+++++ Ikari Manor. Saturday, +18.

Stealth was likely something Shinji could claim great proficiency in. Having spent his entire life, it seemed, attempting to be as invisible as possible so as not to incur the random wrath of the man that had raised him, he was very capable at moving without sound and without drawing attention. Using those skills to make his way from Jishin-no-ki to his room, he managed to avoid the attention of no less than seventeen different people. Good people. People that were not to be blamed for what had been happening. People he did not want to see at the moment, all the same. Once he was in his room, safe, he moved into the bathroom and allowed himself to breathe. "I am not going to become him. I will be a man of my word. I will treat others with the respect they deserve." He took in a long, slow, breath and held it for a count of five, then blew it out slowly. "I am not going to become him." Misaki?

Following the endless conga line of misadventure, Misaki would later be forgiven for arriving as if anticipating there being yet another event that would require her to locate additional black bags to properly clean up after. Entering Shinji's bathroom via the odd teleportation portals the Juraians had mastered, her sword drawn and death etched into her features, she snapped her head from side to side trying to locate whatever it was that had disturbed him in what had been meant to be his place of safety. The visage of universal devastation drooped slowly to a portrait of confusion, which then led to her dismissing her sword and closing the portal behind her. "…Shinji?"

Equally confused, Shinji replied with his pre-scripted statement, "I promised you tonight…I want very badly to be a man of my word, and despite everything going on around me all you've ever done is try and help me not be…hurt, or worse. If you don't want to spend the evening with me, I understand…but I am here for you, if you do."

Blinking slowly, the powerful Empress stamped down on her instinctual urge to simply crush him in a hug. Without prompting, without her having to nudge him in the 'correct' direction, he was reaching out to her as a true man ought to. He wasn't placing blame on himself for having valid emotional turmoil, he wasn't placing the blame on her for the way that things had gone, all he was doing was offering her the gift of his time as they had planned. Gripping her long, blue, braid in one hand she begged, "I have a project I was working on that I will need to put safely away before I can join you. Could you, perhaps, give me…five minutes?"

"Of course. Take all the time you need." He felt the sudden tension begin to ease. "I'll…hang a sign on the door, or something. Let everyone know that I'm…."

"No need," Misaki assured him, "I will ensure we are not disturbed. You just…relax. I'll be back before you know it." Unheard by Shinji, but broadcast to the household at large, Misaki planted her flag on the hill she would die upon, Tonight, Shinji is mine. Anyone attempting to enter his room until the morning had best come prepared for death. That is all.

Watching as an almost too-happy Misaki fled back to wherever she'd come from, one side of Shinji's mouth curled upwards in a smile. She didn't always fit the description of an Empress, and despite himself he wondered what it would have been like to be by her side as she grew up. During their fights she had told him of her immense power, how as a toddler she was faster and stronger than even her fully-grown nursemaids. Dismissing the fancy, he walked out into the main bedroom and sat down on his bed to wait. He didn't know what the night would bring, but the fulfillment he had from keeping his word was keeping the anger at bay.

Far faster than five minutes, another portal opened and out stepped a far different version of Misaki Masaki Jurai. Wearing what Shinji could best describe as a one-piece swimming suit that was actively opposed to upholding public pool policies, with her long hair only just giving a form of modesty as it hung loose down her front, the sky-blue-haired warrior Empress stopped directly in front of him, lightly taking his jaw in her hands. "Were it in my power, I would take you and all you love away from here. That we must stay and defend those who cannot defend themselves, however, forces me to keep you where life continues to harm you. I beg of you, forgive me that I must heed our duty." Placing one knee by his hip, she slowly mounted him while keeping him sitting upright. "I promise that the rewards can be…delightful."

Even without an intimate lock, with her just astride his legs as she was, Shinji felt his heart ache at her touch. "You…loved him a great deal." It might not have been the most romantic topic, but the sudden thought had to have come from somewhere.

"I did," she agreed, unfazed. "I feel my emotions deeply, I always have." Helping him to remove his shirt, she kept a small grin on her face as she spoke, "Which is why I utterly loathe him, now." Not surprised to see the shock on Shinji's face, she laughed out loud. "My dear, dear man…when you grew angry at life today, when you were forced once more to take on someone you had not intended or asked for, what did you do?"

"I, uh…I walked away before I said something…bad."

"And then, after allowing Jishin-no-ki to soothe your spirit, what did you do?"

"I snuck into the house like a thief, staying away from everyone."

She tapped the tip of his nose chidingly. "You kept your word to me. No one has the right to dictate your time, save Funaho and I, and even then only for matters of Imperial need. You have the right to walk into your home, walk past others so that you do not envenom them undeservedly, and go to your place of safety. I would not have judged you harshly for simply taking the evening off."

