I'm literally begging anyone with artistic ability to draw this scene but anyway here is a pre-polyfrogs ficlet that popped into my head today 😁❤️
"Where's Bitty?" The front door slams open and Nursey rushes in with a wave of panic. One hand is tangled in his hair and the other is holding his backpack; he quickly slings it to the side and brings his now-free hand to his hip. He slips it under his shirt as if he's feeling around for something.
Dex and Chowder are sitting at the kitchen table watching the chaos unfold. It's coming up on spring midterms, so the studying and essay writing is a near constant in the haus kitchen, second only to Bitty's baking.
"Uh, I think he's in class?" Chowder guesses.
"Ayuh, he has that American Anthropology Seminar," Dex adds without looking up from his laptop.
"How do you know that? Nevermind, I need Bitty. Or maybe Lardo? She might- no, ugh, I don't know. It's an emergency."
Chowder's brow furrows. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? You haven't moved your hand." He gets up and reaches for Nursey's wrist and Nursey flinches back.
"Nope! No injuries today. Just need Bitty."
"Why Bitty? Can we help?" Chowder tries. Dex looks up from his computer finally and tunes in to listen.
"Bitty did summer camp shit and he's all... southern, and whatnot, I think he's my best bet for this. Lardo might be chill enough but I-D-K, I've never seen her around bugs-"
"Bugs?" Dex asks, eyes widening instantly. "Bro, do you have lice? Why are you in here, go to the porch!" Chowder scowls at him for his insensitivity, but he does take a step back from Nursey.
"No! Shut up Poindexter, it's not lice. I think it's... ticks?"
Chowder and Dex are silent for a few seconds. Nursey looks pained, and about two minutes out from a panic attack.
Nursey breathes very intently, but he's clearly shaking. Chowder returns to his side and slowly reaches out to rub his back. Nursey flinches slightly, but stops trembling so much.
"I don't know, I was scared to look at the one on my hip, and I can feel something in my hair."
"I can help, Nurse," Dex offers, getting up. Chowder is definitely surprised, but he can admit to himself that after Bitty, Dex would probably be his choice for such an issue. Hopefully Nursey can agree.
"I..." Nursey hesitates, trails off, and exhales slowly with his eyes closed. "Okay, um, what should I do?"
"Sit down, first of all. You look paler than me," Dex deadpans, and Chowder giggles. Nursey has the energy to send him a scathing look, but he obeys Dex.
"C, why don't you get him some water? I'm gonna find tweezers and a lighter." Dex disappears, and Chowder has a sneaking suspicion that he did that on purpose, because Nursey immediately panics again.
"A lighter? What the fuck is he gonna do with a lighter? I swear to god, C, if he burns my hair, I'll-"
"Nursey! Chill," Chowder enunciates. "I think you're supposed to burn ticks to kill them. You can't really squish them." He sets down a glass of ice water in front of Nursey, who still looks panicked. "He isn't gonna fucking burn you," Chowder adds, exasperated.
"Oh. Okay. Okay. Okay." Nursey is practically vibrating. Chowder squeezes his shoulder.
"You can probably move your hands now," he says gently.
"What if we can't find them again? I could get, fucking lyme disease, or-" he starts rambling again and Chowder regrets suggesting it. He tries to derail Nursey's spiral, but both boys are a little frantic when Dex finally returns, with tweezers and Lardo's lighter. Chowder knows it's hers because it's covered in ducks; Shitty gave it to her at his graduation.
"Yo, both of you need to relax. It's just ticks. Nurse, you can move your hands, I'll be able to find them again. Chow, you do that whole sympathy-panic thing, why don't you sit down too?"
"I do not!" he argues indignantly, despite immediately obeying. Nursey chuckles though, and moves his hands to fidget in his lap.
"You def do that, C," he affirms with a wobbly smile.
Chowder grumbles but obeys, and Dex sets down his tweezers and lighter and goes to wash his hands.
"Dex... have you like, done this before?" Nursey asks, nervously curling his hands into his sweatpants.
"Yeah, dude, it's no big deal," Dex answers, uncharacteristically gentle. Chowder is kind of surprised about his demeanor throughout this whole thing.
Dex and Nursey have definitely been getting along better for sophomore year. They had a big blowout pretty early and both had to actually work hard to fix things, and Chowder thinks that was really good for them. Now, Dex is being oddly soothing and helpful. Well, Chowder supposes he's always helpful, but he's being weirdly chill about it this time. Nursey may be reluctant to admit it, but Dex has grown a hell of a lot. Chowder admires it, and Dex, a lot.
"Can I touch your hair now?" Dex asks, picking up the tweezers. Chowder smiles at Nursey, who looks flabbergasted.
