FSE

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Chapter 112: Diagnosis

"My headaches?" Roger asked. His mind blanked for a moment, and then he recalled what had been plaguing him all this time. "They're better today, though they were pretty awful recently. Been taking a lot of painkillers to get rid of them, but they're only so helpful."

Greg nodded, understanding. "Anything accompanying them? Have you seen the doctor?"

The wolf nudged the fox, giving him a concerned look. He had been urging the fox to see the doctor, and now that someone else brought it up, it only reinforced his concerns.

The fox gave a small, nervous laugh. "No, I haven't seen a doctor yet. Perhaps next week. I mean, I feel kind of ill, so it's probably just a flu, you know? Nothing to really get all crazy over."

The sandwiches came, but the lion did not move. He continued looking at the fox.

It made Roger a little nervous and he fidgeted in his seat, uncomfortable from the lion's gaze. What was going through his mind? Maybe he really was one of those odd guys that he had been warned about. Maybe this was all a ruse.

He picked up the sandwich and began to eat it, hoping it would settle his nerves. Hunter had already finished half of his.

"Please chew on that slowly. You don't want to choke on it, not saying that you would, but it might be painful to do so, considering how you've been feeling lately. Does it seem bright to you today?" the lion asked. He squinted his eyes as he looked out at the window, and then back at the fox.

After gulping his food, Roger said, "Yeah, I thought I was the only one! Hunter didn't have any problems, so I thought it was just my eyes being shitty, but I'm glad someone else thinks so, too." He felt a bit relieved.

The lion did not comment on that, though. He thought for a moment, still idly watching the fox and wolf. He took a sip of his coffee.

"Do you ever feel dizzy at all? Nauseous? Smell anything funny?" The lion awaited his response.

The second question sounded odd to the fox, but after a moment it translated in his mind. "Dizzy, yeah, every so often. I haven't really gotten nauseous and haven't smelled anything weird, though."

Hunter said, "I smelled something weird, though. I've been smelling it, but since no one else smells it, I think it's just me."

The lion did not appear to react. He sighed and said, "What kind of painkillers are you taking?"

Roger thought of the name, and then gave it to him. It was a generic brand, so it was well-known to most of the populace. Indeed, the lion recognized it.

Greg continued to stare intently at the fox, who finally felt too uncomfortable from it.

"I-I'm sorry, but can you not stare like that, it's really weird," Roger requested. He did not want to be rude, but it was really beginning to bother him at this point.

The lion dropped his gaze to the table, and his ears began to twitch. "My apologies, I did not mean to make you feel uncomfortable. That's just how I can listen to others, that's all."

Roger quirked his head. "What do you mean?"

Greg said, nonchalantly, "Oh, I'm deaf. I read lips."

And then it made sense to the fox, the odd pronunciation of certain words, the intense stares, the shifting glances. Still, why did his ears twitch as if he could hear them? He inquired as such.

"My ears are pretty much just for show," the lion explained. "They have the unfortunate habit of twitching whenever I'm focusing, that's all. I try to stare at someone's eyes when they talk and use my peripheral vision to see what they're saying, so as to make them a little more comfortable, but it doesn't always work. I mean, no one really likes to talk to someone who just stares at their lips, after all."

Roger did not feel like he had come across as a very nice individual after having treated the lion this way. He denied, at first, his treat, and now felt uncomfortable at someone's disability. He felt like an asshole. "I'm sorry, I had no idea. Still, that's pretty impressive to be able to do that and be able to speak."

The lion shrugged. "It definitely helps that I was not born deaf. I lost my hearing later, after I had learned to speak. It's only by hard work that you can even understand what I'm saying, because it's a skill you start to lose after a while. The lip reading is easy enough once you get used to it. I can follow about seven conversations at a time, which is helpful in those awful meetings I keeping having to go to."

As if he remembered, the lion also added, "Oh, and I'm sorry about dressing in work clothes. I'm not at the café on business, just to meet you two. Unfortunately, I did not pack any extra clothes other than swimming trunks. There was an amazing pool at the hotel, you see."

Roger was impressed, not by the pool, but that the lion could follow up to seven conversations, just by reading lips. He wondered if he could ever learn to do that.

Greg smiled at the two of them. He still stared intently, but more toward the table so as not make them uncomfortable.

Roger said, "If you want, you can look at us in the face again, it's not really that weird anymore now that I know there's a purpose behind it. It's just weird if you were just some random guy doing that to a couple of teenagers, you know?"

The lion looked up at them and nodded. "Fair enough.

"So, I never told you about my job very much, just that I travel around and go to meetings. I can't really tell you too much, but this seems a bit relevant now. We have prospective clients all over the world, and it's my job to find them, research them, and collect that research and relay it back to headquarters. I've become really good at what I do, which is why the lip reading helps," the lion explained. He waved his paw while talking to help make it seem conversational.

"My hearing is gone, but my sense of sight and smell have increased substantially, and to an extent, my sense of touch. My company value these attributes, I guess, so they've kept me along for the ride. And now I'm here, taking a break, but tomorrow, I go back," Greg said with a sigh.

Roger frowned. "That sounds rough. What do you mean, though, by prospective clients?"

"Oh, nothing strange. We just have a list of those that would benefit the company because of certain skills or knowledge, and sometimes we try to hire them. We don't go off and assassinate others or something, and it isn't a shady business." Greg pulled out his wallet and began to fish through it, his gaze swapping between the wallet and the fox.

"That doesn't sound too bad, I guess," Roger said. When the lion found what he was looking for, he put it on the table. It was a business card for the company. There was a blue dragon symbol on it, and the lion's name was on the bottom, as well as an address and number.

"I see," Roger said. "So why is that relevant now?"

The lion frowned. "Well, I had hoped it wouldn't be, but it is, and everything you've said has confirmed it. My sense of smell, like I said, is pretty decent. Still, even Hunter smells it."

The fox quirked his head, confused. "What do you mean."

Greg's voice grew solemn and a bit quieter.

He said, "The source of your headaches. You have a tumor in your brain."