A/N: I only have one thing to say: It's time poor, neglected Rei got into this story! She's going to play an equally huge part as Shinji. Oohohoho, she'll get mingled in this whole thing, mark my words. I almost forgot about her! Oh, evil me! My 2nd fave Eva character, and I forget about her! Tsk tsk. Oh, and I have a second thing to say: Since a lot of people say this seems to be a run-on kind of layout, I'm gonna double space what needs to be double spaced. Easier?
Note: Oh, yes, and I'm getting rid of the accent. Sorry about it, but it's faster....^__^
MAJOR OOC DURING THE TOUJI+HIKARI PART!!! Only the first part, though. Hey, when you're confessing something, you don't expect the harshest guy on earth to say it like he's slaying someone to their death, would you!?
Another Note!: Hmmm, let's see...oh yes. Due to my NEW revelation *see my new soon-to-be-released-fic, Yellow Obis, for the details* there will be much more Rei interaction in here. I mean, who better to be a diversion...or winnah of Shinji's affections? No, it's not the end of the story, it's just a little jump-start for you guys....^____^
THANKS TO MY PRE-READERS: ACGS and FinalMax. You guys are the best! ^___^
To Asuka
Chapter 3
Rei Ayanami was on the roof, looking out absentmindedly into space as she usually did. Anyone who looked at her would probably think she was just daydreaming, or perhaps just spaced out. But contrary to popular belief, Rei was thinking in that brain of hers.
She was thinking very much.
For just a few days ago, she had been watching the Third Child out of the corner of her eye while he was on the roof, and she, unbeknownst to him, had been on the roof too–just at the corner behind the building that held the stairs, so he wouldn't see her. He had been writing something.
To her, she had guessed. And she was right.
If she hadn't been so fixed, Rei would have shuddered. Instead she closed her eyes and imagined blocking the Second Child out with a red permanent marker. It worked...a little.
She just couldn't understand what he saw in that devil. She who called Rei Wondergirl, First, all these names the Second thought wouldn't hurt her. But they did. Ikari knew this. He knew she was hurt so much.
But he didn't stop it.
Her blood boiled. Why? Why did Second hate her so? Why did Ikari do nothing to stop her foolishness? Why had Ikari been writing to...to her?
She got up and shook her head, as if doing so would shake the bad feelings away. But they didn't. It just made her dizzy.
------------------------------------
Asuka was running home as fast as she could, with tears running down her cheeks and the latest poem in her clutched hand.
I'm such a dork, she thought harshly. I shouldn't be so jealous just because Hikari has the guy she wants practically under her nose. I mean, she's my friend. I can't get jealous...I can't...
She slowed down and furiously wiped a hand across her cheek.
But you are.
She scowled. Hikari and Touji. Touji and Hikari. Suzuhara and Horaki. The class dud and the class rep. No matter how you say it, it fits. On the other hand, Asuka and her secret admirer, Asuka and the Dot, Asuka and the Anonymous.
Not exactly a ring there.
She trudged up the sidewalk to the apartment, trying to dispel her anger in the cracks she stepped on.
Hikari is my friend, crack one. Touji is good for her, crack two. These poems are great, crack three. I'll find whoever wrote it if it's the last thing I do, crack four...
She continued to do this until there were no more cracks. She had reached the door to the apartment. With another scowl she pushed it open and rode the elevator up to her house, thinking, thinking, maybe too much...
"You, who can be
scared and weak
little and afraid
a flawless masterpiece of
beauty and red...."
If I can't even figure out who wrote that, why am I such a flawless masterpiece?
"I just can't help
seeing myself
in your eyes
knowing you
are just like
me..."
Just who are you, anyway?
"...white gray space nothing
would it be fit, okay, would it be
right
to hold the woman of the blood red sea
in my arms?"
No, it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be right for such a vicious devil to stand in a pure white blank space.
The elevator clang to a stop and she stepped out and flung open the door to the apartment. She could see a food plate in front of the darned penguin–Shinji was home.
