FIC FOR MAAYACOLA (part 1)
For: maayacola
From: scorch66
Title: Found My Way
Pairings/Characters: Nakamaru/Kame
Rating: PG
Warnings: nada
Notes: Hi maayacola <3 I read 'wacky!AU' in your sign up and I thought, what's whackier than a canon-inspired AU? I hope you enjoy this. =)
Summary: AU. Nakamaru is a dentist for a clinic that serves magical creatures. He has regular patients and a regular routine, and then his new client arrives. Things change.
part 1 || part 2
Nakamaru leads a normal life.
He wakes up at 7am sharp, goes jogging around the block, and five laps later, returns to a bowl of cereal and a mandarin orange. He skims the newspaper and puts on the clothes he had laid out the night before-a pair of slacks alternating between beige and gray with an argyle sweater vest to match-and by nine, he's pushing open the doors of his clinic.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, his first patient arrives as he always does, angling through the door so his wings don't get caught.
"Again?"
Ueda nods with a sad frown, a hand held to his jaw and cheek.
Nakamaru sighs. "I know you love sugar plums but your cavities are never going to end if you don't stop eating them."
"I don't want to stop," Ueda grumbles and his wings flutter petulantly; they're almost transluscent but Nakamaru has always admired the way they shimmer with the colors of the rainbow. "And toothpaste tastes gross."
The same old protest. Nakamaru doesn't offer floss anymore, not after Ueda somehow managed to nearly strangle himself with it. Fairies were deceptively strong, but they were not known for their attentiveness.
"Hop on the chair, then," Nakamaru says and thirty minutes later, Ueda is skipping out the door, a dazzling smile pasted on his face. Nakamaru takes a moment to enjoy the result even though he knows Ueda will be back the next day, cavities anew. In his darkest hours, Nakamaru weeps for his poor teeth.
He calls for the custodian to sweep away the fairy dust scattered across his office. His next patient, Koki, should be arriving any minute and he does not want to tickle any werewolf allergies.
~*~
If asked why he had chosen the field of dental health, Nakamaru would answer that he liked smiles. If asked why he had chosen to branch out to the magic community, then... well... Nakamaru would answer that he needed something to balance out his ordinary.
~*~
It's dark when the clinic closes and Nakamaru's phone buzzes in the pocket of his coat. He ends the call after a few minutes of weary sighs and begins a sprint down the street to the west side of town.
While not a part of his schedule, the call wasn't entirely unexpected. One would think a troll would know how to move around bridges, but not Akanishi. He was always getting stuck, choosing the smallest bridges to hide under because they felt 'cozier' and somehow, Nakamaru had ended up being his saviour.
A part of him regrets it because Akanishi never learns, but Nakamaru can't bring himself to refuse. He blames his medical training because even though he was never taught the best technique to ease out trapped trolls from under bridges, the urge to provide aid was now ingrained in his system. Nakamaru, ever the good samaritan, making his life hard one outstretched hand at a time.
He doesn't often venture to this side of town-never after dark-and for good reason. The sidewalk is chipping away and the air is thick with pollution, factories that resemble haunted houses in the dark of the night chugging out smog with rumbling coughs. There's no bridge in sight but he can hear the faint trickling of water and Nakamaru makes to follow it when another hidden sound creeps into his awareness.
Footsteps.
He has just enough time to feel a prickle of terror crawl up his spine before he's thrown against the brick wall of a rundown factory. His head throbs and he blinks through the stars to see two, pointed streaks of white lunging at him.
He snaps his eyes shut, offers a silent prayer, and waits for the piercing pain.
It never comes.
~*~
Kame weighs the pouch in his hand and grins at the jingle of coins inside. It's a fair trade for helping a troll. Kimura had always taught him never to take money from humans but there was no rule against trading for money that had been stolen prior to the trade and trolls were fair game. Foolish trolls even better, Kame thinks and pockets the pouch. If the creatures of this town were all this hapless, he might just enjoy his stay more than he had initially thought.
Even if the place reeks of Others-vampires foreign from his kin.
So the town is already occupied; he wonders if Kimura knows. Kame has always found a thrill in tresspassing territory but the scent itches at his skin in ways he can't control, hyperaware and tensing.
A muffled impact funnels to his ears, the smell of blood-human blood-wafting to his nose and Kame is sprinting around the corner, his mind piecing together the flood of sensations into a single goal.
Rescue.
He tackles the Other before he can strike and they roll onto the pavement, hissing and punching. There's a blow to his head and Kame returns it with a knee to the gut before they clamber apart. His fangs have elongated instinctively and he licks at them, scraping his tongue and letting the faint drop of his own blood ground him.
The Other is worse off from their scuffle and Kame risks a glance back. The human is still there, watching them with a gaping mouth and thankfully his neck is smooth and unmarred. When Kame turns back, the Other is gone and Kame blinks, stunned by the stealthy speed. The air is clear of scent and his skin stops itching at last.
He shoulders sag, muscles unclenching, and Kame turns to the man with a flourish.
"Are you stupid?"
~*~
Nakamaru is too busy steadying his stampeding heart and sending figurative fruit baskets with thank you notes to the heavens, that he doesn't hear the question at first. It's when a hand is waving in front of him that he snaps out of his daze with an audible gasp. His eyes fix to the twin fangs instantly and, oddly enough, his fear takes a backseat in the face of the pearly white dentin. Now here was a vampire who new how to take care of his teeth.
There's a tsk and the fangs retract into square buds no different from the ones that line Nakamaru's gums. Nakamaru looks up and there's just enough moonlight for him to make out an impatient face with furrowed brows.
"Are you hurt?" the vampire asks and Nakamaru finds his tongue at last.
"N-no. You came just in time. I would have been. But I'm not. Thank you," he bumbles out and wonders if it's the trick of the moonlight when he sees a flicker of a smile. The vampire is clearly a male-well, not clearly. If Nakamaru hadn't heard his voice, he wouldn't have known. There's a delicacy to his features thats contrasts the width of his shoulders and strong neck, and Nakamaru recalls that vampires were known for their ethereal, androgynous beauty. Something about a mechanism to lure in prey.
The clouds shift and Nakamaru doesn't have to squint to see the gash along the vampire's temple.
"You're the injured one," Nakamaru admonishes before instinct takes over and he digs into his coat pocket to pull out a packet of bandages. It was a habit to carry them around, along with a toothbrush and a roll of floss. Nakamaru doesn't often receive vampire clients at his clinic but he figures anyone can benefit from a bandage. "Here. For your gash."
The vampire stares at the offered bandage for a moment and this time, Nakamaru is sure the smile is real.
"I'm a vampire."
"I know."
"You were just attacked by a vampire."
"I was saved by one, too," Nakamaru returns and waves the bandage. "Take it."
"You're not scared." It's the hollow shock in his voice that reminds Nakamaru of the peculiarity of the situation.
He shrugs and manages a smile. "I run a dental clinic at the Magical Maladies For Monsters And Myths Center. There's not much I haven't seen, vampires included. Everyone cries when they go under the drill, human or not. It lends a new perspective."
The vampire is silent for a long moment before he huffs in laughter. He leans forward, so close and sudden that Nakamaru thinks he's going for his neck-but there's only a whisper in his ear, a graze of lips against the outer shell.
"Well then, sensei. Treat me well."
~*~
Kame's fingers trace over the bandage at his temple and he thinks of the careful way the doctor had put it on, hands gentle and precise, his face attentive. Cute. The gash is probably sewn together by now thanks to the excelerated healing ability of his body-an ability he had kept secret because being fretted over was something new and wonderful.
He remembers the way the doctor had stiffened like the brick wall behind him when Kame had leaned in.
"It's risky, Kazuya. You know better."
It's still nightfall but unfortunately, the darkness does nothing to hide his smile.
"I do," Kame mutters, not meeting Kimura's knowing eyes, "but a little fun doesn't hurt."
"As long as you remember that."
Kame nods. When Kimura's voice had cut through the darkness, Kame had moved away with a parting glance and not a single word of farewell. He didn't think it was necessary, not when he knew he'd be meeting the doctor again.
~*~
Nakamaru sleeps soundly and wakes up to his usual routine. He jogs and eats his cereal and deposits the orange peels in his compost bin. The only difference is that he forgot to lay out his clothes for today and so he sifts through his closet and pulls out a blue collared shirt. A matching argyle vest follows as usual. He's running a little late but when he arrives at the clinic, Koki is waiting for him, bemonaing the blunt state of his teeth, also as usual.
"Your teeth are fine, Koki," Nakamaru assures for the hundreth time. "They're clean and healthy. You should be proud."
Koki burries his face in his hands and releases a whine from deep in his throat. It gets to Nakamaru everytime.
"You don't understand. The pack is starting to talk," Koki lifts his head with pleading eyes. "They used to be terrified of me but now... I can hear them laughing. They call me," Koki takes a deep breath, "...a pup."
With his flashy clothes and exuberant affection, Nakamaru can see why but he wisely keeps the thought to himself.
"Isn't that a good thing? You don't want to scare them away."
Koki sits up, puffing out his chest. He's small, shorter than Nakamaru in his human form, but Nakamaru has seen Koki during a full moon once and he knows the man is a force to be reckoned with-despite his baby teeth.
"For a werewolf-"
"-pride is everything," Nakamaru finishes with a sigh. "Get on the chair, then."
Koki engulfs him in a bone-crushing hug before complying and Nakamaru rubs his sore arms wondering how anyone could compare his strength to a baby's. And then he justs accepts it as he has learned to do when dealing with those magically inclined; his ordinary logic rarely ever applies to their extraordinary world.
He pulls out his tools and begins the procedure, chipping at the gorgeous enamel even if it stabs at his soul. It's long and tedious but once it's over, he hands Koki a mirror to see his new sharp-toothed smile and Nakamaru carefully steps away to avoid another a hug.
He's expecting a thank you but what he gets is: "What's that smell?"
Nakamaru blinks and takes a whiff. The room smells of minty toothpaste just as it always does. "What smell?"
Koki takes another deep breath and makes a gagging motion, nearly dropping the mirror. Nakamaru takes it from him before it shatters.
"It's sickly sweet... like vanilla," Koki explains and there's an underlying growl reverberating with his words. "There's a vampire nearby."
"Vampire?" Nakamaru echoes and his hand goes to his ear reflexively. He drops it with a cough as soon as he realises and walks to his desk. He reads over the list of appointments he had forgotten to check when he had arrived late, and stares.
Name: Kamenashi Kazuya
Magical Category: Vampire
Affliction: Unretractable Fangs
Time: 10 a.m.
"It's a patient?" Koki asks and Nakamaru lifts his head to see the werewolf watching him, teeth bared. For a horrifying moment, Nakamaru thinks he's about to have another allergic reaction and transform in his office, but Koki remains the same, wrapped in human skin with the only hint of fur being his wild blond hair. Nakamaru breathes a sigh of relief and nods, watching Koki's scowl grow. "Be careful around those blood suckers, Doc'. Don't let their looks fool you."
Nakamaru finds that considerably ironic coming from a werewolf but smiles in thanks because it's Koki and for as long as Nakamaru has known him, Koki has never harbored any ill intentions towards him.
Five minutes after Koki leaves, there's a loud growl echoing from outside and Nakamaru rounds his desk in haste, fearing an altercation in the lobby, when the door swings open and a lithe figure with a familiar face struts inside.
~*~
"Hi, sensei," Kame chirps and grins wider at the doctor's stunned expression. "Are all the werewolves around here this testy?"
He seats himself in the chair just opposite to a modest sized desk and waits for the doctor to regain his bearings-which he does after another moment or so, scrambling behind his desk and coughing in a professional manner. He's really too adorable.
