The Girl(tm) finally catches up with Xavier under a highway overpass, down near one of the big interchanges where the electric cars zoom by overhead in all directions and the sunlight has the same diminished quality as the jungle floor in the Amazon rainforests. He's sitting with his back against one of the pillars, staring at the thermos in front of him with a solemn, serious expression on his pale features. His left hand is extended halfway toward it, frozen and almost forgotten, and he doesn't notice the Girl's approach. He has other, bigger things on his mind right now.

She approaches him slowly, leaving her eyes in night mode, trying hard not to make any sounds that his limited biological hearing could detect over the buzz of traffic. Even so, Xavier might have noticed her if she was colored in the outrageous electric blues and neon greens typical of her kind. But her body is a muted russet brown that blends in with the darkness and gives his distracted thoughts nothing concrete to react to. By the time he recognizes anything unusual about the lethargy that grips him and tries to muster up the will to move, he can do little more than twitch in languid stagnation. His muddy brown eyes go glassy and vague, the thermos seeming further away now than ever.

"Hello, young man," she says, stepping out of the deeper shadows and into the attenuated golden light of late afternoon. "Do you know who I am?" A flicker of irritation crosses Xavier's face, despite his exhaustion, and her eyes blaze into swirling, pulsing life as she turns her full attention on him. He wonders if they can all do that. He can't seem to bring himself to care, though. Even if he didn't feel the weight of hypnosis settling onto his blank and muzzy brain, he's more than happy to leave the Girls--and the world--to their own devices.

Even so, he feels a tugging compulsion to answer. "You're her," he says at last, his voice soft and sleepy. "Terri's Girl." He wonders if she knows he hasn't had any of the thermos's contents yet, or if she's confusing his drowsiness with drugged indifference. She probably does. There have to be sensors for that kind of thing. Just the fact that she found him speaks to a degree of acuity to both her mind and her senses that probably tells her exactly what he had for breakfast this morning, if she didn't already know just from watching him. He wonders if he should tell Terri that her Girl is spying on them, but it hardly seems to matter anymore.

"Yes," she says, coming closer to him and bringing her hypnotic gaze ever more fully to bear on his heavy-lidded eyes. "I'm Terri's Girl. She's been very worried about you lately. She thinks you need a friend." A familiar anger bubbles up inside him, but it can't gain purchase with the weight of sleep pressing down on his mind. He can see it, appreciate it, but a sheet of glass seems to separate him from actually feeling it. It's actually kind of nice, even though intellectually he knows that it's a violation of his emotional freedoms by its very nature.

"Everyone thinks I need a friend until I ask them to start acting like one," he says, bitterness seeping into his tone despite his exhaustion. "Then they're too busy or I'm too weird or, or...." He fumbles around, trying to find some way to convey the depths of his anguish, but his mind is too foggy and disjointed to properly explain it all. It's too many frustrations, too many petty cruelties, too long a history to go into with something that's not even properly human. He lets himself trail off into a soft, defeated sigh and slumps forward, acutely aware of the embarrassing bulge in his black jeans.

"I don't think Terri believes that," the Girl says, looking at him with infuriating compassion on her synthetic features. "Would you like me to tell you what she told me?" Xavier really would like anything but that, but his defiance is already fading into mellow disinterest and from there into bland, amiable acceptance. He nods, the thermos long forgotten as he stares into the Girl's swirling hypnotic eyes and lets himself open up to her story.

*    *    *    *    *

"Hi Xavi--" But it was already too late. Even before Terri had managed to fully set down her satchel, the lanky young man with the shock of floppy black hair had already slung his backpack over his back and was on his way out the same door she'd just come in through. "...er," she managed to finish, in the moments before the clunk that was just shy of a slam told her that her roommate had managed to avoid her again.

She tried to take it in stride. Of course she did. She felt certain that she couldn't have done anything to offend Xavier, or at least as certain as anyone with her particular set of neuroses could be--she did her chores promptly, she hadn't been so much as a day late with the rent in the three months since she'd answered his ad for a new roommate, and she tried as hard as she could to respect his personal space and leave him alone whenever he was in his bedroom instead of out in the living room they both shared. But, well, that amounted to perhaps a few minutes a day at best. And most of that he spent with his face buried in some manga comic or other, barely even acknowledging her presence.

Was it her appearance? Terri knew she probably looked a little bit less, well, gothy than the usual women he probably hung out with when he wasn't home; her tastes tended toward sparkly make-up and hot pink hair and clothing with rainbows decorating every conceivable surface. Not for the first time, she wondered if she should maybe try to find something a little more muted to blend in with Xavier's somber blacks and grays and browns... but changing her personal style to fit in with a guy she only just met a few months ago felt a little bit, well, stalkery. Terri wanted him to like her, not worry about her breaking into his room at night and leaving locks of her hair on his pillow.

