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Benrey’d only been up and going for about an hour before they heard their name being called out in a pained tone from behind Gordon’s closed bedroom door. It was normal for them to be awake way before Gordon was since his human body needed a lot more sleep than they did, so Gordon not being out and about had never been a cause of concern for them before. Today though? They were very, very concerned.
They were at his room opening the door in a matter of seconds, worry already pitted in their stomach. Gordon didn’t sound ok, something bad had to be going on.
Gordon laid in his bed curled up into the fetal position, still in his pajamas. His face was screwed up in a look of pain and soft whimpers occasionally spilt from his lips. Benrey’s heart tightened at the sight of their boyfriend. They can’t just let their best buddy be all hurt and stuff. They needed to make him feel better immediately, but a lack of context had them completely unaware of what to do.
“you look like shit dude, what’s wrong?”
Gordon normally wouldn’t have ever involved Benrey with this, but well… they had been dating for a while now, and he’d woken up in so much pain this morning… why not allow himself to lean on his partner a little?
By the look on their face they must’ve been worried he was dying or something, it was sweet.
“Listen, I need you to bring me two pain killers, a glass of water, and the heating pad after it’s been microwaved for a couple minutes-“ he groaned and curled in on himself more as another wave of cramps hit him, “Fast. Gordon’s uh, Gordon’s hurtin.”
Benrey’d never done something so fast in their life. They were so focused on doing what Gordon asked that it never even occurred to them to use their sweet voice to ease the pain.
Gordon was a tough guy, they’d seen what he went through at Black Mesa. He wouldn’t complain about something small, so whatever was happening had to be bad. They could have sworn there was the scent of blood on him but they didn’t see anything. What if his stupid, weak human insides were all fucked up? Could their heal beam even fix that if it was super messed up? They didn’t have enough experience with humans for this shit.
After the microwave beeped they took the warm heating pad, the water, and the pills and rushed back to Gordon’s room. They had no idea what this warm thing could do to help but if Gordon said he needed it they weren’t about to argue.
Gordon sat up as they entered, resting the heating pad on his gut and swallowing the pills with the water. He sighed in relief, but laid back down in that pained position again.
“Thanks Ben.”
“you wanna tell me what’s going on now?”
Gordon looks up at them from his place on the bed, hand clutching at the heating pad.
“I’m- I’m ok, just- y’know, on my period and stuff…”
“what’s that?”
“It’s…” he shifts around a bit, “it’s a biological thing humans go through, perfectly normal stuff.”
He groans softly, the pad helping to take the edge off but not stopping the pain completely.
“I’ll explain it better later on, if you really wanna know about it.”
“humans are fucked up if bleeding and being in this much pain is something that’s normal.”
“Yeah, don’t gotta tell me.” He laughs slightly, eyes screwed shut once again as the waves hit him.
Benrey felt miserable watching their ma- their boyfriend like this, an instinctual need to make everything better for him gnawing away at their emotions as they stood there, powerless to stop what he’s going through.
They didn’t know what else to do, so they climbed onto the bed next to him and scooted in close. Gently, they wrapped an arm around him, hand softly rubbing his stomach where they could reach just above the heating pad, and buried their face into the back of his neck as they spooned.
Gordon was a bit surprised at first, but relaxed into their touch right away. Their body was so warm around him, their large hand on his stomach was almost the same temperature as the pad. He could feel Benrey start to purr behind him, a comforting vibration against his back and neck that reverberated through his body.
He’s never felt this comfortable before, and he felt so incredibly loved. He could tell Benrey was still worried about him though, so he reached a hand back to scratch behind their ear reassuringly.
“Hey, I’m ok, I promise. I’ll be up and going getting ready for work in about 20 minutes after the meds kick in.”
There was a soft growl from Benrey, “you're not going anywhere today when you’re dealing with this.”
He gave an exasperated chuckle, “Babe, I deal with this every single month, I’m fine.”
Benrey raises their head to give Gordon a look of concern.
“bro you go through this every month and you’ve never told me?”
“Normally I have it under control, the cramps just hit me before I could take my pills this time, I swear it’s normal for humans and I’ll function just fine.” He says while petting their hair.
There’s a grumbled response as Benrey snuggles in close again, their purring ramping back up. Gordon smiles, thinking about how lucky he is to have Benrey as his partner.