"Such things I hear, they don't make sense"

Asuka's travel time to the Horaki's should have been more than long enough to put her thoughts together on what she could tell Hikari without having her dragged in for a security check. There were also things Rei had told her only because she had permission from Shinji, and that permission probably didn't extend to Hikari. Not that she'd agreed to keeping any secrets of course, but there was no point in giving Hikari more ammunition for her theories. If she was going to do this, she needed all the potential leverage she could get.

Unfortunately for Asuka it wasn't that simple. She kept reaching out to check he was still there. Currently "there" was in the pool at the GeoFront, presumably with Rei as he wasn't supposed to swim by himself. Even when he'd been dissolved in 01 he hadn't felt that gone as he had for that half a second during the synchronisation test. For a moment it was worse than when he'd been swallowed by the shadow Angel, of course she hadn't been so aware of whatever this thing they had then either. If it was like this now, the hours he'd been gone then would be... something she didn't want to think about. At least now she didn't have to lurk outside hospital rooms to make sure he was actually there. Not that she'd ever admit to doing that.

Rei had said it happened when she started to sync, something to do with the Eva trying to isolate the two pilot signals, but she'd had that frustrating 'something I can't tell you' subtle tone in her voice that Asuka was starting to recognise. If it happened again tomorrow maybe she'd find out. She wasn't sure it would be worth it. One look into the unexpected abyss that apparently life without her baka would be like had been more than enough. How the hell had she gone from hating him to... this?

That line of thinking wasn't helping her with the training plan, actually she had two training plans. The fast 'get Rei a date' one and a much longer 'improve communication skills' one required for Rei's cover story. Obviously they had to start with the fast one, who knew when the next Angel attack or other disaster would happen? Then, assuming the world didn't end, she could adjust the longer training to take into account whatever happened. At least she had enough to go over with Hikari and try to fill the Eva sized holes in it.

"Hi Asuka! Bye Asuka!" Nozomi passed by Asuka at high speed, interrupted by what might have been a hug as she swung past.

Toji followed her at a more sedate pace, "Come back here and say hello properly you little imp."

Asuka grinned at Hikari, "Getting him trained already?"

"'zomi's become friends with my sister, so we're goin' to see her before she gets released. The closer it gets the more she's itchin' to get out. The company of someone who's not her borin' big brother helps."

"Seriously Toji, she adores you more than Hikari does! I'm pretty sure you aren't boring in her eyes. It's good to hear she's doing well though. Do you mind if I tell Shinji?"

"Nah. Do him some good. You think you can talk him into helping cook for the welcome home party?"

"Party?" came a small slightly out of breath voice.

"It's supposed to be a surprise, so no tellin'."

Nozomi executes a wildly exaggerated formal bow, "Greetings oh Great Asuka, welcome to our humble home," then she collapses in a fit of giggles.

Toji scoops her up and carries her down the path squirming.

Once they are out of sight, Asuka turns on her friend, "You conniving little pig-tailed tyrant."

"What did I do this time?" Hikari tries very hard to look innocent.

"The rehab ward is two floors up from the maternity ward, they use the same entrance."

"Tsh. It really took you this long? You're seriously slacking here Asuka."

Asuka looked away, directly towards the pool, "I've had other things on my mind."

"And your bed by the sounds of things," teased Hikari.

Asuka glared at her.

After acquiring drinks and snacks, the two girls settle in Hikari's room, isolated enough that if any of the other Horaki's came home they wouldn't be immediately overheard.

"So are you going to tell me what's going on, or am I supposed to guess?"

"Shinji slept with Rei."

Hikari splutters, "He did what?! And you're somehow happy about this?"

Asuka takes a sip of her drink, she wasn't, but her bright clear anger had gotten more confused in her head the more she'd thought about it. "I'm happier knowing that I misinterpreted things when I jumped to the same conclusion you did."

"What actually happened?"

