At the balcony...

An Evangelion shortfic


Nighttime... Shinji Ikari is at the balcony of their apartment, looking 
out at the stars with a slightly wistful expression when, suddenly, he 
hears the apartment door open and shut. Without turning around, it's 
obvious who just came in.

"Tadaima!"

Asuka.

Asuka, finished with removing her shoes at the doorstep, immediately 
spots Shinji leaning on the balcony. Seeing that there seems to be no one 
else to catch her attention, she goes to him.

Putting as much disdain in it as possible, Asuka asks: "Hey there, Ikari, 
what are you doing?" 

Feeling too somber to rise to Asuka's bait, Shinji just mutters a 
noncommittal "Nothing."

"C'mon, I'm sure the 3rd children has better things to do than look at 
'nothing.'"

Shinji just stands there, silent, seemingly oblivious to the challenge in 
Asuka's voice. A few seconds in silence passes - Asuka seems to start to 
want to say something when Shinji beats her to the punch.

"Look down there, Asuka." Shinji points down to the many lights of Tokyo-
3. "Every one of those lights is at least one person, one person who 
depends on us to save them. And, yet... why does it feel that I can't 
connect, that I don't see people, only dots of light in the dark."

"Who cares what other people think of you?! You do what you do because 
you want to... and because you're DAMNED good at it."

"Is your opinion of yourself so important to you?"

"And just what did you mean by that!?"

"... nothing."

Asuka will have none of that. "What do you mean, nothing? Are you calling 
me self-centered? My God, Ikari, with the way you act, you have no right 
to judge me like that."

"You're right... I'm sorry."

"You're damn right you should be sorry! How dare you pity yourself for 
not relating to people, when you don't even want to try! In fact, you 
should probably thank me for adding some sense into that stupid, bleak, 
grey world of loneliness you seem to want to live in."

Asuka looks at Shinji, mentally daring him to make a response. After a 
few moments of silence on the 3rd child's part, Asuka is about to leave 
in disgust when Shinji suddenly turns his head to Asuka, with a very 
slight smile on his face.

"Thank you."

Asuka stops in her tracks. She seems to think for a moment, then joins 
Shinji in leaning on the balcony railing, looking at the stars overhead 
and the lights of Tokyo-3.

"You're welcome."

Finis.

Well this was a weird one, I just sat down on my computer for 15 minutes 
and voila, out popped this weird introspection piece. Please C&C. Also, 
for those wondering, "First Born" is probably gonna take a while as it's 
getting to be crunch time in Med school. I'll probably start doing my 
part of that 'fic at the end of the month.