Ennervia was sitting down, her vines slaked around the room to hold the sleeping human tight. She didn’t deserve this. She had hurt the human, however, inadvertently. The thoughts flowing through her head of how cute a little pet Aurora would make caused the Affini to be filled with existential dread.

She didn’t deserve something this beautiful. She wasn’t ready, nor was she good enough. All her coworkers pushing her to get a floret flooded into her mind, the memories of their playful teasing. They told her she would make a wonderful owner, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that those were lies for her own benefit. That’s what it always was, wasn’t it?

Ennervia’s spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the entering of the vet.

“Greetings, I am Castor Olveana, Fifth Bloom, he/him. I will be running this little cutie's psychiatric evaluation.”

Ennervia would have gulped were she human, but she just nodded.

“I’d like to thank you once again for saving this little one for somebody with no combat experience that was extremely brave of you.”

The girl still got hurt. She wasn’t go-

“Enough with that, I can see it on her face. It wasn’t your fault she got hurt, and she will be all better soon, at least physically. Her mental well-being is up in the air. First, let's flush those sedatives out of her system, then give her a set of class Ds to see how she feels, eh? Simple work, I assure you.”

Ennervia just sighed and nodded as the counteragent was given, and Aurora began to rouse.

Aurora awoke with a blink of her eye and panic filling her immediately, worried she was back with those terrorists… they weren’t here, right? They couldn’t be here. The pretty Affini had stopped them. Her heart started beating, which was reflected on the heart monitor as she started looking around for any comfort. There was an Affini she had never seen before, but then she felt a smooth thick vine rub against her cheek. Somehow she knew it was the one who saved her.

Aurora never wanted her to leave; she couldn’t stand the thought of it. Whenever she tried to think of being alone again, she was filled with nothing short of abject terror. But for now, those worries flooded away as the vine rubbed across her face, calming her immediately.

“Greetings Ms. Greenbrook. I’m Castor Olveana, Fifth Bloom. I will be running your psychiatric evaluation today if that is ok?”

Psychiatric evaluation? What if she failed? What if she was taken away from her savior? What if-

Aurora felt a needle injected into her right leg, and she felt a coolness emanate from it. The bad thoughts went away almost immediately, and she let out a sigh of relief. “Now, I believe it’s time your savior introduced herself, hmm?”

Curse this doctor for putting her on the spot! Ennervia didn’t want to be noticed by this human beyond the comfort she gave, distant and safely outside the realm of the poor thing getting attached to her. She had heard the strength of human pack bonding, and the worst thing that could happen was this potentially traumatized girl getting attached to her… However, she sighed, looking at the girl.

“I am Ennervia Vera, Second Bloom, petal.”

The girl stared in awe and an uncomfortable amount of adoration. It once again reached that innate instinct in every Affini to take care of cute, weak things and once again filled Ennervia with a fundamental terror at its presence. She knew she wasn’t good enough for something this fragile.

The veterinarian once again snapped her out of her thoughts, looking at Aurora. “Alright, dear, we are going to inject you with a few things to make this easier. One of them will help you say what you need to without those pesky bad thoughts in your head telling you that you don’t deserve help, and the other will make sure you forget the whole thing, so you don’t have to relive that trauma. Is that alright, dear?”

“O-only if Ennervia holds m-me the whole time…” Aurora replied

“Well, if Ennervia is fine with that, I see no problem with it.” Castor said, giving the Affini bureaucrat a very stern glare.

“O-of course not! I will hold you as long as you need, petal.” Ennervia replied, unsure of herself.

“Thank you, miss…” The human squeaked in return.

Castor gave Ennervia a smug smirk before injecting the girl with two needles and getting to work.

* * *

The vet sighed once Aurora was put to sleep, turning to Ennervia.

“So, unfortunately, given the amount of trauma yesterday's events seem to be causing her, she will need to be on a pretty severe dose of Class Es to cope with it, especially without a Haustoric Implant to moderate her thoughts… the problem is this dose will essential leave her unable to care for herself, which is grounds for a mandatory domestication.”

Ennervia rustled nervously; she hoped she didn’t know where this was going. She was there the whole time. She heard every single word of adoration and love that poor girl had for her. Apparently, she was pretty, strong, caring, loving… Just thinking about it made Ennervia’s vines wriggle nervously.

“However, given her extreme pair bond to you, it would be… cruel and unusual to have anyone else caring for her. I’m sorry to say, but I am going to make this very clear to the committee at her domestication hearing, and I don’t think you will have much of a choice on the matter.”

Castor sighed. “But if you want my honest opinion. You already care for her a lot. I can see it in your eyes. Every time you want to take care of her, you tell yourself something, and you get this dead nervous look in your eyes. I am doing this for her good and yours.”

Ennervia started to stutter, trying to come up with some kind of excuse; for some reason she didn’t deserve it or shouldn’t be allowed to, but the doctor just sighed. “I’ve already filed the paperwork. You’ll be taking her home today. I shouldn’t have to tell you to ensure you take care of her, but I think you will have problems even thinking about neglecting her. I’m going to go file her discharge paperwork. Once she wakes up, I will let you explain it to her.”