Asuka gives her what is obviously an abridged version of the story, which seemed to be more concerned with ranting about not being able to have the air conditioner fixed than it did about Asuka's assumption about Shinji and Rei having sex.

"And then I had a long talk with Rei yesterday."

"So let me see if I understood this.

"Shinji gets trapped at Rei's place by the storm. You make the assumption that there's only one bed so they have to sleep together. Because you've convinced yourself they are dating, despite lack of evidence and repeated denials, you assume that they take the opportunity to have sex. Unlike every other opportunity they might have had. Then you get angry at them for something you imagined. And it takes Rei literally slapping some sense into you for you to straighten your head out?

"Then because, and only because, you brought it up in the first place, Rei now wants to kiss Shinji. And because of something so classified she can't tell you what it is, you have to arrange it under the guise of a social training exercise?

"Asuka, please explain one thing to me. Who in this situation actually needs the social training?

Asuka had a good memory. She remembered exactly what Rei had said. Sometimes it just took a while to realise exactly what she meant. 'individualised skills training' indeed. That was so... Rei !

Hikari hands Asuka a cookie and sighs to herself. 'Asuka gets so jealous she doesn't just cause a make-out session between Shinji and Rei but actually arranges it' might even make it on to the Weird Relationship Theories Leaderboard.

"So you're actually trying to plan the training, not just go on dates with your ... friends?"

"Yeah, Rei's all enthusiastic about it. The whole training part, not the kissing part. She hasn't brought that up again."

Hikari slips into Class Rep mode, "So what do you have so far?"

"Tomorrow for putting the Phase One plan together and setting things up. The next day for taking Rei out for getting ready, practice and skills evaluation. The day after for Shinji. Probably the following day for their 'independent exercise' if the tests at Nerv don't get in the way."

"Isn't that a bit fast, Asuka?"

"Yeah, well, you never know when we'll have another Angel attack and who knows what will happen? They can't exactly have a date if one or both of them is in the hospital for weeks. Or worse."

Asuka pauses for long enough Hikari considers interrupting, "Anyway, Phase Two has enough flexibility I can rearrange things in case someone is stuck in a hospital bed or something."

"You're going to a lot of effort just to give Rei the possible chance of kissing your Shinji. You must love her a great deal."

Asuka stares at her friend for a long moment, trying to work out what her reaction to Hikari's statement actually is.

"It's not like that."

"Now there's a familiar phrase. So what is it like?"

"I", Asuka starts and then pauses, "I don't know."

"Well, that's a start. The Great Asuka Langley-Soryu admitting she doesn't know something. Maybe now you can work it out. I don't know if I can help, but I can try."

"Just Soryu. I guess you didn't notice."

"What happened?"

"My stepmother called a while back. They are having another child. She said they'd be sending me an invite to the christening, but understood if my duties here prevented me coming. It didn't sound like my father was even in the room. He just pushed the job off on someone else as always, and they are only asking as a formality because I'm legally their family. He knows Nerv and that there's no way I would be allowed to leave. He can't even do his own boasting about his replacement family. If he doesn't want me, I don't want him either."

Hikari can't imagine being that estranged from her family, but then they seemed very different than Asuka's. Asuka never mentioned her mother outside of nightmares and had only mentioned her absent father a couple of times and then just to complain about him. So Asuka's reaction and interpretation of events was not really a surprise.

"I know you can't change it legally, but I could facilitate getting the school records changed if you want to do that."

Asuka manages to look hopeful and sad at the same time, "You can do that? I had plenty of time while Shinji was away to think about it. So yes I do want that if you can, at least it would be something. Even with Nerv handling most of it, the immigration paperwork was a nightmare for them to get my name right, they aren't going to let me change it without a lot of protest and a better reason than that I don't want anything to do with my father. "

Then something occurs to Asuka...

"Maybe if Rei's right and I accidentally married Shinji I can have him take my mother's name and change mine to match."

