Foreword: okay, so with an overwhelming (for me, anyway) reader response of five reviews (along with a handful of author watches and I don't know how many story favoritings) in a matter of days, I'll be putting my focus toward keeping this fic updated more often than Ayanami Chronicles for the time being. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: see chapter 1.

How Do You Talk to an Angel?

by Elizar Naki

Chapter 2: "Interaction"

Things were still basically the same two days later. Shinji's home life remained in a state of gradual decay, while his attention at school continued to be divided between his teachers and Ayanami. The blue-haired beauty still appeared more interested in the world outside the school than on anything being taught in class, and she still expressed little interest in interacting with her classmates. She was never overtly rude to the ones who tried to start a conversation with her, but she never really did much to keep those conversations going, and she had yet to actually be the one to start a conversation with others. Mari, ever one to heap shame on those she considered unworthy as of late, had created a "Rei Haters" forum on the school's intranet yesterday; the faculty had already shut the forum down and given the twin-tailed girl a warning about using the school's educational resources to defame her fellow students, but Shinji fully expected similar pages to start appearing in the near future.

Ayanami, for her part, didn't seem fazed by this in the slightest. Shinji had yet to work up the courage to actually try and talk to her himself, so he wasn't sure yet if this was because she didn't know about the forum's brief existence or simply didn't care. He suspected the former, since she never seemed to use her laptop terminal much, but from what little he'd seen, he wouldn't have been surprised by the latter, either.

Shinji's musings on the subject were interrupted by a quiet tone from his own laptop, alerting him to an incoming private message. He didn't really need to open the message to know what it would say, but he figured it'd be better to simply get this out of the way, so he opened the message box with only slight hesitation.

OsakaPwnz: yo Shin-man, u might wanna stop ogling the new girl. u know how Nakamura gets when he thinks were not payin attention

Shinji couldn't really do anything about the sudden shade of red his cheeks turned, but he tried to play off Toji's teasing as nothing major when he responded.

IkariS: I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't ogling her at all.

SgtOtaku: oh, don't give us that. We saw you looking.

OsakaPwnz: yeah, man, uve been eying her all week. her calves…

SgtOtaku: her thighs…

OsakaPwnz: her naughty bits!

SgtOtaku: her naughty bits!

Despite the situation, Shinji couldn't help but be impressed by the level of teasing his friends were capable of. It was even more impressive that they'd managed to time their last PMs so closely that his computer had displayed both of them simultaneously. And while they were right about where his attention was focused to a degree, he had no intention of giving them even more fuel for their fun-making fire.

IkariS: it's not like that, guys.

SgtOtaku: ok, then what IS it like?

OsakaPwnz: yeah, dude, spill

IkariS: I was just wondering why she's always alone.

IkariS: she doesn't seem interested in talking to other people at all. I just wish I knew what she was thinking.

SgtOtaku: yeah, now that you mention it, she does seem to be off in her own world most of the time.

OsakaPwnz: maybe shes just got a lousy personality

Shinji just let the matter drop there. He didn't really believe that to be the case, but he had no proof and he doubted anything he could say at this point would do anything to keep Toji and Kensuke from teasing him more. Unbidden, his attention returned to the bluenette in question, her gaze still focused out the window she was seated next to. Beautiful though she was, it was her mysterious nature that drew his attention her way so easily. What's going on in that head of yours, Ayanami? he wondered.

"Miss Ayanami!" Mr. Nakamura called out suddenly. Shinji managed to keep from yelping too loudly in surprise, though he felt like he'd nearly jumped out of his seat. He felt bad for Ayanami for whatever was about to happen, but at the same time he was relieved that it wasn't him their Algebra teacher had singled out.

"Yes, sir?" Ayanami answered quietly, seemingly oblivious to the instructor's anger.

"Why don't you come up to the board and solve this problem using the method I just demonstrated?" the teacher asked.

"Yes, sir," the young girl answered, rising from her chair and approaching the board.

Shinji wanted to call out to Ayanami and warn her about what was happening. The problem Nakamura had written on the board was from a higher level of math than what he was teaching them; he did this a lot when he felt like one of his students wasn't focusing properly, using the delinquent student's inability to solve the higher-level problem as a way to humiliate them into paying attention. Unfortunately, Shinji didn't have the courage to warn Ayanami about the truth of the situation, since doing so would redirect their teacher's wrath at him. The rest of the class, however, began muttering among themselves about their teacher's actions—some aggravated by the man's blatant disrespect for them, others feeling that the "ice queen" was getting what she deserved.

