A Crown of Stars

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Part 69
Midnight Confession

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Shinji was not surprised that Asuka got them down to the transport pad in the command pit in a hurry, nor that she got them both undressed and into bed just as fast once they were back in their cabin. That was how most of their nights began lately anyway. However, the fact Asuka did it all in stone silence and a blank expression was very unusual.

Their usual enthusiastic exertions did not promptly start once they were in bed, either. Instead, Asuka just held him, clinging to him like she was drowning.

'Alright, Ikari, you know her well enough by now to know something is very wrong. She hasn't said a word to you since she ran to the bathroom, and she came out looking like she'd seen a ghost.' Asuka was pressed up against him tightly, but every line her body screamed with tension, so tense she was shaking. "Asuka, what's wrong? Something huge is bothering you, I can tell. What's…what can I do? I want to help you." Shinji stiffened in worry as a thought struck him. "Y-you're not dying or something, are you?!" His voice rose to nearly a frightened squeak.

"No, I don't have cancer or anything, baka," Asuka said in a low voice, the first thing she'd said in more than an hour. Her voice was flat, toneless.

Shinji let out a relieved breath and relaxed. "Good, because I think losing you would turn me into my father way too much," he managed to joke weakly. "So what is wrong, then?"

"I hate you."

Shinji blinked. This wasn't the rendition he had gotten used to, the increasingly soft-toned stand-in for terms of endearment Asuka was still unable to say. This was honest, plain dislike, like the old days. Yet… also sadder. She almost sounded like she was about to…'Oh gods, she is…she's crying. Oh shit, what do I do? WhatdidI do?'

"I hate you," Asuka mumbled again. "I was happy. You were making me happy. And now I'm… I don't even know what. We should have known. We saw this already. I hate you and I'm scared and I need you and I don't know what happens next or what to do and… and…" She broke off with a choked breath. She wiped at her cheeks and pulled back to look at him squarely.

Shinji steeled himself to hold her gaze. That focused, intense look was back, making it scary to meet her eyes, but somehow he knew that it would be a much worse thing if he couldn't. "Asuka. I love you. I don't care how many times you say you hate me, or anything. I'm still going to stay right next to you for as long as you'll have me."

Asuka stared at him, searching his face. "Every night I tell you 'I hate you'. Every night I try to push you away. Every night you tell me you love me… why haven't you asked me again? You've never even tried since the fight in Berlin. Why don't you ever require me to give back to you what I demand from you every day we're together?"

"The last time I asked, you said 'no'," Shinji replied with a faint smile.

She glared at him.

He laughed softly. "Asuka, love can't be taken, only given. 'Si vis amari ama'." He gave her a soft, wry smile, then echoed her declaration from their judo match seven and a half weeks ago. "The last time I asked, I also said I wouldn't ask you again. If you want to love me… you're going to have to decide that for yourself. I don't feel like I have to push you. I can wait until you're ready."

"How long?" she asked, visibly trying to keep her throat from closing up with worry.

"Always," he answered with that strange confidence he'd felt more and more the past few weeks since the concert.

Silence filled the cabin for a long minute. Her arms around him shook. "Shinji… I…"

The smile on his face began to broaden. "Yes?" he asked, not hiding the anticipatory tone in his voice.

"…I'm pregnant."

Shinji froze as still as she was. "You're…" It came out as a strangled gasp. He reminded himself to breathe again. A couple of deep breaths gave him the ability to try again. "You're right. We did see this already. We should have expected it." His shocked expression shifted to a faintly happy one. "At least this means we're going to be rescued sometime in the next four months."

Asuka gave him a dour look that would have hit harder if she hadn't still been shaking so much. "You're taking this awfully lightly, Third Child."

He laughed weakly. "Oh, I'm holding on by a thread. I want to run around the room screaming right now, I'm not sure if in joy or terror. But you obviously do not. I can freak out later if I need to. You need me, and that's more important. I promised. I've got your back for everything, including this."

Asuka just stared at him pensively for a minute. "You're doing that thing where you just accept everything again, Third. This is not the reaction I expected."

He shrugged. "You told me to be a hero, and you need me not to panic right now so that you have…" He paused, aware he was about to stretch the boundaries of their nebulous relationship a bit further than before. "…someone to lean on. Someone you trust. I promised, Asuka. I will be anything for you."

