disclaimer *IS* chapter1 so go there.
I got it done finally and I hope for you all to enjoy it. For those of you who had valiantly tried(and failed might I add) the mistake I did between those 2 earlier chapters was this. They both happened in the same day. One started with having them at the doctor's office the other ended with them finally getting home... So how in this time frame could these descriptions have been so different?
Chapter 5
-"Ok so we're all done" Shinji got up and claimed the clothing that he deposited earlier, a yellow sundress and a the blue choker that Asuka insisted.
-And Asuka was wearing much more comfortable street clothing, that Misato had complimented as being "sexier then normal".
Chapter 6
- The day hadn't gone by for less then 20 minutes when Asuka and Shinji in there school uniforms trudged their way to the apartment.
Same day... different clothing?... where did they get the school uniforms from, hmmm? Oh OH OMAKE IDEA OMAKE IDEA!@!!
'...' stands for thought
"..." stands for talking
--?--?-- stands for beginning and end.
~~...~~ stands for author interruption(Me, making myself heard) and has little relevence to the story
--- stands for... I guess the next Scene
*Shinji* or *Ikari* stand for someone referring to Asuka in Shinji's body
*Asuka* or *Sohryu* stand for someone referring to Shinji in Asuka's body
+++++ stands for Asuka's dream
~~~~~ stands for Shinji''s dream
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
World from the eye's of Another
08: The Aftermath / Dreaming of Reality
--?--?--
In the cold harshness of the void, a single simple grey form floated along the edges of a green, blue planet that humanity called home.
The NERV technications spent their Monday morning watching the 15th angel 'Arael' as it continued it's orbit over the Earth.
However one of those men was not a lowly bridge bunny, for he sat on the highest platform in the command chair. His long gone grey hair being neatly combed back showing his eagle's peak and his strong chin could have made him somebodies poster boy for 'for ideal sub-commander' stereotype. That was if he wasn't yawning just now and tapping his fingers on the chairs arm rest.
"An angel we can't touch, not until it's long since healed anyway..." Kouzou Fuyutsuki mumbled under his breath. After the invigorating game of chess Gendo had left for places unknown leaving his faithful replacement behind.
"But only because our goals are the same..." Fuyutsuki watched as the angel's cacoon spun in space, it's crystalline hard surface making an impressive display of colours when the sun hit it. However it was dark, very dark at the moment.
Fuyutsuki closed his eyes where the darkness did not seem so uninviting.
---
In the Katsuragi apartment the place was a mess. Food dishes stacked over the tables, chairs and sink with pillows blankets and odd nick-knacks sprayed across once bare patches of ground. And amid the paused chaos were bodies. Seven bodies of both genders.
Penpen could have sworn the scene only lacked the flashing red lights and several police officers checking for a pulse on the nearest body. However as he stood on the island that missed the cyclone that was Misato's party and he saw that the warm drool from his eldest care taker was still pooling near his webbed feet.
When they woke up, there'd be a whole lot of explaining to do... mused, Penpen as he slid towards an over turned platter of snacks. Helping himself to the cheesy delights he waddled off back to his fridge.
"WarrRKKK!" Penpen screeched when *Shinji* had rolled over and booted his beak. Penpen would have pecked out his eye's but the peaceful look on the pour boy let the penguins rage die away.
The penguin stared at the semi-blissful state the boy's face had become... Penpen wondered what happened to the never smiling, always twisting and turning savour that hadn't really ever had a good nights sleep in his life... The change was frightening. However a second look sent the penguin cackling it's penguin's version of a deep chuckle as it closed the door to not wake his friends. He ran the image through his head again.
*Shinji* had twisted and rested his head on *Asuka's* abdomen. His right hand now lay across her breasts. *Asuka* wasn't that much better herself. She now had a hand(placed by Penpen before his departure) resting on Shinji's butt and she was drooling slightly.
Penpen would be cheery for a few days as he once again cackled in fits of penguin laughter.
---
Though the outside appearances all seemed good, if a little odd to explain when they woke up. Their minds raged as new dreams raged in their heads.
Shinji himself was sweating rivers in the sweltering heat, while Asuka listened to her music the day before they're rematch with an angel.
~~~~~
"It's like a sauna bath in here..." Shinji muttered as he was lowered deeper into the gaping maw.
He found himself in an over inflated mockery of a play-suit beach ball cross over. He even remembered being the butt of several peoples jokes, worse was that Kaji even got a shot at me...
Finish the mission and bask in the glory of my victory... Pretty simple stuff.
+++++
"This has got to be one of the most demanding weeks of my life..." muttered Asuka as she sat comfortably on her futon reading a comic book.
"Honestly, I never thought an Angel could split in two like that... Is it honestly my fault, that it got split in half?" she muttered as she flipped the page again. The phone then rang making itself heard.
"Hello?... Your not going to be here tonight? Ok Misato, yeah sure I'll tell him..."
~~~~~
"WOW, this is hot!" Shinji exclaimed as he approached the ever widening lava lake.
He looked up and saw her eva standing just on the lip of the volcano's crate watching almost longingly as it went further from it's grasp. She seemed to have been building up a lot of tension watching Shinji's newly disfigured eva lower into the lava. 'Here's a way to lighten the mood!'
"Hey, check this out. A perfect swimmer's dive!" Shinji made his eva do the proposed dive, though a bit comically seeing something that ungainly try to look graceful.
Even Misato watching the video-link ups saw Asuka's face light up with a sense of peace.
+++++
Asuka sat back down on her futon and reviewed the weeks events in her mind. 'Sync training... god who came up with this crap?' Not that she didn't noticed how it actually did work. In fact she was counting off the seconds until she knew Shinji would walk out of the bathroom.
In fact he was humming a tune to himself... must be in a pretty good mood. The sync training kicked in just then.
