Ginta was dozing not particularly deeply. Sleep was an excellent cure for boredom, and hospitals were, when you came right down to it, boring places to be. Especially when the guy you were roomed with was in a coma. And Ginta wasn't worried about Kakashi at all, no...

At this point, back in Konoha with medical specialists and treatments close at hand, he was much better. Breathing almost normal, infection mostly treated, burns now a lovely peeling-sunburn quality, ribs bruised and sore, but firmly welded back into their normal arch by bone-mending jutsu. Of course jutsu were no substitute for natural healing. They could speed things along, but rest was what the body craved, and the medics of Konoha knew Ginta well enough to know that sending him home to finish recovering too soon was a guarantee he'd be back and in worse shape than if they just kept him an extra few days in hospital.

Besides, they told him when he protested, he wasn't likely to be going anywhere anyway until his mission partner was awake. Pretty typically if two ninja came in injured together, they wanted to leave together, even if they barely knew each other outside the confines of their mission. They knew he'd just be back there dressed in civvies sitting in a chair by Kakashi's bed, when he really needed to be in pajamas and a bed himself. Might as well stay and get the pain drugs and antibiotics he needed.

And there were the dogs, who weren't particularly inclined to let either Ginta or Kakashi out of their sight, certainly not to let Ginta just up an leave. But it all added up to a very bored recuperating ANBU, who chafed hard at having to stay put when he'd have much rather been out making up for lost time at the clubs, even if he didn't have nearly the strength yet to do it. Even if his heart wouldn't quite have been in it.

Ginta rolled slightly, opened his eyes, yawned and stretched with a little wince. Then he woke up enough to realize why he'd woken up, and sat up in a hurry. Well something of a hurry. A slow hurry. It still hurt to move too quickly, and there was still an IV and oxygen tubing to deal with. Still for all that, he moved pretty damn fast.

"The genius is awake at last!" He smiled brightly at Kakashi and sat sideways on his bed, facing the other man. "You okay? You want me to get the nurse?"

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Kakashi blinked, momentarily thrown. Something like a tiny crooked smile flickered over his face for a heartbeat, wiped away in the next. "Jackass," his voice was still rough, but understandable. "What'd I miss? Last thing I remember you were doing the fever dance." Sweats and chills, fun dance.

But Ginta looked okay now. Burns were healing, breathing was nice and easy, colour even seemed good under the peeling, red afternoon-in-the-sun look he had going on. Kakashi studied Ginta carefully, pushing himself up -- ow, ow, ow, so stiff, ow, ow -- to do it properly. Muscles still felt a bit like water, head felt lousy, but he could move. Just... very slowly.

No matter, he'd be okay soon, just needed to do the rest thing, and the sleep thing. Just needed to get out of here and go home. "They say when we could leave?" He was awake, now would be good.

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"You've been in a fucking coma for something like three days; they're not letting you go home anytime soon, genius." Ginta rolled his eyes. "And put that air back on. It was there for a reason." He carelessly unhooked his own oxygen and left it hissing on the bed, grabbed hold of the IV pole, slid to his feet and padded across the space between between the two beds. The movement made him cough, which he paused to do, holding his side.

"I'm really better," he said when he'd finished, smiling. "See. I can stand up and walk around and everything. You make a shitty conversationalist when you're out cold, did you know? But Pakkun's told me all kinds of things, and Hoshika's a sweetheart. If I were straight and a dog, we'd be talking about having puppies together." He paused and leaned against the rail of Kakashi's bed, not-so-subtly keeping himself upright by doing so.

"So like I said, oxygen. Back on. Now. Or I get Oda-sensei to come put it back on for you."

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"Sure they will," said Kakashi brightly, ignoring the directive. "They do all the time." Ginta wasn't wearing his oxygen and he'd been the fevered one last, there was clearly some non-logical thinking going on here.

"Yeah," grumbled Pakkun, leaping up onto the bed. "And the last time they did -- because your idiot mission partner thought he owed you a favour for keeping his dumb skull in one piece and snuck you out -- you hit the floor half way home and spent two more days on your back. Be a smart kid and listen to blondy here, idiot genius." The pug grinned a dog grin, "Or I'll tell him all about your first ANBU mission."

