This was my first attempt at writing a happy oneshot to round out this collection for Literary Eagle. It didn't go where I wanted it to go, so I wrote her something else, but it did end up with some cute scenes in it so I've decided to go ahead, add a little more and publish it for you.
I really should write something with how a recently translated section of the All About Kaworu Nagisa: A Child of the Evangelion book said that manga Kaworu was nine days old when he died, had that little time to experience the world his anime version loved, but here's this instead.
The men in suits didn't respond to his hello or tentative attempt at a smile. When Shinji turned around, his father was already gone.
The men don't respond when he asked where they were going. Or when he cried, either.
He cried himself to sleep on the plane.
When they got there, people took his clothes off and thoroughly scrubbed him, talking at each other over his head. He was pushed into a room of big black rectangles without being given more clothes first.
The distorted voices were scary and not having any clothes was weird. They asked him who he was, and then talked over his head in a language he didn't understand while he shivered there in the cold of the dark, air-conditioned room, arms wrapped around himself in a futile attempt to stay warm. He recognized his mother's name, and his father's, and the phrase 'Third Child' was repeated enough times that it seemed vaguely familiar when he heard it from the scientists later. It wasn't until much later that he found out what it meant.
He was still desperately tired, and cranky, when he was pulled into another room. One with a big tube, with a pale boy his own age floating in it.
Shinji blinked at it, because maybe it wasn't weird not to wear clothes here? Wherever he was. Wherever the people his father gave him to had taken him.
That was when red eyes blinked open, looking at him curiously.
"First impressions?" the other boy was asked (Shinji was still ignored, but he'd decided that it was better to be ignored by the people here) when the weird red-orange stuff drained out of the tube and he walked out.
"It's my size," the boy said, curious. Staring at Shinji, he wondered, "Is this the socialization test subject?"
"Yes," he was told as he stared at Shinji.
"And I can keep it?"
"As long as you don't damage it."
The other boy nodded, not even bothering to look at the man. Head cocked to the side, he looked at Shinji as though he was trying to memorize every detail of him.
"Um, my name is Shinji," Shinji said in a small voice, blushing.
"Shinji Ikari, the Third Child."
The other boy frowned. "Is it okay to use names?"
"In this situation, you should introduce yourself," he was told.
"My name is Kaworu Nagisa," he said, sounding out the syllables as though the name itself was new to him, even if not as new and fascinating as Shinji. "Shin-ji-i-ka-ri," he said, just like his own name. "You're the socialization test subject, but that takes a long time to say too. One of them said you were going to be my pet. That sounds better." Shorter. He turned his silver head to look up at the escort now. "I can really touch him and I won't have to go back in the tube?"
"As long as you don't seriously damage him. If he's injured, he'll be removed long enough to heal," the man said, frowning down at the strange boy, who had already turned away from him and was walking over to Shinji.
"I know, Lilim are fragile," he said, a little sing-song, as though he was reciting a lesson.
His hand came down on the top of Shinji's head.
Shinji flinched, and the hand withdrew.
"I didn't hurt you already, did I?"
Shinji shook his head, curling in his shoulders and shivering, only mostly from the chill air.
"Oh, it's just scared," the other boy realized, and touched Shinji's head again, on the cheek this time. "It's squishy."
"He. He is just scared," the man corrected him. He didn't comment on the squishy.
"But aren't test subjects it?" the boy said almost cheerfully, although that was mostly because he was occupied with poking at Shinji. "To avoid getting attached to the subjects."
"Yes, but in normal social contexts, 'he' is appropriate."
The boy nodded, clearly not really paying attention. "You don't have to be scared, pet. I'm not going to break you. I'd have to go back in the tube then. We're supposed to play," that word was spoken with the same excitement as 'cake' or 'amusement park' or some other special treat, "and I'll be able to talk to you as much as I want, but only if I don't break you. They think I'll get bored because you're just a Lilim, but it's really boring in the tube, and all the other Lilim are boring. But you're my size, and I can touch you as much as I want!"
Shinji couldn't help yawning, and then he felt a little scared, seeing the boy's frown. "You think I'm boring?"
"I believe the subject is tired," the man said.
Red eyes blinked at him, before finally realizing, "Ooooh. Get it some coffee-get him some coffee, then."
Seeing that the other boy wasn't mad at him, Shinji was relieved enough to lean against him when pale arms wrapped around him. His skin was cool, but his body was a little warmer than the cold air and Shinji was tired and wanted to be held.
"Small children aren't supposed to be given coffee. Sleep is called for."
"Sleep? But he just got here-sleep on the bed?" There was that animated tone of voice again, as though 'bed' was one of those new and exciting things like amusement parks and ice cream.
"…Yes."
That was when Shinji found himself being dragged bodily through the halls. The other boy was very strong, almost as strong as a grown-up, and it occurred to Shinji that if he stopped stumbling along behind him… Yes, he was picked up.
It was less nice to be thrown into a bed, and while normally Shinji liked jumping on beds (when his parents weren't there to scold him), he discovered that he liked it less when someone else started jumping on the bed when he wanted to sleep.
