Chapter Three
The school day was boring for Tai, as usual, and he got up from his seat at the last bell and tucked his books under his arm. From there, he drifted down the hall to his locker and put a few of them in there before placing another three books into his book bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Slamming the locker door shut and making sure it was locked, he made his way out of the building and waited by the front gate for Rei.
He spotted Asuka and Shinji coming his way and they both passed by without a word to him as they bickered over something. Ignoring the battle that Shinji would surely loose, he continued to watch the front door until he spotted the blue-haired girl walk out of the building.
It was the first time that he actually took a good look at Rei Ayanami, and even in her school uniform she looked beautiful. There had only been a few women in his life, but none had been very truthful or faithful to him. His job always got in the way of spending time with them as well, but he had a feeling that this time it would be different. They were both Eva pilots, so the only thing to get in the way was the Lightning program that he was secretly a part of, and commanding.
They walked back to the apartment, under the pretence that they wanted to get changed into normal clothes for their date instead of going in their school uniforms. It wasn't long before they reached the place and they took their time getting changed so that they wouldn't raise suspicion.
As they were about to walk out, Tai's hopes of slinking away without Misato noticing that they were together were shattered. The Major was standing by the door and looked at them, a smile on her face. "You going out?" she asked.
"Yes," Rei said, not showing her any emotion. "We're going to the mall."
"Alright, be back before it gets too late," she said, and then walked by them and back into the apartment.
Tai blinked a little, and then he snapped out of it when Rei shook him a bit. "Sorry," he said. "That was a little unexpected."
After putting their shoes on, they exited the apartment and headed out to the street. Rei put her arm through his and he was a little hesitant at accepting this, but did so when he saw that she was enjoying it. She was a repressed girl, and he wanted to help her as much as he could. His discomfort wouldn't get in the way of that, and he would make the most of the moment.
The walk to the mall was short and they walked inside to the restaurant where they ordered their meal and ate over a conversation about what each other's lives were like. He was shocked to hear that she had, in fact, been half angle, but he never let that get in the way of the conversation. She looked a little worried that he might and was relieved that he didn't care.
Tai had made a decision long ago in his life that he would never judge a person by their past and it held here. This young lady was someone who obviously had a good heart and cared a lot for others, and he was not going to hold her origins against her.
Telling her of home was a little difficult in a way, because there was a huge chunk of his life that he had to leave out for security reasons. The Lightning project had been a huge success before Third Impact, and he wanted to have the same effect here in Japan, but if word got out who he was there would be trouble. As the minutes ticked by though, he had second thoughts about keeping it from her and the others. Simply enough, he would tell them if he could, but until that time came he would keep it to himself like he always did.
Asuka was sitting on the couch watching TV, as usual for an evening after school. Shinji and PenPen were in the kitchen, PenPen watching him as he cooked the meal for the evening. Misato told him that she would not be expecting Rei and Tai back for a while and said to only cook enough for the three of them tonight.
PenPen made the mistake of wondering into the living room and interrupting Asuka's show, and he was chased out by her only to have her trip over Shinji. Misato giggled as the two of them got up off the floor from having Asuka land on top of him. She had an angered look on her face and stormed back to the living room.
"She's always so angry," Shinji muttered as he went back to preparing the meal. "I wonder if she'll ever grow out of that."
"Maybe you should ask her out," Misato snickered.
"W-wh-what?" Shinji stammered, realizing that he had said what he had thought about Asuka out loud. "Y-You can't b-be serious."
His guardian looked at him with a really evil look in her eyes that told him she was planning something. "Yup. Rei's hooked up with Tai now."
"What?" he asked, surprised.
"Oh, don't act so naïve," she said, waving her hand in front of her as if to fend off his uneasiness in the conversation. "You didn't notice that they went out on a date to the mall earlier?"
"No," he said, quickly. "I thought they had just gone out, not gone out together."
She laughed a bit and then turned back to him as she headed down the hallway to her room. "Go ahead Shinji-kun, ask her."
He watched her open her door and disappear into her room, and then he again turned back to stirring the pot on the stove. It was true that he had feelings for Asuka, but he could never express them because if he did he would probably end up in the hospital. In this apartment, at Nerv headquarters, and even at school, Asuka was famous for slapping him around. Before Third Impact, it was a regular thing for her to hit him every day, but now she seemed to have backed off on it a bit.
