Right, well seeing as its been nearly a whole year (tomorrow it will be exactly a year) since I updated this, I figured its about damn time I got around to it. That being said, I'm not gonna be doing daily updates, and its still gonna be a while before this gets finished, but I've got two chapters here in the mean time. Speaking of which, these two chapters have been more or less done since March of last year, if you can believe that. Honestly, I've no idea why I've waited this long to publish them, but there you go. There is some other stuff I'm gonna mention, but I'll leave that at the end of this chapter.
Shinji was surprised to see Misato sitting at the kitchen counter when he woke on his and Asuka's moving day, but he was glad to see that she had taken his words to heart.
"Even though I said I wanted you to help us move, I'm still surprised to see you awake this earlier."
It was hardly even nine o'clock yet, and Shinji couldn't remember the last time he had seen Misato awake this earlier.
"I made sure to get to sleep early for today, and I told Fuyutsuki about today as well, and was very understanding."
Shinji was glad to here this. He had always liked Fuyutsuki, and had been glad to hear that he had been chosen as his fathers successor.
"Now Asuka just needs to wake up and we should be able to leave," said Misato.
"Not until after I've had breakfast," said Asuka as she walked into the kitchen, yawning widely.
Walking over to the refrigerator, she grabbed some orange juice and poured herself a glass before turning towards the eggs that Shinji had cooked earlier.
"You realize that we'll have to make several trips to get all your things in the new apartments," said Misato.
"True," said Shinji with a shrug. He didn't think it would take very long though.
Glancing over at Asuka, he wondered if they should up the change in the apartment situation. It seemed she had plans to mention it herself however.
"Actually Misato...we decided to get just one apartment."
Shinji winced as he heard this, and quickly looked over at Misato who had a cup of coffee half raised to her lips as she heard. Lowering it slowly, she glanced at the two of them. Her eyebrows had receded into her hair line and her mouth was unusually thin.
"You two decided to live together then?" asked Misato as she looked from Shinji to Asuka.
"Yeah...something like that," said Shinji.
"Sorry, were you planning on not mentioning this?" asked Asuka in reply to Shinji's nervousness.
"I was but...I didn't know when the right time was."
"Good thing I got it out of the way then," said Asuka.
Misato almost felt that she was being left out of the conversation.
"Well, if you're both okay with this-"
"Yeah...we are," said Shinji. As he said this, Asuka couldn't help but notice that he was avoiding making eye contact with her. Was he having second thoughts?
After Asuka finished eating, she showered and changed clothes, leaving Misato and Shinji rather uncomfortable at the table.
Misato had wondered if this would have happened between them, but it still felt odd from her perspective. Shinji and Asuka had shared a certain bond, but seeing it changing through the years was certainly strange from someone who had known them since they had been fourteen.
They left together, the three of them piling in Misato's car. They had decided to not bring anything with them until they had finalized the paperwork for the apartment.
Arriving at the apartment complex, they all got out and walked over to the realtors office. Opening the door, the realtor immediately greeted them, remembering them from three days ago.
"I'm glad you decided on the two apartment," said the realtor and she started drawing the documents for the contract.
"Um, actually we decided to get just one apartment...if thats still okay," said Shinji.
"Yeah, just give me a second to change the contract."
The realtor changed the contract for one apartment and Shinji and Asuka were left to sign that, and several other pieces of paper. The realtor then gave both of them keys and walked them up to the apartment.
It was exactly the same as they had last seen it, and Misato walked around the apartment looking at the different rooms. Now though, it was significantly smaller than her own apartment. But this was how they had wanted it she supposed.
The realtor left then, saying that if they had any questions, that they could call her.
"What do you think?" asked Asuka the minute the door closed.
"Its smaller than my own certainly, but I think it should work," said Misato as she looked around the apartment.
"Well, after we get everything from your apartment and buy some furniture, I doubt it will seem small," said Shinji.
"What did you plan on taking at my own apartment anyway?" asked Misato.
"Besides the stuff thats in our rooms? The pots and pans I figured."
"Yeah, I won't need those," said Misato with a small laugh.
