Cold sensations followed by an azure glow forced the couple to wake up. Khan and Liiza didn't dare to separate as they reached inside their robes and picked their respective cubes to answer the incoming communications.

'Are you okay?' Doku's worried voice resounded in Khan's sleepy mind after he picked the cube.

'I'm good,' Khan replied. 'How is the situation on Nitis?'

'The previous crisis had triggered many mutations already,' Doku explained. 'Fewer animals had transformed into monsters this time. The hunts have been easy.'

Doku didn't mention the casualties suffered by his species, and Khan didn't question him about the matter either. Both of them had silently agreed not to say anything about that terrible aspect of the crisis.

'Azni is worried about you,' Doku added after a few silent seconds.

'I'm not secretly dating your girl,' Khan groaned.

'Don't play dumb,' Doku scoffed before his thoughts gained a sad tone. 'I believe we are past that.'

'I'm fine,' Khan repeated while caressing the girl dealing with a different mental conversation in his arms. 'I have the best medicine in the world.'

'You are lucky I respect your secrets,' Doku chuckled.

'I'm lucky to have a good friend,' Khan corrected him, and Doku fell silent at that sudden burst of honesty.

'When is the party?' Khan asked while smiling when Liiza rolled her eyes and hid in his chest without interrupting her mental conversation.

The Niqols had already hosted a party last night, but Khan understood their customs well enough to know that they would repeat the event. The sadness caused by the crisis made that almost mandatory.

'Less than one hour,' Doku explained. 'I'll allow you to be late today, but make sure to come. Everyone wants to see you.'

'I'll be there,' Khan promised before cutting the communication and storing his cube.

Liiza was still busy with her mental conversation, and her expressions revealed how pissed she was about it. Khan didn't waste that chance to tease her through soft kisses that started on her head and slowly descended to reach her shoulder's bare skin.

Liiza glared at Khan and pulled his hair, but her attempts to stop him from disturbing her conversation were pointless. Khan dug his face under her torn robe and continued to kiss her bare skin without avoiding the sensitive spots he had found during their time together.

The grip on his hair transformed from a pull to sensual caresses as Khan opened Liiza's robe and kissed her waist. She spread her legs to make him more comfortable, and her foot instinctively started to rub his thigh.

Khan skipped the pants on purpose and crouched to free her legs from the dirty and torn trousers that covered them. Liiza glared at him again, but he couldn't look at her eyes when the captivating dark-blue skin of her thighs appeared in his vision.

Liiza's expressions began to change during Khan's teasing. She was showing an annoyed face before, but his actions made her bite her lower lip and take deep breaths. Her eyes closed as the corners of her mouth curved upward and a blush filled her cheeks.

The situation escalated until Liiza moaned. She and Khan exchanged a worried glance at that point, and they silently agreed to stop for a few seconds. Liiza did her best to cut that mental conversation short, and Khan inspected her without relaxing his grip on her thighs.

"That was close!" Liiza scolded after storing her cube. "My mother almost heard me!"

Khan completely ignored that comment and started to kiss her thighs again. Liiza wanted to say something, but another moan came out of her mouth when warmth spread from one of her sensitive spots. Her back arched, and she bent her head backward when she felt his soft bites teasing her.

"Stop," Liiza weakly moaned. "I'm still dirty from the hunt."

"Let's hit the waterfall then," Khan whispered without stopping his teasing. "I've slept enough for the whole week today."

"What about Doku?" Liiza complained while breathing deeply and clenching her fingers on the blanket. "My mother wants me to attend the party tonight."

"Let's not care about that tonight," Khan replied. "Also, the longer you keep me here, the less I'll have to spend with the other girls."

Liiza's eyes widened as she remembered the attention that Khan had received in the last period. She could already imagine how everything would be worse that night due to what had happened. Khan saw her leaving his grasp and standing up in an instant. A laugh inevitably escaped from his mouth when she pulled his robe and started dragging him toward the waterfalls.

.

.

.

Khan ended up reaching the party incredibly late. It was already past three am when Snow dropped him on the mountain near the empty spot mentioned by Doku.

The Niqols were drunker than usual, which meant almost completely wasted at that hour. Khan waved at the various couples hidden in isolated spots that he had to cross to reach the cauldrons, and those aliens waved back before going back to their intimacy. Other Niqols had collapsed fainted, and a few were even puking since their stomachs were at their limits.

