Loosely inspired by a rather whimsical piece of fan art just for fun. (: You can find the picture here: pixiv dot net /en/artworks/42763246
"Baka Shinji! Now how am I supposed to get any privacy?!"
Asuka Langley Soryu stood over the toppled form of Shinji Ikari. He was sprawled out on the floor halfway into her bedroom surrounded by a haphazard halo of her blouses, bras, and underpants. The laundry basket he had been carrying was upended over his head. Shinji had finished a load of whites and had gone to deliver clean clothes to Asuka. The problem was that he had slipped and fallen through her door before he had opened it.
Shinji groaned. Asuka tore the basket off his head and snarled.
"You know how poor Misato is! And lazy! How long is it going to take for her to get this fixed? And all the while you'll be there, across the hall, looking at me!"
Shinji recovered enough to prop himself up on his hands.
"I slipped on your clothes! Why'd you leave more dirty panties in the hallway? I told you today I was washing whites."
Their guardian, Misato Katsuragi, crept towards the site of the disaster. She had been dozing in her own room before, as had happened many times before, the squabbling of her assigned children woke her up. When she peeked down the hall, all she could see were Shinji's motionless legs sticking out of Asuka's room. At first she panicked, but when she heard his voice she felt somewhat reassured.
"So it's my fault you got my dirty panties on your mind? So you think smashing a gaping hole in my wall, my only defense against you, was my idea? That's really low, even for you, pervert. It's bad enough that I have to tolerate you handling my unmentionables on a regular basis. You know I count them all when I send them out and before I put them all away, too, don't you? I wouldn't put anything past you or your other stooge friends."
Shinij gritted his teeth. No matter how innocuous his efforts, no matter how accidental some slight or offense he had made, somehow she always managed to put him on the defensive. He was starting to believe it was his fault for not catching the unnoticed underwear earlier, though it wouldn't have been possible: Asuka had deliberately waited for Shinji to leave for the laundry room before planting the pair in contention outside her door.
"You wouldn't have to tolerate anything if you did your own laundry!" he grumbled.
"You know what I don't have to tolerate? I don't have to tolerate looking into your stupid, clumsy, stupid face anymore! Ecchi! Baka! Hentai!"
Asuka dropped the basket back onto Shinji's head and stormed off without acknowledging Misato. Misato surveyed the damage and groaned. Shinji had torn through the paper door, and it looked like the frame was knocked loose, too.
"Well she's right about one thing, this is going to cost me."
Shinji took the basket off his head. The shame in his eyes nearly broke Misato's heart.
"I'm sorry, I'll pay for it somehow. Maybe out of my stipend, or I could get a job," he said.
"Oh Shinji. It's alright, I'll manage. Here," she said, hauling him to his feet. "You clean this up and I'll clean that up," Misato said, nodding down the hallway where Asuka had gone.
Shinji frowned down at the chaos around him.
"You don't have to do that. It's not your fault she can't stand me."
Misato pulled him into a one armed hug and tousled his hair.
"If you think that's what we're like when we hate you, you don't know women at all!"
Once Misato put Shinji back together, she sought out Asuka and found the girl had retreated all the way to the balcony. She was laying out on one of the lounge chairs with her arms folded across her chest and dark sunglasses on. Pen Pen was in another chair reading a newspaper he had skewered onto his claws.
"I have a tarp somewhere. We can hang it over the tear until I get it fixed. It's not a big deal."
Asuka harrumphed.
"Maybe that idiot should sleep in the living room and I can take his room since it has a functioning door."
Misato sat down on the edge of Asuka's lounge chair. Asuka reflexively pulled away from her, which also nearly broke Misato's heart.
"You wouldn't like it in there. It probably smells like teen boy by now. You'd never scrub it out. Yuck!"
Asuka didn't respond, so Misato continued on.
"He did say today was whites. He reminded us last night, remember? And then this morning, too, when he gathered up all the stragglers?" Misato chided her.
"So?"
"Well when he came back from the laundry room he looked as white as a sheet. I asked him what the matter was, and all he said was 'There's only six! She's going to kill me!' before handing me my own laundry."
A lopsided frown crossed Asuka's face. Misato knew she was onto something and silently congratulated herself on her intuition.
"It's been a week since he last did the laundry. Seven days, seven pairs. Evidently the number is something you care pretty deeply about since even he keeps track out of fear. So, Asuka, why'd he only have six pairs when he left?"
Asuka grumbled and twisted away from Misato. Misato touched her shoulder.
"Shinji... He doesn't get it. Why you treat him like you do."
