1/2PM Conversation in the Car (Usagi/Mamoru)

[Neo Queen Serenity]

"A kiss for the macarena?" Usagi mused aloud. "Sounds pretty fair to me, actually." She stopped, glad that with heels she didn't have to stand up on her tiptoes as she leaned into Mamoru and gently kissed him on the corner of his mouth. He never specified where he wanted to be kissed. He would have to settle for that.

Usagi pushed her plate of oysters over to him. "Help yourself," she said simply, digging into her other food with vigor. She let conversation fall by the wayside, just enjoying filling her stomach again. Save for the oysters she had passed off to Mamoru, she was finished relatively quickly, and leaned back in her chair, sipping on the first drink she ordered. The alcohol was beginning to give her a pleasant, mellow buzz, and she relaxed, closing her eyes for a moment, and wondering how late it was.

[Chiba Mamoru]

Mamoru’s expression went from devilish to surprise and then to delight rather quickly. He hadn’t expected Usagi to kiss him, but he definitely wasn’t complaining. It was a chaste kiss, but to him it meant that she was at least feeling comfortable with him. This was the highlight of his evening and he let her know it in the delighted grin he gave her. “Then the macarena it is, but when ... you aren’t really wanting me to get up there on the bar and do it now are you?” At this point he probably would if she really wanted him to, but he certainly hoped that she wouldn’t ask that of him.

He murmured a thanks and delicately ate a few of the oysters before saying, “These are good, eat some I didn’t mean to take them all from you.” Mamoru grinned at her before returning to his own plate of appetizers to finish them off. Once he did he too leaned back in his chair and began to sip at his own drink as he studied his companion quietly and enjoyed her presence.

Mamoru vaguely realized that it was getting late, probably getting close to midnight. Usagi would probably be wanting to get home soon. He was sad that his night would likely be ending before long, but at least he was promised her company next week. Still he didn’t mention the late hour, after all who was he to try and rush the end. He was just content to remain silent for awhile. Eventually growing tired of the silence, he murmured, “I’ve really enjoyed being with you this evening Usa.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi smiled softly in surprise, but the glint of mischief in her eyes remained. "No, I think I'll take a rain check on that. I'll let you know when I want that macarena," she grinned.

"Thanks." Usagi took her plate back and quickly finished the rest off. She loved oysters, so they disappeared pretty quickly.

She stifled a yawn behind her hand as she sat and worked on finishing her drink. Now that she was fed again, and the alcohol was beginning to get into her system, Usagi was wilting. It had been a lovely evening, but she was typically in bed a hour before this, and she had to be up around five, anyway. Plus there was a smattering of things to do before she went to bed at the Palace, too. She was beginning to dread waking up the next morning, she would be quite tired, and would have to schedule things around the night club visit next week so that she would have the energy to last through the night.

Usagi looked up as Mamoru broke the silence. "I've enjoyed it too," she murmured, giving him a sleepy smile. "Though I think it's time we got going. It'll take a little while to get back to the Palace and I'm fading."

[Chiba Mamoru]

Mamoru grinned, somewhat relieved that she didn’t want her dance now. He wondered when she would ask for it, but he was determined to do as he had said and actually do the macarena for her whenever she asked. “That’s two things you have a rain check for then, don’t forget a question and a dance whenever you want.”

He noticed her stifled yawn and quickly finished off the rest of his drink. Mamoru knew that she had a lot to do and had already been over stressed lately. He didn’t want to add being exhausted to her stress. It wasn’t healthy for her and he didn’t want to make it so that she dreaded spending time in his company.

Mamoru grinned at her response and nodded. “I’m glad that you had fun but I agree, it’s getting late.” He rose to his feet and held his hand out to help her up as well. He then proceeded to settle the bill.

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. She was feeling tired so it was definitely good to have a hand up. She loitered patiently as he settled the bill, gathering her things and heading out the door, waving to a few people that she knew, but not stopping to actually greet them.

She pressed the down button for the elevator, and the doors opened immediately. Usagi smiled and stepped in, and was watching them close until a hand came between them and she saw Phillips' face and sighed.

"Uh-uh. You know the drill," he told her as the doors opened up again.

"Oh, come on. What's going to happen between now and hitting the ground floor? This entire place is crawling with Secret Service, you can't even give me that excuse about having to be there on the ground floor."

Phillips just looked at her, as if to say: 'how long is this going to take?' "Yes, but they're not your detail."

