Disclaimer: All Eva characters and references property of Gainax. (I'm only gonna say it once.)
"There you are, Shinji! You're gonna be late for school!"
"...I'm comin' Mom, I'm comin'..." Shinji said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he hobbled down the stairs. Upon reaching the cavernous atrium, he turned left and into his family's beautifully furnished kitchen. There stood Yui, putting the finishing touches on a heap of steaming hot pancakes with a slice of cantelope and a few sausages. She glanced up at her son and sighed in false annoyance as she put down the skillet and grabbed a pitcher of orange juice.
"Look at you-- you're not even dressed yet!" Her son only grumbled unintelligibly as he sat down at the table in his sleep shirt and boxers, taking a grateful swig of the tangy drink before digging into his meal.
Ahh, pancakes, he thought gratefully. Same as every Thursday morning.
While some people might have enjoyed something other than a predictable meal schedule, Shinji was not one of them-- as far as he was concerned, change was one of the least enjoyable prospects in this world. That was how he lived his comfortable life and that was how he liked it. He set down the expensive silverware in his hand as he took another gulp of OJ.
"Hey, Mom-- is Dad still here?" Yui turned to look at Shinji from her place beside the sink, still absentmindedly scrubbing the now-used skillet in her hand with a sponge.
"Oh, sorry Shinji-- he had to go early today, important meetings you know."
"...Oh. Okay," the boy responded evenly, not really caring as he turned his attention on the sausage, slicing each link into small, even pieces before sticking them into his waiting mouth. Somehow his eyes wandered over to the hands of the clock hanging over the kitchen window and he sprung out of his chair with a clatter. "What the...? Mom, why the HELL didn't you wake me up!"
"HEY!" his mother said indignantly, "Don't you use that language in my house, young man-- and besides, that's not my job; your alarm should've gone off!"
"Yeah, but..." Shinji tried to argue as he wolfed down the remains of the meal, struggling to swallow it all at once.
"Don't do that, you'll make yourself sick!" Yui reprimanded as she watched Shinji rush. After finishing off the juice in his glass, he dashed off toward the stairs, and within minutes ran back down, hastily stuffing the hem of his shortsleeve shirt into his black uniform slacks.
"Mom, where's my lunch?"
"Don't worry; I've got it right here," the brunette said gently as she held the bento up in her hand. Shinji walked across the kitchen to her and was about to grab it when she pulled the box full of food just out of his reach. Shinji stared at her for a moment before he lost his patience.
"Mom, c'mon! Toji'll be here any minute--"
"...Are you going to remember to pick up some college applications on your way home? Because that's the only way you're going to get this today," Yui stated simply, unable to hold back a teasing smile as she held the lunch box just beyond the length of Shinji's arm. Before the boy could argue, the horn of a car sounded outside the house. He sighed in defeat, knowing that his friends were'nt the patient type.
"Okay, okay, I'll go this afternoon. I promise." Satisfied, Yui handed the box to her boy after pecking him lightly on the cheek, to which Shinji groaned inwardly but made no verbal protest. "Bye, Mom!" he yelled as he grabbed his bookbag near the door and ran outside. Yui followed him to the threshold and called after him.
"Have a good day, Shinji!" She then waved and turned back into the house, eager to have a chance to eat her own breakfast. Shinji dashed across the wide green lawn to the black Colt Galant parked in the street. Without hesitating, he opened the back door and got in, tossing his bag in before him. Before he could fasten his seatbelt the car sped around the cul-de-sac and onto the main street.
"Damn, Shinji, what the hell were you doin,' eh?" The tan-skinned Toji said, looking over his shoulder at the car's third occupant. "You fall in the toilet or somethin--"
"TOJI, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!"
The jock turned upon hearing Kensuke yelling in his ear only to see a car heading straight for him. The three boys let out a very unmasculine scream as Toji barely succeeded in swerving the car back into the proper lane.
"Oh geez..." the trio sighed in relief. They were silent a moment, then Toji (without looking away from the road this time) restated his question to Shinji.
"So, anyway...what happened, man? You're usually standing out there waiting for US about this time." Shinji groaned to himself as he related the reason for his lateness.
