ASK ASUKA
by flori-dono

DISCLAIMER: This is a Neon Genesis Evangelion inspired fan fiction. Standard 
disclaiemrs apply.

NOTES: Thanks to Greg, ShinjiML, Tolaris, Sayuri (Sayu-Sayuri ka pa diyan eh Ans 
lang naman ang pangalan mo! May pa Shinomori ka pa rin ^_~ ehehehe joke lang). 
Thanks to my bro for the idea. Thanks to Lyda and Jasmin for keeping my mind off 
Rurouni Kenshin for a while (yet I'm listening to the soundtrack while writing 
this). Thanks to Ate Tin Mandigma for the good booster!

And this is the sort-of sequel to PICTURES.

**PART 1**

"WHAT?!" 

Touji almost splurted water on Hikari's face.

Hikari laughed as Touji looked so much like a blowfish at that moment. She knew 
he would react that way, and she knew that his reaction would be priceless.

"Don't kid me, Hikari!"

"I am not kidding you," she replied still holding her giggles.

"Asuka... she... she's," Touji stammered.

"Yes," Hikari said. 

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

"YEEEEEES!"

"Oh boy," Touji said, breathing hard. "Wait till Shinji learns about this!"

"I know what you mean," Hikari said.

"I can't believe this."

"Neither could I."

"Asuka..."

"Yes," Hikari replied, breaking into a wide grin. "She'll be writing the advise 
column in the school paper."

"That's what I'm afraid of!" Touji groaned before burrying his face under his 
arms.
***
"That's what Hikari told me, man!" Touji said.

Kensuke laughed. 

"I don't think it's too terrible," he said. "I can't wait to read what her 
advises would be. 'Dear Asuka, I saw my boyfriend with another girl, What do I 
do?... Well, I think you should kick your boyfriend ten thousand times in the 
ass and then call him hentai. If he still looks like a moron then dump him!'... 
Hehehe-ow!"

"That is not funny!" Touji said, giving Kensuke a bop on the head. "I mean 
imagine, all the girls will be like... be like... be like Asuka!"

"Oh... I see what you mean," Kensuke said after realizing what the consequences 
would be. "What do you think Shinji?"

Shinji who was silent all the time glanced at his two friends. 

"Uhmm... I dunno," he said. "I mean, the only thing I would be afraid of is the 
further inflation of her ego."

"That's it man," Touji said, waving his arms in the air in exasperation. 
"Imagine what would it be like living with her! If it has been hell wait till 
today!"

Shinji sighed. Asuka's inflated ego was the least of his concerns actually. Ever 
since he discovered his picture in Asuka's wallet, he couldn't get the idea of 
her having a crush on him him out of his mind. He was ninety percent sure that 
Asuka liked him yet he still didnt't have the guts to ask her out. And it was 
all distracting him to the point of insanity. His synch ratio had never been so 
low and Ritsuko was already giving him a weird look.

"May-day! May-day!" Kensuke almost screamed out loud. "It's her!"

"Well, well, well... what do we have here? The three stooges, crowding the 
hallway!"

"Oh no..." Touji slammed his fist to his face. "Asuka!"

"Make way for the greatest writer in the world!" Asuka announced as she pushed 
her way through the three boys.

"Shinji," Touji elbowed his friend. "Do something about it..."

Then he pushed Shinji towards the red-headed she-devil.

"What do you want, Shinji no baka?" Asuka asked. 

Shinji gulped. He couldn't help but stare. Asuka was so beautiful.

"Er...I...I..." he started.

"Go on," Touji hissed behind his back. "Show her what a real man is!"

"Don't let her push you around," Kensuke added.

He cleared his throat. 

"Um, Asuka..." he continued. "I...I..."

"Come on," Asuka said while tapping her foot. "You're wasting my time."

Could he do it? Could he stand up to her?

"Asuka," he said this time more strongly. He saw Asuka's eyebrow rose. " I just 
want to congratulate you."

Touji and Kensuke fell on a formless heap on the floor.

Asuka smiled. 

"Why thank you," she said. "You have hope after all!"

And with that she walked away.
      
"Kami-sama," Shinji thought. "She's so beautiful..."

***
"Stand. Attention. Bow!"

"Children, let us talk about the Second Impact and what its effects were..."

There was a collective groan from the class. It was nothing new. 

Shinji looked at Rei who was as usual, looking outside the school window. 

"Well," Shinji thought. "She's a girl... maybe she knows what the meaning of 
pictures in wallets are..."

He shook his head. No, Rei was not exactly, er,human. What about Hikari? But she 
might tell on Asuka and that would be a bad idea.

"Children!"

Shinji looked up and saw the principal walked in with a girl. She was petite and 
she had shoulder-length black hair. She was quite pretty, and there was 
something about her that was really familiar...