Kakashi gave him a narrow eyed look and fitted the oxygen tube back into place, "Loyalty is not a concept you've run across much, is it, dog?" he muttered, and tried to get the image of Ginta and Hoshika out if his head. “Thanks for that mental picture,” he told the man with deep sarcasm. “I’ll send my therapy bills directly to you.”

Hoshika whined softly and walked over to lay her head on the bed, looking up at him with soulful eyes. Kakashi sighed and rested a hand -- the one he wasn't bracing himself with -- on her muzzle briefly, "Quit it, you're not cute. You're a vicious nin-dog. Scourge of Konoha's borders--" she licked his palm, "--look, how're you supposed to strike fear into the heart of anyone when you keep doing stuff like that?"

His voice failed at that point, rattling off into a cough that hurt his chest. He let go of Hoshika to drink some more water -- slowly, carefully, trying very hard not to choke as he breathed a little too quickly -- and gave Ginta a final narrow-eyed look. "You should put your own gear back on, jackass, before you fall over and re-break those ribs."

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"Who's falling over? I'm perfectly steady on my feet," Ginta retorted, and let go of the bed to prove it. Didn't use a whole burst of chakra to keep his feet anchored to the floor and his balance rock steady, either. Well maybe a little.... He grabbed the railing again when he started to feel a bit light-headed.

"It's boring in bed, and the hose doesn't reach. I'll put it back on in a minute. First I want to hear about this first ANBU mission of yours." And get a good look at you.

Kakashi looked tired, pale, and unhappy, but really a lot better. A whole world better than the unresponsive, unconscious man who'd had to be turned by the nurses to prevent him getting bedsores.

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Kakashi’s cheeks flushed dull red for a moment, and he glared at Pakkun. "It was just a mission."

Pakkun snickered and kept snickering until Kakashi broke the summons seal, sending him back in a little cloud of smoke. The effort made his head spin and the arm holding him up gave way, dropping him back on the bed with an involuntary yelp.

Hoshika snorted and pulled away, stepping back to push her nose against Ginta's thigh. When he didn't take the hint she opened her mouth and delicately took hold of his wrist, tugging him back towards his own bed with little warning growls.

When Kakashi caught his breath again -- the yelp had made him cough -- he managed to drag up a rough chuckle. "Think you've been adopted," he told Ginta, "She's treating you like a puppy." He grinned a crooked half smile, "She'll give you a bath next."

Okay, she was allowed to be a little cute.

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"Fine, fine," Ginta complained, and tugged back on Hoshika. "You know his bed is closer. I could just get in with him again..." Hoshika tugged harder and Ginta nearly did fall, grabbing hold of her long fur for balance. She bore it with good grace but didn't relent.

"Don't you want to know what happened after you passed out again?" Ginta pleaded, giving Kakashi his most winning look. He tugged his hand free with a little pulse of chakra. "Come on, Hoshika, I'm tired of being in bed. Let me talk to Kakashi."

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Hoshika hesitated and glanced at Kakashi. The copy-nin rolled his eyes and scowled. "Get in the damn bed and quit bitching. No offence, Hoshika," he added, with a glance at the dog. Old pack joke, humour so worn thin it was gone.

Hoshika snorted and sank her teeth into the hem of Ginta's short-sleeved hospital shirt instead, pulling it hard enough to threaten breaking the weak ties at the back.

"Listen to mother dog," said Kakashi dryly, "She has your best interests at heart."

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"You're no fun at all," Ginta complained. He tottered back to his own bed and settled on it with a much put-upon sigh and a series of harsh and moist-sounding coughs that prompted Hoshika to shove the discarded oxygen tubing at his hand.

"Fine, fine fine." He sounded like a child and he knew it, But he figured he was allowed to be childish when he was sick. It was a sort of universal privilege for males, right? And if he was being put to bed and made to have oxygen and IVs and crappy hospital food, he deserved a little compensation. He gave the pole a tug to get it closer to the bed again. "Dammit, is there some reason this had to be in my left hand?" he asked, holding the hand in question out towards Kakashi as if it weren't perfectly obvious that the IV was placed there.

