You know the drill - AN at the bottom. Please read it when you get to it, it's important.
Once Shinji and Rei had gotten home, Shinji jumped right in the shower. The paper towels had only done so much to clean him off, and on the ride home his body heat had spoiled the mayonnaise which was soaked into his shirt. Rei took the half-empty hamper out as soon as he'd gotten out of his clothes, and went downstairs to wash them.
Once Shinji was out of the shower, he put on some comfortable clothes - a loose, slightly used t-shirt and some comfortable slacks. Spying the empty hamper, he headed down to the laundry room. Sure enough, he found Rei waiting by a running washing machine.
"Thank you for taking care of me." He went over to her and gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
She rested her head against the nape of his neck, and breathed him in. The old shirt he was wearing had traces of his musk, and it mixed well with the scent of soap and flowers.
It had been a long day for both of them, even with their premature expulsion from their workplace. Shinji was tired from the ridiculous sandwich fight he'd had, and Rei was tired from the constant stress over Fuyutsuki's offer and Asuka's constant presence around her desk.
"When did things get so tiring?" She spoke into his chest, losing the will to lift her head off of him.
"It feels like it was after our day off." Shinji squeezed her, and she sank into his chest as he spoke. "It was meant to re-orient us and help us clean our apartment up, but it's created more problems than it's solved."
"Mmmm..."
Shinji looked down. She was on the verge of falling asleep in his arms, her face buried in his chest. She looked exhausted.
"...Hey, you go on up to bed." Shinji broke the embrace and held her sides. "I'll take care of this washing, and you can have a rest. You deserve it."
She looked up at him. His eyes were beginning to develop bags, but his eyes were focused and serious.
She leant up and kissed him.
"Thank you."
Once Rei had left, Shinji's posture drooped. He was still somewhat refreshed from his shower, but he was just about ready to fall into a deep sleep himself.
He stuck out the half-hour spin cycle of his clothes by walking around the washing area, and when they were done, he took the clothes to one of the coin-operated dryers which sat along the back wall. Digging through his pockets for change, he managed to scrounge up 200 yen, and he got the dryer going.
After another half-hour, drying his wet clothes to a state of only mild dampness, Shinji lugged them up to the apartment. He was ready to drop dead on his doorstep when he got up to it, and once he'd placed his clothes around the room to dry, he went to the bathroom.
While he sat on the toilet, however, he looked around. The room was as dirty as ever - dusty tub, soap-stained shower booth, general filth around the toilet...
As he noticed the mess, he felt a small nagging feeling growing within him. He wanted to sleep, but he was surrounded by a mess he'd promised to clean. He was going out on Sunday, and he was working tomorrow - the time he had was valuable.
"...Yeah. I'm gonna do this."
He finished his business on the toilet and sprang into action immediately. He went to the kitchen and looked under the sink, and soon he had filled a small bucket with bottles of cleaning chemicals, along with a fresh sponge and some steel wool. He filled a second bucket with warm water.
As he carried the buckets to the bathroom, he decided on his first target - the shower.
The floor of the shower was clean enough, but the glass booth encasing the shower was caked with months of soap residue - to the point that Shinji couldn't even see through it. He gave the shower floor a quick once-over, and sat in the shower booth as he cleaned the door.
The chemicals began to act quickly, and soon he was working away the soap residue, slowly but surely. Inhaled traces of the chemicals combined with his fatigue, and he thought to himself about the whiteness of the soap as it came away from the glass.
It honestly reminded him of the porcelain-like shade of Rei's skin. It seemed like every inch of her skin was as white as snow.
Shinji stopped.
Is it rude to compare her skin to soap residue?
He laughed quietly to himself. It probably is.
After a few minutes of effort, Shinji could see through the glass again. The residue had run down the drain or been soaked into the sponge. Shinji continued as the results of his effort began to make themselves clearer.
He scrubbed the door and sides of the booth until a majority of the mess had been cleaned up. When he decided to stop, there were still traces of residue - but as Shinji looked over it, he deemed it acceptable.
The last rays of the sun were barely visible on the horizon as Shinji finished with the shower. After picking himself up and leaving the booth, he sat down on the edge of their bathtub for a moment to collect his thoughts. Their bath was large and square - much like a jacuzzi in its shape, but with just a faucet on the wall and a plug-hole on the floor of it. The pair showered more often than not, so the tub had collected a substantial amount of dust.
