2022-04-29: Distance
- Log: Distance
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Kaworu Nagisa
- Where: A small cemetery in Tsutsujidai
- OOC - IC Date: April 29, 2022 (0096)
- Summary: After Renais awakens, Kaworu seeks out Akane to talk to her about her wishes. The conversation grows more complicated from there.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The graveyard... it's honestly something Akane kind of forgot about looking at, even as 'walking in the cemetery alone in the summer' approaches becoming an actual seasonally appropriate activity. It's good to get the reminder, at least -- to remember that someone thinks her preferred range of activities is just fine.
Stretching out a bit as she approaches, Akane glances up for a moment. ... maybe she should have insisted on somewhere inside, she reflects -- it is really just too miserably hot today... then again, it's not as though her hoodie is stapled to her body. She can at least make a small adjustment for the circumstances.
So it goes, then, that Akane approaches the angel statue with her hoodie tied around her waist, glancing at her...
... schoolmate.
"You wanted to talk about something one on one?" Akane asks, curious. She's guessing this is about their recent operation, but...
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Seasonally appropriate? But isn't it always summer in Tsutsujidai?
Regardless of the heat, Kaworu relaxes on the shoulder of the angel statue located near the center of the cemetary. One hand on its shoulder, the other draped on his lap, one foot perched underneath him, the other foot dangling off the edge, he gazes up at the hazy heavens with his usual faint smile. A faint, slight breeze ruffles his gray hair and his usual school clothes, which he's been wearing to both Tokyo-3 Municipal as a middle school third-year and Tsutsujidai High as a high school first-year as he attends both. The bright summer sunlight glints off a metal band that hugs his left wrist. He of course senses Akane's approach, but he waits for her to speak before he turns his smile down to her.
"There are a lot of things that are easier for us to discuss one-on-one, aren't there?" he points out. "In this case, I was wondering what you were planning to do about Renais, now that the light of the Dawn has been stripped from her. You've probably heard already, but she's awakened now."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
That is *theoretically* the point, but now Akane can say it out loud to normal people!
"Yeah, we're kinda racking those up," Akane agrees, with a small laugh. She brings her hand to her mouth as she does, but the laugh doesn't exactly last terribly long. Kaworu gets right into it.
"This is actually the first I've heard about it!" Akane answers, a bit embarrassed. "Sounds great, though. I was a little worried about the whole getting stabbed thing! Just... great. Now she definitely doesn't need to come back anymore."
Apparently, Akane continues operating under the... belief? assertion? that Renais was just using her city as a place to feel a little more normal for just a bit longer before the end. It's easy for her to make the very worst inference available to her -- after all, it's been rewarded plenty of times.
"... I already know she doesn't remember a whole lot of why we're friends, though," Akane notes. If she didn't know Renais was *awake* but knew *that* was coming... well, there's only one way she could've gotten that information, huh. The young lady moves to lean against an old familial grave, looking up at Kaworu.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu laughs a little with her. "It's in our nature," he remarks. The laugh doesn't last long, though, and neither does his smile as Akane expresses the belief that Renais 'doesn't need' to come back. And yet, if she's hearing that she's woken up for the first time, but already knows that her memories are disordered...
"Alexis told you that, hm," he observes, less a question and more a statement. "It's true. Her memories seem somewhat hazy. She was very concerned about you all the same." Specifically, she's concerned about what Alexis did to her and how that would hurt Akane in turn, but Kaworu imagines their one-on-ones are not *completely* one-on-one.
"So what will you do if she comes back regardless of whether she needs to?" he prompts. "Do you want her to come? Or do you want her to stay away?"
It's a bit of a non-question. Kaworu has come to grasp enough of the true shape of Akane's heart to know what she will say--and what she will actually mean. Even so, it's good to put these things into words (express one's feelings).
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Yep! Apparently his spear messed up her memories a little bit while it was getting all the stuff out of her. Really great -- saves me a whole lot of trouble, right?" Akane sounds genuinely happy about this, but it's a happiness that doesn't *quite* plant its flag in her mental landscape.
The question, though... "... I don't want to see her." The expected answer, more than likely -- but speaking of Akane's mental landscape... there's some different tenor to it than usual. Historically, this has been the sort of... fearful-territorial-stagnant Akane's thoughts usually trend toward, the emotional range of a scared apex predator, the kind of thing that Kaworu can only read so clearly because he is, himself, a monster.
