Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights go to their respective owners. Also, all OCs are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.

SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd Try " by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should stop right here and check that out first.

After a full and hard day scavenging for supplies, Shinji returns home for some downtime and a shave.

"Shaving"

"Oh God finally," Shinji said as he let out a huge sigh of relief as he drove the pickup truck in the driveway of his home.

After having done another one of their routines of scavenging for supplies in the ruins of Tokyo 3, Shinji had been met with a bit of bad luck when one of the big buildings that had been heavily damaged during the impact had finally decided to collapse just as he was about to head home. The huge rubble unfortunately had blocked his normal way home and he had been forced to take a longer route.

It was already dark as the sun had set a few hours ago and Shinji sighed as he knew that Asuka would be mad and worried about where he had been all this time. And like he predicted, as soon as he entered the front door to his home while carrying in his "shopping" he was met with Asuka, her face stern and both hands on her hips.

"There you are, Baka!" Asuka angrily said though Shinji could tell that she had also been worried about him. "Just where have you been all this time? You were meant to be back hours ago." Asuka said as she finally let go of her stern expression and went to hug Shinji close to her which he returned.

"I know, I'm sorry but I had to make a very long detour as one of the tall buildings collapsed which blocked the usual way home," Shinji explained.

Before Asuka could further inquire, both adults heard the sound of light footsteps, before Aki appeared in the hallway in her nightgown and Kiko in her arms.

"Papa!" Aki cried happily as she saw her father. Speeding towards him, Shinji didn't hesitate to pick her up and hold her close after separating his embrace with Asuka.

"Hey my little angel, what are you doing still up?" Shinji asked, knowing it was way past her bedtime.

Aki just hugged him tightly, keeping her head down close to his chest. "You didn't come home and me and Mama were worried," Aki whispered but still audible for him to hear.

Shinji sighed as he made not only Asuka but his daughter worried about him too. Shinji gently started rubbing Aki's back to comfort his daughter. "Hey, it's ok honey I'm all right. I just had to make a very long detour, that's all."

When Aki still held him tightly Shinji decided to cheer her up. He pulled Aki a bit further away with his hands and held her up higher, which confused his daughter for a second. "And look at you, did you put on your nightgown all by yourself tonight?" Shinji teased knowing full well that Aki would never wear her nightgown unless either he or Asuka made her wear it, otherwise Aki would just fall asleep in her usual baggy clothes.

Aki giggled slightly at his teasing. "Nooo. Mama put it on me."

"Oh yeah, did you also take a bath by yourself today?" Shinji continued with this game.

Before Aki could reply Shinji pulled his daughter towards him and she instinctively hugged his neck but this allowed Shinji to give a big sniff at her neck, breathing in her scent which Shinji was thankful was the smell of fresh bath soap.

This action made Aki start giggling and laughing as her father's sniffing was tickling her as well as his bearded facial hair. "Papa, stop stop it tickles, it tickles!"

Shinji smirked at this. "Oh yeah, does this tickle too?" He started rubbing his bearded face onto Aki, making her giggle and laugh more.

"Yes! It's so itchy Papa!" Aki said as she tried using her small hands to push her father's face away from hers. Shinji finally let up and pulled slightly away to look at her. The girl's giggling faded to a broad smile.

"Ok, ok that's enough fun you two. It's time for you, Schätzchen, to get back to bed," Asuka said as she gently grabbed and pulled Aki from Shinji's grasp.

"Ooh, but Mama, I'm not (yawn)…tired," Aki tried to argue to stay up a bit more but she was very tired.

"Ah huh, nice try, junges Fräulein. Come on, I'll tuck you in again and in the morning you can see and play with Papa all day tomorrow ok," Asuka firmly told her daughter who looked like she was about to fall asleep as soon as she was manoeuvred and rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

"Ok," Aki grumbled although weakly due to her being very tired.

"Goodnight honey," Shinji said as he gently stroked Aki's head, he smiled when his daughter weakly raised her arm to touch where his hand was currently, possibly to return the gesture or being stubborn and not wanting him to touch her hair again. "Sweet dreams."

"…night Papa," Aki whispered weakly as she finally lost the fight to stay awake.

Shinji shared a serene look with Asuka which Asuka broke first, looking down at their daughter while also slowly and gently rubbing the girl's back and turning towards Aki's room to put her back to bed.

