"Phil," she whispered, nudging him gently.

He grunted and rolled over on the floor, now face-down.

"Phil!" she repeated, shaking his shoulder.

"Mmmm?" he answered crossly, his voice muffled by the pillow, but still obviously a bit ticked that he'd been woken up.

"I need the toilet."

He sat up and turned around to face her. "You know where it is," he reminded. "You've only been there a million times during the two million times you've been here."

She looked a little embarassed.

"Oh, wait," he said suddenly, "It's too dark, isn't it?" He smiled briefly when she went red, knowing he'd hit the nail on the head.

She tried to defend herself. "I'm just a girl, Diffy!"

He shook his head. "First you make me sleep on the floor, now you wake me up at what, midnight?" He glanced at his watch it read 11:05, which was midnight for the early-to-bed Phil as he got up slowly and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Look, I told you that I would've slept on the floor - " Keely protested, looking guilty.

"Hey, hey, hey," he cut in, smiling - though somewhat tiredly - as he offered her his hand, "Just teasing. Relax." She took his hand nervously. "Really, I'm teasing," he assured, and pulled her up.

The trip to the bathroom was short, but still, when Keely left, she found Phil leaning against the wall with his eyes shut and mouth open. The gentle movement of his chest confirmed that he was asleep.

She smiling slightly at the sight and shook his shoulder. "You can sleep properly in your room," she whispered as he opened his eyes to stare blearily at her. "I'll even give you the bed."

"Thanks," he replied, grinning as much as he could in his sleepy state. They began to walk back and he continued, "You can stay on the bed. The floor's pretty comfortable."

"You'll only know after you wake up tomorrow morning," she said, "You're probably too sleepy to realise that your back's aching and your neck hurts and your leg is numb and - "

"Mmm, probably," he replied, chuckling when she stopped abruptly and glared at him, beginning to look guilty again. "Oh come on, Keel, you know I'm just teasing - "

"You keep saying that, I don't know if you're serious - "

"Do I sound serious, Keel?" he questioned challengingly, then stopped in his tracks, frowning, and grabbed her hand to bring her to a stop as well. "Did you hear that?"

"I hear you lying, if that's what you mean."

There was a shuffle, followed by a series of loud steps, in the background.

"I heard that, too." She looked at him. "Do you know who it could be?"

"No one's usually up at this time," he said, then glanced at her and smiled teasingly, "Including me."

"Phil - " He pressed his finger onto her lips and she shut up. She glanced down at his finger, looking surprised, but that went unnoticed by him as he scanned the place.

"It's getting louder. C'mon." Phil pulled her into the first room he saw.

Except he realised it wasn't much of a room when he stepped inside and pressed the first and only switch he saw a light switch - it was more of a closet, in fact. Nevertheless he pulled her in fully and closed the door. She stared at the small 'room' as he pressed his ear against the door.

"Uchaga!"

He sighed, realising the source of their fear was just their caveman pet. "Only Curtis," he told her, shaking his head. "Of all the times to wake up, he chooses now, and of all the things we choose to get scared of - " He placed his hand on the doorknob and attempted to turn it - but couldn't.

"Oh, great." He frustratedly shook the door and attempted to open it the normal way again - with the doorknob - although he knew it was pointless. He considered yelling and banging on the door, but then remembered that it no one else would be up, and Curtis, the only one awake, would probably misunderstand everything. Besides, there weren't any wallaberries in sight. Sighing again, he leant against the wall of the small cupboard.

He nodded resignedly at Keely, who was at the other end.

"I guess we're stuck here." He looked around the cupboard, which seemed just enough for him to stretch out fully on the floor. He frowned thoughtfully. "Strange - I don't remember coming across this closet before."

"Really?" She seemed to be forcing a smile onto her face; slowly, she leant against the wall.

He was still examining the walls, tapping a wooden panel somewhere on the wall. "Yeah..." He chuckled suddenly. "This is so weird. A 22nd century man with a 21st century girl, locked into a cupboard, with..." he trailed off, noticing Keely's pale face. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, immediately concerned.

Her weak nod reminded him suddenly of her description of an incident that had happened over a year ago - her fainting in a lift that had faulted in her mother's office building. She had looked a bit sick for over a few more days after that, he recalled.

