hand over hand

chapter 9

Mari stayed sitting on the bed watching the whole scene, smiling, without trying to stop it. "What the fuck?" She said while both of them could hear Asuka knocking on the door asking to be let in again.

He approached her, sitting next to her, taking deep breaths to calm his racing pulse. "I need to ask you for a favor, but I don't want you to tell Rei or Asuka." He said whispering.

Mari lost her smile and looked at Shinji more interested than before. "What is it puppy?"

"I need you to go and buy me some flowers, please." He pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and gave some money to Mari. "Any type, I don't really care. Just flowers. Pretty ones."

Mari tried her best to keep a straight face but was unable to, but not because she was making fun, more because she kinda understood what was going on. She counted the money Shinji had given her and kept it in her pockets. "Okay, I'll leave them in the van so no one will see them. They'll be ready for whenever you get out of the shower."

He nodded and smiled. "What are you going to tell Asuka tho?"

She shrugged. "I'll tell her that it's none of her business. Now go, you have to get ready, puppy."

Shinji got up and hugged Mari before opening the door and letting Asuka back inside. Then he went to his room and got ready to take a shower.

***

Kaworu's POV

After settling on a time to see each other again, Kaworu left Shinji before he could show any form of physical affection.

Whenever he woke up and found himself back in the place where he lived, a wave of anxiety invaded him and made him panic at the thought of keeping up his attitude with Shinji as the one he had during the past two days. Kaworu knew he wasn't all the way back to his hometown, however, he was afraid that somehow people from his childhood and teenage days would be anywhere near him.

As soon as he woke up from the car ride, he could tell that Shinji was up to something. It didn't take him a long time to think about the possibility of Shinji wanting to formalize things. But what things were they even talking about? Wasn't Shinji rushing a lot? It had only been two days since their first kiss and he was already thinking about becoming his boyfriend? What was he going to tell his mom? What about his dad? What would happen to-.

Kaworu got to his apartment and decided to take a quick shower, he felt as he needed to be clean for that moment. It's not like he didn't want to date Shinji, there was nothing that he wanted more at that moment, but until a few months ago, Shinji didn't even know he was into men. He could still be confused and unsure and that would be 100% valid and ok. As he got naked and turned the water on, he thought about the kindest way of turning Shinji down, thinking about what to say that wouldn't make Shinji sad, more like something that could open his eyes and make him see how weird that situation was.

Once fully naked he got into the shower and let all of his concerns wash away with his sweat and leftover salt from going into the ocean. It took him about ten minutes to get out of the shower to then put some lotion and some clothes on. He chose really nice clothes, still casual, and bathed himself with cologne. He used his remaining time undoing his packed bags and throwing his dirty clothes on his laundry basket that was already filled up.

The door knocked three times and Kaworu tensed up and felt his breathing go faster. There was no reason to feel afraid of Shinji but he still had a hard time calming down. He went to open the door and the first thing he saw has a huge bouquet of different colorful flowers and the smell invaded his apartment really quick.

"Do you like them? I'm sorry if they're too much, but Mari chose them."

"I love them." He said genuinely, with a smile. He took the flowers and moved so Shinji could enter. Shinji went to sit on his usual spot at Kaworu's couch and set his backpack and a bag on the floor, pulling out a big white box from the bag. He looked up at Kaworu and made a gesture with his hand to make him go sit next to him. Kaworu understood and after leaving the flowers on the kitchen counter resting in a vase with water, he took the seat next to his friend. "What's that?" He said pointing at the white box that was on top of the coffee table.