Shinji woke up even before his alarm could sound at 10:00 am, he had barely gotten any sleep but still, he felt really energetic. He had forgotten to set the clothes he was going to wear this day, but it wasn't until 6:30 pm that he would meet up with Kaworu, so he put on the first thing he could find in his closet and decided that after classes he'd take a bath and change his clothes to look good. He brushed his teeth and left his room and met Rei for breakfast at the kitchen counter. He remembered Asuka telling him that he had to apologize to his sister, he was a bit nervous to do so, but Rei looked like she was in a good mood. "Hey, how did you sleep?" It was a dumb question since he really didn't care how she slept but he wanted to clear the awkwardness in the room.
She looked up from her book to look at her brother. "I slept great, thanks. How 'bout you?"
The boy nodded while pouring himself a bowl of cereal. "I slept great too. Listen, Rei. I wanted to say sorry for what happened last night. What I said to you was mean and I behaved like an asshole, I really hope you can forgive me." He didn't look at her while apologizing but he could feel Rei's eyes on him.
"I understand, Shinji. You got upset about what Asuka said, she shouldn't have said it in the first place, besides, what you said wasn't directed towards me, but to everyone in the room." Whether Rei wanted to accept it or not, she would still get very uncomfortable talking about her transition, gender, and sexuality. It had always been a hard thing to discuss with everyone, especially since a guy she was talking to ghosted her after she came out to him.
Shinji hated that she would always try to justify all of his actions even when he hurt her. She would put herself down, and even though Shinji did the same with almost everyone he knew, he felt that no one should do that or feel less than others. "No, it was my fault, okay? Don't try to justify what I did, just accept the apology, if you want to obviously. Because I really care about you, Rei, and I don't want you to think that I still see you as just gay or that I don't care about your identity or how you feel." Shinji said calmly, reaching for Rei's hands to establish more of a connection between the both of them.
"Okay, I get it. Thank you, for apologizing. Just apologize to Asuka and Mari too, okay?"
Shinji smiled at how much his friends cared about each other and squeezed his sister's hand to then let it go and continue eating his cereal. "I will." He made a mental note to apologize to Mari, he'd do it when she came back from his classes.
***
It had been a year and a half since Rei had come out to her friends as a trans girl. They would make sleepovers so they could dress Rei up in Asuka's clothes, they would do each other's makeup and even Shinji would wear skirts and get his face painted as support to his little sister. Eventually, it was too big of a deal for Rei to keep from her parents, who would still call her Ryo and gave her huge gender dysphoria. So she asked for help from Shinji and Asuka to tell her parents, who agreed and planned the whole thing with them. Rei wanted it to be simple and fast, no questions asked so her friends would be able to help with that part.
Rei had read online that she had to be direct and get to the point as soon as possible, to avoid any confusion about it.
So there they were. Yui and Gendo were sitting on a couch looking a the three kids in front of them who were in a line looking back at the adults. Rei had told them that she wanted to do the talking first and if she got stuck they could step in and help her. "We all, well, I have something very important to tell you both." As she wanted to continue talking her throat started to dry and she made a hand motion to Shinji so he would get him some water. He immediately understood and ran to the kitchen to get what his sister had asked for. She drank all the water in a big gulp and turned to see her parents again. They weren't saying anything, they both had a face of confusion but tried to stay happy to not scare their son from saying whatever he was trying to say. "Okay, sorry. Now, as you guys know, I'm your son."
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.
The dryer announced the end of its work so he headed over to take the clothes out, folding them carefully so he wouldn't have to iron them later. He looked over at the clock and it was only 1:00 pm, he still had a whole hour to do nothing, so he did the usual, opened his laptop, and laid on his bed to watch Grey's Anatomy. He tried hard not to cry since he had to go to class later but he did not succeed. After an episode, he grabbed his things to exit the apartment and head over to campus.
