Archive of Our Own

December 2552

Verglas. A resort world completely controlled by the Hallmark Corporation. A frozen moon with little to make it important other than a livable atmosphere and cute, fluffy, and most importantly, marketable fauna.

Hallmark, being Hallmark, decided to try and make it THE holiday destination—an entire planet where it’s Christmas every day! Live out your own Christmas love story! Pay exorbitant prices just to breathe a gasp of fresh air!

Needless to say, it was a complete failure of a business venture, and the board had decided to try and write off as much as they could before the earnings report came in this year. Turns out? People with enough money to vacation in the hellscape we call a civilization tend to also be the people who have their own offworld getaways. Rich fucks, am I right?

Anyway. They sent in an auditor two months ago with the job of evaluating the place, see what wood could be pulped into greeting cards, and give them an excuse to write the entire planet off as a tax break.

Said auditor never came back.

After not hearing anything for a week, they sent in a second. One week passed before they, too, went dark. The third time, they sent in an entire squad of “bodyguards” to protect the third auditor. If you ask me, those meatheads were probably sent to made sure this one didn’t slack off—not that it helped when they went radio silent, every single one of them.

Once it’s by chance. Twice it’s a coincidence. Three times? Oh baby, that’s a pattern.

The board didn’t want to keep throwing their own bodies at the problem—manpower was at a premium with the war snatching up anyone strong enough to pick up a gun—so they came to me.

And who am I, you may ask? I’m the incredibly handsome, incredibly brilliant, incredibly cheap ace detective—you can call me Justin. Justin Case. Yes, yes, I know. I can only assume my parents hated me before I was born—they certainly made that clear while I lived with them.

The job was simple—figure out what happened to Hallmark’s people. I had the cover of being an accountant here to try and get things back in the black. Got myself an employee badge and everything.

And that was it—no daring rescues, no long overnight stakeouts, and certainly no military types getting under my skin. Just a simple in-and-out job—I don’t even need to bring the auditors back with me! This was easy money…or, well, so I thought at the time.

My stomach lurched as my shuttle returned to normal space. I’d never get used to that, no matter how many times I had to do it. I quickly grabbed the folder Hallmark had given me, and set it aflame. Bit paranoid, I know, but you never know what orbital control will get pissed about. I quickly cleaned up the ashes and tossed them into a trash can, and then made my way towards the cockpit.

Surprisingly, I already had a message waiting for me when I got there. I quickly tossed myself into the pilot’s seat, and opened comms. “Hello, this is the shuttlecraft Spade, asking Verglas orbital for permission to land at…Christmas Village.” Ugh. Who named these places?

A melodic voice trickled through the speaker. At the time, I thought little of it—and that was my second mistake. The first one was accepting this job, if you were curious. “Hello there! Oh yes, Christmas Village. Lovely place this time of year. I’m sure you’ll just love it there.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard a lot of good things.”

“Anything specific brings you to our little corner of the galaxy?”

“Hallmark sent me. I’m an accountant, need to get this place back in the black to keep it running.” The lie danced off my tongue with practiced ease. “My authorization code is JN7685—”

“Oh, no need for that, we were informed you’d be coming, sweetie.” A pause, punctuated by the sound of keys clacking. “Sending your landing solution to you now. Do be sure to follow it closely, alright?”

“Alright.”

“And what do we say, petal?”

“Hm?” What the hell was this grandma on about? Ugh. They’d be a pain in my ass if I didn’t. “Thank you, orbital.”

“Good girl. Have fun planetside!”

“I’m not a—” The transmission cut off before I could finish. “Ugh. Whatever. Time to get holly and jolly, or whatever.”

That was my third mistake.

-----

The Spade set down on a landing pad just outside of the village. I quickly tossed on a thick parka, grabbed my bags, and let the airlock slowly open.

I was expecting a sudden chill to run down my back. Verglas averaged well under freezing, and that alone was probably half the reason it never took off as a tourist destination. What I wasn’t expecting was the burst of confetti right to the face.

“Hello there! Welcome to Christmas!”

My fourth mistake was not turning tail and running right now.

I shook the confetti off of my face, and took a look at my would-be assaulter. She wore one of those cheesy Christmas sweaters, with little reindeer pulling a little sleigh running in stripes across it. Between each row was an intricate vine design, one that must have taken days to properly make. I tried not to get distracted by how much it was stretched around the chest, or how it clinged to every curve she had. Instead, I drew my eyes upwards to her beanie, which matched her sweater perfectly. A cascade of black and purple hair fell from the beanie, perfectly framing an absolutely adorable face.

“Hello there.” I pulled out one of the fake business cards I had printed for the job. “Noel Cash, accountant.”

She giggled. “I’m Belle Teltain. She/her.” Her smile was almost too bright to look at for more than a few moments at a time. “Nice to meet you, Noelle!”

“I-its Noel, Miss Teltain.” Strange last name, but probably unimportant in the long run. (This was my fifth mistake.)

“Hm? Pretty sure that’s what I said.” She giggled again. “Ah, but what brings a big city accountant to our corner of the galaxy?”

“Hallmark sent me, I’m going to try and massage your numbers to make you profitable again.” I dropped my bags, and popped one of them open. After a few moments of (fake) shuffling through it, I pulled out a file. I didn’t actually need it, I had everything kept securely within my memory. “Ah, here we are. I’m supposed to meet with a Governor…Jackson Frost?”

“Oh my.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, but he hasn’t been the governor for at least two, three months now? Nervous breakdown.” Not fully a lie. There was a hint of truth there, but I didn’t know what.

“Well, shit. I was supposed to stay with him while I was here.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. We’re a resort world, silly! We’ve got plenty of empty rooms! In fact…I think I’ve got a spare room.”

Call me a horndog, but here I made my sixth mistake as I started her right in the chest. “Well, I wouldn’t want to intrude…”

“Nonsense! You’re quite welcome. Come on, I’ll give you the tour!”

She gestured for me to follow, and like a lamb to the slaughter, I did.

-----

“So this is main street, you’ll find just the loveliest shops here. Toys, bakeries, clothes—really, if you need anything, just drop on by here.”

She was underselling it. Every store on the road looked like it was an artisanal boutique. My eyes settled on a very cute sundress, a deep green with an intricate vine and flower pattern running across the entirety of it.

“Hey Noelle. See something you like?” I jumped as Belle teased me.

Panic caused my seventh mistake as I quickly pointed to the first thing I could find—a plushie made to resemble one of the native fauna, something I could only describe as a green goat/bear hybrid, wearing a cute little fluffy blue jacket and hat. I had seen a few of them back at Hallmark’s office, but this—this seemed way higher quality than the mass produced versions Hallmark crapped out.

“Ah, I understand. Gavels are a real popular choice around these parts.” She quickly ran into the store. I couldn’t hear what she said to the shopkeep, but she snatched the plushie out of the window and shoved it into my hands. “There! A plushie for my new friend!”

I felt absolutely ridiculous, but I had to stay calm. Making a scene would blow my cover, and…well, I hadn’t had a plushie in years, and Mint just felt so soft and nice to snuggle. One plushie couldn’t hurt, right?

“…thank you.”

She giggled again, and gestured towards the town square. A massive tree sat in the center, several people hanging decorations across its branches. “Over there is the town’s Christmas tree—and you’re just in luck! Lighting ceremony for this month is in just a few days, meaning you’ll get to see everything just…light up. It’s a real good time.”

“I’ll be sure to attend, then.”

“What, you won’t get too distracted by all those numbers?”

Right. Cover. “I’m a professional. I should be able to wrap this up before then.”

“Oh, I certainly hope you do. Now, come on, my house is juuuust this way.”

-----

Her house was a fucking mansion compared to some of the holes-in-the-wall I had operated out of in the past. Two separate bedrooms, a bathroom that looked more like a pool than anything, and a kitchen that could only be described as luxurious.

Not to mention the tiny, nigh-imperceptible scratches in the floor, consistent with recently moved furniture. Tall, massive ceilings with doors to match. A locked door, which Belle insisted led to a flooded basement she’s waiting to get looked at. The tiny camera mounted in the front door, nearly too small to notice.

Yep. Things were getting more and more suspicious.

“Okay, so I’m going to start whipping up dinner while you go get comfortable, sound good?”

“I can’t imagine synthcubes take that much effort to make.” Her shocked gasp was all I needed to know that I had made my eighth mistake. “What? Something wrong?”

“We are a luxury resort, Noelle. We have proper meals, none of that synthcube nonsense.”

“Ah. I see. My apologies, then. I’ll go put my stuff away.”

“And you better rush back here so I can feed you properly, got it? Synthcubes are nothing compared to a proper meal!”

I nodded, and went off. I tried to look for another camera as I walked through the hallway, but it was only by a trick of the light that I even noticed the one outside. I’d probably want to assume that every room was being monitored, then.

I walked into the guest room, and nearly had to avert my eyes. The entire room was a bright pink, with another instance of that vine design running across the walls. I quickly tossed everything on the ground, save for Mint. She got very carefully put on the bed, and I collapsed right next to her.

There was something going on in the village.

Walking down main street, it always felt like there was something watching me. Stalking me as Belle drew me deeper and deeper into the spider’s web I now thought this village had become—only instead of silk, this web was made with vines.

I wasn’t an idiot. I knew just as well as any other Terran about the war, about the Affini menace twisting their roots around Terra’s throat, drawing closer to our complete and total defeat every week. I also knew from their propaganda that they saw Terrans as pets. Could it be possible that an Affini infiltrated the planet? Every Terran I see might just be those that chose to submit rather than resist, with most of the others kept in some terrifying plant-based jail elsewhere.

