+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

"Two rules," the woman from Section Two announced as she dropped everyone off at their lodgings within the GeoFront for the moment, "don't try and evade your security detail by slipping out without telling anyone, and don't answer the door. If someone needs access, we'll contact you directly or we'll escort them in. If someone's knocking on this door, it's because we're all dead or incapacitated. I'd need a Howitzer and a couple hours to break into this room, so trust the physical security to do its job while backup arrives, ok?"

Three young women agreed in unison, "Yes, ma'am!" Shinji simply gestured his assent, his throat still incapable of audible vocalizations.

"Fantastic. Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the downtime." Once Rise, Yukiko, and Chie climbed off the work cart that had driven them to their destination, the agent took Shinji's arm for a second to hold him back. Leaning in, she whispered into his ear, "Akane and Mikoto send their best. They're engaging in some fact finding right now, or they'd be here themselves. Thanks for keeping us all alive." A soft kiss to his cheek, she ruffled his LCL-soaked hair and let him go.

Shinji hopped off the cart as well, ducking a bow of gratitude to the agent. She'd allayed one of his fears, as he hadn't seen either of his preferred security service yet that day. Turning back to the suite, he saw all three of his classmates waiting for him just inside. Two quick steps put him in a well-appointed common area, clearly intended to be shared by a business delegation that preferred not to share a single room for sleeping.

Before he could motion anything, Chie clapped her hands twice and took a deep breath. "Ok. I'm making this offer, and if Shinji agrees I say we just engage my plan. I need to wash this repugnant blood-scented mystery gel off of myself, so does he. I've taken showers with both of you," she looked between Rise and Yukiko, "at school. Instead of risking hurt feelings or starting a fight when we should be relaxing so Shinji can heal, why don't we all go take a shower together and get nice and clean. It's been a hell of a day, a worse night, and I'd rather not cap it off by making the rest of this afternoon and evening just as shitty."

"Sure," Yukiko shrugged. "I honestly didn't think I was the type of girl to sleep in a man's bed I'd only met a week before. I doubt I'd have done it if it was anyone but Shinji-kun. As soon as he can talk, I'm going to discuss taking the same deal you did, and that's going to lead to the three of us sharing him if he agrees. If he's ok with it, let's do it."

Rise, instead of answering Chie, looked to Shinji for an answer. "Are you ok with this? Is this something you would want?"

Despairing at not being able to clarify his feelings sufficiently, Shinji was caught off guard once again by Chie speaking with his words. "He says that he doesn't deserve to see any of us in a way we're not comfortable showing him. He also says that his body is just meat. He thinks it's a fine plan, but the last thing he wants to have happen is for us to be fighting amongst ourselves. If he was going to be honest, he'd agree to smashing his face against a wall for an hour or twelve if it meant we wouldn't be at each other's throats."

She sighed in frustration, "Yes…but do you want this?"

Shinji blinked, then frowned. "If he spent the rest of his life with any one of us, he'd consider himself blessed. If we all agree to spend the rest of our lives with him, he's going to start to doubt his own mind." Chie blew out a heavy breath. "Ok…I literally can't put that into words. There's a part of his mind, it looks at us and…I mean, it's beautiful don't get me wrong…but I think I'd have a better shot at explaining English conjugation than I would whatever he means."

Yukiko stood on her toes and kissed Shinji's chin. "Then let's go get clean. I smell like that elephant monster, and I'd rather smell like myself."

Stripping off the makeshift shorts he'd been given, Shinji looked around for where they might be intended to put the clothing to keep it from cluttering the floor. As soon as he spied a white clothing hamper, he noted the way the paint was artistically feathered and let his eyes close with a groan.

"…Yeah, where is Shizuko?" Chie, acting as his voice, looked to the other two ladies. "Did she just disappear again? Shinji says that whenever he's not actively focusing on the two of them, they just kind of wander off on their own."

The responsibility for acting as Shizuko's bed had devolved to Yukiko, who pursed her lips in thought as she tried to remember when she'd last actively seen the blonde angel. "I…I was looking down at her when Doctor Akagi was explaining who the other 'Children' were, and then you screamed. I was so busy trying to figure out what was going on, trying to keep my ears from being hurt by your robot screaming along with you…I guess I lost track of her."

Both women looked at Rise, who was looking at Shinji. The former idol was blushing brightly, watching as the Eva pilot looked at his bruising in the mirror. Her sightline was disrupted as Chie grinned at Yukiko and then walked from where she was standing over towards Shinji, taking off the top of Maya's swimsuit as she did. Once Rise saw the brawler standing next to Shinji, topless, and moving to lightly brush her fingers against the angry ligature around his throat, she finally snapped out of the reverie she'd been lost in. "I'm sure Shizuko-san is safe. I'm more worried about Shinji-kun. Why didn't they want to give him a medical examination? I mean, he was almost choked to death!"

