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"So, um… Buffy said you needed my help?" Willow asked, nervously taking the lab coat Maggie Walsh offered her. Normally she would have put more non-words into that sentence, but the fact that the professor had asked for her personally gave her little belly rumblings.
"You seem nervous," Dr. Walsh observed, marking something down on the clipboard in her hand.
"Me? Nervous?" Willow gave a loud, forced laugh, which quickly faltered. "Yes, very," she admitted quietly.
"There's nothing to be nervous about, Willow. I asked for you because you came highly recommended."
"By Buffy?" She asked, a little confused as to what she meant.
"Among others," Dr. Walsh replied, the smallest hint of a smile. "Are you ready to proceed?"
Willow nodded, following her back a long, white hallway. They were heading back to one of the private lab rooms in the Initiative. They weren't often used, being that experimentations on demons required little modesty. However, her student was a live subject and she wanted to exhibit some discretion for her comfort.
"Wow. This is a-a lot of walls. I didn't know this place had so many, many walls…"
"The facility is larger than it looks," the professor replied, almost proudly. "We'll be conducting the tests in here," she said, gesturing to a heavy metal door. The numbers on the top read 413 in a large and imposing font. Everything in the building was cold and hard; a budding scientist's dream. It had a way of sucking you in and making you part of its experiment, instead of the other way around. "Do you fight alongside your friend?" Dr. Walsh asked candidly. While waiting for an answer, she punched in a code and swiped her access card.
"Well, I… n-not so much in the physical sense. I help, in my own way," Willow replied, unsure how much the professor knew about her 'extracurricular' activities.
"I see," the professor said simply. She gestured to a bed one might find in a doctor's office, as opposed to the lab tables in the main part of the facility. "Please. I like my subjects to be comfortable, both mentally and physically."
"Oh. Well, I'm sure they appreciate that," Willow replied with a grateful smile, relaxing considerably as she settled herself on the bed.
"It ensures a more accurate reading," Dr. Walsh responded in a firm, but kind tone. She gathered various items, some being medical in nature. "There's no need to worry, Willow. We don't consider you a hostile and have no intention of treating you like one," she assured her, marking something else off her clipboard. "However, I would like to run a few tests, if that's alright with you."
"But I didn't study," Willow quipped in a squeaky voice.
Dr. Walsh gave her a little smirk, amused by her flippant demeanor. "As I said, I prefer you to be relaxed. I'm not going to hurt you," she said, her voice softening a little as if to soothe her. "I do require your consent before we can begin, but perhaps explaining one of the tests will put you more at ease," she reasoned. "I would like to see how you react to different stimuli. More specifically, varying degrees of hot and cold."
"And what will that tell you?" Willow asked warily, trying to sneak a peek at her clipboard every now and then.
"Studies show there are links between supernatural abilities and calefaction." She started, watching for facial cues on her student's face. A subtle, but noticeable spark in the Willow's green eyes made itself known, pleasing her enough to continue. "Thermokinesis, cryokinesis, and pyrokinesis are among these. The use of varying temperatures to either increase or decrease the speed or motion of molecules-" her lips quirked a little. "Which I suspect you're already aware of."
"Well," Willow admitted sheepishly. "I've been studying that sort of thing for… kind of a while."
"If your work ethic outside the classroom is anything resembling what I have seen thus far, I'm not surprised," Dr. Walsh acknowledged, nodding as she flipped to a different page on her paperwork.
"It's just so fascinating!" Willow nearly squealed, losing some of her inhibitions with the familiar subjects. "The idea th-that we can use chemistry to brew up potions? To mix the worlds of, of science and magic, it's just…" she sighed dreamily, like she was talking about her favorite crush. Then she remembered who she was gushing to. "Sorry, Professor Walsh. I… I get a little, well… you know. But um, I consent. To the experiment, I mean."
Dr. Walsh couldn't help but smile at how much the girl really loved to learn. "I'll need you to disrobe before we begin, including any undergarments you might be wearing. You can put the lab coat back on, if you choose." She turned her back to preserve Willow's modesty, needing to get the rest of the items together for her evaluation. "And please, call me Maggie," she added as an afterthought.
"A-are you sure? No Evil Bitch-Monster of Death?" Willow joked quietly.
She carefully, but quickly removed each piece of clothing, fully aware the other woman could turn around any minute. She was enough of a scientist to know there was nothing sexual about the human anatomy, at least not on a purely educational level, but something about the idea of all this was giving her tinglies - the good kind.
A light chuckle escaped before Maggie could stop it, having prepared the rest of her items in silence up to that point. "Not today," she half-heartedly quipped, showing off a side of herself most of her students never got to see. "When you're finished, you can lie back on the bed," she instructed, going for the clipboard again.
Willow slid the white lab coat over her shoulders, buttoning enough of it to keep it closed. It was a little big, but that at least made it a little comfier to lay down in. "I'm ready."
"Very well. We'll start with the basics," she said, picking up her pen. "How do you feel about the temperature of the room right now?"
"Well, um… it seems comfy," Willow replied, unsure if that was the right answer.
