First Chapter

This fanfic is going to start at episode 09 of the anime and the difference is that we have Shinji teaming up with Rei instead of Asuka. The story is identical (as good as I can write) until after Asuka shouts "No, I can't stand this anymore!". After that, my version begins. Some more identical parts may come if I feel like it. The story will soon take an AU turn because I hate the ending of the real anime, and I don't understand anything of it. I will also add some humour, like making Gendo slightly "mad" or at least quite weird. Enjoy the reading and if anyone has any complains, please review.

"…" indicates speech

'…' indicates thoughts, dream dialogue, gestures and electronically voices or sounds.

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the things I want to in this world of ours. The only thing created by me on the NGE area is this fanfic series. If you sue, I'll sue back.

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"It's so obvious! I can't adjust 'down' to Shinji's level! It was impossible in the first place!"

Misato cocked her head slightly.

"Then you're giving up?" Asuka put her hands on her hips and smiled triumphantly.

"There's no one else, right?" Misato smiled and cocked her head the other way, towards Rei.

"Rei."

"Hai."

"Give it a try."

"Okay." Rei put her papers she had been reading down and stood up. Asuka stepped aside as Rei took her place on the mat and put the headphones over her ears. As the music began, Shinji and Rei moved in perfect unison and scored perfectly on the dancing game they used to practice in Misato's apartment. Asuka could only gasp as Rei and Shinji picked up score after score that Asuka and Shinji could not have dreamed of. It was too much for Asuka after a while and she just stared at Misato as the captain simply stated the obvious.

"Maybe it would be better to change the plan, and have Shinji team up with Rei." This was the drop that made the beaker flow and Asuka yelled and stormed out of the room.

"No, I can't stand this anymore!"

Shinji and Rei finished the round and looked at the scoreboards. They both read 100. They smiled and nodded at each other.

"Okay… then I'll inform HQ and we will have the change official." With this, Misato stood up and walked towards the front door. She stopped at the step and shouted back inside.

"Shinji! Make sure that you two practice now! And go talk to Asuka; she'll need to know that we are re-locating her!" Shinji was to say the least startled by the last bit.

"Re-locating? But Misato-san…" But Misato had already left and slammed the door shut after her. To Shinji, it sounded like a gunshot aimed at him.

"Well… we'd better leave then… bye!" Touji led the other to guests out the door smiling sheepishly at Shinji and Rei. First of all, Touji did not realize that the door was closed and pushed the other two into it. A few muffled curses could be heard along with the question;

"Why did you two close the door? That's just stupid." They managed to get the door open and their argument could be heard a far way, even with the door closed. The only sounds now that could be heard were Asuka's sobbing.

---

"Asuka-san… It's me, Shinji. Can I come in?" An object shattered against the wall, mere inches from Shinji's face. After that it went pretty much downhill.

"Re-location! Baka!" A slap sounded through the apartment and Rei sighed again where she sat on the sofa, hands balled up in her lap. A door opened and Misato stumbled inside, just in time to avoid the door to ricochet back at her. It locked with a loud click. Apparently, Misato had been out for a while after informing HQ about the change of plans.

---

Gendo had smiled, put the tips of his fingers together and approved.

"Excellent, another part of my plan falls into place…" He chuckled under his breath for quite a while before dismissing Misato. That scene had freaked her out quite a bit, and when she's freaked out, Misato needs a drink.

---

Another door could be heard being opened and closed. Shinji walked into the room with a remarkably big handprint over the half of his face.

"Hi, Misato-san… She didn't like it." Misato giggled and eyed his face.

"I can see that." Shinji slumped down on the sofa, a bit closer to Rei that he had intended, but they didn't care; well, not for now at least.

"It feels kind of sad that she's going to… hang on. Where is she going to live?"

Misato swallowed and took a deep breath and carefully, carefully let it loose.

"She's going to stay in Rei's old apartment." Shinji and Rei simultaneously jumped and looked at her.

"What!"

"What!" Shinji looked at Rei who looked back.

"But where is she supposed to stay?"

"But where am I supposed to stay?" Misato sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, as if she was developing a headache.

"Well…eh…she's gonna stay…eh…" Shinji did not like this hesitation.

"…here…" There it was; the face faulting factor. As if to prove that they synched all day, Shinji and Rei both face faulted simultaneously.

"What!"

