Points of Divergence: Episode 15: Pain Management

Pain Management

Shinji staggered into the bathroom and leaned on the sink. He hoped he was wrong and there was just something seriously wrong with him.

He'd woken to stabbing pain in his abdomen and tried to ignore it, it was just the echoes of a nightmare. It had been several minutes until he'd realised it had been several minutes and the remembered pain hadn't faded. At least he'd been lying down and not dosing off in class this time.

When Asuka had found out about the volcano dreams she'd made him go swimming every day until he could manage without her rescuing him every few minutes. He hadn't told her about this one of course, who knows what she might try. Having her shake him awake once had been bad enough. This hurt far more than the pummelling she'd given him after he'd grabbed her in his half-awake state, his mind convinced they were both drowning in magma. Anyway she wasn't involved in this particular nightmare, so it was just pain.

It had been half an hour before he'd managed to get up. By that time he was certain it wasn't a memory, the pain was too low for where the Angel's whips had cut through him. He wasn't entirely sure what organ he had there. Maybe it was appendicitis and they'd just have to cut him open, or it had exploded and he'd die and save everyone the trouble. He was fairly sure dying would hurt even more than this, his life was like that so it probably wasn't appendicitis, that wasn't going to be painful enough.

He opened the bathroom cabinet carefully, trying to avoid his stomach coming into contact with the sink as he leaned over it. He checked the top shelf. He'd been right. This didn't make it easier. Asuka had ignored him for two weeks since... since she got back from Hikari's, he wasn't going to think about why she was there in the first place, that had hurt even more than he currently did and he'd done nothing but think about it since. She was going to hate him even more for knowing about this. Maybe he could avoid trying to explain anything, it wasn't as if she was even acknowledging his existence at the moment.

The box of painkillers had been ripped apart and left empty on the side of the sink. He groaned, not entirely in pain, he'd forgotten to check the last time he restocked the bathroom and clearly neither of his roommates had checked. Not that Asuka would have said anything, but Misato would probably have made some awkward request. Well, he might be able to go out and get some before Asuka got up. Normally she'd be up and complaining about him waking her by now, at least before she started ignoring him entirely. There was no point in taking anything himself, either he was going to die a painful death or whatever was making him aware of Asuka was some sort of strange synchronisation effect and painkillers never worked on synchronisation pain - at least not the kind he had access to.

Asuka was sitting at the kitchen table when he returned, nursing a cup of coffee and ignoring him as usual. That was fine, he had one more thing to do before he had to stop. He'd thought about giving it to her as part of an apology, but she'd made it quite clear that no apology of any kind would be acceptable so he'd kept it. Based on Misato's advice this was what it was for anyway.

He placed the items on the table in front of Asuka, being extra careful not to accidentally touch her.

For the first time in two weeks she looked at him, then she picked up the painkillers and washed them down with the glass of water. It was another moment before she picked up the other item.

"What? How? Where did you get this?"

He avoided the question, there were some secrets he wanted to keep for next time he needed them, "Misato said chocolate helps."

So had Hikari, because he really didn't trust Misato's advice when it came to Asuka and Hikari was the sort of person who'd answer questions seriously once he managed to stammer them out. Hikari hadn't talked to him in the last two weeks either, not even to tell him off for upsetting Asuka, so he decided it was probably better not to mention that he'd asked her.

Asuka carefully unwrapped the gift, "There's chocolate and there's this. What the hell did you sell to pay for this, baka?" Chocolate was an expensive luxury after the Second Impact had messed up the world's ecosystems and growing zones, chocolate imported from half a world away even more so.

She nibbled on a corner and closed her eyes. The painkillers would kick in in a few minutes. she needed to wait until they did so she could savour this properly. She didn't want to. She almost wanted to hug him for this. Alright, almost was a very long stretch. She was still upset with him, she still didn't know what had really happened and of course Baka Shinji had no idea or he'd have apologised for it properly by now rather than the meaningless things he actually said. On the other hand, he was obviously aware how her body was rebelling against her or he wouldn't have gotten her this. She'd be mad about that later, after she'd finished this, which was going to take as long as she could possibly stretch it out.

The nightmare he woke from made it difficult to eat for a while afterwards whenever he had it, but he at least needed to make lunch so he might as well try to make something. That the pain was fading after, and only after, Asuka took the painkillers was enough evidence that it wasn't entirely remembered pain. Eventually he'd have to talk to her about it, but she'd have to be actually talking to him for that to stand a chance of getting anywhere.

"Do you want any breakfast?" Shinji asked, still carefully not saying anything that could sound like an apology. He still needed to apologise for hurting her, but he needed to work out what happened first or she wouldn't accept it, and he didn't want her to interpret the chocolate as an apology when it wasn't.

Asuka put the last square of chocolate down carefully and wrapped it back up, "Something light. No sausage today."

Shinji nodded, not that he had any sausage available, he'd made the last of it for her earlier in the week and hadn't been out to the market where he could get the kind she liked since. She'd eaten it but still hadn't said anything. That she didn't want any today was a good thing, the mere thought of cooking it was making him feel nauseous again.

Notes: Misato has already abdicated all the grocery shopping to Shinji as he was doing everything except buying her beer anyway because otherwise they'd have to eat Misato's cooking and the only person who's willing to do that is Misato. So of course he's buying Asuka's menstrual supplies as well, not that she's noticed. Which is probably for the best as Shinji's the one with the high resistance to death-by-embarrassment.