As "What happened, daughter?" gained more readers than Two Souls, and kids' teenage antics and fumbling romance gained some (initially) surprising following, I realized a sequel might be a good idea. That was over a year - and two chapters of Two Souls - ago. "What happened, kids?" is an almost-direct continuation to the previous side story. It starts sometime during Chapter 7. of Two Souls and ends sometime during Chapter 8. (yes it means it may ahead of Two Souls timeline a bit).

Word of warning: The story is canon in regard to Two Souls and may contain some minor spoilers to characters' actions and motivations; so if you want to preserve Kyoko's PoV as the dominant one, I suggest refraining from reading this. If not – enjoy the shift in perspective and the teenage drama (more than in the previous story - be warned).

I – "I won't kill you"

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Sunday

About two weeks after the Top Gun incident

The apartment's door beeped and hissed, letting two well-soaked teenagers in. Shinji took caution to shake the umbrella outside before carefully taking it in and subsequently putting in on the hook over the bathtub.

"Just our luck, eh?" Asuka half-joked, half-sneered. "For a moment I thought some old lady emptied a bucket on us when she noticed us doing lewd things under her window" she giggled.

Shinji smiled. "We were not doing 'lewd things', we were just… kissing", he added blush to the smile. "Good thing it was warm, and I had an umbrella at hand."

"Why did you, actually?" Asuka asked across the apartment, door to her room doing little to muffle her voice. "I wanted to ask before you… distracted me."

"I was looking at the forecasts?" he replied, emerging from his room in an identical white shirt, just a dry one, and stopping in his tracks when he laid his eyes on Asuka who entered the common area in a less elaborate, but certainly a dress. 'This is rare, when did she wore a dress at home last time?'

"What's going on, idiot, forgot how to talk?" she teased – but with a smile.

"N-no, s-sorry", he blurted out, heading to the kitchen.

Asuka rolled her eyes behind his back. While she managed to train him passably well in behaving-on-a-not-a-date department, his ability to say things a girl wanted to hear was clearly heavily lacking. 'Well, not everyone has to have Kaji's charm. At least whatever compliment I hear from this dumbass is sincere, because he simply cannot lie. If only he was more forward, I'd have something to work with…'

"Asuka…" Shinji probed carefully when she entered the kitchen.

"Yes?" she stopped and turned to face him. For a moment, he saw some strange expression on her face, like… hope? Whatever it was, it was replaced by mild annoyance.

"Would you… would you like to hang out here for a while? Talk? I'll make coffee…"

She narrowed her eyes. Shinji suddenly felt small and scrutinised.

"OK, but you better not try anything, or I will put you in plaster", she growled. 'Oh… am I finally getting that "forward" part from him?'

"Not try to do anything, or do try not to do anything?" Shinji unexpectedly asked, raising his eyebrows, his tone almost amused. His hand blindly found and pressed the ON button of the coffee machine.

Asuka stared at him for a long while, emotions on her face oscillating between anger at his cheekiness, admiration of his improving audacity, and joy from the fact that he actually pushed back. His expression clearly stated: 'you did this to yourself, now suffer the consequences'. Finally, she threw her hands skywards in exasperation.

"Oh, fuck it", she blurted out, making Shinji recoil a tiny step; anything further was made impossible by the tabletop. "Really, fuck it", she trapped him by putting her hands on the tabletop on both sides and stared right into his eyes. "I promise not to kill you, Third, unless you do something truly outlandish or something I really hate."

"This is a… weak reassurance", he noted dryly, raising one eyebrow and leaning back a further centimetre.

"It's the best you're going to get" she stepped back and crossed her arms, challenging him with her whole posture. "A tiny hint for the start: don't you ever tickle me unless you have a death wish."

He took a deep breath. A week or two ago, he would have backed down and likely turned this into a neutral, safe situation, claiming a joke or just manoeuvring away. He wanted to do that right now, actually, but something – primarily Asuka's words, but also her body language – was telling him this is not what is expected of him. His ability to read Asuka's cues has improved quite a lot recently – but considering it was non-existent to begin with, any improvement was 'quite a lot'.

