Despite popular belief, I do in fact, not own Neon Genesis Evangelion. That would be Gainax. Oh, and I don't own Mr. Donuts either. Never heard of it? Go to Japan. Give your tastebuds a littlepiece of foreign paradise.
Shinji's eyes, half-lidded as his mind slowly crept awake, stared blankly above him.
A new morning. Just another day; waking up to the same old ceiling.
Save his own breathing, the apartment was a slumbering quiet. It was the weekend, after all. Misato would be hibernating until at least noon after her long night-shift at NERV, and Asuka usually slept in after a long week of school, sync tests, and Evangelion combat training. And with no one to feed him, even Pen-Pen would be dozing inside his spacious little refrigerator until somebody woke up.
But Shinji didn't like the still silence. He had spent most of the week's mornings like this.
It was the dreams.
No, dreams aren't supposed to do this to you. It was a nightmare, plain and simple. All week, the same nightmare dominated Shinji's sleep. Every night, it churned through his mind until he could stand no more and finally woke himself up, always early in the morning; leaving him cold, drenched with sweat, and afraid to try falling asleep again.
Those first few seconds of waking up- when reality and the Neverwhere of your dreams blur together- offered him only a few surviving fragments of that recurring nightmare he thankfully forgot:
It was his mother.
His father was there too…younger, but somehow taller…almost towering.
A laboratory, a wall of glass.
GEHIRN
A Beast behind the window…something grinning at him from underneath a tangle of cables and wiring.
Mother…
Alarms…shouts…yelling…something's wrong…
"Where's Mommy?"
Shinji sat up in his bed, wiping the thick sheen of perspiration from his forehead. The dream's meaning hadn't been lost on him; every day he woke up in the morning was just another repetition of their little 'family' routine. But today was not just another day. The dreams were there to remind him, to make sure he never forgot.
Today was different.
It was early in the morning on a weekend, but Shinji knew he'd still be there. Untangling himself from the sweat-dampened sheets, his bare feet carried him across the carpet to his cell phone- waiting patiently on his desk as it recharged.
It could wait all it wanted.
No one called it.
It never rang.
Fingers trembling, Shinji picked up the cell and dialed.
He only had to endure three monotone rings before he finally answered.
Shinji's free hand clenched tightly.
"Yes, what is it?" a cold, unfamiliar voice said.
His father.
Shinji's free hand uncurled, then reflexively tightened again.
"Uh…Father?"
"Shinji?" Gendo Ikari said with mild aversion. "This is my business line, speak quickly."
"I…it was just…well-"
"I have important matters to attend to," the NERV Commander snapped impatiently. "I don't have all day to hear you stutter into my phone."
"I was just…uh…on account of it being today…" Shinji gulped, his hand nervously opening and closing. "Father…do you even know what today is?"
"May the 14th," Gendo replied. "If you called just to learn the date, I'll order Major Katsuragi to make sure you have a calendar. Don't bother me with such nonsense like this again, is that understood?"
"Yes," Shinji began, but the line clicked off before he could even finish.
"…sir"
"Oi! Baka!" Asuka barked as she pounded on Shinji's door. "What the hell are you waiting for! Get your lazy ass out here and cook breakfast!"
It was well into morning, and the Katsuragi residence had begun their traditional weekend routine. Misato may still have been fast asleep, but Asuka Langley Souryu was wide awake, and the red-headed German was hungry.
Worse yet, the baka-hentai hadn't been out of his room yet, and what use was it to have a housebroken male around the house if he wouldn't cook?
Nothing, that's what.
The Second Child stood stubbornly in the hallway in front of Ikari's door, a flimsy, low-cut top and cotton shorts barely reaching the thighs passing for her pajamas. Clenching her teeth like fangs, her heavy fist beat against the door again, sooooo wishing it was the baka's head instead.
"Sheitze dumkoff! Get your skinny ass out here before I have to come in there and drag you out!"
