Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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It was near the end of April and there were some definite changes going on in certain people's lives. For one Shinji and Asuka spent much more of their free time locked away in her room doing things to each other that felt incredibly good. Of course that only got to happen after Shinji was punished for running out with Kaji instead of paying attention to her on that one day when he first joined the ball team. The punishment was designed to be strict and harsh so it would teach him a lesson. And when Shinji finally got home that night Asuka grabbed a hold of him by his ear and dragged him into her room.

 

But she didn't yell at him, she did something much worse that made Shinji wish she had. She explained exactly what she wanted to do with him and how she wanted their relationship to progress. After she got done explaining the allowable fun and the limits she then informed him that even though she wanted to do these things she was mad at him for ditching her and that he was going to be severely punished for it. All the things she had talked about were off limits for two whole weeks along with the rest of her body.

 

This absolutely devastated Shinji and he apologized profusely for it but Asuka didn't change her stance. She wanted him to learn a lesson and this was the best way she figured he would. Personally Shinji wished she would have just used a cane and beat him senseless, at least this way when he came to he wouldn't have to wait any longer.

 

The flip side of this was of course what brought Asuka down. Not only did Misato tell her it was a dumb idea that wouldn't work when Asuka talked about it the next morning but Asuka also caved in the very next day. The whole Shinji not touching her backfired big time when she realized that not only was he being punished but so was she. This whole holding out as a way of punishing people she had heard from the other girls was a bunch of bullshit. It might of sounded good in theory but it failed in practice as she wanted Shinji to touch her and make her feel oh so good.

 

So when the two of them got home from school that afternoon she didn't let him out of her bedroom for the rest of the night. She rescinded the punishment and instead told him he had to make it up to her instead. This would explain why the two rarely left Asuka's room now. Hell Asuka even turned down a couple shopping trips on the weekend as she had zero desire to do anything but play with Shinji in new and exciting ways.

 

Personally Misato loved that this was happening. Not so much in that this meant a new level in their developing relationship but more in the way of they were out of her hair. She could almost swear her place was peaceful on some days.

 

Another difference was Rei. She was sort of falling in love too, but it was with her job. It wasn't what she was actually doing so much as she loved what she got to wear. At first putting on a kimono was difficult and she needed a lot of help but she was a quick learner and she eventually got to the point where she could do most of it herself. The style she was wearing was like what an unmarried woman would wear at a tea ceremony so it wasn't the most complicated version of the kimono.

 

But what she especially liked was the decorations she could put in her hair. Most commonly you would find her wearing a geisha style hairpin or a boxwood comb. She had a hard time deciding what she liked better and she got many compliments about how nicely they looked while she was at work. In fact she had stopped doing something she used to do on a bi-weekly basis because of this. She stopped getting her hair cut. She wasn't going to go for the long hair look like Asuka and Misato as she didn't think it would suit her looks but she was going to grow her hair out just a little more so that she could support one of those decorations in her hair a bit better.

 

The hardest part about her job was actually learning how to put on makeup. The restaurant wasn't going to go all the way and make the girls put on the whole geisha face paint thing as that would be too difficult of a thing to do on a regular basis but Rei was required to wear some. But a couple lessons from Li Mei and Misato was all it took for her to figure it out. As for her actual responsibilities, they were pretty simple. She would greet the patrons and bow respectfully and all that other stuff and then go seat them at their tables where their main waitress would take over. That was if you had a reservation though. If you didn't she would usually apologize and kindly suggest that you try the family restaurant below as they were booked for the night.

 

And truth be told other than a couple tables set aside for VIPs they never had room for walkups. The place had gotten some very high and flattering ratings from the many people who reviewed the restaurant and now it was the “it” restaurant in the city. If you wanted to dine there you better call ahead by at least four months or you weren't getting a table. Well that was unless you had connections but that is a whole different matter.

 

Rei wasn't the only one who liked what she was doing, Li Mei was very happy of the work Rei was doing too. Rei was working out perfectly and was actually the preferred hostess in her opinion as not only did Rei have an uncanny sense of etiquette that pleased most of the restaurant patrons but she also treated everyone the same. If a big celebrity stopped by most of the other girls got all starry eyed and sort of fawned on them but Rei never did. She would treat everyone equally, it didn't matter to her if you were the biggest movie star in Japan or just a couple on a romantic night out, you were going to get treated with the utmost respect and honor you deserved.

 

Of course that was also all you were going to get as she never showed special treatment to anyone and most of the time she didn't even know when she was seating someone famous. She really didn't keep up with who was who and usually didn't even know she seated a celebrity until someone told her afterwards. But that was a good thing as this was a place people like that visited to not be hassled over. Most of them just wanted a good meal in peace.

 

The only problem Rei really had was when ex-Nerv people showed up, they always seemed to embarrass her and make her blush. Mainly because the reaction by them was always the same as it was an astonished “Rei Ayanami is that you?” usually followed by a “Wow, you look beautiful!” Rei still wasn't very good with compliments but that actually added to her charm. It made her just that much more human and many people were glad to see her react like that. Although she had a sneaky feeling some of them did it on purpose just to make her blush or were put up to it by a calculating guardian.

 

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Kensuke was taking some batting practices when he tried to impress a girl. “Hey Kaiya! Watch me blast one over the fence.”

 

“You couldn't hit a homerun if your life depended on it” was her slanderous reply.

 

“Oh yeah, I bet you a date that I can hit the next pitch over the fence” There was a definite smirk on his face when he said that.

 

Unfortunately for Kensuke the girl had heard that particular line before. “Not a chance. I know all about that little trick you baseball players try. You bet a girl a date and then the pitcher serves up a gopher ball.” Kaiya then turned her attention back towards the girls she was trying to train. “And that is why you never date a baseball player. The honest ones are always taken and the rest can't be trusted.” There was much giggling from the cheer squad after that.

 

The catcher told Kensuke “I told you that wasn't going to work on her. It only works on the young ones who haven't heard it before.”

 

“Eh… She's hot enough were it was worth a try” Kensuke answered.

 

The catcher turned around and looked at Kaiya from behind “That is one sweet ass, I will give you that.” The catcher then turned back around “But I doubt you could have hit it over the fence.”

 

The pitch was then thrown and it was a gopher ball as had been planned. Kensuke took a big swing and made good contact with the ball. But even though he got a good hit on the ball the left fielder still caught it near the fence line.

 

There was a loud “LOSER!” yelled out after the catch was made.

 

Kensuke turned and looked over at where the team managers were sitting. On the other side of the fence from them was the source of that insult. “Shut it Red!”

 

“NO!” Asuka yelled back and laughed at him before returning to the conversation she was having with Hikari. “As I was saying, Misato wanted me to ask you if you might have time to baby sit Keiko for a couple hours either Friday or Saturday night.”

 

“You and Shinji aren't going to be around?” Hikari asked.

 

“No” Asuka answered. “On Friday I have to go to the college and take some stupid assessment test and I don't know how long that will take, Shinji said he would go over there with me. And on Saturday Shinji and I are going to that restaurant you told me about.”

 

“You're going to love that place” Hikari told her. “They have really good American food.”

