Author's Note: After rewatching the episode, Brothers are Monsters from season 6, I finally got inspired to write this story, which, I've been meaning to write this story ever since Christmas time, when my sister-in-law made a comment that got me thinking, if Zack were one of the Rugrats, how might he have interpreted that comment? You're about to find out in the story, when Aunty Celeste makes the same comment, since the OC of Zack's parents are no longer alive, as we see an OC experience a first. And so, let's get started!
Dragon Baby
Summary: Tommy had the first booboo, Chuckie had the first haircut, and what does my OC Zack face hard times with as a first? The painful experience of getting teeth, plus on top of it, when you're led to believe you may be turning into a dragon, can things get any worser? Read to find out!
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I own Zack and his aunt Celeste, while Peter is owned by TCKing12 and Jesse is owned by JJB-Jesse Barrow.
It wasn't long after Tommy celebrated his second birthday, was cured of The Gray Plague, and Zack, along with Jesse, had become regular members of the gang, but little did the Rugrats know they would be up to facing a first all over again, something that most of them faced before Tommy's first birthday, but since Zack was in between Tommy and Dil, and Dil had yet to get his first tooth, it was no surprise that Zack was the next one in line. He awoke one night while sleeping in his crib, feeling some pain in his mouth.
The pain was so intense, that he started crying. Aunty Celeste overheard his cries over the baby monitor, so came rushing in his room to check on him.
"What's wrong sweetie? Aunty's here." Said Celeste, as she picked up Zack out of his crib, and gently rocked him, trying to sooth him and get him to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working.
She tried several things, changing his diapers, feeding him a warm bottle of milk, and even rocking and singing him to sleep. While his mouth still didn't feel wonderful, the warm milk and singing finally caused Zack to mellow out, as it was calming.
The next day, Celeste took him to Tommy and Dil's, not only so Zack could see his friends, but so she could possibly get some advice from Didi, as maybe something in one of those Lipchitz books would have the answer. After she put Zack down in the playpen with all of the other toddlers, who had come to play, she went off to talk to Didi.
Zack turned to his friends, a look of exhaustion and pain spread across his face.
"Hi." Zack muttered with a sigh.
"Something wrong Zack?" Tommy asked.
"Oh nothing, it's just, my mouth has been bothering me." Replied Zack.
"Really? Let me see." Said Phil.
Zack reluctantly opened his mouth wide so Phil could look.
"Yep, you've gots your firstest toothies in there." Said Phil, as he spotted two little teeth in the back of Zack's mouth.
"Really?" Said Zack.
"Let me see." Said Tommy, as he too took a look, followed by Kimi and Lil taking a peak.
Chuckie was too scared to look, while Jesse tried to stick his fingers into Zack's mouth, when Zack pushed him away.
"Don't ever stick your fingers in my mouth Jesse, now that I've gots teeth, I might bite them, and, biting on something might help me to feels better." Said Zack.
"I've gots an idea, come on." Said Tommy, as he led everyone out of the playpen and everybody split up all over the house, finding different things for Zack to chew on. None of which were things, he should have been chewing on. Zack even managed to grab one of the couch cushions, and started chewing on it, when Didi caught him.
"Zachary! No!" Shouted Didi, as she snatched the cushion away from him, causing Zack to start crying.
As she got everyone ready for lunch, she collected the items that the babies had collected from all over the house. Phil and Lil had a collection of worms, Tommy found an old teddy bear with a missing ear, Kimi found an old broom handle, Chuckie had a stack of papers, and Jesse found a knife that had been carelessly left out downstairs in the basement in Stu's workshop where any toddler could reach up to the edge of his table and grab it.
Once the kids were situated for lunch, Aunty Celeste started to feed Zack his yogurt and strained carrots, when he started to cry again.
"There he goes again. He did the same thing at breakfast this morning." Said Celeste to Didi, who was feeding Dil some squash.
"You know what? I think I know what might be going on." Said Didi, as she put down the bowl of squash and spoon she was using to feed Dil, and rummaged through one of her Lipchitz books. A few minutes later, she found what she was looking for.
"Aha! According to this, Zack is starting to get teeth!" Said Didi, after looking over a page in the book.
Since she was blind, she couldn't peer into Zack's mouth, so Celeste stuck her fingers in there and felt around, till she felt something sharp near the back.
"You're right! And looks like his back molers are starting to come in. No wonder he's so upset. That must hurt! And, interestingly enough, these teeth feel like they might be dragon teeth." Said Celeste.
Didi came and had a look.
"Oh my!" Said Didi, as she peered into Zack's mouth and saw the tiny pointy teeth, resembling dragon teeth, only in actuality, it was only the start of what would eventually, be his back molers.
After lunch, the kids were all put back into the playpen.
"Hey Zack did you hear what your aunt said? You've gots dragon teeth." Said Chuckie.
"Yeah." Replied Zack.
"You don't think you could be, turning into a dragon, could you?" Kimi asked.
"That must be why my aunt said that!" Zack cried in a panic.
He opened his mouth again, to let the others take another look. The babies gasp at the sight of the teeth.
"Wow! I didn't notice it the lastest time I looked in there, but your aunty's right! Those do look like dragon teeth, or possibly dinosaur teeth. You going to be the next Reptar?" Phil asked.
"I like Reptar but not enough to be him. And as for being a dragon, well, uh, they roar and breethe fire." Said Zack.
"Well, you don't breeth fire, and we've never hearded you roar, so maybe you're not turning into a dragon. Maybe this is just your magination." Said Tommy.
"You're right, this is all just pretend." Said Zack.
A little while later, all of the toddlers went down for their nap. Upon awakening, Zack roared out in pain. The pain of his teeth was worse, so he reached for something nearby, Tommy and Dil's Reptar dall, and stuck the tail in his mouth.