Asuka turned back towards Misato with such speed that Misato yanked her hand away like she had been burned. Asuka slid her shades down her nose and looked Misato directly in the eye.
"And you do? Oh I bet that baka pervert wants to 'get it' from me. That idiot will 'get it' when pigs fly!" she said, then she pushed her sunglasses back up and fell back with a grunt.
Misato passed what Asuka said through the impish corner of her mind. She liked what came out.
"Oh yeah? Pigs? What about penguins?"
"Wark?" Pen Pen said, who had preferred not to get too involved with the latest fracas.
Asuka ostentatiously rolled her eyes, forgetting that they weren't visible to Misato through the dark lenses.
"Now that's something I'd like to see," she said.
Misato leaned over and lifted Asuka's sunglasses up.
"Be careful what you wish for," she said, then she went back inside.
Asuka jerked her head down so that her sunglasses fell back onto the bridge of her nose.
"If I wish for nothing, all my wishes come true. Idiot."
Shinji walked through the sprawling green grounds of the GeoFront with Pen Pen waddling behind him. The false sky above made him feel claustrophobic even though it was mind bogglingly distant. He felt hemmed in by the strange task Misato had charged him with and could do without the visual metaphor, too. Ahead he saw the little garden tucked away in an unobtrusive clearing in the woods. Ryoji Kaji was standing in his garden dividing his attention between a stand of flowering melon plants and a tablet in his hand.
"Um, Mr. Kaji?"
"Hey, Shinji, what's up?" Kaji said, surreptitiously locking the tablet and setting it aside but still within his line of sight. He nodded at Pen Pen, who eyed his competition warily.
"I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but can you think of some way to make penguins fly?"
Not much surprised Kaji in his line of work. Personal matters, though, had never quite played out the way he intended. He smiled amiably at Shinji to hide his confusion.
"I suppose where there's a will there's a way. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. Well. It's kind of like a contest. Misato said that A... Well, it was her idea," Shinji said, blushing.
"A love contest, perhaps?"
Shinji took in a deep breath and let it out.
"I think it's more of an 'I can do anything' contest."
"Hmm, I see," said Kaji, though he didn't, not quite. "Sounds like you're going to need some help."
"Help?" Shinji gulped.
Kaji shrugged. "I'm not very technically minded myself. I wouldn't know where to start. Let me know if I can be of any assistance, though, materially speaking."
Shinji looked at Pen Pen. Pen Pen shrugged.
"But it's kind of embarrassing to ask around."
"It might be at first, but when the stakes are so high what have you got to lose?"
Shinji paled a bit. He nodded, steeled and serious.
"You're right. I won't run away. I'll prove myself. It's not like it'll kill me, right?"
Kaji nodded and smiled at the boy. "That's very true, but it might kill Pen Pen so don't get too reckless."
Pen Pen warked. Shinji let out a single chuckle. His heart was already lifting like a balloon.
"Thanks for your help!" Shinji called out behind him. He had already headed off for the smartest person he knew.
"Penguins can't fly," said Ritsuko Akagi, shaking her head. "It's physically impossible. The feathers are all wrong, the wings are shaped for swimming now, it just wouldn't work. Sorry, Pen Pen, but you're a few million years too late."
Shinji's spirits sank. Pen Pen, too, looked crestfallen. Ritsuko rested her chin on her hand and recrossed her legs.
"That's an odd question for you. Why do you ask?"
"I was just curious. It was for a dare, I guess."
Ritsuko leaned forward a bit. She almost felt bad for the kid, but nobody ever felt bad for her, so she didn't take the extra empathetic step.
"Now Shinji, Misato's awfully attached to that penguin."
"Wark!" said Pen Pen.
"I know, of course I wouldn't do anything risky!" Shinji stammered out. "He's okay with it. I think he's curious to see what it's like."
"I can imagine."
Pen Pen nodded. Ritsuko leaned back and shrugged. She scanned Shinji, then Pen Pen, up and down. The data remained the same: a lost cause.
"While I'm not one to simply roll over and accept the precepts laid out by so-called Mother Nature, sometimes natural selection does know better than us."
Just then, Ritsuko's phone rang. She looked over and raised her eyebrow.
"Sorry, Shinji, but I have to take this. Good luck with your project."
Shinji and Pen Pen retreated to the Gehirn cafeteria where they stumbled on some familiar members of the bridge crew: Shigeru Aoba, Maya Ibuki, and Makoto Hyuga.
