Disclaimer: No matter how much I beg, plead, grovel, pay, bribe, offer to sell my soul, it seems like Gainex doesn't want to give NGE to me……………….stingy bastards.
Chapter Three- The Fire Elemental
For the next week Shinji didn't go to any of his classes, or was seen by anyone. After days of searching for him they stopped not knowing what to do. Thinking that he just needed to clear his head they waited patiently to return to them, them more so than others
Said teen was currently walking towards a park he could sleep in for the night. Over the past week he was seen on rooftops doing a type of martial arts that nobody could place a name to. The way he moved so fluently and how the wind flowed around him, on could think that he controlled it.
As he was nearing a bench three guys stepped out in his path, and stood there smirking at the Third Child. Without looking up he spoke to the three in front of him.
"Might as well bring out the rest of the gang if you're going to try and rob me tonight boys."
If they were surprised, they covered it up quickly. Whistling out, eight more guys stepped around Shinji forming a tight circle. Shinji looked around at all of them a sighed, slowly shaking his head.
"So you're the 'Mighty Third Child' huh?" Asked the guy in front of him in a mocking tone. "You know you don't look so high and mighty out side of the purple robot." The others laughed at this while nodding their agreements to his statement.
Shinji himself wasn't afraid like he normally would when caught in these situations. Over the past week he went through what could be explained best as a personality reboot. He became calmer to the point that it took a lot to get him to feel fear. He found that if he wanted something, then he was determined he would get it. It wasn't to the point of possessiveness but it wasn't a small thing either.
Last he found himself to friendlier around stranger. He wasn't opening himself to every person but he was easier to talk to and a favorite of the elementary schooler on the playground during their recess period.
"I find it amazing that you know who I am let alone know your own names." Shinji stated while holding his own smirk.
The gang that surrounded him bristled at the insult and pulled out some knives. The leader spoke in loud voice so everyone could hear him clearly. "Smartness gets you nowhere on the street these days Ikari, but bribery and ransom does, so here we are about to capture you, so just come along, you wouldn't want anything to harm your face no would you?"
Shinji eyed the blades they all carried and came up with the possibility that some, if not all, carried guns behind their backs. Tossing off the cloak that had covered him, he gained a ready stance just in time to protect himself, for they all launched themselves at him.
-o0O()O0o-
"Hey Misato, my date's here so I'm leaving now!" Asuka screamed into the apartment. Hearing a grunt of affirmative from her guardian, Asuka left the building while holding onto the arm of her date.
Asuka didn't know why she had agreed to go out on this date when Hikari asked her. Maybe she was bored and needed something to do. Maybe she thought she would be nice and do this one favor for her only best friend. Maybe it was because when Shinji left she felt a hole in her heart and this might fill it up.
It was this last one that made her stay up at odd hours contemplating what it could mean. She repeatedly told herself that it was only because he did everything around the apartment. But…but after awhile she began to notice the little things that he would do around the apartment that she missed.
Such as when he's cleaning he has that little smile on his face and he hums as well. Or maybe it was when he sometimes sings in the shower without realizing anyone is up to hear him yet. Or it could be the fact that when he's asleep nothing can touch him, or at least that what she always thought.
A month before he left, he began to have nightmares. It was during one of these that she found out what had happened to his mother. When she heard about it she didn't know quite how to take it. Whose mother died worse? Or was it equal? These were the questions that plagued her mind for days and nights.
Seeing his mother absorbed by the very thing that he pilots, or coming into a room to find her mother and a doll hanging from the ceiling with a smile playing on her lips? After awhile she knew that they were alike but handled situations differently. It was with this statement that she knew that she was falling for her roommate.
So why did he leave her? Was it something that she did wrong? Was she too harsh again? Did she taunt him too much, push him too far? What is it was something else, like his bastard of a father? She didn't know, but what she did know was that her 'Invincible Baka Shinji' would come back to her once more like before. So until that time came around she decided to have some fun.
-o0O()O0o-
As they was walking along through the various alleyways and street towards the restaurant they were going to, they happened upon one guy surrounded by eleven guys all with blades. Asuka immediately recognized the one in the middle as her Shinji but before she could say anything the gang attacked him.
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji decided in a split second to take out the leader, hoping that if he did then the rest would scatter. He was confident in his new abilities and knew he could do some amazing things, but still didn't want to become cocky.