So he started bawling, and Kaworu stopped bouncing and instead started touching him again and asking if he'd broken him, making worried noises. The adult was no help (adults never were now, Shinji soon learned), so Shinji had to get under the covers by himself and make Kaworu get under them too since he didn't know how either. It made him wriggle, but at least he wasn't bouncing anymore.
He was warm when he wrapped around Shinji to make sure that no one took his pet away in the night, and also because it seemed to make Shinji feel a little better, enough that his sobs were quieter and he pressed his face to Kaworu's chest.
No one had really held him since his mother had died, even if Kaworu didn't know anything about holding people or tucking them in or reading bedtime stories, even after the person who came when Kaworu called told him that this was crying, not leaking, and no, he hadn't broken his new pet Lilim already.
"It has already become clear that the boy is useless as leverage on Gendo Ikari." Holding his son hostage hadn't made the man start treating the committee with the respect it deserved. At all.
"Perhaps, but he has already shown his value as leverage on Tabris."
"Have we been reading the same reports? It was a mistake to allow him this much exposure to outside influence. He appears to have developed a taste for it." For the illusion of freedom. For the world outside the life support module where he was normally kept.
"Inevitable. Childish minds are easily enthralled by novelty. This was done in accordance with the prophecies." That the last angel would look upon this particular son of man, and find him fair. "Tabris is a nephilim himself, combining the Fruit of Life and the Fruit of Wisdom. As much as some of us wished to maintain him in a state of grace, keep him innocent of such things as the clothing we Lilim must wear to hide our shame and control our lusts, simply using our DNA to create him means that he carries our original sin. His AT field rendered him invulnerable, despite our ongoing effort to keep him from realizing this. The Ikari boy is a mere Lilim." Vulnerable. It would be easy to have him killed. All they needed to do was make sure that the angel would care about threats to him, and the angel of free will would become their tame angel in truth.
No member of SEELE needed that spelled out for them. They were familiar with such tactics.
Humming and several smells, chief among them coffee came from Misato's kitchen. Since she took in the Third Child, an actual breakfast had become part of the morning routine somehow. Probably because of how the nose was hooked into the hindbrain.
A young man in her kitchen, cooking up Western breakfast foods including these addictive sausages made with chicken and apple.
A pretty handsome young man wearing nothing but an apron, on the grounds that he didn't want anything splattering on his clean clothes.
She'd heard of nudist colonies, but when he came to her squawking about her penguin, she'd expected more of a reaction when he realized he was naked. Something more than a pause of a few seconds while he tried to figure out what she was pointing at him for, followed by a mutter of, "Right, clothes," before he headed back into the bathroom.
"I'm not eating." He frowned at them, kicking the back of the chair. "I want Shinji's cooking."
"This isn't from the facility's cafeteria, we ordered-"
"I don't care. I'm not eating anything but Shinji's cooking." So there. The angel's eyes narrowed, pulling up his legs under him as he sat on the table, pale skin seeming to glow in the room's artificial light. An intimidating sight because the angel could indeed glow with its own light, its own power, and that happened when it called its power to the surface. When it was angry. "I don't have to eat, so what do you care if I eat anyway? Bring back Shinji, or let me go to where he is."
For now, it was only annoyed, a childish pout on its face after they'd succeeded in placating it with a letter from the Third Child. At first they'd thought it was ridiculous that the other subject was writing every day – did he really think those letters would be allowed to go through, even if sensitive material was avoided? – but they had become indispensable quickly.
Moodiness was characteristic of teenagers, and this teenager was an angel. On top of that, it contained the spirit of the angel that had nearly destroyed the planet. It wasn't that they had forgotten that, but it had been excitable, but placid. Contained. Shinji Ikari had kept it pleased and under control, or so it seemed in hindsight. At the time, they'd thought demands for excursions to beaches and water parks were irrational, unreasonable and dangerous, but compared to what Tabris demanded in Shinji's absence? "The Third Child is in Tokyo-3." They'd known this would happen. For five years now, after the Committee decided how much the two of them would be told. "It isn't your time to go there yet."
"Then bring him back. Send the Second Child for now. She's better than him in the simulations, right? It only makes sense. Bring back my Shinji, or let me go to him. If he gets hurt…" If the only Lilim this angel cared a fig for was harmed while these meaningless mortals barred his path to his side…
"Shinji?"
"Yes, Misato?"
"Why is there a kitten on your head?"
"This cute little thing reminded me of Kaworu," Shinji said, smiling in a way that made her think that he was a cute little thing himself.
"Oh, your friend from," the nudist colony, "back in Germany?"
Shinji nodded. "We've been together since my father ditched me and I was brought there for training. I hope he's not… Well, I hope he's only causing trouble for the people who deserve it."
"Well," an animal might help the pilot's morale, and it wasn't like having another pet around the place would be a bad thing. "Bring him to Ritsuko for a check-up tomorrow when you go in for testing."
"Her," Shinji corrected her. "I'm going to call her Kaoru."
"What the hell are you doing here, Dead Last?" their new pilot demanded again, hands on her hips. "At least sending my rival instead of me would have made some sense, but how could they send you? It's ridiculous!"
