Well…Here's the next chapter, I'm at least getting some reviews, input is always great, hope you're enjoying it so far…It's going to get crazier and hopefully better as the chapters go by.
Well, let's start the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or its characters. Gainax does, and they rock. Who else could create both Evangelion and FLCL! I also don't own anything that happens to be referenced in this story.
Tokyo 3, Japan
Shinji's Apartment
"You'll be alright, right Shinji?"
Those were here last words before she'd left to go to work, a part-time consultant for some sort of security firm, Shinji hadn't ever really asked.
He sniffled back his cold and sighed, his sigh turning into more of a cough.
The apartment seemed rather in shambles today for some reason, the cleaning lady hadn't shown up lately.
Their apartment was a member of a large complex of apartments in this great, gray, familiar Tokyo 3 apartment building. There were a few apartments on each floor, and they were all quite cheap and well-furbished, the only minor problem being that there was only one bathroom per floor, which they had to share. They did have showers and bathtubs in their own rooms though, so it wasn't too much of a problem.
He sighed, leaning against his comfortable chair and staring out the window.
From this window, they had a view of most of the building, a few other apartments, and their shared bathroom. Presently there was the silhouette of a man with a baseball cap, standing in the bathroom.
He sighed, still fighting the last remnants of a cold, with absolutely nothing to do but sit by the window and absorb the "fresh air" as Rei had prescribed.
Shinji stood slowly, peering around the room, feeling like he should do some cleaning while he was cooped up in here.
He started dusting the table and looking around, suddenly remembering his days of being a "housebroken male" as Asuka Langley Sohryu would put it, back in Misato's apartment during the Angel Wars.
Quickly scurrying about, he began his mission to make this pigsty at least acceptable by the time Rei had returned in the early evening.
Dusting, moving his furniture, cleaning the dishes, and finally, moving the other furniture.
The "other" furniture was the only piece of furniture that had come with the apartment when they had moved in, a large antiquated old brown drawer that Rei thought was "interesting" enough to keep, for some reason.
Shinji pushed into it, moving it quite effortlessly, to clean up whatever horrors were behind it, most likely spiders and dust.
Coughing against a rising cloud of dust, he peered down at the space he had cleared, and was shocked to find a slim cigar box, old and decayed, sitting where the drawer had met the wall.
"What the heck?"
He reached down for it, and then stopped in mid-grasp unsure of what to do, tentative until pure curiosity overwhelmed him and he grabbed the cigar box, careful not to break the decayed wood, and placed it on his dining table.
Shinji slowly opened it, expecting nothing, or maybe some gold dubloons if he was lucky.
Inside were a pair of small binoculars and an old toothbrush.
He threw the toothbrush away in disgust and then held the binoculars up. They seemed to be oddly clean and he wondered if they worked, holding them up to his eyes and staring out the window with them.
The apartment building seemed inactive in the warm afternoon, laundry lines, empty balconies…And the bathroom window.
Shinji's eyes widened as he stared at it. The silhouette of a man stood there, dead still, not moving, and Shinji was quite sure it was the same man he had viewed standing there doing nothing, hours ago.
"What the hell?"
Tokyo 3, Japan
Hikari Suzuhara's Apartment
The apartment bounced with loud dance music, people in the center of the room dancing and gyrating in the odd strobe lights. It was, of course, in a completely different apartment building than Shinji and Rei's, as their neighbors would obviously not tolerate the noise, in the western sector of Tokyo 3.
To the corner, away from the dancing, was a familiar group.
Shinji Ikari stood, looking rather uncomfortable, thoughts of possibly meeting a certain red-head here haunting him, with a silent Rei latched onto his arm and slightly drunk Kensuke and Touji, who were firing drunken jokes at him.
"So…Shinji you hear about…the one with the drunken stripper and…"
A hand grabbed Touji's ear, and he let out an awkward yelp as Hikari showed up behind him, sending him an angry side glare and then smiling warmly at Shinji.
She had matured into an attractive woman, although the freckles and warm smile were still there.
"So, how are you doing in that new apartment with Rei, Shinji?"
Touji smiled, the wineglass in his hand shaking.
"Yea….Shinji…you gotten used to your neighbors yet?"
Shinji smiled, warily.
"Getting used to them…I have no problem, you know…They have to get used to use too."
Touji chuckled slowly.
"They keep buggin' ya, Kensuke and I know a few ways…of dealing with them, eh Kensuke?"
Kensuke smiled.
"Sure, we know some great tricks."
"Like we could come around in the middle of the night and yell up at you guys from the courtyard, you see what I mean?"
Touji chuckled, actually shouting now, raising his wineglass, which sloshed precariously.
"Hey Ikari! Come out for a drink, eh! Come on now, get movin'!"
Kensuke giggled oddly, stumbling around before continuing.
"Or we can knock on the floor below, after midnight of course."
Touji smiled, mischievously as he teetered.'
"That's right, we can show up, knocking on the door real loud and shout, 'On your feet, shitface! We're out to the park for a blowj-'"
Touji let out a yelp, not finishing his shouting as Hikari indiscreetly kicked him in the shin.
Shinji actually chuckled then, more at Hikari's scolding than the joke, although Touji seemed to think he'd enjoyed the shouting, joining in the chuckling with him until Shinji stopped, his face casually serious all of a sudden.
"You know…There is something odd going on in our apartment building."
Shinji could all of a sudden sense Rei's calm eyes on the side of his head.
"I quite often see people in the toilets…on the other side of the courtyard."
Kensuke giggled.
"What, are you a peeping Tom now, Shinji?"
Touji joined in, chuckling and then promptly received a kick in the leg from a certain former Class Representative.
"You mean people together in the shithouse? Like an orgy? Ow!"
