Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights got to there respective owners. Also all OC's are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.

SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd Try" and it's sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should definitely stop right here and check those out first before continuing.

Summary:


PenPen finally returns home and the fated meeting between between him and Aki Ikari begins.


"Meeting PenPen"

'Ding dong'

"I'LL GET, I'LL GET IT!" shouted an overly excited Aki as she made her way to the front door of the Katsuragi/Ikari/Soryu apartment, quickly forgetting about the cartoon show she was so engrossed in a second ago.

Shinji chuckled at Aki's excitement at answering the door. Ever since discovering the door bell, Aki had begun a habit of wanting to be the first in answer the door.

The first time Aki found out about it was when Misato wanted pizza takeout once many of the fast food places began opening again in the city. The sound of the door bell was such a unique sound to the young girl that soon after, she had once just kept pressing the door bell button until she was chided for it.

Shinji, who was doing laundry immediately stopped what he was doing to follow his little girl to the front door, knowing that once Aki had answered the door and greeted whoever it was she wouldn't know what to do next unless the person at the door was a familiar face to the girl such as Rei or Kaji.

Shinji had just gotten into the hallway in time to see that Aki opened the door. On the other side was a man who Shinji knew was a delivery postman, carrying a big box in both hands.

"Hi!" Aki greeted the delivery man, getting his attention as he was momentarily confused when he didn't see anyone at first within his height range.

Looking down to see the little girl, the man gave a small smile. "Why hello there, little one. Is your mommy or daddy home?" The guy said while gently placing the box he was holding down on the ground next to the door.

Aki looked up at the guy before turning her head to shout out to her parents but stopped once her Papa came into view.

"Papa, the man was asking for you or Mama."

Shinji slightly grimace at this, especially now since the delivery guy was giving him a confused and weirded-out look at Aki calling him "Papa". Both him and Asuka knew that these kind of responses and looks were just the beginning and certainly not gonna go away anytime soon.

Wanting to end this awkward moment as soon as possible, Shinji got right to the point while he slightly ruffled his daughters hair with one hand. "Hello, can I help you?"

"…Ah yes, if you can sign this for me please for the package." The delivery guy responded as he handed Shinji a clipboard and pen, wanted as well to move on from the awkward moment too.

"Yeah sure." Shinji took the clipboard and pen and writing his signature on it, all the while Aki looked at the exchange as if trying to understand the situation while also giving the big cardboard box a few looks.

Shinji finished signing the delivery and returned the clipboard and pen to the guy, to which the man said his thanks and turned to leave. Aki waved goodbye to the man till he was out of sight.

Shinji looked at the box for a moment before picking it up, slightly struggling with it due to the weight and walking carefully back into the apartment with Aki following him.

"Papa why did you need to write for a box?" Aki asked curiously.

"It's to let the delivery man's work place know that the box was delivered safely, honey," Shinji told his little girl truthfully.

"Oh ok…..Then what's inside the box, Papa? Is it takeout again?!" Aki looked at the box expectedly with a tiny bit of drool escaping her mouth. This earned a small chuckle from Shinji.

"No Aki, this isn't food again, though I have a pretty good idea what's in the box."

Making his way to the kitchen with Aki in tow, Shinji carefully placed the box down on the floor.

"Ok let's see if this is what I think it is." Shinji said before he tapped on top of the box a few times, in which the box slightly shook a few times. Shinji smiled as this left no doubt to what he thought was inside and ripped-off the tape on top, making it easier for the one inside the box to open up.

"PenPen, it's ok you can come out now, you're home," Shinji called out to the box and not a second later the top burst open revealing the feathered black and white bird, which made Aki yip in surprise for a second. PenPen looked back and forth around the room to collect his bearings, possibly to make sure he was indeed home. At the same time Aki moved closer to the box, looking curiously at the small warm water penguin in wonder, which got PenPen's attention, making him turn and stare at the newcomer.

Both eyes of the little girl and small bird looked at each other in wonder for a moment, but the magic seemed to wear off quickly as PenPen seemingly got bored at looking at the little brown haired girl and jumped out of the box, tipping it over and making a few bits of foam peanuts go everywhere as a result.

"Papa, it's a big bird!" Aki exclaimed in excitement, making Shinji chuckle.

"Yeah, I know honey. His name is PenPen."

Aki tilted her head slightly in confusion. "Pen..Pee?….Is he a present for me?"

"No Aki, he's Auntie Misato's pet."

PenPen who was getting reacquainted with his surroundings stopped and turned to Shinji, given him a mean glare. "WARK!"

Shinji in turn gave the penguin an apologetic look for his mistake. "Sorry, sorry, I meant roommate." His apology calmed the penguin who once again went back to getting reacquainted to the apartment - well, for a few moments, before suddenly running towards the bathroom door which unfortunately for him was currently closed.

"Waarrkk, waarrrkk!"

At this point Asuka finally came out of the bathroom from her shower, wrapped in her red towel and looked around in confusion. "Hey, what's all the commotion abo…hey!" Just as Asuka opened the door PenPen saw his chance and ran straight in past Asuka, closing the door behind him.