Speaking for Shinji, Chie shrugged as she removed the other half of her swimsuit, "He's glad they're not. He's breathing, he's calm, and he'd prefer to stay that way. Nice warm shower, nice hot soak in a tub, calm conversation with his friends. The simple joys he's never been allowed to have, and is being prevented from experiencing because the two of you aren't naked yet." When Shinji raised an eyebrow at her, she grinned impishly. "Just because I say what you're thinking doesn't mean I can't add on my own thoughts, you know."

"Don't," his voice was a pained rasp, "be mean."

Yukiko drew in a deep breath, then took hold of the dress she'd worn and yanked it up over her head. Now standing in just the tights she wore to keep her legs warm and the bra she'd selected for support rather than charm, she set about doffing those as well. "Thank you, Shinji-kun, for recognizing that peer pressure to do things is often destructive. However, if I am going to set about convincing you to learn how to love and learning how to allow myself to…enjoy carnal desires, I need to follow Chie-chan's example and just get started."

"Please don't speak until your voice heals," Rise asked of him with a pained expression. "You have a lovely voice, and I don't want it ruined because you pushed your vocal cords to perform when they weren't ready." With far less reservation than Yukiko, she too began to undress. She'd spent far too many years in far too little clothing for far too many photographs and videos. Most of her reason for pushing Shinji to speak up was owed to her own experiences. "Chie, you work on getting yourself clean while Yukiko and I help Shinji. He looks like he's about to fall over, and I don't want him cracking his head in the shower and ruining our meal."

Well aware of how Shinji felt about her, Chie nodded amicably. He wasn't 'eyeing' anyone with the intent of 'cheating'. He wasn't wanting 'more' or 'different'. If he only ever touched her again, he'd be happy. She had to be the one to encourage him to let her friends in, so they had a better chance of winning. "Good idea. This gunk is slick as all get-out, and I want it off me." Kicking the 'rainfall-style' showers on, she found a bottle of soap with a scent she'd accept and got to work. Shinji was a meter away and blushing like he'd never seen a nude woman in his life. Her 'husband' was absolutely adorkable.

+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

"Not one popped!" The Doctor in charge of the Fabrication Division emphatically gestured along the length of the 'test subject', who'd been covered in 'bubble wrap' to demonstrate the amount of compression the plugsuits created. Each small pocket of air within fragile plastic bubbles remained unmolested, despite the suit being rapidly cycled on and off. "We have used the same variables each time we tested the suits. We've been doing stress tests on the circuitry all week! The suit I sent for today's test had undergone five hundred evaluations, which is still thirty-five thousand activations shy of the theoretical failure point for the weakest component in the suit."

Maya was scanning over the production code, allowing Ritsuko to put pressure on the team responsible for making the suits. She hadn't found a single misplaced line in the entire assembly, if anything the code looked too perfect. She wasn't an expert in data forensics, but from her experience in coding she could see that several someones had gone over every single character of the code numerous times. Notes were made regularly and updated frequently while leaving the previous comments in place. A small team of people were questioning everything they'd done, begging each other to verify that the section they'd been working on wasn't the failure point. This wasn't a group of women seeking to harm someone…this was a team doing phenomenal work and somehow still falling short.

"Maya," Ritsuko called, "we're going to fabricate a brand-new suit once you're done with that terminal. ETA?"

Closing down her connection, she stood from the chair she'd been perched in. "Let's go ahead. The code's not that complex, I've already gone over it seven times. My next step was going to be taking each machine offline and searching it piece by piece, with Sergeant Valatok's help."

"These are simple machines, yes." The big engineer nodded comfortably. "Dismantle, analyze, put back together…an hour each, with the two of us."

"Ok, let's get another suit made and then you can start that." Ritsuko was drawing the same conclusions Maya was. The worry about slipshod work efforts had faded very quickly when they'd walked into the room to find everyone already doing most of what she'd intended to have done. Each of the engineers she'd spoken to had brought up possible problem spots that they felt were handled, but still had an infinitesimally small chance of producing an issue. They had asked her for an 'outside perspective', unashamed that someone else might solve 'their' problem. The one theory that kept gaining credibility was the last theory she wanted to have to try and test. But she was running out of alternatives.

+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

Sitting in a bathtub that was big enough for seven people his size, Shinji let his head rest against the wall behind him. His eyes were closed, his body wrapped in the almost-too-hot blanket of water, and the happy chatter of three women amongst themselves allowed him to simply enjoy existing. The trio had been discussing more than one unimportant matter, chosen for its unimportance to allow him exactly what he was enjoying, for over half of an hour. If it weren't for the way that each of them wrapped their legs around his, he might have been able to believe that he'd been forgotten about.