When they'd first moved into their apartment, they had decided to celebrate with a bath. Though Rei didn't mind either way, Shinji had decorated the bathroom with flower petals and colored candles, and had gotten a bottle of alcohol-free champagne. They had sat in that bath for hours, until the water began to get cold - lying in each other's arms, surrounded by the gentle flickering of candlelight, whispering secrets and gentle nothings to each other.
Everything Shinji had said then, every exaggerated comfort he'd described to Rei - he'd meant every word.
Since then, the bath had only been used once or twice - usually whenever the shower was on the fritz. More often than not, it was coated with dust. By Shinji's guess, it would have been just under a year since it had been cleaned.
He climbed in to pick out the larger dust bunnies. It wasn't long in his new position before he began to run out of energy - his eyelids became heavier and he had trouble focusing on his task. He was about to lay down and rest when he heard footsteps enter the bathroom.
"...Shinji?"
Rei had gotten up from her rest to go to the bathroom, and was surprised to see how clean the shower booth had become. She looked over at Shinji, on his knees in the tub - he looked a mess, covered in water and dirt as well as looking haggard and exhausted.
"Why are you pushing yourself so hard?"
Shinji coughed.
"I promised to clean the bathroom on Monday, and I had the time now to do it, so... I've been cleaning."
Rei went over to him. "You should come to bed. You look exhausted."
Shinji looked down at the tub. He'd only moved a bit of dust around - it wasn't like he was leaving it half-finished.
He took Rei's hand, and she helped him out - only for them to discover that his legs were now covered in dust.
Shinji looked over towards the shower. He'd already had a shower that day, and he'd just cleaned it, but it looked like his only option.
After a second shower, Rei helped him put everything away. They tipped the bucket of lukewarm water into the bathtub, and Shinji rinsed it out before putting it back under the kitchen sink. Everything went back where he'd found it, and soon he was on his way to bed. Rei went to the bathroom like she'd originally planned, and came back to bed soon after.
"I appreciate your work on the bathroom, but please don't push yourself so hard." Rei was lying close to Shinji and running her fingers through his hair. "You were already tired from today, it's not healthy."
"I know, but I thought... I had the free time to do it, and I might not have that free time for a while now." Shinji parted Rei's hand from his hair, and buried his head into his pillow.
Rei kissed his cheek. "We'll have time before we leave on Sunday, so we'll both get it done then."
Shinji rolled his head over so that he was facing Rei. "But I promised to do it myself on Monday..."
"That was Monday. It doesn't matter as long as it gets done."
Shinji smiled a weary smile.
"Thank you, Rei."
He rolled over, and held her from behind. His head sat comfortably by her shoulder, his soft breaths rolling over her skin like clouds across the sky, each breath giving her goosebumps. She shifted so his face was in the crook of her neck, where he could breathe past her skin.
He kissed her neck, sending a jolt of pleasure down her spine.
She jerked in surprise, and gently kicked his shin with the back of her foot. Shinji grinned a mischievous grin.
"Trouble-maker."
They settled down comfortably, and soon they were on their way to sleep.
Another couple were having their own conversation, in an apartment complex 45 kilometers away.
"Don't you want to go to bed with me?"
Kaji draped his arms over Misato's shoulders, kissing her cheek.
"Sleazy bastard."
Misato tapped him on the nose with a stapler she had on her desk. It was just a bump, but Kaji flew back in surprise.
"Oh no, I think it's bleeding!" he shouted mockingly, as he dramatically collapsed onto the floor of Misato's apartment. "I'll have to be on bed-rest!"
"You know damn well that I'm busy here, so stop clowning around." Misato hadn't even turned to look at him.
She was buried up to her neck in paperwork, and Kaji knew it. Aside from Gendo's workload, she'd taken it upon herself to do Shinji's work on her own - and he'd only gotten halfway through it that day.
"Sorry, I just wanted to lighten the mood up a bit."
Misato sighed.
"You can lighten the mood by lightening my workload. Here, check these figures on your laptop and print them out for me to work with."
She handed him a USB drive, and he soon got to work helping her. After around 20 minutes of fact-checking and printing, though, he was beginning to get restless.
"Man, this isn't my idea of an ideal sleepover."
"Yeah, I know." Misato moved away from her desk. "I guess this is what we get for planning our visits in advance."
