A Quiet Game of Poker A fourteen year old boy swept the filth and garbage off the table. He had short black hair, dark brown eyes, and somewhat pale skin. He wore a strange suit, mostly blue, with black and white metal covering his chest and shoulders. Two small metal objects rested on his head, tucked in with his hair. He went over to check on the food, cooking on the stove. He was pulling a fourth chair up to the table when the doorbell rang. Outside the door was a lean young man, about eighteen. He had shaggy black hair, which was held up by a white headband with a black circle directly in the middle of it. He had light tan skin and big, light brown eyes. He wore a long white shirt, with a green stripe running down the middle, with a big red circle on the center of his chest. Four triangles pointed up, down, left, and right around the edge of the circle, indicating that the circle was most likely a star, complete with a planet, a small yellow circle which covered part of the upper right section of the star. In his hands was a tall staff. On the top of the staff was a large blue sphere and above that, a strange object which looked like the head of an extravagantly detailed key. On the bottom of the staff was a wierd shaped plug. "Makoto." the boy bowed. "Ohayo, Shinji." Makoto smiled. "Sorry I'm late, but interdimensional travel can get a bit confusing." "It's okay. Actually your the first one here. Did you have any problems with security?" "Security? Oh, oops! I just landed outside your door. If I had known about security..." "Umm...it's okay...I guess." "Let me help you with the food." Makoto laughed, as he propped his staff against the wall. While Makoto put some of the food on the table, the doorbell rang again. Shinji put down a bowl of ramen noodles, and opened the door. Outside stood two more young men. The first one, also about eighteen, wore a light brown polo shirt, and black cacky pants. He had short black hair, except in back where it was tied into a small ponytail. His skin was quite tan, and he had very soft brown eyes, and a friendly smile. The second one was older, although quite a bit shorter. He wore a black leather jacket, a white t-shirt underneath, and jeans. He held a helmet under one arm. He had somewhat long blue-black hair. "Tenchi. Keichi." Shinji bowed to each of them. "Ohayo, Shinji." they replied simultaneously. "Sorry we're late." Keichi said. "Tenchi caused some problems at the check point." "Yeah, it's a little hard to explain Tenchi-ken to the guards, but I always take it with me." "Hey, Shinji? Why are you in your plug suit?" "Another one of Ristuko's tests to try to increase synch ratios. Um, sorry about the mess. Misato is very sloppy." "That's okay." Tenchi smiled. "As long as it's quieter than my place, I'm happy." "Yeah, last poker night ended up as a disaster. Literally." Keichi laughed nervously. "So how'd you ditch your suitors this time, Tenchi?" Makoto said, as Keichi shuffled the cards. "Oh, Washu created a clone of me. It's actually just a simple robot, that looks like me, but it bought me enough time to lose them." Everybody laughed, as Makoto dealt, except Shinji, who just smiled meekly. "I'll start at five." Keichi flipped a chip into the center. "So, have any of you checked out the net lately?" "No. See your five and raise you four." Makoto said. "There's no net in El Hazard." "With Eva training, school, homework, and the Angels, I haven't had much time for that. I'll match and double." "I'll stay." Tenchi said as he placed the chips in the center. "And I stopped searching the net along time ago. Have you seen what they talk about there? It's like a goddamn tabloid, saying I slept with Ryoko, that I slept with Ayeka, even that I slept with Sasami!" "What? You'd get arrested for that. At least their not saying you slept with Ryo-oki." Keichi laughed. His laugh died as he saw the serious look on Tenchi's face. "Ummm, why don't we just play poker?" Keichi tossed down one of his cards and added another one to his hand, mumbling "That's just plain wrong." "I'll take two. Why do you ask, Keichi?" "It's an outrage! There are about twenty shrines dedicated to each of the Goddesses, and I don't have a single one up there." Tenchi and Makoto burst out laughing. "Yeah, you think it's so funny. It's the same thing with you guys." The room became quiet. "Huh?" "It's Shayla this, and Ryoko that. I did some research. You'd be hard pressed to come up with five good pictures of Tenchi, that don't have everybody else in them. Shinji. You're not looking to good, either. There are all these sights that are boasting who's best Misato, Rei, or Asuka, but practically nothing about you." Shinji thought long and hard about what to say in response. Finally, he settled for, "I'll take three." "It's nice to see our friends get so