"Why is it so damn hot in here?"

Shinji had been thinking that even Asuka yelling at him would be better than the tense silence. Now her anger was focused on him verbally, he wasn't so sure.

"I'm sorry. One of the air conditioning units failed during the night."

He knew exactly when it had failed. Asuka had woken for the third or fourth time that night and if the synchronisation hadn't woken him, hearing her scream through the wall would have. He'd heard the thunk and ensuing silence when the unit failed while he was waiting for Asuka to let him sleep again.

Whatever it was he'd done to start this, the nightmares and lack of sleep were making things even worse.

"Why isn't it fixed already then? How am I supposed to live in this inferno?"

Shinji sighed, the hottest thing in the room was Asuka's temper, but he was not stupid enough to make that observation out loud, whatever Asuka thought of his mental capacity.

"The repair order requires Misato to sign off on it, as she's the listed resident of the apartment."

"You mean we don't even officially live here?! And of course Misato's not back from her vacation to do anything useful."

Shinji wisely said nothing in response to that. He was fairly sure no one at Nerv got vacations, certainly they hadn't even been allowed to leave the city with their classmates. Whatever was keeping Misato away had to be really important. No one would tell them anything, so it was probably classified too.

"Is there anything edible, or did the fridge die too?"

Asuka dropped down into a chair next to the table in such a dejected Misato pose that Shinji had placed a cold can - of coke - next to her before he realised what he was doing. He didn't get an acknowledgement but she did open it and take a drink. That was probably as much thanks as he'd get.

"The fridge works. The rice cooker doesn't make much heat. Breakfast will be about five minutes". He was trying to stave off her objections to cooking making things even hotter and didn't notice that his attempt to be clear had made him sound like Rei. Asuka did.

They ate in silence. Shinji was leaning towards preferring the shouting.

"There was a message from Lieutenant Ibuki. Today's tests have been pushed back a couple of hours. She didn't say why."

Asuka didn't make any indication she'd even heard.

"If you like, I could move one of the futons under the working unit. There'd barely be enough room for you, but it would be cool enough you could take a nap."

It was a risk, reaching out to an angry Asuka, but after last night even an extra hour of sleep would be worth it. And maybe if he slept on the couch they'd be close enough the nightmares wouldn't be as bad.

All he got from Asuka was the barest of nods, but that was enough to make him smile before getting up to arrange things for her.