Phew...got another done. You'll noticed I changed some stuff (again). On another note I figured that I'd get something sorted out before it was brought up. I've flip flopped with the idea of adding lemon into this sometime or another. I even planned out half a chapter in my head after Asuka and Shinji having sex and the repercussions that followed. Though I decided to scrap the whole idea and leave it for later, and by later I mean the sequel to this. In this Shinji and Asuka are one year older than they were in the anime and I decided on this age largely because of the dialogue between the teenagers (You'll notice how vulgar it can get at times). So if you were hoping for lemon in this I hate to disappoint you but lemon between two fifteen year olds is a gigantic no no in my world. BTW sequel will be named Two of Us, and if you can guess were I got the name from...well then you're as much a fan of them as I am. And close curtain.

Gendo Ikari sat calmly at his desk. It was close to midnight and he had just finished reading the report that Ritsuko had given him about Pilot 01's latest improvement. Shinji's sudden improvement both brought his plan closer, but also brought greater dangers to his plan. If he should go out of control again, well, Instrumentality might be initiated sooner then he might like it, and while he knew he could control Shinji if he wished, he still didn't have all the pieces.

Clasping his hands together he glanced down at the brief that Ritsuko had sent him. The woman may be completely useless in the future, but for now he would be able to control her to his designs.

Picking a particular paper up he glanced at the few words she had left in the margins at the end of it. 'While Shinji's sync rate has increased dramatically he seems to have grown slightly aggressor. While that may be due to his experiences inside Unit-01, I don't know. An odd thing came up during the analysis of his battle though. During the time when Unit 01 generated the AT-field that tore the angel in half a brief instance of two At-fields were noticeable between the hands. It is possible though that this was the angel's AT-field and that the computer misread it.'

Gendo let the paper fall back on his desk and rested his elbows on the edge of his desk. He had wondered whether Ritsuko would have noticed this anomaly. The kid had undoubtably grown, but still not to where he could be useful. Well, he could still wait.

A small smile appeared on Gendo's face as he anticipated the future.

When Shinji woke up the day after his fight with the angel Ramiel he thought that he was still dreaming. Never in his life would he have expected to smell food in Misato's apartment that wasn't being made by his own hands. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes to be sure he wasn't dreaming only to realize how foolishly it was to rub your eyes if it was something you were smelling.

Standing up groggily, still half asleep, he opened the door a little and stuck his head into the doorway. He could smell something wonderful coming from the kitchen but due to the odd design of the apartment couldn't see who it was. It certainly couldn't have been Misato...the house would have burned long ago, and Asuka wouldn't be caught dead making something for herself. So who did that leave?

Keeping his body pressed firmly against the wall of the hallway he slowly walked forward and into the kitchen. In his surprise he almost tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face. It was Asuka, though she certainly didn't seem like Asuka.

She was facing the stove and seemed to be fretting over the dials, trying to figure out how to work them. Once or twice Shinji thought he heard her say, "How the hell does that baka use this damn thing?"

She had her hair tied back in a pony tail, something that Shinji never expected to see but had to admit it looked good. Shinji then noticed that she had found the white apron that he occasionally used when he didn't want to get his clothes dirty. Though last time he wore it he could have sworn it had a stain on it.

It seemed that she had found the correct setting for the stove and Shinji then saw that she seemed to be pouring some sort of bater in a frying pan. His mind ran through a series of things that she could be cooking before it rested on pancakes. He was rather surprised that she would be making something so plain. He had made them a few times before and she had always eaten them with little or no complaints. So why should she be making them now?

Abandoning all pretenses he calmly walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and sat down at the table there. He wondered how long it would take her to realize that he was there, she seemed completely focused on the stove. After a minute of silence Shinji breached it.

"You're certainly up early."

Asuka almost jumped three feet in the air at his comment and almost knocked the pan of the stove. Spinning around quickly she saw him sitting at the table grinning at her. Quickly hiding the brief tinge of pink that had appeared on her cheeks because of her actions she retorted, "Damn it, you almost made me spill the frying pan."

