Walking into the apartment, well that was pretty much when he realized something had changed between him and his room mate. She stumbled out of her bedroom in her usual affair, unkempt, hardly awake and scratching herself in places he'd much rather not have seen. It was when her eyes tracked over him he felt something.. tense in the air. The way her body jerked upwards, even if only subtly, the clenching of her jaw while her eyes practically ripped away from him as if he carried the plague, all this just screamed that something had come up between the two of them, and it had her tense. He sighed despondently as she quickly entered the shower, but he was slightly grateful the tension had left with her.
"I do somethin wrong?" He thought about it as he pulled out some vegetables, slowly cutting them into neat slices. He had apologized for what happened last night, hadn't he? Maybe she was upset about something else? He didn't know, the Captain didn't seem the type to hide something when she was uncomfortable, at least that’s what he figured from what he knew of her. She was wild, like a free spirit with her emotions and thoughts, she had impressed at least that much on him from watching her drink.
Sliding the cut vegetables into a pot, he turned the head on to low. Shaking his thoughts away from his superior officer, he focused on more important matters. "First day of school, first time I'm gonna get ta meet Rei." He was nervous about that meeting. Everything he knew of the girl spoke of someone he wouldn't normally get along with. She was reclusive, almost mechanical in her dealings with others, but he supposed it really shouldn't have surprised him. Growing up like she did, and with Gendo of all people as he role model, how could he expect anything less? The man was cold, unfeeling, more of a machine then even Rei was. He was sure of one thing, though, she was important to how everything came to an end, probably the most important person in Gendo's plan for Third Impact.
Leaving the vegetables to simmer, he opened up the refrigerator and pulled out a large pot. Setting it to the side, he reached up in the cupboards and retrieved two bowls. Cold miso soup with some vegetable add ons wasn't the best for breakfast, but he figured Misato wouldn't mind. She'd probably get a snack or something to eat at work, anyway. Filling the bowls, he grabbed the pan with the sizzling vegetables before adding them into the broth.
Ranma slid into his chair at the table, setting a cold beer by Misato's bowl, before digging into his own meager breakfast. A slight chill swept across his bare chest, but he ignored it as he focused his thoughts inward. "What kind of girl is Rei, anyway?" He wished he knew more about her. This wasn't going to be easy.
Misato came out of her room dressed in her short black dress with red coat, idly passing a hair brush through her hair as she sat down at the table. "Don't forget we have training this afternoon, Ranma."
Ranma looked up from his bowl. He had been so lost in thought about the First Child he hadn't even noticed the other woman come into the room, but now that he had, he could feel that tension between them was back. She refused to look at him directly, focusing instead on the sparse breakfast. "Eh.. Misato."
"What is it?" she sipped her soup, the salty and succulent taste of the miso mixed with vegetables calming her a little.
"Sorry." he said simply, setting his bowl aside before stepping up. "Bout yesterday, I didn't mean ta hurt ya."
Misato blinked, looking up at him, "Hurt me?"
"Eer.." Now that she was looking at him, he wished she wasn't. That tension he had felt earlier had vanished for a brief moment there as she looked up, but as soon as their eyes met it had returned and with a vengeance. "I didn't mean ta scare ya like that."
"Forget about it." she smiled, though a little forced. "You better hurry up and change, you have school today, you know."
"Yer right." he smiled ever so slightly.
As soon as the door closed to the bathroom, Misato slumped down on the table. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" she repeated like a mantra, banging her head against the table.
---
"I see." the teacher looked over the papers, nodding to himself before turning to the class. "Class, today we've received a new student." he pushed the boy forward a little, "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"
Ranma hadn't felt this nervous since the failed wedding. His breath caught in his throat as all eyes save one turned towards him and blinked, that single eye that hadn't turned to greet him staring out the window unresponsive to the world around him. "Ah.." he winced a little at how his voice cracked under the attention of the others. "My name's Ikari Ranma, I'm..eer.. fourteen, and practice the martial arts." he bowed a little, trying to ignore the murmurs passing through the class at his introduction. He couldn't quite hear the words being spoken, but the looks of disbelief from both the guys and the girls had him on edge, though he guessed he could understand it. It's not everyday you see a fourteen year old boy who looked a heck of a lot older. "I, uh, just moved here, kinda spent most of my life out in tha wilderness trainin."
