In a Perfect World: 10 – Morning After (Shinji)

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or any of the characters they are the property of their respective creators. Please be aware that no profit is being made from this work of fan fiction.

Despite the fact I lay down and feigned sleep, it refused to grace me with its presence. My mind was racing, trying to unravel all that had happened. Who would have thought that so much could have changed, all in the course of a single day. The morning had started out normal enough, and although my prank on Asuka backfired things were going ok. Or at least they were right up until that moment when she slipped my shirt over her head and everything changed…even as part of me was commenting on how I wouldn’t mind seeing Asuka dressed like that every day a deeper realisation was taking place. Ever since that day…the day of the accident, my image of Asuka has been frozen in place. She had always been the girl who I held while she cried, the girl I wanted to protect so badly.

For the first time I saw her for the person she had become, as opposed to the girl she once was…that was when our relationship began to change. For the first time I looked at Asuka, truly looked at her as a woman, rather than simply as my ‘oldest childhood friend’. What I saw left me speechless, just like when my father saw my mother for the first time; she still teases him occasionally about how he got tongue-tied. What had started out as a simple apology started to change into the beginnings of a date and if it hadn’t been for running into Toji and Hikari I think I might have actually asked her out on a real date…I know it seems crazy, that after almost ten years my feelings could so quickly change, but I don’t think they did, I just never realised they were there in the first place.

Then we ran into Kaworu and Rei and things changed again. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of the two of them. After all Rei had basically accused me of staring at her panties the first time we met…I wasn’t staring exactly, just, well…my eyes happened to be looking in that particular place! Anyway, I still can’t believe she accused me of doing it right in the middle of class, and if that wasn’t bad enough Asuka just had to leapt to my defence which inevitably led to Rei’s comeback accusing Asuka of ‘riding my baloney pony’, if the earth could have swallowed me up right there and then I would have been happy. I was only thankful that Hikari has stepped in then, before it had gotten any more out of control. Still, Toji and Kensuke wouldn’t stop bugging me about it all week…

It’s ironic when you think that once upon a time that Asuka and Rei were friends, even if they had both pretty much forgotten all about back then. I thought that I had finally gotten it all worked out but then there was that incident at the restaurant and I ended up chasing after Rei…that left me even more confused than before as it made me realise that I still have some feelings for Rei as well. Thankfully when I brought her back things seemed to have calmed down, although I don’t like the fact that they started treating me like some prize to be won; Asuka is very competitive by nature and Kaworu…well she always was forward, even when we were kids. But Rei…I just couldn’t believe it when she started acting that way.

I got angry and almost lost my temper…but when Rei apologised I found my anger evaporating, and that’s how I ended up this way, lying here thinking instead of getting some much needed sleep. I’m not quite sure when I finally drifted off, but something heavy shifting about on top of me woke me up again. Opening my eyes slightly I could make out what looked like a red blur hanging above me. Blinking a little to clear the sleep from my eyes, my vision cleared revealing a grinning Asuka…although after a quick glance down it appeared that a grin was all she was wearing. Desperately fighting to stop the reaction that was very quickly taking shape I tore my gaze away, focusing instead on her face.

Caught completely off guard I simply lay there, dumbfounded, my mind still struggling to get fully awake and form coherent thoughts such as ‘What is she doing? Why is she naked? And how long is she going to stay that way?’. She leaned closed, moving her head so her breath tickled my ear as she spoke.

“Shinji…”

She literally purred my name, sending shivers down my spine.

“I thought as you have ‘morning wood’ again, I thought this time I would put it to the use it was intended.”

That comment was enough to send my brain to fully awake, evidently if she was going to be doing ‘that’ with me my mind wanted to be fully alert to enjoy it. Her hands began to slide southwards, gripping the hem of my t-shirt and lifting it over my head. I was about to protest when her lips covered mine in a heated kiss, my protests died as something more primal took over and I began to kiss her back. Meanwhile, her hands were stroking my chest but slowly they began to creep south once more, towards my shorts. Then a thought struck me and I broke away, holding her at arm’s length for a moment as I tried to compose my thoughts enough to actually get out coherent speech.

