Author's notes:
This revision contains cleaned-up dialogue and better word choices. Nothing
polishes dialogue better than reading it aloud.
Enjoy.
=====
Chapter Four:
"Good morning."
Keiichi breathed deeply, taking in the smell of his freshly brewed coffee.
He leaned forward on the dining table and held the cup in his hands, letting
the heat bite into his fingertips.
"I said, good morning."
He gave a start and looked up. Skuld was standing by the door, holding her
own cup. "Oh," he replied weakly, "good morning."
Skuld sniffed. "Not much sleep?"
"No. You?"
"Like a log," she replied curtly, even as she stared into her own coffee.
"The date's later," she said, as if either of them needed any reminding.
"I know."
Both of them fell quiet after that. Keiichi continued his forced
concentration on his drink, letting it drive away the morning chill. He
pressed his cup with his fingers until they stung from the heat.
"Morning, all!" Megumi said, stepping into the dining room. She glanced
from Keiichi to Skuld and rolled her eyes. "C'mon, guys, your coffee's not
THAT interesting, is it?"
Keiichi felt himself flush and he pushed his cup away. "I --" he began.
"-- Don't know what you're talking about," Skuld finished, abruptly downing
off the last of hers.
"Geez! If it's bothering both of you this much then don't go!" Megumi said,
tearing open a packet of instant ramen flavoring.
"What could possibly --" Skuld started.
"-- Be bothering me? Nothing's bothering me," Keiichi finished.
"Right," Megumi said, pouring in some hot water into her cup. She chuckled
to herself and shook her head. "I just wish both of you would believe what
you say. No, wait, that's the trouble, isn't it?" She tore off the foil top
and blew on the noodles to cool them. "You believe what you say too much."
"Wish," Skuld quietly repeated.
"Wish," Keiichi sighed.
Keiichi and Skuld were silent throughout the trip to Nekomi Tech, neither
willing to begin the conversation both had already carried out countless
times in their minds.
Date?
It's just a date, right?
What's the big deal?
Just a date.
After all, we're just friends.
Just friends.
After parking the bike, they walked down the college main street, in
continued silence and with a marked distance between both of them. The
onlookers began whispering amongst themselves, and wild rumors began
spreading about their imminent breakup (which was odd, considering the
rumors about them began only yesterday). Heads shook at the sad state of
affairs between the two.
By lunchtime, however, any feelings of sympathy were replaced by plans to
console one or the other, in the hope of catching them on the rebound.
Interestingly enough, there were an equal number of sympathizers for either
member of the 'broken couple'.
Keiichi and Skuld sat and ate beside, but not with, each other. That small
but distinct gap between them was still there, and it almost seemed as if no
sound could cross the invisible divide.
Aoshima rubbed his chin. Perfect. After going to all the trouble to
instigate the rumors in the first place, and engineering that scene
yesterday, it was only natural that his plans were going this well. Granted,
he had to adlib yesterday (he hadn't counted on Sayoko moving in so
quickly -- it didn't seem her style), but everything went well regardless.
All it needed now was the follow-through.
He licked his lips and smiled, eyeing Skuld from head to toe. The
follow-through seemed more and more pleasurable every time he thought about
it.
The sun was bright and the air had just the right coolness. Her makeup was
perfect; her dress impeccable. The plan -- the date -- was going perfectly.
And yet something was wrong.
Sayoko stared at herself in the mirror. Everything was going right, and she
could always count on Toshiyuki to take care of the girl. Toshi always takes
care of the girls. With this one date, she'd be campus queen, and the way
Toshi would go through Skuld would make sure he was king.
But something wasn't right.
What was it? Are you going soft? she asked herself. How was this time
different from all the others? It was nothing personal; nothing ever was.
This was all just a means to an end.
"Right?" she told herself. "Just a means to an end."
"We'll be using my car, so you can leave your bike, sempai," Aoshima said,
motioning to the red car parked in front of the main building.
"Omigod! It's a Lancer Evolution VI!" Keiichi exclaimed. "I don't believe
it! This is incredible!"
"I don't see why," Skuld said. "Steel alloy gasoline engine. Twenty-five,
thirty percent efficiency, tops, from the looks of it."
