Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights got to there respective owners. Also all OC's are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.
SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd Try" and it's sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should definitely stop right here and check those out first before continuing.
Summary:
After a long hard day of work, Misato returns home and presents the Ikari family with a familiar looking door sign.
"The Door Sign"
"And this is a new picture I made of when I first met PenPen. See that's me holding him!"
"…I see."
Asuka couldn't help but smile at the sight of her daughter and Rei Ayanami interacting with each other in the living room of the Katsuragi apartment while she was watching from the kitchen with Shinji currently cooking dinner, with a vegetarian meal for their honoured guest.
She still couldn't believe that Rei had not only found her baby girl but also brought her back to her and Shinji safely without so much as a scratch considering the dangers that was going on around them at the time of their little adventure. Once again she and Shinji were sure that it was a miracle in itself and that she and her husband would be forever grateful to her for that.
It was a surprise when earlier in the day, Rei had come very early in the morning to see them just as the small family was about to go to a nearby playground for Aki to play in. It seemed that Rei was keeping her promise to see Aki now and then and the little brown haired girl was both glad and excited to see her first ever friend again.
It was also a rare sight for both her and Shinji, seeing Rei of all people playing with Aki around the kids playground. From swinging on the swing set, climbing on the jungle-gym, the seesaw to lastly playing in the sand box which Rei had managed to create a perfect sand pyramid much to the amazement of everyone present, especially Aki who absolutely loved it.
Asuka also remembered Shinji pointing out to her of how much Rei was smiling more around Aki. It further cemented to her that Aki's childlike innocence was capable of melting the coldest of hearts. Perhaps it could have worked on Gendo Ikari himself had he and Aki met. Not that Asuka would ever let the man near her precious baby girl, even if he ever did somehow managed to recover and come out of his coma.
After the playground everyone made a small trip to the supermarket as Shinji wanted to gets some ingredients for dinner tonight, especially some vegetarian ones since Rei was also staying for dinner. Aki also took the time to ask many questions regarding stuff round her in the shop, from what was money is and what it was for to what was in various food and drinks.
Thankfully for Asuka and Shinji, many of Aki's harder questions were answered by Rei during that time. They only needed to step in during a very brief tantrum Aki made in wanting a big bag of cookies to eat now, to which a compromise was made that she could have it but only eat them after dinner. Eventually, they ended up back at the apartment and Aki wasted no time in wanting to draw what was on her little mind while grabbing Rei to join her and occasionally show her previous works to the blue haired teen.
Rei once again surprised both parents on her artistic talent. She had drawn a very photographic image of a smiling and happy Aki that was on the seesaw. Asuka concluded that Rei must have some sort of photographic memory to be able to remember every detail. Before Asuka could finish that train of thought she heard the front door opening.
"Hey everyone, I'm home!" The familiar cheery voice of Misato was heard, before she walked in into the kitchen. She had a bunch of documents under her arm and held a plastic bag with her other hand.
"Welcome home auntie Misato!" Aki said having already gotten up from the living room to greet the older woman home from work.
Putting the work documents she had on the table, as well as the bag, she smiled at the energetic four year old despite her tiredness. "Hey little troublemaker, what have you been up to today?" Misato asked as she went to the fridge to get a can of juice.
Aki, given the go ahead, told Misato the days events as any four year old could. "Today Mama and Papa took me to the big playground in the city and it had all the cool things in it that no other playground had but before we got of the apartment Rei came by to see me! She ended up coming with us and we played on everything there and me and Rei played in the sandbox last and Rei made this cool piromid thingy."
"A what now?" Misato looked at the child with a tiny bit of confusion at the last unfamiliar word.
"The correct saying is pyramid." A soft voice said, one familiar to the Major and Misato looked up to see Rei getting up from her position from the living room to greet the older woman.
"Oh hi Rei, nice to see you," Misato said, surprised slightly at the blue haired girl here.
Rei politely bowed at her. "Pardon for the intrusion Major Katsuragi."
Misato sighed at the official title Rei used for her. "Rei it's ok you don't have to call me Major anymore. I mean the war is over now so just call me Misato."
Rei seemed to hesitate or at least that was what Misato thought she could see on the blue haired teen's face. It was hard to tell given the girl lack of facial expressions.
"Very well…Miss Katsuragi," was the only answer that came out of Rei mouth and Misato deeply sighed at this, but concluded that this was probably going to be the most informal greeting she was gonna get out of Rei for now.
"Hey, I didn't finish my story!" Aki grumpily complained.
Misato looked back down at the little girl. "Oh sorry kiddo, go on then." Giving Aki chance to finish her tale of today's events.
