Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Mirror Mirror

Chapter 2: Homecoming

The drive to the house wasn't a long one. Shortly after meeting his father and Rei outside

of his hospital room, the three of them had proceeded to Gendo's car. It was a very well-

maintained green 2003 Neon. Not exactly the newest thing on the market, or the flashiest

thing on the streets, but it got things done. When they arrived, they were greeted by an

austere grey two-story home with burgundy faux shutters.

On entering the house through the side door, they were in the kitchen. Nothing fancy, just

a stove, sink, countertop, and refrigerator, along with ample cupboard space. Beyond that,

were a small kitchen table for family dinners and a longer, more ornate table for

entertaining behind a separating wall.

"So, you two hungry?"

The question forced both teens back to reality after taking in their surroundings.

"Um, not... really..." Shinji stuttered, "I think I might just go to bed tonight."

"You're sure Shinji? It's not like you to skip a meal..."

"Um, yeah... I'm just not too hungry right now. Besides, I getting tired anyway."

"Well, if I can't change your mind, then good night."

"Yeah, you too..."

Shinji walks out of the kitchen and walks up the stairs just across the main foyer of the

house to the second floor. Ahead of him is a single bathroom, two doors on the left, and

one on the right. The first door on the right is labeled 'Shinji's Room' Feeling a slight

weight removed from his chest, Shinji opens his door, enters the room, and closes the

door behind him.

--------------------------------

While Shinji goes upstairs to sleep, Gendo goes to the kitchen to begin dinner, and Rei

walks into the living room and sits in one of the three reclining chairs set on one side of

the room. Having nothing better to do, she leans her head back against the chair and starts

to meditate. 'I have never been to this place before, yet Ikari is acting as though I have

lived here all my life. This is not my home, but everyone appears to think otherwise.

What is going on here?'

Rei is broken out of her thoughts as the sounds of a football game erupt from the

television set a few yards in front of her.

"Oh, sorry Rei, I didn't realize you were trying to sleep."

"I was not." Turning her attention away from Ikari, Rei watched the activities of the

players on the screen in front of her. "What is this sport?"

Ikari just stared blanky at his daughter until he burst out laughing… "For a minute there I

almost thought you had seriously forgotten what football is..."

Deciding to not contradict Gendo, Rei just watched the 'football' game for a few minutes.

It took Rei a little while to understand the concept of the game, but she eventually

managed to gain a basic understanding of the rules and object of the game, despite

several occasions of Ikari either cheering for one team or berating the officials on the

screen...

"Dammit!! Are You COMPLETELY BLIND!?!? There's NO WAY he was in

bounds!!!"

"What is the point of yelling at the officials when it is impossible for them to hear you?"

Calming slightly before speaking to Rei, Gendo turns to look at her. "The point is to let

your frustrations loose before they have the chance to consume you. Besides, it may

actually help..."

Rei simply cocked an eyebrow at Gendo before turning back to the TV. A few moments

later, one of the coaches on the screen threw a red flag onto the field and the announcer

stated that a challenge had been called.

"THANK YOU!!! It's about time!!"

Rei was watching the 'review' process when she smelled smoke coming from the

kitchen. "Fire."

"What are you talking about Rei, there's no fire on the... Oh, CRUD!!"

Gendo leapt from his seat and ran into the kitchen where a saucepan was filled with

smoking chicken. He immediately lifted the pan off the heater and covered it with its lid

to suffocate the flames. Needless to say, the chicken didn't look very appetizing

afterwards.

"Looks like we're gonna have to call out for food tonight."

"I dislike meat."

"Oh, I'm sorry Rei, I fixed this for your brother and myself. Your dinner is just fine."

"I see. Is it ready?"

"I suppose, you hungry?"

"I am."

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Upstairs, Shinji was looking around his room for anything familiar. The only thing he

could find was his S-DAT player, but his normal tapes were nowhere to be found. Giving

up on the tapes for now, Shinji set about exploring the rest of the unfamiliar objects in his

room. There were posters of women in bikinis and wet tank-tops up on the walls and

several pictures of Touji, Kensuke and himself on his desk along with an open laptop

computer.

On the small nightstand, there were pictures of Asuka by herself, portraits of her, and a

few of himself with her. Well... mostly of her putting him in a headlock while smiling at

the camera. Also on the nightstand was a cordless phone and cradle. Opening the drawer

in the nightstand, he discovered a rather thin, leather-bound book with his name inscribed

in gold leaf on the front cover.

Opening the book, he saw that several of the entries were dated... and that the earlier ones

showed a drastic improvement in the kanji formation as they went on... like they were

written while he was still learning how... The dates in the book appeared to be rather far

apart until just recently. About three months before the last entry, they became more

frequent and detailed, like he was developing greater interest in documenting his life.

