Which isn't to say that you don't push her at all. You can't afford to push her lust high enough that she will willingly lift her skirt for you again, but you work on subtly reinforcing her loyalty towards you, and it pays dividends. She doesn't do anything overtly sexual, but you notice that she's wearing shorter shirts despite the colder weather. She also makes a habit of leaning back slightly when she notices you watching her, giving you a better view of her body.
It takes a little over a week before you're confident enough in your progress that you're willing to push things a bit further.
And, entirely coincidentally, that's also when fate shifts in your favour.
Chemistry is one of your favourite classes right now, and not just because it provides you with the opportunity to make dirty puns in your head every five minutes. It's taught by one of your favourite teachers, Mrs. Knopf, an old woman who still talks with a slight German accent despite having lived in the Bay since Dad was a child.
Unlike most of the teachers in the school, she doesn't turn a blind eye to the activities of the trio. Or, rather, she doesn't give the trio the time or space to do anything. Her class is a demanding mix of schoolwork, homework and practical demonstrations, and it's all some students— particularly, Sophia and Madison— can do to keep up in class. By the time the bell rings, you're usually packed up and gone before Sophia has even finished closing her textbook.
When you arrive to class today, you spot the three of them giving you bored looks— although you don't actually sense any boredom from Madison, just little frissons of nervousness and excitement.
That boredom lasts up until Mrs. Knopf arrives, and announces that today, you're going to be working on a practical experiment... in pairs.
A month ago, if Mrs. Knopf had announced in front of the class that she was pairing you with Madison for a double period, you would have spent half the lesson cursing the old bag in your head and the other half waiting in a constant state of anticipation for whatever cruelties Madison deigned to visit upon you.
Now, however, it's just a perfect opportunity.
Madison settles in beside you, peering around the room for a moment before giving you a small smile. You don't say anything, but you return the smile, sending with it a small wave of loyalty.
Risking a glance around the classroom, you find Sophia and Emma sitting three tables across and behind from you. You're not hidden from their view, exactly, but it's going to be difficult for them to see what the two of you are doing from there. In fact, given how low-slung the desks are, even the people directly behind you are going to have trouble seeing beneath the table so long as you're not too obvious about it.
A plan unfolds in your head, and you turn back to look at the materials in front of you. It's just a follow-on from the lessons on polymers you've been doing over the past week. You don't even have to do the experiment— you've read ahead on the materials, you could do this in your sleep.
You spend a few minutes setting up the experiment and covertly writing your answers, idly toying with Madison's emotions as you do. You're deliberately underplaying them, for now— you need her wet, but you don't need her ragged and gasping. You focus more on her loyalty and submission, gently playing on them for a while as she stares with a creased brow at the experiment.
Frustration builds in her. It takes a long time, maybe fifteen minutes, before she finally lowers her pencil with a frustrated sigh and turns to you. "I don't get it," she says plaintively. "What are we supposed to be looking for?"
You lean over to glance at her sheet, casually placing your hand on her knee to help you keep your balance. She's filled out the first two answers, which asked about setting up the experiment, but there are eight others. They're pretty simple, in your opinion— you've already gotten all ten answers written, and you haven't even started playing around with the polymer yet.
Judging by the light blush dusting her cheeks, she clearly notices that you don't remove your hand when you lean back, but she makes no move to brush it off.
"Well," you begin, "it's pretty simple. Look at this."
You spend a few minutes demonstrating the polymer's properties with your left hand, while you begin to rub small circles on her knees with your right hand. For the first time since the class started, you focus on pulling her lust up— careful not to do it too fast, or raise it too high.
She occasionally makes a small noise of understanding and writes the answer down on her sheet of paper. You wait for her to have her fifth answer written— Mrs. Knopf won't assign her detention if she has at least half her work done— before you smoothly slide your hand from her knee up to her thigh, swapping quickly to focus on pulling on her loyalty again. You're cautious not to move your hand too far or too fast— you could still reach over with your middle and index fingers and rub circles on her knee, if you wanted to— but it's an obvious move, and there's no way she can mistake it for anything but you gently rubbing her thigh now.
