The tea shop that Alathea had asked to meet her at was nothing that Danae could have imagined when she had been given the address. Some Affini with a passion for digging up the plans for old buildings from sophont species, had recreated an old ruin from Terra eons ago - imagined of course to work for Affini, and in brand spanking new condition. 

It was from some ancient civilization which existed before humanity had travelled any further in space than the edge of their solar system, Danae vaguely remembered studying them during her time at university, but for the life of her she could not remember their name. The tea shop - or tea garden really was divided into small garden beds. Weirdly shaped bits of lawn interspersed with a series of miniature buildings too small for anyone to fit in. In between these buildings, each bit of lawn had space for people to sit at tables, or lounge on the grass or other fanciful looking furniture which just seemed to fit.  One building particularly caught Danae's eye, a fanciful thing covered in wooden carvings, which had attached to the front four arms that slowly rotated, blocking and unblocking the small rodent sized door at the base. It was very pretty but Danae for the life of her could not see the purpose. Well her ancestors and the Affini, were each peculiar in their own ways and she decided not to question it for now. She was interested in meeting the creator though, it would be fascinating listening to them explain.

Looking around Danae soon spotted Alathea in a section of garden tucked right into the corner of the space and headed over to join her. Smiling cheerfully, she sat down opposite the Affini at a deceptively comfortable table. 

"Hello, hello, you certainly do know how to find fun places to impress a girl" Danae said in a teasing tone. It was fun to watch the Affini's face as she realised that Danae had flirted with her for the first time. Surprised, happy, then a little proud. Well that was the Affini for you wasn't it? Progress in a relationship was always enough to make them happy and proud. Danae personally didn't disagree with this stance but it was adorable to watch the flow of expressions. "Thea, lovely one, you look positively radiant today," she continued before Alathea could say anything. After all, why give away the higher ground a second sooner than she had to? She looked a little closer at Alathea to watch her reaction, and then realised that Alathea had added another flower to the blooms adorning her body. Tiny, sweet smelling daphne flowers now interspersed the white vine flowers, and the deep pink flowers on the Affini's body. The new adornment stunned her.

"How... how did you know?" she asked hesitantly.

"That would be revealing my sources, now wouldn't it cutie?" Alathea smiled at her with a slightly predatory expression. "The surprise on your face is well worth keeping that a secret so I can find new surprises for you in the future. You look positively adorable with that look of stunned happiness on your face. I shall cherish chances to provoke it again." The Affini snaked vines around to wrap Danae's shoulders and back in a supportive hold. 

Dane nodded, just like that she had lost her high ground. Well it was hard to hold onto when the Affini put all the effort they did into making sophonts happy. Plus flirting seemed to be engrained in their DNA. In the weeks since the Affini took over she hadn't met a single one that didn't flirt at least a little. The least provocation such as mentioning the weather was enough to have praise and flirtatious comments heaped upon her head.  

"I asked you here today because I have made a decision, and now we need to negotiate." Alathea stated firmly.

Before Danae had a chance to respond a dreamily smiling man wandered up to their table. An enormous cup that still managed to look dainty next to the Affini, and a large human sized tea cup were placed on the table, and with a happy wave at Alathea's thanks he wandered off. 

Danae shook her head in bemusement. 

"Should he be left to wander around with hot tea in that much of a daze? I would hate for him to get burned."

"Not to worry dear, I think his owner will keep him from harm." She waved a vine at the Affini who was poking their head out of the building that functioned as the kitchen and keeping an eye on the Terran. Danae marveled at the way the Affini continued to create tea and snacks effortlessly while appearing to focus all of his attention on his floret. 

"Back to the topic at hand." Alathea waited until Danae focused on her again. "I have decided that your family is perfectly wonderful, perfectly charming, and I would like every one of you, to be perfectly mine. I have been doing some research on some of the conditions you initially stipulated, and there is one thing I would like to address before everything else."

Danae wasn't exactly surprised, she had had the feeling that Alathea had been close to making this decision for a few days. She seemed to fit in so well with the family, and honestly Danae couldn't imagine finding another Affini now she knew Alathea. Alathea felt like a piece that had been missing but was now locking into place. However none of that precluded her need to make sure the best terms possible were achieved for her family, so she settled in to bargain. Now would be her chance to demand a new job!