 

“As long as they have a decent cheeseburger I'll be happy.” She then looked at the two girls she was sitting by. “Seriously I don't know what's up with you people and this fish thing you got going. You eat so much of it sometimes I'm surprised Japanese people don't have gills.”

 

This elicited laughter from Hikari. Asuka had adapted to Japanese life pretty well except for when it came to food. The girl liked her meat and while she would eat fish once in a while she clearly wasn't a fan of it. And that was just the basic cooked kind as there would be hell to pay if you tried to get her to eat sushi. Well hell and a long explanation about all the parasites and diseases you could get from ingesting raw fish. Never mind if you actually tried to tell her the truth that not all sushi was raw as she wouldn't listen to that and would just keep up on her spiel. “Don't worry Asuka, I saw a bunch of different kinds of burgers on the menu. And I'm pretty sure they were good as Touji got one and wolfed it down even before I got three bites into my meal.”

 

“And what exactly is new about that?” Asuka teased. Touji didn't get as big as he did by being a dainty eater, the boy had a tendency to eat whatever was put down in front of him with a general tenacity that could rival a sumo wrestler.

 

Secretly this was something that Hikari loved about him. It just made her feel good that he liked her cooking so much that he would devour it instantly. She then steered the conversation back onto its real course. “Tell Misato I can do Friday. Why does she need my help anyways?”

 

“She wants to go visit Rei at work actually” Asuka answered. “Plus her and Kaji haven't been out on a romantic date in a while so she thought she could kill two birds with one stone.”

 

“That's sweet of her” Hikari commented. “But I feel sorry for Rei getting stuck with working both Friday and Saturday night.”

 

“Don't be” Asuka answered. “She didn't get stuck working them, she volunteered to do it.”

 

The other girl in the conversation spoke up at that. “Why in the world would anyone do that?”

 

Asuka answered the girl, who happened to be the senior manager of the team. “I don't really know. I just chalk it up to Rei being Rei.”

 

“I would think that would make it hard to go on dates” The girl, Miki Koyasu, replied.

 

“That's not much of a concern for Rei” Asuka answered. “She's not the dating type.”

 

Miki knew who Rei was as she did stand out a bit in school. Plus she was a huge baseball fan so she tended to hang around guys a lot and kind of got herself ingrained with them. She was definitely a tomboy and as being accepted as one she heard a lot of things about which girls were hot and the such. “Really? From what I've heard from the boys a lot of them wouldn't mind taking a shot at her. She's something of a curiosity to most of them.”

 

“I know of quite a few guys that want to ask her out myself” Asuka answered but then explained. “But whether Rei realizes it or not she doesn't respond to any of the guys who try and test the waters with her.”

 

“Is she stuck up on a certain someone or something?” Miki asked.

 

Hikari shook her head no at that. “It's more like she's waiting for Mr. Right. Rei has a lot of trust issues and you would probably have to prove yourself to her even before she would respond to you let alone accept a date.”

 

“Sounds like she got jilted pretty bad in the past” Miki said. It wasn't like this was the first girl she had heard was like that.

 

“In ways you don't ever want to imagine” Asuka answered feeling bad for Rei. This was something she could understand about Rei very easily. When someone you see as a father figure betrays you it tends to stick in your head and can alter your view of people in general. You never want to experience that kind of hurt again so you will go a long way to prevent it, including shutting people out of your life.

 

Unfortunately this answer left the conversation at a hemming and hawing state as things were starting to sound depressing. Considering none of the girls wanted to really be depressed right now Asuka changed the subject. “Anyways… Thanks Miki for giving Shinji number 02.”

 

“Not a problem” Miki quickly answered as this was a wanted escape. “It's not like anyone else was asking for it. Most of the guys seem to like the higher number these days… But I'm sort of curious as he was persistent on that number.”

 

“That's because it's a special number to me and he was just being the good boyfriend that he is.” While this did answer Miki's question it was clear by the smirk on Asuka's face that the girl was also bragging. A not so unusual thing for Asuka to do as the senior manager had found out early on. But considering she hung around with jocks most of the time it was nothing new to her.

 

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If you ever asked Rei why she worked on Fridays and Saturdays though she would give you a different answer. She did it as a nice gesture to her employers. Both Mr. Zukav and his wife treated her very nicely and she wanted to return the favor to them. She had found out pretty early on that most of the rest of the girls didn't want to work those nights and poor Li Mei had to basically pull teeth to get someone to work even one of the two nights let alone both of them. So since she had nothing better to do she volunteered to work those nights.

 

Along with Friday and Saturday she also worked on Tuesday and Wednesday. All her shifts ran from 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm as that was the prime eating time and when business was heaviest. While she wouldn't have minded working another day or even some longer hours on the weekend she knew better than to ask that. She had a strict 20 hour time limit as Misato thought any more time would cut into her studies and she was told her education always came before her employment. She knew from past experiences it was best not to argue that point.

 

On most days Rei would actually go in a bit early as that way she could get something to eat before her shift so she wouldn't be so hungry during it. Plus she didn't agree with the other girls who included getting dressed up in their outfits as part of their work time. She was under the impression that if you were to start at 4:30 that meant you were out on the floor and ready to work then, not in the back room still getting changed. This work ethic was a very refreshing change of pace from what most other teenagers had so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Rei was a favored employee.

 

Right now though it was around 8:30 pm and Rei was on a fifteen minute break. She got two of them during each of her shifts and she usually took them when things weren't so busy. There was more to this than just being a responsible employee as when things lightened up she tended to get some company on her break, Li Mei. If Rei wanted to she could take her break in the sushi bar area like most of the other girls who worked in the fancy restaurant but that place sort of bugged her. Sure she could get some very good sushi, something she very much liked, for free of charge but that didn't mean it didn't come with a different price. The Sushi bar was kind of a singles place and she tended to get hit on, a lot. What disturbed her the most though was when she would mention she was underage and the guy would just answer “So?”

 

It only took a couple instances of that for her to get chased downstairs into the more family style restaurant. Plus she was more fond of home style cooking than the fancy stuff anyway. And also it was a little less hectic down where she sat. Like outside there was a counter with a bunch of bar stools in front of it inside the restaurant too. During the winter this area was pretty busy but now that it was nice outside most of the people who would sit in this area had moved outside leaving it uncongested and sort of peaceful. Well that was if you could drown out in your mind the din of young children coming from the tables and booths of the restaurant. But for Rei this was easy and right now she was talking with Li Mei who also took a break from overseeing her kitchen.

 

“So what do you think?” Li Mei asked as she was using Rei as a guinea pig for a new peanut sauce she created. She commonly liked to get input from her employees before she put something on the menu.

 

Rei though coughed a couple times and took a big drink of water before telling her “It's too spicy for me.”

 

“Hmm? Maybe I used too much wasabi” Li Mei wondered out loud. Considering Rei had to take another drink it was probably true. “Thank you for your honest opinion.”

 

Rei's polite reply was interrupted by a “Hello ladies” and Kensuke sat down next to Rei.

 

Li Mei looked at him curiously “Since when do you actually sit down?”

