※ Change is slow but I feel it taking shape, folding over us like waves. On origami ocean tides, we sway. Like blueprints constantly being rearranged, over microscopes we plan and strain. The finest print in the whitest ink, before it dries, there's no time to think. It feels like everything we've known is sink or swim. ※

Dan lets go of Phil's hand to press the elevator calling button, jamming it ten times before his boyfriend reaches over to stop him. His smile is sweet and pacifying, fondness resonating in bright blue eyes like the sky even as Dan gives him a grumpily exhausted look in return. Reluctantly removing his hand from the flashing red icon, he takes a small step back into his partner's side, curling into him when Phil wraps an arm across his shoulders.

"Happy birthday," Dan mutters into the soft skin of his best friend's neck, the words airy and tired as they reach attentive ears.

Phil smiles, drawing him even closer to press a kiss into his hairline like he's not sweaty from their adventurous day exploring the downtown city life. "That's the twenty-eighth time you've said that today, Dan, but thanks anyway," he laughs sweetly, eyes crinkling warmly at the corners.

They stand in silence for barely a moment before the soft tap of shoes against the hotel linoleum floors echoes through the elevator waiting area, Dan too tired to look up even as Phil shifts his head to nod politely at the newcomers. There's two of them, judging by the shadows stretching out at their feet, and Dan thinks the taller of the two nods back, but he can't be too sure.

It's not until a voice he doesn't recognize hits them that he finally finds the energy to look up.

"What are you guys in town for?"

Dan blinks. It must have been the shorter of the two who'd spoken because he's smiling in their direction from where he stands barely three feet away. He's got a warm air to him, welcoming and genuine in a way few people are nowadays, and there's a soft gleam to his lively green eyes speaking to the same kind of quiet wisdom Dan's always thought Phil to be the king of.

His companion is a little less open and approaching, standing behind the warm young man with a thin, polite smile barely gracing his angular features. He looks tired, worn down in a way Dan's never been, not even after an entire day of being dragged around town by his much more explorative boyfriend. His blue eyes are nothing like Phil's, dark like the ocean and stormy like a hurricane with wary signs of warning clinging desperately to a trembling Earth.

He's frail, the taller of the two- thin like there's nothing but bones beneath his skin and resignation in his blood. He's not necessarily unapproachable or cold, per say, he's just got an air about him that speaks to a less optimistic view of the world than his friend. His smile is still perfectly cordial and kind, there's just no extra lengths of friendliness inserted into the stretch of his chapped lips.

Dan nearly forgets a conversation had even been struck up until he feels the vibrations of Phil's speech echoing through his own chest.

"We're just here a couple days for a friend's wedding. It was actually yesterday, but we thought we might as well stay a while longer and turn it into a vacation of sorts. Do a little sight-seeing and visit the city, you know?"

"A vacation wouldn't involve so much physical activity," Dan interjects grumpily into Phil's button-down shirt. He doesn't think any of them hear him, but the guy with the earthquake ocean eyes gives him a look that almost seems like an agreement. He feels a little smug at that. Just a little.

"Oh, that's great! I hope the wedding was everything your friends wanted," the warmer of their new-found companions offers earnestly, his smile even sweeter as Phil runs his hand down his boyfriend's shoulder. "Marriage is such a beautiful thing and it's always so incredible to be privy to its first steps. How's your vacation so far?"

"It's been lots of fun. Dan's a little grumpy at all the walking we did today, but I think it was worth it. It's not everyday you find a three-story building of Pokemon merchandise. Their wedding was amazing, too. It was outdoors in this really interesting little forest area that was just perfect for the two of them. Sorry if I'm intruding, but are you married yourself?"

A grin stretches widely right up to shining green eyes as Phil's conversation partner turns his head briefly to the taller boy hovering beside him, one warm hand reaching out for frail fingers of reservation. The hurricanes soften at the action, warning signs blowing away with the last dredges of the storm as blue eyes gaze lovingly into green.

"We are. This'll be our second year, now. We're celebrating something ourselves today, actually." He turns back to Dan and Phil with a bright look still evident across his welcoming features, though there's something almost sheepish in the shy way he glances back at his husband. "It's our cancer-free day."

Dan feels all the breath go out of him, watching the light these two strangers are in shift completely. Phil squeezes him a little tighter to his side, like he's suddenly terrified of letting go.

Behind him, the obviously younger of the two gives them a shy look of apologetic politeness before tugging his husband onto the elevator that's just dinged open. Phil follows, Dan moving with him by default, and they stab at the button for the twenty-ninth floor.

The doors swing shut and Phil turns back to the couple beside them with a surprised expression of extreme sympathy. "I'm so sorry," he offers, probably for lack of anything better to say. Dan can't think of even that much, still thoroughly floored by this seemingly happy couple's awful misfortune.

