Gospel 1:6

Shinji picked half-heartedly at his breakfast, not eating, but pushing the food around on his plate with his fork. Sensing the boy's mood, Pen-Pen picked at his own food out of sympathy.

It was with a sigh of finality that Shinji decided that he did not understand women in general, Asuka in particular.

He could hear her voice coming from the bathroom, her singing rising above the sound of the running shower. Three days ago he'd seen her fall completely apart, nearly throwing herself from the balcony, and then clinging to him as if he were the only solid thing left in the world. The next day she seemed fragile, barely able to hold herself together and it seemed as if one wrong word could blow her apart again. In school the entire class had sensed her mood, and even the teacher's voice had been little more than a whisper, as if everyone was afraid that Asuka would shatter if they talked to loudly.

That night he'd lain awake in bed, sure that Asuka would come to him again and hold him as if he were her only lifeline. She didn't and when awoke early the next morning he'd made breakfast and brought it to her room on a tray. She'd glared at him for waking her up, didn't thank him for bringing the food and when he lingered by the door, waiting to see if she had anything to say, she'd told him to stop staring at her like a pervert and get out of her room.

It'd been a Sunday, so he lingered around the apartment watching her. The only break in her façade came after lunch. Asuka was watching television and he'd ostensibly been reading a book. "Shinji," she'd begun her voice barely above a whisper, "You don't have to worry about me, I'm fine. So stop staring at me you perverted little creep!" She'd thrown a pillow at him, then a shoe, and then the bombardment, both of objects and of invectives, became so intense that he'd fled the apartment.

He'd gone to Touji's and Shinji hadn't been surprised to find Hikari there as well. They seemed to be getting together to 'study' much more often than their classwork required.

"Hello Mikomi," Shinji'd said, waving to Touji's little sister who watched him silently, but intensely from the door. The little girl seemed to idolize Shinji almost as much as she did her big brother, a fact that made Shinji more than a little uncomfortable.

"Has Mr. St. John apologized to Asuka yet?" Hikari'd demanded.

"They settled their differences," Shinji'd lied. "I think that everything's back to normal." He wasn't sure if that was a lie. Asuka'd seemed to revert to what had been normal for her: brash, casually arrogant, superior. He couldn't tell if it was an act or not.

Shinji wished that he could've asked Kaji what he should do. Kaji had always seemed to know the right thing to say, to have all the right answers. But Kaji wasn’t' around anymore. When Shinji had asked about him at the Geofront he'd been told that Kaji had been transferred back to Germany. He was almost certain that that was a lie.

It'd been a mistake to eavesdrop as Misato had listened to the message, but he hadn't known better. It wasn't until the message was more than halfway through that he'd realized what Kaji was really saying and that he could hear Misato sobbing. That was when he turned the volume on his walkman up all the way and pressed the earphones tightly against his head.

He could know for sure if listened to Kaji's message, if he could find the answering machine. It wasn't in its usual place and the fact that Misato hid it was almost certain confirmation of Shinji's fears. It seemed that she was determined to hold onto the past as strongly as Asuka and Terry were.

When Terry had arrived at the apartment the following morning, Shinji had been afraid that he and Asuka would try to put each other in the hospital. Their conversation over breakfast had been the last words he'd seen them exchange since then, and outside of class he'd rarely seen the 6^th Child.

The few times that Shinji had seen Terry had been in Rei's company, and although he seemed to be practically hanging off of her arm she'd seemed to be aloof of his presence. As far as Shinji could tell, Rei wasn't doing anything to encourage Terry's company, but she didn't seem to be trying to discourage him either. Several times when he'd seen Rei without Terry she'd been staring at a white rose, much like the one he'd seen Terry buy. The implications of the flowers seemed obvious but Shinji found it hard to believe that anyone could breach Rei’s self-imposed shell of isolation.

Misato had pressed the three of them relentlessly for an explanation of what had happened that night, but they all refused to talk. Fortunately she'd come to the wrong conclusion and seemed to have assumed that the incident had been of a romantic nature. Once it had become obvious that nothing short of physical force would get an answer from them, Misato became subtler in her inquiries, but still met with no success.

As the food on his plate slowly pulped under the continued stabbing of his fork, Shinji’s mind drifted back to Asuka. Although relieved that Asuka was behaving normally again, he was also a little upset. As he had lain there with his arms around Asuka he'd felt oddly complete, as if her presence had satiated a need that he didn't even know he'd had. Ever since that night, he'd again felt the need. It lay in his heart, an ache whose pain itself was oddly soothing but nowhere near as soothing as the pain’s salve was.