I took a deep breath. No. That wouldn’t happen—COULDN’T happen. The Affini were very loud about their conquests, sending out propaganda blasts almost the moment the orbital defenses went down. Verglas couldn’t be occupied, right? I’d have heard about it.

A tiny seed of doubt screamed in my soul as Belle called me, saying dinner was ready. I quickly shuffled out, and immediately caught scent of something that was just…divine.

The table was absolutely decked out in a smorgasboard of foods—meats, vegetables, noodles—I could hardly believe my eyes. “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. How the hell did you get this cooked so fast?”

“Christmas elf magic.” She smirked as she did a little flourish with her hands. “I didn’t know what you’d want to eat, so I just made a bunch. Feel free to eat as much or as little as you want, it won’t be going to waste.”

I quickly took a seat opposite Belle, and started to load my plate up, making my ninth mistake. But can you really blame me for this one? I’d been living off of synthcubes since my parents cut me off, and I had honestly missed actual, for real food. We can write this mistake off, right? Yeah, thought not.

The first bite of pork I tore into was divine. The flavors of the meat and sauce perfectly complimented each other in an elegant dance across my tastebuds. A moan escaped my lips, and I immediately blushed. “I-sorry about that.”

“Oh no, don’t excuse yourself on my account. It’s always so good seeing a sophont eat a proper meal for the first time.”

I raised an eyebrow at her word choice, but didn’t investigate it. Shoving a forkful of noodles into my mouth was MUCH more important than wondering what the hell a sophont was. Mistake number ten, if you were wondering.

“So then, mind telling me about yourself?” I looked up at her face. “Just wanna know who my houseguest’s gonna be.”

Right. Right, of course. Well, best way to lie is to put a seed of truth in there. “Ah, well, I grew up on one of the richer colonies out there. Horizon, if you’re curious.”

“What, really? Samesies!”

“You’re from Horizon? Where from?”

“Northside.”

“Oh shit. We probably crossed each other’s paths dozens of times without knowing it!”

“Yeah. But…ah, I haven’t been back in a long time.” She seemed almost wistful for a moment before bouncing right back to being a ray of sunshine. “So then. Any fun stories from the world of accounting? I imagine that if you lived on Horizon, you had to have a dozen.”

I thought back on one particular memory, but the hurt that radiated from it warned me off. No one wants to traumadump to someone they just met about how much their parents hated them. Instead, I grabbed just part of it, the nice part that I refused to forget. “So…I had this friend, Rudolph. Like, since day 1, we were like this.” I crossed my fingers together. “We would have gotten in so much trouble if his family didn’t practically own the security Horizon used.”

“Sounds like you two were quite the pair.”

“Yeah. Inseparable. We knew all of each other’s secrets, every hidden nook and cranny across the entirety of Northside.” I gently ran my finger around the plate’s edge. Getting too close to bad memories here. “And then…well. After a particularly daring heist of some old romance movies, we…I don’t know who kissed who first. He swore up and down it was me, and I’m 99% sure it was him. But…we kissed. And it felt right. For once in my fucking life something felt right…and then our parents happened.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah. I…I never saw him again after that night. My parents clamped down hard, his sent him offworld to learn at some fancy school, one that’d keep him in line.” I sighed. Justin, stop, you’re getting too close to the big nexus of bad thoughts. “Sorry, sorry, I…I should have told the heist story, it was way more interesting than that.”

“Hey. Hey, you’re good.” She smiled wide, and I think my heart literally skipped a beat. “Not every story’s a happy one. Heck, that one reminded me of…” She bit her lip. “…nah. You don’t wanna hear that one. So then, Noelle—”

“I’m telling you, it’s Noel.”

“That’s what I’m saying, silly! You’re probably just hearing my accent.” Her smile wiped away any chance I had of making a counter-argument. “So then, what do you do for fun?”

The rest of the night went peacefully. I barely even made a dent in the food Belle had whipped up, and she assured me that it was going to be perfectly fine. She quickly scooted me out of the room and into the guest room before I could offer to help clean up. For a bit, I appreciated the opportunity to get a chance to rest.

And then sleep evaded me like a cat without her collar on.

It wasn’t something out of the ordinary for me. Sleep just refused to come easily—not to mention how the moment my eyes closed, my ears started to interpret every little creak and brush of air as an intruder with fifty guns that shot swords approaching to turbo murder me. Usually it would just be a matter of time before my body decided to shut down, but it still meant usually half an hour just laying there, pretending to myself that I was asleep.

My eleventh mistake was assuming Her voice was another hallucination.

It was muffled by the walls, but She spoke with such conviction, such power that I couldn’t help but listen, even as I tried to tell myself that it was just my mind running wild with sleepiness.

“And how is she? No signs of feralism?”

“Oh, of course not, Mistress! She’s going to be lovely when you’re done with her, I know it!”

“Of course, petal. And you’re sure you won’t mind me taking another pet?”

“Aww, of course not! Besides, I think she’s gonna be extra cute when she hatches.”

Hatches? A pet? Mistress? All of these words swirled together in my sleep-deprived state, trying to put everything together into a cohesive whole. I gave up on that after a few moments of dreaming up a complex OCNI plot to hatch bioweapons and unleash them on the populace as a test before firing them at a weed ship.

“Do you think I could see her?”

“Hm. I don’t know, you remember what the file said with the sleep issues, yeah?”

“I recall. I…I can help her, though. Right now, in fact. I have the Class-Z loaded up and everything, and it would just feel so nice to…inject a cutie.”

“…ah, what the hell. Just be quiet, okay? Don’t want to spoil the surprise for our latest get, now do we?”

“We do not. I shall see you soon, sweetie.”

“Don’t take too long now, Mistress.”

I was ready to write the whole thing off as a particularly involved pre-sleep hallucination when the door slowly creaked open. I immediately tightened, every muscle in my body tensing in preparation for what was likely to be a violent fight. I really thought I’d have more time to investigate before this happened, but—

“Oh. Just as cute as she said—no, far cuter.” Her voice was like a sweet sugar trickling into my ears, amazing in every possible way. My twelfth mistake was listening obediently to every word She said, like a good girl would. “Oh, I can barely control myself. But I’m patient. I can wait. It’s just a week, after all. And my darling said absolutely nothing about putting a few helpful little tips in that cute head of yours. Now then…” Something slithered near my shoulder, and it took everything in me not to panic about bed snakes. “…sweet dreams, my darling Noelle.”

-----

I awoke the next morning feeling more relaxed than I had over the last…well, ever. My recollection of last night, meanwhile, was groggy and foggy. There was something about…hatching bed snakes to keep as pets? I quickly eliminated all of those from my running hypothesis list as I put on my clothes for the day.

Today’s objectives: head to the governor’s mansion, access his files, and see what records they have of our missing people. From there, figure out if that’ll be enough to get Hallmark to pay me, and improvise from there.

I walked out into the main room, and was once more greeted by a truly delicious scent, and then the absolutely divine sight of Belle in an apron. “Oh, hey, you’re awake! I was worried I’d have to come wake you up personally.”

“I-I—” I cleared my throat. You’re a professional, Justin, act like it! “I slept rather well. Probably better than I have in years.”

“Did snuggling with your plushie help?” An evil smirk crossed her face as she tossed some pancakes onto a plate.

“No, Mint was actually quite bothersome. Stayed up all night watching corny movies. Such a bothersome beargoat.”

That got a laugh out of her, and I used every ounce of professionalism in me not to melt. “Alright, alright. Here, made pancakes. Oh, and take some syrup, it’s made locally.”

“Locally?”

“Oh, yes. I picked it up early this morning, personally. I’m…very good friends with the girl who makes it.”

“Hm. I’ll have to meet her, then.” Syrup wasn’t something that was produced on Verglas, as far as I knew. It probably wasn’t important, but…well, anything can be a clue.

“Oh, she’s a bit shy. Maybe later in the week? I can’t imagine you’ll be done with what you need to do in a day.”

“It’s possible. I’m a professional, after all.”

“Well. I hope you stay a bit longer than that, if only to take some time off.”

“I’ll see if I have the budget for it.” I took a bite of the pancakes. Oh, fluffiness and sweetness and—oh my stars. “Is that real chocolate?” I spoke through a mouthful of pancake.

“Oh, yes.”

“How the hell do you afford this!?” That was a massive sign of something being up. Real chocolate was an expensive commodity, traded only by the richest of asshats. The fact that she was casually using it in a pancake instead of keeping it in a secure freezer as an investment rose about 20 alarms in my head.

She just smiled at me, and put a finger over her lips. “Trade secret, sweetie. I’ll never tell.”

-----

I grumbled as I made my way towards the governor’s mansion. For some reason, my clothes felt…I don’t quite know how to describe it. Overwhelming, perhaps? Despite the chill threatening to run down my spine, I could feel a heat filling my core, one that refused to stop no matter what. Not only that, but…ugh. My nipples kept rubbing against my shirt, and it felt…good. I thanked my lucky stars that my pants were baggy enough to cover up my…let’s say, indiscretion.

Mistake thirteen: assuming that this was a normal, unremarkable thing.

I turned to Belle. “Y-you know, you don’t need to follow me everywhere.”

“Hm?” She tilted her head like a puppy. “Oh no, my job is to be your guide! I’ve got to keep my eyes glued to your cute butt—”

“E-excuse me, my butt is—”

“It’s fantastic, Noelle.” She smirked, and I desperately tried to ignore the heat on my cheeks. “And also, you don’t have authorization to get everywhere you’d need to go. You need a professional vacation gal with you! You’d get lost, otherwise.”

Hm. Keeping an eye on me for…whatever conspiracy is going on? “I see. Thank you, then.”

I tried to walk in silence, but then Belle tossed her arm over my shoulder. Immediately, that overwhelming feeling ran across my back, and I had to stifle a moan. For just a moment, I thought I saw a smirk cross her face before she began to speak. “Hey. You know what we should do?”

