Disclaimer on various past chapters.
A/N: Instant ramen is good. It fueled my burning soul of passion for another day of watching mecha Anime.
--
Shinji fell unconscious, bleeding heavily. The stab wound did not touch any major organs, but it had stabbed deep into his skin.
Finding the first aid box in the ruined truck, Asuka cleaned and bandaged Shinji up as well as she could, not even caring that she was naked. Safety of the idiot in front of her came first, as she needed him more than anything in this place void of people.
She'll punish him later if he decides to push his luck.
Sure enough, he did. Unconscious, he reached out, and his hand conveniently landed on Asuka's breast. He squeezed, mumbling something incomprehensible, Asuka felt a wave of anger at the boy. However, she could not push out the feeling of being pleased as well. Fighting with her own raging emotions, she forgot all about Shinji and ran off to get clothes, leaving the wounded boy behind to fend for himself.
Sure enough, Shinji had to fend for himself. He slowly got up, feeling a sharp pain in his side, and fell back down quicker than a cheetah could run.
"Damn... I... I was careless..." Shinji murmured to himself. "I shouldn't care for others... All they bring me is pain." He stared up into the red halo above the skies. "Right, Lilith? Is that why you tried to let me pursue the Instrumentality project? But Asuka is special..." He sighed, as he closed his eyelids. Images haunting him again, except this time, he felt no fear.
"Die, you worthless scum!"
"I'll kill you when I get my hands on you!"
"DIE!" "DIE!" "DIE!" "DIE!"
"T...Thank you all..." He murmured to the hallucinated death threats, as he opened his eyes with a smile. "Are you done yet? I want to... Join you all..."
Shinji closed his eyes and fell asleep again, until he had awakened to the sound of snoring not soon after, however. Turning his head, he saw a girl clutching his arm tightly, using it as a pillow. He smiled. However, fear crept back into his heart. "Maybe... Not now, everybody... I want to be with her..."
--
Three days later, they had settled in a two-story farmhouse, presumably where the chickens had escaped from. There were a few cows left in the pen, eating grass, and a horse in the stables, seemingly unfed. The farmhouse itself was a pretty big place. The insides are unpainted. However, the fridge was still working, luckily, and so was the stove. The whole place was made of wood, but the stove was a gas stove so they kept the usage to a minimum. In forms of entertainment, however, there were little they could do. Most of the time they just went along with whatever hobbies they had.
The two took care of the animals together, but Shinji did all the labor work in the fields, tending to the crops. Asuka simply showed him how she needed him, and Shinji was glad to be needed. Asuka wasn't using him for her own personal gains, she simply did not know the finer arts at life. All her life, she had been trained to fight, to kill, and to be the most efficient military personnel one could find. Living to her was nothing more than appearing fancy to everybody and making them feel inferior.
Though Shinji was happy, he still had his nightmares, and his blood lust. But luckily for him, there were stray wolves waiting for a chance at their cows. Shinji made short work of them to calm his insanity when Asuka wasn't there to comfort him.
Shinji smiled at his newest creation, a wolf pelt coat. If it had been before the Third Impact, it would have cost him a fortune to buy the materials from the black market. But now, the materials flew at him like flies, and he had enough practice with them in the past two days to make this one almost perfect so far. The only flaws were in his inconsistent stitches, which was natural human error. He wasn't a sewing machine, and naturally some of his stitches were a little more apart than the others.
He smiled to himself, storing it away in a small, private box of things. Something he would use to prepare when the time comes. In it, a diamond ring that fit both Asuka and Rei, an assortment of gemstones, and a very small collection of self-made chibi-NERV beanbag plushies, soon-to-be including his bastard father. He had found the materials and gems in a small, durable safe that had only been chipped from the massive explosion, and had collected them at night. Why such worthless items, save the gems and the convenient ring, had been there, he couldn't guess. When he was alone, he would start on each and every little project to direct his pain elsewhere. Now, a half-finished coat was added to the collection. Pleased with his own works, he had used the furnace to make pottery as well. However, none of his pottery ever stood firmly, though he had only worked on it before the wolves attacked.