"Ask me what?"
"Ahhh!" he yelled as he just about knocked the pot off the stove. "Nothing, Asuka, nothing. Don't sneak up on me like that!"
A smile was plastered across Asuka's face as she sat down at the table. "I heard Misato. I guess that you just don't want to ask me out then," she said, a disappointed look on her face.
"You heard her?" he asked, a dumb look on his face. "I would like to Asuka, but you never give me the chance. You're so violent all the time."
"And you're so wimpy all the time!" she yelled at him. "We're complete opposites! How dare you!"
"Opposites attract," came a voice.
Asuka screamed and then turned around to see Tai and Rei standing there in the doorway. They looked like they just got in out of the rain that was pouring down outside. "Well, if it isn't Wondergirl and Superman," she sneered. "Did you two have a nice date?"
"Yes, we did," Rei spoke up, glaring at Asuka. "I'm going to take a shower. Why don't you find us something to do, Tai?"
Shocked, Asuka almost fell back into the table before Shinji caught her. Not even bothering to shrug him off, she just layed there and stared at Tai with her blue eyes locking onto his deep blue, yellow streaked ones. "You and her?" He nodded and then stepped by her to go to his room. She turned to Shinji, who helped her to stand back up, and asked. "Did you know?"
"Misato just told me," he answered. "I was a little shocked too. Just think about it, my sister's got a boyfriend before I have a girlfriend."
"Hmmph," Asuka wined. "That tramp's got a boyfriend before me." She unfolded her arms and looked back at Shinji, who was now taking the food off the stove and serving it into bowls. "What have you got planned for tomorrow night?"
"W-Why do you ask?" he stammered, typical Shinji Ikari.
She put her hands on her hips and smiled. "There's a dance at the school dummy," she said. "Would you like to go?"
"With you, you mean?"
"Yes, what did you think I was asking?"
"As long as it doesn't involve the annual trip to the hospital for medical treatment," he said, smirking.
She patted his check softly and then fluttered her eyelashes. "Keep up those sarcastic remarks and it will." Shinji gulped down the lump that had formed in his throat and then agreed. "Well then, it's a date."
Down the hallway in Tai's room, he had just retrieved the Doctor's mobile emitter and was putting it away in a safe place. That safe place turned out to be an unused PCMCIA card slot on his laptop that had a panel that could cover over it. He was just finishing up concealing it when he heard a knock on his door.
"Come in," he called, placing the rest of his clothing in the dressers and tossing the last suitcase aside.
"Would you mind if I stayed the night here?" Rei asked.
Turning to face her, he found her standing there with a futon rolled up under her arm and she had her head down, as if anticipating rejection. "No, you may stay," he told her, and that got her head to rise and her eyes to gleam along with the smile on her face. "Just wait in the living room while I finish up here. You may leave your things over there by the door and I'll set it all up before coming out to get you."
She quietly did as he said and shut the door behind her as she left. Rei was quite a quiet girl and she never seemed to show her emotions openly. In fact, since he had met her only a few days ago he had sensed great repression in her and this just further confirmed it. The only time that her true emotions were made aware to him were when he had woken up beside her that morning and at dinner tonight when they were sharing tales about themselves.
He picked up a few boxes of things and set them in the closet before taking the suitcases over and tossing them in there to join them. The laptop had to be set somewhere else, so he set it up on the only remaining unpacked box where he left it to receive the incoming information from home base.
The next thing that he did was lay out the futons and make them so that they would not be so cold in the night, and then turned the heat on for the first time. It would be a few minutes before it made any difference, but it would be that much more toward keeping her comfortable through the night.
Walking out the door he saw Rei and Asuka in the living room as he passed by to get to the bathroom where he could change for the night. He had been in these clothes only for a few hours, but they were ones that he wasn't wishing to get too dirty. The jogging pants and short sleeve shirt he put on would suffice for the evening.
As he walked passed the two again, he gave Rei a nod and then she followed him down to his room where she shut the door behind her. Still so very quiet. Not a word was said as they lay down in their separate futons, but that didn't last long.
"Tai, I'm cold."
"Slide over closer to me then," he said. "I'll keep you warm." He hadn't turned to look upon her, but he could tell that there was a blush and a smile on her face.
