Asuka was bouncing her leg up and down under her desk as she leaned her face on her hand, trying to look bored. Together with Shinji, they had gone to school the next day after they had become literal gods. So trying to keep a disinterested look was proving to be difficult, as she thought of the million different ways this power could be used.
As a precaution, Shinji's parents had told them under no circumstances were they to tell anyone else about this ability. They had been clever enough to understand that nations from across the world would easily abuse this power, so keeping their mouth shut was of the utmost priority.
She glanced quickly at the bracelet on her left wrist. It's design looked almost futuristic, a deep crimson color with splashes of red decorated its design. Shinji wore an identical bracelet, although his was a mix of white and blue, complimented with the odd splash of black. These bracelets were designed to give them immediate access to their powers, without having to go back to the room. She wasn't quite sure how it worked, but it was apparently linked to the room in some way, enabling them to summon objects, or change their environment around them at will. And the most frustrating thing about the bracelets was that neither Gendo nor Yui had said a damn thing about how to activate them.
As Asuka cursed the two mad scientists, the door to the class slid open, revealing Misato looking cheerful.
"Good morning, my fellow nutcases. I have some good news for most of you and some bad news for two of you in particular."
"This'll be what she was so excited about this morning." Asuka thought as she recalled their guardian giggling like a drunk schoolgirl whilst they had all been eating breakfast together this morning. It had been in equal parts curious and terrifying. Try as they might, neither she nor Shinji could extract any useful information out of her.
"I have the pleasure of introducing a new transfer student to everyone today. Please treat her kindly everyone! Miss Ayanami, you may enter."
At her words, a young girl with eye-catching light-blue hair walked into the classroom. As she turned to face the class, Asuka noticed her eyes were a bright, slightly-unnerving crimson. But more importantly, she noticed that the transfer student bore a startling resemblance to Shinji's mother. And on top of that, she was incredibly cute.
"I swear to god, if I catch Shinji staring at her, I'm going to..." Asuka muttered as she turned around to look at Shinji. She wasn't expecting his expression to be laced with shock and horror in equal measure. As she wondered what had him so scared, the transfer student began to speak.
"My name is Rei Ayanami, its a pleasure to meet you." She did a small bow, and as she looked up again, Asuka noticed her flash a smile in Shinji's direction. Whipping her head back, she saw that Shinji's expression had grown a hundred times more petrified looking.
"And be careful boys, she's technically already spoken for!" Misato piped up from her chair near the window. All of the boys looked at her, both horrified and confused at the same time. Winking at Rei, she nodded towards her.
"It's time to reveal the biggest news of all." It sounded like Misato was having a hard time containing her excitement. Rei nodded, suddenly looking bashful and shy, began to walk towards the centre of the class, specifically to Shinji's chair. After having reached her destination, she smiled at him.
"It is good to see you after all this time, Shinji. Here, this is for you." She placed a small box in front of him, a very familiar-looking box.
"What on god's green earth is in that box Shinji." Asuka whispered, dreading the answer she knew was most likely coming. Shinji stared at the box, paralyzed in fear. This couldn't be happening. He had thought this whole thing had been forgotten about years ago.
He picked up the box with trembling hands. The whole class waited on baited breath, the atmosphere was electric, to an almost lethal degree. He gently prised open the box, confirming his worst fears. Sitting snugly inside the box were two, sparkling engagement rings.
The whole class erupted into pandemonium.
"...what?" Asuka looked mental, with one eye stretched far wider than it should have been able to, a demonic grin danced across her face. "WHAT? WHAAAT!?"
"SHINJI, YOU BASTARD!" Toji Suzuhara, his supposed best friend and pillar of support during most of their hard times together, looked about ready to punch him square in the face.
"THE HELL IS ALL THIS ABOUT!? You've already chummy with the hottest girl in the school, where the fuck are engagement rings coming from!? With this new chick!?"
"Suzuhara, language!"
"Shove it Class Prez! This is a national emergency!" His retort ignited a blazing fire under the temper of their class president, Hikari Horaki. Her face matched Asuka's current expression in terms of pure terror, immediately rushing to Toji and grasping his ear with the strength of an enraged lion.
