“Sweet bloom, they’re perfect where they are, I promise you.”

“Are you sure? I think three iterations ago may have been better.”

“By the everbloom, the collection isn’t even finished yet, it may never be! Can you not quit your fussing and let it grow as it will?”

“When has that ever been my style?”

“...Fair.”

Content as Tetra was to peruse their little traveler's photographic bounties late into the evening, again, her love's perfectionism was beginning to invade evening snuggle time. The irony that, of the two of them, the one who hadn't spent several millennia steeped in creative endeavors would be the one agonizing over the composition of pictures on a wall, was not lost on her. Neither was the stuttering in the pulse of Cirsi's core that bled into the rest of her being. Something ate at her love. Unacceptable.

Tetra slipped a deft vine through the woven membrane of Cirsi's torso to curl around the verdant star at her heart, sifting through the lush living convection that poured from it. They were familiar enough now with how Cirsi's furnace ticked to read it without the need for touch, but that didn't mean they couldn't delight in the way it ground her to a bristling halt.

They crooned, "Cirsi. Tell me."

Her partner stilled, the remnants of fabricated hands gripping a photo of a metropolis nestled in a crimson xenomiconid forest and another of the churning catalytic depths of a stelar foundry that neither of them could fathom how Kira’d been able to access. A shudder passed through Cirsi into the offered vine and she answered reluctantly, “It is…it’s nothing, really. You will just tell me I worry too much.”

“Maybe. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it.”

Cirsi sighed, "The delay between Kira's updates has been increasing steadily, with a coincident fall in the length of her responses. Today marks nearly a month since her last update."

"That's hardly any longer than when her travels first began, is it?"

"This is different. Since she began charting her own course her correspondence has been frequent enough to watch the change as it happens.”

Tetra hummed beside her, idly allowing her vine to wander down the curvature of Cirsi's core and along the cascade of vines and roots radiating from its base and spawning new shivers down every curve. "So you worry she's slipping away. You will roll your eyes at me for saying it, but can you be sure it isn't simply a coincidence? An organic lull?"

Cirsi’s eyes barely finished rolling before her rebuttal tumbled from her, "Of course I can't be sure of anything from this distance and that chills me to no end! But my analysis speaks plainly, the rate of her delays and decreased exchange present coefficients that align eerily, too close for circumstance. They speak to a trend, not a lull. And before you accuse me of–"

"Overzealous and presumptive data analysis fabricated to reinforce a fear born from a hunch?" The ‘I know more’ tone struck with as much fervor as ever.

“…Yes. That. Math aside, I can read between her words even scarce as they are, I swear on the stars there is pain tucked beneath. I can feel it, even from here, and I…I am afraid, Tetra. Afraid that she is either suffering unduly in her stubborn solitude at my own allowance or worse, that we were wrong from the beginning and she is truly drifting away. And frost take me for even suggesting it but I worry that she may have the right to. She is the farthest thing from feral or dangerous anymore, she has made that blindingly clear."

As quickly as Tetra usually leapt to assuage her love's worries, they both understood that some fears need room to breathe before their dissection. The air sagged and choked beneath the weight of it, but a few more intertwined vines held their spirits aloft enough until Tetra finally collected her words, "If you're correct, either reality could be remedied with less than a month's trip in your old personal scout, yet here you remain. And it’s unlike you to do anything without reason. So." Tetra retracted the probing vine from Cirsi's core and brought it to her cheek, just enough to direct her gaze to their own. "Why haven't you?"

"Aside from having relinquished my stranglehold over her location? I suppose…well, it may sound foolish."

Cirsi moved to return to the wall but Tetra held firm and leaned in closer. That starsdamned earnestness poured from her lips, "Of every luminous thread woven into the tapestry of your being, foolishness claims not a single fiber, my sweet bloom~."

"Incorrigible flirt."

"Tell me~."

Cirsi sighed and groaned but relented, "It's just…I cannot remember the last time I saw the universe, really saw it, through any eyes but my own, not the way I have with her. As much as I ache for her return, watching her cosmic journey unfold has made my core sing a tune it hasn't in ages!"

