Words from the Author:

I'll keep this short. I'm not entirely sure how this episode will turn out. I do know you all will be reading something very familiar, but I won't be giving any hints. I just really hope I do a good job on this episode and I'll be taking my time since I've been writing a lot lately. Well, enjoy. Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Anno and I make no claim of owning it.

Episode 10: The Name That Stands For Strength and Powerful

After Nero's victory over the aquatic Eva, everyone returned to Japan as Misato tried to confront Gendo once they arrived, however, the Commander and Fuyutsuki had left for a meeting with Japan's government involving their progress in battling SEELE. The fact that she couldn't immediately talk to Gendo upsets the purple-haired woman quite a bit, but chooses to let it go until a better opportunity comes forth. Misato was then notified by Ritsuko that Gendo has ordered that Nero would live with them as well, which brings up their current issue. They're all presently inside the apartment while some of the children are in the kitchen with Misato and Kaji explaining to Nero about the arrangements as they're near the couch that's facing towards the living room's television.

Nero's leaning against the back part of the couch amidst looking at the adult couple, who are in front of him, with curiosity. "So, what's the situation?"

Misato exhibits an unsure expression. "Well... You could live in the living room." She points toward the couch that Nero's resting upon via her right hand. "You'd sleep there..." The Colonel promptly points to the couch Mari usually sleeps on as she keys onto it. "Mari's already using that one." Misato puts her hand down and reverts her gaze to Nero.

Nero slants head to the right with skepticism displayed while raising the corresponding eyebrow. "Don't you think that's a bit inappropriate?"

Touji gets a tad irritated and is standing at the left side of the room where his quarters' located as Hikari's on his right. "If ya haven't noticed, we're all sleepin' in the same room with the person we love! So for ya to say that...!" He closes his eyes and cringes for a moment before glaring at Nero with intensity. "It really pisses me off!"

Hikari pulls onto Touji's right arm via both hands as she says while concern's showing, "Calm down, Suzuhara...!"

Nero veers his concentration to Touji with no real emotion. "As you can see, I have no one like that here. What I just said was in reference to only myself. I wasn't talking about any of you."

Touji's annoyance temporarily persists, although ends up smiling without warning while attempting to act cool. "Considerin' ya look like Shinji, Mari might quit bugging him and go after you." He glimpses at Mari with a slightly arrogant smirk.

Nero portrays mild agitation and thinks, "Seems he forgot I don't appreciate being compared to others."

Mari grins as she briefly views Touji prior to turning her attention to Asuka, who's situated beside Shinji, while near the kitchen table and utters in a cocky manner, "She wishes."

Asuka delivers a fierce glare toward Mari while vaguely growling.

Shinji instantly registers Asuka's demeanor with worry noted and says in a delicate way, "Now relax, Asuka. You don't need to get mad."

In the meantime, Nero watches the group of teens with an indifferent behavior until setting his vision on up Misato as she's also observing the other children while asking in a curious tone, "Hey, Misato...?"

Misato locks her sight onto Nero with a hint of intrigue. "What is it, Nero?"

Nero sinks his hands within his pockets while analyzing the surroundings of the apartment. "How many bedrooms are there?"

Misato's momentarily surprised due to Nero's sudden question and then responds while regaining her composure. "The apartment contains five bedrooms. One is full of stuff that was stowed away in there though."

Nero demonstrates faint confusion as he mounts his gaze on Misato again with his head tilted to the left. "Why haven't you guys cleaned it out?"

Misato smirks at Nero out of embarrassment, rubbing the rear of her head with her left hand in the process. "Frankly, we didn't really consider doing that. When Mari moved in, she was fine with sleeping on the couch." She giggles while continuing her present personality.

Nero straightens his head while passively searching around once more. "Where's the room?"

Shinji answers Nero amidst aiming his right hand toward his left as that direction is to the eastern section of the apartment from the 7th Child's perspective, "It's over to the left of the bathroom."

Simultaneously, Asuka's concentration is towards Nero and nods with a small grin. "Yeah. It's on the same side our room's in."

Nero casually looks toward the designated area before lowering his head a little to see the two duffel bags that are in his possession while to his right. After that, the black-haired boy bends accordingly to pick them up, and upon having a hold of the items, fixes his posture to travel towards the room full of stuff. When he reaches the door, Nero puts the bags down so he's able to slide the door open as it's revealed that the room is brimming with boxes. He eventually checks inside the quarters to attain a decent idea of the quantity of things is in there with a blank attitude. Right after that, Nero smiles while shifting his head toward the right to depict the others. "This is good. I oughta' have it cleaned in a couple of hours." The teenager reverts his attention to the room and starts maneuvering stuff about.

Misato takes a step toward Nero, extending her right arm onward a little with concern surfacing. "Are you sure? Don't you think it'd be easier if you sleep on the couch instead?"

Nero nonchalantly rebuttals without ceasing his effort. "I find that to be an unacceptable option. It's too inappropriate for me. I'm willing to go through the trouble of having my own room." He quickly extract a box from the floor ahead of him and confronts Misato while still holding it. "I don't mind doing this." Nero sincerely smirks.

Kensuke sits upon the couch that's directed towards the television as Rei's next to him while presently observing Nero and kindly inquires, "Do you want some help?"

Nero turns his focus to Kensuke. "Thanks for the offer, but I can handle it." The lad places the box down and resumes his progress via grasping another box to pull it out, ultimately revealing that Pen-Pen had been trapped underneath the object.

In response to being freed, Pen-Pen gasps for air with his eyes opened wide, as if he had been suffocating underneath that box.