A soft chirping sound came from a nearby display panel, identifying the person about to speak as the agent that had driven the cart earlier, "Hey folks, just letting you know that we're escorting a couple of the cafeteria workers in. They've made what we hope will be enough food for the four of you. We're also bringing in a change of clothes for everyone. We sent a runner to the Kirijo house to grab some for all of you." There was a pause. "Also, just because I know that I would be nervous about it, there aren't any cameras in the suites. I checked, personally, before I brought you here."

"Thank you, agent-san," Yukiko replied experimentally.

A second later, the response came through with a chuckle. "No problem, lady. We'll be in and out of the room before you know it."

Resting his voice, even for the short time he had, allowed his body to heal. Not completely, but enough that when he spoke, Shinji's voice didn't sound like someone walking across wet pebbles…just raw and raspy, "Should we get out?"

"As much as I don't want to, yes." Chie disentangled her legs from him, noting that his eyes had yet to open. "You're very hungry, and I could stand a bite to eat myself. The tub isn't going anywhere, and warm food tastes better." Sliding over to him, she placed a soft kiss to his lips before climbing out of the tub.

Yukiko was the next to move, carefully disengaging and slipping over to wrap her arms around Shinji in a hug. "Thank you for being who you are," she whispered. "I know this is hard on you, and I know you understand that it's hard on us too. I'm just glad that you're the type of man to look at a hard situation and put your back into it."

He hesitated before returning her embrace, but only because he wasn't confident that she would want him to touch her as she was. "You all make it very easy to work hard…I'm very lucky to have all of you in my life." He helped her out of the tub, after she had taken care of pressing her lips against his forehead. Sitting, alone, with Rise he looked at her with an openly curious expression. "I don't know. I know I want all of you around, I know that the thought of any harm coming to you fills me with fear, and I know that sitting here for the past half hour listening to you talk about television shows and nail polish was something I felt no distress over. I have too many questions I can't put the right words to. I have too many thoughts that I think are…belittling to all of you. I'm afraid to let down my guard, I'm afraid that something is going wrong with everyone around me, and I'm afraid that I'm hurting people." Swallowing again, he lifted a single finger above the water to indicate the redhead sitting with her legs around his still. "I would hurt to ever see you cry. I…I want you to be in my life in whatever way you want to be in it. I just can't say that I'll ever understand what you're talking about when we talk about love."

Crossing the space between them, she moved astride his legs and leaned forward to fill his vision with her face. "You are not simply a mobile penis, Shinji Ikari. You are more than 'humanity's last hope'. You are a human being, worthy of understanding love, worthy of owning your own body, worthy of setting your own boundaries. Stop looking to us for your answers…start looking inside yourself."

"I don't understand."

"And that's the problem." Leaning forward, she set her lips against his. After showing that she did care, and setting her forehead against his, she smiled sadly. "I'm going to keep bugging you about this and keep pushing the others to be aware of this, until you do understand. A one-sided relationship is incredibly unhealthy, for everyone." She could feel his breath hitching, see the struggle in his eyes. "Something you want to tell me?" His hesitation made sense. "I promise…I won't judge you. I want to help you."

"You f-feel…wonderful…against me." In his eyes, her smile was the dawn breaking over a clear sky.

"That's a good start." Giving him another kiss, a reward for his honesty, she tugged on his hand. "C'mon, let's go get some food before Chie eats it all."

+++++ Kirijo Manor. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

"Kirijo-san," Chiaki called Mitsuru from the doorway, her voice just loud enough to be heard by the class president over the argument inside.

Stepping over, allowing Ulala, Eriko, and Sumire to continue to loudly 'debate' the merits of demanding any number of things, Mitsuru kept the trio from noticing her conversation with the clearly nervous young maid. Stepping out into the hall, she kept her voice low, "Is something wrong?"

"Miss Serizawa was captured on video, with audio, being manipulated, ma'am." Bringing out the tablet household security had given her with the data, she showed the scene to Mitsuru. "We're fortunate that the discussion did not take place inside her room, where we wouldn't have had this warning."

Watching as Pixie seemingly offered a great deal without ever actually committing to anything, frowning at how easily Ulala seemed to accept everything at face value, Mitsuru shook her head slightly. "Thank you. This is unfortunate…I'll ask the others to help me find her."

"She has already been…dismissed, ma'am."

The reason for the maid's nervousness came to the fore. "Under whose authority? We needed answers, not corpses."

"At the behest of the Earth Spirit, your mother authorized immediate dismissal. Miss Hua Po declared that there was only one recourse to prevent further manipulations. She convinced your mother that Ikari-san had also been compromised. That he had been intimate with the fairy, which might have allowed her to conceive a child with him had she remained within this realm. Kirijo-sama directed me to report this to you, afterwards. She's still managing the fallout from the…basement incident."

