This is a continuation of my previous fic, Goodbye, Idiot Shinji( s/14056760/1/Goodbye-Idiot-Shinji). Due to its change of tone and the finality of the original fic, I chose to upload this separately. It could stand alone on its own, I think, but I still recommend you to read the previous fic first.
It was a late evening last night when Reserve Major Asuka Langley Shikinami found the things and had a fight over them with her fiance-in-all-but-name.
Yesterday, Shinji packed dinner and took it home from his job. After eating together, they laid down on the sofa in the heat of high summer that seemed to persist even into the late evening. A few months ago, the sofa would've seen some rough treatment, but yesterday the two had no physical contact other than Shinji, sitting on the opposite side of Asuka, rubbing her feet that were stretched on his knees.
It wasn't like they were fed up with each other's bodies. Rather, it was that sex was more like candy bars that are piled up in a bucket in the corner of a kitchen counter to them these days. Only a lunatic would get tired of such things. It was something you could always walk up and grab, so they relaxed and took it slowly. No need to rip each other's clothes right from the doorway like there was no tomorrow, as they did for the first few months.
Anyway, so the two, without romping, spent time talking about the day's events and gossiping as they often did these days. Asuka complained about the new Wille liaison officer that she had to train. What a shithead, the first person ever who even Kenken showed open disdain. No wonder she was kicked out of the field and came to a backwater nowhere like here. Shinji complained that he had a fight with the nutritionist over the menu plan for this month. They received beef, imported from Texas, a scarce ingredient these days, and the nutritionist kept insisting on braising and roasting, while Shinji argued for soup menus. There's a digit-level of difference of days you could eat meat if you roast them instead of making a soup, but the nutritionist didn't really care, said Shinji. Most of the forced migrants, including the said nutritionist, were returnees, and returnees don't really have a grip on the reality of supply shortages, Shinji complained. No wonder Tokyo-4 was hit the hardest during the Winter Crisis, and even after half of the city was torn apart and forced to move all over Japan, they haven't learned a thing, he said.
Asuka couldn't hold back her laughter when he said that.
"You came back in the last days of the Winter Crisis. What do you know so well about it?"
Shinji pulled Asuka's big toe, just slightly. "But I've seen all the aftermath in person. Including the Akagi Executive Order 45. I am, currently, working for the facility built because of it, remember?"
Asuka snorted. "Alright, I'll give you that. What about returnees being wasteful and such? Technically you're a returnee of sorts, too. Remember?"
"What does it have to do with that? It's just a matter of fact."
"But you don't have a standard to compare. No criteria. You don't actually know how people lived through the Impact era. How can you make a comparison then? You're just pretending to know something you don't."
A corner of his mouth went up to form a bitter smile. "Well, that's a summary of my life now. Pretending to know."
"Yeah, I know. You did it to me."
Even at this moment-late morning, a day after- Asuka couldn't understand why she said that. She wasn't confident if she could really forget the incident, sure, but that was something that's over, done, forgiven. It wasn't something that needed to be mentioned, and it was petty without even a reason. At that time, though, she didn't realize it until Shinji's hands stopped.
The silence that ensued probably wasn't long, objectively, but it felt like minutes to Asuka. She got so sick of it she even started to seriously consider giving head, a proven method for bettering the mood between them. Then Shinji began to knead her feet again. Still, Asuka continued considering the option, but it was Shinji again who made the first move. At first he rubbed the top of her feet, then his fingers slowly crept to her ankles. Then he proceeded to gently rub her calves for some time and finally started to tickle the back of her knees. Asuka, who was looking down at the whole process, turned her head away and made a show of exasperated sigh.
"Wash your hands first if you're going to do it." Of course, she showered not too long ago, but she wasn't about to accept the hand that touched her feet to come inside her. So while Shinji obediently went to the bathroom, Asuka unhooked and removed her bra -Shinji sucked at it still, unbelievable as it was- while leaving the other clothes on, then went to their bed and rummaged through the tin can on their bedside table. There was where she found the things.