He was walking next to some buildings when he heard someone calling for him from behind. "Hey! Shinji, wait up!" He turned around to see who was calling him and he saw a pretty white-haired guy running to him. Shinji smiled and waved to him looking very excited.
Kaworu reached Shinji and without warning drew him in for a hug. At first, it was a little weird but Shinji relaxed and returned it. "You also have class at 2:00 pm?" they separated and started walking together towards campus.
"Yeah, I left a little early since I had nothing else to do in my apartment, but it was good since I ran into you. Well, you ran into me."
"At least we didn't crash this time, we're making an advancement." Both laughed and continued walking next to each other. As hard as they tried to avoid the thought, their hands would touch every once in a while but non of them commented on it, neither did anything to stop it. After 5 minutes they reached campus and had to go separate ways since they didn't have the same classes.
"Where are you headed to? I'm going to the glass building." Kaworu said turning to his left, the way the glass building was.
"Me too! So let's go." Shinji said with a smile and grabbed Kaworu by the hand and when he realized he did, he moved his hand up to his friend's arm. They headed over to the glass building, now walking a little faster than before, since there were 2 minutes left for 2:00 pm.
When they arrived, Kaworu stepped inside the building but Shinji didn't. "Is everything alright? Why don't you come inside?" He stared at Shinji who was blushing but wasn't speaking.
"I- I lied to you, I don't have class in this building." Shinji was looking down avoiding at all cost to make eye contact, he said this almost in a whisper, that if Kaworu hadn't gotten closer to him, he wouldn't have heard him.
Kaworu laughed and with his hands, he pulled Shinji's face up so they would look at each other's eyes and it only made Shinji get more flustered than he already was, he obviously made sure to keep his distance from his face and to release his cheeks once he was sure Shinji wasn't going to look away if he let him go. "Why did you come with me then? I don't want you to be late for your class." Kaworu had a smile that he knew he wouldn't be able to erase for the next hours.
"It's just that- I don't know, I wanted to walk with you..." Shinji looked down once again and Kaworu put his hand on Shinji's shoulder which made him look up again.
"Ow, that's so sweet of you, thanks, Shinji." Kaworu moved his hand from Shinji's shoulder and headed back to the entrance of the building. "We'll talk about it later, right now he both kinda have to get back to class."
Shinji nodded excitedly from seeing Kaworu again later. "Okay then, see you later, Kaworu!"
The last-mentioned just smiled and waved back walking into the building. Shinji ran back to his building that was pretty far from where he was. he managed to arrive 2 minutes late but the teacher still let him pass. During the 2 hours of his class he was thinking about Kaworu, and nothing but Kaworu, even if he tried his hardest, all thoughts would somehow manage to go back to the white-haired guy. Eventually, he had to bury those thoughts so he would be able to pay attention to his class and to take notes on the most important things the teacher said. Even if it was the first week, Shinji made sure to keep all his notes and works organized because he knew that if he started to be lazy in school, it would be hard to recover from it. He was the type of guy who would have the best markers and pencils and his notebooks were always decorated with stickers and post it's so it would be easier for him to understand them later.
After his class finished at 4:00, he headed quickly to the classroom in which he had his second class of the day. He didn't have to walk much since it wasn't very far but he still didn't want to be late again. Once he entered the classroom and sat in the back of it. He took out his utensils from his backpack and when the teacher entered the room, the class started and Shinji finally paid attention to it completely. He looked at his phone to check the hour since he felt like he had been in that class for far more than 2 hours, it marked 5:50 pm and his stomach felt weird because he remembered he was supposed to meet with Kaworu again today. Looking back, it was a bad idea to not take a shower in the morning when he had the time, now he would be having to do everything in a hurry and he hated doing that. He came back from his thoughts after seeing his classmates putting away their things and the teacher leaving the classroom, so he did the same as them. Once he walked out he was happy to see Kaworu and the entrance of a building looking down at his phone, but obviously waiting for Shinji.
