Serenity awoke to a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was the third time this week that sickness had abruptly greeted her. She made her way out of the bathroom to her sitting chair. She looked in the mirror. She could see no signs of a virus or the flu in her face, only tired eyes that stared back at her. She turned around and noticed her husband had already risen for the day. She wasn't sure where he was, but would find him later. Right now she wanted to make sure she didn't have a virus. She slipped on one of her gowns, but felt very uncomfortable in her gown, feeling like she was being squeezed and pushed in everywhere. After digging around in her closet for a few minutes, Serenity found some old sweatpants and a big baggy tee. Slipping the clothes on she instantly felt better. She was too lazy to style her hair, so she pulled it up into a messy bun. She slipped on some shoes and left her room, looking around to see if anyone else was in the palace halls. 

Ami had been busy with research lately, so Serenity decided to go see Setsuna, and hopefully her green-haired guardian could help her figure out why she was feeling so miserable, that and Serenity had wanted to spend more time with all her senshi, lately with all the meetings and traveling Serenity had had little time for herself and those closest to her.

Serenity walked down the hall and knocked on Setsuna's office door, hoping she was in today.

Ooc bump

Just after the Queen knocked on Setsuna's door, a door opened a little ways down the hall.  If she paid attention to it, the next thing the Queen would notice would be a quiet exhaling of breath sounding kind of like "Whew."  Then she would see a blue-haired woman come out of said door into the hall - her friend Ami, of course.

As Ami looked up and down the hall, to make sure she hadn't gotten in anyone's way, she noticed the Queen outside of the door she was at.  Ami's facial expression quickly changed from one that communicated being busy to one of happiness.  Because even though she was busy with her research, Ami was always willing to find a little time for the woman who had taken the initiative to befriend her all those many years ago.  The blue-haired woman decided to start a little smalltalk with her, beaming "Hello, Neo-Queen Serenity!  How are you doing this morning?"

Michiru stared at the clouds through the glass ceiling as she swam. The palace's pool was spacious, and with Haruka away she found herself indulging in the cool water more often. After nearly two hours, Michiru hoisted herself out of the water and walked over the chair where she left her blanket and wrap. After drying off, she pulled her light green wrap around her. She headed towards her room, she was hungry but wanted to change before eating. Michiru was planning on seeing if anyone wanted to join her.

Serenity was happy to see her blue haired friend walking towards her. When Ami asked how she was doing, Serenity smiled as she said "I would be better if I didn't feel so terrible and it seems Setsuna is away today." I have been feeling sick all week, I wanted to see if maybe I had the flue or something."

She looked up at Ami and remembered Ami was a doctor too. She asked her friend "If you're not too busy can you check to make sure I don't have the flu or some other virus?"

Serenity hoped she wasn't intruding on her friends busy schedule.

After listening to Usagi's response, Ami stopped to think for a second or two.  Then she got out her electronic PDA and double-checked her schedule for the day.  After doing so, she reported to Usagi "I was going to meet Kumi Yoshimoto now, but if she agrees, I can push back that meeting to 3:30 PM, my one free time slot later today.  Hang on just a sec, and I'll call her."

Ami then walked back up the hall away from Neo-Queen Serenity for a little privacy.  After making the call on her cell phone, Ami walked back down the hall to NQS with a tempered smile on her face.  As she neared NQS again, Ami told the Queen "Good news - Yoshimoto-san agreed to the change.  So why don't you follow me to my office, where I can examine you?"  Ami then started heading to her office, where she had a small but fully-stocked examining room set up.  The blue-haired woman expected the Queen to follow her.

Serenity followed Ami back to her exam room. She realized it had been awhile since her and any of the senshi had spent time together. She felt bad, and wished her duties as Queen didn't inhibit so much of her time. 

I should plan a lunch get together for all of us.  She thought as she and Ami walked through the door to her exam room.

On her way down the hall, Serenity thought she saw Michiru across the way, no doubt coming back from a swim. Serenity would have to go visit Michiru too at some point.

On the way to her office & exam room, Ami didn't notice Michiru like the Queen apparently had - Ami was too distracted by trying to plan out how she would fully examine Neo-Queen Serenity in the time she had available, and planning out when she would need to leave to make the next thing on her schedule.

When they were both in the exam room, and she had gotten the Queen to sit down in the patient's seat, Ami started with the typical listening to NQS's breathing and heartbeat through her stethoscope.  She didn't notice much unusual there, so she went on to the next step in a typical patient examination "Okay, Neo-Queen Serenity.  I'm going to have to get a blood sample from you.  So prepare yourself for the needle."  Ami then prepared the needle she would use to withdraw the blood and the small test tubes she would use to store the Queen's blood.  The blue-haired woman followed that up by patiently waiting for NQS to get ready to be poked by the needle.

