This Object
Chapter 02: "The Joy of Rebirth"

Disclaimer: I don't own Eva. If I did, I would own Rei... And you can just imagine what I'd do with the clones :-) (Not THAT, you ecchi! Grr, dirtying the image of my pristine Rei-chan... :-( )

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As Rei looked up from her bed, she thought she saw someone, blocking the red light of sunrise from her open window. Ikari-kun! She wondered where that name came from, as her thoughts wandered in the twilight forest of light sleep.

She sat up suddenly, startled by the incessant buzzing of her alarm clock, a sond she had just begun to hear. The blue haired girl slapped down the set button of the small tandy(r) travel device, shutting off the cacophonous series of beeps and whirrs it was making, and beered under her hand at its face. Not as early as I would have liked, but I'll still get there on time. She took the time to survey her room, a familiar place, yet seeming rather new to her fatigued brain.

The room was barren, yet still rather cluttered. This is to say, there wasn't much in the room, but what little there was happened to be strewen around in the most inopportune places. Small figures of blue, purple, and red mecha (0) stood on top of the control panel of the ancient blue travel stove in the corner; a stuffed plush penguin (1) lied on its side in front of the grubby gray refridgerator beside it, a single magnet golding a yellowed shopping list, legacy cruft() from a previous owner. On the appartment wall opposite the short hospital-style bed, the suns brightness shown through the raped venitian blinds, playing across the bumps and bluges of unkempt covers and a pile of small pastel-colored pillows.

Everything was in order (or at least as orderly as it had ever been), and nothing was missing. Everything was the way she remembered it. Then why do I feel so empty? She corrected her already battered Id. No, not empty. Out of place.

She took some bread out of the freezer and stuck it, unthawed, in the dull smoky-colored metal toaster, fishing the kettle from out under a pile of mismatched playing cards (21 pickup by oneself is such a drag that is doesn't deserve the name) and a heavy cover-creased paperback novel (she reminded herself never to attempt War and Peace on an empty stomache, especially at 3 in the morning after a day of moving heavy boxes). Filling it with water, she placed it on the stove. Maybe it was emptiness, she thought, absently turning on the wrong burner. No matter, she decided, as she went to take a leasurely shower.

Aaa, kimochii()... The water feels so nice. She put that thought away as she proceeded to dutifully and efficiently wash every part of her body. She was just rinsing her hair when she smelled smoke. Smoke? But this is a no smoking building... Wait... Her eyes lit up with realization as she ripped the shower curtain away, running dripping naked to the kitchen, where she came upon her countertop ablaze. She took a look at the corner, and finding the blood red extinguisher where it should be, she took it, her thin frame straining to hold it, and prepared for a blast of chemical retardants. She winced as she pulled the trigger, but...

Nothing. The fire burst as the reaction absorbed the new hydrocarbons from the bottom of the wall-mounted wooden cabinets. She stopped pausing for a moment, and took what she could find, grabbing a white piece of fabric that had been lying on the chair beside her. She smothered the fire, but pulling the charred and tattered cloth from on top of the counter, she sighed. My brand new school uniform, ruined. The (mostly) unharmed toaster dinged, and she gingerly salvaged the charred piece of toast from it, taking a bitter, carbonized bite and wincing. She sat back on the chair and glanced at the clock. 7:53. Wait a tick... 7:53! She hurriedly put on her underwear and bra, and quickly ran to the door for her shoes, before running back and putting on the rest of her clothing first. She eyed the toast first distainfully, then greedily, and stuck it in her mouth before putting on her shoes and slamming the door behind her. A moment later, quick footsteps were heard coming from down the hall. The door opened, Rei retrieved her forgotten briefcase, and it shut again just as quickly.

The girl ran down the street towards the school, taking the only short cut she had been able to determine from her short time in her current residence, and figuring she'd get there late anyway. What a crappy start to a day. She ran down sidestreets, turning corners without looking beyond, and...

