Kira woke up wrapped in Venisin’s vines. She felt thirsty, so it’d been a while. She stirred, trying to get up, only to be pushed back down.

“Shhhh, relax little leaf, you need more rest.” Venisin brushed a vine against her cheek.

“Water–“ was all Kira managed to croak out in response.

Cooling liquid reached Kira’s mouth and she drank gratefully. It didn’t occur to her until afterwards that Venisin had delivered it via one of her vines, and that this didn’t bother Kira nearly as much as she expected. Venisin’s vines were warm and her stingers-vines were, when not wielded as implements of pain, pleasantly soft. They were all incredibly thin too, giving the impression of resting on a cloud.

Venisin continued to stroke down Kira’s body, moving vines just so to allow the stroking ones to pass by, and Kira drifted back to sleep.

When she woke up the second time they were in the bedroom. Venisin had moved them onto the large bed, and Kira briefly felt a rush at  the privilege of being there with her. It was absurd how quickly the submissive instincts kicked back in. But it was deserved, wasn’t it? Venisin had been incredibly kind–well maybe not kind, but certainly caring–to her yesterday, and demonstrated both understanding and mastery. It reminded her of– bad idea.

The vines on her body formed a blanket this time, instead of a cocoon. There were some under her as well, covering what was presumably an extremely soft mattress. It was comforting. Kira briefly wondered how much Venisin actually slept–she thought it likely less than a human but wasn’t sure. She’d seen intel about this at one point but it had been for affini more generally, and it was clear that Venisin was a more predatory variety than most. Would a fly trap sleep more than a tree? It seemed like such a bizarre question.

As Kira continued to wake up, some instinct kicked back in–along with a surge of adrenaline–and the question became irrelevant. Venisin was definitely awake, and was definitely looking right at her.

Kira glanced up. Venisin had these almost magnetic eyes, with a similar purple sheen as her stinger vines and these flecks of silver that seemed to move ever so slightly in hypnotic ways. Kira spent a moment caught in them, fight or flight running.

Venisin let her, then stroked a vine down her cheek. “Good morning little leaf.”

That broke through the spell, and Kira felt a shudder run through her. With the walls of the last few weeks now gone, Kira felt raw. The anxiety that always followed her around had regained its strength, and she felt some uncertainty on how to proceed. But she didn’t need to know, Venisin seemed to have a read on her, so instead she put all of her anxiety into her left hand and squeezed one of Venisin’s vines. It squeezed back, acknowledging.

“Let's get up, little willow, and we’ll take care of our morning routine, and then we can figure out where to go from there.” Venisin’s tone was gentle.

“Thank you master.” Kira briefly caught herself slipping into those eyes again.

Venisin lifted her out of the bed by her shoulders and placed her next to the bed, then reassembled herself into her typical shape right next to her. She did it slowly, starting from the bottom and slowly gathering herself into the dress of vines, the armless torso somehow still echoing a human shape, going up towards the head.

“Hmpf.” Kira let out a huff as the neck finished.

“And what would that be about?” There was something extra unsettling about Venisin talking when her face wasn’t fully assembled. 

Kira liked it a lot.

“You’re just very showy sometimes, Master.” Kira smiled.

Venisin deigned to give that a headpat instead of a verbal response, and gently nudged Kira towards the bathroom as the top of her head settled into place.

Venisin inserted a toothbrush into Kira’s mouth and made it clear that she intended to be the one talking. 

“So, let's get a few things straight after the last couple of days.” Venisin kept gentle pressure on Kira’s back, which did a good job of keeping the anxiety at bay. “You don’t need to respond to any of this, but to minimize the number of things you feel the need to keep from me, here’s a few things I already know.”

One of Venisin’s other vines grabbed a hairbrush, and started to untangle the mess before seeming to decide better, and Kira heard water running in the background.

“I know someone else has been in your head, the whole name thing makes that abundantly obvious. It’s also clear that this is an individual, someone that you have strong personal feelings for.”

Venisin picked Kira up again, moving her to the bathtub while one of her vines continued manipulating the toothbrush. Kira relaxed as the warm water surrounded her, the tension from the incredibly dangerous subject matter flowing away in the face of Venisin’s confident physical care.

“This person is a participant in the rebellion, and is somehow important.” Venisin’s tone continued to carry its certainty, with just an edge of casualness to it, as if all of this had been obvious for days.

A set of vines began washing Kira’s hair. The slow massage of her scalp was heavenly, Kira felt herself relaxing completely, all concern for the conversation gone.

“Know that as your owner, I would do anything in my power to make sure that someone you care about is well taken care of,” Venisin removed Kira’s toothbrush as she spoke, “and that there’s no way they’re so crucial and influential that me knowing would harm them or their cause.”

