A/N: Surprised I have another chapter up already? Probably not, new chapters can never be written up fast enough for readers. It's a pain to us writers too, we'd like to put it out there as fast as our minds can dream it up. But little wonderful bits get discovered along the way and get more time to be pondered and have the potential to change the story for the better than the original concept. Waiting is a pain but it does have its benefits.

Rated T - Disclaimer - you're this far so you should know by now - this is fanfiction, other works claiming to be original are in a seperate section, of course I don't own NGEvangelion or anything for that matter, to sue me would be pointless.

AUTUMN'S COMING

The act had gone perfect. After the hard fight with the overrun fourth Eva unit, pilot Suzahara was secreted in amongst the haz-mat team sent to recover the ruined plug. His part played convincingly when carried back out on a stretcher – seeing the dummy that had taken his place was more than enough to 'play' ill. The cosmetic job done to his plug suit beforehand, hidden by the haz-suit on the way in said the rest for his 'injuries' for whatever organization wished to investigate for any discrepancies than told to them by Gendo Ikari.

Touji had been warned what he might see in that sacrificial throne, but for some reason the mutilated…thing troubled him to no end. Ayanami had been the one to tell him, under the circumstance that he not say a word to Shinji, who was already unsettled from having to play along in the mocked battle between pilots. She alone would be the one to bare all her final secrets to him.

All there was for him to do now was keep up the act of being injured for the next couple of weeks. It really was humiliating having to be restrained to a wheelchair and waiting for his girlfriend to pick him up. Then again crutches would be cool to mess with, those would come in two weeks.

-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

Something probably needed to be said, done. But Shinji didn't know where to begin, not even how he felt about all this. It did not however change what he felt for the girl of his life, yet it was clearly troubling her. She needed to hear the words that it was alright, everything was ok, that they would be fine…his mouth was empty though, the mind blank.

Rei waited, pressing herself to the glass wall, gazing at her spare bodies fearing more the response her love may have. She told him everything, all of it. And waited.

There was warmth moving up behind her, Shinji was coming nearer rather than fleeing. Hope filled her, yet…his hand hesitated from touching her, encircling them together in comforting embrace. He, didn't want to touch her, was disgusted with what she was, regretted all they had done… She dodged around his presence, never looking in his direction, and ran from the Chamber of Gulf. Not knowing which stung more, his silence or the tears.

-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

The preparations for the autumn celebration were set. Part carnival, part banquet and some entertainment mixed in, the evening promised to be very enjoyable. It was to be held in the same park the valentine festivities had been.

Commander of Nerv, Gendo Ikari signed another finance contract, this one for the fireworks – a professional group this time. He was almost free of the paperwork, usually it would be handled by his former underlings, but it was proved that some of these things really did need the attention of the one supposed to be responsible in their handling. It was fortunate Gendo had finally decided to take up his share, several misplaced items and funds were corrected and finances reorganized. Especially when the next few sheets were placed on his desk detailing the city defense grid, its budget and schematics to be implemented.

On a sudden whim, he wrote up a separate plan for different munitions and placement and stapled the revision to the original to be sent to the engineering dept. It was time to change some of the layout of Nerv.

-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

Why was she doing this again? Asuka couldn't remember any favors she owed Shinji, yet maybe it was how far friends went out their way to help each other, or in this case for her fellow co-pilot. Hikari though seemed exited to help out, diminished slightly by the dismal appearance of the apartment block.

When they arrived to the door, she found it oddly locked. Shinji had always expressed his concern about that, yet it was finally used once the two had some kind of spat. Typical.

"WONDERGIRL! GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE! Me and Hikari are here to bring you to the festival – even if we have to drag you!" The german girl pounded on the door.

Asuka waited with some patience, knowing the girl likely had to recover from her rough appearance from crying or such, before banging away at the door again. On the third round Rei figured they weren't going to leave anytime soon and opened it, turning immediately back to her bed and sitting on it. She really was a mess, hair was in disarray, clothes wrinkled, and clear signs of crying stained the eyes beyond their usual red.

Both visitors sat on each side of her. Hikari wondered if it had been that bad, Shinji had explained that it was a misunderstanding, not something he said or done but that he should have.