"The one thing being?"

"Why you of course darling Danae, or rather the need to find something suitably challenging to keep that pretty mind of yours occupied." declared Alathea.

Danae startled a bit at this. 

"Ok so can Affini read minds?" she demanded.

"Uh, no, of course not! Or at least not really without the help of implants. Why do you ask?" Alathea's puzzlement showed at the unexpected question.

The sudden exhale of air from Danae's nose was followed by a wry smile.

"I had bold plans to demand that you find me a job as the closest Affini responsible for keeping me happy." She laughed, and after a second Alathea joined in. Alathea's laugh was musical and it warmed Danae through to hear it. 

"You really are absolutely adorable! I can't wait to show you off to my friends. Everyone is going to be jealous of all my wonderful florets." Alathea's enthusiastic words made Danae blush lightly.

"Since we both agree that useful employment is important to you, I wanted to let you know I have found something for you which you might rather enjoy. The added bonus of this being you can do this work from anywhere. Now I have been in contact with Kistia, a rather clever friend of mine. She has been taming a former Terran resort world called Xenia.  When she arrived on Xenia, the Terrans who ran the world were exceptionally exploitative. The treatment of those poor people received makes me so angry. At any rate Kistia told me about some of the duplicitous things that the companies were up to. All kinds of horrible and manipulative contracts, that forced the worst conditions for the workforce."

Danae nodded, she had made a point never to engage in contract work for the kinds of companies that essentially believed in slavery. What else to call the company store model? She wasn't ignorant of the dirty, mean, and underhanded tactics companies like that used to trap their employees though. 

"I assume Kistia put an end to any sort of required work, so what would she need with my skills?" Dane asked skeptically "Wouldn't any suitably skilled Affini easily be able to untangle anything that absolutely had to be dealt with?"

"Kistia found a delightful Terran to help her with the work of making things equally comfortable for Terrans and Affini alike. After seeing how skilled clever Terrans can be she decided she needs an expert in in this field. Kistia needs someone versed in the history and nuances of how Terrans specifically drafted these documents. It's hard for the Affini to judge these things. While we appreciate a properly constructed contract, and rely on having comprehensive paperwork, we don't really have experience with understanding corporate level cruelty. Ideally she wants someone who knows which parts are boilerplate that Terrans would use without thinking twice, and which parts were specifically intended as personally, and deliberately malicious. This is mostly for the archives and for historical study, but our transitional neoxenoveterinary archaeobureaucrats do important work. Without context many things can be lost you know."

How did the Affini do it? Not only work that was important, but challenging, engaging work she could really sink her teeth into. She would be able to contribute, to give back to the Affini for all the good they had done, and were doing for her family and the whole Terran species. Danae sat listening and marveled at her good fortune. 

"Trying to piece together the original intent of the various labour contracts, corporate charters and ideological concepts governing such places, seems like the perfect job for you dear. Now while it would be helpful for some things to live on the planet you are documenting for, it certainly would not be necessary. We do have easy communication, and many Affini very eager for your assistance. Once you complete the archiving work for Kistia I know you will have a line of Affini clamoring for your skills. I just need to say the word and someone in Kistia's team will be in touch to make the arrangements."

Danae pondered this for a while, it wasn't make work, and it appeared tailor made for her. The longer she thought the more enthusiastic she got. As she thought she sipped at her tea, a wonderful aromatic blend with hints of rose and lavender.

"How can I say no? It's perfect. It will be frustrating and annoying, and I will need to dig around and do a lot of research. I honestly can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Kurt is the best assistant too, oh this will be fun!" Danae couldn't wait to begin, she started to rise but was held in place by Alathea's vines. They held her tightly, but not enough to hurt, and the smell of daphne brought her back to the moment.

"Dear, darling, adorable Danae, I know you are excited to start work but we aren't done quite yet." The teasing words made Danae blush as she settled back into place.

Wow, the perfect job offer and she forgot everything else that had been said. Evil Affini, and their perfect opportunities. She had best forget work for a while and concentrate on the negotiations. Best possible terms, no abdicating responsibility for shiny interesting research. This was even more important!

