Work Text:
Diamond City was home to all sorts of oddities you could possibly imagine: aliens, ninjas, disco dudes (scratch that; disco families), martial artists, anthropomorphic dogs and cats in spite of the real dogs and cats you could actually find around here, a taxi-cum-rocket ship (that said anthropomorphic dogs and cats could operate efficiently), mad scientists and their robots, avid gamers, pixel pets, demons, witches, and of course, greedy punks.
One morning, a certain 11-year-old witch, named Ashley, woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She dragged herself out and headed for her door in her pale pink pyjamas.
When she opened up, her companion, Red, greeted her in the mansion's hallway with a piece of buttered toast in his mouth. "Good morning, Ashley!" he cheerfully said.
Ashley was in no mood for any of his shenanigans at the moment. "...Morning..." She sighed, and just walked past Red and straight to the room that allowed her to concoct magic spells safely.
Her odd behavior confused Red; she normally loved to eat something nice and tasty first thing in the morning. "Huh?" He followed Ashley into the special spell room.
Red went right up behind Ashley as she was flipping through the pages of a big, kind of dusty book. "Well? Aren't you going to have breakfast first?" he reminded.
Ashley didn't look up from her book. "I'm just not hungry." was her dry reply.
Now Red was totally flabbergasted today. "Not hungry?! Are you okay, Ashley?"
"I'm fine." she said with a tone of irritation in her voice.
"Are you sure?" he persisted.
"Yes." Ashley answered tersely.
"I'm just worried, okay?" Red unfortunately did not pick up on the hints that Ashley wanted to be left alone. "'Cause you don't look so hot!"
Ashley's hair turned white as she slowly turned around to glare at Red with scary (red-colored) eyes. Uh-oh. Her hair turning white could have only meant two things: she was totally angry, or she was about to cast a spell.
And as it turned out, it was both.
"I. SAID. I'M FINE!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. With the wave of her magic staff, she shot blasts of pure energy at Red.
The familiar screamed as he ran out of the room as fast as he could and hid somewhere in the hallway; he had seen Ashley angry many times before, but never this much, especially towards him, before.
The flashing eventually passed, and there was complete silence. Red realized that he was safe now, and left his hiding spot. But Ashley was nowhere to be seen. He wandered around the mansion for a bit until he came across his friend's bedroom. The door was shut.
Red knocked twice, and called "Ashley?" He could hear a faint moaning in response. Did she have a fever or something...?
He opened up the door to see Ashley quietly lying in bed with the sheets covering her up.
"...Ashley...?" he said softly and slowly walked over to her.
"...Hurts..." Ashley could be heard saying in a small voice.
"Hurts?" he echoed.
Ashley rolled around while clutching her stomach, clearly looking pained. "It hurts..." she grimaced, feeling like she could throw up.
Suddenly, Red sniffed the air, and coughed a bit. "What is that smell?" He could indeed smell something odd coming from Ashley, and his demon nose knew. "Blood?" He lifted up the covers... and saw blood on the highest parts on her inner thighs. "Oh my gosh, you're really bleeding!" he shouted.
"I must be dying..." Ashley whimpered as she cringed from another wave of cramping. "What is this bleeding...?" Her breathing sounded like she was about to cry.
"Oh no, oh no, no--uh, uh..." Red flew around in circles as he panicked. "I-I-I gotta go get help!" He disappeared in a poof of smoke to go outside.
As soon as Red left, Ashley curled up, squeezed her rabbit skeleton doll very tightly, and began to let her tears fall. There was never a sadder feeling than being all alone, and in pain, in her giant mansion...
As she was exiting Joe's Boutique after browsing clothes, Mona was about to hop onto her red-and-white scooter when suddenly saw something coming straight towards her. It wasn't a bird, and it definitely wasn't a plane--
"MONA! MONAAAA!" Red was yelling so loudly he almost crash-landed right into the dirt.
Mona jumped back a bit in surprise. "Red?" she questioned. "Where's Ashley?"
Red clung onto Mona's leg in desperation. "ASHLEY'S IN TROUBLE!" yelled the imp.
Mona was very willing to help Ashley with any sort of plight. After all, her mom was a world traveling fashion model who rarely saw her, and her dad was a reclusive artist; so, she could relate with how lonely Ashley was. And in sense, Mona was sometimes the big sister that Ashley never had. "Well, what happened? Is she alright?" Mona asked.
"AshleysactingreallyweirdsheyelledatmeandstartedshootinghermagicatmeandnowshesbleedingandIthinkshe'sdyingohmygoshwhatifshe'sreallygonnadie...!?" Red was quite nearly bawling now.
"Woah woah woah, slow down, just a second..." Mona definitely needed to hear that again, but in a far more comprehensive manner. "...Did you just say that she's bleeding?"
Red nodded frantically as he gasped for air. "Yes!" He pointed to his inner thighs near his nether region. "I remember it was down here!"
Mona put two and two together. Yep, she realized what was going on. It was all part of becoming a woman, so to speak, and the witch was of the average blooming age.
Mona checked her purse for items she could lend. Rats. The only feminine products she had inside were tampons, and no way in hell would Ashley be the type of person to use those things. But she couldn't leave her be and upset Red any further.
