Chapter 2: Closer
Disclaimer: don't own NGE
A loud buzzing rang throughout a small room causing a person buried beneath two blankets to stir somewhat. The person shoved a pillow on top of their head in an attempt to drown out the noise but much to their disappointment the buzzing seemed to get louder. Suddenly a hand flew out from under the blankets, sending the annoyance into the wall, but much to their disappointment kept ringing. A loud groan erupted from beneath the blankets and slowly the figure sat up.
"Urgh whoever invented the alarm clock needs to be shot." Groaned a tired Asuka. She sat up her hair matted and messy. She looked groggily around the room for the infernal noise maker before getting up and throwing it against the wall. Much to her surprise it didn't break, nor did it even dent. She looked at it with surprise. "How the?" She thought in wonder.
Picking up the clock again she once again threw it against the wall several times and it still didn't have a scratch. For several minutes she repeated this process. Pick up, slam, stand in amazement. Pick up, slam, stand in amazement. She couldn't figure out why the thing didn't break.
As she continued to do this her door was suddenly thrown open with a disheveled Misato standing in her doorway. "Asuka stop! I'm trying to get some sleep!" she yelled.
Asuka looked back at her, her body in the motion of throwing the clock against the wall again, and gave sort of a pout. "Come on Misato its fun."
"I don't care Asuka I have to get my sleep or I'll never be able to function." Just then her own alarm went off. She sighed heavily. "Oh well I guess it doesn't matter. Didn't realize I set my alarm so early." She turned and began walking away. "Have fun Asuka just be ready by the time I want to leave, oh and by the way if you're trying to break that clock, you won't. Toughest plastic there is, so don't even try." She then mumbled something about not having to spend a fortune on clocks anymore. Asuka shrugged before returning to her fun.
Ten minutes later Asuka stepped into the bathroom, much to her displeasure, and started up the shower. She really did not want to go back to that school. She missed her old one. She knew people there and was comfortable. The guys there weren't jerks, well as much as guys couldn't be, but still they were better. They didn't sit there and slobber over you just because of how you looked. Nor did they hit on you just because you're the new girl.
She also had friends and people she loved back at her old school. Here she was practically alone. The only people here that showed her any kindness or respect were Hikari and Shinji. Two out of how many two-three hundred?
She sighed heavily as she stepped into the shower. "Why did Misato have to take that stupid job anyway? It didn't really offer her more than what she already had, except maybe an extra two days vacation. What is so good about it that she had to move us half way across the country?" She said quietly to herself. She really couldn't understand why she did that. Even when Misato explained to her why they were moving she gave a very obscure picture of her new job. She seemed to want to avoid going into specific details. It was almost as if she herself hardly knew anything.
Although Asuka refused and fought as much as she could Misato's age and guardianship over her won out in the end. She forced Asuka to go. And that is why I am stuck here. She thought to herself. I really don't want to be here.
A sudden knock at the bathroom door caused Asuka to jump. "Asuka come on we have to go, you're going to be late!" Misato yelled, her voice muffled by the door.
"What?! I just got in here!" She yelled back.
"Asuka you've been in there for twenty minutes you need to get out or you're going to be late!" Misato yelled again her voice sounding impatient.
Asuka growled loudly. "Alright fine be out in a minute!" She quickly sped through the rest of her shower.
The car pulled up to the school drop off zone, Asuka noticing the school wasn't nearly as crowded as yesterday. She looked down at the car clock and much to her annoyance was flashing 12:00 like a VCR. She growled inwardly. Shaking her head she stepped out of the car and slammed the door behind her. "Bye Misato." She said as she walked backwards toward the school.
"Bye Asuka!" Misato replied before driving off in a flash.
Asuka turned toward the school and grimaced somewhat. She really didn't want to be here. She thought about ditching for a second but figured that would do her more harm than good, so instead she decided to walk around the school again, retracing the path she and Shinji took.
For several minutes Asuka walked around the school finding herself becoming more and more bored as the minutes passed by. The school was so dull when no one was around, especially since she didn't even know anyone at the school. The only people she knew anyway were Shinji and Hikari and they weren't even here. Besides she wasn't even sure that they really wanted to get to know her. After all Hikari was class rep so it was probably her job and Shinji was probably trying to be nice. That is if he didn't have some underlying motives, and the shy boy was just a façade for the real him A guy who takes advantage of the new girl with a nice act but doesn't really mean it, and has other motives. She wouldn't be surprised.
