Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Pride ❯ Chapter one ( Chapter 1 )

It began as a harmless obsession, an oxymoron if there ever was one. But considering the people involved, it certainly ranked amongst their least dangerous fixations, at least in the beginning, the same way a lion ranked against an infected wound. The first may have been incredibly obvious with far more immediate consequences, but that did not mean the other could not destroy you from the inside if left unattended.

 

The woman charged with guardianship of the children involved, Major Katsuragi Misato, could not realistically be blamed for her lack of knowledge. As a high ranking member of a military organization of a city that was in the middle of a siege, it was understandable that she would only be able to observe the children from a certain distance, even though both children were frequently at her workplace. Considering that the instigator was a college graduate with trust issues, Katsuragi would have likely remained ignorant of the proceedings if they hadn't made a mistake.

 

In any case, the fact remained that one Asuka Soryu Langley was attracted to the Third Child, Ikari Shinji. As the girl in question was fourteen years old and living in close quarters with an attractive member of the opposite sex who relatively catered to her every need without any expectations or craving for rewards beyond her presence, some could claim that the attraction was inevitable. On both sides, considering that Asuka was really quite beautiful.

 

Yet everyone was surprised when the situation finally came to light.

 

The observers did not deny the attraction's existence, but the possibility of them acting on that desire. Shinji lacked the ambition necessary to grab at his deepest wants. He lacked the confidence needed to gamble on their friendship. The Third Child would never make the first move and that was why that relationship was classified as `doomed before it could start'.

 

The possibility of Asuka pursuing Shinji was deemed impossible by everyone who knew her. Considering the fact that Shinji could be called her peer in every sense of the word and was therefore valid competition, the Second Child's pride would not allow her to put herself in a vulnerable position, no matter how remote the possibility of him refusing her was. It was the principle of the thing.

 

However, her pride would not suffer if he came to her. If… when he asked her out, because the possibility of him not wanting her was never contemplated, she would tease him lightly with hidden affection for a short time before accepting. Whether that `short time' was a few minutes or a few days was not decided upon and could wait until said event happened.

 

So she poked and prodded and taunted and jeered to try and provoke him into pursuing her. Surely, if he only paid more attention to her, the desire she knew was writhing uncomfortably inside of him would overwhelm any and all restraints he possessed and force him towards action.

 

Naturally, her every attempt failed and backfired spectacularly, causing desire and bitterness to grow simultaneously in her heart. Her actions grew as sultry as a clumsy teenager could achieve while her jibes grew sharp, reflecting her mounting frustration at the slowly lengthening distance between them.

 

Meanwhile, Shinji grew confused at the mixed signals he was receiving. Her mannerisms in his presence subconsciously shouted her attraction and availability in a way he could instinctively appreciate, but her biting words said something else entirely and he was not wise enough in the ways of the world to understand the truth. So his attraction for her never faltered as his dreams grew saturated with her presence, her scent and her accusing looks. So he never stopped caring for her and slowly but surely, the chances of him growing secure enough in their relationship to take a chance plummeted.

 

The tension between them accumulated constantly and noticeably. Misato jokingly referred to it as `sexual tension', never knowing just how right she was. But her teasing angered the young woman, who massively overestimated Misato's understanding of the situation. Asuka held great respect for Katsuragi's femininity, due in part to the actions of one Ryoji Kaji. The thought of her superior officer knowing of and taunting her about her romantic failures did not seem so ludicrous in her mind.

 

The consequence of that misunderstanding was a reinforcement of Asuka's attitude. Her pride was taking massive hits from all directions, voluntarily damaging it by pursuing the boy romantically was no longer an option. Since she did not know of any other course of action than the one she was currently acting on, she simply continued her clumsy attempts at attraction while she silently grew more and more desperate.

 

Asuka held all the cards. She was certain of his attraction to her and was well aware of her own desire. The increasing amount of fantasies starring him attested to that. The only thing holding her back was pride.

 

They existed in a veritable status quo; and the only thing that changed was their increasing unhappiness as their relationship suffered. Especially Asuka, since she couldn't fully release her frustrations on Shinji because of her underlying desire, it spread to all other areas of her life and made her into an unpleasant person to be around, especially to those she considered obstacles to her relationship with the Third Child.

 

That list was primarily centered on her guardian, Katsuragi Misato and her fellow pilot Ayanami Rei but also included those in close proximity with Shinji, such as Touji and Kensuke who made no secret of their dislike of redheaded pilots, and also just about every other girl at school.

 

However, all that would change.

 

Like most other infatuated human beings, Asuka spent a considerable amount of time surreptitiously observing the target of her affections, learning about his habits and mannerisms and committing his body to memory, just as she let him do the same to hers, even providing helpful glimpses of flesh when she could sneak them in.

 

An understated difference between the Second Child and the majority of other human beings was that she was not only highly intelligent, but also very knowledgeable, knowing much more about psychology than the general populace. She constantly mulled over and dissected his actions, trying to discover a flaw that she could exploit for her own purposes.

 

That was how she quickly, and correctly, pegged him as a pervert, at least to the standards of a fourteen year old girl like Asuka. But that was another misunderstanding. Shinji's perversion did not make her desire him any less, and that was not disgust in her voice when she used that word to describe him, at least not in the beginning.

