Author's Per-Noten Anyways since this is a fan-fiction and I can patch up any plot hole plausibly in anyway I see fit. I've decided to note that the time between Asuka's arrival on the UNCF Carrier Over-The-Rainbow and the termination of the 8th Angel: Sandalphon is about 3 months relatively. To help round out any unwritten character development issues. Mind you, things have been going on that will be revealed later in the story. Tis my excuse to have to not deal with writing them and having them conveniently there when I want them! Plus I'm a busy college student who got a single review on his last chapter. Encouragement to continue isn't that high clearly…

Changing Attitudes Chapter 8

Chapter 8: New Dynamic

"That's good, keep going." A female voiced cooed calmly. Shinji was really starting to feel it now. As the pressure became greater and greater on him. It wasn't that bad what he was doing, the warm sensation of his body was actually somewhat pleasant.

"Ugh," He couldn't help but let out a little sigh. He shifted his body a bit but the feeling didn't change. He was naked, and this experience didn't feel like anything else he had felt before. He let out another gentle sigh of 'relief.' Maya didn't fail to notice the Third's apparent, relaxed mood through the VidCom. From the bridge she could watch Shinji constantly without him knowing and thereby reacting. Affectively avoiding the principle that known measurements can in fact alter the subject itself, as long of course the OLED frame on the screen was red, meaning it wasn't currently a interface going both ways. She devilishly wondered what the Third Children was thinking about. 'No damn't, stop screwing around and get back to work Ibuki.'

Taking a glance at the Magi's ever-changing sync-test reports, she was… surprised to say the least. "These are fantastic." Ritsuko printed it out and handed it to her subordinate. Lt. Ibuki's brow rose noticeably.

"Mam, what's wrong with this, it's astounding."

"Nothing, it's A good thing Lieutenant."

"Oh right. He-he. Gomen, my brain has been a little fried lately Sempai."

"It's alright Maya. But keep your sex life to yourself when on duty." She teased.

"SEMPAI!" She blushed.

"Relax. Anyways let's press this further though. Lower Asuka's and Shinji's depth by 0.15 and Rei's by 0.25." Maya furiously worked her keyboard doing as her superior said and opened a visual com to the Eva pilots. Shinji jumped a little in his cockpit when he saw the bright view box open out of nowhere. Asuka's face was tensing up trying to cope with the change. Shinji and Rei remained fine, the Magi bleeped another report.

"Excellent, Rei is up 14 points, Shinji 7 points, and Asuka 6. That's one hell of a jump. Maya, update the sync rate profiles. Rei is at 61, Shinji is at 67, and Asuka at 75."

"Files updated Sempai."

"Good." She grabbed the mic and spoke into the capsules. "Good work today, especially you Rei." Rei didn't respond, Ritsuko waited two seconds, but just wrote off the rudeness as Rei being Rei. "We're finished here kids, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here." She smirked to herself and glanced behind. The Bridge Bunnies had a bit of a pain look on their face, seemingly from the comment. Maya was typing at her computer and looking cautiously straight ahead. Although she noticed her Sempai's gaze landed on her, urging her to reply. She meekly crooned her head up. Ritsuko was still smirking waiting for a rating. Maya's eyes fell down a bit.

"That was lame Sempai…. Really lame." She turned right back towards her command console. Ritsuko's face fell; she had lost her smirk of verbal victory. Scowling she muttered angsty retort.

"Shut up Maya." She whined defeated. Her eyes lingered to the side and she decided she needed outta there. "I'll go forward these to Commander Ikari, take care of the rest Maya."

The COM link view screen still on, the children witnessed the event. Asuka snickered to herself. Shinji showed a little interest in his brow; however, Rei simply remained placid.

Shinji felt the LCL start to drain to the bottom of the plug.

"Hey Misato I think I'll walk myself home tonight, if that's alright with you."

"That's fine Shinji. You walk your little girlfriend Rei home, maybe if you're lucky she'll give you a kiss goodnight!" Misato teased.

"WHAT, NO! It's not what you think! We're just..."

"OH JEEZ SHINJI! You're such an easy mark! Just remember. Don't be a fool, wrap your tool!"

"MISATO!"

