AN- Well, I was planning on having the story just be a one shot, but since so many people kept asking me to add more, I thought I would write one more chapter. I was planning on having this only be around 2500 words, but I just kept going. In my opinion it is not as good as the first one, but hopefully you'll like it too.
Shinji's dream had upset him more then he would have liked. It was a shame though, since he didn't remember what the dream had actually been about or what had happened. All he knew was that it had disturbed him for reasons which he was unsure about. He looked at his alarm clock to see that darn penguin looking at him. As if it had sensed his negative thoughts, his alarm went off at that exact second.
Swearing to himself he walked to it and beat down on it's head. Shinji never quite knew why he had so much discontent for this little thing but he knew if there was a penguin hunt similar to the seal hunt, he would jump on board.
He didn't usually actually get up on time, after the first ring, Shinji found himself lacking anything to do. He would usually just sleep through the first three or four rings, in fact then Asuka would usually wake him up. The darned alarm clock never really did anything.
Shinji put on some clothes, praying that Asuka was not going to just randomly open the door. He left his room and walked to his dining room. Well it was more of just an extension to his kitchen. His parents were both in the room which really kind of annoyed Shinji. Why couldn't either of them wake him up? Both of them got up before he did and neither of them left before he had too.
They were both lazy Shinji had decided.
As he sat down neither of his parents seemed to notice him. His father had his face buried behind a newspaper and his mother was fixing some food at the counter. Neither of them were very eccentric people, which is, in a way, the place that Shinji had always assumed his subtleness and shyness came from.
It took a minute but finally Shinji's mother noticed him at the table. She had just finished whatever she had been preparing and was about to serve it to his father, but stopped halfway, gave it to Shinji and sat down next to him.
"Honey," She started, but stopped right afterwards as if she was having a problem coming up with the exact words to say. Shinji had not really realised this though, he had started already to indulge himself with, what was almost his father's breakfast. "Is there something wrong with you and Asuka?" she asked staring as deeply into Shinji's soul; as much as Shinji could imagine someone being able to.
Shinji coughed a little bit as this had taken him by surprise, and had happened at the inopportune moment of him swallowing a gulp of food. He looked at her and quickly faked a smile "What do you mean?"
His mother, who could obviously see right through that just kind of, frowned a little bit. "It's just that, you two were acting quite peculiar yesterday." She passed for a couple of breathes. "And you did not stare into her eyes at any point; you usually consume yourself in them."
At this Shinji did not just cough, he plain choked for a couple of seconds. He really needed to work on his rhythm and when to swallow. He looked at his mother and was surprised to see concern in her face. His mother was good at reading people, Shinji never really knew how she did it, he tried though, to modest success. "There is nothing wrong mother," Shinji flatly lied.
His mother looked at him as if she was planning on saying something else, but she was interrupted. There was a subtle knock on the door. Shinji's mother seemed to be let down that they were not going to finish their conversation, but Shinji became even more uncomfortable.
When Shinji's mother opened the door Asuka was smiling, but just borderline, where she usually had a large one. The eating area was in complete view of the front door. Asuka's expression, when she saw Shinji there, turned extremely sour. Shinji's mother was the only one in view as well, to see her slight tears. Asuka quickly bowed her head, said a broken "Sorry," and ran down the hallway.
Shinji's mother looked back at Shinji with a very confused look on her face. Shinji just kind of shrugged his shoulders and tried to flash another of those fake smiles, but it was unsuccessful. He just hung his head for a while, until standing up and quickly running after Asuka.
Shinji could not quite differentiate the emotions that he was feeling. Was it pity, or something more? Asuka and he had been close for years. Though was it more out of necessity that Shinji stuck onto her. Was it because he literally had never, other then the stooges, been able to actually obtain another friend that he and Asuka had been so close?
It had always confused him a little though. Asuka could actually make other friends. Yet she had decided that no one in her world was more important to her than him. He knew she and Hikari were close, and that she had other friends too, but she never went out of her way to go to school with any of them.
Once Shinji had matured a bit after they had started being friends, he had thought that Asuka had been his friend for only one reason. She was a controlling person, and needed someone to control,
After a couple of minutes Shinji had not been able to catch up to her, for one simple reason. He had assumed that she had made her way to school. This was not the case though. As when Shinji finally got to school, her desk was empty. Though now he wouldn't have to be extremely sensitive to just how he was acting.
