Misato grinned sheepishly. "Okay, so I was trying to catch you off guard, and I well maybe...err...HEY who are you to question me!?"
Rei looked down at the ground. "I apologies for my actions Major. Also please forgive me for questioning you."
Misato stared at Rei for a full minuet. Then she blinked for a full minute. Finally she laughed. "Boy, you really need to lighten up Rei."
Rei looked up with a perplexed stare. "Pardon, Major?"
Misato smiled. "C'mon, Rei, I have the rest of the day off. Let's go do something!"
Rei was silent. For more reason than just it being her nature to be silent. Misato noticed Rei's silence and glared slightly, then she grinned.
"I order you to say something."
"What?" the question soon followed.
Misato looked at the roof grinning like an idiot. "I don't know yet, let's go." With that she walked out of the room with as much seriousness you could possibly have after being beat up by one of your charges and coming out of a broom closet that a person could. Rei silently followed her.
{Flash; Ritsuko's apartment.}
Misato glanced at her watch. "Well, look at the time, I have to be at NERV soon."
Ritsuko lifted herself off the floor from her laughing fits. "No..you have to finish the story. I can't believe you let Rei kick your ass. Please finish the story."
Misato glared at her so-called best friend. "Maybe some other time, besides I don't really like being laughed at while I tell someone an embarrassing story."
Ritsuko took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm scheduling a day for us to just sit down and let you finish that tale. I have to know how it could have possibly got worst."
Misato's glare intensified. "I hate you Ritsu, you know that?"
"Ahh, so does a whole lot of other people, but does that stop me?" came the chuckled reply.
Misato didn't reply, she just head over to the door and gave her friend a malice grin. "That's why you drew the card on the first turn! HA! And now you have to spend the whole day with the Kids! Double HA! And...and..." Misato thought for a moment of something else to add. She came up with this. "And....your cats are dorks! Triple HA!" With that final comment Major Misato Katsuragi left Ritsuko's apartment and left a very stunned yet at the same time confused doctor inside.
"My cats aren't dorks..." Ritsuko pouted.
*******
After unmentionable events passed by two young Eva pilots found themselves again waiting on the third member of their team so they could get going.
"Is there a reason she's taking so long?" Asuka commented, tapping her foot.
Shinji would have replied but he was still trying to read a letter without opening it. So he was next to the window holding the closed envelop into the light to see what he could and possibly find out what the letter was for. Was it a love letter? Or perhaps Kensuke asking Rei a bunch of questions about Eva. The latter was what Shinji expected.
"Oh for goodness sake!" Asuka exclaimed, snatching the letter from Shinji, "Stop being so frikin' noisy and answer my question!"
Shinji blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, what was the question?"
Before Asuka could go off on him for not listening and repeat her question, they heard the bathroom door open. Without looking in the direction Asuka made her comment. "Oh, so you're finally ready! Great let's go."
Asuka saw Shinji's eyes widen, Asuka saw Shinji blush and 'eep', Asuka saw Shinji squeeze his eyes shut and turn the other direction while mumbling something. Asuka then decided to turn around and what she saw was Rei wearing a towel around her body with dripping wet hair.
"So exactly why aren't you ready yet?" Asuka demanded.
THUD!
"Well," Rei began monotones ignoring the thud, "I tried to ask you two to leave so I could enter my room and get my cloths, but you did not hear me, so I waited and figured you would get the idea, but that seem to have not happen and I am quite tried of waiting..."
Asuka glanced behind her and saw the clothes on the bed. She looked back a Rei. "Well, gee, if you didn't live next door to construction we might have heard you. Anyways, we'll get out your way. C'mon Shinji."
No response.
"Ikari is incapable of replying to your orders at the moment, Second." Rei explained.
Asuka looked down and found an unconscious Shinji. "Idiot." She muttered. With nothing left to say, she grabbed Shinji's foot and dragged him away. "Hurry up, dammit!"
******
A few minutes later, Shinji had come back to the world of the living without having seeing any more naked girls. He also noticed that he was being dragged. Upon further investigation. He noted that he was being dragged by Asuka and Rei. Asuka had his left arm while Rei had the right. Both were staring forward while just pulling him along for the ride. 'I wouldn't drag them if they fainted.' he thought glaring at the backs of their heads. 'But then I suppose they're probably lighter than I am.'
"So, Wondergirl, are you going to tell me what's up with those glasses?" Asuka asked. Shinji noted that this obviously wasn't the first time the question came up since his departure to the world of the fainted.
Rei gave no response.
'I'm just as interested as to where those damn glasses came from just as much as she is.' Shinji thought to himself. 'Maybe my impute can persuade Ayanami to answer. It'll also stop them from dragging me down the street.'
"C'mon, now, First, don't ignore me." Asuka pushed.
"I'm kind of interested myself." Shinji threw in.
Asuka turned around with her usual grin spread across her face. "So the invincible Shinji finally awakes. How were those dreams?"
Shinji avoided that question all together. He simply looked at Rei, who had glanced back as well. "Can we stop dragging me please? I'm not some dead animal on the side of the street."
"Might as well be." Asuka grumbled while letting go of his arm. Rei did the same and he stood up. He frowned at noticing how dirty he was and shook his head knowing it was his own fault for fainting in the first place.
"So anyways," Shinji started, while brushing dirt of his shirt, "who's glasses are those?"
Rei rolled her eyes upward as if thinking about answering the question. She finally looked back down at Shinji, turned around, and started walking.
Seeing that they weren't going to get an answer, Asuka and Shinji exchanged a glance, shrugged in unison, and followed the First Child.
After a few minutes of silence, the next subject came up.
"Ya know who has a cool pair of glasses?" Asuka said.
Shinji shook his head, "No, who?"
"The commander." Shinji's eyes widen slightly; Asuka continued. "Those glasses of his make him all commandy like and when I picture myself in a pair of glasses like those, I get all evil like."
"So," Shinji started, "you basically picture yourself wearing glasses like that all the time."
Asuka was about to blow. She turned towards Shinji with her eyes flaring and was about to pounce when he stopped her with his next comment.
"You know I heard the Commander only wears those glasses because his actual glasses, the ones that let him be able to see, disappear."
Rei looked off to the side. Though neither Shinji nor Asuka noticed.
"Who the hell would steal a pair of glass...es?" Asuka slowly turned her head in the direction of one Rei Ayanami who was admiring the pair of glasses she had clutch in her hand. "Ayanami?" Asuka called in a sing-song tone.
Rei rolled her eyes up to Asuka, who grinned.
"Those wouldn't happen to be the Commander's glasses would they?"
Rei remained silent. Her expression not saying whether they were or not.
"Now that I think about, I remember hearing that when he went to save you, Ayanami, his glasses fell off and after that they went missing." Shinji brought up.
Rei almost, ALMOST glared. 'Mental note: Add Third Child to list of 'people you will kill after purpose is fulfilled''
"And you know what?" Shinji continued knowing Rei wasn't going to reply. "Those glasses look like the ones he was wearing in some of the pictures I have of him."
'Mental note: Kill Ikari very soon.'
"Rei, looks like the cat's outta the bag." Asuka teased. "You have a crush on the Commander and that's why you have his glasses."
'Mental note: Kill Second Child. Kill her sooner than planned'
"Asuka?" Shinji leaned over to whisper while glanced nervously at Rei. "I don't like the way Ayanami is staring at us. Its almost deadly."
Asuka agreed whole heartily. The First was never known to glare or even look deadly, but right about now, her eyes were betraying the expression she was trying to keep. Her eyes were almost on fire.
"Well, why don't we drop the idol chit-chat and be on our way." Asuka decided to say before Rei Ayanami showed that she did have something in her. Shinji quickly agreed and they soon made it over to Dr. Akagi's place.
*********
Ritsuko Akagi slowly made her way from her bedroom to the living. Her expression clearly showing she was annoyed.
'Where are those children?' She wondered. All she wanted with them was give them the motherly attention they didn't get by taking them to the fair grounds and handing over large sums of money so they could go wild and have fun. Ritsuko sighed. Finally she heard talking that sounded like Asuka down the hall and sighed. She then scrunched her face in confusion. She was forgetting something. Something that was very important. She couldn't remember and walked to the back room with one her cats in tow.
There was a ring at the doorbell
"COME IN" Ritsuko yelled from the back. Something was still nagging at her mind.
******
The three Eva pilots entered Ritsuko's apartment and looked around. Asuka expected it to be all out of character with vibrate colors and disco kinda home. Shinji just expected an apartment with books and test tubes everywhere. Do we even want to know what Rei was thinking? Okay fine.
'Something is tickling my nose.' she thought. Then she sneezed.
"Bless you." Shinji said, looking at her.
"....."
"Dr. Akagi!" Asuka called. "We're in here waitING!" Asuka jumped a foot away from where something brushed against her leg. Shinji and Rei just stared at her. "What was that!?" she looked around, and calmed down when she saw what it was. "Oh, its just a cat." She moved back towards the cat. "And what a cute cat it is. I've never seen this type of cat before." She petted the light gray cat with caramel like swirls and it purred. "You're so cute." she picked it up and gestured in Shinji and Rei's direction. Rei moved back giving the cat a slight glare while Shinji petted it between it ears.
