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Disclaimer: I don’t own Evangelion, because that belongs to Studio Khara and Gainax. If I did, people wouldn’t like what I’d do with it.
KEEPSAKE
“Ahhh... my god. I forgot how much I missed the fresh air!” Asuka was the most relaxed she’d been in a while. Shinji quietly hummed his agreement.
Following the intrusion of the Ninth Angel; codenamed Iruel, into NERV’s systems and the near-activation of the facility’s self destruct mechanism, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi had barely eked out a victory against the microscopic Angel. Shortly after, she went on the warpath to ensure no traces of the Angel remained in any of the Magi or Evangelion systems.
All three of the Children had been stuck doing all manner of tests and diagnostics for weeks, but it was just Asuka and Shinji that walked through the gates of the high school; Rei was required to stay at NERV for additional monitoring. Even though Asuka had long since graduated college, the building was a sight she was relieved to see. The school had its own downsides, but at least it didn’t tell you to stay focused and keep your sync rate steady for days on end.
The bell had yet to ring and the morning was going fine, until Asuka noticed a certain sandy-haired stooge walking up beside Shinji. Kensuke caught him by the arm, whispered something into his ear and beckoned the Third Child to follow. Shinji began to slowly trail behind, before Asuka cleared her throat and stopped him in his tracks, “*ahem* Where the hell are you going?”
“It’s um... I’ll be quick, I promise!” And Shinji turned away to catch up to Kensuke.
Asuka’s eyebrow twitched upward. Not being one to let this slight be forgotten, she started to slowly tail behind the two boys. She had been gracious to let Shinji walk into school with her today. What could possibly be so important that it meant he would just leave her like that?
The boys turned one more corner into an emptier hallway before Kensuke stopped and turned to face Shinji. Asuka sidled up to a corner out of sight of the boys, and only dared to barely glance around the corner, in case her fiery red locks attracted their attention from their peripheral vision.
Kensuke took a quick glance around before he began. “Okay. I got them.” He reached into his pocket and carefully took out a small collection of printed photos. Asuka’s inquisitive frown grew deeper. She remembered the little photo ring that Hikari had dismantled a while ago. Asuka somehow hadn’t thought that the little pervy stooge would quietly keep it going.
Shinji’s eyes widened like he had just received a Christmas gift from his father, and he looked up to pin Kensuke with a glare fit for an elite Eva pilot. “And you made sure that-”
“Yeah, yeah. I was careful. These are good.” Kensuke nervously interjected. “You have the money?”
Shinji handed Kensuke a fistful of yen, and the stooge gave Shinji the photos in return. Shinji scanned through the pictures; Asuka counted five of them in total, and with each one Shinji processed, a small smile crept across his features.
A ball of icy rage started to grow in the pit of Asuka’s stomach. She liked to call him a pervert to get a reaction out him sometimes, but she hadn’t guessed how accurate she had been.
“Thank you... thank you.” Shinji whispered. As he went to walk away, Kensuke caught his arm for the second time today and turned Shinji around to face him, fixing him in place with a glare of his own, his face coloured with a fearful seriousness.
“There were a lot of close calls getting this done... If the Class Rep or the Red Devil finds out that I’m still... Please don’t ask me to do this again.” Kensuke muttered with a tinge of fear in his voice. Shinji silently nodded.
Kensuke let go of Shinji’s arm and walked off to do his own business. Shinji walked back the way he came, fully expecting to see Asuka impatiently waiting for him. Instead, he saw that Asuka was nowhere to be seen, having seemingly stormed off, if he had to guess.
A couple of days later, Asuka was still silently fuming. Whenever she saw Shinji glancing at those photos, that dumb little smile of his instantly manifested. She had kept a close eye on him, and she was pretty sure he had barely stopped smiling since he got the photos. In fact, she’d been watching him so much that when Hikari calmly asked her about it, Asuka reacted in a way that had been... less than dignified, to put it simply.
But the smile wasn’t why she was mad. No, she was mad because of why the smile was there in the first place. He had gotten pictures of some poor, innocent girl who had no idea he was objectifying her. So while the teacher was monologuing about pre-Second Impact, she hatched a plan to get the pictures away from Shinji. Being a college grad, and therefore the smartest student in the room, she deduced that he kept the photos in his desk, since he would always come away smiling whenever he opened his desk to retrieve any needed supplies. She’d be doing a favour for the poor girl whom he was ogling.
