I do not own Evangelion. All characters and other affiliated materials are the property of Gainax
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As the luggage car slowly pulled out of her line of sight Asuka found herself suddenly and irreparably torn. At once she felt the urge to put on the most risqué articles of clothing that she owned and walk right through the lobby and jump into the swimming pool, and at the same time felt like locking her hotel room door, turning off all of the lights, and wrapping herself so completely in the coverings of her bed that no one would ever be able to find her again.
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"You're a late un, mon."
It struck Shinji Ikari that he believed himself to have a rather firm grasp of the English language, and that the man behind the desk before him was clearly using words that he had never in fact heard before.
"Excuse me?"
The man laughed, his dark dread locks swinging in a brief backward motion at the movements of his neck.
"You're roomeh iz threeohseven on da terd floor."
Shinji realized he must have been staring because the man was giving him a strange look.
"Ello? You home mon?"
The man in black behind him grunted and Shinji grabbed the room key from the outstretched hand before him.
"Right. Thankyou."
"Shure. Someunil be down in a moment for ya bags."
The man in the suit, who also had a gun (Shinji had begun to notice this more and more), steered Shinji by his shoulders to the right.
"Elevator."
Shinji pressed the white button with the black arrow on his left to signal to the contraption that he wanted to go upwards. A few seconds later there was a "ding" noise to signify its successful arrival and Shinji and his apparent bodyguard stepped into the open compartment. Shinji began to reach out his hand to hold the door as another group of people sauntered toward the elevator but the man in the suit shoved Shinji's hand down lightly and pressed the "door close" button. An awkward silence fell on the stationary car. In fact, now that he thought about it, his entire trip from Japan had been one gigantic awkward silence. The third child estimated that he had been on various planes for at least a good 18 hours not counting downtime. And whenever there was downtime they always landed in a private terminal with no one but more men in suits. Speaking of men in suits, he guessed that the man standing behind him was the third bodyguard he had had so far. It was difficult to guess with any degree of accuracy however because they all had looked so similar. The only thing Shinji really knew was that he was probably somewhere in the Caribbean from the accent of the man behind the check in desk and the blazing tropical heat that hung damply all around him, even at 1 AM. The man in the suit grunted again.
"Um, what floor was it?" Shinji asked, realizing that he had been staring at the door controls for more time than what was probably considered normal.
"The third floor sir."
"Thankyou."
"You don't have to thank me."
"Okay."
"Push the button sir."
"Oh right. Sorry"
Shinji pushed the button and felt gravities elevated tug as they started to move upward.
"Your apologies are unnecessary."
Shinji shrugged and stared at the steel door in front of him, wishing the slit would hurry up and open so he could get away from the soulless man behind him and finally get some sleep. When the door opened they stepped out and proceeded down the hallway 30 feet and to the left. Room 307.
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Rei slowly unscrewed the lids to the various amber bottles on the top of her dresser. It wasn't so hard to remember anymore, now it was like a routine. It was like she had always been doing it. Two pink's, a blue and a half, and one white pill with a green stripe. She filled up a glass of water from the bathroom sink and began to down her pills in the order that she had laid them out. When she had finished with the green striped one she had begun to feel a little nauseous from the glass of water in her empty stomach. She tried her best to ignore the queasiness and began removing her clothes as she moved her way to the bed. She neatly folded back the comforter and sheets and slid between the covers, resting her head sideways on the pillow. She could feel the water sloshing around inside of her as the pills began to absorb in her system. She closed her eyes knowing that everything would be much better in the morning.
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Toji motioned for the bellhop to return to his station as he hefted his two suitcases up onto his shoulders, his mind amplifying the tiny "whirs" and "clicks" emanating from his left arm and leg. Most girls, most people, told him that you could barely even hear them, and even then wouldn't know if you weren't trying to hear them in the first place. Toji never quite believed them, and no matter what they said he could always hear the minutiae of their workings.
Toji pressed the button for the elevator as his eyes slowly slid leftward to follow the figure of a woman who had passed him on her way to the front desk. He whistled slightly as the doors opened and he stepped inside.
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"Excuse me but is there a room here registered to Shinji Ikari?" Asuka asked.
The man had a pained expression on his face.
"I'm so sorry but I'm really not allowed to say."
"Oh. That's alright then."
Asuka turned around and headed back towards the elevator.
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"All of that and you can't even fall asleep. I must be crazy."
Shinji rolled over onto his side and turned on the bedside lamp.
"And now you're even talking to yourself."
Shinji glanced at the phone on the table beside the lamp and then noticed a laminated card with the different levels of the hotel printed on it.
"Pool on the top floor?"
Shinji debated with himself for a few moments.
"Why not? Might as well check it out."
Shinji grabbed his bathing suit and then a towel out of the bathroom and searched briefly for his roomkey before he found it on top of the television. He spun around and quickly walked the steps to his door and then opened it and entered the hallway. The elevator was about 4 rooms down from his and he continued his stride until he reached it, pressing the red up button firmly. He heard the ding noise, watched the doors open, and stepped inside of the car.
"Well aren't you going to say something?" Asuka asked.
"What floor?"
"What?" She said, her features scrunching up in disbelief.
"What floor do you want to go to?" Shinji clarified.
"Oh, um…" Asuka trailed off, obviously flustered, "Six. But I…it should go there automatically. I mean, I already pushed it once."
Shinji pressed the button for the sixth floor for good measure and then the button for the top floor. He took a step backward and stood shoulder to shoulder with the second child, their faces staring forward at the elevator door. To Asuka, the silence felt like hours upon hours falling away to nowhere.