"Bye bye Shinji!" Misato yepped right before the garage elevator door closed.

Sigh 'She never lets up with that stuff; I swear she centers around it.'

"Shinji, what tool in particular did Major Katsuragi wish you to wrap? And why would it be foolish not to?"

"Um, she was just teasing me Rei, you know, poking fun for hopeful mutual amusement." 'And failing.' He added snidely.

"I see." They started together towards the primary surface elevator bank to get out of the NERV Central and back up to the surface. Rounding another bulkhead corner in the massive pyramidal structure they were upon the cafeteria of which they had to pass through on this particular level.

"HEY SHINJI!" A voice that couldn't be mistaken anywhere despite not having known him terribly long, though he is around plenty with Misato. Ryougi Kaji waved the pair of pilots over to his circular table where across from him another young liege of NERV sat: Elric Kiirvaks. "Why hello there third and first children, fancy seeing you here!"

"Mister Ryougi I am unaware to the cause of your surprise seeing us here, we work at this facility creating a high probability of direct or indirect interaction with another." Of course, this is Rei speaking.

"Hmm well YOU KNOW Miss Rei Ayanami NERV Central is very large place with many different sections! Some of us work in other sections than you, creating a low probability of interaction, direct and otherwise!" Kaji rolled off as if he was prepared for Ayanami's blunt and ever-odd ways of saying things.

"I see."

"Oh Please sit down won't you two? I was just talking to my young Protégé here!"

"Protégé?" Shinji inquired?

"Well not per se, we're just in the same section here now and Kaji here helped train me a lot back in NERV Nevada and Germany. Although he's in and out around in Tokyo he's helping continue my informal education you see. What are we learning tonight again Kaji?"

"How to play the field I do believe my young Padawan." Shinji's face immediately dropped hard onto the table.

"What field in particular may I ask Kiirvaks-san?" In the background Shinji yelped in pain as Kaji reset his dislocated jaw. No one other than Kaji seemed to take notice of the event.

"Recreational." Elric said with a sly smirk. Rei appeared unmoved as it apparently didn't answer the question enough for her to understand.

"Rei," Shinji said with a pained drawl, "I think he means skills in dealing with people, in particular women. Oww." He rubbed his jaw and nodded thanks to Kaji for his help.

"I believe I understand." The sort of awkward pause that is imitated after every time Rei talks, did of course, happen for a few moments before oddly the instigator broke the silence and Kaji suddenly went from hitting on a female tech(as he always does in his idle time) across the wide room to instantly back in his seat to continue the conversation.

"Kiirvaks-san, you never fully elaborated on why you are here in Tokyo, I wish to enquire what is your role here at NERV Central, I am aware that you have spent many years in operations in the Pan-Pacific theater, as well as training and administrative work in NERV America and NERV Germany."

"Oh well it seems you know plenty about me already, though in specificocity..." 'WHAT? Specificocity is a word?' wildly thought Shinji. "I'm sort of a Jack-of-All-Trades. Primarily focused in security," said with a sharp, bright smile.

"Who's security?" Rei continued.

"Yours to be more precise! All youz pilots, The Director of Operations, Head of Science and Technology, the Bridge Bunnies as it were. A lot of what I do most people aren't cleared to know. But Miss Ayanami here is in pretty good with the Commander so I figure the old guy will hand you my file if you ask him nicely, or meanly, clad in leather with a whip, whatever gets the tyrannical hipster off I guess."

"I understand, I will schedule a meeting with Commander Ikari on this issue." 'How did he know the Commander enjoyed the funk?'

"I'm glad I could help sort that out for you Miss Ayanami." 'Oy, I know her file by heart, but she's just surreal in person to deal with.'

"So you're going to our school now right? Where are you living?" Shinji put in.

"Well ya, I guess I will be around the school rather often, though much like our debonair cohort, I've already finished my formal education and then some, so I don't truly have to be there. As for my living conditions, they'll be very similar to yours Shinji, seeing as how I'm your new neighbor! Pardon my intrusion, but from your file you don't get along terribly well with our lovely aforementioned first child sometimes, you're free to come over to chillax if you need to get away sometimes. Part of my Directive to help assure the psychological health of each pilot to make sure they are at top performance at all times. Or that's something like the crap in my orders. Honestly I've just been shuffled around to here because Section-2 is a little incompetent and there isn't a lot of use for me back in America anymore. I'd like to be your friend if that's alright with you, I shant know many other people here in Tokyo but a few, none of which are in my age group."

