Sympathy 2

Everyone who knew Wendy always said she was a soft touch, but Wendy didn't see it that way. Did it really make her a soft touch to spend a quarter on a gumball for a crying kid with a harried mother? In the big scheme of things, wasn't it worth dropping a dollar in some panhandler's hat? Or taking a moment to give a stranger a smile, fix her wide blue eyes on theirs, and tell them that everything was going to be okay? Stray kittens, baby birds, lost puppies...Wendy always had a moment to spare for all of them. If that made her a soft touch, well, she was ready to wear that label with pride.

So when she saw Ebony sitting by herself in the student union, holding her pendant at the end of its string and tapping it with a desultory gesture, Wendy's heart went right out to her. She looked so forlorn, all alone in the table by the corner watching the green glass crystal slowly spin to a halt before giving it another apathetic flick of her finger to get it going again. Wendy couldn't help but head over there to see if she was alright.

"Hi!" Wendy said, plopping herself down in the chair opposite Ebony and beaming at her as if they were old friends. They'd really only had a few conversations together-Ebony had just transferred in from one of the local community colleges, and the two of them only shared a couple of classes-but Wendy always felt like the easiest way to make new friends was to act like an old friend. "You look like you could use someone to talk to. Having a rough day? Professor Truesdale got you down?"

Ebony looked at her for just a moment, her dark brown eyes flickering over Wendy without much interest. Then she went back to staring at her pendant. "It's nothing," she muttered, giving the crystal another tap. Green light gently refracted across her dark skin, but Ebony didn't seem to be paying it much attention. She didn't really even seem to be looking at her pendant much. It was just something to keep her eyes occupied while she moped. Wendy couldn't stand to see someone looking so down.

"Oh, don't be like that!" she said, putting her full cheer assault into her voice. (She didn't mind that her nicknames on campus included 'Care Bear Stare' and 'Pollyanna'. It was a mark of honor to her, in fact.) "There are so many people in this world who have problems that nobody even notices, and here you are lucky enough to have someone walking right up to you and asking if they can help. Whatever it is that's wrong, you'll feel better if you at least talk about it, I promise."

Ebony rolled her eyes a little, but Wendy was used to that. She sat in silence for a long moment, clearly weighing up the pros and cons of opening up to the little wisp of a blonde-haired girl who acted like she was being sized up for pixie wings. But finally she said, "Alright. It's...you know I'm in Bachmann's psych course this semester, right?"

Wendy nodded, widening her eyes to near manga levels to indicate that she was paying attention. "I saw you coming out the other day," she said. "I've never taken any of his courses, but I hear he's pretty tough. You need a study buddy? I might not know the material, but I can hold the flashcards for you!"

Ebony's mouth finally twitched into the first approximation of a smile Wendy had seen from her since she first spotted the other woman on campus. "Not...exactly," she said. "See, Bachmann's doing a unit on hypnosis, and we're supposed to be practicing our skills, but..." She let out a deep sigh. "I don't really know anyone in the class very well. And it's not that easy to just ask someone if they'll let you hypnotize them. People get weird about it. I was trying to hypnotize myself, but I couldn't really practice like that."

Wendy couldn't imagine anything sadder than being the only one without a partner in a group activity. "I could help!" she blurted out, almost before Ebony had finished her sentence. "I mean, I don't really know much about hypnosis, but if all you need is someone to sit there and stare, I'm pretty sure I can handle that!" She grinned, practically willing her smile to pandemic levels of infectiousness.

It worked. Ebony gave her a little smile back, and said, "Okay. But we should probably go somewhere a little quieter, alright? I don't want you getting distracted by a puppy that needs a bath or something." They both chuckled at that-Wendy was used to jokes about her reputation as a pushover for a sob story, and she knew that stories about her spread pretty quickly. Carrying a sick squirrel in your hoodie for a month while you nursed it back to health did that. "Come on. We'll go back to my dorm room."

They gathered up Ebony's things, and a few minutes later Ebony was ushering Wendy in to a double in the campus residence hall. "I've got a roommate," Ebony explained, "but I haven't seen her in about three weeks. She's been staying at her boyfriend's every night since school started, and I think she finally had enough clothes over there that she could do laundry at his place instead of stopping off to change before classes."

"So you've really been all alone?" Wendy asked, trying not to get choked up. "Oh, that's awful!" Mentally, she was already making plans to stop by every couple of nights with snacks, maybe a movie or two to keep Ebony from getting lonely. Wendy always said that half the fun of college life was making new friends and having new experiences-if Ebony didn't have anyone to share her evenings with, Wendy was more than happy to be her first!

Ebony shrugged. "Eh," she said, tossing some pillows onto the floor, "it's got its upsides." She tossed her things in the corner and flopped down onto one of the pillows. "Go ahead and get comfortable," she said, pulling the pendant back out once more. "I'll tell you what to do once you're ready to relax."

