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" and its sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So, If you haven't read that then you should stop right here and check those out first before continuing.
Summary:
For a weekend day out the Ikari family, along with Rei, Misato and Kaji visit the newly opened Tokyo 3 museum.
"Trip to the Museum"
"Well, here we are kids, the very first and newly opened Tokyo 3 museum," Kaji said to everyone, which consisted of the three members of the Ikari family, Rei, as well as him and Misato as they stood at the entrance to the said museum.
"Oooh," Aki said as she stared at the front of the museum in wonder.
"Yippee," Misato voiced in a fake enjoyment. She was less than thrilled to come here, especially in her current physical condition. "Seriously, I hope this place is worth the trip here, it's hot as hell and my feet are already killing me," Misato finished complaining. The purple-haired haired woman was still halfway to term with her pregnancy and her hormones were in full swing.
"Well, let's get inside, shall we?" Asuka asked, knowing full well what Misato was going through at the moment and also seeing her daughter's barely contained excitement at wanting to see this museum she'd been hearing so much about.
"Yay! Let's go, come on come on!" Aki said excitedly as she ran toward the entrance, pulling Rei along by the hand.
"Remind me again why we're at a museum instead of going to…I don't know anywhere special or fun like another funfair, pool party or even a day at the park under the cherry blossom trees?" Misato complained as Aki and Rei were out of earshot.
"Well, both Rei and Aki wanted to come here," Shinji weakly apologized as they slowly walked up the stairs to the museum's front entrance where Aki and Rei were waiting.
It was true that coming to the newly opened Tokyo 3 museum was the last thing many of the group thought of going to for a fun day out. When asking Aki what she would like to do and giving her a choice the little girl surprised everyone instead by asking her friend Rei what she would like to do.
To everyone's surprise, Rei had suggested going to this newly built museum and after explaining to Aki what exactly a museum was, it all but convinced the brown hair girl to go to this special place.
"Well look at this way honey, at least we don't have to pay to get in this place," Kaji said as he pointed to the sign at the entrance which had the words "Grand Opening, all exhibits are free".
"Just because it's free doesn't mean it gonna be good…and also don't call me honey. Where not married yet you jerk," Misato exclaimed a bit loudly as she turned her face away from her lover in embarrassment.
"Yes, dear I know," Kaji teased his pregnant lover further which resulted in Misato jabbing him in the side. He knew that Misato was eventually going to cave in on accepting his marriage proposal, knowing that it was a matter of when. He even had a plan worked out for him to properly ask Misato again after asking for some advice from Shinji and Asuka. He just hoped that it was enough to satisfy Misato when the time came.
After a short wait in line, the gang entered the museum and were generally surprised by the grand scale of the architecture of the place.
"Wow I knew this was all new, but I didn't expect Tokyo 3 to invest in something like this," Shinji said as he grabbed a few tour guide maps of the museum before handing them out.
"Guess since the city is no longer a fortress battleground for giant monsters, the leftover defence budget is going to fancy place like this now," Kaji replied.
Just as the gang was about to head into the main hall, they all heard a deep gasp, followed by a squeal coming from Aki. Before anyone could ask the little girl what was wrong, she dashed towards what looked like a small shop on the side, only stopping at the window.
"Mama! Papa! Look they have a toy shop here! And they have plushies too!" Aki cried out in happiness as she looked from the window and saw the mentioned plushies of different creatures on display.
Everyone chuckled as they walked over to where Aki was. Asuka and Shinji saw the little sparkle in Aki's eye and knew that their daughter already wanted something inside.
"Aki, honey this isn't exactly a toy shop, it's a gift shop," Shinji explained.
"A gift shop?" Aki tilted her head in a bit of confusion before her face lighted up. "Does that mean I can take anything I want!"
"No Aki, that's not it. A gift shop is just a store you visit after you look at everything in the museum at the end and you still have to pay for things too," Shinji explained, hoping to avoid a misunderstanding and future incident of Aki just grabbing anything without paying for it.
"Aww, but I want them," Aki groaned out before pointing at the shop as well as giving him the puppy dog-eyed look to make him cave into buying her something. He sighed before ushering Aki along. "Will see the gift shop later after we've toured the museum first, ok?"
