"Huh. I didn't actually expect you to go out and say it, Princess. Congratulations."

"What's the point in hiding it anymore? Misato knows, you know, even Wondergirl has figured it out and because someone I could mention didn't keep their mouth shut, half the base has probably put two and two together by now," Asuka replied with a soft growl. "I can hear them laughing behind my back, already..."

"Come on, aren't you being too dramatic there? And I already apologised for that joke!" Mari protested with a roll of her eyes. "Do you always rake people over the coals this much, Princess?"

"Only those who deserve it."

"Which is basically everyone, I guess?" the Fifth Child lightly taunted back, satisfied when Asuka's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "In any case, I'll cut it with the jokes if you want, but since the topic has already come up I… sooort of want to talk about Shinji Ikari, now."

"Why?" Rei's inquisitive question came from the other side of the table.

"Why not? I mean, come on," Mari leaned over the table, putting on a sweet smile and resting her head on her hands. "I've learned about the famous Third Child from word of mouth and some reports, but I'm curious as to what makes him such a big deal. How can I let go of the chance to speak about the man with the two people that he worked the closest with?"

"And what's it to you what Shinji's like?" Asuka grumbled back, crossing her arms and leaning back against her chair the same distance Mari had covered. The Fifth Child merely smiled wider.

"Call it gossip. After all, what girl wouldn't be curious?" Mari stood up from her seat and walked over towards Rei before throwing her arms around the bluenette from behind, much to the First Child's surprise. "This unassuming young man managed to charm the spitfire Second Child, and even Ice Queen Ayanami warms up a little when she talks about him. I can tell!"

Curling into herself as much as she could to defend against the unfamiliar, Rei tried her best to hide the reactions that confirmed each and every one of the Fifth Child's words. Despite her efforts, though, the contrast between the soft blush on her cheeks and the girl's pale skin was impossible to miss.

"...Please let go."

"Ha ha, knew it!" Mari cheered. She then completely disregarded the pleas of her captive and held on to her even tighter. "And I'll let you go in a while. Maybe. Did you know that you're very huggable, Bluebird?"

Rei's response to the question was a nondescript moan and an acceptance of the fuzzy feelings the Fifth Child's embrace undoubtedly brought out within her. Either that, or the blue haired girl had quickly and sensibly given up on her vain attempts at escape for the time. Either option was fine with Mari, really.

"...The hell are you doing, you pervert?"

But it wasn't so for Asuka.

"Nuzzling against one of my two cute teammates?" Mari cheekily replied, continuing to do just that. "Or is the Princess jealous? I've got arms for two people, you know?"

"As if!" Asuka quickly shot back, pushing her seat backwards a step further to hammer her point home. "Why don't you leave the both of us alone and go cuddle up with Aida, instead?!"

"Aida?" Mari blinked, quickly putting a face to the name. "Oh, you mean the guy at the batting cages?"

"Yeah! The one that nearly had a heart attack when you kissed him on the cheek!" Asuka jeered, jumping at the chance to get some of the attention off of Shinji, and by association, herself. "An idiot for an idiot, you'd make such a cute couple!"

"Hmm..." Mari went silent at the redhead's taunting words, a thoughtful look coming to her face. "He might not be much to look at right now, but take off the dorky glasses and give him a few years and he'll probably be above average. I wouldn't mind him, actually."

"...What."

"Why not? It's a possibility like any other. Or that's what I would say if I didn't have other, more important stuff to worry about, anyway," Mari shrugged nonchalantly at Asuka's deadpan stare, following that with a smile. "Maybe in another life?

"And it's not like you're one to talk, Princess," Mari continued, her lips curving even further into a smirk. "I mean, Sleeping Beauty has a bit of a girly thing going for him, but he's kind of unremarkable in his looks outside of that, at least for right now. Didn't stop a certain someone from falling head over heels for him, though~"

"It's not like that. I said that I had a stupid teenage crush on him, sure, but don't go claiming anything more."

"...And our Princess keeps on being stubborn. I really thought there was a glimmer of hope back there." Mari sighed, before finally letting go of her blue-haired captive to sit back on her chair. She then focused her entire attention on Asuka once again, hands supporting her head over the table as a teasing smile took over her face. "So, since you have admitted to liking the guy already, answer me this now: have you two kissed yet?"

"Bwha!?"

"Oooh~, that's a 'Yes' if I ever saw one!" Mari giggled, pressing the offensive against the suddenly flustered redhead. "Tell me, tell me: do the Third Child's well-known talents translate to anything else? How did it go?"

