I smiled as I added the finishing lines to the sketch. Now that that was over with, the Affini I was drawing could finally get back to what they were doing. I thanked and apologized for taking up their time, to which they responded with a pat on my head and an assurance that surely it wasn’t a bother. A reaction I was getting quite used to, but felt nice every time, anyway. I watched as they left with their floret in tow - another Terran. She was confused why I was doing it at first, but after I explained it was to capture her Affini’s beautiful visage, she understood. 

As I waved goodbye, I felt a vibration against my head. I pulled my metallic flower out of my hair. A pretty thing with multicolored petals, of which proceeded to detach, but stay in the air as they pointed upwards, showing off a hard-light display of my communicator in the center. A special tool of my own design, though not created by me by any means. I didn’t have enough technical expertise for that. 

Miss Adalinn had sent me a message, asking me to return to our hab unit. Intriguing. This rarely happened. I didn’t do anything wrong today, did I? I thought for a second…. Nope, everything went smoothly. Well, no point fretting, I’ll figure it out when I get there. I sent back a message saying I’d get there as soon as I could, and proceeded to return. Despite saying soon, I decided to take a bit of a smaller pace, soIi could look over my notes for today. Mostly just more ramblings about how pretty the Affini were and the ship we were on. It’ll take a while to organize these into something actually useful, but that was part of the fun. Note taking should have one’s personal flair in there anyway, or else they just become boring.

I made sure to greet everyone I walked past. This, in turn, resulted in many a head rub and chin scratch. I even had to tell a couple Affini that I was already taken! One Terran floret wanted to ask me a question, but I just sent them my message handle and asked them to send me one later. There was someplace I was supposed to be, even if the summons weren’t extremely urgent. I was a little disappointed when I passed a floret of a species I had never seen before, wishing I had the time to draw them in my data pad, but I eventually shrugged it off. It wasn’t that big a ship, I’d certainly see them again.

Eventually I got to the door of the hab unit I shared with my Affini. I stopped before going in to brush off my skirt. A nice, bright yellow one with the outline of a flower on my left side. The same flower that covered my Affini, and the same flower I based my communicator off of. Huh. I guess I had a bit of a theme going. I then adjusted my top, which was cut very low. I worked hard to get this body back in the day, I wanted to show it off. Finally, I set my communicator to have its petals sparkle. I was always a fan of that.

I opened the door and walked into the hab unit. Immediately, Miss Adalinn got up to greet me. A quick hug, and a lovely pat-down from her vines. It was our little secret handshake. We disengaged, and Miss Adalinn started to speak. “Darling Clara, we have visitors.” she informed me. I nodded my head.

“Of course. We have visitors quite often. But that’s never been a reason to summon me back before.” I responded, coyly. But she knew that. Letting me figure things out on my own was part of the fun. Sadly, this time I needed a bit more to go off of.

Miss Adalinn’s smile grew wider. “This time we have,” she paused. “Very special visitors.” She emphasized the word “special.” I stared at her, as my face no doubt changed to that of confusion. She moved so I could get a good look at the guests. It was an Affini and her Terran floret. Nothing unusual so far - wait. Why did that floret look so familiar? Any Terran florets that I would find familiar I know personally, this feeling shouldn’t be happening. 

The Affini was kneeling down, staying close to the floret. The floret in question was fiddling with their hands. Strange. That’s an old Terran way of dealing with anxiety. But Affini xenodrugs should be able to take care of that, why were they doing this? The floret was wearing a bright blue dress, bordering on green. They had a figure I didn’t find unattractive. But that feeling of familiarity was my biggest focus right now. I knew this person, didn’t I? But from where?

The floret looked up at her Affini with a questioning look, to which the Affini responded with a nod. The floret took a deep breath, and looked me in the eye, a task they clearly found hard to do.

“Miss Clara?” they said. “We need your help.”

* * * * *

I gave the meanest scowl I could. Not that it was seen, as the captain had already left, but whatever. It made me feel better. If I had known that everyone in the Terran rebellion was this bitchy, I wouldn’t have joined.

No, who am I kidding. I had to join. I have a mission. One that I must complete. And these people seemed like the ones that would get me the closest to achieving it. Closest, in this context being completed. 

Nobody here asked why I joined. They probably assumed it was the same reason as all of them. But it wasn’t. I know that for a fact. 

