Switched
By Lycanpoet
Chapter Four
It was going to happen eventually, there was no way to avoid it. To Shinji, it could have at least had the decency to give him maybe a tiny bit of an advanced warning. However, as always, life just wouldn't give the gender confused, giant robot piloting, and saviour of the world a break. Still a bit twitchy from the underwear incident; Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin when the apartment doorbell rang, a sound hailing a chorus of doom inside the head of the newly fermented female.
A door slid open from somewhere in the apartment, followed by the sound of pounding footsteps towards the door. Listening closely, breath held bated. Shinji's heart sank when he heard Asuka's voice ring out in glee.
"Toji, Kensuke! What a surprise to see you here. Come on in wonder-BOY is just getting ready." A little louder than usual, making Shinji want to slap the German for not helping his plight. There now in the apartment were two of the people he would rather not face for a long time considering his current involuntary sexual deviance.
"Shinji, your two boyfriends are to see your dumb ass." The red head called through the former boy's door, before she GIGGLED and ran off.
"Oh Kami-sama, I'm doomed!" The third child cried in a panicked whisper. This in itself brought a new predicament to his attention. His voice was that of a girl, higher than his old voice was. That combined with the two not so modest additions to his chest made this the most embarrassing situation the teen had ever been in.
Shinji had never been very good with difficult situations, not to mention being bad under pressure. As such, without thinking, the pilot grabbed a t-shirt he found and tied it around his feminine attributes, regretting it as it restricted his breathing. But never the less threw on another t-shirt and a loose sweater over the restraint. Hiding his situation somewhat, from the average person's prospective.
Taking a deep breath, Shinji grabbed the door and slid it open announcing his entrance to his friends, as well as a moderately surprised second child. From the look of Asuka's face, she had not been expecting him to come out of his room looking like a HE. Toji and Kensuke, unaware of what was going on, gave him huge grins, getting up to give him pats on the back.
"What's up buddy? You've been gone from school and seeing as there hasn't been an angel attack we got a little worried." The jock said loudly, slapping him on the back. This shook the third child greatly, but he grinned through it.
"Yeah, did something happen with EVA?" Asked their spectacled fried.
Shinji gave a nervous chuckle, a little higher than it should have been for a boy, but covered it quickly with a gruff cough. His friends looked at him a little weirdly because of it, but seemed to shrug it off.
"No guys, I've just been a little ill. Probably caught a chill after our last set of tests, those hangers can get a little draughty." The brunette fabricated, his feminine voice coming out hoarse as he tries to cover it up.
He snuck a glance at his fellow pilot as he heard Kensuke telling Toji that his father always complains about the draught too. Asuka was eyeing the third child critically, as if trying to find some flaw in her appearance. Apparently finding none, she gave Shinji a mildly impressed nod, before turning back to the oblivious boys in front of them.
"Well damn man, you are like all pale and you do sound like crap. When do you think you'll be allowed back to school? It's been a major bore with just four-eyes there." Toji asked, the comment took a moment but Kensuke caught up with a, 'hey I don't have four eyes damn it!'
Shinji sighed in relief, his two friends weren't suspicious at all. He gave them a forced smile; he didn't like lying to them, though it wasn't like he had a choice was it? Something like this wasn't exactly public material.
"I should be back after the weekend, that will give me some time to rest up I think." He told them, stretching and pretending to yawn. This action didn't help a certain garment tied around the thirds chest, which drew a surprised 'eep!' from our hero(in) as it came undone.
The second child, who had been on the lookout from the couch, jumped up and grabbed the two stooges by the collars when she saw what was happening, and dragged them towards the door. Leaving them none the wiser of their friends new found femininity.
"Alright idiots, you've had long enough for your little date. I want to watch TV and the baka needs to get some rest before our tests later!" The German fireball declared over the cries of manhandling by the teens. It wasn't until she closed the front door behind them, that she burst out laughing. She spun around, fixing Shinji with her mirth filled gaze.
