Gospel 1:9

It was with a drawn out sigh that he allowed his head to fall to the side and his eyes came to rest on the clock's red numerals. He kicked off his sheets and rose, turning off the alarm on his way out of the room. He shivered beneath his nightshirt, rubbing his arms to settle the gooseflesh that the cold morning air caused to rise over his body.

The apartment was filled with the gray half-light of early morning and he shivered again as he stepped into the bathroom, but this time it wasn't because of the cold. Late at night and early in the morning the apartment felt odd, unsettling. Particularly when he compared it to his home back in Australia, this apartment always seemed too quiet. The only proof that he had that he wasn't alone was the occasional sound that made its way through the wall from Misato's apartment. It struck him as not being right; ten floors, however many apartments and only two of them occupied.

Sometimes at night, when the lights were off and he lay in bed waiting for sleep to come, he would be struck by the feeling that all the world had dropped away and there was nothing else in existence besides his room, that the universe had been condensed to the span of four walls. Occasionally he wouldn't turn off the television when he went to bed, just so that he could ease his sleep with the illusion that somewhere out there, there was someone else.

He hopped from foot to foot on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor as he waited for the hot water to make its way through the pipes and out the showerhead. Last night had been especially bad. The sense of isolation had seized him almost before he'd turned off the lights and kept him in its grip the entire night. His sleep had been light and fitful and he'd awoken as soon as dawn had sent its first gray tendrils creeping through the window.

He felt even more isolated as he stepped into the shower. When he put his head into the spray, all that he could see was water and he reeled with vertigo until he braced himself against the shower's walls, proving that the room was still at rest. He focused his thoughts inward, trying to ignore the gnawing sense of solitude. He thought about Shinji, Asuka, and Rei. With the exception of Asuka, Terry couldn't say if any of them had spent the past few days as little more than wraiths. Shinji had been the worst. It was as if some vital part of him had stayed behind when he climbed out of his entry plug after the battle and the shell that emerged could only go through the motions of being alive.

Terry had been subdued, waiting for the reprimand that had failed to manifest about his performance during the battle. Hikari was the only one who still gave him the cold shoulder, but he'd been finding it easier to avoid his friends. It was easier to sulk over his perceived faults than to share his thoughts with his friends, the same attitude that Shinji seemed to have taken although not to as great of an extent.

Asuka was the exception. The battle seemed to have restored to her whatever vibrancy she'd lost during her frequent clashes with him. Her mouth almost never stopped moving, telling everyone within earshot about her victory over the Harbinger, how she'd once again saved the world. She'd tell how she saved Shinji, who although brave, was too inept to do much of anything on his own, an insult that Terry would've never let stand but which Shinji never refuted.

Even when Asuka addressed him directly Shinji barely responded, irritating her to no end by replying with monosyllables or occasionally an entire word, uttered in a barely audible whisper. That had become his response to everyone. Kensuke and Touji had stopped finding it funny and were beginning to grow concerned for their friend.

Rei had simply been herself, but that was enough for most people to forget her, to allow her to fade into the background and out of most peoples' notice.

"Rei."

He repeated her name, washing the sound around his mouth. She'd occupied a part of his mind for a good portion of his life. He wondered how she would react if she knew that. His mind wandered, roving through memories of Germany, when his parents had worked as part of the research division at GEHRIN's First Branch. He passed over those memories quickly, avoiding the lingering pain they carried.

It hadn't been healthy for either of them to remain in Germany after the incident, but they'd tried anyway. When his father finally decided the situation was too intolerable to go on, he had already been seeing a psychologist for three months and his father's annual psychological exam reported him as 'borderline unstable.'

His father had requested a transfer back to his native Australia, and received not only that but command of the newly built NERV research and development facilities. The promotion raised a few eyebrows, but was not wholly inappropriate for a scientist of his father's standing, and was not challenged.

It was much easier for Terry to linger over his memories of Australia. Less than a year after his father returned he remarried, to a woman who added three daughters to the family who made an instant attachment to the brooding and often withdrawn boy who'd unexpectedly become their big brother. His new family did more for him than every psychologist he'd seen put together and he felt that he'd finally put his experience in Germany behind him.

