Chapter Two
Sunlight crept through the window and shone on the faces of the three children in the living room. Shinji was the first to wake and he noticed that there was something in his face. Not really wanting to know what it was for fear of being beaten to death by Asuka, he opened his eyes and was relieved to find that instead of Asuka's hair, it was Rei's. At least she won't kill me, he thought.
The smell of food drifted to his nostrils and he sat up on the futon that he had dragged out for himself, which oddly was partially occupied by both girls. This was the mistake he made.
Suddenly, he was pulled down and he saw who's arm was now around him. Stiffening, he looked over at Rei, who now shot her eyes open and noticed what was going on. "Help," Shinji pleaded as silently as possible, so only she could hear him. Rei nodded her head and then carefully helped him out of Asuka's grasp so as not to wake her because she too knew what the "Red Devil," as Shinji's friends called her, would do to him if she woke up like that. It was comical sometimes to her, but she would never show that. "Thanks," Shinji said as he stood. "I wonder who's cooking."
"Ah, you're awake," came a voice.
Shinji and Rei turned to see Tai standing there with a cooking utensil in hand. "Good morning."
"Good morning, Pilot Ach-"
"Rei, is it?" Tai asked.
"Yes?"
"Just call me Tai, I hate being called by my sir name," he said, then smiled as he put his hand to the side of his face as if to whisper something to her and winked. "It makes me sound old."
Rei chuckled at him, and then nodded in acknowledgement. "Good morning, Tai."
"Why don't you both get cleaned up and then we can have something to eat. Breakfast is almost ready."
Shinji and Rei went to either of the two bathrooms in the apartment and took showers before getting changed into what they were going to wear for the day. For both of them, unfortunately, it was their school uniforms because they would be going to school today.
As Shinji got out of the shower he heard Asuka roar with anger and cringed at the thought of her getting awakened. "That's COLD!" she screamed. Shinji walked into the living room to see Asuka drenched in cold water from head to foot and Tai was standing over her with a pale in his hands.
"Get up and you won't need to be woken up rudely," Tai said, and then walked back to the kitchen with the bucket in his hand. "Take a shower and maybe you can warm up a bit."
Asuka jumped up and ran past Shinji to her room and from there dashed to the bathroom where she slammed the door shut. They could all hear the sigh as the warm water started and then all was silent in the apartment, but it didn't last long because she screamed when the hot water was finally exhausted.
Rei and Shinji sat down at the table and waited for Tai who was still in the kitchen, but they didn't have to wait long because he suddenly came out with two plates of food. On one were bacon, eggs, and toast and on the other was a large helping of salad.
"Tai, I did not tell you that I was a vegetarian," Rei said, looking at her food as Shinji dug into his.
"Just a feeling I guess," he said. "Looks like I was right."
Rei seemed to accept that and began to eat her meal. Truthfully, he did not know that she was a vegetarian and had assumed it. There was nothing in her file that revealed that, but it was just by the way she was described there that he must have picked it up. Shrugging the thoughts away he went back into the kitchen and picked up his second cup of coffee for that day. PenPen drifted out of his fridge and Shinji came in to get his breakfast for him since Tai didn't know.
Once the penguin had its sardines and beer it waddled back into its fridge and shut the door. Tai stared at the door and looked at Shinji, who shrugged and went back to his meal.
Asuka was the last person to arrive at the table, shivering because of the cold water Tai had poured over her to wake her up and the even colder water that she had taken her shower with. The German girl had a scowl on her face that left the other three pilots feeling as if she was going to explode. When Tai handed her her meal, though, he touched her shoulder slightly and a look of confusion displayed itself on her face. For some odd reason, when he removed his hand from her shoulder, she felt as though the water had never affected her and shrugged it off as just a feeling of embarrassment and began to eat.
Tai went back to his room to change into his school uniform, hating it more and more as he stood there getting his storage device removed from the USB port on his laptop. What was bothering him more though was the power drain that he had felt when he used his own internal heating system to transfer body heat to Asuka. In truth, he felt bad for the girl and couldn't get over how there was a dark cloud that she seemed to drag with her wherever she went.
