Second chapter as requested by Chad Commander.


Asuka couldn't keep the grin off her face. Which might have been worrisome in most other situations. She'd always had to make an effort to hide her true feelings because people would take her showing her teeth the wrong way, smiling or otherwise. But not now. Shinji didn't seem to mind her deadly mouth daggers, in fact he seemed to find them cute.

Asuka wasn't sure if it was because he was sweet or dumb, but seeing him respond to her smile with one of his own she decided to go with sweet.

It didn't matter. The sky was clear, the air fresh, and she was just enjoying this opportunity to stretch her powerful legs with some nice company.

Shinji was having a great day. No chores today until dinner, shopping was all done, and he was spending his afternoon with an amazing girl!

He looked up at her grinning face besides him and met her shockingly blue eyes. He smiled back. He couldn't help it, her happy face was adorable. The way her eye ridges crinkled under her horns, her little red horn clips contrasting the big auburn patch running from the top of her head to her back, her big grin showing of her many (many) pearly white teeth; it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

"Graaaaa..." Asuka said, trailing off.

"Soooo...?" Shinji echoed her, wondering where she was going.

"Rah grah grr?"

"Yeah, I'm studying music theory at Tokyo U," he said.

"Rargh?! Grhha rhg rha?" She asked, turning to face him.

"Uh, yeah," Shinji blushed, "I play the cello, a little bit."

"Grah?"

"Since I was five. I just, never got told to stop. I don't know if I'm really any good."

Asuka stomped a little. "Grhegra gra, Raga."

"I guess. Th-thank you," he said.

Asuka raised her snout up a little and closed her eyes with an exaggeratedly snobbish gesture. "Grah rah ragra raw gr," she casually waved her tiny arm.

Shinji fave brightened, though his blush only got deeper. "S-sure!" He said, "I'd love to play for you some time.

Asuka opened one eye to look down at her companion. Upon seeing his blush she couldn't hold back the grin any longer. They both chuckled for a bit, any potential tension smoothed once more.

Shinji had never understood the phrase about butterflies in your stomach, but after seeing her laugh he was starting to get the idea.

They had resumed walking when Shinji's looked back over. "How about you?" He asked, "Are you at Tokyo U too?"

Asuka closed her eyes for a moment and waved her arm in a circle. "Grah grhagr ragra rah ra."

"No way," Shinji said, eyes widening, "You got your degree that young?!"

"Ragra rha."

"Two degrees? That's incredible! What were they in?"

"Rgra rah, gra rah."

"But, then," Shinji paused, then looked back down the road to the coffee shop, far out of sight at this point.

Asuka sighed, understanding the unspoken question, "Grah rah, gr ragra." She waved her arms for emphasis. It was not really a subject she liked talking about, but she was used to it at this point.

"Oh, I guess it would be hard to draft schematics with..." Shinji trailed off, clearly worried about being insensitive.

Asuka snorted. He really was as cute as he was dumb.

"Grah gra," she offered, finishing his sentence.

"Well I wouldn't have said it like that, but yeah," he said. From his expression she gathered that he had a habit of trying hard not to offend people.

Asuka snorted again before muttering a soft "Raga."

"Sorry," Shinji said. Almost reflexively. Asuka let out a very low and quiet hiss. That could be annoying.

"Rhagra grr gra ragrar."

"I'm sor-" he paused as her slit eyes narrowed, "uh, got it."

Asuka's expression softened. "Raga," she muttered again. At least he was trying. She started walking forward again, not entirely sure when they'd stopped. She made it a few steps before realizing he hadn't moved.

Looking back, Asuka called out, "Gra, rargr rah?" Her tone was back to the cheerful tone from earlier. She wasn't gonna let a little hiccup drag this date down.

Shinji jumped, breaking whatever train of thought had had him so occupied. He smiled at her happier tone. "Right, coming," he called back, jogging to catch up.

Side by side again, the conversation turned back to safer, lighter topics. What kind of music did he listen to and play? What led her to going for degrees in mechanical engineering and physics? What kind of movies did they each enjoy? Where were her favorite hunting spots to chase down prey?

She'd gotten a kick at his expression upon finding how many meters of floss she went through a month.

He seemed to enjoy her story about trying to stalk a corgi (for fun, she wasn't gonna eat it, honest), only to have it turn the tables on her and chase her for 5 blocks.

It was a pretty good time.

Unfortunately, they eventually got to the edge of the path. It was getting late and she was starting to feel a bit sleepy.

Asuka lowered her head to get more eye level with him, her tail shifting to maintain balance.

"Ragra grah rah."

"Yeah, I had a good time too. It was fun. Uhm," the blush was returning, "maybe we can do it again sometime?"

Despite knowing it was coming, Asuka still felt a small thrill at hearing him ask.

"Rahgra-ra!"

"Great!" Shinji did that little foot bouncing thing again. Was that a habit of his? "Uhm, so how about next ti-"

"Rarha," she interrupted, "grahra."

"You wanna choose? Sure! Just let me know when and where." He pulled out his phones to exchange numbers before pausing again.

Asuka rolled her eyes. He was wondering about something dumb again.

Reaching down into her purse, she pulled out a phone with a compacted pole clamped to the back. Pushing a button, the pole began to extend, taking with it a mirror that had been laying flush with the phone's back. Fully extended, she could now see the mirror, it's angle giving her a clear view of her phone.

"Grah gra!" She said jokingly, giving her free hand a little wave.

Shinji chuckled at her showmanship. "That's really clever," he said, "do they make those special or-"

"Ragra rah."

"You designed it?! That's awesome. Did you patent it or-"

"Gra ragrara rah."

"That's so cool. But then, why do you work at a coffee shop?"

"Ra grah."

"Trust fund?"

Asuka nodded, a slight scowl on her face. She was still mad at the school for that condition when she convinced them to let her keep the patent. She was mature enough to be an adult, what would it hurt to get access a couple years early for some spending money?

"Oh, that sucks."

Asuka nodded again. There was a moment of silence.

"Grahgr ragra rah gra rah."

"Yeah. I'm glad it gave us the chance to meet, too," his face scrunched up, "I'm still not gonna say it's good that they did that though."

Asuka snorted before breaking into a barking laugh, drawing out some chuckles from Shinji as well.

Happy to not end the date on such a sour note, Asuka reminded him that they still needed to swap numbers. After enjoying the spectacle of Shinji trying to hide his fascination with how she typed into her phone, Asuka once again lowered her head to be eye level with him.

Slowly, she brought her head closer to Shinji's, before giving it a soft nudge with her snout. At least she hoped it was his head. She had a bit of trouble seeing that close to her nose. Giving a second nudge, she turned around at trotted away, calling back a farewell without turning to face him. It wouldn't do for him to see her blush.

Shinji stood frozen for a few minutes. Or maybe hours, he wasn't sure. Ever so slowly, he raised his hand to the cheek she'd nudged him. A small smile crept over his face.

Today was definitely a good day.


Yes, if it wasn't obvious, "Raga" means Baka. No I was not going to just leave that out.