NERV-Alaska Part Afterwards

How does this work?

"This brings up a… bit of a problem." She said, as they were walking back towards their apartment.

"What?" Adam questioned.

The black haired girl looked down, slightly embarrassed.

"I… uh… don't quite know how this body works."

"You…" He looked at her in disbelief. He was about to say something, but then it dawned on him, "Well, I guess that makes sense. You were either in a robotic body or an Eva for your entire life."

"Right."

"Well," He said, as he opened the door to the apartment and let her in before him, "Let's start with the basics."

"Well, I read up on the human body before I got my own," She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, "I know that hormones can severely affect emotions, so I'm keeping tabs on how exactly I'm feeling. I know what a woman my age goes through. But other than that, I don't know."

"… Okay," he said, taking a seat next to her, "so we need to get you acquainted with some of the less desirable traits of a human being."

"Like what?"

"Like… Well, hunger… pain… needing to use the washroom… among other things."

"Oh yeah." She said, sighing, "This should be fun."

"… I'm lucky that you catch on quick, or else this would drive me insane."

"And that you love me." She said, wrapping her arms around him.

"Yes, and on top of that, I love you too much to leave you alone."

"Okay, I think I'm feeling something weird now."

"How do you feel?"

"Well, I feel kinda weak, and my stomach feels sorta… light."

"Then you're probably hungry. I… guess I'll make you something to eat. But first, let's get you into some actual clothes."

They didn't really have a wide selection to pick from, so Allison was wearing a red hoodie and some jeans that belonged to Adam. They were a tad too big for her, though, but they made do with what they had for the moment.

Adam was in the kitchen, making some soup for the both of them. He claimed that he wasn't the best cook, but he could at least make something as simple as soup. The smell wafted into the dining room, where Allison was sitting at the circular table, eagerly awaiting what would be her first meal. And on top of that, it was something that Adam was making her. He walked into the dining room, a bowl in each oven-mitted hand. He laid one down in front of Allison, and sat down in the spot next to her.

"Well, at the very least, it smells good." She said.

"It's soup. It always smells good."

He handed her a spoon, and started eating. She dipped her spoon into the bowl and brought it up to her lips. Adam saw what she was doing, and immediately tried to stop her.

"Wait, you gotta-"

"GAH!"

"Blow on it first…"

Too late, however. She had the spoon in her mouth, and the heat burned her tongue and throat as the soup went down.

"That's…" She said, slamming her fist onto the table, "That's pain. Yup. Well acquainted with that! I could feel pain when I was an Eva."

"I'm sorry, I should have told you to blow on it."

"Now my tongue's all numb."

"It does that. Apparently your nerves get damaged when you feel pain, and the area feels numb afterwards."

"So…" she said, looking down at her soup, "I won't really be able to taste it?"

"Kinda. Sorry."

"… Damnit."

She took another spoonful and blew on it before actually eating it. She smiled, slightly.

"Well, at least I can taste it."

"Is it good?"

"It's amazing."

"Why are you closing your eyes?"

They were getting ready to get to bed. Allison seemed to understand what it meant to be tired, and understood that most people change before going to bed. And that… was where the problem was.

"Well, why aren't you wearing anything?"

She was standing beside the bed, wearing absolutely nothing. As soon as he saw, Adam had covered his eyes, wanting to respect her privacy. Something she obviously was not trying to do herself.

"Well, it's like that one movie. Oh, what was it called…" She put one hand on her chin and one on her beautiful hips and Adam your eyes should be closed now. She shrugged, "Can't remember. Anyway, there was a song in it. It said that if you got it… Flaunt it." She climbed into bed beside him and wrapped her arms around him.

'Hey, I don't really mind this,' He thought to himself, 'Wait! NO! Damn you, hormones!'

"Allison," He said, "Could you at least wear something?"

"… But… don't guys usually like seeing women naked?"

"Yes! NO! Both. Neither! I'M NOT MAKING SENSE!" He stopped for a second to compose himself. "Okay. Usually, people only go to bed naked when they're willing to get… intimate."

"Intimate? OH! Sex!"

"Blunt… but yes."

"And… you don't want to."

"… I… can't say I don't want to… but I can't. Not… not now. Not after what happened today."

"… I understand. I'll go get something."

She got up from the bed and walked over to a piece of clothing lying on Adam's dresser. She unfolded it and put it on. She did up the buttons on it and turned back towards Adam.

"You can look now."

He uncovered his eyes and looked over at her.

"… Dad's lab coat."

They had cleaned it when they got home, after they got Allison some actual clothes, and Adam had folded it up and put it on his dresser, as a reminder. They decided not to fix up the left arm of the coat, so her arm was bare.

"Should I not wear it?"

"No, that's fine… but we do need to get you some clothes."

She nodded and climbed back into bed.

She woke up in the middle of the night, her stomach feeling really weird. She turned over and shook Adam.

"Adam, wake up!"

He stirred slightly.

"Adam!"