Setting the journal back in the drawer and looking over the rest of the room, Shinji's

glance fell across a calendar with a single day circled in red. On closer inspection, the

kanji written in that square showed that it was supposed to be a date with Asuka but

nothing else.

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After dinner, Rei decided to go to bed just as Shinji had earlier. She also went upstairs to

find her room. She turned left at the top of the steps and walked over to the door at the

end of the short railing strategically placed to keep people from falling over the edge and

down the stairs. Opening the door, She was greeted by a pleasantly sky blue room w/ a

window overlooking the front yard and street beyond.

The room smelled of perfumes and books. Indeed, it was not long before Rei's crimson

eyes passed over the shelves upon shelves of books. Some were thin, unassuming things

that appeared to be fairly easy reads, but others were thick. The thick volumes included

several books on physics and mathematics, a current encyclopedia, and several other

knowledgeable texts.

On the same side of the room was a wooden desk with a laptop computer sitting open on

its surface. Also on the desk were several pictures of herself, Shinji and Gendo. Most of

which appeared to be of very enjoyable events such as birthdays, trips and some surprise

photos (the last of which presumably taken by her.). Amongst these photos were also a

few of a person she knew and another person she did not. There were a few pictures of

Kensuke Aida, apparently without his knowledge, and a few others of a brown-haired

woman smiling and holding a smiling child in her arms... a child with red eyes.

Slowly, on closer examination of the woman's features, Rei's mind began to put the

pieces of the scattered memories in her mind together to form a name for this woman...

Yui Ikari... Shinji's mother.

'How could she be holding a younger version of myself? She was lost long before I was

created. What is this place?'

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Gendo was watching TV in the den when the phone started to ring. He stood up from his

recliner, walked over to the phone, and took it from its cradle.

"Hello?"

"I've found something about Unit-00 you need to see."

"Dr. Akagi? What about Unit-00?"

"I believe it would be safer to discuss this matter face to face sir."

"Is it urgent?"

"Not presently."

"Then we'll discuss it in the morning. Report to my office at 10:00 hours tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

And after a short electronic click, the conversation was over. However, just after Gendo

placed the phone back in its cradle, it rang again.



"Yes, Ikari residence... Gendo speaking..."

"Commander? Um… is Shinji there?"

"Who's calling?"

"You can't tell? This is Asuka!"

"Oh, well I think Shinji is asleep, but I'll go see if he's still up."

Gendo put the phone down on the kitchen counter-top and went upstairs to see if Shinji

was awake. He opened his son's door and sure enough, Shinji was lying on his bed, wide

awake, and staring at the ceiling.

"Shinji, phone call..."

A little groggily, Shinji started feeling around on his nightstand for the phone he saw

there earlier. Finding it, he fumbled with it briefly before turning it on and bringing up to

his ear.

"Hello..."

"Hey there sleepyhead..."

"Asuka?"

"Who else?"

"I dunno, I just wasn't expecting you to call so late..."

"Yeah, well... I got done with my homework earlier than I thought I would and didn't

have anything else to do... so I gave you a call."

In the background on the other end "Sure you did Asuka… I don't see any of your

school books lying around..."

For the next few minutes, sounds of scuffling and teasing could be heard from the other

end of the line as Asuka apparently tried to push Misato out of her room.

"That woman aggravates me sooo much sometimes... You looking forward to Friday

Shinji?"

"Umm... yeah... Are you?"

"Of course I am!! I always look forward to the dates we go on, but this'll be the first time

you've actually taken me out to dinner. Where are we going anyway?"

"Um..."

"I think that new Italian restaurant is supposed to be good... of course 'A Taste of France'

would be sooo romantic…"

Needless to say, Asuka starts listing the restaurants she thinks would be good places for

them to go for dinner. About 3 minutes into the list, one restaurant catches Shinji's

attention…

"Or we can go to..."

"We're going to the last one. It sounds nice..."

Shinji could HEAR Asuka's face light up at his statement. "I was hoping that'd be the

one… they've got a dance floor and everything. AND they'll let us in as long as we don't

order any alcohol."

"Well, it's not like we were planning to anyway…"

"True... anyway, I am sooo looking forward to this! It's been a while since I've had a

decent meal around here that's not take out..."

In response to Asuka's statement, a faint female voice could be heard on the other end of

the line: "What does that mean?! Do you not like my cooking?!?"

"Who would!? You always burn everything you put in the oven or on the stove!!"

"Like you could do better..."

"Darn straight I could do better. Besides, what are you doing listening in on my

conversation..."

The argument on the other end of the line just continued to intensify as matters of

privacy, romance, culinary arts, technology, and oddly enough, even politics were

brought into the argument.

After a few minutes, Asuka broke away from the argument just long enough to say

goodbye to Shinji before hanging up the phone on her end.