Aki pouted but didn't resist as she and everyone else eventually walked into the main doors. Upon entering Aki's eyes widened at the site of the two giant skeletons of a T-Rex and a Alamosaurus facing each other from either side of the room.
"Wow! What are those!?" Aki shouted as she quickly ran over the two giant skeletons, stopping at the barrier and looking up at them in wonder.
"Those are dinosaurs, honey," Shinji stated as he too looked up at the skeletons in wonder, having never seen something like this up close other than what he had seen on TV or in books.
"Ehhh! These are dinosaurs!?" Aki stared in disbelief before looking back at her parents. "They don't look anything like in my storybooks!"
Shinji and Asuka laughed, with Misato and Kaji chuckling. It was true that the only dinosaurs Aki had ever known about were from children's books, which were more cartoonish and didn't depict the creatures for what they were in statue and in size.
"Nein Schätzchen, those were just story books, these are what dinosaurs were actually like," Asuka added.
"Hey, there's a button here," Misato said, seeing the big red button before pressing it.
A second later, the lights from the ceiling shined brightly over the two dinosaur skeletons before, to everyone's surprise and amazement, including many other visitors in the room, a very high-tech holographic projection covered them, showcasing the dinosaurs in a realistic flesh.
This hologram lasted for a minute with no one having said anything, having taken in the spectacular spectacle before the overhead lights turned off once again showing the dinosaurs as bones again.
"Wow…that was totally wicked!" Aki cheered.
"Have to agree on that little lady," Kaji agreed with the young girl's excitement, having enjoyed what he'd seen.
"Wait…hold on how on earth can a museum have this kind of hologram technology when NERV struggled with any type of new equipment?! I gotta speak to Ritsuko about this later," Misato ranted.
Aki looked back at the giant skeletons and tilted her head in confusion. "Hey…why do they look like that now? What happened to the dinos?" Aki asked her questions. Everyone looked at each other wondering how to tell the little one about this since the topic of death and what happens after never came up before.
"It's because they died long ago. Their skeletons are all of what remains," Rei answered plainly which caused the rest of the group to look at her in shock for such a blunt answer.
However, to their surprise, Aki groaned in clear frustration rather than making a fuss or even crying. "Aww, that's not fair. I wanted to pet and ride the big dinos, especially that one," Aki finished while pointing to the T-Rex skeleton.
Aki's declaration caused everyone to laugh at the absurdity of it. The very mental image of Aki riding a giant prehistoric dinosaur like a horse was just too funny.
Seeing everyone laugh, Aki looked at everyone strangely, wondering what was so funny. "Hey, what's so funny?" Aki asked while a frown was present on her face.
Rather than answer the little one, everyone agreed to move forward with the tour from which Aki learned more about the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures that lived millions of years ago. A few things interested the girl more during this part. One was upon learning that it was an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, making her once again groan out in displeasure at there being no dinosaurs anymore. The second part was learning that there were a bunch of other prehistoric animals that came after the extinction of the dinosaurs such as the woolly mammoth, which Aki laughed at as she called them hairy elephants and then squealed in delight after seeing a life-sized model of a big sabre-tooth tiger, which again Aki dubbed "big teeth kitty".
After that, the gang continued to the exhibit where upon entering the next room, they saw a statue of Michelangelo's David…who was very much naked.
"Mama, Papa look! That man is naked," Aki stated making a few people uncomfortable.
"Err maybe we should skip this and keep moving cause…" Kaji whispered to everyone, believing that such a sight was inappropriate for a child as young as Aki to see.
"This reminds me of times when I, Mama and Papa had naked days," Aki happily blurted out which made Asuka and Shinji flinch before Shinji quickly covered his daughter's mouth with his hand in an attempt to have her not say anything more but unfortunately the damage was already done.
Asuka and Shinji slowly turned to the others, their faces red from embarrassment, and it further deepened when they saw the grinning face of their former guardian while Kaji looked away but still had a smirk on his face. Rei just stared stoically, as usual, either not understanding or caring about the Ikari family's exposed little secret.
"Well, well guys, I didn't know you were all secret exhibitionists," Misato chuckled while looking like a grinning cat that had just eaten a canary from having learned another secret.
