Neon Genesis
EVANGELION
Finding Paradise

Chapter 2... Along came a Monday/ The study of ones own affection

'The pain in my right hand is still there...'

Hikari concentrates in her bedroom, with a bandage rapped tightly on her right hand and arm. She holds a pencil in her left hand with a tight grip.

'I am getting better at writing with my left hand.'

Hikari tries to hold her pencil a different way before going on.

'Its been two days since the incident, not one to miss school I went in one day, still in pain but still able to learn. And what I was about to learn, was that being a pilot was not what I expected.'

****

Early as ever, Hikari reaches the school entrance with her right hand in a sling. Hikari sighs as if finding comfort in being in school. For Hikari it seemed to be good to be back, as if she had never experienced what had happened on Saturday. As she enters the school, she is quickly greeted by an underclassmen Rep.

"Representative Horaki!"

Hikari recognizes the student from the student body meetings. "Yes."

"Oh I can't believe what a horrible thing happened to you, are you okay!"

Still trying to understand why the student was so concerned, but puts it up to a concerned student. "No, it wasn't that bad..."

As Hikari goes into the office to collect the updated duty roster, the office secretary stops her. "Miss Horaki! Oh it's so good to see you are okay."

"Huh..."

****

'I didn't understand why I was getting so much attention.'

****

The secretary gives Hikari some candy as she tells her how sorry she is. Hikari takes her roster and candy, leaving the office in a daze.

"Representative Horaki."

Hikari nearly jumps back ten feet pressing her self up against the wall she was scared so badly. "Oh, it's you President Tsuguhiko..."

The Student body President, with long dark hair parted down the middle and big black eyes, smiles at Hikari, who is a little shorter then him. "Kadokawa..."

"Huh..." Speechless, Hikari just stares at the Student Body President.

"Kadokawa, that's my name." Still smiling at her Tsuguhiko puts his hand on Hikari's shoulder. "That monstrosity of a robot didn't hurt your memory did it?"

Still confused on what is going on, Hikari tries to back away from the president, as she does, she removes his hand. "Look I have work to do."

"If you need help I'm in class 7-A"

**** Hikari stops writing and begins to shake her left hand. She then rubs it as she looks at what she has written so far.

'He was such a jerk.'

**** Hikari makes her way up to 2-A, stopped by fellow Class Reps at every turn. By the time she does reach her classroom, she is tired and she shuts the door quickly. She looks around to see the desks set up and the Monday morning crew who had been assigned last week at their desks. One of them happens to be Rei Ayanami who stares at Hikari strangely, but quickly looks away.

"Hi Rei." Since the other student is asleep, Hikari decides to greet her.

"Representative Horaki." Rei says with a monotone voice.

Feeling that's the best she's going to get out of Rei, Hikari places the student roster on the teacher's podium and places her bag on her seat.

"Hey Rei." Hikari walks over and sits next to her. "Would you like some candy, I can't eat all of this." Rei looks down at the candy with caution.

Hikari tries to open one only to find it impossible to do with her left hand. Rei watches for a second before opening the rapper for her, and holding out the candy in its open rapper.

"Thanks..." Hikari takes the candy and puts it in her mouth after chewing on it for a bit she looks over at Rei, who still stares at the candy on the desk. "Come on, eat one."

Rei looks down at the candy and begins to open it. Slowly, she puts goes to put it in her mouth. She stops to smell the foreign object; since the smell is pleasant, she slowly puts it on her tongue. She stops once more to let her tongue test the candy.

**** Hikari begins to laugh in her bed as she writes in her diary.

'Rei looked so funny.' Hikari giggles as she goes back to that moment in time. 'To look at her analyze, and then test everything. She was like a scientist handling some deadly chemical or testing some new drug.'

**** Rei finally puts the candy in her mouth and chews slowly. Hikari watches as she can see Rei gain some enjoyment from the candy. Now with the excitement of the piece of candy over, Hikari rest her back against the wall and stares at the doors.

'Can it get any worse?' Hikari wonders as she feels her right arm.

Truly paying more attention to the candy then the topic, Rei looks up at Hikari with wonder. "What do you mean?"

"This Eva stuff, can it get any worse."

With such a simple question, Rei merely shrugs her shoulder as she takes another piece of candy. "Yes, you could be dead."

