I own all eight DVDs of the Eva series, Death and Rebirth, End of Evangelion, and four CD's with Evangelion music. But I don't actually own Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yes, I can see how that's confusing.
"He whose mother is no more, distress carries off."
-Anonymous
Misato Katsuragi reclined back in her chair as she took another long draught of her Yebisu beer. It was one of the Major's few days off, and she was making sure to take every advantage of it she could. No strictly enforced NERV dress code today; Misato had lounged around most of the day in her favorite white tank top- which seemed far too small as her large breasts pushed out against it- and a pair of hip hugging, low cut jeans.
Appalled to have been neglected the box of Mr. Donuts that had been breakfast, Pen-Pen had retired into his refrigerator somewhere past mid-morning. With an attitude that took after his owner, the penguin had stubbornly hibernated in his little freezer all day, even going so far as boycotting lunchtime.
'Who knew penguins liked donuts so much?' was all Misato really thought of the situation.
She took sparing little sips out of the beer can as she only half-watched some random, Pre-Impact programming on the TV. It was one of those stupid family shows, Misato had noted distastefully. She had grown up on them: episodes consisting of nothing more than menial little family problems or squabbles that were always unrealistically solved in the course of just one half-hour episode. Everything was temporary, from problem to solution, the new episode's worries unaffected and unrelated to whatever had plagued the family on the previous show.
Clean-cut and simple.
In other words… nothing at all like reality.
Still…Misato almost wished she could solve her ersatz 'family's' problems as easily as the equally phony families on the TV could. Major Katsuragi was no fool. She knew exactly where Shinji had gone today. It was, after all, Mother's Day. Asuka, on the other hand, was a more difficult puzzle to sort through. The Second Child had been frighteningly quiet the entire day, picking at her instant (Asuka despised any instant meals) ramen without even a complaint.
The silence that hung in the apartment was awkward at best. Misato- thoroughly familiar with Asuka's personal records- knew exactly what was troubling her other charge. Ironically, it was all too much like Shinji's same anxiety. They didn't see it, but Asuka and Shinji were so like one another it was almost laughable.
Almost.
Yeah, Misato berated herself. I know exactly what's goin' on with both of them, but an Angel's chance in black hell it's doing me any good. So far, no alchemical blending of Yebisu and TV family sitcoms had inspired any solution underneath that head of lavender hair.
She finished off the beer with a final gulp- her fourth can that day. Turning down the television's volume, Misato strained at Asuka's sweet, cheerful voice undulating from the hallway phone. The red-head's Step-Mother had called Collect from Germany just about an hour ago. Right on cue, the little actress flipped back her long hair and put on her best face for her mock-mother waiting on the line.
The Major's German was long rusted, but her best guess said that Asuka was finally wrapping-up the long conversation. It was strange to hear Asuka talking in her home tongue. Apart from insults and creative strings of curses, Asuka usually spoke primarily in Japanese.
"Gut ist es sehr spät, " Asuka said regretfully."Ya, war dieses nett. Wir sprechen wieder bald, ya?" Misato couldn't understand a word she was saying, but no doubt her Step-Mother overseas was obliviously swallowing every word. "Gute Nacht, Mutter. Auf Wiedersehen."
Returning the phone to its cradle, Asuka strode into the living room with a drawn, tired expression on her face and sat herself on the couch next to Misato, crossing her bare, sleeveless arms over the chest of her yellow top. Desperately regretting finishing off the last of her beer before she really needed it, Misato cursory asked: "So…how's everyone in Germany?"
"Oh, you know the deal," she replied off-handedly. "Germany's pretty boring now that I'm not around. They miss me, can't wait until I can come home, so-on, and so-on…"
"Asuka," Misato said slowly. "You really don't need to put on the 'good girl' act for everyone. I know you're not exactly close with your step-mom, but do you think it's fair to her just to carry on business as usual as if nothing's wrong at all?"
