My brain is beginning to fail, and my thoughts are wandering. My keystrokes are starting to get jumbled up. The kanji is starting to blur on the screen, so I figured that I would activate the microphone.

Testing, testing. 3... 2... 1...

Alright, lets get on with this.

One Weekend

2. Prelude to a Lunch

Friday was bright and sunny. I tried not to think of Saturday afternoon. I tried not to dwell on it, but I dwelt on it between math and science and between science and English and inbetween the betweens. I thought of it even as I walked home with Touji and Kensuke.

I wondered what she would order. I wondered what witty observations we would make. I wondered what she would wear. Asuka's personality #2 could be absolutely adorable. I dared to wonder if strangers would glance at us once or twice.

At first, I was surprised that she agreed so easily, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that should have not been a surprise. We were just having lunch together; nothing more. That was on my mind when I heard Touji mention: "Shinji, tree."

I looked up in time to apply a nose brake against the bark.

"What's your malfunction Private Ikari?" Kesuke demanded. He had demanded that once every day after he had seen "Full Metal Jacket".

"Nothing," I replied around my bleeding nose. I waved away a proffered kerchief and pressed my nose in my own.

"Hold your head between your legs," Touji suggested.

"How?" my nasal voice said.

"Let's find somewhere for you to sit."

We eventually found a park bench. A trace leaked into the back of my throat and left its ferric taste in my mouth. My phone rang. I managed fumbled it out.

"Hello?" I whined.

"What's wrong with your voice?" Asuka asked.

"Nose bleed."

"Oh, thinking those dirty thoughts about me were you?" a giggle sounded in the background.

"No, not at all."
"I was just joking. Jeez, SOME people have NO sense of humor. Anyway, are on your way home?"

"Yeah."

"Well, couldya grab a six pack of soda for me and a bag extra-spicy wasabi peas on the way home?" she asked. "You want anything, Hikari?" she asked off phone. Hikari replied with a polite 'no.'

"Sure," I answered. It wasn't an unreasonable request. "Anything else?"
"Barbecue me a heifer."
"What?"

"Nevermind. Well, what are waiting for? Chop, chop. Tout de suite," she concluded playfully, then cut off abruptly.

"What was that about?" Kensuke asked.

"Just Asuka," I answered. "She asked me to pick up a thing or two from the store."

"You forget that we're dealing with a married man," Touji added.

"Stop that," I said.

*****

I had a bandaid across the scratch across the bridge of my nose. I had managed to clean off most of the dried blood off of the my face.

"You guys are outnumbered two to three," Asuka announced as we entered. Hikari across from Asuka with Pen-Pen on her lap. Hikari waved to us. Magazines and cans of juice sat on the coffee table.

"Why? Are you wide enough to count as two each?" Touji quipped and received a teen magazine in his face.

"You should never joke about a girl's weight," Hikari said coolly.

I dropped the bag of peas on the coffee table and went to put the drinks into the fridge. I ducked into my room for the CD that Touji had asked about.

Misato cashed in my ticket and gave me left an envelope of colorful 1,000 and 5,000 yen notes on my desk. 72,300 yen. It made a nice fat wad. The average music CD costs 3,500 yen, while a decent burger goes for 700 yen. I figured that lunch with Asuka would probably set me back about 8,000 yen or so. She had left me a message on the receipt.

Hey, you got lucky with the ticket. Congrats! Good luck on getting lucky again!

Love,

Misato

That reminded me of the condom that I had unwittingly left out on my desk. A knock sounded at my open door. I hastily crammed the incriminating evidence into the pocket of my jacket, which was sitting over my chair. The envelope went into my desk.

"Hey, Shinji," Hikari said at my door. "Asuka said that you might have a geometry book, I just need to check my equations for that derivation question."
"I haven't gotten a chance to look at the problem set, yet."
"It must be hard being an Eva pilot."
"It's not easy," I agreed with a nervous grin. I pulled the study guide off of the shelf and handed it to her. Swinging the book over my desk wafted a thin scrap paper from my desk to the class rep's feet. She picked it up and handed it to me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to look," she said.

"It's, okay," I said and put the paper under a book. I remembered to pick up CD for Touji and ushered Hikari out of my room.

"Lotto," she said half under her breath. "So that's why you're taking Asuka out to lunch, to celebrate winning," she concluded cheerfully as we re-entered the living room.

"Who's taking the demon out to lunch?" Touji demanded, looking up from his mostly blank computer screen.

*****

Dinner had been a little uncomfortable. Asuka was annoyed that Hikari had spilled the beans. The class rep was a little subdued. Touji declared me a traitor to mankind and referred to me as Mr. Sohryu for the rest of the evening, which only caused Asuka to increase her already impressive volume. Kensuke bit and tore into his kerchief between bites of pizza. Pen-Pen sortied from his fridge and snagged a slice of anchovy pizza from the box before beating a hasty retreat.

I had penguin envy.

Later that night, I stared at the space debris streaking down over the half-darkened city. (2) Asuka had gone to sleep. I tried to concentrate on my homework, but was distracted. After everyone had left, I had asked her if we were still on for the next day.

"Of course, why ever not?" she asked. "Unless, you want to back out now."

"No, no," I insisted.

"You're so silly sometimes," Asuka said before ducking into the bathroom.

The night seemed so peaceful and calm.

(2) The gravitation from the Seventh Angel's incredible mass had trawled some space junk from their semi-stable orbits. A few of the pieces were large enough to be seen during re-entry. London, Boston, Paris, Moscow, and the other major cities had set up phased radar arrays and mobile missile batteries in case any large piece landed close. Kensuke told me about these measures.

The power grid was still partly off after the battle with the bug-eyed angel.