Surprisingly Hikari and Toji came to dinner only a couple of days later.
Even more surprisingly Asuka found she actually had something in common with Toji - watching their partners cook for them.
It was interesting. Shinji was just as precise as when they cooked together, she could feel the familiar movements. It was just slightly jarring when he didn't move correctly and bumped into Hikari. On one hand, this was right - her baka only synchronised perfectly with her after all. On the other, she kept feeling her best friend brushing against her baka. On the third hand, it was obvious they had done this before. Possibly not this particular meal but they were far too coordinated working in the same kitchen even if they had both cooked this particular meal themselves separately.
Asuka had an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling in her chest. She looked over a Toji, who was happily watching the pair cook. That or he was admiring Hikari's ass. Probably the latter - but he'd been obnoxiously proud of Hikari's cooking when he hauled the ingredients in. So it was actually possible it was the former.
The sensation of something soft pressing against her back broke into Asuka's thoughts. Looking over at the cooks she could see Hikari leaning around Shinji to put something in a pan, neither of them seemed to have even noticed the casual touch which Asuka was suddenly very aware of. A casual touch that never happened between herself and Shinji because they always knew where each other were and never touched without careful planning. Not that she wanted to be pressing her breasts against Shinji. But not having to be so constantly aware. To constantly avoid it. To not be afraid of it. The Great Asuka Langley-Soryu was not afraid of anything. Just-Asuka was scared of accidentally touching the boy she lived with and she hated it.
She knew the uncomfortable feeling after all. She used to feel it when she saw Kaji and Misato together, even when they were pushing each other away. Dammit. It made no sense.
"It's good to see him doing so much better" Toji's remark slammed through her ruminations.
"What was that Stooge?"
"Shin-man. A few days ago he was like a zombie. Look at him now. Making us dinner with my girl, like they're a pair of professional chefs. Whatever it is you're doing for him, keep it up."
"What I'm doing?"
"Come off it Red, I know we don't get along well. You don't think I'm good enough for Hikari, and I don't think you're good enough for Shinji. But don't think I don't notice what you did that first day. It was the strangest thing I've seen you do. You were mad at me because you thought I was bothering 'im. You were so caring I could have mistook you for Hikari. An' you brought in Blue like you trusted her to take care of your boy. It was the first time I thought maybe Shin-man was right an' you might be good enough."
Asuka for once had no idea how to respond.
"Now we don expect ya to stop being the Red Demon, don't worry. I don't think ya went soft." Toji looks embarrassed, "I just wanted ya to know we appreciate what you're doing for him".
Thankfully they were interrupted by the arrival of food. Hikari putting Asuka's plate in front of her and then joining her. Shinji doing the same with Toji's larger one on the other side of the table.
Shinji looked nervously across at Asuka, "I hope you like this one. It's a recipe I gave Hikari when she wanted something to make for a date with Toji. She was just showing me the improvements she'd made. They both liked it, so I thought you might too."
"As long as it's not stooge-food" grumbled Asuka before taking a bite.
"Ok. Not stooge food. Make sure you remember this one baka."
Asuka noticed the quiet, looked up and rolled her eyes, "You two lovebirds going to eat, or are you just going to stare into each other's eyes until PenPen steals your dinner?"
Hikari laughs and there is a different kind of silence as they eat.
Shinji and Asuka are washing the dishes in the kitchen. Hikari and Toji are talking about something quietly in the other room, not quite audible but enough to know they are talking and not doing something else.
"Hey baka?" Asuka's voice is pitched to not carry.
Shinji looked at her and did that Rei-tilt silent question.
"My room tonight"
Asuka catches the plate Shinji was drying before it crashes into the sink and hands it back to him.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, baka, you can see that." snaps Asuka quietly.
"Then..."
"Then we're going to finish the dishes and go back to our guests before they start having sex on the couch, maybe we'll talk later".
Asuka catches another dish. "The dishes can wait."
"Hikari, are you and the stooge decent?" Asuka calls into the other room.
