Ursula knocked on the door. This should have been the right hab, according to the map Erias had sent her. There was a moment's delay, then a beep. 

"Hello!" The voice of an affini said through the hab's speaker. "What brings you here, pretty Terran?" Ursula fought the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance. They had a truce, she had to make sure to remind herself. Things would go better if she respected it, and right now what was important was taking care of Mane. 

"Ursula," she spoke up, "Erias sent me. Mane wanted me to come." Was that the appropriate thing to say here? She genuinely had no idea. Affini perplexed her at the best of times and the thought of any but the best of them having Mane in their care filled her with anger. Still, as she'd just reminded herself, calm and peace was important. For now. 

"Oh, excellent- o- er...c-come in!" The affini sputtered out. The hab's door slid open and Ursula bounded inside. She tried not to think about how acutely she could feel the slightly different atmosphere of the affini part of the ship. It bugged her, made it feel like she was behind enemy lines. In some ways, one could say, she was. 

When she got inside she saw the affini rush awkwardly over to the kitchen and get to work cooking. There was ground beef on a skillet, and its aroma was actually very pleasant. Were they making tacos? It would make sense, she figured. Mane had mentioned having a fondness for them a few times. This affini was cooking Mane comfort food, then? A good start but no substitute for taking good care of her in the first place. 

Ursula's attention got snagged momentarily by a floret running up to the affini and handing her a packet of spices. The affini gave her pet a few gentle headpats using a hand made of vines. That must be her floret, Ursula concluded. She looked around at the hab where Mane lived. Lots of televisions and consoles, but all the furniture was affini-sized. It made her feel slightly annoyed. 

"Oh, you noticed too?" Effus said awkwardly. "Yeah, Mane asked to get some human siz-eep!" She shut back up and returned to her task of mashing and mixing the ground beef with a spatula. Ursula had a giggle to herself over it. Had Erias, with her star-spanning wisdom and ages of experience, forgotten to tell her she was allowed to talk to Ursula?

Well.

Ursula wasn't going to offer a correction. She scratched at the back of her neck and felt a mild pang of sadness that she didn't have the claws on and thus couldn't scratch her back with them. It also meant that she couldn't scratch Mane behind her ears with them, which was simply blasphemous. The poor lady deserved lots of gentle loving scritches, after all!

"I take it Mane's in her room?" Ursula asked the floret. She was somewhat miffed to hear the affini answer the question.

"Yes, or at least she was. The door's probably locked but she might-rrck!" Ursula stifled a smug laugh. If anything good came of the day, it was getting to bully an affini and get actual results without endangering herself or having to actually do anything bad. She didn't let it show, though, because if the affini knew how much she was enjoying this, then the dynamic would become much less fun. Now she knew why Erias liked seeing other affini get spooked by her odd mixture of discordance and silence. 

"Which room is hers?" Ursula asked.

"Here, lemme show!" Squeaked the absolutely adorable floret. She darted past Ursula to one of the doors and stimmed haplily once there. "Tadaa! This one! It's new!"

New? Perhaps it was installed specifically to give her space, then. That would be quite a gesture of kindness, potentially, assuming it wasn't used later in a sort of gilded cage...kindness debt...kind of way. Ursula smiled. 

"Thank you, pet. Go help your owner with making lunch."

"Yes miss!" Aria bolted back inro the kitchen. 

If Ursula was a betting woman she'd bet that Mane had a crush on her. Or...she would, except that no rational being would ever bet against her on that unless they wanted to lose. Also...no more money, which made gambling less of a thing. Generally. Ursula smiled and placed her hand gently on the knob to Mane's door. She happily watched the cute floret and felt some reassurance that Mane at least had her. She turned to face the door and took a deep breath.

Remember, Ursula. She needs you. Mane had been there for Ursula more times than she could count. It was time to pay her back. She raised a hand and, after a few more seconds' worth of hesitation, she knocked on the door. Once, then a pause. Then once more, but slightly louder. She pressed her forehead against the wooden door and breathed in. 

"It's me, cub," she said softly. Was it loud enough that Mane could hear her? She wasn't sure. She decided to say it again but slightly louder this time. "It's me, cub! Ursula's here!" A thump.

Lots of noise. 

Thud!

Scrambling like someone had tripped. 

The doorknob rattled and Ursula let go of it. There was some clicking. On the other side, Mane unlocked the door. It swung slowly open to reveal Mane looking disheveled and upset. Her bed was a disaster, but the specific way that sheets were laying made it look like Mane had jolted at hearing Ursula's voice and fallen out of bed.

Oh nooo!

"Oh no!" Ursula cried, barely restraining a laugh. "Come here, cub!" She ran past Mane and caught her by the wrist. The door shut behind them as Ursula flopped into position sitting on the bed and pulled Mane helpless into her lap. Mane's face immediately went dark red and she whimpered with joy. Ursula giggled and squeezed her close.

"It's okay, cub. I goooot chu. Everything's gonna be okayyyyyy." 

Mane felt so soft and small in her arms. It was hardly surprising- Mane was a bit shorter than her and she was more muscular, this was hardly new information to her, but it did feel wonderful to hold her. Mane purred and snuggled against her and enthusiastically nuzzled into her body. 

"Nyaaaa~" Mane squeaked with joy. Ursula couldn't help but giggle down at her. 

"That's a good girl," Ursula cooed and petted her. "Ohhhh you were right, your hair is SOFT," she murmured partially to the girl in her arms but mostly to herself. Mane's blonde hair was soft and silky, although a lack of proper care left it with knots in places. She rested her hand on top of Mane's scalp and started to idly scratch at it. Mane whimpered happily and her body squirmed and swayed back and forth. "You're an easy girl to please," teased Ursula, "you know that? Suuuuch a good girl." She kissed Mane's head. Mane mewled. 

