"Right Misato, we're leaving now!" Shinji forced a smile onto his face as he practically dragged Asuka out the front door into the hallway. This time he was the one hauling HER around for a change.
"But class doesn't start for hours yet! And you haven't explained what Asuka was doing in your room!" Misato complained, stopping at the doorway and watching an anxious Shinji pulling a confused Asuka further down the hall.
"It's.. a special class! Because we missed so many days fighting angels! Asuka was just waking me up! We'll explain it all later! Bye!" Shinji blurted out, rapid fire, not giving Misato a chance to respond. He waved as he finished, hauling Asuka around a corner and out of sight.
Misato just stared at the corner. ~~What's gotten INTO that boy? He never acted like this before...~~ She tapped her chin and suddenly grinned as one possible explanation occurred to her.
~~That little Cassanova! Heh heh! But him and ASUKA? Well, stranger things have happened. He's growing up so quickly... Still, I should probably start making sure their doors are closed during the night. Hee hee!~~ She grinned to herself, stepping back into the apartment and closing the door.
*********
"Let go of me already, Third!" Asuka grumbled, yanking her hand free once they were out of sight. "What's the big idea?"
Shinji sighed, resuming a normal pace as they walked out of the apartment building and turned down a street. "Do you REALLY want to spend the rest of this loop explaining what was going on to Misato? Or making up a good excuse for what you were doing in my room crying?"
"I was NOT crying!" Asuka growled, shaking his fist at Shinji. "I was just.. surprised. Anyway, your excuse sucked! 'Waking me up for a special class.' HA!" She turned her nose up.
"It got us out of the apartment before she could ask too many questions, didn't it?" Shinji shot back. He'd changed into his school clothes in just a few minutes, pushed Asuka into doing the same, and pulled her out the door before Misato could do much of anything.
"Whatever! I still owe you a beating for making me worry like that!" She shook her fist at Shinji who just blew it off.
"Whatever! Like getting killed would make a difference. If all it took to break the loop was DYING I'd have gotten out of it AGES ago."
Asuka paused for a second, mulling over Shinji's casual lack of concern with death. "So.. what's it like? Being dead I mean?" she asked cautiously
Shinji shrugged. "How should I know? When I get killed I just wake up the next morning like always." He replied bitterly.
"Did it... hurt?"
"Not really. Falling from that high up is usually instantly fatal. It can be kind of fun, being in freefall." He considered for a moment. "Not like getting shot. Sometimes that's pretty quick, but not always. It usually doesn't hurt for the first few seconds, but then it hurts a LOT, and you end up lying there forever waiting to die. I think getting hit by a car is probably the worst though. Broken bones really hurt whenever you move, and half the time you survive and end up in the hospital all day in pain." He shrugged. "So falling from the balcony isn't so bad."
Asuka just stared for a few moments, speechless. Then she shook her head and regained her equilibrium. "Well, it may have been painless for YOU, but it sucked for everyone else!" she huffed. Shinji turned to stare at her.
"You mean you went through the whole rest of the day?" He asked. He seemed a bit surprised and excited. "What happened?"
"What do you THINK happened, Dummkopf?" Asuka growled at him. She was still feeling uncomfortable about the previous loop, and the fear that she'd accidentally killed Shinji. "Misato spent the whole day crying! She was relieved of command until she could pull herself together! Everyone in the Geofront was depressed. They all thought you had committed suicide or something!" she huffed. "I, of course, was fine. I knew a fall like that couldn't kill you. You'd just bounce like a bowl of jelly, since you don't have a spine!" She shot at him.
Her barb didn't seem to have much effect. "And what about my father?" Shinji questioned.
"He... Well, he didn't react at all really." Asuka answered after a moment of consideration. "He just took Misato off duty, and ordered Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki to start searching for a replacement." She frowned. "You're father is kind of a bastard." She finally added.
Shinji sighed. "About what I expected really." He rolled his eyes. "And trust me, you don't know by HALF what a heartless bastard he is! Still, I always wondered how he reacted to me getting killed. I mean, I couldn't be around to see his reaction afterwards..." He shrugged.
Asuka suddenly looked around, realizing she had no idea where she was, or where Shinji was leading her.
"Hey, dummkopf, this isn't the way to school!"
"You actually WANT to go to school?" Shinji asked incredulously.
