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" and its sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should stop right here and check those out first before continuing.
Summary:
Asuka, Shinji, Aki and Rei go to the NERV swimming pool to teach the little brown haired girl how to swim.
"Swim Like You Want To Swim!"
"Wow! This is very wicked! The swimming pool is so huge!" shouted an excited Aki.
"Err yeah, it's very big honey." Shinji said though not with the same enthusiasm as his daughter. Giving the NERV swimming pool a concerned look and a glance at Asuka, who shared his concerns.
"Maybe this isn't the best idea after all." Asuka voiced out to everyone present, which consisted of her, Shinji, Aki, Rei and surprisingly PenPen, who Misato had asked to bring along for some reason. "I mean look at it. This pool is for swimming athletes, clearly not suitable for children, especially not for Aki's age. Even in the shallow end is still a bit too high for her." Asuka finished saying, already considering this to be a wasted journey.
Aki however disagreed as her face started to pout. "Oooh, but Mama I want to finally learn how to swim!" The girl complained to her overprotective mother.
Both Asuka and Shinji sighed in sync. This had been a problem for about a week. Finding out that nearly all of her kindergarten friends already knew how to swim without the aid of floaty arm rings had struck a nerve with the little girl and Aki had all but demanded that her parents finally teach her how to swim.
At first, it was adorable, especially to Shinji that Aki indeed was her mother's daughter and had that famous Soryu pride within her and that she not only wanted to be able to swim but also show off that she was the best at it. It went as far as Aki, who was infamously known not to like her bath times, willingly going into them. Her goal at that was simply to practice how long she could hold her breath underwater since her classmate Ririko had boasted that her record was twenty seconds. Heck, Aki also had attempted to practice paddling in it though the result was that she didn't have any room to move and splashed a lot of water around the bathroom, making a watery mess which she was slightly scolded for.
So when that didn't work, Aki wanted to go to the family's usual spot by the lake outside Tokyo-3 where the family went fishing and enjoy swimming. And going there had been the original plan, however, it had turned out that there was a problem. Shinji and Asuka found out recently that the lake was owned by the local area and thus fishing and even swimming were prohibited much to the dismay of the family. Shinji had brought up the idea of maybe using their high school swimming pool but that was shot down quickly as bringing Aki there would create problems for their family situation.
Fortune smiled upon Aki as her friend Rei, after becoming aware of the situation, had reminded them that NERV had their private pool, making the two parents mentally facepalm themselves for not remembering something like that.
So now that the group were there, Asuka and Shinji's parental instincts kicked in upon seeing the pool and the potential dangers towards Aki. But seeing that the little girl wasn't taking no for an answer, they had to accept the situation.
Aki being overjoyed looked like she was going to jump straight in despite not having changed into her swimwear prompting Shinji to hastily grab her, making her shriek in surprise as she was quickly cooped up from behind by him.
"No Aki, not yet." Shinji told his impatient daughter sternly and quickly while backing away and gently putting her down, well away from the swimming pool's edge.
Aki pouted, obviously upset about being kept from going into the pool. "Oooh, but why, Papa?"
"You can't go in yet because you haven't changed yet. Also, you need to wait for one of us to be with you in the pool at all times too." Shinji stated as fact.
"But PenPen is going in all by himself right now." Aki tried to argue while pointing to the penguin, which everyone in the room turned their eyes towards to and saw that PenPen was already on the diving board on the other side and started doing a few bouncing hops on the board before making a graceful dive into the pool. Well, as graceful as a warm water penguin could be.
Wanting to talk about the elephant (or more accurately, the penguin) in the room Shinji turned towards the older two girls for an answer.
"Um, does anyone know the reason why Misato asked us to bring him along with us again?" he asked, honestly wondering why their former guardian had asked them to bring the bird along, as well as being very confused on why PenPen came along willingly. It wasn't a big secret that PenPen was utterly terrified of the little girl. At best he would simply tolerate Aki's presence when necessary. So his willingness to come along with them was a bit of a surprise.
"Who knows? Misato probably bribed him with some expensive beer to help get along and play nice with Aki." Asuka figured, but was already dismissive of this conversation regarding the flightless bird and focused on her daughter.
"Ok, Schätzchen are you sure you're ok with being here?" Asuka asked as she kneeled to Aki's level.
Aki nodded.
"You sure it's not too deep or scary for you?" Asuka continued.
Aki nodded again but her brows indicated that she was slowly getting irritated.
"You sure you don't want the rubber rings to start with first?" Shinji asked, adding his concerns. The mention of those dreaded things made Aki even madder and she gave her Papa a glare which he knew answered his question.