"Mr. Ikari." the teacher nodded, apparently satisfied with his introduction as he examined his seating chart. "We only have four seats open currently, take you pick and have a seat so we can begin class."
Ranma didn't even hesitate as he moved to the far side of the room near the windows, taking a seat behind the one girl who still hadn't deigned to acknowledge his presence. There was an almost pliable aura of.. coldness about her, a rude fact he had been kinda expecting from the quiet first child.
"Very well, let us begin class." the teacher coughed, scrawling out on the board the words 'Second Impact' in big, bold letters. "In the year 2000..."
Ranma spared the man little attention at that point, glancing at the other students in class as they busily typed away at their computer consoles. Tentativly opening up his own computer, he gazed blankly at the empty screen before closing the article in frown. Nabiki was the only person he knew personally that ever used a computer, and even that was only sparingly, the girl much rather perfering to hand write her notes and files. Sighing, he laid his head down and followed in the tradition of all Saotomes in school, he fell asleep.
---
Horaki Hikari spared glances at the new boy during the lecture, marveling at how old he looked, and the gall he had to fall asleep in class. As the class representative she often had to do things she didn't really like doing, but knew they had to be done. The boy would probably need a lot of her direct attention to get caught up with the teacher's lesson plan. He had said he had spent most of his time training, no doubt with his atrocious speech he had fallen behind in his studies. She smiled then. It also helped that for a boy their age, he as physically mature and really really cute, like Toji in a strange way.
Thinking of Toji brought a frown to her face, eyes glancing over his empty desk. She had been a little worried when he hadn't shown up after that last attack, but the teachers assured her he was fine. Here was another task, as the class rep, she would need to perform. Toji was going to need some catching up as well, probably requiring long hours of tutoring late into the night.
Her smile was all the brighter after that thought.
---
The sound of desks scraping roughly against the floor tore him from his dreams. "Huh? Wazzat."
"Mr. Ikari." a terse, if friendly voice called his name. Looking to the side, he found a rather pretty girl in the traditional blue school uniform with her hair done up in pigtails staring right at him.
"Uh.." he blinked, looking towards Rei desk. Everyone else in class had left except for him, Rei, and this other girl. Rei just seemed to keep staring out into space. "Yeah?"
"I'm Horaki Hikari, the Class representative." she smiled sweetly, which unnerved him a little.
"Yeah.. nice ta meetcha." he looked around the empty class, "What's goin on, where's everyone?"
"It's lunch time, Ikari-san." she explained.
"Oh." he spared a glance at Rei, before turning back to the girl. "So uh... hi? What's up?"
"I take it you've just moved to Tokyo-3?" at his nod, her smile widened even more, "Then I'm afraid I'm required to give you a tour of the school, it's part of my job as Class Representative." she crossed her fingers behind her back. Please buy that, please buy that, please buy that.
Ranma sighed a little, but nodded, "If we gotta, we gotta." he stood up from his desk, "Let's go then, class rep."
Hikari kept on smiling, turning around as she walked to the door, he failed to see the girl pump her arm in triumph. "This way Ikari-san, I'll show you to the cafeteria first."
"Cool." he grunted, waving at Rei as he passed by, "See ya later, Rei." the girl only glancing at him in response to her name being called, before turning back to look out the window.
---
"And this is the lab." Hikari glanced at the boy. He hadn't seemed all that interested in the tour, at least beyond the cafeteria, but she was glad he at least made an effort to listen to her. "It's were Tokagauwa-sensei brings us when we have projects to work on. Be mindful of the hazard warnings, we wouldn't want to get blown up, would we?"
She didn't know if he appreciated all her efforts here, but was glad he didn't out right tell her no. She wouldn't tell anyone, but the looks the girls shot her while passing through the cafeteria really fed her ego a little bit. There was just something about having a older looking boy, especially one as healthy looking as this one, following her around that just gave her goose bumps. The boys just stared strangely, but that wasn't anything unusual.
"I guess." the boy shrugged, following after her with his hands in his pockets.
He really wished he could get away from all this. Passing through the cafeteria had him feeling unguarded and paranoid, like something had been watching his every move looking for some type of weakness they could exploit. It reminded him far too much of his time in Nerima, but it wasn't quite up there in comparison.
