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Alec paused, double checking he had his phone and not Lisa’s. Nope, hers was still purple.
He ignored the game over scene in the background.
Oh, good, that kind of emergency. She wasn’t being held hostage by nazis, or needed help hiding a body, or anything.
Alec got up from the couch and walked into Taylor’s room curiously. She didn’t have a lot of personal touches inside, and he gave the massive glass cage a wide berth.
He secured several tampons out of the box in her dresser, a pair of plain cotton panties, a pair of jeans and an extra shirt. Probably wouldn’t need the shirt, but who knows.
He did consider for a few minutes what it might be like on her end and rummaged around to find some other things that might help: a pack of wet wipes, some ziplocks, and a small handbag in case she didn’t have anything to put her clothes into, that kinda stuff.
Ah, that was going to be a problem. Taylor’s initial range was further than his, though he could pilot a thrall a lot further out once he had control.
He waffled for a moment on the bus, thumbs hesitating a little. She’d be expecting Lisa. Better to break the news now or wait until she got an unpleasant surprise when he showed up in her bug sense?
Eh.
She was already having an apparently shitty day.
Also, pissing off an already distraught Taylor was a great way to become covered in bees.
The dots indicating she was typing appeared and disappeared several times.
Alec put his phone away as a trio of flies suddenly stopped mid air and dropped in front of his face. He held out his hand in a little wave, not sure if she could see it, and one landed on the back of his hand.
It walked in a complete circle before landing back in the middle and walking out in a line.
Soon the bus stopped a block away from the school and Alec got out, inconspicuous bag in hand. His feet carried him to the shithole of a building and once more Alec wondered why Taylor didn’t just leave all this behind her.
It was lunch time, or something, because there were a lot of teenagers about. Alec didn’t even garner a second look as he strolled through the place as though he belonged there.
The fly moved on his hand, giving him directional cues like a mini-map on his HUD, which was cute-- but unnecessary, since, as he said, he could feel her the moment he got close enough.
He twitched her hand a couple times, rhythmically, every three seconds exactly. The panic and stress radiating off of her was higher than he’d felt, which was saying something since they regularly did shit together like heists and cape fights.
It’s surprising, that she’s more stressed at school than fighting Hookwolf, right up until you realized she triggered here.
Alec took the stairs two at a time and rapped on the door with his knuckles before shouldering it open.
“Hey, love, the calvary’s here.”
“I don’t see Brian anywhere.” Taylor’s wobbly voice came from the stall at the far end.
“Ha, ha. You think he’d come in a girl’s bathroom? Well, maybe for Aisha. I wonder if he’s ever bought her tampons. He’s the kinda guy to be weird about it.”
“I’m sure he’d do it.” She said quietly.
Alec walked over and set the bag on the floor, scooting it under with his foot.
“Yeah, but can you imagine? He’d square his shoulders like a man going to war. Make a huge deal out of it. Maybe panic a little at the pad aisle at the store.”
She laughed a little, which was a win.
Alec retreated to the hand-washing station and hopped up, perching between two sinks, legs dangling.
“Aisha, what size pussy you got? Super? Maximum?”
“Those aren’t sizes, they’re absorption rates.”
“I know that, but Brian doesn’t.” Alec looked around the room, finding it depressingly dim, dingy and old.
“Oh, you brought stuff. Thanks.”
“I have a lot of sisters.” Alec shrugged. “And grew up around a lot of women, I guess, though that’s... an understatement.”
“Yeah, yikes.” Taylor agreed. “Still, the ibuprofen is a nice touch.”
“There’s a soda under there to take it with. And a chocolate bar for later. Some wet wipes in case blood got everywhere.”
“Alec. You’re not supposed to talk about it.” She whined.
“Why not?” He blinked. “Taylor, I can literally feel your cramps.”
She blushed, embarrassment surging.
“Don’t look.”
“My power doesn’t turn off any more than yours does.” He said, amused now. “Don’t be embarrassed, bodies are weird and gross. That’s just how they are.”
“You don’t have to pay attention.” She said, under her breath, which he heard loud and clearly because he was in fact paying attention to her mouth moving and ears picking it up.
“Fine, I’ll spy on your schoolmates. Well, except this floor is deserted. Nice choice in hiding spots.”
“Thanks, it’s only like this during lunch. After that it’s the most popular bathroom for skipping class.”
“Which you should do.” Alec said, immediately. “Fuck this place. Fuck dealing with it and cramps, and those little bitches teasing you about changing clothes.”
“Tempting.” Taylor said. “Seriously, don’t ‘look’ for a second.”
“You’ve literally stitched me up before, I’m not going to get squeamish about feeling you put a tampon in.”
“Alec!”
“Fine, I’m not looking! Toss me your old clothes and I’ll rinse them for you.”
“No! You’re not doing that either!”
“What? Why?” It was kind of gross but not more so than washing blood out of their costumes, which they did distressingly often. Also, he’d rather deal with blood than piss or puke any day.
“It’s gross! I can do it. Just... give me a minute. And don’t look when I come out.”