"Sure! You can be the Fourth stooge if you want!"

"...The what?"

"Um oh ya, Asuka... Me, Touji, and Kensuke are the three stooges according to Asuka; it's a name that has relative sticking power in its short time. We could use a fourth... OH! And ya, that stuff with Asuka is getting better, I mean it sounds a bit like you've been..studying up on us abit. he he." (A slight feeling of unfortability rises in Shinji from what he said). "I think I'm getting better at dealing with her too."

"Neat, and really, it's just what I hear around here so... ya," Elric lied in an attempt to settle Shinji's apparent unease. In truth, Elric knew them top to bottom, at least in the manner of what you could read from psych profile and personal background histories. Not that it greatly affected how he approached any of them, he slated himself to act relatively normal as if they were just other people. People he should protect with his life that is. Really what he got from that stack of files on the three pilots was that: Rei Ayanami is sorta weird, get over it. Shinji Ikari is sorta a wuss, get over it. Asuka Langley Sohryu is sorta a bitch with ego issues, play off it. Really he had hoped this would be a period of semi-normalcy in his life, unfortunately because of his own issues, he should most the most of it and try hard to break-out of his often business-oriented shell.

"It's late, we should be going Rei before it gets too dark. I hope you two don't mind." Rei nodded in affirmation.

"No, no. Scamper home. You've been doing sync tests all day. You must be tired. We can talk tomorrow at school." Shinji hummed in positive to the proposal.

"Oh wait, I forgot." Elric took to shuffling materials in his backpack in the obvious pursuit of something. "Here we are! My card with personal phone number, I'd very much appreciate it if you entered it in your cell phone and memorized it immediately. Should you need any help or just want to chat with me. Another thing about that, calls to my phone go unmonitored, just so you know." Wink

"Oh, Arigatuo Kiirvaks-san." Shinji gave a casual bow of thanks.

"Just Elric if you don't mind.. Alright you two best be off then! Me and Kaji have some more business to attend to. Sayonara"

"Sayonara Elric!" Shinji and Rei moved away and silently out of the cafeteria as a cohesive pair towards the geofront elevators. When they finally left Elric looked around and noticed that he and Kaji were the only ones left, despite the aircraft-carrier-esque cafeteria being open 24/7 for NERV technicians, security and scientists. Kaji sat across from him positively musing.

"It's seems your insertion here has gone rather fluidly."

"I'd like to think so. Though..."

"Though...?"

"Well not so much in the negative, but I have a feeling the Miss Sohryu may want me positively dead already."

"Eh, It's not unusual, she wanted Shinji to vaporize before he ever even opened his mouth to say hello to her. But I think you left a good first impression. You didn't show any fear!" Elric burst out laughing spitting water on the floor.

"You say that like she's a man-eating beast who uses fear for sustenance! Heh heh."

"Well she is! As much endearment I have for her she is quite the man-eater. Supercharged with a highly competitive with an unbalanced ego complex. Plus she's German, that doesn't help anything!" Kaji snickered to a bit of Elric's disapproval.

"What's wrong with Germany? Ya Jap! Elric being 100 of German descent took feigned offense to the comment.

"Nothing if you like lederhosen and egregious amounts of beer."

"HAH! You're far more of a beer-fiend than anyone else around here! Maybe you have some German in you somewhere?"

"No, no, I'm just a real multi-cultural man you see!"

"Right."

"Besides Misato could give me a good run on the beer ingestion count. So how do you explain the lederhosen?" This prompted Elric into a short moment of silence trying to come up with a decent reply.

"AT LEAST WE DON'T HAVE PENIS AND RADISH FESTIVALS! In vue of that, I'd have to say the whole lederhosen thing is pretty quaint all in all."

"Touché young one." Though the young protégé did have something serious to say, and he said it suddenly once the laughter has dissipated.

"I'm going to need an injection soon. Probably in a little less than a week."

"I'll be here."

"What should I do when Rei peruses my real profile?"

