Bucky Presents

An 'Other Side' production

Old Friends, New Enemies: Chapter 11: Friends, that's what they're there for!

Shinji Ikari pulled his Eva up to the wall of a nearby apartment building, pulling the Pallet-Rifle close to his chest. Shinji could feel the movements of the Eva as they were carried out seemingly perfectly. If Shinji hadn't of known his last synch score he'd have guessed he was at 100%. In reality he was only 69% which for the amount of time he had been piloting was exceptional. Asuka had told him so many times that he should be happy that he can synchronize so well. The redhead also warned him not to get too good, other wise she'd beat his Eva to a pulp.

The young Ikari wasn't about to go beating Asukas score anyway, it's not like he cared whether or not it was high. If he had a choice he'd be out of there at the first chance he got. Eva wasn't important to him, nor was NERV. The only reason he was here was…he didn't know why he was here.

"Look out Shinji!"

The screaming of a certain redhead was enough to snap Shinji out of his daydreaming. He ducked quickly allowing the red spike, aimed for his head, to smash harmlessly into the apartment building behind him. Shinji then brought his left hand up and grabbed the Angel around the wrist. The Angel whipped its other hand down under the first aiming for the Evas chest. Unit-01 skilfully dropped its rifle then caught the second attack with a well placed right hand. The brown haired boy willed the Eva to pull hard on both the enemies' hands pushing them both against each other in an 'X'. Unit-01 stood once again to full hight bringing its pilot face-to-face with the Third Angel, Sachiel.

"So, we meet again," Shinji smiled to himself, as he pictured himself as the gruff action hero from a movie saying some 'one liner' like that. He shook his head and chuckled at the thought then returned his mind to the task at hand. With no more than a thought the Eva lifted its foot and pushed it deep into the Angels gut, if it even had one. Sachiels stomach began to cave in form being pushed with so much pressure. Shinji saw the effect and drove his foot even harder into the Angel. A moment later and a loud cracking sound was heard as the Third Angels spinal cord was snapped brutally in half.

Shinji lifted the Angel effortlessly into the air and threw it to the right, causing some minor structural damage to a nearby garage. With one Angel indisposed of he began seeking the next target. He found a new one a second later heading down along the main railway of the 3rd street station.

With an eager grin on his face the brown haired pilot headed toward the station, stopping only to remove a new weapon from its rack, this time a spear. As he closed in Shinji could see the upper body of the Angel. As he suspected it was the Angel of his second fight, Samshel. He turned the corner and saw the entire being, standing in the middle of the road about a block away from him.

Shinji stood with his legs spread out and the tip of his Spear resting on the road below. The angel turned slightly to gain a better view of its target. Upon seeing the Eva, Samshel began to thrash about. It whipped its long laser tentacles around in the air slicing through street poles and buildings on either sides of it.

Unit-01 stood there as its pilot watched the Angel thrash around destroying buildings to show its might. Shinji however was not impressed, he just smiled to himself. The Angel stopped and stood silently awaiting something, as if giving the Eva the chance to show off as well.

The young Ikari took this opportunity; he willed his Eva to flick the spear it held into the air. He waited for a second until the spear flipped and twisted back towards the ground, once at the right height Shinji grabbed the weapon with his right hand. Caught in the perfect throwing position the Eva reared up and thrust forward, releasing the spear at the best time. It rocketed through the air at a high speed towards the Angel, aimed directly at its core.

Samshel saw the metallic weapon and whipped out his tentacles, ripping the spear in half. The weapon fell to the ground in two pieces smoking from the heat of the attack. The Angel, happy with its work turned its attention back to the Eva, but it wasn't there, the street before Samshel was empty.

A second later the Angels core began to crack, starting off small then growing bigger. Samshel flailed its tentacles wildly trying to hit something, anything, trying to preserve its life. But it was too late, the core shattered and the culprit was revealed, a glowing silver blade known as the progressive knife.

****

"How many kills is that now?" Misato Katsuragi queried. She was watching the action from the Simulator Observation Deck. She had been there since nine in the morning and was still there at one in the afternoon.

Ritsuko looked up from her console then smiled, "That one makes thirty three, straight."

"THIRTY THREE!"