Serenity still hated needles, but she knew that they were necessary sometimes. She looked away and scrunched her face up when she felt the needle puncture her arm. She hoped this part would be over. 

She decided to make conversation with her blue- haired friend. She had seen so little of all of them lately, it seemed everyone was busy with palace duties and lately there had been a lot going on, it seemed the people of Crystal Tokyo were stirring up a ruckus, something Serenity knew she would have to address with everyone eventually.

She looked up at Ami as she spoke in a soft voice, "Has work been keeping you busy Ami-chan?" I was wondering if you're not too busy, how would you like to have a lunch date, just you me and the girls....no boys allowed,"she said with a slight giggle

Once the Queen had prepared herself, Ami punctured her arm with the needle.  Ami found it interesting - almost amusing - that Neo-Queen Serenity still hated needles (she could tell by the way the Queen scrunched up her face).  Though Ami made sure to not show in any way that she might've been amused, of course.  Ami attached the first small test tube to the other end of the needle, waited until it was full of blood, then removed that one and repeated the process with the other three small test tubes.  She was glad for the Queen's sake that she only had to puncture NQS's arm the one time due to being able to attach different small test tubes to the other end of the same needle.

While she was working with the small test tubes like that, Ami listened to the Queen's question and proposal.  She replied seriously at first "Has work been keeping me busy?  Yes, it has."  Then her voice took on a happy tone as she continued "But usually not too busy to enjoy a nice lunch.  In fact, I'd love it if just the five of us could get together for lunch sometime - or it could be a bigger gathering to include Haruka-san, Michiru-san, and Setsuna-san.  I'm too busy to organize it, unfortunately, but if you could organize it, I'd come - as long as it wasn't one of the rare days when my schedule is too packed to take any lunch break."

By this time, Ami was removing the last small test tube from the other end of the needle.  So with one hand, she then held the now-empty needle in the Queen's arm as still as possible, while with the other hand she reached over to where she had the cotton balls.  Grabbing a cotton ball, Ami then moved it next to where the empty needle was still puncturing NQS's arm, followed by removing the needle from NQS's arm and quickly placing the cotton ball over the point where it had punctured the Queen's arm.  "There - all done with the needle," Ami soothingly told the Queen.  "Now could you please hold the cotton ball there while I go get the tape?"

The Queen was pleased to hear that Ami would be free to do lunch sometime and when she suggested that Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna be invited as well, Serenity smiled. She knew she would have to go find Makoto later and ask for her help, by help she meant asking her to cook for everyone, no matter how many lessons Makoto gave her, Serenity still wasn't the best cook and burnt most of her dishes. She guessed it just wasn't one of her strong points as much as she would have liked it to be.

Serenity placed her hand on the cotton ball while Ami went to get the tape. She was lost in thought for awhile and didn't notice right away when Ami had returned.

Michiru noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and turned to see the Queen and Ami walking down the hall. Judging by the speed they were moving and the looks on their faces, something was up. Not wanting to interfere, Michiru continued back to her room. She took a quick shower and changed. Hungry after her swim, Michiru headed towards the kitchen, wondering if anyone knew what was going on with the Queen.

Ami was back with the tape pretty quickly (after all, it was a regular occurrence in her exam room to need to draw blood like this, so she kept this tape in a convenient location).  Ami noticed the Queen seemed to be deep in thought, so she tore off a piece of the tape herself and started to attach it herself to the Queen's arm and the cotton ball, gently moving the Queen's hand out of the way (while making sure the cotton ball stayed where it was, of course) at the necessary point in attaching the tape.

When Ami was done with all those post-blood-draw requirements, she then told Neo-Queen Serenity in a gentle voice (so as not to scare her too much in coming out of her thoughts) "Good job.  Now I just have to go run the tests on this blood to see if I can figure out why you feel so sick.  So if you'll excuse me, I'll go do that now."

Ami waited for the Queen to agree to that, then went off to her lab with those small test tubes filled with NQS's blood.  A few minutes later, Ami returned to the exam room with a short stack of papers, frowning.  Once she found the Queen back in her exam room, Ami told her "You didn't tell me you were pregnant."  She paused for a second, then got prepared to gently scold NQS for not telling her everything she needed to know as a doctor.  Ami was not prepared for NQS to break in with her own thoughts on being pregnant.

OOC :

Serenity returned to reality when she heard Ami say pregnant. She turned and faced her blue haired friend, feeling her face turn red. "I didn't think it was that." She said giggling. I just thought it was the flu, but I guess it makes sense now," she said before gasping, "oh I guess it makes sense," her face grew even redder as she said "Endymion and I have been trying for some time now, and we were beginning to wonder if we would ever start a family."

