Autumn stopped walking for a second and looked at Kitten with something approaching horror and pity.  “You’ve never…never…are you…Oh goddess, you’re serious.  This needs to be rectified right this very fucking minute.”  She pulled out a tablet and began to type rapidly.  “Hey, Hesplex?  Gladialis?  So apparently, there’s been a crime against humanity that needs to be fixed.”  All three Affini turned towards Autumn, looking at her with expressions of curiosity.  “Well, apparently Kitten here has never had a taco before.  EVER.  Clearly, this needs to be fixed.  STAT, as they say in the medical field.  Right, Kitten?”, she asked the other girl who was currently blushing a shade of red that not even Sol could manage.  “See?  She agrees with me”, Autumn said.  

The Affini talked amongst themselves, and then Gladialis smiled.  “Well, we can do tacos for dinner, if Kitten wants that.  What do you say, Kitten?  Tacos sound good?”

Kitten blushed, suddenly the center of attention.  “Umm..I..I guess that’s…umm..you know…they want to..but..ok, as…umm…as long as it’s not any trouble.  I don’t know what you were researching for dinner.”

“I’m sorry, Kitten, but I think I misheard”, Hesperia said.  “Did you say ‘research for dinner’??”

“Umm–”

“Not exactly–”

Both Kitten and Gladialis started talking at the same time, with everyone else staring at them in bemused silence, except Dawn who was giggling softly.  Hesperia looked at Dawn fondly, a vine caressing her tummy, before looking back at them.  “Well, then what did you mean?”

“well…umm…”, the kitten stammered.  “I…umm…every meal usually has a little history lesson.  You know, research into the origins of the food and stuff.  And I…umm..I figured…”

“You thought that she’d done some elaborate research into what she was going to make for dinner”, Autumn supplied and Kitten nodded.

Ilex snorted and looked at Gladialis, who was currently playing with the fabric that made up her loincloth.  “Well, friend?  What was dinner going to be?”  She smiled, and grinned even wider, the expression somehow loud, and she made a motion.  Gladialis mumbled something, and the loud smile got louder.  “I’m sorry, but Dawn didn’t hear you.  Right Dawn?”, she asked Dawn, who was currently looking off into space.

“Dawn, my darling”, Hesperia crooned, as she brought out a multicolored flower that she spun in a way that made Kittens eyes tickle.  After a moment, she snapped, and Dawn looked at her and smiled.  She whispered something and Hesperia smiled, and gently caressed her face, whispering something back before giving her a tender kiss on her forehead.  “So..Gladialis, you were saying?”

“I…umm…”, and her vines rustled as she did the Affini version of a blush.  “Fish Fingers.  I was going to make Kitten Fish Fingers for dinner.”

“Fish fingers?  Wait…do fish even have fingers?  How can…I have so many questions”, Kitten said, confused.

“Well, of course fish have fingers”, Dawn said sleepily.  “Hesplex goes fishing all the time, and the fishies have fingers to hold things.”  Ilex and Hesperia looked at each other, and then grinned.  

“I don’t know about you”, Ilex said with a grin.

“But Dawn might need some loving”, Hesperia said

“Because the sun is shining”, they finished and a veritable storm of vines descended on Dawn.  

Kitten watched taking a single shuffling step back as the two rendered Dawn into a moaning, gasping mess.  Not that they stopped walking or moving.  A shoulder nudged hers, eliciting a squeak from her as she looked over, and saw Autumn grinning at them.  “You get used to those two goofballs eventually”, prompting an indignant yell from Illex.

“We are not goofballs!!  We are…are..umm…help me out”, she whispered to Hesperia, who shrugged.

“Sorry, Dawn has most of the functioning brain cells between you and you just…I’d ask her but it’s gonna be a bit before she’s able to talk again”, Autumn said with a fond smile.

“Jealous, little Autumn?  You know, if you were ours”, Hesperia said with a smile.

“You could have this all the time”, Ilex said, smiling and flourishing.

