When a person reads a story, they want a plot.  This especially goes for a lemon fanfic.  They don't a smut story that's all sex.  They want a plot, a reason why the characters are stripping to their birthday suits and engaging in the ultimate form of intimacy, and perhaps a little romance to go along with it.  It especially helps if the action takes time to build, thus making the main point of the story all the more sweeter.

So if you're waiting for me to say you won't find that here, think again.  This is one of those lemons that has a plot and a bit of WAFFiness that Axel's known for.  Which helps considering the characters he works with.  True, he gets a bit of help when it comes down to the more interesting scenes, but the joint effort helps to pull the whole thing off.

In this story, the citizens of Tokyo-3 encounter something they never expected: snow.  To make matters worse, an Angel keeps appearing and NERV can't seem to catch it.  During the second encounter, Asuka and Shinji fall into an underground cave and are cut off from the others, forced to power down.  Needless to say, as time goes on and they talk about how they feel, they find... interesting ways to keep warm before they're finally rescued.

An all-out lemon probably doesn't come as a surprise to readers of some of Axel's previous work, considering the material in his now infamous "Child of Love" story.  And for a first-time effort, he does pretty well.  As I said earlier, he did have some help in the form of Disaster, but once you get into the story you can hardly tell two people worked on it (which is probably true of a lot of stories written by two or more authors).

This story has a lot of humor, balanced perfectly with the seriousness that happens later on.  Characterization is good, a bit off in some places, but they seem to go perfectly with the situations that happen (and what fic really has perfect characterization?).  What really draws attention is the scene leading up to Shinji and Asuka's joining.  Feelings and doubts on the parts of both characters are explored with genuine emotion.  Each has their reasons for how they feel, and talking about them helps to lead up to the final act (and the story's ending).

And as for the actual lemon scenes (yes, scenes, there's more than one for all you happy little hentais out there), like I said earlier, they are done rather well for a first time effort.  Most first-time lemons tend have scenes that go rather quick without too much description.  And if the characters are both "doing it" for the first time, they sometimes end up being written like they know what they are doing.  The scenes in "Body Heat", however, are very accurately descriptive, and Shinji and Asuka are learning as they go through the motions of sex, learning what the other likes and how they feel about it.  You don't see that in many lemons, even ones written by experienced authors, but this one does a good job.

So if you're looking for a good lemon to read (yes, there is such a thing, believe it or not), check out this one.  It's got everything you'd want: comedy, romance, a bit of action, a bit more comedy, and of course, the sex.  And don't read it by skipping the main part of the story and going straight to the sex scenes.  You'll enjoy it better if you read the whole darned thing.

Until Instrumentality is needed again...

SEELE-05
February 18th 2001

Before looking into the lemon part of the story, let's look at the story in general. Because, yes, there's is a story aside from all the sex. You could remove all the sex scenes from this approximately 50 pages story and it would hold itself together (it would be 25% shorter, but it would still work).

So on with the story.

As mentioned by my partner, one of the authors of "Body Heat" is none other than Axel Terizaki. And like all Terizaki fanfics, this is a story about Shinji and Asuka falling in love, but without the bits of angst you can find on his other stories, since this is a one-shot.

Hey, the kids are too busy having sex to get too depressed ^_^

So like I said, this a not only a Shinji/Asuka fic, but also a one-shot. So for better or worse, expect the characters to be out of character, to a degree or another.

But among the ranks of Shinji/Asuka fics, this story actually works well. Despite the extra spine Shinji gains and a mellower Asuka, the kids take some time to actually wonder about their feelings and the circumstances that brings them together does make the sudden relationship easier to accept.

So, unless these types of romances stories bothers you, "Body Heat" actually works well as a story.

Except for two details that bugs me... first the fic is written in script format. Secondly... the sleeping bag... That thing is impossibly huge! I know it's a detail but it's been nagging me ever since I pre-read that story. Wish I had thought to tell the authors to replace it with a tent back then...

But how does it rates as a lemon?

When I look at a lemon, I can usually categorize them into three types. There's the pointless lemons (mostly just sex and could be confused for any story found on alt.sex.stories) the lemons with a story (graphic sex with a plot) and what I'll call 'romantic erotica' (the sex is less graphic and there's a bigger emphasis on the feelings - often written by female authors). "Body Heat" fits into the second category.

The sex scenes are in themselves graphic and explicit. There's no wondering what's going on. It's done tastefully, however, so it's a pleasant read. The action itself pretty much follows standards (some playing around, oral sex and then followed by intercourse). Aside a few awkward bits here and there, everything pretty much goes well, as if they were experiences lovers and not two virgin teenagers. The first scene in particular shows a rather bold and talented Shinji.

But since this is a lemon, I doubt most people will care about that.

In overall, I think this story rates as a good lemons. Like any stories it has its flaws, but these are surpassed by its qualities. In a time where quality lemons for NGE fics were sparse, the team Disaster/Terizaki brought to us what I'll consider a quality piece.

Well done.