The bed caved in at Asuka's sides and Mari's scent hit her like a wave crashing against the shore. Their cheeks brushed and Mari tenderly laid a chaste kiss on an unsuspecting cheek. The German sighed at the musky and slightly sweet smell that came off her partner, marveled at the way it made her imagine a thick forest after a heavy rain had subsided. The smacking sound of lips made her open her eyes just as Mari moved back, a little slow and hesitant, she noticed, to her former position.

Asuka absentmindedly touched her cheek, as if she could prevent the gesture from leaving her skin; she couldn't remember the last time she had been kissed, if at all, in her long 17 years.

Affection was such a foreign act in their chaotic lives that handling it was an uncomfortable duty, a burden of both happiness and self-worth.

Mari, resting her weight on one hand, peered at Asuka through her glasses with serious air despite her slight smile. "So, princess," she started, "Did I win? Did I set you ablaze?"

Right, this stupid game. Asuka thinks with a scoff and a glance to the side, in part to hide her blush. She wasn't that sensitive that a kiss to the cheek would speed up her body's rhythm. "No."

"Nooo? Tsk, what a shame." A long finger fixes red-rimmed glasses to their rightful place. "I guess you'll have to claim your piece. What will it be?"

Her voice was full of sarcasm. Damned sarcasm. After all, it would not be like Mari at all to play her game, or anything for that matter, by the book. Asuka tried to remember the ridiculous rules.

The objective is simple, princess. We'll take turns finding out what part makes us tick. The one who finds it first, wins. But, for every wrong guess the opposite person gets to choose an item for the other to take off.

What if there's nothing left to choose before someone wins?

Well, Shikinami, you better guess correctly.

The finality in Mari's statement made Asuka apprehensive. Suddenly a spotlight was cast upon her to take control over her partner, who was leaning to the side with a pair of glassy turquoise eyes expectantly looking at her. Asuka took a deep breath and slowly let it go,

"Take off your pigtail."

But Mari wasn't moving, wasn't being submissive like she promised; she just kept her piercing haze with a raised eyebrow and a smirk across her face.

"Take it off, then."

"But you said-"

"I need you to take it off, Shikinami."

Asuka scowled at this change of strategy. She didn't like having the tables turned right in front of her. Her short lived sense of control was now gone. But the sooner they ended this, the sooner she could return to her sane life.

"Fine."

Asuka crawled across the bed, which was bent on giving in under her weight, until her knees knocked with Mari's. She leaned over the taller body, one hand reaching around a shoulder, the other doing the same, before fisting Mari's ponytail nervously. Her fingers cautiously pulled the hair band back. Mari's throat vibrated in a merry content that elongated into a most pleasurable sound.

"Hmmn." Mari purred at the touch like a pleased cat, and Asuka found herself stopping for a few seconds, in complete shock, before hurriedly getting the band out of hair, setting it free, getting back to her place on the bed, and tossing it back at Mari. She didn't sign up for this, to have her body react to both boys and girls.

It was something a teenager couldn't wrap her head around; it made her doubt her sanity, made her think that her wires were indeed being messed up from piloting the eva for so long, as Ritsuko often suggested. It made Asuka more careful at the shower rooms, to not look for too long in the wrong places.

Along the way she had gotten used to avoiding those little incidents, but then there was Mari. It wasn't so much the constant annoyance, the singing, and the clinginess that had Asuka fed up. It was the girls nimble fingers and the way her voice danced in that weird English way, it was her dark copper hair so out of place with those turquoise eyes; it was the way Mari smelled, breathed, looked at her through red glasses to ask if she was okay. Everything about her was so goddamn alluring.

And god forbid if she ever felt such indecent things towards her partner. Because it scared her to death; sex scared her. Because an eva she could control, from the slightest flexion of a fingertip to the heart beat. But she couldn't control her body, the thoughts it produced under the right circumstances. And she wasn't liking the way it was feeling right now.

