Neon Genesis Evangelion: Bohemian Rhapsody

Chapter Ten

Any way
The wind
Blows

Asuka and Rei quickly pulled the knife out of the body of Gabriel, using the rest of their collective strength to push it over onto the ground. "Shinji!! We did it!! We—" the former started to say before she turned back and finally got a look at the boy's EVA. It was almost frozen solid, and not moving whatsoever, which immediately struck fear into her heart.

"Shinji?! Shinji!!" Asuka cried out, taking the knife and quickly rushing over to him. She started to stab and chip away at the ice surrounding Unit-01's neck, hurrying to get his entry plug out before he would inevitably freeze to death. It took a good amount of time, but soon enough, she was able to get it out of the EVA, setting it on the ground and letting out a sigh of relief as the LCL ejected from it. 'Good, good, it's not frozen,' she thought, trying to calm herself down.

She lowered her EVA onto the ground and manually ejected from it, quickly bursting out of her entry plug and rushing over to Shinji's. As she took hold of the emergency handle, she started twisting it with all of her might. It was so cold that it felt like her hands were burning, but she kept pushing and twisting, until the hatch eventually opened.

"Shinji!!" she called out, looking inside and seeing him shivering in the cockpit, causing her heart to nearly drop out of her chest. "Oh god, oh god," she said in a panic, quickly grabbing him and carrying him out, laying him down on the grass. "Shinji...?? Can you hear me?? Shinji!!" Asuka called out to him, trying hold him close and rub his arms in a desperate attempt to get his body warm again. It felt like ages until he did, but Shinji started to wake up, opening his eyes to see Asuka frantically holding onto him.

"H-...H-Hey...Asuka..." he said, looking up into her deep blue eyes and giving her a small smile. Asuka couldn't believe this was happening, and froze for a few seconds before starting to sob uncontrollably, hugging the boy as tight as humanly possible. Shinji was taken aback, not expecting this in the slightest, and started to blush a bit before gently hugging her in return. "A-...Are you okay, Asuka...?" he asked, awkwardly patting her back a bit.

She laughed a bit through her tears, nodding and hugging him even tighter. "Shinji...I'm so...I'm so so so sorry...nothing will ever make up for all the things I said to you, but...I'm so sorry...I should've never called you useless...I-I should've never made you feel like you were nothing...it's the furthest thing from the truth, and I'm...oh, I'm so so sorry...!!" she poured out, sniffling and crying between her apologies.

Shinji had no clue what to say, he never expected Asuka to hug him, let alone apologize for the things she's said and done to him, but there was only one thing he knew he could say. "I....I-I'm sorry, too..." he mumbled into her ear, his voice still seeming a bit weak. "I...kept running from you...I kept making you feel like I didn't care...it's my fault, too...and I'm...so sorry for trying to...." he couldn't even finish the sentence, feeling too ashamed to do so. "I...don't know...you all might think differently of me now...maybe you all hate me—"

He was quickly cut off by something indescribable. He had felt it before, but back then it was just an experiment done out of boredom. But now, it was from one person trying to tell another how they felt. Asuka's lips were embracing Shinji's deeply, pulling his head closer to hers with both of her hands. She felt like she had no right to do this, but she needed him to know the truth: that he was loved.

The kiss was held for a solid minute before Asuka slowly separated from him, keeping her head close to his. Shinji's face was on fire, and he might as well have had the word confusion tattooed on his forehead. Just as he was about to ask why she did it, she put her finger on his lips, and simply stated, "I love you, dummy." She blushed deeply, as she tried to keep herself from calling him an idiot, but feeling embarrassed deep down that she still had to call him a name.

Shinji's heart pounded as he scratched his head a bit, unsure of exactly what to say. "You...d-did you read the...l-letter I left....?" he asked, still feeling a bit of shame from it all. "No...I-I knew you were coming back, so...I felt you could tell me yourself!" she touted, pouting a little bit. Shinji chuckled a little bit, looking back up at her and smiling. "I, uh...said the same thing...in the letter...so uhh...I-I love you too, Asuka..." he said, feeling his face getting warmer and redder.

Asuka's eyes widened, starting to tear up once again before she nearly pounced on Shinji to kiss him again. While it still startled him, he started to kiss back this time, and held her close as she did the same for him. After another minute, the two of them separated, and Asuka smiled down at him. "Come on...everyone's waiting for you..." she said, gently helping him up and letting him lean on her since his legs were still weak.

Rei had ejected from her EVA a few minutes ago, and slowly walked over to the two of them as they started to walk away from the wreckage. The three of them all stood silently, as Shinji softly smiled at the First Child. To his surprise, she gently smiled back, and walked over to hug him a bit before helping Asuka walk him back to HQ.

Misato quickly ran out of the building, calling out to Shinji as loud as possible, before seeing the three kids walking towards her on the horizon. "M-...Misato....?" Shinji asked, stopping with Asuka and Rei to catch a breather. Misato couldn't believe her eyes, doing everything she could to hold in her tears, but unable to do so. Shinji slowly looked down at the cross necklace she put on him, smiling a bit and looking back up at her. "Thank you...for protecting me..." he said, tearing up a bit as well.

Misato couldn't take it anymore and immediately ran over to them, hugging Shinji as hard as possible while crying her eyes out. All Shinji could do was smile and gently hug her back, resting his head into her shoulder. Misato looked over at Asuka and Rei and without saying a word, pulled them both into the hug as well. Rei couldn't quite understand what was going on, but she didn't care much at the moment. Asuka hugged the boy she loved and the closest thing she ever had to a mom as tight as she could, not wanting to take either of them for granted ever again.

Shinji slowly looked up at the sky within the Geofront, noticing a few birds starting to fly as the dust was clearing. He smiled gently, and for the first time in his life, he felt like the hole in his heart was finally filled. He finally knew what love was. And hew finally knew what it meant to be loved.

———————————————————————————

(We still have an epilogue to go which I'll write soon, but for now, we've finally reached the conclusion! Once again, thank you all so much for all of your support, and for reading this story. There's days where we can all feel like we're nothing, and that we'll never be happy, but as long as we're alive, and as long as the earth, the sun, and the moon exist, everything will be alright, just as Yui said. Once again, thank you all so much, and I hope you've enjoyed reading this story.)