"A 21st century girl who's claustrophobic...oh good Lord," he muttered in realisation, just a split-second before Keely squeezed her eyes shut and slide down the wall, clutching her stomach and stopping when she sat on the floor. He stepped forward worriedly and crouched down so they were at eye-level.

"Keel," he whispered, and then, more panicked, he repeated, "Keely?"

"I'm...fine," she managed.

"No, you're not," he said with a frown. "You're sitting on the floor, holding your stomach, looking as white as a ghost. Look who's lying now."

She pried her eyes open to stare at him and he looked back at her knowingly. She shook her head. "Okay, fine, so it hurts - "

"I knew it!"

" - but there's nothing we can do about it, is there?" she finished, knitting her eyebrows slightly to glare at him. "So we'll just pretend I'm perfectly fine, and we'll wait for another seven hours until your parents wake up."

"It's a Saturday, Keely," he reminded, "No one in their right minds would get up at six in the morning on a Saturday."

"Are you saying my mum's crazy, then?"

"Are you changing the subject, then?" he retorted. She pouted as he studied her for a while. "Turn around," he instructed.

"What?"

"Turn around so your back's facing me."

She managed to get this done without getting up, although he noticed she was wincing. "Sorry," he said with an apologetic smile.

"Why're we doing this?" she asked incredulously as he pulled her up against him.

"You're cold already," he observed, noticing her shiver. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I didn't say I was." She avoided answering the question until her own was answered. "What're you doing?"

"When you're sitting down you see more of a place than you do standing up," he explained, "So it seems as if you're in a bigger place. Plus, now you can't see me, so there's one less person taking up the space."

She nodded. That sounded logical.

"Anyway, we're both warmer this way. Body warmth."

"Oh."

"Feeling better now?" he asked hopefully.

"Much. Thanks," she answered truthfully with a grateful smile. She reached up behind her and pulled his arms around her.

He coughed, thankful that she couldn't see his cheeks turn slightly pink. "Good."

They sat in comfortable silence for a short time, when she suddenly spoke up. "Have you noticed we've been put in these weird...situations a lot recently?"

"Like...?" he asked for elaboration, pulling her closer to see her better.

"There was...a lot of stuff. I can't explain it right. But it's very weird, don't you think?"

"Weird? I don't really get it, Keel," he said, frowning.

"And you call me slow," she muttered, conveniently looking away from Phil when he turned to glare at her.

"Come on, give me an example," he probed.

"Eh..."

"Come on!" he repeated, his eyes sparkling with mischeif. He glanced up when he heard a small squeak and froze.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned, looking up at him curiously.

He leaned down slightly and whispered, "There's a BugCorder over there." Noticing her frown, he explained softly, "My dad invented it a couple of years ago...uhm..." he paused, clearly a little confused about the time issue. She shook her head, signifying that the time didn't matter, and he smiled slightly as he continued in a whisper. "It records everything above normal decibel level in a small room, and it has video feeds, too."

"Meaning..."

"It's bug-shaped thingy that records whatever we do or say, unless what we say is whispered. Like now."

"Oh." He looked at her, waiting for a reaction. "Oh! Are they spying on us?"

"Shhhh!" he breathed frustratedly. "Looks like it, doesn't it?"

She turned to look at it and he quickly stopped her by shaking his head very slightly. "Don't look. We'd look suspicious."

She scoffed as if to say 'as if we don't look suspicious already' but stopped moving. He nodded, satisfied. "We're gonna have to do something about it," he declared, still in a whisper, looking away from her as he frowned in thought.

"We could try stepping on it accidentally?" she suggested.

He looked up at her and smiled. "That'd be great! Uh..." he paused, "How are you now?"

"Huh?" she stared at him, obviously confused.

"How are you now?" he repeated, slightly louder this time. Their eyes met and he winked. She mouthed an 'oh!-kay' in sudden understanding.

"I'm better now. Much," she replied.

He nodded. "So could you get up now? I'm feeling kind of numb," he said with a wry smile.

"Oh! Oh, sure," she agreed, smiling sheepishly as she got up. They kept up their eye contact until Phil looked down at the ground - to finally 'notice' the bug. "There's a bug on the floor!"

"What?" By this time they were looking at each other again, and Phil was certain that only he noticed her slight, almost non-existant nod. She let out a short yelp and stepped backwards, stepping 'accidentally' on the small device.