"So um…oh yeah after the playground me, Mama, Papa and Rei went to get stuff for dinner at the huge food place that had everything. I wanted to go in the big fridge thingy as it was soo cool in there but Mama and Papa said I wasn't allowed to. Oh and when we got everything I wanted to eat the bag of cookies but Mama and Papa said that I would have to wait till after we had dinner until I can have them.
"Oh a bag of cookies. Are they the multicoloured ones?" Misato asked expectedly.
"Hey no sweet or snacks right now," Shinji firmly said. "I'm just dishing up dinner anyway."
"Aaaawwww!" Both Aki and Misato said at the same time, disappointed.
"Misato can you move your work stuff off the table please?" Shinji asked.
"Ok got it, and oh it's not all work stuff." Misato said while picking up her work papers. "I actually bought something else while I was coming home."
"Let me guess, you've finally gotten back on the beer wagon." Asuka snickered before given the purpled haired woman a stern glare. "But seriously Misato, no drinking alcohol around Aki!"
"No, it isn't alcohol Asuka, it's actually..."
"What is alcohol?" Aki asked innocently while she was helped seating at the table by Shinji.
"It's nothi-" Asuka quickly tried to dismiss the question but another voiced answered the little girls question anyway.
"Alcohol is an ingredient found in beer, wine..." Rei began to say.
""Rei, please, she doesn't need to know that yet!"" Both Asuka and Shinji said in unison.
"Oh…my apologies," Rei apologised for her little error.
"Anyway as I was saying, what I bought were new door signs!" Misato said to to the group, pulling out a familiar heart shaped sign. "When I saw that you gave Aki yours, Shinji, I decided to get one for myself."
Misato gave both her two charges a smirk. "And I got you guys one too." Pulling another identical heart shaped sign from the plastic bag. "Maybe you can write on it 'The lovers suite'." Misato added in, her smirk widening at the blushes appearing on the two while Aki giggled at seeing her parents becoming embarrassed.
"Oh, stop it, Misato," Asuka said the purpled haired woman just as Shinji set the dinner plates on the table with Aki and Rei being served their dinner first.
Eventually the evening became quiet after dinner with Rei set on returning back to her apartment despite Aki wanting her friend to stay the night, with Shinji, Asuka and Misato's giving the blue haired girl permission that she could.
Much to Aki's dismay Rei politely declined the invitation, but promised Aki that she would indeed come around again soon and Asuka brought up the plan to go out into the city to get new clothes for not only Aki but for Rei herself, despite the later saying that current clothes were sufficient.
After their guest left, it became the traditional night to prepare Aki for bedtime. However, Aki having a fun and exciting day was very tired and didn't put up much of a resistance tonight, so bath time and brushing her teeth was easy. Just as the two parents were guiding Aki to her room (formerly Shinji's) Asuka noticed the familiar heart shaped sign on her and Shinji's room but what stopped her in her dead in her tracks was what was already written on it.
On it in clear bold black Kanji was "Shinji & Asuka's Lovers Suite".
"Wh..What the hell!?" Asuka said out loud, somewhat startling her husband and daughter just as the first opened the bedroom door.
"What's wrong?" Shinji enquired.
"Don't you see, look baka!" Asuka said while pointing at the sign on their bedroom door. Shinji, now clearly seeing it too, stood there for a second before letting out a heavy sigh, immediately knowing the culprit to this crime.
"Jeez Misato, how immature are you?" Asuka said out loud before grabbing the heart shaped sign on the door with one hand, intending to remove it but unfortunately it didn't budge off the door. Asuka confused for a second now grabbed it with both hands and using a bit for force but still no result. Now getting angry and impatient, Asuka kept trying to pull the thing off with even more force than before but still nothing was happening.
"Errr God..Goddamn it Misato! What the hell did you do! Superglue this thing to the door!?"
Shinji and Aki couldn't help but stand back, watching as Asuka fought against the immovable door sign. Asuka, letting go for a second, quickly turned to Shinji.
"Shinji, help with me this!"
"But…but Asuka, it's just one of Misato's pranks and it's not that big a deal is it?" Shinji tried to reason with his red haired wife. Unfortunately his response was not the right thing to say, judging by the mean glare she shot at him.
"What are you, stupid!? We may live here but what if we're going to be having company in the future and if someone were to see this they will jump to the wrong conclusion!" Asuka resorted back at her husband.
"But we're going tell people eventually anyway," Shinji said back.
"Yes Baka, but on our own terms, otherwise we'll be trying to sort out everyone's confusing conclusions and questions. So stop standing there and help me get this thing off already."
Shinji sighed once again. "Yes dear," he said before assisting her. With both parents now struggling with the door sign, a now wide awake Aki just watched and laughed at their attempts.
Across the apartment in her room Misato who was working on her laptop, could overhear the struggles going on and couldn't help but grin and giggle to herself. Her prank had been successful.
End.