This one came out a little bit longer than expected, and contains a little bit less awkwardness.
On related note, chapter 6. of the main story finally progresses and I will be able to start publishing it on schedule (which likely means something like second half of February). It came out a little bit - OK, a lot - darker than I anticipated and I guess will be first chapter of Two Souls to use a trigger/content warning. Kyoko is facing some real demons, after all.
But before that occurs, there are still two more chapters of "What happened, daughter?". Enjoy chapter 4., where Asuka has had enough and puts her plan into motion.
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WHD?, chapter 4. – "No more dates!"
Next Friday, school afternoon
"Hey, idiot. You, me, Sunday, the mall", Asuka ambushed Shinji in an empty school corridor and rattled all the words in two seconds while pinning him to the wall with her forearm against his chest.
Shinji blinked. "Wha-"
"Yes or no?" she stared at him, her eyes narrowed.
"Y-yyes?" he managed to stutter out. Asuka, noticing his difficulty breathing, lessened her pressure and let him detach himself from the wall. "B-but you said 'no dates anymore, ever'? And 'I will murder you inventively if you try to ask me out again'?"
"What makes you think this is going to be a date?" she asked offhandedly, studying her nails intently.
"You just asked-" he started.
She turned to him and focused her blue eyes on him, transfixing him and pinning him to the wall far more effectively than with her arm.
"This. Is. Not. A. Date. You didn't ask me out, did you? We go to the mall, we spend time there, we try to enjoy ourselves, maybe see a movie, maybe eat something, then we go home. Is. That. Clear?"
"Yes?" Shinji's brain, this time, decided there was absolutely nothing to apologise for, thus he used option #2: cautious agreement.
"Great. We leave at three. Don't be late" she added while walking away.
The utterly confused Shinji was left alone in the school corridor. "What just happened?" he asked the empty walls.
***
Saturday
"Hey, Asuka, are you possibly free tomorrow?" Hikari inquired, catching Asuka between the sweeps of the corridor.
"Mm? I'm kind of busy, pilot business, why?" Asuka replied in a slightly tense tone. 'Technically correct, the best kind of correct!'
"Oh. I'd have a small favour to ask of you, but if you're busy… can you hold your next Sunday open for me?" Hikari requested, her voice mode rapidly approaching pleading, an unusual contrast to her barking of orders she presented in front of the class.
"For you? You're planning some girl's day out?" Asuka raised her eyebrow.
"I mean… a friend of my big sister Kodama is insisting that I introduce you to him…" Hikari trailed off, unsure.
"I'll… think about it, okay?" Asuka's expression showed barely contained disgust at the idea and her voice expressed it more clearly than she might have wished for. "Can't make promises, though" she added in the same tone.
"But… you said you're not dating anyone… so I thought you would welcome…" Asuka's glare stopped Hikari's words.
"Does this mean I have to meet anyone that says they want to?" her voice raised only minutely, but it was enough to make Hikari twitch a bit. "I'm tired of all those love letters and invitations, you know. All those pervs and useless people", she huffed.
"But…" Hikari tried once more.
"Hikari, I said I'll think about it and I will", Asuka sighed. "You caught me by surprise, all right?"
"… thank you."
***
Sunday evening
Asuka Langley-Soryu and Shinji Ikari were walking slowly, like they had all the time in the world. It was very different from the times when they were returning from school: it was usually far more hectic, them just to get home. But this… this was something else.
Asuka was almost done with her waffle, a final treat she has gotten herself just before the food stall closed. Shinji was walking along, watching her in the corner of his eye; to his bemused eyes, she seemed… content? Maybe even happy?
He tensed a bit. This entire not-a-date has been fun once he overcame the initial confusion.
***
Earlier that day
Asuka emerged from her room wearing jeans and an Iron Maiden t-shirt; a small red backpack with some danglers was hanging from her shoulder. She glanced at Shinji, who wearing his unusual white-shirt-black-pants attire.
