I don't own NGE and all that jazz.
Chapter 8: Empire State of Mind.
"Hey, Princess. Time to wake up" Shinji coaxed the redhead sleeping soundly in his bed. Shinji poked the girl's face, repeatedly, hoping to get a reaction. A groan emanated from Asuka's mouth before she slapped his hand away. Shinji watched as her groggy blue eyes escaped it's covers. The rising sun looked nicer, Shinji admitted, but Asuka's blue eyes were nice too. The first thing Asuka noticed was the apron that Shinji had donned to cook them breakfast. It had a picture of a kid Shinji with the phrase "Get in the goddamn robot".
"What type of apron is that, you idiot?" Asuka said, behind a mixture of chortling and yawning.
"When I was a kid, I liked Gundam and saying 'Get in the goddamn robot, Kira'. My mom got me this apron for my 15th birthday." Shinji said quickly, before making an embarrassed and speedy exit. No way in hell was he going to allow Asuka to poke fun at him. He walked back to the kitchen where he was grilling salmon that he had bought last night. Behind him, Asuka had exited his room and had entered the bathroom. Shinji caught a glimpse of her as he turned around.
The wedding was in 4 days. Luckily, the wedding coincided with Spring Break. Unfortunately, the wedding was in New York City since Misato worked in the NERV branch in NYC. It could have been worse if his parents didn't provide tickets for him and Asuka, but Gendo wanted to extend his gratitude to Asuka for taking care of his, in his words, idiotic son. It was more like Shinji was taking care of Asuka. All the cooking, laundry, and cleaning was done by Shinji, not that he minded, but it would've been nice if Asuka picked up a broom every now and then. He was her boyfriend, not her damn slave.
"Hey, where's the wedding? You never told me" Asuka asked as Shinji placed the breakfast in front of her.
"New York City" Shinji answered her as he sipped his miso soup. He looked up to Asuka, expecting her to be angry or upset, but rather she was glistening. It was like the amount of awesome of this trip suddenly exploded in her mind and she went blank. She smiled brightly at the young man.
"Oh my god. Oh my god." Asuka yelped, giddier than Shinji had ever seen her. He returned her smile, albeit with less enthusiasm. Shinji had already been to NYC before, but with his parents so he didn't really get the chance to explore. But, NYC was both his type of town and at the same time, NYC wasn't. A lot of people have a huge misconception about New York City. People automatically assume that New Yorkers are assholes because they don't care about tourists and they're "self-absorbed", but rather New Yorkers view tourists as the ones who are self-absorbed. Tourists expect the city to bend to them, and in many regards, Shinji loves this aspect of NYC. It is unmoving in its principles, and people who oust the status-quo are automatically disregarded. But Shinji hated the sheer amount of people in the city. Rush hour is fucking hell, literal hell. As much as Shinji was excited to go to Misato's wedding and have his first trip with Asuka, he was reluctant to deal with the sheer amount of people.
"Yeah, have you ever been there?" Shinji asked, as he picked at his piece of grilled salmon. He was definitely going to miss grilled salmon for breakfast when he went to NYC. He hated the shitty plain bagels with their whipped butter.
"Not that I remember. I think my step-sister went though, to visit her mother." Asuka replied, thoughtlessly as she ate her breakfast.
"You have a stepsister?" Shinji asked, Asuka's previous statement having piqued his interest.
"Yeah, I met her when my mom remarried. She's a year younger than us" Asuka replied, once again her thoughts enticed with food rather than Shinji. To be honest, Shinji didn't know that much about Asuka's past nor did he want to dig any further than she was willing to divulge. He wouldn't want Asuka to dig into his past either, no matter how unsavory or comedic it was.
"How about you?" his girlfriend asked.
"I have an adopted sister." Shinji responded, quickly and uncharacteristically.
"That's it?"
"That's all I'm willing to say."
"Okay," Asuka accepted. She wanted to dig deeper, but if he did have an adopted sister, than she would probably meet her at the wedding. But still, Asuka couldn't help but wonder what Shinji's sister was like. As Asuka finished her food, she noticed Shinji wince as he rotated his arm. The silly guy had started to work out along with Toji. Shinji was stronger than Asuka had thought, which surprised her. Underneath his relatively lanky exterior, he was pretty muscular.
