Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the things I want to in this world of ours. The only thing created by me on the NGE area is this fanfic series. If you sue, I'll sue back.
After breakfast and getting ready, they all went down to the beach for a long, nice day of soaking and sunbathing. The vacation was well needed. Shinji made sure to walk close to Rei to scare off any potential bachelor-on-the-hunt. After fifteen minutes he go so tired on guys trying to hit on Rei that he started snarling at the ones that got less distance between them and Rei. The word spread over the beach and the guys backed off when they saw Shinji walking alongside Misato and Rei. Rei just enjoyed the situation; it felt like Shinji was protecting her again. Misato didn't care whether Shinji scared the guys off or not, she was half-sleepwalking and did not care about anything but finding a shadowy spot on the beach. Her omnipresent hangover followed her anywhere and anytime. She was so tired from the hangover that she snarled at a guy herself. Needless to say, he scurried off to his buddies with tears in his eyes.
Well, what you can say to their defence is that both females looked absolutely divine. Misato in her mini-bikini in red, going along with her lipstick and red flip-flops on her feet. But that was not what caught Shinji's undivided attention. It was Rei. In her bikini in a clear, icy blue that went well along with her hair and her pale skin, and it was a good contrast against her red eyes. Well, Shinji thought a bit too much on how good that bikini did look against his own conscious. As a result, he ended up getting a trickle of blood down his face.
At last they found their long-searched for shadowy spot. It was far away from most of the crowds and close to the end of the beach and one of the barbeque places that should be lit later on, a bit into the night, stood close enough for them to use. Misato immediately threw herself down on a large towel and pulled a beer out of her cooling-bag. Shinji and Rei put up the rest of the towels and a large parasol. Shinji then rushed out in the water with a shriek of glee and began swimming out to a raft ten metres out in the water, steadily anchored on concrete on the sea floor. He heaved himself up and gestured for Rei to join him. She gestured something like;
'Get back here you moron! I can't swim!' Shinji sighed and swam back to her. Now his hard work of teaching Rei how to swim began.
They walked out in the water, hand in hand until they were waist-deep in the water. The foam rose high behind them as the waves broke against the shore and some rocks and boulders at the end of the beach. Shinji went down on one knee and stretched out his arms that now were parallel to the water surface, just below it.
"Lie down on your stomach and tilt your head up, you should face forward, not down into the water." Rei thought it felt a bit awkward but did as he told her. He held her stomach with his right hand and just above her kneecaps with the left.
"Okay, stretch your arms out before you, palms together. That's good, now you should…" They did this for more than two hours, and when they were done, Rei knew the basics of swimming. They went back out of the water and grabbed a bit of lunch from the basket they brought with them. Misato was busy snoring away under her hat. After half an hour all that was left of Shinji and Rei's lunches were a few empty water bottles and papers. They quickly collected it and stuffed it down into the basket. They then resumed the swimming lessons. Rei steadily got better and better on swimming. When the evening came to the beach and the barbeques were fired up, Rei could swim several metres without sinking too much. Then it was a question of swimming style. She made a dog feel like an Olympic swimmer in a question of grace. She splashed water everywhere while propelling herself forward. Not that Shinji cared, no but others who got their things soaked and had to move to the more crowded places on the beach, thus leaving the trio alone on their little stretch of beach.
Misato woke up as the fire was on its peak and started laying out barbeque ingredients on a big platter. There was beef, fish vegetables, flesh, fruits, and sticks, pretty much everything you could want for making a barbeque stick. Shinji and Rei stared in disbelief at the lot. They hadn't even noticed the extra baskets that Misato apparently had carried by herself.
'The fire is slowly dying with a reddish colour that perfectly matched the previous sunset a few hours ago. The shadows grow longer by the minute and the couple on the little raft is sitting close, listening to the cicadas in the grass not far from here and the birds that shrieks over this beach that…what the hell is in this screwed up beer?' but the sun had indeed gone down a while ago and the shadows grew longer on the raft that now was occupied by only two people. They sat close, occupied by a dialogue between the two of them.
"What I wanted to say was…thank you. For not laughing at me…and taking care of me this night…" Rei smiled and put her head on his shoulder. They were both still wet from the swim out to the raft and the moon cast its rays on the younglings on the raft. Shinji put an arm around her shoulders absentmindedly.
"You're welcome, Shinji." This made Shinji smile and he sighed happily. Then he remembered something that had occurred a long time ago. He looked at Rei's calm shape.
"Rei…" Rei looked up at him.
"What?"
"Do you remember a month ago? When those thugs…you know, attacked and I scared them away?" Rei smiled at him and nodded.
"Hai." Then she added inaudibly;"It was the most wonderful and precious moment of my life." Shinji didn't hear this part and continued.
"Do you remember what we were talking about before that? About Misato-san teasing us about a relationship between the two of us." 'Like that's gonna happen.' He thought bitterly.
"Hai."
"What was it that you wanted to talk about with me?" Rei took a deep breath. She took another one to strengthen herself.
"I was wondering if there not was a relationship of that kind forming between us and I wanted to know if you thought that it would be a good thing or not." She said it all in one breath and she then looked away, blushing ferociously.
"But you think that's bad, right?" She whispered, almost to herself. The she felt a hand take hold of her cheek and turned her to face him.
"I don't." He whispered.
"Not at all." And he kissed her. And on the beach, Misato choked on her beer.
It was like an electrical surge going through their bodies, it was magical. It was wonderful it was their first kiss. They would always remember it, and how it felt. Shinji would forever remember every last detail of it. The feeling of Rei's soft lips against his own. Her soft, slow breath, gently tickling his upper lip. How her light, slender body, still damp with seawater, sliding a little against his felt. How she tasted, how they held each other on that raft, kissing for what felt like an eternity. And Misato sat on the beach, looking at her clock and wondering when they would stop.
When they at last broke the kiss, they sat a good while and just stared into each others' eyes, not uttering a single word. When they moved it was to resume looking at the moon. They just sat there holding each other tenderly.