2016: New Year's Eve
SailorStarDust1 (July 7th, 2016)
A/N: Everyone loves out of season New Year's fics, right?
Out of the blue inspiration hit me to write an Eva fic after my 5 year absence. Hopefully this'll be good? I hope my writing has improved—at least somewhat—given all the MGS fics I've been writing. Includes some vague if you squint a little references to Evangelion Q/3.0 (and Eva manga Volume 14), since Q's something of EoE's spiritual sequel. Also a vague reference to the FAR (First Ancestral Race) which were given their backstory in the PSP port of the NGE 2 -Another Cases- game, too.
I spared you all to by not "ruining" this fic with any of my Evangelion Concurrency Project (something from a few years back, Sommenrider's edit, though mad props to all the awesome folks for their own variations!) references :P
Proofread by myself warnings, as usual.
The somewhat soothing red LCL waves lapped against Shinji's boots, a sobering reminder of humanity who had yet to return. Whether by choice to stay as floating souls within the soup of life, or feeling too weak-willed to imagine themselves within their own heart…
A late December chill picked up, mixing in with the cold "waves". These sandy beaches—
surprisingly—were so far spared from any snow hitting them.
The young boy's fist clenched, free hand adjusting the scarf against neck. An old habit he managed to drop within recent months.
It was all his fault, this entire mess. Because of him, Ayanami—the sister(?) he never realized he had—and his best friend Kaworu-kun were…Not even that, but the entire state of the world was…
Certainly, life had slowly returned to normal within the past year, 2017 slowly creeping around the corner. Hakone as Third Impact's epicenter was hit the hardest, civilization returning to various cities within Tokyo and the world over, and with it, infrastructures, the various conveniences of modern life...
And yet. The swift blame Shinji Ikari expected to come at the people realizing just whose fault Third Impact was, to be locked up with the key thrown away, or even worse, executed for his numerous sins...
Punishment never came.
Whether others' memories of the aborted Instrumentality, their minds merged and slowly becoming one, were truly fuzzy after the overall bizarre experience, or because those who were truly to blame were long gone...Not a mere child under immense military pressure day after day, but a death cult using Earth's two alien progenitors for their own gain.
A dazed Misato, upon finding Shinji and Asuka in a slowly reformed town on the outskirts of Hakone, immediately enveloped the teenagers within a bear-hug, her brown eyes wet.
Surprisingly, Asuka had been the one to reach out first, slowly hugging back her roommate and commanding officer. It was Shinji who hesitated, awkward memories of their farewell resurfacing.
The older woman had played off that situation like it was nothing, teasing how Asuka wouldn't be thrilled. Asuka merely clenched her fists in an angry retort, face matching her hair color.
Somehow, their old days of awkward attempts at family life, "playing house together", resumed, as the months went by, the seasons changing. And yet, something had silently changed between the three of them. A quiet understanding. A second chance.
Shinji shook his head. The sounds of waves soothing his very soul, heart slowed to a relaxing pace, deeply inhaling the salt water mixed in with that too familiar, now long ago, scent of blood from the entry plug.
"It will be alright. All lifeforms have the power to restore themselves and the wish to live. If you decide to live, anywhere can be heaven because you're alive. There will be chances to be happy everywhere. As long as the Sun, Moon and Earth exist...It will be alright."
That was right. Wasn't it?
Those words he remembered hearing his mother say, before Eva-01's entry plug was ejected, carefully falling into the ocean, a light impact against the red waves.
Sure enough, his few months of isolation aside, it was the strong-willed Asuka who first returned to his(?) side. The tense, bitter, reunion of that evening so long ago had left their mixed emotions drained.
Eventual reaching out to each other through the difficult trail of survival, of meeting new and old friends alike, there were slow fumbles towards kindness. Holding hands and occasional light smiles, as they together witnessed empty cities filling, bustling with people once more. Amongst the chirping birds each beautiful morning and the endless summer heat within the evening, cicadas buzzing.
Even their old home once upon a time, Hakone, sprang to life little by little. The more people who left the red seas, the more the actual salt waters had returned. It was understandable, despite the pain, that not everyone would wish to return right away. Or in some cases, those who decided to forever remain.
Toji, leg missing but at least alive alongside his little sister, even Kensuke and Hikari. Their families that lived at the time of Third Impact, too. Shinji couldn't forget Kaji, Ritsuko, and the rest of the Nerv staff.
Yet the one he wished to have a proper talk with was still…
No. That didn't make a difference, in the end.
Shinji would wait, no matter how long it took. To discuss things with his father—if reconciliation was ever even a faint possibility. It was how Yui—and Rei—would've wanted things, after all.
Reconciliation was the least he could offer them, and himself.
A breath of cold air escaped the young boy's lips. Hands in his coat pockets, he made the slow trek back home, while walking alongside the shore line.
To think that one year ago, on New Year's day, Third Impact had actually occurred. Was anything gained through the experience? The loses these days seemed minimal in comparison, to back then. No more Angels or Evas roaming the streets, terrified people—generally casualties—at the end of each increasingly hollow victory.
No. Adjusting his knitted wool cap over brown locks, Shinji would maintain some measure of positivity, now that there was an uncertain future—but a future nevertheless—to look forward to.
And that future included an actual New Year's Eve party, tonight at Misato's new apartment. Bringing in the new year with the former Nerv staff, his classmates, Pen Pen, Misato and...Asuka...At his side. Plenty of fun, food, and distant fireworks, new promises to make, to look forward to.
The realization that he was granted all the time in the world, his youth, his adulthood, to grow and adapt as a person…
There was nothing in this new yet so familiar world to be afraid of anymore, nor any reason to continue his self-hatred, his self-doubts.
Genuine smile on his face and a tentative spring in his step, Shinji made his way back home.