Archive of Our Own ^beta

   Shaking his head, the naga closes his eyes before opening them at the clinking noise in his walls. 

   He lets out a confused hiss while shaking his head. “There it is again...” 

   There had been strange, albeit small, noises coming from his walls for about a week now. He only ever hears them during moments of pure quiet, but they’re definitely there. 

   He has a sneaking suspicion that there may be something living in his walls, but he isn’t sure what. And he knows that it doesn’t stay in there all the time, if the missing thumbtacks are anything to go by. 

   Thankfully, Janus has a plan. He’s set out a tiny tray of thumbtacks out on the coffee table in front of the couch, since those were the only things he noticed were going missing. He’ll pretend to be asleep, so when the little thing finally makes its way out of the walls, he’ll be able to spot it.

   Janus turns his head to the coffee table and closes his eyes, listening for any sign of the small creature that’s taken shelter in his walls.

                              ——

   Virgil wasn’t stupid. 

   He may be only seven years old, but he wasn’t a dummy. 

   He knows that if the giant snake man catches him, he’ll be eaten in two seconds. He knows far better than to be seen by him, so he does his best to stay out of sight.

   Of course, when his mother was still alive, she’d drilled it into his head that humans were monsters. It was the only useful thing she ever did for Virgil, teaching him to stay away from the big people. 

   When she was found by the humans that lived in the house they had taken shelter in, she told them she had a son, that he was more valuable than her. The humans found Virgil next, and took him as well as his mother.

   Virgil wailed and cried, begging the humans to let him go, but they didn’t listen. They killed his mom and threw him in a drawer afterwards. 

   They toyed with him for several days  (Virgil had started calling the older human ‘The Beast’), until deciding to take Virgil with them on a hike in the forest.

   They kept him in a plastic sandwich baggy, and Virgil honestly doesn’t remember much of that day. All he remembers is tearing a hole in the little bag and running far away.

   He ran for a long, long time. So long, that his feet had began to bleed. He came across and odd looking house and snuck in through the vents, finding an opening to the walls.

   When he saw the half-snake human, his breathing got all funny and he went right back in the walls. 

   He spent the first two days crying, begging for his momma to come and find him. Sure, maybe she hit him and said nasty words to him sometimes, but she was the only other person he’d ever known.

   He started borrowing thumbtacks after the third day, so he could make stairways in the walls. It was really difficult to get them in the walls, though, and he got hurt a few times on the sharp points of the needles.

   Still, he knows that he needs to get more if he wants to survive, so after the fifth day, Virgil heads out again to find more thumbtacks. His head is fuzzy and dizzy from not eating a lot, since the snake man is very clean and doesn’t drop much food, but he presses on.

   Virgil enters the living room, freezing when he sees the giant snake man on the couch. Thankfully, Virgil realizes, he’s asleep. Virgil sees the thumbtacks on the coffee table and bristles a bit, heading over to the wooden structure. 

   It takes several tries, but Virgil finally manages to land his fishing hook on the top of the table. It takes him a while to get to the top, since he almost fell down, but he makes it. 

   Pushing himself up, Virgil whines a bit in discomfort as he becomes dizzy for a short moment. He shakes it off and walks over to the thumbtacks, grabbing one of them and putting it in his scrappy bag. 

   He looks up at the snake man, just to make sure he hasn’t moved, and freezes. 

   Two eyes, one brown and the other a golden yellow, state back at him. 

   The snake man was awake. 

   Virgil gives out a yelp of surprise and fear as he backs into a soft, warm wall. He turns around and sees a wall of green scales— it’s a tail, he realizes— and freezes when he hears the honey smooth voice.

   “Oh my...I was not expecting a tiny human to be living in my walls. I was sure it was a mouse or a squirrel, but not a tiny human, let alone a little hatchling.” 

   Virgil looks around for any way to escape the situation, but finds absolutely none. 

   He was trapped here with the giant snake human, and he was going to die.

   Letting out a whimper, Virgil lets the dam break loose, falling to his knees and sobbing. He would usually be embarrassed when crying in front of somebody, but now? He really doesn’t care, not when it could be his final moments.

    The snake man lets out a tiny gasp, gently cupping his large hands around Virgil, who flinches violently at the sudden touch. He’s now sitting on a soft, warm surface and cries harder when he realizes it’s hands. 

   He’s lifted up to the snake mans chest and is gently pressed against it, and it almost feels like a hug. Virgil cries even harder. At least he gets a hug before he dies. His momma never hugged him. 

   “Oh dear, shhh, shhh, it’s alright, please don’t cry. I’m sorry for frightening you, little one. Whatever is the matter?” 

   “I—I don’t wa-wanna die! Pl—please don’t kill me—! D-don’t eat me!” Virgil sobs out, whimpering when large fingers begin to softly rub his back.

    “Eat you? Kill you? Oh my— no, sweetie! Why would I ever do such a horrible thing?” 