"Trying not to stare Ikari?" the sexy, alluring tone of the temptress in her voice.
Shinji scoffed.
"I'm sorry Asuka, were you putting on a show?" he retorted.
"So I see you still like to apologize."
"And I see you still like to play games."
"With you? Hardly."
"Then why are you wearing that ridiculous outfit?"
Shinji eyed her choice of attire. It was hard enough to miss Asuka as it was. Her figure was still curvier than any he had seen in his life, her hair a deep auburn fire, legs long and flawless, and her breasts…there was no reason for her to be wearing the outfit she had chosen, it was easy enough to notice her chest all on its own.
"So I guess you noticed after all," Asuka said, "That's just like you Shinji. Always looking at what's on display but never going inside the store."
Shinji coughed loudly as the elevator hit the sixth floor.
"Here's your stop."
"Changed my mind. I've Decided I want to go for a swim."
Shinji shrugged and was about to say "but you don't have a bathing suit" before he stopped himself. He pressed the door close button and let himself lean against the back of the elevator car. Shiny realized he had been holding his breath and decided to let it out.
"Nervous?" Asuka asked.
"About the trial? A little bit. I've tried to put the past behind me, you know? I don't really want to bring it all up again."
"That's not what I meant."
"Huh?"
Asuka smirked.
"You just let out a deep breath that's all. It made it seem like you were nervous."
"Oh," Shinji realized what she had meant, "No I'm not nervous. Why would I be?"
Asuka shrugged, the smirk growing larger.
"Well it's just that a lot of guys are intimidated by attractive women."
The ding finally sounded as the elevator car hit the top floor. The two former pilots stepped out into the warm night.
Shinji chuckled slightly, but felt unsure of himself in the process, which only made the laughter sound like nervous laughter in the end. This made Asuka laugh too.
"We sound like fourteen year olds again, Shinji. Still pretending like were all grown up."
Shinji walked over to the edge of the building to gaze down at the grounds below.
"I don't really remember us ever laughing together Asuka."
"Hmm. Well maybe you're right. Its funny how things kind of fade away isn't it? So much happened…sometimes it's tough for me to remember if there were any good times at all."
Shinji walked back to wear Asuka sat by the pool.
"Good times? I'm sure there were a few," he ventured, "but I don't think we ever really got along if that's what you meant."
"Yah, I don't think we ever really got along either. But to be fair you were more introverted than anyone I had ever met. You really never talked unless I forced you too."
"I do seem to recall some forcing. I don't think I liked that very much, at all actually."
"Of course you didn't. That was the point. If you had enjoyed it you never would have said anything."
Shinji felt his lips curl into a slight smile but looked downward into the water to keep Asuka from seeing. It felt good to be talking about the past, even though what they were speaking about so lightly were some of the most painful moments in his life.
"You were a real bitch Asuka."
"Well jesus Shinji, why don't you tell me how you really feel."
Asuka shook her head.
"I'm sorry. I felt like I've needed to say that for about six years now."
"Well I probably deserved it. But I only acted like a bitch because you were always such a little perv."
"Oh, right," Shinji said, a smile of disbelief in his tone.
Asuka laughed.
"Well it's true. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to live with a boy your own age at fourteen? Not to mention how pretty I was, am. I always felt like you were staring."
Asuka yawned, stretching her arms above her head and arching her back, her breasts thrust out and emphasized by the curve in her spine.
"Well sometimes it's just nice to get certain things off your chest," She said.
At the word "chest" Shinji realized what was going on and quickly pulled his eyes away from the second child's slightly visible nipples.
"Well maybe I wasn't staring," Shinji said, doing his best to continue the string of conversation that Asuka had tried to end with her yawn maneuver, "Did you ever stop to consider that?"
Asuka laughed as she finished her exaggerated yawn.
"I don't think I really wanted to give you a chance at the time. I considered myself pretty far out of your league."
"League? League has nothing to do with it. I just wanted you to be nicer," Shinji said, his tone somewhat exasperated.
"And I just wanted you to stop being such a little weirdo. And what do you mean league had nothing to do with it? Shinji you wanted to get with me from the moment you saw me."
"I can't believe you just said that."
"What? Shinji it's not like it isn't true or something."
"How would you know if it was or wasn't?"
"Oh c'mon. Look at me for Christ sakes. I don't mean to sound stuck up or anything, but lets be serious here. You'd never met something with so much talent and brains filling out a figure this perfect before," Asuka concluded, motioning downward with her hand from her neckline to her upper thighs.
Shinji stared forward into the light blue depths of the pool. He wanted to say something; to put her in her place for being such a snob. Something inside him told him that he might have too, had what she said not been so extremely close to the truth. So instead Shinji made a semi-disgusted "pff" noise that Asuka interpreted as denial of her speech, but was actually just some of Shinji's frustration with himself boiling over into an audible format. Shinji stood up from the smooth concrete and began to walk towards where he had set down his towel and bathing suit earlier.
"I'm going for a swim."
Shinji picked up his suit and looked around for a changing room briefly before it dawned on him that there wasn't one. Asuka stood from where she had been sitting beside him at the pool and walked around to the opposite side from Shinji.
"There's no changing room," Shinji said aloud.
"Well I won't look if you don't," Asuka said as she began to remove her dress.
"Uh…are you just going to go in with your lingerie on?"
Asuka laughed.
"You sound disappointed."