, a fic where Shinji gets his soul sucked into Unit-01 in his first fight and Asuka takes over as main character.
The commander's office was dark, windows shuttered and not letting any of the geo-front's artificial light through. The only source of illumination was the Tree of Life, flaring with bright but malevolent red under Asuka's feet. Still, the girl was fighting a grin, watching as the homo bastard sapiens, hands tented in front of his face, tone barely above a whisper, calm and deliberate, ripped the US Navy admiral in front of him into tiny pieces.
The girl didn't know how Ikari Gendo managed to get the admiral (whose name she herself still didn't know) away from his ship and onto his proverbial carpet, but the slight look of unease on the officer's face was worth its weight in gold.
Asuka also didn't know how the commander managed to make the admiral stand at attention without so much as raising his tone, but she swore she had to learn it. It was actually quite funny, how she couldn't decide which of the two men she loathed more.
"… thus you have overstepped your jurisdiction, as, according to the UN charter, in an emergency situation such as the attack of an entity codenamed Gaghiel, Nerv is duty-bound to take command of all available military recourses and destroy the hostile with extreme prejudice," the commander's voice was level, quiet and, surprisingly, without a hint of boredom, as if he was giving the situation his whole attention. Said attention was making the admiral in front of him very uneasy, "You also overstep you authority, by undertaking punitive actions and incarceration of two minors that are, technically, not a part of the military command structure and answer only to the Nerv Research Institute, also in accordance with the UN charter. This misuse of your authority has been recorded and the relevant ministries, as well as your superiors, have been notified. You are, as of now, stripped of command over the pacific fleet and are ordered to return to Washington-4 for debriefing," the tone didn't change in the slightest, but somehow, perhaps telepathically, the commander transmitted that said 'debriefing' would hardly be pleasant.
To Asuka's right, Suzuhara stood, also at attention, but for different reasons, namely his crotch and ass muscles hurting so badly from Asuka's kicking two days ago, that this was the most comfortable pose he could take. He also sported a black eye and a healing split lip. From his expression, he wasn't enjoying the proceedings in the slightest and would have rather taken the time to lie down and try to recover. The girl's smile widened fractionally.
"… you are dismissed," Gendo finally finished, letting the sweating admiral salute sharply and, turning on his heels, stalk out of the intimidating office. The commander's eyes focused on the Children.
"Pilot Sohryu, while your actions during the engagement of Gaghiel are without reproach," here, an almost amused undertone emerged in the ice-cold voice, "your misconduct towards the Forth Child demands further disciplinary measures. Your monetary allowance will be further reduced to it's minimum for the next month and your Nerv recreation center use privileges will be revoked for the timeframe of two weeks. Nerv will not allow you to sabotage its resources through childish outbursts. You both are dismissed, report to Doctor Akagi for the synchronization test."
Aaand Asuka knew again why she hated Ikari Gendo more than anyone else on the planet. The smirk Suzuhara's bruised mug was currently displaying wasn't helping the matters either.
Stalking out of the bastard's office, the girl leaned onto the escalator's rail, huffing angrily, doing a quick re-calculation of what she wouldn't be able to allow herself to buy for the next month. That list was getting longer and longer with each visit to her boss's lair, funnily enough. Suzuhara, though currently moving much more slowly than her, finally managed to catch up, still ramrod-straight, but smirking impudently.
"Are you happy now?" the girl snapped at him, glaring hatefully, "I'm down to ten thousand yen because of you."
"Eh? Aren't we, like, getting 500 grands a month?" the boy inquired, slightly surprised by the unusually low amount.
"Not my first pay cut this month," Asuka muttered darkly, wondering whether or not she should risk bumming off of Misato's fast food stash. At least Ayanami was contributing to the utility bills. Maybe Kaji could spot her some cash do tide her over? No, she was still pissed at him for jumping ship during the battle.
"Not the second either, apparently," the boy returned smartly, grin returning, "I could spot you a loan or something, devil, since I, the rookie, get more money then you, veteran."
The urge to push the stupid bastard off the escalator and watch him fall screaming half a kilometer down was strangely enticing.