He gained a second family in Australia as well. Unlike the facilities in Germany, where everyone seemed to have business of the utmost importance, and God forbid you should ever cross their path or ask a question, the personnel at the facility in Australia were easygoing and friendly, and there were very few places in the base that Terry hadn't been allowed to go. He'd learned as much sitting in corners around the base as he ever had in school.

He'd accidentally stumbled across of picture of her, and it was even longer before he found the name that went with it, but that hadn't mattered to him. He'd fallen for her the moment he saw her. However, as infatuated as his heart was, his brain knew that his chances of actually ever meeting the girl were nonexistent. Adults rarely seemed to think that children was smart enough to understand what they were saying, and once after an examination, he overhead a doctor say that 'emotional schisms in the subject render him completely unfit for participation in the E project as a pilot.' If he couldn't be a pilot, his brain would tell him, than he'd never have a reason of going to Tokyo-3, so he might as well get over her. He was a pilot now, so that just went to show what that doctor knew.

The communiqué that his father received from Commander Ikari, requesting that Terry report to Tokyo-3 as the 6^th Child, had come out of the blue, but Terry accepted it without hesitation. Although he'd told his father that he was 'both honored and privileged to accept a position as one of the elite defenders of mankind,' Terry was sure that his father knew as well as he did that Terry's main reason for accepting was because he'd get a chance to meet Rei.

Amidst all the piles of paperwork he'd seen regarding the Children, none had ever mentioned what they were actually like. When the Evangelions made the news (which was frequently) the reports usually focused on the mecha, with rarely more than a file photo shown about the 'brave children who pilot them.' He'd always imagined that the pilot of an Evangelion would be strong willed, smart, and courageous. He'd begun to doubt that image when he learned that Asuka had been named as the 2^nd Child, but he tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, imagining that even she could've changed.

His first encounter with the 2^nd Child had tarnished that delusion and it shattered completely the first time he met Rei. The fact that he'd nearly trampled her during their encounter had done nothing for his composure, but he'd still been amazed that this almost ethereal girl was the same one he thought himself in love with.

Once he'd gotten over his initial surprise he decided that he might like the real Rei more than the inhumanly flawless heroine he'd envisioned. The girl that he'd thought her had been made of steel; strong, confident, unbending. The real Rei's personality and demeanor were subtler than he'd imagined. She was steel hidden beneath silk, intense, yet resigned in a way that he didn't understand. He liked that Rei better than the one that he'd imagined one, at least he thought that he did.

Occasionally, the way she acted towards him made him want to scream. She'd kept herself distant when they first met, treating him the same way that she seemed to treat everyone else, but as he persisted to get her attention, occasionally she'd seemed to warm up to him; although warm was a very relative term.

Most of the time she was exactly what he'd once heard Asuka call her: a doll. He knew that somewhere within Rei was a wonderful girl but she so infrequently broke through to the surface that he sometimes doubted she really existed anywhere outside of his imagination. He would've stopped pursuing Rei long ago, thinking that she failed to share his attraction except for the occasional glimmer of understanding, of warmth, of humanity that shone through. It was those brief flashes that kept his determination from flagging.

As he scrubbed his hair, he thought about a scrap of paper that sat on his desk, bearing a hastily written address. He wasn't sure why, but there had been no record of Rei's residence that he could find via public access files. He could have asked someone for it, like Misato, but they would have wanted to know why he wanted Rei's address and for some reason the thought of divulging his intentions to anyone else made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

So instead of asking for her address, he'd hacked into a low security NERV database to obtain it. In hindsight he supposed that he should've simply asked Rei for it. After all, if anyone discovered what he'd done…. He wasn't sure what the precise punishment would be for breaking into a NERV computer was, but he was pretty sure that deportation would be the least of his worries.

It probably would've been easier to ask Rei. Given her nature he probably could've given her a plausible excuse for why he wanted it, but given the reason he wanted her address, lying to obtain it would definitely be the wrong thing to do. Besides, he wanted to surprise her.

He just hoped that she wouldn't be so surprised she called the police.

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Misato sipped at carefully from a steaming cup of coffee. The day had started out uneventfully and it looked as if it would remain that way. There hadn't been anything but the usual reports and updates, although she was slightly worried about the latest psychological report on the Children. She'd been watching them all like a hawk since that morning she'd stumbled across Shinji and Asuka in a tangle on the floor, but she hadn't noticed any negative changes until after their last fight. She leaned back against a console and sipped from the cup again.