"You're the vampire from last night," the doctor observes and Kame watches his eyes flicker to his forehead, his visible worry melting away. "Your wound has healed."
He sounds surprised but there's a quiet relief in his voice and Kame can't help smiling at that.
"Sensei's very skillful."
The doctor hesitates briefly and Kame thinks he could do this all day, press hidden reaction buttons and watch the doctor battle down his flustered response into deadpan calmness. It's an odd feeling, wanting to both protect the doctor and simultaneously make him crack. He supposes that, despite centuries of wisdom, he has never really graduated from flipping skirts in the schoolyard. It's a subtle flirtation he enjoys.
"Um. Right. Thank you," the doctor says with a polite bow of his head, and then he glances down at a document. "You're... Kamenashi."
"Kame. You can call me Kame, sensei."
"Okay. Kame." The doctor points to the long name plaque sitting on his desk. "I'm Dr. Nakamaru. How may I help you?"
"Nakamaru," Kame says, rolling the name around his tongue, "Sounds nice!" He then leans in to whisper, voice lowered and trembling. "I... Sensei, I have a problem. Last night, ever since I met you... they won't stop growing. It hurts inside."
"Ah, right. Your teeth. It says here your fangs won't retract," Nakamaru replies in a tone that's entirely matter-of-fact. Kame leans back, more amused than he should be. The doctor is more naive than he had initially thought; he'd have to take baby steps. The doctor continues, "But I recall your teeth contracting just fine after you scared the other vampire off... Any idea how it happened?"
Naive but observant, Kame corrects.
"I don't know, sensei," Kame answers woefully, summoning a giant pout. "That was the last time I was able to retract them. They're always sticking out and now I have a lisp. And my lip hurts."
"This is strange. I've never had a case like this before. The few vampires I've helped previously had the opposite problem; they couldn't elongate."
"Oh, I can elongate just fine," Kame replies with a smirk that soars meters above Nakamaru's head.
"I'll have to look into that," Nakamaru says, face serious with thought. "We have papers on vampire ailments and there should be a similar case. In the meantime, I can drill down the fangs if they're too painful and are interrupting your daily activities," -Kame nods emphatically- "but unfortunately, I don't have the proper equipment with me at the moment. I can have them by tomorrow if you'd like?"
Kame beams. "What time do you want me, sensei?"
~*~
Nakamaru spends the evening in the archive room, flipping through papers yellowed and creased with age, the text worn and useless. There are cases of vampires intolerant to blood, a subsect of vampires who get trapped in their bat form, vampires who are immune to garlic and daylight, but nothing about vampires who can't retract their fangs. It's startling and Nakamaru suspects that someone didn't find dental hygiene noteworthy enough to document.
There are drawers upon drawers filled with documents, however, and Nakamaru has only managed to get through one by the time he gives up, and heads home, his eyes clogged with sleep. He'll continue searching until he finds something because that's what he does, but for now he'll have to stick to plan B, as painful as it is.
~*~
"Sorry about calling you so early. It must be tough, maneuvering in the sunlight," Nakamaru says as he continues to prepare the equipment. Kame is seated on the high chair, the back rest lowered for him to lie back on. Nakamaru glances back to see Kame sprawled over the chair, his eyes watching Nakamaru's movements. He seems to be fairly interested in the equipment.
"It's no problem. A little sunlight just makes me itchy and there are plenty of shadows to hop around in. I'm happy sensei wanted to see me so soon," Kame hums. A bolt slips from Nakamaru's hand and he clicks his tongue as he bends to grab it. "Plus, the scenery is lovely in the morning," he hears Kame mumble as he pulls himself upright.
"The town really is beautiful," Nakamaru replies, joining together the metal pieces of the drill and turning to Kame. "The weather is great and the people, both magical and otherwise, are nice. It's only the westside you have to avoid, but even that part is tolerable in the day."
"You shouldn't go there again, sensei." The gravity of his voice makes Nakamaru pause and he looks up to see Kame giving him a hard look. "It's dangerous. The vampires of your town aren't the friendly sort."
"I know," Nakamaru says slowly. "I don't make a habit to venture to the westside. It was an emergency."
"Emergency?"
"Someone was stuck under a bridge and needed my help."
"Akanishi?" The names comes out as a wheeze and Nakamaru questions in surprise.
"You know him?"
"Hardly," Kame says with a wave of a small hand before fixing a disbelieving gaze on Nakamaru. "Are you tellimg me you knowingly walked into a vampire nest to help a troll?"
Well, that was one way to put it, Nakamaru thinks with a wince.
"I wouldn't call it a nest, exactly. There was only one of them and besides. It was the right thing to do."
"The right thing..." Kame repeats in a hollow echo. "Like helping a foreign vampire in the middle of the night without considering the very likely possibility that he might have been competing for a chance at your neck. That sounds right to you?"
Nakamaru rubs the nape of his neck sheepishly, a tad embarrassed. "It's just... I can't not help. I'm a doctor, after all."
Kame gives him a long, unnerving look before falling back and sighing to the ceiling. "Sensei is one of a kind."
Nakamaru shrugs, moving over to the chair now that the drill is locked and ready. "I'm sure lots of people would do the same if given the chance."
"You really believe that, don't you?"
"Why not?"
"Sensei is naive, too," Kame says and bares his fangs when Nakamaru nudges his cheek.
"This is going to hurt quite a bit, but the important thing is to keep your mouth wide open. It'll hurt more if your lip gets caught."
"Don't worry, sensei. I'm good with my mouth," Kame returns with a twitch of the lips and Nakamaru nods, angling the drill against a long fang.
The room buzzes for an entire minute before Kame releases an ear-splitting screech and rolls off the chair, tightly clutching his jaw. Nakamaru turns off the drill at once, panic seizing him.
"Did I get your lip? Are you bleeding?"
Kame lifts a shaky, accusing finger at him from where he's curled up on the floor, tears welling in his eyes. "Nakamaru is a sadist."
The procedure ends up taking more than an hour and Nakamaru has to reschedule his following apointments, earning a thorough tongue lashing from Nishikido who had been waiting out in the lobby; it's mortifying even if the dwarf only comes up to his knees. Nakamaru learns early on to book Kame's appointments in the evening.
~*~
Nakamaru learns a lot of things as the days progress. He learns that Kame wanders from town to town with his nomadic clan, staying in place until suspicion flares and they find a new temporary home. He assures Nakamaru that his clan of vampires avoid causing humans harm at all costs and they look down on vampires who do.
"They give us a bad name," Kame explains. "We vampires do need blood, but not specifically human blood. It's a choice and they chose the wrong one and now the rest of us are stuck with the blame."
"So where do you get your blood from?" Nakamaru pulls his hand away from inspecting Kame's teeth so the other can speak. The fangs grow back every night, unable to retract, and Kame has now become a constant in his office, along with Ueda and Koki. No one bothers to complain about the shrill screams coming from his office after nightfall anymore.
"I prefer sheep. I can blame it on the wolves that way," Kame says with a cheeky smile, fangs now chiseled to normal sized stubs, and Nakamaru shakes his head.
"Koki is a nice guy, you know."
"He's the one who started barking at me first." Nakamaru rolls his eyes and turns to store the equipment in the cabinet. "You sound really fond of him..."
"Like I said, he's a nice guy.
He's pretty gentle for a werewolf. You should give him a chance," Nakamaru says and faces back to the high chair. "Do you need some ice for your jaw ag-"
"No thanks," Kame snaps and jumps off the chair, whizzing past Nakamaru. When he reaches the door, he pauses to shoot a glare over his shoulder before stepping out and slamming it shut with a dramatic flair.
"O-okay. No ice then," Nakamaru says into the blaring silence of his office and blinks dumbly at the door.
Was it something he said?
~*~
Nakamaru also learns that Kame's mood swings come and go, a complete mystery much like his teeth. It drives Nakamaru half insane so he tries not to give it much thought. At six in the evening sharp, the door to his office swings open and Kame bounces inside. There's not a shadow of anger in his beaming smile and the knot in Nakamaru's stomach eases.
"Feeling better?"
Kame shakes his head glumly and points at his mouth. "My lip hurts."
Nakamaru squints at him. That wasn't what he was referring to but getting a straight answer from Kame has proven to be as painful as pulling out wisdom teeth. Nakamaru lays down his pen and nods his head towards the high chair, moving to grab the drill when Kame is seated.
"Are you ready? Try not to scream so loud this time."
Kame gazes up at him, eyes clear and lips twitching at the corners. "I'm always ready for sensei."
The drill slips in his hands and Nakamaru hastens to tighten his grip. Kame has a knack for saying strange, nonsensical things at the most inopportune moments, things that make him pause in trying to understand, though he never does.
The flush creeping up his face argues otherwise, however.
"R-right. I'm going to count to three then," Nakamaru says and turns on the drill when the countdown ends.
There's no shrieking for once and Nakamaru sighs in relief-much too soon.
The sounds start slow, quiet gasps that end in hisses and eventually evolve into rumbling purrs. Moans.
Nakamaru stops the drill before he can cause permanent damage.
"W-what was that? What were are you doing?" Nakamaru squawks and he can almost feel the pink tinging the tips of his ears.
Kame tilts his head, eyes wide and confused. "It hurts."
"That... You didn't sound like you were in pain." Nakamaru has been a dentist for five years now. He knows what pain sounds like and this isn't it. It rather sounds like something that begins with a p and rhymes with measure but there is no way Nakamaru is saying that out loud. He'd rather swallow his bowtie. Yes, even the glittery purple one that happens to be his favourite.
Kame sits up suddenly, too close and too fast. "What did I sound like, sensei?"
His warm breath grazes across Nakamaru's nose and Nakamaru reels back like an elastic band stretched to its limit. He drops the drill on his foot and howls in pain, reaching down to clutch his aching toe and knocking his elbow into the cabinet. He watches in horror as it teeters and a microscope that costs more than Nakamaru's house tips over the edge.
Kame catches it before it touches the floor and splinters into pieces.
"Well, that was close. You should be more careful, sensei," Kame says, and Nakamaru thinks he prefers the shrill screams to the smirk unfurling across his face after all. The first murdered his ears but the latter does something funny to his system, something he really can't afford.
~*~
The noises don't stop though and as soon as Nakamaru has learned to tune them out, the writhing begins. The moans and groans spill into the air and Kame's body lurches along, dancing to his own tune. His neck stretches as his hips twist and buck and when he stops to look at Nakamaru, eyes dark and smirking under mussed hair, Nakamaru stumbles and nearly breaks the mirror hanging on the opposite wall.
When he stubs his other foot on the leg of his desk and spends the week hobbling on his heels, Nakamaru decides to make an investment.
"What's that?" Kame asks when Nakamaru places a large, metal cylinder onto the counter that lines a third of the office. He had ordered it a week ago and it had just arrived this morning. Nakamaru had nearly cried tears of relief at the sight.
"Anaesthetic gas," he explains as he adjusts the tubes and silver knobs. "Something to soothe the pain of the procedure."
"How kind. Sensei doesn't like to see me in pain," Kame says but there's a lilt to his voice that makes Nakamaru's hands clammy. He avoids Kame's grinning eyes to fidget with the button of his white coat.
"I don't like to see any of my patients in pain," he says and grabs the drill before remembering. "The gas might cause minor hallucinations but they'll wear off quickly."
Kame's eyebrows lift momentarily before settling into a concerned frown. He nods and Nakamaru is about to begin the procedure when Kame jumps from the chair and latches onto his arm and-and begins to chew.
Nakamaru feels his moist breath and the light pinches through the sleeve of his coat. He freaks out accordingly.
"W-What are you doing?! Kame, let go." He flails his arm so hard he can feel himself pulling a muscle. Kame stays latched on though, superhuman vampire strength and all.
