"Ayanami!" Asuka slammed her way into the library, ignoring the shushing librarian, concentrating only on the pale girl looking mildly up from her book. It infuriated her how Rei never reacted to her, no matter how loudly she entered a room. Taking her sweet time, Rei placed a bookmark at her page and stood.
"If you want to talk, I think we should do it somewhere else. The library is a quiet place." Rei mumbled, and Asuka strode off, not bothering to look back to check Rei was following.
"Listen," she said, when they had reached a sufficiently private section of the school, "that white-haired newbie freak Nagisa is dating Shinji and it's all anyone can talk about. I've had enough!"
The corner of Rei's mouth quirked, just a bit. "You can't bear it when people aren't talking about you, can you?"
Asuka saw red. "Rrgh! Geez, my plan had something in it for you! Didn't you and Shinji have some kind of weird thing going? And suddenly red-eyes comes along and he's gone without a second thought. You could give him a slap in the face by pretending to date me - it'd be the talk of the school! We've known each other way longer than those idiots, it's very believable."
Rei blinked. "Okay."
Dating Asuka, even if it was only a farce, was an exhausting exercise. The day after their talk, she had loudly proclaimed their new 'couple status' and dragged Rei around with her at breaks, then attended literature club with her in the afternoon. That had been interesting - she'd turned out to have a lot to say about Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando' and it had mostly been quite intelligent. Rei particularly enjoyed when she quoted "…if the consciousness of being the same sex had any effect, it was to quicken and deepen the feeling's she'd had as a man." Rei had had to correct her on the time period of Virginia's life, but had admitted with a (surprisingly large) smile that her mistake was in good keeping with the spirit of the book. Asuka had even forcibly walked Rei home. Rei didn't usually like people knowing where she lived, but the walk had been surprisingly nice.
"You know there's no one here to be gossiping about us."
"Someone might drive past. Anyway I said I'd walk you home at school. I'll keep my word."
Asuka's eyes flicked to Rei, but immediately returned to looking ahead. Rei wasn't sure if it was just the reflection of her red hair on her cheek, but she thought Asuka might be blushing.
When they reached the door of Rei's apartment, Asuka told her what was happening the next day. "You'll come to my athletics. We're training for an interschool event next Saturday - you don't need to come to that - so it might go a little longer. You can just read a book if you want. Kaworu has gym training at the same time, so he and Shinji should be there tomorrow."
Rei nodded and slipped in to her apartment with a whispered 'see you tomorrow'. With the door safely shut behind her, she let a smile emerge on her lips and wondered where it had come from.
After school the next day, Rei seated herself near the back of the bleachers with Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and returned Kaworu's cheery wave from the other side of the field with a short raise of her hand. She could spot Shinji's black hair right on the first row, close to where Kaworu was warming up. He seemed to have a bottle of water for when Kaworu got thirsty. Rei wondered if she should do that. Asuka and the rest of the athletic club had their backs to her, so she decided she had time to locate some cold water.
When Rei returned with a cup of cold water from the dispenser, Asuka had finished her first sprint. She hurried toward the gaggle of panting students, the hot, sweaty bodies reminding her why she'd chosen literature club despite the P.E. teacher's pleading after seeing her times.
"A-Asuka!" she squeaked, not having counted on her pseudo-girlfriend being involved in conversation - argument, more like - with another club member.
"WHAA- oh," Asuka's eyebrows went up when she saw Rei shoving the cup in front of her nose, "danke." She said, in the voice of a surprised robot. As Rei hurried back to her seat, she heard Asuka boasting loudly about her 'doting girlfriend'. She brought her two more cups during the training. It is important to stay hydrated after all.
When training had finished, Asuka did her warm down stretches next to where Rei was sitting.
"What did you think?"
"You won't have a problem winning this competition, but I know your reflexes are fast enough that you could leave the starting blocks sooner."
Surprise at Rei's knowledge of athletics flickered across her face for a moment before it was replaced by a confident grin. "I have to hold something back for the finals, or what will they have to talk about?"
She left to get her schoolbag while Rei put away her book, and returned with her phone in her hand. "Nagisa just texted me asking if we'd come to karaoke with him and Shinji on Saturday. You cool with that?"
Rei nodded, "I can leave cram school at 2."
"Ok. Let's go." She strode off in the direction of Rei's apartment without looking back. Rei reflected that she hadn't told anyone she'd walk her home today.
It was Saturday afternoon and Rei was on the train to the city. The week had continued like the first days of their 'relationship' with a few amusing occurrences: Toji spitting out his drink when he saw them holding hands and Rei smiling (Asuka had jabbed her in the ribs and called her idiot - affectionately, she was assured - a few times to get that out of her), the class rep telling Asuka that she was COMPLETELY OKAY with her liking girls for a full 10 minutes, and Kensuke asking them to star in his next short film - Rei had flatly refused and walked away.
When she arrived at the karaoke parlour, the others were already there, and Asuka gave her a stick of pocky as they made their way to the booth.
"We should do a pocky kiss!" Kaworu crooned, sticking the end of his snack in his mouth and turning toward Shinji.
"Don't confuse eating and kissing, that's gross." Rei spoke. Shinji turned even redder than he'd been a second ago and Kaworu's mouth shut hard in disappointment, half his sweet falling to the ground.
When the karaoke started Kaworu chose a nice (or 'boring' in Asuka's words) classic duet and the boys surprised the girls with their decent singing voices. Next, Asuka chose I'm the Best by Nicki Minaj and Rei tried to keep her voice as quiet as possible under Asuka's caterwaul. However, when she faltered at the second rap and Rei's quiet voice continued without pause, everyone did a double take.
When Shinji and Asuka were doing a song together, Kaworu slid over to Rei's side. "I think you two make a good couple. I know I always say how alike we two are, and Asuka and Shinji are as different as the sun and moon, but I see the way you look at each other and I think you will be happy." He smiled his confusing smile and Rei wasn't sure what to say. How did she look at Asuka?
The next week passed, Asuka walked her home every day, they attended each other's clubs and Asuka became more insistent on holding her hand in front of others. On Thursday afternoon, she was still holding her hand when they reached Rei's apartment and then Asuka definitely blushed.
That Saturday was the first time in her life Rei had missed cram school, or any school at all, without being ill. She had found out the venue from the athletics teacher and had set herself up in the second row, right by Asuka's finish line. The girl in question saw her on her way to warm up and stopped dead, surprised.
"Why are you here? If you're wondering about the results, I'm gonna win."
"I never had a 'thing' with Shinji," A small smile crossed Rei's lips. "Can I take you out for dinner to celebrate after your race?"
Asuka nodded until her brain must have turned to milkshake, went red and tripped over her own feet going towards the team.
She ran perfectly, of course, after all she'd been top child sprinter when she lived in Germany and participated in some important contests. Rei noticed that she left the blocks as soon as the starting rifle sounded, and beat everyone by far longer than she would have been planning to. She heard whispers that the track star now had something to run for.
When Asuka walked away from the finish line, Rei realised she had been standing up and clapping, and may have even raised her voice a little when cheering. Her carefully cultured expression had been transformed into a beam which made Asuka's kiss a little awkward, but only increased her enjoyment of it.
Hey I'm thyfive on tumblr so if you want me to write YOUR otp next send me an ask with who it is and if I know who it is I might just write you a thing!