The packaging was different, for the starter. It was not a dull, gray package that was a distinctive characteristic of almost every single Kredit product that she received in kind instead of a cash salary. It had mostly faded, but there still were traces of colors and letters on the packaging that was recognizable enough, and for that, it was obvious that this was a pre-impact thing. Asuka couldn't believe her eyes. Did he go mad?
And precisely that moment the said madman put his arms around her from behind. A flood of heat and a faint scent of him swept over her. Between the confusion with the thing in her hand, the feeling that she had just done something a little sorry to him to just sweep him away, and her stupid body getting excited without her approval, she just stood there for a moment in his arms and let him do as he pleased with his hands under her shirt. Only after a hot breath and electric lips touched the back of her neck she turned and pushed him away. "Shinji Ikari, what is this?"
"What?"
Asuka lifted the thing, and that made Shinji smile almost shyly which made her frustration even worse. "Oh, that. It's an ultra-thin condom. It's very thin, as the name suggests. They were produced only before Impact and currently there is no place that makes it in the world. You know how Wille is, they produce battleship parts but don't give a damn to consumer goods."
Asuka closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and opened her eyes again. It was her method of preventing explosions that were too common before, and just seeing that made Shinji noticeably intimidated. "And. Why. Is. That. Thing. Is. Here."
"Hey, why not? We've used all the rationing we got this month."
"If that's the case, you could have exchanged some with cigarettes! No one's smoking in this house anyway!"
Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "We exchanged all we had with flour this month, though..."
Come to think of it, they did. Asuka insisted on wanting to eat noodles, so Shinji went out and swapped two cartons of ration cigarettes for flour earlier this month. Before that, Asuka also used all the cigarettes they accumulated to buy kitchenware for Shinji's birthday gift. Not that it was important for now...
"Those things were expired for more than a decade now!" And then, something clicked inside her head, so she turned and checked the can again. It seemed they really did use up the ration, there was not a single sign of gray packaging in the tin can. "So that torn one yesterday, the one you pulled out after done and was all messy, that was this thing too, right?"
Shinji's eyes widened. "Oh, so it has an expiration date? And it has something to do with tearing?"
"Of course it has!" Asuka felt dizzy. Yesterday was a dangerous day, but it didn't feel right to get angry over an accident, so she just shrugged it off without saying much. It seems she had every right to be angry.
Shinji scratched his head. "What do you mean it has? Expiration date? Or it having something to do with tearing?"
It took all the patience she had to not tear her hair out. "Both!"
"I thought we were too rough again," Asuka was about to snort, but froze at the totally unexpected words that followed. "Or that I was way bigger than Toji."
Eyeing Shinji, who was smiling awkwardly while avoiding her eyes, Asuka considered what this meant for about two seconds and sighed. "I was about to ask where the hell did you even get this crap, but you turned yourself in first, I guess. What did you give in return?"
"Nothing. He said they don't need it anymore and just gave it away."
Asuka narrowed her eyes. "So, you didn't say anything and he just gave it to you out of blue, unsolicited?"
Shinji froze and Asuka's eyes narrowed further. "Asuka, I think you should define what 'anything' is..."
Asuka folded her arms. The condom in her hand squeaked. "That we're fucking so much we're out of condom ration."
"Of course I didn't say such things!"
"Then what? Is that a thing between men? Giving out condoms left and right?"
"Well, I really don't know. I'm as clueless about this matter as you are, Asuka. No, actually, you're probably more informed about these matters than me."
At that time, Asuka thought she was acting patiently, but she still failed to completely hide her anger, apparently. Because Shinji froze as soon as he saw her expression.
"How am I supposed to know this? Don't you remember the day we used it for the first time?" After fighting about how the brat died on his own or she used her nails they decided Shinji would take care of everything related to condoms. If it hadn't been like that she would've found something was off yesterday, she thought. Then, belatedly, she frowned as an unpleasant implication of his words registered. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"
Seeing Shinji's blank impression Asuka knew it was as she expected, but it didn't really help her irritation.
"Uh... Asuka? What do you mean? I'm just, like, since I was frozen for 14 years... You knew the expiration date thing while I didn't, for example. You have more experience on pretty much everything compared to me..."
