Rei was still sitting in the locker room, still naked, heart still beating furiously. Her wet hair ruffled, her skin a little less pale than usual. Confusion could be seen in her face, if one knew what signs to look for. Her white hands were cupped in front of her, holding something. She could still not make heads or tails of the recent events. Her life was not as simple as it had been two hours ago. For the first time in her young life, someone had shown her real, physical attention. Someone had touched her, not just by accident, but willingly. Someone... A sudden presence in the shower with her. Two hands on her body. A glimpse of red hair. A warm breath against her neck. At that instant, her mind had frozen up. Rei was used to think before reacting, and this was too sudden, too unexpected. She had found herself unable to respond to this strange situation. Her breath had caught in her throat, her entire body had tensed up. She had wanted to speak, but couldn't form any words. And then Souryu's hands had started to move, and all that tension had suddenly found a focus. Rei had no idea of what had happened. Well, of course she did know what had been done. She might be introvert, but she wasn't ignorant. She knew what Souryu had done to her. She knew how she had reacted. Only...she had no idea what it meant. Souryu hadn't said a single word. Maybe if she had, Rei's mind could have snapped back into action. Regained control of her body. Maybe... Fingers tracing over her skin. A storm of unfamiliar emotions assaulting her mind, drowning out any conscious thought. ...maybe words wouldn't have mattered. These emotions had been strong, so very strong. Emotions she had never felt before. Emotions, something she normally wouldn't be bothered with. Now she couldn't chase them out of her head. Rei looked down at her hands. Pale, almost white, with nails cut short. Up until now, nothing but a convenient pair of tools. Held between them was a single strand of silken red hair. A gasp, a shudder. An overwhelming sensation rushing through her. The sight of the red hair made her breath tremble and her pulse quicken. A strange, tingling feeling in her chest grew a little stronger. This feeling had been with her since Souryu left. She felt excited and nervous at the same time. There was a yearning somewhere inside her. A yearning for...for... ...emotions. She blinked twice. For the first time in her life, she felt like she needed to think with her heart. And her heart was confused. Staring off into a place only she could see, Rei pressed the strand of hair against her chest. --- Monday, after lunch. Asuka was sitting at her desk, staring at the flat, green surface. Hikari was next to her, talking about something, but Asuka didn't really pay attention. It had been the strangest weekend of her life. Her mind had been someplace else completely, replaying over and over again what had happened. She had even dreamt about it. That had been...unnerving. She had woken up, soaking with sweat and hearing Ayanami's hurried breath in her ears. Then, still groggy and confused, she had grabbed the phone with the intent to call Ayanami. Now, afterwards, she had no idea what she would have said. Somehow realizing she didn't know the number, she had instead dialled up Hikari and would probably have confessed all of it to her, if it hadn't been her father answering the phone and demanding to know what the hell she wanted in the middle of the night. Now she was back in the same classroom as Ayanami, and the albino's presence was like a red-hot needle in her mind. Impossible to ignore. And later, after the synch test, they were going to be back in the locker room... Asuka found herself staring at Ayanami, who was in turn staring out the windows. Quickly, she jerked her head around and focused once more on the top of her desk. This unconscious staring had happened several times already. Embarrassing, considering Ayanami was sitting two rows behind and to the left of Asuka. Asuka felt she wasn't in control of herself, and it was driving her nuts. She had to remain calm. There would be no more staring. Nothing had happened. Things were normal. Ayanami was just... She just... She just might look back. Again, Asuka's eyes involuntarily sought out Ayanami. And found a pair of red eyes staring back. The rest of the world disappeared. That look again, looking at her like she was the only living creature in the world. Focusing on her, and her alone. Attention. Complete attention. I need that. An eternity passed. Slowly, the world made its way back. Hikari was asking her something. "Huh?" "I said, are you alright?" Her friend was watching her with a concerned look. "You've been zoning out a lot today." Chasing strange images from her mind, Asuka pulled a hand through her hair and feigned a cool smile. "I'm fine." A minute later she glanced back, but Ayanami was once again staring out through the windows. --- Wednesday morning. Not a word had passed between Asuka and Ayanami since the previous Thursday. Nothing had happened between them since that shared look on Monday. And Asuka was starting to feel like she was on the verge of a breakdown. She couldn't concentrate. She was jumpy and irritable. And she was nervous. The wrong kind of nervous. Nervous like she was waiting for something to happen. Only it didn't. This inner confusion was hard to hide. Hikari was starting to suspect something, and Misato had already noticed. She had seriously asked Asuka if she was doing any drugs. Though it didn't take much to convince her otherwise, (after all, anything out of the ordinary was bound to show up on all the tests the Children underwent) it was still weird to have her ask. Asuka needed to get a grip on herself. It was scary to have her guardian think she might be a junkie. Asuka, who hadn't even smoked a cigarette in her entire life. I just can't stop thinking of Ayanami's eyes. She had found herself fantasizing about jumping Ayanami in the corridor, in front of everyone. The thought had been hard to let go. Now they were having biology, and Asuka was doing her best to stay focused on the task at hand, namely putting drops of liquid from various vials onto small glass discs. It had something to do with bacteria. It was probably terribly interesting. She took a vial, unscrewed the cork, carefully withdrew some of its contents with a pipette and with equal care placed a drop from it on the tiny rectangle of glass on her desk. Then she put a small square of plastic on top of the drop, pressed gently, and put the prepared sample to the side. Then she repeated the entire procedure. It was comfortably mind-numbing. Suddenly she felt Hikari's elbow nudging her in the side, and realized that the entire classroom was silent. Looking up, she saw the teacher watching her intently. "What?" she snapped. "I was saying," the man said, probably repeating himself for the third time, "that we need microscopes. They are placed in two white boxes in the basement, and I want a volunteer to go and get them for me. You have just volunteered, miss Souryu." "What?!" Asuka exclaimed once more. This was not what she needed right now. "Why me?!" "It was decided on the democratic principle that you were the only one still staring at the table after I called for the class's attention. Now, please?" He held out a key towards Asuka. Sensing more objections would not help her case, she glanced around the classroom. Everyone was looking at her. Ayanami too. Asuka's eyes lingered just a moment longer than appropriate before she snatched the offered key and stormed out of the room. A few seconds later, the albino rose from her seat, said something about helping, and left. The teacher, being as surprised as his students, made no objections. --- The basement was the school's storage. Anything that couldn't be put to an immediate use ended up down there. It was therefore crammed with all sorts of stuff, from old desks to last year's Christmas decorations. An ancient light bulb spread a yellowish glow from the far end of the room. Souryu was shuffling things around in an angered manner when Rei came down the stairs. The white boxes were placed at the bottom of a large pile of other, heavy-looking boxes. The Second Child was not being gentle in relocating them. For a moment Rei stood in the doorway, watching the back of the fiery girl as she aggressively dug her way through the boxes. She had no idea what she was doing down here, only a vague notion that she had to talk to Souryu about...about Friday night. Rei took a few steps forward. The red-head was so concentrated on her work that she obviously didn't hear her approaching. Gathering up her courage, the pale girl reached out and put a hand on Souryu's arm. The other girl froze up. Her hand hovered an inch above one of the boxes, trembling slightly. She was glancing down at the white hand resting on her arm. A few, tense seconds passed. Then, she grabbed Rei's hand and spun around, staring at the albino. Rei gasped and took a step back, completely at loss to the rage of emotions she saw in those blue eyes. For a panicked second she thought Souryu was going to hurt her. Then their lips connected, and Souryu brought them both to the floor. It took them half an hour to find those microscopes.
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