12
Ritsuko sighed as she felt a familiar throbbing begin in her temple, "Shinji, be reasonable about this."
From inside of the men's changing room, Shinji sounded anything but reasonable, "At least a robe, Ritsuko! Last time we did this I felt like a piece of meat being paraded around."
Why, oh why, had the new Commander outlawed smoking in the workplace, Ritsuko wondered as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Shinji, it's not that bad."
Shinji stuck his head out of the room and, for not the first time, Ritsuko's heart skipped a beat with just how much he looked like his father, "No. I have my pride."
"Misato would argue that, especially given the act you two put on earlier today," the faux-blonde doctor pointed out. "Still, we've changed the color of your plugsuit, what more do you want?"
"Something that isn't so tight you can tell what religion I am?"
Ritsuko was 'saved' from having to answer that question when Misato came up behind her with her traditional, "Hey, Rits."
"Hello, Misato. Can you talk to Shinji about coming out here? We need to finish running the tests with him in the Eva."
"And he's suddenly conscious about how he looks in his plugsuit, I'm guessing," Misato said with a slight smile.
"Damned right," came Shinji's response. "I just want to wear a robe out or something.
Misato shrugged, remembering what color had been picked for Shinji, "How about some dark shades and a long duster to go with the black instead?"
Shinji didn't deem that worthy of a response so he stayed silent.
Ritsuko glared at Misato for a moment before she sighed, "Alright, fine, I'll get you a robe. Is that all?"
"Unless you can swing an island with a number of scantily clad native girls, no," Shinji said somewhat sullenly.
Ritsuko paused and looked at Misato, who looked to be bristling a little, "I didn't think Shinji spent that much time around Kaji, Misato."
"He didn't. That might be partially influenced by Kaji, but that's a lot of Shinji."
"What makes you say that?"
"Kaji would have demanded the native girls be us and there be no clothes involved," the purple-haired vixen pointed out. "Now, let's go find Shinji a robe before I'm tempted to drag him out of there by whatever is handy for me to grab."
(Walkway to Evas)
Shinji held his head high, doing the best he could to salvage what little dignity he could still lay claim to. It was all he could do, really.
His plulgsuit had, at his request, been changed from blue and silver to something less… revealing. What he wished he had done, though, was to pick an actual color. His plugsuit was now a solid, glossy black with matte back in certain places, making him look like the poster boy for latex fetishists everywhere. He'd refused to go out in public (as public as NERV was, anyway) in it without something over it and Misato had provided him a robe… a pink, fluffy bathrobe.
'She is evil,' Shinji decided as he continued to walk. 'She must be. There is no other explanation.'
She had, though, offered to find him some bunny slippers to go with said bathrobe, but he politely declined.
He could feel the eyes on him now and he could also feel the mirth in the air from the workers and staff, all of it directed at him, so he held his head high and shoulders straight as he crawled into the Entry Plug.
At the command bridge, Misato looked over at Ritsuko, "I'll give him credit – he made it look good."
Ritsuko snorted into her coffee cup as the pink bathrobe came flying out of the plug before the hatch was sealed, "He'll find a way to get even with you for this, Misato."
"How?"
"He'll stop cooking?"
"I've eaten my own cooking for years, Ritsuko," Misato said with more than a little heat as someone on the bridge quietly snickered. "I'm certainly none the worse for wear."
Ritsuko wisely kept her comments to herself as the Entry Plug was inserted, "Alright, people, stay sharp. Maya, start us off."
(Inside Entry Plug)
Shinji grimaced at the taste of the LCL as he let out another breath. He hated the taste of blood…
"Alright, Shinji," Ritsuko's voice cut in, her tone professional, "we're going to start up now so try and relax."
"Will do, doctor," he said quietly as he felt the power begin to thrum through the Entry Plug. "What if something goes wrong?"
Ritsuko's ominous silence answered Shinji's question for him.
'Crap.'
AN: Yes, yes, I'm evil. Get over it and review, please.