"You have a new classmate," the principal said. "This is Tanaka Hana and she 
will be staying here for a while before she returns back to America."

"Ohayou!"

Shinji paled as he heard her voice. Now he remembered!

"Please sit down beside Mr. Ikari over there."

He watched perplexedly as Tanaka Hana walked and sat down on the seat beside 
him. He saw her looked at him and smiled.

"Long time no see," she said. "Shinji-kun!"

***

Asuka bit on her doughnut furiously. She had been watching Shinji and THAT girl 
for over an hour now. 

"Baka," she mumbled as she gave the couple an evil eye.

"Oy," Hikari said as she plopped down beside her fuming friend. She leaned 
forward and gazed at the direction Asuka was scrutinizing at. 

"So the great Asuka Langley Sohryu is jealous!" Hikari exclaimed with a teasing 
smile. "And yet she tells me she doesn't even like him."

Asuka snapped her head. "What are you talking about Horaki Hikari?"

"Nuninuninu..." Hikari said in a sing-song tone as she twiddled her fingers. "As 
if she doesn't know. You're seething because Shinji's been with the new girl for 
almost an hour now."

"F.Y.I., they've been there for an hour and ten minutes!" Asuka replied without 
thinking, then caught herself. "Shit..."

Hikari laughed. "Asuka... Asuka... you can hide everything from me except THAT."

"Oh shut up Hikari!" Asuka sighed and looked at the rest of her lunch. She 
didn't feel hungry anymore. She wrapped the rest of the dougnut in tissue and 
placed it in her lunch bag. She glanced at the couple once more and stood up.

"Hey," Hikari stood up also. "Where are you going?"

Without turning back she said, "Anywhere but here!"

And she stomped off leaving Hikari giggling on the bench alone.

"Hey class Rep," Touji asked as he settled down beside the girl. "Watcha 
chortling 'bout?"

Hikari smiled.

"Oh nothing, just nothing..."

***
Shinji looked up and saw Asuka went off. As usual she's incensed again, and he 
liked it when she was angry mainly because she becomes more beautiful. Well, at 
least when she's not mad at HIM, that is.

"Shinji-kun?" 

"Hai," Shinji said, turning to the girl beside him. "Gomen nasai, Hana-chan."
Hana followed Shinji's gaze. 

"I see you are enamored with that red-head, ne?" she asked, smiling. "I like 
your taste Shinji-kun!"

Shinji blushed. "Hana-chan, the words you use... enamored?"

"Still changing topics to evade very touchy subjects," she said. "You haven't 
changed much."

"Sou desu," he said with a sigh. 

Hana laughed. 

Shinji glanced at her. He was surprised how little Tanaka Hana had changed. He 
had first known her when he was a kid. She was the niece of one of his tutors. 
Every weekend, Hana and her mom would visit her uncle. During these visits, she 
would play with him. Of course, they saw each other less and less as the years 
wore on. The Tanakas had migrated to the United States and the weekend visits 
became yearly ones. By that time, he and Hana had acquired new interests and 
there was little opportunity for them to become close again. Mrs. Tanaka used to 
think that they would be romantically involved when they grew up, but both Hana 
and Shinji knew that this would never happen. And besides, before Shinji could 
even define the word "romance", he was shipped off to Tokyo 3 to pilot UNIT 01. 

To say that he was surprised when he saw her this morning was an understatement. 

"So how's it like being an EVA pilot?" she asked.

"No comment," he said.

"What do you mean 'no comment'?" she asked. "I mean, you must feel something, 
you're saving the world, literally!"

Shinji looked at Hana. Could he tell her?

"I'd rather not talk about it," he said finally. 

Hana threw her hands in the air in resignation.  "Whatever! First you don't want 
to talk about your father, next you don't want to talk about the redhead and 
finally you don't want to talk about your being a pilot. So Ikari Shinji, what 
do you want to talk about, the weather? How about PMS?"

She paused, seeing that Shinji was hurt. She put a hand on his shoulder. 

"Gomen nasai Shinji-kun," she said. "I shouldn't have said that. But ever since 
I've known you, you've been bottling your thoughts inside. Even when we were 
kids, I was the real chatterbox. Come on Shinji, it doesn't hurt to talk once in 
a while."

Shinji smiled at Hana. She was sure a nice change from Rei, Misato and Asuka. He 
found her honesty very refreshing. He realized that he had really missed her.

***
Asuka had never wanted a mallet to appear so badly than that moment. She almost 
wanted to storm over Shinji and... that... THAT girl, specially when she... SHE 
put a hand on his shoulder. Who did she think she was? She hadn't even been in 
the school for a day and she was already making moves on Shinji. Gads, she hated 
that Hana whoever she was!

