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Cellulose & Steel	By : Not-Taylor Category: Misc Books > FemmeSlash Views: 1028 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own HDG or its characters and I don't make money from this work.

Chapter List
- 57
- 58
- 59
Warning lights go off, signaling a barrage of enemy fire on the port stern. It’s a direct hit. Any second now oxygen will be depleted. This isn’t what’s supposed to happen! The engines are starting to overheat. Any second now Propulsion’s going to give a status report. If only Art Pal will come through… She promised nobody would be hurt!
I woke up with a jolt. It was just a dream. Everything’s fine. The heat was a warm collection of affini vines and the clatter against the hull was just simulated rain. I settled back against Mistress, grateful for her protection from that kind of danger. She’d never let me get hurt yet.
Lying among her vines was comfier than anywhere I’d ever been, maybe with one exception. That wasn’t an option any more. By then I’d stopped thinking about it too much, but sometimes I couldn’t help remembering. Mistress offered to take away the bad thoughts, but I wouldn’t let her. I wanted to remember, for her. She was… things I can’t even say. Again, I tried to think of other things so it wouldn’t hurt as much.
The way Mistress felt against my skin was an excellent distraction. Her vines always seem to have more surface area than they should, and it was so hard not to lose track of time trying to cuddle against all of her. Whatever she had instead of a heartbeat was calming me down. After only a couple of minutes the nightmare was far in the past… mostly.
Since we’d met in person, almost every day had been great. She’d try to remind me she wasn’t actually a goddess of the hunt, but I had trouble believing her. She’s so fast and strong and smart that she easily could be divine. As my Mistress, I had every right to tell her that’s what I felt. And she couldn’t do anything about it. Unless she wanted to, in which case I wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“Are you ready to wake up, dear one?”
“I’m already awake, Mistress. I thought you needed more sleep.”
“While there’s nothing I’d prefer to staying in bed with you, we do need to start the day. I’ve discovered a Terran breakfast item called grits. Would you like to try it?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s like oatmeal but with a different grain. It comes in cheese and sugar variants. Which would you prefer?”
“Sugar!”
As I was gently rotated to look at Mistress’s face I saw her start to smile. “You’re consistent if nothing else, Ginger. Let’s find something substantial to go with it.”
She squeezed me just tight enough that it was a bit hard to breathe, but she released me way too quickly anyway. Even though I tried to squeeze back she wouldn’t let me and I was suddenly standing next to our bed.
“I believe you’d look good in orange today, don’t you?”
“Yes, Mistress.”
I didn’t care whatsoever, but orange is what would make her happy and that would make me happy. Dressing me took under a minute. Her vines made quick work of the weird angles humans have. At the time I was thinking about how she’d taken ten minutes to put on a simple dress when she’d first picked me up. Breakfast wasn’t very interesting. I decided I wasn’t a fan of grits, even when Mistress fed me. Fortunately she didn’t insist that I had to eat them. I could have a bigger lunch instead.
After she finished feeding me as much as she thought I ought to eat, we sat on the couch together. Mistress tended to something important on her tablet, maybe helping another floret-to-be find a new home. That’s very important. They might not know how silly it is to resist when you can be happy and loved, like me. Like Liv would be if she could only understand…
That was one of my sad days, when she visited. I still missed her, just… everything about her. Even the stuff she didn’t like, but I didn’t care because it was Liv. My Liv. She was a good person, just misguided. Someday she’d get it, and we could laugh together about her mistakes. Or so I’d thought before that day. I’d thought Mistress must really be a goddess who’d answered my prayer when Liv came through the front door with two affini. She was dressed like a floret too, so I thought that meant she was visiting. I couldn’t have been happier than when I learned she was coming to live with me! But that didn’t last long. She’s still a feralist, or she was, the last I’d heard. Mistress didn’t like talking about it, even if that bad affini Miss Verda had been the one to take Liv away from me. It wasn’t right. I knew I wasn’t supposed to have mean thoughts about people any more, but I couldn’t help myself, even if she was an affini.
“Mistress…”
“Yes, petal?” She looked right at me with her gorgeous lavender eyes and I had to take a second to reform my thoughts.