“Asuka! Wait a moment! What about Kaworu and Rei?”

She simply grinned at me again, amusement twinkling in her eyes.

“Don’t worry Shinji, they’ll get their turn. In the meantime they’re keeping each other amused, see?”

I turned to look at them…and jerked awake. All too aware of my present state of arousal I threw of the covers and made a mad dash for the bathroom, intent on taking a cold…no, a very cold shower. I charged out of my room, down the hall and into the bathroom before spinning and locking the door behind me. Only then did I finally feel safe. Calming down somewhat I began to undress, putting my clothes to one side before pulling opening he shower door and starting to step inside…only to find I wasn’t alone. Asuka, Rei and Kaworu were already there, all naked and engaged in something that should have given me a colossal nosebleed. As it was I suddenly found myself feeling rather uncomfortable downstairs…it was at that point that they seemed to notice me and paused.

“Come join us Shinji.”

Once again, that was the point at which I woke up. This time, there was no Asuka laying on top of me, and after checking over to my side, Asuka, Rei and Kaworu were all still in their beds. Breathing a sigh of relief, and hoping that I really was awake this time I slipped out of my room once again before heading to the bathroom. This time, before I locked the door I was careful to ensure the shower was empty. Thankfully it was and I went back and locked the door before undressing and taking the shower I was in desperate need of. The cold water eased my problem rather quickly and soon I found myself able to relax and forget the rather…interesting things that had happened in my dreams. I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be able to look at any of them for a while without blushing crimson.

I showered for as long as I dared, before slipping out in nothing but a towel with last night’s boxer shorts beneath. I returned to my room, opening the door carefully so as not to wake the remaining occupants. Thankfully none of them appeared to have woken up just yet, that should mean I can get my clothes and get out again without any trouble. I slipped inside, picking my way between the three girls carefully, and making my way to the chest of draws containing my clothes. I slid the top one open retrieving a fresh pair of boxers, from the second I pulled out some socks. Sliding them closed I turned to the wardrobe, pulling out a light blue shirt, similar to the previous day’s and my black trousers. With these in hand I turned to make my way back towards the door…but found that Asuka was in my way.

“Mmmm…Shinji…”

Before I could react, she body tackled me, sending us both falling backwards, onto my bed. It took me a moment to recover from the disorientation during which time Asuka pinned me to the bed, entwining her legs with mine to keep me in place. From the look on her face she was dreaming again…I’m not sure whether to be flattered or scared that she’s having ‘those’ kinds of dreams about me. Unfortunately I wasn’t given much time to consider as she pressed herself tightly against me and her lips covered my own. That was when I found my opportunity, as her grip relaxed for a moment. Silently praying that she would forgive me I rolled her off from on top of me before throwing myself sideways.

I landed between the still sleeping forms of Rei and Kaworu, knocking my head on the chest of drawers behind me in the process. My vision went a little blurry as I lay there, staring up at the familiar ceiling, too stunned to move. After a moment I felt two sets of arms start to encircle me, looking to either side I found that both Rei and Kaworu girls were drifting towards me in their sleep. Now, rather unfortunately given the fact it was my shirts they were wearing and the fact that I am more heavily built than either of them the collars were rather loose…I had to fight not to get a nose bleed at the sight of them, in fact it may only have been because the blood was already flowing elsewhere…panicking I struggled to my feet, escaping their grasp and stumbled back to the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

Putting down my clothes I moved over to the mirror and probed at my head gingerly. It was a little sore but didn’t seem to be bleeding, wetting a small towel and holding it against the sore patch made the throbbing go away and a few moments later I pulled it away dropped it across the edge of the sink before getting changed. I didn’t dare return to my room, for fear of what might happen this time; especially if Asuka is finally awake…instead I decided to head for the kitchen instead. My choice made, I wrung out the towel before throwing it in the wash basket and heading out towards the kitchen, looking find something to eat.

