This Object
Chapter 05: Genesis

Disclaimer: I do not own Eva. Maybe some day Hideaki Anno will give it to me. I'd like that... While he's at it, maybe he'd give me Kare Kano too... drool

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The couple sat together, warmly enjoying slumber beneath the starlit sky. The boy stirred, suddenly aware of a presence behind him. That realization awakened him, and he quickly turned his head, gingerly so as not to wake the softly snoring beauty in his lap. As his eyes adjusted to the contrast between the sillouette and the brightness behind it, the unmistakable form came into view.

"Otosan..."()

"I thought you'd be here. Your mother sent me to look for you. Come to dinner."

The sleeping girl stirred, and looked up, realizing suddenly where she was. Her blush was all but hidden by the shadows of Shinji and his father against the school's blinding antitheft lights.

"You can take her home with us. I don't know the way to her residence, and it is too dark to travel far."

Shinji went first, and as his eyes slowly adjusted to the pale yellow brightness of the house's incandescent lighting, he saw a familiar face framed by short brown hair. She held a dipping spoon to her mouth, tasting the broth of a nice-smelling but rather suspicious mystery stew.

"Tadaima()." She turned to him and smiled.

"Okaeri(), Shin-chan." She looked to the door, as she had seen a timid eye peek out from behind the frame. Shinji motioned for her to come in. As Yui saw the girl, she kept the same smiling face, but the delay in reaction speed exposed her real thoughts (not to mention the fact that she dropped the spoon on the floor and failed to pick it up until after dinner). "Oh, how nice. You have brought a friend. And qu-quite cute, a-as well." Her face could be read like a psychology text book: "oedipus complex" was written in bold, underlined, directly under "page 24" with the rest blurred out. She composed herself, and said "We're having mango and broccoli stew; I hope you'll stay and try it." Gendo took this time to walk in, take off his coat (which he draped over the short wall near the doorway), and give his wife a passionate kiss (or at least try to; his wife, unfortunately enough for him, was still preoccupied with two things: 1. why did this girl look just like her, and 2. since when was her Shinji into blue hair?).

"Okaasan(), this is Rei. She's a tenkouse() in my school." He blushed preemtively and continued, "she and I fell asleep on the roof, and Otosan found us and brought us back here. H-he said she could st-stay the n-night..."

She broke away from her whipped, already contact-starved husband's lips, looked at the pair, and said "Excuse us." She went into the adjoining room, and called her partner, "Anata()..."

The two took their places at the table and waited in awkward silence, trying vainly to ignore the paranoia in the tone of the muffled shouts behind the closed door next to them. The married couple burst out of said door a few tortuous minutes later to serve dinner. Needless to say, no one mentioned that it was in fact a mango and onion stew.

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Author's notes:
This is a bit of a hurried chapter, but I hope you'll enjoy it. I didn't originaly want to characterize Yui like this, but it grew out of my need to include a joke from a previous fic I wrote that had a similar scene... Maybe if I decide it's too much, I'll rewrite this chapter, but for now let's see what kind of reviews it gets. Well, at least you all know what the "presence" was... OooOOooOo, scary huh?

Notes:
(none)

Translations:
Otosan - Japanese for "father". Respectful.
Okaasan - Japanese for "mother". Respectful.
Tadaima - Japanese stockphrase for "I'm home". Said every time one gets home, even if there is no one there. Literally "Just now".
Okaeri - Japanese stockphrase for "Welcome home". Said every time someone else gets home and you are there. Literally "You went out and came back." Short for "Okaerinasai".
Tenkouse - Japanese for "transfer student". Also means "part-timer", as in someone who works part-time.