"Awww, you're so adorable." Shinji said. "I wonder what your name it."
"A cat..." Rei muttered quietly, almost disgusted.
That got Asuka and Shinji's attention.
"What about it?" Asuka asked, holding the cat to her chest while rubbing its head.
Rei looked at her, then glared slightly at the cat. Then she sneezed.
"Gusendeight." Asuka said habitually. "Anyways, what's wrong with this cute little kitten?"
There was moment of silence as Rei regarded the question. Then she replied. "A..cat..." To which Shinji shook his head and Asuka glared.
"You can't just dislike something for what it is!" Asuka shouted, getting frustrated with the First Child.
"Yes I can." Rei replied frankly. "But that is not why I do not like it. I have a very valid reason for me disliking the cat species." This was followed by another sneeze.
"Bless you." Shinji choose this time to say. "You must be getting sick. That cold apartment does that to people."
"What does my apartment have to do with my current condition?" Rei inquired.
Asuka sighed, loudly and exasperate. "He means that because your apartment sucks and is cold you're getting sick."
Complete silence followed this comment. Then Rei sneezed. Again. This time no one said anything, they just all remained quiet waiting for someone to reply to Asuka's comment. Namely Rei.
"My apartment is not responsible for my current conditions." Rei answered, still not seeing the point in placing blame on places.
Asuka rolled her eyes and stroked the cat. "Okay THEN, what is the cause then?"
Rei didn't answer. She just narrowed her eyes at the cat.
"Now, now, Ayanami," Shinji started. "You can't go blaming things on a cat. Its immature-..."
"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Ritsuko exclaimed as she came bolting down the hallway. "Keep the cat away from Rei! That's what I forgot! Dammit!"
Asuka stepped back a few feet away from Rei as if the blue-hair pilot of Unit 00 was going give her a virus. Rei sneezed. Shinji took a small step back too though his was went unnoticed
Ritsuko entered the living room, snatched her cat away from Asuka, picked up the second one that had been following her and ran.
"HEY! I like that cat!" Asuka shouted after her. Rei sneezed. "Stop sneezing!"
"I cannot help it. I am-"
"You're really going to give us some kind of virus!" Asuka interrupted. "This is some creepy conspiracy against us Shinji! They want us out of the way so Wondergirl can get the spotlight."
Shinji was now thinking this whole situation over. 'Ayanami seemed fine till we entered the apartment. Maybe something's irritating her sinuses...or-'
Before he could think anymore of it Ritsuko returned and ushered them outside. She turned around and started walking around Rei, inspecting her. "You're okay, Rei? I forgot about you being allergic to cats. I'm just glad Ryuu didn't touch you or we'll really have a problem on our hands."
The other two children looked at Rei. "YOU'RE allergic to cats?"
Rei nodded slightly, sniffing a bit
'She wouldn't be if Gendou liked them. Stupid man.'
{Flashback; Some odd years ago}
"I don't like cats, Dr. Akagi," Gendou stated straightforward. "so to refrain from having to see the little bastards during this stage in Rei's life, where she brings strange animals home, I've already had to deal with a turtle, a snail, a bird, a...what was that thing...hmm....damn what was it?" While Gendou fought with his memory to remember the animal in question, just behind him a seven year old Rei is seen pulling a large black and white animal into the house.
"Can I keep it?" She asked.
Ritsuko grinned.
Gendou didn't reply...or well his reply wasn't the one expected. "...it was kind of ugly, OH a baby breaded dragon!" he snapped his fingers.
Ritsuko found herself rolling her eyes and fixing them on the young child pulling the Panda along.
Finally Gendou started speaking again, catching her attention as if he never stopped...or got off the subject. "...And I don't want her to bring home a cat. I just can't handle the bastards. They have too much pride. So, anyway, what I want you to do is make her allergic to them. That way she'll hate them and I'll be happy." Gendou then smirked at her when he saw her glare. "Is there a problem, Doctor?"
"Oh, no. I'll get on that right away." she replied.
{Flash; Outside Ritsuko's apartment.}
Ritsuko shook her head and glared forward. That bastard only did that to piss her off. She knew that was his only reason. She smiled when she had 'forgotten' to inform the girl of her allergic reaction to cats and although she had to deal with the situation from day one the suffering was accepted for what she got out of it.
She remembered everything. Hell, she taped it with a hidden camera she kept on her for moments like this...or revealing secrets from the enemy. Whichever. She remembered that she and Gendou were discussing the making of some weapons when Rei came in sneezing a storm up and lightly rubbing a rash that had formed on her arm as best she could without dropping the cat. Gendou had told her to make it a bad allergic reaction. So she did. Anyways, she remember seeing Gendou's expression.
{Flash; Yet again some odd years ago}
"Rei, what are you doing with that cat?" Gendou demanded, narrowing his eyes at the feline in her arms.
Rei sneezed and replied. "I like it. Can I keep it?"
Gendou blinked for a full minute. "Rei, you're highly allergic to cats, do you really want to keep it?"
Rei, haven't a clue as to what he just said, replied. "Yes."
To which Gendou sighed, and looked at Ritsuko. "She hasn't a clue she's allergic to cats, does she?"
Ritsuko smirked, but did not look Gendou in the eye. Instead her focus remained on the First Child, while she sipped her tea. "Haven't a clue at all, Commander." Was her reply, as a small smile played on her lips.
Gendou groaned and did what a 'father' was suppose to do in a situation. With careful care he forcefully removed the cat from Rei's grasp, walked towards the window while explaining the situation to a young Rei. "Rei, when your highly allergic to something, you don't usually want to keep it as a pet. Especially since your probably going to have irritation all over your arms for about three days. So, anyways, most people tend to....dislike what they are allergic to." He continued his trek to the window, letting himself glance down at Ritsuko when he passed. "Like take Dr. Akagi, she's allergic to strawberries, so she stays away from them. Are you following my logic, Rei?"
"Yes." Came the reply.
Gendou smiled. "So let's just get rid of this thing as fast as possible." And with that Gendou tossed the cat out the window. Tossed the cat out the top floor of a fifty story building. Let's just say, Rei found out that day that cats don't always land on their feet, and if they do, it doesn't always help.
{Flash; Outside Ritsuko's apartment}
"So, exactly why are we here?" Asuka asked, interrupting Ritsuko's moment of flashbacks.
Ritsuko shook her head. "Oh, yeah, well, NERV is being force to have 'children's week' where we show you that we care." She smiled...or tried to give them a friendly smile.
"Ahh..." Asuka said, nodding knowingly at Ritsuko. "Child Services again, I see. When you need them, they don't show, but when you don't care, they pop up like...like..."
"Pop-up books?" Shinji offered.
Asuka shrugged. "So Ritsuko, why you and not the Major?"
Ritsuko's 'smile' faded as she said dimly. "Why, Asuka, I grabbed the Ace of Spades."
Shinji and Asuka understood now. Rei didn't really care one way or the other. She didn't even want to be here. In fact, neither did Shinji or Asuka, but at least they were willing to put up with the situation. Rei on the other decided that since she didn't want to be there that she was free to go and was halfway to the elevator before Section two popped up and turned her back in the direction of Ritsuko, and the other Children.
'This is not agreeable. Most certainly not.' Rei thought, mouth slowly forming into a frown. 'She also smells of cat. This is, yet again, not agreeable.'
"Now, Rei, did you think that you could just run away like that?" Ritsuko asked, her smile returned, but it was almost psychotic. "If I have to suffer so do you!" She laughed...evilly.
Rei was not a happy person.
Asuka was not in a happy mood.
Shinji was confused.
'Mental note: Place Dr. Akagi at top of list of people to kill...'
'Note to Self: Gather large cat population and torture First Child, oh...and kick Ritsuko in the shin.'
'Now, just where in the hell did they come from?' Shinji thought looking at Section Two. 'They're like super secret robots that protects us. Its like that old movie Terminator...'
*****
Ritsuko Akagi's day was already bad. So the fact that Shinji and Asuka were bickering was not helping her mood. Then there was Rei. She glanced back at the blue-hair girl sitting in the back seat with her eyes fixed out the window. Rei sneezed.
"Gusendeight!" Asuka exclaimed from her position in the shogun. "Anyway, Shinji, you suck and that's the end of this conversation!"
Shinji opened his mouth to prove to Asuka that the conversation was far from over, but she turned around and held her hand in front of his face. "No no. Its over!"
"Bu-but..."
"Silence, Third Child," Asuka stated firmly. "I do not want to result in using force."
The car was quiet. Ritsuko thought that was the end of the conversation. Rei sneezed.
"Oh, for Christ sake, Rei, get over your sneezing fits!" Ritsuko exclaimed. She knew that was far from happening since she pretty much made the allergy very sensitive and being in an closed area where the whole place smelled like cat and had cat fur all over the place didn't help, but she figured the girl would try to stop.