"… what?" He said, groggily.

"I feel weird."

"what do you mean, 'weird?'"

"My stomach and everything below it feels… weird. Like it's full or something."

"… great, you need to use the washroom."

"Really?"

"can't say i was looking forward to this. come on."

He got up and motioned for her to follow him. He stumbled through the hallway leading to the washroom. He reached his destination and motioned for her to go in. She turned on the light, and Adam closed the door behind her.

"Why did you close the door?"

"What happens in the bathroom is usually private." He said through the door.

"Unless two people are comfortable around each other."

"Yeah, but I find using the washroom to be too disgusting. I'm not going in there."

She sighed, "Fine. What do I do?"

"Well, there's something in there that looks like a seat."

She looked around for what he described. Then she spotted it.

"Okay, now what?"

"The lid should be down. Pull it up."

She pulled open the lid.

"Now, normally, I'd say pull down your pants, but… you're not wearing any. Simplest course of action, considering what you're wearing, take it off."

"You ask me to put clothes on, now you're telling me to take it off?"

"Well, a lab coat is hard to manoeuvre. Once you do that, just sit down on the toilet and… let nature take its course."

He sat outside the door and waited for her to finish up.

"When you're done, use the toilet paper to… ugh, 'Clean Up.'"

"Clean up?"

"… Ugh… Clear away any waste left behind…"

He waited some more.

"Okay…" she said, "now what?"

"There's a lever on the toilet. Turn it."

He heard the toilet flush.

"Now you wash your hands, and exit the bathroom a brand new person.

He heard the faucet run for a bit, and then shut off. As the door opened, he realized he forgot one crucial step.

He forgot to tell her to put her coat back on.

Of course, he found out later on, she already knew that she had to put the coat back on. She just chose not to.

He spent the next day almost entirely alone, sitting in his father's old bedroom. His father was the most important figure in his life, and it was hard to let him go, despite the fact that his father specified 'no moping.'

Adam found that instruction to be… hard to follow.

He opened the door to his fathers closet, absent mindedly searching for something. Of course, when he opened the door, he saw that the entire closet was filled with lab coats. Nothing but lab coats. He chuckled lightly to himself.

"Why am I not surprised, dad?"

He gave the closet a glancing over, and noticed an old notebook filled with notes in the corner. He picked it up and looked it over.

"Project ALTER… Submitted by Mondschein, Dream…"

He carried it over to the bed and, taking a seat on the bed, started reading it. Of course, he didn't get any of the more complex equations, but… this was something that his father had left behind. From what he could understand, Adam didn't get why his father would leave something like this lying about, even in a closet. He read through, reading every note, every equation, every word written in his father's handwriting. Then he reached the end, and noticed something odd. An extra note, made recently, with his name on it.

"Adam," he said, reading aloud, "This is how I do it… huh?"

He read the page.

Subject: Mondschein, Dream

Subject was exposed to AR Energy when the AR Cannon went haywire. Subject shut down the cannon by removing the focusing crystal. Medical examinations afterwards indicate that his body had, in fact, absorbed the AR Energy, and began clumping in the location of his left elbow. This appears to have no effect on the motor functions of his left hand. AR Clump has been described as looking alternately like a "blue cloud" or "a chunk of the night sky."

Upon further testing, subject has shown some capabilities with the AR Clump. Subject is able to put objects in a "hammerspace" and pull them out at any time. It is unknown if there are any size restrictions, as testing could prove hazardous to subject's health.

Project ALTER Status: Put on indefinite hiatus.

"So that's how you did it!" He laughed, "You literally pulled things out of nowhere!"

Then he heard a knocking on the door.

"… Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure."

Allison walked into the room, and took a seat next to Adam.

"How are you holding up?"

"… Well, I found one of his old journals."

"From one of the old projects?"

"Yeah, Project ALTER."

"… must have been before I was assembled there. I don't remember ALTER."

"It's dated shortly after I was born."

"And I was only built-"

"Born."

"… Born… four years ago."

He held the notebook in his hands, staring at it.

"It's… it's hard to believe he's gone."

"Adam…"

She wrapped an arm over his shoulder, and put her hand on his.

"Are you really doing okay?"

"… No. No, I'm not doing okay. He's always been there for me. He always had some crazy idea to make things better, or some crazy story to tell me if I was feeling down. But he's gone now!"

His hands clenched and tears formed in his eyes.

"Damn it… Damn it! We could have helped him! Why did he force us to leave? Why did he and Quatre insist on staying? They could have escaped with us!"

"… No, they couldn't."

"Why not?"

"From what he told me, it happened because someone was targeting him. If he had escaped, it would have put you in danger. Whoever was after him would have continued pursuing him until he died. And you know him; He'd give up his own life for you. And he did. Same with Quatre."

"… Doesn't make it any less painful."

"No. But… he wouldn't have wanted to see you like this."

He looked at her, tears refusing to be shed.