Most of the day had been pretty regular. Shinji had stayed in Ms. Misato's class for lunch and the two of them had just talked. She was a lot less of a teacher to Shinji, more of a sister.
The conversations had been light little exchanges. Most of the time she was complaining that her boyfriend was acting like a total dick the last couple of days. She never went into too much detail to truly understand the situation but just enough to paint a rough picture of what may have happened.
At the end of the day of school Shinji thanked every deity that he could think of for letting it be over. All that was going through his mind was getting home and sleeping all of his thoughts away. As he left the dark brown and intimidating doors his eyes surveyed the surrounding area. In every direction another kid going somewhere interesting seemed to intrude on the total calm that should and was usually going through the area.
Shinji started to walk in the direction of his house but with every single step his mind would get more and more engulfed in thought. Did he really want to go in that direction? What if Asuka saw him?
That escaped his mind pretty easily as he saw Asuka leaning against a pole just down the block. Shinji quickly surveyed the area for any kind of an escape. The road was overflowing with cars each going probably faster then they should have. With crossing the road as an unfortunately unfeasible passage to escape, Shinji bit his lip and was wondering whether or not just turning around and walking in the opposite direction was the best option.
When he turned around he saw the unmistakable figure of Rei, who must have been walking home as well, in his direction. If he turned around and Asuka saw him with her, even walking different directions, she would never forgive him.
Although even then, he didn't know if she was going to without that particular fuck up.
Shinji, without any other possible plan of action decided to just keep going forward any pray to which ever god was paying attention. Asuka was standing against a lamp pole that curved at the end, giving the illusion of a mourning figure. Shinji greatly felt for the thing. It looked like one of the more classical kinds, unlike all the ultra modern things which this city without a soul was filled with.
Asuka was still wearing her school uniform, as she was when she had gone to Shinji's place. This probably ruled out that she had gone home. She had never liked that uniform and given an opportunity would have probably changed out of it. Plus she always found that the skirt was too short, but kept shortening it so Shinji would always be staring at her. This was something Shinji always obliged.
She looked at her small wrist watch, as if obviously expecting him. Shinji wondered how she was hoping he was going to greet her. If he just continued bowing and saying that he was sorry, that wouldn't probably sit well with her. She always told him to grow some balls and stand straight when doing it.
He doubted she meant when talking to her in a situation like this.
As the gap finally disappeared between them Shinji decided that he had no choice but to greet her. Without any plan in his head, he just kind of decided to wing it. "Hey Asuka!" he greeted speeding up right up to her.
Her head never turned though, and her expression never turned into anything other then frightfully neutral. Shinji wondered why this was. When he was finally in ear shot Asuka barely muttered loud enough, but just enough for Shinji to make out the words. "Why did you look so scared when you first saw me?"
Shinji was taken aback and for the life of him, could just not get how that was possible. There was no way she could have seen him do that. Without any idea of a way to escape from this, Shinji finally just bit his lip, hung his head, and said that he was sorry.
Asuka's expression changed then, to one of fury. She grabbed him by the shoulders, turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and pinned him against the pole she had been leaning on. "You kiss another girl, you act like you don't need me at all, and then you resort to acting the way I always told you not to!" She was whispering in his ear this, but it had to be the loudest he had ever heard anybody whisper in his life. "Why are you so intent on doing this?" this time he looked straight into her eyes, that had the fury of a thousand suns.
It was the scariest thing he had ever seen.
Then, was also when he noticed Rei walk by, looking at the two of the peculiarly. Asuka, noticing Shinji's changed expression and that he was looking at something else, turned her head as well. The second she saw Rei her expression changed suddenly.
She with one arm grabbed Shinji's head and pulled him towards her. The other grabbed his hand and moved it to her ass. It was then that she kissed him, hard. Shinji was so surprised he couldn't think of anything to do but go along with it. They made out for a couple of seconds, till Rei was out of site.
When Shinji saw Asuka pull away he was surprised, they had barely been at it. He looked at her face expecting to see a smiling face, looking straight into his eyes. Shinji was let down a little bit. She wasn't looking at him at all. She was looking at the direction Rei had just been walking, with a smirk on her face. Like one she had when a devious plan had just come together, and Shinji just snapped.
And he slapped her in the face.