A small arm slipped around him and the blankets that she had had on her futon were draped over the two of them now. She was not very shy and seemed to be comfortable even though they had barely known each other. This was a very weird thing for him to experience and he was not about to get used to it so quickly.
Staying on his side as he lay there, he could feel his body reroute its heat so that she would warm up under the covers. It wasn't under his control that this was happening, but he didn't stop it because he knew that in a few moments it would stop. He was an extremely kind and generous person, and those were the reasons that he allowed her to be here.
Soon, the night air was still and she was asleep beside him in the futons that had now become one futon. Her sleeping form was one of beauty, but he wished that she would show that beauty a little more often. The way she looked at life reminded him of himself when he had been too immersed into the Lightning just before he started piloting.
Closing his eyes, he fell asleep quickly, but it wasn't an uninterrupted sleep. He would wake up every now and then because she was stirring beside him in her slumber. It didn't bother him that he was being woke up, yet he hoped that he was not doing the same to her through the night.
School was going as usual, but when they walked into the room there were a few girls snickering at Rei and he could hear exactly what they were saying. This was something that she didn't seem to hear, or she was ignoring it, though, and she continued to her desk without a word. Thinking that they were being extremely rude to someone that he had grown to care about he decided that he would do something about it as soon as he was given the chance to do so.
Sitting down at their seats, Rei and Tai began the work that they had been assigned to do the day before. This would take up the course of their morning classes, since the sensei would be boring them again with another speech about the events of Second Impact.
Tai was just about to finish up the mathematical calculations that he had been working on for the last few minutes when a message alert came up on his screen. Looking over to Rei he found that a similar one was on hers, but because he had changed the appearance of the OS he saw it differently. She stopped what she was doing, and he watched as she brought the message up on screen.
A disgusted look played across both of their faces as they read the short message on the screen and Rei turned her laptop off and calmly resumed her stare out the window.
On Tai's screen, the message was brought back into existence.
Hey Everyone!
I hope that everyone will be able to attend my party on Friday night! Be sure to bring food, friends, and, of course, presents! Everyone is invited!
(Except Rei Ayanami)
Maika
A roar of laughter then flooded his ears as his attention turned back to the world. The only people who he did not see laughing were Toji, Kensuke, and Shinji. Everyone else in the classroom seemed to be amused by the fact that Maika would do such a thing to Rei. Tai was not amused, and he decided that something needed to be done about it.
Commandeering Rei's laptop of a moment, and isolating his by removing the network cable, he pulled a disk out of his binder that was protected by a plastic shield casing. It was sealed with a sticker that had large bold letters spelling out the word 'Operation Hazard' on its fluorescent surface. He put it into the floppy drive and began his work that quickly ended when the screen went blank and the laptops all around the room began to do funny things. Distortions and weird events on the screens made people jump back, and then . . . everything was dark and silent in the room.
Oops, power grid for the building must have been connected to these computers, Tai thought, and then reconnected his computer to the network, which suffered the same fate now as well. Removing the disk from the floppy drive of Rei's laptop, he put it back in the case and then back in his binder. His 'Omega' virus was getting to be a little too powerful these days.
On the way home, Tai had a look on his face that spelled out satisfaction. Apparently, the virus had been isolated and cleaned from the system a split second before the power grid went down, but they had not had time to trace it properly. Like any good virus, it had covered its tracks and rerouted the detection progress to a certain person's laptop, who probably would have her party crashed because of it.
"I know it was you that did that!" Asuka yelled, attempting to burn a hole through his eyes with her own that were distressed with fury and rage. "Why did you do it!"
He looked at her with an expression that seemed to reflect her rage and anger right back at her, ten fold. "I did it for one reason, and one reason only," he said, hissing, as he explained what shouldn't need to be explained. "Believe it or not, Rei does have emotions and she was harmed by that message. I cannot stand for it."
"So it was you!" Asuka screamed, and wrapped her hands around Tai's neck to chock him.
When he didn't offer any resistance to Asuka's attack, Shinji grabbed a hold of her wrist and held tight. "Asuka! What are you doing? You're gonna kill him!"
"Darn right I am! Maika got blamed for that! Do you know how her parents are gonna react to the news!" She scowled at Tai, who was now trying to slowly regain his breath, Rei helping to support him. "And Wondergirl here doesn't have emotions! She's just a doll! An emotionless doll!"