"You're the one that jumped."

Asuka threw a scowl at him before turning back towards the stove.

Shinji shrugged, got up, and grabbed himself a glass of orange juice out of the fridge.

After taking a large gulp he said in a low voice, "Any reason why you're making breakfast and not me?"

Asuka seemed to tense up for a second but then regained her composure. "Not particularly, would you rather do it?"

"No, I just don't see what the point of making two breakfasts is."

Asuka looked over at her shoulder and glared at him. "Two breakfasts?"

"Well, yeah. Its not like your making it for both of us."

Without turning around Asuka said, "Fine! You won't get any then."

It took Shinji several seconds to realize what she ment by this statement. "Wait, what? You mean you had planned on making enough for both of us."

"That was my intention when I woke up this morning but if you don't want to taste my cooking go right ahead and just eat cereal."

An awkward silence was met by this during which Shinji rebuked his hasty words. After a few minutes of silence he said, "Sorry what I said, just didn't expect you to be thinking of me."

Asuka response was to hit him on the back of the head with a serving spoon. "Ass!"

Shinji rubbed the spot on his head, slightly confused. Was Third Impact close?

Letting out a low sigh he rested his head on the table and mumbled. "To tell you the truth I didn't even know you could cook."

"Just because I don't, doesn't mean I can't," she snapped back at him.

"Sorry I didn't mean-"

"Just shut it and eat," Asuka said as she dropped a plate with two pancakes on it in front of Shinji.

Shinji frowned at the plate and then looked up at Asuka who had her arms crossed and was trying not to look in his direction.

"Err, you sure you don't want to eat first."

Asuka raised an eyebrow at him and replied cooly, "Its fine."

Shrugging Shinji picked up a fork and knife and dug into the first one. It was good, way better than his and he could understand why she had wanted to make it. It was fluffy, but not to the point of it getting to soggy when syrup was applied. It didn't even really need syrup.

"This is good, far better that how I make it actually."

Asuka tried not to look to pleased with herself.

"Where did you learn to cook like this anyway?"

Shrugging Asuka said, "At college. I didn't eat out much. Pancakes is what I usually ate each morning. I sorta made my own recipe."

"Its good."

"Glad you liked it."

"What about you? Aren't you going to get a plate?"

Asuka's face seemed to shift as her features reacted wildly to his question. "Err, no. I already ate."

Shinji hesitated for a fraction of a second and that was all Asuka needed to make an excuse. "Don't get any ideas! I didn't make it for you, I just hadn't made it in a while and felt like it was good practice."

"U-huh."

Asuka's face turned slightly pink as she turned around, "Baka!"

Shinji just laughed and dug into another piece. He found it funny that she didn't want to admit that she had made it specifically for him. Though whether she was proving that hers tasted better or just felt like giving him the day off he wasn't sure. Though he seemed to lean a little to the latter.

"And hurry it up will you, we're gonna be late for school."

"Hai, hai."

Asuka then busied herself with cleaning up the mess that she had left...which was quite a lot.

After devouring four pancakes Shinji called himself satisfied and quickly entered his room and started to dress. After pulling on his shirt and fastening the buttons he thought he heard the phone ringing and Asuka's annoyed voice answering it. Grabbing some socks off his floor he hopped out on one foot, putting them on as he went.

His first guess that something was wrong when he saw Asuka frowning slightly as she talked into the receiver of the phone. After a hasty hang up Asuka turned to him and said, "Misato wants us to come to Nerv right now."

Still hopping on one foot Shinji replied, "Angel attack?"

Asuka nodded silently and for once Shinji wished that he was going to school.

Sighing he said, "Best get moving then."

Asuka nodded and followed him out the door.

As soon as Asuka and Shinji entered Nerv headquarters they were directed to the command center. Misato then filled them in on an angel that they had detected of the coast of Tokyo-3. Not much was known about this angel and they were supposed to be extremely cautious. Rei would not be taking part in the operation though owing to the fact that Unit-00 was still damaged from the last battle. Asuka was therefore determined to show Shinji that she was the better of the three children. Before they were sent up to the surface though Misato gave them some advice.