"Ready?"
He blinked when he noticed her. "Ah. Yes."
She tilted her head. "Not happy about a prospect of hanging out?" she looked at him inquisitively.
He shook his head. "Sorry. Just… thoughtful. I talked to my father today… it's rarely pleasant."
"Your-ah" Asuka's face became slightly pale, then her face turned slightly red when she realised what day was today. "Listen, if you don't want to go-" she started quickly.
He shook his head again. "No, it's fine", he smiled a small smile. "If I stay, I'll be sitting here and thinking too much. And…"
She raised her eyebrows. "Yes?"
"You said something about 'enjoying ourselves', right?" his smile grew a bit wider. "And I'm holding you on your word."
Asuka blinked. She wanted to crack some comment in the vein of 'who are you and what did you do to Shinji Ikari?', then decided to bite her tongue. Her jokes brought the last attempt low; time for them will come, someday, maybe even today, but not at this very moment.
'Stupid me, forgetting the anniversary of his mother's death… Let's not make it a mess, shall we?'
***
Once they were on their way, Shinji – feeling relaxed, to his surprise – raised the subject on their school being refurbished after under the pretence of fixing some Angel-caused damage.
"Well, it'd be nice if the paint stopped flaking, but really, they could've picked something nicer than dull grey and shitty brown, don't you think?" Asuka complained.
"You know the school looks should help us focus, not distract us?" Shinji raised his eyebrows. "If they painted it red, it would certainly match your hair, but would make us too angry to actually do something, like the bull cape."
Asuka sighed. "Bulls are colour-blind. It's not red that makes them mad, it's the movement. And okay, I'm not saying red. But some livelier green, or maybe some yellow? Come on, it looks like some museum or a tomb. What's the message? 'Bury your aspirations, ye who enter here' or 'shitty atmosphere, get used to it'?"
Shinji knew Asuka made jokes from time to time. His problem was that he never knew when. Seemingly, he had to take a chance here. "Well, the first one could kind-of fit, from the European point of view, the Japanese education system is a little bit oppressive. And the second… when was the last time you were able to use the lavatories on the 3rd floor without gagging from the smell?" he smiled with a hint of insecurity.
Asuka chuckled. "Well. You do have a point. But why advertise it so much?"
"Well, if they painted it green, you'd associate it with jungle, wouldn't you?" his smile grew a little bit more confident.
This was the first sign that something was really off: they were having a civil conversation on a subject they disagreed on – and Shinji was not on edge. Neither of them noticed that – they were enjoying each other's company.
And that was the second sign something was off.
***
The third sign that something was off – ignored exactly like the previous two ones – came once the two arrived at the arcade floor.
"Okay, what do you think should we hit first?" Asuka took a look around. Shinji hesitated. He was aware that his choice would likely influence the course of this d-time together. So he started weighing his options, his stomach clenching slightly.
Asuka caught his troubled expression. 'Oh. There we go. All right, better luck next time.'
She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards some racing game. "Haven't seen this one last time. Let's try it… and let's see how all this time in simulators improved your reflexes."
Shinji, startled by this sudden interruption of his pondering, followed.
"And don't hold back, if I find you did, I will kill you."
Shinji nodded and regained his ability to speak: "Asuka, I don't have to hold back, you're better anyway. But don't worry, I won't make it easy for you."
"Damn right I'm better" she grinned, taking the red #1 seat. "Come on!"
Shinji put a coin in the game and took his #2 place.
***
Two minutes later
"You bastard! Cutting in my way like this? I'll show you!"
***
Twenty minutes and several more coins later
"Well, that was fun" Asuka stretched. Shinji did his best not to look; it was not hard, he practiced this skill on hard mode already – with Asuka in her plugsuit. "Thank you", she smiled. "What now?"
Shinji hesitated only for a second. "Are you hungry?"
"Mm… trying to get me fed so my reflexes are dulled? Fat chance, Third. Not yet. I want to beat you in something else" she smirked.