"Listening to it has been a privilege as well~." Cirsi pretended the variegations in the leaves of her face and chest did not momentarily flush with color. Traitors.

She gathered her thoughts and continued, "I just…if I went to her now I know what would end. But I don't know what would begin, not really, and I…"

"Cirsi."

"I know, I know what you’ll say."

"It will NOT be the same as last time. You underestimate her." Tetra seemed to fill more of the room than she had before.

Cirsi pulled away from her partner to pick through the photos again and scoffed bitterly, "I underestimate her? Tetranosa Rosale, there isn’t a soul in this galaxy who thinks more highly of her than I! And that does less than nothing to change the fact that she'd be seeing the universe through my eyes within a day of our reunion, and I would revel in it even as that novel joy was extinguished! I can’t just…I can’t risk erasing the way she sees the world.” The thought of getting her vines on the woman sent them twitching and writhing even as her form slumped.

A deep rumble emanated from Tetra, injecting her dissatisfaction into every surrounding surface. Captainhood hadn’t been a fluke, the big flirt could put a room under her charge with barely a word. Lucky for Cirsi that charge was almost always focused on lifting her up. Their drawl rang low and slow, “Now you think too little of yourself, love, and that I cannot abide. Valid as your concerns are, consider that the joy in her discoveries is joy she goes out of her way to share with us in spite of her ardent walls. I cannot imagine her abandoning that now.” 

Tetra stepped between Cirsi and the wall, drawing a groan from her companion. She returned a vine to her cheek and continued, “And I have it on good authority that your care is far more nourishing than you allow yourself to believe.” Tetra shifted slightly to peer through the nearest window, watching a particularly sunkissed little sophont meander through their home’s swaddling gardens with the placid grace of one for whom hardship and strife are mere fictions. “Speaking of which, I have a little pollinator to wrangle~. Do come join when you’re done, won’t you?”

Cirsi’s slump relaxed at the thought of pampering their darling as a team. Her tone warmed again, “I wouldn’t dream of missing it~.”

Tetra returned her smile and turned to leave when a gray vine wrapped around her hand and tugged her attention back. "And Tetra…thank you. I hope you're right."

They chuckled heartily and gave the vine a squeeze. "When am I not?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bee tilted the parcel in her hands back and forth in the waning remainder of the day’s light, watching the seamless near black surface shimmer with hidden flourishes in electric violet and indigo, marriages of circuitry and splayed veins. Miss Varona's dramatic flair seemed to penetrate everything around her, from her most arcane creations to the boxes they came in. A stray finger traced along the patterns and wandered down the box's lid to pry it open juust enough for the barest peak at its contents before snapping it shut with a mirthful giggle. Intimate familiarity with its contents did nothing to stifle the impression of rummaging through Christmas presents before their allotted time.

She rounded the final bend that brought her home into view and hastened to the most discreet path through the gardens. One of a half dozen small waystations welcomed her to her mistress’s territory and she picked up the watering can and trowel that always waited for her right next to water bottles and bowl of snacks for whatever little one may happen to wander along. This time it was cinnamon shortbread cookies in the shape of mini lotuses. enriched, of course. A few hastily scrawled notes of thanks teeming with hearts and smiling doodles accompanied a fresh divet in the bowl’s supply and put a new skip in Bee’s already skipping steps. 

The path she took to her destination reflected her namesake given how many patches of flowers she couldn’t help but divert to tend to. A thirsty pair of hydrangea bushes led her by some Circolian fig branches that would need pruning when she had some shears. And she couldn't possibly forget the patch of teegarden moon bells that always seemed to be wilting when she came around, they probably needed to be closer to the stream, better shade over there. Of course the wildflower tributaries never needed any help beyond an occasional taming but who wouldn’t take a moment to flop down into them and bask in the maelstrom of fragrances and pollen? Joyless heathens, that’s who!

