"Absolutely not!"
Misato rolled her eyes as the young girl in front of her planted her clenched fists on her hips and did her best to look intimidating. It failed to work on the officer, but the pilot's compatriot, standing next to her, seemed to shrink in comparison.
"Yes you are." Really, Misato just felt bad for Shinji in this situation. The poor boy generally did as he was told, without much complaint. Forcing him to work so closely with Asuka was probably unpleasant for him.
"That Idiot already got into my entry plug once, I'm not letting it happen again!"
"Hey, you dragged me—"
"Nobody asked you, pervert! Keep your comments to yourself."
"Asuka, you're doing the test. That's final." Misato weighed the decision to step in and defend Shinji, but ultimately let it go. He can take care of himself. And if not, he'll never learn how if I just do it for him.
Asuka's nose scrunched up as she narrowed her eyes at Misato, looking like she had more she planned on screaming to the older woman. Instead, she turned on her heel to leave.
"Go on, Shinji," she told the beleaguered looking boy the consternated girl had left in her wake. She put on her patented peppy, reassuring voice and flashed him a winning grin. "It's just a few hours of dual synching, then I promise you won't have to deal with her pestering you until at least tomorrow."
The morose boy managed to muster a tired smile in response.
"I don't really mind it too much," he said charitably. He's such a nice boy. "I'll go get ready for the test now." Shinji left, following the same path as Asuka that led to the changing rooms.
Misato sighed. Those two were going to kill each other, by her estimate. She wished they could see how similar they really were. With a snort, she headed off toward the bridge to oversee the test. She had no plans to hold her breath waiting for the kids to stop antagonizing each other. Still, it would be nice for them to spend a little less time fighting.
— — —
The room slowly stopped spinning around Misato, with blurred colors and shapes coalescing into people, screens, and various bits of equipment on the bridge. She used her feet to brake entirely, halting herself in her chair to face the large, central screen showing two of her pilots on top of each other in an entry plug. Their lips were moving, and they both were clearly angry. The audio had been muted almost an hour before, when the first argument had started between them.
Misato twisted her core to the side, keeping her feet planted in place, and pushed against the floor to start a new spin cycle. There was still more than two hours to go. She hated this part of her job. Almost as much as she hated paperwork.
"Huh."
She dug her heels into the floor and forcibly arrested her spin. That tone of voice coming from her old friend meant—well, it could mean a lot of things. Misato did not like to jump to conclusions without having any information, but she suspected it did not mean anything good.
"Maya, can you run the data on connections six through eighteen again?"
"I've run it four times, I'm seeing the same thing," Ritsuko's favored technician answered.
"What are you two seeing?" Misato knew she would not get an answer. Not one that normal people would understand, at least.
"I'm not sure yet." The blonde removed her glasses, leaned closer to her screen, and squinted her eyes. She whispered, "Oh."
"What do you mean, 'oh?'" Misato stood and walked over to the doctor's station.
"Oh, fudge," she heard Maya gasp from her own work station.
Ritsuko hands dashed to her keyboard, her eyes widening and her face paling.
"Abort the test!"
— — —
"Doctor Akagi said there was some sort of mixup during the dual synch." Misato crossed her arms and met the infuriated glare of her red haired pilot with a steely look of command. "I don't really have a grasp of the technical details, but she explained the basics." And somehow I ended up being the one to have to explain this to you two.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Asuka sneered. "You should really listen to me more often."
Misato ignored her attempts to draw her into an argument.
"She said that there would be some lingering side effects." Misato braced herself for the next part. It sounded so stupid. Just, improbable. Completely insane. But given what her day job consisted of, all she could do was accept it and deal with the consequences. "Your thought patterns overlapped and seemed to have swapped over in some instances. You may notice thoughts, feelings, urges, anything, really, that originate from the other."
"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Asuka crossed her arms, and even Shinji cocked his head to the side.
"What does that mean?"
Asuka rounded on the boy before Misato could answer him.
"It doesn't mean anything because it's dumber than you are, Idiot," she scolded him.
"It means you may find yourself thinking and maybe even acting like each other, without realizing it." Misato answered more helpfully. Helpful in a certain sense, anyway. She was sure it was not something the boy wanted to hear. Either of them, really.
"No, because that's stupid!" Asuka yelled. She's always been good at being in denial.
"For how long?" Shinji seemed genuinely perplexed, if his face was anything to go by. Misato figured that was a rather reasonable response, and a good question to ask.
"No idea." It was a shame she did not have a good answer for him. "Rits said she's working on it. In the meantime, you two are going to try to live life as normal."
"Like hell I am!" Asuka stomped her foot angrily. "I said this was a stupid idea, and now you're trying to convince us of some kind of—of brain swap! You really expect us to just act like nothing happened after all this?!"
"There's not really anything else we can do. You're physically fine, and you've been cleared of any contamination. So we're going home, and I'll just be keeping a close eye on you two for any strange behavior. But if you guys notice anything at all that you think is weird, just let me know, ok?" She smiled and gave a thumbs up at the pair. Neither seemed impressed.
"Shinji!" Asuka rounded on her roommate. "Talk some sense into her!"
"I mean, it is pretty crazy," Shinji started slowly, screwing up his face in thought. Asuka grinned and shot Misato a sidelong look, clearly thinking her new ally would guarantee victory. "But if there's nothing we can do, we probably should just try to get back to our normal lives."
"Uuuggghhh," Asuka growled and threw her hands up in disgust. "Of course you would say that." She stomped away from the two of them.
Misato sighed and shook her head, then walked toward Shinji, who was looking down at the ground with a confused look on his face.
"It's ok, Shinji. Let's get home."