MISATO'S APARTMENT
9:17pm:
Shinji quietly inserted his key into the lock, having to turn it slowly to avoid making too much noise. He wasn't worried about the neighbors, and no one at the apartment even slept that early. He just didn't want to deal with Misato's teasing, or even worse; Asuka's bullying.
The door was carefully opened, he even made sure to remove his shoes before he stepped in just to be as quiet as possible. So far, it was looking like he was in the clear. Some lights were still on, but the living room was quiet.
He had a little look around, just to make sure he really was in the clear. Yet again, it looked like everyone was in their rooms. He breathed a sigh of relief and placed his shoes down on the shoe rack.
Now, all he'd had to do was sneak into his room through the corridor. He hoped they were either too tired to notice, or preoccupied with something so that he could-
"What's up with the stealth mission, lover boy?" He heard Misato say behind him.
'What? Where the hell could she have come from?' He thought as his face clearly conveyed his confusion to Misato. She kept smiling and pointed at the kitchen. She had somehow known he would want to sneak into his room, and just hid in the kitchen sipping her beers until she heard the door being opened very slowly. Seems she knew him better than he had expected her to at this point in their relationship.
"Hi... Misato..." Shinji greeted her cautiously, knowing she had teases rolled up her sleeve.
"Welly welly, well. Look at who's managed to snag the mysterious Ayanami! Gotta say, pretty impressive for someone who's only been here for about a month." The drinker told him, looking almost proud of him.
"I already told you that it's not like that, Misato." He replied as he turned his head to look away in embarrassment.
"Well, whatever it's like between you two is between you two. Come, sit." He did as he was told and sat on the dinner table with her. It looked like she wanted to talk about something serious.
"First of all, you forgot to notify me when you were going to get home."
"Damn! I'm so sorry Misato, I must've gotten too distracted. It won't happen again, I promise." He said, mentally cursing at himself for forgetting to do the one thing she asked him to do.
"I'll let it slide this time, but uh..." She trailed off.
"What is it?" Shinji asked.
"The reason for you not calling... it isn't because... well, you two didn't, um... *ahem* fuck, did you?" She asked, not really minding if Shinji was having fun on his own. She just didn't want him to get anyone pregnant.
"I-I... What part of 'it's not like that' do you not understand?! I'm being honest, really!" He explained, his face redder than ever now. She giggled at his embarrassment yet again, and even reminisced on her wild college days for a second.
"As a legal guardian, you can't ever be too sure, Shinji. No matter how innocent you may be!" She remarked as she playfully gave his forehead a tap with her index finger.
"Well, how was it? What did you guys do down at HQ?" She asked.
"Not much, actually. Ayanami had this very strange test she had to take with Dr. Akagi oh which she invited me to take too. After that, we grabbed a bite at the cafeteria and I eventually walked her home."
"Did you guys talk about anything?" She asked further, fishing for any kind of 'cutesy' moment she could use to throw more of her jokes his way.
"Not much, we're both really quiet. When we did, though, I did most of the talking. She appears to be very socially withdrawn."
"Well, what did you talk to her about?" Her question reminded Shinji of his almost-constant venting against his father. On his way home, he had run the memory in his head a few times, causing him to overthink and regret all the whining he did. To an outsider who didn't know he was talking about his father, it might've sounded like petty jealousy.
"Um, just about life before NERV." He lied, wanting to spare himself from even more embarrassment.
"Okay, well I'll believe you if you say you haven't done anything naughty with her. But be honest, do you like her?" She asked him, trying to cut straight to the chase.
Shinji looked ready to deny such a thing, but looked down as if he was thinking about it. Misato let out a fake gasp.
"You do, don't you?" She asked excitedly, causing Shinji to bury his face in his hands.
"Hahaaa! There's no hiding it now! You're in looove." Misato teased, satisfied with the information she managed to extract from him.
"I don't know if I do! I- ugh, it's hard to explain..." He started, not really sure exactly what it was that drew him to her so much.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'? You either like someone or you don't."