“I… was thinking about Liv again. I miss her. Mistress-”
“I know, my cute sailor. We can only hope that Liv chooses to be good and that eventually her mistress may let her play with you. You know she was only here as a runaway.”
“Yes, Mistress. But she chose to come find me. And I still l-”
“Don’t say that right now.” She squeezed me tightly. It helped. “You shouldn’t dwell on that. She won’t be ready until she’s learned her lesson.”
“When she was here, I thought… She was… I wanted things how they were!” It was getting hard not to cry, even with Mistress holding me. I just couldn’t understand why my girlfriend was being so stubborn and weird. She could practically read my mind, once upon a time, she knew how we felt about each other. I could read too.
“When this is over you’ll be wiser florets.”
“I don’t want to be wise! I want Liv back!”
“Look at me, petal. I need to see your face.” How could I say no to my Mistress?
“What if… One of your holidays is coming up. Would you like to decorate the apartment?” My head started to feel a little funny and I felt as though there was something important I wanted to be mad about, but I wanted to talk about what Mistress just mentioned more.
“Which one?” I asked. Mistress knew how much I liked to decorate. The only part she objected to was when I needed to have her hang things from the ceiling, even if she wouldn’t seriously complain about it because she’s so tall.
“Christmas.”
“Really?” Christmas? Already? That was so exciting.
“In only a few days, too. We’ll need to request a tree from the deck’s compiler station. Everything else you can compile here, I believe.”
“Yay! We’re going to need a fireplace too, so we can hang stockings.”
“Stockings?”
“Yeah! So Santa can bring us candy.” Mistress squeezed me tightly enough with so many vines that I started to go limp as she laughed.
“What?” I continued as soon as I could arrange enough thoughts. “We make it a fair trade by giving him cookies and milk.”
“But if we compile cookies, why wouldn’t we just compile some candy instead, if that’s what you really want?”
“Because they’re from Santa. It’s different. Christmas candy is special.”
“Then I’ll put a fireplace on the request form too. Is there anything else?”
“Not… We’ll need a lot of lights, and some other things. I guess we can skip a lot of the big decorations. So just the fireplace and the tree. Make sure you get the right kind, Mistress.”
“There are different kinds?”
“There are. Get one of the ones like on television, please. Otherwise it’ll be hard to decorate properly. You’ll help me with that, won’t you?”
“Of course I will! This is exciting. Christmas is one of the first Terran traditions I learned about.”
“And I’ll pick things out and send them to you so you can compile them all at once. It probably won’t take that long…”
“No, not if we’re working together.”
I hugged her with all my strength. It didn’t do much, but she always seemed to like when I hugged her too. And she was so soft… But she pushed me off, even when I whined at her. It usually worked.
“We have to get ready and make plans. You need to tell me what kind of cookies Santa likes.”
“I thought he’d take just about anything. My parents never seemed to worry about that…”
“Then that’s one less concern.-”
“Oh! I know! We should make sugar cookies.” She started to laugh. “No, Mistress, I’m serious. You make cookie dough and cut it into shapes and decorate them.”
“What shapes do you make?”
“Snowmen, and angels, and bells. All kinds of things.”
“Somebody’s probably already made a compiler script. We’ll be able to make that work too.”
“And dinner. We need to think about that, too.”
“What does one have for Christmas dinner?”
“Different things. That’s why we need to think.”
“I’m thrilled you’re so excited, Ginger. This will be a fantastic Christmas, I’m certain.”
“Of course it will, we’re together. If only…” I was starting to remember something. It was on the tip of my brain.
“Ginger, would you like to invite some of your friends for dinner?”
“Let’s! And we can all sit together and watch a movie or talk or-”
“Then I’ll message their owners right away. This is starting to shape into a plan for a lovely day.
“It is! I’m so excited.”
It’d been ages since I’d been able to have a real party with people I liked being around. Even on the Song I couldn’t exactly disinvite anyone, and even if I could it wasn’t like back on Earth. The food was never very good, especially toward the end. The first Christmas I was going to spend with Mistress was going to be the best I’d ever had! But there was one thing that was a slight problem, and it wasn’t something Mistress could help with. I would need to be clever to solve it without making her worry.
“Mistress, may I have my tablet now?”
“Of course, my cute floret. Try to keep better track of it in the future, if you don’t mind?”
