The Affection Multiplier - Side Story 9: Leaning about that time of the month. (Patreon)

For a little under a year, you’ve been in a very weird, yet very fulfilling relationship with a number of amazing women. They’re all great partners who you know you want to have with you for the rest of your life. You can have deep conversations with them, laugh with them, share their burdens and have so much sex that you’d be dead if you weren’t magically enhanced. It’s an experience that many men in the world would envy you for. After all, you have eleven gorgeous women for yourself, all of whom adore you with all their hearts.

Yeah, well, people forget women have to go through a little something every month, colloquially called their period. And you’ve had to learn to deal with eleven cases a month. It’s not as bad as it could be, especially now that you understand them a little better, but it was worrying in the beginning.

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Your first awkward encounter with a woman’s period was back when it was only Emma, Emily, Megan and you. Things were going particularly well. The four of you were quickly settling into the odd dynamic of you having three girlfriends.

Even back then, Emily and Megan encouraged you groping them as much as you wanted. And while they said you could do it whenever, you still only ever do it when no one is looking.

One time, you were up in the rooftop with the two of them. They were telling you about how their soccer practice was going. You listened intently to Emily tell you how she was getting more accurate with her headers, but as you did, you casually stood behind Megan and hugged her from behind.

Her body stiffened in your arms, and in retrospect, that should’ve been a big clue. But back then, you still didn’t understand them well enough. You casually moved your hand to Megan’s chest, causing the girl to suddenly struggle out of your embrace and step away.

“Don’t do that,” Megan groaned and covered her chest with her arms.

“S-Sorry,” you immediately apologized. “I just… thought you liked it?”

Megan scowled. “I do, but… ugh! Sorry. I need to use the restroom.” She left the rooftop without saying much else or even looking back.

You gave Emily a completely puzzled look, and she answered with a wry smile.

“My fault. I forgot to tell you she started her period today.”

“Oh. Does she… always get like that when it hits?”

“No. This one seems nastier than usual. The problem is that her breasts get sensitive. In a bad way. So you groping her didn’t help.”

“Shit,” you groaned. “I hope she’s not mad at me.”

“Oh, she’s mad,” Emily laughed. “But there’s nothing you can do. She’ll be over it by the end of class or tomorrow at worst. Then she’ll be clinging to you and wanting you to pamper her.”

“I see…” you swallowed. “What do I do so she doesn’t get mad at me again?”

“For now, I’d say just don’t grope her. She gets moody during her period, which is kind of annoying, yeah.” Emily nodded to herself.

“What about you? When does yours hit?”

“In a couple of days, I think. I don’t get moody, though. Don’t worry. For me it’s usually just light headaches.” She walked up and wrapped her arms around your neck. “You can grope me if you want.”

The next day, accurate to Emily’s prediction, Megan had completely ignored her outburst the day before in favor of clinging to you.

“Hug me,” she asked you with puppy eyes during recess.

You did, and she let out a heavy breath. “Sorry about yesterday,” she muttered into your chest.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“It’s not normally this bad. I think all the stress from the Olivia issue got to me.”

It hadn’t been long since the picture fiasco and Olivia’s accident, which is what she was referring to.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Not really,” Megan said with a regretful smile. “I’m gonna be annoying for a few days.”

“Thanks for the warning,” you chuckled. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Right now? Yeah. Just don’t grope my boobs.”

“So I’ve been warned.”

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You’re thankful that the first time you accidentally annoyed a girl on her period ended up in something fairly tame. Especially because it led you to two things:

1) Asking the girls to be more open about their menstrual cycles with you. It’s not like it’s something they need to hide. Since that one time, there’s been very few cases of you fucking something up.

2) It led to you asking Emma to give you a quick lecture on menstruation.

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“You want to know about a woman’s period?” she asked you with lips pursed in mild annoyance.

You couldn’t blame her. It was a chance for the two of you to be together in your room and instead of going at it like rabbits, you were asking her to teach you why women bleed once every month.

“Yeah. I feel like I need to know what you all have to deal with.” You nodded.

“Alright, alright,” she gestured for you to sit down next to her on the bed and asked, “How much do you know already?”

“The bare minimum. It happens once and month, it makes you bleed and makes you hate me for no reason.”

“Ha ha. Very funny,” she said without humor and narrowed eyes. “Look, it’s like this. A woman’s period technically starts the first day they bleed. Estrogen levels are low, which is what can make us moody, irritable or depressed. It’s not some black magic.”

She poked your nose a little too hard, her narrowed eyes still on you.

“Then again, it’s different for everyone. Not everyone gets the same symptoms and even then it can be a little different every month. Stress has a huge impact, actually.”

As she spoke, she started to relax a bit, smiling at you as you kept your attention on her. She told you at a later date that she appreciated that you were willing to learn about it.