She looked over at Ami and smiled big before she embraced her in a hug. She whispered in her ear, lets keep this between us for a bit okay?" She pulled away and got up, running to the door. "Can I come by again tomorrow, sorry to leave in such a rush, I have to go find Endymion. He is going to be so excited."

With that the queen was gone. She ran down the halls searching for her husband, she stopped short though and realized I should probably change my clothes, I don't really want to show up like this. She thought as she made a bee line for their room. She went into her closet and Slipped back into one of her more formal dresses. She tidied her hair and put on some make up before venturing back to find Endy. She looked in the garden, in the dining room, she checked the study, but he was no where to be found. Serneity would not give up easy. She knew he had some secret rooms, but she decided against looking there, even her husband was entitled to his mantres.

She decided to look one more place before heading back to their room to wait for him there. She checked the control room, and to her surprise saw The lavender cloak before the screen. She wondered what he was doing in here, all had been calm for quite some time. Maybe he was just checking on things. She snuck in (or tried to, hoping he wouldn't hear her walk up behind him.) She walked up behind him, stood on her tiptoes and placed her dainty hands over his eyes, whispering in his ear one word, "boo."

Mako was in the kitchen teaching the chefs how to cook a variety of dishes. When Serenity established Crystal Tokyo, she put Mako in charge of the kitchen. She gladly accepted it since it was her dream to serve food to others. She walked around the kitchen correcting the chefs techniques. When she felt everyone had a grasp on the dish, Mako sat down on a stool to watch them. As she watching them she noticed the door open up. It was Michiru. She smiled and walked over to her friend.

"Would you like me to fix you a snack?" She asked the blue hair senshi.

Ami was just about to speak up to remind Neo-Queen Serenity that she needed to tell her everything about herself when the Queen blushed and giggled that she didn't think it was pregnancy.  That reminded Ami of something : sometimes the patient doesn't know all they key facts about herself, and thus has to rely on the help of the professional (her in this case) to find out everything important to herself.  So she let NQS do all the reacting to that bit of news.

Still, Ami wasn't expecting to be hugged like that.  But she handled it gracefully, smiling mischievously back and whispering "Sure.  No one else needs to know."  Finally, to the question about meeting again tomorrow, Ami was about to say she needed to check her schedule for that when she realized NQS was already gone.

====================

Of all the places that King Endymion thought he was safest, that he thought he could truly let his guard down without anything bad happening, the Control Room for the security forces for the regular people they ruled was at the top of the list.  Thus he tended to sometimes submerge his focus on just one thing, or get on a one-track mind, there.  And this morning was one of those times.  So when his wife tried to scare him, it worked too well.  When he first realized his eyes were being covered by someone, he practically jumped out of his skin - that's how badly he instinctively flinched.  All of this meant he hardly heard the whispered 'boo'.

Endymion's next reaction is the one that, had he known all the facts of the matter, he never would have done.  But with what little he knew about the person who had just made him jump so high, his first thought was to subdue this person.  So he used his strong hands to grab the hands covering his eyes, and tried to quickly yank that person (NQS) up over his head from behind him to in front of him.

OOC :

Serenity had soon regretted her decision to surprise Endymion this way. She was just so excited she couldn't contain herself. She remembered a little too late that she should not sneak up on him, she felt him grab her wrists with quite a bit of strength and when she felt herself go over her shoulders she was shouting, "it's me, it's serenity" hoping she wouldn't have a violent landing. She had her eyes squeezed shut until she felt her feet touch the ground.

She was apologizing instantly, "I'm sorry my love, I know not to bother you, and not to sneak up on you, please forgive me. She was having a hard time looking at him in the eye, she felt a bit embarrassed and was twidling her fingers in her dress, a nervous habit she had yet to grow out of. She gave him a side glance before speaking again, but I have something I want to tell you, and I didn't want to wait until we saw each other at dinner tonight, so I rushed over, and now here I am."

Michiru walked into the kitchen to see the staff hard at work and Makoto watching over them. Makoto's dishes were legendary among the palace and Michiru always looked forward to what she came up with next.

"Hello." Michiru smiled after Makoto greeted her. "What are they making? It smells delicious. You wouldn't happen to have sashimi would you?"

OOC :

BIC : King Endymion was shocked after he grabbed those hands, because they were smaller than he was expecting.  He tried to think quickly, to come up with a reason that someone with small hands like that would do what he'd experienced.  Then he heard a woman's voice (which also shocked him) say "It's me, it's serenity".  But he was already in motion, starting to yank those small hands, and the rest of the body, up into the air and over his shoulders.  Even though he had a quick reaction time, it took him a second to change his actions.  By then, his wife was already on her way back down to the ground in front of him, and had said "I'm sorry my love, ... please forgive me."  The best he could do to protect her from injury was to quickly stick his arms out just above the ground and below her (trying to soften her landing).  As he stuck his arms out in this way, he said with a look on his face that was a cross between horrified (at what he had done) and apologetic "Oh, I'm so, so sorry, my honey!  I can forgive you for scaring me like that, especially if you can forgive me for giving you the ride of your life."  After his wife was back on the ground again, she told him she had something she wanted to tell him, so he smiled lovingly at his wife "What is that something, my love?"