"She's not the type to make a fuss over those things, she'll accept it, and probably keep it to herself entirely."

"Thanks Kaji."

"It's no problem kid, although, you know I might have to slip out on Misato for it. Which means..."

"Ya ya, I owe you one." They smiled in affirmation of their deep friendship. Mentor and student. The Hero and the victim whom was saved.

VREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMM VRROOOM PHHHH! Was all the driver in the green Buick heard as a small blue blur, quite possibly eliciting a small sonic boom blazed past him.

"Misato you are so full of shit! He saw me naked!"

"Oh bullshit Asuka you were clad in a towel the whole time!"

"So what! He's still having his hentai way with me in his head!"

"Shinji see's you in a towel all the time and he's not a pervert!" Misato gruffed out, a right sharp turn was coming up.. fast and there was no way she could really slow down enough for it, to keep Asuka conscious that is.

"I know but that's because he's hardly a man himself!"

SSSCCRRRR BUMP EEEEECCCCCCCCCHHHHHHH... Misato successfully pulled the turn out right and sighed relief, she took a quick glance over at her young companion but already knew from years of experience that she was out like a light, just as planned. 'Muahaha.'

"HA! Serves you right for..." She paused thinking what Asuka had really done to deserve such an event but a reason, any reason soon popped into her pretty purple head. "..SITTING SO CLOSE TO THE DOOR! DUMBASS! HA!" Misato soothed into the silence enjoying the sound of her rubber on the pavement at more rpms than she could possibly count. 'Nothing beats experience,' she thought as she glanced at her work once more. 'No half-link teenager in their rice-rocket have got jack on me

HOLY CRAP THAT HURT! DAMMIT MISATO! WHY CAN'T YOU DRIVE LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" Misato jumped in shock when her cohort reared her fiery, unfortunately conscious head at her.

"Oh I'm sorry Asuka; the turn just came up so quick!" 'How could she regain consciousness so fast? IT'S ALWAYS WORKED ON KAJI!' It's not like she could call her guardian on it though, she was far too busy bitching and moaning to keep her eyes peeled.

"Ugh, just watch the damn road," Asuka advised before immediately starting into finding new topics to inquire to Misato's unwishfully sober mind. "WHYYY didn't you tell me about this Kiirvaks guy! He just popped out of nowhere today and apparently he's in NERV SO WHY THE HELL DIDN'T ANYONE TELL US PILOTS ABOUT HIM!"

"Weeelll, Rei for one, knows him, you could have asked her.."

"I DONT TALK TO WONDERGIRL!"

"WHY not? She's another pilot just like you!"

"So what! She's creepy as hell! And she's trying to act like Shinji's girlfriend or something and it's pissing me off!"

"Heh heh," Misato's eyes glaze over with their personality trait of initiating teasing. "Oh Asuka, Rei's trying to move in on your man is she? Heh heh."

"NO! HE'S NOT MY MAN! I don't want that baka are you kidding me?"

"Well it certainly sounds like it!"

"HE'S A SPINELESS WIMP!"

"HEY ASUKA! AFTER YOUR LAST ESCAPADE YOU SHOULDV'E LEARNED A THING OR TWO ABOUT HIM. He's not that spineless. He's a kind boy committed to selfless acts and all you do is pick on him even when those acts are for you! You should learn to count your fortunes like having him around. And besides... all this eva training has really got him filling out! I might make a pass at him if you or Rei doesn't! OH OH! Maya Ibuki is all over him when you aren't looking! HAHA!

"UGH!"

"You should learn to at least respect him as a fellow pilot, no more sarcastic great Shinji hero bullcrap. He pulls his weight plenty and trains hard just like you." Asuka paused in her fury for a couple moments and softened somewhat.

"I know he's a good pilot, BUT THAT'S IT! When he gets out of eva he just reverts back to being a wimp. It infuriates me!" She looks away from Misato out her window to the great city over the geofront.

"Though... he has made some progress with that lately. But with Wondergirl acted like his spider lady bodyguard lately... I don't know..."

You know, the number of his fan sites has doubled in the past month."

"Nani?"

"Oh you've all got them, Section-2 keeps an eye out on all of them though, to make sure any sensitive information doesn't get out you pilots or NERV.

