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Daniel stands in front of Armand with his mouth wide open. The tip of Armand’s index finger is tucked underneath Daniel’s upper lip, where it’s rubbing soothing little circles into Daniel’s gums, over the root of his right canine.
Daniel loves having Armand’s fingers in his mouth, but he really wishes they were in there for a different reason.
It’s his fangs.
They make his gums hurt like Hell after he retracts them. Sometimes they stay itchy for hours after he wakes up or feeds.
Armand says it’s nothing to worry about. Normal fledgling growing pains that both Louis and Armand had conveniently left out of their description of the human-to-vamp transformation process.
It isn’t quite the same as teething in humans – Daniel already had teeth before he became a vampire, of course, and his fangs don’t push out his human teeth when he unsheathes them, they just elongate. And there isn’t nearly as much excessive drooling as Daniel remembers from his daughters getting their first teeth. But still.
It’s fucking annoying and it makes Daniel feel like a baby, and he’s pretty over it by now. (He may have thrown a chair when Armand told him most fledglings grow out of their dental discomfort ‘after a decade or so’.)
Armand rubbing his gums is nice, though. Intimate, and kinda sexy, despite the context. Daniel tries to enjoy it as much as he can.
“There.” Armand gently pulls his finger out from under Daniel’s lip. Too soon for Daniel’s liking, though Armand was probably in there longer than was strictly necessary.
“Better?” Armand asks.
Daniel has to make an effort not to lick off the medicated gel Armand just put on his gums. The stuff tastes like oven cleaner and he wants it out of his mouth, but it did actually help relieve the pain.
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Armand puts the cap back on the tube of teething gel.
“I can’t believe that worked.” Daniel picks up the little rectangular box the gel came in and looks at the instructions again. “This is literally meant for human babies!”
“It’s likely that the gel itself did nothing to relieve your ache,” Armand says. “Manual stimulation helps increase blood flow and speed up the natural healing process.”
“You rubbed it better,” Daniel says.
“Something like that.”
“It says here this stuff can be used up to six times daily. Will you, uh, rub it better again in four hours?”
“Of course.” Armand gestures for the box. Daniel hands it over and Armand slips the tube back into it. “Provided you keep the sexual innuendo to acceptable levels.”
“Babe, you cannot expect me to keep my thoughts pure while you literally have your fingers in my mouth. That’s just not the kind of person I am.”
“I know.” Armand smiles at him and presses a kiss to Daniel’s forehead. “I’ll gladly ‘rub it better’ six times daily. Anything to keep you from gnawing on the furniture.”
Daniel blushes bright red (also something he hadn’t thought vampires did). “I really am sorry about the Jacobean carved oak cabinet. And the stair railing. And the, you know, what happened at Louis and Lestat’s.”
And the coffee table, and the inside of his travel coffin, and Armand’s silicon iPad cover.
Armand gives him another kiss. “I know. Let me know when the itching starts again. I’ll put this in the kitchen.”