Great, just what I need. Another dork to darken my day. Another person to tell me 'Why can't you treat me nicer'. Another person for me to hurt...
She clutched her red hair in frustration and anger. What's happening to me?! Why am I being so emotional?!?!
Kicking aside her shoes, she threw her school bag on the couch and ran to her room. The tears were flying down her cheeks again, and for Third to see them would be the end of the Great Sohryu Asuka Langley. It would be her own demise, for she had promised never to cry again. And here she was, crying over some stupid love letters. What had she done to herself? She slapped herself mentally and wiped the tears away, as if to stop them. But they just kept coming against her own will.
The door slammed as Asuka screamed in frustration....
--------------------------
Shinji was in his room, enjoying the solitary and isolation he so greatly welcomed with an empty house and his SDAT player. But the nice atmosphere was soon ended when he heard the door in the next room slam.
His face burned.
Asuka.
If it hadn't been for his will (what will?) and determination (please ) and need to see what was up with Asuka (more to just see Asuka), he would have stayed in his room. And he almost did. But when Asuka slammed her door, she practically called for people to follow her.
Shinji heard his own conscience call his name, anyway.
Oh Shinji, you need to get up and go see Asuka...
Damn consciences.
He stood up and ripped the earphones from his ears. Then, tip-toeing as quietly as he could, he walked into the hallway and knocked on her door.
"Asuka?"
No answer.
"Asuka."
No answer.
"Come on, Asuka."
Finally, he heard her sob. "Shinji, just go away. I don't need you!"
Ooh, harsh.
"But Asuka, maybe if you just told me what was wrong, maybe I'd be able to help."
Fatal mistake, Shinji. Fatal mistake. Never tell Asuka you can help her. Never.
"How can such a dense person like you be able to help this problem!??"
He cringed. How can such an un-feeling person like you possibly help me with my problems!? He wanted to shout. To scream. To tear open the door and confess that he loved her, that he'd loved her from the very start, that he wrote those poems and he didn't want to see her hurt ever again as long as he loved her. That the longing of denial dragged at his heart with every step that he took, that he almost cried himself with grief as he wrote those poems. All he wanted to do was just kick the door down and tell her she was the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth.
But such a situation will probably happen, uh, well, to put it nicely, never.
"Asuka, really. You can't stay there sobbing forever," Shinji tried again.
"I..." She paused and hacked her brain mercilessly for a good excuse. "I'm not crying, baka Shinji! Like I would ever cry again! I'm just....sobbing. There's a complete difference between crying and sobbing, Third."
He threw up his hands and sighed. Sounds like crying to me. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't expect me to cook you dinner."
At this, he heard a pause of the "sobbing, not crying", soft shuffling, and then the door opened to reveal a puffy-eyed, tear-stained face and red tangled hair.
Beautiful, beautiful Asuka.
"Okay, baka, you won. Crying makes me hungry." She sniffled. "Being confused makes me hungry. Just looking at myself being so pathetic makes me want to puke, and I can't do that on an empty stomach. Make me some soup."
It wasn't a choice. It was a demand.
A "do it or die" demand.
Shinji smiled to himself at getting Asuka out. The only things that got Asuka out of bed while she was crying was hunger, Kaji, Angels, and God beckoning Asuka to her fate. (That hadn't happened yet, thank God, Shinji thought.) He watched her as she grabbed two pieces of paper–
Wait. Two pieces of paper?
Shinji's face flushed, emptying all the paleness in his face, making it practically transparent. Two pieces of paper.
Two letters.
She'd been crying over them!??!
He shook his head and walked to the kitchen. No way. She was too stubborn. She wouldn't cry over some stupid poems, some measly love letters. They were probably just hate letters or something.
But what if they weren't? After all, to make Asuka cry, who said she'd never cry again after her mother's death, to make the Great Sohryu Asuka Langley cry, those had have to been some really harsh hate letters.
Shinji sighed.
Girls.
As the stove heated up, he bent down to Pen-Pen, who held up the empty plate of food he had been eating earlier.