"I'll still be fine! There is a second elevator for you to go down with the rest of the them! You'll reach it the same time I do. All will be well. Besides," Usagi said, flashing him a smile. "What could possibly go wrong? It's not like we'll get stuck, or anything. And I promise I won't tell Lucan about this little breach in protocol."

Phillips seemed to be thinking it over, and then slowly shook his head. "Fine. But I'll hold you to that promise. Have fun, kiddos." He popped out and Usagi pressed the close button, happy just to have a small victory over who shared her elevator space. She winked at Mamoru and just daydreamed as the elevator descended. She was jolted out of her thoughts as it halted abruptly. It was too soon to be on the ground floor, and just as she looked up at the floor number, the lights flickered.

Usagi screamed shrilly. She was probably being overdramatic, but this was scary! Especially as the elevator lurched a few times, before finally stopping, and the lights were completely out.

"Oh my Gooooooddddddd it's DARK!" Usagi wailed. "OK. Don't panic! I got this. This is easy. Power should come on anyyyy minute. Hotel has backup generators..."

She sucked in a few breaths and felt along the rows of buttons, finally finding the bigger emergency one and pressing it. Nothing. No crackling intercom. She even managed to pry open the panel with the emergency phone, but the line was dead.

And the lights were still out.

"Mamo-channnNNNNNNN! We're gonna dieeeeeee!"

[Chiba Mamoru]

After settling the bill, Mamoru followed Usagi out toward the elevator. Mamoru glanced curiously at everyone that Usagi waved at, but didn’t do anything but nod politely.

When the elevator doors opened, Mamoru stepped in and turned back to watch the doors close. His lips twitched just a little in amusement when Phillips stuck his hand in to stop the doors from closing all the way. They really should have known the agent wouldn’t allow them to travel down to the bottom floor on their own.

Mamoru glanced over at his companion at her sigh before shaking his head. Turning back to Phillips he shrugged and muttered, “I hate to repeat the whole process of the nightclub conversation, but really what could happen when the place is so secure already.”

He grinned over at Usagi when she won her argument and winked at him. “Good going ...” Mamoru settled back against the wall of the elevator as it descended, confident that nothing could happen in such a short ride. No sooner had he thought that when the elevator halted abruptly.

Mamoru cursed silently as it lurched a few times before finally coming to a stop with the lights completely out. He heard Usagi wail and immediately said, “Usa don’t panic, it’ll be ok. Everything is just fine, come on now find the emergency button and we’ll be out of here in no time.”

He relaxed when he heard her calm down a little to supposedly do as he suggested. As he waited and listened to her prying open the panel with the emergency phone he wondered what had caused the power outage.

At her next words however, Mamoru’s heart went out to her. She was really scared. He quickly located her in the dark and for the second time that night pulled her into his embrace. Once again he murmured comfortingly into her ear, “Usako calm down. I promise we aren’t going to die. Everything is going to be fine, I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m right here and Phillips is out there. He’s probably already on the job figuring out what’s wrong so that he can get it fixed.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi clung to Mamoru. She hated the dark, and she hated being stuck in a small box dangling by a steel cable over a long, dark elevator shaft. She shuddered at the thought, her hand fisting in his shirt. It even reminded her of a youma battle they had back during Beryl. She was distraught enough to not even notice that they had reverted back to their nicknames for each other.

At least she wasn't alone, and Mamoru was very protective and comforting as always. Usagi sniffed a bit, trying to calm down, but failing. She groaned when Mamoru mentioned Phillips. She had been so stupid! Why had she made the man take the other elevator? Why?! It wasn't like she actually cared if he had gone with them or not, it would have been a short ride and she would been just as free with Mamoru in his presence as out of it. She only fought so hard for-- for what? Just to win something? Just to feel in control? Well the elevator was stuck and it was dark and she DID NOT FEEL IN CONTROL!!! It had been petty and stupid to kick her agent out.

"Why why why why why why WHY did I make him go on the other elevator?" Usagi wailed, her voice muffled as she had her head buried against Mamoru's chest. "They were going down at the same time as us! They're probably stuck too, and they can't do anything! And the hotel has backup generators that should have come on now but they haven't! And beyond that, the Palace is independent of the power grid, it connects in when the power is out to give surplus so that there's no sustained blackout and IT SHOULD HAVE COME ON BY NOW and it hasn't and that means there's SOMETHING VERY WRONG, and I should be doing something about it but I'M STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR! This, this is why you don't leave your agent out in the cold! Because not only do you CURSE YOURSELF, but because they have radios, and phones, and other stuff with lots of buttons that I don't know how to use but they do and it communicates with the outside world and I could at least know what the HELL was going on!"