She jumped as alarms began to scream and EMERGENCY flashed across screens throughout the command center. "What's going on?" she demanded, gritting her teeth as hot coffee soaked through her shirt.

"Level one bio-contamination alarm in A-wing lab!" Suiko shouted.

"Show me the security camera feed," Commander Ikari ordered her, seemingly unflustered.

Suiko typed a series of commands and the main screen flickered, filling with static instead of the expected image. "I'm sorry Commander but there's a camera malfunction. I can't bring up the feed."

"Show me the feed from the camera outside the lab. Enable audio."

Suiko complied and the screen changed to an image directly outside of the lab, which showed the door but nothing past it. Several people were clustered around it and others were squeezing out from between the slowly closing security doors. Maya was the last one out, blood oozing from a shallow cut across her cheek.

"Initiate sterilization procedure Omega Tau," she ordered, acting perfectly calm and in control of herself and the situation. "Is everyone out?"

"I-It got Oshii, and Miura i-isn't here," one of the other scientists told her after several moments of confusion.

"Belay the sterilization order," Gendo ordered Makoto. "Dr. Ibuki, what is going on down there?"

On the screen Maya jumped as the Commander's voice seemed to come out of nowhere, her veneer of control vanishing. "C-commander," she stammered. "Uh, the Harbinger's blood sample… it escaped."

"It what!" yelled Misato.

"The sample broke free from isolation case. I sounded the bio-contamination alarm and evacuated the lab."

"Please report to the command center, Doctor," Gendo ordered and cut the audio link.

"Do you want me to initiate the sterilization procedure Commander?" Makoto asked.

"Not yet." He didn't say anything more until Maya arrived at the command center, slightly out of breath.

"Why didn't you take precautions against an occurrence such as this?" he asked without giving her a chance to catch her breath.

"I was unaware that the sample could exhibit such… properties. It hadn't displayed the ability to move independently unless subjected to exterior stimulus."

"Camera feed has been restored to Lab 6," Suiko reported.

"What?" Maya asked. "Has the sterilization already been finished?"

"I belayed the command to sterilize," Gendo replied.

Maya paled at his words. "What? How-? Commander, you have to sterilize that lab!"

"Put the view from the lab on the screen," he ordered, ignoring Maya. The picture that appeared showed a black haired woman in a closed lab coat pacing back and forth nervously.

"Who was left in the lab?" Gendo asked Maya.

"Dr. Megumi Oshii and Dr. Mamoru Miura. That's Dr. Oshii there."

"Dr. Oshii," Gendo began, opening an audio link to the lab, "what is the status of the escaped sample?"

The scientist started in surprise at the Commander's voice. "It's dead. Shortly after the lab sealed, it lost cohesion and disintegrated." She smiled nervously. "Thank you for not sterilizing the lab. I doubt that I would have found the experience…enjoyable."

Maya stared intently at the image on the screen. "I-I can't quite say what it is sir, but there's something about this that doesn't feel right."

"Release the seal on the lab's inner doors," Gendo ordered Suiko, "but keep the lock on the security doors intact." He turned his attention back to the screen. "Dr. Miura, wasn't there another person in there with you?"

Dr. Oshii looked panicked for a moment. "Y-yes. The sample killed him before it expired."

"I know what's wrong," Maya said.

"Besides the fact that she failed to react when I addressed her by the wrong name?" the Commander asked dryly.

Maya flashed, having missed the ruse. "Dr. Oshii has a birthmark, a red one, right here," she said, placing a finger next to her eye. "It's not there anymore."

"Would a birthmark be included in the DNA strand?" he asked her.

"No," Maya said frowning, "they're caused by malfunction of melanin production cells, causing a localized buildup of pigmentation."

"Open the inner doors," Gendo commanded Suiko.

As the lock retracted and the doors began to slide open, Dr. Oshii turned and with inhuman speed, raced towards the door, not realizing that the security doors behind it were still closed. Everyone in the command center winced, expecting to hear the crack of breaking bone as Dr. Oshii struck the door but when she hit it she splattered in a spray of black.

Maya felt her stomach heave as the black fluid flowed together into a central mass. It threw itself at the security door and in defiance of gravity, flowed upwards across it surface, trying to force it's way through the door.

