hand over hand

chapter 4

It was a dumb comment that made Yui laugh and Gendo smile but not in a mean way, sort of trying to lighten the mood in the room. "Yeah, we're aware of that, Ryo." Yui said with a smile on her face and nodding her head.

Rei turned to see Asuka to her left and then Shinji to his right who gave her a comforting smile and held her hands as a sign of support. "Well, I'm not."

Yui opened her eyes really big and turned to see Gendo with a worried face, who did the exact same thing to his wife. "Sweety, Ryo, I know that maybe we are not your biological parents, but that doesn't make you any less of our son, we love you as much as we love Shinj-"

"What? Oh no, I didn't mean it that way." Rei laughed harder than she should but it was only because she was really nervous. He gave both hands holding her a squeeze and took a deep breath to calm down. "I mean... I'm trans." Her laughing quickly transformed into tears and she couldn't help to fall on her knees muttering 'I'm sorry' repeatedly. Asuka and Shinji kneeled next to her, stroking her hair and her back while angrily looking at the adults, waiting for an answer. And it better be a good answer otherwise they would lose their shit.

"So that means you're a girl now?" Gendo asked trying his hardest not to sound rude but not succeeding. He stood up and sat in front of Rei, then Yui copied him and did the same. Rei didn't answer, she just stayed mumbling 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry' over and over again."Hey, look at me." she finally stopped talking and looked up to meet her dad's eyes that were starting to tear up as well. "Did I ever tell you about how I always wanted a daughter?" he said with a smile and Rei jumped to his arms now muttering 'thank you' to both of her parents. Yui joined the hug and so did Shinji and Asuka.

All of them separated from the hug and Yui grabbed her daughter's face, stroking her cheek with her thumb. "Are you going to stick with Ryo or do you want us to call you with another name? I'm guessing you'll want to start using other pronouns as well?" Yui looked worried but the kids could see she was trying for her daughter.

"My name is Rei, and yes, I'm using female pronouns now." After the great moment, Yui and Gendo took the kids out for dinner and after discussing for half an hour, they ended up having pizza and ice cream as Rei requested.

The next weeks were a lot of confusion and accidental mentions of her dead name, a lot of questions but also a lot of gifts from her parents, such as clothes, toys, jewelry, and her favorite thing from all that, was a necklace her dad gave him with the word 'Rei' on it that she never took off and still wore even when she went away to college.

***

Shinji didn't have classes until 2:00 so he allowed himself to be lazy until he had to go to campus. After having breakfast with his sister they stayed talking for a bit until she had to go to her classes at 11:00 am. Shinji used the time to clean his surprisingly messy room, it had only been a week and a half that he had been there and it was already disgusting. He gathered the clothes that he had on the floor and decided to toss them in the washing machine, so he would have something to wear the next week.

He also cleared his desk that was full of candy and food wrappers and wiped the glass with disinfectant. After that he put his things on the desk again, organizing them so they would look pretty, knowing that it wouldn't last long. He went over to Rei's room, since she was gone, he grabbed a stick of incense to put in his room so it would smell nice. After a few minutes, the washing machine beeped letting him know that the clothes were ready and he took it back to his room to then light it. While he waited for the dryer to finish, he cleaned his bathroom, scrubbing all of it to then wash it down with water. He organized all his skincare and hygiene products, putting them in order from taller to shorter.