Ayanami reached the board and picked up a spare piece of chalk. She stared at the board for a moment, probably trying to figure out what to do, before turning back to the instructor. "I'm sorry, sir," she told him, "but I'm unable to do as you have requested."

"Can't solve the problem, huh?" Nakamura replied with a sneer. "Well, maybe if you were paying attention in class instead of staring out the—"

"Forgive me, sir," Ayanami interrupted, "but I never said I was unable to solve the problem. I'm simply unable to do so under the parameters you set for me."

That got the class's full attention. No one had ever actually talked back to their instructor during one of his "demonstrations." Nakamura himself was rendered nearly speechless. "Wh-what?" he asked a moment later.

In answer, Ayanami returned her attention to the problem on the board, raising her chalk to the board and making slow but steady marks on it. Within a minute or two, she returned the chalk to its tray, having left a series of numbers, letters, and symbols in the space connected to the original problem that none of her classmates understood. Judging from Nakamura's reaction, though, Shinji guessed that Ayanami had not only solved a problem that should have been beyond her, but had also solved it correctly. "I apologize for violating the terms of your request," she told the teacher, "but Calculus is impossible to solve with this level of Algebra. To believe otherwise would be unwise, and to expect otherwise would be unfair." She then walked back down the aisle to her seat, acting for all the world as if nothing major had just happened.

Shinji found himself dumbfounded by what he'd just seen. Not only had Ayanami just stood up to a teacher's unfair treatment of a student, but she'd just proven to have knowledge of Calculus—at only fourteen years old—in the process. The rest of the class's reaction was far more boisterous; the students who'd been muttering about Nakamura's unfair treatment began cheering Ayanami's actions, while the ones who'd been rooting for her humiliation simply stewed when they saw her avoid the shame they felt she'd had coming to her. Hikari, meanwhile, was simply trying to get the class to settle down again so Mr. Nakamura could resume his lesson.

The bell chose that moment to go off, causing the over-excited class to begin scattering for lunch before they'd been officially dismissed. "D-don't forget, class," Nakamura hollered after them in an attempt to retain some semblance of authority, "your assignment for tomorrow is on page 386. And show your work! I'll be giving automatic zeros to anyone who doesn't." That drew more than a few noises of complaint from the students who'd expected to get away with simply copying the answers to the even-numbered problems from the back of the book, but the overall energy of the scattering class was otherwise unchanged.

"Ayanami!" Shinji called out over the bustle of the other students' conversations as they exited the room. He hoped he'd be able to catch her attention before she left too.

Fortunately, she'd managed to hear him over the rest of the class. "Ikari," she said by way of greeting as she turned back to face him. "May I be of service to you in some way?"

"Uh, n-not really," Shinji answered nervously, scratching the back of his neck as he did so. "I, uh, I wanted to tell you how cool I thought it was that you did that a bit ago."

"Did what?" she asked him, looking slightly confused by his statement.

"Umm," Shinji responded, similarly confused by Ayanami's question. As smart as she obviously was, did she really not understand what had just happened? "Ayanami, Mr. Nakamura put that problem up there because he didn't want you to be able to solve it. He was trying to humiliate you for not paying attention."

"Was he?" she asked, looking back at the problem on the board. She sounded as if the thought had never even crossed her mind. "I hadn't noticed."

Given how obvious their teacher's disdain for her had been—especially when he thought he'd had her—Shinji wasn't entirely sure how that was possible. Maybe it was just another sign of her stunted social abilities, he decided. "Um, anyway," he eventually continued, "I was w-wondering if you'd maybe wanna…join me for lunch?" She didn't immediately respond to that, which made Shinji think he'd made a mistake with such a forward-sounding invitation. "I-I mean, Toji and Kensuke would be there too," he stuttered, trying to repair the situation as best he could, "so it's not like it'd be any big deal or—"

"Have you been observing me all morning because you wished to ask me that?" Ayanami cut him off.

Shinji suddenly looked like a deer in headlights. He hadn't realized that Ayanami had somehow spotted him staring at her. He also couldn't figure out just how she'd caught him looking, since she hadn't turned her gaze away from the window until Mr. Nakamura had called out to her, but he didn't see that as anywhere nearly as important as the simple fact that she knew he'd been staring at her. "Umm…I, uhh…th-that is…" he replied, hoping his brain would assemble some plausible excuse for him during his nonsensical stuttering.

