"What do you think?" Joanna asked.

"I don't know. I've never made anything like this before," Shinji replied, the two of them looking through the little window on the oven door in Burke's kitchen.

"When do we eat?" they heard Miyashima whine from the couch in the living room, followed seconds later by then hearing a smacking sound and Miyashima reacting in pain.

"What are you six?" they then heard Miyoko say to him.

"What do you know about these things?" Shinji asked Joanna, ignoring the other two. "You've had it before." She turned her head towards him looking confused.

"Well, haven't you?" Joanna asked.

"Yeah, but I'm talking about it where you're from," Shinji said. "Since it was popularized in North America, I'd like to hear your opinion."

"Oh, I see," Joanna said. "In that case, I can say that I've only what I had was in restaurants and in the cafeteria of the training facility. The stuff in the restaurants were better in my opinion."

"That makes sense," Shinji replied.

"There were also so many styles. I mean, I haven't had them all or anything like that."

"That's okay. What I mean to say is how was the taste or the texture. It will help me determine when it is done."

"Doesn't the recipe say it?" Miyashima asked as he walked up to them while rubbing his shoulder at the same time.

"It just says 'until done.'" Shinji answered.

"Let's see," Joanna began. "I know that during training, I got to go to this one place in the city. What they had there blew my mind. It was soft and chewy, and it really sucks that I never got to go there again."

"Wow," Miyoko said. "That must have been some place."

"Uh, yeah," Joanna blushed a little. Shinji then stood up.

"Okay, I'm declaring it done," he announced. "If it turns out that it isn't good, I can still learn from the mistake." He opened the oven door and pulled out a flat metal pan, which had a pizza on it. The sauce and cheese were bubbling on the toasted crust, while the heated aromas from not just the cheese, but also from the mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni filled the air like incense in a temple, igniting a sense of expectation from everyone in the kitchen.

"It looks perfect," Joanna said.

"Smells real good too," Miyashima added. Shinji slid the pizza onto a cutting board. After letting it cool for about a minute, he cut it into several slices and gave each person a slice.

"It'll be on the hot side yet," Shinji warned, "so be careful." They all took a bite, each person taking a few seconds to chew and analyze it before swallowing.

"It's…It's not that bad," Miyashima said. "I'm not a food critic or anything, but this is something I can see myself eating at a restaurant. Sorry if I can't be more specific."

"This is a lot better than what I've had from some places," Miyoko added. "With my mom, she seem to have this 'the greasier, the better' philosophy when it comes to food like this, so it is a nice change of pace for me."

"I get that," Shinji replied. "I've read that pizza is different in Italy, where it came from, than in America or in other parts of the world. I tried to combine what I thought was the best of both kinds. I don't know if I succeeded or not, though."

"I think we can declare this a success," Miyoko stated. Hey Joanna, what do you—" She stopped short of finishing it when she and the others saw that not only Joanna has eaten all of her slice, but was already reaching for another.

"It is safe to say she likes it too," Miyashima remarked.

"Well, that's a relief," Shinji said. "I'm glad all of you liked it. Since the astronomy club was going to have another viewing party here tomorrow, I really wanted to make something special for them, and this is what I came up with."

"That's nice of you to do that," Miyoko said.

"The problem was I've never made homemade pizza before, so I thought you guys could help me test a recipe out."

"Glad that we could help," Miyashima said, with both Miyoko and Joanna nodding in agreement.

"You guys can finish the pizza, I need to clean up," Shinji said as he began to put dirty cooking utensils and dishes into the sink. A few moments later, Miyoko was at his side, helping with the cleanup.

"So...How are you doing?" She asked him in a quiet voice.

"Uh...okay," Shinji replied at a similar volume. "Why do you ask?"

"When Mom left a couple of weeks ago, she asked me to check in on you once in a while, see how you were doing," she said.

"I see..." Shinji blushed. "Did…Did she say something about me?"

"Only that you were there during that attack. She didn't give me any details though."

"Ah," Shinji said. "That's nice of her. You can tell her that I'm doing okay. It's been a little rough, but it's getting better."

"I'll tell her that," she said. "And you know, if there's anything you want to talk to me about, I'm willing to listen." Miyashima then walked over to them.

"This was great and all, but I have to get going," he said to Shinji. "Thanks for the pizza."

"Let me walk you out," Shinji said.

"Okay…sure," Miyashima cocked his head to the side a little.

"I'll be back in a minute," Shinji said to the girls before the two walked out the door, and made their way down the hallway.

"Okay, you have never escorted me out, so what do you want to talk about?" Miyashima began, "and I hope this isn't one of those 'I have this friend' kind of conversation."