For a few seconds, Asuka sat frozen in her chair like a deer caught in the headlights, the blush that had appeared in her cheeks at the sudden question quickly gaining in intensity and spreading around until it looked as if her red hair had grown to cover every last bit of her face. Just as swiftly, the Second Child tried to hide her embarrassment by hunkering down behind her arms and, for a moment, Mari thought that Asuka would just clamp down and go silent again.

But the Second Child surprised her by letting out a disappointed sigh that spoke volumes in and of itself to escape her fort, followed by an actual response to the question.

"...Terrible."

"Ouch, that's a shame," Mari gently reassured the crestfallen redhead, resisting the urge to reach forward and pat her head. "But don't let it get you down, take it as a learning experience for when he wakes up! You could even put your Princess Charming talents to the test until he does! I won't tell anyone!"

"Will you ever shut up about that?" Asuka growled back, emerging just enough to glare at the annoying Fifth Child.

"Maybe when you gather up the courage to try a second time," Mari grinned, then shifted her eyes towards Rei. "And how about you, Bluebird? What do you like about the famous Third Child?"

"Me...?" Rei replied with a puzzled look, inching just slightly backwards so as to ward off against the possibility of a second attack against her personal space. A valiant strategy that was mercilessly countered when Mari advanced forward, staying always at arm's reach, and that Rei was forced to completely abandon when her own chair softly clacked against Asuka's. A quick look revealed that the Second Child was staring at her with a mixture of curiosity and irritation.

"I don't see any other infinitely huggable blue-haired girls in this room, so… yeah, I guess that'd be you," Mari confirmed, throwing a Cheshire smile at her trapped prey. "Out with it!"

Squirming just the slightest bit at the situation she found herself in, the First Child's usual stoicism faltered under the unexpected inquiry, eyes dancing here and there as the rosy tinge found its way to her cheeks for a second time in too short a time. To make matters even worse, Rei noticed out of the corner of her eye how Asuka took more interest into this new turn of the conversation, as well.

"I..." Rei hesitantly began, before her eyes suddenly hardened and she began to stand up. "I don't see how that line of questioning has anything to do with our training."

But a quick hand on her wrist stopped the bluenette from actually rising. When she turned to look, Rei found the Second Child holding onto her, eyes narrowing in her direction.

"Oh no, you're not weaselling your way out of this one, Wondergirl. I'm not going to be the only one being embarrassed today."

"Nice catch, Princess!" Mari cheered from the other side, only to find the same look sent her way an instant later.

"Shut up, I'm not doing this for you."

"That's fine, that's fine, I understand. It's only common sense to want to know the conditions of the battlefield before diving in, isn't it?" Mari offhandedly waved away the enmity, grinning as she inched closer to the now resigned bluenette. "So, you were saying, Rei-chan?"

The First Child watched quietly as Asuka mumbled something at Makinami's latest remark and let go of her wrist as it if had been on fire, before she rested her head on the table once again and made a terrible attempt at appearing completely uncaring towards the discussion. Rei, for her part, contemplated how best to answer the Fifth Child's question, since it was now painfully apparent that she wasn't going be successful at evading a response.

It wasn't long until Rei found one to her liking.

"I enjoy Ikari-kun's warmth."

"H-His 'warmth'?!" Asuka quickly blew her cover, drawing out a surprised blink from the First Child. "What the heck's that supposed-?!"

"Peace, Princess. I'm sure that's not what she meant," Mari swiftly cut Asuka off with a teasing smile. "And even if it were... well, Sleeping Beauty's still free to do whatever he wants for the time being, you know?"

Rei thought she heard something akin to grinding teeth from the Second Child before she turned away with a huff and went back to her previous position. She was not bothering with trying to hide her interest anymore, however.

Mari then turned towards Rei once again.

"So you like being around him, I take it?"

"I enjoy his company, yes," Rei replied with a nod of her head. "Ikari-kun has always been kind to me in the past."

"Enough for you to want to be around him more often?" Mari pressed, smile growing ever wider.

"...Yes," Rei admitted, before her expression turned a bit more serious. "But that is not something that will happen."

"Why not?" Asuka harped from behind. "Just tell him to follow and he will, it's not like that moron knows how to do anything else."

The Second Child quickly found herself keenly observed by her fellow Pilots, Makinami doing that annoying thing with her face that meant she knew Asuka was either missing or hiding something. Even worse, and breaking through her usual non-expression, Ayanami was doing something strikingly similar, too.