"Where's Misato?" -- "At work. She called earlier shell be back later in the morning"
As Asuka glanced over her shoulder she saw Shinji freshly washed wearing his customary yellow open over shirt and his short blue shorts. 'Doesn't he know what that does to me?!' Asuka was going to turn around and go back to her comic and music when Shinji flashed her a victory sign.
"So looks like we're all alone tonight" Asuka pulled her earplugs out to make sure she hear correctly
~~~~~
Shinji glared in the harsh red haze that made up his viewing feed in his evangelion's cockpit. He glanced all around checking for the angel that was supposed to be there.
"lowering 200 metres..." One of the techs made themselves heard. Not that Shinji was paying attention. The heat was very distracting and the pressure of having smoldering hot lava on all sides of you had a way to make him sweat more.
*Crack* Shinji covered his anxiety by leaning forward and intensifying his searching when the loud intrusive cracking started to pick up pace.
"Ma'am. We're already reached the safety limit. We should stop" Misato glared at the tech that dared think they could over ride Misato's decision.
"Shinji, continue the operation"
"Don't worry I'm alright!. I'm continuing my search" Shinji let his eye's continue his search as he rested down against his seat.
"Wait... there it is!"
+++++
Shinji walked past a slightly stunned Asuka continuing his humming.
He bent over and collected his futon and covers and marched over to the connecting room. The door swished open he dropped the futon ont he ground and then shut the door with his foot in one fluid motion.
Asuka was still sitting not 5 feet away wondering all to hell what happened. The scene replaying over her mind several times when suddenly the door that had hidden the beauty swung open and a glaring Shinji was on all fours holding the door open.
"This is the impenetrable wall of Jericode!" Asuka pried her eyes from Shinji's slightly bared chest to his eyes and muttered an unintelligent answer.
"Take one step over this wall and you'll be a dead man" Asuka's mind was in slow motion and she watched as Shinji slammed the door with more of his usual fury.
"Why do Japanese sleep on the floor, this is so stupid!" Asuka felt some hurt as she replayed Shinji's entire conversation in her mind... It hurt not being trusted.
~~~~~
"Now begin capture procedure. Remember one pass. If you fail then we'll have to blast it with our N2's instead" Shinji gripped the controls harder and leaned forward preparing for the daring capture.
"Roger..." Shinji delicately leaned forward with the handles and the eva gently tilted forwards catching a new lava draft. This caused the eva to shoot at it a little faster then normal but Shinji's skill and quick thinking managed a safe capture.
"Target captured, beginning retrieval" Shinji sighed a brief blissful moment as he felt himself being lifted up to safety.
"God, It's sooo hot! I just want to get out of this disgusting suit and have a cold shower!" Shinji exclaimed as he was risen towards the surface.
"Hey, there are some hotsprings nearby. How about we go there after wards huh?" Misato's chipper voice came over the video-link.
"Sounds great!" Shinji eagerly replied. But his attention was suddenly ripped away as the cage swelled in his grasp.
"The angel's breaking free!" Shinji overheard several other things but his mind screamed fight and he knew he couldn't do it dragging a clunky broken cage around with him.
"Detaching cage!"
"Prepare for battle!" Shinji reached for his progressive knife and found... it was gone...
+++++
'It's late enough... may as well put out the midnight oil and sleep' Asuka reached for her SDAT's reverse switch. However the door to Shinji's new sleeping room swished open suddenly and she ducked her head to the pillow. He finger slipped and jabbed the pause button.
Asuka watched as Shinji stumbled his way towards the bathroom past Asuka and waited for the tell tale flush. Asuka didn't dare make a noise, the thought of sharing an apartment alone with Shinji nearly blew her poor mind at the moment.
*flush* Asuka plopped her head back in what she hoped was the same position as before. Shinji's telltale footfalls made their way to the door again. Asuka suddenly felt the wind shift as a body collapsed next to her on the futon. She popped open one eye to see if it was what she thought it was... 'SHINJI?!'
Her eye's bugged as she saw the vision of beauty in front of her. She heard her SDAT zoom into overdrive mode as her finger slipped again. 'Least it's rewinding...'
Shinji leaned over closer and Asuka looks up at him.' Maybe a quick kiss...' muses Asuka.
~~~~~
"HURRY HURRY. FALL FASTER!!" Shinji screamed willing Asuka's knife to reach his hand faster. He looked forward as a dark shape suddenly covered the red gloom in the forward screen. At the same moment he felt the satisfying addition of weight to his eva's hand.
"EAT THIS!" the knife's protective sheath blew off as Shinji dove the weapon into the core. The angel leaved itself on the weapon sending sparks flying but the angle allowed the angel to cover the eva's head with it's mouth.
"Think physics!" Asuka chimed.
'Of course the cooling liquid!' Shinji reached up ready to rip open one of the cooling pipe lines but found one hanging limp a slow exhale of chilly vapours pouring out 'I wonder how many of them of them were cut...NO TIME TO THINK LIKE THAT!'
With a scream he shoved the pipeline at the angel and the foaming, cooling gel sprayed everywhere. He worked with touch alone as he swung the knife in again hoping for the killing blow, it was getting too hot in here...
~~~~~
'Wait who am I kidding... a kiss?' Asuka was refused to move as it was her futon in the first place...
"So wake him and send him away" Asuka's eye bugged as she nearly woke up Shinji who was so near...
'So innocent... so beautiful' the light reflected off the wall and shaded his face to have it divided by light and dark. His peaceful and uninhibited breathing casting the room with a comfortable feeling.
She found herself edging closer and closer, seemingly without her thinking. She paused and she had begun to sweat when she found their lips almost touching with perhaps less then a breath separating them. A single tear slipped it's way down Shinji's cheek as he muttered one simple word...
"M...ama..."
