Disclaimer: GAINAX, Anno and quite a few others own Neon Genesis Evangelion. I don't.

Title: Caused to Fall

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Rating: R. Mature. 15. Whatever you want to call it, I don't care.

Thanks to: Trevelyan for putting up with all of my shit.

Note 1: Like much of NGE, will draw heavy religious influence. That doesn't mean it's sweetness and light, or lacking in adult situations. People forget that sooner or later, all stories are about one thing: blood. Make of that what you will.

Note 2: Pitiful attempt to get muse to play. Might or might not continue – I'll have to see how the bitch is feeling. Gah.

-

"…Nephilim."

That one word sent a ripple of confusion around the chamber that SEELE were meeting in. Glares met each other angrily, only to move on to alternative targets when each stare was met with an equally harsh one.

And Ikari Gendo sat motionless through all of it, gloved hands clasps in front of his face, obscuring all but his cold eyes from view. He already knew. He had not spoken the word, but even with years of separation, a father knew their child.

And Ikari Shinji, for better or worse, was his son.

"We must gain further leverage on him if he is," Lorenz cut the buzz of conversation off abruptly. "He would be too powerful to control directly."

Control, Gendo sneered in his mind; control of my son is as easy as breathing. He is so weak minded and subservient that everyone around him orders him about. His fingers flexed minutely. I had almost hoped that Katsuragi might toughen him up. Soryu might have done had she not been so… overbearing. As it is, she just broke what little spine he had developed with the deaths of the early Angels.

Instead of saying this, he coldly stated, "That will not be a problem."

"Reassurances are not sufficient this time, Ikari," Lorenz snapped, "We cannot allow Instrumentality to be disrupted by a factor that you fail to take into full and proper consideration."

"I said that it would not be a problem," Gendo repeated calmly, "and that is what I meant."

A hand moved down to kill the connection to the members of SEELE, and he sat back. Fuyutsuki moved out of the darkness behind the commanders' chair to stand at his side.

"That moment of temper could prove to be a problem," the grey-haired academic observed distantly.

"SEELE do not know the full import of what they have uncovered. If the Nephilim are walking the earth, and we have one of them standing there in the form of my son… it will only aid our intentions for Instrumentality."

"I do not believe Shinji will allow himself to be used in such a way," Fuyutsuki calmly countered, "he had proven to show an inner strength when most needed."

"That," Ikari Gendo said coldly, "is exactly what I am after."

-

During this conversation, Ikari Shinji himself was involved in a very pleasant dream which involved him, Rei and an apartment blessedly free of both his guardian and his fire-breathing housemate.

It wasn't a dirty dream.

Well, not unless you counted the whipped-cream, the strawberries and the chocolate sauce.

…

…but they were in a bowl!

Honest!

It was a romantic dream.

Rei was smiling softly at him across the table as she sampled the dessert that he had made to complement the dinner they had shared before it.

As she nodded in appreciation, Shinji felt a large grin spread slowly across his face.

As she offered the fork to him – Japanese utensils being little to no use for the European-style meal he had prepared – bearing its load of a strawberry, cream and sauce… well, he could have fainted from the pleasure.

Ikari Shinji was a simple soul.

Or so he thought.

Just as the fork neared his lips, he was disturbed by an insistent beeping noise that cut right through his enjoyment of the moment.

-

Opening his eyes, Shinji regarded his clock with an expression that would likely have parallels drawn to the look any man gave another before he hauled back and dropped them with a right hook.

Instead, he reached out an arm and dragged it off the shelf by the wire.

That failed to silence it.

Sighing, he buried his head under his pillow and tried to recapture the dream he had been having.

That also failed.

The 'head-under-the-pillow' trick failed far more spectacularly, however, when Asuka nearly tore his door off the runner in annoyance at being awoken by the - admittedly - obnoxious sounding alarm.

"Baka-Shinji! Can't you do anything right? Just get out of bed to turn your alarm off, you lazy pervert, rather than forcing innocent girls to come into your room to do it for you!" Asuka faux-gasped, "You planned this, didn't you? To get me into your room and have your way with me? Pervert! Mi-sa-tooooo!"

Fortunately for Asuka, Shinji was facing away from her. As it was, the wall got a death-glare that he was surprised didn't leave scorch marks. Two thoughts ran through his mind at that moment. The first was a cynical and somewhat depressed self-analysis of how the day was going to move on from there, and the second was something akin to 'shut up and go away, I have a headache'.

