Points of Divergence: Episode 16
After surviving Leliel and the Dirac Sea, Shinji is once again in a Nerv hospital bed unconscious, oblivious to the thoughts of those around him.
Stupid Shinji. Well that just about covered it. He was an idiot. He'd gotten himself swallowed by the Angel of Improbable Mathematics or whatever they were calling the wretched thing. Then he hadn't come back. Not that she'd been worried of course. The stupid Invincible Ikari was gifted with everything she worked so hard for, and he still had to go and show off just because he got a point higher than her on the sync test. So of course he came back. He was going to be fine, not that that concerned her, but it apparently concerned the Doll, or more likely she'd been ordered to watch him to make sure he didn't do anything even more stupid when he woke up. Of course he'd left it until after the last second to come back dramatically. Even if he'd done everything right, which of course he hadn't, she knew exactly how long the oxygen could last in an entry plug. Not that she'd needed to, Misato had a stupid display up counting down. As if she didn't know.
So now she was stuck here waiting for Wondergirl to leave him alone so she could check that he was still alive. Why she was doing that she wasn't entirely sure. She certainly hadn't missed the idiot. The only person she ever missed was Mama and she certainly wasn't going to think about that. Obviously there was no comparison. She just needed him to make her dinner. Misato's cooking was a biohazard. Anyway she already knew he was alive, there'd be a fuss if he wasn't, and she'd seen him when Misato pulled him out of the entry plug. She'd had an absurd moment where she felt like she should be the one carrying him instead of Misato. Not that she'd ever touch him, even if he begged. One rejection was quite clear enough. She shook her head. The stress was obviously getting to her. She needed food, sleep and maybe a lighter exercise than usual, enough to stretch out her muscles, she'd done far too much standing, sitting and lying on uncomfortable surfaces since the idiot got himself swallowed.
This whole thing was absurd. She was trained to fight Angels, not one dimensional mathematical constructs. Then Stupid Shinji had managed it anyway, or it looked like his Eva had. The monster it turned into was nothing like Shinji, he must have been unconscious from oxygen deprivation. Not in control of that. Shinji was a coward. He couldn't be like that. Could he? Would her Eva do that if she had been the one taken? No, her Eva was a real one not like the prototype, would she have died of asphyxiation or under a barrage of N2 mines then? Would Shinji be the one sitting like an idiot in the hallway not knowing why he was doing it? Her pilots were fine. She didn't have any responsibility or reason to be here. So why was she?
She closed her eyes and leant against the wall. Nerv couldn't even manage to put comfortable chairs in the hospital, so she was having to lean against the wall by the door.
A shadow crossed her, just enough to alter the light seeping through her eyelids.
"Good Morning Asuka!" How could Misato possibly be this cheerful after nearly losing the Idiot she didn't know. Well, probably by already being drunk, or perhaps still being drunk. Who knew? Who cared?
"Waiting for your boyfriend?"
Her eyes snapped open.
"He is not my boyfriend," she growled at Misato. Misato was annoying at times. This was entirely inappropriate. And stupid. There is no way she'd date the Idiot, he didn't deserve her. Yes, she'd tried to kiss him. Once. As a thank you. It had hurt, then he'd literally thrown her away. Not that Misato knew that. Not that Misato would ever know that. The teasing was bad enough. Misato would try to be sympathetic. Ugh! No, he was about as far from being her boyfriend as it was possible to get. The only man for her was her Kaji.
"Oh? Leaving that to Ayanami are you? She's been here all night." Misato was trying to get a rise out of her. Unfortunately it was working. Fortunately for both of them, Misato didn't wait for a response. Ugh. Those two couldn't manage to hold a conversation. The chances of them actually managing a date, even if they were ordered to, was only marginally higher than her dating the Idiot. Meaning not much above absolute zero - at least she'd seen them hug occasionally, there was no way Idiot Shinji was doing that to her, she was never letting him touch her again.
"Good Morning Captain."
"Morning Ayanami, how's your boyfriend doing?"
Asuka sighed into the ensuing silence. Misato was trying to tease the Doll. You'd have better luck talking to a wall, at least there was a very slight chance of an echo.
"I do not have a boyfriend."
