The Digital Underground Presents
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Secrets and Lies
================================
Chapter 5: A Stroll in the Park
================================
Things were going good for Asuka at the moment. Luckily being a Sunday morning, there wasn't a line up as such and now, by lunch time, they had ridden most of the fun rides. Shinji on the other hand looked a little bit more worse for wear.
"Please! Can we sit down?" he begged, trying to keep breakfast down. That last ride had taken it's toll on him and now, ten minutes later, he still couldn't shake of the nausea.
"Oh all right...I'm hungry anyway. You wait here while I get some good old deep fried junk food. Want any?"
Shinji managed to wave a negative as he made a break for the nearest toilet block. Shrugging, Asuka made her way to the food stand.
She emerged a few minutes later holding a tray chock full of food and drinks.
"Are you going to eat all that?" asked a bewildered Shinji.
"Of course not! I couldn't decide what I wanted so I bought one of each!"
Shinji shook his head as he reached for the bottle of water.
"Hey!" Asuka shouted, her mouth full of hot dog. "Get your own."
Shinji frowned and was about to respond when he was cut off.
"Only joking, geez. Who wants to drink water anyway."
"Thank you Asuka-chan" He sighed happily as the cool refreshing liquid washed away the bad after taste still in his mouth. After a few more sips, he could feel his stomach settling and the nausea easing somewhat.
Still not feeling up to the task of eating, he sat quietly, sipping his water as he watched Asuka hungrily devour the so called food in front of her. Eventually, she sat back, seemingly content.
"Phew...that tasted great! I'm full, you want any?"
Shinji shook his head. It seemed Asuka wasn't lying when she said she couldn't decide on what to eat as she had at least taken a bite of everything she purchased. A dagwood dog lay on it's wrapper, the top bitten off, a hamburger, the pickles removed, had two bites taken out of it, a couple of chips were missing from the cup, the meat pie, a chunk missing, the hot dog, half eaten lay neglected while all the drinks were opened, venting their carbonated gases as they sat in the sun. What a waste of food, thought Shinji as she dumped the contents of the tray into the nearest bin.
"What? I'm not paying so why not enjoy myself?!?!" Asuka felt the need to justify her actions to Shinji as he looked at her in a disapproving way.
"I didn't say anything!" he shrugged. "So, what ride do you want to go to now?"
"Just give me a sec, I don't think I can move just yet." responded Asuka as she rubbed her bloated midsection. "Besides, it's only 12 and we've got all day so there's plenty of time to do everything."
Shinji sat back down, somewhat relieved at not having to tackle another adrenaline pumping ride just yet.
"Having fun yet?"
"Um...yeah, lot's. Thanks Asuka-chan."
"Hey?" she dragged out. "Since when did this start? 'Chan?' Since when did you ever call me that?"
Shinji blushed slightly. "Well that's how you greet a friend."
"Actually, 'kun' is the greeting for a friend." Asuka corrected him.
"I know, but Asuka-chan sounds better than Asuka-kun."
It was Asuka's turn to blush as she realised what the term 'chan' implied.
"That's beside the point." she laughed. "What I want to know is why you never called me that before?"
Shinji shrugged. "Well, you were always saying how annoying I was and yelling at me I didn't know if you hated me or not."
Asuka lost her playful smile as she turned serious. "Let's get this straight. I do not hate you!"
Shinji looked confused.
"A man once told me when I was small that it's not OK to hate someone. You may hate what someone does or say's, but it is never OK to hate someone." She put on a smile. "So you see, I never hated you Shinji. It's just that sometimes I really wanted to shoot you for how you acted."
"Gomen." Shinji mumbled.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Asuka slapped the table to emphasize her point. "Your always saying sorry even when it's not your fault or it's out of your control. Do you know how much that pisses me off?!?!"
Amazingly, Shinji caught himself before he responded with another 'gomen'.
"But...that's just the way I am." he sighed.
"No it ISN'T" Asuka glared at him for a moment. "Do you know why we're here today?"
