Yawning, Yui let her eyes drift open. Her nighttime companion was gone, taking a substantial amount of heat and comfort with him.

"Work late?"

Closing her eyes again, she nodded. "Professor Fuyutsuki made me leave; I was asleep on a desk." She smiled, expecting some mildly scornful reply from him. When there was none, she opened her eyes again.

Gendo was at the desk, on the other side of the room, using the computer.

A frown settled on her lips before she sat up, holding the covers to her chest. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," he answered curtly. It wasn't possible to see the reflection of the dark look on his face from the other side of the room.

"Can I ask you something seriously?"

"I don't know. Can you?"

Yui's frown grew. That should have been a playful jibe, but it hadn't sounded like it at all. Annoyed was closer to what she thought it was. "Well, I was going to ask you something fairly important, but since you seem to be in some sort of mood, I'll ask you what your problem is instead."

"I don't have one."

"You're lying and you're not even trying to hide it. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

He hadn't looked at her at all. Not in the mood for dealing with whatever front he was putting up, Yui quickly redressed. "Be this way. I have better things to be doing today than sitting and watching you pretend to be a statue."

She opened the door and was about to step out, but had one last thing for him. "And I enjoyed waking up where I did." The door slammed as she walked out.

It was only after she was gone that Gendo turned. His left hand was clenched into a fist so tight he could barely feel it. When he finally let his hand relax, he wanted nothing more than to re-clench it and put it through the face of Professor Fuyutsuki.

And after he calmed down a bit, he would have to apologize to Yui. There was no way he was going to let something that good get away from him.

"Just a second." Yui finished changing into a pair of slacks and went to answer the door. When she opened it, she couldn't contain her surprise. "What do you want?"

"I didn't mean to... act like that with you. When it comes to you, I..."

Yui looked at him closely. He looked like he was ready to give a sincere apology and not some sarcastic excuse. She stood back and allowed him to enter the apartment. "I just wanted to know what the problem was. I'm not blind; I could see something was wrong."

Gendo shuffled his feet in an odd display of weakness. "I don't like..." He looked right in her eyes, his gaze fierce and uncompromising. "You're mine, Yui, and I won't let you get away."

"Yours? I'm yours?"

He marched forward and put his hands on her hips, the same intense look on his face. When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost frighteningly so. "You are mine as much as, I hope, I am yours."

Yui gulped and gave him a small nod. She had never seen him be so... intimidating. "I didn't mean to..."

"No," Gendo interrupted, silencing her. "It's not your fault at all. It's mine, and I'm sorry. I... don't ever want to hurt you."

The process of making up took only that long. "I forgive you."