Disclaimer: see chapter 1.

Folded Wings

By Random1377

Chapter 9

Shinji sat sprawled at his school desk with one arm stretched out in front of him and the other folded under his chest, resting his cheek on his shoulder as he stared at the far wall. Kensuke and Touji had both finished their lunches early and gone off to ogle the girls at the swimming pool – a pastime Shinji had not found enjoyable since being caught staring at Rei one afternoon.

As a result, the Third had found himself back in the classroom by himself, listening to the idle conversations of the few students who had not taken advantage of the pleasant breeze outside.

To say that Rei was the furthest thing from his mind would be an exaggeration, as anything related to EVA tended to take up a lot of his thought processes… but in all fairness he had not been thinking of the blue-haired girl much, as she had not spoken to him a lot since he had left her high and dry in the elevator that day.

So when she spoke his name, sounding close enough to tap him on the shoulder, Shinji very nearly jumped out of his seat.

"A-Ayanami," he stammered, flushing brightly as he found the girl standing patiently by the side of his desk. "Er… hi…"

Why do I always feel cornered when I talk to her? he thought guiltily, keeping his eyes averted as the First opened her mouth to speak. We used to be… kind of friends, almost – now I want to run away every time she looks at me…

This feeling intensified as Rei quietly asked, "Do you have plans for dinner this evening?"

"Dinner?" Shinji repeated uncomfortably, trying not to notice that several curious stares were directed his way. "Umm… I'll probably cook for Asuka and Misato, so…"

"I see," Rei nodded. "Are you available tomorrow?"

"I'll probably cook for them then, too."

Rei considered this. "Is there… any day this week you are free…?"

"I d-don't think so…"

"I understand."

Giving him a polite bow, Rei returned to her desk.

She WAS asking me out, Shinji thought with some amazement. He blushed, staring down at his desk as he realized just how cold he must have seemed. It's not my fault, he told himself reasonably, it's like Ritsuko said: I'm not adept at living. Oh, wait… that was Rei she was talking about – but still, I'm not good at this kind of stuff…

Shinji blinked as he noticed a chilly silence emanating from the desks closest to him. Cautiously, he raised his head… but he quickly lowered it again as he found the girls nearest him regarding him with open scorn while the boys just shook their heads in amazement.

"Harsh, Ikari," one of the boys muttered as he turned back to his lunch. "Real harsh…"

What was I supposed to do? Shinji wanted to scream. She scares me!

His blush intensified at this thought.

…it had never entered his conscious mind before.

I mustn't run… oh screw it…

Pushing away from his desk, Shinji rose to his feet and walked back to where Rei was staring out the window. "Umm, Ayanami?" he asked tentatively.

"Hm?"

Gathering himself, Shinji said, "I th-think I could probably do something on Thursday… if you want…"

Rei slowly turned to regard him. "You do not have obligations that day?"

Shinji scratched the back of his neck, painfully aware of the judgmental stares of the others in the room. "I can cook something early," he said slowly, "or they can get take out or something, I guess…"

"I see," Rei said quietly. "Then… will you join me for dinner…?"

"Sure," Shinji said, trying to sound firm… though he was sure that his knees were knocking together, "you've… moved, though, right? I don't know where you live now."

Rei opened her notebook, carefully tearing out a piece of paper as she replied, "I am close to Horaki's house now. I will write you the address." Placing her pencil on the paper, the First Child belatedly added, "I am staying with Mister Kaji now."

Shinji nodded. "Oh, I s-" he cut himself off. "Kaji?"

"Yes."

"I… I didn't know you were living with Kaji…"

Rei finished writing her new address. "It is a new arrangement," she replied, folding the paper in half and offering it to her thunderstruck coworker. "Is that… an issue?"

"No, no!" Shinji said quickly. "I just… I didn't know."

"You did not ask."

"Er… right…"

Taking the directions and slipping them into his pocket, Shinji found that he was suddenly bursting with a million questions. How had this happened? When had she moved in? Why Kaji? What did the Commander think? Was Kaji the one who had bought Rei's expensive new clothes? Did Rei pay rent? Had Kaji seen her naked, too?