"Oh, listen to you!" Keiichi said. "Can't you tell great mechanical
craftsmanship when you see it?"
"Of course," Skuld replied. "I'll tell you when I see it."
"Could we get this thing going already?" Sayoko snapped.
"Why, cousin, you're usually more charming than this," Aoshima said. "Well,
at any rate, here," he said, handing Keiichi the keys. "Sempai, since you're
the Auto Club's best driver, I thought you should drive."
Keiichi drew back from the keys for a moment, perhaps wondering what the
catch was. Seeing none, he took them and mumbled back thanks before
scrambling into the driver's seat.
Skuld and Aoshima took the back seat, while Sayoko sighed and sat in the
passenger seat. Toshiyuki was right, she thought. At that point in the date
she should be pitching carefully constructed praise and come-ons at Keiichi
already. Keiichi wasn't anything special -- he was just like all those other
guys.
She looked up at him and saw his eyes, alight like a child's as he drove
on, apparently torn between pushing the engine and being suitably reverent
of what was admittedly a magnificent machine.
She lowered the sun guard with the pretense of retouching her makeup, but
actually she wanted a view of what was going on in the back. She looked
through the vanity mirror to see Aoshima using his subtle tricks to seduce
Skuld -- putting his arm around her, touching her knees lightly every now
and then -- but Skuld wasn't buying any; she was far too busy arguing with
Keiichi.
"Listen to that! So much kinetic energy wasted, released as useless sound
and heat!"
"That's part of the fun, okay?"
"What fun is this? Do you realize that as we're taking this fun little trip
to a restaurant we could have walked to we're burning up the
sixty-five-million-year-old remains of a dinosaur's left leg?"
"We might as well put it to good use, don't you think? I mean, old T-Rex
won't have a use for it anymore, would he?"
"Tell him that when Ragnarok comes!"
Sayoko watched with amusement as Aoshima struggled to find somewhere to
tear Skuld's attention away from the discussion, with little success. She
sat back and smiled. It was a date, after all; she might as well have fun
while they were at it.
This wasn't going as well as Aoshima had thought it would; the car, which
was supposed to distract Keiichi, only served to fuel whatever argument he
had with Skuld; ironically, Aoshima thought, both factors were in his plan.
He never really thought they would overlap. Or that Skuld was that
knowledgeable about machines; then again, he should have anticipated it --
she was in the Auto Club, after all.
Sayoko wasn't much help; in fact, he'd caught her giggling to herself every
now and then, as if she was completely unconcerned that the campus crown was
slipping from her -- their -- grasps. What was wrong with her? Why wasn't
she even trying to wrest Keiichi away?
She seemed content to just watch them argue, and argue they did. They'd
argued throughout the trip, throughout the meal at that fancy restaurant,
throughout the movie, throughout the drive back -- and not just about the
car. They argued about everything -- the food, the movie, the weather, some
wish someone was supposed to make...
And now Aoshima and Sayoko were forced to watch them argue all the way back
to their dinky little sidecar motorcycle.
As the still-quarrelling pair left, Sayoko said, "I had fun."
"Fun?" Aoshima said, incredulous. "I didn't arrange that double date for us
to have 'fun'! We were supposed to take care of business, remember?"
"I know," Sayoko replied, "but still... I had fun."
"Damn it!" Aoshima slammed a hand down on the car hood. "If you'd done your
part like you were supposed to..."
"...Everything would have gone according to plan?" Sayoko said. "How do you
know that?" She sighed and looked up at the sky, a few stars shining through
the bright haze of the city lights. "Besides, I wouldn't have wanted to win
like that, anyway. If you did manage to seduce Skuld -- which I doubt --
then you'd be king, and after word spread out about how easy a conquest she
was she'd be no contender for queen. Which means I'd win by default." She
smirked. "And you know how much I hate hand-me-downs."
He opened his mouth to reply, but she went on. "I'll win him over, Toshi,
but I'll do it without your help."
He snorted. "Since when did you get scruples about how you win someone?"
"Since now." She began to walk away. "Did you see how they kept arguing, on
and on?" She smiled and brushed back her hair with her fingers. "It must be
nice to have someone like that. Someone to disagree with so passionately. "
"What about us? We argue a lot."