 

The time she spent in college had quickly and irreversibly disillusioned her as she learned about what young men and women often talked about. It was only when her frustrations reached lofty heights that the word gained truly negative connotations in her mind. With the failures of her numerous advances, she began to contemplate the idea that Shinji was a voyeur, as in a human being who could derive a satisfying level of sexual pleasure simply from observing her body.

 

With the many opportunities she had provided him with, she could not understand why he still didn't act as she expected him to act.

 

Asuka knew Shinji, but she did not understand him. At least, in the beginning.

 

 

 

The first and most important deviation from the ongoing spiral of mental scarring and emotional death occurred on a day like any other. It was a Friday, during those lackadaisical times between Angel attacks. School was long over and Asuka was heading back from a relaxing evening spent with her best friend.

 

It was a day destined to be forgotten, with nothing of interest happening to anyone. A day that would've been called boring in any other city, but could only be called peaceful in Tokyo 3. After all, they were at war, so everyone tried to enjoy the peace while it lasted.

 

On that day, something rare will occur. Simply put, Asuka and Shinji will converse, and the German pilot will come to understand a facet of his character and learn to plan around it.

 

The redhead passed her keycard through the electronic lock and grasped the doorknob, twisting it harshly and flinging the door open so that the air it displaced disturbed her hair attractively. Of course, her efforts went to waste since Shinji wasn't in any position to notice her entrance. In fact, he wasn't even in her field of vision and that would simply not do.

 

The Second Child opened her mouth wide in preparation for the announcement of her arrival, which was ideally significant to the Third Child and therefore required care and effort to complete, when something caused her to hesitate. Specifically, her ears caught the distinctive melodic oscillations of a stringed instrument. It was faint, muffled, but it was there.

 

To the best of her knowledge, no one in that apartment knew how to play any kind of instrument, but she was in no way certain of that information. Somehow, the idea of Misato playing classical music on an instrument was almost as ridiculous as the idea of her pet penguin making the attempt. In fact, the very idea of her owning such an instrument was laughable. That only left one person, and suddenly her interest in the dulcet composition grew tenfold.

 

Asuka slowly inched the thick door closed and engaged the lock manually, so as to avoid the sharp noise caused by an electromagnet suddenly discovering a steel object that could stand to be closer than it already was. Once that was done, she impatiently squeezed her feet out of their confining shelters and in her haste lost her left sock as an unfortunate casualty. Paying no heed to her newly disparate feet, she began to creep her way along the soft carpeting and smooth floorboards, past humming appliances and pronounced furniture, until she reached the expected source of the music.

 

Slender fingers sought out the door handle and pulled, with excruciating restraint, so as to create an opening the width of her eye in a smooth, silent and unobtrusive manner. The sliding door yielded to her strength of will and danced merrily to her whims. It reminded her of Ayanami and how she shamelessly submitted to Shinji's... relative. Gendo could be called many things, few of them nice, but a father he was not and everyone at NERV knew it.

 

Her plan was executed perfectly and no unexpected factors appeared to ruin it. The gap was formed without perceivable noise and the cellist was far too engrossed in following predetermined movements to notice the door cracking open from the corner of his eye.

 

The object that held his focus was a curvaceous device made of laminated wood and a quartet of taut strings. The instrument that she vaguely remembered as a violoncello was held in his grasp with great familiarity. The fingers of his left hand pressed various strings against the handle at specific intervals and locations while his right hand moved the long and narrow bow horizontally over the section of the strings gathered above the cello's main body. Though the pilot was making several sharp movements requiring deft hands and total focus, especially since he was playing from memory, he seemed to be in a state of remarkable tranquility. It was a condition comparable to the one induced by his SDAT, only more pronounced.

 

The melancholy that he usually showed when left alone was nowhere to be seen and, if she wasn't mistaken, his expression was one she'd never seen him bear before.

 

Relaxed, carefree and content. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she couldn't help thinking that he looked cute like that. Of course, that belief brought its own problems to the situation. She had planned to leave him be without ever alerting him of her presence, but that was not to be. Asuka had never been able to stay away from things she found appealing.

 

The sound of the door sliding open was quickly accompanied by the shrill whine of an abused cello. The startled musician whirled to face her, his eyes wide with panic.

 

“A-Asuka!” He yelled, since his surprise had temporarily commandeered the volume of his voice in order to announce its existence.

 

A wide, delighted grin immediately blossomed as she took in his flustered appearance. She couldn't help it. Shinji was extremely easy to tease and he was the type of boy that allowed others to derive pleasure from his embarrassment. The two girls living with him routinely and liberally took advantage of that fact. The second child couldn't deny that there was something about his reactions that… excited her and she could almost certainly say the same about their guardian. In her opinion, Misato's claims of `motherly' instincts were dubious at best and shady at worst.

 

In any case, the deviate enchantress wasn't anywhere near them, so her undoubtedly improper thoughts and feelings were inconsequential, at least for now. Besides, Shinji had been staring at her in horror for too long and she was starting to become a little uncomfortable. It was time to break the scene.

 

“I didn't know you played,” she revealed, keeping her thoughts ambiguous.

 

Seeing that he wasn't about to be savagely beaten, though why the thought occurred to him was beyond her, the boy quickly averted his eyes. “I don't… do it very often. I'm not very good,” he muttered.