"No, no it's not that," Shinji chuckled. "It's about me." He took a breath before he spoke again. "A couple of weeks ago, someone I know…got into an accident and had to be taken to the hospital. She's fine just so you know. The problem is when I went to see her, and she…sort of confessed to me." Miyashima then broke out into a beaming smile.

"Damn, you must be one hell of a ladies man," he followed that up with a slap on his friend's back. "Teach me your ways oh great one."

"I'm not finished yet," Shinji said. "The thing is, she was on some pretty powerful painkillers at the time, so I don't know if she meant what she said."

"Dude, that stuff is truth serum," Miyashima declared. "She's fallen for you."

"Not from what I've read," Shinji countered. "I looked up some stuff on line, and they said it's a common side effect of those drugs. The people on them talk about things that make no sense, and they often don't remember anything about it when the drugs wear off."

"So you don't think she meant it?" Miyashima asked.

"I can't tell," Shinji replied. "She could have easily gone on about, oh I don't know, her fascination over something like pillows. Or maybe if there was a handsome male nurse attending to her, she would be hitting on him. I just don't know."

"Then why don't you ask her?" Miyashima asked.

"She left the city and whon't be back for a while," Shinji answered.

"But you have a way to get in touch with her, right?"

"Well…yeah, I do?"

"Then why don't you ask her?"

"Wait, I can't do that," Shinji exclaimed.

"And why not?" Miyashima was shaking his head in exasperation.

"Let's say she does not remember saying those things, or if she does, she didn't mean them. If I bring this up, she might get embarrassed. I don't want to do that to her."

"Fine, fine," Miyashima said. "What I think you should should do depends on if you can answer one simple question."

"What is it?" Shinji asked.

"Do you like her too?" Miyashima replied.

"What?"

"Well it's simple, isn't it," Miyashima declared. "If you don't, then you can pretend that it never happened and that's the end of that. If you do, then maybe you should follow up, even if it is a mistake. Hey, at least your odds are better than the average guy who confesses." The two reached the grand entrance to the building, and stopped in front of the doors.

"And that brings me back to my original question," Miyashima continued. "Do you have feelings for this girl?" Shinji took a moment to think about it before he spoke.

"I…really don't know. I haven't thought about it," he said. "I mean, she is quite beautiful, and I admit she treated me with kindness at a time when I thought the whole world was against me, so she is a person that means a lot to me. I just don't know if it's in that way."

"If that's the case, you need to figure out how you feel," Miyashima said. "Because if she did mean it, she deserves to know, even if you don't feel the same way."

"I see," Shinji said. "I have to ask though. How do you know all about these things?"

"I like to say personal experience, but the truth is that I watch a lot of talk shows," Miyashima answered.

"That makes sense. The ways I've seen you strike out with girls, I figured it couldn't be entirely from experience." Miyashima gave him a look that combined dumbfoundment with dissapointment.

"Way to not sugercoat it," Miyashima said before resuming ihs familiar manner. Unless there's something else, I'll see you around." He then walked away, Shinji watching him for a few minutes before going back into the building.

It was two am, and Shinji still couldn't get to sleep. He had heard Burke come an hour and a half before, and head straight to bed not too long afterwords. He turned on his side and let out a breath. He had sleepless nights before, often after Angel battles and again after what happened with the enemy Ayanami. This time, it was not due to the dangers he had faced. Instead, it was about what Miyashima had told him that day, and he kept going over in his mind the question that his friend asked him. Did he have feelings for her?

His mind kept going back to the answer he gave, but there was still something that gnawed at him, that made him feel that it wasn't one hundred percent true. Every time he went to that answer, the question flashed again in his mind, as if it was in bright white letters against a black background. While he was struggling to find an answer, his mind wandered through various thoughts about the women he knew and interacted with, going back to when he first got involved with the Evas.

There were several girls at school, both when he was at Tokyo 3 and where he was now, that he found attractive, and had thoughts about on occasion ranging from the innoncent to the lurid. He also liked to think that some of them were interested in him as well, or at least he thought they showed some interest. His mind then went to the girls at the astromony club. Including himself, there were nine members total. Six guys and three girls, one of those three being the club president. It always seemed to him that there was at least one of those girls hanging around him during and after meetings. He just couldn't tell if there was genuine interest or if they were just being friendly.

Then there were the girls he worked with, both back then and in the present. He always found Asuka to be beautiful from the moment they first met, despite her personality. It was a simple fact that plug suits left little to the imagination. Mari was very beautiful as well, that was apparent after she pulled that trick on Miyashima and his friend. Like Asuka, however, her personality made any relationship unlikely. And Joanna was pretty as well, but he always thought that they were too good of friends for anything to develop. As for Rei, there were times that he was captivated by her beauty, but there was never any attraction, any desire for her in that way. Even before he knew the truth about her, that was the case. It made him wonder if perhaps, by instinct, he knew the whole time.

