Chapter 3: Appreciation

Asuka woke up, waking up Shinji. She stood up, and just froze.

"Why is my gauze wet?" Asuka questioned, seeing the soaked gauze.

Shinji yawned, looking at an angry Asuka.

"Oh, sorry… I- um. You looked really uncomfortable, so I put on an ice pack, I fell asleep. I forgot to take it off." Shinji blubbered, he was extremely tired, trying to wake up.

Asuka ignored him, only with an eye roll, she was looking through her drawers, "Did you do laundry?" Asuka asked, tapping Shinji on the back. Shinji nodded no, and Asuka whispered. "I'm out of underwear. How hard is it to do laundry?"

Shinji apologized, then he went out to make some breakfast. He wasn't paying attention, the toast burned in the toaster.

"Shit!" Shinji exclaimed, trying to fix his mistake.

Asuka peeked her head out the door, and looked at the toast. "Fucking idiot, I was hungry. How hard is-". Shinji gave her a look, and explained to her, "If it is so easy, tomorrow, you can do the laundry and cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Shinji told her. Asuka looked at him and accepted his bet. It was a normal school day, uneventful. The teacher did forget to zip his fly up. Kensuke and Toji acted like clowns that day. During the night, he reminded Asuka once more. "You wanna do the laundry?" as he walked away with a chuckle. Asuka looked at him, and scoffed, walking to wash the dirty clothes. '53 minutes' she thought? 'I have time to do nothing!'. She waited until she heard the chime of the washing machine, and she went into the laundry room. Taking the laundry out and putting it into the dryer, she realized it wasn't too much work. Closing it and starting it, she forgot to notice that she put it on the wrong settings.

Shinji called from his room, "Asuuuuka-, it smells really burnt in here. What laundry are you doing?"

Asuka booked it to the laundry room, turning off the dryer, she saw that it was on the high heat setting.

"Fuck, shit!" she screamed as she took the burning, hot clothes from the laundry. "God damn it, this dryer is so fucking complicated." She was confused, not paying attention to Shinji running into the room. "What the fuck happened?" responding to Asuka's screams, seeing her pink fingers. "You burned yourself, didn't you?" He took her hand, taking her into the kitchen. He ran some water on her hands.

"Is it that easy?" Shinji teased, looking over at Asuka glaring at him. She was slowly going back to her abusive self. "Be quiet, Third."

"It's fine, the clothes are dry now, right? Let me grab my clothes." Shinji started to grab his clothes. He started folding them, thanking Asuka for doing laundry and keeping some of her bet. It was around 10:30 PM, he slugged over to his bed, and slumped over.

Asuka was folding her laundry, putting it into her drawers. Her appreciation for Shinji grew as she folded every article of clothing. Could she be falling for him? 'No.' She believed her own thoughts, her reasoning due to the obvious events that had taken suppressed her own feelings, feeling immense pain whenever air grazed her ribs. She was in immense pain just walking. The feeling of needles poking her every minute of the day. A couple of the last nights were almost sleepless, she was exhausted. Every second of time felt slow, moving to standstill. She couldn't take it, she wanted to go to Shinji's room. The redhead wanted nothing more than to somebody to comfort her. Asuka began shuffling towards Shinji's room, trying to ignore the immense pain. She almost made it to the bed, but Shinji's SDAT player was on the floor where Asuka took a step. It slid under her foot and she went flying.

"Holy shit, FUC-!" the falling pilot screamed, before there was a loud crack. Asuka's ribs had fractured completely, not just bruised. The fall had knocked the wind out of her, and he could barely breathe. Each breath was a challenge, trying not to pass out. She couldn't even scream to wake Shinji. "Idiot… help." Asuka muttered, vision narrowing. She climbed slightly onto the bed, but that was it. Asuka fell unconscious, right next to Shinji. Ignorance is bliss. Shinji showed that at the moment.

—-

This morning, he woke up late. Usually, Asuka would be yelling at him about breakfast at this point. Rubbing his eyes to start the day. He saw an unconscious Asuka, pale. He turned her over, trying to find a pulse, or maybe a breath. She was barely breathing, and her pulse was faint. He lifted her shirt and saw that her ribs had swollen up even more. Shinji began to have a panic attack.