Just then, as she turned a corner, she found herself watching Shinji ride up toward the school on a bike, his demeanor didn't look any different then the day before. She felt an odd feeling in her chest. It felt like guilt.
She stopped walking and watched him pull his bike up to the bike lot, dismount, and lock up his bike. He walked out of the lot in a somewhat of a hurried pace toward the school causing Asuka to raise an eyebrow at him. What was he doing here so early? She decided to follow him in order to find out. Besides she had nothing better to do.
She walked rather quickly in order to catch up to him but found she didn't really need to as he had stopped for a second to help one of the few people at the school pick up their books which had flown out all over the ground. She was surprised by this somewhat. She felt guilt spring up in her chest again. She didn't understand why she felt guilty. It's not like she really insulted him or something.
You misjudged him. A part of her said. She sighed inwardly. "Whatever." She said to herself before walking after him again as he was on the move.
He opened the main building doors, causing a cold breeze to blow out causing Shinji to shiver visibly though it was only slightly. Asuka hurried after him hoping to catch the door before it closed but as her luck had it shut before she could reach it. She cursed under her breath.
Grabbing the handle she threw the door open causing another cold breeze to blow out the door. She too shivered. Why does it keep doing that?! She thought. Shaking the thought off she again walked after him.
She went a little way before he finally stopped in front of their classroom, and stepping inside. She peeked through the small window that was in the door and watched as he set his stuff down upon his desk before looking around the room. She watched him with curiosity. He then surprised her.
She saw him disappear for a moment and then reappear with a broom and several other cleaning supplies. He swept the floor for several minutes before dusting the desks. She wondered why he did this. She thought all of this was done after school, but apparently not. As she watched him she again felt guilt in her chest causing her to grow irritated. What is with all this guilt? She thought. You missed judged him. A part of her said. She groaned inwardly. Should misjudging him cause me this much guilt?! She screamed in her head.
Deciding it was best to get the stupid thoughts out of her head she grabbed the door handle and threw it open. Shinji looked at her in surprise. "Asuka, what are you doing here?"
"Its school I'm supposed to be here." A look of disgust flashed across her face as she said it.
He shook his head. "No I mean what are you doing here so early?"
Asuka scowled somewhat. "My guardian dropped me off this early in fear that I was going to be late." She scoffed as she thought about it. "In fact I was well beyond on time, but she didn't believe me." Shinji nodded in agreement before turning and beginning to sweep up the room. Asuka raised her eyebrow at him and watched as he worked. "So why are you here so early exactly?" she asked, continuing to watch him.
Shinji shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Well I guess so I can help clean up the room."
"Why would you want to do that? The room is usually clean after school right?" Asuka asked. "I mean that is how the class is; someone is assigned to clean it after school, right?" Shinji shrugged again.
"I guess so, but I just like to clean." He replied. Asuka raised an eyebrow at the boy.
What kind of kid would actually want to clean? Cleaning was something you did when you got in trouble not because you actually liked doing it, but apparently here was an exception. This boy liked to clean and it was a boy no less! It didn't make sense. Asuka now wondered if the boy was right in the head…
"So you're here this early in the morning just because you like to clean?" Asuka asked continuing to watch the boy work. He nodded and kept working. Asuka shook her head not understanding why but hey she guessed everybody needed a hobby.
"There is also another reason I kind of do this and it's that the kids don't do a good job. They do it quickly to go home, so I usually clean up after them so they don't get in trouble." Shinji said.
"Why do you care?" Asuka asked. "If they only do half of the work then they should get in trouble for it. I mean they made the choice to do it not you, so you really shouldn't clean up for them."
"Yeah, but this is just the nice thing to do…" Shinji replied his last words trailing.
Asuka scoffed somewhat. "It might be the nice thing to do but if you keep doing it they're going to take advantage of you and leave everything to you." This caused Shinji to stop for a moment but then he quickly returned to work. Asuka shook her head again. "You're just gonna let them walk all over them aren't you?"
Shinji stopped again before turning to her. "But they're not walking over me. They'd have to actually be controlling me…or something." He trailed off again, not entirely sure how to defend himself.
