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This is, Asuka reflects upon herself, a stupid idea.
Out of the many tried-and-true experiences she has the pleasure of dragging her ass out unscathed, the mere thought of her giving a gift to someone else only for it to end in unmitigated disaster is certainly a laughable one. Yet, right now, standing outside room 0200 of NERV’s women dormitory while holding onto an octopus plushie, Asuka begins to have the slightest inkling of doubt within her chances of success.
She blames Mari for this. That damnable, smug-as-fuck Four-Eyes and her stupid suggestions. Hah, an octopus toy which one can flip it inside out to indicate the person’s current mood? Sounds like something that dumbass Toji would have gotten for Hikari because he has the emotional sensitivity of a brick and can’t even recognize whenever his girlfriend is being moody.
Saying that, however, doesn’t take away from the current fact of Asuka standing nervously right outside the door of her own girlfriend’s room with a blue octopus strangled in a death grip, looking for-all-intent-and-purpose stupidly superfluous. In fact, she can hear snippets of conversation filtering back, students unfamiliar with Asuka being on this side of the dorm muttering amongst eachother about her sudden appearance. Asuka wants to turn around and yell at them to mind their own fucking business—but Rei dislikes loud noises in front of her room, so she refrains from doing just precisely that.
Rei. On the subject of Rei. How should she start the conversation anyway?
Oh, just find this thing stashed in a corner of a fleet market. Impulse buying, you know?
“No.” Too try-hard. Besides, Rei will know if there is a market in town.
The thing reminds me of you, like, your tendencies to hole up in a nest and clinging onto a book.
“Uh..” That… is not leaving her mouth anytime soon. Preferably never.
Your face looks like it, so I bought it for you.
“Verdammt.” Scheiße, the sentence actually implies that Rei is like a damn octopus. Scratch that, too.
Her foot stomps down on the polished wood, the click sound rebounding harshly across the hallway. The sunlight shining through the windows down the stairs seems like mocking her with its merry rays, a silent gloating over Asuka’s inability to express her feelings. In her palm, the octopus lets out an audible squeak.
Okay, let’s start again. Step forward, knock, step back, give away the plushie and she’s done, no need to explain anything. She can do this.
Her hand curls and raises up at eye-level, ready to knock—only to jerk back when the door abruptly opens, revealing Rei cladded in a baggy hoodie and sweatpants. Her small, slender hands are almost swallowed by the long sleeves. Asuka gulps down a deep breath.
“Asuka? I heard your voice outside?” Rei inquired.
“Oh, uh,” Asuka’s eyes twitch. “It’s—uh, never mind. Take this!”
“Huh?”
She clasps Rei’s hands and shoves the octopus onto the delicate palms, acutely feeling her own cheeks heating up like a pressure boiler. “For you.”
The look in her girlfriend’s eyes is clear wonder, mixed with a healthy dose of curiosity. Rei tilts her head to a side before experimentally squeezes the plushie, lips curling up sweetly at the corners. Asuka wants to kiss her so bad. “My birthday is not yet. For what kind of occasion, Asuka?”
“Do I have to wait for a special day to give you something?”
“No, but giving presents on special days makes it more meaningful.” Rei murmurs in that sweet voice of hers.
At this, Asuka does scoff. Nicely, because she can never muster up the will to be mean to Rei. “Au contraire, giving things to my girlfriend on an ordinary day would be nicer than on an overblown holiday?”
“Ah…”
“Besides,” she clears her throat and turns her face away, feeling a smothering heat creeping up her cheek. “You, uh, if you find yourself feeling angry or something and you don’t wanna say anything, you can just turn the octopus inside out to show a different face,” Asuka mutters shyly, a hand covering her mouth. The explanation sucks—worse when Rei hasn’t seemed to register the words at all. The taller girl glances back, only to find herself stupefied at the glow on her girl’s face.
Rei blinked—before a beatific smile lights up her face like the full moon. “In that case, thank you very much,” the blue smiley face of the octopus is swished against the front of Rei’s hoodie, satin fabric wrinkling inside the embrace. “I’ll keep it safe. And…”
“Ha—?”
The touch of soft lips on her own blanks out Asuka’s mind. Her eyes widen and then slide shut, allow herself to immerse fully within the warm sensation of Rei. On those velvet, pretty lips she kisses sweetly, breaking the even teeth apart to entangle their tongue together. It is weird, Asuka grins when Rei breaks off, that just this morning she was kissing Rei the very same way—like this, like she could not bear to let even a breath escape into the infinitesimal gap between their face—and yet, the taste of Rei, everything of Rei, never bores her.
She lets the words out, finding twenty-hours-and-forty-minutes-thirty-one-seconds worth of time too long of a time to not express it to her girlfriend. “I love you. Have fun reading.”
To that, Rei smiles widely, eyes closed in flushed happiness.
(“Rei?”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you ever turn the octopus around to the other side?”
“Oh. I don’t need to.”
Asuka blinks slowly, her mouth automatically repeats the words as if cannot properly process them, “You… don’t need to…?”
“Yes. What is the matter, Asuka?” Her girlfriend, the adorable book nerd, cocks her head to a side while shooting an inquisitive look at Asuka.
“I mean, it’s been six months since I gave you that?”
“And…?”
“You can’t honestly say that I haven’t pissed you off sometimes?! I mean, I piss myself off sometimes!”
“Oh. Right.” Rei whispers, bookmarking the tome she is pouring over. Her hands reach for the octopus plushie, now always in arms-reach. “You did, a few times.”
Asuka flounders, at a loss when faced against Rei’s bluntness. “Uh—”
“But I never turn it inside out because, no matter what kind of argument we may get in along the way, being with you is happiness in itself.” Rei, beautiful and so very coherent with words now, a poet in training, leans forward to nuzzle into Asuka’s collarbone. “I love you, so I always am happy with you. There is no need to show an unhappy face.”
"Oh.")