The poor condition of the Niqols didn't prevent them from shouting Khan's name when they saw him crossing the trees and arrive in the empty spot that held the party. The aliens completely disregarded his torn wet clothes and jumped on him to envelop him in drunk hugs.

Khan didn't have the time to change, so he had let the waterfalls remove the blood that had stained his torn robe. The long flight on Snow's back had managed to dry his hair while giving it a messy shape, but it couldn't do much for his clothes, especially with Nitis' generally low temperatures. Wet patches remained on his back and arms, but none of those aliens seemed to care.

"Let me get a drink first!" Khan complained before laughing together with the Niqols that had gathered around him.

Everyone appeared happy, but Khan could see a few grateful faces among those who still retained some awareness of the situation. Khan limited himself to nod at them, and those Niqols couldn't hold back from replying with affectionate and tight hugs.

The Niqols in the village near the lake had given an accurate report. They didn't even fail to understand that Khan had taken care of the matter on his own since the other recruits left the settlement after completing a simple inspection.

The students were aware of what Khan had done, and they all felt grateful toward him. Their intense emotions and drunken state made them express their feelings with even more affection, which was the reason behind the gathering around him.

Khan felt overwhelmed by that behavior. He expected something similar to happen, but he didn't predict that the aliens could affect him so deeply. His recent interaction with Liiza had made his mind dive deeper into the Niqols' way of experiencing emotions. The warmth that those affectionate gestures generated filled him and washed away the heaviness that his lingering sadness spread.

'That's why they throw so many parties,' Khan thought as honest laughs escaped his mouth every time someone around him cracked a joke or was too drunk to complete a line.

Khan almost couldn't believe how a species as cold as the Niqols could generate so much warmth. He had experienced that with Liiza, but he thought that his feelings were to blame for those reactions. However, the party proved him wrong. Most of the aliens around him were simple acquaintances, but they managed to make him feel better anyway. A simple hug, a joke, or a pat on his shoulders were enough to improve his mood.

It took Khan a while to walk past that crowd of Niqols and grab one of the wooden cups lying around the cauldrons to get a drink. Doku and Azni appeared in his vision at that point. They were sitting on a fallen trunk that acted as a bench, and they showed peeved expressions as they stared at him.

"[What's up with you two]?" Khan laughed while nearing the couple.

"[Khan has started to ignore us after becoming popular]," Doku commented while turning his head dramatically.

"[Fame has gotten to his head]," Azni snorted before fixing her cold gaze on him.

The two held their position for a while before laughs broke out of their mouths. Khan smirked as the two Niqols stood up, and he spread his arms to welcome them in his embrace.

"You bathed in the wilds again," Doku stated after sniffing his hair.

"Aren't you drunk?" Khan frowned.

"We waited for you," Azni pouted. "You took a while."

Azni and Khan exchanged a meaningful glance, but Doku promptly cleared his throat. "Can you not be so obvious? It's not easy to hold my curiosity back."

"You are the best precisely because you hold back anyway," Azni announced while wrapping her arms around Doku's torso. "Can we drink now?"

"Definitely!" Doku shouted before moving toward the cauldrons and making sure that Azni didn't leave his side.

"Isn't it too late?" Khan asked while walking with the couple.

"No lessons tomorrow," Doku explained as his voice turned serious. "The elders have ordered a full stop of all activities on Nitis to give everyone time to mourn."

Khan didn't say anything. That decision was understandable, and his eyes fell on his cup as his thoughts reviewed the planet had experienced that morning.

"The professors actually have orders for you and the other humans," Doku continued after turning to raise his cup and stare straight into Khan's eyes. "They want you to fly back to your camp and check what the army has understood about his event."

"Is something the matter?" Khan frowned while performing the Niqols' traditional toast and repeating the action with Azni.

"Our higher-ups think that something is up," Doku explained while showing a complicated expression. "The humans didn't send many reinforcements this morning. It took a while to make your captain leave the camp even."

Khan's eyes widened before he lowered his gaze again. Many thoughts ran through his mind as he considered everything that could have happened in the human camp. He didn't have the chance to contact the Global Army during the almost four weeks spent in the academy due to the poor signal of its network. Khan had even immersed himself in the Niqols' lifestyle so deeply that he had almost forgotten about his origins.