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[Morning, Shinji had finished getting ready for school and had begun preparing that

morning's breakfast]

It took Shinji a while to figure out where everything was stored in the many cabinets in

this kitchen, but he did eventually find all the things he needed to make breakfast for

himself, Rei, and... Father...

As he was waiting for the water to boil for the miso soup, he heard some shuffling in the

foyer and went to see who it was. As he turned the corner between the foyer and the den,

he wasn't very surprised to find Rei putting her shoes on before leaving.

"Um, Rei... do you... um... want something to eat before you leave?"

Rei looked at the younger Ikari, nodded, and began to take her shoes off.

Seeing that she would be joining him for breakfast that morning, Shinji walked back into

the kitchen to continue preparing his fellow pilot's vegetarian breakfast. While he was

busy cooking the several items for Rei's breakfast and his own, Rei quietly walked into

the kitchen and sat down at the modest dinette set without disturbing the young Ikari.

Shortly afterwards, Shinji set a bowl of miso soup along with some rice in front of her.

She thanked him briefly and began to eat at a patient rate. Seeing that she would not be

offering any conversation, Shinji simply went back to work preparing breakfast.

He decided that he'd simply prepare a traditional Japanese meal since he didn't really

know what his father liked to eat.

While Shinji was absorbed in his thoughts like he usually was while cooking, Gendo

walked into the kitchen, not quite looking ready to go into work that morning, but still

more prepared than Misato would usually be.

"Mmm... Smells good Shinji... Reminds me of how your mother used to cook."

When Shinji first heard his father's voice, he stiffened slightly, but he relaxed noticeably

after the compliment... or at least he thought it was a compliment...

Walking into the room, Gendo gives Rei a hug from behind as he passes her. Other than a

slight blush and a short pause in her eating, she hardly reacts at all. Gendo then moves to

where Shinji is preparing breakfast and gives him a quick, but hard pat on the back.



Once Gendo seated himself, Shinji brought his and his father's breakfasts to the table and

set them down in their appropriate places. After sitting himself, Shinji began to eat his

breakfast, as did Gendo. As they ate their respective meals, no one said a word. For some,

it was from lack of anything to say, for one it was habit, but for the other, it was from

puzzlement about his children's silence.

'They usually discuss what they're going to do today... I wonder why they're so quiet?'

Putting down his spoon after finishing his soup, Gendo asked: "Why are you two so

quiet...fighting again?"

His question was only met with a pair of blank stares, shortly broken as Rei stood from

the table, announcing that they would be late for school if they did not leave soon. Gendo

watched as Rei walked to the foyer, and Shinji began collecting the dirty dishes, and set

them in the sink to be washed later. He then watched as Shinji hurried to meet his sister

in the foyer before she left.

A few moments later came a pair of 'Itekimasu's' before the door closed behind them.

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Shinji and Rei were walking down the street together on their way to school when Rei

suddenly spoke up:

"Ikari-kun, do people seem to be acting strangely to you?"

Startled from his thoughts at her sudden question, it took Shinji a moment to respond to

her.

"…Er… well, how do you mean?"

Without stopping or turning to look at the young Ikari, Rei explained her question: "The

commander seems less... composed than normal."

Understanding her meaning, Shinji responded right away: "I noticed that, but isn't the

change a good one?"

"Perhaps, although I do not understand its implications."

Pausing to think more about the things which had changed since they were taken, Shinji

thinks of another very large change in the people around them…

"Hey! Shinji!! Rei!"

Turning to face the direction the voice came from, both saw Asuka running down a cross-

street to catch up with them. As she neared, she slowed down to a jog before she walked

up to Shinji and planted a small kiss on his cheek before looping her arm around his.

Breathing a little heavily from running down the street: "You're early…"

Shinji was still blushing profusely from the kiss and Asuka's proximity while Rei was

indifferent to Asuka's apparent affection for Shinji.

"Um, sorry… I…"

"Don't worry about it. It's okay."

Shinji was taken a bit aback by how easily Asuka just let that go, but decided not to

comment.

After about 10 min of walking in near silence as Asuka hummed a little tune to herself,

Asuka speaks up:

"Shinji, when do you think we should tell everyone else about us?"

"What do you mean 'us'?"

A bit offended that Shinji would ask a question like that, Asuka has a hard time not

exploding in anger at him… "ANTA BAKA?!?! We've been going out for the past three

MONTHS!!! We can't keep a secret like this forever!"

"WE'VE WHAT!?!?"

To be continued…

Oh...my...god... I can't believe how long it took me to finish this chapter... and I realize

now ho hard it's going to be to write this story... so don't expect more than maybe 3-4

updates per year...

Just so you know, I have a storyline already laid out for this story, it's just filling in all

the little details that's going to take me a while.