That was when Usagi had an epiphany. She had her communicator! She could just call the girls! Why didn't she think of this earlier? They could all teleport in and teleport her and Mamoru out. Perfect!

Usagi pulled away from Mamoru and opened her purse, digging in it but only managing to tip it over in the dark. Sighing, she knelt, bumping into Mamoru's legs as she crawled around the floor of the elevator, looking for her brooch. Once she found it, she paused. If it was just a power outage, she didn't want to wake the girls up at such a later hour over something so easily fixed, even if it took awhile. And she wasn't sure she wanted Mamoru and the senshi in a very small, dark space together. That might not turn out so well. And he might not want to teleport out, and she wasn't even sure if it could happen, anyway. Usagi sighed and sat in a corner. She'd wait a bit longer before contacting the senshi.

[Chiba Mamoru]

This was not how he had planned for his evening with Usagi to end. There was something about being stuck in a dark elevator without any knowledge of what was going on that detracted from the pleasantness of the night. Although he had to admit that it wasn’t necessarily being stuck in an elevator alone with Usagi that was bothering him. If he were to be honest with himself, Mamoru would have found this entire scenario to be amusing, or at the very least a chance to spend even more time with Usagi, if only she wasn’t so distraught about it.

He once again found himself tightening his embrace and stroking her back gently in a soothing manner. Anything to try and help her calm down some. Of course he had obviously failed when she groaned and then began wailing into his chest about making Phillips go down in the other elevator.

Mamoru sighed softly before saying, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t know this would happen and neither did he or else he wouldn’t have agreed. You know, he could have fought you harder. It wasn’t as if you forced the doors closed before he could get on, he agreed to ride on the other one.”

He shrugged a little in the dark and added, “As for not being able to do anything because you are stuck in here, even if Phillips was in here you still wouldn’t be able to do anything. Whatever has happened you do have competent staff, you know you do. I’m certain they can handle things while you are away at least partially until you are able to do something. I’m sure that right now Phillips is in the other elevator using all of those radios and phones and other stuff with all the buttons to figure out what’s going on and getting someone to work on the problem.” Mamoru hesitated a moment before continuing, “You don’t know what’s going on and we aren’t going to be able to know until someone is able to get in contact with us. There is no point in worrying about it until that time.”

He frowned a little when she pulled away and then rose an eyebrow at the clattering of objects across the elevator floor. Just what was she doing now? She was obviously looking for something by the fact that she was crawling about the floor and bumping into his legs, though he wasn’t sure what.

The only things he could think of that would be useful in a situation like this would either be a flashlight which he was fairly certain she wouldn’t be carrying around, or possibly a cell phone which he knew she also wouldn’t have. The cell phone however reminded him that even without a phone she could still contact her senshi, which was more then likely what she was searching for.

Mamoru’s frown deepened for a moment at the thought of the senshi. He wasn’t really ready to confront the senshi anytime soon, especially one certain one. He most definitely didn’t want to confront them in a small enclosed dark area such as this elevator and so he wasn’t looking forward to Usagi contacting them. He shook his head however and decided not to say anything. If Usagi felt like she should contact her sisters then she should, he wasn’t about to suggest otherwise. That would only cause her to get upset with him again and he didn’t want that. He waited a moment, but didn’t hear her contacting anyone. Mamoru shrugged again, maybe he was wrong about what she had been searching for.

Kneeling on the ground, Mamoru made his way over to where she was sitting and settled himself down next to her. He was silent for a few minutes before glancing over at her and smiling devilishly, even though he was aware that she wouldn’t be able to see his smile in the dark. “You know Usa, this was not what I had in mind when I said that I would whisk you away to some secluded spot, though I guess I got my wish.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

"I didn't give him a choice, either," Usagi muttered. No, this was definitely her fault, though right now she feared for poor Phillips' continued employment in the Secret Service. She'd have to intervene with Lucan or something. He was good, and she'd miss him if he left.