No such luck. Rei sneezed again.
Ritsuko glared forward, gripping steering wheel. If this was how it was going to be overtime she was force to be around these kids, then she'd have to get something for that sneeze. Perhaps a gun...
"I still think Marvel is better than DC..." Shinji muttered to himself, folding his arms and staring out the window.
Asuka's eyes flared and she turned around in her seat again. "Listen! Didn't I tell you that this conversation was over! DC is twenty times better than Marvel and that's that, so there!"
Shinji came up closer to her. "OH, yeah! Well, let's get another opinion."
Asuka looked in Ritsuko's direction. "Who? The good doctor?"
"Please do not put me into your little conflict." Ritsuko demanded.
"Well, actually, I was thinking Ayanami." he explained and looked in the blue-hair pilots directions, "Well, Ayanami, what do you...." Shinji trailed off as he noticed that Rei had yet even acknowledge the fact that he was talking to her. "Ayanami?" he looked at Asuka, who shrugged and turned around in her seat. He looked back at Rei and ever so slowly reached up and poked her in the shoulder. "Ayanami? Hey, can you hear me?" He poked her harder and finally Rei turned around. "Ahh, so...what do you think?"
Rei blinked at him slightly confused. "About what?"
"About DC and Marvel comics. Which one is better!?"
After a moment of staring at the slightly crazy Ikari, Rei answered. "I do not know."
"You should have known better than to ask Wondergirl." Asuka teased from the front seat. "Now just accept that DC is better than your stupid Marvel company and get on with your pathetic existence."
Shinji gave Rei a side-ways glance. "You ever hear of lying?" he whispered, dully.
The only reply they got was sneezing. Lots and lots of sneezing.
'So if just smelling the cat causes this I wonder what happens when the cat touches her.' Asuka thought. 'Must put torture First Child plan in action very soon.' she soon grinned.
"Ahh, this is driving me nuts!" Ritsuko screamed and hit gas. The car started speeding up.
"This proves nothing..." Shinji swore. "I'll...I'll get people's opinions from school! Yeah, that's what I'll do! We'll see which one is better after that! You wait Asuka! You wait!"
"Will you shut-the-hell-up, idiot!?" Asuka commanded.
Shinji huffed and replied back. "You can't tell me to shut-up!"
Asuka turned around. "Well I just did, now shut-up!"
"Why me? Crazy ass children." Ritsuko cried aloud and went faster. "Why me? Stupid half-breeds. German children are annoying. Stupid Commander Ikari's kid!"
The three children all turned their attention to Ritsuko.
"German kids aren't annoying!" Asuka whined. "We're cute and cool!"
Shinji opened his mouth to reply to the comment she made about him, but found no real good comeback, so he stopped himself and tried to think of one.
"And why'd you call Wondergirl a half-breed?" Asuka wondered.
"........" came the reply.
"Well?" Asuka pressed.
"........." The reply came again.
Asuka knowing now she wasn't getting a reply from the good doctor turned to Rei. "Why are you a half-breed?"
"I do not know." Rei replied, not taking her eyes off the window.
"You wouldn't be half-Japanese and half-polish now would you?"
Rei looked at her and blinked with a blank look upon her face. ".....No."
"How about jap and gnome?"
Rei's eyes showed a little confusion at this question. "......no."
"Half gnome?" Shinji wondered aloud.
Ignoring Shinji completely Asuka continued with a smirk. "I know what it is...its written all over your face." She continued to grin. Shinji just turned to Rei to see what Asuka saw. He didn't succeed.
"I don't see anything." he muttered.
"You're half angel aren't you!?"
"AHHHHH!" Ritsuko screamed as she let the car swerve.
"GEEZ, Ritsuko, mind being a little careful with us!?" Asuka fussed.
'Good, that threw her attention off that subject. Let's just hope Rei doesn't answer that question.'
But it wasn't Rei who Ritsuko had to worry about.
"Now what would give you the idea that Rei's half-angel?" Shinji asked.
'I hate my life.' Ritsuko thought with a sigh.
Asuka shook her head while letting out a deep breath. "I was just kidding. Don't take it personal, Third. You're acting like a child." Before Shinji could counter yet again he was stopped when Asuka continued speaking. "Speaking of Children, Ritsuko, where are the other two dimwits."
"Well, the Fourth and Fifth Children both wanted to meet us there instead of coming to my place."
'If I were previously informed of these events I would have done the same.' Rei thought. 'For that matter, why was I not previously informed?'
"Hey, how come they got to know about this stupid 'non-neglecting' week and not us?" Asuka voiced Rei's thought.
Ritsuko blinked and glanced at Asuka. "What are you talking about? Didn't you get the memo? It was posted in the changing room and a letter was sent to your house."
'Maybe I should start checking my mail like the Second suggested.' Rei wondered. 'Still does not explain what happen to the memo in the changing room though.'
{Flash; NERV a couple of days ago}
Touji is running down the hall away from a irate Second Child. He breezed passed The First, Third, and Fifth Children who stepped to the side to let him pass.
"Ahh, geeze Asuka! I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't even looking at you! Who would want to look at you!?"
"FOURTH CHILD!" Asuka bellowed. "I'll get you...you...perverted little weasel."
"I wondered what he did this time?" Shinji wondered aloud.
Kaoru smirked. "If you remember his last comment while in testing that should answer your question. 'Plug suits really enlarge the ass' was what he said, if my memory serves me rights."
"Oh...yeah..." Shinji remembered.
A silence fell over the three.
"Funny," Rei started thoughtfully, titling her head ever so slightly. "I did not know weasel's were perverted..."
Kaoru fell backwards, slamming into the girl's changing room door. And on the other side a memo fell to the floor from the impact.
{Flash; back to the car ride}
"So why didn't we get our letters?" Asuka asked.
{Flash; Major Katsuragi/Pilots Sohyru and Ikari's residence}
Pen-Pen and Misato are sitting at the table.
Misato sits her beer down on a letter with Asuka's name on it from NERV. Pen-pen does the same with a similar letter with Shinji's name on it.
Misato looks down at the letter when she lifts her can. "Hey, I knew these just weren't coasters!" she exclaims. After the initial discover she shrugs and places the can back on the letter. "Oh, well."
{Flash; the car}
"I'll give you two guesses to that one." Shinji grumbled.
"I don't need but one." came Asuka's reply.
The car was silent for awhile, minus the sneezes coming from Rei every once in awhile, but they had gotten use to that.. Finally something dawned on Asuka and she once again spoke.
"So, why weren't we just informed? We're always just usually informed?"
Ritsuko gave her that look that told her that she should just not ask and Asuka changed her mind about getting the answer.
-End Part One of Day One-
Also I want you guys to tell me what you think about those flasback like things. I kinda went crazy with them in this chapter, but I'll try to cut down in the next.
One more thing: I'd like to thank Foolish wise monk for their idea on a day spent with Gendou. I honestly had no idea and that sounds like a great one.
Standard Disclaimer applies. Disclaimer: No I don't!
Kmoney: Yes you do! *grabs disclaimer and gags it* Unless of course otherwise noted! HA HA HA HA!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Day 1: Part One: The Misadventures With Ritsuko
Asuka Langley Sohyru was, in simple terms, annoyed. Why was s Wthat answer was quite simple. Instead of being able to hang out with her friends, she had been ordered by Dr. Akagi to occupying Third Child, Shinji Ikari to obtain the First Child.
If your weren't aware then know this; Asuka was not a big fan of the First Child.
"So, do you even know where the First lives?" Asuka asked the quiet Shinji.
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I've been there a couple of times..."
Asuka's eyebrow rose. "Really? Why?" she then grinned. "Are you and Wondergirl doing some extra curriculum activities?" she teased.
Shinji blushed, and stumbled with his words. "Wha...we-we're not....doing...anything!"
Asuka shook her head as they walked up the stairs to Rei's apartment. The construction noise not oblivious to neither of them.
"And just why in the hell does Wondergirl stay here of all places?" she grimaced, "you would think with the way she was she wouldn't like a place this...this dirty." she looked around and refrained from touching the rail on the stairs when she saw the dust and grime coated over it.
Shinji shrugged. "I think she just doesn't care." He took a look around and then at his hand that he let grabbed the rail and frowned lightly while he wiped it on his pants and kept walking.
Asuka was a little ahead looking at each apartment number and glancing back at Shinji to see when he would stop. Finally he stopped and stood in front of a door. Asuka walked back and decided she would be the one to ring the doorbell.
Had Shinji really been paying attention he would have noticed the red head over to his left pressing the doorbell button furiously and growling at the same time. Instead he was lost in his own thoughts as he took in the view of the run down apartment building. 'Maybe I should talk to Misato about getting NERV to move Ayanami to a better area of the city. Not only is it really dirty and falling apart, but its really out of the way when going to school.'
"For CHRIST SAKE! Answer the door!" Asuka screamed.
