A quick warning to any new readers, this story is set after the events of 'Coming Closer'. I'd recommend reading that first if you want to fully enjoy the following story.
Disclaimer - Why do I need to do this. I mean, do they honestly believe there's a single reader out there who'd believe that Neon Genesis Evangelion belonged to me, and not GAINAX. I'm just going to assume that you already know that this fanfic is the closest I'll ever come to owning Evangelion or any of it's characters.
Shattered Glass Minds, a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction by Richard Abraham.
He ran.
Hurtful words, still lingering in the air, chased him as he tried to escape.
After a few steps, the strength in his legs seemed to drain away and he stumbled to a halt. The physical and mental effort the boy needed to remain standing showed in the trembling of his slight frame, and the glistening of moisture in his eyes.
Memories of a night not too long ago surfaced to the front of his consciousness. Memories of Misato's tears, Misato's grief, Misato's warmth.
Unable to work up enough power to continue his flight, or enough courage to return to the girl he had been running from, he just stood there, watching the foetal figure of his flatmate.
She looked like a puppet with her strings cut. Curled up into herself, her knees drawn up to her chest, she had wrapped her arms tightly around her legs. Apart from this, she was dead to the world. She had not said anything since telling him that she hated him. Neither had she moved a muscle.
Shinji, quickly grew worried as he stood there minute after minute, watching her unresponsive form.
After a few more minutes, a medical team arrived in full biohazard suits and tried to pick up Asuka to place her in the ambulance.
The medic who had reached out to take hold of Asuka stumbled back as Asuka slapped his hand away with force that Shinji guessed would leave a bruise.
"Don't touch me."
Shinji was stunned by the tone of her voice. A dead, lifeless voice emphasized all the more by the contrast with the violence she had just shown.
"Asuka." Shinji whispered.
The difference between her normal behaviour and her current posture, was a warning to anyone with an ounce of perception. It told a story. A story of defeat, and resignation.
It looked as if the angel had somehow stripped her of her pride.
As she passed him to climb into the ambulance, Shinji took a closer look into her eyes.
It seemed that the pain that she had suffered through during the angel's attack lingered there. It was pretty obvious, even to Shinji, that Asuka's mind was not in the present, focussing instead on the traumatic events of the recent past.
The medic closing the rear doors to the ambulance found his progress impeded by a young boy with soft blue eyes that were currently locked onto his own.
"Can I ride with her?"
"Sorry kid, Dr Akagi's orders are no prolonged contact until she's checked her out."
There it was. The excuse Shinji needed to walk away so he could stick his head under a pillow and pretend that everything was going to be alright.
He broke eye contact with the medic to check on the patient sitting on a stretcher inside the ambulance.
"Oh... alright." Shame flooded through him and his eyes dropped to the ground.
Shinji couldn't raise his eyes to meet the eyes of either Asuka's or the medic's. Already, he regretted his decision. Though standing there watching the medic climb into the van, he couldn't work up the courage to reverse his choice. This just made him all the more ashamed.
So he stood there and watched as the ambulance engine came to life and it started to move away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She looked so beautiful. Serene and untroubled in her slumber, unlike during the last night of their training for the seventh angel.
However, it was a false beauty, the peace brought about from outside intervention rather than from within.
Apparently, Asuka had been less than co-operative when she had been brought in. She point blank refused to let any of the staff examine her. When the nurses had insisted, Asuka's objections degenerated into threats and near violence. That was when the decision had been taken to have Asuka sedated.
Shinji had been here, standing just inside the door to Asuka's private room, for the last half hour.
It had taken an hour of standing outside the room just to work up enough nerve to enter. When the doctors discovered him, they had told him that it was alright to be here, but to call for help should she become violent again upon awakening.
It was another twenty minutes before the slumbering form on the bed started to stir. Her eyes opened slowly. Shinji was surprised and worried by the lack of life in her eyes, as if someone had smothered the fire within.
Asuka seemed to sense another presence in the room and shifted her head to look to her left. Upon spotting Shinji, a little of the old fire returned to her eyes. Barely a second after, Shinji dropped eye contact in favour of studying his shoes, fully expecting pain to be dished out liberally.
"What are you doing in here pervert." Her voice dripped scorn.
This was dangerous ground. The last time he had heard that tone of voice, she had exploded and proceeded to vent on him. His next response would either soothe the raging beast, or trigger the eruption of Mt Asuka.
"This room is my home away from home. I just wondered what the view was like from this side of the bed."
At that moment, the same thought passed through the heads of two young teens; Wow! Where did that come from?
Shinji allowed a small self-depreciating smile to grow and shrugged his shoulders.
He almost missed it when Asuka's mouth twitched into a small genuine smile. Of course, it lasted only a second before transforming into the larger sarcastic smirk that he was much more familiar with.
"Idiot."
Shinji's smile widened despite Asuka's insult.
-The End-
Authors notes
Sigh I was recently reading through all of my stories (I do so in order to gauge the evolution of my writing skills, or lack thereof). When comparing this chapter to that of the next (and even some previous works), I had to flinch at some parts.
Why didn't anyone tell me about all those cornier than corny lines and mangled grammar?
Despite the revisions I've made here, I'm still no-where near satisfied and I suppose it's doubtful I ever will be (I tend to be my own worst critic).
Okay, on to the grovelling.
Please, please, please send me your CC on the revisions I've made to this chapter. I'd like to know if the changes have improved the chapter at all.