Dazed little bee that she was, she underestimated just how cozy their little family’s bespoke selection of blooms would be, or how effectively the drifting pollen haze would hit the snooze button installed in her brain by one of the universe’s two most important beings. Her consciousness was mere moments from drifting away when she felt it; a chorus of infinitesimal vibrations traversing earth, stem, petal, and finally supple skin to coalesce into one of her favorite sounds in the universe.

Ozata’s Unrooting. 

An affini ballad of a fish out water embroiled in interstellar intrigue at the hands of a meddling sophont they couldn’t help but fall root over stem for. A song that half the affini from Tetra’s home corner of space could supposedly recite by heart even after a bloom without it. But only one such affini had ever sung Bee to sleep with it. A bold move for a first date. 

A playful spark danced through Bee’s thoughts. She smirked, shook the haze from her head, and scampered away to the garden’s far edge where the foliage’s density provided cover enough to pretend her mistress didn’t already know her whereabouts. One quick scramble up a streamside wisteria’s branches later and the show began.

The illustrious imperator of her fluttering little heart strode into the garden with unhurried panache. Feeling the song through the greenery held no candle to hearing it in the sonorous hums of her owner’s voice. Every drop of her resolve fought against swooning so hard she’d fall from her hiding place.

Tetra reached the seating area at the rear garden’s center and, finding no Bee in sight, grinned deliciously. Even from afar the waves of predatory delight wafted over Bee’s attuned psyche. The amazon stalked suddenly to the hydrangeas Bee had first stopped at and knelt to speak to them, “Hello my freshly watered friends, have you perchance spied an industrious little bee around the garden? She’s quite the little green thumb, you truly can’t miss her. Oh? Talk to the figs you say?” They definitely did not say. 

The pleased grin grew as they glided to the Circolian figs and chirped, “And how about you? She’s such a darling little morsel, the apple of every eye she snags, surely you have seen her. The moon bells? Hmm, fascinating…”

She picked apart every step of Bee’s meandering to the very flowers she’d attended at each patch, humming that familiar melody all the while. Not even a minute’s solitary stroll could evade belonging fully to her keeper. A sultry coo drifted over the flower beds just as a tingling heat bloomed from somewhere within her spinal column and set her nerves alight and her thoughts scattering. The chemical fire demanded sating, demanded something better than wisteria bark against her skin. Cheating! Dirty, dirtyy mmmmn ch-cheating!

That Bee was restraining herself from leaping bodily into her goddess was a grueling feat of will that no longer belonged to her. Stars but they were majestic! So stately, so magnanimous, so pretty, soooo…soo much. Whatever could she have done to deserve the adoration of such– Ope. Don’t slip, nope nope! Keep your grip, Bee! It’ll be worth it…

Tetra finally arrived at the artery of wildflowers and collapsed next to it in a fit of melodrama, huffing and running a finger over the clear depression left by Bee’s form. She groaned in her most onerous mockery of distress, “I just can’t seem to find my cherished little pet anywhere! I’m beginning to think she may be…” She surveyed the area before leaning down to whisper into the floral mess, “...hiding from me. Such a silly notion! As if she ever could~~.” Bee could’ve heard the wink in the words through a vacuum.

Tetra leaned down as if to listen with an ear she didn’t have, “What do you little things have to say?...Oh? Ohoho, really?” Gleaming thorns flickered within leaf lips and for the first time in their display eyes singing with burning pink and gold landed precisely on the narrow hollow Bee watched from. A single anxious, adoring squeak seeped out of her before she could cover her mouth. The humming stopped. The song stopped. Her little quaking heart stopped.

But the fire raged.

In a sanguine streak her empress vanished into the garden’s depths and silence reigned.

She silenced her rhythm, not fair! Not that Bee’d ever wanted fair per se, that was kind of the point, but, but, but, she couldn’t tell where she was! Her ears twitched at every inconsequential rustle, every creak of bark, scanning frantically. She was gone! That wasn’t right, she needed to see her, needed to hear her, to touch touch toooouch her, to–

“~Boo~.”

It erupted from behind and within her in tandem. Her shriek was as elated as it was panicked. Her grip failed at last and she plummeted from the wisteria’s depths but she never landed.