The noise was more than enough to snap Shinji back to reality. He looked over at Asuka and gave a small smile. "I'm sorry..."
Asuka snapped her attention to him, glaring all the while. "FOR WHAT!? Why are you apologizing!?"
"..B-because I should have told you earlier...t-that the doorbell is broke..." he stammered under Asuka's glare.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll knock." And with that, she knocked. And knocked, and knocked some more. "I know she's a little...well, ya know, but can't she hear the door when someone knocks?"
Shinji looked at Asuka with a blank stare. "She's a little what?" he inquired, his curiosity starting to peak.
Asuka smirked. "Ah, the words I think I shall not say to such an immature, lost, and idiot boy such as yourself, Shinji."
"Oh....o-okay." he muttered looking away.
With that out of the way, she knocked once more. "Open this door, First Child, or I'll kick it down!" she warned.
"We could always just open it." Shinji suggested remembering all the times he came over and the First Child's door not being locked. "Its not like its locked or anything."
Asuka rolled her eyes in Shinji's general direction. "And how would you know that?"
Shinji blushed slightly. "Well...we-well, I...the times I've come over it was always open." he explained.
"And how would you know it was open if you had not just opened it yourself?"
Shinji blushed harder. "Well, when...she never answered, I just kinda walked in...."
"You little PERV-"
Before she could finish that comment, Shinji quickly twisted the door to Rei's apartment and walked inside. Asuka stopped in mid-sentence as she started inside.
"Wow, err...cozy?" she said, not quite sure how else to describe the apartment, while following Shinji.
Without looking at her, Shinji continued down the hall and into the main area. His voice was heard from there. "Don't forget to take off your shoes."
Asuka looked down and indeed she had forgot to do that. It was one the habits she was still unaccustomed to no matter how many times Misato screamed to her about taking off her shoes.
{Flash; Sometime at Misato's place}
"Geeze," Asuka said, looking down at her feet still in shoes. Why was this such a big deal again? "there just shoes..." she finished shrugging.
Misato's left eye twitch and she reached to place her arm around the second child. Asuka watched her every move unaffected and waiting for something to happen. Misato smiled...or forced herself to smile politely at the Pilot of Unit 02. "Asuka..." she started sweetly, patting the girls shoulder understanding. "I know your not use to the Japanese ways with you not being Japanese and all, so let me help you remember this one" Asuka suddenly felt Misato's arm encircle around the girls head and pull her till she was at the Captain's side and being squeezed in a headlock. "When entering a house, or pretty much a lot of places you remove your shoes! GOT IT!?
Asuka nodded while failing her arms about cursing in German. She finally switched back to Japanese. "Let go you crazy woman! I get it! I get it! Take off my shoes!"
Misato nodded, but did not remove Asuka from the headlock.
"You can let go now!" Asuka growled, trying to reach to punch the captain.
"Your still wearing your shoes..." came calm the reply.
Asuka groaned.
{Flashback over; Rei's apartment}
Asuka rolled her eyes at the memory and took off her shoes, placing them by the front door with Shinji's and the other pair of shoes she just had to assumed were Rei's. As she laid her shoes down she noticed the mailbox stuffed till it could be stuffed no more with mail.
******
In the other room Shinji was looking around with a somewhat frown upon his face. 'With her personality you would think she was a little neater.' he commented himself.
That's when he heard the scream.
"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Asuka cried, pointing at the mailbox. "Wondergirl's got so much shit here you could harbor a criminal in it."
Shinji only sighed and frowned again when he saw what Asuka was talking about. "So she doesn't check her mail? Big deal!"
Asuka turned around. "I bet you the lights don't work in this place!"
Shinji proved her wrong when he reached over and flicked on the light switch and the light came on.
"Okay, so she pays her bills online..." Asuka muttered as she walked pass Shinji with a handful of mail in her hand.
Shinji looked at her nervously confused. "Wh-what are you doing? You can't just go through Ayanami's mail."
Asuka rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to open any of it. I have some form of respect and manners. Unlike you, Mr. 'I'll just walk into her house without permission'"
"Bu-but this has nothing to do with what we're here for..."
"Yeah, well," Asuka replied searching through the letters, "what we're here for isn't here, so while we're waiting I'll keep myself busy."
Knowing full well that he couldn't change her mind Shinji just kept quiet and looked around. 'This is frustrating...' he thought as he continued to look around. "That's it!"
Asuka looked up from looking through Rei's mail. "What's it?"
Instead of replying, Shinji grabbed a plastic bag that was lying on the floor and started picking the balled up paper on the floor.
Asuka said nothing. She just returned her attention to flipping through the mail.
******
Shinji had managed to end up back in the hall following the trail of papers. He paused in his work when he heard water running. Then the blood in his body ran cold as he remembered the last time he was in Rei's apartment when she got out of the shower.
{Flashback; Rei's apartment sometime ago}
THUD!
Shinji knew he had fallen and didn't want to open his eyes in fear of watching Rei laugh at him, but eventually he did. He opened one then the other and screamed like a little girl.
"OH MY GOD!"
Rei just appeared to be staring at the ceiling not really paying him any mind. Eventually he'd get off she figured.
"Oh-oh...ahh...crap....I'm..I-I-I'm s-sorry Aya..."
"Will you get off?" Rei demand quietly.
Shinji slowly stopped speaking and stepped back. 'This blows...this really blows.' he thought. 'Well if I'm gonna die at least I'm sort of happy about why.'
{Flashback over; Rei's apartment present time}
*********
It was now Asuka's turn to blinked and walk to the hall when she heard a wail. She blinked several more times after that when she caught Shinji in the hall screaming and pointing at the bathroom door.
"Um...dork, are you all right?" she asked.
"Aya-Aya...Ayana..." Shinji stuttered, pointing the door. Asuka waited for him to finish his sentence. Finally Shinji calmed down long enough to speak coherently. "Ayanami's in the bathroom." he whispered.
Asuka shook her head. "You mean to tell me I've wasted a good ten minutes of my life waiting for Wondergirl when she's in the bathroom!?" Shinji nodded. He was for sure Asuka was about to take her angry out on him. But to his surprise she simply shrugged and waved the hand with some letters in her at him. "Well, I noticed that a nice portion of the letters that I did grab are from guys in our class. Wondergirl's got admirers."
Shinji turned his head from the door to Asuka again. "Really?" he squeaked, but then cleared his throat. "I mean, you don't say?"
"Oh, yeeeaaaa, Aida even sent her some mail."
Shinji's curiosity was at its peak and he started over to Asuka. "Really!?"
Before he made it over to her, she held out her hand to stop him. "Hey, idiot, its not like we can open it, so why don't you just knock on the door and tell Wondergirl to come on."
"S-sorry." He replied and returned the door. After a second he knocked. There was no reply. "Hmm, that's strange."
Asuka looked up once again. "What's wrong now!?"
"She didn't answer." He replied, knocking once more.
Asuka finally losing her attention on Rei's mail went next to the door with Shinji. "Are you sure she's even in there?"
"Well, the shower's running." he replied. "Can't you hear it?"
Asuka quieted down and listened. Indeed she heard the shower. "Okay, so maybe she is in there. She might be one of them type of people that can't hear anything when distracted. I mean look at her at school. She's completely oblivious of things when she's staring out that window." 'Mental note: Find out what's so damn interesting outside.' Asuka thought.
'Note to self: Find out what Ayanami is staring at and why.' Shinji noted.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Asuka rushed. "Go in and tell her to hurry up."
Shinji flushed, turning very red. "I-I can't just walked in..."
Asuka looked at him dully while blinking. "This coming from the same guy that just let's himself into her apartment. Now you want to think about how morally wrong and perverted your actions are."
Shinji looked downcast. She was right. Walking in her apartment was just as bad as walking into the bathroom. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you're probably going to walk in on while I'm getting dress, so don't apologizes to me." Before he could say anything, she continued. "Anyways, I'll go in if it makes you so very upset."
She could see the relief wash over his face at her comment. With a roll of her eyes and a loud sigh, she reached for the door to open it. Turning the knob, she noticed that it wouldn't move and the door was not opening.
"Wonderful! Who the hell bothers locking their bathroom door when they totally disregard locking the front door...and anyways who locks the bathroom when they live alone! Wondergirl is confusing!"
Shinji could not reply. He was in fact engrossed in trying to read the letter Kensuke sent Rei by holding it up to the light. So far all he caught was 'My dearest Rei...'
"Shinji give me a card!" Asuka interrupted, holding her hand out, but not looking at him.
Shinji quickly lowered the letter and blushed lightly thinking Asuka saw what he was doing, but when he saw she wasn't looking his sighed in relief. "What did you want?" he asked.
"A card!" she repeated, holding her hand out.
Shinji blinked. "A credit card?"
"Yes! Give me a credit card."
Shinji frowned. "I don't have one..."
Asuka growled and finally turned to Shinji. "Listen, dork! Just give me a freakin' card. Give me your NERV card."