 

“Since I have to wait for three more tamagoyaki's to get made before I take off” Kensuke answered and then stuck a finger into the peanut sauce to take a taste of it. “Hey, that's pretty good.”

 

“Now I know it's too spicy Mr. Asbestos tongue” Li Mei teased. Kensuke was a fan of the hot stuff and his tolerances were higher than the average person so if it was good to him that meant it was too much for the costumers.

 

Kensuke just sort of smirked at that. His better than average tolerance of the hot stuff was something of a bragging rights thing. Kensuke then turned his attention towards Rei “I like that hairpin.” But even before Rei could thank him for the compliment someone from back in the kitchen called out telling Kensuke his take out orders were ready. “Time to fly, see ya girls.” And just like that he was gone.

 

Li Mei chuckled at that “Consider yourself lucky Rei. You actually got to see Kensuke sit still for longer than three seconds.”

 

Rei sort of smiled at that. When she first started working here she expected she would be running into him all the time but that simply was not the case. This was probably the most she had seen him since she started working. Kensuke was always on the move either delivering food or coming back to the restaurant to get more. They even worked similar days as the best days for tips were Friday and Saturdays but she rarely saw him. Some of this had to do with they worked in completely different parts of the restaurant though. In fact as far as anyone knew Kensuke hadn't even seen the inside of the new part of the restaurant. He didn't really fit in with that high society crowd so he never saw a reason to go up there. And truthfully Rei wasn't all that impressed with the high society crowd either. A lot of over inflated egos crammed into fancy clothes was her general opinion. Rei let out one more relaxing breath and took another drink of water. Her break was going to be over soon but before it was she rearranged her hairpin so it would fit better.

 

“Ooops, here let me help you with that” Li Mei told her as without a mirror it was hard to get a hairpin just right. And with a couple hairs moved around and the pin tilted just so slightly it looked perfect. “Have you ever thought of wearing a hairpin outside of work?” she asked. “Because they really do look good on you.”

 

Rei blushed just a tiny bit as she admitted she had. And if you went into her apartment you would discover that she had already bought a couple of them. She hadn't worn any of them yet but as the days went by she was more and more tempted to see what kind of reaction she would get if she wore one to school.

 

After a couple more spruce ups by Li Mei, Rei headed up the stairs towards the hostess stand and took over for the girl who filled in for her while she was on brake. She looked down on the list and noticed a pair of names. She knew she was about to be teased in just a matter of minutes, and in fact she was right. When a particular couple walked up Rei bowed properly to them and said “Welcome to Shin Seiki's Mr. and Mrs. Hyuga.”

 

Maya smiled brightly at Rei as she complemented her “Oh don't you look so beautiful.”

 

Rei blushed again as she bowed and said “Thank you” politely. That wasn't the end of it though as Maya had her turn around and model herself off so she could see the whole outfit. It was at times like this she wouldn't have minded having her face completely covered with makeup. Then no one would be able to see her face as it turned a bright shade of red.

 

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Asuka and Shinji were walking from the college over to the train station. “Sorry about that Shin-kun. If I would've known she was planning on making you take the test too I wouldn't have asked you to come along.”

 

“It's ok” Shinji told her. “I have a feeling I didn't really have a choice in this matter… and it's sorta my fault.” There was a ring of truth to that statement as just a couple days before while Asuka was grousing about having to take the test Misato asked him if he had thought about what career field he was planning on going in to. He realized now that his answer of “No. I will figure that out next year” probably didn't sit too well with Misato. And it wasn't like the test was all that hard, sure there was a difficult question or two but for the most part it asked questions pertaining to certain careers and what you would rather do. “So do you want to stop somewhere and get dinner or go home?”

 

Asuka was tempted to stop at a restaurant but she knew she was short on money right now. She probably had just enough for the restaurant she was going to eat at tomorrow and she knew Shinji wasn't all that much better off in the financial department than her so she was forced to make her decision based on that. “Let's just go home.”

 

“Ok” Shinji answered and then proposed the more important question “Long way or short way?”

 

Now this was a difficult question for Asuka to answer. The long way meant that they would get off the train a couple stops early and slowly walk home, making sure to take a side trip to stop and kiss under some cherry blossom trees in the park along the way. The short way had its advantages too as if they got off at the stop just a few blocks from their apartment complex that meant they could race home and get to the sweaty good stuff faster. Plus since it was Friday that meant they could mess around with each other all night. A very inviting thought for Asuka.

 

But she recognized there were a couple other factors involved in making this decision. First and foremost when they got home they would most likely find company there. And it would be sort of rude to go lock themselves in her room when Hikari was in the middle of babysitting Keiko. Also added to this was that Asuka was feeling like she might want a little romance first anyway. “Long way Shin-kun.”

 

Shinji smiled at this and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. He knew sometimes Asuka just liked to be held closely and told that she was loved. This was probably one of those nights and he was pretty sure cuddling together with her under a tree and telling her that he loved her in-between kisses was something she would really appreciate. He had learned enough in his relationship so far on how to be romantic and make a girl feel really special. And considering who he was dating this was a big thing.

 

So the long way it was and a short time later the two of them wandered off the park path towards a pretty cherry blossom tree that still had a couple blossoms on it. Shinji picked one of the blossoms and put it in Asuka's hair telling her she looked very pretty.

 

Asuka blushed at that. If it was anyone else who said that to her she wouldn't have even reacted but Shinji was special. His opinion meant so much more to her than everyone else's so when he told her stuff like that she was genuinely affected by it. And as they sat down together under the tree and kissed he told her all the right words.

 

To Asuka though this was a simple task from Shinji, she wasn't impressed with flowery words so the true words of “I love you” were all she needed to hear. And the more times Shinji said them to her the happier she felt. That was one of the good things about Shinji, she didn't have to be tough and aggressive around him. She could be a soft and demure girly-girl in front of him and he would think nothing less of her. In fact she suspected Shinji liked it when she was like this as this was closer to the real her than she would let the world see.

 

So as she sat there in his lap, greatly enjoying the romantic open mouth kiss she was sharing with him, she just let herself be what she was. A young woman who was expressing a deep bond of love with her boyfriend.

 

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As Shinji and Asuka walked into their home they saw Hikari had brought Touji along with her again. The boy right now was plopped right down in the middle of the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. He had a pop in one hand and the other was digging in a bag of chips. His attention was mainly focused on the TV though and he barely noticed the two of them come in.

 

Normally Asuka would tease the stooge about how much of a typical guy he was but right now Shinji was heading over towards the TV too. There was a baseball game on and anything she said to Touji would have to be implied onto Shinji as well as the two boys started talking.

 

“What's the score?”

 

“Tigers 3 and the Giants 4” Touji replied. “But the Tigers were up by 2 before their relief pitcher came on.”

 

“Typical” Shinji replied sitting down. “The Tigers have got to have the worst pitchers in the league this year.”

 

“You can say that again” Touji said and it was at this point Asuka stopped paying attention to the two.

 

It was best to just let the two of them be and they could talk about sports all they wanted. She instead went looking for Hikari, which wasn't much of a hard search as she knew where she would be. Hikari was in Keiko's room rocking the sleeping child. In a quiet voice she teased Hikari “Well don't you just look all maternal.”

