Broken Stream

Chapter 2: Word

Disclaimer: Don't own Evangelion.

Warning: Teen rated due to adult themes.


It didn't take long for the both of us to go through the security protocol. It unnerved me every time, only because one of the female security workers has a habit of asking for a cavity search... every time I go inside the building. It amused Asuka to no end seeing me fluster out responses and glaring at the woman whenever she turned around. We finally made it to our department. I could see Kensuke and Touji arguing over something, Rei Ayanami typing like a bat out of hell in her cubicle. This was the usual, nothing different or strange. Just very strange people. I led Asuka to my desk where I threw my bag underneath my desk.

"So? Is this it?"

"Pretty much, I'll introduce you to everyone and then we'll head to the head manager to get you your workspace and what not."

"Do you always have the same charming personality in the morning?" Sarcasm dully noted.

"Ha. Ha. Ha."

"Shinji!"

I looked over to see Kensuke walk up and give me a pat on the back. Then Touji followed suit only ogling Asuka when she was looking around.

"Who's the babe?" he whispered to me.

"Intern?" Kensuke looked excited.

"New worker," I responded, "met her on the train, going to show her around."

"Damn you! You get all the luck... Hi how's it going, I'm Touji" He spluttered when he noticed the said girl listening contently to their conversation.

"Uh... hi, I'm Asuka Souryu".

Kensuke offered his hand, "Don't mind him, his wife got in the dog bed so he's alittle pent up if you get my drift. I'm Kensuke Aida"

"Kensuke! You bastard! Stop telling everyone about my love life."

"Or lack of one"

"I'm married, what's your excuse."

"I don't date idiots."

"Or your gay".

Thus a staring contest began with a bewildered Asuka looking on. I put my hand on her shoulder and led her away from them.

"Are they always like that?"

"Yes, unfortunately. It ends up being me that breaks them up or some other employee making a wisecrack about them staring into each other eyes."

She giggled and started to walk side by side with me as we walked to our next destiniation. I noticed her looking up once or twice.

"Something wrong?", it surprises me that I can be so damn dense. I am a guy after all.

"New place, trying to get adjusted. This is so different from the German branch of NERV."

"Germany? You speak pretty well Japanese for being a foriegner."

Jeez, that sounded like I insulted her. I look toward her and thankfully she didn't take it as one.

"Well, I have family here. So I occasionally make trips here to visit them."

"Hm, that's pretty cool. So your both German and Japanese?"

Explains why she's so attractive. I foresee a lot of sexual tension with all the other male employee, probably female too.

"Yes, a little best from both worlds."

I smile at that as we stop in front of the managers door.

"Just a bit of warning... she has a tendency to be... lazy".

She had a questioning look on her face when I finally opened the door. There were stacks of papers everywhere, a corner had a mess of unknown objects consisting ramen to beer cans. The desk in the room looked like it was a fortress with all the different array of papers stacked up to the ceiling. Asuka was shocked at this person's work ethic. I just sighed as I heard the light snore coming from behind the paper.

"Misato! The reports are late! Do you think this is tolerated!"

Someone from behind the stack jumped up and nearly knocked down the wall of papers.

"Damnit! Ikari, I swear to God if I see you I will murder you!", she proceeded to poke her head from one of the sides of the wall and looked at Asuka.

"This is the new employee... you know, to our department", I already knew this would happen.

"Oh..", she proceed to fix herself up and walked up to Asuka. Misato Katsuragi, my manager and boss. I've known her for as long as I worked here. She's a good boss, responsible person. Only problem was she couldn't take care of herself. Like for instance right now.

"Hello, Ma'am, my name is Asuka."

"No ma'am, just Misato. For a second there I thought Shinji got himself a wife."

Here we go. Asuka looked flustered and I looked up at the ceiling. Bitch, I hated when she did that.

"Misato, she needs to be assigned a workspace."