Nero simply stares at the penguin and blinks in a confused way as Pen-Pen reciprocates his action with a plain expression. Eventually, the teen slowly steers his head eastward so he could rest his concentration onto Misato while timidly smiling during him pointing at Pen-Pen via his left as he carries the box he picked up in his right arm. "Umm... Did you guys know you have a penguin in this room."

Misato emanates astonishment until rushing to Nero's right as she peers over him, letting out a gasp of disbelief at the sight of Pen-Pen, and frantically cries out, "Oh my God, Pen-Pen! That's where you've been! I was looking all over for you!" The jacket-endowed woman journeys around Nero to grab Pen-Pen with him starting to act up a bit, compliments of being happy that he's been found. After that, the female adult holds the penguin in her arms with both her and him confronting Nero while performing a double-take between them, "Pen-Pen, this is Nero. He's gonna be staying with us from today on. Now, don't go mixing him up with Shinji, okay?"

Pen-Pen momentarily gazes at Misato while nodding before giving Nero a moderately loud squawk.

Nero chuckles prior to outstretching his left hand to Pen-Pen, uttering in an amused tone, "Nice to meet you, Pen-Pen."

Pen-Pen implements his attention to Nero's limb, extends his left fin for the pilot to gently grip and reverberates a joyful squawk towards Nero with his eyes closed.

Misato grins during her witnessing how well Nero and Pen-Pen are getting along until keying onto solely Pen-Pen while commenting via a caring voice, "You oughta' be hungry. Let me get you some fish. The ones you really like."

All Pen-Pen can do to retort to that is cheerfully squawk one more time as he his was directed toward Misato.

Misato commandeers herself accordingly to travel towards the kitchen while viewing Nero out of the corner of her eyes. "Good luck with the moving. Also, thanks for finding Pen-Pen."

Nero nods with a content behavior. "No problem." He puts down the box he's been wielding to persist his organization.

Meanwhile, Asuka's significantly amazed and observes Nero as she thinks, "At that time Nero had stated he could handle moving the stuff earlier, it kind of reminded me of Shinji when he was fighting against the enemy alone. Nero sounded equally as confident as he did." The redhead's eyes widen as she realizes something and hastily deviates her vision while quite irritated at herself while thinking, "Damn it! I forgot Nero's dislike of being compared! I wouldn't either!" Asuka promptly sighs from relief with her eyes shut, not ceasing her thought process, "Well, so long as I don't express my thoughts out loud, I won't have to worry about getting into an argument with him. Although, can't say the same thing for that stupid stooge."

In the 3rd Child's case, Shinji watches Asuka as he's somewhat spacing out and thinks, "I haven't told her yet that Nero had saved her. I need to remember do that. I don't wan't to take credit for that." He lowers his head while consumed by sadness as he thinks, "But I still feel bad that I couldn't do anything. I'm so pathetic."

From there, time progresses to the point Nero finishes cleaning out the room while within his prediction. Everything in the quarters was taken to a storage room in a different area of the Geofront by Nero and Kaji. In the midst of that, Kaji attempted to obtain answers out of Nero in a discreet manner, but the teenager neglected his question with the help of his black music player that resembles an Ipod Touch, but tinier. Currently, the entire group is pleased with the apartment's living arrangements, however, not all are at ease as it's 9:39 PM.

Touji and Hikari are in their room, which greatly resembles the quarters Shinji shares with Asuka, although instead of having a closet; it has another dresser poised to the jock's side of the bed. The couple are lying atop their bed with Hikari held by Touji's right arm as she's snuggled up against him while on her left side, both staring at the ceiling and dressed to go to sleep. In specific, Touji's attire is a grey t-shirt with dark blue shorts and Hikari's wearing light brown pajamas that are lighter than her hair.

Soon enough, Hikari gazes at Touji with concern radiating. "Are you still dwelling on the whole Nero ordeal?"

Touji becomes aggravated, sustaining his eyes skyward, as his left arm's behind his head. "I really don't wanna talk 'bout it."

Hikari's behavior intensifies while drawing closer to Touji. "But I wish to know. You shouldn't bottle up your feelings, Suzuhara." She issues her boyfriend a grin with sincerity arising. "It'll help if you let out how you feel, and I'll help you get through it".

Touji temporarily shuts his eyes, lets out a vague sigh and then navigates his head right to see Hiraki with a smirk. "I get you're worried 'bout me, but I really just wanna ignore what's happenin' right now." He peers at the ceiling again and optimistically remarks, "Anyway... With Nero threatening my position as pilot, I'll be more hyped to protect it!"

Hikari snuggles up to Touji further and says gleefully, "I bet you'll make a comeback and keep your spot!"

Touji laughs proudly. "Ya damn right! Nero woulda showed up only to watch me kick some SEELE ass!" He continues laughing.

With that, the scene switches to Shinji/Asuka's room while the 3rd Child's presently sitting on his side of the bed with his person turned away from the German lying upon her left as Asuka's concentration's glued to him, displaying concern throughout. As she does this, it's visible that the dame's wearing a red/white striped tank-top with light blue denim shorts that fits perfectly against her body while Shinji's has on a white t-shirt and black shorts.

Asuka sits upright and leans over Shinji's right to see his face. "What's wrong, Shinji?"

Shinji looks at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes as sadness resonates within them. "I need to tell you something, Asuka."

Asuka gets onto all fours, tilting her head slightly to the right after bridging the gap between herself and Shinji more. "What is it? You can tell me anything." The teen pauses briefly as she thinks with her head straightened while viewing the opposite direction, "But I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Mari. I was knocked out earlier, so she could've done something." Asuka resets her vision to Shinji.