 

Though he couldn't see it, or perhaps because of that, the German raised an eyebrow in curiosity. She admittedly didn't know much about classical music but what she'd heard had sounded perfectly fine to her ears. “If you say so,” she casually shrugged his comment off before prowling into his domain and walking past him to take a seat on his bed, secretly relishing in his discomfort and tense body. It was an undeniable sign that she was getting to him. “So what happened?” she asked.

 

The boy's eyes narrowed as he focused on finding his comrade's possible meaning, only to give up as the silence began to stretch on longer than was comfortable. “What?”

 

Asuka rolled her eyes at his eloquence but nonetheless decided to fulfill his monosyllabic request for clarification. She sat on the edge of the bed, stretching her legs wide with one heel atop the other and her upper body leaning backwards, supported by her bare arms. She stared at his ceiling, so as to let her hair cascade onto his linen sheets, hopefully imbibing the cloth with her aroma. She wanted him to think about her, even in his dreams. “In all the time I've been living here, I haven't even seen a hint of this… talent of yours. You can't expect me to believe you just started playing for no particular reason,” she asserted.

 

“Why do you want to know?”

 

The Third Child seemed honestly surprised by her interest. She looked in his direction to find him looking directly at her, as opposed to staring at the parquetry.

 

“Does it matter?” she answered flippantly.

 

His dark eyes wandered away from her position, though his head remained firmly aligned. “No, I guess it doesn't,” he mused softly.

 

It took Asuka a few seconds to realize that the ensuing silence wasn't due to him thinking about his answer. “Well?” she asked impatiently.

 

His stare snapped back to her for a brief moment before he turned away entirely and began to fiddle with his instrument, doing something that somewhat resembled maintenance or at least what she imagined maintenance would look like. After a few seconds of successfully withstanding her glower, he decided to quit while he was ahead and answer her question.

 

“Today was a good day,” he explained.

 

“…That's it?” No amount of effort could have removed the disappointment from her voice.

 

The corners of his mouth crept up involuntarily. “Yes… I suppose that would be too boring for you, huh?”

 

When he failed to receive a response, Shinji sneaked a momentary glance in her direction. “You look surprised,” he commented somewhat apathetically.

 

In spite of that indifference, Asuka still felt the need to defend her character. “You didn't apologize,” she pointed out in order to switch focus. She was a firm believer of the phrase `The best defense is a good offense.'

 

He paused for a second as he thought about her statement before shrugging his shoulders. “Today was a good day,” he repeated. The words `I'm not sorry' remained unsaid.

 

It would take another minute for the conversation to continue with oral communication as opposed to covert looks and loaded gestures. The Second Child felt words battering heavily against their restraints and gave up trying to hold them back. She relaxed her arms and laid her upper body on his bed, staring at the ceiling. If she was really going to ask him, she didn't want to have to look at him.

 

“Play for me?”

 

The expected hesitation and fear was right on time. “What? But!”

 

“Please?”

 

Silence enveloped the room. He had yet to give his answer, and she was not going to ask again. Could not, really. All she could do was wait.

 

It took him quite some time to begin but by the time she left his room, those four bare walls unwittingly contained the passion of men long dead, relics of the last age. He played to the best of his ability and to the limits of his memory. When he was done, he opened his eyes to find her staring at him in silent contemplation. Having prepared himself for ridicule and derision, he was therefore confused when she left without saying a word.

 

That night, as Asuka laid on the bed she had plundered from Shinji, in the room she had appropriated on her arrival, she carefully catalogued the information she had gathered on the Third child, along with his actions and responses to various stimuli. There was something about his behavior that troubled her, and that warranted further study.

 

The most obvious discrepancy was obviously in his refusal to apologize. Shinji used his civility as a shield. The words `I'm sorry' usually equaled `leave me alone' when he said them. The fact that he didn't want to apologize could only mean that he didn't want to be left alone and since that could only work in her favor, she promptly dropped that line of questioning.

 

With that path eliminated, that only left the Third Child's odd state of peace induced satisfaction to pursue. It took her over an hour of deliberation to come up with a workable hypothesis about why that bothered her, but she eventually discovered that his admission revealed a distressing lack of ambition.

 

But it was only when she applied that concept to his attitude and decisions that she truly understood his procrastination in regards to their relationship.

 

Shinji was satisfied with the current state of things. No matter what external factors she provided him with, his first response to a rocking boat would be to steady it. He wouldn't act upon his attraction to her because he was content. He felt no need to grasp for more.

 

That was a problem.

 

The German had her own needs… and she couldn't wait as long as Shinji apparently could. To make matters worse, her patience had been severely reduced by his musical performance. By the end of the event, certain parts of her body had become embarrassingly damp, though the music itself had little to do with it. The skilled movements, the focus and the effort he put into the private show exacerbated her desire into an incessant itch that tormented her even now.

 

Fantasies about those frenzied fingers and their potential uses flitted in and out of her mind intermittently, utterly ravaging her self-control. Clothed as she was in a loose T-shirt and simple panties it was easy for her to slip her fingers past the snug waistband and into the humid hollow, though that was as far as she was willing to go.

 

What made it all the worse was the fact that he was literally on the other side of her wall. Holding back her more carnal impulses was so much harder when her own will was the only thing that stood between her and release.