"If he was here I could use his radio to give orders!" Usagi snapped, the stress making her turn ire onto Mamoru, despite his continued comforting of her. He just didn't get it! He had no idea what it meant to be cut off from her staff. "Yes, thank you, I'm aware of the capabilities of my staff. Which is why I know what they would and would not be able to do in a real emergency. You don't understand, it's a legal issue, Mamoru!" She had to legally give the orders on a few things. The chain of command was broken! That was unacceptable!

He was so typically male, too! Telling her not to worry. She was the Queen, her job was to worry! Her job was to know and figure out and solve. And she had no one to blame but herself for it; that was what rankled the most. Still, she was sure if something really bad had gone down, she wouldn't even have to contact the senshi, they could come to get her anyway. That, or someone would physically come in and pull her out. Whoever got there faster, she supposed.

No, they were still stuck here in the dark, which mean that something serious was wrong, but not serious enough to have the senshi appearing already. Which meant she shouldn't call them quite yet. But it was probably something serious she should be attending to, regardless, even if it didn't warrant either teleportation or a quick extraction.

Usagi frowned at Mamoru's humorous tone as he said he got his wish. "Yeah, you and me both. I wished to be left alone and out of eyesight and earshot of the world. I guess this falls under 'be careful what you wish for,'" She muttered, slumping down to the floor. This was neither romantic, or an adventure, as far as Usagi was concerned. She had learned an important lesson already, though, as tempting as her fantasy to be alone sounded, she hated being unaware of what was going, and unable to react to it immediately.

"You remember when Nephrite had that Leo youma?" Usagi asked. "There's a reason why I'd rather not be cooped up in an elevator."

[Chiba Mamoru]

“He could have insisted, for that matter I could have,” Mamoru countered calmly. “It was a mistake, that was all and now we know better.”

Mamoru stared down at her in surprise when she snapped at him and the first thing out of his mouth was a vaguely irritated, “Well he’s not here so you might as well not worry about it.” Mamoru was perfectly aware that she needed to be there to give some of the orders needed in an emergency. He had only been out of the loop for a little under a week, before that he had been very much aware of the things that went on in the palace and how the government worked. “I know how the government works Usagi, except for the last week I’ve been right there with you from the very start. I’m well aware that they need you to give orders on some things.”

He immediately sighed and rubbed his forehead a moment in frustration before saying, “Forgive me ...” Mamoru refused to allow her to draw him into an argument simply because she was stressed out. He hadn’t done anything other then suggest that she not worry quite so much. “I was only trying to say that there isn’t any point in stressing yourself out over not being able to be there right now. They know where you are, in the event of something really terrible happening they would find a way to at the very least get in contact with you. There’s no denying something has happened, but there is no sense in assuming the worst at the moment.”

Mamoru shrugged a little irritably when she refused to be drawn out of her upset and into a more pleasant conversation. If she wanted to remain in a somewhat sour mood he couldn’t stop her. Of course then she had to go and bring up their past elevator experience. He couldn’t help tensing at the mention of Nephrite and the youma he had commanded. Mamoru didn’t like being reminded about anything to do with those times.

He fell silent for a good long moment, trying hard to get control over his temper that immediately sprang up at the mention of Nephrite. Mamoru couldn’t afford to get angry about this, especially not when Usagi wasn’t being accusative she was only mentioning why she didn’t like being cooped up in an elevator.

Finally after a moment Mamoru successfully stamped out his rising anger so that he could reply calmly without even a hint of his irritation. “I remember, it was a bad time but we got out of that one successfully. We’ll get out of this time as well, but Usa the elevator is not going to fall this time. It was a different circumstance and even if it was going to we would find a way to safety just like we did that time.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

"You could have? You backed me up! And anyway, it's not your job. It was a costly mistake." They weren't even out of the woods yet and he was giving her the 'let's learn from this experience' rigmarole. MEN!

If only he would just stop talking! Usagi was beginning to remember just how insufferable Mamoru could really be. Just running right over her very valid feelings and worries with his logic, which, Usagi thought sourly, was invalid in a few places anyway. She had every right and reason to be worried if she darn well wanted to be! And she didn't need him patronizing her and telling her what was what. She wasn't a complete idiot! He spent the whole evening telling her she was smarter than she thought and then he talked to her like this? Obviously he needed to make up his mind what he believed about her intelligence, because right now he was insulting it!