"Hey Shin-dude!" Shinji heard Toji's voice calling him. "Hurry it up, wouldja? I'm starvin' over here!" Shinji could see the aforementioned jock waving to him from an adjoining hallway, Kensuke trying his best not to facepalm at Toji's stupidity nearby.

"Your companions desire your attention," Ayanami said, seemingly unaware of the embarrassment she'd unintentionally caused Shinji. "I won't detain you further," she added, turning around again and exiting the room.

"Ayanami, wait! I—" Shinji called after her, but she didn't turn around this time. By the time Shinji peeked around the doorframe, she was on her way around a corner.

"Man," Toji said as he and Kensuke rejoined him near the doorway to their class, "she shot you down good, didn't she, Shin-man?"

Shinji wasn't quite sure what caused him to react the way he did. Maybe it was his embarrassment at how badly he'd handled things with Ayanami, or maybe it was because of Toji's role in driving her off. Regardless, Shinji suddenly found himself wordlessly punching Toji in the arm before stalking off to the stairwell so he could eat his lunch on the roof.

Toji, for his part, just stared after Shinji in confusion. The punch hadn't hurt exactly, but it did sting a little, and he was fairly sure there'd be a small bruise by the next day. "Geez, what's his beef?" he asked Kensuke.

"Y'know," the bespectacled otaku said with a smile, "you really can be as big a lummox as people say you are sometimes." He then took off after Shinji, hoping to be able to repair some of the damage Toji had caused him.

Toji just stood as still as stone for a minute, trying to figure out what everyone's deal was today, before following after his friends.

Ayanami wasn't in class the next day. Or the day after. In fact, she was absent the entire rest of their first week. Shinji, of course, appeared to be the only one worried by her disappearance, though he did his best to hide that fact in order to avoid his friends' relentless teasing. By Tuesday of the next week, though, his concern over her continued absence had reached the point where he couldn't really hide it anymore. Had she already transferred again for some reason? Was she just avoiding Shinji after their last encounter? Had something happened to her? Had she been hurt somehow?

Fortunately, class had yet to begin, so he decided to talk to Hikari about it. After all, since she was the class rep, she'd be the one most likely to know what was going on. "Hey Hikari," he began when he found her, "can I ask you something?"

"Hmm? Oh hey, Shinji," Hikari greeted him, breaking off from the paperwork she'd been putting together when she noticed her friend's presence. She'd been meaning to thank him for the private dinner he'd arranged for her and Toji's anniversary, but she figured that could wait another minute or two. "What's up?"

"Actually," Shinji began, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, "it's…it's about Ayanami. She's been out for almost a week now, and I'm starting to get a little worried. I don't suppose you have any idea what happened to her, do you?"

Hikari's expression suddenly turned a little guilty. Toji had told her about Shinji's attraction to the enigmatic bluenette, which was part of the reason why she hadn't told him why Ayanami had been absent for so long. "Yeah, umm, about that," she began, trying to figure out just how to tell him the truth, "I do know where she's been…but you're not gonna like it."

Shinji was about to ask what Hikari meant by that when the classroom door opened up, admitting the subject of their conversation into the room. Or what was left of her, anyway. Her forehead was now wrapped in bandages, which seemed to be there partially to support the patch over her right eye. Her arms were similarly bandaged, though while her left arm was only intermittently wrapped up, her right arm was almost completely covered in gauze; her right forearm was also in a cast and was being supported by a sling wrapped around her neck. "Holy—" Shinji blurted out before rushing over to the door. "What happened to you, Ayanami? Are you okay?" It was a stupid question, he knew, but he couldn't help but ask even though he knew his sudden attention to the injured Ayanami was drawing the rest of the class's attention his way.

"I…will live," Ayanami told him quietly, a small measure of pain creeping into her usual neutral tone.

"Well here, lemme get that for you," Shinji told her as he took her bag from her uninjured hand.

"Is there something about my bag that interests you, Ikari?" she asked him, once again sounding confused by his actions.

"N-no, but…you're hurt!" Shinji reminded her.

"My left arm is mostly functional," Ayanami told him, "and my bag isn't heavy. I fail to see the purpose behind this gesture."

"Ayanami, you're hurt," Shinji reminded her again. "You shouldn't have to strain yourself carrying things, even if they aren't that heavy."

"Ikari—"

"Please, just let me help you with this."

"If you wish," Ayanami said with a slight sigh as she began walking toward her desk. She still didn't seem to understand Shinji's point of view, but she wasn't fighting him on it either. Shinji followed a few steps behind her, ignoring the stares and whispers of his classmates as they discussed his unusual behavior.

