Neon Genesis Evangelion Fanfic

Fic created by:  Sway
Started:         08/03/01
Finished:

Shinji's surprising new rival - Shinji's version (Part 1)

Disclamer: NGE doesn't belong to me, and I'm not giving the 
           impression that it does. So sueying me would be 
           pointless. Besides, I have no money worth sueying 
           for.

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	It had been so long since I thought about her, since 
her face passed through the memory of my mind, since my lips 
spoke her name..."Asuka...

	It was a bright and sunny afternoon, just like the days 
before this one. Almost four years had passed since the Angels 
had been vanquished...defeated. My birthday was approaching. 
Fifth teen...I was turning fifth teen. I shrugged at the 
thought and began taking off my clothes to take a shower, as 
it usually had the effect of relaxing my emotions. With one 
hand, I opened the curtains, which blocked the view of inside the 
shower, and stepped in carefully, one foot at a time, while 
turning on the hot water with my other. My hair became wet in 
sudden instance as I rubbed shampoo through it afterwards. 

	"Why now? Why am I thinking of her now?" I thought to 
myself as I tried to figure it out.

	After all that happened with the angels, Asuka had 
decided to return to Germany for a while to rejoin her 
family. Not that she wanted to all that much, but her parents 
wanted to see her for some reason or another. 


***FLASHBACK***
	
	Asuka: "My parents called me saying I should return home 
                since the angels are no threat to us anymore. And 
                it will feel good to go home again. I suppose. But 
                I'll come back soon."

	Seeing that she didn't sound to convincing and a bit 
soft, she looked at Shinji who had his head down at the time.

	Asuka: "At least I'll have some time away from perverted 
                Shinji here! What a relief that will be!"

	Shinji frowned and mumbled something under his breath.

	Asuka: "Well, here's my ride back to Germany!"

	Asuka said looking out the big window of the airport as a 
woman's voice of the intercom said: "All passengers for flight 56 
to Germany please be ready to board the airplane, thank you."

	Asuka (trying to look cheerful): "I'll see you all again 
               soon! Misato-san, Kaji, Ritsuko and Hikari I'll 
               miss you!!! Shinji, I'll miss you too! And even 
               you Wondergirl!"

	Departing for her flight, she waved goodbye, gave a wink 
and left her friends standing there. Misato and Ritsuko waving 
back, Hikari yelling out farewell, Shinji looking at her walk 
away with a sad expression as his head slowly comes down and Rei 
was with her usual expressionless face.
 
***END FLASHBACK***


	She had left me, she had left us behind...I don't know what 
I feel for her, only that I miss her. But could there be more to it 
than that? It already has been one year. She promised to come 
back, but when? When Asuka? When..?

	Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang as I heard "I'm home!" 
It was Misato-san! Trying to sound as loud as I could, I yelled out 
a welcome from the shower, which was almost completely muzzled out 
by the running water. But at a pressure like that, I figured that 
Misato could hear it run.

	"Is that you in there Shinji?!"

	"Yeah!" I yelled in response. She probably heard due to the 
         fact she yelled back. 

	"Hurry up in there! I'm hungry, but if I have to wait too 
         long, I'll make it my turn to cook!"

	I shrugged at the thought. "I'll be out in a second!" 

	I turned off the shower after quickly washing all the shampoo 
from my hair. I put a towel around my waist and held it as I reached 
for the doorknob as I suddenly heard Misato scream.

	"Misato what's wr-"

	Before being able to finish my sentence I instantly began to 
laugh at the sight of Misato's shirt completely drenched from a can 
beer that had overflowed the top when she had opened it.

	"Shut up Shinji! You know better than to make fun of higher 
authority! And go make me supper, I'm hungry!" As she went into her 
room to change from her now wet NERV outfit into something more 
convenient for lounging around the house all night.  

	"Y-Yes ma'am! But you know, I don't really pilot EVA01 
         anymore."

	Then, I saw Misato's glare which made me gulp and stop talking 
before I got myself in deeper.

	"Yes, but we still do tests to see if your synch ratio is 
         always as high."