"...What?!"

"Nothing!" Mari deflected, far too quickly for Asuka's taste. She then stood up and stretched a bit. "In any case, how about we-"

"Hey! Not so fast!" Asuka interrupted, quickly grabbing hold of Mari's wrist, too. "What about you?"

"Eh?" the Fifth Child echoed, pointing at her face. "Me?"

"Yeah, you. Why should we be the only ones talking about this stuff?"

"Indeed," Rei promptly agreed, causing one of Mari's eyebrows to rise up. "It is only fair."

Mari couldn't help a chuckle. Something about hearing the almost indignant voice of the First Child was terribly amusing.

"Well... sorry to disappoint, but I don't have any spicy stories to tell, myself."

"Wait," Asuka scoffed in response. "So you mean to tell me that you're running your mouth about... that, and you don't have any actual experience to your name?"

"I guess."

"Bullshit."

"I'm glad that you found my input so reliable that my lack of practical know-how may sound like a lie, Princess. But you know better than anyone how us EVA Pilots don't get a lot of spare time," Mari shrugged. "So take it or leave it."

"You're a backup," Asuka argued, narrowing her eyes. "You're not even a real Pilot."

"I still went through the full rigours of training, you know? That leaves the chances for fooling around somewhere in the negatives."

"I trained to Pilot EVA all my life and still had time to get a degree."

"And not all of us lowly mortals are geniuses, Princess," Mari shot back, her smile turning playful. "I'm sure your crush will like it if you remember that."

The next comeback died on the Second Child's lips, a faint blush rising to decorate her cheeks.

"Bah, whatever. I'll get the truth out of you eventually," Asuka grumbled and sat back down, crossing her arms in defeat. "But that's got me thinking: why didn't NERV bring you to pilot Unit-01 back during the first Angel attack if you were trained for it? Why bring Stupid Shinji?"

"Don't know. Maybe time was too short to bring me here from China, or maybe you've always been right from the beginning and a fair bit of nepotism was at play. I'm not sure I'd have made a much better job than Sleeping Beauty did, anyway," Mari then turned her attention back to the kitchen. "But I think that's enough talk for tonight. I spied a box of sleep-well infusions in one of the cupboards earlier, so what says we have one final drink and go to bed? Katsuragi's planning to make tomorrow a long day for us, I'm pretty sure."

"...Yeah, that's Misato, alright." Asuka groaned in agreement, thinking the proposal through for a second or two. "Okay, hit me up. I've never had any, but what's the worst that could happen, eh?"

"Cool. What about you, Bluebird?"

"I'll have a cup, as well." Rei concurred with a nod after a moment's deliberation.

With a big smile and a flourish, Mari reached into one of the cabinets and took out the required amount from a tiny, decorated cardboard box. She then hurried to fill three cups of water, speaking over her work and to the other two Pilots.

"Gotcha, that's three little bags, then. I'll have them ready in a jiffy, so why don't you get started with the beds?" the Fifth Child required before she raised a finger to the sky. "Tonight, we sleep like logs! And tomorrow, we show everyone our amazing teamwork!"

And whether Mari Makinami expected an excited cheer or not, the truth was that her enthusiasm never garnered such a response. Much to the Fifth Child's chagrin, Ayanami simply tilted her head in confusion while Asuka left the room with a roll of her eyes.

"...Real tough crowd," Mari moaned to herself when Rei, too, had walked out of earshot. "...This is going to be one long training camp."

-O]|[O-

In turns, Shinji faced towards Asuka and Ace with eyes wide as plates. His shaky finger continued to point at the large screen as the scene played out, the Third Child's lips moving by themselves but failing to produce any meaningful or understandable words.

"BWHA?!"

They finally did, but the result was still neither meaningful nor understandable.

"Easy, Shinji," Asuka quickly but gently grabbed hold of the panicking Third Child. "Calm down."

But her kind efforts only seemed to worsen his state, Shinji quickly pushing the helping hand away.

"A-A-Are you serious!? How am I supposed to be calm?! This is insane!" Shinji exclaimed, wildly flailing in the direction of the screen. "Did you know about that?!"

"I… didn't really remember when I first found you, likely a side-effect of my forced disconnection from HQ, but I guess the blanks sort of slowly filled by themselves without me noticing," Asuka explained with a pained grimace. "By the time you reached the top of the mountain I had fully figured it out, but… I didn't know how to let you know, or even if it would have been a good idea to let you know. Guess Asuka decided to make that decision for me, eh?"