But the bright boy just smiles even brighter, continuing amiably with thinly veiled hints of pride decorating his friendly voice. "Troye's third round of chemotherapy is tomorrow, but we were thinking the same as you two and decided to spend a little more time here. It was so nice to have a day off before we have to visit the hospital again, you know, and we even got to cross a few things off our bucket list."

Phil doesn't seem to know what to say to that, reaching out to lace his fingers through Dan's as a miserable expression flits through his light blue eyes. Dan squeezes back, pressing closer into his side as he gives the couple beside them an entirely apologetic look. It doesn't really seem fair that two people who so obviously love each other so very much have been cursed with something as awful as cancer.

Dan's a little terrified he could lose Phil to something just like it, just as easily.

"Connor," comes a soft voice from the other side of the elevator, a thin hand shifting to rest gently on the shorter man's arm. "You don't need to bother them with the details. I'm sure they don't want to hear it."

Phil waves a frantic hand, eyes wide as he urges them to continue. "No, no. It's fine! You're not bothering us at all."

The warm man, Connor, only smiles wider at the invitation, reaching his own hand to rest over his husband's. He's so evidently proud of his partner, so happy at this small reprieve in their lives, that he simply keeps on chatting amiably. And if Dan notices the soft ghost of a grin echoing across Troye's lips, he doesn't comment.

"We've managed to cross quite a few things off our bucket list this past year, actually. Troye just bought a grand piano the other day and we even went to see a Broadway production of Les Mis a couple weeks ago. I mean, there's still a lot left for us to do, but the doctors are saying we may have almost a full year left. It's so much more than we'd been hoping for, so we're so grateful that things have worked out the way they have."

There's nothing to fill the elevator air for a moment, not even the hideous lobby music Dan's become accustomed to in the past two days. He feels like his heart's just been snapped in two, watching Connor's sweet and optimistic smile as Troye brings a hand up to play with his husband's messy brown hair. He feels like he's a part of their suffering, like he's suffering with them even though Connor seems perfectly content to remain bright and joyous about the whole thing. He feels...

He feels a deep ball of crushing weight right in the center of his chest, claws of a beast dipped in poison raking through his heart like churned butter. There's no air in his lungs and no words in his throat and he can feel a heat welling behind his eyes, but he tries hard to force it back at least until they're in the privacy of their hotel room.

Phil must have said something in the moments it took Dan to recover, because Troye gives them a quietly appraising look before a softly accented voice fills the small space left in the elevator.

"I think it's really great that you're taking the time to have a vacation," he says, his deep blue eyes nearly as warm as Connor's as he smiles softly their way. "It's kind of important not to just fall into routines and never leave them, you know. You'll waste your life away doing the same thing day in and day out."

Neither of them get a chance to respond to that, the elevator doors dinging open to the tenth floor cutting off any reply they could have given. Connor waves amiably as he steps out onto the hotel carpet, bidding them a good evening and a wonderful rest of their trip. Troye's wave is much smaller, barely two fingers lifted imperceptibly with an apologetic smile cast in their direction.

"It was nice to meet you," Phil manages before the elevator doors ding shut. "I hope tomorrow goes okay."

Troye gives them a thankful look, looping his hands through his husbands as silver rings glint in the limelight of the hotel hall. The doors that close behind them are nowhere near as precious of a metal, dull and lifeless in comparison to the gratitude in Connor's eyes.

Neither of the two boys left in the lift say anything after that. They watch it ding rhythmically through the numbered floors, flabbergasted expressions painted down both their faces as the two minute conversation they've just had with a pair of total strangers sets in.

26.

Dan takes a shaky breath, wondering how shattering it must have been to receive the news of Troye's cancer in the first place.

27.

Phil swallows roughly and squeezes his hand so hard it hurts.

28.

The doors fly open. They make their way to their hotel room without a word, the only sound in the hotel hallway being the slap of their shoes against the padded carpet. Their key clicks through the lock with a beep, the handle turning with the sound of metal scraping metal, and soon they're safe behind the locked door of their hotel room where no one can see them break down.

And they do. Dan lets the tears he's been holding at bay tumble in waterfalls down his face, guilt wracking through him as Phil draws him onto the bed and into his arms. He mutters apologies for being so cranky and tired and complaining about the shopping they'd done earlier that day, clinging to his boyfriend like their story could easily be that of the couple in the elevator. It could. Dan is all too aware of that, now.

Phil tells him it's fine, even though it's really not.

"I hope they're okay," the blue-eyed boy whispers into rich brown hair. "I hope Troye makes it that full year. I hope-" he chokes on a sob of his own. "I hope they get to cross everything off their bucket list."

Dan tries to breath, he really does. It's harder than it ever has been.

"Yeah, me too."

※ Hold your breath and count to twenty-nine, connect the dots and cherish every line. Paper cuts and trails aside, make a wish and hold it tight. This time, we'll try our very hardest not to try. ※