Now it's just shame. Normal, garden-variety, human shame.
"This could have been a lot cleaner if I'd thought about it... like, at all. Or trusted Alexis with more of it, I guess." Akane lets out a -- forced -- playful laugh. "I knew she was a 'hero,' but I didn't really think about the fact that... she'd *still* be a hero, even with something screwing around in her brain. Good thing this is a place that doesn't play by those kinda rules!"
She ruminates for a second, and then: "Then again, if she thinks of this as a place that hurts her, she's less likely to come back around... so it actually works out pretty great, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Akane chirps about how great it is that she's been saved so much trouble. Kaworu gives her a long, thoughtful look. Eventually, he replies, "True. You *were* worried about how to keep Renais from spreading the truth about you." But there's a certain regretful cadence to his words that Akane might pick up on. After all, the two of them had settled on, if not a solid solution, then a way of moving forward on the problem.
'I don't want to see her.' It *is* what he expected from her. But the notes of it... they're *not* expected. This is why it's always worth it to ask. Even when things are the same as always, there can always be something different. And here...
And here, her heart wavers harder than ever over the borderline between "human" and "monster."
Akane expresses her takeaway that she should have trusted Alexis more. Kaworu's pale eyelashes dip low. Given that Renais's understanding of the true nature of Alexis and his relationship with Akane is clear, even if her memories surrounding it or not, he highly doubts that she'll stay away. Even if she didn't care about Akane as a friend, she is, as Akane says, a 'hero.' She won't simply leave her alone to suffer as Alexis's prey.
"And if she comes anyway?" he gently presses.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"She won't," Akane says at first, with some firmness; this is the conviction of someone who has experienced pain and had no one come before -- someone who earnestly believes that better things aren't possible.
But... as Akane fumbles with the hoodie she's now wearing tied around her waist, trying to fish something out of the pockets, she decides she might as well entertain the hypothetical. "Then I'll just... well. I might have to get *you* to help me get her to stop, at that point, 'cuz if it comes down to it..."
Akane runs through the situation in her head. Not human, check. Cares about human (her) pain, check. Moves to address it, check.
Come to think, 'dawn' is a powerful light indeed, and the gleam of a G-Stone, brighter still --
Akane shoves that one out of her brain for now. But she knows she thought it. "... Anyway, we'll play it by ear!" comes her final answer, with that ever-stagnating faux-enthusiasm.
"Speaking of coming anyway... I hear you made a real good impression on Ako," Akane says, trying to deflect. "That's hard to do! She's a total sweetheart behind the hair dye and the stadium jumper, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
That conviction... Kaworu doesn't believe she's right, but he doesn't try to argue with her. Ultimately, neither of them know Renais *that* well. It's her own decision what she'll do about Akane, and how she'll approach Tsutsujidai. That said, when Akane suggests she might get *Kaworu* to chase her off, he blinks in genuine surprise. "Me?"
But she falls silent, running with her own thoughts, before she finally dismisses it. Kaworu doesn't press there, either, instead facing forward anew--only to swing his legs with effortless grace over the statue's shoulder, past its wing, to turn himself around and face her directly. He slips down to fall, but he doesn't fall according to gravity's dictates; he floats at his own pace, touching down one foot, then the other, as he tucks his hands into his pockets. His wristwatch shivers, then falls still.
"So it seems. We had some pleasant conversation as she showed me around the school," he replies, now standing next to her--albeit a respectable distance away, so as not to crowd her. "She is. She values you a great deal too, as she does that other girl, Marusan. Apparently you take great care of the two of them." His smile gentles. "It's easy to see your influence in her."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Watching Kaworu float to the ground is... an interesting curiosity for Akane, at least. If she were more powerful, would she be similarly -- unbound? "I mean, professional courtesy, right?" she says, orienting on that last question. "We make a pretty natural pair, and you've always been pretty reliable..." Monster and Lord-Monster, Angel and God...
Akane finally finds the tomato juice box she'd stored in her hoodie pocket, and fusses with the straw a bit. "Ako and Marusan... yeah, they're great. I think it might actually be the other way around, though!" She laughs awkwardly, admitting, "When I first moved here, I was kinda... figuring out who I wanted to be? And I guess they kinda were too... I think I picked up some of the stuff *I* do from *her*." So it's not that Akane created Ako in her image, then -- at least, not consciously...
