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The following is a fan-based

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Chapter 5: The Important Questions

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius


I have to admit, the kitchen sure was unnerving when I was the only one there.

It was early morning, I hadn't felt any hints of tiredness after what happened yesterday and… Mora still hadn't risen from her bed. Sitting alone by the table, I pondered on the current predicament as I breathed in the refreshing aroma of my scrambled eggs.

Yesterday had been… tough. I wouldn't say it was the worst day of my life since I've had worse crap happen to me. No, the bigger issue was that was now the only one to work with Mora when the farm needed even more people to assist compared to the previous month's staff. We lacked in manpower, our minds had yet to grasp how deep in the hole we were in and… I still had to go wake Mora up before her breakfast turned cold.

Still, I kept on waiting for something to happen despite the odds of the woman oversleeping after the ordeal she had to go through. The discussion we had could be described as… tense, confusing, and unfortunately not as resolute as I wanted it to be. We both knew that we needed to keep going despite the big bump she tripped over, but we also knew it wouldn't be easy… and that success wasn't guaranteed.

Drained, mostly defeated, and incredibly appeasing- I would've never imagined the owner to be capable of falling this low at the sight of her own mistakes. It seemed absurd to believe someone so determined and fierce-willed would also be so swift to fall into a state of self-dejection. While I made my points about her needing to focus more on the farm rather than trying to pull a stunt like the one she went with Minos, I also tried to remind her that things weren't that bad. Or at least I tried to make it sound like those weren't.

Once again, things were bad as they were, and I knew that this kind of news would only make her fall deeper in that mood that took hold of her most of yesterday's second half. I didn't press too much to coax her out of that quiet attitude, but right now I was feeling quite convinced I needed to if this behavior ended up repeating even today.

Sighing I stood up from my chair, slowly moving towards the hallway and… thinking how I was supposed to act here. Once again, Mora may have placed some trust in me, but she was still my boss and… it still felt particularly awkward to be the one that had to wake her up when she shouldn't need any help to do that. Not because I considered this a task that was well beyond my real job, rather I thought that this was incredibly nerve-wracking to even contemplate as I was unsure if I was prepared to delve in her room, considering the possible states of undress I may find her in.

As much as I tried to keep a friendly approach towards the Cow Prime… it would be a lie to say I wasn't actually fascinated by her forms. Mora was a lovely-looking woman and… yeah, I couldn't avoid stare away from her chest. Not when she flaunted her curves so happily with her revealing clothes, and I've had to work with her multiple times to even notice this.

Miles was quick to direct his eyes at women's forms and bring those up verbally whenever he could, but I was less compelled to do so after friskier times back when I was still in college. Good times- but times where I was still testing things out and not going for anything serious. I wasn't too worried about job prospects, as I… had a decent life with a great future ahead.

Things change when certain events happen, and with that I was less interested in appearances than a couple of years ago. Despite this, I was surprised when I realized I had to push myself to look away from ogling Mora's body. Lovely as it was, work there took priority for myself, the farm's sake, and even its owner's interests.

Which is why, when I paused to look inside her room through the half-open door, I saw her in quite the curious position. Hands up and her covers pulled down to reveal the upper bit of her night-clothes, I found myself mesmerized by the combo of adorable and sexy her current pose had. While her serene expression dignified some sense of innocence and peace… her skimpy white nightwear suggested lewd thoughts about her voluptuous frame.

It took me two minutes of relative silence to realize I had been gawking at her before I returned back to the main task. Knocking on the doorframe, I allowed the noise to get her out of her sleep. Eyes slowly opening, Mora blinked for a while as she carefully pulled her mind away from whatever dream had gotten her to oversleep.

Soon the pair of emeralds turned towards my general direction, confused at first, then interested by why I was here right now.

"Good morning, boss," I curtly affirmed. "Breakfast is ready in the kitchen."

No verbal response was made, but the Cow Prime nodded before having one of her hands cover her mouth to briefly yawn. Walking away as she started stretching and pulling down her covers some more, I felt quite certain that the skimpy shirt would be matched with an equally sultry pair of panties.