Asuka stared horrified at Shinji, but he didn't care. He pushed her off him as quickly as he could. He did it a little too hard though as she fell onto the side walk, still totally dumbfounded. "What the fuck was that?" he yelled, loudly, but that didn't matter to him, not then.
"You just decide to kiss me, to finally have human contact, not because you feel anything, just because you wanted to show another girl to stay away from 'your man!'" He yelled. He walked right up to her who now actually seemed scared, genuinely scared of him. "You question my loyalty only because I don't do everything you want me to! What about you? When was the last fucking time you didn't do something for me just out of kindness, just because you liked me?
"Every fucking time you do anything you act like you're looking after me! Like I'm your responsibility and that if it wasn't for you I would never be able to do anything!" Shinji's fury had barely in broken, but Asuka was crying now, she wasn't doing it subtly either. "You ever think that I am just a human being you want to be around, not some fucking burden you have to carry wherever you go.
"I am sick and tired of being pushed around by you. And this! This! I'm tired of being used by you. Just because you want some poor sap to control! Not because you. Not because you ever felt shit! This was the last time. No more. Just leave me the fuck alone.
"Bitch!"
and with that Shinji stormed off. He didn't help her up, or even looked back. In all honesty he did not really care.
He walked home without wasting a single second. Only when he got to his apartment building did he ever turn around. He was not surprised though that he saw nobody there. That was also the last thing he wanted to see. Life, he was sick of the idea of someone else. All he wanted was there only to be him, alone, with no one else.
All his life he had been afraid of being alone. That was all he had known though for so long. Every action he did ended with him alone. He was shy, and stayed to himself, never ventured out. Till all he knew was himself, where he was, and that alone was nicer.
That was when he met Asuka, who was over the top, out going more then anyone else Shinji had known and for some reason she had become obsessed with him. Always wanting to hang out with him, be near him, get him to change his ways; so she could be with him more.
It always seemed more like a game she was playing that she had never gotten bored of. No one could ever actually feel something for him. It was all just a lie. He was just another part of something that he had no control over, because a piece can't play the player.
He was sick of it. He was sick of it all! All he felt like doing was just closing himself into his own room and throwing away the key. It was safer there, it was quieter, he knew it was better, and most of all he couldn't get hurt there.
When he had entered his house there was no one there. There was a small message written on a ripped piece of paper on a counter in his kitchen but he didn't care. Nothing really mattered to him right now. All he could think about was his room, everything else in his apartment was just junk on the path to his room.
As he opened the door, his face changed, his emotions moved. He was finally safe, from this god forsaken world. Here though, all he could think about was what he had just done and how everything was ruined. Without anything knowledge of what to do, he just fell apart. All of his support was gone, his legs gave way and he fell to the ground. Without anything else to do he cried for about two hours and after that he fell asleep on his bed for another two.
He was awoken from this state of perpetual self hate by the phone ringing. Shinji, who had had no footing as of right now in reality, just stared at it for the first three rings. By the third though, something had awoken within him, something that had been sleeping: his confidence. He grabbed the phone and answered "hello?"
"Yo man!" yelled Touji from the other line. Shinji could barely make out his voice, he was obviously outside on his cell phone. "Dude! We're going to central park. You should totally come too!"
Shinji wondered for a couple of seconds as to whether or not this was a smart move. He just kind of wanted to sleep. "Who is we?" he asked, might as well find out who is there.
Touji didn't seem to have heard him as he was laughing a little too hard on the phone. Shinji was just about to repeat himself, but Touji interrupted with his response. "It's me, Kensuke and a bunch of kids from the other classes from the school. I don't even really know how I got invited, or got Kensuke to come, but trust me, it's crazy!"
There was something different in his voice, Shinji could tell. "Dude are you drunk?" he asked, knowing what would probably be his answer.
"Man, not only that but stoned more then, well, a stone bitch!" Touji told him. "I also got a joint here with your name on it dude. Literally actually, I don't really know how it got started but someone had a magic marker but it was too big, I'll tell you story when you come. We betted as to whether you would actually come or not. I mean, like if Asuka would ever let you go. I put a lot of fucking money on you, so you better come. See you in like 15 minutes, Central Park, I love you man, like too much!" with that he hung up his phone.
Shinji just kind of sat there for a couple of seconds with the phone still in his hand. He put it down slowly thinking as to whether or not to come. Given any other day or situation he would never come. It was just that line "if Asuka would ever let you go." That kind of struck a chord right now. Maybe it was time to show them all that he actually lived his life according to himself, not what she said.
