Subject to Study (Naga!Brothers x Reader)

Chapter 46

The morning sun settled across my eyes as I turned over on my bed, groaning in annoyance as I pulled the blanket over my face. A soft breeze notified me that my bare feet were no longer under the blanket and I quickly tucked my legs in close to me, adjusting my position on the bed to accommodate. The new position quickly became more and more uncomfortable and I tossed off the blanket entirely, stretching out and laying on my back while staring up at the ceiling.

A low canopy of leaves and branches brought me back to reality that I wasn't in civilization anymore, sitting up in the thick pile of leaves and grass that Kara helped me gather in my tired state for sleep.

"...morning..." I yawned to no one as I reached down to pluck the socks that were stowed in my boots, shaking them out to ensure that nothing tried to make a home within the fabric, then slipping them on my feet. I repeated the process for the boots, stepping into them and tightening the laces before standing up and stretching one more time.

Adjusting my clothing, I lifted my shirt up to my nose, wincing at the smell that was starting to accumulate. Considering I had only changed clothes once during the trip back, I was more than overdue for an actual bath.

Undoing the duffle bag near the leafy bed, I grabbed a full change of clothes and a towel, making a mental note to find some way to rig up a drying rack for wet clothes. Looking through my duffle bag to find the toiletries that I had stashed, I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth as I quickly pulled my hand out of the bag.

"Ah, shit..." Glancing at my hand, I saw a thin line of red bead across the length of my thumb, "Right...(Y/n), you've got knives stored in the bag."

Licking off the tiny droplets of blood welling on my skin, I carefully uncovered the four knives that I had stolen from the zoo and set them on the bed in the partially shredded clothing sheaths. With the dangerous weapons out of the way, I dug back through the bag to bring out the large ziploc bag full of travel-sized toiletries. Picking out the shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash, I grabbed my hairbrush and shaded my eyes from the morning sun as I walked towards the nearby spring.

Jyushi had told me that he rarely comes to this one, since there's a larger spring closer to his den that flows into the river further inland. I pushed aside a large frond to see the spring's reflective surface, seeing that the size was about half the size of my old studio apartment when I was a student.

Placing the fresh clothes down on a fallen tree, I gave a careful look around the perimeter of the spring, gazing at the empty spaces between the trees and bushes to make sure that there weren't any unwanted eyes staring back at me.

I paused in my visual sweep when I made eye contact with two orbs of dark copper, the black scales around the color giving it away who it was.

"Todo," I held back a disappointed sigh, placing a hand on my hip as I tossed the towel over a shoulder, "I thought your den was on the other side of the island."

"It is, but I wanted to make sure that you were...alive," The youngest naga emerged from his 'hiding' place, glancing around the area while letting his tongue flick in and out, "You still need to do my bidding."

"I'm alive and well, but I'd really like to take a bath before I do anything today," I waved a hand towards the spring.

"Well, when you're finished, I've got a few things that I want you to do for me," Todo curled up on his tail and watched me intently, his copper eyes never leaving my figure, "Go on."

"Excuse you?" I scoffed, "I don't want an audience. I'll find you when I'm finished, so leave me alone."

"I don't trust you to come find me," He rested his left cheek on his forearm, still holding eye contact with me, "If it makes you feel better, I'll just close my eyes."