Dodging the leaders blade he grabbed his arm and twisted it around his back. While dodging the other blades, he planted his feet and sharply pulled upwards on the arm he was holding hearing it crack. Pushing the dazed leader forward, he swept the legs out from beneath him and dropkicked him.
Apparently he was wrong about the other because instead of running away once their leader had fallen, they reformed the circle.
"What? Why did you stop? I was beginning to have some fun for once." Shinji whine playfully.
The second-in-command (sic for short) smirked at Shinji. "To many knives, one of our men would have gotten killed by us eventually." He said.
"Well at least you know what you're doing," Shinji praised. "You must be the true brains behind the gang, huh?"
Sic stood there smirking then snapped his fingers at two guys. These two stepped forward and drew their blades, one in the back and one in the front. With another snap the two of them attacked him.
Shinji rolled to the left then flipped backwards to dodge the oncoming attacks. Quickly he snapped his fist forward in rapid succession and hit both in the back of their heads. Shaking it off they both coordinated their attacks, so one slashed after another. Shinji was beginning to become annoyed at this and thought back to his training against the seventh angel. Smirking he preformed a leg sweep and knocked them on their backs, by the time they stood up he was ready.
Shinji launched himself up into the air and brought his foot down between the two making them move away from each other. Next he runs to the front of the guy ob the right and fires his fists again and again, too fast to be seen. When this guy goes down he grabs the dropped knife and uses it to parry the others. Moving faster than his opponent come, Shinji slashed both arm, at the shoulder, which he followed up by a round house to the head. When this guy dropped Shinji picked up his knife as well.
-o0O()O0o-
Needless to say Asuka was shocked at Shinji being able to fight. Growing tired of the many times her date tried to draw her away, she finally hissed at him to 'Shut the hell up you fucking pansy and go home!' This made him let out an indignant cry, which made Sic glance over to them. Freezing she prayed to all the gods known to man that they didn't notice her.
After holding her breath for a moment she released it when he didn't send anyone over to her position. Staring back at the fight she watched as Shinji took down two guys at once. She wondered where her Shinji went. The kind and caring Shinji, the one who wouldn't hurt a fly. What she heard next though scared the shit out of her.
-o0O()O0o-
"So tell me Third," Sic began. "Do you know what we will do once we kidnap you?"
Shinji looked up at him and once more let a grin grace his features. "I'm going to have to tell you that it's hard to imagine because you'll never be able to touch me."
Sic chuckled a little at his statement. "Well when not if we capture you, we'll be going after the Second Child, Ms. Sohryu." Shinji dropped the smirk and his eyes narrowed in anger.
"Oh yes and when we do get her…" he stopped for a moment to laugh. " well allow me to tell you that there's something about foreign redheads that turns me on."
At the moment Shinji skipped shoot daggers through his eyes and went straight to shooting swords. The knives he was gripping slid out of his hands and hit the ground quivering point down in the ground. All-of-a-sudden a large gust of wind started to blow around Shinji. Leaves, paper and, trash began to twirl around him as he raised both hands to his right eye.
To everyone who was watching it looked like he was holding his eye in pain but after a few seconds saw a faint dark blue glow from behind his hands. Shinji's left eye came to rest on sic who was currently looking freaked out about the wind, and his eye.
"If you touch her or even think about her like that I'll personally castrate you." Shinji growled. Sic seemed to have gotten over the small windstorm when it died and regained his cockiness.
"What can you do about me? Also does your eye hurt? It would be a shame if you weren't at your top performance."
It was Shinji's turn to laugh. Shaking his head while looking down, he removed his hands and the glow intensified. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm more than ready to take all of you on right now." When he looked up, everyone in front of him, including Asuka who was behind a tree, behind Sic, gasped and stepped back. Shinji's right eye was closed and what looked like two half circles overlapping each other, then the ends moving down and connecting scared them. Not because it just appeared but because it was glowing a dark blue color.
Shinji just stood there looking at Sic, waiting for the attack that he knew was going to come, and it turned out that he didn't have to wait long.
-o0O()O0o-
Asuka couldn't move from where she was for a number of reasons, the biggest being Shinji. Sure it scared her that after they caught him they were coming after her then going to rape her, but his reaction to it was shocking. Here was her fellow pilot, roommate, and classmate, fighting eight guys all on his own, and winning to. The strangest part of it all was that he never seemed to touch the thugs, and yet they still flew through the air as if they were hit hard.
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji was having fun for once in his life. This new control over wind was an incredible thing. He was focusing it everywhere at once, hitting every thing at once. The biggest surprise of the night though was when he was focused fighting one guy, the wind would talk to him and tell him that he was about to be hit by another person.