"Now this is technically your first time teaming up together so I want you two to get along, and by this I mean not arguing and working together.

"It'll be fine as long as Shinji just listens to me. I am the better pilot after all," said Asuka while shrugging. Misato hadn't told her about his performance in the last battle, or the fact that he had almost beaten her best sync rate.

Turning around, Asuka smiled at Shinji and said, "Got that baka."

Shinji sighed and replied, "Yeah."

Misato was nervous for the results of this battle.

After the two entered their respected Eva's Misato's voice came over the intercom. "Asuka enter elevator number three, Shinji number two. Rifles will be awaiting you at the surface."

Shinji sighed and felt a familiar sense of being shot through a cannon as he rocketed to the surface.

As the gate for the elevator opened Unit 01 quickly grabbed a rifle and ducked down behind a building. Shinji saw that Asuka had done similar and was several blocks to the left of his position.

"Pattern blue detected entering Tokyo-3 defense zone," came a voice over the intercom. "Retracting Tokyo-3 now."

It still amazed Shinji every time he saw it. The buildings, almost retreating into the safety of the Geofront. He suddenly wondered what it would look like if the sun was setting as it happened. Shaking his head quickly he emptied his thoughts and looked to his left to see Unit 02 crouching, waiting for the go ahead.

After several tense minutes Shinji felt the silence of everyone around him and heard Misato over the intercom. "Lockdown of Tokyo-3 confirmed, proceed with the operation."

Almost as soon as Misato cut the radio Shinji saw a screen open on the monitor to his left and frowned when he saw Asuka smirking at him.

"Just stay back and let me handle this. I'll show you why I'm the best pilot here."

"Wait, don't you think its better if we both attack it."

His words were apparently ignored as Asuka dove out from behind her hiding spot and rushed towards the waterfront.

Shinji but his lip and swore, "Damn it, can't she ever listen to anything I say."

Taking off after her he thought anyway, 'Whether she wants help or not I'm giving it to her.'

Shinji was quick to catch up with Asuka and she was visibly surprised by it. Smiling slightly she thought, 'Oh? Seems that he's improved a little bit.'

Soon both of them could see the angel walking slowly out of the water and onto the beach.

"Shinji watch this, I'm going to kill it in one shot."

"Asuka wait! We shouldn't charge in without knowing what its powers are!"

Unit 02 dashed towards he angel, creating a deep groove in the sand. Though the angel seemed to be slow, with its bulky arms and legs it swung quickly as Unit 02 got into range. Asuka rolled around the angel quite easily as she dodged its arms.

Now behind her target she quickly pulled out her progressive knife and stabbed it straight in the back. A small fountain of black blood erupted out of it and with a quick slash downwards Asuka managed to split it in two.

Black blood spilled forth as it fell in two separate heaps, landing with a thud on the sand. Soon the sand had turned black from the blood and parts of Unit 02 were coated in the blood. Shinji had to turn away as he saw several large organs fall out of the angel and writhe around on the sand before falling silent. He was inadvertently remembering his past battle and the taste of the flesh that had gone through his mouth.

"See, one shot was all it took. I am the best though so its not to be unexpected."

Shinji couldn't help but smile, he was fairly impressed. Relaxing slightly he felt a slight tingle on the back of his neck and felt a familiar voice whisper, "Its not over yet."

Next second Shinji heard an ear splitting racket over the intercom from Misato.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING. DESTROY THE DAMN CORE BEFORE IT REGENERATES!"

Shinji looked wildly back at the angel and saw something truly horrifying. The angel was slowly starting to rebuild itself. Pieces of flesh started to mold together and reform on the sand. Organs exploded and reformed into two different organs, leaving many different colored liquids in the sand. Shinji thought what he recognized as the stomach deflate and then tear itself into. Stomach acid was formed in the walls of the stomach and slowly started to fill back up. Shinji had a strong urge to bring his breakfast back up but held it. The large and small intestines split themselves apart and then reformed again. It was like high speed cell regeneration.

