Work Text:
Regina George has a very high tolerance for pain.
Even before she knew what it felt like to be hit by a bus, she never really cried about scrapes, burns, or bruises. The most she ever felt during those moments was vague annoyance at herself for getting injured in the first place, and now that she’s experienced the world of hurt that comes with being involved in a pedestrian accident with a fucking school bus, most things feel like a tickle in comparison.
However.
The human uterus is no kind thing, and no one knows this better than the apex predator of Northshore.
Former, now, but technicalities.
It’s a Wednesday morning at 4am when Regina wakes up from a deep ache blooming in her abdomen. She closes her eyes and rolls over onto her side, curling up and whimpering as she tries in vain to go back to sleep. Her tracker app said she wasn’t supposed to start for another three days, so if this really is her period, she’s going to stab whichever vagina-haver at Northshore made her sync with them.
Minutes pass, and the pain only worsens. She screws her eyes shut as sweat starts to bead on her forehead and drip down her back, shivers racing up and down her spine. The nausea doesn’t so much creep in as it does slam into her with the force of a freight train, sending her scrambling out of bed and into her ensuite to empty the contents of her stomach.
Regina has never been able to deal with vomit, especially her own, so she keeps her eyes closed as she flushes and tries not to recall the sensation of everything coming back up.
It takes all of her willpower and strength to get up off of the bathroom floor and shuffle over to the sink to brush her teeth and rid her mouth of the acrid taste of bile. The overwhelming smell of the mint almost makes her run back to the toilet, but she powers through it with some deep breathing before she finally gets control of herself.
Once that’s taken care of, and she’s thoroughly swished with mouthwash, she rummages around in her medicine cabinet for the little bottle of Midol she always keeps handy for especially bad months. She tries not to feel bitter as she swallows down two pills with a cup of tap water, thinking about the other girls and how their bodies treat them on their periods.
For as long as Regina has known Karen the girl’s been on birth control, and Gretchen’s persistent stress apparently makes her period so irregular it’s a surprise if she gets it four times out of the year. Cady’s in the same boat as Karen, at least now that her and Aaron are seriously dating (she still remembers the day Cady walked into lunch blushing bright red and hushedly told them that her parents had caught them having sex, which apparently spiraled into an entire lesson on human biology and safe sex.)
And Janis…
Well, Janis apparently has a regular period with cramps that range from nonexistent to mild. The worst Regina has ever seen her was during the summer before senior year when she came to a pool hangout but opted to stay in a lounger sketching, a little bit hunched, but still engaging with the rest of them from the sidelines.
God, she’s jealous of all of those bitches.
The pills take probably an hour to kick in, so Regina just makes sure she isn’t bleeding yet before grabbing her heating pad from under the bed and kicking it up to high, hoping to at least keep herself from throwing up again until she can fall back asleep.
As an afterthought, she turns her alarm off for the day.
No way in hell she’s braving the halls of Northshore while she feels like shit. Besides, she deserves a day off.
Once the pills kick in, she turns the heating pad off and snuggles up under her blankets, falling back into a dreamless sleep for the next few hours to rest and recoup.
***
Janis isn’t worried.
No, of course she isn’t. She’s just tapping her foot, and clicking her pen, and bouncing her knee all because of… no reason. There’s no reason she’s doing those things, because she isn’t fucking worried, okay?
She feels something prod her arm, and she jumps so hard her chair scrapes on the linoleum. A few people glare at her before going back to their books, and she just turns to squint at the blonde sitting beside her. “What, Karen?”
“Are you okay?” Karen whispers, poking her again with the eraser end of her pencil. “You seem really stressed. Did you forget to do an assignment for your next class and now you can’t stop thinking about it but it’s too late to start it because it’s in twenty minutes and now you’re stressed?”
“Oddly specific,” Janis replies. “But no. Are you stressed about that?”
Karen gives her a beaming smile and shakes her head. “It’s not worth being stressed about something I’m always doing. Then I’d end up like poor Gretch, always worrying.”
“Uh-huh?” Janis nods slowly, taking a few moments to just stare at her and truly experience what it’s like to be friends with Karen Smith, and all of the little idiosyncrasies that come with her. She idly wonders if the girl is even gonna graduate with them, given the fact she doesn’t think-- in all of the months of shared study hall-- she’s ever seen Karen do anything beyond touch up her makeup and show Janis silly animal videos.
“So if it’s not that, why are you stressed?” the blonde asks. She’s starting poking Janis again, and she swats at the pencil lightly to make her stop.
“I’m not stressed,” Janis replies, even if the way she flips her phone over to check for new messages has a sort of anxiety to it. Okay, so maybe she’s a little worried, but she’s definitely not stressed, she’s just- “Regina wasn’t in class this morning and she hasn’t texted me since last night.”
Karen nods sagely beside her, having moved onto doodling little things in the margins of Janis’ open math notebook. They’re both quiet for a few moments before the blonde says, “Well, Regina’s normally absent around this time.”
Janis raises an eyebrow, turning to eye Karen. “What do you mean?”
A shrug is her response, and she’s about to ask again in case Karen heard her and then forgot what she was asked, but then she speaks, “Her period is probably just a few days early.”
“Regina’s taking a day off… because of her period,” Janis repeats incredulously. “What, is she worried that she’s gonna bleed through her designer jeans if she comes to school?”
Karen shakes her head and gives Janis somewhat of a confused look. “Has Regina not told you how bad her cramps are? I know she doesn’t like people knowing because, you know, she likes to pretend she’s basically invincible, but you’re her girlfriend.”
Janis pauses and looks down at her notebook, frowning. Sure, they’re only about three months into their relationship, but they had been working on communicating more in all of the lead up to it. Now that she thinks about it, she’s never heard Regina even mention her period, and she’d just figured her girlfriend was on some form of birth control that would regulate it.