"I hate hospitals."

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Kakashi regarded the ceiling and counted slowly to ten, then back down to one. "Did you crack your head open on the way back and lose all memories past the age of five, or do they have you on some cocktail of drugs that makes you whine?" That said... he cleared his throat and growled, low and soft. Oddly soothing for a growl.

Hoshika made a quiet noise of her own and leapt neatly up onto the bed, stretching out next to Ginta and dropping her head gently onto his chest with a sigh.

"You scratch her ears," Kakashi offered, after a rich moment of silence "And she probably won't bite you. No guarantees if you keep crying."

No one liked hospitals, suck it up. The copy-nin rolled carefully onto his side -- stiff, stiff, stiff, ow -- and tucked the arm without the IV up and under his head. Almost comfortable. "So what happened?"

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Ginta just stared sullenly at Kakashi and idly scritched Hoshika's ears. He was suddenly rather more tired than he wanted to admit. Possibly from the getting up and wandering around, but he was loathe to even consider the possibility. "Yeah, it must be the drugs," he said and flopped back against the raised head of the bed, dislodging his pillow. He gave it a look of deep disappointment.

"Okay, see that? The world is actually out to get me," he said, and curled up on his side, facing Kakashi.

"Well let's see... I got sick. Actually kind of a lot sick, I think. And that medic Kanae was there and that kid with the spiky hair. And then you kind of went comatose which scared the fucking shit out of everyone, although Pakkun said it was normal. And I was kind of... well a lot sick. So then Kanae sent the kid to bring back the transport team she'd said could go, and they came back and brought us back to Konoha. You were so gone..."

It had been scarily like watching Ichiro-sensei, when his mind was clearly gone from his body. And the high fever had done nothing to help Ginta keep from falling into flashbacks.

"Kanae-san eventually ended up knocking me out, too, sorta. She told me later. Guess I was kinda not too rational cause my brains were cooking." He shifted a little, stretching one leg out, then the other, and coughed again.

"And then they brought us here, and they said you just needed to sleep it off, basically, and have your pneumonia cleared up. I got some kinds of fancy chakra stuff done to my chest and my eyes. And some burn cream that smells like mint." He paused a second. "Oh and I told Intel we completed our mission. They sent some guy over to take a report."

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"'m here now," muttered Kakashi wearily as he tucked his head into the crook of his arm. It was weird how a coma could take it out of a guy. "'s not that big a deal, doesn' even happen every mission." Two out of every six maybe, which was better then a lot of ANBU. At least he didn't come back dead. He didn't realize he'd mumbled that last out loud.

Ginta had been that sick? Kakashi frowned unhappily, expression concealed by his arm. He remembered the man shaking, burning up in his arms, blue eyes wide and bright and blind. Glassy bright, unnatural bright. Blond hair soaked with sweat and Kakashi trying to hold onto him without crushing him, without falling asleep and leaving him alone with his fever.

Well done, genius, good job. One blow, that was all he'd had to block. One. Could've saved them both a whole lot of hurt.

Hoshika whined suddenly, softly, lifting her head off Ginta's chest to fix brown eyes on the copy-nin's very still body. He didn't smell right to her. He was alive and awake, living and breathing and everything was fine as far as she was concerned. Why did he smell bitter-sad? Angry. There was no one here to be angry with.

"I'll need to get to intel soon," muttered Kakashi, without really considering what he was saying. "Show them the jutsu. Remind me to do that." Of course he wouldn't forget. He never forgot.

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"They're not gonna let you forget it, don't worry," Ginta said, and pushed himself up a little bit. He gave Hoshika a little shove. "Get over there and see if he's alright, if you're worried." Because I'm worried. His vision had finally cleared up with a healing jutsu performed by an eye specialist, though he still found bright light a bit hazy. He could see Kakashi. He looked tired, maybe a little discouraged. But then he had just woken up.


"Maybe I should ring for the nurse. I mean, they probably want to check you out and stuff. Make sure you're alright. Is it okay to let you go back to sleep after one of these things?" Ginta thought for a moment. "No that's for a head injury. This is just chakra, right?