"They don't know the half of it," she adds, conspiratorially, as she pops the straw into her mouth. Lips moving around it, she explains, "The whole reason there was that little Fumo-Fumo Land outcrop was 'cuz Ako wanted to take Marusan to a themepark." ... that marks two occasions, then, that she's created a whole space for those two.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
If Kaworu knew about the checklist Akane had been checking off, he would've been rather flattered. She's the one who pushed him away back in the electronics store, after all. Asking him for help now... It would feel nice. To call it a professional courtesy, though... It's another form of pushing him away, and sufficiently different that he doesn't connect the shapes.
Still, she sees him as reliable, the two of them as a natural pair. He'll take it.
"I can certainly talk to her for you if it becomes an issue," he replies. "She's likely going to be with NERV going forward--" he has no reason to think she won't join up with 3G under Guy, "--so I expect we'll be working relatively closely together."
It's interesting, though, that Akane claims that she made herself in the image of her creations. "That seems unusual. Did you model them off of someone you knew from the outside world?" he wonders.
He chuckles as she shares that she made Fumo-Fumo Land for them. A whole space so the two of them could spend some romantic time together... "You're very invested in their relationship. I can see why, though; they each make the other shine." He pauses a beat. "Are they your favorites?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
As Kaworu answers, Akane takes a long sip from her juice box. Her eyes hood just a little bit, as she does; she pushes Renais aside, in favor of talking about her world. It's easier.
"It's not quite like that," Akane reflects, looking up. "The only things I made directly were the kaiju. Everything else just kinda... follows from that, I guess! I wanted to go to school with people I liked, so, there was a school. There were people I liked. I wanted someone I could take care of. Someone I could be close to."
Are Ako and Marusan God's favorites...? "... I do like them," Akane admits. "Favorite, though... hm." She lets her eyes shut. Sucks at her straw with a little force.
... It's hard to keep secrets from Kaworu, even if Akane wants to. The images in Akane's mind have familiar shades of red and black hair -- not the bleach-blonde and natural brown of Ako and Marusan. A feeling of warmth and enthusiasm drifting apart for fear of unfairness. An urge to care for someone lonely, smothering itself in the grim necessity of avoiding getting attached to someone who she's now certain threatens her world.
"... They're easy to hang out with," is what Akane settles for saying. "It's that right level of distance, you know? We're friends, but they have their own stuff going on. They fit into each other, and I know where I stand in that." Outside it, as a supportive, enthused observer. The easiest place to be.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"Hmmmm..." Kaworu hums thoughtfully. Everything else just followed from her kaiju... That's another thing to ask Alexis about at some point. It's not a pleasant prospect, but at this point, there's a hill of questions for him. The next time they cross paths... no, if he leaves it to chance, it will be with an unwanted crowd. He'll have to seek him out.
...He'll have to set aside some time for that. Very much not a pleasant prospect indeed.
But when he asks after favorites, he gets a different sense from her. He'd thought that Hibiki and Rikka and Sho had gained realness because of their contact with Gridman, but... what if that had nothing to do with it? What if it was merely coincidence--or, perhaps more likely, Gridman had been attracted to the 'realest' people in Tsutsujidai to help him in his pursuit of Alexis?
"The 'right level of distance,' hm," he repeats, setting those ponderings aside for the moment to indulge in a spot of melancholy. "I can never quite seem to find that, myself. I'm always too close or too far away. Sometimes both at the same time." He laughs faintly. "And the moments where I *do* find the right distance are always so exquisitely brief."
He shakes his head as if to brush away such thoughts. Re-focusing on Akane, he wonders, "What would you consider the ideal relationship, then?"
It's quite a departure from his original questions, but... he imagines Renais, for one, will want to know.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
It's a hard question. Tomato juice is easy.
Akane needs... time, to think about that, anyway. She can drill down on Kaworu's comment first, instead. "... Then I'd say that's another way in which we're alike," she offers Kaworu, calling back to their trip to the electronics store. Kaworu has placed himself on Akane's rawest nerves, fully exposed after her plan nearly blew up in her face and got so many people killed.