"Well, that's the thing. First time I saw her was over at the cafeteria at HQ. For some reason, I felt as if I had seen her before. Like she was in my life before, a very important part of it..."
"Well then maybe you have seen her before, then." Said Misato, not really understanding what was so weird about it.
"I highly doubt it. I think I'd remember a head of blue hair and red eyes, Misato. I've never even been to Tokyo-3 before."
"Oh... Well that's still very sweet! You should totally ask her out, Shin!" She told him, liking the idea of having Rei over for dinner every once in a while.
"I don't know... I'm not even sure she likes me like that." He said. Misato rolled her eyes, the obvious having flown over his head.
"You really don't see it, do you?" She asked Shinji with a smirk.
"See what?" He questioned, not understanding what it is that she was trying to tell him.
"Ayanami is very... blunt. That's just who she is. She only will ever do something if it serves some practical use to her or the Commander. She'll leave without warning if it comes to it, Shinji... Yet she's been sticking around you this whole time."
Shinji thought about this, and could be seen blushing a little.
"She's never just stuck around someone to hang out with them before. Does that not tell you anything, Shin?"
Even though what Misato had said could very well be true, Shinji still had his doubts.
'Hanging out? With only me? No, that's impossible. Why would anyone want to be with me in that way? Who would like me in that way? I don't deserve it.'
"M-Maybe you're right, Misato... But I can't know for sure." He told her, looking away in doubt.
"You'll never know if you don't try for it, Shinji. I'm just saying from personal experience that the signs are implying something beautiful!"
She had made Shinji smile with her little remark, but his head still echoed the strong sense of self-doubt in him.
"I'll give it a shot sometime." He said to her, not knowing when or even if he would actually do it.
Misato smiled and tossed her empty can at the trash can, missing by just a little. Annoyed at having to walk over to place it in its right place, she turned around to Shinji once more.
"Oh and Shinji, there's one more thing I needed to bring up." She said to him in a more serious tone. Shinji gulped, wondering what he had done wrong now.
"The Top Branch has notified me of Matsuyama's current state... they're not doing well. You and Asuka's little 'break' has been shortened to just a single week."
Shinji felt his heart sink at the thought of having to go back a sooner than expected. But, hearing of the city's worsened state made him worry about his friends over in Unit-01. Toji and Kensuke were the first people who made him feel included in the platoon, and for the first time in his life.
"My god... how's Unit-01 doing? Or rather, Eagle Company I guess." He asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. I haven't heard of any casualties, just that the Angels are striking nearly twice as hard now."
'Those damned Angels...' He thought angrily.
"You should get some rest, Shinji. You have therapy tomorrow, and we start you and Asuka's 'rebuild' too." Misato told him. "Have a good night, Shinji."
"Good night Misato." He said back to her, dreading the time he'd have to spend with Asuka for the week.
APRIL 17th, 2015
1:30pm:
And so it began. Shinji was already in a bad mood from having to open up about his personal issues to Dr. Sano earlier that day. But now, things were taking an annoying, and yet weird turn.
"We have to what?" Both Shinji and Asuka asked in unison, their confusion and frustration mixing into one.
"You're going to sync up your daily routine together, at least on the days we have this exercise on. You're already off to a great start."
"Well how's that gonna change anything? Honestly, it's pretty stupid if you ask me!" Asuka whined.
"You two will not only do everything at the same time, but you will learn from each other. Wherever one lacks, the other will help out. You need to be a team here, as you are in the battlefield."
Although it made sense, the two couldn't stand the thought of having to do everything together. They lived in the same apartment, but tried their best to avoid one another as much as possible. This wasn't going to be fun.
"Let's get started then. We're about half an hour late for lunchtime, so I think you two should work something out in the kitchen. Now, if I hear just one insult being thrown from one of you to the other, it will not go unpunished. I hate to be such a hard-ass, but I can't have you two bickering anymore. Get on it, please."
With that, Misato sat on the couch and turned on the TV. She kept the volume low enough so that she could hear the two if they decided to argue in a low volume. Shinji and Asuka stared at each other, their eyes squinted in a nearly hateful manner.