"So… i-it's true, then?"

"Well… I guess," Asuka shrugged at Shinji's nervous question. "But if you want some extra confirmation…"

The redhead trailed off and motioned with her head towards where Ace was sitting, looking as if she'd just been witness to a car crash. Feeling both their stares against her, the Pilot turned towards Shinji and her face lit up like a flaming ball, the girl quickly turning around once more.

"D-Don't look at me!" Ace protested, still looking away. "This is your mess! You explain it!"

"Fine, fine…" Asuka sighed with a roll of her eyes. She then prepared herself for what was likely going to be a long-winded explanation before her eyes caught on to what was going on in the main screen. "…Actually, maybe we can continue this talk a little bit later, Shinji."

"What? Why?"

"Because I think you should pay some attention to what they are saying now," Asuka elaborated, handing Shinji his headphones and bringing the boy's eyes back to the screen. "It sounds important."

And that was how Shinji got himself a first row seat to a girl talk that he wasn't meant to be privy to, a very embarrassing experience that he could have done without. He watched as Makinami-san showed some interest in him and pressed Asuka for details on her recent admission, eventually getting Asuka to spill the beans about the kiss. That alone, and the way in which Asuka told her version about what happened, was enough to put yet more worries in Shinji's mind, but the most shocking event of the evening came when the First Child made a confession of her own.

'A-Ayanami, too?!' Shinji thought to himself, still having major trouble believing his ears. He thought he heard Ace grumble something about a Casanova, too, but he was far too busy holding onto his crumbling beliefs to pay it much mind.

Eventually, and almost as if she had heard Shinji's pleas for mercy and taken pity on him, Makinami decided that the girls should call it a night and left to prepare some drinks that would help them all sleep while Asuka and Ayanami got to setting up the futons. A few minutes later and darkness began to seep into the screen from above and below, covering the entire thing in a short few seconds and prompting it to deactivate once its purpose for the day had been fulfilled.

Asuka had fallen asleep and Shinji couldn't have been happier to see it, because he truly didn't think his mind could have taken one more revelation of the same size the last few had been. His hands still shook a fair bit more than he would have liked, but the Third Child took off his headphones and set them on top of the console, his eyes slowly looking around him and taking stock of the situation:

The little worker Asukas continued to run around as if nothing whatsoever had changed, Asuka looked like she was barely keeping herself from jumping over and giving him a hug, and Ace was looking everywhere except in his direction. Worryingly enough, Maisie was nowhere to be seen, but in light of the recent developments, Shinji's mind promptly put that detail on the 'to be handled later' pile.

Instead, and as the lights in the command room dimmed as if they were signalling an end to the work-shift, the young man turned his confused eyes towards Asuka.

"A-Are you s-serious…?"

"I couldn't have doctored something like that even at my full capabilities. Not that I would have wanted to, anyway," the redhead confirmed, doing a calming motion with her hands. "But let's move on with baby steps, alright? You were asking me something before, remember?"

"...Right. Take it slow." Shinji did as he was told, taking in a few deep breaths before continuing. "...So the day Asuka and I k-kissed was… the day that you were expelled?"

"No, that came later. But what I did that day was the start of everything," Asuka explained with a sigh. "After all, and even if it was something that I hadn't planned on, seizing control for myself also meant that I had complete and total responsibility over Asuka's actions. For a while, I left Ace and Maisie without a job to do."

"...And that was bad, right?" Shinji ventured, thinking back to his idea about keeping the three Aspects in balance.

Also, the young man couldn't help but feel that there was something different about Asuka. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was almost as if she sounded... older?

"It wasbad, alright," Asuka agreed, further confirming Shinji's suspicions. "I mean, the whole thing sounded really nice until I realised that I don't know the first thing about piloting an Evangelion or handling Asuka's depressive episodes when they happen. And boy, did Asuka become sad after what I had forced her to do."

A shadow came over Shinji's face, the young man remembering Asuka's sigh of disappointment when she had told the girls about how terrible the kiss had been. He didn't need to think hard on the reason as to why that could have been.

"…So she regretted kissing me?" Shinji asked, recalling his own pang of guilt and hurt when Asuka had appeared to airily dismiss the whole thing with her gargles in the bathroom.

"No, dummy. Not like you're probably thinking, anyway," Asuka gently corrected him. "She got sad because you didn't kiss her back."

"W-What?"