"Please keep an eye on Ashley while I go to the convenience store!" Mona commanded. "I'll be there soon!" And she took off on her scooter.
Red nodded, said "Okay!", and disappeared in a poof of smoke once again to go back home.
Red was very lucky that day that the first WarioWare Inc. employee he ran to was Mona. The other males were very uncomfortable with such a topic (and 9-Volt was not at the appropriate age to learn about Ashley's problem anyhow), 5-Volt was too busy with cooking and housework, Kat and Ana were only in Ninja Kindergarten, and Penny's own first was due any day now.
About ten minutes later, Red was busy pacing around when he finally heard knocking on the mansion door. He opened it up to see Mona holding a plastic bag, with feminine supplies such as pads and painkillers inside, in each hand, while her scooter was parked at a tree. Red immediately allowed the girl to enter.
Mona strolled through the hall, and knocked on the bedroom door. "Ashley? Can I come in?"
"...I guess..." came Ashley's voice.
Mona went inside, walked to a still-curled-up Ashley, and sat down beside her on the bed.
"Are you doing okay in there?" asked the redhead.
"...It just hurts so much..." Ashley replied feebly. She just wanted the cramping to go away and never come back.
Hearing her voice shake, Mona asked cautiously, "Are you crying, Ashley?"
Ashley shook her head 'no' as she quickly wiped away the moisture that was left on her cheeks.
Mona reached out and gently rubbed Ashley's head. "Look, everything's gonna be fine..."
This gesture caused more tears to spring in the young girl's eyes, but this time, they were tears of joy. She was so moved by Mona's kindness; her own rich parents were rather distant and never around 'cause they were so busy to the point that they were actually living elsewhere.
"She's okay?" Red was beginning to feel relief at the good news.
"She'll be alright..." The high schooler then turned to the devil. "I'm sorry, Red, but could you leave the room? Ashley and I need to talk alone."
"Eh? How come?" he asked quizzically.
There was an awkward pause. "...It's a girl thing." Mona was unable to exactly put it in other words.
"Well, okey dokey." And Red did as he was asked to.
After a bit of silence, Ashley finally spoke up. "...Well? Am I not dying from a wicked curse?" Her cramping was going down a bit, but it was a slow process.
"No, no..." Mona reassured. "You just got your first period."
Ashley sat up in her covers and looked straight at Mona. "Period?"
Mona did her best to explain the menstrual cycle to Ashley in simple terms with the help of her phone. Well, she tried. Ashley still cringed and felt a bit nauseous at the mental image of ailments including, but not limited to: heavier bleeding, more intense cramps, mood swings, crazy food cravings, acne, bloating--every month--anyway.
The disclosure of the turn of events came as a relief to Ashley, but now she needed to take the next steps. "So, what do I do now?" she asked the 18-year-old.
Mona frantically dug through one of her bags to pull out a small, blue package of winged pads to give to the young girl. "Uhh, I think you'd better get some new panties and go to the bathroom first."
Despite the pain, Ashley slowly got out of her bed, went to her dresser, and then straight to her bathroom with clean panties and the package of pads in her hands. Had they delayed too much longer, the poor witch would've had a bloody accident on her mattress protector.
After Mona left the bedroom, she spoke to Red about what he could do to help.
"What's that? Something warm to drink?" Red asked.
"Yes. That would make her feel so much better." nodded Mona.
"Hmm... Maybe if I make some hot chocolate?" Red suggested after he thought about it for a moment.
"Oh, I'm sure she would love that!" Mona approved.
And so Red did just that. In the kitchen, he added cocoa powder to a glass of warm 1% milk, and stirred the mixture until it all blended together smoothly. The smell of it alone was enough to soothe your nerves, never mind ingesting it.
Red even tried to add zanier things to the drink, like rainbow marshmallows, whipped cream, tiny milk chocolate bars, dark chocolate shavings, and a cherry on top, but Mona had to stop him in his tracks. (She had the experience of why you should never consume so much sugar when you're on your period; stupid delicious parfait that sent her straight to the ladies' room not too much later...)
After getting out of the bathroom from a change into a pair of fresh underwear (with a sanitary napkin in it, of course) and then drinking some homemade hot chocolate with a painkiller pill, Ashley was no longer feeling any cramps.
"Are you feeling any better?" Mona checked in.
The brunette held her mug in her hands with a normal grip. "...Much." replied Ashley with a nod and a small smile.
The two girls chatted about more pleasant topical things to take their minds off earlier's ickiness. Eventually, it was time for Mona to leave. Before she left the bedroom, Ashley got the courage to tell her something.
"Thank you... for everything." said Ashley as she blushed shyly.
Mona beamed at her job well done. "No problem. I mean, what are friends for?" she said.
This comment made Ashley smile a little bigger. She felt so comforted after a long morning.
And seeing Ashley happy always made Red happy too. When Mona left, he flew over and sat down beside his master on her bed with a big smile on his face.
Ashley didn't get irritated. She instead said, "Thank you for the drink." to him and patted his head apologetically. After all, he was her friend as well, no matter how many fights they got into.