"Thanks, Pen-Pen," Shinji said. The penguin nodded. It started to waddle away when Shinji called it back.
"Can I ask you a question?" The penguin nodded (but Shinji didn't know that). "Well...do you think Asuka would cry over some love letters?"
The penguin started its thoughts.
Hubba hubba, Shin-chan's finally come to his senses and written the evil one on his feelings. But the evil one's got no feelings. The evil one wouldn't cry. Not even if her leg got torn off, the penguin thought to himself.
"Wark," It answered simply, perhaps a summarization of what it had just thought, and waddled away.
Shinji sighed. Right, I'm so pathetic, I asked a penguin about my love life. How low can I sink?
Very low, Shin-chan, and you are sinking still.
He grabbed a pot and some seaweed, tofu, and miso paste and started to make some miso soup. (A/N: No, won't end up like Ishagu's story! ^_^) While he started to prepare the soup, Asuka walked in, bleary eyed and cursing under her breath.
She was still clutching those pieces of paper, and she looked very tired. She hadn't even bothered to comb her hair, which was sticking out every which way and lay flat on her head, a dull orangey-red.
How attractive.
She sat down at the table and smoothed out the papers. Then, in a moment of very un-Asuka-ness, she blurted out suddenly–
"Hey Shinji? Would you fall in love with someone if they sent you really nice love letters?"
He almost dropped his spoon. What!??!!? He made sure he was still on Earth. Still existing. Not a holographic image in an alternate universe. ASUKA ASKING ME THIS??! Oh my God, someone tell me I'm living in an alternate universe.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Shinji heard a voice telling him he was living in such a world and his worst fears were confirmed. But even in alternate universes, questions come with answers. So...
"Um...I wouldn't know. I never get love letters."
She smiled evilly. "That's right, Third is a failure at dating, I forgot."
"Whatever you want to think, Asuka," Shinji muttered under his breath, but devils hear everything.
"What's that supposed to mean?!? Has Third snagged himself a lucky catch? Ooh, wucky baby Third. Baby Third got himswef a wittle itty bitty girlfriend..."
If he hadn't been so hungry, the pot of boiling water he was cooking would have ended up on Asuka's face. Forget beauty and love; she was pissing him off.
Well, at the moment, anyway.
Then Asuka realized something. She didn't know who had been sending her these letters. She'd asked every guy in school. All the dorks and the nerds, all the geeks and the loners, all the "cool" kids and all the "kids who think they're cool" kids. She even barged into the boy's bathroom, trying to evade the thick layer of smoke that was in there, and demanded an explanation while coughing her head off. She'd asked every guy in schoool, every guy in school, except...
Shinji!
The nerves and gears of Asuka's brain clicked into place and typed out S-H-I-N-J-I. Of course. Who else?! Shinji was practically the answer for everything. He was the answer for Eva Unit-01. He was the answer for Asuka's stress! He was the answer to the question who is the loner? Of course, there were a lot of loners in school, Asuka knew that. She'd asked every single one that day in school. And who had but been out of the picture at that moment? Who had been MIA on the roof?
Why, the Third Child, of course.
Evil smiles come with evil laughs, but Asuka had no time for an evil laugh. Instead, her twisted face twisted even more twistedly into an evil, nerve-hacking grin. The dustmites on the floor writhed in pain as her teeth shone brightly and flies dropped dead out of the air as her evil aura grew larger and larger. Soon, the whole room was bathed in an eerie red glow.
"Oh, Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...."
Shinji stopped dead in his miso soup making and froze. He knew this voice. He cowered beneath the wrath that held it. This was the "Asuka-Has-An-Evil-Plan-That-Makes-Flies-Drop-Dead" voice. Only powerful beings would confront her in this tone of voice. And if you are nothing of the sort, then you are an idiot to confront her.
But Shinji was not, and will never be, a powerful being.
But in the face of truth, real truth, he wasn't much of a real idiot, either.