"What did you expect? We have been here for almost four hours, you know."

Misato sighed as she watched on in morbid fascination, the first time he saw it Shinji had denied the request to pilot the Eva. Now, for some reason he wouldn't get away from it. 'It's like he's afraid of something,' she thought worriedly. "Why do you think he's acting like this?"

"I'm not sure" the blond doctor answered, "we are reading some high adrenaline spikes but nothing out of the ordinary."

"Are you guys talking about Shinji again?" Asuka asked as she stepped into the room, "you know he doesn't like people talking about him behind his back."

The redhead had changed into a fresh school uniform ready to go to school for the rest of the day, though she didn't want to. She wandered over to the comm and pressed the button, "come on Shinji, you've killed enough. Time to go to school you don't want to keep me waiting do you?"

Shinjis voice came over the comm shortly afterward, "Okay, I'll be out in a sec."

Ritsuko and Misato exchanged confused looks then both stared at the redhead, Misato decided to speak, "Uh, Asuka. What's going on with Shinji?"

"What do you mean?" the younger girl asked curiously.

"We mean he has been showing some drastic changes in his psyche," Ritsuko chided in hoping to plug the German girl for info. Asuka just looked at her confused, the blond continued, "well over the last few battles we've had to push up hill to get Shinji into an Eva. Now he spends as much time in there as…well, you! Seeing as though you're his best friend maybe you know something that we don't?"

The redhead glared at the two older women, "so just because Shinji is acting like a man you think there is something wrong with him? You two make me sick."

"Asuka!" Misato almost yelled, her voice was loud and stern but not quite a yell, "if you know something about why Shinji is acting like this I want you to tell me. That's an order."

Asuka turned around and started for the door, she sighed loudly as she could feel both adults' eyes looking at her with 'the LOOK.' Every teenager knows 'the look' it's halfway between anger and concern. Angry cause you won't tell them something and concern for what they will do to you if you don't tell them. She smiled to herself and kept walking while she stated simply, "he's just learning to protect his girlfriend."

The door slid shut behind the redheaded pilot and the two older women stood there with their mouths hanging wide open. Ritsuko was shocked, Misato was SUPER shocked. Dr Akagi turned to the violet haired woman "Shinji…has a girlfriend?!"

Misato, who until now had been holding her breath, replied slowly "new…new one on me." She blinked her eyes a few times then used her index finger on her right hand to scrape out any ear wax from her ear. "A girlfriend? Shinji? We must have heard her wrong," she concluded.

"Somehow, I don't think we could have both heard wrong," Ritsuko sighed, the two women looked out the observation window as the digital city disappeared and all that was left was a silver Test-Plug and a gantry leading to the changing rooms.

The plug opened and the figure of Shinji Ikari stepped out, he stretched languidly before looking over to the observation deck. As he waved to them they saw Asuka approach him on the gantry, Shinji turned to her and they exchanged what looked like a high five before both teens left the room.

"Looks like you better do some digging," Ritsuko smiled to her friend.

"Why? It's not really any of my business."

"Oh come on, we both know you're just dieing to know who it is."

"Oh and why are you so eager for me to find out?"

"Well, I want to know too. I don't get much to gossip about down here, if it weren't for these children I wouldn't have any entertainment."

"You need to get out more."

"I'll get out more when you drink less."

"Ha, I'll see you in a million years then."

****

Kensuke Aida sat in his chair at the back of the classroom where the students of 2-A spent seventy percent of their day. He was bored shitless as usual and was fighting to stay awake through the Sensei's constant lecturing of Second Impact. Overall the day had been dull, Shinji had synch tests in the morning and Toji wasn't always the best for conversation.

The spectacled boy just settled for running over his hour's worth of footage, particularly the footage of Eva battles. He smiled as he watched the first battle of Tokyo-3 from the vantage point of the school roof. He had ignored the warning sirens that night, after hacking into his fathers section of NERV; he had learned an experimental weapon would be used. Of course the young Aida had to get it on film so he chose the top of the school to view it from. The school was far enough from the battle but not to far that he didn't get it on film with the zoom.