"Shinji there are other ways that a person can manipulate you." Asuka said. "They may just leave it knowing full well that you'll be here to clean it up. Its one of the indirect approaches to do things. They're not just gonna go and tell you if they don't want to." Shinji continued to work as though he hadn't even heard her. Asuka sighed exasperatedly. "Ok listen, sometimes it's a good thing to help people but you can't go around doing it all the time or they will take advantage of you ok?"
Shinji stopped and looked at her. "Okay but its just that I like to clean and I can't help it, so the way I see it they aren't really because this is something I want to do." He replied.
Asuka shook her head and the room went silent. Asuka sat quietly staring at Shinji as he moved desk after desk out of the way as he swept under them. She debated within herself whether to help him or not. Her lazy side didn't want to help but the more how do you say, pride did. She thought that he or other someone else would think of her badly for not helping him.
For several more seconds she dwelled on these thoughts. Sighing she made up her mind and went into the closet grabbed a broom and proceeded to sweep. Shinji looked up at her in confusion.
"You know you don't have to help, I can do this by myself." Shinji protested as Asuka began sweeping.
"Listen I know you can do this yourself but I'm gonna help you anyway." She replied. Shinji stood there for a second, somewhat surprised. He then smiled slightly and continued himself.
Neither of the two spoke as they cleaned up the room. A peaceful silence went between them except for the occasional screech of a desk being moved out of the way. The silence continued until Hikari walked into the room.
"Hey Shinji." She said as she walked toward her desk only to find that it wasn't there. She looked around the room to find it tucked in a corner behind several desks. "Shinji did you move my desk over there?"
Shinji shook his head. "No, I think Asuka did it."
"Asuka?" Shinji nodded. "Wow, you mean someone other than me is helping you in the mornings?"
"Yeah it would seem that way."
Hikari looked around the room for a second. "Hey, Shinji where is Asuka?" Shinji looked up from his sweeping and looked around himself.
"I don't know. She was here a minute ago." Suddenly a storm of coughing and sneezing erupted from the broom closet. Hikari and Shinji both quickly turned around to find Asuka flying out of the closet sneezing like no other. The two watched her oddly as this continued for a couple of minutes.
When she finally stopped a long line of foreign words escaped her mouth. The two continued to watch her as she yelled at the closet in her odd language. They raised an eyebrow at her trying their best to decode the language but found that it was pointless. For several more minutes she cursed at the closet or rather something in the closet. When the flurry was finally over the two stared at her in confusion.
"What are you two staring at?!" She snapped.
The two quickly shook their heads. "Nothing, we just wanted to know what happened." Hikari replied.
Asuka growled loudly. "Those freaking erasers happened!" Hikari raised an eyebrow at her. "I tried cleaning them then all of a sudden the things sent out a wave of dust!" She growled again. She then heard Hikari start laughing loudly, even Shinji was letting out a small chuckle. "What are you two laughing at?"
"You Asuka" She said as she laughed.
Asuka scowled somewhat before speaking, "Whatever, lets just get back to work." Hikari nodded.
For the next twenty minutes the three finished the room, a good amount of conversation going between Asuka and Hikari as Shinji listened intently, saying very little. As Shinji listened to the two's conversing he found that the two seemed to get along very well. They had a lot in common. Shinji smiled a little. Asuka had only been here a day and now it seemed was starting to form a strong friendship with Hikari. He was happy for her; he knew how she felt being here by herself. After all he had moved here when he was younger and knew how lonely it could be to not know anyone.
The bell suddenly rang snapping Shinji out of his thoughts. A few seconds later a crowd of kids flooded through the door and took to their seats. Hikari and Asuka's conversation came to an abrupt halt as Hikari now took over the class with, what seemed to be, the normal morning greeting of up, bow, sit. After that the class simmered down as the teacher began his lecture, now leaving Shinji to his own thoughts.
Shinji stared blankly at the teacher, trying his best to concentrate on the teacher's lesson but found it all but impossible to pay attention to the never ending lecture. Finally after ten minutes of endless staring Shinji began looking aimlessly around the room, his eyes landed on Asuka. For several seconds Shinji stared at Asuka trying to figure out what country she was from because it was completely obvious she wasn't a native. He knew Hikari had said where she was from but he wasn't really listening, so he attempted to figure it out just by her bright red hair and her blue eyes.
