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In a series of unfortunate events, half of Boatem died, whether from mishap or exploding end crystals next to each other. And those left as responsible adults (Scar and Impulse) weren’t competent enough to take on the three without working together. So after much question of which respawned-child hermits should stay with which semi-competent adults, it was decided upon that Boatem would have their first ever official sleepover.
And it was exciting, at first. Pearl hadn’t gotten to hang out with friends like this in a while. A free excuse to do nothing but have a good time, eat food, and play a bunch of board games did not come often. She was determined to make the most of it.
But then 3:30 happened.
She was supposed to be asleep. Pearl rolled over and shut her eyes. At the movement, she felt a sensation that could only be blood, which was probably already leaking through her pajamas.
With one look at the bedsheets, she confirmed, yep, that’s exactly what happened.
She took a harsh breath, getting the tiniest bit overwhelmed. It wasn’t like she could do anything about it. She wasn’t at her house.
She glanced over at the other inflated mattress, only a block between her and it. Grian and Mumbo (the two that had waged end crystal war) were asleep, blissfully unaware of this. If all went according to plan, it would stay the same. From the two perpendicular couches, Impulse and Scar were also asleep peacefully. She’d hate to wake either of them. It’s not like they would know what to do.
Of course it happened tonight. Of course she didn’t know it’d happen. Of course she wasn’t prepared.
Pearl crawled out of bed and gathered her shulker with the clothes for the next day. She didn’t know if it’d be better to stay in what she had or to put on something fresh, which could easily be spoiled in thirty minutes or less – all out of her control. Another option could be to run out to her house, which wasn’t too far out, and gather everything she needed. It still wouldn’t solve the issue of blood-stained sheets, which she’d have to explain by morning.
By the time she’d made it over to the bathroom, the blood content itself had gotten worse. Her clothes were ruined — at least her jammies were dark enough that it wasn’t too noticeable, but there was something just so gross about having to wear them still. If only she’d thought to bring an extra change of clothes, but all she had was what was planned for the next morning. There was no way to feasibly solve this issue and she’d have to wake someone up just to help her and it was silly and she’d get poked fun at and they wouldn’t understand—
Her throat and chest got tight and she tried to take deep breaths before she lost it. But it was just too much. It was early in the morning, she wanted sleep, and there was blood everywhere and it would be a struggle to clean and there weren’t enough clothes to change into. With enough consideration of her options, while still struggling not to cry, Pearl got a change of underwear, wrapping toilet paper around it many times, knowing it wouldn’t completely help things, but be a temporary fix at least.
Now she had semi-clean clothes (given she didn’t want to get in jeans, much preferring pjs over it), she was able to wash up and leave what appeared to be the scene of the crime. (Of course, now she’d have to admit to the crime.)
She stared at the two men in question, both of whom she’d rather not speak to. While both were nice, it was different. She’d rather talk to False or Cleo, two she hardly knew but would trust with this situation far more, than two she’d neighbored with for many months.
But it wasn’t like she had a choice. And preference had her rather not wanting to explain this to Scar, the more… incompetent of the two. Still, she hesitated, before heading over to wake Impulse up.
She nudged at his arm a few times, it taking a bit of effort before he woke up. But it didn’t take long for him to stir, mumbling out words a few seconds before becoming aware of his surroundings. “What’s wrong?”
“Uhm. I uh, woke up and, I—” Words failed in that moment, and the pure shame overwhelmed that need to explain and solve the situation. “I can’t get back to sleep.”
Impulse rubbed at his eyes, beginning to sit up. “Anything keeping you up?”
Nerves grew in her chest, following that tight overwhelmed feeling that made her want to cry. She just nodded quickly, unable to say a word.
“Can you tell me?” He made room for Pearl, her taking the spot tentatively before cuddling up against him.
“I— I maybe,” she said quietly, going red in the face.
“Need a minute?” he asked, matching her volume. Pearl just nodded in return, fully falling into a hug when it was offered. “It’s okay. Take your time.”
She sniffled quietly, tears forming quickly, though she hardly made any noise.
“I’m right here. You’re safe,” he reassured.
Despite the fact that Impulse knew nothing of the situation, his lack of worry made it easier for Pearl not to worry. And given it was him, and not somebody else, it was unlikely she would get teased.
“I, um, woke up and,” she took a deep breath, as if about to tell the worst crime known to man, “found out I started my period and wasn’t prepared for it and now there’s blood on the sheets.” She looked down at her feet, unwilling to turn around and face anyone now.
“Oooookay.” It only took a mere five seconds to put Impulse out of his element. “Is there… anything I can do to help?”
It took a moment of thinking on it before Pearl could put any specific need to words. “I know it’s early and stuff, but can you take me home so I can… pick up some stuff?”
