I Only Want One Thing

I Only Want One Thing (Part 4)

It wasn't until about five in the morning that Meliodas had gotten his answers back from the doctor. Nurses kept rushing in and out to check on him or do more tests, so he barely even got any sleep at all during the course of all of this. However anxiety and fear over what might happen kept him pretty distracted from that.

Eventually though, things seemed to calm down as he was given an hour to himself before the doctor from before came back in.

"Hello Tatsuya. What you have is indeed what I thought you did."

"A-And that is?"

The doctor's face scrunched up in confusion at the question.

"Nurse Veronica was supposed to fill you in about those details in case it was indeed your case. I guess we're more unorganized than I thought here today. Forgive me, Mr Tasuya. I believe you have Addison's disease."

"Addison's disease? What's that?"

Something fatal? Something bad? Something manageable? Something not so manageable? Come on don't leave me hanging!

"It's a disease that attacks the adrenal system. Usually after injury already has happened to it. This causes a large embalance of hormones that in turn creates a lot of the symptoms you experience. It unfortunately isn't curable, however it IS treatable."

"Is it um... is it *ahem* is it.... fatal? W-Without treatment?"

"It can be in very extreme cases, however the risk is low. The only major problem is that a man's lifespan is decreased by up to eleven years from this disease. I still recommend treatment however as it will lesson nausea and increase your quality of life immensely."

It was like a giant weight was lifted from Meliodas as the words were said. Eleven years gone he could live without, by that time Zeldris and Estarossa would be grown up and moved on with their lives. As long as this wasn't immediate.

Before he could help himself, tears started to flow down his face as he finally started to see a little bit of hope in this getting better.

"I will say, you're the youngest person I've ever seen with this disease. Maybe even the youngest so far, however after more thorough testing and a proper payment plan, you should be able to live a normal life again."

T-Thank you doctor. Really.. t-thank you."

"Of course. Now, I'm going to keep you overnight so we can monitor your case of Pneumonia, however you should be home tomorrow to spend Christmas eve with your family."

"O-Okay. Again, thank you doctor."

With a nodd of acknowledgment from the man as he left, Meliodas took a deep- well, as deep as he could breathe with Pneumonia- breath before deciding to call Cusack again to let him know the situation.

Somehow the man was still up at this hour and the blond felt his heart drop as he heard sniffling in the background.

Was he up consoling them the whole night. Oh I can't believe how much I put them through. All of them...

The call lasted about an hour as Meliodas filled him in before Cusack promised to let the kids know and said to get some rest. Something the boy promised to, even though he already knew he wouldn't be able to get much that night- well, morning.

It seemed like time passed by him in a haze while he tried to process everything.

Treatment seems like the best thing to go for, but it's probably not going to come cheap. I have insurance, thank goodness, after I first started getting health problems, but I don't know how much they cover. What if they don't cover anything at all? No, I just need to take this one thing at a time. The doctor said he'd have the nurses look into total cost, I don't need to worry about it right now. I just need to focus on the fact that I finally know what's going on with me. I finally have answers! And it's most likely not fatal! In fact, I can even start living normally again with treatment! Yeah.. I should focus on celebrating that. I just... wish that all of this didn't happen so close to Christmas, I left Zeldris's note at home, and it's right before Christmas and the boys ate worried sick and I haven't even gotten them anything because I've been so exhausted. I'm sure they'll be relieved about me being okay.. but this definitely isn't the holiday I was hoping for.

🎄🎄🎄

Cusack hadn't slept at all since the call from Meliodas, and honestly he had a feeling the blond was the same way.

He wasn't involved very much in their lives because he wasn't good with kids, but that didn't mean he hated them or anything. He still cared about the boys and honestly felt pretty shitty knowing that Meliodas had been trying to raise them on his own while dealing with whatever health scare was going on. He sounded so worn down on the phone. Like a burnt out thirty year old single father rather than a twenty year old kid.

It was definitely something that stuck out to him since he had known the boy since he was five.

Nothing he could do though except hope the kid was okay and look after these boys as Meliodas had requested.

Checking his phone for the time, he read big numbers showing 6:05 and sighed as the kid's both must've been absolutely exhausted too.

"H-Here, um... why don't you two get some sleep, yeah? You don't have school tomorrow or anything and I won't judge if you sleep late, heh. So um.. yeah, let's try to sleep."

"W-Wait. Uncle Cusack?"

"Yes Zeldris? What's up?"

"To-Tomorrow is Christmas eve, I want to get my list from Meli's house so Santa has time to get it."

"Oh um.. kiddo, are you sure your brother hasn't already done that?"

"Yeah, I found it outside when we were taking Meli to the hospital. He had to throw up so he didn't finish taking it to the mailbox.  It's REALLY important I get it to him!"

"I don't know.. it's about thirty-five minutes from here and I don't think I can drive right now with how sleep deprived I am."

Little Zeldris looked like he was about to be in tears and Estarossa rolled his eyes before looking away. In the time Cusack had the child, he hadn't shed a tear, just sat there looking angry, bitter, and scared, even though he tried his best to hide the last emotion.

Hating the reaction from the two boys, the man sighed before grabbing his phone and his wallet.

"I don't think I can drive right now, but we can still take a bus. You two still live in the same place?"

"Yes! Yes we do! Thank you uncle Cusack! Thank you so much! I promise it's REEEALLY important okay!?"

"Alright, get your coats on, were heading over."

This will be the last chapter before Christmas eve/day. (3