"Why am I here?" Ritsuko asked.

"Because you need to take a break, Sempai. And get a decent meal" Maya replied. She had come into the office that morning to find Ritsuko already at work. Given that she had been there when Maya left at eight the previous evening, it wasn't a stretch to assume that she hadn't gone home. So when lunch time rolled around, Maya had insisted.

And by 4 pm, Ritsuko had acquiesced.

"I hear that this place is pretty good." And cheap. That went unspoken.

Ritsuko rubbed at the circles under her eyes, "Well, I guess you're right. I'll be more productive after I get some food."

The two women chatted about work as they waited for their food to arrive. It was a little stilted, as neither were used to just conversing. Ritsuko frowned - there was a familiar voice behind her.

"I don't see why we have to have a spreadsheet for this," The voice was male, slightly whiny.. She stood and peered into the booth behind their own

"Why hello, Shinji. What are you doing here?" Ritsuko took note that Shinji was there with a girl, but Ritsuko wasn't Misato - she didn't pay much attention to people's social lives (Heck, she didn't really pay attention to her own).

"Uhm oh, hello, Dr. Akagi. We're going over the budget for a project we're working on. We're trying to help set up a food kitchen to feed people in need here in Tokyo 3. There are a surprising number of them."

"That's.. a very responsible thing to do." Ritsuko commented. Surprisingly so. 'This is the socially withdrawn teen that spends all his time listening to music? Gendo should know that his profile is so much toilet paper.'

Shinji ignored the non-statement, "Hikari wants to do all sorts of bookkeeping for it, though."

"Good record keeping is always importan," Maya interrupted, "But where is the money coming from?"

"Um, it turns out that I get a small salary from NeRV, and some of Hikari's dad's friends donated a little.." Shinji trailed off. They actually had so little that he didn't see why they needed to track it.

"Well, I think it's a great idea! I'll talk to the other staff, and we can start up a collection!" Maya beamed. "But we'll talk later - I'll let you get back to your date."

Ritsuko noted that neither teen protested this characterization. 'I really should report this to Gendo.' But she found that she had a hard time working up the motivation - let the kid relax a little.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Misato stretched. She had an afternoon shift today, so she was going in to work later than usual. That gave her the opportunity to watch 'the kids' (as she privately referred to Shinji and Auska) head out to school. Shinji seemed different somehow. He was usually a very serious boy, but recently he was smiling more. She still had Section Two checking up on him periodically, so she knew that his routine hadn't changed much – after school / NeRV he worked on his charity project (feeding the homeless) before coming home and falling straight into bed. 'I guess my attempts to cheer him up are succeeding.' Misato grinned. 'I told Ritsuko that he likes being teased.'

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

The pair of Section Two agent sat in the black Range Rover as the Second and Third child walked out of the Katsuragi apartment on their way to school.

"You want to radio in? There's a new doughnut place two blocks from here." With the status of the children confirmed, they were off until 3, when they wold do the same again. Sometimes, they didn't even bother leaving the doughnut shop. This was the easiest paycheck they had ever drawn.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Asuka watched as Shinji chatted with Hikari before class. 'Rei's going to be pissed when she figures out that Shinji has a thing with Hikari.' She didn't have a problem with it – they could be bumping uglies for all she cared (but knowing Shinji, they probably hadn't made it past holding hands), but Rei wasn't the most stable of individuals. Right now, she was still staring out the window, but how clueless could she be?

Asuka wasn't certain if she was hoping Rei would remain oblivious or if she wanted to see the train wreck that would inevitably happen when Rei noticed.

"Um, Suhryu.." Asuka turned to see a one of her classmates – a guy on the soccer team - approaching, interrupting her view of the drama that was unfolding on the other side of the classroom. "I was wondering if.." He began, holding a small sealed envelope in his hands.

"Do you need something, Saichi?" she asked coldly.

He froze, a deer in the headlights, "Um, no, nothing. Sorry to bother you, Sohru-san" He retreated.

Asuka sighed. It would be nice if somebody treated her like Shinji treated Hikari.

**/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

The other constant in Shinji's life, beside school, was NeRV. It was almost as boring, despite being surrounded by two girls clad in skin tight suits - they weren't allowed to talk during the test, as it interfered with whatever Ritsuko was doing, and there was only so much time Shinji could spend just watching them - they weren't Hikari, after all.