He sighed as he slipped the small flash drive into his pocket and snatched his glasses of the top of the keyboard. He had been told that every student had a laptop in class and he wouldn't need his so he felt relieved that he wouldn't be taking it along. The first thing he'd do when he got there would be to make some personal modifications to the thing and make it more user friendly to him. All the programs he needed were on the three flash drives that he had in his pocket and the one jump drive that was in its case joining them.
Stepping through the door of his room back into the hallway he went back to the kitchen, trying to get used to the feel of the tightly fitting uniform. He had worn uniforms for years while on duty back home, but this was not something that he was used to and would take time for him to adjust to it. At his school back home he would just wear normal street clothes, but here he would be accepting the fact that schools in different parts of the world worked differently.
The others were waiting for him at the door and he slipped his shoes on to then joined Shinji to walk to school. This he had done back home, but that was when he was in elementary school. He missed being able to take his car to school and hide it in the graveyard until he was ready to head back home. If he were to use it here though, he was sure that he would be spotted with it and law enforcement would come in to investigate why there was a car on the road traveling well over the speed limit. It was a wonder why Misato wasn't pulled in by the police for speeding.
Rei walked alone, behind all of them as Asuka took the lead and kept quiet. He kept an eye on her to make sure she wasn't hearing them and then looked over at Shinji. "Is she going to be alright? I hope I didn't tick her off too much."
"She'll be fine," Shinji sighed. "It's just that no one has ever stood up to her like that before now."
It wasn't long before they arrived at the school and the proceeded to classroom 2-A where they would be for the rest of the day. Another thing that he didn't like about to this school besides the uniform, he wouldn't be moving around. The only way he was getting out of this room before the end of instruction hours was lunch and if an angle attacked. Angels attacking during school hours would not be what he wanted though, so he took his seat at the back of the room beside Rei and said nothing.
"Hey, new kid!" came a yell and Shinji just gave him a look as if to say 'good luck.'
Looking up from his laptop, that he was powering up when the other student yelled, he saw a tall guy with black hair coming toward him. He had a cold look in his blue eyes as he watched fro any movement, and then he was upon him.
Grabbing Tai by the shirt collar he lifted him up out of his seat and toward the back of the classroom where he pushed some desks out of the way. They had arrived early that day, and Tai saw that this was a mistake. Not wanting to reveal his abilities in combat, he let this bully drag him along and create an area in which to beat the snot out of him.
Asuka broke off her conversation with Hikari and turned to see what all the commotion was about. When she got a good look she saw that Toji had Tai by the collar and was about to start 'the beating of the new kid' ritual when a smirk came upon her face. This was something that she had to see, especially after what happened yesterday when he defeated her with ease. Toji, although she'd never admit it out loud, was a more formidable opponent than her when she was outside her Eva.
"Alright, new kid," Toji said as he clenched his fist in his other hand, preparing to strike. "You need to be taught a lesson as to how things happen here." Tai remained silent and this infuriated Toji to the point where he hauled back and lashed out.
The whole class stood shocked as the blow, that should have knocked the new kid out, hit him square in the head and he never flinched. Instead, he smirked. "My turn."
With one swift movement that seemed impossible for any human being to perform, Tai sent Toji flying above the desks in the classroom to eventually plummet into a group of them at the front of the class. Not too pleased, he got up off the floor and wiped the blood from his mouth, ready for another attack when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked behind him to find Hikari there giving him a disapproving look.
"Stand down, or I will make sure that my next attack hurts a lot worse," Tai sneered. "I have no time for bullies like you."
"Good job, new kid," Toji said, sagging into the class rep's arms. "I would have never expected that from anyone, but the next time that we fight you'll have to teach me that."
"Indeed I will," Tai said, the dark look in his face suddenly lifting. "But next time it will not be bully tactics."
"Agreed."
Before much else could happen, the sensei came into the room and the normal routine of him blabbering on about the incidents with the angels began. Tai ignored it, having all the data and knowledge on it that he could take. Instead, he reprogrammed the laptop on his desk so that it was up to his standards and reconfigured the interface so that it was more like something he was used to.