"Hi, Shinji! Is that...? Oh my gosh! I've always wanted to meet Pen Pen!" said Maya. Pen Pen shuffle-sprinted over to a cooing Maya who deposited him in her lap with a squeal.
Shigeru, who Shinji didn't know so well but had always assumed was very cool, greeted him with a nod. Shinji nodded back.
"Shinji and Pen Pen, but no Major, huh?" said Makoto.
"Didn't you hear? She said she wanted you to report to her office on the double," Shigeru blurted out while elbowing Makoto. Maya covered a knowing smile with her hand.
"Oh shut up!"
"So, Shinji, what brings you here?" asked Maya.
"Well, Lt. Ibuki, we, Pen Pen and me, well, we wanted to see if we could find a way for him to fly."
The three adults exchanged glances as though Shinji wasn't there. Maya lost the battle to avoid being first to bear bad news.
"Oh no, I wouldn't know where to start. Sorry, I'm far more familiar with human biology than theirs. Oh, what are they again? Ah, right, Sphenisciformes. I used to volunteer at the Antarctic Wildlife Relocation Project as an undergrad. Those poor creatures!"
"Wark! Waark!" wailed Pen Pen before burying his face in Maya's shoulder. She hugged him tightly.
"Yeah, that's what Dr. Akagi said, too," Shinji said.
"Dr. Akagi would certainly know better than me!" Maya said with an acolyte's reverence.
Makoto elbowed Shigeru before saying to Maya, "Yeah, I heard the doctor was looking for you, by the way. Late night sync experiment, bring your wetsuit."
Shigeru and Makoto snickered while Maya scowled, but she didn't engage with their taunting. She noticed, astonished, that Pen Pen seemed to wink up at her.
If Shinji didn't know better, he'd have thought he wandered into his own school's cafeteria, not one inside a multi-billion dollar research institution full of very serious people.
"If you have any ideas, I'd appreciate it. I know it sounds strange but it's really important that I figure this out."
Shigeru scoffed.
"Is this for a girl or something?"
Shinji flushed crimson. Maya caught it and winked down at Pen Pen. Pen Pen winked back at her. She tittered lightly.
"Well, I mean, it could be..."
"Forget the big gestures, man, it never works. Trust me. Hey, you know what chicks really dig?"
"Not you," muttered Makoto.
Shigeru waved Makoto off before miming a complicated arpeggio in the air.
"Guitar," he said. Maya audibly groaned. Shinji fidgeted in place. He hadn't found their help very helpful.
"I do play the cello."
"Hey do those work anything like a double bass? You could play rockabilly, dude!"
"Uh, thanks, lieutenant. I'll think about it."
Makoto scratched his head.
"I don't get it," he said. "You want to make your pet penguin fly? Why?"
"Well, it was all Major Katsuragi's idea, and..."
"Whatever you need, you'll have it, Ikari! Just come to me, not these two."
Maya and Shigeru rolled their eyes.
"I need a plan first!" Shinji whined. He only received shrugs in return.
Shinji passed his father's office on his way out of the GeoFront. He paused in front of the door though he didn't intend on entering. A chill passed over him. Within he could faintly hear Gendo Ikari speaking one side of a conversation. Shinji shivered. He turned to Pen Pen.
"You'd like it in there. There's no colder place left on Earth."
Pen Pen looked over to the door, then up at Shinji, then settled on hugging Shinji's shin. Shinji felt a little warmer.
"Come on, let's go."
The next day at school, Shinji was so desperate for ideas that he asked his friends what they thought he should do.
"Uh, yeah, that's a tough one," said Toji. "Pen Pen's such a little runt. What if you glued bigger wings onto his wings? You could launch him off of that balcony you got, like a running start, ya know?"
"No, no, that's ridiculous!" said Kensuke. "What you gotta do, Shinji, is convert him to VTOL operation, like those new UN planes I saw when I was out camping last weekend. I tell you, their flight pattern was very suspicious."
Hikari Horaki, who had joined them for lunch after giving Toji a "spare" bento she happened to have that day, as she did nearly every day, gasped at what she heard.
"You three are going to kill that poor penguin!"
Shinji held up his hands to protest his innocence.
"I'd never do anything dangerous! But there's got to be a way."
"Shouldn't you be over with the red demon instead of shooting down all our good ideas?" Toji said to Hikari.
Hikari narrowed her eyes at Toji and in that moment he knew fear.
"I'm sorry if my presence upsets your appetite, Suzuhara. Or maybe it's my cooking? We may never know because tomorrow you could be without both."
"Woah, hey, I didn't mean it like that! I swear!"