"Holy… shit.." Shinji screamed in anguish. His roommate was unconscious, barely hanging on. Shinji was breaking down, tears rolling down his cheeks. A sudden rush of sadness rushed over his stomach, which was beginning to twist up. He wanted to explode, disappear. Shinji was never the strongest person, he could barely carry Asuka. His tears began to run onto Asuka's pale face, eyes closed. He didn't even put his shoes on. Basically throwing the door open, he ran to the elevator. Every second that the elevator took, he was talking to Asuka.

"You're going to be okay."

Shinji had this really bad feeling in his stomach, guilt. He was the one who kicked Asuka, he caused this pain. 'It's my fault. Isn't it?'

The elevator bell rang, and he ran in, slamming the ground floor button and close door button. Shinji was in a panic. That once smooth, soothing elevator music was a reminder of time that was passing by. The doors hissed open, and Shinji bolted out of it, running faster than he believed possible. Nothing was in his mind, he was blanking. He found himself at the closest NERV Geo-Front entrance. 'No, no, no' the crying pilot thought, "SHIT!" he screamed for the whole world to hear, the crows began to fly away. He left his keycard at home. He dropped to his knees, crying, wrapping his arms around the fiery redhead he was carrying. He walked around the NERV area, finding the ventilation system. A flashback came back to him. The only good memory he could muster. The 'spider-like angel' they thought. He called it the itsy-bitsy spider. The power-outage. He dragged Asuka into the vent, moving her through the vents. As they were venturing, Shinji & Asuka's weight was too much, one of the vent covers had fallen under them. Shinji watched time go into a slow-mo. His panic was for nothing. They fell around 2 meters, not much. Cradling Asuka, pushing a strand of red hair from her peaceful face. 'So peaceful, yet so painful.' Shinji talked to himself. Hoping Asuka would respond to him.

He booked it down the hallway. He looked at Asuka while running, and she barely had a chance to breathe. Suddenly, he crashed into somebody. He tumbled, Asuka still in hand. He grabbed his head, rubbing out the pain when he looked up.

"Maya!" Shinji screamed, catching her off-guard.

Maya Ibuki, one of the main scientists at NERV, stared at him, confused. She looked down, seeing the unconscious and dying Asuka. Maya's eyes widened, she looked at the crying eva-pilot, holding Asuka in his arms. He was crying harder than Asuka during that time, when he snapped. When he caused this. "Come with me, I'll get one of the nurses!" Maya blurted, panicking as much as Shinji. Maya led him towards the medical wing, Shinji barely saw Maya, his watery eyes were too much. He tried so hard to keep it together, but all that was coming was tears. He kept wiping his tears back with an arm. He couldn't bear to look down anymore, the pain was growing. Maya slid her keycard, and the ward opened. She jerked over to grab the nearest stretcher, Shinji kissed Asuka on the forehead, and lightly put her on the stretcher. Maya took her into one of the hospital rooms, the door shutting. He started walking around, holding his head in his hands. He was reading some of the names on the clipboard, using flimsy double-stick tape so people could keep it plastered on the wall.

MISATO KATSURAGI | Concussion

He walked into the room, slumping on the closest chair. Watching his guardian, bandaged temple. He had a neck brace, with an ekg and IV.

"Misat-," he could barely talk through his nasally, stuffed voice. "I'm sorry, Misato."

She wasn't in a coma, but her concussion knocked her out. He fell asleep, next to her bed, trying to make sense of this deep situation he threw himself into. He just wanted to sleep, exhausted, he was just carrying Asuka for the past 15 minutes.

He drifted off as fast as he awoke. The sun's rays hit him and his body was knocked out of sleep. 'It is evening now, 5:15.' Shinji thought, groggily looking up. He squeezed Misato's hand, trying to wake her up. Nothing, no reaction. He got up, stomping out of the room, going through the hospital rooms.

Asuka Langley Soryu | Broken Ribs/Difficulty Breathing

He bolted in, watching Asuka, she was awake, and her eyes moved slowly towards him. She had a ventilator on her nose and mouth, her whole left rib cage bandaged.

"Sh-Shinji?" She croaked.

"Hey, how are you? What the hell happened?" He replied, smiling.

"Well, I was coming to your bed, I wanted to ask you something, in case something happened. Your SDAT was on the floor." She coughed a couple of times, "I slipped, and fell on my ribs, I heard them crack. I couldn't breathe. I passed out next to you."

Shinji was hit by those words like a ton of bricks. He threw his SDAT player out of anger and sadness, and it hurt her. It was all his fault. He slumped over, and began to sob.

"Don't tell me you're crying. Stop being an idiot." Asuka said, clearly in a mood.