Rei stared out the window beside him and he was about to ask what was going on when he noticed that he had an incoming message from the network on his screen. Logging on to the chat room, he decided that he would see what was going on.
Tai: Who is this?
Shinji: Welcome to the chat room, what did you do to Toji! That looked like it was even easier than when you beat Asuka!
Toji: Watch what you're saying my friend. You might be the one I fight next.
Kensuke: Toji, you're always looking for a fight with the new people. Lay off a while. Welcome to Japan Tai, I'm Kensuke Aida.
Tai looked up to see a student with glasses waving from his desk up ahead in the rows of desks.
Tai: Thanks, nice to meet ya.
Asuka: Just to let you know, the sync tests have been cancelled for the day. I got a call on the way to school this morning.
Kensuke: Ah! It's the Red Devil!
Shinji: Shut up Kensuke.
A book from Shinji's hand hit Kensuke in the back of the head and he rubbed the sore spot it had created before turning back to his laptop.
Kensuke: You didn't have to do that!
Asuka: Serves you right!
Another book, this one from Asuka's hand, hit's Kensuke in the face.
Asuka: Thank you, baka-Shinji
Hikari: Alright everyone, pay attention. Lunch is in a few minutes. Have some respect.
Kensuke, Toji, Shinji: Yes class rep.
A message came up on screen saying that the chat room had been terminated and he closed the window to then resume the rest of the special tweaks he planned for the laptop. As he was typing new code in, he felt the presence of someone looking over his shoulder, or, more precisely, someone looking at his screen from the side. Looking to his side he found that the person that was watching what he had been doing was Rei Ayanami, but she was not looking on intently. Instead, she seemed to be confused.
"What is this code?" she asked, trying to understand it.
"This is batch programming," he told her, not breaking stride in the coding. "I learned it from a friend years ago."
"Looks old, very old," she said.
"Yes, but it can still get a lot done."
With the programming done he saved the batch file and then rebooted the laptop to put his plan into motion. Opening the BIOS he changed a few things and then logged out of that to then access the main batch program and add his batch program's caller code into it. Once that was completed he rebooted again and allowed the dos controllers to change the settings all over the hard drive. The program he had written finished its job, deleted its caller code out of the file he'd modified and then deleted itself upon reboot.
Rei watched the coding fly by as the changes were made and then the computer logged onto a user interface that looked a lot different. "What is this?" she asked,
"I programmed this to act as if it were a Windows machine, like my laptop actually is, but it's just an emulation," he said. "I'll have to work on it a little more to get it to work properly."
Copying the necessary files onto the only empty flash drives he had with him he joined the crowd walking out of the classroom for lunch. It didn't take him long though to separate from the crowd and find a place where he could enjoy his lunch by himself. It was not an unusual thing for him and he actually enjoyed the silence.
As soon as he was sat down near the tree in the schoolyard, he sensed that someone was watching him and he looked up to the roof where he saw two people looking in his direction. When he did this, they suddenly turned away, trying to hide the fact that they were observing him. He was not fooled and by the red hair that flowed from one of them he knew it was Asuka and Hikari. Not caring, he went back to his lunch and then quickly got up and walked away once he had finished it.
Rei was standing near another tree on the opposite side of the schoolyard, observing Tai as he finished his lunch and he walked away. She felt as though she was captivated by his presence and he seemed to be so confident, yet silent. The other pilots had both told her that she was extremely silent and distant all the time, but she had never believed them and felt they were exaggerating. That is, until now. Being what she was had made her distance herself from other humans during the events prior to Third Impact, but now that she had been reborn from the sea of LCL she was fully human and free from being half angle.
Observing him as he left she decided that she would begin to try to accept her human side from now on, but she worried about how that could be done. Shinji and Asuka were good friends and that was something that she secretly envied.
The kind of friendship she observed between those two pilots was something that was foreign to her. Parents were also something that she had never had because she had been created in that awful lab, something she never wanted to see again. In her apartment, she had longed every day that she would wake up from some horrible nightmare and have a loving family to comfort her.