Ten minutes later, and the woman was already eating her meal without a single hint of tiredness in her posture and expression. She stayed quiet while going through with her food during her first few moments at the table, checking what kind of mood I was in before planning out a decent first step to begin a good interaction to start the day. Much to my relief, Mora had changed her clothes to something less awkward to show to someone she was just a friend to. She now wore a sleeveless white shirt with the word 'Busted' written on it while showing a good portion of her noticeable cleavage, and a pair of short jeans that seemed just barely sufficient in covering her lower body.

...

After a couple of minutes wasted seeing if I would be open to conversation, the young woman sighed.

"Do you have any advice for today?"

Not the worst way to break the ice. We both needed to set up a schedule now that the old one couldn't be applied anymore with… well, without Minos and Miles around to help. There was only me and Mora to handle this tough challenge and… I had few options to offer.

"We could handle the part of the field that had been already worked on, picking the veggies and the new seeds for future attempts at preparing more plants," I quickly suggested. "I believe the jobs at the orchard can be moved to Friday and Saturday since those are the easiest chores to deal with."

"The barn stuff could be done tomorrow. We should be able to get three weeks worth of standard work about it if we focus the entire day tomorrow on it."

"You mean we should work beyond the usual shift?" I inquired with an uncertain tone.

"Two shifts actually. The pauses are lunch and the end of the workday is by dinner."

I sighed. "Still, you know that we can't afford to stay under the sun for too long. It's one thing to be efficient, but another to get either sunburned or a sunstroke."

"We don't have to wear the usual clothes. We could wear something lighter and take small breaks between work to drink water or deal with other needs," Mora pointed out. "I mean, it's not like anyone will complain if I wear less than usual. And I don't mind if you decide to get stuff that can help with the request."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. But I will be the one planning the breaks."

She shrugged. "Fine by me."

As I stood up to start cleaning up the dirty plates, it didn't take long before the conversation resumed.

"Also Declan, I would like to… say something," Mora started to say with a serious look on her face. I turned to acknowledge her as I finished putting the empty dishes in the sink so I could start cleaning the two plates.

"Yes?"

A tiny smile appeared on her face. "Thank you for… not leaving."

Shaking my head, I turned back to look at the sink. Scrubbing would take a while with how the eggs had stuck to the plates but… nothing too worthy of trouble.

"I believe I've already said 'it is fine' to your words, boss."

The Cow Prime huffed. "I mean it. I know I haven't had the best record in being truthful in these kinds of situations but… I am grateful. Really."

Merely nodding to her comment, I ultimately decided to not deflect her words once again, lest I risking an awkward twist arising in the current discussion. There was a pause as I cleaned the plates thoroughly, and while I expected for this to be the end as soon we were going to start working. Still, I was surprised when she nervously coughed and decided to bring up a topic I hadn't paid much attention to.

"Do you think they are still around?"

I figured she meant Miles and Minos. Both guys had arrived in Gossamer for different reasons, and I guessed that, for these very issues, they just could leave. The former still had some serious money issues that didn't allow him to leave the region, and the silent man had confided to me that he didn't plan to leave for at least a couple of years, no matter what situation might happen to him.

"Probably."

Of all answers I could offer, all relative to how I was supposed to tackle this subject, I decided to pick the one that sounded the most hopeful while also not giving the woman a reason to go through a mad search for them in the next couple of days It would be alright to allow the entire ordeal to defuse altogether, and approaching them too soon would ruin any chances of mending this split up.

"I will apologize to… Miles," Mora admitted quietly, bringing her arms to cross on the table and settling her head atop of those. "I have to say that what I did to him was probably the stupidest shit I could've done to anyone. And I did some… unpleasant things to those that deserved to suffer so..."

"You like poking fun at each other, admit it," I pointed out with a sigh. "While it can be refreshing at times, it usually ends up in physical retaliation. If he returns, I hope you two work out an agreement to keep each other from going for violent approaches."

"I will give it some thought," The Cow Prime promised. "That and… I need to think of a way to talk to Minos."

I hummed. "Are you planning to try seducing him?"

"I'm not going to try and mess things at the farm for him. Maybe I could try some moderation," She started explaining with a nod. "I mean, he'll probably want to have nothing to do with me in that manner but… I don't know. I haven't put in enough thought to give an honest response to that."

"If you show him you really have changed, and that is proven with you actually working on the farm as you usually do without fawning over him like a schoolgirl… maybe he will consider."