Shinji hurriedly angles his body to confront Asuka while aiming his sight to the bed. "I didn't... Save you."

Confusion overtakes Asuka's expression as she pulls her head rearward a tad. "What are you talking about?"

Shinji tightly clenches his hands into fists. "It wasn't me who jumped into the water and got you out. It was Nero"

Asuka's awestruck and is unable to respond.

Shinji snaps his focus to Asuka with an upset demeanor. "Though I tried to, I swear! But Mari was keeping me from going in and then Misato told me not to jump! She said I would've been in danger too! I really wanted to rescue you, Asuka!"

Having heard those sincere words from Shinji, Asuka contentedly smiles while giving the lad a kiss on the lips. After that, the 2nd Child mildly separates herself from Shinji to emit a caring attitude. "I know you would have. Just remind me to thank Nero." Asuka suddenly becomes quite curious, losing any sign of her happiness, and slants her head to the left. "By the way, did you thank him for saving me?"

Shinji's eyes rapidly widen from realization as he yells out, "Oh crap! I forgot to!"

Asuka giggles a little before saying optimistically, "Then we'll do it together." She bends toward Shinji while closing her eyes and plants another kiss onto him.

Shinji returns Asuka's affection and shuts his eyes as well. During that, the brown-haired male feels relieved that he finally informed Asuka of the truth and that his reward is her love.

Following that, Nero's quarters come to view while fairly dark with the boy sprawled atop his bed as he listens to his music player. He's currently dressed in a sky blue t-shirt and black jeans as his room's distinctively different due to it only possessing a closet at the end of his bed with the end where Nero's head rests is against the wall. Plus, the quarters' door is to the new pilot's left with sufficient space dividing his bed and it while, to his right, there's a wall touching his bed.

Nero abruptly talks to himself with both arms over his head, on top of one another, as he watches the ceiling in a dull manner. "I'll be registering into the others' school at the end of the week. That means I'll be in the same class by next week." The boy swaps his to the left and stares at the door. "I doubt they'll get used to me being here for a while. I'm actually lucky they don't really question I look so much like Shinji." Nero closes his eyes as he turns to his right side to face the wall, locating his hands behind his head. "Now that I think about it, I was right. I knew he wouldn't remember his promise. He was only three back then. It's normal to forget what you even do at that age." The 7th Child eventually goes to sleep.

After a while, the next day comes with an unfortunate incident transpiring, compliments of Shinji having woken up to discover that Asuka has a fever. This both surprises the brown-haired individual and makes him worry for Asuka's well-being prior to notifying Misato, who slept alone last night because Kaji went back on his search of SEELE while Pen-Pen had magically disappeared again. Right now, everybody except Nero, not knowing that Asuka's sick and continues to be in his quarters, are at Shinji/Asuka's room.

Soon enough, Nero gradually exits his room, yawning with his right hand blotting his mouth and has his eyes shut. After lowering his hand, the young male looks toward the left as he discerns the crowd gathered there and thinks with a hint of curiosity radiating, "What the?"

Then, out of complete randomness, Pen-Pen comes out of Nero's quarters as he stands next to him while generating a soft, squawking yawn.

Nero immediately gazes at Pen-Pen out of the corner of his eyes amidst emitting alarm.

Pen-Pen nonchalantly glimpses at Nero before looking forward while waddling to the kitchen.

Nero adds confusion to his constitution during him performing a fast double-take between his quarters and Pen-Pen while thinking, "Why the hell was he in my room?! As a matter of fact, how did he even get in my room?!" The black-haired person ultimately brushes off his stress involving warm-water penguin, having pondered over it for a few seconds while witnessing Pen-Pen's progression, and regains his intrigue as he becomes attentive of Mari's presence since she's the closest to him. Afterwards, Nero takes a few steps toward the Problem Child as he strives to see the confines of Shinji/Asuka's room and gently asks, "What's going on?"

Mari plainly responds as she makes eye contact with Nero. "Asuka's apparently under the weather." She suddenly realizes something and smiles as she returns her focus to the room with excitement shown. "Meaning I won't have to worry about her when I try to spend time with Shinji in class today!"

Nero gawks at Mari out of astonishment prior to expressing a vague laugh while slowly shaking his head with his eyes closed. "I can't believe you." He reopens his eyes with a smirk surfacing. "The least you can do is be concerned about her a bit. Don't be so happy that she's sick."

Mari reset her sights onto Nero. "Although I want Shinji all to myself, I'm not wishing for anything bad to happen to Asuka. I'm simply looking on the bright side."

Nero rolls his eyes and concentrates upon Shinji/Asuka's room again. "Which is the part that benefits you."

Mari giggles, covering her mouth with her left hand, as she shuts her eyes until planting that same appendage on her hip and resumes her depiction of the present dilemma. "I won't deny it."

Nero glances at Mari with an amused demeanor while thinking, "Way to admit it." He turns his attention toward the quarters one more time and listens to the conversation that's held.

Shinji sits atop his bed with Asuka angled onto her posterior, breathing heavily and possesses a cold towel draped across her forehead. Not long after, the blue-eyed male demonstrates a frantic conduct as he states in a pleading tone, "Misato, I can't just leave her by herself!"

Sympathy envelopes Misato as her arms are crossed. "I know you're worried about her, but you can't miss school. It's been barely two weeks since you all started." She steers her focus to Asuka. "She'll have a reasonable excuse, so no repercussions will occur." Misato reverts her vision to Shinji. "However, you won't have one."