Asuka was really angry even though everything was exactly what she expected. "What experience are you talking about! I was... I just.." She couldn't let herself say the rest. Shinji blanched, finally realizing his mistake, and reached out to her but she stepped back and did not allow him to hug her.
The two stood still while the sound of frogs from nearby paddies rang, Shinji, arms stretched out awkwardly, Asuka, a step away from his hands and head turned away from him. Shinji carefully examined her face. Some moment later, Asuka sighed.
"Think before you speak."
"I'm sorry."
"And I don't think you realize how serious this thing is. It's a dangerous day."
"I'm really sorry. I didn't even know expiration date was a thing with condoms."
Asuka reached into the can and took one out. There were traces that there were letters and numbers on both sides and the edge, but nothing was intelligible. Someone who's not expecting to read something in the first place wouldn't even suspect that these were indeed letters, she concluded. And Kredit rations didn't have individual markings, just a small, almost missable mark on its box, probably to cut the cost. It was not an exceptionally stupid thing to be unaware of these things, she concluded. Feeling a little better, she threw the condom back to the can
"I'm going to throw it away."
"Throw it away?"
"I'm going to rip them all open and throw them down the sewer."
Shinji gently grabbed Asuka's shoulder, and his fingers wrapped all the way into her armpit. His hands were so big like that he sometimes surprised Asuka even to these days. "Do you have to do it now? Just throw it in the trash and I'll put it out later. We're a little busy right now."
Asuka wriggled her shoulder out of Shinji's hand. "We're not busy, not like we have a condom. And knowing you, if I don't do it now you'll eventually say how it's a waste, it's against manners, and give it all back to Suzuhara or something."
Shinji scratched the back of his head with the hand that was holding her. "It's a waste, that's true, at least."
With a short sigh, Asuka picked up the tin can. "You're not really taking this seriously, do you? Before Impact, there were countries where this kind of thing constituted rape. Pregnancy trap? That's so evil, don't you think?"
Shinji's face hardened at her word. "Asuka, really?"
"Yeah, I'm sure it was in Germany. Probably." She added, because she wasn't completely sure about the legality of these matters.
"No, I mean, do you really think so? That I raped you so I could trap you in pregnancy."
If it was the old days, or if it was any other Asuka, she might have yelled 'why the hell are you sulking now.' and just stormed out. But it seemed a bit childish and too dramatic to Asuka Langley Shikinami of present-day, so she just sighed. Come to think of it, it really did sound a bit too accusing.
"No, you're just an idiot who didn't know better. The doctor, though, has no excuse." Shinji opened his mouth, so Asuka shook her hand to stop it. "I wasn't even ready to live with you. Honestly, I still feel at a loss sometimes, even these days. The concept of the child itself is ridiculous to me." Shinji tried to say something again, so Asuka shook her head and stopped him again. "Stop talking nonsense. Take a shower again, maybe. While you wait. Squeaky clean down there."
Hoping for him to catch the hint, Asuka headed for the front door with the tin can in her hand, without giving Shinji a look. She wore hard slippers and opened the door to the hot midsummer air.
Even though she left out most of the more explicit parts, Kensuke Aida was visibly uncomfortable. Well, who wouldn't? "Uh... I don't think Toji acted under such intention..." He said so while eying Hikari who was sitting on the right side of the table from him. Hikari kept her silence and just looked at Tsubame with a stiff face. The baby was toddling on the other side of the living room.
Kensuke picked up the leather bag he had left beside him so far - something he was supposed to pick up from Suzuhara's at the request of Toji Suzuhara, which was the reason he was here when Asuka stormed the place this morning - and finished the half-empty tea cup with the other hand and started to rise. "Well, I don't think this is the kind of subject I'm supposed to hear, so I'll leave the rest to the ladies..."
Asuka shook her head. "Maybe other parts, yes, but you have to listen to the part I'm about to get right now. I planned to tell you this separately, even."
Kensuke looked between Asuka and Hikari with a puzzled face, and then sat down again after Hikari nodded.
"So, last night, it must have been about eleven o'clock. I went outside and..."