"Asuka!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
Other than the blush Hikari is sporting, there is no indication of anything Misato would make fun of going on.
"Hey Shin-man, you up for an hour at the arcade?"
Shinji looked over at Asuka, given her request a few minutes ago...
Asuka just nodded and made a shooing motion, "Go have fun, we'll just be having some girl-talk"
Toji's ears turned an interesting shade of red as Hikari smothered a laugh with her hand.
Once the boys had left, Asuka went back to the kitchen to finish up the last few dishes. Sure Shinji would do them when he got home, but if she was right, that probably wasn't going to be a good idea. If she was wrong, well at least the kitchen would be clean and breakfast would be on time.
"Can I help with that?" Hikari asked as she followed her into the kitchen.
"No." snapped Asuka.
Hikari stepped back
"You already cooked, and you are a guest." deflected Asuka.
"So, 'girl talk' Asuka?"
Asuka looked at Hikari and then at the door, "Boy talk actually. Someone pointed out that while it's only been a few days for him, it's been a month for his friends. They need some time together without us in the way".
Putting the last of the dishes away Asuka turned to her friend, "So, are you joining Shinji's harem or is he joining yours?"
Hikari shook her head, "No, still not even close. You can do better than that."
"So you rubbing yourself all over him wasn't a recruitment drive?"
"What is going on in your head Asuka? I come over to see my friends, with my boyfriend, at your request and you want to accuse me of trying to seduce the boy you are sleeping with? Who you not only claim to not be interested in, but actively claim is dating someone else. Who is also apparently now your friend.
"I was cooking. I wasn't flirting with anyone other than Toji. I didn't even touch Shinji...
"Oh crap. I must have. We were cooking together. I didn't even notice. How did you? Oh.
Asuka nodded, "Synchronisation. I felt every time you touched. You said you didn't notice. I bet he didn't either, his heart rate didn't change, even when you pressed your boobs against him"
Hikari blushed, "I didn't? No wonder you're acting all jealous."
Asuka took a page out of Hikari's conversation manual, "So Shinji said you learned that meal from him in order to cook for Toji?"
"Yes." Hikari perked up, "I wanted something different for the first time he came over in his official capacity."
"Official capacity? Oh, as your boyfriend as opposed to childhood friend? That's a big thing here isn't it?"
"It is. It's not like he hadn't met my sisters before or anything. And it wasn't the formal dinner with my Dad - we're a long way from him proposing. Still, it was a bit nerve-wracking."
"Well, you're still all lovey-dovey so it can't have gone too badly."
"No, it went well, even Kodama didn't tease us too badly. Until the next day anyway.
"She insisted we both come home right after school before Dad got home. Then she gave us "the talk". Not the one from health class, the one that comes with practice bananas."
Asuka cracked up, "Oh dear. Shinji and I had that from Misato just after I arrived. If it hadn't been so embarrassing it would have been hilarious. I couldn't stand him back then. The very idea of him touching me, let alone anything more, was repulsive. So I was angry at Mistato and he was baka-Shinji, so red I thought he might faint from blood loss. If nothing else it did convince Misato that there was no risk of "little baby pilots" as she put it."
"At least it wasn't your older sister bringing out a half used box of condoms for you to practice with in front of your boyfriend. Poor Toji didn't know where to look."
"Ok, I'll admit sitting there knowing your boyfriend was just imagining your older sister having sex is probably worse than waiting for Misato to get back with a new box because her unopened one had already expired, but it was even worse for poor baka-Shinji than me. I'd seen Misato's antics before.
"So when you get around to it, make sure you check the expiration dates. It is a future-when right? You haven't been holding out on me?"
Hikari blushed, "When would I have had chance to tell you? And no, other than the movie incident we've only kissed. I don't get to wake up to anything other than Nozomi jumping on the bed".
"So how do you manage dates? You see each other every day at school - I didn't notice you acting any differently there."
"The Class Representative can't display favourites. You know I can be different when I don't need to be as respectable. Though I don't have anyone else I can talk to like this.
