Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown, blah-blah-blah, you guys know the drill by now.
Warning: Slight swearing, but nothing bad. This story is pretty chill, guys.
Chase wearily blinked his eyes open, yawning slightly as he did so.
In the night, he vaguely remembered his cold causing him great pain and how dizzy he'd felt, but the memory was still quite foggy.
Suddenly, Chase realized that he was gripping tightly on something. Something warm and soft. He gazed down at his scaly arms, which were wrapped around white skin that was covered with blankets. His steady gaze slowly moved upwards to eventually stare at Jack's gently sleeping face.
At first, Chase wanted to kill the red-head for not only having the gall to sleep in the same bed as Chase (even though it wasn't the warlord's bed to begin with), but was now cuddling against him. Then, Chase realized that Jack wasn't even purposely touching him.
"I'm cuddling against Jack Spicer of all people," Chase thought to himself with a bit of disgust.
Had he really stopped this low? Had this awful curse and now this annoying sickness brought him to such a pathetic level of dependency?
The dragonlord finally noticed how tightly he was gripping onto Jack's body. He knew he really should let go, but…something in him wouldn't allow him to. In fact, he felt more comfortable snuggled against the redhead.
Was it because Jack had taken care of him so vigilantly, not to mention voluntarily? Perhaps. No one had ever treated him with such kindness ad he would have never expected such charity from Jack Spicer.
Chase's thoughts wandered and eventually fell on Hannibal. Chase growled softly at the thought of that damn bean. If not for that little pest, this would never have happened. When this was all over and Chase was back to normal there would be hell to pay.
Unfortunately, his growling caused his companion to awaken. The youth made a small noise, shifting slightly and as much as it pained Chase to do so (for reasons he still wasn't entirely sure of), he began to release Jack from his grip.
Jack's eyes fluttered open and he squeezed them shut again as he stretched his arms out. One of his arms gently bumped against Chase's snout as he brought them back down, which caused the evil genius' body to instantly freeze. He slowly turned his head to meet Chase's steady gaze.
Unsure of what to say, Jack blurted out, "Sup?"
The dragonman gave a huff of amusement at the greeting before releasing Jack completely and scurrying over to the other side of the bed. He snatched up the Tongue of Saiping in his powerful jaws and plopped it in Jack's lap, indicating he wanted to talk with him.
Once the Wu was activated, Chase said, "I apologize for any discomfort I may have caused you last night. I exhibited inappropriate behavior."
"No, no, man, it's cool," Jack reassured him immediately. "You were in a lot of pain and you weren't thinking. Believe me, it's totally cool."
Chase made a noncommittal sound. "Nevertheless, I can assure you it won't happen again."
The goth gave a shrug. "Whatever, dude."
Jack was pouting something fierce.
It wasn't unusual for him to do such a thing, since he was normally moody when he didn't get his way.
He had lost three showdowns in a row today, leaving him with barely any Wu. To make matters worse, the monks had been increasingly annoying today.
The goth sat in his desk chair with his knees up and his arms folded over them as he glared across the room, trying to calm himself down from his earlier outburst when he'd arrived home.
He jumped when he felt something paw at his leg, but relaxed when he saw Chase.
"Go away, Chase. I wanna be alone," he commanded the creature with an annoyed expression.
The reptile growled warningly at him, showing his sharp teeth.
"Grr, yourself," the teen growled back, mocking him.
Chase narrowed his eyes and shoved his snout against Jack's thigh.
"No, go away, Chase," Jack protested, trying to push him away.
The dragon huffed angrily and repeated his action, shoving even harder this time.
"Ugh, what? What do you want? I fed you, already!" Jack exclaimed.
Chase continued to make growling noises, still pushing against Jack's legs with his snout, encouraging him to get up.
"Dammit, Chase, will you just let me be depressed?" Jack stressed, but stood up anyways.
His roommate immediately scurried behind him and pushed against his back, urging him to move forward.
Chase wasn't entirely sure why he even cared that Jack was upset, but something inside him absolutely hated seeing the youth like this. Jack was normally such a perky person as well as grotesquely optimistic. Watching him practically give up was almost painful for Chase to watch.
"Chase, I'm tired," Jack moaned, flopping down on the couch and landing on his back. "We'll talk in the morning, 'kay?"
The dragon followed him to the couch and sat on the floor for a few moments. Then, as if he had just made his decision, he hopped up onto the loveseat and laid his body beside the genius. He placed his head on Jack's chest and shut his eyes.
Jack's own eyes shot open and he opened his mouth to ask what the hell Chase thought he was doing, but quickly decided that as long as the dragon wasn't trying to hurt him, he supposed there was nothing wrong with lying together.
Actually, it felt really nice.
He hesitantly placed his hand on Chase's head, stroking his scaly skin with thumb. Hearing a pleased hum emanate from his companion, Jack grinned gently and closed his eyes before laying his head back to rest.
A/N: Short chapter, I know, but this is the only way I could achieve proper balance, since I didn't want to make the chapters super long. I wanted this spread out a little more. Oh, and I want to clarify a few things here that I forgot to mention in the last chapter.
A lot of what is happening to Chase is what his animal instincts are making him do. I based a lot of his animalistic things off of experiences I've had with my dogs. Such as in the last chapter how he bothers Jack for no apparent reason, mooches for food, takes up half the bed, and in this chapter how he doesn't like seeing his companion just sitting around.
Chase is still in his right mind, but it is like everything has been switched up. Before he when he had his human form, he could easily control the beast within. Now, the beast in the one in control. Hope you guys liked it anyways!