"W-why?" he questioned.
"So I can open the door, catch the First Child off guard, take exposing pictures of her and blackmail her into doing my bidding, and then sell the pictures on ebay." Asuka watched as Shinji held his mouth slightly opened after her answered and she growled when he was even more reluctant to hand it over.
After a minute of staring at Asuka, Shinji placed his NERV ID card back into his wallet. "Well, I know your not really going to do all that, but I'm still not going to give you my card."
Asuka placed a hand on her hip and glared. "And why not?"
"Because if you break it, I'll have to pay for a replacement and get scolded for being careless with this one. But you can have this card."
Not caring what kind of card it was, Asuka snatched it out of the Third Child's hand and turned back to the door. Shinji returned to trying to read the letter still in the envelop. He had heard when Asuka got the door open and he felt when she flicked his card back at him. But still he squinted up at the letter and tried to read. "Ever since the day I saw you enter..." he made out.
Asuka made her way into the bathroom and towards the shower where the curtains were blocking her view. She slowly pulled them apart and her eyes widen. "Well, I guess that kinda explains why she didn't answer the door..."
Still in the hall and trying to read, Shinji's attention was finally diverted when Asuka called him.
"Third Child get in here! And bring a stick!" was the called.
Shinji came, though he didn't comply with bringing the stick, but none the less he entered the bathroom still not aware that he was doing the very thing he didn't want to do in the first place. He looked around at the scattered clothes and absently picked them up and dropped them in the hamper before making his way next to Asuka. "So what's up?"
Asuka looked at him and noticed he had yet to look down. She also noticed he didn't get the stick like she ordered him too. "Where's the stick?"
Shinji blinked at her and gave her a shy smile. "I thought you were kidding."
Rolling her eyes, Asuka decided not to make a big deal about a stick, instead she just pointed down. Naturally Shinji's eyes followed her hand and that's when he relies where he was.
"AHHH!" he screamed stumbling back, "You tricked me into coming the bathroom! And...and....and now you made me look a Ayanami while she was naked! AHH! IT LIKES LAST TIME!"
Asuka growled and smacked Shinji across the back of his head not fully comprehending his wails. "Calm down and besides I think we've got bigger problems than you seeing her naked. I think she's dead."
Shinji gulped as he looked at the very still Rei, floating in the bathtub while the shower water rained down on her.
"And on a lighter note: Who the held takes a shower and a bath? I mean its either one or the other. You can't do both."
"It actually looks kinda relaxing. Floating in the tub while the shower rains down on your body..." Shinji whispered with a small grin as he continued to stare at Rei.
"Well, of course its relaxing when your dead!" Asuka screamed. Shinji snapped out his fantasy and looked up at Asuka from his spot still on the floor.
"You don't really think...?" he questioned, unable to finished his question. Instead he just gestured with his eyes to finish it for him.
Asuka shrugged. "She looks dead to me! So what do we do! Where are we gonna hide the body?"
Shinji looked thoughtfully at the roof. "Gee, I don't know--HEY! Wait a damn minute, we can't hide the body! That'll make it seem like we killed her."
"With all the crap we just touched in her apartment, they'll probably think it was us." she countered. "Besides, we can clone her."
Shinji looked up at Asuka annoyed. "We are NOT, I repeat NOT cloning Ayanami." he let out a deep breath. "Besides, do you even know how to clone people?" he added mockingly.
"Well, in theory." She answered. "But not practice and what better person to practice on then the First Child?"
"Asuka..." Shinji growled low.
"Okay, fine we won't clone her..." she said. "But what are we going to do?"
Shinji stood up and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe call the cops."
"I would like to first let you know that when they get here and they start pointing fingers I'm going to say you did it." She admitted.
"Wow, Asuka, and here I thought we'd both just go down together." he commented dryly.
"Hey, you're the one that doesn't want to hide the body." she said simply.
He glared at her, she didn't see it because she was thinking of a nice hiding spot for Rei's body, but he did. After a second something dawned on him. "Hey, maybe we could bring her back."
"If we're not cloning then I don't see how." Asuka threw back.
"How about we try the old-fashioned way? Ya know CPR?" he suggested.
"And if this doesn't work, then could we hide the body?"
Shinji's left eye twitched. "NO! There will be no more body hiding talk while we're standing around this particular body." To add to his order he pointed at Rei.
Asuka looked slightly annoyed at his outburst, but she nodded and kept quiet.
"So anyways, go give her CPR, Asuka." Shinji suddenly said, gesturing lightly over his shoulder.
"Why me!?"
"Because she'll probably think I'm a pervert if I do it!" he explained.
"Oh, and it won't look weird when I do it. I mean if I was in her position I'd want the guy in the room to perform it than another girl. I mean unless of course, Wondergirl is, well, ya know?"
Shinji shook his head. "I have no idea, but you can still go do it."
"Oh, no, you're not wimpin' your way out of this. If we ain't hiding nothin' and I ain't blowing any air into anyone!" she folded her arms over her chest and looked off to the side.
After a minute Shinji gave up and headed over to the body of Rei Ayanami. He leaned down in the tub and pinch her nose. Behind him Asuka was looking at how things were going so far. That's when her eyes widen and a very guilty grin spread across her face.
Shinji hadn't seen what Asuka saw because his eyes were closed, but his blood froze at what happened next.
"What are you doing, Ikari?" the soft voice demanded..
Shinji knew that you just can't get away with certain things twice and being over Rei for a second time while she was naked was a sure way to sign a death warrant.
"Well, hey," Asuka spoke sheepishly, "at least she's not dead..."
Rei for her part was still lying in the bathtub. Well, with a boy still hanging over you and all, it was pretty hard to sit up. She also noticed that he was still pinching her nose and reached up to remove his hand.
"Ah...ah..." Shinji stutter as he watched Rei remove his hand from her nose. "I....I...."
"Will you move, please?" Rei asked quietly and politely.
Asuka figured she'd better help Shinji move since he was having a bit of trouble doing so himself. So she grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him like a master pulled their dog. He stumbled back on the floor still in shock as Rei rose up from the bath. Finally Asuka was able to see why it was so hard for her to hear them. She had headphones on.
"Wow, and the whole time I thought you were just goin' deaf." she muttered.
Rei heard her, despite Asuka being low about, but choose not to say anything. Instead she turned off the shower and pulled the curtains closed. She decided that she should find out just why they were there. "Why are you here?"
Asuka finally snapped out of her surprise and shook her head clear. "Well, we were sent by Dr. Akagi to get you so we could go to the meeting. I think we're all going to be in trouble for being late." Asuka stopped trying to see if that's all she wanted to say and remember it wasn't. "Oh, yeah, you might want to check your mail once in awhile, you've tons of letters from the guys in our class and some random other crap that I care not to remember about." Before Rei could or if she even cared to reply, Asuka continued. "Well, anyways, we'll be waiting outside for you. Hurry up."
"Very well." Rei spoke up.
Asuka didn't reply she just dragged the still very much stunned Shinji out of the bathroom and closed the door.
********
Ritsuko Akagi was a little annoyed today, so when Major Misato Katsuragi popped up at her apartment to just tease her it didn't help the situation.
"Misato..." Ritsuko groaned.
"Hey, don't get mad at me because you drew the bad card!" Misato replied defensively. "I was actually surprise it wasn't me that drew the card."
Ritsuko sighed when Misato brought up that particular event. It was not one of her more happier memories of late.
{Flashback; The NERV conference room}
"So, who goes first?" Kaji Ryouji asked.
When no one seemed to want to volunteer themselves to show the Children a good time Sub-commander Fuyutsuki found a great way to pick the unfortunate soul. With a clear of his throat he had the attention of the people in the room and from behind his back he drew a stack of playing cards.
"These shall determine who will be first." he started. With that remark he slowly pulled out the number of cards to match the number of people who were to be involved in the task of showing the Children that they care. "The one to draw the Ace of Spade is the one that takes the first day."
And with that the members pulled cards.
{Flash; Ritsuko Akagi's apartment}
She sighed again when she recalled how everyone around her started breathing again when she pulled the Ace of Spade on the first go. It was a trick. It had to be a trick. She figured all the cards were Aces of Spade, but upon turning them over she relies that her luck just sucked and she should just stick to knowledge instead of luck.
"Poor Ritsu..." Misato started, grinning from ear to ear.
Something then dawned on Ritsuko as she looked over at Misato. It was a realization. "Why aren't you jumping at the opportunity to spend a day with the Children?"
Misato looked at the roof in deep thought. "That's quite simple my friend. I'm ALWAYS spending time with the kids. I now think a day...or six without them is what I need."
"But that's just Asuka and Shinji you're always around what about the other three?"
Misato shrugged and picked up one of Ritsuko's passing cats. "Well, let's see here. Going down the list I'll tell you why. First the First Child. Now tell me can you really picture Rei anywhere actually acting NORMAL?"
Ritsuko thought over the question for a moment before shaking her head. "No. No I suppose I cannot."
