Subject to Study (Naga!Brothers x Reader)

Chapter 30

I couldn't help but stare at the lavender corn naga, watching him retreat behind one of the fallen logs as my fingers reached up to rest against my lips. The interaction between us had been blocked by the black wall by one of the few standing trees, using the disguised pillar as something to lean against for the moment.

Ichi kissed me on the lips, willingly.

"Ichi..." I called out softly, hearing a light hiss as a response, "I appreciate the kiss."

When I only got silence as my answer, I stayed inside the enclosure for a few more moments before leaving and closing his door behind me.

I fought the blush that tried to rise in my cheeks, reminding myself firmly that I needed to focus on remaining as unassuming as possible until the zoo closed for the day. There were two hours between when the zoo closed to when the helicopter landed, and I'd be needing those two hours to prepare the nagas for escape. If they were the size of their full-bodied counterparts, then I would've had no problem carrying them out on my person. But each of their bodies were the equivalent size of a human, which meant that I was dealing with twenty-plus feet of length on each naga. They weren't a size that I could just carry out.

I paused as I rested a hand on Choro's door, a rake in my other hand. The thought hadn't occurred to me before, but would the nagas be okay crossing the rough pavement? Kara was actively in shed and Ichi was cutting it really close with his cycle. I'm sure the others would be fine for the short trek, but I was worried about what effect the rough pavement would have on the outer keratin layer. Considering their size, I wouldn't be able to carry either one of them...

"Are you waiting for permission?" The door opened, pushing itself into my shoulder before I took a step back. Choro partially leaned out through the doorway, looking down at me with a questioning look on his face.

"Ah, no," I shook my head, opening the door all the way before stepping in as the green mamba naga gave me room, "I was busy thinking about 'what ifs' for tonight."

"Anything that I can help with?" He deftly moved out of the way of the rake and swiftly climbed up one of the closer 'trees' to let me do my job, "I mean...there's not much I can do, but I've been told that I'm a great person to talk to."

"Who told you that?" I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh, someone from beyond that black wall," Curling his coils underneath him, Choro rested his arms on the topmost loop and lay his chin on them, "I've heard them talk to me before when I was relaxing near it."

"Were they just talking to you?" I started my raking job, partially interested in what Choro had experienced.

"It sounded like it," Choro moved along the branches with me, staying out of my way but remaining close so we didn't have to shout to each other, "At first, it sounded like the same person coming by every day. She'd sit in the right corner and just talk about things. I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or Oso, since she said both of our names pretty often...but this person started to only talk to me."

"She must've felt like you were listening to her," I stepped over a small pile of dirty substrate before focusing on the area closer to the black wall, "Do you know if she worked here?"

"No, it just sounded like she visited the zoo frequently because she had a connection with animals, or something like that."

"Have you heard her since the raid?"

"Yeah, quite a few times," He let an arm dangle down, his fingers brushing against the top of my head as I worked underneath him, "She talked about really different things that she felt were going wrong in her life. Some things called 'skool' and 'classes'?"