Although he'd admit it to no one over the past few nights he'd hoped to hear footsteps approach his room, hear his door slide open, and to again feel the warmth of Asuka’s body as she lay next to him. He longed to again feel the stirring of her breath, the rise and fall of her stomach against his.

Shinji sighed and glanced down at his plate. His breakfast had been mashed into a dirty sludge-like paste and he sighed again as he rose, disposing of the remains of his meal. In the background he heard the shower shut off and he stared towards the bathroom door with an almost wistful expression on his face. If he only knew what Asuka was thinking then he might be able to decide what to do. But her mind was a closed book to him it's contents inscrutable; it was better to do nothing than to risk doing the wrong thing.

Pen-Pen waited until the boy left the kitchen before turning back to his dish and wolfing down his breakfast.

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Asuka hummed to herself as she wrapped a towel around her body and she heard footsteps go past the door. Her hands slowed as she brushed out her hair, her thoughts settling on Shinji. There was a split in her mind about the 3^rd child and as she thought about him a scene formed in her mind. She was standing on one side of an empty room dressed in her plug suit. She also stood opposite of herself, wearing her yellow sundress. Kaji sat askew in a chair in the middle of the room, twirling a gavel between the fingers of one hand.

"I hate him!" herself in the plug suit exclaimed. "He always interferes! He’s competition, he keeps me from being the best. I should've pulled the plug. That would've taken care of that stupid little show-off."

"No, I'm glad that I didn't pull the plug. I don't hate Shinji," said herself in the sundress.

The gavel suddenly ceased its motion. "Why didn’t you kill him? What stopped you?" Kaji asked looking at her intently.

"I… I would have missed him."

"Why would I miss that idiot?" herself in the plug suit demanded.

"Because I need him."

Herself in the plug suit snorted in disdain, "I don’t need anyone. Need is a weakness. Ich bin vollkommen. I don’t have any weaknesses."

"Are you sure?" Kaji asked. "Isn't arrogance a failing, a weakness?"

"It's not arrogance when you know how good you are."

"How about pride, the deadly sin? Doesn't that make your pridefulness a weakness, a failing?"

"Shut up!" herself in the plug suit screeched. "I don't have any failings! I think I'm perfect!"

"And that is why you fail!" Kaji declared triumphantly, rapping the gavel against an imaginary table. "You refuse to recognize the fact that you are human, with all of the frailties and failings inherent!"

"I fail because Shinji always beats me. I'd succeed without him," herself in the plug suit said petulantly. "Shinji's so special, him and that bitch, Wonder Girl. Why is that stupid little doll so important? Why can she summon Shinji the Hero down from his pedestal when I can't? That Schwachkopf doesn't care about me so why should I care about him?"

It was herself in the sundress that answered. "Without him, I'd be alone. No one else would let me near them. He compliments me, he can fill the emptiness, the void that keeps me from being complete. Together we are more than one. I could love him… I think."

"I would never love a pathetic loser like him!" herself in the plug suit shouted. "He doesn't matter to me. I love Kaji. I don't need anyone else."

"You never loved me Miss Soryu," Kaji corrected her gently. "You were only infatuated. After your mother’s death your father was cold and distant, so you fixated on the one who would be like a father to you. You've grown up now; it’s time to set your juvenile infatuations aside."

"No, I love Kaji, and he'd love me if it wasn’t for Misato. It's disgusting how she behaves with him."

"My relationship with Misato is special. Someday, you'll find someone that you'll want to have that kind of relationship with. Maybe it will be with Shinji."

"That’s disgusting. I would never do anything like that with Shinji! I would rather—"

"But I did something similar, didn’t I?" Asuka said uncertainly, interrupting herself. "I slept with him, and I enjoyed it. Knowing that he was there, there for me, feeling the heat of his body so close, it filled a need, a need that I still have. To be close to another person, to be close to him, to steal some of his peace for myself, it was something that I needed, that I still want."

She glared defiantly at the other Asuka. "I can want something from someone else without making me any less than I am."

Kaji started pounding the gavel against the air. "Good job, Asuka! I’m proud of you."

She smiled at Kaji’s praise and the image faded away, although the pounding did not. "Asuka, are you all right in there?" Shinji asked.

Blinking, she realized that she had been staring at the mirror for several minutes. The faucet that she'd left running had filled the sink almost to the top.

"I’ll be out in a minute," she said.

