Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Dentist Office
Friendship: Fubuki, Fujiwara, & Ryou
Word Count: 3,738||Status: Complete
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Feedback: All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Summary: Fujiwara needs to visit the dentist. Naturally, his two best friends are with him.
"Did you ever brush while you were there?" Fubuki tapped Fujiwara on the shoulder as the two of them and Ryou headed down the street to a particular steel and concrete building rising ahead of them. "I mean, I don't think you did, which is why you've got this problem now. I just wanted to know."
Fujiwara found himself smiling. Fubuki had that effect on him, no matter his mood. "I don't think I needed to, Fubuki. It wasn't like being alive." He could meet Fubuki's eyes when he spoke of this now. A year could make so much of a difference.
"I suppose." Fubuki shrugged, hints of mischief written all over his face. "But you've got it now, anyway. Making up for lost time?"
The other bit back a sigh familiar to those who spent anytime at all with Fubuki. "We don't know what the problem is." He winced as his tooth throbbed again, trying not to focus on the pain too much. That would make it more real and he didn't want real pain, not now. "It might not be a cavity."
"Which is why we're here." Fubuki gestured to the building as they came to a halt in front of it. The sign outside proclaimed it the location of several medical professionals, including Dr. Sugiyama, touted as one of the best dentists in that part of Japan.
Fujiwara hesitated on the threshold, gaze flicking between Fubuki and Ryou both. Ryou only looked at him, one eyebrow lifted in silent query, while Fubuki pushed at him gently. "Come on, there's no time like the present!"
Another throb of pain from his tooth encouraged Fujiwara far more than Fubuki's eternal cheerfulness did. The automatic doors slid open as he entered, the other two behind him. He couldn't help but be grateful they were there. The thought of facing people he didn't know wasn't one that he liked that much. More than people he didn't know: people who weren't duelists. Duelists he could understand and relate to. But other people, not so much.
"Fifth floor," Fubuki reminded him, gesturing toward the elevators at the far end of the lobby. Fujiwara exchanged a glance with Ryou, who favored him with a brief, rare smile.
He never changes. That was for both of them. Though in truth, it wasn't that true. Both of them had changed since they'd first attended Duel Academia. Not in every way, but in some.
He pushed those thoughts aside on his way to the elevator, an action made that much easier by the tooth pulsating yet again. He couldn't wait to get this taken care of. For almost a week it had ached and throbbed in his head, and he'd hoped that it would stop on its own. As soon as Fubuki knew what the trouble was, he'd made an appointment with his family's dentist, over all of Fujiwara's protests.
"You know, you don't have anything to worry about." Fubuki prodded him once again. "Dr. Sugiyama's really good. We've been coming to her for years, since Asuka and I were little!"
Fujiwara opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, not even sure of what he wanted to say in the first place. Finally he just nodded; that seemed like the safest option. He wasn't scared. This was a dentist, not someone like Darkness!
"Going to see Sugiyama, huh?" A voice came from behind the three and Fujiwara glanced over to see who it was. An older man stood there, perhaps in his thirties or forties. "Lemme guess, it's been a while?"
"Something like that." Fujiwara replied quietly. "I've been very busy." He wasn't much used to talking to other people, but there was nothing like practice, just like in dueling.
"Well, I don't know about this one you're going to see, but the last one that I saw, he was something else!" The man shook his head in amazement. "Took me three or four visits to get a cavity taken care of right. Cleaned the top and bottom on separate visits, too. He said it was something about the insurance that made him do it like that."
Fujiwara held back an internal twitch. "How long ago was that?" Surely things had changed since then. They had to have.
"Oh, a year or two ago." The stranger shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you, though. You're young, so if you get anything sprained opening up your mouth, it should heal up pretty fast."
"Sprains?" Fubuki stared at the other. "What do you mean, sprains?"
"Just what I said. My dentist just about sprung my jaw opening it up to look inside. Took a while to get healed up right, too."
He might have continued, if two sets of elevator doors hadn't pinged open just then, and he stepped toward the one the trio hadn't sent for. "Good luck!"
Fujiwara didn't quite pay attention as his feet carried him into the other elevator, not asking permission or instructions from his brain at all. Fubuki looked every bit as nervous as he did, while Ryou looked like Ryou always looked: as if nothing at all had been said to worry him in the slightest.
Of course it hasn't. He's not the one with the cavity.
"He was probably playing some kind of a prank on you." Fubuki finally found the words to speak. "I know mom and dad used to tell tall tales about what some of the dentists in their day were like. He's probably the same way. Besides, Dr. Sugiyama's never done anything like that with us."
