AN: For people who don't know, Third Village is where survivors of Near-Third Impact live, including Toji, Hikari, and Kensuke. (3.0 1.0 spoiler alert)

I do not own EVA.

Chapter 2: The First Night in Third Village

"Remember to find me after dinner in Suzuhara's home. I'm temporarily living in Kensuke's safe house." Asuka left without looking back.

"What a place…how could she believe me to find the way…" Shinji murmured to himself, walking towards a small house refitted from a train car. The door was only half-closed; the truth was if it wasn't that he could sense the Angel inside her, he couldn't be sure she was really there. Shinji carefully opened the door, "Hello? Anyone here?"

"You should be saying 'Tadaima'! What, after fourteen years you can't even remember such simple stuff?" Asuka's irritated voice came from inside the room. Shinji carefully looked inside to find Asuka sitting in the bed beside the window, and playing wander swan. Although he could rebuke her words, he didn't want to irritate the angry German anymore. "I'm sorry, Tadaima."

"Hmph, that's more like it." Asuka didn't stop playing her game console, which put Shinji at a loss.

"Hmmm, Asuka-san, what do you want me here for?"

"What? You really want to spend the night at Toji's? What about my bento you promised? You'd better not forget about it!" Although she was still playing, Asuka clearly sounded angrier.

"Of course not!" But the problem was he didn't see any ingredients or cooking tools; however, he knew it wouldn't do any good to irritate her even more. Although he could easily defend himself from her attacks, that would just make things worse. So he decided to change the subject, "Hmmm… where's Kensuke? I thought you said you were temporarily living in his home…"

"Of course he's not living in this car! You idiot! Are you seriously thinking I was living with him all these years?" Apparently, Shinji had stepped into another minefield; however her words did soothe his nervousness. The possibility she said had been haunting him on his way here; although he knew she wasn't that kind of person, he still felt a strong sense of discomfort. "No! Of course not!"

"Hmph, he goes to work every day at six A.M., so he should be sleeping now. You can greet him tomorrow." Asuka's mood suddenly improved a lot; at the same time, she seemed to finally beat the game. Putting her wander swan beside the bed, she continued, "You should get some sleep too."

"Ah, that. Asuka, where shall I sleep?" There was only one bed that belonged to Asuka in the entire room, and the vacant space was too small to put down a futon. Although it looked like Asuka had purposely left half of the bed empty, if he was naïve enough to think he could sleep with her on the same bed, the moment he come close to bed, with or without using his AT-Field, he would be kicked out by her.

"I left that half for you, Baka," Another unexpected answer. Shinji could only cautiously approach the bedside; his never-used-in-fourteen-years heart had been pounding faster and faster as the bed came closer and closer.

"Face that way, away from me, or I'll kick you out of bed," Asuka complemented her earlier words at the moment Shinji climbed onto the bed.

"Sure, I guess." Shinji laid down on the bed, his back facing Asuka and the window. The truth was, he didn't need to sleep as well. It's just he wouldn't reject to lay here with his back pressed against hers, just like fourteen years ago.

In fact, Asuka was very uncomfortable. She wanted to ask him about so many things, such as how did he Angelize as well, how did he spend the whole fourteen years, and what did he learn while inside Unit 01…however, she was suddenly unable to speak.

"How were your fourteen years?" It was Shinji who finally broke the silence, although it was the worst question possible.

"What do you think, smart-ass? Thanks to you, can't sleep, can't taste, and stopped growing. From time to time, I had to fight against your asshole father; and I would come here to relax when there are no fights." Asuka remembered the main cause of her current state, and delivered a swift kick to Shinji's lower leg.

"Ouch!" Shinji yelped in pain, but he figured it wasn't a big deal since he wasn't kicked out of the bed.

"What about you? I bet it was so much fun flying around in space!"

"Actually…I saw my mother, she was inside Unit 01, as well as Ayanami. I learned many things from my mom, SEELE's scenario, my father, and my mother's secret plan to save the world. While I was in there my body was in the form of LCL, only my soul persisted."

"So, you're telling me you were fooling around with the Commander's pet, right?" Shinji felt another strike to his lower leg.

"It's not what you think! I knew she was my mother's clone, and Ayanami is just Ayanami. In fact, if it wasn't you who called out for me, I wouldn't be able to get my body back like this."