"Hey! For your information it was really hot back then and we didn't have access to constant electricity for fans and air conditioning you know," Asuka tried explaining but Misato could see on the redhead's embarrassing blush on her face that it wasn't all of the truth.
"Oh, are you sure you and Shinji didn't just become full-blown exhibitionists because you two were having so much "fun" alone together," Misato continued and laughed at seeing Asuka and Shinji squirm which confirmed her claims.
"What's an exhibion?" Aki asked innocently as she tried saying the unfamiliar word after removing her father's hand away from her mouth, a bit confused at the conversation and why her Mama and Papa were acting weird.
"Nothing nothing, Schätzchen, let's keep moving she'll we," Asuka hastily tried to move away from this situation but with a quick side glance/glare at a still grinning Misato, Asuka knew that the purple-haired woman would be teasing them about this and never let this down.
After seeing a bunch of other statues, the gang moved to the next exhibit, which was the Japanese history and culture which showcased the country's history.
As they walked around, they all took in many of the old paintings, pottery, armour, samurai swords and other ancient weapons.
"Mama, Mama! Come here quick!" Aki called out as she looked at what seemed to be a timeline display showing the different periods of Japan's history.
"What is it Schätzchen?" Asuka asked as she along with Shinji, Misato and Kaji walked to where Aki and Rei were.
"Rei says this says 'Asuka Period'," Aki said as she pointed at the display which under her finger clearly shows the name Asuka. "That's your name, isn't it, Mama?"
"Oh yeah, it is," Asuka a bit surprised that there was a Japanese period that shared her name.
"Did this mean you that you ruled Japan, Mama?" Aki looked at her mother with a bit of surprise and awe which earned a few chuckles from everyone.
"No, no Schätzchen it's just the name of that time and this was long before I was even born," Asuka told her daughter much to Aki's disappointment. "Although if I was alive then I would have been the greatest ruler of all of Japan," Asuka finished with a bit of her old confidence.
"You sure about that, Asuka? Because I get the feeling that if you were the ruler of Japan then you would be a tyrannical dictator that the masses would try to overthrow in a week," Misato snickered which earned a mighty glare from the redhead.
"Err let's move on, shall we?" Shinji said hoping to prevent the two women from arguing/fighting any further and in a public place.
As the gang moved along, they entered the space/planetarium exhibit, a large circular room that was dark and had many lights and had large models of the Sun and planets hanging in the centre of the room by wire. Many also noticed that the sun and planets models were also moving in the correct sequence.
"Wow, what is this place?!" Aki asked in wonder. Her eyes sparkled as she looked around the room.
"This is the space exhibit little lady," Kaji answered and then pointed to the sun and planets in the centre of the room. "This whole place is a visible showcase of what our solar system looks like. You see that small blue and green ball over there, the third one from the big sun, that's Earth where we live now."
Aki looked at the small blue and green sphere, that was slowly rotating around the big sun and back at Kaji, then looked at everyone else for confirmation, which she got as everyone else nodded. "Really?!"
Kaji nodded, while everyone else laughed at Aki's disbelief look.
"Ehh, that can't be! How come we don't live on those big ones or the one with the rings or even the cool red planet over there," Aki complained as she lastly pointed her finger to Mars.
After a few minutes of everyone trying to explain to Aki why they couldn't visit other planets much less live on many of them, many of the details greatly confusing and sometimes irritating the four-year-old, they quickly move on to the boards detailing the solar system and the Milky Way.
"Hey, this looks interesting. According to this, it rains diamonds on Neptune," Shinji said as he looked at the details on Neptune.
"It does the same on Uranus, but you don't want to go to this one," Kaji said as he took a look at the details regarding the planet.
"Why not, Mr Kaji?" Aki asked as she moved next to him and Misato.
"Well let's just say that the whole planet smells like farts," Kaji joked to the four-year-old.
"Ehh…does it really?" Aki looked at the older unshaven man, with a grossed-out look on her face.
"Really Kaji. A Uranus joke," Misato gave her lover a disappointed look and she wasn't the only one with Asuka and Shinji also giving the man the same look.
"I know, I know, I just couldn't help myself," the older man knew that the joke was in bad taste.
"Hey, why do the planets have weird names anyway?" Aki asked everyone unexpectedly, making everyone turn to the small girl who was observing the board with all the planets' names again.
