Once the [Blood Vortex] was done, Khan spent a few hours meditating to absorb the mana accumulated under his skin and start healing. He cleaned himself up afterward, but only time would remove the lingering marks.
Luckily for Khan, the underground district was an isolated space that offered a lot of privacy. He had already tested that he didn't need capes or hoods to hide his appearance while leaving the area, and that night was no different.
A car dropped Khan before his building, and he hurriedly got inside. Various thoughts still filled his mind, but the opening of the elevator quieted them down to remind him about one particular issue.
A worried face appeared in Khan's view as soon as he left the elevator. Monica was on the other side of the room, peeking past the entrance, and her eyes darted among his visible marks.
"You know I can't hold back before Cegnore," Khan promptly announced to avoid a fight.
"Just shut up," Monica snorted, hurrying inside the room to take Khan's hand. "Come with me."
Khan could reject Monica, but her bossy stance was always fun to explore, and she intrigued him now too. The two crossed most of the flat until Monica led Khan into a bathroom that seemed ready for him.
The bathtub had warm water, and fresh underwear rested on the furniture around it. Monica had also prepared clean clothes and a medical kit with a series of ointments.
Monica didn't hesitate to reach for Khan's uniform, carefully unbuttoning it to remove those clothes. Khan could only go along with that practice, which eventually left him naked.
"In the bathtub," Monica ordered, pointing at the water and doing her best not to look at the various marks left behind by the alien technique.
Khan smiled and nodded, entering the cozy bathtub and sitting inside it. The water was perfect, and his situation was about to improve.
Monica placed a small container beside the bathtub before also undressing. Her moves had no grace, but Khan remained captivated by them anyway. That wasn't his first time witnessing a similar scene, but he seemed unable to get enough of Monica.
"Don't give me that look," Monica scolded, kneeling inside the bathtub while seizing the container. "I'm not in the mood."
"You are always in the mood," Khan teased.
Monica glared at Khan while opening the container. She threw the lid away, and a pungent smell invaded the bathroom. Khan couldn't help but focus on the yellowish ointment inside the box, but Monica quickly reclaimed his attention.
"Arm," Monica ordered, showing her hand.
"You were ready for this," Khan pointed out, stretching his left arm.
"I know what goes through your mind," Monica responded, dipping her fingers into the container to retrieve a bit of ointment. "I bought this as soon as you left."
"You shouldn't have," Khan said, watching Monica place the ointment over his red marks.
"You get a say on what I buy only after marrying me," Monica commented, and Khan couldn't help but smile at the concentration she showed when tending to his injuries.
Khan let Monica take care of him without assaulting her with jokes. She was thorough, emptying the entire container on his injuries before helping him out of the bathtub.
"The ointment will take a few minutes to dry up," Monica explained as she bound her wet hair with a towel. "Don't dress up before that."
After the order, Monica wanted to leave the bathroom, but Khan clung an arm on her waist to pull her onto his torso. Monica was ready to shoot another glare, but a kiss landed on her cheek before she could turn.
"Khan," Monica complained. "The ointment."
"You were right," Khan whispered, kissing Monica's cheek again. "I guess I can be pretty blind at times."
"Was I?" Monica gasped before wearing a pout as soon as she saw Khan's shameless smile. "Of course I was! You'd be lost, hopeless, and sad without me."
"All true," Khan chuckled, approaching Monica's ear. "Does the doctor allow me to dry her hair?"
Monica tried her best to preserve her pout, but her cute voice betrayed her. "Only because I want to keep an eye on you."
Khan couldn't help but laugh again, and a long intimate moment unfolded. The two dried themselves up, often exchanging flirtatious jokes before wearing clean clothes and heading for their bedroom.
Monica threw herself on the bed to retrieve her phone and activate holograms. Khan's notes filled her view, but she didn't dive into her study yet.
As for Khan, he connected his phone to the room to pull up Mister Cirvags' report. The wall gave him more room to divide and sort out the many tabs, and he needed that arrangement to hope to understand as much as possible.
"Did you make the new schedule for Francis?" Monica wondered, turning belly up to look at Khan.
"I reviewed something Andrew wrote," Khan replied, tinkering with the wall. "It's a pity this stuff is classified. A secretary would have helped."
"I just don't want the Alstair family creating problems for you," Monica sighed.
"I signed him for a few courses here," Khan revealed. "Also, as long as his family thinks he defused the bomb, I'm fine."
"They should have paid you for being his caretaker," Monica snorted.
"They did," Khan chuckled. "You are mine, aren't you?"