"By the way," Shinji said as he hung Ayanami's bag on her desk, "you never told me what happened to you."

"I was…in an accident," she told him vaguely as she sat down, grunting lightly as she did so. Apparently, her injuries were slightly more severe than she was letting on.

"Well, what happened?" he asked her. "I mean, was it a car wreck? Did you fall down the stairs? Did—"

"I don't wish to discuss the matter any further at the moment," the blue-haired girl interrupted him.

Shinji was taken somewhat aback by the force in her voice, but he could also understand her reluctance. Whatever had happened, she probably considered it either too embarrassing or too traumatic to talk about just yet. "S-sorry, Ayanami," he apologized. "I just—"

His apology was cut off as the door slid open again, admitting their homeroom teacher into the room. "STAND!" Hikari's voice told the class as she attempted to draw everyone's attention away from Shinji and Rei. "Bow! Take your seats."

"You should return to your desk, Ikari," Ayanami told him once the students had finished their usual pre-class routine. Shinji almost took it as a dismissal, but part of him figured she was simply trying to keep him out of trouble. After all, the class had already seen how bad an idea it was to cross their elected representative when one of them had failed to stay behind on their assigned cleaning day last week—and even without that, Hikari's authoritative temper was legendary enough that even someone as introverted as Ayanami would have heard whispers of it by now.

"Alright," Shinji conceded, "but be sure to let me know if you need help with anything." He then returned to his desk while the teacher did roll call, making sure to keep half an eye in Ayanami's general direction—just in case she didn't let him know if she needed help, of course.

With her gaze already turned out the window, Shinji was unaware of the sudden redness that colored the blue-haired girl's cheeks.

The next few weeks went by relatively uneventfully. Shinji did his homework and chores as normal, hung out with his friends like normal, and for the most part went about his life the same as always. Ayanami was the only exception. After her return to class, he made sure to make at least one attempt to talk to her every day, usually by way of offering to help her while she continued to recover. Their conversations (one-sided though they often were) tended to revolve around little of any real importance; he never really had the nerve to engage in much beyond small talk with her, and on the rare occasions when he did muster up the courage, it always came too late—for whatever reason, something always interrupted them and caused the blue-haired girl to leave.

Their classes themselves were even less eventful. After the "Calculus incident," as it was being called, their teachers basically left Ayanami alone. It didn't hurt, of course, that she regularly had near-perfect scores in almost every class, so the faculty as a whole seemed to have decided to let her do as she pleased; after all, if her grades were that good when she didn't even seem to be paying attention, and her actions didn't cause trouble otherwise, why go out of their way to make trouble for her or themselves?

The only real incident during that time came one day when Ayanami received a private message as Shinji was asking her yet again to join him and the others for lunch. The message contained a link to an intranet site that, when she opened it, turned out to be another incarnation of the Rei Haters forum—the site's fourth incarnation, if he remembered right. Shinji immediately hit Report and shut the window, hoping that his crimson-eyed crush hadn't seen too much of the site's content. "Sorry about that," he told her.

"Why?" Ayanami asked him, once again seeming confused by Shinji's actions.

"What do you mean 'why?'" he asked her in return, shocked that she didn't seem the least bit concerned by any of this. "These people don't even know you! Doesn't it bother you that they say all these terrible things about you without even bothering to find out what you're really like first?"

"Should it?" she responded.

Shinji hadn't really known what to say to that, so he'd let the matter drop—inevitably leading to her breaking off on her own again rather than join him and his friends for lunch. He'd briefly thought about her question, figuring that she probably just had tougher skin than him. If nothing else, he envied her for that.

Regardless of Ayanami's opinion on the matter, the faculty once again shut down the Rei Haters forum, this time with an announcement accompanying the act. The announcement was generalized, of course, reminding the student body as a whole that using educational resources such as the intranet to defame faculty members or fellow students was strictly prohibited, and that further offenses would result in a one-month suspension from school and permanent suspension of intranet privileges for anyone involved in said offenses. Needless to say, the Rei Haters didn't have a fifth incarnation after that.

The whole incident got him thinking about just how little he knew about what Ayanami was really like, though. He probably knew her better than anyone else in school—he'd begun to notice subtle changes in her expression that would've been full-on emotional outbursts from anyone else, and he'd even started to get the hang of her unusually formal speech patterns—but she'd never shared anything personal about herself with him; anytime Shinji tried to find out something about her personal life, she always managed to either evade the question, give him a vague answer that didn't really tell him anything, or find some reason to break away again. She'd never even told him what really happened during her accident.

