But instead she sat up on her windowsill, underneath the brilliant light of her chandelier. She loved her quiet, private quarters in the Crystal Palace, and this view that she had of the chrome streets and glass-crystal dome buildings was breathtaking and inspiring. Patiently she played with the pleats in her layered skirt, trying to ignore the untidy scratches in her white boots. Anticipation had been boiling inside her on nights like this for centuries, but each time, she still loved it just as much as the first time.
Several minutes had passed and she almost fell asleep with her forehead against the enormous window, when she finally heard the door handle to her bedchamber turning with a delightful click. A tall gray shadow of a woman with long hair splashed against the beige carpet, and Ami felt as though her heart would burst.
"I don't know why I expected you to be so tired you'd miss out on this one," Eternal Sailor Pluto announced, shutting the door behind her and leaning the Garnet Rod against the gold door handle. She'd come in with an air of dignity that was almost comical because both their uniforms had been tattered up a bit around the edges.
"And I don't know why I expected you not to come after all." Mercury smiled brightly, showing less and less inhibition every time they met. She had her legs crossed and her hands resting across her knee. "I've been missing you."
"I'm sorry about that. Neo-Queen Serenity wanted the full report, and I had to drop in and say goodnight to the little Princess. She waited up all night for me." Pluto sighed in satisfaction and glanced all around Mercury's bedchamber, feeling rejuvenated just from the dazzling light. "You've got a pretty room. Now how about you come here so we can get what we've worked so hard for?"
She held her arms open and Mercury carefully rushed into them, reaching up around her arms to cup her shoulders, as was customary.
"We look terrible after the fight," she laughed.
"I don't care," Mercury replied. "I was just going to have a bath before bed. Want to stay overnight? I'll have breakfast brought up here in the morning... Oh, wait, you'll be leaving again, won't you?" she asked after a slight pause.
"You know, I think this time I'll stay. We'll have ample time to go out and fight again in the future," Setsuna replied, holding Ami tightly.
Setsuna leaned in to kiss her, and Ami raised herself to meet those tempting lips with her own. Finally in the privacy of a locked boudoir, Ami lifted her hands to Setsuna's face and stroked lightly with her fingertips, their lips parting so that their tongues met and slid in with each other. Pluto responded heatedly, leaning more strongly against her and moving her hands to Mercury's buttocks, squeezing gently as she felt Ami slide her thigh across her hip in passion.
Setsuna's kisses began to dampen her neck and Ami gasped happily, and like the stars hovered over the ocean that one day in the twenty-first century, the lights of Crystal Tokyo were like a sea of undying candles.