As usual, spoiler warning.  But, unlike usual, there is a lime warning for
this part.  It's nothing major (in my mind, at least), but some people may
think otherwise (though why they would want to, I can't imagine... ^_^)


Home



    Gasping for breath, Shinji stared at the ceiling and reflected on the
images rapidly fading from his mind.  He was about to roll over when he
suddenly remembered a very important fact.  He swallowed, trying to dispel
the dryness in his mouth.  The dream was jumbled now, and, try as he might,
the images slipped away into the nothingness of his subconscious.
    Realizing that he'd have to get up and get a glass of water, he tried to
slip out of the bed as smoothly as possible; but he was only partially
successful.  He'd gotten to the edge when a sleepy voice called out his
name.
    "Shinji?"  There was a slight rustling of the sheets as someone moved,
and a warm hand placed itself on his shoulder.  Turning to look at it, his
eyes followed the slim fingers up onto a bare, slightly muscled forearm;
which led onto a nude feminine shoulder, and from there to a form he knew to
be an equally nude Asuka, though she was wrapped up in the blankets at the
moment.  "Something wrong?" she asked, her voice waking up slightly.
    "Just a dream," he answered.  "Nothing to be too concerned about."  She
turned onto her side, facing him, dropped her hand from his shoulder and
used it to prop up her head, staring at him with that twice-damned gaze
which signaled that she wasn't going to let him go about it.  He sighed
before returning to his place on the bed, and resumed his study of the
ceiling.
    With her free hand, Asuka started drawing lazy patterns on his chest,
waiting for him to start explaining.  Patience was the one thing that she'd
gotten very good at doing since they started their relationship.  Then she
studied the form beside her.  Well, not the only thing...
    "I was dreaming about when I came back to Nerv, after I left.  After the
Eva 3 incident."
    "What else?" Asuka said,  having seen his eyes start to close, prompting
him to continue.  Her ministrations, which were supposed to be relaxing,
were
working far to well, so she stopped them and just waited him out.
    "It started out when you, Misato, Toji, and Rei came to get me.  I
pretty much relived the whole experience, from then to my coming back here,
to moving in with you and Rei, to the battle with the Eva 5 series."
    "When did the dream end?"
    "My game of chess with my father."
    "The game you played with your father?  That was...  what?  Three weeks
ago?"
    "Something like that, yeah."  At that statement, they both grew silent,
both recalling the whirlwind of discovery and love that had followed that
game with the Commander.
    "You never told me who won."
    "Hmmm?" Shinji asked lazily, his mind still occupied with the past.
Asuka dug her nails in slightly.  He woke up fast.  "I'm listening!"
    "Good.  Who won that game between you and your father?"
    "Neither, yet."
    "Huh?"
    "It's still going on.  No one's won yet.  I'm up a pawn, but he's in a
better position."  Asuka pondered that for a moment before she worked up her
courage to ask him a question that she had been wondering about since she
saw that game.
    "Where'd you learn to play like that?  I imagine that your father is
very good at chess."
    "He is," Shinji said before pausing, collecting his thoughts.  "You know
pretty much what I was like back then."
    "I can guess," she answered, her voice coloured with humour.  She held
his dark glare, but clinched the blanket tighter around herself when his
eyes started falling significantly lower than hers.  "Come on, get back to
the story."  Not that she minded what he was suggesting, she just wanted to
hear what he had to say first.
    Shinji sighed and reluctantly brought his mind back to the business at
hand.  "You know about my grandfather, and what he could do.  Well, I had no
life back then," Asuka sniggered at this.  He glared at her.  "Do you want
to hear the rest of the story or not?"  Asuka blinked.  Did he just say what
she thought he said?  Maybe he was starting to pick up some of her habits.
Asuka considered that thought and grinned wolfishly at what she could do if
he was.  But then she saw his face and wiped the grin from her own visage
and nodded for him to continue.  "Well, when I got back home each day after
school, I would do my homework and then do one of two things."
    "Which two things?" Asuka asked, getting a little tired of having to
prompt him at every turn.
    "I would play the cello, or I would play chess.  I did little more than
that for quite a few years."
    "No wonder your so good at them, then."
    "I remember that my grandmother was always trying to get me to spruce up
and live a little," he said, and then sniggered at some of the things she
had him do.  Asuka asked what he was laughing at.  He told her.
    "Like what kind of things?"
    "Well..." Shinji started, suddenly growing embarrassed.  She leveled her
gaze at him, eyes boring into his.  She made it her personal mission to get
all the juicy details from him.
    He shook his head.
    She nodded.  "Just one?" she asked.
    He sighed.  "One summer she signed me up for ballroom dancing lessons,"
he muttered.  Asuka could feel her eyes widening.  Just the thought of
Shinji out on a dance floor was enough to make her convulse with laughter.
The though of him on a dance floor with a girl made her snicker.  The
thought of him in on a dance floor, with a girl, and in formal clothes was
too much for her.
    Shinji stared at her, mentally berating himself for expecting anything
else from the girl beside him.  He sighed in frustration.  Asuka, between
breaths, heard the sigh and made a real effort to bring her mirth under
