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.
Summary:
The Ikari family wake up to another day to find a familiar animal as come to visit them.
"The Return of Ms Cow"
It was another early morning rise for Shinji Ikari, yet despite being awake for what he assumed was about an hour, he did not want to move and get up from his comfortable bed. He was very content just simply watching the two most important girls in his life next to him.
Next to him wwere Asuka and Aki, still sound asleep, with the redhead holding her daughter to her chest while Aki was mimicking by also holding her doll Kiki to her chest as they both slept on their side facing him. Both girls also sported identical cute drools as they snored peacefully in their sleep.
He wondered when exactly Aki had come into their bedroom. She hadn't come to bed with them when they retired for the night, nor had she woken them up during the early hours, unless of course Asuka woke up and decided to let Aki sleep in with them while he was sound asleep.
'Did she have a bad dream?' Shinji thought, thinking of that being the possible reason she could be here with them.
Gently, he stroked his daughter's head as to comfort her. However, doing this he saw Aki's sleeping face clenched up into a small frown.
"Nein, Bee, Nein…das ist mein Essen," Aki mumbled in her sleep.
Shinji had greatly to suppress a chuckle to prevent waking both his girls. Seemed Aki was having a dream involving bees and food.
He still remembered that day when Aki got stung by a bee…well technically a wasp and it made him and Asuka realise that despite their best efforts, they could not protect or prevent Aki from all dangers of the world. It was a lesson to Aki as well that not all things in the world would be kind to her. Heck from then on, she declared loudly that every bee would be her enemy and never forgive them.
He was also impressed on his daughter's ability to speak German as well as Japanese. Granted it still needed a lot of work given her age but at the speed she was learning from Asuka, she was way ahead of him, and it would not surprise him if she mastered both languages in a few years.
Asuka would tease and lightly criticise him that he was falling behind his daughter when it came to learning German, but he did not mind it. Plus, it made Aki happy that she was better than him at something. She certainly had her mother's competitive streak after all.
Just as he closed his eyes and was about to drift off to sleep again, he heard a tapping sound.
Tap…tap.
'Wait…is that coming from the window?' Shinji thought as he slowly turned towards the bedroom window on his side of the bed. The curtains were closed so he could not see what was making the noise. Reluctantly getting out of his comfortable bed while also trying not to wake up his two girls, Shinji wondered what the taping at the window could be.
However, as he opened the curtains and prepared to face the bright morning sunlight, what he saw instead was something else.
The face of a familiar cow that was staring right back at him.
"MOOO!"
"GAAAHH!" Shinji screamed as he backed away from the window in fright but in doing so too quickly, he lost his footing and fell back and ended up hitting the back of his head on the edge of the bed frame, making him winch in pain and resulting in waking up the girls.
"Mmm…Shinji was going on? And what was that noise?" Asuka groggy muttered as she sat up, her eyes still closed.
"Mm…Moo?" A still sleepy and confused Aki sat up also, her eyes still closed as well.
"MOO!" came a loud moo at the window again, which fully awoke the two girls in shock as they, along with Shinji just stared at the large animal at the window.
Aki gasped as she finally recognised the animal that was looking back at them. "Miss Cow!" the young girl squealed happily before jumping out of bed and running out of the room.
"Aki, wait!" both Shinji and Asuka said together in sync, but their daughter either didn't hear them or didn't listen. Both parents quickly got up and followed Aki who had somehow managed to quickly unlock the door to their garden. Upon arriving outside they found Ms Cow was already chewing on their plants that were outside their bedroom window.
"Ms Cow, you finally found us!" Aki cried out in happiness as she closed the gap between the animal and hugged the cow's neck while it was eating…well, hugging it as best she could given her small arms could not wrap around the animal's big neck.
"Moo" came the animal's reply, completely unbothered at the small girl trying to hug her and continued eating.
Shinji and Asuka just stood there for a moment as if trying to process what was happening.
Eventually, it was Asuka who broke the silence first. "…Unbelievable. All our attempts to catch this cow and bring her here, she just mysteriously shows up at our home like it is nothing," Asuka said aloud, clearly annoyed.
It was not an exaggeration as their past attempts to catch and bring the animal home with them were always met with failure or the cow itself would just disappear just when they would have the means of doing it. Heck, one time that Ms Cow appeared before them she had somehow gotten on top of the roof of a house, a mystery that baffled the Ikari family, although Aki was convinced that funny aliens were behind it.
"I…I don't understand. How on Earth did she get here and how did she get inside the perimeter?" Shinji let out, cleary is confused about how the cow got inside their home.
Wanting to be sure, Shinji quickly jogged and looked around their home but could not see any openings or damage to their fence around their home. Moving towards the front gate, Shinji saw that it was still closed and the lock on it was still there and intact.
"Well, anything?" Asuka asked her husband if there was anything.
Shinji shook his head as he returned. Baffled on how the big animal got into their residence.