Asuka floated in her test plug, bored out her mind, as usual. She used to like the sync tests, but ever since Shinji's scores had started creeping up into HER territory, they lost their appeal. Now, they were just wasted hours floating in red goo that made her hair smell bad.

When the hour was up and the test was done, she was incredibly grateful. But as she stepped out of the tube, Misato cheerfully chirped as she read over Ritsuko's shoulder, "Would you look at that! Shinji has reached parity with Asuka!"

"What?" Asuka huffed. "The only reason Baka has managed to get a score that high is because he's in love with the Evangelion, and is having porn fantasies about Eva."

That only elicited a smirk from Misato.

Asuka frowned. 'ok, I wish I was back in the tube.' She stomped off to the locker room.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

That Wendesday, Asuka burst out of her room, startling Misato as she was opening another beer (her second of the night – she allowed herself two). "I need to borrow some perfume for tomorrow."

Misato took a sip of the beer before turning to the teen, "Why? What's tomorrow?"

"I have a date!" Asuka beamed.

"Absolutely not. You're still a teenager." Misato paused ass she considered, before adding, "And especially not for a first date."

Asuka huffed and was about to argue when Misato added, "Also, I'm going to be out tomorrow evening - I'm going to a friends wedding."

"I bet you're going to wear perfume."

"Damn straight. But I'm 29, not 16." Misato finished her beer and looked wistfully at it before tossing it in the general direction of the recycling. Shinji caught it and deposited it in the appropriate receptacle.

Asuka glared at her guardian, but in the end decided that it wasn't worth a two hour long fight (Asuka never did anything halfway. If she was going to get into an argument with Misato, it would be an all out, screaming, door slamming death match).

She stomped back to her room.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

In some ways, Shinji and Hikari were a very typical teenage couple. They hung out together, spent hours texting when they weren't and seemed oblivious of everybody else.

In other ways, they were not. For one thing, Shinji insisted that letting Misato know that they were dating would be a bad idea, with a capitol 'B'.

For another, was their nightly routine: After school on Thursday, Shinji and Hikari went to the back of the corner store. "What do you want to make tonight?" Shinji aked as he washed up. Hikari pulled out the heating plate and placed it on the counter of the tiny cook space.

"Bean paste buns. they are inexpensive and filling." The cook space was very crowded as the two teens worked, but they didn't mind the close proximity.

Hikari's cell phone buzzed, "We have another volunteer to deliver the food, and she says that she has a car!"

"Great," Shinji gave her quick celebratory kiss on the cheek before getting back to work. Ever since their conversation with Maya, they had been taking a more serious approach to this project, and even asking for volunteers to help them out.

Soon, all the counter space was filled with steamed buns and Hikari began loading them into bags. Not long after, their delivery volunteers showed up. There were a half dozen total, most only showed up sporadically, but today they had three, including the older woman with a car, who could expand their delivery area.

Three hours later, the food was gone, and Hikari slumped against Shinji, "You know, this isn't how most teenagers spend their evenings." He put his arm around her.

"Do you want to take a break next week?"

Hikari considered it, "No, but how about we do something this weekend?" She took Shinji's hand. Despite dating, they were still not used to showing affection physically. "We could go picnicking again, except we'd go for the whole day. Maybe go swimming." Hikari began to scheme - Her father was talking about going to Tokyo 2 to visit her grandmother for the weekend. She could beg off, as having too much homework, and then they would have the entire day to do whatever they wanted. She felt momentarily guilty about lying to her father, but her grades were good, so that made up for it. "And in the evening we can hang out at my house." A shiver went through Hikari as she considered what THAT could entail. Maybe she was being a bad girl? She pushed that idea aside.

"That sounds great."

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Shinji walked back to his apartment, floating on air. He felt like he was helping people, he had a beautiful girlfriend, and there hadn't been an Angel attack in weeks. Life was good.

The lights were on. "Hello?" He called out as he entered.

Asuka was sitting on the couch, staring at the TV. Which was turned off. "Asuka? I thought today was you big date." It was only 8:30.

"It was. I came home early. The guy was a creep." Asuka got up and went to the fridge to get a soda. "He was this college guy looking to hook up with a high school girl."

Shinji nodded. "Well, have you had dinner? I can cook you something."

"No, he at least paid for dinner." Though he apparently thought the cost of buying dinner covered buying HER as well. Would it be TOO much to ask that people stopped thinking of her as a number? It didn't matter if the number was her IQ or her chest size. It was still not her.