"Why didn't you, anyway?" Ace suddenly intruded, reminding everyone about how she was still there, albeit looking at the opposite wall. "I mean, you just stood there like a fish."

"...I don't know. I was scared, I guess," Shinji defended himself, still reeling from the series of revelations. "Asuka asking me for a kiss had come out of nowhere and I just... didn't know what to do. I was sure that she would have gotten angry at me for touching her."

"And why did you think that?!" Ace protested, finally turning back towards the pair. "A girl literally went and kissed you out of her own volition! That's about as big an invitation as you can get!"

"An invitation? From someone that was keeping my nose plugged?" Shinji shot back, wide-eyed. Before long, however, that surprise turned to anger. "And what about previous experience for a reason to be afraid? Living with her for months and having Asuka explode at the smallest thing? She used to yell at me for brushing her arm on accident and I was supposed to figure out that at that time, at that specific time, she actually wanted me to hold her?! What kind of screwed up logic is that?!"

"I…" Ace flinched and recoiled back a little bit, before she smoothly transitioned from her faux-pas by standing up from her chair and walking around in circles. Grumbling to herself, the Pilot eventually noticed the meaningful stare that Asuka was throwing her way and narrowed her eyes in response. "…Okay, fine. Point taken, brat."

Shinji promptly shifted his attention from one redhead to the other.

"Point? What point is she talking about?"

"Remember all of those mixed messages you were getting from Asuka?" His assistant explained with a motion towards her other. "You've got Ace to thank for those."

"Hey, don't make it sound like it's all on me! That other moron helped from time to time, too. It's not like I was ever on board with the idea to begin with, anyway," the Pilot shot back, annoyed, her eyes then travelling until her irritation was landing straight on Shinji. "And it's not my fault that he's dense as a rock."

"I'm not dense! When did Asuka ever say that she liked me?!"

"How about that time she told you not to cross the walls of Jericho, you moron?"

"The walls of…" Shinji rolled the familiar name in his mouth for a few moments before he turned to look at Asuka. "Wait, you mentioned them, too. What's the big deal with those walls? Asuka said that they were impenetrable?"

"The insurmountable walls of Jericho were destroyed as an act of God when Joshua and his Israelite army marched around the city and blew their trumpets. The walls of Jericho are famous not because they were strong, but because they crumbled."

"What?" Shinji turned Asuka's words in his head, his expression looking more and more confused by the second. "But that doesn't make any…"

Until an exasperated Ace flicked him in the forehead.

"She was inviting you into her room, you moron."

"W-W-What?! She… I… Eh?!" Shinji spluttered, the hidden meaning finally sinking into his brain. Just at that moment, however, an important flaw in Asuka's logic came to the forefront of his mind. "H-Hey, wait a second: why does that make me dense?! How was I supposed to know anything about some old tale from the other side of the world?!"

"You weren't supposed to." Ace calmly replied, bringing Shinji's comeback to a screeching halt. The Third Child's only response was to blink. And then blink again, his open mouth failing to serve as a gateway for words as his eyebrows drew ever closer in confusion.

"And stuff like this is why I say that you're dense, Third," Ace continued, clearly taking pity on him. "Say, why do you think that I went to all the effort of making it hard for you to understand?"

"…I don't know," Shinji replied, finding his tongue once more. "Maybe she was embarrassed?"

"No. That would be because no matter what she says I, and by extent Asuka, have no actual interest in someone that's just a freaking doormat, Third. And guess who fits that bill?" Ace elaborated, crossing her arms in condescendence. "At least most of the time that you're not in your EVA, anyway."

"Someone's been ignoring the readings she didn't want to read, I see." Asuka criticised from the back, moving forward until she was standing in front of Ace again.

"The only thing I've ignored is teenage hormones doing their thing," the Pilot scoffed. "You're the one who's reading far too much into them, because exactly the same thing that happened with the Third would have happened if we had been forced to live together with just about any other boy on the planet."

"You know that's not true."

"And you know you're full of shit. We're fighting a war, defending the planet, being big damn heroes!" Ace shouted back, her arms going up and up with each one of her words until they fell back down, the Pilot almost spitting her next line. "And you'd throw all of that away to play the love-struck damsel at the worst of times."

"I never said that what we have to do wasn't important! But ignoring Asuka's wants just because they don't fit into your agenda is just irresponsible!"

"Irresponsible? That's rich, coming from the one that got her this close to losing the achievement of her life!" Ace drew her thumb and index fingers close together, visibly getting angrier and angrier. "And for doing exactly what you just said I shouldn't, too. Does that bit of hypocrisy taste good?"