"Other than that, I figured that we buy everything else ourselves."
"Don't worry about that Shinji," said Misato. "I'll buy most of things that you need."
"Misato, me and Asuka already make more than enough money to support ourselves because of Nerv."
"Even so, I'd feel better if I contributed something."
"Shinji, if she wants to help, then let her," said Asuka as she stood by the door, watching this argument between the two.
Shinji looked from Asuka to Misato, and then sighed.
"...Fine."
Leaving their new apartment, they went back to Misato's place and started gathering up all their things. Shinji figured that he could get everything he needed in one go, but Asuka might need to take a second trip. Thankfully, most of the boxes that Asuka had brought with her when she had first arrived from overseas were still stored in the spare closet, so it wasn't difficult to pack everything up.
It was strange to see his room so empty thought Shinji as he looked at it. He had nearly spent four years of his life in this place, and now he would be leaving it behind. He imagined that Asuka was having similar feelings about now.
Leaving his bedroom, he peeked into Asuka's bedroom and saw that she was just finishing boxing up some of her clothes.
"Almost ready?" asked Shinji.
"Yeah," nodded Asuka.
Watching her for a few seconds, Shinji said-
"Feels weird to be leaving after all these years."
"Yeah...it does," mumbled Asuka as she paused in what she was doing. Still looking down at the box she was packing, she asked Shinji-
"We did make the right decision...didn't we?"
Shinji had been wondering this himself, and no matter what he thought, he couldn't see any reason why they shouldn't continue with their lives separate from Misato.
"At this point, I don't think we should be second guessing ourselves Asuka. We're almost adults now."
"You are, I've still got several more months until I'm eighteen."
"Even so, both of us have been through more stuff then adults could even claim to have experienced. I think its time to move on."
"Its not just that...living together is also..."
Asuka didn't finish her thought, but Shinji understood what she was getting at. Living together with Misato was one thing, living together and sharing a bedroom was...different, needless to say.
"You two almost done?" asked Misato as she poked her head into Asuka's bedroom.
"About, yeah," said Asuka as she closed the box she had been packing and sealed it with tape.
"Then lets get going before traffic gets too bad."
Standing up, Asuka carried the last of her things out of her bedroom and walked towards the front door. She paused then, turning around as she did and looked around at the apartment. Many years had passed since she had first come to live here, since she had first met Shinji, but this place was full of memories.
'New memories will come though,' thought Asuka.
Beside her, Shinji was taking one last look around the apartment as well, wondering how long it would be before he stepped foot in it again.
"C'mon you two," shouted Misato from someways down the staircase.
Asuka and Shinji turned around and left Misato's apartment, closing and locking the door as they did.
They drove back to their new apartment and unloaded everything into the apartment before driving downtown to look for department stores to buy furniture.
True to her word, Misato paid for the majority of the basic stuff, but Shinji and Asuka spent sometime looking around at kitchen supplies. Shinji was surprised at how interested Asuka seemed about this kind of stuff, but when he asked her she simply replied with-
'Well, if we're going to be living together, then I want to spend time considering what to buy.'
She did spend enough time looking over plates, glasses, and silverware, and Shinji was starting to wonder if she was taking this too seriously. All in all, they were able to get what they needed, and they paid for everything. Asuka was humming slightly as she walked back to the car with bags clutched in her hands. Misato and Shinji were both smiling as they saw this surprising side of Asuka.
Misato then took them out to eat, saying that she wasn't sure when she would next see them, so she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. Even after finishing with dinner, they continued talking about the times they had spent together. Though the majority of it had been about there time at Nerv, Shinji equally joined in. It was about time that he stopped ignoring what had happened to him and just accepted it.
Misato drove them back to their apartment and dropped them off, hugging each of them in turn before she drove on her way. She said that she had still lots of work, but that she would make it a point to stop by on Shinji's birthday.
Walking up the staircase of their new apartment complex, Shinji and Asuka were both silent as the weight of a new life was starting to take shape. As Evangelion pilots, it had been follow orders from the adults and don't question them. Living on their own, and no less together now, had a certain weight to it in and of itself.
