Kakashi wasn't easy to rouse. Katsuko tried shaking his shoulder gently, poked him a few times, and then evidently gave up and settled down cross-legged next to his head to tie his hair into little tiny one-handed pigtails. Genma made a few noises about how he ought to object, as a conscientious lieutenant, but then he remembered there were rubber bands in his med-kit. Katsuko scrambled gleefully to acquire them.

Ryouma leaned against the wall and wished for a camera.

The fitful sodium light felt warmer, somehow. It still cast the wrong shadows, caught out the wrong colors; everything looked yellow-washed, Kakashi's hair as bright as gilt. Katsuko had begun to hum as she wrapped rubber bands around the little tufts at the crown of his skull. Ryouma didn't recognize the song. He wondered if she'd sing it, if he asked.

Then Katsuko snapped a rubber band on her thumb and broke off humming to swear loudly and indignantly, and Kakashi woke up.

He blinked, once. Then he put a hand up, tethered by the IV line, and felt at his skull. Sleep slurred his voice. "What… is happening to my head?"

"Art," Katsuko said soothingly, patting her little row of spiky pigtails. "Art is happening. Sssh. Go back to sleep, my little umeboshi."

"Actually, don't go back to sleep." Genma reached over to touch Kakashi's arm. "You need to eat before you sleep again." He gave Katsuko a wry smile. "We were waking him up on purpose, remember?"

"He could have waited a little longer," Katsuko said, eyeing Kakashi's hair in judgmental disappointment. "I was nearly done with this section. Now he'll be lopsided."

Kakashi said blankly, "Everyone is touching me."

"Says the guy who snuggles in his sleep," Ryouma said, and was briefly rewarded with Genma's bemused brow-lift and Katsuko's fierce grin of delight. He pushed away from the wall and added, "Taichou's making breakfast. He says it's been almost a day. D'you need anything first?"

Kakashi dropped his hand and stared at the ceiling. He blinked again. Then he announced, "I need to pee," and tried to get up.

He made it almost halfway vertical before he pitched sideways, nearly into Katsuko's lap. She caught him with her good arm. Her mouth tightened into a thin white line as the movement jarred her collarbone, and her eyes pinched at the corners, but she made no sound.

Genma grabbed for Kakashi's arm again. He didn't quite have the leverage to pull him off, but Ryouma was only two strides away. Genma reached for Katsuko, instead, when Ryouma detached Kakashi's IV and hauled him out from between them.

"...Ow," Katsuko said, after a considering silence.