He took a step towards Asuka, entering her personal space and pausing a mere centimetre short of touching her. 'I'm not under attack, good', his brain registered and gave the green light to proceed. His arm encircled her waist and pulled her closer to him.

'That's… certainly an improvement' Asuka smiled to herself. 'Let's see how much of an improvement, shall we?' she decided and returned the embrace, resting her hands on his back. She felt his fingers trace lines along her spine, sending soft, pleasant impulses down her spine. Her mind raced forward, considering at what stage she should stop him, but the only conclusion she could reach at the moment was 'definitely not now'. Accepting that, she waited for the situation to develop.

Regrettably for her – and to her growing annoyance – the situation did not develop much further in any direction. Shinji's fingers were dancing around, repeating the patterns, touching her neck and her back without progressing any further. An initially pleasant sensation was slowly getting tiresome, even irritating – and it was clearly going nowhere. She clenched her jaw and took a deep breath.

Without a word, she broke the embrace and pushed him away, a little more violently than she anticipated.

"S-sorry!" he reacted automatically as he bumped against the kitchen tabletop.

Asuka shook her head. "Not your fault" she mumbled unconvincingly before returning to her normal voice. "I don't feel like having a coffee, sorry. I'm going to bed", she finished and walked as fast as she could without running, leaving a dumbfounded Shinji behind.

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Asuka Langley Soryu was not very good in managing her anger, but she was very good – mostly by the virtue of experience – in venting it. Of course, this caused the people around her – and in lack of them, infrastructure and possessions – to suffer. She rarely cared, of course. The only precaution she took this time was avoiding being noticed, limiting herself to violently punching her pillows over and over again.

She was very well aware that her anger was completely irrational; expecting Shinji to suddenly become bold after a few non-dates and a couple of kisses – even as good as hers – was still quite unrealistic. But this did not ease it even a tiny bit; it actually made her additionally angry at the obvious irrationality of her own emotions.

"But why the build-up?" she whispered angrily to herself between punches. "Why the whole… argh! Why the entire 'coffee' schtick? Why all this, only to end up in such a fucking anti-climax? He could've very well just kissed me on my hand and saunter away, I'd be angry, but it would at. Least. Be. Funny! And. Somehow Creative!"

The last words were almost a bark, each punctuated with a punch; finally, the expected, but not anticipated happened: one of the pillows ruptured, spreading the loose stuffing all around. Not true feathers, of course, as those were too expensive even for someone with her earnings and hazard pay, but almost as good.

And now it was ruined.

"Fuck. Me" she gritted her teeth and dropped on her back among the faux-feathery mess, her energy spent, and her anger replaced by dejection. "Why do I even bother? Why the fuck do I even bother with him?"

She sighed, collected the scattered stuffing and replaced the pillow with a rolled blanket. She scanned the apartment through the door crack; there was nobody in sight, and the bathroom was dark. 'Good, at least I will not have to talk to him again today. Hopefully not tomorrow, either' she pondered before starting her evening routine.

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The subject of Asuka's exasperation, Shinji Ikari, was no stranger to being confused. He was exposed to it so much that he sometimes considered it the normal state of his mind. Still, for obvious reasons, it was never pleasant for him. Confusion meant lack of direction, growing uncertainty, sometimes even uncertainty's logical conclusion – fear. All this was present in abundance in his current situation. The unpleasant question he was wrestling with several weeks ago – when it all began – has returned: 'Where did I go wrong?'

The ceiling, as expected, provided no answer.

He turned to his side and let out a heavy sigh. While the guilt was gnawing at him just as much as the feeling of loss was, he was certain he would weather this storm. After all, he had weathered all the others before this one.

But he was certain about one thing: he would miss Asuka. He was quite sure she would give him no more chances.

'Why should she?'

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This one is short, as it merely sets up the scene. More confusion, exasperation, anger, and violence coming next time!