Author note:

This short takes place in between episodes 9 and 10 it goes some way to lay the foundation for the preexisting friendship between Asuka and Maya in the main fic. It really was fun to write and I am fairly confident it should be fun to read.

I will not set any schedule for this fic, instead, entries will be put in as and when the main fic will leave me with spare time to write and according to what I believe needs fleshing out in the main fic.
That being so, I would also be quite grateful for your input and ideas for shorts for this formate. I do not guarantee that an idea put into a comment will get written, but I promise to get back to everyone who leaves one whether I end up picking it up or not.

With that out of way, read, have fun, drop me a comment if you feel like it!

Seque No.1 Click in the circuit, click in with a friend

"Scheisse, muss NERV beim billigsten Angebot kaufen?!" yelled Asuka, flinging the screwdriver she held against the wall of the entry plug. She knew she could fix that panel: just pull the offending card out, clean the contacts, and click it right back in. Electronics were easy - it was people that were hard.

That was, until she found that the fitting itself was out of shape, possibly as a result of the fall that the Unit-02 took after beating Israfel. She briefly considered yelling at Shinji for breaking her EVA, but decided against it. Baka did well for the amount of training he had under his belt. Not that Asuka was about to tell him…

Asuka got out and rested against the entry plug side. She took a sip from her bottle and muttered that she should really just put the faulty display into the tech log and forget about it. But now that she had started to muck with it, she had to finish the job.

Thankfully, she had grabbed a spare fitting before she got to work, or else she would have to go rummaging for it now. Then she saw a shadow and turned around to find Maya Ibuki walking down the same catwalk.

She was not sure what the Lieutenant was doing in here, but still flashed her a smile and called out: "Hi Maya, got lost?"

Maya shook her head. "This is a shortcut from the Ops to a library - a bit more walking but fewer checkpoints, so it is faster," she explained, pointing to a stack of computer science magazines she was carrying.

Then she looked at the redhead again: "Making improvements again? You know how Ritsuko-Sempai looks at that, right?" She cocked an eyebrow, remembering the near-enough row that had taken place between the Doctor and the Pilot when Asuka recalibrated her user interface without telling anyone about it.

"Hai, Hai, I'll try to not piss her off too often... It's just a display acting funny, turns out its graphics were not properly seated and the fitting itself took a hit last time I fought."

Maya nodded and put her magazines down, to which Asuka looked up in surprise. "I did not say I need help," she said, frowning as she got on her feet. The young Lieutenant smiled at her: "No, you did not, but I want to take a look - and you lent me the first-ever Legend of Zelda, so I owe you a bit."

Asuka had to grin: she had run into Maya a few days earlier in the cafeteria, and they got to talking about video games once Maya saw her PSP among her stuff. She found that the MAGI whiz was a way bigger geek than even herself and wound up getting interrogated about what kind of games she played for a good twenty minutes…

She nodded; that was a fair trade. "Alright, I tossed the old bad parts out already, so you just fit the bugger in and then we run checks." She pointed to the warped fittings on the ground.

Maya took off her jacket and laid it on the railing before climbing inside the entry plug and picking the toolset Asuka brought. "Wow, it's pretty claustrophobic inside here," she said once she was settled in the seat and overlooking the panel.

Asuka nodded and handed her the new fittings. "You get used to it - plus you don't really see the inside of the plug once the EVA activates. I guess getting used to it when I was eight helped a bit, too - it's more spacious if you are way shorter."

They both laughed at that, and a few minutes later, Maya fitted the panel cover back with a satisfied smile. "Alright, hardware is fine, and actually fitted by a qualified tech even!" She let her smile grow into a grin.

"Oh please, this is sooo beneath us both, a monkey could do it!" replied Asuka as she helped Maya out of the plug. "Want to hang around while I run the checks?" Asuka asked as she got in and loaded the quick reference handbook on the display. She started running the checklist with Maya peering over her shoulder.

"Asuka, you missed a step: you are supposed to check the power before checking the outputs."
"You wrote that thing?" asked Asuka as she rechecked if the panel was getting electricity. Maya grinned: "Only parts - most of it was written before I came to NERV, but I did not write that part, no," she explained.

"Figures that is why it reads like the writer thought pilots would be brain-dead preschoolers," Asuka said irritatedly, then finally lit up the display and checked its functions by the checklist. Finally satisfied, she started to power down the systems she powered on to make the repair.

When done, Asuka got out and closed the plug before writing a note into the tech-log that simply said System Check and signing it.

"You buy me hot chocolate and I'll forget I saw you forging an entry," said Maya, laughing. Asuka tilted her head and thought for a moment before grinning and nodding an affirmation.

Maya was alright, all things considered. Asuka knew that she would not get away with breaking rules, had she not demonstrated sufficient skill to actually do what she set out to do.

"Yeah, we can talk about your collection - there are some things I'd kill to play, but I'll try asking nicely first."