Autumn laughed again, and shook her head.  “Are you ever going to stop?”, and laughed even harder when they looked at each other and both, joined by a weak voice from the little hammock that they’d made for Dawn, said “No.”

At that point they’d made it to the restaurant, and they’d been met by Victor who grinned at them.  “Hi!!  Hi, Kitten!!  Hi, Miss Dulcisa!!”, and then gasped as Hesperia lifted Dawn up and held her.  “Is that…It IS!!!”, he squealed.  “Miss Dawn!! I'm..it’s so nice to finally meet you!!”, he said, and she nodded and smiled.

Gladialis smiled, enjoying the unbridled happiness that Victor exuded, and even the slight confusion on Kittens face.  She leaned over, and spoke to Kitten quietly.  “Dawn is something of a local celebrity.  She’s one of the very few members of….you know, we’ll discuss this later, ok?”, and breathed a quick sigh of relief when Kitten nodded.  

Eventually they all took seats, Autumn on Ilexs lap and Dawn on Hesperias.  Menus perused, they began to order.  Bowls of fortified water for the Affini, Dawn got the mac ‘n cheese balls, Autumn something called ‘pierogies’.  Kitten remembered something that Victor had said, and when it came time for her to order, she smiled at him.  “Umm..can…can i get the…you..umm…the pizza mar..marg?”, she asked, and then his face lit up.

“The Pizza Marg’rita!!!  Sure thing!!” and he bounded away to take their orders to the kitchen.

Kitten looked over at Gladialis and saw her sitting there, an odd tension in her.  “Hey”, she whispered.  “You ok?  You’re..umm…”

“Oh.  No, little one, I’m ok”, Gladialis assured her.

“Well…did you do research into this pizza thing?”, Kitten asked and then smiled as she saw Gladialis give a sort of smile/shrug thing.  Ilex whispered “dorkus maximus”, but Kitten paid no attention to it.  “I knew it”, she said, and smiled.  “Well?  Enlighten us, please.”

Gladialis smiled, and arranged her vines.  “So as the local legend has it, in 1889 two members of Royalty on Terra came to visit the city called Naples.  Now Naples had been long declared as the birthplace of pizza, mostly as a quick way for people to eat.  At the time it was simply a piece of bread with various toppings on top of it, cheap and filling.  But the nobles needed something better.  They went to a known master craftsman of the art, Raffaele Esposito.  They told him to create three masterpieces that they could enjoy.  The first two that he made weren’t to their taste, as the stories go”, Gladialis said, and then smiled as Victor came back with a little cart and three big bowls of water.  “Ahhh, thank you, Victor”, she said with a smile as she ruffled his hair.  He smiled back, wishing her “enjoy the meal”, and then brought the bowls to the other Affini.  Hesperia and Ilex certainly had no issues with restraint and gave quite the liberal amount of cuddles and head pats.  Victor wobbled a bit as he walked away with the cart, promising to bring everyone else their food.  “Where was I?”, she asked as she sank her vines into the water, enjoying the flavor and the chill.

“Something something masterpieces weren’t good enough”, Kitten helpfully reminded Gladialis, who favored her with a nice smile.  

“Ah, thank you, Kitten.  So the third pizza that he brought out was a masterpiece.  The country had recently been reunited, and he chose to top his pizza with the colors of his homeland.  Basil for green, a simple tomato sauce with garlic for the red, and fresh mozzarella cheese”, she said, pronouncing it ‘mootzarell’, “for the white.  And he named it in honor of the queen, Queen Margherita of Savoy.  The Queen declared that this was her favorite, and he kept the name in her honor.  In fact he got an award, and his name lives on in history as the creator of the style”, Gladialis said.  Then her flowers shrank in a bit, her vines rustled as Ilex whispered, “dorkus maximus” loud enough to be heard at the other end of the block.

