Explaination and Sickness

After making sure Layla was tucked away in bed, and one of her favorite movies was starting to play on the tv in her room, Zac made his way back to the kitchen. He was honestly a bit suprirsed to see the pot on the stove top. Yes he had asked her to do so, but he wasn't confident that Blackfire would have done it in the first place.

He walked over to start going through the cabinets for supplies, noting the woman standing there with a nod.

“Ah… thanks." he muttered, unsure of the tone to take with her.

“A trifling task. But don’t make it a repeatable thing, minion.” Blackfire started, her voice rather cold towards him. Her eyes didn't move from where they just stared off into space.

Zac just shrugged and looked around the pantry for what he needs. Bullion cube, water, seasonings and some small pasta shapes. Layla liked the little Dino shapes, so he was glad there was a container of them. Bringing everything over to the stove top, he started to prep the soup. Just a small amount given that breakfast wasn't that long ago. Just enough for a cup. Or three.

Zac was reminded of the third person when she rather blatantly scooted over, drawing nearer to him. Still leaning up against the counter just next to the stove.

“So. Why does your daughter sound like she’s dying?” Blackfire asked as she mindlessly moved some hair from out of her face.

“She’s not contagious if that’s what you’re worried about.” Zac muttered as he diced some garlic for the soup.

“Like I could catch anything off you two.” The response came with a wave, “No, seriously Zac, should I be worried about her dropping dead? Because you can’t blame me if she suddenly…”

Her words stopped when the man before her sunk the knife deep into the cutting board with an audible ‘thunk’. He said nothing as he added the far more diced than needed to be garlic to the pot. Wordlessly dicing some more ingredients, he added the whole thing to the pot and set it to simmer. With it just needing to cook now, Zac leaned back with a large breath and fold of his arms.

“I’m not a smart man. The details I still don’t get…, was never good in Bio class.” He started as he made a small rotation of his hand, “So I might get it wrong…, or you’ll have to translate it to how it works in your own body. To start with…”

He looked her body up, taking her form in but not the... details of it. She could tell, he was trying to see through her rather than ogle her. Like some sort of medical personal looking at a subject rather than being blinded by her looks.

“You have lungs right?” He asked with a small motion of his hand.

“Pff do I have lungs… of course we do.” Blackfire sputtered, annoyed by the idea, “What do you think we just process air like a plant or something?”

“Maybe. Don't know much about your race." Zac said, taking a hand to the back of his neck as he steeled himself to talk about this, " Well…, Layla has bad lungs. See humans have kinda… small bits that collect the air and oxygen in their lungs, probably like how your own works, sending it through tubes towards the rest of the body to be used and processed. Humans can cough when the wrong thing brushes up against those bits or if they get in the tube, among other factors.”

“Layla though, has far smaller air tubes, closed to more narrow sizes by a combination of different things. In her case she’s also much more sensitive to things that can enter her lungs too, things that might not set others off but cause a reflex to cough, which can send her spiraling. Hard cough or wheezeto get air, tubes start narrowing or closing, more coughs…” He explained, trying to find the right words to it.

His ex had one benefit; her family's money made it easy to get Layla diagnosed with the problem and get treatment for it, along with medicine to help manage it. Downside was the docs were the kind that loved to use big words..., no doubt encouraged by his ex to help make him look stupid or unsure towards other people. Eliza wasn't a genius either but had far more time to spend with the docs than he did, so she got clearer explanations while he was **** to try and look up things online.

“My people do not have anything like that…, though there were a few plants that caused **** coughing fits if their gout of pollen got on you.” Blackfire said as she ran a finger under her chin, “Is there a cure? You used that…”A shake of his head cut her off.

“Chronic. It’s a lifetime condition she’ll have to live with and manage.” He reached into his pocket as he talked, bringing the device up to show it.

It still looked like a tube to her, but at a closer look, it was two of them. One a smaller short and wide, the part Layla had put in her mouth, while the other larger. About the size of he hand. Made sense given Zac was holding it by that longer part. Some sort of small pressurized can sat on the end the longer tube. Zac gave it a shake and made a light tap on the can’s end, not enough to fire it off but enough to draw her attention to it.

“It’s what we call an inhaler. Probably has an actual name or the **** does. It helps to open up airways in her lungs and or make parts of the lung more… absorbent when it comes to oxygen. But it’s not a cure; it’s a fast acting treatment…, like CPR. Helps stabilize her if she's having an attack but it won't fix her already damaged lungs or stop her from being set off." He finished with a sigh.

“Grand.” Blackfire said with shrug and roll of her eyes. This match up was getting worse and worse for her. “So what sets the little one off?”

“Anything really. Hard to tell what might or might not. Dust, pollen, paint fumes, smoke…,” he paused to think for a moment. Better to just rip that band-aid off. “Sprays.” He added.

Blackfire’s back went straight as her fingers curled tightly. Not to the point of fists but Zac could see the statement stung her. At the very least she wasn’t happy about it.

“How dare! Are you saying I did this?” Blackfire cried, a stomp of her foot causing a noticeable echo to ring in the room.

Zac thought carefully about how to respond next.