The sound of skin hitting skin with a sickening 'SLAP'was then heard throughout the ally as Asuka hit the wall, hard. Rei stood before her, Tai slipping into unconsciousness leaning on her shoulder, and she was not happy. The German girl feared the anger that resonated from Rei, and she spoke for the first time that day. "I am not a doll. And if you find my turmoil amusing I will not show you any degree of mercy. I do have emotions, and they have been harmed by the actions of you and the others in the class."
She then walked away, with Tai slowly coming back to his normal self. Asuka looked over to Shinji, who had a shocked look on his face, but it soon turned to annoyance. "How dare you, Asuka? My sister is too kind to you for you to do that. And what has she done to Maika and the others? Huh? Got out of bed in the morning and come to school? Is that a crime?"
Shinji then stormed off after them, to make sure that Tai and Rei were alright, leaving Asuka behind in the alley.
"Are you alright?" Shinji asked, walking up beside Tai.
"I'll be fine," Tai chocked out the words. "Just need to get a few more minutes of fresh air." He tried to smile, but was thrown into a coughing fit that he had to take a moment to recover from.
Rei was now walking with her arm around Tai, comforting him more than she was supporting him. It was strange to her that he would defend her in any way, but he seemed determined to do so. She accepted it as him protecting her as a friend and left it at that.
"Asuka said that there is a dance Friday night," Shinji said, interrupting the silence. "You two going?"
Looking up from the pavement, Tai glanced at Rei who had a look in her eyes like she wouldn't respond to the question. "You want to go?" he asked her. Her eyes seemed to reflect shock, but she nodded her head and a smile crept across her face. "I guess we'll go then."
"It's a formal dance guys," Shinji said, cringing at the thought of him having to wear a suit to it. Asuka would kill him if he didn't, he supposed. "You'll have to find something to wear other than a school uniform, Rei."
"I'm sure that I can find something," she said.
"I'll ask Misato to take you out and find a dress, sis," Shinji offered, and received another nod from his sister.
"Then it's settled," Tai said, then got a mischievous smile on his face. "So, who's your date, Shinji?"
"Asuka," Shinji muttered, not proud of that because of her actions a few minutes ago.
Tai lost his smile and put on a mockingly serious expression. "I'll bring the first aid kit."
The three of them laughed at his comment together and continued on toward the apartment.
"What is it, Rei?" Misato asked, stepping into the teen's room since she had asked to speak with her in private. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, I need a favour," Rei asked, nervously. "I need you to take me shopping to find a suitable dress for the prom this Friday."
Misato put a smile on her face. "Consider it done," she said. "Tomorrow, after school, we'll go to the mall and find one for you! Okay?"
"Thank you, Misato," Rei said, smiling. "I hope we're walking."
Misato pouted. "So, you hate my driving too? Well, I guess we could walk. Good night!"
After she left the room, Rei got into bed and drew the blankets over her. She would stay here tonight since she knew that Tai was okay, but she didn't know where he was. He had left earlier and Misato told him not to worry about what time he got back. Since they were all in their senior year of High School, they didn't have a set time to be home by. Yet, she also warned him that he would still have to go to school and not to complain if he didn't get much sleep.
She wondered where he could be at this hour though. It was almost midnight and she hadn't heard the door open at all. There was a hint of worry that was creeping up in the pit of her stomach, and then she heard him walk in. The footsteps were too faint to make out if there was something wrong or not, but her door opened a second later to reveal him in the doorway.
He looked extremely tired, but he didn't seem to notice that she was awake. There was something funny about his appearance though because he seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform, but it wasn't the one that he was wearing to school. This one looked out of place and had red stripes on the collar, sleeves, shoulders, and on the hem of the bottom of his shirt. On the collar there was something glistening in the light from the hallway, almost like there were three gold stars inside a gold rectangle.
After a few moments, that seemed like hours even though she knew that it was only moments, he closed the door behind him and left for his own room. She decided that she would have to ask him about this soon, but finding the moment and the time would be difficult. As she lay there in her bed she wondered what the emotions that she was experiencing signified. It was strange to her. When she was half angel she would be almost completely emotionless on the outside. The only two people who seemed to get her to show even the slightest hints of emotions were the commander and Shinji.