Her eyes widened as she saw Shinji pat Hana's hand. What was he doing?

"Asuka, just count to three," she calmed herself. "One...Two...Three..."

And she besieged off.

***
"Ahem," a cough broke into the air. 

Shinji and Hana looked up. What they saw was a fully-enraged Asuka Langley 
Sohryu. Shinji cowered inside. Hana just smiled.

"Konnichiwa...er, Asuka-san, right?" she said, extending her hand to Asuka.

Asuka was taken aback. She was NOT expecting this. In a loss for what to do, she 
took the hand and shook it.

"Hai," Asuka mumbled.

Shinji couldn't help but feel relieved. He didn't want Asuka to thrash him in 
front of Hana. What would that do to his already deflated ego?

"Hey Asuka-san," Hana said. "Why don't you join us?"

Asuka looked more perplexed. She glanced from Shinji to Hana and back again. 
Come to think of it, they looked so relaxed in each other's company. And she had 
never seen Shinji so laidback, so... himself. In a rare show of selflessness, 
she decided to back-out from her plan of annihilation.

"Er, thanks but no," she said. "I was just going to ask Third Child here if we 
have some NERV tests later."

"So you must be the other pilot," Hana said. "I've heard lots of great things 
about you!" 

"Er, you do?" 

"Yeah, Shinji-kun here was just talking about you."

Shinji was stunned. Where did that come from?

Asuka looked at Shinji and saw him blush. HE was talking about HER? Great 
things, HER?

"Oh..."

"He just mentioned that you were going to write in the schoolpaper..."

Shinji cleared his throat. Asuka seemed stupefied, and he couldn't believe it. 
He had never seen her so at loss for words.

"We don't have tests later, Asuka," Shinji said, finally deciding to speak up. 

"Oh so well..."

"Oh sheesh," Hana said, standing up. "Look at the time! Hey, I'm so sorry I just 
remembered I have an appointment with the guidance counselor at one and I'm 
already five minutes late. It was nice meeting you Asuka and it has been nice 
talking to you again Shinji-kun! Bye!"

She said all these in a rush and flew off, leaving the two other kids staring 
after her.

It was Asuka who recovered first.

"Again?" she asked Shinji. "Was she your ex-girlfriend or something?"

"Yes...er, I mean no!" Shinji corrected himself. "She was a playmate when I was 
a kid."

"Oh," Asuka thought, with a sly smile on her pretty face. "This is interesting. 
At last, some clue to this boy's sordid past!"

"I see," she said aloud. "A childhood sweetheart!"

"No!" he denied vehemently. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on Shinji, you can trust little ol' me!" Asuka said nudging him with her 
elbow. The funny thing was, she didn't feel angry anymore. 

Shinji stared at Asuka. Asuka joking with him? Asuka nudging him? What was wrong 
with the world? For once they were sharing something other than insults. He 
looked up. No angels in sight. He pricked up his ears. Not even the usual siren.

"What's wrong with you Ikari?" she broke into his addled thoughts, placing her 
hand on his shoulder. 

"You're touching me..." he said.

Asuka withdrew that hand away.

"Eek, hentai!" she hollered in disgust. "Don't tell me you're getting turned on 
with that!"

And with that, she dashed back inside the school building, leaving Shinji alone 
on the vast, empty schoolground.

"She touched me..."
***
Asuka sat on her desk. What went on earlier? She must be deviating from her 
usual self. She couldn't believe she had a decent conversation with Shinji, and 
gads, she even joked with him! What was wrong with her?

She knew what was wrong with her. She liked Shinji and more. No matter how much 
she would berate him or throw insults at him, she just do. The bitchy attitude 
was just a fa‡ade, perhaps to hide the interest she had for the boy. And it's 
killing her not to let it show, but it got harder when he would keep on being 
kind to her. The more she would resist, the harder she would fall. And she was 
afraid she had all ready fallen too deep. 

"Ha!" she thought. "Just think about his picture in your wallet!"   

She looked up to see Shinji staring at her. What was he doing? 

Shinji still couldn't get over the fact about what happened earlier. He was 
really talking with Asuka. No head-pounding, no groin-kicking, it was just some 
simple old-fashioned conversation. Maybe he should change that ninety percent to 
what... one hundred?

Shinji stole a glance at her. He meant it to be just that, but then that glance 
turned into a big time stare. He saw Asuka looked up from her musings and they 
caught each other's eyes. 

"If some of the people could just stop staring at each other, perhaps we could 
start now?"

The whole class was looking at them. Shinji's face turned red and so did 
Asuka's. Hikari, the ever reliable Class Rep, stood up (trying hard to hold her 
giggles desparately) and recited her STAND-ATTENTION-BOW! thingie.

