Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, because that belongs to Studio Khara and Gainax. If I did, people wouldn't like what I'd do with it.

YOU'RE STILL THERE, RIGHT?

"I'm home..." Shinji muttered to himself. He cast his gaze around the entryway and saw the other pair of shoes haphazardly laid down on the floor. He saw the corner of the wallpaper starting to peel up a bit at the baseboards, and he saw what remained of that tiny gouge in the drywall he had filled in with putty; he could still see where the filling stopped. These were all things Shinji had seen hundreds of times since he moved into Misato's apartment.

Secretly, he was overjoyed to see all of this again. Yesterday was the culmination of a straight month of work in the depths of NERV headquarters. One month ago, Shinji Ikari was absorbed into Unit-01's core with barely a trace. Yesterday, the operation to rescue Shinji from Unit-01's Entry Plug was carried out, and it failed. Yesterday, Shinji still returned to the world. And after being put through a litany of tests, procedures, observations and endless poking and prodding in uncomfortable places, Ritsuko gave Shinji the cleanest bill of health and sent him home with Misato before going off to find a bunk to collapse in.

After entering the apartment properly, Shinji was shocked to see the absolute state of it. Trash was piled on every surface in sight, and dust-covered whatever wasn't covered by trash. He immediately started itching to clean the mess, before Misato laid a hand on his shoulder. She gave him an apologetic look and promised she'd help him take care of it all tomorrow after they had a good night's sleep.

Shinji seriously doubted her promise but agreed regardless. The testing he had gone through after waking up had tired him out quite a bit. There was a bed under a familiar ceiling waiting for him, and it wasn't in a hospital.

The two roommates bid each other goodnight, and Misato departed for her bed while Shinji stayed in the kitchen. Shinji could hear the loud thump as she landed on her futon. He looked around the apartment a bit more and found more mess to clean up. Curiously, he found no trace of Asuka. Misato hadn't mentioned her moving out, so she must've stayed in her room. That saddened Shinji a bit; he didn't remember much from inside the EVA, but he did remember that he wanted to see Asuka again. He wanted to apologize to her for leaving NERV, and leaving her and Rei to fight the previous Angel by themselves. Even if she didn't accept it, he just wanted her to hear it.

Resigned, Shinji walked to his room and prepared for bed. He laid there for what felt like hours, trying to recall the things he'd seen and felt while inside Unit-01, all the while his SDAT let its usual set of songs float into his head. But to no avail.

As Shinji rolled over to let a restless sleep overtake him, he thought he spotted a gleam of blue eyeing him from his slightly open door. He did a quick double-take, but by the time he fully focused, it was gone.

The next night, Shinji collapsed into his futon. The day had been nothing but exhausting. He insisted on going back to school just so he could return to some kind of normal, and he'd quickly regretted it the minute he walked back in. His absence hadn't gone unnoticed by his classmates, and they all asked him nonstop where he disappeared to for the past month. He managed to fend most of them off with a few shrugs and non-committal answers, but Toji and Kensuke hadn't let up one bit. Shinji understood that they'd been worried about him, but even they were starting to get a bit annoying. On top of that, their teacher hadn't changed up his lesson plan in the slightest, so the class was more of the same lectures on Second Impact.

Asuka had been downright merciless to him that day. She had always given him a hard time over everything before, but now it felt like she made it her mission to make his life more of a hell than it was before. Shinji just couldn't catch a break, even after being trapped inside a massive living robot-thing for a month.

Regardless, the day was done, and Shinji brought the sheets up to his chin to go to sleep. Just before he shut his eyes though, a memory came back to him: The previous night and the flash of blue in his doorway. It reminded him of a beast's eyes hungrily watching its prey, waiting to strike. The thought of that kept him awake for a little longer. He barely slept the night prior, so he got up and made sure the door was fully closed before going back to his futon and dozing off.

In the room down the hall from Shinji's, Asuka Langley-Soryu shot awake from a nightmare. The same nightmare again. She quickly got to her feet and exited the room, destination clear in her mind.

She stopped outside one particular door and gently slid it open just a crack, surveying the darkness for one thing in particular. Only once she was able to confirm the outline of a boy gently breathing as he slept did she let herself calm down. The nightmare was simple, but always so vivid. She'd wake up one day, and he'd be gone. As if he'd never come back at all.

