An:Standard disclaimer, nowhere near enough depressed to create or own NGE.

This chapter took far longer than I have thought, but I am finally happy about it, so here it is. As ever, many thanks to Broken-Wings-Healed, both for writing help and just for being an all-around amazing positive person. The credit for all the good stuff is to be shared, the possibly remaining mistakes and bad stuff is all on me. The next suite chapter is already being written, but if I am not happy with it, to publish it within a fortnight, an intermezzo, or omake will be written and published instead so I have time to finish Suite 3,02 to my full satisfaction.

Without further ado and gilding the lily here it is.

Suite No 3.01 Definitely (not) a date

"I hope you like Haydn."

Shinji read it, then reread it and then read it again. Then he looked at the parcel that came with the note: 'a suit cover?' He looked in the envelope and found two tickets and read them…

'Tokyo-3 has a chamber orchestra?' he thought as he opened the cover and found a tailored three-piece suit in it. He wondered who could possibly give him that. Only two people came to mind, and Misato was in NERV riding herd on some apocalypse or the other from early morning…

"Asuka?" he called.

"Yeah Baka?" she replied from the living room.

"You are sure Misato did not step in today?" The redhead called in sick that day so if anyone would know if their guardian came and went it would be her…

"Certain, already told you, dummy," he was sure he heard her jiggling. 'Could that mean what I think it means?' "And yes, I bought you a suit and the tickets, my beloved father"-she might as well have spat the three words-"does not get to steal everything Mutter left to me."

He felt blood rushing to his face. The suit sure looked expensive, the kind his father would probably buy. He certainly could not afford it with the pocket money Misato could set aside for him.

"Asuka I can't…" he started only to be cut off.

"Baka if you are thinking about saying some "I cannot take it" crap, can it. You, Me and Wundergirl are all that stand between the world and gefickt apocalypse. We deserve finer things in life, whether NERV bean counters think so or not!" That made Shinji shut up.

He went back to the kitchen and started making himself tea.

'He looks like I reminded him of something fucked up' thought Asuka and stepped closer. She thought for a second, then drew a breath and squeezed Shinji's shoulder…

"A yen for your thoughts?" she asked.

She could feel Shinji tense up: "Asuka, we got away lightly."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, she could not quite imagine how fighting eldritch monstrosities for board and breakfast quite qualified.

"Asuka, do you know where Rei lives?" She did not and she did not care much if she was to be honest with herself - she just assumed that a commander's favourite would get a nice living somewhere, perhaps even by herself.

"No," Asuka responded.

"I think she is the only one living in that building, it is scheduled for demolition, I think that it must have been that way for years…" Shinji slouched somewhat, almost slipping out of Asuka's hold but she managed to keep hold of his shoulder and give him another reassuring squeeze.

'He sounds like he blames himself, but what for? He has not decided where Wundergirl is to live.' she leaned closer. "Shinji, what is the problem?"

"I knew that, Asuka, I knew that for months, and I did nothing!" he replied. Now things made perfect sense to Asuka. "It is your 'people-saving thing' again, right?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

He blushed. "Asuka, I don't have a people-saving thing!" he exclaimed and almost messed up pouring a cup of tea…

"Oh, of course not, you jump into volcanos to fight angels for the fun of it. Baka," she said with laughter, "See what? You and I are going to a concerto tonight, and we are going to enjoy ourselves. That means no moping over Wundergirl tonight." She waited till he nodded his agreement.

"And tomorrow I'll make tea and you tell me everything, from the moment you set foot in this city… Shinji, I can't possibly give you absolution for what you may have done, but I definitely won't judge you either. Got me?" She watched him nod again and relax under her touch just a bit.

Then she came across an idea… 'Why not?' She smiled "Shinji, turn around" as he did, she smiled, pulled him close and kissed him. And when she had to break for air she just drew it and kissed Shinji again…

"What were those for?" asked Shinji when he could think again.

"Huh, one for being you with your saving-people thing… One for trusting me tonight. And one because I just feel like it," she finished with a grin. Shinji did not even manage to open his lips to point out her mistake when she kissed him a third time.