Shaking the thoughts away, and keeping the almost dead-like look on her face as she always did, she walked back into the school. There would be no point in remaining outside, and she prepared for her next class.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and, when the final class let out for the day, three pilots were walking back toward their apartment. It was about half way there, during another argument between Shinji and Asuka, when they noticed someone missing.
"Where is Tai?" Rei asked.
Shinji stopped on the sidewalk and looked around. "I don't know."
Sirens were heard in the distance, but there were of a different type than the ones that would signal an attack. These were the sounds of emergency vehicles responding to something. What was happening was made clear a second later when a fire truck went screaming by them and turned a corner. They looked up to see smoke coming from the rooftops of one of the buildings.
"Let's go!" Asuka shouted. "Maybe we can help!"
Inside the building the firefighters were trying keep the flames at bay while they checked the rooms. There was no way that there could be anyone stupid enough to stay inside a burning building, but they had to check to make sure.
"There's no one left here!" one of them shouted from behind.
"Keep looking!" the lead fireman yelled back, holding his hose and dosing the flames in the hallway. "Get that stairwell open and sweep it! I want it checked now!"
Two firemen kicked the door open and they were greeted with the heat of more flames to which they dosed with more water, but there was something else. "There's kids in here!" he shouted, pointing up. "Three of them!"
Every fireman's nightmare. The leader quickly grabbed his radio and told his chief where they were and told him they were going to get them on the top floor. About ready to carry out his plans and issue orders, he was cut off by what his chief told him.
"Pull out," they heard the chief say, regret in his voice. "They are irretrievable! The roof will collapse any second!"
Lowering his head a little, defeated by the roaring monster all around them, he gave the most difficult order he could possibly think of.
"You heard the chief! Get out of here!" he yelled and started to back his team out of the building. May god have mercy on those young souls, he thought, and then ducked out the window onto the ladder.
Yuri turned to her two younger siblings and had tears in her eyes as the firefighters retreated from the stairwell. "Come on, let's try to find another way out."
"But you said the firemen would help us!" Hero yelled over the flames, tears in his eyes. "They should have helped us!"
"I'm scared," Kikiyo mumbled, also with tears in her eyes.
"Let's go!" she yelled, and then dragged them back into the hallway from where they had came. They were on the fifth floor, the top level in the building, and she knew that there was no way that she would be able to get them out of this. They were all going to die no matter what she did, but there was no reason to tell them that and panic them. All she could do now was prolong the inevitable.
Then the final moment came. A wooden beam that was in the ceiling creaked, flames snaking all over its surface, and then it gave way right over top of them. She swung her jacket over the top of their heads so they wouldn't see the end and was about to take the weight fully on herself when she saw a blur of motion and then the beam was punched out of the way.
An armored figure stood in the hallway beside them and was looking right at her as it stood there. "You want to live?" a male voice asked, altered by technology. She nodded and he knelt to the floor to indicate he wanted her to hop on his back. "Hang on tight when you three get on.
Once she and her two siblings were on his back, he hooked her legs and made sure that she had a tight grip around his neck. Next he saw that the two smaller children had a similar grip on his shoulders and he lung a belt-like object around them to being all four of them together.
The armor that had been surrounding him was soft where she was clinging to him, but the rest was as if it was rock. It must have weighed quite a lot, but before she could think anymore he began sprinting through the hallway. His direction was right for the end of it where there was a window that faced the street where the fire rescue crews would be set up.
Flames were all around them, but as this person ran though them, dodging debris in every direction, he didn't seem affected by the heat. Nor did she for that face, it was just as if they were running through a normal hallway that was calm and peaceful, as this one had been only a few minutes ago.
The end of the hallway neared closer and she could tell that he was not going to slow down. She felt him taking a deep breath, and then his feet left the floor and his body constricted so that they would all fit through the window at once. Gravity then took over. The end had come.
Back outside, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka had finally gotten to a spot where they could see everything that was going on. There didn't seem to be anything that they could do, but Shinji felt compelled to offer.
Before they could approach the fire crews, they heard the sound of glass shattering above them and looked up. There they saw a figure shrouded in armor burst through the window on the top floor and begin to plummet to the ground. Then they noticed that there seemed to be three small children clinging to this man who had obviously gone suicidal in a desperate attempt to save them.