 

Hikari just smiled at Asuka, she was enjoying taking care of Keiko. She may not have been ready to have a kid herself but she really did like taking care of them. And while Keiko was her favorite little one to look after, she wasn't her only one. With school, after school activities, and family responsibilities she didn't have time to get a real job during the school year so this was a good way for her to pick up some extra cash. And while she had a small clientele base they were reliable and if she wanted to she could easily get a job babysitting at least once a week. She got paid good money for it too but in truth if Misato had asked her to she would have taken care of Keiko for free. But that was the good thing about Misato she didn't due stuff like that, in fact she usually paid her the most for babysitting. But for right now she just sat there gently rocking Keiko while the little girl slept.

 

Asuka could tell that Hikari was happy right now so she left the room and just let Hikari have her fun. But at the same time she didn't want to be bored so she walked over to where the boys were talking sports. She then proceeded to plop down right on Shinji's lap and proclaimed “Pay attention to me.”

 

Shinji chuckled lightly at that. From the way Asuka said that it was clear she was just looking for some fun so he teased her “How about I explain baseball to you?”

 

Asuka switched her voice over to a ditzy and bubble headed one. “Could you please? I don't know anything about baseball.”

 

This turned into a very sarcastic conversation as Shinji, with mock seriousness, explained the intricacies of baseball as Asuka acted like she was all amazed and confused about the sport. Touji actually started laughing halfway through. And truthfully this was more entertaining than the game as the Giants had just scored two more runs and it was starting to look like a slaughter fest.

 

But then Asuka asked about what all those hand signals meant. Shinji may have gone over the basic ones but that was about it as he seriously explained this time “Just about every coach has different hand signals so the other teams can't steal them. On television you basically have to wait until after the play to see what the coach was telling them to do.”

 

“That's seems overly complicated” Asuka commented switching back to her normal voice.

 

“It is” Touji answered her. “I know the basics but the hundred other ones the coach has go over my head most of the time.”

 

Asuka looked back at Shinji “Do you understand them all?”

 

“Nope” Shinji said while shaking his head. “The coach seems a little obsessed with signals and it's hard to keep track of them all. I think he even has a signal to stomp on the ants in the infield.”

 

Touji laughed again at that one. “I saw that one four times last year and I still don't know what it means.”

 

“Don't you have a playbook or something that explains them all?”

 

Touji shook his head no at that. “The coach is worried that if he writes them all down someone's going to steal it.”

 

“Then how are you supposed to know them all?” Asuka asked as this was sounding stupider by the second.

 

“He went over them really quickly in the clubhouse once in the very beginning” Shinji answered his girlfriend. “But he won't do it again because he thinks other teams send spies.”

 

“Ok, now I'm thinking baseball is a huge waste of your time again Shin-kun.”

 

“I hate to tell you this Red, but the coach is right” Touji told Asuka.

 

Asuka just shifted her eyes over towards Touji and gave him a crass “Yeah, right.”

 

“No it's really true” Touji insisted. “Just look around you next time at practice. There are kids there from other schools that watch us to try and figure things like that out and report on our team.”

 

“You got to be kidding me?” as that was one of the most moronic things she had ever heard. But when both Shinji and Touji shook their head no to that she told them both “That's pathetic.”

 

Even though they both played on the team neither of them disagreed with Asuka. Plus they didn't want to tell Asuka the flip side of that truth, some of the guys who just missed out on making the team were promised tryout slots next year if they agreed to do the same thing for their coach and spy on other teams this year.

 

Asuka then asked the golden question “So does anyone on the team know all the signals?”

 

“None of the other players, that's for sure” Shinji answered as he had asked around to try and figure out the ones that he missed but rarely did he find another player who could answer his questions.

 

Hikari had come out of Keiko's bedroom at this point and had heard the tail end of this conversation. “Try asking Miki next time. She's probably the only one who knows all of them.” She then sat down next to Touji and tried to tell them which ones she knew. Truthfully it wasn't that many more than what Shinji and Touji knew as she herself was still learning what all of them meant.

 

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Misato and Kaji got home at about 10:00 pm. They had a nice romantic dinner, got to see Rei doing her job, and even had a nice conversation with the owners of the establishment. The resulting conversation pleased Misato greatly as Li Mei and Zukav couldn't say enough good things about Rei. But now they were home and they saw two sets of teenagers watching a baseball game. Touji and Hikari were on the couch together and Shinji and Asuka were sitting together in the recliner. The game must have not been very interesting as there was more conversation happening than baseball watching.

 

Kaji took this as a bad sign and asked “How bad is it this time?”

 

“10 to 4 in the bottom of the seventh” Touji replied. “And I think the Giants are taking pity on them right now.”

 

“Well what else is new” Kaji sighed as he walked away towards his room to go change out of his fancy clothes.

 

While Kaji was wondering about the game Misato had gone to check on her kid. And considering little Keiko was sleeping soundly in her crib right now everything appeared to be just fine. She walked out of the room and over to the couch where Hikari was sitting “So everything went all right tonight?”

 

“Pretty good” Hikari answered. “She didn't want to drink her milk but other than that nothing out of the ordinary.”

 

Even that wasn't out of the ordinary to Misato as the little one was a bit fussy at times. She smiled knowing that everything went well and she gave Hikari some money for taking care of her baby. Hikari counted out the money and noticed it was double her usual amount. “You don't have to pay me this much” Hikari told her.

 

“Two babysitters requires twice the pay” Misato informed her.

 

Hikari raised an eye at that. Touji had only come over to keep her company, he had nothing to do with the babysitting. She was tempted to argue the point but she knew Misato was just trying to help her out so she didn't say anything more. Plus she sort of wanted to get going so she said good night to all of them and she left with Touji.

 

While walking out of the complex Touji looked at his watch “It's still early, you wanna go do something?”

 

“How about we go back to your place for a little while?” Hikari offered.

 

That offer was gladly accepted and the two made their way over to his apartment. When they got there they saw two people sitting on the couch watching the game. Both didn't notice them come in though as they were sound asleep. “It must be a really bad game if both gramps and pops fell asleep” Touji chuckled.

 

Hikari smiled at that and continued to pull him towards his room as she had something more romantic than a baseball game on her mind. They had to sneak past Mari's, Touji's little sister, room as they weren't sure if she was still awake or not. Luckily she was sleeping. If she wasn't their romantic interlude might have been kyboshed as she loved to talk to Hikari. And while Mari was older now and starting to understand the whole boy/girl thing better she was still only 11 so she didn't always pick up on the clues that her big brother just wanted some alone time with Hikari. (A/N: Fucking Rebuild Morons! Why'd you have to take the name I gave to Touji's little sister and use it for glasses girl. Screw them, I'm not changing it.)

 

But that wasn't a concern tonight as the two entered his room and shut his door. Hikari went over to his bed and laid down on it, presenting a very alluring sight to Touji. It wasn't long before the two were making love to each other. And the two of them had been in this kind of relationship long enough where they knew what they were doing. It was a more romantic and loving type of sex. Hikari usually desired this kind after she had got done babysitting. She was just full of maternal thoughts and dreams and that manifested into a perceived closeness she wanted to feel. But don't get the girl wrong as she could be aggressive too and she wasn't always such an innocent woman in bed. She liked it hot and sweaty sometimes and she found Touji's muscles a huge turn on in that area.

