Shinji sighed, their.. their meal, with the way the sky looked there was no way to tell what time it was, was actually pretty filling. Comfort food. Maybe that was why Misato had always eaten this stuff..

He looked over at Asuka.. after talking for a little bit they had lapsed back into silence for most of the eating.. she was sitting up now.. that was encouraging. Between the two of them, she had always been the stronger one.. and now she was bandaged up… was he even strong enough to try and carry her?

"Asuka…. So…now what? We make some kind of plan right?" he looked over at her, she was fumbling around with a package of pain killers from the medical kit.. quickly she washed them down with a soda, and winced.. that really wasn't a good sign..

"Plan to do what!? Everyone everything is gone. If you haven't noticed we're camped out on a beach next to a fucked up red ocean!" Asuka replies frustrated and tosses Shinji a package of pain killers for himself..

"We need a plan to do something!" Shinji replied, before taking the pills himself.. everything did hurt and bad.. They couldn't just sit here doing nothing, for ever.. they can't survive all of that and die sitting on the beach..

Asuka groaned audibly and frowned.. Shinji starred at her for a moment.. it seemed like she was weighing options.. which hopefully didn't mean they were going to split up, he really didn't like the idea of being alone right now.. and really he didn't want to leave her anywhere alone.

"fine, how about we plan to go someplace to sleep? I don't want to stare out at the verdammt ocean much longer.." she ended up replying.. that seemed fine with him.. it didn't really matter what the actual time was.. and he was also really tired.. but Misato's place, which they had keys too, was a long ways off..

There wouldn't be any trains running and neither of them could drive.. so they would have to walk. That leaves going back to the geofront, and finding someplace to sleep there..

"Well I'm sure we could find someplace to rest back at NERV.. and they have warm showers.." Shinji sighed.. he stood up, slipping the jacket he had gotten on he knew he needed to help Asuka up.

"fine! Just we're sleeping in separate rooms, The redhead pulled herself up only to falter and for Shinji to catch her.. that was close.

Don't get cocky because I might need you're help now. It won't last." Asuka says annoyed.. as they start to walk off. He didn't like this though.. he really doesn't like the idea of Asuka needing to rely on him, he wanted her to be back to normal..

"Fine, Asuka.. let's just get out of here.."

Day: 2

Asuka woke up feeling much better actually, the full body pain wasn't gone but it was much more tolerable. It had hurt so bad yesterday.. she didn't like how helpless it had made her.. Today she could stand up and walk on her own fine.. no need to make herself indebted to Shinji. That wasn't a plan she liked at all.

She had ended up sleeping in what was left of her plugsuit, torn and ripped and without an eva to pilot completely useless, she wanted a change of clothes, she wanted a hot meal. She wanted to scream. She had lived but for what? To spend the rest of her life, living in the ruins of a city she had been defending? No, as much as she didn't like it, Shinji was right they needed a plan to do something. Something far away..

A sigh… she needed a shower. The redhead grabbed jacket and left the office where she had slept to go find the pilot's locker room. As she walked she started to try and remove the bandages from her arm.. there wasn't any blood. In fact there didn't really even seem to be a wound anymore. Just a long straight scar down her arm, and sadly she still couldn't see out her eye even with the bandage off.

The shower felt amazing. Cold and Refreshing and able to momentarily wash her worry to the back of her mind. That was until she got out and looked at herself straight in the mirror. On reflex she let out a shout. It wasn't just her arm she had scars around her neck, the bases of her arms, and down her stomach. It took a second but the injuries were clear. Every place unit 2 had ever been hurt, she now had an injury.. but how the hell did that even work? It didn't make any sense!

Shinji had gotten up early, more or less as a reflex. He had always gotten up early to fix breakfast and lunch, so there wasn't a reason to stop.. only there wasn't anything laying around that he could really make a breakfast out of. There should be coffee in the break room, maybe Asuka would like to have some. He had ended up helping her get to a room to sleep… was she okay today?

It was weird how much they had been here, but finding things now was so hard. Maybe it was just the atmosphere? It was just the two of them, and they had never been looking for stuff like that before.

It took a little bit of time but eventually he found said break room and coffee to make. He really had been thinking about what he wanted to do since yesterday.. he said that had needed a plan, but Asuka had been right., they needed to figure out what they wanted to plan. Coming out of third impact alive meant getting an actual 2nd chance to live. He had admitted that he wanted to live, he now needed to figure out how.. Asuka being here meant she must have wanted the same thing right?

He didn't want to stay in Tokyo 3, he had come here because his father had told him to. That didn't matter anymore. He had decided to stay for lots and lots of reasons.. none of them exited anymore. Nothing was holding him here.. and there were plenty of places that would be nice to see.. but the question became how to actually get there.. well he wasn't in this alone. He needed to ask Asuka about it anyway. It was best if they did stick together.

Coffee was poured into paper cups.. a sigh.. and then he heard the scream from down the corridor. Reflexively he ran out, Asuka must have gotten hurt or something not good.. and he wasn't just going to let that happen. Quickly he had arrived at the locker room door..

"Asuka are you okay!?" he shouted out, and luckily before he opened the door. He got a reply.

"You open the door and you're dead!" a momentary pause, he was still "okay close your eyes and stay exactly where you are!" Shinji sighed and obeyed closing his eyes..

"uh okay.. I was uh just making sure you were okay.. Asuka.. I'm not really sure what.." he could hear the door open..

"keep them closed if you know what's good for you.." after a moment.. he felt hands lifting up his shirt. Okay? What was she doing? What was going on? Before they put his shirt back down. The door opened and then closed.

"Okay. You can open now. You seem to have them too, you know. " Asuka's voice replied through the door. Uh.. what just happened? He was really, really confused.. why did she mean? He had what? Shinji sighed.. he was never going to find out was he? Yeah that figured. A small smile crept over the boy's face, this was more or less how it used to be between them right? Things were getting better.

Off in the distance there was a small echo.. it wasn't anything he could really make out, but there was something. A voice? Wait a voice!? Someone else was here! They really weren't completely alone!? For the first time in forever excitement, came over him.