Renji woke up and lay still for a moment, taking inventory.
The deep bone-ache from the Gravefang fights had faded to something manageable — a background complaint rather than the full argument it had been yesterday. His shoulder moved without catching. His knuckles, still slightly swollen from Vaelric's face, had stopped throbbing. He sat up slowly, ran a hand through his hair, and decided that all things considered, he felt something approaching human.
He reached into his pack and pulled out the vials.
Three of them, small and catching the morning light through the window. He looked at the girls. Aya was already half-awake, blinking at the ceiling with the unhurried patience of someone who had decided that consciousness would arrive when it arrived. Rei was curled tightly on her side, still deeply elsewhere. Kaede was sitting up with her back straight, looking like she had been awake for twenty minutes and was simply waiting for the rest of them to catch up.