"Oh, come off it Hikari, you always gave Toji and Kensuke more leeway. You just overcompensated by yelling at them more, not by actually punishing them for their antics. You're fooling no one. Just don't get caught making out in the janitor's closet and you'll be fine."
"You are avoiding talking about Ayanami"
"So?"
"So what's going on with you two?"
"I had to take care of her because baka-Shinji got himself ... while he wasn't available".
"And that required becoming friends? Or something more?"
"WHAT?!"
"She looks at you the way she looks at Shinji - who you insist is her boyfriend."
"It's not like that"
"So what is it like?"
Asuka sighs, that question was getting annoying, "He always gives her a hug when they meet. So I gave her one."
Hikari looked at her sceptically but didn't interrupt.
"It's Rei, so it required a long philosophical discussion on the nature of hugs. But it stopped her moping for a while and having that look in her eyes.
"Then she decided that since I was substituting for Shinji this meant that every time we met it was necessary for me to hug her."
"And you put up with that?" asked Hikari not even attempting to hide the smile.
"I had to" grumbles Asuka, "I made the mistake of saying she could ask when she needed one. I couldn't go back on my word.
"Worse, she's a good hugger. I swear she spent the first couple of days working out what the best position to hug in a cage elevator is. Then she'd do the same thing every time. She was like a self-optimising hug machine! And she never let go until we reached the Eva cages."
Hikari laughs at Asuka's obviously fake outrage. "That doesn't explain the smile. Or you calling her Rei"
"I bet that smile is exactly the one she gives Shinji.
"He told her to smile when she's happy, because Rei doesn't know how to react to things. And she gave him that smile, and he liked it. So now that's the best smile for smiling at Shinji, because for some bizarre reason watching Shinji makes her happy."
"I think watching your boyfriend is supposed to make you happy. For some of us anyway."
"Are you getting all soppy on me again?"
"Maybe."
Asuka rolls her eyes.
"So why did you start calling her Rei?"
Asuka blushes brightly and pauses for a moment before coming up with "Rei logic"
"Oh?"
Asuka attempts Rei's monotone. "You instructed me to hug you. You are only comfortable with physical contact with your friends. You are comfortable when you hug me. Therefore you appear to consider me a friend. I would like to consider you a friend if that is acceptable. As we are friends, you should call me by my first name."
Hikari bursts out laughing, "Please. You have to let me tell Toji about this"
"What's so funny Hikari, my Rei impression wasn't that entertaining."
"You remember what she said to you the first time you met?"
It takes a moment for Asuka to put the pieces together.
"Oh fuck! I accidentally ordered her to be my friend."
"Well, it seems to have worked."
"It probably wouldn't without baka-Shinji. It was his fault we were in that position to start with. He was the one who managed to get her to talk. He was the idiot who jumped into a volcano. Which is how I found out he wasn't just incompetent he had almost no training, and Rei didn't have much more. So I had to train them, because Nerv is obviously a pile of idiots. Argh. That's how she did it. I counted as 'Sensei' from training so she could interpret it as an order."
"You make it sound like she tricked you into being her friend"
"What? No. I don't think so. That's just Rei. She's cryptic because it's often impossible to follow her thought processes so you can't understand what she's saying. But she means what she says. If she says 'The sky is blue' you can bet there's not a cloud in sight. If she says 'I want to be your friend' she means it. You just have to make sure you don't ask 'what do you mean?' unless you want a discussion on the nature of friendship for the next several hours."
"You barely accept brief hugs from me. Shinji punched Toji because he was synchronized with your touch reactions. You must have gotten very close over the last month if you're hugging for long elevator rides"
Asuka sighs. "How do I explain this?
"You know how I explained the issues with touching baka-Shinji?"
Hikari winces in acknowledgement.
