For Ember11: Person A (Marley?) has her period and is going through PMS. Mood Swings: angry, sad, happy, crying,) in pain, crampy, food craving, ect!) and is driving Person B insane!

Marley was out of bed by the time he had woken up. As soon as he woke up he could hear the loud music playing from downstairs – it sounded like the Sound of Music soundtrack but he wasn't sure. Ryder really should have known, though – it was Marley's favorite musical and she seemed to watch it every single day.

As soon as he was aware he was awake, Ryder pulled himself out of bed and quickly got dressed before running down the stairs to the kitchen where the music was blaring and making the ground shake beneath his feet.

Ryder was desperate to turn it off because he was starting to get a big headache from the pounding of the music throughout the house. That was why he barely ever went to concerts – because the music hurt his head too much. He couldn't even go to the Taylor Swift concert that year and he was so pissed off.

He saw the stereo sitting on the bench right next to an unfinished cupcake and took a look around. No Marley. She was probably in the bathroom or something so she really wouldn't mind, right?

Ryder leaned over the bench, picked up the paper plate the cupcake was on with his left hand and with his right hand, pressed the stop button on the stereo and unplugged it from the wall.

He was walking over the fridge to put the half eaten cupcake away when he heard heavy footsteps from the lounge room and the sound of the china in the cupboard rattling. Ryder leaned on the fridge door and watched the entrance of the kitchen cautiously. He was fairly certain those were Marley's footsteps heading towards him in the kitchen.

Five seconds later, there she was, hands on hips. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and was wearing a pair of short overalls and a crop top underneath it. He was about to comment on how cute she looked when he saw the red tinge on her cheeks and realized that Marley was actually really pissed off.

He then noticed the way her mouth was in a straight line instead of her normal small smile and her eyes… damn her eyes. They weren't the normal happy shade of light blue – they were darker and not as bright and glossy as they always were.

"Hey, Marley…" Ryder shoved the cupcake onto the first shelf he saw and stood up straight, facing her and giving a small, worried smile. He gripped onto the fridge door in front of him, ready to swing it at Marley if she tried to beat him up. "How is your morning going?"

Marley ignored his question and looked straight over to the unplugged stereo on the bench. "Did you – did you unplug my music?" She gave Ryder a hard stare, her eyes wide. Ryder gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. "Also did you take my cake?"

"I didn't take it. It-it's right here-" Ryder stuttered, reaching forward and fumbling to pick up the paper plate the cupcake was on.

"I am going to end you." Marley whispered, her voice dark and scary. Ryder dropped the cake back in the fridge and stood up straight again, his hands shaking.

He knew this mood. He knew it all too well, having to put up with it for years on end, once a month.

Marley was PMSing.

"No, Marley, I'll turn your music back-" Ryder began, shutting the fridge and waving his hands around to try and calm her angry mood. There was no hope, though – Marley was not going to be calm any time soon.

"No! Ryder, are you aware of how disrespectful you're being to me? You turned off my music and I was doing my own thing! Ryder, this is so mean for you to do to me and I'm so pissed off that you thought you could turn off my music and put my food back in the fridge while I'm out of the room for ten seconds. You're being rude and selfish and please do not even talk to me for like five minutes!" Marley screeched, waving her hand around and storming over to the side of the bench. She angrily picked up her stereo and stormed out of the room, not even making eye contact with Ryder as she left.

As soon as she walked into the lounge room, Ryder let out a loud sigh and leaned against the fridge. The magnets came rattling down like rain, scattering at his feet.

This time of the month was always the scariest – she had constant mood swings every two seconds and most of the time it was so much more annoying than anything else in the whole world.

One minute she was yelling at him, the next she wanted him to make her food and then the next she'd be crying her eyes out because her phone fell off of the couch. It was the scariest time of the month and there was no way in hell Ryder was going to put up with that for another couple of hours.

Ryder looked around the kitchen and stalked towards the sink where his glass from the night before was sitting. He picked it up and began to fill the glass with water as he heard the opening theme of Under The Dome sound through the lounge room and into the kitchen.

"Oh God no." Ryder whispered, hitting the tap to turn it off and quickly darting into the lounge room with the full cup of water in his hand.

