Heads up, all. Once again, rather pointless chapter. Consider this whole Going Nowhere series to be just that; a series going nowhere. It exists mainly to train myself in the fandom, if you will. So, with that said, it means go ahead and eat me alive if you feel it must be done. It's the only way I'll learn.
Going Nowhere: Destination #2
"Hey, guys? I'm going up to the store, we're out of milk. You want anything?"
"No thank you, Misato."
"Nope."
"Okay, see you later!"
With that, Misato was gone from the apartment. While usually the starting point of many other stories leading to romance, another 'I'm bored let's make out' session, or anything like that...
...this is still the real world.
"You idiot."
This surprised Shinji. Not in the sense of what was said, just in the sudden nature of it. Frankly, he'd been called worse. "Er...I'm sorry?"
"That sure was an impressive stunt you pulled, oh invincible Shinji. 'Gee, I'll go kill the angel myself!' Really, good job on that one."
The 12th Angel. It wasn't exactly something he wanted to think about. Even compared to how much he usually despised his situation in life. The Evas, the Angels, NERV, his father, himself. Really, there was little that he didn't hate. But this last time was hell. He could still taste and still smell the dead LCL, almost as if it was a permanent stain in his mouth, or maybe even his mind.
But he didn't want to think about it. So he didn't talk about it.
"Hmph, so when something actually IS your own fault, you won't even say anything. Where's your usual 'I'm sorry!', 'Oh, that has nothing to do with me so I'm so sorry!', or any of that, huh? That must be some preconditioning you got going on there."
I don't want to think about it.
"And the worst part is that you get away with it!"
He momentarily reflected back to his debriefing. The dressing down that his father gave him didn't strike him as 'getting away' with anything. But, he didn't want to think about that, either.
Getting no response, not even a facial expression out of the boy, Asuka finally gave up and returned to the living room. "Idiot."
Didn't bother him. Again, he'd been called worse. So for another hour nothing happened, aside from a rather cheesy sitcom episode and the consumption of food.
"It doesn't take an hour to get milk," Asuka muttered. Tired of waiting, she switched off the TV, which really wasn't showing anything good, and marched to the fridge to forage up something to drink. Something that wasn't alcoholic, anyway. It didn't really seem strange that Shinji was still sitting at the table with an empty plate in front of him, absorbed in his headphones. At least, up until the point where she yanked them off his head. "What exactly does NERV's 'best pilot' listen to, anyway?" She placed them against her own ears for a moment, fighting off Shinji's furious grabbing with one arm. Then, she laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"I don't believe this! What is this, pop music? I always thought you'd have some sort of depressing classical music going or something. But this is...this is too damn funny!" She tossed the headset back at him, which he quickly slipped over his head and around his neck, and then went back to the fridge.
Pushing the stop button, Shinji finally decided to counter. "I don't make fun of the stuff you read and watch, do I?"
This caused Asuka to momentarily halt her rummaging. "Well, that's because I actually have taste. You couldn't ridicule it even if you wanted to." Back to digging.
"That's questionable and you know it, Asuka," he added, though a bit reserved.
Victoriously, she snagged a stray cola out from behind an old watermelon and returned to the living room.
Another hour went by, and Misato still hadn't come back. This, much like everything else, didn't strike anyone as strange. Which is just as well, since for the record Misato was in no palpable danger or trouble. She may have been trying to dig up more information about NERV's true intentions, but since she wasn't coming up with much, Section 2 had yet to take action. So, she was in no more danger than anyone else in the organization, really. However, she WAS finally realizing how long she'd been gone from home, so she quickly reset everything back to the way it had been and made her way out of the facility.
It'd help if I understood a damn inch of all this. How do I actually search for something that doesn't make any sense?
"Hey, get out here, I got a book report to finish."
"Um, I don't really see why that would involve me, Asuka..."
"Oh, come on! You're supposed to be the Earth's great and wonderful saviour, so how could you turn down the request of a helpless damsel?"
Right, right, she still has trouble with the kanji...
So, he did as he was told, and proceeded to assist with the report. The usual barbs were traded, or at the very least, received. It didn't take too long as Asuka technically was a child prodigy and genius, albeit one that had trouble with one of the most complicated written languages on the planet.
"So, at least you're not a totally useless idiot."
"Uh...you're welcome?"
"Don't get me wrong, I don't NEED your help. But it does speed things up." Which, apparently, was good as she flipped the TV back on. "Ooh, just in time!" And that was it. For the rest of the night, she completely blew him off.
Is that the closest thing to gratitude I'm going to get? Well, it sure beats nothing at all, he thought. But only for a second. After all, it's not like it really mattered anyway. So his mind wandered elsewhere.
"Hey guys, I'm home! I figured you might want some take out, so I stopped at a restaurant on the way home."
He didn't care. He wasn't hungry, and he hated take out food anyway. But, anything is better than thinking about the Evas.