"Sure," she knew I changed the subject but didn't say otherwise. Probably thinking of different ways of torturing me about this. Misato was my boss and my neighbor in my apartment complex. Talk about the coincidence, it's like God wanted me to suffer at work and home.

"She'll take the place next to yours".

See what I mean?


So here's the situation, I have a girl next to my cubicle. A girl who I seem to know from the past or maybe from a past life? I have two of my good friends trying to score some brownie points by bringing her supplies from the supply closet. I am sitting in front of my computer, pretending to do something. Only right now, I keep trying to figure out where I know this girl from. Maybe I walked pass her in the past. She did say that she came to Japan to visit family. But that doesn't explain those hallucinations that I have of her. Someone's probably slipping drugs into my coffee... probably Touji.

"Shinji?"

Damn that scared the crap out of me.

"What's up?"

"Uh... how do I use this computer?"

"Don't you know how to use a computer?"

"Obviously if I have this job position".

Touche.

"What's the problem?"

"The login... I can't figure out how to actually use this interface".

I got up and walked all 5 feet into her cubicle. Gotta remember to make Misato pay for that. I leaned down and looked at the screen.

"Input your id code, then go to employee section and configure the interface to your liking."

"Where here?" she moved the mouse to the wrong location. I put my hand on her hand to move it to the right place. Only I got hit with a blinding white light.


"Idiot".

"Wake up, Idiot".

"Come on, stop teasing".

I open my eyes. I'm in bed. I'm in bed with Asuka. A part of me was kind of surprised at how fast everything had gone, but I was just at work. Speaking of which, where the hell am I exactly?

"Shinji!"

I looked over to Asuka, laying beside me and slowly snaking herself around my arms. Either this is the best fantasy I have ever had, or Touji put some strong stuff in my coffee.

"Is something wrong?"

"Weren't we at NERV?"

She looked at me weirdly. Then she wiggled out and sat up.

"Oh I see, you would rather work then play with me?"

Boy, if I knew what was going on I would show her play. I slowly sat up and looked at her, her back facing me. Probably pissed, but right now I'm looking for answers.

"Asuka..." my voice sounded really confused because she turned to look at me.

"Shinji? What's the matter. Do you have a fever? We got a day off today."

Day off? But we were just in her cubicle. This is starting to slowly freak me out. I get up and slowly walk into the bathroom. Okay, considering the situation that I am in now. I could of simply blacked out to the point where we ended up in her place. The male part of me was proud that I got her in a day but that's not the point. I don't remember anything from that touch. I walked up to the sink and splashed water on my face and looked up. My eyes bugged out. I was young... younger... what the hell is going on? I ran into the room where Asuka was sitting. I looked at her fully now. Minus the clothing, she looked younger too. Dear God, she's not wearing clothing...

"Like something you see?" she purred as she got up.

"A.. asuka... where are we?"

"Your place, are you sure your feeling well?"

"Yes, but uh.. why are you younger?"

"Younger? Shinji were both 17, maybe we should go to a doctor."

"No, I'm fine, its just that... well..."

Crap I keep looking down, for seventeen she sure has a set. Figures, I'm raging teenage hormones right now.

"Asuka, what happened to NERV... I thought we were there, I was in your cubicle, I was helping you with the interface."

She looked at me weird again and put her hand up against my forehead.

"Shinji, I love you, but your starting to really worry me."

That was when I heard it, a giant crash outside. The wall behind me fell and that was when I saw it. A giant, purple figure. I looked to where Asuka was, she wasn't there. I looked back at the figure. Green eyes glowed and all I saw was a hand shooting forward towards me.


"Shinji?"

I looked back at the screen, my hand still on top of Asuka's. A few beads of sweat fell from my forehead. I nearly stumbled back had it not been for one of the cubicle walls preventing me from falling down.

"Shinji!", she got up and shot straight to my side, "what happened? Are you okay?"

