Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Together Forever ❯ Chapter 2

Together Forever

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion. It belongs to Gainax, and they did a poor job of ending the story: / I really want them to create a better ending...anyway, I've written this story, `cos I've got absolutely nothing better to do. I'll be using sections from both the manga and the series, so if you have any problem, please refer to them. I'm also using several songs in my fic, and I also do not own them. Now I'll get on with the story: )

Chapter 2

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For: This story is dedicated to my friends, Rainbow, Erf, Sividas, Sweety-Tweety, LadyDragoness, ^AussiLady and many other friends who have helped me in this story in any ways possible, from supporting me during the exams and write-up, to helping me get ideas for the story. Thanks Guys!

- - - - -

As the two teenagers walked towards the hospital, they were lost in their own train of thoughts.

`Why do people smile? Just to show happiness? What is happiness? A feeling of contentment? How do we feel content? When do we feel it?' Rei asked herself. Then, her hands brushed Shinji's, making her blush slightly.

Shinji's hand, upon contact with Rei's, grabbed her delicate hand. However, he was thinking about Kaoru, once again, and his action was purely innocent and done sub-consciously. `So what did he really mean that time? All humanity would die out, resulting in the extinction of the most intelligent species on earth...' he pondered. `He must have a motive for me to kill him, but what is it? He could've easily broken out of my Eva's grip, and yet he wouldn't do it...'

He then looked over to Rei, whose hand was till in his gentle grip. Rei had coincidentally looked up at the same time. Their eyes met, and held. Both of them seemed to be trapped in each other's gaze, drowning in the slew of emotions gone unnoticed in from each other and anyone, for that matter.

They stayed like that for what seemed like eternity, then started to draw close to each other's faces. The tips of their noses were about to touch, when...

"BEEP! BEEP BEEP!" a car sounded its horn.

They jumped apart, finally noticing their location. They were in the middle of the road. Shinji literally dragged Rei across the road, before stopping on the other side to catch his breath. "I'm so...(pant, pant)sorry, Rei…(pant) I never should've...(pant)stopped in the middle of the...(pant)road," he apologized, panting away.

He found the roads too wide, even if it suited his Eva's needs. Then, he noticed that he had addressed Rei by her first name, and was still holding onto her hand. "Gah! S-sorry, Ayanami!" he apologized once again, dropping his hand from hers.

"It is alright, Ikari-kun, I forgive you," she began, in her unchanging voice. Then she added. "You may call me by my first name, if you wish." Deep inside the shell of her never changing face, she felt her heart thundering. `What was that I felt just now?' she asked, futilely trying to calm her racing heart. `I feel so...safe and comforted, when he held my hand...I've also never managed to notice that Shinji had so much bottled up inside him,'

`I've never known that Rei actually experience so much emotions…She really mustn't understand her feelings and the appropriate way to express them...' Shinji thought, while giving Rei one of his goofy smiles. "Please, call me Shinji, Rei."

"I thank you, Ika-Shinji..." Rei caught herself. She grinned inside. It might be possible to get closer to Shinji and understand him more easily, now.

<Enjoying yourself, little sis?>

Rei yelped, and quickly pretended to swipe at her hair when Shinji looked at her. "Is everything fine, Rei?" "Yes. Something just flew into my hair and startled me," Rei lied to her counterpart.

<Damn you! What did you think you were doing?> she demanded, returning to her attention to her invisible, somewhere in heaven, brother.

<Me?> Kaoru asked, faking innocence.

<Yes YOU! Listen. An important part about living among liliums is, NEVER TRY TO SNEAK UP ON THEM!!!" Rei yelled.

<Ow...No need to yell, sis,> he grumbled.

<Too bad, you asked for it. Anyway, what did you mean when you asked if I'm enjoying myself?> Rei asked, disgruntled.

<Are you enjoying Shinji's company?> Kaoru explained exasperatedly. <Are you slow on the uptake or what?>

<...> Rei pondered on the former, ignoring the snide latter. <I-I...> Rei stuttered. This shocked her. She usually answered without any form of discomfort or problems, but this time, she could think of no answer.

<Relax, Rei. I don't wanna pressure you, or our elders will torture me later.>

<It's okay...it's just that...I...I feel both strange and comfortable around Shinji...> Rei answered slowly. <I like having him around me. He makes me feel...> Rei trailed off, trying to find a suitable word to describe what she felt about him.

<Complete? Useful?> Kaoru added, trying to help.