"Initiate the sterilization procedure," Gendo ordered.

"Yes, sir," Makoto replied unsteadily and the image dissolved into static as the temperature within the room leapt by several thousand degrees and radiation sterilized its interior.

Maya took several shallow breaths, trying to quell the waves of nausea sweeping through her stomach and not for the first time she wished that her job didn't force her to deal with so many stomach-turning situations.

"In your last report, you told me that the substance absorbs organic material, breaks it down at the DNA level, then tries to reconstruct it. That is why it failed to replicate that woman's birthmark. Did you have any idea that it was capable of this?"

"No, sir. It had never shown any signs of intelligence and the only stimulus that provoked a response from it was exposure to an organic substance." She shuddered again. She'd been standing across the room when the isolation case burst apart, one of the fragments grazing her cheek. There'd been a blur of movement then Dr. Oshii had started screaming, her hands tearing at something black and viscous clinging to her face.

Maya'd hit the alarm, trying to help anyone lagging behind as the security doors started to slide shut. She hadn't even tried to help Dr. Oshii. Maya couldn't see where the doctor had fallen but she could hear muffled screaming and run for the door. When she'd seen Oshii on the screen, she'd felt hope that the woman was still alive even though in her heart she knew that the scientist had to be dead.

"Commander, I believe that we have a much larger problem now," Maya said unevenly. "It was only a hypothesis before, but given what we've seen today…. How much of that… substance do you think was dumped into the Pacific Ocean when the Harbinger was destroyed?"

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Unaware of the conversation occurring above him, Makoto swiveled in his chair to face Misato. "Well, Major," he said cheerfully, "that's it for the crisis of the day. Would you like to go to a bar and celebrate after our shift ends?"

Misato stared at him for a several seconds then sighed expansively.

"What?" Makoto asked bewilderedly.

"Nothing," Misato said, sighing again. "I was just lamenting the death of subtlety."

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Butterflies thundered in Terry's stomach as he glanced at the sign above the door and he futilely tried to ignore them. He doubted that there were many Rei Ayanamis in Tokyo-3 but he still wondered if he'd somehow come to the wrong apartment. Despite the sounds of construction that thundered in his ears, this section of the city seemed deserted, almost dead. When he'd reached the building, he'd taken one look at the elevator then immediately headed to the stairwell. He'd walked up four stories stairs in near twilight, the air reeking of mildew and other less wholesome things.

When he reached the door whose placard read #402, Ayanami, Rei he couldn't even say for sure that anyone lived there. He had to step over several pieces of mail that lay on the ground in front of the door and the mail slot was stuffed beyond over-flowing. Either the mail carrier kept delivering despite lack of a tenant or Rei simply didn't care enough to pick up her mail.

Terry looked down again at the slip of paper in his hands, then dropped it over the railing. Praying that he had not somehow made a mistake when obtaining the address, he stepped up to the door and rang the buzzer.

There was no answer.

Terry realized the one fatal flaw of his plan: even if he was at the right place, what if she was still asleep, or not home at all?

He tried to ignore those doubts and rang again.

There was still no answer.

Terry chewed his lip and tried to decide what to do next. He could just give up, go to school, and get the right address from her personally. He laughed at himself as he thought of doing that. "As if Kensuke and Touji would ever let me live that down," he mutter and tried the buzzer one last time. When there was still no response, out of lack of any better ideas, he tried the knob.

It turned.

Terry turned it all the way and pushed the door open, peering into the darkened apartment.

Hello?" he called out. He stepped fully into the apartment when there was no reply. His shoes tread upon mail that had slipped out of the overfilled mail catch and littered the floor.

The inside of the apartment wasn't much cleaner than the outside. The most complimentary terms that came to mind were dingy and squalid.

"Rei?" he called again but there was still no response he went further into the apartment.

He reached the end of the short entryway and entered the main room of the apartment. In fact it seemed to be the apartment's only room. A bed and lamp occupied one corner, a dresser sitting in the other, a pair of glasses resting on its top. The glasses drew his attention. He didn't remember ever seeing Rei wear a pair before, and not only did this pair look too large for her, but its frame was warped and cracks spider-webbed across one of the lenses.