Blocking the second to last thugs knife then throwing him through the air with a follow-up hook kick, Shinji spun around to face the last one standing, Sic. Sic was currently looking around at his men on the ground, all unconscious, with a shocked expression on his face. Looking up he saw Shinji standing there, the symbol on his face glowing at full blast. Dropping his knife, he pulled out a 9mm and fired six shot towards Shinji, only to watch as the air bent around the bullets and stopped them.
Shinji calmly started to walk over to Sic and with a flick of his head, Sics firearm flew out of his hand and landed ten feet to the right of him. When Shinji reached in front of him, he raised his left hand and tightened the air around Sic, successfully stopping him from running. Bending down, Shinji quickly built up air in his right palm and raised it quickly stopping before he hit Sics chin but releasing the air in an explosive force. Sic flew twenty feet backwards through the air before slamming into the ground hard.
"You can come out now Asuka, no one can hurt you."
Asuka stepped out from behind the tree she was hiding behind and walked up to Shinji, watch as the glow from the symbol died and it faded completely.
"What the fuck just happened here Shinji?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"Ummm, I felt threatened by these guys so I took care of it." he said while scratching the back of his head. Asuka reached up and traced where the symbol was on Shinji's face and smiled inwardly when she felt him shudder. Shinji himself was enjoying the feeling of her silky smooth skin running over his face and closed his eyes involuntarily.
"Where were you for the past week, baka? Do you hate me that much to leave me alone with Misato's cooking?" she asked with mock anger.
Shinji was glad that she didn't ask about his glowing scar and how he stopped those bullets. Not wanting to talk about it just yet he allowed her to lead him back to the apartment, so they could eat dinner.
"Hey Asuka, why are you all dressed up and everything?" he asked eyeing the green dress that she was wearing.
"I was going out on a date for Hikari when we ran into you fighting those guys. After five minutes he left because he was scared about getting caught." As she said this the approached the building and waited for the elevator. "Also don't think I didn't see you pull off some pretty weird stuff back there Third Child."
Shinji Visibly winced at this, hoping she forgot about it. "Aren't you worried that I'm an angel or something?" he asked.
"Nah I know your not an angel, nor did you use an A.T. Field because if you did then the Magi would have picked it up and then we would have been called in to NERV." She explained.
Opening the door to the apartment she walked into her room to change while yelling at Shinji to make something to eat. Shaking his head in amusement he began to throw something together.
After a few minutes Asuka came out wearing her usual large yellow shirt and blue short shorts. Walking into the kitchen she snuck up behind Shinji and was about to scare him when he spoke up.
"I know that you behind me Asuka." He turned around to see her looking a little shocked by this. Leaning forward he whispered in her ear, "The wind can hear." She stumbled back and sat down at the table with a 'humph'.
"You've changed Shinji." She suddenly said while he placed a burger on her plate and set it in front of her.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked confused as he himself sat down with a burger as well.
"Well you don't say sorry anymore, you braver, cockier, smarter, and can do weird stuff that involves the wind." She said through a mouthful of food. "Also your cooking is top-notch, not that it was bad before though."
Shinji placed his meal down on the table. "I supposed that you want to know what happened back there?" After receiving a nod he explained about the old couple and what they told him. He next told her about how he trained non-stop for the past week, learning to control his emotions and the wind. After this he followed up by making everything on the table float, including her, much to her happiness.
-o0O()O0o-
"Hey Shinji, wanna kiss?"
It was after dinner, and Shinji was reading a book while listening to his SDAT player in the doorway into the living room, while Asuka was sitting at the table.
Shinji pulled his earphones out and looked at Asuka. "What?"
"I said lets kiss."
Shinji shook his head in disbelief. "Are you teasing me again?"
"No, it's just away to pass the time."
Shinji looked up at her in shock. "So you're saying that you want to use me for your own personal gains?"
Asuka looked at him with a bit of uncertainty playing in her mind. She knew that he changed, and what he can do with this new control now, and she started to wish that she never asked him. "Ummm, yes?"
Shinji stood up and walked over to the table and sat down next to her. He pulled her chair around to face his own and leaned forward a little. Asuka was just staring at him like he was about to snap her neck and jumped when he spoke. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"
Asuka's jaw dropped with this question. "Wait a minute here," she began. "You went through all that "you using me aren't you?" crap for nothing?"