"Baka-Shinji! I'm hungry!" Asuka shouted downstairs. Without a word, Shinji walked out of his room and down the flight of stairs. Making his way to the kitchen, he opened the fridge and took out a piece of octopus, as he began to make what they had lived off of for the past few days.
Sushi.
Shinji made a mental note to build a barbecue pit some time, so they could have safe, cooked food. Asuka was beginning to complain quite loudly about the Sushi and raw fruits.
"Asuka, can you water my plants tomorrow?" Shinji asked as he brought the board full of raw seafood goods to the dining table, where Asuka sat waiting.
"Why?" She said, as she poured herself some soy sauce.
"I want to go find some bricks and cement, to maybe build a barbecue pit or something."
"How about I go find the stuff, and you do your own job?" Asuka replied, indifferently.
"If you want, Asuka."
The meal passed in silence, like always. Except this time, Asuka had broken it when they finished eating.
"Shinji, I'm bored..." She ranted lifelessly.
Shinji backed off, a hand protecting his nose.
"Baka-Shinji! Not that kind of bored!" Asuka shouted in defense, but a blush crept up her face.
"Yea... Three days with nothing to do..." Shinji agreed, but he couldn't think of anything to do either.
"Shinji, let's go try what comes after kissing!" Asuka teased, a smile found its way into her face.
Remembering what Misato had done, and how Misato had done it, he immediately passed out from a mixture of shock and nosebleed. Asuka simply giggled at what had happened.
"That should keep me going for another two days or so." She then realized who the dishes were left to. "Make that one."
--
Shinji woke from his daze half an hour later. Wiping his nose, he found the source of his unconscious state. He sighed, and grabbed a bottle of fresh water to wash off his face. The sink had been reeking of blood, or more precisely, LCL. It seemed that most waterways had been contaminated by what was left of the population, and neither Shinji nor Asuka dared to drink it, fearing what might happen.
Shinji found the dishes already done, and smiled to himself knowing who had done them. He returned to his room, and pulled out the coat he was working on. Pulling out the pelt needed for the other sleeve, he turned it over, and carefully rolled it into a cylinder, and began sewing it together with precision. Accidentally, he stabbed himself with the needle, and even more carefully he moved his bleeding hand away from the fabric to not get any blood stains on it.
Looking at the blood, he quivered and shook as he tried to apply a piece bandage from one of the first aid kits they had found.
"Don't think about blood... Don't think about blood..." Shinji chanted to himself, fearing that the blood would take over his mind. "Don't think about it... Please... Don't think..." Tears welled up as he shook more violently, and using the last of his willpower, he pressed the bandage tightly onto the wound. The blood leaked through the thin layer, as he frantically tried to cover it up by wrapping layers upon layers of bandage upon it.
"GO AWAY! GO! GO!" He shouted, as the blood finally subsided into the tight binding, no more leaking through. Sighing a sigh of relief, he looked at the wound once again. Seeing no more traces of red, he stopped shaking and got up, back to continue the coat he was working on.
However, his peace was disturbed by an angry looking redhead stepping through his door.
"Baka-Shinji! What were you doing screaming like that?" She asked, annoyed that she would be disturbed.
"I'm sorry." Shinji said in reflex, as if mandatory. Asuka threw a cushion at Shinji, before going back to her room. What she was doing, Shinji couldn't guess. But it was best that it had been left secret. Shinji smiled happily, glad there was somebody for him, somebody to pick on him, somebody to acknowledge him. The rest of the day went in silence, Asuka doing whatever she was doing in her room, and Shinji sewing the coat he was soon to finish sewing.
It was another sleepless night for Shinji, like the last two days. The memories haunted him too deeply.
--
Asuka sat in her room, pondering the meaning of life, the purpose of the universe, and most importantly, why she was one of the two still alive. "Mama... I'm living... Are you satisfied? Is this why you protected me?" She thought to herself for the hundredth time. Her boredom from having nothing to do but live getting to her. "Do I... Like Shinji, mama?" She asked for the hundredth time. No answers were given, as she drifted to sleep, attempting to communicate with her mother.
