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"Ugh..." Sei moans, flopping down on the couch and curling in on himself. Fuck, it hurts. His periods have always been awful, essentially incapacitating him for the week with pain. That wasn't an issue before, when he had nowhere to go anyway, but now he actually has places to go and people to go there with, and it fucking sucks. It's fine, of course, he'll push through it like he always has, but that doesn't mean he's happy about it.
"Sei!" Clear's worried voice comes from behind him, and he pops up from behind the couch like a jack-in-the-box. Sei takes a moment to appreciate Clear just calling him by his name without the honorific. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," he replies, mouth feeling horrifically dry. "I'll be fine..."
"You're in pain!" Clear points out the obvious. "Did you get hurt? Let me look at it! Or take you to the hospital! Or--"
"I'm fine!" Sei snaps, and immediately feels bad about it. "...Sorry, Clear. I shouldn't have gotten mad. It's just..." He blushes. He hasn't really talked to anyone about these things before. "I'm on my period," he admits, feeling embarrassed.
"Sei is on his period..." Clear murmurs quietly, and Sei is grateful to him for keeping his voice down instead of practically yelling at the top of his lungs like he often does. Then he perks up. "I know what to do!" And there's the shouting. "I'll be right back! Don't go anywhere!"
"Clear--" But he's already gone.
Clear comes back with three large shopping bags packed full of stuff.
"What's that?" Sei asks warily. Clear gets some crazy ideas sometimes, and now is really not the time for him to do something completely off the wall.
"Pads," Clear says firmly. "And tampons. And snacks. And chocolate. And some plushies that I saw that I thought were cute."
Sei just sighs. "You didn't have to..."
"But I like taking care of Sei!" Clear argues. And Sei knows that he's not going to get anywhere on that front, so he sighs again and lays back.
"What did you get?" he asks, and Clear sits down, putting the bags out in front of him.
"I couldn't remember what brands you liked, so I got a box of every brand of pad and tampon," he starts with, and Sei has the urge to throw something at him. He knows that's not fair, Clear is just trying to help, but where is he going to get all the money for that from? "And I got those rice crackers and peanuts that you like," he adds, setting out a few boxes. "And some Pocky. And some chocolate bars. And these!" He holds up two plushies, a penguin and a black cat.
...They are pretty cute. Sei reaches out for them, and Clear places them carefully in his arms. They're soft, too. "Thank you," he says softly. "They're nice."
"Good!" Clear grins. "I'll put the rest of this away, so you can have it whenever you want!" He stands up and takes the bags with him, and Sei closes his eyes, listening to the rustle of plastic. He must drift off, because he doesn't hear Clear coming back, doesn't notice until Clear is cuddled up behind him on the couch.
"What are you doing?" he mumbles.
"I read that heat is good for period cramps! So I thought I would use my internal heating system to keep you nice and warm!" Sure enough, there's an unnatural warmth emanating from Clear, and Sei relaxes into it. It does feel better--it's like a full-body heating pad.
"This is nice," he whispers, and imagines that Clear is smiling.
Clear starts humming, a familiar tune--his jellyfish song. It's soothing, and that combined with the heat and his exhaustion quickly work together to pull him back into the land of dreams.
It's not so bad, he reflects, when I'm not by myself.