Soon the two different flesh piles fixated itself onto each of the different halves of the angel. Not even a scar could be visible as the angel, now two separate halves, picked itself off the ground.

Asuka seemed to not have noticed as she had her back to the angel now and was just wondering why Misato seemed so worried when she felt something hit her Eva in the back. She was sent flying forward and collided directly into Unit 01.

"Damn it Asuka, get off me."

"Its your fault for standing there."

"Its your fault for attacking so recklessly."

Asuka bit her lip and ignored his comment. How the hell was she supposed to know that this was going to happen.

"Anyway, just pick one and attack it."

Shinji was about to agree with her when he heard Misato's angry voice come on the intercom again.

"Forget it. I'm disengaging this operation."

"HUH," cried a shocked Asuka.

"If you guys can't work together then you won't be able to beat this angel."

"Watch me!" Yelled Asuka.

Asuka charged forward again, about to attack the one closest to her when she felt something akin to whiplash. Shinji had just barely managed to grab her Eva around the waist and pull her backwards. She had been so focused on attacking the one in front of her that she had completely ignored the other one which had been close to taking off Unit 02's right arm.

"What the hell are you doing ass hole!"

"Saving you damn it. You completely ignored the other one!"

"I expected you to cover me baka."

"ENOUGH!" Yelled Misato. "Return now! Both of you."

Asuka grimaced, "Damn it..."

Shinji wasn't to pleased either but was eyeing the angel. Oddly enough it didn't seem like it was interested in them, in fact the two separate halves reformed and went back in the ocean. Shinji dropped his guard then, and still realized that he had a hand on Asuka's Eva's shoulder.

"Come on...lets head back, Asuka."

"Fucking..." Letting out a sigh she said, "Fine."

What followed after was, in Misato's words, "A debriefing," though Shinji thought it was more like a berating. He didn't know how many times she had called it an operational failure. What was possibly worse was the shouting match that happened between himself and Asuka. No matter what Shinji had actually done, Asuka found someway to blame the entire thing on himself. After a hasty lunch, which consisted of nothing more than T.V. dinners, Asuka and Shinji had confined themselves in there separate places. Asuka in front of the T.V. and Shinji in his room.

After close to an hour of just laying there and listening to his SDAT, Shinji thought he heard the opening and slamming of the front door. Knowing that Misato would likely chew him out sooner or later he decided to get it over with sooner.

Opening his door quietly he poked his head out to see Misato's retreating back heading towards the kitchen. Misato must have heard him though because she paused for a second and said, "Shinji, I need to talk to you and Asuka."

Knowing that her name would be brought up eventually, Shinji caught a brief glimpse of Asuka's face as she plodded out of the living room, being sure to give him a grimace.

Sighing heavily, Shinji followed her at a distance and was unsurprised to see Misato sitting at the table with a beer already in her hand.

"Sit," she gestured to the two.

As soon as they had sat, Misato popped the top off the can and drank a heavy gulp. Shinji was a bit disgusted at her actions, it was only noon for Christ's sake.

After taking another large gulp Misato slammed the can down on the table, folder her arms on the table, and frowned at the two. "That was some of the worst team work I've ever seen."

"Well, sorry if somebody wasn't able to keep up with me-"

Shinji threw a glare in Asuka's direction and another shouting match would have followed if Misato hadn't held out her hand to shut them up.

"I don't care who slowed who down. If you two won't work together you won't be able to defeat this angel." Pausing for a moment Misato continued. "This angel is able to split itself in two, though they are still part of the same angel. Because of this, they are perfectly synchronized with each other, meaning that they are able to read each other thought patterns."

Shinji frowned, "Humans can't read others thoughts."

Misato nodded, "While true, humans are able to sync with each other in other ways. One such form is dance and music."

It took Shinji slightly longer than Asuka to figure out what she ment.

"THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

Shinji turned to see a bright angry Asuka glaring dumbfounded back at Misato.

Sighing, Misato replied, "Its exactly I ment it to sound like. In order to beat this angel you two need to work together. The only way to do that in a short amount of time is to be able to fluently synchronization each others bodies to the motions of the other.

"Wh-What do you mean by synchronization of each other bodies."

Taking another large gulp of beer from the can, Misato slammed it back down and with a slight grin on her face shouted, "DANCE!"

Shinji almost fell out of his chair...while Asuka did fall out of hers.

"DANCE WITH THIS IDIOT, YOU MUST BE FUCKING CRAZY!"

"Whether this seems crazy or not doesn't matter. It should theoretically work-"

"AND IF IT DOESN'T?"

Shrugging Misato said, "We'll think of something else. But for now, this is the best we've got."

"Damn it, why can't you just get the first to do this? I'd rather let her degraded herself instead of me."

With her mouth half way up to the can Misato replied, "I would have used her instead but Unit 00 won't be fully repaired for another two days and we don't have that time." Slamming the can down on the table she said, "You two will from now on do everything together. You will dance together, eat together, sleep in the same room together, you will practically take a shower together."

"THE FUC-"

"Calm down Asuka, its just a figure of speech," said Shinji.

"You'd like that pervert."

Shinji was about to open his mouth when Misato cut in like a knife.

"Enough! And while this is going on I don't want you two arguing with each other. That will completely undermine this project.

"When exactly are we supposed to start?"

"Now. Later I'll have you move your futons into the living room but for now I want you to go to school, even though it is late in the day."

"Fine!" Asuka stood to get up but Misato spoke up quickly. "I've got something that I want you two to wear to school."

Holding up an oddly wrapped package Shinji was able to see some of what was inside and felt his stomach drop.

"NO WAY IN HELL AM I WEARING THAT," roared Asuka.

"You will, because its also important to feel what the other feels, not just physically but emotionally as well, and I think you'll get plenty of emotion out of wearing those to school."

Shinji tried not to imagine them walking into class in the middle of the day, it looked painful. Kensuke and Touji would give him hell.

Shinji's predication wasn't even close to the truth. Everyone's reaction were way worse then he had expected. When they had both walked in with the tight, black leather, dancing pants, and matching tank-tops the class was silent for an eternity. Then when they finally started laughing it sounded like a tornado. Kensuke started clicking his camera like mad and Touji fell out of his chair and started banging his fist on the floor. Hikari, a girl that Shinji hardly talked to but had seen talking to Asuka before, blushed an embarrassing deep red and tried to act like she had never seen Asuka before. Even the teacher gave up his feeble attempts to control to class and started snickering wildly and the two. Shinji thought that he even saw Rei crack a brief smile, though brief.

Without looking at each other Shinji and Asuka walked wordlessly to their seats while ignoring the cat-calls and jeering from there fellow students. When Shinji finally sat down he got a brief glimpse of Asuka's face as she sat down. She looked like an over ripe strawberry.

Though they had arrived at school, lunch was just a few minutes away and Asuka and Shinji had no desire to socialize with other people. Shinji rarely did in the first place, but Asuka didn't feel like it either, so she joined him on the roof of the school for the first time in a while.

"Damn it Misato, I'm gonna give her hell tonight," said an irksome Asuka. Shinji had learned not to bother her when she was like this but didn't care that much today.

"I suppose we can understand what she ment by sharing each others emotions. I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed in my life."

Asuka then vented some anger off by pretending that half her bento was Misato's face, though she quickly stopped when she realized how hungry she was. Honestly she hadn't eaten earlier, she had just lied to Shinji so he wouldn't feel bad.

"How the hell is this supposed to help us beat that damn angel."

"Beats me."

"If it wasn't for you we wouldn't even be in this situation."

Shinji had learned long ago that it was pointless trying to convince her otherwise so he just ignored it. Though there peace was short lived as the door to the stairway came banging open.