--
Shinji's exhaustion finally give way, and he closed his eyelids for but a second. That second was all it took for him to see an image.
The image of the corridor he had seen, the corridor where he learned his three separate selves. The room was lit up considerably since the last time, and he realized. It was not a corridor. It was on the train. The train that had represented his thoughts, his memories, everything about him.
It was wrecked. Destroyed. No longer running indefinitely towards an undetermined goal.
When his eyes opened, he saw in horror a demented version of his surroundings. A wrecked house, blood splattered in front of him. A body, headless, laid before him. On the walls behind him, something was written in blood. A head attached as proof.
"Here lies Sohryu Asuka Langley. Her death completed Ikari Shinji's task."
He screamed, as his eyes opened yet again. He realized he had been dreaming, though for only a second. Luckily, he suppressed his scream enough Asuka didn't come barging in to throw something at him.
"Blood... Don't think... About blood..." He mumbled to himself with difficulty, before returning to his work.
--
Asuka's dream had not been peaceful either. She closed her eyes, and a familiar shape came into her thoughts.
"Mama...?" She said to the figure, as the figure moved closer. The figure reached for her, and as if the movement had told her volumes of words, Asuka nodded with tears in her eyes. "Mama... I'm living... I'm living so you can watch over me! So we can be together!"
The womanly figure caressed her daughter's cheek, and Asuka found her smile turning upside down, as she stumbled backwards.
"Mama... Why? Why are you torturing me like this? I have nothing to live for now... Eva is gone..." She began to cry, but she stopped when her mother's shape embraced her. "I am... A smart girl? Liar! Mama, I'm just a stupid girl, hiding behind her mask... I should have known you were there. I should have known! But... But I didn't and everybody hates me! All I have was Eva!"
The girl was being held tighter, and finally, one word from the glowing figure became audible. "Asuka..."
"Mama... Learn? Learn from Shinji...?"
The woman nodded, and Asuka began to cry.
"I... I understand. I have other things... Other things to do." Asuka smiled. "You will watch over me still, right? Even without Eva? And... I'll never be alone again... I'll have you and everybody else watching me reach to top. Everybody!"
Just then, a few more words of the woman became audible. "Die... With... Me... Asuka..."
Asuka was stunned. "But... You just told me to live, mama! Let me live! I... I want to live!" She screamed in horror, finding the woman's embrace tight enough to restrict movement. A coil of rope circled around her neck, and the ground below her began to give way. "MAMA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? MAMA!"
"MAMA!" Asuka screamed in horror, waking up, tears in her eyes. A boy bursted through the door like a bullet.
"Asuka! Are you alright?" The boy asked, his eyes bagged.
"Shinji..." She mumbled, curling into a ball. "Shinji... I..." She tried to talk, but found her accursed facade of strength concealing what she wanted to say. "What are you doing in my room?"
"I-I heard a scream, Asuka..." Shinji tried to explain.
"Baka-Shinji, go away!" She screamed, as she jumped up and threw her pillow at him.
"Ow! I-I'm going!" The boy stammered, as he scrambled out the door.
"Mama... Do you want me to live... Or to die?" She said to herself once Shinji had ran back into his room.
--
The next day, Asuka woke up to find a table full of tuna made for her, and a boy working hard in the fields. Remembering the little arrangement they had made yesterday, Asuka quickly stuffed her mouth full, grabbed the bottled juice Shinji had prepared for her, and walked out to door.
Before she had left, however, Shinji shouted to get her attention.
"WHAT, BAKA-SHINJI?" Asuka shouted back, turning around to see him waving a beautiful, silver, custom gun. He had found it in one of their expeditions for food, on a 'corpse' of a JSSDF soldier. Most likely a personal pistol in his collection, since it had been tampered with so heavily Asuka couldn't recognize the model. Immediately she understood, and waited for him to run through the field to give the weapon to her.