"You… you're… Gott damn it, Shinji! You're always so fucking… gah!" Asuka rolled over to put her back towards him, but stayed within the circle of his arms. She scooted back against him, seeking out the warmth she wanted. "I told you you'd better become a hero, but I didn't expect it to do this."

'Do what? I'm trying to be the better man you wanted, Asuka. I want you to want me back so badly… Just tell me what you want, Asuka! I'll bend the world for you, just let me be with you! I need you, to be strong! Without you, I'm…'"Do what?" he managed aloud into the sweet-scented mass of her hair. He breathed in deeply, trying to stay as calm as he could. It was far from easy.

"You just accept everything. You're… you're like a Gottdamned Buddha. You accept every sin I've ever done against you and… You don't even know what I've done. You don't even know what kind of person I am."

"Why are you talking like this?"

"There's things I still haven't told you. Things I didn't want you to ever know, even… before our… old arrangement," Asuka said quietly.

"Do… is there something you want to tell me? I'm… there's nothing you can say that will drive me away, Asuka. You… make me strong. When I'm with you I can do anything, be anything. I will be whatever you need, accept anything you do, as long as I can stay with you. You matter more than I do. You're more worth… everything than I am."

She seemed to curl inward in his arms, hunching up a little. "Doing that, Shinji. Being so, so… making me feel… like once you find out the things I've done, you'll only be here with me because of your promise. Like you won't want someone who's done what I've done."

"I mean it, Asuka. There's nothing you can possibly have done that would make me leave you. Especially now."

"I shot Winthrop. I killed him."

Shinji could feel her tense up even further in his arms. He went very still. The silence stretched longer and longer, only the faint thrum of the ship's engines sounding throughout the cabin.

He licked his lips and carefully asked, "What?"

For another long minute Asuka was silent.

"When I said 'I have to take care of something when I get back', after the fighting… I… went to meet Jinnai, at the bottom of the NERV Berlin complex," she said slowly. "That's where they'd stuffed Winthrop after they'd captured him. Jinnai had his goons work him over, probably trying to get the N2 codes out of him, but they kept him alive until after the fighting… so I could get there."

She paused, waiting for any reaction from him. After another long pause, he merely asked tonelessly, "And?"

"It was just Jinnai and Winthrop down there. Jinnai handed me a gun and told me to make it quick. Winthrop… was surprised to see me. He thought you might have been a problem, but not me. He called me a slut and a liability to real soldier. I told him…" Asuka swallowed. "..that it was because he'd killed my mother."

Shinji nodded into her hair. "That's what you told me that night. It sounded strange then, but I… I can understand why you'd do it, Asu-"

"Winthrop didn't believe me," she interrupted.

"What?"

"He... thought I must have had another reason, another person I was doing it for. I told him to go to Hell, and emptied the pistol into his head until his brains were all over the walls. Then I came back to the apartment and we made our… arrangement."

More silence.

"Was he right?" Shinji asked, even more quietly than before.

This time it was Asuka who drew out the silence. "When you left that stupid note that wouldn't have fooled anyone for a fucking second, I read it as soon as you left. I left for Jinnai's place right after that. I told him I was in, on two conditions; that I got to personally kill Winthrop… and that you be left out of it. They only picked you up because I'd been shot and Jinnai wanted a back-up in case I was… useless."

Shinji hugged her closer. He knew all too well how she hated that feeling more than anything. "It took both of us to make that Eva move. You were no more useless than I was. But why are you telling me this?"

"Even in the middle of the fighting, I felt bad for a moment about making you kill with me. And when I was leaving that basement, I told Jinnai that you mustn't hear about any of it, ever," Asuka said slowly. "I… it was still… important that you didn't think I was a bad person. I still didn't want you to hate me. You were... like a reminder of what life used to be, before it turned into total madness and evil. I… couldn't bear the thought of you deciding I was… part of that. It would be like everything in my life I ever cared about turning against me."

"I never will, Asuka. Never." He tightened his arms around her. "You shot Winthrop? The only thing I don't like about it is that you felt like you had to hide it from me. I need you. And I'm going to stay with you. Not because I promised. I'm going to stay with you because I want to. Especially now." He slid his hand lower to rest just below her navel. "You need me to be calm and help you. Even if I want to freak out right now." He laughed nervously.

Asuka uncurled and seemed to relax. "I fully expected to freak out tonight. But I'm not freaking out. I am still in shock, but I am control of myself, not my fears," she said, far more calmly than she'd seemed a few minutes ago. She rolled back over to face him again. "And I'm not alone, am I?"