"… I need to stop thinking about this. This is going to get me nowhere."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"I say we go and get you some clothes."

"… Really? You're grieving and the best distraction you can come up with is clothes shopping?"

"It's better than nothing. Let's go."

They walked through the streets, going through everything they did when she got her first robotic body. The day started with them going and getting clothes for Allison to wear (She gave Adam the occasional nosebleed when she tried on something a little too small for her. He could swear she was doing it on purpose), but they decided to try out everything again now that she could actually experience them.

Adam was carrying all of the clothes that she had bought, despite Allison's protests. He insisted, trying ever so hard to be a gentleman. Then they made their way past that familiar Ice Cream shop. The looked at each other.

"Ice cream?" He asked.

"Ice cream."

The walked in through the door, Allison giggling softly to herself. Adam ordered two cones of vanilla ice cream, and paid the clerk.

"Why Vanilla?"

"Well, technically it's your first time. Vanilla is the most plain flavour, so it's best that we start from there."

"I guess that makes sense. But…" She said, looking at all the selections, "That Cookie Dough Ice Cream looks really good."

"I'll get some for you next time."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

They received their cones and sat down at one of the tables. Allison almost started eating her cone when Adam stopped her.

"I'm not making the same mistake again. Don't eat Ice Cream too fast. It's made from Milk, and you know how drinking milk too fast feels."

She gagged slightly.

"Don't remind me."

With that, they ate their Ice Cream. Allison made a point of eating it as slow as she could.

She loved every second of it.

She woke up in the middle of the night, shivering. Despite the fact that they were underneath some pretty heavy blankets, she was absolutely frozen. As if she had been outside in the middle of a snowstorm. Adam was awake as well, shivering just like she was.

"D-did we h-have the same d-dream?" He said.

"Snowb-ball fight with e-e-everyone from NERV?"

"Yeah."

"… W-weird."

She huddled up closer to him, and he held her tight. As weird as it was that they had the same dream, they put it out of mind. Right now, they had each other.

It had been a week since the destruction of NERV-Alaska. Allison had since gotten more or less used to her human body. There was the occasional slip up, but she powered on through and got used to the body she was given, thankful for every sensation. Including the time when she ate something that didn't quite agree with her stomach, though she didn't exactly like it. They didn't have that dream again, which was a bonus.

"Hey, Adam?" She said when they were getting ready for bed. She had eyed the lab coat, and decided to wear that.

"What?" He climbed into the bed.

"… Thank you."

"For what?"

"For always being there." She climbed in next to him, "You've been there from day one, and even when you found out what I was… you stuck with me. You helped me all throughout this week as I got used to my human body. So, thank you."

He looked at her and smiled.

"I'll always be there for you." He said, and kissed her.

"Would you be here if I were still an Eva?"

"Of course. Good night, Allison."

He shifted slightly and closed his eyes. She didn't move, but just stared at him.

"There's one other thing."

"What is it?" he said, opening his eyes.

"I…"

Her face reddened.

"Well… what I mean is… There's one other thing I want to feel."

"What is it?"

She tried to articulate what was going through her head, but for one reason or another couldn't spit it out. When she failed at saying it, she merely lunged at him and kissed him. A lot deeper than usual, her tongue forcing its way into his mouth. He wrapped his arms around her and did the same. He ran his hands through her hair, and she slowly made her way on top of him. They broke off, both breathing heavily. Her face still red and his face turning red as well.

"What I mean to say…" She said, panting, "I… I want to feel you."

"You mean…"

"Y-yeah."

"But… We're sixteen!"

"Well, technically, I'm four."

"Not really helping, Allison."

"But aren't you the person that didn't let the fact that his girlfriend was an Evangelion affect his feelings?"

"… Yeah."

"If we can overcome something like that, age doesn't really matter, does it?"

"…I guess it doesn't."

"But… If you don't want to…" She moved to get off of him. His hand came out and grabbed her arm. Not forcibly, but enough to make her stop.

"I'm… not saying that." He said, embarrassed.

"Then that means…?"

"I lost one of the most important things in my life a week ago. If it wasn't for you, I probably would have broken down and died. You thanked me because I helped you with your human body."

He sat up, and he hugged her.

"So I'm thankful for you being there and helping me get through this. You're all I have left, Allison, and I would have waited forty years just to see you for a day. But here you are in my arms…"

He held her tightly.

"I love you, Allison, with all of my being. If you want to do this, I'll be with you every step of the way, as I always have been. All I ask is that you're positive you want to do this."

She shifted around in his arms and kissed him again, just a peck on the lips. She looked him straight in the eyes.

"Adam, when you hold me in your arms, I feel... warm. That warmth means the world to me. I don't ever want to let that go."

She held him tighter, burying her face in his shoulder.

"To you, it was four years, but I waited my entire life just to hear your voice. I got the fake body just for the thought of holding you. Now I have a human body… And I want to show you just how much I love you. Of course I'm sure: There's nothing I want more than you."

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers.