ring ring, ring ring, ring ring

The tablet kept pinging and there were silly little voices saying things, but none of that mattered because Lena was focused on this vine in front of her. From a distance it just looked like another gorgeous piece of greenery on her wonderful Mistress, but when you got closer, it started to get all these amazing details. Subtle striations of different shades of colours, tiny spaced out little thorns, little stem offshoots that brightened and glowed softly when she breathed on them, incredible. She wondered how it would taste... carefully extending out her tongue, she licked it. Huh, woody. But with a subtle undertone that made her tongue tingle. With barely a thought, she bit down on the vine and started happily gnawing at it, rolling over to grasp it more firmly in her hands. Delicious.

After Lena and her Mistress (she felt a little thrill just thinking about it, Ana was her Mistress now!) had signed the contract, Ana had proudly clipped a leash onto Lena's new collar and they had walked together to the clerk's office to drop off the paperwork. They could have just sent it off automatically, but well, there was a bit of a thrill and excitement in getting to show off, and be shown off, and they had both agreed that they simply had to hand the forms in personally. Lena had preened and strutted a little, seeing affini from their neighbourhood gasping with joy and delight to see her with a collar (not just any collar, her Mistress's collar!) around her neck. And the instant they had handed over the forms to the delighted clerk, Ana had turned to her, grinning in a way that showed off just how sharp her teeth could be, and then well....then things started to get fuzzy, and warm, and soft. Lena guessed that Ana had carried her home, but remembering exactly what happened was irrelevant compared to just luxuriating in the wonderful sensations that kept washing over her.

Eventually, like the tide slowly slipping back out, Lena slipped back into something like lucidity, the high of that initial blast of xenodrugs calming to a dull whisper caressing the back of her brain. Stretching out in Ana's lap, she gave a wiggle of contentment before stretching out and looking up at her owner.

"Hi."

"Hello there petal. Coming up a bit are you now?" Ana's vines gently stroked Lena's tummy, eliciting another round of wiggles.

"Mmmmm. I love you Mistress". Lena reached up with a heavy feeling arm to stroke her affini's face.

"Look at the vidscreen dear." Ana used a vine to tilt Lena's head until she was looking at the screen, and then watched with a mixture of amusement and curiosity as Lena's eyes grew wide and her cheeks grew red upon seeing Aster and Sam, Aster with a literally face splitting grin, and Sam with their hands clapped over their mouth as they all but vibrated with glee.

"Uhhh, hi there. How uhhh. How long have you been watching?" Lena sheepishly greeted them.

"Your wiggles are but one of your many excellent qualities Lena. I knew you would make an excellent pet someday." Aster said, running a vine down the back of xer floret, causing Sam to arch their back and gasp, eyes vacant and sparkling.

"We were just talking about the party we're going to hold for you." Ana scritched Lena's head, knocking any half formed objections Lena had out of her head before they could fully form. "And yes I know you were about to object and say that throwing you a party is totally unnecessary and all sorts of other silly nonsense, but well, you don't make that kind of decision anymore, my darling little blossom. I do!"

Aster smiled kindly from the vidscreen. "If it makes you feel any better, this is mostly just an excuse to get together and enjoy each other's company, as well as celebrating the two of you finally finishing your adorable, if agonizingly protracted, collision course."

Ana's scritches had turned into a full blown brushing, small vines gently teasing and untangling each strand of hair, oil seeping from her vines that both moisturized her hair and filled Lena's head with a bubbling and popping. Lena moaned appreciatively and leaned back into the grooming, trying her best to stay cognizant of the conversation.

"Teridopsi will come of course, as well as Aster. Was there anyone you wanted to invite love?"

Lena blushed and squirmed in Ana's lap, looking down as she thought. She didn't really have all that many friends, and who would really know her or want to celebrate anything to do with her and her domesticatio- Lena sat bolt upright, turning to look her owner pleadingly in the eye. "Can we invite Lily and her owner Mistress? Please? I...I don't know if I would have ended up back here if it wasn't for them."

Ana hummed thoughtfully and pulled out her tablet. "Lily...that's Lily Hedera, Third Floret right?" Papavera and I took a course on Terran cuisine together, it'd be nice to see her again." With a tap and a flourish, Ana tucked the tablet back into her vines. "There we go, invitation sent."

With a wave, Ana turned off the vidscreen, looking down at her pet with a proprietary gaze as she wrapped her vines around Lena. "Now, my pet, I think it's time to make sure you remember exactly who's in charge here."

As thorns slipped from the vines surrounding Lena, pricking her in a thousand spots at once, she felt a rush of submission and joy and moaned happily, tight and secure in her owner's grasp.

The day of the party Lena saw just how intensely an affini could multitask when they decided to put a modicum of effort into it. There were multiple dishes going on the stove and in the oven at once, and as each finished, Ana would whisk it off to the stasis box and get another one started. The entire kitchen was an absolute whirlwind of vines. The first time Lena tried to enter and help she had been picked up and placed back on the couch before she could get close to anything. The second time, the vines had held her in place as her Mistress's face appeared in front of her. "Lena, normally I'd absolutely love to have you help me, but this is a party for you. Sit down and relax, or I'll make you."

Lena had sat and relaxed, for a bit, before fidgeting slightly, she called out into the mass of vines. "Miss? Could you maybe....could you make me relax? Just until the party. Sitting here doing nothing is making me all fidgety."

The vines froze for a moment before Ana pulled herself together, a slightly diminished form of her body walking over to Lena while vines waved behind her tending to the dishes still. With a purr Ana tilted Lena's head up so that the human was forced to stare into her glimmering, swirling, emerald eyes. "You want me to make you relax? Make sure you lie there, with nary a thought in your mind but bliss? Oh my darling little pet. You spoil me."

Like a snake coming up to strike, a vine slithered its way up, two flowers blossoming to reveal the needles hidden within. "One of these will make you feel pleasure from every sensation. Every brush of air, the feel of cloth against skin, a vine stroking you, will fill you with pleasure. The other is a form of muscle relaxant. Not strong enough to stop you from breathing or interfering from any of your autonomic functions, but strong enough to ensure you'll just lie there and relax. Is this what you want Lena? Do you want to be my pretty dolly, just lying there basking in pleasure?"

Lena gasped and blushed, quivering as she stared up at her owner, her affini, her Ana. "Yeeeeees", she whimpered, feeling herself getting lost in the neverending green of Ana's eyes even as two small pinpricks heralded the arrival of the drugs into her system. In a wave, the warmth from the drugs spread through her system and she felt herself go limp. Ana carefully arranged her floret on the couch where she could watch the kitchen, and flowed back into the kitchen, melting back into a whirling cooking dervish of vines.

Lena lay there. All her muscles were utterly relaxed, like moving them would take a supreme act of will. And all her will was instead focused on how good everything felt. She could feel the individual fibers of the couch gently tickling her arms, the soft threads of her dress caressing her skin, the firm insistent pressure of her collar, even the air currents seemed to be gently teasing her. As she lay there, staring at her affini preparing a feast for them and their friends, she felt a familiar warmth pooling inside her. Oh god. She was wet. She was getting all turned on by being a helpless limp doll who was owned by a gorgeous, beautiful plant. She couldn't even squirm in embarrassment. With two little pricks, Ana had rendered her helpless and horny. She didn't know if she spent minutes, hours, or years watching Ana, with that slow warmth building to a fiery pitch inside her, but eventually the dam burst. Even then, her muscles barely twitched enough to shake her around, and all she could do was softly moan.

An indeterminate amount of time and several orgasms later, the vine whirlwind in the kitchen died down, and the familiar form of her Mistress casually walked over and picked her up, causing yet another shuddering orgasm to instantly rip through her body.

"Well that's all done", Ana said casually, softly petting the top of Lena's head, grinning as the floret twitched and gasped under the onslaught.

"The nice thing about the dose I gave you is that it should wear off by the time our guests arrive. Well, mostly. You'll likely still be all clumsy and sensitive, but that isn't really a problem is it?" The affini's head appeared in front of Lena's face, upside down and grinning.

Lena struggled, and with a herculean effort, managed to whisper. "you look very strange from this angle."

Ana burst into delighted laughter, pulling Lena into her vines and sending her straight back to pleasurable sensory overload.

The first to arrive were, rather predictably, Aster and Sam. Lena knew she should get up off the couch and greet them, old etiquette habits drilled into her by her parents ages back rearing their head. She went to stand, but was only halfway up when a Sam was plopped directly into her lap. Muscles that were only just beginning to stir at her brain's demands promptly collapsed her back down onto the couch as her fellow floret wrapped their arms around her neck and grinned at her. "Hi."