"To have fun?" Shinji replied after a short think.
"No! The reason we're here together and not me by myself is because last night I had a lot of fun. And you know what? I realised that last night when you were drunk, that was the real you. I'm not talking about spineless wimp boy Shinji, but the Shinji who pilot's eva. Who defeats angels, the real Shinji Ikari."
"You really think so?"
"Yep." Asuka responded with a commanding nod. "And if I'm going to have to live with you as well as work and go to school with you, I'm going to do it with the bearable Shinji, got it? So, if your gonna be a baka wimp again you might as well go home!" she joked.
Shinji simply stared at his bottle of water as if deep in thought.
"I know it wasn't a very good joke, but you could have at least had a bit of a laugh, hell, a giggle would have been enough!"
"Huh? Oh sorry Asuka-chan, I was just thinking..."
"I know that, baka!" she snapped back. "That was your cue to tell me what you were thinking about!"
Shinji shook his head in a fleeting moment of confusion before taking her advice. "Well, I was just thinking about a talk Misato and I had a couple of days ago that sounded very similar to the one we're having now, that's all."
"Oh, do tell!"
Shinji frowned as he wondered why she had to over dramatise every nuance and word in her vocabulary.
"Well, I was just asking Misato whether she thought I should speak up more often, you know, like be more responsive."
"And?"
"She said that it would probably be a good thing, but that I needed to decide for myself."
"And what did you choose?" Asuka asked impatiently, wishing for all the world that Shinji would speak up.
"Well, I decided...yes."
"Well what are you waiting for then? An invitation? I mean apart from last night your still boring old Shinji to me!"
"Hey! It's not like I can just turn it on. It's harder than that, but I'm trying!" Shinji said indignantly.
Asuka sighed. "I guess you are. Tell you what, being the good friend that I am, I'm even going to help you!"
"And why would you want to do that?" he asked skeptically.
"I don't know, but at least I know when to say thank you and not look a gift horse in the mouth!"
"Sorry..."
"Hmmph...why aren't I surprised?" mumbled Asuka. "Lesson #1: Stop saying sorry unless it's called for and you really mean it! Got it?"
"Yup. Don't apologise." Shinji smiled.
"Good. Lesson#2: Be more confident."
"Okaaay...how do I do that?"
"Well....try this. The next time you want to do or say something, don't worry about what other people think and just do it."
"Are you sure?" Shinji said uneasily.
"Oh yeah. Nobody has anything better to do all day than to nit-pick over your every word and move!" she replied sarcastically.
"Well, if you put it like that then I guess your right..."
"Of course I'm right!" she cut him off. "I'm always right and the sooner the world realises that, the better off we'll all be." Asuka scoffed.
Shinji decided against speaking his mind at that moment.
"What's lesson #3?"
"Woah...slow down a bit. I think that you should just concentrate on being more confident for the time being."
"OK."
"Good. Now let's go have some more fun, I still want to try that cool looking roller coaster, 'The Tummy Twister'."
Shinji grimaced as he heard the name of the ride.
"So, um. Thank you for your help Asuka-chan."
Asuka turned her head to look at Shinji and flashed him a toothy smile. "Your welcome Shinji. You know if you keep up the 'chan' business I guess I'll have to call you Shinji-kun."
Shinji felt his heart jump as Asuka spoke his name.
"Or maybe..." Asuka joked. "It should be baka-kun seeing as I call you that more."
"Yeah..." laughed Shinji. "Maybe I should just change my name to Baka. Baka Ikari."
Both teenagers had a good laugh as they made their way towards the turnstiles, side by side. As friends for once.
Touji stumbled out of his bed as the phone continued to ring. Glancing at his watch, he mentally kicked himself for sleeping in again.
"Hello, Touji here."
"Touji. It's me."
"Yeah I know it's you, Kensuke. What's up?"
"Well movies today is off, Shinji's busy. So is it OK if we stay over at your house tonight? You know, the three stooges and all. We'll watch some movies and hang."
