Chapter Text
2022
Husum
Schleswig-Holstein
Germany
Shinji Ikari was a happy man.
It had been only 7 years since Third Impact, but the world had recovered well, all things considering. He and Asuka had moved to Germany 5 years ago, and had happily been married for 3.
He liked this life.
A monthly stipend from the UN of approximately €1,000,000 had been set up once a sizeable enough amount of people had returned and the world governments entered a semi-functional state. Gendo Ikari never came back from the sea of LCL, and NERV was disbanded shortly thereafter, with ex-Vice Commander Fuyutsuki and Dr. Akagi given life sentences under an international tribunal by the ICC for crimes against humanity in The Hague.
He’d left all that behind.
Shinji was sitting in the living room of his and Asuka’s house, ignoring the white noise offered by the TV blaring across the room from him.
A strand of red hair billowed into his face.
He felt the soft warmth of her skin resting against his shoulder. He would never be able to get used to this. They both sat in silence, leaning into each other, observing, yet in another world.
“We’ve got the finale of the Schotter Cup in 3 weeks.” Asuka said.
“Got it, stages?”
“Lausitz, we’re doing Mulkwitz, RK Arena and the Bärwalder See, the car should be ready, repairs after Holsten will be done tomorrow.”
“Got it, I’ve definitely got pacenotes for Mulkwitz and Bärwalder, not sure about RK Arena though,” he paused, “We should still do a recce of them all, the pacenotes are outdated.”
3 years ago, the day after their wedding, Asuka had come to Shinji with a proposition.
“Hey, Baka-Shinji, I’ve got a question.” she had called from the living room while he was making a seafood platter.
Shinji of course accepted, anything for her after all.
And that’s how he found himself in the co-driver seat of a Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16v, reading out pacenotes from a pad of paper, with Asuka barrelling the car down windy, narrow gravel roads at 160 kilometres per hour, with little-to-no guards stopping them from slamming into some of the many trees flanking the stage.
Rallying was, in fact, pretty exhilarating.
Asuka shifted her head up towards Shinji’s, eyes full of a look he had never thought possible for him. Grinning, he took her head in his hands and pressed his face to hers. She quickly reciprocated
After a couple minutes of the increasingly heated make out session, Shinji finally broke off.
“I’m so happy I married you.” his face was covered in a huge grin now.
“Then show it, Idiot!” Asuka pulled him back in.
The Next Day
“Well, the vehicle was absolutely knackered.” the poor mechanic, Elias, was listing off the charges. “I’ve had to write off the drivetrain and differential, the grille lights were shattered, like, seriously, what did you do to the thing, anyway, the wheels are obviously swapped, uhm, yea, the oil tank had a small hole, and I think that’s it. Well, at least the main things.”
“Tut tut, what’s the cost.” Asuka grumbled. It was hard not very evident by the state of the vehicle, but she truly cared for it.
“About €105,000, I know, I know, expensive, but parts for this thing at the specs for rallying have been mostly custom made ever since Second and Third Impact, and those sellers are not cheap, I’ll tell you right now.”
Asuka did a deep sigh. “Sure…”
After paying the man, Shinji and Asuka both entered the vehicle, taking their respective spots.
“Oh, it’s so good to be back in this shitbox, I love it, so, so much!” she was really giddy behind the wheel of this thing.
“Careful, or one day I’ll think you love it even more than me!” Shinji responded sarcastically.
Asuka instantly froze. “Don’t- don’t even fucking joke about that. Baka.”
Shinji gulped.
“Got it.”
Asuka’s smile immediately returned, “Well, anyway, let’s get going, I want to get the tuning right on this for the rally, I’ll check in with the crew tomorrow, definitely want at least 6 tyre swaps available, Lausitz is pretty demanding on the rubber.”
“We’re doing all the stages in reverse as well, are we not?”
“Yup, we’re not going to be able to do Nochten or Reichwalde though, I’ve got enough survival instinct to know that RK Arena is difficult enough for this year.” Asuka turned to him and gave Shinji a wink. “And after all that we’ll have 2 spare days. Whatever could we possibly do?”
Shinji already knew exactly what she was getting at. “Sure.”
Turning back to the road, Asuka started tapping the wheel with her shifting hand, taking in the sights on the narrow road, canopied from the sunlight above. The embankment on the right side of the vehicle had many a type of wildlife scurrying about amongst the terrain and trees.
Compared to the surrounding nature, the interior of the vehicle was rather barren and empty, the footwells stripped of all padding, leaving only bare white metal left. The central dash had been heavily modified; like the footwell, it lacked any cover. The handbrake and gear shift were replaced with 2 tall levers, both much thicker than the original fittings.
All in all, it was a pretty sweet car for rallying.
Shinji rested his elbow against the passenger side door, peering outside the window. It had originally taken a while for him to get used to the roll cage of the vehicle, it’s rather clunky design was not very ergonomic for daily use, though it had proved it’s worth many times over during rallies.
“We need to stop by the Aldi off Ostenfelder on the way back, we’re almost out of eggs and I need some more bread, maybe a bit more, that okay?” He asked, still staring out the window.
“Yea we can do that.”
After a couple minutes, they were sat, parked outside the supermarket.
“I’ll just be a few minutes, love you.” before opening the door and leaving the car, he leaned over and gave Asuka a quick kiss to her right cheek. After leaving the car and crossing the car park, he looked back to his beautiful wife thrumming her fingers on the dashboard.
Still grinning, he entered the single story shop, swiftly making his way to the milk aisle. Squatting, Shinji took a good look at the milk cartons available, trying to find the semi-skimmed they always had. Though it took him a few seconds, he did find it.
“Hmmm, 3 should probably be enough…”
Placing them down in the basket he had tucked under his arms, Shinji turned his head up. He started walking down the back aisle, passing the sweet treats aisle, the drinks aisle and the pastry section. He took a left, walking down the dairy aisle towards the eggs.
He pulled out an 8×2 egg box, hooking his middle finger under the gap between the first 4 eggs, carefully placing into his basket.
“Riiiiight…” He paused, “Now I need some bread.”
After paying for everything, Shinji left the shop, walking towards the Jet Black Integrale across the car park, navigating between a red Honda Civic, a white Toyota Hilux and even an old green Trabby from when Germany was divided before Second Impact.
He pulled the door of the car open, ducking into the passenger seat and closing the door behind him. He turned his head over at his wife, who was in turn staring at him.
“Got some bread, eggs, milk, butter and fish, happy with that?”
Asuka absent-mindedly nodded. Oh shit.
6 Hours Later
Asuka was pressed against his right arm, desperately trying not to let go. She had stopped sobbing about 4 hours ago at this point, though the panic attack had mostly subsided, she was still obviously terrified.
“Hey, don’t worry, it’s all behind us now, NERV doesn’t exist, they’re all gone, the EVAs are gone, we’re safe, trust me.” he had gotten used to consoling her whenever she had a mental break. They were much more frequent and much worse when the scars were still fresh in the first few years after Third Impact, but after they had moved to Germany and gotten married, most of the nightmares had fled. Most.
The ones that remained were the most stubborn, horrid things their tortured minds could guilt them with, and they had plenty of material to get through.
She had been slowed to ragged breathing by now, but it still pained him to see the tear stains running down her face and neck.
Asuka somehow gripped him tighter. “I love you.”
“I love you too”