THIS LONELY HEART WANDERS

By: Tezza1502

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Don't own 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'. Nor do I make any claim to, either. I'm just writing fanfiction, is all.

Notes: I started this one back when I was writing 'These Scars We Bear'. It was meant to be a bit fluffier than that one. However, I got about seven chapters into it and lost interest. Now I'm posting it simply to get it out there. I started it before I heard about the Reboot of Evangelion, so it's going to be a bit . . . actually, make that a lot AU and OOC at times, and I'm going to take liberties with the established storyline here and there. That means Rei has ALL of her memories, Shinji will be slightly more mature and not so spineless, and the others, well, you'll see!

Also, I'm kinda curious about what would happen AFTER Shinji told Asuka to go take a flying jump (Random1377's 'Just a Kiss' comes immediately to mind.)

CHAPTER 1

Monday morning on a wonderful day. The type of day that makes a person glad to be alive. Birds were singing in the trees. Happy parents were guiding bouncy toddlers through lush parks. All in all, a great day to be outdoors, enjoying the bounty that nature provides.

Unfortunately for the two teenagers standing outside a doorway waiting for the appearance of their friend, today was also a school day. The first in quite a while.

"Hey guys, ready to start class again?" Shinji asked as Touji and Kensuke poked their heads in the front door.

"NO!" Kensuke Aida answered loudly.

"HELL NO!" Touji Suzahara echoed with similar volume.

Sighing, the now ex-pilot shook his head at his two best friends before calling back into the unit. "I'm off to school now, Misato. Will you be home for dinner tonight?"

A cheeky, feminine voice floated out from a closed room. "No Shinji-kins, working late again. Sorry. Will you and Rei be all right to look after yourselves?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine. I'll call you if there's a problem. Have fun at work! Good-bye."

"Buh-bye!"

Shinji quickly shut the door before his friends could storm the place, seeking their Misato fix.

"Come on guys, give it a rest." He complained as they tried going through his pockets for his keys.

"You're a cruel man, Shinji. It's been months since we last saw her, er, you, and now you deny us in our time of need. Thanks a lot!" Kensuke complained bitterly.

"Yeah, what he said." Touji chipped his two cents in.

"Ah, you'll get your chance to see her. In the meantime, talk to the finger." He said, showing them exactly which finger they should directing their complaints towards.

"Charming. Did Asuka teach you that?"

"Yep! Thanks for letting me practice it on you." He focused behind them. "Good morning, Rei."

"Good morning." Rei Ayanami nodded a greeting at the other boys as she opened and shut the door quickly. She had heard from Shinji what these two could be like if they got inside, and there wasn't time to grab a fire-extinguisher to hose down their rampaging hormones. "So, Misato won't be dining with us tonight?"

"No, not tonight. Again." He shook his head in frustration.

"A pity." She agreed. While dinner occasionally turned into a tease-fest, Rei would rather their guardian was at home with them than at NERV. "Shall we depart for school?"

"Yeah." Turning, he led the way. "Come on, you two, or we will be late."

"Yes. We wouldn't want to miss this years attempt at asking your next sweetheart out, would we big guy. Tamiko, wasn't it?" Kensuke teased, looking for an opening. He didn't have to wait long. The tell tale dreamy look appeared on Touji's face at the mention of his most recent crush's name like clockwork.

(SIGH) "Yeah."

"Going to talk to her without getting a nosebleed this year? Or just the usual falling into an incoherent puddle at her feet."

(SIGH) "Yeah."

Shaking his head at his friends hopelessness, Kensuke explained to Shinji how the first day back at school usually went as they walked along.

"Studly here works himself up into a state over the break as to whether this is the year he will ask a girl out. So by the time school starts, he's wound so tight he squeaks." Shinji is having a hard time walking and keeping a straight face by now. "You watch when we get to the classroom. Last time he fainted. The time before that, his mind imploded. Went stiff as a board. We had to prop him up in the corner of the room until he came out of it."

"Your kidding. How do the girls cope with it?" He asked, still chortling at the mental image.

"How do you expect? Completely mortified! They go bright red and try to ignore his existence for the rest of the term." He shook his head, pondering the mystery that is Touji's complete inability to converse in a normal manner with the opposite sex. It was only beaten by his complete inability to see that the class rep, Hikari Horaki, was crushing on him madly.

"Are you taking wagers on the outcome again?" Rei enquired.

"Yes." Aida looked apologetic. "And I'm sorry, Rei, but I can't allow you to participate."

Rei cocked an eyebrow at the boy. "Why not?"

"Because you've won the past three times! I couldn't get anyone to make a wager until I promised that you wouldn't be taking part." He shrugged remorsefully. "I'm truly sorry."

Annoyance crossed her face. "Very well. I shall not forget this."

Amazed at what he had just heard, Shinji almost missed the implied threat. Not really wanting to find out what a vengeful Rei is capable of, he quickly thought of a solution. "Hey Kensuke? Am I allowed to place a bet?"

"Huh! What? Oh, sure." He answered, unable to take his eyes off quietly smouldering Rei.

Whispering in Rei's ear and getting an answer the same way, he turned back to the worried boy. Grinning, he told him his guess and handed over some money.

Relieved at being given a way out of the situation that guaranteed his continued personal safety, Kensuke grabbed it with both hands. "Alright, I'll accept the bet. But this stays between us, okay?"

