The elevator was full of anxious people. One older lady huddled in a bright checkered traditional hasten had a tight yet wobbly grip on a large square box that wafted the comforting smell of lotus root around the lift. The other hand was occupied by a boy around 9 or ten who was obviously trying to look cool, and calm, and unaffected, but the bags underneath his eyes, and his rassled hair told a different story.
Another more frazzled, but still gorgeous, lady in her 40s stood ramrod straight in her high heels holding a small child in her arms while still not leaning against anything. The child in a typical Pin looked somehow too big for the skirt bottoms and too small for the coat was huddled into the crook of her mother's shoulder snoring softly.
Then there was one small man in his twenties clad in rumpled nearly baby blue scrubs. He held a little bit of excess weight that hadn't quite settled on his bones yet. He stood very still but in a more exhausted and anxious about the boss way… that differed from the other occupants of the lift.
Then there was Yuusei, who stood ramrod straight but with eyes frantically shifting between Shinichi and Hiraku like he couldn't decide who to push out of the lift first. Shinichi looked like he was trying to take reassuring breaths. He kept getting distracted though so he would go still for a few milliseconds too long, and then putter again… like an exhaust on a vintage car.
… Hiraku felt like he was shrouded in a dark cloak of death. He kept thinking back to his time in the ski resorts for those few winters when they were still struggling to make ends meet and he would work in Europe on a working holiday as kid's skin instructor and the horror stories he would hear of people dying from hypothermia.
The atmosphere in the lift got more prayer like as they passed the second floor. Everyone inhaled collectively and it felt like a collective desperation was sent up for different reasons. The little child somehow burrowed deeper into her mother. As if a fairy was tickling her hair.
When the lift door chimed and before a voice could finish announcing, "third floor" Hiraku shot out before everyone else and everyone thought they had missed a frame while Yuusei remained behind to hold the door open. The child's eyes fluttered open and for the first time in a little while she felt hopeful. She was still groggy so her sleep stuck eyes still blinked a little slowly.
The grandson followed his mother whilst still holding onto his grandmother's hand. But the grip was more loose now, as if the third floor meant that his dad was okay. The beautiful woman shifted her daughter a little as the quad approached the reception desk to check if their father was still there.
The nurse at the desk took a minute to type in notes before she looked up and let out a little smile … and whisper shouted, "he's been awake a few times today and managed to drink some water. He's been really excited to see you."
The mother loosened her grip on her daughter, and the daughter having caught what the nurse said managed to wiggle slowly down her mother's suit. The children simultaneously pulled their relatives to their dad's bedside despite the fact that they had never been to the hospital before. They knew they could find him. Both elders let themselves be led by the now desperate and slightly rough children as they felt lighter than they had remembered feeling in a long time.