Be safe

This week for Shinji Ikari has been an awful one for the fourth time this month. The fact that he was late to class twice on separate days of the week didn't help the negative thoughts from building up again. Not to mention that he forgot his cell phone again and the amount of homework that he'll have to do for this week. If one thing was certain, he could kiss his weekend goodbye. Did it even matter to push forward anymore if this kept up? Why show up to school or actually try anymore? Why was it that everyone else's life was happy but his own? It was almost as if the people around him were presenting themselves in a mocking manner, a way of him never being able to experience what they were feeling or going through.

Ever since his family moved from Kyoto to Tokyo for his fathers job, things haven't been going the way they were supposed to. It's not like his life was any better before the transition, yet the point still stood. This move was supposed to be for the better as his mother told him, but now he was beginning to think that his life would never change. He wished all of this would just stop and hoped that this world would quit throwing sucker punches his way. To make matters worse, he was now soaking wet while in the foyer of the Red Devils house. The nickname she was given by the student body due to her fiery red hair matching the color of the clips atop her head. As well as her reputation of supposedly picking fights with the other boys, especially the upperclassmen.

it was a mystery as to how he wasn't sent to the hospital yet with all this information being provided by the author of the story. Maybe she was taking pity on him or decided to make a punching bag out of him for whatever reason, or maybe she would-

"Here's your towel."

'Be nice to me?' He thought, "th-thank you. Um, where are your parents?"

"They're at work, they won't be back until later. What's your name again?"

"Oh right, I'm Shinji Ikari."

"So...Shinji. You wanna fill me in on why you were in a riverbank? Don't tell me it was your way to cool off during all this heat" the redhead finished with a chuckle.

"Huh!? N-no it's not like that I swear! I didn't go in because I wanted to! I was...I was pushed in" he replied with a defeated tone.

"Pushed? By who?"

"It was by this guy, I remember him having a mole on his chin and he had blonde hair too."

The girl's eyes widened fully knowing which boy he's referring to. "Reiji," she said through gritted teeth. "Looks like I'll have a good reason to teach him another lesson. Didn't you at least fight back?"

"Uh no I didn't," the boy responded. "I don't know how to a-and please don't go after him you'll only make it worse." Shinji sighed, lowering his head to look at the towel in his hands.

Giving the soaked teen a disapproving look with her arms crossed, the girl quickly snatched the towel out of his hands and placed it on his glistening hair.

"H-hey what are you doing!?" Shinji exclaimed

"Shut up," she demanded. "If you don't dry your hair you'll catch a cold or something, idiot" she stated while rubbing the towel around his head. This act caused both teens to blush, more so Shinji than the girl. It felt...nice. Comforting even.

At this moment, he felt that nothing else mattered except the relaxing, tingling sensation that the supposed Red Devil brought to his scalp. This was the closest he's ever been to a girl, especially one that was as cute as her. Normally he wouldn't have the guts to go up to one unless he wanted to embarrass himself like last time and be reminded of his awkwardness whenever sleep wouldn't come to him so easily at night.

"You need to start fighting back, you know. If you want I can...I can teach you how to.." she muttered, looking away after finishing the last part of her sentence. "If not, then...let me know whenever someone's messing with you and I'll handle them!"

This was completely unexpected for someone being nicknamed a devil. Not just the offer, but the whole situation that's happening before him. It's all surreal. "Everyone calls you the Red Devil at school but you're not rude at all. Why are you being nice to me?"

Suddenly, the massage on his head had unfortunately stopped. The redhead brought the towel down onto his shoulders and grabbed both sides of his face, lifting his head so he'd meet her at eye level. The touch of her hands holding his damp cheeks made the boy's face blush even more; to the point of the same color as her hair.

"Okay, first of all, my name is Asuka Langley Soryu. Second, don't you dare listen to what anyone says about me" she declared, "It's not my fault that those assholes can't finish what THEY started. Got it?" The boy quickly nodded, not wanting to infuriate the girl further.