"Almost, Asuka, but you'll still have to do better than that."

"Huh? What? No, Rei really did that - came up with some weird theory about how under Japanese social conventions after the Second Impact I'd technically done all the things required to marry him, and because he'd only denied being married to her and not to me, he'd accepted."

Hikari blinks, "You're not joking?"

"No, neither was she!" snorts Asuka.

"So you both deny you're dating because you're already married?"

"What? No!" Asuka grabs a pillow and throws it at Hikari, who catches it deftly, being a seasoned veteran of pillow fights with her sisters.

"I haven't told him, and as far as I know she hasn't. Anyway, we're not old enough even by those rules, and there's been actual laws again for years. So it doesn't matter."

"I notice you didn't actually deny it," teases Hikari.

"I. am. not. married. to. the. Idiot." growls out Asuka, "and I don't want to be, before you start on that."

Hikari grins, having successfully wound up Asuka.

Hikari comes back with fresh drinks, "So what are you stuck on most, maybe we can start there."

Asuka takes a sip, relishing the cold liquid, "Shinji of course. I've a couple of ideas for Rei, but as we talked about at lunch there's so many normal things that won't work."

"I know you don't like to think about it, but was there anything of your failed date that actually went well? I'm guessing you don't want to go back to the same amusement park, but maybe there's something that would work when you're with Shinji."

Asuka looks lost in thought, but she's not thinking about what Hikari thinks she is. She's thinking about afterwards. If you ignored the actual date, and that Shinji had spent the same time visiting his mother's grave, she'd had what would have been almost a perfect date with her Idiot, at least for her. And it was all Hikari's fault. The terrible blind date had turned into one of the best times she'd had with Shinji. Listening to him play for nearly an hour had been surprisingly relaxing. He'd even accepted her compliment as genuine. He'd made her a far better meal than her original date would have provided. They'd talked as easily as she could with Hikari. Then she'd messed up and it had ended in her fuming in her room with a sore arse and a bruised ego, feeling metaphorically and physically punched in the face.

Hikari interrupts her thoughts before she can dwell on that part for long, "Well you obviously thought of something, before you got all unhappy again you were practically glowing."

Asuka grumbles at her, "I was not glowing. There's nothing salvageable about that date, I can't even think about it without that..." she struggles to find a word that isn't 'idiot' because that sometimes means something different now, "...waste of air getting in the way."

"So what were you thinking about?"

"Afterwards. Before the bit you know about. If you can believe it, he had an even worse day than I had. He'd gone to visit his mother's grave for her anniversary, as he was actually close enough to do so, and met his father there. His father's even more of an arsehole than mine, I don't know why he still bothers trying to talk to him, so that went as well as you might expect."

'Where's the good part?" prompts Hikari before Asuka can get distracted ranting about fathers.

"He plays the cello almost as well as he cooks! He got home before me and obviously wasn't expecting me to come home early, so I arrive wondering why he's playing a recording of a professional cello player with no orchestra. It's just him. I must have stood there for an hour listening... I see that look, I'm not exaggerating... he played something that had four or five movements, from memory, it had to have been that long. Then I had to tell him how good it was because he's being himself and apologising for bothering me. We talked while he cooked something for us and we ate. Then I tried to thank him, and you know the rest."

"So your ideal date is being serenaded by your boyfriend, followed by dinner and conversation? What about him?"

Asuka gives a perfunctory "Not my boyfriend," before noting, "He smiled when I told him he played well, and Rei reminded me again this morning how rare it is he genuinely smiles, so he must not have been too unhappy about it."

"Did he give any other indication?"

"Well, he stopped apologising for things after I complimented him, does that count? I didn't even have that to complain about."

Hikari nods and stays silent for a while, hoping what Asuka said is actually sinking in.

"So did Shinji not suggest anything when you asked him?"

Asuka stares at Hikari

"You didn't ask him did you?"

