Squatter's Rights 6 (Patreon)

“Kory, what are you talking about, we’re like sisters? You’ve said it yourself…”

“Sisters and nothing else. The confines of an Earther relationship. Nothing Tamaranian or Amazonian. Donna, this could have developed much more.”

Donna gulped. There was truth in that. As an Amazon, her threshold for physical affection was far different from the typical American. And yet, not so very different. Growing up on Themyscira a young orphan, she’d been coddled. Nudged away from sexuality. Her appreciation of the opposite sex was something she developed in Man’s World, as part of the first line-up of the Teen Titans. She’d been more intimate with Roy than she’d been with any of the female members; something she regretted and yet was strangely reassured by.

Then Kory had come along. A true singularity. So different from anyone she had ever known. Interested in her as a man was, but with a way of expressing it and framing it that was solely feminine. It wasn’t simply lesbian; it blurred the line between friendship and sisterhood and… something else.

But it could only develop so much. Donna had her relationship with Terry and Kory had hers with Dick. They’d shared sparring sessions and late-night talks and countless touches. Even kisses, those though were always initiated by Kory, who held back herself. Keeping things light, innocent, verging on platonic, as if waiting for Donna to more firmly state what their relationship was.

Only Donna hadn’t. Not until it had happened by accident. At some point, the kisses began to shy away from her lips and the hugs were less tight and the one Kory went to talk to was Dick, not her.

It was only later would Donna realize that Kory had asked her out—another friendly night on the town—and she’d demurred, telling Kory she had plans with Terry instead. She supposed Kory had taken that as a decision. That she’d bowed out then, not wanting to make Donna put her foot down and say her interest was in her boyfriend, not in Kory.

Kory had never let Donna see any regret there. And Donna had had plenty of regrets, but if that was one of them, she’d never gotten to the point where she’d admitted it.

Only now… she supposed that this new wound Kory had taken had reopened an old one as well.

“I think,” Donna said at length, “it’s hard to put a label on something that’s bordering all three of our worlds. Alien and Amazon and Earth. Someone from any one of those cultures would see us differently. I suppose that’s what you’re saying. What we had could’ve been serious or could’ve not been serious, depending on your point of view. The same way what you did with Gundersen could’ve been a horrible violation or… just another battle scar.”

Kory didn’t answer; there was no pleasure in making Donna understand. And suddenly, Donna wondered if that was what Kory had been saying at all. “Will you help me make Dick understand?”

“Of course, Kory.”

“And will you help me understand?”

“How?”

“Take your clothes off.”

“Kory…”

Donna didn’t know what to say now. For all the well-developed sexuality Kory had, there could be something childish about her innocence. And something slutty about her willingness. It made it hard to explain things to her without sounding judgmental or condescending or any of million things Donna didn’t want to be—not to her.

“That has sexual connotations,” she concluded, knowing that was ridiculously prim, but it still seemed the least hurtful way to remind her there was a line to be crossed in Kory’s simple request.

“In your world?” Kory asked. “In mine?”

“I don’t want to upset Dick.”

“Do you believe I would ever ask you to do something that would hurt him?”

Donna couldn’t dignity that with a response. The question hung there, mocking Donna for considering what she’d considered. The only way to dispel that awkward tension was to do what she should’ve done in the first place.

She undressed. Without her costume in the way, her body was pale perfection. Marred only slightly by the rapidly fading bruises from the fight, the pink bandage around her head that threw off the sharp contrast of her dark hair to her alabaster skin. Even now, though, Donna felt no urge to compare herself to Kory. She felt more like they were a matching set, like key and lock. Her, whole and healthy, able to give whatever Kory needed in her broken state. And she would. Kory would get anything from Donna she required.

Donna stepped into the bathtub. The water was hot, burning like Kory did, licking between Donna’s toes and lapping at her knees. She lowered herself down at the other end of the tub from Kory, pillowing her head against its rim and stretching out her legs into Kory’s space, alongside her.