An hour, dinner, and a call from Misato that she won't be coming home tonight, later:

"Asuka? I don't know how to tie that thing…" called Shinji looking at something, not sure if it was some odd tie or a strangling device.

"Just leave it for now, I'll help you when I get dressed," she replied from her room. 'I wonder what she will be wearing,' Shinji thought and sipped some tea, mostly to calm down.

"Shinji? Can you come in? I need help, don't worry, I am decent," she called.

Shinji nodded without thinking and started moving…

"Tonight would be good, Baka!"

'Oh, of course, she cannot see me,' he thought. "On my way, Asuka!" he called, then opened the door and stood as if frozen. She stood in front of the mirror, hair done up in intricate patterns, just a touch of makeup underlining her features and her jet black evening dress unzipped…

"You said…" he started.

"It's my bare back, dummy, you saw me in a bikini. Come in and help me with that thing," she replied and threw him a smile over her shoulder.

He nodded and walked over. Shinji breathed in the scent of Asuka's hair. A whiff of LCL, Sandalwood and something else, something he remembered from the school laboratory... "Gunpowder?" he asked, uncertain for a moment.

"It is an acquired taste." She felt uncertain. 'I should have sneaked to Misato's room and borrowed her lavender,' she thought. Even the always unwaveringly supportive Kaji said that her choice of perfume was "unusual" when she brought it up once.

"I like it, a lot - it is so, so you!" Shinji said with a smile.

Asuka felt astounded. She expected a lukewarm compliment. 'And he says this, like that was a good thing, "So me" and he means it…'

Then she realised she was still standing with her dress unzipped. She wondered whether Shinji was trying to sneak a peak and shot a glance to the mirror. Damn sure he was probably looking at the ceiling from the moment he saw her as he came in…

She smiled "You know, If I invited you in, it is okay to look, Shinji," she giggled when he turned beet red. "Now help me with that zipper before I catch a cold, please."

Asuka hoped that Shinji did not notice her cheek turning pink as he zipped her dress. She thought to distract him and fired the first thing she could think of: "Not having perverted thoughts, are you?"

"No! Yes… I don't know…" he replied and let go of her. hesitantly, she noted. 'That's new, old baka would run as if he got burned…' Asuka thought.

'If I tell the truth, I am so dead, but if I lie and she sees through it, as she will, I am sooo dead and there will be pain…' He gulped "I don't know if thinking that you are beautiful… and sexy… is perverted…"

Asuka was floored. He thinks that and he is willing to say that to me. Asuka was no stranger to compliments, most, she thought, coming from people who just wanted to score with the hot exchange student. And sure, Shinji was a boy, therefore a pervert… but somehow she did not feel like brushing his compliments off as she would otherwise do.

"It's borderline, Baka, but you get away with it," she said with a smile and looked at the clock. "Come on, let's get that bowtie tied so we can leave."

Asuka dealt with the bowtie in no time but then left her hand resting on Shinji's shoulder for a moment. 'He looks older like this, more a young man than a boy' she thought and congratulated herself for the idea.

They got ready and took a taxi to the Tokyo-3 concert hall. "The place is massive," said Shinji as they were ushered into a place quite unlike any music hall he had seen before; this one looked almost like a temple. The whole place was built out of naked concrete steel and rock, probably so that it would be easy to repair if destroyed by an angel.

'Not if we have anything to say about that!' Shinji thought, surprised at his own vehemence as he gave the place one more appraising look before turning his eyes back to Asuka.

"It is, they projected it to still fit the needs when we are done with Angels and the capital moves here from Tokyo-2," she said, looking almost as much in awe as Shinji felt.

They found their seats easily. 'Of course Asuka would get the best seats in the house,' thought Shinji with a mix of awe and amusement. 'I need to thank Asuka for this, maybe I can play her something from the concerto next time I play for her…'

"Hey, Earth to Shinji!" he heard and realised that he must have been lost in thoughts. He looked at his companion: "Sorry, Asuka, you were saying?"