Asuka buries her face in her hands, "Rei is going to kill me. Ok. Not kill me. Worse. She'll give me that 'what did I tell you?' look"

Hikari is very confused, "Why would Rei be upset with you for not asking Shinji?"

"She's developed this... thing... where whenever she notices a problem between baka-Shinji and me, she looks at me with that expression she has and goes 'Just ask him?'

"The worst thing is that it worked the first time. No, worse than that... " Asuka trails off momentarily and completely fails to suppress a bright blush, "The first time I actually did after she suggested it, I grumbled about it and he was like 'Well, she was right'. It was so annoying. And the worst thing of all is that I gave her the idea in the first place!"

Hikari is torn between comforting her friend and laughing.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Hikari asks "So Rei keeps telling you to ask Shinji when you have issues. Shinji agrees that you should do that. Then why didn't you just ask if he'd had sex with Rei?"

"Exactly how would I do that, Hikari? Is that something you talk about with your sister over dinner?"

"Sorry I just threw up in the excellent meal you made me Shinji, I was just wondering how Rei felt when you were inside her."

Asuka ignores Hikari's shocked look.

"Or I could ask in the morning before school. That might work as the only place my mind is quiet enough I could think of the question and I'd be calm enough to ask it is when Rei has her arms around me. Do you think he'd mind me calling down the street after him, 'I know we're holding each other like we need each other more than oxygen, but was the girl in my arms any good in bed?' That'll work, right?"

"Or I could try at Nerv. I'm usually calm when I'm in my Eva. At least until Akagi starts going on. I could do it then, in front of a hundred people and his arsehole father. Perfect circumstances for that conversation."

"Or my last option, in the morning if we actually managed to wake without nightmares, when I'm curled up with my head on his chest and he's busy trying to think about what to make for breakfast rather than the fact that he can feel how my boobs are pressed against him from both sides of the sports bra I'm wearing. Absolute best time to ask him if he's fucked his girlfriend yet.

"I'm not sure which of us would die of embarrassment first.

"So no, I didn't ask him."

"So you're serious about kissing Rei? I mean having Shinji kiss Rei?" Hikari's 'correction' earned her a glare but nothing more.

"Well I'm not about to let anyone else do it! But it's Shinji, he'll manage to screw it up and hurt her. You already know how well his only kiss went. I don't want a repeat of that." Asuka refrained from mentioning the other kiss, parents didn't count and there was no way she could mention the circumstances to Hikari with the same calm voice Rei had. Besides, she'd already told Hikari they weren't going to talk about mothers, this wasn't a good enough reason to change that.

"Well, if he needs practice before the date with Rei, I could kiss him."

Asuka stops her hand an inch from Hikari's face, her outraged yell echoing in the small room.

Hikari looks at her friend for a long moment, before taking the hand in her own and lowering it.

"Asuka, you are more possessive of Shinji than Toji is of me, and you know how he is.
What is going on that you think that this is a good idea?"

Asuka's expression is unreadable.

"Do you know what Toji, with all his pride and struggling to live up to his idea of what a man should be, would do if I kissed Shinji?"

Hikari did a passable Toji impression, "Do you or Shin-man need protection from the Red Demon?"

"Then we'd talk about it. Because we may still be awkward teenagers, but we talk to each other, and work things out, and trust each other. For which we have you to thank.

"You are planning a date between people you feel so strongly about that you attack me without thought, without even asking if I was serious or not, and you haven't asked either of them what they actually want."

Hikari sighs and lets go of Asuka's hand, "I am going to go make us something to eat. You are going to call Shinji and let him know that I'm insisting you stay for dinner. Then you're going to tell me what's really going on in that clever little head of yours and we'll see if we can work out what to do."

"Hi Rei, could I speak to Shinji?"

"Hey baka. Hikari's making me stay for dinner, so no need to rush home to cook."

"No, nothing's wrong. She's helping me work out some details of the training Rei asked me to organise."

