Chapter 2: Brushing Teeth
Welcome back, lovely readers!
The second chapter is a bit longer, I hope you enjoy!
David and Anya are approximately three and a half years here.
"But why, daddy?" David asks with a pout, and Anya chimes in "Yes, daddy, why do we gotta brush our tooths?"
"It's teeth, honey. And you've got to brush them because there are bacteria living in your mouth which eat the tiny crumbs leftover from the food you had. And then they transform the food into acid which will make holes in your teeth."
The twins look very doubtful. David even puts his little hands on his hips and says accusingly, "You is making that up, daddy! There's no baceera!"
Charles has to work hard on keeping a straight face, and not ruffling David's hair, because his son is simply adorable like that. But he knows how it feels to be not taken seriously because one is cute, and he has vowed to never make his children feel like that.
"You'd like proof?" he asks instead, and the twins both nod vigorously. "Pwoof" in their experience involves lots of interesting "sperimens", which often include getting thoroughly dirty and other great fun.
"All right, to the lab with you." The children take off cheering. Charles follows at a more leisurely pace.
When he gets to the yard, the twins are already telling their papa all about the "sperimen" daddy will do with them, so if he could please open the lab?
The key to the lab lives in a little locked cupboard in Erik's workshop. It was put there after one too many very long nights of Charles completely forgetting time in his pursuits of new knowledge. Let's just say Erik had not been amused about having to bodily drag his husband to bed after hearing "I'll just finish this page, then I'll come right up, honey" and similar things over the course of several hours. The location of the key has the additional benefit that it's save from curious children and/or farmhands as well.
Erik grins, and draws Charles into a deep kiss when he comes within reach.
They part when the twins begin to sigh demonstratively.
"You is always kissing!" David complains, and Erik laughs and swings him up into his arms. Then he peppers David's face with kisses until the little boy shrieks with laughter and inefficiently tries to push his papa's face away.
"Stop, papa! We want to sperimen now!"
Charles has set Anya on his hip in the meantime, watching his boys in amusement.
Erik at last sets David back on the ground, and goes to fetch the key for the lab.
"Thanks, dear. Would you like to stay and watch?" Charles invites.
Erik shakes his head while he unlocks the door. "No, thanks. I've got a commission to finish. Have fun!"
Charles assures them they will. Then he joins his children in the lab, and helps them climb onto the workbench so they'll see what he's doing.
"All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a sample of what is currently on you teeth, David. And then we're going to put it on a object slide, and put it under the microscope."
"Yaaay! Micosope!" Anya cheers and throws her hands up. The microscope is one of the twin's favourite items in the lab. They've examined lots of different things through it already, and it never fails to amaze them.
Charles nods with a smile, getting a fresh object slide ready, and taking a clean little scraper.
"All right Davy, open up for daddy."
David gamely opens his mouth and Charles gently scrapes a little plaque off his teeth. Then he hold it up for inspection.
"See? This is called plaque. It's what remains on your teeth if you don't brush them."
"How do the baceera fit?" Anya asks curiously.
"They're very small. They're too small to see normally with just our eyes, that's why we need the microscope. Now, I'll put the plaque on the slide... add a drop of boiled water... and place a litte glass over it so it's flat..." Charles narrates what he'd doing.
Then he adjusts the little mirror under the microscope to catch the most light from the window, and carefully turns the little wheel on the side to focus.
"There we go... if you come over here you can see the bacteria."
The twins take turns looking through the ocular, making sure not to jostle the microscope. Charles has trained them well in lab etiquette.
"Do you see the little dots which look like a string of pearls?"
"Yes!" David crows in delight, and grins up at his daddy. "I see them!"
Charles smiles. "Well, these little buggers are the bacteria we talked about. And if you don't brush your teeth, they're going to produce so much acid all your teeth will get big holes and eventually fall out."
David's grin turns into a pout. He lifts his arms. "Up, please."
Charles obliges, and sits down a little distance away with David in his lap. Anya is unfazed by this and occupies herself with the microscope.
Charles gently rubs David's back, and presses kisses to his hair.
After a while the little boy sits up, still pouting. "I don't wanna brush my tooths all the time, daddy. Is boring!"
Charles chuckles. "Well, then you'll have to live with all your teeth falling out."
David shrugs. "I don' care."
"Hmmm, how about we do a trial today? You'll only get food you can eat without teeth, and we'll see how it goes, okay?"
David lights up. "And then I don't gotta brush my tooths anymore?"
"If you have no problem with never eating solid food again. Let's see how today goes first."
David throws his arms around his daddy's neck. "Thank you, daddy!"
"You're welcome, honey. Now, let's visit papa."
The twins cheer at that. After he has helped them both to the floor, they run off to their papa while Charles tidies up the lab.
Erik raises an eyebrow at him when he comes into the workshop five minutes later. He has Anya on his lap and David set on the workbench in front of him, talking animatedly.
"And then I never gotta brush my tooths again!" David concludes happily.
"Well, if they've all fallen out, of course you can't brush them." Erik says dryly. "What about you, ketzile? You want to refrain from solid food as well?" He asks Anya.
She shakes her head. "No, I wanna keep my tooths."
"Well, then you need to go and brush them now, sweetheart," Charles tells her, and lifts her from Erik's lap to the floor with a kiss.
"Haha! Anya's gotta brush her to~oths, and me~e no~t!" David taunts in a sing-sang and sticks out his tongue at his sister.
"David! You know better than to mock your sister," Charles lectures sternly. "Apologize, right now."
David pouts, but mumbles "Sorry, Anya."