"Holy crap third, that was just plain beautiful! I mean there was no way in hell I would have guessed you would have pulled that; I really didn't think they were that stupid. But how on earth did you hide those without suffocating yourself?" She asked in amazement.
Shinji was beet red with embarrassment, the t-shirt that was not long ago tied around his chest now hugged his hips. He was about to defend his hasty actions, when Asuka held up a hand for silence.
"I don't want to hear it she-boy. It worked. That is what matters right now. Don't get me wrong, it was a crazy stunt, and although it leaves you in a precarious situation, it does give us a little more breathing room. A plan like this does need some fine tuning. The boys at school should be ok, they probably won't notice. The girls on the other hand notice everything, I mean hell, that's how rumours start, when some girl or another see's a change and make a guess at what it could be...." Whatever else she may have said, it was lost on our many times confused brunette, to him it was beyond comprehension.
Alas the redhead noticed the third child's blank expression and let out a disgruntled huff. Deciding the best course of punishment would be divine retribution. She grabbed the girl in front of her by the ear and pulled her off towards her own room.
"Come on baka, we have a disguise to perfect."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Now Misato wasn't known for being at her smartest or brightest after an all-nighter at NERV. So it was when she walked into the kitchen to a smug looking second child and Shinji than she did not notice that something was off. It wasn't until she took a beer from the fridge, dumping herself in her usual seat at the table to find a chilled unopened one already sitting there that she noticed that anything was amiss.
"Alright you two...what did you break ? And how much is it going to cost me?" she asked, fixing each teen with a hard, if not a little fuzzy, gaze. Shinji gave her an uncharacteristic grin, which didn't help matters.
"Absolutely nothing is wrong Misato-san. In fact things are really looking up." He said with a smile. His voice sounding like it was breaking for puberty, an achievement to say the least.
The raven haired major stared long and hard at Shinji; even going as far as to rub her eyes to find a difference in the teen. Downing her can of beer, as well as her spare helped tremendously in the matter, if only to kick her own butt for not noticing straight away. Her response was to start twitching.
"Woo! Way-to-go Third! You broke her. Now if you were still a boy I would congratulate your ass. But now it's just damn!" Asuka giggled while she patted Shinji on the back, and waved a hand before the Major's eyes. This snapped the poor woman out of her stupor.
She took in his appearance, there was a little softening in the features, but Shinji looked precisely like he used to, down to the school uniform. Why would Shinji be wearing a uniform? She thought to herself....Click!
"You're planning on going to school?! What in the world are you thinking? So many things could go wrong," Misato fumed, although a look of dawning did cross her features, "Although, it does give the appearance of normalcy. Not to mention you get your education. Your cover does look pretty tight, nothing obvious is out of place."
The purple locked woman did give Shinji another funny look though, as her second beer cleared her thoughts.
"How in Kami-sama's existence are you hiding your boobs though? I mean, how are you still breathing properly?" She asked, noting Shinji's look of annoyance at the comment with amusement.
The brunette simply lifted his shirt and undershirt to reveal bandages wrapped tightly around his chest. A distinct pair of bulges could be made out amongst the cloth. Misato gave a wince and a look that clearly said, 'sucks to be you.' The third just pulled down the shirts and tucked them neatly in. Looking up at the clock on the wall, the girl shot up out of his chair.
"Oh crap! Asuka, we're going to be late!" Shinji shouted in a panic, not even noticing he had slipped back to the girls' voice. The newly formed girl shot for the door with great speed, managing to slip her shoes on without breaking her stride, and was out the door in less than a second. This left a surprised pair of women behind at the table.
"Well, today is going to be interesting for you if nothing else." Misato said lightly to a still stunned German.
Seeing her still sitting there, staring at the door, the major gave the girl a poke. This had the effect of snapping the girl back and into gear as she too jumped up and towards the door, using language best not uttered here.
As the door closed Misato sighed, chugging down a third beer...that had come from god knows where. She got up herself, choosing to retreat to her room to seek hibernation, muttering about crazy teenage girls as she went.