 

It just so happened that her will was supported by her idiosyncrasies and logic. Justifying her actions concerning the Third Child became impossible when she understood his choices. Bottling up her desires was an action supported by the predicted payoff. Faced with a long waiting period, it was no longer a viable option. That she was going to increase her efforts to acquire the pilot was a foregone conclusion. All that remained was the particular method she was going to follow.

 

His complacency was her enemy and his status as a pilot eliminated a great majority of her possible actions. No matter how much she liked him, she wouldn't allow herself to show weakness in front of him. She couldn't let him have any power over her, even if she knew he wouldn't use it.

 

She couldn't go to him, so Shinji had to be the one to come to her.

 

It was a large handicap, but it wasn't one she couldn't overcome. She was already aware of the flaws in her approach. Simply put, she was being too subtle. If the Third could ignore something in order to maintain the status quo, he would do so without hesitation. So, logically, all she had to do was to dig so deep that he couldn't ignore her. She needed to do something drastic.

 

Words alone would not suffice… at least, not the words she was willing to say. Actions could be misinterpreted, so that only left a combination of the two. In order to get through to him, she would have to initiate physical contact on a large scale, while leading him to believe that she was only doing so because of his weakness as opposed to her desire.

 

Tricky, but doable. The greatest hurdle lied in engineering the appropriate trap. Naturally, being the impulsive genius that she was, she conceived and committed to a suitable plan of action in less than five minutes.

 

 

 

She didn't really expect him to wake up the second her finger flicked the light switch on, but she was confident in her ability to work around unforeseen obstacles. Shinji had shot up with his eyes wide open and had wasted no time in searching his surrounding for intruders. He focused on her sure-footed approach in mere moments.

 

“A-Asuka?” the weary boy asked with bleary disbelief, though his eyes were wide and alert.

 

It was awfully hot in his room, she felt, though that could've been her imagination. Either way, beads of sweat were coalescing on her skin as she stood over her target impassively in loose sleepwear. Shinji was wearing far too much clothing for her purposes, though his choice of a T-shirt and loose shorts weren't really unexpected.

 

“What's going on? Is it an angel?” he asked urgently, now fully awake.

 

Seeing that he was sufficiently consternated by her lack of response and blank expression, the German allowed her lips to twist into an impish grin. “A beautiful girl walks into your room in the middle of the night, scantily dressed, and that's the first thing you think of? You really are boring, Third,” she lectured using a tone of voice she knew he hated.

 

Her comrade's mood quickly plummeted into sombre annoyance the longer she kept speaking until he finally decided that staying up to listen to the derisive monologue was not worth the effort it necessitated. So he squeezed his eyes shut, turned onto his side and buried himself under his drapes, doubtlessly hoping that she would get the hint.

 

Though he'd probably been aware of his ploy's dismal chances of success, he completely failed to predict the manner in which his attempt at continued rest would be aborted. Vocal communication could be soothing or simply ignored, though the former didn't really apply to Asuka. A determined and well directed leap couldn't be disregarded so easily.

 

Shinji released a piercing cry under the force of her impact and he immediately began to struggle as best he could. As she had planned, with her limbs in four corners and his movements impaired by covers that her own weight held down, he couldn't do much of anything other than wiggle, especially since the snug cloth cocoon wouldn't allow him any leverage. Her target was practically immobilized, at least for a few minutes and the assaulting German couldn't be happier that Misato wouldn't be coming back that night. The Major could sleep through many things, but her favorite charge's scream was not one of them.

 

When the trapped pilot managed to free his head and pin her with a mirthless stare, the redhead elected to continue with the plan instead of engaging in a pointless staring contest. “Stop struggling, Third Child,” she commanded irately. “I'll let you up when I'm damn good and ready.”

 

Shinji huffed and glared in irritation but nonetheless ceased squirming as antagonizing his teammate further was rarely advantageous. His face was lightly flushed with exertion and his chest pulsed with anger and lack of oxygen. His presence strummed a chord inside of her… a signal, a burst of desire. She wasn't surprised. It merely validated her course of action.

 

But as she hovered over the Commander's son on her elbows and knees, separated by a few layers of clothing and a couple of inches, the room seemed unbearably hot. That heat must have leaked into her voice, because she began to berate him with more vexation than she had planned.

 

“Third. Listen to me carefully because I'm only going to say this once.”

 

“I will not waste my time talking to a wall!” Look at me.

 

“Don't you dare ignore me.” Hold me. Touch me. Love me.

 

Shinji, who was now staring at her with wide eyes, was humbled by the intensity she displayed. Unable to withstand her unyielding gaze any longer, he turned his head away in discomfort and guilt… in the wrong direction.

 

Barely resisting the urge to curse in frustration, Asuka instead decided to try that ploy one more time before going to Plan B. “Look at me when I'm talking to you,” she ordered. The Third hesitated for a few moments before obeying, or trying to at least. His eyes flitted across her face, focusing on her lips, nose, ears and forehead, all in an attempt to avoid locking eyes with her again. Normally this would've enraged her, but this was what she had anticipated.

 

Inevitably, Shinji's focus fell off her face completely to run down the length of her neck and, at long last, wander past her shirt collar. His eyes widened, his mouth inched open and his cheeks flushed with heat as he became transfixed by the enchanting sight.

 

Given her current position, it was obvious that her extremely loose shirt would fail spectacularly at its designed task, especially at such close range. If she was lucky, then he could see everything. Two sizable mounds of pliant, perky flesh covered in creamy, unblemished skin and topped with inch wide areola and cute pink nubs engorged from excitement.