Wendy set her book bag down next to Ebony's, and sat down on the pillow across from the other woman. "So what do I do?" she said. "I mean, do I just look at the pendant, do I listen, how do I tell you if you're doing it right? Or is it just one of those things where-"

Ebony gently but firmly pressed a finger to Wendy's lips. "Right now," she said, "all I need you to do is watch and listen. You're not going to try to do anything in specific, you're not going to try to be hypnotized at all. You're just going to watch the pendant in my hand as it moves at the end of the string. Let your eyes sink deep into the light of its reflection. Don't think, just focus on the pendant for me, Wendy."

Wendy nodded. "Got it. When you don't know what you're doing, just listen to the person who-" She caught sight of Ebony's expression. "Right," she mumbled. "Sorry. Watching and listening."

"Much better," Ebony said, making a tiny gesture with her wrist that sent the crystal into a slow, twirling dance at the end of the string. "I know you want to be helpful, Wendy. You're just the kind of person hypnosis works best on, because you're open and receptive to the emotional signals I'm sending. You noticed me earlier, looking like I needed someone, and you instantly responded to that emotion. And now, you're picking up the calm and relaxation that I'm radiating as you stare at the pendant and follow it with your eyes, and it's very easy to reflect those emotions back to me. You're calmer with every breath, listening to my words and absorbing that peace within yourself."

Wendy nodded. She still wasn't sure if she was doing this properly, but she knew that Ebony had told her not to talk just now and she really didn't want to screw anything up. Not when Ebony so clearly needed someone. If being hypnotized was how Wendy got Ebony to open up to her, then Wendy was determined to be the best hypnotic subject ever. She gazed with fierce intensity at the pendant, keeping her stare wide and unblinking and focusing all her attention on it.

"That's it," Ebony said, her voice already exuding a cool and quiet praise. "Just stare and relax. Everything else floating away, your surroundings growing less and less important, even my words beginning to drift in and out of your conscious mind as you center your attention on the pendant and focus on reflecting my emotional energies. You're becoming a lovely little mirror, Wendy, your mind and your thoughts acting in sympathy with mine. That's so easy for you. You've always been able to sympathize with the feelings of others, and all you're doing now is just that same process, only more formally. You can feel it happening, can't you, Wendy?"

Ebony nodded at the same time Wendy nodded, and somehow that just seemed entirely natural and normal. It didn't matter to Wendy that Ebony was a good foot taller, had short curly dark hair and skin almost as dark as her namesake. She felt like she was seeing herself in the woman sitting across from her. Unconsciously, she adjusted her position so that she was sitting in the exact same stance as Ebony was. It felt so easy-the hypnosis only helped what she already wanted to happen. She wanted to bring Ebony closer to her emotionally, and it only made sense that to do that, she needed to bring herself closer to Ebony as well.

"...doing so well," Ebony said, and Wendy realized she'd lost the thread of their conversation at some point. But she didn't mind; Ebony had said that her words would drift in and out of Wendy's head, and she didn't seem upset at all that Wendy was just nodding in response to her words without even thinking about them. If anything, she seemed happy about it. And Wendy found herself easily responding to that happiness by smiling broadly right back as she stared at the crystal and let herself sink deeper into trance.

"...and deeper, so easy to mirror my words, mirror my thoughts, mirror my feelings." Wendy's head felt muddled for a moment; she couldn't tell exactly where Ebony's slow, measured voice stopped and her own thoughts began. But that was just fine, she remembered. She wanted to make Ebony feel comfortable and relaxed around her, and the best way to do that was to be comfortable and relaxed around Ebony. The more she felt like Ebony felt, the more Ebony would feel like her, and the more at ease the two would be together. Wendy was becoming Ebony's mirror, and it was so easy to-

"Hang on," Ebony said, her sudden frustration crashing through the atmosphere of blank, soothing relaxation that had lulled Wendy into a trance for-for how long? The light was different in the room, it felt like only minutes and hours all at the same time. Wendy was confused and disoriented, and seeing the look of distress on Ebony's face only made it worse.

Wendy felt her own body tense up in sympathy. "What's, what's wrong?" she asked, surprised at how muzzy and confused her voice sounded. "Was I, did I not do it right?"

"No, no," Ebony said, her lips pursing. Her face went closed, defensive, reflecting nothing of her true feelings. It struck Wendy like a physical blow. "It's no big deal. Really."

Wendy reached out and placed her hand on Ebony's, trying to channel her concern right through her fingertips. "It's okay," she aid. "Whatever it is, you can tell me, I promise. Please, I...I want to help." She wasn't sure what it was she would be helping with-half of her mind still felt like it was disappearing into the depths of the green crystal every time she caught sight of it, and a thick fog seemed to cover most of her higher brain functions. But the part of her that cared was stronger than ever, and that part of her could see that Ebony was distressed. "If I did anything wrong, I-"

That finally cracked Ebony's defenses. "No, you didn't do anything wrong," she said, taking Wendy's hand in her own. "It's just that..." She looked down for a moment, as if in shame. "When you were hypnotized like that, you were so beautiful, and I...I started getting turned on so bad I couldn't take it anymore." She took Wendy's hand and pressed it to the crotch of her jeans. "See? It was actually soaking through my pants."