“My job?”

“No no no, none of that. You’ve basically got an all-expenses paid vacation here! Don’t you want to, I don’t know, live a little?”

“I…I should really get to work. Those spreadsheets won’t balance themselves, you know. I…I suppose after I’m done we can hang out.” A lie. I was getting off-world the femtosecond I figured out what was going on.

“Aw, alright. Anyway, we’re here.”

I looked at the massive building sprawling across way too much land. It was, by far, the biggest building in the entire village, probably able to fit four or five of Belle’s house in it comfortably.

It also had a vine wrapped sign next to the entrance, one that said “Verglas Library: Where Reading Is Fun!”

“This…this isn’t the governor’s mansion.”

“I mean, it used to be. Old governor had a big breakdown, oh, six months or so ago.” Six months? That was strange—the disappearances only started two months ago. “Well, no one else wanted to take up the job, so we just decided to…renovate, you know? Now we have a big ol’ library!”

“Must have been pricy. How’d you afford it? The entire planet’s been in a financial spiral since…well, since it was colonized.”

“O-oh, you know.” She actually looked nervous. Was there actually something here? “Th-the old governor, yeah, she—I mean he—left behind a b-big pile of cash! Yeah, and we used that to…buy…them?”

“Ah, I see.” There was 100% something up with this library. “Well then, I suppose I should get to looking at the records. I’ll…meet up with you after I’m done?”

“Y-yeah. Okay.” Belle rubbed the back of her head/ “I…good luck, Noelle.”

“Thanks. I shouldn’t need it. I’m very good at what I do.”

-----

The library seemed even bigger on the inside. Bookshelves were piled high, much higher than any regular Terran could reach, and there wasn’t a single ladder in sight. Even stranger, the entire building seemed…empty. There wasn’t a peep from anyone, no staff, no visitors—nothing.

The records room was in the back. It was a computer system that was outdated three decades ago, but it was probably cheap as hell. I punched in the access codes Hallmark had given me, and got to work.

After about five minutes of searching, I had come to a single conclusion: this was a bust.

Starting at about six months ago, every report seemed to be the bare minimum. Arrival time, name, and that’s it. The concerning thing was the complete lack of departures for the entirety of that time.

Either no one had left the planet in the last six months, or someone was covering up where they were going.

Okay, first possibility is a stretch. A quick and dirty estimate of how many people had landed planetside was somewhere in the 70s. The village, the singular colony on the planet, was capable of supporting…probably around 30 or 40 people long term, with around 20 being the permanent residents. The freezing temperatures of the planet was simply too much to grow a lot of Terran-safe foods, not without dedicated greenhouse infrastructure, and not a single one of the ships that landed was a food shipment.

As such, it was unlikely that everyone was staying planetside. No, instead they would arrive, and then go somewhere undocumented. So where were they going, and how could I find out?

Then, as if guided by lady luck herself, a new message popped up at the bottom. An arrival time, set about ten minutes from now. As you might imagine, thinking that this was sheer happenstance was mistake number fourteen.

I tossed on my coat, and pulled up my hood. Still overwhelming, but I needed the protection from the freezing winds outside. I had ten minutes to get to the landing pad on the other side of the village—might be a bit difficult to do it stealthily, but I was a professional. You don’t get hired by a megacorp with half-assed work.

I stepped out into the main library room, and a chill ran down my spine. I always trusted when I got the heebie-jeebies—that alone had gotten me out of more than a few scrapes with more unsavory elements.

This—this was on a whole other level than a deal gone wrong in a backalley. This was something primal, some ancient instinct screaming at me to run, run and never look back lest the tiger rip me to shreds.

And then I saw something shift behind one of the shelves, and I knew this wasn’t mere paranoia. I wasn’t alone anymore…and whatever it was, it was terrifying.

I slowly creeped through the stacks, moving as quietly as I could. I had no idea where the Thing was, but I could hear it. It shuffled as it moved, making only the most cursory efforts to hide its presence. At some point, I heard something that sounded a lot like an unearthly giggle right behind me, only to turn and find an empty aisle.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that it was playing with its food.

I broke out into a dash the moment I realized that. The laughter began to echo through the empty library, but I couldn’t find my way out. Every turn led to more and more turns, more aisles, more books, more, more, MORE!

After what felt like an hour of running, I reached one of the walls of the library. A giant, vaulted window was the only thing between me and the outside world—and the giggling was only getting louder. I did the only rational thing any terrified Terran would do at this point—I grabbed the nearest book that looked heavy as hell, and tossed it through the window.

It bounced off, and landed uselessly on the ground.

Shit. Shit, of course. This used to be the governor’s mansion—of course everything’s reinforced, don’t want the rabble breaking in after all. But this was still an outer wall—and the library had only so many of those. Running for my life, I traced the side of the library, even as the shuffling grew louder, and louder, and closer, and closer, and—!

I reached the front door, and the shuffling stopped. It was ajar, some snow having blown in. However, far more terrifying were the tracks.

A set of massive footprints, at least twice as large as any Terran’s, ran into the library. They were hoof-like, and despite the snowfall outside, there was still a subtle trail leading from the village proper.

And sitting right in the doorframe was a small wooden box. I slowly picked it up, and took a close look at it. Engraved in the top, in loopy handwriting, were the initials VT. I slowly cracked it open, and blinked at what I found inside—a note, and a brilliant blue flower.

The flower looked absolutely gorgeous, and had a scent I didn’t want to stop smelling. Something in me told me to keep hold of it, and I slipped it behind my ear (Mistake fifteen). The note was written in a similar handwriting to the initials on the box, and said a simple phrase: “Thank you for the hunt, dearie. I’ll be sure to catch up with you later. Signed, VT. PS! You should still be able to make your appointment at the landing pads. Check your watch, darling.”

With fear in my heart, I looked at my watch—and only three minutes had passed. Had my terror really distorted my sense of time that much? Or…or was there something else?

Whatever. It was becoming rapidly clear that I needed to get offworld ASAP—and both my case and my escape route were pointing right at that landing pad. No matter what, I was heading there.

Mistake sixteen. I didn’t check if anyone was following me.

-----

The landing pad was just outside of the town. It was tucked behind a small hill that perfectly hid the village, carefully controlling the first impression visitors had of the holiday getaway.

It also meant that I had plenty of places to hide.

I tucked myself into some overgrown shrubbery just out of sight of the landing pad, and checked my watch. They were due any second now.

Around the landing pad, a trio Terrans stood, waiting. Each was clad in similar cutesy sweaters to Belle’s, though each had different designs on it. They seemed to be double and triple checking everything, though one of them looked like they definitely came to work completely wasted.

I looked up, and immediately located the shuttle in the sky. A pretty standard transport shuttle, at least at first glance. However, it moved…gracefully. What’s more, the engines weren’t screaming, and they definitely were supposed to—I had lived next door to a spaceport for way too long, and those things can be heard for miles in every direction.

It gingerly set down, nary a noise to be found. Immediately, a boarding ramp shot out, and a handful of Terrans shuffled out. They seemed an eclectic bunch—some were in well-worn clothes probably a bad day away from being scraps, while others were in TCN uniforms. Hell, one of them was gagged and bound, clearly struggling with trying to escape.

“Hello there everyone! My name is Holly Aquifa, Third Floret, they/them! And may I be the first to welcome you to the first day of the rest of your lives!” Several of the landing party seemed to cheer at that, while the gagged one definitely started panicking. “Now then, I’m sure you all have a lot of questions—including the big one, I’m sure. Well, don’t worry, we’ve got a little orientation session over at the community center, and then we’ll be doing some intake before sending you off to your forever homes!”

At that, the gagged one blanched. With a final, powerful tug, he pulled himself out of the grip of the officer holding him, and bolted for the treeline.

That was, as far as I know, his first and only mistake.

Immediately, vines shot out of the treeline, rapidly wrapping around his body. He was tugged tightly against a tree, the vines rapidly shredding his bindings. The rest of his party was a mixture of terrified, shocked, and…well, I could see more than a few licking their lips in jealousy.

“Now now, who do we have here?”

Their voice was so powerful. It was like being in the presence of divinity itself…and yet, something felt wrong. Fundamentally wrong. It wasn’t Her.

Holly checked her tablet. “Let me see. Ah, here we go. John Elwes, former TCN captain—in fact, he’s the former captain of our newbies! Oh, and he’s here because he found them a bit before the shuttle was set to launch. Dang, y’all did such a good job at taking him down! I don’t think there’s a scratch on him.”

“Hm. An interloper, hm? And dear John, what do you have to say for yourself?” He shouted, his terror apparent even through his gag. “Oh goodness. Holly, dear, does he have any…admirers yet?”

“Nope! Not a one. Oh, you aren’t thinking—”

“You and your sisters HAVE been wanting a puppy.”

“Aw, really Mommy? For realsies?” The other two Terrans seemed to light up at that, even the one that was high as hell. “Aw, you’re the best. Well then, while Mommy gets our Christmas present ready, let’s get all of you to orientation, huh?”

I watched as the group departed towards the village, even as Elwes was dragged kicking and screaming into the forest…followed by the sounds of moans and…were those barks?

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. It was the Affini. Fuck, the entire planet must be under their control. Even Orbital Control Grandma? Might have been an Affini proper, even. Oh fuck. Oh shit. Oh fuck.

As I was starting to panic crawl away from the landing pad, a twig snapped behind me. I could feel my stomach drop out of my stomach. This was it. I was about to get turned into one of their mindless servants, twisted into a puppy kept under a Christmas tree for a set of high-off-their-asses slaves to torture for the rest of eternity.