 

But right now it was sweet and loving and when it was over Hikari turned to him and softly said “I don't want this night to end.”

 

Touji gave her a kiss before answering “It doesn't have to. I'll walk you home.” This was code for he would sneak into her room and spend the night with her.

 

And it was exactly what she wanted him to do so when she finally got home just before curfew she had him sneak around back while she went in the front door. Just like always Hikari's dad was up and waiting for her. “Hi daddy. I'm home now.” After she said that though she noticed he still had a sour look on his face. Considering she was home on time the look probably wasn't because of her. “I take it Nozomi isn't home yet is she?”

 

Bearing in mind that Nozomi wasn't even sixteen yet her curfew was actually earlier than Hikari's so the fact that his older daughter got home first wasn't a good one. He answered with a gruff “No.”

 

Hikari didn't want to be around when her little sister did get home as she knew there would be a lecture so she told him “I'm going to go to bed now. Good night daddy.”

 

Mr. Horaki gave his daughter a kiss on her head and told her good night in return as he waited for his other daughter, who was dangerously going on over an hour past curfew, to get home.

 

Hikari was tempted to try and calm her dad down a bit but Nozomi had this coming in her opinion. Hikari may have broken curfew once or twice before herself but her little sister was making a habit out of it. Plus this situation acted as a good decoy as it let Touji sneak up the trellis outside her room without being caught. And when Hikari got into her room she was quick to close and lock her door. She had good reason to as there was a pair of outstretched arms waiting to embrace her. And embrace her they did as she quickly undressed and gave herself to Touji.

 

Gave herself was probably a generous softer version of what was really happening as Hikari didn't even hear her sister's loud grumblings when she got upstairs after her lecture by her father. She was too busy trying to conceal her erotic cries of passion into a pillow while she clutched at her sheets. This was one of those nights when she knew she was going to be very tired the next morning as she predicted correctly there was going to be no sleeping going on tonight for her and Touji.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

After Hikari and Touji left Shinji and Asuka made their way over to her room. They had waited and played good hosts long enough and within seconds the clothes were off. Given the right motivation Asuka could get Shinji to be aggressive with her, and right now that motivation was her grabbing onto her headboard and a pair of widely spread legs. The `I'm a dirty girl' look she was giving him probably attributed to his actions as well but she wasn't able to hold the look for long. It wasn't so much that Asuka was a wuss in bed but that she was rather sensitive. And being the sensitive girl she was she got lost in her emotions rather easily.

 

Shinji actually found this helpful in his seduction of Asuka as if they were just playing around she would speak in Japanese but if he was doing something right those Japanese words would get replaced by German ones as Asuka would forget what language she was speaking. After all her first language was actually German and not Japanese so her words of passion came out in the tongue of her motherland.

 

Right now though he knew he was licking the right area as Asuka cried out “Ich liebe Dich soviel, Shin-kun!!!”

 

Personally this was his favorite phrase because not only did it tell him how Asuka felt about him but also it did wonders for his ego. There was just something about knowing he could make Asuka come that made him feel proud of himself. Of course this manifested itself in an unbalanced sexual relationship between the two but considering it was unbalanced by free will it was very workable. Basically Shinji just went down on Asuka longer and more times than Asuka went down on him. He had already been told a hundred times by Asuka that this wasn't necessary but that never stopped him, he just simply liked to please her.

 

Eventually Asuka gave up and let him do whatever he wanted as technically she was the one getting the most out of this. She did feel guilty from time to time about it but if she ever brought it up it would only lead to Shinji explaining that no guilt was needed and most likely him going down on her again to prove it. A very odd and jumbled sexual relationship it was but considering who we are dealing with, anything else would just be plain unbelievable.

 

And it wasn't like Asuka didn't have a breaking point, she did. In fact it was three times in a row and once Shinji tried to exceed that she would sort of “force” her way on him. Forcing is probably a strong word to use as Shinji never fought back and he liked what Asuka would do to him. She would simply pull him up to her so they were face to face and then she would pin him on his back. And with her hands pinning him down she would use a much more playful and sensuous way to stroke him off while admonishing him for being a bad boy.

 

Personally this was Asuka's favorite way to please Shinji as not only did the rubbing of the most intimate of body parts feel good to her too but all it would take was for Shinji to make one minor move and just like that he would have snatched her virginity. But he never did and she didn't have to worry about it because she trusted him. Of course after she got him off he always wanted some playful retribution and she would find herself sitting up against him and his hands between her legs. There were days that Asuka would actually get up afterwards and kiss that massage book. The techniques it taught Shinji went way past just clinical at times and she could not have been happier.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Love must have been in the air that night as across the apartment in another closed off room were two people greatly enjoying themselves. But they weren't playing around like Shinji and Asuka, they were going at it. And while Touji and Hikari had been doing it for quite a while they weren't at the experience level of the two who were rocking each other's worlds. There was moaning and groaning, heavy breathing and panting, cries of absolute pleasure, and so much more as Misato and Kaji lost themselves to each other. This was sex at its finest and the only thing that was going to stop this was a cry coming out from the baby monitor in their room. But Keiko was a good girl as she slept through the night letting her parents fully enjoy each other.

 

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*********** OOO ***********

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It was the middle of May on a sunny Saturday morning. Kensuke stretched as he was just getting up out of bed and getting ready for his longest day. Saturdays were very kind to him in the tips department and he had no problems working the noon to midnight shift. And truthfully he wasn't missing anything as his main friends always seem to be sluggish and not wanting to do anything on Saturdays. Add to this his inability to get a date and there was regretfully no reason for him not to work the whole day.

 

But as Kensuke stretched out his legs so did his bedmate. Unfortunately after his bedmate stretched out his front legs he stretched out his back and then let out a little cry of “Meow.” Somewhere along the line Kensuke had picked up a cat. It wasn't like he meant to or was looking for one, it just happened. Technically he wasn't even supposed to have it as the apartment complex he lived in had a strict no pets rule but the cat was quiet for the most part and as long as his neighbors didn't find out he wasn't worried.

 

So as Kensuke got out of bed he made his way over to the kitchen. He picked up a water bowl and filled it with fresh water and then got a can of cat food out of his cabinet. With his cat's morning meal now taken care of he tended to himself next. He opened his fridge and grabbed a container of orange juice. Being the bachelor he was he drank the juice straight out of the carton. If he used a glass he would just have to clean it later so why bother.

 

Next up was his breakfast, he dug through the collection of takeout leftovers in there until he found a couple things that looked halfway decent. One was actually a fancy sounding European dish with duck and Cornish game hen, the other was a plain order of stir-fried noodles. Food was food to him so he just poured the contents of one box into the other and mixed them together and had that for breakfast. If he had done this in the restaurant he would have caused a heart attack to the chef who had made the fancy meal and then would have got an “ewww… gross” from the girls as he didn't even bother to heat it up.

