The alarm went off, jarring Yui from sleep. She opened her eyes and stared at the clock. A quarter to nine. Groaning, she slapped at the alarm and turned it off.

Working as much as she had over the past week was taking its toll. Even after almost nine hours sleep she was tired and lacked energy. The one positive about the morning... She listened and heard sounds from the kitchen.

From the state of Gendo's sleeping mat, he had been up a while, and Yui envied him for that. The ability to wake up in the morning and be able to do something other than stare at the wall was something she wished she could do again.

Crawling out from under the blanket, Yui forced herself to stand and put on a robe. Maybe breakfast would wake her up; she didn't want to have to start drinking coffee.

The door opened and Gendo looked in. "Oh good. I didn't want to have to pull the covers off you."

Yui just grunted and pushed past him.

"Chipper as usual. Food is almost done," Gendo informed her, watching her plop down at the table. "Sure you don't want to try some coffee?"

Shaking her head was almost too much, and Yui had to brace herself to keep from falling over and going back to sleep.

"I think you're working too much, Yui," Gendo said and set breakfast down. "It's not good for you."

Yui waved her hand vaguely in the air, her eyes mostly closed. "Food, not lectures."

Gendo frowned as he watched her eat slowly. It really wasn't healthy, and was probably detrimental to her work. No one could work reliably for twelve hours a day, five days a week. In fact, Yui would have been working seven days a week, but he had strictly forbidden her to overwork herself.

There was one person in his mind, and kind thoughts were not directed at it: Fuyutsuki. "He's doing this on purpose, Yui."

She was too absorbed in breakfast and he had said it too quietly for her to hear.

"Tomorrow's a day off, right?" he asked, sitting down to start into breakfast himself.

Yui nodded.

"Going to work late again tonight?"

She nodded.

Gendo stood and went to use the phone where Yui wouldn't hear him. Working late... Probably encouraged by Fuyutsuki to work as hard as she could for as long as possible. Bastard. "Yes, Professor Fuyutsuki," he said quietly into the phone when the secretary answered.

He was going to give it to the pompous, over-inflated know-it-all son of a bitch. "Professor, it's nice to talk to you again," he said with as much unpleasantness in his voice as possible.

/"Is there something you wanted, young man?"/

The mocking was unmistakable to Gendo. "Stop pushing her. She's going to get hurt, and then what? Pretty good way to get back at me, but how will that make you feel?"

/"Don't call me here again, Rokubungi. I don't want to hear your voice, see your face, have to share the same air with you."/

The line went dead in Gendo's ear and he slammed the phone down. "Asshole!"

"Gen-chan, what's wrong?" She had picked that up almost right away. If he was in a bad mood, the utterance of that pet name would settle him down.

"Yui, why don't you cut tonight a little short, leave two hours early?" he asked, a hint of pleading in his voice.

"I can't. I have to..."

"Do more work than the others? Stay there late _every_ night? I don't think so. He's using your dedication."

"For what? To what end?" Yui asked, quite awake now.

"I don't know, but I know I don't like it. There is something not right going on with him, and I'm going to find out what."