Now bare-chested, Shinji looked into her eyes and tried to fit the information into place. "But I told you we'd be together tonight."

"And he told me we'd be together forever," she replied, frost entering her tone. "I let myself enjoy a man that promised me love, even in times of hardship. How much do you feel that I hurt, having lost Tenchi? Then, while fighting through a pain no one should ever know…he decided to abandon us. He decided that his love for Tenchi was greater than his love of us, of our people, of his own child." Leaning in close, setting her forehead against his, warmth infected her voice once more, "You have been battered on all sides, you have limped into port almost daily for weeks, yet what do I see in your mind?" Her voice grew quiet, "I mustn't fail them, I mustn't fail them, I mustn't fail them."

He couldn't imagine the pain she felt. He couldn't imagine not giving his best, not anymore. "I'm sorry…that he broke his word. I'm sorry that he abandoned you." Opening his mouth, he hesitated before adding, "I would have to be killed, before I left you and Funaho without my help."

Smoke filled her gaze, an almost predatory hunger growing by the second. "Oh?" A light tap on his legs with her toes and she dissolved the clothing on his lower body. "Would you give me any type of help I asked for?"

An enthusiastic response by his body clogged his windpipe. Sitting where he was, with who he was, as he was, he doubted he could deny her anything she asked of him. All he could do, for the moment, was dumbly nod, rocking their heads together in reflexive synchronicity.

"What if I wanted you to help heal my heart," she whispered, lust filling her voice. "Would you give me that?"

He nodded, wanting nothing more than to make her happy.

"What if I wanted you to marry me…marry us?"

It wouldn't hurt his day in the slightest to be a permanent part of her family. He nodded.

Moving to where her lips brushed against his ear, she lowered her voice to where it was barely audible, "What if I wanted you to make a baby with me?" When she felt his grip fall upon her hips, unyielding steel pulling her towards him, she let herself hope that he would take her cues. As he lifted her enough to lay her down on his bed, she bit her tongue to keep herself from asking for what she wanted, to give him the chance to gift it to her unbidden. Once he began preparing the field of battle, she let go of her inhibitions. She'd primed him, readied him, and now she would reap the whirlwind.

+++++ Ikari Manor. Sunday, +19.

It was the early hours of the morning when Funaho felt Misaki enter their room. Not looking up from her work, she asked what she believed to be the sensible question, "Did it go poorly? I've not had much to complain about myself, but perhaps he just needs more experience with your preferences."

"I believe we may wish to reconsider our position regarding marriage." Hugging Funaho from behind, she bodily lifted her partner out of the chair she'd been occupying before moving back towards the portal she'd used to enter their room. "He doesn't have to rule alongside us, he can simply be our Consort."

Funaho frowned as she craned her neck to look at Misaki. "What has gotten into you?"

"Him." Tossing Funaho onto the bed, where Shinji was still trying to recover his breath, Misaki closed the portal and crawled up the bed towards them both. "I want him, Funaho…. I want him forever, and ever, and ever." Rolling Shinji atop Funaho, she began to purr, "Give him to me…please?"

+++++ Ikari Manor. Sunday, +19.

Standing outside, at dawn, Shinji felt a renewed sense of purpose. Practicing using his control over the Light Hawk Wings to do something more than destroy with them, he tried to fashion a matching armlet to the one he'd been given by Skuld. All he'd managed to do, however, was burn his arm several times as the energy dissipated violently following each failure. Rubbing his arm after the most recent failure, he swore quietly to himself, "Shit, that…hrngrh…hasn't stung like that in years." He could feel her approach, a part of him surprised that she was the first to attempt a peaceful overture. Still, he had asked to be left alone for a while. Without turning to face her, he asked, "What broke?"

"Depends on who you ask, or why you're asking," Skuld replied. Rounding before him, she offered a matching armlet. "I'd like to talk about why I did it, if that's ok with you?"

There was still a part of him that wanted to choke her until her head came off. It wasn't the part he listened to. "Can't wear that yet…not until I get these burns fixed."

With a light touch, she healed the wounds before setting the armlet in place. "How much do you know about Yggdrasil?"

"Only what Hild and your sister have told me." Flexing his arm a few times to adjust to the new band, he started walking towards Lake Ashi. If she wanted to talk, she'd have to keep up.

Floating easily alongside him, Skuld remained undisturbed. "Rumor has it that Yggdrasil predates my father, that it created him and not the other way around. That rumor, of course, is only heard of through residents of Niflheim, which meant that no one ever really paid attention to it."

"I learned a word for what it seems your homeland uses as a governmental system," he hopped up on the boardwalk, "autocracy. From what I understand, autocrats have little interest in the truth of things."

"A good observation," she agreed. "That's why I forced a marriage between us, after all."

His brow knit, and for the first time he looked down at her. "Because your father's a dictator?"

