"Hey Em… Wanna come over later?" he asked as she picked up, "I was thinking I'd whip up some dinner for you for once. -Much easier moving around the kitchen now that the top part of my frame is gone…"

"Hey…" she tried to smile, "That sounds lovely, but… I'm not having the best day…"

"Oh?" his brows knit together, "Anything I can help with?"

A small chuckle left her lips, "No, I don't think so…"

"Can I ask what's messing up your day?"

"Being a girl…"

"Huh?"

"Cramps." She clarified, "From Hell…"

"Oh…" he frowned. "That's not good…"

She nodded, then realized he wouldn't see it since they were on the phone. "No, it sucks."

"Want company?"

She didn't answer straight away. She really wanted to be with him, but she didn't want him to stress with getting over to her place, and all she really had energy for was to be glued to the couch with a couple of heating pads.

"-I could ask one of my buddies to drive me over…"

"You don't have to…" she smiled a bit, "I can drive over to you…"

"But, if you're not feeling well…"

"Just don't judge me for my outfit today…" she chuckled a bit, "-Or my accessories…"

He chuckled a bit, "Would I ever?"

"I don't know… But I'm not crawling out of my oversized sweatpants today…"

"You don't have to…" he reassured, "By the way, how does mashed potatoes, chicken, vegetables and gravy sound?"

"You don't have to…"

"Well, what if I want to?" he shrugged, "You've been treating me too good up until now, let me try to start to make up for it…"

She chuckled a bit, "You don't need to do that… And I'm not really sure about my appetite today either…"

"Okay…" he nodded, "Well, how about I don't make the food straight away, then we can see later this evening if you change your mind…"

"Okay, I'll be over in 30-40 minutes."

"Alright, I'll see you then…" he nodded, "You sure you don't want me to come to you instead?"

"I'm sure."

"Twenty seconds!" his voice called out from inside the apartment when she knocked on the door. Not too long afterwards, he opened the door and looked down at her.

"Hey…" she blinked up at him.

"Oh…" he frowned a bit, "You look like someone kicked your puppy…"

She chuckled, "No, then I'd be furious… Right now I just feel like I could eat a ton of chocolate and sleep for a week…"

He nodded a bit, "I can't offer much, but… Do you want a hug?"

She nodded slightly.

He let go of the handles of his crutches as she moved closer, and wrapped his arms around her once she was close enough.

A couple seconds later he hopped a bit backwards to take a better look at her, "Why does your midriff feel like lava?"

"Oh, that's my hot water bottle…" she blushed.

"How?" he looked down at her with wide eyes, "How do you willingly put something THAT hot against yourself? And how does? You can't just place a hot water bottle inside the lining of sweatpants and think it'll stay up, right? -I know that's a trick with jeans…"

"It's a YuYu-bottle… And it kinda has to be that hot to help…"

"What's a YuYu-bottle?"

"It's a really long hot water bottle…" she explained and lifted her hoodie up to show the two YuYu-bottles she had wrapped around her off. "Best invention ever…"

He frowned at them, "Still don't think it's smart to wear something that hot… You'll get a burn…"

"Only superficial… I usually don't get burns."

"Only…" he frowned, "Em, that's not okay…"

She almost scowled up at him.

"What I'm meaning, you shouldn't need to basically hurt yourself in order to get some relief from that sort of pain…" he hobbled a bit closer again and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "How bad is the pain?"

"Well, I kinda want to give myself a hysterectomy without anesthesia, with a dull butter-knife." She mumbled into his chest.

"Ouch, that doesn't sound good…" he frowned, "You've been to the doctor with this, haven't you?"

She nodded, "A shit-ton of times… Ever since I was in my teens."

"And there's nothing he can do to help you?"

"I'm pretty sure there are at least a few things that would help…"

"But?"

"But the last ten doctors I've been to about this hasn't taken my symptoms seriously."

"Want me to bust some heads?" he leaned back a bit to look down at her.