"Alright," Dr. Walsh said, putting her clipboard down and moving to the buttons on the lab coat. "May I?" When the subject nodded her consent, she carefully unsnapped just enough to expose her bare breasts to the air. She observed how Willow's nipples pebbled gradually, hearing the smallest hitch in her breath. "Now what do you feel?"
"Things are, uh… breezy-er," she admitted with a tiny shiver.
"I see," the professor responded, quickly checking something off a list. "Now, when you're engaging in your 'extracurriculars' as you put it, do you notice any significant temperature changes?" She asked, genuinely curious even outside the parameters of her experiment.
"Sometimes. It… it's kind of hard to explain."
"I understand," she replied with neutrality, filling a test tube with some clear liquid. "However, anything you are able to tell me has merit, Willow. I'm not looking for a dissertation," she quipped dryly, using a thermometer to test the temperature of the liquid.
"Well, it sort of starts as this… warm crackle? Then sometimes, there's like… this burst of ener-oh!" Willow yelped, mid-sentence and tightened her abdominal muscles. As she was talking, Dr. Walsh had dripped some kind of warm liquid down her chest. "Wh-wha-t is that…?"
"Don't be alarmed, it's only water. Response to a warmer temperature yields the same result, it seems. Are you feeling any notable differences compared to the initial test?"
Most definitely with the notable.
While she didn't want to affect the science of it negatively, there was no way in Hecate she was telling Dr. W- Maggie what she was beginning to feel, no pun intended. She simply clamped her mouth shut and shook her head, hoping that was a good enough answer for now. Thankfully, it seemed to satisfy her as she scribbled a few notes and went back to her group of items.
Maggie dabbed Willow's chest off with a soft, fluffy towel and retrieved a blindfold and a set of earplugs. "Now we're going to move onto sensory deprivation and how that affects your responses to temperature. With your permission, I would like to cover either your eyes or insert the earplugs. I'll let you decide." Truthfully, she would have liked to do both, but knew most would not choose both.
"Eyes, please. Earplugs give me the wig," she replied, taking it from her. "Should I tie it around or-?"
"As long as you remain supine, you can just lay it across your eyes." A beat. "No peeking," she added jovially, internally delighting at the little snort that emitted from her test subject.
"Prof- um, Maggie? Don't take this the wrong way, but I… sort of feel like I'm talking to a different person," Willow admitted quietly. "You are Professor Walsh, right?" She asked, genuinely a little worried. Body swaps on the Hellmouth weren't exactly a rare occurrence.
"If I coddle my students, they don't learn. If they don't learn, I've failed as an educator." She pulled on a pair of examination gloves. "I don't like to fail," she said simply, retrieving some ice from a metal bowl. "I'll need full access to your body for this part of the experiment, so you'll feel me opening your lab coat," she warned, undoing the few meager buttons holding the garment on.
The coat fell open, revealing the rest of Willow's pale complexion. Her breath caught again, her entire body being exposed to not only the atmosphere of the room itself, but few people knew her intimately enough to see her this way. Maggie observed the way her skin developed goosebumps, the slight tremble of her legs as she tried to calm the nerves threatening to resurface.
"Now we'll move on to more degrees of temperature modulation. You're going to feel me running ice over different parts of your body. I will gauge your reaction, record it, and repeat the process," Maggie informed her, flipping the page on her clipboard. "Should you find the sensations too intense or need me to stop for any reason, tell me and we'll move on to another phase of the study. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now, as I understand it, this can feel quite painful for some. However, others may find it to be rather pleasurable," she said, taking note of how Willow reacted when she started by sliding the ice over her fingers.
Eek! Cold!
Nothing particularly noteworthy, though she did twitch and made a sort of high-pitched squeak sound with initial contact. This was to be expected and few other test subjects wouldn't have done the same. Maggie continued up her arms, stopping long enough to record how her student twitched a bit more obviously this time, but remained remarkably still compared to how she had anticipated.
When she got to her clavicle, Willow gasped just loud enough to be heard, then visibly clamped her mouth shut as if she'd done something wrong. It was an interesting reaction, she had to admit, and she may have been studying the entirety of her subject just as well as her connection to the supernatural, for want of better words. Maggie was as much a psychology professor as she was a scientist and people fascinated her.
The ice cube became too small to work with, so she let it melt where it sat and retrieved another. She paused momentarily to give Willow time to speak up, but she seemed content enough to continue. After marking down her findings, she continued her experiment. She started at the top of her throat as she had before, but instead of veering off to the left, she slid the cube directly downward.
Willow's chest was moving at a steady pace, allowing her to gradually move down until she was able to reach the swell of her left breast. She heard her test subject's breath catch and her chest heaved slightly upward with the movement. She paused, recorded her notes, and resumed her process. When she got to her nipple, not only did it pebble, but she heard a quiet gasp from just behind her.
"What are you feeling, Willow?" She asked gently, though still with an air of clinical expertise.
"W-Wet," she admitted, referring to the ice cube that had been making its way to very fun places on her chest. The irony of the statement didn't escape her. "In places," she added hastily, knowing that it didn't sound any less dirty.