She knew perfectly well what she did to make me drop it yesterday. I would’ve sworn she’d done it intentionally too, with how quickly she picked it up after. That was just one of Mistress’s habits I’d had to get used to over the past few months.
With tablet tightly in both hands, I turned to face my Mistress, coincidentally blocking her view of what I was doing. I hoped I was being subtle enough not to make her curious. She didn’t usually read over my shoulder, but today especially I wanted to keep her in the dark. Snooping would be something she regretted.
Nothing that was happening was wrong or something I could get in trouble for. Typing out a few short messages was something perfectly normal. Checking the replies was also normal. Who wouldn’t read the replies to one’s messages? That’s silly. Of everyone I was hoping to meet up with this afternoon, only Roger (she/they) was free. Everyone else seemed to have plans, which wasn’t a surprise since it was so last minute. Miss Holly (she/her), Roger’s mistress, said we could see each other later. Great! Now there was only one roadblock to the next step.
“Mistress, Can I play with Roger later?”
“How much later?”
“I don’t know. Soon? Early in the afternoon?”
That was when she got a message, or I assumed so because of how she looked down at her screen.
“Is right after lunch what you were hoping for, petal?”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“Then that’s no problem at all. What inspired you to want to see them?”
“I felt like visiting somebody.” That’s the truth!
“We’ll have some time before we have to leave,” Mistress said, starting to smile as she slipped her vines behind my back. I knew where this was headed.
“But we’ll be late…”
“You’re my floret now, Ginger. You don’t need to be the one to worry about those kinds of things.”
“But Mistreeesss…”
A bed of vines had already formed behind me and I was being pulled in. “No… This is important…” I thought, struggling to hold my focus on anything but my owner. But she was so soft and warm, and everything about her was so beautiful… I realized that my tablet was no longer with me. The texture of Mistress’s vine against my cheek was too much distraction and I gave in. Being responsible technically was her job and not mine. Mistress was always right.
Even though I was expecting something else, all Mistress and I did was cuddle. She held me tightly against her, close enough to be buried completely in the leaves and stuff around her chest. It felt like she was vibrating. As she was pulling me all the way in it started to feel like I was vibrating all over too. Then I was still, floating against her. Trying to hug her didn’t do much other than making me even more secure against her leafy body. I tingled all over, vaguely aware I’d just been a little upset about something. Vines held me in without any chance of letting go sooner than Mistress wanted.
Occasionally one of her tendrils would stroke my face or run along my back, sparkling everywhere it touched. I felt happy and calm, but I didn’t care. It was impossible to care about anything but being close to Mistress. Nothing else that seemed to matter at other times really did. Being with Mistress was worth everything I’d been through on the way there, not that I would have remembered any of those things at the moment. The silklike softness of her vines, the vanilla and softwood scent that came from her center, the sound of her affini heartbeat against my eardrum… Everything about Mistress was just right.
Trusting Mistress was the right decision. We arrived at Roger’s place, on the floor above us, right when we were expected. Her curly hair bounced when she jumped up to meet us in the doorway and all four of us hugged to say hello. Mistress and Miss Holly sat down together on the couch and started speaking in Affini, leaving Roger and me to entertain ourselves, just as I’d planned. That was how things usually went, which made my plan reliable.
Roger brought me into the kitchen, fluffy cuffs of her pants trailing behind her. She really liked that style. We weren’t really out of listening distance, especially with how well Mistress could hear, but we were far enough away that she probably wouldn’t notice what we were saying. We hugged again, because it’d been over a week since we’d seen each other, and that’s too long to be apart from a friend.
“What did you want my help with,” she asked.
“Did you know it’s almost Christmas?”
“No… My mistress never said so.”
“It’s true. Mistress told me. We’re going to have a party. Do you want to come?”
“Of course! I’d love to.”
“Yay! But that isn’t it.” What did I want help with again? It was hard to remember back that far after Mistress spent so long holding me. Sometimes it’s hard to think straight around her.
“Oh, right.” I started to whisper, just to be safe. “I want to get my Mistress a present.”
“That’s so sweet!” Roger shouted.
“Shhh. I want it to be a secret.”