control.  It wasn't easy, but she did it eventually.
    "I knew I shouldn't have told you."
    "Enough of that," Asuka answered, eager to turn back to the important
matter.  "What more about this dream?"
    "What can I say?  Even for a dream, it was pretty weird."
    "How so?"
    "Well, I could see what was happening to you and Misato and the rest,
even when I wasn't around.  I think my mind pieced together what you told me
and filled in the rest."
    "Ah," she said, but settled down when he started talking again.
    "It was weird.  I mean, seeing you and what was going through your mind.
It was almost like I could see into your thoughts."
    "And do you like the thought of being able to see into my head?" she
asked with a slight edge.  She wasn't really upset with him, but it was a
game they played.  He would try to figure her out, and she would do her best
to keep him guessing.  It made for some very interesting evenings spent
together.
    "It would make my life much easier," he answered.  She glared at him.
"But much less entertaining," he amended quickly.  Her eyes softened a
little.
    "What else did you see?"  Shinji quickly explained the rest of the dream
to the woman beside him, though he couldn't shake a feeling he had.  It was
like a ball of knowledge in the pit of his stomach, like something coiled
up and straining to get out.  And it wasn't a recent development.  It had
been there, on and off, since he and Asuka had started sleeping together.
He knew it wasn't regret, as he was very familiar with that emotion.  And
the more he told her about the dream, the stronger that feeling got.  He
hadn't told her about it yet, unsure of what her reaction would be.
    "The really odd thing was that I think there were some things in that
dream that I'd forgotten in real life.  It's like this was a wake-up call of
sorts."
    "Do you think it was Unit 1 trying to contact you again?"
    "No.  But we could probably ask Rei about that in the morning."  Since
just after the fight with the UN Eva's, Rei had been spending more and more
time at Nerv Headquarters, and now occasionally spent all night there.  Not
that her two roommates were complaining.  By some standards they may have
moved quickly in their romance, but even they had limits on what they would
do.
    "What do you think she does there all night long?" Shinji asked.
    "I don't know, but I'm not complaining," was the answer.
    "And neither am I, I just would like to know.  I wonder why I woke up
when I did.  I wonder if I'd slept a little more, I would've found out..."
he trailed off when Asuka sighed.  She was tired of hearing about that dream
now.
    "Shinji?" She said, getting his attention.  He turned to face her again.
    "Yes?"
    "Why dream," she said and flung the blanket off, exposing herself to his
view, "when reality is simply so much better?"
    His mouth suddenly went dry again as his eyes traveled up and down her
body.  Much drier than it had been before.  "Uhh....  Umm...  Why indeed?"
he stammered out.  Trying to talk, he decided, was extremely difficult when
most of the brain shut down from shock.
    Asuka mentally smirked.  It was nice to know the sort of power she had
over the boy beside her.  Then she thought of the body of the boy beside
her.  Okay, so maybe he had some power over her, she conceded as she reached
an arm over to the blanket that still covered him and snatched it off his
body.
Oh, yeah.  He definitely had the power.
    "At any rate," she said, hoping to cover up her slip.  It would do no
good if he were to learn of what he could do to her.  "I'm really glad you
came
home."
    Shinji started to agree with her when something hit him.  It was like
that feeling inside of him had uncoiled and unleashed itself.  It hit with
such
startling realization that he momentarily forgot about the naked girl beside
him.
    Home.  He was home.  And it wasn't the place he was talking about.  He
suddenly understood why he was never happy when he ran away.  Sure, the
events that caused his running were bad enough, but it wasn't the real
reason.  Home wasn't a city or a country or a continent; it was a state of
mind.  He was home with Asuka.  Wherever he went, as long as she was with
him, he would be content.
    "Are you still there?" Asuka asked as his eyes suddenly got far away.
Well, it was time to rectify that situation.  Grasping him by the shoulders,
she pushed him flat on his back.  That worked.  "Where'd you go?" she asked
somewhat caustically.
    "No where important," he answered, his voice dropping to a low tone.
Oh, yes.  He most definitely had the power.  She rolled on top of him.
"Again?" he asked incredulously.  She just grinned at him and swept her long
hair down his chest.
    Trying not to laugh, Shinji considered the woman above him.  "Asuka,
you're incredible!" he said, and he wasn't just referring to her technique
in
bed; though he had no complaints about that.  She was just so well
put-together.  She never let anything get to her, and if it did, Asuka would
make damned sure that it couldn't again by attacking it and making sure it
couldn't do so again, or embracing it with all her might.
    She paused her movements for a while and thought for a moment.  "No..."
she said, drawing the word out.
    Shinji at her sharply.  Okay, so maybe there was still some hidden
layers to her that he had yet to discover.  His thoughts were interrupted by
Asuka continuing with:  "I'm better than that!"
    There was much joy and shouting that night.

finis

Cory Holmes
drgn.fire@home.com

Thanks to:
Latin_D, Flora Alston, Peter Vela, Tulio Arends, and a very special thanks
to everyone else who gave me all the comments and support I needed over the
last two and a half years!