Looking down the hallway towards the main stairs, Mitsuru strangled back the desire to begin swearing. Gesturing to be given the tablet, she nodded in acceptance of the truth. "Thank you. That will be all, for now."

Handing off the proof, Chiaki curtseyed politely and accepted her dismissal. She'd done what she could, the rest was up to someone else.

Opening the door normally, the need for any form of subtlety gone, Mitsuru walked in and gave Ulala a look that mixed 'caution' with 'anger'. "Do you remember when we came back here from Tartarus earlier?" Setting the recording back to the beginning, she turned the tablet around to show everyone the image. "Do you remember how I said the reason I hadn't had you followed around is that you hadn't taken sufficient leave of your senses to do something incredibly…rash?" She hit play.

As Ulala blanched, Eriko and Sumire's faces grew pinched. After the conversation between Pixie and Ulala finished, Mitsuru tucked the tablet under her arm and stood expectantly. Already caught in her attempt, Ulala now began to have a sinking feeling that she'd made a much bigger mistake than simply trying to corner Shinji for some kisses. "He's…he's wanting to go visit Hua Po's leader! What harm is there in helping Pixie have a chance at introducing him to hers? I mean, if I can get a few moments alone with him I can…help him understand how I feel. I help her, she helps me, and both of those things help us, right?"

"What do you believe Pixie thinks you deserve?" Eriko, a lifelong student of the occult, had far greater knowledge of the myths regarding dealings between humans and the Seelie Court. "Are you one hundred percent certain that it's what you think you deserve?"

"Are you completely out of your fucking mind?" Sumire pointed towards Mitsuru, her eyes locked onto Ulala. "We just fought a whole host of demons, he'd just come back from getting badly hurt, Yuka-chan is still unconscious with Doctor Takemi, and you think it's a good idea to push him into going to wherever the hell that is tonight? Are you that self-centered?"

"She…I…." Whether she was attempting to come up with an excuse or explain her decisions, Ulala was clearly coming up blank. She looked beyond confused, with no contiguous chain of logic offering itself. "I…I don't know…."

Mitsuru blew out a heavy breath, stifling her irritation and disappointment. "We now have an even bigger problem to discuss. If Pixie-san was able to manipulate one of us, she might very well have been able to manipulate more. She had been tied to Shinji-kun, somehow, as well. She has been killed, at least as dead as one is capable of making an entity that can manifest outside of Tartarus, but that might not be enough to prevent future problems. I want to trust that neither of you," she looked between Sumire and Eriko, "were, or are being, manipulated. Trust, however, is a very thin reed to cling to when we are looking at potential genocide."

"Ok, what about the others?" Sumire gestured vaguely towards the outside of the house. "Yukiko, Chie, and Rise? What about Shinji?"

Part of Mitsuru wanted to keep what she knew to herself. It wasn't her story to tell, it wasn't her place to spread…the truth, when all it might have been was unwarranted gossip. It was her duty as a leader, however, to show those who followed her the path forward. "Pixie-san manipulated Shinji into at least one sexual encounter, perhaps more. Whether he did so willingly or not, I do not know. I do know that what we saw here," she waggled the tablet, "is exactly what none of us wants for him. He does not know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate relationships. He has never had so much as a friend before he met us. The slightest inkling of positive feedback creates a need in him to trust that person."

Eriko looked down at the floor. "I…I asked him, expressly, if he wanted to. I made sure that he knew I wouldn't be upset if he said 'no'."

"Stop!" Mitsuru motioned sharply with her free hand, seeing both Sumire and Ulala about to say something, she made it clear that the floor was not open quite yet. "Can either of you tell for certain whether or not Pixie-san manipulated that into happening? No? Then we need to move on from this, and we need to remember that it is only the nine of us that can support one another inside Tartarus." She read the emotional discordance in the room and hated that she couldn't give them any chance of resting yet. "The four of us need to go sit with Ayase-chan, and look back on what's happened this week. Write down anything that seems 'off', so that we can see where or when manipulations might have been affected."

+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

The food had been consumed with enthusiasm, putting further discussion on hold as mouths and hands were occupied in the consumption of desperately needed calories. Several times over the course of the meal Shinji had heard Chie snort out a laugh, or whisper out a sigh, and after several repetitions of the action he began to analyze what he'd let his mind wander towards before she reacted. Idly chewing on an after-dinner mint, having finished his portion well before anyone else, he decided to try an experiment. Concentrating hard on a carefully constructed image of her wearing a traditional bridal kimono, he layered the background of the scene with a vibrant mixture of flowers.

Chie swallowed hard, pulled both of her lips in between her teeth, and blushed brightly. "Ok, that is not fair."

