Kaworu had convinced himself that he was over the whole Shinji situation. Hell, he had hardly even thought of the other man in over seven months. . . . well, that wasn't entirely true, maybe he had thought of him a litte. . . . or a lot. The truth was, thoughts of Shinji always lingered in the back of his mind. Kaworu loved him, was in love with him, and no declaration of independence was going to change this, despite his best efforts otherwise. The mind can try and forget, but the heart is trickier to deceive.

The scrap of paper that contained Shinji's number had damn near been worn to ripping. Since Kaworu had stuck it in his back pocket, he was regularly fingering the already thin piece of paper. This was his olive branch. Shinji, in his own way, acknowledged that he had screwed up and now this one slip of paper was his attempt to apologize, or at least try again.

Kaworu pulled his phone out and punched in the digits and stared at them, blinking at him, waiting for him to press the "send" button, and just call him.

When he first arrived on Earth again, he wanted to do this right, take his time geting back together with Shinji. But things has been rushed. Shinji in many ways was still the fourteen year old boy that he had been when Kaworu had first met him. He needed to be eased into relationships, both friendship and otherwise and that wasn't what had happened. Something deeper had brought them together that night, but in the harsh light of morning, Shinji had retreated. Kaworu should have known better.

His thumb tapped the "send" button before Kaworu could stop him self, and he instinctively pressed his ear to the phone and listened to the ringing.

He toyed with a piece of his hair nervously when Shinji didn't pick up. He chewed his lip and held his breath, waiting for Shinji to pick up.

"Hello?" The voice came suddenly and Kaworu was silent for a minute, not reacting as quickly as he should have.

"Hello?!" The voice came again, more irritated this time.

"Shinji?" Kaworu finally said.

"Yup, who is this?"

"It's Kaworu."

There was silence on the line for the minute,

"Hey, it's good to hear from you. I really didn't expect you to call," Shinji said, the surpise evident in his voice.

"Yeah . . .um. . . how are you doing?" Kaworu began pacing around his apartment, absently playing with whatever he could get his hands on.

"I'm doing good, just got off of work. Not a whole lot going on," Shinji laid back on his bed, having got up to get the phone. "You?"

"Um, not bad. I'm off today."

"Oh good."

Silence.

"Anything I can do for you, Kaworu?" Shinji asked, desperately trying to stop his voice from shaking.

"I guess I'd like to see you again, ya know. . . clear the air?"

"I'd like that," was all Shinji could say.

"Let me take you out to dinner tonight," Kaworu offered.

Shinji nodded, then remembered he needed to answer verbally.

"Okay."

They agreed to meet later that night.

Kaworu was caught between smiling and crying. This was what he had wanted, wasn't it? The only reason he was on Earth at all was because of the man he had just spoken to. And Shinji was the one to offer the olive branch, Kaworu could only imagine how much effort that had taken on Shinji's part.

He set the phone back on the counter gently. There would be no rushing into things this time. His heart couldn't handle the set back, it may very well destroy him. Kaworu had worked hard in the past few months to gain confidence and a life without Shinji involved. He would not allow this to be shattered.

He turned and caught him self in the mirror. He pushed his hands through his hair, causing it to stand up. He grinned and layed his hair back down and nodded, making a pact with himself: Shinji would not hurt him this time, because Kaworu wouldn't allow it.

With that, he walked into the bathroom to shower and get ready for his date later that evening.

Ryozo walked into the apartment with an armful of bags. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed his roommate staring at his cell phone.

"Does it do a dance for ya these days?" Ryozo asked, smirking.

Shinji was snapped out of his daze and he laughed.

"Oh, no. At least not yet," Shinji put his phone down and grabbed some of the bags from Ryozo's hands.

They began putting their grocciers away, a practiced dance around the kitchen, bodies brushing naturally as they maneuvered around each other.

"You're quiet today," Ryozo said as he placed the milk into the fridge, as Shinji was stretching to put instant ramen in the shelf behind Ryozo.

Shinji just shrugged. 'I'm just thinking. . . I got some good news."

"Oh yeah? Lay it one me," Ryozo turned, leaning against the now closed fridge, facing Shinji.

"Kaworu called me," Shinji likewise turned to look at Ryozo.

"Wow! Woah, I mean, that's awesome!" Ryozo was a bit surprised that the other man had called Shinji back.

"Yeah, we're going out later tonight," Shinji explained.

Ryozo grinned and patted Shinji on the shoulder, "Maybe things are looking up, yeah?"

"Maybe so," Shinji just gave him a small smile and reached back into a bag.

Ryozo didn't press any further details. They would come when Shinji was ready. He just smiled and nodded to himself, it was about time things started to look up for Shinji, and maybe, his roommate wouldn't screw it all up this time.

A few hours later, Shinji was adjusting his collar in the mirror and tugging nervously at his hair. He posed a few times in the mirror, smiling a hundred different ways, trying to decide which made him look most handsome.

He turned his chin a little bit and lifted it, grinning cockily . . . that look didn't work. He tilted his chin down a little and smiled sheepishly. . . no, that was horrible as well. He ruffled his hair, trying to make it look slightly post-coital. . . now that wasn't too bad. He gave a sultry smile to the mirror, lowering his eyelids just slightly, to see what it looked like . . . but he just looked ridiculous . . .

A wet towel thrown at his head caused him jump, disrupting his pruning.

"Oh give it a rest will ya!" Ryozo had been silently standing in Shinji's door way for a few minutes. He had just gotten out of the shower and caught Shinji making faces at the mirror, and had paused to assess the situation.

"Oi! What are you doing!?" Shinji's voice was a little breathless, showing his surprise.

"You look fine as your self, don't try to put a mask on," Ryozo smiled at him.

"I wasn't planning on it, I was just . . . checking a few things out," Shinji looked down, rubbing his head with his hand.

"Ha! You look like a girl going on her first date. Relax dude, just . . .enjoy it," Ryozo said.

Shinji bent down to pick up the towel.

"Please tell me this was the one on your head," Shinji held the offending item in his hand.

Ryozo gave a cheeky grin.

"Heh," was all he said before he turned around and walked to his own room, his bare ass no longer hidden behind the cloak of the towel.

"Oh you're gross," Shinji scrunched his nose up at the towel and tossed it into his own laundry basket.

"Get lost!" Ryozo poked his head out and shouted. "Don't you have a date or something!"

With that, Shinji gave a final glance towards the mirror, tweaked his collar and headed out the door without any further ado.