"Shinji…" Rei stuttered. 'This is… Unfamiliar to me…' For a second she stood there awkwardly, before wrapping her arms around Shinji and embracing him in return. The floor indicator clicked on through the fog of euphoric bliss that filled the elevator. Her head rested on his shoulder, blue hair gracing Shinji's cheek in little brushes and wisps. His shoulders heaved up and down, and in a move that was alien to herself, she reached up and brushed a delicate finger along Shinji's cheek. Her fingertip broke through a stream of tears that cascaded down the side of his face.
"Shinji…" She whispered, an aura of discontent growing in her own eyes. She took her head off of his shoulder, and leaned back so that she could see Shinji's face, staring him in the eye.
"Shinji, why are you crying?" Her eyelashes fluttered once or twice, her head tilted to the side in puzzlement. Shinji only looked up to meet her gaze, he said nothing.
'How am I to know what troubles him if he won't tell me? This must be what Miss Misato has mentioned a select few times about Shinji's emotional behaviors.' Rei broke her trance, and placed both hands on his shoulders firmly, but softly. "Shinji, how am I too know why you're crying if you won't tell me?" She probed his eyes for an answer. Finally he attained the willpower to speak in short broken words between sobs.
"Ayanami, it doesn't matter… It never has, it's just a phase." He responded, going silent again.
"Shinji… It does matter."
"Why!" He erupted. "Nobody EVER wants to know, so it doesn't matter!" Shinji quickly adopted a look of guilt, hoping that he hadn't hurt Rei's feelings with his outburst. Rei however absorbed the blow. Her hands remained firm on his shoulders, eyes soft.
"I care… Shinji Ikari…" Shinji's tears halted and he looked up at her once more. Her voice, a gentle symphony he thought it, no matter what she had to say. He heard the sincerity, and it felt as if something had pierced through his heart, through his eyes, through his skull. She embraced him in an affectionate hug once again.
"Shinji… It's okay…" She whispered in his ear. His shoulders began to heave again.
"She's trapped in there… She wants out…" He whispered between sobs.
"What?" she asked, not hearing what Shinji had said.
"Nothing… But, thank you Rei… I'm glad…" He said, smiling. She could tell that his smile was sincere, and though she wanted to know, she didn't want to press the issue and upset him again.
"You're welcome, Shinji…" Rei said softly. A smile,(which was still a rare occurrence) spread across her lips, and she turned a bright red, fixating her eyes on the floor of the elevator. The steady drone of the lift continued on. Rei stood there in silence for a minute or two. Suddenly she felt somebody cease her by the shoulders. She looked up to see Shinji's face not an inch from hers, and a small gasp issued from her lips before they met his. Her eyes went wide as saucers for a second, but they soon closed. She pressed her lips against his. They were soft, warm. She felt the gloved hands of his plug suit sliding up the back of her neck, his fingers weaving into her silky hair.
'Part of me…' A single thought ran through her head. This was something she had never done, nor hardly even thought of! Yet some desirable force within drove her as if she had kissed Shinji a thousand times. His body pressed against hers, and against her back she felt the wall of the elevator. The kiss deepened, growing passionate and heated.
"Shinji…" She whispered during a momentary break in the kiss, before his mouth was upon hers again, hands wrapped tightly around her waist. She felt her mouth widen, suckling his bottom lip, the warmth from the inside of his mouth spreading to hers. Then, the counter came to it's final click, and a ding from the bell indicating that they were at the desired location broke the two apart gasping for air. The metal sliding doors opened, and there they saw Asuka, staring directly into the elevator.
"Uuh, Asuka! Uuum… How'd you get up here before us?" Shinji countered her preemptively with a nervous laugh.
"And what were you two doing in there!" Asuka demanded hostile as ever. Shinji began to stutter, before Rei piped up.
"Well… The two of us talked for a few minutes… And for the rest of the ride up the elevator shaft, I do believe we kissed." She said in a matter of factly tone. Shinji attempted to slap himself in the face and rip it off. Rei's uncanny ability to tell the truth, even at the most in opportune times amazed Shinji.
"Whhaaaaaaat!" Asuka replied. She only stood there for a moment, staring daggers at the both of them before she spoke again.
"You don't need to know how I got up here Shinji! It's none of your business! Quit being so damned nosy!" She shouted before running off in a childish fit. Shinji exaggerated a sigh.
"I guess… Perhaps I better go after her…" He said. Rei batted her eyes curiously.
"But Shinji… One of Asuka's outbursts has never bothered you before…" She said, puzzled.
"Yeah… But the time that we went without you was tough… Though it might not have been visible, in ways we were there for each other… I guess, somehow against our wills even, we grew closer… So I have to at least try to figure out why she's upset…" Shinji replied, staring down towards his feet.
"Rei… I'm sorry I did that…" He whispered before turning his back and heading down the hall. She stood there in silence for a second, awkwardly. He trudged on until Rei spoke up.
"Shinji… You do not have to be sorry…" He stopped walking. "I after all, did kiss you back… And… I do believe that I left that elevator happier than I was when I stepped into it…" She answered back. Her face glowed a deep red. The destitute language of his posture changed, and it looked as if a great weight had been taken off of his shoulders.
"Do you… Really mean that Ayanami?"
"Yes… Yes I do…" Her gentle words sailed down the hall and into his ears, ringing through his mind as if it were music. He said nothing, but flashed her a compassionate smile over his shoulder before continuing to walk away. Rei stood there, transfixed on Shinji until he turned the corner into another corridor.
"Don't stray from what we have told you Ikari. That is all that is left to say." SEELE 01 faded from site, along with the other black slabs numbered up to five, ending the conference.
"So… He managed to manipulate his own AT field for the destruction of another entity…" Gendo sat behind his desk, head propped on his gloved hands.
"That's what Akagi's hypothesized." Fuyutsuki added. "She said that they could find no other explanation for how The Third Child was able to initiate such a powerful attack."
"Hmmm… And SEELE want's us to look deeper into this… And provide with them concrete evidence."
"Sir? Did you tell them about the male human we found in the ashes?"
"No, I did not. He is our affair, not theirs. What has Dr. Akagi had to say about this interloper? It's quite curious that he was not found, nor seen on any camera until after Unit-01 hit an integrity spike in it's AT field." Commander Ikari stated.
"She told me that he is unconscious at the moment. The medical examiner stated that the blackness of the skin was only the result of the surrounding ashes, and that a single burn was not found on the body. They also added that he seems to be in exceptional physical health and shape."
"Very interesting…" Gendo shifted in his seat. "Tell Dr. Akagi and the rest of Central Command to map out Unit-01's data records from the precise moment that battle began, to the moment it ended. Maybe we can catch what caused this, before it happens again."
"Right." Fuyutsuki said. He ventured off, destined for the Central Command Center.
"Just what is SEELE up too…" He thought aloud to himself.
Central Command was in chaos as a result of Unit-01's outburst.
"Ma'am! All recorded data for Eva Unit-01 had been mapped out! We're switching over to graphs for the sync data on visual!"
"Okay, put them up." Ritsuko watched with curiosity. The first window was opened, to show a graph of the Sync data between the pilot and the Eva. Ritsuko's coffee mug smashed into the ground, accompanied by several gasps.
"Ma'am! Do you see it? It says that Sync rates dropped to negative 400 just before Unit-01 incinerated the forest!"
"Yes Maya… I see it…" Ritsuko stood there, rubbing her temples.
'Was it the pilot absorbing Eva this time?' Ritsuko thought. 'Is it even possible?' Dr. Akagi bent over and started picking up the mug shards.
"I see many headaches ahead…" She stated to herself dryly with a huff.