Which he did.

Asuka bawling her head off would give anyone a headache.

When there was no sound from the room of his guardian, Asuka moved off to make the morning of the likely hung-over woman even more of a misery than it was already going to be.

After one mouthful of beer – and a daily demonstration of exactly how over-indulgence left you the next morning – Shinji swore he was never going to touch the stuff. He couldn't understand why Misato enjoyed drinking it, but he could understand why she used it as an escape.

She drowned her sorrows; he lost his in his cello.

It only lasted as long as the music played or as long as the drunken stupor… but it was effective for a time.

And that time was all that was needed.

It was a pity that since moving to Tokyo 3 he had not had a great deal of opportunity to indulge in that pressure valve.

He climbed slowly out of bed; his morning calm lost, before proceeding to dress after sliding the door shut again.

It would not do to offend Asuka's delicate sensibilities if she should walk past and see him semi-nude. Despite it being her that opened his door in the first place, and then proceeded to leave it that way… it would be his fault.

And if Shinji was to be honest with himself, he would be perfectly happy to have as little aggravation in the day as possible. He felt unnaturally tired, despite having his normal number of hours of sleep.

"Akagi-sensei said as much after the sync-test yesterday," Shinji whispered to himself, "Am I not sleeping well?"

Now dressed, he opened his door and moved past the still ranting Asuka to the kitchen. There he began to make breakfast and lunch. Misato was easy to cook for in the mornings. Give her a couple of aspirin, a couple of cans of beer and some toast and she was… recovering from her hangover.

Nothing on earth would make Shinji describe the groaning woman as 'happy' at any time before midday. Unless, of course, she was teasing him about girls.

Feeling eyes on him, he found PenPen looking at him philosophically before the bird moved off with a towel around its neck to the bathroom. The last glance the bird shot Misato's door left Shinji with the distinct feeling the bird had been asking, 'You think you've got it bad? Look at the shit I've had to put up with since before you showed up!'

It was funny in a sad sort of way.

Shinji found his hands moving automatically as he prepared the two bento that would be required for the day. He once asked Misato if she wanted one for when she worked at NERV – knowing full well that the woman never drank on duty, and for that matter, rarely ate while on duty either. The whole of the bridge crew seemed to subsist on coffee and the odd bar of chocolate from the canteen vending machine.

He turned slightly pink as he realised that he was fleetingly wondering how Maya kept her figure with all that caffeine and chocolate.

Finished making both breakfast and lunch, he hesitatingly called out, "A-Asuka? If you don't get ready soon, we'll be late…"

He shrunk back into the kitchen as her response was loud and vehement, "Baka-Shinji! Why didn't you tell me earlier!"

There was a slam as her door closed violently.

Second later, Misato slouched out of her room. She looked around blearily and grinned.

"Oh, good, she's gone."

The crack of a ring-pull alerted Shinji that unless he wanted to be deafened, covering his ears was a wise tactical move within the next two seconds.

glug

glug

glug

…and now, the obtaining of the last few dregs…

slurp

Yep. Such was his daily routine.

Misato's loud cry to meet the day cut through right on time, "Yeeeeee-aaah! Ah! Nothing starts the day better than Yebisu!"

Shinji looked at his guardian and part-time alcoholic, "Is… is that really good for you so early in the day?"

Misato made a moue with her mouth and squinted at him across the table where she had collapse in a chair, "Shush, you. You just don't understand the glory that is Yebisu!"

Plucking up some courage – which he had seemed to possess when initially living with Misato but had since died courtesy of Asuka – he said casually, "With how you were last night, I'm not really certain that I would like to, Misato-san."

"Last night, eh, Shinji-kun?" Misato leered at him, "And what do you know what I was doing last night, hm?"

Shinji turned red with embarrassment, "I-I-I… I didn't mean it in such a way, Misato-san!"

Misato waved a hand at him, "Oh quiet, I know you didn't. Yeesh. You're no fun to tease any more… I know just how you're going to react!"

Shinji returned to a more normal colour, "Then I would like it if you stopped, Misato-san…"

Misato pouted in disappointment.

The family moment was disturbed by their other housemate barging out of her room and grabbing Shinji by the collar.

"Baka-Shinji! If you don't hurry, we're going to be late!"

Misato blinked, waving a hand in farewell as Shinji was dragged out of the door of her flat by what appeared to be one very stressed German redhead.

-

Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.