Am I okay? Jesus Christ, I was nearly killed... but I didn't leave the building. I looked at Asuka, I saw the worry on her face. I must look bad if it got a complete stranger worried. But I know her, somehow. What was that purple thing that nearly grabbed me. What the hell is going on?

"Shinji, are you okay?"

"Yeah... yeah... just lighthead, been suffering insomnia" I lied. I felt bad but I couldn't tell her I saw a younger naked version of herself and purple monster that sure as hell wasn't a friendly dinosaur.

"Are you sure? I could go get a doctor or something."

"I appreciate it but I'm fine, really."

I slowly moved away from the wall and sat down on her seat. I then proceeded to get her to the place on the screen.

"See, it's not too hard. You just don't know it because your new."

I'm an asshole.

"Oh... thanks, Shinji."

I got up and almost made it back to my cubicle only to have a hand grab one of my wrist.

I waited... nothing happened. I wasn't looking at Asuka but I slowly turned my head to her. She looked at me for a second and then seemed to collect herself. Did she see something?

"Uh, Shinji, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask. I mean were neighbors now... " she then gave me a breathtaking smile. Either she went through the same thing as me and controlled it better then me or I just imagined everything.

"Sure, same goes for you."

She let go of my wrist and I walked back to my seat. I sighed, really hard.


"Shinji, my man."

I looked up from my screen. I just had a riveting game of on line chess with someone. The guy was good, really good.

"Whats up, Kensuke."

"The three stooges need to go to lunch".

It's been known around the office that me, Kensuke, and Touji were best friends, thus being deemed the three stooges.

"Sure, hold on."

Jeez already noon. I haven't heard from Asuka in a long time. I got up and peeked into her cubicle. She wasn't there. Oh well, so much for having an extra person at lunch.

"Looking for the girlfriend?" Touji responded as he walked up to us.

"Hardly, we just met."

"Please, you guys want each other."

"It's obvious" Kensuke interjected.

"You said the same thing about Misato when you found out she lives next to me".

"I'm surprised you haven't nailed a babe like her."

"I'm not that kind of person" I responded as I started to walk to the elevator, the other two following me.

"Seriously, if I wasn't married. I would so have her in a heartbeat." Touji gloated.

"Hikari would sure love to hear that."

"Class rep needs to calm down alittle, it's like if you look at a different woman her jealousy comes full bloom." Kensuke said as Touji glared at him.

We called Touji's wife, class rep. A class representative was strict and followed all the rules. It just came to be one day. Touji hates it, but can't help but agree with it.

"You know if she would loosen up, it wouldn't be so bad. Then again it's not so bad now."

"You married too soon."

"We're 21, its normal nowadays to marry young."

"Yeah if you want a ball and chain early in life" I smiled at that one.

"Shut up, Kensuke, and don't think I didn't see that smirk, Ikari."


The coffee shop down the corner of the NERV building has been our little hangout spot. Luckily they have a menu that's big enough for lunch. I sat there with my cup of coffee listening to the two grown men argue about some video game. It's hard to believe, that I'm 21 and still alive. I always assumed that something would happen to me, nothing really bad. Maybe save someone's life and die in the process. Feels weird that I always think that I'm dead. With all the hallucinations I've been having, I can't really identify what's real and what's not. For instance, the giant porno monster reject that's current destroying the city. I know what your thinking. What the hell am I talking about? Well, occasionally... I see monsters destroying the city. At first I freaked out, anyone would when they would see a 50 monster decimating everything around it. Of course the first thing I noticed was that no one was running away from it. More or less they seemed to ignore it. I thought I was nuts then. I seriously considered committing myself into an asylum. The only thing that prevented me from doing it was that within 20 minutes, everything was back to normal. Nothing destroyed, no one dead. I just remember taking the rest of the day off the first time I saw it. All I did was lay in bed, praying that I was mentally stable to go to work the next day. Days pass, I don't see the monster. Then a few weeks later, it happened again. Yeah, I know what your thinking. To be honest with you, I ignore it. When the public masses don't pay attention to it, I might as well not too? Right?