"What's not fair?" Rise looked at the way her friend was blushing, then down to the table they were seated around. Picturing the geometry needed for Shinji to be playing 'footsie', and almost laughing at the way he'd have to have all of his joints contort to even come close, she began to hope that it wasn't something terrible.

"Him!" Her smile was smitten with the man in question, her eyes walking a fine line between exasperated and adoring. "I'm still trying to make any sort of sense out of ninety percent of what he's thinking, it's mostly just noise and impressions of things around him. Then, out of nowhere, he pictures me wearing an absolutely gorgeous kimono like you'd see in bridal magazines with a background of all sorts of tropical plants. How do I compete with that?"

Shifting the tenor of the discussion before it could take flight in a different direction, Rise looked to Shinji. "Is that what you'd like? To have a wedding ceremony with Chie-chan?"

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Shinji shrugged. "I don't know. I just thought she'd look very nice in that kimono. It was on one of the pages of that fashion magazine you had on your desk several days ago during lunch. She's been upset at times, laughing at others, with whatever it was that my mind was thinking without me meaning to. I decided to concentrate and give her something…nice?"

Yukiko cut in before Rise could, "Rise-chan, I really think that's what he wants most of all. He wants to 'give' people 'something nice'. Even sitting in here, in a room that's inside an enormous building housing a…a…a kaiju-sized killer robot, he's safe. He looks at us, and he feels safe." Reaching over and taking his hand, she smiled at him with an apologetic warmth. "I'm not saying you're a dog, but the way you're acting is like when a small animal is finally safe from the pain of the outside world. A dog that's known nothing but hitting and cursing suddenly being given a warm, soft, bed and food and clean water? Of course they're going to do whatever they can to convince the person who saved them that they shouldn't be sent back out into the cold."

"That's…not entirely correct," Chie qualified. "He's not afraid of being sent away, not anymore." Biting down on her lip, she eyed Shinji. "Can I try and put it into words for you? Or do you want to try and explain this?"

"I wouldn't know where to begin," he admitted calmly. "I'll stop you if I disagree, though."

"Absolutely do that. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but…I kind of get the gist of what you're thinking." Sitting back, letting her eyes go distant, she rocked one hand side to side. "He's afraid of us leaving, yes. He's afraid we'll get hurt, and he'll lose us. He's afraid of having to handle life alone. There are a lot of things he's afraid of, but none of it is…really about us kicking him to the curb. He knows we're going to. Like…like he knows that water is wet knows we're going to. He's afraid of doing the thing, whatever it is, that sets it all in motion."

Shinji nodded slowly, "Yeah…that."

Chie continued, motioning for Rise to hold in objections for the moment. "That 'thing' could be kissing you. It could be not kissing you. It could be kissing you at the wrong moment. It could be kissing you, then kissing me. It could be kissing me, then kissing you. Every act he might take is filtered through this…disgusting mess of calculations designed specifically to have taken everything he can into account so that whatever it is he does it's not the 'thing'."

"…Well…well…." Rise struggled to find her own words for the moment.

"Sooooo…we should start doing things more often!" Yukiko felt the idea coming together in her mind, lightly clapping her hands in giddy excitement. "In order to conquer a phobia, you have to face the thing you're afraid of. He's afraid of doing things he wants to do, because he's afraid of our reaction. If we do things together, and we're not upset, he'll start losing the fear of doing things with us!"

"And," Chie chimed in, "I can tell you whether he's enjoying himself or not! So when we ask to do something, and he's doing it, I can know for sure if that thing isn't doing it for him."

Rise slowly nodded her head, amenable to at least considering the plan. "So long as you're not going against his wishes, it would help us limit time spent doing things he hates. His private thoughts should remain as private as we can keep them."

"He enjoyed dancing with you and Sumire," she blurted out as Shinji remembered the event. "Not…not the dancing part, so much, but more the fact that what he was doing was allowing you to show how talented you are. It was hurting him physically, having to be so careful not to crush either of you. He was…uh…neutral? Not too high on dancing, not too low…kind of…."

"Indifferent," Yukiko ventured. Her lips bunched off to one side. "Did he like what he did with Eriko-chan?"

Rise was aghast, "Yukiko!"

In a similar mode of thought, but more shocked that Yukiko had the gumption to put it out there so plainly rather than upset about Shinji's privacy, she looked to Shinji to see him tilt his head curiously while looking back at her. He wanted to know the answer, just as much as everyone else did. "Yes," she replied slowly. "He liked how she came to him, how she explained that if he didn't wish to she would leave without being…gross about it, and how she…oh." What came forward in his thoughts caused her to blush deeply. "Y-yes. Yes, he liked it."

With her eyes flicking between her blushing best friend and Shinji's look of confusion, Yukiko danced her fingers on her knees in anxious anticipation. "We already know they…did it," she euphemized. "What's got you blushing so much? You've done it too!"