"Ta... takoyaki..." he hears Kame mumble through a mouthful of cotton and everything clicks.
Nakamaru stills, standing in the middle of his office with a vampire hanging off his arm and a migraine setting camp just above the bridge of his nose.
"Kame... I haven't turned the gas on yet. Can you please stop chewing on me?"
Kame blinks up at him and slowly lets go, leaving a wet patch on his arm.
"N-no takoyaki...?"
"No."
"Oops."
Nakamaru sighs.
~*~
In a way, Nakamaru thinks with regret, the gas makes everything worse. Other than the hallucinations-he can't tell if they're real anymore and he's stopped trying-it has an added side effect of transforming Kame into an insufferable brat.
"Nakamura's nose is funny," Kame giggles and Nakamaru pulls away before his stubby fingers can grab it.
"Nakamaru."
"Nakamura?"
"Nakamaru."
"Oppa!" Kame chirps and Nakamaru gives up. He doesn't know what oppa means and he doubts Kame does either. He let's it go because it sounds a bit like oompa loompa and only Nishikido or someone with a bad tan can take offense at that.
"Sensei has big lips," Kame observes while Nakamaru checks his teeth, "and big hands. Big, pretty hands. I'm sure Nakamaru is big all over."
"You're just small," Nakamaru answers absently. It's something he hasn't failed to notice; Kame's entire physique is opposite to his own. Small, rough hands and thin lips that fold into giant pouts and smiles. Long, curling hair where his own falls flat in a tuft. Short versus tall. Their noses are the only similarity, similar in their oddness. There's a small bump along Kame's, only detectable from his profile, and Nakamaru is already running his finger over it before his mind catches up.
Kame grabs his hand before he can draw it back and there's a brush of lips across the inside of his wrist.
"Oppa," Kame exhales and his breath is warm. Ticklish.
"Nakamaru," he corrects and tugs his hand away.
He blames it on the gas. Both Kame and the pounding inside his chest.
The next day, the first thing he does when he arrives at the office is write a letter of complaint to the manufacturers:
Dear Johnnys&Co,
I regret to inform you that you have overlooked a very troubling side effect in consequence of your Pain Be Gone Gas. I purchased a tank just recently and asides from suffering hallucinations, it seems to be having a direct effect on the heart. When exposed to the gas, I have experienced strong palpitations and while they recede after ten minutes or so, I fear this may lead to more severe outcomes for patients already battling heart problems. Please take this into consideration when printing your warning label.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nakamaru Y.
~*~
At six o'clock sharp, there's a gasp.
Nakamaru looks up from his paper work to see Kame standing by the door, eyes unnervingly fixated on his face.
"You're wearing glasses," Kame breathes and Nakamaru can't understand the awe in his voice. The glasses are outdated, frames chunky and black and slightly too big for his face. He only wears them when he's going over important documents that abuse fineprint.
"They're my reading glasses."
"You look good! Sensei should wear them all the time," Kame says with an emphatic nod, creeping closer to the desk.
"I get a headache if I wear them too long." Nakamaru gets up and rounds the desk before Kame can lean over. He knows how the vampire works by now. "Hop on."
"Your lap?"
"The chair," Nakamaru sighs and hears Kame giggle as he takes out the equipment.
"Sensei, why do you never change your clothes? Don't they pay you enough?"
Nakamaru sputters and points to his argyle vest. "This is purple! Yesterday was green," he thinks back and adds, "and the day before was grey!"
Kame blinks at him. "You dress like an old man."
Nakamaru contorts his face into an expression he hopes is as suitably appalled as he feels.
"You're one to talk," he snaps. He doesn't see how Kame has any right to call him out on his fashion faux pas when he was the one wearing a white shirt that was almost sheer in how thin it was. And the pants. The ridiculously tight pants with shining strips that ran along the sides, inviting eyes to follow the length of his legs, up and under the hem of his shirt.
It's only when Kame releases a breathy chuckle that Nakamaru realises he's been caught staring.
"Like what you see, sensei?" Kame drawls and he's moving towards him before Nakamaru can combust into flames. He's cornered, back pressed against the steel cabinet, a hand at his waist while the other creeps under his sweater vest. "We can trade if you'd like."
"N-n-no thanks," Nakamaru stutters, trying to squirm away. He's nearly cross-eyed with how close Kame is, his nose just a centimeter away from the tip of his own. In the back of his mind, he can smell something like vanilla, strong and sweet. "K-kame," he gasps and it comes out as a laugh because there are fingers grazing his stomach and Nakamaru has always been secretly ticklish-but he's not amused. His clothes are wrinkling. "Kame, you-"
And that's how Koki finds them when he bursts through the door three seconds later, a cat in his arms.
~*~
Kame could have smelled the werewolf from a mile away. He wraps himself around Nakamaru's waist just as he enters, refusing to let go; he was this close to having his moment with the doctor. But when Nakamaru squirms helplessly, face blazing, Kame feels a twinge and takes pity, loosening his grip at last.
"Koki. We weren't-this isn't what it looks like," Nakamaru sputters, falling out of his hold. Kame feels empty and peevish as he watches the doctor take several steps back, fixing his clothes and skewed glasses.
"We were only going to trade clothes."
"Kame!"
Kame blows up his cheeks in a pout, knowing full well that Nakamaru can't answer to that.
"I didn't ask but... okay," Koki says slowly, eyes darting between them before he surfaces from the shock and runs to Nakamaru's desk. "Doc' she needs your help. I found her on the streets and she wasn't moving."
"I'm not a vet," Nakamaru says but leans forward to inspect the cat nonetheless. Kame stands to the side, ready to tug him back if he gets too close to the werewolf. A few minutes of incomprehensible muttering interspersed with a handful of tsks, Nakamaru leans back. "Her hindleg is injured. She might have been caught in something."
"Can you do anything to help her?" Koki asks and his voice is as pleading as the cat's mewl.
"I can bandage it and wrap it up in a sling, but you'll need to care for her. She won't be able to walk properly for a while."
Kame finds himself surprised when the werewolf agrees without a second's hesitation.
~*~
They step out of the clinic and into the night, Kame more than a little amused by the growls Koki sends his way. A blunt-toothed werewolf is about as terrifying as the kitty in his arms. Kame watches him coo at her with a howling current in his voice, scratching her head and planting kisses behind her ears. The affection is obvious and the question spills past Kame's lips before he can stop himself.
"Aren't werewolves supposed to hate cats? You're a canine at heart, after all."
Koki turns to him, eyes as sharp as his words. "Aren't werewolves supposed to attack humans? You're a bloodsucker at heart, after all." Kame raises a brow and Koki huffs, kissing the cat once more. "How could I hate this sweet little furball? Mythical fueds are stupid."
Again, he's surprised-but pleasantly so. He grins. "You hate me though. Jealous of my fangs?"
Koki snarls at him and Kame lifts his hands in placation, not being able to drop his smile.
"You're getting too close to Nakamaru," Koki growls.
And that's enough to make Kame's smile dissolve into a tight line.
"So, what's it to you? He can fend for himself."
"We both know that's not the case," Koki says with a barking laugh and Kame has to concede. Nakamaru's naivety is as much his weakness as it is his charm.
The cat releases another soft mewl and Kame steps foreward to scratch her neck. It's a promising sign when Koki doesn't shove him back; werewolves can be frustratingly territorial with a personal space bubble ten times larger than Nakamaru's.
"Get well soon, nyan-nyan," Kame says and mimics a purr. The cat reaches out to paw at his nose, purring in return. He laughs when he hears Koki grumble traitor under his breath and straightens to look Koki in the eye. "Truce?"
"Fine," Koki says after a long moment and while Kame can tell it comes out grudgingly, it's enough. The moon is waxing in the sky and it's silvery beams highlight Koki's features into something more feral, his hair standing on end, thick and bunched like fur. "But just know that... If Nakamaru gets hurt because of your stupid crush, I will personally-"
"Rip my throat out?" Kame finishes with a grin. "I'll be keeping you to that."
~*~
"Again? It's barely been a month."
"I can't help it, Doctor. I was horn this way," Taguchi says with a blinding smile and Nakamaru wishes life offered a rewind button so he could take back his question and never have to suffer through that awful, awful pun.
"So you want me to saw them off completely this time?"
Taguchi nods with a sad smile. Nakamaru doesn't know how exactly one manages a sad smile, but if anyone is capable, it's Taguchi.
"I can't wear hats like this and I found a really nice beret recently."
"Alright, if that's what you want," Nakamaru says and gets everything ready.
By the end of it, his arms are throbbing with a tired ache. Centaur horns are impossibly strong as it is but Taguchi being a halfling makes it slightly easier but not easy enough. When Nakamaru brushes away the shavings and stands back to admire his work, Taguchi can almost pass off as a human. He pulls Taguchi's hair up into a triangle to cover the remnants of his horns and the picture is complete.
Taguchi is fortunate to have taken more after his father; the only centaur features he inherited from his mother are the horns and his hooved feet which Taguchi keeps hidden in oversized shoes. It's not that Nakamaru discriminates against centaurs-he finds that all magical creatures have a certain beauty about them, trolls and ogres included-but he figures it's much easier to maneuvre in the human world without hindlegs.
He has also wondered about how Taguchi's parents got together, physically speaking, but he thinks it would be rude to ask.
There's a knock at the door and Nakamaru realises that the appointment has taken longer than he had anticipated.
"I'll need you to sign this before you leave." Nakamaru hands Taguchi a pen and the necessary document, the knocking at the door growing increasingly impatient.
"Thanks, Doctor!" Taguchi says and Nakamaru leads him to the door.
Kame is waiting on the other side with a deep scowl.
"Ah, a vampire!" Taguchi beams, entirely oblivious. "Do you know what vampires travel in?"
"I don't care," Kame hisses.
"Blood vessels!"
The icy look Kame pins him with makes Nakamaru flinch. Taguchi towers over Kame but there's something deadly in the way Kame holds himself, eyes narrowed and fangs glinting under the lobby lights, that has Nakamaru wishing Taguchi would leave as fast possible. For his own safety.
"I'll see you again, then," Nakamaru bumbles out and ushers Kame inside.
When the door closes again, he turns to see the glare now pinned onto him. It lacks the chilling edge but it's unnerving all the same. Nakamaru swallows.
"What were you doing with that horny guy?"
"I can't disclose that kind of information," Nakamaru says and wonders if it really came out as a squeaky as it sounds to his ears. Kame's eyes narrow further and Nakamaru feels his throat tighten proportionally. He scrambles behind his desk in long strides. "I have to respect the privacy of my patients."
"How considerate," Kame grits out-and then he's stalking forward and Nakamaru walks to the side, determined to keep the desk between them. They walk in circles as Kame's voice fills the room. "I was out there waiting and waiting, sensei. Do you know how hungry I am?"
"W-we can always book another appointment," Nakamaru tries and fails. It's somehow the worst thing he could have suggested because Kame has completely frozen now, something dark shifting in his eyes.
"But there's already a treat before me." The words are so low and husky that Nakamaru has to lean forward to hear them.
It's a mistake.
Kame lunges over the desk and has his face pressed against Nakamaru's neck in a blurry instant.
"Itadakimasu."
A wet strip draws along the line of his neck and Nakamaru shudders involuntarily before the panic sets in.
"Kame, stop it!" he snaps and when Kame presses closer, Nakamaru blindly reaches out and shoves him with everything he has. Kame has the advanatge in strength but he must have let his guard down because he stumbles back easily, his back knocking into the edge of Nakamaru's desk. A single pen rolls off, dropping to the floor with a quiet clink. "Kame...?" Nakamaru ventures.
Kame isn't looking at him, his head bent down towards the floor. His hair fall over his face, obscuring it with shadows.
"Your blood probably tastes gross anyway," Kame says and spins around, leaving the office before Nakamaru can catch a glimpse of his face.