"You know what I mean, Toshi."
Aoshima folded his arms. "No, I must say I don't."
"Then I pity you, Toshi, I really do." She shrugged and walked off. "See
you tomorrow."
"What kind of a date was that?"
"You tell me!" Keiichi shouted over the roar of the motorcycle engine. "I
couldn't even hear the movie over your yapping!"
"My yapping?" Skuld snapped. "If you hadn't gone on and on about that
stupid gas-guzzler maybe we could've enjoyed our meal a little more!"
"Is it my fault you don't appreciate a good machine when you see one!"
"Good machine? The only thing that clunker was good for is the city dump!"
"Oh, fine be that way!"
"Fine! I will!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
They rode on in silence for a few moments, then Keiichi stopped the bike.
They took off their helmets and stared at each other, both waiting for the
other to speak.
After a long moment of awkward, open-mouthed silence, they spoke.
"Look-- No-- Why don't you-- Wait, let me--!" they both began to say.
They both paused, holding their breath.
Suddenly, Keiichi burst out laughing. He laughed out loud, and as he did he
felt all the tension, all the unease slip away. All the doubt, all the
worries of the last couple of days left him as he laughed, as he laughed so
hard that tears came to his eyes. He wiped them away and saw Skuld, looking
at him, laughing with him, and he smiled at her. "Some date, huh?"
"I'll say," Skuld replied. "I felt sorry for Toshiyuki back there. He
didn't seem equipped to deal with two wildly arguing lunatics like that.
Sayoko seemed okay, though."
"Yeah. She doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought."
"I know. Toshiyuki gives me the chills, though."
"Why, aren't you used to men treating you like a sex object?" Keiichi
teased.
"Oh, shut up," Skuld said, lightly bopping Keiichi on the head. "Say, do
you have a wish yet?"
Keiichi gave Skuld an amused look and snickered. "No. Why did you decide to
ask me now?"
"Oh, nothing," Skuld replied, "it's just that I have a wish of my own."
"You do?" Keiichi said, raising his eyebrows. "What wish?"
"Three guesses."
Keiichi scratched his chin and gave a look of mock-rumination. "Hmm. That's
a tough one. Lemme see now... Ice cream."
"No fair!"
"What can I say? I'm just too good for my own good."
"Haha."
"Okay, okay, I'm just teasing. Ice cream, huh? Put on your helmet, my
goddess, because your wish is my command! To the nearest Haagen-Dazs!"
"Haagen-Dazs? Isn't that a bit pricey?" Skuld asked, slipping on her
helmet.
"It's okay, we can use the money we saved on dinner."
"Oh, that's right, Toshiyuki paid for dinner, didn't he?"
"Yeah. We were so busy arguing that we hardly noticed."
"Well, at least he was good for something."
"I guess. Well, let's go, then?" Keiichi said, straightening his goggles
and starting the bike.
"Sure. I want green tea ice cream this time."
"Yuck! That's like cold Play-Doh!"
"For your information, I like green tea ice cream," Skuld said indignantly.
"And how would you know what Play-Doh tastes like?"
"Oh, shut up," Keiichi muttered as he accelerated, making the engine roar.
"Aha! You saw the 'non-toxic' label on it and just wolfed it down, didn't
you?"
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
They fell silent for a moment, and then they looked at each other and
grinned.
"Say, Keiichi?" Skuld asked softly.
"What is it?"
"Why did you start laughing, back there?"
"What? Oh, that," Keiichi said. "It because I realized what Megumi said I
was supposed to know." He smiled. "And I did know."
"So... what did you know?"
"I'm--" Keiichi opened his mouth, but then he closed it again and smirked.
"--Not going to tell you."
"Ooh! No fair! Tell me!"
"Nope!"
"Tell me!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Oh, come on!"
"No way!"
"Ooh, you're so mean!"
to be continued...
=====
w.o.m.
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482
=====
"Whatever," her heard her say sarcastically, although he could still hear
the grin in her voice. "You'd better not be messing around back there while
I'm gone, buster!"
"Mess around? Me? I'm hurt, Yui, truly hurt."
"Uh-huh."
"No, seriously!"
- Yui and Gendo Ikari, Neon Chronicle Evangelion 0:1