Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion.

THE SEVENTEENTH DAY

Friends

Asuka spent much of the lunch break away from her class, with a group of older girls she knew. She worked largely on autopilot when she was with them, not really paying attention to what they were saying, but still involved in the conversation. The things they discussed were so banal, and the expected responses so curt, pointless and generic, that a tape recorder would have done in her stead. She was free to shut off and think of other things for the most part.

Asuka had gone out of her way to befriend people a few years older than her so she wouldn't have to waste her time on the babies that made up most of her own class, but even they were boring and juvenile, not at all how she'd expected someone their age to be. One of them had a boyfriend who was moving away to the same town as a girl she didn't particularly like, and everyone was immersed in her worry over maintaining a long-distance relationship and the possibility of the other girl trying to steal her man. Someone asked Asuka if she had ever had a boyfriend, and she answered no. (She had never managed to bring herself to lie about Kaji to them.) They all looked smug at that, as if they thought she was too young to have a boyfriend. They'd asked her the same thing before, and she was genuinely not sure whether they kept forgetting or whether they were mocking her. She couldn't be bothered to explain again that she just hadn't met anyone good enough to be her boyfriend. And suddenly they were talking about something else entirely, a new book they all really liked that was ratcheting up literary prizes everywhere. Asuka hadn't read it herself; she had never even heard of it. The idea of her friends being more well-read than her made her vaguely uneasy, but then again, she was too busy to have time for reading, wasn't she?

Sometimes, she wondered why she bothered to hang out with her at all. They didn't seem to appreciate her friendship anyway. Certainly, they'd grilled her about NERV a bit at first, and every time an Angel attacked they would ask her about it, but matters like that were beyond their concern most of the time. It was always about them and their petty problems, and Asuka was only part of the scenery.

Before the end of the lunch break, Asuka disentangled herself from the group and stood up. She took next to nothing of the conversation with her. The girls perfectly chorused a "Bye!" when she left. Asuka almost felt sick as she faked a smile and waved them goodbye.

She got back to class 2-A early. It was still a few minutes until the start of the next lesson, so a lot of people were still out and about, including Hikari. Maybe she was still dealing with that upcoming school festival, or maybe it was something else. Maybe she didn't want to be around Asuka anymore.

On her way to her seat, Asuka's eyes happened to fall on Kensuke. He was still in the exact same position as when she'd left, lying behind his desk rested on his arms and staring at nothing. He probably hadn't even had lunch in the meanwhile.

It felt weird to see him like this. When she thought of Kensuke, Asuka pictured a hyperactive buzzard and an annoying smartass, the biggest geek in Japan, not such a sad sack. He'd gotten increasingly more withdrawn recently. Shinji was gone and Toji still hospitalized, and he had few other friends. He hadn't been to Misato's apartment again since his visit two weeks earlier, nor had he spoken to her at school even once. Asuka wondered whether he'd at least had the chance to visit Toji. She figured he had, since his father worked at NERV and all.

Remembering Kensuke's father sparked something in her mind. He often mentioned looking into his father's classified files to look for information about Evangelions and the Angel attacks. As suddenly as a lightning strike, Asuka had an idea – one she was already putting into action before she even realized what she was doing.

She circled around and strode towards Kensuke from behind, making her way towards the free desk nearest to him. When she reached him, she sat down and punched him in the ribs. Kensuke gasped in pain and whirled around to see who'd attacked him. He didn't look pleased to see her.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"Maybe your moping was bringing me down? Listen, I have a question for you."

"A question? You can't just walk up to someone and hit them, woman!"

"Your father works at NERV, doesn't he?"

"You already know he does," he muttered with a scowl.

"Okay! Good. And you have access to his computer accounts, don't you?"

He drew back and regarded her uncertainly. "Well, yes, what about it?"

"I want you to look something up for me: my extended personnel file in the database."

"What? That doesn't even make sense. Can't you look up that stuff yourself? Or why don't you ask Miss Katsuragi?"

"I can only look up basic information. Pilots have limited clearance." She rolled her eyes at this injustice. "I know Misato wouldn't tell me anything. But key administrative workers like your father would have access to all the bits of data I need."

NERV must have kept a review of their pilots' performance. She had to know what they thought of her, if they were really ready to write her off...