"So, you want to watch TV or something?" Shinji asked, trying to cheer up the sulking Asuka.

"Eh, I guess. As long as it isn't anything romantic."

"Ok!" Shinji perked up. Action movies were always better. He was just turning on the TV when the phone rang.

Asuka took the call, and after a couple of 'Uh-huhs', she hung up. "That was Kaji. He says that Misato won't be home tonight – that she's had too much to drink." 'I bet that he's making that up, and they're just going to his place to have sex.' She always knew that Kaji had a thing for Misato, but it was still disappointing.

As they sat down in front of the TV, Asuka felt strangely awkward. She glanced at Shinji. It's not like they hadn't been alone in the apartment before. But maybe it was the failed date, or the call from Kaji or something, but it felt like there was a tension in the air.

"Hey, Shinji, have you ever kissed a girl?"

"What sort of question is that?!" spluttered the teen. He was NOT going to talk about his relationship with Hikari. Not here - he wouldn't put it past Misato to have the apartment bugged. And if she didn't, Asuka would tell her!

"A logical one, since you're friends with Hikari. Really close friends, the way the two of you are always going off on your own."

"That has nothing to do with anything. I'm friends with you too!" Shinji tried to avoid the innuendo.

"Hmm." Asuka nodded, her eyes twinkling. "How about I teach you how to kiss, so you can show your girlfriend later?" Misato was right - teasing Shinji DID make you feel better.

Shinji waved his hands in front of him in a panic, "no! I mean that isn't necessary."

Asuka smirked at his antics. "Well, you're no fun. Hit play already."

The movie was not bad, but Shinji found that he was analyzing the fight scenes, and found most of them wanting. They just weren't very realistic. Not compared to what he had lived through. And also, he was hyper-aware of Asuka after her strange behavior earlier. She was sitting (slightly sprawled) just a few feet away, in her usual apartment t-shirt and shorts.

Finally, after the movie was done, everything seemed to be back to normal. Shinji was just putting the snack wrappers into the trash when Asuka announced, "Well, I'm going to sleep."

"G'dnight" Shinji replied absent absentmindedly as she walked by.

Which is when Asuka stepped in and kissed him, quick.

As Shinji stood up straight, shocked, she continued to her room and slid the door shut.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

'Why did I do that? I don't even like him. He's a skinny little nebbish.' Asuka flopped onto her back. It was well past midnight She had been agonizing over this for the past hour. 'Maybe I should go apologize.' She had actually gotten up and walked out to Shinji's door before she stopped. 'It's the middle of the night - he wouldn't appreciate me waking him just to apologize. And he probably wouldn't even remember it tomorrow if I did.' She went back into her room and slid the door shut quietly, 'But I bet he remembers the kiss. ARRG Why am I even thinking that!' She didn't want anything to do with Shinji romantically - he had something going with Hikari (Asuka wasn't as oblivious as Misato). Even Rei would get annoyed, if she found out. 'Why am I like this? It was just stupid hormones from that messed up date!' Asuka rolled over to try to go to sleep.

'But the look on his face after the kiss was priceless.'

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

The following day was another strange one. On the one hand, Shinji was looking forwards to spending Saturday with Hikari, on the other hand: Asuka.

As he ate lunch, even Rei noticed that something was off with Shinji

He glanced at where Asuka was sitting, near the front of the class. 'Was that a serious kiss, or was she just teasing me?' Shinji knew in theory that some people didn't take a physical relationship as seriously as he did. Not that he had ever HAD a physical relationship. His thoughts went to the times time he and Hikari kissed, 'We're not THAT physical.' But if they did (when they did?) it would not be something casual. He glanced over at Asuka again.

Asuka pretended that nothing had happened - her plan to to apologize wad melted away in the bright light of day.

Rei pursed her lips. She was not certain what was going on, but she could smell the tension on Shinji. And he kept looking at the Second. She glanced at Hikari. The other girl also appeared displeased at how distracted Shinji was.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

As soon as class let out, Hikari snagged Shinji, "We need to plan what we're going to to tomorrow." Actually, she already had some ideas – too many of them. She needed help narrowing down the choices. Having the whole day left a LOT of options.

Shinji glanced at his watch, "we can get started on it, but then I need to head to NeRV - how about I call you..." Which is when his cell phone went off. As he pulled it out, the city wide alarm siren sounded as well.

