Retrograde
By SMYGO4EVA
"You're ashen," Rei spoke.
Her voice was distant – mellow in tone, though her eyes still carry the slight wildness Asuka has always known them to – but it didn't fool Asuka; not anymore.
When Rei spoke, she always meant what she says, whether it sounded like it or not. Even if she was just a doll.
Asuka turned towards Rei, waiting for an answer. Rei didn't give one right away; didn't seem to think that Asuka was expecting one at all.
Tender hands, trembling but trustworthy, stroked the soft hair on the sleeping Shinji's head. Under her breath, Rei murmurs something to the slumbering Shinji, the EVA pilot yet still so fragile, so weak.
Asuka couldn't make out what she says; not that it was any of her business anyway.
"You used to burn," Rei continued after a moment, staring down at the Third Child unseeingly. "You used to be the ambassadress. But now you don't – not anymore."
Asuka almost protested; almost argued that that wasn't fair, none of her damn business, and that the red ambassadress was just a gimmick, and wasn't supposed to linger anywhere near as long as it did.
Instead, Asuka swallowed her pride and took Rei's hand – it felt so delicate, so brittle, but she didn't hold it gingerly; Rei didn't like being tiptoed around – and said nothing.
She thought that the First Child was probably right, for once.
She didn't feel like the red ambassadress; she hadn't for a long time.