The door doesn't bang shut and there's no dramatic adieu.
It makes everything worse.
~*~
The night air is cool and Kame sucks in large mouthfuls, the fire scorching his insides abating with every smoky exhale. His heaving chest begins to slow at last and he's thankful for the concrete at his back, rough and solid and creeping cold through the thin layer of his shirt. He closes his eyes and feels the ghost of Nakamaru's pulse against his lips, warm and fluttering like a ribbon in the wind. Tantalizing.
His eyes snap open.
Another mouthful of air.
Nakamaru's face breaks through the surface of his desperation and with a sick feeling in his gut, Kame recalls that the quickening of Nakamaru's pulse wasn't anything pretty like desire. It was fear.
He spins around and his fist connects with the wall, cracks creeping from his close fingers and into the concrete like flattened vines.
There's a sharp sting from where his skin has split open and for once he wishes his body wouldn't heal itself. The pain is grounding.
He needs to leave.
Another swing at the wall and Kame disappears.
~*~
The clock strikes six and the office door stays shut.
Nakamaru taps his pen on his desk and continues reading. It's a renewal of the clinic's annual contract with the Tooth Fairy; they always need a fresh stock of teeth handy for patients who were never able to grow their own or lost theirs eventually, age stripping them away. Or cavities, in Ueda's case.
It's five past six and there's no knock. No vampire.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Kame is usually always on time, if not early.
Nakamaru drops the pen and stands up. Cleaning seems like the easier task at the moment and he needs to move, to do something other than tap his pen with the passing of each second. He grabs a paper towel and begins to wipe down the counter, scrubbing hard at a dollop of dried toothpaste.
His eyes repeatedly flit to the round, black-framed clock hanging above the doorframe for the entire hour that Kame doesn't appear. And then it's time to close. He locks the door of the clinic and walks home, a mass of guilt snowballing in his gut, growing larger with every step.
~*~
It doesn't take much to worry Nakamaru and Kame not showing up for his daily appointment for a week is enough to wrap him in a tight blanket of anxiety. He knocks over the toothbrush dispenser and loses track of his paper work. He forgets to turn off the anaesthetic gas and spends an hour watching hallucination-induced fairies flutter about with Ueda giggling on the floor. Through the gaze fogging his mind, he thinks he sees Kame, sitting perched on his desk, but it's only a paper weight and Nakamaru feels both foolish and sad.
Nakamaru is a man of routine and Kame's absence is throwing it in disarray, scribbling over his neat to-do list. With no evening appointment, he leaves early. Which means he goes to bed early and as a result, he wakes up early, too. His jogging pace is skewed and his cereal grows soggy as he waits for the newspaper to hit his doorstep. All because Kame won't show up and give Nakamaru the chance to apologize.
Kame was a puppy and Nakamaru had kicked him away-or that's what it feels like. He had never wanted to erase Kame's smile. He loved smiles, and aside the mysterious fangs, there was something special about Kame's in the way it brought out his own. So in total, he had stolen two smiles.
He felt awful.
"Hey, watch it," Koki yelps and Nakamaru tunes back into the moment. The tooth file in his hand is dangerously close to Koki's eye and he hastily moves away.
"Sorry!"
Koki gives him a cautious once over and leans back onto the chair. "Just be careful, Doc'. You look a little out of it." Nakamaru bows again, embarrassed at his ammateur slip. Koki takes it with good humor, something Nakamaru has always appreciated him for, and releases a barking laugh that morphs into a sniff at the air. "So the vamp finally got his fangs fixed? The office smells better."
There's a twinge and Nakamaru reasons that he's irked in behalf of his office; it has always smelled good as far as his slightly large and human nose is concerned.
"Not quite," Nakamaru mutters and Koki snorts.
"Figures. He's still in town."
Nakamaru pauses, one of his worries evaporating into hope. "How do you know?"
Koki taps a black-tipped finger at his nose. "Heightened senses. I could smell him as soon as he stepped foot in town."
Hope balloons in Nakamaru's chest as he stumbles to request a favor.
~*~
The warehouse is abandoned but still in relatively good shape, the walls and windows intact even if murky with grime. There's a sign hanging on the door that reads: City Property. Soon to be site of construction. NO TRESSPASSING. Nakamaru looks up and down the streets, squinting through the sunlight, and indeed, no one seems to be gifting the building a second glance even as it stands in a busier part of town. It's hidden in its conspicuous shroud of every day wonders. It's really nothing special.
Nothing alluding the fact that it's playing refuge for traveling vampires.
But this is where Koki's nose had lead him and, keeping Kame's assurance that his kin played nice with humans, Nakamaru pushes through a pair of wooden doors with a shove of his shoulder. There's no lock or barrier and he figures that the doors are so splintered and old that no one would risk opening them, for fear of having them collapse.
Nakamaru blinks when he finds himself in an entryway of sorts; the interior of the warehouse is designed more like a regular house and he wonders if that's the vampires' doing. He walks towards the opening on the right, following the chatter and trying not to rustle the plastic bag in his hands, and feels much like an intruder.
There's a shove at his lower back and Nakamaru yelps, stumbling into a large room with red, velvet curtains draped across the walls. For a moment, he thinks he's standing in a jewelry box.
"Are you oppa?"
Nakamaru glances down to see a child grinning up at him, teeth sharp but fangs retracted. And then he takes a proper look and finds himself surrounded by not one but many children, each gaping at him with eager eyes and equally toothy smiles. The dentist in him admires all the pearly white.
"W-what?" Nakamaru coughs nervously. "I'm Doctor Nakamaru. A dentist. I'm here to see Kame."
"So you are oppa!" the child chirps, his smile as blinding as his golden hair.
"And he said he's here to see Kame," another kid coos and suddenly the room is filled with snickers and ooohs and Nakamaru can feel his face flushing despite himself. It's like elementary school all over again, back to the time he had stumbled into the girls' washroom purely by accident.
"You really do look like takoyaki," the golden haired boy says thoughtfully and then winces as a hand swats the back of his head. Nakamaru glances up to see Kame and there's a pang in his chest that's both joy and relief.
"Tama, don't bully sensei," Kame scolds but his mouth is twitching and Nakamaru doubts he means it. Kame looks at the rest of them. "And you munchkins, too. Go play in the other room. Sensei and I have to talk."
There's more snickering but the children obediantly gather and move through the door.
"Enjoy the oral care," another boy snickers as he leaves and Kame smacks him as well before shaking his head apologetically at Nakamaru, cheeks faintly pink.
"Kids say the darnest things, don't they?"
Nakamaru nods, thoroughly confused. "Are... are they all yours?"
"Ah, no! I would never turn anyone, especially not kids," Kame explains. "Their sires abandoned them so I took them in. I couldn't leave them... Poor little ones, living on the streets, all alone and edible..."
Kame punctuates the pause with lowered eyes and a giant pout and Nakamaru wonders if he's insane for missing such a face. He could really do without the constricting of his chest, however.
"That's nice," Nakamaru says and when the silence gets too awkward, he lifts the bag in his hand. "I brought you some blood packets. As an apology. F-for what happened," he stutters in what is the most awkward apology imaginable. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry...?"
Kame is staring at him, face unreadable.
"I didn't mean to push you," he explains and then rethinks his words. "I mean, I did. But only because I wanted you to stop. I didn't want you to go away or stop coming. I... I hope your back didn't get injured."
"My back?"
"From when you hit my desk."
Kame blinks so slowly that if Nakamaru was standing closer, he'd be able to track the sweep of his eyelashes.
And then there's a laugh, throaty and secretive. "Sensei really is one of a kind."
"I'm really not," Nakamaru chuckles in embarrassment, "but I truly am sor-"
"Don't. I don't want any apologies from you." Kame gives him a soft smile, one that Nakamaru can't remember receiving before. His chest is doing that funny hop-skip thing again. "You did nothing wrong, sensei. I'm thrilled that you came."
"Me too," Nakamaru says unthinkingly and Kame beams at him-and them something clicks. "Wait," he says and squints at Kame's mouth, "your fangs have retracted."
Kame's eyebrows disappear into his hair.
"What? No. W-wait a minute," he says and lifts a hand to his mouth. When it falls back to his side, the fangs are there again, curved and pointy. "They're back, sensei! It must have been hard to see them since the light is so dim. Can't have to much sunlight, you know? The kids get antsy."
There's something odd and not right and Nakamaru is this close to figuring it out when Kame bounds up to him.
"Treat meeeee," Kame whines with that too familiar grin and the missing puzzle piece falls from his grip. Nakamaru doesn't pay it much attention though because even as it niggles in the back his mind, having Kame back is more important. There's no attention to spare to other things when the vampire is nearby.
~*~
"Nakamura."
"Nakamaru."
"Xiaolongbao."
Kame giggles at Nakamaru's drawn out sigh. It's one of his favorite things about the doctor, his stoic and good humored reactions. He catches a faint smile on Nakamaru's face and his heart warms at the sight; they've become more frequent since his return. Kame didn't think he could possibly miss a face so much, didn't think he'd fall so hard and fast for the crinkles at the corners of Nakamaru's happy eyes.
What happened back then... he won't let it happen again. Never again. He's lucky enough that Nakamaru gave him a second chance, as simple-minded as it was, and he won't allow him to extend the courtesy again. Kame doesn't deserve it.
"Sensei's treatment hasn't been painful lately," Kame says softly and stretches along the chair as Nakamaru packs the drill away. He lets his eyelids droop as he bares his neck, knowing full well the image he's conjuring. The slight stumble when Nakamaru turns back is his payoff and he can't stop his smirk. "Does sensei have anything planned for this evening?"
"I have to head over to the archive room. I'm behind on the research and there are still so many files to go through."
Kame watches him set his desk in order before he moves to open the door, turning to Kame with a waiting look.
Kame hops off the chair. "Let me come with you. I promise to use my indoor voice."
"I can't-"
Kame gathers his lips in a forlorn pout.
"-okay, fine."
~*~
The archive room feels claustrophobic despite being huge. The walls are covered with hundreds of metal drawers that extend into mazes in the center of the room. Only a small portion of space near the entrance is free, set aside with tables and yellow lamps. Everything smells like paper and dust and the amount of stored information boggles Kame as he steps inside, his footsteps echoing as he follows Nakamaru to a table.
"I've already reserved some of the files earlier," Nakamaru says and points to a trolley stacked to the brim. Kame gapes.
"Some, you say?"
Nakamaru shrugs and transfers a pile onto the table with a bit of struggle. "It's not as bad as it seems," Nakamaru says, eyeing the papers in resignation, and Kame can't tell who he's trying to convince.
Kame takes the seat beside him. "How many have you gone through?"
"About a thumbs length, but so far there's been no documented case of a vampire with unretractable teeth." Nakamaru flashes him a grin that glows soft and hauntingly beautiful under the lamplights. "Now who's one of a kind?"
Kame looks away, trying to douse the urge to kiss him. Never again.
... Well, at least not until Nakamaru is ready.
"Sensei, you don't have to do all this. I don't mind coming over for your treatment. I don't mind at all."
Nakamaru shakes his head and grabs a file. "No, I promised to find a cure and I will. I can't call myself a doctor otherwise."
You're just a masochist who can't stop helping people, Kame wants to say but swallows it down. He's deeply touched and the guilt is gnawing away at his insides but he knows there's no use fighting against Nakamaru's kind heart without revealing the truth. And that's not something Kame's ready for yet. The only connection he has with Nakamaru is built on a lie and it's not strong enough to stand on it's own.
Not yet at least; Kame is still working on that.
He grabs a file as well and the research commences. It's as painful as it is futile and he spends the hour sneaking glances to the side. A close up view of Nakamaru in his sexy glasses is well worth it.
