Farm Girl

Cass was used to hardship. Training was hard. Fighting was hard. Educating herself to speak, read, and socialize was hard. But not meaningless. Meaningless hardship she didn’t see the point of.

She understood the necessity of hiding out at the Kent farm, but not why the hot water heater didn’t work. Why she had to haul firewood up to the wash house to heat water. And without a wagon, because it’d lost a wheel.

Sweat ran in rivers down her face, over her neck, and between her breasts. They were barely held by a halter. It had fit Supergirl—sometime—but Cass did not have the same figure. Her areolas peeked above the material if she moved even slightly. She’d been promised new clothes, but that would have to wait until the current crisis was over. She didn’t know why Bruce couldn’t solve these things so that when a crisis rolled around, minor details like her having to lug firewood around weren’t already dealt with.

She knelt beside the wagon and pushed as hard as she could to get the wheel back on the axle. One side of her top gave up and her right breast got free. She didn’t want to lose the work she’d already put into the wheel. She ignored how PG-13 she was at the moment.

“You need any help, Cassie Cain?”

That was Kon. Since she was dressed as a farm girl, he called her Cassie Cain, like she was one of the Beverly Hillbillies. Cass didn’t like being reminded of Wonder Girl when she was talking to Kon.

“You could’ve volunteered earlier,” Cass informed him.

“I was napping! People do that at night, you know. Not my fault you Bats are all nocturnal.” He smiled at her puckishly. Its friendliness belied how tall and built he was. “Shame. You look good in the light.”

Then she realized what he was looking at. Cass didn’t blush, just let the wagon fall and stood up. She tugged at the halter until it was back in place. She should’ve been wearing a bra but she didn’t consider herself endowed enough to need one.

“Feel free to help me now.”

“All you have to do was ask,” Kon said. But as he walked up to her, his smile became a leer.

He was looking right at her groin. Cass knew why. Her cut-offs were too small for her. They had crept up and the crotch had narrowed between her labia instead of staying on top of it. Without looking, she pulled her jeans down to sort them out.

Kon pretended not to notice, though now he looked her in the eye. “I’ll hold the wagon up and you push the wheel on.”

She knelt with the wheel in her hands and Kon easily did what she’d needed a minute of straining and huffing to do.

As she worked the wheel to where it belonged, she couldn’t help but notice the corded rippling beneath the tanned skin of Kon’s arms. He was wearing overalls, no shirt, and there was plenty to see of his broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped body.

Cass shoved the wheel over the axle and used a small nail for a cotter pin, feeling Kon’s eyes on her… patiently waiting for another slip.

When she was finished they both stood up. Cass ended up so close to Kon that her nipples touched his chest.

They were hard. Kon’s skin was warm.

They both jumped awkwardly away from the tension that had suddenly become so concrete. And, meeting Kon’s eyes, Cass knew he wished he hadn’t. She tried to imagine what she would’ve done if he’d just… stayed there… his body touching hers… but she couldn’t picture it. She could read other people, but parts of herself were entirely opaque. She didn’t know why she did what she did or whether her reasons were like other people’s. Cass just knew that it was insane to expect someone else to figure her out when she didn’t know herself yet.