The Heart, The Soul is a Neon Genesis Evangelion Alternate Universe fic by Andrew Huang.
An alternate take on the character relationships that starts a little time before episode 22 of the anime and diverges from there.
The series is composed of four stories:
It can be read in FF.net
, Andrew Huang's fanfiction page, and here.
Tropes present in this work:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: When Asuka collapses into tears after her battle with Arael, Shinji hugs her and strokes her hair as trying to calm her down.
- Alternate Universe Fic: In the aftermath of the attack of the 15th Angel, Shinji reaches Asuka out instead of staying put.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: After three chapters told from the children's point of view, the final chapter focuses on Misato's.
- Bedmate Reveal: The morning after their accidental kiss, Asuka wakes up and finds Shinji lying beside her. After several dizzy moments where she tries to determine if Shinji is indeed sleeping with her, Asuka chases him out of her room.
- Bridal Carry: Shinji carries an unconscious Asuka in his arms bridal style when he takes her to the infirmary after the battle against Arael.After a while, I realized that she had fallen asleep. Taking great care, I gingerly shifted her in my arms, hooked my left hand under her knees, and gently picked her up. She seemed amazingly light.
It wouldn't matter how much she weighed. I would have carried her out of Hell, demons at my heels, if I had to. - Broken Ace: After her mind-rape, Asuka cannot even synchronize with her EVA, and she is too depressed to get mad about it.
- Broken Tears: After her Mind Rape, Asuka bursts into tears, and she cannot stop crying.
- For Want Of A Nail: Shinji impulsively kisses Asuka during a trip to the grocery shop. Although a rash action, it makes him want to feel closer to Asuka, which leads to him noticing how fragile she really is, which in turn leads to him getting closer to her in the aftermath of Arael instead of standing still as she curses and cries.
- Forceful Kiss: As arguing with Asuka during a shopping trip, Shinji notices how beautiful she looks, and unthinkingly he grabs her shoulders, pulls her closer and plants a kiss on her lips.
- Get Out!: Roared by Asuka after discovering that Shinji slipped in her room as she was sleeping.
- Grew a Spine: Shinji gradually becomes more mature and less prone to run away from his troubles during the story.
- Holding Hands: After spending one chapter dancing around each other, Shinji grabs Asuka's hand and she does not shy away from his touch.I finally looked away, feeling exhausted...and oddly calm. "Shinji," I spoke.
"Yes?"
I...care, too. "Hold my hand."
There was a moment—just a moment of hesitation. Slowly, he slid his hand over mine, on the bed. I lifted my hand up, twining my fingers between his, and squeezed gently. - Little "No": Shinji goes to Asuka's room at night to discuss their kiss, but she is sleeping. He is about to leave when he hears her whispering "No…"I stiffly turned to go out the door.
"No…" whimpered a voice behind me.
The word "no" can be extremely powerful, whether shouted in a commanding tone of voice or just barely whispered. Sometimes, though, it is the whisper that has much more force. - The "I Love You" Stigma: In the third chapter, Asuka asks Shinji point blank if he loves her. Shinji briefly hesitates before answering he cannot be sure because he is only a child.
- Mind Rape: As per canon, Arael gets into Asuka's mind and digs up memories she wanted to bury.Yellow light, gripping me. A hand from that light reaching into my mind, heart, soul. An eye, looking at me. Cold, ruthless, searching. Dirty, I felt dirty! I tried to hide, but there was nowhere to go. I saw what it saw, I saw what I didn't want to see. No escape. No exit.
- Official Kiss: In the third chapter, after having a date, Shinji and Asuka finally enjoy a proper kiss.
- Parental Neglect: In the first chapter, Misato not even notices Shinji and Asuka are acting awkwardly around each other because she is too hammered to notice anything.
- Parental Substitute: To her surprise, Asuka feels Misato taking care of her is reminding her of her mother when Kyoko was still sane.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Asuka relives her mother's suicide over and again during her nightmares.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Shinji holds an unconscious Asuka in this fashion when she passes out after enduring Arael's mind rape.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: When Asuka is ranting on, Shinji cuts her by kissing her.I think, by this time, she had stopped complaining, and was asking me something. What was it? It was somewhere along the lines of, "Hello? Are you in there? Hello?" I believe she was also waving her hand in front of my face.
Instead of answering, I took her by the shoulders, pulled her close—
"Heh—what are you dommmMMPH!"
—and kissed her on the mouth.
I guess it did achieve my original goal of shutting her up. - Tsundere: Shinji finds he cannot figure Asuka out. She is often annoying, but she may be very nice when she wants. And she always looks so sad when she thinks no one is watching...Sure, I had felt attracted to her in the past. She was the prettiest girl in the whole class.... But she was so annoying, too. Always so superior....
But when she was nice, she could be very nice.
And when she was vulnerable, she was so very vulnerable.