	"I know I know...I'll go get supper ready while you change." 

	She nodded to me and entered her room. I looked down and 
realized that I was still wearing a simple towel. So, blushing a 
bit even though no one was there, I headed towards my room to put on 
some pants before cooking anything.


	We ate late again that night. But it didn't really bother me 
since I was getting used to Misato coming in from work at all times of 
the day night. I wondered, while I had nothing else to think about, 
what they could possibly doing at NERV that would take so much time.

	"Another late supper huh?"

	"I guess so."

	"Well, at least it was a good one! Thanks for making it."

	"Yeah, no problem."

	"Look, Shinji, I'm sorry for blowing up on you like that. Its 
         been a hard day and--"

 	"Its not that." I said, cutting her off before she had the 
         chance to finish her apology. "I was just..." I paused and 
         sighed, "thinking of someone."

	"Oh? Thinking of who?"

	I blushed a little. "Hum, no one really, its not important."

	"Awe, c'mon" she asked slyly as she approached me. "You know 
         you can tell me anything Shinji-kun." 

	Just then, the door opened as Rei walked in with her usual 
calm and expressionless face. 

	"Rei!" 

	"You were thinking of Rei?!"

	"What?! No! I mean Rei walked in!"

	"I'm home. At least, I think I am."

	Rei walked inside and headed towards the both of us with that 
same clone look on her face, even though she was improving with her 
expressions.

	"Hello Rei, welcome home. And of course this is your home!" She 
         grinned "You are now a part of our family whether you like it 
         or not!"

	"I see...well then, I believe I will settle in 'my' room. Have 
         a good night Major and you too Ikari-kun."

	"Goodnight Rei. And you can call me Misato you know"

	I smiled at her. "Goodnight"

	Rei quickly disappeared into her new room after both Misato 
and I said 'goodnight'. Only, I wondered where she had been all this 
time. But since she had arrived here safe and sound, I supposed there 
was no possible reason to worry.

	"Sooooo, where were we Shinji? Oh yes, you were about to tell 
         me who you were thinking about, isn't that right?" Misato 
         kept pushing.

	I blushed even more heavily than before as she kept pushing me 
to give her an answer. "Hum, well, you see...I think I better go to bed
now too!" With those words I avoided the whole conversation with best 
efforts by rushing off into my room and closing the door behind me, 
leaving Misato with a confused mind but an eager curiosity.


	The next morning, as loud as ever, I could hear Misato talking 
to herself as she went on with her usual morning routine. God how I 
wished these doors were sound proof.

	"Gah!! I'm late again!! Ritsuko will have my head! And she 
         said she had something interesting to say to me too!" 

	"Still making as much sound as possible" I whispered to 
         myself. "I wish she would be quiet for once since this is 
         our day off!" But as much as I wished and hoped, she still 
         kept on having that conversation of hers.

	"Hmpft! They get a day's vacation from school and I still have 
         to drag my ass all the way to work. Talk about unfair!" 

	Then, after a few moments of peace, I heard the door slam 
shut. "Talk about ill-tempered in the morning." I thought to myself, 
knowing that she had done that on purpose to try and wake Rei and me 
up. Not that it mattered to me; she had waked me up long before that. 
I grumbled and went back to sleep, enjoying as much as possible the 
fact that I did not have to get up for another couple of hours.


	Later that day, long after the sun and Rei I finally dragged 
myself out of bed. I yawned and stretched out my arms high above my 
head leaving my room to catch a small breakfast. Just then, I saw that 
Rei was sitting, seeming as though she was waiting for...something.

	"Good morning Ayanami!"

	"Good morning Shinji-kun."

	"Are you hungry? When did you wake up?"

	"A while back, and yes I am."

	"Good, then I'll make breakfast for you as well!" 

	I sounded rather cheerful for a morning, no doubt because 
there was no school. So, almost skipping, I made my way towards the 
kitchen to prepare something eatable.

	Shortly after, Rei and I were eating silently at the table, 
face to face. For some reason, I felt it was too quiet for my taste, 
so I decided to speak up and maybe start a conversation.

