No: 6 - Training

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or any of the characters they are the property of their respective creators. Please be aware that no profit is being made from this work of fan fiction.

Shinji lay deep within a troubled sleep; his hands silently grasped the bed sheets, fingers curling into fists. His head swept from side to side as rivulets of sweat made their way down his face.

Come to me…

The voice echoed inside the darkness of his dream world, it's disembodied voice coming from both everywhere and nowhere at once. He tried to run from it, to escape the nightmarish prison in which he was held, yet no matter how far he ran, the darkness would always surround him, holding him in this endless limbo.

Shinji…come to me…

Images flared into life for an instant, bombarding him with sights and sounds. Somehow, the scenes that flashed before him seemed familiar yet he had never experienced such things in his life. As the voice sailed out to him, once more he called out, no longer able to contain his feelings.

"What do you want from me! Who are you!"

The voice laughed softly, for an instant he felt as if a ghostly hand brushed across his cheek.

Only you my Shinji…only you…

Gripped by a terrible blend of rage and fear he lashed out at the darkness, trying to push the phantom presence away from him.

"NO!"

His eyes snapped open as his mind fled from his dream and back into the waking world. He was shaking slightly; sweat continuing to run down his face stinging his eyes. He blinked, trying to clear it away, slowly reaching a hand to wipe his brow…as he tried to move the appendage he was met with unexpected resistance. He turned his head to the side to try and see what was wrong and was rewarded with a face full of hair…

"…Asuka…"

He spoke her name softly for fear that he might wake her. Turning his head back to stare at the ceiling, he began to reflect on the events that had led him here…

Up until a few months ago he had been living with his teacher until his father had sent for him, since then he had been made pilot of a giant machine to fight against strange beings, seemingly intent on destroying the world. If that had not been enough, in the past few days, a new pilot had arrived and immediately latched onto him as if he were her long lost lover. Ever since then, his life had grown increasingly strange, flashbacks assaulting him during the day and now, they were invading his dreams. He could not begin to understand what was happening to him, nor why they should be happening to him of all people…unsettled and uncertain he pushed his thoughts aside as he turned his thoughts to the German girl beside him, awaiting her awakening so he could visit the bathroom…

Asuka remained in the tight grip of a dreamless sleep; the fear that had so easily overcome her during Shinji's episode had finally evaporated the moment he had laid down beside her. Craving more of the warmth he radiated, she had pulled herself closer, arms and legs entangling with his, holding him in a lovers embrace. In the nights that had followed Third Impact, she had longed for this…even if she had been too foolish to realise it at the time. Even now a part of her could not help but wonder, how long would it be before they were torn apart again…

Beneath her, Shinji shifted slightly. His full bladder was quickly becoming painful and he desperately wished Asuka to move off him so he could visit the bathroom. Asuka's sleeping mind registered the shift in his position, recognising the fact her partner was awake prodded her towards wakefulness.

"…Uh…Shinji…"

He stiffened slightly at the sound of her voice. The tone was dark and sultry, the words uttered breathlessly. He felt anxiety rise within him as memories of the previous night returned to him. As the muscles across his chest began to tighten, Asuka found her position against it increasingly uncomfortable and after a few moments groggily raised her head to stare at him with bleary eyes.

"Shinji? What's wrong?"

Upon hearing her voice and realising she was now awake, he lowered his gaze to meet hers. Unfortunately due to the angle he was at when he looked down, he was given a clear view down the t-shirt she had worn to bed, rapidly discovering she had not worn a bra underneath…Trying to fight down a blush, he sought to clear his head and answer before she began to suspect something was amiss.

"N-nothing. J-just a little uncomfortable, that's all."

Asuka was fully aware of the show she was giving him, and minded not in the least. After all, hadn't she shown him far more the night preceding? It was then that she registered something else, the slight pressure on her inner right thigh. A grin crept across her face as the implications of this latest development flicked through her mind. For an instant, she considered taking it further and putting his present state to some use…that idea left as quickly as it came. She had no desire to trigger a repeat of the previous night's events. Noticing he had spaced out slightly, she decided to have some fun.

"Shinji-kun! Oh, Shinji-kun!"

His reaction was immediate, his hands clawing at the bedclothes as he tried to back away, all the while his eyes never straying from hers. After a few moments, finding he wasn't going anywhere soon, he admitted defeat and simply lays there, accepting his fate.

Gently, Asuka unwrapped her arms from around him and used them to push herself up his body until they were face to face. She could feel his breath tickling her face, the sensation triggering a memory of a kiss long ago…

She had just gotten home from a blind date, after much nagging, Hikari had convinced her to go out with the guy. The boy had been an absolute bore and she had left him waiting in line. On returning to the apartment she found only Shinji was home, Misato was still out. At the time she had been angry, she was sure that the purple haired major was out with Kaji and could not help but feel twinges of jealousy. She began to think about the things the adults would have been likely to do and slowly the though of them kissing entered her head.

