Kensuke watched a very angry looking Asuka approach. It was Asuka, there was no point running. He wondered what he had done to deserve whatever was about to hit him. He certainly was not expecting what did.

"Kensuke," Asuka said as calmly as she could manage, "I'm calling in that favour."

He owed Asuka for a few things, but the last time she asked him for anything it had been for pictures of his friends that he'd later heard she'd used to "persuade" Toji to finally ask Hikari out. So there was a minimal chance it was something he wouldn't want to do. On the other hand it was that favour.

"As long as I don't have to kill anyone," he joked. Hopefully he joked.

Asuka rolled her eyes, "The only person who's dying is baka-Shinji if he screws this up, and I'll be killing him myself."

Kensuke gulped. "What do you need?"

"I need a place within reach of the train lines. It has to be somewhere shaded enough that someone appropriately dressed will be fine in this horrible heat. It should have a short walk of no more than half an hour, with the option of making it longer if possible. The walk needs to be quiet enough you can talk in peace, but preferably not so quiet that being followed by undercover Section 2 agents would stand out. The destination should have somewhere you can sit and eat. Possibly near one of the lakes where it might actually be cooler. If it has a nice view, as long as it's not of the city or the GeoFront, that would be good - but a wall of trees would be better than either of those. I need it in three days."

Kensuke blinked, "Did Shinji change his mind and ask you on a date?"

"No" Asuka had been the one telling Shinji and she already had that one arranged.

"So am I allowed to know what's going on that might result in you murdering my friend? Or is that classified?"

Asuka sighed, "It's need-to-know and the only people who need-to-know the details at this point are you and I. Rei has never been on a date. Rei wants to. The only person I trust around her is Shinji. So he gets to take her. Before you try to make suggestions, I've already considered them."

"Just one thing before I agree."

"What's that?" snaps Asuka

"Does Hikari know? If not, you may as well kill me now to save her the trouble."

Asuka rubs her face. What the hell did Hikari have on him that was scarier than her? "Yes, Hikari knows. She was the one who suggested you'd know somewhere by the lakes."

"So you want me to scout out a location for you so that your boyfriend can take his wife on a date." Kensuke was safe from Hikari, he could survive anything. "Alright then. I have a couple of places in mind already. I'll do a dry run, probably tomorrow, to make sure they meet your criteria."

Asuka nodded and stalked away towards her next victim.

Kensuke looked over at Toji and Hikari who were talking and clearly oblivious to the recent exchange, 'I hope this goes as well as the last favour'

Kensuke watched Shinji approach with a sinking feeling. Fortunately Ayanami was nowhere in sight and he would not have to deal with all three of them in one lunch time.

"Asuka already asked me."

"What? Oh, about Soryu's Pilot Communication Improvement Program?"

Kensuke chokes on his lunch, "Her what?"

Shinji realises that whatever Asuka was talking to him about, Kensuke didn't have the whole picture and sat down to explain.

"Cover story."

Kensuke perked up, "Oh? Do tell."

"So Rei's not supposed to even have friends. Some weird Nerv requirement. So Asuka concocted this "It's not a date, it's a training program, I've done that before" idea. Except this is Asuka. So she's putting together an actual training program. If she looked like she was actually working in class this morning, it wasn't schoolwork."

"You're going on an actual date with Ayanami, organised by Asuka, disguised as training?"

Shinji nods, "First practical. Pilots Ikari and Ayanami independent excursion."

"Well, I hope you all survive the experience.

"So you wanted to ask me something unrelated?"

"Well I thought it was, but it's actually about communication, so once Asuka hears about it she'll probably want to include it."

"And you're asking me for my stunning communication skills?" Shinji is his third friend, Kensuke doesn't mind, but he's certainly aware that this isn't one of his strong points.

"Actually, yes, in this case. I thought it would be the sort of challenge you'd enjoy. More than whatever Asuka just talked you into.

There's got to be hand signals or something the military uses when they have to be quiet. It's the sort of thing I thought you'd know. I'm looking for a couple of different ones. One that I can use with Asuka but the bridge crew won't recognise, so we can talk without them knowing. Bonus lunches for a week if there's no way of expressing the word baka. The second is more of a challenge - what can you come up with that would work with a damaged Eva if the comms are down? That's happened a couple of times."

Kensuke grins, "You had me at the word Eva. Sure, I can come up with something. As well as military hand and arm signals, every country has its own sign language too. Some of those might have adaptions for people who are injured. It might take a while though. You got a timeframe?"