"Sounds good. What do I have to do?" inquired Touji as he struggled to weave his right hand through his shirt sleeve.
"Nothing. I'll bring over some of my movies and we can go shopping for food when we get there so just clean up that pig sty of yours and be home at about 7:30 OK?"
"Cool. Hey don't forget to bring the movies." Touji put an emphasis on the word 'movie'.
"Gotcha. Don't worry, I got it all covered. Hey I'll see you later tonight."
"Will do. Later Kensuke."
"Bye."
After he returned the phone to the cradle, Touji finished dressing and then surveyed the apartment. A pig sty wasn't too far off the mark, he thought as he formed a plan on how he would clear the mess. Normally the apartment was pretty clean, however with his father pulling more shifts and spending less time at home and him spending his spare time visiting Mari, the junk had quickly piled up.
As he began collecting all his dirty clothes he reminded himself to give Mari a visit later that day. Although he had only visited her on Friday, he was going to be away on the school trip until Thursday, so this would be the last chance to see her for a few days. Not that she would complain about him neglecting her, in fact, she had always insisted he didn't need to visit so often seeing as she was very popular with the staff and they kept her company along with the other patients. No, that wasn't the reason why he would strive to see her as much as possible, but rather to calm himself. The more he saw her, especially now that her condition was stable, the more he began to believe that there was still hope for her walking again.
"I hate you SHINJI IKARI!" Asuka spat out, her words loaded with contempt.
Shinji half listened to Asuka's rants as he followed her to the rest area. True to form, The Tummy Twister had just done that, and Asuka had come out worse for wear. Shinji, on the other hand, having had no lunch, had been able to enjoy the ride to it's fullest.
"That was fun!" he said gleefully as his heart raced.
"Damn you Shinji! How come you didn't get sick?!?!"
"Well, maybe I didn't stuff myself full for lunch!"
Asuka gave him her patented death stare before keeling over as her stomach began complaining.
"You don't look too well."
"I'm not well..." she replied through breaths.
"Want to go home?"
Asuka nodded before disappearing behind a toilet block.
Shinji waited patiently for Asuka to reappear before they both made their way towards the exit.
Once on the train, Shinji peered out through the window as he saw the amusement park pass by. He took in the sights of all the throngs of people. Children, teenagers, families. All having fun and enjoying themselves. All sharing a common interest. In peace. In happiness. So much happiness. Slowly as the high rise buildings began to obscure the view, he looked back at the day in fondness and felt for the first time in many years a sense of hope. For himself and for the world.
END OF CHAPTER 5
=======================================================================
Author's Notes:
Wow! Only a week late! Real sorry about that but what can I say? I guess I got a little too carried away with the holidays thing and went to one too many parties. ^_^
Anyways, because your all such dedicated readers I'll try really hard to make up for the lost week by posting the next two chapters by this time next week. No need to thank me, just give me a nice long review.
As for this chapter, I actually wanted to include the rest of the day until he leaves for Touji's house, but the last paragraph just came to me in a spur of the moment and I liked it so much that I wanted to end the chapter on it. Another reason for the delay of this chapter was I had a little bout of writers block earlier on as I wanted to word the Asuka/Shinji conversation a specific was and nothing I could think of was exactly how I wanted. In the end I think I've captured it right. Basically, I wanted to show why Asuka would be so willing to allow Shinji to come with her. Tell me if you think I've done it right or not.
BTW, as of late my brain just doesn't seem to want to think funny, hence the lack of Omakes, so if anyone has an idea they want me to use for an omake, email it and I'll give it a thought.
Next chapter? Well Touji and kensuke plan a night that Shinji won't forget, or want to for that matter. Asuka and Misato have a little girl talk, and Pen Pen plots his revenge. All that and more in chapter 6, coming to you live and loud via the information super highway.