Asuka stopped and pulled back. Shinji had muttered the one word that had the most meaning to her. However she never heard those thoughts, as saying the word had almost been a physical pain to Shinji himself as more tears welled up in the boy's sleeping form.
Asuka suddenly never felt so awful and dirty for attempting such a thing. And as another tear threatened to fall, she never felt so protective of the boy in front of her.
'So your not all bells and whistles... you hurt just like me... And I almost...' Asuka backed away from the boy and sat up looking at him again. His moment of weakness now forever gone, but still looking just the same. Asuka rolled her blanket over Shinji and collected another one for herself.
She plopped down and rolled the blanket over herself and looked back over her shoulder as Shinji twisted over in his sleep once again facing Asuka but with a few metres difference from before.
"Your just a child yourself" Asuka leaned forward 'and like any child you need protection from the world... You get it from your facade...' She pulled the blankets over her head.
'But seeing you as a normal girl with problems the same as me... But you couldn't keep your facade forever, your protection gone...' Asuka slowly nodded off to sleep but one thought crossed her head just as her eye's refused to open.
'I'll be there for you... I'll protect you too...'
+++++
"I've beaten it but..." Shinji looked up from the melting angel at the cords that were now completely shredded from the fighting. One single ripped cord out of 6 held the Evangelion from an eventual painfully slow death.
His spirits sunk as the line's fissure slowly spread all along the lines of the pipe until they met from across each other... The last line snapped.
A feeling of riding an elevator down came to his stomach just then as he begun to plummet into the fiery depths... Only until the world suddenly spun.
"Ahhh..." Shinji let loose a short hiss as his elbows smacked against the plug seat. 'But that could only happen if I was suddenly halted...'
One look up, gave him the view of a blackened strip holding itself between the original safety cords. However as the Evangelion stopped bouncing around from the shock of a sudden halt he saw that strip was an arm. An arm that connected to a body and a body that lead to it's glowing eye's even in the murky red haze.
Asuka's Evangelion held itself without any protection over Shinji prevented his death.
A feeling almost unheard of in Shinji's life came to surface just then... Gratitude, joy, inspiration, happiness... and as he looked into the burning eye's of his saviour he felt... safe in it's reach.
'I always knew I could count on you. Thank you'
A few sparse but comfortably correct words were almost whispered between the two. The context didn't matter it was only the expression.
'I... am sorry. Thank you for doing this for me... and only for me... '
---
Fuyutsuki looked over his watch in the dim glow from the yellow alert panels flashing in the office and saw the time was 5:21 am. He blinked and checked again. 'Am I finally at the age where I'll need to be taking naps?'
He lifted his sore body from the newly slept in commander chair and leaned over the railing to better view the personnel still working. Hyuga was still chugging away through his work even if he let a soft yawn escape every few minutes, Aoba had all but given up his work as he had pulled out a player of some sort with headphones, his head bobbing to a tune only his ears bothered to hear. Then there was Maya, she was all but dead. Her head hung low as she slowly typed away on her console nodding in and out of sleep, she had been working on a quadruple shift and it had almost caught up to her at full force.
"The good doctor makes an appearance" Fuyutsuki mumbled to himself as he watched Ritsuko appear under the command platform holding two cups of coffee. The scent that wafted past his nose warned him of it's potency. 'Not the usual blend, perhaps we shouldn't let her take coffee making lessons from Misato... nor cooking lessons either'
Ritsuko paused to look up as she heard the sub-commander stifle a chuckle that seemed lost in the empty office. Ritsuko turned away shrugging and walked up to her second in command.
"Maya?" Ritsuko prodded gently on her shoulder. Maya nearly fell out of the chair.
"Oh..." Maya gazed at Ritsuko for a moment before her sleepless brain made the connect "Ritsuko, yo"
Ritsuko grinned slightly at Maya's lack of formality. The 4 shifts had indefinitately caught up on the poor girl. Ritsuko offered the steaming black stuff known only as, office coffee to Maya.
"Hey, thanks chief" Maya rose the mug to her mouth and her eye's bugged out as the caffeine surged through her veins.
"Oh, it can't be that bad now is it?" Ritsuko's face made itself into a sloppy grin that had once been property of one Ryouji Kaji.
"I noticed you haven't really started on your mug" Maya pointed out. Ritsuko waved it at Hyuga.
"His preferred blend for long shifts" Ritsuko continued to smile as Maya glowered at a frowning Hyuga.
"Just cause I know a damn good energy boost liquid combination that borders toxic levels doesn't mean that it's bad" Hyuga defended his potent drink.
"It just tastes like it" Hyuga's head now faced a traitorous Shigeru Aoba as he grinned at his own remark.
"I notice that you seem to like it" Hyuga once again stood tall in his seat as he again attempted to defend his drink.
"I would too if I needed to get the paint off my 4 walls" Maya's comment came from her back as she worked again with some renewed vigour. Both Hyuga and Aoba now frowned on Maya.
"It's what got you back to work" Hyuga pointed out
"I happen to like the free expression of colours on my walls" Aoba stated.
"I'm only working this hard under threat of having more of that..." Maya waved at the mug that was on the furthest edge of her work space "And Aoba... I saw your room once and I had epileptic seizures...Honestly, you're both grown men admit it when your wrong"
Mumbled groans rose to Fuyutsuki as he grinned at the little mock comedy that was unfolding right under his nose. He sat back in the chair and stared at the angel filling the view screen.
---
Rei was the first to wake up in the aftermath that would be known forever in the minds of the few participants as the Misato party hurricane. She glanced at surroundings at collected her shoes from the door before leaving the apartment.
"That was..." Rei's mind began to fill in several appropriate ends to that line.
'Human interaction, an enjoyable experience, a new perspective on the lives of the other children...' however one little voice that had lately been waking up in the back of her mind, spoke softly and Rei paused as she looked back at the distanced apartment.