"I knew I had them, but baka? HA!"

"You shouldn't underestimate him, hell, all of your immediate co-workers Asuka. There's a lot more to them than you think. You're life practically mirrors that of Shinji, and Elric." That made her eyes flick up.

"Their parents haven't been alive either for the majority of their life...Well. Shinji has his father but I think we can all agree he's probably worse than having no father at all. Shinji's mother died around the same time yours did. Elric's parents went before even yours. He's had it really rough, though it doesn't seem like you could ever tell except for that scar on his neck."

"HE SAID HE WASN'T A PILOT!"

"He isn't to my knowledge, but his profile is rather enigmatic and vague. He's a specially trained to do something though of which I'm not really sure. At least he has an existent profile for you to see. The commander keeps all sorts of shit hidden from us and the next person on the totem pole of information on him is Kaji. But I don't know much past that, Kaji will be around, I'll ask him then. Elric's whole arrival was pretty sudden and I wasn't aware of his coming here until today. That's another reason you weren't told."

"What do you mean coming here until today, you knew about him before?"

"Sure, but that's highly classified information and a lot of it I'm sure he would mind me telling you about without his knowledge. But I can tell you for the past couple of years he's been living solely at NERV America's 2nd Branch in Nevada, America, with the occasional visit to NERV's 1st Branch in Germany for the past couple years. I met him about 4 years ago. Bright kid." This was a lot of information for the red-head to be taking in at once, but at least she thought she might have a handle on getting down to who the hell the gray-haired boy was. "I've known Elric on an occasional basis longer than I have you or Shinji. He went through some particularly cruel things at the hands of humanity, and knowing how warm and understanding our Fearless Leader is," she seethed with contempt," he is probably treated like a tool still today. It's a wonder he's come out the way he has, that boy is a testament to the human spirit. Though I doubt whether or not he remembers a lot of it, he was so young and practically drowning in drugs to kill the pain before Trier a... So I've heard anyways, I haven't seen him for a rather lengthy time, but I guess we'll all be seeing a lot of him now...

"Well okay, he's not a pilot but you're still Director of Operations. You ca.." Misato interrupted her assumption.

"He doesn't fall under my jurisdiction; he's being used as the Bastard King's toy when not on normal assignment."

"Which is?"

"Security." Asuka wasn't really dumbfounded; it was though, even in the midst of the obvious next questions to ask, hard to search for topics to speak of with much priority.

"So where'd all this interest in Shinji come from lately, seems a mite unusual for you to ask too much about him? Misato asked in a serious tone.

"I don't know what you're talking about Misato."

"Of course you do, though I know, Shinji lately has been getting a lot of interest lately..." Misato paused and waited for a response but none came. She felt like Asuka was still readily planning to undermine the boy so her rare, but serious maternalistic protection kicked in. " Shinji is my boy, even Asuka, I love him like he really is my son. I know you think I don't act like it but none of us are perfect. We've all had our little fuck-ups and still have plenty of problems, being the defenders of the world doesn't help anything either. Don't keep screwing with him like this. He's had so many of the pains that you have had and you make nothing of it. If you didn't know before then you know now. You, Elric, Shinji, and Rei are a little family of kids who've been majorly fucked over in life. Not to say you're the only one's out there like that, but something like that should create a more cohesive bond among you all. You've all been dealt some of the shitiest cards possible without the emotional excuse that your childhoods were taken away by the Second Impact; furthermore, you're all forced to live with a ridiculously huge burden. Let him go a while without the constant fear of you always putting him down for once."

Asuka, who had early made such a commitment that was interrupted continued staring out the window pondering the genuine maternal sentiments of the casually drunken, occasionally wise and protective Misato. Many moments passed before Misato pulled at a card to lighten up the atmosphere a little bit. She doesn't like to do the emotional thing without 2 or 3 Yebisu first. Too bad her portable car refrigerator was empty.

"I SHOULD GIVE HER A PROMOTION! SHE DOES HER JOB SO CARINGLY AND I DON'T EVEN NOTICE! I can't believe I've been ignoring the quality of her work so long. What do you think?"

"I think you're kind of being a pussy." Flatly said by the man's assistant.