-------

"Myrrrr," Mane said with a happy little wriggle. She pressed her body against Ursula and delighted in how soft and comfortable and warm and safe it felt. One of Ursula's hands gently stroked her hair while the woman's other arm cradled her. The panic that had held her under its power was rapidly receding. She felt much better now. "Thank you, Ursula…" she whimpered, hoping that she hadn't pulled Ursula away from anything important. 

"That's okay, cub," Ursula whispered in a reassuring tone, "you needed help so I came to help you. That's all there is to it, okay? You deserve help." Mane wanted to whine in protest, but she knew Ursula would just tease her about telling Erias or something. Which, admittedly, did put a smile on her face. Mane purred a little bit.

"You're soft…"

"Yeah," Ursula chuckled, "HRT did magic for me. I'm sure it'll do the same for you too! Especially with the fancy alien drugs Erias has you on, hehe!" She kissed Mane's head again and cradled her. Mane rocked back and forth gently, and then repositioned herself to be seated in Ursula's lap. "Lemme guess, you got them to hook you up with stuff to give you really big boobs?"

"Nooooo," Mane denied uselessly, "technically Melody did thaaaaat." She buried her hot, blushing face in Ursula's full plush chest. It was extraordinarily comfortable but only did so well to hide how embarrassed the girl felt. "This is buuuullying," she pouted. 

"Cub," Ursula said, just louder than a whisper. Mane was repressing something. She could hear it in her voice. "You're still shaken."

"I….mhmmm," Mane whimpered and clung to Ursula. Her body started trembling as the sadness and fear she'd tried to shake took hold of her. "But I'll be fine, I can do this-"

"Mane…" Ursula cooed softly. Her voice was rich and gentle, like silk resting gently on the ears. "You're trying to stuff it down. You're safe. I've got you." She hugged the poor little lesbian tighter. "It's okay to be scared. I'm not going to hurt you if you're rightfully upset." Mane's grip got tighter, almost painful. Ursula's heart roared with indignant fury. In a just world, whoever did this to Mane would SUFFER for it. "C'mon, cub, leeeet it out. It's okay dear, come on, thaaaaat's it." She rocked Mane back and forth gently and something inside of Mane finally buckled and peeled apart. 

"I...I'm scared," Mane heaved in between panicked wails. "I don't wanna be here I wanna go home I don't have a home I can never have a home what if he takes me what if I get Qiru'd what if Effus gets sick of me and starts drugging me what if I get put on Class O's I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die-" she was spiraling. Ursula frowned gently but continued to cradle Mane against herself. She purred soothingly and started to stroke the girl's hair. 

"I'm here, cub. I'm here." She wished she could simply say that everything would be okay, that she'd overturn the natural order and drive away any affini that dared so much as look at Mane funny, but...she and Mane both knew there'd realistically be nothing she could do. "Erias won't let them." That felt more believable. Mane hiccuped once or twice and weakly shook her head.

"No...I...myrrrr…" a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Ursula rested her hand gently on the back of Mane's head. She let it guide her head into the taller girl's body. Judging by the way her breathing loosened and slowed, she found it rather relaxing. Good, thought Ursula, that's progress. 

"Erias knows alllll about us," Ursula purred. Her voice was lilting and affectionate yet also overflowing with pride. "About how gentle you are, the dedication you put into learning about and improving at hypnosis, the fact you use it almost exclusively for other people…" she squeezed Mane close in a protective, gentle embrace. "You learned magic so you could make people happy." She gave one last appreciative squish. "Erias would never so much as think about letting a spirit like yours be drowned out. She won't let Effus do it, or Arliss, or any other affini. And I've seen her cow them into respecting her before. She's powerful. Got real elderly swamp witch vibes when she's upset." Mane laughed. The shadows seemed to recede from her face a little bit. Ursula patted the girl's head a few times. 

"Thank you for coming," Mane said with a sniffle. "You're too good to m-"

"Nope."

"But-"

"Nope. None of that. You're a good girl and that's final," Ursula said with utmost confidence. "I'll not be hearing any slander to the contrary, not even from you."

"Okay but…" Mane looked away. "You're…*so* good to me. I haven't done anything." 

"Sweetheart. Yes you have. And if you try to tell me otherwise, I might have to run through a list. But even if I did, that would hardly do it justice, would it?"

"....no," Mane admitted. She sounded more relieved than beaten, though her voice was still mildly sad. "But...do it anyway?"

"You gave me that one protective trigger," Ursula said, "that helped me a lot. I still have the plush cat you got me, and I go to sleep every night holding her. You stood by me when nobody else did. You listened to me when I needed it, you helped me through...lots of breakups, actually. You were always so kind and willing to spend time making sure I was alright, no matter how grim things may have been looking for you at the time." Mane turned away and crossed her arms.

"That's all just being a decent person," she mumbled. "Anyone would do that for someone they cared about." 

"No, darling, most wouldn't. At least, for me...nobody else did. If your standards for judging people were as realistic as you think they are, then...you wouldn't have grown up surrounded by such awful people." 

"It wasn't that bad," Mane muttered. "There's worse..." 

"That doesn't mean it wasn't traumatic for you, dear. And despite that, in spite of your abusive father and sister, and your mother treating you how she did...you still came out so...good. You are SO much kinder than everyone who raised you. I love you. You deserve better." At this, Mane's watershed properly burst. She broke down again in tears, sobbing indecipherably. Ursula held her patiently. She heard the floret knock and announce that lunch was ready. 

"Give us a minute, but thank you!" She called out to them. "There there," she whispered, "cry all you need. I've got you, it's all okay~"