“I see.” She smiled at me. I thought she might be deciding to get her mistress something too. She continued at a more reasonable volume. “Have you decided, Ginger?”
“No, I don’t know. Mistress has everything she needs. She does so much for me, I wouldn’t know what she could want.”
“That’s a problem, but I don’t think she’ll mind if you don’t have a perfect idea.”
“But I want to give her something she’ll like!”
“What about a hat?”
“Affini don’t wear hats. Have you ever seen that?”
“In movies…”
“That doesn’t count.”
“Then what about a… an armband?”
“Armband?”
She put a hand around her arm to show me what that was. “An armband. It won’t get in the way, she can take it off whenever she needs to, and you can design it however you want.”
“That’s a pretty good idea. I like it.”
“But why do you need my help with that?”
“Because Mistress knows everything that goes through the compiler. That would spoil the surprise.”
“That makes sense… I can probably compile any design you want and my mistress will be willing to keep the secret. She knows you’re not going to pull a prank.”
“It’s Maybell’s fault for doing the same thing three times in a row, Roger”
“But it was funny!”
“You weren’t the one hit by a falling water balloon.”
That wasn’t funny. I’d gotten really wet. That’s all that happened, but I didn’t like being wet, and neither did the other two victims. I still have no idea how she managed to rig them to fall from across the ship.
“All right. Design?”
“Right… Something pretty. I think silver as a material…”
“Ooh, that would be pretty!”
“Wouldn’t it? And… Maybe a bow and arrow?”
“Are you sure? We might get in trouble for that,” Roger said, looking toward our guardians.
“What? Why?”
“Because it’s violent.”
“It’s just a little decoration, and it’s for my Mistress!”
“That’s why it’d be a shame to be yelled at for that.”
“You’re right.” I sighed. “What would you say to a deer with a wreath of flowers on its neck?”
“I like that! Maybe the extranet can help because I have no idea how to draw that for the compiler.”
“We should hurry. I want to pick out every flower we put on it.”
With a nod, Roger walked into the sitting room where our mistresses were and returned after kind of a while. Her face was red and her eyes were out of focus but she had her tablet.
“Sorry… My mistress missed me.”
“Of course.
I had been stopped randomly for cuddles enough to know what that meant. Roger had been a floret since before the Terran Accord formally declared war (I think) so she must have had a long time to get used to that already.
We sat on the counter by the compiler for the rest of the afternoon working. It was hard to focus a lot of the time, and I got tired and wanted to snuggle with Mistress and take a nap, but we made it. I was proud of the final result. It looked like something that Mistress would wear.
“I’ll keep the design and compile it for you when we’re leaving for your party. The compiler can make wrappings too so that should be easy.”
“Good. Thanks Roger.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Did you still want to give your mistress something?”
“What? Oh, right! Incense. Lemon if the compiler knows how to make it, regular if it doesn’t.”
“Why incense?”
“My mistress said she liked it when she smelled it in my cabin on Unending Trails when we met.”
That was the ship Roger lived on before they were domesticated.
“I’m sure that’ll make her happy. It might not work so I’ll tell you if it doesn’t as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, Ginger.”
Since we’d finished our scheming we went back out to check on our mistresses. They weren’t doing well without us so we had to spend some time cuddling with them so they’d be happy again. Miss Holly and Mistress were leaning together, so it was like we were all cuddling at once. Mistress massaged my shoulders. It felt good but I didn’t know why she was doing that. It didn’t matter. Unfortunately we had to leave after that, but I would’ve liked to stay for dinner. Roger would’ve liked it too, but Mistress said she needed to take care of something. We’d be seeing each other soon so it was fine. Saying goodbye didn’t take long since we were already in a group hug.
The next day we started decorating. Our compiler was big enough to make most of what we needed. Tablecloth, lots of cute and colorful knicknacks to hang on the walls, and a welcome mat with candy canes. Mistress didn’t think we needed one since the habitation bot would sweep up any dirt anyone tracked in, but I thought it would look festive. We even had a little statue of a snowman. We put some green piny stuff with little red bows in it up across the doorways after Mistress found the recipe in the public compiler database. I hadn’t seen that stuff outside of movies but it smelled wintery and looked good.