The voice picked up tempo and was making itself known by being more repetitive. She scanned the apartment windows she had left and noted that behind the closed curtains had been the first place she had ever had...
"... Fun..."
Rei walked to her broken and rotting down apartment in one of the seedier sections of Tokyo-3 running the new course of events and her new emotions to catalogue.
"That was... fun" she repeated as she climbed the stairs to her apartment.
---
Asuka awoke with the oddest feelings. Both in her mind and her body. Her eye's refused to open just yet so she focused on what was zooming around her head. It was bits and pieces of her dream that she remembered. It was odd on several layers of observation. First it was odd by the fact that while it had been her perspective she had never experienced that moment in her life. However another thing that kept flipping through her head was that the emotions that was connected to those memories felt so real... So correct... It was almost frustrating. One thing prevented her from focusing more on her emotions and dreams... Her eye's finally opened.
The room was a mess with stooges sprawled over in mock death poses over furniture with Hikari herself half off the couch. Asuka blinked for a moment and recounted. 'Where's the head stooge?' a prompt grumble above Asuka's head on the floor made her realize just where she was. She looked up.
A confused blue eyed, red headed girl named Shinji looked back. They blinked in sync.
'When is that damn sync stuff gonna wear off!?'
The two continued to stare into each other, yet Asuka gets slightly annoyed when Shinji clears his throat.
"Ahhh, Asuka... Perhaps you shouldn't stay there..." Shinji whispered almost as if he was afraid of being caught.
"..." Asuka's mind did a full revaluation when she looked down from her slightly perched position from Shinji's stomach " Oops. Umm, sorry?" Asuka grinned almost bashfully as she lifted herself up from her pillow for the night.
Shinji hefted himself up and stumbled towards the kitchen with Asuka slowly following behind. One glance at the clock told them all they needed to know.
"...5 hours sleep..." muttered Asuka as Shinji systematically begun construction on breakfast.
"Go start waking up the others" Asuka glared at Shinji for a moment, not being used to commands from her partner. Whether it be the early hour, the lack of sleep or the thoughts whipping around her head, she deemed it unimportant enough to not follow through with arguing.
"Yeah sure whatever..." Asuka scanned the disaster zone that was the living room and got a nasty idea to her mind. 'College really does inspire people'.
"Hey Shinji you making Pancakes?" Asuka's voice came from the living room door frame. Shinji checked the pots and pans he was using to cook with and noted her was making pancakes.
"Ah, yeah. When your done waking them set the table for me please?" Asuka nearly bounded out the living room with her newly gleeful joy on her face.
"There's still time before they wake up, where'd you leave the whip cream?" Asuka's voice echoed from the fridge she stuck her head into.
"Ahh..." Shinji's vocal chords were put on hold as his mind played Ring-Around-The-Rosy with some of the images that came to his imagination. It took one glance from Asuka to give his mind a swift kick in the rear "second shelf on the right"
Asuka resumed her searching and found the item of question 'time for some fun!'
Shinji watched as she left holding a feather and the half full whip cream can.
"What the hell?..." Shinji paused his cooking as he heard the light fluffy cream spurt several times from the direction that had been the living room.
An image popped into his brain at that moment. He was looking down as somebody placed whip cream on the hands of some poor sap that was about to get a rude awakening. He remembered watching with almost rapt fascination as the feather in his memory started to lightly dance across the face of the soon to be victim... then...
"She wouldn't..." a seemingly loud squishy pop was heard "Oh, no..."
"What the hell... *Shinji*...? HEY!!!" Toji's voice carried over from the living room as Asuka made a bolt across the kitchen laughing with a bounce in her step.
Toji's voice had woken up several of the others and laughter had broken out. Shinji held his stomach as Toji stormed through the kitchen with 2 whip cream hand imprints on his face.
--?--?--
Holds hands up in shocked excitement.
I...I did it... I GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE! YEAH!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL FOR WAITING! I know it's been a long wait but I finally got off my sorry rumpus and got this chapter done. If your wondering what took me so long, it was those bloody dreams of Shinji and Asuka's. That was hard to do!!!
DrakeforBake@hotmail.com
and now an Omake for the masses!
_-~Omake~-_
"Hey Asuka..." Shinji looked over from his text book at Asuka who sat across from him.
"Yeah Shinji?" She didn't bother to look up.
"Where'd we get our school uniforms from anyway?" Asuka blinked for a moment, dumbstruck by the question. He was right... where did this come from?
"Beats me... maybe there's some pervert down there that keeps little school girl outfits for their needs down their..."
"...I don't know... Why would anyone want School uniforms anyway?... I think I'll have to agree with you though... it is a little sick..."
Deep down in terminal dogma two figures, one Gendo Ikari and one Ritsuko Akagi were holding KLEENEX(or soon to be known as KEELEX when SEELE takes over the hanky business) against their running noses as they continued to sneeze.
"Damn it. I think they've caught on..." Gendo sneezed again and Ritsuko spoke up.
"Your sure the children found out about our panty radar tracking devices? That why you sneezed so hard?" Gendo shook his head.
"Nope, that was another dude at the cafeteria complaining about the asshole that rose the prices on the tapioca pudding cups" Ritsuko sweat dropped 'I'll bet you wear the one to order all Magi to a tetris tournament to beat the international champion!! the other day!!'
Gendo promptly sneezed again.
"AH HA!"
"What?"
"It was you!"
"No, no. That was the guy from natural resources complaining about how God hates him..."
"Why would you sneeze to that?"
"Simple... I'm god. And I hate him..." Ritsuko stared at Gendo disbelieving "...ok, ok... It was Fuyutsuki... He just found out I rigged the chessboard with landmines... I won't lose this time..."
_-~end of Omake~-_
Do take note... that was just silly and weird.