Shinji looked up at her, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Misato is still asleep, I was there before you woke up."

"Damn, she'll wake up." Asuka replied, those words hit home for her. Misato was her guardian, a… mother to her. The closest thing she had to a parent.

Shinji and Asuka chatting it up. It brought a nice, warm energy into the medical ward. Asuka took off the ventilator, and took a breath. Shinji walked up to her, leaned down to kiss her. They were mere inches apart before.

"Ahem. Am I interrupting something important?"

Shinji blushed and moved away. He turned around and saw Dr. Ritsuko.

"Sorry, we were just talking."

Ritsuko gave him a grin, chuckled, and checked Asuka's ribs. They were broken, but she was stable enough to breathe on her own.

"Hey, Shinji. Visiting times are over, you can see her in the morning." Ritsuko announced, to the despair of both pilots.

Shinji nodded, kissing Asuka on the forehead, then he made his leave.

Ritsuko looked at Asuka, "When did you guys start dating?"

Asuka ignored her, beginning to blush a deep red.

Shinji shuffled home. He'd rather stay overnight, but Ritsuko was the doctor there. 'The store, I'll cook for Asuka. Give her something that isn't shit hospital food.' Shinji thought. Taking a load of ingredients from the store, he thanked the cashier. 'That cashier is almost so nice, never got his name'

Shinji opened the door, but he never locked it that morning. To his surprise, he wasn't robbed. 'An empty house' Shinji cried in his head. It was a Saturday, tomorrow would maybe turn out for the better. Putting his ingredients in the fridge. He went onto the couch, not even changing. He slept as much as he could, tomorrow was a big day.

—-

"Ugh." Shinji woke up in a sweat, the sun shining. He started to weep, no Misato to drink beer in the morning, no Asuka to yell at him. "You never know you miss something until it's not there," Shinji said to himself. PenPen had been hiding from Shinji since Misato was in the hospital. He just ate what Shinji gave him, two fish a day.

Shinji tied a white apron with the NERV logo on rolled his eyes 'NERV and their public image,' he took the ingredients out. Whipping up some kitchen magic. He almost never cooks non-japanese food, but Asuka was in the hospital. He finished, sweating from the stove heat. He grabbed his keycard, keys, shoes and put the food in a plastic bag. He locked the door, said a simple hello as he was passing the obvious Section-2 agent.

He made it to the same NERV entrance, swiping his pilot keycard, the doors whooshed open, 'No vent crawling today.' he chuckled to himself. He walked over the medical wing, passing Ritsuko.

"Your girlfriend is fine, if you're seeing her." Ritsuko teased him relentlessly.

His blush was extremely visible. He saw Asuka's name written on the clipboard. He walked inside.

"How are you, idiot?" Asuka told him, laughing. "What's that?"

"How's hospital food?" Shinji asked in a reply, unwrapping the plastic bag.

"It's fucking shit." Asuka glared, her eyes speaking more words than she just spoke.

Asuka's eyes glistened as Shinji took out the package. She smelt.. Home

"Aw, you shouldn't have. I swear if it sucks though, I'll kill you~" Asuka told him in a sing-song voice.

"Well, you smell it, Schnitzel and Pommes. Enjoy!" Shinji smiled, watching her day brighten.

Asuka took a bite, and dug in more. Shinji smiled even more, ecstatic that she liked it. She completely finished the meal.

"It sucked." Asuka joked.

Shinji chuckled, taking the empty container, grabbing Asuka's hand. He leaned over her bed, head on her neck. They were silent, both enjoying company.

Ritsuko sat near the room peering in, lightly chuckling. She pointed her camera and a flash was seen by both Shinji and Asuka.

"No, not again~" Asuka cried, not being able to grab the photo like with Misato.

"Shinji, get the photo!" Asuka whispered, tapping him on the back. He didn't move, Asuka reached up and hit him in the balls.

"FUCK!" Shinji groaned, dropping to the floor in pain.

Ritsuko chuckled, "You don't want children, Asuka?"

Asuka plugged her ears, "Lalalalala~, can't hear you!"

Shinji just got up, he grabbed Asuka's hand, and pulled himself up.

"Don't do that again. I'd appreciate it. A LOT." Shinji yelled sternly, still sweating.

He just slumped over the bed, sleeping next to Asuka. Ritsuko left the room, only there to tease the teenagers. Asuka fell asleep as well, the first good sleep she had in a bit.

TO BE CONTINUED…