Delphinium gently lifts Petal out of the bath, and into a giant fluffy towel. Delphinium gets Petal most of the way dry by simply rubbing her vines against her through the towel. Petal can’t stop herself from moaning at the contact. Damn xenodrugs.

Delphinium deposits Petal on the ground, a couple of vines staying close to support her weight, which is especially helpful since Petal is pretty sure she’s not quite able to stand on her own at the moment. Petal feels a tap, and a moment later, Delphinium lifts her arm to dry under it with a towel. Another tap, and she lowers Petal’s arm back down. Delphinium repeats the first tap on the other side, and Petal raises her arm. She’s rewarded by a feeling of pride radiating from her affini, and Delphinium dries her other side. Another tap, and Petal lowers her arm, feeling that same sense of pride.

This process repeats for what could have been seconds, or could have been hours, Delphinium tapping or stroking Petal somewhere, and Petal trying to respond the way Delphinium wants. If she’s right, she’s rewarded by that feeling of pride, and when she isn’t, Delphinium simply moves her body to where she wants it to go. Even when Petal’s wrong about what she’s supposed to do, she can feel Delphinium’s pride at how hard she’s trying, and how receptive she is to being corrected.

Eventually, Petal feels a gentle touch over far too much of her body at once, and she freezes, uncertainly. Oh! Delphinium put a new dress on her. It’s pink, and purple, and blue, and it’s oh so pretty. Delphinium strokes a full circle on top of her shoulder. A half circle means for her to turn around, so a full circle must mean… 

Petal spins in place, her dress fluttering away from her in a cascade of glorious colour, and she feels Delphinium’s pride for her for doing as she’s told. “Absolutely adorable, my dearest Petal. And, before I forget~…” Delphinium pulls out a small purple flower, tucking it behind Petal’s ear, and her tablet, which she uses to take a photo of Petal with. “Just perfect, wouldn’t you agree?” Delphinium holds the tablet out for Petal to see, and… okay, so she’s maybe kind of pretty in the picture. Just a little bit. Maybe.

“B-but, are you going to keep that?” Petal couldn’t decide whether or not that would be worse than the alternative.

“Why, of course, my dearest Petal. I wouldn’t want to ever forget such a precious moment, or such a precious smile~.”

She is smiling, Petal realises. In the photo, she has that same joyous, uncomplicated smile that she’s seen on every floret she’s ever met. Is that what Delphinium sees in her? Is that what Millie sees in her? She doesn’t really want to think so, although she’s also not quite sure why she shouldn’t want to think so, but if that’s what they see in Petal, maybe they do have a point about her being cute.

“Um… could you send me a copy too?” Petal’s voice is small, and she’s still a bit worried that Delphinium will judge her harshly for her vanity, but instead, it seems to just make her even happier. She takes her tablet back and taps away at it, and Petal can hear the sound of her own tablet receiving a message from the other room.

“Of course my dear. And should I send a copy to Millie, as well?”

“Um… do you mind if…” Petal trails off, it’s a silly idea, anyway.

“Do I mind if~?” Petal really needs to learn to stop starting to say things she doesn’t want Delphinium to make her finish saying.

“Do you mind if I send it to her?”

“Hmmm, I suppose that would be acceptable. But if you don’t, I may be forced to send it myself. Understood~?”

“Um… I guess?” Delphinium is giving her a look, like she just gave the wrong answer, like she’s holding back her pride until Petal says- Oh, right. “I mean, yes, Mistress.”

Delphinium smiles, and sure enough, there’s that sense of pride. Maybe she was right about getting through all of Petal’s objections before it’s time to go to bed.

Delphinium leads Petal back into the main room of her hab. Millie is lying face down on the couch, kicking her legs idly in the air, and seems to be doodling on the back of one of the pieces of paper, but quickly drops what she’s doing and bounds over to Delphinium and Petal when they enter the room. “Mistress!” Millie jumps at Delphinium’s leg, and is pulled tighter against it by vines coming down to embrace her. With her body pressed against Delphinium, Millie’s head is in a perfect position to look at Petal, which she does, her gaze slowly sliding down and then back up Petal’s body, before settling on Petal’s face.

“Wow, Petal, you look fucking hot!”

Petal blushes. Millie was too much to deal with at the best of times, let alone when Petal already maybe actually felt like she might maybe be a little bit pretty. Petal could feel herself blushing, any words she might have caught in her throat.

“You’re so hot, you’re making yourself blush, huh~.”

“I- I’m blushing because of you, of course!”

“Well, okay, I guess I am pretty hot, too.”

“You’re both utterly incendiary, my darlings, and if you weren’t both so adorable, I’d be worried that I’d catch aflame from your combined thermal incandescence. Now, Petal, I also need to bathe Millie, although you’re more than welcome to come in if you need anything, or even if you just want some company.”

“Or if you just want to look~.” Delphinium strokes Millie’s hair. Oh no. These two working together? So completely unfair, that Petal might as well just beg to be collared now. Petal puts a hand to her neck, and immediately regrets when she hears the way that Millie’s tone shifts. “Hey, Mistress~, you didn’t happen to bring the thing with you, did you?”

