Magic and Mortals

Braces

Norway's pov
I hate orthodontists. And I have a bad feeling they hate me too. It was bad enough when my dentist suggested seeing one, but when the orthodontist-he says I can just call him Joe-suggested that I should get braces, I practically blew a fuse. What made things even worse was the fact that my brothers, who are the two people I trust most in this world, decided that it was a good idea! "Come on Lukas!" They had said. "It won't be that bad!" So there I sat, in the stuffy waiting room, hoping my social anxiety wouldn't rear it's ugly head. "Lukas?" I stiffly walked towards the lady that called my name, softly praying that this was all just a bad dream and that I would wake up perfectly fine and brace-free. I hardly paid any attention to Joe that whole time, instead deciding to reminisce about the past.
How I met the two boys I would come to know as my brothers
I was about six at the time. It was the beginning of first grade, and I had just had a relatively big panic attack. It had gotten so bad that the teacher had sent me straight to the nurse's office so I could calm down a little. By the time I had gotten there however, there was already someone there. He looked to be the same age as me, with strawberry blonde hair and-shockingly-ruby colored eyes. This didn't phase me as much as it should have though, probably because my own eyes were a sort of purple color. The boy looked as if he had gotten in a fight with a wild animal, his face covered in dirt, his arms and legs all scraped and bruised up. He gave me a little nod as if to say "hello" and I nodded back, plopping down next to him on the bed in the corner of the room. We didn't speak for a few moments, which had been fine with me but I was able to tell that the silence was killing the boy. Before either one of us could speak however, the nurse can in herding a little boy to the farthest edge of the bed. "You know you shouldn't just stop taking your medicine!"  The boy kept his emerald green gaze on the floor, and the two of us already on the bed were able to feel his embarrassment. "I'm sorry," his voice had a thick British accent, and I remember wondering why he was here in America. The nurse shook her head, guiding the boy to the bed and placing him down on the other side of the boy with the red eyes. I definitely remember wanting to ask this new boy why he needed to take medicine because he seemed perfectly fine to me, but I didn't want to seem rude. A few more moments passed in silence before the new boy spoke. "What happened to you?" He turned his gaze on the boy next to me and I nodded, wanting to know what he had done to scrape himself up so badly. "I tripped and fell down the little hill over there," at this he jerked his thumb toward the direction he was talking about. He had a bit of a lisp, but the most noticeable thing about his voice was the thick accent. At the time, I had no idea where he could possibly have been from, but I now know h that he's Romanian-and proud of it! The other boy nodded like he understood, and I made a small noise of understanding. "Why are you here?" I remember asking the British boy, and the other child nodded eagerly. "I have to take some sort of medication," he spoke slowly, and it looked like he was trying hard to pay attention to what he was saying. "It's so I can pay attention during the day, but it tastes really gross so I don't take it sometimes." The three of us giggled, but then the other twos attention was turned towards me. "Why are you here?" I chewed on the bottom of my lip, turning my head away slightly. "We won't laugh, if that's what you think will happen!" I turned to look at then, hopeful that what they had said was true. "Promise?" I had never seen two kids nod so fast before that moment. "Uh huh, we promise!" They said eagerly. I remember smiling slightly and sighing. "Ok. I kinda have these panic attacks at random points in the day, and the teacher thought the nurse's office would be the best place for me to go. I had never seen two six year olds move so slowly before, and they told me later on that they had thought if they moved too fast that they would scare me off. As soon as I had felt their arms wrap around me, I knew that these two boys would become my best friends. And I was right.
"Done!" The voice startled me back to reality, and I tried to focus on Joe's face. He smiled brightly, and let me see what he had done to my mouth. I inspected the navy blue braces that now covered my teeth. "What do you think?" I shrugged, wanting to see my brothers and leave this place. It didn't take long to get back to the waiting room, and I was immediately embraced in a rib-crushing hug. My brothers kept pestering me, trying to get me to open my mouth so they could see my new braces. "Come on Lukas!" The bubbly voice of Vlad broke any and every ounce of willpower I had, and I smiled tentatively. The others smiled happily, and I couldn't help but widen my grin. It was physically impossible to not smile and be happy around my brothers-not that I cared about that, of course. We spent the whole walk home talking, me trying hard to get used to how odd my voice sounded to my ears. But my ears adjusted to the sound quickly, just as they had when Vlad first got his retainer and it made lisp thicken. We got to the small apartment soon enough, and spent the rest of the night watching Netflix while Arthur threw popcorn at Vlad-who kept insisting that he could catch it in his mouth.