Wendy's eyes widened in shock as she felt the slightly damp fabric under her fingers, intensely warm from the heat of Ebony's pussy. She didn't know what to say, or even what to think. She'd never touched another woman like this before, never even thought about it, but...

But Ebony was so wet. She was so turned on. She felt aroused by the nearness of another woman, and she needed sex so badly right now. Wendy could feel it, literally feel it against her hand where she touched the other woman, and suddenly Wendy found her breathing quickening as a flush of arousal made her skin hot and her cheeks redden. Ebony was horny for her. And out of nowhere, Wendy was hot for Ebony.

She didn't realize it at first, not consciously. She only knew that when Ebony took her hand away, Wendy couldn't stop cupping Ebony's mound through her jeans. Her fingers seemed to move on their own, applying gentle rhythmic pressure to Ebony's crotch while the other woman scooted forward to get closer to Wendy's flushed, quaking body. Wendy couldn't seem to think about what she was doing, she only knew that it felt right to help Ebony out like this.

And then Ebony reached out and touched her the same way, and Wendy let out a liquid sigh of pleasure at the sheer perfection of the other woman's touch. It felt so natural to mirror Ebony's fingers with her own. Ebony's hand slipped under the hem of Wendy's dress and right inside her panties, tracing the curve of Wendy's labia with casual ease, but it only took a moment's work for Wendy to get Ebony's fly undone so that she could touch Ebony the same way. She didn't need to really think about it at all-her mind already seemed to be drifting right back into that same dreamy state as before, only this time she could let her eyes close and focus her attention on sensation.

And the sensations were so good. Ebony moved even closer, tugging and yanking with her free hand to pull Wendy's dress down until her breasts were exposed. The neckline caught and held them in all their pert glory, cradling them together to make the most of Wendy's modest cleavage, and she couldn't help trying to do the exact same to Ebony. Even in her confused state, Wendy could tell that there was no way she'd be able to pull the other woman's breasts through the neckline of her t-shirt, so she settled for lifting the shirt and unhooking the bra so that Ebony's tits could hang loose.

Then it felt even better. Wendy was leaning forward into Ebony, or Ebony was leaning forward into Wendy-she couldn't even be sure where her body ended anymore and Ebony's began. The two of them were rubbing against each other, nipple to nipple, sparking bursts of tingling pleasure that surged down to where Ebony's finger was rubbing on Wendy's wet and throbbing clit. And Wendy's hand mirrored Ebony's perfectly and her gasps mirrored Ebony's perfectly and her moans mirrored Ebony's perfectly and her pleasure mirrored Ebony's perfectly and her desire mirrored Ebony's perfectly and she, she couldn't stop because Ebony wasn't stopping and she wanted to help Ebony cum so much so bad so hard she was begging, she could hear herself saying, "please, please cum for me, please i need it please oh please oh please," in the high and desperate voice of a little girl.

And then Wendy felt Ebony clench around her thrusting fingers, and heard Ebony release a tiny, choking sigh of bliss, and Wendy came.

The orgasm seemed to go on forever. It was as if every time Wendy came, it triggered another climax in Ebony, and then when Ebony came it made Wendy's head swim with pleasure all over again, and then their hands were just in the way and they ground their pussies against each other until both of them were slick and wet against the other's skin. It blended into a blur of euphoria in Wendy's mind, a succession of random images that were inextricably intertwined in bliss-her tongue spiking deep into Ebony's wet cunt, a delicious feeling of penetration inside her own. Her mouth suckling at Ebony's clit, a feeling of powerful pleasure that burst into her mind and practically overwhelmed her. Holding Ebony, Ebony holding her. Calm. Love. Peace. Then nothing at all for a while.

When she finally awoke, they were on the bed in each other's arms, wearing nothing but the bedsheets. Wendy couldn't quite connect all of the events to one another, but the gaps in her memory were strung together with so much pleasure that it didn't seem to matter. "I..." She felt a different kind of blush redden her cheeks, and the moment suddenly seemed fraught with uncertainty. "I've never done that before," she finally finished.

Ebony's hand rode down her back to rest possessively on her ass. "It's okay," she murmured, her voice soothing away the anxiety like it had never been. "It's just a new experience, that's all. I'm happy I could be your first." The words seemed strangely familiar, and Wendy found that she couldn't quite separate them from her own thoughts anymore. She relaxed into Ebony's arms with a soft mewl of pleasure.

"It's okay," Ebony cooed, stroking Wendy's hair until her thoughts dimmed and the exhaustion in her body took over. "I know you understand what it's like, seeing someone and thinking they need you." Wendy suddenly wondered why someone trying to hypnotize herself would do it in the middle of the student union, but then Ebony stroked her forehead until the thought drifted away. "I'll be good to you, I promise. A good friend and a good lover. You were wonderful, and the next time will be even better. You're going to have a lot of practice, Wendy. And you know the most important part by instinct..."

Ebony kissed her, and whispered once more in her ear before they drifted off to sleep together. "A soft touch."

THE END