"Fuck you, Fourth. Stick your sodding money up your unclean hole," Asuka cursed, turning away from the current bane of her existence, "I don't need your charity."
"Feh," Toji huffed, shifting cautiously and wincing in pain, "Wasn't suggesting charity."
Jerking her shoulders, the young german stepped off the escalator, having finally arrived at the corridor leading to the Eva cages, and modulating her stride so that Suzuhara could keep up but had to move fast to do so (that would put the boy in more agony then her simply walking off would, she figured).
"What were you suggesting then, bastard?" she inquired, trying to keep her voice natural. She needed the money, pride be damned. She wasn't about to live a month on frozen fish, and mooching off of Ayanami was out of the question, since the commander held the key to the albino's bank account and would probably punish Asuka further if he discovered where the money was going.
"We-el," Suzuhara smirked, grin widening further, as he hobbled behind her, "I figured asking you to pose for pictures was out of the question…"
"Yeah, you know what, asshole? Fuck you." The girl snarled, accelerating her strides slightly and making Suzuhara wince again as he was forced to hobble faster.
Jerking her access card through the slot and walking through Unit 01's opened cage door, the girl stopped in front of the intimidating horned visage, wondering whether Shinji would be able to hack into the Magi and allocate her more funds. Nah, Gendo'd catch on and she'd have to live on Misato's cooking for a year or something equally horrible.
"Well, as I was saying," the boy behind her panted with effort to catch up, still determined to continue the conversation, "I was thinking, a date would do."
The young german actually blinked in confusion.
"Are you a masochist or something? Because if you're thinking since you saw me undressing you could get some action from me, you're just begging for another ass-kicking," she remarked in a measured voice promising violence.
"Did I say anything about getting action?" Suzuhara wondered neutrally, coming to a halt next to her, a bit closer then she would have liked. Asuka's mind flashed back quickly, thinking that below that shirt of his was a very well-defined and tasty-looking…
Since there were no walls to bash her head against, Asuka settled for pinching her arm discreetly.
"I said a date," the boy continued coming even closer and clearly violating her personal space. Asuka was still unclear whether she should do something about it or not. Only now she noticed that she was actually a little flushed at the cheeks.
Perhaps forgiving Kaji wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all, considering the alternative…
"Ok, fine," her lips breathed out, seemingly without input from her cranial nerve, "One date, and you spot me a few dozen grand to tie me over for the next month. That's it, no strings attached."
The happy look on the beaten jerk's face almost caused her to smile.
"And no strings attached, or you'll think the last beating was a lover's caress, Suzuhara!" she repeated her warning, trying to sound as severe as possible.
"Yeah-yeah, of course," the idiot grinned goofily, "Pick you up at six on Friday?"
"Fine," The girl shortly responded, internally thanking her lucky star that the idiot was still a child. Six o'clock? Please. Probably a movie and a dinner at some crappy fast-food joint. Or maybe he was being thoughtful and didn't want her to think he had something untoward in mind by not setting the time later? Damn it, why was she now thinking that the date was something more than it was?
Turning around quickly, the girl marched out of the cage towards the cage observation room where Akagi was probably already waiting, leaving Suzuhara to catch up.
The boy just stood there, grinning like an idiot, until he turned towards the purple visage above him. His smile slowly slid off. Wasn't Unit 01's head much closer then it was before? Was it, like, glaring at him right now? Why were its eyes burning so brightly?
Without a sound, such a stealthy move seemingly impossible for a machine its size, the Evangelion twisted its right hand out of the restraints.
Then, ever so slowly, it ran one gigantic purple finger across its neck.
And then, said finger, the size of a medium car, pointed clearly at Toji.
The hand then, equally quietly, with only a slight groan of stretched metal, returned to its place, sneaking back into the restraints. The head, its terrifying horn gleaming in the lamplight, rose back to its original position and the bright-white eyes dulled to a steady pale yellow.
Robotically, forcing one leg in front of the other, Suzuhara Toji marched out of the cage, a grimace of unadulterated horror on his face, sweat running down his back.
Perhaps he should've thought the whole date thing through more thoroughly.