"So what's the point of even trying?" Misato continued.
"I have no clue."
"Exactly. And its not like I didn't try. I mean I really tried to spend a day with Rei."
Ritsuko blinked in confusion. "When was this? I've never heard about it."
Misato glared slightly at the doctor. "That's because I told Rei that if she ever mention the events that transpired that day I'd feed her to a llama."
Ritsuko was about to comment on just how that threat actually kept the First Child quiet, but Misato continued.
"You would think NOTHING would have happen, but EVERYTHING possible did."
"Care to share?"
Misato sighed. "Fine, but if you mention this to anyone I'll-"
Ritsuko nodded while chuckling. "Feed me to a llama, right? Got it."
Misato would have replied, but she just decided to go into the story.
{Flashback; Adventures with Misato and Rei.}
Rei was absently walking down the corridors of NERV when someone grabbed her and pulled her into a room. After getting over the initial shock of being pulled into a random room and by a random person Rei went into defense mode and fought back.
"Hey, let's-" started the voice.
She was cut off when Rei right hooked her.
"Ow...why'd you-"
This was followed by a good punch to the gut from the blue-hair girl to which the person doubled over and grunted in frustration.
"You're pretty strong for such a small-"
Rei followed up the attack by a roundhouse, knocking her attacker to the floor with a unpleasant thud. With that she stepped on their stomach and reached up to pull the chain that would turn on the light. The light came on and Rei's eyes widen just the slightest when she saw who she was standing on.
Misato groaned under the girl's weight and lifted her head ever so slightly.
"Rei?" she started painfully.
Rei stepped off her commanding officer and acknowledge the call of her name. "Yes, Major?"
"Ow..." came the Major's reply and she started to rise off the floor. "Who the hell taught you how to fight?" she rubbed her jaw.
"I took several different fighting styles over the years as ordered by the Commander." came the explanation.
Misato nodded still rubbing her jaw. "Right. I suppose pulling you into a closet would kinda freak you out so this was all my fault."
Rei didn't reply. She had no reason to reply. The Major was talking more to herself than the girl anyway.
Finally Misato rose to her feet, dusted herself off and looked at the First Child. "Well, anyway I need to talk to you."
Rei blinked for a second as she looked at the Major. "Why did you not just call for me?"
Misato grinned sheepishly. "Okay, so I was trying to catch you off guard, and I well maybe...err...HEY who are you to question me!?"
Rei looked down at the ground. "I apologies for my actions Major. Also please forgive me for questioning you."
Misato stared at Rei for a full minuet. Then she blinked for a full minute. Finally she laughed. "Boy, you really need to lighten up Rei."
Rei looked up with a perplexed stare. "Pardon, Major?"
Misato smiled. "C'mon, Rei, I have the rest of the day off. Let's go do something!"
Rei was silent. For more reason than just it being her nature to be silent. Misato noticed Rei's silence and glared slightly, then she grinned.
"I order you to say something."
"What?" the question soon followed.
Misato looked at the roof grinning like an idiot. "I don't know yet, let's go." With that she walked out of the room with as much seriousness you could possibly have after being beat up by one of your charges and coming out of a broom closet that a person could. Rei silently followed her.
{Flash; Ritsuko's apartment.}
Misato glanced at her watch. "Well, look at the time, I have to be at NERV soon."
Ritsuko lifted herself off the floor from her laughing fits. "No..you have to finish the story. I can't believe you let Rei kick your ass. Please finish the story."
Misato glared at her so-called best friend. "Maybe some other time, besides I don't really like being laughed at while I tell someone an embarrassing story."
Ritsuko took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm scheduling a day for us to just sit down and let you finish that tale. I have to know how it could have possibly got worst."
Misato's glare intensified. "I hate you Ritsu, you know that?"
"Ahh, so does a whole lot of other people, but does that stop me?" came the chuckled reply.
Misato didn't reply, she just head over to the door and gave her friend a malice grin. "That's why you drew the card on the first turn! HA! And now you have to spend the whole day with the Kids! Double HA! And...and..." Misato thought for a moment of something else to add. She came up with this. "And....your cats are dorks! Triple HA!" With that final comment Major Misato Katsuragi left Ritsuko's apartment and left a very stunned yet at the same time confused doctor inside.
"My cats aren't dorks..." Ritsuko pouted.
*******
After unmentionable events passed by two young Eva pilots found themselves again waiting on the third member of their team so they could get going.
"Is there a reason she's taking so long?" Asuka commented, tapping her foot.
Shinji would have replied but he was still trying to read a letter without opening it. So he was next to the window holding the closed envelop into the light to see what he could and possibly find out what the letter was for. Was it a love letter? Or perhaps Kensuke asking Rei a bunch of questions about Eva. The latter was what Shinji expected.
"Oh for goodness sake!" Asuka exclaimed, snatching the letter from Shinji, "Stop being so frikin' noisy and answer my question!"
Shinji blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, what was the question?"
Before Asuka could go off on him for not listening and repeat her question, they heard the bathroom door open. Without looking in the direction Asuka made her comment. "Oh, so you're finally ready! Great let's go."
Asuka saw Shinji's eyes widen, Asuka saw Shinji blush and 'eep', Asuka saw Shinji squeeze his eyes shut and turn the other direction while mumbling something. Asuka then decided to turn around and what she saw was Rei wearing a towel around her body with dripping wet hair.
"So exactly why aren't you ready yet?" Asuka demanded.
THUD!
"Well," Rei began monotones ignoring the thud, "I tried to ask you two to leave so I could enter my room and get my cloths, but you did not hear me, so I waited and figured you would get the idea, but that seem to have not happen and I am quite tried of waiting..."
Asuka glanced behind her and saw the clothes on the bed. She looked back a Rei. "Well, gee, if you didn't live next door to construction we might have heard you. Anyways, we'll get out your way. C'mon Shinji."
No response.
"Ikari is incapable of replying to your orders at the moment, Second." Rei explained.
Asuka looked down and found an unconscious Shinji. "Idiot." She muttered. With nothing left to say, she grabbed Shinji's foot and dragged him away. "Hurry up, dammit!"
******
A few minutes later, Shinji had come back to the world of the living without having seeing any more naked girls. He also noticed that he was being dragged. Upon further investigation. He noted that he was being dragged by Asuka and Rei. Asuka had his left arm while Rei had the right. Both were staring forward while just pulling him along for the ride. 'I wouldn't drag them if they fainted.' he thought glaring at the backs of their heads. 'But then I suppose they're probably lighter than I am.'
"So, Wondergirl, are you going to tell me what's up with those glasses?" Asuka asked. Shinji noted that this obviously wasn't the first time the question came up since his departure to the world of the fainted.
Rei gave no response.
'I'm just as interested as to where those damn glasses came from just as much as she is.' Shinji thought to himself. 'Maybe my impute can persuade Ayanami to answer. It'll also stop them from dragging me down the street.'
"C'mon, now, First, don't ignore me." Asuka pushed.
"I'm kind of interested myself." Shinji threw in.
Asuka turned around with her usual grin spread across her face. "So the invincible Shinji finally awakes. How were those dreams?"
Shinji avoided that question all together. He simply looked at Rei, who had glanced back as well. "Can we stop dragging me please? I'm not some dead animal on the side of the street."
"Might as well be." Asuka grumbled while letting go of his arm. Rei did the same and he stood up. He frowned at noticing how dirty he was and shook his head knowing it was his own fault for fainting in the first place.
"So anyways," Shinji started, while brushing dirt of his shirt, "who's glasses are those?"
Rei rolled her eyes upward as if thinking about answering the question. She finally looked back down at Shinji, turned around, and started walking.
Seeing that they weren't going to get an answer, Asuka and Shinji exchanged a glance, shrugged in unison, and followed the First Child.
After a few minutes of silence, the next subject came up.
"Ya know who has a cool pair of glasses?" Asuka said.
Shinji shook his head, "No, who?"
"The commander." Shinji's eyes widen slightly; Asuka continued. "Those glasses of his make him all commandy like and when I picture myself in a pair of glasses like those, I get all evil like."
"So," Shinji started, "you basically picture yourself wearing glasses like that all the time."
Asuka was about to blow. She turned towards Shinji with her eyes flaring and was about to pounce when he stopped her with his next comment.
"You know I heard the Commander only wears those glasses because his actual glasses, the ones that let him be able to see, disappear."
Rei looked off to the side. Though neither Shinji nor Asuka noticed.
"Who the hell would steal a pair of glass...es?" Asuka slowly turned her head in the direction of one Rei Ayanami who was admiring the pair of glasses she had clutch in her hand. "Ayanami?" Asuka called in a sing-song tone.
Rei rolled her eyes up to Asuka, who grinned.
"Those wouldn't happen to be the Commander's glasses would they?"
Rei remained silent. Her expression not saying whether they were or not.
"Now that I think about, I remember hearing that when he went to save you, Ayanami, his glasses fell off and after that they went missing." Shinji brought up.