"The planets of our solar system were named after the Greek and Roman Gods, as the inner and bigger planets were discovered in ancient times and the tradition was kept for the remaining ones," Rei answered her friend, although her answer seemed to go over Aki's head.
"…Ok…what's a Rooman?" Aki asked.
"Romans were either a bunch of hunky gladiators fighting for entertainment, or they were just a bunch of thinkers wearing nothing, but bath towels all day," Misato voiced out humorously and with a chuckle with everyone else joining in…well except Aki who was even more confused.
"I don't get it, what's so funny about bath towels?" Aki demanded.
x-x-x
"Wow, look at all the paintings! There's so many of them!" Aki's voice echoed as she and everyone else continued walking through the art exhibit of the museum. The halls decorated and displayed many different portraits and paintings from old to new.
"Mama, Papa, Rei, Misato, Mr Kaji, look at that one! And that one!"
Everyone smiled with amusement at seeing the four-year-old girl speed running up to different paintings across the room nearly bumping into other people inside.
"Jeez, she sure seems happy just looking at a bunch of old paintings," Misato said as she and everyone else watched Aki look at different paintings from Japanese ones to non-Japanese paintings on display.
"Hey everyone! Look at this one!" Aki pointed at the painting she was in front of which was a Japanese painting which showed a giant wave engulfing what looked like Mount Fuji.
"Oh yeah, I remember this one," Kaji voiced as he looked at the big painting before his eyes drifted down at the painting name on the plaque. "The Great Wave off Kanagawa, I remember seeing this in the art classes back in college but not to this extent."
"Hey wait a second. I don't recall you doing art back in college?" Misato questioned as she looked at her lover.
"It was before we met and hooked up. I did a few classes just for the experience and in the end, it didn't suit me," Kaji explained.
"Experience…yeah right, bet you were there checking out the girls who were always doing those nude portraits, especially…oh what was her name again…Oh, Sunomiya-san. I remember one festival where she went too far and did that painting of herself full-on naked which got the disciplinary committee to come in to confiscate it due to everyone gawking at it and Sunomiya protested that her art was an expression of artistic right."
Kaji laughed which got Misato joining in. Yeah, they both remembered that time clearly. The whole college or more accurately all of the boys of the college cried out in protest along with Sunomiya to have the portrait back on display, but it was overruled by not only the college dean but all of the girls who protested to have it removed. Needless to say, there were a lot of college couple breakups after that.
"Hey! Look at this one!" Aki's voice made the two older couples turn to see the little girl at another painting which they saw was a person who looked like they were screaming.
"Hehe this one is funny," Aki chuckled as she observed the painting before her.
"Funny…I think it's kinda creepy, to be honest," Shinji muttered as she looked at the painting alongside Asuka.
"What is the man screaming at Papa?" Aki looked up at her father, hoping for an answer.
"Err I'm not sure honey. I don't think anyone knows the answer, except for the artist who created this and he is long gone."
"Aww," Aki pouted.
"Well, in my personal opinion is that the guy is screaming at the prices of food at the pier," Kaji joked which succeeded in making Aki laugh.
The gang moved on to the next painting which showed a picture of a woman.
"Ooh she's so pretty," Aki commented as she stared at the painting.
"Oh everyone knows this one, the great Mona Lisa done by the great Leonardo da Vinci," Misato added as she and everyone stared at the picture.
"Wait, who is Leonbared be vini?" Aki questioned as she tried repeating the strange name.
"Just some famous old guy who liked to paint and design strange things back in the day," Kaji answered the girl simply to avoid a long explanation.
It seemed to work as Aki accepted the explanation before the girl gasped and ran to another painting, with the others following, except for Rei who continued to stare up at the Mona Lisa which Shinji and Asuka noticed.
"Rei, what's up?" Asuka asked the blue-haired girl.
"…Nothing," came the simple answer from Rei as she followed everyone after Aki who was already at another large painting.
"Hey everyone, look at this one! This picture has people having dinner," Aki said as she was pointing at the large painting with thirteen people seated at a long table.
"Oh, this is the last supper. A depiction of Jesus Christ and his disciples before he was…err…went home," Kaji corrected just as he was given a couple of warning glances from Shinji and Asuka while their eyes looked back at an unaware Aki, hoping to avoid their little one from questioning what crucified means.
