The Silent Treatment
A/N: It's been a week since I submitted my last one-shot. That one was produced because I was stuck with my main project (shameless plug in 3, 2, 1) Quantum Genesis Evangelion (give it a read if you like and review). Well, its seven days later and I've literally only added 120 words to QGE and I thought I might as well give the old brain a "stretch." I've had this idea for a while, so be prepared for some OOCness on Shinji's part. Enjoy!
A/A/N:(edit, 2-7-07, later in the day) yeah, so I was really tired when I wrote this and I made some stupid mistakes (the Hypothalamus, not the Amygdla, effects aggression) as well as forgot to add a few names I meant to look up (I couldn't for the life of me think of two Japanese names for Kensuke's cousins) and I also spot checked the grammar here and there (not to sound like I'm bragging but a lot of the reviews I've gotten have said I've got good grammar and I try to impress).
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"Listen you dolt! I've told you a thousand times dummkoph, I never want to see liverwurst on my sandwiches again." Asuka Langley Soryu giving her fellow roommate a good tongue lashing that apparently he "deserved."
"I'm sorry Asuka. That's all Misato had in the refrigerator." the belittled boy replied.
"That doesn't matter. If that was the case," Asuka said in an accusatory manner, as if the pilot of Unit 01 was trying to cover up his failure to follow "simple" directions with a lie, "then it's your fault because you should have picked up some better lunch meat!"
"I'm sorry." was all the clearly broken Shinji could muster.
"Hmph!" Asuka snorted and turned around, heading towards the direction of the class rep, Hikari." She didn't know it, but Asuka's latest tirade was nearly the last straw in a string of events that was making Shinji Ikari's life miserable. Although he wanted to cry, Shinji managed to suck it up and walk over to his friend Kensuke's desk. The military otaku, although socially inept in almost every way, was very good at reading people and he could definitely tell Shinji was down in the dumps.
"Hey Shinji, what's the matter?" Kensuke asked.
"Nothing." Shinji answered unconvincingly.
"Oh come, I bet I know what the problem is. Does it start with an "S" and end with an "atan;" other wise known as Soryu?"
This got a rise out of Shinji, causing him to smile. Although he usually didn't encourage name calling of his colleague (namely because it caused her to lash out against him, even if he hadn't said anything), Asuka wasn't exactly on his good side. "Hmmm" was all the troubled pilot let out, but it gave Kensuke license to continue.
"Personally, I feel sorry for you. I have no idea what I what do if I where in your position. I think I would use Unit 01 and its fists until she showed some respect, if you know what I mean." Kensuke winked to his downtrodden friend."
Instead of cheering up Shinji, this only reminded him of a bad experience about a month back, involving his other friend getting injuried and the possessed Unit 03; which indirectly resulted in his entrapment in his own Eva for a month. The smile on Shinji's face reverted to his normal look of solemnity. Kensuke noticed this shift as well and decided to drop the subject of Eva.
"Well, the problem I see is that you're always on the defensive, Shinji. You know what they say; the best defense is a good offense. You've got to strike at her once and a while." Shinji gave him a skeptical look, one that clearly said "easier said then done." "I'm serious Shinji, she doesn't respect you at all. I'd be depressed too, if I had to deal with her all the time. Listen, you've got to do something, and it has to be big too. You can't just burn her once with a witty comeback."
Shinji was now considering this plan of Kensuke's, who was leaning back in his chair strategizing to the best of his ability. He didn't really believe he could ever get Asuka to stop treating him the way she did. He did find the idea attractive though. He didn't want to admit it, but Asuka was a large source of stress in an already stressful existence.
"Ah ha!" Kensuke shouted, attracting the attention of a few classmates and snapping Shinji back to reality. Kensuke looked around sheepishly and lowered his volume before continuing, "I've thought of something. When I was younger I lived in Tokyo 2, before my father worked for NERV. All my family was there so I would visit my two cousins very often. Let me just say, those two would fight every time I would see them. Kenichi was older than Keiko and Keiko would always bug Kenichi. But onetime, Kenichi just ignored Keiko. Not just ignored her, but didn't even acknowledge her. He would deliberately hang around her, but do nothing in response when she tried to bother him. Well, at first Keiko tried her usual tactics, but Kenichi ignored them. Then Keiko tried being nice to him, but he still ignored her. Keiko finally got desperate and started to cry, and plead with him. This was when he laid his demands on her, and she agreed to them. After that, when I would visit, they hardly ever fought."