"Ahh...I was up late studying for that Geometry test and I guess I forgot to set my alarm."
"You? Staying up to study?" the bespectacled Kensuke chimed in. "That's gotta be a first." Shinji sighed and gave a nod as he gazed lazily out the window. If he studied at all, it would usually be right after class, not deep into the night. "Well, are you feeling good about it? Think you've got it down?"
"...I don't know," Shinji managed as he rubbed his still-tired eyes. "I guess we'll find out."
It only took about ten minutes for them to pull the jet black four-door into a parking space at Tokyo-3 Public High School. Once the trio had negotiated the mob of their fellow students they were surprised by a haughty and authoritative voice behind them.
"There you three are! I hope you can explain yourselves for yesterday!" Shinji, Toji and Kensuke turned as one to find a lanky, freckled girl with her brown hair held back in a pair of shoulder-length pigtails.
"Oh, it's just the class rep," Toji said in a bored tone. Kensuke didn't even bother to acknowledge her, but Shinji smiled at seeing his best friend there.
"Hey, Hikari--" But he was cut off by the girl's angry glare.
"Don't you 'hi' me, Shinji Ikari! I wanna know why you three didn't show up for cleaning duty yesterday!" At first the trio only looked at her with confusion, but after a few moments they 'oohed' in sudden comprehension.
"Oh, sorry about that, Hikari," Shinji started apologetically, "...I guess we just forgot about it..."
"Hmph. A likely story," the girl said skeptically. "I'll bet you guys ditched on purpose to go play video games!" At this, Toji and Kensuke twitched guiltily, but Hikari didn't notice.
"Honest! Look, I'm sorry but I had a bunch of studying to do and I had my mind on that and I guess I just--" Hikari cut off Shinji's tirade with a mere wave.
"Just...stop. If you think I'm gonna be tricked by your excuses, you're crazy. Now you three are gonna be punished to ensure this doesn't happen again." As if on cue, the three boys groaned and began protesting.
"What!"
"Punished! What the hell for?"
"How can you even DO that!"
"Because I'M the 'class rep,' as you so cleverly put it, Mr. Suzuhara!" Knowing that to argue further was futile, they became quiet. "Now...since you guys ditched clean-up, I suppose the only fitting punishment would be to make you...INDIVIDUALLY...take turns cleaning for the next three days."
"WHAT? BY OURSELVES!" Kensuke whined.
"Yes, by yourselves! I'll be there to ensure that you don't slack off, of course, but I won't be helping any of you! Now today, it's Shinji's turn, then tomorrow Suzuhara and after that Aida. Understand?" The three mumbled that they understood, and then the girl set off with a small smile and a spring in her step. The frustrated boys glanced off in her direction before proceeding to go to their lockers.
"Jeez, what a bitch!" Kensuke moaned once he was sure the target of his slander had disappeared into the mass of students moving to their classes.
"And what's with that little smirk she had on?" Toji interjected. "...It's like she gets off on this stuff or somethin'!"
"Come on, guys, she's not that bad," Shinji said in her defense.
"Hmph. Whatever," Toji muttered while rolling his eyes. "I don't see how you two get along at all."
"Well, we've known each other a long time." Kensuke sighed to himself upon hearing Shinji's statement.
"It doesn't do us any good if she's gonna punish us anyway."
Hours later, Shinji was making a last scrubdown of the floors with his washrag, silently lamenting over the test he'd taken and was now certain he had failed.
God...everything's so messed up today. It doesn't help that I've been stuck here for almost an hour...
"Shinji, what are you doing over there? You're not spacing out, are you?" Hikari's voice broke the silence only a few feet from him, leaning over a desk to see if he was still working.
"Uh, n-no..." Shinji lied as he instantly resumed his cleaning. "I-I'm just finishing up over here."
"Oh." Shinji nearly thought he'd heard disappointment in the class representative's voice, but ignored it as he stood up and dipped the dirty cloth into a bucketful of water. "...Well, then just take out the trash and you're...free to go." Shinji grabbed the bucket as well as the two light bags of trash and left, not noticing the subdued expression on Hikari's face.