Kensuke chewed his lip and thought about it. He wasn't exactly naturally inclined to do stuff for her, but Asuka could see that he was curious himself. He wanted to know what NERV had to say about its pilots. But now that she'd given him the idea, he could easily look into the matter himself, without involving her.

"All right," he said, "All right, I'll see what I can dig up."

Asuka smirked. "Oh, no. No way am I letting you do this unsupervised, twerp! I'll be standing over your shoulder the whole time."

"Wait, what? I can only do this at home. You're not-"

"I'll come over to your place if that's what it takes. I don't care."

He looked almost panicked at the prospect. But he didn't say no.

"What do I get for helping you anyway?" he asked.

"I'm sure there's something I can do you for you," she said, and winked.

Kensuke was predictably flabbergasted at that, though he didn't exactly blush like a maid like Asuka had hoped either. It didn't take long for him to shudder self-consciously and make a face.

"Um, yeah. Maybe you can tell me some things about pilot training, or sneak a video camera into a synchronization test, or something. Ahem. And you should be damn grateful. I don't even know why I'm doing this after your assault. I bet that left a bruise too."

He grasped at his back where she had struck him and sighed theatrically.

"Are you a man or aren't you?" asked Asuka with a provocative cocked eyebrow, "I didn't even hit you that hard!"

"Well, I'm tender," muttered Kensuke. It sounded suspiciously like a joke.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Asuka stood up.

"Tomorrow afternoon, then."

Kensuke paused, adjusted his glasses, and nodded. "Okay. "

She returned to her own desk, and pointedly didn't glance over her shoulder at Kensuke. There was a tiny bit of curiosity in her about whether he was slumped down and staring at nothing again, or whether he was looking at her. The bell rang just as she sat down. For the next hour, she thought mostly of mathematics.

It had been over a month now since Asuka had done any real studying. 'Keeping up' with her classmates had never been much of a priority for her. When she'd started out school in Tokyo-3, she'd diligently done her homework, mostly to revel in how easy it was and how much she already knew, but that diligence had first been slowly whittled away by laziness and then wiped out entirely by much bigger concerns. It was all too easy to hold her interest, and now she didn't care anymore. She'd only come there in the first place improve her Japanese and to take in what new morsels of knowledge she could find, not to retread materials she'd already learned four or five years ago.

And now she realized that it wasn't as easy as it should have been. There were things that confused her, parts that she didn't follow. She had skipped entire grades, and had rushed through a lot of her curriculum. None of it should have been a problem, but now she was starting to forget from lack of practice. That worried her, but not as much as it should have. It was so hard to make herself care. She forced herself to pay attention to everything today, but still her mind wandered.

As soon as the class was over, Asuka set her sights on Hikari and kept them there during the end of class ritual. She was worried she might leave again, but that didn't seem to be the case. Hikari sat right back down, tore out a page from one of her notebooks and started writing something in it. Asuka joined her, sitting down in the empty chair in front of her.

"Hey!"

"Hey."

She leaned in as close as possible, but even with Asuka staring at her forehead, Hikari didn't think to look up. Asuka glanced down at the paper. She seemed to be writing a shopping list.

"What are you doing?" Asuka asked.

"Hmm? I'm writing down some things I need to get from the shop later."

"You know, you should really have your sisters help you with things like that. You do practically everything in your household, don't you?"

"I don't mind," replied Hikari, "And besides, I might always think of something else when I get to the shop. It's best to do it yourself."

"I should probably do some shopping myself," said Asuka thoughtfully, "It's been a few days."

Actually, Misato had bought some things the previous day, but Asuka had the stubborn notion not to touch any of it.

"That's nice," said Hikari.

They sat in silence for a minute or two.

"So..." started Asuka, "What are you making for Toji today?"

"I'm not sure yet. I asked him what he likes, but he said he's not picky. He said the hospital food is pretty bad, so any change is good."

"Huh. Sounds like Toji alright. Didn't think for a moment how you would feel, did he?"

"I don't mind."

And all the while, she kept writing. Asuka felt anger twist her stomach. Couldn't Hikari have done this at some other time, when someone wasn't trying to talk to her?

She leaned back from the other girl.

"That's pretty pathetic, you know."

She made sure to sound as off-handed as she could, peering at her from the corner of her eye.

"Visiting him day after day and bringing him food and all these little gifts, I mean. I bet you're coming across as way too overbearing and desperate. A woman shouldn't offer herself on a platter like that."

Hikari hesitated, and finally looked up from her list. There was a slight crease in her brow.

"Asuka, that's not pathetic at all. This isn't about me, or... us. I don't care what impression I'm leaving, I just want to do what I can to make him feel better."

Asuka scoffed without meaning to. She didn't believe for a second that Hikari went to the NERV hospital and spent all this time with Toji without ever thinking about the fact that she was in love with him. But the crease in Hikari's brow was a little steeper now, and Asuka didn't want to take it any further.

"How's he doing anyway?" she asked, maintaining an air of indifference.

Hikari looked down again, but didn't return to writing.

"I'm not really sure. He's been very quiet, but that might be because it's me. I mean, we don't know each other all that well, so he might just feel awkward? But I think he's a little better since last week, a little more cheerful. I hope."

Asuka remained silent and waited for her to continue.

"He's been very kind."

There was another pause.

"He would be very lonely without me, I think. None of his friends can really visit him. These NERV security regulations are so silly, aren't they? I don't understand why a hospital has to be protected like that. Even Toji's father doesn't drop by very often. You haven't visited him at all either, have you?"

Asuka raised an eyebrow. She'd never even considered doing that – and why should she? Toji most likely missed her just as much as she missed him.

She wished they could talk about something else.

"Why, does he want me to visit him?" she asked.

"Well, he hasn't mentioned you. But I'm sure he'd like to see another familiar face. You should go, Asuka. He is your friend."

Asuka, taken aback, wondered what she could possibly say to that. Did Hikari honestly believe herself? Toji and Asuka weren't even really part of the same social circle, they were only people who happened to meet from time to time because they both hung around Shinji. When they spoke to each other at all, they mostly communicated by jibes and insults. She had slapped him more than any other boy in Tokyo-3. He was too insignificant to be called an enemy, but she wasn't sure he felt the same way about her. They definitely weren't friends.

But then again, Asuka realized, he had been a pilot. She had no idea how it happened that a dumb jock like him had been selected for it, but for a few hours, he'd been a pilot, with his own Evangelion. Not merely an acquaintance, but a colleague. Thinking of him as a brother in arms was too weird... That was probably why she hadn't thought of it until then.

While she was mulling the matter over, Hikari got back to her shopping list. She didn't even notice Asuka glaring at her accusingly once she realized that. The bell rung while she was still trying to think up something else to talk about.

The last class of the day was English. This, at least, was still laughably easy for her. She'd heard it spoken since she was a child and she'd been to Britain and the United States both; she hardly even had an accent. English lessons would have been dreadfully boring for her, but it was usually amusing to listen to her classmates and their attempts at speaking it. Today, however, it didn't do much to entertain her. Hikari was still on her mind.

She was starting to think that she shouldn't have called her pathetic. She still didn't think she was wrong, but 'pathetic' was such a heavy word. Hikari wasn't angry – that wasn't her style. Asuka didn't even need to look over to her to know that she was carefully taking notes as usual, unconcerned with her. Still, Asuka wished she could make her forget about it somehow. She wanted to talk to her again, and to keep talking until she drowned out her memory of their previous conversation.

When the class finally ended and Asuka could start packing up her things, Hikari was faster than her. She was out of the door in seconds. Asuka rushed to follow and caught up with her before the school gates.

"Hey, wait up!"

Hikari looked back at her and frowned.

"Asuka, what are you doing?"

The tone in her voice made Asuka stop in her tracks.

"I figured I'd walk you to the station," she said, smiling.

"But you can't. You're on clean-up duty today."

"What?"

"Classroom clean-up duty," repeated Hikari patiently, "It's your turn. You weren't here the last two times your name came up, you can't just skip it again."

Asuka could only stare at her. Hikari looked stern, but shifted awkwardly on her feet as the seconds dragged on. How could she blow off her friend because of some stupid chores? And how could such a little thing sting so hard? The worst thing about it was that Hikari didn't do it because she was angry or because of anything Asuka had said – she did it because she was class representative.

"Well," Hikari said with a nervous smile, "see you tomorrow, all right?"

She turned around. She walked away. She left Asuka alone.

Notes:

- I am not at all pleased with character voices in this chapter.

- The reason I had a problem coming up with a title for this chapter was because I didn't really think there was a consistent theme to it. I still don't, really. It's just a couple of rather disparate scenes.

Next chapter: Aces.