lasanya539

Got the chance to participate in the 3SF this year! 'Twas a lot of fun. Very few of these are three sentences long, to be honest, but hey!

In her second time around, Ning Yingying notices all the differences so much more clearly.

Notices the new quirk Shizun's lips get when he's trying not to smile, the gentleness of his hands when he's gesturing as he teaches, the respect in his voice when he speaks to her, like she could be someone worth the attention of an esteemed cultivator—all so different from how he used to speak with her when she was still a child, before that qi deviation.

But more than anything, she notices the look in his eyes when he talks to Luo Binghe, so much kinder and softer in a way that her dear A-Luo just soaks up like a sunflower desperate for light, and she smiles quietly to herself, thanking whatever spirit had chosen to possess him.

"So," Mikey scrunches his nose, all confused-like, "it happens every month?"

"Yup, every month." April nods. "The average menstrual cycle is 28 days, I think. But it varies from person to person."

"And—and you," Raph blinks, his eyes wide, "bleed for, what, a week straight?"

"Yep." April tries and fails to keep a smile off her face; Raph looks horrified. "Again, depends, but me personally? Yeah."

"And the pain?" Mikey asks, lips pulled into a wince.

"Cramps from the uterine lining shedding. And yeah, they're pretty rough. Can render you useless for the whole seven days."

Leo makes a vague motion with his hand, serious, like this is a battle plan for an attack and not a simple discussion over a biology textbook. "Is there any way to stop it?"

"A couple, but again, the side effects can be pretty bad." April sighs. "At least, they've been bad for me. Most of the time, I just surrender to it."

Don scratches his head, intelligent eyes skimming over the page the textbook is open to: a detailed picture of a uterus. He looks confused.

"This is..." He stammers. "This is hard to understand."

"And that's coming from Donnie." Raph snorts.

April cocks her hip, raising a brow. These poor dears. "We haven't even gotten to menopause yet. Buckle up, boys. This is gonna be a long lecture."

"Clint," Bucky began, exasperation tainting his tone as he stood in the doorway to their shared apartment, his hands on his hips in a surprisingly accurate mimic of one Steve Rogers (wonder who learned it from whom), "why are you like this?"

Clint looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, surrounded by the giant pile of clothes he was sorting through, each and every one of them disgustingly violet and disgustingly boasting archery puns, and grinned. "Hey, you knew what you were signing up for when you moved in—and these are all hilarious."

Bucky shook his head, but Clint could see a begrudging grin breaking through the annoyed facade when he said, "You're lucky I like you."

(Yeah, he really is.)

It's funny, Tsukishima thinks, how hard Hinata is pretending that they're not on a date right now.

Hinata had picked Tsukishima from home on his only free day, grinning brighter than the sun, and then taken him to not one but two movies at the cinema (after paying for their tickets), and then to his favorite restaurant for dinner, and then here to this corner store to buy him an ice cream sundae—while keeping an arms' length distance between them at all times and not looking Tsukishima in the eye for more than two seconds, while constantly reiterating that 'oh, you don't have to come with me if you don't want to, no pressure at all, I was just bored and thought you'd enjoy this, seriously no worries if you want to bail'.

It really is funny, Tsukishima thinks as he smiles at the ground silently while Hinata's hand hangs between them, spasming like it doesn't know what to do with itself; he can't wait to return the favor.