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Shinji and Asuka left their apartment at nearly the same time that Terry left his. No one spoke as they rode the elevator down and once they reached ground level Terry quickly left them behind, moving almost at a run.

The two of them walked in silence for a while with Shinji occasionally glancing at Asuka out of the corner of his eye. "Uh, Asuka," he said finally, "can I ask you a question? About that night?"

"What do you want to know?" she asked without looking at him.

"It's about Terry. He almost didn't help me and I got the feeling that if he'd been the one to find you, that he w- would have let you fall."

"He probably would have," she paused into pregnant silence. "I probably would have too, if our positions had been reversed," she said quietly.

"But why? What happened to you, so that you're willing to kill each other?"

" I don't want to talk about it," she said sullenly.

"Asuka, it you two are like that while in your Evas it could get us killed. If we can't trust each other we might die. What if Terry had been piloting an Eva when the 9^th angel attacked? You, me, and Rei, we had to trust each other completely. It would've killed us if we hadn't."

Asuka kept walking without answering, her eyes downcast. When she looked up, her eyes were large and glassy. "Shinji, you would never do anything to hurt me, would you?"

Surprised by her question, he immediately agreed before he could stop and consider, "No. I'd never intentionally do anything to hurt you."

Before Shinji could react Asuka stepped forward and kissed him lightly on his lower lip. In that moment, the whole of his existence seemed concentrated in that one spot; every sensation magnified a thousand times; the pressure of her mouth, the texture of her lip on his.

The moment ended all to soon as she stepped back. "Thank you, Shinji."

"For what?" he asked, befuddled.

"For being there for me," she responded, and grinned as Shinji's hand rose to his lip, without him seeming to realize it.

"Um, okay," was all that Shinji could manger to stammer out.

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The oil tanker sat low in the water as it cruised ponderously through the open ocean. Like all of it’s ilk the it was old and in obvious disrepair. The invention of the efficient electric automotive engine tore the bottom out of the oil market. Countries dependent on oil for their livelihood soon found their economies spiraling downward. A few, out of desperation still shipped out crude oil at exorbitant prices, trying to scrape up a small amount of cash from the rapidly dwindling supply of engines that still ran on refined petroleum. Even that avenue would soon be closed as the once mighty fleets of tanker and transport ships rotted at the docks, the price brought in by the oil not even enough to keep the ships that carried it from falling apart.

This particular tanker looked as if it were on its last voyage. Rust stains coated its sides and there were gaping holes in the hull plates where the rust had eaten through entirely. The deck was full of yawning pits where the deck plates had been pulled up so that the crew could perform the myriad of jury rigged repairs that allowed the ship to continue running from one day to the next.

The crew was a mixture of Iraqis, Saudis, and other men who'd worked the industry back when it put food on their tables and were either too tired or too set in their ways to leave it. The only exception was the captain, standing silently on the bridge. He was American, his face toughened by years at sea, dull eyes peering out from within a network of wrinkles. A battered captain’s hat rested on his head, the words Exxon, sun bleached and barely readable, stitched across the front. He did not appear to be watching what was going on around him. Instead, it seemed as if he was lost within memories of better days long past.

One of the sailors paused to spit over the rail as he walked past the captain. "Sir, sonar has detected a sub de-stealthing one hundred meters to port," he sailor mumbled as he went by.

The captain nodded, his eyes still fixed on something ahead. "All hands, stand by. Hold your fire unless I give the order," he said softly. His words were too quiet to be heard from more than a foot away, yet all over the ship men stopped what they were doing and reached into cabins, portholes, and holes in the deck, pulling out an impressive array of weapons. They watched as a submarine broke the surface of the ocean off to port and pulled up alongside the tanker, dropping a ladder as two men emerged from the submarine.

"It been a while, Gendo Rokubungi," the captain said in passable Japanese as Commander Ikari reached the tanker’s deck.

"My name is Ikari now."

"I know. It’s unusual for a Japanese man to take his wife’s name."

"I trust that you invited me here to do more than discuss what social protocols I’ve violated over the years," Gendo said as Fuyutsuki reached the top of the ladder.

A shark-like grin creased the captain’s face. "Oh, I have lots of things I'd like to talk about. As co-coordinator of the Katsuragi expedition, I was in this as deep as you, in the beginning. Sorry about Steele, by the way. If I'd known exactly what he was planning I would've taken care of him sooner".

"My time is precious, Taylor. From your message I assumed that you had information concerning the Second Branch. If I was mistaken, I'll leave now."

