Genre: AU (doesn't really fit the original storyline anyhow, and doesn't deal with the End of the World business at all). Please be patient with my language, since I'm (still ^^) not a native English speaker, even though I never forget to use spellchecker. As usual, X belongs to CLAMP, Asuka, Madhouse, etc. This is a fan-created story, and it's not used for profit, but for entertainment only.

Of Drills & Needles

The pain was intolerable to say the least. Kamui woke up with a squeal like a small injured animal and pressed his hands to his left cheek. His tooth was screaming for attention, and it was painfully obvious - no pun intended - that falling asleep again was out of question. The boy moaned and buried his face in his pillow. As expected, it didn't help much. Instinctively, he thought of throwing himself out of the window, either to smash his head against the pavement or to cool it a little in the night air. Much to his disappointment, he found himself practically unable to stand up; it seemed that every single movement made his tooth hurt even more, although it was hardly possible to start with. Passing out could be a solution, but of course, passing out on purpose never works, even when needed badly. Kamui tried to curse, just to find out that his jaw ached too much to speak.

"Mhhmmgh," Kamui muttered, clutching his temples. "Kyah... why... ouch... hurt... so much?"

He finally forced himself to crawl out of the bed - which was quite a torture in itself - and stumbled out of the room, hoping to find some ice in the kitchen. His hostel neighbor, Sorata, woke up at the noise and peeked out of his bedroom curiously. "Eh... Kamui? Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Mm-kyah," Kamui replied not quite audibly. Sorata raised his eyebrow. "And that means?"

Kamui pointed at his cheek. "I... kya... ouch... ugh... toothache."

"Ah!" Sorata grinned gleefully as an idea struck him. "It looks like you have a toothache, right?"

Kamui slapped himself on the forehead in frustration. Sometimes it felt like it wouldn't hurt to change the roommate. Right now, however, he was more concerned about fetching himself an ice bag, even if it wouldn't bring much relief. "That's exactly - what I tried to - ouch! - say," he answered in an annoyed voice, regretting it immediately; the overly clear speech turned out to be a hard task.

Sorata scratched his head. "Hey, don't get so worked up! Make an appointment, visit the dentist and it'll be alright."
"It's easy to advise," Kamui mumbled, slowly starting to move towards the kitchen. "You know, I can't go to the dentist right now, and I'm supposed to survive a few more hours somehow. And I'm not sure if I have strength for that."

His neighbor laughed. "Come on, Kamui! It can't hurt that much!"

Kamui pinned him to the wall with a deadly glare. "Oh, trust me, it can. It hurts exactly that much, and I might have to say good-bye to my sanity before the dawn breaks." He sighed. "And in case you haven't yet noticed, it's hard for me to speak. Really."

Sorata shrugged. "Hmph. It's not like anyone is forcing you to talk, right?" He yawned. "Anyway, I'm going to bed. You too, take a nap - see ya later." He returned to his room and shut the door carefully to avoid any disturbance from now on.

"Insensitive jerk," Kamui snorted. Getting rid of the roommate wasn't simply a good idea, but an absolute necessity.

The ice was finally acquired and Kamui returned to his room, holding the bag against his cheek. The entire left side of his face was freezing, but the pain refused to go away. The miserable boy wondered if some painkillers he has found could be of any use, but they were powerless as well. He didn't really want to turn to any 'traditional methods', since they, to his knowledge, involved a lot of garlic, herbs and other ingredients that were either difficult to find at this hour or too unpleasant to use. Kamui moaned and stared at the clock on the wall. It was around 4 AM. After a while that seemed like eternity, he gazed at it again.

It was 4:05. Kamui hid his face in the pillow again and howled.

..."Good morning!" Sorata sang, skipping cheerfully into his neighbor's room. "How have you been? Feeling better now?"

"No," Kamui said with a grave expression. "Not a single bit."

Sorata shook his head. "Don't tell me it still hurts."