“Theeere she is~!”

Bee spun with adrenal vigor in the net of vines below to pay the voice the attention it deserved and met the golden orbs of her person smiling down over her. She smiled back with enough force to ponder if a cheek muscle could be pulled. “Heeere I am!!”

Tetra’s eyes flicked down over the rest of her body and a vine prodded at the pollen that’d settled into loose striations along her dress. An age ago she would’ve been a sniffling, sneezing wreck by now, but allergies constituted a mild hardship and thus Tetra had rendered them a fiction just like the rest. Her affini cooed, “Mmm, really living up to your name tonight aren’t you? Perhaps I’’l have to wring you out over the beds you missed~.” The words sent vines coiling tightly around her limbs, silken membranes and firm leaves digging and stroking in all the right spots. The squirming and mewling began in earnest.

“Perhaps that dose I sent to flush you out was a little strong, hm~?”

Words hadn’t been this hard to conjure a minute ago, had they? She fought through the flame spreading over her skin just long enough to counter, “Mmmnnyou knew exaaactly what you were doi–ah–aaaaah, doinnng…” 

Hunger emanated from above and the vines redoubled their efforts. Two firm fingers gripped her chin and pulled her distracted gaze back to the pair of churning gold and pink teardrops above her. Tetra’s chuckle bent every other sound around her, “Hmhm, so sure of my intentions, are you pet?” It never failed to send her little heart tumbling. “Is it possible that you…object?”

No no no, never ever never, She knows best, She knows all of me, She knoowwwss mmmnn~.

“Nnnevveerrrr~. You knnnow best misss~.” The gravity of the universe’s most important set of eyes pulled at the fraying edges of her thoughts, pulling every desire and truth effortlessly from her. She didn’t even notice the bloom-bearing vines circling to release small plumes of her miss’s own twinkling, thought scattering pollen to add to her dress’s collection. But she certainly did notice her owner’s scent. She was never not noticing it, but when her love was so kind as to give her reprieve from higher cognition her senses took charge and danced with the delight of her affini’s presence. 

"That’s exactly right, sweetest one~. My little Bee who carries the sunrise wherever she goes~~. Tell me, little thing, who makes the flowers bloom?”

Mistress made the whole world bloom, didn’t She? Stars but They were intoxicating! A fraying thought questioned how a being could literally smell like passion and authority and home only to fall away into the honeyed morass in her head and be replaced by thoughts of how She sounded like an orchestra playing a song that fit the very contours of her heart. And of course she couldn’t forgot the panoply of tastes She offered, oooh how her tongue yearned for it from the moment she woke and stars, roots and heck They were just so, so…so fucking HOT! How could any being present such a recursive paradise for the eyes that she could lose herself in the weave of vines that formed ribs, the strong supple plates of Her chest, the delicate coat of leaves She always laid over the nape of Her neck, the– 

“Sweetling? Are you still there~?”

Oh. She'd been slipping again hadn't she? An unconscious giggle bounced from her little form, shifting her skin against those vines in a most delicious way. It wasn't her fault that Mistress made it sooo easy to simply be. “Mmmnnn yess miss.” 

“Excellent. Now, you didn’t answer my question, little thing. Who makes the flowers bloom?”

She’d missed a question? No no, not good! Mistress deserved answers, even when she was slipping, if she took too long her miss would be–perfectly understanding, as always. Take a listen for yourself and see!

She shivered in delight at the direct presence of her owner’s influence within, a constant reminder that even her thoughts no longer belonged to her, and did as it said. She looked up to Them, opened her senses wide and drank deep from all that was given. And there it was.

Mmmm, that was the good stuff right there. She had aaalll the time in the world when she was with Them. Her dopey smile threatened to pull her under again were it not for a cocked leafy eyebrow and a subtle emotional nudge. 

Oh right. The question! She knew the answer to that one! Oh, her miss would be so proud!! “Mmmnnn meeee, I make th’flowerss bloom a-aaah…” Stringing a mere five words together was almost too much for the inferno that was her skin to tolerate.

