I

  No!“ Shinji screamed. His EVA Unit tried to block the incoming blow from Unit-02’s progressive knife but to no avail. The knife cut in the right forearm of the purple Mecha and severed it by sheer force. A fountain of blood shot out of the stump and painted the still standing buildings of Tokyo-3 dark red. The force of the stream ruptured windows and swept away cars like leaves on a windy autumn day. Unit-01 stumbled, holding its stump. By now, it was bleeding from dozens of wounds.

  The bloodcurdling howl of Shinji’s EVA subsided under the mad laughter of the Second Child. ?I will destroy you, Third!“ the furious redhead shouted, laughing maniacally. Her EVA raised one foot and kicked the tripping Unit-01 hard on the chest, sending it spiraling and crashing through several buildings before it came to a standstill on his back.

  ?Argh! Get up, dammit!“ Shinji said through clenched teeth. He hammered and pressed madly on his controls but his EVA didn’t move. Although his line of sight was blocked by the smoke and rubbish from the destroyed buildings he could feel and hear the thundering footsteps of Unit-02 slowly coming closer.

  ?You will not escape me, Third.“ Another booming footstep, closer than before. The shock wave from Unit-02’s steps also shattered the last few intact windows.

  ?No! Asuka, please!“ Shinji pleaded. His EVA was moving again. It struggled to get to its feet, but was suddenly and brutally pinned back to the ground from a red leg which shot out of the slowly vanishing smoke around them.

  ?Got ya!“ Asuka cheered. Her EVA towered over Unit-01, looking down with its four glowing eyes; ready to strike.

  Shinji’s EVA tried to fight against the tons of pressure from Unit-02’s foot on its chest. It thrashed about wildly, trying to get free but this damaged only more buildings. ?You can’t do this, Asuka, please! M-Misato-san, say something!“

  ?Take it as a man, Shinji. You’ve lost!“ sounded her ice-cold voice. ?Asuka. End this.“

  ?With pleasure, Misato-san.“ It looked like Asuka and her EVA were both grinning, as she brought down the progressive knife and sunk it deep into Unit-01’s core.

  ?Wait—Nooo!“ Shinji could only let out a surprised scream before the world exploded in white light.

  Seconds later the lettering ?Player One wins!‘ hovered over the television.

  ?The Great Asuka wins once again!“ Asuka said, raising her controller triumphantly in the air. She smirked at a downcast Shinji who was sitting on the living-room floor beside her. ?Aww, heads up, Baka-Shinji. This time you even landed a few hits!“

  Shinji grimaced, ?I suck at this game…“

  ?Yes, you really do, Shinji-kun,“ Misato said from the kitchen table not bothering to even look up from the papers she was reading.

  He grunted. Misato’s words didn’t make it any better. He dropped onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

  He was a bit angry that he had lost. Again. Like the thousandth time since they were playing ?Evangelion Fighter‘ on the game console Hikari borrowed them a few days earlier as she came by to visit. Hikari always seemed to know what was going on with Asuka and that her friend not only had a cold. They could communicate without words, just by looking at each other. Something that Shinji was a bit jealous of. Maybe it was just a girl-thing.

  Or maybe he would just ask her tonight in one of their ’night-talks‘ which they had called them. They started out by sitting back to back and talking about random stuff: What life was like back in Germany. What music Shinji likes. That Asuka could play violin. ?Well, I had to learn it,“ she had told Shinji one night. ?It was a compulsory subject in college.“

  ?Really? I would love to hear you play. Maybe we could jam sometime together?“ Shinji had said.

  ?I don’t know. I haven’t played in a while. I think I’m out of practice.“ Shinji then mocked her, that this cannot be, because the great Asuka Soryu Langley can do anything and is never out of practice. She had laughed about that and they had continued joking about stuff one or another can or cannot do better.

  Asuka still wasn’t ready to talk about the more serious things, like their nightmares or about their mothers and he wasn’t pressing her. Just talking with her was more than Shinji could have hoped for a few weeks earlier. Their night-talks ended with him singing her to sleep and once in a while him holding her hand.

