Family Matters, Chapter 2 Draft.

In the days following the Third Angel’s defeat, life returned to normal for Tokyo-3. Work crews swarmed over the city like ants, quickly bringing the worst of the damage under control. The worst of the damage would take months to fully repair, but enough was dealt with for the citizens return to their business with a minimal amount of inconvenience. Tokyo-3 was a fortress before it was a city.

The morning was clear and warm, though the  moisture in the air held the promise of a sweltering afternoon. All across the city the grinding clatter of heavy machinery could be heard, as a near deafening roar along the main roads and as a more muted distant grumble from the side-roads and back streets. When Shinji emerged from his house the noise didn’t quite manage to overwhelm the breeze that skirted along the road. The cicadas of the eternal summer had yet to rouse themselves from the nightly reprieve.

Shinji stifled a yawn as he made his down the long sloping side street he and his father lived on. The road flattened out about a dozen houses further down the street, when the three story houses with their well trimmed yards gave way to the smaller and more densely packed townhouses. The occasional tree with worn green leaves would give small measures of relief from the sun on the walk back home. Cars and trucks worked their way down the road. The whine of their electric motors were nearly drowned out by the nearby sound of jackhammers and heavy machinery at work.

Through the muddled haze of fatigue, Shinji’s continued to dwell on the events of the battle. He smiled, still feeling the comforting warmth kindle to life in his chest. Mother had been there for him, she’d protected him, saved him. He’d tried to put his feelings into words, but they had consistently come short. She loved him, she was there for him. No more doubts, no more clinging to distant feelings and echos within the plug.

[Not sure about this paragraph, doesn’t quite flows right. Too tell-y and somewhat stilted]
‘Was this what she was to Father?’ He thought to himself, the man spoke so rarely of her. Perhaps it wasn’t out of pain as he’d thought, but a simply inability to put into words what she meant to him. Though that didn’t quite explain his aversion to her photos or the like. Maybe it would help if he told his father his thoughts? To at least establish that he was starting to understand, perhaps not in the same way but along the same lines, as he did? Certainly not a talk to have over the phone, it woul-

“Good morning Shinji,” Hikari pleasantly chirped, yanking Shinji away from his introspection.

“Oh, hey, morning Hikari. Not thinking about much really,” He shrugged dismissively “You and your sisters make it through the attack ok?”

“We’re all fine, we managed to get to a shelter in time. Though the windows in our house were broken when we got him. Along with the all our neighbors.”

Shinji nodded, mentally linking the Angel’s path in relation to Hikari’s house. It was in the same area, which explained the broken windows. “A good thing that’s the worst you had to deal with.”

“Yeah, we were pretty lucky all things considered,” She spoke softly as her gaze was drawn farther down the street to a half ruined building. It was a small market the right half of it lay splintered upon the ground, while the other sagged dangerously, cracks running the length of the wall. Chunks of concrete, glass. It was ringed by yellow hazard tape. No workers had arrived yet, and likely would not for some days given the more critical damage elsewhere in the city.

“So,” She dragged the word out “Are you and your dad alright?”

“Yeah, my father spent the whole thing down in the geofront, and as soon as it was finished he had to go to New York to report to the UN.”

She frowned while giving Shinji a side-long look in response. “So you’re on your own?”

“For now, my father will be back in the next few days.”

“Well,” She said tentatively “you should come over for dinner tonight then, seeing as you’re on your own for the moment.”

“That’s very kind of you Hikari, thank you. I’ll consider it.”

“It’s no trouble really, Kodama doesn’t even show up half the time so it’s hardly as though you’d be imposing.” There was a momentary pause “Plus my dad has been pretty busy the last few days as well, it gets a tad lonely when it’s only me and Nozomi.”

“I’ll,” he tried to force the sympathetic twinge of loneliness back down “consider it Hikari.” He rolled the idea around his head for a moment before deciding to think it over after he’d fully woken up.

“Say, Shinji?” Hikari asked after a few increasingly awkward moments of silenced passed “Did you finish that essay for History? It was due today.”

“Uh,” Vague recollections of a essay, half-finished and buried under a few of textbooks flickered across Shinji’s mind “. . . No way he’s going to make us turn it in today, not after the attack.”