Already the smells of breakfast were wafting out of the kitchen; no doubt mom was preparing something. I continued onwards, only to be surprised when I found mom and aunt Kyoko seated at the kitchen table, talking about something while dad was the one doing the cooking. In truth I shouldn’t really be all that surprised, dad was the one who taught me most of my cooking skills. At the time he told me ‘women love a man who can cook’, and mom had once told me it had been his cooking that had finally swayed her into marrying him. Of course, I didn’t believe a word of it but still…I mean it didn’t hurt to know how to feed myself after all. Well, that was until Asuka found out and started getting me to make her lunch occasionally.

It’s not that I minded the actual cooking, it was more the reaction that Touji, Kensuke gave when they found out…they may be my closest friends, besides Asuka, but there are times when I would really love to murder the both of them. That was the point at which they started referring to Asuka and I as the ‘newlyweds’. Asuka of course got angry, and demanded that I do something about it which only served to fuel the fire. Within a week it had gotten out to pretty much the whole school…it took a lot of persuading to keep Asuka from killing my friends at that point, even if I was strongly tempted to help her. Anyway, from that point on every time Asuka and I go into an argument it was referred to as a lover’s spat and so on…I’m reasonably certain they will get tired of it eventually.

Snapping my attention back to the present I noticed that my mother and aunt Kyoko had paused for a moment in their conversation to stare at me intently, almost as if they were looking for something…after a moment they both sighed and went back to their conversation. Feeling somewhat unnerved by their strange behaviour I decided that perhaps my father might be a safe bet and silently moved past them, coming to stand at his side.

“Dad?”

He paused briefly to turn and look at me, before returning his attention to the various pots currently bubbling away on the stove.

“What is it Shinji?”

“Can I help at all?”

Once again he paused for a moment, his eyes moving across each of the items, no doubt checking them off in his mind.

“You can start on the miso soup, while I finish up the fish.”

“Ok.”

Rolling up my sleeves and washing my hands I moved back to stand at my father’s side, retrieving the ingredients from the cupboards while dad put an extra pan onto the stove. I was just starting the broth when mom spoke up.

“We’ll leave the two of you to the cooking, Kyoko and I are going to retreat to the lounge to continue our conversation.”

And without another words, they upped and left, leaving my dad and I alone. I swear, I really don’t understand girls, or women…we continued on in silence for a little while, at least until everything that needed preparation was on and only needed some occasional attention to ensure it was cooking properly. My dad stepped away from the stove, moving over to the taking out a carton of orange juice and pouring two glasses. He returned the carton to its place, before carrying the two glasses over to the table and beckoning for me to sit down. Do as I was told I moved to sit across from him, making sure that I could keep an eye on the stove as well. After I was settled he went into his ‘pose’ the one mom always goes on about him using.

“So, Shinji, did you sleep well?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess…”

“The girls didn’t disturb you?”

“No…”

“Not even Asuka?”

“No.”

“Hmmm, I see.”

We lapsed into silence once again, both of us sipping at our orange juice. My dad seemed to have a disappointed look on his face, while I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I mean, why exactly would they have disturbed me? I mean, we were all pretty tired after everything that happened, especially after this morning…that’s when it hit me.

“Dad…this doesn’t have anything to do with what you saw this morning does it?”

He remained conspicuously silent.

“DAD! I told you! Nothing happened! It was just a misunderstanding!”

“Of course Shinji, the exact same kind of misunderstanding your mother and I had when we were dating.”

I was getting frustrated, what do I have to say to get him to believe me?

“I. Am. Not. Dating. Asuka.”

But before he could respond I was interrupted by another voice from behind…a voice that I hadn’t been expecting to hear and given what I had just said, most definitely didn’t want to.

“Oh really?”

Whirling round, sure enough I found Asuka standing in the entryway, still wearing one of my shirts…and probably not a lot else. Desperate, I looked to my father for support…only to find he had stood up and gone back over the stove, keeping well out of the way.

“Um…I…uh…”

Asuka started to advance towards me, a wicked smile on her face, one that promised nothing good was going to happen to me. Desperately searching for any way I might be able to get out of this in one piece I finally came up with a plan…a plan so positively crazy that it might just work.

“Look!”

I shouted, pointing past her.

“A decoy!”

“What? Where?”

