Who: Joey and Lena sat_by_the_fire What: Just fluffy fufferson When: Thursday night (keeping him distracted from Patrick, you see!) Where: Lena's loft apartment Warnings: Well...none really, but there is humorous talk of mensuration. OH THE HORROR.
"Your brother texted me! Are you okay!?" Joey had stuck his head through Lena's open door and once he had gotten his frantic sentence out, he leaned against the door frame to catch his breath. "Sorry. I ran."
Lena, who was lying in her bed, though she was currently on top of her covers, raised her eyebrows in Joey's direction. Until his outburst she had been reading her copy of Hans Anderson's fairytales, but she promptly put her book aside. "You ran? My brother texted you? Why?"
"He said they sent you home from work sick last night!" Joey said, still sounding very worried. He had been leaving work when he got the message and it wasn't far to run to Lena's apartment. He couldn't stand the thought of more of his friends sick and he didn't want her to be alone. Lena's brother lived with her, sure, but he was hardly the comforting type. "Are you okay?"
Lena nodded and then she reached under her pillow. "Actually now that you're here, could you fill this up?" he asked, extending her arm to hold out the electric pink hot water bottle. She shook it and it sloshed around.
Joey walked into the room and he took it from her. The water inside had long gone cold. "Of course. Do you have a fever and chills?! Should I be wearing a facemask?"
Lena grinned tiredly at him. "You can't catch this, Joey. I have bloating and cramps."
"Huh? Oh. Oh. Ew!" Joey squealed a little, taking a step back from her which caused Lena to laugh.
"Yes, mother nature is a disgusting bitch. Go fill my bottle!"
"Yes ma'am!" Joey said, quickly dashing out to the kitchen to boil the kettle and do just that. He had never actually seen Lena angry in the four years he had known her, at least not at someone, and he didn't feel like having her wrath focused on him the first time he experienced it. He would tread very carefully. He was unsure now what might set her off.
When he returned to her room, he was not only carrying the hot water bottle, but a steaming mug of hot chocolate. It was her hot chocolate, of course, but that didn't matter. "I brought you this, don't kill me."
Lena laughed and she sat up. "I don't kill people, it's rude. Gimme!" She reached out for the water bottle and settled it on her abdomen. "Thank Christ. For chocolate as well," she said, taking the mug from him. She sipped it and then grinned. "You are indeed a knight in flashy armor."
Joey sat in one of Lena's ridiculous inflatable chairs and he grinned back at her. He had done well! She was smiling! "Thanks! So uhm...why did they send you home last night?"
Lena groaned and she reached out to nudge his knee with one of her purple-fuzzy-slippered feet. "Sometimes period pain can- Oh seriously, you don't like it when I say 'period'?"
Joey, who had grimaced at the word, tried to smile apologetically. "I'm sorry! I grew up in the House Where No One Talks!" When my mother was...you know...thingy, she just shut herself away for a week! And my sister got told to stop acting like such a woman when she was upset about anything, which is horribly sexist. And I know it's cliche, but every time I hear that word, I do want to die a little inside."
"I could have been a lot more graphic," Lena said with an impish smile.
"Oh please don't..." Joey shook his head. He could handle many things. He could take care of someone while they were suffering period pain and anything else. He just didn't want to have a conversation about it. It wasn't because he was male, it was because he was a Van der Berg.
"Ah, because I like you, I'll spare you! Anyway, I was quite nauseated and I might have vomited backstage. So they sent me home at intermission and my understudy finished the show. At least I didn't vomit on anyone."
Vomit, Joey could deal with. "That is for the best!"
"It's just a bit of a bad one this week. And if you shudder like that again I will probably shove tampons up your nose." Lena arched her brow, but she was more amused than annoyed.
Joey laughed and he shook his head. "Noted. No- none of those up my nose. It's strange enough as it is. So are you feeling okay now then?"
"It's getting better. Why did my brother have your number, Joey?"
Joey laughed at that. "Yeah, there may have been an incident involving a handjob, which I am sure you want to hear about as much as I want to hear about your...you know, stuff."
Lena snorted. "I should have known. You're right, I do not want to know! But I do want you to climb into bed with me and stay the night. I'm feeling clingy. That's okay, right?"
"Of course it is," Joey said, immediately going to remove his jacket.
"Even though I'm closed for business?" Lena said with a snicker. "You can always sneak away and find my brother after I sleep."
"You are kind of horrible, you know that?" Joey informed her as he crawled into the bed beside her. "Let me just text CJ to tell her where I am." He didn't have plans with her, he just thought it seemed like the thing to do when spending the night in someone else's bed, even if it wasn't sexual in the least.
Lena reached up and she ruffled his hair as he pulled out his cell phone. "And you are adorable. Tell her I say hi."
Joey nodded, concentrating as he texted away. He wasn't very good at using his new qwerty keyboard phone, but he managed to send the message off, complete with Lena's greetings. "There we go. Now," Joey said, settling down to wrap his arms around her. "I am at your beck and call. Whatever you want, you shall have."
"A pony?" Lena asked cutely.
"I can draw one. I have the skills. He may or may not be a skeleton pony. Or have a look Phantom of the Opera-like mask. I never know how these things will turn out."
Lena laughed and Joey smiled. Internally he felt something release at that. She was fine. She wasn't sick. She wasn't dying. She was just fine. He could calm down.