Chapter Text
Noel had always hated the dentist, ever since he was a little kid. He thought that it was so stupid how people paid thousands of dollars just to conform to some stupid societal standard of perfectly straight teeth. That was one reason that he fell in love with Misha in the first place. He had always been fascinated by natural smiles, ever since his mother had won $9,000 from a lottery ticket when Noel was twelve and had promptly dragged Noel to the orthodontist to get his teeth "fixed".
Noel appreciated what his mother had done for him, but it still made him sad to look back on pictures of his old smile. He missed the way that his canines used to jut out and how his front teeth bowed together. He had looked so happy and innocent when he was younger.
“Do you think you’ll ever get braces?” he asked Misha one day. They were both sitting on the floor in Misha’s dorm, studying for their respective Christmas exams. Misha had become a language studies major after dropping out of his Bachelor of Music degree, claiming that it was sucking the joy and creativity from his hobby, and Noel was on a scholarship for his dream degree in English Literature.
Misha glanced up from his laptop and frowned at his boyfriend. “You think I need them?”
“No! Mish, I love your smile, I think you should keep it just the way it is. I was just wondering.”
Misha’s frown cleared and he rolled his eyes at Noel. “No, poet, I won’t get braces. Stupid waste of money, I think.”
“Thank you,” said Noel emphatically. “That’s exactly what I’ve always said!”
Misha’s brows furrowed again as he stared at Noel’s mouth. “Dude, you literally had braces.”
Noel glared at his boyfriend. “Don’t remind me.”
“You are a weird guy, Noel Gruber,” Misha said, rolling his eyes again. “I love you.”
Noel smiled a bit and looked back down at his work. “I love you too, Mish,” he mumbled back.
About a month later, Noel started complaining about his mouth hurting every time he ate. After a few days of Misha getting progressively more worried, Noel agreed to go to the dentist.
Noel had never been to the dentist in Prince Albert before, but the woman doing the check-up was perfectly sweet. “Yeah, it seems to me like your wisdom teeth are coming in. I’m just going to check if I can get you some x-rays today, but you might have to come back another time.”
Noel lay in the dentist’s chair, wondering how much extra the x-rays were going to cost. He had a job at a local bookstore and about $1,000 in his account, so he wasn’t too worried, but it annoyed him how much the stupid dentists were able to scam out of him.
The lady came back in with a smile and brought him over to another room. Noel spent the time absent-mindedly wondering just how much radiation he was being bombarded with.
“It definitely seems like you’re not going to have enough space in your mouth for those teeth, which means we’ll have to take them out,” the dentist told him with a sympathetic smile. “I’ll get you another appointment in a couple of weeks, once the top ones have come down a bit, okay?”
Noel wandered over to the reception and paid an absolutely outrageous fee of $300 for one singular visit. Disgusting. When he had driven back to the campus, he met up with Misha for the coffee date that they had briefly postponed.
“I just can’t get over the audacity they have,” Noel complained. “I mean, I’ve heard that dental care is totally free in the Nordics! And so is pretty much everything else, actually. God, Canada sucks ass. I wish I lived in Sweden.”
“They have to pay more taxes,” Misha reminded Noel, who sank down further into his seat and ignored Misha’s comment.
“I can’t believe I have to pay them for the privilege of having some of my body parts stolen,” Noel grumbled. “If anything, they should be paying me! I’m the one who’s being inflicted with horrible pain and suffering.”
“They are providing a service,” Misha pointed out. “And you would be living in horrible pain and suffering if you didn’t get them taken out. You would be chewing off the inside of your own mouth, all of the time.”
Noel covered his face with his hands and groaned loudly, then glared at Misha’s stupid smiling face. “God, I wish you weren’t right all the time.”
“Don’t worry, кохання,” Misha soothed. “I will come with you, okay? And whole time that they’re working, I will make sure to remind them that you hate every second of it. Hey, stupid dentist! Keep doing what you're doing, but know that my boyfriend is not happy about it.”
Noel couldn’t help but laugh at the thought. “Thanks, Mish. That would be great. The company, not the part about antagonising the people who would have the ability to pull out all of my teeth out of spite.”
"Worth it," insisted Misha, and Noel gasped in mock horror.
Misha insisted on being the one to drive Noel to the dentist’s office. He seemed perfectly chill, but Noel could tell just how worried his boyfriend really was after Misha handed him the aux cord. “Mish, I’m not going to die,” he laughed, plugging his phone in. He had never been allowed to pick the music in Misha's car before.
“I know that,” Misha scoffed. “I just wanted to be nice.”