"Hey Sam. Mind getting off me? I need to say hi to Mx. Helianthi and get ready for the other guests."

"No you don't. That's your owner's job. Your job now is to be cute and adorable. And you're doing great!" Sam said smugly, their logic flawless.

Lena wanted to protest, she really did, but the weight of Sam on her still felt awfully nice. With a sigh, she laid back and cuddled. Or at least she tried to. There were guests here. There was stuff to do in the kitchen. The worst part was that it wasn't even her mother's voice in her head anymore, it was her own, drilled in there after years and years. With a struggle, Lena disentangled herself from Sam and started staggering towards the kitchen. She could do this, she did this every day. It was just putting one foot in front of the other, one at a time, left, right, left, left, ri- even as Lena started to tip over familiar feeling vines wrapped around her, holding her steady and pulling her up and around to face the puzzled looking face of her affini.

"Err. Hi Mistress."

"Lena. What are you doing? I put you on the couch for a reason. You're supposed to be relaxing."

Lena felt her eyes burning as the tears started to form. She had been bad. She had been bad and Ana was going to send her away and oh god she couldn't cry there were guests here that was rude and oh she was spiraling wasn't she ah dirt she hadn't done this in ages.

Then everything was washed away as Ana's eyes filled her vision. "Look at me Lena. Look into my eyes." Ana's eyes filled everything. A sea of green, pulsing and changing and flowing until she was surrounded, drowning in green. "Tell me your troubles, my love. Tell me what keeps you from the joy you so greatly deserve."

Lena was safe. This was Ana. This was the plant who had spoken to her across space itself when she was lost. This was the plant who had cared and taken her into her home when she was broken. This was her owner. And so it spilled out. Her traumas and her worries, the need to be working always, the imperative to never show weakness or imperfection in front of others. And Ana took them, these shivering shards that had been placed there by the ones that made her, and she gently wrapped them up in the green, and she set them aside. Not gone, not obliterated forever. But tucked away, safe until they could be given the proper care, made safe under the tender care of her Mistress.

Lena blinked, green afterimages floating in her eyes. She felt...peaceful. Safe. Calm. She nuzzled into her Mistress, purring low and deep before wiggling out of her arms. Anxieties wrapped up tight in bonds of green and fading into the depths of her mind, she went to greet Papavera and Lily, giving Lily a nice long hug before dragging her over to the couch to cuddle with Sam.

The three florets sat on the couch, Lena leaning back against Sam as they stuck their tongue out in concentration, once again braiding her hair into an intricate pattern woven with flowers purloined from their various owners, each carefully checked to ensure they were drug free first. Lily sat facing them, leaning back on a stack of pillows as she puffed from an apocynai vape. "Yah, Miss and I hooked up pretty quickly. When the affini saw the conditions we were living in on Luna, they were like, mega pissed. You ever see an angry affini? Hot, but also terrifying. They full on landed ships so they could evacuate all of us right away, these huge ships, just plopping down onto the surface next to our district, and the affini just going apartment to apartment, helping people grab their things and get out. I uhhhh, kind of got really drunk and was refusing to go anywhere. When Miss found me I was half naked, hanging from a streetlamp, loudly singing "Terra Invictus", but the unofficial really bawdy version ya know?"

Lily paused, settling back with a smile. "She didn't yell at me, or try and get me to come down. She just laughed her wonderful laugh, climbed the pole with me, and sang along. She didn't know the words of course, but I was making half of them up by that point anyway. Then she drugged me and carried me down and took me away, but well, I had that coming. How about you, Sam? I know all about Lena and her Mistress's clueless lesbian pining for each other, but what's your story?"

Sam blinked, looking up from their work as they realized they were being addressed. "Oh, me? Well I was ummm. I was aboard a military ship, doing frontline STC y'know? And the affini came and scooped us all up. They didn't really trust us to be alone, even if we weren't frontline or anything, so we all got wardships. Mxtress took me in, and I guess I wasn't doing so well with what happened to Bill and all that, so she had to do a bunch of work to make sure I was okay, and before I knew it, I was xers. Haven't regretted it yet. Xe makes sure of that." Sam giggled, with a dreamy, half distant look in their eyes.

Just then, the door burst open as Teridopsi hurried in. "Sorry I'm late, there was a floret who was having a bad reaction to some xenodrugs and I lost track of the time!"