'I want to make her happy. I want that more than anything.' Shinji swallowed and made himself hold her eyes. It was much easier than it had been seven weeks ago. "No, you're not. And you never will be again. I'm with you, always." He swallowed again, then forced himself to ask hesitantly, "With you… both?" He very gently pressed on her lower belly.

Asuka covered his hand with her own. "I never wanted to be a mother. Who would, after a childhood like mine? Back at NERV, every time I had my period, it just felt like my body mocking me… And it's not like I ever thought about living long enough for the future to even mean anything, or that the future was even something I wanted to see. But now I do, because I know I won't be alone. I've always… hated the idea of having to rely on someone else for anything… but it's okay if it's you."

It was Shinji's turn for his breath to catch in his throat. He'd seen Asuka with no clothes on dozens of times over the last three months, but never this naked. 'I… she wants to be with me… she wants… us? To… have a child? Oh gods oh gods oh gods… You are not ready for this, Ikari! But… but… her… with me…She hates relying onanyone, but she's alright with it beingme? I love her so much… I want to be this close to her forever… Do it! Do it!' He could feel his eyes starting to prickle. He licked his lips and forced his voice not to shake. "Asuka, will you-"

"Stop." Asuka's voice was as cool as her tone was sharp.

"W-what?"

"Don't. Don't ask… the question I think you're about to ask. Not now, not like this," she said. Tense, careful control vibrated in every word.

Shinji couldn't keep the confused hurt out of his voice. "But, I… why?"

Asuka was quiet for a long minute, but her arm around him only held him tighter. "Because… I don't ever want to have the tiny, itching worry, at any time in the who knows how distant future… that you only asked me because of this." Her other hand pressed down on his where it still laid against her belly. "We… the future might be a long time, Shinji. I don't ever want to have doubts like that. So… wait. I'm not… ready."

His thoughts were whirling in pain. He understood why she'd stopped him. If she wasn't ready, she could only say 'no', which would hurt worse. Even so, it stung deeply to be rebuffed like that. It was better than being rejected, but still… His mind seized on a ray of hope. "Yet?" he asked gently.

Asuka's eyes dropped and he thought he faw a faint blush on her face. "…Maybe."

''Be there for her'. I gave myself good advice.' "Never doubt it, Asuka. At all. I've wanted to ask you… that question since the concert."

Her eyes came back to meet his, this time with a surprised, questioning look.

He blushed himself. "Let me put it this way; it's a good thing you kissed me and dragged me off stage that fast, or I might have asked you right there." He closed his eyes. "I told you I can do anything for you. If you need me to wait, then I'll wait. You're worth it. You're worth anything." He felt her shiver in his arms, and opened his eyes again to study her with concern. "Asuka?"

She shook her head. "Later. Congratulations, Third, you've managed to make me feel better. You can really take me telling you to stop that easily?"

"I wouldn't say 'easily', because I really want to, but I can. But… tomorrow, what do we tell everyone? We can't hide this for long." He laughed weakly. "Our plugsuits don't hide much."

"Ching and Hikari already know. Ching said Sergeant Bir will probably figure it out by what she won't say about it. Hikari is afraid she won't be able to keep Jock-Stooge from figuring out she's hiding something for very long. We have to say something before everyone figures it out anyway. Tomorrow we'll tell them." Asuka sounded less than enthusiastic about the idea.

"This… doesn't make you happy?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'm still in shock, mostly. And like I said, I never wanted to be a mother. After our parents… but you are not your father, and I am not my mother. We know what mistakes they made, and we're smart enough not to repeat them. And I swear, if nothing else, this…" She stumbled, but forced the word out. "This child will know she is loved and wanted, and will never, ever doubt it." Strength flowed back in to her voice as she made her vow.

Shinji found himself nodding. 'I may be like him, but I am not my father, and I willneverwalk away from my child like he did. Wait…' He blinked. "She?"

Asuka's lips curled in a small, enigmatic smile, the first smile she'd worn in hours. "Call it an educated feeling, from a reliable source. I bet we can have Ching verify in the morning. Maybe after we make the announcement."

Announcement. The word had a subtle air of sealing his doom, all of a sudden. "A-asuka? You're feeling better and aren't about to freak out anymore, right?

"I guess so. Why?"

"Because I think it's my turn, then." He started to shake. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, oh gods…..

"Baka."