A set of arms closed around me, holding me tight. The pressure started to pull me back to the land of the living. “—lle? NOELLE! Come on, speak to me, girl!”

“I…Belle?”

“Thank the stars, I thought I’d lost you for a second there. I got worried when I couldn’t find you in the library earlier. Here, let me just…” She helped me to my feet, and smiled. “Hey, there we go. Now then, can you tell me what’s wrong?” I shook my head. Can’t tell her, the weeds will take her. Unless she’s one of them? No, no that would be ridiculous. “Okay, that’s fine.” She looked both ways, and then whispered to me. “Don’t tell corporate, but I have some of the good shit back at my place. You wanna clock out early, sweetie?” I nodded slowly. I needed to make sure she was safe. “Okay. I’m taking you home now.”

-----

I’m honestly not sure what happened on the walk back. I think I was mostly dissociated through all of it, so all those memories went right into the memory bin. I just know that I found myself at her dining table, the leftovers from the previous day already set up for me to eat.

They were all still as warm as I remembered them being. How? She just pulled them out of…a cupboard? A fancy fridge? Something wasn’t adding up here.

“Okay, feel free to eat as much as you need. I’ll be over on the couch if you need physical contact, but I’ll leave you alone otherwise, okay?” I nodded slightly. “Okay.”

I think I ate something. It probably tasted delicious, even as the events I had just witnessed burrowed into my brainpan. The Affini were here. They took the planet, but…they didn’t do it loudly. It was a quiet takeover, one that no one noticed—or COULD notice, even, considering how fast Elwes got snatched up the moment he went out of line.

But those Terrans—they seemed almost eager to head to their “Forever Homes,” whatever the hell that was. So they were…traitors? Volunteers, even? People who had absorbed the Affini propaganda so hard they willingly marched into their mines for them?

I finished a bowl of noodles, and put it down. Eating more would just make me feel bloated, and that would do nothing for my thought process. It was rapidly becoming clear that the only option left to me was to escape the planet.

But…I mean, Belle had been so nice to me. It would be rude to not include her in my escape plan.

“H-hey, Belle. Can I sit with you?”

“Oh yeah, sure!” She hit the mute button on the TV, and smiled at me. I could feel my heart trying its best to crack my ribcage with how fast it was beating. “You doing better?”

“Y-yeah. I think I just needed some food.” I sat down on the far end of the couch, only for her to practically toss herself across the entire thing just to sit next to me. “You said you passed by the library to check on me. Did you see anything…strange?”

“Strange? Strange how?”

“Y-you’d know it if you saw it. I just…I never got a good look at it, but I think it might have been…fuck, I think it was an Affini.”

“…you’re kidding.”

“N-no. And I saw one over at the landing pad, and some Terrans were helping it out. I…I’m scared, Belle. In a way I haven’t for a very, very long time.” I thought about my days with my parents, their boot firmly planted on my neck, wondering if I would ever get a chance to really live.

“...Okay. Okay. I can…I can get you offworld. Give me a few days to finalize some paperwork, okay? It needs to look good. We’ll head offworld, head somewhere safe.”

“I…okay. Thank you, Belle.”

“It’s no problem. No…no problem at all.” She sighed. “Anything else you wanna talk about?”

I furrowed my brow. I…I felt safe around Belle. I could probably talk to her about anything. Anything at all…and that was strange. Why the hell did I trust someone I didn’t even know for a day?

Mistake seventeen was poking at Her suggestions. That’s bad girl behavior!

“I…I think I’m good. I’m going to go get some sleep.”

“Alright then. I hope you feel better after your nap. I’ll have a dinner ready, even if you aren’t hungry, okay?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

I walked towards my room, and quickly locked the door. Okay. Even though Belle was quite clearly a safe sophont, I needed to put some distance between us. It was like a twitch in my brain, telling me what to think, and that…that wasn’t good, right?

No, it was normal for good girls to—I shook the thought off. There it was, the brain twitch. It was hard to notice, but…fuck. Fuck!

I heard some steps outside, and the shutting of a door. Belle left. This was probably the last chance I’d get before I was turned into fertilizer. I dove into my bag, and quickly started shuffling through my gear. Disposable camera, no. Emergency synthcubes, yuck.

My eyes settled upon my emergency tool. The one I had bought years ago, and never even used once. I carefully lifted the revolver, and tucked it into my pants. Six shots. Nowhere near enough to take down an Affini, but maybe enough to ward them off?

Mistake eighteen was playing with firearms. Those aren’t toys, and I should know better!

Who was I kidding. I was fucked.

One final place to check before I bolt, though. I turned my eyes towards the basement—Belle had sworn up and down it was locked because it was flooded. And Belle was a safe person, who would never lie—FUCK! There it was again. Was it something in the food, maybe? I did feel weird that morning, so was Belle drugging me? Trying to turn me into a better slave for the weeds? Or—or maybe…

No. Stop. Going down that road isn’t going to help you, Justin! I shook my head, forcing my thoughts back into the here and now, and slammed my shoulder into the basement door. A few slams was all it took to get it to swing open.

I went down the stairs slowly, my gun drawn the whole way. The lighting was dogshit, and I kept my back to the wall as much as I could. No sneaking up on me, no siree!!

The basement seemed like it was mostly storage. Giant pieces of well-used furniture sat against the walls, things that were clearly several sizes too big for a Terran…but absolutely perfect for an Affini. Besides those, there were a few tackboards, with a ton of pictures on each one, strung together by a red string.

I drew closer—after all, I had done these before to keep track of information in older cases, so it couldn’t be that hard to follow, right? The first picture I noticed was one of Belle—or at least, someone who looked an awful lot like her. She was thinner, her hair shorter, and didn’t seem like the ball of sunshine she used to be. Right next to that picture was a more modern picture of Belle, this one with strange text underneath it that I didn’t recognize.

She was the seeming origin point for many of the strings. One of them led up to another picture, this one of a mass of green. I couldn’t make out a face in it, but written in bright red under the picture was the word Mistress, with a little red heart right after it. I gulped, and quickly traced another string, completing a triangle with the other two pictures.

A picture of me, with the name Noelle written under it, the same heart after it. I nearly threw up then and there. It was a candid shot, one taken while I was in a crowd of Terrans. I even recognized when this had to have been—this would have been a few months ago, during that case on Aspen. The planet fell only a few days after I left, and I counted myself lucky that I had managed it.

Clearly, I had more than luck on my side.

From my picture, another string led to the next corkboard, one that was criss-crossed with a veritable spider’s web of string. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the train of thought here. A Hallmark card, pictures of all of Verglas’s previous victims, starships that seemed impossibly large in scale, and seemingly random Christmastime imagery dotted the board, string criss-crossed in countless ways…and somehow, SOMEHOW, it all had to do with me.

Still. This just confirmed my fears. Belle knew about me, wanted me for…for whatever weird thing the Affini did. Or maybe she was just a puppet for the real mastermind, her so-called “Mistress.” In fact, that possibility seemed far more viable. After all, Belle was a safe sophont, so logically, she had to be conscripted into this by a sinister Affini. Yes. That made sense.

Okay, so update the plan accordingly. Get off-world, bring backup, save Belle, celebrate once the Affini are burnt off the planet forever, maybe ask Belle if she’d like to go on a date with me or maybe kiss a little.

Mistake nineteen was thinking Mistress would ever let me or Belle go. She’s far more clever than I ever was, and she couldn’t escape Her grasp. What chance would I have?

I made it back to the ground floor right as the front door swung open.

“Yeah, you’re gonna love her, she’s ama—Noelle? What are you—is that a gun!?”

I didn’t respond, instead bolting for the back door. As I tossed myself into the forest that surrounded the village, I heard frantic shouting from behind me. I dared to look behind me for just a second, only to be greeted with an explosion of vines bursting from her house.

At that, I firmly decided that looking behind me was a fool’s game.

The forest was thick, and it was a wonder that I hadn’t tripped over a root. Even as I dashed recklessly through the treeline, I could hear Her behind me, crashing through the trees, rapidly gaining ground on me.

“Noelle! Please, stop this!” Belle shouted. She was probably being used as a tool to lure me in, the poor girl.

I just kept running. I wasn’t going to beat an Affini in a straight fight—hell, I wasn’t going to beat an Affini in a footrace either. Who was I kidding? I was only delaying the inevitable.

My twentieth and final mistake was not remembering the fence.

The entirety of the Christmas Village was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire for the express purpose of keeping curious Gavels out. This was in the briefing I had read, but I had managed to forget it in the rush of uncovering a secret Affini smuggling operation. You know how it is.

I reached the fence, and slowly turned around. She was there, hot on my heels, Belle clinging onto a shoulder—no, not clinging, strapped to it by a net of vines.

And She was magnificent.

Hooves stamped through the snow, wood coated in a layer of moss. They led up to a pair of sinfully thick thighs, and those further up to a body I could only describe as the platonic ideal of a MILF. Big paws, ending with sinister claws marked the ends of either arm. A green-and-blue cloak, woven from leaves and flower petals, fluttered from Her body, tiny pine needles making a fair replacement for a fur lining. Dark green vines, decorated with blue flowers blooming at random, dangled from Her head. Sticking out of said head were a pair of curved wooden horns, a pair of fluffy moss-coated bear ears, and an almost comically small Santa hat, a blue flower sticking through the cloth.

It was, of course, comically small because of how big She was. I could probably stand on my own shoulders twice over and then I might finally be eye level with Her.

At the time, however, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I was mostly thinking about how terrifying Her red-orange eyes were, one of the only sources of light in the dismal dark of the forest. Without a noise, without a word, She gently placed Belle on the forest floor, Her eyes trained on me the whole time.

I pulled the gun up, and trained it on Her.

Belle immediately took a step back, and raised her hands. “Hey, hey, it’s just me.”