And when it came to dating or relationships, he knew there were no objections from Burke or any of the other adults. Some of them even encouraged it. They even assured him after he learned about his nature that it was safe for him to have children. What surprised him the most though about it was the time when Burke told him that it was okay to go beyond dating.

'You are technically fifteen years old, but in your life you have done an adult's work, more than an adult's work to be honest,' he remembered Burke saying not long after he began going to school. 'I feel because of that, despite your age, you are entitled to, shall we say, certain adult privileges.' Burke then went on to a explain a combination of general rules, such as no girl could spend the night and that he must take all steps possible to avoid STDs and pregnancy, as well as practical advice on the topic. He remembered listening to him with a mix of shock and embarrassment at the whole thing. It still brought a shade of red to his face when he recalled the incident, and he thought he saw Burke at the time show a little red as well. He has never exercised that particular privilege, and he wasn't sure if he would ever would while he was in school.

With all those thoughts running through his head, he found that there was one question that needed to be answered. Did he even deserve to have feelings for someone or that someone to have feelings for him? Looking back on his life, he could find that there were ample reasons that the answer is probably no. He knew from the start that it wouldn't be due to his time being an Eva pilot. That would be a turn on for a lot of girls. But what about his nature, that he wasn't fully human? If he ever did meet someone that he would get involved, and perhaps even want to spend the rest of his life with, should he tell her? How would she react if he did? Would she want to be with someone whose life was one giant mess, that he was just now beginning to get back together. Shinji knew if the roles were reversed, he wasn't sure if he could continue to be with her, even though he would love that woman.

This train of thought was beginning to tire his mind as much as the rest of his body was, and his mind drifted to other things, and he soon drifted into sleep. He then dreamed that he was in the middle of a tropical beach. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing against his skin, and the water was a turquoise blue, which surprised him as he had only seen such a sight in pictures and in movies. There were other people of various ages and nationalities on the beach as well, though there was no one there that he could put a name to. What he took notice the most of all those people were the girls. Whether they were getting a sun tan, swimming the ocean or walking on the beach, the one thing they had in common was that he found all of them gorgeous. As Shinji made his way along the beach, they would either wave to him, say hello, or tried to invite him to some activity they were doing, such as playing a game or to join them at a beach-side cafe, which had him feeling pretty good about himself.

He then turned his head to the south, where he saw another girl standing in the ocean up to her thighs. However, this girl was different. She did not wear a swimsuit, and was fully clothed. Walking towards her, Shinji could now see that unlike the others, he did recognize her. It was Ayanami, but not the one he had known for the past year or even Rei. It was the one he met a couple of weeks ago dressed in the exact same clothes, and the realization of that fact sent a chill through him.

He then saw another Ayanami dressed the same as the first one come out of the water, followed by another one, and another one after that, and still more with some of them just having their heads sticking out of the water. He could even see more rising to the surface all the way back to the horizon. The sight of it welled up such a feeling of panic within him, that it forced his eyes open, and left breathing hard with sweat pouring from him. He laid back down on the bed, but he could not get back to sleep. He laid there staring up at the ceiling as daylight began to tiptoe into the world.

"Come on guys," Burke called out. "We don't have all day." Letting out a yawn, Shinji came out of the apartment building followed by Joanna carrying a large tote bag, and a smile beaming from her face.

"Tired?" Burke asked Shinji as the two approached his car.

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "I had trouble getting to sleep." he decided not to mention the dream, thinking there was no point in telling him.

"Some nights can be like that," Burke said. "I know that thing with your school club is tonight, and you'll be staying up well into the night, so you might want to get a cat nap in."

"Sure," Shinji said.

"Until then, we got several meetings on base to attend today, and she gets to go shopping with her friends," Burke added.

"That's right," Joanna said, her smile growing even bigger.

"Don't you have a sync test at nine tonight?" Shinji asked her.

"Oh yeah, that." There was still a smile on her face, but it was a smaller one, and Shinji got the feeling that it was more due to embarrassment than anything else.

"That's why you're her adviser," Burke patted Shinji's shoulder. "Now, we need to get Joanna to her friend's place in the next thirty minutes, so we need to…" The sudden blare of sirens stopped him from what he was going to say. Seconds, later, all three of their phones began to ring, joining the frightening chorus.

"Oh Fudgecakes," Joanna said as she looked at her phone.