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Part 70
Everyone Knows
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Urgent pounding on their cabin door snapped Shinji awake. Someone was shouting something in rapid Spanish through the door, and he sounded worried. Asuka gave a sleepy and displeased growl. "Shinji, if you're really willing to kill for me, can you start with that guy?" She tried burrowing her face deeper into the pillow.

Shinji's knowledge of Spanish was minimal, but he could make out 'Secretary-General Jinnai' and 'ahora!' clearly enough. He groaned and mumbled into the back of Asuka's hair, "Asuka, I think we'd better see what this is."

Asuka sat up enough to give the door a glare that should have melted through the metal and fried the messenger on the other side all by itself. "Fine, but this better be good. It's not even five a.m.!"

Rapid dressing and a short walk brought them to a room just off the ship's bridge, where a rickety 1990's videoconference screen and camera had been set up and plugged into the ship's communication system. There weren't many communication satellites still working in 2020, but for the expeditionary fleet that contained a not inconsiderable share of the UN's deployable combat strength, Jinnai had made sure he'd still be able to talk to them. Talk, or in this case, scream and threaten; Shinji could hear Jinnai's voice ranting loudly before they even made it to the bridge.

"-re the Hell are they? It's not like they wandered off a ship in the middle of the ocean for a damn beer run! I want them in front of me now, captain, or I'll see you-...Ah,finally," he broke off as Shinji and Asuka came in. "I don't like my time being wasted, Sohryu. Next time I call, you and Ikari better be here on time. Captain, you're dismissed. This is not for your ears." The captain and the sailor that had summoned them beat a hasty retreat. Jinnai ran his hand over his hair, where his carefully slicked look had become ruffled.

Shinji could feel Asuka bristle and bite back on angrily pointing out the time was still well short of dawn in their location. None of it showed on her face, although Shinji could see her shoulders tense up. He had to push down the urge to take her hand. They both felt calmer when they did that, but he knew it was probably safer for them both not to give Jinnai any signs that things had changed between them since they'd left Marseille. Shinji didn't need to remind himself to avoid Jinnai's eyes like he used to. The overly intense shine they'd gained since the coup was disturbing enough to remind him all on its own. He stared at Jinnai's uniform instead. It had gained quite a few more medals and ribbons since the coup, along with the general's stars he now wore.

Shinji's eyes narrowed as he spotted something on Jinnai's shirt and uniform jacket.'That's a lot of little spots. Is that…' His eyes widened back up again. 'Blood.'

For all his complaints about their tardiness, Jinnai just stared at them for a minute. The almost feverish glitter in his eyes was really starting to unsettle Shinji. Then he locked his eyes on Shinji in particular, and Shinji felt his anxiety sharply increase.

"So, Sohryu, you remember General Weidling?" he began, grinning nastily.

Helmuth Weidling was the Warden of Germany. He'd been just a name to Shinji, but he supposed Asuka would have met him while she was in Berlin those years. He looked at Asuka out of the corner of his eye, watching her nod. "Yes. What about him?" she asked.

"General Weidling expressed dissatisfaction with my removal and replacement of Winthrop as UN Secretary-General. He expressed these feelings after we caught him trying to move two battalions of the Colonial Parachute Regiment towards Berlin as part of an attempt to 'restore the legitimate UN leadership'. He no longer entertains these notions. My arguments against him were compelling." Jinnai raised a still smoking pistol. "'Ultimo ratio regnum', mm, Sohryu?" His grin was creepy and weasel-like to Shinji's eyes.

Asuka maintained her expressionless poker-face. "Yes, sir," she said evenly. "And you are telling us this because…"

"Because there are two more battalions of the Colonial Parachute Regiment embarked with the fleet who's officers have trained under and been largely selected by Weidling, and I'm ordering you two to keep an eye on them. If they make any moves that even look like they're anything less than perfectly loyal to me, you are to deal with them like you dealt with the Executive Guards." Jinnai gave them a cool look. "In light of this possible traitorous conspiracy, I've ordered the fleet to accelerate the landings, damn the fuel cost. They'll be in range of the fighter-bombers within 24 hours. You are to have your Eva ready for immediate action upon landing, to crush any resistance and make sure any suspect units stay in line. I have countermeasures ready if there is any large-scale trouble with the fleet, but they are… more wasteful than a simple demonstration by an Evangelion Unit. I don't want any disloyal elements disrupting this operation, understood? You and he better be ready to fight as soon as you make landfall."