"I wasn't calling out for you! I just thought it took me so much effort to save your sorry-ass, while you were just comfortably lying in there it pissed me off!" At this time Shinji had anticipated her attack; he moved his leg out of bed, perfectly avoided another strike.

"Hmph!"

They fell silent again; in fact, the reason Asuka had asked him to come here today, except she wanted him her company, was to make sure certain things. However, she felt the answer wouldn't be what she wanted. Or, she knew knowing the answer would do no good other than making her annoyed, so she was hesitating how to articulate the question.

"Asuka?" Just as she finally made the decision and was about to speak, Shinji spoke first.

"What?" Asuka was irritated since her hardly built courage was interrupted again.

"If you don't need to pilot the EVA anymore, what do you want to do next?"

'Hmph, another irritating question.' Asuka thought; his special ability to step on mines amazed her once more, just like before; however, it was also the reason she felt a little bit relieved.

"I don't know, never thought about such a boring question." She was lying; it wasn't as simple as 'never thought about it,' it was because ever since she remembered, her sole purpose was to pilot an EVA. If she could say piloting an EVA was her pride which made her neglect other stuff completely before fourteen, after that, she was afraid to think about this question. In her mind, she didn't hold a future. As the host of the ninth Angel, she understood that her destiny was death. During all these years she kept fighting without paying a little bit of attention to her life; in the battle inside Terminal Dogma before, when she was about to let the ninth Angel take over completely, she didn't mind even a bit. For her it was more of a liberation than death.

So she didn't know what to feel when Shinji turned into LCL, took over the control from dummy plug system, and saved her from the activated DSS Choker. She didn't know it was Commander Ikari's plan for her to Angelize so that she could feed Unit 13 and start the fourth impact. Shinji even pleaded Kaworu to sacrifice himself so the fourth impact could be stopped.

"So what about you?" Since she couldn't give an answer, she chose to kick the ball back to him.

"…" Shinji didn't answer at once and stayed silent for a while. "I think, I want to live a happy life with the girl I love, have three or four kids, and farm some land just like what we're doing now."

"…" If he could give out that answer immediately, Asuka would give him another kick in the leg, since she was confident that the 'girl' in his speech was her. She would have thought his words were just to play with her; she was curious what had happened all the time he spent inside Unit 01 to turn the dumb skull into a sweet-talker. But the silence betrayed him. Apparently, the period of silence confirmed her suspicion; he also didn't plan his future. Maybe just like his question, he could have a way to divert her from her inevitable destiny, but it was evident that it was based on his own sacrifice, just like her.

"Such a boring life!" She still kicked him in the lower leg.

"…" The conversation was cut off once again; the silence lasted much longer than the previous time. It was apparent that Shinji didn't know how to start another conversation.

"Do you know why I wanted to punch you?"

Shinji sighed, "…I, during that time, I didn't try to save you, nor to kill you. I just didn't want to take any responsibility. I'm sor-"

"Hmph, it seemed like you've grown a little." It was the answer Asuka wanted to hear. However, even though her knot in her heart was untied, there was still another problem. They both were ready to sacrifice themselves for the other, and he wasn't about to compromise; neither was she. It was a decision made after fourteen years of hardship. If neither of them could see any compromise regarding their futures, then they should live the moment. "You, love me, right?"

"Asuka?!" Shinji was unprepared for the unexpected question; although the answer was obvious, he couldn't figure out the purpose behind her question, so he didn't know how to reply.

"Yes, or no?" Asuka raised her volume and tried to sound annoyed and angry, to hide her crying voice. 'What if he-'

"Of course I love you, Asuka!" Shinji could sense her extreme nervousness and sorrow through the trembling of her AT-Field and her voice. Hell, the only reason he came back was that the part of him which loved her was awakened by her desperate call.

"Then I especially allow you to turn around!" Speaking, Asuka turned around her body to face Shinji. Shinji felt the movement behind him and swallowed, turning around to face her. The distance between their faces was close enough to feel the other's breath. He once again examined the face carved deeply into the bottom of his heart, moonlight illuminated half of her face, reflecting the traces of tears. He didn't know what she was thinking; in his mind, the girl in front of him shouldn't be so vulnerable…

"Asuka…"

"Shut up and kiss me." Asuka didn't give him much time to think and ordered.