Kira opened her mouth to contradict her, then stopped herself. A chill ran through her from head to toe. She’d been about to say way too much.

“Shhhh, relax, don’t say anything, remember this isn’t important.” Venisin calmed her.

Kira might have held onto the shock for longer, might have kept up her guard, but Venisin’s vines continued to brush her down and relax her, and the subject quickly changed.

“We’re going to reset on some of our interactions. You’ve held a considerable part of yourself back from me in concern that I might notice something was off. Well, I have, we dealt with it, and now we know exactly what you’re not telling me, so there’s no longer an excuse or a reason.”

Venisin finished brushing down Kira’s body, and picked her up out of the water into a waiting towel. 

“So, you’re going to open yourself, and I’m going to learn how to best care for you as my floret. The chastity belt is going back on, and now that we’ve uncovered your reasons for acting out I expect good behavior from you. Failure on either behavior and openness will make me reconsider the considerable wiggle room I’ve given you on your personal privacy.”

Kira felt a rush at that, deep in her core, a comforting pressure on her soul, and responded the only way she knew how.

“Yes master,” she whispered.

Venisin rubbed her down gently in a towel. Kira closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. There was a click, and the chastity belt was back on. It made her feel… surprisingly complete. Then the vibrations started again and Kira immediately felt something else. That mix of distress and need and helplessness and vulnerability that spoke to something deep within her. She grasped one of Venisin’s vines, and immediately got pulled into a comforting embrace.

A few rubs later Venisin put her down, slipped a floret dress over her head, and led her out back into the hab’s main living area.

Venisin sat her down on one of the low couches that Kira had permission to be on, then went off around the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. She fiddled with something unseen.

“Is there anything in particular you’d like to eat?” Venisin asked. “I’ve been meaning to gather more fresh food but for now we will continue to use the compiler.”

Kira thought for a moment. 

“Some pancakes would be nice?” It came out as a question–it was hard to make a declarative statement with the vibrator teasing you.

The comment about fresh food triggered something, and Kira followed the impulse to its conclusion.

“Master, if we get food I could cook for you later?”

Venisin looked up. One of the zappy vines slithered across the floor and up onto the couch, but instead of delivering a shock it gave Kira a warm, somewhat tingly caress.

“That actually sounds rather pleasant,” Venisin said. “We can head over to the gardens after breakfast, there’s plenty of selection there.”

As Venisin wordlessly dragged her to the kitchen for breakfast, Kira found herself looking forward to something for the first time in a long while.

Venisin was in a good mood. Her little leaf was obediently following on the leash, keeping up perfectly even though Venisin was moving rather fast for what she’d read was typical in human spaces. There was something graceful about the way Kira walked that reminded her of her vines, she almost seemed to glide along the ground. Venisin wondered briefly if there was some further reason for it, but at the moment it pleased her and that was enough.

Venisin was also starting to expect the silences. She’d thought in the first couple of days that it was a facet of Kira holding back a part of herself. And maybe it was, but even now that Kira was more open to her, felt more open to her, the silence remained. Venisin found it comfortable. She’d always been a little more reliant on touch–possibly a consequence of her origin form’s hunting style–and when she’d read on her flight over that human florets tended to be extremely chatty she was a little bit nervous. Of course this could just be a consequence of the absence of xenodrugs flowing through little Kira, but if so it was still a nice perk.

When they got to the gardens Venisin decided a change in protocol was in order.

“If we’re walking somewhere where regular conversation is expected, I’ll give you three tugs and then I expect you to walk next to me. Three tugs again, and I expect you behind me again.”

Kira’s facial expression was somewhere between a smile and a smirk. “Yes Master.”

The entrance to the gardens was a wide vine covered arch, made irregular and fractal in that highly organic way her people preferred. Past it was a maze of varying growth. In much the same way an Affini might gather flowers and substances from their travels over the universe, the Arboratis gathered whole plants. There were a few domed off areas for simulating particularly unusual environmental conditions, but for the most part they were spread in a seemingly haphazard manner. 

Underneath that casual aesthetic was an abundance of care taken by dedicated gardeners, and thousands of years of fertilization and environmental technology to ensure that the soil around each plant made up for differences in atmospheric composition. It was, in short, done the same way Affini approached everything.

Kira, having never been before, looked a little bit lost. Venisin decided she needed a little bit of prodding.

“We have plants from dozens of worlds here, flower, what are you looking for?”

Kira looked up at her, a moment of uncertainty crossing her features.

“I guess the question is what do you like to eat?” Kira seemed to find her footing with the question. “Humans are pretty omnivorous, and I don’t have strong preferences in food. But if I’m going to cook I want it to be something that you like.”

Venisin let a vine idly stroke through Kira’s hair. 

