Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights go to their respective owners. Also, all OCs are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.
SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd try" by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should stop right here and check that out first.
Summary:
In need of a scarecrow for the garden, Asuka and Aki look through the firsts old clothes to help build a new one.
"The Scarecrow"
Asuka looked on as she inspected the garden. Once again they had another heavy storm that lasted throughout the previous day and night. It was not as severe as the last one that had hit them months ago; Asuka was relieved to see that other than a few bits of scattered debris and leaves from the surrounding trees, the garden was thankfully untouched…well except for one small thing which Asuka noticed wasn't in its place, their scarecrow.
Looking around, Asuka, as she continued to gather the random leaves scattered around the ground with a garden rake, saw that there wasn't any sign that it simply was just blown down on the ground. Even checking the outside perimeter of their home, there was still no scarecrow to be found making the logical conclusion that it was blown so far away from the high winds.
Since their scarecrow was nowhere to be found, she would have to make one from scratch which wouldn't be a difficult task and would give her something to do for the early afternoon.
'And it would give Aki something fun to do for a bit today.' Asuka thought as she glanced at her little girl who was having fun gathering scattered tree leaves on the ground and putting them in the trash bag. Once again Asuka was happy and proud her daughter wanted to help her.
'The benefits of youth.' Asuka thought with a chuckle. While she wasn't exactly old and still in the prime of her youth, Aki as a very energetic child had quickly done the work faster than she ever could. It makes her wonder where her little Schätzchen got all this energy from.
'Didn't get it from her father, that's for sure.' Asuka chuckled again at this thought. No offence to her beloved husband but Shinji wasn't exactly speedy in everyday tasks with Shinji preferring the old and steady approach to doing things. That made her wonder how he went from a skinny boy when they first met to the hunk of a man he was currently turning into.
"Mama! I'm all done with the leaves!" Aki shouted from across the garden breaking Asuka from her train of thought that was embarrassingly going into naughty territory and saw that Aki did gather all the leaves.
"Gut gemacht, Schätzchen! Just put the trash bag on the veranda, ok?"
"Ok, Mama!" Aki acknowledged before doing as asked, dragging the now full trash bag along with her. Not long after Asuka finished clearing the rest of the debris and bringing the bag to the veranda as well and saw that Aki was patiently waiting for her.
"Is everything done now, Mama?" Aki asked in hope that the hard work was done and that they would play. To her disappointment, her Mama shook her head.
"Not quite Schätzchen, but don't worry this will be fun. Since our old mister scarecrow flew away we're gonna have to make a new one for the garden." Asuka explained and smiled at her daughter. "Interested in helping me make a new one?" Asuka finished saying and watched as Aki's eyes lit up in excitement before she nodded wildly.
Chuckling at Aki's excitement, Asuka gestured back to the house. "Ok then, first thing first Schätzchen, we need to find some spare old clothes inside for Mr Scarecrow to wear." Asuka finished as she reached out to her daughter. Aki quickly grabbed her hand before both of them proceeded to the house.
Upon arriving at the master bedroom and opening the closet doors, Asuka grimaced on seeing her side of it. Seeing it stuffed full of dresses, clothes, shoes and unopened boxes made Asuka sigh. Looking again at some of the clothes, many of which she hasn't worn in a long time and probably didn't fit her size anymore, in such an untidy state made her realise that she needed to clear out most of her stuff.
Taking a glance at Shinji's side of the closet and seeing it not only tidy but also structured and organised made Asuka a bit peeved at her husband being the neatest of the three of them with her being probably the worst after Aki. Well, since they were already making a scarecrow out of one of these old clothes they could also clear out some of the stuff here while they were at it.
Asuka looked down at her daughter and chucked that she was already scoping at what clothes they could use to make their new scarecrow. "Ok Schätzchen, let's clear out these clothes and see what we can use for Mr Scarecrow." Asuka instructed with Aki nodding, not catching on yet that she was also helping clear out her Mama's stuff.
As Asuka moved and took out her stuff from the closet, starting with the many hung clothes and eventually getting to the many boxes. Aki took an interest in looking through those first and began to open and look inside one after another. Just as Asuka was looking at a pair of clothes that she thought she could still fit into, her attention was drawn to Aki trying to open one of the boxes, a very particular pink box which had…
Asuka gasped in horror before quickly stopping Aki from opening that particular box. "No, no, no, not that box Schätzchen!" Asuka said a bit hastily.
"Huh? Why not, Mama?" Aki asked, confused and now giving the pink box a curious look. Asuka's brain was doing a mental somersault on coming up with a good excuse that would prevent Aki from wanting to know what was in the said box.
"Err..well..you can't open this one be-because..." Finally she had an idea. "Because there are bees in there!"
The mention worked in making Aki pause. Bees had been one of the few things the little girl disliked, ever since one (technically a wasp) stung her awhile back.
"Are you sure?" Aki wondered, carefully leaning closer to the box. "I don't hear anything."
She shook the box a bit and suddenly there was a buzzing sound coming out of it. "WAAH! Here! Put it away! Put it away!" Aki yelled and pushed the box in her mother's arms.
Fortunately she had not noticed Asuka's deep red face as the redhead carefully placed the pink box on top of the top self, making certain that Aki wouldn't be able to reach it.
Just as Asuka went back and began looking at possible discarded clothes she heard Aki gasp as the little one was head first inside one of the boxes.
"MAMA! I FOUND SOMETHING RED IN HERE!" Aki shouted in excitement as she was trying to crawl backwards out of the opened box.
