Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown.
Warning: Just some dragon snuggles.
Jack stirred his beef stew at the counter, before pouring some into a bowl for himself. He felt something brush against his leg, causing him to jump in surprise. He looked down and saw a certain dragon staring up at him, tail swishing back and forth.
"Hey, Chase," Jack greeted his newest roommate. "What's up?"
Chase began to paw at his leg, growling softly.
"What?" Jack asked, looking around for the Tongue of Saiping, but, of course, had misplaced it within a few minutes. "What's your problem?"
Chase growled angrily, nudging his snout against Jack's hand that held the ladle he was using to stir his soup.
Jack blinked at him in confusion before making the connection. "Oh, you want some? Sure." He took out an extra bowl and poured some stew for Chase.
He grabbed a spoon for himself and carried both of the bowls over to his couch, setting them down on the table. He patted the seat next to him in invitation and Chase obliged. Jack pulled the table closer to himself, so that Chase could eat.
Chase nodded curtly at Jack, which the goth could only assume meant thanks.
The two ate in silence as Jack turned on the television watching some mindless show to pass the time.
Jack carefully drilled into one of his Jack-bot's, his eyes focused directly on his work. He always had to drill this particular screw in as carefully as he could or else it wouldn't hold the Jack-bot together well enough.
As he was almost through drilling, he heard a deafening roar behind him. He let out a shrill shriek of terror whilst accidentally shoving the screw deep into the robot. He whirled around to see Chase sitting on the ground nearby, his tail whapping lightly against the floor.
"What. The. Hell?" Jack yelled, spreading his hands out, his right eye twitching uncontrollably.
To his dismay, Chase just sat there, blinking at him, tilting his head like a puppy. Jack growled, marching forward and bended down on one knee, so that he was at the beast's level. He grabbed Chase's head, shaking it slightly with each word.
"What. Is. Your. Problem?"
Chase huffed at him and moved away, hopping on top of Jack's couch and curling up.
Jack made a small, stifled noise of disbelief and then walked back to his robot, twitching his head. He was even more annoyed to see that the screw that he'd tried to drill was stuck in the robot in a way that it definitely wasn't supposed to be.
"Stupid dragon," Jack thought bitterly to himself as he frowned.
Jack rubbed his eyes tiredly with his fingertips. He stood up from his seat, yawning as he made his way to his bedroom. He opened the door, only to have Chase rush past and jump up on the bed, curling up happily in the center.
"Hey!" Jack shouted indignantly.
Luckily, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Tongue of Saiping. He snatched it up from the ground and activated it.
"Oh no, dragonbreath," he warned. "That's where I sleep."
"I can see why you do, it is very comfortable," Chase commented, shifting slightly on the bed. "And I don't appreciate the name-calling."
Jack frowned and walked over to a side of the bed.
"Whatever," Jack hissed, shedding his coat, "I'm sleeping here anyways."
Chase made a noise of protest, but Jack ignored him, snuggling underneath the covers. The dragon growled, but laid his head back down, shutting his eyes, deciding this was a battle he was too tired to fight.
For the next several days, Jack and Chase developed something of a simple routine. As each day would progress, Jack would make all the food for the two of them and work on his robots, while Chase either watched him with mild interest or slept somewhere.
However, about a week after Chase had basically moved in, Jack began to grow worried. Chase wasn't eating that much and he slept more often. If Jack went to touch or pet him, for whatever reason, his skin felt like it was burning up. Jack tried to ask him what was wrong, but even when Jack used the Tongue of Saiping, Chase brushed it off as nothing.
The evil genius was becoming more and more frustrated because he knew that Chase, even in his current state, had far too much pride and couldn't bring himself to tell his caretaker that he wasn't feeling well.
A few days after Chase began to feel a little under the weather, Jack got fed up with Chase's silence on the matter and practically demanded that the dragon tell him what was wrong. Chase had merely growled at him, except the goth could see that he looked more uncomfortable than anything. Jack squatted down, so that he was at eye-level with the dragon.
"C'mon, Chase," Jack pleaded, "Let me run some tests."
Chase snarled fiercely at him in an attempt to frighten the youth.
It had no effect.
"Chase, just this once, I am begging you to just let go of your pride and, at least, let me try to help you. For the past couple weeks, I've been taking care of you. I feed you and I've given you a place to sleep. Believe me, man. You can tell me anything."
