Asuka faces her greatest challenge yet.
"No, absolutely not. I'm not having that pervert see me naked."
Asuka turns to Rei in a probably lost hope of some sort of support, "Why aren't you objecting, Wondergirl?"
"Why would I?" Rei's question conveys no hint of curiosity, objection or in fact any emotion at all. If it wasn't for that damn smile she'd think she was incapable of feeling anything.
"Right. Little Miss Perfect always follows orders. Especially if it means showing off her Little Perfect Body to her boyfriend. Well I don't want him staring at me."
She was almost certain she'd felt him showering this morning, after being woken up at a stupid time in the morning yet again by the Idiot. Yesterday she was sure she was imagining it, but it happened again today as well. Which meant there was a possibility he was feeling when she showered. She'd dashed into the bathroom as soon as he started making breakfast in the hopes of either washing away whatever it was or having him too distracted to notice. Having this stupid experiment was ridiculous to start with. Having the pervert actually see her was infuriating and completely unacceptable.
"He is not my boyfriend. I have no objections to him seeing me naked. I recommend he goes first to reduce his embarrassment."
Rei does not say 'again' even though that would be more accurate. Shinji had asked her not to mention it and the detail was not important enough to go against his request. She did not want a repeat of his subsequent difficulty looking at her. It caused him distress. It interfered with her hugs.
"HIS embarrassment?!"
Rei inclines her head slightly towards the boy in question. Shinji is bright red and desperately trying to look at anything except the two girls next to him. He doesn't need to look to know what Asuka's angry face looks like. He needs to look at something because if he closes his eyes all he sees is a very naked Rei. Who just said she doesn't mind if he sees her again. He really doesn't need to be thinking about a naked Asuka, who most definitely does mind him even thinking about it. Thinking about both is going to get him into a different sort of trouble very shortly, there's no way he's going to survive actually seeing them.
"If he goes first he will not see either of us. I am capable of walking to Unit 00 with my eyes closed. If you walk on the right, you can look to the side and not be forced to see either of us."
"Hmph! You just want an excuse to stare at your boyfriend's arse."
"He is not my boyfriend. My eyes will be closed. The only person who might be observing Pilot Ikari's buttocks is you. I do not understand your interest in that part of his anatomy."
"My interest?!" Asuka demonstrates that it is, in fact, possible for her to be louder, "I have absolutely no interest in any part of the Idiot."
Asuka reigns in her temper before she can make the mistake of admitting she is almost certain she knows what Shinji's bare arse feels like. Whatever is going on they are going to have to fix it as soon as she gets out of doing this stupid test.
Shinji meanwhile is desperately wishing for an Angel attack, the floor to swallow him up, even passing out because all his blood is in his face would be better than this.
"Then you will have no problem looking away and none of us will see the others."
Asuka growls in frustration. Wondergirl has an answer for everything.
"Right. Now that's all settled, off to the changing rooms with you," Misato interrupts Asuka's seething.
"I'm not..."
"That's an order Pilot Soryu. Unless you have a more convincing argument as to why Shinji and Ayanami should be doing this by themselves."
Asuka stares at Misato, for a moment unable to comprehend that she could possibly be suggesting what it sounds like. Leaving her out of something the pervert and the doll were doing was as unacceptable as the test itself. That it would leave them alone together, naked together, who knows what the pervert would do? And the doll would no doubt just let him. This test better involve some serious combat practice or she was have the image of them holding each other naked stuck in her mind and she needed that gone. 'Do you really want that?' whispered the curious part of her mind. Asuka promptly stomped that thought out of existence.
"Fine! But if he even thinks about looking you're going to need a new pilot."
Asuka stomped out of the briefing room, slamming the door behind her. At least Nerv HQ had real doors she could actually slam.
"Pilot Ikari, my eyes are closed, you may proceed."
"And I'm certainly not looking!"
Asuka made it almost half the way there before she did, in fact, look.
The Idiot was staring at his feet as he walked, apparently he really was as embarrassed as she was, if the fact that he was blushing all the way to the back of his neck was any indication.
Wondergirl was walking to the side, but if her eyes were really closed she was doing a surprisingly good job of staying out of his line of sight. Of course she was being the perfect doll, each step exactly the same, perfectly in step with herself and the idiot even without the sound of their suits on the walkway. Her face was turned away towards the weird prototype, the only thing not perfect was her hack-job of a haircut - the unevenness was even more obvious against the pale expanse of her bare back. That was it, after this stupid test she was dragging the girl to a professional, assuming there wasn't an Angel attack again.
She said she wasn't going to look. She had no interest in looking. Shinji's arse looked pretty much like she thought she'd felt him washing. That her imagination might have been uncomfortably accurate was not good. Now that she was looking, she studied him more carefully. The rest of him looked so scrawny and she knew he was actually getting enough protein in his diet even if far too much of it was fish. Back to swimming regularly for him then, he was no use to her like that. As a Pilot. Stupid brain. Kaji was the only man who needed strong arms to hold her.
She looked back at her Eva trying to push the images of the other pilots from her mind. For some reason approaching it naked made it seem larger and more intimidating than ever. Whatever, once she was in the comfort of her Eva where there was no risk of the idiot seeing her she could relax.