"Anyways, can you go wash the dishes, I wanna take a shower before class" Shinji stated, hoping that a warm shower would ease his aching back muscles. He did not know how painful doing deadlifts or rows were. The act of doing it wasn't painful, it was just the day after that hurt like a bitch. But like many things in this world, if Shinji really wanted to get bigger, he would have to work hard.
"Sure, just hurry up. We have class in an hour, and then we still have to pack and stuff" Asuka replied, as she cleared the table. Behind her, she heard Shinji close the bathroom door. As Asuka washed the dishes, she felt a sense of longing. She wanted to sleep in Shinji's arm a tad longer, a tad longer than she was willing to admit. In her mind, she rationalized it as: she was cold, he was warm. Despite the numerous fallacies associated with that rationalization, she didn't want to admit anything else. As she finished, she walked by the bathroom, only to heard Shinji groaning and complaining about his muscle pains. Snickering lightly, she entered her room to change.
As Asuka changed, she noticed that her bed looked practically untouched. After an initial response of embarrassment, she felt a tinge of happiness. Though she'd never tell Shinji, she loved sleeping next to him. It was warm, it was cozy, and she loved the way he kissed her goodnight and kissed her good morning. As Asuka scanned her wardrobe in her underwear, she noticed that she didn't have a nice dress for the wedding. Well, she did, but she didn't like them anymore. Maybe after class, she and Shinji could go shopping.
Shinji knocked on Asuka's door. Shinji chose to go with light spring colors for today. Just a light pink button-up, his pair of khaki pants and a light blue jacket. Shinji needed to go get his suit, which he had altered a couple days ago. But now, he had to match with Asuka. Deep in thought, he didn't even notice Asuka open her door. He, however, did notice when a pair of smooth lips touched his cheeks before shoving him out of the way. Shinji looked over at his girlfriend who was wearing a simple pink blouse and a pair of leggings. Jesus, all Shinji could do was stare at her ass as she walked past. Shaking his head, he got up and followed suit.
"Hey, Shinji. What are you doing for Spring Break?" Toji asked, as Shinji was focusing on their calc lecture. Needless to say, Shinji was absolutely absorbed into the calculus at hand. It wasn't easy by any means, but for some reason, he was doing fine. It must have been his explaining to Toji that allowed him to get a greater grasp on the material.
"I'm going to a wedding in New York with Asuk-" Shinji said, without thinking before he caught himself, "fuck." He looked over at his new friend and Toji was gasping for air. Shinji hadn't made his relationship with Asuka public yet, partially because Toji was vehemently against Asuka and Hikari was going to go absolutely apeshit once she found out. But it was only a matter of time, all that time spent easing it in meant nothing.
"Bro, are you serious? What is she, your girlfriend?" Toji whispered, but visibly stressed. Shinji just nodded slowly before returning to his work. No wonder Toji was so bad at calculus, he didn't pay attention at all. The more surprising is that Jamal or Takashi, Shinji's old roomie, was above and beyond the best calculus student. Even Shinji had to text Jamal questions about Calculus and Shinji was in the top 5 percentile of the class.
"We'll talk after class. Shit man, there's a test after spring break." Shinji hissed at his dumbfounded friend. 30 minutes before class officially ended, but those 30 minutes seemed like 30 days. He really wanted to go get lunch with Asuka, not sit in class being questioned by a delirious Toji. Shinji re-focused on the professor as he discussed limits and taking derivatives and nonsense like that. Stuff that Shinji would probably never use in the real life. With a heave of frustration, Shinji reluctantly copied down the notes on the powerpoint. On the last test, he got a whooping 93 points, which he was happy with, but not proud of. At least, he scored higher than Asuka, Hikari, and Toji in Biology. But Asuka only trailed behind him by 5 points, his 94 to her 89.
Asuka made studying fun for Shinji. She anchored his mind from having contrived thoughts or straying too far from the topic. Often times, she'd defer to Shinji for help which in turned allow Shinji to re-teach himself. Shinji was snapped out of his trance when he felt his phone vibrate. He took out his phone and saw that he got a snapchat from Asuka. He opened it and it was a picture of her sleeping. Shinji smiled slightly at the caption "Bae caught me slippin'". As soon as the timer ended, he got another snapchat from Asuka, but this time, it was a picture of Hikari, trying her best to look devious.