"No…No…They just stand there for hours, you know? Absolutely dead still."
Touji giggled.
"They're obviously playing with…with themselves, Shinji."
"Not at all…"
Kensuke chuckled, his bespectacled eyes twinkling, apparently in agreement with Shinji.
"He just told you Touji, they stand dead still. Can you play with yourself without moving?"
Hikari scowled and Rei simply remained silent, although there was a look of concern in her crimson eyes as Shinji mumbled to himself.
"I could've sworn…"
Touji teetered, leaning against his one artificial leg, trying to reply, his glass sloshing around a bit in his drunken stupor.
The wine sloshes around as Touji moves, almost flying out, and Shinji seems fixated on it.
Rei seems to wish Hikari a stiff goodbye and leads Shinji away, who seems quite disorientated.
He quickly let go of Rei's hand, hearing an odd noise, which seemed to be coming from a covered birdcage in the corner.
Ignoring Rei's voice, which was drowned out by the music, Shinji stumbled towards the birdcage, quickly pulling off the cloth cover.
The bird flaps it's wings inside rapidly and furiously, banging it's head on the bars as if it's trying to escape and then lets out a loud and almost insolent squawk, startling Shinji.
Shinji stumbled away, peering at the dining room and noticing a vaguely familiar girl staring at someone's bared palm. He remembered she'd been in his classroom, one of Hikari's good friends other than Asuka…Miyu something.
She seemed to notice and recognize Shinji and raised her hand, waving and motioning for him to come over.
She smiles as Shinji silently comes over and shouts at him over the music, which seemed to be growing louder.
"Hey! Shinji! Let me read your palm, c'mon!"
Shinji sighs and shrugs his shoulders as Hikari calls out from the dance floor with Touji.
"Go on Shinji! She reads them like a book."
Shinji stumbles away, shaking his head.
"No thanks."
Miyu seemed to pout.
"Awww, come on it's fun."
Shinji sighed again, assenting, feeling quite lethargic for some reason all of a sudden as Miyu grabs his left hand palm up and begins peering at it.
She squeezes the mounds of it and runs her hands across the different lines and smiling playfully.
Shinji yawns and peers around the room while she looks at his palm, locking eyes with Rei from across the room, sending a chill up his spine. Her eyes seemed concerned and maybe…
Jealous? Nah…
Shinji turns back to Miyu, noticing her expression seems suddenly rather serious and that she's comparing both of his palms now.
"You've got…an unusual hand, Shinji."
"I could've told you that…"
She smiled slightly and began pointing out different lines on Shinji's palm.
"You see this line here? It's your life line. Here's where you were born. And this is where you got married. You're a married man, huh? Oh oh. Nope. Divorce. See this split?"
She begins to examine the line she had indicated as his life line, concern back on her face.
Shinji peered once more at Rei, noticing that she seems to be motioning for him to come, quickly. He's quite groggy though and presently decides to ignore her, looking back at Miyu.
"You know…you've got a strange line here…"
Jacob looked down on it, smiling wryly.
"It's short, huh?"
"Short…No, Shinji, it's ended."
Shinji laughed lightheartedly.
"Oh great."
Miyu's face seemed grave however.
"It's not funny Shinji…according to this, you're-"
Suddenly a pale hand grabbed firmly around his wrist, interrupting Miyu and pulling Shinji and his odd palms away.
Shinji smiled down at Rei as she led him to the dance floor.
Rei Ayanami, although she might not seem like the dancing type, was quite adept at most forms of dance and found it quite enjoyable to dance in a social atmosphere…As long as Shinji accompanied her, of course.
There were hoots and whistles as Shinji entered the dance floor, voice shouting, challenging.
"Come on man, show your stuff!"
Shinji seems easily intimidated like the days of his piloting, relenting and peering at Rei while nodding apologetically back at Miyu, who nodded back, an uncomfortable smile inexplicably plastered on her face.
"Come on man, you can dance too!"
Shinji seems silent, looking down, obviously embarrassed about some sort of inadequacy in the area of dancing. This was nothing like the synchronized dancing he'd had with Asuka.
Rei speaks, her voice hard to hear over the music, as if reading his mind.
"Except this dance is much easier, no training Shinji, just allow your body to move with the rhythm of the music."
Shinji smiled warmly at her and nodded, but turned away uncomfortably afterwards, allowing Rei to drift off into the dance floor by herself.
He sighed, peering out into Hikari's apartment.
In the shadows, a woman seemed to be kneeling onto the carpet and urinating, but Shinji's disgusted view is cut off by a group of dancers and he turns away, his face twisted in dismay.
A pregnant woman stands half naked in the kitchen and Shinji shudders, turning his gaze. Nothing is more disturbingly obscene than seeing a pregnant woman when you're mildly drunk.
In the next room, past Rei, Shinji can see the vague silhouette of a man, a man whose head seems to be vibrating at such enormous speed that it has lost all definition.
Something about the image compelled and frightened Shinji.
Slowly he approached the man, his fists clenching and unclenching.
As he drew nearer to the tortured image it let out a scream of such pain and unearthly terror that Shinji stumbled backwards, distraught, surprised that no one had heard the noise over the music.
Shinji leans backwards against a wall, shaking his head and holding his forehead, which seemed oddly warm.
Touji must've slipped something in my drink…yeah…that's it…a prank gone wrong…
Shinji sighed uncontrollably as he stood straight, the music seeming to grow unbearably loud.
Hikari seemed to notice him and smiled weakly.
"Are you alright Shinji?"
He flashed her an uneasy smile.
"Fine…Just fine…"
Weird cutoff point for the chapter? Short? Well, I wanted to do that on purpose, you'll see much more next chapter, Hikari's Dance Party isn't done yet! Wooo! Rock on!
See you next time.