Without really giving it too much thought Shinji stood up and left his room. He grabbed his bag and was about to take that with him but decided not to, seeing as he probably would not need it.
He noticed something inside of it though when he did pick it up. He opened the bag and took out the pictures of Asuka and Rei from the day before. He stared at the pictures, looked at how great their bodies were. Asuka had the better breasts in his opinion, but Rei was cuter, which was also a big thing.
Shinji stood there, and grabbed what was probably the sexiest picture of each and put them into his pants. Just as something to look at to make him feel better if he felt down during the night. Which Shinji would have betted on, had there been anyone else in the room to bet with.
When he finished up with the pictures he moved to the front door. Before he left though he remembered the note on the counter and decided he should read it. The note basically said that his parents were going to be home late and no one other than Asuka was allowed in the place. Shinji just grabbed a pen and quickly wrote "me too" under his parent's note.
As he left the house his doubt filled his stomach but decided that this was something he needed to prove to everyone, especially to himself. With that radiating through his mind and many encouraging words that he had to say to himself over and over again, he trudged through the street to his destination of the park.
When he got there he was really afraid that he was not going to be able to find them, seeing as Touji never actually told him where in the park was he to find them. The park was a pretty sizable place. He had to phone Touji twice to get there. Touji, was in absolutely no condition to give directions. If he was going to give this crowd anything, was that they knew where to hide.
As he got there Kensuke walked up to him and greeted him. He seemed to be in a better state then Touji was. Touji, when he saw Shinji yelled nonsense as loud as he could. He started to walk around receiving money from a decent amount of people who Shinji did not even recognize.
When Touji finished getting his money, he walked back to Shinji and gave Shinji a beer. Shinji just kind of stared at it for a bit before drinking it down. He had drunk beer before, but not with the sole goal of getting drunk. Right when he finished Touji had already started to light something in his mouth.
He inhaled a few times, before passing it to Kensuke. Kensuke stared at it a bit before inhaling a little bit. Afterwards he didn't cough and seemed pretty pleased with himself. Kensuke passed it to Shinji who did not even know how to hold it right. He did though put it to his mouth and inhale multiple times; this though was interrupted though by him coughing.
Touji seeing this instantly started to laugh, almost manically. "Dude put your arms up," he told Shinji. Shinji just kind of stared at him for a second while coughing. Touji, smiled and demonstrated the difficult action of raising his arms. Shinji, without any better idea did as Touji said, and it did help, he thought.
The three of them stayed together for most of the time. Whenever anyone would come near them, they would usually just talk to Touji for a while, and then walk away. This continued for a couple of hours. Shinji couldn't lie and say he wasn't having a blast though.
It was just during kind of random looking around that Shinji realised something that he had not before. Rei was here too. She was on the complete other side of where the crowd was. Shinji lit a cigarette, that Touji insisted that if he smoked after a joint it would get him higher, and started walking towards her with more confidence then he knew he had.
She was sitting at the trunk of a tree. It was an old one with more then just a few dead branches hanging onto little more then the tree's will to stay together. In this city there were few things that were old, this tree being one of the few. It had an eyrie beauty to it like how a dying tiger that refused to sit still and wait for the end had more courage to be counted. This gave a large contrast to Rei, who was young, cute and did not seem to care about things such as time.
As Shinji came up to her, she noticed him and made a small smile. She did not seem to be experiencing too much, which was a difference between her and everyone else. As Shinji got to her, he realised that he, in all reality, had no idea in the slightest what to say. Without any ideas as to what to do, he just sat next her and said "Hey."
Rei giggled a little bit and looked at him with an innocent smile "Hi. How's your girlfriend?" Shinji looked at her for a second, realising that the last time she had seen him was when he was making out with Asuka.
Shinji frowned for a second and looked at the ground, "right now, not my girlfriend," was all he could think to say. Rei seemed to actually smile a lot deeper then Shinji thought one could after something he didn't really think of as good news.
Noticing Shinji's slight discomfort Rei grabbed the cigarette from Shinji's mouth which he had forgotten was in there, and inhaled a bit. "Well what are you doing here, looking for rebound or something?" Rei asked, seriously, or at least that was all Shinji could read from her face.
