All characters, settings, etc. belong to Gainax and Hideaki Anno. I don't own any of that good stuff. Drat. ;)
Enigmatic Soul
"Ayanami! Ayanami!" Rei Ayanami heard a voice shout her name and turned around to look for the source. Behind her, a panting Shinji Ikari was running up to where she was standing.
"Rei!" Shinji said, as he stopped by her and caught his breath.
"Yes, what is it, Ikari-kun?" she asked the boy, somewhat annoyed that she was being interrupted.
"Listen, I just wanted to thank you for protecting me during our fight with the 5th angel. I owe you my life."
"I was only following orders. I would have done the same thing for any other pilot, if I was ordered to." she replied.
"Would you still have done it if you weren't ordered by my father?" Shinji asked.
This certainly took Rei by surprise. She never wondered about what she would do if she wasn't told to do anything. After quite some time of thinking about her answer, she answered in the affirmative.
"Yes, I suppose I would."
This made Shinji's heart skip a beat. "I knew you would say that." Shinji said with a smile. The next part took Shinji a bit of hesitation to say; "You know, I was wo-wondering if you would… that is… if you weren't say, busy tonight… maybe we could, I dunno, catch a movie or something?"
"No. I have synchronization tests with Dr.Akagi today." She said in her usual voice, without any emotion at all. Without another word, she resumed walking to her apartment, leaving a heart-broken Shinji with his thoughts.
---
As Rei opened the door to her down-trodden apartment building, she thought about what Shinji had asked her earlier.
"Was he asking me on a date?" she asked herself. Not being very familiar with social situations, she didn't know what the answer was. With that, she entered her apartment and sat on the bed, left with thinking about Shinji.
"I've never been asked out before. I've never really had a chance to socialize with many people, save the NERV personnel." Rei thought. "Maybe I should have thought about it before I said no."
She thought back to her encounters with the Third Child. Their first meeting, when the 3rd Angel had attacked Tokyo-3 and Shinji was brought in to pilot Evangelion Unit 01. She remembered that Shinji had been concerned about her well being, when she had fallen from the bed after an attack had shook the underground NERV facility. The way he held her up as she shuddered from the pain, seemingly unconcerned about his own safety and tried to help her. It reminded her of the way Commander Ikari had saved her from Unit 00 after its failed test activation, burning his hands in the process. How Shinji tried to talk to her, be a friend, not caring about what the other students thought of Rei. He seemed genuinely friendly to her, something very few people have been. The time when Shinji had come to her apartment to drop off her new NERV ID badge. She remembered this vividly. The feeling of Shinji's hands pressed up against her body, when he had caught her inadvertently, as she just had stepped out of the shower and they both fell over. For some reason, his touch was pleasant to her, but he quickly got off. This gave Rei a slight grin, remembering how embarrassed he was and how much he had apologized afterwards. Most recently, the battle with the 5th angel when she had protected him with her Eva came to mind. Again, he had been concerned about her safety, running to her entry plug and helping her up. To add to that, that was the first time anyone had ever asked her to smile for them, and smiling for Shinji made her feel actually happy, as if she actually had someone to share herself with. Something about Shinji actually made her feel good about herself, she discovered. As Rei lay on her bed, she decided what she would do about Shinji, and fell asleep smiling.
---
Shinji walked into the classroom the next morning later than usual, bags under his eyes from not sleeping. Kensuke and Toji noticed this and went to check up on their friend.
"Hey Shinji, what's up? Did Misato keep you up all night again?" Kensuke snickered, as he asked Shinji.
"Ungh, no. Leave me alone, guys. I need some time to think." Shinji told them, without even looking up.
"Whatever you say, Shinji." Toji said, as he and Kensuke walked away from his desk.
Moments later, a shadow cast over Shinji. "I thought I told you guys to lea…"
"Shinji-kun?" the familiar voice of Rei surprised Shinji.
"Rei? I thought…"
"Shinji, I wanted to ask you something." She said in a quiet voice, interrupting Shinji's sentence. "Would you like to go out on a date with me this weekend?"
The next thing heard was the sound of something hitting the floor and Rei looked down at Shinji's unconscious body, having fainted from the shock of the most mysterious girl he knew asking him out.
"Shinji-kun…?"
Author's Notes: groan Ungh. Writing in for Rei is h-a-r-d. I got the idea for this after a discussion with a friend of who would go with Shinji better, Asuka or Rei. Obviously, it was determined that Rei was a better match for him, since I quote: "Asuka's a bitch." Oh, I'm gonna get hurt from the Asuka fans out there for that. Now back to working on "Forever Rei" whip crack Alright already! I'm working on it! whip cracks again Ow!