"Right again! How in all the stars did I wind up with such a brilliant little pet? Such a good girl~."

Her body reacted to the words as though their touch was physical, squirming and squealing and glowing with the docile ecstasy that was her owner’s approval. With the hard questions out of the way, the waiting vines showered her with doting affections until the last fraying edges of her thoughts were stripped by the warm evening air. Silky petals tracing along her back and neck, tips of vines massaging imaginary knots from her shaking muscles and combing through her hair, gentle resonant affirmations building the soundtrack of her existence, a panoply of unearthly delights she could still barely believe she was privy to. She could’ve basked in it for days, in fact she’d made a habit of it the last two years. But when a cool shiver bled from her spine and quenched a portion of the heat enveloping her she knew better than to whine for its return. Mistress did nothing without a reason.

When she finally recovered her eyes refocused on the waiting giant above. Endlessly patient as they were, she could feel a steadily growing expectation tickling at the back of her neck. But what in the world could possibly be more important right now than snuggling together in the patch of–

“Much as I fully intend to continue later darling, I believe we have a time sensitive errand to deal with first. You have it I presume?”

“Mmmwhaa?”

“The gift, love.”

“Ummm…oh, right!" The floret rolled over in Tetra’s lap to gestur vaguely at the ground next to the wisteria where she’d left the parcel along with the trowel and watering can. “I thought it’d be a good spot, Cirsi doesn’t usually poke around here sooo you’ll have all the time you need!” She rolled back over to see her person’s face and continued coyly, twirling a stray vine between two fingers, “Speaking of whiiiich, when do you think you’ll…ya know?” Her eyebrows hopped suggestively.

She could feel the proverbial gears turning in her miss’s head for a moment before they answered, “Hmm. Perhaps another night, she is in a precarious mood. I don’t want to overwhelm her.”

Bee rolled her eyes and wrestled down a whine, “Tetraaa, you already have the papers ready! You know she’ll say yes, why're you still putting it off? What’s the matter?”

A massive hand fell onto and around her head, smothering her thoughts in precise pressure. Tetra rumbled, “Questioning my decisions is a rare gamble for you, pet. Is my judgment on the matter not enough for you?”

The floret squirmed beneath the firm grasp, tempted to fall into thoughtless acquiescence again. But she knew when her plant could use a proper talk, and her plant knew it too. Even they needed some prodding sometimes. “It’s not that, miss, I promise! I just…I only want to make sure you’re ok. If something is holding you back still, you know I want to help.”

Tetra’s grip softened slightly and tension fled from parts of her form she hadn’t realized were tene. Bee had become too adept at wielding her persuasive sincerity for her own good. Stars, how’d she end up so lucky to have such an attentive pet? “I know, little one. Of course I do. I suppose…well, I worry whether the time is right. Perhaps she’d prefer to wait for Kira’s return, or…I don’t know.”

A small, soft hand landed on her viny cheek and called her gaze from its wandering. Bee’s voice was its usual flowing honey, “Miss, you know she loves you, loves being here with us. Whenever the time feels right, she will say yes, I can feel it in my bones! And there’s no rush, we have all the time in the world~.” 

Her floret’s assurance was more cleansing than she’d ever be able to express, but a familiar worry still gnawed at her. “And…you’re still sure you’d be ok with it? Belonging to another?”

Bee cocked an eyebrow, “Asking for my permission isn't really your style hon! But my answer hasn’t changed. Yes, I am emphatically ok with it, as long as it’s her. And a little graft never hurt anybody, right?”

Bee’s seraphic smile never failed to melt Tetra’s core, even well after a year of it. Their form nearly disintegrated in their eagerness to embrace the precious thing below. Forehead met forehead and the two luxuriated in each other's presence for a time before she spoke again, “Perhaps we can see how long it’d take her to ask for herself? I’m a patient affini~.”

Tetra delighted in the bouncing sensation of Bee’s giggling pressed against her face. “Much as I’d looove to watch you two big gay dorks play commitment chicken for the next century, I may not be as patient!”