He laughed as she quickly inspected her feet for any bug juice - or in that case, oil. He then blinked a couple of times at the remaining pieces of the bug and looked up at Keely again. "Was that what you meant?"

She still looked a bit disgusted as she studied the remnants of the bug. "What do you mean?"

"Was that what you meant when you said that we've been in weird situations lately?"

She shrugged distractedly. "I guess."

He gazed absentmindedly at her. "You know, I think they're up to something."

"What?" she questioned keenly, frowning slightly. "What do you think they're up to?"

"Well, you're going to think this is stupid," he started, reddening considerably as he avoided looked at her. "But I think it's something to do with...us."

"Mmm?" she prodded, finally turning to look at him.

"Kind of...to get us..." he trailed off with a sheepish smile. "Together?"

She laughed. "You think so?" she asked dubiously.

"Yeah." He began to explain himself. "I mean, how could you explain all of the stuff that's happened to us these few weeks?"

"That's true."

"And Pim! I knew she was up to something from when we went to that horror movie together," he continued eagerly.

"Okay, Phil..."

"In fact, Tanner and Marla stopping by on us that day at the library was really out-of-character. Don't you remember that even you commented they were acting meaner and weirder than usual?"

"Yeah - "

"Our parents are acting strange. Especially mine. Even though," he admitted, "they were already strange..."

"You can stop now, you know that?" she interrupted with a grin. "Fine. I believe you."

"Oh." He returned her smile readily. "So what're we going to do?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you think the question iswhythey're doing this in the first place?"

His smile reduced by a notch as he replied knowingly, "Is it that much of a mystery?"

"I can't believe you locked someone who's claustrophobic into a cupboard!" Pim wailed exasperatedly.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us you were even thinking about something like this!"

Lloyd and Barbara listened sheepishlyto Tia's sleepy but still irritated voice on the speakerphone. "To be fair, we didn't know she was claustrophobic."

"Sure, we go around publicising stuff like that," Tia snapped back at Mr Diffy. Pim nodded, glaring at her parents.

"Listen up, young ladies," Barbara said sharply. "I know we didn't really do anything to help, but I don't think we deserve so much of anger. From children who're younger than us."

Lloyd agreed. "In short, any more smart comments from either of you and you won't be so smug anymore."

Pim shut up, still scowling, but Tia continued. "And the only way we could've even found out about anything that could've gone well about the whole thing was broken by them halfway through. Isn't that just wonderful?"

"I'm warning you - " Barbara started with a growl, only to be stopped by Lloyd.

Pim took over. "I think they know we're up to something, guys," she said, changing the topic slightly.

Tia snorted. "Them? Highly unlikely. The only person in the couple of them who's got pretty good brains is so smitten about Keely that he probably wouldn't notice, anyway."

The parents cracked smiles as they expressed their agreement, and Pim sighed. "No, I'm serious! There was a bit of silence before they talked and broke the BugCorder," she observed. She was almost certain that they'd noticed the bug and were discussing what to do about it.

"Look, Pim," Lloyd said, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring action. "If they knew, they'd probably confront us, right?"

"Right..." she started doubtfully.

"Anyway, what could they do to us? No harm done," Barbara said with a grin. "We're helping them, aren't we?"

Pim sighed, knowing it was a lost case. She did know, however, that Keely was quite good at bearing grudges, and that half of what Tia said was right - Phil did have pretty good brains, and he could get quite scary when he used them well enough.

They might as well surrender.

First off;the bugcorder being shaped like a bug, and being called a bug a lot? Seriously, to those who noticed: no pun intended!
I think this must've been one of my worse chapters, and I'm not very certain about it at all. Still quite out-of-character, I think, but considerably less since the last chapter? Anyway, I posted it mainly because it's drafted most of the bridge between the last and next chapters. Plus I like a bit of the banter that Pheely have going on at the beginning of the chapter. The rest of it...it just doesn't do anything for me. I really think I can do better.
But hey,you be the judge. :)
To all the reviewers: thank you! A lot! You have no idea how much you encouraged me. And to those who wanted this up a few weeks ago: I'm sorry. But surely this extremely long and approximately 2386-word-long chapter will be good enough:P
Well, they do say 'quality above quantity'. Hopefully this time it's equal. :P