Petal wasn't exactly given the best training, and if the navy hadn't been so desperate, she wouldn't even have made it out of basic training, but she did remember a few things. Like, the first rule of knife fighting: don't try to fight someone with a knife. Running clearly isn't going to work, which leaves talking. To Sabine.

"Oh! We're on a date! There was supposed to be a music thing?" Fuck. Millie.

"Oh, really? I've gotta say, this is very disappointing, even for you, Jer, your standards have really slipped. And, fuck, you're even letting them dress you up like a girl. Do you just not care how pathetic that's making you look?"

"What do you mean? Of course she's a girl!" Even if it’s only going to make things worse, Petal can’t help but feel a warmth at having Millie defend her like this.

"Don't be fucking stupid, of course he's not."

"Don't call her stupid." Ugh, of course the first thing she says to her ex is antagonistic.

"Oh, there he is. Doing some talking for yourself for once, eh Jeremy?" Is Sabine trying to use that name to hurt Petal, or does she just not realise?

"What do you want, Sabine?" Maybe Petal can try to talk Sabine down? It never really worked before, but may

"I want to be somewhere those fucking weeds aren't. But if I can't have that, I'll settle for making them hurt for every terran they've made suffer."

Millie giggles. "They don't make anyone suffer, silly. They take away suffering. Like how they took away money."

"I can see why you like her, Jer, she's just as pathetic as you are."

"She isn't pathetic!" Petal takes a step towards Sabine, who points the knife at her. 

"Why don't you stay right there for now, Jeremy. We wouldn't want you to accidentally get hurt, now would we?"

"This isn't going to work, Sabine. The Affini know where we are, there's no way they don't already know about all of this. Just… let us go. Don't make it any harder on yourself than you need to." Petal really, really hopes that the Affini do know all about this, and are ready to swoop in at a moment's notice.

“Harder on myself? You did notice that I’m the one with the knife, didn’t you? And I actually know how to use it.”

“Oh right, yeah, because a knife’s going to do anything to the ten foot tall plant people.”

“No affini in the room right now, Jeremy, and it can do plenty to you, I’m sure. Or to your new girlfriend?”

“Leave her out of this.”

“Oh, you’re still pretending to care about this one, are you?”

“I didn’t stop caring about you, Sabine.”

“Well no, you’d have had to have actually cared in the first place for you to stop, wouldn’t you?”

“I did care about you, Sabine.”

“You had a funny way of showing it, Jer.”

“Yeah, I know, I was a shitty boyfriend.”

Millie giggles, interrupting. “Well yeah, cause you’re not a boy!”

“Millie…” Even when they’re being threatened by someone with a knife, Millie still manages to make Petal feel better about herself.

“Is this really what you sold us out for? Some plantfucker slut who’ll tell you that you’re a girl if you want to be? Was that really worth selling out your friends on the Endless Horizons? Selling out humanity?”

“The Horizons? I… what?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!” How is Petal supposed to do that when she has no idea what Sabine is talking about?

“I… don’t, though? What does any of this have to do with the Horizons? And what do you mean ‘friends’? Friends don’t throw people out of airlocks!”

“Oh, right, you got squeamish because you couldn’t do what needed to be done, so you betrayed humanity to the weeds!”

“Because I’m wearing a dress?”

“Because- because you sold out the Horizons! Because you sold out our only chance to get away from the damn weeds, and now we’re stuck here in fucking weedville!”

Oh. Right. Sabine’s an idiot.

“Millie didn’t have anything to do with any of that, please, just… let her go. You don’t need to hurt her.”

“Oh, I know.” Petal lets out a sigh of relief. “I want to hurt her. And you, and every other terran who’s forgotten what it means to be human!” 

Even Millie’s starting to look worried now, she steps closer to Petal, and then in front, putting herself between Petal and Sabine. “Stay away from Petal.”

“‘Petal’? Fucking hell! Jackson, Clyde, torch the place. I’ll be out once I deal with these plantfuckers.” Petal can hear the sound of something starting to catch fire as Sabine approaches menacingly. She’ll only get one shot at this, if she can get Millie away, that’s all that matters.