She remembered the day that Unit 00 went berserk and Commander Ikari pulled her out of her entry plug. He had burned his hands badly when he grabbed a hold of the emergency release levers and wrenched them open. On her first mission out with Shinji, she had been working back up and had to take a hit to protect him long enough for his energy rifle to recharge. After destroying the angel he had ripped the hatch off that covered her entry plug and got her out much the same way as the commander, burning his hands as well.
Those two people were the only ones to see any form of emotion from her, but now there was Tai as well. Only, he made her feel different. The commander was a cold-hearted person who only saw them all as a tool to be used to pilot the Evas, and Shinji was just a very good friend to her. Tai, though, had a different emotional effect on her.
Asuka would laugh at her now if she saw her like this, but she didn't care. There was something going on with her thoughts and emotions and she would have to figure it out soon.
Hoping that Misato would be able to give her some advice, she rolled over in her bed to face the window and fell asleep watching the moon.
After checking on Rei, Tai had gone back to his room where he prepared for the next day of school. There were many things to do that he had not done yet, and homework was one of them.
"Man," he complained as he sat down, after changing out of his Starfleet uniform and into some warm bedclothes. "I came here, hoping to get less homework, but, instead, I get more!" He turned his laptop on and linked it up with the Internet through his own remote technology. "At least things feel almost like home here."
For the next half hour he went over his work for the next day and finished what he hadn't completed. Tomorrow he would be taking a free day, since he had gotten all the work done now, unless there was something else that the teacher assigned him.
Lying down on the futon, he drifted off into a restless sleep, filled with past memories haunting him. The ghosts of the past just wouldn't leave him alone.
The phone ringing woke Misato out of her deep sleep, and she rolled over out of bed before she heard the sirens. First thoughts of letting the phone ring left her mind and she sprang from her bed to answer it.
Tai was out in the kitchen in jeans and a sweatshirt answering the phone when she got out there. He was probably talking to someone from Nerv, and she checked
on the other three children to find them in various stages of preparation. "Come on!" she yelled. "I'll drive!"
"I'll drive," Tai said, taking the keys from her. "You can drive well, don't get me wrong, but I can get us there faster and alive."
To say that Misato was hurt by that statement was an understatement, but when they all were in the car and on the way to headquarters she saw that he was right. There wasn't a moment that his foot left the pedal, and when they pulled into the parking lot she asked him if he had a drivers license. He tossed her his wallet as he jumped out and followed the others toward the changing rooms to get their plug suits on. Sure enough, an American drivers license, class-5, was inside with his photo ID. She then tossed it in the dash and ran for Central Dogma.
Tai was changed into his plug suit in about two minutes, and ran with the others toward the Eva cages. There wasn't any time to loose because they knew just how much damage an angel could do if they were given enough time to do so.
He climbed into his entry plug and sealed the hatch behind him with a heavy slam resonating throughout the cage. Placing the neural interface clips in his hair just above his forehead he could feel the plug being screwed into the Eva's back. It wasn't long before the Nerv connections were made and he could now see the cages and the other Evas.
"Eva Unit 04, activated," he said, knowing Misato and the others would be hearing him. "Standing by for orders."
He heard the rest of the Eva pilots sound off, and then Misato came over the comm. channel. "The angel is outside the city, coming out of the water," she told them. "Units 01 and 02 are to intercept while Units 00 and 04 are on backup." There was a chorus of responses and then she gave the order, "Launch all Evas!"
Tai was yanked back into his seat as he took hold of the control yokes in his hands. The triggers that were in the back of the grips were positioned just below his fingers now and he felt good, considering this was his first combat mission. He had done a lot of simulations and had been scoring good points in them, but, in the end, they were just simulations. This was the real thing.
Before he knew it, he was out of the tunnels and in the middle of a street standing beside Unit 00. When the final locks released, he got a better grip on the control yokes and then willed his Eva to sprint forward toward the water. There was only a minor hesitation, and then Unit 00 joined him.
Units 01 and 02 were already in the middle of the battle when they got there, and they didn't look as though they could handle it on their own. Unit 02 had taken massive damage to one of its legs and wasn't walking properly, and Unit 01 was pinned to the ground by something that looked like a tentacle.
"Rei," Tai said, after opening a com. channel to her Eva. "Go help Asuka, I'll help Shinji."
"Understood," came the cold response, and then Unit 00 burst forward with a speed that he didn't think that the blue Eva was capable of.