What ended up coming out, however, was a simple, mumbled, "See you Thursday, I guess…"

Rei nodded, keeping her eyes on him as he gave her a quick bow. "I am looking forward to it."

"R-right…"

Nearly stumbling as he turned around too fast, Shinji hurried back to his desk, barely even noticing that the faces all around had gone from disgusted to approving and – in some cases – envious.

He was far too caught up in his own thoughts to pay attention to the reactions of others.

Thursday he would be dining with Rei.

…less than two minutes after he was back in his seat, the Third Child was already thinking of excuses for why he would not be able to make it.

( 0 0 0 )

Rei watched fixedly as vapor twisted and coiled around the super-cooled surface, rising in tiny wisps to dissipate in the warm air, or curving back in on themselves to caress the objects held in the huge container, flowing like breath around the sharp, angled edges. She tilted her head to one side, her eyes following a particularly long tendril of steam as a hand reached into the container, breaking the lazy equilibrium within as carelessly as a child waving away a fly.

"That is a very unhealthy selection, Mister Kaji…"

Pulling a small stack of frozen dinners out of the freezer case and tossing them into the cart, Kaji yawned, "What are you, my mother?"

Rei glanced into the cart, shaking her head in wonder as she surveyed the pile of artificially flavored, textured, and scented foodstuffs her associate had selected. "Is there… anything nutritionally sound in there?"

"Sure!" Kaji said brightly. "Cardboard."

"Ah."

Kaji set the cart in motion, idly glancing into the freezers as they passed in hopes of finding something even worse for him than what he had already taken. "Rei," he said, smiling with satisfaction as he lifted a large, frozen chocolate cake out of the freezer, "life is too short not to enjoy it – especially when it comes to food." Arching an eyebrow, he dropped the cake into the cart. "You're not going to feed Shinji bean sprouts and cabbage or something gross like that, are you?"

"No," Rei said simply, "I have observed that he enjoys eating steak and rice."

"But you hate meat."

"No, I dislike meat… more specifically, I dislike eating meat. I have no issues with cooking it for someone else."

Shaking his head, Kaji mumbled, "Wish I'd known that the day you moved in… I would have had you in an apron faster than you can say Iron Chef."

Choosing to shift the topic from cooking, Rei said, "Will you be joining us, Mister Kaji?"

"I think that would make things awkward," Kaji said dryly, "then again, maybe not… the two of you eating alone is probably the most awkward thing I can think of. Depends on if I'm working or not, and, you know, if Maya's not – hey, that gives me an idea… no, wait, that wouldn't work… never mind…"

Frowning faintly as Kaji scooped a tub of ice cream into the cart, Rei asked, "What was your idea?"

"Eh, doesn't matter," Kaji replied. "I was going to say that maybe we could make it like a double date and have Maya come over too, but I don't think she'd be comfortable."

"Why not?"

Kaji, much to Rei's relief, finally turned out of the frozen foods aisle.

"Because she's still really nervous about 'dating a guy from work,'" he said quietly. "I think she would be worried that Shinji might tell someone about us."

"I see."

What Kaji kept to himself, of course, was the fact that he did everything he could to fuel this fear, encouraging Maya to believe that them dating would be considered wholly inappropriate by everyone from the Commander on down to the technicians Maya sometimes ate lunch with… though the coup de grace in this tapestry of mental manipulation had been the offhanded mention that Ritsuko would probably think it was tactless to be seen with a man you work with.

The irony of this stroke of tactical genius was not lost on Kaji, who – like Rei – knew far more about the goings on at NERV than anyone would have guessed.

She DOES look up to that woman a bit too much, he thought as they turned down the produce aisle. No wonder there's rumors all over the place.

Naturally, Kaji himself had been key in planting and perpetuating these rumors – never in such a way that they could be traced back to him, but always sowing just enough of the truth into things to cause eyebrows to raise every time Maya smiled at her sempai or shook her hand after a hard day's work.