That's why I like it ^.^
I got it done finally and I hope for you all to enjoy it. For those of you who had valiantly tried(and failed might I add) the mistake I did between those 2 earlier chapters was this. They both happened in the same day. One started with having them at the doctor's office the other ended with them finally getting home... So how in this time frame could these descriptions have been so different?
Chapter 5
-"Ok so we're all done" Shinji got up and claimed the clothing that he deposited earlier, a yellow sundress and a the blue choker that Asuka insisted.
-And Asuka was wearing much more comfortable street clothing, that Misato had complimented as being "sexier then normal".
Chapter 6
- The day hadn't gone by for less then 20 minutes when Asuka and Shinji in there school uniforms trudged their way to the apartment.
Same day... different clothing?... where did they get the school uniforms from, hmmm? Oh OH OMAKE IDEA OMAKE IDEA!@!!
'...' stands for thought
"..." stands for talking
--?--?-- stands for beginning and end.
~~...~~ stands for author interruption(Me, making myself heard) and has little relevence to the story
--- stands for... I guess the next Scene
*Shinji* or *Ikari* stand for someone referring to Asuka in Shinji's body
*Asuka* or *Sohryu* stand for someone referring to Shinji in Asuka's body
+++++ stands for Asuka's dream
~~~~~ stands for Shinji''s dream
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
World from the eye's of Another
08: The Aftermath / Dreaming of Reality
--?--?--
In the cold harshness of the void, a single simple grey form floated along the edges of a green, blue planet that humanity called home.
The NERV technications spent their Monday morning watching the 15th angel 'Arael' as it continued it's orbit over the Earth.
However one of those men was not a lowly bridge bunny, for he sat on the highest platform in the command chair. His long gone grey hair being neatly combed back showing his eagle's peak and his strong chin could have made him somebodies poster boy for 'for ideal sub-commander' stereotype. That was if he wasn't yawning just now and tapping his fingers on the chairs arm rest.
"An angel we can't touch, not until it's long since healed anyway..." Kouzou Fuyutsuki mumbled under his breath. After the invigorating game of chess Gendo had left for places unknown leaving his faithful replacement behind.
"But only because our goals are the same..." Fuyutsuki watched as the angel's cacoon spun in space, it's crystalline hard surface making an impressive display of colours when the sun hit it. However it was dark, very dark at the moment.
Fuyutsuki closed his eyes where the darkness did not seem so uninviting.
---
In the Katsuragi apartment the place was a mess. Food dishes stacked over the tables, chairs and sink with pillows blankets and odd nick-knacks sprayed across once bare patches of ground. And amid the paused chaos were bodies. Seven bodies of both genders.
Penpen could have sworn the scene only lacked the flashing red lights and several police officers checking for a pulse on the nearest body. However as he stood on the island that missed the cyclone that was Misato's party and he saw that the warm drool from his eldest care taker was still pooling near his webbed feet.
When they woke up, there'd be a whole lot of explaining to do... mused, Penpen as he slid towards an over turned platter of snacks. Helping himself to the cheesy delights he waddled off back to his fridge.
"WarrRKKK!" Penpen screeched when *Shinji* had rolled over and booted his beak. Penpen would have pecked out his eye's but the peaceful look on the pour boy let the penguins rage die away.
The penguin stared at the semi-blissful state the boy's face had become... Penpen wondered what happened to the never smiling, always twisting and turning savour that hadn't really ever had a good nights sleep in his life... The change was frightening. However a second look sent the penguin cackling it's penguin's version of a deep chuckle as it closed the door to not wake his friends. He ran the image through his head again.
*Shinji* had twisted and rested his head on *Asuka's* abdomen. His right hand now lay across her breasts. *Asuka* wasn't that much better herself. She now had a hand(placed by Penpen before his departure) resting on Shinji's butt and she was drooling slightly.
Penpen would be cheery for a few days as he once again cackled in fits of penguin laughter.
---
Though the outside appearances all seemed good, if a little odd to explain when they woke up. Their minds raged as new dreams raged in their heads.
Shinji himself was sweating rivers in the sweltering heat, while Asuka listened to her music the day before they're rematch with an angel.
~~~~~
"It's like a sauna bath in here..." Shinji muttered as he was lowered deeper into the gaping maw.
He found himself in an over inflated mockery of a play-suit beach ball cross over. He even remembered being the butt of several peoples jokes, worse was that Kaji even got a shot at me...
Finish the mission and bask in the glory of my victory... Pretty simple stuff.
+++++
"This has got to be one of the most demanding weeks of my life..." muttered Asuka as she sat comfortably on her futon reading a comic book.
"Honestly, I never thought an Angel could split in two like that... Is it honestly my fault, that it got split in half?" she muttered as she flipped the page again. The phone then rang making itself heard.
"Hello?... Your not going to be here tonight? Ok Misato, yeah sure I'll tell him..."
~~~~~
"WOW, this is hot!" Shinji exclaimed as he approached the ever widening lava lake.
He looked up and saw her eva standing just on the lip of the volcano's crate watching almost longingly as it went further from it's grasp. She seemed to have been building up a lot of tension watching Shinji's newly disfigured eva lower into the lava. 'Here's a way to lighten the mood!'
"Hey, check this out. A perfect swimmer's dive!" Shinji made his eva do the proposed dive, though a bit comically seeing something that ungainly try to look graceful.
Even Misato watching the video-link ups saw Asuka's face light up with a sense of peace.
+++++
Asuka sat back down on her futon and reviewed the weeks events in her mind. 'Sync training... god who came up with this crap?' Not that she didn't noticed how it actually did work. In fact she was counting off the seconds until she knew Shinji would walk out of the bathroom.
In fact he was humming a tune to himself... must be in a pretty good mood. The sync training kicked in just then.