Shinji walked over to him and poked his shoulder which make him look up from his phone, put it away in his back pocket, and smile at the guy in front of him. "I figured since you walked me to my classroom that I could walk you home, is it okay?"
"That's great, actually I wasn't very late to my class, I got there only 2 minutes after it started, so it's fine." The two of them started walking towards the entrance of the campus in silence since none of them really knew what to say.
Kaworu was the one to break the silence and put his hands on his front pockets, as he usually did. "So I was looking for some sushi places around here, but there aren't any near ones. We would have to take the subway to get to the closest one." he said looking at Shinji who looked back.
"Oh, I don't have any trouble riding the subway, actually, I haven't done it in so long I actually miss it. The only bad thing is that we don't know the routes here."
"Really, then subway it is. And don't worry, we can find some help once we're there, besides, it can be that hard that none of us would understand how it works, you'll see it will be fine." Shinji nodded and both continued walking until they reached the building in which Kaworu lived and they both stopped to say goodbye, well, to say, 'see you later'. "Wouldn't you rather meet up here instead of campus, I mean, it is closer to the subway station. Of course, if that's okay with you."
"That's fine, just, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it by 6:30, since it's already 6:10 and I still have to take a shower and, well, get ready and stuff."
Kaworu laughed and Shinji didn't understand why but he copied his friend and did the same. "That's fine, don't worry. If you want to you can text me when you're coming over and I'll meet you here, so you won't have to come upstairs. Take your time though, don't feel pressured."
"I will, thanks. So I'll text you when I leave my apartment and we'll leave from here. See you later, Nagisa." Kaworu looked at him with a stranged and offended face. "Oh sorry! I forgot! See you later, Kaworu.
Kaworu nodded and changed his expression to a satisfied one. "Yeah, much better. See you later Shinji." He waved and entered his building to head to his apartment and Shinji ran back to his own apartment. As soon as he walked in he saw his friends eating dinner while getting ready to go to their own plans.
"Is everything okay? Why were you running?" Mari said with her mouth full of salad while combing her girlfriend's long hair.
Shinji nodded and passed them to head to his room. "Everything is fine, I'm just running late. You all look very pretty by the way." He said and immediately closed his room's door and headed to the shower and turned it on. While the water was heating up, he took his clothes off, and as soon as they were all on the floor he hopped in the shower. It took him 10 minutes to finish with his routine and he got out of the shower to dry his body and apply body lotion all over him. Still naked, he was looking for something to wear. Starting with his underwear he then looked for some jeans, deciding on some black ones and putting on a pink oversized hoodie, keeping in mind that it was going to be cold that night since it was the month of August. Then he was brushing his hair when his phone rang and he reached to see that it was a notification from Kaworu.
Immediately he dropped what he was doing to open the text to see what it said, and lord did he not expect that.
From: Kaworu.
*Image*
All done here, how are you doing?
Shinji froze looking at the image and lost valuable minutes staring at it, minutes he could have used to get ready instead. The picture showed Kaworu with fluffy hair as if he had recently gotten out of the shower, dressed in black skinny jeans, a black thin sweater, a pair of black doc martens and a lot of silver rings and necklaces around his neck, he was standing in front of a mirror so all of his clothes could be appreciated and was holding his left hand up in a peace sign. Shinji was lost for words, the first thought that came to mind was 'I bet he smells great' and then he realized he had to respond otherwise he would leave him in read. Am I supposed to comment anything about the picture? Am I supposed to send a picture back? I don't think so, besides, he'll understand if I don't send him a picture too... But what if he sent the picture because he wanted me to send him a picture?
Shinji decided to quickly finish doing his hair, adding a lot of cologne, and putting his shoes on to exit his room to go where his three friends were. "Guys, come here, please." He stood in front of them taking his phone out and stretching his arm to his front, and the girls understood that it was for a selfie.