"No, not that. I know you got your swimming in today. I'll explain this evening."

"You don't have to sound so dubious. If we move the couch we won't broil like we did last night."

"I'll see you when you get home then."

'Well, that was interesting,' thought Hikari having quite coincidentally overheard Asuka's half of the phone call. So many implications in so few words. Especially for two people who "couldn't talk to each other".

Hikari hands Asuka a plate, "You know I keep secrets Asuka. I don't tell yours, any more than I tell my sisters' or Toji's or Shinji's. Unless they explicitly tell me who it's acceptable to share with. So I'm not going to tell Shinji what you're thinking or feeling any more than I'm going to give you the names of the girls who asked him out."

Asuka snorts, "Well I don't need you to, Rei knows most of them and Kaede apparently has such a crush on Shinji that she knows better than Section 2 who's talked to him. She'd spill the rest if I asked. Not that I care, I don't think he even noticed half of them."

Hikari makes a mental note to bump Kaede up her informants list and tries to work out how to get Asuka to actually talk about her friends? lovers? Whatever it was the other pilots were to her.

Hikari was not going to explain that it had been another embarrassing conversation with her older sister about how she felt about Toji that prompted the question that came to mind. But it had worked for her, maybe it would work for Asuka.

"So who do you think of when you masturbate? Mr Kaji? Megumi? Shinji? Rei? Me?"

Asuka stares at her.

"Masturbate. Jii. sawa-sawa. Flick the bean. Pet the pussy. I don't know any German euphemisms. "

"I know what you meant," Asuka snaps, wondering why she is blushing more than Hikari. "I don't. Even if I wanted to, he'd know."

Hikari, jumping to the wrong conclusion, "Asuka, you throw the cucumber away afterwards, you don't put it back."

Asuka, having learned something she really didn't need to know about her friend, and discovering that looking down so she's not looking at Hikari's face is not an improvement, looks at the wall over Hikari's shoulder, "He'd feel it. Then we'd both die of embarrassment and I'd never get breakfast."

"Oh, like your periods. And how you know about ... other things. I didn't think of that."

Asuka put her head in her hands, "Please tell me he didn't mention how he knew what periods felt like? I heard about his little speech - not from either of you I might add - I still can't believe he did that, especially in front of so many people."

"I know because I cornered him afterwards to find out how he knew so much, especially about other girls in the class. As far as I know, he didn't tell anyone else."

"I think there's a lot of things about him that you don't notice," adds Hikari, stating the obvious-to-everyone-except-Asuka, "and there was an Angel attack the day after, so I think you were distracted for a while. He said you had some test at Nerv with Rei that didn't involve him, if that helps identify when it happened."

Well, that confirmed that, it had been the disaster of a day when Akagi had tried shoving them both in the same Eva to see what happened. Their sync rates seemed to cancel each other out and when they finally managed to move, Rei was always half a second behind whatever she tried to do causing them to trip and stumble. What was worse at the time was Rei sitting behind her, touching her. Now it would probably go much better. Probably. Given the day's experience who knew what might happen when they got to testing her and Rei together?

Hikari's curiosity got the better of her, "So as you can feel what each other does, how does it feel when he does it?"

Asuka stared at her, that was happening a lot, what had happened to the prudish Hikari she'd first met? "He doesn't either. He only gets hard if his bladder is full in the morning, and even then not if we're in bed together. If I didn't know better I'd think he was gay."

Asuka stops, "Hikari, please tell me I didn't say any of that out loud?"

"Only if you want me to lie to you."

There's a long embarrassed silence. Hikari decides that as they are thoroughly embarrassed already, she probably can't make it worse.

"You said 'even if you wanted to'. You don't get frustrated?"

Asuka blushed furiously, "No, not in the way you mean."

"So no one gets your panties wet?"

Asuka blinks, Hikari had indeed managed to make it worse, "I can't believe you just asked me that."