Nursey is wary but answers, "Yep, have at it."
Dex starts combing his fingers through Nursey's hair, and Chowder is kind of mesmerized by the effect it has on Nursey. His shoulders visibly lose tension, and he leans toward Dex.
Dex gently pushes hair out of the way, parting it here and there. After a few seconds of looking, he makes a little "Aha!" sound, and places the tweezers.
Nursey's reaction is instantaneous: his torso twists and folds out of Dex's reach, his arms flail up to cover his head, his butt slips off the chair, and he shrieks in a very high-pitched voice. Dex, to his credit, barely reacts. He dropped the tweezers when Nursey jerked away, and stepped back to avoid the falling chair and Nursey. He's just kind of standing there, wide eyed, staring at a panting Nursey on the ground.
"Um. What the fuck was that?" he asks calmly. Chowder squints at Dex, because this is just too much calm for him.
"I-" Nursey gasps for air, one hand over his chest. "I felt it, like, tug. Like it's, it's fucking in there! It's attached to me. Oh god, I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this..." Nursey sits up and props his arms and head up on bent knees, mumbling and trembling. Dex looks back at Chowder helplessly.
Chowder gets up to help, going to sit by Nursey on the floor. He leans their shoulders together.
"Dude, it's okay that this is scary. It would freak me the fuck out, too. We know you're not used to this kind of thing. But lets be real, if anyone can fix it, it's Dex, right? You trust him to do this?"
Shockingly, Nursey lifts his head enough to nod. Chowder glances at Dex to find a look of shock on his face. But he's also... almost grinning. As close as Dex can get to grinning, anyway. It's really cute.
"Yeah, so you trust him. He'll be quick and thorough and you'll forget all about this, okay? But you gotta be chill."
Dex adds in, "He's right, Nurse. I swear to god I'm not gonna chirp or mess with you right now. But if you jerk around while I have the tick in the tweezers, you could rip the head apart from the body. And that just makes everything more complicated."
"Don't be. It was just a bad first try," Dex forgives, continuing to shock the hell out of Chowder. "Chowder, move your chair over here and sit beside him. Nurse, hop back up," he instructs, extending a hand to them both to pull them up.
Chowder scoots close to Nursey, and takes his hand. Nursey squeezes it tightly and Chowder's heart skips a beat.
"Okay, Poindexter. I'm gonna stay still, I got this," Nursey says. It sounds mostly like it's an affirmation to himself.
"Okay." Dex returns to his hair with the tweezers. When he finds the tick again and pushes aside the hair he needs to, he warns Nursey.
"Okay, I've got it here and it's in a good position. I'm just gonna grab it and wiggle it a little bit as I pull it to make sure the head comes all the way out."
Nursey squeezes Chowder's hand again, and exhales slowly. "Go for it, Dex."
Nursey tenses up, but does stay still, and less than 3 seconds later, Dex is pulling away the tweezers, tick securely trapped. Chowder can tell exactly when the tick was detached because Nursey flinched ever so slightly. But he relaxes significantly now.
Dex goes for the lighter, but pauses. "How long do you think this was on you?" He asks Nursey.
"Uh, probably like two hours? Can't be any longer than that. Why? Is that bad?"
"Nah, that's actually good. Usually for lymes to be a risk, it's gotta be on you way longer, like a whole day or a buncha days. If it was that long, I'd probably save it in a baggy so the hospital could test it if you got sick. But we're good to burn it if it was just a couple hours," Dex explains, all while holding the lighter and tweezers over the sink, burning the tick caught in the tweezers.
"Okay," he says, rinsing off the tweezers and drying them. "Now your hip?"
Chowder is on the far side of the tick, so he stays put. Nursey takes a deep breath, and lifts his shirt at his side for Dex to see. He turns his head up to the ceiling. Since Nursey's hands are busy, Chowder places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes gently.
Dex makes short work of this tick, too. Nursey shivers slightly when Dex touches him, but doesn't panic or jerk away when he pulls the tick out. Dex holds the tick in the tweezers out away from Nurse, and then reaches up to take the hem of Nursey's shirt out of his hands. He pulls it back down and pats Nursey twice on the hip.
"Breathe, Nurse. You're all done."
Nursey shakily breathes in and out, leaning forward to rest his forehead on the table. Chowder rubs his upper back in slow, soothing circles.
Dex burns the tick, and then gets a clean washcloth from Bitty's drawer and wets it with soap and water.
"Here, uh, you should wash the spots," he states, awkwardly holding out the damp, sudsy rag.
Nursey takes the rag and swipes it over his hip, scrubbing gently. He goes to move it to his head, and then pauses and looks at Dex.
"Uh, I don't remember where it was."
