Time for another round of stupidity with Neon Genesis Evangelion: Fourth Impact

I just realized that the title might be giving something away. Too bad.

Insert paragraph of rambling…

Disclaimer: if you haven't read it in the prologue, then what are you doing here? That's the entire reason the prologue exists.

Fourth Impact

Chapter 3: Dinner and a Promise

"Damn." Asuka turned off the television. It was evening. Shinji was cooking dinner. Misato still hadn't returned. Pen-pen had spent the entire day safely locked in his fridge. Asuka was bored. She needed something to take her mind off of that day.

"Shinji? Is dinner ready yet?" a muffled affirmative came from the kitchen.

She stormed in to see him doing something that involved a lot of pots. "What is wrong?" he asked her, hoping to get a different answer than the last time.

"Everyone is ignoring me!" she shouted at him. "Tomorrow's my birthday and no one cares!"

Shinji smiled. "I care." He set down the first dish. Asuka blinked. It looked like something out of a German dinner. It smelled like it too. She glanced at Shinji who was putting down another dish.

"What is this?" she demanded.

"I thought that I'd try something new, since tomorrow is your birthday." He answered. "I found a bunch of German recipes online, and decided to give you an early present since we're alone."

She decided not to push her luck and they began to eat. She slowly began to smile as Shinji's delicious cooking began to work it's magic on her. "This is really great!" she exclaimed. He smiled shyly.

Suddenly she stopped, placing her fork down on the table. Tears welled up in her eyes as memories of Germany came flooding back. Startled, Shinji walked over to her chair and knelt down beside her. "Asuka?"

"They never cared about me at all!" she wailed. "No one cared about me." she turned away from him. "No cares!"

"That's not true. I just told you-"

"You don't count, Shinji." She snapped. "You care about everyone. You cared about Wondergirl, the tramp, you even cared about that damn Angel even after he betrayed you." she tried to stop the tears, but they fell against her will. "Even back at home, no one noticed when my birthday would come by. All they'd notice is that I'd get sad, and they never cared about that as long as I could pilot Eva."

Shinji gulped. A voice in the back of his head yelled at him to stop, but he for the first time in his life he completely abandoned caution.

He spun her around so that she was facing him, and put his arms around her. She stiffened. "We all care about you here, Asuka." He told her. "We've celebrated every birthday you've had here."

"I had to yell at you to get you to remember." She reminded him. Get off me, you pervert…her thought was interrupted.

"I promise to remember from now on." He told her. "I'll always care about you, Asuka."

"Really?" she asked. He nodded.

"I promise." She finally wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer and letting the tears fall freely. Even if he doesn't know, he still cares…

"Asuka?" he asked softly. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I'm too upset right now to stop you." she replied.

"Who is it?" he asked, concern making his voice waver. "Who are you in love with?" she pulled back and hit him.

"You idiot." She exclaimed. "You don't know how I feel about…you…at all."

"I do now."

"How sweet." Said Misato. She smirked at Ritsuko. The two of them had returned to find Rei still watching the monitor. Only now the blue-haired girl was covered in sweat, her hair and clothes were ruffled, and she had a dreamy smile on her face. The two women had decided that it would be better not to ask what happened. The last time they did Rei took it literally and they ended up with way too much information. Oddly enough Rei refused to tell them who, though they got plenty of what and how and where...

"I guess it worked out after all." Ritsuko sighed. "You will keep them from doing anything, right?" no response. Ritsuko turned to her friend, who was downing another beer.

When she finished, Misato grinned at the scientist. "They're adults now, Ritsuko. They can fool around if they want to."

"You're impossible." Ritsuko glared at Misato.

Rei sat back in her seat. "Does this mean we let them out now?" she asked.

Misato shook her head. "It's 9:30. They aren't going anywhere."

Rei glanced back at the screen. "Then when are we going to move that concrete block from in front of the door? You have gotten many calls complaining about blocking the pathway."

Misato sweatdropped. "We can deal with that later."

"Quiet you two!" Ritsuko hissed. "They're going into Shinji's room!"

"Really?" Misato gasped. She turned to the monitor, switching it to the camera in Shinji's room. They watched as Shinji and Asuka sat down on his bed, their faces getting closer, and closer, and,

Click.

The two women turned to face Rei, who removed her hand from the console. "I believe that this moment requires privacy." The two women glared at Rei.

"Rei, what have we told you about interfering with our plans?' asked Misato.

"Make sure I have an exit before I do so." Rei recited, yanking out remote video feed and running off with it.

Misato snarled, but Ritsuko held her back. "Misato, you'll never catch her."

"But without the video feed we can't watch anymore!" Misato whined.

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Here, just have drink." She pushed a beer can at Misato, who absently opened it and drank it down in one gulp.

AN: Well, there's the end of the WAFF. In my opinion it wasn't very WAFFy, but I was torn between making it romantic and making it in character. I mean, think about it, we're talking two angsty hormonal teenagers with mental problems and difficulties dealing with anger. What can you expect?