She chuckled a bit, "Maybe you should wait until your leg is healed?"

"Pretty sure I could at least scare a doctor or two straight…" he shrugged.

She smirked, "No… You don't need to…"

"You for once look like you should sit down…" he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

She nodded a bit.

"Come on now, get your pretty little ass over to that couch, get comfy… I'll try to fix some hot chocolate or something."

"You don't have to…"

He bent down enough to place a kiss on top of her head, "Go get comfy on the couch…"

Not too many minutes later, he scooted over in an office chair he used to get around the kitchen in when his hands needed to be preoccupied with something else than crutches.

"Here, it's just that instant stuff, but…"

She smiled softly as she accepted the mug he handed her, "Thank you…"

"How does just cuddling up on the couch and streaming a movie sound?" he tilted his head as he asked her.

"Sounds like just my speed today…"

Metal winked, "I'll just scoot over and grab my walking sticks, so I won't have to do that later…"

She nodded a bit and reached for the blanket which was draped over the back of the couch.

Emily had picked an action flick, but 40 minutes into the movie she was fast asleep with her head on his lap. She had her legs tucked up towards her chest, one hand rested on top of his good knee.

His right hand had ended up resting on top of her hip.

Every now and then she twisted a little in her sleep, probably trying to find a position to ease the cramping.

He wished he knew how to properly help her. He wasn't doubting that her cramps had to be painful, the lava-temperature heating pads she voluntarily wore was scaring him. There had to be something wrong, he just didn't know what.

Of course he didn't know much about period cramps, he was a guy, he had never experienced it himself. But he did have a sister, and he had a mom, a couple of aunts, and he had been in a couple of relationships through the years.

He knew the experience was different for everyone, but most of the women he knew didn't have that much of a problem with it, only one he could think of was one of his aunts on his dad's side of the family. He knew she had ended up having a few surgeries for it, but that was about the extent of his knowledge.

His sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. She had once claimed she didn't really feel it, that her only concern was to not bleed through.

But the way it seemed to affect Emily, that couldn't be normal, in any way.

She couldn't even straighten up when she woke back up, her brother would have claimed she walked like a gut-shot deer if he saw her.

She didn't want to voice her complaints about how much everything between her bellybutton and knees felt, she felt bad about complaining about her cramps in front of Metal, or even admitting to them. She was pretty sure his leg had served him up some of the worst pain imaginable.

And her cramps were… They were worse than regular cramps, she was certain of that, but it had to be nothing compared to how his leg had been.

She only refilled her heating pads, found some painkillers in her purse and went to the bathroom before she sat back down beside Metal, "You okay if I fall asleep on you again?"

He nodded a little and patted his good thigh.

She curled up next to him again and within long, she was fast asleep again.

A couple of hours later he was about to fall asleep himself. He knew sleeping on the couch wouldn't be the best idea for him, and he was pretty sure that went for Emily as well.

He let his hand trail up to her shoulder, gave it a squeeze and rubbed it a bit, "Hey, Em… How about we go to bed instead?"

"Hmmm?"

"Bed." He smirked, "I was thinking, maybe we should go to bed instead of sleeping here on the couch…"

She blinked a bit before rubbed at her eyes, "I should probably get home…"

"-Or you could just spend the night…" he shrugged.

She closed her eyes a bit, her eyebrows creeping closer together in thought, "You think?"

He nodded, "Yeah. One night's gotta be the first one, right? Why not this one?"

She opened her eyes again and nodded.

"Yeah?"

She nodded a bit more, "Yeah. But I'm kinda scared I might bump into you during the night…"

"Don't worry about that…" he shook his head, "I think I'll be able to handle that by now. -And you haven't really moved much the past four and a half hours, so I don't really think of it as something there's a high risk for…"

She shrugged.

"So, why don't you go use the bathroom first, and I'll make sure you have a fresh pillow…"

She nodded and sat up, leaving a quick kiss on his cheek.