"... someone who doesn't need anything I can't provide for them," Akane answers, after another long silence in the graveyard. Just saying it out loud -- even to someone like Kaworu, even to a monster -- is a bit of a release. "Someone who wants what I can give them."
The wave of guilt that washes over Akane is loud and multi-layered -- human and inhuman, ashamed and hungry, all at once. "And I mean, here, that's easy. I don't need anything at all, so they don't have to worry about me! And everyone likes me, and what I can give them is -- everything." It worsens. It gets louder.
She laughs, conceding: "It's pretty unfair of me, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu chuckles faintly. If Akane's intent was to lash out at him for getting on her nerves, it doesn't quite work; it's nice to be told by someone he likes that they are alike. They *are* alike, after all. "Is the likeness between us why you wanted me gone?" he jokes, in that obtuse way of his that doesn't sound like a joke.
It is a joke, though. It's funny because it's true. Neither of them likes themselves much, and that's *another* way in which they're alike. Isn't that so?
But as she describes what she wants out of a relationship, he listens, both to what she says out loud and to the ocean roar of emotion that surges and crashes within her like the tide. He nods slowly. "It's nice to feel needed. When someone comes chasing after you with all their might, it really makes you feel loved," he muses. "To have someone fight to the very end for you means you're someone worth fighting for."
It's not quite the same as what Akane is saying. But Kaworu is, in his way, sharing back--or trying to, at least. Giving rather than simply receiving. In other words, attempting to express that he needs her too by giving her something to listen to in turn. They are both so self-sufficient otherwise.
But then she talks about *here*, about how one-sided all the relationships here are. Kaworu falls silent to regard her for a moment.
At length, he wonders, "Are you unhappy here?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
In some ways, what Akane's saying resonates less with Akane than what *Kaworu's* saying. It startles her, in a way -- it's actually kind of dizzying. "... No, I just want everyone gone," she answers. She hefts her bag a little, orienting it to point the side toward Kaworu.
TILL ALL ARE GONE!
It certainly spells things out neatly. ... Her definition of 'all' is getting bigger, too, she realizes. Saying it to Kaworu makes her remember all the times she was so happy Rikka was finding things to like somewhere far away from her. People who'd give her the things she needs. People who...
... are better people than her, at least.
The final question, though. "Huh? No!" The answer Akane gives isn't genuine -- it's *fearful*, possessive, the anxiety of someone who fears that 'I'm unhappy' means 'this will be taken from me.' "I mean, it's a whole world where I can have my ideal relationships... Someone who wasn't happy with that would be a pretty crappy, unpleasable person."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Being used to others not understanding his particular brand of humor, which is usually even more obtuse than this, Kaworu isn't bothered that Akane takes him seriously. But he does look when she hefts her bag around for him to see the lettering. "I see," he says, quite literally.
But even though Akane *says* she wants everyone gone, she gets lonely, doesn't she? By her own admission, she yearns to be needed in her entirety--a difficult thing for anyone to accomplish. It isn't that she wants everyone gone. She wants the anxiety of a relationship she's powerless to keep from ending to be gone. She simply thinks that the only way she can do that is by ending them first.
Kaworu huffs out something between a sigh and a faint laugh. It really is a good thing he came to understand the nature of this place sooner rather than later. An empty world like this, with a wish like that at its heart, would have done Shinji far more ill than good.
He asks her if she's unhappy. She startles, protests, her feelings once more running contrary to her words. She's Asuka-like in that way, too. So much of her reflects so much of his own world... He pulls his hands from his pocket to rub his wristwatch, wrists bent tight and close to his stomach. Someone who wasn't happy with that would have to be a pretty awful person. He smiles bittersweetly, an expression as tender as it is wretched. "...I suppose so."
He falls silent then. For a long moment, he remains that way. Then he lifts his chin to meet her eyes. Without returning his hands to his pockets, he wonders, "Shinjo-san, do you dislike touch?"
He's going somewhere with this.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
There are spots where Akane's brain doesn't fire on the same wavelength as Kaworu's; she's fond of obtuse jokes *too*, but not all the time, and she struggles to get other people's. They're similar, but not alike, in that way.