He set aside the mystery of the glasses for a moment and looked around the rest of the apartment. A refrigerator sat against one wall and another short corridor led to a closed door that he presumed was the bathroom.

A closed door that was now opening.

Terry's voice choked in his throat as Rei stepped out, her hair still wet from the shower. She was wearing her school uniform but it hung loose from her slender frame, the collar and waist still uncinched. She stopped when she saw him, her eyes unblinking.

"Hello, Rei," he finally forced out. As if his words broke a spell, she fastened the buttons on her uniform then walked over to the stand, placed the glasses in a case, and slipped it into her pocket. "I know I usually meet you at school, but I thought that today, maybe I could, um—" Rei stepped past him and continued down the entryway towards the door. "—walk with you to school?" he finished as she opened the door and stepped out.

He ran after, catching the door before it closed. He shut it behind him and wondered if Rei wanted it locked. She was already to the stairs and the only lock he could see required a key, so he ran after her. "I didn't lock your door because I don't have the key. If you give it to me, I can run back and lock it for you," he said as he caught up with her on the stairs.

She didn't even bother to look at him.

What is it Rei? he wanted to shout at her. What is it I have to do to see the real you? Instead, he forced down his ire and said, "If you haven't had breakfast yet, we could stop somewhere and grab a bite. There's still plenty of time before school starts."

"I'm not hungry," Rei stated dispassionately.

Terry couldn't keep a small sigh from escaping his lips. The doll was in firm control of Rei today. He'd hoped that if he talked to her over breakfast he could ask her what he so desperately wanted to, but with the way she was he knew that anything he said would elicit no more reaction than if he told her that the sky was blue.

He glanced around, searching for inspiration and realized that they were passing though a section of Tokyo-3 that he was familiar with. Suddenly, he had his inspiration.

Terry grabbed Rei's hand and pulled her into a flower shop. The proprietress, a stout, dour looking woman, recognized Terry as he entered and her face broke into a maternal smile when she saw the girl with him. She turned and withdrew a single white rose from the display behind the counter and handed it to Terry, who gave her the exact amount of yen in return.

Rei observed the transaction without reaction, turning to follow Terry as he began to walk out of the store. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at her, trying to calm the resurgence of butterflies. She always accepted the rose and quick kiss from him without negative reaction, but then again, she seldom showed positive reaction either.

Just before they reached the door and before Terry could think better of it, he pulled Rei behind a display. It blocked them from the view of the proprietress and a similar display in the front window screened them from passersby on the street. He handed Rei the rose without trying to give her a quick kiss to the neck. She looked up at him with a vaguely questioning look in her eyes and before Terry could decide otherwise, her tilted his head forward and kissed her on the lips.

The kiss lasted for several seconds, until Rei placed a hand on his chest and pushed with the slightest pressure. Terry immediately took a step back, his eyes searching her face. He felt himself deflate as he saw the blank expression still on her face. No emotion, no reaction. He'd been wrong. Then he looked into her eyes. The doll was gone and he could see the girl that he'd been so desperately searching for.

"It's all right," Rei said softly and Terry, looking into her eyes, saw that it was. Together they stepped out from behind the display and started towards the door. The proprietress, who hadn't been fooled for a second by their disappearing act, gave Terry an obvious wink.

As they walked towards school, Terry let his arms twitch restlessly at his side as he tried to think of something appropriate to say. He felt a light touch on his arm and he glanced over at Rei. Her face was still expressionless but her hand rested on his sleeve. It slid down to his hand and her fingers traced his, before she hooked her pinkie around his own. He turned his head to look at her and as he watched, with careful deliberation, she placed the rose behind her ear and turned her head to look at him. He could see it in her eyes: the girl was there and as they kept walking his heart began to beat faster as he realized that she wasn't going away. It was only with a conscious effort that he kept himself from laughing out of sheer elation.

It was with considerable effort that he kept himself from stammering. "Rei, about the school carnival coming up next week… uh, can I…." Mentally, he braced himself. "CanIaskyoutothedance?" he asked in a rush.

Rei looked ahead, and Terry swallowed nervously, wondering what thoughts were passing behind her cerise eyes.

"I don't have anything to wear," she said simply.

Terry almost stumbled, stunned by what he thought was a joke from Rei. Then he realized that she was probably telling the truth. He couldn't remember ever seeing her in anything else besides her school uniform and her plug suit.

