[[ Just a warning for any of my male readers who are grossed out by periods: might not wanna read this chapter. It's skippable, technically speaking, but I just wanted to write this as an excuse for Sans to be all nervous and overly protective and adorable. 333 This is the last chapter I'll be able to post for the weekend, most likely, unless they'll let me keep my laptop and write at the hospital. I love you guys, and just wanted to say that your comments have made me feel loads better already. Enjoy! ]]
The first thing that Lena was aware of was the throbbing pain in her lower abdomen. Her simple back pain from being on her feet all day surely couldn't be this bad, right? Biting her lip slightly, she forced herself into a sitting position and froze, suddenly becoming fully aware of the wetness making her pajama bottoms cling to her skin. 'Oh no...' Bracing herself, she pulled the blankets back and groaned, seeing the crimson staining her pants as well as the sheets. "Great..." she grumbled, glancing between her lap and the door to her personal bathroom, judging the distance. Was it worth risking? She looked around and, seeing an abandoned hoodie, sent it a silent apology as she grabbed it and immediately shoved it between her legs. The undignified waddle to the bathroom was something she'd just as soon forget, but it was worth it if it meant getting out of the soiled clothes and into a hot shower. Thankful for the tile, she stripped her pants and underwear off, letting them drop carelessly onto the floor as the rest of her clothes soon followed. She stepped into the shower and slid the glass door closed, gripping onto the handle as pain assaulted her, making her double over and clutch at her abdomen.
"Shower, c'mon, Lena!" she told herself, wincing as she reached out and turned on the water as hot as she could stand it. The first few seconds were cold, making her yelp quietly as she tried to shimmy out of its way, but once she could feel the droplets hitting her feet had warmed up, she eagerly stepped into the spray. It was, without a doubt, heavenly. The hot water cascading down her chest and stomach already felt like it was easing the cramps, and the disgustingly cold feel of blood between her thighs was washed away. She moaned in absolute bliss, allowing her eyes to close as she basked in the soothing feeling. Outside her room she could hear Papyrus doing his usual routine of setting up for breakfast, and while she knew she needed to eat, the nausea that was clinging to her left her feeling less than hungry.
She wasn't sure just how long she'd stood there, allowing the water to run over her, but it came to an abrupt end when she heard a startled cry from outside. 'Maybe Pappy accidentally set fire to something...?' she wondered, but she had little time to think, because her bathroom door was soon thrown open, and she turned to face the wall, squeaking as Sans stood in the doorway, left eye a blaze of blue.
"Lena?! What happened?! Are you okay?!" His usually smooth voice was pitched much higher, his tone frantic. A gasp, and he seemed to realize her state of undress, and he covered his face with one hand, flailing with his other as he stammered out uselessly. She covered her chest with her arms, leg raised slightly to try and hide the rest of her 'important bits'.
"I'm f-fine! Get out, please!"
"B-but the blood...!"
Oh... Oh, god, why? Her face flushed crimson and she closed her eyes, wishing that a hole could just open up underneath her and she could slip away. Far, far away.
"It's normal! I-I'm fine, I promise! Just... I-I'll explain when I get out! Just g-go!" He looked torn between doing as he was told and finding out what was wrong, but the pleading and thoroughly embarrassed expression on her face convinced him. He gulped (how can he do that without a throat?) and nodded, edging out of the door and closing it behind him. Once she heard the door close, she heaved a heavy sigh, biting her lip. This wasn't a conversation she'd ever seen herself having...maybe with her daughter one day, sure, but with her boyfriend? She groaned and let her head fall into her hands.
Today had only just started, and it was already the worst...
It was unusual for Sans to wake up before anyone. Usually, he was the last one up, dragging himself to the table half-asleep. Today had been different, though. When he left his room and only saw Papyrus, he wondered if maybe Lena was just taking a little extra time to get ready. He saw that a lot of human women liked to do their hair and make up for a new job. Maybe she was just doing that? 'I wonder what she looks like when she does...' Curiosity had gotten the better of him so, after telling Papyrus that he was going to get the human for breakfast, he'd excused himself from the kitchen to go to her room.
