Ginta scissored his legs in the small space, pushing stiff, aching muscles to move. One calf pressed against rough broken concrete and the icy sharp edge of broken rebar. The other rustled over the foil blanket and brushed against Kakashi’s longer shin. “Around your legs. Can you reach it?” he asked.

Kakashi shifted awkwardly in the confined space, leaning closer to Ginta as he groped for the blanket. There was a rustle and flutter as he pulled it up over himself, then rolled closer to cover Ginta as well, lying so near Ginta could feel the rise and fall of Kakashi’s chest.

Ginta hesitated a moment, then pressed closer as well, so the whole of his body was in contact with Kakashi’s from shoulder to ankle. He felt a light-headed rush and a thudding in his ears when he lifted his head, so he let it fall again. Blood oozed sluggishly from his nose, dripping down the side of his face. For a long, empty moment, he lay still and listened to his overtaxed heart pound.

Kakashi made a small sighing sound.

“You okay?” Ginta snapped his eyes open, his head up again.

Kakashi muttered an assent.

The green glow dimmed and the rushing sound came back.

For a panic-stricken moment, Ginta realized they were going to die here. And then he realized he wasn’t actually afraid after all. He let his head fall again, temple resting against Kakashi’s shoulder.

Behind them, Baiji’s sides were a gentle bellows, his chakra presence the strongest of the three of them.

Ginta drifted in the silence, listening to Kakashi and Baiji breathe. Listening to the rattle in his own throat going in and out of sync with the others.

Kakashi’s breath caught for a second, then steadied.

“You okay?”

This time Kakashi didn’t answer.

His breathing was still regular. Ginta squeezed his arm. “You okay?”

Kakashi’s groaned reply was rough and drug thickened, and the most reassuring thing Ginta’d ever heard.

They shouldn’t sleep. It was cold, they had head injuries, they’d both lost blood...

They shouldn’t sleep. But the morphine was a strong undertow, and Ginta didn’t have the strength to resist it. Kakashi shivered. Ginta shivered. The light from the glow stick dimmed.

If Ryouma was in the other world looking back at what Team Badass’s trap had caught, he was probably weeping.

Kakashi slipped back under the edge of unconsciousness, and this time Ginta let him.

Cold curled around Ginta’s bones, seeping up through the broken ground. The shivering came again, worse this time. It shuddered through his jaw and sent splinters of agony through his face that pushed past morphine’s velvet embrace. He endured it for what seemed an eternity, and eventually the shivers died away.

He felt calm. Drowsy. Strangely warm.

You’re probably dying now, a detached voice observed.

Ginta considered it.

“Prob’ly” he slurred, and closed his eyes. He’d just sleep for a little while. Just a little.