Only a few seconds passed before the sound of gasps radiated around the area after the sickening sound of an object slamming into pavement at high speed. There was no way that the person could have survived the fall, and there was only a slight chance that he got he children to the ground without taking them with him to the afterlife.
Asuka was the first to break through the crowd, and what she saw shocked her more than anything else had in her life. On the sidewalk were three very confused children, along with enough paramedics and police to start a small riot. In the pavement that made up the sidewalk though, was a pair of footprints and there was no sign of the person who had made them.
"What kind of person could do that and survive?" Asuka asked, shock obvious in her voice.
"It's not possible!" Shinji exclaimed, and people around them agreed with him.
Rei remained silent, pondering over the incident. It was surely confusing to witness this.
It wasn't long before the police ushered everyone away, but Shinji looked over his shoulder to see them taking samples of the shattered concrete around the footprints and taking pictures. Before he turned back around to resume his walk home with the others, he saw a Nerv convoy roll up and join in the activity. Something was going on, and it looked as though Nerv had their hands curled up in it.
It was going on seven o'clock at night when Shinji and Misato were still at the dinning room table. They were waiting for Tai to get home, who hadn't shown up after school, and both of them were quite worried about him. Rei and Asuka were in the living room watching a movie that Asuka had picked up when she was at the mall with Hikari a few hours ago. Both of them were trying to keep their minds on the movie, but Shinji could tell that Rei was worried about him too. Asuka was in her little way as well, which meant she was being moody and arrogant.
The seconds were ticking by on the clock and Misato was trying to get a drunken PenPen to go to bed, when they both heard the door open. Misato was about ready to pounce, but when Tai rounded the corner and appeared before them she just couldn't do it. He looked as if he had gone though a war, which meant to Shinji that he had been in some kind of a fight. His face was bruised and he had what looked to be burn marks where his shirtsleeves stopped.
Seeing Shinji looking at his arms, he quickly pulled the sleeve of his jacket back down over them to hide what he was looking at. There was something different about him, but it was nothing that Shinji wanted to know because all he was concerned for was his well being. Now that he saw that he was safe he could rest easily, but the apparent injuries bothered him.
"I apologize for being late Miss Katsuragi," he said as he passed by, almost like a zombie. "I'll see you all in the morning."
Misato blinked, and then turned to Shinji who told her that Toji had picked a fight with him earlier. When she was almost on her feet, he added that he had beaten Toji with one hit and she settled down a bit for him to describe what had happened in more detail.
In the living room, Rei watched as Tai walked by her and Asuka to then drag himself into his room and shut the door behind him. She was concerned, especially when he seemed to have so much energy when he was around them earlier. In this condition, there would be no way that he could use the martial arts techniques he had used earlier.
As she thought this, Asuka must have been thinking the same thing because the redhead paused the movie and walked down the hallway. When she got to his door, she didn't even bother knocking and went right in. There were the sounds of a scuffle going on and then a hand opened the door again and out came Asuka. He had her in his grasp by the shoulders and he put her out of the room gently, yet Rei assumed there was more to it then that.
"Why that little," Asuka said, fuming. "He took every hit I threw at him and he didn't even flinch!" By the time that she got back to her spot on the couch she was shaking her hand as if she had been injured.
"Did he counter attack?" she asked, curious.
"No, Wondergirl," she said. "But his hitting him in the shoulder and head are like hitting brick walls!" The German girl spat out a few curses in her native language and then turned back to her. "He seemed so calm, too. He's like Shinji and you in a way."
This was something that she didn't expect from Asuka, and she blushed at the thoughts that were going through her mind. It was faint on her face, but she could tell that Asuka saw it because she had a smirk on her face.
"What were you thinking, Rei?" she said, cooing in an annoyingly suggestive tone. "You were thinking of him, weren't you?"
"That is not your concern," she said, emotionlessly. "My thoughts are my own, and are not to be shared unless I deem necessary to do so."