“Hmm, given my nature I’m not inclined to strong preferences myself,” Venisin began,” once prey is in my digestive cells they generally just take care of things. Until then: Salty, starchy, colorful. We can head by the labs on the way home and pick up some meat as well, since that is also a necessity if you intend to feed me.”

They walked past a particularly complex plant and Venisin felt Kira’s attention wander, but she never left her place at Venisin’s side.

“Hmmm, alright. I think I’ll need to experiment.” Kira placed a palm on Venisin’s side. “May I go explore? I assume if anything is dangerous for me or you to consume you’ll let me know?”

“Yes little leaf, you may go. But first,” Venisin pushed a button and watched Kira shudder in orgasm, “good girl for asking.”

Kira took a deep breath, gave Venisin a grateful look, then went into the gardens.

Venisin watched as her pet went off. The underlying signs of anxiety seemed much better, and even the muted feeling she got when looking at Kira’s rhythm seemed to have abated some. She was resonating clearly now, and it was beautiful.

Kira felt the airiness of the garden in her bones. This was probably the first time since being captured that she felt reasonably safe, and with permission to wander off from her Master the constant awareness of her owner’s moods and emotions settled down as well. And with those things at peace there was so much to see. A tree that seemed to endlessly stretch before splitting off into a vast array of colors. A patch of flowers that shimmered in the light. Rows and rows of fruits and vegetables in every shape imaginable. 

The vegetables had little displays in front of them to show what they would look like harvested, along with some affini script that Kira couldn’t read. By some miracle the garden showed no signs of having ever been harvested, but given everything she’d learned about the Affini Kira was certain that it must be happening. She figured it was a consequence of all the maintenance that the Affini seemed to give their passion projects.  

Without anything else to go on, Kira let her feelings guide her and picked some vegetables at random. Little trowels left around the garden helped her with the extra bit of work required to harvest them herself. Venisin seemed disinclined to intervene, and for that she was grateful. She was definitely still watching, and little shimmery vines seemed to just appear wherever in the garden Kira went, but she was being given some illusion of privacy, and it filled her with peace.

Kira kept the vegetables in a small basket she’d found and continued her wandering. Venisin had expressed a preference towards starchy and salty and was a predator, so Kira wouldn’t go too heavy on the fruit yet, but she did pick out two things that kind of reminded her of stone fruits to try and turn into a syrupy dessert. At worst she’d eat it herself.

The whole garden was covered in a cacophony of scents. The sheer variety of different smells mixing together felt almost overwhelming and she spent a moment wondering if Affini had noses. Eventually one particular smell seemed to overpower the others, drawing her towards a fruit of mixed orange and purples. When she tried to grab it, a small zap on her neck froze her, and suddenly a vine appeared from inside the tree to grab it. Kira assumed that meant it wasn’t safe for her to touch, but it did make her curious about the tree. She took a closer look at the flowers, clearly keeping her hands away, and saw the sticky sap dripping out of the stamen. On closer inspection the fruit had a similar shine.

Either way her basket was mostly full so she decided to head back to Venisin. Neither seemed inclined to break the silence, so they walked back to the hab, Venisin once again holding Kira’s leash, and Kira correctly assuming that if they weren’t going to talk she was supposed to be trailing behind again. 

They took a different way heading home, and Kira continued to be impressed by the sheer variety she saw in Affini architecture. Venisin slowed down at particularly interesting points, and Kira felt herself flush at the realization that even with this Venisin was thinking of her and paying attention to her. She wondered briefly if Venisin had eyes on the back of her head. Or maybe in her vines? She had seemed to monitor her in the garden without clear line of sight as well. 

Walking through the city like this was pleasant. Venisin seemed to have decided to keep the belt on a lower setting today, and she gave her another orgasm when they got home, so that kept the arousal at a barely-bothersome level as well. It was relaxing.

What definitely wasn’t relaxing was trying to cook with alien ingredients. Kira just couldn’t figure out what to make of it. She’d be surprised if Venisin actually had a mouth–did she even taste? Human conceptions of things like “crunchiness” and “texture” were probably out the window. Creating something pleasing was such a challenge when she had so little context to go off of. She decided it would likely just take multiple iterations.

She decided to start things off with seasoned vegetables, mixed with some meat she’d created in the fabricator. On further investigation it looked like Venisin actually had a spice rack. Of course, the spices were all labeled in Affini, but after a quick check with Venisin it looked like none of them were dangerous to her.

So she’d have to taste them, then combine them in semi-arbitrary ways including some combinations that tasted bad to her tongue, then see which ones Venisin liked so she could get some sense for what the conversion from her taste to Venisin’s taste even looked like. 

At least the presence of the spice rack suggested that spicing things mattered, which was a positive signal on the “does Venisin even taste” question.

The anxious part of Kira’s brain helpfully supplied the possibility that this was either just for florets or even worse existed purely to mess with her.