Shinji hesitated for a bit and started to panic, what did she want him to say? Yes or no? Without any other idea he could think of he replied simply "nope, just trying to exercise the freedom I could not before."
Rei seemed to accept this answer and dropped the subject entirely. The two of them talked for a good half an hour about ideals. It was something that was a little alien to Shinji, personal communication was not something he did too often. The stooge's conversations were usually on random, generally nerdy topics and his conversations with Asuka were usually, well usually they didn't have conversations, just each other's company.
After the half an hour Shinji got up and grabbed the two of them some drinks from this large pack of assorted alcoholic drinks some random guy Shinji had thought he might have seen maybe once or twice before. It took him a little longer then he had expected as these two guys had made him take two shots of whiskey.
As he got back he noticed that Rei was staring at him differently. Shinji sat back next to her and smiled. He was about to ask her about her changed expression when around three other people sat down with him and they all shared a couple joints. When they were finished the other people sat up and walked away. Shinji, noticing a pack of cigarettes slightly hanging out of one of their back pockets grabbed it, decided the person wouldn't need it.
This was really kind of going weird. Shinji was loosing himself without really knowing why. This was the first time he had ever had weed, and taking as much as he had, probably was not a very good idea. At least he wasn't freaking out and acting like a total ass, like Touji was. Shinji was surprised no one had punched Touji yet.
He finally looked at Rei, who was looking at him with the most seductive stare Shinji had ever seen. All of her clothes seemed loose and there was sweat moving down her brow. She just stared at him for a couple of seconds while Shinji's eyes kind of moved all over her. Shinji, just swallowed hard and hoped that someone, potentially him, would make a move.
Rei, though, did exactly that, but not even in the slightest close to what Shinji had been hoping for. "So, what is the story behind you and Asuka?" she asked with almost each word acting like a small dagger stabbing Shinji.
Shinji had been staring at her chest at that very moment, when he heard her say that though his head shot up and stared her in the eyes. He bit his lip as the thoughts of Asuka came rushing back into his head.
What he had done today.
How he had been acting towards her.
What he had just been thinking of about another girl.
His lip, under the strain of his teeth even started to bleed. Tears kind of built up in his eyes. For some reason he couldn't fight them off at all. In his attempt to fuck himself up enough to forget all of this, just left him defenceless.
Rei who had still had her seductive and fun face was greatly surprised by his response. Her face instantly switched to one of concern. She moved her arm to touch him, to try to console whatever was wrong. Out of instinct he just swatted it away. After a minute of just staring at him she asked "what the fuck happened?"
Shinji, was kind of taken out of his trance by this. All he could think to say was "Me." Shinji just started to panic then, and jumped on top on Rei. He stared into her eyes, grabbed her right breast and kissed her on the mouth.
Rei almost panicked, and pushed him off of her. She didn't run away though, she just kind of rolled on top of him. "You have to take it a little slower," she whispered in his ear and kissed him gently on the lips.
There was still something in the back of Shinji's mind though that couldn't escape. He had tears build up in his eye lids, and said "I can't promise that I might not go back to her."
"Don't think I won't go down without a fight," Rei whispered. And they continued as they were. In the next minutes it went only a little further with the kisses a little more open and Shinji gently groping her.
The two of them would have probably stayed like that had Touji never intervened. He ran up to them and threw Rei off from on top of Shinji. "Slow down there lover boy, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Touji asked. Shinji, angered by this tried to get up but Touji just pushed him back down.
"What about Asuka? You just forgot about her?" Touji asked Shinji, with his voice raised. There was something different about his eyes. His actions were for sure affected by the alcohol and recreational drugs, but there was a passion there. Something Shinji could not honestly say he had seen before in Touji.
Shinji just got more upset by this. He got up quickly and cleanly, as if he was not as out of his mind as he was. Staring at Touji's face he said plainly "That is none of your fucking business."
Touji, did not seem very pleased by this response. "Not my fucking business? Me and her may not be on the best terms, hell I can barely stand her but there is one thing I know. She has done more then enough to deserve you, and more then enough to deserve better than this!" Touji ran up and pushed Shinji who lost his balance but did not fall.
This little confrontation seemed to be attracted people. More and more people started to circle around them to see what this was about. "Deserve me? Am I just an object to be won once you do enough for it? I'm a human being, who deserves more then to be played around with. You told me today that she wouldn't let me come, she probably wouldn't have, but I have come because I could, because I am a person capable of free will. All she ever wanted from me was someone to control and put down. She didn't deserve me, because first she would have had to have cared for me!"
