Hi! i would like to thank everyone who enjoys this story. thank you all for the reviews and the favs!

I've been under the weather a bit so this chapter may be a little weaker than my previous ones. Hopefully u still enjoy!

As usual I own nothing but this idea for a story using characters that do not belong to me

Present Day

It's been 8 hours since Shinji was taken but to Asuka, it felt like a lifetime.

Each the time the door opened her spirits lifted a little higher and each time one of the random technicians gazed at her with doleful eyes and simply walked down the hall to get food or drinks, she sank back into the depths.

She knew that most of them cared more about retrieving Unit 01 rather than saving Shinji but there was one fact that Asuka took comfort in.

The reason she wasn't in there, demanding those gear heads focus on saving Shinji rather his inferior (yet superior) EVA unit.

Misato and Asuka never really see eye to eye but they both came to the silent agreement that they cared for Shinji in their own way.

For Asuka, it was pushing the weak boy to become a man even if she pushed too hard sometimes or often.

For Misato it was shameless teasing but she also encouraged the boy, praising him when he deserved it, a lesson Asuka could learn from her.

As much as she would never admit it out loud, the two had slowly filled the hole that her mother left within her heart.

They became her family.

This revelation however just increased the blame that weighed heavily on her heart.

After all, she endangered one and left the other the difficult task of convincing a room full of cold, calculating people to save a young life that they thought was expendable.

Asuka let out another disheartened sigh; her defenses were down and weakened.

"As if there was someone else in the world that could come even close to Shinji…" She whispered softly

6 days ago

Shinji stared at the ceiling, ignoring the alarm clock that said 5:45 a.m.

It was Monday which meant today was school.

He knew that when he tried to sleep yesterday but after the vicious and painful activity Asuka called a game, rest eluded him.

Shinji held a hand to his heart.

Even though he knew it was only in his head, Shinji swore he could feel his heart beating weakly, on the verge of breaking all together.

He let out a sigh.

Every time he closed his eyes, his dreams became nightmares.

Mostly Asuka shouting how he was stupid, weak. How he would never be worthy of anyone, let alone herself. How he didn't even deserve to pilot Unit 01 and how, soon, they would replace him for a better pilot.

Every time.

So he stopped closing his eyes.

Another problem came when he realized he was taking in a familiar yet oddly fear inducing scent.

The scent played in the air around him, tickling his nose with its sweet yet unsettling aroma.

It would disappear for seconds, sometimes as long as minutes but it would always return.

It took him several hours to realize what it was.

It was Asuka's fragrance.

Shinji wanted to bolt out of the door immediately but he knew if he had, due to his recent luck, he would've tripped over something and awoken her wrath.

Again.

So he stayed put, the scent teasing him of shattered dreams and confirmed nightmares.

How her smell got into his room he did not have a clue but Shinji hoped it would go away by the next time he tried to sleep.

It was hard enough keeping a broken heart together without smelling the source of all his pain.

Shinji realized there was no way he would get any amount of sleep and silently shut off his alarm clock.

It never woke him up anyway and the last thing he wanted was to stir her.

Inaudibly he got dressed. He probably smelled terrible but right now he could care less.

Whatever it took to avoid her.

He slowly opened his door, happy that the Japanese made doors that did not swing out or creak.

He turned to see if Misato was home but he was not surprised when he found her bedroom door opened and bed empty.

Lately she was working triple shifts and was most likely catching her 3 to 4 hours of sleep at NERV.

Shinji wished she was here. She could protect her from the red heads wrath or at least give him enough time to escape.

He crept over to the stove.

Even though he was miserable that Asuka probably she hated him, he still loved her. He let out a soundless laugh.

"I'm so pathetic!" he thought as he began cooking their breakfast.

Cooking comforted Shinji.

He thought he was an okay cook and it was one of the things he did take pride in.

It was also steadied his existence, his reason for life.

Maybe because he knew in this small way Asuka and Misato needed him.

It was unknown if Asuka could cook as well as she boasts but he knew for a fact that Misato could not.

Anything she attempted to make was less food, more biological weapon.

Shinji shuddered when he remembered the time he had stepped out for a brief moment and asked Misato to take over cooking. When he returned a few minutes later, his guardian somehow managed to turn rice into a bubbling black tar like substance that actually ate through the metal pot.

Shinji was also fairly certain it had temporarily become sentient being.

Shinji shook his head, clearing the memory from his head as he set breakfast on two plates and got to work making lunch.

Nothing fancy today. They were running low on supplies which meant either Shinji had to go to the store or he would have to order take out.