Asuka looked at her husband and daughter before giving a slight smile. "Guess Hikari delivered PenPen as instructed, huh?"

Shinji nodded to her and picked up a small piece of paper that was in the box. "Yeah and it seems she left a note as well," Shinji said while opening the folded note and began to read it out loud.

"Dear Miss Katsuragi. As per your instructions I am delivering PenPen back to you once everything was ok back in Tokyo 3. At first I was going to arrange something to send him back to you, but it seems now as I'm writing this, that PenPen has already made his own arrangements and that he wants me to send him back by postal delivery?

He seems quite adamant, but I'm a bit unsure about this. I'm sort of afraid that the little guy will starve to death or suffocate. So to make sure he makes it through the trip I did put some edible foods in the box with him and made sure that there are enough air holes in. So I do hope that he made it back safely.

P.S Can you please do something about PenPen's drinking?! While he wasn't a bother, he did end up finding and going through my fathers secret beer and wine bottle stash and it's bad enough that I had to scold my own father for his drinking in front of me and my sisters. So if possible please, please get him some help. I mean it's not natural for a penguin to drink alcohol so do get him help and possibly for yourself as well!"

Both Shinji and Asuka both looked at each other a bit dumbfounded for a second before chuckling. It seemed Hikari let out a bit of her "Class Rep" wrath into the letter. Just as they finished the letter, the sound of the bathroom toilet flushing was heard, before the mentioned Penguin came out looking relived to have done his business. However, just as PenPen came out his path was blocked by the curious Aki.

Once again the two locked eyes for a moment before PenPen broke the contact and passed the three year old child, clearly not interested in the young child as of yet. Aki continued to look at the bird with curiosity, even tilted her head in a confused manner.

This behaviour of her daughter got Asuka's interest in what was on the girls mind. "What's the matter Aki?"

Aki looked at her Mama while pointing at PenPen, who just sat down on couch and rudely changed the channel on the TV to an animal documentary. "How come Pen…Pee isn't flying Mama?"

Asuka laughed a little at Aki's mistake with saying PenPen's name, but just gave her daughter the simplest answer. "Well, Schätzchen, because he can't fly."

"He can't fly?" Aki parroted, eyes widened at this revelation.

"That's right. Anyway I'll be back in a minute ok." Asuka said before walking towards the bedroom to get changed.

Aki meanwhile turned towards the unaware penguin watching the TV with a thoughtful expression before an idea suddenly came to her. PenPen with with his animal instincts felt a cold shiver down your spine for a moment at the same moment Aki had come up with her idea.

x-x-x-x-x-x

WAAARRKKK, WAAARRRKK!

"Hey, what's with all the noise this time!?" Asuka asked no one in particular as she came out of her and Shinji's bedroom. Shinji who was busy cooking was also wondering on what the noise was about and stopped to investigate.

"It sounded like PenPen but what got him so…OH MY GOD!" Shinji said while screaming out the last part in shock.

Asuka followed her partner's line of sight and saw to her horror on the apartment's outside balcony was her daughter on top of the delivery box, holding a struggling and screaming PenPen.

"Fly birdy!" Aki said while unaware of what she was really about to do. And just as Aki loosened her grip on the bird, Shinji had thankfully managed to run up to them in time and caught the penguin and quickly moved him away from the edge.

"AKI!" Asuka shouted. The little girl jumped at the pitched voice of her mother and between that and the angry look she gave her, Aki knew she did something bad. Asuka grabbed her daughters shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "Aki what were you doing!?"

Aki was confused at why she was being scolded. "Well you said that PeePee can't fly Mama, so I was helping him. Since we are so high up then he would surely be able to fly from up here," Aki said. By her explanation for her actions and it dawned on Asuka and Shinji, the later who was still holding the scared and shaking penguin in his arms, what the problem was.

Asuka sighed before once again looking at her daughter. "Aki, when I said that PenPen can't fly, it didn't mean that he doesn't know how. It's because he really can't actually fly."

Being told this, Aki had a confused look. "But he's a bird Mama, and all birds fly, don't they?"

"Well, no honey, not all birds actually fly," Shinji added in to the conversation. "You see, PenPen here is a special type of bird that swims in water rather than fly."

Aki's eye lit up the mention of swimming. "So Pen..Pen really swims like a fishy?"

Shinji nodded to her. "That's right. Now honey you need to say sorry to poor PenPen here as you could have seriously hurt him," Shinji said a bit sternly while crouching down and holding the penguin in front of him towards Aki.

Aki gave the frightened and still shaken penguin an apologetic look. "I'm sorry PenPen."

PenPen's only reaction to this was to finally stop shaking before given Aki his best glare before given her his best intimidating cry.

"WAARRRKKK!"

No sooner had he finished, PenPen broke free of Shinji's hold and ran straight into his freezer and locked it behind him, with the eyes of the two parents and child all bewildered at what just happened. At the same moment everyone heard the apartment door open.

"Hey everyone, I'm home!" The cheery voice of Misato was heard and Asuka and Shinji would now have to explain to their guardian on the rough start between Aki and PenPen.

End.