"Understood, sir. We'll be ready for the fleet's arrival right on schedule. We will do what's needed," Asuka said, cool as ice.

Jinnai tilted his head a bit at Asuka's continued non-reaction. "Don't tell me you're getting squeamish now, Sohryu. I know what you and Ikari have been doing."

'Oh, fuck!' Shinji felt his chest squeeze as he stopped breathing and his eyes went wide. Fortunately, his downcast look and lengthening bangs hid his expression, and let him see Asuka's fist clench and tremble, her knuckles solid white. "What we've been doing, sir?" She and Jinnai might have been discussing the weather for all the emotion Asuka's voice showed.

Jinnai gave her a superior look. "You think I'm blind and stupid, Sohryu? I get regular reports on what is happening in my fleet. I know all about what you and the Third Child have been up to. Your entire ship knows. The crew of your ship doesn't know whether to be impressed by the Third Child's stamina or terrified by your appetite."

Shinji kept his knees from buckling by an act of will, and resumed breathing. He kept his face aimed firmly at the deck plating, afraid he'd give in to the urge to start giggling hysterically if he looked Jinnai in the face right now. 'That's not allllll we've been up to! Oh gods oh gods oh gods….'

Jinnai's mask suddenly cracked and he snarled at her. "You… slut."

"Excuse me, sir?" Asuka's face could have been carved from wax.

His right eye was twitching alarmingly as he pointed an accusing finger at her. "You little bitch. I save you from Winthrop, give you refuge under my protection, and all my loving attention for months, and you just laid there like a dead fish. Then you wouldn't stop whining until I arranged you your own apartment. And as soon as the son of the man who ruined the world shows up, you couldn't wait to jump in his bed? You worthless whore. Is he going to protect you now?" Jinnai sneered.

'I'll kill you… how dare you? How dare you say things like that to her!' Shinji bit the inside of his cheek, fighting to keep his mouth shut. His own fists were clenched and shaking now, too. He glanced towards her. Her fist had a tiny drip of blood seeping down from between her fingers.

"I was never interested in you. Either of you. What I did was for my own protection," she said, her voice as blank and cool as her face. "Pilot Ikari and I-"

Jinnai cut her off. "Oh, you're going to repeat that tripe again? Because he was right about you? You were whoring around with someone new, weren't you? Him! Should I tell him what else you did there, so he knows what you are? How would you like that, you stupid bitch?"

Asuka just let the threat hang in the air. After a moment, she coolly asked, "Is there anything else, sir?"

Jinnai glared at her like he was trying to will her into responding to his threat. "Fine, be that way, you tramp. I have ways of dealing with disloyal sluts like you! In a couple of months I'll have the Dummy Plug program to run my Eva with perfect loyalty, and you'll be useless to me. Useless to everyone except on your back. Enjoy your practice for your future job as a whore, cunt!" Jinnai gestured off camera, and the screen went black.

Asuka stared at the blank screen, expressionless. Shinji carefully touched her still shaking fist. Her hand snapped open and they interlaced their fingers. Shinji could feel the warm trickle of blood between their hands.

"Asuka, you can't kill him," he said softly.

She whipped her head around to stare daggers at him. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to blast him with pure fury. "Third-"

"Unless I get to help," he finished before she could start.

She gaped at him for a second. A smile, simultaneously vicious and brilliant, burst across her face and sparked a matching one on his. She gave him a quick, hard kiss before schooling her face back into a blank mask. "So the 'entire ship knows', fine. I'm not giving them any answers. Let's get the Hell out of here and back to base. We need to tell everyone about the fleet accelerating their landing."

She took a step towards the door, but halted. Shinji likewise stopped in confusion. He had barely opened his mouth to ask why when Asuka whirled around on him and pulled him into an embrace so hard he could barely breathe, burying her face in his neck. His arms automatically came up to hold her.

"Towards then end, he couldn't even get it up," she whispered against his skin. "He's maybe half your size. And he never, ever made me feel anything but awful and disgusting. You don't. Thank you."

Shinji smiled and buried his face in her hair. "I'm with you, Asuka. I may not always know what to say, but you can count on that. I promised you."

Asuka loosened her grip and pulled back. "Baka. Let's go." She visibly had to fight down a smile before she reached for the door.