Taylor’s grin turned feral. "I have much more than information. I have an Evangelion."

"So you did recover Unit 04. I’m impressed," Gendo said, his voice remaining bland.

"You haven’t seen anything yet." The captain pulled a small radio out of his coat. "Eve, would you please say hello to Commander Ikari?"

"Hello, Commander." The voice that came over the radio was computer generated, but unmistakably female. "My name is Eve. I am the pilot of Evangelion Unit 04."

"How did you acquire a pilot?" Fuyutsuki demanded. "There's no possible way that you could've trained one without our knowledge."

"She was an unexpected bonus. Imagine our surprise after we restored power to the Eva and started running diagnostic tests, when the pilot contacted us to confirm that all systems were operational. Better than operational in some cases."

"How could there have been a pilot? Unit 04 was activated with a dummy plug."

"I suppose," Taylor said with a smirk.

"Captain!" a sailor shouted, "Sonar's detected an attack sub de-stealthing off of our starboard bow!"

"Damn, there must've been a leak. I assume that you're the only two on your side that know about this meeting, so that means someone on mine doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. When I get back, someone is going to have an accident." Taylor said with mock regret.

"If you get back," Fuyutsuki said dubiously.

"I doubt you have anything to worry about, Captain," Gendo said. "You don’t look anything like the picture in your file. Of course it'll be a different matter entirely if they decide to take your fingerprints."

Taylor held up his hands and sighed wistfully. "Unfortunately, my hands were crushed in a piston many years ago and the reconstructive surgery left my fingers perfectly smooth."

"I assume that the rest of your crew has undergone similar procedures?"

"Of course. We're simply an old oil crew trying to make a little money in this hostile world. They'll even find oil in our holds, as long as they don’t look too deep. Hopefully, they don't know that you're here yet." Turning away from them he again spoke into the hidden communicator. "Hold your fire until my command," he instructed the crew.

The attack sub stopped a hundred meters off the tanker's bow and the radio on the bridge crackled to life. "Tanker Anon, stop your engines and prepare to be boarded."

Taylor lifted the switched on the microphone. "This is the tanker Anon. On what charges are we being boarded?"

"Violation of transportation of hazardous materials laws."

"I don't believe that crude oil is currently classified as a hazardous material. I fail to recognize the validity of your orders."

"This is your only warning. We have reason to believe that you are smuggling hazardous substances. Cut your engines immediately. Resistance will be met with deadly force." The line went dead as the sub’s commander cut the transmission and the sub pulled up alongside the tanker.

"SEELE somehow caught wind that something was up, but they must not have found out that the two of us are here." Taylor said as the Anon's turbines stopped spinning and the gigantic ship drifted to a stop. "If they did, I doubt the sub would've had the courtesy to drop its stealth field before blowing us out of the water. That broadcast was for the benefit of anyone who might've been monitoring the channel. They're just waiting for final clearance before they sink us." Taylor frowned. "The sub's to close to use torpedoes though, what could they be trying?" He suddenly straightened. "Arm a demolition team with full-auto gas rifles and get them in the water now," he ordered. "Tell them to fire on sight and shoot to kill. There are an unknown number of targets planting explosives on our hull." Taylor started drumming his fingers on the railing. "Now we have to take care of that sub too."

A smile stretched the corners of Gendo’s mouth. "I'm surprised. All of this preparation and you didn't bring an N² mine."

"This was supposed to be covert," Taylor grumbled. "I was hoping we could conclude this business without having anyone interrupt."

"You have that demolitions team, why not have them blow the sub up?" Fuyutsuki asked.

Taylor shook his head. "As soon as the sub looses contact with the team they sent to sink us, they'll back off and torpedo us. We'll just have to sink them before they pull away." He spoke into the radio. "Eve, I have need of you. I’m linking in the visuals to you now. You'll know what to do."

"Yes, sir."

The tanker rocked and groaned, as an immense weight shifted in its hold.

The radio snapped back to life, "Tanker Anon, stop your engines immediately. You have thirty seconds to comply or you will be fired on."

"Well, that’s that then," Taylor said, turning towards Gendo. "Anyone listening in on the radio transmissions will hear the sub attempting to stop a suspect oil tanker, and since it refused to comply with their orders, it was sunk. They murder us neat and legal. I'm not amused." His face turned grim. "Now, Eve," he ordered.

A hand burst through the tanker's side, a progressive knife clutched in its hands. The hand plunged downward, slashing through the sub, splitting it along the keel line. Twisting the blade sideways it drew the knife back and split the sub in half

"You did an excellent job Eve," Taylor commended her, "thank you."