Shinji leaned back in his chair contemplating this. "Not really for nothing, more like wanting to make sure you saw that you were in fact using me instead of hiding behind you defense again."
She was about to reply angrily when she stopped. He was right, whenever she was blamed she went behind her defenses instead of taking the punishment. She looked at him and thought, 'Screw this!' and pulled his lips to hers.
Shinji's poor mind at that moment decided to fail on him and he wouldn't be surprised if sparks started to come out of his ears. After a few moments of kissing Asuka pulled back and giggled at the amount of shock that was on Shinji's face.
Standing up rather suddenly, he mumbled a quick 'excuse me' and ran out of the apartment. Worry had etched its way into her mind thinking that Shinji didn't like her at all, but was quickly erased by the loud yells of happiness coming from out side.
When he re-entered the apartment, he was meet by Asuka who was still giggling happily. "So did you get that out of your system?" she asked innocently. Shinji blushed and nodded in agreement.
"What does this change between us?" Shinji asked just as she was leaving towards her room. Asuka stopped a thought about it. "Well…if you want we could try a…a…r-relationship." In her mind she was pleading with him to try it out. She let out a surprised squeak when he wrapped his arms around her from the back and tilted her head back to capture her lips with his.
When they broke the kiss she smiled up at him. "I'll take that as a yes." Shinji smile back as well and was about to walk into his room when her felt her grab his wrist. Looking back he saw that she had her head down. "I…I don't want to be alone tonight Shinji." She whispered. His jaw dropped in surprise and he developed a slight nosebleed at the thoughts that attacked his mind.
"Not that way baka!" she said when she looked up and saw the blood. "I just want to sleep in the same bed as you, nothing else!" He wiped up the blood and nodded his approval. With her leading the way they entered her room and went to bed for the night.
-o0O()O0o-
Asuka awoke the next morning to the smell of fried eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns, and fried ham. She got out of bed and picked out her favorite yellow sundress for the day along with undergarments and a towel. Walking passed the kitchen she entered the bathroom and after 30 minutes she got out all dressed and ready for the day.
Walking into the kitchen she was greeted by Shinji's morning greeting and Misato's morning whoop after he beer. Looking at her in disgust, Asuka waited until she took another mouthful of beer and then kissed Shinji. Misato, who saw this just as she was about to swallow, spewed her beer all over the table and food. Asuka laughed so hard that she had tears coming out of her face, while Misato was coughing and sputtering.
"Y-you two are…are together?" she asked when she got enough air. Shinji who was taking away the freshly cooked food nodded. "Yeah, since last night. I'm actually surprised that you didn't notice me-" he stopped right there after Asuka slapped her hand across his mouth.
Misato looked at them suspiciously, "What did you two do last night?" she asked.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" Asuka squeaked out.
Misato's eyes went wide with the thought that just wormed her way into her head. She whipped out her cell phone and dialed Ritsuko's number, ignoring any excuses told by her two charges.
"Rits? Get over to HQ right away! I think Asuka may be pregnant." She yelled into the phone. Shinji and Asuka winced when they heard the extremely loud yell from the other line. "We'll be there in 5 minutes." Misato finished.
Shinji and Asuka both paled at this statement. Misato normally drove thirty miles over the speed limit, but when she said that then it would mean that she would drive triple that. Misato dragged both protesting teens out of the apartment and down the stairs. She then threw them into her car and hopped in her self.
True to her word they got there in, four minutes, 57 seconds. She hopped out and grabbed both before they could run away, especially Asuka. Dragging them through the halls towards Ritsuko's office, she once more ignored the protesting being done by the two. Ritsuko was already there and had everything set up, and gladly took Asuka off of the Majors hands.
Two hours later Asuka walked out with a heavy blush on and into the lounge to find Shinji, sitting down with his head in his hands, and Misato explaining all about the Birds and the Bees. She cleared her throat and Shinji's head snapped up. Before Misato could ask, or say anything, Shinji grabbed Asuka and ran away.
When they reached outside he let go of her arm and intertwined his hand with hers. "So how was the talk with Misato?" Asuka asked innocently. Shinji shuddered, "I'm going to have nightmares for months now." Asuka laughed at this. "I know she gave me the same talk when I asked her what it felt like." Shinji stopped and stared at his girlfriend, causing her to stop as well.
"You wanted to now what it felt like?" he asked smirking a little. With Kaji or altogether?"