“Which thing would that-” Delphinium looks down, to see Petal with her hand at her throat. Petal drops her hand back to her side, but it’s too late. “Oooh, that thing. Yes, in fact, I believe I do actually have that, as it happens.” Delphinium snakes a vine out from her chest, from which is dangling a sleek, black collar. A perfect match for Millie’s. Delphinium gently lays it down on the coffee table, and Petal can’t help but step over and reach out for it. She’s surprised when one of Delphinium's vines gently knocks her hand away.

“Hands off, my dear. I was serious when I said that if you wanted to be collared by me, you would need to beg~.” 

Petal lets her hands drop to her side, and leans in closer, half-expecting Delphinium to stop her, but apparently looking is fine. It’s utterly beautiful, intricate floral patterns inlaid into the seemingly solid black of the outside, and on the inside Petal can see what look like intertwined vines or roots, much like the mass that Affini build themselves from. It would almost be like having an Affini’s vine wrapped around her neck. Like having her Mistress’s vine wrapped around her neck.

Petal reaches her hand up to touch her neck again. Fuck. She can hear Millie giggling excitedly, eagerly, just waiting for Petal to crack and beg for what she wants. What she needs. She can feel her Mistress’s possessive desire crashing over her for a moment, and she almost feels herself drop to her knees, ready to start begging, but Delphinium turns her attention away, and the feeling passes. Fuck.

There’s the sound of a door shutting, and Petal finally drags her attention off the collar to see that Delphinium and Millie have gone into the bathroom. Not long after, there’s the sound of the bath running once more.

Petal stares at the collar again. Delphinium wouldn’t even know if she touched it, if she just felt the patterns under her fingertips, if she just felt what the vines on the inside would feel like, against her skin.

But Delphinium had told her to keep her hands off.

Petal, almost reluctantly, steps slightly away from the collar, to sit down on the couch. The two parts of her list are sitting there, along with her tablet. Petal picks up her tablet, and looks at the photo of herself again. It’s strange, seeing a photo of herself where she actually looks happy. Remembering Delphinium’s not-so-dire warning, Petal copies the photo, and sends it on to Millie, before putting her tablet down, and taking a look at the lists.

Millie apparently didn’t have any difficulty thinking of reasons why Petal should become a floret. She’s also decorated the page with dozens of love hearts, and a few more detailed doodles. One of what Petal can only assumed is supposed to be her and Millie kissing, one of which seems to be Delphinium hugging her in her vines, possibly with kissing, and one that looks like Petal and Millie kissing again, but this time they’re both wrapped up in Delphinium’s vines. Millie’s better at drawing than Petal would have expected, and her handwriting and spelling are both much better than Petal expected from the way she texts.

it’s cute
you get to be with me
i get to be with you
get to be with Mistress
Mistress gets to be with you
Mistress is super amazing!
xenodruggies!!!
the sex is amazing
i love you!
you love me!
Mistress loves you!
you love Mistress!
being a floret is fun
don't have to be a human
implant makes xenodruggies better
implant makes thinky thoughts better
implant makes everything better
cool clothes
don’t have to make decisions
don’t have to remember stuff you don’t want to
don’t have to worry about anything because Mistress

Petal reads through the list, and finds herself having difficulty disagreeing with any of it. She’s still not completely convinced on the ‘people getting to be with her’ thing, because it still doesn’t feel like that’s actually a good thing, and she’s not quite sure what her feelings towards Delphinium are. Is it love? Petal shifts her gaze towards the collar, and blushes, and then up towards the pressed flower, still framed on her wall. Okay, maybe it is.

Petal puts Millie’s list back down, and then picks up her own list. Really, it comes down to two things. Does she trust Delphinium, and is she prepared to give up her control over her own life. A lot of which comes down to who she’d be giving it up to.

Petal puts the list down, and stares at the collar. Does she trust Delphinium? Does she even have it in her, if she wanted to? She wrote ‘can I trust Delphinium?’ on her list. Maybe even then, she realised that the biggest problem was not whether or not Delphinium was trustworthy, but whether or not she was capable of trusting like that. She wants to trust Delphinium, and sometimes when she’s in the room with her, she can feel it happening, as if just being around her is enough to smooth away the calluses she’s built around her heart. The calluses that needing to be human forced her to grow.

Petal picks up the pen, and turns her attention back to the list, and slowly writes a T next to the most burning question, and then a W, because she wants, more than anything, to be able to trust Delphinium.

can I trust Delphinium? M T W

She puts the pen down, and looks back up at the collar. Maybe if Petal were her Floret, Delphinium could make her feel the trust she wants. Maybe just trying to trust her would be enough, maybe she could just force herself to take that next step. Petal looks up at the door to the bathroom. Delphinium did say to come in, if there was anything she needed, or even wanted.

Petal stands up, and reaches a hand out to pick up the collar, stopping when it’s only millimeters away. Delphinium said not to touch it. And it wouldn’t exactly be a great start to walk in holding the collar…

Except, she didn’t say not to touch it. She said “hands off”. And there’s more than one way to pick something up. She could try to pick it up with her elbows, or maybe with a stick, or tongs, but…

Petal kneels down next to the coffee table, and leans over it, towards the collar. It’s just in reach, almost as if Delphinium- as if Mistress, had planned this. Petal gently, oh so gently closes her mouth around the collar, and slowly stands up, being very careful not to drop it.

If Mistress wants begging, she’ll damn well get begging. Petal turns, and steps over to the bathroom door, taking a few deep breaths in through her nose, before opening the door, and stepping in.