She was stunned when an image of her and Shinji kissing flicked through her mind.

What the! I don't like the baka that way!

Forcing down her initial shock and rage she began to analyse the thought more carefully.

Hmmm…I think it's because I spend so much time in his company…I better get this out of my system now before it becomes something else. Now how to approach him…ah!

"Hey Shinji, you wanna kiss me?"

Shinji immediately sat up spluttering slightly.

"Huh? What?"

She found herself unable to stop, a little bit of malice entering her voice as she asked.

"Kissing, you know. Have you ever done it?"

For a moment, Shinji's face looked blank before reddening slightly.

"Uh-huh."

She felt her anger rise at his reply. How dare an idiot like him have already been kissed when she…

"So let's do it!"

She forced down the emotions swirling inside her turning her attention back to her goal. She advanced upon him slowly only to have him back away.

"Uh!…Ugh!…But why?"

She felt her temper flare at his reply, if she hadn't known better she would have though she heard undertones of disgust.

"Because I've got nothing else to do."

She watched as the first flickers of rage licked at the corners of his eyes yet as soon as it came was sucked back into the void of his depression once more.

"Um…that's your reason…you're weird."

"Afraid to kiss a girl on the anniversary of your mom's death? Is she watching over you from up in heaven?"

Now the flames returned only this time they were far brighter and did not die.

"That's not it."

Pleased to have finally gotten a reaction out of him she pushed further, seeing if he would show her just a little more spine.

"Or are you scared?"

Now the flames raged there as his temper broke. For an instant, fear constricted her heart as she caught a glimpse of the rage that lay beneath. Despite her behaviour, he was still stronger than her and she knew in that instant there would be no one to save her…

"I'm not afraid! Pucker up!"

Shinji was standing now, his gaze firmly locked on her own. The fear dissipated and she felt her anger return.

'How dare he! How dare he make the great Asuka Langley Sohryu afraid!'

"Right…do you brush your teeth?"

"Yeah!"

"Then here I come!"

She advanced on him purposefully, determined to prove to herself she was not afraid. Their faces came together but before their lips could meet, she felt his breath tickling her face.

"Stop breathing, it's tickling me."

Shinji's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"Uh…ooh…wha?"

He was cut off mid sentence as Asuka gripped his nose and sealed his lips with her own…

The feeling was like nothing Asuka had ever imagined the soft flavour of his lips as she continued to kiss him. Small sounds of pleasure escape her throat as she sucked on his mouth drawing even greater pleasure. She hardly even noticed the fact that Shinji was not responding and instead, stood there almost rooted to the spot with his hands clenched at his sides. As the kiss continued Shinji slowly began to turn red as the blood rushed to the surface in order to try to account for the lack of oxygen in his lungs. Pen-pen waddled past the pair, looked up at the two before doing the penguin equivalent of a shrug and entering his freezer. By now, Shinji was turning blue from lack of air, finally unable to hold any longer he pulled away from Asuka and gasper for air leaving her standing there for a moment wondering what had happened…

He pulled away from me!

Was the one coherent though that entered her mind before her pride once more intervened, trying to save face after what just took place.

"Yeeeeagh!"

Asuka ran into the bathroom both to escape Shinji and to hide the tears of humiliation that threatened to flow. She drew a glass of water and began to gargle.

"Huh?"

She caught sound of confusion from the bathroom and a small smile began to creep onto her face at the thought.

"I should never kiss to kill time! Aggghhh! Uhhh!"

She then made further gargling noises, making sure that the point hit home. Had she thought for a moment longer she would have realised that he was running out of air and that may well have curbed her temper. As it was she had vowed never to get so close to him again, not after he had ruined her first kiss…

Returning to the present, she closed the distance between them and gently pressed her lip onto his…as quickly as she had done so she moved away, once more moving to meet his gaze. Now the fear had been replaced with confusion and a question unspoken.

Why?

"For staying."

Without another word, she moved herself off him and climbed from the bed heading over to the bathroom and disappearing inside. For a moment, Shinji simply lay there, stunned until once more reality asserted itself…

Dammit! Now I really need to pee!