 

Asuka grinned slightly. His facial expression was a clear indication of his current mental state. The Third Child had become perfectly aware of who she was, where she was and what she was wearing. Or not wearing, as the case was. He was right where she wanted him, the rest was simply about making the right moves at the right times.

 

“Do we have an understanding, Third?”

 

Shinji nodded dumbly, still mesmerized by her charms.

 

The Second child ruthlessly suppressed a pleased giggle at the sight. Celebrating before confirming the kill was folly indeed. The angels had taught her that particular lesson well. The next step was as simple as it was complicated. Executing the maneuver involved nothing more than simple motor skills, but keeping track of the affected volatile elements would be far trickier. She would have to say the right thing at the right time in order to keep him immobile long enough to complete her objective.

 

However, the longer she waited, the lower her chances became. So she took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind. She would act as she always did, only with a different goal in mind. Hopefully, the familiarity in her manner would keep him off balance and buy her some time.

 

“See something you like?” she asked coldly.

 

The young man jerked sharply as he realized exactly what it was that he was doing. His eyes nervously snapped to her face as she drew her inadequately clothed upper body away from his prostrate form. She crossed her arms under the shapely bulges that so recently held his full attention and frowned slightly as she looked down on him, outwardly unmindful of the fact that she was still straddling him. Then, without giving him a chance to say a word, she relaxed her supporting legs and allowed her attractive rump to rest on the mass directly beneath it.

 

Since all three active pilots were of similar age and stature, it wasn't too hard to imagine that her backside would be positioned directly above his groin. As she had planned, it quickly encountered something long and unyielding. As soon as she made contact, Shinji did his best impression of granite as he fearfully watched her eyebrows inch up her forehead.

 

Asuka looked into his wide eyes and shook her head slowly. “So you did… pervert,” she accused.

 

 

 

Shinji knew that he should defend himself if he wanted to live past the next few minutes, but since he couldn't even find any words that sounded good to his own ears, his spoken skills couldn't really be counted on to have any hope of appeasing his temperamental housemate… especially after she caught him ogling her. Still, he had to say something, because she would think he was ignoring her if he didn't and that wouldn't help him at all. “I… I…”

 

He stopped trying when his doomed attempts at coherent speech appeared to anger her more than anything. Her frown had evolved into a full blown glare and he was afraid that sudden movements on his part would culminate into gruesome homicide.

 

“I can't believe you, Third. Getting all worked up over something as… juvenile as a peep,” she complained in clear irritation.

 

Something seemed wrong with that sentence, but he had more important things to worry about. Such as figuring out what she meant when she said that she had to `do something about it' and desperately trying to will his dick soft as she moved off the bed and pulled the covers onto the floor. It wasn't working. Its contact with the German's posterior had ruined any chances of it going away without a substantial period of intense activity.

 

He completely forgot about any oddities in her words when her fingers reached for his shorts' waistband and began to pull.

 

His hands reached for her arms with speed, accuracy and power he didn't know he possessed and stopped all downward movement. “Asuka! What are you doing?” he asked loudly and frantically.

 

She stared at his endeavor to hamper her progress with obvious disdain before turning to glare at him from her position beside the bed. “Third, let go,” she ordered.

 

“Why! What are you going to do?” he asked, though he already had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. In his mind, there was only one reason why Asuka Soryu Langley would take his pants off after he caught a peek of her breasts.

“Your pants are coming off one way or another, Third,” she revealed decisively. “But it will hurt much more if you resist. You're better off just taking it like a man instead of risking an accident happening near sensitive equipment.”

 

Shinji couldn't help but cringe at the word `accident' and the term `sensitive equipment'. Still, the words `like a man' helped convince him that he wasn't about to lose his most precious limb, which kind of simplified the whole situation. No matter which way he looked at it, Asuka deserved retribution. If he wasn't about to lose his manhood, then he could deal with whatever torture she designed in order to pay him back.

 

If the anguish proved too horrible… well, escape was always a possibility.

 

With his mind mostly made up, his grip over the attractive German's forearm slackened and she took advantage of that weakness instantly. One sharp tug later and he was laid bare to the world and the tender mercies of his belligerent teammate. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for him to begin harboring serious doubts about the whole situation.

 

He was so preoccupied with thoughts of pain and agony that it took him over a minute to realize that Asuka hadn't looked away from his special instrument since it was uncovered. Embarrassment and humiliation set in soon after. On the bright side, the burning heat in his cheeks redirected a small measure of blood from its other prominent location so that it was not as grossly imposing. Truthfully, the difference was practically imperceptible to the naked eye, but it made him feel better nonetheless. It certainly didn't feel as uncomfortably bloated.

 

Even though the situation embarrassed him more than anything in memory, he couldn't actually bring himself to interrupt her inspection, lest he incur her wrath. Also, this was the first time his member was exposed to prying eyes since he understood the concept of modesty. It was certainly the first time it was observed in its erect state.

 

However, since the only observer was a beautiful young woman who showed no signs of disgust and/or horror and who was directly responsible for his indecent exposure, there was understandably a certain amount of thrill involved.

 

That thrill was tempered by the feelings he held for her, and the knowledge of what she was capable of doing.