"Where's Misato?" -- "At work. She called earlier shell be back later in the morning"
As Asuka glanced over her shoulder she saw Shinji freshly washed wearing his customary yellow open over shirt and his short blue shorts. 'Doesn't he know what that does to me?!' Asuka was going to turn around and go back to her comic and music when Shinji flashed her a victory sign.
"So looks like we're all alone tonight" Asuka pulled her earplugs out to make sure she hear correctly
~~~~~
Shinji glared in the harsh red haze that made up his viewing feed in his evangelion's cockpit. He glanced all around checking for the angel that was supposed to be there.
"lowering 200 metres..." One of the techs made themselves heard. Not that Shinji was paying attention. The heat was very distracting and the pressure of having smoldering hot lava on all sides of you had a way to make him sweat more.
*Crack* Shinji covered his anxiety by leaning forward and intensifying his searching when the loud intrusive cracking started to pick up pace.
"Ma'am. We're already reached the safety limit. We should stop" Misato glared at the tech that dared think they could over ride Misato's decision.
"Shinji, continue the operation"
"Don't worry I'm alright!. I'm continuing my search" Shinji let his eye's continue his search as he rested down against his seat.
"Wait... there it is!"
+++++
Shinji walked past a slightly stunned Asuka continuing his humming.
He bent over and collected his futon and covers and marched over to the connecting room. The door swished open he dropped the futon ont he ground and then shut the door with his foot in one fluid motion.
Asuka was still sitting not 5 feet away wondering all to hell what happened. The scene replaying over her mind several times when suddenly the door that had hidden the beauty swung open and a glaring Shinji was on all fours holding the door open.
"This is the impenetrable wall of Jericode!" Asuka pried her eyes from Shinji's slightly bared chest to his eyes and muttered an unintelligent answer.
"Take one step over this wall and you'll be a dead man" Asuka's mind was in slow motion and she watched as Shinji slammed the door with more of his usual fury.
"Why do Japanese sleep on the floor, this is so stupid!" Asuka felt some hurt as she replayed Shinji's entire conversation in her mind... It hurt not being trusted.
~~~~~
"Now begin capture procedure. Remember one pass. If you fail then we'll have to blast it with our N2's instead" Shinji gripped the controls harder and leaned forward preparing for the daring capture.
"Roger..." Shinji delicately leaned forward with the handles and the eva gently tilted forwards catching a new lava draft. This caused the eva to shoot at it a little faster then normal but Shinji's skill and quick thinking managed a safe capture.
"Target captured, beginning retrieval" Shinji sighed a brief blissful moment as he felt himself being lifted up to safety.
"God, It's sooo hot! I just want to get out of this disgusting suit and have a cold shower!" Shinji exclaimed as he was risen towards the surface.
"Hey, there are some hotsprings nearby. How about we go there after wards huh?" Misato's chipper voice came over the video-link.
"Sounds great!" Shinji eagerly replied. But his attention was suddenly ripped away as the cage swelled in his grasp.
"The angel's breaking free!" Shinji overheard several other things but his mind screamed fight and he knew he couldn't do it dragging a clunky broken cage around with him.
"Detaching cage!"
"Prepare for battle!" Shinji reached for his progressive knife and found... it was gone...
+++++
'It's late enough... may as well put out the midnight oil and sleep' Asuka reached for her SDAT's reverse switch. However the door to Shinji's new sleeping room swished open suddenly and she ducked her head to the pillow. He finger slipped and jabbed the pause button.
Asuka watched as Shinji stumbled his way towards the bathroom past Asuka and waited for the tell tale flush. Asuka didn't dare make a noise, the thought of sharing an apartment alone with Shinji nearly blew her poor mind at the moment.
*flush* Asuka plopped her head back in what she hoped was the same position as before. Shinji's telltale footfalls made their way to the door again. Asuka suddenly felt the wind shift as a body collapsed next to her on the futon. She popped open one eye to see if it was what she thought it was... 'SHINJI?!'
Her eye's bugged as she saw the vision of beauty in front of her. She heard her SDAT zoom into overdrive mode as her finger slipped again. 'Least it's rewinding...'
Shinji leaned over closer and Asuka looks up at him.' Maybe a quick kiss...' muses Asuka.
~~~~~
"HURRY HURRY. FALL FASTER!!" Shinji screamed willing Asuka's knife to reach his hand faster. He looked forward as a dark shape suddenly covered the red gloom in the forward screen. At the same moment he felt the satisfying addition of weight to his eva's hand.
"EAT THIS!" the knife's protective sheath blew off as Shinji dove the weapon into the core. The angel leaved itself on the weapon sending sparks flying but the angle allowed the angel to cover the eva's head with it's mouth.
"Think physics!" Asuka chimed.
'Of course the cooling liquid!' Shinji reached up ready to rip open one of the cooling pipe lines but found one hanging limp a slow exhale of chilly vapours pouring out 'I wonder how many of them of them were cut...NO TIME TO THINK LIKE THAT!'
With a scream he shoved the pipeline at the angel and the foaming, cooling gel sprayed everywhere. He worked with touch alone as he swung the knife in again hoping for the killing blow, it was getting too hot in here...
~~~~~
'Wait who am I kidding... a kiss?' Asuka was refused to move as it was her futon in the first place...
"So wake him and send him away" Asuka's eye bugged as she nearly woke up Shinji who was so near...
'So innocent... so beautiful' the light reflected off the wall and shaded his face to have it divided by light and dark. His peaceful and uninhibited breathing casting the room with a comfortable feeling.
She found herself edging closer and closer, seemingly without her thinking. She paused and she had begun to sweat when she found their lips almost touching with perhaps less then a breath separating them. A single tear slipped it's way down Shinji's cheek as he muttered one simple word...
"M...ama..."
