A Different way of talking

This is pretty impressive I know, but we are having flash floods here in South Africa where I stay, so I got time on my hands for writing, its a bit too cold for swimming anyway...

Thanks to: readerjunkie, TatsuDragonKing, greyon13, Incognito girl, Gamelos, Fraulein Kaname Langley, Aincalandorn, eastWolf, keyblade1984, Vorpal Apple [how is 2 updates in one day for you? Heh-heh] and SulliMike23 for your reviews, and thanks again to all those who put favourites and alerts!

To Aincalandorn: I have no idea why I use single quotes, I just do.

Chapter 3: School…

'So…what did you do to deserve that hug last night, Shinji-kun?' Misato asked; a cruel smile was on her face at Shinji's expense.

Shinji groaned, it was early in the morning and he really didn't want to have to deal with Misato's teasing at this time of the day, besides he had school soon, 'I don't know Misato, all I did was help her move in and make food that's all!'

'Aw, you really don't know do you?' Misato asked, 'she was thanking you.'

'…she was?' Shinji asked in confusion, if she wanted to thank him then why didn't she just say so? Oh right, she can't talk.

'Yup, though just between you and me' she leaned in closer to Shinji, exposing some more of her assets, making Shinji blush, 'she doesn't usually take too well to new people, so don't do anything stupid, 'kay?'

'Um…okay?' Shinji replied, why didn't Asuka take meeting new people too well? Did it have something to do with her not talking or was it something else?

A tap on the bathroom door made the two conversing people turn to see Asuka leaving the bathroom, after her shower. Shinji went the same colour as the towel Asuka was wearing, when he noticed that was all she had on and the towel showed off her figure very well.

'Morning Asuka, have a nice rest?' Misato asked the quiet German, who nodded her head.

'Um, m-morning Asuka' Shinji greeted her, trying to avoid looking at the, in his opinion, barely covered girl.

'So Asuka, ready for your first day at school?' the captain asked enthusiastically.

Asuka rolled her eyes in annoyance, she really didn't want to have to go school; she had a degree anyway that should be enough, shouldn't it? But Misato had asked nicely, besides she couldn't really hang around the apartment all day, she'd get bored.

The German girl went to room to get her school clothes on; which she suspected had been designed by someone with a school girl fetish.

'B-but I thought Asuka went to college already, didn't she?' Shinji asked. Why would someone need to go to high school if they had already been through college?

'She did, but since you have already revealed to your classmates that you and Rei are pilots we need to project a good image that we at NERV believe in our pilots living normal lives when they aren't trying to save the world' Misato explained, then with grin she added, 'don't let Asuka find out though…'

Shinji gulped at the ramifications of Asuka finding out why she had to be at school. If she only punched him on the shoulder when he looked at her at the wrong time…what would she do if she found out that he was partly the cause of her having to go to school? The raven haired boy shivered, trying to not dwell on that disturbing thought.

His mind then clicked on the fact that, if Asuka was going to school with him he'd better pack some lunch in a bento for her as well. He doubted she wanted to spend a day at school hungry.

[A few minutes later…]

Asuka and Shinji walked down the street, making their way to the Tokyo-3 Municipal High School. Asuka was taking note of the directions and places that they passed on their way to the school, just in case she wanted to have a look around town after school, while Shinji was wondering what to do in this alien situation.

He was really uncomfortable in this situation since he still didn't really know how to act around the redhead. He didn't want to do or say something stupid and hurt her feelings or anything like that, best he just kept quiet. Shinji let go a sigh, a bit louder than he intended as it caught Asuka's attention.

Asuka looked at Shinji, her expression showing that she wanted to know what the sigh was about.

'Uh, I was…I just forgot to give you your bento' Shinji quickly retrieved the lunch box from his bag, and handed it to Asuka.

The mute girl took it gingerly, the idiot. Now she had to thank him again. Asuka put the bento into her bag and fidgeted with her skirt a bit. She wondered why Shinji was so nice to her, not many people had been nice to her when they found out that she didn't want to speak, not that she needed them of course, but still...

'H-here we are' Shinji said, snapping Asuka out of her thoughts.

She looked at the boring building in dismay, cringing inwardly. She knew that teenagers were especially unkind to people who did things out of the norm, but she would be strong anyway. They'd leave her alone after she had hit them a couple of times.

Asuka looked at Shinji, who fidgeted under her gaze; she was asking him where they need to go next.

'I guess you need to tell Hikari that you're here…' Shinji explained.

Asuka shrugged her shoulders, showing her boredom and signalled for Shinji to lead the way.

The two found the class representative after a few moments of searching.

'Hello Ikari-san, who is this?' Hikari asked with a happy smile. She thought that Shinji had gone and found himself someone and that she had moved to this school so that they could spend more time with each other, which she immediately thought was really cute.

'This is Asuka, she's the Second Child, a pilot…' Shinji explained.

'Hello Asuka, nice to meet you, where are you from?' Hikari asked, after bowing to the girl, who returned the bow, but said nothing else.