Hikari sinks into her seat, at the thought of dieing. She looks over to Rei who can be seen going through the same routine with the second piece of candy. "I guess so, but do you have do be so direct."

"What do you mean?" Rei's whispering tone only frustrates Hikari.

"I mean..." Hikari looks up to Rei who seems to be enjoying the candy on the table more then the topic at hand. "Cant you just lie."

"No."

Hikari, smiles at the fact she would not either, but it would have made her feel better if Rei did lie. "Can you at least say, it doesn't get any worse, think through your heart, you know."

Reminded of Hikari's logic, Rei puts down her third piece of candy and leans forward to study Hikari. "It doesn't get any worse." All that Hikari could do is laugh at Rei; she looks up not understanding why.

"Thanks Rei." Hikari gets up shaking her head and sits down in her seat.

"You're welcome..." Rei stops, and begins to think on why she just said that, as if it was just the natural thing to say.

**** 'I was so tired.' Hikari says as she lies in her bed. 'Its only eight o'clock right now and I'm beat.'

Hikari shakes off her yawn and stands up. 'The painkillers I got did not help me very much. All they do is put me to sleep.'

**** Hikari is startled by a nudge on her shoulder. Hikari jumps up in a flash looking around only to see Asuka standing in front of her. "Asuka!"

With a very sincere smile, Asuka hugs Hikari. The two separate with Asuka looking down in shame. "I'm really sorry about the other day."

"No, I should have told you sooner." Hikari also looks down.

Not willing to let Hikari take the fall, Asuka shakes her head. "No, I mean it Hikari, I acted like a child! I was such an idiot. Can you ever forgive me?"

All Hikari can do is smile at her friend who stands in front her distraught. "Of course I can forgive you Asuka, it was a hard time for both of us."

**** 'It was so nice of Asuka to say she was wrong no matter what.' Hikari writes at her desk, she stops then erases the last line to rewrite it. Her left hand starts to shake with strain as she continues to write.

**** "Hey Class Rep!" Yells Touji as he walks in, Kensuke not far behind with his camera. "Wow, you got messed up!" Hikari once more finds herself the center of unwanted attention.

"Battle Scar!" Kensuke cries out as he records Hikari's arm.

"Hey, Leave her alone you morons!" Asuka yells as she pushes them both to the back of the room.

"Price of victory." Touji mutters as he tries to avoid Asuka's hand in his face.

Hikari looks down, as Asuka cleans up the stooges. Her mind drift to the battle yet again, this time she instinctively looks up when Shinji walks in.

"Ikari!" Hikari cries out as she stands.

Everyone stops what they are doing, even Rei stops chewing on her sixth piece of candy to look at Hikari.

"Hey, Class Rep." Shinji walks over to her. "How's the hand?" Asuka gives Shinji a dark stare as he talks to Hikari.

"The doctor said I will have the sling off by Wednesday morning and in a splint." Hikari sits back down once more, she tries to think of something else to say but Shinji just walks over to his seat as if business as usual.

**** 'At first I was mad at him for walking away, but then it occurred to me, all of them, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka, never received much attention when they got hurt. They could die and no one would really care in the school.'

The revelation worries Hikari as she continues writing. She stands up, walks out of her room, and goes downstairs and into the kitchen. She grabs a cup and fills it with water. She walks over to a prescription bottle on the table. She at first tries to grab it with her right hand only to drop it in pain.

'Shoot.'

Hikari bends down and grabs the bottle in her left hand then tries to open it, but no luck. She then tries her teeth which also fails. Now extremely frustrated at the bottle,e Hikari tries to brace it with the elbow of her right arm and open it with her left hand. This only leads to a partial success, as the bottle flies open spilling her painkillers all over the floor.

'Err.'

Once more Hikari bends down and picks up all of the pills placing them back into the bottle except for two. She goes over, takes her cup, and swallows the pills. Mad at the fact that a task that should of took only seconds took her almost eighteen minutes to do.

'Maybe Touji were right, maybe I do need some help.'

**** "All rise!" Hikari shouts. "Bow, sit down."

The teacher walks in and smiles at Hikari. "It's good to see that you are alright, Miss Horaki."

She stands back up for the teacher. "Thank you, sir."

"That's good, I hope it doesn't hurt to bad."

About to sit back down but once more forced to stand to show the teacher respect. "No sir, its okay."