Mari walks pass the group to enter the room with a broad grin displayed. "She's right, Shinji." The glasses-endowed chick lifts her right index finger and declares in a playful way, "You can't be missing school without a valid excuse."

Hikari stands behind Mari, quite upset by the girl's behavior, and is to the right of Touji. "You're only saying that because then you can try to steal Shinji away from Asuka!"

Mari switches her concentration to Hikari. "I assure you that's not my plan... I'm merely going to do my best to spend as much time with him as possible while she isn't around." She arrogantly giggles.

Shinji briefly aims his attention to the crowd with no real emotion until turning back to Misato. "Please, Misato! I don't want her to be alone! It would've been different if you didn't have to go to NERV today, but since you do, let me stay!"

Nero steps into the room, resting his rear against the wall that's to the right of the doorway and lackadaisically offers with his arms entwined as his sights are on Shinji, "I can watch her."

Everyone instantaneously look at Nero with a fairly stunned composition.  

Nero glimpses at the nearby people. "I'm actually gonna be here all day. I won't be joining you guys in school yet."

Misato hurriedly brims realization. "Right! You're supposed to register at the end of the week!"

Shinji draws his focus to Misato while moderately surprised and then instills his concentration toward Nero with some concern included. "Are you sure you don't mind taking care of her?"

Nero smiles at Shinji. "Don't worry about it." He swiftly says with a bit of a smart ass tone, "Like I have anything else to do."

Misato grins as she nods while uncrossing her arms. "That's great!" The adult steers her sight to the others. "In that case, we can all get ready to head out."

Aside from Shinji and Nero, the other children nod in response prior to exiting the quarters.

During the foreigner's progression, Mari temporarily takes a detour to station herself beside Nero while whispering into his left ear, "Thanks." She then hastily heads out of the room.

Nero gazes towards the direction Mari went with a smirk exhibited as he thinks, "What an interesting girl."

Afterwards, Misato walks out of the room while nodding at Nero with content. 

Nero reciprocates Misato's action, seeing her leave the quarters until shifting his vision to Shinji, and unfolds his arms. Once he does that, the lad advances to the area next to Shinji, keying onto the fact that the 3rd Child persists his concern for Asuka. Upon reaching Shinji, Nero states with an assuring tone, "Just relax, Shinji. I promise I'll take good care of her."

Shinji directs his attention to Nero as he contentedly smiles. "Thank you, Nero." The teenager abruptly recalls a certain detail while his eyes widen briefly until nervousness establishes itself with his sight deviated from Nero as he scratches the back of his head via his left hand. "And thanks for saving Asuka yesterday."

Nero's a tad caught off guard by Shinji's demonstration of gratitude, however, ultimately grins with mild joy shown while facing towards the bedroom door. "Don't mention it." He soon departs from the room without saying anything else.

Everybody apart from Nero, and obviously Asuka, prepare themselves with a decent quantity of urgency since they're running a little late as the group leave the apartment shortly after completion. Throughout the time they are gone, Nero keeps to his word by changing the towel that's on Asuka's forehead when needed while ensuring that nothing bad transpires as she's resting. With that, it's about to be noon as Nero's presently in the kitchen, filling up a bucket with cold water from the kitchen's sink.

As he does that, Nero spaces out at first while staring at the water with vacant eyes and depicts his reflection. After a little time transgresses, the Japanese male snaps out of it and turns off the water while muttering, "I think I'll go take a bath after changing Asuka's towel." Nero picks hoists the bucket via both hands to carry it to Asuka, placing the object next to her bed when he reaches it, knees down and grabs the folded up cloth lying onto the dame's forehead with his left hand. At the same time, the brown-eyed teen stations his right hand beside Asuka's head that way he has leverage to gingerly plant his forehead against hers. This is for Nero to possess a better feel of Asuka's temperature as he's comparing it to his own while dunking the towel into the cold water with his eyes closed. He then separates himself from Asuka while setting his sights upon the German again and perches the towel back on her.

Asuka reacts to the towel a little, but doesn't awake and starts to breathe normally, having been panting previously.

Nero smirks while thinking, "Most of her fever has gone down. Shinji will be super relieved." The black-haired character chuckles amidst rising to stand upright as he slowly turns around to exit the room, leaving the room's door open. Afterwards, Nero heads to the bathroom that's in between his room and Asuka/Shinji's while asking himself during his entrance with a hint of uncertainty demonstrated, "Should I get my clothes?" He mildly laughs, shutting his eyes with his head lowered. "What's the worst that can happen?" Nero promptly shuts the bathroom door behind him.

Following several minutes since Nero went to bathe, Asuka gradually begins to wake up as she notices that there's a towel on her person. This results in the 2nd Child slowly taking the folded cloth off and sits properly to scan the room with a tired conduct. After doing that, Asuka lightly yawns amidst removing herself from the bed while steadily leaving her quarters and halts inside the living room to check her surroundings as minor worry is exhibited. "Where's everybody?"

Asuka specifically focuses onto the kitchen and walks toward it to look at the microwave that's positioned next to the refrigerator, becoming dumbfounded to see that it's pass noon while fervently yelling, "Mein Gott! I've been asleep that long?!" The redhead glances around while calming herself down a bit. "I guess everyone's at school and Misato's at work." Asuka haphazardly emanates realization. "Wait a minute!" The blue-eyed chick snaps her head towards Nero's quarters with intrigue replacing her earlier attitude as she hastily composes herself and thinks, "I don't believe he's registered into our school yet." The German immediately decides to advance to Nero's door and knocks on it twice as she waits for a response with moderate concern, however, obtains nothing while thinking, "I thought he'd be here." Asuka then partially slides the door open, peeking into the bedroom, cautiously inquiring, "Hello?"