"I don't know Kensuke, I'm not sure I could do that. When you live, work, and go to school with her, it would be hard not to communicate with her."
"But there are ways around that, Kenichi had some. Shinji, it's the perfect plan for you. It would require no effort on your part. I think it's totally doable." Kensuke was really excited about this idea, mainly because it knocked Asuka a few pegs down, to where she belonged in his opinion.
Shinji wasn't totally sold though and tried to weasel his way out of any definite decision, "I don't know Kensuke, maybe. I'll think about it."
Kensuke knew Shinji well despite only meeting him a few months ago and could tell his friend didn't want to talk about it anymore. "Alright, think about it. Now lets eat, I'm starvin'. What's on the menu?"
"Liverwurst sandwich." Shinji said in a deadpan tone. Kensuke gave him a look of disgust and reached into his own bag. Personally, Shinji agreed with Kensuke and Asuka; he hated liverwurst, not to the extent of Asuka's loathing but he really didn't enjoy eating it. But it was, in reality, the only lunchmeat in the refrigerator. As he grimaced and took his first bite, Shinji wondered why in the world Misato bought the stuff.
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The loud horn of a bus made Shinji jump as he unlocked the door to the apartment he called home. He shared it with several others; his superior officer at NERV, Misato Katsuragi, the German immigrant, Asuka Langley Soryu, and the hyper intelligent penguin, Pen². It was late in the evening; tests at headquarters had gone longer than scheduled. It hadn't been a smooth synch ratio monitoring. Shinji's score had been excellent, but Asuka's had fallen even further below his own. After the results had been given, he could tell Asuka was angry; so angry that she hadn't even said anything but instead stormed off when her score had been announced. She didn't even accompany Shinji home, although she had stopped doing so since he had surpassed her score. He didn't know if she was home yet, so with trepidation on his voice said, "I'm home, is anyone here?" He noticed after announcing himself that Asuka's shoes were at the door and realized he might have provoked an angry beast. He cautiously entered the living room, which only angered Asuka even further (who was sitting on the couch).
"Soooo, the all mighty pilot has entered the building, announcing himself to the place so all can prepare to worship him!"
Shinji lowered his head to stare at the floor, "I'm sorry Asuka, I didn't know if anyone else was here."
"Of course, so that's the real reason," she said with sarcasm practically dripping from her words, "Well, mission accomplished Shinji; I now know you're here! Great job!"
"I'm sorry." Shinji said softly
Asuka's sarcasm morphed into rage as her volume increased to a deafening shout. "Dammit, how can a spineless worm like you possibly beat my synch ratio; it's infuriating!" With the declaration of this insulting comment, Asuka stood up from the couch and marched right in front of Shinji. "You're a brainless moron and I hate you Ikari! I wish I had never met you! I wish you had never been born, THIRD CHILD! I HATE YOU!" Asuka smacked the side of Shinji's head before turning and running to her room, slamming the door on her way inside.
Shinji stood there dazed. He was stunned. Tears were at the corners his of eyes, threatening to cascade down his face. But unbeknownst to Shinji or Asuka for that matter, inside Shinji's head, in the inner sanctum of his brain, something snapped; not only figuratively, but literally as well. He, at that point decided Asuka's outburst was the last straw. He hadn't deserved that kind of treatment from her and he didn't have to take it. He was sick and tired of the crap from her and wasn't going to let her get away with it. He stormed off to his room slamming his own door, quite out of character. He was truly angry.
One might ask why Shinji suddenly went from depressed to irate in only a few seconds. Well, there was mention of something snapping in Shinji's brain. Not a sudden breaking of his nerves, but literally a piece of cholesterol snapped inside an artery supplying blood to his HypothalamusTo anyone who doesn't know, the Hypothalamus is an important structure that influences aggressive behavior, among other things. It seems that despite all the head trauma he received from piloting the Eva, it was only a slap to Shinji's cranium that finally broke the decade old chunk of fatty tissue in the vital artery supplying blood to the equally vital brain organ. This effectively increased the amount of blood supply, therefore increasing the output of his previously neglected Hypothalamus. Hmmm, very interesting.
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Shinji sat on his bed stewing until he heard Misato enter the apartment. He hadn't even touched his S-Dat Player and instead had been thinking about his conversation with Kensuke earlier that day. While he was still furious with Asuka, he didn't want to hurt her. He still wanted her to be nice to him, to be his friend. He wanted to teach her lesson. So when Misato announced herself to the apartment, Shinji got up and walked to the kitchen.
