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An was not having a good day. She was on her period, and was having some of the worst craps she’d literally ever gotten. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so she didn’t have to deal with school, but she still had practice in sekai.
Honestly, she was tempted to ditch it. But Akito would literally kill her, so at the very least she had to go. Maybe she could just sit and watch everyone else practice.
She entered Meiko’s cafe, surprised to see that neither of the boys were here yet.
Kohane however, was. She was sitting at one of the booth tables, with her head down on the table.
“Kohane? You okay?”
Kohane lifted her head and sighed, “yeah, but it's the second day of my period, so…”
An nodded understandingly. While she had been blessed to not get terrible cramps every time, Kohane almost always did, and she said the second day was always the worst.
An sat down next to her, “We synced up. I wonder if the boys–well, more like just Akito–will let us not practice,”
Kohane rested her head on An’s shoulder, “Maybe, but I’d feel bad…”
“About what? It’s not like those two have to deal with insane amounts of pain every month, I think the least they can do is let us rest.”
“Well that's not exactly what I meant, but also, Shinon-”
Just then, the boys walked in, cutting off whatever Kohane had been going to say.
Akito looked incredibly tired, she noticed.
“Hey guys! Kohane and I might skip practicing today since we’re both on our periods and feeling like shit, but you guys can sti-”
“Oh thank god, I don’t think I could handle practice today either,” Akito said, plopping down in the seat across from them and putting his head down.
An stared at him, “Who are you, and what the hell have you done with Akito Shinonome?”
He lifted his head, “I mean, yeah, we should practice, but if 3/4 of us feel like shit, then what's the point?”
“Oh, wait, Shinonome-kun, did you also…?” Kohane asked.
He nodded, "Unfortunately."
“Also what?” An said, confused.
Meiko walked into the cafe before she could get her answer.
“Hey guys! You okay? You all look… really tired.”
“Do you have advil here, Meiko-san?” Akito asked in a desperate tone.
“Um, I’m not sure… I’ll go look. But what’s wrong?”
“Can I get some too?” Kohane interrupted.
“Seconded,” An chimed in, “We’re on our periods.”
“All three of you?” Meiko asked.
“Huh?” An laughed, “No, Kohane and I. Akito’s a guy, remember?”
Meiko gave her a confused look, then just shook her head in exasperation, and left to search for advil.
“An-chan? Is your brain working ok?” Kohane asked, concern in her voice.
“Yeeeeeeessss….?” She responded, very confused.
Toya and Akito were also giving her a strange look.
“What?” She exclaimed defensively, “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“An, did you actually forget? Or are you just messing with me?” Akito asked.
Forget? What was she forgetting???? She dug through the back of her mind, trying to figure out what he was talking about, but she came up with nothing.
“I’m not messing with you, for once, what the fuck are you talking about??”
“...Wow,” Akito said, “I mean, I guess I’ll take it as a compliment?”
Meiko returned before An could respond.
“Here,” She said, putting a bottle of ibuprofen on the table.
“Thank you, Meiko-san,” Kohane said gratefully. An and Akito nodded in agreement, and the 3 of them took the pills.
“Oh, one more thing, Meiko-san,” Akito said suddenly, “Can I borrow Kaito’s guitar?”
Meiko tilted her head, “Sure, I doubt he would mind. Why?”
Akito shrugged, “Well, I really don’t have the energy to stand up and actually practice, but I still want to do something, and I haven’t played the guitar in a while, so…”
“I always forget you know how to play the guitar,” Toya said.
“Oooh, I’d love to hear you play some, Shinonome-kun!”
Meiko handed him the guitar, and he strummed the strings.
“Honestly, I also forgot you could play the acoustic guitar,” An admitted, “But what were you talking about earlier?????”
Akito sighed and gave her a look, “I’m trans, remember?”
An blinked. That was not what she had expected to come out of his mouth.
“W-WHAT?!”
“Wait, An-chan, you didn’t know that?”
“No! So that's why everyone was giving me weird looks?”
Akito nodded, “Yeah. I am in fact on my period right now. But I mean, It's nice to know I pass well enough to confuse one of my closest friends,” He laughed.
“In my defense, you never told me!”
Akito shrugged, “No, but I wasn’t really hiding it. Kohane figured it out almost immediately after we formed vbs, so I just assumed you had too. Anyway, what should I play?”
“What do you know?” Kohane asked.
“Off the top of my head… I know a few acoustic versions of our songs, namely blender, machi, and kashika…um… I know glow, that one miku song? Uhhh, I know some more more jump songs… and I’m trying to learn a few english songs to get better at pronunciation…”
“Play one of those!” An said, “I’m curious.”
“Ok… I only have one of them memorized, although I haven't played it in a while, so it might not be perfect.
He started strumming a song.
“Oh, wow, this sounds like… sad, I didn’t take you for a sad music guy,” An joked.
Akito shrugged, “Sad music is generally already acoustic, so It doesn’t need to be converted, and it’s also slow enough for me to understand.”
He started to sing in english. An didn’t understand all the lyrics, but it was really pretty.
“Walking Scott Street, feeling like a stranger, With an open heart, open container. I've got a stack of mail and a tall can. It's a shower beer, it's a payment plan,”
As he played, An thought.
She felt terrible! How had she been friends with Akito for so long, and yet never noticed?! No wonder Meiko had given her a weird look when she said Akito couldn’t be on his period…
She sighed to herself. Nothing she could do about it now. She just had to remember to be a better and more observant friend in the future!