Turning back towards the front door Shinji picked up again his "shopping", taking it to the kitchen where he began sorting out and packing away stuff in the cupboards.

After sorting the foodstuff, Shinji only had the toiletries left to put away. Upon walking into the bathroom and putting away what was left, Shinji saw his reflection in the mirror. Looking at his face closely as he approached the glass he did see that he indeed had more than just a stubble. Running his hand along it, it felt weird to him to have facial hair. For the longest time he's always had a smooth face. Even when he had reached puberty at thirteen he never had shown signs of facial hair. Even after the Angel war and third impact, he didn't grow any hair until after he and Asuka finally got together romantically.

Shinji took a step back from the mirror and gave himself a good look once again. Normally he would shave off the growing beard with a razor blade but unfortunately for a few weeks he'd been unsuccessful in finding any in the ruins of the city, but now looking at it maybe it would be better to let it…

"I seriously hope you're not thinking along the lines of keeping that beard, Baka!"

Shinji jumped slightly as he quickly turned his head around and saw Asuka leaning against the bathroom entrance with her arms crossed while giving him "the look".

"Err…well kinda…maybe," Shinji weakly said. Honestly, it scared him how Asuka was able to easily read his mind sometimes.

He saw Asuka sigh. "Baka, seriously is this a mid-twenties phase you're going through? This is just like the time you secretly tried to let your hair grow out so you could have the ponytail look like Kaji, which I pointed out the many reasons it would look terrible on you!"

Shinji chuckled slightly at that. Yeah, he remembered the time he had tried to grow out his hair in an attempt to have the ponytail look. He thought at the time that it would look good on him to have tried it. Kaji, who had been more like a father figure to him than his actual father, pulled off the look. And given Asuka's crush on the man, Shinji genuinely thought that his wife would have liked it. Turned out that Asuka was so against it that when he had finally told her why he was letting his hair out, she had scolded him and forcibly sat him down to cut his hair.

"And now you're trying to grow out your beard like your father?" Asuka continued before she unfolded her arms walked over to him and took hold of his face gently with her hands. "Baka, I married you for you, not Kaji and not your father!"

Shinji smiled at her for those words and was forever thankful that he had found happiness with Asuka even after everything that they'd been through.

Just as Shinji was leaning in to give her a loving kiss, Asuka promptly stopped him blocking his lips with her hand. Shinji looked at Asuka confused about why she stopped him but was met with an amused smirk.

"Baka, kiss me after I shave that beard off for you," Asuka said as she removed the hand from his lips and took his hand before guiding him out of the bathroom.

"But we don't have any razor blades?" Shinji explained as they reached the kitchen, where Asuka let go of his hand and began searching through the drawers, apparently looking for something.

"We can use this for the job," Asuka found what she was searching for, which Shinji saw was a cut-throat razor.

Needless to say seeing the object made Shinji nervous, which Asuka immediately saw. "Oh come on, don't be such a wuss. I'm not gonna slit your throat like a mass murderer, plus you've seen my skills with knives before."

"But those were with the Eva's progressive knife and your Eva's was shaped like a box-cutter," Shinji pointed out honestly. He tried not to doubt her abilities but he also clearly remembered the time when Asuka had tried cooking for him and had seen the state of her hands covered in cuts.

Asuka sighed at his excuse. "Shinji, do you trust me?" she asked honestly.

"Always," Shinji replied without hesitation.

"Then trust me. I got this so go grab a chair and bring it to the bathroom and get ready, ok?" Asuka said as she walked out of the kitchen to get something else.

Doing as instructed Shinji got one of the kitchen chairs and brought it to the bathroom, placing it in front of their mirror before sitting down on it. It wasn't long before Asuka came in and he saw she was carrying a white cloth which Shinji guessed was going to be used as a cover for him.

"Well then sir, how would you like it cut today," Asuka acted out like she was the owner of a proper barber shop earning a chuckle from Shinji.

"Just a clean shave, please, madam," Shinji played along with the act, which made Asuka chuckle as she wrapped the white cloth around his neck.

The two fell into a nice silence soon after Asuka applied the shaving cream onto his face and began to work on it with the cut-throat razor. Admittedly Shinji was still wary of the blade going across his face but his fears died down when Asuka was very precise and careful working on his face.

It was so peaceful that Shinji almost started to fall asleep with how gentle Asuka was, but he immediately was wide awake when his wife suddenly moved in front of him and sat on his lap facing him. With the way she was also leaning slightly down, she gave him a clear view down her t-shirt, showing him a pretty good view of her white bra.