It was a tough morning, but we managed to get our apartment almost ready by lunch. Mistress compiled beef stew for us, and it was just right for the season. There were a lot fewer potatoes than I was used to in Cosmic Navy rations. Plus, it didn’t taste like it’d been cooked in a microwave.
“Darling, would you like to get the tree with me?”
My Mistress surprised me. Somehow I wasn’t expecting her to talk. That was silly. She always had something important to tell me.
“Yes, Mistress. Now?”
She laughed. Her voice and her laugh were music to me. Probably to everyone else too… The first time we were on voice call, I knew… something. I don’t know what I knew, but I know I knew it. It was like a chorus of woodwinds all playing at once. I didn’t think I could get tired of the sound.
“Maybe you should finish lunch first. Don’t worry, petal. It’ll still be there when we’re ready to get it.”
“And the fireplace?”
“Of course. I listen, you know.” I shivered as she ran her thumb over my cheek. “And we’ll need a table too. It turns out you’re not the only one who doesn’t like to eat sitting on her mistress’s lap.”
“Can we have a big centerpiece? A giant ice sculpture!”
“We’d probably be better off with two, one on each side. That way we can compile them at home, too. What do you want a sculpture of?”
“Reindeer?”
“Who is that?”
“It’s an animal. They pull Santa’s sleigh through the sky.”
“Yes… because they fly.”
“Right. That’s how he’s able to bring so many presents.”
“I understand. We can have ice reindeer if that’ll make you happy.”
“Thanks, Mistress!”
“Finish your soup, Ginger. Then we can go.”
I did that since I was still hungry, even if Mistress had been distracting me. The compiler place wasn’t far so we didn’t have to hurry before the affini running it went home. Mistress managed to pick up the table, the tree, and the fireplace (which wasn’t actually made of stone, sadly) by herself and carry all of them all the way home. Sometimes her strength still surprised me, even though we’d been together for months. How slim her vines were didn’t give an accurate picture of how much she could lift. I think she said once that she could lift over a ton, but I never saw her do that.
We set up the fireplace in one of the corners, and compiled some nice decorations for it. Stockings, some Santa figurines, and some other stuff. We hung a snowflake windchime from one end. We set up the table with everything that didn’t need to be made fresh, covering it in a red tablecloth. I thought it looked really good.
Next, and most important, was the tree. I put some streamers and shiny balls on it, but Mistress wanted to add some Affini decorations too. They looked kind of weird, but fitting, and made the tree more harmonious with the rest of the apartment. She has a good sense of style. Even if it didn’t look very Christmasy, it looked really cheerful, which was the most important thing. It was almost perfect, but the final decoration wasn’t ready yet. That would come later.
That reminded me I still had to make incense for Roger. This wasn’t the day for it, but I knew I’d have to so I wouldn’t disappoint her. She’d checked with her mistress and they were in fact coming, so I needed to remember.
By the time the day itself arrived, the other florets and I could barely contain ourselves. Planning had helped me, but the others didn’t have that luxury. For a lot of us it was the first time we were celebrating a Terran holiday since we came to our new homes. We’d been messaging back and forth all of Christmas Eve. Some of the others wanted to add a lot of complicated stuff but I thought that a simple day would be plenty for all of us, especially with everything Mistress and I had planned.
For the first time in months, I woke up before Mistress because I was so ready to start the festivities. She had me buried under a lot of her vines so I couldn’t get up without asking her to move.
“Mistress?”
“Ginger, you still need to sleep. You’ll crash while everyone is here if you don’t get more rest.”
She was probably right, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Mistress, no… I’m not tired. Please get up?”
“Not yet, petal. You need more than four hours.”
“I don’t!”
I didn’t think I could sleep more even if she wanted me to. After as long without coffee as I’d had in the Cosmic Navy, being awake meant being awake for the rest of the day.
“You do. Be a good girl and try to sleep a little longer.”
“Mistress…”
The affini who had shown me the silliness of feralism started to stroke my back. That wasn’t going to do anything. I wasn’t nervous, I was just awake. The coziness of being this close to her wasn’t something I wanted to fight, of course. It was like being in a heated blanket made of silk. I felt her shift a little, doing something I couldn’t see, and I was suddenly tired. My mind still felt awake, but I could feel my body starting to fall asleep again.