"Because the rules he swears to enforce are now going to force his hand," she corrected. "Either he puts you through the test, or he loses all credibility."

"The test?"

"The Gate of Trials. You have to walk through it with anyone you've married, and it will tell you whether or not the union may be blessed." Blowing out a snort, she made a rude gesture up to the sky. "Thing is, there's no way you won't pass. You're a part of the System Force itself, you would be the judge of whether or not you could be married! Never in the history of our people has a single union been blessed by the Gate. Not one. This, despite millions of extremely valid candidates overcoming horrific opposition to bring peace and love through their union."

"I…really don't follow."

"My father has been manipulating the Gate's trials. I don't know why, and I don't really care…he's been ruining people's happiness!" Blowing out a huff, she pulled out a small sphere of metal and began toying with it. "If he interferes in your test, it'll be obvious. If he doesn't, then the fact that the test is completely different than any of the others proves that he's been interfering. If he won't test us, then he's violating his own rules."

That at least made more sense to him. "Putting us through the test was part of the negotiations, though. Doesn't that mean he probably has something in mind?"

"The accords are a bluff. He's dragging them out on specific points because he knows that eventually the Juraians will tire of it and the entire affair will either become forgotten because of how well your life has turned out, or the IGC will pressure the Juraians to accept what has been offered as sufficient payment to keep the war from boiling over." Motioning for him to stop walking, she tossed the sphere she'd been tinkering with into the lake. "I don't know what cracked in my father's head, but he's been purposefully sending people I think are reasonably sane away for a while now. He has nobody giving him sane counsel, and his decisions are showing the results."

Shinji's eyes remained on where the small orb had dropped into the water, waiting for what might happen. "You really pissed me off yesterday."

"I know." There was a purposeful pause, clearly intent on setting the mood for future interactions. "When you're ready to receive an apology, I'll offer one."

Her statement forced him to think. He really wasn't ready for an apology. He was livid, and it wasn't because of a lack of her remorse. "Do you promise," setting one hand on her shoulder, he turned her to face him, "and I mean promise, that you are with us until the end?"

"Any man who makes my sister feel as wonderful as you have, deserves her." Standing on her toes, she pressed a kiss to the side of his mouth. "Any man who's willing to go down swinging to protect her, deserves me." Settling back on her heels, she caught the small orb as it rocketed back out of the water towards her. "We both love her, Shinji, just in different ways. I'll never give her, or you, less than my all."

"I never really learned how…." He trailed off, trying to find the words to make sense of what he was feeling.

"Letting go of hate can be the hardest lesson of all," Skuld agreed. "I still haven't really figured it out myself. It's why my control over my powers is still uncertain, why you're having a hard time manifesting that energy into anything functional beyond a weapon. I think part of it is just not letting anger become hate, unless hate is really necessary. Which, you know, it isn't normally necessary at all." Offering him the orb, she gave him a shrug. "I am sorry that I couldn't waste more time on pleasantries. After you ran into that woman in your room, your enemies were…and quite possibly are going to send increasingly alluring women to you. You're a free agent, to a point. If they can draw you over to their side, they win." When he took the orb, turning it around and watching as the surface showed a live recording of the fish at the bottom of Lake Ashi, she tried to sound hopeful, "But now, you'd have to leave at least two wives to do that."

Instead of being upset at the character of her apology, Shinji instead focused on the last part of her statement. "Why would I leave this?" She wasn't challenging him, nor was she insisting that he was intentionally going to be cruel. It made no sense to him. "I'm living in a house larger than my school, with over a dozen women with a fantastic array of skills and personalities, close to the shores of a beautiful lake that houses a tree that can fly through space…what are they going to offer me that could possibly make me give up the bounty I already have?"

"I don't know, which is why I didn't want to risk it."

He frowned, wondering why he seemed to be so important to so many people that were all far more powerful than him. "What's your opinion on hugs?"

"Are you asking for one?"

"Only if you want to." He shoved his anger aside again, agreeing with her that it was best to not let it become hate. "I forgive you, Subeki-san…you were trying to protect family, after all."

Stepping against him, she wrapped him in a warm embrace and rested her head against his chest over his heart. "I like hugs."

Her unknowingly quoting him caused him to chuckle as he returned the hug. "They're really nice."

+++++ Ikari Manor. Sunday, +19.

"Shinji!"

Caught with one foot in the door and the other out, Shinji was forced to brace against the doorframe as Maya launched herself against him in a spontaneous hug of joy. Holding her up off the ground was simple, holding her against him was wonderful, holding onto any remaining anger was impossible. "Good morning beautiful," he breathed out into her shoulder.

A quick kiss to his cheek, and the mousy Lieutenant freed herself to stand before him in her shorts and t-shirt. "I'm going to go shopping for some stuff. Minaho asked me to talk to you, something about needing to request funds?"