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"-and I don't know exactly what 'I have countermeasures ready if there is any large-scale trouble with the fleet' means, but if Jinnai was ready to start blasting Berlin apart piece by piece with N2 mines until Winthrop's forces surrendered, like Aoba told us before we launched, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he has a few N2 mines tucked away in the fleet and is ready to use them on the fleet or its landed units if it looks like they're getting ideas about doing unto Jinnai what he did to Winthrop."

Sergeant Bir shared a look with Ching at Asuka's summary of Jinnai's speech. The Navy aviator just sighed and said "Called it." Bir turned back to them with a half-smile. "So what's the bad news, ma'am?"

Asuka snorted. "I wouldn't trust the MP Eva either until we go over it with a fine-tooth comb for other nasty surprises. I don't know what else Jinnai might have had them to do that thing. Anything I missed?" She directed this last to Shinji with a squeeze of his hand.

"Keep me away from Jinnai if we ever see him again, or I think I'll try to rip his face off," Shinji said softly. He looked up from the battle table's display to find everyone, Asuka included, staring at him. "I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud?"

"You say the sweetest things, Baka-Shinji," Asuka said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, though she smiled. "We can accelerate our timetable to handle this, right, Ching?"

Ching nodded. "We built some padding into the final prep times, so we'd be able to handle this, better to be ready a bit early than just in time. Something always happens, like this. Their speeding up put their arrival off Buenos Aires at about ten a.m. tomorrow, so we just make sure you two and the rest of the strike force are in the air by nine."

Asuka and Shinji nodded in unison. The plan was fairly simple: intercept the UN Fleet just off the city as they approached, but before they launched any aircraft off the Nanami or landed any troops. Asuka was more than confident the sudden appearance of Red Whirlwind, Touji's Pride Of Osaka, Kensuke's Yamato, and the entire power-armor suited Scout Platoon under Misato would be more than enough to force the UN Fleet commander into surrendering, hopefully without anyone dying. He and Asuka would loom overhead menacingly while Pride of Osaka and Yamato dropped the Scout Platoon on the deck of the Nanami, the Scouts would storm the bridge, and Misato would cheerfully ask the commander of the fleet to give up before they had to start sinking ships. Being able to literally grab the fleet's jets out of the air and snap their wings off would be rather intimidating. Yamato's plasma cannon being able to blow holes right through some of the smaller ships was a nice back-up, too.

"In fact, now that we have a fairly hard time for the UN Fleet's arrival, we know we've got enough time for the proper traditional pre-battle party," Ching continued.

"Pre-battle party?" Hikari asked. "And it's a tradition? This is a strange army."

Misato laughed. "Sounds good to me! I've done things like that."

"Bet you have, ma'am," Sergeant Bir said with a small smile. "Our plans aim for this to be a bloodless takedown, but the enemy always has the chance to make any plan go sideways. That's why he's called the enemy. Our gear and mecha are already tuned up, our plans are set, and our people are ready. So the best thing is to make sure we're ready to face this rested, relaxed, and with no regrets. We've got a handful of volunteers to stand watch for the day, folks with family back home and such, so everybody else is released for the day. Lieutenants, tell your platoons that the party starts here at eighteen hundred, but beyond that they are to get lost and relax for the day."

The rest of the officers around the table nodded and everyone started to turn for the door.

Hikari quickly moved to Asuka's side. "Asuka!" she hissed. "Aren't you going to say something?" She darted her eyes at Touji, trailing right behind her, a slightly confused look on his face. "Touji already knows there's something I'm not saying that I'm worried about. I hate making him worry about me."

Asuka blinked blankly at her for a moment. Shinji shook his head for a second.'Oh, right. That.' Jinnai's rant had actually knocked it out of his thoughts too.

Asuka looked at him, shrugging slightly. He shrugged right back at her. "I guess so," she said slowly. She looked at the rest of her former NERV co-workers and classmates. Ching had already halted everyone at the door with a wordless gesture to turn around. Everyone was watching them curiously. Asuka cleared her throat and blushed a bit. Shinji could feel his own face matching and exceeding it. "One last announcement, everyone. I'm… we're… Shinji and I are… um… expecting."

Surprised smiles and a few gasps greeted her announcement. Kensuke's mouth dropped open. Sergeant Bir gave Ching a look that said he'd expected this, to which Ching just nodded back with a grin. Misato had a huge grin as she elbowed Kaji.

Only Touji seemed to escape the general air of celebration. He looked at them blankly. "Expecting what?" he asked. Hikari groaned and put her hand over her face as Misato started laughing.