"They have some shooters here", Shinji suggested.
"Blah" Asuka stuck her tongue out with disgust. "Don't you have enough of that in combat simulator?"
"Point taken. Air hockey?" he tried again.
"They have this here?" she asked with surprise. "All right, it's been a while, but get ready to have your ass handed to you" she grinned.
***
"Asuka…" Shinji started in his usual vein when they reached the food court after a hard-won Asuka's victory. Winning 4:3 in matches could not exactly be described as 'ass-handing' victory – but was still a victory.
"Mm? Whaf if it?" she asked, swallowed, and corrected herself. "What is it?"
"What's the t-shirt about?" he blurted out a question. "Is it something about your Eva?"
Asuka blinked at him several times. 'Seriously? He must be joking…'
She put the half-eaten burrito down, wiped her hands, and pulled at the t-shirt, making the picture on it straighter – and making Shinji avert his eyes for a second. The shirt was a pretty standard – if a tad worn out – Iron Maiden merchandise, with band's name in their iconic font on the top and a variation on Eddie's face; this particular one had Eddie grinning – not that he had much choice – from a mostly red background and reaching with a clawed hand for some guy in VR helmet.
"This, idiot-Shinji, is not about my Eva. Not all I do is about piloting, you know?" she noted dryly, trying not to think how much a lie has that recently become. "This is about a certain band I love and whose concert I went to, after much pleading with Misato and making her lie to several people, when I was ten – lucky me I was tall for my age – and they were on a tour in Germany when they were promoting their 'Flames of Antarctica' album."
Shinji blinked. "Oh. I thought-"
Asuka's eyes narrowed. "What exactly were you thinking?" she inquired, leaning towards him.
Shinji's brain was trying to calculate whether this was the moment to trigger the fight-or-flight response. The lizard part of the brain was saying that the imminent threat had not finished her easily accessible food yet, so the risk of an attack on him was lightly mitigated. On the other hand…
"I'm waiting… and it better not be something inappropriate, Mr. Ikari, or I'll brutally force you to buy me a milkshake as a punishment for your insolence!"
Shinji shook his head. His brain took it as a cue to reboot, leaving Shinji to run on instinct for a moment.
"Insolence is your thing, Asuka, not mine" he blurted out. "I just thought the shirt was your way of saying 'I'm a maiden made of iron and don't touch me, or you'll look like the guy on the shirt'".
Asuka, who was just nonchalantly taking a sip of her soda, narrowly avoided spraying it on Shinji. Luckily for her, a coughing fit covered her surprised reaction. 'What was that? Is this Shinji talking, or has some alien just hijacked his body? And what makes him think I would… Oh, yes, "murder you inventively" line… right. Well, he's learning, that's for sure… and well, technically I am a maiden.'
"Asuka! Are you all right?" his concerned voice reached her finally over the coughs and thoughts. She noticed that he was no longer seated before her – he was standing next to her, his warm hand on her shoulder.
"I'm… I'm fine" she managed. "Sorry, went down the wrong hole", another cough followed. 'Err wrong joke, backtrack, backtrack!'
Shinji visibly relaxed and slowly returned to his seat. 'Phew. Went over his head. And was it my imagination, or was he reluctant to take that hand away?'
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart that was suddenly racing, surely only from the coughing fit.
"Yes, I'm all right" breath in, breath out. "And no, this was not a warning. You just touched me and you're alive, right? It's just a band, and I like it, so I wore the shirt, that's all. And how come you don't know about them?" she abruptly changed the subject.
"I… They're not Japanese or American, right? I don't know much about foreign music, except what's played around in radio or TV. I'm more familiar with classical music."
"They're British. Oh boy, you're getting an education as soon as possible. I've got all their albums, and some are on a cassette that'll surely fit that old player of yours", Asuka grinned. "I will not d-" she bit her tongue, her brain adjusting on the fly. "I will not allow this degree of ignorance to persist when I can help it!" she exclaimed, picking up the burrito and biting into it aggressively.
