Disclaimer

All characters and Evangelions belong to Gainax. And I'm typing this to waste space so that my story will look longer.

After a long absence, here is the next chapter!

More space wasting

Even more space wasting

You getting sick of this aren't you?

So without further ado, I present to you

Winning Her Heart In 7 Days

The Cruise – Day 3

"Urrrg…" Kaji groaned when he regained consciousness. "Where the hell am I?"

The former spy tried to determine his location but that small nugget of information stubbornly refused to surface. He then tried a glance around the room but his vision was still blurry.

"What have I gotten myself into this time?"

Then it hit him.

Asuka! Misato! Accusations of infidelity!

Given a choice, he would rather take on the whole of NERV and SEELE than be cornered by these two women. At least he stood a fighting chance with the two organizations.

"But there is still hope right?" Kaji thought. "After all, I fainted during the confrontation. Maybe this is the medical ward."

A faint stirring could be heard in the background. "Ah, maybe a cute nurse is here to check on my status." Kaji hoped.

The poor guy was right to a certain extent. He WAS in a hospital ward. But life had a funny way of making us miserable.

"Misato wake up! Mr. Kaji's awake!"

"Oh shit!"

Misato gave a huge yawn as she awoke. "Rea…really?" Then as she reached full consciousness, she quickly rounded the distance between her chair and Kaji's bed. "You have a lot of explaining to do mister." The Major deadpanned.

Kaji was sweating buckets by then. "I uh… you said so in the past that you didn't love me so I thought…"

He was cut off by a slap from Misato.

"You men are so insensitive! Once you're single you take it as if it's a ticket to fool around." Then drawing a shuddering breathe she delivered her main point. "Don't you know how much you'd hurt the people who love you?"

Kaji's mouth dropped in awe when he heard these words. "Mi… Misato-chan, I… never knew."

Misato gave him an icy look. "Given our past, could I have told you this?"

"You could have. Who cares about pride anyways?" Kaji argued, earning him another slap.

"It's not always about you Ryoji." Misato said coolly. "Besides, I have tender feelings for other people as well."

Kaji rubbed his sore cheek while replying, "Bullshit. If you do, why are you still single after all these years?"

To his surprise, Misato actually blushed. "I uh… rather not talk about it."

Even Asuka was curious now. "Come on Misato! Tell us!"

Finally, the urge to publicly humiliate Kaji won over her embarrassment. She leaned towards Kaji's ear and whispered, "I find Shinji manlier than you could ever be." As Kaji's eyes widened, she continued, "He's better looking in a boyish way as well. Don't tell Asuka ok?" She ended off mischievously.

"Tell me what?" Asuka demanded.

"Oh it's nothing, right Kaji-kun?"

However, the spy was too far gone into his own world to hear another word she said. All that reverberated around his head was, "Curse you Shinji Ikari!"

On the deck of the ship, Shinji sneezed.

Rei looked at her boyfriend, concerned. "Are you feeling cold Shinji-kun?' She had earlier decided that Shinji's idea of getting a suntan was a bad one. Not only was she uncomfortable with being under the sun, the thought of Shinji being half naked under the watchful eyes of hundreds of attractive females made her uncomfortable as well.

"I'm ok Rei-chan; someone must have been scolding me." He joked.

Rei was unconvinced. She decided to check personally to see if he was ok. "I would not be at ease until I have assessed your health by myself."

Shinji gave a small sigh as he let Rei feel his forehead to check for fever. He knew that once she made up her mind on something, nothing short of an Angel attack would stop her; and the Angels were no more.

Finally, Rei decided that Shinji's slightly higher temperature was due to him being under the sun for more than an hour. As she proceeded to stand up and head for the shade of her beach umbrella, she felt a pair of strong hands pinning her down.

"Rei-chan, I'd like to hold you for awhile."

The albino blushed at their contact. "Shinji-kun, you are very bold today." Nevertheless, she did not try to break away from his affectionate embrace.

Shinji also gave a slight blush as he heard her words. "Well, I uh… I just want to be near you and I…"

Rei cut him off with a tender kiss. "I understand. I do not blame you."

The boy just stared stupidly at his girlfriend, awed by her beauty and understanding. Finally, the only coherent sentence he could come out with was, "That was our second kiss..."

Rei nodded in agreement as she recalled the events leading up to their first real kiss the previous night.

(Flashback)

The restaurant in which dinner was served was perfect. Not only do they make excellent vegetarian food, the ambience was romantic as well.

The quiet couple however, ate their dinner in almost complete silence. With both parties doing nothing more than stealing furtive glances at each other.

Then remainder of the gang appeared. Touji, Asuka and Misato entered the restaurant making a huge commotion and totally destroying the atmosphere.

Even a quiet person like Rei could not help but say to her boyfriend, "I think they should be thrown out of the restaurant."