After throwing the trash into the furnace behind the school, Shinji grabbed the now-empty water bucket and wandered back inside, to grab his bookbag and return the pail. He walked into the classroom to see Hikari still standing there, quietly staring out the window.
"...Hikari?" She jumped slightly as if she'd been deep in thought, then turned to face the school's only other occupant. "...Here's the bucket. Sorry, but I need to get going."
"Okay," she said evenly as she took it from his hand. "...Sorry I had to make you three do this, but if I don't put my foot down, no one'll listen to me." Shinji allowed himself a chuckle as he walked over to his desk and grabbed the dark purple backpack stowed in the legspace.
"Well, don't worry about it-- you do what you gotta do, you know?"
"...Yeah..." Hikari answered distractedly.
"See you tomorrow," the boy called over his shoulder as he headed for the door.
"Hey, Shinji..." The boy stopped upon hearing his friend's voice call his name.
"Yeah?" It took Hikari a moment to speak, and when she did she sounded nervous--a very uncharacteristic behavior for someone so prone to speaking her mind and asserting authority over her delinquent fellow students.
"Um...I have to admit, I had...a bit of an ulterior motive for...asking you to do your 'punishment' like this." Shinji blinked, a bit puzzled by what she had said.
"...Wait, what do you mean? We all got punished the same, so..."
"Yeah, about that...If I hadn't asked Suzuhara and Aida to do the same thing, it...would have looked suspicious." At this, Hikari turned away from the window to look Shinji in the face. He was surprised to see her blushing, visible despite her position directly in front of the sunlight streaming through the window. "The thing is...I wanted...to ask you something...while we were alone." Seeing that Shinji had nothing to say to this, the pigtailed girl slowly continued. "...We've known each other for a long time...since Junior High, right?"
"Y-yeah..." Shinji agreed, uncertain of where the conversation was going.
"And...we get along...don't we?" Shinji didn't hesistate to answer this question.
"Well, yeah! To be honest, I feel like you're one of the best friends I've ever had. Even more so than Toji or Kensuke." Hikari flinched slightly upon hearing him refer to her as a 'friend,' but she'd already reached the Point of No Return. She had to say what she'd made him stay after class to hear.
"Shinji...I...I really like spending time with you. But whenever we do things, it's always with other people. And so, uh...I was wondering...W-w-would you..." The boy, having not yet grasped what his friend was trying to say, looked at her oddly.
"Hikari, whatever you have to say, you know you can tell me." The girl swallowed, took a deep breath, and finally asked her question.
"...Would you like to...g-go out with me?"
Shinji plodded along the sidewalk in a daze, slowly making his way through the busy city. Of all the things he had never expected his platonic friend of six years to say, THAT had been right at the top of the list. He had left her with only the ambiguous answer of 'maybe,' but he felt like he had to come up with something to tell her by school tomorrow.
Jeez...I never expected to end up in a situation like this. I can't believe I never saw it coming...
But then, if Hikari had been harboring these feelings for a while, she had certainly done a good job of hiding them. Their interactionshad always beenfairly comfortable, not hindered by any thoughts of their relationship becoming anything more than friendship, at least on Shinji's part.He turned the thought over in his head for a while.
Going out with Hikari might not be as odd as it had seemed at first; he had to admit that she was cute and he did enjoy spending time with her whenever they went with their friends to do something. Shinji hadn't really gotten in the dating game, and maybe Hikari was the best person to start out with.
So it's decided, he told himself firmly. I'll tell her tomorrow. Out of nowhere, he remembered what his mother had pestered him about for the last week but he never seemed to remember.
Oh damn...the applications. Oh well, I'll just do THAT tomorrow, too. He thought suddenly about the promise he had made to himself regarding Hikari.
Oh...If I'm gonna take her out, I should get some money...
With that in mind, he dashed off to the bank, not realizing that the next time he saw her all the feelings he had now would be completely overshadowed by another woman.
A/N: Well, I've decided to continue the story, in spite of the fact that I haven't really gotten any feedback... :( So I hope that, if you're looking for a (very) different sort of Eva story, you'll enjoy this one!