"Hiya Shinji. How was your day?" Misato asked cheerfully. Putting his plan into motion, Shinji masked his angry feelings and replied nonchalantly.
"It was okay, nothing big happened."
"Well that's good. It's your turn to cook tonight, so what's for dinner?"
Shinji stuck his head inside the refrigerator, pretending to look for possible entrées, but really he was hiding the evil grin on his face. "Oh, I was thinking I could use up the rest of this liverwurst."
"Oh, good! I love liverwurst and I haven't any for lunch for a while now. I don't know why, but as long as I can remember, I've always liked liverwurst. Yum!"
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The timer's bell gave a short ding to signify that Shinji's liverwurst casserole had been in the oven long enough. After setting the table, he called Misato, telling her dinner was ready. Misato grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down. She was about to start shoveling in the serving in front of her, but stopped when she noticed they were missing one person.
"Shinji, did you call Asuka?" Shinji simply shook his head. Misato was taken aback slightly; expecting Shinji to of alerted his roommate that dinner was ready. She decided to ignore this slight quirk and call Asuka herself. "Asuka, dinner's ready!"
The two at the dinner table heard a muffled response of "I'm coming" and waited. Asuka appeared momentarily, looking perturbed that they had sat down without her. "Someone could have told me earlier, sheesh!" She sat down and plunged her fork into the neutral looking casserole. Her face twisted when she put the contents in her mouth. "Ewww! Is this liverwurst? Misato, did you make this?"
Misato, who had a mouthful of food herself, shook her head in reply.
"Don't tell me you made this Shinji." Apparently she had calmed down enough to be on first name terms again. "We just had a talk today about how I feel about this pathetic excuse for food." At this statement Misato gave a sad look at her beloved liverwurst, opened her mouth to argue in its defense, but closed it after thinking about whether she really wanted to debate liverwurst with Asuka. "Its almost like you ignored what I said before."
Shinji, had his eyes closed and was stoically chewing his food. After a second of silence, Asuka continued, "Hey stupid, are you deaf as well as dumb, huh?"
Shinji continued to sit silently, now sipping on his tea. Asuka was visibly getting more irritated. "Answer me you dummkoph!" Misato gave a worried look at Shinji, who looked up and gave her a wink not visible to Asuka. He returned his gaze to his plate, picking up some food and placing it his mouth.
"Answer me Shinji." She said quietly and shook his shoulder gently.
Again no answer.
"Misato, what's going on? Why isn't he talking?"
Misato gave a shrug and continued to chew her food. She honestly didn't know what was going on.
"What the hell is going on? Can't you hear me!? Please, talk to me." She shook him harder this time, causing him to drop the food in his chopsticks.
After letting the questions hang for a moment, Shinji asked calmly, "Misato, is there a window open? I think I feel a breeze."
Asuka didn't let Misato answer however, "Idiot, what kind of question is that, I don't feel a …" She stopped mid sentence with a look like she was just slapped across her face. Realization had dawned and she got up without saying word and walked to her room, now with a look of hurt on her face.
After letting a minute of silence go by, Misato's curiosity peaked and she couldn't take it anymore. "Shinji, what was that?"
After giving a small sigh, Shinji began relaying what happened during his day starting from his talk with Kensuke to Asuka's slap to his head.
Misato let his story sink in for a minute. Shinji was expecting her to tell him to apologize to Asuka or something along that line, but instead she said, "Good for you Shinji. It's about time you stood up to Asuka."
"Really?"
"Yeah Shinji, I've been trying to tell you she has been pushing you around too much. I think it's good you're finally taking charge."
"Wow, I wasn't even sure I wanted to do this earlier."
"Well, this is a good thing you're doing. I'll help you anyway I can."
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A/N: I originally planned this to be a one-shot. However half way through writing this I figured I'd couldn't do it justice without making this into a multi chapter story (not too long, 2-3 chaps). But like I said, my main project is Quantum Genesis Evangelion, while this was something to get rid of the writer's bloc. I will work on QGE first, but if I'm still stuck, I'll add on to this. Hope you liked it, Peace
Also, I was listening to the Death/Rebirth version of Pachebel's Canon in D while writing this story. (Yes on repeat, the same song over and over again, the entire time)