"Nothing is wrong!" Asuka snapped. "Don't even try and bring me down to your level! Just because you had a crappy relationship with your parents doesn't mean the rest of us are as Goddamn pathetic!"
Severely in need of another beer now, Misato shifted uneasily on the couch as Asuka averted her eyes to the T.V.
The women sat in tense silence, the sputtering noise of the television spilled into the air between them.
When Asuka finally spoke again, the words were cautious and careworn. She never took her eyes of the glow of the screen; it was almost as if she wasn't speaking to anyone at all, just dreamily muttering aloud to herself. "It's just an act…really. I don't do it because I love her…but I don't hate her either. I just…do it because I should, because I have to. It's expected of me. So we just go through the motions, read off our scripts…playacting and ignoring everything we see between the lines. One happy little family, talking and doing things families should do."
"But it's a lie, Asuka," Misato dared to say.
Asuka's gaze never faltered. Her eyes seemed hazed by the TV's nebulous blur. "But lies are easier. The truth never fixes anything. The truth always just makes things worst. No one hates you for lying. After all…everybody does it."
At a loss for words, Misato could only bite her lip, brow furrowed with worry. Asuka's lament held too painful a truth in it. Reputations and expectations, life's just a play. Aren't they all just trapped in the parts given to them?
"God, I'm pathetic," Asuka hissed under her breath, too low for Misato to hear.
The unexpected sound of the front door sliding open broke the two out of their reverie. Then the play went on, but not how either of them had expected it.
"Tadaima…"
Misato nearly leapt off the couch and raced to the apartment door. Shinji was already kicking his shoes off at the doorway, carefully balancing a large handful of grocery bags.
"Shinji!" she shouted.
"Hi Misato," he smiled shyly. "Sorry I'm late."
Misato blinked dumbly. There was something…different about him. He seemed relaxed, a deal of his unease lifted. What's come over him?
"Don't worry about that," Misato said. "I'm just glad you're home."
"Yeah," Shinji replied. His eyes just couldn't seem to be able to meet Misato's face, and a furious blush burned his cheeks. "I'm…home."
Misato smiled softly. "Welcome home."
"Well, well, would you just look at this? The Great Third Child has decided to grace us lowly common-folk with his radiant presence!"
Shinji winced. Aw, crap…
The red-head pressed forward on Shinji, shrinking as Asuka scowled down at him, hands fists resting at the hips of her skirt. "And where the hell have you been all day?"
"Oh…uh…hi there, Asuka. How was your day?" he said nervously.
"You better stow that line of crap right now Third Child! You're a grade-A asshole to me this morning, disappear all damn day, and now you just waltz in like nothing's happened? You've got a helluva lot of nerve, little boy!"
Asuka's vengeful oaths of mutilation and castration from that morning vividly came to mind as Asuka hung over poor Shinji-who was already sweating bullets. Trying to defuse the explosive little red-head, Misato attempted an appeal to her pride. "Now, now, Asuka. Everyone's entitled to a bad morning or two. Do you think you can let poor Shinji off the hook, just this once? I mean, it even looks like he's brought us dinner!"
Why doesn't a cat kill a wounded mouse? Simple: because then the cat wouldn't have anything to play with. Slowly loosening her grip on his shirt collar, Asuka finally noticed the grocery bags. "Yeah," she allowed. "I guess I could let him off this once. Besides, who'd cook dinner if I killed him?" Relieving Shinji of his bags, Asuka carelessly tossed him aside as she rustled through them. "Hmph. The baka settled on a lot of cheap crap, but otherwise we may actually have a decent dinner for once…eh? What in the hell is this?"
Dropping the grocery bags on Shinji's head, Asuka yelped as she produced a small bouquet of lilacs from them. "Flowers!" She glanced down at the boy buried beneath grocery bags at her feet. "Who are these flowers for, huh? Hopin' to get a little action with Wondergirl's thighs, little baka-hentai? I don't think that creepy albino is a 'flowers' kinda girl, dumkoff."
"No…I….it's not like that!" the boy stammered, face flushing scarlet. "They're not for Ayanami!"