Shinji ran up to Touji and tried to punch him, but even intoxicated Touji dodged it with ease. "Are you just fucking stupid? You ever think that that is the only way she knows how to communicate with people! The only reason she stayed with you for so long was because you accepted her, she could act naturally and you would be fine with it. Not every fucking thing is because of you. She needed, no, needs someone who will always be there with her, and you just fucking start making out with the next whore who would do you.
"The fastest is not always the best, and human lives are a more delicate balance then you could accept."
Rei now was angry. She walked right up to Touji and slapped him on the face, so hard that he fell to the ground. "I am not some fucking whore you shit face!" she then started to kick in the stomach repeatedly.
Confused by all of this Shinji ran up and grabbed her. Angry by this she easily wormed out of his arms. She slapped him across the face hard as well, but not as hard as she did for Touji. Shinji limped away for a second before she walked back up to him and kissed him on the lips. She muttered an apology and walked behind him. Shinji turned to join her but Touji, who had somehow gotten back up while the others were busy grabbed him and threw him to the ground.
"Dude she may not admit it, or openly show it, but Asuka cares more for you than anyone else I have ever known. More than Hikari has ever for me! Now here you are just slapping her across the face much harder then that bitch did to me!" Touji was steaming with rage. Touji grabbed Shinji by the shirt and lifted him up to his feet.
"If she cares so much for me, then please, please explain to me, why ever action she does for me she acts like it is doing a chore. As if she didn't look after me then every part of my life would crumble! She doesn't care for me, more then she would a house that needs sweeping!" Shinji spit in Touji's face but stumbled right afterwards, almost falling to the ground.
Touji grabbed Shinji by the arm and stabilized him. "Because when the fuck has anything she done for you not a chore? Your life is so sad that she is convinced that would happen. And what's happened now that you have went out on your own? When was the last time you also asked her for something else? Asked her on a date? Asked for something fucking else?" From Touji's face it seemed like he was starting to lose himself. He was in no condition to be having this argument. "I'm not going fucking let you hurt her! Where is that fucking honour you always said you have now?"
Touji pushed Shinji back down onto the ground and picked him up by his shirt collar till he was just above Touji's waist. Shinji's expression changed then to one of horrified realisation. Tears started flowing down his face like a river. He moved his lips, and tried his hardest to talk "But, but I've already hurt her! I've already fucking hurt her! I, I, I slapped her across her face, and, and I threw her to the ground!" He looked at Touji's face and just couldn't stop the tears from coming.
Touji punched him in the face.
And again.
And again.
He probably only stopped because Rei jumped onto his back and started to yell at him to stop. The crowd, which at this point was pretty much everyone there walked in between the two of them to stop it. Kensuke walked up to Shinji who was lying on the ground as if he were unconscious.
Shinji did not really know what specifically happened afterwards. Touji stormed off to probably throw rocks at Hikari's window screaming "STELLA!" Rei checked up on Shinji and then walked home. Kensuke put one of Shinji's arms over his shoulder and the two of them walked back to Shinji's place.
The two of them only took one break to smoke one of the cigarettes that Shinji had stolen. Kensuke described how he didn't really like them very much, but that they were really cool.
When they got to Shinji's building, Shinji had much more trouble opening the lock to get in then he thought was possible. Shinji insisted that he could make it to his own apartment alone but Kensuke repeatedly said that he would at least walk Shinji to his door. Shinji, was in no condition to argue with him and agreed.
As they got to the elevators they made the unlucky discovery that the two elevators were out of order. Shinji just kind of swore loudly and banged his fists against the doors for a minute before the two started to climb the stairs. Something that both of them knew was going to go on for too long and be more painful than anything should be.
When they neared Shinji's floor they had the great luck to run into two people who were probably the last they wanted to run into: Asuka and Hikari.
Even though it was probably a confusing place for the two of them to be for Kensuke; Shinji knew exactly why they were there. He and her had been there many times.
One important thing to know about Asuka's life was that she had a very nosy and very protective mother. Whenever she would have anyone over, her mother would love to spy on her. Sometimes this was merely walking into Asuka's room without knocking, but with a viable excuse such as needing to grab something. A couple of times though Asuka and Shinji had found her mother actually trying to listen in.