  This was something that still hasn’t quit sunk into his brain yet. Fact one: He was in her room. Fact two: He was singing for her. And fact three: He was holding her hand. He should have been dead just after the first fact. If a unicorn would suddenly come jumping out of the closet, then he could finally be sure that this has been a dream all along.

  A still smiling Asuka entered his field of vision and snapped him out of his thoughts. ?I know another thing in which you are slightly better,“ she said.

  ?Huh?“

  ?Cooking!“

  ?Finally!“ Misato said. ?I’m starving!“

  ?Cooking!“ Asuka started and Misato joined in. ?Cooking! Cooking!“

  ?Yes yes!“ Shinji rolled to his side, stood up and went to the kitchen ?God, sometimes I think I’m living with two starving predators…“

  Misato hissed at him.

  ?Okay, now it gets weird,“ he said, his back turned towards his two roommates as he was preparing their dinner.

  Asuka suddenly growled.

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  ?And now it gets scary.“ He turned around. Asuka had risen and was now slowly lurching towards Shinji. ?Fooood…“ she was groaning. She moved like a zombie: both arms outstretched, her head cast down and her long red hair covering her face. Shinji shivered and got goosebumps. ?Th-That’s way too scary, please stop that!“

  ?But Shinji,“ Misato said with a too high and friendly voice. She got up too and crept towards him with short, choppy movements; a disturbing smile on her lips and her head tilted to one side. ?Only you can give us what we need…“

  Shinji stumbled backwards and bumped against the kitchen. His eyes went wide and his hands searched blindly and frantically for a weapon behind him. Both zombies where now only one arm’s length away; still groaning and hissing as his touching fingers finally got a grip around something and he yanked that object forward to defend himself. ?Stay away from me!“

  Misato stopped, looked at Shinji, then at the object in his hands and burst into laughter. Asuka squinted through her hair and immediately joined her guardian.

  Shinji looked closer at the object in his hands.

  It was a cucumber.

  ?Oh noes!“, Asuka said laughing. ?Invincible Shinji wants to slay us with his mighty cucumber!“

  Misato gasped, ?His mighty cucumber!“ This seemed to break her. She fell down to the floor, holding her stomach and tears were rolling down her face. ?Asuka!“ she said half crying. ?You are too young to say such things!“

  For a second Asuka stopped laughing. ?What?“ She looked puzzled to Misato. ?Why? His mighty…“ Then her face lit up and she joined Misato on the floor.

  ?I don’t know what’s so funny about my cucumber“, said a confused Shinji. He turned the vegetable around as if to find the source of the funny outbreak.

  Both women went hysterical.

  II

  It took a long time before Misato and Asuka stopped laughing. Even during dinner, they were giggling from time to time much to Baka-Shinji’s confusion. After Misato explained the still dumbfounded Shinji why they were laughing so hard, he turned red as a tomato and mumbled something about who of them was the hentai before standing up and doing the dishes. Misato sipped the last drop of her good-night-beer and vanished in her room, leaving Asuka and Shinji alone in the kitchen.

  Asuka sighed and rubbed her belly. Then she said in a condescending voice, ?You have pleased our food-demands this time, Baka-Shinji. You may live.“

  Shinji stopped scrubbing the food rests from a plate, turned around and bowed exaggerated. ?Thank you my queen.“

  ?Queen, hm?“ Asuka said. ?I like that.“ She smiled. Shinji smiled back, turned red and focused again on the dishes.

  As she was watching his back she thought about the last few days and nights and how fast they moved from hating and ignoring each other to… well. Asuka still didn’t know what or where they were at the moment. Comrades? Friends? More…? She blushed slightly. Definitely more than just roommates, that’s for sure. And all it took was for her baka to sing to her. Her baka? When did she started to think like that?

  Maybe it started after the long night-talks they shared lately. She had learned so much about Shinji and his past in just a few days of talking. Although they were living and fighting together side by side for months now, there were so many things that she didn’t knew or even guessed. Like that he loved jasmine tea and hated beer. Or better, he hasn’t tried one yet. He hasn’t even been drunk yet! She made a mental note on that. That was something she wanted to change in the near future.

