There is a whole planet here to fix, who can really say how long that will take? The times that he'd speculated about it, Shinji had kind of imagined it could easily be a lifetime's worth of work, and that, as long as he put as much work as he could into himself as well, a lifetime spent here might not be a bad outcome.

Now, though, even if he were offered the possibility of going back, and the part of him that still feels like he's got some responsibility or obligation to either fix the mess he left behind or live with it... he really, truly wouldn't want to leave Kai behind. It's selfish, and he knows it is, but after everything, he'd unquestionably hate himself even more if he seriously considered choosing to hurt the other like that.

"Mmm," he hums softly in agreement. Who knew that potential lifetime of work would be a 'good thing'? How wild. "I'll do what I can, so that maybe the two of us can see a real night sky together someday."

Whether that could be close possibility, or remain a distant promise to keep in mind.