Richard.
Disclaimer - Why do I need to do this. I mean, do they honestly believe there's a single reader out there who'd believe that Neon Genesis Evangelion belonged to me, and not GAINAX. I'm just going to assume that you already know that this fanfic is the closest I'll ever come to owning Evangelion or any of it's characters.
Shattered Glass Minds, a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction by Richard Abraham.
He ran.
Hurtful words, still lingering in the air, chased him as he tried to escape.
After a few steps, the strength in his legs seemed to drain away and he stumbled to a halt. The physical and mental effort the boy needed to remain standing showed in the trembling of his slight frame, and the glistening of moisture in his eyes.
Memories of a night not too long ago surfaced to the front of his consciousness. Memories of Misato's tears, Misato's grief, Misato's warmth.
Unable to work up enough power to continue his flight, or enough courage to return to the girl he had been running from, he just stood there, watching the foetal figure of his flatmate.
She looked like a puppet with her strings cut. Curled up into herself, her knees drawn up to her chest, she had wrapped her arms tightly around her legs. Apart from this, she was dead to the world. She had not said anything since telling him that she hated him. Neither had she moved a muscle.
Shinji, quickly grew worried as he stood there minute after minute, watching her unresponsive form.
After a few more minutes, a medical team arrived in full biohazard suits and tried to pick up Asuka to place her in the ambulance.
The medic who had reached out to take hold of Asuka stumbled back as Asuka slapped his hand away with force that Shinji guessed would leave a bruise.
"Don't touch me."
Shinji was stunned by the tone of her voice. A dead, lifeless voice emphasized all the more by the contrast with the violence she had just shown.
"Asuka." Shinji whispered.
The difference between her normal behaviour and her current posture, was a warning to anyone with an ounce of perception. It told a story. A story of defeat, and resignation.
It looked as if the angel had somehow stripped her of her pride.
As she passed him to climb into the ambulance, Shinji took a closer look into her eyes.
It seemed that the pain that she had suffered through during the angel's attack lingered there. It was pretty obvious, even to Shinji, that Asuka's mind was not in the present, focussing instead on the traumatic events of the recent past.
The medic closing the rear doors to the ambulance found his progress impeded by a young boy with soft blue eyes that were currently locked onto his own.
"Can I ride with her?"
"Sorry kid, Dr Akagi's orders are no prolonged contact until she's checked her out."
There it was. The excuse Shinji needed to walk away so he could stick his head under a pillow and pretend that everything was going to be alright.
He broke eye contact with the medic to check on the patient sitting on a stretcher inside the ambulance.
"Oh... alright." Shame flooded through him and his eyes dropped to the ground.
Shinji couldn't raise his eyes to meet the eyes of either Asuka's or the medic's. Already, he regretted his decision. Though standing there watching the medic climb into the van, he couldn't work up the courage to reverse his choice. This just made him all the more ashamed.
So he stood there and watched as the ambulance engine came to life and it started to move away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She looked so beautiful. Serene and untroubled in her slumber, unlike during the last night of their training for the seventh angel.
However, it was a false beauty, the peace brought about from outside intervention rather than from within.
Apparently, Asuka had been less than co-operative when she had been brought in. She point blank refused to let any of the staff examine her. When the nurses had insisted, Asuka's objections degenerated into threats and near violence. That was when the decision had been taken to have Asuka sedated.
Shinji had been here, standing just inside the door to Asuka's private room, for the last half hour.
It had taken an hour of standing outside the room just to work up enough nerve to enter. When the doctors discovered him, they had told him that it was alright to be here, but to call for help should she become violent again upon awakening.
It was another twenty minutes before the slumbering form on the bed started to stir. Her eyes opened slowly. Shinji was surprised and worried by the lack of life in her eyes, as if someone had smothered the fire within.
Asuka seemed to sense another presence in the room and shifted her head to look to her left. Upon spotting Shinji, a little of the old fire returned to her eyes. Barely a second after, Shinji dropped eye contact in favour of studying his shoes, fully expecting pain to be dished out liberally.
"What are you doing in here pervert." Her voice dripped scorn.
This was dangerous ground. The last time he had heard that tone of voice, she had exploded and proceeded to vent on him. His next response would either soothe the raging beast, or trigger the eruption of Mt Asuka.
"This room is my home away from home. I just wondered what the view was like from this side of the bed."
At that moment, the same thought passed through the heads of two young teens; Wow! Where did that come from?
Shinji allowed a small self-depreciating smile to grow and shrugged his shoulders.
He almost missed it when Asuka's mouth twitched into a small genuine smile. Of course, it lasted only a second before transforming into the larger sarcastic smirk that he was much more familiar with.
"Idiot."
Shinji's smile widened despite Asuka's insult.
-The End-
Authors notes
Sigh I was recently reading through all of my stories (I do so in order to gauge the evolution of my writing skills, or lack thereof). When comparing this chapter to that of the next (and even some previous works), I had to flinch at some parts.
Why didn't anyone tell me about all those cornier than corny lines and mangled grammar?
Despite the revisions I've made here, I'm still no-where near satisfied and I suppose it's doubtful I ever will be (I tend to be my own worst critic).
Okay, on to the grovelling.
Please, please, please send me your CC on the revisions I've made to this chapter. I'd like to know if the changes have improved the chapter at all.
Richard.