Granted, she supposes periods aren’t exactly the most important things to talk about when you can instead talk about things like their toxic past.
“Do you- do you think she’d be mad if I went over to her house after school?” Janis asks. If there’s one thing she does know, like Karen said, Regina hates being perceived as weak. Going to her house when she’s feeling sick sounds pretty off the table, even as her girlfriend.
“I think she’d pretend to hate it, but really she probably wants to know someone cares about her enough to make sure she’s okay,” Karen says, setting her pen-- which is actually just Janis’ that she stole so she could doodle-- down on the table.
“You’re…” Janis stares at Karen almost in wonder. “Very insightful.”
Karen gives her a strange look. “What does that mean?”
***
Regina’s half-dozing when she hears the doorbell ring, echoing through the house. Her face pinches a little as she curls tighter around her body pillow. The pain has lessened to a dull ache, and the nausea hasn’t come back, but she also hasn’t tried to eat anything. Mostly, she’s just been in and out of sleep, because when she’s asleep, she doesn’t hurt.
Someone knocks on her door, and she whines in the back of her throat and ignores it. When the door creaks open, she doesn’t even roll over to face them, burying her face in her pillows again. Maybe they’ll take the hint and leave her alone.
“Regina?” her mom says gently, her warm hand coming to rest on her daughter’s shoulder. “Janis is here. She wants to see you.”
That wakes her up, and she flips over so she can look at her mom. “Can you make her go away? I don’t want her seeing me like this.” She gives her a pleading look. The last thing she wants is Janis to see her so vulnerable, even if the other girl literally saw her get hit by a fucking bus.
“She’s worried about you, baby girl.” Her mom sweeps a blonde curl off of her forehead, testing her temperature at the same time. “I think you should let her come up. Maybe seeing her will make you feel better.”
If she had any energy, maybe she’d argue with her mom about this, but between how tired she still is and the fact that she’s actively trying to repair her relationship with her mom still, she relents and tells her that Janis can come up.
Moments later, Janis is in the doorway, spiked backpack still on and holding a styrofoam container. She must’ve left her shoes at the door, because she’s just in a pair of black socks, and she pads quietly over to Regina’s bedside. “Uh- hey.”
Regina clears her throat and sits up, wincing a little at the pain that twinges in both her abdomen and now her back. She grabs her glasses off of her nightstand so she can see Janis properly and tries not to feel so naked without her usual mask and armor. All she has is a blanket, a body pillow, and skin that’s starting to break out from her period. “Mom said you were worried about me.”
“I was- am. I am,” Janis says quietly, setting the container down where Regina’s glasses just were. “You weren’t at school, and you didn’t text asking if I wanted to ditch with you, so I didn’t really know… what was up.”
“Well, I’m fine,” Regina says faux brightly, smiling even if it comes off as more of a grimace. “No reason to be worried about me.”
Janis shifts uncomfortably, looking unsure of what she’s allowed to do, or even what she should do as the girlfriend. “I brought you soup. It’s the chicken tortilla you love from the gas station but say you don’t like because it isn’t bougie.”
Warmth blooms in her chest at the sweet gesture, and at Janis lightly teasing her. She smiles at her and grabs her by the collar of her jacket, pulling her down to kiss her sweetly. “Thank you.”
“I mean, I’m your girlfriend,” Janis says dumbly. “I wanna make you feel good.” Regina smirks, quirking an eyebrow. Her girlfriend blushes when she realizes what she said and gives Regina a mock disdainful look. “Now who has permanent gutterbrain.”
“Mmm… still you.” Regina laughs a little, but then there’s a sharp clenching in her gut and she presses her hand against her stomach, wincing as her laugh cuts off. “Fuck, I think the pills are wearing off. Jay, can you-” but Janis is already gone, walking into the ensuite to grab the bottle of Midol out from amongst the other prescriptions. When she gets back, Regina takes the bottle and gives her an odd look. “How’d you know this was the bottle I wanted?”
“Figured you weren’t taking the fucking hydrocodone from getting your wisdom teeth out, or the pills for your back,” Janis snarks, sitting down on the edge of the bed as Regina rolls her eyes and takes the two pills, sipping from the obnoxiously pink Hydroflask also on her nightstand. “So, uh, don’t lie to me when I ask this, but how bad are your cramps… usually?”
Regina swallows another gulp of water, twisting the cap and setting it back down. She plays with her fingers in her lap and shrugs, not meeting Janis’ eyes. “Some months are worse than others… this is a worse month.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Janis says softly, reaching out to take one of Regina’s fidgeting hands. “Hey, I care about you. Let me in. Please.”
“I’ve both passed out and thrown up from pain before,” Regina admits, finally looking up.
Janis squeezes her hand and exhales through her nose. “I’m glad you told me. Now I can make sure you have soup every month when you feel like death!”
That startles a giggle out of Regina, and she smiles even wider when Janis crawls up the bed to wrap her in a hug. It’s comforting to just be held in someone’s arms, especially Janis’. She snuggles into her chest and just holds her, and eventually they readjust so Regina is able to curl around her body pillow and Janis can cuddle her from behind, encircling her waist with her arms.
“Thank you for coming,” Regina whispers. She feels the light pressure of lips on the crown of her head and blushes a little, scooting closer to Janis and sighing at the soothing weight of her arms around her.
“I wasn’t about to let my girl be in pain alone,” Janis replies easily. “What kind of girlfriend would I be then?”
“Doesn’t matter, because you came,” Regina mumbles, already drifting off, feeling warm and cared for in the arms of her girlfriend.
Janis just smiles and tangles their legs together. “Yeah, yeah I did.”