Creation began on 07-13-16
Creation ended on 07-24-16
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Different from You: Devoted
He doesn't attend school, he hasn't been to NERV, thought Misato as she stood in front of the door to the apartment Shinji and Shado were assigned to for the duration of their time here in Tokyo-3. Nobody hears from him or his daughter, and suddenly, it's my job to know why?
She knocked on the door and waited for a response since she didn't have a key; it seemed that Shinji had trust issues with adults that were beyond severe.
Suddenly, the door opened and she saw Shinji, who appeared preoccupied with something else that he didn't even remove the chain on the door.
"Yes?" He asked her.
"You haven't been to NERV in three days," she explained.
"And that's a problem?" He questioned; in addition to the apartment, he got a cell phone that acted up in case of an emergency that required him, and so far, it hasn't rung to indicate that he was required at NERV. "There hasn't been another attack since that day."
"Well, no, but you're still required for synchronization testing," she reminded him.
"That's going to have to wait a while," he declared. "I have other priorities I must attend to."
"Like what, exactly?" She tried to joke around. "What, your daughter's sick with the stomach flu or something like that? Heh-heh."
Shinji's expression was deadpanned as he responded, "Yeah. Exactly like that. I have to go now."
Even though he didn't slam the door close in front of her, Misato still flinched. Now, she knew that half-serious jokes weren't going to get her into his good graces.
"Okay," she sighed and walked away.
-x-
"Urgh!" Shado groaned as she threw up in the toilet again, supported by her father.
She felt fine the night they went home after the Fifth Angel was dealt with, but the next morning, she didn't feel well at all. At first, it was just a feeling of fatigue, but then she developed a fever, and finally needed to throw up every now and then because she couldn't keep anything down.
"Phht!" She spat out the rest of her small breakfast, which consisted of just toast and miso soup.
Shinji then carried her over to the sink and helped her wash out the rest of the bile. While her fever had gone down some, he decided that if this vomiting persisted tomorrow, he would have to take her to see a doctor because he was concerned for her well-being.
"Phht!" She spat the water-mixed bile leftover in her mouth into the sink. "Who was at the door?"
"Just a stranger," he explained to her, and carried her back to her room. "I'd better take your temperature again."
"Okay," she agreed with him, and opened her mouth so that he could place the thermometer under her tongue to get her exact temperature.
He then looked out the window and wondered if anyone was watching them. He wouldn't have put it past people like the ones at NERV to spy on him and Shado, like they needed to be watched all the time, but to have no privacy was to cross a severe line. Then again, he didn't trust them and had no reason to start trusting them.
Beep. The thermometer went, snapping him back to his daughter's side.
"How is it?" She asked him as he checked it.
"Not as bad as yesterday, but still very high," he told her. "If your vomiting persists tomorrow, we're going to see a doctor, okay?"
"Okay."
He gathered her bowl and saucer and stepped out of the room to take them to the kitchen.
-x-
"…You think his daughter's sick, and that's why he hasn't left his unit?" Ritsuko asked Misato, who informed her of her visit to see Shinji and Shado.
"I joked about that a little, but he seemed to take it personal before he shut the door in my face," she explained to her.
"Well, while you were out making jokes about a sick child, I dug a little deeper into the Third Child's medical background and found something that may have been a deeper factor into his trust issues and severe social skills." Ritsuko informed her, handing a folder with photos. "These were taken by the medical staff here when they changed him out of his LCL-soaked clothes. The men that changed him while he was unconscious didn't want to go anywhere near him after that."
Misato looked at the pictures and was taken aback by the sight of the boy's chest.
"My God," she gasped.
"Getting his medical records from the previous hospital, I found out that he got that massive scar from his kidnappers," Ritsuko revealed to her. "It was his rapist's idea to do this to him."
Misato couldn't look at the injury any longer and put the picture away. It seemed like a worse version of her own scar from Second Impact, only hers was because of a shrapnel injury, not because of a depraved bunch of minds that wanted to torture people.
-x-
Shado, who had fallen asleep after her father left out of her room, awoke sometime later and looked over to her left of her futon, seeing her father asleep by her side; his constant vigilance over her had clearly cost him some resting time.
"Daddy?" She called out to him, her voice weak.
Shinji stirred from his undesired slumber and shook his head to clear his drowsiness.
"Uh, yeah, Shado?" He responded.
"I need to go to the bathroom," she told him, and he helped her out of her futon, carrying her back to the bathroom.
However, before Shinji could set her down, she puked over his right shoulder and onto the floor.
"Well, that was unexpected," he uttered, keeping his emotional responses in check around Shado.
"Sorry, Daddy," she apologized to him.
"It's okay, sweetie," he assured her; he knew she didn't do it on purpose. "Accidents happen. Come on. Let's get you seated onto the toilet."