Asuka shook her head clear of the images and watched Shinji for a bit. The silence of the apartment at night allowed her to think and reflect on the boy. She wouldn't deny that there were times when he annoyed the ever-living shit of her, but she recently started seeing him in a new way. Beneath the meek, shy doormat she shared an apartment with, there was someone who could stand equal to her. Someone who could love her, and she could eventually love back.

For all his annoying faults and habits, there was something about the Third Child that gave Asuka an inexplicable warmth in her chest. No matter how much she had tried to squash it in the aftermath of that botched kiss, it wouldn't go away. In fact, it only seemed to grow stronger, so she pushed it down more with anger.

When he got absorbed, it had hurt more than anything else. She was able to hide the hurt behind layers of hate and anger; a coping mechanism she had perfected to a science over the years. When she heard he came back, she was happier than she had ever been in her life, but she would never tell anyone that, of course. She desperately wanted to make things better between them, but she'd quickly fallen back into her old pattern of lashing out and reacting harshly to the poor boy. It was easier that way; much easier than letting him in to see the real Asuka.

She continued to watch him for a bit longer before she was satisfied he wouldn't disappear. She left her spot at the door frame and quietly returned to her own room to try and rest a bit. The next morning, Shinji slowly opened his eyes as he returned from a dreamless sleep. He got up to start on breakfast, but as he pulled on one of his shirts, he saw something that sent a wave of goosebumps through his body.

Shinji distinctly remembered closing his door completely last night. This morning, he saw his door had been opened. Just enough for something, or someone, to watch him.

This morbid routine continued for a few more nights. Asuka would be awoken by her nightmares, and she'd get up to keep watch over Shinji, leaving long before he'd wake up. Shinji would go to sleep after shutting his door, and he'd wake up to find it slightly opened the next day. Misato had been spending her nights at NERV, so she wouldn't know anything about this, and Asuka was still being her abrasive self. So Shinji just went through the motions of his days, allowing the nightly intrusions to gnaw at the back of his mind.

One night, Shinji found himself in the throes of a nightmare of his own. He was back in Unit-01, fighting against the 14th Angel. He'd had the upper hand for a bit, and then the entire plug went dark as the EVA's batteries ran dry. As the Angel started pounding against Unit-01's chestplate, and Shinji pleaded with the war machine to do anything, he heard what sounded like a gargantuan heartbeat pulse all around him. A strange feeling came over him, and he looked down at his hands to see them dissolving before his eyes. Before he could even scream, he had completely disappeared into the machine.

Shinji woke up with a gasp and a layer of cold sweat sticking to him. As his heart rate slowed, he checked his surroundings. 'Still in bed... it was just a nightmare,' he thought to himself. He chanced a glance at the door and sure enough, it was sitting slightly open. The rush of adrenaline flowing through him allowed him to perceive more of the scene than if he'd woken up normally; namely, a quick flash of red, and a few light, quick footsteps. Shinji just gaped at the door. '...Asuka?'

The next night, Shinji had a plan. He had a pretty good idea of who his mystery observer was, even if she was still being completely uncooperative and non-forthcoming. Shinji lay in his bed as he went over the plan in his head: He would move from the futon to a corner of his room that wasn't visible from the door, and when Asuka came to his door, he would calmly ask her why she had been going out of her way to watch him every night.

It seemed like a solid plan, even if Shinji needed to tell himself that about five more times before he believed it. He picked out a corner of his room adjacent to the door. Whoever looked into the room would see it as empty. Shinji positioned himself there and waited.

A couple of hours later, Shinji held his breath as he heard his door gently slide open. The plan, and nearly the door, went off the rails as it was flung open the rest of the way. The perpetrator let out a sharp gasp. Shinji froze in place as Asuka pounced into his room with a wild, frantic look on her face.

Asuka whirled her gaze around the room as if she were looking for something, or someone, important. When her eyes found Shinji's shining back at her in the dark, she went ghostly pale. Her fists clenched, her mouth pressed into a sharp line, and her glare seemed to burn through Shinji's head. He completely forgot about why he thought this plan to hide was a good idea, and he mentally started to prepare for the vicious verbal assault he was no doubt going to receive.