"Anyway, I think I'll eat lunch over here today," Hikari said while absent-mindedly feeling one of her twin tails. Shinji noticed that she had tied them that day with two red clips rather than her usual purple ones. He noted a certain resemblance.
Hikari looked at the basket she had used to carry her and Toji's lunches to school.
"Oh! I have an idea! What about a hot air balloon? Put Pen Pen in a basket like this, and you can fasten a balloon to it. That's flying, right?"
Kensuke nodded, saying, "That's actually not a bad idea."
"You're a genius, class rep! A genius! You're like the Wright Sister!" Toji exclaimed. "And I know just where you can get the hot air. YO, SORYU!"
Even though he was facing the other way, somehow Shinji could feel Asuka's eyes boring holes in the back of his head from across the yard. Then he heard her heels clicking towards them.
"Shh! Don't get her involved!" he begged uselessly.
It was too late, though, as Asuka had been involved in some fashion from the beginning. Shinji could feel her stop short just behind him, looming, judging. She cast a shadow over him. His skin broke out in goosebumps.
"Still having that bad hair day, Horaki? Better luck tomorrow. Ayanami, you're looking humanoid today. What do you want, Tracksuit?"
"Know where we could find any hot air?"
"Now Suzuhara," Asuka began, placing her hands on Shinji's shoulders. Shinji felt her fingers like talons stab into his flesh. "Whatever that's supposed to mean, I can't possibly imagine, but I'll just say that I truly hope that this Baka Shinji here didn't put you up to anything. Because he's a very bad boy who did a very bad thing yesterday that put his In Trouble rate well over 400%."
"For the last time, I wasn't planning to steal your panties!" Shinji shouted into one of those coincidental quiets. The silent lull that breaks out when many disparate conversations simultaneously end with a single, all-amplifying stillness.
"Keep your voice down, baka!" Asuka hissed. Her voice, too, carried much further than she intended. Her complexion rapidly matched Shinji's own shade of crimson.
From somewhere in the back, somebody quipped "It's just the newlyweds again!" and there was a general laughter that dissolved back into many different discussions. After one last bone-crushing, skin-rending squeeze, Asuka was gone.
"I would like to help you, Ikari," said Rei.
Later, in the school library, Shinji watched Rei replicate various hot air balloon designs on graph paper with mind-blowing speed and precision. For the previous hour, he had watched her pour through a stack of books with historical photographs and drawings of balloons for inspiration. Shinji's own efforts were more supportive than practical.
Her concentration and skill rendered her almost inhuman in Shinji's eyes. He cringed at himself for thinking so cruelly of her, the one who had somehow become his closest friend.
"Sorry," he mumbled to himself.
"Why?"
"Oh, for dragging you into this, I mean."
"I am helping of my own free will," Rei said, her eyes never leaving the paper.
Shinji fiddled with Hikari's picnic basket, which she had generously donated to the cause. He didn't feel like he had contributed much to the entire challenge. Carrying the basket to the library had been his greatest effort so far. Doubts replaced hope.
"Don't you want to know why we're doing this?"
"I was not curious."
"Why not?"
"It had no relevance to my offer of assistance. We are friends."
Shinji's heart leapt at the reassurance. And yet he felt dishonest. Asuka and Rei did not get along so well. Rather, Asuka didn't get along with Rei, and Rei accepted Asuka's presence on the Earth with serenity and grace. Shinji noticed he was wringing his hands as if to strangle his doubts away.
"Can I tell you something?"
"Yes," Rei said without looking up.
"It's for Asuka."
Rei's drawing hand froze in place. She looked up at Shinji.
"Her?"
"Yeah!" Shinji said in a voice too loud for a library. "I mean, oh, sorry, I mean, yeah, it's for Asuka. Misato gave me the idea, actually. It's kind of a long story. I guess it's not that long. Asuka thinks I'm useless and can't do anything. I wanted to prove her wrong. But now I don't know. I haven't done anything yet."
Shinji peered into those unreadable red eyes of hers, pleading for an answer.
"You have reached the design stage of your plan."
"But you're the one designing it!" Shinji said, sweeping an arm over the books and papers.
"You carried the basket."
Shinji slouched down in his chair. He collapsed forward onto the table onto his folded arms and moaned a muted, defeated bleating sound. Rei supposed it would be an ordinary reaction to feel irritation with somebody who refused to listen, but she was patient to a fault.
"I'm sorry, I'm thankful for all your help, for whatever good it does me. I'm glad we get along," he groaned.