"What's the picture for?" Asuka asked while standing up and getting next to Shinji smiling for the selfie.
Should I lie and say is for my mom? No, Rei would know mom is not like that, uhm, well, there's really no reason for me to not say it's for Kaworu. I don't think they'll want to ask anything about him after what happened last night. Shinji clicked the button on his phone to take the picture while they were al posing, he made sure to smile since he wanted to look happy in the picture, he also did the same as Kaworu putting his hand up in a peace sign. Next to him was Asuka smiling and showing her tongue, Mari was behind Asuka, also smiling and hugging the red-haired girl in front of her. Rei was smiling without showing her teeth and putting her hand over her brother's shoulder. "It's for a friend." He didn't follow up and no one asked. "Well, I gotta go now. You all look amazing, text me when you get there and don't get too drunk please." He grabbed his keys and wallet from the counter and ran back to his room to grab his jacket before leaving.
The girls went back to their activities. "Okay, mom. You also text us when you're with Kaworu, just to be safe." Asuka said and then waved to him as he got out of the apartment.
- *Image*
You look good :) i'm heading to your place now :)
Shinji didn't want to send a picture of himself alone since he felt weird about it, but he still wanted to do the same as Kaworu, so sending a picture with his friends was a safe choice and it still counted, since he was in the picture too. He put on his jacket as he got to the street and looked at the picture his friend had sent him. Shinji was a bit worried that he would go out looking like that, because of the cold, he meant, his sweater looked too thin to keep him from freezing on that cold August night. He put his phone away since it made him not pay attention to the road in front of him and also because his hands started to get cold so he put them in the pockets of his jacket. He walked for only 3 minutes and saw Kaworu already waiting for him at the entrance of the building. He was looking up at the sky and Shinji noticed how pretty his side profile was. "Kaworu!" This made him look to his right and waved to Shinji. He noticed that he was indeed wearing a jacket on top of his sweater and it made him relax since Kaworu wasn't going to be cold.
"Shinji! Ready to go?" Shinji nodded and both walked towards the closest subway station. "So I was looking online and I already have the map for the subway, it was easier to understand than I thought. Here, check it out."
Shinji grabbed the phone and looked at the image that explained the route they had to take. Kaworu was right, it wasn't that complicated, they would be able to get there with no help, or so he hoped. "You're right, it looks easy." He gave Kaworu his phone back and he grabbed it and stayed looking at something on it.
"I wanted to ask, in the picture you sent me, which of the girls is your sister? It's just that none of them look like you." Shinji looked at Kaworu's phone and it showed the picture he had sent him earlier.
He got closer to Kaworu and with his finger pointer at his sister in the picture. "Oh, it's her. We do get it a lot, that we don't look alike, but that's because she's not really my sister, she's my step sister."
Kaworu looked up at Shinji. "How come?"
"When she was 2 years old my parents adopted her from an orphanage my mom was working in at the time." He finally separated from Kaworu and felt the cold in his right arm from losing contact with his friend's left arm.
"That's really cool, so do you guys know anything about her family or how she got there? If you don't mind me asking." Kaworu gave Shinji a smile and shrugged his shoulders.
"It's fine, don't worry. My mom says that one night when the kids at the orphanage were having dinner, someone knocked at the door and when they opened it there was Rei in the entrance. They tried looking for who left the baby but there was no one around. So my mom was the one in charge of the baby and when she finished her work there she didn't want to leave Rei, so she and my dad adopted her." They had arrived at the subway station and went to the machine in which they could buy their tickets to board.
Kaworu bought the tickets for both of them. "That's nice of them, your parents. Do you have a good relationship with her, Rei?" he handed Shinji his ticket so he would show it and be let in.
