The reviews have been great and they are great motivation. I am glad people are enjoying this story as much as I am enjoying writing it.

Oh, hybrid car fans, I apologize now. This is Misato's character to me, not hating.

Warnings for this chapter: slight racism (weren't expecting that were ya?) and at the end when Shinji goes to bed abuse victims may recognize his behavior.

Chapter 5

As they rode the elevator down to the parking levels, something occurred to Shinji.

"Um, Misato-san?"

"Yes Shinji-kun?

"Was your car fixed or… ?"

Captain Katsuragi slumped her shoulders and groaned.

"Yeeeeeeeeah, Its was an '84 and they were all hand built, sooooo the repair bill would have been astronomical. NERV is gonna cut me a check but for now they gave me a loaner from the motor pool." Misato said, all joy leaving her voice at the mention of the loaner.

"You don't sound happy. You must have really loved that car."

"Oh it was a pain in the ass, it was French after all. They will give me enough to find something nice, just for now…" Misato doesn't finish as the elevator doors open and the object of her unhappiness is revealed.

3 years before second impact, the Toyota motor car company began producing a hybrid small sedan which used an electric motor to supplement the small gas engine and reduce fuel use. As fuel become more expensive, most of it being reserved for government and military use, these cars were produced with fully electric drive trains. Being small, cheap, and able to run off the ample electricity produced by the geofront's fusion plants, and with the additional advantage of producing no fumes to be ventilated from underground, NERV had purchased these vehicles en mass for its fleet.

So Captain Misato Katsuragi had the privilege of operating this very epitome of bland efficiency. The 3rd generation Prius in 'oxford' white with the NERV fig leaf on the front set of doors stood there, taunting her. Misato was fairly sure 'oxford' was an English word meaning 'snow which has not yet been pissed in'. The entire interior was a study of beige in cloth and plastic. It was efficient, practical, modern, and Misato hated every inch of it.

Misato's every action with the car spoke her frustration and every slammed door and slap on plastic made shinji cringe. It was made all the worse by the lack engine noise to cover it. Even when she spoke it sounded like just being in the car made her angry. It put Shinji on edge.

"So we have to stop for some food on the way home, I haven't had a chance to shop since the attack…" Misato said as she pulled the car out of the garage and into the glow of the streetlights.

"Anything you'd like for your first meal in Tokyo-3?" Misato said and looked over at Shinji. She was surprised to find him pressed up against the passenger seat, as far from her as he could get.

"Shinji, what's wrong?"

"You're mad."

"Yeah, but not at you…" Misato said. She was learning that she had to be careful with Shinji. He was a really sensitive kid. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"Shinji, I am not angry, not really. I am just frustrated that's all."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"What? No no not with you, not with you at all. Its this car, yeah it goes and everything but I dunno, I like things with more style, more flair. This thing is the way it is to do something, but nobody designs cars like these and calls them a thing of beauty. My old car, the alpine, was hand made in some shed by a bunch of Frenchmen who probably took 2 hour lunches and smoked a pack a day. There was personality there." Misato paused as she inserted her ticket into the gate box and scanned her NERV ID. She continued once the gate opened.

"Cars like these are made in some factory by a bunch of robots. They design the shape by calculating the aerodynamic qualities at low speed. That's not beauty, that's just math. Life makes things beautiful, the passion to live and create. You can feel it when you drive a machine made with passion, y'know?"

Shinji did not know, in fact she had lost him after the lazy Frenchmen, but he was amazed at the feeling with which she spoke. There was so much emotion, but she was not yelling or anything.

"I think I understand Misato. The seats were more comfortable in your car too."

"Uh, thanks Shinji."

It was quiet in the car. Despite being a NERV facility, the hospital was not in the geofront and it only took a few minutes to get to a small grocery store. As Shinji watched Misato take things from the shelf, he became… worried.

"Misato-san, please don't take this the wrong way, but what are you planning to make with curry powder, canned fish, beer, and 2 instant noodle bowls?" Shinji asked as they stepped into the checkout line.

"Well, um, just the super beef bowls with some curry to spice it up a bit." Misato was a little embarrassed when she said it out loud. "I'll be honest Shinji, with two people, money will be a little tight and…"

Shinji closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was the first time she had seen him express disapproval, or even annoyance.

"Okay, what is your per plate budget?" Shinji said, looking back up at her then pulling items out of the basket to check price tags.

"My what?" Misato said, a little surprised at the sudden assertiveness.

"Your per plate budget, your goal for money to spend per serving of food. In this case your money set aside for food over a given period, lets say between paychecks, divided by the number of servings you need to prepare." Shinji said, grabbing the basket from her and heading back into the market.

"Well I just kinda buy food as I need it." Misato said, following him. She nearly ran into him when he stopped suddenly and turned around.

