Old Friends, New enemies

Chap 4: Apologies are the hardest

A Bucky corporation Fan-Fic

Enter Bucky: HELLO all are we ready to begin?

Enter Asuka: Hell NO! My make up aint here yet and my bagels have been stolen!!! I can't work on an empty stomach!

Enter Shinji: I'm ready……I think

Bucky: ok that's good, Asuka can't you skip breakfast just once?

Asuka: Breakfast? Who said anything about Breakfast?

Bucky: Then why are you complaining about Bagels?

Asuka: Oh THAT breakfast, yeah that's my third

Bucky & Shinji: WHAT????!!!!!

HEHEHEHEHE just trying out Seldons suggestions ^_^

Japan: Present

"Shinji!" the violet haired Misato Katsuragi yanked her head, which had been attached by drool, off the table as the door to the apartment slid open. She was, as usual, sleeping on top of a pile of notes, bills, complaints and reports. It was after all the Operations Directors job to handle all of these individually, hence the pile of empty beer cans and chocolate bars on the floor.

Shinji Ikari walked silently into the apartment and slipped his shoes off, his eyes never left the floor as he made his way to the bathroom. He stopped for a second at the door and thought, he soon said loudly enough for Misato to hear "I'm sorry for causing all that paper work." With that the brown haired pilot slid the door to the bathroom shut concealing himself inside.

Misato sighed loudly and looked towards the bathroom, "poor kid. Why does he think it's his fault? If its anybodies fault it's Asukas." Misato looked over toward the front door where she expected the Second child to walk in any moment. 'I saw what she did to him, she pushed him away…literally' she slurped from her almost empty beer can and sighed, 'I'm gonna need more beer! Maybe I should ask to go half with Pen-Pen for a keg.'

A second later the redheaded German opened the door to the apartment and came running in. "Shinji" her eyes scanned the whole apartment before she looked at Misato "where is he?"

The violet haired woman scowled at Asuka and shrugged her question off, "why should I tell you?" Misato didn't want to be mean to Asuka; she had no idea why she was. Something inside told her that Asuka had done something wrong to her Shinji and Misato was not very pleased, not by a long shot.

Asuka caught the hurtful scowl from her 'guardian' and scowled right back at her, her comment had pissed the redhead off. Of course she should tell her where Shinji was, why shouldn't she? "Where is Shinji?" Asuka repeated seething with rage.

"Leave my little Shinji alone, you've done enough damage" Misato shouted her voice showing as much anger and authority as possible. "He was starting to get better before you came along. I thought you were supposed to be friends! Yet for the last day and a half you've done nothing but scowl at him and ignore him!"

The redhead jerked back a little but soon regained her foothold on the situation "YOUR Shinji, YOUR Shinji. He's MY Shinji, I knew him before you were even a figment of his imagination!" Asuka raised a clenched fist "YOU are just an old drunk who pay's to much attention to my Shinji."

"WHAT did you say?!" Misato slammed her fist down on the table and stood up "I'm not OLD and I'm not a DRUNK. And SHINJI is NOT YOURS," the older woman's voice softened a little "he's not mine either." Misato looked the girl over and could see her body was shaking from rage…or was it something else? After her voice had calmed down she spoke again "Asuka, go to your room and don't try speaking to Shinji until I say so."

"WHAT!! No WAY, I'll talk to him if I want to" Asuka yelled her eyes seemingly drawing new anger to burn off. "If you think you can stop me YOU are WRONG…."

"GO NOW, that's an ORDER" Misato finally let her last remaining rage fly and it was not pretty. Contrary to what people think about the level headed woman she could be quiet the Unit-01 berserker herself.

Asukas face twitched with rage and she felt it necessary to punch the wall before finally giving up and walking down the hall. She stopped at the closed bathroom door and came to the conclusion he was in there. She slowly reached her left hand for the door handle until "I said room, NOW." The redhead dropped her arm and grunted before heading off to her bedroom.