He wasn't expecting to see a puddle of blood on the very place she slept when he opened the door. His soul had hammered violently against his ribs, magic buzzing in an anxious panic within his bones as his eyelights, constricted to little more than pin pricks, swept across the room, looking for her. His nightmare had screamed at him, loud and clear, from the recesses of his mind, and then everything went blank, all except for the mental mantra that continued on repeat.
'Find her. Find her. Find her. Find her. Find her. Find her. FIND HER! FIND HER! FIND-'
He shook his skull, as if doing so would rid him of the lingering fears, and sat impatiently on the edge of her bed. His eyelights kept flickering over to the blood. She had said it was normal, but how could that possibly be? His knowledge of humans wasn't exactly the broadest, but he knew that blood was a sign of injury. 'I ought to know, after all those times fighting the kid-' Sockets slid closed and he sighed, bony tips of his phalanges tapping against femur. He was giving her the space she had requested, and he couldn't blame her for it, seeing as how she was in the shower when he'd stormed in...but he still found himself listening intently. The sound of the bathroom door creaking open made him jump to attention.
"Hey, um...y-you're still here..." she said awkwardly, glancing down at herself, which was hidden behind the bathroom door. "Can you do me a huge favor and wait outside my room for just a minute...?" He frowned, not wanting to leave her...but then the sudden realization that she was naked behind that door seemed to do the trick. He mumbled a quick apology and blipped out of the room, reappearing just behind her closed bedroom door in the hallway. He could hear her shuffling around inside her room, and he released a low sigh. He just felt so confounded! What on earth was wrong with her?
'She didn't look like she was injured...' he mused, a blue flush taking over his cheekbones as he tried to think back to what he'd seen. The glass door had been fogged slightly with steam, but he could see her silhouette, and he didn't think he saw any wounds... From the redness of her cheeks to the curve of her thighs, he hadn't seen any bleeding spots, and- 'I am not thinking about her like this when there's something wrong!' Giving himself a firm mental scolding, he shook his skull just as the door opened. She stood there looking more than a little embarrassed, and he pushed his way into her room, closing the door behind himself and giving her a concerned once-over. She'd pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt that had "bone tired" written across the front, one he'd loaned to her that he just hadn't gotten back. He felt a small swell of pride every time he saw her in it, but that was trumped by his worry. He glanced over to the bed and found that the sheets had been stripped away, thrown into a basket along with a bloodied pair of pajamas. His soul clenched in his chest.
"What's going on?" he asked, feeling the slightest bit of irritation when she didn't respond right away. "Why are you bleeding? Did you get hurt? Who hurt you?!" His voice started to raise and he had to take a pause, pulling in a slow, cleansing breath to try and calm himself down.
"I-I'm fine-"
"If you're bleeding then you aren't fine-"
"Sans, please," she said quietly, and he fell silent, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited. She was gnawing on her bottom lip, probably trying to think of how to say whatever it was she was needing to say, and normally he'd find the action cute. But when you're as freaked out as he is, it's hard to think that way. He immediately assumed the worst.
"I'm... This is just really embarrassing, okay? I didn't think I'd have to have this talk with you...ever." He frowned. What talk? "Look, can... Can you just...let Brit explain it for me? I can't do this right now..."
"I don't wanna hear how you're doing from Brit," he said shortly, and she flinched from his tone, which he immediately regretted. She was blinking back tears and her soul was fluttering so nervously inside her chest that it affected his own. Fuck, he hadn't wanted to upset her...
"It's r-really humiliating...please..." He sighed heavily and shoved his hands into his pockets, grumbling for a moment before leaning over and pressing a toothy kiss to her cheek.
"Fine."
The phone call hadn't been the worst he'd ever had...but it was definitely not one he wanted to repeat. Ever. The woman had answered the phone laughing, the sounds of children joining her, and he growled into the receiver.
"W-wow, okay, um... Hey, bone-boy!" she said, snorting before she could even get out a greeting. He clenched his bony hand into a hard fist. "Lena texted me and asked me to explain a thing to you, so um... How much do you know about human biology?"