"Asuka, you know how dangerous the animals can be." Shinji scolded her, and got the glare of death in return. "S-Sorry!"
"Thanks, idiot." She said, before grabbing the gun and checking the clip. Seeing it was full, and a bullet was in the barrel ready to fire, she smiled. "Good job preparing it for me, servant." Asuka grabbed the holster from Shinji's other hand and leaving with the wheelbarrow.
"Good luck, mistress Asuka." Shinji smiled, before grabbing a small, shiny black pistol, also heavily modified and returning to his field of sprouting greens.
--
Asuka stepped into the ruins of Tokyo-3, and began her search. She looked up at the sky to estimate her time. What she saw, however, was the Black Moon which seemed to be a lot bigger than before. "Am I just imagining things?" She asked herself, but got no answer. Shrugging the question off, she continued looking for the things she was determined to find.
Seeing some perfect, undamaged bricks lying about, she picked them up and placed them into the wheelbarrow neatly. Below the bricks, however, she found another safe which was perfectly fine, save for the fact that it was battered and charred. Such safes were found all over the place, and usually there were a few valuables, which Shinji and Asuka looted and split amongst themselves.
"Sweet, loot!" She said enthusiastically. "And this safe is as big as a bath-tub!" She took out the mandatory crowbar the pair always carried on excursions, she pried the damaged safe with all her strength. When she opened it, what met her eyes was something she would never have expected to see.
There it was, a safe full of gold bars. Asuka could only stare in awe, as she dumped her bricks and replaced them with shining new bricks with a wide grin on her face, before returning to where she now called home. "Lucky!"
--
Shinji stared at Asuka wide-eyed as she hulled her shipment in.
"A-ASUKA!" He shouted in disbelief. "W-What are you doing with all that?"
"I found it while looking for bricks!" She said cheerily, happy something was going good for once. "Isn't it great?"
"Asuka..." Shinji said, at a loss for words. If he said what was on his mind, he would get hurt. If he didn't say what was on his mind, he would let Asuka make a horribly embarrassing mistake of being happy over money, in a world where money doesn't have a use.
Deciding Asuka's happiness is better than his own health, he spoke up.
"Asuka... You know we have no use for money, right?" Shinji braced himself for impact, and sure enough a heavy impact came.
"Idiot! Then why do you have this silver gun instead of a conventional military issued one?" Asuka asked, annoyed. "C'mon, let's store this somewhere!" Her happiness overcame all of Shinji's original plans, as he helped her carry all these gold bars into her room.
"Asuka... Do you still want to find the bricks or should I go?" Shinji asked, just in case.
"How considerate of you, Shinji!" Asuka exclaimed with glee. "Hop to it then!" Her grin was wide enough to split her face as she handed him the gun.
Shinji sighed, took the gun, and headed out the door dragging the wheelbarrow. Behind him, he could hear a crisp and clear giggling of a special girl. The sound of which lightened his heart, but he was still unclear what to make of his feelings right now.
--
Digging through the remains of Tokyo-3, Shinji found some perfect bricks, but the cement eluded him. Most likely all the cement were destroyed upon the destruction of Tokyo-3. Eventually he made his way to their old building, and started digging with the crowbar. He pushed and shoved, making the hole he had dug deeper and deeper. After a while, he could find the remains of their living room. He smiled at the work he had done today, and made his way home after cleaning the bar off.
--
Asuka sat in her new bed of gold, in her fantasy of being a princess. She escaped from this twisted reality, and imagined herself having servants all around her, Kaji begging her to marry him, and Shinji being there to massage her feet. In her dreams, she had everything she wanted. In reality, she had nothing.
Just then, a loud crash outside woke her up. She looked down and saw Shinji unloading a pile of bricks down onto the ground, and started to make his way back for what she assumed to be cement.
"Took the idiot a while." She mumbled, before going back into her fantasies.
"Princess Asuka!" Shinji shouted, before jumping off of his white steed with a bouquet of flowers.
Asuka shook herself out of her daze. "Wait, it was supposed to be Kaji! KAJI! Not baka-Shinji!"
--
Shinji looked at the crater, and began digging with a shovel he had found in the farmhouse. The ground had hardened through the boiling of the sun, but with a few extra kicks and swings, the ground cracked and gave way. Eventually, Shinji got to the bottom. Digging more and more into the ground, he eventually got to the damp, sticky mud below.
Loading it all onto his wheelbarrow, he made his way back to the farmhouse again.
--
Asuka got out of her fantasy to check on Shinji's bricks. All of them had been carefully selected, and a few of which were the ones she had dumped. Shinji had also thought of the metal platform they'll need, and had brought in a ripped piece of metal plating on a JSSDF shield. It was curved, but at least it seemed good enough to cook on. Smiling at the fact that she'll finally be eating real, cooked food, she didn't notice Shinji hauling in a pile of mud.
"Excuse me, Asuka." Shinji said, startling the girl.
"Baka-Shinji! Don't do that!" She screamed at the poor, sweat soaked boy.
"S-Sorry..."
"Stop apologizing! Why do you have mud in that wheelbarrow?" Asuka asked, noticing the substance Shinji had collected.
"Asuka, there isn't any cement around here. This is the best I could do." Shinji explained, as he began to build the pit. Asuka was too busy thinking about food to actually listen to him.
"Baka-Shinji, hurry up and set up the pit!" Asuka shouted, before walking off to the fridge and looking for meat she so desperately craved.
Shinji began to pave the bricks with the obviously less durable material with less hold. Praying his creation will not fall after a tantrum thrown by the demoness he lives with, he went up to the second layer.
Asuka returned after putting a fish in the sink to thaw. She didn't like fish, but that's all she could find right now. They needed their cows for milk, and their chickens for eggs, and all their oxes had ran away.
"Baka-Shinji! Hurry it up!" Asuka demanded. "Your mistress demands cooked food!"
"Yes mistress Asuka..." Shinji sighed. Her joke was becoming more of a reality now. Suddenly, Asuka leaned forward and whispered something in Shinji's ear, causing his whole face to glow red as he hastened his working speed to put her out of his mind.
Asuka giggled at his reaction, and sat down by the spare pile.
Shinji slaved himself into finishing this accursed makeshift-BBQ pit, while Asuka's throne became smaller and smaller, his hand sometimes touching the body part she used to sit, earning a slap to the wrist or a kick to the ribs, depending on where he was positioned.
"Asuka, get off the bricks!" Shinji whined, rubbing his ribs for the third time.
"Baka-Shinji, just watch where your hand goes!" Asuka retorted, as she continued sitting on her not-so-comfortable throne of hardness.
Shinji took a brick out from under where she sat with great difficulty for revenge, hoping she'll fall.
She fell, alright. Except, she fell, grabbed him for support, and he fell on top of her, his mud-covered hand grabbed another holy sanctity no man are to touch unless allowed to. It reminded him of the first time he had visited Rei's home. Except this time, the girl attacked him.
"IT WAS YOUR FAULT ASUKAAAA!" Shinji screamed into the skies, as his arm bent in an unimaginable way.
To be continued... Maybe?
A/N: Submitted 20 minutes before the fateful day when school starts. Woe is me! No more fast updates!
Asuka's dream really didn't have any meaning to it. Just added there for the sake of complementing Shinji's dream.
Here's an omake! The first in the sub-series!
--
Shinji woke to find himself cuffed to the bed in the morning. A red haired girl in red leather standing before him.
"Now, what punishment should I give you for sneaking in a few feels?" Asuka grinned as she pulled out a cat o' nine tails.
Shinji tried to scream, but found himself gagged. "MMMPHH! MPH! MMMPHMPHMPH!"
"What was that? Do it, mistress Asuka?" The whip found itself touching Shinji's body, as he gave out a scream of pleasure and pain...
Asuka sat up quickly, sweating large beads of sweat.
This has been the third time she has had that dream even since she declared Shinji her slave.
"AHHH! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE KAJIIIII!"