Asuka, then eventually decided that if there was anything she wanted to discuss, that she would not want her mother to know about, they would move into the stairs here to talk about it.
So after today's events it was no surprise that she was her, even this late at night. It was also no question as to what it was they wanted to discuss without her mother knowing: him.
Things though, actually went better then they could have, as the first thing anyone said after they all say each other was "What the hell happened to him?" as Asuka almost ran to Shinji's less then perfect body, and mind.
Kensuke seemed pretty nervous right now, Shinji knew that he was conflicted as to how to act. "A lot of things," he tried to cover up. Kensuke probably did not want to say all of the details or at least he did not want to be the one to tell Asuka. That was going to have to be Shinji's responsibility, and Shinji knew it would probably be best if it were only those two when that conversation happened.
Asuka did not seem very pleased with that but she probably that it would be too much work to beat it out him. Shinji tried to just keep moving, to show that he was fine but he just lost balance and fell right into Asuka's arms.
Hikari seemed to be an unconfident participant, as if she too had no idea how to act right now. Obviously the conversation the two of them had been having, was not suppose to end with Asuka helping out Shinji with every inch of her voice sounding concerned.
Shinji without any better idea just said "Look, I'll just go to my place by myself."
There was a slight tension in the air after he had actually talked. Everyone around him seemed in thought for a minute. They needed a plan, or something along those lines. Asuka, who was never one for patience just said "Like hell you are, I'll walk you there. Fool,"
Kensuke and Hikari just kind of looked at each other and came to an unspoken agreement. The two of them nodded to Asuka and started down the stairs. Shinji could have sworn he heard Hikari ask "What happened?" as the two of them disappeared.
When they were finally gone Asuka moved his arm over her shoulder. She looked different, that was all that Shinji could figure out. Her eyes were slightly swollen and red. He wanted to just think about the possible things that could have led her to that, but he knew the second he looked at her that he was the fault.
Even though they were only a couple of floors to Shinji's the stairs seemed to go on forever. They stretched and stretched until all Shinji could see was stairs. Deciding that he just didn't feel like going on, he almost just slivered through Asuka's grip to sit down. Asuka though, was not going to let this happen. She held onto his arm until she was almost carrying Shinji's full wait. She never wavered as well. Shinji could see it in her eyes like a fire. She was going to help him, because she was strong.
And that's what strong people do, look after the weak.
They got to Shinji's floor much quicker then it seemed to him and walked to his door. Asuka shook him to get him to grab his keys, but he was thinking or at least he was not paying attention to where he was, or what they were doing. Asuka was put off a bit by this and grabbed everything from his pocket. She shifted through the stuff for a second before she found the keys.
She fumbled with them, not knowing which one was the key to get in. She turned her head to ask Shinji about which one it was to get in, but he grabbed the keys out of her hand. He stood still and unlocked the door as if he was totally sober and unhurt.
When he opened it though, he walked in and was planning on just telling Asuka 'thank you' and close the door, but she sneaked in before he could. He really did not know what to do and was about to ask her something, anything, but she kept walking till she entered his room and closed the door.
Shinji was confused by this but decided he was going to deal with that in a minute. The first thing he did was stumble to his kitchen and he drunk probably a litre of water to quench his dry throat.
He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. His shirt and pants were covered in grass stains, his shirt had a small rip on the collar, his hair was a mess and he had a large black eye. Over all he looked like shit. He washed off his face with hot water and took off his ripped shirt. He put the shirt in the garbage can and just sat down for a second. Only the realisation that Asuka was in his room got him to get up.
The light in his room was on and he was afraid to open the door, but he knew he must, there was nothing else he could.
He walked to, each step taken carefully so he would not fall. Even though he was slightly starting to feel better he was still kind of dizzy.
Asuka was sitting on the floor opposite to him. She was wearing another shirt then the one she had had on when he had seen her before. She must have been wearing this shirt under the other one. This one was much tighter and hugged her skin showing off her curves. She was looking at two things in her hands, so Shinji had time to explore her with his eyes.
It was not long after though, that he realised what she was looking at. It was two pictures. He was not sure, but would have bet considerable money that it was the two he had put in his pocket before he had left that day. He checked his pocket to be sure and noticed that there was nothing in them. Asuka had taken everything out of that pocket when she had grabbed his keys. For some reason she seemed to be staring at them intently. "Hey?" was all Shinji could think to ask.