So, until next week, behave and leave all the neighbourhood letterboxes alone. ;p
e_digitalunderground@hotmail.com
The Golden Child, Digital Underground, 2001
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Secrets and Lies
================================
Chapter 5: A Stroll in the Park
================================
Things were going good for Asuka at the moment. Luckily being a Sunday morning, there wasn't a line up as such and now, by lunch time, they had ridden most of the fun rides. Shinji on the other hand looked a little bit more worse for wear.
"Please! Can we sit down?" he begged, trying to keep breakfast down. That last ride had taken it's toll on him and now, ten minutes later, he still couldn't shake of the nausea.
"Oh all right...I'm hungry anyway. You wait here while I get some good old deep fried junk food. Want any?"
Shinji managed to wave a negative as he made a break for the nearest toilet block. Shrugging, Asuka made her way to the food stand.
She emerged a few minutes later holding a tray chock full of food and drinks.
"Are you going to eat all that?" asked a bewildered Shinji.
"Of course not! I couldn't decide what I wanted so I bought one of each!"
Shinji shook his head as he reached for the bottle of water.
"Hey!" Asuka shouted, her mouth full of hot dog. "Get your own."
Shinji frowned and was about to respond when he was cut off.
"Only joking, geez. Who wants to drink water anyway."
"Thank you Asuka-chan" He sighed happily as the cool refreshing liquid washed away the bad after taste still in his mouth. After a few more sips, he could feel his stomach settling and the nausea easing somewhat.
Still not feeling up to the task of eating, he sat quietly, sipping his water as he watched Asuka hungrily devour the so called food in front of her. Eventually, she sat back, seemingly content.
"Phew...that tasted great! I'm full, you want any?"
Shinji shook his head. It seemed Asuka wasn't lying when she said she couldn't decide on what to eat as she had at least taken a bite of everything she purchased. A dagwood dog lay on it's wrapper, the top bitten off, a hamburger, the pickles removed, had two bites taken out of it, a couple of chips were missing from the cup, the meat pie, a chunk missing, the hot dog, half eaten lay neglected while all the drinks were opened, venting their carbonated gases as they sat in the sun. What a waste of food, thought Shinji as she dumped the contents of the tray into the nearest bin.
"What? I'm not paying so why not enjoy myself?!?!" Asuka felt the need to justify her actions to Shinji as he looked at her in a disapproving way.
"I didn't say anything!" he shrugged. "So, what ride do you want to go to now?"
"Just give me a sec, I don't think I can move just yet." responded Asuka as she rubbed her bloated midsection. "Besides, it's only 12 and we've got all day so there's plenty of time to do everything."
Shinji sat back down, somewhat relieved at not having to tackle another adrenaline pumping ride just yet.
"Having fun yet?"
"Um...yeah, lot's. Thanks Asuka-chan."
"Hey?" she dragged out. "Since when did this start? 'Chan?' Since when did you ever call me that?"
Shinji blushed slightly. "Well that's how you greet a friend."
"Actually, 'kun' is the greeting for a friend." Asuka corrected him.
"I know, but Asuka-chan sounds better than Asuka-kun."
It was Asuka's turn to blush as she realised what the term 'chan' implied.
"That's beside the point." she laughed. "What I want to know is why you never called me that before?"
Shinji shrugged. "Well, you were always saying how annoying I was and yelling at me I didn't know if you hated me or not."
Asuka lost her playful smile as she turned serious. "Let's get this straight. I do not hate you!"
Shinji looked confused.
"A man once told me when I was small that it's not OK to hate someone. You may hate what someone does or say's, but it is never OK to hate someone." She put on a smile. "So you see, I never hated you Shinji. It's just that sometimes I really wanted to shoot you for how you acted."
"Gomen." Shinji mumbled.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Asuka slapped the table to emphasize her point. "Your always saying sorry even when it's not your fault or it's out of your control. Do you know how much that pisses me off?!?!"
Amazingly, Shinji caught himself before he responded with another 'gomen'.
"But...that's just the way I am." he sighed.
"No it ISN'T" Asuka glared at him for a moment. "Do you know why we're here today?"
