Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights got to there respective owners. Also all OC's are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.

SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd try" by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should definitely stop right here and check that out first.

Summary:

On there way home from scavenging supplies from the ruins of Tokyo 3, Shinji and Aki find a lone unmoving cow in a open field.

"The Lone Unmoving Cow"

It had been another long day for Shinji gathering supplies in the ruin city of Tokyo 3 along with his three year old daughter. She was currently snuggling into her child seat in the back of the truck, slightly nodding off to sleep. Shinji briefly looked at her through the trucks rear view mirror and smiled at the cute sight of his daughter fighting the urge to shut her eyes.

Just as Shinji returned his view to the road he caught a glimpse at something in a nearby field, something he thought was trick of the eye but after getting a proper look at it, he promptly hit the breaks in surprise.

This sudden and unexpected action unfortunately shook Aki wide awake in surprise at the sudden stop of the car.

"Papa what's wrong?"

Not answering at first, Shinji quickly unfastened his seatbelt and exited the truck. "Stay here Aki, I'll be right back, Papa has to check something out".

Quickly moving to the field, Shinji found that his eyes were not deceiving him at all, he had actually found a cow, which was just standing in the grassy field all on its own and chewing on some grass, never minding the human slowly walking over to it other than giving him a quick glance and mooing at him as if it was to acknowledge him.

Shinji couldn't be happier in seeing such a creature. Finally with this cow he would be able to make a bigger variety of other meals than their usual diet of vegetables, fish and canned food that he and Asuka had managed to scavenge from the ruins of Tokyo 3.

Before Shinji could do anything else, he heard a small sound of grass moving behind him before a small voice surprised him.

"Papa?"

Slightly jumping in surprise, Shinji quickly turned and looked down to see his daughter next to him, slightly grinning up at him, having managed to sneak up and scare her papa a bit.

Still slightly recovering from the small heart attack he had, Shinji smiled and bend down at his daughter's eye level, before putting on his stern father face. "Aki, didn't I tell you to stay in the car?"

Aki pouted but before she could answer him she got a full look at what made her father stop the car.

"Wow it's a real cow, Papa!"

Shinji clearly couldn't keep his stern father mode on, chuckled at his daughter's amazement at the animal. "Yes honey, it's a real cow and now that we've found one, we can take it home and have more amazing foods."

Aki eyes lit up in interest. "Really!? What kind of amazing foods?".

Chuckling at having gotten his little girl's attention, Shinji decided to answer while standing back up and turning towards the cow "Well thanks to Mrs cow here, I can make many things like cakes, cookies, bread, cheese, cream and many other things."

Aki was clearly happy with selection, even showing a bit of drool escaping from her lips at the prospect of eating such tasty and yummy treats. "Let's bring her home! Let's bring her home!" Clearly excited Aki was jumping up and down.

Shinji chuckled at his daughter's eagerness but it soon dawned on him - how was he gonna bring the cow back with them? The cow was too big and he knew for a fact that he couldn't lift it into the back of the pickup truck. And even if he miraculously managed to somehow get in the back, there was simply no room for the huge cattle and their scavenged cargo from earlier today.

Eventually Shinji just thought of the idea of simply pulling the cow along with the truck. Granted he would have to keep at a slow pace in order to pull the slow moving animal along and that it would take a way longer journey back home than normal but Shinji believed the time and trouble (including Asuka's wrath) would be worth it.

Getting some rope from the truck, Shinji tied it around the cattle's neck and called Aki to follow them back to the truck. But unfortunately for Shinji, the cow wasn't moving.

Believing the cow needed a small nudge of encouragement, Shinji tugged on the rope slightly "Come on girl, follow!"

Sadly the only response he got was the cow just mooing directly at him before bending its head down to chow down on the grass.

Shinji was clearly getting annoyed at the cow's uncooperative behaviour and was beginning to pull the rope with a bit more force.

"Come on girl, you can't stay in this field all by yourself. Don't you want a nice home with other animals?"

Again his only response was just a slight mooing and the chewing noises from the cow.

Aki, who was simply staring and waiting for her Papa decided to add her input to the situation. "Papa, I think Mrs cow doesn't want to go with us."

Sighing Shinji gave up trying to pull the stubborn animal for now and believed he would need the help of his wife anyway to move the creature; maybe also bring in a bigger truck to better move and transport it. But Shinji was not willing to leave empty handed today, went back to the truck to get a bottle before bending down to the cow's udders.

Aki looked confused on what her Papa was doing and asked "What are you doing Papa?"

"Well Aki since Mrs cow doesn't want to move, we can still get a fresh supply of milk for us now."

Shinji proceeded to grab the cows udders and began milking the creature, emptying the fresh white liquid into the open bottle. This gained the approval of the cow in form of a long moo, given that it hadn't been milked in so long.

Aki at Shinji's side clearly didn't expect the milk to come out this way and looked clearly grossed out.

"Eww, that's where milk comes from, Papa!?"

Shinji was clearly confused and not understanding on why his little girl was freaked out, surly she must have already known from her books on cows and milk? "But honey this where milk always comes from."

"If that is where milk comes from then I won't have any!"

Shinji was confused on her adamant refusal on having milk now. "But sweetie what about all the nice things I could make with it.

"NOOOO!" she screeched, trampling with her feet, as well as rapidly shaking her head to emphasize her point. "NO NO NO NOOOO!"

Shinji sighed heavily and couldn't help but feel the similarity with the previous incident that led to her refusing to eat fish after their previous trip to the lake. Luckily both him and Asuka had managed to persuade Aki into eating fish again but made it clear that Aki wouldn't see him cooking and preparing it.

Despite his daughter's refusal, Shinji filled up the bottle with milk and ushered her back into the truck before getting in himself. Looking back at the cow that still hadn't moved an inch, he sighed and hoped it would still be there tomorrow for him and Asuka to get.

Turned out luck wasn't on Shinji's side as when he and Asuka returned to the field the next day, the cow was all but gone and there wasn't any sign on where it had left to.

Getting out of the truck and looking around, Asuka couldn't see any sign of any cow that Shinji had told her. "Well Baka, where is it?" Asked Asuka while also watching Aki also looking around for the cattle.

Shinji was trying to search where the cow could have gone off too but neither he nor his daughter couldn't find any sign of it, much less a foot print anywhere. "I swear it was right here yesterday."

Asuka however was getting grumpy on what was turning out to be a wasted trip all the way out here. "Are you sure you didn't just imagine seeing one here?"

Shinji slightly frowned at his wife's accusation. "No of course not. Me and Aki both saw plus you remember the bottle of milk I brought back yesterday so it was definitely real".

Asuka did remember the milk Shinji had brought home yesterday and knew neither Shinji nor her little girl would lie about this. "So where could have gone too then? Surely it couldn't have flown out of this field or something."

Aki hearing the conversation perked up at this, having remembered something. "Mama, Papa what if the funny looking Allens took it like the ones in the cartoon!"

Asuka and Shinji both stared at their daughter and back to each other for a few moments before chuckling slightly. While the two former Eva pilots did fight the Angels who themselves where alien like beings, they just couldn't believe in little gray aliens adducting cows now could they?

After a while the Ikari family gave up the search for the cow in the end after finding no sign of it. On the long ride home, Shinji couldn't help but think where the cow could have disappeared too before concentrating back on the road, leaving the mystery for another day.

End.