Shinji shoved the phone in his pocket "I gotta go." He turned to run for the door before turning back and giving Hikari a quick kiss and whispered "I love you." He ran for the Section Two car pulling up to the curb.

Hikari watched anxiously, her hands clutching each other, as the large car sped away.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Shinji watched as the giant spherical Angel approached. It was hovering high enough above the city so that it easily cleared the surrounding buildings, but low enoughto cast a shadow over them in the bright midday sun. The sphere itself was bone white with black stripes that shifted on its surface like ripples of ink. All in all, it was no stranger than any of the other Angels that they had fought..

The three Evangelions were stationed in a loose semicircle around the Angel as it drifted slowly towards the center of Tokyo 3. It was still at the edge of the city, where many of the buildings hadn't retracted because they were under construction. Unit 02 edged forwards, looking for an opening.

"Asuka, don't attack it yet – we're having a hard time getting a reading on the Angel – we can't detect the core's location." Misato commanded. It was worse than that – the command room was in a furor, as the spectroscopic signal from it kept flickering from orange to blue.

"Fine. I'll let Shinji handle it" Asuka snarked, as she withdrew to an elevated area where she had a better vantage, He has the best synch score, after all."

"That's unusual," Maya's voice lacked the panic that usually accompanied a surprise during battle, but her task today was simply monitoring the synchronization scores. "Shinji's score has crept up 5%."

It wasn't uncommon for Shinji's score to increase during battle, but the Evangelions were were still hanging back. Before Misato could formulate a response, Shinji came on the radio "I will probe its defenses."

"Be careful. Rei, provide close support. Asuka, hang back as a spotter." Misato nodded to herself - Shinji was the most cautious of the three, so having him test out the Angel was the better option.

Unit 01 shouldered it's pallet rifle and darted for cover closer to the Angel. As it ran, it fired a burst form the rifle.

The rounds sank into the orb with no effect. "What heck?" That's not supposed to happen. Shinji began to circle the Angel, keeping well back. Rei fired a burst at the Angel as well, to distract it as Shinji tried to get close enough to cancel out its AT field.

At that moment, all the buildings under the orb began to sink.

"Shinji, Rei, pull back!" Asuka called out , "The ground is melting!" Unit 00 skipped back as everything around her began to sink, first stepping onto a mound of dirt and then jumping onto a crane that had toppled as the mound sank into the ground.

"It's the shadow!" Asuka could see better from her position. The stark black of the shadow had deepened, and was reaching out from under the sphere, as if the sun was setting. Everything it touched was sinking into it. "Rei – pull back! It's stretching towards you."

Unit 00 scrambled backwards undignifiedly, almost colliding with Unit 01 as it staggered towards towards her.

"Shinji, What are you doing?" Misato demanded.

"The building fell into my path!" Shinji tried to get out of Rei's way and at the same time avoid the inky blackness that was gliding up the ground towards them, sucking everything down.

"Asuka, move in to assist!"

"I'm trying." All the building around Asuka were tilting at crazy angles as they started to sink as well. She tried to maneuver towards the two Evangelions trapped at the lip of the shadow, but a tilted building snapped, sending rubble clattering to the the ground.

"I cannot retreat." Rei announced. Unit 00 was trapped at the edge of the shadow, its feet already starting to sink in. The Evangelion grasped at the steel frame of a half built building to try to pull itself out, but the steel frame bent, not providing leverage.

"Hold on, Rei!" Unit 01 grabbed and twisted, throwing Unit 00 onto solid ground. But the motion caused Shinji to lose his balance and stagger two steps deeper into the pool of shadow.

"Shinji!"

Asuka watched as Unit 01 sank to it's waist. She opened fire with her pallet rifle, the bullets disappearing into the shadow nest to the Evangelion without any effect.

Unit 01 disappeared from sight.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

"So what's the plan? How are you going to get Shinji back?" Asuka stormed at Misato, Rei standing quietly at her side.

"We need more time to analyze this Angel - it is nothing like the ones we have seen before." Ritsuko interrupted.

"We don't HAVE time!" Asuka retorted. "How long can Shinji survive in there?"

"If he shuts down everything except life support, about ten, eleven hours." Misato replied.

Rei stood, watching uncertainly. This was not something she had been trained for

She looked over at Asuka. It was lucky that she knew what to do in this scenario. Rei felt unexpected gratitude for the redhead.

