This is dedicated to Ayanasartstuff, who drew the beautiful cover illustration for Book of Revels.

I asked them for a prompt so I could write something for them as a thank-you, but the only way I had to contact them was tumblr, and tumblr PMs vanish easily.

So I'm just writing a bunny I've had in the notes file for awhile and hoping they like it.

This is a slight AU of Rebuild 'verse/different iteration of the timeloop thing, so the Shinji's a little different.

It wasn't quite green and brown as far as the eye could see. Even if they were covered in plants now, Shinji could make out the remnants of roads, the grey of concrete in the ruins of what was once Tokyo-3. Then there was... He squinted. Fog rolling in from the sea, maybe? But he was high enough up that he should be able to see the water beyond…

Oh. That was the sea. He'd seen pictures, and old movies.

The sea.

They hadn't just put things back the way they were before he tried to save Ayanami.

The dead were still dead, even if Kaworu had whispered that they now had a chance to be born again, if they wanted to give life another chance, before he fell asleep on Shinji's shoulder, sitting on top of Eva 13.

If the sea was back, though?

Then what they'd done, they'd actually managed to make things better?

Shinji heard a rustle in the bushes behind him (bushes! Vines, anyway. On top of Eva 13, so wrapped in flowers it took a minute to get out of their entry plugs) and tried not to jump.

Asuka hated him now, and even if he'd managed to do something good she might still hate him. The way she'd hated him for trying to save Rei, when what was wrong with that? Asuka was brave, if she was there instead of him she would have started fighting before he did, she wouldn't have given up either!

But people were still dead. The sea was here, but Touji and Kaji might not ever be here to see it again.

He couldn't turn around to see if she looked angry or defend himself without maybe waking Kaworu, though.

Something touched the back of his plugsuit, and now he jumped, frantically tried to prop Kaworu up as he turned around to see a deer. A tiny deer. A fawn, that was the word.

It was close enough he could touch it, when he'd never seen one up close. Kaji taking them to the aquarium was the first time he went to something like a zoo. Endangered animals were too precious to be risked around children.

"Hey," he said softly, and "Kaworu?" because Kaworu should see this.

Kaworu just made a soft little sound, eyes cracking open when he heard Shinji say his name, before he closed them again, and hummed.

Right, Kaworu had done most of the work. Of what they'd just done. Shinji didn't quite understand what had just happened, the way he didn't see how pulling Rei out of an angel could set anything off. Weren't they supposed to keep the angels away from everything? It still didn't really make sense, but he couldn't ask about it without them saying he was dodging blame or something. He wanted to know what happened because if something that innocent could kill so many people, it was important to not do it again, but if there weren't any more angels or need to use the Evas, maybe it was safe now?

Shinji sat back down from the crouch he'd ended up in and held Kaworu with one arm. The deer took a step closer.

He held his breath, reaching out, and a soft little hand pushed into his hand.

It was warm. Alive.

This place was so dead when they came down here, and now here was something. Alive. Because of him. He hadn't saved Ayanami, but here was a little thing with spindly legs, and he could hear birdsong.

He looked back at Kaworu, really wanting to wake him up because look! There was a real deer, and it was letting him pet it, but Kaworu had sounded so tired.

There was a ball of fur in Kaworu's lap, white and black. A little head peeked up, and he had seen one of these before. One of his elementary classes had one. The class rabbit. He hadn't gotten to spend a lot of time with it because one of the other kids pushed him and made sure the teacher saw what happened so they thought he was irresponsible and couldn't be trusted with the poor little bunny.

A bird landed in front of him. He had no idea what kind it was: yellow and grey, with a white stomach.

So many living things. He'd never been surrounded by animals before, only people. There was the aquarium, but they were on the other side of glass, kept safely away from him. They were wild animals, he'd heard those could be dangerous – there were packs of wild dogs in the aftermath of Second Impact, he'd heard – but he didn't feel afraid. He felt much safer than he would if they were people. Even before he became the cause of Third Impact, people were scary, but the deer was warm and soft, and Kaworu was warm against his side.

He could hear the sound of quiet breathing from Kaworu as the deer licked his hand and the bird hopped closer to his knee. Hopped onto his knee.

"Kaworu?" he whispered, because this was amazing.

Kaworu let out a breath, not a sigh of frustration that Shinji was bothering him but contemplation. Shinji turned to see his eyes open, looking down at the rabbit in his lap and then up at Shinji. "This world was created for you, Shinji. I wished for a world that would love you and make you happy. They love you," he said, and closed his eyes again, shifting his head onto Shinji's shoulder.

If Kaworu's lips weren't so close to his ear, he might have missed the quiet words, half breath, that followed. "As I love you…"

Shinji's eyes widened, and he realized that he should feel surprised that anyone would feel this way about him, but… but this was Kaworu. Kaworu wouldn't have done so much for Shinji if he didn't love him. No one would be so impossibly kind to Shinji without a reason.

It was easy to believe that he was loved if it was Kaworu. Easy to smile, and relax, and press his face against Kaworu's silver hair, and let his eyes close, feeling impossibly peaceful as he heard Asuka calling for Mari in the distance.

Why yes, short nickname for the bunny is 'Disney Princess Shinji, why do you ask?'

And this is even the Disney version of the original bunny – early concept, Kaworu was going to have to seal himself in slumber, with the animals left behind to comfort Shinji. In this version, don't worry, he's just getting his greatest wish granted – to sleep next to Shinji.