'Of course you don't. Just Shinji making you lunch every day like a good little boy. Hikari had explained that one to her. Jock Stooge hadn't noticed either. At least Hikari had emotions, deluded as they might be.''
"How is Shinji?"
'First useful question you've had all day you drunkard.'
"Pilot Ikari has not yet woken."
'Informative wondergirl, very informative.'
"Well, Asuka's here if you want to take a break, she could keep an eye on him for a bit."
'And back to insinuating things about me are you? Gah! Wretched woman.'
"That is unnecessary."
'I know that, that doesn't mean you actually say it!'
Asuka had gone insane. That was obviously what had happened. Maybe it was hereditary, her mother had been in a psychiatric ward before she died after all.
This was the second time she'd stood watching baka-Shinji sleep. This time is was from the doorway to his room now that he was finally out of the hospital. Unlike him, she couldn't sleep at all. Every attempt was met with nightmares, mostly about being actually swallowed by the blackness rather than pulling herself out and scrambling desperately from sinking building to sinking building. Some had been about the idiot dying in a mass of N2 mines. She wasn't sure if that counted as a nightmare though, the idiot deserved it for making her worry. Some of the angel gradually swallowing the city as they tried and failed to kill it.
The idiot of course saw nothing inside. Just the same blackness. Then hallucinations he claimed not to remember as he ran out of oxygen. There was nothing in the data recorders either, it was almost as if they had ceased to exist even though she knew that hadn't happened, the Invincible Ikari would always be around to annoy her. At least he'd had the sense to turn everything off, the dumbass had managed that much.
Maybe it was just the sleep deprivation, she'd lost sleep before though, so that didn't explain the insanity of what she was contemplating. Two data points were not enough to extrapolate a solid hypothesis from. But there was no denying that the best sleep she'd ever had was when she'd been forced to sleep next to the idiot. She'd actually felt rested, not increasingly frayed and so irritable even Misato had acted like she cared. It was bad enough that she was seriously considering resorting to doing the same, but she had a third data point from the last time she had touched the idiot. How she'd touched him was as irrelevant as whether his lips had been soft or not. It had hurt and the more she thought about it the more she'd ruled out anything other than it had something to do with the Idiot and the way they could occasionally feel what the other was doing. If it had been deliberate he'd have long since apologised for something specific and she could have forced an explanation out of him.
He of course was oblivious. To this. To her.
She shook her head. What did she care about whether he noticed her? He just had to give her a good night's sleep. Assuming he didn't accidentally touch her and throw her through the stupid Japanese paper door that is. Which meant he needed to know she was there so he knew better not to touch her. Which meant waking him. She sighed and went to get a broom. She might be insane but she wasn't stupid enough to actually touch him. Not until she worked out why it had hurt. That could take as long as it liked, she didn't want him touching her anyway.
She poked him with the end of the broom handle.
"Baka Shinji! Wake up!"
"Huh? What do you want Asuka?" He didn't sound asleep, he almost sounded annoyed. He also hadn't turned to face her.
She propped the broom against the wall, it had done its job.
"Move over."
Now he turned to look at her, a dumb look on his face as if he didn't understand her. Well, he was an idiot so he probably didn't.
"Move over. And don't even think about thinking about touching me."
He finally moved, and she sat on the edge of the bed.
"Now stay there and let me sleep."
She lay down and closed her eyes. She could hear him breathing. He was there, not swallowed by the Angel of Mathematic Impossibilities. Finally she could get some rest. Despite the risk, sleep rapidly pulled her down into a dreamless slumber.
There was of course no way Shinji could sleep. Asuka had been pacing around the apartment for hours before he'd heard her open his door. He didn't know what she was doing standing there. He expected yelling at best, physical violence at worst. What he didn't expect was to be poked with something hard and told to move. He certainly hadn't expected her to lie down on the bed next to him. She had been angry at him the first two times they had slept close to each other and utterly silent the next. Obviously she was angry again, but why would she choose to be here? That made even less sense than Asuka usually did.
Now that she was there however there was even less chance he could actually sleep. He didn't dare move in case he accidentally touched her. Which he hadn't done since she'd tried to kiss him for some inexplicable reason and he'd felt it hurting her, which made no sense either, and pushed her away before she got hurt even more. He'd known better. He'd been very careful, no matter how close she got.