Rei supposed patience was like a well, and hers ran infinitely deep, for she had never reached the bottom despite how much the world had ladled out. Shinji, too, would take from her, but he alone had given back what he could with kind words or actions. Under his hurt flowed an inner kindness open only to a few, including Rei.
"You do not understand your own influence upon events. Without your wounded ego, the plan would not exist at all. Without your initiative, I would not be here designing a hot air balloon. Without you, Pen Pen will not fly."
It was as stirring a speech as anything Shinji had ever heard Rei say. He looked up. Her expression hadn't changed much aside from a seriousness in her brow. She rarely scolded him, yet Shinj felt happier having been rebuked.
"Without you, she will not know herself. She needs you."
"She does?"
"Yes. To meet her challenge is to show her that she is human after all."
Rei's drawing hand resumed its motion. She swiftly finished the diagram down to the last cable.
"I will write a list of supplies you will need to complete my design."
"Rei? I'd like it if you'd kept helping me."
Rei looked at Shinji and ever so slightly smiled.
"I would like to continue helping. Yes."
Asuka ran into Rei as the latter was leaving the library, having taken the time to meticulously reshelve all of her research material in their proper places. Shinji had left earlier to gather building material. They had agreed to meet up later for construction and a test flight.
"Ugh!" Asuka said far too emphatically to come off as casual disdain.
Rei remained in Asuka's path.
"I have a question."
"No."
"It is not a binary question. When Ikari and I are together, we say very little. It is my opinion, and also his, that we 'get along' well. When you and Ikari are together, though, you say much more but argue incessantly."
Asuka smirked at what Rei's tone betrayed despite the stoic mask she maintained. Asuka had heard just the slightest annoyance and annoyance, like any result of her ceaseless provocation, was a reaction and thus recognition.
"I do not understand," Rei continued, "Why people who say more agree less. Why do you and Ikari not understand each other enough to resolve your differences with so many words said between you?"
Asuka put on her most smug expression. She crossed her arms and replied, "You and I hardly say a word to each other and we don't get along, do we?"
Rei cocked her head. She tweaked her model to fit the new data.
"We have achieved a modus operandi, which is less than what exists between you and Ikari."
Asuka felt a vein bulging out on her forehead. She jabbed her finger in Rei's imperturbable face.
"What exists between me and Shinji is none of your business!"
"He asked for my help."
"With what? With me?! Well I can't be helped! I am Asuka Langley Soryu and he's gonna have to deal with that on his own!"
"We are friends," said Rei, passing by Asuka on her way to the agreed upon rendezvous. She sensed there had been too many words exchanged between them.
"I strongly advise you to make sure it stays that way!" Asuka shouted at Rei's back.
She couldn't see Rei's usual pallor take on a greenish hue.
"Such is our intention."
"Where's the idiot?" Asuka said to an empty apartment after a stormy, solitary stomp home. The silence was only broken by the dual hum of the refrigerators, one for food and one for Pen Pen. Asuka looped through the apartment before heading to her room. She tossed her school bag through the makeshift tarp door, then turned in the opposite direction.
"I took your room before, I can do it again."
She flung Shinji's door open and marched inside. His room was unoccupied but not empty. There was his cello and music stand, his boombox, his manga and books neatly shelved, his posters. His desk was covered by his writing and homework. He had uncharacteristically left his SDAT player on his bed.
Asuka took up his cello by the neck. She held it suspended before her, clenching her fist tight until she felt the strings digging into her, stinging her palm.
She closed her eyes and in her mind's eye she swept his desk clear with the cello before smashing it against the floor. She screamed. She upended his bed, then a bookshelf which tumbled and crashed. She wielded his music stand like a scythe, slashing through his posters, his clothes, the very walls. Finally she conjured a cyclone that swept his shattered belongings, SDAT and all, into another plane of existence created just for him alone. All that remained was her in the center of a hollow space without dimension, simultaneously so claustrophobic it suffocated her very skin and so voluminous she felt she could expand until she lost her form forever.
Asuka opened her eyes with a jolt. Nothing had changed, though her wrist was trembling from the strain of her awkward grip on Shinji's cello. She put it down and rested it against herself for a moment. Four thin red lines crossed her palm where she had throttled the instrument.
She couldn't remember if she had taken the cello from its stand or out of its case. The case was unlatched, but that didn't mean anything. She decided, just to be safe, to put it into its case. After fastening the case shut, Asuka frowned. She didn't know which was worse: for Shinji to know she had been there, or for him to remain unaware.
"Maybe that's your problem..."
On her way out the door, Asuka kicked over Shinji's laundry hamper, spilling clothes everywhere.