"They wanted Kaworu to stay so they could use his data for the Mass Production Evas," Shinji said, looking a little dejected.
"And that's another thing! My Eva is the first in the production series, the first finalized model, so why are they using him for that instead of me and Unit 02? Using the Dead Last to fight the angels alongside the pervert commander's doll… It's nepotism, that's what it is! Keeping the best pilot back in Germany, twiddling…" her thumbs while the angel attacked?
"I wish Kaworu was here too."
Oho, Misato thought, smiling. Looked like there was a difference of opinion as to who the best pilot was among NERV Germany's three candidates. Yet if neither of these two thought Shinji was in the running, then why was the Third Child called ahead of the Second? For the first real combat trial of the Eva?
Her expression turned dark. Had the Commander wanted someone disposable to stick in the one operational Eva they had on-site? He'd just thrown Shinji out there without any time to familiarize himself with Unit 01: Yes, it was him or Rei, but had he planned for Shinji to die so the Japanese government would be willing to let NERV break out the N2 mines to buy time for the Second Child's Eva to arrive?
Either way, it wasn't like Gendo would have shed many tears if his son died, and if one of the four main pilot candidates had to die in order to buy time for humanity's survival, wasn't it best to send out the least competent?
"Well, he isn't! The Great Asuka Langley Sohryu has arrived, so pack your crap up and go back to your boyfriend, Dead Last!"
…Wait. Boyfriend? Really? It wasn't like there hadn't been signs, but Misato's time in the UN military had taught her to avoid thinking in those terms: when people were packed in close quarters and started to forget what it was like to have privacy, it was nice to think that no one was looking, or would care if they saw anything. It wasn't just his obliviousness to her attractiveness, or how he'd forget his other clothing but still wear a (frilly, joke) apron while cooking, or how he kept wondering if Kaworu was alright. It certainly wasn't that looking at his face made her think of a girl's (…she wasn't sure why, but something about him seemed so very familiar, as though she should know this face), because that would be stereotypical.
"I wish," Shinji said. "But they won't even let me get authorization to leave the country again. You talk to them, Asuka."
"Damn right I will!"
"Misato!" Shinji called happily, voice echoing in NERV's corriders.
When she turned to see him pulling along a white-haired boy from the hand, she said "Let me guess: this is Kaworu?" She couldn't think of anyone else Shinji would be so happy to see. Happy enough to have forgotten what happened to Touji. She just hoped it lasted.
Shinji nodded. "Kaworu, this is Misato. I found him in the ruins: they dropped him off in Tokyo-3 and he got lost and already found a piano." This, apparently, was typical Kaworu.
The boy's scowl was a sharp contrast to Shinji's wide smile: he tugged on Shinji's arm, wanting his friend to come away from the stranger and pay attention to him. "Why couldn't we stay with the piano? I missed you, Shinji," he complained.
Shinji turned to nuzzle Kaworu's cheek, the pale boy returning the gesture, and Misato could almost mistake it for the European custom of kissing friends' cheeks as a greeting except there weren't any kissing noises and the contact went on too long, as Shinji wrapped his arms around Kaworu. "She's not like them: she's different. Otherwise I wouldn't have wanted you to meet her."
"If you say so, Shinji," Kaworu said, looking at her doubtfully. "I know you're supposed to help me be socialized, but I want to spend time with you."
He frowned at Misato, red eyes confused and curious over the frown, and Misato realized that he was feeling jealous. And that he didn't recognize the feeling as jealousy.
Ah, young love. Glad she was past that.
Even though part of him clearly wanted to pick a fight with her over Shinji, he instead pulled closer to Shinji, just happy to see his friend again. They didn't stop snuggling until they were brought to the command chamber, where Kaworu bickered with Asuka, a long-standing friendly rivalry, as Rei dispatched the angel with the lance after some initial difficulty. Asuka didn't even need to be deployed, although there were some moments where Misato was worried for Rei.
"They're always like that," Asuka told Misato authoritatively as she put her plate in the sink after dinner, Shinji and Kaworu cuddled on a chair. "Just disgustingly sweet. Pretty and brainless. I hear Kaworu was refusing to eat and just wasting away without Shinji." Pathetic, Asuka said with a sniff. She certainly didn't find it romantic, not at all. Nor did she want something like that for herself.
"Always?" Misato asked her.
"Since we started training together. They were just little kids then," Asuka said, ignoring that Kaworu was older than she was. From his birthdate. His suspicious birthdate.
Hard to think he was an angel when Shinji was so happy with him. If he'd been under observation for years? Observation by SEELE. Asuka and Shinji should be able to tell what was and was not an angel by now, or recognize signs of inhumanity? They were used to Kaworu's quirks and had trusted him for years. They'd been friends for years, and it was clear that Kaworu had really missed Shinji.
So maybe that was why she helped when Shinji ran to her, dragging Kaworu behind him, and told her in panicked tones that SEELE had just ordered Kaworu to go trigger Third Impact or they'd kill him themselves. Maybe it was just that she'd lost Kaji, and she didn't want to see grief like that on Shinji's face. Not after Touji.