Shinji nodded and turned to Rei, raising an eyebrow.

"That is acceptable."

What's going on, you ask? Well, the funny thing is...

Third Impact fizzled, which is what no-one had expected to happen.

Kaoru had defeated Shinji, collected Lillith and Adam, and left. Humanity didn't end. The world kept spinning. Time passed.

SEELE, which had been burning it's candle at both ends in anticipation of a payoff which would never happen now, had a collective panic attack. Knowing their allies and subordinates would come seeking retribution for what they had planned for humanity, the Council simply… self-destructed. Some went into hiding. Others, seeing no way out of the web they had created for themselves, gave up and saved their enemies the trouble of killing them. All in all, the end of their grand plans for humanity was rather anti-climactic. They couldn't even use the rest of the mass-produced EVA series to defend themselves, as Kaoru took those parts of himself used in the dummy plugs with him. (He didn't want them getting lonely). And since Rei's clones were destroyed, as well as losing the Adam-embryo implanted in his hand, Commander Ikari wasn't a happy camper, let me tell you! If having the Seventeenth Angel sneak into his room late one night and make off with the Adam embryo wasn't bad enough, the shock of losing the goal he had been working so hard towards plus his support base and the protection from on high became too much for him. Vice-Commander Fuyutski came in one morning and found him slumped in his chair, facing the EVA cages and drooling. The medical report stated that he had suffered an aneurism resulting in an ongoing vegetative state.

After the party wound down, Fuyutski was put in overall charge, with Misato promoted to Vice-Commander. It wasn't permanent, just a way of preserving the chain of command while the U.N. decided what to do with them all. After a few months of trials and point-scoring by every politician who could get his snout in the trough, things settled down. NERV had begun to shift their energies away from their former goal, and towards actual medical research. With the wealth of neural and biological information discovered while creating the Evangelions, it seemed the way to go. And an added bonus was that the medical staff could get back into pure research with a clear conscience.

Touji Suzahara volunteered at once to be a guinea-pig when he heard about it. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi accepted his application to be a test subject for the next generation of artificial limbs when they were finished being developed, mostly because it solved the problem of his quasi-status as an Evangelion Pilot. The U.N. did not want the former pilots wandering around freely. Even him. So, his family remained in Tokyo-3 while he and his sister continued their physical rehabilitation at NERV's expense. Tokyo-3 was rebuilt and people started coming back. Sadly, the school was reopened a few months after Kaoru left.

Misato, utilising the enormous pay hike she received when she became Vice-Commander, has moved into larger quarters. Specifically, a four bedroom penthouse apartment with ample room for her charges.

Shinji still lives with Misato.

Rei has moved in with them.

Asuka was still comatose during all of this.

Shinji and Rei leant on the railing at the top of the school, watching the ambulance carrying Touji pull out of the grounds and into the flow of traffic. The sound of stamping feet, followed by the door being kicked open, let them know that Kensuke was making his entrance. Turning, they faced the nascent bookie.

"Any troubles?"

"No. Everyone paid up without a quibble." Facing Rei, he couldn't help himself. "How the hell did you know it was going to go down like that?" He demanded. "Okay, it was easy to guess he would be sweating freely, today. And if I stretch my mind in a weird direction, I can almost see his prosthetic foot becoming loose because of that." Closing his eyes, he tried to calm himself for his next question. "But, how on bloody earth did you know that when he swung his arms about to try and keep his balance, his prosthetic arm would come off, fly up, bounce off the roof and land on his head, giving him a concussion?"

Rei presented him with her best enigmatic smile.

"Of course!" Kensuke threw his hands up in the air in disgust. "Typical!"

Shinji smirked at the boys reaction. "Careful. One of them might fly off and knock you out."

"Bite me, Ikari!" He retorted angrily, giving him the finger.

Later that day in class, Shinji once again began going over some thoughts that had been swirling around in his head for a while. Since Kaoru had defeated him and left, Misato had taken it upon herself to send Shinji to a psychiatrist for counselling. She thought that after all he had been through so far in his life, some therapy to put it all in perspective might not go astray. So, after a quiet word to Section-2 about where to find one with the required clearance, Shinji began his counselling sessions. Three times a week for the first two months. Dropping back to once a week after that.

It was the best decision ever made for him. Slowly, he began working through his issues and coming to terms with the decisions he had made in the course of piloting an EVA. Realising that he was, indeed, a worthwhile human being. Sorting out the tangled relationships he had formed with the three women in his life. Not to say that it was all clear sailing. There were slides and backtracks, leaps forward and steps back. But, five months later, he was definitely making progress towards becoming a normal teenager.

So, in class, listening to the teacher drone on, Shinji decided it was time to take another step out from under the shadows that had been covering his life.

He began to think of how to go about getting a date.

-Interlude-

In a quiet room, a teenager lay on a bed. Attached to her were machines monitoring her vital signs. She had been this way for quite a long time. Abruptly, one of the machines noticed a spike in brainwave activity. It duly recorded this and reported it to a higher authority. Eventually, a doctor came in and looked over the readings. He called in other doctors for a second opinion. After a bit of debate, they came to a preliminary agreement. Asuka Langley Sohryu was beginning the long process of waking up.

-End Interlude-

More notes: This is from way back when I first started writing. Expect the style to reflect that.