[Not sure if this should be teasing or more earnest here.]
Hikari narrowed her eyes “So you didn’t finish it then?” She huffed theatrically and crossed her arms over her chest, “Really Shinji, we had three weeks to do it, you should have had it done by now.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He acquiesced. “I’ll ask for a extension if Mr Ohka does make us turn it in.”

“And if he says no?”

He shrugged in response.

The turned onto a larger road as they neared their school, clumps and collections of students filtering in with them. Hikari separated from Shinji near the main gate to join some of the other girls from their class, while Shinji made his way to the front doors. He slipped through the throngs of students as the din of conversation washed over him. As Shinji sat down to change his shoes he was joined by Kensuke. Shinji was a tad surprised to see that Touji had already changed rather than converse with his friend and was already stalking off to class.

“Hey Shinji, you know if your dad is gonna release any footage of the fighting? It’d be pretty cool to see the Eva in action!” Kensuke asked.

Shinji suppressed the urge to sigh.  “I don’t know Kensuke, my father doesn’t exactly keep me privy to classified information.”

“Right uh, yeah.” Kensuke nervously rubbed the back of his head “Sorry.”

Shinji made his way to class before anyone else could pester him for details he ‘shouldn’t’ know.

[Not sure about this transition feels too sudden maybe?]
Classes proceeded as if nothing had happened earlier that week. There were a few gaps in the seating arrangement and the school-grape vine was dominated by the status of these missing students and other news related to the attack. By and large however, most of the students treated the day as a welcomed return to their routine lives, chatting and studying as all was right in the world.

And for Shinji and his classmates it also meant dealing with their history class, set after lunch. The heat of the late afternoon and the stuffiness of the room mixed together into the perfect soporific environment. Mr Okha’s tendency to drone did not help matters.

Shinji blinked sluggishly, his late night was really starting to catch up with him at this point. He’d lost track of his teacher’s voice a few minutes ago and no longer knew where the lecture was. Nor did he really care at that point. Idly he glanced around the room.

Hikari was still taking notes, but even she seemed to be lagging, meanwhile Sayoko and her friends were quietly gossiping. Touji had his head down in the back, probably asleep, while Kensuke was not-so-secretly reading a manga next to his friend. Mr Okha droned on, either oblivious or apathetic to the overall disinterest of the students.

[Trying to set up some future Rei and Shinji interactions with this, or at least show that she’s on his mind to a extent but I’m not sure if this fits. And hopefully it doesn’t come across as too skivy, though it is fairly tame all things considered.]
His eyes drifted over the seat by the window, and Rei. Her posture was straight head and face forward with her hands folded over the table with a empty notebook and unused pencil. Her face was placidly empty of emotion in a way that felt rigid to Shinji. His gaze traveled along the curve of her face, trailing along the jawline and down to the neck.

As if by some unseen signal she turned her head to Shinji, their gaze meeting for a moment. He could see the barest twitch of the muscles in her face. Perhaps she was suppressing a show of emotion, or it was the half-forgotten memory of how to show it .A few heartbeats passed before Rei turned her head back forward while Shinji rapidly averted his gaze back to the whiteboard. Once more the albino had left him confused and feeling as though he knew less about her the more he thought about her.

A chat message from Kensuke gave Shinji a welcome reprieve from the enigma of Rei Ayanami. ‘Shinji, can you do me a favor?’

‘What?’ He braced himself for another irksome request from Kensuke as he responded, typing discreetly so that his teacher wouldn’t hear. Not that that the old man would care anyways.

‘Can you ask Hikari to go easy on Touji today? She’s giving him a real evil look right now’

Shinji glanced at the sleeping teen in question, the back to Hikari, who at that exact moment was casting a deeply displeased glare at Toji.

‘I could, but why?’

‘Well he was up all night, his sister got hurt real bad during the fighting and they're still not sure if she’ll make.’

Shinji stilled as the temperature of the room dropped several degrees while ice began to creep along his veins.

‘I’ll let her know.’ he typed back after a deep breathes as he banished the sensation from his mind.

‘Thanks, I appreciate it.’

Shinji didn’t bother to respond.

Kensuke hadn’t expected him to.