"And you'd better damn straight have come back alive. We worked our asses off to get back alive. The guy from Intel was impressed, actually. Didn't say it right out, but when I told him about the hail and then the blizzard he was definitely impressed. Also the jutsu. When I told him about that fucking jutsu you copied, he said they'd had no idea it was so powerful. I seriously ripped him a new one over that. I mean, if we'd known what we were gonna be facing, then probably we'd have been able to take a spa vacation on the way back from the mission, instead of this."

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"'m fine," said Kakashi quietly, "Probably better then you, nothing broken." He pulled the blanket up awkwardly, covering most of his head, and brought his legs up just a little. Stiff. Ow. He was an odd mix of comfortable and uncomfortable; Kakashi only slept curled up in hospitals, everywhere else he liked to sprawl. "Don't call a nurse, they'll just want to jab me." In the eye most likely, that never got fun. "It's fine, I've done this enough times to know when I'm okay."

Hoshika's ears flattened as she laid her head reluctantly down. Kakashi had ordered her to stay, ordered her to guard, and she liked Ginta. He smelled good, smelled just a little like Kakashi underneath. Like something edged.

Kakashi listened to Ginta's list of reasons with something like mounting despair, too tired to be angry. Bad enough to have messed up. Worse that he was showing it enough to deserve getting lied at. "Yeah," he murmured blankly, when the man fell silent.

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"You sure you're alright?" Ginta asked. Kakashi didn't sound alright. And his dog was acting like he was not alright. "They'll poke you to make sure you're actually getting better. I'm ringing the nurse." He reached for the call button, then pushed himself back upright, looking hard at Kakashi, who was an unmoving and miserable-looking lump on his bed.

"Maybe you're, I don't know, having after effects or whatever." Kakashi didn't want him to call the medic, and he was pretty sure if he were in Kakashi's place, he wouldn't want the medic called, Plus the medic might just decide he needed more poking or prodding or another round of that annoying thing they did to his chest every few hours.

But Kakashi really didn't look so great, even if awake was a thousand times better than comatose. His hand hesitated over the button.

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Kotetsu had rationalised it as a need to find out whether they had died. By they, Kotetsu meant that... guy who was annoying as crap, and the other one. The blond one. The two senior ANBU agents whose almost-comatose bodies he'd helped escort back to Konoha, getting whacked upside the head by the head-medic along the way.

Honestly, it was a wonder he still had any brain cells left from that.

Anyway.

Go and visit recuperating comrades. They're comrades, right? They were all ANBU, which made them closer than blood siblings thanks to the blood oath they swore and all that rot. Though if Kakashi was his sibling, he'd drown himself at birth. Bastard was colder than a glacier in the dead of winter, and just as sharp. Full of cracks and dangerous footing. Gah.

It wasn't an excuse, he told himself, as he made his way up through the corridors, getting waylaid by nurses who tried to tell him he really oughtn't be in this ward or section at all.

Jutsuing a uniform was more trouble than stealing one, and it sure beat trying to climb up the walls outside the hospital. Some of those traps out there were treacherous.


He found their room - they were in the same room, huh - by simply checking the records while the personnel in charge was distracted by that little... sound in their common room out back, and he just strolled up.

He nudged the door open and slid in, cocking his head and adjusting the medic coat he'd 'borrowed' from the storeroom. "I guess you're up for visitors then?"

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Ginta looked up sharply. "It's you! That kid!" he said, and grinned at Kotetsu. "Are you actually a medic apprentice or something then? You can help. He woke up just now." He pointed at Kakashi. "But he's not feeling well. Well nobody feels well in a hospital bed, but you know what I mean."

He pulled the sheet up a little, suddenly conscious that he potentially had his naked ass hanging out of the back of the hospital pajamas for all the world to see. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing. Heck maybe the kid would appreciate it. But it was a little chilly with the door open.

"Also my pillow fell. Can you grab it for me?"

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Kotetsu swallowed. It was one thing to see the blond guy - Ginta, his name was Ginta, gods that was an interesting name, seriously, he wanted to know the kanji; the receptionist or whatever had only written it in hiragana, and he should have gotten a better look at his dogtag - out cold and prone, and another to see him up and about, grinning and obviously full of life.


