Types 1.
A story of a Sailor Senshi
(please bear with the opening)
****
Fingers on a keyboard.
***
Shinji sighed. He simply couldn't concentrate at the
task at hand.
The controls of the EVA felt sluggish.
The LCL tasted oddly like....blood?
"Shin-chan whats's wrong?"
Misato's face appeared in a tiny window of the cockpit display.
She sounded slightly concerned and slightly frustrated.
Things had gone well (from the sounds he had heard (although he had
done his best to ignore them)) durning her evening of "entertaining".
But when faced with new testing for her charges, as well as
what seemed ot Shinji as a mountain of paperwork her spirits
had flagged.
"Nothing. He muuterd.
"Nothing." she repeated. "Well that "Nothing" has
affected your ratio and you are at 15% less than when we did this
yesterday."
"Sorry" He said.
"No," Misato replied. "Don't worry. All of us have bad
days."
"Ja." Another window opened on his screen revealing a
rather sharp-faced young girl whose hair billowed slightly in
the liquid she was susspended in.
"Ja," She repeated. "We can all understand when poor baka-Shinji
just can't seem to..." Here she snickered. "To keep it up."
"Asuka!" Misato said sharply but the girl simply giggled.
Another window popped up.
"Excuse me." The blonde scientist spoke in a dry way. "but if
you children can't stop bickering we will never finish.
Both Misato and Asuka seemed about to say something but did not.
Their windows *snapped* shut.
Shinji sighed.
"Shinji." Ritsko said and her voice held something akin to
exasperated kindness. "I'm done with you for the day. I'm going to
open up thew test plug and let you out." She gave him as small
rare smile.
"Despite what people may say,researchers DO understand the concept
of " simply having a bad day."
"Hai" Shinji acknowleged.
There was a flicker as the Doctor opened a channel to the other
test chambers.
"Now you three, I'dd like you to foucs." the pickure winked out.
Feeling cut off Shinji resignedly began to go through the
control sequence he normally would have gone through to "power down"
Unit 1. It really made no difference but it was force of habbit.
"Practice makes perfect" seemed to be the favorite phrase of
their trainers.
*
When the technicians helped him out of the testing tube Shinji
couldn't but feel that they were somehow judging him.
After all, wasn't he the only one who was finished?
Didn't that imeadeatly tell them he had done something wrong
- or more importantly the fact that he hadn't done something right?
Dripping with LCL he made his way alone into the changeroom.
Pressing on the switch on his cuff the suit hissed and collapes on
him like a wet, slick,loose snakeskin of a python on a diet.
Inside the suit he felt dirty.
Although he knew differently, he was sure he could smell
sweat from the atfernoon's exertions.
The others had complained of the same thing at one time or another
and it was explained tho them that this was simply a residual effect
of LCL in reaction to open air.
-strangly enough (after some suspicious sniffing) it seemed that
no-one except the pilots could smell annthing at all.
Shinji *had* agreed then (at least privatlely) with some of the
choicer comments Asuka had made.
Rei... well Rei was simply Rei.
He wasn't sure if he liked wearing the plug-suil for testing or not.
Usually it made him evan more aware of how much he was exerting
himself - even while in the inert capsule.
Perhaps, more.
When they were being tested Shinji thought it was much easier to
be aware of his own bodily sensations.
If he was actually piloting the EVa he was either too afraid or
too busy in combat to think of such things.
The good thing however was that when he was wearing it he had
some level of protection between him and the outside world.
The suits kept the other pilots form seeing him -and him from
seeing the other pilots.
He sighed and couldn't help but blush at the reation THAT thought
had produced. - He was glad he was alone.
He stripped off the suit and after folding it neatly put
it on the small trolly. It would be taken cleaned as well.
He wonered when the others would finish.
Would this be one of those all-day events or would they be out
to join him shortly.
He had no idea. He wasn't even really sure what he had been doing
*before* when they had been happy with his preformance.
Now, whith them displeased he was at more of a loss.
He felt so helpless and stupid.
Asuka was right.
