Rei sat on the end of the bed watching Shinji sleep.
That sitting there hadn't woken him had been confirmation of just how badly both her friends needed sleep.
She would need sleep herself later. This was relaxing and left her time to think. Which wasn't going very well. She kept feeling things. Just watching Asuka's emotions could be tiring. Trying to predict and work with them enough to have Asuka understand what she was attempting to communicate. That had been exhausting. There were many things she hadn't found the right place to say. Hopefully there would be time later.
Rei sat on the end of the bed watching Shinji sleep.
She would have to remind Shinji to make sure both he and Asuka ate sufficiently. She had seen Asuka forget to eat when she was tired. It was not a situation which lead to clarity of thought. It had been an exhausting day for her. It will have been more so for her friends. She put together a mental menu of what she'd eat later when she didn't have Shinji to watch over.
Rei sat on the end of the bed watching Shinji sleep.
He twitched in his sleep. From his face she could tell this wasn't a pleasant dream. Even then he barely moved. How strange. She didn't move unless she had reason to, but sleep was a different matter. She would wake in completely different positions. His stillness made her think of fairy tales, which rarely had fairies in them, where the sleeping person had to be woken with a kiss. Which Asuka had started her thinking about. It was unlikely to be a safe activity to attempt to wake Asuka with a kiss. She could get out of range fast enough. That would spoil any possible enjoyment of kissing Asuka however. Their skin felt different. Their lips probably would too.
Rei sat on the end of the bed watching Shinji sleep.
She pondered the etymology of fairy tales. Faerie tales. Märchen. Otogibanashi. Words were interesting. Each had a history and layers of meaning that changed over time. Sometimes slowly, sometimes abruptly. Often the same word could mean completely different and sometimes opposite things in different contexts. Sometimes there were a dozen words for the same thing, each usable in different ways. Perhaps it was not so strange after all that she could talk to both Shinji and Asuka but they failed to overcome their own barriers to communication.
Rei sat on the end of the bed watching Shinji sleep.
She let the calm settle her thoughts. Her emotions refused to be quelled.
Rei caught Shinji's hands as he woke screaming banging his hands against a barrier only he could see. She pulled him against her. It was an awkward position, but the contact was enough to bring him back to reality. She had been asleep for thirty nine minutes. It had been peaceful while it lasted.