Shinji accepted the ticket with a smile. "Totally, she's a very good little sister. We get along a lot with Asuka, who's also in the picture I sent you," Kaworu pulled his phone out to look at the picture again. Shinji got closer and now pointed at the red-haired girl. For a moment he felt how Kaworu wasn't looking at the picture, but he was looking at Shinji's profile but he didn't pull away. "That's Asuka, and behind her is Mari, her girlfriend. Rei and I have known Asuka since we were kids and the three of us are really good friends."
Kaworu was now the first one to pull away from Shinji but only to show his ticket to the worker on the subway and Shinji did the same thing. "That's very cute. Since when have Asuka and Mari been dating?"
Both hurried down the stairs since there was an open train already there so they had to catch it before it left. They made it just in time before the doors closed and sat in two single chairs, sitting in front of the other. "Uhm, I think that for two months already? I'm actually not sure. Oh! Speaking of them, I told them I'd tell them whenever I was with you but I forgot. Give me a sec." Shinji pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket and as he was opening the messages app, Kaworu grabbed the phone from his hands and entered their group chat himself. "Hey! Give it back!" Shinji wasn't angry, in fact, he was laughing trying to get his phone back, but Kaworu's arms were longer than his so he wasn't able to reach it, also because, with his free arm, Kaworu was blocking Shinji from getting the phone back.
He proceeded to open the camera and with his arm stretched as it was he posed for a selfie, letting Shinji free from his grip. Shinji did the same, getting closer to him so he would fit in the frame. Kaworu clicked and the picture was sent to the chat. Kaworu typed a description to it 'we're doing great, Kaworu says he's excited to meet you guys!', then, he gave Shinji his phone back.
"Do you really want to meet them?" Shinji said grabbing his phone and putting it again where it was.
"Of course, they seem nice. Besides, they're important to you, right?"
The brunette nodded. "Yeah, they are. You can meet them tonight if you want to."
"Really?" The look on Kaworu's face reminded Shinji of a little kid and it made him smile, Kaworu smiled back.
"Yeah! They are going to a party tonight, if we don't finish too late maybe we can meet them there, or in my apartment too, I'm sure they're fine with that."
Kaworu thought for a second before he answered as if he was thinking whether he had to do something else that wouldn't allow him to go, "Oh, is it the welcoming party? I was actually planning to tell you in case you wanted to go after having dinner, I thought it could be fun. So yeah, let's go so I can meet your friends!"
The boys were so into their conversation they didn't even notice when the station they were supposed to go down in was announced in the speakers, it wasn't until Kaworu looked around him and realized they had no idea where they were. "Wait, Shinji, I think we passed our station," He pulled out his phone to see the image of the routes. "Fuck, we did. Come on, let's get down on this one." Kaworu grabbed Shinji's hand and pulled him so they would be able to get down while the doors were still open.
As they got down from the train, they were still holding hands, until a woman passed next to them and gave them a disgusted look, which Kaworu hadn't gotten in a long time and he left the boy's hand. Shinji didn't seem to care, but he did. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now? We have no idea where we are." Both of them looked around and then looked at each other.
Shinji had a worried face as if he was just told they were now in another state, which made Kaworu laugh. "It's fine, dude." Dude? "Don't worry, let's go to the surface and see if there's somewhere we can have dinner in." Shinji nodded and followed his friend upstairs. When they got out to the street, a cold wind received them and made them close their jackets and lower their faces.
"Uhm, maybe we can go there? It looks cozy, it does say that it's an Italian restaurant but anything is better than my burnt sandwich, not only sushi." He smiled and Shinji did the same. "Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, anything is fine." Kaworu nodded and walked toward the place that was really close to the station. He opened the door so Shinji would enter first and then he did the same. Once inside, they took off their jackets since the place was really hot. Shinji looked at how Kaworu's clavicles were showing because of the cleavage of his sweater, he wanted to run his fingers on them but he obviously didn't.
The hostess received them and took them to a table for two, next to a big window in the corner of the restaurant. A minute later a waitress came by their table and left some menus for the guys to pick their food.