Serenity looked at Endymion and smiled as she said "Of course I forgive you Endy." She wrapped her arms around him, slightly holding him in a gentle hug. She looked up into his eyes as she spoke.

"I went to go see Ami-chan today, as you know I have not been feeling well this week, so I wanted to get that checked out and make sure it was nothing serious. She did a blood test (she makes a scrunched face here to show her detest towards blood tests), and after waiting for a bit she came back and told me something I wasn't expecting, but I am so happy," Serenity's smile continues to grow as she looks lovingly into Endymion's eyes as she says, "Endy I am pregnant." Her face now glowing with happiness.

OOC:

When his wife brought up how she hadn't been feeling well lately, he was glad she had gone to see Ami.  He was quite surprised, but (of course) pleasantly so, when his wife concluded by saying she was pregnant.  In fact, he was so surprised that it took him a few seconds to compose an intelligent response.  Eventually, Endymion came up with "Pregnant?  That's great, my love!  And it also explains you not feeling well this week, because most women get morning sickness during part of their first trimester of pregnancy.  Congratulations!"  He said the first, second, and last of those four sentences in a clearly elated way.

Serenity smiled at Endmion. She took his hands in hers, as she spoke. "Let's have a small celebratory dinner later, just the two of us." "I am going to go back to our room, and see if I can get a hold of the girls. I want to have a lunch for us, and then I will tell them. I know we should probably tell the citizens of Crystal Tokyo, but I want us to have our time to enjoy the news for us." With that Serenity was off, her gown trailing behind her as she lightly skipped away from Endymion.

When Serenity got back into her quarters, she pulled out her phone. She sent a message to the senshi asking if they could meet for lunch soon. She sent a separate message to Ami, apologizing for taking off in such a rush, she was just so excited. I promise to answer all of your questions. She typed, let me know when you are available to come again. Once she had finished sending her messages, she laid down on her bed for a much needed nap.

Ami noticed she had gotten a text message just as she was finishing up her last task before her lunch break.  When she checked a few seconds later to see what it was, Ami was surprised to see it was more than one, and that there were two from Neo-Queen Serenity.

After reading those two text messages, Ami smiled.  She then replied to the first text message Yes, I would love for us all to meet for lunch sometime soon.  Then Ami checked her schedule on her PDA; after doing so, she sent the following text message in reply to NQS's second text to her Apology accepted, and I didn't have many questions. As for when we can meet again, tomorrow at noon or 1PM works for me.

====================

King Endymion nodded in agreement when his wife proposed that just the two of them have a small celebratory dinner "I hope we can find the time for it in between our duties."  When his wife brought up the matter of telling the citizens of Crystal Tokyo, he nodded in agreeement with her idea to delay this "Hai; it is too early to tell all the citizens, anyway.  I think we should wait to tell them until the end of your first trimester, my love."

OOC : I realize you had NQS head off away from him right away after bringing up the issue of when to tell all the citizens of Crystal Tokyo.  So you may decide how much, if any, of those last two sentences she hears.  I just wanted to enter what I thought Endymion's response would be if she had stayed.  (Maybe one of these days, NQS will learn to not speak and run .)

Serenity had heard Endymion as she headed out of the control room. She felt bad for not staying to let him finish. It was a habit even still needed work. She just had to work harder at it. When Ami text Serenity back, Serenity was happy to be able to see Ami again. She would answer all the questions had, then afterwards some girl time was needed. Serenity laid down for her nap feeling excited for the journey ahead.

She slept for some time, she awoke and realized she had been asleep for two hours. She got up, put on her robe, it had grown chilly. She decided to go take a walk in the gardens. It was a clear night and Serenity wanted to be outside. She hoped she would run into someone along the way, she always liked being outside at night, but when she had someone to bide the time with, it made things much better. She walked over and sat on the bench that overlooked the small water feature. She ram her fingers through the water and as she did, she had a strange feeling come over her, one that left her staring in a daze.

ooc:

After a long day in the control room, King Endymion needed to relax.  So after leaving there, he found his way out into the gardens.  Because it was a clear night, Endymion started relaxing well.

Then, as King Endymion continued wandering through the gardens, he came upon Neo-Queen Serenity looking lost in thought.  But then he noticed she didn't seem to be the way she usually was when she was lost in thought.  Wanting to not startle his wife too much, Endymion whispered her traditional name while facing her, the name he had called her before she had become the Queen "Usako?"