Shinji and Asuka

Chapter 10: Starting Over Again

Author's Notes: A reader once asked why Asuka twitched her lips in the last chapter. To describe the reason, I explained an example when a teacher is telling you off and you find it funny, but you can't laugh because you'll get in deep shit but you can't help your lips twitching a bit into a smile - that's precisely what Asuka was feeling. There's no sex in this chapter, and may not be for a while; you'll see why :D.

A note to say this is the rewritten chapter 10 (First rewrite).

A new note:

Italics represent a dream or dream-like state. Similar to thoughts but without the ''

Important Note: If you're reading this, you're reading the up to date version of the story. If you didn't see this note last chapter, you were unlucky enough to have started reading this just before I updated all the chapters. It is recommended you re-read the previous chapters as some details of the story would have changed as well as the formatting, which will cause some confusion in further reading.

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Chapter 10: Starting Over Again

Asuka awoke particularly early in the morning, fighting the pain in her eyes as she forced them open. In comparison to when she usually rose, her room was still quite dark. The girl fought desperately with her weary body to get up. Partially succeeding, Asuka found herself stumbling onto the floor and bit her lip in pain as she stubbed her toe against her desk. She grumbled in irritation and held her injured foot in an attempt to ease the pain; at least it woke her up a bit. The girl found herself looking around the room blearily, noticing how different it looked early in the morning; her lamp stand cast a creepy silhouette across the room and the poster on her wall looked more like a picture of a transvestite than a singer. The redhead silently snickered to herself before remembering why she had gotten up so early in the first place. Asuka turned on the lights, instantly wishing she hadn't as the bright light assaulted her eyes. She felt dazed for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the agonising light. Finally recovering from her temporary blindness, the girl took out her school uniform from the wardrobe and began dressing up. It took her a full 15 minutes to tie her shoelaces as she felt so lethargic; she was growing quite frustrated with herself.

Asuka opened her door to go to the bathroom and peered out into the dark hallway. Though the apartment was dark, her memory was good enough that she was able to successfully traverse the hallway and reach the bathroom. The girl entered the bathroom and switched on the light. She went over to the sink and splashed cold water over her face in an attempt to wake her from her drowsiness. Feeling more awake, Asuka looked at herself in the mirror; she had dark circles underneath her eyes and her hair was in absolute disarray, looking as if she had been struck by a thunderbolt. The redhead grabbed a brush to fix herself up. She didn't want to waste too much time making herself ready and settled for looking somewhat presentable. After finishing, the girl switched off the bathroom light and made her way back to her room. Asuka then took her keys and looked around her room, making sure she wasn't forgetting anything. Satisfied she had what she needed, she switched off her light plunging the apartment into darkness once again. Her eyes adjusted very quickly this time and she was able to proceed to the exit. Suddenly, the redhead's foot hit something and she crouched down for a better look; it was a can of some sort, which she picked up. Asuka could just make out Paolo Pagani's liquid pizza and threw away the object in disgust, wondering how Misato could eat such rubbish, let alone as a midnight snack. The girl opened the entrance door and exited her home, closing and locking the door behind her. She proceeded to run down the stairs and exit the apartment, before beginning her search for her boyfriend.

Asuka first headed towards Touji's house, since it was the closest. She ran along the empty streets, noticing the sun slowly starting to come up. It was so early, not one car drove by and she found the silence quite unnerving; it seemed to accentuate her growing feeling of bleakness and helplessness. 'Why did that damn dork have to run off?' she thought to herself.