we’re all each other’s got. [open social]

if you lost someone, you would confide in others your grief.

not even half-way down the questionnaire - a personality assessment that he found tucked in the back of a quaint, vintage store in a crook of kina that he had stumbled across completely by accident in the first place - it was asking how he would deal with the passing of a loved one. (terribly, obviously, but that wasn’t a listed option.) he held his pen over the parchment paper, the outline of his shadow slowly becoming more clear as everything else faded into background noise.

he sighed and crossed out a random box. it wasn’t serious in the end - a short activity to distract the mind from the monotony. he had chores around the clinic that he would do eventually, but he was taking a break at the moment. there was another person in front of the building (the receptionist) and an acting doctor talking to a patient behind sound-muffling doors.

he was totaling up his answers when the receptionist poked his head in the break-room. mita acknowledged him with a nod. he readied himself for the inevitable question in the brights of the other’s eyes.

“are you busy?”

he couldn’t pretend otherwise. he shrugged, a vague response that the other took as a ‘no.’

“well, could you man the front for a little while? i got to run an errand.”

mita relented with little more than a grimace. “sure,” he said.

with mita’s agreement, the receptionist nodded and left to do who knows what. an errand. did that mean a ten minute trip to the marketplace or an hour-long walk through the city? mildly bitter about the whole thing, mita took the completed test with him to the receptionist’s desk. several minutes passed before the front door bell rung, signaling that someone had entered the clinic.

smiling, that was a thing you did with customers, he had to remind himself. it was halfway to awkward, made difficult by the staples on his face.

“are you here for an appointment, walk-in, or just to pick something up?” he asked.