With the S2 engine running, he didn't have to worry about running out of power, but Units 00 and 02 still had to worry about the cable. Without a second thought, his Eva's arms crossed in front of itself and reached to the opposite storage bays on the shoulders. From them, twin energy swords were removed and came to life before he charged at the angel.
Unfortunately, the attack had not gone unnoticed and he soon had one of the tentacles holding him down to the ground as well. He sliced at them, but they seemed to regenerate almost immediately to continue holding him.
"Shinji, what's your situation?" he asked, opening the frequency.
"I can't get out of it's grip," he said, but he seemed to be struggling to talk. "I'm not going to be able to get out of here without assistance."
"We're firing everything we can at it!" came Asuka's hysterical yell. "Nothing's working!"
"Asuka, Rei, fall back," Misato ordered. "Your power cables have been severed."
"I've still got three minutes," Asuka scoffed. "I'm saving Shinji."
Before anything else could be said, a tentacle lashed out at Asuka. Just as it was about to impale Unit 02, Unit 01 yanked it back, violently, and now Shinji was struggling to hold his ground.
Tai saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. Dropping one of his energy swords, it died, and he removed a Progressive Knife from the storage bay. With it in hand, he stabbed into the angel's side to distract it, and when it lashed out at him he sliced off the tentacle holding Shinji. As luck would have it for him, the tentacle did not grow back and it focused its attack on him instead.
"Shinji, move back to a safe location!" Tai yelled. "Take it out with long range weapons while I distract it!"
"Right!" Shinji acknowledged and then got his Eva up off the ground to head for cover and a rifle that was being sent to him.
As Unit 01 retreated, the angel was focusing all its strength on Unit 04, and Tai was getting really angry about it. There were stress cracks forming in the armor plating and it was now or never if they were going to destroy it.
Retrieving his other energy sword, he jumped away from the behemoth and held them with the dull edge toward his Eva's elbows. When the angel made another lunge for him, he countered and then sliced through its entire body in an 'x' formation with the swords.
As if he was running on pure luck that day, both of the swords cut clean through the core and the resulting explosion knocked his Eva into the ground. The battle was over, and he allowed the blackness of unconsciousness take over.
The light invaded his sleep as he opened his eyes and squinted to see a plain ceiling that was unfamiliar to him. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light before lifting his head to look around the room. It was a hospital room and he knew that something must have happened just before he was able to vanquish the angel.
Felling a weight on his stomach, he looked down to see Rei's head resting there. Her blue hair was a mess and she looked as though she had just fallen asleep, so he decided that it would be better if he didn't wake her. She was peaceful when she slept and he didn't want to interrupt that.
"So, you're awake now, eh?" came a voice from the corner of the room. "We thought you'd sleep for days."
"Asuka?" he asked, finding his voice very dry. "How long have I been here?"
"About 17 hours," she said, getting out of her serious tone. "Wondergirl here went to school, reluctantly I might add, and went with Misato to get a dress for the prom. Just as soon as that was done, though, she came here and fell asleep a few minutes ago from exhaustion."
"Where's Shinji?" he asked, taking the water that Asuka offered him.
"He's in the next room, but I just came over to see if you were okay," she said. "Shinji's been awake for a while, but they wanted to wait till you were awake to release you."
"Good idea," he said. "That angel had close contact with us through most of the battle."
"Speaking about that," Asuka said. "Those swords are awesome! I wish my Eva had those."
Tai put his finger to his lips and then spoke quietly. "My Eva has been outfitted with on board weapons, and those are just part of the arsenal." Rei stirred and then picked her head up to see that he was awake. "You okay?" Tai asked. She nodded in response and then layed her head back down. "Let's get out of here Asuka. Tell Shinji that I'm awake and can go just as soon as the doctor sees me."
"Alright, I'll get the doctor before I see Shinji then."
The doctor came into the room a few minutes later and looked him over, checked his vitals, and then said that he would sign the release forms. A few minutes later, Tai was carrying Rei in his arms out to the street, walking alongside Shinji and Asuka.
"Nice going out there, Tai," Shinji said. "No rest for us tomorrow."
"Yeah," Tai said, letting out a sigh. "I guess we have to catch up on what we missed at school."