"Are you in the mood for anything in specific? Besides sushi, I don't think they sell that here." He said laughing and Shinji mimicked the action.
Shinji scratched the back of his head looking at the menu and trying to decide from all the options. "I'm actually craving for some pizza, would you like to share? There's no way I'll finish an entire one by myself."
Shinj looked back up from his menu to see what Kaworu answered and he found the boy in front of him looking at him fondly with his head resting over the palm of his hand. "I'll have whatever you want since you know more about food than me."
The way Kaworu was looking at him made him a bit uncomfortable and he moved in his seat to show it. Kaworu seemed to understand and he looked away from Shinji. "Uhm, then I guess we're having pizza, ha." He tried to laugh to ease the tension but that only made it bigger. To take attention off the topic, Shinji raised his hand to call for a waitress and after a short time, the same waitress that gave them the menus came to their table.
"Hey guys, have you decided on anything yet?" The waitress was a tall and really pretty girl, she had dark skin and a beautiful smile, thought that crossed both Shinji's and Kaworu's minds.
"Uuh, yeah. We're gonna have a Margarita pizza?" He looked at Kaworu who smiled and nodded. "And also a bottle of Riunite, please." He looked at Kaworu again who gave him a fun and surprised look.
The waitress noticed this and smiled with them, she wrote the order down and looked back up to the table. "Alright, is there anything else that I can get you guys?" They both shook their heads saying no, "Okay then, I'll be back with your order shortly." she left the table to head to the kitchen and left the boys alone.
"A bottle of wine, you surprise me, Shinji." The comment made him blush and nervously play with the edge of a napkin he took from the table.
"Well, it goes well with the pizza. Besides, if we do go to the party we might as well start drinking already." Kaworu gave him a surprised look followed by a smile and a small laugh.
"Are you one to drink a lot?"
"Me?" Dumb question since there was no other Kaworu could be asking, either way, he nodded. "Uhm, sometimes. I remember, when Asuka turned eighteen, she bought a bottle of really cheap tequila, which we drank for her birthday," he said laughing at the memory, "that day we died," now he laughed harder and Kaworu did the same. "we drank the entire bottle only taking shots, and since none of us had any previous experience with alcohol, we got really drunk really fast. What about you, Kaworu, how was the first time you got drunk?"
Kaworu thought for a second trying to remember. "Uh I think it was with my bes- uh, with my friend at the time, his name was Lee. Well, his name it's still Lee, it's not like he died or anything." Shinji was listening carefully waiting for Kaworu to clear his thoughts. "Anyway, we were sixteen, and Lee stole a bottle of god knows what from his dad's collection. We went to a party and took the bottle and I really don't remember a lot f it." They both laughed and Shinji was looking at Kaworu so he would finish his story if there was any more to tell. "I remember playing party games as usual and drinking cup after cup and from there, complete blackout." Kaworu was lying but Shinji didn't realize since he hadn't known him for a long time to tell whether he was telling the truth or not. Kaworu did remember the first time he got drunk and he prayed to god every day that he could forget it.
They both laughed at the story and shared some other stories until the food arrived at their table. "Oh finally, I was starving, aren't you hungry, Shinji?" He said as he grabbed a slice of pizza and without letting it cool before he bit it.
Shinji did the same, also not waiting for the food to get colder. "I was, oh god, good thing the pizza's here already." They didn't speak much while eating, since they were both very hungry and didn't have a lot of times in which their mouths weren't full of pizza. They also drank the bottle of wine that indeed went well with the pizza.
Once the food and wine were finished they were laughing again at the stories they shared with each other.The waitress came back to the table interrupting their talk. "How was the food you guys, any comments?"
They both nodded and Kaworu spoke for the both of them. "Everything was delicious, thank you so much." Shinji made a gesture with his hands to show that he agreed with what Kaworu said.
She nodded and gave them both a smile, "I'm so glad to hear that you guys, now before I continue, is there anything else that I can get you, a dessert maybe, another bottle of wine?"