He continued to slice onions hoping the scary lady would go away. But even in alternate universes such as Shinji's, sexually related remarks come with answers, no matter how vulgar the remark be. So, with all the braveness in his heart (heh heh, suuuure), Shinji turned to face the eerie red glow.
"Y-yes, Asuka?"
She walked over to him and smiled.
Oh God, if something hard would just drop on my head, everything would be just great, Shinji thought desperately. Asuka smiled at me and a remark of humility didn't even follow it up. Oh God oh God oh God...
"Shinji," Asuka said in a....suggestive voice. "I wanna ask you something."
The onions screamed as Shinji's knife cut them harsher than intended to. The adrenaline in Shinji rose up to quite an extreme number.
"Um.....shuh, shuh, shuh, sure..."
"Well," Asuka said, leaning on the countertop. "If you really liked my breasts, would you write a love letter to them?"
It took a second for this to sink in. But in Shinji's alternate reality, seconds are very slow.
Finally...
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!" Shinji screamed. Pen-Pen squawked in his refrigerator, the knife hit the floor, narrowly missing Shinji's toe. The onions hit the ground and a colony of ants went towards it, feeding mercilessly. The nerves, clicks, gears, and wires in Shinji's brain all melted at once and a red flashing sign on the top of his head indicated he was "experiencing: mental meltdown, brain damage, extreme heart rate, extreme number of adrenaline, and 'thermal expansion' to the max."
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!??!" He screamed again, clutching his heart and stepping on a mixture of ants and onions. He did not hear them scream, however. He was screaming himself.
Asuka, however, was not in an answering mood; she was laughing her ass off. She was leaning over the counter for support, replaying Shinji's reaction in her head over and over again, one hand slapping the countertop and the other hand clutching her stomach as she doubled over.
Shinji scowled.
Yeah, right, the devils always steal your innocence, don't they?
Finally, the devil regained a poised stance, trying not to burst out into hysterics again.
"Oh God, Shinji, you don't know how funny that was. Seriously. Funniest thing I've ever done to you in my whole entire life..." She giggled.
Shinji scowled again. "Oh, sure. Right. I'm sure it was." Then he looked up. "But, um..." He turned pink. "What were you...you know....really trying to say when you asked me the--the--" He gulped. "That question?"
Asuka shook her head. "Oh, never mind. That was just a pretty clever follow-up to my mistress stroke question, don't you think?" She grinned. "Anyways, I know you really like them anyway...."
Shinji paled again, but Asuka continued on.
"I want to know....IF YOU'VE BEEN WRITING SECRET LOVE LETTERS IN THE FANTASY OF YOUR EUPHORIC MIND--TO ME--THINKING THAT I WILL SOMEHOW LOVE YOU BACK FOR IT?!?"
Shinji blinked. "Excuse me?"
She sighed, wondering how such a person like Yui Ikari could have birthed such a being, and pointed to the papers.
"These letters–these love letters. Don't give me that 'What're you talking about, Asuka?' crap. I moan about them every day and you tell me to stop because I'm annoying you. Well, here's the problem. I. Don't. Know. Who. Sent. Me. These. Letters. And I think it's you!"
(More) sweat was seriously rolling down Shinji's face as he practically murdered the tofu he was about to put in the soup (Yes, the ants had taken all the onions).
"Uh, well, uh, what if it was some other guy?"
She rolled her eyes. "I asked every guy in school, dumkopf."
Oh, did she? Shinji grimaced. She's good.
Too good, maybe.
"Well, Asuka, I, uh, I....don't believe in love letters. I think they're sexist."
Oh God, where did that come from?
Yeah, it was a lame answer, but what else could he say? Unfortunately, Asuka was already trying not to laugh–again.
No, she was laughing.
Very hard.
"Sexist!? Oh, Shinji, you've really gone....gone over the top this time. Don't give me that crap. If you didn't write it, don't give me such a lame answer. 'It's sexist,'" Asuka mocked in a voice that said whoever had said it had an IQ of 2. "Oh yeah, it's reeeaaallly sexist. I'm Third, I'm as limp as hell, and I think love letters are freakin' sexist, if I even knew what it meant!" She burst into laughter again.