But Kira was feeling safe and taken care of, so if Venisin wanted to lead her off a cliff for her amusement then Kira would walk. She felt a new wave of submission at that thought, which she decided not to analyze, and threw herself back into her service. Some of the flavors and flavor combinations were incredible, some were incomprehensible, and some were just bad. But Kira tried them all, memorized the combinations she’d tried, and then marinated different cuts of vegetable and lab meat before placing them into the hab’s oven. The oven was covered in Affini script and unlike the rest of the hab looked almost retrofitted, but the design was easy enough to figure out. There were some pictures on the temperature dial, presumably for drugged up florets, and it made dialing in a passable temperature relatively simple.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Kira placed the tray of meat and vegetables in front of Venisin and instinctively took a step back towards the wall. Venisin gave her a look, which made Kira go beet red and sit down on the other side of the table.

“Where did that come from little leaf?” Oh god Kira wished Venisin hadn’t asked that question.

“It’s… a past thing. A way I used to serve dinner..” She kept it vague.

“Hmmmm, and why would you serve dinner this way?” Kira had three choices now.

She could refuse to answer, thereby betraying that the subject was related to her Mistress and Owner and giving Venisin more information.

She could answer with a half truth or a deflection, but after almost a week and one incredibly traumatic experience she suspected that Venisin had enough information to see through that, and respected Venisin enough to expect her to piece it together.

The last option giving Venisin the whole truth. And that was out of the question.

Kira decided to just be coldly direct. “Master, that's getting close to some areas within our privacy agreement.”

Venisin just gave her a self satisfied smirk, and focused back on the food.

“This looks delicious, little Kira.” A mass of vines fanned out from Venisin towards the plate. “Let’s see what it tastes like.”

It turned out the way Venisin “tasted” food was to place her vines on it and then release some kind of digestive acid. She’d definitely learned enough about the Affini to know that most of them drank tea with their roots. Had she seen this process earlier, Kira might have put a lot more stock into the rebel rumor that her owner had gotten her as an eventual tasty snack, because her larger size relative to the meat was going to make absolutely no difference to a plant with an external stomach.

Venisin used one of her spare vines to feed Kira, and a different spare vine to play with the dial on Kira’s chastity belt. Venisin seemed to experiment with putting it to higher settings without immediately letting Kira cum. It took all of her focus to keep still, to prevent herself grinding on the chair, to avoid begging for release. Nevertheless, Venisin seemed to be controlling herself, or otherwise cautious, because the setting never went too high and twice during dinner Kira was given an orgasm. It felt almost too easy.

Either way, today had been really nice. It was her first day living without constant anxiety and fear around having her most precious secret stolen, and she got to explore the gardens, see more of the Affini ship, and even perform an act of service for someone she cared for.

Kira continued to feel surprised just how understood she felt by Venisin, and perhaps it was that which compelled her. Or maybe it was just her masochism, given space to breathe now that the existential danger passed. But Kira felt the urge–followed it down the way she’d practiced and reinforced for years–and as she realized what she was going to do that heady mix of fear and arousal and submission washed over her, magnified by the chastity belt that suddenly felt so much more intense than it had all day. She could analyze the implication of that energy being directed at Venisin later, for now… for now she had to take a deep breath and sink.

——

Venisin looked up from her tablet when Kira reached the couch. She was resonating loud and clear, with hints of her own rhythm pulsing through Venisin’s melody. That rhythm had taken on a different tone now, and so had Kira’s posture. She was looking down, shoulders pulled in, small, but still open and vulnerable. Neither the proud rebel nor the zen-like acceptance of fate nor the quiet servile focus. So, so vulnerable. Venisin felt her own vines pick up charge, predatory instincts kicking in. Anticipation coursed through her, but she held herself back. 

Kira walked up in front of her, kneeled on the ground in a single graceful motion, and took a deep breath. 

“I know the denial is meant to make me feel closer to you, and more dependent,” Kira began. “It’s definitely doing some of that–and I’m enjoying that feeling… But it’s also not really a big deal most of the time?”

Her little leaf was staring at the floor, not even trying to make eye contact. It was putting so much effort into holding its position, but the slight twitch in its toes revealed the intensity of its feelings. It came across both shy and courageous.

“You’ve been… pretty generous with giving me orgasms. And on some level, I appreciate that, it’s nice that it’s been easy and it’s been especially nice as a break after everything and maybe it’s kind of weird that I’m sort of helping you and–” Kira finally paused and took a breath. “But–. But I’m… hmmm… I’m not so…”

She seemed to struggle for a moment. 

She finally looked up, looking directly into Venisin’s eyes. “I’m not so weak.”

The courage seemed to leave as fast as it came. Kira’s eyes went back to the floor. The next words were whispered, like they were the deepest confession

“You– You can be meaner, Master.”

“Please.”