Back in Tai's room, he was sitting in a corner of the small bedroom applying medications to some of his wounds. His laptop was playing some hard rock music to drown out the sound of him wincing in pain because he didn't want the others to hear him. This was his curse, his job was to protect others and it got him injured every time that something major happened.
In the comfort of his own room he was able to show more of the pain because he was sure that no one would see him. His lower legs hurt and his knees were burning with severe pain. This was not something that he could deal with on his own, and he dug through his equipment pack to find a small grey device. He hadn't noticed before, but the rest of his things were here now, and he thanked god that that was so because this device was hidden in one of the bags he had not brought with him.
Activating the device he tossed it into the air where it began to emit light and then the forcefields began to activate to form the shape of a man. Tai remained seated on the floor with his back up against the wall while he waited for the small device to adjust and bring his help to him.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," the hologram said, as it was fully activate. He looked around the room and saw no one in it, but he noticed the laptop by the mattress on the floor and knew who it was who had summoned him. "Admiral?"
"Down here, Doc," Tai said, attracting the Doctor's attention to him. "Keep it down, the others who live here are still awake."
"Aye, sir," he said, digging out the medical kit from where he knew Tai would stash it in his belongings. "What happened?"
As the Doctor scanned him with the medical tricorder, Tai looked up from staring down at his wounded legs. "A fire a short distance from the school here. I responded to it when I detected three lifesigns still in the building. Red Lightning is here as well, and she helped me get away and treat some of my wounds."
"These are third degree burns," the Doc said, rolling up his the shirtsleeves to discover Tai's red command uniform underneath the school uniform. It had burn holes in it and was definitely going to be joining the other destroyed sets of uniforms the Admiral had owned. "I'll treat you with the dermal regenerator and give you some medicine for the pain, but you have to lie down before I can."
"Thanks Doc," Tai said, and followed his doctor's orders. "Make sure that you deactivate yourself near the clutter so that you won't be found."
When Tai passed out, the Doc went to work. He knew that he wouldn't be able to stay conscious for long, but he would be alright once he treated him.
Lying in bed, Rei was looking out her window at the moon with a concerned look plastered on her face. It was very late, and she was not getting to sleep because of her worry for the Sixth Child. There was no way that she could explain it, but she was sure that she was starting to feel something for him.
Her thoughts were confusing. Do I find him attractive? Is this why I cannot sleep when he is injured? Do I care for him? How can this be when I have barely known him for a day?
Deciding that she would not be able to sleep that night without satisfying her curiosity on if he was alright or not, she got up out of bed. Not caring that she was wearing only a nightgown, she opened her door and slipped out into the dark hallway and closed her door behind her. She then drifted down the hallway and through the living room to walk down the other hall to his room.
Knocking once and receiving no answer, she opened the door quietly and stepped inside. One look around the room told her that he had not had the time to unpack the rest of his things because there was a small stack of boxes on one wall accompanied by a few suitcases.
The room was not completely dark, as she would have expected because the moon was not facing this direction. Instead, the soft glow from the laptop beside his futon was bathing his sleeping form in a ghostly glow.
She approached him and looked him over as he slept. He had changed into a pair of jogging pants and was sleeping without a shirt, but had a thick blanket over top of him. Her curiosity was not satisfied at this point on whether or not he was alright, and she decided that she would have to spend some time with him to accomplish her task of finding out.
Looking at the laptop screen as she circled around so that she was behind him with her back to the wall, she discovered it to be much like what he had programmed at school. The interface was foreign to her and she didn't know how it functioned, but it looked like something was counting down on it. It was then that she noticed the soft music that was playing, almost impossible to hear over his breathing. It sounded like English music, but she couldn't understand a word of what was being said.
As she continued to look over the screen she noticed another countdown that was running and it would terminate at around four thirty in the morning. This must be his alarm clock as well, but she didn't understand how it worked.
Fatigue was taking over her body now and she decided to just stay with him for the night and slipped under the covers with him. It was warm, compared to the cold that the room had been without the covers wrapped around her. He must have shut the heat off in here, she thought, but why would he do that?