<Yes. Complete. I feel like he is part of me, just like my angel half is.>

<Then that answers my question. You DO enjoy his company, featherhead,> Kaoru said.

<Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, pea brain.> Rei retorted.

"Rei? We've reached the hospital," Shinji broke her concentration, having place a hand on her shoulder to stop her in time from crashing straight into the gates.

"Wha-oh...thank you, Shinji," Rei said gratefully. Then, to her brother, <Look what you almost did to me! Now, get lost. I'll call you if I need any help from you. Don't call me anymore, okay?>

<That's fine with me. See you soon, little sis,> he said, before feeling his presence leave her mind.

She was glad that her natural inability to express emotions, and training she had to mask her true feelings had helped her. Otherwise, Shinji would've suspected that something is going on. She did not want to reveal anything, till Shinji is stable enough. She did not want to hurt him again.

- - - - -

"What's taking that baka so long?" Asuka grumbled. The moment these words left her lips, the door began to open.

"Hello, Asuka," Shinji's voice floated into the room, just as the door opened.

"Baka Shinji!" she called, and sent her pillow flying towards the still opening door.

"Thump!" "Ow!" "Ow..."

"Hmmm...?" Misato frowned.

"Misato-san, did you invite anyone else?" Asuka asked, turning to the older woman.

- - - - -

"Thump!" the flying pillow smacked straight into Shinji's face, making him fall back into Rei, who was waiting behind him.

"Ow!" he yelped, as he fell down on his butt. Unfortunately, Rei also fell down.

"Ow..." she gave a soft moan, indicating a little pain and surprise from the `attack'.

"Man...I'm sorry, Rei. Are you alright?" Shinji asked in concern, giving the girl a hand up when he recovered.

"It's alright, Shinji. I am fine, and you need not apologize. You did not expect the assault," she reassured, accepting Shinji's assistance to help her up.

Then, picking up the pillow, she entered the room first. "This is not a nice way to treat your visitors, pilot Soryu."

"Yeah! And it hurts too!" Shinji came in, rubbing his still sore butt.

"Who told you not to catch it first, baka! Hello Wondergirl," Asuka greeted.

"Looks like you're really feeling a lot better," Shinji commented, moving over to Asuka's bedside.

"But of course! What else do you expect from the best Eva pilot around?" Asuka bopped him on the head.

"..." Shinji's eyes became downcast for a second, at the mention of the Eva. Then, he answered. "Nothing! Sorry that I doubted you."

"Stop apologizing already!" Asuka nearly yelled.

"So sorry, Asuka," Shinji apologized once again.

"Grrr!" Asuka growled in exasperation.

While the two roommates chatted/ quarreled, Rei stood next to the major, organizing her thoughts, and trying to understand why Asuka and Shinji quarreled, while still being good friends.

Misato tried to take the chance to dig out some information from Rei. Unknown to Rei and Shinji, Misato had observed the two becoming closer to each other, though they never outwardly expressed it.

"So, Rei, how is school?" Misato started.

"School is fine. We do not have any problems understanding what the sensei tells us," she answered.

Misato took not that the first child had used `we' instead of her customary `I'. She took note of that, and continued attempting to make small talk. "I'm glad to hear that. After all, Shinji's missed a lot of lessons."

"Yes, he has," Rei did not say much.

Inwardly, Misato sighed. It's not going to be as easy as she had thought, drawing information from the withdrawn girl...

- - - - -

Half an hour later, Misato gave up. She had asked plenty of questions, but she had received little, or rather, no additional information with regards to Shinji's mental condition.

"So, now you are a good friend of Shinji's am I right?" she tried once more.

"..." Rei did not answer, but merely nodded.

`What am I supposed to do to get her to open up and tell me what's wrong with Shinji?' Misato yelled to herself. "Anyway, it's about a couple of weeks more to Shinji's first year, staying in Tokyo-3…and I'm still wondering what I should do."

That tidbit of information caught Rei's attention, making her look up at Misato slightly.

"Shinji's first anniversary in Tokyo-3..." she murmured thoughtfully to herself. That might help her help Shinji better. `Thank you, whatever destined this to happen,' she thanked.

"Alright, Misato-san. I've got to go back to school now. I'll see you later," Shinji said, standing up from the seat, getting ready to leave.

"You better be expecting me too! I'm not going to stay here longer then necessary, eating the tasteless hospital food. You better cook something nice, or I'm going to whack you again!" Asuka added.