Luckily for them, Aki didn't notice and was fixated on the painting.
"Hehe, this kinda looks like they are arguing over who gets the last food," Aki chuckled, and her comment was met with everyone chuckling too.
"Well, I guess that's one way of looking at this," Shinji added. "It's kinda amazing that they have many famous Western arts here in this museum for its grand opening."
"Many of these paintings, especially foreign ones are copies," Rei voiced out making everyone turn to her.
"Wait…copies?!" Asuka boomed and she and everyone else looked back to the painting as if trying to clarify its authenticity.
"Are you sure Rei," Shinji asked the blue-haired girl as he also looked at the painting. "I mean how can you tell that they are?"
Rei nodded. "Yes, for starters the painting here itself is not the original size of the genuine Last Supper painting done by Leonardo da Vinci. Also, light shows that the paper is new and not something that was drawn or painted in its time and lastly the colours are simply too bright."
Everyone stared at Rei in awe and amazement except for Aki who did not understand what the big deal was.
Kaji whistled, impressed by Rei's skill in keen observation. "Well, I guess that explains the lack of news about all the famous works being on display here," he mused. "But very impressive, Ayanami. Think you might have a future with a talent like that."
As the group decided to move forward, they didn't notice that an old man in a suit and a walking stick had overheard their conversation.
x-x
Everyone found themselves surrounded by newer paintings from artists from the current era. Ranging from modern art to abstract and some which the group found downright boring and even lazy, like the one they currently stood at: a simple painting of a large black dot in the centre.
"What on earth is this? Are these paintings considered art?" Asuka asked in disbelief as she and everyone else looked at it.
"A lot of these just look…lazy and downright simple," Shinji added as he too looked at the painting they stood before. Shinji even looked to the side and saw the other works just being roughly the same, heck, there was a painting that looked like it had nothing on it and others looked like ink splatters that you would find in a psychiatrist's office.
"Yeah, I agree, Shinji," Misato concurred with her former charge.
"I can't believe that people even consider this art, heck my Schätzchen does better pictures than any of this garbage," Asuka ranted.
"Yeah! That's right! My drawings are better than everything here," Aki declared loudly as she pumped her fist in the air, feeling pride that her drawings were being acknowledged.
"Ok, all in favour of skipping this last part of the museum to get some lunch at the cafeteria," Kaji announced with everyone wholeheartedly nodding in agreement that it was time to get some food.
x-x
"Oh God that's so good," Misato moaned as she wolfed down what was her fourth rice bun before drinking an entire orange juice box whole, happy to finally eat and sit down after enduring walking around for so long. It had been almost a quarter of an hour since they had sat down at the museum's inner cafeteria, and everyone was enjoying a moment of peace, minus Aki and Rei who were at the far corner of the room where there was a small area for kids to create their picture portraits with pencil and coloured crayons.
"Careful honey, if you keep eating like that then you can't blame the baby on getting big," Kaji teased with a smirk as he picked a bit of rice from Misato's cheek before eating it.
Misato blushed and turned away. "Idiot, stop calling me honey, we're not married yet. Also, I'm not getting fat! I'm eating for two and it's mostly your fault," Misato angrily exclaimed with a hard kick to Kaji's shin under the table making the unshaven man wince slightly but did not diminish his smirk.
Asuka and Shinji looked on at the older couple with deadpan stares, wondering in sync if this was what they were like.
"So, how are the two little artists getting on?" Kaji turned to look past Asuka and Shinji as he sipped on his cup of coffee, and both parents also turned to look back to where Aki and Rei were. Both girls looked to be now fully colouring and seemed to be nearly finished with whatever they had drawn during their time here by the looks of it.
As if sensing their looks, Aki looked back at them smiled wide and started waving her hand to them.
"Mama, Papa, Mr Kaji, Misato! Come here!"
"Ok, Schätzchen we're coming!" Asuka called back to Aki. Both she and Shinji got up but noticed the other two adults didn't. "You guys staying?"
"My feet are still killing me at the moment, so yeah," Misato stated as she opened a candy bar and bit into it.
"I'm gonna get another cup of coffee from the shop so you guys go on ahead," Kaji declined while offering an apologetic smile at the two kids.