…his rumor spinning was so good that sometimes Kaji himself began to wonder if there wasn't more than simple hero-worship going on.

"May I ask you a question, Mister Kaji?"

"Well, I don't seem to be able to stop you lately," Kaji said evenly. "Sure, Rei… what is it?"

"I was wondering," the First Child murmured, slowing her pace as they reached the end of the aisle, "what your stance is on dating more than one person?"

Kaji chuckled. "You, my dear First Child, lack tact," he observed, stopping the cart and turning his full attention to the blue-haired girl, "but since you feel like obscuring your motivations, I'll bite. My stance is that unless you're married, or have an agreement to be exclusive… you should assume that anyone you're seeing is also seeing four or five other people – even if it's not true. That way you avoid having your heart broken if you find out they've been sleeping with your best friend." Suddenly, a nauseated expression crossed Kaji's face. "Do I need to go over…'safety' with you? God, please tell me I don't…"

Pursing her lips, Rei murmured, "I am aware of the risks of unprotected premarital sex, Mister Kaji… those topics are well covered in our textbooks."

"Thank God…"

"…though I will admit I find the topic interesting."

Kaji turned away, pushing the cart towards the butcher's section and carefully avoiding Rei's eyes. "Just don't find it interesting on my couch…"

"Understood."

Risking a glance at the girl out of the corner of his eye, Kaji went back to the prior topic. "So, is there another guy you're interested in besides Shinji?" he wondered. "Is that why you were asking that? Or was there another reason…?"

Gazing into the meat case, Rei absently replied, "If you are concerned that I will tell Miss Ibuki of your relationship with Major Katsuragi, please allow me to assure you that it is neither my place, nor my business… but to answer your question directly, yes, there are others I find myself attracted to besides Ikari."

"You gonna name names?" Kaji wondered, mildly impressed that Rei already knew about Misato… though in all honesty, he had not truly tried to hide it from her.

Just Maya.

"That," Rei replied softly, keeping her eyes focused on the meat, "is neither your place, nor your business…"

"Ooo, feisty," Kaji mused, folding his arms as Rei pointed several cuts of meat out to the butcher. "Fair enough, fair enough… ask you no questions, you'll tell me no lies, right?"

"I did not agree to that…"

Kaji laughed… but he failed to notice that Rei was not smiling.

Accepting the steaks from the butcher with a polite bow, Rei set them in the cart and continued up the aisle. As they turned down the cookie aisle, and Kaji selected five varieties, the First Child ventured a question.

"Why are you buying so much food, Mister Kaji…?"

"Well, Miss Ayanami," Kaji said airily, grabbing yet another type off cookie, "it's like I said – life is too short not to enjoy it to the fullest, and I've recently come to the conclusion that there are some things, like food, that I haven't been spending enough time appreciating."

Rei glanced into the cart, frowning faintly as she scanned the mountains of horribly unhealthy foodstuffs. "It seems to me that the items you have selected would shorten your lifespan considerably," she observed. "Would it not be more prudent to eat things that are healthy, and thereby live longer, allowing more time to enjoy them?"

Kaji stared at her for a full minute with a bland expression on his face. "You know," he said coolly, "I shouldn't answer that just on the grounds that most middle-school kids wouldn't even understand what you just said." He waved a hand as Rei opened her mouth. "Yeah, yeah, that's just the way you talk, I should get over it – anyway…" he lowered his voice, "I'm not terribly worried about extending my lifespan, Miss Ayanami."

"You speak like a condemned man."

His lips quirking up at the corners, Kaji whispered, "Well you know the old expression, don't you? The most dangerous type of person is the one with nothing to lose…"

Rei met his eyes steadily. "Are you dangerous, Mister Kaji…?"

Pausing in the middle of the aisle, Kaji laid a hand gently on the top of Rei's head.

"Not to you…"

Though she knew this sentiment may be false, Rei still found her cheeks coloring.

They did not speak further as they continued their shopping.

Continued…

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