I glanced over at her. “Y-you’re not going to get me. I-I don’t kn-know what you want, b-but—”

“Okay, okay. We won’t get you. Isn’t that right, Mistress?” She looked up at Her, who nodded carefully, her eyes now trained right on my gun. “Okay then. And I’ll—I’ll just sit down here. Is that okay, Noelle?”

“Not my name.”

“I…alright, Justin. Alright.” She sighed. “Mulch, this isn’t how this was supposed to go.”

“A-and how was it supposed to go, huh!?” I tightened my grip on my gun. “Y-you lure me in with food, a-and g-give me plushies, and—whatever, just so you can turn me into fertilizer, or p-put me in the mines, or—or whatever the hell you plants do with Terrans you steal!”

“…oh, you…you absolute idiot.” Belle pinched her forehead. “You got this far, and you’re still just regurgitating the Accord’s propaganda? Come on, girl—sorry. Dude. Whatever.”

“…why do you keep calling me that? I’m a boy—a man.”

“What, the bigshot detective hasn’t put it all together yet?” Belle scoffed. “You told me, duh.”

“I did no such thing.” I didn’t do that, did I? I tried to think over every interaction I had had with Belle, but…I mean, I only told one person, and one person alone all of Those Thoughts. “Stop lying, dammit, or I’ll—I’ll shoot!”

“Fine. Fine. You really wanna know everything? Spoil all the surprises I had planned? Fine.” She leaned forwards, even as She remained a motionless, terrifying monolith behind her. “Let me tell you a tale, Justin Case. A tale of love, of trust, of tragedy, of jingling bells and tightened collars.” She smirked. “Let me tell you the tale of Rudolph Bass’s final days.”

-----

September 2552

It was a day like any other. Another cancellation due to the war, another increase in the quota. For what was probably the fifteenth time that week, I slammed my forehead against my desk.

Just another day as Governor Rudolph Bass, I guess.

The writing was on the wall. Verglas was on the decline, it had been ever since the war started up. Interplanetary tourism was already a difficult sell, and with the sinister threat of plant demons from beyond the stars? Well, the only consistent business we were whipping up was from TCN ships needing a resupply—and they usually didn’t pay, taking our goods as just another sacrifice for the war effort.

Bastards.

At least I was done for the day. I quickly made my way out of my office, waved at Holly on my way out, and made my way to the other side of the mansion. Ah, the perks were few and far between, but STARS were they nice. Working within walking distance of where I slept? Top tier shit, right there.

I locked the door to my living room behind me, and began digging through my collection. Me and my…ugh, no. Me and an old friend had found one of these movies way back when, and, well…they were just so awful, but like…in an entertaining way? And the thought of a whirlwind romance, well, it just tickled my poor, lonely heart. Alas, such things were not for me—I was little more than a pawn in a galactic game I was set to lose before I was born.

Still. A Christmas Reunion awaited.

I had already seen it a few dozen times, and it was well out of the Christmas zone, but, well, it was an old comfort for me, and I needed that after dealing with accountants and middle managers all morning.

I assumed that the rest of the night was going to be a quiet one. This was a terrible miscalculation on my part. That night was when the rest of my life finally began.

There was a knock on the door. Quiet, polite, and not at all what I was used to from people trying to bother me after hours. I sighed, paused the movie, and walked over to the door.

“Excuse me.” A melodic voice echoed through the door. “Would you please open the door, petal?”

“I’m on it, hold your horses.” I fumbled in my pocket for the key as she knocked politely on the door again.

“I can open the door for you if you’re having trouble, petal.”

“No, no, I’ve got it.” I finally got the key into the lock, and pulled the door open. “Alright, what’s…up…?”

I looked up. Very up. Before me was an absolute goddess in plant form—but you know what she looks like already, so I’ll skip me swooning over her.

“Hello there, petal. My name is Veridix Teltain, First Bloom, she/they.”

“Y-you’re an Affini.” I stumbled backwards a bit. “Fuck, I…p-please don’t eat me?”

“Oh, sweetie.” A vine reached down, and I flinched away from it. She stopped immediately, before slowly approaching my head. I shut my eyes in preparation to be devoured, only to feel an absolute heavenly scritching on my head. I barfed out a series of meaningless syllables, and they laughed. “Oh, you Terrans certainly are cute. And you practically domesticate yourselves once you get some love in you.”

I’m going to be real, Mistress had me wrapped around her vines the moment she pet me. I hadn’t felt that safe in so long, it just…fuck, it felt Right in a way I can’t describe with words.

They plucked me off the ground, and began to carry me to the couch. It was almost comically small compared to her, and it creaked as she sat down on it. She stopped the scritches, and let me get comfortable in her lap.

“S-so if you don’t want to eat me, wh-what do you want? I’m—I’m just a figurehead, I can’t sign over the colony to you.”

“Oh, petal, we already control the planet. There’s no need to sign over anything—well, I can think of a few things, actually, but they’ll come up soon enough.” She gave me a little scritch on the head, wiping out my next train of thought before I could say anything. “No, I came to check on you, specifically.”

“H-huh?”

“You see, recently, we took over a little planet called Horizon. One day, I came across a little feralist. He was an information broker, and tried to get access to our records, since surely the rebel cells dotted around the planet would want a record of our every move. Of course, he was easy enough to capture—he never stood a chance, after all—and I took over going through his records. Most were unremarkable, outdated, but there was one file that caught my eye. Tell me, can you guess which file it was, petal?”

I furrowed my brow. “Horizon had a lot of big players on it. It could be anyone…but based on how you’re talking, I-I…” I bit my lip. “It was me, right?”

“Indeed! Oh, such a good girl for me!” I blushed at that. “Oh yes, I know about that too. See, the moment I read that file on you, I…I found myself filled with a hunger I hadn’t known yet—the hunger to take a floret.”

“…why?” She tilted her head. “I’m…I’m just me. I’m nothing special, you can probably find, like, a dozen more interesting peo—” A vine lashed out, wrapping my mouth and cutting me off. “Mmph!?”

“Don’t you dare say such things, petal. You are outstanding in your own way. And I don’t want any old Terran. I want you. Beautiful, amazing, wonderful you.” She lifted their vine, a string of drool lifting with it. “Now then, I’m going to give you a bit to breathe. I’ve come to you with quite a bit of information today, and I don’t want my precious Rudy to be hurt. So, is there anything you’d like to do to…what’s the term, take a pile off?” I mumbled under my breath, and her eyes turned pink. “What was that, petal?”

“C-can…I mean…c-can you…” I took a deep breath, shut my eyes, and put every ounce of myself into this. “Can you call me Belle!?”

She smiled. “Of course, my darling Belle. Now then, you were about to watch a movie, weren’t you?”

-----

Veridix and I hugged each other tight as the credits rolled. I wasn’t sure if Affini were capable of crying, but she was certainly doing her best. I, meanwhile, had cried the normal amount for this movie—that is to say, I was probably dehydrated and my shirt was more liquid than cloth.

“It’s just—” Veridix sniffled. “—the pinnates, and—sniiiiiiiif—they just loved each other SO MUCH!!”

“A-and—” I sniffled right back, before bursting into tears.

This state of things continued for about ten, twenty minutes? I don’t quite remember how much exactly. Eventually the two of us stopped sobbing and managed to actually start talking about the movie.

“…and it’s like…really cheap, and objectively bad, but like, this was the movie me and…me and my old friend kissed to! We stole it, and then watched it, and then…sloppy makeouts.” And then my parents found out because they control—no, controlled every camera on Horizon, and then they kicked me to space, and—oh, I seem to be crying again.

Veridix held me close, gently stroking my hair. “Shh, shh, it’s okay sweetie.”

“I—I just want to know she’s alright!” I whimpered through tears. “I-I haven’t seen her and—and she could be DEAD for all I know!”

She held me close. “I…what was their name?”

“…Her name was Noelle. B-but she had another one, and…”

She lifted a vine to my lips. “Don’t worry petal. I’ll handle it, alright? I’ll find your pinnate. No matter what, okay?”

-----

October 2552

The next few weeks went by a lot smoother than the rest of the year. The Affini quickly took up revamping Christmas Village into an actual livable place. The frozen weather even seemed to calm down, almost as if an Affini domesticated the wind and skies themselves. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past them.

It was when I was beating Holly’s ass in XDrive when Miss Teltain smashed into my new hab. I do mean smash quite literally, she had to replace the door afterwards.

“M-Miss Teltain! What…you know you can knock, right?”

“I-I apologize petal, I didn’t realize the door would—oh, hello there, Holly.”

“Hey Miss. You want I should…head back to Mommy’s?”

“That would be best, thank you sweetie.”

“Alrighty. Hey, Belle, I’ll have to take a rain check on kicking you’re a—butt.” She smirked. “Have fun with your Mistress~!” She bolted out the doorhole before I could respond.

“She’s not my—oh, whatever.” I turned to Miss Teltain. “Okay, so what’s so important that you needed to break my door down?”

“I found her.”

I immediately forgave her for knocking my door off its hinges.

-----

“That’s a long way away from the front lines, Miss.”

I looked over the file that Miss Teltain had brought me. Noelle was on the planet of New Alexandria—a solid chunk into the Accord’s territory, and at least a year out from domestication. It would be domesticated, make no mistake, but even the resources of the Compact can only go so quickly. Not to mention, she had a bad habit of moving around just before the Affini came in.

Three times. No less than three times since the beginning of the Terran Campaign had they just missed her. 

“Indeed, it is. Thankfully, we Affini have our ways of bringing in strays from the cold. It’ll take a bit of work, and a lot of messaging, but I think we can lure her in.”