 

Or at least, what he believed her to be capable of.

 

“Lick,” was her unmistakable command. And yet, he still didn't understand.

 

He saw the proffered hand hovering in front of his mouth and he recognized it as belonging to Asuka, but he was having difficulty reconciling her words and actions. Unfortunately, the short amount of time he spent trying to discover an interpretation of her words that didn't involve putting her hand into his mouth seemed to agitate her. But his hesitation wasn't born of revulsion, far from it. It was just that his self-preservation instinct was acting up.

 

His priorities were staying alive, placating his teammate and experiencing whatever pleasure he could find, in that order. Naturally, he couldn't really satisfy the second priority if it meant violating the first, hence his current dilemma. Asuka may have asked him to lick her hand for reasons he couldn't fathom, but that didn't mean it was the correct path to take. For all he knew, he would fail and invite a month's worth of disappointed looks, frustrated behavior and constant reminders, making his life unbearable.

 

Or she could be toying with him. That was always a possibility with this particular girl.

 

One look into her eyes managed to convince his problem wasn't as complicated as he first thought. He had two simple options, he could do what she wanted or he could do the opposite. It was becoming increasingly clear that picking the latter choice would mean violating all three priorities while the first one only included a potential violation of the first two priorities. The choice was obvious.

 

Hesitantly, he raised his head and extended his tongue until it made contact with Asuka's offered palm. She rolled her eyes and huffed. He winced. That wasn't a good sign.

 

She bent closer to him, putting her face directly in front of his and tempting him with another peek inside her shirt. In the interests of good health, he kept his head straight and narrow.

 

“Idiot, do I have to tell you everything?” That would make things simpler, yes. “I told you to lick and you dab at it like it's blistering. Try again,” she said before raising her right hand again.

 

Feeling rather emboldened by her reaction, Shinji began to earnestly focus on his given task, nonsensical though it was. His tongue lashed out and dragged across her palm, leaving a thin film of spit to mark its passage. After a few seconds of this, the Second Child nodded in approval as she moved to sit on the edge of his bed, apparently unmindful of his exposed parts. “You're not using enough saliva. It needs to be drenched, especially the palm and fingers,” she counseled.

 

By this time, he was fully engaged into his work and had abandoned decorum and restraint. He had grasped her wrist and drawn two of her fingers fully into his oral cavity and was enthusiastically twirling the organ it contained around the digits, lingering teasingly when he reached the tips. He opened his mouth and switched fingers in a flurry of motion, barely noticing that Asuka had ceased speaking entirely.

 

Shinji had never contemplated the idea that so simple an act could be so intensely pleasurable, but it was very comprehensible when he thought about it. He liked Asuka. He liked the way she moved, the way she looked, the way she smiled, the sound of the voice and the assorted interactions they went through in an ordinary day. That he also liked the way she felt and the way she tasted was no huge surprise.

 

And her taste was peculiar. Her hand did not taste as his own did… there was an extra element, something more, unique. He was at a loss at how he could explain its taste as he knew of nothing similar, but he knew that he liked it. As for the texture, it was tempting. It reminded him that there was much more soft skin and supple flesh where it came from, if he would only reach.

 

He believed that it wasn't so simple.

 

“That's enough,” she whispered breathlessly.

 

Listless blue eyes were roused from their half-lidded stupor by her call and subsequently filled in his painting of reality. The previous mess of crude colors and indistinct shapes that had served as his sight quickly gained definition and recognizable elements. The completed picture was swiftly and instinctively analyzed while Asuka slowly slipped her fingers out of his mouth.

 

Under the room's artificial lighting was a beautiful girl with fiery hair and an attitude to match, dressed in a loose white shirt and plain cotton panties, sitting on a boy's bed without care. She examined the hand that she had wanted covered in his secretions and nodded once.

 

Left unoccupied for a few seconds, Shinji began to actually think about what was happening and why he wasn't more uncomfortable being naked in front of the girl he liked. That led to him thinking about why she wasn't more uncomfortable with his nudity… or his unmistakable arousal.

 

That thought would have led to him thinking about why she had taken his clothes off in the first place, but that train of thought was savagely derailed by the arrival of a soft and conveniently lubricated hand on his temporarily public parts.

 

His hips jerked up slightly and he narrowly missed biting his tongue as his captor squeezed firmly in response. That act clued him in to the fact that her hand's location was most likely no accident and that she had no intention of letting go. That information would've normally been evident to even him, but he was currently applying his `question absolutely everything' modus operandi. He opened his mouth and attempted to vocalize her name. His failure was due to the effective obstruction that was the German's left hand. She'd obviously anticipated his complaint.

 

“Don't interrupt, or I'll just leave you like this,” she warned. Quite effectively too, as he said not another word. He still didn't know what was happening or why, but he had long since learned to sense when silence would work to his advantage.

 

Keeping a secure hold of his erection with her right hand, she took her left off his face and set it on the bed where she could use it to support her as she moved around the bed. Seconds later, her left knee passed in front of his eyes to rest next to his head, though he was far too distracted by the extremely nice view of her thinly covered loins, thin waist and bare breasts to pay much attention to it. The sight, however, was short lived as Asuka brought her right leg over his body and quickly shuffled around so that she was kneeling on the bed at his left side.