"Oh, I will sure work as hard as my body allows me to," Mora assured eagerly. "And… actually, I have a question I wanted to ask you about."

I paused, almost done with the plates. "And that is?"

She sighed. "Do you… mind that I'm wearing these little clothes on?"

"W-What?"

"Well, it's been sometime now that I've noticed how you would just snap away from looking at me when I'm around," She elaborated. "And I know it's not disgust. What's up with that?"

"I… I guess I just tried to keep myself from… staring too much. I didn't want to get distracted and-"

"I'm distracting? As in 'My body is so much that you get distracted while looking at it' distracting?"

It was absurd how spot-on she was. And that she had really noticed that I was looking her way and… then trying my best to not look for too long. Maybe it was around the time we were working together, or maybe it was correlated to a few days ago, when she had to change her shirt behind the barn since her previous one was drenched in sweat.

I wasn't too far from where she was at the time, and caught some glimpses of what was hidden beneath those clothes. Just a minuscule blink of an interesting scene to remember and… have some awkward dreams about.

"Kind of?" I replied nervously, drawing a giggle out of her.

"I knew it. There is no way you could ignore these puppies," The young woman said before bringing her arms under her bosom and bringing them up to emphasize her point. I groaned, looking away as I tried to fight this cheeky teasing I was being subjected to.

"Still, I don't mind it. You know, I can understand why people look and-" The Cow Prime paused, sighing and nodding. "I kind of like the idea that someone as serious as you does appreciate this part of me, Declan."

I looked back at her and… smiled. "Is that a compliment?"

"One I believe you deserve. Right now, you are showing yourself to be a reliable worker to trust on."

"You're too kind, boss-"

"Oh, call me Mora when we are away from work," The woman lamented. "It's about time you don't wait for serious situations to call me by my name instead of keeping so formal."

"Sure thing, bo-Mora."

Her eyes narrowed. "Who am I?"

"Bos- Mora."

Instead of further lamenting at my awkward mistakes, she chuckled.

"Fair enough, I guess it will take a while to grow accustomed to that," Mora conceded. "Still, I think you will eventually get it down, Dec."

I was about to answer, when I heard her give me that nickname. It wouldn't be the first time I heard someone calling me that. I could still remember when… when it was nice to be called that. Now it just felt unpleasant, not enough to get me to react badly to it. Instead of keeping silent about it, I decided to finally finish my task by the sink while muttering about it.

"Actually, I don't like being called that, Mora," I admitted quietly. "This might sound strange but… can you please not call me that?"

"Any reason why?" The owner of the farm asked in a perplexed tone.

"A couple private ones. I'm sorry, but I just can't tell since it's a sore spot for me."

"I guess I'll have to… find another nickname. Give me a day, I will come up with something."

Sighing, I hid away the surprise at how quick she accepted that request. I almost forgot how stubborn of a good person Mora could be in these kinds of situations. And she ended up finding one, as she would soon start to call me 'Decker'. It was fine in my opinion. Then again, everything was better than Dec.

The rest of the day went particularly smoothly… except for a few awkward scenes I had to endure, much to Mora's blatant amusement. While I decided to take off my usual overalls and go for a sleeveless green shirt and a pair of jeans, the woman felt it appropriate to go only in her overalls. And nothing else underneath.

I wasn't sure if she was wearing panties, but from the way she appeared so smug when she would notice my confused looks as I tried to give an answer to that question, I was quite certain she was going commando. A very... unique decision, but it left me with thoughts that distracted me for some time as I almost tripped around on a couple of occasions.

And even though I realized that most of her teasing attempts weren't meant to go beyond trying to get a reaction out of me, I could also tell that something was off with her own glancing as she would stop to stare at me while I was busy with any important bits of the work.

While not the best day, considering the sheer amount of tough tasks to go through and the fact we had to spend twice the usual time normally worked, the entire experience was still undeniably good for the two of us. Eventually, the first day started the schedule that would see us struggle to keep up with the needs of the farm and, only a week later, Mora would end up facing her moment of truth about her interest in asking for forgiveness.

It all started when we got news that a clumsy Cat Prime was spotted working in the very bar where we had all found each other in...


AN

Will Mora keep a civil approach if Miles start to annoy her?