All while this was happening Shinji Ikari lay in the bath, his head deeply submerged under water trying to drown out the sounds of the fight outside. 'All I do is hurt people…all I do is cause pain…'

*********************************************************************

In a dark and mouldy room hidden deep within the Geo-Front and NERV HQ two figures stand before a tank of glowing yellow LCL. Gendo Ikari and Doctor Ritsuko Akagi looked on at the floating form of Rei Ayanami with expressionless faces.

The blue haired girl looked on with an equally expressionless face, though her mind was reeling over an event the day before. She thought of the Second Childs arrival and her seemingly well developed relationship with the Third Child. She was wondering how the presence of this girl could make Shinji act so differently.

She then thought of the Seconds proposal to her a word she had heard many times before but never used herself. Not knowing the answer to her questions bugged the First and she spoke up, "Commander"

Gendo looked up at Reis face a little surprised for her sudden sounds; she usually remained silent during these tests. "Yes Rei?" he answered when he regained his composure.

Rei looked from the Commander then to Doctor Akagi then back to Gendo, "what is…a friend?" Her voice was still emotionless, except the tinge of curiousness.

The bearded man looked to his companion then back to Rei, "a friend, why do you ask?"

"I was requested by the Second Child to become her…friend" Rei stated staring blankly ahead. "But I have no knowledge of the word friend" she continued "I wish to know what this is?"

Gendo smiled a little at the First Child and then nodded to Ritsuko who began a description "A friend is…someone you can trust. Someone who makes you happy to be around, makes you laugh, smile and…well that you like to be around."

Rei studied the words carefully then came to a conclusion "is this the same as love?"

Ritsuko shook her head "in a way yes, love is a feeling you get when you are around someone who is possibly your friend or someone you might not even know. They make you happy for different reasons."

Rei once again studied the words that were given to her, "then this would be an accurate description of the Second and Third Childs relationship?"

Gendo shook his head and looked Rei in the eyes, "the Second and Third are friends, they grew up together and have developed…a bond. A sort of love you may call it, but they are no more than that." Gendo was confident with his answer, he knew his son was to wimpy to be more than a friend with someone, let alone the Second Child at least he hoped.

Rei felt a new emotion at the Commanders description of the other Children's relationship…relief. Why did she feel this, did she have feelings for Shinji? Her mind pondered these possibilities "if love makes one feel things when around another then…"

"Then what?" Gendo said firmly.

Rei looked down at the frown on Commander Ikaris lips then sighed inwardly, "nothing commander…"

*********************************************************************

Japan: early 2006

"Shinji" Asuka whispered quietly as she slipped through the darkness of the room towards the sleeping Ikari. "Shinji, Shinji are you awake?" she said again her voice getting just a little louder. She let out a quick cry as she bumped her foot on something hard, his bed post.

Shinji jerked up at the sudden noise and looked around trying to find a logical explanation, seeing none in the pitch black he concluded it was the imaginary ghost in his closet. Yep Shinji had a ghost in his closet; actually his uncle used that as an excuse to get him to get to sleep at night, "go to sleep or the ghost will get you!" he would always say.

He laid his head back down on the pillow and tried to go back to sleep still not noticing the other presence in his room. Asuka slipped up beside Shinji and listened to his soft breathing; a second later she pulled his covers up slightly and began to wriggle in next to him.

"AH" Shinji squeaked as he felt her body rub against his, "AH the ghost is REAL!"

Asuka quickly clamped her hand over his mouth and whispered "no silly, it's just me. I…I had a bad dream, can I sleep with you tonight?" She slowly let go of his mouth allowing his answer to come.

"Y-yeah sure, just don't try to steal my blanket" he said while moving over allowing her more room to sleep.

Asuka flipped around so she was facing Shinji and she smiled, "thank you Shinji." He smiled in return then closed his eyes. "I…I dreamt of my momma" Asuka blurted out, she had to tell someone and Shinji was the best person she knew and trusted. "She…she died and she was asking me to come with her…I didn't want to Shinji…I didn't want to die…"

Shinji felt his bed begin to get wet as crystalline tears flowed from the girls eyes he sighed seeing his friend unhappy. He slowly pulled his arm up and put it around her shoulders bringing her into a big hug. "It's ok Asuka" he said softly just holding his friend tightly.