"…Not like that I haven't." She frowned, realizing something. "He's not comparing us."

At that, Shinji himself motioned to defend himself. "N-no! Never."

"Ok, that's going to be really awkward after a while." Rise's lip lifted slightly in dismay. "Comparison is inevitable, even outside of competitions. Comparing shades of blue, or bowls of rice, or types of rain, we compare things because it's how we know if we like something or not! We can't-"

The sound of the intercom chiming caused the conversation to halt. After a brief pause, a voice familiar to Shinji spoke, "Shinji, would you please tell your security cordon to let me in?" Ritsuko was clearly unamused at having to wait outside. "I want to try something."

"Ma'am, I've given him explicit orders not to talk to strangers." The voice of the guard that had been responsible for them was also not very amused, "Ikari-san, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi is standing out here with a small tote. Do I have your permission to check her for contraband and escort her in?"

Someone was asking him for permission? "O-oh, uhm…yes?"

"Understood. We'll be opening the door in about three minutes, out." The intercom went dead at that point.

All three women looked to Shinji. Chie with a sense of curiosity, Rise with a sense of concern, and Yukiko with a sense of amusement. While his reply was directed mainly to Chie, it was fairly addressed to all three ladies present, "…What?"

"You think of a blackboard filled with math when you think about her." Spreading her hands helplessly, Chie shrugged. "I have absolutely no clue as to what the math means, mind you, but it's very important to you."

That response changed Rise's mood entirely from concern to confusion. "Wait…math?"

"Ritsuko-san is…really smart," he hedged.

Yukiko's amusement blossomed into full out laughter combined with kicking her heels into the floor while clutching her waist.

The obvious confusion plastered on Shinji's face as he looked to Yukiko for an explanation caused Chie to groan, "I think I kinda understand how Mitsuru-senpai feels whenever one of us misses something blindingly obvious to her."

The door opening cut off the conversation for the moment, Ritsuko walking in just behind the agent that had been protecting them all evening. 'Unamused' had progressed to 'clearly annoyed' for both parties, though it was Ritsuko who spoke first, "Shinji, would you tell her that you and I are more than just 'coworkers'?"

Recalling what happened to Misato the night she'd attempted to speak with him, how Yuko demonstrated that she was more than just 'menial labor', brought a sense of urgency to mind. "I-I…I'd hope we are? I don't really know what we are, but…well…."

"She's cool," Chie chimed in. "Do we need to draw up a list of people that he's ok with? Would that help?"

"Not really," the agent replied with a far less hostile tone, "considering the list might change from minute to minute. I'm less concerned about my convenience than I am about employees following security guidelines."

Ritsuko had moved over to Shinji, running her hand over his back as she allowed her snark out to play, "Shinji, I'm hearing the strangest sound of a little mouse whining. Do you need me to call Facilities to put out some traps?"

"Agent-san has been tasked with a very difficult job." His opinion on this was formed around how he felt about Akane and Mikoto, and his thoughts were expressed with total honesty. "After the past week, especially with the magical enemies we're facing, I think it's important that we take what she says seriously."

"I am going to love working with this man," the Agent snorted out a laugh. "Keep me in the loop if someone becomes persona non grata, right?"

"I will, because he'll have a very hard time doing it himself." Chie held up a hand. "I'm not afraid to make my opinion known."

Giving her a high-five, the Agent nodded and turned to leave. "Teamwork, I like it."

Once it was only the five of them in the room, with the Agent back outside and in her position, Shinji tipped his head towards the three younger ladies while addressing Ritsuko, "I'm able to defend myself, for the most part…they're not. I've been shot, stabbed, and hit hard enough that I should have had my bones turned to powder…they haven't. This protection is for them, not me."

"Message received," Ritsuko surrendered gamely. "I'll stop tormenting the drones."

"Thank you." An honest smile at having his request listened to and granted lifted his mood and shone through his voice, "Is there something I can do to help?"

Unable to keep a reciprocal smile from growing, the leggy scientist held up the small tote. "You can, actually. I need to test a theory regarding the plugsuit, so that you don't have to pilot nude. I also need to speak with you in private, for a few minutes. Well," she turned enough to gesture towards Chie, "she'll be welcome as well. Since she knows your thoughts, it'd be rather silly to try and exclude her when all she has to do is let your mind tell her everything."

"Why private?" Rise continued to have doubts about Ritsuko's presence. Between the age difference, the 'power' difference, and the education difference, she saw far too much potential for serious abuse. "What can't you say in front of us that you can say in front of Chie-chan?"

Far from a neophyte with regards to interpersonal relationships, Ritsuko simply gave Rise a level look. "Because the information involved is classified, specifically to protect people who are better off ignorant of the truth. Pilot Ikari has an essential 'need to know', and with her connection to him Miss Satonaka will be expected to maintain the same degree of secrecy."

