Shinji couldn't help but feel nervous. Later today they would be finally putting the Evas into storage, so they would stop standing outside awkwardly like giant statues. Of course, they all knew that it carried the pretty big risk of the Angels attacking. But none of it would happen until this afternoon so he, Asuka, and Rei found themselves at school. The fear of an attack never fully left his mind, though.
They had arrived early as usual. The three of them plus Ria, who was half asleep at her desk, and some other student who was sitting in the far corner away from them were the only occupants of the classroom so far.
He approached Rei's desk, bento box in hand.
"I..uhh, meant to give this to you early, sorry," Shinji said awkwardly as he handed her the box.
"Thank you," she replied with a small smile.
He began to walk back to his desk.
"Ikari..." Rei said.
He paused.
"There's a history museum reopening this weekend," she went on, strangely hesitant in her words. "I was hoping to learn more about this world... would you like to come with me?"
Asuka looked at Rei in shock. Even Ria looked startled.
It sounded fun. Rei in the past few days had been more open and caring in the past few days then Shinji had ever seen her. It had been great really; being around her had done a lot of her to take his mind off of things the last few days. And the way she always seemed happy to see him had… wait.
Wheels within Shinji's head turned. A light bulb went off above his head.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" he asked.
That was...surprising, to say the least. He had thoughts about her sure, a lot of thoughts, particularly since she showed up. But he didn't think her, or anyone really would have shown that sort of interest in him. He hadn't actually ever really entertained the thought of them being together. But it did interest him. After all... Asuka had made it clear they were just to remain as friends.
Rei tilted her head in confusion. "It's opening on Saturday."
Asuka groaned in frustration.
"No…" Shinji hesitated. "I mean... do you want it to just be the two of us going?"
She nodded. "Yes, very much so."
Well this was shocking. For a moment Shinji's voice caught in his throat, terror and unexpected joy gripping him.
"I... yes, that sounds like fun," he replied eventually.
His face turned bright red as she smiled again.
/
"So...according to dad... Apparently the fuckhead thought Mom and Dad didn't really love him and that's part of why he's doing all this," Kodama explained.
She and Ria were sitting on the roof, just the two of them. Ria had figured Kodama needed time to vent. The sounds of construction as WILLE worked to reshape the city did make the roof far less serene than it had been, but it was still a good escape.
She sympathized with Okito's fears. Ria had shared many of the same ones herself even before this all started. But his actions… just rampant stupidity and borderline madness.
How did I not see it? she wondered. All those years and I always thought of him as bright and reasonable. How does an utter moron and a fanatic hide either of those two traits for years? I thought I understood him so well.
Kodama laughed bitterly. "Frankly it's all bullshit anyways. Monster like him probably doesn't even have real feelings. He could no more care for something than a spider could."
Oh, great! MORE GUILT.
"Maybe he can, maybe he can't," Ria replied evenly. "He's an idiot either way and deserves to die."
"I hear that," Kodama agreed.
Ria took a bite of her sandwich, masking her pain and fear behind an even expression.
"Thanks, by the way," Kodama said suddenly.
"For?" Ria questioned.
"For being there for me." She smiled. "I know I'm not the best of friends, not now, not ever really. But you were there for me, and I appreciate that. I really, seriously, appreciate that."
Years of lying and faking her emotions made it easy for Ria to keep her expression one of calm understanding. Ever since Misato had pulled her gun on Matarael her face had felt more of a mask then one Leliel had given her.
"Well, we've been there for each since we were three. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't support you now?" Ria replied.
Images of how Kodama would react once she knew the truth danced in Ria's head, taunting her.
Kodama suddenly looked awkward and started fidgeting.
"Do you ever think that maybe... nevermind, forget about it," she suddenly dismissed whatever thought had been on her mind.
"What?" Ria questioned.
"Nothing, it's nothing," Kodama was greatly flustered.
"So to change the subject..." Ria said awkwardly. "You're going to be somewhere safe later today right?"
Everyone was bracing themselves for some sort of attack when the Evas began moving again. And as that last attack had proven, that could get incredibly messy.
"Getting stuffed in the vault. So is Aida, Kenny, and Mari," Kodama said with a huff.
"...Wait, what?" Ria was surprised. Considering Misato's general paranoia, she half suspected she had a shoot-on-sight order if Kodama so much as sneezed near WILLE.
"Ehh, apparently both dad and Mari's mom pushed pretty hard for it," Kodama explained. "Getting out of Kyoto right now is pretty much impossible with all the construction and WILLE is the safest place inside the city. So yay, I get to spend a few hours locked in a room with people who have orders to kill me if I start looking at them funny."
Kodama was less than enthusiastic about the idea.
"Oh come on, we could totally make a night of it," Ria tried to lift her spirits. "We could bring games, or books, or cards, or...or, okay admittedly I only had three. But I think three is good."
"Fine fine, just nothing with dice please. I still have memories of the last time we tried that." Kodama shuddered at a distant memory.
Ria nodded. "Fine, no dice, I promise."
However bad the future might be, she had to make the most of the time she had with Kodama and the others.
/
Rei had asked Shinji out.
Wondergirl had asked Shinji out on a date.
...And he had accepted.