"Oh really?" Asuka leered. "What other girl do you know who wouldn't laugh and throw these flowers in your face?"
"They're for Misato!" he blurted.
The words took their time to sink in properly. Roused from his nap, Pen-Pen poked his head out from his fridge curiously.
"Mien Gott! You have got to be kidding me! What the hell kind of boner-provoked present is that you dirty little perve-"
"Me?"
Asuka froze, her fingers in the process of throttling her roommate, and saw Misato staring down at the discarded bouquet with wide-eyed disbelief.
"You bought these flowers…for me?"
Self-consciously leveling his gaze to the floor, Shinji tensed his shoulders in a futile effort to hide another blush. "Well…I…it's just that…it is Mother's Day…and I know you're not my mother…but…you did let Asuka and me stay here with you. No one asked you to do it or anything…you could have let us just live in one of those NERV apartments like Ayanami or something…but you decided to take us in…and it's just that you've done so much…I just wanted to…"
Everyone in the apartment simply stood there stunned as Shinji stuttered on. Even Pen-Pen gawked.
Bravely glancing up to Misato's face, the boy finished hesitantly. "I just wanted to…thank you, Misato. For…you know…everything."
"Shinji…" Misato said.
Eyes dimming, he looked away again. "I'm sorry. I guess that was really stupid of me…what was I thinking?"
"That is just the sweetest thing you've ever said!" she exclaimed.
"Huh?" both of Misato's charges said at once.
Breaking her already weak hold of Shinji's throat, Asuka barely had enough time to get out of the way as their guardian pounced on the flabbergasted Ikari.
Freed of one stranglehold and now trapped in another, Shinji feebly tried to squirm out of the headlock Misato had him in. The boy was also especially uncomfortable to note that the hold kept his face mortifyingly close to Misato's C-cup.
"Uh…Misato? This is kinda…your bre-"
"You little devil!" Misato laughed, ruffling his hair as she ground his fist lightly into his head. "Noogie! Noogie! I never knew you had it in ya Shin-chan! That was just the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
Oh great, Shinji groaned inwardly. She's probably been drinking all day…
Her face comparable with her hair, Asuka snarled at her guardian hotly. "What the hell are you doing, Misato? Don't encourage that hentai's disgusting sex-fantasies! Misato! Are you even listening to me?"
"Wark!"
"The hell? Misato! Your Goddamn bird's stealing our dinner! Get your flightless ass back here you little thief!"
"Waaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrk!"
A budget-conscious government organization at heart, NERV headquarters shut down many of their unnecessary, secondary sub-systems to conserve its resources. Most of the geofront's personnel had retired for the night, and the skeleton crew had taken over. Most importantly, the Evangelion maintenance crews kept the steel beasts on twenty-four hour standby in the event of an Angel attack. Apart from them and the janitorial staff, only lab-jockey's (Doctor Akagi always the first to come to mind) were ever expected to still be at NERV headquarters at such a late hour.
Kozou Fuyutsuki made his way down the base's darkened corridors to his office without meeting another soul. Even if someone had passed him by, there was little chance they would question the Sub-Commander of NERV anyways. His secretary's desk vacant for the remainder of the night, Fuyutsuki expected no visitors to his office until tomorrow morning.
Perhaps he was simply more traditional in his old age, but the Sub-Commander had specially requested the door to his office not to be those bothersome, automatic sliding doors. Instead, he simply wanted an old-fashioned door with hinges, a doorknob, and a lock. Most thought such an 'archaic' preference strange, but the retired Professor had the last laugh the day NERV lost all power and the geofront's staff had to pry each of those electronic doors with a crowbar to simply move around headquarters.
Fuyutsuki chuckled to himself at the memory.
The moment he grasped the doorknob, however, he knew something was wrong: the door was unlocked. There were a great deal of sensitive documents pertaining to NERV, Project-E, the dummy plugs, and countless other files that should never see the public light of day. He always kept his door locked. Bracing himself, Fuyutsuki pushed open his door and flipped on the light of his dark office.
