MrMallard wrote:It's rare that I come across a good fic, and even then it's usually only a drabble. I'd love to see a well-done, in-character slice-of-life piece of fluff between Misato and Shinji, if anyone's up to it.
I started on something like that years ago as a dream sequence that was ultimately cut from a larger work because it got too long and detailed on its own. After I cut it I wondered if I could later make it into its own work. I continue to wonder this, but I don't dare start any new projects given everything I've got going on right now.
The premise was, (for any who care to know,)
Shinji, after his ep19 tantrum, gets sentenced by his father to a week of house arrest. (Being originally a dream sequence meant to explore Misato's true feelings for Shinji, it intentionally played down the seriousness of what he did at the start of ep19, and that incident was the most convenient excuse for the premise because the dream takes place during his month in Unit 01.) Misato is tasked with watching over and homeschooling him during that time, and Asuka, being mad at them both at this point in the series, leaves them completely alone. They bond gradually over the 7 days -- or rather, quite quickly, because they wind up as a couple by the end of day 4. I never wrote the final three days. (Which, come to think of it, were vaguely planned to be of their relationship spiraling downward into something pathetic so as to make the point that they are ultimately not right for each other, and I remember just plain not having the heart to write that.)
Um, to give you a sense of how it was written, here's the first page or two:
(begin)
Misato dreamed of stocking the fridge full of beer. "A week. A week of house arrest! That's his punishment?!" she yelled. "It's as much a punishment for me as for him! They can't possibly expect me to watch him the whole time, can they?"
But the commander had been quite specific. "Shinji is not to leave the apartment for any reason," he'd told her, white-gloved hand pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "All emergency and delivery service charges will be reimbursed."
"But what about his schoolwork?" she'd complained.
"You wanted to be a schoolteacher at one time, didn't you?"
"Maybe if the Second Impact never hap-- wait, I have to teach him myself?!"
"The necessary materials should be waiting for you when you get home."
Misato growled as she might have back then if she hadn't valued her job.
"What were you thinking anyway?!" she shouted over her shoulder at the uneasy boy eating his breakfast at the table, who'd had no choice but to overhear her ranting soliloquy. "Threatening to destroy Nerv headquarters with Unit One like that!"
He took a hard gulp of his food and found other things to look at. "Um... Well, I was already sitting in it, so it would have been pretty silly to threaten with something else..."
"You know what I mean!"
Shinji lowered his chopsticks and stared at the table. "I wasn't thinking, I guess. What he almost made me do to Touji ..." he trailed off.
She froze, hand on the last can from the 24-pack as she was placing it on the overstuffed fridge shelf. Thinking better of it, she stood with it and cracked it open while bumping the fridge door closed with her hip, clad in cutoff jean shorts. She downed a big gulp even though it was warm, and morning.
Once her courage was sufficiently bolstered, she paused to think through the buzz.
"Your father is ..." she began, considering. She grinned. "Not worth considering!"
"What?"
"What's done is done, right?" She sat across from him with an alcohol-warmed smile. "Besides, the less you talk about a problem the less it matters!"
"I don't know if that's a good way to look at things..." he said with a worried frown.
"It works for me!" she declared with a jovial raising of her beer. She downed the rest in one go, squealed a bird-call of delight, then emitted a long, loud belch that rattled the tableware. After a satisfied sigh and through post-burp tears, she saw him recoiled in terror, glancing between her and his plate like he thought either of them might try to attack him.
(end)
Is this the kind of thing you're looking for? I admit it's probably not much to go on, and I'm not even sure if it's entirely reflective of the rest of the story (that belch, even when I wrote it, felt like it was a stretch so don't take it as an indicator of the rest being all slapsticky or anything like that) but if it piques your interest I can send you the rest in all its imperfect, minimally revised, unfinished glory.