"Well..." Shinji tore the seaweed in half in a rather violent way. "I didn't write it, that's all. Why would I give a letter like that to you, or to anyone, in that case?"
She scowled. "You're right. Baka Shin couldn't write a declaration of love if baka Shin tried. Anyway, don't take that whole thing–you know, that whole thing–into your puny little brain. It was nothing. Just fun stuff. Anyway, it's not like you would've known how to handle it." She ran off, smirking, obviously back to her old self. "Who am I kidding? Third's so..."
And then she started the 'Third's So...' list, first given the 1st day she'd arrived in Tokyo-3, ranging from adjectives to curse words. If you're Shinji, it's not nice to hear. But then again, it was better than admitting he wrote those letters, the very ones they'd argued about, to Asuka.
Right?
--------------------------------------
Meanwhile, in the shoe room/locker room of home room 2-A, two people were trying not to embarrass themselves to absolute and complete death.
One of them, the girl, was blushing so hard she was the color of...well, really bright red. Brighter than Asuka's plug suit, brighter than Eva Unit-02, brighter than a sea of LCL. She was also twiddling with a piece of paper that looked like it had been read many times before–it was worn and wrinkling at the edges.
The other, the one in the tracksuit, was equally as nervous, hair-racking nervous, as the girl, but he had the sense to keep his blood level down enough so his face was not as red. To keep himself from picking up a chair and throwing it across the room in a state of frenzy and nervousness, he crossed the room to where she was and slumped down beside her.
In this moment of complete silence, a blue-haired girl entered the room as quietly as air. When she saw the two--both slumped against the back of the locker room, one of them, Hikari, looking at her thumbs, her face quite red, and the other one, Touji, looking quite tenderly yet discreetly at the girl sitting next to him–she stopped, dead frozen. What she was there for, only she knew. But none of the two noticed that she had entered the room. And she had no plans to alert them.
Oh, sneaky, sneaky Rei...
"Hey," Touji said softly to Hikari. "I thought you'd left already."
"Well, no...I just...didn't feel like going home, I guess."
Touji looked away from Hikari and at her hands, which, he noticed, held a piece of paper...
He shook his head. Nah, it couldn't be it.
Could it?
"Yeah, me too."
And a hush fell once again over the room.
Touji looked at Hikari again, this time more intently than before. He gently placed a hand under her chin and brought it to his level so they were facing eye-to-eye.
He noticed her face was practically crimson now, and that just made him want to kiss her even more. She was embarrassed. But what for?
Oh, about a million reasons, Touji...
"Hikari," He said slowly, as if to annunciate every word to its best extent. "I need to tell you something."
"Oh...you...do?" She asked back, her heart beating a zillion beats a second.
His hand reached out to stroke her cheek and the bubbling in Hikari's stomach rose--but not enough, thank God.
"But..." he whispered as he brought her face closer to his. "Sometimes..."
Hikari's eyelids started to grow heavier and heavier the closer his hand brought her face towards his. She was expecting the worst, and yet she was ready for the best...
"Words don't always....work."
It was only the slightest of a whisper, so unusual for Suzuhara–him to be whispering sweet words into someone's ear–especially Hikari....
Is this luck?
And then she felt it. His lips pressing against hers. She almost melted, for God's sake, if his hand had not been clutching her shoulder, which she now noticed. What was better, him doing this or saying he loved her? Was this wrong? Was this too intimate? What if someone walked in? All the questions melted into one heap in Hikari's head, left unanswered. She didn't know and didn't care. A million beats were racing through her pulse by now, and she was so full of ecstasy she could die...
In the meantime, Touji was feeling the same. All those things he was supposed to be seeing under the darkness of his closed eyelids–fireworks, music, birds, hearts, bombs...he was seeing all of them. Colors and noise, all the colors, all the noise, mixing together in a pot of mush...then a twitch of reality slapped him in the face. What in the hell was wrong with him? What was he doing? He was kissing the class rep, for God's sakes. But it felt right. Was it supposed to be wrong?