All that, he decided, was going to change as of today. Today he was finally going to ask her out.

That wasn't to say he wasn't nervous about the prospect. Truth be told, he was terrified, even if the "date" he planned to ask her out on was just a group outing he and the others were already going to be taking. But as terrified as he was, he'd made up his mind that this time, he wouldn't fail.

A moment later, Ayanami came through the classroom door, her striking form no longer marred by the bandages she'd been wearing for the past month. Shinji briefly considered asking her who her doctor was—if she was already healed from injuries as severe as hers had looked, he definitely wanted the guy's number. He forced himself to stay on track, though, and focus on his goal…even if his heart was beating a mile a minute. I mustn't run away, he told himself as he approached her. I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away… "Uh, hey, Ayanami," he greeted her when he got to her desk.

"Ikari," she greeted him as usual. Her cool response nearly smothered his resolve, but he told himself that this was just how she always was and pressed on.

"You're, uh, you're feeling better, I take it?"

"I am well," she told him. "My bandages were removed last night."

"Hey, that's great!" he said. "Oh, we, uh, we got our class pictures back today," he reminded her, indicating the envelope in his hand and the one on her desk. He was rather glad for her that the pictures were taken before her accident; at least she wouldn't have any physical reminder of it now. "W-would you…like to trade pictures with me?"

"For what purpose?" she asked him.

That stopped him for a moment. Did she really not know why kids traded pictures with their friends? "Well, most kids trade pictures with the classmates they like, so…" Yeah, real articulate, Ikari, he berated himself.

"Very well," Ayanami said, reaching into her envelope and removing one of the wallet-size images. It took Shinji a moment for his brain to catch up with the fact that she'd agreed to trade pictures, but he eventually got out one of his own wallet-size photos and gave it to her in return.

"So, uh," he began as he put her picture in his envelope, "I-I was wondering…" He suddenly found his throat turning dry on him, while his palms seemed to have decided to make up for his throat's lack of moisture by sweating profusely. He hadn't even been this nervous the first time he'd been onstage with the school orchestra.

"Yes?" Ayanami asked, waiting for him to continue.

"I, uh, I was wondering…if you'd be interested in going to a movie tomorrow night," he finally managed to say. "I mean, a bunch of us are going," he added nervously. "Me, Toji, Kensuke, Hikari…"

"For what purpose?" she asked again.

"Well, to, uh, to just…hang out and have a good time, I guess," he explained, hoping his answer satisfied her. He wasn't exactly used to having to explain stuff like this. Just how introverted has this girl been? he wondered.

"I see," she said simply. "I apologize, Ikari, but I have a prior engagement tomorrow night that I'm unable to break."

"Oh." Shinji's disappointment felt almost palpable, like something he could reach out and bludgeon himself with if he wanted to. He almost did, considering it would've potentially saved him from the embarrassment of being shot down. "Well, some other time, maybe, if you're—"

"Ikari?" Ayanami interrupted him.

"Y-yeah?" Shinji asked, hoping she'd reconsidered, or was at least suggesting an alternative get-together time.

"Why do you continue to attempt conversation with me?"

THAT, Shinji decided, was a dismissal. As much as he'd simply been trying to get closer to her, she'd finally had enough of him and was telling him to get lost. Shinji took the hint, returning to his desk without looking back at the girl who'd just broken his heart—doing so, he knew, would simply tempt him to try and defend himself and probably upset her even more.

Rei, meanwhile, remained at her desk, trying to figure out why Ikari hadn't simply answered her question. She was curious—and marginally annoyed—enough by this that she almost got up to ask him why he'd left when their homeroom teacher came through the door, initiating the usual pre-class ritual as led by Class Representative Horaki. She decided to simply wait to ask the boy why he'd run off during their next break, taking up her usual position staring out the window as classes began.

Shinji managed to hold himself together for the rest of the school day, but only by avoiding additional contact with Ayanami. Once school was over, though, he bolted for the door and left his somewhat confused friends behind as he headed home as quickly as his legs would carry him. He knew Toji and Kensuke wanted to hang out after school, but right then he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and stop existing.

