Revelations 12/28 AM, inner senshi, Luna

Rei was rarely, if ever, late and today wasn't going to be her day to start. In fact, the woman had surprised herself by collapsing into sleep almost as soon as she'd gotten the e-mails out the night before. Her dreams had not been untroubled, however. The priestess woke an hour before her usual, early time with a tear-stained face, raw throat, aching head and her hair in more knots than years of fighting had ever put it into. At least she had no recollection of what the dreams had been about.

She spent two hours in the bathroom, then, cleaning herself from top to bottom so thoroughly that her skin was red with it. Her hair finally regained its usual luster and if it weren't for the bags beneath her eyes, one might have thought the priestess was entirely okay. She only wished that were true.

When she'd seen to her hygiene (all the while trying not to think about the fact that her bathroom had once been tainted by his presence) Rei cleaned the room and then the rest of the shrine as well. The Miko in training would get a lighter day of chores but it did Rei well to engage in so familiar an activity. She paid her respects to the shrine and then headed early towards Usagi's chambers. Even if the Queen weren't there (and Rei very much doubted that she would be), it just wasn't in Rei to be late.

Much was her surprise when she entered the room to find that the Queen was already quite... awake was not the proper term for her state and Rei frowned in worry. The tell-tale bags under Usagi's eyes, the tightness about her lips and jilted movements spoke of a night of ill rest--if any rest at all. Rei closed the door behind her softly. "Good morning," she said though it was not. "I didn't expect you to be up so soon."

Rei helped herself to a seat and curled up in it. In her own fog of nerves she missed seeing, or more accurately, noting the absence of Usagi's engagement ring. "How long have you been up this time?"

As a small black cat, Luna had the ability to not be noticed by very many people as she ghosted about the palace. Although this was a little harder to do now that she was known to the world, people still rarely noticed her as she made her way past them. After all, most people didn’t pay much attention to their feet while talking to someone else. This had allowed her to hear many things that people would probably rather she didn’t. This morning, she had been passing by a trio of giggling maids that probably should have been doing something other then gossiping in the halls. She twitched her ears as she heard one of the girls whispering about something one of her other friends had told her. However, she didn't particularly pay them much attention. She rarely had the patience to listen to rumors.

Shaking her head in irritation, the small black cat continued on her way down the hall. She had just reached her destination when an aide ran up and nervously called her name. Luna sighed before turning to look at person curiously, once again finding it amusing to see that the aide didn’t seem entirely comfortable with addressing a cat.

After receiving the message about the meeting, Luna nodded politely and thanked the aide before turning and heading off toward Usagi’s chambers. She was curious to know what this meeting was about. She hadn’t been aware of anything important scheduled, perhaps it was just a ‘get together’ type of thing. Although Luna was well aware that the senshi had already held a get together meeting just the other day so she didn’t particularly think it could be that, besides this was a little early in the day for something like that.

When Luna arrived, she found the door closed. This annoyed her just a little as she had been requested to be here, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. She quickly caught the attention of one of the various aides running about and got them to open the door for her, though this was something she actually wasn’t that fond of doing. She would much prefer to be able to open the door on her own, but as she was currently stuck in the form of a little cat she couldn’t do that.

Murmuring a polite thanks to the aide, Luna slipped through the door before it was closed once again. She turned her attention to the two women in the room and immediately noticed that neither one of them seemed to have slept very well. She figured Usagi had probably been up dealing with some sort of crisis again, but she did wonder what might have kept Rei from sleeping as well.

She padded over to a nearby chair and leaped up into it, settling herself down before gazing worriedly at her companions. She took in both of their appearances, wondering what could have prompted this get together. Although it didn't escape her notice that Usagi was missing her engagement ring, she didn't pay that detail much attention other then to think that it was odd. She had never known Usagi to be without it ever before.

“Good Morning Usagi, Rei-chan ...”

"Thank you," Rei responded to the offer off food, but declined. Breakfast, or food in general, didn't seem very welcome at the moment. Instead she cast a worried look at her friend. Far be it from Rei to chide the woman for not sleeping, especially as she knew quite well what had passed the night before; she had a good idea of it, at least. Instead, she'd opened her mouth to form a query of it when the door opened and the sleek black form of Luna slipped in through it.

Rei nodded to the feline, whom she didn't see much of at all these days--but she and Luna had never been particularly close, so such an absence was rather normal for them--and returned her greeting in kind. Another lie, but a pleasant one. Ami came in a moment later and seemed to jump straight to the semptom of the problem, as any good doctor would.

The priestess had sat to the right of Usagi's desk, one elbow now leaned casually upon the corner of it to support herself, and she turned her head to cast a glance at their friend before she replied. "It is... a long story, Ami. It would probably be best to wait for the others, so it can be said once."

