Sorry for the late update! ;A; Here's today's chapter! Enjoy!
"Hey."
"Yo."
Their conversations always started like this. Whenever Kasuka would call Shizuo, they started off with the brief greetings, and then sat in silence for a moment as they got used to each other's voices.
It was strangely soothing, this unique and constant routine they had. It wasn't often they talked, but when it did, there was no tension or awkwardness. Every pause and every word was deliberate and gentle, and completely natural.
"How are you feeling?" Kasuka asked softly on the other end of the line. Shizuo smiled and leaned against the counter of his kitchen and swirled a vanilla cookie in the milk he just poured into the glass.
"I've been better. But I'm doing good right now." he responded as he glanced toward the computer he hadn't touched since the last conversation he had with Psyche. He frowned a bit, "Not much else has happened since you left."
"That's good. That nothing is wrong." Kasuka murmured, "Are you still sick?"
Shizuo nodded, only half aware that his brother couldn't see him. But he assumed that the younger sibling could sense the action, "Yeah. I've been taking some medicine for it. I'll be ok."
"Mmm…"
Silence followed after as Shizuo popped the cookie into his mouth and sipped at the milk. He could heard the soft and constant thrum of the engine in the limo Kasuka was in.
"I'm sorry I can't do much else."
Shizuo frowned a bit, "Don't say sorry. I told you I don't want you to pay for my medication. It's ok, I'll be fine." Shizuo paused for a moment, feeling a bit awkward as the silence built up. "Uh, how has the movie been?"
"Good. Going to shoot another scene right now." Shizuo could barely hear the voice of someone else in the limousine, and heard his brother respond softly. "I have to go. We're almost there."
"Ah, ok. Talk to you later then." Shizuo sighed, a bit sad that their conversation was cut short.
"Nii-san?"
"Hmm?"
Shizuo could barely hear Kasuka's voice on the other end as he whispered, "I'm scared." Shizuo knew exactly what his brother meant.
"Yeah, I'm kinda scared too." He confessed quietly as he slumped against the wall, head hung. The line cut off, and Shizuo groaned to himself a bit as he set his cellphone on the counter next to his empty glass. He sighed deeply, and a small tickle rose in his throat. He tried to clear it before the coughs got worse. But it didn't help.
Unable to stop the rising heaves, he coughed hard into his hand, feeling the sting in his throat. Deep in his windpipe, something shifted, and caused Shizuo to cough harder.
Rushing to the bathroom, he leaned over the sink and coughed harder, slamming his hand into his chest. Fumbling with the faucet, he turned the water on full blast. He hissed as the pain in his chest grew. He continued to hack and cough until he heard the soft plop of something falling into the sink.
With bleary eyes, he watched the ball of phlegm roll in the sink before it was swept away down the drain. Trembling, he drank some water from the tap to soothe his burning throat. He swallowed again and turned off the sink, sitting on the floor as he tried to take shallow breaths so another coughing fit wouldn't stir up.
"Damn…I really shouldn't skip those pills." he grunted as he heard the sound of a knock at his door.
Pulling himself into his feet, he stumbled to the door and unlocked it. He pulled it open and saw a large black sphere floating in his door. He blinked as it floated past him, with Celty following behind. She nodded to him as Shinra stepped in.
"Shizuo! I came to check up on you. How have you been feeling?" Shinra said almost too pleasantly. Shizuo shrugged and close the door.
"Like hell. Just hacked up a lung and some yellowish shit." He rasped as he went to clean up the small mess of cookies on the counter. Shinra blinked and hummed to himself in thought.
"Most likely phlegm from a chest cold settling in your lungs. Shizuo, have you been taking your medication daily?" Shinra asked, although he already knew the answer. Shizuo shrugged and muttered under his breath that is hadn't been on his mind. Shinra tsked softly, "That wouldn't happen if you didn't forget to take the medication. Keep skipping and this can turn into pneumonia." Celty unwrapped the machine from her shadows and set it on the table. Shizuo looked over confused at the contraption.
"What the fuck is that?"
"New equipment I ordered. I think that this might solve our little medical mystery. It's very simple, but I'd like you to take your pills before we start on your check up. But take a normal dose." the brunette ordered as he went about to setting up the machine.
Shizuo groaned and forced himself to take the normal dose of pills. Fighting back the urge to gag, he drank directly from the tap to get the medication down. "Ok, now what?" he grunted as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and sat next to Shinra.
"It's actually quite simple. Just sit down and relax, and blow into this as hard as you can for as long as you can." Shinra explained as he handed Shizuo a small device that looked was shaped like a T. On the end was a small mouth piece, and a USB cord extended from the end and hooked up into the laptop that Shinra was turning on.
"What is this thing? What's it gonna do?" Shizuo questioned, turning the portable device in his hand.
"It's a spirometer. It'll measure the current breathing capacity of your lungs. If I get the results I think I'm going to get, I might be able to diagnose your condition, and be able to treat it."
Shizuo nodded, and placed the spirometer to his lips. "Mmmkk, whnn doo I blww?" he mumbled around the plastic machine. Shinra leaned over and place a soft plastic nose clip on Shizuo's nose.
"This will ensure you breathe only through your mouth. Now, take a deep breathe and blow." Shinra said as he pulled up his file on Shizuo.
Shizuo took a deep breath, feeling his throat tickle a bit as the dusty air of his apartment filled his lungs. Forcing himself to not cough, he swallowed and blew as hard as he could into the end of the machine. He felt his lungs spasm and constrict, and after only 7 seconds of blowing, Shizuo had to let go and wheeze until he could get a big enough breathe.
