Asuka Strikes! Shinji Collapses.
A/N: This one-shot came from my mind wandering when I was trying to write my other fic (shameless plug in 3, 2, 1…) Quantum Genesis Evangelion. I'm experiencing a mild case of writer's bloc with it and I thought this scenario up while trying to come up with ideas for QGE. Slight ShinjixAsuka here, though it's only hinted.
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"I don't know why I even go to that school. Its soooo boring, don't you think Shinji?"
"Yeah, whatever." Shinji Ikari sighed, only half listening. It had been another uneventful day of school, besides the usual public berating of himself by one Asuka Langely Sohryu. They were walking home and he was anxious to get home to listen to his S-Dat.
"The teacher is a Duck Billed Platypus, don't you think Shinji?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Are you listening to me Shinji?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"I look fat in this uniform, don't I Shinji?" Asuka said darkly, her eyes sending invisible daggers to Shinji, who was unfortunately ignorant of the imminent danger.
"Yeah, whatever." Shinji barely had time to notice something was wrong before feeling the pain that was Asuka's fist connect with his head.
"Idiot! How dare you call me fat! I'll make you pay!"
"Wha… Ow. Fat? What did I say? OW, that hurt Asuka. OW! Please, not in the face!"
"It serves you right; this will teach you to not listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
Shinji barely put up a fight, knowing it would only get worse if he actually tried to stop her. And it wasn't like this hadn't happened before. He knew, although Asuka was angry, she wasn't seriously trying to hurt him. If he was passive, she would eventually drop it. But this was life at its most normal for Shinji Ikari. He would have never guessed it a few months ago, but he was living with two girls, attractive ones to boot; not to mention he was piloting a giant robot and saving the world. He had friends at school and people seemed to appreciate him when he piloted the Eva. Although Shinji didn't realize it, this was the happiest he had ever been.
"Hey you two!" The pair of Eva pilots were interrupted by a loud shout from across the street. Shinji and Asuka looked over to a small crowd of 5 or six boys, all of whom looked several years older than the two of them. "Yeah, I'm talking to you!" One of the boys was pointing at them. When he starting walking over to the now two confused teens, the others boys followed.
"Umm, is there something wrong?" Shinji said quietly, not looking anyone in the face when the group reached them.
"Are you two those pilots of those robots?" the "leader" of the pack of boys said rather forcefully.
Shinji was about to respond, but Asuka took the lead by replying, "Why yes we are, do we have some fans here?"
The boy snorted sarcastically before saying, "Hardly! In fact, you could say the opposite. I hate your stinking guts, we all do!"
Asuka was taken aback slightly, but she didn't let the rather rude statement by a stranger affect her for long because she shot back with rude comment of her own, "Well if it makes you feel any better, I don't like you either." She sniffed the air, wrinkled her nose, and waved her hand. "And just a tip moron, you might want to brush your teeth, or at least chew some gum, whooh!"
The "moron" bristled with rage, "If I haven't brushed my teeth, it's your fault, bitch! I don't have a house because of you assholes."
While this statement fazed Shinji, Asuka steadfastly stood her ground. "I think it's sad a bum like you blames others for his own misfortunes. That's what wrong with society today, isn't that right Shinji?" Shinji looked at Asuka with terrified look in his eyes, shaking his head and hands in the air. Asuka rolled her eyes and muttered, "coward" to herself.
"How dare you! It's because of those damned Evangelions that my house is a pile of rubble." The boy stared at her, waiting for a reply.
After a few seconds, Asuka replied nonchalantly, "I'm sorry, I've accidentally destroyed so many buildings, it's hard remembering specifics."
The boy was literally shaking with rage now, and Shinji was literally scared for his life and wondering why it seemed Asuka was provoking this group of boys that appeared bent on seriously injuring the two.
"Gwa! God Dammit! My parents business was the bottom floor of our house. Now my entire family is ruined. We're living in a car for God's sake! And these guys with me aren't in much better situations." Several of the boys cracked their knuckles menacingly. "You have to remember that battle by the beach"
Shinji remembered that battle well. It was with the first with the seventh angel and Asuka had jumped on several buildings before reaching the target in the water. "Listen, I'm sorry you're living in a car, but it's not my fault. I was just doing my job." Asuka said, less antagonizing, but not really sincere.
"Dammit! That's not going to get my parent's back on their feet."
"Whatever the damages, I'm sure NERV will compensate them eventually."