"See Ms Cow, I told you if you kept going this way you would find us," Aki said to the big animal.
At this, both parents blinked at having heard what Aki had said. Now staring at their daughter, who was giggling as she started playing with one of Ms Cow's ears as the cow was still eating, which twitched every time the little girl touched it.
"Aki," Shinji called out to his daughter who was stroking the cow's head, making her turn to him. "Did you tell Ms Cow where to find us?"
Aki nodded. "Yeah Papa, I did. I remember you and Mama always getting mad that Ms Cow always kept disappearing every time we tried to take her home so the last time we saw her I said to her to go this way till you would find our house with the gate all around it. I even said it in moos just in case she didn't understand too," Aki finished explaining with a bit of pride at the last part.
Shinji and Asuka gave each other a look that was a mixture of confusion and amusement, but also concern. The latter mostly due to the topic of them being the only humans around and their worries about Aki growing up without social interactions with other people besides the two of them. The fact that she was trying to talk to animals like people due to her desire to fill that social void was also very concerning.
"…Well, anyway, did you let Ms Cow inside honey?" Shinji asked, hoping to move on from the uncomfortable thoughts while also finding out if Aki had let the cow inside their home without them knowing it.
However, Aki shook her head. "No Papa, I didn't. Ooh, maybe Ms Cow jumped over the fence!" Aki declared.
"…Wait, jumped?" Both Shinji and Asuka said in sync, wondering where Aki got such a ridiculous idea from. Granted, they knew next to nothing about cows, but they knew for sure they couldn't jump a tall fence.
"Yeah, like in the storybook where the cow jumps and jumps so high that it lands all the way to the moon!" Aki told her parents.
Aki's answer, however, made Shinji and Asuka laugh, much to her confusion.
"Hey, what's so funny?" Aki frowned.
Shinji kneeled down to Aki as he calmed down from laughing. "Aki, honey that was only a storybook. Cows can't jump that high, especially not our fence," Shinji explained to his daughter while also glancing at their fence.
Their tall fence was completely different to the old plain wooden one both he and Asuka first built a few years back but as the years went on and with Aki being born both of them agreed to build a better fence around their home, one that would guarantee their protection, especially after the situation with the monkeys but also prevent Aki from slipping under and even climbing it as she tried many times when she was younger.
"Oh yeah, then how come Ms Cow got in Papa?" Aki countered him in a familiar way similar to her mother Asuka.
"…err…well," Shinji tried thinking of a retort but was coming up with nothing.
Asuka, who was witnessing this exchange, found it amusing watching Shinji losing against her daughter, as well as feeling a bit of Soryu pride on Aki getting a one-up on her father. But eventually Asuka decided to save Shinji's dignity and focus on the matter at hand.
"Look, it doesn't matter how she got in. What matters is that we finally have her here," Asuka told her family before giving a knowing smirk to Shinji. "So now that she's here it's time to build that enclosure for our new resident, Liebling, like we talked about,"
"Wha…right now?!" Shinji asked.
"Yes, now, Baka, unless you want Ms Cow roaming around our backyard and eating all our plants and vegetables," Asuka firmly told Shinji.
"…Yes dear," Shinji sighed knowing that Asuka was right. They did indeed have talks before on what they would do if they ever caught the cow and built a place to keep her here.
"Yay! You hear that Ms Cow? Papa is going to build you a home next to us," Aki cheerfully told the cow who did not respond other than continuing to eat the grass.
x-x-x
A few weeks had passed since Ms Cow had arrived at their home and both the adults were finally thankful that the cow had not done her usual disappearing act during the time she was here. The large cattle had all but made herself at home, especially after they (or more so Shinji) had built her a small home with a roof next to their house near the garage with plenty of straw so she could lay down on it to sleep.
With the animal there, they now had a steady supply of milk to add to their food supply, despite Aki insisting that she would never have any of it. For that reason both parents secretly agreed to never reveal when their new cooked meals contained any milk. Also despite clearly being grossed out by the whole milking process, Aki was always present when it was time to milk the cow.
Also, Aki was more than happy to have the cattle around. Both Shinji and Asuka watched their little girl sometimes feed and even talk to the cow. Another reminder to both parents of how lonely the small girl was.
As the sun began to rise on another day, Asuka and Shinji were once again abruptly woken up by Aki who came rushing into their bedroom.
"Mama! Papa! Wake up, wake up! You need to come see this!" Aki cried out loudly to her parents as she climbed on the bed and started jumping up and down to get their attention.
"…Aki honey, it's still too early," Shinji mumbled while he sat up from his comfy bed. His eyes were still closed.
"…Schätzchen…what is it?" Asuka asked her daughter as she yawned while she also sat up next to Shinji.
"No time to say, just come outside and look!" Aki continued as she grabbed their hands and dragged them along outside the house to Ms Cow's enclosure.
