Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Part I: Prey

"The difference between predator and prey is night and day. So don't be brave, Y/n, and hide yourself away from his coldblooded gaze."

❃

Chapter 1

"Do you ever think about regret?"

The small cargo plane shuddered. Y/n scrambled for purchase, sinking his fingernails into the armrests. His bottom was sore thanks to the lackluster cushion on his seat, there was turbulence every five seconds, and a cold sweat was clamming his skin up. Worst of all, his boss wanted to have a philosophical discussion with him.

"Erm, yeah sure. I think about regret. Like a lot. Especially right now," muttered the frazzled (h/c) man.

Y/n regretted getting on this plane. He regretted the new island (temporarily named "Nemo") being discovered. He regretted taking this job as Dr. Nilsson's assistant, and even more so, Y/n regretted trying to get his foot through the door in a scientific field.

Not so much because he hated science (maybe he did, maybe he didn't) but mostly because he hated the situation he was in right now. On a metal deathtrap, thousands of feet above ground, and hurtling his way toward a potentially deadly island.

Not exactly the island resort vacation one hoped for.

"I'm thinking about regret currently as well," Dr. Nilsson nodded, her sea green eyes gleaming in the low light. It flickered out at every other bump. "I caught myself ruminating this morning on the curious subject of opportunity. Of chance. And then, of course, the natural route is to think of regret.

"Can you comprehend it, Y/n? How lucky we are? What chance we had of being right here, on this plane, on our way to make one of the most potentially groundbreaking discoveries in the last millennium? So little chance, astronomical really... Yet, here we are. Doing just that. Imagine the regret we would feel if we had not seized this opportunity at once."

Y/n agreed distractedly, trying desperately to hold his lunch in when the plane gave another teeth-clattering shudder.

"Think about it, Y/n," Nilsson continued. "What has no man ever discovered? What is the one thing that defines us as a species?"

"Our genes?"

"Exactly, our intelligence; our sentience," Nilsson snapped her fingers, clearly not listening to her assistant at all. "From the skeletons recovered from Nemo — especially of the cranial bones — we can deduce that they belong to a creature of equal if not more intelligence than even us Homo sapiens possess. It's not certain of course but very, very likely. Can you imagine us no longer being the only beings on this planet capable of conscious, subjective thoughts? Of self-awareness? Of feelings? Possibly even of new or foreign technology?"

Nilsson gave a deep, longing sigh. "Ah, now if only I could get my hands on one. Just one. I would love to study it; dissect it — of course, with the creature's consent."

"Er, yeah," Y/n threw his boss a doubtful look, "and you think that they'll just be like 'yep, go ahead. Kill and dissect me please'?"

"For the good of discovery, I'm sure they would be honored," Nilsson smiled, completely and utterly delusional in Y/n's humble opinion.

"Yeah, for the 'good of discovery' sure." Y/n did not roll his eyes. "Besides, if they're supposedly so smart, then why haven't they built like — I don't know — a boat or plane or something? Why didn't they ever build technology that would enable them to leave their island and discover the world beyond?"