Asuka stopped and pulled back. Shinji had muttered the one word that had the most meaning to her. However she never heard those thoughts, as saying the word had almost been a physical pain to Shinji himself as more tears welled up in the boy's sleeping form.
Asuka suddenly never felt so awful and dirty for attempting such a thing. And as another tear threatened to fall, she never felt so protective of the boy in front of her.
'So your not all bells and whistles... you hurt just like me... And I almost...' Asuka backed away from the boy and sat up looking at him again. His moment of weakness now forever gone, but still looking just the same. Asuka rolled her blanket over Shinji and collected another one for herself.
She plopped down and rolled the blanket over herself and looked back over her shoulder as Shinji twisted over in his sleep once again facing Asuka but with a few metres difference from before.
"Your just a child yourself" Asuka leaned forward 'and like any child you need protection from the world... You get it from your facade...' She pulled the blankets over her head.
'But seeing you as a normal girl with problems the same as me... But you couldn't keep your facade forever, your protection gone...' Asuka slowly nodded off to sleep but one thought crossed her head just as her eye's refused to open.
'I'll be there for you... I'll protect you too...'
+++++
"I've beaten it but..." Shinji looked up from the melting angel at the cords that were now completely shredded from the fighting. One single ripped cord out of 6 held the Evangelion from an eventual painfully slow death.
His spirits sunk as the line's fissure slowly spread all along the lines of the pipe until they met from across each other... The last line snapped.
A feeling of riding an elevator down came to his stomach just then as he begun to plummet into the fiery depths... Only until the world suddenly spun.
"Ahhh..." Shinji let loose a short hiss as his elbows smacked against the plug seat. 'But that could only happen if I was suddenly halted...'
One look up, gave him the view of a blackened strip holding itself between the original safety cords. However as the Evangelion stopped bouncing around from the shock of a sudden halt he saw that strip was an arm. An arm that connected to a body and a body that lead to it's glowing eye's even in the murky red haze.
Asuka's Evangelion held itself without any protection over Shinji prevented his death.
A feeling almost unheard of in Shinji's life came to surface just then... Gratitude, joy, inspiration, happiness... and as he looked into the burning eye's of his saviour he felt... safe in it's reach.
'I always knew I could count on you. Thank you'
A few sparse but comfortably correct words were almost whispered between the two. The context didn't matter it was only the expression.
'I... am sorry. Thank you for doing this for me... and only for me... '
---
Fuyutsuki looked over his watch in the dim glow from the yellow alert panels flashing in the office and saw the time was 5:21 am. He blinked and checked again. 'Am I finally at the age where I'll need to be taking naps?'
He lifted his sore body from the newly slept in commander chair and leaned over the railing to better view the personnel still working. Hyuga was still chugging away through his work even if he let a soft yawn escape every few minutes, Aoba had all but given up his work as he had pulled out a player of some sort with headphones, his head bobbing to a tune only his ears bothered to hear. Then there was Maya, she was all but dead. Her head hung low as she slowly typed away on her console nodding in and out of sleep, she had been working on a quadruple shift and it had almost caught up to her at full force.
"The good doctor makes an appearance" Fuyutsuki mumbled to himself as he watched Ritsuko appear under the command platform holding two cups of coffee. The scent that wafted past his nose warned him of it's potency. 'Not the usual blend, perhaps we shouldn't let her take coffee making lessons from Misato... nor cooking lessons either'
Ritsuko paused to look up as she heard the sub-commander stifle a chuckle that seemed lost in the empty office. Ritsuko turned away shrugging and walked up to her second in command.
"Maya?" Ritsuko prodded gently on her shoulder. Maya nearly fell out of the chair.
"Oh..." Maya gazed at Ritsuko for a moment before her sleepless brain made the connect "Ritsuko, yo"
Ritsuko grinned slightly at Maya's lack of formality. The 4 shifts had indefinitately caught up on the poor girl. Ritsuko offered the steaming black stuff known only as, office coffee to Maya.
"Hey, thanks chief" Maya rose the mug to her mouth and her eye's bugged out as the caffeine surged through her veins.
"Oh, it can't be that bad now is it?" Ritsuko's face made itself into a sloppy grin that had once been property of one Ryouji Kaji.
"I noticed you haven't really started on your mug" Maya pointed out. Ritsuko waved it at Hyuga.
"His preferred blend for long shifts" Ritsuko continued to smile as Maya glowered at a frowning Hyuga.
"Just cause I know a damn good energy boost liquid combination that borders toxic levels doesn't mean that it's bad" Hyuga defended his potent drink.
"It just tastes like it" Hyuga's head now faced a traitorous Shigeru Aoba as he grinned at his own remark.
"I notice that you seem to like it" Hyuga once again stood tall in his seat as he again attempted to defend his drink.
"I would too if I needed to get the paint off my 4 walls" Maya's comment came from her back as she worked again with some renewed vigour. Both Hyuga and Aoba now frowned on Maya.
"It's what got you back to work" Hyuga pointed out
"I happen to like the free expression of colours on my walls" Aoba stated.
"I'm only working this hard under threat of having more of that..." Maya waved at the mug that was on the furthest edge of her work space "And Aoba... I saw your room once and I had epileptic seizures...Honestly, you're both grown men admit it when your wrong"
Mumbled groans rose to Fuyutsuki as he grinned at the little mock comedy that was unfolding right under his nose. He sat back in the chair and stared at the angel filling the view screen.
---
Rei was the first to wake up in the aftermath that would be known forever in the minds of the few participants as the Misato party hurricane. She glanced at surroundings at collected her shoes from the door before leaving the apartment.
"That was..." Rei's mind began to fill in several appropriate ends to that line.
'Human interaction, an enjoyable experience, a new perspective on the lives of the other children...' however one little voice that had lately been waking up in the back of her mind, spoke softly and Rei paused as she looked back at the distanced apartment.