He raced into the room next to him with the glass in his hand and looked around the room slowly; spotting Marley in her usual seat (the side of the couch closest to wear Ryder was standing). Her legs were pulled up to her chest and she was constantly making sniffing noises…

"Oh God, she's crying." Ryder whispered, placing the glass on the fireplace next to the faceless Willow Tree doll called "Hope". Those dolls always made him feel so uncomfortable but he didn't have enough guts to throw them out – Marley loved them so much because they had "value" or something like that.

Ryder walked over to Marley on the couch and sat on the other side of her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her towards him.

Marley let out a quiet cry as she kept her eyes on the TV screen, on Colin Ford in particular. Ryder pressed a kiss to the side of her head and rubbed her arm comfortingly. She cried at least once a month during the PMS stage and well, it was always Ryder's job to comfort you.

Marley reached across Ryder's lap and picked up the remote, pausing the TV show on Mike Vogel's face in the jail cell. She let out a quiet sob and cradled into him, digging her face into his shoulder. "Norrie saw her Mom again and her Mom is dead but she came back but it wasn't really her Mom! It was an alien and Julia told her no but-but-but she refused to believe her mother hadn't come back." Marley whined, sniffling and making a strange sobbing noise.

"It's… it's okay, baby." Ryder muttered, rubbing her arm up and down and running his other hand down the side of her tearful face.

"I guess but-but Norrie's face just broke my heart." Marley whispered, pulling away from Ryder and wiping her face on her hands. Ryder pulled his arm away from around her and into his lap. He watched her carefully as she mopped up her tears and unpaused the show, watching the TV intently once again.

"You alright now, Mar?" Ryder asked quietly, watching Marley carefully to make sure she wasn't crying too hard any more.

As annoying as she got during her PMSing, he still had to care for her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she sniffled and rubbed her nose with her hand to make sure it wasn't dripping.

"Alright, I'm going." Ryder whispered, standing up and running out of the lounge room as fast as he could, forgetting the glass of water on the fireplace. Most likely Marley would bring that in when she was in her cleaning mood.

He stood in the kitchen and leaned against the bench, breathing out a sigh. Hopefully Marley wouldn't bother him too much today – so far, it had been… okay.

Ryder glanced up at the laptop on the bench near the TV and smiled – that'd kill time while Marley wasn't bothering him. And plus, he really needed to see if Jake had messaged him again about that games night they were planning for next week.

He grabbed the laptop from the other bench on the far side of the room and sat down at the dining room table, turning on the laptop and leaning back in his seat.

He had only just logged onto Facebook when he heard someone running into the kitchen. Ryder was frightened to turn around but did anyway and saw Marley dancing through the kitchen over to him, her tears long gone and a large smile over her face.

"Guess what?" She beamed, resting her hands on Ryder's shoulders and giving them a light massage.

"Um, what?" Ryder watched her carefully, staring over her bright smile and her shining eyes. How could she have gone from crying to this in under a minute? He really didn't get girls at all.

"Julia and Barbie… kissed!" Marley jumped in the air and clapped her hands together, standing on her tip-toes and stretching out her legs.

"Good…. I guess?" Ryder smiled weakly at her and watched her swing her arms back and forth like a child wanting ice cream.

Marley nodded her head and shoved her hands into the pockets of her overalls. "This is amazing, Ryder. I can't believe how quickly things are moving."

"I can't believe how quickly your moods are moving." Ryder muttered. He was trying to give her a confused look, but instead he imagined it as a "what in God's name is my girlfriend on?" look.

Marley threw her head back and laughed, clapping her hands slowly. She stood up straight again and leaned down to kiss his cheek softly. "You're the best, Ryd. I love you, too." She mumbled against his cheek, bringing her hand up and caressing the side of his face with the back of her hand.

"You're the best, too, Mar." Ryder replied awkwardly, patting her hand on his own cheek softly, still staring at the computer screen and scrolling down his news feed.

"Okay, I'm kind of… I'm craving some ham, so I'm going to see if we have any and then I'm going to eat it – put it on a sandwich or something." Marley said, standing up and digging her hands into her pockets, pulling the overalls down a little bit. "You want some?" She asked Ryder, raising her eyebrows at him.