‘She’s blushing.  That’s how she blushes’, Kitten thought, and she smiled.  “I think it’s pretty cool”, she said.  “Nobody here knows these things, and Gladialis did all this research and she was actually ON Terra.  I think it’s pretty damn cool.  So..umm…yea”, she said, blushing a deep red.

“Well said, Kitten”, Hesperia said, smiling at her as a few vines petted Dawn.  Kitten wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw  a vine from Ilex give Hesperia a high five.  What the hell was going on?  She was curious, about to ask, when Victor came back with the cart and an Affini in tow.

“Nulini Cantath, Eight Bloom, He/they, at your service”, he said, making a bow.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.  Gladialis…my friend”, and the two intertwined vines.  “It’s good to see you again, my friend.  We’ve missed having you over, friend.  Victor mentioned that you were here the other day with a Terran, and I hoped that you’d be telling me some good news.  But I have to ask…are you sure about this?”

“Nulini, my friend”, she answered in the same dialect.  “Missed you as well.  And yes…I’m sure.  It’s a small price, nothing over nothing, as they say.  But I promise that Kitten and I will come visit soon.”

“And we will be overjoyed to have our hab brightened once more by your smile, your scent, and your wisdom”, Nulini said.  “and I’m overjoyed to have the illustrious Hesplex here, and with the most wonderful Dawn.  It is truly an honor to meet you, little one.”  Vines reached out gave her some headpats, which she happily accepted, and then he turned, vines bringing out a covered dish.  “Macaroni and cheese balls for the young lady”, he said, and then put a bowl full of deep fried cheesy goodness in front of Dawn.  “Pierogies for the young lady, dipping sauce, brussel sprouts, and some bacon on the side.”  Then he brought out a covered plate.  “And for the other young lady, a Pizza Margherita” and he placed it in front of the other Terran, the one his Victor had called Kitten.

She gasped.  It looked amazing, and smelled even better.  It was a round of what looked like thin bread, blistered in places, with red sauce and green leaves and small pieces of white stuff that she assumed were that mutzarell cheese.  She looked up as Nulini beamed at her.  

“I grow the basil myself, and the sauce is made fresh every day”, he said proudly.  “I hope you enjoy your meals in good health and happiness”, he said to the whole table.  He watched as Kitten took a slice and lifted it up, smelling and then taking a bite.  He beamed when her eyes went wide and she nodded while opening her mouth, waving into it and whispering “ashefashefashe”, and then looked a bit confused.  “Is that how Terrans say it’s good?”, he asked Victor who was laughing.

“No, Master.  It means that she was so excited to eat it that she burnt her mouth.”

“Oh dear!! Kitten…Gladialis, why are you….”, and he trailed off, unsure why all the Terrans laughing.

“She did this the other day as well.  She’s so excited to try new things that she doesn’t want to wait”, Gladialis explained with a chuckle.  “So she runs headlong into things, like burning her tongue.”

“It’s so good!! The sauce is perfect, and the basil…i’ve never had flavors like that before!!”, Kitten exclaimed, once she cooled her mouth off.  

“But…but you’re going to burn your mouth!!”, Nulini said, and then frowned as Kitten chirped, “worth it!!”  “Gladialis, are you going to…what are you going to do?”, he asked.

“Nothing.  Kitten is my ward, not my floret”, Gladialis said quietly.  “And the poor dear can’t bear to be touched by any Affini yet.  See how she still makes sure that there’s separation between her and Hesplex?  Even her and I?  And she barely tolerated touching the other Terrans.  I won’t ruin her trust by forcing things on her, even if I think it might help.  She has to be ready to accept it.”

“You may have a point there”, Nulini ceded.  “Is that why…?”

“Yes.  If that happens, then it should be her decision, all on her own.  With no other input.  Like I told Hesplex, I won’t stop a journey before it’s begun.  It’s not mine, and it’s not my place to write its ending.  But…can you get something for me?”

“But it could be part of yours”, Ilex butted in.  “It would be far easier and simpler.”

