Apologies for the long wait, guys. It was a bit of a rough week last week, and I didn't have much time or motivation to write. Thankfully, the storm has probably passed for the time being. A lot of this chapter was me cheering myself up, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it, too. I really love it! And I'll try to get back to quicker updates in the future, promise!

Sunset in this place looks like the world is on fire. The oasis tucks itself away in the shadows of the walls to avoid getting burned, but the red seeps over the edges, the sky ablaze. An ocean of fire.

Killua and Alluka linger around the pond with the boar ant, the dog-sized purple squirrel, and the one who led us here, the mantis and the ball with eyes hanging back in the den. The shadow of the rock walls gradually overtakes me, and with it comes the dregs of a chill. I narrow my eyes at the red sky. The dregs grow into breaths, and when the breaths of cold start getting heavier with the green and black slowly tainting the sky, I begin to regret dragging Alluka out here. It was so hot before! Why is it getting cold? If it keeps going like this, I'll be asleep the second night falls!

When the red's faded into a murky green, I turn on my heel and make my way to the others in the dying light. That's another thing. Human settlements always have some sort of night lighting. Maybe these ants can see fine, but I didn't inherit night vision, and humans don't have much, either.

I give Naii a sideways glance as I pass her. For once, she's not looking at me. She isn't looking at the sky, either. For who knows what brainless reason, she stares hard at the wall of rock that makes up the bend in the valley made by the raised walls. She's been that way since she came back with Killua, her aura as hard as the sediment everywhere. I shuffle up some dust and leave her be.

Alluka faces me when she sees me approach. The squirrel, Lim, turns me a cautious eye. I ignore the prey animals and stop by Killua. He doesn't look up until the freak he's talking to greets me.

"Sera! Tired of being all on your own? Glad you decided to join us!"

I eyeball the boar named Hank only briefly before looking down at Killua. His head tilts up, but I'm already having trouble seeing if his eyes are on me.

"Aren't you gonna make a fire or something? Last I checked, you humans didn't like the cold or the dark."

"If the townspeople are watching from a distance, a fire would only work against us. Modred and Tar both have night vision, so unless the townspeople get their hands on a bunch of night vision goggles, it's safer in the dark," he explains

Guess that means if I can't keep my eyes open, I'll probably still be safe, at least. So long as Tar and Mordred don't try to kill us. Even if I think it's stupid, I can sort of get why Killua would be overly caring towards other humans, but trusting a horde of ants? Sometimes I have to wonder if he also has a thing for gambling.

I stare down at his silhouette, gnawing on a fang as I weigh what I want to do and what I don't. But when I think of why I don't want to do it, a wave of unease rushes me, and I promptly sit myself next to Killua and press half of my chest into his back, chin on his shoulder.

He sounds exasperated when he asks, "What're you doing?"

"If you're not gonna light a fire, then you'll just have to be my heat source."

"Just go to sleep."

"Oh sure, let me just go unconscious around a bunch of unknown ants. So you've been waiting for me to slip up and get myself killed, have you?"

"Why do you think we'd kill you?" bird-human-ant girl, Estelle, gripes. She isn't even sitting near us, she's over by Lim. What gives her the right to butt in? "If anything, I'd half think you'd kill us the second you got the chance. You're just yearning to fight."

I turn my head to rest an ear on Killua's shoulder, only for the earring thing to press into my head, so I turn instead to face his neck. The tension in Killua's muscles is hardly noticeable, but there it is.

"Go to sleep." A hot hand exerts a tiny pressure to get me to move my head, but I keep it still. "If they do betray us, I'll make them wish they were never born."

"Let me stay here. I'll die if I get too cold~"

"You're not gonna…" I almost straight up laugh when he seems to consider it, but I manage to keep my expression stagnant. He takes out his phone, a small light emitting from it, and taps around on it for a while. Then he exclaims, "Seriously? Anything under sixty-five?" before he falls quiet again. I wrap an arm around his, a leg up against him for warmth.

I win.

Alluka sounds distinctly concerned when she asks, "Is Sera going to be okay?"

Killua sighs, and puts his forehead on the heel of his hand holding the phone. "Yeah, don't worry, he'll be fine."

"If you can't get cold, we'll make a fire!" Hank declares.

"No you oaf," Estelle snips, "we won't! That'd just be asking to be attacked!"

"We gotta if it's a matter of life and death."

"That's why we can't! Unless you feel like cleaning more human chunks off your tusks."

I croon, "It's fine, Killua will handle it, won't you?"

The longer I hold on, a slight increase in temperature seeps across his skin. With the growing cold on my back as a turn off, just being up against his heat is all I want right now, so even if he has a problem with me being sexual, he doesn't have an excuse to push me off. Still...the scent of his neck is incredible. If I could stand to be pushed off, I'd one hundred percent nibble it.

But it's fine. I'm comfortable.

Alluka's shape gets up and starts going through Killua's backpack, and pulls something out and puts it over me from behind. I don't bother with it. It does make me a bit glad for the thing she tied around my injury earlier. It keeps the easily shifting cloth from irritating it.

Estelle suddenly pipes, "That won't do him any good if he's cold blooded."

Alluka, who'd been heading back to where she was sitting, pauses. "It won't?" She turns back. "Then what should I do?"

"You don't need to do anything, Alluka. I'll make sure he doesn't freeze."

"Mm." I keep my good boy comment to myself, and wrap my fingers around the edge of the piece of clothing on my back and pull it in to better retain Killua's heat.

