“Okay, that was, like, really hot.” Petal’s body tries to flinch when she hears Millie’s voice, but her Mistress’s vines hold her firmly in place.

“Th-thanks?” Petal's voice is somewhat strained by the vine around her throat, which is squeezing just hard enough that any movement from Petal is liable to push the pressure just over the boundary between mild discomfort, and the first inklings of genuine pain.

"I guess that explains why you were so into the knife thing, huh?" Oh, right. It probably does explain that, doesn’t it?

The vine around her throat relaxes just enough to let her talk without any additional difficulty, but still not enough that she isn't blissfully aware of its presence. The vines around the rest of her only tighten their grip, though. A firm reminder of who she belonged to. "I- I- m-maybe?"

Petal can feel her Mistress’s melodic voice coming from all around her. "What's this "knife thing", my darling Petal~?" 

Petal is frozen in confusion for a moment, still aware that only yesterday she’d be utterly mortified at Delphinium finding out, and yet still eager beyond compare to bare her every secret to her Mistress. In her silence, Millie eagerly begins, "Well, Mistress, when we were-"

"No, Millie, my love, I want to hear it in her own words." Millie just smiles as Delphinium cuts her off. She knows that she’s not in trouble for this. Maybe they had even planned this whole exchange out, to make sure that Petal knew that her Mistress would know if she wasn't completely forthright with her. It's so completely unfair, and Petal couldn’t be happier. 

"W-w-well, ah, um… w-when Millie took the kn-nife off'f S'bine, she w's… she w's… she w's really hooot!" Her elation at having the truth forced from her didn’t make it any easier to say, but she can feel her Mistress’s pride radiating down upon her for her effort.

"Awww, thanks.” Millie steps over to Petal, and is raised up by Delphinium, before kissing Petal on her cheek. “You were really hot, too~."

Petal is sure that she’d be blushing harder, if she wasn’t already too far gone for that. "I- I was?"

"Yeah! You looked so… excited. So precious. So cute!"

"I, um, ah, well, uhm… thank you?!"

"So, my dearest, you have an appreciation for sharp objects as well as the pain that they might inflict? Or is it the threat of pain more generally?"

"I- um-” Petal tries to think. It’s shockingly easy when it’s at her Mistress’s behest, especially given how much her Mistress’s presence usually disrupts it. “Both? I think? Um, uh… sharp things are hot, when, like, in the right hands, I guess? It was way hotter with Millie, than with Sabine."

"Good girl~! And how about this?" A vine tangles in Petal’s hair, pulling her head back sharply, and shaking it slightly. Petal blinks, and tries to focus her eyes as soon as the shaking stops. In front of her eyes, Delphinium is slowly moving a vine, covered in long, sharp looking thorns. The thorny vine creeps forward, Petal’s eye’s try to follow it, but her head is kept locked forwards. Before long, she feels it. A gentle pressure, pricking at her neck, and then another, and another, until it feels as though she’s wearing another collar, made of thorns.

She feels the smooth backs of the thorns slide against her neck, as the vine tightens. She’s trying to hold herself perfectly still, breathing shallowly, not moving her jaw, and definitely not allowing herself to swallow nervously. The vine slides back, just the barest amount, Petal can feel her blood thumping, almost as if it’s as eager to leave her body as she is to have it taken from her. She can feel her skin being pulled at, almost ready to give way, her Mistress’s thorns ready to tear her neck open with just the slightest effort. Petal can’t even breathe, if only because she knows that her Mistress doesn’t want her to. It’s not her place to decide when this happens, or even if this happens. She is completely at the mercy of her Mistress, just as she should be.

“No.” Even with her Mistress all around her, Petal is surprised to hear Her voice come through the pounding of her blood in her ears so clearly. Her Mistress loosens the thorny vine around her neck, taking care not to do any damage to anything with what are clearly very sharp thorns.

After a moment, Petal realises that she’s already breathing along with the gentle pulsing of her Mistress once more, although her breathing is still barely deep enough to keep her conscious. “Nn-no?”

“Not until you’re implanted, my dearest. And I can make sure you recover properly.”

“B-bu-”

“Petal, dearest.” Petal freezes as soon as she realises that her Mistress has something to say. She can feel all of the vines holding her in place tense, pulling on every joint of hers past the point of discomfort, but almost certainly not to the point of any actual harm. “Your objections are cute, but don’t forget who holds your leash, pet. You will not be permitted to come to harm.”