-> part 2
From: scorch66
Title: Found My Way
Pairings/Characters: Nakamaru/Kame
Rating: PG
Warnings: nada
Notes: Hi maayacola <3 I read 'wacky!AU' in your sign up and I thought, what's whackier than a canon-inspired AU? I hope you enjoy this. =)
Summary: AU. Nakamaru is a dentist for a clinic that serves magical creatures. He has regular patients and a regular routine, and then his new client arrives. Things change.
part 1 || part 2
Nakamaru leads a normal life.
He wakes up at 7am sharp, goes jogging around the block, and five laps later, returns to a bowl of cereal and a mandarin orange. He skims the newspaper and puts on the clothes he had laid out the night before-a pair of slacks alternating between beige and gray with an argyle sweater vest to match-and by nine, he's pushing open the doors of his clinic.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, his first patient arrives as he always does, angling through the door so his wings don't get caught.
"Again?"
Ueda nods with a sad frown, a hand held to his jaw and cheek.
Nakamaru sighs. "I know you love sugar plums but your cavities are never going to end if you don't stop eating them."
"I don't want to stop," Ueda grumbles and his wings flutter petulantly; they're almost transluscent but Nakamaru has always admired the way they shimmer with the colors of the rainbow. "And toothpaste tastes gross."
The same old protest. Nakamaru doesn't offer floss anymore, not after Ueda somehow managed to nearly strangle himself with it. Fairies were deceptively strong, but they were not known for their attentiveness.
"Hop on the chair, then," Nakamaru says and thirty minutes later, Ueda is skipping out the door, a dazzling smile pasted on his face. Nakamaru takes a moment to enjoy the result even though he knows Ueda will be back the next day, cavities anew. In his darkest hours, Nakamaru weeps for his poor teeth.
He calls for the custodian to sweep away the fairy dust scattered across his office. His next patient, Koki, should be arriving any minute and he does not want to tickle any werewolf allergies.
~*~
If asked why he had chosen the field of dental health, Nakamaru would answer that he liked smiles. If asked why he had chosen to branch out to the magic community, then... well... Nakamaru would answer that he needed something to balance out his ordinary.
~*~
It's dark when the clinic closes and Nakamaru's phone buzzes in the pocket of his coat. He ends the call after a few minutes of weary sighs and begins a sprint down the street to the west side of town.
While not a part of his schedule, the call wasn't entirely unexpected. One would think a troll would know how to move around bridges, but not Akanishi. He was always getting stuck, choosing the smallest bridges to hide under because they felt 'cozier' and somehow, Nakamaru had ended up being his saviour.
A part of him regrets it because Akanishi never learns, but Nakamaru can't bring himself to refuse. He blames his medical training because even though he was never taught the best technique to ease out trapped trolls from under bridges, the urge to provide aid was now ingrained in his system. Nakamaru, ever the good samaritan, making his life hard one outstretched hand at a time.
He doesn't often venture to this side of town-never after dark-and for good reason. The sidewalk is chipping away and the air is thick with pollution, factories that resemble haunted houses in the dark of the night chugging out smog with rumbling coughs. There's no bridge in sight but he can hear the faint trickling of water and Nakamaru makes to follow it when another hidden sound creeps into his awareness.
Footsteps.
He has just enough time to feel a prickle of terror crawl up his spine before he's thrown against the brick wall of a rundown factory. His head throbs and he blinks through the stars to see two, pointed streaks of white lunging at him.
He snaps his eyes shut, offers a silent prayer, and waits for the piercing pain.
It never comes.
~*~
Kame weighs the pouch in his hand and grins at the jingle of coins inside. It's a fair trade for helping a troll. Kimura had always taught him never to take money from humans but there was no rule against trading for money that had been stolen prior to the trade and trolls were fair game. Foolish trolls even better, Kame thinks and pockets the pouch. If the creatures of this town were all this hapless, he might just enjoy his stay more than he had initially thought.
Even if the place reeks of Others-vampires foreign from his kin.
So the town is already occupied; he wonders if Kimura knows. Kame has always found a thrill in tresspassing territory but the scent itches at his skin in ways he can't control, hyperaware and tensing.
A muffled impact funnels to his ears, the smell of blood-human blood-wafting to his nose and Kame is sprinting around the corner, his mind piecing together the flood of sensations into a single goal.
Rescue.
He tackles the Other before he can strike and they roll onto the pavement, hissing and punching. There's a blow to his head and Kame returns it with a knee to the gut before they clamber apart. His fangs have elongated instinctively and he licks at them, scraping his tongue and letting the faint drop of his own blood ground him.
The Other is worse off from their scuffle and Kame risks a glance back. The human is still there, watching them with a gaping mouth and thankfully his neck is smooth and unmarred. When Kame turns back, the Other is gone and Kame blinks, stunned by the stealthy speed. The air is clear of scent and his skin stops itching at last.
He shoulders sag, muscles unclenching, and Kame turns to the man with a flourish.
"Are you stupid?"
~*~
Nakamaru is too busy steadying his stampeding heart and sending figurative fruit baskets with thank you notes to the heavens, that he doesn't hear the question at first. It's when a hand is waving in front of him that he snaps out of his daze with an audible gasp. His eyes fix to the twin fangs instantly and, oddly enough, his fear takes a backseat in the face of the pearly white dentin. Now here was a vampire who new how to take care of his teeth.
There's a tsk and the fangs retract into square buds no different from the ones that line Nakamaru's gums. Nakamaru looks up and there's just enough moonlight for him to make out an impatient face with furrowed brows.
"Are you hurt?" the vampire asks and Nakamaru finds his tongue at last.
"N-no. You came just in time. I would have been. But I'm not. Thank you," he bumbles out and wonders if it's the trick of the moonlight when he sees a flicker of a smile. The vampire is clearly a male-well, not clearly. If Nakamaru hadn't heard his voice, he wouldn't have known. There's a delicacy to his features thats contrasts the width of his shoulders and strong neck, and Nakamaru recalls that vampires were known for their ethereal, androgynous beauty. Something about a mechanism to lure in prey.
The clouds shift and Nakamaru doesn't have to squint to see the gash along the vampire's temple.
"You're the injured one," Nakamaru admonishes before instinct takes over and he digs into his coat pocket to pull out a packet of bandages. It was a habit to carry them around, along with a toothbrush and a roll of floss. Nakamaru doesn't often receive vampire clients at his clinic but he figures anyone can benefit from a bandage. "Here. For your gash."
The vampire stares at the offered bandage for a moment and this time, Nakamaru is sure the smile is real.
"I'm a vampire."
"I know."
"You were just attacked by a vampire."
"I was saved by one, too," Nakamaru returns and waves the bandage. "Take it."
"You're not scared." It's the hollow shock in his voice that reminds Nakamaru of the peculiarity of the situation.
He shrugs and manages a smile. "I run a dental clinic at the Magical Maladies For Monsters And Myths Center. There's not much I haven't seen, vampires included. Everyone cries when they go under the drill, human or not. It lends a new perspective."
The vampire is silent for a long moment before he huffs in laughter. He leans forward, so close and sudden that Nakamaru thinks he's going for his neck-but there's only a whisper in his ear, a graze of lips against the outer shell.
"Well then, sensei. Treat me well."
~*~
Kame's fingers trace over the bandage at his temple and he thinks of the careful way the doctor had put it on, hands gentle and precise, his face attentive. Cute. The gash is probably sewn together by now thanks to the excelerated healing ability of his body-an ability he had kept secret because being fretted over was something new and wonderful.
He remembers the way the doctor had stiffened like the brick wall behind him when Kame had leaned in.
"It's risky, Kazuya. You know better."
It's still nightfall but unfortunately, the darkness does nothing to hide his smile.
"I do," Kame mutters, not meeting Kimura's knowing eyes, "but a little fun doesn't hurt."
"As long as you remember that."
Kame nods. When Kimura's voice had cut through the darkness, Kame had moved away with a parting glance and not a single word of farewell. He didn't think it was necessary, not when he knew he'd be meeting the doctor again.
~*~
Nakamaru sleeps soundly and wakes up to his usual routine. He jogs and eats his cereal and deposits the orange peels in his compost bin. The only difference is that he forgot to lay out his clothes for today and so he sifts through his closet and pulls out a blue collared shirt. A matching argyle vest follows as usual. He's running a little late but when he arrives at the clinic, Koki is waiting for him, bemonaing the blunt state of his teeth, also as usual.
"Your teeth are fine, Koki," Nakamaru assures for the hundreth time. "They're clean and healthy. You should be proud."
Koki burries his face in his hands and releases a whine from deep in his throat. It gets to Nakamaru everytime.
"You don't understand. The pack is starting to talk," Koki lifts his head with pleading eyes. "They used to be terrified of me but now... I can hear them laughing. They call me," Koki takes a deep breath, "...a pup."
With his flashy clothes and exuberant affection, Nakamaru can see why but he wisely keeps the thought to himself.
"Isn't that a good thing? You don't want to scare them away."
Koki sits up, puffing out his chest. He's small, shorter than Nakamaru in his human form, but Nakamaru has seen Koki during a full moon once and he knows the man is a force to be reckoned with-despite his baby teeth.
"For a werewolf-"
"-pride is everything," Nakamaru finishes with a sigh. "Get on the chair, then."
Koki engulfs him in a bone-crushing hug before complying and Nakamaru rubs his sore arms wondering how anyone could compare his strength to a baby's. And then he justs accepts it as he has learned to do when dealing with those magically inclined; his ordinary logic rarely ever applies to their extraordinary world.
He pulls out his tools and begins the procedure, chipping at the gorgeous enamel even if it stabs at his soul. It's long and tedious but once it's over, he hands Koki a mirror to see his new sharp-toothed smile and Nakamaru carefully steps away to avoid another a hug.
He's expecting a thank you but what he gets is: "What's that smell?"
Nakamaru blinks and takes a whiff. The room smells of minty toothpaste just as it always does. "What smell?"
Koki takes another deep breath and makes a gagging motion, nearly dropping the mirror. Nakamaru takes it from him before it shatters.
"It's sickly sweet... like vanilla," Koki explains and there's an underlying growl reverberating with his words. "There's a vampire nearby."
"Vampire?" Nakamaru echoes and his hand goes to his ear reflexively. He drops it with a cough as soon as he realises and walks to his desk. He reads over the list of appointments he had forgotten to check when he had arrived late, and stares.
Name: Kamenashi Kazuya
Magical Category: Vampire
Affliction: Unretractable Fangs
Time: 10 a.m.
"It's a patient?" Koki asks and Nakamaru lifts his head to see the werewolf watching him, teeth bared. For a horrifying moment, Nakamaru thinks he's about to have another allergic reaction and transform in his office, but Koki remains the same, wrapped in human skin with the only hint of fur being his wild blond hair. Nakamaru breathes a sigh of relief and nods, watching Koki's scowl grow. "Be careful around those blood suckers, Doc'. Don't let their looks fool you."
Nakamaru finds that considerably ironic coming from a werewolf but smiles in thanks because it's Koki and for as long as Nakamaru has known him, Koki has never harbored any ill intentions towards him.
Five minutes after Koki leaves, there's a loud growl echoing from outside and Nakamaru rounds his desk in haste, fearing an altercation in the lobby, when the door swings open and a lithe figure with a familiar face struts inside.
~*~
"Hi, sensei," Kame chirps and grins wider at the doctor's stunned expression. "Are all the werewolves around here this testy?"
He seats himself in the chair just opposite to a modest sized desk and waits for the doctor to regain his bearings-which he does after another moment or so, scrambling behind his desk and coughing in a professional manner. He's really too adorable.
"You're the vampire from last night," the doctor observes and Kame watches his eyes flicker to his forehead, his visible worry melting away. "Your wound has healed."
