In Between
By Eric Blair
The intellectual property of the characters, institutions and places depicted here belong to Hideaki Anno and GAINAX/KARA. This is a work of fiction and it's not associated with any of them.
"Hey!"
Asuka turned around to find Hikari Horaki running behind the redhead, who stood near the end of the stairway, resting against one of the walls, holding her leather briefcase against her chest. Hikari stopped short in front of Asuka, looking disapprovingly at the redhead teen who, in turn, smiled a small smile at the pigtailed girl.
"Hikari! You got out early!" The German redhead beamed at her friend, making her way to her side before both started to walk out the school quad. "So… how did the council meeting go?"
"Ah… you know, budget meetings." Hikari said as she let out a long breath, looking uncharacteristically annoyed. "If we are still planning on having that big cultural fair, we'll probably need to make a bake sale or something to raise funds."
"That sucks, I guess." Asuka said, clearly not understanding why this cultural fair was such a big deal for Hikari, who had stayed past school time and sometimes until late in the evening for the last three or four weeks.
"Yeah, but thanks for waiting for me." Hikari thanked Asuka who, being the dutiful friend that she was, had decided to stay with Hikari to walk with her to the train station for their mutual safety and to keep her company.
It also allowed her to not be in the tiny apartment she called home along with a drunk babysitter, her stupid bird pet and an idiot.
Or to be in close proximity to said idiot after a certain stupid fiasco.
Not like I care about him! He's still an idiot! Asuka thought angrily, blushing despite herself.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Hikari… what are best friends for?" Asuka answered back cheerfully, winking at Hikari as she latched onto the freckled girl's arm, as they both began to make their way to the train station.
"By the way, what did that student who was talking with you wanted, anyway? He seemed… upset."
"He asked me out." Asuka answered plainly, shrugging as they began to board the steps one at the time, noticing how lonely the station was at this time of the night. "But I told him to take a hike."
"Asuka! That was really rude!" Hikari said harshly, feeling flustered even if she hadn't been the one who had been asked out. "D-do you know how hard it is to get the nerve to come up to someone you like and ask them if they would like to go out o-or if they would like to share their lunch with you?"
Asuka turned to look at Hikari with a cynical look on her face, staring at her through half-lidded, almost closed eyes as they both took a seat, waiting for their train to arrive, before answering with a humorless flat tone.
"Somehow, I don't think you are talking about me."
Hikari looked away, and her face betrayed the shame of being caught, feeling like the time she had been caught by her mother, so long ago… almost ages ago when Hikari had tried to get some pocket change to buy some sweets; her cheeks felt on fire, and her mouth felt like she had swallowed a ball of cotton, throat constricted and dry, before the class rep finally found her voice again.
"The point is you should be more considered about other's feelings! You wouldn't like to be treated the same way, would you?"
"Look, Hikari if you want to tell that stupid idiot Toji that you like him, just take a stand and do that." Asuka said as she stood up and went to get both her and Hikari a can of juice, her voice growing louder and bolder with each step that separated her from where he blushing class rep stood seated. "At least then you'll know for sure if the idiot is simply playing hard to get, or if he really, truly is an idiot."
"Th-that is not… I mean h-he…" The class rep stammered out, making Asuka smirk at Hikari, before she giggled at her friend's embarrassment.
"C'mon Hikari, you really can't be that hopeless! The jock is not even here!"
"Some of us don't happen to have the world renowned confidence of the great Asuka Langley Sohryu." Hikari said softly, bitterly, but at the same time, sadly, knowing that it was true; her tone of voice made Asuka narrow her eyes, before she took a seat next to her pigtailed friend, wordlessly extending a canto her while the redhead silently opened her own and took a drink.
"Ah! Thanks." Hikari said softly before she looked at Asuka, words forming in her but ultimately the class rep wasn't sure of how to ask the redhead what was troubling her.
"I'm not that confident myself, you know." Asuka began softly, before she held her can on both hands, staring intently at it.
"Huh?" Hikari blinked twice, before looking at the redhead, this was one of those brief, rare moments of when Asuka would allow others to see the real, true girl that lingered underneath the bravado, the outspoken, confident redhead that had nothing but biting remarks and annoyed looks for those around her.
Here was Asuka Langley Sohryu, not "the great", or "Eva pilot", just a simple teenage girl like herself, Hikari realized; alone even when she was with friends, unsure of doing the right thing, if only for a second before her genes and humor kicked in.
"I mean… it's not like…" Asuka stammered quickly, before she let out a long breath and stared up towards the already blackened sky. "Sometimes, when it comes to stuff like this… it's ok to be scared, you know…"
Hikari stared at Asuka for a long time, before she blushed and looked away, fidgeting.
"Uhm… A-Asuka… how w-would you…" Hikari asked softly, her voice no louder than a soft whisper. "When you mentioned m-me asking Toji… how would you do it?"
Asuka opened her mouth to answer before she thought about it, smiling impishly at Hikari.
"If I tell you, you'll have to help me too."
AN:well, it seems the story is starting to take some form and flow. On a side note, someone referred to me as one of the "old school" (I'mma assume writers) which made my own sensei make a crack at me, telling me that was how he felt when I refereed to him as "sage."
Of course, if I'm old school, I guess that makes Jimmy an ancient one now :P
Also; I have been sloppy, I haven't review replied anyone of you wonderful readers who took the time to give me feedback (Not like I'm doing it for the feedback, mind you, but reading other people's comments is always good food for thought), which is something that should be fixed... eventually.
Ah! who am I kiddin'? *goes off to review reply every single review to date of this story*