Snuggling closer to him she draped her arm around his torso and held him through the night, not knowing any other way to keep her body warm. She had not noticed how cold she actually was until she had felt his warmth spread through her body. His form shuddered under the covers a little as he mumbled in his sleep. She couldn't understand what he was saying, but whatever it was sounded to her as if he was shouting orders in his sleep. All she could hear was the mumbling as he slept, but what surprised her was he turned on his side and put his arm around her.
She blushed heavily, and could feel the warmth in her face as she did so. If he had been awake, he would have noticed it too, but he wasn't and she was glad for that fact. Asuka would have laughed at her for this and teased, but right now she didn't care because she could see that her 'interest' was safe. With him in her arms, and she in his, she fell asleep like that to the sounds of his words as he slept.
An intruding sound was annoying him as he slept and soon he was awake enough that he spoke an order and the laptop beside him complied by shutting of the alarm. It was a soft sound, but it was repeated enough that he was annoyed by it and woke up. Another early morning in this strange place.
He rolled his shoulders as he lay there, regaining motor controls, but there was a weight on him that he noticed immediately. Shrugging it off as he had caused one of his suitcases to fall on him he tested his legs. One was alright, and he felt no pain in either one, but the other seemed to be pinned to the floor as well as one of his shoulders.
Concerned that something heavier had fallen on him, he opened his eyes to look into a plume of something blue. This confused him, but then he moved his head back a little to take in more of the scene in front of him. Gasping, he realized what the weight was and he relaxed only a little.
Rei Ayanami, the First Child, was asleep beside him in his futon. He turned his head toward the laptop and spoke another order that brought up the LCARS Operating System to then check on the laptop's internal sensors. Sure enough, it had picked her up shortly after a holographic signature was terminated.
She must have walked in just as the Doc was finishing up, he thought. Why is she here anyway? This is a very suggesting way to wake up. He hoped that no one would open his door and see them like this, but was relieved to see that, when Windows powered back up, his clock only read that it was five after four in the morning.
Her head was nestled in beside his neck and was lying on his shoulder, while one of her legs was intertwined with his left leg. It was very suggestive, and he didn't want anyone to think that he had done something to her. Not really having to worry about it for a while he brought his arm around her and cupped her shoulder in his left arm to hold her close.
Even though she had covered herself with his blanket, his stirring in his sleep must have uncovered her. The light nightgown that she was wearing was too thin to keep out the cold and she must have frozen in her sleep, but she didn't have a look of discomfort on her face.
With his other hand, he draped the blanket back around the both of them and she snuggled closer to him. A sigh escaped her lips as she bathed in the warmth that he must have been emitting since she layed down with him in the night, but he could still sense that she was cold. He focused his eyes and activated a pressure sensor that slid two plastic-like screens over his eyes and they came to life with readouts of his lifesigns and technical data on the technology that had been implanted throughout his body. Manipulating the Iris displays, he activated a few extra systems.
It was only a few seconds later that his internal body heat spiked up five degrees and he maintained this for a few minutes to warm her up. Relief was displayed across her features and he relaxed to then turn the systems off that he had activated. Scans of her body indicated that her internal body temperature was now where it should be and a little color returned to her cheeks.
Returning the Iris displays to their pockets beside his eyes by activating the pressure sensors again, he then decided that this would be a good time to get a few answers. He shook her shoulder gently and slowly brought her back to consciousness.
"Hmmm . . ." she groaned, stretching a little as she came out of her sleep. "Huh? Oh, good morning," she said in her quiet voice, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Good morning, Rei," he said, a smile on his face, and then he returned to his neutral expression. "What happened?"
She blushed heavily and looked away from him at the ceiling. "I was concerned for you, and when I came in you were asleep. I wanted to make sure you were safe."
He blinked a little at that explanation, half expecting it to have been something that she was doing to amuse Asuka. "I'm fine," he said, relaxing a bit and smiling again. "Thanks for making sure I was."
The deep blush turned a deeper shade of red as she nestled back onto his shoulder. "You're welcome."
He reached over to the laptop with his free hand and brought a different type of music to life as she relaxed with him. "Usually, I ask a girl to go out on a date before she comes and sleeps in my bed though," he joked.