"To have fun?" Shinji replied after a short think.
"No! The reason we're here together and not me by myself is because last night I had a lot of fun. And you know what? I realised that last night when you were drunk, that was the real you. I'm not talking about spineless wimp boy Shinji, but the Shinji who pilot's eva. Who defeats angels, the real Shinji Ikari."
"You really think so?"
"Yep." Asuka responded with a commanding nod. "And if I'm going to have to live with you as well as work and go to school with you, I'm going to do it with the bearable Shinji, got it? So, if your gonna be a baka wimp again you might as well go home!" she joked.
Shinji simply stared at his bottle of water as if deep in thought.
"I know it wasn't a very good joke, but you could have at least had a bit of a laugh, hell, a giggle would have been enough!"
"Huh? Oh sorry Asuka-chan, I was just thinking..."
"I know that, baka!" she snapped back. "That was your cue to tell me what you were thinking about!"
Shinji shook his head in a fleeting moment of confusion before taking her advice. "Well, I was just thinking about a talk Misato and I had a couple of days ago that sounded very similar to the one we're having now, that's all."
"Oh, do tell!"
Shinji frowned as he wondered why she had to over dramatise every nuance and word in her vocabulary.
"Well, I was just asking Misato whether she thought I should speak up more often, you know, like be more responsive."
"And?"
"She said that it would probably be a good thing, but that I needed to decide for myself."
"And what did you choose?" Asuka asked impatiently, wishing for all the world that Shinji would speak up.
"Well, I decided...yes."
"Well what are you waiting for then? An invitation? I mean apart from last night your still boring old Shinji to me!"
"Hey! It's not like I can just turn it on. It's harder than that, but I'm trying!" Shinji said indignantly.
Asuka sighed. "I guess you are. Tell you what, being the good friend that I am, I'm even going to help you!"
"And why would you want to do that?" he asked skeptically.
"I don't know, but at least I know when to say thank you and not look a gift horse in the mouth!"
"Sorry..."
"Hmmph...why aren't I surprised?" mumbled Asuka. "Lesson #1: Stop saying sorry unless it's called for and you really mean it! Got it?"
"Yup. Don't apologise." Shinji smiled.
"Good. Lesson#2: Be more confident."
"Okaaay...how do I do that?"
"Well....try this. The next time you want to do or say something, don't worry about what other people think and just do it."
"Are you sure?" Shinji said uneasily.
"Oh yeah. Nobody has anything better to do all day than to nit-pick over your every word and move!" she replied sarcastically.
"Well, if you put it like that then I guess your right..."
"Of course I'm right!" she cut him off. "I'm always right and the sooner the world realises that, the better off we'll all be." Asuka scoffed.
Shinji decided against speaking his mind at that moment.
"What's lesson #3?"
"Woah...slow down a bit. I think that you should just concentrate on being more confident for the time being."
"OK."
"Good. Now let's go have some more fun, I still want to try that cool looking roller coaster, 'The Tummy Twister'."
Shinji grimaced as he heard the name of the ride.
"So, um. Thank you for your help Asuka-chan."
Asuka turned her head to look at Shinji and flashed him a toothy smile. "Your welcome Shinji. You know if you keep up the 'chan' business I guess I'll have to call you Shinji-kun."
Shinji felt his heart jump as Asuka spoke his name.
"Or maybe..." Asuka joked. "It should be baka-kun seeing as I call you that more."
"Yeah..." laughed Shinji. "Maybe I should just change my name to Baka. Baka Ikari."
Both teenagers had a good laugh as they made their way towards the turnstiles, side by side. As friends for once.
Touji stumbled out of his bed as the phone continued to ring. Glancing at his watch, he mentally kicked himself for sleeping in again.
"Hello, Touji here."
"Touji. It's me."
"Yeah I know it's you, Kensuke. What's up?"
"Well movies today is off, Shinji's busy. So is it OK if we stay over at your house tonight? You know, the three stooges and all. We'll watch some movies and hang."
