Story: Asuka the Lab Rat

Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, or so the saying went. Ask anyone you like and they'd tell you the same, except perhaps a starving man, whose answer would certainly be "the next one". The same answer would be given by any animal. They never know where the next meal is coming from, and so eat as much as they can here and now. It's not greed for them. Simply survival instinct.

Which is why Asuka wolfed down her food before she even had the chance to savour it. For reasons even she didn't quite comprehend her eyes didn't leave Shinji's, and, as if to mirror that, his eyes went absolutely anywhere that wasn't centered around her. Instinct. Her hunger had been sated, but she was feeling a weird tickle at the back of her mind. Something about Shinji. The way he smelled. For some reason she was fixating on his scent this morning. It overpowered the food, which she barely even tasted anyway.

"Um..." Shinji mumbled uncertainly. "You should chew your food more. It's better for you."

Chew her food? Certainly. She wanted to chew on something that would be better for her. What that was, she couldn't quite grasp. Definitely wanted something in her mouth, and it was driving her batty that she could not guess at what that might be.

Shinji stood up, walked around the table and picked up her empty plate. For a brief second his arm brushed her wrist and for some inexplicable reason Asuka shuddered as though she'd been touched by a lover. Which was dumb because Shinji was dumb, just look at him being thoughtful and considerate, making breakfast for the both of them and then walking off to the sink to do the dishes without being asked or raising a fuss.

"Asuka, are you feeling alright?" Shinji asked from the sink. Her eyes roamed up and down his stupid slender body. "Um, you - You don't seem yourself today, that's all."

Oooh, look at him now! Worried about her well-being, was he? Well. She'd soon show him there was nothing wrong with her. "Hmph! I'm perfectly fine!" Asuka declared, standing up and unconsciously smoothing her hands down her sides. "Maybe you're the one that's being weird this morning," she said mockingly, stepping forward with a hand reaching out towards Shinji's back. "Maybe I should do something to find out for sure..."

Which was right when the doorbell buzzed, and Asuka snapped clean out of the spell she was under, right when Shinji was walking off to answer it. Leaving her standing there. Hand outstretched at butt level and staring at the offending hand like a dog in the process of making a mess on the carpet. Huh? What exactly had she been reaching out for just now? Weird. For some reason when she tried to think about it, her thoughts went all fuzzy...

"Good morning, Rei!" Shinji said a little too gladly for Asuka's liking. Her head whipped around towards the front door and - And a brand new scent assaulted her senses the instant Rei stepped into the room. If Shinji's scent was kinda nice, so far as they went, then Rei's was - Something different. Rei smelled <i>wrong</i>. As in. Wrong to the point that every single instinct in Asuka's body was telling her the exact same thing. That she was, without question, in the presence of an alpha bitch.

"G-Good morning, Rei," Asuka nervously said. Stop that. Stop trembling. It's just the doll. No matter what that smell was, it didn't mean any damn thing! "I forgot you were coming over today. My, you are early, aren't you?"

"Not especially," Rei said without even the slightest trace of emotion. It was eerie, actually. Now that Asuka was looking - really looking - she could see that Rei's skin had absolutely no blemishes on it. None. It was all a uniform milky colour. Also. Her facial reaction was so carefully controlled that it gave off a completely otherworldly presence, like an alien had wrapped itself up in human skin and started wandering around. "From previous visitations, it seemed likely you would both be awake at this time."

"Ah, we'll need to wake up Misato first..." Shinji said. "I mean, if we're going to be doing this training regimen she had in mind, she should probably be there. Right?"

Of course she should be there, you idiot! Honestly, saying such an obvious fact as though it was some kind of revelation. Asuka opened her mouth to voice that very thought, but somehow, she just couldn't say it. The words felt wrong to say. Aggressive in a situation where being aggressive would be the absolute worst thing to do. She felt like a kitten trying to roar at a lion to keep it away from her food. Guh! Maybe Shinji did have a point! Something was up with her this morning!

<hr>
Well now, wasn't that interesting? Ritsuko chuckled into her mug. An enhanced sense of smell had let her notice something off about Rei. How very interesting. Although. That could prove to be a risk to everything if Asuka started investigating what it meant...

No, that wasn't the kind of girl Asuka was. She would be a great deal more likely to think about this in terms of herself. Why she was feeling this way. Why she was noticing these things. What it meant about who and what Rei was, that wouldn't matter in the slightest. Nope. Nothing to worry about. Although... Maybe she should still do something to make quite certain that nothing did go amiss? Yes. That seemed about right. But for now, let's observe and gather some more data to analyse. For example, if Misato was going to have them doing a little physical exercise, what sort of effect would it have on her little lab rat?

<hr>
Rei Ayanami did not have instincts so much as humans would understand the concept. She was a unique entity, as only one of her was ever active at once, and even if she were to have her mind transferred to a new body then that new Rei would still behave differently, still be a unique being. Still not possess any kind of instinct.

It made sense from a certain point of view. An artificial being is a created artefact. Designed. Instincts are complicated processes to design, typically born of countless generations of evolution. Therefore a being like Rei did not possess instincts. She had logic. She had emotion. But she did not have the necessary needs that instincts must satisfy. A need for survival was rationally met by the fact that her design entailed a singular purpose, and so she met that logical need with rational discourse, rarely drawing upon her emotional experience to satisfy logic.

By the same token, she did not feel the mating impulse for she knew that she was a being that could not procreate in the traditional manner. With that in mind, her emotional connection to Shinji Ikari simply left her baffled and confused. She could understand why Asuka might feel a physical attraction to him - and if she understood the gossip she was hearing at school that was being carefully shepherded away from the pair, then it seemed likely that she did - which could easily translate into a desire for physical proximity. But her own emotional need to stay near him was reflexively reinforcing her desire to stay near him so that at the very least she could understand why she felt that way to start with.

"I'll go and wake Misato up," Shinji offered, quickly hurrying off towards her room and leaving the two girls alone. Asuka watched him go with a peculiar hunger in her eyes, biting at the corner of her lips and making grabby motions with her hands. Rei watched her for a moment. Studied her fellow pilot. Ah. Yes. Interesting.

"What do you think of Pilot Ikari?" Rei asked. Usually she would try not to deliberately engage Asuka in conversation. It is rather difficult to become friends with a colleague that sneers and belittles you at every opportunity outside of a professional context.

"Huh?!" Asuka jumped. "What do I think of him? He's a loser," Asuka said, but for some reason Rei had the impression she had said something like "I want to have sex with him." Which didn't make any sense as an initial interpretation because there were no homophones for the majority of the words in that second sentence.

"He's unremarkable" became "I want his thick, hard shaft to penetrate me in the worst/best possible way."

"He's a complete pushover" became "Ooh, please have him bend me over a table!"

And "If he only had a spine that'd be a start" became "He's my mate, not yours, back off."

Rei tilted her head and sniffed the air. Aside from strangely hearing things that she had not actually heard, the only other peculiar thing she had noticed at all since entering the apartment was a peculiar smell hanging in the air that had become slightly more intense after she'd asked the question. Interesting. Another thing for her to be curious about, it seemed....

1. It turns out that training means more scent, which means more pheromones...
2. Rei notices Asuka's being more deferential to her, and starts taking advantage of it.
3. Angel attack!
4. Asuka's pheromones start having an effect on the others.
5. Something else