Plus, it was fairly obvious that they didn't wear anything under that patient thingie.


"Not a medic," Kotetsu admitted, and felt thoroughly bad for being unable to help Ginta in that aspect. "Hadta steal a coat to get in to make sure you weren't dead."


He sidled in and shut the door behind him. "You could call a medic, right? The button works?" He scooped up the soft, thin, hospital issue pad of stuffing masquarading as a pillow and presented it to Ginta. "Or I could go call?"


Please let there be no need for me to leave...

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Kakashi recognized that chakra signature. And that voice. The rookie. The one whose face he'd smashed into a bedpost. Grabby kid. Dumb kid. Irritating kid.

Ninja who'd probably helped to get them home.

Man he didn't want anywhere near him.

"I'm fine," he said shortly, flatly, in a voice that brooked no argument. "I don't need a medic. Neither one of us is dead. Don't piss off the staff when you leave." They were vicious when provoked.

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Kotetsu wasn't exactly inclined to listen to Kakashi, not when he was being so short, sharp and basically rude. "I noticed," he said, equally short. "The medics won't notice." They wouldn't - it wasn't as if they took stock right now, in the middle of the day. And right now, he didn't feel like leaving. At all.

He patted Ginta's pillow down on what must be his cot, and just gave him a cursory glance. The guy looked like shit. Alive, talking, rude shit, but shit all considered.

"Maybe I'll get you something to eat?" He wasn't going to leave, but honestly, maybe they - and by they he meant Ginta - needed something non-sicky. He knew that outside food always beat hospital gunk. And he'll... get snag a medic along the way, perhaps?

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"Yeah, you could get us some dango," Ginta said, and tucked the pillow under his head. Funny how much stronger gravity seemed all of a sudden. He let it win, tugging him down against sheets and pillow and mattress. "And don't be a brat, either of you. Although I'm guessing it comes naturally to both of you. But anyway you don't get to be a brat to him," he said to Kakashi first, "because he hauled our pathetic asses back home. And you," turning to Kotetsu," do not get to be a brat to him, because he's my partner and he's sick and injured and we both outrank you anyway."

That wasn't quite as diplomatic as it should have been, Ginta thought, but it did seem to get both of the other men to stop sniping at each other. At least for the moment. He yawned and stretched, and winced at the stretching. "Dango would be good. Or some chocolate. Those cakes that are all rolled up with the jelly? Those are good. Or daifuku. I like the plain red bean ones, but green tea is good too. And black sesame. Or taiyaki. Taiyaki would be good, if it was fresh and hot. That place on Canal Street does good taiyaki, with really sweet bean jam inside, but the place on Hokage Way is pretty good too, although theirs is a little crumblier."

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Kotetsu would have protested the brat, only it was Ginta and the way he said things just didn't have a sting. Or it did, but it was much less painful, like a very thin sharp needle, and Kotetsu couldn't find it in himself to mind.


He made a note to ignore Kakashi as scruplously as he could - the bastard was just so rude he deserved to get a good smack or something, but for Ginta's sake -- Um, that is, for the sake of professionalism, he'd ignore the bastard.


Yeah.


"...Right. Um. Taiyaki." And Dango and daifuku with... Well, at least he was good at lists or something like that? He'd get that all, anyway, and if they couldn't finish that, he'd eat the rest. He was kinda hungry. Everything made him hungry.


"I'll just go... get them, then?" And they both looked like they were about to crash. He oughtn't bother them - but definitely, get a nurse. Yeah. Maybe conk out the silver-headed bastard's ass...


He was intensely relieved when he got out - though why he felt like that, he hadn't a clue. His heart was hammering like it'd been a seriously bad mission, and he wouldn't be surprised if his palms were damp - they weren't, but then again, he didn't sweat at the palms as much. It had almost been like torture, talking to Ginta but at the same time, it had been ... so. Good. in a way. The way he spoke, so easily, the way he just babbled on, was so concerned about Kakashi.


Kotetsu's heart constricted for a moment, and he forced himself to collar a medic. If he was a little brusque in getting her into Kakashi and Ginta's ward, he thought it was just because he was hungry.