"Well if you need any help remember you can have any other class member do it for you."

Hikari looks away now even more embarrassed then before now that she realizes that she is getting more attention then any of the other pilots would. "I'm fine, sir."

As soon as Hikari sits down, she has almost a dozen IMs on her laptop. All of them say basically the same thing. "If you need help just ask... If you need someone on clean up duty just ask..."

Hikari writes "No thank you." In one and cuts and pastes it in all the others.

By lunch Hikari is tired and in pain. As soon as she dismisses the class, she goes into her bag and grabs her painkillers placing them on her desk.

Asuka walks over to Hikari seeing she is in pain. "Are you sure you're okay Hikari."

"Yes..." Hikari says as she pulls out the rest of her lunch.

Asuka looks at her lunch to see that's its all preheated instant junk. "Hey Hikari what's with the food."

"You can't really cook with one hand Asuka."

Seeing that Hikari is tired of the attention, Asuka begins to walk off. "Well I'm going to the cafeteria, Shinji forgot to pack my lunch again, do you need anything?"

"No Asuka I'm fine."

Hikari finally breathes a sigh of relief as she rest in her seat for a second. With her nerves calmed down, she reaches for her painkillers only to have them taken off her desk.

"Hey!"

Looking up to see the thief she is alarmed to see the SBP standing in front of her. "Hello, Hikari..." He looks over the bottle before opening it. "Codeine, pretty strong stuff, be careful." He then puts two pills on to Hikari's desk before closing the bottle.

Not able to disrespect the SBP, Hikari just bows her head and accepts his unwanted generosity. "Look, sir I'm fine I can handle this on my own."

"Don't be so hard headed, Miss Hikari." He then once more puts Hikari in an uncomfortable position as he leans in to be eye to eye. "I'm just being nice."

**** 'Oh, I just wished right then and there that I had never an Eva pilot!' Hikari writes with anger as she remembers what happened.

****

As fast as the SBP came, he leaves, Hikari sits visibly shaken by the encounter.

"I don't understand." Hikari turns to see Rei standing behind her. "You did not want his help but you did not refuse."

With the evidence now out in the open, Hikari tries to explain. "He's the Student Body President, I'm a Class Representative, and I just can't say no."

"Why?"

"Well..." Hikari cannot seem to answer Rei's question. "I don't know, it's edict I guess."

"He has never concerned himself with you before, why does he do so know."

Once more Hikari is hard pressed to answer Rei's question. "I don't know, to tell you the truth I don't like any of the attention I've been getting."

"It is disconcerting."

Rei continues to stand beside Hikari in silence. Hikari rests and takes little notice, but after some time she begins to get creeped out. "What's wrong Rei..."

"Do you have more of that, candy?"

Surprised that Rei just did not ask before, she reaches into her bag to find three more pieces of candy. She turns to Rei and hands them to her. "Gee Rei, it's like you never ate candy before."

"I haven't."

Rei nods in a kind gesture and takes the candy to go back to her seat.

Hikari can only stare at Rei in confusion. "She's never eaten candy before."

"Who hasn't eaten candy before?" Bellows Touji as he comes back with his lunch.

"Rei." Hikari points to Rei as she goes about the same routine as she had done with the last pieces of candy.

"What!" Touji watches as Rei plays with her candy. "That's weird."

Before Hikari can continue the conversation, Touji has already gone to his seat.

****

'Even Touji has been desensitized to someone being a pilot, everyone but the people I wanted were giving me attention. I was so frustrated and by the end of the day I was on my last nerve.'

**** Before the final bell rings, Hikari stands to give off these weeks duties to her fellow students who seem more willing than usual to do them.

"Clean up duty today is me and Suzahara, tomorrow is Souryu and Satamoto, Wednesday is Anno and Akira, Thursday is Ikari and Ueda, Friday is Me and Takahashi. Worksheet handouts for the week are Ayanami and Suzahara."

"Horaki, cant I do clean up duty today?"

Hikari turns to the student with anger. "No Tsubasa!"

Another student calls out. "Don't you need help on Friday?"

"The Class Representative has to stay after on Fridays!" Before another question is, ask Hikari points to the doors with her left hand in anger. "You all Dismissed!"

With some confusion over Hikari's attitude, they slowly pick up their things and leave for the day. As she stands there, Asuka walks by her waving good bye but she is so angry that she doesn't wave back. Before long, the entire class has left except for Touji. In addition, Rei is in the classroom, as she is gathers the handouts for absent students.