Shinji led his ground crew into the GeoFront park. There was Rei, who hauled a heavily modified weather balloon emblazoned with the Gehirn logo. Ahead of her walked Toji and Kensuke holding a propane burner between them. Hikari carried Pen Pen in her arms, and Shinji headed the pack with her basket.
Makoto had offered to help but, when Shinji mentioned how he intended to meet with Kaji, something suddenly came up.
Kaji waved at the gang as they approached his garden. Shinji waved back. He felt like he was about to fly himself. Everyone exchanged greetings.
"Why hello, Mr. Kaji!" said Hikari, bowing politely. "My name is Hikari Horaki, 2-A class representative, but surely you've heard all about me from Asuka. She has told me so much about you, sir!"
Kaji scratched the back of his head and shrugged.
"Hmm, I'm afraid not. Are you two close? Oh, but I bet I know those two. Tracksuit, that must be Suzuhara. And Camera over there... Aida, right?"
Toji leaned in front of Hikari and pointed at the corner of his mouth.
"Hey, you got a little drool comin' out right about here."
"Suzuhara!"
Kaji took Shinji aside while Rei walked the rest of the children through her detailed assembly instructions.
"I have to admit, I didn't know what to expect but it looks like you pulled something together."
Shinji nodded. He looked over his crew with pride and envy at the same time.
"It was mostly them."
"Don't sell yourself short, kid. I doubt any of them could have found the garden without your help."
Kaji winked at Shinji, but Shinji still looked unconvinced.
"She'll know you did this. Katsuragi, I mean. Is that who this is for? I can't quite recall."
Shinji took a particular interest in his shoes. Kaji clapped him on the shoulder.
"Let's fly this thing, huh? Oh, I know how I can help."
Kaji wandered over to the melon patch and picked a roughly Pen Pen sized melon.
"Test pilot."
The first flight had gone off without a hitch. Rei had rigged up a cable to activate the propane burner from the ground. The balloon soared up a few hundred meters and then lazily drifted back down to the ground. Pen Pen was beside himself with excitement. As soon as the basket touched the grass, he ran over to climb in himself, warking incomprehensible orders at the ground crew. Kaji scooped him up before he could start the burner.
"Why don't we save some excitement for the main event? I'll see what I can arrange."
Kaji took out his phone and, after taking a deep breath, called Misato.
"Katsuragi, it's me... Yes, I know you have a lot of paperwork... Yes, I know Rit-chan is on your ass about it... My fault? I don't know about that... Listen, it's about Operation Gentoo... Right. Got it. Saturday, then. I'll be seeing you. What do you mean 'don't say it so weird'? Goodbye, Katsuragi."
Misato announced she was throwing a party on Saturday without declaring a specific occasion.
"Where have you been?" demanded Asuka of Shinji, who was heavily laden with grocery bags. Somehow nearly all of the party preparations had fallen onto him. Misato had told him that he was a much better grocery shopper than her and handed him a wad of cash that morning. She had at least procured the beer and liquor the night before to give her time to "taste test" it.
Shinji gave the bags a shake, which did not amuse Asuka.
"I don't mean just this morning, obviously!"
"Would you please move?" Shinji asked. Asuka was blocking up the entrance hall.
"Not until you tell me!"
"I was busy!"
"Asuka! Let Shinji in or he can't cook for us!" called Misato from the kitchen.
Asuka let out a wail and stomped into the kitchen herself. Shinji, his arms shaking terribly now, barely made it to the table before he collapsed under the weight.
"Busy doing what? Because my door's still broken and that should be your highest priority," Asuka grumbled, rummaging through the bags for snacks. She was disappointed to find everything required some preparation.
"He had a project to do with his friends," said Misato. "Now he has another project to do, so leave him alone, okay?"
Asuka knocked a bag over, spilling its contents onto the table.
"Fine, if I'm so damn useless then you shouldn't expect any more help from me today!"
Asuka left for her room. She swept the tarp closed with as much ferocity as it could take without falling down. It didn't have quite the same effect as slamming her door did to punctuate her comings and goings. Nor did the tarp feel like a particularly effective barrier to keep the others out. Or her in. She crushed down the latter notion into a deep and dark place.
Guests began to arrive a few hours later. Asuka, who was suspicious that Misato and Mr. Kaji might announce their engagement, had invited Hikari to be there as her emotional support. She nodded approvingly when she saw that Hikari had switched permanently back to purple, not red, hair ties. Shinji invited Toji, Kensuke, and Rei. Maya, Shigeru, and even Makoto came, too. Ritsuko only promised to stay for a little while. Kaji said he'd be late.