Meanwhile, Nero remains in the bathroom with his entire body submerged under the bathtub's water, his eyes closed while containing a calm behavior. Ultimately, the teen sits up for air and watches the water as he zones out until softly commenting while it's notable that he has a small, circular impression upon the middle of his chest, having gained it from a painful experience that occurred not too long ago, "Huh... Taking care of Asuka reminds me of when Rivka did that for me." Nero chuckles during the shutting of his eyes again and cocks his head skyward. "How memories seem to randomly come back to people." He gradually concentrates on the ceiling prior to showing some bewilderment. "That's something I forgot. For once, I didn't think of my hatred of dealing with a different ceiling." The Japanese boy grins. "I wonder if it has something to do with..." Nero trails off.

Asuka enters Nero's room, garnering the main attention of the scene, as she neglected to close the door and mumbles amidst her being fairly impressed, "It's pretty amazing how he got this room cleaned up. He did it all by himself too." The girl abruptly registers that Pen-Pen's sleeping atop Nero's bed while listening to the new pilot's music player. This causes Asuka to be quite stunned with her jaw hanging slightly and thinks, "What the hell is he doing in Nero's room?!" The redhead soon discerns, out of the corner of her eyes, a drawing pinned onto the wall that's to the right section of the quarters as it's a little far away from the entrance. Not much after that, Asuka stations herself in front of the item while curiously examining it as the object is a drawing of a black cross that has a black sun behind it with a black kitten on top of the cross staring at you. Also, there's a white kitten at the very bottom of the cross, peering towards the elevated animal, with Asuka whispering in awe, "That's an intense drawing. Was Nero the one who drew it?"

With the completion of that, Nero rapidly opens the bathroom door, having merely a towel wrapped around his waist, and commences his trip to his room. The young individual ultimately goes inside his quarters without paying any mind to the fact that the door isn't shut or even looking to the right, which is where Asuka's standing, as he removes the towel via his right hand so he could dry his hair with it. At the same time, Nero's focusing on the floor while demonstrating an indifferent personality, closes the door with his left limb and navigates his body west, making his posterior aim towards Asuka.

Asuka hears the noise from the door while vaguely startled, mounts her concentration toward Nero and is instantly in shock when she witnesses him naked as she screams with redness consuming her face, "MEIN GOTT!"

Nero swiftly veers his head to the right to view Asuka with his eyebrows raised a little as surprise establishes itself. "Asuka?"

Asuka hurriedly turns around with her head lowered and shouts in a flustered manner, "What are you doing?!"

Nero simply stares at Asuka's back until unprecedentedly laughing while dropping his towel. Afterwards, the 7th Child tilts his head rearward with his right hand still onto his head and thinks, "Oh my God! When people say that history repeats, I never imagine they meant it THAT literally!"

Asuka listens to Nero's laughter as she's immensely baffled before getting angry while blushing, doing her best not to accidentally confront Nero, and balls up her hands. "What's so funny?!"

Nero puts his right appendage down, walks to his closet that's toward his left and smiles from amusement. "It's not you. This just made me remember something I experienced."

Asuka tries to relax as she brings her vision to Nero through shifting her head toward the right. This being a mistake because the chick ended up seeing that Nero has gotten dressed yet and keys on a quick second prior to retracting her gaze in embarrassment that there's a giant mark shaped like a cross upon the male's backside. Then, Asuka blushes again while attentive of the section ahead of her while her hands are shaking as she thinks, "I can't believe I saw him naked again! I should've never come into his room!" The 2nd Child displays a worried demeanor as she inhales deeply, instills her sight towards her right while unable to see Nero and anxiously questions, "Um... What's with... That etching on your back?"

Nero, having recently put dark, grey jeans on, is caught off guard by Asuka's inquiry while concentration on his closet's confines. Right after that, the character smiles and confronts Asuka while holding a long-sleeved, dark green shirt in his left hand. "Seems you took another peek at my body." Nero chuckles.

Asuka grows even more embarrassed. "I didn't mean to!" She becomes quite irritated with her focus dropped to the floor.

Nero gives off a cheerful attitude as he slips his shirt onto his torso. "It's okay. Anyway, you can turn around now. I already finished."

Asuka reluctantly faces Nero until switching her sights to the left while getting a little red. "Sorry about being in here without asking you."

Nero walks up to Asuka. "I forgive you." The brown-eyed person issues Asuka a curious look with his head slightly tilted to the left. "By the way, why did you come here?"

Asuka locks eyes with Nero, surprise brimming as the redness that enveloped her disappears. "Right! It's 'cause I remembered that you aren't registered into our school yet. I wanted to know what happened." Concern rapidly forms while the German administers her right hand onto her hip. "Why didn't anyone wake me up to go to school?"

Nero plainly responds. "You were sick, Asuka. You had a fever. It was for the best that you weren't disturbed."

Asuka promptly shouts from disbelief, "Really?!"

Nero chuckles again due to Asuka's reaction and then briefly recalls a detail via his eyes peering at the ceiling until unexpectedly drawing closer to Asuka with curiosity noted. "I need to check something. Hold still."

Asuka instantly turns bright red, pulling her head backwards a little, while thinking in a panic, "What's he doing?!"

Simultaneously, Pen-Pen continues lying atop Nero's bed with the music player on as he watches Nero get near Asuka with a plain look demonstrated.

Then, Nere places his right hand upon the rear of Asuka's head and plants his forehead against hers with his eyes shut.

