Altered (Male Reader-Insert)

[8]

 You slowly wake up from unconsciousness. Your entire body feels warm for some reason. The only time you feel warm was when you saw the sun on the window back then. You observe where this warmth is coming from and realize it's coming from whatever you're laying on. You open your eyes to see what's going on and immediately blush.

 You're laying your head on Lin's chest with his arm wrapped around you. You can hear his heartbeat. You slowly sit up and see that Lin isn't awake yet. You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding and observe the new room you're in.

 The first thing catching your attention is a pile of oranges near his feet. They appear to have some black goo on them, making you wonder if the latex beasts picked them out for you. You eat half of the oranges, leaving the other half for him.

 While waiting for him to wake up, you question how you end up in that position. You remember you collapsed face down with Lin on top of you. Did the dragons lay you down like that?

 You take this time to try to remember who you were. You still end up with nothing. You try to remember anything about Lin, but nothing comes out still. Looking around the room, you notice this room strangely has grass growing on the floor.

 Looking behind you, you see a tree in a pot. There's a lot of books in the corners of the room, making you assume you're in or at least near the library. There's also a pair of green crystals blocking one of the doors which you guess leads you to the Dragon Cave.

 Going behind the tree, you see a machine that appears to need a 4-digit combination. You hear something move behind you, you turn around to see Lin slowly wake up. You sit beside him and check if he's ok.

 He says that he's fine and asks what happened. You explain that when he passed out you tried carrying him to the next room. You collapsed as well and the latex beasts moved you here while adding that they picked out some oranges.

 You grab the oranges and hand it to him while telling him that you'll check if the next rooms are safe. Just as you're about to stand up, he grabs your hand and tells you that he wants you to stay for a bit.

 You sit down and wait for him to finish eating. He only eats half of the oranges before handing you the rest. You're about to ask him what he is doing until he says that he wants to talk with you.

 He visibly seems upset so you listen to him intently. He tells you that you should stop worrying about him so much. You did so much for him that you barely did anything for yourself. Right now he wants to do the same for you and wants to make sure you're alright.

 His small rant makes you reflect on what you did before. You always put him first, always ensuring that he's safe, leaving you in danger. He stands up while telling you that he'll check the next rooms.

 You sit there, finishing up the oranges while you're still deep in thought. You want to make it up for Lin and the only way to do it is to respect his wishes. You look at him and see him staring back at you. He gives you a soft smile before entering the next room.

 After eating all the oranges you clean up your garbage just as Lin comes back. He says that the machine controls the door to the right and the door he went through leads to the balcony. He warns you that there's a bird that might transfur you.

 You decide to rest a bit before moving on and you take this time to ask Lin about his past. He replies that he's just an average person. He attended college and was looking for a job. He mentions that he doesn't like talking, yet feels comfortable talking with you. You feel a bit special, knowing that you make him feel comfortable.

 Lin then enters the balcony and you follow after him. There's a lot of boxes in front of you and farther away, you can see a door with the company logo in between. Looking up, you see the bird that was mentioned. There's already an open path and Lin says he made it while you were eating.

 You pass through the boxes while making sure the bird isn't above you. You enter the other room and see it's full of books. There's another machine where you have to enter a code and you assume it unlocks the door to the right. There's a poster beside the machine showing the moon orbiting the Earth. There's also a ninety degree angle at the top.

 Lin checks the bookshelves and finds a short note saying "Write 'MOON, ninety degrees'". This makes you focus on the poster, especially the moon. You stare at the poster, mostly at the moon and the angle and notice something about the way that "MOON" is written.

 You tilt you head to the left then realize that the letters look similar to numbers. They spell out 3002. You point this out to Lin and head back to the other room. After entering the 4-digit code, the door unlocks and Lin enters it first to check if it's safe.

 You enter the room once he tells you there's no danger. The next room is a long hallway with bookshelves, books, trees in pots, and boxes. There's an apparent path that's zigzagging with puddles and moving shadows.

 Lin walks first and you follow after him. This feels much more easy compared to before with the shadows moving in a pattern. You hope that it's like this for some time as you're tired of being constantly chased.

 You make it to the end of the room and like before Lin checks the following room. He exits quickly, grabs your hand, and runs back to the start. You look back to the door and see white slime coming from the edges.

 A big white furry slime then exits the room and begins chasing you two. It's way bigger than you two combined. You both enter the room you were in and try to hide behind the tree, with you sitting down to hide behind the pot while Lin stands up trying to hide behind the tree trunk.

 The big slime enters and stops right in front of the tree before turning around to enter the balcony. Lin leaves the hiding spot first to check if it's gone now. He checks up on you then asks if you're ok. You nod while getting up. You hope that's the last time you'll get chased.

 You both enter the hallway again, this time there's tiny white slimes moving around. They seem to be parts of the giant slime creature and they don't do any harm. You enter the next room with Lin in front of you.

 There's a bunch of books near the entrance, so much so that you can only move forwards or backwards. Lin stops just as you both pass the pile of books making you move to the side. You stop all of your movements when you see what's ahead of you.

 Sitting in the center of the room is a black latex beast. He didn't notice the both of you yet as He's reading a book. He stops reading to see what's in front of them. He stares at the two of you before running to a potted tree to your left. He hides behind it, peeking out a bit before going back to the center of the room. Lin steps back a bit while you stand still.

 "Do not be afraid... I will not assimilate you. I am different from them, please do not worry. You must have seen the tips I left behind. I knew that human beings must be very smart and excellent.

 I have been waiting for your awakenings for a long time. I hope you will not be disappointed because I am a latex beast. You two must have gone a long way on the road, right? Maybe we should take a break.

 I won't do anything please believe me. I'm suddenly a little bit nervous as I didn't expect there to be two of you. Which reminds me... Ah! Sorry about the fake latex costume. I should've made at least two."

 The latex beast turns around and walks forward a bit.

 "I never thought you or rather two of you to actually come... what should I do..."

 He walks forward, turns around, then sits down to read again. Lin cautiously approaches forward whereas you remain motionless, only moving forward when he lightly pulls on your hand.

 This is the person that's been leaving tips? You call back to the signature behind the notes and realize that they're similar to the masks that the black latex beasts have. Having a latex beast on your side definitely is helpful as he can deter the other beasts away.

 Now that there's three of you now you feel much safer. You feel more determined and confident to escape this place.