Madison freezes for a moment, but her only response is to spread her legs some, granting you easier access.
You continue describing the polymer's properties to her, but she's distracted now, her hands shaking slightly as she moves on to the sixth question. You don't let up; by now, you're swapping every few seconds between pulling at her lust and her loyalty. It's having a visible effect on her.
Her eyelids are fluttering slightly, and her pink tongue is darting out occasionally, wetting her lips. You're pretty sure by now that she's aroused enough that she's not going to make any attempts to stop you. Not that you let up— you just stop focusing on her lust, and start focusing on raising her loyalty again. She doesn't just need to be aroused— she needs to be aroused by you, and she needs to know that.
To that end, you begin sliding your hand up her thigh again. She freezes once more as your hand advances, until you reach the midway point. When your hand ventures high enough that it's brushing her spread skirt, she reaches down with her left hand and grabs your hand.
She doesn't do anything with it, doesn't make any attempts to push your hand away. She just rests her hand atop yours, occasionally rubbing it gently.
Taking the permission for what it is, you slide your hand further up her thigh, pushing her skirt up as you do so. Madison is faintly trembling now, but her nervousness is being drowned out by an increasing wave of arousal.
Abruptly, you notice that she hasn't been writing anything since you started moving your hand again. You don't say anything, but a smirk makes its way across your face. She flushes in response when she sees what you're smirking out, but her only response is to defiantly drop her pencil and squeeze your hand.
Well; if she'd rather play around with you than do her schoolwork, who are you to say no?
You glide your hands up, up, up her thigh, skimming lightly over her skin. She's looking down now, afraid to let anyone see how strongly she's blushing. You send her an encouraging smile; she blushes heavier, but responds back with a smile of her own.
And then you reach it— the apex of her thighs. You can feel the soft lace of her panties on the edge of your pinkie, and judging by the muted groan she lets out, Madison can feel it, too.
You pause for a moment, then reign back your power. You can still feel her emotions, but as you slowly, teasingly slide your fingers up her thighs to rest on her panty-clad pussy, you refuse to influence them. You don't want this moment to be marred by forcing her into it— you want to feel her submit to your actions of her own volition.
And submit she does. Her hand tightens around your own, but rather than pull your hand away, she pushes your hand harder against her pussy.
For a moment, a wild, reckless idea appears in your head. You could push this further— stop this gentle teasing, pull her panties aside, and claim her as your own, right now, in front of everybody-
But you check yourself. You've pushed Madison far enough that she'd accept it, but that doesn't make it a good idea. You're in the middle of class. Even ignoring that there are people sitting right behind you, Emma and Sophia are still occasionally shooting you and Madison loaded glances. You can't afford to do anything that will jeopardize your chances with them, not this early in the game.
It's with a heavy heart that you abandon that idea. Maybe in future, in front of willing participants, but it's too risky to finger someone in front of people you haven't influenced yet.
You can't resist pushing it one little bit further, though. Leaning over to Madison, you whisper into her ear, "What colour panties are you wearing today?"
She chokes slightly, and doesn't answer for a few moments. When she does, she's staring at the desk, too red in the face to look at you. "Grey," she mumbles.
"Hmm," you hum. "That's a nice colour, but I prefer black."
She's unable to hide the tremble in her body at that, and even if you weren't paying attention to her, you'd be able to feel the lust that flows through her— and, oddly (or perhaps not so oddly), the submission.
You content yourself the rest of class alternating between skimming your fingers over her upper thigh and drawing light circles over her panties. Madison doesn't make a move as you do, choosing to sit still with her legs spread and allow you to play with her, occasionally shivering with pleasure as you rub a particularly sensitive part of her.
Only when Knopf finally calls out that lab time is over do you regretfully lift your hand away. Madison lets out a small whine as you do so, but luckily it's covered by the sounds of other students chatting and occasionally erupting into laughter.