"I'm-I'm fine thanks, babe." Ryder grinned, waving his hand at her and shuffling in closer to the computer screen. It almost seemed like her mood swings were going away, and he was so glad about that. If they had gone away, they'd have a normal day.

"Are you… are you serious?" Ryder heard Marley whisper. Ryder turned around on his spinning chair and saw Marley in the fridge, frowning as the light shone on her face. "You have got to be kidding me, oh my good God."

"What is it?" Ryder asked, annoyance in his voice. He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hands over his face.

"We- we don't have any ham." Marley muttered sadly, giving Ryder her famous puppy dog eyes as she reached into the fridge, took a full bottle of soft drink and began to drink from there, not even getting a glass.

"No, we have to." Ryder whined, leaning forward and digging his head in between his knees, whining quietly. She had to be joking – she just had to be.

He was now waiting for her to ask him to go to the shop and get her some ham… and then the moment finally came. "Can you go get me some, Ryder? Please?" Marley begged. Ryder looked up and saw her standing in the kitchen, a small smile drawn on her face and her puppy dog eyes out and ready to do some serious begging.

Ryder did not want that. Not at all.

"Fine, fine, I'll go." Ryder sighed, standing up and dragging himself across the kitchen towards Marley. He was so fed up with her PMS already, he wished it would end.

"Thank you, baby." Marley grinned at him and took a few steps forward, stopping him from moving to the hallway to get his shoes. She put her hand on his stomach and gripped at the t-shirt, tugging him towards her. "I love you so much, you know that?"

"I know that." Ryder muttered, rolling his eyes slightly. He wasn't going to let Marley see he was mad because she would probably slap him or refuse to talk to him… or maybe she'd not have sex with him for the next month. Yeah he definitely couldn't let her see he was annoyed.

"And you know that you're the best person in this whole world and I'll love you forever?"

"Yes," Ryder let out an annoyed sigh, avoiding Marley's gaze, "but do you want me to get your ham or not, babe?"

"Oh, of course. Please!" Marley grinned, sliding to the other side of the kitchen and leaning against the kitchen sink with a smile.

Ryder sent her a smile back and shuffled into the hallway, breathing yet another sigh. Marley's brain worked in weird ways, he had found.

{x}

There was no ham at the local shop two minutes away from home. He'd wasted his time going there. So he went to the shop ten minutes away from the last and finally found the ham Marley was craving there. And as he drove back with the pre-sliced ham in the front seat next to him he realized that Marley would probably be so pissed off at him for taking so long.

It had happened the last time, too – he had gone to get her food because when she got her period she ate everything in the house (and she still stayed so skinny?) and she was always still hungry.

There was no pizza in the house last time and Marley had pretty much screamed at Ryder until he left the house to get some for her.

He feared it was going to happen again.

As he parked his car in the driveway, he stared at the front door of the house. The house looked so silent and sweet, but he feared that on the inside all it would be was Marley yelling at him about the wait and how rude it was to keep a girl waiting like that.

He left the car with the ham in his hands and slowly walked to the front door. He opened it slowly. There was no noise at all coming from the inside, and he wondered where Marley had gotten to – she had to at least make some noise, didn't she?

Ryder stepped in, and the floor beneath him creaked. It was the only noise in the house – not even the TV was on, and it scared him. What was going on?

He imagined that Marley was hiding out behind the door, ready to attack him when he walked inside, but when he peered back, she wasn't there. Nor was she right in front of him on the stairs, her other sitting place.

And then he heard it. A moan. A quiet, pained moan.

He closed the door and it clicked shut, and that's when the second moan came from the lounge room. Ryder stepped forward and peered through the archway to the lounge to see Marley curled up in a ball on the lounge, her knees up to her stomach and her eyes shut tightly, crinkling at the corners.

"Mar?" Ryder whispered, frowning at her.

She let out another moan and ducked her head. "I don't know if it's period cramps or fart pains." Marley whimpered, scrunching her face up and holding her breath.

"I quit," Ryder mumbled, dropping the ham on the ground and holding his hands in the air. "I am so out, I quit. I just… I quit and I can't deal with your mood swings anymore, Marley."

"No, Ryder, first bring me my ham, plea-"

Ryder groaned and spun around. "No, Marley," he murmured, "I quit."