A pulse of anxiety went through Donna—a worry that she wouldn’t be able to control herself, that she’d do or say something that would further harm Kory. But the water was too soothing to let that neurosis get hold of her. Kory was one of the most understanding people she’d ever met. All she wanted, Donna knew, was to be with her friend. To be comforted and cooed over and relaxed as only someone close to her could do.

Closing her eyes, Donna loosened her body. They both should relax. Let that hurtful past grow more and more distant, luxuriating in the shared present instead.

“Would you mind if I touch your breasts?” Kory asked softly. “I love the way they feel in my hands. I’d like to wash them, and then your back, then maybe shampoo your hair if you’re not sick of being pampered by then.”

“Why am I the one being pampered?” Donna asked.

“You’ve gone without it longer. And please remember I’m not the walking wounded any more than you are. I want to give comfort as much as you do.”

Donna feared Kory felt a need to make up for what had happened, for the pain she’d put her friends through, while discounting her own. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she insisted.

“And this isn’t penance,” Kory replied. “I want to delight in you—to know I’ve pleased you. Can you possibly think I won’t find satisfaction in that?”

Obediently, Donna sat up in the middle of the bathtub. Leaning forward at the hips, Kory reached out to her with a bar of soap, lathering and massaging with soapy fingers until Donna’s breasts felt all but weighted down with soap suds. It was then that Donna realized how numb she’d felt, overwhelmed with concern for Kory and the lingering ache of the brutal combat she was recovering from.

But now, Kory’s gentle touch was reawakening her body. Returning it to a state where it could feel pleasance, and desire, and comfort. They were all jumbled together, but that wasn’t because of Kory. Donna felt an implicit urge to discern whether this feeling was friendship or sexual or even romantic. She knew, as well as she knew her own heart, that Kory loved Dick and would do nothing to violate his trust. But had Dick come to accept that Kory’s way was one of the heat of battle and the flash of intoxicated sexuality, uninhibited by constraints and rules? Not alien so much as animal?

It wasn’t that Kory denied herself to others. It was that she chose Dick, over and over again. But was she choosing Donna now or was it all in the Amazon’s head?

“Lie back again. I want to do something between those lovely legs,” Kory cooed, and it was obvious she was relishing what she was doing to Donna, even if Donna couldn’t quite figure it out. Or maybe simply admit to the sexual edge that had always been there, beneath all the platonic friendship and their involvement with other lovers.

But Donna obeyed, shutting her eyes—gods, how could anyone be expected to take both the spectacular sight of Kory and what her hands could do to one’s body?

Kory’s hands were slippery, tantalizing in Donna’s lap. Donna felt the soap bubbles sliding along her intimate flesh, adding their own slow torment to all Kory was doing. The Tamaranian wasn’t doing anything so simple as seeking to pleasure Donna. Instead, she delighted in exploring and sampling on her own terms. It was as affectionate as a hug, kittenish even, but so intimate, so arousing.

How could it not be arousing, when Kory was touching her where she was? But Donna felt a little like a deviant, getting turned on by this perversely innocent treatment. And she liked that naughtiness.

“Kory,” Donna pleaded, “I really need to know where you stand with Dick. What is this? Is it… is it both of us? Is that it? Or do you just want a fling? Or is it just that you want to touch me?”

“Do you like being touched?” Kory teased.

“Kory, please. He’s my friend.”

“I know he is,” Kory said, her voice evening out into a less risqué tone. “I love him so much, Donna. I won’t compare him to the sisterhood we share, but the three of us… I treasure myself, Donna. And I treasure the two of you. I know that it will eat Dick up, what’s happened to me. That he won’t understand the way I see it. Even you barely understand. But maybe if some good came of it… if we both made him understand…”

“Understand how?” Donna asked.

Kory pulled the plug, standing up to let the draining water swirl about her feet. “Would you join with us, Donna? Show him that there is a place for sex, and love, and romance, without the three all having to be one? Dick wants to be first in my heart, and I’ve given him that. Let us show him that there’s room for you there as well.”