I returned to taking inventory. Side effect of not having many physical skills meant I was only useful at this until someone got hurt. And they already had somebody better than me for that. So making sure that everything was correct and telling the right people when it wasn’t was the best thing I could do at the moment. Oh, well. Somebody needed to do it.

As I made note, I heard the conversation happening in the area behind me. “You hear about the Hessonite?” said one of them.

“Yeah. Probably got ripped to shreds.” said the other. Great. Another one of our vessels taken by the damn weeds. All of them were probably mining away at some alien jewels now, never to see the light of day again. Just like-

“Is it possible for us to even take them on?” said the first one. “The Hessonite was one of our fastest ships.”

“Pfft. It was fast in terms of velocity.” the second one scoffed. “But we got a fast-starting Jump Drive. If we get caught, we can get out of there faster than any of those plant bitches could say ‘submit.’”

“I dunno. They seem pretty fond of that word.” the first one said. I couldn’t catch anything after that, as the conversation had drifted out of my earshot. But it didn’t matter. It had filled me with the resolve I needed.

I’m going to destroy those asshole plants.

* * * * *

I sat across Mint, tapping away at my data pad, using checking my notes as a poor excuse to not look Mint in the face. Mint was kicking their legs a little, tapping their knees. Doing something with their body. Typical Mint. They were always like that, even on the Terran colony we used to live on. Back in the day. Before…

I decided to steal a glance at Mint. They looked quite different from when I last saw them. The biggest difference being the sizable bust on their chest. They would always mutter about how much they wanted that. I’m so glad they got it eventually.

I looked back at my data pad. I had subconsciously opened up the drawing feature and started sketching them. I stopped for a second when I caught myself, but decided to keep going. Maybe some good note taking could help me get my mind in order. It rarely happened, but I was faced with a scenario where I didn’t immediately know what to do.

Apparently, Mint was having trouble. None of the xenodrugs were working on them, at least nothing short of almost lethal doses, which we would do well with avoiding. They also were having trouble remembering their dreams, with it taking all of their brain power to even come up with my name. And afterwards, Mint and their Affini sought me out. Which brings us to now. Mint barely even remembered me. Though I guess that makes sense. Why would they remember me?

After all, I did this to them.

I looked at my sketch. It needed some measurements. I took a deep breath, and faced Mint. They were currently occupied with looking around the hab unit. Probably trying to take everything in, but getting distracted with the next thing before fully finishing with the previous one. I cleared my throat to get their attention, in which their head almost instantly whipped around to face me. Their stare started to make me blush. My question suddenly felt like… too much. But…

“Um.” I stuttered. “Is… is it perhaps possible for me to… inspect you?” My cheeks flared up with what I could only assume was the brightest red. Mint’s face changed to one of light confusion.

“What…” they started, tilting their head. That classic head tilt. I felt the color in my face melt at it. “What do you mean?”

I put up my data pad so it covered my mouth. “I, um, need some measurements for my notes.” I said. Mint blinked, then made a face of realization.

“Oh!” they said. They slowly got up. “Um, what… what do you need me to do?”

I blinked in confusion. They were just going to… let me? I shook my head to get the gay thoughts out. “Uh… well…” I looked over at the two Affini who were at their own table. Miss Adalinn was watching me with a caring look, ready to step in if I ever asked. Mint’s Affini - Selestea, I think? - was watching Mint with a look of admiration. How nice that Mint was able to find a caretaker that found their antics amusing.

With the knowledge that Miss Adalinn was on standby, I took another deep breath. Mint tilted their head at me again. I regained my composure. I had a reputation to uphold, after all.

“I’m… gonna need you to take your dress off. If it’s not too much.” I said, blushing as I remembered to add the last bit. Mint blinked, clearly processing the request, like an old Terran machine computing its instructions. They turned towards their Affini, who nodded, and started removing their dress. I didn’t know it was possible to blush harder than I already was, but I was certainly doing it. Mint didn’t seem to notice it, instead holding their dress folded in their hands, looking for a place to put it. I watched as a vine came and took it away, leaving me with a barely dressed Mint. Their figure was much more noticeable now, and it took everything I had to not let my gay thoughts lead the way.

