Points of Divergence: Episode 15: Side Effects
"Let me do that," Asuka interrupted Shinji's vegetable chopping. There wasn't an angel to kill, vegetables would have to do. She wasn't apologising or helping, just relieving some stress. She laughed at herself, only baka Shinji would believe something like that.
The simulators were still down after the Virus Angel and how was she supposed to punch something like that anyway? She couldn't hit, slap, fight or even kiss Baka Shinji, and only the last of those showed up in her nightmares so she didn't even get any relief in her dreams. Even the nightmares about dying were better than that. She was having more of those too. She'd tried swimming to burn off some of her anger, in the past that would have helped, but Wondergirl had been there and kept watching her. It was weird, unnerving and definitely not relaxing. Kaji was avoiding her again. She'd even, very very briefly, considered picking a fight with Jock Stooge. Hikari said he could at least punch hard enough to hurt, but she'd immediately dismissed that as the bad idea it was. The only person she wanted touching her was Shinji. Kaji! She did not want the idiot touching her. Stupid brain, wanting things only because she couldn't have them. She ignored her inner smartarse who asked exactly what it was she couldn't have that she wanted.
At least all Misato had done was assume she was on her period and looked sympathetic. Then she had been and baka Shinji had known and that was even worse. Maybe she shouldn't be given a knife while he was standing right there, she could stab him without touching him. Though knowing her luck he'd fall on her if she did.
Shinji put the knife down and stepped to the side. He watched Asuka for a moment, then when she showed no imminent danger of slicing her fingers off, or stabbing him with the knife, he checked on the rice and put the water on to boil. Asuka was still mostly ignoring him, there was no way she was apologising but she was standing uncomfortably close.
When the painkillers had worn off he had only known by the way Asuka was moving, he hadn't felt anything unusual. He'd have gotten up to get her more but that would probably have raised questions he didn't want to answer, especially in front of Misato, who was drinking her welcome home beer and watching them with curiosity.
Thankfully Misato hadn't done anything to further annoy Asuka or tried to get anything out of him after he'd just shrugged when she asked what was going on. It was better to let her think it was just another incident of them not getting along. It was close enough to the truth as long as no one told her why.
At least Ayanami had gone back to ignoring him after lunch. It had been bad enough having the Class Rep approach him before class started and ask if he was alright. Having had Ayanami do the same thing a few minutes later was weird and he could have done without the strange looks his friends were giving him. At least Asuka had been sitting in front of him and he hadn't seen her reaction. Then Ayanami had insisted on hugging him before she would eat lunch, and spent her meal watching Asuka nibble unenthusiastically at her bento. Admittedly it wasn't one of his best but Asuka was obviously not eating much.
He shook his head and went back to trying to prepare dinner. It wasn't often they ate red meat, it was far more expensive than fish or even the german-style sausages he bought for Asuka when he could, but she'd eat it and she needed the replacement nutrients. Still, he'd have to slice it thinly to go around. He stepped around Asuka to get it from the fridge and was very aware of the slight movement she made to avoid him. It wasn't necessary, he wasn't going to touch her even accidentally, he knew where she was but it meant that unlike the appearance she was projecting she was not actually unaware of him. That was something. What kind of something he didn't know, but it was better than the last week of not even acknowledging his existence.
She was focused on obliterating carrots when he looked up from the fridge, so he grabbed a couple more for her and mentally adjusted the recipe slightly to account for the texture and cooking time difference between sliced and massacred. She was moving as she chopped energetically and inefficiently so he stepped around her, shifting his position to avoid touching her or dropping the food. If she noticed him adding the carrots on the counter next to her hands she didn't say anything.