And then they sat down. 

What was happening to them?  Shinji could have sworn that Asuka was staring at 
him too. Not her usual "eat-the-dust" stare, it was really something different. 
It totally threw him off.

Asuka's heart was beating wildly in her chest. Shinji caught her looking at him. 
What would he think? But then again, there was that "cute-puppy" look in his 
eyes when he held her gaze. And it did a lot to her all ready jumbled state of 
mind. 

"Gomen nasai, sensei" It was Hana. She was late.

Shinji followed her as she walked to her seat with his eyes. Hana looked behind 
her and winked at him. Shinji just smiled weakly.

Asuka felt her mouth opened, but closed it back quickly. How dared she wink at 
Shinji? And how dared he smile at her? The short scene she had just witnessed 
brought back the green devil inside her.

"Wait, till I get my hands on HIM..." she thought.
***
"Wait, Asuka!" Shinji yelled.

"What now baka?" Asuka replied, stopping. 

"I want to walk home with you," Shinji said as he got to her side.

Asuka's heart skipped. Was it really Shinji who was asking her if he could walk 
home with her? Before she could open her mouth, suddenly...

"Shinji!"

They both turned around. It was Hana.

"Bye!" the girl said as she blew Shinji a kiss. "Bye Asuka!"

Asuka managed a polite smile. She turned to Shinji. Walk with home with her, eh? 
Not with that woman's kiss on him!

"Absolutely not!" she said walking forward, and bumping Shinji in the process. 
"What would people say, the great writer walking home with Baka-Ikari? No way!"

But she regretted it as she saw the hurt in Shinji's eyes.
***
Shinji couldn't believe what he heard. How could Asuka be so cruel? Earlier, 
they were doing fine. Why again the sudden change? 

Perhaps it was too much LCL in the digestive system.

Nevertheless, she had hurt him.

Shinji walked home alone.

***
"So what's new?" Misato asked as she munched on a mouthful of potato chips.

"Well I was chosen to write for the advise column in the school paper," Asuka 
proudly annouced.

"What?!" Misato almost choked on the food.

"Well, I can write you know!" Asuka said.

Misato apologized. Nevertheless, the idea of Asuka writing an advise column 
could make her quit drinking alcohol in the morning. Well, almost.

"Congratulations Asuka," she said as solemnly as she could. "What about you 
Shinji?"

Shinji didn't answer. He could only pick on his food.

"Didn't he tell you," Asuka said slyly. "Shinji met his ex-girlfriend. She's the 
new student in school!"

Shinji looked up at Asuka.

"Shinji no baka," Shinji reprimanded himself. "How could you think that she 
likes you? If she did, then she wouldn't be like this!"

"Girlfriend?" Misato asked incredulously. "I didn't know you had it in you!"

Shinji glared at his guardian.

"Hana-chan wasn't a girlfriend. She was just a friend."

"Whatever," Misato said before taking a gulp of beer. "Yeah, deny it Shinji," 
she thought.

"Then how come you were talking with her for an hour?" Asuka asked, making it 
sound like she was teasing but she really wanted to find out what Hana was to 
him.

"Well," Shinji explained. "We haven't seen each other for ages. Of course, we 
just caught up with what has been happening in our lives!"

"Oh really now?" 

Shinji gripped hard at his water glass. This wasn't funny anymore. In fact, it 
was annoying him as hell. Why couldn't Asuka leave the subject alone? Couldn't 
she see that she was the one he liked and not Hana who was in fact...

"Come on Shinji, tell-tell!"

"Shut up will you?" Shinji yelled as he stood up. "Will it quiet you down if I 
tell you I like her? Then okay, I do, so leave me alone!"

Suddenly surprised with his own outburst, he stormed off to his room and slammed 
the door shut.

"Whoah," Misato said, finaly after a few minutes of silence. "What was that all 
about?"

Asuka was near tears herself, but she shook her head to clear her sight. He 
liked Hana? 

"Ouch?" 

Asuka turned her head towards Misato.

"What do you mean, 'ouch?'"

"Well that hurt right?" Misato replied after gulping her beer. "He admitted he 
liked the new girl and that must hurt a lot."

"Why should it?" Asuka said aloud, but deep inside it was "Of course it did!".

The older woman looked at her in a weird-sly sort-of way and simply said, 
"Because you like him?"

Asuka went pale. Was she that obvious? 

"What are you talking about Misato?"

"Oh come on..."

Asuka stood up.

"Gads, give me a break will you?" and she too went to her room, slamming her 
door as she went in.

Silence.

"Tee-hee!" Misato said after a while, to the until now unnoticed Penpen. "My 
kids are in-looooove!"

And she drank to that.

On to part 2