“Maria, wake up, we’re gonna be late to training!” Carol whisper-shouts, eyeing the alarm clock that reads 0900. Carol lifts a corner of the dorm blanket when Maria doesn’t respond, peeking at the seemingly asleep woman underneath.
“Mmm, Carol, go without me.” Maria groans, pulling the covers back over her pained face.
“Maria, really, we all get sore, let’s just go now, and we can roll our muscles when we get back. Come on-” Carol fidgets in place, noticeably antsy.
“Carol, really, just tell Dr. Lawson I’m sick.” Maria turns over under her thin duvet, the bedsprings creaking beneath her.
“Maria, I can’t just-”
“I have cramps okay? I don’t have any Midol, and I bled onto my sheets earlier, and they’re always the worst on the first day, can you just tell-” Maria sits up in bed, forehead shining, nose scrunching in pain. Carol’s eyes soften, and she drops her hands to her sides, nodding.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t know- I’ll tell Dr. Lawson you’re sick. I’ll be back, just, feel better, okay?” Carol helps Maria settle back into her pillows, brushing her bangs back from her forehead. She smiles softly at the brunette as her eyes flutter closed again.
“See you soon.”
- -
Carol waves to Dr. Lawson, Air Force t-shirt clinging to her back with sweat from the workout.
“Bye, Danvers! Tell Maria to feel better!” Lawson calls after her, shaking her head at the blonde.
“Already did, and- hey, how come you two are on a first name basis, and I’m still ‘Danvers’? This is bullying!” Carol jogs backwards, throwing her hands into the air as she fades from Lawson’s view.
Carol enters the academy’s parking lot, and screw the Colorado fog because she can’t see a damn thing out here, least of all her car. She jangles her keys around her fingers, squinting until she sees a dull red glint through the mist, and jogs the rest of the way to her vehicle, hastily unlocking the door to escape the biting chill of the Colorado winter night. She jams her keys into the ignition, bouncing a bit in her seat, and sighs when a blast of warm air heats her cheeks and hands. The parking lot is quiet when Carol pulls out of the space and onto the main road.
- -
The bell above the Walgreens door clangs as she pushes the door open, and her shoes squeak on the white linoleum floors. She glances around, and her eyes stop on the pastel blue boxes in the second isle. She makes her way over, grabs the box and, jeez, when did tampons get so expensive? Carol steels herself for a dent in her bank account, and heads back to the familiar frosted doors of the ice cream section. She doesn’t know how anyone could enjoy ice cream on a freezing night like this, but picks up neapolitan anyways, because that’s Maria’s favorite. Carol doesn’t have a ton of experience with this, despite being a girl herself, because she doesn’t really cramp, and growing up in a house full of boys taught her to not make a big deal of the monthly monster. She chooses a couple Mars Bars and Red Vines, because, what else is she supposed to get? Carol’s eyes light up as she remembers- oh, Midol! She sweeps up two boxes, because she’s preparing for next month, too.
The cashier glances up at her sympathetically between scanning her items and placing them into a brown paper bag.
“Rough night, huh?” The woman says, nodding her head like Carol’s already said yes.
“You could say that.” Carol grins, and tosses a wad of cash near the register before booking it to the parking lot.
- -
She glances at the time on her watch before pushing the door to her dorm room open, digital numbers reading 1900. Just in time. She steps over the threshold and onto the gray carpet, and Maria glances over the book in front of her face. She lets the novel fall back on her chest, and winces as she tries to sit up. The covers fall around her hips as she does, pink pajama shorts barely visible under the navy trim.
“How was training?” Maria questions, and Carol perches on the edge of her bed.
“It was fine, Lawson sends regards, and, I brought you something.” Carol lifts the paper bag in hand, and Maria hums in intrigue. Carol passes the bag over for her to look in, and Maria makes a happy noise when she sees the contents. She looks back up and smiles at the blonde, motioning for her to lay down with her.
“Hold on, let me get changed, it’s freezing out there, you know,” Carol sheds her clothes, yanking a pair of red sleep shorts and t-shirt over her goosebump-ed frame. Her cheeks color a bit as she pulls on one of Maria’s pairs of fuzzy socks, because it’s cold, and she’s tired, okay?
“Hurry up! And bring a spoon!” Maria calls from her bed, and Carol rolls her eyes, pulling a plastic spoon out of a wooden cabinet above the desk.
“I’m coming, chill out.” Carol pads over to the bed, and slides over Maria to curl around her right side.
“That’s better,” Maria sighs, snatching the spoon out of Carol’s grasp, and the blonde rolls her eyes. She snakes an arm around Maria’s waist, where her shirt has ridden up, kissing the skin of her bare arm before laying her head down on the brunette’s chest.
- -
“Do you feel okay?” Carol asks through a yawn, when the ice cream is put away and Maria has resumed flipping pages of her book, Pride and Prejudice, she reads on the cover.
“Pretty much, it’s just the cramps now.” Maria grumbles truthfully. Carol hums, and slides her eternally cold hands underneath Maria’s satin pajama top, sliding over her lower abdomen. Maria’s head falls back against the headboard when cool fingers begin to press along her hip bones and in the dips near her belly button.
“That feel better?” Carol whispers into Maria’s chest.
“Much,” Maria sighs, feeling her cramps soothing to a dull throb. When she picks her head up from the headboard and lifts her book back to her line of sight, she begins to read aloud.
“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Maria’s voice is angelic and she pauses to yawn. She chuckles when she sees Carol’s fluttering eyelids, kissing the crown of blonde hair on her chest.
“Goodnight, Carol.”