"I know I made a mistake," Asuka argued back, her temper also beginning to flare in a way that convinced Shinji's instincts to take a step or five back. "I'm just trying to stop you from making another one!"

"Unlike you, I don't make mistakes," Ace proclaimed, circling around Asuka and pinning Shinji with her gaze for a second. "But fine, let's assume for a second that I listen to you: you push for what you want and Asuka gets together with that idiot over there or some other random guy, I don't care. Everything's nice and rosy for a while, but then the magic fades, or they get bored of her, or they realise that their picture of the Great Second Child is not what they thought it would be and she's a lot more work to keep around than she's worth.

"And then they decide to leave despite Asuka begging them to stay. And then Asuka's alone and heartbroken and back on square one, having gained absolutely nothing of value from the entire experience except a big pile of regrets. The end."

"You don't know for sure that will happen," Asuka seethed, her hands drawing into tight fists.

"Neither do you know that it won't," Ace bit back, "So in the very likely scenario where Asuka finds herself on her own again, what will you do then? Will you go back to crying in your baby farm and make us fix your mess again?"

"No, I won't. If it happens, that's life."

"That's not life, that's useless. Like playing Russian roulette and hoping your brains won't get splattered," Ace shot back, putting a hand against her chest. "And I'm not up for gambling. If I can't have a love story that will mean something, then I don't want one at all."

Both girls locked eyes and tried to will the other into forfeiting the argument, the clash turning into a silent titanic struggle until, after what had felt like an entire minute, Asuka quietly looked away and towards the floor. Her fists were still shaking, but apparently that was enough for Ace to consider the argument her victory, sending Shinji a brief, serious look as she motioned with her head to Asuka, before the Pilot got ready to leave the room.

But then, and as he got to thinking about how he could cheer his assistant up like Ace apparently wanted him to, Shinji thought he heard Asuka mumble something to herself. And he must have not been alone in thinking that, because Ace paused her steps long enough to turn around and demand some clarification as well.

"What was that, brat?"

"I said that you are the brat!" Asuka suddenly exploded, making both Shinji and Ace recoil. "It's not worth doing because it could go wrong, or because it might end?! Don't give me that crap! Love doesn't need to be forever for it to be worth it! And you know that! You're just using it as an excuse for not trying!"

"An excuse?!" Ace scoffed, quickly getting past her shock and drawing herself up at the challenge. "An excuse she says!"

"Yes, an excuse!" Asuka pressed, moving forward too. "Because what you really are is scared. Scared that if we try and it works, you'll become unnecessary the moment Asuka finds something to focus her life on that's not EVA! But if only you'd understand that-!"

A thunderous strike cut off whatever it was that Asuka had been meaning to say. The cracking thunder had come straight from a fist clad in red, its contact with Asuka's left cheek sending the redhead flying against the back wall and leaving her in a crumpled heap, apparently unharmed but groaning in discomfort.

"I… I'm not scared," Ace declared to her fallen opponent, in a voice that was as shaky as her extended fist. "And I'm not going anywhere."

"Ace! What are you doing?!"

Shinji quickly put himself between the two girls to try and bring an end to the fight, even if he knew full well that his best efforts would have meant absolutely nothing had Ace wanted to push past him. But fortunately for Shinji, the Pilot was content to stare at her counterpart with an expression that was steadily morphing into anger. She was so out of it, in fact, that the young man heavily suspected Ace hadn't even noticed how he had stepped in her way.

A quick memory of how Ace had effortlessly handled the knight decided to fly past his mind's eye at just that moment, his brain further noting how Ace had not looked anywhere near as angry back then as she did now. It was almost funny how she always seemed to find some way to prove him wrong every single time that Shinji thought Ace had reached the ceiling of her anger levels.

But, although funny, it wasn't really important at that moment in time. What was actually important was that he needed to fix that situation. And fast. But before he could even begin to fathom how he was going to do so, the Third Child heard his assistant mumble weakly behind him.

"…No. Stop, Shinji. Just let her be."

And before Shinji could turn around completely for a second time, he noticed how he wasn't in the control room anymore. He was back in his room at the farm, Asuka sitting on his bed as she forlornly stared at the wooden floor.

"Asuka!" the Third Child demanded. "Why did you-?!"

"Why did I bring us back?" the redhead finished for him, her voice barely rising over the dull hum of the rain outside. "What? Were you going to fight her, or something?"