What Akane does notice, though, is that expression. It seems in her haste to jab herself in her raw nerves, she's jabbed Kaworu in some of his, too. That... doesn't surprise her, and she'll probably feel bad about it later -- but right now she's a little too in the throes of her own feelings to fully separate out her feelings about *Kaworu's* feelings.
He pivots. Akane takes the pivot away from direct examination of her feelings about her world like a life-raft; there's several seconds of silence as she considers the question. Her lips remain wrapped around her straw; she takes a long drink. Her hand pulls away; the juice box dangles from her lips unattended, as she chews on the straw a little.
"Usually, yeah. Like... not *always*! But... I don't like touching people I only just met, or who I don't really know. It's... different, for a couple other people, but..." She notices the straw starting to slip a bit at 'people,' bringing her hand back up to the juice box and finally pulling it away. "I guess 'mostly,' yeah."
It's a remarkably candid answer -- a rare thing, for her, about her emotional state. The question was well-timed; Akane isn't sure she's happy having answered it. "Why?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
That's fine. It's a good thing that people are different from one another.
"I see," Kaworu says simply. And: "I thought so." He shifts his grip on his wrist, but doesn't yet let go. Why?, she asks. His smile fades into something misty and distant, like the outline of an island on a foggy horizon.
"I do like touch. Actually, I crave it. It brings me great comfort, even happiness, to be physically close to someone I care about. But the ones I would want to touch and be touched by don't like touch, either." His thumb brushes slowly along the stainless steel links of his wristwatch band, up, down, up, down, as he stares into nothing.
Then, at last, he tucks his hands back into his pockets and smiles at Akane. It's not as though those feelings are gone. But they've been successfully compartmentalized. Kaworu has a lot of experience with that.
"You cook on occasion, correct? I've heard from our classmates that you like to feed others, even though you aren't especially fond of feeding yourself. The truth is, a couple of my friends have taken an interest in cooking, and I thought it would be nice to share in that. Are there any good recipes you could please teach me? Something vegetarian would be ideal, if possible."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... That actually strikes home for Akane. Once Kaworu makes it about someone he cares about, rather than just the general sense of touch, she feels like she gets it, a bit. It makes her feel a little weird... but for different reasons from before. She relaxes a bit, at this point.
She's already gotten the sense that Kaworu doesn't like touching for... certain purposes; it's that that sees her finish off her juice box and crumple it up a bit. It feels weird to just... go straight to fulfilling that need, but at the same time...
"Hey, can I see that wristwatch?" she says, first. "Uh -- you don't need to take it off or anything. Just... let me look at it on your hand?" She reaches out toward Kaworu's arm, hand still in his pocket. Touching hand to hand is a little too intimate, and grabbing it while it's in a pocket way moreso -- but she can at least indicate...
"And -- yeah, I could teach you some stuff. Usually I just buy instant junk or school food unless I'm trying to, uh... do something with it, but we can start with curry or something? I warn you, I don't do, like, presentation. But it's pretty tasty."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
It's at least not something he expressed to try to manipulate her. If Akane had chosen to let the matter lie, Kaworu would have accepted that. He'd already accepted it by the time he'd tucked his hands away, really. When she asks to see his wristwatch, he blinks at her in puzzlement, but withdraws and holds out his left hand for her regardless.
It seems like a normal wristwatch at first, even if its band is segmented steel rather than something more pliable like leather, but the face has a sort of moon-like design, with a little rough-hewn stone at its center, and a tiny hologram that displays names that shuffle over on regular intervals. Beyond this, it has a very plain, simple design. He doesn't take it off, of course--Akane told him he didn't have to, and this watch is actually very dear to him--but she's free to look it over from whatever distance she likes.
"Yes. You make food to give it to others," Kaworu replies when she comments about instant vs. something she's doing something with. "You and I don't really bother eating much otherwise." Drinking is another matter--that tomato juice she just finished sucking up and crumpling, for example--but still.
Curry... Kaworu's expression turns thoughtful. He remembers seeing a recipe for that in the Indian cookbook he bought Rei for her birthday last month. And curry seems like a very popular dish in general across the world, with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options... "Yes, that sounds wonderful," he decides, smiling. "As long as it's tasty and nutritious--" Shinji cares *so* much about nutrition, "--then that's fine."
