Author: Chauni
Email: ChauniMaxwell@mechpilot.com
Website: www.oocities.org/asukalangley2nd/
Warnings: Sap, Fluff
Disclaimer: I don’t own Evangelion, no matter
how much I try, nor did I make any money off this.
Pairings: Shinji + Asuka
The Poem
Eyes so blue
Pools I fall into
Hair so long
Silken tresses I entangle in
“Aghhhh!”
Shinji savagely tore the piece of paper from his notebook, crumpling it into a tight ball. Throwing it across the room, he sighed.
I’m such an idiot, he thought crestfallen. He rested his head in the palm of his hands. Writing her a poem!? She’ll just laugh at me and call me a baka. As if a poem would get her to be civil to me anyway!
His eyes drifted back to the crumpled ball like a magnet, another sigh unconsciously slipping through his parted lips. He walked across the room, retrieved it, and brought it back to the kitchen table. Smoothing it out, he picked up a pen and began scribbling once more.
“What are you writing?”
Shinji’s midnight blue eyes looked up and met the curious one’s of Misato.
“I- uh-“ His hands worked fast, balling up the paper again and hiding it in his clenched fist under the table. “Nothing!”
She walked over to the refrigerator, swung open the door, and removed a familiar brown beer can. Cracking it open, she threw back her head and downed half of its contents in one healthy swig. As her head snapped back up, she let out the customary, “Yeeeoooww!” and brushed the dark hair from her shoulders.
Shinji noticed she wasn’t wearing her customary short black dress but instead opted for a pair of ragged denim shorts and a yellow tank top. Obviously, she was going nowhere today, which meant she would have the entire day to pester Shinji on what it was that he was hiding.
“Oh, really?” she said after she regained her composure. She leaned over and stared deep into Shinji’s sheepish blue eyes. He could smell the alcohol on her breath.
“Y-yes,” he muttered, finally able to drag away his eyes.
“From what I saw,” she taunted, taking another deep drink from the can, “it looked like a poem.”
He could feel the rebellious red blush that had begun to rush to his cheeks. “Um-“
“More specifically,” Misato teased, narrowing her eyes at him, “a love poem.”
“N-no!” he replied, attempting to sound adamant and stern but failing miserably.
Misato smirked as she took a seat beside him. She rested her chin into the palm of her hand as her eyes sized him up. “If it’s nothing, then you’ll let me read it.”
His eyes got big for a minute, fear filling them, and then returned to normal. “M-Misato, please,” he said, trying to keep the panic from leaking into his voice. “It’s personal.”
She shrugged, rising to her feet. Waving her hand nonchalantly, she began to walk away from the room. “Sure. Fine. Have it your way, but you’re no fun!”
Shinji sighed when he was finally alone, relieved. He brought his hands back to the table and was prepared to open the paper and begin writing once more, but got suddenly panicked when he saw nothing was there.
His eyes grew several times larger instantly as the realization that the incriminating paper was no longer in his possession finally sinking in. Where did it go? his mind screamed.
In a rush, he dropped to the floor on hands and knees and began searching like a madman.
If Asuka finds that, she’ll never let me live it down, he thought, dreading the vision of her laughing at him as she called him a baka over and over and over and-
His eyes landed onto Pen Pen, who sat across the floor several feet away in the living room. The penguin’s eyes roamed back and forth over a crumpled piece of paper that lay on the ground in front on him.
Shinji scampered across the floor, still on all fours, and snatched it away. Pen Pen looked up at the Third Child, sweatdrop promptly forming.
He looked at the paper, then to the penguin. “Um, don’t tell anyone about this, please,” he mumbled, absolutely disregarding the fact that the genetically altered flightless fowl could not talk in the first place. Shinji looked down for a moment, then cracked a very weak smile. “Um, so, what did you think?”
Pen Pen quickly sprouted another sweatdrop and slowly began backing away and out of the room. Shinji sighed yet again, realizing he had just received his answer.
He returned to the table and sat down again, attempting to begin once more.
Misato watched from the hallway, shaking her head with a small grin. “Poor guy,” she whispered and returned to her room.
“What are you doing?”
Shinji looked up, eyes wide. Even quicker than he had with Misato’s intrusion, he wrinkled the paper into a tight ball and his it under the table in his white-knuckled fist.
“N-n-n-nothing,” he stammered.
Asuka thrust her hands onto her hips, narrowing her electric blue eyes. “Come on, Shinji! Show me!”
“I-it’s nothing,” he muttered, eyes slowly snaking away.
Anger covered her face instantly, her eyes flaring with spoiled rage. Then distractedly, her face turned away from him as if something else had gotten her attention. Suddenly, she swung back around and, like a cobra, she lunged, her hands sliding under the table and fighting with his death-clenched fists.
Immediately, he jumped to his feet and twisted around, accidentally knocking her back a few steps. “I-it’s nothing,” he said, trying his best to sound forceful. “Leave me alone.”
She tossed her head, long hair swinging as if it had a life of it’s own, and leveled her eyes at him. “Fine! I wouldn’t want to read anything from a baka like you! It was probably stupid anyway!” With that said, she turned on her heels and stomped off.
Shinji collapsed back into the chair yet again, his eyes staring at the paper clasped in his hand. Stupid Asuka, he thought gently.
The Second Child crept through the night-shrouded apartment, attempting to avoid all the obstacles in the darkened rooms. As she reached the kitchen, she flicked a nearby switch, illuminating the room in a soft glow. Leaning over the garbage can, she peered into it and retrieved a crumpled ball of paper that rested on top of the trash.
She sat cross-legged on the cold tile floor, smoothing it out almost lovingly. Her eyes drifted over it slowly, a red tint creeping into her cheeks as she read it.
Dear
Asuka,
I wanted
to write you a poem, but I couldn’t find the words
to
explain what I felt. Instead, I decided to give you this, a simple
letter,
as simple as I am. Something just to let you know that there
are
people out there that care for you and love you.
And I am
one of them.
Shinji
Tears unconsciously rolled down her smooth cheeks and, absolutely unaware, she brushed them away with the back of her hand. The world “love” had been scribbled carelessly over, as if fearing to reveal such an emotion, but she could still tell what it said.
She wanted to take the paper to her room and keep it forever, but if he knew she had looked at after he thrown it out, he might laugh at her. She couldn’t risk it. She read it once more, whispering the words to herself as if she needed to hear them to be real, then balled it back up and laid it carefully in the trash.
“Baka,” she murmured, but whether it was aimed at herself or Shinji, she wasn’t exactly sure.
She remained on the floor, crying softly to herself as a warm feeling she was not accustomed to spread throughout her body. Laying her head in her hands, she smiled the most genuine and honest smile she could.
From the darkened hallway, Shinji’s eyes fell onto the weeping girl as he, too, smiled.