The bell rang, the teacher’s monotone voice mercifully ceased, and the class emptied quickly. “Asuka, do you want to have lunch together?” Hikari called from the door.
“Sounds good, I just need to do something. I’ll catch up with you!” Hikari nodded and exited the room. Asuka waited until she was sure Hikari was far enough down the hall before getting to business.
She was alone in the classroom, but she still made it a point to work quick. She opened Shinji’s desk and easily found the pictures neatly placed facedown next to his meagre supplies. Asuka quickly grabbed the pictures and put them into her own bag, being careful not to even glance at the contents of the photos, lest she be exposed to what ever lecherous pleasures the Third Child indulged in. Making sure they were hidden from anyone and everyone, she straightened herself out and went to go join Hikari.
A short while later, the bell rang once again and the students returned to the classroom. Thankfully, they were scheduled for math class after lunch, so they were actually able to get work done. The teacher handed out the worksheets for the day’s class and told the students to get to work.
Asuka watched as Shinji went into his desk to retrieve his pencils. As he grabbed the necessary items, he noticed something was...different. He looked a bit harder, and started to a get a bit panicked. Eventually, he slowly closed his desk and got to work. Asuka wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she’d get from doing this, but she didn’t think it was going to be a look of utter misery. She found that for the second time this week, she felt a ball of ice growing inside of her. This time it wasn’t anger, but rather dread mixed with a bit of guilt. She might have really broken the Third Child this time.
On a weekend afternoon when she had the apartment to herself, Asuka was frozen with a choice. She sat alone at the kitchen table, staring at the handful of pictures much like the Commander would stare at his subordinates. She had been very careful to make sure they were face down, so she wouldn’t see the contents of the images. Shinji had been miserable for days, and for some reason, it was all because of these photos.
She could have easily dumped them in one of the many trash cans at school when she’d taken them, but didn’t think to, for some reason. And now that she knew she had caused Shinji’s miserable mood, she couldn’t bring herself to think about disposing of the photos without seeing his sad little face in her mind.
Her hand slowly hovered over one of the images, but she jerked it away before she could bring herself to turn it over. Why was this so tough? It was just a polaroid, there was no way it could physically hurt her. ‘But it could mentally hurt me.’ Asuka thought.
Shinji’s depressed visage flashed again in her mind. Were boys normally this sad when they got their porn stolen? Asuka shuddered at the thought.
After longer than she’d ever admit, Asuka finally broke. She took one of the photos and quickly flipped it over to rip off the figurative band-aid.
And her brain ground to a halt when she saw herself smiling back at her.
Wait. What?
Asuka took another picture and flipped that one over. Then the next. And the next. And the next. Each picture was of Asuka with an honest, joyful smile on her face. Not a trace of anything perverted at all. Even the one of her celebrating a landslide victory in a Phys. Ed. volleyball game was taken entirely from the waist up, with no indication that her uniform was basically half-bikini. They weren’t terrible photos either, no blurriness or anything.
Asuka didn’t even blink as she considered what these meant. “This is what he wanted? To see me smiling? To... see me... happy?”
There were no more words. All Asuka could do was stare in awe at the photos before her as her face shifted to an uncomfortable shade of reddish-pink, rethink everything she been thinking about the Third Child, and try and fail to quash the complicated emotions that were stirring within her.
The following Monday, Shinji and Asuka found themselves back in class. After lunch ended and the students had all reconvened, the teacher launched into another tedious monologue, and the class quickly busied themselves with doing anything except committing their attention to his words.
Shinji’s mood had improved, if one could call it that. He’d gone from visibly depressed to a resigned acceptance that he’d lost something that meant a lot to him. If he wasn’t meant to have those pictures, then that was that, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
So when he opened his desk to retrieve some writing supplies and found the pictures back where he had hid them previously, to say he was surprised was a huge understatement. He blinked once. Twice. Three times. They were still there. It wasn’t until he actually brushed a hand across them that he was sure that this was real.
Shinji discreetly tried to crane his head around to see who had left the pictures back in his desk, but didn’t see anyone acting out of the ordinary. Until his eyes landed on Asuka. She was focused on her work, she wasn’t even looking at him... but there was no mistaking it. She had a smile on her face- No, she had that smile on her face.
THE END