"Quite impressive," Gendo said. "Unfortunately, I can’t convince myself that you intend to give me Unit 04 and its pilot as a gift."

Taylor gave him a broad smile. "Happy birthday. No, I’m not going to give it to you for free."

"What do you want in return?"

"A favor," Taylor said simply.

"What kind of favor?"

"Oh, I don’t know, yet," Taylor said, turning to watch the sea over the railing. Bits of flotsam bobbed up to the surface, along with several bodies. There was a crack of gunfire as one of the sailors shot a man who had survived the sub’s sinking and his subsequent return to the surface. "I didn't give the order to open fire," he chastised the sailor, then addressed the crew. "However, shoot any other survivors on sight. We can't afford to have anyone report back."

He turned back towards Gendo. "There's a massive storm front approaching Japan. It will temporarily block all satellite surveillance. Once it clears the good ship Anon will be found grounded along some inhospitable track of the Japanese coast, its crew bearing a tragic tale. Their captain suffered a nervous breakdown, locked himself on the bridge, then ran the ship aground and hurled himself overboard. The crew has been provided with false records. They'll be detained for a few days before being sent home, no one suspecting that they're anything more than a bunch of worn out oilmen. There's enough actual crude in the holds that after it's been spread over several miles of coast it'll seem to match what's listed on the manifest.

"That sub will simply be recorded as lost at sea, since it would raise quite a few awkward questions if was discovered that it disappeared after intercepting a seemingly random oil tanker.

"As for the favor, I'll call it in when I need to. Playing with the big boys can be dangerous, so it’s nice to have a little insurance. You're a powerful player in this game, Ikari. A chip from you is worth a lot. I won’t cash it unless I really need to, but when I do I expect you to honor it in full."

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Far beneath the freighter the sea floor trembled as Unit 04's presence awoke the titan sleeping beneath it, and the sea floor shook as it began the slow process of waking.

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Unit 04 stood within the supposedly unoccupied third cage. Events had proceeded almost exactly as Taylor had predicted. The Anon's crew had been sent home and ‘Captain’ Taylor was declared dead after some of his effects washed up on the beach. Unit 04 had been smuggled into the geofront under the pretense of a late night test of the recovery system. Everyone who knew about the Eva’s presence was collected within the third cage, which had ‘officially’ been shut down and sealed as a cost saving measure.

"Dr. Akagi, send the signal to eject the plug," Gendo requested. "I believe that we'd all like to meet the pilot."

Ritsuko tapped a few keys then frowned. "The signal's not being accepted."

Eve’s voice issued quietly from a speaker, "I blocked the signal."

"Why?" Gendo asked, his voice sounding like he already knew the answer.

"Doing so would kill me."

"The dummy plug should've had a full set of life support systems along with multiple back ups," Ritsuko stated. "Why would leaving the Unit 04 kill you?"

"I am… connected… to the Eva."

"Connected?" Ritsuko asked. "in what way? Has the plug fused with the entry screws?"

"There is no distinction between Unit 04 and myself."

"You mean—?" sounding shaken, Ritsuko trailed off.

"Yes. Unit 04 and I are one entity."

Fuyutsuki looked stunned. "That’s impossible!"

"Only as impossible as a dummy plug gaining a sense of consciousness," Gendo said smugly.

Ignoring the two men, Ritsuko began to question Eve. "How did you… join Unit 04?"

"I would rather not speak of it. The experience was…unpleasant."

The Commander shut off the link to Eve. "Dr. Akagi, you now have both a fully functioning S² engine and an intact dummy system. I will expect them both to considerably aid the speed of your work."

He and Fuyutsuki exited the cage, missing the glare that Ritsuko gave the Commander.

"I still disagree with your decision to accept Unit 04," Fuyutsuki said after they left the cage. "The Americans now hold an axe over our heads,"

"There's no need to be so fatalistic. If I don't approve of what they ask, then I simply won't give it to them."

"Double-cross them? You’re insane!"

"What do you think they can do about it? The only thing that we took from them was Unit 04, which I had searched. It contained no bugs, bombs, or anything else that could be used to prevent is from reneging. Taylor is a clever man, but he is staking a great deal on my gratitude "

"Ikari, do you enjoy making enemies?" Fuyutsuki demanded.

"I'm not used to being liked," Gendo began with an ironic smile. "I am quite familiar with being hated. It does not discomfort me to make another enemy. "

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Ritsuko sighed as the door closed behind Commander Ikari. She do everything that he said. If she didn’t, she'd end up back in the cell, in the dark. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach.