Before she could raise her fist to knock again, the door finally relented and slid open. The Shinji filling the doorway scarcely resembled the whiny, submissive little boy Asuka was more familiar with. This Third Child was already fully dressed in his school uniform- black slacks and a white button-down shirt- weird considering they had no school today.
Most unsettling of all was Shinji's face. Dark circles ringed around gloomy, downcast eyes, and he wore a distracted, cheerless expression on his face that reminded Asuka of the 'Comedy' and 'Tragedy' masks you see in drama class; only he seemed to have forgotten 'Comedy' somewhere in his room.
To her credit, Asuka scarcely balked at the sudden change in her favorite little stress-reliever. Falling back on familiar behavior, she gave the baka an irritated reprimand. "Well it's about damn time, lazy ass! To think you'd heartlessly deprive me of my breakfast! Really, can you sink any lower?"
Hoisting the strap of his bag onto his shoulder, Shinji brushed past Asuka without a word as if he had suddenly gone deaf.
Incensed at being given a cold shoulder- and by Shinji no less- Asuka moved to stop him. "Where the hell do you think you're going baka! Don't think I'm even finished with you ye-"
Glancing at her briefly over his shoulder, Shinji carelessly thrust a small box into her hands.
Looking down at the package, the redhead blinked in puzzlement. The box read Mr. Donuts. "Huh? What the hell is this?"
"Your breakfast," Shinji replied stolidly. "That is, if a superior pilot like you can't make her own food, just eat this. The maid's off this morning."
Where in God's name did this come from? Asuka wondered. He almost sounds like his…well, Commander Ikari.
The Second Child couldn't help but shudder.
Before she could even holler a response to Shinji's back, he had already turned around the hallway's corner and was headed out the door.
The door slamming shut seemed to prompt Asuka out of her silence, however…
"The GALL of that perverted little weasel! The second he gets back here, I'm gonna castrate him and then shove them down his little throat! Yeah! Choke him to goddamn death with his own goddamn balls!"
"Wark!"
Pen-Pen, curious about the sudden noise this morning, had entered halfway through the fiery German's rant and was now lusting over the box of donuts she still held.
Misato, on the other hand, emerged from her room like something possibly half-dead. And groaning like one too. "Eh? God, Asuka…Why're ya making so much noise? It's still morning…"
Asuka turned abruptly to her Guardian, face as red as her hair. "That…that…"
"Baka?" Misato supplied wearily.
"That…bastard was completely disrespectful to me! He spat in my face to make my own breakfast and left without so much as an explanation! When he gets home, I'll-"
"Yeah, I heard that part," Misato sighed. "But what's with the box?"
The calm question seemed to have broken Asuka out of her tirade, and she crossed her arms over her chest as Pen-Pen futilely reached for the Mr. Donuts box. "Shinji gave them to us, apparently we're having donuts for breakfast."
"Donuts?" Misato said, noticeably brightening out of her fatigue.
"You're missing the point Misato! Shinji just walked out of here without so much as an explanation, and you're not worried at all!"
The Major raised an eyebrow at her charge, frowning slightly. "Asuka, do you even know what day it is today?"
"May 14th, but what's that have to do with anything?"
"Asuka," Misato asked warily. "Don't you have Mother's Day in Germany?"
Very rarely is Asuka Langley Souryu ever taken aback. This occasion, however, saw one of those few instances. The Second Child's face slowly shifted into a troubled expression of deep, grim understanding.
And empathy.
"Fuck," Asuka whispered to herself.
"Wark!"
This was actually written yesterday, May 14, on Mother's day. Got the idea during work and couldn't let it go. Wrote and wrote, and finished it today. Unlike the rest of my fanfictions, this has more chapters, but it'll be a handful writing them up this week. Graduation's coming up, and my teachers are hitting me with their last hurrah before I'm free at last.
Updates soon,
-ShinobiCyrus (reviews appreciated!)
I wonder: Can this be considered a Mother's Day fic if it was posted after the fact?