The post-fruit drowsiness crept up on Mike like a warm blanket, making his eyelids heavy. The storm still raged outside, its muted sounds oddly soothing through the walls of the shelter. It had been a long, stressful night, and the adrenaline was finally wearing off. The creature's bioluminescence had shifted to soft, steady pulses that reminded him of peaceful breathing. Their eye watched him with what looked like innocent patience.

Too innocent.

He hadn't even noticed himself shivering until he caught the faintest wisp of warmth on his skin. It was subtle – just a hint of heat carrying across the room from where it sat quietly, their bioluminescence dimmed to peaceful, sleepy pulses. The creature appeared absorbed in their own thoughts, eye half-lidded and peaceful.

The room felt just a touch too cool for comfort. Not cold exactly, just... not quite warm enough. Mike found himself unconsciously leaning toward the gentle heat radiating from Alien's direction. The creature hadn't moved, hadn't made any obvious gesture of invitation. They were simply... there. Warm. Comfortable.

It wasn't until he'd shifted several inches closer that Mike's tired brain finally registered what was happening. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, but it didn't react at all, maintaining that perfect air of innocence. Only the slightest twinkle in their visible eye hinted at awareness.

Mike's sleepy brain finally caught up. "Oh no," he muttered, wrapping his arms around himself. "No, no, no. I see what you're doing."

The room's temperature might have dropped another fraction of a degree. Or had it? Mike couldn't quite tell anymore. He just knew that the proximity to that subtle warmth was making his eyelids heavier by the second.

"This is deliberate!" Mike accused, fighting both shivers and sleepiness. "You're doing this on purpose!"

Mike caught himself swaying slightly, fatigue making his thoughts fuzzy. Each time he blinked, his eyes stayed closed a fraction longer. The living bed beneath him was perfectly comfortable, but somehow the warmth radiating from Alien's direction felt... different. More inviting. More necessary.

He didn't even realize he'd listed sideways until he jerked himself upright. The alien hadn't moved an inch, their eye still peacefully half-closed, tentacles arranged in that casual, relaxed position. But somehow they seemed... closer? No, he was the one who had drifted nearer, drawn by that subtle heat like a moth to flame.

The creature's bioluminescence had dimmed to barely a whisper, matching the drowsy atmosphere. Their breathing created gentle ripples of warmth that seemed to reach across the space between them. Everything about their posture suggested deep contentment, like a cat dozing by a fireplace – a very large, tentacled, alien cat.

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Mike's teeth chattered slightly. He hugged himself tighter, determined to resist. But each time he shifted away from the warmth, he felt its absence more keenly. His tired mind kept presenting unhelpful observations: how soft alien's skin had felt earlier, how gentle their hold had been, how perfectly their tentacles could cradle a person...

"Not falling for it," he mumbled through another yawn, even as he found himself listing toward the heat source again. "Not... gonna..."

The thought crept in unbidden through Mike's sleep-addled brain. alien could have hurt him at any point – when they first caught him on the beach, during that embarrassing medical examination, even during his bathroom mishap. That beak could have... but it hadn't. Those powerful tentacles could have... but they hadn't. Even the fruit could have been poisonous, but instead it had just been spicy and oddly satisfying.

He caught himself nodding off and jerked awake again, almost toppling sideways. The movement sent a fresh wave of shivers through him. Alien remained motionless, their warmth a steady, tempting beacon.

"Not gonna trust you," he mumbled, even as his body swayed traitorously toward the heat. "Just 'cause you saved me from a storm... and fed me... and didn't eat me... and helped with the bathroom thing..." His words were getting slurrier. "Doesn't mean..."

Another violent shiver ran through him. The rational part of his brain, the part not clouded by exhaustion and cold, noted that if Alien wanted to grab him again, they wouldn't need this elaborate warm-alien-teddy-bear routine. They could just... take him. Like before.

But they were waiting. Being patient. Letting him make the choice.

"Still not falling for it," he whispered, even as he felt himself listing dangerously close to one of those neatly folded tentacles. "Not... gonna... let my guard..."

The warmth was so close now he could feel it on his face. Alien's eye remained peacefully half-closed, their breathing deep and steady, radiating comfortable heat like a living furnace.

"...down…"

Mike's head drooped forward one final time, and he didn't quite have the strength to lift it back up. His body felt impossibly heavy, drawn by both gravity and that tantalizing warmth. The room had become a blur of gentle bioluminescence and comfortable shadows.

"Just... resting eyes," he slurred, already more asleep than awake. "Not... sleeping. Not... trusting..."

His shoulder brushed against something soft and wonderfully warm. He felt rather than saw it's tentacles shift ever so slightly, creating a perfect hollow that his tired body seemed to fit into naturally. The movement was so subtle, so careful, that his exhausted brain barely registered it as intentional.

The warmth enveloped him like a living blanket, and somewhere in the last functioning corner of his mind, Mike knew he'd lost. But it was hard to care when the alternative was being cold, and alien was so perfectly warm, and those tentacles were arranging themselves so gently around him...

"Still... not..." he managed one final mumble of defiance as his consciousness slipped away. The last thing he felt was a tentacle softly tucking his head against what might have been it's equivalent of a shoulder, their body heat seeping into his cold muscles.

Alien's eye finally opened fully, twinkling with quiet triumph as they looked down at their now soundly sleeping human. Their bioluminescence shifted to soft, soothing patterns, and their beak clicked in the gentlest possible version of their laugh.

Mission accomplished.