They stopped in their tracks, leaves settling down as they looked at the three florets on the couch that any of them would have recognized as the same look a human would make if they happened upon a group of kittens cuddling together.

"Oh, that's just...that's just so precious." Teri sighed and slumped, as the florets blinked at them.

Ana sidled up and slung an arm around Teri, grinning at their friend. "Aren't they just? And just think, if you ever finally find a floret of your own, they can join in, and there can be four adorable little sophonts playing together instead of three!"

Teri shot Ana a look and elbowed her off of them. "Says you. You just got your first floret, and you're third bloom! I'll find one when I'm good and ready, thank you very much."

With a ruffle of Teri's vines, Ana swept off towards the kitchen. "Alright folks, food time! There should be enough for everyone." Lena started to clamber off the couch, only to freeze as Ana shot her a look. "Lena. Stay." Lena blushed and sat back down on the couch, folding her hands together and looking down. "Good girl."

Ana began pulling dish after dish out of the stasis box, naming them each with a gleeful flourish as she set them down on the long kitchen counter. There were several varieties of soup, including Pasta e Fagioli, minestrone, and minestra maritata, a gigantic focaccia, Carciofi alla giudia, which made Lena blink as she realized that her mother had used to make them when she was young, and of course, ravioli all'arrabbiata.

Lena's face burned bright red as she quickly realized that, much like the other florets, she wasn't going to get much chance to feed herself, as Ana swiftly bound her arms behind her and tied her to the chair with some vines, grinning happily as she started to casually feed her darling floret. The plethora of soups quickly made sense, as the affini took bowls containing mostly broth and slurped it up with their vines, before casually popping the few pieces of solid food leftover from the soup into their mouths and chewing casually, chattering away the whole time.

"Poaceanum," Aster asked, "how'd you learn to cook all of this? And what is it?"

"Do you like it? It's the local cuisine of this cute little area down on Terra, Italy I think it was called? Papavera and I took a course on their cuisine taught by a cotyledon and his owner. He was very passionate about it, it was very cute." Ana said, as she calmly fed Lena a piece of focaccia piled high with pieces of the fried artichoke dish.

"Terrans seem to go wild for the stuff, or at least my little Lena here does."

Lena swallowed as fast as she could to try and get a word in before Ana kept talking. "Italian cuisine is tasty. My family used to be from there apparently. Never seen quite this much before. Or this much variety. Or this flavourful for that matter."

"Well I do have the advantage of several hundred years of experience, petal." Ana said modestly, before tapping the side of her mouth to get her to open up for another bite. "And no speaking at the table love. Relax and enjoy the meal."

Blushing and basking in the domineering presence Ana was projecting, Lena sat and let the affini talk, letting herself simply enjoy the flavours that permeated the entire meal.

Soon enough, however, the sit down meal had dissolved into a much less formal affair, with affini lounging around the place, popping little morsels of food into their florets mouth's as they snuggled them close.

Lena found herself held securely in Ana's arms, nibbling on a small plate of ravioli as Ana stood talking quietly to Teridopsi. "I know it's not your specialty, but you were here at the beginning of our little adventure, so it would mean a lot if you were the one who performed the implantation on Lena. Just a standard implantation for the most part really, although I have some... modifications I want to make to the implant itself. I want it to be special, you know?"

Teri stroked Lena's hair with a vine gently as they responded. "I'd be honoured to, Ana. I might ask a more experienced vet to assist, but a haustoric implant really isn't that complicated a surgery now. You can come by to get the sample taken tomorrow, and then we should be able to have the surgery in a couple of days."

Lena looked up at the two quiet affini, who had saved her what seemed like a lifetime ago. She thought about who she once was, lonely and stubborn, barely getting by. She though about Ana, how she had taken her in and cared for her, guiding her back to health, and then willingly let her go. How considerate and kind she was, how hot she made her feel. How she now had friends, a family that cared for her and loved her. Ana hadn't made her lose herself, she had made her become her best self. Just how much better would she be once she was joined with her permanently, a guiding vine leading her forwards. "Just a few more days right? I....I want this. I want to have Ana inside me, forever. To know that we'll never be apart again."

"Soon my dear. Soon you'll be nice and safe and implanted, forever mine." Ana smiled down at her, stroking her hair as Lena snuggled close and slowly drifted off to sleep, surrounded by those who had claimed her as their own, her found family.