And immediately frowned with distaste. "I should have I'd find you stalking around in here."
Sitting atop the Sub-Commander's desk as if he owned the place, Ryouji Kaji gave his superior officer a friendly, sardonic wave. "And a good evening to you too, Professor Fuyutsuki."
"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," he corrected sourly.
Kaji apologized with that easy grin. "My mistake sir. The tongue gets ahead of me sometimes."
"Amongst other things…" the old man grumbled. Crossing his office to his desk, Kaji leapt off it and stood like soldier a slouched attention, hands in his pockets as Kozou collapsed wearily into his chair. "Based off your unplanned appearance here, I'm assuming that you've completed the task I assigned you?"
"But of course. I dealt with the situation exactly as you requested."
"Good, good," he sighed with relief.
"Still…" Kaji went on. "I do admit, I'm rather worried. What would Commander Ikari do if he found out about the little 'chat' I had with his son? All he would have to do is read today's Section-2 report and we're both in the fryer."
"Commander Ikari never reads the reports," Fuyutsuki pointed out. "Unless there was a large discrepancy significant enough to raise his attention, your meeting with Shinji will be overlooked."
"Wouldn't you categorize my unexpected arrival today as a 'discrepancy'?" the NERV Agent pressed derisively.
Steadying himself, the Sub-Commander was careful to not even bat an eyebrow in front of the man. Kaji was already fully versed in the entire situation. In fact, Fuyutsuki had a sneaking suspicion the man knew far more than he was cleared for. Right now, Kaji was just doing his job (for once) as a NERV Special Inspector: being as large of a pain in the ass as possible. But the old man was experienced with such games, so he humored him.
"I'll be pulling a few strings in the Security Department. By tomorrow morning, the reports will say nothing of Pilot Shinji Ikari's contact with any Ryouji Kaji on May the Fourteenth at 9: 07 A.M."
Kaji, of course, wouldn't let up that easily. "But you do have a contingency plan, right? After all, Commander Ikari has a bothersome habit of finding things that are buried."
Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Gendou Ikari specializes in burying things, not finding them. Casually disregarding his son's emotional welfare has more of an impact on Project-E than he would care to admit. If worse does, in fact, come to worse, I can always cover myself by claiming directly to the Committee to have been acting in NERV's best interests."
"An excellent failsafe," Kaji agreed. "No one would possibly suspect that your feelings for Yui Ikari would have motivated reaching out to her son; especially not through a proxy the boy was comfortably familiar with."
Kaji said those last words with a cocky, wry grin. Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki gave him a dangerous, withering look. "You're overstepping yourself, Mr. Kaji." He warned coldly.
"Gomen," the Agent apologized with a faux bow. "That tongue's getting ahead of me again."
"You're dismissed," Fuyutsuki growled. "Get the hell out of my office."
Ever unfazed, Ryouji Kaji gave a final, graceful bow before turning and letting himself out.
Sitting alone in his office, Kozou Fuyutsuki fished a 30 year old bottle of scotch from his desk drawer and poured himself a finger's length into a small glass. Downing almost half of the cup in a single swig, he pulled something else from the locked recesses of his old wooden desk. A framed photograph from his teaching years back at the University lay trembling in his hand. Eternally frozen, Yui smiled at him, a ghost from the past.
"You're not the only onewho misses her, Ikari," the old man said bitterly. The glass be damned, his next gulp came straight from the bottle.
The day was over, and the night had drawn full-circle. Shinji laid in his bed without a hint of unease, thinking back on the long day.
Fortunately, they had managed to liberate what was left of their dinner from Pen-Pen, and Shinji cooked up a hearty meal that Asuka had declared 'tolerable'. The lilacs sitting in a vase at the center of the dinner table, the Mother's Day feast at the Katsuragi residence had been unforgettable. With a constant reminder seated atop the table all night, there was no shortage of teases from Misato and Asuka. But strangely enough, Shinji had started laughing at the remarks too. It had gotten to the point where no one really cared. They had talked about trivial, mundane things that were quickly forgotten, all their makeshift little family did was eat, talk, laugh, and chug ridiculous amounts of beer (technically, that was all Misato, but she did enough drinking for all three of them- and Pen-Pen helped too).