"C'mon, let's just get this over with..." Asuka mumbled. Shinji nodded and followed her to the kitchen, opening the drawers to reach for all the tools he needed to prepare a meal.
"What are you most familiar with cooking, Soryu?" He asked her, wanting to get a good sense of what the two could work on for the day.
"Wait, who said anything about cooking? I thought we were just gonna heat one of those frozen foods the Major has."
"Well I guess we could do that. But I was thinking we could make a bowl of rice, beef and some veggies. If you want, I could show you how it's done." He offered.
"What makes you think I'd want to-" She said before stopping herself.
"-I mean, yes. That would be fine." She finished, forcing herself to watch her tone.
Shinji gave her a quick nod and pulled out the ingredients, making sure there was enough for everyone.
"Misato, do you have any teriyaki sauce?" He asked their guardian from across the living room. Misato pointed towards the corner next to the stove top.
"I keep condiments on that wooden tray in the corner."
Shinji thanked her and went to look for it. Now knowing where it was, he would come back to it later when the rest of the food was ready. As he began to prepare the meal, Asuka watched carefully as he unloaded everything else. He had rice, angus beef, carrots, and broccoli all set out on the table.
"First, we steam the rice by boiling water in this saucepan. The rice goes in the water, along with some salt, but not too much. Gotta make sure it's the right amount."
Asuka was quite surprised with how confident he sounded in all this. She would've never assumed he was so secure about anything in his life, seeing how cowardly he was in the battlefield. But then again, those two were very different things.
She watched as he poured water, placed the dried rice into it, and turned the stove top on. As that process began, he chopped up the angus beef and taught her how to stir fry it along with the carrots.
Taking a little break from that, he checked on the rice again. He decided it had been steamed enough, turned the stove off, and let it cool off on the side. He went back to the beef and poured some of that teriyaki sauce he had asked Misato about. He decided to add some chopped green onions, too.
The sight began to make Asuka very hungry. The smell had creeped on over to Misato's nostrils, also making her stomach rumble as the delicious scent took over her mind.
'Yesss, he's making that beef teriyaki bowl. Having them work on lunch together was a good call, Misato.' She thought, mentally patting herself on the back.
"Mind if I mix some garlic powder on it? Maybe some sesame seed too?" He asked Asuka, snapping her out of her food trance.
"What? I mean, yeah sure whatever." She responded.
He didn't mind her reaction and just went back to showing her what to do. Once the beef had been stir fried enough, turned the other stove top he had been using and let that cool off too. He went back to the rice.
"Now, I'll begin serving this stuff on the plate. You don't have to make it look neat like I like to, so don't worry about it. It's a personal preference." He told her. She nodded and watched him get everything ready.
He pulled out three bowls and placed them all side by side. He evenly split the rice into thirds and poured it, effectively making it a base for the meat and vegetables. He flattened them a little too, just for presentation.
Then, he grabbed the meat contents and poured them into the bowl, as well as the vegetables. Finally, he evened it all out, washed all the tools and utensils he had used, and left them on the sink for him to put away after they were all done eating their lunch.
"There, that's about it. If you want to prepare this stuff yourself, just ask me for help if you need it." He told her, feeling just the slightest ease around her now. Asuka was almost speechless, it looked really good. And he did it with such ease, too.
But did it taste good? That was for her to decide.
"Miss Misato! Lunch is ready!" He said as he brought the bowls over to the dinner table.
"Yippee! This stuff is sooo good, Asuka! I hope you learned something from him today!"
"Of course I did! I pay good attention!" She responded defensively.
"Yeah, whatever you say, Asuka." Misato said somewhat passive aggressively. The three sat down -Misato only doing so after grabbing a beer, of course- and split their chopsticks into two.
Asuka carried a piece of the meat over to her mouth, chewing it once she closed it. The taste was great; a perfect mix of salt and sweet, the softness of the meat making it a pleasure to bite down on. Even the vegetables, which she had never been a big fan of, was rich.
'I gotta make this stuff myself... It's way better than most of the food they have in this country.' She mused.