Chie's eyes lit up. "Do I get to sign papers? Will I get to say, 'I can neither confirm nor deny this'?" Catching Shinji's pulse of confused emotions, she laughed happily. "I know you've never been exposed to movies or TV shows that have secret agent stuff, but I've always wanted to legitimately have the ability to tell someone that I can't legally tell them something. It's like a secret power, just one of the lamer ones."

"There will be paperwork to sign, yes," Ritsuko admitted with an amused grin. "But it's really more of putting your thumb on the tablet where I ask you to. Biometrics will handle the rest." Looking to both rooms, she moved the situation along. "Which room belongs to you two?"

"We…uhm, we haven't decided." Shinji looked to Chie, clearly seeking an opinion.

Chie pointed to the room on the right from the entryway. "That one."

"That one it is." Herding Shinji and letting Chie jog ahead to grab the door, Ritsuko got the pair alone. Closing the door, then hitting a key sequence on the pad next to the portal, she spoke aloud, "Two Four Six Zero One. That will activate the door's override and the room's white noise generator. Nobody outside will hear you, and without that code the only way in is by forcing the door."

"Two, four, six, zero, one. Two, four, six, zero, one. Two, four, six, zero, one." Chie kept chanting the number under her breath, committing it to memory.

Remembering the five digits was nothing for Shinji, not that he'd likely use the code regardless. "What's going on?"

"Strip," Ritsuko urged him, pulling out a plugsuit that was designed so that everything above the waist was mostly see-through. "I do need you to try this on. What I needed was to actually speak with Chie, here. I'm using you as cover for her."

"Me?" The energetic brawler didn't bother to hide her confusion. "Why me?"

"Because I need, desperately, for him to spray man-juice." When Chie's eyes went wide, and Shinji's brow furrowed, Ritsuko chuckled. "I wasn't joking earlier. Maya and I like him, and we'd like to have him around. You also have a very serious claim to him, considering you can hear his thoughts and sense his emotions. Seeing as I'm going to have to ramp his 'emotions' up rather significantly to acquire what I need, I wanted to get a feel for how you're going to react to that."

Chie could feel the undertones of compromise and cooperation in Ritsuko's statement. The beautiful scientist wanted to approach this situation as a colleague, maybe even as a friend. Having spent much of her life dealing with duplicitous jerks who wanted to date Yukiko simply because they wanted to pressure her into physical romance, she had a good feel for such nuances. If Ritsuko wanted to be bold, then bold she would receive. "Why don't we work together, then? You've already helped him, once, and when he thinks of you it's with overwhelming positivity. I have no idea how I'm going to feel, but I think I'd rather just face it head on instead of in a room by myself. This way, if it's just not going to work, I have more immediate ways to let him know how uncomfortable it is. That should help him relax, too."

Letting the offer sit in the open for a moment as Shinji stood there naked and wide-eyed, Ritsuko buttressed a counterproposal with the rest of her initial thoughts, "I was going to offer to let you get it for me, but if you're willing to experiment I'm willing to as well…after I speak with my girlfriend about it. Being nude and naughty with Shinji is one thing, but including another young lady without letting her know is simply rude. Which should be advice you heed, as your circle grows."

"I agree, that's a good point." She looked to Shinji with a contented grin. "You're right, she's a good person. I'm glad you two work together, you'll need someone like her around after you get hurt…again."

Shinji sat down on the bed and began tugging the plugsuit into place. "A-are you…uhm, are you sure you're ok with…you know…."

While Ritsuko dialed Maya's number, Chie sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder. "Am I sure? No. Do we have a choice? Not really. Would I rather face this, like I said, head on? Definitely. I'm going to have to share you, and I'm going to have to accept that there's enough room in your mind for more than me. I'd like to limit the number of people involved, at least…as much as we can limit them, but my mom always told me that when I got married I'd have to understand I was marrying a man and not a 'home improvement project'. I have to accept the bad with the good, the hard with the easy, and give my best effort so that I have the right to ask for your best effort."

His hand was covered by the glove of the plugsuit, the zipper pulled taut but the fabric still loose and flowing. That fact helped him have the bravery to reach over and take Chie's hand in his own. "I…I can't promise much…but I absolutely promise I'll always give you my best effort. With how you make me feel…I can't give you anything less."

"Hey babe," Ritsuko chirped as her line connected. "Yeah, no, he's fine. I'm calling because 'the other woman' would like to try a multi-person approach to securing the next Shinji Special, and I wanted to clear that with…." Her eyes rolled as her lips curled into a pleased grin. "But she is the other woman, babe. After all, we had him first." Clearly fighting back laughter, she once more listened to her girlfriend berate her with amusement. "Yes, dear. I'll even get on my knees and grovel if that will make you happy." Pocketing her phone, Maya hanging up on her after a few choice words, she looked at the suit hanging limp on Shinji. "She's supportive of the idea, so that won't be a problem. First, though, we're going to have to see if this suit acts like I think it's going to."