"I was saying that you should get ready for an experience. They got to use MAGI to design the place for the best possible acoustics and poached some of the best musicians from across the globe," she said with a smile.

"You should not," he started, only to be immediately silenced by a glare. "Baka, I spent million yens on bullshit, treating someone I care for to something I know they enjoy is a best investment I made in some time, so don't say I should not, or think you owe me, or I will get angry," she finished and smiled: "Now shut up and enjoy yourself; it's about time."

As if on cue, the lights dimmed, and the last thing Asuka saw in full light was Shinji smiling back. 'You deserve to get your happiness, Baka, and if I can I WILL help!' she thought as she filtered out the words of the master of ceremonies.

Then the music started and for as long as the melodies danced, fell and soared again, for as long as there was magic going on in the hall, nothing short of an angel attack would get the two teens' attention…

Asuka had to grab Shinji's hand to get his attention once the music came to end, and the hundreds of spectators in the half-empty hall started applauding. She did not mind, though.

"Hey, Shinji, let's go home," she said, smiling when she finally caught his attention. He nodded and as they got up to leave he said, "Asuka, this is the best gift I ever got."

'He is meaning it, not just saying it as a platitude.' Asuka felt at once pleased with herself and saddened. 'A concerto should not be, without question, the best gift in 14 years,' she thought as they made it to the promenade stairs.

She stopped. Shinji almost made another stride before he noticed, he came to an abrupt halt and looked at her quizzically.

"Common baka-" Asuka started almost head palming 'Of course he does not know, nobody taught him, his father is worse than useless and Misato barely has time for essential stuff,' Asuka thought and shot the rather bewildered Shinji a calming smile.

"Gomene, Shinji, it's just that walking down the stairs in heels is hard, can you offer me an arm so I don't stumble, please?" She smiled when he immediately did so, albeit in an awkward fashion. 'Don't ever change, Baka Shinji,' she thought, wondering when the mild insult started feeling like a pet name to her as they made their way down the stairs and out of the hall into a mild evening breeze.

"See, Shinji?" said Asuka as they made their way out of a small crowd that was leaving the foyer of the concert hall. "We are pretty close to home, I don't want to wait for a taxi and I kinda want to take a walk too, what do you say?"

Shinji was silent for a moment. He liked walks with Asuka, he even thought to tell her that it was his favourite part of school once or twice. 'Back when I thought she would laugh at that,' he mused, but he was nowhere near as sure about that now.

But somehow this walk felt very different from the "walk home from school" ones. He also noticed Asuka was still holding onto his arm even if there definitely were no stairs in sight. And after she treated him to such a great evening, refusing her just felt plain wrong on its own.

So he nodded and smiled as they naturally fell into sync walking home. There was silence for a good long while; Shinji thought about it. 'Sure we had a lot of silence before...' he thought and it was true enough. But this kind of silence was new to him.

It took him a few minutes before he realised the difference. 'It is not that we don't know what to say. It's that we don't need to say anything and it's enough to just be.'

The half an hour they took to reach the NERV apartment complex flew far too fast for both teens' liking. Shinji opened the doors for Asuka as they went inside. 'I know this much at least,' he thought, musing on all the things about being a young man his uncle should have taught him but did not.

When they got on their floor he smiled at Asuka and started saying: "Thank you very…" just to be cut off by her:

"Come on, Shinji. I know you had a great time and you are grateful," she said with a smile playing on her face "You are easy to read, you know? So no need to talk too much about it..." she trailed off with a grin. After a minute she added, "But I will not complain if you make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow, not at all." She smiled and opened the door to the Katsuragi apartment, only to find herself staring at a tired Misato and Kaji sitting at the kitchen table over some papers. Papers, she noted, and they stashed them away really fast as she and Shinji made their way in.

"Tadaima!" Shinji called once he saw Misato, sounding a bit surprised. "You said you are going to sleep at work tonight?" said Asuka by way of greeting.