Asuka laughed a bit. It was no surprise that Aki would choose something red for their new scarecrow, as it was her favourite colour. "Oh, so what did you find that's soo red, Schätzchen?" Asuka asked as Aki finally got out of the box.
"This Mama, look!" Aki presented her find and upon seeing it herself, Asuka's blood ran cold as she gasped in horror. In her daughter's hands was her red plugsuit.
"It feels so silky and rubbery!" Aki continued to present and feel bits of the suit to her Mama, not yet realising her distress.
'It..it can't be. What is that doing here!?' Asuka's mind raced at what she was seeing, trying to make sense of why this thing was here.
"Mama, what's wrong?" Aki asked concerned as she finally noticed and saw her Mama's face go from amused to shock and horrified.
Aki's worried voice managed to break Asuka out of her thoughts and made her realise how much she was currently hyperventilating, as well as her heart was racing. Asuka quickly calmed herself, not wanting to repeat the incident with Kiko and scare her daughter again.
'It's just a red suit.' Asuka thought. 'It's just a red suit. It can't hurt me or my daughter.' Asuka mentally repeated as she also took a deep breath while closing her eyes to calm her more and it was working.
"Mama? Are you ok?" Aki called out, clearly worried about her and Asuka opened her eyes and smiled at her daughter before kneeling and hugging her.
"It's ok, Schätzchen. It's ok, Mama was just being stupid." Asuka said comfortably to Aki. The little girl, though not understanding fully what troubled her mother, just hugged her back.
The two stayed like that for a moment before Asuka leaned back and took a look at the plugsuit that was on the floor before taking the courage to pick it up with her hand.
Looking at it closely, Asuka knew that this wasn't the same plugsuit that she had returned from instrumentality given that this suit was fully intact and undamaged making Asuka suspect that this must have been a spare suit that she had stored away in her belongings, possibly that if needed to she could change into her suit quickly in an extreme emergency.
To think she wore this suit with honour and pride, fully believing and convincing herself that as long as she was needed as an Eva pilot then that would be all she ever needed in life when it was far from the truth.
"This is not me." Asuka muttered as she once again looked upon the suit in her spare hand. "Not anymore." Asuka finished with a smile.
"What's that Mama?" Aki who had been silent for a bit as she had her head in between the comfort of her mother's bosom asked.
"It's nothing Schätzchen." Asuka reassured her daughter before an idea hit her instantly. She smiled at the thought of how she could do away with another part of her past, putting it behind her and putting such an outfit to more practical use for her family.
Looking down at Aki and giving her a grin. "So do you think this outfit would look good on Mr..or should I say Ms Scarecrow?" Asuka asked and Aki's eyes lit up before she nodded wildly as she smiled brightly.
"YAY!" Aki cheered.
Once again Asuka felt the weight of another part of herself go, feeling renewed but like how it was with the incident with Kiko it was nothing compared to seeing her daughter happy.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"I'm home!" Shinji announced as he stepped into his home while dropping his bag and fishing equipment. And not a moment later he heard the sounds of small footsteps of his daughter running.
"Papa!" Aki came hug tackled his leg. "Welcome home!" She finished as she looked up at him brightly.
"Hey, sweetheart." Shinji greeted her warmly. "How's your day been?" Shinji asked.
"Productive." came to the voice of his wife as she appeared, having followed her running daughter. "Welcome home, Liebling." Asuka said as she gave Shinji a welcome home kiss.
"Productive you say?" Shinji inquired as the kiss ended and gave his two girls a smile though he already knew from Asuka this morning. "What did you both do?"
"We made a new scarecrow Papa! And I picked the outfit!" Aki exclaimed.
"You did?" Shinji replied acting amazed for her.
"Yeah! It's already in the garden, come on." Aki said as she grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the garden with Asuka following.
As all three exited the house and onto the veranda, Aki let go of Shinji's hand and ran towards their new scarecrow. "Look Papa look!"
Shinji smiled at Aki's energetic cry before getting a good look at their new scarecrow. The smile on his face was quickly replaced by shock and disbelief at seeing the familiar red suit that was stuffed with hay.
"Wait is that?.." Shinji turned and asked his wife and saw her nod.
"Yeah. Turns out that I had a spare one in one of my old boxes." Was Asuka's reply.
Taking his wife's hand in his own and giving her a comforting look at seeing the distant look on her face. "You going to be ok with..that out there."
Asuka nodded as she looked back at him. "That's no longer me anymore," Asuka said with a smile at him.
"Papa! Are you looking?!" Aki shouted to him from where she was next to the new scarecrow.
"Yes, yes honey I see it! It's very nice!" Shinji called back.
Taking another look at it Shinji did see that the red plug suit did look good in its place in the centre of their garden with the setting sun's rays shining off of it. Though Shinji guilty admitted that he would have liked to see Asuka once again in that skin-tight red…
"You were thinking of something perverted weren't you?" Asuka's voice snapped Shinji out of his fantasy daydream. Turning to her, Shinji could see that she knew what he was thinking of, given the glare she was sending to him.
"I..err..wasn't." Shinji tried to think of a lie or an excuse to say but he knew he failed miserably, plus his flashed red face was a dead giveaway.
Asuka's glare deepened while her face flashed red in embarrassment. "Baka Hentai." Asuka whispered before she quickly kicked him in the ass a bit hard, making him flinch from the unexpected attack, all while not letting go of his hand and especially not gaining Aki's attention to what happened between them.
End.