A soft chuckle escaped her lips and she looked into his eyes as he turned back to face her. "Would you . . . like to . . . go out on . . . a date . . . with me . . . then?" she asked, but feared being rejected.
"How's dinner sound?" he asked, and she blushed a little more and nodded. "Good, I found this place in the mall I wanted to try. After school today, we'll head down there."
They didn't move from that position for a while, both enjoying each other's company as the early hours were used to wake themselves up. It would be a long day, and they both were content to stay right where they were though. However, as fate would have it, there wasn't any way that they would be able to do that.
Tai decided, at fife o'clock, that he would get up and take a shower before the others woke for breakfast. Rei, a little disappointed that she could not stay with him a little longer, allowed him to rise from the futon and then followed him out of the room before they each went to one of the two bathrooms to clean up for the day.
It wasn't long before he had showered, dressed, and was out in the kitchen digging out what he would need to start their breakfast. He wasn't about to cook anything very elaborate this morning, but he settled on vegetable soup, that he found in the cupboard above the sink, and warmed it up for them.
They ate in silence as the last hours of their peace ticked by and then Misato came out of her room to sit down with them. She was surprised that they were up, but shrugged it off and got her morning beer out of the fridge.
"Ohhhh! Yeah! Now this is the way to start the morning!" she exclaimed as she crushed the now empty can down on the table. The sickening crunch of tin sent shivers down Tai's spine and he sat up a little straighter beside Rei. "Are you two hiding something?" she asked, looking at them suspiciously, and had a tone that Tai recognized.
"No, we are not," Rei said, calmly.
"Looks like there's something going on," Misato said, cooing the last three words at Tai.
"Why would you suspect that?" Tai asked, mimicking Rei's calm and neutral tone. Coupled with his deep masculine voice, it sounded eerie, even to him, and this made Misato shiver. He smiled inwardly at his accomplishment, and settled down to enjoy the rest of the morning before he had to go to school and endure another day of classes. At least, now, he had something to look forward to after the day let out, other than piloting Eva or Red Lightning.
"Good morning," Shinji said, as he walked into the room. Tai had noticed him leave his room because he was too involved in his thoughts, but it looked like he had taken a shower only moments ago. "Asuka will be out in a few minutes guys, she's not in a good mood."
"Why's that?" Tai asked.
"I caught her in my room again," he said, with a note of shyness in his voice. When Tai gave him a curious look he quickly added, "She sleepwalks at night sometimes, and she somehow always ends up beside me for the night. I don't have the heart to wake her."
"Baka! Just get cooking!" Asuka yelled, plopping down at the table.
"Yes, Asuka," Shinji responded, sarcastically.
After they had all ate and were ready to go, they slipped out the door bidding Misato farewell and headed for school. Tai and Rei walked a little ahead of Asuka and Shinji, and they began to wonder what the two of them were up to.
"What is up with Wondergirl and Superman?" Asuka said, walking beside Shinji and being arrogant, as usual. "This guy shows up, beats me up, and now she is attached to him at the hip."
"I don't think it's that way, Asuka," Shinji said, not missing a beat as he told her. "Rei is just being friendly to him."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he's asked her out on a date," Asuka said, shrugging off his words. "All men are the same, and so are you baka-Shinji."
He smirked a bit, evilly. "If all men are the same and I am as well, that would mean that I should have taken advantage of you while you were sleepwalking." Without another word, he walked up and joined the other two pilots as Asuka stood there on the sidewalk in shock.
"I'll get you back for that one, baka-Shinji," Asuka snorted, and then continued the walk toward school.
Thanks to those that reviewed this story. I will attempt to get the rest of it on-line within the next couple of weeks. With graduation coming up, though, I will not have a lot of time until afterward, however, rest assured that it is all written and it just needs to be put on-line. To explain to one reviewer, though, I have to say that this is a self-insertion fic, and if you don't like it that is your business. However, this was written as a class assignment so I did not have a lot of ideas to work with at the beginning. Once it was started, I couldn't stop, and I enjoyed writing it. Just as a little hint at the flow of the rest of it though, there will be a surprise ending for you all that you probably won't expect.
I look forward to more reviews! Fergason out.