"Good," she said, taking her hands off their resting place and returning it to her hips. "Don't worry about why I'm helping, just be grateful that I decided to and leave it at that," she continued, closing her eyes and nodding, hiding her true intentions from the boy.

The room was suddenly filled with silence save for the occasional water droplet falling from the hem of Shinji's soaked shirt. Neither party knew what to say next other than to awkwardly stare at one another and eventually let their eyes wander around the foyer. It was as if both participants used up all their energy to get to the point where they are now.

'WhatDoISayNextWhatDoIsayNextWhatDoIsayNext-'

'ThinkOfSomethingThinkOfSomethingThinkOfSomething-'

Drying up his hands with the towel, Shinji at long last broke the weighted silence. "Can I uh, use your phone to call my mom?" Shinji said with slight embarrassment in his voice. "We just moved from Kyoto and I don't...know where I'm at," he said, slowly choosing each word for his response.

"Mhm! Yep! sure thing!" Asuka said, a little too fast to her liking. Reaching into her book bag that was tossed to the couch earlier, she quickly brought out a red-colored phone and handed it over. "I'll leave you alone, just call me when you're done."

"Okay, thank you."

Asuka walked off towards the kitchen to splash some water on her face. Never in her life has she been in a position where words ceased to pop into her head and go out her mouth.

'Just calm down Asuka, remember to breathe, just breathe.' the redhead thought. 'Everything's fine, he's just being an awkward idiot.'

'You mean a cute idiot.'

'SHUT UP! I'm just being nice!' Asuka continued having an ongoing argument with herself to the point where she didn't notice the soaked boy calling her name.

"Hey um, Asuka? My mom is actually pretty close by! You can have your phone back, she'll be here any second!" shouted Shinji.

'He's getting away you knooow!'

'I know that, be quiet!'

"Uh hold on, just wait for a second!" Asuka said, frantically searching for a pencil and paper around the kitchen before resorting to a napkin and pen that refused to draw ink no matter how many times she shook it.

Honk!Honk!Honk!

"A-Asuka! I think that's her, I gotta go!" Shinji yelled, trying not to sound rude in his statement.

"I'm almost done, hold on!" Asuka replied while drawing quick small circles on the side of the napkin to make the ink come out its shelter. "Oh, finally!"

The girl hurriedly wrote down her phone number faster than she knew she could and re-read the digits to make sure they were comprehensible. Somehow causing the tip of the pen to emit a small smoke trail during her scribble. Asuka then rushed to the boy and traded the napkin for her phone.

"Here! If you ever need help just let me know!...or if you just...want to talk," Asuka said, mumbling the last part of her sentence again.

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"Nothing! Just...call me alright!? Now go before your mom honks again or something!" the teen responded with a slight blush to her face.

Opening the door, the girl carefully pushed the boy out of her house and slammed the entrance before he could mutter a thank you. Asuka put her back against the door and let out a large exhale now that the boy was gone.

Looking at the napkin in hand, Shinji saw her phone number written down along with three words below the characters; bringing him some reassurance.

You'll be safe.

This brought a smile to the teen's face before his mother called out to him, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Shinji, why are you all wet? What happened?" Yui said, with concern in her voice.

"Uhh, I...I met someone new..."

'What am I going to do with this boy?' Yui thought while sighing. "Just get in the car honey, we're going home."

With that, Shinji walked to the car and sat in the back. Reading Asuka's note repeatedly, he made sure to memorize the number by heart and watched out for his mothers questioning gaze about the napkin. The teasing parade wouldn't end for the rest of his life if his mom found out that he got a girl's number for the first time.

'Thank you, Asuka.'

Four Weeks Later

There he was. The blonde teen that caused Shinji trouble last month, about to walk away from the school grounds with his bag slung over his shoulder. If anything he should thank the boy for pushing him into that riverbank. Had he not done so, he never would have met his crush. Then again, that push was entirely uncalled for.