The two shared a laugh that devolved into coos and murmurs of adoration before they finally shook themselves from their usual loop to complete their task. Bee slid regretfully from her person’s lap and ambled over to the spot beneath the wisteria, taking up the trowel and carving a modest hole into the soil. As Tetra arrived to supervise, she picked up the black parcel and propped the lid open to reveal its bounty. A clipping of a plant specimen that only three sophonts had now seen with their eyes, deep teal stems winding their way into dark vines adorned with lighter leaves ringed with bold crimson variegations. At the ends of its lengths sprouted flowers in two familiar varieties, the pentagonal cyan blooms of Bee’s mistress and the jagged pink blooms of the one soon to be. A flawless chimeric union of the two most enchanting beings ever to be.

Bee could feel the cascading satisfaction and joy flowing from her mistress with intensity enough to tug at her own tear ducts. Tetra spoke with something approaching awe, “The tales of Mox’s craftsmanship hold no exaggeration, it’s…it’s perfect! I really must thank them in person, perhaps another playdate is in order~?” A vine stroked down the back of her similarly awestruck floret while another reached to lift the sapling from the box. “And it will grow as I requested?”

“So Miss Varona says! And what she says goes in my experience.” Bee chirped in reply. The vine lowered the sapling into the hole and Bee went to work filling in the surrounding soil until the plant was securely standing on its own beneath the tree. Already it felt as though she could see its appendages reaching blindly outward for purchase. They’d be given something eventually, when the time was right.

Deep red vines curled lovingly around Bee again, pulling her backward to be embraced by arms sculpted with simulacra of corded muscle, arms she was a professional at dissolving into. Tetra’s voice rang against the back of her head, pushing all other sounds from the world, “She’s going to love it, isn’t she?”

“She sure as roots is, hon.”

Together they basked in the last afterglow of affection and the presence of their triumphant gift to be until the sun had well and truly set, adrift in a sonnet of lazy touches and whispers. Tetra was the one to find words again, “How have Mox’s florets been? Fully settled by now I imagine?”

Bee barely had the energy to move her lips, ensconced as she was, “Gooood. they’re both cuter every time I see em I swear, I dunno how they do it. They do miss Kira though…they worry about her sometimes. I don’t blame em. Old habits and all that.”

“Hm, they can join the party then. Cirsi’s the first to hear from her every time and she’s still wracked with worry. Speaking of which…” For a moment Bee felt that Tetra had resumed humming her tune, it was there tickling at the edges of her senses. Only that made zero sense given their proximity and the tone wasn't quite right so what was– oh.

“Shoot, she’s coming! The gift! We need to–” The words had barely formed before the warm nest of a being ensnared her and became a blur once more, slicing a path through the undergrowth to emerge at a far more innocuous position in the garden. Bee’s shocked yelps became giggles as her impromptu roller coaster transformed into an amazon once more, nestling her into the crook of an arm. In the garden’s center, strolling along the same path the two had taken prior and humming an ever so familiar affini ballad was her empress’s match, the fae goddess who never quite seemed to realize her own divinity.

Bee looked into the adoring eyes of her mistress and sighed happily, “You’ve been rubbing off on her I think.”

“Can you blame her? My taste in music is impeccable.”

Their reappearance snagged Cirsi’s attention and the affini glided over to them on skipping vines, tablet held aloft in one hand and a relieved smile emblazoned on her face. They knew the drill. The trio moved to a nearby bench and collapsed on and around it. Affini sidled up to affini, vines interweaving and cradling their darling snugly between them, and unleashed a slow trickle of doting affections upon her as the tablet was brought in front of them. 

<temp.user_KI00189910B>

Its a lovely evening to watch a star have a tantrum.

The image showed Kira from behind, sitting in a peculiarly terran chair holding what looked suspiciously like wine in an outstretched hand, given the deep sultry red where the light shone through the glass. She was rendered nearly a silhouette by her backdrop, however. The vibrant curve of a blue giant surged from the bottom of the frame, the stage on which Kira posed, and from its surface a river of coronal plasma poured into the starfield, arcing above and around Kira’s seated form with eerie precision. It was as true a portrait of divinity as Cirsi could imagine, at least from a precious little human. In spite of the beauty she couldn’t help but wonder if Kira’d been hoarding terran wine all this time or simply found a substitute elsewhere. Fermentation was hardly a well kept secret among the cosmos.

