Picture by OK_Entendu2095
.
.Futures Freak Me Out is a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction by hidinginplainsight.
Shinji and Asuka are college roommates, but will their fear of the potential consequences of a relationship stop them from taking the one chance they both so desperately want to take?
Link here
Tropes:
- Alternate Universe Fic: It's a little hard to tell for sure since Shinji and Asuka don't dwell on their piloting days that much, but based on the state of the world and the references we do get, it appears that they managed to avert Third Impact somehow.
- Babies Ever After: The second-to-last scene has Shinji and Asuka discussing the latter's pregnancy and wondering whether they will be able to be good parents.
- The Big Damn Kiss: After three years of unresolved sexual tension, Shinji and Asuka kiss under the rain shortly after becoming a couple.And then, before my mind can dissuade me from doing so, I lean down and press my lips against hers. A soft gasp escapes her lips before we connect, and there's a second of stillness in her body before I feel her sigh, and melt against me.
She's accepting it. She wanted this, too. It's with surprise I feel her tongue probe at my mouth, but I let it in gladly. That never happened the first time around, and the sensation is nearly overwhelming. I've wanted this for so long, I can't even remember a time when I didn't.
She wraps her arms around my back, and for several minutes, we're completely alone.
And the moment is ours.
And it will be forever.
That was kiss two. - Brain Bleach: At 4.00 a.m., Toji is awakened by the ringing of his telephone. When he picks up the phone, it is Shinji screaming he is in Germany, he is drunk, and he is having sex with Asuka. Touji turns off his phone and goes back to bed so he can wipe from his mind that phone call.Touji calmly turns off his phone and rolls over to go back to his blessed world of never fucking hearing about this shit again.
- Calling the Old Man Out: During a visit to Germany, Asuka calls her father out on never caring for her.Asuka: "Was there a single day in your entire god damn life that you loved me? You're my father! I haven't seen you in ten years, and we're— What are we even talking about here?! This is just polite nice-to-meet-you bullshit! You haven't been listening to single word I've been saying! You want to know about my life, huh?! Why, so you have some interesting trivia to tell your pals over drinks?! 'My darling daughter this' and 'my beautiful girl that'. You don't mean any of it! You don't care! If you cared it wouldn't have taken us ten fucking years to have this conversation!"
- Claustrophobia: Asuka has developed a slight case of claustrophobia due to her former life as a mecha pilot. During a flight to Germany, she ponders how much she hates spending hours stuck in a metal box which she cannot get out of.Lately, it's pretty much only if I'm super stressed or super drunk. Thanks to the in-flight drinks, I'm a little bit of both, but I know the craving is mostly from having just spent the entire day in a fucking tin box. First class be damned – I hate being in things I can't run away from, and there's no emergency exit when you're four miles over China.
Also, it reminds me a little too eerily of the other monstrous machine I used to sit in for hours at a time. Formerly proud memories, now only painful. - Coming of Age Story: In the beginning, Asuka is a seventeen-year-old girl full of neuroses and fears, resorting to smoking and drinking to stave off their emotional pain, and unwilling to enter a relationship with Shinji out of fear to lose one of her very few friends. By the end, she is a mature, married woman taking her daughter to school for the first time.
- Crush Blush: Asuka blushes when finally blurts out she finds Shinji attractive, prompting him to blush in turn."I'm attracted to you, okay?! I like you! I find you attractive! Jesus, Ikari, what are you, stupid?!" She's certainly blushing now, and I feel my face heat up as well.
- Dashed Plot Line: The first seven chapters focus on main events in Shinji and Asuka's relationship from their late teens until age 23, skipping over years as necessary. The final chapter's sections kick this into overdrive, skipping forward to their engagement when they are around 26, then Asuka's pregnancy sometime in their early 30s, and finally ending with their daughter's first day of kindergarten.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Shinji and Asuka fly to Germany to visit Asuka's family, and they verify her father continues to show zero concern for his red-haired daughter; so Asuka decides to drag Shinji to the nearest bar and get very, very drunk.
- Functional Addict: Asuka's relationship with alcohol becomes increasingly concerning throughout her late teens and by age 21 she's well on her way to being The Alcoholic, but she's still more or less keeping it together (during business hours, anyway). She promises Shinji after a particularly epic bender that she'll cut back, and by the end of the story she's quit smoking entirely and apparently is only a social drinker.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Asuka says to herself repeatedly that she and Shinji are just friends because she should not risk their friendship. Then, one classmate invites herself over for a dinner, flirts with Shinji, and Asuka snaps and has a breakdown. After she has recovered, Asuka tells Shinji she wants them date and she does not want him to ever see Hitomi again."I think we should date."
No laughter now. Silence and the sound of a person thinking, if that's a sound at all. I can hear it over the running water, in my state.
"…what?"
"I don't ever want you to see that girl again. I want to be your girlfriend and I want us to date. I think we should do that," I swallow, ashamed that I didn't have the courage to do this face-to-face. - Hair Flip: Asuka brushes her hair back behind her ear nervously when her father asks if she is considering marrying Shinji.