"Shinji, are we up for this weekend?"

"Bars?" I answer knowingly.

"Yeah, we can watch a game, get hammered, hit on girls, the usual."

"Don't you have to be home before 2?" Kensuke's gaze pointed at Touji.

"Yeah, but I mean we can still have fun, right?"

"Your so whipped", I nodded my head in agreement.

"Oh so your saying that you didn't have to make sacrifices for your wife.. oh yeah, your not married!"

"Hopefully never will be." Kensuke adds as he takes a sip of his coffee.

"Why not go for Ayanami?" Touji responds.

"Why not shut the hell up?"

"Come on, she talks to you more then she talks to me."

"That's because every word you speak insults her".

"You see that, Shinji? Be a pal and you get dissed like that" I can see Kensuke laughing and a let out a chuckle.

"Seriously though, she does talk to you more. You and Ikari."

"That's just because were both on her team." Kensuke replied.

"Wonder where the red headed babe will be placed?" I was wondering that myself.

"Probably with us, we need someone else. Damn project is getting troublesome" Kensuke took off his glasses and wiped the lens with his tie.

"Yeah, then Ikari can score some points with her."

"Don't get me involved in both your little games." I retort.

"What game? You two hit it off pretty well, and your cube buddies to boot."

"Isn't office romances not allowed?" I ask.

"Say that to the president who's banging that secretary from the 10th floor." Touji said.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Touji's our intel of what goes around at work. If you did it, he'll probably heard about it. It's creepy.

"Touji, I don't need to know these things" Kensuke said with a bored look on his face.

"Hey, its not my fault everyone decided to talk about everything when I'm around."

"It's called eavesdropping".

"Har de har har".


The rest of lunch was uneventful, we walked back to the building and got back to work. Working being just slacking off until someone told us something to do.

"Shinji?"

"Yes, Asuka?"

"Could you come here for a minute?"

She sounded distraught.

"Sure."

I got up and walked to her cubicle. She was sitting on her office desk looking into the screen. It was blue.

"I don't know how this happened."

"Server's probably down again, it happens sometimes."

"Well, I was searching something, but then the system crashed."

My eyebrow went up on that. Figures its something with the program code in the database, I would have to look into it. Don't need stuff like this to happen when I actually have to do something.

"Here, let me take a look." She got up and I sat down on her seat. I wheeled up to the desk and restarted the computer.

"Where were you at lunch?" Might as well begin small conversation while this thing booted up.

"Went to that coffee shop down the street."

"Really? That's where I went."

"I went there earlier, sorry, I didn't bother asking if you were going."

Something felt weird hearing her say "sorry".

"It's no problem. How do you like it here so far?" The computer rebooted and I started to log back in, I moved over so she could put in her user name and password.

"It's okay. Kinda boring."

"Yeah, it'll be like that until we get word on the current project."

"I know, I was assigned on your team to help."

Kensuke was right, I was actually happy he was right for a change.

"Nice, we could use the extra help."

The screen came back to the search section.

"So...", I asked, "what were you looking up?"

That's when I saw her move her head up and look around us to see if anyone was there. Then she knelt down close enough so only I could hear.

"Well, I was at lunch, and your probably going to think I'm crazy but I suddenly had a word pop into my head..."

"A word?"

"Yes, I decided to search the word, but when I did... the database seemed to have it classified or something and it crashed."

This was weird, we're supposed to have high access to files.

"That's really weird... what was the word?"

She looked at me and that was when she whispered the word, the word that haunts my dreams.

"EVA..."

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To be continued...

Late night writing at it's finest.

Hope you like where the story is going so far, kind of taking in a mystery side to this tale. Goes to show I need work on grammar, so don't pay attention to the placement of periods on the dialogs...

As always reviews are welcome.