Neon Genesis Evangelion Higher Learning Strike Fiss, 2000 Eleventh Lesson: Fly on the Wall "Oh shit oh shit oh shit..." Kaoru literally ran down the halls with his books in hand. Two dozen or more papers for the day's class were clutched perilously in his hands, but never fell despite his frantic movement. One could surmise he was late, as the clock that hung over his classroom door read nine-twenty am. "Argh..." he sighed, opening the door. He prayed that Hikari had kept everyone at bay for the time he was away. His prayers were answered as he skidded into the classroom, completely out of breath, and the eyes of 35 patient students all turned to him. Hikari smiled proudly. "Good morning, Miyazaki-Sensei!" her tone darkened slightly. "You're late." The class all laughed as he did as well. "Yes...yes...I am. Forgive me class. My alarm chose last night to stop working." he relaxed noticeably and walked over to his desk. Still, right away, one could see something was wrong. Shinji noticed this right away, even though he was still half asleep. Most noticeably, he looked the way Shinji felt at the moment. Though he had been able to get to sleep last night, it was wasn't very deep. Every he was about to go under, Asuka would shift slightly, and rub herself up against him in some small...but very noticeable...way. "Poor guy..." Shinji yawned. Toji leaned over. "Man, what happened to HIM?" Kensuke smiled and adjusted his glasses. "I wonder if Asuka beat him up for assigning that one paper?" Asuka, who had been fairly tired as well for the same reason Shinji had been, groaned inwardly as she saw Kaoru sit down at his desk. His socks were not matching...his clothes looked at least a day old, and it was pretty obvious he hadn't shaven or had anything to eat that morning. While the Stooges speculated all they wanted, Asuka had already guessed the right answer. "Shiite..." she hid behind her computer, praying she wasn't already blushing. It was bad enough she was acting like that around Shinji all that morning...even having to go so far to miss him at the breakfast table and the walk to school...she almost was convincing herself that the kiss with her new teacher was all a little dream. A tiny fantasy in a moment of weakness. By the way he was refusing to look in her direction, she knew it wasn't. "Okay, class." he said, stifling a yawn. "A very important subject we should talk about has just come to my attention." he smiled weakly. "Does anyone have any thoughts on sleep?" Asuka sighed to herself. "Yeah...I want to be home right now." she turned her head around on her desk. Shinji was looking at her, though. She blinked. He looked worried. Even more than usual, she mused. With a sigh, she quietly typed a question into her computer and sent it to him. He noticed the question appear on his own screen, turned slightly red, and then typed in a reply. "You look really tired...are you okay?" Asuka blinked, then looked at Shinji a little harder. He looked a LOT worse than she did. His eyes were red and tired. His hair was mussed and uncombed... He looked a lot like Kaoru, actually. Asuka sighed and grumbled to herself. She typed in: "I'm fine, Baka. You look horrible too, you know. I bet you can't stay awake till the end of class! Ha!" Shinji read the message and blinked. "I was just trying to be nice! And I CAN TOO stay up till the end of class!" he replied. "I bet YOU fall asleep before I do!" She smiled and leaned back in her seat. "Sweet baka...he always know how to make me feel better." she mused to herself. At least this would give her something to think about till the end of class. It turned out that the infamous Langley spirit indeed triumphed, and by lunch time, Shinji was collapsed at his desk, sound asleep. Asuka glared at the clock as she watched the last minute SLOOOOOWLY slide by. RRRRRIIIIIIIIING! The class put away their notes and began to file out to the cafeteria as per normal. But just as Asuka was about to do the same, Kaoru cleared his throat. "Asuka, can I talk to you for a moment?" Toji grinned like a damn shark. "Oooh! Who did you beat up now?" he chided, sticking his head back in the doorway. "It will be YOU in a second, butt-head!" Asuka glared at him. "Hehe...OW!" he fell back outside the door as she kicked the door-frame with sufficient force to cause the paneling to jar against his shoulder. "That'll teach you." she grinned back, slamming the door behind him. Kaoru sighed as Asuka walked over to the desk. Besides a sleeping Shinji, they were alone. "Yes, Sensei?" she asked, hoping she wasn't turning red. It all came out in one breath: "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have...I mean...that entire situation was...bad idea...I