"Its been a month, and every time we inquire about "compensation," we get turned away with some bullshit excuse!"
"Well, there's nothing I can do."
"Which one of you pilots the red one?" The boy said forcefully.
Asuka replied "That would be me of course." Pointing to her red hair.
The lead boy smiled and said, "It was the red one that actually destroyed my building. Good, so you'll be first. I usually wouldn't beat up a girl, but I'll have to make an exception." One of the other boys shoved Shinji away to move in behind Asuka. She was now surrounded by the group of hostiles. The leader raised his fist, aiming at Asuka.
Shinji's adrenaline kicked in as he went into "fight or flight" mode. In this instance, he wasn't about to abandon Asuka to be beaten by this group of thugs. He charged the one who had shoved him, lowered his shoulder, and tried to tackle the boy (American) football style. Try was the key word however, because Shinji either overestimated his own strength or didn't realize how much larger his opponent was. In reality it looked like Shinji was giving the boy an awkward hug, with himself bent at 90° angle trying to use his weight to throw the boy he was gripping down. This was not a good idea, because the boy wasn't going to let Shinji grope him uncontested. Shinji was brought to the ground when the boy raised both his arms and hit Shinji's head with both of his elbows.
Shinji didn't know that Asuka wasn't as helpless as he thought. Unknown to him, she had been trained in self defense at NERV in Germany. She quickly dispatched the leader after blocking his punch. She turned in a flash and saw Shinji on the ground with the boy who brought him there about to kick him. She brought him down to the ground with Shinji using a swift but powerful kick to the groin. Only one other of the group decided to press his luck against the Crimson Hurricane, charging wildly. Asuka, without even looking, roundhouse kicked the unfortunate soul in the face (eat your heart out Chuck Norris), effectively dropping her opponent. The remaining hostiles gave Asuka a appraising look, weighing in their chances against her. They decided to check on their fallen comrades instead of engaging in combat.
"Come on Shinji," Asuka said, grabbing his arm and helping him up, "now would be the time to get out of here." The two ran away, not wanting to press their luck against the group of thugs who were starting to recover. After a good ten minutes of running, Shinji stopped and bent over. Asuka stopped shortly after and turned to him.
"Why did you stop? Are you that out of shape?" Asuka said snidely.
Panting and clutching his leg, Shinji replied "When that guy knocked me down, I landed on my knee weirdly, and now it's hurting."
"Oh," Asuka said quietly. She said nothing else, waiting for Shinji to rise. After he did so, they continued to walk, slowly because Shinji was now limping. After another five minutes, Shinji began to make a audible wincing sound with every other step. Asuka looked over to him and without a word took hold of his arm. Shinji almost tripped in surprise. Asuka positioned herself under it so she was now supporting his weight.
Shinji was shocked, "Asuka…"
"What!" Asuka snapped back at him.
"I'm sorry." Shinji muttered.
"You're sorry?! For what? Listen, I'm only doing this because you got hurt trying to help me. That was a noble, if not stupid, thing you did."
"Oh." Shinji didn't say anything else letting awkward silence return as Asuka half carried him along the side walk.
After another few minutes, Asuka spoke again, "Why did you do it?"
"What?"
"Why did you try and fight; because I'll be honest, I'd expect you to run away in that situation."
Shinji gave thought to the question for a few seconds before replying, "Well, I suppose it's the same reason I pilot the Eva sometimes." Being his usual unsociable self, Shinji didn't bother to explain any further.
Asuka wasn't going to accept his vague answer though, "And that would be?"
Shinji sighed, "Well, I pilot the Eva because I don't want to see the people I care about hurt."
"So, you care about me?"
Shinji blushed profusely, realizing what he had just said, "What? Uh, I don't know. I suppose. I definitely didn't want to see you beaten up."
It was Asuka's turn to blush, though not as heavily as Shinji, "Oh I see. So that's all you care about?"
"What, no. I mean that's not all that I care about you. I mean…uh, oh my." Shinji started to babble, blushing even more than before.
Asuka decided to stop torturing the boy and drop the subject, and they returned to quiet walking. Another few minutes had passed before Asuka broke the silence, "Geez Shinji, you've got to loose a few pounds, you're heavier than you look." She laughed, signaling a joke and Shinji joined in.
"Well Asuka, the way you took care of those guys I'd say you're pretty beefy yourself."
"So you do think I'm fat!"
"Ow, no, not the face. It was complement, ouch, stop."