Subject to Study (Naga!Brothers x Reader)

Chapter 29

Everything had been going right for the escape plan and that put me on edge throughout most of the night, apologizing to Jyushi as I tossed and turned in his arms. He had tried to make me as comfortable as he could, but my mind was restless from how well everything was progressing. I forced myself to finally lay still as my back pressed against Jyushi's chest, his arms around my shoulders and waist to keep me close while his tail ensured that I was staying in the middle of the large branch he had chosen as a bed.

"...you're still awake," Jyushi didn't sound tired, almost as if he had stayed up with me the whole time.

"My mind won't stay still," I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before shifting my poor vision up towards the ceiling, "I can't help but feel like something is going to go wrong tomorrow."

"Are you always thinking about the future?"

"It's one of my downfalls," A small laugh pulled itself from my throat, "Humans can't help but worry about what lies beyond today, whether we realize it or not. We're always planning ahead."

"That sounds tiring," Jyushi huffed as he rested his chin on top of my head, the rumble of him speaking felt along my back and neck.

"It is really tiring."

"We don't live like that. We only really worry when one of our needs isn't immediately met, like food or water," His hands tightened their grip for a moment before loosening once more, "There was a time where there was a long dry season on the island and we couldn't find any water that wasn't salty."

"Really?" I shifted my hands over his, "What happened?"

"Well, Kara found out that some kind of leaf held water inside it and he shared the knowledge with us. We were able to hold out for a few more weeks without water because of his find...a large rainstorm hit our island with torrential rain and a furious wind that made me almost fell from my tree, but our water supplies were back!"

"Sounds like I'll need to be careful," My thoughts finally shifted from tomorrow and towards figuring out a way to craft a way to hold water.

"You won't need to worry about anything," Jyushi's head moved from the top of my head, resting his cheek against mine, "We'll take good care of you."

"I know you all will," I raised a hand to his other cold cheek, pressing against it to keep our heads together for a moment before releasing him. When I moved my hand away, he released my waist and pinned my hand on his other cheek, a small rumble rolling from his throat that I came to call a 'purr' of sorts. Jyushi was the only one to do it, and it made me laugh a little, "Did I take away the warmth too fast?"

A light nod from him was my answer. A soft smile rested on my lips as I closed my eyes once more, the slow breathing sounds from Jyushi slowly pulling me into sleep.

----

With the heating system waking me up like an impromptu alarm clock, I had enough time to retrieve the laptop from Ichi before the zoo workers arrived for their shift. The lavender corn naga had fallen asleep wrapped around the computer, a livestream of some kind of kitten room still playing when I gently woke him up.

I double checked the e-mail to make sure there were no planning changes, and I'd be checking it throughout the day to adjust for anything Jeff alerted me to. I couldn't break out the nagas before the helicopter had landed, as much as I wanted to, as they'd be so easy to spot out in the open.

With the clock showing 8:15 a.m., I had less than twelve hours before our ride landed.