"Not a skeleton... Why?" He heard her groan from the other side.
"Well because it's important, obviously. Okay, how to explain..." He was growing impatient.
"Look, just tell me what the hell's going on, okay? She was bleeding and she won't tell me what's wrong, and-"
"Woah, slow down! She's not hurt. It's a normal thing women go through."
"How can bleeding that much be normal?!" She snorted and he gave another growl, gritting his teeth in irritation. "It's not funny..."
"Lighten up, numbskull," she drawled, giving a heavy sigh. "Look, human women, from the ages of roughly twelve to fifty have to deal with this on a monthly basis. It's a part of our reproductive cycle. So it's normal." She then went into a very detailed explanation of a menstrual cycle, not because she'd wanted to necessarily, but because he kept asking so many questions. By the end of the fifteen minute long phone call, she was groaning, and he was more than just the slightest bit embarrassed.
"So she gets cramps, and I give her tylenol, right?"
"Midol is better, honestly, because it was made specifically for menstrual cramps, but yeah. Any pain killer works. And heat helps, too."
"...And the hormones cause mood swings and cravings?" The woman on the other end of the phone hummed.
"Yep. She usually likes chocolate and salty snacks, like chips. Fast food, too. You takin' notes, bone-boy?"
"Nah, it's note a problem. I'll remember it all..." The very un-ladylike snort he heard through the phone made a grin pull up at the corners of his mouth. "Hey, uh...thanks for talkin' to me..." he muttered, then sighed as he realized. "I was a total ass, wasn't I? Shit, I should apologize..."
"Get to it, bub! Make sure my girl's well taken care of!" The line went dead, and Sans pulled the phone away with a chuckle, ending the call. 'Already planned on it.'
Lena was thankful that she'd had the good sense to buy herself a nice waterproof mattress cover when she'd gotten her new bed, and the even better sense to buy an extra one. She only struggled a little with slipping it over the edges of her mattress, along with dressing her bed with new, non-bloodied sheets. She'd already gone ahead and put her old sheets and clothes into washer after giving them a little peroxide soak. 'Hopefully it'll come out...' She'd mourn the loss of the soft sheets if they ended up stained, but, then again, everyone needs a pair of crappy sheets for those weeks, right? A particularly powerful uterine contraction gripped her and she leaned forward against the mattress, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from making any pained noises.
The morning had royally sucked. After being found and interrogated by Sans, he went out to smoke a dog treat and call her friend Brit. He hadn't come back since, and that was well over an hour ago. 'Did he get grossed out...? God, do monsters even have periods? He's probably disgusted by me now.' Sighing, she rolled onto the bed and curled in on herself, hands pressing against her lower abdomen fervently in hopes of chasing the cramp off. It did little good, and it was with a groan that she grabbed her pillow and clung to it. A nap would be wonderful since she still felt exhausted, but the pain just wouldn't leave her, so try as she might to doze off, sleep just wouldn't come. 'Kill me now...'
"SANS! WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN- WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY BAGS? WHERE DID YOU GO? WHAT IS THAT?" Judging from Papyrus' booming voice (poor thing had a little issue with volume control sometimes), Sans had returned from wherever it was he had gone off to. The door to her bedroom suddenly swung open and there the shorter skeleton stood, numerous plastic bags looped around his arms, and it took her a few seconds to get over the shock that he was actually carrying them, and not using his magic. He knelt down and set them all on the floor, his expression caught in an excited smile, though, excited for what, she didn't know.
"Um...welcome back?" she said, though it was more of a question than an actual statement. She forced herself into a sitting position, pushing herself up with her arms and wincing at the sharp stab of pain in her lower abdomen. "What...is all of that?" He ignored her, instead bending to dig through the various bags. The first thing he withdrew was a heating pad, tearing the box open and hastily unwrapping the cord as he shuffled over to plug it in. He was thankful there was an outlet right by the bed, even if it meant unplugging her alarm clock.