They could both feel the blush radiating from their Bee. The barely contained squeals of awe were a pretty clear giveaway too.

<(Startographer)> You never fail to amaze, little one.

Tetra swiped the tablet from her hand and began typing her own reply.

<(Startographer)> That must’ve taken a lot of exposure tampering and some careful editing to capture properly. Impressive work, sweet one! I pray you didn’t simply find an auto config that fit the scene?

The trio expected longer pauses but were pleasantly surprised when the Ba-dwing came early. The FTL comm relays closer to the galactic center must’ve advanced in the affini’s stead.

<temp.user_KI00189910B> Course i kept it manual, u know i dont half ass things Tetra

<(Startographer)> Was I that obvious?

<temp.user_KI00189910B> u think cirs would talk about exposure?

<(Startographer)> Fair point.

<temp.user_KI00189910B> tell her to put the mirror down

Another flustered squeal emanated from between them, this time with plenty of blushy wiggling.

<(Startographer)> You know, you could remedy that crime at any time, we’re always here for you. I’m sure Cirsi would love your input on the wall!

It was the same gamble they’d made a dozen times. On a good day it would coax a flustered continuation from her, a little more time together, an illusion that maybe this time she’d say yes. It wasn’t one of those days. The wait dragged on too long to be good news and the affini fended off the dropping spirits by returning focus to their little one until the final chime came.

<temp.user_KI00189910B> gotta go. Rhia’s whining at me about parking next to a CME. TTYL.

Tetra’s focus was on Cirsi before she’d stowed the tablet, scanning for vines twitching along the flank of her torso and leaves bristling down her back. Both were present, not that she would’ve even needed them to sense the anxiety. She was about to strike first when Bee beat her to the punch, “Worried about her again Cirsi?” 

“Am I so easy to read, little one?”

Bee smiled sympathetically up at her. “I’ve had pleeenty of practice lately, you may remember! Sooo, you wanna talk about it?”

Tetra’s vines coiled tighter around her partner’s, a vine tip slipping within to trace over her core again. A moment later they felt the gesture return in earnest, one of Cirsi’s vines firmly wrapping a full three times around her core. A moment passed like that before Cirsi sighed deeply and relaxed her grip, pulling their little Bee close to her chest. “Oooh it’s nothing sweet one. She can handle herself, of course she can. I just…” Her resolve wavered and Bee took the hint, turning to nuzzle her way into Cirsi’s chest and burrow as deeply as she could. It was exactly what she needed. “I just want her to be ok. And, well…I sometimes feel powerless to ensure that reality. But I know she will be well. And I will treasure every ounce of joy she shares with us until her saga concludes. Although…” She pulled the tablet up again to reexamine the photo. “I cannot help but worry about the increasing presence of what seems to be alcohol in her photos. This is the second one within the month where she–”

Tetra swiped and disappeared the tablet in an instant. “No no no. Nope. You’ve done enough worrying for the evening, I am commanding you as your captain to spend the evening’s remainder cuddling with myself and the lovely miss Bee.”

Cirsi scrambled, “But…but you’ve read her files too, you know the pattern of her vices!”

“And so does she. She’s a tough cookie housed in the compact’s safe and vigilant embrace, she will be well. Now…” red vines curled beneath the floret’s armpits and lifted her to be nose to nose with Cirsi. “Your captain commands that you snuggle!”

A vine tapped a tablet out of view and the shiver raced from the darling’s head to her squirming toes, igniting a fresh dazed smile on her face. Tiny hands found her cheeks and tiny lips followed, showering her in soft domestic delight. What else was she to do? She sighed in contentment and planted her lips against the girl’s forehead in return.

“I suppose, if my captain commands it~.”

The trip to the bedroom would be a full evening affair.