Charles looks to his daughter to see if she's upset, but she just shrugs, not particularly bothered. The twins get into fights on a regular basis, and they usually make up just as quickly.
Charles levels a serious look at his son.
"Thank you. You think you can behave for me now?"
"Yes, daddy," David tells him earnestly, which earns him a hug and a kiss.
"Splendid. Now, why don't you start on finding some things you want to view through the microscope today? Anya can join you as soon as she's ready."
The prospect of more time with their beloved microscope restores the good mood of the twins at once, and both race out.
Erik draws his husband into his lap before he can take off after them.
"What's this about never having to brush teeth again?"
Charles laughs. "Believe me, as soon as we have something solid to eat that he likes, this experiment will be over."
"So, by lunch then," Erik says dryly.
"Supper the latest, I reckon," Charles agrees.
They enjoy some quiet time of snuggling for the next few minutes, until Anya's quick footsteps can be heard in the yard.
"Wait, Davy, 'Mando gave me some empty jars!" She calls out to her brother.
Charles gets up with a last kiss for his Alpha. "Time to keep an eye on them, no doubt they'll be taking samples from the river."
Erik grins. "Plan in some time for a bath before lunch, then."
"I will. Good luck with your commission!"
"Thanks, have fun with the kids."
Charles does, in fact, have a lot of fun with the twins and the hilarious things they come up with to microscope. Which leads to an impromptu physics lesson how a microscope actually works, and that you can't, in fact, view a stone through it, if no light shines through.
Then, after tidying up the lab and bathing the kids, they all sit down to lunch.
Armando has cooked today, and Charles stifles a laugh when he sees the wonderful juicy steaks he prepared.
Erik says the blessing and everyone gets busy passing around bowls and plates.
David's jaw drops when Charles hands him a plate with only mashed potatoes and gravy on it.
"B-but daddy, I want steak, too!"
Charles shakes his head apologetically. "Sorry, kiddo, you can't eat steak without teeth."
The little boy stares at him, and Charles is preparing for either tears or a tantrum. When David's lip begins to tremble, Charles quickly lifts his son into his lap where he promptly bursts into tears.
Charles rocks him slowly and murmurs reassuring words into his hair. The rest of the family carries on eating and talking quietly, too experienced to let a little drama get in the way of a good meal.
When Davy has calmed down, Charles cleans his face with a handkerchief, and smiles at him.
"You know, honey, we can stop the trial a little early if you want. You can have some nice steak, and then after lunch you'll brush your teeth, and have a little nap. How does that sound?"
"Good," David mumbles, sounding exhausted.
Charles kisses his forehead. "Great. You want to stay here?"
David nods, and Charles tugs his plate near. Erik has helpfully already placed a small steak and some green beans on it, and Charles quickly cuts up the meat, and hands David the fork.
Another plate with food appears in front of him, and he throws his husband a grateful smile. "Thanks, dear."
The meal doesn't take long, and David is half asleep on his feet when Charles takes him to the bathroom afterwards to brush his teeth.
Neither of the twins complain about nap time today, they had an exciting morning.
Charles is ready to drop into bed himself when he has them tucked in, but he takes a moment to watch their peaceful faces from the door of their bedroom.
Erik comes up behind him, and gently rubs his shoulders. "You look like you could use a nap, too."
"Mhmm." Charles moans in appreciation when Erik's clever fingers loosen up a particularly painful knot in his back.
Erik chuckles. "All right, that's it. To the bedroom with you, then I'll give you a proper backrub."
"Mhmm, but what about your commission?" Charles mumbles, even as he let's himself be led to their bedroom, eyes half-closed.
"I finished it this morning while you were having fun getting dirty."
Charles smiles at that, and lays down on his front on their very comfortable bed.
"I love how much patience you have," Erik tells him quietly while he works on relaxing his husband even further. "I would have just said 'You've got to brush your teeth because I said so' and be done with it."
Charles throws him a amused look over his shoulder. "Well, you've got the broody scowl for it, they know not to mess with you when you look like that."
Erik grins like a shark. "We need some way to keep them in line, they'd dance on our noses otherwise."
Charles nearly falls off the bed laughing. "Dance on our noses?! What is that even supposed to mean?"
Erik looks at him in bewilderment. "It means they'd do whatever they want." Then his face clears. "Oh, that's probably a German proverb, now I come to think of it."
Charles wipes tears of laughter from his eyes. "Very … illustrative. Sorry, dear, you were saying?"
Erik's shark grin is back and he crawls towards his husband slowly. "Oh, I think the time for talking is over. Now I need to remind my mate not to make fun of his Alpha."
Charles lays back with a twinkle in his eye. "I'm all yours."
"That you are," Erik agrees and pounces.
It's only good the children's room isn't right next to the master bedroom, otherwise Charles' shrieks of delight would have surely woken up the twins otherwise.
So, while I know the light microscope was definitely around in late 19th century, I'm not sure if you can actually see Streptococcus mutans through it, and I know that at least in our universe they blamed Lactobacillales for dental caries around that time. Let's go with a little Handwave Alternate Universe explanation for it, okay?
As you can see, Charles is not so concerned with the correct pronunciation of words, more that the twins are nice to each other and have fun exploring stuff. And he's also come to enjoy his Alpha's attention in the bedroom a lot more over the last years. *g*
I hope you had fun reading, and thank you all for stopping by, kudo-ing and everything! As always, comments are open for requests or anything you'd like to say. :D
The next chapters won't be up that quickly, but the more comments you leave me, the more fodder the plot bunnies will have! *winks* See you!