"What are you asking me to do?" Khan whispered as his voice became grave.

A lack of cooperation on the human side wasn't exactly against the Padlyn's deal, but it would definitely worsen the relationship between the two species. It could even bring it back by a few decades since the crisis had affected the Niqols deeply.

Khan couldn't act freely in that situation. He liked the Niqols. He probably appreciated them more than the humans, but his position didn't change. Those matters were heavily political and forced him to respect the chain of command.

"Khan, I'm not asking you to do anything," Doku explained in an honest tone. "The professors have ordered me to tell you this. Simple as that. I wish we didn't have to deal with politics either."

"They had to arrive, eventually," Khan sighed while looking around the empty area around the cauldrons. "Did the others go away already?"

Both Doku and Azni laughed at that question, but the girl quickly took care of explaining what had happened to the recruits. "George is somewhere with Havaa. I saw them leaving a few hours ago."

"How good are you at this?" Khan asked. "Do you keep track of all of us?"

"She had created seven different scenarios depending on your time of arrival," Doku responded. "The second wasn't bad at all. You would have had Kheda, Zezag, Asyat, and Zeliha fighting to drag you among the trees."

'I would have also been dead,' Khan thought as Azni elbowed Doku's side before glaring at him.

"The others are in a funny state," Azni continued after scolding Doku with her eyes. "Do you want to see them?"

Khan nodded, and the couple led Khan among the trees until he managed to see six figures sitting on the ground.

Kelly and the other recruits weren't awake, and the flasks obtained from the Niqols patrolling the village were next to them or in their grasps. Cups also lay around them. It seemed that they had fallen asleep after drinking too much.

Khan didn't fail to notice the faint reflection that the Niqols' eyes caused on some of the recruits' cheeks. Veronica and Gabriela had cried before falling asleep, and their tears didn't have enough time to dry up. It seemed that it wasn't too long since they lost their senses.

"They had the good drinks," Doku sighed while shaking his head in envy.

Khan felt surprised. He didn't expect that even his most diligent companions would allow themselves to take a break that night. It seemed that the scenes witnessed in the village had affected them deeply, and he couldn't blame them for that.

"I'll go to the human camp on my own in the morning," Khan said while browsing through his robe and taking out his almost full flask. "Let them rest."

Doku seized the flask as soon as Khan handed it to him. A broad smile appeared on his face as he patted Khan's shoulder. He didn't hesitate to take a sip of that strong booze before voicing a satisfied cry.

"You should rest too," Azni advised while taking the flask and mixing some of that stronger booze with her pink drink. "You don't have to go right away. Everyone would understand if you took some time for yourself."

"It's fine," Khan replied as Azni handed the flask back to him. "Also, it's better to understand if something like this can happen again. Maybe our species can even stop pretending that the daylight isn't coming."

Doku and Azni didn't add anything. In theory, the matter about the sunlight was still a secret, even if the last crisis had made it obvious. The topic had never been completely classified. Khan had even learnt about it from careless Niqols seen after the formal event. The higher-ups of the alien species had tried to hide it after the first outburst of monsters, but everything appeared pointless now.

The awkward silence that had fallen among the three didn't last long since a familiar figure appeared among the trees nearby. Liiza had landed on the mountain only a few minutes ago. She showed her clean and intact robe as she walked toward the cauldrons and filled one of her cups before returning at the edges of the forest.

Everyone noticed that there was something off with Liiza. Her cheeks were slightly pale. She was still blushing even if hours had passed since the shower with Khan. The flight on her Aduns didn't calm her down either.

"Who would have thought!" Doku exclaimed.

"Why is she like that?" Khan asked while pretending not to care about the issue.

"Love, Khan," Doku explained. "Liiza is in love, and she is also fulfilling that feeling. The paleness on her cheeks describes how her emotions are still raging in her mind."

"It's also a sign of sexual gratification," Azni commented. "I wish to feel it one day."

"I don't know what you are talking about," Doku snorted and diverted his gaze. "That's just a rumor anyway."

Khan laughed at that interaction, and Azni showed a proud smile toward him. She nodded in approval before correcting her boyfriend. "Only men say that it's only a rumor."

****

Author's notes: 2-3 hours for the second chapter.