The teacher moves around the classroom, collecting everyone's answer sheets. You gather yours and Madison's, presenting them up to her for inspection when she finally makes it to your table.
Knopf tsk's in disapproval. "Only five questions, miss Clements?" she asks. "I expected more from you after our discussion last week."
You glance around the classroom. Emma and Sophia have their heads tucked together, looking at something on Sophia's phone. Good enough.
"She's a bit distracted today," you offer up. Knopf turns to you with a raised eyebrow, as if wondering why you were defending her— which, well, fair enough. "It's okay, though. It was partly my fault, so I'll help Madison catch upon her work."
"Huh?" the girl in question replies intelligently.
You give her a patient smile, activating your power for the first time in half an hour. As you speak, you begin to gently press on her submission again. "I was probably one of the things distracting you, so I'll help you catch up on what you missed today," you repeat. You send through a strong burst of submission, and then; "I'll come visit you at your house after school today, around five. We'll work on our chemistry. How does that sound?"
"Okay," she squeaks. You're not sure if she caught the double entendre. "Um, hold on, I'll write down my address for you."
Knopf looks sternly down at you, but you just give her your most charming smile— and a general burst of your power. You don't need her to feel lustful or loyal to you, but your power does have additional effects, and increasing her sense of admiration and affection for you is useful.
"Good girl," Knopf says eventually, smiling at the both of you. "I'm glad to see you're both finally mending the bridges between you."
Madison just trembles as she tears a page out of her notebook and hands it to you. You're not sure she could respond even if she wanted to.
"Well, you know me," you say brightly, brushing your hand against Madison's thigh. "I'm all about meeting the needs of others."
You dress up nicely when you get home. You haven't grown very much since the last time Dad took you out to one of his work parties, celebrating a deal he'd secured with a local parahuman to aid Igneous's efforts in clearing the Graveyard of the dead ships beneath it. The clothes are some of Mom's old clothes— a simple pair of creased brown pants and a white blouse. They look respectable without making you seem ostentatious, you think.
Thankfully, Dad doesn't say a word when you descend the stairs in your finery, just giving you a considering look. In fact, he doesn't say a word as he makes his way out to the car; and even when he's on the road and driving, he only makes the usual small talk.
When he pulls up in front of Madison's house, he turns to you with a smile on his face. "I won't be home tonight," he says. "Work is asking me to stay late again. Have fun with your friend, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."
You smirk at him, and he manages to hold the expression for a moment before he chuckles. "Seriously, though," he continues, "Have fun, kiddo."
"I will."
You turn and head up the path towards the front door. Behind you, you hear Dad slowly pull away from the kerb and drive off.
The door swings open as you approach, before you can even reach close enough to ring the doorbell. Madison's expression brightens as she sees you, and she ducks forward out of the house, eagerly attaching herself to your arm. "Hello, Taylor!" she exclaims happily.
You can't help but grin back at her. "Hello, Madison," you reply. "Ready for some chemistry, then?" You almost waggle your eyebrows at her, but you're pretty sure that would seem a lot dorkier with her than it would with Dad. You do begin slowly pulling on her lust. It hasn't completely settled after your little game in the chemistry lab this afternoon, so it's easy to coax out.
She snuggles into your side. "Sure am," she says, voice muffled by your arm. "Come on. I'll show you to my room."
Her room is almost exactly what you'd expect of the cutesy girl. The furniture is all carved from soft brown wood, and tucked neatly against sky-blue walls. The carpet, coloured a deeper blue than the walls, is soft and luxurious; you stop and take your shoes off as you cross into her room, reveling in the soft feel of the carpet against your feet. Even her bedspread is cutesy, with a stuffed bear resting against a curved pillow and what you recognize as a Peter Rabbit blanket cover.
Madison blushes furiously as she steps into her room after you— having stopped snuggling against your arm when you crossed the threshold into her house— and ducks her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Sorry," she mumbles. "I know it looks childish."
You touch her arm, leading her to stand in front of you. "Hey," you say encouragingly, "it's fine, Madison. It's cute. It suits you."