 

His fellow Evangelion pilot moved her left hand closer to her impassive visage and used it to clear her front environment of her aesthetically pleasing but cumbersome flock of long red hair. Once the majority of the innumerable filaments were gathered on her back and unlikely to interfere with her vision and movements, she began to stare at him with narrowed eyes until he got her warning. Interference would not be tolerated. Once she was reasonably sure of his acquiescence, Asuka tightened her slippery hold over his member and began to bend closer.

 

Shinji felt as if his eyes would pop out of their sockets as he watched her mouth approach his Second-in-command, her movements seeming to slow down exponentially as the distance diminished. His awareness suddenly exploded as his mind decided to invest more resources to analyzing the information relayed by his senses.

 

The subtle scent of the German's perfume combined with the barely distinguishable smell of her sweat to form an odor he simply adored.

 

The lingering taste of her fingers on his tongue.

 

The incredibly arousing sight of Asuka in skimpy clothes and his dick in a glistening hand. A picture many students would kill to possess… or replicate.

 

The excruciating feeling of a soft but torturously stationary hand on his member taunted him, baiting him with its potential usage. Warm breath caressed the accessible flesh, threatening to destroy his self-control. It was just too much. He wanted her too much.

 

Right then did she look at him and open her mouth wider.

 

“Idiot…” she whispered teasingly.

 

 

 

The half-whimper half-groan he released just then was one of the most arousing sounds she'd ever heard, so much so that it actually risked compromising her mission. Suddenly, she found herself unable to fully rein her deeper impulses to manageable levels. She was dangerously close to abandoning her plan and jumping Shinji where he laid. It would be so easy… so sweet… and she knew he wouldn't refuse…

 

The Second child quickly decided to expedite her efforts before she began to rationalize reckless actions to the point where they seemed like flawless strategies.

 

“You've got a naughty mind, Third,” Asuka claimed in a slightly breathless voice as she straightened away from his pelvis. “Did you really think I was going to put my mouth on such a filthy thing?”

 

Shinji flinched and guiltily averted his eyes as she leaned closer to him, retreating into himself at the first sign of accusation. But she wasn't going to let him go, not this time. He was off balance now, caught outside of his shell where he was most vulnerable. “You thought that I was going to use my lips and tongue for the sole purpose of getting you off,” she breathed into his neck, feeling him shudder and gasp.

 

“I'll bet you even thought I was going to swallow,” she whispered into his ear. Momentarily overwhelmed by his extreme proximity, Asuka moved in and pulled his earlobe into her mouth, pressing her teeth down gently and shocking him into stillness. Her tongue dragged over its length slowly before she recovered herself.

 

Suddenly unsure of herself, she pulled her head away and allowed its elasticity to drag the ear from her grip. Knowing that impulsive actions would only complicate matters beyond her capacity to control and understand, she decided that cutting this session short was crucial to her eventual success. She could always pick up the slack on another day. Avoiding mistakes was more important than keeping the timetable, after all.

 

“No. You don't need all that. This hand is enough,” she forced out. She was surprised to find that the strain of retraining her idle hands from moving prematurely was wearing at her resolve. It was harder than she had expected, denying the object of her desire when she was sort of holding it.

 

But she had reached it… that critical junction that appeared in all her plans. The secondary purpose to her endeavor: finding an outlet for her sexual tension. It wouldn't be nearly enough in the long run, but it would do for now.

 

And so they began to move, together, stuck in an odd coordination based on interdependence. Beneath all the layers of pride and cowardice, this was a portion of what they both wanted and even needed. So they just followed the flow and ignored the minor details. Unsurprisingly, those details revolved around Asuka, since she was the only one with things to hide.

 

The German pilot ignored the world beyond the space occupied with her target and Shinji ignored the wide-eyed, half gaping look on her face that revealed the depth of her inexperience.

 

At the very least, he knew her well enough to recognize her bravado when he saw it. He didn't know why she was suddenly so aggressive but he knew that she wasn't ever as confident as she liked to appear. So he just watched as her normal facade slipped away, and found that her marveling expression aroused him as much, if not more than the accompanying strokes.

 

For a time, the stifling heat of the small bedroom was accompanied by the light panting of exertion and the barely audible swish of lubricated friction. The young woman randomly squeezed and twisted, inched and hastened along the shaft as she awkwardly employed her self-taught technique, inexpertly alternating between using too much or not enough finesse. Amid the attentiveness accorded to her increasingly frantic movements and her ardent scrutiny, a tiny section of Asuka's mind tried to sift through the observational data she had previously gathered in search of further instruction only to sputter to a halt shortly after due to a lack of fuel.

 

Ikari Shinji had lost the war to keep any and all embarrassing noises to himself and was easily coaxed into releasing a series of low grunts and smothered moans that his classmate happened to find particularly endearing. The girl subsequently decided to allocate the majority of her resources towards the excavation of additional `ore'.

 

It was then that she discovered an important fact about encounters of the sexual kind. While she was still executing her movements with just as much dedication as before, the Third child's vocal responses now attracted the majority of her attention.

 

It was only then that she began to comprehend a crucial facet of sexual activity. It was something that everyone was intellectually aware of, but not something that she'd ever taken into account.

 

Sex required two people.

 

It was logical, even obvious and yet still difficult to fully grasp, especially for someone like herself.