 

After he finished up his breakfast Kensuke made his way over to the bathroom, got cleaned up, showered, and then dressed for the day. Once all that was finished it was time for him to leave so he said bye to his cat and left the apartment. He took the elevator down to the complex's garage and got on his moped and away he went.

 

When Kensuke arrived at Shin Seiki's he parked his moped on the sidewalk just outside the restaurant and walked into the kitchen area. “Hey Li Mei, hey everyone.”

 

Li Mei looked up from her wok “Hey Kensuke. We already have a couple orders for you. Why don't you punch in and then make a run up to the university.”

 

“Ah drunken college kids in search of their hangover meals” Kensuke joked. “Could there ever be a more stable customer?”

 

Li Mei just smiled at him while shaking her head at that to herself. As true as that was the connotation behind it was not desirable and he didn't need to be pointing it out. But it was good business and they were there to feed the masses, no matter what condition they were in, so off went Kensuke with a bunch of orders all going to the same general vicinity.

 

All in all Kensuke generally liked his job. He wasn't tied down to any particular location and got to explore a great many places and meet a great many people. He delivered food to everyone from lowly street bums to executives of fortune 500 companies. A lot of his business was repeat customers as well and in many places he was widely known. Right now he was in one of those places and as he zipped around the campus going to and from the various dorms he waived a courteous hi to many older kids who knew him. Being a person who brought them food made him a pretty popular guy around the place.

 

His personal favorite places to visit in this section of the town were the girls' dormitories and the sorority houses. Most of those places weren't use to boys roaming around the halls so it wasn't all that unusual for the girls to walk around in only their underwear as they made their way from their rooms to the bathroom. This job had definite perks at time. With the perks came reality though and the fact was he was just a high school kid. They weren't interested. Although if they were drunk enough sometimes they would offer kisses in exchange for food but regretfully that sort of exchange of goods and services was looked down upon by his bosses so he had to always turn the girls down, even as tempting as it was sometimes.

 

Right now though he was standing outside one of the dorm floors pushing the speaker button “Shin Seiki's Delivery.”

 

He heard a friendly reply of “Come on in” and there was a beep as the automatic lock on the door opened. He went inside and wandered down the girl's hall looking for the right room number. Once found he knocked on the door and an attractive young woman answered. “I thought that was you Kensuke.”

 

This was one of his regulars. “Hello Tomoko” he then spied another sort of regular there, her boyfriend “Hey Aya.”

 

Aya got up from the bed “Oh man Kensuke you're a lifesaver, I'm starving.”

 

“You're always starving” Tomoko kidded while taking some money out of her purse as Kensuke handed the food to Aya. “Here, keep the change.”

 

“Thank you very much” Kensuke replied while bowing respectfully. “And I hope you enjoy your meal.” Kensuke liked Tomoko because she would always say thank you back unlike a vast majority of customers who would only grunt something while shutting the door on him. While it was his job to be respectful to the customers he was always appreciative of any respect that was given back.

 

With that delivery done he had only one more to make so he left the dorms and headed over to the main campus itself. Every Saturday he made a delivery to Professor Fuyutsuki in his office. While the professor was the dean of sciences at the college on the weekends you could find him in his office working on something outside the field. He was getting up there in age so he decided to write a memoir of his life before he started to forget things. He wanted to write down what he knew and his take on what had happened during the time that he had lived.

 

Basically he wanted people to know the truth about all that really happened. But he wasn't going to capitalize on this endeavor as he was going to donate his future book to the school's historical library upon his death. He figured by then the world would be ready to hear what really happened. He was currently sitting at his computer lost in a dream like world as he was trying to describe the first time he met Yui Ikari. That woman still had sway over his heart all these years later. He was interrupted though by a knock on the door and a “Shin Seiki's Delivery.”

 

“Oh yes… ahh just a second” Kouzou replied shaking himself out of his dream world and getting up to answer the door.

 

When he did he saw Kensuke standing there “Here you go Professor. One order of the specialty of the house, Li Mei's dim sum.”

 

Kouzou took the food and opened it so he could smell the delectable odor. “Ahhh… No one makes dim sum like Li Mei. I am going to enjoy this.”

 

“I will be sure to tell her that” Kensuke answered as he was paid. Then he bowed respectfully and said “Thank you for ordering from Shin Seiki's”

 

Fuyutsuki was a man from the older times when manners was a respected thing and he bowed in return and thanked Kensuke for the delivery. And after that Kensuke took off back towards the restaurant to pick up some more food.

 

When he got there he announced he was back and went over to the till to ring up the orders he delivered. Li Mei walked up to him after that and shoved a harumaki in his mouth. “So what do you think?”

 

“Pretty good” Kensuke replied, he loved being Li Mei's favorite target for new food she was testing out, “But what's the unusual flavor? I don't think I have tasted this before.”

 

“It's a sweet corn relish the chef upstairs made one day. I thought it might work in some of my dishes” Li Mei answered.

 

Kensuke gave the harumaki a thumb's up as he liked the flavor and said “That one may be a keeper.”

 

This was one of the reasons why she liked to test out her food on Kensuke, he always liked it. It was pretty simple to please the kid as he wasn't all that picky about what he ate. Li Mei then marked his approval on a little notepad she carried around in her apron. She would test this dish out on quite a few people and if enough of them liked it she would give it a trial run on the menu as a special. Right now though she had a big order for Kensuke. “I need you to run downtown and deliver a big order to the Sony Corporation. It should be complete in just a minute.”

 

“Yes ma'am” Kensuke replied and started putting the food that was already done in a special box designed to keep orders warm that he had strapped to the back of his moped earlier in the morning. When he was loaded up and ready to go he took off in search of his next destination.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Kensuke parked his moped outside a very big and shiny building. It was one that he knew well as it had the latest in gaming technology, among other things inside of it. Sure for the most part he couldn't afford most of the stuff inside there but it was still fun to look at. And if he had the time he would stop off on the demo floor and play the newest games for a second or two and maybe look at the latest in digital cameras.

 

Today wouldn't be such a day as he knew it was a busy one so he unstrapped the warming box from his bike and put it down on the ground. The good thing about these boxes is they had wheels on the bottom and an extendable handle so you could haul the whole thing around when you got orders large enough that they took up the whole box. Kensuke walked up to the receptionist area in the lobby and told the woman behind the desk “I have a delivery from Shin Seiki's for Mr. Mitsuishi.”

 

The receptionist smiled at him politely and nodded her head while picking up a phone. “Mr. Mitsuishi, your delivery has just arrived.” … “Yes sir, I will send him right up.” She turned her attention back to Kensuke “They are waiting for you up on the 31st floor. It's the board room directly on your left from the elevator.”

 

“Thank you very much ma'am” Kensuke replied and made his way over to the elevator.

 

This was the part of his job that wasn't always so delightful, he disliked elevator trips while he was delivering food. There always had to be the one joker in the elevator that made some lame ass joke about the food, and what was worse is that most of the time all the jokes were the same. Didn't matter what building he went to he was greeted with the same bad jokes.