Touji was the first to spot the quiet couple. "Hey you two! Now that you are together you forget about your friends?"

"Of course not!" Shinji replied feeling slightly offended. "We just love each other so much that we want to spend more time alone that's all."

It was only by looking at Rei's flushed face that Shinji realized that he had said that out loud.

"WOOHOO!" Asuka and Touji whooped. "Someone's getting a backbone!"

The shy couple could only blush as their three 'tormentors' bombarded them with lewd questions.

Finally Misato asked, "So, have you guys kissed yet?"

Shinji started when he heard that statement. He looked at Rei with flushed face. "Um… we haven't yet, unless you count yesterday when she gave me the mouth-to-mouth." The boy said in hope that the three people would leave him and Rei in peace.

No such luck.

"Aha!" Misato said in an exuberant tone. "How about kissing her now?"

"What!" Shinji squeaked in shock.

"Keesiing heerrr…" Misato repeated slowly, teasing the boy. "Rei you'd want him to kiss you right?"

The blue haired girl gave a barely noticeable nod while staring at the floor with her cheeks fiercely red.

Shinji could not refuse his girlfriend and so finally relented. However…

"Rei-chan lets do this somewhere more private." He said in a moment of inspiration.

The girl in question eagerly nodded her head and took Shinji's hand as he led her on deck, ignoring their three 'tormentors' cries of dismay at not being able to witness this tender moment.

The kiss itself was tame as most first kisses are. Shinji merely leaned forward and touched his lips towards his girlfriend's. However, to Rei, it was breathtaking. When they broke off just seconds later, she felt her heat palpitating and her breathing labored.

"My body is acting as if it had just endured a rigorous workout." The girl thought. "But everything about this action felt right."

Shinji seemed to sense her thought and held her lightly. "It's normal to feel nervous Rei-chan."

Rei nodded and rested her head against his chest. "I will get used to it soon."

(Present time)

"Rei-chan, are you ok?" Shinji asked when he saw his girlfriend staring off into space.

"I'm fine." She replied simply. Shinji thought that she was getting impatient and wanted to return to the shade of her umbrella and therefore proceeded to break the embrace. To his surprise, Rei turned and snuggled deeper into his embrace.

The boy of course, could not help but feel aroused since he had a beautiful girl in a one-piece swimming costume snuggled up to him in the most intimate way possible. Some of his blood inadvertently got diverted to the lower regions of his body, giving the girl that was in his arms a most unexpected poke.

"Shinji-kun, you are hurting me." Rei said after a few seconds.

"Um… I'm sorry I'll just move into a more comfortable position." Shinji replied guiltily.

The two teens then let sleep overcome them after Shinji positioned his groin area slightly further away from Rei, ignoring the looks of the other passengers onboard the cruise.

(Evening)

A very sun burnt Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari entered the restaurant for dinner, earning the taunting of Misato and company.

"I heard someone slept together just now… care to elaborate?" Misato asked.

"Not only that! I heard they acted VERY intimately." Touji added.

Asuka grinned at the blushing couple, whose sun burnt skin made them look even more bashful than usual, and said, "Good job you guys! I knew you would do it sooner or later!"

"We did not do it!" Shinji argued weakly. "We just fell asleep under the sun. You shouldn't believe in these rumors!"

Misato opened her mouth to retort when Rei suddenly spoke up. "Shinji-kun and I are very hungry. If we are unable to eat in peace over here, we could always order room service."

"Well… I… ok then." Misato finished lamely. Inwardly, she vowed never to get on Rei's bad side.

The night passed relatively peacefully for the quiet couple, with Asuka and Touji's occasional bickering interrupting the otherwise tranquil atmosphere. However, they would not want to have it any other way.

When it was finally time to get to bed, Shinji unwillingly walked Rei back to her room.

"Goodnight Rei-chan..." He said as he shuffled his feet. He did not want to part with her even for a second. But he knew that he had no choice.

"Goodnight Shinji-kun." Rei replied. As she saw Shinji turning to leave, she suddenly called out. "You have not done the last requirement for a date!"

Surprised, Shinji asked, "What's that?"

"A goodnight kiss."

"Oh yeah, silly me." Shinji laughed. He then leaned forward to give Rei a peck on the lips when he was suddenly pulled into a deep kiss.

When they finally broke the kiss, Rei thought, "Asuka's advice was right."

Out loud however, she simply said, "That was nice Shinji-kun. See you tomorrow."

The boy nodded happily.

"Kiss number three was the best so far." The both of them thought as Rei reluctantly closed the door.

TO BE CONTINUED

Another short chapter but hey, I just came out of the army and have no more ideas at this moment. Let's pray hard that I'll be able to update soon yeah?

Please read and review! Thanks!