"There's no control bracelet," Shinji wiggled the wrist that the device was typically moored to.

"You are correct." Gesturing for Chie to move aside, she pulled out a battery that she'd modified with a pair of leads. "I want you to close your eyes, and remain calm. If I'm right, this will explain a lot."

Closing his eyes as requested and waiting for whatever was supposed to happen, he was surprised when he felt the plugsuit calmly tighten up around his body. There was no pain, no discomfort, only a snug feeling of skin-tight clothing. His brow knit in confusion, but his eyes remained closed. "Why would my eyes being open matter?"

"Because you are a nexus for unscientific aggravation," she responded with irritation. "You can open your eyes." Pocketing the battery, she shook her head and gestured to the plugsuit while addressing Chie, "Have you noticed him having what you would consider 'bad luck'? Things going wrong around him when they wouldn't have for anyone else? People acting strangely, out of character, but only around him?"

"Uh…maybe?" Chie wasn't sure that she could point to any one glaring instance, but a lot of small details painted a large picture. "I mean, I don't want to be mean, but I'd rate his entire life so far as 'bad luck'."

Ritsuko nodded, understanding the point Chie was making. "Catch," she flipped two coins unexpectedly towards them, "heads," she pointed to Chie, "tails," to Shinji. Both coins were caught, and she motioned for them to open their hands. Chie's was 'tails', as was Shinji's. "Shinji," she held her hand out expectantly.

"It's going to be heads," he stated as he flipped the coin back to her. Motioning for Chie to do the same, only to give the coin to him, he added, "So is this one." After both coins ended up 'heads', he looked to Ritsuko for answers that he hoped she had. "I don't get why this happens. Yukiko and I had this conversation with…someone. I know how the coin toss will land. I don't know how I know that, though."

"Nexus. Unscientific. Aggravation." The emerald-eyed beauty scraped her fingers through her hair. "The card tricks, the people landing in your circle of friends just so, the plugsuit failures leading to us discovering security flaws…somehow, and I wish I could explain it, the things that happen around you happen around you for a reason." She motioned for patience. "It's circular, I know. You can look at all of this as a 'self-fulfilling prophecy' and not be wrong in the slightest as far as I can tell, but there are too many conveniences piling up around us. You're…lucky, but in a very, very, particular way."

With a thoughtful frown, Shinji threw the coin he was holding towards the door while saying, "Edge." Sure enough, the coin bounced off the door, landed on the cast polymer floor…and became stuck in a previously unseen crack so that it was standing upright on one edge. "This…this isn't…." Standing, he glared down at the coin with a righteous anger brewing in his gut. "No." Before either woman could speak, he repeated himself, "No."

Appearing in the room, eyes slightly wild with an air of worry wafting freely from her, Shizuko promptly further reduced the chances of discussing whatever it had been that Shinji discovered. "Master, we have been betrayed!" Zipping across the room, remaining no taller than ten centimeters, she hugged Shinji's neck tight. "The Fae were attempting to mislead you, trying to mislead us all! She was caught twisting The Star's thoughts, then was banished and disunified by the Earth Sprite…it's terrible!"

Taking two long steps over, he punched in the door code and stalked out of the room without further comment. Ignoring the hue and cry from all four human women in the room, he tore the door out into the hallway in half and strode through several security personnel while moving on a path that would take him somewhere, anywhere, else. His tattoos were flickering between blue highlights and red, his eyes struggling between blue and yellow. Any who saw his face and failed to move out of his way imperiled their own lives.

+++++ Author's Notes:

RE: Air Horn.

I kept one in my office throughout my military career, and have one in my office at work even now. You never know when you're going to need to inform everyone around you that they should be paying attention to you and not to themselves or each other. I can yell loud enough to be heard across a parade field, but it's easier to just press the button on the air horn and let physics do its thing.

RE: Yui and Misato.

Part of the problem is Yui wanting an excuse to move Misato back away from Shinji. She needed Misato's help, received that help without having to sacrifice Misato's career due to boundaries remaining intact, and now can attempt to keep her in a leadership role without compromises. Another part is that Yui remains jealous of Misato, and doesn't want Doctor Katsuragi's daughter involved with her son. A final part is that Misato was, in fact, given a blank check. That kind of trust comes with a higher bar for keeping important details away from the one who gives it to you. I've had more than one blank check given to me, and the pressure to explain why I spent what I did was enormous. Since, factually, she didn't do anything with Shinji she had no reason to not report as much. That she kept it to herself means she might be hiding something else, which is a huge breach of trust.