"We're sorry."

There was a pay phone. Shinji was holding it.

"Due to the state of special emergency, no lines are available. This is a recording."

"It's no use," he sighed, putting the phone back on the hook. "This is dumb. I shouldn't have come here."

He had been trying to call someone... who was it?

He saw something out of the corner of his-

Rei?

Hang on. She didn't feel like Shinji – she was herself, which was Maya. What was Rei doing there, way off in the distance?

"Hello-"

"Good day." Rei was standing right in front of Maya.

"...Pilot Ayanami?" she asked.

"Yes and no," Rei replied. And indeed, it wasn't quite Rei after all. She looked a bit older... or was it younger? Maya couldn't tell. Her eyes seemed to be a different shade of red... No, that wasn't right. They were the same shade as ever, only more so, more saturated. In any case, it was definitely Rei and most assuredly not Rei.

"Uh... who are you then, besides Ayanami?" Maya said. She wished she could have thought of a way to phrase that without sounding stupid.

"I guess you could say I'm... a stay-at-home mom." The strange Rei's hair seemed now to be a deeper blue than it had been before. "Yes, that'll do. Who are you? Are you Shinji?"

"No, I'm Maya Ibuki."

"Are you sure? It looks as though you're him," Rei pointed out.

Maya realized that she was the same height as Rei. And that she looked like Shinji and was wearing Shinji's clothes. "So it does," she noted, "but I'm Maya."

"Very good," said Rei.

They stared at each other for a moment, then Maya asked, "What do you want to tell me?"

For Maya knew that this being resembling Rei, whatever it was, absolutely had something to tell her: some sort of advice or wisdom or word of encouragement.

"Yes," said Rei, who was suddenly brown-haired, brown-eyed, and taller than before – and not even a little bit Rei anymore. "Look after Shinji for me. And don't fuck it up."

And then Rei, or whoever it had been, was gone. Maya, now back in her own body, stood alone on the sidewalk. The road was empty of human life. The world was, too. All she could hear was the buzzing of the cicadas.

She awoke, shooting straight out of her pillow.

II

He awoke, slowly opening his eyes. The tiles that he saw were off-white.

"Unfamiliar ceiling..."

He could hear the drone of cicadas from the outside. He smelled ammonia. He looked around and realized he was in a hospital bed - and there was someone sitting on a chair in the corner, reading a book.

She looked up and smiled at him. "Oh, Shinji. You're awake." It was the woman he met in the hallway yesterday. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I..." Shinji began before trailing off.

"I guess not," the woman said. "Do you remember me?"

"Uh..." He did remember seeing her yesterday, but he couldn't recall her name. He sat up. "Sorry."

"Lieutenant Maya Ibuki," she said, "We met in the hallway the other day. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Miss Ibuki."

"Maya is fine. So, how are you feeling?" Her smile changed into one of concern. Or maybe it was pity.

"I'm all right... uh, may I ask why you're here?"

"Oh, I..." she coughed. "I, uh, just wanted to see how you were doing. I heard you had a rough time in the Eva yesterday."

"Oh... um... thank you."

There was a silence.

"Uh..." Maya began, "Would you... would you like me to take you on a tour of the Nerv building?"

"Uh... sure."

"Would you like some tea?" asked Maya. She was standing by the vending machine, her stature awkwardly straight. She smiled at Shinji.

"Um... okay." Shinji, who sat on a bench, didn't meet Maya's gaze.

Maya grabbed a milk tea for Shinji and a juice for herself. (She'd never been a fan of tea.) "Catch," she said. "What do you think of Nerv headquarters so far?" She had spent a pretty good part of the morning on the impromptu tour.

Shinji caught the milk tea and looked at Maya. He smiled weakly. "It's okay, I guess..." he mumbled. "There are a lot of corridors."

"Well, uh... good..."

Maya sipped her juice. She wasn't really sure what to say around Shinji – his responses were often pretty perfunctory.

"Um, hey. Do you remember anything from last night?"

Shinji shook his head.

"Well…" Maya attempted to think of a reassuring response. "I'm sure it'll come back to you."

You can't think of anything better than that, Maya? Pathetic!

Shinji made a sort of gloomy half-smile. "Yeah." He paused for a second, sucking on his milk tea, then added, "Why do they call it that?"

"Hmm? Call what that?"

"NERV. What does it stand for?"

"Oh! It's not actually an acronym. Nerv is German for… well, nerve."

"Why German?"

[The monoliths vanished, one by one. "The beginning and the end are one and the same… Yes… All is right with the world."]

"Um… some of the higher-ups are from around there." Maya shrugged. "Actually, one of the pilots is from Germany - you might meet her soon."

"Her?" Shinji's eyes widened slightly.

"Try not to sound so surprised that she's a girl when you meet her," Maya said with a grin. You might just get smacked."

"Noted," said Shinji.

There was an awkward silence at this point. Maya almost said "Um" a couple times. Then, she didn't. Instead, she drank her juice until it was all gone.

"So… uh… do you want to go now?" she finally asked, throwing the can away.

"Go where?" Shinji asked in return. He still had some milk tea left.

"Home," said Maya.

"Where's that?" asked Shinji.

"Um, with Captain Katsuragi?" Maya's tone indicated that she thought it was obvious.

"Huh? I'm supposed to be living with her?" Shinji looked mildly surprised. "Nobody told me that."

"Oh, uh…" It must not be until later. Crap. "Well, it's just a rumor. I don't know if it's true. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

"I don't really care," Shinji admitted. "I'd be fine with Katsuragi. I'd be fine living alone, too." He looked down at the floor.

"I see…" Maya bit her lip. Poor kid… "Well, I'm sure your father would let you live by yourself if you wanted to, but I think you ought to live with a guardian. After all, someone's got to look after-"

She gasped.

"Look after Shinji for me…"

"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Shinji's eyes had widened a bit, and he was frowning.

"Actually, I was just thinking… I have some extra space in my apartment…"

The plot thickens… to a somewhat disgusting paste-like consistency. Sorry this one took so long, but I spent way too long trying to figure out a way to get this particular plot point to work, since I knew it'd be way more interesting to have Shinji live with Maya, which would allow me to keep it interesting by changing things up from the very beginning. I originally planned for some roundabout monstrosity involving Misato not wanting to take care of Shinji and somehow keeping that in character for her, but I realized I was complicating it too much for myself and so the simple version here is what you get.