"I can worry if I want to!" Usagi snipped back. "You can think there's no sense in it, I call it being on a high state of alert." Besides, if something had gone down, what were the people going to think about the Queen stuck doing nothing? She didn't care what the press would make of it, but images mattered to people. She needed to appear in control, not blowing off her work for a night out! There was plenty of sense in assuming the worst, she could prepare for it if it was true. Usagi was beyond panicking now, she was mentally going over all of what could be going on. And she didn't need Mamoru telling her how to think!

His 'forgive me' was ignored, especially as it was followed by excuses and more patronizing. That was not a real apology.

His silence was noted, and Usagi wondered if she had pissed him off just by mentioning the Shitennou. He could sit there at the dinner table and woo her with promises about wanting to be more open with them, but she was beginning to notice that when under stress, he got awful defensive and angry when she so much as said a name. And though he didn't say anything, they were sitting right next to each other so she felt his body tense next to her.

A good long while passed and Usagi's thoughts were beginning to wander back to what could be going on when he finally spoke up. It was her turn to tense, and she crawled across the small space to the opposite corner, sitting back down with a small huff and crossing her arms. She couldn't even bring up her feelings and the reasoning behind them without Mamoru stomping all over them with his cold logic. Of course she knew the elevator wasn't going to fall! She wasn't an idiot! She didn't want to hear about how they had gotten out of successively, she was there, she knew! Nor did she think they were in imminent danger this time. But there were plenty of feelings the incident brought up and none of them paid anything attention to what she knew, she still felt scared anyway. And obviously he didn't care unless he got to stand there and croon Usako at her and talk down to her like the smart, strong man in the relationship. She had panicked a bit first, but it was completely natural. That didn't mean she was a hysterical woman who needed to be told to calm down!!

Well, he could sit in his corner and be logical. She would sit here and figure out how she was going to fix whatever had gone wrong.

[Chiba Mamoru]

Mamoru sighed in frustration before saying, “I know that I backed you up Usagi, because I too didn’t think anything would happen in the two minutes it would take to get to the bottom floor.” He gritted his teeth together in an effort not to get angry but he couldn’t help snapping, “I was only trying to help, next time I won’t get involved since it’s not my job.”

He sighed in frustration once more, trying to figure out how they had gone from bantering back and forth in good fun to this. They had only been stuck in an elevator for a few minutes and they were falling apart. He did understand that there could be something terrible going on, but she didn’t need to get all defensive on him. He had only suggested that she not worry so much, at least until she was given something to worry about.

Mamoru was beginning to get irritated. She was taking her worry out on him and he didn’t like it. “Fine worry away if that’s what you want to do, I’m not stopping you. As for a high state of alert, I’d say that was jumping the gun a little. You don’t even know what’s wrong yet, but go right ahead and assume the worst.”

He felt her tense next to him after his answer and mentally sighed. Apparently he had said something wrong again, though he wasn’t at all sure what. He knew that he had kept whatever irritation he was feeling very neatly out of his tone and he hadn’t said anything other then that they had made it out then and they would do it again. What on earth was wrong with what he had said this time?

Mamoru sighed irritably when she crawled across the floor to sit in the opposite corner before muttering, “If you don’t want to be in my company Usa, all you have to do is call your friends. I’m sure they’d come to rescue you from having to be stuck in an elevator with me.”

This was stupid and beyond childish. He hadn’t done anything this time so what was she upset about now. He had sincerely tried to make the effort not to be angry and his reward was for her to not want to sit next to him?

He thunked his head against the wall of the elevator and just sat in the silence after that, not bothering to speak again. If she wanted to act like a sulky little girl and get angry at every little thing he said just like she use to then there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He would just sit here in his corner and wait for something to happen, otherwise he might say something else that would only make things worse.

After awhile of sitting there sulking in the dark, Mamoru dug his phone out of his pocket to see if there might possibly be any cell service in the elevator. If he did then he could call someone to find out what was going on so that Usagi could stop thinking up the worst possible scenarios. There was a slim chance, but it was better then just sitting there doing nothing.

[Neo Queen Serenity]

"I was saying it wasn't your fault because it wasn't your job," Usagi said back with frustration. Geez! She was getting him off the hook and he wanted back on it! Well, fine!

"It's my gun to jump if I want to. I never asked your opinion on it," she fumed back. In fact, she would worry just to spite him! He couldn't tell her how to feel!