"What!" Misato looked at them with a raised eyebrow; well, at Rei with a raised eyebrow. It was nothing like her to be so forward, especially not against a superior, even when both of them are out of service.

'This is something unexpected for the guys at HQ.'

"Misato-san…"

'I wonder what the commander will think of this…'

"Misato-san?"

'Maybe it's Shinji that have brought up this side of Rei…

"Misato-san."

'I wonder if it's something going on between the two of them…'

"Misato-san!" Misato was literally pushed off her train of thoughts and looked at the two teens on the couch, Shinji a bit red in the face from shouting. Of course, this was unknown to Misato.

'He's blushing, what if I'm right…I wonder what the commander will think of this…'

"Misato-san! Hello!" Shinji waved a hand in front of her face to catch her attention.

"Yes? Oh, sorry, Shinji-kun. What is it?" Shinji sighed and said it once again.

"If that's the case, maybe we should go to Rei's old place and pick up her stuff." Rei nodded and started walking towards the door. Shinji hurried after her and waved at Misato and slammed the door shut after them. Misato sighed and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. Then she smiled mischievously.

'Oh, guess if I'll tease the two of them now I might get some fun info…but will I tell the commander if they DO have a relationship? Ah, screw the HQ for now, young love as its best grows even in this ruined city, love always finds a way to develop, it overcomes classes, sexes, geographical or religious or racial differences…I wonder what's in this beer, it makes me feel weird…'

---

"I guess that's it then…" Shinji stood in the small apartment of Rei's, well, in the bedroom that made up the biggest part of the apartment. He could not help but to feel sorry for the girl who had to live here, it was dirty, small and she had blood-stained bandages everywhere. Rei emerged from ht kitchen where she had picked up the rest of her clothes and the few books she had. Shinji decided not to ask why she didn't clean or do the laundry or pick up her books at least.

"Shall we leave then?" Rei asked and looked at Shinji who had a brown box in his arms with some of Rei's clothes. He nodded and smiled heart-warmingly at her. This shocked her a little.

'No one has ever smiled at me like that…it's…true, from the heart…' And it made her forget the last thing she should have picked up. They walked out the front door side by side with Shinji. And a pair of broken, yellow-brownish glasses lay on a drawer, gleaming in the weak rays of light getting in through the dusty window, somehow sad, but Rei was free from the glasses now, the next step was to get free from the former bearer of these glasses. Ikari Gendo. The commander of NERV.

---

"We're home!" The shout almost echoed throughout the apartment. Apparently, Misato and Asuka had already prepared the moving of Asuka and were both on their way to move Asuka in. Shinji and Rei carefully put the boxes down on the table and decided on training for a while until Misato, and maybe Asuka, got home. The music soon played through the speakers and headphones and the teens moved in perfect unison throughout the whole program. They raised and raised the difficulty level, but kept up with each other. If they made a mistake, both made it at the same time.

Misato soon came in through the door, luckily for Shinji, without Asuka. Misato stopped at the door and watched the almost creepy synchronisation between Shinji and Rei. She sighed as hey both made the same mistake and ended up almost breaking the same leg. The sigh was heavy enough for them to hear, and they stopped. Misato took off her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair and took out a beer. She downed it and screamed happily after a few seconds. Shinji was used to it, but Rei took it a bit harder. She jumped and looked around wild-eyed, looking for the source of the sound. Shinji laughed and pointed towards the kitchen. Rei calmed down after getting it confirmed that it wasn't some sort of angel.

---

"So…you don't go out shopping that much, right?" Misato only got a nod as a confirmation. A sweatdrop formed at the back of her head; apparently it was only Shinji who could get a more specific or longer answer from Rei. They all sat down at the dining table and thought of the two boxes that held Rei's luggage. Rei had moved into Asuka's room, it was quickly done, the clothes was put in the drawer and cupboard and her book in the bookshelf. Shinji looked at Rei with confusion in his eyes. How on earth the girl could manage with that little clothes and not doing the laundry was a mystery far greater and far more confusing than the mystery of the angels. Misato smiled.

"We'll take care of that in a short while. Okay?" Rei simply nodded in approval. Misato was beginning to get tired of the girl's silence or strictness against her. But now, Misato was going to have fun instead.

"So…are you two are getting along well?" Shinji looked at Misato, he smiled.

"Well…I can't speak for her, but I think I'll get along better with Rei than I did with Asuka-san." Misato raised an eyebrow over her newly-opened can of beer.