Kamui cackled sarcastically; there was a glimpse of not-quite-sanity in his purple eyes that Sorata didn't like at all. "Hate to break this to you, but it still hurts. I need to arrange an appointment now, so please excuse me while I make a call."

"Aren't you going to have a breakfast?"

"That was a nice joke, thank you very much," Kamui cringed. "You sure are overestimating me if you think that I can chew anything right now."

"Fine, fine, don't grumble at people like that. Even Arashi-nee-chan has more patience with me than you!" Sorata waved his hand and headed towards the refrigerator to stuff himself with bacon and cheese. Kamui glanced at him with envy - he'd absolutely love to eat at least a bite, but his current health condition didn't allow him to do that. More so, now it felt as if all of his teeth hurt, not only the one that woke him up at the early hour. And he still had to make an understandable speech on the phone. Destiny and all the existing gods sure decided to release their hidden sadistic desires on one helpless teenage boy, and as unfair as it was, he could do little about that.

The streets were almost empty when Kamui left the hostel and walked towards the clinic. Anyone who would see him at that time would definitely feel sympathetic towards the tortured boy - Kamui looked tired, sad and exhausted; on top of that, his cheek started swelling a bit. He was getting closer and closer to the clinic, but as the building became more and more visible, his steps were getting slower and slower, until he finally stopped in the middle of the street, and then plopped on a nearby bench.

Shirou Kamui, just like hundreds and thousands of mortals, had an uncontrollable fear of dentists.

"They have drills," he groaned, staring at his shoes. "And needles. Long, thin metal needles. Long thin metal needles they stick into your gum and then it starts to hurt even more. And then your entire mouth goes numb and it feels like your chin is not yours anymore." He covered his face with both hands. "Then I'm definitely going to die."

But the arrangement has been already made, and the building was clearly visible from his spot, so there was no turning back - if he'd go home now, Sorata would probably laugh at him till the end of his life and fifty years after his death. Generally, Arisugawa Sorata was kind enough, but his sense of humor had a tendency to show up at worst moments. In other words, there was no other solution. Kamui had to visit the dentist, even if that would be the last thing he'd ever do. Using the remainings of his willpower (that has decreased drastically during the last few hours), he raised on his feet and literally pushed himself towards the clinic.

The innocent-looking building was considerably less comfortable inside. The morgue-like white walls, light bulbs and a line of identical doors made Kamui gulp. His heart was beating faster than ever when he spotted the cabinet he needed and settled himself in an armchair in the corridor. There were two people in the queue before him - a young woman and a man in his fifties - and Kamui had to admit that they looked a lot better than him, not to mention didn't tremble at all.

"Poor boy!" The woman glanced at Kamui kindly. "Is it so bad?" She examined his left cheek pitifully. "Don't worry, we won't be there for too long, so you'll get treated soon."

"T-... thank you," Kamui whispered as his heart traveled away to the bottom of his stomach. Frankly, he wasn't eager to get treated, more so, he didn't really want any strangers to make comments on his health state, but nobody seemed to care. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it to his face, waiting quietly for his execution time to come.

God knows what the dentist was going to be like. According to Kamui's past experience, all the doctors were old and scary, if not flat-out repulsive, and they had a weird fascination with sticking various metal objects into his mouth even when he had no cavities at all. And their never-changing "Well, well, little boy" line was driving him crazy.

It didn't take the man and the woman too long to be treated, and before Kamui could calm down a bit, it was his turn. He eeped and tried to stand up. Using legs turned out to be incredibly hard - it felt as if they were made out of cotton and refused to obey him. Kamui closed his eyes and stepped into the cabinet breathing heavily.

"...may I help you?"

His eyes snapped open at the sound of the voice - which, surprisingly, didn't sound as if it belonged to a creepy giggling old man. Kamui's eyes widened even more when he finally saw the dentist himself. He looked younger than most doctors Kamui has ever seen in his life; he was tall and, one had to admit, had a perfectly-shaped body, noble, although a little sharp, facial features, thick short black hair and the most captivating golden-brown eyes ever. For a moment, Kamui forgot about his toothache, so deep his astonishment was. Meeting someone like this was the last thing he expected.

