IV.

Germany. Berlin. Square buildings, old architecture. Roundabouts. Curved cars. Flashes of the 1970s and 80s. Castles. The old world. "Guten morgen!" "hallo, wie geht's dir?"

She was by herself downtown, just like that one time. The best time of her life. Her purse bounced against her hip and her eyes hid behind sunglasses as she checked out the shops. Wild. Frantic.

"U-um, Hi," he said in halting, accented German, "you know where is?" He pointed into a magazine he held.

Asuka turned to behold the stranger and Shinji's grey eyes were staring into hers.

She pointed and they went together to see several landmarks. Asuka was talking his ear off. Rapidly, time moved them to sitting together at Einstien Kaffee downtown. He was smiling wide on thier first date. A date?

Walking beside the Spree, close to him. Rude children rode by, calling him weird names. She told him not to pay attention but he said he didn't mind. It didn't occur to her to ask how he could understand them when he just got here?

Somehow they were in her apartment now, but it was still Berlin. Shinji had oven mitts and a cooking apron on, stirring a pot, while she sat on the bed and watched him. "Breakfast is ready!" He said.

The absurdity of it all was just occurring to her when she woke from the dream.


By the time she was done with waking and lunch, That Tone rang again when she was just about to resume her homework.

The phone was resting on the end-table. She stared at it for a moment while she sat on the bed with her homework and laptop open before her.

She answered it. "Yes, mother."

"There's been a change of plans. It seems Doctor Ikari wants the Third Children's synchronization baseline established tonight. You will return to the cages and prepare for another synchronization test."

Asuka blinked. She had just completed one only hours ago. What was the use of having another synchronization test? Wait… Shinji was going to be testing? In his Eva? That was it. On Shinji's first outing for Evangelion operations, Asuka had to be there to show that she was superior from the jump.

On the other hand, she would get to see Shinji. She would get to show him her Evangelion which, in spite of her mother's relentless pushing, she was proud to pilot. Maybe they could strike up a conversation. Maybe they could be friends… at least.

Her emotions wobbled as she processed this information. "Asuka?" her mother asked.

The girl snapped back to the moment and seated her protections into place. "I"m sorry," She said, "I was studying. I will report to the cages, what time is his synchronization test?"

"He'll get out of school and proceed to the Geofront at 4pm, as I understand it. Make sure you arrive before he does."

"I understand." Asuka replied.

"Good." Her mother said and signed off.

Asuka closed the phone, placed it on the end table, and tried to contain her thoughts. She still wasn't sure how to go about her new feelings for the third child, especially as she was still puzzled over his comment by her door. It was easy to take it to mean what she did- he didn't want to be too forward- but was that it really? After all, it could have been a message to her, even if it didn't make sense.

Regardless, she had to keep her feelings under control. It would do neither her nor Shinji any good to allow her infatuation to get in the way. Somehow she had to keep her cool, in front of him and in front of her mother.

But… how? How could she do this when so many possibilities with him were so enticing? As a friend… as… more? Her mind kept spinning, and her intellect was trying to stop her emotional flywheel before it threatened to consume her.

The next break she applied was remembering what became of the last boy who she was interested in. That, at least, got her thinking off the track of Shinji and possibly how he smelled up close as she was nestled-

She clapped her hands against the sides of her head to try regaining control. Panting, she realized sitting on the bed in her cozy surroundings was not doing her any good to help her focus. Homework would have to wait, she needed to work this out.

She dressed then left the apartment. She would let her feet decide where she went.


Asuka had been in Tokyo-3 for two weeks now, and this was the first time she let herself explore the city. She had been too busy up until then, and too focused on her homework.

Tokyo-3 wasn't like Berlin. The European city didn't have the skyrises like this. Tokyo-3 to her felt more like San Francisco or Hong Kong- cities with big clustered buildings in small spaces. The bustle of traffic and people quickly pushed her out of downtown however, and when she next looked up she found she was on the north side of the city.

'Old Hakone' was a generous term to describe the smaller city sprawl that was set up to make the modern marvel she just witnessed. There were many older buildings here, and many city utilities and services that were still in use.

Including the high school.

Asuka blinked and realized with a start where she was. She had already known this was here. For a while she had thought about pushing her mother to attend classes here to be among peers. She had even argued that the school was technically closer to the base than her apartment block.

"On-base housing is even closer." Her mother had observed. After that, Asuka never risked discussing it again.

