Chapter 4

"Look out below!"

Misato stopped in the middle of her lap across the pool and looked up to see where the voice had come from. She saw, to her horror, Shinji standing on the railing of his balcony in a pair of trunks. She waved her hands in panic and shouted:

"What do you think you're doing?! Don't!"

Her warning came too late. Shinji sprang from the balcony and crunched himself up into a cannonball dive after doing a front flip. Shinji had flipped forward to straighten his fall and to gain as much distance as he could horizontally. Shinji took a deep breath and braced himself for the sting. A heartbeat later, he hit the water, creating an explosion similar to the effects of a depth charge. Even crunched up into a ball, Shinji hit the bottom of the pool and bounced up. He uncurled and pushed himself towards the surface.

As soon as Shinji's head broke the surface, he became acutely aware of how much his spine hurt. He broke the water's surface with his butt, but the shock had obviously travelled right up his backbone and made it ache. Misato swam hurriedly over to where Shinji was treading water.

"Are you okay?" she asked, still panicking slightly.

"I think so," Shinji gasped. Then, he had just enough time to gasp a quick breath before Misato grabbed his head and pushed it under the water, making him flail and thrash. In his thrashing, Shinji's left hand made contact with Misato's breast. Misato gasped and released Shinji's head, moving away to avoid showing him that she was blushing. Shinji came back up, gasping harder for air, just in time to see everyone running outside to see what was going on.

"What the heck's going on out here?" Asuka asked loudly, "It sounded like a bomb went off!"

"Shinji jumped off his balcony into the pool," said Misato, pointing up at the balcony, "I guess he wanted to show off."

"That's almost 35 feet straight down!" Kensuke observed, looking from the balcony to the ground, "Not to mention the 20-odd feet that it is straight out in order to avoid hitting the concrete."

"Not bad," said Toji, "I could'a done dat, too."

"Yeah, sure you could, Toji," Kensuke teased.

"Not while we're around, you won't!" Toji's mother exclaimed.

"Um…thanks?" Shinji said uncertainly.

Just then, he looked over and saw Rei stepping out of her skirt. She had already unbuttoned and removed her blouse, so now she was in nothing but her white bikini. Shinji eyed her appreciatively.

I gotta say, Shinji thought, she definitely looks good in white. Not quite as good as Misato looks, but still good. And I'll say it again: She's definitely not shy at all.

Rei walked over to the edge of the pool and stood. She smiled at Shinji, and then moved over to the diving board. Rei walked to the end of the diving board and stood for a moment. Then, she sprang from the board and into the water so gracefully that she seemed to barely break the surface. Shinji was impressed.

She's a good diver.

Rei swam over to where Shinji was hanging on the side of the pool and hung next to him with one arm. Shinji felt her other arm slide down his back and grab gently on his buttocks. Shinji quickly suppressed a gasp of surprise.

She's being awfully forward and blatant, he thought, And after I just got done doing her, too. She can't possibly still be horny, can she?

Shinji's question was answered when Rei looked at him, winked, and then jerked her head gently towards the house. Shinji answered with a look that said "Later, maybe." Rei looked disappointed. Shinji moved closer to Rei and whispered in her ear.

"If you're a good girl, I might ask you to come up to my room later tonight," Shinji murmured, "Until then, just act natural, okay? People will get suspicious."

"Okay," Rei whispered reluctantly. Then, she swam away and climbed out of the pool. Shinji thought he had hurt her feelings until she went back over to the diving board and dove back into the pool, once again causing barely a ripple.

"That's our girl," Shinji heard Rei's father say.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.

"Rei's on the diving team of the local YWCA," the man explained, "She has been since she was ten. She spends a lot of time over here at Misato's to practice since we don't have a pool of our own."

"Ahh," Shinji said, "I see. Well, she's really good. Has she won any awards?"

"She took first place at a County High-Dive Competition last year," said Rei's father proudly.

"Wow," said Shinji, raising his eyebrows, "I'm impressed. I can barely dive straight, and usually end up either doing a cannonball, or a belly-flop."

"Well, I think we're all glad that you chose the cannonball over the belly flop this time," said Rei's father. Shinji nodded in agreement.

After the moments of excitement in the pool, the rest of the afternoon passed without incident; unless you count Asuka losing her bikini top attempting to copy Rei's diving. She waited in the water, up against the edge of the pool while Kensuke taunted her with it, holding it just out of her reach so that she would have to get out of the water and expose herself. Kensuke got careless while waving it in her face and let himself get too close to Asuka. She grabbed him by the arm, yanked him into the pool and took her top back. Then, once she had it on, she proceeded to attempt to drown the little "'Net rat" as she called him.

The evening's activities consisted of a barbecue cook-out, and then the adults moved indoors to watch a beach volleyball game on TV in the den. Toji, to everyone's surprise, went in with them, saying that he wanted to "watch and learn".

"I guess Toji wants to play beach volleyball in college," Shinji remarked with a shrug.

"Let him go if he wants," said Asuka, "More room in the pool for me."

Asuka jumped back into the pool, making sure to keep her top on this time, Kensuke excused himself to the home theatre room to watch a movie. This left Shinji and Rei pretty much alone to decide their next moves.

"Well, Rei?" Shinji asked, "Would you like to continue your tour of the house?"

Shinji added the last bit with a sly grin. He expected Rei to jump at the chance to go back up to his room and get it on, but she only looked away. Shinji raised his eyebrows, concerned.

"Rei? Are you okay?" he asked.

"Shinji," Rei said quietly, not looking at him, "When you made love to me today, it made me realize something."