"Why is my girl snapchatting you?" Toji asked softly when he peered over as Shinji chuckled.
"Nah, she just got a hold of Asuka's phone when she was sleeping." Shinji explained before returning his phone to his pocket. Shinji returned to his work. After finishing the professor's set of practice problems, he peered over at the clock. 11:58am. 2 minutes. Shinji silently thanked his lucky stars as he packed up his bag.
"Hey, so what're you gonna do now?" Toji said as he and Shinji vacated the lecture hall.
"Probably get lunch with Asuka. How about you?" Shinji replied.
"I have class in like 15 minutes! I can't wait to see Hikari" Toji exclaimed, in desperation . Shinji had made several mental notes on the weird relationship dynamic between Hikari and Toji. Hikari was actually very hardworking, actively trying to better herself academically. Toji was similar in that regard except for Track. Shinji had never seen someone so dedicated and so focused. Toji was freaking fast. There was no way around it, he was one fast motherfucker, pardon my french. Moreover, he looked effortless in his speed. Ironically, Hikari was a lot more active than Toji. She always dragged Shinji and Asuka along with her plans for dinner or studying whereas Toji would've rather just loitered in the school square, sitting in the grass.
Shinji waited for Asuka in the library. Toji had left for his class already and Asuka was finishing class right about now anyways. To the unassuming eye, Shinji was a diligent student who was intent on reviewing his calculus notes that looked like alien script because fuck you calculus. But really, Shinji was mentally fortifying himself for the crazy trip next week. Having Asuka meet his parents for real, having her meet Rei, staying in NYC for a while. It was going to be a hectic vacation for sure and Shinji had to take as much time as he could to fortify his defenses for the ensuing chaos. Shinji was prepared for the worst, that and he had purchased protection last night. As Jamal would say, nigga was jiving.
"Hey, Shinji!" a voice called from behind Shinji. He looked over and saw his old friend, Kensuke. He knew Kensuke from High school, one of the few friends that he made and someone who liked playing basketball as much as Shinji did. Shinji got up and walked over to give his old friend a hug. Kensuke was 2-3 inches shorter than Shinji, but a bit wider too. His spectacles sat on his nose, periodically being pushed up.
"What are you doing here? I thought you went to the states!" Shinji asked, excited to see his friend for the first time in a while. Kensuke was the smartest guy that Shinji knew. He was many things: a great debater, a military expert, and someone who would beat you at chess and risk effortlessly. Connect 4, not so much, Shinji always on at Connect 4.
"I'm just here visiting my family for Spring Break! I think you remember my sister going to Tokyo University." Kensuke replied, with the same amount of enthusiasm. Kensuke's family was filled with intelligent and bespectacled individuals. His sister was actively pursuing a career in law whereas Kensuke wanted to be a politician, but his main goal was to be a general. Kensuke, often times, was compared to Caesar, and not the salad.
"That's awesome. Well, I gotta go, sorry buddy! I got a date with my girlfriend" Shinji said as he spotted Asuka entering the library. He waved her over, which caught Kensuke's attention. Kensuke had to admit, this girl was incredibly beautiful. Flowing red hair, a regal posture, and he automatically assumed, correctly, she was haughty.
"It's cool, bro. I'll talk to you another time. Have fun!" Kensuke replied, before playfully shoving Shinji over to Asuka.
"Who was that?" Asuka asked as the two exited the building, hand in hand.
"A friend from high school. What do you wanna eat?" Shinji replied, giving her hand a slight squeeze which he knew Asuka loved.
"Let's get some sushi, I haven't had that in a while." Asuka answered, after a couple minutes of thought.
"Your wish is my command, Princess" Shinji joked as the two exited campus. He leaned over and gave his girlfriend a kiss which she reciprocated. Asuka, unknowingly, has never initiated a kiss, but she loved receiving em.
"So what dress are you gonna wear?" Shinji asked as the two walked away from the tailor. The guy said he needed an hour for a more pressing issue. Luckily, the shopping district in Tokyo wasn't too packed on a Thursday so the two had a chance to take things slowly.
