After parting with Emily, the young people returned to the dormitories and the next hour was busy dragging some Alexis things from her room to Victor’s room (mostly it was a portacomp and an impressive collection of info-cards with various dictionaries and textbooks written in various languages ​​- it was necessary Alexis to study), and after that, as promised to each other before, went to the store. Alexis, as promised, chose products and loaded them with a trolley, and Victor had to pay for their common dinner ... that's just Alexis, it seems, despite the fact that he was now in a male body, from time to time he entered the role of "hostess" at home ”, forcing his friend to blush and frantically look around — has anyone noticed.

- Listen, do not call me "dear" or "cute" when you're in a man's body! - Victor hissed on Alexis after the third, it seems, the case. “And you don’t have to act like that at all! ...” he didn’t finish speaking, suddenly feeling for himself something like a feeling of guilt, as if he were demanding absolutely impossible from Alexis.

- Sorry ... sorry, please! - Alexis was embarrassed and lowered his eyes. “I forgot myself ... I will try not to do this again,” he looked at Victor with a pleading look, from which Victor felt even more uncomfortable himself. Why? Maybe because Alexis was not to blame for who she is?

- Okay ... we will buy meat? - tried to change the theme of Victor.

The rest of the time that young people bought groceries, Alexis never again forced Victor to be embarrassed ... only Victor felt that this time his friend himself felt constrained, and this again made Victor feel not guilt, but discomfort. However, when they left the supermarket and found themselves outside the door of Victor's room again, Alexis began to feel freer again, sighing deeply (actually breathing out of relief when the door closed behind him and Victor).

Then there was dinner — as always, when Alexis was cooking, delicious (although, of course, not as tasty as the mother of Viktor, who remained on Earth, cooked), and the young people completely relaxed. Then Alexis began to do the dishes, and Victor sat down at the computer terminal, leaving for the Martian infoset. (With the distances between the planets measured in light minutes and the corresponding delay of the signal propagating at the speed of light, it was impossible to create a completely uniform information network for all the planets).

And from this occupation, the young man tore off a pair of gentle hands that hugged his shoulders from behind, Victor turned his head and saw Alexis leaning over him and smiling warmly ... that is, Alexis. His touch was the touch of a loving girl, his face could be mistaken for a girlish, and Victor could probably find it difficult to say whether his beloved is now in the male or female body, but the lack of breasts broke the idyll, recalling that now Alexis guy. And it made Victor feel ... it seems exactly what is called "cognitive dissonance."

- What? - Alexis, it seems, felt the confusion of his beloved, and the smile was gone from his face.

- Listen ... - Victor did not immediately find what to say. “Would you mind if I lay myself on the floor?”

“You ...” Alexis let go of Victor's shoulders, and his face became a stranger, “do you want to sleep with me?” Because ... because I'm a boy now, right?

“Alex, I understand that ... what are you feeling now,” Victor hurried to reply.- But let's just not today? My head hurts, - he said the first thing that came to his head, and Alexis laughed back, but that laugh came out sad.

“It's just ... today, so much has happened ... and yesterday, too, and ...” Victor was desperately trying to think of some good reason, “well, I probably just need to rest.” Okay? - he looked at Alexis.

He looked back sadly, and then smiled sadly:

- Okay. “I won't ... force you,” he said. And, after thinking for a few seconds, he asked, apparently, to say at least something: - Do you need help to make the bed over?

When the young people put down a new bed and a place on the floor, Victor returned to his terminal, while Alexis got a job with his porter company on the bed that now belonged to him alone. Each went into his own business - a couple of times, one or the other tried to start a conversation, but each time the conversation did not go well. Finally, Alexis turned off the computer and, having wished Victor good night, climbed under the covers, while his friend sat for some time at the terminal. Once again turning towards Alexis, Victor saw him covered with a blanket - only the head of the Alchibian, lying on the pillow, was visible. And against his will, Victor thought that now it is impossible to determine by this serene face with closed eyes whether it belongs to a guy or a girl ...

A few minutes later, Victor turned off his terminal and began to take off his clothes, also intending to get under the blanket.

“Good night,” he said to Alexis, not being, however, certain that he was still awake. But Alexis heard it.

“Good night,” he replied, without opening his eyes, but the Alchibian’s lips smiled slightly.

Victor lay down under the blanket next to Alexis's bed, but did not sleep to him. The guy tried to turn around less, afraid to prevent his friend from falling asleep, however, Alexis seemed unable to fall asleep: maybe half an hour later, or maybe an hour later, Victor heard Alexis getting out of bed and carefully, as if thinking that Victor was sleeping and afraid to wake him, leaves the room. And then Victor heard from the kitchen the sound of a slowly boiling kettle, and he threw the blanket off and went into the kitchen.

Alexis was sitting at the kitchen table, staring off to the side. Alcibians were now only cowards, and Victor saw in the muffled electric light his body - slender, tanned, toned ... beautiful, but Victor still considered himself an absolutely heterosexual young man. He wisely understood that it would be better for him to overcome his heterosexuality, but he wanted with all his might to postpone this moment.

- Can't sleep too? He asked Alexis. The Alchibian turned his head toward him and nodded sadly.

- Do you want some tea? - he asked.

- I will not refuse, - Victor smiled, but his smile came out weak. Alexis, however, also smiled back, and when the kettle was boiling, he took out two cups and began to pour tea over them. However, a pause hung over the table, and it was clear that Alexis was still not himself. Finally, he seems to have decided to say what tormented him:

“Vic, I'm sorry ...” he said with pain. “But I love you with my heart, and not with my sexual organs.” You see, I love you, regardless of whether in the male body or in the female.

“I see,” the guy nodded, grimly. - And what, you do not have such that men excite you in the female body, and women in the man's body? - He asked the first thing that came to his head, grasping the pretext to take the subject a little to the side.

“Well, if I liked one thing in a man’s body, and another thing in a woman’s body,” Alexis was surprised at first, and then laughed, “it would be some kind of schizophrenia!” And then, we have the same ... well, you remember that it launches the mechanism for changing the sex. If only Alchibians in a male body were excited by women, and vice versa, then we would constantly be in the same body from the moment of crisp.

- Well, yes, it is logical ... - Victor agreed. And again there was a pause, which he hastened to break with another question:

- Listen, and this chrysalis - how is it going?

“I'll tell you now,” Alexis, it seems, was himself glad about taking the conversation to another direction. “When an Alchibian approaches the age when he should first get sex, they start to him ...”