“Uh… sure. Just give me a minute to get on some armor.” He got up to prepare for a short trip over to Pearl’s starter base. Though it wasn’t far, mobs could still be overwhelming if you were sleepy.
While he got ready to wage war upon any monster that dare show itself, Pearl stripped the bed sheets down, putting them at the foot of the mattress. She cringed a bit when catching sight of the dark spot, but cleaning the sheets wasn’t of the utmost concern.
The entire walk home, Pearl remained tense, always on the lookout for mobs and waiting for the moment when blood absorbed its way through the toilet paper. Because of such things, she kept her steps quick, getting quite ahead of Impulse.
But with little to no issue, aside from a skeleton or two that tried to shoot at them, the two made it to the starter-base.
Pearl took a few deep breaths as she stepped in the safety of her home. Without bothering with any of the lights, she made her way back to the bedroom to grab a few more changes of clothes (staying as far away from any possible future emergencies) and the entire box of pads. As inconspicuous as one could be, she placed them all into a shulker and hid the contents underneath a blanket.
It was about ten minutes before she felt ready to leave. Home felt so much safer than Impulse’s factory, and she almost had the mind to just ask him to leave her at home alone (the glitch only had her at thirteen, which was plenty old to stay by herself, in Pearl’s opinion). While she might want the company, no longer sleepy in the slightest, staying here was much easier than taking the trek back and facing the realities of what happened.
At least if she stayed here she could just pretend none of it happened. No embarrassing story to note of, no guys to deal with, nothing to worry about.
But she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be allowed to stay home alone even if she asked nicely. So at Pearl’s word, Impulse led the way back to his house, this time staying ahead as Pearl no longer felt the need to rush along.
“I get the idea you’re not really tired anymore,” Impulse said as he tossed the pile of sheets into a washing machine.
“Not really.” Pearl still stayed quiet. While the issue in question wasn’t actively brought up, it didn’t make the shame less real.
“Then maybe we can watch something for a while, until everybody else wakes up,” Impulse suggested, despite it not even being 5:00, a not really reasonable but passable enough time to get up.
“It’s… it’s alright, I’ll try to get back to sleep.”
Impulse just nodded, accepting the response. Though Pearl didn’t follow through with the idea a few minutes later, when she realized there was a sheetless bed that she didn’t feel like fixing up, and there was still room beside Impulse as he sat up. So instead, a few minutes later, she had herself a human pillow and that one blanket she’d crammed in that shulker for the use of secrecy.
But she still felt overwhelmed by everything, far from comfortable or tired.
And Impulse must’ve sensed that, as Pearl moved in place for the umpteenth time. “You alright there?”
With a far too weak breath supporting her words, she answered, “No.”
“Would you like to talk?”
“Maybe.” She pressed against him in a hug and Impulse returned it back quickly. Instead of talking, she remained silent, letting her mind wander as it liked. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“Don’t sweat it.”
While the dismissal was supposed to be kind, an encouragement of sorts, it only made Pearl feel worse to making this such a big deal.
“Makes me feel dumb,” Pearl said after a minute of long thinking.
“Everybody’s judgment is worse at night.”
It just felt like he didn’t get it. Like, there was an underlying problem that couldn’t be solved by just a “get over it, everyone has off days”.
“I could’ve been at least somewhat prepared.”
“Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.”
Pearl shifted in place, uncomfortable physically and emotionally, in every sort of way possible. “Yeah but… I should be able to take care of myself but I can't. And I'm not worried about being a burden so much as…” She took a deep breath, struggling to articulate the thought in full. “You just don’t get it and you won’t and that’s fine but—”
She felt like tugging on her hair when she couldn't put it to words. “It’s more embarrassing than anything.”
“Oh. I see.”
She hid her face into the blanket. Not that it’d help matters any.
“But you don’t get it fully,” she said, still buried into a blanket.
“Yeah. You're not wrong. ...Would it help to uh, talk to someone else?”
Pearl nodded quickly. “I’d like that.” She perked up a little.
“I could fly you over wherever. Probably should wait for a few hours, maybe after we have breakfast.”
A reasonable hour couldn’t be further away.
“And maybe in the meantime, you might just be able to get a little bit of sleep.” Impulse suggested.
“Maybe,” Pearl said, finally feeling tired after curled up in a blanket. Within a few minutes of absolute silence, she started to fight sleep. As she started to go limp, she was barely aware of being picked up and brought over to the air mattress, carefully rolled up in a blanket.
For a few short hours Pearl was able to forget the events transpired and sleep again, peace even if for a moment. Later she could worry about facing the other three, facing the realities, facing whatever pain --- emotional or physical that came up. For now, she would stay in this blanket burrito, becoming dead to reality.