“...are you sure?” I double checked all of the files. Noelle hadn’t changed much since I had seen her last. She was DEEP in the closet though, and a lookover of her search history showed a paranoid streak a mile long, and three deep. “What if she doesn’t respond to the message?”

“We have our ways. Trust us—“

“Veridix.” I looked at her right in the eyes—or as close as I could manage without either getting uncomfortable or hypnotized. “If I know Noelle—and make no mistake, I do—cold messaging her out of nowhere even just the once might be enough to get her on her guard.”

Miss Teltain just chuckled. “You underestimate the Affini. We have ways of lowering her guard. Still, it would be remiss of me to treat every sophont as the same. What would you suggest?”

“M-me?”

Her eyes flitted to a light blue. “Yes, my sweet. You. You did just say you knew her, didn’t you?”

“Y-yeah, but I’m—I’m not—I’m a Terran, Miss!”

“Indeed.” She rubbed her chin with a stray vine. “You are a Terran. You think like one, and you know this one quite well. So how would you catch her?”

“...she’s a detective, isn’t she? I’d hire her for a job.”

“Good, yes, keep going. How would you prevent her from acting the same as with my plan?”

“How many companies have the Affini completely subverted?”

“I’m sorry?” Her face twisted.

“The campaign’s been going for two years, you have to have completely domesticated an entire company at the very least. Something that the Accord won’t have noticed yet.”

“You would suggest we use capitalism to lure her in? Careful there, petal. Sounding awfully...” Her eyes flashed red, and a hungry growl underscored her voice. “...feral.”

“No, no, hear me out. It’s a costume.”

“...continue.”

“We contact her as, uh....Florets Incorporated, I don’t know. And we...we keep losing people to this planet, can you help us?”

“Hm.” She scratched her chin. “A bit unorthodox to be sure...”

“But...?” I gave her my best puppy eyes, probably the most important (and dangerous) skill to have in the Compact.

“...I’ll pull some strings, try it out. But don’t get too excited now, understand?”

I yelped in joy, completely disregarding her advice. She just smiled and gave me a little scritch on the head for being so darned cute. “Thank you Mist—Miss Teltain!! Thank you so much!!” I hugged her tight, trying to burrow my face into her vines to properly show how thankful I was. “I...really, thank you. I...I never thought I was going to see her again, and now...now I have a chance. Thank you.”

“Of course, my darling Belle. I’d move every star and planet just to see that smile on your face again.”

-----

November 2552

The plan was going swimmingly.

As it turned out, the Compact had completely managed to overlook one thing, one thing that made my fucking day: the entirety of Hallmark had been completely overtaken by the Affini. In fact, Verglas was the very last thing they needed for a clean sweep. I definitely might have gone too ham with Class-A, a pogostick, 15 pounds of cream, and Holly that night, but really, who hasn’t gone too hard on Class-A a few times?

Anyway, Miss Teltain was zooming along with her half of the plan, mostly laying the groundwork to create a proper mystery. I gotta say, watching her make those conspiracy boards was hilarious—constantly asking me if the strings were interconnected enough, if the pictures were juuust right, and if I wanted to—ahem. The last thing isn’t important to the story.

ANYWAY, while she was doing that, I was talking with the rest of the colony to set things up. Holly and her new sisters were more than happy to help, even if Clarice kept insisting she was a boy. And of course, Miss Aquifa wouldn’t pass up a chance to custom-make a plushie.

The drider-like Affini smirked as she handed me the plushie—a perfect mini-Teltain. “So, when are you going to ask her?”

“Ask her what?”

Miss Aquifa sighed. “You know, you’re not subtle, little one. Your biorhythm already beats in harmony with my protégé’s.”

“I-I, no it doesn’t!” I lied. I knew exactly what she meant. “Th-they’re just similar, that’s all.”

“Hm. Yes, of course. I’m sure an independent like yourself would commission the scariest Affini on the planet to make a cute little plush of another Affini.” She smirked.

“It-it’s a gift, dammit!”

“Language, petal. And I’m well aware it’s a gift—a gift for your precious pinnate-to-be. A gift that’s a flawless representation of the Affini you’re clearly infatuated with.”

I didn’t have a response to that.

“Now then, I’ll have this in the window of the shop when your little friend comes by. How about you go to Veridix and tell her how you feel, hm?”

“...B-but—“

“No buts. Go and do it, or I’ll lock you in a room together and the only way out is to fill out a domestication contract.” She shook her head as she snatched up Mini-Teltain. “I swear, youngblooms sometimes...”

-----

I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Miss Aquifa would 100% follow up on her threat—or worse, she’d get creative with it. So I did what any self-respecting independent sophont would do: I set us up a little date.

It wasn’t much. I just cooked up a meal, found a lovely selection of mineralized waters, and picked out a few cheesy movies for us to mutually sob to. And then, at the end...

Well, at the end I’d find out if she wanted me that way.

A very light, almost imperceptible knock knocked me out of planning mode. She was here.

I went over to the door. Sure, the Hab AI could open it for me, but…well, it’s just more romantic to open the door personally, you know? I tugged on the door, opening it and setting my eyes on Miss Teltain.

And FUCK, was she beautiful. I mean, you’ve seen her—curves in all the right places, eyes to die for, but I could swear she looked MORE this time. She won’t tell me for sure, but I’m like 95% sure she aerosolized a Class-C the moment she saw me.

“Hello there, sweetie. May I come in?”

“A tall drink of water like yourself? Why, of course.” I immediately cringed as I processed my terrible flirt.

Miss Teltain just tilted her head. “I’m…I’m a plant, sweetie. Not water!” She gave me a little headpat, and it took everything in me not to beg her to collar me then and there. “Silly Belle.”

“Y-yeah, silly.” I dashed into the kitchen, trying to hide my blush, and grabbed her mineral water. “Mineral water! Little extra calcium in this blend.”

“Oh, thank you, sweetie.” She gingerly snatched the glass out of my hands, and dipped a vine in it. A soft sigh escaped her (very kissable) lips as she relaxed into the couch. “Perfect, as always.”

I started flipping through the movies I had downloaded. “Alright, so I’ve got a few movies—I’ve heard good things about The Christmas Floret, but that one’s like…99% florn too. This one, ooo, it’s an absolutely lovely romcom where they’re trapped in a timeloop together. And uh, there’s this action flick, it’s just popcorn munching material but—”

“How about we start with you asking me what you wanted to ask me?” My vocal chords immediately vacated the premises as I looked up at her. “Belle, dear, your biorhythm is just SCREAMING that you’re nervous. Wouldn’t it be better to ask me whatever it is now, and then enjoy the movie together?”

“B-but, I—plan—and—uh—”

“Use your words, darling.”

She lowered her face to meet mine, her sheer scale towering over me. My heart thumped rapidly, every moment she lurked over me adding to my anxiety. Her eyes glowed a sinister red, and I couldn’t draw my own away from them. Her vines curled around my back, tugging my hands with them before tying them together.

“I’m waiting, darling.”

“I-I…” I took a deep breath. “Willyoumakemeyourfloretplease?”

She smiled. “Oh? I’m not sure I caught all of that, darling.” A prick on my shoulder—when had a vine gotten there? “Try again for me, will you?”

“Awawa.” I gulped. “Awawa? Awawawa?”

“Oops! Someone seems to have stolen your words away. Here, let me just…” Another prick. “Okay, what about now?”

“M-Miss…” I whimpered. The moment she injected me I felt like I was on fire. My clothes, her vines, the couch—everything was just so much, and it felt so good. “P-please!”

“Please…what?”

“Please, Mistress!”

“Finally.” She pounced on me, the Class-A’s driving me absolutely insane with lust. “Do you know how long it’s been since I filed my Notice of Intent? I do. One month, three weeks, five days, 12 hours, and 43 minutes ago.” A vine caressed my cheek, and I couldn’t help but moan as I nuzzled into her grip. “That’s about five minutes into that movie you were showing me, by the way.”

“M-Mistress!”

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t punish you for making me wait—much.” She chuckled. “No, I want this to be a happy occasion—one you look back on, maybe tell others. Punishments, however…those are for me alone. You don’t share those unless I order you to. Understand, petal?”

“Y-yes Mistress!” I was barely cognizant of what I was agreeing to at this point. I’m simply too weak to the combination of Class-A’s, plant mommies, and possessiveness.

“Oh, so well-behaved already! It’s so nice when they break themselves. So then!” She pulled me into her lap, making sure to position me right over what I would later learn was her pleasure graft. “How about that movie, darling?”

-----

December 2552

“…and so, now you know what happened to me, Justin—and let’s stop kidding ourselves, you know that’s not your name.”

I’m not sure I could have squeezed the gun any harder. My aim was shaky, my breath unsteady. “R-Rudy?”

“I already told you, dummy! My name is Belle Teltain! Well, Belle Teltain, First Floret, to be clear.”

“Y-you couldn’t have been the governor! Jackson Frost, he was the governor!”

“Come on, I thought you were an ace detective. Jack Frost? Come on, that one’s on the nose. Besides, its not like everyone’s name is a pun here.”

“I…I…”

“Look, Noelle. I know this is hard to accept, but…” She sighed, and folded her arms. “I just wanted you back. That’s all. If you don’t want to be with me…that’s fine. I can deal with that.”

“B-be with you?”

“Yeah. You can just…I just wanted to make sure that you were safe. I can live without you, as long as I know you’re safe.” A vine curled up onto her shoulder, calming her a bit. “So then. You can run, sure. You’re a clever girl, you’ll probably be able to evade the Affini once. Maybe even twice—but then, I know you’ll be safe, because you’ll be part of the Compact, whether you like it or not. You can…can choose to just live in the Compact, that’s…that’s a possibility, yes.” She sniffled. “M-might even make it as an independent. O-or…you can…you can…”

“It’s alright darling. You’ve got this.”