"Before the next Angel attack would be good," Shinji looks down, "not that anyone knows when that will be. If it's a whole language it'll take a while to learn, for me anyway, I'm sure Asuka would have it in no time."

"Alright. I'll do the research Asuka asked for and then get on it."

Shinji starts to get up when Kensuke interrupts him.

"Wait a minute. This training program Asuka's coming up with, it's not just for you and Ayanami right? It's Pilots, plural, so how did she get cornered into improving her own communication skills?"

Shinji smiled, he hadn't thought of that. He kept wanting Asuka to just talk to him and tell him what she wanted. Now she'd have to if she wanted to succeed. Asuka always wanted to succeed. Hopefully it wouldn't be too painful.

"Rei."

"Well congratulate your wife for me then."

Shinji sighed, "She's still not my wife."

Kensuke watched his friend walk away and went back to finishing his lunch. He might sometimes have difficulty understanding other people, especially those who he didn't have any common interests with, but it seemed those two understood him pretty well. Two new challenging projects in the same day, both of which piqued his interest and flexed his skills.

The bigger challenge was trying to work out what was actually going on without resorting to Hikari levels of theorising.

Ever since Shinji had been away - and he had called it that on a couple of occasions, not hospitalised, sick, or injured, 'away' - Asuka had been acting strangely. Today's request was an example. Setting up a date for Rei because she doesn't trust anyone - not trusting anyone was classic Asuka, volunteering Shinji was totally out of character. If anything she was even more possessive these days, but with it seemed to have come a level of caring he hadn't thought Asuka capable of. She'd even gone to Toji for advice on Shinji's recovery from whatever had really happened to him.

Then there was whatever had happened to Ayanami. Who now smiled, and hugged Asuka as well as Shinji. Asuka didn't even touch Shinji and had in fact mostly stopped even threatening physical violence. But despite occasionally showing signs of combat stress, she didn't even blink at the previously distant Ayanami hugging her, holding her hand or coming up behind her and leaning against her. Maybe they were all wrong, and it was Asuka and Ayanami that were the couple.

Shinji's last comment could be taken multiple ways depending how you viewed it. 'She's not my wife', 'She's not my wife'. Nah, that was getting into Hikari territory. Shinji was right, they were all too young to be married to anyone. Anyway, whatever was really going on no theory he came up with was going to beat Hikari's so he'd just wait and see.

Rei was lonely. She did not like this sensation.

It had been two hours, thirty five minutes and four point seven seconds since Asuka had last touched her.
It had been four minutes, twenty three point nine seconds since Shinji had gotten up to talk to Aida.

She did not think Shinji had noticed that he had gotten up the moment Asuka had started to move away from Aida. Her friends struggled to communicate in words. They did communicate well in other ways. Though she was increasingly certain neither of them understood that. Perhaps if they did Asuka would not make the mistake she had again.

It would probably be another ten minutes before either Shinji or Asuka returned to her. Social interactions were unpredictable.

She was used to being alone. That did not bother her. She was not used to this sensation of missing something. It was not as if she did not know they were there. She knew where she was. She knew where Shinji was. Shinji knew where Asuka was. There was just too much physical space between them. That there was less metaphysical distance helped. It was not enough. She did not understand what that meant.

Rei was afraid. She did not like this either.

She had her purpose. If she failed at her purpose she would be replaced. The replacement would succeed. There was no reason to fear even failure.

She had learned fear from Shinji. Who was afraid of so many things. He was afraid of the Evangelions even though he did not know what they were yet. That had not stopped him getting in one to protect her. He had known her for eight minutes twenty six seconds. He had held her for three minutes ten seconds. Yui had protected them both. Perhaps it had already been too late for her then.

Of all the things he was afraid of, she had never been one. She was afraid this would change once he knew what she really was. The thing he was most afraid of was losing what little he thought he had. Now she understood. She wished she did not.

Asuka would arrive in under two minutes unless Hikari distracted her. She had successfully imparted a sense of urgency to Asuka, though she was somewhat unsure as to exactly what had made the difference. At this point Asuka's natural drive seemed to have taken over. There was so little time left and now so much she wanted to do. Very probably there was even less time for her than there was for Asuka. There was only so much the Commander would tolerate before she would be replaced.

She was not aware of standing before she was wrapped in Asuka's arms. That was most disconcerting.

"What's wrong, Rei?"

So many things were wrong. So many things she wanted to say. So many feelings she was not used to having, should not be having and did not understand. She went with the simplest one.

"I missed you."