'Er, she's from Germany' Shinji said, answering Hikari's question.

'Oh, okay' Hikari said slowly, why wasn't Asuka speaking?

'S-so, is that all you need, Horaki-san?' Shinji asked, feeling uncomfortable with being Asuka's "representative".

'Yeah, but can I talk to you for a second?' Hikari asked.

Shinji stepped to the side with Hikari, feeling even more uncomfortable.

'Why don't you let her speak?' Hikari asked in a hushed voice.

'S-she doesn't speak, so I-I was just trying to help…' Shinji explained.

'She doesn't?' Hikari repeated.

'No, she just uses hand signals and stuff like that…' and hugs, he added mentally, making him regret the addition because he was pretty sure he was blushing again.

'Hmm, okay well, I'll show her around school then' Hikari proclaimed, 'hey, Asuka? You want me to show you around the school?'

Asuka stole a very quick glance at Shinji; that went unnoticed to the boy, and then returned her gaze to the class representative and nodded.

Shinji watched the two girls leave, relaxing a bit. He didn't mind helping Asuka but he was just worried he might do something offensive and get hit by her.

He then made his way back to class, on his way he was met by his new friends.

'Aw man, I was hoping you'd be wearing that lovely red outfit, Shin-man!' Toji exclaimed with a chuckle at his friend's expense.

'I-I didn't have a choice Toji!' Shinji defended himself, his face starting to go the same colour as Asuka's suit was, this was happening to him a lot now days.

'Yeah, yeah, the stuck up redhead put you up to it, huh?' Toji said, with good humour.

'She's not stuck up' Shinji said, with a hint of anger in his tone.

'…uh, sorry Shinji, I was just joking around' Toji explained, he was surprised by Shinji's sudden, outspoken courage and somewhat proud of it.

An uncomfortable silence ensued, but thankfully Kensuke filled the lack of sound, 'wow, Misato is really cool. Letting us tag along on one of the most famous battleships of our time and we got to see the Second Evangelion in action!'

'Don't forget, Shinji in woman's clothing!' Toji added.

'Ugh, guys!' Shinji cried out in dismay. This was getting worse than Misato's teasing.

[Meanwhile, in the school building…]

'And this is our classroom, number 2-A' Hikari said, presenting the class to the mute German girl, '…so, what do you think?'

Asuka merely shrugged her shoulders and let a sigh escape her lips. This was really something she was not looking forward to, but at least Hikari was nice.

'…you really don't want to be here, do you Asuka?' Hikari asked, as she noticed the bored expression on the redheads face.

Asuka shook her head; she really didn't want to be here. She took a seat at one of the desks, and rapped her fingers on the desk with a bored expression on her face.

'Well, sorry, but I can't really do much about that' Hikari said softly, taking a seat next to her.

Asuka looked unsure of something, like she had something bothering her, so being inquisitive Hikari decided to ask the mute girl what was troubling her.

'What's bothering you Asuka?' Hikari asked, looking at the distracted redhead with concern.

Asuka looked at Hikari, blinking a few times. Very few people had bothered to ask her that question, since they wouldn't get their answer the way they wanted it. As always Asuka said nothing, but she smiled at Hikari and shook her head, indicating that nothing was wrong. Maybe school wasn't so bad.

[During class]

Asuka seethed in her seat. School was worse. All the boys were perverts; the teacher was boring, terribly boring and when she got up and nicely wrote her name on the black board to introduce herself, everyone wanted her to voice her hello, like a wave wasn't enough.

At least Hikari helped, she was pretty good at her job as Class Representative, maybe a little too good. Anyway, Asuka continued to grumble in her mind about the perverts and the old, boring, hentai teacher.

She then remembered something that lit up her spirits a bit. The first child went to this school too; maybe she could ask Shinji to introduce her.

'Hey Shinji' Toji called out in a hushed voice.

'Yeah?' Shinji replied, happy that he could escape the boredom of another lecture on Second Impact.

'You find out why she doesn't talk?' Toji asked, it had been bugging him for a while since the German hadn't spoken to them on the ship or at school.

'I don't know why, she just doesn't' Shinji said, his voice sounding a bit defensive.

'Sheesh calm down, Shin-man, just a question, there isn't something going on between you two is there?' the jock asked with a grin.

'NO!' Shinji shouted hastily, a bit louder than he intended.

Everyone either woke up or turned to face the source of the noise, most were surprised that the source was Shinji Ikari, the quiet Eva pilot.

'Ikari, you have clean up duty after school!' Hikari hissed, she couldn't believe Shinji would be one to disrupt class like that, he was usually so withdrawn.

Shinji hung his head and groaned, why me?

-Chapter 3 End-

Another chapter done, hope it was up to standard and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Weathers going in its usual South African way, torrential rain for an hour, partly cloudy, then thunderstorm. Oh well, til next time and please do review, I like to know if it was good and ideas are always welcome (you can pm me if you want as well).