They laughed and Shinji grabbed the menu to see what else they could ask for, he went to the dessert part and looked back at the waitress. "No more wine, thank you, I think we've had enough. But a dessert sounds good, we'll have the fried ice cream please, to share. Unless you want one for your own, Kaworu?" He looked over the table and the boy in front of him shook his head saying no.
"Okay then, I'll bring your dessert in a minute, in the meantime, let me clean your table." She proceeded to do as she said and picked the dirty dishes from their table, as well as the glasses and napkins. She left with all the things not before giving both of them a smile.
"So how are you feeling? You still want to go to the party?" Shinji looked at the hour on his phone to see what time it was, it was only 8:10 pm and he was not tired at all.
Shinji looked back up to Kaworu and gave him a smile. "I still want to go, it's still pretty early, I bet they're only starting now. Do you still want to go?"
"It doesn't matter, I'll go if you go." Kaworu said and also looked down at his phone and Shinji was able to see that he had a lot of unseen messages. Could it be his girlfriend? Maybe, I wouldn't be surprised if he had one, he's a good-looking guy and he's also really funny. I wonder if she goes to the same college as us, I don't think so, otherwise, I probably would have met her already...
"Do you have a girlfriend?" The question that left Shinji's lips took them both by surprise, it was sudden and totally out of context from what they were talking about before. "Or boyfriend?" Now that question made both of them even more impressed and Kaworu was blushing a lot, something Shinji hadn't seen yet. "I'm so sorry, I was just thinking out loud, well, the second question wasn't thinking out loud, I just said t-to fix the situation but it didn't help a lot. A- you don't have to answer, I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean to ask it like that."
Kaworu laughed awkwardly. "It's fine, don't worry about it, you didn't mean to ask, but do you still want to know the answer?" Now he was looking more serious but the blush hadn't left his cheeks and it made Shinji blush as well.
"I-I, well, I d-do, but only if you want to answer tho!"
The white-haired boy laughed again and met Shinji's eyes for eye contact. This made both of them blush even more but neither of them looked away, "I don't have a girlfriend, Shinji." they still hadn't broken eye contact, "Or boyfriend." this made them laugh but still didn't make them break eye contact. "I've never dated anyone in my life." Anyone. "What about you? Do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?"
Shinji was about to answer when the waitress got to their table to deliver the dessert but this time she just left it in the table with a quick smile, since she had more orders to deliver. Both the boys looked at the dessert that was in front of them and it had, of course the fried ice cream decorated with some fruit, but what stood out was a lot of hearts around it, made with liquid chocolate. The boys looked at it first and then at each other, all they did was give the other a shy smile and use their spoons to start eating from the dessert and casually rub the chocolate hearts with their spoons so they would lose their shape. As they were eating, Shinji felt Kaworu's eyes on him and it made him lookup. The look the boy was giving him was an expectant look so Shinji remembered he hadn't answered the question yet. "Oh that's right, sorry, I forgot." He grabbed another bite from the dessert before answering. "Uhm, well I'm not dating anyone," Anyone. "at the moment. I've never had a girlfriend either... Or boyfriend" They laughed about how much they had used both of those words already and continued to eat their dessert.
After they finished eating, they asked for the check, and as promised, Shinji paid this time, even tho Kaworu insisted on helping, the brunette didn't let him. They got up after leaving the tip on the table and when getting out of the restaurant, they thanked the waitress and put on their jackets again. "Well, let's go to the party then." Kaworu said,
"Yeah, let's go."
NOTES
This chapter felt longer than others, I hoped you guys enjoyed it. If I don't sleep at all tonight (which will probably happen) maybe I'll update the story again tomorrow.
If you have any comments on the characters, story or writing, please let me know!
I've decided that i will be writing NSFW but that won't be until many chapters later :)
Remember you are loved and remember to stay hydrated, thanks for the support btw <3
-nat