"Would you like to repeat that, Suzuhara?"
Meanwhile, Shinji had about five seconds to live, as his situation changed for the worse when Rei suddenly put his arms around him. A pure explosion of rage erupted from Asuka, as her table went flying across the room.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM!?" She was barely stopping herself from launching at the blue-haired girl, who looked back at her, confused by Asuka's rage.
"I'm simply hugging him. It's been at least six years since I last saw my childhood friend, and it's time for our promise to be fulfilled."
"What. Fucking. Promise?" Asuka aimed the icy question at both Shinji and Rei. "I'm pretty sure I've just crapped myself..." Shinji moaned as the two girls continued to glare at each other.
"IKARI, SORYU, LANGUAGE!" Hikari roared from behind him, still wrestling with Toji.
"His father promised my father that we would be engaged to marry when we both came to the right age. It has been a long time coming, but I have been waiting for this day to finally reunite with Shinji, for a long time." Rei glanced down at the terrified boy, a small blush creeping onto her face.
"But... why...?" Asuka's rage could be heard between every whispered syllable. "Why him?"
A moment's silence passed, as Rei thought about her response. She looked up, a firm determination present in her eyes.
"Without Shinji Ikari, I would not be alive today."
The silence returned, echoing around the classroom. Rei stood up, letting Shinji go.
"I was saved from a debilitating illness, not by medicine, nor by the magic of modern day science, but through the kindness that Shinji brought to me, everyday I sat in a lonely medical ward."
"For most of my life, I had been alone. I hadn't had any real friends, nor was my father around often, due to his job. My mother passed away at a young age, and I was too shy to make any friends of my own. Then, due to unfortunate circumstances, I found myself waking up in a medical ward at NERV, where my father worked. I was told that it would take a miracle to save me from my illness."
"It was then I first met Shinji. His parents both worked at NERV, and his father, who is my father's cousin, had brought him to work one day, to show him some of the experiments that were going on. By mistake, Shinji got lost and ended up in my room. And instead of leaving, he stayed with me and chatted with me. We stayed there for hours until his parents eventually discovered him."
"I begged him to stay, and through various circumstances, Shinji was allowed to visit me. Almost everyday he would come to my room, sometimes bringing games to play. And eventually, over time, my illness began to dissipate. Because of those happy days I spent with Shinji, he gave to me a miracle. The only thing I can give to him in return is my love, and everlasting matrimony."
The rest of the day passed agonizingly slowly, with Rei and Asuka butting heads with each other at every opportunity. The majority of their teachers were terrified of the spectacle, not to mention Shinji felt a constant fear of dying from a terror-induced heart attack.
The last bell ringing was heavenly music to his ears. He just wanted to go home, eat and sleep the nightmare of the day away. Catching sight of Misato walking towards him, a slightly apologetic expression on her face, he realized that his troubles were far from over.
"Shinji... How's it going?" She tried to sound as lighthearted as possible, but even she knew how tough today had been on him.
"I want to find my father and strangle him." He said, exasperated. "He told me he had 'smoothed things over' with this promise."
"Do you not like Rei?" Misato looked at him quizzically. He shook his head.
"It's not that. It just came out of nowhere, that's all. All these years, I wasn't too worried about it, because I thought Rei saw me as a friend, and nothing else. But then she transfer into my class, declares her love and dedication and I feel like somebody's thrown a metaphorical brick in my face. It's all too sudden, I don't know what's going on..."
Misato nodded sympathetically, ruffling his hair. "I understand kiddo. Love's never an easy battle to fight, especially when you've got a pretty thing like Asuka hanging around day and night. But things will get better."
Her smile quickly turned into a look of panic as she realized something.
"Actually, wait, scratch that, things are going to get a whole lot worse!" Looking up at her, his own face now in a panic, he trembled at the thought of more bad news involving the girls.
"I totally forgot to mention that Rei's moving in with us!"
After that, he was instructed to explain the news to Asuka. Misato offered him a stab/bulletproof vest she had for 'reasons'. Politely refusing, he made his way to where she thought she might be. Discovering her in their homeroom classroom, sitting on his desk, swinging her legs as she looked outside, she turned to face him as he walked in. Noticing his grim expression, her own face dropped into a dark scowl.