"Scoundrel," Monica giggled. "Hey, we must celebrate our anniversary once we are done working."
"Is it one year already?" Khan frowned, peeking past his shoulder to look at Monica.
"Dummy," Monica scolded. "Our first anniversary is next month. Don't forget something so close to your birthday."
"Now that I think about it," Khan uttered, "I do remember a certain present."
A pillow flew toward Khan and hit his head. The event only made him laugh, and his smile broadened when he saw Monica with her arms crossed and wearing an angry face.
Khan snickered, crawling over the bed to reach Monica. She played hard to get, but he had the right words to melt her anger.
"As far as I'm concerned," Khan whispered to Monica's ear, "We have already hit one year. I didn't forget the nights when you were too shy to kiss me."
Khan expected a loud reply, but Monica remained silent and pushed him down on the mattress. She couldn't lie on his chest due to the injuries, so she claimed one of his arms and wrapped it around her torso before hitting a pillow.
"What is it?" Khan asked, gladly joining that spooning.
"My family will turn our anniversary into a public event," Monica explained, "But they got the wrong date."
"They don't know how quickly you jumped on me," Khan teased.
Monica suddenly turned to face Khan, but no scolding arrived. Instead, her needy side showed its presence. "I want to celebrate the right date, just the two of us."
"Two celebrations?" Khan wondered. "You have become greedy."
"So what?" Monica scoffed. "You let me be as greedy as I want, so deal with it."
"How could I refuse such kind words?" Khan chuckled. "Sure. Let's find the time once we stop working."
Monica's face lit up, and she couldn't stop herself from seizing Khan's face. She kissed him, but her hands touched his injuries, causing discomfort.
Khan grunted, and Monica quickly let him go. She also tried to wear an apologetic expression, but her happiness got in the way.
"Sorry," Monica giggled. "I just love you so much."
Khan didn't care about that slight pain, and that statement made him disregard it completely. He took Monica into his arms, and the two got into their favorite sleeping position.
Needless to say, the couple didn't sleep. After a few flirtatious exchanges, Monica retrieved her phone, and Khan tinkered with the wall behind him to create holograms at his side. They had much to study, and time wasn't on their side.
'There isn't much about the natives,' Khan thought after spending some time on the report. 'The same goes for the infected Thilku.'
The report had information about a few imprisoned intelligent beings but nothing directly connected to the Thilku or Cegnore's natives. Khan could accept the nightmares as one of the reasons behind the switching sides, but going crazy didn't explain everything. It actually left many gaps in the intel.
'Maybe the battlefield only has Tainted animals,' Khan considered. He had yet to reach that part of the report, but everything pointed in that direction.
The guess led to troublesome thoughts. Khan didn't want to deal with mere beasts. Cegnore had beings like him, people who mutated through the Nak's mana. They probably had lived with the Tainted state far longer than him, meaning they could have more answers.
However, it seemed that the human and Thilku armies mostly dealt with Tainted animals. The intelligent creatures were rarer and lived in unexplored areas. Khan still didn't know if the battlefield had trenches, but those beings would probably reside past them in that case.
'I might need to get creative,' Khan thought before recalling another problem.
"Hey," Khan called, stretching his arm to his right to touch Monica's back.
"Did you find something interesting?" Monica wondered, lifting her head to check Khan's holograms. She couldn't see anything specific among those complicated sentences, so her attention fell on Khan.
"You trust me, right?" Khan asked, looking into Monica's eyes.
"What are you saying now?" Monica snickered.
"You know I can handle myself, right?" Khan pressed on. "Especially on a battlefield."
"What?" Monica gasped, her expression growing sterner since she could guess what Khan was thinking. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing yet," Khan shook his head. "I just don't want you to worry, no matter what the Global Army says."
Monica fell silent for a few seconds to study Khan's face. She knew what that expression meant. Khan was developing plans that went beyond his orders, which could create problems on an alien planet and territory.
"I always worry," Monica sighed, lowering her head. "There is nothing you can do about that."
"But do I have your trust?" Khan asked, reaching for Monica's chin to lift her face.
"Always," Monica nodded. "Don't forget you are the man I love. I know you are the best."
"Keep that in mind while I'm away," Khan stated.
"I'm getting worried already," Monica cursed. "I bet you won't have any connection to the network there either."
"Most likely," Khan nodded before thinking about something. "Are you going to give me a parting gift again? I memorized every detail of the album you left me before Neuria."
"As you should," Monica snorted, but looking at her phone gave her an idea, which she didn't hesitate to whisper. "Why don't you take the pictures this time?"
