+++++ That Refining Fire, Discipline
Shinji watched her, for a time. It was rare that he was able to see her in her natural environment without feeling as if he was spying. She had invited him, she had known he was punctual, and if she'd lost track of either time or her invitation it was her fault that she allowed him to see her this unguarded. The light touches she applied to the canvas spoke of her growth, both as an artist and as a human, and displayed a restraint that had been hard-won. She painted, from memory, a pastiche of the Angels she had been there to face. She painted them…smiling.
"I'm sure you understand what it's like to have inspiration strike you at an inconvenient time." Her voice was mature, steady, and slightly amused. "The one little word, or one splash of color, evades you until the very moment you need to be doing something else entirely."
He braced himself, an old habit that hadn't been necessary for at least a year around her. "Like getting dressed?"
She was unable to stop a light snort of amusement. "I'm not going to get paint on my clothes to avoid showing someone something they've already seen more than once, my friend." Smiling back at him over her shoulder, she gave him with her eyes all the apology he'd ever receive…or ever need. "I think this one will be ready for the expo next month. I'd love it if you could find time to attend?"
"So long as the world isn't burning, no aliens show up to threaten Madrid, and it's not katsudan night." When she rolled her eyes at him, with a fond grin, he relaxed completely. "I'm just saying, Two, Moriko makes a fantastic chicken katsudan."
Setting down her paintbrush and palette, Asuka turned to face him and held out her arms for a hug. "Come here, you dork."
There were, if he were honest with himself, vanishingly few women on the planet that he would not feel guilty about hugging while they weren't wearing anything. Following years of therapy, counseling, medications, and rolling brawls, Asuka had earned that distinction for herself. Scooping her up off the floor into the father of all bear hugs, he crushed her into his embrace. "I read the report," he breathed out into her hair, "and if it was anyone but you, I'd be blistering your ass for doing it without warning me."
She, while not able to match his great strength, was not shy about clutching him as close as she could. "Don't let that stop you," a nervous giggle bubbled up, "I might like it." The warmth in her heart when he did not lock up physically or mentally at her statement was beyond description.
"Heh," shifting his arm so that she could sit on his forearm and look at him, he tapped her nose with his finger, "I know you'd like it." There was a comfortable silence as he scanned her for organ damage and took in her new bearing. After satisfying himself that she hadn't been harmed at all, the Emperor made an appearance over the Pilot. "If they can replicate this, you might have just saved millions of lives. Given them hope. If this works for even the optimistic ninety percent-"
"It's not optimistic." Correcting him without challenging him, she patted his chest with a comforting touch. "You know that I wouldn't put my name on a paper if I thought there was any chance I'd fail. Allowing for genetic variance, co-morbidities, and the verdammt random chaos of life, ninety percent is the floor, not the ceiling. With enough refinement and experience, we can finally repair the damage done to people by that horrid disorder. We can detect it in the womb, we can stamp it out before it has a chance to grow, and I can look you in the eye and say with all sincerity that I can never apologize enough for what I put you through."
The tear that welled in his good eye at hearing those words might have shamed a lesser man. "You don't have to apologize to me. You didn't have any control over it. You'd never been taught the right kind of discipline, or been given the right medications, or even given the right people to talk to. Whoever she was, she was not Asuka Langley Soryu."
He wasn't the only one with tears in his eyes. "…Ich liebe dich so sehr."
"Whenever you feel ready," Shinji could see all of her surface thoughts, those that she broadcasted for the world at large, and they all spoke nothing but the truth she shared, "you know there is room at the inn."
Swallowing back her fears, she fought off a lifetime of habits. "After I speak to…my mother."
He could feel her anxiety building, but not overwhelming, her. "Whenever you feel ready, I'll ask that she steps out. I'll go into my soul and spend time with Momiji, let you two have this talk without either of you feeling like the other is only 'playing nice' because I'm around."
"That…would probably be for the best." She dropped eye contact, looking down at her thumbs which were busy worrying at each other. "Let me get dressed. It's for the best that I don't let you go without getting this done. I may be stable, but I still have a lifetime of avoiding or attacking uncomfortable things."
Dropping to his knee, he lowered her towards the ground and stopped just shy of touching her feet down. "Could I ask for one favor?"
"Sure!" The sudden offer of an opportunity to do something for the one man who hadn't given up on her at any point was just the distraction she needed. "What can I do for you?"
"Would you let me dress you?"
Her cheeks blossomed into a brilliant red and she looked down and to the side, her shoulders shifting at the unanticipated gift she was receiving. "You know, I'm thirty two. I figured out how to dress myself three decades ago."
"You're also every bit as beautiful as you were when we first met." Using his free hand to gently shift her gaze back to him, he tilted his head. "Let me give you a gift, to show Kyoko that I've matured too."
The will of iron she'd always possessed moved back into her eyes, accompanied by a challenging smirk. "Only if you promise to take them back off of me." The smirk faded, her tone serious once more, "If everyone agrees to let me meet them again for the first time."
Bringing her closer, he kissed her forehead. "With pleasure, Two. With pleasure."