"Fine. I'll be expecting you. You coming, Re-Ayanami?" Shinji quickly caught his slip of tongue, before Asuka noticed anything.

"Hai," Rei answered. However she knew that the rest of the school day would be spent trying to figure out what to do for Shinji on his anniversary.

- - - - -

"Now that Tabris has been eliminated, what do you think SEELE will do?" 2nd commander, Kouzou Fuyutski, asked.

"They would most likely be getting ready to destroy NERV, and capture Adam, Lilith, our Eva units and try to ignite the third impact, to gain control over every single human being, using the pathetic excuse of `saving humanity by uniting all souls in one'," Gendo Ikari, commander of NERV, answered unenthusiastically.

"But I thought that you had plans to ignite the third impact yourself to get Yui back?"

"That was before I witnessed what Tabris did, for Shinji and us. He gave us a chance to continue living, and correct our mistakes, for us to naturally attain our next level of evolution."

"It really amazes my how that Angel of Free will managed to make you change from the emotionless, cold and cruel bastard you were, into one who cares for others," Kouzou asked.

"Don't test my patience, professor," he growled.

"Like I said, he really changed you. If someone used to call you a emotionless, cold and cruel bastard, you would've shot him by now," Fuyutski laughed.

"It's only because you are one of my oldest friends, and that I have another need from you, did I not kill you," he answered, but inwardly, he felt a little guilty. `Tabris, I thank you for the things you thought me.'

"I want you to help me get this project in place," he added.

"Who is it for, and by when?"

"For my son. I want this to be completed in two weeks," he answered his oldest, best friend and ex-teacher.

`Well I'll be! This is the first time in...can't remember when...since you last called Shinji your son,' Fuyutski thought in astonishment. "Will do. But I've got to make several requests," he answered out loud.

"What is it? I'm willing to do anything to make this project successful."

"Your presence is requested, and I want you to tell your son what you really think of him."

`Oh Damn!' Gendo though in nervousness. `Fuck you, Kouzou! You want me to face him after what I've done to him and his friends?!' he thought, eyebrow twitching.

Kouzou had know the commander for so long, he could read the subtle expressions on his friend's face. `All right, since you won't do it, I've gotta use blackmail!' After all, you can't be a sub-commander without having tricks up you sleeve to manipulate those around you.

"Gendo, if you do not consent to be there, I'm afraid that I will not carry out your project," he threatened.

"2nd commander, I can anytime erase you, and be done with it. Rei will then take your place. End of story," Gendo growled.

"Don't think that I do not know. If you had thought that Rei would be able to carry this out, you won't have asked me," Fuyutski laughed.

`Aw damnit! There goes my trump card!' "Fine. I will be there," Gendo growled unhappily.

`There's still hope to reunite the two of you after all,' Kouzou thought, as he left the office.

- - - - -

"Baka! Gimme the remote!" Asuka barked at Shinji.

The remote was thrown at her, and `Bonk!' hit her on the head.

"Can't you do anything right for once? Baka!" Asuka scolded, channel surfing having retrieved the remote while nursing the bump of her head.

"......" Shinji just looked at the TV screen, but the blank look indicated that he was lost in his own world.

Asuka suspected that something had to be wrong. Shinji usually had his machine gun of `sorry's, but he was unusually quiet, and did not seem to be concentrating on what he was doing. An example was the dinner. Asuka noticed that recently, their meals were not up to Shinji's usual standard. She simply did not bring it up.

"Are you alright, baka?" she used a gentler tone than she usually did.

"Yes...I'm going out for a while. See you later," Shinji informed her, as he got out of his seat and went to his room to retrieve his SDAT.

"Oh. And I'm not bringing my phone, so don't bother trying to contact me,' he added, before the hiss of the apartment door indicated his departure.

"Hey! What if...! Hmmm..." Asuka started to yell, then stopped. She knew that something had to be up. Misato had not totally filled her on what had happened, during the time she was out of it. During the whole week she had came back, Shinji had not talked much, and neither did he seem to listen to the lessons at school. She then decided to `stalk' him just to be sure.

- - - - -

~End of Chapter Two~

Okay...another chapter finished. I really hope to finish this soon. I've still got another fic I've not completed.: / I try to make this as interesting as possible, but it's not easy, since there seems to be a definite plot in the story line, and it'll be difficult trying to try to change it. Anyway, I would like to thank Jerome, of whom helped me a little in writing this. If you like it, please review. Don like it, review and come back next time to see if I did better. I'll end the chapter here. See ya!