Author's Note: Hello! Thank you for having me! This is the first time I've posted on this site since I was eleven years old… and, well, my writing skills are probably worse than an eleven-year-old's now. I'm not used to writing, and I'm not a confident writer, so I decided to write some bite-size ficlets as a warmup for my idea. The shortest is 330 words long and the longest is 883.

I gave the last ficlet its own chapter because it ended up being over 1200 words long and I thought it needed a different age rating to the rest.

My plots are cringe, my vocabulary is weak, and these are very badly researched, so they might be embarrassingly unrealistic in parts. Thank you for bearing with me, I will try to make my "proper" chapters more polished.

Finally, please let me know if I need to change my age ratings, because I'm inexperienced in that too.

Thanks! I'll stop rambling now.

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Kaji's Outing · Ritsuko's Tummy · Asuka at the Modelling Agency · Misato's Baby Names

Chapter 2: Snow Rei (rated Mature instead of Teen. Please read at your own discretion)

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Kaji's Outing

Ryoji Kaji was rolled into the disabled toilet of the nicest garden centre in Kyoto.

"Do you… do you still pee standing up?"

There was that surreal feeling again. It was there three and a half weeks ago when she met him all covered in tubes and wires and not supposed to be alive. It was there this morning when she pulled into the car park of the private care facility, butterflies in her stomach, steeling herself to be led through the corridors to collect him.

But it was gone half an hour ago in the fruit section when he told her that, of his top three melons, two were to be found on her chest.

"'Course I do, Katsuragi! But I'll need you to support me." The line was delivered without a smirk by Kaji and almost received without offence by Misato.

They locked the door behind them and got down to business. Misato was surprised at how straightforward it was to hold a man up as he urinated, and Kaji was surprised at the lack of awkwardness between them in this most awkward of situations.

Just as they were leaving, an alarm went off on Misato's phone. "It's 1430. Kaji, do you want to take your medication here? I have water. Or we could go to the cafe?"

"Relax, Misato," he replied. "I'm stable. A few hours' wait until I get back to the facility won't do me any harm."

"I have all your medication here, plus instructions from the nurses." For the first time, he noticed the spacious diaper bag slung over her shoulder. It looked box-fresh.

"It's not that big a deal." He flashed a classic Kaji grin. "Just relax."

"But how am I g–" Misato cut herself off, realising that the thought was not one that was supposed to be thought out loud.

Kaji's eyes widened. Unfortunately for Misato, he guessed the rest of the sentence. "How are you going to…? Learn to care for me, if you don't learn now? Katsuragi. Are you planning to have me move in with you after I stop needing nursing care?"

Misato's cheeks reddened, and she looked away. Kaji continued, "And that must be why Shinji and Asuka are joining us for coffee later, huh? So you can see how the four of us might get on around the dinner table?" Misato said nothing. Kaji had divined her plans perfectly, absolutely hit the nail on the head, so she honestly couldn't think of anything to say.

"Well, Katsuragi, I'm flattered. But let me re-learn to wipe my own backside first, okay? That was the most independently I've been to the toilet since I woke up." Misato thought back to re-doing his belt for him a few minutes ago as he trembled in his wheelchair. He had washed his hands, but this had left them shaking as much as his legs, and she could tell they were too tired to work anymore. Thankfully, it looked like his strength was starting to return now. "I couldn't let you take me out as I was two weeks ago," Kaji explained. "It would have been too embarrassing, for both of us. I trained hard, and people must have been asking questions about how I started to disappear to the toilets with male nurses so often."

Misato stared into his eyes with the solemnity of a puppy at a remembrance ceremony. He smirked. "Will you put in the effort for me too, Katsuragi? Perhaps buy a sexy nurse costume?"

Her solemn features contorted into a glare, and it made his day. She had always been so cute when she was angry.

—

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Ritsuko's Tummy

Ritsuko's heart sank further as she turned around in front of her bedroom mirror. Yet another nice outfit ruined by the bulge of her pregnancy.

"Looking good, Ri-chan!" called Maya as she walked past.