"Ok..oh, do you want to use the bathroom before you go in?" Shinji asked yet another question.
"Nooo!" Aki angrily shouted.
"You sure you don't need to use the bathroom, Schätzchen?" Asuka asked, wanting to make properly sure that Aki went before jumping into the pool.
"Nooooo! I don't need to use the bathroom! I don't want to wear those stupid floaty things! I want to swim ON MY OWN!" Aki angry shrieked out while also stomping her foot on the tile floor she had enough of her parent's overbearing protectiveness.
For Asuka and Shinji, it has been quite a while since their daughter was had been seriously angry with both of them. Asuka and Shinji nodded to each other, already agreeing to push their worries about this and get on with the lessons. Asuka let out a sigh before reaching out her hand to Aki. "Ok Schätzchen, let's go in, shall we?"
Aki, still somewhat angry, looked at her mother's stretched hand and looked like she was about to take it for a moment before she quickly retracted it, surprising Asuka.
"I want Rei to teach me." Aki stated firmly while looking down at her feet not looking at her parents.
'Ouch' both Asuka and Shinji thought in sync. It had hurt their feelings that Aki didn't want either of them to participate in this with her. They knew that they were being a bit overbearing, but they honestly couldn't help it.
Asuka tried to say something to make Aki reconsider, but couldn't find any sort of words to say. She gave Shinji a quick look, hoping that he could say something to change the situation, but saw that he was in the same position as her. With a pained look, Asuka still smiled at Aki even though it was forced. "Ok Schätzchen, if that's what you want then Rei will teach you. I and Papa will be right here if you need us..ok?"
Aki slowly nodded. Her decision had made her Mama and Papa sad but she was stubbornly refusing to back down from this. She wanted to swim like everyone else and her parents were just annoying and getting in the way of that.
Aki turned and walked slowly away to the direction of the changing room, Rei who had been quiet throughout the exchange proceeded to follow her little friend.
"Ayanami...Rei, wait." Shinji called out making Rei pause and turn her head to the side showing she was listening to him.
"Look after Aki and keep her safe for us..please." Shinji pleaded to the blued-haired teen as he took a quick look at Asuka as she quickly walked past Rei and into the changing room after Aki.
"There is no need to worry." Rei said softly as she glanced in the direction where Aki was. "She won't drown nor will any harm come to her, because I'll protect her." Rei finished saying with such determination and certainty while she resumed following her friend.
At that moment Shinji remembered his third Angel battle with Ramiel and Operation Yashima, clearly remembering that day when Rei made a similar promise to him.
"You won't die, because I'll protect you."
Back then, he felt so reassured by her words that it had helped calm him during the battle. Even more so that Rei had put herself in direct line of the angel's blast to protect him regardless of her well-being.
So hearing those similar words from her, Shinji knew that Rei would do anything in her power to keep that promise and look after Aki, knowing for sure that she was in safe hands.
After a few short minutes of changing into their swimwear, Shinji came out first, wearing some new purple swim trunks. While he was waiting for the girls proceeded to blow up a few inflatables for the pool that he bought on the way. Just as he was blowing up a lilo bed, the girls finally come out. Aki in her red kiddie swimsuit, Asuka in her red and white two-piece swimsuit (something which Shinji was once again thankful to see again), but the surprise (or lack of it) was that Rei was just wearing her standard school swimsuit.
He wasn't the only one who was surprised as Asuka gave Rei a dull look.
"We need to get you some new swimwear Rei." Asuka said, making a mental note to remember to go clothes shopping with the blue-haired teen.
"It's suffi.." Rei began to say.
"Rei, we've been over this already so please don't start that again." Asuka cried out, already feeling emotionally drained from trying to get Rei to see the error in her logical reasoning regarding clothes.
"Can I go in now….please?" an impatient Aki asked everyone present, hoping to start.
Kneeling to Aki's level again, Asuka gave Aki a gentle caress to her face. "Yes, you can go in now Schätzchen." Asuka said though she was still uneasy about her baby going in a much too large pool. "Remember to follow Rei's instructions and me and Papa will be right here if you need us..ok?"
"Ooh..ok." Aki pouted, still somewhat peeved at her Mama's overprotectiveness. Hearing something soft hitting the water, Aki saw a few of the inflatables her Papa blew up being tossed into the pool by him.
"Papa! I said I don't need any floaty things!" Aki called out, clearly getting angry.
"It's just a precaution sweetie. Just in case you need something to hold onto in the deep water, ok?" Shinji told her and leaving no room for discussion.
Aki again pouted but deep down she was secretly thankful to her Papa for putting those things into the pool. She wouldn't admit that even now she was a bit scared of the deep end of the pool and that having something to hold on to around just in case helped ease her worries.
