Tick, tock, tick, tock...
The quiet of the room was marred only by the subtle twitches of the second hand on the wall clock. Snow was gently falling outside, silently as you please. It was a calm, peaceful afternoon, and even the sun had retreated part-way into the clouds, masked in idleness. Only a few dim rays sifted through the glass panes of the small room, illuminating patches on the chairs and walls. One couldn't have asked for a more pleasant waiting room.
And it was driving Rudolph insane.
The usually chipper reindeer was seated on a wooden chair, hunched over in annoyance. This was a waiting room, for Frosty's sake! There was no need for one! He was Herbie's only patient in months!
It was the elf's arrogance that bothered Rudolph. You give an elf one Dentistry degree and he thinks he's hot stuff. At least, as hot as it can get in the North Pole. Although Rudolph was indeed Herbie's only regular patient, the elf had insisted Rudolph fill out insurance forms, settle in one of the purposefully uncomfortable chairs, and flip through Pointy Ears Weekly while Herbie sanitized the instruments and pranced around looking important. Excuse me, Dr. Herbie.
Finally, the door of the office opened, announced by the overly-cheery jingling of bells and Doctor I'm-The-Only-Non-Laborer-Here himself strode in, clipboard in hand and blonde locks flowing about for all to see.
Well, maybe not exactly flowing, thought Rudolph. Bouncing, perhaps, but not flowing.
"Mr. Rudolph?" said Herbie coolly, as if he hadn't noticed the fuzzy brown animal glaring at him from three feet away.
He sighed. "Here," he replied, and trotted after the elf, who led him five steps to the dentist's chair. The thing was decked in red and green and shining like a seal's nose. The reindeer, not at all looking forward to having sharp objects stuck in his mouth, much less by the most pompous elf of them all, hopped into the chair.
Sharp objects in his mouth. He really had to stop thinking of things like that.
"Open wide," ordered Herbie.
Well that was just wrong.
Rudolph did as he was told. If anything he'd get a decent cleaning. And after all, free, legal dentistry isn't something to let slip by.
Herbie clicked his tongue as he poked at Rudolph's incisors. "Very good, we've been staying away from the candy cane forest, haven't we?"
Rudolph scowled and rolled his eyes. Suddenly, he winced.
"Hmm, looks like a cavity anyway, Rudolph ol' pal. We're going to have to drill."
At this, Rudolph forgot about his growing exasperation. "Drill? But Herbie, it's only a small cavity, right?"
Herbie shook his head. "Doesn't matter. It'll just keep on getting bigger."
Rudolph's nose flashed bright red. He silently cursed Herbie's choice of words.
Unfortunately, a sudden blinding flash of red light hardly goes unnoticed. Herbie lifted an eyebrow.
"How big's your drill?" Rudolph asked timidly after a few seconds.
"Oh, it's just the right size."
"Ah."
Neither of them knew exactly what to say next. Both their minds had rotated toward increasingly more perverted during the last few minutes. Rudolph's nose was hardly hiding anything either.
"Herbie, what would Santa say?" he finally said.
A freakishly smug grin crossed Herbie's face. "Ho, ho, ho?"
The waiting room door clicked and locked, closing off that tiny little world which was now Herbie and Rudolph. Outside, snow continued to fall and polar bears frolicked about on the ice as always. Everything went on unaltered, save the fact that there was one empty reindeer stall that night.