Her voice echoed through the silent forest. It was beauty incarnate.

Belle made one final, big sniffle, before looking me directly in the eyes, and extending a hand towards me. “Y-you can t-take my hand, and co-come in from the cold?”

I lowered my gun. Warm tears began to run down my face. “H-how long did you have that one planned?”

She just smiled. “A-a while. I wanted this to be perfect…” Tears openly ran down her face. “I-I’m sorry—”

I took her hand. “No. No, you…sure, it wasn’t perfect, but…but I get to be with you now, don’t I?”

“R-really?” Her eyes lit up. “You…you mean it?”

“Y-yes. Of course I do. B-besides, I’ve gotta get a hit of whatever made you so beautiful, don’t I?”

She just hugged me tightly. I wrapped my hands around her, holding her just as tight. We stayed like that until the tears finally stopped,

“Ahem.”

I looked up at her. Her eyes were still red, still perfectly trained on me—no, on the gun in my hand. I gulped.

“I’ll be taking your weapon, young lady.”

“Ah, y-yes, of course.” I broke off the hug, much to both of our dismays, and handed it to her. She snatched it out of my hand, and then, with a sinister glint in her eyes, pointed it at a tree and pulled the trigger.

With an unsatisfying THUNK a suction cup dart stuck itself to the tree.

“Wh…what?”

“Did you really think that I would let you have a weapon around my darling?” She looked at me incredulously. “Really. I decompiled your ACTUAL weapon the first night you were here, and swapped it out with this little guy.” She smirked, pointed the dart gun at me, and fired, landing a dart right on my forehead. “THAT’S for scaring my precious Belle.”

Belle plucked the dart off of my forehead. “Ooo, she’s going easy on you, I think she liiiiiikes you~~!”

“Th-that was easy?”

“Oh yeah. You should have seen me last week—now THAT was a punishment…but I’m not allowed to tell, now am I?”

“Oh no, my sweet Belle. Feel free to tell your pinnate every last moment. In detail, even! If you forget any, I’ll be sure to…remind you. With a little demonstration, perhaps? We can share over a cup of hot chocolate to warm you two cuties up, even—though, with how hard Belle will be blushing, I’m not sure she’ll need it.” She turned to me. “Oh, and Noelle? If you ever hurt my precious floret again, they will need to invent new words for how hard I’m going to break you. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes mommy. I MEAN MISTRESS! I-I mean—Miss Te—”

“No, no, I believe either of those first two will do.” She laughed, and picked us both up. “Oh, now what to watch…how about A Christmas Reunion? Seems appropriate to me.”

-----

I slowly blinked my eyes open, and rolled out of bed onto a crash pad of plushies.

Life was good. It had been about two weeks since I had arrived on Verglas, and boy howdy, could you tell. Mostly from the small pair of tits on my chest, or the complete lack of bulge in . Class-G’s are a wonderful thing.

I stood up, letting Belle sleep in. The Christmas party last night had taken a LOT out of her, what with all the decorating and baking and cumming and gift selecting. Best to let her sleep in for once, even if it WAS Christmas proper. Besides, I wanted some alone time with Mistre—Miss Teltain.

Let’s face it, it was only a matter of time until She WAS my Mistress. My pinnate was Her Floret for Everbloom’s sake! That’s a one-way track to domestication if any of the stories I’ve read are any accurate.

I found Miss Teltain carefully adjusting the presents She had put under the tree. She snickered a bit as She slowly rotated one into what was, presumably, the perfect place and orientation to drag our eyes to the exact one She wanted us to pick first. She stood up, turned, and then jumped as She saw me.

“Noelle! Y-you should have said something, you-you startled me!” She adjusted herself, trying to make Her dorky ass seem more regal and terrifying. It only worked a little bit. “A-and what are you doing awake, young lady?”

“Hey, you wanted me to stay asleep, should have used a Class-Z.” I smirked. “Besides, what if I wanted to get you all to myself for once? I won’t even look at the presents until Belle wakes up, if it helps.”

“Fine, fine…brat.” She returned my smirk. “So then, what did you want to talk about, petal?”

“There’s something I still haven’t figured out about…well, that whole week. I’ve tried asking around, but…well, Belle refuses to answer, Holly just asks smug and dances around the question, and everyone else says some variation of ‘Oh, but Mistress told me not to tell!’ And the one time I tried asking an Affini they nearly had me in a collar after a whole minute of talking.”

“Oh?”

It took me a few seconds to recognize Her tone. “I-I wasn’t interested! She was just…excited, that’s all.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” She chuckled. “So? Ask away.”

“That first day—there were a bunch of…seeds? Florets-to-be? Whatever, it was like a shipment of bottoms came in and y’all were already set up to receive them. And thus, my question is: the fuck?”

“Language, petal. And I was wondering when you’d FINALLY come to me.” She looked smug—that kind of smug where you KNOW They’ve been waiting for a chance to go on about something, and you just gave Them their opening. “See, I just found it way too easy to lure you here—a lot of the Accord’s servers aren’t properly protected. So, I decided to…slip in a little bait while I was at it.”

“Bait?”

“A chat program, designed to connect potential Florets to their future Affini. Oh, yes, it’s not THAT impressive—I can name five dozen similar projects across the Compact—but we offer a special service to all the good little cuties desperate for love.” She smiled wide, taking a long pause. “Delivery.”

“…Delivery?”

“DELIVERY!” She laughed madly. “FOR YOU SEE! What’s the biggest obstacle in the way between these seeds and their future owners? Why, distance, of course! So we collect these Terrans who are very definitely going on a very capitalistic vacation to Verglas, bring them here, and do all sorts of the fun bits of busywork a new Floret needs—initial vet visits, vaccinations, any necessary biomods…and then, when they’re all ready, we send them off to their owner—sometimes wrapped up, sometimes not.”

I thought for a moment. “So wait, you…” I pinched my forehead. “…you take all the cuties who have been good this year and make them presents?”

“That’s about it, yes.”

“…Stars, you’re a reverse Santa.”

“Exactly! I knew you’d get it!” She pet me on the head, and I struggled to keep my thoughts together. She was…really good at keeping my brain from spiraling, and I shuddered thinking of what She would do when I got my implant. Fuck, was I into that? “Such a smart girl. So clever, too! Knowing to come to me when she can’t figure things out. Mmmm, maybe once I get you implanted I’ll just make you forget things, see those cute little gears in your brain spin out of control as you try to put things together…”

“M—Miss, please!”

“Oh? Do you want that, darling? You want to be implanted? Have a little piece of myself inside of you forever?”

A single thought echoed through my mind, one unimpeded by the headscratches of doom. “I-I—”

“Well, you two are up early.” The two of us froze in place as Belle walked in from the bedroom. “No, no, don’t stop on my account, cuties. I’mma just…I’m thinking hot chocolate with a dash of caffeine and Class-A? Yeah, that sounds good to me.” She walked over to the compiler, put her favorite mug in, and let the compiler just materialize it right in the cup, ready to drink. “Aw, what, I don’t get breakfast and a show? For SHAME, Miss Teltain—you aren’t properly spoiling your Floret on her favorite holiday!”

“I-I—” Miss Teltain stood up, cleared Her throat, and put on her best impression of a competent Affini. Gotta say, it was like…76% accurate. “That’s Mistress to you.”

“Oh noooo, what’ll you do—punish me?” Belle’s voice lifted in sheer, uncontrolled lust.

“Yes. Yes I will…but first, you two need to open your presents.” She nervously stepped out of the way of the tree. “…I hope you like them.”

Belle walked with all the confidence in the world, something that would not save her when Miss Teltain came to collect. She carefully looked over each of the presents, and quickly grabbed two of them—one for me, one for her. I could have sworn I saw a smile briefly cross Miss Teltain’s face before She returned to a far more passive, impossible for me to read face.

“Well? Open up!”

The two of us tore into our presents—well, Belle did. I carefully disassembled the wrapping so as to not create a mess. The colorful wrappings quickly gave way to a simple cardboard box, and I carefully creaked it open.

Inside, placed ever-so-gently on a pillow, was a collar. A proper Floret collar, too, white with red striping running diagonally along it. “M-Miss, is this…?”

“You’re a clever girl. Figure it out.”

I gulped, and looked over at Belle. She had a matching collar in her hands, and the smuggest look trained right on me. “…I take it I don’t get a say in this?”

“Oh, stars no. You lost that the moment you tried to pull a gun on me.” Miss Teltain chuckled. “Though I sincerely doubt you have any problems with this. You’ve been mine since the moment you set foot on this planet…and I have been patient long enough.”

She stood up to her full height. With little effort, as if it were an afterthought, She latched Belle’s collar onto her, quickly leashing her as She approached me. I tried my best to shrink into the couch, holding my collar in my hands.

“So then, darling…do you need any help with that?”

“I-I-I—”

“Oh, here, let me.” Her vines moved at speeds I couldn’t quite comprehend, and with a satisfying click She closed my collar around my neck. A vine quickly tied around the collar’s ring, and I made a very dignified sound that definitely wasn’t a beep. “There we go. Safe and sound, in my vines.”

“I-I—” I shook my head out of my stupor. “Sh-shouldn’t we finish opening the rest of the presents? I-I think there was one from me that you’ll absolutely lov—”

“Oh petal, no, the collars are just the first part of your present!” A sinister, toothy smile crossed Her face, and I was very suddenly reminded of who the universe’s apex predator was. “Though, part two might be more of a present for me.”

Without any effort on Her part, She tugged both of us into Her room. She motioned for both of us to clamber onto Her bed, and, being good girls, we did. There wasn’t really any point in trying to brat—She was more than capable of breaking us into a thousand itty-bitty subby pieces, and honestly? I was just happy to go along with whatever She wanted at this point.