He could hear her breathing, it wasn't as if there was any other noise. His SDAT was now on the other side of her, so he couldn't even use that to pass the time until morning when she'd leave and he'd be safe again.
Shinji opened his eyes. He hadn't moved of course, it had only been a moment since he'd closed them, but there was a weight on his chest. He looked down carefully, making sure not to move more than absolutely necessary in case he accidentally touched Asuka. He could see Asuka's bare arm lying across him, her fingers gripping a fold in his shirt tightly. How had she moved that quickly without him noticing? It hadn't hurt when she did. He turned his head slowly and carefully and looked over at her. She was sprawled across two thirds of the bed, one foot hanging off the edge. Somehow she had stolen his pillow, which he hadn't noticed her doing either. The fact that he could see her finally worked its way through his brain. He must have actually managed to fall asleep as there was enough daylight seeping into the room so it must be later in the morning than he usually woke. He felt almost rested but he doubted that would last any longer than it took Asuka to wake up. So he'd have to lay there until she did because he certainly wasn't going to risk being the one to wake her up. He wasn't quite that stupid.
Asuka however was already awake. She was just trying to work out why her bed was so hard. Her pillow smelled weird as well. There was something under her arm. She opened her eyes to find Shinji in the bed next to her.
"Argh! Pervert! What are you doing in my bed!"
It was perfectly reasonable to pull her arm away from hentai-Shinji and slap him across the face for being in her bed.
The scream of agony was also reasonable given the burning pain in both her hand and face.
She opened her eyes again to see baka-Shinji reaching for her.
"Anta baka! Don't touch me you gott-damned pervert."
She tried to back away but one foot was tangled in the sheet and all she actually managed was to fall on the floor. The pain in her hand was fading to a dull ache as if she'd been stung by a bee a few days ago. Her face burned like she had acid dripping onto her Eva. She lay there panting for a while. Eventually she looked up. Shinji was cowering against the wall, the side of his face looking like it had been branded with a handprint. A corner of her mind noted that the bed between them was not hers.
Shinji stared at the door Asuka had stormed out of for a long while. She'd somehow managed to slam it behind her but if it had made any noise he couldn't tell.
He had no idea why Asuka had come to his room, or insisted on sleeping next to him, she hadn't explained herself any more than she usually did - which is to say not at all. Given their last physical contact had ended painfully it made no sense that she'd risk getting that close, never mind getting in his bed. It wasn't as if she was drawn to him the way he was to her, she'd made it very clear she found him physically repulsive, so why? And why hadn't it hurt when she'd apparently draped herself across him in the middle of the night? The slap had caused the same sort of pain as... well he wasn't going to think about that right now. Far more pain than Asuka slapping him previously had caused that was very clear.
He touched his face cautiously and winced, no he hadn't dreamt this, his nightmares were of very different things, though this seemed quite likely to be added to his nightly repertoire. He must have done something wrong, but it wasn't as if he could have told her not to take over his bed and he couldn't have gotten past her even if he'd tried. She was beautiful even when she was angry and he'd been so distracted he barely even noticed she hadn't been wearing anything under her thin sleep shirt.
He sighed and carefully got up and made the bed, if nothing else now he did have something to feel guilty about.
Asuka threw herself on her own bed fuming. How dare he! How dare he what? She was the one who had gone to his room in a misguided attempt to get some rest. Except it hadn't been misguided, she'd slept the best she had since, well the last time she'd been forced to sleep next to him. Except this time no one had forced her, and the pervert hadn't actually done anything to her, other than to look at her with those terrified eyes like she was the monster. Then there was the fact that her face was burning where it pressed against the pillow, her hand stung but her arm was fine and that had been ... she closed her eyes tightly ... that had been draped across him like he was a pillow or a stuffed animal or a ... she rolled over and stared at the ceiling. It didn't help.
She got up and started her morning stretches. It was too early, but it might distract her for a short while, she certainly wasn't getting back to sleep. She didn't need to. Dammit.
Five minutes of stretching and ten minutes of exercise hadn't helped either. She needed weights or a punching bag or something. Maybe if she got some boxing gloves she could punch the idiot without it hurting for doing this to her. Whatever the hell it was that he'd done.