"Zack! No!" Cried Tommy, upon seeing this.
He ran towards Zack and pulled on the Reptar doll, only to have it rip at the tail, leaving Zack to stand there, with Reptar's tail and a chunk of stuffing dripping out of his mouth. Zack took the chewed off tail out of his mouth, and stared in shock at what he had done.
"I'm really sorry, but, I think it's getting worser. I just tooked a bite out of Reptar!
And it hurts really bad, it makes me wanna, it makes me wanna…" Zack said, before screaming in pain again, sounding like a tiny dragon.
"Uh oh." Said Lil.
"Guys, I think Zack's about to turn into a dragon! We've gots to get him out of here before he starts breathing fire and burns down Tommy and Dil's house!" Cried Chuckie in a panic.
"You're right Chuckie, we've gots to get him out of here." Cried Tommy, as he led everybody to the backyard.
Once outside, Zack found a teasing ring that had been left in the grass, and started chewing on it.
"Ah, that's better." Said Zack after nibbling for a few minutes.
"What did you find?" Tommy asked.
"This." Said Zack, holding up the teasing ring.
Tommy instantly recognized it as one of Dil's.
"Oh, that's Dilly's, but he won't mind if you borrow it." Said Tommy.
"As long as Zack doesn't start breathing fire, anything will do." Said Phil.
"Well, just in case, I'd better stay outside, I don't wanna hurt nobody like I did to Reptar." Said Zack.
"Well, ok." Said Tommy, as the rest of the toddlers went back inside.
"What are we gonna do?" Jesse asked.
"I know, let's all pretend we're dragons and we go live with Zack." Suggested Kimi.
"I don't know, it's scary enough that Zack's really turning into a dragon, I don't wish to pretend to be one!" Cried Chuckie.
As the toddlers sat inside, trying to figure out a way to cheer Zack up, Zack sat outside, biting on the teasing ring, waiting for the moment he'd start breathing fire, so he could find a way to escape out of the yard, to where he wouldn't hurt anyone. A little while later, Peter showed up. He noticed all of the toddlers were in the playpen, except for Dil, who was still taking his afternoon nap, and Zack, who was outside in the backyard, all by himself.
"Hey Peter." Said Tommy.
"Hey Tommy, I couldn't help but notice that Zack is outside all by himself." Said Peter.
"That's cuz Zack's turndid into a dragon!" Exclaimed Kimi.
"And we don't want him in here, cuz, if he starts breathing fire, he'll burn the house down!" Cried Chuckie.
"You babies are so silly, Zack's not turning into a dragon." Said Peter.
"He isn't?" Tommy asked.
"No, come on, I'll show you." Said Peter, as he led the babies into the kitchen, and picked up the book off of the table that Didi was reading to Celeste titled, The Truth about Teeth by Dr. Lipchitz.
He flipped through the pages of the book, till he found a picture of baby's teeth when they first started coming in.
"See? This is what your teeth looked like when they first started coming in. They do look a little bit like dragon's teeth, but I assure you, they won't stay that way." Said Peter.
He then turned to a picture of teeth at a later stage of development, as they came in more, and grabbed a mirror.
"What's the mirror for?" Jesse asked.
"I'll show you. First, look at the book and tell me what you see." Said Peter.
"Well I see a bunch of teeth." Said Chuckie.
"But they don't look like dragon teeth at all." Added Tommy.
"What do they look like?" Peter asked.
"They look like regular baby teeth." Said Tommy.
"Now, each of you, open your mouths wide and look at yourselves in this mirror." Said Peter, as he held up a large mirror, and the babies did as he asked.
They gasp at the sight of their own mouths.
"Peter's right! Zack isn't going to turn into a dragon after all!" Said Chuckie excitedly.
"Why didn't we think of this before?" Phil asked.
"I guess cuz, when we first gotted our teeth a while back, we never sawed what they looked like so really thoughted Zack was turning into a dragon." Said Tommy.
"Are we gonna go tell him that he's not?" Chuckie asked.
"That's exactly what we're going to do. Come on." Said Peter, as he opened the backdoor and led the toddlers out into the yard, where they found Zack in the sandbox.
"Hey Zack." Said Peter, crouching down to his level near the sandbox.
"Hey." Said Zack with a sigh.
"Well, I heard about your teeth problem." Said Peter.
"So, you heard I'm turning into a dragon, huh?" Zack asked.
"Yep, and I have some news for you." Said Peter.
"You do?" Zack asked.
"You're not turning into a dragon." Said Peter.
"I'm not?" Zack asked in confusion.
"Nope." Peter replied.
"Well if I'm not turning into a dragon, then how come my teeth look like those of a dragon, and my aunty said I had dragon teeth?" Zack asked.
"Let me show you." Said Peter, as he scooped up Zack and carried him back into the house.
He repeated the same experiment with Zack, with one slight difference. He had the other toddlers open their mouths, and instead of having them stare at their own reflections, he had Zack look into their mouths.
"Ah, now I get it. My friends are olderer than me, so when my teeth come in more, they'll look like their teeth." Said Zack.
"Feel better?" Peter asked.
"Sort of. There's still one problem though." Said Zack.
"What's that?" Tommy asked.
"It hurts." Zack muttered.
"I have a way we can fix that." Said Peter, as he pulled out a box of popcickles from the freezer.
He handed each of the toddlers a popcickle, and they started eating them immediately.
Zack loved the feeling of the cold popcickle on his teeth and gums. It felt soothing.
"Thanks Peter, it's tasty, and, my mouth don't hurt no more." Said Zack.
"And, I for one am glad you're not turning into a dragon." Said Chuckie.
"Me too." Said Zack.
Everyone smiled, as they continued to enjoy their popcickles.
The End