Opening the door, they walked into their apartment and sat down on the living room floor. The furniture wouldn't be arriving until later tomorrow as it had been too large to fit into Misato's car, so they wouldn't have much other than their beds for an entire night.
"This is strange," said Asuka from where she sat with her back leaning against the wall.
"It is," said Shinji. He was laying flat on his back and looking up at the ceiling.
Sitting up, Shinji looked over at Asuka. He wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure. He seemed to have lost his voice.
"We should start putting everything away that we bought," said Asuka quietly. She wasn't looking at Shinji, and her cheeks were lightly tinged with a pink hue.
Standing up, Asuka gathered some of the bags and brought them into the kitchen. Shinji supposed that he should help her, even if was awkward right now. Getting up as well, he grabbed the remainder of the bags and followed her into the kitchen.
How they had chosen to live their lives hadn't fully been realized until later, when Asuka decided to vacate into the bedroom. Though they both had separate beds, sharing the same room felt strange, almost as though an invisible line had vanished without either of them realizing it. While Asuka had gone into the bedroom, Shinji was left lying on the floor with his headphones in his ears, blasting music. He wanted to forget about things for a while, forget about the decisions they had made. Shinji wasn't sure if he was regretting them, but it would take a long time before they were comfortable with them.
Noise was coming from behind him however, and Shinji turned around in search for this, and saw that Asuka was standing in the doorway to the living room, looking in at him. Pulling the earbuds out of his ears, and looked at her questioningly.
"Shinji do you plan on staying out here all night?"
"I don't...but..."
"This isn't strange for just you Shinji...but I don't want it to stay like this. We shouldn't be acting any different then how we normally are."
"We normally didn't sleep in the same room," mumbled Shinji.
"If this was so strange for you then why didn't you say you wanted different apartments?" asked Asuka.
Shinji turned away from her, not wanting to speak his mind. He was starting to become aware of how difficult this was going to be.
Asuka watched him, her face starting to grow angry. Marching over to him, she picked him by his arm and dragged him over to the bedroom door, kicking it open as she did.
"Asuka, what are you-"
Dragging him over onto his bed, she pushed him down onto it. Their beds weren't very far apart, and they could probably reach out and join each others hands if they were sleeping. Walking back over to her own bed, Asuka sat down on it and crossed her legs.
"You need to get used to this Shinji. This is going to be our lives for a while."
"Our lives? Asuka, we are living together now. This isn't like Misato's apartment."
"How is this different? For the past year, it has only been us. Granted, we didn't share a bedroom, but it was only us. We. Lived. Together."
"What about when we have to get dressed then?" asked Shinji who was close to shouting now.
"Is that what has been bothering you? Turn the other way," shrugged Asuka.
Shinji was amazed at how nonplused Asuka seemed about this. Years ago, she hated having Shinji in the same house with her if she needed to change.
"Asuka...turning around is a little."
"Shinji, do you expect me to be the same child that I was four years ago, because I'm not. And once again Shinji, I trust you. How often do I need to tell you that?"
Shinji was silent as he looked back at Asuka, unsure of how things would be progressing now. Everything had seemed fine back at Misato's apartment. Now though...
Asuka seemed to have said everything on her mind however, because she turned around, facing away from Shinji and tried to sleep.
It took Shinji much longer to fall asleep, as he kept thinking about Asuka sleeping with him. The thought had always been there, somewhere deep within his mind. Now though, it wasn't so much a delusion or a desire, as a possibility.
Okay, so on the subject of other stuff, I've been getting questions about when Two of Us is gonna be updated, so those of you that are wondering, it is coming, and soon hopefully. I've been doing other stuff, and writing other stuff that has taken up the majority of the past two months, but I'm trying to get the next chapter of Two of Us out in the next week or so. Notice I said try. As I'm posting these two chapters, I'm actually working on the next chapter as well.
I have other things that I want to mention, but those things in particular are more suitable to mention when I update Two of Us. And don't worry, I won't be dropping it or anything like that.