much attention isn't it?" Makoto said with a boyish smile. "Makoto?" Tenchi said in a sorrowful tone. "I like you and all, your a good friend but, GET A CLUE!" "Huh?" "God, your naive. I'll keep my hand. WE are the stars! You, me, Keichi, Shinji. Everybody's characters bounce off of us! We aren't given the respect we deserve." "Well, you might do better if you'd just pick a girl and stick with her!" Makoto said crossly. "Oh, like you can talk. You've got two beautiful girls fawning over you, and all you can think of is your precious Ifurita." "Huh? Who's fawning over me?" "Could you be more clueless, Makoto-kun? Shayla Shayla and Nanami have it bad for you." Keichi groaned. "What about me, though. I'm faithful to one girl. In fact, Urd and Skuld are mere EXTRAS! Belldandy-san and I are the stars, and the anime is about the development of our love." "Well maybe if you didn't take so long, you'd get a bigger audience." Tenchi muttered. "What does that mean? Match the bid, and raise it ten." "C'mon. After five months of living with the woman, you still fantasize about holding her hand. Even Shinji's got more guts than that!" "Shut up!" Shinji yelled, slamming a pile of chips down on the table. "I'll raise it another ten." "Hey! I risk my health, life, and sanity for her. I fought against the Ultimate Force to give her that ring!" "I'll admit it, that took guts." Tenchi studied his cards. "I'll see the bid." "Anyway, at least I can actually get somewhere with a woman, without some one else blowing up my house." "Yeah, cuz nobody else would want a shorty like you." "It's not the size of the person that matters, it's the size of the heart." "A good philsophy for you, considering your shorter than Shinji, who hasn't even hit his growth spurt yet." "SHUT UP!" Shinji and Keichi yelled at the same time. Tenchi sweatdropped and let the conversation go. "Someday, I will rescue Ifurita. I fold." "You know, I could get Washu-chan to look at that for you, maybe try to help you with it." "No. I can do this on my own." "You are as stubborn about that as Keichi is with his bikes. Afraid that anybody else will end up breaking it." "You did break Keichi's bike." "Yeah, and you still haven't paid me back. I'm folding." Keichi said. "If I lose too much money, than Belldandy will find out where I am, and she won't be happy about that. I said I was just hanging out with the guys." "I'll see it and double." "I fold." Tenchi said. He payed a chip to see Shinji's hand: two fives. "Damn you Shinji! God, what a poker face." "Sorry." Shinji replied. "Is that the only word you know Shinji? Sorry this and sorry that. C'mon! Grow up and learn to vent some more desiciveness." "Stop hassling me! Like you can talk about desiciveness!" Shinji yelled. "Maybe then you wouldn't have such violent outbursts." Tenchi said calmly. "Your even worse than Asuka." he muttered. "Speaking of which," Makoto smiled, "How is your girlfriend?" "She's not my girlfriend." "I'm sorry. I just assumed that well, you two were an item." "Yeah right." Tenchi laughed. "Like Shinji could ever get enough nerve to get a girl." "Shut up! And that pun isn't funny!" "Why are you being so mean to him?" Makoto asked. Tenchi was about to say something, when he lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Shinji. What Keichi said really bugs me. I mean we saved planets, even galaxies! We stopped evil monsters and demonic warlords, that nobody else could beat, but they STILL get all the credit. Don't you feel the same way Keichi?" Keichi, was blushing a bright red and stammering. "Umm, well, I, you see, I never really..." "Oh yeah. You never saved any worlds or anything. That's okay. At least you've have some successses on the girlfriend field, even if you do take your time about it." "Like you can talk. You just need to make one simple desicion, and you can't even do that." The phone rang. Shinji took out his cell-phone and answered it. "Ohayo? Hai. Hai. Hai. Siyanara. Sorry guys. An angel just attacked and I need to go. You see..." "Hold it, hold it, hold it!" Keichi yelled slapping his hands over his ears. "God! You can't go anywhere without running into Evangelion spoilers." "Right, well I should be back within an hour." "What if your not?" "Then we're probably all dead." "What if we aren't dead, but you don't come back within an hour?" "Get Rei to take my place." He slipped out the door. "Not Rei." Tenchi groaned. "She's got even more of a poker face than Shinji does." "Well, I'm outta here." Makoto said as he picked up the power key staff. "I've got to find Ifurita, so I can't risk being stuck in the Third Impact. Tenchi? Page me, when Shinji gets back." Makoto walked around the corner and disappeared. "Man!" Keichi said as he opened a beer from the fridge. "Washu must have you hooked up to a pretty good server."