PenPen, who had been swimming around lazily for a bit took the chance to climb onto the inflatable bed and started relaxing on it. His first attempt at making Aki jealous of his aqua prowess had failed. Maybe if he waited for a bit for the brown-haired terror to get better and challenge her later would be better, he thought.
Rei got into the shallow end of the pool first before helping Aki in. At first, Aki nervously panicked and splashed when the water came up, reaching up to her nose when her feet touched the floor, even swallowing a bit of the water an action that made Asuka almost jump straight into the pool in an attempt to rescue her daughter but Rei had grabbed Aki before she could.
Coughing a few times Aki was gently lowered again into the water by Rei, this time Aki tilted her head up to ensure she could breathe. Asuka seeing this was conflicted on whether to just join in but didn't want to make Aki angrier with her than she already was. Feeling her hand being gently grabbed, Asuka turned to see her beloved Idiot giving her a comforting and reassuring smile.
"Hey don't worry. She's in good hands with Rei." Shinji told her.
Sighing while slumping her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension she felt. "How can you be so calm right now? Weren't you just as nervous about this as me a few minutes ago?" Asuka asked, wondering how Shinji can be ok with this now.
"Well..remember when I told you the times I had before you arrived and how Rei protected me from the Angel?" Shinji said with Asuka nodding, remembering back in the post-impact world the times when she had asked Shinji about his experience then. "Well, before the battle happened Rei had made a promise..a vow to me that I wouldn't die, that she would protect me." Shinji told her as both of them looked at Rei and Aki, the blue-haired teen was now teaching her little charge how to float on her back. "And just now Rei made a promise, a vow that nothing will happen to Aki and I trust her to keep that."
"Well, it's so touching that you have such complete trust in her." Asuka said in a sarcastic tone as she turned her face away from him.
'Oh boy.' Shinji thought. It had been a long time since he'd seen this side of Asuka, not counting when they had to 'act' during their return to this time. He could tell that Asuka was just agitated with the situation. Even now she turned her attention back to her daughter in the pool, constantly watching her, anticipating something to go wrong at any given moment.
Shinji wished he could do something to make his wife at ease with all this. Giving her a look, his mind shamelessly went into perverted territory upon seeing her in that red and white striped two-piece swimsuit.
Admittedly out of all the swimsuits he had seen her wear, including some very sexy and more revealing ones before they travelled back in time, this one was both his favourite and most memorable. He chuckled at the memory of when he first learned of thermal expansion and at this very same place no doubt.
Like a bolt of lightning, an idea had hit him, one that would benefit not only from distracting Asuka from the current situation, but would also definitely be enjoyable for them both like so many times before. He just hoped that he would be able to pull it off without being screamed at or worse smacked for suggesting it.
Taking a chance, Shinji kneeled behind Asuka before hugging her tightly making her flinch at the contact for a brief moment. "Hey, Asuka. Can you teach me again about thermal expansion?" Shinji whispered in her ear.
"Thermal expansion? What are you talking about…" Asuka wondered what her Baka was talking about before it clicked in her head, making her gasp and turn her head back to him, her face bright red. "You..you perverted hentai." Asuka whispered, but Shinji could tell that she was getting excited.
Seeing that she wasn't against it, Shinji stood up and brought Asuka up by her hand before walking away and in the direction of the changing rooms.
"Wha..wait, what about..?" Asuka resisted a bit, looking towards their daughter once again, seeing that Rei was now helping Aki learn how to paddle by walking back, Aki holding on to the blue-haired girl's hands as she kicked her legs repeatedly. Neither of them paid attention to the two young parents.
"She's fine, trust me and trust Rei as well." Shinji said to her as he once again pulled her along and was thankful that Asuka's resistance finally crumbled as they finally reached the entrance of the changing room before going in.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Shinji and Asuka didn't know actually how long they were in the changing room. Was it a few minutes, half an hour maybe? They just knew that it must have been a bit as once they returned to the pool area Aki was calling out to them, wondering where they were.
"Ah, Mama, Papa! There you are!" Aki cheerfully called out to them, looking happy to see them as she was holding onto the pool edge, no longer having any trace of anger or annoyance at them. "Where have you been?" Aki questioned her parents.
At that question both parents tried to come up with an excuse, especially a very good one and one that would explain why the two were slightly out of breath, having a full body blush and both their hair looking a bit dishevelled with Asuka's being the wildest. Also, they prayed to God that Aki wouldn't notice the few bite and scratch marks on Shinji's body.
