"Sam, you gotta think about this," Jean said. "You know what you're up against, right? There's no way to win. Just stay here with me. Let this blow over. No one will get hurt."

Sammy closed her eyes shut and burrowed her brows. "That's what they want you to think. We can still push back. There is still hope for Terra."

"Of course there is! But it's not in supporting the Accord. Those guys - the Affini - they don't want to hurt us. We'll be better off if we don't fight."

"I can't believe you've fallen for these lies!" Sammy punched the table in frustration, evoking a wince from Jean. "We must defend our independence. That's worth fighting for."

Jean sighed and looked down, breaking eye contact. "You're the one who's fallen for lies. Do you really believe what you're saying? Like really, really believe it?"

A pause followed while Sammy took time to gather her thoughts. She looked at Jean again with an expression no longer stern, but more so resigned. "I made my promise long ago. The Accord calls to fight, and I must answer."

Jean looked back up pityingly. "You really don't have to. We both know how these guys work; They'd sell you for a slice of deli ham if they could. Just stay out of this and don't tell them where you are. They'll lose the fight, and then they won't even get the chance to look for you."

"Terra won't lose," she said stubbornly, but then her mood shifted back down. "And even if this one battle is lost, some different Navy squad will come looking for me. That, or my own will help the Affini find me, whichever is worse. I don't have a choice here, I have to go."

Jean burrowed his face in his hands, finding himself at a loss for words. "You know the Accord won't win. They can't win."

"They have to-- we have to at least stand up for ourselves for as long as we can. Otherwise, it will all have been for nothing," Sammy said with clear pain in her voice. She stood up and began to turn away. Jean stopped her.

"Sam," he said sternly, before realising he didn't know what to follow it up with. He exhaled heavily. "Please... just promise you'll stay safe?"

She stood there, frozen in place for a moment. "I will do my best to," she said and quickly left the apartment without turning around.

Jean's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to the break room opening, and a familiar tree appeared before him.

"So, how has it been going so far?" he asked, leaning back in his chair. The affini in front of him stood in the door, motionless, yet satisfiedly tall.

"I have convinced multiple sophonts away from domestication," she said, with a hint of relief in her voice.

"Hey, look at you!" Jean chuckled. "Good... job, I guess? See, your influence thing is not as bad as you thought."

Tree dipped one of her branches in a bowl of nutrient-rich water. Jean, in response, lifted up his cup of coffee and took a sip from it. "It is still strong," the affini admitted, "but I suppose logical arguments work just as well."

Jean gave her a kind smile. "Humans aren't as scary as we seem!" He giggled to himself, then adjusted himself to sit up straight. "But, you know, don't scare people away from things if they actually need it, alright?"

Tree looked down at the floor again, her mood seemingly dropping. "I do what is in my power to be fair," she simply replied.

Jean took another sip. "Don't we all." He suddenly jerked up and stood up on his feet. "So are we done?"

The affini shook her head slowly. "I still have some of my shift left. I merely needed to take a break," she said. "Do you need to go?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Jean said with annoyance and fell back down onto his chair. He was beginning to get antsy, having spent an hour or two sitting there alone, occasionally giving pep talks to the affini, but he wanted to be there for her despite it. "Didn't think someone like you would need so many breaks," he said, his face forming a snarky smile.

"It is a difficult job," she stated. "And yet I must admit that your emotional support is helping."

Jean smiled. He felt very happy at the thought of being helpful, though he took note that this happiness was unfounded. He rolled his eyes at himself, somewhat annoyed about how easy it was for the affini to influence him.

"Hey, anything for you," he said with a hint of irony, though he didn't even know if it was noticeable.

The affini finished her meal, rinsed the bowl and placed it back on a shelf. She then took a step towards Jean and paused before speaking to him again. "If you want to be rewarded for your help, please tell me what you need and I will do my best to provide it."

Jean pondered for a moment. He didn't really want anything, feeling like getting to spend time around this affini that interested him so much was a reward in itself. "Don't worry about it. I'm here cause I wanted to see you," he explained, but after a while he added, "But if you wanna, you could reward me with hanging out again later. And that time, I'll be the one telling you what to do!" He grinned at her, and got only a confused look in response.

"You did not do what I had asked of you, so--" she began to talk, but noticing the human's smug expression, she stopped, realising she had fallen victim to a joke. "Well, in any case, we may see each other again if you wish. But I hope I need not warn you once more of my bio--"

"--biorhythmic influence. Yeah. Don't worry about that," Jean interrupted. "I mean, it's too late for that, isn't it? I already like you." He paused, blushing, then a realisation hit him and he hastily added, "Not in the floret way, I mean! You don't gotta worry about that, either! That will never happen!" He crossed his arms confidently and the affini only sighed and looked back towards the door.

"I must return to work. Thank you, Jean," she just responded and once again threw the human a look that almost resembled a smile. He smiled kindly back at her.