That causes Asuka to be stunned while blushing significantly.

After a couple of seconds, Nero grins as he calmly says, "Your fever is gone." He lets go of Asuka's head, dropping his hand and recedes a tad while viewing the 2nd Child.

In the meantime, Pen-Pen navigates his concentration to the ceiling prior to closing his eyes.

Asuka's left speechless for a tiny moment before sighing from relief, perching her right hand onto the center of her chest, and stops blushing. After doing that, the redhead thinks to herself while gazing away from Nero once more, "Thank goodness. I thought he was going to kiss me or something. I don't know how I would've responded if he did, considering he looks so much like Shinji."

Nero becomes a little concerned. "Something wrong?"

Asuka steers her vision to Nero, lowering her right hand in the process, while surprised until smirking and shakes her head during her verbal rebuttal. "I'm fine." Realization abruptly encompasses the chick and quickly takes a step towards Nero with a grateful attitude. "Oh yeah! Thanks for saving my life yesterday! Shinji told me you went in after me!" Asuka elevates her right hand next to her face as she sticks out her index finger and winks at Nero. "I owe you one!" The dame giggles before radiating determination while putting her hand down. "And be assured, I'll definitely pay you back!"

Nero faintly laughs as he cocks his head slightly towards the left. "I look forward to it."

Asuka smiles prior to switching her focus to the drawing with intrigue arising. "Now that I think about it. What's up with this? Did you draw it?"

Nero instills his attention to the drawing and maneuvers himself to Asuka's right with a lackadaisical demeanor. "I did, although it was different."

Asuka gazes at Nero again as her curiosity increases. "What do you mean?"

Nero blandly answers. "It's the second version. I lost the original, so I drew this to replace it. The only thing that altered is the white kitten." He commandeers his sight to Asuka while lightly smirking. "I added it."

Worry mixes into Asuka's expression. "Why the change?"

Nero veers his vision back to the artwork with content established. "The old one symbolized how I felt about the world. My opinion isn't the same anymore, but not by much." He chuckles once more.

Intrigue returns while Asuka glances at the drawing. "So, what does it currently represent?"

Nero gives Asuka a sincere grin. "That no matter how terrible the world is and how lonely it may seem, you aren't truly alone. That there's someone nearby who truly cares about you." Sadness displays itself as the male sets his focus to the image once more. "The obvious thing about this drawing is how far apart the two kittens are from each other, showing the common fact that the a huge distance between two individuals and it's possible they may never reach each other." He optimistically smiles at Asuka. "Unless you're willing to take a risk on love."

Asuka's immediately awestruck and gawks at Nero while becoming a light shade of red.

Curiosity suddenly overruns Nero after mentally registering a detail. "Are you hungry?"

Asuka hastily snaps out of her trance as she enthusiastically nods. "Hell yeah! I'm starving!"

Nero laughs and closes his eyes momentarily prior to being on the verge confronting the door, however, notices Pen-Pen on his bed as he's mildly confused while thinking, "How long has he been there? And is that my music player he's listening to?" The Japanese boy brushes off his concern after a few seconds progress, facing his door as he keys onto Asuka out of the corner of his left eye with a laid-back grin. "I'll cook something up for us to eat." Nero commences to walk out of the room while attentive of where he's going.

Asuka portrays a dumbfounded behavior while pursuing Nero. "You can cook too?!"

Nero heads to the kitchen sink, glancing at Asuka. "Yeah. I'm guessing you said that considering Shinji does it, huh?"

Asuka's eyes widen and stops near the kitchen table, hurriedly puttying her right hand in front of her mouth amidst concentrating downward as she thinks, "Damn it! I compared him to Shinji by mistake!"

Nero properly confronts Asuka with an indifferent demeanor before gently laughing as he sinks his right hand into its respective pocket. "Don't worry about accidental comparisons . All I ask is try not to do it on purpose. It does bother me a little. Okay?" Nero gingerly slants his head to the right while smiling at Asuka.

Asuka reverts her vision to Nero, temporarily bewildered until lowering her hand that was blocking her mouth while grinning and sharply nods. "I'll do my best."

Nero turns back around to begin rinsing out the pots and pans so that he can cook soon. "You know... Shinji was severely stressed over you."

Asuka instantly emits pride. "Well, I am his girlfriend. I shouldn't be surprised that he was." She then looks to the right. "Even if we weren't together, he'd worry."

Nero lackadaisically places the dishes atop the stove. "I totally agree." The Japanese teen glances at Asuka out of the corner of his right eye since that's where Asuka's remaining. "He would've stayed, but it was best that he didn't miss school. And when I volunteered to take care of you, it put him at ease."

Asuka resets her concentration upon Nero. "I guess I'll have to thank you for that too."

Nero focuses onto the stove while closing his eyes briefly. "There's no need." The lad views Asuka again with his body continually facing towards the stove. "You want me to make you a hamburger?"

Asuka's hastily jaw drops prior to bending forth slightly as she yells out in disbelief, "You can prepare hamburgers?!"

Nero softly laughs, a bit amazed at Asuka's reaction. "Of course. It isn't really that hard."

Asuka's consumed with excitement. "That's great! I haven't had a burger for such a long time!"

Nero smirks, commandeering his attention to the stove one more time. "Then hamburgers it is."

While Nero makes the hamburgers with Asuka watching him, compliments of her not thinking of doing anything else aside from waiting for her food, the scene diverts to Gendo's office. Gendo had summoned Misato, having a feeling that she would desire a discuss with him. Once Misato arrives, the conversation commences as Fuyutsuki is there to listen.