He continued to gaze at the red head and found that she was rather attractive. Her red hair seemed to match perfectly with her blue eyes. She had a perfect face. A motion suddenly drew his attention away from her. He looked across the room to find Touji winking at him and pointed to Asuka. Shinji's face immediately flushed. He hadn't realized that he had been staring for so long. He mentally smacked himself over and over.
He really hadn't meant to stare. He hoped that she didn't notice otherwise she might think him perverted. He didn't want that. He hated people like that. They had no respect for a girl. They only cared about one thing, and he hated that. He wished that guys could just respect a girl for being who she was not for her……curves.
He glanced back at Asuka to find her nodding off, her head jerking up every so often as she tried to keep herself awake. He smiled slightly to himself as she did this before turning away from her and once again trying to focus on the teacher.
A loud obnoxious ringing woke Asuka abruptly. Her arm suddenly swung through the air as if trying to hit the snooze button, but when she found none she looked up tiredly. Looking around she found herself in the classroom and not in her room. A confused look appeared on her face. She attempted to figure out where she was then suddenly mentally smacked herself.
Dang bell, made me think I was in my room, sleeping. She thought. Quickly she looked around the room suddenly remembering she had swung her arm around crazily in an attempt to find an alarm to turn off. Luckily the class was empty, even the teacher wasn't in the room anymore. She let out a small breath of relief. That could've been embarrassing.
Getting up she hurriedly walked outside. As she walked outside she put her hands in the air and stretched before walking toward the tree she sat at the day before. Sitting down she pulled up her bag and began searching through it. Much to her delight this time her guardian had packed her lunch. She opened the small plastic container that held it and stared at it, obviously shocked. What……IS THIS!? She thought to herself in disgust. She quickly threw it away. Why did she even bother? She knew better than to trust Misato's cooking. It was the worst death you could ever experience. Slow and VERY painful.
Asuka's head dropped. She was going to starve. Yep. She was going to starve. She groaned inwardly. Why didn't she eat breakfast!? Oh yeah because Misato didn't let her. Dang it all, it's all her fault. She thought to herself. She slammed her head into the tree, silently hoping that maybe somebody, anybody, would come and give her some food. She doubted it though.
She then closed her eyes and attempted to take her mind off the hunger pain. It wasn't working all that well. She sighed and looked forward to suddenly find Shinji standing in front of her. He looked surprised and somewhat shocked like she caught him in the act of some wrong doing. The two stared at each other for a second before Asuka spoke.
"Hey Shinji, what are you doing?" Asuka asked, eyeing him somewhat suspiciously. Although Asuka thought that she could trust Shinji at leas a little bit, she still had to be a little wary. She didn't know him enough to trust him fully. For all she knew this could still be an act.
Shinji looked at her nervously, "Um, I just wanted to know if you would like to have this." He said, holding out a small bowl that was similar to what she had yesterday.
Asuka stared at him a little bit longer. Shinji visible tensed. It was plain to see that she was making him uncomfortable. He looked like he was doubting coming over to her. Asuka continued to stare until she spoke, "Shinji have you been watching me?" she asked.
Shinji shook his head quickly in response. "No! I just looked over here and saw you were without food again…" He replied quietly. "I wasn't watching you honest! It's just that I wanted to make sure you had something to eat this time." His voice began to trail as he finished speaking. He really didn't know what to say. He lowered his head and looked down at his feet, seemingly ashamed. "I'm sorry." He said quietly.
Spinning around he began to walk away when Asuka suddenly called out to him. "Hey, where are you going?" Shinji turned and looked at her in a mild confusion. "Aren't you going to give me that?" She asked, pointing to the small bowl he held in his hand.
Shinji looked between the bowl and Asuka as if thinking whether he should give it to her or not. After about a second or two it seemed the side that wanted Asuka to have it won out. He walked back to her and gave it to her. She took it gratefully, giving him silent thanks.
As Shinji began to walk away he suddenly thought of something. Tentatively he turned back to her and asked, "Hey, um Asuka." Asuka looked up at him showing him he had her attention. "I wanted to know if you wanted to come and sit with my friends and me? I'm sure they wouldn't mind, and I don't think you want to sit by yourself all the time." Shinji dropped eye contact with Asuka as he spoke. He found himself wondering if it was a good idea to even bring it up. "If you want of course." He added.