 

Then there was the middle management people, they were the worst. They were high enough on the corporate food chain where they could boss people around but not high enough to realize you have to respect your employees if you want them to work to their potential. Sadly one of those types got on the elevator as he was going up. Here Kensuke was with a box full of food in his arms trying to take up as little space as possible to be courteous to the other people on the elevator and this jerk looks at him and orders him to push the elevator button for his floor. Never mind that Kensuke didn't even work for the guy or that he would have to put down the big, and heavy, warming box he was carrying or that the jerk was standing right next to the control panel and could do it his damn self he still tried to order Kensuke around thinking he was a big shot.

 

Luckily for Kensuke there were normal people going up too and one of them pushed the button for him. He thanked that person and they continued to go up. But as they did people started to filter out and no one took their places, leaving Kensuke alone with the middle manager. The guy looked at him and said “You know, there's no future in delivering food. If you want to get to be as important as me it would serve you to get a better job.”

 

Kensuke just answered with a “Yes sir” while biting his tongue. The guy was too high up on himself for his own good. But Kensuke did get some satisfaction as on the 31st floor there was someone waiting for him. The manager in the elevator seemed surprised to see this person and immediately stepped in front of Kensuke and said “Mr. Mitsuishi, sir. It is a privilege to see you sir.”

 

Mr. Mitsuishi was an older gentleman with very little hair and what of it there was had turned white long ago. He had to step forward and look at the guys employee badge before he could respond to the gentleman but after he did he told the guy “Could you kindly please step out of the way of young Kensuke there. I have a conference room full of hungry people waiting for him.”

 

The guy gulped as he said “Yes sir” and got out of the delivery boy's way.

 

As Kensuke left the elevator though he had a smirk on his face. The guy may have been middle management but Mr. Mitsuishi was way out of his league in the corporate food chain. Kensuke then walked slowly with Mr. Mitsuishi towards the conference room, the old man had to use a cane to get around so he wasn't the fastest guy in the world anymore.

 

“So young Kensuke, how has business been today?”

 

“Pretty good Mr. Mitsuishi” Kensuke answered respectfully to this elder. While Mr. Mitsuishi was a typical friendly old guy he also deserved to be treated with great respect as he was one of the patriarchs of this company. He was widely known around the town as being a very generous philanthropist and well thought of as his company was one of the first to move back into the new/old Tokyo area bringing a lot of jobs with it in the process. “So how is everything with you today?”

 

“Other than the usual aches and pains, I can't complain” he answered in an old man style. “But I have been meaning to ask you something son, do you know who that beautiful new girl is that works with you?”

 

This was something that always made Kensuke laugh. The guy may have been older than the hills but he still always wanted to know about the pretty ladies he saw. And since he could understand the guy's curiosity he usually gave up the info to him. “We have had several pretty ladies join up this spring. Which one are you talking about?”

 

The old guy's eyes sparkled a bit as he said “The one with that most exotic and beautiful blue hair.”

 

Kensuke bent down and whispered “Her name is Rei Ayanami. Compliment her hair decoration and tell her she looks very pretty and you can get her to blush.”

 

He got a pat on the back for that and a “Ohoho… good job son. I can always count on you for the best info.”

 

Kensuke also got a “What did you tell my grandpa this time?” from a middle aged lady coming out of the board room.

 

“It's none of your business Yuriko” the old coot replied with a grin.

 

Yuriko Mitsuishi stood there tapping her foot for a second and then pointed towards the board room “They are waiting for you inside. I will help with the food.”

 

“You're as bossy as your mother” Mr. Mitsuishi accused as he walked towards the board room.

 

Yuriko wasn't just Mr. Mitsuishi granddaughter she was also his personal assistant and caretaker. She cared for her grandfather very much and took this job upon herself whether he liked it or not. She also smiled at Kensuke as she said hi and gave him a hand with the food. She didn't really have a problem with anything that Kensuke ever told him because it always made the old guy happy. Plus Kensuke was one of the more helpful delivery guys as he helped conceal the fact that Yuriko always sprinkled her grandpa's food with medicine out in the hall where he could not see her do it. He had lived through a world war, earthquakes, typhoons, 2nd Impact, and 3rd Impact so he had seen it all and always fought against taking his medicine, as if the calamities didn't kill him no stupid high blood pressure would.

 

After setting out all the food with the help of Yuriko, Kensuke bowed respectfully to all the people in the room and thanked them for choosing Shin Seiki's. Then he took off back towards the restaurant. Once he got there he stopped for just long enough to get a drink of water and another load of food and he was off again. And this was basically how his day went as it was a busy one and the orders were coming in at a constant rate keeping him and the other three delivery people he worked with busy.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Right now it was evening and Kensuke was whipping around the city when he spied a police car. He screeched to a stop beside it and knocked on the window. The window rolled down and two policemen turned their heads to look at him. Kensuke though gave them a joking comment “So what is it this time? Staking out some international thieves or chasing after the yakuza?”

 

Both officers smirked at him and grabbed their food as the delivery boy handed them containers through the window. Kensuke always could make a day of babysitting the roadways sound so much cooler than it really was. After they paid him Kensuke asked “Say do you know where Engo and Nao are? I was supposed to catch them on 4th and Lotus but they weren't there.” Kensuke knew most of the cops in the city on a first name basis he had delivered food to them so often.

 

“They just busted some punk speeding on a crotch rocket over on 1st and 3rd. They should still be over there.”

 

“Thanks a lot” Kensuke answered and headed off in that direction. Delivering food to the cops could be tricky at times as they sometimes moved locations on you. It was no fault of their own as it was part of their jobs and for the most part if you couldn't find one all you had to do was ask another as they all knew where each other were or could find out easily over the radio. But luckily for Kensuke he found the last pair of cops he had to deliver to where he was told.

 

After giving them their food he looked at his list again. He had just finished up with the last of the cops on his list and now he noticed his last delivery was to someplace familiar. It was Saturday, he knew that Rei was working, and most likely Shinji and Asuka had gone out someplace for the night on a date. That all equaled a trip to the Katsuragi residence.

 

So as Kensuke pulled into the complex's parking garage and made his way up the elevator with a bag full of food he knew what was in store ahead of him. A tip that was usually even more than the cost of the food he delivered. Now he liked and was very grateful for big tips but there was just something about Misato giving him them that bugged him. It was almost as if she was giving him some sort of weekly allowance or something. It was bad enough she was paying most of his bills now, the last thing he wanted from her was even more money.

 

But then again he didn't have much of a choice in that matter and he found himself bowing respectfully to Misato as she gave him an extra five thousand yen as his tip. The added line of “Now don't go spending that all in one place” didn't exactly please him all that much either. But he always had the perfect line he knew would get Misato “God you're such a mom.” Of course he always waited till he was far enough away that she couldn't catch him when he said that.

 

Even though she was a mom and very proud of the fact she still thought of herself as a sexy little number to the young guys so she didn't appreciate this kind of lip from one of them. Especially one that used to have dirty thoughts about her. Him calling her a mom was a bit of a slam to her ego.