He weighed his options carefully.

Shopping meant he had reason not to come home right away. However it also meant more work and having no real reason to sneak back into his room and avoid Asuka when dinner was done. If it was a proper dinner, then she demanded they spent it together.

If he ordered take out, it's possible that in the 15 to 30 minute wait Asuka would try to play another game or find some other way to make him feel lower than dirt. If he left her alone during that timeframe, he KNEW she would purposely make his life a living hell. He made the mistake of retreating to his room once and when he came out to answer the doorbell, Asuka had greeted him outside his room with a fist to the stomach and muttering something about being very rude.

Once the actual food had arrived, however, Asuka was usually too occupied with food and wrestling control of the television from Pen Pen.

Shinji shook his head as he finished the two bentos.

He had all day to figure it out and he knew Toji and Kensuke would block the red devil as they called.

They would hate it but once they realized how badly Shinji needed to avoid her, they would help him out…for a price.

Not that Asuka would even try to talk to him today.

He basically called her crazy for loving to pilot her EVA.

She was going to be a typhoon all day and Shinji couldn't help but feel guilt for everyone having to deal with "Hurricane Asuka"

He glanced up at the clock

6:29

In a minute Asuka would wake up, yell him to get ready then take a 30 minute shower, hogging all the hot water and then force Shinji take a 10 minute shower with cold water.

"I'm sure she won't mind my early departure." Shinji muttered sadly as he slid his lunch into his bag and walked out the door.

10.5 seconds later

Asuka yawned loudly, her hair a tangled mess from lack of sleep.

She had finally gotten to sleep around 3 in the morning.

She let out a sad sigh, remembering last night's events clearly.

The game…the fight…the tears in the Thirds…in Shinji's eyes.

She knew she went too far, all because her pride took a little bruise.

"How was I supposed to know that baka's father didn't keep him around?" she asked the silence of the apartment.

No response.

she glanced at the clock, it was 6:30 which meant Shinji should still be asleep, with his SDAT player on all night…probably trying to ease himself into sleep.

Her heart tugged guiltily at that thought.

"Baka Shinji" she muttered softly.

She slowly got up, unsure if she had the strength to face a sad or worse, angry Shinji.

She shuddered when she remembered how Shinji had used her tone against.

How much the mocking had hurt her.

She shook her head and felt her pride steel her resolve.

"Bah! Baka Shinji finally got a backbone! About time he became a real man" She told herself in her confident Asuka tone.

Shinji's face flashed into her mind's eye and she felt herself take a step back, her heart hammering away at the walls she built around it.

"Maybe" She said almost embarrassingly, as if her pride couldn't handle the next words about to be said aloud. "Maybe I could make it up to him…cook…Cook German food! Not this stupid Japanese crap we always eat!"

She smirked as she fell back into good old Asuka mode.

True to form, she aggressively slid her door open and knocked on Shinji's door.

"Baka! Wake up!" she paused for a moment, letting a small smile onto her face. "Baka Shinji's going to be in for such a treat tonight!"

Seconds had passed and no response from the Third.

"Baka Shinji! I know you can hear me!" Asuka, as well as every other person in the world, knew Shinji always listened to his music low enough so he could hear anyone calling him.

He was polite like that

"Third" Asuka growled in a animalistic tone "Open this door right now or I'll…AH!"

Unable to keep her anger in check, she threw opened the door with all her might and found...

A made bed.

Her anger left her as quick as it had come.

Shinji wasn't in his room.

"Aright Third, very funny!" She shouted to the rest of the apartment "Is this a little form a payback? Get up early and make me look like an idiot? Ha! Nice try Baka. Such a child!"

she glanced around but he wasn't in the living, other bathroom or even, eww, Misato's room.

"Where is that…"

The question died in her throat.

She noticed that breakfast had been left on the top, a sheet of plastic wrap protecting it from any insects or dust that might've tried to land on top of it.

Her eyes glanced around and she found a premade bento box waiting for her on the kitchen counter.

The guilt threatened to make tears come to her eyes.

After all she had done to him, he still made both breakfast AND lunch for her.

"Oh…baka" She muttered softly, hoping that he was just hiding somewhere in the apartment.

That he hadn't left early to avoid what he assumed was going to be a wrathful morning.

That he was going to come out of the bathroom or walk back into the apartment after picking up some supplies from the store and say, in a soft, rather shy voice "Good morning Asuka"

Asuka's heart grew heavy when she realized for the first time in…well actually ever, she was going to walk alone to school

And she did not like it one bit.