	"Is it good?"

	"Yes, thank you."

	"So...what are we going to do today since there is no school?"

	"Perhaps we should stay here in case commander Ikari needs 
         us." 

	What is this girl thinking?! I immediately thought to myself 
as I heard those words coming from her mouth. "They could always 
contact us on our phones. There should be no problem if we went out 
and had some fun."

	"Out? Fun?"

	"Yes. Fun. Like going to the arcades."

	"Arcades? What are 'arcades'?" 

	I coughed suddenly choking on my food. "You've never played an 
arcade game before?! Well, we'll have to take care of that!"

	With those words I immediately rushed to phone my friends, 
Touji and Kensuke. Which, obviously, accepted my offer.

	On our way to the arcade, I wondered over and over again 
about why Touji had brought this girl along.

	"So, why did you have to bring her?" We began whispering 
         to each other.

	"Well, even with Asuka gone, she should still be able to hang 
         out with us right?"

	"What's this Touji? Softening up on the class rep.?" I started 
         grinning at him. "Would there be something building between 
         you two perhaps?" 

	I had made him blush! "Cut that out! There's nothing going on. 
         I'm just being nice."

"Sure sure. Whatever you say Touji. Whatever you say."

	Touji began blushing heavily as he looked at Hikari walking 
alongside of Rei and Kensuke as we followed them towards the arcades.

	"It sure is great to get a day off from school once in awhile. 
         Say, maybe we could go visit NERV HQ today? Huh Shinji? What 
         do you say? Maybe I'll see Misato there and could ask her if 
         I can become a pilot!"

	"To be honest Kensuke, I really dislike being there when I 
         don't have to be. Besides, I don't think we need an extra 
         pilot when the actual EVA pilots don't do anything!"

	"Oh, well, I guess your right. Maybe we should forget the whole 
         thing then."

	"We're almost there! We're a bit uneven to make teams though. 
         So who's going to be alone?"

	Yeah, what were the teams going to be? Since I brought Rei, I 
thought Rei and me should be together this time. So I spoke up before 
anyone else.

	"Well, since its Rei-kun's first try at this, maybe I should 
         team up with her. I don't care who teams up with who other 
         than that."

	The three left looked at each other then Kensuke quickly grabbed 
Hikari's arm, which made Touji glare at him instantly. 

 	"I'll be with Hikari!"

	"No way! Since I invited her, I should be her partner."

	I never thought I would see the day when Touji would be fuming 
over Hikari! I decided to stay back and watch the scene, as I didn't feel 
like getting yelled at. Which was probably what would have happened had 
I stepped in. 

	"Awe c'mon Touji. I need a partner, you know your better at 
         this game than I am!"

	Hikari was now grinning. Probably from all the attention Touji 
was giving to her "Yes Touji, do you really need my help to win?"

	"No, its not that...its just...aw whatever, fine. You'll be 
         with Kensuke, I'll go solo for this one."

	I never thought I'd see the day that Touji would give up like 
that either...I was really expecting a punch in the face from Touji's 
part...I wondered what else could surprise me today..?

	The time passed quickly as we never took our eyes from the 
playing screen all day long. Well, I had taken my eyes from time to time 
to check up on Rei, but that's an exception. Nothing else out of the 
ordinary had happened, other than the fact that Rei had won every game 
for us excepte the one Kensuke and Hikari had won. Touji didn't really 
seem to be in his game today, so he lost, by far, each and every one 
of them. He didn't look to happy. I wondered if Asuka had been here, 
if we still would have won? She was usually very good at this game, 
and made sure to make us realize it too.  

	...Why am I thinking about her again?! This was driving me 
crazy. Everywhere I went, something had to remind me of her! This was
growning pathetic. 

	"Well, that's ten games in a row! Think we should get back?"
	
	"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea Hikari. Next time we
come we'll have to be partners again!"

	"Why?! Its not like you make an unbeatable team! Shinji and 
Rei won nine out of ten!"

	"Your just jealous because you didn't even o