"Brit filled me in, so I went and got some stuff that'll help," he said, sounding a bit unsure of himself, and glancing at the half dozen plastic bags with furrowed browbones. "I didn't know what kinda stuff you liked, so, uh...sorry. I just kinda got a bunch of everything." He immediately returned to searching through the bags, pulling out a bottle of water and a small box. He tore it open and pulled out the bottle of pills, opening it and, after reading the box, shook two out into his bony palm. "Here. This, uh, this'll help with the pain..." Lena blinked, surprised, and took the extended items silently. He sat and watched her for a moment, waiting, and she hastily uncapped the water and took the pills. "Sweet. Oh, uh, here!" Fumbling with it for a moment, he turned the dial attached to the cord of the heating pad and reached forward, flushing a light blue as he lifted her shirt just enough to expose her stomach.
"S-Sans, what-" she spluttered for a moment, quieting when he pressed the warm heating pad to her lower abdomen. Once it was situated to his liking, he pulled his hands away, tapping his bony phalanges together and filling the air with a soft clicking noise.
"...Brit told me, and I'm...sorry for bein' such an ass. For not havin' one, I'm pretty good at bein' one, huh?" She frowned and shook her head, but he just shrugged, chuckling quietly. "I was freaked out, but now I know, so...yeah. I'm sorry for ovaryacting."
"Sans, it's okay, really, you didn't kn- ..." Her eyes narrowed as he struggled to keep his snickering silent, and the expression of disbelief on her face did little to help him with that. "You." He snorted loudly and chortled loudly, raising a hand to cover his face.
"S-sorry, that joke was pretty bloody terrible, huh? Guess I need to look at getting some new material periodically." She reached out and slapped his shoulder, her face beet red, but she was shaking with ill-concealed giggles.
"I. CANNOT. Believe you. You're making fun of my suffering!" She stopped laughing when another wave of pain washed over her and she tensed, hand reaching down to try and rub her stomach through the heating pad.
"Hey, I'm laughing with you, not at you." She wanted to say how she hadn't been laughing, but he raised a brow at her, and she knew that he would only point out her ungraceful snorts and giggles. "Here, I um...Brit told me you like watching movies and all that during shark week-"
"What?" she asked, sounding incredulous, already on the verge of laughing again.
"Shark week. ...'s what she called it. Says it makes it sound more badass and less embarrassing."
"Well, she isn't wrong..." Lena watched as Sans set up her laptop on the bedside table, opening up Netflix and moving it close enough that she could reach it to change what she was watching. Curiosity was finally beginning to get the better of her, and as she peered at the other bags, she made a small noise of question.
"Ah, that...yeah, well..." He flushed a faint blue and crossed the room to the remaining bags, dragging them over to the edge of the bed and opening them for her to look inside. There were so many different kinds of candy bars, bags of chips, and...was that a cinnamon bunny? "I didn't know what you'd want, so..." She looked at him with such an expression of awe that he chuckled, reaching up to scratch at the back of his skull. "What? It's no big deal, nothin' worth that...face..." He trailed off, and Lena only noticed then that she'd started crying, tears dripping from the corners of her eyes down her freckled cheeks. She sniffled and raised her hands to hastily wipe at her face.
"S-sorry!"
"Hey hey, it's okay, babe. Here, pick out a movie and lay down." It took a little gentle convincing before she finally did as he said, curling onto her side and flipping through Netflix. From the sound of things, Sans was going to keep her in bed all day (he even went ahead and called into work for her, and though she was unhappy about not going for her second day, the amount of concern he was showing made it difficult to worry too much about it). "Hm? What's 'Star Wars'...?" Sans asked, leaning over to peek at the screen, and she leveled him with a blank stare. "...What?"
"We're gonna watch Star Wars."
