I don't own anything.

Detective Ikari

Chapter Ten: The Reunion Pt. 1

"Here we are." Hikari slid her coup into one of the empty parking places and turned the car off. She climbed out and stared at her old high school. "Well this place hasn't changed."

"Kind of funny when you think about all that has happened to this city," Shinji commented.

"I guess." Hikari shut her door and locked the car.

"Best get this over with," Shinji stated. "The sooner we're inside, the sooner I can find the bar."

"Spades," Amber began warningly.

"I'm starting to think that's a good idea," Hikari commented. She had never really liked high school. She had been so busy with her duties as a class representative that she had never really bothered trying to make friends. Of course there had been the few people she had known for a long time like Touji and Kensuke, but really the only friend she had made after she started middle school was Asuka. "Why am I doing this?"

"Because you're as stupid as I am," Shinji answered. Hikari laughed.

"That's true. I hope you don't mind if I hang out with you two for most of the evening."

"Not at all," Amber replied. "Although I have to warn you, we're pretty bad drunks."

"You're a bad drunk," Shinji corrected. "I'm a quiet drunk. You start flirting with everything moving." Amber's cheeks flushed brightly and Hikari laughed again.

"Come on you two. We're supposed to go in through the front."

"Right," Shinji replied. Hikari turned and led her two friends around the school. Their movement ceased immediately when they rounded the corner.

"Holy shit," Amber stated as they viewed the media frenzy outside the door. "Did you two go to school with a God damn movie star?"

"There were a few famous people in our class," Shinji replied. Hikari glanced over her shoulder in confusion. Shinji met her eyes squarely and shook his head. Hikari nodded. For whatever reason he didn't want Amber to know that he was an Eva pilot. That was just fine with Hikari.

"Well," Shinji began as he lowered the brim of his fedora, "might as well press on."

"Let's hope none of them want an interview with you," Amber commented. "You don't like the press after all."

"I barely hurt that reporter," Shinji grumbled sullenly.

"You dislocated his shoulder!" Amber exclaimed.

"The EMT popped it right back into place," Shinji replied dismissingly. "No harm, no foul."

"No harm my ass."

"No lasting harm," Shinji corrected.

(:ii:)

Spades pushed the door to the school open and looked around the large entryway. There were several people milling around and there was a large table set up with cards on it and a woman sitting behind it.

Spades was temporarily surprised by the disgust welling inside him. He would have thought that his distaste for this building would have mellowed out over the years. It hadn't. "Well this place really hasn't changed." Spaces glanced at Hikari and reached into his pocket for his Gold and Milds. He fished one out and placed it between his lips.

"No smoking Ikari," Hikari commented.

"Alright Class Rep," Spades replied. Hikari smiled at that.

"This place doesn't really look that different from an American high school," Amber commented. "I was expecting something different."

"Perfectly clean hallways with posters blaring subliminal messages?" Spades ventured.

"Would it be racism if I said yes?" Amber asked.

"More like uniformed ignorance," Spades replied.

"That's racism."

"Racism is more like willfully uniformed ignorance," Spades clarified.

"You two talk about the weirdest things some times," Hikari commented.

"This is nothing," Amber stated. "You should see the guys working for me back home."

"Ah yes, the old war stories," Spades agreed. "So, are we supposed to check in at the table or something?"

"I guess," Hikari replied. She shared a look with Amber and Spades frowned. In his experience plotting women were a very bad thing. Almost in unison both of them grabbed an arm and dragged him towards the table. To her credit, the woman behind the table only gawked at them for a moment.

"Hello Tokyo-3 High School alumni!" the woman behind the table exclaimed. "It's me, your student president, Hitomi Uchida." Spades tried to think back to his days in high school. He couldn't really remember who was student president, but the name sounded familiar.

"It's nice to be back," Hikari purred, tightening her hold on Spades' arm, "isn't it Shinji?" Spades saw Hitomi's jaw drop several centimeters.

"Ikari?" she managed, sounding like she wouldn't be more surprised if an American president went to war for dubious reasons. 'Bad analogy,' Spades mused.

"Doctor Ikari," Amber corrected, nuzzling his shoulder. Hitomi fumbled through the little laminated cards on the table and managed to find the one she was looking for.

"Well. . .uh, here you go Ikari."

"What about my other date?" Spades asked, glancing at Hikari. "You haven't given her a card yet." Hitomi's eyes turned to Hikari and Shinji could see the complete lack of recognition.

"Never mind," Hikari stated, "my card's right here." She picked up a card and held it out. Now Hitomi looked even more surprised.

