Yin and Yang
"I don't remember getting a watermelon. Oh well, it'll be good for dessert." Shinji carried the melon out of the fridge and started slicing. At that point, Kaji walked into the kitchen from Misato's room. "Huh? Kaji, I knew something was up judging from the melon. What are you doing here?" Kaji was wearing his usual blue shirt all messy and all.
"I decided to make a quick visit to the lovely Misato, is there anything wrong with that?" Kaji said. The boy was puzzled.
"I guess not."
"Hey, you got here pretty fast."
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Misato told me you were in the hospital, that's pretty far away," he explained.
'She didn't tell him about my situation? Best just to go along with it.' "Yeah…"
"Where's Misato?" he asked. "She said she was going somewhere," he said as he sat down by the couch. Shinji was continuing to slice up the melon.
"Oh, she's just going to pick me-I mean Asuka up," he quickly added.
"That's good. How's the watermelon?"
"Ask me when I actually finish slicing it." Shinji brought the knife down cutting the melon.
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"Who is the champion of rock paper scissors?! Me!" Maya rubbed in. Shigeru was getting very irritated.
"Jeez, you don't have to shove it in my face," he complained.
"Ha! In your face!"
"A bit prideful aren't you?" Makoto asked. Shigeru rolled his eyes.
"This is boring. Isn't there any else we can do?" he asked. Makoto rubbed his chin.
"I don't really have any ideas to what we can do, oh wait, I know! I spy with my little eye…" Makoto said. Shigeru grasped his head with both hands.
"Somebody kill me now…"
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Asuka and Shinji had received a call from Misato earlier. They were waiting eagerly by the front of the Nerv headquarters. Asuka was holding onto Shinji's hand, because that way, Shinji won't do 'anything stupid.' Of course, that's just her excuse. After a few minutes of waiting, a car (screech!!!) slid its way to a stop in front of Asuka and Shinji. The door opened to reveal Misato.
"Come on in guys!"
"Good, I was getting tired of babysitting him," Asuka whined.
"Hey!" Shinji blurted.
"Quit your whining and get in the car already," Asuka ordered as she sat in the front seat.
"You don't have to be so mean." Shinji continued to move in the back.
"Too bad." Misato was getting tired.
"Let's quit this bickering and start going already."
"Right," both Asuka and Shinji acknowledged. The car moved out to an extremely slow start. Shinji sat in the back feeling tired. All he wanted to do at the moment was rest at his home. Misato was driving the car really slow though and Shinji wanted to get home as fast as possible.
"Misato?" he let out weakly.
"Yes?" she replied while slowly turning the steering wheel on a turn.
"Why are you driving so slow?"
"So you can be comfortable," she said in an obvious manner.
"Yes but I really want to go home. I don't want to fall asleep in the car because you were driving so slow." Asuka chuckled.
"Misato, you need to learn how to drive. You drive too fast or too slow." Misato's face expressed annoyance.
"Everybody's a critic aren't they?"
"Just hurry up."
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"You look relaxed today," Kaji observed while biting into a piece of melon. Both Shinji and Kaji sat by the round table.
"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Shinji responded.
"Considering that you were beat up yesterday, you look fine for yourself."
"Don't worry, I met the same guy this morning. I showed him not to mess with me again." Shinji let out a small smile.
"You seem kind of different, more…I don't know, happy?" Shinji was kind of becoming a puzzle to him; he seemed too jovial for his usual self.
"It's a beautiful time to live in Kaji. I'm just going with the times," he simply stated.
"Going with the times?"
"You know, playing around, having some fun."
"No, I don't know."
"Well I have you know, I'm much of a ladies man," he explained in a superior tone.
"Ladies man? What makes you say that?" Kaji smirked at the way Shinji talked.
"Because it's true," he remarked casually.
"True? Those are some pretty big claims you're making." Kaji started on another slice of melon. Shinji had an idea, an idea to get close to Rei anyways and earn some cash in the process.