"Is this guy seriously the reason you're sympathetic to us?" Estelle wonders, disbelieving.

"I've got a few other friends that're ants, too. And all of your generation seem to have some degree of human in them, so it's not that much of a stretch to treat you like I would any other human. If you're friends you're friends, and enemies, enemies."

Friends, huh? That's one of humanity's weirdest concepts. What's the point of friends? I guess if I think about it, there are some mammals other than humans that also form comraderies. Can't relate.

But if friendship means protection, I could get behind that. But also this friend concept is different from sexual partners, and even if he denies me now, I still have to sleep with him at some point. If he's good at it, then maybe multiple points. Ah, just thinking about him giving himself to me after he's tried so hard to resist...suddenly his neck smells even tastier.

A warning elbow against my stomach forces me to ease up on the hold I'd tightened around him.

"If I were you, if I had to deal with him for so long I think I'd be trigger happy."

"He can be hard to get along with, but he's on my side, and in turn on yours. Try to give him a pass for being annoying. But if he ever does something serious feel free to hit him."

"Don't be so mean," I mumble. When he doesn't respond, I add for Estelle's sake, "If you hit me, I'll hit back."

"If you deserve it, you'll take it."

I mean to argue, but when Killua's hand returns to ruffle my hair, I close my mouth and enjoy it. It feels like it's been awhile since I've gotten the chance to bask in the comfort of a human. I've always done it during and after sex, but, you know, recently…

"Seriously, though," Killua starts, "if the enemy attacked right now, would you be able to defend yourself, Sera?"

"Mm, if I had to." I halfway let myself give into temptation, and rest the bridge of my nose along the crook of his neck. "It'd be horribly unpleasant. I wouldn't get any fun out of it. And if I get too cold…" After seeing his reaction to when I brought that up the first time, I'm not about to let that one go. As of yet, even though it's cold enough to curse me lethargic, it hasn't reached the point of lethality. Unfortunately at the rate the temperature's dropping, that might not be true all night.

"If it gets serious I'll teach you how to use your Nen to keep warm, but for now we have to focus on battle strategy. Have you listened to anything we've said over here for the past two hours?"

I close my eyes and press my teeth lightly together in irritation. "No. What do I have to do with this? It's not my problem if you want to help out this colony."

"It's your fault peace negotiations didn't go through. You made more trouble for me and for them. You're not getting out of this."

"It's the humans' fault! They're the ones who tried to kill us." I tighten my grip around him again. "Must I remind you, us includes your precious little sister."

"I know, but you still have to help out. We're staying until this gets sorted out, and nights are pretty much always cold here. The more people helping, the sooner we can leave."

I scowl at nothing. "You've already got five ants and Naii. Use the people who're willing."

Killua shifts his head in a way that gives the impression he's looking over in Naii's direction. Dropping his voice a bit, he says, "We can't really ask her for help. Chimera ants killed her son. The fact she's not actively trying to kill anyone is good enough."

"Tch, useless."

"At the very least, if you end up fighting the humans here again, you're not allowed to kill them."

"I'll assume you know my position on standing still and letting them hit me."

"You can defend yourself, just keep them alive. No crushing the head or chest, decapitation, or injecting venom. And no cutting blood vessels you know are vital. If it's nonlethal, it's fair game as long as they attack first."

I perk up, pulling back to look at the dark shape of his head. "You'll let me attack humans?"

"Under those circumstances," he hisses. Then as an afterthought he tacks on, "And no sex stuff! That's still off limits!" I snicker, and he huffs.

"Hey!" Estelle snaps her fingers to get our attention. "We're discussing defense. I wanna know I'm safe. Save your flirting for later."

Hank, the boisterous pig, resounds with laughter as Killua stiffens and retorts, "I'm not flirting with him! He's always like this!"

"Yeah, whatever. I still think sabotaging their weapons is the best route." Her words immediately tense the previously fluid aura around Killua. I'm a little sad to see its softness go, if you could call it that, but a serious Killua is a wonderfully dangerous Killua. I really do love it when he's not being a danger to me. "If they don't have any weapons they'll have no choice but to leave us alone. Having a good relations with the humans would be nice, but I don't care as long as they leave us alone."

"For now, sure, you'd be fine. But they'll find a way to get more weapons. Considering they're a merchant town, I'd bet they'd restock fast, within weeks. And after you do it once, they'll be careful with how they store them. Even if you manage to get rid of their weapons a couple times, they'll eventually figure out how to keep you from getting to them. Not to mention they'd figure out one of you was getting into town without them noticing. You wouldn't be able to scout for long after that."

"Peace talks fell through! As long as they leave us alone at this point, I don't care what else happens! I'm tired of it!"

A new, small voice gently chides, "Estelle."

She sighs. "Right. Breathe." She sucks in a breath. Then she lets it out. "Instead of telling me why we can't do what I think, what do you suggest, Hunter?" She spits the word like its a slur.

Before answering, Killua shoots Lim a thanks, then explains, "Take me with you to scout tomorrow. I need to scope out how this town works. If we can convince the people in charge, we'll probably be able to persuade the rest, but that depends on how complex the social structure here is. But however complicated it is, if we can integrate you guys into it, you'll be set even without Hunters around to mediate."

Literally this chapter was my comfort food while I wrote it. But yeah, this arch's really just starting. We'll probably be in this area for awhile. As of yet I can't really predict how many chapters long it'll be; it'll really depend on how many of my ideas end up coming into fruition. We'll have to see. In the meantime, I wish you all the best, and I will get to writing so you won't have to wait so long for the next chapter.