So she proceeded to start with something small and innocent. Like the back of the wrist. With the same precaution and gentleness as one would treat a newborn, Asuka grabbed Mari's hand and forearm to turn them upside down. The strings of tendons pulled and relaxed under rivers of veins, an unlikely appealing spot for the German. She brought the delicate patch of skin to her mouth and sliced it vertically with a wet tongue. A chuckle and nothing more was her reward. "That's a good start, princess."

Asuka sat back, ashamed of her fruitless work, to which Mari gave a reassuring smile while she unclasped the girls lone bracelet.

"My turn again." Mari started with a toothy smile, pressing down on Asuka's sternum with a finger. "Lay back a little."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Mari could feel Asuka's frown boring a hole into her, so a little persuasion was deemed necessary. The brunette edged forward until she enclosed her partner with her body, straddling a pair of timid legs.

Asuka swallowed heavily as she looked up at the way Mari was angled so...dominantly. She had almost left by unnoticed the firm hand grabbing at her shoulder; the other came to rest underneath her jaw before it ever so slowly slid its way to her cheek. Her throat felt like it was filled with cement; the cold sting of trepidation made it painful to breathe. "What do you want from me?" Asuka's voice sounded weak and empty in the large room.

Nothing. Mari caressed the cheek underneath her thumb. Because there was nothing Asuka could offer to her, or at least was willing to offer. All Mari could do was gladfully accept what she was given, even if it was with insistent force.

She gave Asuka's shoulder a light push, and after a little hesitancy, the German rested her elbows on the bed.

There's nothing I could ask of you. Games are all we have.

Mari shifted her position so that she could breath at the crook of Asuka's neck and reveled at the warmth it gave. Being submerged on cold LCL for so long makes one forget how nice the touch of another body feels like. It's almost nostalgic. But she keeps on her path, nuzzling the skin of a collarbone and lower still until she reaches the middle of Asuka's breasts.

She could hear the pulse underneath her quicken, felt a sense of satisfaction as her head rose in shorter intervals as Asuka's breath came out in nervous exhales. She angled her lips and gave a long, open, tender kiss. This was all she had to offer.

"Ah...," Asuka let out in a low sigh, opening her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Her lower back thrilled with the touch on her chest, with the way it was so thorough and inviting, more so than any words Mari could ever use. In fact, Asuka suppressed a shocked gasp when a voice mumbled against her skin.

"Well?"

A short sigh, and another "No."

Mari sat back and waited for Asuka to claim another piece of her.

"Your shirt." The red head said as she quickly grabbed the hem of Mari's long sleeved blouse and pulled it over with ease, throwing it somewhere to her left. Something clicked inside of Asuka, a flame somewhere within startled awake at the sight in front of her.

Her eyes wondered over Mari's well known ample chest, accentuated by a toned abdomen and tight strings of muscle in a pair of strong arms; she took a calming breath to ready her for whatever came next. She needed to end this quickly, and yet she wished to never reach the end of it.

Mari took a sharp breath as a shaky Asuka grabbed her neck with a firm, calloused hand to stable it for an open kiss, or rather, a hungry bite. It was gritty, all teeth and on the limit between pleasurable and painful. Asuka wasn't getting any signs of Mari breaking, so she nibbled along an imaginary line down the brunettes neck.

It was there she felt Mari's jaw tighten from a suppressed groan. Satisfied with her effort, Asuka licked her lips and eagerly examined Mari's expression, which was more on the side of hurt as the latter held the red skin she had left behind. Mari gave a feeble smile. "Very well done, princess, but that's a no."

From that point onward both girls knew what kind of game they had gotten themselves into. The rules had become null, their bodies determining the extent of how far they were willing to go to win.

Mari took off Asuka's blue collar and decided to reciprocate the violent advance. She formed a fist around Shikinamis ankle, holding her in place as she pulled about, and traced the inside of the Germans thigh with the tip of her fingers. A whimper reached her sharp ears, but she decided to not count it.

Asuka had very little time to react amidst the craze; she grabbed a handful of dark brown hair and pulled on it.