Now, Chase rarely told people about himself. It mostly related to his immediate distrust of others, since trusting people on the side of evil wasn't always the smartest idea. However, it slowly dawned on Chase realized that Jack was helping him. He did more than just help him, really. He had seriously cared for him and was still caring for him, even though Chase was being difficult.
"I'm sick," Chase stated, "In case you didn't already know. Don't ask me why, I'm not entirely sure."
Jack smiled, evidently glad that Chase was talking to him again. "Alright, well, why don't we run some tests?"
Chase's eyes narrowed at him. "No, I refuse."
Jack's smile faltered. "Chase, I have plenty of machines and medical equipment to help determine what's wrong with you."
"Why do you have so much medical equipment?" Chase asked curiously.
"I get the crap beaten out of me on a daily basis," Jack explained. "Does it really surprise you that I have all this?"
Chase snorted. "I suppose not."
"Now, come up here," Jack ordered, pointing at an examination table.
Chase hesitated, but sighed and hopped up on the table. As he did so, Jack grabbed a large gold chain he'd "borrowed" from his mother's set of jewelry and tied it around the Tongue of Saiping before fashioning it into a sort of necklace. With this, he would be able to talk to Chase with his hands free.
Jack then examined him, checking his teeth, eyes, rubbing his throat, etc. He walked away for a moment before returning with a needle, cotton swabs, and some small tubes.
Chase stiffened as his eyes widened. "No," he protested, shaking his head.
"Chase, I need a blood sample to make sure that this isn't serious," the goth stated as he slapped on a pair of latex gloves.
"You are not taking any blood from me, Spicer."
"I promise it won't take long."
"No," Chase snarled.
"What? You scared?" Jack asked, raising his brow.
"No," the dragon responded gruffly, averting his eyes.
"Oh, my God. You are scared!" Jack shouted, pointing at him accusingly.
"I am not scared."
"Then, let me take a blood sample."
"Fine," Chase agreed with a sneer, but his eyes widened in sudden realization as Jack began to poke at one of his muscular arms. "Are you sure you know what you're doing, Spicer?"
"Yes," Jack replied in a condescending tone. "Trust me, it won't be that bad. It's just a little pinch."
The red-head continued to poke the skin a few times before grabbing the needle. Chase lowered his head and seemed to almost curl in on his body, but he didn't move from the spot. Jack made sure to find the vein again before plunging the syringe into his arm.
The dragon let a howl of pain that echoed through the laboratory, causing any Jack-bot's to flee in terror. Jack frowned as he took the blood, removed the needle, and easily bandaged his arm up. "Oh, quit it."
"It hurt," Chase growled. "What did you expect me to do?"
Jack rolled his eyes as he patched up the small hole in Chase's skin.
A few hours later, Jack informed Chase that he had a simple cold, but because of his reptilian form, his cold was just a bit more serious. Jack assured him that by next week Chase would be well again as long as Jack gave him the proper medication.
As usual, around 11 o'clock, Jack and Chase retired to Jack's bed, both sleeping on their respective sides.
Jack was awoken not long after by a low whimpering noise. He sat up in bed and glanced over at his bedmate. Chase was squirming around on the bed, his face scrunched up in pain.
The evil genius sighed softly as he leaned over, reached out his hand, and began to lightly shake the dragon. "Chase…Chase, dude. Wake up."
The dragonman rolled over, now properly facing Jack, but still whimpering. His eyes were still tightly shut and his whole body was shaking like a leaf. With a groan of discomfort, Jack got out of his bed and moved over to Chase's side. He pulled the covers out from under Chase, with some difficulty because of his size, but managed it without waking the monster up. He draped the blanket over Chase and moving back to his side of the bed.
The goth crawled back under the covers, trying to fall back to sleep when he felt something latch onto him. He darted his eyes to his side to see Chase curled up against him. The dragon's arms were wrapped around Jack's body and he was nuzzling his snout against the redhead's neck.
Jack blushed fiercely at the intimate position and tried to nudge him away.
"Chase…mngh, get off," he whispered, but the dragon only snuggled closer, making a low purring sound in his throat, his tail gently swishing behind him against the mattress.
After a while, Jack gave up, sighing in defeat. He slowly started to relax and soon fell asleep.
A/N: This is mostly Jack and Chase spending time together as new roomies...as you can see, it's a bit uncomfortable. *giggle*