All of the guests, but not one of the residents, complimented Shinji on his hors d'oeuvres. People milled about and chatted. Shigeru brought his guitar. At first, everybody was ready to clap along and nod politely, but it turned out he was quite a good player.
Shinji kept peering at the entrance hall waiting for a cue. Kaji came late as promised since he was busy setting Pen Pen up in the parking lot below. He gave Shinji a thumbs up, so Shinji motioned to Misato, and Misato got everybody's attention.
"Hey everybody, we got a bit of a surprise for you today! Pen Pen, with the help of Shinji and his crew, has accomplished something no other penguin has done before. So if everybody could please go out on the balcony. Bring your drinks! You know I will!"
There was some light laugher while the guests filed out onto the veranda.
Misato made her way to the railing and peeked down. Her timing was just right.
"Perfect! Alright, you guys, I present to you: The World's First! The World's Only! Flying! Penguin!"
The bulk of the hot air balloon crested the balcony railing. The big Gehirn logo followed, then Pen Pen in his basket appeared. Kaji had somehow scrounged up an old fashioned doll-sized leather pilot's helmet and goggles for him to wear. Pen Pen saluted the awed crowd. He cut a dashing figure.
Shinji glanced at Asuka from across the balcony. She was in the back, hands firmly planted in the pockets of her shorts. She was looking down, not at Pen Pen's balloon. The way her hair hung over her face hid her eyes, but he could see her redden and her lips press themselves into a thin, firm line.
Shinji wasn't sure exactly what reaction he sought to inspire in Asuka. What he saw appeared to be furthest from his highest hopes. He slipped back inside. For once he had inflicted a defeat on her for the sake of his own pride, and now he couldn't imagine that she'd ever forgive him.
The plan was for Pen Pen to toss them a mooring line, but he didn't seem interested in cutting his flight short.
"Wark! Wark! Waaark!" Pen Pen warked ecstatically. He waved both wings at the party guests as he drifted off into the warm summer air. Everybody clapped and waved back, except Misato who shouted increasingly desperate demands for him to come back.
"He'll be fine," Kaji assured Misato. "Wherever he lands, they'll see that logo and bring him back."
Misato, who had been a bit shaken, nodded with more confidence. "You know Pen Pen, he always lands on his feet."
Kaji put his arm around her. "You're right. He found you, didn't he?"
Misato gave Kaji a playful shove.
"Oh shut up and get back inside."
Kaji and the other guests gradually drifted back inside now that the show was over. Misato lingered, sipping her beer, and watched the balloon grow smaller and smaller.
"When pigs fly. When penguins fly," mumbled somebody behind her, somebody who had a good memory when it came to arguments past. Misato looked back to see Asuka lingering on the balcony with her. Asuka crossed the deck and leaned her back against the railing. Misato smiled at her stony face.
"All I told him was that you wanted to see Pen Pen fly. Everything else was all him. He can take on any challenge if you ask him to and encourage him in the right way."
Asuka tasted bile. She rolled herself around to face outwards and stared down at the ground.
"It's bad enough to live here with you doting on him. You don't need to come up with even more ways to show him that everybody loves him and hates me!"
"Nobody hates you, Asuka. Least of all Shinji. Anyway, it would have ruined the surprise if he had told you," Misato said.
Asuka ground her teeth. Misato was wrong as usual. Somebody did hate Asuka, somebody standing right there beside Misato.
"Am I just a challenge for him to solve? I'm a problem, and he gets all his friends to gang up on me to fix it?"
"No, but you have to admit you do test him all the time. If it's not so he can prove himself to you, why would you bother?"
"Psychological torture. It's for my amusement. I'm cruel like that. It's in my file."
"Okay, Asuka."
Asuka waited for more in vain. She shot a glance at Misato, who seemed content to sip her beer and watch Pen Pen. Asuka knew she wouldn't get any more from her unless she asked.
"Why'd you tell him to do this? Why does this... us... matter so much to you? Wouldn't it be worse for you if me and him... if we were... and all of us still lived here in the same apartment?"
Misato chuckled into her beer can.
"Oh, if you're only holding yourself back as a favor to me, I can get you both assigned a private apartment! I'm the only one stuck here on my salary, but you Children get the VIP treatment."
Asuka blushed.
"Anyway, I did it because you're the same in a lot of ways. You can take on anything, too, and sometimes you need a little encouragement."
"I didn't ask for any encouragement!"
Misato nodded.
"That's true, but not everybody knows what to ask for. Sometimes we don't even know what's being offered until we miss the chance to take it."
