tooth ache
It was Bucky’s favorite activity of the week. His sparring session with Natasha and Clint. Aside from Steve, they were the only ones that would sparr with him. No one pulled punches and no one went easy. It was no holds bar short of killing each other of course. They could all take a hit except today Clint landed a punch on Bucky that left him swearing. Bruce hopped up from the sidelines and called time out. “What happened?” Bucky didn’t answer, he simply walked out. Clint looked at them “I didn’t think I could hurt him. I mean I have socked him in the mouth before no problem.” Bruce thought for a moment. “I wonder if he has a toothache?”
“I thought he couldn’t get those. I mean the whole super soldier thing? Steve's teeth are pretty much perfect.” Bruce was texting someone as he spoke to them. “Well we kinda figure he falls between Steve and I on the whole super soldier ability spectrum. While the big guy cant get hurt easily we have had our share of dental issues. Since Hydra didn’t really engineer anything helpful for their serum other than raw power any advanced healing was a plus i think it's safe to say he isn’t immune to toothaches. I mean he got that stomach flu we all had last month remember?” Clint shuddered. “That was bad. I honestly thought I was gonna die from that.” they all nodded in agreement.
Steve looked at the text on his phone. “Barnes took a hit and walked out. Might have a tooth problem.” He found Bucky in the kitchen swishing his mouth out. When he spit he could smell alcohol. “You ok there Buck?” He wiped his mouth. “I’m ok. Barton just hit a sore spot or something.” He could see the spot on his jaw was a little swollen. He walked over. “Open your mouth.” Bucky looked at him and clenched his mouth shut. “Mm-mm” Steve reached for him. “Buck you are acting like a child just let me take a look.” He had him backed up against the kitchen island. Bucky quickly vaulted backwards and rolled off the counter. “Damn it Buck. We gotta deal with this sooner or later.” He shrugged and moved to the door. “Late then.”
By the end of the week he was a crabby miserable person to be around. He was eating and sleeping even less than usual. Bruce found him late one night in the kitchen holding an ice pack to his face. He sat down in the kitchen. “Still hurting?” He only glared at him. “Right stupid question. Look I know it’s still hard to trust people but no one here is going to harm you. We just want to help.” He could see his posture relax a bit as he let out a heavy sigh. “It’s not the actual people... it’s the chair.” Bruce felt so awful that he hadn’t thought of that. “Oh god. Why didn’t you just say that? We could have taken care of this without the chair.” He hung his head. “I didn’t want them to think I was still having setbacks. There were so many rules and things that came with me moving in here and it’s a bit suffocating. I can’t even go anywhere without asking permission like I’m a child.I’m older than everyone in this building and yet I have less free reign than the teenager that hangs around Stark all the time.” He got up from his seat. “Sorry. I don’t mean to unload on you.” Bruce smiled and he saw a flash of green for a moment in his eyes. “Don’t be sorry. I’ve been exactly where you are. I’m still there some days. When I moved into the tower S.H.I.E.L.D had their share of strings attached. There were days when I felt like they were going to ask for my bathroom schedule they were being so invasive. I finally communicated that to Tony and we made adjustments. Every person that's moved in here has had their share of growing pains. Just ask Wanda. She was put on house arrest and no one bothered to tell her until she tried to go to the store. Just communicate an issue so we can work on fixing it. First though may I take a look at the tooth? It’s not my area of expertise but If it just needs pulled I can handle that.”
He took a breath and sat in the chair closest to him and opened his mouth. Bruce was using his light on his phone to look into bucky's mouth. “Oh this is out of my hands. Your wisdom teeth came in and this one is pushing through the one next to it. Instead of it breaking it just keeps healing over. No wonder you are miserable. It’s gonna have to come out but it’s not a “pull it and be done job.” We can set something up in the morning. Helen should be able to take care of it quite easily in the med bay. No chair necessary. She will need to sedate you though.” He shifted nervously. “Can you maybe handle this without the team knowing? I don’t want anyone hovering.” Bruce looked at his phone. “Hey Friday is Helen still in the lab?” After a moment Friday’s voice quietly came over the room. “Dr. Cho is just wrapping up for the night do you need me to grab her?”
“Yes please. Tell her to meet me in the med bay, it’s not an emergency but it’s important.”
A few minutes later they were in the med bay working out how to remove the tooth in the most efficient way. Friday provided some helpful suggestions and it was decided that rather than remove the teeth it might be easier to grind them down and place a cap on them if they were able. They at least had more time to work with since the sedative that they used for Steve held out for about 30 minutes longer for him. When he woke up his face felt a little numb but it was better than the pain in his tooth. He could feel cotton in all four corners of his mouth. He looked confused at Bruce. “Please don’t be upset. When we actually got in there with the right tools we needed to get all of the wisdom teeth out. The other three hadn’t impacted yet but they were not far behind. We figured doing it all now would be better than doing this three more times.” He nodded. “You should be ok to eat solid foods in a day or two which speaking as someone who had those teeth removed before all this you will be thankful for that.”
He had to admit once everyone found out he had 4 teeth removed they spoiled him rotten. He wasn’t normally one for attention but apparently Stark felt pretty bad that he created a situation where someone was not comfortable with getting help. While the pain was gone by the next day his cheeks were still a bit swollen for the next two days. Every time Tony saw him in the hall he looked a bit guilty. Even Steve was a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t stopped to think about the issue which as far as Steve goes wasn’t an uncommon problem. He could lead you into battle but he couldn’t handle social situations. Overall he was glad Bruce had the tact to reach out to him carefully. He was aware he could be a bit cagey at times and people were still handling him with kid gloves in some areas. Even Clint and Nat did it occasionally. They meant well it just bothered him. Banner seemed to be the only person that didn’t try to take things purposefully easy around him. Perhaps he could learn to deal with all of the other stupid rules if there were people like him around.