Shinji just nodded. His brain just noticed that his user was both alive and still talking to the girl that was just regarded as a potential mortal threat and turned the urgency of the suggested responses down a notch.
***
Shinji's wrist found itself in a grasp of Asuka's warm hand for the nth time today. He did not object, but instead fought down a moment of panic when he realised she was pulling him towards a movie theatre, while simultaneously scanning the posters.
He knew it could end up very badly. With his heart pounding, he awaited the sentence – and, likely, the instant execution.
***
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Asuka hissed.
"Paying for the tickets?" he replied with confusion.
"You paid the cars and the food, I paid the air hockey, so I'm paying the tickets, right? It's only fair. This is not a date, remember?"
"But-" he tried to protest.
"No 'buts'. And no funny ideas" she bared her teeth in a fascinating mix of smile and threat.
Shinji's brain took the recommendation of the lizard brain and passed it along with its stamp of approval. It was only one word: YIELD.
He thought it prudent to follow this advice.
***
Later Sunday evening
Asuka finished eating and licked the jam off her fingers; Shinji felt a sudden, conflicting needs: both to stare and to look away. He also realised that, for some inexplicable reason, he was blushing.
"Hey, idiot" Asuka prodded. "You there? Base Langley to Shinji Ikari, do you copy?"
Shinji shook his head and focused on the half-smiling, half-smirking face five centimetres from his own. "Yes?" he blurted out.
"Eloquent as ever. Let's verify something. Had fun?" she poked him in his chest. "Was today fun?"
"Y-yes, Asuka" he stammered out. "Yes" he reasserted. "Thank you."
She rolled her eyes. "I didn't do it for you, idiot. I was testing a theory. Or checking a gut feeling, I don't know. And you've been helpful."
His heart sank, and clouds began to gather. For a short moment, he thought she cared. But no – he was right, this was some kind of game, some kind of cruel-
His train of thought was interrupted by Asuka asking a question. It was so unexpected, so absurd, that his brain rejected the input on the first try. He blinked in utter confusion.
"Hey, idiot, are you listening? I asked if you wanted to kiss", Asuka reasserted and this time, his brain processed it – just with a note of 'certainly a trick'. Still, he could not help but nod. Her face was serious, her hands on her hips challenged him, but her eyes… there was something in them, something that made him less afraid.
"Heh. Not the enthusiasm I expected, but hey, I can understand why you're being shy – you're facing me" she smirked and stepped closer; now not only her face was centimetres away from him, but her whole body as well. He did his best not to think about it too much. He registered a movement of her hands, but before he could react – duck, most likely – he had Asuka's hand on his neck and he felt a pull. Half a second later he felt her lips on his own.
His brain took the tactile input and decided once more it was not only improbable, but simply impossible. Still, it was coming through most of his senses: he saw her face next to his own, he smelled a soft smell of strawberry he came to associate with Asuka long ago, he tasted the same smell on her lips, and – most importantly – he felt her soft lips on his own. The auditory impressions were somehow odd, until he realised it was the thumping of his own heart and sound of his own blood rushing. All in all, the input was so overwhelming that rejecting it was impossible. So, his brain threw an exception, terminating the thought processes entirely.
Asuka broke the kiss for a moment. "This is not a date, so this is not a kiss, so, whatever you do or don't do, I will not kill you… unless you do something really stupid", she whispered in a husky voice, tinged with several undertones Shinji could not fully decipher; it sounded like amusement, hope… maybe a hint of fear? Her words managed to break him out of the stupor, and his instinct took over. He reluctantly embraced – or not-embraced, in the line of thinking suggested by Asuka – her, pulling her closer. Asuka smirked again and resumed the kiss, pushing him towards the wall, shielding his head from the impact with her forearm. The cold, wet concrete under his back helped him regain some more contact with reality.