"Well.. What else are we supposed to do?" Asuka groused. "I'm not going to just wander around Tokyo 3 until that Angel shows up. AGAIN." She grumbled. The last thing she was going to do was admit that she DID want to go to class. Go to class and see all her normal classmates. Have a normal conversation. Talk to her friend Hikari. Just,.. Have a normal day.
Shinji was silent for a few minutes, continuing to walk down the street. The city was far from busy this early in the morning, but there were plenty of people out and about, running errands or heading off to early jobs. Or returning from late nights.
"It doesn't really help you know." Shinji paused for a moment, then continued before Asuka could respond. "Going back to school that is. Trying to pretend it's just a regular day. It doesn't work. Everyone just does the same things, says the same stuff, spreads the same gossip." He paused again, his shoulders slumped, his voice quiet. "You can change things.. Start a different conversation. Talk to someone else. Pull a fire alarm. Scream in everyone's faces. Kidney punch a teacher. But even then they always react the same ways... After a while you can't even pretend it's a normal day..." He muttered, hands in his pockets, eyes downcast.
The pair just walked along in silence after that, Shinji still leading them, turning the occasional corner. Asuka had no idea what to say, and by now was feeling a bit depressed herself, her usual steely determination weakening. She just looked at the buildings as they passed and watched the people walking by.
After a few more minutes of brooding silence, Shinji came to a stop in front of one particular building. It looked a bit like a café, with small tables with umbrellas arrayed out front.
"Well, here we are!" Shinji said, sounding a hair more cheerful.
"What, an ice cream shop?" Asuka asked in disbelief.
"Yep! They make the best shakes in all of Tokyo 3 here, and they open really early!" He said confidently, stepping through the doors.
Asuka just shrugged and followed a second later.
*********
"Okay Third, I admit, the ice cream here is pretty good." Asuka grudgingly admitted, working her way through her Sundae with a bit of her usual enthusiasm. Shinji sat opposite her at one of the tables, sipping his shake from a cup.
"The best in all of Tokyo 3!" Shinji insisted proudly.
"And how would YOU know it's the best?" Asuka said with a smirk, indulging her usual instinct to be contrary to whatever Shinji said. If nothing else it usually netted her an apology. After a second however, her mind caught up with her instincts.
"Wait, never mind. I don't want to know." She sighed and played with her spoon. ~~Maybe he DOES know this is the best ice cream in all of Tokyo 3 from experience.~~ she thought to herself morosely. It just brought the facts of the endless loop back to the forefront of her thoughts. Not that it was ever far from her mind.
The red-head's sudden change in attitude wasn't completely lost on Shinji. He squirmed in his seat for a moment, trying to think of what to say.
"Come on Asuka... It's not THAT bad..." He gulped a bit as Asuka raised her head to give him an angry stare. "I mean, look at it this way: you can eat all the ice cream you want and not have to worry about your figure!" He tried to smile and let out a small laugh, but it was a sickly smile and a hollow laugh as Asuka's angry stare just intensified. ~~Okay, maybe that wasn't the right thing to say...~~
Asuka grumbled and lowered her head again, staring at her half eaten sunday. "I shouldn’t even be out here with an idiot like you. Gott forbid if my friends saw us out here! They'd think we were on a date or something!" she groused, feeling a bit better as she vented at Shinji. It didn't last long however.
"But I guess it doesn't really matter, huh?" she muttered. She put her arms on the table and rested her head on them, putting her eyes at the level of her ice cream. "None of them will remember seeing us here anyway."
Silence reined for a few minutes as Shinji sat there, thinking furiously as he finished his shake. Finally he reached the bottom of his dessert: The loud sucking noise his straw made as he tried to get the last bit of ice cream from the bottom finally roused Asuka from her apathy.
"Stop making such a stupid racket, idiot." She mumbled without much venom, giving him a glare.
Shinji completely ignored the insult. "Look, I know what we can do."
"Oh? What?" Asuka asked disinterestedly, head still on her arms, intently watching her ice cream melt.
"I know some games we can play."
Asuka snorted. "I'm not interested in playing Go Fish. And forget Spin The Bottle with a loser like you. I'm not in the mood for stupid video games either."
Shinji just smirked, a rather mischievous, evil glint in his eyes that Asuka was most definitely NOT used to seeing there.
"I'm not TALKING about video games." He said confidently. "Come on, let's go..."
(Posted Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:03)
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