"See Mama, Papa! Look, look!" Aki said as she let go of Shinji's hand and pointed to what was so interesting.
Both grownups rubbed and opened their still-tired eyes and looked at what had fascinated Aki so much. Upon seeing it, the two had to rub their eyes again to make sure that what they were seeing was real.
"It's a baby cow!" Aki squealed in delight as she let go of Asuka's hand and ran towards the now two cows that were in the enclosure. Ms Cow was lying down while her new little calf was also lying down next to her.
"Hi, little cow! How did you get here?" Aki asked the calf who gave a little moo to the brown-haired girl who was petting it.
"Where…where on earth did this one come from?" Shinji asked no one in particular.
"Baka, isn't it obvious?" Asuka whispered to Shinji, making sure her voice was low so that Aki would not hear them. "Ms Cow was pregnant before coming here. It's probably why she hasn't done her disappearing act the whole time she's been here. She wanted somewhere safe to give birth to her baby."
"Makes sense," Shinji responded. Now that he thought about it he did notice awhile back that Ms Cow was slightly bigger. He even said this to the girls but he was berated slightly by them by insinuating that the newest member of their home was fat. He remembered Aki even saying to him that Ms Cow was not fat, she was big-boned.
"Alright little cow, I'm gonna call you…Little Ms Cow? No, that's stupid. Milky?…No I don't like milk…oh, I know I'll call you Mooey!" Aki declared as she continued to pet the little calf, now officially named Mooey by the girl herself.
"Wait, hold on, if Ms Cow was pregnant, then who got her pregnant?" Shinji wondered out loud before he was hit in the side by Asuka, reminding him to keep his voice down, which he did when Asuka gave him a glare with her eyes darting towards Aki. "I mean we haven't seen any other cows this whole time besides her so how on earth did she get pregnant?"
Asuka didn't have an answer to Shinji's question. In the years after 3rd Impact, they had seen a variety of different animals and wildlife but Ms Cow for one reason or another has been the only cattle they've encountered. It was just a mystery as to why that was alongside the cow's ability to disappear from time to time.
"Mama, Papa!" Aki called out to them, breaking them from their thoughts. "Can we keep Mooey too?" Aki asked while also giving them a sweet puppy dog look to convince them to let the small cow stay.
Shinji and Asuka looked at each other with a knowing smile before letting out a sigh, knowing the answer was pretty clear and no need to say it.
x-x-x-x
Another few weeks had passed since the unexpected arrival of Mooey and things shortly got back to a normal routine. Shinji had inspected both the baby calf and mother cow shortly after Asuka took Aki away to the local park to avoid unnecessary questions. He didn't find any complications leading him to conclude that the birth had gone well. Granted he's expertise wasn't in animal health but both animals seemed fine as Ms Cow was already walking around and chewing on grass like normal as well as the newly named calf Mooey, who like its mother did nothing else other than moo, eat grass the whole day, slept and lastly pooped all day.
Needless to say, the cow's waste was probably the only unpleasant part of having such animals. The only good thing was that Asuka had more than enough "fertiliser" for their garden to last for months and God forbid they avoided telling Aki about it otherwise she would firmly never have vegetables again if she knew about it.
However, as the family woke up to a brand new day the three members of the Ikari household discovered that both cows had vanished.
"Ms Cow! Mooey! Where are you!?" Aki shouted while also running around the perimeter of their home searching for both cows. She had been doing this for an hour in desperate hope to find her animal friends.
"I knew this would happen eventually," Shinji said while sighing. He always suspected that Ms Cow would one day do her disappearing act again which didn't surprise him given past encounters with Ms Cow before. What did surprise him was that it seemed that the baby, Mooey also inherited the ability to disappear. He kind of hoped that the little one would have stayed with them but now that hope has been dashed entirely.
"So guess Ms Cow just stayed here till she and Mooey were fit and healthy to move again huh," Asuka said to Shinji who nodded, having come to the same conclusion. Like him, she was disappointed at both animals for once again leaving, especially after seeing Aki become attached to them.
"Mama, Papa, Ms Cow and Mooey are really gone," Aki said to them with a sad expression as she returned from scouting their home.
Both parents gave their daughter a comforting smile before Asuka picked up her child and held her close, knowing once again Aki got too attached to some animal friends that ended up leaving. "I know Schätzchen, I know," Asuka said while gently rocking her daughter.
"Hey don't be sad honey," Shinji said to Aki while stroking her head to also comfort her. "I'm sure we'll see Ms Cow and Mooey again out in the wild like always."
"Really?" Aki looked at her father with hope in her eyes.
"I'm sure of it honey," Shinji replied although he wasn't sure himself if they'd ever see the animals again.
The Ikari family would indeed see the two cows like always from time to time after still doing their mysterious disappearing act that prevented the family from ever bringing them back to their home again, which the Ikari's just accepted again as the norm.
End.