"Sounds good. What do I have to do?" inquired Touji as he struggled to weave his right hand through his shirt sleeve.
"Nothing. I'll bring over some of my movies and we can go shopping for food when we get there so just clean up that pig sty of yours and be home at about 7:30 OK?"
"Cool. Hey don't forget to bring the movies." Touji put an emphasis on the word 'movie'.
"Gotcha. Don't worry, I got it all covered. Hey I'll see you later tonight."
"Will do. Later Kensuke."
"Bye."
After he returned the phone to the cradle, Touji finished dressing and then surveyed the apartment. A pig sty wasn't too far off the mark, he thought as he formed a plan on how he would clear the mess. Normally the apartment was pretty clean, however with his father pulling more shifts and spending less time at home and him spending his spare time visiting Mari, the junk had quickly piled up.
As he began collecting all his dirty clothes he reminded himself to give Mari a visit later that day. Although he had only visited her on Friday, he was going to be away on the school trip until Thursday, so this would be the last chance to see her for a few days. Not that she would complain about him neglecting her, in fact, she had always insisted he didn't need to visit so often seeing as she was very popular with the staff and they kept her company along with the other patients. No, that wasn't the reason why he would strive to see her as much as possible, but rather to calm himself. The more he saw her, especially now that her condition was stable, the more he began to believe that there was still hope for her walking again.
"I hate you SHINJI IKARI!" Asuka spat out, her words loaded with contempt.
Shinji half listened to Asuka's rants as he followed her to the rest area. True to form, The Tummy Twister had just done that, and Asuka had come out worse for wear. Shinji, on the other hand, having had no lunch, had been able to enjoy the ride to it's fullest.
"That was fun!" he said gleefully as his heart raced.
"Damn you Shinji! How come you didn't get sick?!?!"
"Well, maybe I didn't stuff myself full for lunch!"
Asuka gave him her patented death stare before keeling over as her stomach began complaining.
"You don't look too well."
"I'm not well..." she replied through breaths.
"Want to go home?"
Asuka nodded before disappearing behind a toilet block.
Shinji waited patiently for Asuka to reappear before they both made their way towards the exit.
Once on the train, Shinji peered out through the window as he saw the amusement park pass by. He took in the sights of all the throngs of people. Children, teenagers, families. All having fun and enjoying themselves. All sharing a common interest. In peace. In happiness. So much happiness. Slowly as the high rise buildings began to obscure the view, he looked back at the day in fondness and felt for the first time in many years a sense of hope. For himself and for the world.
END OF CHAPTER 5
=======================================================================
Author's Notes:
Wow! Only a week late! Real sorry about that but what can I say? I guess I got a little too carried away with the holidays thing and went to one too many parties. ^_^
Anyways, because your all such dedicated readers I'll try really hard to make up for the lost week by posting the next two chapters by this time next week. No need to thank me, just give me a nice long review.
As for this chapter, I actually wanted to include the rest of the day until he leaves for Touji's house, but the last paragraph just came to me in a spur of the moment and I liked it so much that I wanted to end the chapter on it. Another reason for the delay of this chapter was I had a little bout of writers block earlier on as I wanted to word the Asuka/Shinji conversation a specific was and nothing I could think of was exactly how I wanted. In the end I think I've captured it right. Basically, I wanted to show why Asuka would be so willing to allow Shinji to come with her. Tell me if you think I've done it right or not.
BTW, as of late my brain just doesn't seem to want to think funny, hence the lack of Omakes, so if anyone has an idea they want me to use for an omake, email it and I'll give it a thought.
Next chapter? Well Touji and kensuke plan a night that Shinji won't forget, or want to for that matter. Asuka and Misato have a little girl talk, and Pen Pen plots his revenge. All that and more in chapter 6, coming to you live and loud via the information super highway.
So, until next week, behave and leave all the neighbourhood letterboxes alone. ;p
e_digitalunderground@hotmail.com
The Golden Child, Digital Underground, 2001