"So…you're Rei with her now, eh?" She said it in that mocking tone that pointed to something either sexual or romantic. Shinji, however, did nothing more than ignoring it.

"Rei asked me to when we were practising earlier, right, Rei?" Rei nodded at him and then added;

"That's right Ika…Shinji." She still seemed to have some trouble saying his name in that friendly manner, but Shinji had insisted on that they should address each other as equal as possible. Misato raised the eyebrow even further and emptied the bottle; she simply went for another one. A series of random crashing and bashing was heard for no apparent reason from the refrigerator; it did not contain much more than a lot of beer and some fast-food, so the noises were another mystery.

"You two want to taste some?" Misato asked without pulling her head out of the refrigerator. Shinji sighed inaudible and signed for Rei not to fall for the trick. They both declined at the same time, which made Misato jump and bang her head in the refrigerator shelf over her. She sighed and withdrew her head.

"Alright, whose time to cook is it?" Shinji got up from his chair and walked over to the chore schedule on the wall. He sighed and walked over to the refrigerator.

"I guess it's my turn to cook today." He started taking out food and starting to cook the food. Then he stopped and thought of something.

"Rei?" Rei looked at him.

"What?"

"Is it okay for you to take over Asuka's chores on the schedule? It's not that very much."

"Okay. I shall give it a try." Shinji smiled and continued cooking.

---

After another half an hour the food was finished and set up on the table. Rei took a testing bite and nodded approvingly. The following hour was quiet with a few exceptions when someone asked about anything or admired the food. The latter were Rei more than Misato and this drew some blushing from Shinji's side, and this drew giggles from both Misato and Rei. At first, Misato and Shinji were surprised, not to say shocked that Rei actually had giggled.

---

After the dinner, they decided that Shinji and Rei should do some more practicing and Misato started on doing the dishes. And as usual, Shinji and Rei moved in perfect unison.

'Alright, that is scary.' Misato thought while looking at their 100 performance.

---

This continued for a couple of weeks and Shinji and Rei did not miss a single score on the training game without the other one doing it as well.

---

They all woke up. They all ate breakfast which they did in turns every three days. They all worked, Shinji and Rei on the synchronization tests and Misato did the, according to her, hell spawn paperwork. They all ate dinner home in the evening and after a few hours of homework, training, TV-watching or jogging they all went to sleep and the routine looped.

---

The cooking schedules for them all looked something like this:

Monday: Shinji

Tuesday: Rei

Wednesday: Misato

Thursday: Shinji

Friday: Rei

Saturday: Misato

Sunday: Shinji

Monday: Rei

Tuesday: Misato

Wednesday: Shinji

Thursday: Rei

Friday: Misato

Saturday: Shinji

Sunday: Rei

Monday: Misato

Tuesday: Shinji

Wednesday: Rei

Thursday: Misato

Friday: Shinji

Saturday: Rei

Sunday: Misato

---

This day had flown by as any other day and after the homework and chores they both had decided on getting some fresh air and exercise.

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A few hours later, Shinji and Rei were exhausted from the jogging tour they had went on and sat on a park bench, leaning against each other for support, both panting heavily. The park bench was old and in some places the wood had been broken off or simply rotten away. The tree stood tall and mighty over their heads and shadowed the path they had been jogging. Suddenly, Rei sat up and looked at Shinji, who for a second had almost fallen off the bench as the supportive back of Rei had disappeared.

"What is it?" Shinji asked a bit drowsy, he had almost fallen asleep against the for him embarrassingly comfortable back. Rei looked deep into his brown eyes, her red eyes filling his vision.

"Why is captain Katsuragi asking all those weird questions about us? It seems as if she is suspecting a relationship of some kind forming between the two of us." Shinji pondered about this for a moment and then smiled sheepishly at her.

"She's just teasing us, mostly me, but still. It's just teasing. I shouldn't care too much about it if I were you." Rei looked even more focused at him. And was this disappointment in her eyes?

"So she doesn't really think there is a relationship forming between us then?" Shinji sweatdropped.

"I don't really know, she might just be teasing, but I don't know, maybe she is, I don't really…" Shinji started stuttering and blabbering for a few minutes until he heard Rei scream and he got hit in the back of his head with a blunt object. One of the broken off pieces of wood from the park bench. He passed out and rolled off the bench.