"Wow..." Touji still sits at his desk staring at the class rep. "And I thought you only yelled at me like that."

Not really listening to Touji, Hikari begins to toss her books in her bag. "I can't believe them, it's like I never been hurt before!"

"But you haven't."

Touji's words go unheard as Hikari continues to rant. "The nerve of them, I mean Rei, she gets hurt all the time but she never gets candy, or all this attention, she deserves it much more then I do! She has at least saved the city, not me!"

Rei stands just out side the door unable to do more, no one has ever talked about her like that before.

Finally, Touji gets up and stands next to Hikari, as she goes to stand up Touji pushes her back down. "Oh, no class rep."

"Touji, I can do this!"

"I know you can." Touji says as he stands there with his arms crossed. "But I'm not going to let you!"

Hikari can only sit and blush as Touji goes to get the materials from the hall closet. Touji opens the door to see the Rei's back. When the door slides open Rei quickly turns around to see Touji, who is stands there, just inches from her. Both show blush heavily before Rei turns and quickly runs off.

"Weird..." Is all Touji can say as he closes the door.

'I just sat there feeling helpless.' Hikari sighs as she thinks back. 'It was almost perfect Touji was so nice to me, but then.'

"Miss Hikari." It's the SBP Tsuguhiko once again gracing Hikari with his unwanted presence. "It is very noble of you to stay, but I think your need to go home."

"Err." Hikari stands up as if ready to fight. "I don't need you help I can do the job just fine!"

She reaches down pulling her arm out of her sling and goes to pick up her desk with fatal consequences, a tearing sound is heard and a sharp sense of pain nearly knocks Hikari out, shoots up her arm like lightning. She collapses to the ground in pain as her bandage is torn form its tight fit around her hand."

The SBP goes to help Hikari, but is rewarded with a smack in the face, Hikari just lays there in pain unable to speak.

* 'Then my knight in shining armor came...'

Hikari stares at what she just wrote then erases it. She taps her pencil on the desk before going on.

**** A broom comes sliding to the stop; handle first, in between the legs of Tsuguhiko.

"Hey, Tsuguhiko!" Touji yells out from the doorway. The SBP turns to face his challenger. Touji walks forward to take on the SBP, after placing the clean materials down on a desk.

"Yes, student."

"The names Suzahara, and I don't think Hikari wants you around." Touji says as he looks up to the SBP.

"Suzahara, where have I heard that name before..." The SBP deliberates. "Oh, yes the same Suzahara who got suspended last year for cheating on a test."

Touji only smiles as he steps on the broom flinging the handle straight into the SBP groin. "Oops."

Tsuguhiko grabs his groin as his faces turns white with pain; his last gasp of air is released with a girlish squeak. Routed, and unable to breathe let alone speak, he begins to hobble out of the classroom, recognizing his defeat.

Proud of his victory Touji takes the broom and spins it around before turning to Hikari. With a look of guilt, pain, and embarrassment, all rapped up into one, Hikari can only sit on the ground holding her hand.

"What am I going to do with you?"

Hikari looks away unwilling to look eye to eye with Touji, however she begins to have no choice as Touji pick Hikari off the ground carries her back to her seat.

**** 'Oh!!! He was so SWEET!'

Hikari squeals like a schoolgirl as she feels embarrassed once more. She grabs a stuffed animal from beside her desk and squeezes it, as if it will relieve her from her feelings.

**** Hikari sits at her desk, with so much blood rushing to her head, she begins to feels dizzy. Touji on the other hand takes no notice of the matter as he goes and takes hold of Hikari's hand. At first, she pulls away from Touji, unwilling to let him see her wound.

"No its..."

"Let me see it Hikari!" Touji says with a stern yet kind voice, Hikari relinquishes her arm to him.

He begins to unwrap the bandage, as he does, Hikari looks away, too embarrassed to look at him. The air hits her hand with its cool touch; an odd and distasteful smell appears as Touji removes the final bandage.

"That not good."

Hikari looks over to her wound to see the six staples and 46 stitches still in place. Touji goes over and grabs the classroom First aid kit. He goes through it pulling out a bottle of disinfectant.

"Suzahara, do you know what your doing."

