Teeth

Characters: Penguin, Law. Rating: K+. Warnings: dentistry

It started off as just a dull ache. Dull aches were easily ignored, so ignore it Penguin did. Compared to a life of piracy and the injuries that came as part of the package, a mild ache barely registered, let alone seemed any reason for real concern. He briefly entertained the notion of mentioning it to Law purely because he wasn't sure why, exactly, a tooth would ache, but in the end discarded the idea. Aches usually passed in a day or two without issue, surely this would be no different.

Two days later the ache had not subsided away to nothing the way Penguin had expected it to. Instead, it had got more insistent, no longer appearing in intermittent stages but as a constant companion. Rather unsurprisingly, it was worst when he was eating, and almost subconsciously he began to chew only with the left side of his mouth, keeping any and all food away from the epicentre.

Not using the right side of his mouth was merely a delaying tactic, not a cure, and before long the ache had graduated into pain, and it was then that Penguin swallowed his pride and approached his captain. What was the point of having a doctor as a captain if he didn't take advantage of that fact? Never mind the fact that Law had started to shoot him suspicious looks and Penguin had already learnt that it was far better to approach Law with a problem than to be approached. Law had very strong opinions on actively concealing pain or injury.

Law's face was, well, not reassuring when he finally took a look inside Penguin's mouth. He looked concerned, and also rather lost. Lost, on the face of a medical genius with the Ope Ope no Mi, was not a comforting sight.

"Law..?" he asked tentatively, trying and failing not to wince slightly as a spike of pain shot through his jaw at the movement. His captain shook his head despondently.

"Your third molar's infected," he told him, not that Penguin really understood what that meant beyond the fact that it wasn't a good thing. "I'm sorry, I don't understand teeth. You'll need to bear with it a little longer." Law rummaged through the cabinets to pull out a selection of painkillers, which he surveyed critically before handing one over to him. "This should help for a while."

Penguin took them, because medicine was better than the pain. He noticed the high potency of the drugs in his hand and couldn't help a painful gulp. Law didn't usually let them anywhere near this particular strength unless they were hurt really bad and even then it was only if Law himself was too tired to treat them immediately.

"Isn't this a bit of an overreaction?" he dared to ask, hoping Law had picked up the wrong ones otherwise this was implying far too much agony and Penguin was not prepared for that from his teeth, of all things. These particular ones also didn't really help them keep a grip on reality, and Penguin wasn't sure he wanted to willingly condemn himself to those side effects.

Law just disappeared from the room, leaving Penguin to stare at the medication in his hands with a sinking stomach.

If it was that bad, why didn't Law just pull it out with his abilities? Surely that was simple enough? Marines and other pirates had no qualms about trying to remove peoples' teeth by brute strength alone. He put the painkillers in his pocket, hoping it wouldn't reach that point.

A week later and Law had become a permanent fixture in the Tang's library, scouring book after book with bags under his eyes so deep he looked like he hadn't slept at all. Penguin feared he hadn't, and he'd caught both Bepo and Shachi trying to convince Law to take a break. Penguin would have joined in, except he'd lost the ability to talk halfway through the week. He'd caved and gone onto the painkillers two days after Law had given them to him, following a sleepless night spent tossing and turning (and keeping Shachi awake) as agony radiated out from his tooth and spread across half his jaw. Now, even with the painkillers doing their job (and leaving him disoriented more often than he cared to admit), Penguin's jaw had stiffened and wouldn't open and close properly. He'd been relegated to liquid foodstuffs, which was practical but also mildly embarrassing.

To begin with Shachi had been a tease, deliberately eating delicious crunchy food in front of him, but as time wore on and Penguin was becoming more and more reliant on the painkillers , the teasing had slackened until Shachi had turned his own diet into a liquid one in a form of solidarity. Even with an often hazy mind, Penguin didn't miss the worried glances during the day, despite being hidden behind his shades, and it was impossible not to notice that the ginger had taken to sleeping on the bottom bunk, with him, rather than his own bunk. Having him right there when the painkillers wore off in the middle of the night, jerking him awake with a sudden surge of pain, was a blessing.

Finally, Law re-emerged from the library, looking practically dead on his feet, and ordered Penguin to the infirmary. Penguin attempted to protest that Law needed sleep before he did anything, but his stiff jaw wouldn't budge at all. He obeyed the order to lie on a bed without fuss purely because Law would just force him if he didn't do as he was told.

He hadn't anticipated Law putting him under, but a quick sentence was all the warning he received before there was a prick in his arm and the darkness slowly invaded.

His awakening was accompanied by the odd sensation of something soft stuffed in his mouth. It felt a bit like cotton candy, except it was solid and didn't give when his tongue pushed at it clumsily. It also tasted like blood, and Penguin forced his tongue away from the metallic tang. There was also the background throb of pain, buried below layers of painkillers but still present, and Penguin frowned.

"Take it easy," Law's voice said, and Penguin opened his eyes to see his captain sat besides him, scrutinising something closely. "I can accelerate the healing, but the pain doesn't go away immediately." Penguin let out a grumble of discontent, fed up with the entire situation and wanting to be able to eat solid food again already. "Do you want to look?" Law added, and Penguin didn't get a chance to respond before a small item he vaguely recognised as supposedly a tooth was brandished in his face. It was misshapen and full of dents and the occasional hole, and Penguin closed his eyes. The idea that that had been in his mouth for so long was rather nauseous. Luckily, Law spotted his discomfort and put the tooth remnants away before he regained use of his voice to complain.

As Law had said, the pain took days to fade away to nothing, not helped by the fact that Law reclaimed all of the medication the moment he felt it was no longer required. Penguin's nerves disagreed, but Law cited the risks of dependency and addiction to him until Penguin decided that a little bit of pain was perhaps the lesser evil.

The best thing was when he could eat solid foods again, tearing into the poor fish on his plate like a starving man to fond smiles from the rest of his nakama. Penguin was never going to take fresh fish for granted again.

I was asked whether Law's medical knowledge expanded to dentistry. The answer is not until it had to. For those that may not know, the third molar is more commonly referred to as the wisdom tooth, and is the tooth that gives the most problems. You also wouldn't be able to see it in pictures, so while we know Penguin has his front teeth there's nothing to say he has his entire dentition.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari