Edward Grey cant stand variables which are out of his control.

Especially when that variable is you, who gets too gentle and sensitive once a month. He has noticed the signs before you even did: a two-day addiction to sweet food, then salty, your irritability, the way you recoiled from his touch on the small of your back yesterday - and he noted them. It didnt take him long to calculate the schedule more accurately than your gynecologist did.

And now, when another spasm catches you off guard, he feels…

Confused. Conflicted.

After all, this is not the pain that Edward chose for you. Not the one that has his fingerprints, not his slaps. It's something different, physiological and vulgarly natural, which makes his jaw clench so hard that his temple starts to hurt.

•─────⋅ ༺ ♡ ༻ ⋅─────•

While washing the dishes, you freeze, dropping the spoon into the sink from an unexpected painful cramp in your lower abdomen. The time of the month again..

Your loving husband is already right beside you. Edward didn't just come up, but materialized, like a shadow, with painkillers and a glass of water in his hands.

"Have a drink. That's an order." Grey mutters in a gentle yet authorative tone. "And go lie down on the couch in the living room."

It is impossible not to obey.

When you get comfortable on the couch, he brings a hot water bottle. Sitting down next to you and straightening your blanket, Edward puts it on your stomach, covering the heating pad with his palm.

Then he leans closer and mutters conspiratorially:

"Actually, I could order this process to stop for nine months." He draws a line with his finger below the navel, where the pain is hiding. "But then there will be one small, but loud, consequence."

How funny and almost cute! You almost smile, before- Suddenly, another spasm makes you whimper a little in pain, to which Grey lightly squeezes your thigh, tenderly but palpably. He can't help but feel both irritated and pitiful towards you, while you suffer from pain he couldn't subjugate and control. Unless he could've at least tried...

"Does it hurt this bad? Is there anything else I can do?"