Not stopping as he sets up the medical equipment he needs to help her. "The nurse where Mari stays showed me how to clean and dress her wounds. I'm there so much they practically trust me to redress Mari's wounds."

Touji takes a small rag from the medical kit and dabs it in the disinfectant. He then places; it on Hikari's hand, and she feels a burning pain.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry." Touji dries the wound then pulls out medical fabric and places it on top of her wound. He then begins to tightly rap a new bandage around her hand and up her arm. After finishing his work he takes the old bandages and tosses them in the trashcan. Touji then begins to clean the classroom, with Hikari still sitting at her desk.

**** 'I felt so helpless...' Hikari pauses once more as she stares at her diary.

'I've never felt so vulnerable yet secure. Yet to him it was like it was nothing, yet he did everything, cleaned the floor, the desks, the board... I don't understand why but I could only sit there and watch.'

When he was done, he smiled and said.

"Hikari, I know you want to act normal, but you have to take care of that wound. If you need some help, any help at all just ask. I'm sure Asuka would help you or something."

'It was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me and to him it was nothing, I just don't get it...'

Hikari yawns and walks over to her bed stuffed toy in hand. Her mind drifts on the border of sleep as she lies down.

**** A bright light strikes the skies over Tokyo 3, Touji finds himself walking beside Kensuke on their way to school. The two enter with little thought of the day ahead, until they walk in to their classroom to see it in disarray. Students running ramped, desks out of array and the usual order that it has is missing. Touji spots Shinji, and quickly goes over to find out what is wrong.

"Hey, big shot!" Touji yells as he slaps Shinji on the back.

"Huh..." is all Shinji can say as he turns to face his friends.

"What's with the class today."

Shinji pauses and then shrugs his shoulders. "Hikari forgot to assign morning work crews for the week, so everyone has to fend for themselves."

"Didn't Hikari set them up?" Touji question knowing she is always here early.

"She never showed up this morning."

Kensuke puts down his camera. "But she never misses school. In fact, she's never missed a day of school in her life!"

With his concern mounting, Shinji looks around the room. "Well she was hurt, maybe she just took a day off."

Kensuke shakes his head, seeing that Shinji did not get the hidden meaning. "I've been in all of her classes since the first grade and she never missed a day, not even yesterday." He then looks over to Touji for some answers. "Didn't you do clean up duty with her yesterday."

"Well yea." Touji looks away with little concern. "But nothing happened."

"Did she say anything?" Shinji wonders out loud.

"No!" Touji yells, as he stands up, weary of the issue.

**** Blissfully sleeping, with no awareness of the events in school, Hikari sleeps with her right hand off to the side, in peace. Hikari makes a girlish peep before stretching in her bed. She rolls over to the side to read the clock. Her eyes grow as big as dinner dishes as she looks at the time.

"Ten o'clock!"

Hikari stares in shock and fear as she yells out the time again.

"Ten o'clock!"

Hikari quickly rises out of bed to look out the window to verify the time, but in the process she bumps her arm and sends a wave of pain through her body.

"Ouch!"

Hikari runs for her door to take her painkillers, but as she opens, she runs right into a pillow.

"I don't think so Hikari-chan!" A cheerful Kadoma calls out.

"I'm late!" Hikari cries as she runs back into her room for her uniform. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Because you're not going to school." Kadoma says as she stands in front of the doorway pillow still in hand.

"I don't miss school!" Hikari begins to panic as she runs around in pained daze. "Why didn't my alarm go off!"

Nodding her head with a smile Kadoma watches her sister's actions. "That would be because I shut it off, Hikari-chan."

Hearing her sister say that freezes Hikari in her tracks. "You what!"

"I shut it off last night." Kadoma walks in to Hikari's room taking her sister by the shoulders. Hikari can barely move, as if she is almost in shock. "You're staying right here, sis." Kadoma sits her on her bed.

"What are you doing home!" Hikari yells as she points to the clock. "Its ten, you're late for school!"

"I'm not going to school today." Kadoma smiles as she lays her sister back to bed.

As if the world around Hikari has come crashing down, she looks around with a nervous twitch feeling as if some one has taken something from her. Kadoma on the other hand begins to leave with a spring in her step.

"I'm going to make you breakfast, lunch, and dinner and you are not going to do a thing, other than let that arm rest!"

