Been wanting to write this one for a while now but… actually I'm not sure why I kept putting it off. I love Sen, I love Sen/Umeko, and I love picking on characters with phobias. There's literally no reason I should've put this off as long as I have. Oops?

Spoilers: Some for series-end I guess. Set at random point after the final episode.

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Dekabase's lower levels were always busy, from the holding cells on up to the offices and maintenance bays. Even so, it was rare that anyone other than Doggie, Swan, or the Dekarangers used the elevator that led up to the command level and the Dekaroom. During work, Sen admitted to himself that he liked this fact, because it meant when he and Umeko went out or returned from patrol, they had a few moments alone where they weren't technically on the job.

After an uneventful patrol, he stood with his girlfriend's shoulder occasionally brushing his arm as the elevator rose. The silence was broken by a little sigh from DekaPink. "It feels like everything's been really quiet since Ban left."

Sen chuckled, shifting to look at her. "The base has been quiet, definitely, but I think the job being quieter is more because of Abrella being gone."

She smiled in turn and elbowed him. "You know what I mean." She paused, head tilting in that absurdly adorable way she had. He wondered if she was even aware of it. "Do you think Boss will get a replacement for him?"

That prompted a frown, but before he could answer the elevator shuddered, drawing both their eyes upwards as the lights flickered. The gears strained, and then ground to a halt, the lights giving one last heroic flicker before plunging the little metal box into darkness. Umeko groaned. "What? Oh, come on!"

Sen frowned, blinking in vain effort to see. "A power outage?" That was unusual. Dekabase's generators were ridiculously powerful, a necessity for providing output to the weapons systems when it became Dekabase Robo.

He heard a thunk that he assumed was Umeko either hitting the wall or collapsing against it. "The base shouldn't have power outages!"

"Relax, Umeko. The back-ups should kick in soon." He smiled, more to calm himself than anything. Being stuck in a closet-sized, pitch-black metal box wasn't his idea of fun. At least this time the walls were all staying put.

He really shouldn't have reminded himself of that. Long seconds passed, and the darkness persisted. Ridiculous. The back-up generators should have come online almost immediately after the main one failed. Maybe it was just his imagination making it seem to be taking forever. He closed his eyes. It was no change in lighting but allowed him to focus on keeping his heart and breathing rates under control. It was an elevator in Dekabase, for crying out loud. He was fine.

Something touched his hand, which had clenched into a fist without his noticing, and he flinched. Umeko didn't let him pull away, instead carefully pulling his fingers open so she could hold his hand. "It's okay, Sen."

She leaned on his arm again, and the tension eased, bit by bit. Right. She was with him. That was why he liked this tiny metal box to begin with. He leaned down to rest his forehead on her hair. "Thanks, Umeko."

A few seconds later, the lights returned and the elevator jolted before resuming its climb. They put a bit of distance between their arms, but Sen kept a hold of her hand until the doors opened and let them out on the command level.

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Tiny little fluff thing! I'll add the second bit of the duo when I pick one cause for the blackout out of the four or five I'm currently considering.