Misato gave them a smile "Okaeri, Asuka, Shinji!" she said and got up. "I thought I would because I was too tired to drive after the day, but I ran into Kaji and he volunteered to take me home." "Was volun-told," mock-muttered Kaji, which earned him a playful shove from Misato.

The local "scruffy-looking nerf herder" grabbed a bowl and started munching onto something. 'The last of yesterday's cabbage soup,' thought Asuka. Only the fact that it was Kaji stopped her from immediately giving him a good talking-to for eating the last of the soup that Shinji made a day earlier specifically for a German meal.

Misato gave the teens a scrutinizing look and got up from the couch. "Now, you two, where have you been? Dressed to kill to the boot?" She asked.

"Uh, Misato-San, Asuka took me out for a concerto," said Shinji, giving the minimal amount of intel before Misato could think of further questions. For some reason he noticed Kaji tense up a bit before he resumed his "not a care in the world" demeanour and gave him a grin. "And got you a suit too?"

Shinji nodded before turning to Misato. "What did you mean? Dressed to kill, we weren't going to kill anyone, I swear!"

"Not tonight at least," said Asuka with an expression that gave away that she might want to kill someone soon. "I bought Baka a suit because Commander doesn't think Baka should be paid for saving humanity, or that Misato should get a raise now that she feeds and houses two teenagers."

Misato frowned. It was something she noticed, that Asuka and Shinji took to referring to Shinji's father only when necessary and even then as "Commander Ikari", or more often just "Commander" and in Asuka's case with all the warmth that it reminded her of her stay in the Antarctic, before the Second Impact…

'And she has a point there,' Misato mused; she had raised the matter with the Vice-Commander, and the old man promised to raise it with Gendo, but whether he did so, nothing came of it yet. Except for her promotion, if that was related.

Then she smiled "Sooo, I step out for an evening, and you two get dressed to kill and go to the concerto. Is that what I think it might be?" she asked with a wink.

"No!" rang in unison from the pair of teenagers. Shinji suddenly found something very interesting on the ceiling and would not look at anyone in the room. Asuka glared at her guardians, both of them as if to dare them to question her.

"Oh, so it is not an innocent friendly hang-out? Well, what else could it possibly be? Kaji, what would you call it when you take out a female friend for a movie or drinks?" she asked now, positively grinning.

"Sounds like a date alright," he said "They are even denying it." Asuka gave him a scorching look that said "Et Tu, Kaji?" and promised vengeance.

"But then again, Shinji is too young to be Asuka's type," he said.

'Just brilliant, now we got out of hot water with the date only at the low price of hurting Baka's self-esteem.' Asuka thought. She would have to do something about that later. For now, she brushed her hand against Shinji's as she headed to her room calling on Misato: "Come and help me to get out of these!"

Shinji was left with Kaji and out of habit went to make himself tea; he offered some to Kaji. The UN agent nodded and took the cup. "So, you had a good time at the concerto?" he asked, leaning against the counter.

Shinji nodded while sipping his tea. He was thinking about Kaji's remark. It made sense. 'Asuka's type must be someone like her,' Shinji thought, 'Nor is she mine.' If Shinji consciously thought of who his type would look and act like, he just didn't see himself attracted to someone like Asuka. Until he met Asuka…

Much later, as he was drifting to sleep. his phone rang with the incoming message alert. He grabbed it by instinct fearing the angel alert, 'because why else would someone text me at half past midnight?'

But when Shinji read it, then reread it and then read it again he smiled, it was not about Angels at all.

"Shinji, Kaji is right, Boys don't get to go out with Great Asuka Sohryu. Boys also do not jump into volcanos to save people by fighting an eldritch monster. Boys don't help people unfuck their mistakes. Boys do not hold themselves responsible for their friends the way you do for Rei… Ikari Shinji, you are a man." When Shinji realised he was staring at the message for five minutes straight he hit the reply button and wrote "Thank you Asuka, good night," and hit Send. It was not nearly enough, but it would have to do.

Another message chimed in, "Good night Shinji, sleep well, I'll most likely kill you in the morning." When Shinji drifted asleep, it was with a smile.