She went into her kitchen and began boiling some water.
"Coffee?"
"That'd be great, thanks." Kaji continued reading through the figures. Misato soon brought out 2 piping hot cups of instant coffee, and set them on a small table next to her work desk.
For the first time in 3 hours, Misato took the time to relax. She'd taken her work into her and Kaji's department while a cleaning crew cleaned Gendo's office, and washed as much as she could in the company restroom. She'd come straight home with Kaji, only to get in the shower, step out and resume working again.
She'd been working in a loose yellow tanktop which she pulled out of the clothes hamper, and a short pair of denim cutoffs. Kaji had undone his tie and the first 2 buttons of his work shirt, and he'd loosened the collar a bit.
"So, you were spooked about Shinji possibly having the hots for you, eh?"
Misato choked on her coffee. Both her and Shinji had been nothing but honest to Rei and Kaji - for better or for worse.
She choked down what she could of her mouthful of coffee, and coughed the rest of it into a tissue.
"Look, it was a weird situation, okay? He used to have this... thing for me, when he wasn't sociable enough to make any friends. His interpretation spooked me."
"Really? That's it?"
"Yeah." Misato looked down and rubbed her arm. She knew that she'd jumped the gun, and that her reaction was uncalled for - the entire day had just been a giant mistake.
She awaited Kaji's usual jab, the sharp comment to poke fun at her. But it never came.
"Fair enough, I guess." Kaji shrugged, as he printed off the documents he'd inspected.
His tone was fairly neutral, a rare occurrence - and one which roused Misato's suspicions.
"This should go without saying," she began as she put her cup down and turned towards Kaji, "but if you tell Shinji that I told you that, I'm going to hurt you."
"Yeah, I know. Sure thing."
He turned from his laptop and sipped his coffee, as a stack of sheets began emerging from Misato's printer. Not a trace of snark was present in his voice.
"...Meh, you're no fun tonight."
Kaji suddenly found himself bearing Misato's weight - she'd slumped over him from behind, her arms slung over his shoulders.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Kaji put his laptop next to him on the couch.
Misato moved around sluggishly, her face smooshed against Kaji's back.
"I'm shleeeeeepy..."
Kaji let the stress out of his shoulders as best he could, and tried to shrug Misato off.
"It doesn't matter if we didn't finish, we can get it done tomorrow."
Misato sighed happily at Kaji's suggestion. Peeling herself off of him, she went to the bathroom before making a beeline to bed. Kaji shut down his laptop and put it on charge, and followed Misato's lead.
After they were settled in, Misato cuddled up to Kaji a bit.
"D'you still want to fool around a little?"
The thought danced through Kaji's head, but he shook his head. "No, not tonight."
Misato yawned. "Man, I can't believe we're too tired to even plow."
"I know, it must be a first for us." Kaji pulled her in and put his face in her hair. Misato sunk into him, as the heat of the room began to send them both to sleep.
A slight, awkward realization hit Misato suddenly, and she spoke up.
"...Are we acting all coupley like the kids?"
Kaji groaned. "I'm honestly too tired to care."
The blunt answer disarmed Misato, and the awkward feeling dissipated. The warm, heavy air of the room took over, and soon the pair was asleep.
AN: Okay, first order of business - sorry for the lack of updates. It's likely that there will be few other updates past this one, but at the moment I feel like writing and I wanted to get this done so I could maybe move on to presenting the story in a new way. I pretty much jumped the shark with the stupid fight and the sandwiches - that was stupid and I want to get better.
I would like any sort of feedback you may have. In particular - do you enjoy the office setting? Would you like for it to be downplayed a bit, or is it fine as-is? Because I can write about characters handling paperwork for hours and hours, but I worry that it's extremely boring to read. I'm down with writing about the office as I have been, but I'm also down with downplaying it if it affects the story too much. Please, let me know what you think.
This chapter has 2 other endings - one extremely depressing and out of the blue (with elements I may recycle), and the other one unprintable without an M rating. It really fingers the line between T and M, and I thought it was safer to scrap it. If you want to read either, let me know and I'll message you a link.
And that about covers it. I'll be writing on and off for a few days, so you might get a new chapter sometime soon. It'll most likely be about the double date, but I might get a better idea and go with that. It's been a while since I've bothered to write anything. Thank you for reading, thank you for waiting and thank you for tolerating this massive Author's Note.