“Mistress…”
“Soon, little one.”
The next thing I saw was Mistress’s vines and leaves in the same position as before. She’d stayed perfectly still for… I checked the window. It wasn’t that much later, but at least it was light out. Speaking was hard, but I didn’t want to stay here. We had to get ready!
“Mistress?”
“Good morning, Ginger.”
“Can we get up now?”
“I think it’s time for that. What would you like for breakfast?”
We spent most of the morning rushing around and trying to make sure everything was in order. Mistress did most of the work, but she told me that my supervision was very important. She put things where I asked her to, so I’m sure she wasn’t just saying that. I think Mistress enjoyed decorating with me. She was good at it.
The missing piece of the tree’s decoration needed to be added. I was a little worried the compiler wouldn’t make it for me but it did. With the addition of the topping ornament it was complete. It might not have been entirely conventional, but it was perfect for us. A glowing silvery hyperspace beacon stood at the highest point, shining on everyone who would be in the room. It wasn’t connected to anything so it wouldn’t be very powerful (unless Mistress installed Affini batteries), but I didn’t think it had to be. That beacon was just like the one that had led her to me when I was ready to become hers. This one had a slightly different message with a slightly different audience in mind, but that’s a secret. The rest of the tree was lit with colorful lights and brightened with cheery colored ornaments. There wasn’t anything under it, but compiling empty boxes for decoration felt wrong.
Dinner wouldn’t need to be made until the guests were here, but we did still need cookies. Mistress found a way to “bake” things with the compiler, even if it’s technically destroying things and replacing them with baked versions… but that was all right. She compiled dough, and we rolled it out and cut it into cute shapes and sprinkled sugar on them. It looked really good, actually, even if she didn’t let me test the dough before we “cooked” it. She was pleased with the output too. We left the cookies on the counter while we tended to other things.
There wasn’t much time for that because people started to show up. Roger and Tim were first and came about the same time with their owners. Tim was wearing a Santa hat and looked very proud of it. Roger was wearing a baggy coat, even though we never had cold weather on Ruby Trunk. She passed a box quietly while my Mistress was distracted by the other affini. It was wrapped already so I had to hope that it was what I’d asked her to compile. I handed over some Lemon incense I’d compiled in return. I wasn’t as good at working the compiler so I’d had to wrap it myself, which was evident just by looking at it. Roger didn’t seem to be upset though.
The others started to trickle in while we were talking. Seeing my friends from other decks was really nice and we had a lot of catching up to do. Most of them were from the Song’s crew, so I was happy to see they were settling in with their mistresses. Even our helmsperson was there, even though she’d never done anything on the ship because Liv was handling everything for us. We all took a moment to hope Olivia had started to listen to her mistress.
There wasn’t time to feel sad because it was already dinnertime. Not really, but we really were eating, just… in the middle of the afternoon. We had dozens of dishes, including for vegetarians. I didn’t understand why so many of us had stopped eating meat since it wasn’t real meat anyway, and choosing to only eat plants despite being owned by a plant felt really weird to think about. That was fine, of course, and we filled the table with delicious food. The compiler started to complain because we’d used it so much. That didn’t matter because everything made it to the table and we finished everything. Even the affini tried some things.
After we ate and everyone was full, we sat down on the couch for a movie. There wasn’t quite enough space for us all to fit but we made it work. We weren’t shy around one another, and how flexible our owners were helped a lot. I was sandwiched between Roger and Mistress and another floret whose face I couldn’t see from where I was sitting, who I later recognized as another crew member. What we watched was short and generic but very funny. It made me happy to have so many great people around me, all willing to spend the day together. The second movie was one I recognized, that I’d seen a few times back on Earth. I thought I remembered that the protagonist was supposed to die at some point, and that that was critical to the movie’s theme of being a good person, but this version was good too. It was a lot more positive than I remembered.
When the second movie ended, I forced my way through everyone and got up. Mistress helped with that, I admit. I don’t think I could’ve pried myself away from her otherwise. There was one thing that still needed doing. I brought out the cookies that Mistress and I had baked along with a large pot of hot chocolate. Naturally, everyone had some, even our mistresses. After that we talked and sat and cuddled one another until evening. Even though we technically could’ve spread out to other furniture we didn’t. We were happy to all be together.