"Big claims? I'll prove it to you. How about we make a wager?"
"A wager huh? What do you suggest we wager on?" Shinji was becoming surprising, of all the things he could've said, he didn't expect Shinji to make a bet.
"By the end of this week, Rei will be my girlfriend." Kaji was taken back but then resumed his relaxed continuance.
"Her? Interesting choice, it would make more sense if you picked Asuka but whatever you say. How much then?"
"How about…a thousand dollars?"
"Thousand dollars? Isn't that a bit much?" He was a bit short on cash.
"An eva pilot's salary is pretty good, I don't use money that much anyway." When have you seen Shinji spend money at all? Not much at all really.
"This bet is…interesting to say the least, you're on." Shinji gave a sly smile.
"Let's shake on it." Shinji stretched out his hand. Kaji considered for a moment and reached out to shake his hand."
"Now it's a official." Shinji moved over to the couch to rest.
"Good, now I have an excuse."
"Excuse for what?"
"Nothing."
"Hmmm. Well, it looks like its time for me to leave." He got up from his seat. "Nice talking to you Shinji," he said as he walked towards the door. He put his hand on the knob but it didn't turn. He raised an eyebrow, then the door opened on it's own. He saw Misato and Asuka. "Oh hey!" He also spotted somebody else it was…Shinji? "Shinji?"
"Yes?" both voices called out from both in front and behind him. He turned and saw Shinji resting the couch and turned back to see Shinji standing in front of him. He rubbed his eyes chalking it up to just an illusion. He reopened his eyes and the two Shinjis were still there.
"What the hell?"
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Shigeru rested his head on the control console to take a short nap instead of listening to Makoto drone on about things he spied on.
"Makoto, stop. This isn't getting anywhere and you suck!" Maya scolded. Makoto took great offense in that.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" he snidely replied. Maya felt her pocket for an object.
"Here you go!" She pulled out a pack of playing cards. "Cards!" This piqued Shigeru's interest.
"Finally, something fun to play," he let out. Maya started to shuffle the cards.
"What are we going to play?" Makoto asked.
"I have an idea in mind," Maya mischievously said.
"What do you got?" Shigeru inquired.
"Strip poker."
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"What kind of bet is that?!" Shinji yelled at the screen.
"Calm down, yelling at the screen won't do anything," Fate ordered. "Aren't you interested to see how it turns out?"
"Yeah but-," Fate cut him off.
"But nothing, relax man. Don't worry, you're not going to lose a thousand bucks."
"Wait, are you saying that I win the bet?" he asked.
"No, I just said that you're not going to lose any money," he tiredly said.
"You're confusing me, how else wouldn't I lose money if I didn't win?" Fate didn't understand the question.
"What?"
"Never mind."
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Misato, Asuka, and sensitive Shinji sat in the living room where they were explaining to Kaji what was going on.
"So now there are two of you?" Kaji said uncertainly. Everybody nodded his or her heads. Cool Shinji was cooking dinner. Outside, it was getting pretty dark. Kaji pointed to sweet Shinji. "He's good and," Kaji pointed to cooking Shinji, "he's bad?" Cooking Shinji set a plate of food on the table.
"That's a pretty basic generalization of the whole situation," he stated. Kaji shrugged his shoulders.
"This is…going to take some getting used to." Misato took a sip of her beer.
"Don't worry, one of the Shinji's start to grow on you after awhile." Kaji chuckled.
"The guys at Nerv still haven't figured out what happened?"
"There's nothing scientific about it, Fate granted a wish," nice Shinji explained.
"Oh yeah? Since when did Fate start granting wishes?" Asuka smirked.
"When the shooting star retired. At least that's what I remember." Kaji, Misato, and Asuka stared at him like he was crazy. "What?" Shinji said as he raised his shoulders.
"Dinner's ready."