"Oh you mean you aren't just ticking off my wishlist, calling me a good girl, and giving snuggles today? Positively mean how well you know me already." Danae pretended to pout a little, and stuck out her lower lip. The tease made Alathea laugh again with delight before she launched into ticking off each of the points.

"The list that came through with your contracts you mean? I don't think there is anything particularly objectionable there to be honest. Most of those can be given with a few tweaks. I have no desire to separate the five of you, I will take you all as florets and scandalize everyone. Well until they meet you and see how darling you all are, then everyone will be jealous of me.

My job is to synthesize new drugs for new sophont species, so I will be creating new drugs for all of you, but as I want them to do exactly as I wish. For certain, negotiation will take place for the first time for specific drugs. For repeat uses I will then discuss appropriate use with each floret. Biochemistry is both a science and an art and I take pride in being an expert in their creation and use. 

Pronouns will be respected as a matter of course, and with five florets you will all definitely have time to spend with each other. I shall be quite worn out if you do not! For the most part I have no need to dictate what my florets wear. Of course there are some moments I will indulge in treating you as dolls, but given your own joy in that particular game I am sure you won't hold this against me." This last sentence was said with teasing delight. 

"What I really want to discuss is how I will fit into the family without completely changing your relationship dynamics. Do you have any thoughts on this?"

Pleased that the focus was going to be on what she had been most worried about, Danae took her time formulating her answer.

"I would like to establish you as dominant/equal to me in terms of the family dynamic. I will of course be submissive to you when we are engaged in play, but outside of this is what I am concerned about. I like that you have adopted a nickname that is easy to say when we are hypnotised or drugged. In extension of this I think that if the other's refer to you as Miss Thea at all times, and I do this only when I am feeling submissive or we are playing that will help. I have to admit I am reluctant to give up the Lady title but if you wanted a title above my own we could discuss that." 

Alathea considered this for a moment, and then nodded. 

"We don't particularly make use of titles in our society, except those of respect, and mistress isn't one I feel the need to adopt. I enjoy being called Miss Thea, and I am more than happy for you to continue using the titles. I think the balance between dominant and equal will be an interesting line to tread, but we will I am sure find the right balance. I think we should come to an agreement about directions or orders. I propose that whichever of us gives and direction or order first will hold priority unless the safety of a family member is at stake. I cannot let any of you come to harm of course, but with so many of you I will be reliant on you continuing the work you have been doing already. We will need to have regular conversations about any scene play plans so we don't overstep with each other."

Danae smiled and agreed quickly, "Yes, yes I think that will probably be the best. I would like to keep as much of our established dynamic as possible, and essentially slot you in above me, but considered equally dominant to the others. I am more than happy to sit down once a week to talk about plans, I am sure you Affini must have some kind of scheduling program we can make use of to keep the family updated and aware? Maybe two meetings a week, one for just you an me, and one for the whole family?"

"Meetings, hmm yes, two meetings would be ideal as a base point. More as needed of course. Once we get situated in a hab unit together, we can set up our communicators with reminders and calendars to keep everyone up to date. It's simply wonderful dearest Danae that we see eye to eye on the position I will have in the family. Now speaking of moving into a hab unit, I have also been considering where we can live. Personally I do not much care for this planet, and while it won't be a problem to set up a lab to do the work I cannot do within my own vines and branches, it would be nice to move somewhere with a lab already set up. We do have several options."

"Oh, options? I just assumed you would want to move us back to the planet you came from. I must confess I am not particularly attached to this world either. I know the other's would be eager to meet other sophont species, and I understood from what you have told us in the past there is a very nice mix there."

Alathea's vines flexed in surprise, eliciting a squeak from Danae. 

"You would do that? Move to my home?"

"Why yes of course, you have fantastic taste. You chose our family after all! If you have lived there for a while it must be a good place. No decision needed, I think you'll find the others have already been making plans to move."

Alathea was lost for words, she sat just looking at Danae. 

"We want to look after you too lovely Thea. So we'll move to your planet, we'll sign your contracts and organize the implants." Danae smiled at her warmly. 

Vines move and twisted around Danae's body so she was embraced by a whole body hug by the Affini. Alathea beamed with pride and happiness.

"Thank you for your trust and care. I will start the arrangements immediately!"