As she sat down and relieved herself, her father changed out of his shirt and put on a new one.
"How long was I asleep?" She asked him.
"Almost four hours," he answered, and then got a whiff of something that wasn't his daughter's vomit.
"Oops," she realized.
"It's okay, sweetie."
-x-
Fuyutsuki was shown the pictures of the scarring on Shinji's chest that was confirmed to have occurred prior to his rape, and found himself unable to keep from retching.
"This is insane," he expressed to Misato and Ritsuko. "What sort of mind does this to a young child?"
"A depraved one, that's what," answered Misato to him. "The doctors couldn't even use skin grafts to cover up half the injury."
"It's clear that this is another factor of his kidnapping that he never recovered from," Ritsuko explained.
"And you think this contributes to his inability to trust people?" Fuyutsuki asked them.
"As his daughter's the only person he does trust," went Ritsuko, "his kidnapping, subsequent rape, lack of therapy and neglect have all contributed to his trust issues. Anyone older than him is someone he views not only as a stranger, but as someone he shouldn't bother with getting to know. If there are any other factors that contribute to this, either we don't know them or the Third Child hasn't shared them with us."
"Has anyone been by his apartment to see him?"
"Only Captain Katsuragi has been over there, but her presence wasn't welcomed by him."
"If his daughter is sick, he'll ignore everything and everyone around here until she's well, but I don't believe he let any physician look at her unless he's around." Misato expressed her opinion.
That's when Fuyutsuki realized something else: There had been no word of any contact from the Third Child's aunt and uncle.
"Has there been any word from the aunt or uncle?" He asked them.
"No, sir," Ritsuko answered.
-x-
So far, her temperature had dropped back down to the normal standards, but vomiting and diarrhea hadn't stopped yet. But she was recovering from her illness. If she needed a few more days, then Shinji couldn't argue with that. He had read on how most parents (real ones, that is) put their children before anything else, in sickness or health. As she slept again through the afternoon, Shinji watched her; the afternoon radio babel and weather reports didn't mean much to him, not even the American dramas that he discovered in the last two years.
Beep. His NERV-issued phone beeped, indicating a text message had been received from someone that had his contact number.
He picked it up and tapped on the touchscreen to read the text. It read, "NERV HQ: We need you down here for testing." But he texted back, "Your tests can wait until Shado is well." And then he put the phone down to resume watching his daughter as she slept peacefully.
Beep. The phone displayed another text message.
"NERV HQ: We need you to be ready in case of the next Angel attack."
"Unh…" He heard his daughter mumble in her sleep as she turned to face away from him.
Frowning, he texted back, "I'm not the only soldier you have at your disposal! Use the albino girl! My daughter takes priority before NERV and the Angels!" Then, he turned his phone off.
You come first, Shado, he thought. With me, you always come first.
-x-
"…Who does he think he is?" Ritsuko questioned, unable to send a new text to the Third Child after he sent his last message that told them to use the First Child and how his little girl's care took priority over his obligation to NERV against the Angels.
"Well, it's not like we can make him choose what will be his priorities and what won't be," said Misato to her, "no matter how much we want him to see things from a different perspective."
"You sound as though you're afraid of him."
Misato wouldn't confirm or deny that. As far as she cared to admit, this fatherly Shinji Ikari was not someone to be taken lightly or cross. The lack of trust with others, the scars from his abuse, his detachment from the majority of his family and his heavy concerns towards his daughter. Yes, she viewed this young man as a person not to be taken lightly.
"We really should try to get in contact with his aunt and uncle," she decided upon the Sub-Commander's suggestion, "and Rei can be tested further until Unit-00 is repaired."
-x-
Gendo could've had a complaint made about the Third Child's lack of obligation to NERV, even try to have his daughter removed from his custody, but was persuaded by Fuyutsuki not to trouble the boy because the little girl was sick and needed him until she was well. It made him disgusted by the boy's devotion to a bastard child that he himself wanted nothing to do with, regardless of her biological ties to the boy. The situation was made worse by the fact that the Third Child wasn't developing any degree of attachment with the Eva; his synchronization was within acceptability, but he wasn't letting himself get invested in the purple behemoth.
If he's not getting attached to the Eva, his usefulness is in question, he thought, looking at the synchronization graphs belonging to the boy. His attachment to the little girl may jeopardize my scenario if he doesn't let go of her.
-x-
"Hmm…" Shado mumbled as she awoke to the setting sunlight. "Daddy?"
Shinji, who was in the hallway outside of her room, came in with a cup of tea in his right hand.
"Right here, Shado," he told her, sitting down beside her futon. "How are you feeling?"