Asuka looked up in thought for a moment and then spoke, "Sure, why not?" Shinji looked up at her with a small smile on his face. "But on one condition."
"What?"
"Keep that jerk Tonji or whatever his name is away from me." She said. There was a clear distaste for the named boy in her voice. Shinji smiled slightly. He then nodded and began walking toward the table where he normally sat at.
Asuka followed behind him, and began thinking to herself why this boy would do this for her. Why would he be so willing to give her food and invite her to eat with his friends? Why would this seemingly shy, boy want to help her? He barely knew her and yet he wanted to open his heart to her and help her. But why? She wondered if it was all just an act. As far as she knew he could've been, but if that was true then he must be one heck of an actor. She really thought he was a shy, soft spoken boy. It even showed in his eyes, the most revealing part of the heart. As what many people called it the entrance to the soul. So if it wasn't an act was this boy really a kind person? she wondered.
Asuka was pulled out of her thoughts when Shinji's voice rang through her head. "Asuka, you ok?"
Asuka turned to him and spoke, "Yeah, I'm perfect. Now what do you say we eat." She sat down and started eating, finding that once again Shinji's cooking to be one of the best things she had ever tasted.
As she ate, the small group around her, consisting of her, Shinji, Hikari, Touji, and a boy in large glasses who she recognized as one of his friends from earlier but she didn't think she ever caught his name. She stared at him for a second before he spoke, "Hi, names Kensuke." He said a small smile on his face.
"Asuka." She replied.
"Ok now that introductions are done, who here wants to come with me to the library?" Hikari said. "I need some help getting some research for the up coming project we have." The group all raised eyebrows at her.
"Project?" Touji asked. "What project?" He clearly looked confused. It showed that he wondered if the girl was right in the head.
"We're going to have a project in our history class about Europe tomorrow, so I wanted to get started early."
"How the freak do you know that?"
"There are perks to being class representative." She said smiling.
"Explain to me how that is a perk? You don't even know what country you're doing." He said.
"You choose your own." She said. Then suddenly in a flash she grabbed his ear and began dragging him toward the school library. Small grunts of pain escaped Touji's mouth as he was slowly pulled from his seat and then toward the library.
"Hikari!" He yelled in protest. "Girl, what are you doing? Why do I have to go with you?"
"With your grades Touji, do I really have to answer that question? Not only that but we're able to work on it together so I can help you with this." She replied. He ripped his ear from her grasp and grumbled something before following her, knowing he didn't have much of a choice. "Bye guys! See you tomorrow!" She yelled back behind her.
"Yeah, bye" Touji said quietly, clearly not liking the predicament he was forced into.
An awkward silence came over the three remaining, each one not really knowing what to say. After all they hardly knew each other. The only ones that actually knew each other were Kensuke and Shinji but they were hardly speaking.
"Dang how are you two friends?" Asuka said. She was somewhat confused as to why they weren't talking. "I mean shouldn't you two be talking more than you are now."
"We are friends it's just that we don't have much to talk about today." Kensuke said. "Its just one of those days."
"If you say so." She said.
"Well I should probably get working on that project too." Kensuke stood up and gathered his stuff together. "See ya tomorrow Shinji."
"See ya." Kensuke then turned and walked away.
Asuka turned to Shinji and spoke, "Wow, looks like all your friends ditched you."
"Its nothing I'm not used to." He said quietly to himself. Asuka looked at him in confusion.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
He looked up at her, surprised that she had heard him. "Nothing. Just thinking out loud."
"Alright." Asuka said. She could tell he didn't want to talk about it. It was apparently something that was a little painful to him. She didn't want to push the boy after all he was one of the few that was actually being friendly to her.
"So do you know what you're going to do for the project?" Shinji asked, attempting to start some conversation.
"Yeah." She replied. "I'm going to do a report on my homeland, Germany."
"So you're from Germany?"
Asuka nodded. "Yeah didn't you hear Hikari?" Shinji shook his head. "Wow what were you doing? Staring off into space?"
"Yeah I was." He replied. "I have a habit of thinking to much. I don't know when to stop sometimes."