"See told you they'd be here," said a laughing Touji as he walked through the door.

"I suppose it seems logical since this is where Shinji spends his lunch, and I'm not surprised to see Asuka here either," said Kensuke.

Asuka stood up then and twitched slightly. Shinji could feel the anger that was coursing off of her and knew she'd like nothing better than to unleash her frustration on them. Standing up quickly before she decided to kill them, he put a hand out in front of her and said, "Best not to."

Asuka turned her head towards him and glared at him before sitting down, "Whatever."

Touji and Kensuke were obviously prepared to run but calmed down when Asuka sat back down. Kensuke slowly started walking over to Shinji then but still keeping an eye on Asuka, though she seemed to be preoccupied.

"So Shinji...are you gonna tell us why you two look like that?"

Shinji had expected more ridicule instead of questioning. Glancing over at Asuka, the two came into eye contact and Asuka shrugged as if saying, "I couldn't give a flying fuck."

Shinji sighed then, deciding that he didn't care remotely either and delved into the long winded story of the Eva's and the battles with the angels.

After a severely cut down version of events Shinji came to the part with the last battle and surprisingly Asuka picked up the story telling them how degrading it was to have to learn how to dance with Shinji. Touji then decided to make a remark which almost ended up with him knocked out with a pool of blood around him. Though Shinji had intervened at the last moment.

"Wow, so thats why you left school suddenly sometimes?"

"Yeah."

"But wait Shinji how long have you been doing this."

"You remember when we were searching for a shelter together that time."

"Yeah."

"After that time is when I decided that I'd pilot Eva."

"Wow."

"I don't see why your so impressed. I hate being inside of those things."

"So wait what were you telling me about the entry plu-"

Kensuke was cut off from his rant then as the bell rang.

"Ah and I still had lots more questions."

"I'll you them later."

"Okay see you in class."

"Yeah cya."

Shinji and Asuka were then left alone briefly. Shinji rested his back against the chain fence before standing up. Turning towards Asuka who was still sitting he held out a hand to help her up. Asuka blinked at his gesture and seemed to look around as though expecting a crowd of people watching them. Accepting his gesture she rested her hand in his and he gently pulled her to her feet.

Motioning towards the door Shinji said, "Come on, lets head back to class."

Shinji took about half a step forward, expecting Asuka's hand to slide out of his, though it didn't. In fact she seemed to hold on tighter. Turning towards her he asked, "Asuka wha-"

"I don't want to go back..."

"What?"

"I said I don't want to go back to class. Lets...lets just go home."

Shinji paused for a second and thought about several things. Was she really that embarrassed about what she was wearing? It wasn't that bad once you got over the initial shock.

Scratching his head he said, "I guess there's really no reason in staying here anymore. I think we got the emotional part down. We certainly were laughed at enough."

"Yeah, no kidding," mumbled Asuka.

Asuka then let go of his hand quickly after he had agreed on heading home and walked next to him as they left the roof.

Misato was unsurprisingly not back from work; still probably cleaning up the aftermath of their last battle, Shinji reminded himself.

Predictably Asuka flopped down on the couch and flipped on the T.V. as soon as they got home. Shinji meanwhile entered the kitchen and was about to get a glass of water when he noticed something on the kitchen table. It was a note from Misato.

Hesitantly picking it up he had a sudden mental imagine of it starting to yell at him. Shrugging it off he walked over to the living room and had to clear his throat loudly since Asuka had raised the volume on the T.V. to maximum

"What baka?" Asuka asked when she muted the T.V. and turned to face Shinji.

"Misato left us something."

Asuka's eyebrows twitch angrily. She had almost torn off her dance pants and tank-top half way to Misato's apartment and it was only from Shinji convincing her otherwise that she didn't. So anything about Misato was sure to piss her off.

"Whatever read it."

"Err okay..."