"N-not with Kaji…well...OK! Fine. Yes with Kaji, but that was way before I started to feel anything for you." She pleaded. Shinji dropped the smirk and his face now bore a confused look. "Before you had any feelings for me?" he asked. "When did you start getting feelings for me?"
She looked up at the sky with a thoughtful look on her face for a couple of moments until she answered. "You remember the eight, when you dived into the lava without anything to protect you, against orders as well?"
Shinji stared at her for moment with a blank expression on his face. "You mean you liked me for three months now?" She nodded sheepishly to his question. "So when did you start to like me?"
"Well at first I thought it was love at first sight when we met on the carrier. But that wasn't true love, just a little schoolboy crush. Then I found out about your personality and that kinda drove me away. After awhile though, your true personality slipped through your defenses."
"For example, when we were training for the seventh angel. On the last night, I stayed up late reading and listening to my SDAT. Well you came out of your room to use the bathroom and on your way back to bed; you kinda fell on mine. I'll admit that I wanted to kiss you and I almost did, but then you said 'mama' and a tear went down your cheek."
Asuka stood still listening to this while remembering when she found out about Shinji's mother. It was there that she decided to tell him that she knew.
"Shinji," she began in a weak voice. "I know what happened to your mother. You were asleep one night and I heard you whimpering, so when I went in you kind of spilled everything out to me without knowing it." She looked at his face and couldn't see any emotion on it what so ever and she began to panic.
"So you're saying that you watch me while I sleep?" he asked with a grin on his face. Asuka stared at him in shock. "I-I thought that you would have been angry or something Shinji."
"Nah, so you found out about my mother. Heh, kind of funny actually because I cant seem to remember anything about how she died."
Asuka was about to speak and offer to tell him when he held up a hand to silence her. "Keep it to yourself until I ask for you to tell me ok?" Asuka nodded and both continued walking down the street.
As they passed and alleyway, Asuka felt someone grab her arm. Looking at the hand, she followed it, and found that it was connected to an arm, and then an old male. Shinji, who noticed that she stopped, looked back and his face broke out into a huge smile.
"Mother, Father!" he said with enthusiasm. Asuka looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Shinji, your mother is dead and your father is a crazy psychopath who want to control the world." She said in a soothing voice.
Shinji's smile dropped immediately from his face. "Wow, talk about a swift kick in the nuts as a reality check Asuka." He murmured. "No these two want to be called Mother and Father."
Asuka blushed when he said this. "Sorry…" Father smiled at Shinji and then looked at Asuka and cocked his head, as if he were seeing something there.
"Well Shinji this young gal you have is full of fire isn't she?" he asked innocently enough. Shinji smiled and nodded while remembering everything that made her fiery. Asuka looked a fronted and when she was about to slap Shinji across the head she felt a hand on her upper arm, just below the shoulder. Looking she saw that the hand was attached to the old man's arm.
"Simmer down young one, he was just stating his opinion."
Asuka once more blushed at her natural reaction to everything.
The old woman, called Mother, giggled and spoke to Father, "You were right she will be a great one." Asuka who was ultimately confused looked at Shinji but found that his face was mirroring her own probably.
"Sleep my child, all shall be made clear eventually." Father spoke softly, and Asuka felt a burning sensation on her upper arm were the old man's hand was. Next thing she knew, the world around her blacked out.
-o0O()O0o-
A/N: Right, sorry it took so long but I got caught in a weird type of writers block that only would let me write about one paragraph a day. You know… the fact that graduation was this weekend probably didn't help either…Oh well! So now Asuka joins the ranks as the second elemental, Fire.
I know that I told Rahhel that I was going to wait until all four elementals were introduced until I began the whole romance part, but I kinda couldn't hold it in. I'm just a sucker for a good romance between Shinji and Asuka…Even my girlfriend thinks I'm too mushy.
I would like to thank all of you who think that this is a good story. Also to the one person who gave me a bad review clears throat: I would like to inform you that this is my first story. It does not have a pre reader (which I am looking for so if you want just send me an e-mail.) so you can expect grammar and other suck errors. Also that whole 'Your summary sucked!' thing…I even stated myself that the summary sucked.
Right anyways, this chapter was 12 pages long including the A/N. It had 4,936 words, so I hope this is long enough for every one. Another thing, please don't expect me to write every chapter long like this. I'll try to make sure that they're around 3,000 words.
Until next time, good night for it is 2:30 am and I have to get to bed soon or else my father will kick my ass out of his house.
Dragonmage182