"Well, that’s the end of the tour." she spared the overhead clock a glance, "We still have 15 minutes until lunch is over, more then enough time to talk about what you need to catch up on."
"Ah.." Ranma grimaced. He really, really wanted to talk to Rei. The girl was trying to be helpful, he knew, so it didn't seem right to just cut her off right then. "Look, I know yer tryin to be helpful, and I'm grateful for it, but can we do this later? I got somethin I need ta do."
Hikari tilted her head, smiling, but he could tell she was disappointed about something with the way her shoulders drooped a little. "Oh, I see. Maybe later? I could stop by your home tomorrow and help tutor you?" she blushed a little, but continued undeterred, "If you don't mind, that is."
"Uh.. nah, that'll be fine." he tentatively offered, instant relief settling over him as her happy smile returned.
"Alright, it's a date.. " she blushed, "Study! I meant it's a study date then." she stammered out, quickly backing down the hall, "I'll see you then!"
"Right." Ranma grunted, oblivious to the girls blush and the reason for it, he turned back to the class room.. Rei was still there, eating tentatively from a small bento. Just watching her eat with her one good hand had him wincing internally. She seemed so quite, so removed.. detached from everything and everyone around her. He was sure you could track the exact time between her picking up a piece of food, bringing it to her mouth, and chewing in a perfectly timed sequence. It was a little unnerving, but he swept that thought aside as he walked up to her desk.
"Heya Rei!" he smiled cheerfully, "How ya feelin?"
Rei continued to eat at her controlled pace, not even looking in his direction.
"Hey, uh. I'm Ikari Ranma, wanna be friends?" he sweated a little bit, holding out his hand to the girl. Not for the first time he wished he knew how to do this type of think.
"Why?" the girl set her chop sticks down, catching him with her one good eye, the other still buried under the bandages from her earlier accident with Unit 00's activation. Her voice was soft, devoid of any emotion. It was almost cold, analytical sounding, but he hadn't really been expecting anything more.
"Man, don't choke now boy! Say somethin!" he ran his fingers through his hair, a little nervous smile growing in his lips. "Just cause, uh, y'know.." Man! What the heck can I say to that?! ".. I think we could both use one?" he mumbled, a little lamely.
"I do not need a friend." Rei responded evenly, turning back to her empty bento where she began cleaning up after herself.
"Well.. uh... I do?"
"If friends were needed, the commander would have one assigned to us." she set her bento aside, turning back to the window as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. He sighed as she effectively ended the conversation by staring out the window. He'd really need to think more about this.
---
"Why did the commander issue the extra security?" Misato stared at the tall stone faced men standing guard by the main entrance, their red berets denoting them as part of the Security. She had noticed them when she first came in, but thought nothing of it. Taking lunch out in the city with her friend today, they had come back and found them still standing there. It was weird, and she aimed to get to the bottom of it.
Ritsuko spared them little mind as she swiped her card, the large gates opening up for her. "The commanders orders, I'm afraid."
"Okay.. but why?" the captain swiped her own card, following after her friend as the gates began to lower behind them. She couldn't think of anything that would require guards to be stationed by the entrances.
"The Third Child upset him with that last stunt." the doctor sighed, "He's ordered his every move from entrance to exit to be under guard." she didn't have to mention how the commander perceived his son, after that last little joke word had spread like wild fire.
"Oh.." Misato tensed a little, but said nothing more.
Ritusko was a rather observant person, a perk of her trade. That wasn't to say she was always watching out for things, because frankly she couldn't do that and stay sane. You needed to relax every once and awhile, else the stress of everyday life and work would get to be too much, a breakdown was only an obvious consequence if you weren't careful. It still didn't stop her from noticing how tense and nervous Misato would act whenever she mentioned the third child, especially since most of their work these last few weeks revolved around him and his first battle with the Angel.
"I'll see you later, Misato." she waved her friend off, stepping in an elevator. "Don't forget, Ranma has training this afternoon."
"No matter how much I want to." the captain sulked a bit, moving down the hall.
Ritsuko watched her go with a frown. What was bothering her friend? It couldn't be that little thing from the other night, she hadn't seemed this bad when she came into work yesterday. She thought about it for a second, then shrugged as the elevator doors closed, "I'm sure it's nothing."
---
Later they got to...
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(Posted Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:48)
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