"Four-eyes what are you doi-!" Lips closed in on skin and god, Asuka had never felt such a rush before, not even with the boys. Her words choked along the top of her throat and her back straightened on its own. Her body was clearly betraying her.

She cursed for her hip bucking forward and for the way her hand painfully tightened on Mari's scalp. She was panting, hyperventilating, it didn't matter what it seemed like as long as she wasn't moaning like a mad woman.

She pulled the mouth at her thighs closer to her to try and stop Mari from advancing further in, maybe, before pulling her legs to her chest and jerking her hands away from Mari, as if she had been caught doing a terrible act. Her shoulders heaved with the burden of it all.

She looked up with struggling eyes, and with an equally struggling voice said, "No."

Mari swiped her lips with her thumb. "You sure about that, Shikinami?" There was something twisted about her smile.

"That was a cheap move."

"You started it."

"It wasn't the same."

"Everything counts the same in the bedroom, princess."

Asuka's frown deepened and she harshly threw Mari's headband across the room. You want something that's equal?

The room started to fill with two quickening rhythms and continuous failed attempts. Whether or not they had lied to each other up to that moment didn't matter as long as the game kept going, as long as they kept feasting on the rush from seeing the other loosing more of their integrity.

A lick to a breast mound; a lost pair of glasses.

A bite to the hip; two A-10 nerve clips fallen under the bed.

Then everything went still; Asuka and Mari were bumping heads, taking in every article of clothing they had lost in such a little amount of time. They had rolled up to the headstand of the bed, the proper place for Asuka to pin Mari beneath her. Her hip was being weighed down by Mari's grip, strong, pleading. Everything had gone according to plan.

The British offered the first move; planting wet kisses along Asuka's jaw to the limit of her shoulder.

"Have you always liked girls, Shikinami? Or", a lick to mend for a particularly strong bite, "are you experimenting on me?"

Asuka clenched her fingers against the headrest, answering the question with another whimper and an arched neck. She took Mari's doubt as a challenge and, it being her turn, decided to end this once and for all.

Asuka firmly spread her fingers against the tense stomach and shove them rather roughly between Mari's pajama pants and her underwear. Her partner felt hot and soft under her touch. God knows she wanted more. But Mari was deathly quiet. No exhale filled with pleasure, no squirming about, no tensing up.

Mari grabbed the intruding hand and pulled the red head down on her lap. Her stare was the most serious it had ever been, her eyes piercing with a seriousness that, honestly, scared Asuka. The German knew right away, she had lost. There were no more moves she could play.

"That's not how it works, princess."

Mari grabbed her wide eyed partner by the wrist and pushed her down on the bed. Her voice was coming out tones lower. "You should know more than anybody. We're not like them, are we? Like the men."

She spread her palm atop Asuka's trembling neck and forced her chin up.

"It's not all about the big picture. Rather, its the small details," she forced Asuka's head to the side, "that make you," her mouth was ready at the girl's ear, "shiver."

Asuka felt her earlobe taken in someplace wet and hot as something firm, Mari's tongue she supposed, circled around it. She thought of it pathetic, but that was it. Her weakest place was her damned ear. Asuka arched against the other body, the softest of moans escaping her. Finally, after endless and agonizing teasing, she could let go. "Oh, fuck."

After a few minutes of Mari generously keeping her work, she spoke against the sensitive part so firm and so close that Asuka thought the girl had gotten inside her thoughts. "I win."

The bed sunk under the pilots again as Mari began to stand, but a force on her neck kept her down.

"Wait." Came a raspy voice with a heavy aryan accent. Asuka's grip was mercilessly, as if she would perish by letting go.

Mari was surprised when the German pressed a sloppy, closed mouthed kiss on her. It would've been heart warming if all the pent up sexual drive wasn't in the way. Asuka pulled Mari even closer for a second try, to which she pulled back.

"Fight me for it." Was her response, firm and commanding. Very unlike Mari.

Shikinami's control burst open like a dam and there was no stopping it. She lunged herself at her partner and growled at the pain of clashing teeth. Mari pushed back and bit the intruding tongue.