Misato has an upset conduct and shouts while partially advancing towards Gendo's desk, "What do you mean, 'You have nothing to tell'?!"

Gendo sits at his desk in his usual pose with no emotion displayed as his gaze is glued to Misato. "It's as I stated. There are no specifics concerning Nero that is necessary to be known."

Misato gets irritated while gritting her teeth before deeply inhaling with her eyes closed in the attempt to calm herself and then implements a solemn attitude upon reverting her sight toward Gendo. "Can you at least explain why he looks so much like Shinji. They could pass off as twins."

Fuyutsuki stands next to Gendo as he's baffled by Misato's words, having yet met Nero, and concentrates on Gendo with worry portrayed while thinking, "The new pilot bears such a resemblance to Shinji that he can be his twin?! Impossible! Yui didn't have twins! She would have told me!"

Gendo becomes very serious, places his hands onto his desk and rises while contorted forward a tad. "It's not uncommon for two people to look alike and not be related. That's what this is."

Misato emanates a skeptical personality. "Can't be. It's too much of a coincidence that they both share a huge resemblence and are chosen children."

Fuyutsuki gives Misato a serious glare as he thinks, "She's correct. The odds are immense."

Gendo narrows his eyes. "Believe me when I say, they aren't siblings."

Misato crosses her arms with an intense demeanor shown. "I'll consider that to be the truth, however, I first have to ask you something."

A hint of curiosity establishes itself upon Gendo while straightening his constitution with both hands joined at his posterior. "What?"

Misato pauses to take another breath with her vision momentarily lowered until mounting her attention onto Gendo again and sternly questions, "Is Nero a clone?"

Fuyutsuki's significantly dumbfounded as he pulls back a little prior to directing his focus to Gendo to wait for his response.

Gendo merely stares at Misato with light irritation presented.

Misato continues her speech. "The reason I ask that is because I can't really accept their resemblance. After the incident with the clones of Rei, Kaji had that thought of you possibly creating one of Shinji. I was hoping it wasn't anything as extreme as that, but if you're telling me to believe they aren't related, I need to know if he is or not."

Gendo shifts his sight away from Misato with coldness surfacing. "Colonel. Just think about it. Why would I clone Shinji when my relationship with him wasn't even a good one? Also, I already had Rei. So, for what possible purpose can you think of that I would want to do that?"

Misato's quickly engulfed by shock while thinking as she's fairly embarrassed, "Damn! He's right! Why would he with Rei around?! He even favored her during most of the time Shinji's been here!" Misato drops her vision to the floor and rebuttals via an apologetic tone, "You're absolutely right, Commander. I'm sorry for not trusting you."

Gendo calmly views Misato out of the corner of his eyes. "It's alright. Now, are you satisfied with the information I've given you?"

Misato fixes her head's angling to see Gendo and nods with seriousness returning briefly until growing a tad concerned, compliments of her realizing a detail. "By the way, I don't have Nero's file. I tried searching for any information about him, but I couldn't find a single thing."

Gendo leisurely steers his head to properly make eye contact with Misato. "That's because it was lost. If you want to know anything, you'll have to talk with him."

Misato's substantially surprised as she blurts out, "Really?! How about his parents?! What's their status?!"

Gendo plainly responds. "Every shred of their background disappeared after the 3rd Impact, although there wasn't a lot to begin with. His parents died when he was an infant. Documentation was scarce as a whole."

Misato's consumed with sadness while removing her gaze from Gendo and thinks, "He has no parents and he's all alone..." The purple-haired woman snaps her concentration to Gendo as she tenaciously comments, "Then I'll be sure to make him feel at home!"

After sitting back down, Gendo nods at Misato amidst getting into his pose. "You're dismissed."

Misato accepts Gendo's order and hatily exits the room as she thinks with her eyes set onto the terrain, "Even though I didn't get anywhere with him, I'm actually in a better mood." She looks ahead of herself with a content grin displayed.

Gendo watches Misato leave prior to becoming attentive of Fuyutsuki with a blank expression. "I comprehend you wish to let out a remark. The floor is yours."

Fuyutsuki replies without hesitation as he imitates Gendo's behavior. "All I want to say is that Yui never ONCE mentioned having another son. I have no doubts in your words."

Gendo nods at Fuyutsuki before thinking about the past with his eyes closed, having navigated his head opposite from the Sub-Commander.

*Flashback: June 6 2001*

The memory starts off in a hospital room with Yui in a bed while slowly going into labor. Gendo is on her right, holding her hand with his left appendage, as he's trying to get her through the labor pains. The doctor is a man getting ready to help with the child's birth and is accompanied by a nurse as their face can't be seen much. Gendo contains a moderately younger appearance at this time while wearing a white long-sleeved, button shirt that's unbuttoned at the firts two and has khaki pants on.

Yui focuses onto Gendo with agony noted as she's dressed in a light blue, hospital gown. "You're confident about the name, right?"

Gendo smiles at Yui amidst warmly nodding. "Yes... Like I said, if it's a boy, Shinji. If it's a girl, Rei."

Yui grins. "Shinji and Rei... What beautiful names..."

The doctor walks to the front of Yui's bed with a composed demeanor. "It's time to start."

Yui and Gendo nod in response.

With that, the doctor steadily begins the procedure while sternly instructing, "Alright, Mrs. Ikari. I need you to push."

Yui hurriedly makes multiple efforts of giving birth with a lot of pain tormenting her, yelling out from time to time.

As that happens, Gendo doesn't let go of her hand with worry resonating in his eyes and watches Yui.