Rei almost, ALMOST glared. 'Mental note: Add Third Child to list of 'people you will kill after purpose is fulfilled''
"And you know what?" Shinji continued knowing Rei wasn't going to reply. "Those glasses look like the ones he was wearing in some of the pictures I have of him."
'Mental note: Kill Ikari very soon.'
"Rei, looks like the cat's outta the bag." Asuka teased. "You have a crush on the Commander and that's why you have his glasses."
'Mental note: Kill Second Child. Kill her sooner than planned'
"Asuka?" Shinji leaned over to whisper while glanced nervously at Rei. "I don't like the way Ayanami is staring at us. Its almost deadly."
Asuka agreed whole heartily. The First was never known to glare or even look deadly, but right about now, her eyes were betraying the expression she was trying to keep. Her eyes were almost on fire.
"Well, why don't we drop the idol chit-chat and be on our way." Asuka decided to say before Rei Ayanami showed that she did have something in her. Shinji quickly agreed and they soon made it over to Dr. Akagi's place.
*********
Ritsuko Akagi slowly made her way from her bedroom to the living. Her expression clearly showing she was annoyed.
'Where are those children?' She wondered. All she wanted with them was give them the motherly attention they didn't get by taking them to the fair grounds and handing over large sums of money so they could go wild and have fun. Ritsuko sighed. Finally she heard talking that sounded like Asuka down the hall and sighed. She then scrunched her face in confusion. She was forgetting something. Something that was very important. She couldn't remember and walked to the back room with one her cats in tow.
There was a ring at the doorbell
"COME IN" Ritsuko yelled from the back. Something was still nagging at her mind.
******
The three Eva pilots entered Ritsuko's apartment and looked around. Asuka expected it to be all out of character with vibrate colors and disco kinda home. Shinji just expected an apartment with books and test tubes everywhere. Do we even want to know what Rei was thinking? Okay fine.
'Something is tickling my nose.' she thought. Then she sneezed.
"Bless you." Shinji said, looking at her.
"....."
"Dr. Akagi!" Asuka called. "We're in here waitING!" Asuka jumped a foot away from where something brushed against her leg. Shinji and Rei just stared at her. "What was that!?" she looked around, and calmed down when she saw what it was. "Oh, its just a cat." She moved back towards the cat. "And what a cute cat it is. I've never seen this type of cat before." She petted the light gray cat with caramel like swirls and it purred. "You're so cute." she picked it up and gestured in Shinji and Rei's direction. Rei moved back giving the cat a slight glare while Shinji petted it between it ears.
"Awww, you're so adorable." Shinji said. "I wonder what your name it."
"A cat..." Rei muttered quietly, almost disgusted.
That got Asuka and Shinji's attention.
"What about it?" Asuka asked, holding the cat to her chest while rubbing its head.
Rei looked at her, then glared slightly at the cat. Then she sneezed.
"Gusendeight." Asuka said habitually. "Anyways, what's wrong with this cute little kitten?"
There was moment of silence as Rei regarded the question. Then she replied. "A..cat..." To which Shinji shook his head and Asuka glared.
"You can't just dislike something for what it is!" Asuka shouted, getting frustrated with the First Child.
"Yes I can." Rei replied frankly. "But that is not why I do not like it. I have a very valid reason for me disliking the cat species." This was followed by another sneeze.
"Bless you." Shinji choose this time to say. "You must be getting sick. That cold apartment does that to people."
"What does my apartment have to do with my current condition?" Rei inquired.
Asuka sighed, loudly and exasperate. "He means that because your apartment sucks and is cold you're getting sick."
Complete silence followed this comment. Then Rei sneezed. Again. This time no one said anything, they just all remained quiet waiting for someone to reply to Asuka's comment. Namely Rei.
"My apartment is not responsible for my current conditions." Rei answered, still not seeing the point in placing blame on places.
Asuka rolled her eyes and stroked the cat. "Okay THEN, what is the cause then?"
Rei didn't answer. She just narrowed her eyes at the cat.
"Now, now, Ayanami," Shinji started. "You can't go blaming things on a cat. Its immature-..."
"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Ritsuko exclaimed as she came bolting down the hallway. "Keep the cat away from Rei! That's what I forgot! Dammit!"
Asuka stepped back a few feet away from Rei as if the blue-hair pilot of Unit 00 was going give her a virus. Rei sneezed. Shinji took a small step back too though his was went unnoticed
Ritsuko entered the living room, snatched her cat away from Asuka, picked up the second one that had been following her and ran.
"HEY! I like that cat!" Asuka shouted after her. Rei sneezed. "Stop sneezing!"
"I cannot help it. I am-"
"You're really going to give us some kind of virus!" Asuka interrupted. "This is some creepy conspiracy against us Shinji! They want us out of the way so Wondergirl can get the spotlight."
Shinji was now thinking this whole situation over. 'Ayanami seemed fine till we entered the apartment. Maybe something's irritating her sinuses...or-'
Before he could think anymore of it Ritsuko returned and ushered them outside. She turned around and started walking around Rei, inspecting her. "You're okay, Rei? I forgot about you being allergic to cats. I'm just glad Ryuu didn't touch you or we'll really have a problem on our hands."
The other two children looked at Rei. "YOU'RE allergic to cats?"
Rei nodded slightly, sniffing a bit
'She wouldn't be if Gendou liked them. Stupid man.'
{Flashback; Some odd years ago}
"I don't like cats, Dr. Akagi," Gendou stated straightforward. "so to refrain from having to see the little bastards during this stage in Rei's life, where she brings strange animals home, I've already had to deal with a turtle, a snail, a bird, a...what was that thing...hmm....damn what was it?" While Gendou fought with his memory to remember the animal in question, just behind him a seven year old Rei is seen pulling a large black and white animal into the house.
"Can I keep it?" She asked.
Ritsuko grinned.
Gendou didn't reply...or well his reply wasn't the one expected. "...it was kind of ugly, OH a baby breaded dragon!" he snapped his fingers.
Ritsuko found herself rolling her eyes and fixing them on the young child pulling the Panda along.
Finally Gendou started speaking again, catching her attention as if he never stopped...or got off the subject. "...And I don't want her to bring home a cat. I just can't handle the bastards. They have too much pride. So, anyway, what I want you to do is make her allergic to them. That way she'll hate them and I'll be happy." Gendou then smirked at her when he saw her glare. "Is there a problem, Doctor?"
"Oh, no. I'll get on that right away." she replied.
{Flash; Outside Ritsuko's apartment.}
Ritsuko shook her head and glared forward. That bastard only did that to piss her off. She knew that was his only reason. She smiled when she had 'forgotten' to inform the girl of her allergic reaction to cats and although she had to deal with the situation from day one the suffering was accepted for what she got out of it.
She remembered everything. Hell, she taped it with a hidden camera she kept on her for moments like this...or revealing secrets from the enemy. Whichever. She remembered that she and Gendou were discussing the making of some weapons when Rei came in sneezing a storm up and lightly rubbing a rash that had formed on her arm as best she could without dropping the cat. Gendou had told her to make it a bad allergic reaction. So she did. Anyways, she remember seeing Gendou's expression.
{Flash; Yet again some odd years ago}
"Rei, what are you doing with that cat?" Gendou demanded, narrowing his eyes at the feline in her arms.
Rei sneezed and replied. "I like it. Can I keep it?"
Gendou blinked for a full minute. "Rei, you're highly allergic to cats, do you really want to keep it?"
Rei, haven't a clue as to what he just said, replied. "Yes."
To which Gendou sighed, and looked at Ritsuko. "She hasn't a clue she's allergic to cats, does she?"
Ritsuko smirked, but did not look Gendou in the eye. Instead her focus remained on the First Child, while she sipped her tea. "Haven't a clue at all, Commander." Was her reply, as a small smile played on her lips.
Gendou groaned and did what a 'father' was suppose to do in a situation. With careful care he forcefully removed the cat from Rei's grasp, walked towards the window while explaining the situation to a young Rei. "Rei, when your highly allergic to something, you don't usually want to keep it as a pet. Especially since your probably going to have irritation all over your arms for about three days. So, anyways, most people tend to....dislike what they are allergic to." He continued his trek to the window, letting himself glance down at Ritsuko when he passed. "Like take Dr. Akagi, she's allergic to strawberries, so she stays away from them. Are you following my logic, Rei?"
"Yes." Came the reply.
Gendou smiled. "So let's just get rid of this thing as fast as possible." And with that Gendou tossed the cat out the window. Tossed the cat out the top floor of a fifty story building. Let's just say, Rei found out that day that cats don't always land on their feet, and if they do, it doesn't always help.
{Flash; Outside Ritsuko's apartment}
"So, exactly why are we here?" Asuka asked, interrupting Ritsuko's moment of flashbacks.
Ritsuko shook her head. "Oh, yeah, well, NERV is being force to have 'children's week' where we show you that we care." She smiled...or tried to give them a friendly smile.