"Thank you…Shinji…" Asuka sobbed her tears slowing down as she pulled her arms around Shinjis shoulders. "You're my best friend" she smiled feeling no more need to cry, "Shinji?" Shinji just hummed his response "don't leave me, please?"

Shinji smiled and held her even tighter, "Don't worry Asuka, you're my best friend and I wouldn't leave you. Besides who'd wake me up in the morning?" they both chuckled quietly and soon settled in comfortably. After a few minutes they were both lulled to sleep, still holding each other like they would never let go.

*********************************************************************

Japan: Present

Shinji pulled his blanket over himself and began tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. He knew he probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep tonight, not after what had happened. It was already 1:00 am and he only just got into bed, so he doubted he would sleep much.

He finally settled for a spot on his back where he could once again take in the view of the ceiling. He contemplated listening to his SDAT player but dismissed the idea, to many memories of her. That's what he wanted to avoid thinking of.

Moments passed and he soon found his brain unwilling to cooperate, so his thoughts drifted to the young redhead in the next room. He unconsciously turned to his side and faced the wall trying to avoid that line of thinking. But he couldn't help it, why did she hate him all of a sudden?

The two were the best of friends for their younger years for four years to be precise, yet she was back with him and all she did was scowl at him. Why? Why was she so distant from him now, what changed her? His only answer was the answer to everything bad in his life, Eva.

"Eva, NERV, Angels…Father"

'Who is bad?'

"Father is"

'Why? Without him you would not have met her'

"He abandoned me, and so has she…so has she"

'I wouldn't bet on that'

Shinji opened his eyes and looked around, somehow he had drifted to sleep and now he was awake. He looked over to his clock and sighed 1:05am he had only been asleep for five minutes, "this is going to be a long night."

"You can say that again"

The brown haired boy jumped at the sudden sound of someone else's voice. Was he dreaming, had the voice from his room reappeared? No…it was familiar, he wasn't dreaming, "Asuka, what do you want?"

The redheaded German moved from her entry point over towards Shinji, "I…I couldn't sleep." Her words were spoken softly barley audible to the young Ikari, though he heard them.

"To pissed off about loosing to sleep, or was it pissed off at me?" Shinji said deject laying his head on his pillow, trying to hide in it. He heard no reply but more soft footsteps. He soon felt the presence of his intruder as he could feel her breath on the back of his neck.

Asuka leaned down over her friend and whispered "I…I'm sorry, I was wrong to do that to you…I'm sorry." She felt him tense underneath her gaze but she continued "Shinji, I had another nightmare…can…can I?"

"No…" Shinji sighed he didn't want to say that, he just did. Asuka pulled back he heard her sigh deeply then the sound of her footsteps trudging back through his messy floor. "Wait" he called, he heard her stop "only…only if you promise not to steal my blanket."

Asukas face brightened and she suppressed a giggle at the words he had said many times when they were young. She moved back towards his bed and watched as he moved over slightly. She lifted the blanket and slipped into the bed just inches away from Shinji.

He was still facing the wall but he felt more relaxed, Asuka slowly placed her arms around the boys' waist. She felt him tense again then relaxes as he placed his hands over hers. "I'm sorry…I don't want you to be angry at me. I could take anything but that."

"I'm not…" Shinji whispered back, he felt the redheads' hands tighten around him and their bodies pulled closer. 'Its' going to be hard to sleep now' he thought for an entirely different reason than before.

Asuka closed her eyes and placed a soft gentle kiss on the back of her companions' neck. He shuddered slightly at the sensation, and so did she. 'What…why did I do that? What was that feeling?' unsure of her emotions at this point Asuka opted for sleep.

Like many times before the two teens were soon deep in sleep still as close together as possible…

A/N: Well that ends another chapter for this series, I know it's short but I still don't have much stamina -_- Anyway I'll be faster in getting the next chap out cause I already have it mostly planned out.

Well Asuka seems to have apologised to Shinji and they are friends again, but when Misato introduces her new plan to the teens Asuka will be very, very pissed off. Find out why when the Synch training begins in the next chapter!!

Seya on da other side……..