"How is it? Hopefully I didn't overcook it, sometimes that can happen so I'm sorry if it isn't to your lik-"
"It's good!" She abruptly told him, not wanting to hear another useless apology come from his mouth.
"It's... good." She said again, in a calmer tone this time as to not alarm Misato.
Understanding this, Shinji, smiled, nodded a thank you and continued to eat his food. It didn't start off too bad after all, he just hoped it wouldn't all go south in the coming days.
Misato stared at the two, not sure what the hell that was all about, but also understanding that this was a good thing. Some progress had been made.
3:30pm:
"You do this everyday?" Shinji asked Asuka, feeling a little dumb after asking that question.
"Of course I do! You have to stay fit if you want to be a NERV troop!" She responded confidently.
'That's the one thing I don't want to be...' He thought to himself.
Asuka had pulled out some weights, what looked like a yoga mat, and clothing fit for exercise. Asuka's workout clothes consisted of a midriff-looking top with two musical notes printed on it; a quarter note and an eighth note.
Her sweatpants were black and rather tight, and ended right above the knee. Shinji, never being one to have exercised much in his life, had no workout clothes of his own. Embarrassingly enough, Asuka forced him to wear her spare top.
She had also offered him the sweatpants, to which he strongly refused. To his luck, he at least had some sweatpants more adjusted for his male (yet skinny) physique.
"This all feels a bit silly, Soryu..." He admitted to her.
"Just be glad I had a top you could use that isn't pink like mine. Anyway, let's begin!" She told him rather excitingly, but probably only because she had a chance to humiliate him a bit.
"So, do we start with stretches, or something?" He asked.
"Stretches don't actually bring any benefits to exercise. It can actually fuck you up if you're not careful. So just follow my lead, got it?" She ordered.
"Yes ma'a-" He replied, realizing he responded to her as if she was giving him an order in the battlefield.
"Save that for Matsuyama, idiot." She said to him playfully.
It was strange to him, but she seemed to have really eased up on him after lunch. She was still very passive aggressive at times, but nowhere near as vicious.
"Okay, so judging by your skinny-ass arms, I'd say we should start with something easy. Y'know, so you can eventually get to MY level!" She said in an overly-cocky tone.
Though Shinji had gained some strength from Ritsuko's genetics pod, he hadn't really kept up with any exercise himself. It was something that had been alien to him his entire life, so he did lose just a little muscle mass.
As much of a drag that this was, he saw it as a good thing. Asuka pulled out four dumbbells, two of them a matching lavender color that weighed about 5 pounds, while hers weighed 8 and was colored a fiery red. Her favorite color. Grabbing the lighter ones, Shinji felt as if this was barely enough to challenge his muscles in any way.
"You sure these aren't too light? I can carry them rather easily." He said to her.
"It isn't about how heavy the weights are, dummy! It's the repetition that works your arms out. Do too much, and you'll strain yourself." She explained, rolling her eyes at his 'ignorance' towards something he wasn't very familiar with. He sighed.
"Well, whatever you say then..."
Starting off, it wasn't very difficult at all. But as the minutes went by, and he realized Asuka had set up a timer for 10 minutes of this stuff, his arms began to really feel it. It took a little while (at least, it did in his head) but they had finally finished. He was sweating just a little, but he did feel pretty good about it.
"Okay, 5 minute break, then we go for round 2!" Said Asuka.
"We'll be kicking it up to 12 minutes this time, by the way..." She added, making Shinji already feel exhausted before he had completely tired himself out.
"Uh, I- yeah, okay..." He complied defeatedly.
"After that, we'll move on to pull-ups. Core strength is also very important, Ikari!" His redheaded Lieutenant told him with a bit too much satisfaction. She really was enjoying herself today.
6:04pm:
Leaving the shower, Shinji was still drying his hair with the towel Misato had given him. He would've been lying to himself if he kept thinking to himself that the exercise sessions with Asuka hadn't made his body feel that good in ages.
He was now back in his normal clothes, feeling very comfortable again. And although he would've preferred to stay comfortable all the time, he had to admit that these moments of discomfort and strain only made him appreciate comfort even more. One couldn't exist without the other.