Usagi rolled her eyes at him in her little dark corner of the elevator. "It's not you I mind being stuck with, I just mind being stuck in an elevator. I'd mind just as much if not more if I was stuck alone. And I'm not going to call the girls, if it's a real emergency they or someone else would have extracted me by now, which means it's serious but not serious enough to warrant getting us out of here which means we have to suffer. And I'm not stupid enough to put you and the senshi in the dark together. If it does turn out to be a real emergency, just be glad Haruka's not around to teleport in here. You may be patronizing, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't fear for your wellbeing in that scenario," she remarked.

"We have a history in elevators, let's just admit it," Usagi continued. "That time with Nephrite, that time with Zoicite, now this. At least we'll have cool elevator stories for the rest of our natural lives. Everytime we step into an elevator we can announce: 'there was this one time when,' and everyone will go 'oooooh.'"

Her attention was diverted from her ramblings to the sudden source of light as Mamoru took out his phone and the backlight on the display came up. "LIGHT!" Usagi yelled, and threw herself on him like a woman possessed. "Light light light light LIGHT why didn't you tell me that you had LIGHT?!"

[Chiba Mamoru]

Mamoru shook his head in lingering frustration over her words, but he didn’t say anything more. It didn’t really matter to him whose fault it was because he really just believed that it had been a mistake made by all three of them.

Again he simply sighed in irritation at her next words, but refused to say anything else. If she wanted to worry herself into a panic that was her business. He had only been trying to help her relax a bit, but obviously she didn’t want to do anything other then worry.

Her next words had him feeling a little better. At least it wasn’t really him that she minded being stuck with, but then he had already known she was only stressed with the situation. As he had previously thought they had both been acting a little childish in the way they were handling things. A very slightly amused smile tipped his lips once more, even if she couldn’t see it as he said, “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not meet Haruka anywhere dark or otherwise for awhile to come. I would hate to have to fear for the state of my health. Once she gets back I kind of think she’s going to be ... less then happy with me.”

Mamoru glanced over at Usagi when she started rambling on about their history in elevators. She had a point actually, they did seem to have a rather impressive history with elevators. At least this time there wasn’t anyone trying to kill them. “If you tell people those stories Usa, they might decide to get out of the elevator for fear that something might happen to them if they ride with us.”

He almost dropped his phone when he was unexpectedly pounced on by a very excited Usagi. Mamoru couldn’t help snickering at her antics, previous irritation forgotten almost as quickly as it had come. His arm snaked around her waist to snuggle her next to his side without much conscious thought as he said, “I had forgotten actually, but Usa it’s more then light ... if I can get service in this elevator I can call someone and get information for you. Who would be best to call though ... Lucan, Hikari, someone else?”

While he was waiting for her answer, Mamoru frowned a bit. He did have service, though it certainly could have been better. The real problem was the charge of the phone, it wasn’t going to last forever. Apparently he had forgotten to charge the phone up recently, something he very rarely ever did. Mamoru was generally more reliable then that, but he blamed it on the traumatic week he had been having.

“Think fast Usa. The charge won’t last more then a few minutes so if you want to talk to someone and at least find out what the problem is you’ll have to be quick about it.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

"I'm sure she'll behave herself. All the same once she returns you probably shouldn't be in her presence without an escort nearby," Usagi remarked calmly.

"Good point, though that might be kind of funny. Usually when I wat to kick people out of my elevator I just have the computer at the Palace play my version of elevator music." Having jpop or top 40 or even some of her more eclectic tastes blare through the speakers had a tendency to drive out some of the more annoying people. If Usagi wanted to end a meeting prematurely she would just go to her elevator and people would learn to leave her alone. "I feel bad for the people who have to ride with me and listen, though. And watch me dance." Yes, she danced in her elevator.

Excited at this existence of light in this dark space, Usagi snuggled in next to Mamoru and gleefully closed her hands around his, 'helping' him hold his own cell phone as if it was the holy grail.

"Ooh, information! And someone to get us out!" Usagi squealed. She shook her head as he started listing off names. "I don't know Hikari's personal number off the top of my head, and she'd be asleep, probably. Lucan would know what's going on, if he doesn't already. Umm.." Usagi said sheepishly. "You have his number. Right?" She never needed to memorize numbers anymore, Hikari or an aide was always around to dial one for her.

"You mean the light is going away soon?" Usagi whined. "Dial fast, Mamo-chan! Dial like you've never dialed before!!"