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It's about 2 in the morning now, or so said Kris's phone about 10 minutes ago. They haven't gone much longer than 2 hours of sleep as well. And they couldn't get through dinner because they were too nauseous... Susie's wonderful but her loud snoring from the other side of the room isn't helping, either. Though the nausea's calmed down-ish a little bit so maybe if they're careful, they can sneak downstairs and grab string cheese. Or something. It won't help with the cramps but they're hungry and string cheese sounds really fucking good right now.
Sitting up from their bed, it creaks a bit (and hurts), and they immediately look up at Susie. She's still asleep, snoring like nothing happened. So Kris stands up and slowly saunters over to the already open door, beginning to head downstairs as quietly as they're able to.
Of course, they can't exactly see very well in the dark, but they manage to find their way over to the fridge, ripping it open like characters in movies immediately ripping off medical equipment when they wake up, and they half-desperately rummage around hunting for some some form of cheese. Hopefully string cheese like they had planned. ...Maybe it's in the back or something. Goat cheese will suffice. Either way, cramps are kicking their ass and they'd like to go back to laying down sooner rather than later.
They really, /really/ hate these things. They're oddly not very dysphoria inducing when it comes to gender, but the fact that all the packaging is pink and sparkly irks them a bit. A lot, actually. And they hate being reminded of being human. They know what they are, even if they resent that, but whenever they try to look up anything to know anything about what's going on since school didn't teach shit, the word "human" is plastered everywhere. And the fact that other humans are weirdly obsessed with gender can add to the pissing-them-off thing, too. ...Whatever. Where the hell is that cheese? Maybe biting someone will suffice.
Meanwhile, back upstairs, Susie begins to stir. Her snoring comes to a stop, which Kris doesn't notice, and she groans as she slowly sits up and scratches the back of her head. The first thing she notices is that Kris has inexplicably disappeared. Which is very Kris of them, but she'd like to know why. So, she swings her feet over the bed- still barely awake, mind you- and she pushes herself off and tries to shake off the sleepiness as she walks downstairs. And once she's down, she's met with... Kris kneeling over, rummaging through the fridge like their life depends on it.
"Kris??"
They suddenly flinch, come crashing out of the fridge, and abruptly stand back up pulling some block cheese with them. They're still clearly tense.
"What's, uh, happening?"
"Hungry. I'm getting cheese," says Kris.
She's about to bring up them barely getting through dinner, but there's probably better ways to go about it. Susie asks, "are you alright? I mean, you've been, like, visibly not great since I got here."
"Period cramps. I, uh, felt nauseous and couldn't get through dinner. It's whatever." They grab a knife, put the cheese on the counter, and cut off a good chunk of it.
Susie nods like she understands even if she doesn't. But then she asks, "uh, what's that?"
"...I- I dunno how to explain it in a way that's not gonna make everyone feel weird. I, like, go through absolute hell and get horrendous cramps for a week every month-ish. And a lot of weird nausea. And there's a lot of blood. It sucks."
"Oh- I- uh, sorry. That you gotta do that." She wants to say the 'a lot of blood' part sounds rather badass but she doesn't know if it'll just make them uncomfortable so she bites her tongue on that.
"I'll live. Won't last long, anyways." They don't want her to be /too/ concerned so they downplay it a bit.
"Do you take pain meds for it?"
"I'm lazy so I just power through it, honestly. I prolly /should/ take pain meds but procrastination is more powerful than me," replies Kris, grinning.
Susie isn't sure how to respond to that. "Well, I'm more powerful than procrastination. I'm gonna grab some ibuprofen." And she wanders off to the bathroom as Kris starts to put the cheese back in the fridge.
"Blegh... well, thanks, actually. You're... too awesome." They stopped halfway through their sentence when they realized they wouldn't have done that themselves if Susie hadn't done something about it.
Susie mumbles from the bathroom, "what, want me to be meaner?"
"You can do what you want," they add. Susie affectionately rolls her eyes before returning with a small bottle of ibuprofen. "Thanks again, also."
"No problem."
Kris grabs a smallish cup from the cupboards and quickly fills it nearly to the brim with tap water. They then take a few pills before swallowing the water with them. And they quickly wander back to the bathroom to put the pills back before returning and starting to actually gnaw on the bit of cheese they cut off.
"Wanna head back upstairs? Uh, also, when that eventually happens, would cuddles help the thing going on or just make it worse?" To be honest, though, she just wants cuddles. And it would probably be even better if it ends up helping them.
Kris tilts their head like a dog. "Uhhh... I dunno. I think so cuz it's warm? But also, cuddling generally just sounds awesome as hell so... that can happen."
"Oh, yay!"
Kris takes another bite and adds, "let's head up, actually. I don't think I gotta have this specifically down here. And I wanna lay down, anyways."
Susie nods and she starts to walk back upstairs alongside Kris. With how much they've been talking here and how much the stairs croak and groan like they're a million years old, she's surprised Kris's mom is still somehow asleep. She wonders if she could lay a damp mop over her face and she still wouldn't wake up. I mean, it did take a bit to wake her up during the roaring... oh. Maybe only sunlight can wake her. Like an opposite vampire? Wait, that's not how vampires work...
Though as Susie's thoughts begin to trail off, the two arrive at the door to Kris's room. They open it and saunter over to their bed, Susie in tow, sitting down next to them as they do.
"Cuddles?"
Kris nods.
Tail wagging where they can't see, she lays down alongside them and she pulls them close until their back presses against her chest, one claw moving over their stomach. And it's... surprisingly warm and comforting. Kris melts into it, and slowly, their eyes drift closed.
"Is this okay?"
"Mhm... thanks." And they take another bite of the cheese that they somehow still have. "Bleh. I think I took too much of this stuff."
"Can I try?"
"Yeah," they say, holding it up by their shoulder. And Susie takes a bite, basically taking the rest.
She takes a little bit to respond. "It's kinda more crumbly than I expected but I like it."
Kris just nods, yawning. After a little bit after going without conversation, Susie closes her eyes and starts purring. The human she's holding like a stuffed animal turns their head so that their ear is close enough to feel it.
"Goodnight," they mumble.
Susie mumbles back something incoherent but it's enough for them. Not that long later, they actually manage to get some pretty good sleep, nestled in her arms.
