The nurse's second stop was just across the hall, where she found another deeply sleeping patient. In fact Ginta was so soundly asleep it took her two attempts calling his name, a gentle shake of the bedframe, and finally a hand laid on his shoulder before Ginta's eyes cracked open to red-rimmed blue slits.

"I'm sorry I have to wake you, Sakamoto-san," she said quietly. "And I have to turn the lights on, you might want to shield your eyes."

Ginta made a small noise of assent that turned into a broad yawn punctuated by a wince and a whine as the overhead fluorescents flickered to life.

"Sorry," the nurse apologized again. "I need to pull your covers back, too, and take a look at your legs."

"It's okay," Ginta told her. He stretched and squirmed, trying to untangle the IV line he'd manage to roll onto in his sleep, while the nurse carefully peeled back bandages from his thigh. "Is it time to get up already? My friend Hiro brought me mochi last night. If there are any left over can I have that for breakfast?" He looked hopefully towards the bedside table, pleased to find the bag of sweets still exactly where Hiro had left it.

"Oh! No, I'm sorry, but no." She pushed the table away from the bed, as if Ginta might disobey and reach for the forbidden breakfast in defiance of her instructions. "Don't you remember? You're scheduled for surgery on your leg this morning, and if it goes well, you'll be getting a regular cast."

"Oh. Yeah." Ginta sighed. Having now thought about breakfast, he found his stomach grumbling and hollow-feeling. "So no coffee, either?"

"Nothing by mouth. Not even your meds," she told him. "You get it all in the IV this morning. But the good news is they're doing your procedure first, so you might even be able to get up on crutches this evening if it all goes well." She smoothed a slightly chemical-scented ointment and fresh gauze over the wound on Ginta's thigh. "And this is looking much better. Much, much better. You've made amazing progress, Sakamoto-san."

Ginta recognized the attempt for what it was: look at all the shiny things you have to look forward to, isn't that worth a missed breakfast? If it had been his mother or grandmother saying it, it would have just pissed him off, but this nurse... "You're good at your job," he told her. "Mae-san, right?"

She flashed Ginta a bright, pink-lipstick-accented smile. "Yep. That's good to hear. Okay, are you ready for me to have a look at the other one?"

"Be my guest," Ginta told her. When she pulled the bandages back from the places the fixator's steel pierced the flesh around his broken leg, Ginta's expression barely wavered. He just took a deep breath and looked out the window. Sun coming up. Grandmother would be by later. And Hiro said he'd be back.

He didn't look towards the door. Didn't wish he had Hiro's eyes to see what was happening in Kakashi's room, not even for a second. Didn't think about the half-whispered talk he'd overheard from the night-shift nurses, about Kakashi's excursion, and Ryouma's subdued exit and surprising disappearance on a mission.

Didn't give it a thought at all.