Petal tries to nod vigorously, to scream her obedience, but Mistress is holding her too tightly. Only when she finally allows herself to go limp does she feel her Mistress nodding her head up and down for her. “B-but… what about-?”

Delphinium strokes a vine down Petal’s cheek, interrupting with a tap to the side of her that has her mouth drop open. “Oh, don’t worry, my love. Pain is absolutely fine~.”

Her Mistress pulls the vine away, and Petal thinks it’s okay for her to speak. “Yes, Mistress, thank you, Mistress.”

“Oh, don’t thank me yet, my dear, you haven’t felt the best, or the worst, for that matter, of what I’m going to do to you yet. Not even close~.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

“It’s gonna be so fucking hot. Like, wow.” Millie’s eyes widen, and she gasps. “I just had the best idea!”

“And what would that be, my flower?”

“Petal should totally get open surgery.”

“No.” Delphinium’s voice sounds final, but Petal can’t help but ask.

“W-what’s… what’s open surgery?”

“It’s-.”

Millie cuts in. “It’s this totally hot thing where they open up your back and put in a fully grown implant, and you even get to be awake for it.” 

Millie interrupted Delphinium. Millie interrupted her own Mistress. Millie interrupted Petal’s Mistress? Was that allowed? Were pets allowed to do that?

Delphinium gives Millie a look. From the outside, it looks disapproving, but Petal can tell that her Mistress isn’t really annoyed, just amused. Of course. If Millie weren’t allowed to do it, she wouldn’t have been able to, so since she did do it, she must have been allowed to! Petal can’t wait until she too can feel the freedom of being completely unable to ever be truly disobedient.

“It is a procedure that we are not equipped to perform here, and in fact, that I am not qualified to perform. A standard implantation, however, could be done right here, by my own hand, as it were.”

Oh. Well, open surgery by a stranger, or having her own Mistress do this for her? “I want you to do it.”

“Oh, do you now, my love?” A stray thought from the Petal-she-was slides past her mind: there’s a reason that doctors aren’t supposed to treat their own friends and family. But the Petal-she-is, and even more importantly, the Petal-she-was-becoming knew that there was nobody who could ever care for her better than her Mistress. And the thought of her Mistress being the one to implant her was so fucking hot.

“Yes Mistress, I want you to do it, I want it to be you that does it, I want to know that it’s you that’s making me yours, I want to feel you hold me in place while you open me up for you, I want to be yours so much Mistress please can I be yours please can you implant me please I need it I need it I need it pleeaaase Mistresssss?~”

“I’m afraid that your pleas are falling on deaf ears, my love. The decision has already been made. I will be giving you your implant, and your begging, while adorable, has had absolutely no impact on my decision.”

“Yes Mistress! Thank you Mistress!” Delphinium ruffles Petal’s hair, and she shifts Petal until she’s lying comfortably on the bed, before slowly withdrawing her vines. A moment later, Millie is lifted up and gently placed on the bed beside her. Petal quickly cuddles up to her, and Millie wraps her in a hug.

“Now, you two, behave. I’ll be back in a few minutes, I just need to go and check on something. Understood, my dearests~?”

“Yes, Mistress!” Millie and Petal respond in perfect unison.

Delphinium was, under normal circumstances, a patient affini. She could have broken her precious Petal the day she met her, but she wanted to give her darling fourth floret a chance to break herself, first. Which she had done beautifully, especially with her delightful Millie helping her every step of the way.

But even her patience had its limits.

Her Petal, her pet, her newest floret was here, and so was she, and so was it. Waiting for this moment. She had planned to wait just a little bit longer. Long enough for her to see her new home, to see the life she had chosen, before even the idea of choosing was lost in Delphinium’s grip. And then she’d made her silly request, and so Delphinium needed to give her the chance to realise just why her Mistress didn’t want her going through with it.

But then she’d passed a test that Delphinium hadn’t even realised that she’d set.

And now, her floret, her pet, her dearest, darling Petal was here, right where she needed to be. She was as ready as she’d ever be, she was willing, not that she had any choice in the matter, and Delphinium couldn’t think of a single reason to delay. She didn’t want to think of a reason to delay.

Delphinium floated on a dress of vines, too impatient to even form legs for herself, through to the back of the clinic, and opened the only door in the building with a lock, and not coincidentally, the only room without any terran language signage.

Biological Sample Storage

Delphinium was a patient affini. But the time for patience had passed.