It was then that Shinji noticed that Asuka's glum disposition wasn't the only thing that had changed about her. The girl was now wearing some more familiar clothes that he hadn't seen on her yet, the short jeans and t-shirt combination that the real Asuka had worn around the apartment quite often in the past.

"N-No!" Shinji replied, turning his attention from the clothing and back to the matter at hand. "But I wanted to speak with Ace, too!"

"Well, sorry for making that decision for you then, but it wouldn't have done us any good. We were already far too late to get through to her," Asuka sighed deeply. "…And it was my entire fault. I shouldn't have said that."

"But… But it sounded like you were-"

"Right?" the girl finished with a mirthless chuckle. "I was, but the fact that I was right is pointless. I should have said it in some other way, tried to calm her down before opening my big mouth, but I wasn't thinking. I wasn't thinking…" Asuka paused for a few seconds, eyes focused on a spot of the room that appeared to be infinitely far away. "…Just like I didn't stop to think back then, when I believed I had it all figured out."

Shinji stepped a bit closer to the bed's edge but said nothing in return because, quite frankly, he didn't know what to say. Words had never been his forte, especially during tense situations, and while he didn't have to deal with the added difficulty of an Asuka that was primed to explode, it wasn't like an Asuka that was going through a palpable crisis was really any better.

Luckily for him, Asuka continued talking on her own. Perhaps because she had figured out that words of comfort weren't going to be forthcoming.

"Do you remember the last few Angels, Shinji? That was me in the Pilot's seat, so to say. I think it showed," Asuka explained, eyeing Shinji out of the corner of her eye. "That's why no matter what we do, we can't afford to lose Ace again. Asuka might not live through the experience a second time.

"And that's what I was trying to tell her, too, right before she lost it," she continued. "She's far too important, to Asuka and to all of us. Even if EVA were to become a secondary concern to her, Ace wouldn't be 'going anywhere', as she put it."

"H-How do you know that?"

"Because I'm still here," Asuka replied, pointing a finger at herself. "I mean, compared to Ace, I've never been anywhere near as important to Asuka as she is, even at the best of times. But even at her lowest, when Asuka was cutting ties with everyone and just about ready to give up, I didn't disappear. I was still important enough to warrant keeping around, my limited abilities and severed link with HQ notwithstanding."

"Well... that's good, right?" Shinji hesitated, wondering why Asuka was still looking so down if she had a solution to the problem. "We only need to tell Ace that her position is safe!"

"Sure, we can tell her. But we still need to convince her, too, and I just made that about a hundred times harder. Besides, you know how Ace is: it's very likely that she will not take being second place with a smile, anyway."

The sigh that came out of Asuka was long and drawn, and very descriptive of just how weary she was becoming of hitting her head against the wall. Her blue eyes then slowly refocused on the lines that were created by the small wooden floorboards.

"...But what if I'm really a moron like she says and I'm fixating far too much on this? What if I accused her of focusing too much on EVA and I'm no better? First it was Kaji and now it's you. Maybe I should listen to Ace and wait until the war is over before putting even more pressure on Asuka. But what if it's too late by then, and she gets into another downward spiral? Hnngggg…"

'Think of something to say!' Shinji was panicking in the meantime, watching the girl groan as she brought her hand to the bridge of her nose. 'She needs help! She needs you to help her! So just say SOMETHING!'

But for as much as the Third Child beat himself up in the search of the right words to tell Asuka, his results were still completely lacking. He was afraid of making things worse, of saying the wrong thing and making Asuka angry at him or, even worse, making her even more depressed. Shinji found himself at a crossroads and refused to choose a path, instead staring at the signpost and trying to will it into making the choice for him.

"Hey, Shinji. Can I ask you something?"

But it wasn't the signpost, but his assistant who made that decision for him again.

"Y-Yes."

"Do you like Asuka?"

And while the young man had been a bit jumpy at how Asuka had intruded into his panicky thought process, Shinji was also a bit amused about how little the question she had posed had surprised him. A big part of him was surprised that it hadn't come sooner after the big revelation of the day, honestly. But that, of course, still left the matter of answering it.

He did find Asuka attractive, that much was true. But he also found Ayanami attractive in a different way, or Misato, or what little he had seen of Makinami-san, or a lot of the girls he knew from school. That sort of attraction came with the territory of being a healthy teenage boy, but Shinji didn't need a translator to know that Asuka wasn't talking about that.

He really could have used a translator for figuring out what he thought of his roommate at that point in time, however.

