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Rei's apartment has cold air and the shadows look too deep for the room, as if they've swallowed the space where the walls meet the floor. Asuka thinks she can see things within the shadows, but she won't look closely enough to make sure.
She just has more important things to do. That's all.
"I'm the one who has to bring you your homework this week. I'm far too busy to be doing such a menial job, really, but someone has to do it."
The stack of papers are exchanged from Asuka to Rei. They make eye contact in between heart beats. There is something unsettling about looking into Rei's eyes.
They're unnatural, Asuka thinks. I can't see myself in those eyes.
She looks away to see something else in red.
"Where did you get those?" She gestures towards the flowers in Rei's hand. They're poppies. She knows this.
"Commander Ikari. I don't know what to do with them," her first words since Asuka darkened the door of the apartment. Dollhouse. Cell. Whatever. "I don't like red."
Asuka stares. They are clutched so tightly in Rei's hand it must be as if she thinks they'll disappear if she lets go. Or maybe she's trying to crush them. Either way, they are wilted. She looks back to Rei's face.
She's looking at her again. One red to another red.
"I'll take them." She doesn't know why she says this. "You don't like red. I'll take them for you. You won't have to see them anymore."
Rei keeps looking at her. Won't stop looking at her. Asuka shifts her feet, not uncomfortably.
She just was standing too still. That's all.
Rei nods. "Okay."
So Asuka grabs the poppies, turns, and walks out the door.
The sunlight sits uncomfortably on her skin.
"Pathetic." She looks at her shaking hands holding a small bouquet of poppies. "I'm so pathetic."
Asuka returns to Misato's apartment. She tears the heads off of the poppies and waits for the tremors to stop and the anxiety to drain from its pool in her stomach. She throws the flowers in the garbage.
–
Rei returns to her apartment. It is night. She is alone.
The curtain is open and she did not leave the curtain open. Moonlight spills in to fill as much volume as it can reach, swallowing empty space.
There is something new on her dresser.
Rei walks forward–steps slow but not hesitant–to reach the intrusion, the foreign object.
It is a sunflower, and there is a note.
To the First Children,
You don't like red. Maybe you like yellow.
Your apartment is so drab!
P.S. stop leaving your door unlocked.
– Asuka Langley Soryu
Rei touches one of the petals lightly. Carefully. It is waxy and smooth. Real. Comforting.