He can always figure out presentation on his own. He has a natural knack for it.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
It's at this point that Akane actually takes Kaworu by the wrist, gently, to look that watch over. She's pretty tentative about it; her hands glide along his arm a bit as she repositions it, getting a look at the stone, the names... "This looks like a custom job... the workmanship is really impressive. Like -- I dunno a lot about watches, but this kinda stuff isn't cheap, especially with the personalization."
Musing on that a bit, she notes, "I wouldn't think you'd spring for this kinda thing... it looks good on you, though! The steel band really pops." She muses, as she looks him over, "You have really good skin. Nice muscle definition, too..." She gradually lets Kaworu's arm back down.
She moves along, then -- back to food. "If you're trying to make a healthier curry, you're gonna want good rice. Most of the veggies and the spicy stuff is all really good for you... you just gotta make sure not to let it get greasy." She thinks about that for a second, and remembers: "Oh! Salt too -- you can really go overboard if you aren't thinking about it, there. Before I moved here I actually needed to *up* my salt intake a little, but if you're cooking for other people you kinda want to aim low unless they tell you not to."
It almost startles Akane -- she'd been spiraling a bit not too long ago, but something like enthusiasm snuck up when she wasn't looking...
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu makes a slight, subtle noise when Akane takes his wrist, eyes widening. He doesn't pull away, though. On the contrary, when he realizes what she's doing, a slow smile dawns across his lips, and he relaxes, letting her touch him at her own pace. He doesn't try to touch her back, but he lets his eyes flutter shut as her fingertips brush over his skin.
"Thank you," he says warmly--to her comments, to her compliments, to what she just did for him. "It was a gift, actually." He holds his wrist up so he can smile at *it*, his smile left now with only tenderness and none of the wretchedness of before. "Shinji gave it to me as thanks for helping him."
Akane might remember the name 'Shinji.' He'd mentioned it once when talking to her about Rei Ayanami--mentioned both of them as two people who are very dear to him. The look on his face as he gazes at that wristwatch might tell her that it goes beyond even that. This is something he *cherishes*.
After a moment of basking in the sight of that gift--that gift that was custom-made, that must have taken a lot of thought and energy to acquire--he slips his hand back into his pocket. "Good rice... That makes sense. What sort of rice do you recommend?" He considers what she says about salt too, nodding once. "Salt contains vital nutrients for the Lilim body, and it conveys essential flavor in many dishes, according to what I've read... but too much salt can make food unpalatable and be dangerous to one's health. As Aristotle said, all things in moderation."
He smiles again, this time in good humor--and maybe a little of that enthusiasm that's catching up on Akane, too. "Is there somewhere we can go to give it a try?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane *does* remember that name; she nods to Kaworu, saying, "It's really thoughtful! You two must have a really close relationship -- or at least, like... you two must really matter to each other." She wonders if it's Shinji who doesn't like touch -- if so, if that's true, despite Kaworu's craving for it...
... maybe it's fine for two people to care about each other without being *everything* to each other? (If true: maybe not for her, though. Kaworu's a pretty magnetic kind of person; Akane... doesn't think that holds true for her.)
Rice... Akane thinks. What did she used to cook? It's getting a little further away, but -- "If you're aiming for that kinda thing, brown. It's not super traditional and the look isn't as good, since it doesn't lead to color contrast, but it's way healthier."
This is getting to be the stage where Kaworu needs to learn by doing, so... "... We can go to the grocery store, and then the first floor of my place. Only the first floor, though -- just the parts that lead to the kitchen." Going the full run of it is way too much, but... Juggler's come in a few times and that part was fine, at least? "Unless that ruins it for you, buuuuuuuut I have the feeling it won't."
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
They must really matter to each other... Kaworu doesn't respond to that, but hearing Akane say so lightens his heart. Maybe it *is* fine for two people to care about each other without being *everything* to each other. If he can matter to Shinji... then it's okay for him to have other people who matter, too. Both of them, perhaps.
It's something to think about, anyway.
"Brown rice... All right, I'll remember that," he says. His smile parts when she invites him into her home for the actual cooking. He knows she's very sensitive about that space; to have her invite him in, even if only a part of it, truly is an honor. He doesn't point that out, though. *That's* a good way to make someone self-conscious.
"Not at all," he reassures her. "Lead the way, then."