He wondered idly what it would take to become a pilot, from what Shinji had told him you just get chosen. He had dreamed of becoming a pilot ever since he saw the Evangelions and he had pestered Shinji on many occasions to put in a good word for him. Kensuke looked up from his camera as he noticed the Sensei had stopped blabbering and the class's attention was redirected.

"AH Hem," the Sensei coughed as the two pilots entered the room, "welcome mister Ikari, Miss Soryhu. Please be seated and could I see both of you at the end of class to hand out your missed homework for the last few days?"

"Yes Sensei," both teens answered in complete unison, the Synch training still somewhat stuck in their minds. This little act caused a string of chuckles and giggles from the rest of the class. Asuka sat down in a seat close to Hikari and Shinji made his way to the back.

Asuka shot Shinji a pleading look and then motioned with her head to the empty seat to the left of her. The young Ikari took a glance at the redhead then to his friend, Kensuke, in the back. Kensuke started to wave Shinji over but stopped when the brown haired boy gave him an apologetic look then sat next to the girl that the two stooges had labelled the Devil.

"Hey, why didn't he come up to us?" Toji whispered to Kensuke who was a seat behind him.

"I don't know, maybe he has to talk to the Devil or something," Kensuke answered as equally quiet, trying to avoid a detention. "Maybe we should ask him later," the spectacled boy added.

Toji grinned and opened his laptop computer, "let's ask him now." With that he began to type in a message, once done the jock checked it over then hit the send button.

Shinji blinked in surprise when a message appeared in his inbox, though he had a vague idea of who it was from. He opened the message and looked it over before beginning to type his response.

Kensuke leaned forward so he could view Tojis screen better, he was as equally curious to find out why his friend had sat near the front. "What does it say?" he inquired.

"Get back and I'll tell ya," the jock said. He looked over the return message and sighed, "It says he'll talk to us later." Toji looked back at Kensuke then over at Shinji who was whispering something to Asuka, "something doesn't seem right."

After another half hour of Second Impact rambling the bell rang signalling lunch had begun. Only three days had passed since the attempted capture of the 8th Angel and the days had somewhat cooled down. Shinji noted that he would soon have to face the daunting task of telling his friends about his new relationship with Asuka. Surprisingly no one knew yet, not even Misato.

After the Volcano fiasco Shinji and Asuka were given Tuesday off, they were alone that day due to Misato having to do the ton of paper work that was involved in an A-17 order. 'Poor Misato never catches a break,' Shinji thought idly. Wednesday was spent at NERV for a very long and boring debriefing followed by synch tests and simulation drills. Now it was Thursday and they had just got back from even more of the same aforementioned boredom.

"Hey Shinji," the sounds of voices and scuffling shoes snapped the young Ikari back to the real world, and away from his musings. He was still seated with Asuka, standing next to him, while talking with Hikari. He was so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed Toji and Kensuke approach him from behind.

"Hey guys," Shinji said, waving to them and smiling warmly, "what's up?"

"Yo Shin-man, nuttin much," Toji came up and slapped Shinji on the shoulder, not really hard though. "So why were you, Rei and the Devil away for the last few days?" he asked as he sat on the edge of a table.

"Yeah what happened?" Kensuke questioned as he too took up residency on a table to Shinjis left. "We heard there was some kind of battle" the spectacled boy informed pushing his glasses up on his nose.

"Well, yeah there was an Angel…egg in the Mount Asama Volcano," Shinji answered noting that he had caught Kensukes complete attention. "Yeah well they found it and sent the Evas to try and catch it something called an A-17 operation or something like that. Anyway I was chosen to go into the volcano and pull it out…but the damn thing hatched and I had to kill it."

"Yeah so what happened, you killed it good right?" Toji slammed his right fist into his left palm for emphasis.

"Well yeah," the brown haired boy answered while scratching the back of his head, "Oh by the way, you might want to study that thermal expansion stuff. It really saved my butt."

"Oh and it's such a cute butt too," Asuka said leaning over Shinjis shoulder. The comment caused Toji and Kensuke to start gagging and making mock disgusted sounds, "oh I didn't notice the two stooges were here. I think I'm going to go outside with Hikari so I don't catch idiot germs or something."