After we both got situated on the bed, She easily made Her way onto it. One of Her vines whipped out, piercing Belle’s shoulder in the blink of an eye. “Ooo, drugged sex. Mistress, you spoil us!”

“Spoil you? Oh no, Belle. Sweetie. That was a Class-N. And a Class-A. And a Class-D. And—well, there’s a lot of drugs in here. You’re going to be high as a space station.”

“H-huh?”

Mistress glanced at Belle, and smiled. “Is your memory so short, my sweet petal? I said I was going to punish you, didn’t I? Now then, be a good girl, lay next to your pinnate, and watch while I take her virginity, okay?”

“Wh-what!?” I beeped. “I—I’m not a virgin! I’ve had sex!!”

“Oh, I’m sure you have, but none of those dalliances really MATTER, do they?” She laughed as she effortlessly tore my clothes off with a single vine. “None of them even got to use your shiny new hole. Besides, the only one who really COUNTS is me, don’t you think, Noelle?”

A chill ran down my spine as I felt my brain adapt to Mistress’s new order. Of course Mistress was the only one who could ACTUALLY take my virginity. What was I even worried about? “P-please be gentle?”

“Oh, petal. NO.”

Vines lashed out, wrapping in an intricate dance all over the bed, perfectly strapping me down so I could barely wiggle. As soon as it was finished, the tip ran up to my shoulder, and injected me. Every nerve touching anything, whether it was my back on the bed or my knee rubbing against a vine, suddenly lit up in sheer, nigh-uncontrollable pleasure. I very slowly managed to whimper out a very pitiful “C-Class-A, I assume?” between moans and attempts to thrash.

“Oh, so clever.” She gently touched my cheek, slowly dragging it down until She reached my chest. “Mmm, and these, such a delightful handful—though don’t get me wrong, I’m going to love it when they’ve fully grown in.” She pulled her hands back, and slapped me right on the tits. I immediately let out a pure, uncontrolled moan, and she smiled. “And so reactive!”

“M-Miss!”

“Ah ah ah.” She tugged on my collar. “I think that you know what to call me now, darling. Say it.”

“M-Mistress! I mean Mommy! I mean Mistress! I mean—”

I was cut off by Mistress slapping Her absolutely massive bitchbreaker of a pleasure graft onto my stomach. Without an ounce of Terran pride, dignity, or whatever the hell the TCN’s been selling recently, I moaned as I tried to wiggle it closer, only for Mistress to laugh.

“What, that desperate for Mommy’s cock, darling?” I nodded in the most pitiful manner I could manage. “Beg.”

“Please Mi—Mommy, I need to be fucked, used, stretched, please, please, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!”

Not my most dignified moment, to be sure.

“Oh, such delightful noises. Maybe I’ll keep you like this—a cute little begging fuckhole for me to use…then again, it would be such a waste if I couldn’t properly snuggle my property. Ah, whatever, I’ll decide later.”

With that, She thrust Her full length inside me, and I’m pretty sure I came right on the spot. Of course, She wasn’t in the mood for stopping at that point—instead, She just started fucking into me, barely giving my poor brain a moment to catch up.

Belle whimpered beside me, and cuddled up close. For just the briefest of moments, I felt her grind against my thigh, only to get strapped down by vines for her trouble. “Mistress!!”

“This is your punishment for being such a bad girl, Belle. Don’t worry, it won’t be long. I think that Class-N should wear off in…oh, five hours? Maybe six? Gosh, I just can’t seem to remember~.”

At that, Belle moaned. Meanwhile, I was somewhere off in the depths of subspace, enjoying my current existence as a hole for Mommy to fuck. Every ounce of Her attention pressed into me, handling Belle with almost an afterthought.

“Mouth.”

I mindlessly opened my mouth for Mommy, and She immediately embraced me in a kiss. Her long, thick tongue stretched my lips, and I barely managed a moan out around it. After a few moments, She pulled back, a long string of drool between our lips.

“Such a good whore for me. This is what you were built for, wasn’t it? Nod.” I nodded. “Good girl. Just a perfect little toy for Mommy to fuck. Mmm, maybe I’ll get you some doll biomods, really make sure you always know what you are. My toy. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Nod.” I nodded. “See? So simple for me.”

“M-Mistress…” Belle moaned next to me. “C-can I k-kiss Noelle?”

“Hm. Do you think you’ve been a good enough girl for a kiss? Hmm, petal?” Belle nodded frantically, and Mommy laughed. “Alright, alright, I suppose it IS Christmas. Blow her mind.”

Oh fuck.

Belle laughed. “Oh, don’t worry Mistress. I will.”

With barely any effort, Mommy turned my head towards Belle’s. For the briefest of moments, I got lost in her eyes before she locked her own lips with mine. While Mommy’s kisses absolutely deleted my higher thought processes, this was different. Sure, the tingle of the Class-A’s probably helped, but Belle was…softer, kinder, and definitely not trying to break me. Blow my mind, however…

Well.

She was very good at kisses, that’s for fucking sure.

“Oh, my sweet darlings. Frost, you two are so CUTE!” She grunted, bottoming out in me again. “Oh, Noelle, honey, sweetie, I’m getting so close.” A growl echoed through Her voice. “Where do you want it?”

I didn’t need to think for this one. “IN IN IN IN IN!!”

“Good girl. You picked correctly!”

Warmth filled my core at the praise, quickly followed by an overwhelming sensation of fullness as Mommy came inside me, grunting the whole way. “Oh, so good for me, my precious, my sweet, my toy…”

“Th-thank you M-Mommy…” I mumbled through the haze of orgasmic bliss.

“Oh, you’re quite welcome, darling…but we’re not done yet.”

“H-huh?” I looked up at Mommy, only for Her vines to tighten around my limbs, and lift me into the air. “I-I—”

“Shhh. Let Mommy take control here, okay sweetie? Nod.” I nodded. “Good girl!”

I watched as Mommy pulled Belle into the center of the bed, and then perched me right above her cock. “O-oh.” I gasped.

“Don’t worry sweetie. I know a cute little thing like you won’t know what to do with such a big girlcock. Let Mommy handle it for you, okay? Just relax. Mommy has it handled.”

“O-okay…” I relaxed into Mommy’s grip, and fully let Her take control of my body. It wasn’t like struggling would stop Her—She was so much stronger than me it wasn’t even a contest.

As Belle’s cock began to fill me up, drawing dazed moans from my lips, she seemed to get worried. “Uh, M-Mistress, you forgot the counteragent!”

“Did I now?” Mommy laughed. “Are you certain, my precious Belle?”

“Y-yesss, fuck!” Belle’s cock was absurd. It was still smaller than Mommy’s, but FUCK that wasn’t saying much. Mommy moved me up and down her cock, using me like the fucktoy I was.

“Give Mommy a kiss, sweetie.” I wasn’t given a choice in the matter, Her vines guiding my lips to Hers. This time, She didn’t deign to fuck my mouth with Her tongue. Instead, She was gentle, loving, yet possessive and hungry with sheer, raw desire.

“Mi-Mi-MistRESS!” Belle screamed from beneath us. “F-fuck—Frost!! Mulch!!”

“M-Mommy, Belle used more bad words.”

“Oh yes, she did! Such a clever girl for me.” The two of us chuckled—well, mine was cut off by another moan as Belel bottomed out in me, but you get the picture. “Another hour or two, you think?”

“Y-yeah!” I excitedly looked down at Belle. “H-hear that, b-babe? You’re gonna—fuck—you’re gonna just keep fucking Mommy’s cum into me—oh yes, right there—for—for a while!” Belle whimpered, and I laughed—at least, until Mommy’s graft boked at my butt. “M-Mommy?”

“Oh, taunting your pinnate? You know better than that, sweetie.” She sighed. “Both of my pets, such naughty things. I suppose it’s good I’ve blocked out the next few hours for this, then.”

I unleashed a noise halfway between a moan and a scream as Mommy entered me again, and again, and again and again and again and again.

-----

Several hours later, with all three of us covered in a mix of cum, lube, and sap, we collapsed into a cuddle pile the likes of which had never been seen before.

“O-oh dear. I th-think I might have lost control a bit there.” Mistress timidly spoke. “I think I need a glass of water?”

“Oh, lost control a bbb—oh frost my poor dainty legs.” Belle flopped over me. “Noellllllllllle, do somethinggggggg.”

“I’d love to, but BOTH of your asses are on top of me.” I was ever so thankful the Class-A had worn off. “I was trying to tell you that we should finish opening gifts before the sexathon, but noooooo, don’t fucking listen to Noelle. Just fuck her into a multi-hour long stupor of flesh grinding against flesh.”

“O-okay, Mistress, why the fffffrost? Frost. Why the frost does Noelle get to curse, but not me? It’s not fair!”

Mistress chuckled. “Because I think it’s funny.” Belle groaned loudly, and both me and Mistress laughed. “See? Hi-lar-i-ous.”

“Ughhhh, you’re the WORST MISTRESS EVER!”

Mistress growled. “I can still go another round, darling. I’m not THAT drained.”

Belle beeped. “S-sorry Mistress.”

Eventually, we managed to find it in ourselves to get out of the bed. Mistress helped us to the ground with a reasonable amount of teasing, and we walked out into the living room. At least the sun hadn’t set yet—though it was definitely the afternoon now.

Mistress helped us onto the couch. As soon as we were secure, I leaned onto Belle, and she bonked her head against mine in a show of love. Mistress joined us on the couch, her vines wrapping around the two of us, while another set began to drag our presents towards us.

I was safe.

I was loved.

I was happy.

As we opened our presents that afternoon, I knew for a fact that for the first time in a long time, there was no where else I would rather be.