"Here," Dex requests the rag, taking it from Nursey. "I think I can still see where I parted your hair- ayuh, there it is." And he fucking scrubs Nursey's scalp where the tick bit him. Chowder feels like today would be a fine day to buy a lottery ticket.
When he's done, Dex returns to the sink and spends a long time rinsing out the rag. Chowder thinks he's stalling. That whole exchange was freakishly intimate for the frogs, especially for Nursey and Dex.
Chowder's hand still tingles from Nursey squeezing it, though. He's tempted to reach out and grab Nursey's hand again.
Eventually Dex can't delay any longer, and he turns the water off, wrings out the rag and drapes it on the faucet.
"Uh, you doin' better now, Nurse?" he asks.
"Yeeeep," Nursey drawls. He's still clammy looking, but he is breathing normal and not shaking. "Thanks, Dexy. Uh, and for not, like- chirping."
"And C, thanks for... helping me be calm. You guys both were really awesome just now."
"We got your back, Nursey!" Chowder assured him with a smile. Dex smiles too, a real genuine smile with no sarcasm or mirth; and Chowder thinks it looks really handsome on him.
"Thanks, guys. I'm... gonna take a shower, now, probably. Shit. I wasn't gonna shampoo today, but now I feel like if I don't, I'm gonna dream about ticks in my hair tonight." He's smiling so Chowder and Dex both chuckle, going along with his efforts to lighten the mood.
"Wait," Dex interjects, "Where'd you go picking up ticks, anyway? Did you go hiking or something? It's Tuesday."
"Oh uh, you know me and my leaves..." Nursey trails off with an awkward laugh. His face turns sour though, and he continues, "Probably won't be sitting in those any time soon."
"You didn't feel anything though? That tick was wicked deep in your hair, it's weird you didn't notice it before it burrowed in." Nursey cringes and shivers violently.
"Ew, Poindexter, don't say burrow," he whines.
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend your delicate sensibilities," Dex remarks, sarcastic but still gentle, smiling. "Seriously though, you should pay more attention. Most of the time you oughta feel a tick crawling on you before it bites."
Nursey presses his lips in a thin line and ducks his head. Chowder's almost certain he would be tomato-red if they could actually see him blush. Chowder remembers what happened last week and then it clicks-
"Oh my god," he exclaims. "You fell asleep again!"
"Chowder!" Nursey protests, clearly embarrassed. Dex laughs loudly, but it changes to more of a giggle as he starts to talk.
"You fell asleep in a leaf pile? More than once?" he asks between giggles. Chowder momentarily forget's about chirping Nursey, because he doesn't think he could have ever imagined Dex giggling.
"Ugh, C, you betrayed me," he groans, turning and hiding his face in Chowder's neck. And there's Chowder's attention on him again. Chowder's honestly afraid Dex might notice him blushing. He won't move for anything though.
Chowder laughs, a little late but no one calls him on it. He pats Nursey's back and enjoys the brief snuggle. He notices Dex looking at them oddly. But Chowder knows better by now than to assume anything bad. He just wonders why Dex seems fixated on where Nursey's head is on Chowder's shoulder.
"Okay, well, if we're done chirping Nursey for sleeping in leaves, I'm gonna go back to my project," Dex announces.
"Har, har, Poindexter," Nursey responds, sitting back up. "I do want to go shower though. If you guys are still here in an hour maybe I'll come back and work here."
"For sure! We'll be here," Chowder confirms. "And Bitty will probably make us cookies or pie when he gets back, so you'll be just in time."
"Sw'awesome. Thanks again, Dex. And you, C." Nursey ruffles chowder's hair and gives Dex a little mock salute, then turns and grabs his bag on his way out. Chowder's chest feels a little tight and his heart is fluttering slightly.
But, they still have shit to do, so he tries not to dwell on it. Chowder and Dex get back to their laptops, and Chowder moves his chair to the same side of the table as Dex.
When they're both settled, he steels himself before leaning into Dex. Dex startles, but accepts it and even tilts his head on top of Chowder's.
"You did really good at all that. You being so calm helped Nursey," he compliments.
"I wanted to chirp him, a little," Dex admits, and Chowder laughs.
"Me too, but he was clearly not down for that."
"Ayuh, I mean I wasn't gonna be a dick," Dex continues. "He was really upset. I just wanted him to not be scared like that."
"Well, you did good," Chowder states again. Dex sits up and smiles at him.
"You did too," Dex responds. Chowder notices that his cheeks are bright red. making his freckles harder to see. Huh. Strange. Chowder smirks a little, and Dex ducks his head down and returns to his work. Very interesting.
When Nursey returns, both boys are waiting for him with a smile.