Despite how the morning had begun, Shinji found himself smiling. As he slowly drifted off to sleep, all thoughts of troubled sleep and nightmares of grinning beasts were lost in the flow of the day. Misato and her favorite penguin were sprawled in the living room; passed out with beer cans in their hands (or flippers) and drooling, content looks on their sleeping faces.
The violin strings of Gavotte in Rondo sang dutifully from the earpieces of Shinji's SDAT, lulling him in a dreamy, half-sleep. The Third Child always found himself thinking of Asuka whenever the song rang into his ears. His roommate occasionally played this violin solo herself before Orchestra practice. He had never know Asuka was a very musical person, but if she was a college graduate and a top Eva candidate at just fourteen, why not a talented musician?
Shinji smiled again as the piece tumbled down his ears. Memories of Asuka, eyes closed in deep concentration as she manipulated the strings were permanently associated with the song. The SDAT clicked at his side, and the music cycled to Pachelbel's Kanon. He, Asuka, and Rei played this together as an Orchestra, two violins and a cello, a song both sad and defiantly triumphant, in its own soft way.
They were excellent memories to fall asleep to.
The door to his room slowly slid itself open.
Shinji instinctively shut off the SDAT.
Misato and Pen-Pen would be sleeping off their binge drinking long into tomorrow afternoon, so it couldn't be them.
Asuka.
It happened once in a while. Sleepwalking, Asuka would stumble into his room and fall back asleep on his bed.
It didn't surprise him.
It was Mother's Day today.
Lying on his side, Shinji felt the bed sink behind him. This didn't happen too often, but Shinji was smart enough to know he should never bring these unconscious visits to Asuka's attention. He always feigned sleep when morning came around and Asuka woke up, then she would silently let herself out and said nothing of it, just like it had never happened. She didn't know he knew, so no one was the wiser.
Shinji almost jumped when he felt Asuka's arms encircle his waist, pulling him closer to her. His cheeks flushed and his heart rattled as he felt her breasts crush against his back.
This is new…
Asuka nestled her chin onto Shinji's shoulder, her breath tickled his ear.
That was when Asuka Langley Souryu, the invincible, infallible, unshakable pilot of Evangelion Unit-02 started crying.
Her breath caught itself in her throat as she sobbed, Shinji felt the tears trickling down his back. She pulled harder on his waist, pulling them closer as she whimpered. If she hadn't been talking into his ear, Shinji was sure he would have never heard it.
"Mommy…"
Shinji wasn't sure what come over him when he reached down and pried her hands off from around him; taking her hand into his. She squeezed his hand tenderly, their fingers entwined.
"Mommy…"
Shinji nestled her hand to his chest, whispering quietly. "I know, Asuka. I miss her too."
Somehow, Asuka calmed. The tears stopped, her breathing leveled, and she feel into a deep, untroubled sleep.
Asuka holding onto him as if he were something more than just a roommate or a fellow Eva pilot, Shinji idly wondered to himself when exactly he had fallen in love with her.
Sorry if the wait for this chapter was long, everybody. It took me two days to write and is about ten pages in Microsoft Word format. Oh, and my deepest apologies to Genesis D. Rose, who for some odd reason or another simply doesn't like Kaji. I know I said Kaji's role was over man, but he wrote himself in. This just goes to show me just how a story can take a life of its own. The ending took an unexpected turn on Asuka/Shinji Romance, and while I have a lot of ideas in my head where to take this, writing a Chapter Four and beyond is still up in the air. If any of you want more, just say so in your reviews.
Considering this may be the last chapter, I'd like to thank everyone for taking their time to both read and review, I appreciate it!
Until next time,
-Cy