"You don't have cost of food budgeted?" He asked. Misato could see his right eye twitch just a little.

"Well I… no, no I do not." She replied, expecting the boy to explode at any second. It was always the quiet ones. Instead he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before looking at her again.

"Remember that restaurant I told you about?" He asked, and Misato nodded.

"I had that place running leaner than an African marathon, so its-"

"SHINJI!" Misato yelled then ducked down as she felt the whole store turn towards them, tugging the boy with her.

"What-"

"Young man, I don't know about your father or the families you lived with, but while you live under my roof, you will NOT use language like that." She said, finger in his face. "Do you understand me?"

"Please Misato, its just a saying, I would never say it with a gaijin around."

"Shinji, never again, do you understand me?" She said.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I won't say it anymore."

"Good, and don't say that word, its rude… now, you were saying you had the restaurant running… efficiently?" She said, standing back up and letting him go. Shinji straightened back up, but the assertiveness from before was gone. She felt bad bursting his bubble like that, but she was shocked to hear such a nice boy say something like that. She had heard horror stories out of the post impact foster system, but who would teach a kid something like that?

"Yeah, I, um… I did a lot of jobs in the kitchen and I just sort of picked up doing the shopping and stocking as well as the cooking. What I was going to say was that we need to figure out a budget before we buy food." Shinji checked the items already in the basket. "Okay so all together this is about 2000 Yen. Between the two of us, that's about a 1000 Yen per plate and that is way too much."

"Actually the fish are for my pet penguin." Misato says, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. It makes Shinji pause for a split second but does not bother him. The idea does not even breach the top 10 on the list of weird things he had seen in this city.

"Okay, so those are 300 Yen, so a total of 1700 Yen between us, 850 per plate. Is that about how much you spend on a meal?" Shinji said.

"Uh-huh" She responded with a nod.

"Misato, please never go into the restaurant business."

They left a while later with fresh vegetables, rice, several very small packages of spices, one whole (if on the small side) chicken, and a can of fish. Misato had relinquished the beer, saying she had enough to last till tomorrow at home.

As they pulled up to the apartment building, Shinji noticed there were no lights on in the windows and even the parking lot was empty. Misato explained that the building was mostly empty normally and the other tenants had probably not returned after the evacuation order yet. Misato grabbed her briefcase and one plastic bag and Shinji took the others. Several flights of stairs later and they stood in front of the door. Misato fished out her NERV ID and scanned it through the lock.

"It is good to be home." She says as she walks through the door, setting her things down to take off her boots.

"Thank you for having me Misato-san." Shinji said as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him with his hip.

"Shinji, this your home now too, you're not a guest. "

"T-thank you Misato-san. It is good to be… home."

Shinji considered that statement as he stepped out of the entryway and into the kitchen. While he agreed with the general spirit of the phrase, it was difficult to grasp the specific nature of 'home' when it was obscured by trash and 'good' when he could only imagine the fine if the health inspector had ever seen the restaurant like this. It would have been enough to buy a bulldozer to tear the place down. Misato set her groceries on the table and went to change. Shinji put the bags he carried on the table as well and began looking through cupboards. He was still looking when he heard her come out of her room.

"What'cha lookin' for Shinji?" He heard her say.

"Just trying to find where everything is, where do you keep the-" Shinji stopped as he turned away from the cabinets to face Misato. Her legs were long and really smooth looking and wow those shorts didn't cover very much.

"Paper towels are on the counter by the sink." She said.

"Huh? Oh that's not what I was legging for, LOOKING for, looking for, w-why did you think I needed those?"

"Your nose is bleeding."

Several hours later Shinji Ikari lay on the futon in his new room. Captain Katsuragi was really nice he thought. Once he managed to stop looking like a complete animal, they had a really nice dinner and there was more than enough for leftovers. He had never processed a chicken with a combat knife before. Meeting Pen-pen was nice. He even tried some of the chicken Misato gave him but Shinji felt like that a little too close to cannibalism.

He lay there for a while, thinking that he had definitely had worse rooms, but he could not remember a better one. It still didn't feel right though, he didn't feel safe. Like someone could come in and he wouldn't notice and by the time he woke up it would be too late.

Shinji threw the blanket off himself and rolled off the futon. He pulled the mattress into the corner opposite the wall the room shared with the living room. Sitting down with his back to the corner and his knees pulled up in front of him, Shinji pulled the blanket around himself.

There, that was much better.

End

So yeah, there is a lot going on with Shinji and most of its not good.

These next few chapters may be a little slow, the real forward momentum is going to start after Shamshel and in my outline I kinda neglected to write anything for the intervening stuff: Starting school, training in the EVA, first meeting Rei, all that stuff. So yeah, I suck, please stick around.

Just cause I like dropping hints, our crossover character from literature comes from another four letter call caps agency, which it turns out was also run by SEELE.