"Wha-"

"Gods, you are so hopeless sometimes!" Apparently, Asuka had lost her patience and pulled him into a fierce kiss. Her hands clasped around Shinji's neck, invading his mouth with her tongue. Pushing apart his teeth, their tongue tangled and played with each other, trying to melt into one another. Both of them were not experienced with this kind of subject, so they acted based on their natural instinct and hormonal drive. About ten minutes later, Asuka chose to pull away from Shinji, the thin line drawn by their saliva was shining under the pale moonlight, filling the whole room with a lustful atmosphere.

"Hold me…" Asuka said softly, ripping apart her clothes; she was only wearing underwear that was already soaked. "I-I want you…"

Shinji wasn't able to resist such a request, not from the girl he loved.

There was no talking for a while.

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She didn't know the first time could hurt so much, though the dreamlike sensation that followed it quickly made her forget the initial pain. Looking beside her, Asuka Langley Shikinami smiled cheerfully as she locked her bright blue eye with Shinji Ikari's cobalt eyes. "Idiot, why did you get carried away so much? What if I get pregnant?"

"I'm sorry… it's just…Asuka you're so pretty…and you know Angels are infertile…"

"And no Lilin would want to bang an Angel with a DSS Choker on its throat, nor would me want to get close to Lilin!" Asuka huffed, "Get the hell up! I'm gonna take a shower. What if Kenken comes and sees us like this? I haven't told him you're here yet!" Apparently, considering the coming day, Asuka didn't want Shinji to just lay on her like this. She didn't want others to see, or even know what happened between them. She distanced herself from most people in the Third village; people would get suspicious if they know a new boy came here, and she immediately had sex with him. "You too, wash yourself clean! The car next to us is the kitchen, don't forget about your promise!"

Shinji obviously knew she was right, so he could only reluctantly get up from Asuka's body. "I know. I'll take a quick shower, then you can take your time in there. After all, it's me who made you a mess." Asuka blushed a little and kicked hard on Shinji's butt, "Then shut your mouth and get moving!"

Shinji stumbled forward, but quickly regained his balance. Shaking his head in resignation, he walked into the bathroom behind the train car. He knew Asuka just wanted some time alone, and he'd give her time to clear her thoughts.

After making sure Shinji had left for the kitchen, Asuka stood up from the bed, the smell of him all over her body. The pain of the first time was nothing compared to what she experienced from the battles, but this time she felt she was imprinted with a brand. Not that she minded, though.

Walking into the bathroom, as water fell down from the showerhead to her body, the dripping sound covered all noises around her. She couldn't help but started crying again; tears fell to the ground alongside water, then flushed into the sewer, her arms supporting on the wall were shaking uncontrollably. She didn't expect last night to escalate to such an extent, but when she once again noticed the loneliness inside his heart, she couldn't hold it anymore.

The truth was for the past fourteen years, she was used to be fighting. She had already accepted her fate, burying the memories of him into her deepest mind. 'I've always been alone.' It was not only a monologue but more like a lock that locked away everything of him. However, when she learned that they were about to retrieve Unit 01, her already-cold heart suddenly stirred a little. When the mission went terribly wrong, she couldn't help but called out his name, hoping this way she could get his help, even if he didn't do anything last time she called out for him. But, at that time, he opened his eye, and solved the problem with absolute power, so that she could land safely. Later, when she heard he was awake but his memory seemed to be holding at fourteen years ago, she wanted nothing more but to see him, even though the only thing she could do to express her emotions was to punch him.

During the fight under NERV HQ, she was confused even more by his actions. When fighting against Unit 13, she felt his heart was drifting away from her more and more. Seeing herself was losing the fight, she decided to completely let the Angel take over, hoping this way she could at least save the world. However, she simply fell into Commander Ikari's trap. Just as she activated the DSS Choker, he saved her again with un-Shinji-like intelligence and foreknowledge, stopped her from self-destructing, and pulled her out from the anti-anti-L field. He grew up so much that gave her have the illusion of she could finally rely on someone. However, their talk last night once again wiped out her weakness. She, would not allow him to sacrifice himself for her.

She had never thought of herself as pathetic; she was born a warrior, and her destiny was to die in battle, not to mention she would die for her love. Last night would be the final unruliness; since she had already given him everything of her, then when facing the endgame, she wouldn't have any regrets or hesitation.

So, if parting was inevitable, then why not shed all the tears now, and save the smile for the last moment.

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