She leaned her mouth closer to Shinjis ear and whispered, "Don't be too long, I don't want you catching idiot germs from them either."

"Hey we heard that!" Kensuke said with an angry frown. Toji joined in and both the stooges glared openly at the redhead. Asuka just stuck her tongue out at them and walked off with Hikari, following close behind.

"Man how da hell do ya put up with her?" Toji sighed as he returned his attention to his pilot friend.

"Well…uh…she's not that bad Toji," Shinji stammered trying to defend Asuka, "you just need to get to know her. Once you've spent as much time as I have with her you'll see that she's really a…great person."

"NO way! There is no way in hell that the Devil girl could be a 'great person!' It's just not humanly possible. Unless…" Toji began to scratch his chin, realizing he had found a good way to tease his friend, "Shinji has a thing for Devil girl."

"Ooooohhhh Shinji and the devil, this is a startling discovery," Kensuke joined in with his joking tone, also scratching his chin.

"Shinji how could you?" Toji continued in mock disappointment, though a smile was evident on his face.

The young Ikari however decided to turn a bright shade of red which could only be rivalled by Unit-02 itself. "Uh…yeah…ok…um g-guys, there's um something I want to tell you…uh…"

"Oh come on Shinji we're just joking there's no need to be THAT embarrassed," Kensuke said with a huge grin on his face.

"Unless…" Tojis face became deadly serious and he scratched his chin yet again, "unless…OH NO!"

Shinji just nodded in confirmation to what his friend had guessed, he couldn't help but blush even more, if such a thing were possible. Toji on the other hand was a pale white colour, you know the one that happens when someone just said that your favourite Anime has been cancelled and will never be shown again?

 "Shinji how could you?!" the track-suit wearing Jock began to shake his fist in the air, "you, you betrayed us! What's worse is you betrayed us with our mortal enemy, if she is mortal! I could understand if it was with Ayanami but DEVIL GIRL???!!!! ARGHH!!! I know you two have history but…yuck I can't even think about it."

"Calm down Toji," Kensuke said placing his hand on his friends shoulder, "you're gonna pop a blood vessel or something."

"Yeah Toji you better just settle down," Shinji added still quiet nervous of the exchange.

"Shinji" Kensuke, after subduing Toji, turned to the brown haired Eva pilot, "do you think this is wise?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I mean investing your emotions in an unpredictable, bitchy, selfless girl like Asuka."

"Hey, she's not like that to me, and she already told me…that…"

"That what?"

"That she loves me."

Tojis brain had had enough and he promptly fell off the table and passed out on the floor. Kensuke on the other hand held a small serene smile on his face, one that said to Shinji congratulations. "Well then, I suppose that I must wish you luck Shinji," the spectacled boy said patting Shinji on the shoulder.

"You mean…you're ok with it?" Shinji stammered a little confused at the sudden change in his friend.

Kensuke just smiled even wider and replied softly, "Who are we to argue with love. Just don't get hurt Shinji and whatever you do…don't let her go."

"I won't and thanks, for being my friend and understanding."

"That's alright; I'll deal with Toji you go to your Devil girlfriend"

Girlfriend, that was the first time he had heard Asuka called that, he liked the sound of it. Shinji smiled at his friend and stood up; he took one last look at Toji still passed out on the floor and gave a small chuckle. He then turned on his heals and began to weave his way in and out of the chairs and tables to the door.

As Shinji left the room Kensuke Aida was left alone, apart from the now semi-conscious Toji Suzuhara on the floor next to him. Kensuke smiled, "all the luck to you Shinji. You deserve to be happy."

****

Asuka sat down under one of the few trees in the school courtyard; she had noticed that this school lacked trees and shrubs even around the sports oval. She smiled as her new friend Hikari Horaki sat down next to her, nestling herself in amongst the roots of the tree. Both girls leaned back against the tree trunk and opened the bento boxes that contained their school lunches.

The redheaded German began to immediately dig into her bento box and start eating her lunch. Hikari on the other hand sat there looking at her friend questioningly, and it only took Asuka a minute to stop eating and notice the freckled teen staring at her.

"What?"

Hikari blushed a little and looked away, "um…you know…you told me that you'd tell me what's between you and Ikari." She looked back at her friend the blush no longer present, "so…?"