"Don't worry, I'll take you shopping, my treat."

Rei gave him a questioning look.

"When my father remarried," he explained, "I gained three younger sisters who thought that it was just the greatest thing in the world to drag their older brother shopping with them. I've picked up a thing or two."

"It will be expensive."

"Not a problem," Terry said confidently. "We get paid pretty well by NERV, for kids at least. I'll probably have to live off of rice and fish stock for a couple months, but a nice dress is worth it."

His joke was rewarded by the barest of upturning of the corner's of Rei's mouth. Looking deep into her eyes, he could see the girl laughing out loud.

"So," he pressed her, "will you go to the dance with me?"

Her finger tightened briefly around his. "Yes."

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Asuka walked into the classroom, practically dragging Shinji behind her. She gave him an irritated glance as she dropped his hand to go to her seat. He'd been acting listless for the past few mornings and she'd practically dragged him all the way to school today. Without her to guide him he stood in the doorway, swaying slightly as if he were standing in a light wind. Finally he seemed to gain some awareness of his surroundings and went to his desk.

Asuka sighed; he was acting weird, even for Shinji and she was starting to get worried. Sighing again, she turned her attention to the rest of the classroom. Several students were already in their seats and at first she thought that Rei was absent again because her usual spot in the corner was vacant. Then she realized that Rei was sitting several seats up next to Terry, who was smiling like the cat who swallowed the proverbial canary. Rei had a white rose as seemed to have become customary for her, although Asuka had no idea from where she got them, but this morning she had it tucked behind her ear of all places. Her face was as blank and doll-like as ever, but to Asuka's extreme amazement, when no one else seemed to be looking, Rei put her hand on top of Terry's for a moment. Asuka pinched herself to make sure that she wasn't still asleep. "The world is going nuts," she announced to no one in particular.

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Shinji idly typed answers into the computer at his desk. The class was mostly silent, involved in the math assignment which also prevented the teacher from rambling on about the 2^nd Impact. Outside the window, clouds began to gather in the sky, a threatening shade of gray.

A message suddenly flashed across his screen, obliterating the answer he'd been about to enter:

'You are Shinji Ikari, pilot of Evangelion Unit 01: y/n'

'YES' he typed in reply. He glanced surreptitiously around the room, wondering who sent the message. The only student who didn't look busy was Asuka, who'd in all likelihood already finished the assignment, and she wouldn't need to ask who he was.

'Do you like it: y/n'

'Piloting the Evangelion. Do you like it: y/n'

He looked around the room again, wanting to know more than ever who was sending him the messages. Asuka had her hands behind her head and was staring up at the ceiling: it definitely wasn't her.

'No'

'Who are you?'

'If you don't like it, then why do you pilot?'

'I think that I like you. You are a delicate soul, Shinji Ikari.'

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Makoto drummed his fingers restlessly against the control console, trying to ignore the vapid chatter of the tech who sat inthe chair that Suiko normally occupied. He glanced at his watch, hoping that time had somehow sped up in the thirty seconds since he last looked at it. It hadn't.

"Do you think he'll ever shut up?" Shigeru whispered, leaning his head next to Makoto's. The other tech continued to talk oblivious to the fact that no one was actually listening to him.

"Note for anything short of the Third Impact." Makoto glanced at his watch again. "And we've already had our crisis for today so we'll have to wait until at least tomorrow for that."

"Well, we'll have to deal with someone else tomorrow. Hopefully the lunchtime shuffle won't pair us up with him again for a while," Shigeru said, referring to NERV's practice of rotating personnel every fifteen minutes between 10:00 and 14:00, so that everyone received a half-hour for lunch. Suiko's break had started fifteen minutes earlier, saddling them with their current companion.

It was with a great sense of relief that they handed their seats over when their replacements finally arrived, allowing the two of them to escape. They made their way to the closest lounge where they tried to find Suiko among the shifting mass of personnel.

They finally found her hanging off of the arm of a mildly handsome young man and speaking with several other women whom they only vaguely knew. When she saw them, she giggled girlishly. "These are the two I was telling you about," she said to the young man. "Makoto, Shigeru," she said, turning towards them, "I want you to meet Aoshi Ueki," she giggled again and blushed slightly, "my fiancé."

