Get in the Damn Pool, Shinji - Day 2

The second day of training in the simulators had gone... well it had gone as well as she had expected with the idiot and the doll. How Nerv had managed to put her through nearly a decade of training and then thrown these two into their Evangelions with barely any - in the case of the doll, or absolutely none whatsoever - in the case of the idiot, was just astounding.

Misato had suggested she could do the training and that Asuka could do her paperwork instead. Writing the training program only to have Misato butcher it into not much more than "try not to fall over next time" had been frustrating, but nowhere near as frustrating as dealing with a stack of paper almost as tall as she was. Another stupid thing here, they had three Magi and almost everything was done with paper.

At least they had a pool here that was almost always deserted and she could get some much needed exercise and burn off some of her frustration. And lunch. Stupid Shinji had woken her up again when he got up at oh god early but at least he'd spent the time making her something edible while she failed to get back to sleep. Of course she deserved her special no-fish-or-you'll-be-as-dead-as-it-is breakfast and the where-did-you-find-real-sausage-in-this-culinary-backwater lunch, but he better not wake her up again tomorrow while he was making it.

By the time she'd changed into her swimwear - which would have been easier to just change into after her plug-suit, but she wasn't walking through the maze (another stupid thing about Nerv Japan, no fucking signs and a layout that would only have made sense to a rabid goat) like that. She didn't need to be stared at by a bunch of perverts, one was more than enough. She carefully left out the padding this time. It obviously was not designed for actually swimming in. She'd have to come up with some alternative for those days she was particularly tender - though whether even she could talk herself into swimming those days was uncertain. She still wasn't quite sure why she'd tried them the day before. It was almost as embarrassing as the, best forgotten about as soon as possible, thermal expansion comment, but apparently far more effective. The little pervert couldn't keep his eyes off her, for the first time ever. If he wasn't otherwise so utterly oblivious she'd have thought he was reveling in her embarrassment as he kept staring at her face. Somehow that was unnerving, unlike the normal looks of admiration that were a more appropriate response to her stunning appearance.

She couldn't call him Daddy's boy anymore, not after he'd jumped into a volcano and the only reaction his supposed father had was asking if the Eva was damaged. Even Papa could manage to muster up something better than that, even if it was fake and he had to cut it short to go stick his dick in something. Still at least Japanese had provided her with the word 'baka' which usefully covered every dumbass thing the boy had managed so far, from not giving her the admiration and adoration she deserved to jumping into a fucking volcano against orders to save her arse. She wasn't sure if it covered being such a coward he'd run away from her and nearly drowned himself. She'd have to revert to German to describe that level of stupidity.

Whatever. On top of teaching him the basics of not literally shooting himself in the foot she had to teach him how not to drown so she had someone still alive to watch her back, or at least a pilot that could admire her skill. Assuming the doll and her prototype didn't blow themselves up and take her with them first.

Speaking of which, said doll had beaten her to the pool by virtue of not needing as long in the shower to wash her hack job of a haircut. Unlike her own long, luxurious and professionally cut hair - which would need conditioned again when she got home after the horrible stuff they used here to get the LCL out. Maybe if she found somewhere decent here, she could order the doll to go get something that wouldn't show her up. At least if her pilots were going to be disasters they should not be offensive to the eyes while doing it.

"Would you like me to provide today's lesson, Pilot Soryu?"

How dare she! This was her job, she was going to damn well do it. Even if it involved the boob ogler. Besides she needed to see if whatever the fucking hell had happened yesterday, when it felt like the pervert was touching her when she could see his hands, happened again. He'd been avoiding her but he wasn't going to get away from learning how to fucking swim.

"No," she snapped.

The doll just nodded and turned away, walked to the edge of the pool and dove in, leaving barely a ripple behind as if she was as real as her nickname.

For a moment she thought she was going to have two drowned pilots, which might be a relief but reflect very poorly on her, then a ripple and a head emerged at the far end. Apparently the doll didn't need to breathe either.

"Right. In the pool, baka. Let's see if you've remembered how not to drown."

She grabbed his arm, and it was just his arm, nothing weird happened. Alright, hopefully a perfectly normal not-drowning lesson then.

It was not a perfectly normal not drowning lesson.

Sure, he managed to climb down into the water, fail to fall over, and make his way towards her. He'd even managed to lay back slowly as she'd taught him the day before. Except he was refusing to even look at her, which made directing him harder, especially with water in his ears apparently making him either deaf or even more stupid. How was this the same boy who'd jumped into a volcano without fear?

Then he'd lifted his feet off the bottom before she had her hands under him and she'd had to lean forward to grab him and pull him back to the surface, which had left her with her arms around his back, their faces inches away from each other and her desperately trying not to think about how soft his skin was or how long it was that anyone other than a doctor had touched hers.

"Baka! Wait until I'm ready before you attempt to float."

Backing away in water was annoyingly difficult and required letting go. Which required him to let go. Except she had his arms pinned to his sides. This was fucking weird. And repulsive. She didn't want him touching her.

The second attempt went a little better, at least until she started to lower her hands and he came with them as if he was stuck to her.

The third attempt was with his arms out, "And if you even think about touching my arse, I'll drown you myself." She wouldn't of course, that would count as a failure on her part but she'd leave him in a lot of pain if he did. That actually worked a little better, she managed to lower her hands until there was water between them for almost a minute before he floundered.

By the fourth attempt she was almost certain he was doing this just so she would keep touching him. No one could be this bad could they? Certainly not the doll, who'd just swam past them without even breaking the surface for air. She needed another nickname for the weirdo, dolls didn't move like they were part fish. How could she do that while being one step down from being a robot anyway? She made the idiot seem almost normal.

The fifth attempt was going well, he was actually floating by himself and not panicking if he got a little water on his face. Then a ripple washed over him and he grabbed her arm to keep from going under, except she could feel her arm in his hand - it was definitely her arm, it had muscles. Then they both panicked, not that she'd admit to even slightly losing her cool, and she grabbed him to pull him up before he pulled her under, and they were back to staring each other in the face. Except this time he was actually still touching her arm.

Whatever this weirdo was doing to her, she was not having any more of it.

"Let go of me, baka. Lesson's over."

She swam off to the side. She needed to think. She certainly couldn't do that with the idiot staring at her. Even less touching her like a pervert. She certainly didn't want that to happen again. The next lesson would have to be demonstrations. At least then he'd only be looking at her.