Fujiwara breathed in deeply, once, twice, then again. "You're right." It couldn't be anything else but a prank. Fujiwara's jaw twinged at the very thought of anything else. Even if it was like that for him, that's not who I'm going to see.
Slowly the elevator rose, giving them all a spectacular view of the building's interior through the glass walls. Heights had never bothered Fujiwara and he put his thoughts on the view instead of the casual words dropped by the stranger. Or at least he tried; those images still floated in the back of his mind where he couldn't quite get rid of them.
"So, how's that deck of yours coming, Ryou?" Fubuki asked before they'd gone far. The elevator moved briskly enough that by the time the other answered, the doors opened to let them out.
"I'm still working on it." Ryou stepped out first, the other two a bare or so behind him. "I haven't yet found the right cards."
Fujiwara winced; rebuilding his deck after his own ordeals had been hard enough. He didn't want to think of how much work Ryou had to do. Building an evolving deck that represented him wasn't done overnight.
I wonder if I could find any spirits to help him? He'd never been one much to help others, but where his friends were concerned, Fujiwara was more than willing to make exceptions.
"Well, hello there, gorgeous." Fubuki grinned at the receptionist as the three of them approached her desk. Fujiwara had seldom seen someone's jaw actually drop but hers did as they came closer.
We are a little strange. Fubuki wasn't as wildly dressed as he could be, but the way he leaned over the desk and smiled as if she were the most spectacular vision he'd ever seen (and with a tilt to that smile that meant he was the most spectacular vison that she'd ever seen) was enough to catch attention.
Ryou, tall, dark, and brooding as always, didn't wear the full on black leather ensemble of Hell Kaiser today, but he did wear a dark blue sweater a few shades darker than his hair and black pants, giving him an attitude as fully forbidding as the leather itself did.
Fujiwara himself wore a sea-green shirt and pants outfit that Fubuki'd given him to make up for the birthdays he'd missed while the other was gone. He guesed it looked decent enough on him; his talents hadn't ever been in the realm of fashion anyway. Fubuki hadn't passed out in horror at the sight, which probably meant it was passable, at least.
The receptionist blinked a few time, then did her best to get her equilibrium back. It wasn't an easy prospect, or so Fujiwara presumed, given how she took a few tries to actually ask a question. "Is there something I can do for you gentlemen?"
"I'm here to see Dr. Sugiyama." Fujiwara stepped forward. "Fujiwara Yuusuke."
She glanced at the computer before her then back to him and nodded. "The doctor will be ready to see you soon. Please take a seat in the waiting room."
"Thank you." He nodded politely at her, some of that tight inner tension easing a fraction. The more he actually spoke to people, the easier it was. Not very much so, but enough. Perhaps he could actually get along with them after all.
The waiting room wasn't much to look at; a few chairs scattered here and there and one long, but not very comfortable, sofa, as well as a table with a stack of magazines, most of which he noticed were out of date by at least a year or two. Fubuki glanced through them quickly, lips curling a trifle.
"Nothing good at all. No dueling, no music, no movies. Typical." He shrugged, throwing himself gracefully onto the couch. "I hope we don't have to wait too long."
Fujiwara picked up one of the magazines and thumbed through it; it might be out of date so far as Fubuki was concerned, but he hadn't read any magazines, period, in quite some time. He couldn't say that tips on redecorating one's bedroom consumed him with interest, but it gave him something else to think about besides dentists yanking his jaws open and taking three and four visits to do the simplest of exams.
"I don't want to see the dentist!" All three glanced curiously at the child's voice and saw a boy not quite yet old enough for Duel Academia coming toward the receptionist's desk. Assuming that was the right word for being all but dragged there by his mother.
"You're going to anyway." While she took care of getting him checked in, the boy stared into the waiting room at the three young adults. His attention fixated almost at once on Ryou.
"Hey! Aren't you Hell Kaiser?" His eyes grew wider and wider as he took a few hesitant steps into the room. "You are, aren't you?"
"I am." Ryou nodded. Fujiwara warmed with pride; they'd alway known the day would come when Ryou was famous for his dueling. Being able to see it thrilled him down to the core.
The boy came even closer. "I've seen all your matches! I mean, all of them! You're the best!" He fidgeted, casting once glance over his shoulder to where his mother stood searching through her purse for something. "Um, can I have your autograph?"