Asuka nodded. "Yeah we all have a habit of doing that. It's just something we do." She said, "It's not all that bad of a habit you know. It just depends on what you are thinking about." She turned to Shinji and a small playful smile appeared on her lips. "So Shinji, what do you think about?"
He looked at her with a confused look on his face. It was clear he didn't know what she was trying to imply. "Nothing really. Just whatever I guess."
"You mean you don't think about girls or anything like that?"
Shinji shook his head, but as he thought about it he remembered his stare at Asuka earlier he blushed lightly. "No, not particularly." He said quietly. "I'm not like that."
"You mean you don't think about them at all?" Asuka felt herself becoming a little worried. Maybe there was a reason he was so unperverted like toward her. Perhaps because he held a deep dark secret that was something the world wouldn't like. She was hoping that what she thought was wrong but she wasn't sure. Only one way to find out. "Shinji you're not gay are you?"
Shinji turned to her with a shocked look on his face. It was clear that the question was unexpected and caught him off guard. It took him a second to regain himself and say something. "No! Where did that come from?"
Asuka shrugged her shoulders. "You said you didn't think about girls, so hey you put it together."
"I just said I don't think about girls, I didn't say I didn't find them attractive." He replied. He found himself suddenly blushing. He wasn't used to talking about this and even the few times he did it always made him blush. He wasn't quite sure why, maybe it was because he was shy and just not used to it, but whatever the reason he never like these types of conversations. "Can we just talking about something else please?" he said turning his face away from her.
Asuka smirked. Oh she was going to have fun with this kid, but as she opened her mouth to press the subject she suddenly had a feeling that she shouldn't press it. She didn't know what it was but it was stopping her. She found herself suddenly fighting herself wondering whether she should press it. For some reason most of her didn't want to. She didn't know why. It was an immensely strong feeling that was telling her not to. She groaned inwardly as she fought with herself. Finally after several seconds of this she turned away from him and finished her food.
A short silence passed between the two until Asuka turned to Shinji again and asked, "Hey, you wouldn't mind working with me on the project would you?"
Shinji turned to her, surprised. Apparently he didn't expect her to ask for his help, that and the sudden change in subjects surprised him somewhat. "Sure Asuka." He replied.
"Good" She said. "I don't know anyone else at this school and I don't feel much like doing this project on my own. So thanks."
Shinji merely nodded and finished his lunch. "Hey where did you want to go do this project at?" He asked. "Do you want to do it at the library or one of our houses?"
Asuka shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really care either." She took a bite of the chicken and rice Shinji had given her and as she went down for another bite her fork hit plastic. She looked down to find that she had eaten it all. A saddened look appeared on her face. Dang had I known that was the last bit I would've savored it more. She thought before crumpling the bowl up and tossing it into the trash can. She growled inwardly when it missed and was forced to get up.
Tossing the bowl in the trash and walking back she asked, "Hey Shinji do you have a computer?"
Shinji shook his head. "No, I dropped it and it just suddenly stopped working."
"Dang. Ok then we'll go over to my house and do it. I'm sure Misato won't mind if I borrow hers." She said.
"Ok. So I'll go home with you after school tomorrow then?" He asked.
Asuka nodded. "And don't you dare get any funny ideas when the two of us are alone." She said giving him a slight glare. "Misato only has a break long enough to pick us up after school so we'll be alone when we do this. You dare try something and you'll die."
Shinji looked up at Asuka a look of some fear in his eyes. He didn't expect that kind of thing to come out of the girl. "O-ok." Was all he could get out.
"Good." She said. Just then the lunch bell rang. Signaling the end of lunch. "Hey Shinji I'll see you tomorrow."
"Wait aren't you coming back to class?" He asked.
Asuka shook her head. "No, I don't feel like it much today. See ya." With that she stood up and began walking away.
"How will you get home?" He asked.
Stopping and turning to him she replied. "I'll be back after school so Misato can pick me up. Alright see ya." She said and continued walking.
"Bye." Shinji replied before getting up himself and heading back to class. I guess she really doesn't like the school. He thought and entered the school doors, a chill running down him as the cold wind blew on him. I hate this door.
Finally this chapter is done! Sorry it took me so long to get this out but its hard for me to have people meet each other sometimes, so I think this chapter sucks. Especially where I ended it….alright I'll try to get the next one out fast. Please read and review! Don't forget I don't mind constructive criticism!