She looked up at him as if she had not even realised that he was in the room. She had though; she always knew everything that was going on, even if she did not show it. "Do you really think this of me?" she asked putting the pictures on the ground. "Your picture of Rei has her looking cute and smiling, while mine is just a picture of me wearing little clothing and slowing off my cleavage."
Shinji honestly had never thought of it like that or consciously realised that that was how he thought. He quickly tried to construct excuses or something to get out of it. Nothing came to mind though, because, it was the truth, he had to admit it to himself. He wanted to tell her that but the words never came out of his lips. He just kind of stared at her with the most honest stare he could muster up. It was then that he realised he was shirtless and quickly started to try to find one.
Asuka frowned at this and grabbed Rei's photo. She whispered something to herself and ripped the photo up. "What happened to you today?" she asked with a real concern in her voice. "What happened to you?"
Shinji kind of froze where he was and sat on his floor. He looked at her and said "I experienced fucking myself up."
Asuka moved her right hand and grabbed her shoulder. "What exacting do you define as fucking yourself up? That is not a very precise term." Her hand started to massage her skin for reasons that Shinji had no idea of. All he knew was that she looked a little too good doing it.
"Well I, probably drank too much, and I, well I tried getting high. It was really not too special." Shinji informed her; he was trying to act as cool as he could. He did not really know why but his thoughts were spiralling around in circles. He could not keep hold of a thought for too long as well. All he knew it was about her.
Asuka did not really seem too impressed by that. "And where does the whole beating the shit out of you come in? Wanted to try doing that too tonight?" He was thinking of her body right then, but as she asked it he remembered what the situation was.
"No, I did not do it. Touji did it," he told her. His first thought was to lie, but she deserved better. He needed to let her know. She seemed kind of angered by that. "Yeah, I guess he cares about you more then you would think." He right away kicked himself after saying that though. That had come out wrong.
Asuka just looked a little disgusted by that. "What do you mean?"
Shinji had to quickly come up with a plan, but just started talking without one. "No, no, not like that. It's just, well." He breathed in deeper then his lungs could. "We were at this park with a whole lot of people. Rei was there. We just kind of started making out, and, I was groping her too. Touji saw this and there was no way he was going to let me do that to you, so he intervened. We argued and he ended up doing this to me."
Asuka looked like a mixture of horrified, disgusted and totally betrayed. She stood up and started storming out of his room quickly but as she passed by him he grabbed her by the wrist. She slapped his hand off of her and got to the door. Without any other ideas Shinji just said simply "Don't leave me!" He had not even noticed when he had started to cry.
There were a couple of breaths of silence. Asuka just stood at the doorway. "Why?" she asked through a hoarse voice.
Shinji stared at her. This time it was different though. It was not longer sexual, it was more then that. It was something Shinji had wanted to be able to do for a while. The problem was his voice who had now escaped his grasp. He wanted to tell her, tell her something, anything, but there was nothing there.
There was a stillness that Shinji couldn't dream to touch. It was far beyond his reach. The only thing he could do was just watch her. "If I stay," Asuka started, "Would you promise to never look at that bitch again?"
If there was anytime in Shinji's life where he wished he had the ability to lie to Asuka, it would be right then. Miracles are not given, only earned though and if there was one thing that Shinji had not done that night it was earn it. "I can't lie to you," he almost yelled to the ground. He could not even stand staring at her.
"Why not?" Asuka asked, still in the doorway. She was no longer standing, her legs had just kind of melted away and she was crouching. Shinji had not expected this, he was confused. What did that mean? She turned around and looked at him. She walked right up to him and picked him up onto his feet.
She looked at him, straight through his eyes, and asked "Why can't you just humour me tonight?" Shinji tried to smile at this and made a feeble success.
Asuka smiled though, deeply, right at him, almost hiding the tears in her eyes. No matter how he thought, he just wanted this moment, one of happiness to last. Asuka gently pushed him onto his bed. She took off her jeans and climbed on top of him. She leaned in and kissed him hard, long. It was their first real one and Shinji wouldn't have traded with anything.
The two of them fell asleep like that.
And Shinji dreamed a dream like no other.
AN- Well there you have it. For all of those who asked me to update, I hope that that was enough. I doubt I will write a third chapter so as of right now, it's the end.