Hikari once more feels frozen and cannot move, however she begins to hear her sister talk to someone downstairs. All though she cannot hear the other person, her sister seems to be very nice and thankful. Once the talking stops, Hikari can only stare at her open door as she hears footsteps. She tenses up in preparation of who it might be.

With a knock at the wall, Misato turns the corner in uniform, which suprises Hikari.

"Miss Katsuragi!"

Misato walks in with a cup of water in hand and Hikari's pills in the other hand. "How you doing Hikari?"

"Okay..."

Still with a bandage on her head, Misato sits down next to Hikari and hands her meds. "So is the hand still hurting you?"

Hikari quickly takes her pills. "You could say that."

"I guess you're not to thrilled about your first NERV experience." Misato jests as she studies Hikari.

"I can't hold it against NERV, Miss Katsuragi." Hikari says as she holds her arm. "I mean it, was an accident."

"Please, Misato is fine." Misato leans forward and looks at how clean Hikari's room is. "You're going to be testing again tomorrow."

Not expecting it to be so soon, Hikari looks away at the idea. "That's fast."

"I also talked to Doctor Akagi, she's going to have some of the best Nero- surgeons in NERV fix your hand." Misato says with optimism. "But, it's going to be sometime before you get full use back."

"I know." Hikari says as she stares at her hand. "The doctor in the ER said it's fifty/fifty if I get the full use of my hand back."

"Hikari-chan!" Yells Kadoma as she walks in with a tray of steamed rice, scrambled eggs, and miso soup. Hikari sinks into her bed embarrassed by her sister.

"Hikari-chan?" Misato question the name with a smile.

Hikari is about to explain but Kadoma gets to Misato first. "Yup, Hikari- chan, because she has such cute freckles and wears her hair in pigtails." Misato laughs at the comment, agreeing with Hikari's sister. "It was so nice of Misato to help us."

Hikari raises an eyebrow to the statement.

Kadoma begins to explain how Misato helped her yesterday to her sister. "Last night I was doing my rounds at the Hospital when Miss Misato came up to me and asked if I needed some time with you. She said she could arrange for to me have a day off!"

Kadoma begins to get excited but takes some time to calm down. "At first I thought how is she going to get a simple Medical-intern like me a day off? But she only spoke to my shift supervisor for a minute and got me a full day off with pay."

"Wow." Hikari mutters impressed with such a feat.

"Then she said she had already contacted my school and that I could have the day off with no penalty at all!"

Misato smiles to see Hikari light up from her crestfallen disposition. "It was the least I could do."

Hikari stares at Misato with tears in her eyes, that she was able to give her this time with her sister. "Thank you... Miss Misato, Thank you so much."

Seeing so much joy in Hikari even brings a little tear to Misato's eyes as she reaches down and hugs Hikari. "I have to go, but please enjoy yourselves, and Hikari rest up."

Both wave good-bye as Misato leaves the room.

**** By the end of the school day class 2-A is in total disorder as everyone leaves. Asuka, who is on clean up duty, looks over to Touji and Rei who gather worksheets for the absent students.

"You better go to Hikari's house and check on her!" Asuka demands from the two of them. She at first gets silence, which is unacceptable for her. "I said..."

"Where the hell, do you think we are going!" Touji yells as he gathers his school bag. "God, she's the only one absent for crying out loud!"

Asuka gives both of them an evil stare and Touji gives one back. Rei stands emotionless, waiting for her partner, as the two have a staring contest. First to be frustrated is Touji as he sticks his tongue out and marches off.

"Ass!" Touji yell, only to be flicked off Japanese style by Asuka. "Come on Ayanami lets go!" He grabs her arm and drags her out with Asuka behind them.

**** Not caring about the fact that she's being dragged outside by Touji. Rei follows him with some zeal as she studies his actions. By the time, they exit the school; Touji stops at the school entrance looking around. He lets go of Ayanami's hand and puts his hands on his hip.

"Where the hell does she live?"

Rei takes Touji's hand and walks off, this takes Touji offguard as Rei mimics his actions. Now with Touji being the follower but less enthusiastic to the fact that she has his arm, the two walk off to Hikari's house.

"This way..." Rei whispers in a soft tone.

The two walk in total silence, with Rei still leading Touji by the hand. This is an awkward time for Touji as he decides to make himself more comfortable by chatting. "Is it true you've never eaten candy?"