   “I— I stole y-your stuff! N-now you’re ang-angry at me a-and—and—!”  

   The snake man removes his hands from his chest, bringing them forward so he can look at Virgil while talking to him. He rubs the hatchlings tummy with his thumb, cooing softly. He was so little...

   “I’m not mad at you, darling! I don’t even know you, but I know that you’re very scared of me, hm?” 

   Virgil’s nods at the snake’s words, hiccuping softly.

   “You’re so tiny, and I must be really scary to you, huh?” 

   Virgil nods again, sobs reduced to hiccups and sniffles. 

   “So of course you wouldn’t make yourself known to me. I’ve only been hearing noises in my walls for about a week, so you’ve only been here for that long?”

   “H-how did you—?” 

   “I have better hearing than humans do, dear. I’m a naga. My name is Janus, by the way.”

   Virgil gives a shaky inhale, wiping his eyes. “I-I’m Virgil.” 

   He jolts as Janus begins to move into the kitchen, setting him down on the counter.

   “What— Why are we i-in the kitchen?” Virgil asks, not fully understanding why Janus has brought him here. Maybe he really was going to eat him!

   “I’m getting you something to eat, sweetie,” Janus smiles as he opens the fridge, “now, what kind of foods do you like?” 

   Virgil doesn’t really know how to respond. He’s never really had a wide variety of things to choose from, nor has he ever been given the option of choosing his meals. He was lucky to get food when his mother went borrowing. 

   “I- uhm. I d-don’t know..? I’m sorry- I don’t—“ 

   “It’s alright. Here, how about this?”

The naga holds out a grape to Virgil, who very hesitantly takes it. 

   He inspects it carefully before biting down into the fruit, the juice coating his tongue. His stomach growled, requesting more of the grape. Virgil obeys, eating as much of it as he can.

   After a while, Virgil’s tummy starts to hurt, but not in a bad way. He turns bright red as Janus chuckled softly, realizing that he just scarfed down an entire grape in front of him.

   Janus offers his hand to Virgil, who looks up at naga curiously.

   “I’m assuming you’re tired?” Janus asks the borrower.

  Virgil yawns at the mere mention of being tired. He hasn’t slept right in weeks, plagued with horrible nightmares of humans. 

   “How about I make a nest for you? I have plenty of pillows and blankets, and they’re very soft.” Janus says, trying to speak softly. 

   Virgil ponders for a moment. Agreeing 

meant sleeping in the open in front of a big person. It meant trusting Janus. 

   When Virgil would fall asleep in the presence of the other humans, he would never wake up on his own. The humans would always jolt him awake forcefully until he’d be so frustrated and sleepy that he’d start crying, which only ever made the humans laugh.

   Humans were mean and evil and—

   And Janus wasn’t a human. He was a naga.

   Finally, Virgil looks back up at Janus, who’s been waiting patiently for him. “No tricks? You won’t h-hurt me...?”

   Janus smiles sadly at Virgil’s words, shaking his head.

   “No tricks, little mouse. I promise.” 

   With that, the borrower climbs onto Janus’ clawed hand, instinctively hugging his thumb as Janus started to slither to his room. 

   When Janus enters his room, he places Virgil down on his bedside table carefully. 

   “Let me just grab a blanket or two...and here’s an extra pillow.” Janus murmurs to himself while looking through his closet. “Ah, here we are.” 

    The naga smiles as he gathers the plush material in his arms, expertly forming it on a safe part of his large bed. When he finishes the hatchling’s nest, he smiles even wider. 

   “Come here, darling. Your nest is ready.” Janus says as he scoops up Virgil (with his permission, of course), and places him in his nest. 

   The borrower blinks a few times before rubbing his fingers against the fuzzy purple blanket. He smiles a bit at how soft and fluffy his new bed—or nest— is! He’s never been on such a soft surface before! 

   He startles a bit when Janus curls around the little nest, body almost... guarding the borrower from the outside world. He can feel the warmth radiating from the human part of Janus’ body, and it only causes Virgil to become even more sleepy.

   “Ah, I’m sorry if I startled you. It’s just, nagas coil around their young to protect them in their sleep. And you’re so little, I just—“ 

   “D-does that make y-you my papa?” 

    Janus is seemingly caught off guard by the sudden question, the human side of his face becoming slightly flushed.

   “Would you like that? For me to be your...’Papa’?” He questions softly, cooing as Virgil snuggles into his chest, curling up in the large blankets. 

   “Mmhm...I’ve n-never had one before.” 

   Janus slowly brings his hand to Virgil, curling it around him protectively. 

   “Then I’d be honored to be yours, sweetie,” Janus croons while he lays his head down, “go to sleep, my darling. I’ll be here to protect you.”

   Finally, Virgil falls asleep. And for the first time in years, he feels warm, safe, and most of all, loved.