Noel snorted. “Whatever you say, babe. Do you need me to hold your hand in there? Would that help calm you down? You can keep a finger on my wrist to make sure they haven't stopped my heart with the anaesthetic.”
“I could turn around and drive home right now,” Misha warned. “It would not even be hard.”
That shut Noel up until Misha was pulling into the car park. “You know, if you’re super-duper brave in here, I’ll bring you for ice-cream afterwards,” Noel said, leaning over and kissing Misha’s cheek.
“Haha. You’re so funny. Have fun walking home.”
Still, Noel was happy to feel Misha’s arm snake around his shoulders as they sat together in the waiting room. Misha was reading a home interiors magazine to pass the time, giving Noel his thoughts on each page. "Who is paying five hundred dollars for one lamp?" he complained. "That's more than stupid dentist fee. I'd rather have lamp than braces, though."
"Mish," Noel hissed, slapping his arm.
"I'm just saying," Misha responded sullenly, flicking to the next page.
“Noel Gruber, room three,” the receptionist called out, and Noel stood. Now that it was actually happening, he was feeling a lot more nervous than he had expected. He was grateful to have his boyfriend here with him. Misha walked into the room with Noel, nodding politely at the dentist who was already sitting there.
It was the same woman from last time, and she smiled warmly at them. “Hi, Noel! I’m Maria, I did your x-rays a couple of weeks ago. Is this your friend?”
“Boyfriend,” Noel responded hesitantly. Maria, to her credit, didn’t even blink.
“Oh, how sweet. Well, you can just lie down here and put on those sunglasses while I get things ready. Are you nervous?”
Noel’s eyes flickered towards Misha, who was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room and grinning like a fiend. “A bit,” he admitted honestly.
“Of course you are,” Maria said comfortingly. “Well, I can assure you that it will all be over in a flash. I’m just going to give you some local anaesthesia, and after that it will only take a few minutes!”
“What is local anaesthesia? Is it like where you send Noel to sleep?” Misha asked suddenly. Noel watched as Maria smiled over at his boyfriend.
“Not at all. It’s just a little needle filled with a numbing solution, so Noel will be awake the whole time. You can come over and sit by him if you want to.”
Noel lay back and put on the sunglasses that Maria offered him, trying his hardest to relax. Needles didn’t really bother him, but the idea of getting one in his mouth still wasn’t a particularly pleasant thought. He watched as Misha dragged his chair over to sit by Noel’s head, and felt their fingers twine together as Misha slid his hand into Noel’s.
“This is just some numbing gel,” Maria said. She rubbed a little cotton bud covered in the stuff over Noel’s gums, and then turned back around and started digging through a cupboard near her desk.
“You okay?” Misha asked. Noel lifted the sunglasses curiously, noting that Misha was looking considerably paler than he had a minute ago.
“I’m fine. Are you?”
Misha grinned and scoffed. “I’m fine. What? Is not me that is getting injection now.”
Noel just sighed and lay back, waiting for Maria to bring over the needle. Just as she was about to give the injection, Misha interrupted again. “Wait, is it not going in his arm?”
“No,” Maria started, but Noel glanced over incredulously.
“The teeth are coming out of my mouth, Mish,” he pointed out. “Why would she numb my arm?”
Misha was definitely looking whiter now. “I thought it would numb all of you! Oh God, that’s disgusting!”
Noel couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of him. “Mish, it’s fine. Why don’t you go wait outside?”
Misha shook his head and ran a distressed hand through his hair. “Oh man,” he whispered, tightening his grip on Noel’s hand.
Maria was smiling over at them, still holding the needle in her hand. “Am I okay to continue?” she asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Noel replied, and Misha let out a choked little noise of confirmation.
Like Maria had said, the entire thing only took a few minutes. Noel spent the whole time staring blankly up at the ceiling. He could feel the pliers moving in his mouth, but there was no pain at all. Misha seemed to find the whole thing more uncomfortable than Noel did. At the end, when Noel had two cotton balls in his mouth to soak up all of the blood, Misha finally looked back over.
Misha had been gripping Noel’s hand so tightly that the outline of his fingers still remained on the back of Noel’s hand, white against his skin.
“The numbness should wear off in about half an hour, and you’ll probably feel some pins and needles in your lips. I’d advise taking some Tylenol once the tingling starts, because you’ll feel some pain otherwise. Expect a call from the hospital in a few days, because I’ve notified them that you’ll need to get your bottom teeth removed as well, okay?”
Noel nodded, absent-mindedly poking at the skin around his mouth. Misha didn’t let go of his hand once as they walked back out to the car together. He still looked almost green.