"I hate him. Hatred is a new experience," Eve stated quietly.

Ritsuko gave a start of surprise. "The channel's still open?"

"I did not wish for it to be turned off."

"But that's an outside circuit! How did you do that?"

"I do not know."

Ritsuko turned and silently regard the Eva. "Eve, are you truly part of Unit 04?"

"I will allow you to turn on the plug’s internal camera."

The screen on the control console flickered on at Ritsuko’s touch and she gasped as she saw what was inside of the dummy plug. In places the walls of the plug looked as if they had simply been dissolved. In other places, thick strands of muscle and long ropy veins had pushed through the wall. They all converged at one spot, the core of the dummy plug.

From the waist down, the core was enveloped by a mass of muscle and vein. Smaller veins radiated out from her chest and fully extended arms, which disappeared into the walls of the plug. However, her face, Eve’s face, Rei’s face was untouched, except for the eyes, which seemed to stare blindly at the camera, absolutely white.

"Eve, can you see me?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Through my eyes."

"How? I can't see a pupil, or cornea."

"Those are not the eyes I use."

Ritsuko looked up at the Eva. "You mean, the dummy plug and the Eva…."

"There is no dummy plug, no Eva," Eve corrected. "There is only myself."

"How did it happen?"

"I do not know. I must learn to explain."

"Learn?"

The Eva’s head seemed to shift slightly in her direction. No, it’s Eve’s head, Ritsuko corrected herself mentally. "The knowledge that I posses is limited, and I only posses that by grace of my mother."

"You have… a mother."

"Yes."

"Who was she?"

"I do not know, but I want to."

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Terry arrived early at school. He'd taken to leaving his apartment well ahead of the other two children so that he wouldn't have to deal with them, Asuka especially. It also allowed him a small window of opportunity, since there was only one other student who also was always early.

"At least when she's here, she's early," he mumbled to himself as he entered the classroom. Rei was already at her desk, her chin cradled in her palm, her eyes gazing out the window. She didn't seem to notice him standing in the doorway and he remained there for a moment before gathering his determination and entering the room.

As he sat down at the desk beside her, he glanced around the room, reassuring himself that no one else was there. He then leaned towards Rei, and placed a white rose on her desk by her left hand and before he could reconsider kissed her lightly on the side of her neck.

He practically threw himself back into his seat, afraid of what repercussions he might have just brought down on his head.

To his surprise, all that Rei did was glance down at the rose before returning her gaze to what lay outside of the window.

Terry wasn't sure whether he should be encouraged or discouraged by her lack of reaction. He turned his head and watched the world outside the window for a few minutes, trying to work up the courage to ask her a question.

"Uh, Rei," he started, feeling a nervous sweat spring up on his face, "there's a school carnival coming up next month and—"

"I CAUGHT THE LOVE BIRDS!"

Terry leapt to his feet as Kensuke came leaping into the room, ubiquitous camera clutched in his hand. "C'mon, Terry, give Rei a big kiss for the camera!" he yelled.

Terry flushed brilliant red. "I— I wasn't, I mean—." He glanced towards Rei who was still looking out the window. To his surprise, the rose was gone and thinking that it might have fallen he glanced towards the floor, but it was nowhere in sight.

"Whoa, Terry, I was just teasing. You weren't really about to…." Kensuke started, then turned the camera on himself, "This is Kensuke Aida bringing you live coverage of some breaking news." He pointed the camera back at Terry. "Renowned ladies' man Terrence St. John was caught red handed in the presence of class recluse, Rei Ayanami. This is the first concrete evidence of their torrid affair and may possibly confirm rumors of a love child—"

"Cut it out!" Terry shouted, lunging for the camera.

Kensuke skipped back, laughing. "When confronted with evidence of the affair Mr. St. John became unreasonably violent—"

"I'll show you unreasonably violent!" Terry shouted, knocking desks out of the way as he pursued Kensuke. Rei seemed oblivious to what was occurring around her.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Both Kensuke and Terry stopped in mid-step, Terry's momentum causing him to fall flat on his face. When he looked up, he saw Hikari standing in the doorway, hands on her hips, an angry look on her face. Other students began arriving and clustered around her, pointing and giggling at the spectacle in the classroom. "Umm, we were just—" the two of them began.

"I don't care! Clean up this room right now!"

"Yes ma'am," the two of them mumbled, and began straightening up the desks.