Lips separated for a brief respite before they crashed again for some sort of dominance midst the clumsiness that inexperienced hunger brought.

The sound of rustling fabric fell into the same softness and rhythm as the small noises, some more noticeable than others, coming from both pilots; Mari had rested part of her weight on her smaller counterpart and was slowly grinding in between the pair of exposed legs.

With every thrust Asuka would kiss deeper and groan more fiercely; her urges had completely taken hold of her, as if she was only half there while another being controlled her; a sensation that was both frightening and electrifying on its own.

She would've never thought about grabbing her partners backside to writhe so unabashedly against the sensitive area. She took in sharp breaths of curse words when the stimulation wasn't enough. Sticking her tongue inside Mari's throat wasn't going to suffice, and neither was the careful licking of her carotids.

Asuka wished it was, though; she prayed that she didn't need to go further than grinding and feeling Mari's hand travel up and down between her breasts. But she was loosing herself, all her previous rationale and inhibitions, and it felt really good. Now she knew why the boys in her class were so obsessed with sex.

Mari's distant voice brought her mind back. "Asuka..."

The brunette trailed off as she concentrated her efforts on keeping her body from exhausting itself. She could feel sweat sliding down her arms and the burn from gripping Asuka's wrist for so long. Mari could feel the thrill in between her legs so intense it made her back go weak. Asuka was reaching her limit as well.

"What do you need, Asuka?"

Her free hand had started to travel down again, past Asuka's ribs, waist, and shorts. Another whimper.

"Tell me."

Her hand passed the buttons of Asuka's shorts, the point of no return, to just above her center. A hiss.

"Scheiße."

Just as boundaries were going to be crossed, the girls readying for another heated kiss, a hideous sound blasted from the night stand; a call.

The phone continued to ring as both girls looked at each other for the longest time in silent defeat, their eyes coming back to their original dilation. Mari removed her hand with the biggest sense of frustration she had yet to experience, "I've got to answer, princess. You know the rules."

Asuka gave a semi conscious nod before letting her hand fall to her side. There was the unfamiliar ceiling again.

"Hello, Misato? Is everything okay?"

"Good god..." Asuka breathed in the faintest of whispers.

"Oh yeah, we're fine, just here...watching TV. We were going to sleep, actually."

Asuka rubbed her eyepatch, astounded that the day had gone by and no contamination episode had occurred.

"Yeah, I'll tell Asuka right now. 'Not to wait for you, 'cause you'll be making sweet love over at Kajis'. OW! Fine, fine. Bye."

Pressing the red button solemnly, Mari sighed and put the phone down with a clack. She turned to Asuka, who by now was seated at the edge of the bed.

"Misato says she'll be coming late. And that there will be another sync test tomorrow at 6 am."

"Tsk. Fucking great." Asuka rubbed a temple. She could feel Mari approaching, and then a bumping of heads. The voice that came next was tender, seeking acceptance.

"You know, even I have to admit that I couldn't do all of this alone. It would be nice if you let others in."

Asuka blinked silently at the words.

"Even if just a little, my dear partner."

"I think I already have." Asuka said in all honestly.

She could feel Mari smile, "I think you have, too."

After all the struggle, the pain, and the pleasure of that unexpected night, Asuka started to appreciate Saturdays in a different light. Maybe because she no longer had to suffer and be happy alone, and maybe because, she was willing to risk it all and open up to the only person who was willing to go in.

Well, there is absolutely no excuse I have for the ONE YEAR delay to this one shot. But here it is, and I hope that you guys still like it. It took me a while because I wanted to accurately depict what those first sexual encounters are like; when one as a teen is new to the whole experience and is filled with struggles as to how to proceed without loosing oneself.

Also, I wanted to portray Asuka as an "aggressive bottom", but as I read it again and again, there seems to be no clear play of dominance here, no one person has more influence than the other, which in part is also true to sex. Sometimes there just isn't that clear division of roles, and I quite liked how it turned out.

Anyhow, please leave feedback on the good and the bad with constructive criticism in mind. And lastly, thank you all for your support to this frustrated writer :]