He blinked a few times in confusion. "Uh…you can use my pay card, if you want. It's in my wallet on my desk, next to my NERV badge. I have literally no idea how much is on it, but it's yours if you want it."

Nanako caught up to Maya, catching the end of Shinji's statement and laughing quietly. "No Cap'n, she's requesting funds from the house not from you personally. She wants to splurge a bit on some food for everyone, try and improve the mood around here."

"Oh." Catching sight of Sakura wheeling into the entry foyer on her way to the kitchen he asked someone he trusted to steer him in the right direction, "Sakura?" Her contented smile when she looked at him warmed his heart. "How do I find out how much money we have as a group?"

"In domestic funding, all told we have in the neighborhood of twelve point seven trillion Yen. That is, of course, only for domestic necessities such as food or clothing, which I believe is what Miss Ibuki is asking about?" With her hands calmly folded in her lap, Sakura radiated with contentment.

"Just Maya, please." Blowing a kiss to Sakura, Maya turned back to Shinji and looked up at him. "I wasn't planning on being gaudy, so I don't need anywhere near that much. Just, you know, enough to lift some spirits."

Shinji, still trying to come to terms with his position and with only one trip to the local markets to go by, did what made sense to him. "Uh…ok, please make sure to bring me some kind of record of what you spent. Try to keep it to…say, seventy thousand a person. If you have to go over, call me?"

Nanako kissed one cheek, Maya the other. It was the latter that nodded with a playful salute, "Aye-aye, Captain."

After holding the door open for the pair to leave, Shinji moved over to Sakura and knelt down before her to take her hands. "Good morning. I…I am sorry that I've been too…."

"Anger is a perfectly understandable response to repeated trauma," she filled in the blank, understanding coating her bearing. "You did not project that anger at me, nor did you lash out at random. Our goal is to master that anger, true…but it is not to happen in the first few years, is it?"

How could he conceivably give this up? He wanted to heed Skuld's warning, but he also couldn't imagine willingly forsaking what he was being given. Lifting her fingers to his lips, he kissed her knuckles gently. "I don't know if it's too early to say so…but I really love you a lot."

"It is never too early in the day to hear such from you," she murmured happily, purposefully misinterpreting his meaning. "Join me in the kitchen?" With her perfectly straight long brown hair pulled into a loose tail over her right shoulder, she seemed far too mature for her years.

"On one condition." He decided if others could tease him, then he would tease back.

Instead of recoiling, Sakura simply giggled and gave him a fond smile. "And what might that be?"

"I insist on a ki-" Shinji was cut off as his wheelchair-bound beloved used her arms to push herself forward into her own embrace with him, her lips finding his and her fingers lacing in his hair. She was far lighter than even Maya, despite being a head taller if she were able to stand on her own, and as such he found it very easy to stand up with her rear braced only atop the palm of his hand. Maintaining the status quo, he began to ponder whether a different destination than the kitchen might be better.

Breaking the kiss off enough to speak, Sakura looked into his eyes with a hunger that seemingly surpassed even Misaki's. "Kitchen. Please." Once inside the kitchen, she urged him over to the counter to set her down and then pressed him back some. "I…really, really, would like to continue, but I believe you are owed an explanation." His confused look hurt her heart, but she remained steadfast. "The women of our species have…an aggressively active sexual drive. It is easily controlled with certain medications, or simple willpower, when there is no," she hesitated for a second, "no appropriate outlet. I have used willpower, as the medications I take to manage my paralysis don't play very well with the medications to reduce the impulse. You, however, are the type of outlet I dreamed of but never thought possible. Caring, honest…handsome," she blushed, not wanting to make it about his physical features, "and with enough restraint to not abuse power or trust. My willpower is losing the fight, and…I would not pressure you into something you are not prepared for."

He was more than prepared to worship her. "I…uh, do you need…yeah, you probably need different support. I can, uh…you let me know what I need to find, build, or buy and I'll get it done so that I'm not hurting you."

Sakura couldn't help but see him as an enormous puppy, ready to bound off in search of whatever it was that would make his person happy. She knew how much that risked abuse, and mentally castigated herself for letting it enter her mind. "A bed alone would be fine, my love. My concern is for you, that…demand in the household might rise too high. I can content myself with waiting, knowing as I do how precious I am in your eyes."

"I…I-I…uh," his face flushed red, "I was thinking about taking you up to my bedroom…before you…you know…stopped me."

It was her turn to blush, embarrassment roiling beneath her mask of calm. "Ah, I see." Smoothing her hands along her legs, she added a note of positivity to her request, "Perhaps we should try this again from the top?"

+++++ Author's Note.

TheHiddenLettuce: RE: Gendo.

In the wise and immortal words of Yoda, "Fucked around, he did. Find out, he must."