Meanwhile, a rather grumpy Captain Misato Katsuragi was heading towards the room where the two teens were presently housed. She had fallen asleep at the monitor last night, only to wake up that morning and find all the security tapes were blank. She assumed that she must have forgotten to switch them on, after all she had gotten drunk that night, so pleased was she with her (and Kaji's) plan. Immediately she had begun to worry about her charges, or more specifically, what they had gotten up to…

Of course, that was not the only reason for her presently less that brilliant mood. Her former lover, Ryoji Kaji currently was walking along side her, trying to engage her in a conversation. Ever since he had shown up, she had not been able to rid herself of him, Asuka's comment on Over the Rainbow not helping at all. He had arrived in the small monitoring room just after she had woken up and made her discovery, two steaming cups of coffee held in his hands. She had accepted it grudgingly, both happy and unhappy with his intrusion. When she had left, he offered to accompany her and despite herself, she had accepted, hence why he was walking along side her now.

By now Kaji was getting extremely worried, his attempts to delay Misato all met with failure. Event his attempts to initiate a conversation were shot down, it seemed Misato would not be turned from her goal.

The night before he had entered the monitoring room to find Misato asleep against the controls. Chuckling softly, he had turned to leave until something on the monitor caught his eye…a completely naked Asuka stood before a shocked looking Shinji. He had watched, mesmerised as the naked girl advanced on the boy, watching the fear brimming in the boy's eyes. What happened next had him in shock, he had been chilled by the way Shinji's eyes had gone glazed. When Asuka had fled in tears he found himself once more able to move and idly wondered whether he should check on Shinji. He waited a moment more and was relieved to see the boy get up, seemingly ok.

Time passed and the two retreated to their beds. Shinji had crawled into his bed shortly after he had pulled himself from the floor, because of the angle Kaji could not tell if he was asleep or awake…Asuka meanwhile had exited the bathroom, clothed this time, and made her way to the other bed. Within moments of her breathing evening out, signifying she was no longer awake she had begun to twist about crying out in her sleep.

"…Mama!…Don't leave me Mama!…"

The same nightmares that had haunted her ever since he had known her. When he had first met her, she was no more that ten years old, he had been shocked to find such an adult façade on a child of her age. During the first days, he had found out about her nightmares, about her mother. He had comforted her then, perhaps that was where her crush on him had begun, as it seemed he had been the first man to treat her in such a way. He was glad that she seemed to have latched onto Shinji now, flattering as it was, having a girl less than half your age in love with you was trouble.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Shinji got up from his bed and moved over to the sleeping Asuka. He had watched as the boy gently shook her awake and then had ended up lying beside her, offering her comfort despite her earlier actions towards him. Once more he marvelled at the inner strength of the boy; the fact that despite the terrible fear he had shown before, despite the strange darkness that had gripped him, he still would comfort her. Smiling softly at the now sleeping pair he reached over to the controls and selected erase, it wouldn't do for people to see what had happened there, he knew there would be too many questions. Gently he flicked the controls off, disabling the monitor. Taking one last look at the sleeping Misato, he turned his attention back to the now silent screen one more time.

"Please take care of her Shinji."

With that, he exited the room silently, a small smile still on his face.

Shinji groaned slightly, he was still rather tired, even now. The softness of the bed was constantly beckoning him back towards the land of dreams yet his full bladder kept him awake. He only hoped that Asuka wouldn't be in the bathroom for much longer he was shocked when the door suddenly slid open and Misato stepped inside followed by Kaji. He watched as she glanced round the room, most likely looking for his read headed roommate. Finally, she turned to face him for the first time and he was at once struck by how tired she looked, dark circles hung beneath her eyes while her face seemed overly pale.

"Where's Asuka?"

As if on cue the red head in question chose that moment to emerge from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her still wet hair. At first, she did not notice the presence of the two adults and quietly walked over next to were Shinji lay before placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"Ehem."

Asuka turned around, finally noticing Misato and Kaji. She locked gazes with Misato, daring the older woman to comment on what she had just seen. Shinji took this opportunity to slide off the bed and make a dash for the bathroom before anyone could stop him. Once inside he quickly locked the door, happy to be safe from Misato's wrath…for now.

"Asuka, you and I have to have a serious talk. Please accompany me to the training room, now."

"But what about Shinji?"

Misato indicated to where Kaji sat reclining.

"I'm sure Mr Ryoji can bring him along. No more excuses. Come. Now."

Asuka simply sighed in defeat. Misato may have won this round but the next one would be hers…reluctantly she followed the purple haired captain from the room and down the corridor.

As soon as he was sure, they were out of earshot, Kaji was up from his seated position, moved over to the bathroom, and knocked on the door.

"Shinji?"

There was a moment's silence before the boy replied.

"Uh, Mr Kaji?"

"Shinji…I need to talk to you for a moment."

"Ok."

He emerged from the bathroom, obviously relieved but somewhat apprehensive as he wondered what the older male wanted to speak with him about. Kaji paused for a moment wonder how to phrase it, sighing heavily, he decided to come out and say it.

