This one shot is dedicated to luvrainluv, who presented the prompt to me in a review on my main story. We had the same thought that writers either don't mention or forget about this when writing girl characters, so this is the result of that conversation.

Enjoy!

It was a pretty quiet morning in Dublith, especially for Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse. The two of them were recovering from a nasty brawl with Greed the Homunculus and some of his cronies. They would've been back to Central faster if their friend Emmaly Jasper (AKA EJ) hadn't also gotten hurt and was being forced to recover by Izumi Curtis, Ed and Al's teacher. The two boys were flipping through one of EJ's sketchbooks that she'd left out the night before, and pondering over her random doodles.

The silence was shattered by a blood curdling scream from one of the bedrooms, startling both Elric boys.

"Was that EJ?" Ed looked up from where he'd fallen headfirst onto the floor from the scare.

"She might be in trouble!" Al helped his older brother up and they raced down the hall, but Teacher had gotten to EJ's room first and was cradling the redhead in her arms, smoothing down her long hair that was still tangled from sleep.

Ed wasn't sure what EJ was wailing about until she started trying to talk through her tears.

"I-I-I . . . don't kn-know . . . wha-wha-what I did! I j-just woke up and . . . and . . ." She blubbered before breaking down into a mess again. She seemed to think of something and she jerked her head up.

"Oh gods, that's it; I'm bleeding internally which means I ruptured something. That's it!"

"EJ, you didn't rupture anything. This is perfectly normal for girls your age, but some of them have been dealing with it a lot longer than you have. You're probably a late bloomer." Teacher reassured EJ. The redhead seemed to calm down a little bit, but she was still glancing apprehensively at the sheets on the bed. "You're forgetting I'm an alchemist, my dear. Now let's get you into the bath and into some clean clothes, okay?"

"Miss Izumi?" EJ's voice was small. "I'm scared to move."

"Think you can swallow you pride long enough to be carried?" Teacher teased. EJ gave the alchemy master a look but nodded her head nonetheless. Teacher gathered EJ into her arms, and Ed was surprised to see that she really was tiny, even by his standards.

"Do me a favor boys and don't go in there until I say it's okay; EJ's been through a lot this morning, and she needs a minute." Teacher chastised the Elrics as she walked past them with EJ's arms clamped around her neck. Ed was expecting EJ to pop up over Teacher's shoulder and make some kind of smart alecky face at them like she was being an attention hog. Instead, he got a good look at EJ's face of uncertainty and fear.

"Why do you think Teacher doesn't want us in there?" Al wondered.

"And why would Samuels be bleeding internally?" Ed mused. He was thinking of possibilities, and none of them really sounded good. His one main theory was that her ribs had gotten broken again and scraped something on the inside.

"Boys," Teacher's voice made the Elrics jump in surprise. "Come help me get the sheets off the bed so we can wash them." Izumi waved to them, and after exchanging looks, Ed and Al followed their teacher into EJ's room.

What Ed saw made his stomach churn.

The area of the sheets where EJ had been sleeping were stained red, mixed with the tears that must've been pouring down her face earlier this morning.

"What the he** happened in here?" Ed put his hands on top of his head in shock. Izumi didn't respond immediately; she seemed to be thinking of the best way to explain to the boys what EJ was going through. The redhead was in the bath right now, relaxing and having the heat from the water loosen her muscles from cramping.

"Ed, has EJ been acting odd lately?" Izumi asked her former student. Ed had to think about it, but he eventually replied that she had. EJ had been having really bad cramps for the past couple of days, as well as weird mood swings where she would burst into tears for no reason, only to be overly happy five minutes later. She'd also been craving chocolate bars and had scarfed one down the other day without a second thought.

"Just as I thought. Boys, there's something you need to know, because you're going to have to deal with it every month from now on. . . ."

The Elrics exchanged uneasy glances. "What does that mean?" Ed ventured to ask. A slammed door and several pounding footsteps later, EJ appeared in the doorway, in fresh clothes, but her long hair still dripping wet. She was breathing heavily like she was trying not to cry, fists clenched, and feet apart. EJ looked ready to take somebody down, and Ed could guess right now that she wouldn't be fighting Teacher.

"It means I'm on my freakin' period, that's what."

"And that entails. . ."

"Do you really want me to go into details on female anatomy and how it works?" EJ offered, folding her arms.

As EJ and Ed began to argue back and forth, Al and Teacher sent sly glances at each other that things were going to get a lot more interesting with EJ around.