After some time transgresses, the doctor manages to pull out the baby and is a bit surprised that the baby isn't crying, however, briefly ignores it as he cuts the umbilical cord. Soon, he realizes that the baby is breathing easily, easing his concern, as he shifts his concentration to Yui and Gendo with a smirk. "It's a boy."

Gendo emits happiness while traveling toward the doctor. "Wonderful."

The doctor hands the infant to the nurse prior to turning his attention to Gendo.

The nurse takes the baby toward the side as she swiftly cleans him up until wrapping the infant in a small blanket and carries him to Gendo. "Here you go, sir."

Gendo grabs the newborn and issues his child a pleased smile. "Welcome to the world, my son."

Unexpectedly, Yui commences to scream in agony again.

Gendo quickly astonished while snapping his head to view Yui. "What's wrong?!"

The doctor checks Yui's private area before disbelief encompasses him. "How's this possible?! There's..."

Gendo's stunned as he hears a baby suddenly cry.

Simultaneously, the doctor gradually retracts another baby with everyone soon listening to the second infant wailing. Shortly after, the physician removes the umbilical cord and hands the baby to the nurse while still amazed as he looks at Gendo. "I don't know how, but you have twins."

Gendo takes a step towards the doctor with a hint of stress portrayed. "How can this be?! You told us she was only going to have one child!"

Curiosity can be seen on the doctor's face, deviating his vision from Gendo in the process. "Well, there are rare cases that the twins are so close together they'd appear as one instead of two. Either way, we should've been able to detect two separate heart-beats. It's hard to fathom their rhythm to have synchronize every occasion she visited the hospital" He reverts his gaze to Gendo with a bit of calmness brimming. "The one that came out first is most likely the one we have been seeing, but I can't say for sure." The doctor grins with optimism. "In a way, you can think of it as him protecting his little brother by being the first one to come out to the world." The adult instills his sight upon the baby and then exhibits surprise. "Oh my God!"

Gendo becomes quite worried while verifying the cause of the doctor's reaction and rapidly replaces his personality with bewilderment when he registers that the newborn has his eyes opened.

During that, the baby presently stares at his father with a smirk.

Gendo hurriedly focuses on Yui. "He's looking right at me, Yui."

Yui's temporarily awestruck until smiling with joy radiating.

Gendo gingerly laughs and concentrates onto the baby again. "You certainly are incredible, Shinji."

Hearing Gendo's declaration, Yui abruptly shows concern as she utters with a weak tone, "Gendo..."

Gendo directs his attention to Yuki with intrigue demonstrated. "What is it, Yui?"

Yui genuinely grins at Gendo. "That name doesn't suit him."

Gendo grows quite confused. "How come?"

Yui briefly steers her sight from Gendo, but that doesn't last long while striving to restrain her tears of glee. "I want him to be named Nero."

Gendo's a tad dumbfounded. "Why that? He came out first." The Japanese man switches his vision back to the baby in his arms. "Anyway, I don't understand why you believe Shinji wouldn't be fine."

Yui reaches out towards Gendo with her right hand. "I know, my love. However, it dawns on me that the writing of Shinji befits the second born." The brown-haired woman views the child Gendo's carrying while putting her hand down. "Also, Nero stands for strength." Yui locks eyes with Gendo. "Shinji needs to have a strong, older brother to care for him."

Gendo's baffled for a moment and then sincerely smirks at Yui. "Alright." The individual promptly thinks to himself as he looks towards the ceiling, "Although to be exact, Nero means powerful. It suits him, I guess." Gendo looks towards Nero.

Nero giggles at the sight of Gendo paying attention to him.

Afterwards, Gendo continues his thoughts as he space out, "I just hope I'm a good father to both you and Shinji."

*End Of Flashback*

Gendo slowly reopens his eyes with sadness filling them before resting his gaze upon his desk while thinking, "Too bad I turned out to be the exact opposite of what I was hoping. I really am pathetic."

From there, some time goes by, with Nero having made the hamburgers for himself and Asuka. Once they ate, the 7th Child went to his room as he stayed there for the remainder of the day while Asuka spent most of the time in the living room until Shinji and the others returned. 

Shinji was happy to find that Asuka feeling better while both shared a warm embrace. Although Asuka portrayed delight of being in Shinji's arms, she couldn't help stressing about any possible efforts Mari implemented during her absence. Fortunately for the redhead, Shinji reassured her that nothing extreme occurred, despite his substantial nervousness when he explained that, as Mari actually didn't try anything too out of line. 

With that, all the children except Nero spent time together prior to Misato's arrival as she instantly emanated joy upon discovering that Asuka's better.

Amidst the minor celebration, Nero's lies atop his bed and is within the darkness of his room while Pen-Pen sleeps to his left in an outstretched position. At the same time, the lad blandly stares at the ceiling as his hands are behind his head and whispers, "I feel like such an idiot. I told myself not to become accustomed to living here or interact that much with anyone, and yet, I did the opposite." Nero shakes his head in disapproval while closing his eyes until randomly laughing to himself. "Nothing I can do about that now." He eventually opens his eyes again. "I honestly didn't mind taking care of Asuka. I'm already on good terms with both her and Shinji." Nero glances towards the door, which is at his left. "And I guess with Mari, but I think Touji despises me for the obvious reason." The black-haired male chuckles and shuts his eyes once more. "I wonder what else will happen while I live here."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Ending Statement:

I liked writing this episode quite a bit. I decided to reveal some of Nero's past since everyone most likely read my 2nd Branch story. I hope you all enjoyed this episode to and look forward to the next one.

That's it. Talk to you all later.