He finally reached his apartment, fumbling for a moment with the key before finally unlocking the door and letting himself in. Once inside, he shut the door again, dropped his bag, and collapsed sobbing into the nearest piece of furniture. Thankfully, that turned out to be one of the rather plush armchairs his father had bought recently; at the very least, he had something comfortable to cry against for the rest of the night. He almost wished he had someone he was close enough to to talk about this with; Hikari was probably the only option, as Toji and even Kensuke were too masculine to be of much help at the moment, but he didn't feel like burdening someone he was only slightly close to with his problems. Misato might've been some help to him as well, but she was probably on duty—or out with Kaji, depending on how their relationship was going that week—and in either case, he didn't want to interrupt her.

"Shinji?" his father's voice asked from behind him. Shinji was momentarily startled by this—he hadn't even heard the door open—but not enough to staunch the flow of his tears. He had no idea how long he'd been crying, but he doubted he'd be stopping anytime soon. "Son, what's wrong?"

That was the last straw. Every ounce of pain he'd felt at Ayanami's rejection, every bit of anger he'd held in from his father's neglect over the years, all of it came bursting out of him in an out-of-control storm that he knew he'd likely regret later but was powerless to stop now. "What the hell do YOU care, anyway? You're never even HERE! You haven't been a FATHER to me since Mom died, so why bother trying now? You honestly think just waltzing in here and acting concerned is gonna make things better? Just go back to your WORK! It's all you really CARE about anymore, right?" He collapsed back into the armchair after that, returning to sobbing uncontrollably as his anger was swallowed up by his sadness again.

Gendo, meanwhile, stood frozen in place in the wake of his son's outburst. He couldn't honestly say that he was surprised by the sentiment; he knew that he was a terrible father to Shinji, that all he ever did was hurt him, that the boy would likely be better off in someone else's care. Rather, it was the fact that his son had actually gone off on him in the first place that had him shocked. He'd never known his son to be anything more than passive-aggressive toward him—toward anyone, really; confrontation wasn't in the younger Ikari's nature, especially not when it came to authority figures. For Shinji to go off like this, something deeply upsetting must have happened to him.

Instinctively, the elder Ikari knew that it must have had something to do with Rei. Ever since she'd ended up as part of his class, Gendo had seen a gradual change in the boy. Nothing overt, of course, but he had noticed that Shinji's general demeanor seemed just a little bit lighter; his attraction to the girl, while unexpected, had served to give him just the slightest boost of confidence. For him to have crashed this hard meant that Rei must have hurt him in some way—unintentionally, Gendo knew, as the girl had no reason to purposefully hurt him, but it was the only thing he could think of to explain his son's current state. And thanks to his poor performance as a father thus far, he was now powerless to help Shinji through this.

Or was he? An idea began to form in his mind, one that was sure to help both his charges…though there was little chance that SEELE would support it. Gendo wasn't terribly concerned about them, though; if all went to plan, the idea would seem to be Shinji's instead of his. And if it didn't…To hell with the old men, he thought as he made his decision. "I'm returning to work now," he told his son.

"FINE!" Shinji shouted into the armchair. "Just leave! That's what you're best at, anyway."

"You will be accompanying me," Gendo continued.

That actually managed to get Shinji's attention. The boy ceased his crying and lifted his head from the armchair again, looking at his father with almost as much surprise as he might if Gendo had told him the Earth was trapezoidal. "Wh-what?" he asked between sniffles.

Gendo merely nodded at his son's confusion. "There's something you need to see."

A/N: just so you're all aware, I probably won't be updating this quickly on a regular basis (I'd like to, but I don't always have the time). As I said before, though, the sheer amount of responses I've already gotten on this fic surprised me enough that I felt like getting this chapter done as soon as possible. I'll be going back to Ayanami Chronicles after this, though, so expect an update to that relatively soon-ish, hopefully within two or three weeks; once I've got another chapter or two done there, I'll come back and pick this one up again.

Oh yeah, a couple quick addenda to some review replies I sent out:

Greenfang: I forgot when I PMed you regarding your review of the first chapter of this fic that there'd be another semi-dense expositional onslaught coming up in the chapter after this. It should be the last one of this fic (unless my memory fails me again), and hopefully it'll be easier to wrap your head around than the first one was.

Da-Guru: I generally prefer the introverted Rei from the main series and most of the different manga to the RiAO (Rei in Appearance Only) character that shows up in episode 26, Girlfriend of Steel 2, and Angelic Days. Don't get me wrong, RiAO's amusing in her own way, and elements of her might occasionally show up in the Rei I write for in some of my fics, but most of my planned Eva-based works feature Rei behaving closer to her "canon" self.

'Til next time!