"I don't know yet. Since you have a navy suit, I might go with a white dress." Asuka said, contemplating on what she should wear to match the 5'10" gentleman. Shinji pictured his Asuka in a white dress, and quite honestly, it aroused him. Even if Asuka were blind, she couldn't have missed the red blush on Shinji's face.
"Oh, god. I'm going to make it goooood" Asuka said, emphasizing good. Shinji smiled back at the devious looking girl, hoping for the best. Shinji always delivered in terms of style, he was hoping that his girlfriend would be able to co-exist with him. Asuka proceeded to quickly walk into a nearby clothing store. Shinji relented and followed suit. The store had both men and women's sections. Shinji motioned to Asuka, who was talking to a salesperson, that he was going to go check out the men's section.
Whilst browsing the men's section, Shinji noted that there wasn't that suited his taste. But he did see a nice navy knitwear tie that he wanted to buy, but that was if it suited Asuka's dress. Shinji felt his phone vibrate, and he saw that it was a text from Asuka. It told him to go to the fitting room.
"So what do you think?" Asuka asked the flabbergasted young man. Asuka was garbed in a white dress. The top of the dress was lacy, but it didn't show much skin. The lace ended around the collarbone area, and the dress was adorned with a nice, thick navy sash. The dress went down to just above the knees. It wasn't too flashy or sexy, but it was perfect. It showed off Asuka perfectly without showing off too much skin or leg.
"Uh, shit. I don't know…"Shinji began, to Asuka's worry, "remember how...speak" Words formed, but Shinji's brain boycotted sentences for that 10 second duration. Asuka was delighted to have finally silenced her boyfriend, who seemed to have a witty remark to everyone except his parents. She turned around to give herself another inspection before returning to the dressing room to change out of it. Often times, she would have to look for hours before finding an appropriate dress. She walked out to see a dumbfounded Shinji who was still staring at the door, still trying to formulate words and maintain his mental composure.
"Get back inside…" Shinji whispered softly before egging the girl back in.
"Why? Get off me!" Asuka whispered, irritated at the roughness the young man displayed. But before she could say anything, she was silenced by his pair of lips. Instead of Shinji's usual loving, soft kisses, this was aggressive and passionate. Asuka, instead of fighting it, chose to embrace the young man as the two explored each other's mouths in a dressing room. Asuka sucked lightly on Shinji's lower lip, before yelping slightly as she felt a pair of foreign hands touch her ass.
"We have to get outta here" Asuka said, out of breath, her face really red. Shinji nodded before kissing her neck gently. What had come over the young man? His hormones had just flown over the charts, and in a testosterone filled rage, he made out with his new girlfriend in a fitting room, only to leave the room with blue balls. Shinji waited for Asuka to exit before he did, to avoid arousing suspicion. Past the door, Shinji vaguely heard Asuka talking to the sales rep about the dress and what not.
"I'll pay for the dress" Shinji stated as he found Asuka, a few minutes after he left the dressing room. Outwardly, Shinji looked rather calm and collected, but that facade covered the crazed, hormonal teen that Shinji actually was. This was the first true bout of lust and desire that Shinji had displayed since he, well, since he was born. Even at parties, Shinji never put forth that much. Rather, he'd allow the girls to aggress on him.
"Nah, it's okay. Why?" Asuka responded, still visibly flustered at the steamy encounter between the two in the dressing room. Furthermore, Asuka liked it. She liked the ferocity that Shinji displayed when she walked out in that white dress. She liked how much he wanted her. Now, she wanted him, but she couldn't show it.
"I'm your boyfriend. That's why." Shinji said before snatching the white dress out of Asuka's hands. She conceded defeat and returned to looking for clothing. Shinji checked his phone for a text from the tailor, and what have you, the guy texted him "It's ready". Shinji nudged Asuka to go, before heading to the cashier to pay for both his tie and her dress. Asuka followed, happiness written across her face as she saw her boyfriend buy her that dress. It was around 80 bucks, USD, anyways.
"Let's go get my suit, princess" Shinji said as he offered his hand when they left the store.
"Hey Shinji, you wanna make out?" Asuka asked, as the two began packing their bags for the trip.
"Uh, yeah sure" Shinji replied. Asuka crawled over to the young man, and smiled. She couldn't wait to go to NYC with her boyfriend. It was gonna be fun.
