Shinji woke up rested and at ease.  That had been the best night of sleep that he had had in a long time.  Since he arrived in fact.  He looked around and found that Asuka had already gotten up.  Then he had a disturbing thought. <Omigosh,  I hope Misato didn't come in to say bye, and see her here.  But if she did, I would have heard something about it I would think.>

He got out of bed, and dressed, and went to the kitchen, where he saw Asuka making breakfast.  She looked up, and smiled, remembering the peaceful Shinji asleep in his bed when she woke up.  He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and tried to get his bearings.

"Where's Misato…"

"She left already.  She said that she didn't know when she would be home, because the meetings may go quickly, or they may drag on after dark."

"What did you plan on doing today?  Another movie?  Need some climbing lessons?" he chuckled.

"Hey!  That's not a very nice thing to day!.  Be good.  Besides, No, I don't need climbing lessons, not that I could with my ankle, but I thought I might put some weight on it today by going shopping." <Heh heh, good excuse, Asuka> "But I didn't know whether you would want…"

"Yeah, I'll go!"

He saw the surprise in her eyes. "That is if it's ok with you."

"Uhh, well, Ok, I didn't know you would be that willing to go out shopping with me.  Most guys don't do that kind of thing, even if it is with someone they like."

"Well, I just realized that I don't know you as well as I could, and that I should spend some time to get to know you.  Besides, I need groceries, because pickins are getting pretty slim around here now."

Asuka and Shinji finished their breakfast, talking about all sorts of things, fearing to touch on the subject that was most on their minds, fearing to disturb that peaceful moment.  Finally Asuka had to ask Shinji about it.

"Shinji, would you go out with me?"

Shinji choked on some tea that he had been drinking.  "I, well you see…yeah?

<Ever my unsure Shinji.>  She looked at him and smiled, placing her hand over his. "Great.  First thing We're gonna do is get you some clothes.  There is more to life than White shirts, and black slacks, yknow?"

<Man she can jump from one subject to another pretty fast!>"Well, I never paid very much attention to fashion.  Being in school most of the time when I lived with my uncle kind of got me in the habit of wearing the same thing every day.  Even now the only other thing I wear is my plug suit."

"I know, and that is exactly why we need to get you some more stuff to wear.  That plug suit my look good as some kind of high tech skin thingy, but it is just not fashion.  I have a little extra money, lets see what we can do."

After cleaning up, they headed out, and spent most of the morning going through stores, Shinji trying things on, Asuka giving him thumbs up or down, and just window shopping.  They held hands, and even kissed once or twice, but then disaster struck (at least in Asuka's mind).  There was Touji and Hikari, holding hands and coming down the walk.  Asuka tried to keep away, but Touji saw her and Shinji anyway.

"Hey Shinji!  What's going on? Oh my god!  The newlyweds.  Er, what the…  Oh no, Shinji your whipped." He let a groan out, and then turned to get hit on the back of the head by Hikari.

"That's no way to talk to anyone." She whispered fiercly.  "Asuka, this is a surprise.  I would never have thought that you and Shinji would have something going on without telling me first."

"Shinji!" Touji called for Shinji and waved him over for a conversation in private. "What are you doing?  That's the enemy!" he said motioning towards Asuka.

"She's not like that, yesterday, something just kind of just happened to us, and we ended up like this.  I don't know what happened, I oke up, and realized that I loved her.  She changed a lot yesterday, too."

"I guess, for you and her to get along like that.  I remember last Friday, she would beat you just for touching her.  Now you're holding hands!  Must have been some change."

Asukacame over, and interupted. "I am taking him away, you can have him back tomorrow at school.  But right now he's mine." That said, she and Shinji started walking away.

"Sorry, Touji.  I'll see you tomorrow.  Bye Hikari."

"I think we might want to go back home.  I don't want to have to stop anymore and talk to anyone about us.  It's not that I don't like our relationship, I just don't like talking about it with others, Shinji."

"I know, I think I feel the same way."

When they got home, Misato had just gotten in and went to take a bath.  They could hear the water running, and there was a line of clothes leading strait to the bathroom.

"Hmm, looks Misato had a rough day, if she's taking a bath in the middle of the afternoon."  Asuka observed, picking up the first article of clothing, a shoe.  "Tell me something was she always this messy?"

"It was ten times this bad when I got here.  There was junk every where.  Mostly liquor bottles and beer cans."

"Woof, I am glad I wasn't the first person in here after her."

They heard a grund and a moan from the bathroom, and Asuka pretty well knew what that meant. "looks like it wasn't that bad of a day after all.  She must not know we're here."

"I don't like this.  It's almost like we're spying on her."

"It's not that bad, I just want to know what she's fanaticizing about."

Asuka moved close to the bathroom door, and put her ear next to it.  She could almost feel the heavy breathing coming from the room beyond.  "Oh, unnnh, Shinji!"

Shinji's eyes bugged out so far they almost hit Asuka in the back of the head.  Asuka grabbed Shinji, and hauled him out of the apartment, and boy was she mad! She spun him around, so she could look at his face.  "What was THAT all about?!?"

"I…I…I never knew Misato would think about me that way!  I haven't done anything with her, if that's what you mean.  I mean, I am just 14 years old, what could she see in me?"

Asuka had to admit it was pretty good logic.  But still, what was she fantcizing about Shinji?  She turned and, still hold Shinji's hand (in a death grip) went back inside, this time closing the door hard enough to hopefully pull Misato out of her little erotic dreamworld.

After sitting in the living room for a few minutes, watching TV, Asuka wondered if Misato was going to come out.  Then she appeared, with a towel around her, and on her head.

"Oh, hi guys, how were things?  Where do you go?"

"Oh, we just went shopping, and got Shinji some new clothes." Asuka knew that that was a mistake just as it came out.  The old her would never have gone shopping with Shinji, never mind, buying HIM clothes.

"Well, that's nice Asuka, uhh, well, I am gonna get dressed, and hang around here tonight.  Kaji must have run out of money, or something, because he didn't offer to go out tonight.  Heh, heh."

Misato

Misato turned and went to her room, and started dressing.  She didn't know what to think about this whold Shinji and Asuka thing.  She had woken up this morning, and went to Asuka's room to tell her she might be home earlier, but don't count on it, but found that Asuka was not there.  She headed to Shinji's room to see that he was still there, but his door was locked; a lock that had only been installed (on nearly every door) at Asuka's suggestion.  She called to Shinji, and there was a grunt, and she explained the situation with herself, but that was all she heard out of him.  He was usually pretty responsive.

Was there a possibility that there was more to that than met the eye?

And then last night,  him being so careful, and protective of Asuka's foot!  Shinji had never displayed quite that level of care with chores or things that she gave him to do.

And now, Shinji and Asuka were shopping together?  It didn't take her long to surmise what was happening.  Shinji and Asuka had fallen in love.  That could be a dangerous thing she thought.  They are both EVA pilots, and the relationship would affect their piloting.  She didn't know whether it would be a good or bad impact, but it would never the less change their attack patterns.

She stepped out of her room, and into the living room, where the two were watching a gameshow.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, You both have new synch tests tomorrow after school, I know how much you hate them, but we have to see how your piloting is coming.  Asuka, you may think you are off the hook now, but your synch is still lower than it was when you came here. You really need to work on the concentration for this one.