The veterinarian then left, leaving Ennervia alone with her new… f-f-f… She struggled to think the words, having to overcome a severe amount of emotional baggage, but eventually, she relented. Her floret. Aurora was her floret. As of now, Aurora Vera, First Floret. Even if she didn’t know it yet.

The words filled Ennervia with panic and nervousness, but as she did so, Aurora snuggled into her vines a bit more, and by the everbloom she was so cute it’s adorable AAAAAAAAAAAA.

Ennervia let herself calm down a bit. She didn’t want this before; she still didn’t want this. This was forced upon her by a doctor, apparently for Aurora’s own good… but she couldn’t help but feel that it was a lie at the end of the day. She didn’t deserve a cute floret, especially not one dropped into her lap against her will.

This was a great gift and privilege, but Ennervia knew she would dirty it up. She always did. That was just how she worked when it came to people. She stewed in these thoughts until Aurora woke up.

* * *

Aurora was dreaming, not in concrete terms but in more vague ones, a dream of concepts, ideas, and identity. One thing was abundantly clear. She could no longer be who she was before the bakery, before Ennervia. That girl had been broken by the stress and terror of that day. The xenodrugs kept her from feeling abjectly terrified from thinking about it, making it all the easier to come to this conclusion.

So, she could no longer be the happy, independent Terran who liked flowery dresses and paperwork. There was too much pain, too much anxiety, and too much terror for her to be that person. So what should she become? She filtered through everything she was, starting to try and assemble herself once more.

She loved investigating things. She loved digging up the paper trails at her own job, trying to get down to the truth without ever having to set foot on site. Just being able to tell that somebody was embezzling just by looking at their balance sheets. She didn’t love her boss, the hours, or her coworkers, but she did love the work. She would keep that.

She would keep her identity as a girl. When she chose her name, she cried the first time somebody used it to address her. She loved how she looked after three months of xenodrugs. All of her dysphoria melted away. She was keeping that too.

Now it was time to get the things she could not keep. The terror, the fear of insecurity that had rocked her before the Affini came, and now rocked her again. The post-scarcity life she lived had only buried her fear, not gotten rid of it. She had to get rid of this.

Slowly but surely, she assembled something resembling herself again, filling in piece after piece until there was only one thing left. The fears and anxieties she had taken out had left a void that needed to be filled. She looked through everything that comprised herself, looking for something to fill that void with, but she only found one thing. Ennervia.

That beautiful plant woman who had saved her life and perhaps more. She would perfectly fill the void that all the worst parts of her left… all she had to do was give herself to the Affini. She thought for a moment about whether or not this was the right thing to do. To give up her rights and privileges to give herself completely to somebody she would trust to keep her safe. 

Aurora was always a bit of a sub. She wouldn’t deny that part of why she was so uncomfortable with florets is she was worried that she would sign up herself. The thought of giving herself completely filled her with one part anxiety, one part lust. Each weighed on her mind equally. She wondered if this was how all florets felt before they gave in before they gave themselves completely.

She wondered if they all did it so soon.

Aurora had decided. She took the Affini and slotted her into the puzzle that was Aurora, completing it. She was very similar to before, she had the same likes, similar personality, and similar hopes, but one thing was different. She no longer lived for herself. She lived for Ennervia, her Mistress.

* * *

Ennervia was jostled from her downward spiral by Aurora waking up. She looked so cute and vulnerable, and it took quite a good deal of effort to shove the thoughts out of her mind. She didn’t deserve this floret, she would only hurt her.

The girl stared at Ennervia longingly, not as she had before, meek and terrified. This was a different kind of stare, one of deep longing and desire. One which confused Ennervia deeply. Was she ok? Was it the drugs? This might have been an adverse reaction… whatever she needed to get this over with.

“So, petal, I have some… unfortunate news.” Ennervia said, rustling with nervous energy. “The doctor who looked you over, they uh… they declared that you were unfit to care for yourself and have forcibly enrolled you into the Human Domestication Program.”

The girl's eyes immediately seemed to fill with fear. Ennervia knew it, the girl didn’t want to be domesticated, it was going to be bad for her. She didn’t deserve her. She was terrible, awful ba- AGH. No, she had to calm down and finish the statement.

“Since you seem to have already bonded with me… and I have no other florets, it has been decided that I am to be your…” Say the words, you stupid plant… “M-mistress.”

Aurora’s eyes process this for a moment before they light up with an immense joy that she had never seen on the human before. She squeezed Ennervia’s vines deeply as she looked back at her caretaker, that deep longing in her eyes.

“P-please don’t ever leave me, M-mistress.”

Ennervia’s mind shut down, processing what she had just heard. She heard the words, that soft needy Mistress, that came from the meek girl. All the bureaucrat wanted to do was scream.