She'd expected for Sans to like the movie. She hadn't expected him to be so totally enthralled by it that he was staring at the screen with eyes as bright as stars. 'I knew he liked space, but geez...' It was incredibly adorable and endearing, and she didn't want to pull his attention away from it for anything. ...Unfortunately, the Midol he'd gotten for her was doing very little, and as she found herself being gripped by a particularly strong wave of pain, she groaned softly, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Mmm... Sorry, babe," Sans' voice rumbled softly, vibrating from his chest so deeply that she could feel it where he was pressed against her back. He nuzzled his nasal ridge against the side of her neck, and despite the comforting movement, it did little to actually soothe her pain. He paused for a moment, humming thoughtfully. "...Hey, lemme try somethin'." She made a small questioning noise and cracked an eye open to glance back at him, but she couldn't see much of his face. She could, however, feel his hand sliding between her skin and the heating pad. She drew in a short breath, about to ask him what he was doing, but then he felt the smooth tips of his fingers pressing carefully, methodically against her abdomen. He rubbed in small circles, pressing just hard enough to be effective, and she slumped back against him, giving a pleased hum. "Heh, that, uh, help any?" He chuckled as she gave a short nod.
It felt incredibly good to be able to help his human when she wasn't feeling well, and as she scooched herself back to press even closer to him, he decided that comforting and soothing her was worth the possible mood swings and missing a day of work. Her soul was humming happily along with his as they laid together, and though his attention remained mostly on the movie, he was still focused on her. He'd pick up how her body tensed when another cramp would come, and he'd be sure to massage her abdomen more gently until it faded. He waved a hand and his eye glowed blue as he lifted candy bars and other snacks to her hand, just so she wouldn't have to lean over the mattress to get them.
This amount of effort was unusual for him- especially for him, but he didn't really mind it. The satisfaction of helping outweighed the exhaustion on his magic by far. ...And he certainly didn't mind getting to see and feel more of his precious human. The movie was forgotten for a moment as he diligently massaged her lower abdomen, feeling the soft flesh dip and give beneath his bony fingertips. She always spoke so poorly of her body, and though he wasn't the most familiar with human customs and standards, he knew that she was beautiful. Regardless of what her own species said or what shitty things they made her think about herself, he loved how soft she felt compared to him. A bit of his 'massage' might have turned into him simply feeling the softness of her tummy, but she didn't seem to notice it. He gently nudged his nasal ridge beneath her ear and inhaled her scent, eyesockets slipping closed.
"Thank you, Sans," she murmured, her voice soft and distant, like she was already half-asleep, and he wasn't the least bit surprised when he sounded similar.
"No prob, babe. Mind if I take a nap?" She shook her head and he grinned sleepily, pressing a toothy kiss to her shoulder before settling down and dozing off.
He very much hated being left out of the loop, but Papyrus wasn't one to barge in and demand things. That was more or less Undyne's job. So he had been patient when his brother had gone of, and he'd been patient when he came back with copious amounts of...whatever it all was, he had no idea. Breakfast ended up having to be put in the fridge, mostly, save for what he was able to eat himself. After a couple hours he sighed, pushing himself up from the couch and striding to the bedroom door that his brother had disappeared behind. If his brother was going to simply laze about all day, then he had another thing coming! He opened the door, mouth open as he prepared to scold him, but the words died in his non-existent throat.
Despite being a bit shorter, Sans was curled around Lena from behind, his knees tucked behind the human's, her head tucked under his chin, an arm protectively around her waist. He grinned and pulled out his phone, snapping a couple pictures and sending them to a few friends (no, definitely not Toriel, Alphys, Undyne, and Brit; nope, nope, why would you ever think that?). Once the photos were sent, he took a moment to just look. His brother's face was so open, relaxed, and peaceful and, with an even harder look, saw that his soul's rhythm was level and even, calm.
With a small chuckle and a bright smile, he closed the door silently behind him. A lazy day wouldn't hurt, he decided, especially if they looked so happy.
[[ See, how could I resist writing that? I imagine Sans getting all freaked out, then all scientific and 'why does that cause this? how come it does that? how? why?' and yeah... Anyway, hope you guys liked it! Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know, or PM me! And if you guys wanna keep up-to-date with announcements for the fic (and some rockin' fanart) then be sure to follow it on Tumblr! ( life-sans-sin dot tumblr dot com )
I love you guys a ton (a skeleton harhar) and I'm looking forward to feeling better so I can write more for you guys! 33 ]]