"Horaki?"

"Yeah," Hikari replied. "It was great seeing you again Uchida. Let's go."

"Right," Spades said. "See you next year." He tightened his hold around Hikari and Amber and they walked into the cafeteria, leaving Hitomi gaping at them stupidly. No sooner were they through the door then Hikari burst into laughter.

"Did you see the look on her face?"

"You may be lousy at your own jokes, but you can certainly run with others," Amber commented.

"Ah, my sparkling sense of humor," Spades commented. "I'm very well known for it."

"If by sparkling you mean cruel, cynical, jaded and sadistic," Amber stated.

"To each their own," Spades stated.

"These things have our pictures on them."

"What?" Shinji turned and watched as Hikari held up her card. Right over her name was a picture. She was dressed nice, so Spades assumed it was her senior picture. His boss quickly tore his own card from his fingers.

"Oh my God. You really were a teenager once," Amber stated.

"Only in age," Spades replied. "Now where's the bar?"

(:ii:)

"Come on Spades."

"No."

"Please."

"I am nowhere near drunk enough." Spades watched as Amber pouted and made her way onto the dance floor to find a partner. Spades turned back to nursing his drink. He had been there all of ten minutes and had been accosted by several women who obviously hadn't recognized them.

"Doctor Ikari." Well, no one had recognized him yet. Spades turned and sighed in relief.

"It's only you."

"Only me?" Yuuske asked. "I'm hurt." He sat down and looked around. "Not into mingling?"

"No," Spades replied. He took another sip from his whiskey. "Anything happening?"

"There's a full assault force of twelve men around here somewhere," Yuuske replied. "They're going to try the old blitzkrieg tactics."

"Take me by surprise and bring me down fast?" Spades asked.

"Yeah," Yuuske replied. "You have a weapon, do you not?"

"I do," Spades replied, "and I have plenty of ammunition."

"Excellent," Yuuske said. "Well, it was wonderful seeing you again Ikari!" He turned and moseyed off, drink in hand.

"Drunk enough yet?" Spades' fist clenched and he sighed in annoyance.

"Alright."

"Yea!" Amber exclaimed happily.

(:ii:)

"Having fun?" Hikari turned and saw that Shinji and Amber had returned from the dance floor.

"As much as I thought," Hikari replied. "For some reason a whole lot of men seem to remember being very good friends with me."

"I seem to have a similar problem," Shinji replied.

"Yeah," Amber added. "If I didn't know better I would have thought you were the prom king."

"I never went to prom," Shinji replied. He stood up and fished his cigars out of the coat he had left lying across the back of his chair. "If you need me to hit anyone for you then I'll be outside."

"That's so sweet," Amber commented, "the brave knight fighting for the virtue of his lady friends."

"You have virtue?" Shinji turned and disappeared into the crowd before Amber could fire back a rebuttal.

"That asshole." Hikari picked up her drink and took a sip. "You knew Spades for a while, right?"

"I didn't know him to well," Hikari answered. "He was best friends with my ex and lived in the same apartment as my best friend."

"Ah," Amber replied. "Was he like that?"

"No," Hikari answered quickly. Even with the man in front of her as living proof, she still found it hard to believe that he was Shinji Ikari. "He was really withdrawn and he didn't have a lot of friends. As a matter of fact, he only had two."

"Two good friends?" Amber asked.

"Two friends," Hikari clarified. "Now that I look back on it, I guess he was really terrified of being rejected. I heard that his mother died, his father abandoned him, and he was shipped off to some old friend of the family."

"Yeah," Amber said. "We were drinking buddies in college. He pretty much told me all of that in a drunken haze. Then I explained my own miserable life. And then we passed out. The bar tender always teased us about charging rent because we slept there so much."

"He was starting to get better and become a little more friendly," Hikari continued, "but then an exchange student from Germany went to live with him."

"What did she do?" Amber asked. Hikari sighed. She really didn't want to talk bad of an old friend, but there was no real way to explain Asuka's behavior nicely.

"She pretty much abused him," Hikari stated. She saw Amber recoil. "Not sexually." 'Well. . .maybe,' Hikari thought. She tried to shake off the sickening thoughts, but there was no way she could put it past the girl she had known.

"Oh."

"She was always insulting him or hitting him for the tiniest reasons, sometimes there weren't even reasons," Hikari explained. She had taken a few psychology courses in college, so she felt she had a pretty good grasp of her friend's condition. "She was really competitive, I mean ridiculously so. If she was the best she was happy, but if she failed at anything she would take out her anger on him."

