Summary:

Shinji and Horaki I Am Not The Spanish Inquisition You Were Expecting Me Hikari have lunch.

Shinji and Hikari were sitting at an isolated table outside, at the Class Rep's request, silently eating lunch as each of them tried to work out how to start the inevitable conversation. The class rep obviously had questions. Shinji was fairly certain he didn't have acceptable answers.

"I'm sorry" was, as often the case, Shinji's automatic response, and it seemed he had more than usual to apologise for today.

"No, no, you aren't in trouble," Hikari responded, "at least from me. Obviously I don't condone violence between classmates, even if Suzuhara does seem to go out of his way to try to deserve it. Let me just say that if you weren't already spoken for...".

"It's not like that," interrupted Shinji automatically.

"... if that really was the case, you could have a date with a different girl every day for at least a week".
"And that's just the girls who don't care that you are a pilot" Hikari added after a moment, knowing Shinji's reaction to the flurry of requests he'd had once his pilot status had become known.

Hikari pondered which question to start with. Well, the one both she and most of the other girls in the class, some of whom had been quite insistent both that she found out, and that they thought Shinji should be rewarded not punished, even if they weren't brave enough to risk Asuka's reaction to them offering.

"So, how did you know which girls..."

"Oh that," Shinji responded, relieved it was a question he could actually answer, "I actually have no idea. There are only so many days in the month, there must be someone. Anyway, I knew for certain that Toji didn't know."

"He's made jokes like that before, especially about Asuka, and why are you bothered by it this time and not before? Did Asuka say something?"

Shinji blushes brightly, "No, no, she'd never talk to me about something like that. I'm not sure which of us would be more embarrassed. She still thinks Misato is the one that buys her supplies". Shinji puts his hand over his mouth, trying to hold his words back far too late, "Please don't tell her? She'd be upset"

Hikari agrees and waits for Shinji to continue.

"You heard me mention the synchronisation issues, and I'm fairly sure Asuka will have complained to you about them."

Hikari nods.

"Well, it's intermittent, and it rarely includes actions like today's ... but when it happens it carries pain easily. Both ways."
Shinji pauses for a moment. "So she's not as physically violent as she used to be, and I know which painkillers to make sure are in the bathroom cabinet before she looks for them".

'So Shinji probably hadn't noticed, or hadn't known what the problem was until he found out the painful way,' thought Hikari, 'but as soon as he knew, he goes straight into supporting Asuka despite his obvious embarrassment, sparing Asuka's embarrassment and of course, Asuka doesn't even notice what he does for her as usual.' Asuka was her friend, but sometimes she could be as dense as she accused Shinji of being.

Hikari decided to change the subject.

"Sooo... when was your no-longer-secret marriage to Ayanami-san?" Hikari could be subtle, but subtle didn't work well with either Shinji or Asuka.

Shinji laughed, which was not the reaction Hikari was expecting.
Then he looked far more serious, and doing a passable imitation of Ayanami's deadpan said "About a week after Kensuke approached you with a white flag and admitted he couldn't come close to you on weird theories about our classmates' relationships. Given he's a conspiracy theory nut, that was high praise".

Hikari stared at him for a minute before finishing processing what he'd said and collapsing in a fit of giggles.