"A little better, actually," she responded, and was handed over the cup of lukewarm tea. "Mm."
After she drank from the cup slowly, revitalizing her dehydrated throat, she gave him back the cup.
"How long was I asleep this time?" She asked him.
"Too long," he simplified his answer to her. "But too much sleep is better than no sleep."
He placed his left hand on her forehead and felt her temperature.
"Am I well enough to eat again, Daddy?" She asked him.
"I'd say that you're well enough for curry, sweetie," he answered her, feeling her temperature was normal and hoped that her stomach was okay to allow curry.
Ding! He head the doorbell ring, and sighed in frustration as he got up to answer the door.
Against her better judgment, Shado got up and followed him from a distance and watched him open the door to see whoever it was that was there. Even though she was too far away to see them, she couldn't forget the minor dullness of glasses with an orange tint to them…or the cold look on the man's face. She didn't like her father's father, and quickly hid behind a corner wall.
"What are you doing here and what do you want?" She heard Shinji ask him.
"You have been absent from NERV for almost a week," she heard the older man say to him. "Your lack of attendance will have repercussions we cannot tolerate."
"And earlier, that lady, Katsuragi, said differently," Shinji told him, leaving no hint of disgust in his voice towards him. "You can say what you want, but my priorities are as I see them. NERV, and by extension, you of all people, are a secondary concern to me. My daughter is my primary concern, and she's recovering from a flu."
Shado just wanted to hear the front door shut and her father walk away to say that the glasses-wearing man had left.
"If this persists, certain actions must be employed," she heard the man say to her father.
"You wanna see certain actions employed, go talk to your in-laws," her father told him. "You have your way of dealing with what you perceive to be problems, and I have my way of dealing with what I perceive to be problems…and that includes people like you."
The sound of the door closed and since she couldn't hear the sound of a chain being replaced, Shado guessed that her father never took the chain off. She sighed and waited for her father to come get her…after he had calmed down because after something like this, he really needed to; people that got on her father's nerves made him difficult to get near until after he took a few minutes to relax…and sometimes, his chest scar started to act up.
"Shado?" She heard him call her.
She stuck out her head to see him, seeing him against the wall on the floor, his right hand clutching his shirt tightly.
"Are you alright, Daddy?" She asked him.
"Yeah. Just give me a few minutes, dear."
She slowly came over and sat beside him.
-x-
"…What were you thinking, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki questioned Gendo when he found out he had gone over to the Third Child's apartment. "Were you deliberately trying to put stress on him?"
"He's clearly a damaged brat," Gendo expressed
"Which we will send to an early grave and leave his daughter without anyone she knows and trusts if we persist in disturbing him," Fuyutsuki declared.
-x-
She only had one bowl, but Shado had enough curry in her stomach.
"Thank you, Daddy," she praised her father, and vacated the table to go to the bathroom.
As she brushed her teeth, Shinji put their bowls in the sink and placed the leftover curry in the refrigerator for later.
"Phht!" He heard Shado spit into the sink. "Daddy, we're out of toothpaste!"
"I know, Shado," he told her, chuckling.
-x-
"…He blew me off," went Misato to Ritsuko that evening in the latter's office, slumping into a chair. "He wouldn't even spend a minute to speak about Shinji."
"Well, if we can't find out what happened to the Third Child and his daughter from the relatives, we may as well find out from their files." Ritsuko expressed.
"Except the files don't reveal everything."
"But what choice do we have?"
"We could subpoena them…and force them to tell us everything they know."
"Why not ask the Third Child directly? He could know what we need to know."
"Trust me, he isn't very social towards most people. I won't even risk my neck trying to compare him to Commander Ikari; even if there's one crucial fact that separates them from one another, and that's the boy's commitment to his daughter."
"You do realize that even if the girl hadn't suggested anything and the boy still refused to pilot the Eva, we could've had a worse incident with the Fifth Angel. She could've gotten sick during that time and the boy would've put everything on hold until she recovered."
"He's a parent first and a pilot second to last, Rits. He's a person first and a soldier second to last, too."
"Both of whom are very defiant…and willful."
-x-
"…Well, Daddy?" Shado asked her father the next morning, as he finished checking her temperature. "Am I no longer ill?"
Setiing the thermometer down, he answered, "Your temperature's back to normal. You've stopped vomiting and your diarrhea's cleared up. I'd say you're well enough to go outside today."
"Must you go to that place today?"
"After having you spent four days inside to recover from your sickness, I'd rather have you go to the park after we go shopping for necessities."
"Great!"
Shinji smiled as he got up and left her room to give her privacy to change. Yes, he would've put his obligation to NERV on hold just to help her recover some more or just to have a life free of woe.
To be continued…
A/N: Would any of you put everything on hold to take care of someone you love?