"You know I can feel those eyes looking down my top, Baka," Asuka said as she broke the silence without even stopping shaving his upper lip. Like always she managed to know exactly when he seemed to ogle her in a pervert way. "Behave pervert Shinji or I will cut you for real," Asuka jokingly threatened.

"Oh really, I'm the pervert?" Shinji questioned.

"Of course you are. After all who was the one who jerked off to me…" Asuka trailed off as she realised what she was about to say and finish.

She knew what Shinji did back then in that hospital room while she was in a coma wasn't his greatest moment in his life and still felt greatly ashamed to this day for having done something so disgusting and violating towards her. While it didn't bother her as much anymore, she knew that it was still a sensitive topic to bring up for him.

"Shinji…I'm so.."

"A-huh what about the time you decided to "wake me up" that one time," Shinji countered which greatly surprised her. She expected the normal reaction of him apologising to her for that deed like usual and being gloomy for the rest of the night, not expecting him to bring "that" up.

"HEY! That doesn't count, we were together at that point, plus it's not like you didn't enjoy it, pervert," Asuka defended herself as she clearly remembered what she did that one time to wake her lover up.

"Yeah, but I was still asleep and exhausted, especially since I recall that the night before we did it many times yet you were the one who wanted to do it more," Shinji said, somewhat enjoying how he was getting Asuka flustered.

"But..but" Asuka tried to explain herself but Shinji continued.

"Also what about that time you dragged me to that particular clothing store, where you made me watch you trying on all that raunchy stuff, essentially giving me a strip tease," Shinji continued, bringing another fond but very embarrassing memory for Asuka.

"Err…well, I..." Asuka was at a loss for what to say nor could she counter with anything, as her brain tried to come up with any sort of retort.

"And who was the one that found that kama sutra book and wanted to try every single position," Shinji continued even further, now openly smirking that he had won this argument on who was the biggest pervert between them. A smirk that royally angered Asuka to no end.

"I..am..not..a..pervert!" Asuka punctuated for emphasis she finally dropped the razor on the floor and placed both her hands firmly on Shinji's shoulders while looking at him dead in the eyes with a glare. Her grip increased with every passing second.

Slightly fearing that he may have pushed his luck, Shinji still bravely kept going.

"Yes, you are."

"No am not Baka!"

"Yes you are, honey," Shinji said as he gave Asuka a quick peck on the lips which seemed to not only calm the redhead down greatly but also ended the back and forth between them. Now the both of them looked into each other's eyes before they leaned into each other for a kiss which evolved to them making out.

"This isn't over…Baka…you're…still the…biggest…pervert," Asuka said between each of their kisses, her hands going under the blanket and Shinji's shirt, feeling his chest.

"Then why…don't…we prove who…is right…now," Shinji said, challenging his wife, one of his hands sneaking between her bottom to grip her panty-clad rear, knowing full well that she couldn't resist proving herself right.

"Your...," Asuka tried to finish but the sound of the bathroom door opening made both her and Shinji freeze on the spot. Turning their heads they both saw Aki in her nightgown, holding Kiko with one arm while rubbing her eyes.

Seeing her daughter, Asuka quickly got off her husband's lap like she had been burned, while Shinji also got up from the chair. "Oh hey, Schätzchen. What are you doing up?" she asked her daughter, her voice a bit breathless and shaky as she felt a mixture of embarrassment to worry that Aki might have overheard the two of them.

"I needed to go potty, Mama," Aki tiredly said as her eyes squinted due to being exposed to an open bathroom light.

"Oh ok, Schätzchen. Me and Papa are done with the bathroom anyway so you go ahead and I'll wait for you outside and I'll tuck you in again, ok?" Asuka told Aki, while Shinji sighed as he picked up the chair to place it back in the kitchen.

"Ok Mama," Aki said as she yawned while proceeding to go into the bathroom to do her business as Asuka closed the door behind her. Seeing Shinji coming back with a dejected look, Asuka quickly grabbed his face before kissing him firmly. Lost in it for a moment both of them separated, Asuka moved her face to Shinji's ear.

"This isn't over, pervert Shinji," Asuka whispered in his ear, knowing that once she put Aki back into her bed she was going to prove once and for all that she wasn't the only huge pervert in this relationship.

End.