"That smells good, let me guess, bad Shinji is a cooking prodigy?" Kaji asked. Misato rubbed her head.
"Yeah…"
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Maya sat on her seat missing most of her uniform. She wore only a t-shirt and no pants. Shigeru and Makoto were giggling like a bunch of buffoons. Maya was flushing.
"Shut up! I'm planning to get my clothes back you know!"
"What were you thinking when you suggested this game? You're horrible at poker!" Makoto criticized. Shigeru broke out in a fit of laughter. All this noise attracted the attention of the doctor.
'What's going on in there?' Ritsuko thought. She walked towards the room and opened the door and saw the scene.
"What is going on here?!" she demanded to know. Shigeru quickly sobered up and looked at the doctor.
"Playing…strip poker?" Ritsuko was silent for a moment. The bridge bunnies were silent expecting the worst from the doctor.
"Can I play?"
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"This is delicious Shinji! I knew you were a better cook than Misato but this is phenomenal!" Misato gave him a dark look while biting into her food. He noticed this.
"What?" Cool Shinji smiled at Kaji's compliment. They continued to eat in silence for a few moments.
"Kaji, where were you for all this time?" Asuka asked. Kaji moved back to rest in his chair.
"I was just on vacation for a while, why? You miss me?" Asuka ate another bite.
"With both these Shinjis running around, the thought didn't occur in my mind. It's been a hectic week." Kaji smiled. He was happy to see that Asuka's unhealthy attachment to him was wearing off a little bit. Asuka let out a small sigh. Kaji turned towards Misato. "I've already used too much time already, I've overdid my stay. I'm afraid I need to go now."
"Already? Can't you stay for a bit longer?" Asuka asked sweetly. Kaji got up from his seat and smiled.
"I have business to attend to," he turned towards cook Shinji, "remember our bet. Be back in a week. Good-bye!"
"Bye," everybody replied flatly as Kaji left through the door. Misato drank down a gulp of her beer. She stretched out her arms.
"I am soo tired, I think I'm going to go sleep now." Misato got up from her seat and began walking towards her room. Asuka got up too.
"Well I'm going to take a bath! Remember, no-,"
"-peeking, yes, we already know," both Shinjis said in unison. Asuka let out a prideful grin.
"Good!" She sauntered into the bathroom leaving Shinji with Shinji. Cooking Shinji began to take the dishes to clean them.
"I'm sorry," cool Shinji apologized. Nice Shinji went over to rest on the couch.
"Say what?"
"I'm sorry." Nice Shinji was puzzled.
"For what?" Cool Shinji furiously started scrubbing the dishes.
"It was my fault that you got beat up."
"Oh," nice Shinji realized. "How?"
"Well, remember when we first separated?"
"Yeah."
"You went with Misato over to Nerv while I went shopping with Asuka."
"I forgot to ask you, how was it?"
"Bad, Asuka was being a bitch as usual." Nice Shinji cringed as his counterpart called Asuka a 'bitch.'
"That's not a very nice thing to say about other people," he complained.
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I met up with this girl named Hitomi."
"Hitomi, from class?"
"Yeah, the same one." Shinji started to scrub on another plate.
"What happened?"
"We were making out," he flatly stated.
"Oh," nice Shinji let out.
"So Asuka found out and she slapped me." Nice Shinji was started to get confused.
"What does this have to do with me being beat up?"
"Her boyfriend, Ryo, got ticked off. It seems I kind of changed her mind about her boyfriend. The rest is history." Nice Shinji didn't want his bad side to feel…bad.
"It's not your fault, that's just the way you are, right?"
"No, it is my fault, and I'm sorry." He finished cleaning up the dishes and dried his hands.
Back in the bathroom…
Asuka lay in the tub of water thinking. It was silent in the room and if you had strained your ears hard enough, you could hear the conversation between the two Shinjis. That was exactly what Asuka did and she heard the whole story.
'Hitomi! That bitch! When I find her…'