Not that it helped much. Shinji, while ineptly responding to Asuka's kiss, was just moments from passing out. It was a girl of his dreams, in his arms, kissing him! Or not kissing him, if he was to believe her words. It felt both very real and extremely surreal at the same time.
Fortunately for his consciousness – and, likely, dignity – she ended the kiss before he actually lost consciousness. He refocused his blurry vision on her face; she certainly looked content now, almost like a cat that just ate a lot of cream.
"Haah. For something that was not a kiss, that was nice, eh?" she smirked and licked her lips subtly. Shinji kept blinking in confusion. Asuka grabbed his wrist with a practiced move, sending another jolt to his nerve system. "Come. Misato will ask stupid questions anyway, but I want to avoid her worst if we are late" she pulled him down the street. "Come on!" she insisted in a slightly annoyed voice.
He obeyed and got essentially dragged back to the apartment. To their good fortune, Misato was indeed there – snoring heavily on her futon. The smell of alcohol was obvious. Under other circumstances, Shinji would be disappointed with her; this time, his mind was elsewhere.
***
Shinji was laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about what has happened today and about Asuka's parting words: "Well, I hope that this was not the last good time we had. Thanks, idiot." She was still calling him 'idiot', but she was smiling, genuinely smiling… and she sounded really happy.
Shinji Ikari was desperately looking for an answer to the question that has plagued him for the last few days: 'what the hell is going on?'
But this time, contrary to the post-date nights, the confusion was mixed with a rare warm feeling. Something was right, and he was feeling fine.
It was such a rare feeling for him that it actually scared him. Was he allowed to be happy?
***
Asuka was in her bed as well, clutching the pillow, as she had a habit of doing. This was a great day… but it left her in some confusion. Well, a lot of confusion. 'Could it have been so simple all the time? If so, how could I have missed it?'
She followed her intuition – which finally, after several stumbles, started to give her useful advice – and took the lead. It actually went against anything she was taught, anything she had read about in magazines or watched on TV, but it actually worked. And well, as her tactical training went, if procedures failed to work but improvisation, adjustment, and logic did, you went with them until a better procedure was devised.
She stretched and took a deep breath. Her thoughts went back to the beginning of the not-a-date; the first part of the idea was to deny it was a date, lest he runs away. The other part was to take the lead every time he hesitated.
And it worked.
She had fun, and by the looks of it, he had some fun as well. The movie was fine, even if more than a little stupid and unrealistic. And she could not forget the relief in his eyes and the smile he gave her when she simply said 'hey, this one sounds like fun, let's go see it'. He agreed immediately, despite never mentioning anything about enjoying action flicks.
And then she kissed him. And even made him respond. She giggled at that memory. Of course, she was denying it was a kiss, just as she denied this was a date. This was such a blatant lie she could not believe it would ever work… but he went along with it. And he was not exactly the most adept in his attempts. But it did not matter, it was… pleasant.
'I wonder… Is he really so stupid, or did he just need the pretence? All it took was to take the need to decide from him and suddenly he's a good company?'
She sighed. This was, of course, not the ideal situation. While she refused to admit it to anyone, sometimes even herself, she did secretly want to be swept away by the Prince on the White Horse that would kiss her senseless and love her forevermore. Shinji was as far from this fantasy as possible. Well, he did wear white shirts, but that was about it. He would not sweep her away, and while, in foreseeable future, perhaps she could make him kiss her senseless, she was certain it would take a lot of lessons.
About the last part, loving her, she dared not to think yet. It could simply hurt too much.
'Hell… maybe I'm too old for fantasies? Maybe time to grow out of them has come? If this idiot didn't try to apologise for his very existence, it'd be easier…'
She raised her eyes to the heavens and spoke in a hushed voice: "God above… I know we're not at best of terms, and I am kind of angry with you still… but if this is your way of making it up to me, it's a good one. But if it's some test, and it all comes down crumbling on my head… I swear to you, I am going to snap."
She pondered for a moment.
"Amen?"