He sounds surprised but there's a quiet relief in his voice and Kame can't help smiling at that.
"Sensei's very skillful."
The doctor hesitates briefly and Kame thinks he could do this all day, press hidden reaction buttons and watch the doctor battle down his flustered response into deadpan calmness. It's an odd feeling, wanting to both protect the doctor and simultaneously make him crack. He supposes that, despite centuries of wisdom, he has never really graduated from flipping skirts in the schoolyard. It's a subtle flirtation he enjoys.
"Um. Right. Thank you," the doctor says with a polite bow of his head, and then he glances down at a document. "You're... Kamenashi."
"Kame. You can call me Kame, sensei."
"Okay. Kame." The doctor points to the long name plaque sitting on his desk. "I'm Dr. Nakamaru. How may I help you?"
"Nakamaru," Kame says, rolling the name around his tongue, "Sounds nice!" He then leans in to whisper, voice lowered and trembling. "I... Sensei, I have a problem. Last night, ever since I met you... they won't stop growing. It hurts inside."
"Ah, right. Your teeth. It says here your fangs won't retract," Nakamaru replies in a tone that's entirely matter-of-fact. Kame leans back, more amused than he should be. The doctor is more naive than he had initially thought; he'd have to take baby steps. The doctor continues, "But I recall your teeth contracting just fine after you scared the other vampire off... Any idea how it happened?"
Naive but observant, Kame corrects.
"I don't know, sensei," Kame answers woefully, summoning a giant pout. "That was the last time I was able to retract them. They're always sticking out and now I have a lisp. And my lip hurts."
"This is strange. I've never had a case like this before. The few vampires I've helped previously had the opposite problem; they couldn't elongate."
"Oh, I can elongate just fine," Kame replies with a smirk that soars meters above Nakamaru's head.
"I'll have to look into that," Nakamaru says, face serious with thought. "We have papers on vampire ailments and there should be a similar case. In the meantime, I can drill down the fangs if they're too painful and are interrupting your daily activities," -Kame nods emphatically- "but unfortunately, I don't have the proper equipment with me at the moment. I can have them by tomorrow if you'd like?"
Kame beams. "What time do you want me, sensei?"
~*~
Nakamaru spends the evening in the archive room, flipping through papers yellowed and creased with age, the text worn and useless. There are cases of vampires intolerant to blood, a subsect of vampires who get trapped in their bat form, vampires who are immune to garlic and daylight, but nothing about vampires who can't retract their fangs. It's startling and Nakamaru suspects that someone didn't find dental hygiene noteworthy enough to document.
There are drawers upon drawers filled with documents, however, and Nakamaru has only managed to get through one by the time he gives up, and heads home, his eyes clogged with sleep. He'll continue searching until he finds something because that's what he does, but for now he'll have to stick to plan B, as painful as it is.
~*~
"Sorry about calling you so early. It must be tough, maneuvering in the sunlight," Nakamaru says as he continues to prepare the equipment. Kame is seated on the high chair, the back rest lowered for him to lie back on. Nakamaru glances back to see Kame sprawled over the chair, his eyes watching Nakamaru's movements. He seems to be fairly interested in the equipment.
"It's no problem. A little sunlight just makes me itchy and there are plenty of shadows to hop around in. I'm happy sensei wanted to see me so soon," Kame hums. A bolt slips from Nakamaru's hand and he clicks his tongue as he bends to grab it. "Plus, the scenery is lovely in the morning," he hears Kame mumble as he pulls himself upright.
"The town really is beautiful," Nakamaru replies, joining together the metal pieces of the drill and turning to Kame. "The weather is great and the people, both magical and otherwise, are nice. It's only the westside you have to avoid, but even that part is tolerable in the day."
"You shouldn't go there again, sensei." The gravity of his voice makes Nakamaru pause and he looks up to see Kame giving him a hard look. "It's dangerous. The vampires of your town aren't the friendly sort."
"I know," Nakamaru says slowly. "I don't make a habit to venture to the westside. It was an emergency."
"Emergency?"
"Someone was stuck under a bridge and needed my help."
"Akanishi?" The names comes out as a wheeze and Nakamaru questions in surprise.
"You know him?"
"Hardly," Kame says with a wave of a small hand before fixing a disbelieving gaze on Nakamaru. "Are you tellimg me you knowingly walked into a vampire nest to help a troll?"
Well, that was one way to put it, Nakamaru thinks with a wince.
"I wouldn't call it a nest, exactly. There was only one of them and besides. It was the right thing to do."
"The right thing..." Kame repeats in a hollow echo. "Like helping a foreign vampire in the middle of the night without considering the very likely possibility that he might have been competing for a chance at your neck. That sounds right to you?"
Nakamaru rubs the nape of his neck sheepishly, a tad embarrassed. "It's just... I can't not help. I'm a doctor, after all."
Kame gives him a long, unnerving look before falling back and sighing to the ceiling. "Sensei is one of a kind."
Nakamaru shrugs, moving over to the chair now that the drill is locked and ready. "I'm sure lots of people would do the same if given the chance."
"You really believe that, don't you?"
"Why not?"
"Sensei is naive, too," Kame says and bares his fangs when Nakamaru nudges his cheek.
"This is going to hurt quite a bit, but the important thing is to keep your mouth wide open. It'll hurt more if your lip gets caught."
"Don't worry, sensei. I'm good with my mouth," Kame returns with a twitch of the lips and Nakamaru nods, angling the drill against a long fang.
The room buzzes for an entire minute before Kame releases an ear-splitting screech and rolls off the chair, tightly clutching his jaw. Nakamaru turns off the drill at once, panic seizing him.
"Did I get your lip? Are you bleeding?"
Kame lifts a shaky, accusing finger at him from where he's curled up on the floor, tears welling in his eyes. "Nakamaru is a sadist."
The procedure ends up taking more than an hour and Nakamaru has to reschedule his following apointments, earning a thorough tongue lashing from Nishikido who had been waiting out in the lobby; it's mortifying even if the dwarf only comes up to his knees. Nakamaru learns early on to book Kame's appointments in the evening.
~*~
Nakamaru learns a lot of things as the days progress. He learns that Kame wanders from town to town with his nomadic clan, staying in place until suspicion flares and they find a new temporary home. He assures Nakamaru that his clan of vampires avoid causing humans harm at all costs and they look down on vampires who do.
"They give us a bad name," Kame explains. "We vampires do need blood, but not specifically human blood. It's a choice and they chose the wrong one and now the rest of us are stuck with the blame."
"So where do you get your blood from?" Nakamaru pulls his hand away from inspecting Kame's teeth so the other can speak. The fangs grow back every night, unable to retract, and Kame has now become a constant in his office, along with Ueda and Koki. No one bothers to complain about the shrill screams coming from his office after nightfall anymore.
"I prefer sheep. I can blame it on the wolves that way," Kame says with a cheeky smile, fangs now chiseled to normal sized stubs, and Nakamaru shakes his head.
"Koki is a nice guy, you know."
"He's the one who started barking at me first." Nakamaru rolls his eyes and turns to store the equipment in the cabinet. "You sound really fond of him..."
"Like I said, he's a nice guy.
He's pretty gentle for a werewolf. You should give him a chance," Nakamaru says and faces back to the high chair. "Do you need some ice for your jaw ag-"
"No thanks," Kame snaps and jumps off the chair, whizzing past Nakamaru. When he reaches the door, he pauses to shoot a glare over his shoulder before stepping out and slamming it shut with a dramatic flair.
"O-okay. No ice then," Nakamaru says into the blaring silence of his office and blinks dumbly at the door.
Was it something he said?
~*~
Nakamaru also learns that Kame's mood swings come and go, a complete mystery much like his teeth. It drives Nakamaru half insane so he tries not to give it much thought. At six in the evening sharp, the door to his office swings open and Kame bounces inside. There's not a shadow of anger in his beaming smile and the knot in Nakamaru's stomach eases.
"Feeling better?"
Kame shakes his head glumly and points at his mouth. "My lip hurts."
Nakamaru squints at him. That wasn't what he was referring to but getting a straight answer from Kame has proven to be as painful as pulling out wisdom teeth. Nakamaru lays down his pen and nods his head towards the high chair, moving to grab the drill when Kame is seated.
"Are you ready? Try not to scream so loud this time."
Kame gazes up at him, eyes clear and lips twitching at the corners. "I'm always ready for sensei."
The drill slips in his hands and Nakamaru hastens to tighten his grip. Kame has a knack for saying strange, nonsensical things at the most inopportune moments, things that make him pause in trying to understand, though he never does.
The flush creeping up his face argues otherwise, however.
"R-right. I'm going to count to three then," Nakamaru says and turns on the drill when the countdown ends.
There's no shrieking for once and Nakamaru sighs in relief-much too soon.
The sounds start slow, quiet gasps that end in hisses and eventually evolve into rumbling purrs. Moans.
Nakamaru stops the drill before he can cause permanent damage.
"W-what was that? What were are you doing?" Nakamaru squawks and he can almost feel the pink tinging the tips of his ears.
Kame tilts his head, eyes wide and confused. "It hurts."
"That... You didn't sound like you were in pain." Nakamaru has been a dentist for five years now. He knows what pain sounds like and this isn't it. It rather sounds like something that begins with a p and rhymes with measure but there is no way Nakamaru is saying that out loud. He'd rather swallow his bowtie. Yes, even the glittery purple one that happens to be his favourite.
Kame sits up suddenly, too close and too fast. "What did I sound like, sensei?"
His warm breath grazes across Nakamaru's nose and Nakamaru reels back like an elastic band stretched to its limit. He drops the drill on his foot and howls in pain, reaching down to clutch his aching toe and knocking his elbow into the cabinet. He watches in horror as it teeters and a microscope that costs more than Nakamaru's house tips over the edge.
Kame catches it before it touches the floor and splinters into pieces.
"Well, that was close. You should be more careful, sensei," Kame says, and Nakamaru thinks he prefers the shrill screams to the smirk unfurling across his face after all. The first murdered his ears but the latter does something funny to his system, something he really can't afford.
~*~
The noises don't stop though and as soon as Nakamaru has learned to tune them out, the writhing begins. The moans and groans spill into the air and Kame's body lurches along, dancing to his own tune. His neck stretches as his hips twist and buck and when he stops to look at Nakamaru, eyes dark and smirking under mussed hair, Nakamaru stumbles and nearly breaks the mirror hanging on the opposite wall.
When he stubs his other foot on the leg of his desk and spends the week hobbling on his heels, Nakamaru decides to make an investment.
"What's that?" Kame asks when Nakamaru places a large, metal cylinder onto the counter that lines a third of the office. He had ordered it a week ago and it had just arrived this morning. Nakamaru had nearly cried tears of relief at the sight.
"Anaesthetic gas," he explains as he adjusts the tubes and silver knobs. "Something to soothe the pain of the procedure."
"How kind. Sensei doesn't like to see me in pain," Kame says but there's a lilt to his voice that makes Nakamaru's hands clammy. He avoids Kame's grinning eyes to fidget with the button of his white coat.
"I don't like to see any of my patients in pain," he says and grabs the drill before remembering. "The gas might cause minor hallucinations but they'll wear off quickly."
Kame's eyebrows lift momentarily before settling into a concerned frown. He nods and Nakamaru is about to begin the procedure when Kame jumps from the chair and latches onto his arm and-and begins to chew.
Nakamaru feels his moist breath and the light pinches through the sleeve of his coat. He freaks out accordingly.
"W-What are you doing?! Kame, let go." He flails his arm so hard he can feel himself pulling a muscle. Kame stays latched on though, superhuman vampire strength and all.
"Ta... takoyaki..." he hears Kame mumble through a mouthful of cotton and everything clicks.