Nodding, the two parents made their way over to their daughter and Rei, who looked to be still working on something given that she didn't turn to face them approaching.
"Mama, Papa, look at this! My new masterpiece!" Aki cheered as she got a hold of the portrait and turned it towards her parents.
Upon seeing the said masterpiece both Asuka and Shinji's happy smiles suddenly turned blank. What Aki had drawn was once again a crude version of the Red Sea and beach with Rei's giant head in the distance.
"…Soo, what do you think Mama, Papa? Have I gotten better?" Aki asked after not receiving a response for a moment from her parents.
Giving each other a quick but worrisome look, Asuka and Shinji gave their best fake smiles.
"It's Wunderbar, Schätzchen…. you have gotten a lot better,"
"It looks good honey…err but can I ask…why draw that exactly?"
Aki tilted her head in confusion. "Eh, why not Papa? I mean we haven't seen the Red Sea or friend's head in ages, so I thought of just drawing it and maybe hoping that someone will tell us where they've gone."
Asuka and Shinji knew that talks like this were going to happen and it did help that their little sunshine was always curious and asking questions, especially regarding the changes to their appearance and everything else. It was hard enough for them to explain to everyone about them somehow travelling back through time, but it was another to explain to their daughter and they were both adamant about not telling her or at least till she was older and could understand better.
Before any of them could utter anything to say to Aki, Shinji saw Rei put down her pen.
"Oh, Rei are you finished?" Shinji asked the blue-haired girl, thankful for the distraction from a sensitive topic.
Rei nodded and took hold of the portrait, turning it towards the Ikari family, who all looked at the drawing and gasped in sync.
"Wow! It's me, it's me!" Aki shouted as she hooped up up and down on her chair excitedly.
Indeed, the drawing was a portrait of Aki herself, who in the frame was smiling ahead while also having hands in her lap. The whole thing looked incredibly lifelike and it was hard to imagine that Rei had done this with just a pencil and some kids colouring pens rather than paint. To Asuka and Shinji, it looked like a modern-day Mona Lisa.
"Oh mein Gott, this is fantastic Rei," Asuka said while completely amazed.
"This is amazing Rei!" Shinji praised the blue-haired girl as he looked a bit more closely at the portrait before noticing it looked similar to a particular painting. "Wait…Rei did you get the idea from when we were looking at the Mona Lisa?"
Rei simply nodded at the question.
"WHO DREW THIS?!"
The sudden shouting startled the Ikari family, making them jump back and instinctively grab hold of Aki to protect her. Upon looking back, they saw a rather unkempt-looking man who looked like he hadn't slept in days with a white paint apron which looked to be covered in different paint colours who was staring wide-eyed at Aki's picture.
"Hey, that's my picture!" Aki exclaimed as the man picked up the picture to closely examine it. And was startled when he heard Aki's voice.
Turning to the girl and back at the picture, the man came closer to the point that he was nearly invading Aki's personal space making Aki back up slightly and also making Asuka and Shinji cautious of the man. "You drew this?"
Aki nodded. "Yes, I did, it's my masterpiece so give it back!"
The man didn't say anything. Looking back and forth at the picture and Aki for a moment before getting on his knees. "Please little girl, tell me where you got this inspiration from?!"
Confused Aki tilted her head. "Inspreration…what's that mean?"
"I mean where did you get the idea for this…this masterpiece," the man clarified.
"I got it from…" Aki began but her mouth was quickly covered up by Shinji.
"She err…she got the idea because she likes the colour red, the sea and her friends," Shinji quickly added, hoping to avoid complications.
To Shinji and Asuka's relief, they saw the man nod, letting them know that he bought the excuse. "Yes, yes, I see, the picture is a combination of an innocent child's likes that combine to look like a desolate wasteland of horror. Brilliant."
Both the young parent's sweat dropped at the man's description. It was indeed very much on the nose of what occurred at the end of the end.
"Little child, please let me have to picture!" The man suddenly demanded.
"No, it's my picture!" Aki argued.
"Hey, hold on. Who are you and why on earth do you want my daughter's picture?" Asuka demanded angrily to the point that she let their strange parental status slip.
"Oh, I'm sorry, forgive my rudeness. My name is Hayato, I'm an employee here at this museum, as well as an artist who's struggling and looking for inspiration."