 

When Kensuke got back to the restaurant to pick up some more orders to deliver he was met by Li Mei who grabbed him by the back of his shirt and forced him to go sit down on one of the inside stools. She then pushed some food in front of him and ordered him to take a break. That was probably the only problem Li Mei had with Kensuke, the boy didn't have enough sense to stop and recharge when he was supposed to. If you let him he would worked this twelve hour shift straight without stopping. Already the boy had been working for almost eight hours and she knew he hadn't taken a break. So she forced one upon him.

 

While sitting there, eating his dinner, he felt an ominous presence walk up behind him. It was a peculiar feeling but not one he hadn't felt before and he knew someone less than happy was standing behind him. Considering he saw Li Mei smirk at him when he looked up from his meal he guessed it was a girl. “Ok what did I do this time?”

 

The reply was from a voice he did not expect. “You have a big mouth.”

 

Kensuke turned around and looked at Rei confused. He was actually expecting a different girl to be standing there. He scratched his head for a minute trying to figure out why Rei was mad at him. Finally he just gave up and said “Sorry Rei but I'm a stupid guy. You're going to have to tell me why I'm in trouble this time.”

 

“Does the name Mr. Mitsuishi ring a bell?” Rei answered with a little glare as she sat down beside him.

 

Li Mei got a smile out of that as she gave Rei a glass of plain ice tea. She knew who he was as he was one of their better customers. Kensuke though turned his head to look at Rei. “He's here already? Wow he must really like you.”

 

Rei glowered at him for that. She was right in her guess about who told the old man all about her. “He told me if he was twenty years younger he would ask me to marry him.”

 

Kensuke shirked at that. He knew that must have made Rei a wee bit uncomfortable.

 

Li Mei though laughed “If he was twenty years younger he would still be old enough to be my grandfather.”

 

“My point exactly” Rei said very dryly.

 

“Sorry Rei” Kensuke told her honestly before adding. “But you really should feel honored. That old coot is pretty picky about the cute young girls he flirts with like that. He must think you look cuter than the other girls because he has never proposed to any of them”

 

Rei sort of looked away as she took a drink. Kensuke's little statement made her blush just a tiny bit. Even she knew the old guy was harmless but being put on a pedestal like that was something she wasn't used to. She then noticed Li Mei pushing a dish in front of her.

 

“Here try this new harumaki I made. Kensuke liked it.”

 

“But Kensuke likes everything” Rei answered in a way like that fact didn't mean a thing.

 

“True” Li Mei answered. “But other people have liked it too.”

 

“Well in that case” Rei said as a slight towards the boy and then took a bite of the harumaki. After a couple seconds she added on “For once in his life he is right.”

 

“Amazing isn't it?” Li Mei joked back.

 

“Hardy har har” Kensuke replied back sarcastically while finishing up his meal. “Now if you ladies would excuse me please I have work to do.”

 

“Leaving already?” Li Mei asked. “We have a lot more teasing for you.”

 

“As much as I would enjoy being teased by two pretty ladies” Kensuke smirked back. “There's a big order that just came up and I want to take it.”

 

“Expecting a big tip?” Rei asked.

 

“Not really” he answered. “I just know the people who the order is for.” Kensuke then waved bye to the two ladies as he made his way back into the delivery kitchen and then packed away the food onto his bike.

 

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Kensuke pulled up in front of a house of a girl he knew. With the large order he had with him he knew there was many more girls in the house too. He had to take his warming box off his bike again as this order took the whole thing. He wheeled it up to the front of the house and rang the doorbell. The door was opened by a girl with jet black hair and a rather cute smile. “Hey Koyo, I got the food for your party.”

 

“Right on time as always” she smiled back at him. And behind her you could hear several cheers for the food being there as the house was full of hungry females. The house was full of females because Koyo was holding one of the softball team's infamous parties.

 

As Kensuke was unloading the food from the box and handing it to Koyo he saw a special girl walk by. “Hey Kaede. Having fun?”

 

Kaede though just shot him the evil eye and then turned her head away as she didn't want to talk to him.

 

“She's still mad at me” Kensuke sighed at Koyo as he handed her another carton of food.

 

“Oh yeah. You really hurt her feelings when you decided to play baseball instead of watching us practice this year.”

 

Kensuke knew that Koyo was Kaede's best friend and he told her “Tell her sorry for me again.”

 

“You know that isn't going to do anything” the girl with black hair said back.

 

“I know but I don't know what else to do” Kensuke answered back. “Because I'm not going to quit the ball team.”

 

“You could always ask her out on a date” Koyo told him. “Trust me on this, that act of hers isn't only an act.”

 

That actually made Kensuke feel really bad. “We grew up like we were brother and sister.”

 

“Like and is are two completely different things” he was told.

 

Kensuke didn't like what he was told though and he replied “There has to be plenty of other guys she's interested in?”

 

“Yeah but none of them have ever told her no” Koyo half smiled at him while she paid the bill.

 

“Then tell one of those idiots to do that so she can be happy again” Kensuke said and then bowed to her and thanked her for ordering from Shin Seiki's.

 

Koyo watched as Kensuke took off on his moped and then sighed. Personally Koyo couldn't understand what Kaede saw in Kensuke but she could understand the allure of wanting the unattainable boy. And it wasn't like Kensuke was a bad guy or anything but he looked very different from most of the other guys in the school. Sure a bunch of other guys had blonde hair just like him and it did look trendy and cool but there was one big difference between Kensuke and them. Theirs were dyed and his blonde locks were natural. Along with this was his light skin and rather obvious not from around here looks. While most of the more modern girls didn't care that he was foreign looking they knew their parents would and he wasn't cute enough to put up with all the hassle generated by this reality.

 

When Koyo shut the door and turned around she spotted her friend Kaede craning her neck. She may have snubbed Kensuke but she was watching what he was doing. “Will you just make up with him already? This is ridiculous.”

 

One of the other girls at the party spoke up and said “What do you see in a gaijin like that anyways?”

 

“He's not a gaijin!” Kaede snapped at the girl. “In fact not only was he but his mom was born in this country too.”

 

“That doesn't make him Japanese” the girl responded.

 

Koyo had to step in at this point and separate the two girls before a fight broke out. Even though Kaede was mad at him right now she still didn't like people insulting the boy. He was still one of her oldest and closest friends and if he let her she would be much more than that to him.

 

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As Kensuke unlocked the door to his apartment he asked himself wearily “Why in the world did I think working a twelve hour shift was a good idea?”

 

The answer he was greeted with was “meow.”

 

“Hey Dai. I bet you're hungry?” Kensuke answered the feline that was rubbing itself against his leg. He then walked over to one of the cabinets and got out a box of dry cat food. He poured some into the cat's dish and refilled the water bowl. Finally he walked over to his bedroom and collapsed into his bed without even getting changed. He had a long day and the only thing running through his mind was sleep.

 

(A/N: And that is the end to chapter 13. I kind of relegated Shinji and Asuka into supporting characters for this chapter. That might happen more often as I continue to explore the lives of other characters in this story. It is just a little change of pace for me that I think is fun and keeps the story interesting as there is only so much I can do with Asuka and Shinji without overloading the characters with odd situations. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I Re-re-edited. Changed a few words around. Fixed some grammar. Broke up some of the bigger blocks of text. And expounded on some parts to make them clearer. Basically gave this a good once over to improve its quality.)