She stood by the chain link fence and watched other teenagers doing physical fitness. Her eyes swept over the girls who would have been her classmates, and the boys who would have been her suitors. It was another world; one she wasn't permitted to join.

Because she was chosen.

She turned to go but someone caught her eye. In the clusters of boys all doing things, one boy was sitting off by himself. This one had short cut black hair and a thin build.

She realized it was Shinji. Her jaw went slack as she also realized, verdammt, that in spite of leaving her apartment to stop thinking about Shinji, her feet had taken her directly to Shinji.

He turned his head to look at something. Asuka tried to see what he was looking at.

Blue hair.

Ayanami was also solitary among the cluster of people. She was waiting with a group of girls to begin running the track. Asuka stood and watched as Rei began her run and Shinji watched. It was clear Shinji was observing her.

Something new was twisting in Asuka, and beholding this sight, she pushed herself away from the fence.

"Mein Gott Asuka." She said to herself, "Du kennst ihn weniger als einen Tag!"

She tried to invent more possibilities in order to harm her enthusiasm. But also winding through her was the sinking feeling she somehow missed a chance with Shinji, who would now choose to associate with Rei over her.

That thought felt successful. She had lost. She always lost. To Rei, to her mother, to her Evangelion. Everyone.

Her infatuation simmered down at last.


Treating herself to coffee and a cookie she finally descended into the geofront a little early. It was a fortuitous choice since she ended up getting lost. Gate 9 was not her normal entrance, and she had to orient herself before she could find her way to the cages.

She passed into the locker rooms, peed, then finished her coffee before changing. By now after so many tests, donning the suit was natural and fluid. It was also no longer a novelty. She glanced at the time and she was only a minute ahead of schedule now. She needed to get going.

When she emerged in her slick red suit she nearly collided with someone. She remained standing, but they didn't. When she looked down, her mind froze.

Of course. It was Shinji.

"S-sorry." Shinji sighed, "i-" he stopped as he saw her.

Asuka's emotions were in a tizzy, but the time crunch helped her get a grip. "You're late. You're here for the synch test?"

"Y-yes, Doctor Aka-"

"You need to get into your plugsuit." She told him. Based on her experience, his suit was already in those lockers. She pointed into the locker room. "Go in there, find locker three, and get dressed. We're already late."

"O-okay!" Shinji replied under her direction and scrambled to his feet. Asuka planted her arms on her hips while she turned to watch him race into the locker rooms. She called after him, "Everything off, Shinji!"

"N-not even underwear?"

"No!"

She heard an unhappy wail from beyond the door and in spite of herself, she found it cute.

She realized two things then.

The first was that his eyes had not been on face. They were scanning her body. It occurred to her then that Shinji must have gotten an eyeful of her physique.

The other thing she realized was that the locker room here wasn't divided by sex. If they changed together things were going to get awkward.

"Mein Gott, ich bin dem Untergang geweiht, nicht wahr?" She uttered while she had a hand on her face.

It also just occurred to her that she shouldn't have waited. Her mother was expecting her. The chrono on her watch read five after, Now. A scolding was coming.

As she replaced her hand on her hip Shinji emerged from the lockers holding his own A10 set. The white and blue plug suit was incredibly baggy on his slender frame- held on only by the collar clasp around his neck. "Okay, um…" he said, "W-what's the right way to put this in your hair? Yours don't look like this. My suit lookst-"

"You're not done." Asuka interrupted him. She seized his wrist and clicked the activation trigger.

Shinji yelped as the suit clenched around his body. He dropped the A10 connectors as he dropped his hands to cover his privates. "W-what was that for?"

Asuka leaned down to sweep the A10 connectors off the ground. "You turn the suit on that way." She said.

She put his clip ring in her teeth as she reached out she touched him on the shoulders, adjusting them so that he stood straighter. Then she took the ring from her mouth, spun the set, and slipped it into his hair. He stood still and blushed a little as she adjusted his hair to better cover the retaining ring, then stepped back.

A wave of confidence surged in Shinji. He moved his hands away from his hips and clenched his fists at his sides. He stood tall, feeling powerful in the suit and under her approval.

Asuka had been scanning his figure the entire time. Her imagination swelled with new information.

"Good enough." Asuka said. She reached out suddenly to grab his hand, grabbing him by his fingers crosswise. "We need to go, we're late."

Neither of them knew how much the other was blushing over that exchange.


a/n: so, I just disrupted the entire wreckage based timetable just so Asuka could have her moment dresing Shinji, which I've actually borrowed out if the other Wreckage rebuild idea that exists in my drafts.