"What?" Shinji asked, "Was it…not good?"

"No," Rei said, "No, it was good. It was very, very good, and that's what's wrong. We can't keep this up, Shinji. I really want to, but I know that if we do, I'll end up falling more in love with you than I already am. And you aren't meant for me."

"What do you mean, Rei?" Shinji asked.

"While we were making love, your mind was somewhere else."

"I was thinking of you, Rei," Shinji said.

"Don't lie to me, Shinji," Rei said sadly, "It'll only make it hurt worse. I saw your eyes while we were in bed. They weren't looking at me. You were looking right through me. You had someone else on your mind."

Shinji recoiled. He hadn't thought Rei had noticed. The whole time he and Rei were having sex, Shinji's mind was on Misato. While he was pounding into Rei, Shinji was envisioning himself pounding into Misato, instead. Hearing Rei call him on it made his guts writhe with guilt as though they were filled with live snakes. Shinji realized what he had done: He had used her. Shinji had used Rei just for a quick satisfaction of his carnal needs.

Realizing this made Shinji want to go back up to his balcony and jump again, this time onto solid ground. Rei finally turned to face Shinji and saw his blank stare. Seeing this shock on his face made Rei's normally tranquil features crack and flow into tears.

"I don't hate you, Shinji-kun," Rei whispered, hugging Shinji, "I could never hate you. But we can't be together right now. We're not meant to be together right now. If you still want company, I will be more than happy to give myself to you again, but…I think there is someone else in this house that needs you more."

"You know…?" Shinji whispered, shocked.

"I won't tell anyone that you love Misato, Shinji," Rei reassured him, "I'll leave that for you to reveal to her when the time is right."

With that, Rei picked up her things and left to go home. Shinji stumbled his way up to his bedroom, locked his door, and collapsed onto his bed. He lay in shock for several minutes before his mind finally processed what had just happened.

Shinji's chest began to tighten. He felt as though his lungs were imploding; he couldn't breathe right. His eyes began to burn. He blinked furiously, gasping for breath. Suddenly, with a loud cry of pain, Shinji threw himself off the side of his bed and lay on the floor, weeping bitterly. Shinji cursed and cried out, wishing death on himself for defiling Rei as he had done. He curled up into a fetal position and wept, convulsing and shaking, for nearly twenty minutes.

Finally, though, Shinji began to calm himself down. He reasoned that Rei had asked for it; he had not forced anything on her at all. This line of thought provided him with little comfort, however.

I still stole her virginity, Shinji argued mentally.

Yeah, but she was the one who opened her legs, Shinji's mind argued back, You didn't force her to anything.

Shinji continued to argue with himself. Then, after a couple of minutes, Shinji started laughing hysterically. He didn't understand why he was laughing, depressed as he was.

"This is ridiculous," Shinji said aloud to his empty room, "Here I am, sitting on the floor and arguing with myself. Who am I? Jeff Dunham?"

Shinji picked himself up off of the floor and went back downstairs. Shinji slipped outside and snuck into the hot tub room in the yard. Shinji made sure to keep all the lights off as he turned on the jets and climbed into the steaming water. Shinji sighed as his body was enveloped in the warmth of the churning water.

Shinji lounged in the Jacuzzi for what felt like an eternity with his eyes blissfully closed. The world, and all its cares and troubles, had disappeared for him. He was now alone in his own world of warmth and contentment. Shinji tried hard to fight it, but he felt himself slipping off into sleep. While he dozed, dreams appeared.

Shinji saw streets and streetlamps rushing by. He felt powerful, strong, and confident. He felt like the alpha wolf of a pack; in total command of himself and everything around him. He was running through the streets; loping along with ease and stamina. He felt the light of the moon pouring on him, warm as sunlight. It filled his eyes, making them bright and alert.

The dream changed. Now, it reflected reality at the present. Shinji saw himself lounging in Misato's hot tub, alone. He heard the door to the tub-house slide open and looked over. He saw a voluptuous silhouette standing in the doorway. Shinji expected the lights to come on, but they didn't. She spoke, but her voice sounded distant and echoing.

"Shinji? Is that you in there?"

Shinji wanted to speak, but he was too relaxed to do more than mumble a response. The silhouette stepped over the threshold and into the small building. Shinji's eyes blurred in and out of focus. He couldn't discern who he was looking at.

Long hair, Shinji thought drowsily, It could be Asuka. She said she was gonna come in the hot tub later. But the curves are too nice to be Asuka. It's gotta be…

"It's me, Shinji. It's Misato."

Misato reached out and touched Shinji's forehead with her hand. At that point, Shinji realized that he wasn't dreaming. The drowsy feeling that he had wasn't because he was asleep, it was because the water was too hot and he had been in it for too long.

"I gotta get…outta…" Shinji mumbled weakly.

"How long have you been in here?" Misato asked, "It's past ten! Everyone else went home over an hour ago. I've been looking everywhere for you."

"It's what time?" Shinji asked, still disoriented.

"It's 10:15 at night, Shinji," said Misato, taking him by the arm to help him get out of the tub.

"I was in there…that long?" Shinji muttered hazily, "Must've…fallen asleep…"

"When did you get in here?" Misato asked.

"Right after Rei left," Shinji answered, leaning heavily on Misato's shoulder.

"That was nearly three hours ago!" Misato gasped, "You could have drowned, or cooked to death and no one would have known. From now on, Shinji, don't get in here unless someone's in here with you."

"Are you volunteering?" Shinji asked tiredly.

"Maybe next time," said Misato, "Now, take a deep breath and get ready to swim. I'm going to jump in the pool with you to try and cool you down."