The voice picked up tempo and was making itself known by being more repetitive. She scanned the apartment windows she had left and noted that behind the closed curtains had been the first place she had ever had...
"... Fun..."
Rei walked to her broken and rotting down apartment in one of the seedier sections of Tokyo-3 running the new course of events and her new emotions to catalogue.
"That was... fun" she repeated as she climbed the stairs to her apartment.
---
Asuka awoke with the oddest feelings. Both in her mind and her body. Her eye's refused to open just yet so she focused on what was zooming around her head. It was bits and pieces of her dream that she remembered. It was odd on several layers of observation. First it was odd by the fact that while it had been her perspective she had never experienced that moment in her life. However another thing that kept flipping through her head was that the emotions that was connected to those memories felt so real... So correct... It was almost frustrating. One thing prevented her from focusing more on her emotions and dreams... Her eye's finally opened.
The room was a mess with stooges sprawled over in mock death poses over furniture with Hikari herself half off the couch. Asuka blinked for a moment and recounted. 'Where's the head stooge?' a prompt grumble above Asuka's head on the floor made her realize just where she was. She looked up.
A confused blue eyed, red headed girl named Shinji looked back. They blinked in sync.
'When is that damn sync stuff gonna wear off!?'
The two continued to stare into each other, yet Asuka gets slightly annoyed when Shinji clears his throat.
"Ahhh, Asuka... Perhaps you shouldn't stay there..." Shinji whispered almost as if he was afraid of being caught.
"..." Asuka's mind did a full revaluation when she looked down from her slightly perched position from Shinji's stomach " Oops. Umm, sorry?" Asuka grinned almost bashfully as she lifted herself up from her pillow for the night.
Shinji hefted himself up and stumbled towards the kitchen with Asuka slowly following behind. One glance at the clock told them all they needed to know.
"...5 hours sleep..." muttered Asuka as Shinji systematically begun construction on breakfast.
"Go start waking up the others" Asuka glared at Shinji for a moment, not being used to commands from her partner. Whether it be the early hour, the lack of sleep or the thoughts whipping around her head, she deemed it unimportant enough to not follow through with arguing.
"Yeah sure whatever..." Asuka scanned the disaster zone that was the living room and got a nasty idea to her mind. 'College really does inspire people'.
"Hey Shinji you making Pancakes?" Asuka's voice came from the living room door frame. Shinji checked the pots and pans he was using to cook with and noted her was making pancakes.
"Ah, yeah. When your done waking them set the table for me please?" Asuka nearly bounded out the living room with her newly gleeful joy on her face.
"There's still time before they wake up, where'd you leave the whip cream?" Asuka's voice echoed from the fridge she stuck her head into.
"Ahh..." Shinji's vocal chords were put on hold as his mind played Ring-Around-The-Rosy with some of the images that came to his imagination. It took one glance from Asuka to give his mind a swift kick in the rear "second shelf on the right"
Asuka resumed her searching and found the item of question 'time for some fun!'
Shinji watched as she left holding a feather and the half full whip cream can.
"What the hell?..." Shinji paused his cooking as he heard the light fluffy cream spurt several times from the direction that had been the living room.
An image popped into his brain at that moment. He was looking down as somebody placed whip cream on the hands of some poor sap that was about to get a rude awakening. He remembered watching with almost rapt fascination as the feather in his memory started to lightly dance across the face of the soon to be victim... then...
"She wouldn't..." a seemingly loud squishy pop was heard "Oh, no..."
"What the hell... *Shinji*...? HEY!!!" Toji's voice carried over from the living room as Asuka made a bolt across the kitchen laughing with a bounce in her step.
Toji's voice had woken up several of the others and laughter had broken out. Shinji held his stomach as Toji stormed through the kitchen with 2 whip cream hand imprints on his face.
--?--?--
Holds hands up in shocked excitement.
I...I did it... I GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE! YEAH!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL FOR WAITING! I know it's been a long wait but I finally got off my sorry rumpus and got this chapter done. If your wondering what took me so long, it was those bloody dreams of Shinji and Asuka's. That was hard to do!!!
DrakeforBake@hotmail.com
and now an Omake for the masses!
_-~Omake~-_
"Hey Asuka..." Shinji looked over from his text book at Asuka who sat across from him.
"Yeah Shinji?" She didn't bother to look up.
"Where'd we get our school uniforms from anyway?" Asuka blinked for a moment, dumbstruck by the question. He was right... where did this come from?
"Beats me... maybe there's some pervert down there that keeps little school girl outfits for their needs down their..."
"...I don't know... Why would anyone want School uniforms anyway?... I think I'll have to agree with you though... it is a little sick..."
Deep down in terminal dogma two figures, one Gendo Ikari and one Ritsuko Akagi were holding KLEENEX(or soon to be known as KEELEX when SEELE takes over the hanky business) against their running noses as they continued to sneeze.
"Damn it. I think they've caught on..." Gendo sneezed again and Ritsuko spoke up.
"Your sure the children found out about our panty radar tracking devices? That why you sneezed so hard?" Gendo shook his head.
"Nope, that was another dude at the cafeteria complaining about the asshole that rose the prices on the tapioca pudding cups" Ritsuko sweat dropped 'I'll bet you wear the one to order all Magi to a tetris tournament to beat the international champion!! the other day!!'
Gendo promptly sneezed again.
"AH HA!"
"What?"
"It was you!"
"No, no. That was the guy from natural resources complaining about how God hates him..."
"Why would you sneeze to that?"
"Simple... I'm god. And I hate him..." Ritsuko stared at Gendo disbelieving "...ok, ok... It was Fuyutsuki... He just found out I rigged the chessboard with landmines... I won't lose this time..."
_-~end of Omake~-_
Do take note... that was just silly and weird.
That's why I like it ^.^