"Oh god... what now?"
After he quickly explained, he could have sworn the classroom had literally exploded with her fury.
---
They had entered the park that was on the way home. Asuka stomped ahead of him, fuming. She was that angry that he could literally feel the burning aura radiating from her. He hadn't felt this scared of her since when they were kids, back when he had been much more shy.
"Asuka..." He gently tried to talk to her, but his response was a dangerous sounding growl. His shoulders slumped as he mumbled towards her back.
"I'm sorry..."
Time froze. Along with Asuka's footsteps, and the world around them seemed to quieten. It sounded like a normal thing to say, but Asuka's response was a small sob. It was the most heartbreaking sound he could have heard from her. The invincible Asuka, the girl who never backed down. The girl that every single male at their school was attracted to, yet equally terrified of, was quietly sobbing in front of him.
"Wha- Asuka!?" He rushed up to her side, and caught a glimpse of her face. Crystal tears swept down her face as she stood there, trying to no avail to rub her eyes, attempting to stem the flow.
"Shinji... stop, don't... don't look at me..."
"Why are you crying Asuka? I'm sorry! If its something I said, I'm sorry!" He hadn't apologized to her like this since they were kids. Back then, she had yelled at him for apologizing all the time, threatening to punch him in the face if he kept on at it. He tried to curb his use of apologies since then, but he couldn't help it. Not when his best friend in the world, the girl who had stood by him through all hell, was crying his eyes out in front of him.
"Asuka..."
"She's... she's going to take you away from me!" She was talking about what had happened with Rei. "I've known you since god knows when, yet she swoops in out of nowhere, flashes her rings as though she's showing the world your shackles and... and... GRRAAHHH!" Screams echoed around the park as Asuka yelled towards the heavens, as though she was cursing the gods themselves.
"No!" After breathing heavily for a few moments, she clenched her fists and whirled to face Shinji head-on. Her eyelashes sparkled with moisture as she glared at him. Her gaze was so fierce, he took a step back, cowering slightly.
"I'm... sorry" His voice trembled. Realizing that she was probably frightening him, she rolled her eyes and walked over to him.
"I'm not letting her do as she pleases." Asuka looked away, embarrassed as she mumbled. "But with this, I hope you finally understand how I feel. I was hoping for a more romantic confession, but these things are never easy when you're involved."
It was his turn to feel embarrassed. Looking at his shoes, he suddenly felt an unexplained sense of guilt.
"I'm sorry..."
"Argh..." Asuka rolled her eyes again. "If you apologize to me one more time, I'm going to kiss you. And for every time you do it afterwards, I'm going to kiss you again. I don't care if we're in public, at school, or whatever, but I am sick of you saying sorry every five minutes. If this is the only way to shut up your incessant apologies, save using a ball gag, dammit I'll do it!" Asuka's beautiful, cerulean eyes dared him to argue. He was swept away by his pounding heart, and before his brain had any sort of chance to recover, his mouth began moving on its own.
"I'm... sorry?" Meant more as a question to her confounding statement than anything else, he clapped his hand over his mouth. But the damage had already been done.
Asuka's eyes widened in shock. But it was quickly replaced by a mischievous grin.
"That... was on purpose, wasn't it?"
All he could do was open and close his mouth, gaping like a fish. He felt like his doom was imminent. To whatever gods would listen to his prayer, he wished that he would survive to at least be able to eat some katsu curry, one last time.
Asuka began to close in slowly, standing on her tiptoes, her grin getting wider and wider as the tip of her nose brushed against the tip of his own. Her arms wrapped around his neck as her face flared with a crimson blush. A fiery determination exploded in her eyes, in which Shinji was now thoroughly lost in. "Just this once... I'll let it slide." She whispered, her eyes never once leaving his own. One of her hands began to ruffle with his hair as she continued to whisper.
"Ich liebe dich... dumm Shinji." And with that, her gentle lips pressed against his own, knocking out all of his senses, save for the touch of her lips and the sense of utter euphoria as they stood in the glow of the illuminated park, embracing each other to the sound of the chirping cicadas.