Celty sat beside him and rubbed his back as he struggled to get a solid gasp of air. He cleared his throat, wincing at the sharp pains that clawed at his throat. He glared at the device in his hand and dropped it onto the couch cushion.
"Is that good enough?" he wheezed, slowly getting his breath back. Shinra nodded, silent as he collected the data and processed it. The trio was silent, save for the soft grunts and "mmhmm's" that Shinra mumbled from time to time. After a half hour, and two more spitometry tests for "accuracy", Shinra pulled away from his laptop and faced Shizuo.
"Alright. I think I have a diagnosis."
"Yeah?"
"It's nothing extremely serious. Damaging, but you won't die from it. That is, if you quit smoking." He explained with a sigh of relief.
"So you're saying that it's not cancer or anything?" Shizuo asked, leaning forward a bit. Shinra shook his head and waved his hands.
"Oh God no! Not at all! It could possibly turn into that later on, but right now you don't have to worry. Luckily, this all started up soon enough for us to catch it. Cancer can be prevented, although I can't say that it will not be a possibility." Shinra clarified. Shizuo leaned back, a comforted smile on his face. He laughed heartily, thankful that this wasn't something so terminal.
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."
"Mmm, but there are some things we need to talk about." Shinra reached over and turned his laptop around to show Shizuo the various graphs and stats that were on the screen. "Compared to your body height, weight, and age, your lungs should be able to hold 100% to 80% of oxygen, as well as have the capacity and strength to let it out during high exercise." The doctor pulled up another graph, one that was substantially smaller.
"This is your lung capacity right now. You're able to hold a capacity of 65%. Not terrible, but not good either. You have mild COPD." Shinra noticed the confused look on the blonde's face, "Ahh, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease…which basically means that all the smoking and stress you've put on your lungs are causing them to deteriorate and break down. Which means that the more you smoke, and the more strenuous exercise you do, the weaker they will get."
Shizuo nodded and cleared his throat, "So, what exactly do I have to do to fix it." Shinra frowned and shook his head.
"It's…not a curable disease."
"WHAT?" Shizuo yelled as he stood up, his knee knocking the table and shaking the computer. Celty wrapped her shadows around it to keep the expensive equipment steady as Shizuo slammed his fist down. "You're telling me I'm stuck like this?"
"More or less." Shirna flailed when Shizuo's face turned red. "But it can be managed! You just have to do a few things!"
Shizuo clenched his fists and sat back down, tapping his foot with annoyance as he tried to calm down, "Alright, what do I gotta do?"
"Well first, no more smoking."
"I thought you said that was temporary!"
"Not anymore. You've been sober from smoking for a month or two now. Smoking will only damage your lungs further, and might make cancerous cells begin to form. We want to prevent that. So don't smoke anymore. Toss out any cigarettes you have lying around and try to find something else to focus on." Shinra suggested, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a lollipop. "Like candy!"
"Shinra, that's fucking stupid. I won't be able to just stop smoking by eating candy." Shizuo groaned, running a hand through his stiff hair.
"Actually-"
"I don't wanna know. What else do I gotta do?" Shizuo asked impatiently. Shinra sighed and unwrapped the sucker, popping it into his mouth as he started packing his equipment.
"Don't go chasing after Izaya. I know that will be even harder than not smoking, but if you keep chasing him, you're just going to wear yourself down. Give your lungs more time to relax. And start exercising at a slow pace to regain strength."
"Alright. Anything else?"
"Yeah, try to find a job."
The blonde furrowed his brow, "What?"
"Find a job." Shinra stated as he stood up, "the person who was paying for your medical bills won't be able to anymore. So I would like you to find a new job; something easy and less hard on your system. That way you can get out of the house, and exercise a bit while making some money to pay for the medication I'm going to prescribe." Shinra pulled out his notepad, and started writing a new prescription for Shizuo. He ripped the paper and handed it to the blonde, "Finish up the dose you have now. Then you can stop taking the bronchitis pills, since that's not the issue. Just focus on the vitamins and you should be ok. But no more smoking, and light exercise. Then we can check up on your improvement, and take an x-ray of your chest. That way we can see if your lungs are in a decent condition or not. If it's bad, we might have to perform surgery to remove the most damaged parts of your lungs."
"Alright. I'll do that." Shizuo said as he stood up. Celty followed suit and lifted the equipment in her shadows again. She rubbed Shizuo's shoulder silently, giving him support as she typed.
[Is there anything else you need?]
He smiled, "Nah, I'm ok. I'm just tired and wanna sleep." She nodded, and if the courier could smile, she would have.
[Everything will be ok.] She left the room after squeezing Shizuo's shoulder.
Shinra followed her out, glancing over his shoulder toward Shizuo, who was already walking toward his room.
"Shizuo!"
The blonde looked up and faced the underground doctor that stood in his doorway.
"Another wise thing to do would be to look for someone who wouldn't mind checking up on you daily. Just to make sure things are going well. Knowing that someone is checking on you every day may be good reinforcement to not let yourself slip up and start smoking. I would offer to, but I've been getting more calls lately. But I will check in on you every week."
Shizuo groaned, "Yeah, yeah. That sounds smart…I'll start look for someone to help out." He smiled a bit, "I have someone in mind, actually."
"Great!" Shinra smiled, although it was laced with worry, "But if anything happens…"
"I promise that if things come up, I'll go to you guys. Don't worry." Shizuo promised. Shinra smiled and nodded. Shizuo waved as he turned and walked into his room, "Be sure to lock the door behind you."