IV. Deliverance

The clock ticked over to midnight. Shinji rolled his head in the examination bed. "H-Happy birthday, Asuka."

"Yeah, yeah." The redhead said in the chair beside his bed. "We'll celebrate it after you're discharged. Just lie there, get better, and make it up to me when you can."

It was just the two of them in that quiet hospital room deep in the Terminal Dogma. It was barely two hours since the two of them returned from the plug… days after Asuka had gone in. Asuka managed to pass a cursory examination, but for Shinji, a more through examination was needed for the boy who had been in the Eva for over a month.

Asuka's legs were crossed and one of her feet bounced idly as she was looking at a book she brought. She had been discharged a while ago, but was waiting for Misato to visit Shinji in order to get a ride back to the apartment. She was using the time and the silence to collect her thoughts… a lot had happened in the past few days she still needed to process. For now, she masked her behavior by hiding behind a small novel.

"H-Hey." Shinji said, getting her attention. When she turned to face him again, he smiled a little. "You didn't have to come after me. Thank you."

"Hmf. You're welcome." Asuka replied, turning back to the book. "When you fucking astral project into the apartment, it's kind of hard to resist a kind of request like that."

"I… I really did that?"

Asuka turned to him. "You mean you don't remember!?"

Shinji blinked. "I… I think so? It's… it's hard. It's like trying to remember a dream you had after just waking up. I don't… I don't remember much before we…uh… re-did the training night."

Silence hung in the air between them two of them, and Asuka looked back at her book. She flipped a page without reading anything to think, then asked, "Do you remember what you said to me… when you came to the apartment?"

Shinji didn't answer immediately. She opened her mouth to speak before he said quietly, "I do."

She closed her mouth. Then she asked, "Do you still mean it?"

"...yes." He replied. He looked at her for a long moment, then looked at his hands on the bedsheet as he tried to assess his feelings. Then he said, "I would have stepped through the door, before, if I knew it was okay."

Asuka flipped another unread page. "What are you talking about? You did step through that door."

Shinji's eyes bugged a little bit and he looked at her. "Wait… does that… does that mean you-"

"If you back out on me Shinji, I'll take it personally." Asuka replied and flipped another page. "At least take me out on a date first. As far as I'm concerned, presently, you're mine."

Shinji blinked and looked back down at the bedsheets, and then at his hands. He still couldn't shake this feeling that something had changed… something was new. The source was beside him, radiating like the heat of a fire in a snowstorm. There was a way out of the cave now, a way forward. Someone to trust.

He turned his head slowly to look at her again with new eyes. Slowly, she turned to look back at him and smile. Blushing a little, he said, "Happy birthday, Asuka."

Fin.

Happy belated birthday, Asuka.

A/n: originally this started out months ago as Asuka's version of Splint. Once I realized I could use this for Asuka's actual birthday I kicked it into high gear and powered through Asuka having her first sighting of Shinji to being stuck in the dream encounter. I had no plan for that, so it took a few days to make something passable. I hope it hangs well as a decent story.

I feel the premise could still be done better if it was given more time, but this was the result. Perhaps someday I'll do what Lazarus Sense was to Panacea and re-do this in order to make it better and lean into the direction suggested by the first few chapters- long gaps, doubts of Asuka's sanity. But this will do for now. Besides, it's better to finish a story than leave it forever in the drafts with lost potential.