"Do we have ANYTHING?" Asuka continued pushing. She couldn't understand how Misato was so calm - Shinji wasn't just another pilot: He was a friend. They lived with him. Who would make dinner? And try to make her feel better when she did something stupid?

"Maya is analyzing the data, but it looks like the Angel is actually the 'shadow', or maybe it's IN the shadow - it's a Dirac singularity, where a multidimensional space impinges on our reality." Ritsuko interrupted, "The sphere that we first thought was the Angel is just a projection or maybe a reflected image of the actual angel. I can model it mathematically, but I can't explain it any better than that."

Asuka nodded. She would look at the math later.

"So how do we kill it, if we can't reach its core?" Misato asked. She hated being out of her depth like this, but this Angel would have to be killed with science.

"I'm working on it," Ritsuko walked over to look at what Maya was doing. "On the plus side, the Angle has stopped moving."

Misato didn't voice the obvious fear - that it had paused to digest its meal.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Everything was gray. Shinji looked around, but as far as he could see there was the same nothingness. 'I better reduce power consumption.' He glanced nervously at the battery timer. It had started ticking down from 5:00 as soon as the power cable was severed.

He went through the checklist, shutting off all systems except life support. That took all of 10 seconds.

He turned the radio back on. "Hello, can anybody hear me? Is anybody out there?" He waited for a response, but there was nothing. 'I'm all alone,' he began hyperventilating. 'No, that'll use up life support faster.'

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

'Misato will figure something out.'

He tried to relax.

Breath in

Breath out

Breath in

'Oh, god, oh god, I'm going to DIE HERE!'

Ok, ok, calm down.

Breath in

Breath out

With life support on minimum, it was starting to get cold.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

"Why do you fight?" Shinji looked up. He must have dozed off, for he found himself sitting on the hard bench seat of a train. Sitting opposite him was a red haired boy, maybe six or seven years old. "Why do you live?"

The answer to both questions was the same, "To help people."

The train car swayed as the train continued to rattle along the tracks. Outside, the city was a burnt out wasteland, with the charred remains of buildings jutting out of the ruins.

"Is that because your own life is worthless?" the boy asked casually.

"No." As long as he was helping others, he had value.

"But they will ask more and more of you, until there is nothing left. Are you truly fine with that?"

"Yes."

"So you fight in order to let others destroy you."

Shinji had no answer. He curled in on himself, oblivious as the ruins outside burst into a silent conflagration.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

"Hello? This is Hikari Horaki. Can you put me through to Major Karutsagi?" Hikari held the receiver of the old fashioned land line phone as she stood in the corner of the shelter. They were told not to use the phone except in case of emergency, but Hikari couldn't care less about the rules right now. It was midnight, and she had been in the shelter for hours. It was mostly other students, and they were sleeping on the provided blankets, or reading quietly.

They had no news from the outside. She needed to know if Shinji was alright.

"Yes, I'll hold." She wanted to scream and rage, but she knew it wouldn't accomplish anything. So she stood quietly, and spoke in a calm voice as (yet again), she felt like her lungs were filled with ice water. 'It's not fair. I need to do more. Shinji is risking his life to protect me, I need to do more for him.'

The voice on the other line came back. "I am sorry, the Major is not available right now. I will transfer you to her voice mail box."

There was a click, and then the automated voice mail message.

Hikari slid to the floor, clutching the phone to her chest. That last moment with Shinji – their last kiss goodbye. Her mind kept going back to it. It felt too much like a premonition.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

"So, what have you got?" It was the middle of the night. Fortunately, the Angel had not moved from the spot where Unit 01 had been absorbed.

"It looks like the Angel's multidimensional space is not as big as we first thought. Maya ran some simulations based on the ripples we're seeing on the sphere, and I think we can pop it if we apply enough pressure into it." Ritsuko was still at her work station in the command center, working on a calculation as Misato leaned over her. Asuka and Rei had bunked down in the infirmary (on unused cots) while they waited.

"How?" Misato was skeptical. She was all in favor of killing Angels, but she was worried about Shinji. He was like a little brother. She had never had a family, not since her father had died 15 years ago, but now she had a second chance at a normal life.

"Just like with the fifth Angel, we'll have to requisition some weapons, except this time, we'll need N2 mines. According to my calculations, we'll need at least 800 to generate a pressure wave high enough to burst the Angel."

"And what happens to Shinji?"