"Am I to assume you mean as a tactile sensation or are you experiencing the feeling of arousal?"
"...both," she admitted, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
"I assure you that you would not be the first to have that reaction. Are you ready to continue?" She saw her nod, presumably now too shy to speak. "Let me be clear, Willow. There is nothing you can say that will shock nor upset me. Furthermore, anything within the confines of this room will remain confidential to the parameters of the experiment."
"Okay," Willow said, sounding a little more sure of herself.
With her concerns alleviated, Maggie continued her study. By the time she got down to her belly button, her test subject had sucked her stomach in far enough so her ribs were sticking out. When she tried to touch her, she squeaked, causing a small smirk to appear on the professor's features. "You're ticklish, I see," she observed casually, yet still managing to sound as if it were a pertinent fact.
"Yes, very. Does that… i-is that a problem?"
"Not at all. I have made note to avoid that area of your abdomen for the remainder of the experiment."
Thank Goddess.
Before Willow could thank her, she felt the most cold, wet, and wonderful sensation slipping between her legs. She bit back another gasp, this time much more intense than the other.
"This area may feel a little more sensitive than the others. I will need you to tell me if it's too much," Maggie informed her, having to get a new cube.
She mentally noted that her test subject seemed to burn the hottest in her erogenous zones, including the tips of her fingers. She reasoned this may have something with her abilities being connected to the earth itself, which burned hotter at its core as well.
Unable to hold back when the ice made contact just below her pubic line, Willow moaned softly, really hoping that what Maggie said about nothing leaving the room was true.
The professor observed the way that the girl seemed to lose some of her inhibitions, spreading her thighs slightly on instinct. Not only did she burn hot enough to react favorably to the drastic changes in temperature, but something in her seemed to seek it out.
Maggie took pity on her, leaving the rest of the ice to slowly melt down between the lips of her labia, recording her findings and observing Willow's reaction. If she didn't know any better, the sensations had brought her close to an orgasmic state. She made a mental note to get clarification from her later. Lastly, she made sure to remove the clutter from their work area and remove her gloves.
Willow laid there for what felt like hours, clit throbbing with need and wondered what else she was going to be doing. Not that she wasn't enjoying herself, but she could feel the power inside swirling and crackling at her fingertips, begging to burst free.
After gathering all the papers for the first part of her study, Maggie stamped them, and filed them away. She walked over to Willow and removed the blindfold, allowing her to blink a few times against the light. "I need to gather a few supplies for the next phase of the test. I'd like you to sit up, slowly so you don't experience disequilibrium," she cautioned, helping her back to a semi-vertical position.
"Ooh, pretty birdies," Willow commented, blinking a few more times to get her vision to cooperate.
"Exactly," the professor said, watching her with kind eyes. "Do you need the restroom?" She watched as she shook her head in the negative. "Very well. I'll be back momentarily," she promised, disappearing into a closet on the other side of the room. She returned with what looked like an ordinary candle and another set of papers. "We have seen how cold affects your body, both in the negative and the positive," she acknowledged, noting the pinkened nature of her cheeks. "Now it's time to see how you control that energy to access your… abilities."
"Yo-you want me to… light the candle?" Willow guessed, cocking her head to the side. When it was Maggie's turn to nod, she did so in the affirmative. "Pyrokinesis, right. Um, o-okay, but I've only done this once, and it kind of… well, there was a-a monsoon issue," she admitted sheepishly.
Biting her lip, she tried to modify the spell on the spot, more like a My Will Be Done version instead of the Ignis Incende that would most likely end up needing to gather two of every animal. Nevermind the fact she was also performing magicks in front of her psych professor, who'd probably already seen way too much as it was, pun intended. She concentrated all the energy she had left on the candle's wick, envisioning the flame and willing it into being.
To her great surprise and relief, she saw a tiny flicker start until it became fully lit. "Hey, it worked!" Willow cried in surprise, forgetting her audience.
Maggie scribbled down some notes, the barest hint of fascination showing through her calm, reserved exterior. "I see you were successful," she replied, silently amused by her reaction.
She glanced over to find Willow hadn't bothered to adjust or even re-button the lab coat. It fell open casually, revealing hints of her bare skin. They sat in silence for about ten minutes, the only sound being the professor's pen as it scribbled across her papers or marked things off a list.
"You did well with Phase One, so I believe it's best if we continue. We'll be using the blindfold again, but you'll be in a reclined position," she informed her, returning the covering to her eyes. "I will need you completely relaxed for this part of the study. I'll give you a few moments while I finish my notes," she said, touching her shoulder gently to comfort her.
Willow relaxed as much as she could given the circumstances, but her body was practically humming with unused energy. She noted the candle didn't have a scent, wondering why she wanted her to light it in the first place, beyond the obvious. She left well enough alone, figuring she'd find out soon enough.
When plenty of time for the candle had sufficed, Maggie eyed the small pool of wax that had formed at the top. Donning a new pair of gloves, she flipped to a new page on her clipboard and clicked her pen to get Willow's attention.
"I believe we have enough to get started. Are you ready for Phase Two?"