Well it's an alternate Wondergirl, Asuka told herself as she ate lunch in the Cafeteria. The Doll we knew would have never done anything like this.
She had no idea how she felt about the situation. It wasn't like she was jealous. What would she have to be jealous of? That was ridiculous!
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Mari asked, pulling Asuka from her thoughts.
"Why?" Asuka said, looking at her warily.
"Ria's with Kodama and without her around...I don't feel safe in the cafeteria." The quiet, pitiful desperation in Kirishima's voice was unmistakable.
"Fine," Asuka sighed.
A thought occurred to her as Mari sat down.
"Why does this place have a cafeteria?" she wondered. "I thought Japanese schools all did lunch in the classroom?"
"I think it's some sort of health code thing. Been like this for as long as I can remember," Mari replied uncertainly.
Asuka looked over Mari. Personally, Asuka wasn't entirely sure what Ria saw in her. Though she never really looked at other girls like that, so she wasn't a exactly a good judge of such things.
"What do you mean by you don't feel safe?" Asuka questioned. Everyone in this school seemed like a horndog, Ria included, but no one had seemed that unrestrained.
"Most of the boys think me and Ria are just being immature and I'm blocking her from being in a 'real relationship'. Japan's not exactly friendly to people like us. Ria gets away with it because of her family...and she tends to verbally rip people to shreds when she's pissed."
"I've noticed," Asuka replied, thinking back to one rather regrettable punch.
Mari stared at her.
"Don't insult her mom. Trust me, it won't end well," Asuka added.
Mari looked even more confused "But..."
"Say I'm her mom and I will shred every drawing you have in that backpack of yours," Asuka snapped.
"Touch them and I will end you," Mari replied with shocking seriousness.
"Well, what do you know? There's a spine in there after all," Asuka teased. "Maybe you are an Angel."
"...I'm not." Mari said, her meekness returning.
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Well obviously. Either you would have tried to kill me by now or you would have fled the city after that whole peace thing fell through."
Asuka was pretty sure what Misato did was incredibly stupid, not to mention seriously unethical, but Ramiel's attack and Okito's actions made her strongly suspect that not as many of them were beat dogs like Leliel had told the other Asuka. Better safe than sorry in the end.
Hopefully that Dimitri found somewhere quiet to hide, though. She really didn't see any point in fighting that spider again.
"Yeah, if any them had any sense they would have…" Mari trailed off, looking distinctly horrified.
"Hmm... No... no, that doesn't fit," she muttered to herself.
"What doesn't fit?" Asuka questioned.
"Nothing, nothing," Mari said dismissively. "Just there's this cousin I have suspicions about."
"Huh," Asuka replied with disinterest. "Well, good luck with that."
/
"Hello, this the Langley residence, Elizabeth speaking."
Asuka hesisted. It had been well over a decade since she had said anything to her half-sister.
"Hi... It's Asuka," she replied, incredibly tempted to just hang up the phone right then and there.
"Hi," Elizabeth replied, just as awkwardly. "This is a surprise."
It wasn't that she hated her. Elizabeth had always seemed like a pleasant enough person. But she was a direct result of her Father's infidelity, and that tied her up with everything that had happened around that time and that was just too much for Asuka to deal with for the most part.
"Yeah, sorry, um... listen this isn't exactly a social call," Asuka admitted.
"Well yes, we don't exactly do that," Elizabeth replied. "So what do you need?"
"This is going to sound strange, but our father came up in some old SEELE files we just uncovered," she lied.
The man almost certainly knew already that he had been sold out. No harm in taking a more direct approach.
"Ohh. Nothing serious I hope?" Elizabeth said casually.
If only you knew.
"Not really," Asuka lied again. "But I was hoping he would clarify some points that were unclear. I don't have his number or email anymore so I was hoping you could get me in contact with him."
So I can ask him what it cost to convince him to sell out humanity, Asuka thought bitterly.
"You sure about that?" Elizabeth questioned. "I mean, you two aren't exactly on good terms. Maybe he could just have someone relay the info to you? Make it less uncomfortable."
"Thanks, but this is something that I really need to speak to him directly about," she insisted.
"Well, I'll give you his number, but he's been on a vacation in Australia for a month now and cell reception has just been terrible even before the attack."
"Australia?" Asuka repeated.
"Yes. Thankfully he and Andrew were in Perth when it happened. I've been trying to get Andrew to come home but the airlines have been in total chaos since the attack," her half sister explained.
"Well, that's annoying," Asuka sighed. "Wait... 'Andrew is with him'? As in your son Andrew?"
"Yeah. Man's not the best father but he's turned into a halfway decent grandfather," she said.
Andrew Langley, her thirteen year old nephew, had been with her known traitor of a father in Australia at the time of Ramiel's attack. Well wasn't that just utterly fantastic.
In retrospect she was kicking herself for not considering it earlier but she had never even met the boy.
"Well, I'll try to email him," Asuka said rapidly. "Thanks for trying. Bye."
Elizabeth was barely able to get out half a 'goodbye' before Asuka slammed the phone down.
Yes, Asuka, how dare people say 'Isn't the tall, mature, stable woman with the daughter Asuka Langley Soryu too?'