"I have a hard time ever picturing Spades being victimized like that."

"It was a long time ago and we were all different people," Hikari stated. "I should have helped him. I could have at least tried to be his friend."

"We all have regrets, but look on the bright side."

"What bright side?" Hikari asked.

"Spades didn't own a gun back then." Hikari stared at the woman. "Oh, you didn't know he has a gun."

"News to me."

"Can I ask you a really personal question?" Amber asked, turning serious in a heartbeat.

"Okay," Hikari replied.

"You had boob job, right?" Hikari blushed at the other woman's up front question.

"Yeah," she managed. This wasn't a subject she enjoyed, but she had long ago come to terms with it.

"Why?" Amber asked. It was a question that Hikari really hated. "I mean, Spades holds you in really high regards. He was a little disappointed." Hikari looked down. Finding out she had ruined someone's impression of her wasn't doing anything for her already poor mood.

"I got them after I broke up with my boyfriend," Hikari answered. "I was so disgusted with myself that I had them done. The surgeon wasn't exactly the strictest for laws so I'm lucky that everything turned out right."

"You don't like them?" Amber asked. Hikari smiled slightly. Was she really that transparent?

"It's hard to be taken seriously with large breasts," she replied. "I've made myself into a sex symbol and that's how men treat me. I'd get them removed, but I'm terrified of the surgery and not as headstrong as I was back then."

"If you want to make a list of names I'm sure Spades wouldn't mind explaining how bright and talented you are," Amber offered. Hikari had to laugh at that. She wasn't sure if it was the joke, or the fact that the offer involved, of all people, Shinji Ikari threatening someone.

"He's a good guy."

"I wouldn't go that far," Amber commented. "He just likes you and hates any kind of discrimination. It's how he works. When he doesn't like something he goes after it. Usually that something isn't a good thing."

"So we just have similar beliefs," Hikari stated.

"Yeah. Now I'm bored and you're depressed. Let's dance. I'll show you the full nelson my dad taught me if anybody gets too grabby, or grabby at all."

(:ii:)

"Damn it." Spades patted himself down and sighed. He had forgotten his matches.

"Need a light?" Spades turned and saw a woman standing not to far away. She was wearing a beautiful evening gown and large sunglasses.

"Yeah."

"Here." The woman held out a fancy gilded lighter and Spades leaned forward. The flame clicked on and he leaned back.

"Thanks."

"No problem," the woman replied as she lit a cigarette. "Smoking is bad for you."

"Hypocrite," Spades stated. The woman laughed and took a drag from her cigarette.

"I've been going too long to stop now. What's you excuse?"

"In my line of work these things are the least of my worries." Spades released a cloud of toxic smoke and leaned back against the wall.

"Yours is better."

"Yeah." The woman ran a hand through her red hair. "All those reporters were here for you."

"What?" She looked surprised.

"The reporters," Spades repeated. "They were here because you're here, right?"

"Yeah," the woman said. "Price of fame I guess. It's not as great as I hoped it would be."

"At least you got where you wanted to," Spades commented. He took a final drag on his Gold and Mild. It was best to leave now.

"I'm Doctor Asuka Langley Sohryu," the woman said as she held out her hand.

"I know," Spades replied. He tugged his left glove off with his teeth and stubbed out the smoldering tip of his cigar against the thick skin of his palm. Asuka's eyes moved to his face and Spades quickly looked away. Unfortunately he had forgotten all about that damned ID badge pinned to his vest.

"Ikari."

"Doctor Ikari if you would," Spades stated as he pulled his glove back on.

"What?"

"Doctor," Spades repeated. He glanced back and saw that Asuka was staring at him. He glanced at his watch. "Well it was nice seeing you again. Let's try this again in ten years." He turned to head back into the school, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

It would have been easy to shake her off, breaking her wrist or a few fingers would also be fairly easy. Spades did neither because neither were his style. He didn't run, not anymore at least, and he didn't attack when not provoked. "Please Shinji. Stay and talk to me." Spades turned and looked her dead in the eye.

"I don't have anything I want to talk to you about," he stated. She flinched at that, but Spades didn't care.

"Then maybe you could listen to me talk."

"Let me see your lighter again."

"What?"

"I'm less irritable if I'm smoking," Spades explained.

"Oh." Asuka quickly managed to dig the lighter out of her purse and fumbled to get it open. Spades lit his Gold and Mild.

"Talk."

-End

(:ii:)

-Author's notes. Ah, another chapter done. This is quite an amusing little side adventure. I'm kind of liking how the characters are coming along.