When it was time to go, Jean found himself once again struggling with his emotions to let the affini leave him alone. However, despite the feeling of unrest awakening in him whenever he was away from her, he had taken it to heart at least a little bit that he needs to spend some time apart from her in order to allow his biorhythm to return to normal. He had no plans to get domesticated, after all. Not that he had anything against the idea, it was just not for him.

It was the affini's suggestion for him to go home, anyway. She claimed to need to go back to her hab to tend to her own floret, but at the same time, Jean understood that she had her reservations about being around him for too long. He was already feeling funny, and he had only spent about a full 4-hour shift, mostly behind a door from her. That biorhythm really is strong, he thought to himself.

Still, it was difficult to get his mind off her, and he kept wondering where and when he should invite her next. She had seemed happy enough at the idea of hanging out a second time, which was relieving to him, but he found it difficult to navigate his relationship with her, not knowing at all where it stood. He had been introduced to the xenoclinic staff as an "emotional support sophont", which had felt kind of humiliating, but he didn't know what else to call himself - did the affini actually consider him a friend? Besides, they had only known each other for two days, anyway, and he figured he might be moving too fast in his feelings for her.

Out of answers and desperate for some sort of distraction, he once again reached out for his mini-tablet and decided to call some friends to spend time with. Gwyn had just been at the mall with him the day before, but they surely wouldn't mind going somewhere again. Without thinking, he chose his friend's contact and called.

They picked up within a few seconds, and a video feed appeared before Jean of them along with their other friend, Tate, standing a bit behind, staring curiously at the screen with his dilated eyes.

"Hey dude, what's up," Gwyn greeted.

"Hey guys! Holy shit, Tater tot, I haven't seen you in a while, what's going on, man!" Jean said back. Tate leaned in closer until his face took up most of Jean's screen.

"Sorry, dude," he said, giggling, "I've been busy. Floret stuff, you know how it is."

Jean giggled back and stared at him sarcastically. "I sure don't. Anyway, you guys wanna hang out, maybe? I got nothing at all to do and I'm super bored."

Tate and Gwyn looked at each other, then Gwyn nodded and turned back to the screen. "Yeah, sure, we were just gonna come over to my place for some TV, but you can come with if you want to."

"Woo!" Jean vocalised. "Boys' night?"

"Hey," Gwyn just said sternly in response.

Jean put a hand over his mouth in an exaggerated motion, then chuckled. "People's night?", he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Pfft, good enough," his friend responded and once again the two behind the screen giggled at each other.

Once Jean stopped before Gwyn's hab, the door automatically opened for him. They must have set it to unlock before him, since they knew he was coming, he thought. Upon entering, he called out to the two. "Yo guys, you there?" He didn't hear a response, so he just walked deeper in the hab. When he reached the bedroom, he was hit with the image of his friends laying there together, cuddling in bed. Gwyn was on their back, staring sternly at Jean as he came in, while Tate was embracing them from the side, head up on their chest.

They raised their finger up to their mouth. "Sh, you'll wake him up."

Jean slowly crept up and took a seat on the bed next to them, leaning back against the frame with a pile of pillows under his back. "It's only been like half an hour since I called, and you're already asleep?" he whispered to Gwyn.

Tate lifted up his hand and rubbed his eye. "Wha- I'm not asleep!" He let go of Gwyn and jolted upwards, his cheeks red from embarrassment. Gwyn glared at Jean, somewhat annoyed.

"I had no idea you guys were like that," Jean said, face locked in an awkward, shocked smile. "Maybe I shouldn't have come?"

"We aren't like anything!" Gwyn yelled out, now blushing as well. He exhaled heavily. "Whatever. Don't worry about it, man, you're always welcome here."

Jean leaned back some more, trying to relax. In the meantime, Tate had got up, stretched and adjusted his clothes, then laid back down, keeping a small, but not too small, distance from Gwyn. He was wearing a longer shirt with colourful patterns resembling a companion dress, though not nearly long enough to be one, along with a pair of shorts. Gwyn sat up and reached over Tate's side to reach for something. "Anyway, check out what I got." He pulled a crate of something out from under the bed, gently leaning against Tate as he strained to reach it, then took something out. It was a brown glass bottle with some liquid inside.

"Beer?" Tate asked, tilting his head to the side.

Gwyn chuckled. "Not just any beer. It's the good stuff. Pre-invasion. No xeno shit, just pure good old Earth alcohol." He opened the bottle with a swift movement against the bed frame.

"Oh, uh," Tate stumbled, smiling awkwardly. "I, uh... don't think Master would want me drinking that."

Gwyn shrugged and offered the bottle to Jean, who took it and took a long, extended sip right away. After a good five or six gulps, he threw his hand down and sighed. "Ah, I can't believe I've missed this."