He dug into his pants pocket to pull out a scrap of paper and a pen and thrust them awkwardly toward Ryou. "Everyone at school's going to die when they hear about this! I mean, meeting Hell Kaiser at the dentist office!" He stopped and stared suddenly. "I didn't know you could get cavities!"
Fubuki burst out laughing at that, trying his best not to fall off the sofa. "He can't." Fujiwara'd seen that gleam to his eyes far too many times not to know what would come out of Fubuki's mouth next. "He's a cyborg, he's just along for the ride."
"Whoa..." The boy stared from one to the other of them, eyes so round with shock Fujiwara wouldn't have been surprised if they'd fallen out of his head. "You're joking...right?"
Fubuki pulled the most solemn face he could. "Is this a face that would lie to you?"
"Frequently and whenever you thought it was funny." Ryou replied, signing his name in his usual elegant calligraphy before he handed the paper back to his young fan. "But he's almost right. I'm here for my friend, not for myself." He indicated Fujiwara with a flick of his hand and the boy stared over at him now.
"What are you doing here with Hell Kaiser?" Nothing but pure curiosity tinged his voice now.
"We're friends." Fujiwara replied, trying to keep a straight face and succeeding almost as well as Fubuki was with staying on the couch. "We've been friends for years." He frowned, trying to do the math. It still took him a few moments to work out some things after the time he'd spent away.
"Since we were about fourteen," Fubuki said, wriggling back into place on the couch. "The year before we started Duel Academia."
"I want to go there!" The boy breathed for a heartbeat before he drooped. "Mom says that I can't, though. She wants me to go to a regular school."
Before any of the three could say anything to that, a woman's voice cracked firmly through the air. "Youta! Are you bothering these people? I've told you about that."
"Mom! It's Hell Kaiser and his friends!" Youta bounced on his heels as his mother came over.
"All the more reason you shouldn't bother them, then." The woman gave them all a stern glance before her attention fell firmly on Ryou. "Hell Kaiser, I presume?"
Fubuki leaned over toward Ryou and spoke in a conspiratorial tone of voice that everyone there heard clear as a bell. "Should we tell her that I'm the Hell Kaiser?"
"No, I don't think so." As always, Ryou took everything that happened in stride. He lifted his gaze to meet the woman's eyes. "Yes."
She frowned, a furrow forming between her eyes. "My son's told me a great deal about you. I don't approve of everything he's said, either. Duelists like you should work towards being better role models for young children."
Once again Fubuki had to hold onto the couch to make certain he didn't fall off it and Fujiwara chuckled softly under his breath at the same time. Ryou's lips twitched for the briefest of moments. "I'm not interested in being a role model." A thought flickered through his eyes and he smiled again, with a hint more warmth in the expression. "Perhaps you could watch my brother Shou if you'd like one. I think he'd be proud to have the position."
Her mouth opened and closed a few times and she finally sat down without saying anything else, gesturing for her son to sit beside her. The young boy appeared as knowledgeable about Shou as he was about Ryou and squealed gleefully about the last match the younger Marufuji'd won for ten minutes.
Fujiwara glanced over at the others; Fubuki still snickered now and then, murmuring things such as 'cyborg' under his breath, while Ryou had his current in-progress deck in front of him and sorted through it with narrowed eyes.
"Stop worrying." Ryou spoke without looking up from his cards. "If it's like that man said, then we can find you one you're more comfortable with."
Fujiwara chuckled himself. "How did you know I was thinking about that?" In the few moments of silence, those words once again had begun to creep through his mind.
"Because I know you." Ryou glanced up at him. "You're going to worry about it until you know for yourself. If you had your laptop with you, you'd be researching everything you could find about dentists and their practices and scaring yourself silly with all the pictures."
As much as he wanted to deny it, Fujiwara knew Ryou was right. His cheeks burned just for a few seconds as he ducked his head. Sometimes having friends who knew him so well could be embarrassing. Not that he'd change them for anything.
"Some of the kids at school told me about how their dentist pokes at their teeth until they hurt." Youta piped up suddenly. "Some of them stare at your teeth for the longest time, too. What're they looking for in there anyway?"
"Holes in your teeth." His mother replied crisply, not looking up from the book she'd removed from her purpose. "That's what regular checkups are for."
Fujiwara didn't want to repeat what he'd heard from that man, not in front of the boy who looked a little more nervous than he actually wanted to admit to being. As it turned out, he didn't even have time to, as the door beyond the receptionist's desk opened, releasing the most recent patient as well as the dentist herself.
"Whoever's next!" She declared with a warm, bright smile. She didn't look like the type of person who'd yank someone's jaw about or make them come back multiple times. But there were those who wouldn't think Fujiwara looked like the type to make bargains with Darkness, either.
