Delicate As Glass
Disclaimer: Evangelion and all its trademarks, characters, themes, and situations belong to the nice people at Gainax. I, however, am the creator of this fanfic about Rei and Kaworu! Hope you R&R and enjoy Oh, don't forget to review!
Promises are delicate...like glass.
Be careful what you do with them, and who you are giving them to,
Because...if you were to break a promise, it would shatter...like glass.
Be very careful not to get cut by the falling shards,
Of something that was once beautiful like that of a promise.
If one would know how cold it was outside, it would probably be Rei Ayanami, the first child of the said Evangelion Unit 00, fourteen years old. Piercing, frigid temperature dominated the western winds and deprived the apple tree its fruit. Not nearly freezing, though still cold, Rei didn't seem to notice, denying the fact that she was very, very cold.
Rei did not seem to mind the cold weather before, but now, her freezing sensation over-powered her stream of consciousness. There was also the fact that Rei did not have a proper winter coat on her, just a tattered shall she had for about a year or so. The reason for this? Ask Rei. It was her choosing.
Well, Rei's sole reason for standing at the bus stop in her school uniform with her long sleeves and a worn-out shall was a self-executed plan just for Rei herself. Rei wished and wanted to actually catch a cold, maybe if she's lucky the flu. She wanted to get cold enough to become sick without freezing into a state of anemia. Now, anyone would ask why would someone do that? Rei had a good, but personal reason why. Her school's dance was around the corner, and Rei did not want to attend, although Misato, her temporarily guardian when Gendo is absent, would make her go. Misato though that Rei needed fun events like a school dance to make her more at ease with the people around her. Rei, however, begged to differ. She did not like to be around people.
Am I that insecure? she thought to herself. Rei was now very, very, very cold. She was now beginning to feel woozy. Almost feeling to faint on the pavement, Rei signaled for a bus to drive up. One bus did so. She boarded, payed her fare, and sat in the back row to where the heater cannot touch her. No one looked at her, thus Rei was positive she was not going to that dance. I am ugly, she thought. An ugly doll, that is all.
Knowing at Misato's place that Shinji, Asuka, and Toji where hemming pants on the boys's tuxedos, and sewing flowers on the bottom of Asuka's dress, all in preparation of the dance next week. Rei wanted no part of it. She knew that if she WERE to attend th merriment, she would never be asked to dance, have a miserable time, probably stain her dress with some punch, and would rather be fighting an Angel and risking her chances of death.
Rei, secretly wanted to go and see if it would be worth the while, but she didn't want to take any chances. All of her classmates already knew Rei was a laconic, solitary, quiet girl that very seldom talked to others. A girl with a stolid face and reflective, red eyes was what Rei was looked upon as. She felt like a pariah Cinderella, like the glass slippers were a stigma for her at the dance. What would be of her prince charming? Rei didn't want to go that far...yet.
Rei let her head dangle, her eyes staring at her shoes. For a few moments, her eyes began to stare at another pair of shoes, sneakers actually, that were pure white, very attractive, but no more attractive than the actual person wearing them.
"Good afternoon, Miss Ayanami," said the person. Rei reluctantly lifted her head, her eyes, and looked upon a smiling face with the same beautiful red eyes that she had.
"Hello, Kaworu-kun," Rei answered softly with no feeling in her voice. Rei had a good sense of what everyone was like, personality-wise or characteristic-wise, but she was short on what to make of Kaworu, the fifth child who replaced Asuka when she was hospitalized for so long. Rei found that she could not just ignore Kaworu's gentle, angelic smile. No person smiled at her like that before, so she had to answer to him, it was only fair. "Are you on your way home?"
"I am, yes," he said. "Miss Ayanami..."
"Umm...you can call me Rei, I would not mind. Call me Rei," Rei said shyly.
"Alright," Kaworu smiled. "Rei, you are shivering quite vigorously. Are you cold?"
"No," Rei lied, "I'm not cold, just..." Rei thought quickly, "nervous."
"Nervous? Nervous about what?"
"About...an assignment." Whew! Rei slipped through that question.
"Oh. Is there anything I can help you with, Rei?"
"No, no thank-you, Kaworu-kun. Thank-you anyway, but I'm afraid I do not have anything that others can help with." Rei was on a roll with this pretend assignment deal. Rei was uneasy talking to boys just as well as girls, but Kaworu did not make her uneasy, just very stiff in her own shell. Kaworu was going to the dance along with Shinji, Asuka, and Toji; however, the question if Rei was going did haunt Kaworu's mind although he did not want to ask her since she did not come right out and say that she was going.
"Rei, are you sure you are feeling well? You seem very pale. Are you ill?" Kaworu asked bending down a little to get a better look at Rei's face. "Rei? Are you okay?"
"Yes. I'm fine," Rei said in a half reassuring voice.
Mission complete. Rei was now getting sick, so she did not have to go to that dance, even if Misato says she should go. Besides, Rei didn't even have a date to bring. Toji was going with Hikari, Asuka was escorted by Kaji ("Don't do anything funny to her!" Misato warned), and Kaworu was going with Shinji. Rei was the black sheep this time...er...again. Rei wanted at least someone to be her date, she even would settle for Pen-Pen. Alas, Rei kept telling herself that it was just another dance, and she should not worry herself about it.
"Rei, it is a good thing that we are both heading home, because you should get to bed right away. You are not feeling well, I can tell. I do not want to see you sick, not now, not with the dance next week."
Rei froze at that last statement. She held her breath. Kaworu looked worried. Rei's eyes lowered back to their shoes and dropped into a state of awkward silence. Kaworu wanted to apologize if he said something he shouldn't have, but he kept his tongue. He knew now that Rei was not worried about an assignment, but the dance. Kaworu, though, still believed that Rei did have an assignment but it was not that important to her than the dance itself.
The bus stopped two streets from Misato's apartment; Rei and Kaworu stepped off the bus together and began to walk home. Nothing was more nerve-wracking than the tensions than the no-talking silence and stillness, but in reality to Kaworu and Rei, both were equally as bad as the other.
They both kept walking in the cold, as Rei's shivering returned. She was playing with fire now. She was going to end up missing more than a week of school if she didn't get into something warm. The shall did nothing for her anymore. Rei thought she was some kind of masochist martyr. Something disrupted her train of thought when she was not as cold as before. Kaworu was now shivering a little because he had put his coat over Rei so she would not get more ill than she was already heading for.
Rei's eyes grew as she looked at Kaworu. He held his hands to his mouth to try to warm them up. He only had on his white T-shirt from his uniform and his long pants. Nothing more, nothing less. Rei felt this warm feeling, not from having more layers of clothing, but in her heart. She was not used to this much kindness from a single being. The breeze picked up, the two teens shivered more, but they did get home before the stronger winds blew. It was an unusual time for Rei; she was never treated like that from another person, except from Commander Ikari and Shinji, but that was on duty and fighting the Angels. This was real life.
Once inside, Rei wanted to smile, but she gave a painful cough instead. Rei was now sick. The dance was now killed from her picture. No dress for her, no punch stain, and no humiliation. The solitary, caged bird would choose to sing alone. Lady Cinderella would continue to sweep without a word.