Nakamaru stills, standing in the middle of his office with a vampire hanging off his arm and a migraine setting camp just above the bridge of his nose.
"Kame... I haven't turned the gas on yet. Can you please stop chewing on me?"
Kame blinks up at him and slowly lets go, leaving a wet patch on his arm.
"N-no takoyaki...?"
"No."
"Oops."
Nakamaru sighs.
~*~
In a way, Nakamaru thinks with regret, the gas makes everything worse. Other than the hallucinations-he can't tell if they're real anymore and he's stopped trying-it has an added side effect of transforming Kame into an insufferable brat.
"Nakamura's nose is funny," Kame giggles and Nakamaru pulls away before his stubby fingers can grab it.
"Nakamaru."
"Nakamura?"
"Nakamaru."
"Oppa!" Kame chirps and Nakamaru gives up. He doesn't know what oppa means and he doubts Kame does either. He let's it go because it sounds a bit like oompa loompa and only Nishikido or someone with a bad tan can take offense at that.
"Sensei has big lips," Kame observes while Nakamaru checks his teeth, "and big hands. Big, pretty hands. I'm sure Nakamaru is big all over."
"You're just small," Nakamaru answers absently. It's something he hasn't failed to notice; Kame's entire physique is opposite to his own. Small, rough hands and thin lips that fold into giant pouts and smiles. Long, curling hair where his own falls flat in a tuft. Short versus tall. Their noses are the only similarity, similar in their oddness. There's a small bump along Kame's, only detectable from his profile, and Nakamaru is already running his finger over it before his mind catches up.
Kame grabs his hand before he can draw it back and there's a brush of lips across the inside of his wrist.
"Oppa," Kame exhales and his breath is warm. Ticklish.
"Nakamaru," he corrects and tugs his hand away.
He blames it on the gas. Both Kame and the pounding inside his chest.
The next day, the first thing he does when he arrives at the office is write a letter of complaint to the manufacturers:
Dear Johnnys&Co,
I regret to inform you that you have overlooked a very troubling side effect in consequence of your Pain Be Gone Gas. I purchased a tank just recently and asides from suffering hallucinations, it seems to be having a direct effect on the heart. When exposed to the gas, I have experienced strong palpitations and while they recede after ten minutes or so, I fear this may lead to more severe outcomes for patients already battling heart problems. Please take this into consideration when printing your warning label.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nakamaru Y.
~*~
At six o'clock sharp, there's a gasp.
Nakamaru looks up from his paper work to see Kame standing by the door, eyes unnervingly fixated on his face.
"You're wearing glasses," Kame breathes and Nakamaru can't understand the awe in his voice. The glasses are outdated, frames chunky and black and slightly too big for his face. He only wears them when he's going over important documents that abuse fineprint.
"They're my reading glasses."
"You look good! Sensei should wear them all the time," Kame says with an emphatic nod, creeping closer to the desk.
"I get a headache if I wear them too long." Nakamaru gets up and rounds the desk before Kame can lean over. He knows how the vampire works by now. "Hop on."
"Your lap?"
"The chair," Nakamaru sighs and hears Kame giggle as he takes out the equipment.
"Sensei, why do you never change your clothes? Don't they pay you enough?"
Nakamaru sputters and points to his argyle vest. "This is purple! Yesterday was green," he thinks back and adds, "and the day before was grey!"
Kame blinks at him. "You dress like an old man."
Nakamaru contorts his face into an expression he hopes is as suitably appalled as he feels.
"You're one to talk," he snaps. He doesn't see how Kame has any right to call him out on his fashion faux pas when he was the one wearing a white shirt that was almost sheer in how thin it was. And the pants. The ridiculously tight pants with shining strips that ran along the sides, inviting eyes to follow the length of his legs, up and under the hem of his shirt.
It's only when Kame releases a breathy chuckle that Nakamaru realises he's been caught staring.
"Like what you see, sensei?" Kame drawls and he's moving towards him before Nakamaru can combust into flames. He's cornered, back pressed against the steel cabinet, a hand at his waist while the other creeps under his sweater vest. "We can trade if you'd like."
"N-n-no thanks," Nakamaru stutters, trying to squirm away. He's nearly cross-eyed with how close Kame is, his nose just a centimeter away from the tip of his own. In the back of his mind, he can smell something like vanilla, strong and sweet. "K-kame," he gasps and it comes out as a laugh because there are fingers grazing his stomach and Nakamaru has always been secretly ticklish-but he's not amused. His clothes are wrinkling. "Kame, you-"
And that's how Koki finds them when he bursts through the door three seconds later, a cat in his arms.
~*~
Kame could have smelled the werewolf from a mile away. He wraps himself around Nakamaru's waist just as he enters, refusing to let go; he was this close to having his moment with the doctor. But when Nakamaru squirms helplessly, face blazing, Kame feels a twinge and takes pity, loosening his grip at last.
"Koki. We weren't-this isn't what it looks like," Nakamaru sputters, falling out of his hold. Kame feels empty and peevish as he watches the doctor take several steps back, fixing his clothes and skewed glasses.
"We were only going to trade clothes."
"Kame!"
Kame blows up his cheeks in a pout, knowing full well that Nakamaru can't answer to that.
"I didn't ask but... okay," Koki says slowly, eyes darting between them before he surfaces from the shock and runs to Nakamaru's desk. "Doc' she needs your help. I found her on the streets and she wasn't moving."
"I'm not a vet," Nakamaru says but leans forward to inspect the cat nonetheless. Kame stands to the side, ready to tug him back if he gets too close to the werewolf. A few minutes of incomprehensible muttering interspersed with a handful of tsks, Nakamaru leans back. "Her hindleg is injured. She might have been caught in something."
"Can you do anything to help her?" Koki asks and his voice is as pleading as the cat's mewl.
"I can bandage it and wrap it up in a sling, but you'll need to care for her. She won't be able to walk properly for a while."
Kame finds himself surprised when the werewolf agrees without a second's hesitation.
~*~
They step out of the clinic and into the night, Kame more than a little amused by the growls Koki sends his way. A blunt-toothed werewolf is about as terrifying as the kitty in his arms. Kame watches him coo at her with a howling current in his voice, scratching her head and planting kisses behind her ears. The affection is obvious and the question spills past Kame's lips before he can stop himself.
"Aren't werewolves supposed to hate cats? You're a canine at heart, after all."
Koki turns to him, eyes as sharp as his words. "Aren't werewolves supposed to attack humans? You're a bloodsucker at heart, after all." Kame raises a brow and Koki huffs, kissing the cat once more. "How could I hate this sweet little furball? Mythical fueds are stupid."
Again, he's surprised-but pleasantly so. He grins. "You hate me though. Jealous of my fangs?"
Koki snarls at him and Kame lifts his hands in placation, not being able to drop his smile.
"You're getting too close to Nakamaru," Koki growls.
And that's enough to make Kame's smile dissolve into a tight line.
"So, what's it to you? He can fend for himself."
"We both know that's not the case," Koki says with a barking laugh and Kame has to concede. Nakamaru's naivety is as much his weakness as it is his charm.
The cat releases another soft mewl and Kame steps foreward to scratch her neck. It's a promising sign when Koki doesn't shove him back; werewolves can be frustratingly territorial with a personal space bubble ten times larger than Nakamaru's.
"Get well soon, nyan-nyan," Kame says and mimics a purr. The cat reaches out to paw at his nose, purring in return. He laughs when he hears Koki grumble traitor under his breath and straightens to look Koki in the eye. "Truce?"
"Fine," Koki says after a long moment and while Kame can tell it comes out grudgingly, it's enough. The moon is waxing in the sky and it's silvery beams highlight Koki's features into something more feral, his hair standing on end, thick and bunched like fur. "But just know that... If Nakamaru gets hurt because of your stupid crush, I will personally-"
"Rip my throat out?" Kame finishes with a grin. "I'll be keeping you to that."
~*~
"Again? It's barely been a month."
"I can't help it, Doctor. I was horn this way," Taguchi says with a blinding smile and Nakamaru wishes life offered a rewind button so he could take back his question and never have to suffer through that awful, awful pun.
"So you want me to saw them off completely this time?"
Taguchi nods with a sad smile. Nakamaru doesn't know how exactly one manages a sad smile, but if anyone is capable, it's Taguchi.
"I can't wear hats like this and I found a really nice beret recently."
"Alright, if that's what you want," Nakamaru says and gets everything ready.
By the end of it, his arms are throbbing with a tired ache. Centaur horns are impossibly strong as it is but Taguchi being a halfling makes it slightly easier but not easy enough. When Nakamaru brushes away the shavings and stands back to admire his work, Taguchi can almost pass off as a human. He pulls Taguchi's hair up into a triangle to cover the remnants of his horns and the picture is complete.
Taguchi is fortunate to have taken more after his father; the only centaur features he inherited from his mother are the horns and his hooved feet which Taguchi keeps hidden in oversized shoes. It's not that Nakamaru discriminates against centaurs-he finds that all magical creatures have a certain beauty about them, trolls and ogres included-but he figures it's much easier to maneuvre in the human world without hindlegs.
He has also wondered about how Taguchi's parents got together, physically speaking, but he thinks it would be rude to ask.
There's a knock at the door and Nakamaru realises that the appointment has taken longer than he had anticipated.
"I'll need you to sign this before you leave." Nakamaru hands Taguchi a pen and the necessary document, the knocking at the door growing increasingly impatient.
"Thanks, Doctor!" Taguchi says and Nakamaru leads him to the door.
Kame is waiting on the other side with a deep scowl.
"Ah, a vampire!" Taguchi beams, entirely oblivious. "Do you know what vampires travel in?"
"I don't care," Kame hisses.
"Blood vessels!"
The icy look Kame pins him with makes Nakamaru flinch. Taguchi towers over Kame but there's something deadly in the way Kame holds himself, eyes narrowed and fangs glinting under the lobby lights, that has Nakamaru wishing Taguchi would leave as fast possible. For his own safety.
"I'll see you again, then," Nakamaru bumbles out and ushers Kame inside.
When the door closes again, he turns to see the glare now pinned onto him. It lacks the chilling edge but it's unnerving all the same. Nakamaru swallows.
"What were you doing with that horny guy?"
"I can't disclose that kind of information," Nakamaru says and wonders if it really came out as a squeaky as it sounds to his ears. Kame's eyes narrow further and Nakamaru feels his throat tighten proportionally. He scrambles behind his desk in long strides. "I have to respect the privacy of my patients."
"How considerate," Kame grits out-and then he's stalking forward and Nakamaru walks to the side, determined to keep the desk between them. They walk in circles as Kame's voice fills the room. "I was out there waiting and waiting, sensei. Do you know how hungry I am?"
"W-we can always book another appointment," Nakamaru tries and fails. It's somehow the worst thing he could have suggested because Kame has completely frozen now, something dark shifting in his eyes.
"But there's already a treat before me." The words are so low and husky that Nakamaru has to lean forward to hear them.
It's a mistake.
Kame lunges over the desk and has his face pressed against Nakamaru's neck in a blurry instant.
"Itadakimasu."
A wet strip draws along the line of his neck and Nakamaru shudders involuntarily before the panic sets in.
"Kame, stop it!" he snaps and when Kame presses closer, Nakamaru blindly reaches out and shoves him with everything he has. Kame has the advanatge in strength but he must have let his guard down because he stumbles back easily, his back knocking into the edge of Nakamaru's desk. A single pen rolls off, dropping to the floor with a quiet clink. "Kame...?" Nakamaru ventures.
Kame isn't looking at him, his head bent down towards the floor. His hair fall over his face, obscuring it with shadows.
"Your blood probably tastes gross anyway," Kame says and spins around, leaving the office before Nakamaru can catch a glimpse of his face.