Although the red-head had herself begung a major decline in
syncro-ratios it was his problem her - he was still a failure.
He allways had been hadn't he?
He stepped into the shower and begas to lather as the hot water
pelted his body.
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't even his fault. Oh sure he was a bad pilot but who was
the one who chose hime for the job?
Who was the one who forced him to go on?
And who was the one that had almost made him killl his friend?
A friend who probably wouldn't have ever talked to him again anyway
even if he hadn't been forced ot evacuate.
"Father." He said and the word was a curse.
"Father." He slammed his fist into the tile of the shower,
hard - then harder.
His knuckes stung and he hit the wall again and sobbed.
"I hate you." He whispered as he watched the thin trickle of red
go down the drain.
He wasn't sure how long he had been standing there half doubled
over,sobs wracking his light frame when he felt a tentative touch
on the shoulder.
He turned, half-terrified, half enraged to be caught in so much
weakness.
He started to lunge out - and stopped.
The other boy stood before him, expressionless.
"Karou" He whispered, ashamed.
"We finished." the other boy said. "We finished about an hour ago."
"I wanted to come to you but thought that one with this much pain
should be allowed some time to let it go."
Shinji simply stared at the other boy.
"I decided that maybe you had been alone long enough." He gave a
sad smile. "That, and I worried about how long the hot water
would last."
"An hour?" Shinji asked fearing confimation.
"About an hour." The pale boy replied. "I suspect the others have
gone to do...whatever they do. I thought perhaps you might wish some
time to yourself."
Shinji nodded slowly. He reached to tun off the water and found
his hand taken by the others.
He was surprised to find how strong the lighter boy's grip was.
"You..you're hurt." Karou said his tone an odd mixture of
objetivism and concern.looking at Shinji's abused hand.
"I...I kinda hit it." Shinji said embarsed at his previous actions.
The other boy shook his head.
"It is already more than enough you suffer on the behalf of others.
You do not need to add more hurting to yourself."
The pale young boy brought the hand up and to Shinji's surprise
instead of inspecting it brushed the damaged knuckes with his lips.
Mesmerised Shinji watched as the other boy slowly turned his hand
around and gently kissed the palm.
*so warm* he thought and then realized that...
....that he had felt this kiss more than he would have expectewd.
He was then made horrily aware of the fact that both young men
were in the standard apparel for showeres and were most close.
He made as if to leave but Karou simply toched him upon the
shoulder.That touch stopped him as no iron shackle would have.
"Please." Karou said stepping closer nto the cubicle "Let me make
you alone no longer."
****
"Nhat are you doing Ami-chan?"
Ami slammed the top down on the laptop and tried not ot blush.
-she failed.
Usagi however was oblivious.
"More homework?" She asked pointing to the laptop.
Ami nodded weakly.
"What?" Usagi asked, curious.
"Um...Just some work for my advanced English class." She said and
slowly opened the computer. "Want to see?"
"English homework? I don't remember any." Said Usagi scrunching
her face up in thought.
"It's an extra project." Ami lied with ease. "I'm writing to a
newsgroup on the internet for english stories."
"Oh." Said Usagi.
Once she heard the phrase "internet" she pretty much lost interest.
Best to leave stuff like that to Umino and Ami-chan.
She supposed a future queen of Earth would need ot know all that
stuff -but heck, she had 500 years.
She nodded thoughtfully.
"We were all going to go get parfaits." She told her friend.
"Do you want to come?"
"Well," Ami and apeared (just for a second) hesitant.
"I did want to finish this now but I can do it before I do to bed."
She typed a few commands and after saving her file the
computer shut itself down.
She got up an joined her friend.
Walking arm in arm they headed to join the others.
"Ami-chan?" Usagi asked.
"Hai?"
"Is it a good story?"
"I think it is." Ami said smiling. "I think it is."
*FIN*
I told you it was a Sailor Senshi story didn't I ???
Neil
seraphim@sentex.net
Robyn, Duke of Amber.
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Seraphim, the Restless Angel with a (borrowed) sword.
________
Robyn, Duke of Amber. Agent of Chaos.
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