"You really think so?" He fearfully inquired.

"God yes. Go find your balls Sir, I think they must have rolled off into a corner somewhere."

"Screw you."

A silence of a minute went by, leaving only the sounds of the almost soap opera-like surveillance and that of hollow sounds of the grand, mostly empty room. The man of mystery suddenly made haste to break it.

"You hungry? I feel like pizza."

The man in his chair and his standing assistant to his right made direct eye contact.

"WITH MUSHROOMS!" They both yelped excitedly at the same time.

"Lieutenant Ibuki?"

"Oh Helloo..OH! You must be Specialist Elric Kiirvaks! The new transfer!"

"Correct Ibuki-san! I've come from America for permanent transference here at NERV Central."

"Kiirvaks-san, would you mind walking with me?" Indicating towards the Lab and Biomedical Research wing.

"No, no. Not at all. And please, Elric."

"Uh. Well.. I guess likewise then! "She stumbled. "I'm Maya." 'Americans are so informal, but I can't see the harm.'

"I know, but a pretty name nonetheless." She blushed and gave a slight giggle of appreciation. Needless to say, Maya never got too many compliments.

"Hmm, Shinji was right. You are a bit of a charmer." Though Elric's eye flicked up at that, he was trained to catch details in the way people said things very carefully. Still, he responded in short order.

"Not really, my mentor is Kaji Ryouji, I think he just rubbed off on me a bit." He noted as if stating a fact. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise. 'He's the educational spawn of that man? Great, that's exactly what we need more of around here." She mentally noted in such a sarcastic fashion.

"I had to read a short profile on you since you were getting transferred here and would be working with the lab crew. But it didn't mention any specifics though. I had no idea you were Kaji's. Hmm. Well, anyway I was wondering while we're around another, what all are you assigned here for? If you don't mind my asking?"

"Not at all, and to be honest, I'm not really sure of all the things I'll be doing as of yet, and the things I do know tend to loiter at a high classification. But for the immediate moment I'm charged with security, most specifically the protection of the 2nd and 3rd Child, Shinji-kun and Miss Sohryu."

"Why not Ayanami-san as well?"

"Ayanami-san is well capable of taking care of herself; she's at a much lower priority of protection as a result, despite her overall material importance to the organization. I have confidence in her abilities personally though."

"I didn't know she was so capable of defending herself! Or is it because she doesn't mind having more security than the others?"

"Actually she has less security than the other pilots, she can protect herself against threats you couldn't imagine just from looking at her small frame."

"Wow, I didn't know that. It's nice that we have some fresh blood around here. NERV is a relatively exclusive and demanding organization so we don't get a lot of outside interaction."

"Ha, you're tellin' me." They shared a small laugh together.

"Your profile said you were a Command Technician and Analysis/Computer Specialist, and it put a lot of emphasis of your interaction with the Tokyo-3 MAGI system. But a couple points in there lead me to believe you're.. Doctor Akagi's personal assistant too. Is that true?"

"Yes, Akagi Sempai directly oversees me and directs my work with the MAGI. We don't ever say system around here, it's just the MAGI."

"Outstanding. I was wondering if you could help me then, especially since we're heading in the right direction I guess."

"Certainly."

"Okay well Doctor Akagi has something I need, probably in her biomedical lab. A special injection and biofilter, it probably has my name imprinted on it. My previous one is expended and I believe I'll be needing a new one soon. I would of course ask her, but she seems to be at home. And it's not really something that can wait." Maya Ibuki's eye rose at those words. 'What the hell is that?'

"Um ya sure. But ah. Well the brief on you didn't say much, can I see your NERV ID to check your clearance?"

"Certainly." He replied and quickly slipped from between his fingers amazingly fast to Maya.

"Ei! er, Thanks." Catching the card in midair. She swiped it through her PDA slide and handed the card back to its owner. The screen lit up her face in a blue glow as the information on the boy ran across the screen in but a moment. 'Hmm, Maya Ibuki is quite a looker, very innocent seeming too, perhaps...' Elric's pondering interrupted.

"Ya, ha ha, you definitely have clearance for us just to grab it for you. You know, I wouldn't want Akagi-sempai to rip my head off or anything?" She giggled out.