“Mish, are you okay?” Noel tried to ask. The cotton balls muffled his speech, but Misha still understood.
“Can I get an ice-cream?” Misha responded. He was trying to sound like he was joking, Noel knew, but with the grave set of his brows and the sickly look on his face, it looked all too serious.
Noel sighed and attempted to take out the cotton balls. His mouth appeared to have stopped bleeding. “Yeah, let’s get some ice-cream.” He reached over and gripped Misha’s hand. “Thanks for coming with me, babe.”
Misha looked over at him, eyes deadly serious. “Never again,” he replied. “I love you, Noel, I’d do anything for you, except watch you get needles poked into your mouth.”
Noel just laughed. “Okay, baby. Come on, let’s go get our ice-cream.”
“It was so big,” Misha breathed with a shudder. “I’m never getting my wisdom teeth out, I tell you that much right now.”
“That’s what she said,” Noel mumbled. The tingling was starting, and Misha looked over at him weirdly.
“What?”
“It was so big. That’s what she said.”
“I hate you,” Misha said. “After everything I put myself through for you, you make fun of me. I’m going to get myself ice-cream, and you can sit in the car with your stupid sore mouth and watch me eat it.”
“No, Mish, please,” Noel whined. He threw his arms around Misha’s shoulders and rested his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder. He watched, satisfied, as Misha’s eyes softened.
“Fine, but only if you come with me for whenever I’m getting my wisdom teeth out. And you can’t say anything. Not a word, or I’ll jump out of the stupid chair and grab the needle and stab you to death with it.”
They drove to the nearest supermarket to get themselves ice-cream, and they got only a handful of bemused stares as they leaned on the bonnet of Misha's car and ate it together in the middle of January.
Noel was almost finished when he happened to glance over at Misha. The other boy was still staring pensively at the cone in his hand, brows twisted together. "Mish, are you okay?" Noel asked softly. "It's not like you to eat ice-cream so slowly."
Misha managed to tear his gaze away from his cone and laugh. "Yeah, dude, I'm fine. Don't even worry, shawty."
Noel glared at him. "Dude? Shawty? In the same breath?"
Misha just shuddered at him. "It's just the needles. I hate them."
"There's nothing to be scared of," Noel assured him gently. He would have continued, but he was interrupted by a scoff.
"I'm not scared. No rock hard real man would be scared of needles. I see them as totally valid threat to my safety, and seeing one ignites a feeling of reasonable hatred and rage within my soul."
Noel hesitated.
"Seriously, it might seem like I'm scared, but I'm not. I only blacked out once."
"You fainted after seeing a needle? When?"
Misha glared at Noel. "Not fainted. Blacked out. It's like playing dead. My body recognised the threat and thought it would be safer to play dead until it went away. Like a bear. Needles are like bears, yo, and no sane person would want a bear near their mouth."
"Needles are like bears," Noel deadpanned, and Misha finally cracked, letting out a loud snort and biting into his ice-cream.
"Okay, I'm afraid of needles. So what? Keeps me on the straight and narrow, off heroin and shit. Doesn't make me any less masculine."
"I didn't say it did," Noel pointed out.
"Yeah, but you thought it."
"Since when?" Noel replied, shocked.
"I can tell." Misha tapped his temple wisely. "It's in the eyes. You're emasculating me in your head."
"You're emasculating yourself," Noel grumbled, and Misha shoved into his shoulder.
"I'm going to take so many videos of you being stupid when you're all high on anaesthetic. Trust me, I'll be your worst nightmare."
"And I'll take a video of you fainting the next time someone pulls out a needle in front of you, and I'll upload it to your YouTube channel."
"I'm going to make a rap called Needles Suck (the blood from my body) Almost as Much as my Boyfriend Sucks (he's just really lame)."
Noel faltered, and then laughed. "Okay, that was funny."
Misha smiled at him smugly. "I know. Total improv, yo, I'm just that good."
"I can't wait to listen to it," Noel told him.
Misha rolled his eyes and went back to his ice-cream.
The hospital called a couple of days later, telling Noel to come in the following week. And yes, objectively, he knew that Misha must have been there. He had to have gotten home somehow. Still, when he woke up the following morning in Misha’s dorm, he couldn’t for the life of him recall how he got there. He sat up and gently prodded his mouth, wincing slightly. He could feel how swollen his cheeks were, and his head was pounding.
Misha was nowhere to be seen, so Noel carefully climbed out of the bed and padded over to the little window to draw the blinds. Sunlight streamed into the room, so it was definitely daytime. Noel glanced at the little clock on the wall. Half past ten.
