Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Chapter 18

The strangeness continued until morning where Y/n woke to an anomaly: the naga was still there, piled up against the cage, and sound asleep. Perhaps there had been some sort of sedative quality to the tranquilizer after all. The (h/c) man had certainly never woken up before the naga — until now.

Y/n blinked, staring silently at the naga's face beyond the metal bars. The creature was so human it was eerie. Especially when it slept: its expression relaxed and without those piercing ever-changing eyes present. Not for the first time, Y/n wondered how such a thing was possible. What evolutionary process allowed this?

But still, the naga's hand rested against his face; it had not been dislodged during the night. Its thumb laid across the line of Y/n's jaw bone, its index finger curled over his temple, and its other fingers were comfortably nestled in (h/c) hair.

For some reason, the more Y/n became aware of it, the more his cheeks began to burn. Carefully, the (h/c) man lifted his hand and slid it underneath the naga's, displacing it onto the ground in front of his face. Y/n silently sat up, making sure not to disturb the sleeping naga.

But his eyes didn't leave the creature for a moment. It continued to blow Y/n's mind — still, from that first moment he saw it. How was it possible? Unthinkingly, Y/n reached a hand forward, slid it through the bars, and curled two fingers around the ebony strands of the naga's hair. It felt so human, but maybe thinner; silkier.

Y/n kept his eyes on the naga, but the creature wasn't rousing. Perhaps there was a bit of scientist in the (h/c) man after all for why else would he then stretch his arm further, fingers skimming over the naga's face, narrowly avoiding the dark stain of dried blood flaking off its mouth and chin. Y/n's fingers stopped at the temporomandibular joint (or the jaw joint).

While careful to look for any signs of waking, Y/n gently felt around the joint. It did feel connected like a human's would be — so that was one mystery solved, he supposed.

Y/n retracted his hand. It was commonly theorized that reptiles and mammals came from the same ancestor. Certainly, if whatever ancestor came to this island was as ancient as that, then the divergence of reptile and mammal need not necessarily happen — and then, of course, that opened up the opportunity for such an impossible creature to exist: a naga.

But there was a divergence in reptile and mammal still: from boar to the little water snakes Y/n had seen.

The (h/c) man shook himself out of his thoughts and straightened up.

First thing he did now was reach into his pocket and pull out the tranq dart from last night. What immediately stood out to Y/n was the needle. It seemed thinner and sharper, cut more crudely at the end; modifications Dr. Nilsson herself made? The (h/c) man ejected the liquid drug chamber, noting that a few drops of the drug was still inside, clinging to the transparent chamber walls. When he lifted the chamber to the sparse light available, a sheen of sickly yellow-green flashed.

Y/n had to admit that he didn't recognize this drug. Not with a single glance, but drugs like this often carried odors. The (h/c) man replaced the chamber within the dart and ejected a bit of the drug out onto the pad of his finger.

It was at that precise moment the naga began to rouse. It did so silently, a bit unnervingly, eyelids fluttering and deep breaths quieting.

Y/n sat frozen as the naga's eyes opened — again, they were that soft petal pink, nowhere near the vicious violet they were last night and Y/n began to wonder if the color corresponded with the creature's moods. When the naga seemed at its most furious, its eyes always glowed lavender.

Yet, pink... The color of the naga when it woke from sleep or watched Y/n from afar...

Pink seemed... not as scary.