Having rehearsed the idea in his head, along with remembering what Asuka showed him during their training sessions, his plan was about to unfold. Clenching and unclenching his fist repeatedly to calm himself down while trying to hype himself up at the same time. Shinji took one final breath, jumped out the bushes, and ran towards his bully before stopping a couple of feet behind him.

"Hey Reiji!" he shouted.

"Hm?" the blonde teen turned around with a confused look on his face. "Sorry?" he said, taking out his earbuds.

'Hang on, where's his mole?...Wait a second!' Shinji thought "Oh I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else!" bringing up his hands in a surrendering fashion.

"Whatever dude," he said as he plugged his earbuds back in and walked off.

That should've been him, how many blonde teens are in this school anyway? Sighing in disappointment, Shinji turned around and was greeted with a sucker punch to his face that sent him down to the concrete.

"What's up SHIT-ji!" Reiji exclaimed, laughing at the nickname he gave the boy so many times in the past. "Ya lookin' for me?"

Rubbing his cheek, Shinji quickly got up and tried his best to look the offender in the eye. "Y-yeah I am! I'm gonna...I'm gonna fight you!" he replied, getting into a posture that Asuka referred to as an orthodox stance.

"Oh ho! Lookie here! SHIT-ji's grown a pair!" the blonde teen yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth, gaining the attention of some leftover students.

"Well come on! You gonna do somethin'? Here I'll let you throw the firs-"

Reiji was interrupted with a fast jab followed by a straight right, making him stagger in his steps. Though Shinji's pose wasn't perfect, he remembered to twist his hips and follow through with his shoulder.

"Dude...oh you're fucking de-"

Thanks to his quick footwork, another punch was delivered to Reiji. This time it was a speedy left uppercut and that was enough to make him lose his balance and cause the back of his head to slightly rebounding off the ground. It didn't help that his mole made a perfect target for the blows to land on. Shinji then let out a huge exhale after the scuffle was over.

'I did it...I did it!' Shinji thought to himself. Bringing his hands for closer inspection, he noticed that his left knuckle was slightly redder than the right. Asuka's training really did pay off. Having never been in a fight before where he fought back and won, the feeling of it was adrenaline-inducing. He didn't know he had that much strength within him to cause such a feat.

"Hey! What are you kids doing!?" shouted a nearby teacher that was running to them.

Shinji looked at his unconscious enemy then at the approaching teacher and ran as fast as he could towards the direction of home with a massive smile on his face. He wanted to scream and shout, text Asuka why he told her to walk without him today, tell his parents what happened, tell anyone about his little achievement. But for now, what mattered the most at this moment was getting away from campus to avoid the instructors wrath. Even if he did get caught, everything that had led up to this point was totally worth it.

Asuka knew something was up when Shinji insisted on her walking home alone. But now after watching Shinji's fight from behind a tree, the redhead smiled knowing that he'll be able to hold his ground in the future. "That's my idiot," she said with a smile. Bringing out her phone she dialed Shinji's number and waited for him to pick up, eager to hear the enthusiasm in his voice about what he did not too long ago.

END.

Authors Note: This is my first time actually making a fic so I apologized if it ever felt rushed at some point since the end date of this Asushin summer fanfic challenge is coming to a close real soon and I had to get something out with my own life going on. Hopefully, you enjoyed it, if not I'll just go fuck myself as usual. Please review and critique it. I want to get better at this fanfic thing and would appreciate the help. Also, this whole fic was inspired by a song called Be Safe by The Cribs. So if you want to know where the source of inspiration came from check it out. Enjoy everyone else's fics! Have Fun reading! :)

Author's Note x2: Okay so now that the contest is over I was able to re-add a scene that was originally cut due to time constraints as well as some editing here and there. Hopefully, it came out good enough, you be the judge. Also, this contest was made by the mods over at the Asushin Mega Empire discord (funny name I know lol). Anyways, that's all, have a good one :)