Eventually everyone had to leave. Roger left last and I whispered my thanks to her for her help. She seemed to appreciate that I thought her coat idea was kind of cute. She gave me one last hug and she and her mistress left the apartment, leaving me alone with my Mistress. The quiet was strangely refreshing.
“Did you have fun today, Ginger?”
“Today isn’t over.”
“It’s close to over. Would you like a snack before bed?”
“I’m not ready for bed.”
“You don’t have to go quite yet, but I think you’ve had a long day. Don’t you?”
“Mistress nooo. It’s important.”
“What’s important, petal?”
“There’s something we have to do. Wait here.”
I ran to the spot where I hid Mistress’s present and got it. The way she smiled when she saw it made me smile too. She hugged me tightly with all of her vines. Just that, when she didn’t know what I’d gotten her, made it worth the effort.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a Christmas present! Unwrap it!”
She did just that, taking plenty of time to examine it from the outside, making me wait. I knew her well enough to know she was just as eager to see it open as I was. Mistress was very careful to drag it out. After some time, she slowly and carefully slid a tendril under the folds of the paper, feeling what could be inside. It was just a box, obviously, so she gave up and cleanly removed the paper, not tearing any of it. When she saw there was an unmarked box, she stopped being careful and tore open its seam.
“Darling, really? This is lovely!” Mistress said, examining the design. She took a lot longer than she technically needed to look at it, trying to see all the details.
“I’m glad you like it. I designed the pattern just for you.”
“You did? It’s beautiful. Thank you, Ginger.”
She started to hug me again, this time almost stopping me from breathing. She came close, but she’d only crossed that threshold once, early in our relationship. I could tell she was as happy as she said she was. She kept looking at it, turning it over in a pair of vines.
“You’re supposed to put that on your arm.”
“Oh! I see.”
Mistress did that. It was a perfect fit. I needed to thank Roger again for her help.
“Where did this come from?”
“Somebody who’s good at making metal things.”
That’s technically true of Roger’s compiler.
“Well, this is wonderful and completely unexpected. Thank you very much, pet.”
“You’re welcome, Mistress.”
“I actually have something for you, or I would have, if I’d thought to compile it before now.”
She reached into the kitchen and I heard the compiler working. It sounded like the template was already in its memory, since it didn’t take long at all.
“Here you go!”
Mistress handed me a package that looked just like the one I’d given her. I unwrapped it quickly, not bothering to try to save the paper. It was a box! Mistress’s smile told me that was intentional.
“This is just what I needed. Now I can store stuff.”
“What if there were ‘stuff’ already there, as a start to your new collection?”
“That would be exciting.”
I opened the container to find a collar. It was soft and smooth, colored black just like the collars I’d worn during my rebellious phase right after I’d moved in with Mistress. The thickness was inconsequential. If it were a Terran material I would’ve said it couldn’t hold a small dog, let alone me. On the front was a symbol of a bow with an arrow, the tip of which was a flower. The whole thing was very pretty, except for one thing.
“Mistress, you know I don’t need these any more.”
“You don’t, my wonderful and obedient first floret, but there’s no reason you couldn’t wear one anyway. Besides, if you look carefully you’ll see there’s nowhere to attach a leash.”
She was right. It was a collar and nothing more. It didn’t need to be more. It showed that I belonged to Mistress, and that’s all it needed to do. I didn’t have to be reminded, but reminding everyone else was a good idea. Being hers made me proud. I put it on right away, enjoying the cool feeling against my neck.
“Thank you, Mistress. It’s great.”
“I’m glad you like it, darling,” she said, squeezing me yet again.
Now that everything I needed to do was completed, I was tired and ready for bed. I’d been tired before that too, but now I was ready to relax. After Mistress washed me we went to bed. I didn’t feel like eating anything. Mistress changed me into pajamas but left my collar on. As she turned the lights off I snuggled into her, ready to end the day. Even though I was starting to fall asleep, I wanted to say one last thing.
“Thank you for letting me have a party, Mistress.”
“You did a very good job of organizing it. I’m proud of you, Ginger. Happy Christmas.”
“Happy Christmas, Mistress.”
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Cellulose & Steel