"No I'm not! Everything I put on makes me look ridiculous because of this!" She gestured towards her stomach. "Soon even my work clothes aren't going to fit anymore!"

"You could order new ones?"

"I'm not telling Fuyutsuki."

There was no point in answering that, but it was illogical. Dr. Akagi had been visibly pregnant for about a month, and although the lab coat she wore at work still concealed the fact almost perfectly, surely somebody must have noticed she'd stopped smoking, if nothing else? Maya quietly stepped through the doorway and embraced her from behind.

"It's a beautiful tummy. Because it's yours." She said softly, gently stroking her girlfriend's belly as if for emphasis. "Whether it's got a baby in it, or it's totally flat, or it's bloated, or it's carrying a few extra pounds for the winter, I love it, because it's at the centre of the person I love the most."

"Maya-chan…"

"Are you feeling bloated just now, Ritsuko-chan? You know stress isn't good for you."

At that moment, Ritsuko became aware of the dull ache of anxiety in the pit of her stomach, but she didn't admit it. Nevertheless, Maya went from stroking her to massaging her abdomen. She did so more gently than she used to, out of fear of hurting the baby, but the pressure she applied was still enough to alarm her "patient".

"Stop it, Maya! You'll make me fart!"

"I don't mind, Senpai. As long as it's not solid or liquid."

Ritsuko, caught off guard by that, burst into a fit of giggles. She felt herself relax into Maya's arms and allowed her little pocket rocket to pull her over to a chair for a higher-quality spoon.

How did she ever reject the advances of someone so kawaii?

—

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Asuka at the Modelling Agency

Mr Suzuki walked in to find his colleague staring defeatedly at the application forms. He knew it got difficult towards the end of the day not to let all the pretty faces and standard-shaped bodies merge into one, but it was currently 12.15pm. "Is everything okay, Yamada?"

"What kind of name is Asuka-Rangurē, anyway?" It had obviously been a tough morning. Perhaps Yamada was hungover, or he'd been punched in the face by a model tired of the mundane jobs he'd been seeming to find recently. Or maybe he'd got a parking ticket?

Getting lost in his own imagination was above Mr Suzuki's pay grade, though, so he snapped back into the role of the "good assistant". "Maybe she's foreign?" He looked at the girl in the other room and noticed that she had red hair.

"I've seen her audition tape; she has a Tokyo accent," groaned Mr Yamada. Both men's eyes fell upon the photograph clipped to her paperwork. Come to think of it, Asuka-Rangurē did look like she might be mixed-race. Her eyes were blue, but it hadn't set her apart from the other applicants up until this point. However, Suzuki and Yamada were now actually looking at her headshot rather than just glancing at it, and something seemed off. Her neutral expression was just as pretty as that of every other young woman in the stack of applications, but it was… a "different" neutral? They would have struggled to put the difference into words, had you asked them. Her neutral expression was less doe-eyed than that of most would-be models. There was a particular hint of confidence to it and, somehow, the men almost expected the photograph to start smirking at them. It was slightly unsettling.

Yamada didn't even bother asking Suzuki if he got that feeling from it, and told him, "In her audition tape, she seemed very confident. She wasn't rude, but I felt… slightly intimidated? If she's not from Japan, it makes a little more sense, but… you can see in any other tape you watch how badly the girl wants this. I felt like this one was challenging me to a fight… I can't imagine her having many friends if that's her real personality."

They noticed that the young woman on the other side of the privacy glass had put her belongings down neatly at the side of the room and stood ready to receive instructions. Mr Yamada pressed the button on the tannoy. "Thank you for coming, Miss Soryu."

"Thanks for having me."

"My name is Yamada, please call out to me if you need anything. I am in the booth."

"Thank you." Unable to make eye contact with the disembodied voice, the girl stared intently at the thick black glass she assumed it came from. Unbeknownst to her, she met the gaze of Mr Suzuki on the other side and began to pierce his soul. He knew she couldn't see her, but he tried not to flinch anyway. Mr Yamada watched his colleague's restrained squirming with amusement.

"After the signal appears, Miss Soryu, please start walking whenever you are ready."