"I..." the Third Child mumbled. "...I don't know. Sorry."

"You don't know," Asuka flatly replied, before another almost angry sigh escaped her. "Look Shinji, just tell me if you would have been fine with the whole thing had the kiss and everything after gone a bit more smoothly! It's not rocket science!"

"And I said that I don't know!" Shinji heatedly shot back. "Yes, maybe I would have been fine with it that day, but a lot of things have happened since then! A lot of things that have given me a much worse opinion of Asuka!"

"But you know why-!"

"Yes, I know!" Shinji cut her off. "And that's the problem! I'm starting to understand why all of that happened and it makes all of this A LOT MORE DIFFICULT!"

The sheer volume of Shinji's answer made his words echo around the room and Asuka recoil back a little in fright, the sight bringing Shinji's mind back to the time the red door had first appeared and how he had lashed out at Asuka back then for something that had not been her fault at all. The blame game was nowhere near as simple as it had been at that time, but seeing the same look on Asuka that he had seen that day was enough to knock almost all the anger out of Shinji, harder than any blow he had received while piloting the EVA.

"...Sorry. There I go, pushing without thinking again," Asuka apologised with a strained smile, her eyes retreating back to the bottom of the room. "But we really make for a fine pair, don't we? The infuriatingly wishy-washy guy and the unstoppable idiot girl. It's almost like we're part of some bad joke."

Shinji narrowed his eyes a little at being called 'wishy-washy', but he refrained from actually voicing his displeasure any further. Maybe because he knew that Asuka was right, and this entire mess could have been avoided one way or another if he'd just chosen to do something when he'd had the chance.

'If only it was so easy...'

"So… no?" Asuka shakily continued before Shinji was fully done digesting her previous statement, and the tinge of fear in her voice was almost enough to break his heart.

"I don't know. I just… don't know," Shinji replied, exhausted, as he gestured around him with his arms. "First I want to… No, I need to get out of here. Then… I can start thinking about what I want, and if I want to ask Asuka about what she wants."

Asuka jumped up like a spring and seemed to want to say something in response but she stopped herself, thinking better of it. The crestfallen redhead then looked away and sighed once more, but this time it wasn't a sigh of weariness or self-anger, but it rather sounded like one of acceptance.

"…Alright. That's… alright," Asuka spoke, clear and even. "Honestly, I can't blame you if you wouldn't go ahead with it. With all the terrible things you've had to go through because of our arguments, I really couldn't hold it against you if you decide that keeping Asuka at arm's length is the best thing for you. Hell, maybe Ace really is right and doing that will even be the best thing for her." The redhead admitted with a light scoff. She then sat up straighter, looking like she was swallowing a lump in her throat before she sent a cautious and almost frightened look Shinji's way. "...But Shinji, whatever you choose, will you... still be Asuka's friend? At least until she manages to find her footing? I know that we might not really deserve that at this point, but-"

"...I already said I would do that," Shinji quickly responded before he could even think of stopping himself. "And I still haven't changed my mind."

Finally, the words he had been looking for, and he hadn't even tried to find them. And as a slightly surprised Third Child watched Asuka turn to look at him in overjoyed amazement, he briefly considered that, perhaps, acting on instinct rather than thought sometimes might have been the key he had been missing all along.

Sporting that familiar bright smile that Shinji had missed so much, his assistant jumped off the bed and rushed towards him, wrapping her arms around the young man in a grateful, tight embrace.

"Thanks, Shinji," Asuka spoke next to Shinji's ear, sending ripples all over his body and freezing him up. "We're really so lucky to have you."

But pushing past the shock that had given him pause so many times before, Shinji remembered his recent breakthrough, and it was so that he allowed his arms to do as they wished without stopping to think about it.

And that day, Shinji Ikari held Asuka Langley-Sohryu, too.

A/N: Hey, I'm back with another update outside of the weekly schedule. I decided on a bit of a faster update this time because the next chapter is going to be comparatively shorter to the last two and I didn't want to leave you guys waiting on the previous cliffhanger for too long, either.

I hope the short wait was worth it, by the way. I remember struggling to write the second half of this chapter when I put the original draft to paper two or so years ago, but even if it took some time, I ended up very satisfied with the whole scene when I finished. I was glad to see that it still held up on review and that the only thing I needed to do was change some lines here and there to make my meanings clearer. To me, this part was some of my best writing for the whole story, and I hope that you will agree.

But that's enough from me. Let me know in the reviews if you share my opinion, and I'll see you next week! ;)