"Ahh..." Asuka said, nodding knowingly at Ritsuko. "Child Services again, I see. When you need them, they don't show, but when you don't care, they pop up like...like..."
"Pop-up books?" Shinji offered.
Asuka shrugged. "So Ritsuko, why you and not the Major?"
Ritsuko's 'smile' faded as she said dimly. "Why, Asuka, I grabbed the Ace of Spades."
Shinji and Asuka understood now. Rei didn't really care one way or the other. She didn't even want to be here. In fact, neither did Shinji or Asuka, but at least they were willing to put up with the situation. Rei on the other decided that since she didn't want to be there that she was free to go and was halfway to the elevator before Section two popped up and turned her back in the direction of Ritsuko, and the other Children.
'This is not agreeable. Most certainly not.' Rei thought, mouth slowly forming into a frown. 'She also smells of cat. This is, yet again, not agreeable.'
"Now, Rei, did you think that you could just run away like that?" Ritsuko asked, her smile returned, but it was almost psychotic. "If I have to suffer so do you!" She laughed...evilly.
Rei was not a happy person.
Asuka was not in a happy mood.
Shinji was confused.
'Mental note: Place Dr. Akagi at top of list of people to kill...'
'Note to Self: Gather large cat population and torture First Child, oh...and kick Ritsuko in the shin.'
'Now, just where in the hell did they come from?' Shinji thought looking at Section Two. 'They're like super secret robots that protects us. Its like that old movie Terminator...'
*****
Ritsuko Akagi's day was already bad. So the fact that Shinji and Asuka were bickering was not helping her mood. Then there was Rei. She glanced back at the blue-hair girl sitting in the back seat with her eyes fixed out the window. Rei sneezed.
"Gusendeight!" Asuka exclaimed from her position in the shogun. "Anyway, Shinji, you suck and that's the end of this conversation!"
Shinji opened his mouth to prove to Asuka that the conversation was far from over, but she turned around and held her hand in front of his face. "No no. Its over!"
"Bu-but..."
"Silence, Third Child," Asuka stated firmly. "I do not want to result in using force."
The car was quiet. Ritsuko thought that was the end of the conversation. Rei sneezed.
"Oh, for Christ sake, Rei, get over your sneezing fits!" Ritsuko exclaimed. She knew that was far from happening since she pretty much made the allergy very sensitive and being in an closed area where the whole place smelled like cat and had cat fur all over the place didn't help, but she figured the girl would try to stop.
No such luck. Rei sneezed again.
Ritsuko glared forward, gripping steering wheel. If this was how it was going to be overtime she was force to be around these kids, then she'd have to get something for that sneeze. Perhaps a gun...
"I still think Marvel is better than DC..." Shinji muttered to himself, folding his arms and staring out the window.
Asuka's eyes flared and she turned around in her seat again. "Listen! Didn't I tell you that this conversation was over! DC is twenty times better than Marvel and that's that, so there!"
Shinji came up closer to her. "OH, yeah! Well, let's get another opinion."
Asuka looked in Ritsuko's direction. "Who? The good doctor?"
"Please do not put me into your little conflict." Ritsuko demanded.
"Well, actually, I was thinking Ayanami." he explained and looked in the blue-hair pilots directions, "Well, Ayanami, what do you...." Shinji trailed off as he noticed that Rei had yet even acknowledge the fact that he was talking to her. "Ayanami?" he looked at Asuka, who shrugged and turned around in her seat. He looked back at Rei and ever so slowly reached up and poked her in the shoulder. "Ayanami? Hey, can you hear me?" He poked her harder and finally Rei turned around. "Ahh, so...what do you think?"
Rei blinked at him slightly confused. "About what?"
"About DC and Marvel comics. Which one is better!?"
After a moment of staring at the slightly crazy Ikari, Rei answered. "I do not know."
"You should have known better than to ask Wondergirl." Asuka teased from the front seat. "Now just accept that DC is better than your stupid Marvel company and get on with your pathetic existence."
Shinji gave Rei a side-ways glance. "You ever hear of lying?" he whispered, dully.
The only reply they got was sneezing. Lots and lots of sneezing.
'So if just smelling the cat causes this I wonder what happens when the cat touches her.' Asuka thought. 'Must put torture First Child plan in action very soon.' she soon grinned.
"Ahh, this is driving me nuts!" Ritsuko screamed and hit gas. The car started speeding up.
"This proves nothing..." Shinji swore. "I'll...I'll get people's opinions from school! Yeah, that's what I'll do! We'll see which one is better after that! You wait Asuka! You wait!"
"Will you shut-the-hell-up, idiot!?" Asuka commanded.
Shinji huffed and replied back. "You can't tell me to shut-up!"
Asuka turned around. "Well I just did, now shut-up!"
"Why me? Crazy ass children." Ritsuko cried aloud and went faster. "Why me? Stupid half-breeds. German children are annoying. Stupid Commander Ikari's kid!"
The three children all turned their attention to Ritsuko.
"German kids aren't annoying!" Asuka whined. "We're cute and cool!"
Shinji opened his mouth to reply to the comment she made about him, but found no real good comeback, so he stopped himself and tried to think of one.
"And why'd you call Wondergirl a half-breed?" Asuka wondered.
"........" came the reply.
"Well?" Asuka pressed.
"........." The reply came again.
Asuka knowing now she wasn't getting a reply from the good doctor turned to Rei. "Why are you a half-breed?"
"I do not know." Rei replied, not taking her eyes off the window.
"You wouldn't be half-Japanese and half-polish now would you?"
Rei looked at her and blinked with a blank look upon her face. ".....No."
"How about jap and gnome?"
Rei's eyes showed a little confusion at this question. "......no."
"Half gnome?" Shinji wondered aloud.
Ignoring Shinji completely Asuka continued with a smirk. "I know what it is...its written all over your face." She continued to grin. Shinji just turned to Rei to see what Asuka saw. He didn't succeed.
"I don't see anything." he muttered.
"You're half angel aren't you!?"
"AHHHHH!" Ritsuko screamed as she let the car swerve.
"GEEZ, Ritsuko, mind being a little careful with us!?" Asuka fussed.
'Good, that threw her attention off that subject. Let's just hope Rei doesn't answer that question.'
But it wasn't Rei who Ritsuko had to worry about.
"Now what would give you the idea that Rei's half-angel?" Shinji asked.
'I hate my life.' Ritsuko thought with a sigh.
Asuka shook her head while letting out a deep breath. "I was just kidding. Don't take it personal, Third. You're acting like a child." Before Shinji could counter yet again he was stopped when Asuka continued speaking. "Speaking of Children, Ritsuko, where are the other two dimwits."
"Well, the Fourth and Fifth Children both wanted to meet us there instead of coming to my place."
'If I were previously informed of these events I would have done the same.' Rei thought. 'For that matter, why was I not previously informed?'
"Hey, how come they got to know about this stupid 'non-neglecting' week and not us?" Asuka voiced Rei's thought.
Ritsuko blinked and glanced at Asuka. "What are you talking about? Didn't you get the memo? It was posted in the changing room and a letter was sent to your house."
'Maybe I should start checking my mail like the Second suggested.' Rei wondered. 'Still does not explain what happen to the memo in the changing room though.'
{Flash; NERV a couple of days ago}
Touji is running down the hall away from a irate Second Child. He breezed passed The First, Third, and Fifth Children who stepped to the side to let him pass.
"Ahh, geeze Asuka! I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't even looking at you! Who would want to look at you!?"
"FOURTH CHILD!" Asuka bellowed. "I'll get you...you...perverted little weasel."
"I wondered what he did this time?" Shinji wondered aloud.
Kaoru smirked. "If you remember his last comment while in testing that should answer your question. 'Plug suits really enlarge the ass' was what he said, if my memory serves me rights."
"Oh...yeah..." Shinji remembered.
A silence fell over the three.
"Funny," Rei started thoughtfully, titling her head ever so slightly. "I did not know weasel's were perverted..."
Kaoru fell backwards, slamming into the girl's changing room door. And on the other side a memo fell to the floor from the impact.
{Flash; back to the car ride}
"So why didn't we get our letters?" Asuka asked.
{Flash; Major Katsuragi/Pilots Sohyru and Ikari's residence}
Pen-Pen and Misato are sitting at the table.
Misato sits her beer down on a letter with Asuka's name on it from NERV. Pen-pen does the same with a similar letter with Shinji's name on it.
Misato looks down at the letter when she lifts her can. "Hey, I knew these just weren't coasters!" she exclaims. After the initial discover she shrugs and places the can back on the letter. "Oh, well."
{Flash; the car}
"I'll give you two guesses to that one." Shinji grumbled.
"I don't need but one." came Asuka's reply.
The car was silent for awhile, minus the sneezes coming from Rei every once in awhile, but they had gotten use to that.. Finally something dawned on Asuka and she once again spoke.
"So, why weren't we just informed? We're always just usually informed?"
Ritsuko gave her that look that told her that she should just not ask and Asuka changed her mind about getting the answer.
-End Part One of Day One-