Judging from Usagi's state, she doubted the woman's news was going to be all that good. Rei offered Ami a smile, one that was pleasant enough but filled with a sort of wary exhaustion. "Don't worry. Neither of us will keel over before then." Though she was perhaps speaking out of turn for Usagi, Rei hoped the other woman would understand what she meant by it. She'd never seen Usagi act this... strong before. Not over a problem which concerned Mamoru in such a manner. Were Rei to be honest with herself, a good part of her still expected Usagi to do exactly as she'd done when "Tuxedo Kamen" had first walked into their lives all those years before--defend him endlessly, pointlessly and even though all evidence presented was utterly incriminating. That she had yet to do so left Rei feeling perversely proud of her.

"Though," Rei added after a moments thought and looked towards Usagi. A specific thing Usagi had wished for the night before came rolling back into her memory and she couldn't help herself, "you should take a nap, at least, as soon as we're done here. I can help push your assistants about and deal with the barking politicians until you're rested."

"Morning, Luna," Usagi said with a nod, walking over to her printer as it began to spit out more FLASH messages, one after another. Ami came in directly on the heels of Luna, though her reaction to things was much more direct than Usagi had expected. It was obvious she wasn't fooling anyone right now. Luckily, Rei answered for her.

"We're fine, Ami-chan," she said quietly. "And Rei-chan is right, we should wait for everyone to get here. Right now sleep is the least of our worries..." Usagi gave her friend a small, wry smile, returning and plopping down in her chair.

"Unfortunately, Rei, this particular crisis requires decisions that only I can make. If it's over by the time we get out-- which isn't likely-- then you can push the barking politicians around all you like and I'll take a sleeping pill. But as things are now, I'm needed." Usagi refused to rest until the evacuation was complete.

Makoto swept in just as quickly. Usagi was relieved that everyone was early, it was so hard to wait on this. "Mako-chan," she smiled, nodding at her friend's greeting. Usagi realized that she was nodding quite a bit. She had never been a quiet person, but words were not her strong suit right now. It just felt so tiring to talk at all. "This crisis is unrelated to what you were called here for, we have different but no less important issues to deal with. I suggest you get something to eat or drink," she told them as the server entered with her second espresso of that morning. She took the saucer with her left hand, and once more knocked it back. "Keep 'em coming."

Ami frowned a bit at Rei's answer and assurance. Whatever was going on was affecting the health of her friends, and that was something which deeply disturbed Ami. "All right." She nodded, knowing that sometimes it was more difficult to have to tell a hard story more than once.

She took a seat near to the others, watching them both closely - and just now noticing that Usagi's left hand was bare. That caused her frown to deepen.

When Makoto walked in, Ami was relieved that at least one of her friends appeared to be well rested. She hoped that meant that either the drugs were helping or that Makoto's headaches had stopped enough that she had not needed them after all. Ami almost decided that if Minako was also having health or sleep problems that that would have to mean that there was some kind of enemy attacking them as this was too much to be coincidence.

"Morning, Mako-chan." She smiled warmly to her and then turned her attention back to Usagi.

"I agree with Rei, Usagi. You need sleep. Whatever this other crisis is, let us help you with it. The world needs you, but it needs you healthy." She would not issue "doctor's orders" just yet, but she was definitely going to keep a close eye on her. "And you need sleep too, Rei." She half considered slipping a sleeping pill into both their drinks as soon as this meeting was over.

Makoto managed to smile back to the girls who returned her greeting. However her slight frown returned at Usagi's suggestion to eat or drink. This was not going to be a good meeting, she could feel it already. Better get something on her stomach now. She looked to the server who'd brought Usagi's espresso and decided to have something as well. "Could I have coffee please, extra cream and sugar. And perhaps some toast or a croissant? Thank you!" She smiled at the young girl as she nodded at Makoto's request. Mako always felt weird having people "serve" her since she was so used to doing things herself. A slight flush rose to her cheeks as she recalled something similar being mentioned to her in an e-mail.

Straightening herself she looked to Usagi and nodded in agreement with Ami, though she really had no idea what was really going on at the moment. It didn't matter to her though, Usagi was quite obviously tired and needed some sort of assistance, whether she really wanted it or not. "Yes Usagi, Ami's right. Let us help you. We want to help, really!"

Luna had been listening silently to everything that went on around her. However, when Usagi mentioned that she got the call about the crisis at 2 in the morning she stared at the young queen in confusion. She distinctly recalled Usagi saying that she had pulled an all-nighter. If it wasn’t because of the crisis, then what was it for?

She glanced at the clock on the wall, noting that the time for the meeting had come and gone awhile back. Minako was obviously going to be late. The black cat twitched her tail irritably being reminded of all the times both blondes had been late to something, obviously some things never changed. Shaking her head in exasperation, Luna turned her attention back to the other senshi and proceeded to get things back on track.

“Girls I’m not certain that Minako is going to make it and we can’t keep ourselves locked up in here all day. I know that there was something important that needed to be discussed today, perhaps we should get on with it? We can always bring Minako up to date when she gets here ...”