“Bleeding last for about 6 days, give or take 2. After that, we start feeling a lot better. About a week later is when ovulation starts. You know what that means, right?”

You smiled weakly. “Biggest chances to get pregnant, right?”

“In simple terms, yes. We all use contraceptives, so we don’t need to worry much about it.” She then grinned mischievously. “But who knows? Someday we’ll be waiting for ovulation day to get naughty.”

“Ahahaha…” you laughed nervously, which Emma seemed to get a kick out of.

“Moving on. The whole cycle lasts around 28 days, sometimes less. The last few are what we call the premenstrual week. The unfertilized egg break apart, and that causes hormone levels to go down abruptly. The usual symptoms you hear about start here, which is what we call Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. It’s the egg leaving the body what makes us bleed and then we start again from day 1. Did you get it?”

“Perfectly,” you told her.

“If you want a more biologically detailed explanation, search online. There’s a reason I got into literature, you know?”

“Bad with science?”

“Very.”

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Emma’s quick lecture has come in handy more than a few times. Understanding what is it that the girls go through makes you more tolerant of their mood swings, which thankfully don’t happen often.

Emma did say it, and Mia agreed with it sometime later. Stress plays a big part in how hard their menstruation hits them. If fact, you were witness, but nor a participant, of a conversation between Emma, Emily, Megan, Sophia and Mia about this in your very room.

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While you read a book lying on your bed, your ears picked up a conversation between the girls. You kept pretending to read while you paid more attention to them, who were all sitting around the table.

“I already gave David a lecture about the menstrual cycle,” Emma told Sophia.

“Oooh. So that’s why he asked me when mine started?” The girl nodded. “I thought it was weird.”

“I thought it was sweet,” Mia chuckled. “It just shows he cares.”

“Um… can I ask something?” Megan spoke, looking at Mia, who nodded for her to go on. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but… do you still have your period, Mia?”

“Mm? Of course I do!” Mia laughed. “I may be the oldest here, but I’m at least twenty years away from menopause.”

“Does it change as you grow older?” Megan asked. “Does it feel different?”

“Kind of,” Mia starts. “It depends on your own lifestyle. I’m willing to bet that, if you two,” she points to Megan and Emily, “stay as physically active as you are, you won’t have many issues.”

“Ugh,” Sophia groans and held her head. “But if I’m not as physically active as them?”

“You keep a healthy diet. That helps too. And besides,” you caught Mia looking back at you with a smirk, and you pretended to keep reading your book, “sex is also a physical activity, plus a very effective way to relief stress. Truth be told, my period was very painful for several years. But ever since I started dating David… Well, let’s just say I’m much more active and a lot less stressed,” she chuckles.

“Good to hear all that sex is good for us,” Emily laughs. “Hear that David?”

“Sorry. Not paying attention. I’m reading.”

“Sure you are, buddy,” The blonde girl laughs.

“But hey, it’s no joke,” Emma nodded in agreement. “Sex and healthy eating do help. Mostly with PMS, yeah, but it helps.”

Megan laughed heartily. “It’s great to have you two here to ask,” she said, glancing at Emma and Mia. “I don’t know why, but asking my mom is kind of awkward.”

“It shouldn’t be,” Mia pointed out with a frown. “Your mother knows you since birth. She’ll have better advice for you than we could give.”

“Maybe, but I don’t feel like telling my mom I have sex with my boyfriend about 4 times a week,” she said.

“Yeah, I have to agree,” Sophia said. “It’s comforting to know we can ask you questions about this stuff.”

“Ah, youth… So full of mysteries and worries,” Emma let out a nostalgia-filled sigh.

Mia glared at her. “If you’re trying to imply you’re not still young, I’ll smack you in the head with a newspaper.”

The laughter at the table continued for a while until the girls changed to a different topic.

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You’ve had talks with all your girls about their period to know how you can help them. Some of them, like Emma, Mia, Anzu and Megan, like to have you close, but only when they say they want it. Others, like Emily, Jessica and Julia, are less affected by it and don’t act all that different, though they still complain about cramps. Then there’s Sophia, Katherine, Lilian and Olivia, who prefer to keep their distance a bit. They still like hanging you with you and the others, of course, but it’s more like they’re afraid they’ll say something rude or treat you bad for doing anything.

But at the end of the day, their period is a thing they have to live with, and the more months pass, the less of a mystery it is to you. It’s not like they suddenly become angry bitches. They have to deal with low hormones and monthly pains. If something kicked you in the balls every month you’d be pissed, too. But trying to help in any way you can seems to be of comfort to the girls. It certainly makes your relationship stronger. And if you still feel like you want to have every single one of them in your life after dealing with eleven periods a month, then isn’t that proof enough that you’re serious about this?