Likewise, he didn't know, and didn't care.
Then they parted.
--------------------------------------
"Asuka," Shinji called into the living room where Asuka was flipping channels and re-reading the letters for the thirty millionth time. "Asuka, I'm going to the store."
"Why?"
It was so un-Asuka like, for Asuka to be asking such a difficult question to such a simple statement as "I'm going to the store".
"We're out of orange juice..."
She turned around on the couch and raised an eyebrow. "Did we just run out?"
He shook his head, wondering where in the hell this conversation was going. "No. There hasn't been any since last night."
She growled at him. "Well then what the hell are you waiting for, Third?!? If I can't drink orange juice, I have to drink beer. No way I'm going to end up like Misato, some drunk slob lying around with practically no clothes on. Get your butt out the door. Get two six-packs this time, okay? No wonder we ran out so fast..."
He closed the door to her mumbling and raving, silently happy the Second Child had returned to her "normal" status.
---------------------------------
The moon.
The stars.
The ocean.
The sun.
In her eyes.
Touji stared into Hikari's eyes after silently parting their kiss. She was blushing, and he bet that he was, too...argh.
Damn hormones.
"So," He said, back to a normal loud voice again. "You can see what I was trying to say."
Her jaw practically dropped and she looked up suddenly, her eyes narrowed. "That's it?!?"
Touji fell back in shock and amazement. "What...!? Whaddya mean, 'That's it'?!"
Hikari's eyes narrowed furthur.
"I mean, is that all you're going to do!? Say 'Words don't always work' and kiss me?!" Her growing aura stood directly over him, with a suggesting tone of "YOU-BETTER-DO SOMETHING-BETTER-THAN-THAT-,-SUZUHARA-,-OR ELSE YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF REJECTION!"
Ouch. She was in attack mode.
Okay, he was getting mad now. What was he supposed to have done? Got down on one knee and frikkin' proposed to her a declaration of his feelings? Give her a ring?! Kiss her feet!? Ask for her love?!
No way. He wasn't a Prince Charming.
"What the hell did you want me to do, then!?"
In an unexpected action, she burst into tears and flung her arms around him–causing him to scream violently and jump a little.
"Say you love me! Tell me you love me! Kisses don't always say the same thing you want to say, either! Do you love me? Or are you in love with me? Do you love me as a friend? Or do you love me like...you know!"
Tears ran down her cheeks as she loosened her grip on Touji. He looked at her.
"O-Okay," He said. Calming down a bit, he smiled a little and pulled her into a hug. "Aishiteru, ne? I always have. Are you happy now?"
(*aishiteru=I love you, for those who don't know.)
If it had not been such a romantic moment, she would have slapped him. But she didn't.
She smiled, exhaled with relief, and hugged him back.
"Me too," She said, the last of her tears already drying up. "Me too."
The blue-haired girl in the corner, who up until now had been rigid and silent, her eyes on both the two, suddenly felt a gush of confusion let loose in her brain.
What.... she thought hard, trying to soak everything up. ...was that?
Any normal girl would know, of course, what a declaration of love is. Any normal teenage girl would understand the delicateness and romance of the situation. But Ayanami Rei, being different, didn't know what had just happened there. Sure, she'd heard the words "I love you" before. But they never really had a meaning to Rei. Love never really had a meaning to Rei.
She was confused beyond belief. Her emotionless brain started to flood with the confusion of love and tears and all of what she'd witnessed. It hurt too much to think about.
But she had to know what in the heck this love thing was all about, and why every person seemed experienced in its field–everyone, except her.
In a rush, she ran from the room, her head aching.
Neither of the two noticed. But that's what happens when you're in love, right?
-------------------------
Shinji walked out into the Tokyo-3 sun, shielding his eyes from the rays that showed out above the clouds.
It's a nice day, he thought. Really beautiful.