He, of course, wasn't the first to shower though. Asuka made sure of that, forcing him to wait in his own pouring sweat. It didn't help that Misato had caught a glimpse of Shinji wearing Asuka's silly little top, making him the victim of yet another one of her playful teases.
He walked on over to the couch and dropped himself onto it, slowly feeling himself sink into the cushions.
'That was actually pretty good, even though my body is aching a shit ton.'
Over at Misato's room, the legal guardian of the two teens had buried her face into her desk, exhausted from all the at-home work she now had to do. She couldn't possibly have left the two alone together, since she figured they'd argue over something.
So she agreed to do her workload from home for just that week, until they were sent back to serve in their company. But to her surprise, today seemed more peaceful than usual.
Just to make sure she hadn't left the two alone for too long, she went over to check on them. They still weren't that friendly to one another, but they had clearly earned some kind of respect for each other that day.
For starters, they were in the same room without having been forced to do so. This was only their first day, and they had 4 more to go. At this rate, they might've even become friends by the end of this whole ordeal. Just as she was about to say something regarding the two, the phone rang suddenly.
"I'll get it." She told the two, to which both had nodded in response.
"Katsuragi residence, this is Misato speaking." She said to the caller. After hearing who it was, she turned to Shinji with a huge smile on her face.
"It's uh... it's for you, Shinji!" She said, trying to contain her giggles. Looking confused at Misato's strange behavior, he went to her and grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" He asked, curious as to who might want to call him. His friends were still battling over at Matsuyama, so it couldn't have been either of them.
"Ikari." Said a familiar feminine voice. It was obviously Rei, and the fact that she had actually asked for him set fireworks off in his head.
'Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit-' was all that ran through his head at the moment.
"H-Hey Ayanami, how's it going?" He greeted timidly, trying to sound as casual as possible again. While Misato was off in the other side of the room trying to hold in her excitement, Asuka listened intently.
"A walk? I'd like that, yeah. Let me just ask Mis-" He said as he looked over at her, Misato already nodding and giving him two thumbs up intensely. He could see her mouthing the words 'YES YES YES' over and over.
"-ato... seems she's already agreed to it, so I'll be seeing you soon. How about we meet halfway at Ato-Rakushon Station, at the 4th District?" He asked, looking pretty happy as he did.
Misato looked over at Asuka, as if to gesture a 'Can you believe this?' kind of message. She quickly noticed how unamused Asuka was and stopped gesturing immediately. Misato began to worry a little, only having learned of her deep insecurities last night after Asuka had lashed out.
"Great! See you in a bit, bye." Said Shinji as he put the phone down.
"I'll be sure to call you before I come home Misato!" He said to his guardian as he rushed to his room to grab proper clothes for Tokyo-3's harsh weather.
In a matter of minutes, he was out of the house. Misato wasn't sure what she should do, as she knew saying anything about Shinji and Rei might set Asuka off.
"Would you like some dinner? I can't promise it'll be anywhere near as good as Shinji's meals, though!" She said, trying to sound playful.
"Yeah, sure. Sounds good." Asuka replied flatly.
As Misato went to the kitchen to prepare one of her pre-made frozen meals, she saw Asuka sit on the couch and turn on the TV, blankly staring at it as she channel surfed like she had last night. This time, she wasn't bored or even frustrated at the lack of good shows or movies. She was just mindlessly doing it. Misato could read the hurt just by looking at Asuka's body language.
'And to think they were starting to get closer. They're just like magnets, they were coming together until he turned his back. Now they're repelling again. Ugh, teenagers are such a pain sometimes...'
She didn't know if letting Shinji see Rei was even a good idea anymore, but who was she to deny him a hang with his crush? She debated in her head what she should do, or if there was even anything she could do to prevent this from hurting Asuka.
Strangely enough, at this very moment, Misato was reminded her of her own mother. Thinking about it more, she realized she basically had assumed the role as a parental figure for the two.
'A mother, eh Misato?' She mused.