"Asuka, Shinji, sorry about earlier. I was a little stressed out from the battle. Anyway I left something on the counter for you two. Its the music that goes along with the dance that you'll be memorizing for the battle. The dance simulation wont be here till tomorrow though so I want you to spend a few hours just listening to the music. Most likely I wont return home tonight so Shinji don't worry about cooking extra. Can't wait to hear how school went."

-Misato

Shinji stared at the note for a few minutes and then folded it up and put it in his pocket.

"So what is it that she left us?" Asked Asuka.

Shrugging Shinji walked back over to the kitchen counter while Asuka stuck her head into the hallway and watched him. What he had missed on the counter was a white envelope that seemed to barely be holding in its contents. Sliding his finger along the seem the turned it upside down and out fell an old cassette player with ear buds. A note was attached to the cassette player.

"This cassette only has one song on it so just repeat it over and over. Also I know that you have your own ear buds Shinji but I want you to use these. And don't even try changing the length of it."

Shinji wondered what she ment by the length of the ear buds but was interrupted by someone hovering over his shoulder.

"That thing looks ancient."

Shinji turned towards Asuka and rather wished he hadn't as their noses almost touched. Passing it off he said, "Yeah, its a lot older than the one I have."

"What? You think its her father's or something."

"Maybe...should we try it?"

Asuka let out a heavy sigh and smacked herself lightly on the forehead. "Might as well get this damn thing over with."

Shinji nodded and unrolled the ear buds and passed the cassette player to Asuka. Together, the two of them walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch. After turning off the T.V. the two frowned at the cassette player now resting between them.

"Well, get it on with it," said Asuka with a grimace.

Shinji nodded and grabbed his ear bud piece and stuck it in his left ear while Asuka had hers in her right ear. Shinji then realized why Misato had told them not to try to resize the ear buds. The length between the two was so minuscule that their heads were banging into each other.

"Move over damn it!"

"Thats not gonna work. The ear buds are what's causing this."

"Then making them longer."

Shinji pulled his out of his ear and frowned down at it. It was already at its longest.

"This is as long as it gets."

Asuka let out a shrill yell and a large quantity of German profanities, largely directed at Misato.

"Damn it!"

"Not like we can do anything about it."

"Whatever! Just start the damn thing."

Shinji nodded and finally pressed play on the player. He wasn't sure what kind of music he had expected but didn't think he'd be listening to the classics. It really wasn't much different that what he had had on his SDAT and he suddenly felt like asking Misato if he could keep the tape when they were done with it. Turning towards Asuka he was surprised that her face seemed to be fairly passive. Asuka seemed to notice and turned slightly towards him, brushing some of her hair against his forehead. "What?"

"Sorry, I'm just surprised that you're not complaining about the music."

"Hmph, It could have been a lot worse."

"I suppose...but I didn't know that you liked classical music."

Shrugging Asuka said, "Some of the greatest classical composers are from Germany. When this stuff is blaring out of every cafe on the street corners you grow to enjoy it."

Shinji hummed his consent.

Oddly enough they stopped squirming and flinching every time the other would accidently bump into the other. Though there had been a close call when Shinji had accidently brushed Asuka's right breast with his elbow and had almost ushered in the apocalypse. Other than that minor set back they seemed to be getting used to the physical contact.

After roughly an hour and a half of sitting their Shinji felt Asuka's stomach next to him let out a loud grumble. Doing his best to not look at her face he failed miserably and noticed that she seemed to be sitting extremely rigid with a slight blush across her face.

Acting as though he hadn't noticed anything he pulled the bud out of his ear, stretched and said, "I'm gonna start making dinner."

"...Fine."

Dinner was quick and brief with almost no conversation, though for once Asuka offered to clean up instead of Shinji. Gratefully excepting her help, Shinji decided to clear a large enough space in the living room since the two were supposed to sleep in the same room together. Shinji had a sudden mental image of him and Asuka sleeping in a king size bed together, except that it stretched the length of five football fields and they were each on opposite ends. Honestly even in his mind it was an impossible happenstance.