"He's worried you know. Shinji want's to see you there and apologize…I don't know what happened between you two but can you really leave an misunderstanding unsettled – what if it's not what it seems like? The two of you have gotten along so well, how can anything end it so quickly?"

The poor girl was trembling, hunched and quieting her tears, but the dam was crumbling again.

"You were right – I am a doll – a fake robot only – doing as I am told – not suited to living – or interacting with others – Asuka I-"

SLAP

Asuka had turned to her and delivered the sharp action. All the times she had called her nemesis 'doll' 'wonderpuppet' and put her down, her effort to break the girl's mode and open up a little - really knew when to bite her in the ass of all times. She had looked forward to working with the other girl, together they would bring down the male pilot and once again prove women weren't all so sissy. Only Rei had broken the opposite way, and Asuka this time would have to set it strait.

Hikari could understand the action a necessity in this case – the sooner they stopped those thoughts the better. She in turn wrapped a comforting arm around Rei as she recovered from the momentary shock. Asuka did so also and launched her opinion.

"Look here Fir-Rei, we all know Shinji is a great guy, but he's also slow at times – the baka. So it's likely this is a misunderstanding and he simply just didn't know what to do, like always." There was a gentle giggle between them. "But honestly when was the last time he ran away? He's not the type to leave things unfinished, it's not in his nature unless he says so – even then he sticks around or it lingers with him. I can't see him letting something drop so easily when it brought him so much."

Rei looked down "But I told him…everything about myself…"

"What was his reaction?" Asuka prepped to put the pieces back in place that had the girl confused.

"He, just stood there…"

"What about his expression?

"I…I don't know, I wasn't looking at him while telling these things-"

"Hold on right there – no wonder! When you tell someone your secrets, you should face them – face the truth, face the person – get it? He didn't know how to feel about it because you weren't expressing your own feelings." Not bad, Asuka congratulated herself. Maybe she could turn that psychology course she took into a relationship councilor – naw not flashy enough.

"But I…I wanted him to be honest"

"Rei – if he loves you that much, of course he'll be honest."

There were few other words shared as Hikari and Asuka helped her into the garment for the festivities and light makeup to cover the effects done by the emotional event.

-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

When they arrived lights and music and excitement were everywhere. Finally they caught sight of their friends near one of the held dances. As they neared Asuka gave a slight nudge to Rei and whispered "Twirl and knock him dead."

The relief and joy in Shinji's eyes at the sight of her convinced her to do just that. He was happy she was here with him, it made that pain in her heart throb away to nothing. This healing process showed in the energy of the spin, her kimono caught the air lifting in elegant dance with her graceful momentum. Twice she spun ending in his arms. He may have been once again speechless, but this time he fulfilled it in deeper empathy by the tight embrace. Words didn't need to be wasted to settle what had been misunderstood earlier. The joy in being each others arms again said it all.

Their friends and family cheered on the side lines as the two lead themselves into the slow dance playing. Touji soon enough even abandoned his wheel-chair for a moment to dance with his gal, he knew it was one of her favorites and as much as the others were hissing for him to play his act, it was still worth it. Somewhere out in the crowd, an agent made note and left.

Rei was lost in Shinji's shoulder, glazed eyes taking in everything, yet nothing. A leaf floated across her vision, it was yellowed even when no nearby trees harbored such oddities of perpetual summer. It landed in the crook of her elbow, marking her of its symbolism. She turned and let out a slow sigh to her love's neck, there wasn't much time left.

A/N: A bit shorter, but with all I wanted to put into the event.

Not much longer to the end, about 2 more chapters and an epilogue. Will it be a happy ending, or a sad one? I have a well placed ending scene in mind, but smaller details are still being worked on. I know many of you would probably like to see what I come up with on my own, but your reviews do have impact on how I might review those thoughts and strive to come up with something really good rather than just be done with it.

If there's no interest (last chapter didn't even see a single review), I fear my drive to write the ending will be dulled and result in poor work. So please review what you liked and what you didn't like about any part of this fic. I have big plans in future fics, and feed back would be most helpful to achieve what I have in store for them.