What would his mother say? Her "shiftless" son finally settling down, being settled down by a beautiful, intelligent, young...

'Just like your father, chasing all those younger women...'

That was what his mother would say.

"Well?"

Gendo blinked. "Well what?"

"A... aren't you going to say anything?"

'Just like your father...'

"I... I'm glad." Or had his worst nightmares finally come to pass? He was getting what he wanted, but was it really what he wanted now that he had it?

"You're glad? You should be glad you didn't miss the bus. You should be glad you had change for the vending machine. I tell you that you're the only man who makes me happy, that I love with everything I am, and that makes you glad?" she seethed, on the verge of choking him.

"You said all that?"

"Not in so many words."

But that was what she had meant. Really? That professor really wasn't anything to her other than a mentor? But she was so temperamental all the time...

And he loved her for it, being able to give back ten-fold all his jibes and teasing. "I..." Gendo's voice faltered. Love between two people wasn't always a good thing, wasn't always happy.

What would he do if she ever left him for someone else? It was almost a given that he would go insane with rage and jealousy... The horrifying, yet simultaneously joyous thought crossed his mind: the apartment would leave them in such close quarters to each other at all times.

"Yui..."

Looking into his eyes, she saw something there that frightened her. Was he drawing away? "What? I thought you loved me. You said so."

"I do, but..."

"But now there's something wrong, and I've made a complete fool of myself." Tears trickled down her cheeks as her eyes looked unflinchingly into his.

The openness he saw in them almost caused him physical pain.

"Stupid, stupid Yui. Getting swept up into this, involved with an older man... Just like Professor Fuyutsuki warned me."

"No! He doesn't know anything about me! He never will! He just wants you for himself!" Gendo raged, his love turning to bitter jealousy in an instant.

"Like you do. Yui the doll, something for the men to fight over. And I just smile and pretend it doesn't happen." Her mouth wanted to curl up into a self-pitying smile, but she would not allow it to.

"You're not a doll to me. You're... the most important thing in the world to me. How can I _not_ be jealous?" She was pulling away and he couldn't stop her.

"Because you don't need to be. If you loved me and trusted me the way I do you, you wouldn't need to be jealous. But," she said, eyes turning to the floor, "I guess you don't really feel that way, do you?"

"Don't... don't say that. Don't talk like that," Gendo pleaded with her. "What do you want me to say? That I love you again? I'll say it a hundred times! Just don't..."

"All I want is for you to be honest with me. Tell me how you feel. Everything, because I still don't understand you a lot of the time, and I want to be able to. I want to know all the things you would never tell anyone else, but only because you trust me." His face, his cheek felt so rough against her hand, and when she turned her gaze back to him, he had his eyes closed.

"I'm... afraid."