"Okay." Mr Yamada pushed a button and switched on the giant WALK NOW light that stood before Asuka-Rangurē. Dressed in a fairly standard casting call outfit of a white t-shirt and jeans, she walked confidently, perfectly, with her head held high. It was also very helpful to Yamada that she'd arrived in stilettos, which she didn't wobble on once. She even attempted the odd cheeky flounce when she turned around, which she pulled off effortlessly.

"She carries herself like a catwalk model, don't you think?" asked Mr Suzuki. "Yes," groaned Mr Yamada, rubbing his temples, "but I've never had anyone ask me to send them someone with red hair and blue eyes."

"Even if she's a nightmare to work with, that posture could make someone a lot of money."

"It could, but would it be us? Especially if she does end up being a nightmare to work with. We don't have enough clout in the industry to sweeten that, or to push someone who looks unique."

Mr Suzuki looked up at the girl on the other side of the glass and down at her application form. Her full-body swimsuit picture had her shaped like a mannequin, and — his eyes widened — if she wasn't lying about her height, her measurements were almost identical to the gold standard that clothing retailers tried to base their model requirements on. He tapped the paper, and Mr Yamada's eyes widened too.

Yamada stared up at his colleague. "She might be good for online clothing stores looking to go international. You know, the kind of videos ASOS does?"

"She might be open to wearing brown contacts."

"I think I'll get her back in for a bikini test to confirm she's not tattooed, and we can measure her height without shoes, and then take it from there. I'm not going to ask her to strip today," Mr Yamada said, looking like death warmed up, "she looks like the type to yell at me and call me racist or a pervert, and I just don't have it in me to deal with that right now."

Mr Suzuki moved Asuka-Rangurē's paperwork to Mr Yamada's "call back" pile and thanked her for her time.

—

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Misato's Baby Names

"So, do you have any names for this son of yours yet?" Ritsuko asked playfully. It was the first time they'd had coffee together since the big scan, but Misato couldn't work out what she meant by that smirk or that tone of voice. Maybe it was just Ri-chan being affectionate? She tried to cast her mind back to the pre-Angel days, when they were closer, and remember what Akagi affection looked like.

Misato and Ryoji hadn't really discussed names yet, so she quickly racked her brains for ones that might sound good with 'Kaji'.

Bingo! There was one.

"Yes," she smiled softly. "I've been thinking about 'Ryoji'."

Ritsuko was taken aback. "Huh? But Kaji-kun's name is Ryoji!" The look on her face was priceless. The name 'Ryoji' suddenly moved several places up Misato's shortlist.

"That'll be okay, though! I call Kaji-kun 'Kaji-kun' most of the time anyway, I can just make it all of the time."

"But if you get married, all three of you will be Kaji!"

"It'll be fine! You can just call us Kaji-san, Kaji-kun and Major Kaji."

"You really think Nerv will last that long?"

"I'm sure the JSSDF will take me on if it doesn't." She smiled, forgetting that her friend's expression would darken at the idea. Ritsuko had escaped criminal charges for her involvement in the research for Instrumentality, but the Government had placed her eligibility for public funding under sanction. Having spent her entire post-doctoral career with Nerv and its Evangelions, she had never really seen herself working for a university, so that was fine in a way; but she had imagined perhaps having a future with a UN agency or JAXA. Now that her name was essentially mud, however, her next move would probably have to be teacher training.

Ritsuko sipped her coffee, trying not to scowl. "I still don't think there should be two Kaji Ryojis. It just seems like a stupid idea to have two people with the same name in one house."

Misato hadn't set out with the intention of properly winding Ritsuko up, but it had been ages since she had done it and she'd forgotten how much fun it was. Amused, she decided she was going to keep the joke going and made a mental note to try and recruit Kaji into it as soon as possible. The thought of committing to the bit and watching Ritsuko try not to spiral into despair for the next nineteen weeks really tickled her. Could they pull it off?

She felt a flutter in her stomach and took that as a sign of the baby's approval.

Baby Ryoji's approval.

Misato stifled a laugh.