He dug around in Misha’s chest of drawers to find a shirt to put on. Misha had clearly helped him change out of whatever clothes he’d been wearing, and right now he was just in a pair of Misha’s basketball shorts. Once he was slightly more decent, Noel climbed back into bed with a groan.
A few minutes later, he heard the door click open. He opened his eyes, hoping that it wouldn’t be Misha’s roommate. “Hey, poet,” he heard his boyfriend say, and felt the bed move as Misha sat down by Noel’s legs. “How are you feeling?”
Noel groaned again. “I don’t even know. How long was I asleep?” He sat up against the pillow and peered at Misha, who was sitting there with a coffee cup in either hand.
“Since about six yesterday. You were so tired, dude.”
“Yeah, I still feel wrecked,” Noel said. He gestured towards the cups. “Is one of those for me?”
Misha smiled softly. “Of course, кохання. Here.”
Noel took it carefully and held it close to his face. “You’re such an angel. Thank you.” His tongue gently probed the new holes in his gums, glad to notice that it wasn’t particularly painful. The bleeding had clearly stopped as well, and now the only pain was from the swelling in his gums and cheeks.
He shifted to sit beside Misha, resting his tired head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Misha swapped his cup to his other hand and absent-mindedly wrapped his free arm around Noel, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head.
“What day is it?” Noel asked.
“Saturday. My roommate is gone to visit his family, so you can stay here all day if you want.”
Noel sighed contentedly and pressed himself closer against Misha’s shoulder. “God, yes. What was I like yesterday?”
“Do you not remember anything?” Misha asked. He sounded surprised.
“Nothing. The last thing I remember was you driving me to the hospital.”
“That’s so whack,” Misha murmured vaguely. “Do you think it will be the same for me?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. I think the anaesthetic can affect different people in different ways.”
Misha kissed the top of Noel’s head again. “Honestly, you didn’t do much. You were just super spacey and clingy. It was kind of cute.”
Noel rolled his eyes and rested his head more comfortably on Misha’s shoulder. The coffee that Misha got him was good, and he sipped it gingerly as he relished the close contact with his boyfriend.
Eventually, Misha moved him off his shoulder so he could reach over and grab the laptop from his desk. “You want to watch something?” he asked, grinning at Noel. Noel barely heard the question, he was so focused on taking in the way that Misha’s eyes crinkled when he smiled.
“I like your dimples,” Noel mumbled. He reached out with a hand to poke them, but Misha caught his wrist before Noel could get close and brought it to his mouth for a kiss.
“Okay, poet, you’re still high as shit.”
“No, I’m not,” Noel argued. “I’ve always liked your dimples. They’re almost as cute as the rest of you.”
Misha grinned again, treating Noel to another glimpse of the dimples on his cheeks. “I like your dimples too, poet.”
Noel frowned. “I have dimples?”
“Dude. You’re so high.”
Noel fumbled for his phone, sitting on Misha’s bedside table. He opened the camera app and grinned at the image of himself. The smile became genuine when he saw the dimples that appeared. “Oh, I do!” He looked up and grinned at Misha, who was silently laughing at him. “Mish,” he complained.
“Sorry. Sorry, кохання, I don’t mean to be rude. Come on, what do you want to do now?”
Noel put his phone back down and settled with his back against the wall. He held out his arms for Misha to come closer. “I don’t mind. I just want to be with you.”
Misha smiled again, almost bashfully. “We’ll watch whatever you want to watch,” he told Noel, opening his laptop. “The Blue Angel?”
Noel shook his head. “No, something funny. With cute guys, so I can look at them and think wow, none of them hold a candle to my boyfriend.”
Misha wrinkled his nose at Noel. “You sound insane, кохання. Being high doesn’t suit you, I think.”
“Come on, I’m just being romantic,” Noel complained. “You love it, really.”
Misha shifted over on the bed so that he was lying next to Noel, with their shoulders pressed together. “Fine, I love it,” he acquiesced.
Noel smiled with satisfaction and pressed a clumsy kiss to Misha’s cheek. “I love you,” he mumbled against his skin.
Misha turned as well and gently brushed his lips against Noel’s. “I love you too, poet.”
Noel sighed and settled into Misha’s side. He could feel his eyes getting heavier, and he already knew he wasn’t going to make it through whatever film they put on. That’s why he hadn’t wanted to watch The Blue Angel, or any film that he wouldn’t want to miss by falling asleep. He gently slid his hand into Misha’s and let his eyes flick shut. Misha wasn’t going anywhere, he figured. And Noel would be able to repay him whenever Misha needed to get his wisdom teeth out.