The door doesn't bang shut and there's no dramatic adieu.
It makes everything worse.
~*~
The night air is cool and Kame sucks in large mouthfuls, the fire scorching his insides abating with every smoky exhale. His heaving chest begins to slow at last and he's thankful for the concrete at his back, rough and solid and creeping cold through the thin layer of his shirt. He closes his eyes and feels the ghost of Nakamaru's pulse against his lips, warm and fluttering like a ribbon in the wind. Tantalizing.
His eyes snap open.
Another mouthful of air.
Nakamaru's face breaks through the surface of his desperation and with a sick feeling in his gut, Kame recalls that the quickening of Nakamaru's pulse wasn't anything pretty like desire. It was fear.
He spins around and his fist connects with the wall, cracks creeping from his close fingers and into the concrete like flattened vines.
There's a sharp sting from where his skin has split open and for once he wishes his body wouldn't heal itself. The pain is grounding.
He needs to leave.
Another swing at the wall and Kame disappears.
~*~
The clock strikes six and the office door stays shut.
Nakamaru taps his pen on his desk and continues reading. It's a renewal of the clinic's annual contract with the Tooth Fairy; they always need a fresh stock of teeth handy for patients who were never able to grow their own or lost theirs eventually, age stripping them away. Or cavities, in Ueda's case.
It's five past six and there's no knock. No vampire.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Kame is usually always on time, if not early.
Nakamaru drops the pen and stands up. Cleaning seems like the easier task at the moment and he needs to move, to do something other than tap his pen with the passing of each second. He grabs a paper towel and begins to wipe down the counter, scrubbing hard at a dollop of dried toothpaste.
His eyes repeatedly flit to the round, black-framed clock hanging above the doorframe for the entire hour that Kame doesn't appear. And then it's time to close. He locks the door of the clinic and walks home, a mass of guilt snowballing in his gut, growing larger with every step.
~*~
It doesn't take much to worry Nakamaru and Kame not showing up for his daily appointment for a week is enough to wrap him in a tight blanket of anxiety. He knocks over the toothbrush dispenser and loses track of his paper work. He forgets to turn off the anaesthetic gas and spends an hour watching hallucination-induced fairies flutter about with Ueda giggling on the floor. Through the gaze fogging his mind, he thinks he sees Kame, sitting perched on his desk, but it's only a paper weight and Nakamaru feels both foolish and sad.
Nakamaru is a man of routine and Kame's absence is throwing it in disarray, scribbling over his neat to-do list. With no evening appointment, he leaves early. Which means he goes to bed early and as a result, he wakes up early, too. His jogging pace is skewed and his cereal grows soggy as he waits for the newspaper to hit his doorstep. All because Kame won't show up and give Nakamaru the chance to apologize.
Kame was a puppy and Nakamaru had kicked him away-or that's what it feels like. He had never wanted to erase Kame's smile. He loved smiles, and aside the mysterious fangs, there was something special about Kame's in the way it brought out his own. So in total, he had stolen two smiles.
He felt awful.
"Hey, watch it," Koki yelps and Nakamaru tunes back into the moment. The tooth file in his hand is dangerously close to Koki's eye and he hastily moves away.
"Sorry!"
Koki gives him a cautious once over and leans back onto the chair. "Just be careful, Doc'. You look a little out of it." Nakamaru bows again, embarrassed at his ammateur slip. Koki takes it with good humor, something Nakamaru has always appreciated him for, and releases a barking laugh that morphs into a sniff at the air. "So the vamp finally got his fangs fixed? The office smells better."
There's a twinge and Nakamaru reasons that he's irked in behalf of his office; it has always smelled good as far as his slightly large and human nose is concerned.
"Not quite," Nakamaru mutters and Koki snorts.
"Figures. He's still in town."
Nakamaru pauses, one of his worries evaporating into hope. "How do you know?"
Koki taps a black-tipped finger at his nose. "Heightened senses. I could smell him as soon as he stepped foot in town."
Hope balloons in Nakamaru's chest as he stumbles to request a favor.
~*~
The warehouse is abandoned but still in relatively good shape, the walls and windows intact even if murky with grime. There's a sign hanging on the door that reads: City Property. Soon to be site of construction. NO TRESSPASSING. Nakamaru looks up and down the streets, squinting through the sunlight, and indeed, no one seems to be gifting the building a second glance even as it stands in a busier part of town. It's hidden in its conspicuous shroud of every day wonders. It's really nothing special.
Nothing alluding the fact that it's playing refuge for traveling vampires.
But this is where Koki's nose had lead him and, keeping Kame's assurance that his kin played nice with humans, Nakamaru pushes through a pair of wooden doors with a shove of his shoulder. There's no lock or barrier and he figures that the doors are so splintered and old that no one would risk opening them, for fear of having them collapse.
Nakamaru blinks when he finds himself in an entryway of sorts; the interior of the warehouse is designed more like a regular house and he wonders if that's the vampires' doing. He walks towards the opening on the right, following the chatter and trying not to rustle the plastic bag in his hands, and feels much like an intruder.
There's a shove at his lower back and Nakamaru yelps, stumbling into a large room with red, velvet curtains draped across the walls. For a moment, he thinks he's standing in a jewelry box.
"Are you oppa?"
Nakamaru glances down to see a child grinning up at him, teeth sharp but fangs retracted. And then he takes a proper look and finds himself surrounded by not one but many children, each gaping at him with eager eyes and equally toothy smiles. The dentist in him admires all the pearly white.
"W-what?" Nakamaru coughs nervously. "I'm Doctor Nakamaru. A dentist. I'm here to see Kame."
"So you are oppa!" the child chirps, his smile as blinding as his golden hair.
"And he said he's here to see Kame," another kid coos and suddenly the room is filled with snickers and ooohs and Nakamaru can feel his face flushing despite himself. It's like elementary school all over again, back to the time he had stumbled into the girls' washroom purely by accident.
"You really do look like takoyaki," the golden haired boy says thoughtfully and then winces as a hand swats the back of his head. Nakamaru glances up to see Kame and there's a pang in his chest that's both joy and relief.
"Tama, don't bully sensei," Kame scolds but his mouth is twitching and Nakamaru doubts he means it. Kame looks at the rest of them. "And you munchkins, too. Go play in the other room. Sensei and I have to talk."
There's more snickering but the children obediantly gather and move through the door.
"Enjoy the oral care," another boy snickers as he leaves and Kame smacks him as well before shaking his head apologetically at Nakamaru, cheeks faintly pink.
"Kids say the darnest things, don't they?"
Nakamaru nods, thoroughly confused. "Are... are they all yours?"
"Ah, no! I would never turn anyone, especially not kids," Kame explains. "Their sires abandoned them so I took them in. I couldn't leave them... Poor little ones, living on the streets, all alone and edible..."
Kame punctuates the pause with lowered eyes and a giant pout and Nakamaru wonders if he's insane for missing such a face. He could really do without the constricting of his chest, however.
"That's nice," Nakamaru says and when the silence gets too awkward, he lifts the bag in his hand. "I brought you some blood packets. As an apology. F-for what happened," he stutters in what is the most awkward apology imaginable. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry...?"
Kame is staring at him, face unreadable.
"I didn't mean to push you," he explains and then rethinks his words. "I mean, I did. But only because I wanted you to stop. I didn't want you to go away or stop coming. I... I hope your back didn't get injured."
"My back?"
"From when you hit my desk."
Kame blinks so slowly that if Nakamaru was standing closer, he'd be able to track the sweep of his eyelashes.
And then there's a laugh, throaty and secretive. "Sensei really is one of a kind."
"I'm really not," Nakamaru chuckles in embarrassment, "but I truly am sor-"
"Don't. I don't want any apologies from you." Kame gives him a soft smile, one that Nakamaru can't remember receiving before. His chest is doing that funny hop-skip thing again. "You did nothing wrong, sensei. I'm thrilled that you came."
"Me too," Nakamaru says unthinkingly and Kame beams at him-and them something clicks. "Wait," he says and squints at Kame's mouth, "your fangs have retracted."
Kame's eyebrows disappear into his hair.
"What? No. W-wait a minute," he says and lifts a hand to his mouth. When it falls back to his side, the fangs are there again, curved and pointy. "They're back, sensei! It must have been hard to see them since the light is so dim. Can't have to much sunlight, you know? The kids get antsy."
There's something odd and not right and Nakamaru is this close to figuring it out when Kame bounds up to him.
"Treat meeeee," Kame whines with that too familiar grin and the missing puzzle piece falls from his grip. Nakamaru doesn't pay it much attention though because even as it niggles in the back his mind, having Kame back is more important. There's no attention to spare to other things when the vampire is nearby.
~*~
"Nakamura."
"Nakamaru."
"Xiaolongbao."
Kame giggles at Nakamaru's drawn out sigh. It's one of his favorite things about the doctor, his stoic and good humored reactions. He catches a faint smile on Nakamaru's face and his heart warms at the sight; they've become more frequent since his return. Kame didn't think he could possibly miss a face so much, didn't think he'd fall so hard and fast for the crinkles at the corners of Nakamaru's happy eyes.
What happened back then... he won't let it happen again. Never again. He's lucky enough that Nakamaru gave him a second chance, as simple-minded as it was, and he won't allow him to extend the courtesy again. Kame doesn't deserve it.
"Sensei's treatment hasn't been painful lately," Kame says softly and stretches along the chair as Nakamaru packs the drill away. He lets his eyelids droop as he bares his neck, knowing full well the image he's conjuring. The slight stumble when Nakamaru turns back is his payoff and he can't stop his smirk. "Does sensei have anything planned for this evening?"
"I have to head over to the archive room. I'm behind on the research and there are still so many files to go through."
Kame watches him set his desk in order before he moves to open the door, turning to Kame with a waiting look.
Kame hops off the chair. "Let me come with you. I promise to use my indoor voice."
"I can't-"
Kame gathers his lips in a forlorn pout.
"-okay, fine."
~*~
The archive room feels claustrophobic despite being huge. The walls are covered with hundreds of metal drawers that extend into mazes in the center of the room. Only a small portion of space near the entrance is free, set aside with tables and yellow lamps. Everything smells like paper and dust and the amount of stored information boggles Kame as he steps inside, his footsteps echoing as he follows Nakamaru to a table.
"I've already reserved some of the files earlier," Nakamaru says and points to a trolley stacked to the brim. Kame gapes.
"Some, you say?"
Nakamaru shrugs and transfers a pile onto the table with a bit of struggle. "It's not as bad as it seems," Nakamaru says, eyeing the papers in resignation, and Kame can't tell who he's trying to convince.
Kame takes the seat beside him. "How many have you gone through?"
"About a thumbs length, but so far there's been no documented case of a vampire with unretractable teeth." Nakamaru flashes him a grin that glows soft and hauntingly beautiful under the lamplights. "Now who's one of a kind?"
Kame looks away, trying to douse the urge to kiss him. Never again.
... Well, at least not until Nakamaru is ready.
"Sensei, you don't have to do all this. I don't mind coming over for your treatment. I don't mind at all."
Nakamaru shakes his head and grabs a file. "No, I promised to find a cure and I will. I can't call myself a doctor otherwise."
You're just a masochist who can't stop helping people, Kame wants to say but swallows it down. He's deeply touched and the guilt is gnawing away at his insides but he knows there's no use fighting against Nakamaru's kind heart without revealing the truth. And that's not something Kame's ready for yet. The only connection he has with Nakamaru is built on a lie and it's not strong enough to stand on it's own.
Not yet at least; Kame is still working on that.
He grabs a file as well and the research commences. It's as painful as it is futile and he spends the hour sneaking glances to the side. A close up view of Nakamaru in his sexy glasses is well worth it.
-> part 2