- Holding Hands: When Shinji and Asuka become one couple, one of the first and most obvious changes is that they begin holding hands in public, although Asuka is still a little shy about it.
- Just Friends: Asuka several times insists that she and Shinji should remain just friends because she is afraid that she will lose one of her only friends in the event that they break up after getting together. After a jealousy-induced nervous breakdown, though, she admits to herself that she will not be happy with merely being friends, and she hooks up with Shinji.
- Make-Out Kids: After their first time, Shinji and Asuka cannot keep their hands off each other during one whole week.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Downplayed, but despite Asuka's issues with alcohol and poor decisions, it's Shinji who had a prior one-night stand that he isn't proud of, while she's never gone all the way with anyone even into her twenties. However, they've both dated a fair number of other people in the past and seem to have about an equal level of experience otherwise.
- No Antagonist: The story is about Shinji and Asuka growing up together and developing their relationship after the war. There are no humongous mecha, giant aliens, conspiracies, or even noteworthy love rivals here.
- Noodle Incident: There are no details given on how the Angel War ended, just that it did. Asuka also refers at one point to Gendo Ikari deserving what happened to him (which appears to have been fatal).
- Redheads Are Ravishing: At least one scene has Shinji ponder how much he loves Asuka's red locks.
- Relationship Upgrade: Asuka spends several chapters refusing the possibility of hooking up with Shinji out of fear of ruining their friendship. It is when a combination of a fit of jealousy and a nervous breakdown forces her to admit she will not be happy with remaining friends that Asuka asks Shinji out. Since it's a spontaneous declaration, neither was expecting it and they don't really know what to do or say at that point."So we're dating now?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"…cool." - Retired Badass: Shinji and Asuka retired from piloting war machines three years ago. Since then, they have been going to school and trying to overcome their post-traumatic stress disorder. Shinji has adapted decently to his new life, but Asuka is not coping well with the changes.
- Romantic Rain: Shinji and Asuka have their first real kiss while walking under the rain.The first time I kissed Asuka Langley Sohryu, it was disastrous, and it ruined my confidence with women for the next three or so years.
The second time I kissed her, it was pouring and neither of us had brought umbrellas to class. - Shower of Angst: Shinji walks Asuka to the shower after she has suffered a serious breakdown. While feeling the "blessed water" pouring down on her face, Asuka reflects on how her life has been gradually falling apart since the end of the War against the Angels, and she would have hit rock bottom long ago without Shinji.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Asuka does not want to go back to Germany. Her family does not care about her, she has no friends back home, she does not want to reminisce about the "good", old days when she was being trained as a child soldier, and she feels she does not fit anymore.
- Stunned Silence: Shinji becomes completely speechless when Asuka -who used to be adamant about remaining just friends- blurts out they should date."I think we should date."
No laughter now. Silence and the sound of a person thinking, if that's a sound at all. I can hear it over the running water, in my state. - Surprise Pregnancy: Although not necessarily a bad surprise.We hadn't been trying for a baby, it had just...happened. It wasn't an insane thought though - we were established now, we had good jobs. It's not like we were in our twenties anymore...
- Talking in Bed: In the penultimate scene, Shinji and Asuka talk about the latter's fears regarding their baby while they cuddle together.
- Tempting Fate: As talking about their unborn child, Asuka says her husband she hopes it is not a girl because girls are difficult to raise properly. The next scene reveals Shinji and Asuka have a daughter.
- Their First Time: One month after their first real kiss, Asuka decides to take their relationship with Shinji to the next level; so, she climbs into his bed wearing only two undergarments, and states she wants to do more than kissing and cuddling.
- What Does She See in Him?: Toji and Asuka still don't get along, and Toji tells Shinji that he's ruining his life by getting married to her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At some point, Asuka mentions she has not seen Misato or Rei in a long time.
- When She Smiles: After calling her father out for the final time, Asuka goes to meet Shinji to tell him she loves him, and she is putting her troubled past behind her. Then she smiles broadly, and Shinji finds her incredibly gorgeous.For the first time since she began talking, she smiles. A moment later a giggle slips out of her mouth. She looks… unburdened. She looks like she was in chains and is at long last finally free.
And she is overwhelmingly beautiful. - You Are Better Than You Think You Are: During a nervous breakdown, Asuka starts crying she is nothing but an alcoholic underachieving asshole and nobody would notice if she did not exist. Shinji tells her to stop saying those things because she is the strongest person he knows, and he would definitely notice if she was not around.Shinji Ikari: "I'm only going to say this once, so listen up: you are Asuka Langley Sohryu. You're the greatest Evangelion pilot who's ever lived. You're the smartest person I've ever met, and honestly I think you can do whatever the hell you want to if you set your mind to it. Anything. You're just having a rough time, and you think you can't talk to me about it, which is ridiculous. Do you think I don't feel those things, too? We're in this together, Asuka, you're probably my best friend in the world, and if we can't count on each other then I really don't know what… And come on, Asuka. Don't say things like 'no one would notice'. I would notice. I'd notice every day for the rest of my life, and you know damn well I would. I'd miss the hell out of you… So don't say things like that. And don't do this shit again. You're better than this."