I stood up, ready to focus on my note taking. I walked over to Mint, taking the flower communicator out of my hair and having it float around them. Mint watched it with huge intensity, just like I figured they would. Keeping their gaze off of me would be very helpful. I held their head in my hands. Yep, I got all the details correct in my sketch already, all the way down to their yellow eyes. You don’t do that for as long as I have and get many details wrong. Huh, is their skin softer than I remember? It has been quite a while since I saw them. Since I…

I felt Mint’s eyes on me, so I tapped the flower, causing it to start sparkling. That caught Mint’s attention again. I smirked. Too easy. I moved my hands and started inspecting their shoulders. A lot more slim since I last saw them. I took a look at my sketch, where I instinctively drew their shoulders more broader than they really were. Whoops. I made a note on the sketch to change that later. An inaccurate sketch is a useless one.

Next came something I was not entirely prepared for: the chest. More specifically, that insane bust they had. How long has it been since we were together? Mint looked nothing like this back then. I smiled softly, glad that they were able to achieve the form they strived for. I moved to start taking their underwear off, expecting some resistance. Surprisingly, they moved their arms in the exact way I needed without saying a word. I handed the article of clothing to the conveniently placed vine next to me and wrote this in my notes. Makes sense they’d become compliant. Mint always hated making a fuss. Now in Affini care they never had to.

I lightly grabbed Mint’s breast in my hand, prompting a small whimper from them. It took me all of my strength to not show the most devilish smile on my face. An influx of memories started coming back, but I didn’t have the time to enjoy them now. Ignoring the sounds coming from Mint, I continued my inspection. Their breasts seemed much bigger up close, as I could barely get my entire hand around them. Just barely. I was really hoping the blush wasn’t showing on my face, or, if it was, that Mint wasn’t looking. I’d gotten pretty good at taking measurements without tools, so I did that quickly and wrote it down next to the sketch on my data pad. With that done, I tapped my flower, causing it to fall into my hand. Mint blinked a couple times.

“Is… is that it?” they asked. I froze. I wish they didn’t ask that. It would have been so much easier if they hadn’t.

       “Hmm? Why do you ask?” I said, in total denial from myself. I wanted to do more, but it felt wrong to me for some reason. It looks like the Affini are not the only ones who change the way they act around Mint.

“Sorry, I’m just confused…” they said, fiddling with their hands again. Damn it, they looked so cute. I was almost jealous of Selestea. “I was assuming inspection meant… everything?”

I tried my damnedest to hide my blush, though out of the corner of my eye I could see Miss Adalinn stifling a laugh. “I can… I can finish the inspection another day.” I said. “It has been a long day, and I need to do some research into some other things.” It was a half-lie. I did need to research some things, but the day was far from over. 

Mint blinked, and an expression of - was that disappointment? - slashed across their face. “I see…” they said, grabbing the clothing from their Affini’s vines. “Uh… when do you want to meet up again?” In the corner of my eye I saw Selestea show some surprise. Apparently she wasn’t expecting that. Intriguing. I put it in my notes.

“Oh, um… why don’t you send me a message whenever you’re ready?” I said, sending them my message handle. “Or I can send you one when I am.”

Mint nodded, finishing putting on the pretty mint-colored dress that showed off their pretty yellow eyes and pretty figure - no, Clara! Gay thoughts later! I tried to avoid looking them in the eye, an easy thing to do, with how adverse they were to eye contact. I watched as Selestea attached a leash to them and started walking them to the door. As she passed me, she tapped away at her data pad, and a message popped up on my communicator. She had sent me… a playlist of music? I looked back at her, confused, and she gave me a conniving smile. Intriguing.

Mint waved goodbye, grabbing my heart and crushing it in the process. I sheepishly waved back, and the door finally closed. It was only when I let my breath out that I realized I’d been holding it. I heard Miss Adalinn chuckle behind me, and I pivoted to look directly at her. “You could’ve given me a warning!” I shouted.

        Her laugh increased. “And what kind of puzzle would it be if I just told you right from the start?” she cooed.

“A puzzle is supposed to be more fun than that.” I said. “That was embarrassing.” I sat in my chair across from her. “I haven’t seen Mint in a long time.”

“Oh? And how so?” she asked. She was holding a Terran mug, but bigger to reflect her Affini size, filled with a brown liquid. I don’t think she needed to drink anything, though, I think she just did it to mock me.

I clamped up at that question. Somehow, I struggled to get the right words out. Not because I couldn’t remember how long ago it was, but because it brought up some feelings I didn’t like. Miss Adalinn noticed, and placed the mug down. “Let’s see,” she said. “Why don’t we make something to eat, and you can look through your notes for anything you need.” She ruffled my hair with a small vine as she got up, prompting a small smile from me. I booted up my data pad, coming face to face with the music playlist. I had a lot of work ahead of me.