"Uh, congratulations," Makoto and Shigeru said with simultaneous inelegance.

"I didn’t even know that you were dating anyone," Shigeru said as he sat down.

"Well I have to do something when I'm not here," Suiko replied. "We've been together for a while and our parents were beginning to act like we'd already been married. They were even beginning to drop hints about wanting grandchildren. So Aoshi, being the ever dutiful son, " she planted a kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush, "did his manly duty and proposed. I wanted to show him off to all my friends, so he arranged to trade spots with someone else in the lunchtime shuffle, just so that he could meet all of you. Isn't he the sweetest?" She kissed him again and his face turned an even deeper shade of red. Suiko laughed at his reaction. "I really should stop, but he's so much fun to tease!"

Aoshi mumbled something as Suiko continued to talk. "Getting married is such a great feeling. You guys should try it. I'll have to hook you two up with some friends of mine."

Shigeru laughed and shook his head. "No thanks. My parents are starting to get the urge for grandchildren too. I have enough trouble keeping them from forcing me into a marital entanglement. I don't need you joining in as well."

Makoto blushed. "I can take care of my own social life," he said, ducking his head.

Suiko snorted. "All your social life consists of is pining for Misato. I don't get it. How many times is she going to shoot you down before you give her up?"

"Not to mention that fact that you're in direct competition with the ever suave Kaji Ryouji," Shigeru chimed in.

Makoto shot him an annoyed glance. "I heard that he skipped back to Germany without even bidding the good Major goodbye. She is surely grieving at being cast aside so cruelly," he said with over-dramatic flair, "and my gentle advances shall surely be rewarded by her sweet attentions."

"Or, much more likely, you'll end leaving a smoke trail across the sky, again," Suiko said.

"And you'll still be picking up her laundry," Shigeru chimed in.

Suiko laughed as she looked at her watch. "As much as I want to stay and belittle Makoto's skill at picking up women, I have to go back to my part of the shuffle. I'll see you all in a little while," she said as she departed with a little wave and a blown kiss for Aoshi.

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Terry paced nervously in one corner of the school courtyard, his lunch lying forgotten on the ground. He had spent twenty minutes looking for Rei, but she seemed to have disappeared as soon as class had been dismissed. He was still riding the morning's wave of confidence and had decided that now was the time to confront Asuka. Ever since the battle he'd known that they would have to settle things between them, but first he had to overcome his dislike and work up enough confidence to confront her directly. He'd wanted Rei as a moral stanchion and now that he couldn't find her, he felt his confidence drop dramatically.

Asuka was sitting on the other side of the courtyard, in a group with Shinji, Kensuke, and a couple of girls that he didn't recognize. Touji and the class rep had their heads together a little farther on. He paced for a couple of more minutes and as he paced, a memory rose unbidden.

"Don't listen to her, Terry dear," his mother said soothingly. "She doesn't understand what mama is doing. Remember what I said about mama's project, how important it is? "

"Yes mama," he murmured, and then began repeating the instruction she had given him under his breath. "'Push the red button; push the green button; pull the far lever towards me; push the left switch all the way around." He had to stand on a chair to reach everything on the console and even on tiptoes he couldn't see through the glass and into the other room where his mother had gone with the other woman.

He felt his ire jump at even the memory of the phrase, and suddenly he knew that he couldn't do it. He turned to walk away, but as he did, he felt a ghost of a sensation of a finger wrapping around his own. A favorite saying of his father's drifted through his head. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it anyway. That's what he'd always told Terry when he'd tried to refuse to see yet another psychiatrist. Terry took a firm step forward and his foot coming down on something that crumpled: his lunch.

Terry laughed to himself and continued walking. "Sometimes you have to do it anyway," he said softly.

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The Agent put down the binoculars that he'd been watching the 6^th Child through and wondered if he should report the boy's actions. Along with the rest of Section 2, he was under orders to report any abnormal behavior on the Children's' part. He wasn't sure that pacing the school courtyard and then stomping on one's lunch was precisely abnormal but he decided to call it in anyway. It would be something to do and watching the Children while they were at school was boring.

As he dropped his hand to the radio on his belt he heard a twig snap behind him. His hand altered its course to his pistol in its holster. "Who's there!" he shouted as he started to turn.

The last thing he heard was the whuff of a silencer.