“Millie, run!” Petal tries to step past Millie, and push her to the side, only for Millie to have already stepped forwards again. Petal tries to push through the haze, but her body just won’t respond fast enough to let her do anything other than watch as Sabine stabs out at Millie, who, in one fluid motion that Petal can barely follow, steps out of the way and grabs Sabine’s wrist. The next thing Petal knows, Millie is holding the knife with a slightly confused expression, and Sabine’s arm locked up in her own.

Fuck.

Millie’s a badass. Apparently the next rule of knife fighting is just to be Millie? Fuck, that’s hot. Millie standing there, with a knife, with Sabine completely at her mercy? Fuck. The only way that it could be better is if it were Petal that she was holding.

“You should be more careful with knives, Sabine.” Even when she’s being a badass, Millie manages to sound adorable. Sabine tries to pull herself free, and after a moment, Millie lets her. “You might hurt somebody.”

Sabine slowly backs away, Millie’s badassitude apparently too much, even for her. “... What?”

“Oh yeah! Knives are super sharp and pointy, and if you aren’t careful, people can get hurt!”

“I- I know what knives are!” Is Sabine? Sabine is blushing. Wow. At least it’s not just Petal that Millie has that effect on.

Petal looks around the room. Everyone else is just staring at Millie. They’ve probably never seen anyone, let alone a floret, move that fast. Petal would have sworn it was impossible for her to love Millie any more than she already did, but Millie just keeps finding ways to prove that wrong.

Millie tilts her head questioningly when she notices Petal staring at her. “I… you…” Petal takes a deep breath. “I love you, and you’re a complete badass.”

Millie steps back over to Petal, still holding the knife. In Sabine’s hands it was threatening, terrifying. In Millie’s, it’s exciting, almost enticing. “If you thought that was good, wait until you see what I can do with a sword~.”

Fuck. Petal’s pretty sure her cheeks are on fire. Fire. The room is on fire, and everybody else seems to have left while she was staring at the hottest woman she’s ever even conceived of. “Millie the room is on fire.”

 Millie looks around the room. “Oh, dirt, it is! And the fire suppression doesn’t seem to be working. At least it looks like everyone else got out okay?”

“Uh, yeah? I guess?” The fire was starting to get a bit bigger, now. Some of the furniture was starting to catch. “We should probably leave?”

“Oh! Yeah! Uh… are your feet still sore?”

“My- my feet? I, uh… I guess?”

“Awww, my poor Petal.” Millie gives her a kiss, while still holding a knife. Petal hadn’t ever known that ‘being kissed by her super-hot girlfriend holding a knife’ was, like, a thing she was particularly into, but she did now. Millie grabs a wooden chair, and carries it out the door with her. Petal follows closely behind, and doesn’t object at all when Millie gently pushes her onto the chair.

“Um… should we tell somebody about the fire? We should tell somebody about the fire, right?”

“Oh! Yeah! Um… can you hold this?” Millie holds the knife out towards Petal, who takes it, somewhat gingerly. Millie pulls out her tablet, and starts tapping something into it.

“Uh… what should I do with this?” Petal holds up the knife.

“Oh, uh… I dunno, put it somewhere safe? We wouldn’t want to just leave it lying around anywhere that somebody could hurt themself with it. Petal slips the knife into her bag.

“Do we… do we need to stick around? Honestly, I think I’d like to head home now.”

“But... what about your feet? Mistress is probably still busy…”

“I dunno, maybe I could take some xenodrugs to help me not notice it, and then, maybe, I don’t know…”

“Yes?”

“maybe I could ask Delphinium for a massage or something if that’s okay, it’s okay if it isn’t okay, it’s just you said before that she was good at massages, and I just want to get out of the old city, and-” Petal feels the inhaler pressed against her mouth, and instinctively takes a couple of deep breaths, before Millie pulls it away.

“That sounds perfect~.”