  Maybe it was after he beat up that bitch in the shower. Although Asuka wasn’t there mentally, she heard all about it from Hikari and Misato. They had explained everything in such a detail that it sounded out of an action movie. She cursed herself that she was so messed up at that time. Man, how she would have loved to see that! She definitely had to thank him for that.

  Or maybe it was the time, as he had been holding her naked and bloody body in the bath, as she had cut herself, again.

  But it had been different this time, hadn’t it? She’d just wanted to feel something again. And now she did. This was not a bad thing, quite the contrary. In fact, now she felt better than ever before. Yes, there were still days or mornings when she would wake up and felt down and moody. Especially after a sleepless night, when Shinji couldn’t talk or sing her to sleep and the nightmares crawled up from the shadows again. But it was nothing compared to the hellish numbness; the complete void of feelings she went through weeks before. Yes, she felt better. It was very confusing, but good.

  She tried to focus herself on the here and now again; leaving the confusing thoughts rumble in her head awhile longer before her idiotic grin could grow even wider. Thank god Shinji had turned his back to her.

  ?Do you need help?“ Asuka said after a while, breaking the silence.

  ?Would you help if I said ?yes‘?“

  ?Hm…“ Asuka put her index finger to her lip. ?Probably not!“

  Shinji let out a short laughter. ?I’ll be ready in a few minutes anyway.“

  ?Okay“ Asuka stood up and stretched herself. ?In the meantime, I will be off to my chambers. See you later, Baka-Shinji.“

  ?See you later, my queen,“ he said, not looking up from the dishes.

  She walked to Shinji and planted a quick peck on his cheek. ?Yes, I like that,“ she said, smiled and rushed to her room, where she immediately dropped against her closed door; her heart pounding like crazy in her chest. ?Well, let’s see what’ll you make out of this, Baka-Shinji,“ she said, giggling and blushing heavily.

  She was a lot more confused than she had thought.

  III

  Shinji was in shock. He was so spaced out, he didn’t even notice that the hot water was still pouring into the sink and over his hand. Hot steam rose up and covered his head in fine mist. Only when the pain of the hot water became too strong, he snapped back into reality, cursed and turned the faucet on cold to cool his burned hand. He finished the rest of the dishes automatically because his brain was busy processing what just had happened.

  They had kissed before. A kiss Shinji had mixed feelings about. Since it had been his first kiss, he had no comparison, but even he knew that nearly dying because of lack of oxygen couldn’t be considered a good kiss. This and the fact that Asuka immediately rushed to the bathroom after the kiss had ended. That had hurt.

  This time though, it felt very different. Kind of natural. He couldn’t explain it better. As if they had known each other for years and that kind of affection was perfectly normal between them. This thought alone was too crazy to grasp and too good to be true. But the last few days, the talking, the singing, the touching… All that had opened doors inside Shinji; doors which he had closed years ago; letting all sorts of feelings in and out. He should be scared but he wasn’t. He should run way, but he stayed. His countermeasures-mantra in his head was silent. He still flexed his hand, but not as often as he used to.

  Somehow his feet had moved him subconsciously before Asuka’s room. He raised his hand to knock but stopped it millimeters before the door. How should they continue now? Asuka had set the bar very high. Should he kiss her back? Should he talk about it? He definitely can’t ignore it. He must not run away. Dammit, Asuka, he thought. Why do you have to always jump first in the volcano?

  He was just about to knock when music suddenly came from her room. A gentle rhythm carried soft words to Shinji. He closed his eyes and listened. It was an English song. The guitar played slowly and the singer’s voice was warm. He had a distant ache in it; singing from a long way he travelled under an honest sky full of stars. He sung of hope and love. Shinji could feel it. He could feel every mile; could see every star. Then the chorus started. Louder and with more passion. Shinji started humming, although he didn’t know the song, nor the lyrics, but he got carried away. He thought of many things and of nothing at the same time. As the chorus started the second time, he could follow it with words. With his words. He wanted to travel more. He wanted to see more stars. He had the strong feeling to live, not just to survive.

  The song ended as slowly as it had started and he opened his eyes. Asuka’s door was open and he stared directly into her blue eyes. And without thinking, he kissed her.