dentistry.
The bathroom door is locked, even though it's nearly two in the morning. Illyana made it back to Xavier's just before six (she'd missed her target while practicing and wound up in Georgia) and she's waited until this moment because she didn't want to be disturbed.
Her mouth hurts. She could barely eat at dinner. Poking about her mouth with her tongue, she quickly discovered the reason: loose teeth.
Illyana stands in the bathroom and looks in the mirror over the sink. She opens her mouth and carefully inserts her fingers. She prods tenatively at one of her upper incisors, feeling it give first one way and then the other, leaning like an old fencepost in soft earth.
Gently, she grasps her tooth and pulls. It slides out easily, leaving a bloody gap.
Illyana swallows, tasting copper, and drops the tooth onto the sink ledge. She grimaces at herself in the mirror, eyes huge an frightened, and pokes her tongue into the hole where her tooth had been.
There's another one in there - it's already protruding.
Illyana lost her baby teeth a long time ago. This is something else.
"This place changes people," she told her brother about the Otherplace right before she lost him. The teeth are just another outward sign of this... like the growth at her tailbone.
But these things, they must be endured. Her brother will recognise her no matter what she looks like. He loves her. That she knows, and that she clings to as she opens her mouth again and grasps another slippery tooth.
Her mouth hurts. She could barely eat at dinner. Poking about her mouth with her tongue, she quickly discovered the reason: loose teeth.
Illyana stands in the bathroom and looks in the mirror over the sink. She opens her mouth and carefully inserts her fingers. She prods tenatively at one of her upper incisors, feeling it give first one way and then the other, leaning like an old fencepost in soft earth.
Gently, she grasps her tooth and pulls. It slides out easily, leaving a bloody gap.
Illyana swallows, tasting copper, and drops the tooth onto the sink ledge. She grimaces at herself in the mirror, eyes huge an frightened, and pokes her tongue into the hole where her tooth had been.
There's another one in there - it's already protruding.
Illyana lost her baby teeth a long time ago. This is something else.
"This place changes people," she told her brother about the Otherplace right before she lost him. The teeth are just another outward sign of this... like the growth at her tailbone.
But these things, they must be endured. Her brother will recognise her no matter what she looks like. He loves her. That she knows, and that she clings to as she opens her mouth again and grasps another slippery tooth.