should have just...I mean...If you want me to resign...I'll get outta here in a second...I don't want..." Asuka almost fell over. "What?" Kaoru let his head smash onto his desktop. "Asuka...thank you...but you know very well what I'm talking about." She nodded silently, now fully red in the face. "Say the words, and I'll resign. Your old sensei will probably be out of the hospital next week anyway. I don't want there to be anything weird between us." "That's enough!" she frowned, crossing her arms. Kaoru blinked. She looked down at the floor, still embarrassed, but determined. "You were there for me when I thought I was alone, Sensei...thank you...and nothing happened...really...so I don't know why you'd have to leave just because of that." Kaoru groaned and leaned back in his chair. A long pause echoed out as he collected his thoughts. "You're right, you know. I'm sorry, Miss Langley. I keep forgetting how mature you are." he smiled slightly. She fidgeted slightly, but a deep breath later, nodded. "Good. Because I don't want that old crummy geezer to come back. He keeps handing out stuff I can't read." They both glanced around the room as the silence seemed to echo out. "Uh...well, I better get going for lunch." she smiled and bowed. "I better go home and have a shower." Kaoru laughed. "I just realized I put on two different socks." "Good." Asuka smiled, then bowed slightly again. "Sorry..." "No, its okay. Go on. I'll be back to my old self by second period." he nodded. They both neglected to see the wide-eyes of Shinji Ikari watching the scene as Asuka left the room, relieved to have the situation done with. Kaoru leaned back in his chair and ruffled up his hair once before finally picking up his case and leaving the room as well. Shinji just lay there...head against his desk...listening to his heart- beat. "It's all in my mind..." he whispered to himself out loud. "It's all in my mind...It's all in my mind..." he closed his eyes, squeezing out a tear or two. "Yeah...just like in my head..." Silence did not add to the train of thought. He began shaking. A moment later his fist clenched around his computer terminal... then promptly threw it out the window. The classroom door threatened to break as well as it slammed shut behind him. Shinji was out of breath as he reached home. Still, as he almost stumbled into the main hall, he called out his presence. "Misato?" he huffed and sniffed as he kicked off his shoes. "Misato-san?" Not home. "...Misato..." he begged out to the empty room. "Help me...?" His voice was small. Weak. He hated it. Hated talking. Hated using it. A small note on the table. From Misato, written in haste. "Working late tonight, children! Order up some food, compliments of my turn to cook! You know the account number. Shinji, please make sure to get the whites in the laundry. Thank you! Ja ne!" A little heart and smiley-face added onto the bottom. Shinji was shaking as he read it. Laundry...something to do...yes... His mind focused onto that one, single task. It was the only way he could stop himself from imagining things... Every memory of Asuka flying into Kaji's arms was now replaced with her flying into Kaoru's. Every single one of the precious kisses he knew with Asuka were now no longer in the first person as he watched them slip away. All while he folded shirts and underwear...trying to do it fast enough that the images wouldn't torture him so. His mind kept analyzing the conversation he overheard. "Nothing happened...really..." "I'll resign if you want me to..." "You were there when I thought I was alone..." "Thank you..." "No...it's okay..." again and again...every hidden meaning came out in those words. No matter how openly he tried to imagine their meaning, they were unmistakable in the theme. Then... Even worse... Shinji finally couldn't keep out the images in his mind. It was too much. Too soon after the angel. His mind and mental capacity succumbing to the pressure. And as he folded one last pair of Asuka's modest, white panties...he almost dropped them in horror...imagining her standing over Kaoru, sliding them down her legs for him. "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Shinji yelled. The sound was horrible in the tiny apartment. It echoed off the walls to maddening levels. "AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!" his fists began to plough though the baskets of clothes. All at once, he was back in Unit-01. Back inside the Angel. One last thought on his mind. That Mother said it was okay to fight back. Fight. Fight. Rip. Kill. Punch. Crush. DIE!!! DIIEEEEEEE! LET ME OUT! DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE! I WANT TO SEE THEM! LET ME OUT!!!! Ohhhhhhhgodohgodohgod...please...just die! DIE! RRRRRRRRRRRIIIIPPPPPP!!!! DON'T TAKE HER! DON'T TAKE ASUKA FROM ME! MOMMA! HELP ME! HEEEEEELLLP MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! Shinji sobbed quietly as he recovered. His mind finally shivering back into place the best it could. Every bit of fabric in the room was thrown. The wet clothes from the washer stuck to the walls, slowly sliding off like they were gore from a dead Angel. He sat in the middle of it all, looking at his hands. His knuckles were battered from where he almost punched through the wall. "Help me..." he shuddered to himself. "Momma..." But this time, he was not in Unit 01. He stopped crying finally...looking at the mess around himself. With a painful effort by his overused muscles, he lifted himself off the floor...and started slowly cleaning up; putting the clothes back into their neat little piles. Asuka found only a quiet apartment when she came home that evening. Dead on her feet, she didn't bother noticing that there was no food on the table, and that the note Misato left had been crumpled up. "Tadaima, Shinji." she yawned, wondering past the laundry room where she usually found him if he was home already. He wasn't there, though. "Mmm. Baka must be asleep." she smiled to herself. "That'll teach him." As she walked past his room, though, a twinge came over her body. Almost as if she could sense something not quite right. She knocked softly on the corner of the door. "Shinji?" No answer. Probably headphones. She weighed the chances that he probably wouldn't be doing anything perverted with headphones on, and opened the door slowly. "Hey, baka!" she smiled as she saw him on the bed. Shinji cringed as the light shone in on him. His eyes blood shot. His hands wrapped around fistfuls of his bed-sheets. "A...Asuka?" he blinked. The sight was very unsettling. Asuka had never seen someone looking so...so... "Shinji!" she covered the distance to his bed in a heartbeat, feeling his forehead. "Are you okay??" He wasn't burning up, though he looked like he had a fever. In fact, he was in a cold sweat. In some kind of shock. She quickly looked him over for wounds, but found none. "W...why are you here?" he asked. A hint of pain was in his voice. "You shouldn't be here..." "Shinji...w...what's going on?!" Asuka begged, getting worried. She almost couldn't bare to look in his eyes. They looked completely lost...like...another time..."You look horrible..." she whispered. "I..." he swallowed hard, but then quickly pushed away her hand. "G...get out of here..." he said with a sudden anger she hadn't been expecting. She backed away for a moment...but her brain screamed for her to do something. "No! Tell me what's wrong! Do you need a doctor?" "Fine..." Shinji began to crawl off his bed, straining under even that simple movement. "You stay here. I'm leaving..." he whispered, not looking at her anymore. Instead, he tried to stand up. Asuka almost screamed as he collapsed into a heap...completely still. To be continued... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- May you all forgive me. This is Eva, and it can not be 100% WAFF. Please realize this is all part of the story. Thank you. ^_^ And now for something completely different: ---------The Secret Adventures of the missing Unit-04!!!--------------- Young Man: Welcome to Taco Bell-3. Can I take your order? Gendo: Yes. Yes you may. Young Man: Ahh...okay. So what would you like, pops? Gendo: I will have one of your so-called 'crispy meat burritos'. As well as one of your so-called 'taco supreme' meals. Young Man: Anything to drink, pops? Gendo: No thank you. I will have a large water to drink. Young Man: Er...yeah. Okay. That will be... Gendo: I was not done yet. Young Man: Okay, what else do you want? Gendo: I will also take three dozen of your 'taco-kiddie' meals. The ones with the toy. Young Man: Are you going to eat all of them? Gendo: Of course not. A purely LCL diet is not good for my clones. I like to treat them to tacos once in a while. They seem to like playing with the toys as well. Young Man: You...y...you CLONE yourself?? Gendo: ...Of course not. Young Man: Gendo: They are of my... ...daughter...yes... Young Man: Gendo: Is all this necessary to process my order? Young Man: Uh, no, sir! That will be one hundred and fifty-three dollars and two cents, please. Gendo: Excellent... Gendo: This was not foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls...Mmm... Unit-04: "Yo quiero taco bell..." The end... ======================================================================= Oy. ^_^ Sorry... e-mail: strikef@bigfoot.com homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/9110 Strike Fiss, Ninja Crowbotics 2000. Khattam-Shud, EOF.