“It’s not about being easy, or even where the journey is headed.  It’s about the climb, about getting back up and finding your way.  There’s a difference between being a guide and taking the reins, and I won’t do that.”  Gladialis sounded resolute, and the other Affini nodded and backed off, the Terrans shrugging since they had no idea what was said.

Everyone enjoyed the meal, with the Terrans mixing and matching, each one trying a bit of the other.  Kitten found that she enjoyed the pierogi more by scooping out the insides and eating them first, and then eating the shell.  They even got another bowl of the little “mac” ball things that Dawn was eating.  The one hitch, not a hitch but maybe something that made her stop and stare for a moment, that it took a while for her to get over, was the fact that the Terrans were being fed by the Affini.  Each one sat placidly in an Affini’s lap, and they opened their mouths as they got a tap on the cheek.  Food was put in, with Ilex sometimes booping Dawns nose with it to giggles and laughing, especially as she got crosseyed trying to see it.  Then they closed their mouth at another tap, and then chewed and swallowed at another command.  She wondered what the Affini got out of this.  Sure, Dawn and Autumn got to eat, and judging from the way they sat, this was relaxing for them.  But what did Heslpex get?

Gladialis saw Kitten looking and tapped the table to get her attention.  “What’s on your mind, Kitten?”, she asked quietly.

Kitten blinked, and blushed.  “I…umm…just”, and her eyes flickered over to the two Terrans.  

“Ahhh.  You’re wondering about that.  Well, most florets enjoy it.  Not only do they get to feel safe in their Affinis vines”, Gladialis said in a low voice as she leaned a bit closer.  “But they also get to just focus on the sensations and the taste.”

“And their Affini?  what..umm…they have to get something”, Kitten insisted.  

“They get the pleasure of doting on and adoring their florets.  It’s something that any and all Affini enjoy greatly, and I daresay, need.  And haven’t you ever done something for someone just for the pleasure of doing it?  Not because you’d gain something, but just because?”, Gladialis said, smiling gently at her.

“I..I mean ..umm…yea”, she said, blushing, thinking about it.  Then she looked up and squeaked as she saw Illex watching her intently as they fed Dawn.  Ilex grinned slowly, and then winked at her. 

“You know, cutie, I’m fairly certain that any Affini would give half their vines to be able to feed you”, she said with a grin.  “All you need to do is ask”, and then giggled as the little kitten blushed even harder and shrank.  So much fun, teasing these Terrans.  But this would…She wondered to her core what Gladialis was thinking?  She clearly liked the Terran, if she was doing research for her.  So why was she so determined to sabotage herself, to make it harder for herself?  Perhaps she simply needed a push like Solanum had?  If she was anything like Solanum, it would be a push over the cliff and then a push into the water and then a push to admit that the water was wet and then…well..Kitten would end up being in charge, just like Autumn was.  She looked over at her other half, who actually shook her head.  

“Let her do this on her own.  She wants this, she just needs to learn that for herself”, Hesperia told her other half in the shared language of  tiny gestures and looks, knowing Ilex would understand them.

Ilex shrugged, but nodded.  She smiled at Kitten, and then winked.  “Relax, little one.  Nobody here will ever force you to do something you don’t want to.  Whether it’s this, or taking xenodrugs, or anything else.  As long as you don’t need to be Domesticated, then you remain in control of your own life.”

Kitten blinked as she looked at everyone else, and to a being, they all nodded.  Autumn looked over and nodded.  “She means it”, she said softly and Kitten nodded.  She took another bite of her pizza, feeling a knot inside her chest loosen up a little bit.  

They all finished eating, the Terrans wiping their faces or having their faces wiped for them, the Affini pushing their bowls back with smiles.  Victor came trotting up with a covered plate that he put down in front of Kitten.  He whipped off the cover with a “TA-DAAA!!!!”  Kitten gasped loudly, a huge smile crossing her face from ear to ear as she bounced once or twice in happiness.