Instead, all he heard was a slight whimper, followed by a sob. Then another. And another. Shinji blinked a few times to make sure he was actually awake. The indomitable Asuka Langley-Soryu was crying in front of him. Tears started to run unabated from her eyes, and she brought up her hands to her face as if to hide them. Shinji was completely frozen by the sight, and was only compelled to move when Asuka collapsed to her knees as she was wracked with sobs.

"...A-Asuka?" Shinji inched closer to the crying girl and was promptly tackled into his futon as Asuka wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into his chest to muffle her cries. He was momentarily paralyzed but slowly put his arms around her, causing her to sob even harder for a second. The two children stayed like that for a few moments, until Asuka eventually went quiet. Shinji looked down at her and noticed that she had completely fallen asleep on him, her breathing still hitching a little. If he removed himself from this position, he had a feeling Asuka might remove him from the mortal plane, so he contented himself to tightening his embrace around her. Asuka's features unconsciously grew peaceful, and only then did Shinji allow himself to drift off to sleep.

The next morning, the two children woke up after some of the best sleep they'd ever gotten. After shaking away most of the grogginess, they finally became aware of the position they were in, and remembered the events that brought them to this moment. Asuka gave Shinji one of her famous Angel-killing glares, and he just gaped and made noises like a fish out of water.

Asuka mercifully silenced Shinji with a clearing of her throat before she started to speak, "Listen, Third. On the count of three, I am going to get up. You are slowly going to let go of me, and we are going to walk out that door and have breakfast like we used to. You will never speak of this to anyone, and you will never, ever pull anything like what you did last night again. Got it?" Shinji very quickly nodded his head. "Alright. One... two... three."

Asuka started to extricate herself from Shinji's embrace, and Shinji opened his arms to allow her to get up. She quickly got to her feet and quickly smoothed herself over before turning to walk out Shinji's door.

"W-Why?" Shinji stammered out. Asuka froze. "Why were you..." Shinji gestured wildly to the air around him. "Why... were you watching me?"

Asuka remained silent for a beat and refused to look at Shinji, hiding the tinge of pink that had taken over her complexion. "...To... make sure you're... still there." She did not elaborate as she swiftly exited Shinji's room.

The next night, Shinji lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling as he pondered over the events of the morning and the previous night. Needless to say, his mind was a whirlwind. Asuka had seemed almost... scared when she dashed into his room, and then she'd completely broken down in front of him. This only cemented the belief in his head that Asuka was one of the most complex and difficult-to-understand people he had met in his life. Yet, that made him want to try and understand her even more. If he could do that, then he'd be able to get closer to her. Then, maybe... Shinji shook his head. 'One step at a time.'

As he shifted in the futon to go to sleep, he saw what was now a familiar sight. A pair of blue eyes watching him with a hint of apprehension in them. Shinji looked directly at the two cerulean pinpricks in the dark and gave her a light, reassuring smile. He wasn't going to disappear again.

Shinji pulled up his sheets and shut his eyes. After a moment, he heard his door slowly slide open, followed by soft footsteps. Shinji cracked open one of his eyes just in time to see Asuka plop down into his futon with her back to him. "Don't get any ideas," she said firmly. "This is just so I can make sure you don't try and pull any more disappearing acts."

Asuka was grateful that her position, along with the darkness hid the full-face blush she most certainly had. Shinji just smiled and didn't say anything more.

THE END

I first saw this idea in the Asushin Discord, where sometimes people throw around fic ideas. A lot of them are basically shitposts (and a few are actual shitposts), but a few of them are actually pretty good. This was one I found that had potential, and I hope I did it justice. Thanks to SuperD9 for throwing this idea up in the Discord. Check him out here under the previously mentioned username. Also, huge thanks to ExperimentFish and MooseTracks101 for their help, and to SheriffJohnStone for his help revising this before it was published.

Fun fact: I started planning/writing this during a 3.5 hour drive at night. I was tired and my dad got pulled over for speeding. ...It was so fun. *cries*

Tell me if it's good, or tell me if it's bad. Trolls won't get any Christmas gifts.