(iii)

                                    

                                          
Babar's pov
'Cannnibalistic? Is he really that much scared? Do I look like I eat humans or -'  Babar's thoughts were interrupted as Rizwan begin to say something, "umm I don't know w-what to say, that idio-I mean Naseem just likes to joke a lot, right? "
"Well, he really does. " Babar replies with a chuckle that almost comforted Rizwan but yet again he realizes he's in a dentist's room and will soon be in that dental chair. His discomfort was obvious. 
"I am a good dentist, I won't hurt you hahah." Babar said trying to handle this funny yet weird situation. 
Rizwan didn't say anything back. Just stood there. For his name to be called. 
Babar begins to wash his hands in the sink while signaling Rizwan to take a seat, "Rizwan, please take a seat."
"Ohh,okay." Discomfort and nervousness clear in his voice. 
Babar had treated scared patients before too, but this case was different and somewhat funny for Babar. All of his previously scared patients were teenagers or children, or maybe toddlers but this guy, an international and professional cricketer was scared of what? A fricking dentist!! Not scared of losing his career, not scared of journalists' idiotic questions, answering them right away with such confidence but here a dentist scared him away. 
Babar turned around to see a frozen Rizwan standing near the dental chair but not sitting on it. Babar knew he wouldn't sit. He made him sit on it and made his head lie back. Rizwan starts playing with his fingers out of nervousness forgetting the world around him. Babar walks around first, gets his tools and sits in his chair. Just the sound of those tools sends a chilling sensation through Rizwan's soul. Rizwan closes his eyes out of mere fear. Babar can't help but find it cute because it looks like he's genuinely scared.Babar wears his surgical mask and gloves. 
"Open." Babar says under that mask and Rizwan barely opens. Babar chuckles, lowers his mask and says, 
"Look Rizwan, there's no one here. You can talk to me about your fear and I hope I'll help you come over it." Babar says with a calm and composed smile directed towards a laid back Rizwan. 
"Just tell me what you're scared of and I'll help to avoid it, I guess? "
Rizwan begins, " Okay, where should I s-start from, I mean my fear of dentists has been there since my childhood and I can't help it even now."
Rizwan can't figure out how that dentist looks so calm and composed talking to him, because even he has started to feel angry because of his phobia of dentists and not to forget, injections too. 
Babar takes back interest out of empathy, "so how did you develop it?"
Rizwan fights a war of words between his intellect which he has lost and his emotions, and the continuous professional stare of Babar is adding fuel to the situation. 
"I once saw a movie about a serial killer and psychopathic dentist and-please don't laugh, and it does not end there. When I was a child, my mom took me to a dentist and I saw him drinking something red, it was on his lips and looked scary as hell." Rizwan says rather quietly like whispering because if Naseem heard it, he would be humiliated and Naseem would keep laughing on it like a maniac until his last breathe. 
Rizwan was not sure what Babar's reaction will be but there was one thing he knew that Babar wouldn't laugh. 
"And anything else that frightened you as a child or even now?"
"Ah yes, that mask." Rizwan signals at the mask Babar is wearing with a slightly coward gaze. Babar laughs out loudly. 
"What's so funny? I'm literally scared of that mask. It looks so scary on doctors and even on normal people."Rizwan asks. 
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry-it's just funny. Maybe because it's just a mask or maybe because of it's size. I'm sorry to find this humorous." An almost sobbing because of laughing Babar says. Well, to his surprise, Rizwan laughs back. 
"Okay, please lay back." Rizwan understands and does the exact same, trying to find a comfortable position on that chair.
"Good." Babar says as he presses the switch on the chair that makes the chair go down. He moves his chair behind Rizwan's head and adjusts the light towards his mouth. 
"Open." He says once again and Rizwan does better than before. 
"I saw the match today. Not completely but I saw a glimpse of Pakistan's batting. You and Abdullah Shafique were on the field. You were on the strike end and exceptionally good. It's been a while since I watched a good batsman show off his skills." Babar noticed Rizwan getting embarrassed as his already opened mouth widened as for a smile. He took the tools out of Rizwan's mouth and Rizwan spat out everything that was in his mouth. He felt nice after taking all that out. He looked back at Babar who was just looking at him like 'man I just stated the facts'.