Asuka let out an uncertain breath.
"Like?" she forced through gritted teeth.
"Like somebody's company. Like being included, feeling like you belong. Wouldn't you have rather been a part of that?" Misato said and pointed at the balloon. "With him?"
Asuka shook her head firmly.
"If I can't have all of... something, I don't want any of it."
Misato offered her beer to Asuka, who scrunched her nose.
"Just trying to be polite! You look like you need it. Yeah, I lived like that, too. For eight years, half as long as you've been alive. You know where it got me? Back where I started. And that was the best case scenario! I lucked out."
Misato gestured back at the apartment with her beer hand.
"And so I also did it," she said, beaming at Asuka, "Because sometimes I know better than you."
Asuka kicked backwards and sent one of the lounge chairs halfway across the balcony. She stood away from the railing and stuck an accusatory finger at Misato.
"You know better? What the hell does that mean? You don't know anything aside from your failures and unhinged fantasies!"
Asuka stormed off into the apartment.
"Just a little encouragement and off you go," Misato said to the sky.
Misato leaned over the railing. She looked out at the glittering skyline of Tokyo-3 shining in the afternoon sun. Pen Pen was quite a distance away now, setting and breaking the all time record for solo penguin flight over and over again. She downed the last of her beer and crushed the can. She felt herself swell up inside with self-satisfaction, or gas.
"Damn, I'm good at this. Security, scientists, or children, it doesn't matter. I was born to lead."
Misato let out a belch and went back inside. By then, Shinji was long gone.
"With me, Ikari!" Asuka had barked upon reentering the living room, hooking two fingers through Shinji's belt and leading him away from the crowd. She didn't care how the others might gossip and laugh. She had already been humiliated so thoroughly that the party guests could never understand the full extent of it. Asuka hauled Shinji down the hall and practically hurled him through the tarp. Shinji stumbled forward but kept his footing.
"Oh, your room?" he blurted out.
Asuka gestured at the damaged door and the tarp, which was now crumpled on the floor.
"Well I can't keep you out anymore now can I? Alright, what's going on? Why'd you do all this?"
"I, uh, I'm sorry?"
"Don't you dare hide behind apologies! Not one more time! Why?! What did Misato tell you?"
"She said you wanted to see Pen Pen fly, so..."
"So... what? The 'so' is the important part, stupid!"
Shinji cringed and looked away. Asuka felt something like an opportunity slipping from her fingers. They were on the precipice together, though she didn't know whether to toe the edge or to take his hand and leap.
"Okay. I test you all the time. I know that I do. So... So. So I'll shut up. Go ahead, speak."
Shinji looked back up at her. Asuka opened her mouth, forgetting herself for a second, then clamped it closed. She nodded.
"So I made him fly," he said and saw his own surprise reflected in Asuka's expression.
Shinji suspected that he had stumbled upon the real test whether Asuka knew it or not. He tucked his hands into his pockets. He turned up his nose and added, "So what's it to you?"
A blinding red rage descended over Asuka's vision. Shinji was still there when other colors returned to her world.
"So?! Well!" Asuka sputtered. "I was expecting, I don't know, big wings. Or something with an engine."
"But Misato didn't say I had to make him fly a certain way. He flew, didn't he?"
Asuka pursed her lips. She narrowed her eyes. Then, to Shinji's astonishment, she grinned.
"Ja. I suppose he did. Alright. You win," she said with a shrug.
Shinji rolled his eyes at her insatiable appetite for conflict and competition.
"I didn't want to 'win' anything, Asuka! I just- Oof!"
Asuka gave Shinji a playful shove, though with enough force to send Shinji stumbling backwards.
"Oh shut up. Don't you get it? Aren't you tired of always ending up back where you started? Maybe that's your problem!"
Shinji fell to the floor of Asuka's room. Asuka leaned over him and stuck out her tongue. Then, with the grace and confidence of a born winner, she spun on her heels and went back to the party through the shattered doorway.
Now he was alone. Alone, Shinji realized, for the first time since starting his project with Pen Pen several days ago. The party hummed along down the hall. He felt grateful for the effort his friends had made on his behalf, and ashamed that somehow he had squandered it all in the end.
Shinji stared ahead, looking through the opening he had blundered through, seeing things from Asuka's perspective. He could see straight across the hall. His own door was open if only just a crack. The way forward was clearer now, and Shinji smiled as he let himself hope that maybe this time he had gotten further than before.
Shinji had again fallen for Asuka and, like Pen Pen, he had nowhere to go but up.