After rearranging the furniture and T.V. being sure that latter was within viewing distance of wherever Asuka was going to sleep, Shinji grabbed his futon in his room and dragged it into the living room. Asuka did likewise soon after while bringing a few other things with her.

"I want to make something perfectly clear before we go to sleep."

Shinji could guess what it was but he asked anyway. "What?"

"First, if I catch you anywhere near myself while I sleep...I Will Kill You."

Shinji took this one to heart.

"Second," pulling out a piece of scotch tape she stuck a piece of tape in between hers and Shinji's futon. Shinji noticed that she had a substantial amount more room on her side then he did.

"You are not under any circumstances allowed to cross this line. If you do than I will revert to the first one and kill you."

It was amazing how calmly she could say these things. Sighing Shinji said, "Do you honestly expect me to do such things?" Her glare was all he needed to shut up.

"This is effective immediately!"

"Hai, Hai." Without anymore further conversation Shinji got on his futon, rolled onto his side that wasn't face her, and turned on his SDAT. If he had been facing Asuka he might have seen the annoyance that had passed over her face before she stood up. Without caring whether he could hear her or not she said that she was going to take a bath. He long since stopped caring what she did in the bathroom.

Sleep came and went that night. It wasn't so much that they were sharing a room together. Just that both of them were fully aware that the other was awake but wasn't sure if they wanted to talk. So much had happened since they had met.

After many hours had gone by it was fully dark out and Shinji could hear the light breathing of Asuka, somewhere to his right. Rolling over onto his back he caught her in his peripheral vision, it seemed that she really was asleep. Shinji couldn't quite tell but it looked like from the outline of her body that she had fallen asleep while turned towards him. Though she could have tossed and turned several times to get into that position.

Shinji couldn't help but smile slightly. She was on the side furthest from the window and so some of the moonlight was able to seep through the curtain and bathe part of her face in the light. It was times like this that Shinji was glad that he knew her. Almost as though replying to his thoughts Asuka stirred. Shinji immediately switched position and turned the other way, hoping that she hadn't woken up only to find him looking at her.

She seemed not to have noticed though as he heard her covers shifting slightly as she got up. Shinji tried to keep as still as possible and developed a light breathing so as to fake sleep. After several seconds he heard water coming from the kitchen and assumed that she had just grabbed a glass of water.

Sighing in a relieving sort of way he heard the water turn of and her steady footsteps as she walked back to the living room.

'I should really try to get some sleep I suppose. Tomorrow is going to be hectic,' thought Shinji.

Deciding that the other side was more comfortable he turned on his side, the one facing Asuka and was just prepared to drop of to sleep when he heard something surprising.

"Baka Shinji, you awake?"

Shinji lay there for a long time without answering. Should he, or should he not reply? Guessing that she knew that he was awake anyway he open his eyes to find her sitting up in her futon with her eyes watching him. It certainly didn't help that the moonlight completely illuminated her now.

"Yeah...somewhat," mumbled Shinji.

"Sorry if you were about to fall asleep."

"Its okay," said Shinji, shaking off the drowsiness.

"I'm having trouble sleeping..."

"You're not the only one."

Asuka turned her head slightly to see Shinji resting on his side watching her.

"I feel so stupid bothering you with something so trivial as this."

"What is it?"

"...Bad dream."

Had it been any other time Shinji probably would have broken several ribs from laughing. For some reason though he could understand where she was coming from. He had certainly had his share of them in the past few weeks.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"No...its nothing...sorry to bother you."

Asuka then rolled back onto her side and faced the wall. Shinji watched her for a few seconds before rolling onto this back and looking up at the ceiling.

"I want you to know I'm here...incase you need to talk..."

Shinji then turned his head slightly and thought he caught a slight moving of her head to indicate she understood.

"Thanks...Baka."

Shinji almost scoffed. Even when she was showing vulnerability she never forgot to throw an insult in his direction. Well, if it made her more secure, he supposed it was all right.

"Night, Asuka."

After a very long pause during which Shinji was close to drifting off he thought her heard, "Night, Shinji."