"Shinji, I saw what happened between you and Asuka last night."

At once Shinji's eyes widened as the impact of those words hit home.

"I…I…"

He struggled to speak, desperately searching for some way of explaining. Kaji could not help but smile at the boy's antics; quickly he moved to reassure Shinji, not wanting to worry him any more than he had too.

"Don't worry about it, I'm not going to tell anyone. Don't tell Misato but I erased the tapes as well so no-one should find out about your little 'episode'."

Shinji sighed in relief thanking Kaji profusely who simply waved it off claiming it was, "No problem."

Without further comment, they departed the room, heading off to the training area where Misato and Asuka were waiting.

"I want you to tell me everything that happened between you and Shinji last night, all the details."

Misato and Asuka were stood in the middle of the training room facing one another. Asuka stood with her hands pressed firmly against her hips, while Misato stood with her arms folded under her breasts meeting Asuka's gaze.

"And why exactly should I tell you?"

"Because I am your commanding officer and guardian. I am responsible for your welfare and to ensure that you are able to pilot. What would happen if you got pregnant?"

For a moment Asuka was silent, sure, she wanted to be with Shinji but she had not considered the consequences. What would happen if she did get pregnant? Would she really want to bring up a child in this environment? In addition, what would happen if they were unable to prevent Third Impact…the risks were simply too great.

"We didn't have sex Misato…"

The lavender haired captain breathed a sigh of relief…that was until Asuka continued.

"…yet."

Her jaw dropped.

"Don't worry, we'll use protection. Like you said, I can't afford to get pregnant now can I?"

Misato was speechless. For a few moments, she simply stood there doing a very convincing impression of a gold fish, her mouth opening and closing, but now words coming out. Finally, once she pulled herself together she was about to chew Asuka out but it was that moment that Shinji and Kaji chose to arrive.

The two of them walked in an uncomfortable silence, Shinji was still trying to get over the fact that Kaji had seen what happened between him and Asuka while the older male was searching for a way to breach the subject once more.

"Shinji…"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for looking after Asuka."

Shinji turned to the older man, surprised.

"But…I didn't really do anything…"

He trailed off slowly, sadness flickering in his eyes.

"Shinji, it took a lot of courage to comfort her like that…especially after earlier."

He paused for a moment searching for the right words.

"I want you to look after her, for me. She's kinda like the daughter I never had, you know?"

Shinji simply nodded, unsure what to say. Kaji smiled at him once again, despite the fact he had only known the boy for a little over three days he was beginning to take a liking to him, coming to think of him as a younger brother or son.

Finally, they arrived at the training room to find Misato and Asuka staring at one another, the latter grinning widely while the former seemed to be just recovering from a major shock.

"Pardon me ladies but are we interrupting?"

Kaji's comment instantly drew both females attention. Asuka turned to look at Shinji, that same grin plastered across her face, Shinji could not help but feel a little scared. Meanwhile Misato was now glaring at Kaji, displeased that he had interrupted her.

"Asuka, we'll talk later. Shinji, come over here please."

Shinji did as he was told and moved as Misato directed to stand next to Asuka.

"The enemy shares one mind with two bodies, so it's vital you two learn to move in unison. Memorising an attack pattern based on music is the quickest way to master perfect harmony. We've only got four days left, remember?"

The two simply nodded before taking up their positions. Kaji walked over to the Hi-Fi and put in the music before hitting play. As the upbeat tune flooded from the various speakers around the room, the two pilots began their training…

Two minutes later they stopped, Misato, and Kaji both simply stood there in awe. Shinji and Asuka had moved in near perfect harmony, and on their first try. There had been moments when Shinji faltered slightly but Asuka had slowed her pace to match his and so the synchronization had been maintained. Smiling broadly at her charges, Misato congratulated them heartily before offering to take them to lunch. Kaji of course took that opportunity to say he was starving and Shinji invited him along, much to Misato's disappointment.

Shortly after the four of them departed heading towards the Nerv cafeteria.

In the office of the supreme commander of Nerv, Commander Gendo Ikari and Sub Commander Kozo Fuyutski were watching something on a large screen. The screen itself was divided into two, the first half showing the feed from the Eva cages where Unit-01 was held. The second displayed the feed from the pilot's room the previous night; despite Kaji's attempts at erasing the evidence, the Commander had a backup system secretly installed. He frowned slightly when he noticed the way Unit-01's eyes lighting up coincided with his Shinji's 'episode'.

"Ikari…what could it mean?"

"I don't know professor, but rest assured I intend to find out…"

Chapter preread by That Other Guy