Asuka sighed loudly and put what food remained back into her lunch box, "Okay where to begin? Alright you know that we used to live together right?"

Hikari thought for a second then shook her head, Asuka sighed again, "You know that we've known each other for years. Well, we know each other because we used to live together, when we were four. Anyway, I always felt something around Shinji and at first I just thought it was friendship."

"But?"

"But when I was taken back to Germany, I was, heart broken. They took me away from the one thing I knew. I knew that Shinji would be there for me, and they took me away from him. Then when they told me I would be a pilot, I thought that was good because it would get my mind off Shinji, but later I was told that I would end up back in Japan. Well I got excited because I knew I would see him again. You see, I thought about him a lot. I mean, practically all the time. I thought that as I got older I would forget him, but I didn't."

"That's so sweet Asuka." Hikari clasped both hands together and smiled sweetly.

"Tell me about it. Anyway earlier this year they told me I would be shipping out to Japan along with Eva Unit-02. I tried to track down Shinji and his uncle, but I learned that Shinji had moved and his uncle was in a hospital. I knew then it would be hard to find him, but I was determined. Then I got the biggest shock of my life, on the boat that was escorting me back to Japan, Shinji showed up. The most shocking thing was to find out that he was the famous Third Child and that I would once again be living with him."

"So after being apart for many years you two hooked up and now you're going out?"

"It didn't happen that easy you know, he did put up a bit of resistance but hey, no man could resist the charm of Asuka Langley Soryu." Asuka decided to leave the story at that, considering she had just told the class rep her entire relationship with the boy that she loved, then again if you couldn't tell another girl who would you tell?

"Well that is really sweet Asuka," Hikari sighed loudly and looked down at the ground between her feet. "I wish that I could have that kind of relationship with someone."

"You mean the stooge?" the redhead grunted, "he isn't worth your worrying Hikari, he doesn't even realise that you like him. I mean everyone else does apart from the two stooges and my ignorant boyfriend."

"Hey that's no way to talk about your boyfriend," Asuka looked up and realised that at some time during the conversation Shinji had approached them. He stood above them with his hands buried deep into his pockets, "I don't know maybe the guys were right and I'm going out with the wrong girl. Maybe I'll go ask Rei out" He turned around and started to walk off smiling to himself.

"Oh, no you don't!" Asuka jumped forward and wrapped both arms around Shinjis chest from behind, "you ain't going anywhere buddy." With that she pulled him back and they both fell to the ground, the end result was Asuka sitting on the ground and Shinjis head in her lap. "That's better," she said with a smirk.

"Shinji looked up at the redhead as she leaned over, he managed a short "ouch," before she kissed him softly on the lips.

"So, how did the stooges take the news?" Asuka asked as she leaned back up against the tree, "badly I suspect."

Shinji crawled up and managed to sit against the tree next to Asuka, "take whatever you're thinking and multiply it by ten, then you'll have fifty percent of what happened."

"That bad huh?"

"Yup."

"Why are they so against you two?" Hikari asked a little unsure of wether or not to leave the two alone.

"They hate me."

"They think Asuka's a bitch," Shinji said, his reward was an elbow to the gut, "Hey! I didn't say it, they did."

"You know what I'm dreading?"

"What?"

"Telling Misato."

****

A/N: Well there's another chapter done ^_^ I'd like to apologise to all whom it may concern you all remember how fast I used to get chaps out. Well I'm sorry I'm slowing down a bit but I don't the holidays have made me lazy and I can't think properly. So bare with me peoples.

Anyway that's that chap done, next chap I'll get going on some Rei stuff, hopefully, and also Misatos reaction to Shinji and Asuka dating and living in the same house. Will she try to split them up? Will she let them stay in the same house together? Who knows……oh yeah I do HAHAHAHAHA ^_^

Thanks to my Pre-Reader Autophage for correcting any mistakes he may find, I have pathetic Grammar and sometimes spelling. And also a warm welcome to eva_pilot23 who is known to me as Insomniac to the ranks. Good luck wit Pre-Reading my stuff buddy and once again welcome to the other side ^_^

Seya on da other side……………