Asuka bites her lip trying to decide how much to tell her friend.

"This doesn't leave the room. The only person you can even acknowledge this conversation happened to is Shinji, and only because he was there."

Asuka waits for Hikari's confirmation and wonders if she's even right with the pieces she's put together and what's even safe to tell anyone. She takes a deep breath. It doesn't help. She sighs.

"This makes little sense even to me, so it probably won't to you either. "

Asuka gets lost in thought again, becoming increasingly agitated as she goes over events since Shinji returned.

"The only time my brain is quiet enough that I can be calm is when Rei's hugging me. The only time I don't have nightmares is when Shinji is holding me in my sleep. The only time I seriously thought about sex with anyone without it making me want to throw up was the night I took Rei's advice. That was the time Rei meant when she said I'd asked him to my bed. It was to hold me. Dammit, I still don't know a Japanese word for sehnsucht. Even with both of us in just our underwear with him wrapped around me, the only thought I had about sex was that it wouldn't be enough.

"I've always said I don't need anyone. Now I can imagine living without them and it terrifies me."

"So if it takes lending my Shinji to Rei so she can have a kiss from the only person we both trust to do that, then that's the least the Great Asuka Soryu can do for her friends."

Asuka wipes her face with the back of her hands, "Now are we done? Can we go back to working out how to actually do this?"

Hikari has absolutely no idea how to interpret what Asuka has just told her and just nods.

Hikari returns with fresh drinks, "I did have a thought for a possible activity that isn't one of the things you've already discarded."

"Oh?"

"You mentioned the beach being too far, but the lakes might be close enough and being near the water might be slightly cooler. There's plenty of paths and the trains go most of the way to the nearest ones. Kensuke probably knows the best ones, you know what he's like, you could ask him."

"Hrm. That might work. I'd been trying to think of places they could eat that would actually be better than his cooking. I could get him to make food for a picnic if there's a cool enough spot."

"I know what I want to do with Rei - have her take me shopping."

"You sure you have that the right way around Asuka? Don't you mean you taking her?"

Asuka shakes her head, "No, I've already done that. It used to be the only reason she had anything other than her school uniform to wear. If you'd seen the dress she turned up in when she came to talk you'd understand why I need her to take me. If wherever she got it has something that suits me that well, I'll trade the entire rest of my closet for it."

Hikari laughs. "Well good luck with that. If you succeed I want to see you both."

Hikari yawns, "Are we any closer?"

"I think so. Anyway, Shinji just left Rei's so I should head home. Maybe I'll take her advice again and ask him for ideas."

"Umm, Asuka?"

"Yes?"

"How do you know that Shinji just left Rei's? There wasn't a phone call."

"Oh. The latest fun side effect. We know where each other is just by paying attention. Rei pointed out that he looks at me when talking about me."

"That doesn't seem unusual."

"It is when he's miles out at Rei's and I'm the other way at Nerv and he's accurate down to the size of the school swimming pool."

Hikari puts a few things together, "So when you told him you knew he'd done his swimming for the day?"

Asuka nods, "I hadn't seen him, I just knew he'd been at the pool in the GeoFront."

"That could be useful in an emergency, but isn't it a bit... creepy?"

"Hikari, he knows the shape of my boobs, not because he's touched them but because I have. We're well beyond creepy here. If he wasn't as good a person as you believe him to be, it would be even more intolerable."

"Okaeri, Asuka," Shinji put a small plate of food and a cold drink on the table as she came in.

"I told you not to make anything," grumbled Asuka.

"Sorry. It's just leftovers from making tomorrow's bentos. I thought you might need something after working all evening and there was a little left."

He watched her eating for a moment. There was in fact several meals worth left, but he didn't need to tell Asuka that until she indicated if she was actually hungry as well as tired.

"Hikari wasn't much help then? She's much better than me at the social things."

Asuka's head snapped up, "What? Oh, I guess Rei told you." Her voice dropped, "She was helpful actually. In between being Hikari."