He rose up, brushed himself off, and stepped toward her. "That would be me, ma'am."
She nodded, accepting the folder the receptionist passed to him and glancing at it quickly. "Fujiwara Yuusuke?"
"That's right." He fought back all the nerves that squirmed through his stomach and followed her into the corridor beyond as the door closed behind them softly.
Deeper silence fell in the waiting room once he was out of sight. Ryou continued to sort through his deck, while Fubuki picked up one of the magazines and tried to page through it without losing interest. That lasted approximately five pages in before he tossed it back on the table and leaned back on the couch, arms folded behind his head and attention nominally on the ceiling.
Whatever outrageous words he might've said ended up cut off by a whirring noise from behind the door. Fubuki wriggled around to stare at it, twitching ever so lightly. "Do you hear that?"
"Yes." Ryou still didn't look up from his work. "What about it?"
Fubuki just shook his head; he'd been to the dentist before himself, but hearing it happen from the outside was different from being in there himself. He twitched at some of the sounds, whirrings and drilling...drilling? He's got a cavity. Strictly speaking they'd only thought he had one, but to actually hear the drill was yet again something else.
He picked up the magazine and stared into it again without actually seeing anything of it. He'd forgotten how boring dentist visits could be when you weren't the one being seen. He'd done this enough times with Asuka that he shouldn't have. I guess they were so boring I forgot.
"Mom? What's going on in there?" Youta murmured, and Fubuki glanced up to see him staring at her with eyes even wider than before. "What're those noises? I thought you said the dentist just looked at people's teeth."
"Some of them do it other ways." There was a faint hint of disapproval in her tone as she turned a page. "I knew I should've brought you to our regular doctor."
Fubuki rolled his eyes and leaned back to check the ceiling out once again. Sadly, it offered nowhere for him to rest his legs, much less to dangle upside down and appear dramatically behind Fujiwara once the other came out. Even less, there weren't any convenient holes leading to the air vents so he could leap up there and crawl along to see what was going on with his friend. What kind of an idiot designed this place anyway? All the really good architecture had been left out!
With that to keep his mind occupied, Fubuki didn't really notice the passing of time until the door swung open once again and Fujiwara stepped out, rubbing his jaw a little. Fubuki recalled at once the story about how the man's jaw had nearly been sprained but he couldn't see any actual damage, not even a bruise or two.
"We'll see you in six months, then," the dentist said. "And make sure you brush regularly!"
Fujiwara nodded, oofing slightly as Fubuki swept up behind him. How exactly he got there without anyone seeing him move was anyone's guess. Fubuki did things like that.
"What happened? I heard noises!" He wanted to say he'd heard sounds that reminded him of the thousand torments of hell, but the dentist still stood there. Besides, if he said that, Ryou would go into his spiel about how he knew what hell was like already.
"I just got my cavity filled, that's all." Fujiwara rubbed his jaw again. "It's a little sore, but it'll heal up."
Ryou stood up, having swept up his cards in a single motion and tucked them away into a pocket of his pants. "Are we ready to go?"
"Yes." Fujiwara nodded before he looked into the waiting room and caught Youta's eyes. "Don't worry about it. Dr. Sugiyama's not like any of those stories that you've heard."
Or that I heard, he thought. Everything she'd done had been purely professional, from cleaning his teeth to filling the small cavity she'd found. She'd even mentioned she had a cousin at Duel Academia who'd spoken well of Fujiwara himself.
"You're next!" Dr. Sugiyama gestured to Youta, who gripped his Hell Kaiser autograph tightly in one hand and followed her back into the room.
Fubuki grinned, tossing one arm each around Fujiwara and Ryou's shoulders. Before he could utter a word, the receptionist cleared her throat.
"We'll send you a reminder in the mail, Tenjoin-san, but you've got an appointment yourself here in two weeks. Please don't forget."
Fubuki nodded a little; though both Fujiwara and Ryou knew without a doubt that he hadn't even thought about it. He'd make it; he went to a lot of trouble to keep his good looks, but he just hadn't thought about it.
"Well, now that we've taken care of that, I say, dinner is my treat tonight. Anyone have any preferences?"
"Anything soft." The idea of chewing right now wasn't one that appealed to Fujiwara.
"I know just the place!" Fubuki urged them both along, all the annoyance and boredom vanishing, replaced by anticipation of what he could do to make Fujiwara's healing time that much more interesting.
That was what friends were for.
The End