Ritsuko looked away, "I know you are attached to him, but he's just one pilot."

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Shinji was exhausted - He had dozed briefly, experiencing strange, barely remembered dreams. He couldn't get comfortable in the pilot's seat, and breathing LCL was physically exhausting – the human lungs weren't designed for liquid.

But he didn't really want to sleep – he was worried that if he fell asleep, the creepy boy would be there, waiting for him. Then he would latch on to him and drain him of his will to live.

He pried his eyes open and looked around the cockpit. Nothing had changed. He had been in here for - he glanced at the clock – 10 hours. That means he had been awake for… 23 hours. The battery indicator was flashing red.

Shinji forced his eyes open again.

He examined the readouts. He had been asleep for five minutes. Nothing had changed. 'How long has the battery indicator been flashing?' He took a deep breath, but he his lunges demanded more. He gasped, but it was still not quite enough - there wasn't enough oxygen in the LCL.

At this rate he would die here.

He took another gasping breath as his head swam.

He was standing in a field with low rural-looking building in the background. Directly in front of him was a girl covered in pitch blackness. It was so dark that he couldn't make out who it was, but he was certain that it was Hikari. And she was in danger.

Shinji lunged to pull her free of the blackness, but an inky tentacle smashed into him, sending him flying to the ground. He rolled back to his feet, and out of nowhere, a sword appeared in his hand. He cut at the blackness, but it just stained his sword

'That's stupid - you can't cut a shadow,' but his dream self tried anyways. Again the sword did little to stop the tentacles that were reaching out for him, trying to grab him. He dodged one, and deflected another. A third caressed his cheek before he ducked under it, only to find himself face to face with the woman.

It wasn't Hikari.

She grabbed his face and pulled him into a passionate kiss as the blackness enveloped both of them.

"NO!" He tore at it with a feverish intensity. He had to get out. He had to get them both out.

No, he had to get away from the strange woman! She was toxic! She wasn't Hikari!

He rejected everything he saw and experienced, ripping it from his body in a hypoxic panic.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

"I would like to register my protest." Misato ground out as she stood at attention in the command center. She was exhausted, swaying on her feet after the sleepless night.

"Duly noted," Gendo acknowledged, "But I am taking direct command of this operation. If it is to succeed, it must follow Dr. Akagi's scenario precisely."

Ritsuko nodded, "prepare to drop the first salvo of N2 mines." She waited for a confirmation from the the first flight of VTOLs.

"Ready."

"Drop."

Ten N2 mines fell into the shadow, detonating and setting up a slight ripple along the surface.

"Drop round two."

Another twenty VTOL flew in, dropping a steady stream of 40 more N2 mines, the drops carefully spaced apart so that the ripples grew more and more extreme.

All of a sudden, the sphere above the shadow bulged, and a huge hand punched out.

A purple armored hand.

"This is not part of the scenario!' Ritsuko looked alarmed.

"It's Shinji!" Misato's face split into a grin, "Hold the attack. I repeat, do not drop!"

A second hand pushed through the tear, ripping the Angel back like a torn tent as Angelic ichor spewed forth onto the street below

Evangelion 01 squirmed out, like a moth exiting a cocoon, shrugging the angel off of its limbs, leaving bloody smears.

/\/\/\ Stay/Light /\/\/\

Shinji staggered out of the hospital. It was Saturday night - he had spent all afternoon in the hospital, recovering. The doctor had wanted him to stay the night, but today was supposed to be his day with Hikari, so he had insisted on checking out early. Misato had been expecting him to spend the night in the hospital, so he had to take the train to Hikari's apartment.

He rang the bell. And waited. Finally, the door opened.

"Hello."

Hikari stood for a moment before flinging herself at Shinji, enveloping him in a hug. "I'm so glad you are ok. Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

Shinji put his arms around his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry I missed today."

"You had more important things to worry about than letting me down. You almost died!" Shinji was out there, working to keep everybody alive, and he was worried that she would be upset that he missed a date. She felt so useless. She needed to make him understand how much she valued him. That she loved him.

Hikari took a step back, pulling Shinji into the apartment, "well, we still have the evening. And we have the apartment to ourselves."

"Ok." Shinji relaxed. Hikari wasn't angry with him for missing out everything. "Wait, where are we going?

Hikari lead him up to her room, before turning around, blushing furiously. "Here, help me take my shirt off." She started undoing her top button.