Shinji laughed softly and refilled Asuka's plate.

Asuka didn't really want to talk about it. Except she's spent her entire evening talking about how to talk to Shinji. Annoying, frustrating, Shinji. Her Shinji. Whatever that meant.

"I was thinking about something else. About earlier."

"Sorry, Rei wouldn't tell me either."

"Wouldn't or couldn't?" Asuka asked between bites. She'd eaten snacks and a full meal at Hikari's, she shouldn't be this hungry.

"She wouldn't tell me about the hug. She said you'd tell me, but that's all she said."

Asuka snorted. They both knew how Rei did and didn't say things.

Shinji rubbed the back of his head, trying to work out how to put things into words. "I'm guessing the why was because of what happened during the Eva synchronisation. I couldn't work out how though."

"How? You put your arms around someone and pull them to you, anta baka?"

Shinji looked at her like she'd grown an extra head, "We don't."

Asuka opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"Did she tell you anything? She just claimed it was something to do with the Eva isolating the signals, but she was doing that thing."

"Ayanami probably couldn't say much. Rei said she felt something blocking either the synchronisation or the awareness of it. She couldn't tell which, or couldn't tell me."

"'something'? Rei's not usually that vague."

"Apparently there's only two people who might be able to work out what's going on. One of them is Dr. Akagi."

"Well, we're definitely not talking to her. Who's the other one?"

Shinji is quiet for long enough Asuka looks up from her food. She recognises that distant look in his eyes. It's still unnerving to see no matter how many times she does so. She's still debating the best way to bring him back when he looks away and answers her question.

"My mother." He is almost inaudible.

"Did the synchronisation affect her brain?"

"She didn't want to tell me as much as she did, and she refused to say anything else. She was distressed."

"Now I know you're making shit up. Rei doesn't get upset." Asuka had seen Rei literally unable to speak about something that tripped whatever her this-is-a-secret mode was, but she never seemed bothered by it, it was just something that happened. Why would she be upset about not being able to talk about something?

Shinji moves to refill Asuka's plate again but she shakes her head. She already knows which nightmares she's having tonight, she doesn't want to have them alone.

"Can we just go to bed? I'm exhausted. Maybe it will make more sense tomorrow."

Shinji cleared the plates away as Asuka went to get ready for bed. Today's flashbacks had come with the added bonus of the sensation of his mother hugging him before she died. Points for not being exactly the same flashback he'd had for weeks. Negative points for being one more thing he'd lost and would never experience again.

Even if they sometimes made it hard to breathe, and didn't happen until early morning, there was no mistaking Asuka's hugs for anything else. Asuka's resemblance to his mother ended at her intelligence. She might be taller than him, but she'd have to be twelve feet tall to be the same size to him now as he was to his mother the last time she'd hugged him. A giant-Asuka would probably be even more scary than perky-Asuka. He briefly wondered how much of a terror Asuka had been at that age. So far he didn't have any traumatic memories of Asuka's hugs. He hoped he never forgot what they felt like once she worked out how to get out of the synchronisation and left.

Later, as he drifted off to sleep, the image of a horde of children with Nozumi's size and energy and Asuka's personality and having hair in various combinations of red, blue and black - some all at the same time - crossed his mind. That was frightening in a completely different way than his usual nightmares.

Asuka lifts her head off Shinji's shoulder, "Shinji, what exactly did Rei tell you about what I was working on with Hikari?"

"As a result of our conversation, Pilot-Sensei Soryu has agreed to arrange an extensive communications improvement training program."

Asuka's head thuds back into his shoulder. "So she didn't mention anything about dates?"

Shinji sits up in terror, Asuka grabs him to avoid breaking contact, "Dates?!"

Asuka slowly disentangles herself, carefully following the disconnection process in a vain attempt to not think about the position she'd ended up holding Shinji in.

"I'll explain over breakfast."