Asuka put a smile on her face and looked at the two male pilots. "Your printouts are at the apartment, you can work on them when we get there since you have both had a lot more sleep tan Wondergirl or I." Tai let out a groan at the same time Shinji did, and then Asuka grabbed them both by the ear telling them not to complain. It was a struggle to keep a hold of Rei while Asuka was doing this, but somehow he managed to do it.
The rest of the walk home was uneventful, and when they got inside the apartment, Tai put Rei in bed and then joined Shinji in the kitchen to work on the work they had missed. Amazingly, there wasn't much because first and second class had been spent in the shelters, apparently. The other three classes had been in session, but they hadn't gotten much work done because there were discussions on when the next angel would attack.
The laptop played soft music through the night, and at four in the morning Tai had fallen asleep at the console. Shinji had his head down on his book, also asleep, and neither one of them seemed to care.
Shinji's eyes snapped open and he sat up in the chair when he felt two arms wrap around his neck. "W-wh-what are you doing Asuka?" he stuttered.
"Saying good morning, baka," she said, a rare smile on her face. "What's wrong with you?"
"If she tries to kill you, I'll stop her," Tai said, without picking his head up off the table.
Asuka stood now with her arms akimbo. "And how are you supposed to do that? You're still half asleep!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he moved almost impossibly fast and was standing beside her, fully awake. "Oh."
"Good morning, Tai."
Now it was Tai's turn to freeze, revealing that he really wasn't fully awake. He turned his head slightly and saw that it was Rei. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned around and hugged her back. "Good morning to you too," he said.
Now they all sat down at the table, seeing as though it was still early. Tai and Shinji looked at the clock and groaned, realizing that it had only been a half hour since they had fallen asleep. It would be a long day, especially with the dance that evening, and they would be very tired throughout the day.
Tai and Shinji cooked breakfast and when the scent lingered to Misato's room she wandered out to join them. They were almost ready to go when Nerv called.
"Looks like we have a sync test after school everyone," Misato said.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Asuka started her outburst, but Shinji stopped her.
"Misato, the prom is tonight," he said, Asuka sitting down and muttering German curses.
"I know," Misato told them. "I tried, but Commander Ikari and Dr. Akagi need the results."
"What time does the prom begin?" Tai asked.
"Eight tonight," Asuka said. "Why?"
"Because I can get us there from here in about two minutes," he said.
The others sat there, shock written across their faces. "How?"
He smiled. "Misato, can I have the car tonight?"
"I guess," she said, nervously. "I want it back in one piece though."
"Don't worry about that," he said, taking a piece of toast out of the toaster and buttering it. "I'll see you guys at school."
"I'll go with you," Rei said, getting up as he grabbed his coffee.
"Alright," he told her. "You ready?"
The others watched as Tai and Rei left the apartment and blinked. "Was that Rei we just witnessed leave?" Asuka asked. "She seemed as though she had doe eyes."
"Believe it," Misato told her, sternly. "And I don't want to hear about any more doll jokes."
"Shinji!" Asuka shrieked.
"I didn't tell her!" Shinji said, hands in front of him to defend himself if necessary.
"Tai told me," Misato told her. "Now, get going to school before I change my mind about not grounding you for it Asuka."
They left the apartment after grabbing their books, but Asuka was in a bad mood. She didn't like being spoken to like Misato had spoken to her, but Shinji hoped that she would soften up a bit after they got to school.
Well there's another chapter done. I sure hope that I get some more reviews soon. I'm going to post the next few chapters here tonight as well, before I leave it for another few reviews. I'll with-hold the final chapter and the epilogue until I get at least ten reviews though.
At this time, I'd like to take the chance to respond to the only two reviers that have currently taken the time to review my work for me.
Ominae - Thanks for your support. If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear from you about them because I have part two ready to go just as soon as I get part one on-line. I think I mentioned before that this is all written, and I just have to format it to put it online. But, I'm actually currently writing part three now and looking for suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you again soon!
Maniaco - I'm really having a difficult time understanding why you have not read the statement at the bottom of the previous chapter, so I'm going to put it very plainly to you. This story was written for a class assignment originally. It's great that you have an opinion on what kind of story this is, and I respect it and agree with you. However, I enjoyed writing it and I am going to tell you this: If you don't like it, or it offends you, whatever, don't read it! I'm looking for positive feedback and flames that can help me make it better in the future parts. All you are doing is dishing out garbage right now. If you review further, please make it helpful. Thanks m8.