"Right?" Gwyn smiled, opening another bottle for himself. He turned to Tate. "Oh, I think I got some class-E or something in the fridge if you want that."

He shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about it. I'm already spacey enough from whatever my implant's feeding me." He chuckled and his friends smiled back.

A few minutes passed, the three just laying there, drinking and chatting about whatever. Then, Gwyn suddenly turned to Jean, remembering something.

"Oh, shit!" they started excitedly. "How'd your date go?"

Jean chuckled lightly, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I may have exaggerated a bit. It wasn't really a date, but we hanged out together while she was at work."

"Meh, I'd count that as a date," Geyn said, rolling his eyes. "So, how is she, though?"

"She's, uh..." Jean squinted. "Well, she's basically like I told you. Kind of a weird one. But, I found out why she ran away from me yesterday!"

The two looked at him curiously.

"Turns out, she's got some bio... biological thing that makes pretty much everyone want to be her floret. And somehow," here Jean made an exaggerated shrug, "out of all affini, she happens to not like that."

"Darn, unlucky," Tate said. "Any affini I know would kill to have this kind of biorhythm." He paused for a bit and smiled, fidgeting with his hands. "Well, affini wouldn't kill, of course, but you know what I mean."

Gwyn smirked at Jean. "So it worked on you, too?"

"No way, dude!" He screamed louder than he intended to. Tate covered his mouth, laughing, and Gwyn was grinning teasingly. "I mean--! I like her a lot, so I guess that could be the biorhythm working, but I don't like her like that! She's just really cool. She acts all mysterious, but she's a huge anxious softie." He caught himself smiling as he talked, so he quickly forced an upset expression.

"Hold on," Tate interrupted. "I think I missed the first part of this story. What's her name?"

Jean blushed. Gwyn turned his smug smile to Tate. "He has no idea."

"She won't tell me!" he moaned defensively. "She just has me call her "tree". Stupid, I know, but it's all I got."

Tate once again covered his mouth. "Wait, wait, wait... You're telling me you're obsessed with this affini, and you've gone and followed her to her job just to spend time with her... And you don't even know her name." Gwyn leaned back, full-out laughing as Tate spoke with his grin showing through his hands. Jean was fuming. "And you say that maybe, just maybe, her biorhythm is working on you a little bit."

Jean slapped his hands on his thighs, looking at him accusingly. "Says the floret."

"Hey, I'm not denying it," Tate said, closing his eyes half way. "You're the one denying things."

Jean mimicked his expression. "Oh yeah, well you guys are the ones denying... whatever it is that's going on between you."

"Shut up, shut up!" Gwyn suddenly yelled, reaching his hands upwards without sitting up. Tate looked away, blushing.

Jean laughed to himself and put his hands behind his head. A while passed in silence.

Gwyn finally perked up. "Whatever. You guys want pizza?"

"Hell yeah!" Jean exclaimed, jumping out of the bed.

"Heck yeah!" Tate repeated. "You got a compiler?"

"Pfft," Gwyn responded, scrambling to get up after Jean. "No need for it. I'll get it delivered. You guys just tell me what you want."

The two made their orders. Jean got extra salami on his part, while Tate, claiming that he only eats lab-grown or compiled meat, settled for plain cheese. Gwyn entered that into an app on their tablet and it said that their meal will be delivered via drone in 20 minutes.

"Man, I almost asked how much I owe you," Jean chuckled. "I don't think I got takeaway like this since the invasion." Tate quickly looked at him with some hurt in his eyes. He appeared rather offended. "Oh... I mean since the Affini came," Jean corrected himself

Gwyn walked into the living room and turned on the TV, with the boys unconsciously following behind them. "Alright, I got this sick movie for you. It's from the twenty-first century, but it held up super good."

Jean rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah? You and your old world stuff," he chuckled. "So, what's it about?"

"It's called, "Avatar"," they explained, using their tablet to select the movie to play on the TV. "It's about-- well, basically, they predicted the Accord. Humans go over to this alien planet and try to destroy it for resources, and the aliens fight them back. It's really cool, and they made like 10 sequels. Of course, the aliens win in the end."

"As they do," Jean said, laughing.

Tate let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Gwyn has been trying to get me to watch it for weeks."

The movie started playing and the three humans settled down on the couch. "I'm sure you'll like it," he said, absent-mindedly pulling out his mini-tablet again to monitor the status of their food. "I even put on the reduced violence version, for your consideration!" There was a slight hint of irony in their voice, but Tate giggled sincerely in response and looked at the screen with satisfaction.

Eventually, their food came, and the three watched, often not paying attention as they ate, drank, laughed and made jokes about each other, or about various parts of the movie. For a few moments, Jean even realised that he had finally briefly forgot about Tree, but to his dismay, she quickly came back to his thoughts every time. At the same time, though he got the impression that he wasn't supposed to notice this, sometime throughout the course of the movie, the floret had gently put his hand on Gwyn's.