“It’s clothes.” Alec said, surprised. “It’s just a bundle of clothes you’re gonna rinse off and shove in a ziplock. There’s no secret here.”
“Shut up.” Taylor snapped, sounding pissy. Her cramps hurt pretty bad so he decided she might just be mad at everything. Plus, bleeding through during a school day had to suck.
Taylor shuffled out of the stall holding the bag of supplies in one hand and her pants in the other. She had even gone so far as to ball up her underwear and hide it in the denim.
She hissed at him and he closed his eyes.
“Alright, fine, Jesus. The calvary is silent and blind.”
“You can talk, just... keep your eyes shut.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He rolled them behind his lids and heard the tap next to him click on.
“So, wanna go get some lunch? It’s just about over, right?” It had been a while since her original text.
“Yeah. And sure, we can skip. I shouldn’t make a habit of it but one time can’t hurt...”
“Nice, my treat. Then you can camp out on the couch and I can make your uterus stop doing that intense muscle cramp thing.”
“What?”
“I can control organs. Not to like, stop somebody’s heart or something, but if I can make someone puke or shit themselves, I can make your uterus stop clamping quite so hard. It cuts off blood flow, causes cramps.”
“You can stop period cramps?”
“Eh, maybe? I can for sure make them hurt less.” Alec waved his hand in a so-so motion.
“I’m going to spend the rest of the week in your lap. Well, not in your lap lap, that’s... you know. Weird. Because of the...”
“It’s not weird because of the blood. If you bleed through, you bleed through, and we both change our clothes and take a shower. Speaking of, wet wipes are good but you probably want one.”
“Yeah.” Taylor said tiredly, pumping more soap into her hands to try to work the stains out. “Thanks again for the wipes. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
“Few things I hate more than blood in my pubes.” Alec said, only to oof and laugh as she shoved his shoulder hard. “What, it’s true? It congeals and it sucks and it’s the worst.”
“It really is.” Taylor admitted. “Okay, that’s about as good as it’s gonna get. You said there’s ziplocks?”
“Yep. Wasn’t sure if you’d rather trash the entire ensemble or if you were particularly attached to those panties.”
“Oh, god, you had to go through my underwear drawer.”
“Yes?”
“Perve.” Her voice was a bit teasing.
“What?” Alec opened his eyes to look at her. “What do I care about what kind of underwear you’ve got lying around? They’re just clothes. It’s only sexy if you’re actively wearing it.”
Taylor went pink again.
“I don’t get hard walking through the clothing section at walmart, either.” He rolled his eyes. “What kind of weirdo do you take me for?”
“There’s a trope in movies and books where a boy will go through a girl’s underwear drawer and be pervy about her thongs and stuff.”
“You don’t wear thongs, though? You wear, like, fruit of the loom bikini cuts.”
“Thanks.” Taylor said dryly.
“It’s not a bad thing, Jesus.” Alec frowned, still bewildered. “Who cares what kind of underwear you wear? I mean, sometimes it’s to put on a show or whatever, but that’s only for a few minutes and then you’re naked anyway.”
“Thank you, Alec, that’s enough talk about my underwear.” She shoved the cleaner panties and jeans into a gallon sized bag and shut it before dropping it to the bottom of her tote.
“I guess.” He shrugged. “Let’s go straight to the loft, then, if you want a shower. We can order in.”
“That sounds... really nice.” Taylor ducked her head.
Alec hopped off the sinks and bumped their shoulders together.
“Tampon heist: success.”
“You didn’t steal anything.”
“Tampon reverse-heist: success.”
She laughed through her nose and he grinned.
“Now, for the even more harrowing task for our heroes: to exfiltrate the school.” He waggled his eyebrows and she laughed harder, shoving him. “How will we ever escape under the infallible attentions of your normie teachers?”
“Alec.” Taylor smiled.
“I know. We’ll use our dastardly parahuman extra-sensory powers for evil.”
“I have bugs in the hall already, we can just walk out.”
“No sense of adventure.” Alec sighed. “We need to duck into empty classrooms, hide in the stairwell, run when your gym coach’s back is turned.”
“Or we could just walk out.” She repeated.
“This is my first time in a high school, Tay, you’re supposed to show me around.”
“Gah, I’m so jealous. Really, never?”
“Nope.” Alec popped his lips.
They did in fact walk right out. It was embarrassingly easy. The only spot of excitement was Taylor flying a wasp near a secretary’s face to distract her for a moment as they approached the front doors.
“Yet another operation successfully executed by the crack team of--”
Taylor’s hand covered his mouth, almost dainty with it.
“Most of their cameras don’t work but let’s not announce names.” She said, apologetically.
“I could have been about to say Alec and Taylor.”
“Were you?” A dark brow raised.
“No, I was going to say the other thing.” He admitted. “Alright. One more important matter to handle on the way home.”
She glanced over at him.
“If we order on the bus the food will beat us there, so let’s decide now. Chinese or Indian? We haven’t tried that new takeaway place down on 5th street.”