"Fantastic. Doctor Akagi is pretty hard on you?"

"Oh no no, well, well it depends what we're doing you know. It's very challenging work here, but personally no, I love working with her, even if she's a mite.."

"Secretive?"

"Ya that's it!.. Do you know her well?"

"Well enough, she's the one who created the filter for me and all. She probably has a stack of papers in a file cabinet on me somewhere in her office."

"Oh, um here we are." She stopped to swipe her card through the reader to the side of the door. The light went from red to green and the pneumatic device automatically opened the door for the pair. She sat down at Ritsuko's computer to run a search for what cabinet the strange device was in. "1A4. It must be that thing wrapped in white in the case over there."

"Brilliant. Thanks so much." Maya moved from the chair to recover the device by unlocking the mini-lock on the case."

"So what exactly is this thing Elric-kun?"

"Oh well, uh. It's a sort of a cellular renewal device, to stem off an accident a couple years ago." He said just a little quietly. "I don't have a disease or anything."

"I see. It must have been a pretty bad accident; I've never seen anything like this."

"I don't actually remember much of it. Just numbness and a lot of lights."

"Is that were your scar there came from?"

"No, this is a gunshot wound."

"I see. I'm sorry for both."

"Hey, it's nothing." 'Still, I don't know if you'd much appreciate me asking about it anymore just after meeting. What a difficult life you must have had.' She thought to her self.

"So I noticed when I scanned your card you graduated from the American West Point Military Academy but under something called a special program."

"Ya, but I can't much talk about the content of it. Really I didn't spend that more than a year on that, I just took a lot of tests and did a lot of physical training and some other things. What about you?"

"Oh I graduated from an accelerated PhD track from Tokyo University a few years ago. I was picked up by Doctor Akagi maybe a year ago."

"Wow, a PhD already! You look so young."

"I'm 22. Thank you." She blushed. "But honestly, well-rounded educations and elective courses at the time were luxuries of now and the pre-Second Impact world. After I took the assessment tests, I was rushed along a straight and hyper-focused track, specifically towards what I'm doing today here at NERV with Doctor Akagi. Because of the extreme situation, the government simply couldn't wait to do it any other way in order to keep some semblance of stability. There are probably a lot of other people out there like me."

"Still, you must be intensely bright, especially at your age to have all these achievements. And of a particular magnitude. Of them, only you work with Doctor Akagi, in one of the world's premier technology positions."

"Please stop flattering me Mister Kiirvaks, I can only take so much! What about you Kiirvaks-san?"

"Eh, I've been doing all this since before I can remember. Hell, I've been a part of NERV slash Gehirn as long as Miss Sohryu has."

"Heh, being a part of NERV all your life hasn't turned you into a hot-head like her. I guess your mother must have kept you in line. Ha ha."

"No, no. Both of my parents have been dead since before I became apart of NERV."

"Oh God, I'm so sorry I didn't mean.. know.." Elric made sure to make steady eye-contact, so she wouldn't feel bad about the mistake.

"Hey, it's nothing. No offense taken." He shrugged the comment off. "But I know what you meant. Although I actually I think that maybe she just needs someone she can really connect with you know. The life has been rough, lonely, and constantly competitive. The ego is a protection device. She just needs her wall broken a little bit and filled in with some reassurance. I can much figure it from my own experience." "With the burden's we're all facing, it'd be a lot easier if we had someone to share some of the pain with, if not at least stave off the thankless loneliness of this job." Maya smiled warmly at the thoughtful sentiment.

"You know, I think you probably hit the nail on the head there Elric." He grinned nervously and shrugged off the affirmation. Maya didn't however, fail to notice. She bid to lighten the mood a notch. "But you know she's still definitely a bitch"

"Oh ya. No. Definitely a bitch." They shared an evil snicker.

To be continued..

Author's Note

Right well if I can get some encouragement I have some ideas to play out, drumming the next few chapters in something quite a bit more serious temporarily as well as quite long for each one. More so than this one. There will still be elements of comedy, and they will return in force, and make sense in all of the new chapters because I'm actually thinking about it. That is, if people want more chapters. If they don't, screw it. I have some school papers to write.

Ghengis 2006年 3月 29号