He walked along the road to the grocery store, looking at the blue sky, checking to see if he had enough money, when out of the blue–just as quick as a flash–he collided with somebody.
"Ow!" He said, falling back. The person didn't say anything.
How rude, Shinji thought, rubbing his back and making sure his wallet was still there. It was. So he decided to take action.
"Hey!" He said, getting up, his hand in front of his face so he wouldn't get blinded by the bright sun. "That wasn't very–"
He stopped.
He froze.
His eyes opened wide.
For standing in front of him, hands at her sides, blue hair swishing delicately in the wind, was Rei Ayanami–looking very scared, and very hurt.
As Shinji's senses came back to normal, he gasped. "Oh! Ayanami! I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Are you hurt?"
She shook her head and rubbed her temples. "N-No," She said shakily. "I...I am just fine. I am just a little...I do not know...I feel a little....strange. I do not know this feeling. Can you tell?"
Shinji looked at her closely. Her face was paler than ever. Her hands were shaking. She was out of breath.
"I can't tell," Shinji said, wiping off the dirt from his pants. "But I can see you're a little shaky. I...I'm going to the store. To buy groceries," He smiled. "Do you want to come? Maybe I could buy you a cold drink and you'd feel better."
Now, Rei wasn't offered much in her life. A few clones, an Eva, a dad who cared more for her than his own son, and a dingy apartment. They were all weird offers, but she took them anyway, out of pure unfeelingness. But now, she was being offered a real offer. Not a "We'll offer you an Evangelion for your life, how 'bout it" kind of offer, but a "You seem kind of shaky. I'll buy you a drink at the store. Want to come?"
Rei stared at Shinji for a moment in complete shock.
Go? Go with Ikari? To the store?
Rei didn't know what to do; what expression to put on her face; what to think; what rate her heart should be beating at the moment. She was too confused. After all, she'd just seen Touji and Hikari confess their love for each other–and kiss. Rei had never seen a kiss close-up before. On TV, maybe, but that was seldom she ever watched TV. Maybe once on the street, for the people who had no shame of doing so. But she had just seen one, up close. And now, she was being offered to go with Ikari to the store.
Together!
Whatever feeling possessed Rei at the moment, she didn't know. It wasn't familiar. It was very new. But she did know she'd never experienced it before.
It just took over her.
In a flash, she lightly touched his shoulder and smiled one of her rare, half-smiles.
"Alright. I accept your offer."
Shinji did not feel uncomfortable about her hand on his shoulder. In fact, he liked it. Orange juice was getting pushed to the back of his mind. Asuka was getting pushed to the back of his mind. But in his reverie, he did not notice. He did not care.
He merely smiled. And started to walk.
----------------------------
End Note: WOO HOO!!!! I never thought I'd get this chapter done!!!! Oh my God!!! It took me FOH-EVA!!!! God, I thought that with everything I was going to die! But...
I'm alive. Thank God!
Chapter Four won't be up till AWHILE, I assure you of this. I mean, I got a chorus concert and everything. Need to sing.
But don't worry, it won't take THAT long. It'll be up by New Year's Eve, promise. Maybe even by CHRISTMAS!!! This'll be my present to you all!
Oh yes. MY BIRTHDAY IN 12 DAYS!!! (Today is December the 4th, which reminds me:)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
ASUKA LANGLEY SOHRYU.
MAY ALL YOUR WISHES, HOPES, AND DREAMS COME TRUE IN YOUR PATH ALONG LIFE.
Choose Shinji, that's my hope for you. Don't kill Rei if Shinji chooses her over you. I mean, I'd be pissed too, but you can't kill the girlfriend. No way. Bad choice...
:D
Happy Early Holidays,
ladyxkodomo
P.S. Oh, just a note. In the uploading process, I uploaded L Sharp-- you know, the sequel or accomadating story to So You Take the Bow Like This--along with chapter 3, so in the rush of this you might've missed it? If you want to read it, it's up. Just in case you don't notice. Okay! Jah! I'm gone! *disappears in a puff of pink smoke*