Impact. She fell to the ground, her legs splayed in front of her. She held her head, which was currently wondering why she wasn't still moving at breakneck speeds through the streets of Tokyo-3.

"Daijoubu desuka?()" An effeminate male hand reached out in her field of vision. She picked herself up and looked at his face. Unremarkable. Familiar, though... She shook her head to this notion. "Gomen!()" she blurted, running off in the direction of the school.

Minutes later, she found herself in the middle of a large wooded area. It was filled with huge forboding pine trees. Matsu...() Exactly what I shouldn't be doing right now. She looked around helplessly for a long time, finally rembering the map she had in her briefcase. She looked at it, finding that there was a woodland park directly north of the school building. She had run right past the school. After a moment of bearings-getting, she found the direction that she should be going (the opposite of the one she had been) and found the school building, and moments later, room 2-A.

"Katsuragi Misato, that's me. I'll be your Home Ec'() teacher. I do homeroom, too. So you're Ayanami Rei, eh? Pretty name. Pretty face too." Misato-sensei ignored Rei's face of embarassmen. "I'll be happy to introduce you."

The purple-haired woman ducked into the classroom, and ducked out again to pull the young girl in. "Class, this totally cute chick is the new transferee! Be nice to her, or you'll eat my whip!(2)" There were a number of catcalls and such, and the shy maiden did her best to act outgoing. In her loudest voice, she said, "My name is Ayanami Rei. Yoroshiku!()" She looked around, half expecting surprise at her blue hair and red eyes, but not expecting at all the looks of desire, antagonism, and... Dumbfoundedness? She looked closer.

"You! You're the guy who ran into me this morning!" She didn't mean to be offensive, it was just a statement. A loud, angry-sounding statement.

"It wasn't his fault! You should have looked where you were going! Look," the red haired girl pulled on the boy's arm, revealing a large bandage above his elbow. "You injured him!"

"I... injured him?" She felt as if her head was being pressed, no, was compressing itself onto her brain. The pressure in her head was about to explode. She looked down, feeling like she was about to be sick. "Gomen..." she whispered, and ran out of the room.

Standing in the hallway outside the room, holding her hand to her mouth and crying and sweating, she felt a presence beside her.

"It's alright, really. See?" He pounded on the bandage with his fist, making a curious face as he held in the pain. "It's fine. Doesn't hurt at all."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. By the way, my name's Ikari Shinji. I didn't quite catch yours, over all the hooting and such..."

"Ayanami Rei."

"Thats a pr... I mean, nice name. Nice to meet you." He bowed deeply, and hearing voices calling him from inside the room, quickly apologized and ran back in.

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Author's notes:
This chapter had a lot of humour in it, mainly because I thought that would make for interesting reading (sorta the route that mangaka() take a lot of the time, for getting a bigger audience). Also, one must remember that Rei's day wasn't all bad (she did meet Shinji). "Why would she dream this," you ask? Perhaps she is not totally okay with herself yet. "Why would this be her perfect world," is a better question, and one currently unanswerable by me. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you eventually (didn't expect that one, did ya?)
Note that (NUMBER) represents a note, and () represents a translation.

(0) - the mecha represent Eva, obviously (though some one who is not as obsessive as I am may not remember the colour scheme offhand)
(1) - PenPen. I know Rei doesn't technically know him, but I thought it would be cute. Also, the fact that I used the word "lied" instead of the more gramatically correct "lay"... Well, it's a 'fake' world, isn't it?
(2) - an Akazukin Chacha reference. Hey, if Hideaki Anno couldn't resist, why should I?

Translations:
Cruft - hacker slang for "unneeded junk"
Kimochii - Japanese adjective for feeling good
Daijoubu desuka - Japanese for "are you all right?"
Gomen - Japanese way of saying "sorry". Seen as rather childish, and gives a lot of respect to the reciever
Matsu - the Japanese pronounciation for two different kanji: one means "pine tree", and the other is the verb "to wait". It's a pun, get it:-D
Home Ec' - Home Economics, a course in managing living on one's own. Common in the United States
Mangaka - a manga artist