"Rei is like an inverse of him. I always know where he is, so I can avoid accidentally touching him. She always knows where she is, so I don't have to be constantly aware - trying to avoid touching her. So it's still creepy sometimes because I can't tell she's there until she says something or I can see her. But it's also comfortable. She won't touch me without permission. She proved that by asking every single time and by taking no for an answer without any attempt to make it seem like it was my fault. The only way to tell that she's unhappy about it is because her tiny expression changes make her look like Shinji.
"I know there's a lot of things she isn't telling me. Like why she's not allowed to have friends. Or why her hair is naturally blue. But I trust that she means what she says. That if she does something that's not because of a direct order, she's thought about it. I just have to double-check her decisions to make sure they aren't stupid or suicidal."
"You weren't exaggerating then? About keeping her alive for Shinji?"
Asuka's face drops, "She talks about being replaceable. Like an appliance. 'Oh, this Rei's broken, lets go to the store and buy another one off the shelf'. I can't get through to her. The baka hasn't. 'The sky is blue. I am replaceable' and this is Japan's eternal summer, there's not even a fucking cloud in sight."
There's a long awkward silence that Hikari eventually interrupts.
"I think I worked out why she likes Shinji's food."
"Huh? Of course she likes Shinji's food. You know how good it is."
"You said she keeps asking him to cook and can't seem to learn herself. You also described her finding the perfect way to hug and then doing the same thing each time. So I'm betting she can follow the recipe just fine and create a perfectly fine meal. But Shinji doesn't follow recipes after he's made a meal once, so the food is never quite the same each time. It's always good, but slightly different. She can't replicate that, any more than I can. Which means there's never a best way to eat it, so it's always interesting to her. As well as being tasty.
"Maybe Toji was right."
"Either I'm hallucinating, or you just uttered the words 'Toji was right'"
Asuka laughs, "There's very little we agree on that's for sure. You being a great friend is one of the few.
"He couldn't shut up about how good a cook you are, and earlier when you were cooking with Shinji, I thought he was busy looking at your ass, but no he's all 'look at them, working together like professional chefs'.
"You'd probably have to hire Rei though - she'd be eating every meal at your restaurant anyway.
Asuka glances up at the clock, "The boys will be back soon, and I know you made enough to have lunches for us tomorrow. Knowing you there's probably enough for your boyfriend's insatiable stomach too".
Hikari laughs, "I managed to fill him up once. If you can get out Shinji's spare bento boxes as well as your own, I can help pack up what we made." After watching Asuka hunt around the cupboard, she adds "Rei's is already in the fridge, Shinji did that before adding the meat to the main meal".
While they put tomorrow's lunches together they talked of less consequential things. Hikari's little sister's latest antics. Whether there was actually anything useful they'd missed at school. Hikari's last date. Day-to-day things that reconnected them with each other and filled in the cracks in their friendship.
"I'm home"
Shinji was looking more cheerful than when he left but even more tired. Toji was hovering in a passable attempt at looking casual but looking like he could step forward and catch Shinji before he hit the floor.
"Have fun you two?"
Shinji nods, "Toji says I should ask you to take me swimming."
"Not just playing video games then?"
"A month unconscious? He needs to rebuild some muscle. Something low stress, no weights and shit. He said you taught him to swim, so as long as he's not by himself swimming's probably best."
Asuka nodded. As far as she knew Shinji had come back with the same muscles he went in with. But who knew what might not have connected correctly and it wasn't as if he were well toned to start with. Toji was the sports and fitness nut, he wasn't Jock-Stooge just because of his brains. If he'd actually noticed something it was probably worth paying attention to.
"Ok baka", Asuka said affectionately, then added sternly "Shower and bed for you. I'll see to our guests. And I'll see if I can get the Geofront pool cleared for a bit tomorrow and I can see what training you'll need."
Shinji groaned as he headed towards the bathroom, "As long as it's not a repeat of Pilot Soryu's bootcamp".
"Don't call it that!" snaps Asuka at Shinji's back as he disappears behind the bathroom door.
Toji had to ask "Pilot Soryu's bootcamp?"