"Oh err.." Asuka and Shinji said in sync, desperately trying to come up with something. "We were at..at the gym, Schätzchen." Asuka finally came out with an excuse.
Aki looked a bit confused, tilting her head to the side as she was holding on to the pool edge. "The Jim?"
"Err yeah honey. I and Mama thought to get some more exercise while you were busy with Rei." Shinji tried to make their feeble excuse more plausible.
"Yeah and we all know that Papa needs to exercise a bit more." Asuka added in with more confidence in this white lie as well as a jab at Shinji's current physique.
"Oh…Ok!" Aki cheerfully accepted, much to the relief of Asuka and Shinji.
However, both parents noticed that Rei was giving them a look, well her usual blank stare but the two could tell that Rei knew exactly what they had been doing and Asuka couldn't help but feel that Rei was judging them.
'Hey don't judge us.' Asuka thought angrily while giving the blue-haired girl a hard look.
"Mama, Papa! Watch me, watch me!" Aki shouted to get their attention and Rei got the signal from her little friend as she held her afloat by her belly on the water. Now in the right plank position, Aki started kicking her feet in the water, it getting more wildly till the point that water was splashing everywhere behind her. At that Rei gently removed her hand under Aki to which to the surprise of Asuka and Shinji, Aki shot forward like a mini boat engine.
Aki kept going and going, with Rei following close behind her, till she was already at the other side of the very deep end of the pool with the blue-haired teen making sure to help Aki keep afloat. PenPen, who was relaxing on the inflatable bed, was unfortunately caught in Aki's path and was knocked over and fell into the water. After surfacing his head above the water, he glared at the little terror.
"Did you watch me Mama, Papa!?" Aki shouted as she waved her arm at them from afar.
To say that Asuka and Shinji were stunned was an understatement. They were gone for a few minutes at best and Aki had already learned how to doggy paddle like a speeding torpedo.
"Mama, Papa!?" Aki called out again snapping them out of their surprise.
"That's..that's wunderbar Schätzchen!" Asuka praised her daughter. It finally kicked in how proud she was that Aki had learned to swim like this so quickly in the short time they were away.
"Yeah, that's amazing honey, well done!" Shinji added in, also showing pride in his little girl. Granted, Aki still needed to work on swimming properly but it was still amazing for him to see.
Heck, it had taken him way longer to swim under Asuka's tutelage, though he clearly remembered the main reason why it had taken him much longer. The times when it was just the two of them before Aki was born and that Asuka teaching him had turned into 'fun' times around the lake for the both of them, especially when Asuka decide to skinny d…
Shinji's thoughts were immediately interrupted when he felt himself being pushed into the pool. Shock and confusion hit him for a moment while he splashed into the water for a second before resurfacing and looking at the culprit who pushed him - which, of course, had been Asuka herself who was now looking down at him with an annoyed look and her hands on her hip.
"You were thinking of something dirty again, you hentai." Asuka said while she lean her upper body forward while on the edge of the pool. "Honestly you pervert, haven't you had enough?" she finished with a bit of blush on her face.
"Of you never." Shinji cheeky said with a smirk on his face before he quietly grabbed Asuka by her hands and pulled her into the pool too, surprising her greatly.
As Asuka resurfaced and was searching for Shinji, ready to give him some payback but was surprised again when she felt him grab and hug her tightly from behind, even feeling him lovingly kiss her neck before kissing her lip when she turned her head around to him.
"Mama! Papa!" Aki called out to them, breaking them out of their own little world. Aki was already once again swimming torpedoing towards them at great speed before she finally reached them; Asuka grabbing and hugging her daughter tightly in her arms.
The gang would stay at the NERV pool for another few hours till Aki was very tired, even falling asleep long before they reached home but nonetheless, Aki's first day of learning to swim had been a great success.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Omake:
Misato was tirelessly doing some stupid reports, even wondering why she still needed to do this even when the war with the angels was over, when PenPen walked up to see, catching her attention.
"Oh hey, PenPen, did you have a good time today at the pool with the kids?" the purpled-haired woman asked her small roommate.
PenPen didn't respond, only staring at her before lifting his claw out as if expecting something.
Misato stared at him for a second before sighing and reaching for something next to her. A brown paper bag. "Fine here's your payment as promised."
PenPen grabbed the bag from the woman and opened it, finding the contents to be a bottle of whisky before quickly opening it to Misato's surprise, the bird drank the whole thing in one go before giving a big burp and falling on his side fast asleep a second later.
"Jesus, PenPen. I know Aki can be a little terror, but it couldn't have been that bad today could it?" Misato asked the penguin though she wouldn't be getting a response from the now knocked-out drunk fowl anytime soon.