"Please come here," the dentist continued in his amiable rich voice, pointing at the chair. "Shirou Kamui, arrangement for 10 AM," he confirmed, looking through the papers on his desk.

"Y-yeah..." Kamui nodded meekly, sitting down in the armchair. The complete set of fearful metal instruments was by his side, but for some reason it felt less scary than he thought it would.

"Please open your mouth," the dentist proceeded, touching Kamui's chin lightly. "Let me see what can I do about your tooth."

The procedure that followed was strikingly different from all other treatments in Kamui's young life. The dentist was working skillfully and faultlessly like an experienced professional, but somehow Kamui didn't feel like squealing, crying or passing out. He just kept staring into the doctor's amber eyes and listening to his soft comforting voice that murmured something right above his ear. Before he realized it, all manipulations with the drill and needles were over, and his tooth had a solid filling.

"Alright," he smiled. "This way you should feel much better soon."

Before Kamui could reply, another dentist - an older one whose appearance was much more predictable - entered the cabinet. "Well, well, Monou-kun," he chuckled, rubbing his hands. "It seems that you've been working well while I was away. I'm proud of my student."

"Ah, thank you ever so much." The younger man bowed to the dentist, quickly putting on a mask of humility and obedience. "Um... Kawamura-sensei, would you be so kind as to take care of the rest of the patients yourself? It seems that Shirou-san needs a special treatment." He sighed and shook his head. "It's a very complicated case."

"Ah, but of course!" The thin dark lips of the old man pulled into a wide smile. "Do what you consider necessary, I'm positive that you'll manage it well."

"Please follow me," the young man took Kamui's hand and gave him a sign to follow him. Kamui was a bit concerned about the 'complicated case' statement, but decided to stay calm and courageous till the very end.

They left the cabinet and in a few moments, they were in the street in front of the clinic. That was the moment when Kamui noticed that the young doctor's hand was resting on his shoulder. The hand was large, warm and gentle. Kamui decided that he liked having it there, although asking to hold him like that for a longer while would probably sound impolite, and Kamui was a well-mannered boy around people he was fond of.

And he could tell for sure that he was growing fond of this dentist.

"Well?" the man addressed as 'Monou-kun' asked. "Does your tooth hurt less now?"

"Y-yeah... thank you," Kamui replied, his eyes cast down shyly. "Um... eh... Monou-san?... what was that special treatment you were talking about?"

"Ah!" The dentist grinned. "First, it's alright call me just 'Fuuma'. And second... I fancy that this morning has been extremely tiresome for you, and right now you absolutely have to relax. As your doctor, I need to make sure that you get a good rest."

"Umm..." Kamui's cheeks gained a lovely shade of pink. "You shouldn't concern yourself... I mean, you probably have lots of work to do-..."

"Shh," Fuuma pressed his finger to Kamui's lips. "I'm your doctor, and you have to do what I tell if you want to get better soon," he whispered gently. "If you agree to be a good patient, you'll never feel ill again, don't you think so?"

Kamui's eyes shone happily. "That's right!"

Fuuma took his hand again. "And since you'll be allowed to eat in two hours, we might as well go to the restaurant. I'll work out a specific diet for you."

"In other words, you're eloping from the clinic?" Kamui snickered.

Fuuma winked at him. "Of course not. I'm merely doing my job, and I'd definitely have Kawamura-sensei's approval."

Bathing in the warm morning sunlight that colored the buildings gold and made the windows glisten, they headed towards the east city side. Kamui's heart was no longer trying to jump out of his chest, and he told himself with a smile that there were some positive sides of visits to a dentist that he wasn't aware of before. More so, his tooth didn't hurt any more at all.

"That, and - Shirou-san, this could be a beginning of a beautiful friendship."

THE END