Rei does not even look to him as she answers. "No."

"Oh." Touji looks up in confusion. "But, Hikari said you had never eaten candy yesterday."

"Yesterday was the first time."

Touji shakes his head at such a premise of never eating candy. "What, did your parents keep you in a box."

"What." Rei stops and turns around to face Touji, who is looking away seeing he has hit a soft spot.

"Nothing, its just that..." Touji tries to think of a way out but his own principles sway him. "Its just that, it's weird that you have never eaten candy before, that's all."

"Why?"

Seeing that he has opened up a can of worms Touji once more tries to deflate the issue. "Well, it just that every kid has eaten candy."

"Every." Rei takes what Touji is saying as more of an education, then a simple conversation. "Every child eats candy."

"Well, I guess little kids at least." Touji responds since she is less irritated about the topic. "I mean, what do you like."

The true can of worms are unleashed into Rei head, as Touji just gave her such a broad topic. She cannot help but feel outwitted by someone she thought was inferior to her.

**** The two continue in silence until they finally reach their destination. Touji stops and looks up at the house impressed with how well Hikari lives. Rei on the other hand does not stop until she sees Touji look at the house.

"I think I will wait here." Touji chuckles as he swings back and forth on his heels.

Rei turns around, already confused enough for one day and knocks on the door.

Kadoma who stands in sweets and her hair up in a bun, quickly answers the door with a smile. "Why hello little girl!"

Rei goes to look for the handouts but realizes Touji has them. She turns to look at him. Touji stops swing when he sees Rei and some woman starring at him. He grabs his bag, remembering that he has the handouts.

He runs up and stands next to Rei. "Umm... we are from Hikari's class, and umm... here are her hand outs.

"That's a cute color, what kind of dye did you use." Kadoma begins to rub her hand in Rei's hair. Touji just stares Kadoma, feeling somewhat rejected for being ignored.

Rei gives the woman in front of her an odd look as she looks up at her hair. "What dye?"

"Well I'm Hikari-chan's big sister, Kadoma." With a smile, Kadoma swings the door open and walks in side. "She's up stairs, second door on the right."

Both Rei and Touji stand in shock. "Hikari-chan?"

**** Both where not expecting to go into her house, so the two slowly walk, in taking off there shoes in the entrance way. In silence, they mutually walk up the stairs as they hear Kadoma humming in the kitchen. As they both approach the second door on the right, they stop when they reach it. Even Rei seems to be caught up in the prowl as Touji reaches and taps on the wall.

"Kadoma, What are you doing?" Hikari calls out from her room.

Touji shies away from the open door this action brings Rei back to her senses as she moves him forward into the open.

"AHHHH!" Hikari screams out.

Touji raises his arms in defense, but is smacked upside the head with a book. Rei steps out to see Hikari who happened to be standing right on the other side of the room, hyperventilating. Touji however, is nearly knocked out, as he lays on the ground stunned.

"Ayanami... Suzahara... what are you two doing here?" Hikari asks as she drops the book.

"Handouts..." Touji mutters as he lays on the ground in a daze.

Laughter can be heard down the hall as Kadoma comes up the steps. "Hikari- chan, you really clocked him."

Hikari gives her sister an evil stare as Kadoma walks down the hall and puts her hand on Rei's head, playing with her hair. "I hope you don't beat him up in school too."

Finally, back in the land of the conscious, Touji slowly gets up. "That hurt Hikari."

Seeing Touji in pain Hikari, runs over to a tray at her bedside, she pours the water onto the tray and traps the ice in her hand. "I'm so, sorry Suzahara!" Hikari shouts as she runs back and puts the ice on his head.

Kadoma looks around at everyone and formulates a plan. "Well since we are all acquainted, I would love it if you joined us for dinner."

"Kadoma!" Hikari shouts feeling that she is being impolite.

Rei looks up at Kadoma with not a clue how to answer, let alone deal with Kadoma's fixation of her hair, but with Hikari around it reminds her not to think so deeply about things but she also can't help but see why she should stay.

As the debate rages in her head Touji sits on the ground with Hikari at his side. "Sure..."

"Sure." Rei stops, as she looks down at her self in disbelief as she thinks to her self. 'Did I just say that?'

"Great!" Kadoma yells as she goes down stairs. "This is going to be awesome!"

To be continued...