Leaving Asuka suitable distracted I made a break for it, running hell for leather towards the front door and my only real chance of escape.

“Shinji, make sure you and Asuka are back in time for breakfast, ok?”

“Yes mom!”

I called as I swept past her and aunt Kyoko, a moment later there was a loud cry of frustration and the sounds of Asuka pursuing…what did I ever do to deserve this? I wonder if I offended kami in some way? Not even stopping to put my shoes on I fled down the hallway, hit by a sense of déjà vu at how similar this was to the events of yesterday…

Three minutes and one mad dash later the result was unfortunately the same as the previous day. A triumphant, and slightly less naked Asuka was sitting astride my chest, grinning wickedly at me. Even if I’ve gotten more athletic since joining the basketball team, Asuka still runs faster than I do…that in itself shouldn’t be that much of a problem, given the fact she technically shouldn’t be able to overpower me…but she’s a girl and a friend so I can’t hurt her which means I basically have to lie here, totally at her mercy and just bear out whatever punishment she has in mind for me. Speaking of which, given yesterday as an example, I’m a little worried that she hasn’t actually said or done anything to me yet…well, except for that lurid grin on her face.

“Um, Asuka?”

“Yes Shinji?”

Her grin didn’t falter…I really am starting to get very nervous about this, I mean, what if anyone sees us like this…again.

“Shouldn’t we go back to the apartment? I mean you’re…almost naked again?”

“Oh? And does that bother you Shinji?”

She almost purred as she lowered herself down onto me, making sure that I got a good glimpse down the open collar of her shirt. Flushing I turned away, trying to at least preserve her modesty, even if she didn’t want to.

“Yes it bothers me! I mean what would happen if anyone saw us? You know everyone at school calls us the ‘newly weds’! I don’t even want to think they would say if they saw this…”

“I doubt they would bat an eye. Considering they already believe we’re lovers. Who are we to make them liars?”

Finally I had enough, being as gentle as possible I pushed her off from on top of me.

“Asuka! What in the hell is wrong with you! I mean, you keep on going on about being my ‘oldest childhood friend’ and get mad whenever anyone talks about us being a couple and then you do this, Asuka I…”

My words cut off abruptly when she pressed her lips firmly against my own. I was so shocked, I just lay there, motionless, no knowing how to react. Still, it seemed that some part of my brain knew exactly what to do, as my lips started moving against hers unbidden as slowly the kiss deepened and became more passionate. Asuka is kissing me! Again! But this time she is awake! And for some reason I keep punctuating my thoughts with exclamation marks! I suspect that the higher functions of my brain might have decided to go for a vacation! Asuka kept the contact for a few more moments before pulling away, that same self-assured smile returning to her face.

“So…perhaps now you want to reconsider what you told your father this morning?”

It took me a moment to recover before replying.

“What in the hell did you think you were doing!”

At once her expression changed to one of anger as she snapped back at me.

“Well, I didn’t hear you complaining a moment ago!”

“I was in shock!”

“Dammit Shinji! Why can’t you just admit that you like me the same way I like you!”

“I…”

“What did you just say?”

“I. Like. You. Why is that so difficult for you to understand!”

“Um, because you’re my ‘oldest childhood friend’?”

“I’ve got a news flash for you idiot, you don’t kiss your friends like that.”

“Asuka…”

“No! Don’t ‘Asuka’ me Shinji. I’ve been waiting a long time for this! Ever since my father died…I’m tired of you ignoring me Shinji! I don’t want to spent the rest of my life just being your friend.”

With that she pushed herself off of me and fled, leaving me stunned into silence and wondering how I had missed what was happening all this time…

AN: Yes, I know it’s been half of forever since the last update but put simply, I’ve been busy. Work, life and a more than healthy dose of writers block has kept this update on the starting line for a while now. I can’t promise that the next one will be any sooner, but at least for the moment I am back in a writing groove. As for my other works…keep and eye out because updates may appear, no guarantees thought.

Thank you everyone for sticking by me this long and for all the reviews.

Hope to see you all on the next one,

H.

Chapter preread by That Other Guy