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Cold.
He curled and tucked like a ball with his knees to his nose.
Still cold.
A long tail would wrap itself around his body tightly.
Too cold.
It is currently 3:32 am on a weeknight, not just any weeknight but the night right before another big game.
Modo was freezing and wide awake when he should be resting and conserving energy for their roarball game tomorrow. Not like he gets to really do much anyway, with a certain panther doing the majority of the playing.
He doesn't understand her, but he won't exactly push her either. Trying will change nothing, the same as complaining as well.
That's another thing he doesn't get. While the other team members may comment on Jett's behavior, whether upfront or behind her back, he just can't really find it in him to say anything negative about her. To him there really wasn't anything negative to say. She just acts differently.
Modo thinks being different is just another form of self-expression. Thus, he never really has anything to say about Jett or her behavior. He just leaves it be. Leaves her to express herself even if most of the time it's through anger.
Though it'll be harder to let it be if he messes up the game so badly, she takes notice, growls at the team again, and we return to an awkward flight all because he can't sleep.
So what to do?
He's already done his nightly routine of shedding and dancing around his glorious blue egg for 6 hours straight. The only problem was heating.
Having this next tournament be in a northern location, it was understandable, even expected, for it to be a bit cooler than he's used to. He didn't mind being a little uncomfortable so long as he could go back to a warm room afterward.
But that was the problem.
When the team arrived at their hotel, they were told beforehand there might be a small issue with the heating, but they said they would work quickly to have it fixed. Since no one has uttered a sound, it's safe to assume everyone else's room is working just fine.
His room was doing just fine...until now.
At around 2:40 a.m is when Modo's heater decided to shutdown.
He must've gotten the short end of the stick when given room numbers, since no one in the group commented on any issues on their end.
"This isn't going to work for Modo."
Slowly he slithered himself out of bed and out the door in his brightly colored mismatched PJ's. A neon yellow tank and long silky silvery blue pants topped with some torn-up pink fuzzy slippers.
With his dazzling blue egg in one hand, he began his journey to his teammates' rooms.
It wouldn't be the first time he slept in the same room as his members, so he wasn't worried about asking. The question was rather whose room he would sleep in this time.
Will was immediately off the table. Don't get him wrong he finds the newbie to be quite funny, but man can he snore for a small.
Next would be Olivia. She wouldn't be that bad of an option...if it weren't for the fact she's social media crazed.
Trying to sleep near that is like sleeping near a live streamer. Just rapid talking and typing with the occasional yell here and there. No thanks.
Hard pass on Archie. Sweet man. FANTASTIC father. But that's the thing though. He's a father. Those girls of his are both a gift and a handful. Plus they're a workout to put to bed. Something tells Modo that if he were to knock and accidentally wake those two up, then no one would be sleeping tonight. Yeah...moving on.
So he's down to his last two options.
A super laid-back brown spotted giraffe who needs the whole room to stretch fully out to sleep? Or a literal ticking time bomb?
First he tried Lenny's room, though when he tried opening the door it would barely budge. It was as if something, probably someone, was leaning against it.
He must be really stretched out in there.
Unfortunately, this leaves Modo with only one choice. Well, two choices, sort of, since he's never really been in Jett's room before. Get some sleep and possibly get yelled at by Jett or don't sleep and get yelled at by Jett.
It's pretty obvious he's going to be yelled at regardless, he might as well worry about it later because he's way too tired to think about it at the moment.
Without a second of hesitation, he lightly knocked just for good measure. It'd be really difficult to do this if she was already in a mood.
Luckily, no shouting or groaning. Modo took that as a sign to lightly enter the room with great caution.
The room was extremely dark, and the bed looked completely untouched. Modo assumes Jett moved to her branch above the bed for her slumber.
With quiet steps, he slowly closed the door behind him and slithered down onto the nice carpeted floor.
Finally, some warmth. He thought as he closed his eyes.
Alas, it didn't last long before the warmness of the carpet vanished. He still felt cold.
He tried shifting a bit to another spot in the room where there was more heat.
"Hm..?"
Immediately his slithering came to a halt.
This can't end well...
It didn't help that she could see in the dark and he couldn't, yet, he still froze in place as if it would work. As if he'd magically turn invisible if he stayed fully motionless.
"..Modo...?" Dragging both paws over her face, she lowly whispered in an already irritated voice, "Boy, you better have a fantastic reason for being in my room. Let alone around this time of night!"
Modo remained quiet.
"Imma give you to the count of 3—"
"Cold."
"Excuse me?"
"Modo's room was very cold."
"So turn on the hea-"
"Modo's heater is out."
"That doesn't explain why you're in my room when there are-"
"Let's just say Modo's other choices weren't that good either.. Lenny's limbs are blocking his door, I can faintly hear Olivia typing really aggressively right now, Archie's kids are knocked out, and the rookie snores so...passionately."
"You just gonna keep interrupting me?"
"Modo's sorry"
"Anyway, Modo, you can't just walk up into my room in the middle of the night! Do you have any idea what time it is right now an-and- are you even listening to me?!"
The reptile could feel his eyelids grow heavier with every word she spoke. Her words were simply melting into a static.
"...Fine. You can have the bed, but you better bring it when the game starts!"
Nodding sluggishly, the reptile made himself comfortable on the empty bed. Tucking and curling himself in with a big yawn and a tongue flick here.
If Jett weren't so tired herself, she probably wouldn't have found that so oddly cute in a way.
Shaking away the sudden blush that crept up at the thought, she turned her focus to her branch, leaped upward, and yawned. Ready to return to her very much deserved beauty sleep.
She doesn't know why, but she peeled one eye open to view the lizards below her. To her surprise, he was shivering despite being under the blankets she had. Then it hit her. Her blankets were probably cold since she hadn't touched them. He's been cold for a long while too, so there's no telling when he'll get to a comfortable temperature to stop shivering, let alone sleep.
"Flo and these cheap sketchy hotels.."
Jett closed her eyes for a minute but let out an even heavier sigh. She's not that mean and she most certainly isn't risking being down a player when they finally got a sixth. So she did something she thought she'd never do but most certainly will regret later on.
She dropped from her branch landing onto the spot next to Modo.
"Not. A. Word."
Before she could rethink her decision, she pulled back the sheets to get under them with one hand and used the other to pull Modo close to her. Practically spooning him. She even made sure to wrap her tail around the egg since he could barely hold onto it.
Tucked into the new position, she places her chin over his shoulder and focuses on warming him with her own soft fur and body heat. Even going as far as emitting purrs to soothe him.
After about 3 minutes, the shivering settled. Modo's eyes were no longer screwed shut but now peacefully closed.
Modo was warm.
Knowing that, Jett closed her eyes softly.
"Night Modo.."