"Wait, really?" Shinji said, wanting to make sure this man indeed worked here.
"Yes! As I've said, I've been struggling to find something to get my creative mind going and I was just about to get some coffee from the shop when I saw what this little girl had drawn and now my mind is coming up with things that I can't even comprehend."
"Uh-huh," Asuka weakly nodded before drawing closer to Shinji. "I think this man needs a good sleep rather than inspiration," Asuka whispered in his ear to which he couldn't agree more.
"So please again, I beg you, please let me have this!" the man Hayato begged desperately.
Unfortunately for him, Aki was having none of it. "No, I drew it, so it's my picture," Aki whined and argued back, even grabbed hold of the picture frame and tried pulling the frame out of the man's grasp. Sadly, the little girl was not strong enough to break it out of the man's hold on the other end.
"Please, child!" the man begged again, trying to gently pray away the picture frame away from Aki, but Aki kept hold of it like a dog with its chew toy. "I'd do anything to have this, I'll still credit you as the original artist…I'll be willing to give you something in exchange for it, whatever you want!"
Suddenly Aki stopped struggling and looked at the man thoughtfully while still holding the frame between them. "Wait…anything?"
"Yes, anything child, name your price!" Hayato asked desperately.
Aki smirked and Asuka and Shinji, who saw the look knew it wasn't good…well for the man at least.
x-x-x-x
"You know, I think you guys need to start teaching the little munchkin about money and the value of it… and also learn how to haggle too," Misato voiced as she and everyone else walked out of the entrance of the museum.
Asuka and Shinji sighed heavily. Yes, this was indeed a lesson here. If they knew that the unkept man known as Hayato was a rich painter, then they would have persuaded Aki to exchange her picture or at least the idea and the rights for a large sum of money.
Instead, what little Aki asked in exchange for her picture was something a bit more mundane…or at least to the adults.
"I'm gonna name you "Red Rexy" cause you red and a Rex!" Aki happily talked to the giant red T-Rex plushie that was just as big as her. Despite being difficult for her to carry Aki insisted on holding it.
Yes, what Aki had asked in exchange for her work was plushies, five giant plushies to be exact and the ones that were the most expensive in the entire museum's gift shop. One was a red T-Rex which Aki was currently holding, a yellow saber tooth tiger being held by Asuka, a black mammoth that Shinji was holding, Misato held a pink pterodactyl and lastly Kaji holding a blue triceratops.
Yet despite having lost the opportunity to increase their finances, both Asuka and Shinji agreed that as long as their daughter was happy then they were ok with her decision.
"Hey wait…where is Rei?" Shinji asked everyone, noticing that they were one person short.
"Wasn't she behind us…oh she's over there…and it looks like she talking to someone?" Kaji saw the blue-haired girl talking to someone in a suit at the entrance of the museum where they came out from and looked to be handing her a business card.
Confused, the gang waited for Rei to catch up with them before asking her what was going on.
"Hey Rei, who were you talking to back there?" Shinji asked.
"It wasn't some creep asking you on a date, was it?" Asuka quickly added, angry over the possibility of some pervert old guy hitting on their friend.
"No, it was the museum curator. He saw my portrait of Aki and wished to know my contact details for the possibility of showing my work across Japan."
It took a moment for all four adults to register what Rei had said to them. "Wait…WHAT?!"
Aki however was confused. "What's a corater?"
End.
x-x-x-x-x
(Omake)
"Ok, Red Rexy, Toothfy, Mammy, Flappy and Charger, We battle together for the right to the TV remote. Now CHARGE!" Aki roared as she was riding a giant T-Rex which roared along with its master before charging forward, along the side of them were a saber tooth tiger which Kiko was riding and a mammoth, a pterodactyl and a triceratops.
On the other side of the battlefield was a giant PenPen clad in armour with an army of smaller penguins behind him.
"WAARRKKK!" Roared the giant warm water penguin before he and his army charged forward towards his most hated foe.
Just as the two sides were about to clash a loud voice broke the dream.
"Aki, time to wake up," Shinji's voice called out
x-x-x
Aki opened her eyes and sat up from her bed. Around her were Kiko and her five new plushies. "Aww…I wanted to see how that ended."