 

Asuka Soryu Langley could not exactly be called empathetic. She was far too insecure in her own self to even contemplate taking in other people's emotions. She had difficulty feeling sorry for others because she had not fully dealt with her own sadness. She had difficulty feeling glad for others because of the envy the joy evoked when she realized that it wasn't her own. It is a regrettable truth, that humans are not infinite. There is always a limit in a given soul's capacity to feel.

 

Things can always get better or worse, but there comes a point where a being simply cannot feel it. It is possible to hear something for so long that one simply stops being aware of it. The same can be said of any other sensation, emotions included. Stagnation is a danger. It is directly responsible for the emotion the Third child knows best, apathy.

 

In Asuka's case, she could never understand Shinji's sorrow, but his joy was something else entirely. And since she was entirely to blame for his sudden good fortune, there was no chance of her becoming envious. Ironically, sex was the only feasible way for her to bypass the mental baggage they carried and interact emotionally. For every word she couldn't say there was a motion and for every confession smothered in fear, there was an embarrassing reaction.

 

Shinji could no longer hold himself back. The weight of the feelings he held for his teammate became far too heavy to carry for a mind swamped with pleasure. Every twitch, convulsion and moan he involuntarily committed carried a portion of those emotions. It was all he could do to stop himself from calling her name. As it was, he was slowly getting louder.

 

It was by dissecting his reactions that Asuka verified that he, unsurprisingly, enjoyed what she was doing for him. However, her analysis also revealed that he did not like all that she did equally. And so she remembered that he was a human being with preferences, opinions based on nothing more than personality. Uncoordinated movements would only take her so far.

 

The German's mind quickly made parallels between her sexual performance and the closest derivative she could think of, the martial arts she learned to improve her piloting. The movements she copied from those video tapes were like kata. They were only useful up to a certain point. Performing a kata was very much different from piloting an Eva, because you introduced an unknown element: an enemy. In order to win, she had to adapt to her opponent.

 

The first step to victory was always to establish the weaknesses. So she experimented and catalogued various motions according to pressure, speed, rotation and their corresponding response. She quickly learned to put more emphasis on his smaller head.

 

As more and more techniques were discarded or preserved, the gap between fully pleasurable actions decreased dramatically. It is not surprising that Shinji found himself squeezing his eyes shut, clenching his teeth and thrusting his pelvis upwards desperately.

 

Asuka, who refused to relinquish control of this encounter, quickly formulated an acceptable solution to this problem. As soon as his muscles relaxed and he dropped back onto the sheets, she jumped off her position and onto his thighs. The Third's eyes snapped open and his jaw loosened, but before he could say a word, she had started up again and his breath caught in his throat.

 

Her left hand settled on his waist and held her up as she leaned forward and jerked her glistening hand with staccato bursts. He was silent and she needed to hear him again. The sound was concrete evidence of his desire and there was a drastic shortage of that particular resource. Her relative success in this endeavor reinforced her womanhood because, in her mind, the ability to attract a male was an integral part of that.

 

In addition, her experience with the pornographic film industry meant that she was vaguely aware of the meaning behind Shinji's utterances. She suspected that whatever it was that he was feeling wasn't lust or pleasure alone. And that gave her hope, in addition to the thrill born of causing such reactions.

 

She looked into his wide eyes to see them clench shut, to see his reddened face tense slightly, to see the back of his head dig into the mattress as his jaw inched open to release a guttural groan that could've been heard in the entire apartment.

 

Suddenly, his shaft began to pulse. Her hand stilled immediately, despite herself. She knew what was coming. Her field of vision gravitated towards his groin just in time to see the first stream being hurled from the pressure in his sac.

 

She went out looking for silver and struck gold. He was discharging. She had succeeded.

 

It took her a few moments to realize that the angle she was maintaining would force him to release in her direction. She immediately let go, but it was already too late. His member sprung back and slammed onto his stomach where more semen dribbled out, but the largest streams had already landed on her. Most of it was absorbed by her loose shirt, but some of it reached her face and hair.

 

She paused for a second and took the opportunity to examine the way it felt. It was surprisingly warm.

 

Asuka opened the eyes that she had shut reflexively and immediately noticed her housemate's fearful visage. White faced, wide eyed and twitching. She rolled her eyes.

 

“A-Asuka…”

 

The redhead ignored his call and stepped off the bed. There, standing with her back to him, she raised her arms and pulled her large T-shirt off and used its cleaner sections to wipe the ejaculate from her skin. After dropping the dirtied garment to the floor, she turned to him.

 

Red faced, wide eyed and twitching… and she wasn't talking about his limbs. She hid a smile.

 

“Make sure to wash that, Third. I'm going to want it back.”

 

In short order, his light was closed followed by his door. A hallway was traversed before the door to the bathroom opened, followed by the light. The journey was completed only when a lock was turned. She couldn't risk a meeting then.

 

She fell on two knees, an elbow and her shoulder while the right hand he had bathed with his tongue dived into her panties and rubbed with abandon. Within seconds, she was forced to slap a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of her scream before crumbling onto the cool tiled floor, trembling, overwhelmed.

 

Ragged breathing transitioned into deep breaths followed by stable respiration. The redhead groaned as she expended essential energy to move her sweaty, exhausted body onto its back. She stared at the ceiling for untold minutes before the hand cradled by her soaked panties began to move again. Slowly.

 

She wouldn't get the opportunity to bathe for quite some time.