"After baka-Shinji jumped into a frigging volcano, I discovered how little training he and Rei had. I'd gone through years of rigorous training, they stuck him an Eva the first time he saw it. Misato was all 'if you've got the time to complain, you've the time to do something about it'. The bridge bunnies started calling it 'Pilot Soryu's bootcamp' and I couldn't get them to drop it.
Toji laughed, "I suspect the only person who'd enjoy that is Kensuke"
"Probably. But it was necessary."
"Four" remarked Hikari.
Toji and Asuka turned to look at her.
"Four times Asuka has agreed with Toji this evening. Maybe we should go home before it happens again and the world ends"
Asuka threw up her hands, "Fine. Be like that. I need to check the baka hasn't drowned, or worse, used up all the hot water."
Asuka leaned against the door after she closed it behind them. She knew he hadn't drowned. She didn't even care that much about the hot water. In this heat a cool shower wouldn't be a bad thing. She didn't even have to decide whether to ask Shinji to sleep next to her, she'd already done that. Now she just had to live with her earlier decision.
Fortunately Shinji is sitting on the edge of her bed when she's done with her own shower.
"Stand up and hold out your hand, I need to check something"
He looks tired and confused but does so without complaint.
Approaching carefully she reaches out slowly to touch the back of his hand. She's a centimetre away when it starts to hurt, slightly less by the time they both pull away in pain.
She sighs in frustration and holds her hand out, "You try this time" she demands.
His hands are shaking nervously, or possibly from exhaustion, but he reaches out slowly. It's even worse, he's barely five centimetres away when she starts to feel it, four when it starts to hurt. "Oww." they go in unison.
Asuka folds her arms around herself, holding her sides with her hands until the pain in them subsides.
They are standing too close together. She can feel his hands on her sides so clearly she has to look down to check they are just holding themselves in a perfect mirror of each other. As if the pain wouldn't have told her otherwise.
"So much for that plan. It's going to have to be opposite sides of the bed" Shinji grumbles in an annoyed almost angry tone.
Asuka stares at him, "I'm sorry" she says.
"What the hell Third" he snaps back.
Asuka panics and instinctively shoves Shinji away from her. She feels her hands on his chest. She feels the edge of the bed behind his legs as he's pushed backwards. He grabs onto the nearest thing to help stop his fall. Unfortunately the nearest thing is her. It's her bed so it's relatively soft when he impacts it. He's not as soft when she lands on top of him.
They stare into each other's eyes, their noses almost touching, for a long minute as their heart rate gradually slows.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly, his breath gentle across her lips.
It's another minute or more before either of them risks moving - a shifting combination of fear of pain, the unexpected comfort of their position and rising embarrassment keep them in place.
Asuka lifts her head away from Shinji's face and lays it on his shoulder.
"Do you think Rei would mind if I kissed her boyfriend?" Asuka doesn't know where the unwanted intrusive thought came from, or how it bypassed her brain to reach her mouth. At least it was her own mouth.
She felt Shinji relax under her. Relax? What was the baka thinking? Worse was he actually going to answer? Why did lying on top of him holding him like this feel almost as comfortable as holding Rei. Where did that thought come from? At least she hadn't said that one out loud.
Unfortunately for Asuka, Shinji had been contemplating her question in favour of contemplating how Asuka felt laying on him with his arms around her. She'd asked how Rei would respond. Not how he would. He could focus on that. Ignoring the fact that he was not Rei's boyfriend and Rei would insist on reminding Asuka of this, how would Rei actually react?
"She would not mind, as long as we enjoyed it this time. She would insist we did it again where she could observe. Then she would require you to kiss her for comparative purposes".
Asuka groaned. That was such a Rei answer to the question.
"Grab a pillow baka. I'm not moving and risking it fucking hurting again. And I'm not waking up with a crick in your neck."
Shinji was too tired and Asuka was too comfortable for them to stay awake for long.
'I'll deal with whatever the fuck just happened tomorrow' Asuka thought as she drifted off, 'Preferably during a Rei hug when I can think clearly.' Mercifully sleep claimed her before she could dwell on that thought.