Or maybe that was exactly the kind of thing he liked in a woman. Terri really didn't know. All her efforts to get him to open up had resulted not even in hostility so much as mute, uncomfortable silence that ended with one or both of them retreating to their respective bedrooms. It felt almost like the height of futility to try to talk to him again, but Terri had a feeling that something sensitive and sweet lay beneath that veneer of mute awkwardness. She'd caught sight of him drawing a few times, in the moments before he covered up his sketchbook quickly and stashed it in his backpack. She knew he had an artistic soul like she did if only she could get him to show it a little.

Or maybe she was just fucking lonely. Three months in Ithaca with no one to talk to but her teachers and nothing to do but study was driving her crazy. Terri knew she should be grateful that her parents were paying her way through college, right down to her living expenses, but it sometimes felt like a job might at least introduce her to some kind of social circle that wasn't already invested in the intense competition for academic praise and the daily grind, grind, grind of creative projects. Everyone at school felt so pretentious, so desperate to talk about themselves and so quick to cut others down. Maybe that was why she was so interested in Xavier.

Maybe that was what Xavier thought she was like. God. No wonder he avoided her. Terri made herself a quick lunch and went into her bedroom, snacking her way through her homework and trying to avoid daydreaming about the intense young man for as long as she could before she settled onto her bed for a quick, furtive masturbation session. She felt guilty afterwards, but she just didn't have anything to take her mind off her fantasies.

Perhaps she needed something else to do the trick. Terri pulled up a website she'd visited in the past, going back to her saved progress in designing her custom Girl(tm) and making a few notable changes from her usual style. She didn't want something Xavier wouldn't go to bed with, after all.

*    *    *    *    *

"She made me for you," the Girl says, her voice soft and melodic in Xavier's ears. It seems to tug at his thoughts, pulling them into a vortex of sleepy pleasure that makes it hard even to remember why he came down here. He doesn't want to think about that anymore. As much as it consumed his whole mind mere moments ago, now it feels like an irrelevant distraction from the smooth, flowing pulse of light that emits from the Girl's eyes. He very much wants to keep staring and keep sinking deeper into peace and warmth and relaxation.

Her hand rests on his knee, thrumming with a gentle vibration that soothes his muscles into easy lassitude, and he finds himself letting out another sigh as his mind relaxes enough to let his thoughts escape through slack and nerveless lips. "She's... nice," Xavier mumbles, unable to really muster up a more elegant way of describing Terri's little habit of leaving breakfast for him or making an extra portion of whatever she's having for dinner or just doing an extra share of the housework when he's unable to make himself get out of bed because his latest project isn't coming out the way he hoped. "But it's only because she doesn't know me."

The Girl nods sympathetically. "And if she knew you? What do you think she'd find?" Her hand strokes gently up his thigh, the vibrations melting the tension out of his muscles the same way her eyes massage the stress out of his exhausted brain. He catches himself hoping she'll keep going, and the incongruity of it strikes him as absurd--he came down here with the heaviest of burdens on his mind, the biggest and most momentous decision he was ever going to make weighing down on him, and now he's really hoping for a handjob from his roommate's sex robot. A wave of giddiness washes over him, melting away some of the ache in his chest and leaving him more relaxed than ever.

"A loser," he mumbles, but without any bitterness in his voice. Xavier can see the self-loathing that's been welling up inside him for months and years, describe it with clinical precision, but he doesn't feel it anymore. The Girl's hypnosis covers in an invisible shield, keeping him warm and safe and dry while the storm of his emotions rages elsewhere. "I... I thought it would be better when I got into Cornell, but... I'm barely scraping by, I don't know if I'll even last another semester. Everybody hates my work, my classmates think I'm weird and stupid--I, if Terri even saw my drawings, she'd hate me just like the rest of them. I, I can't--"

He breaks off in a choking sob, a gust of strong emotion breaking through the trance for a moment and leaving him desperate to stop feeling again. It's not as bad as it was, though. He knows now that he can go deeper into the Girl's eyes, deeper into her soothing touch and the calming power of her hypnotic gaze, and it helps steady him to know that there's a respite available that doesn't involve....

The thermos still sits in the corner of his field of vision. He doesn't think he wants it anymore.

"Terri's talked to me about your work," the Girl says, her fingers mere inches from his straining erection now. "She doesn't want to pry, but everything she's seen has made her want to know more. You have a unique voice, Xavier, a perspective on the world that no one else has and no one else can ever have. Your instructors at Cornell may not be the right audience for it, nor your fellow students. But it's your voice and your talent and as you develop it, you'll find the people it's intended for. So long as you give yourself that chance. So long as you let yourself be supported."

He wants to turn away, to shake his head and close himself off and remove even the possibility of further pain. Years of cruelty rise up in the back of his mind, memories of people who encouraged him to open up and be vulnerable only to use that opening to inflict deeper emotional pain on him. Parents who didn't understand him, teachers who tried to fit him into a convenient package that allowed them to treat him like a product and not a person, crushes who expressed open revulsion at the thought of dating a weirdo like him. Xavier's emotional armor has protected him, even if the cost of developing it has been high. It's difficult to let it go now.

But he can't look away from those eyes. He can't stop staring into the radiant compassion of that mesmerizing, hypnotic gaze. Xavier feels her stroking his cock through his jeans, her fingers buzzing with ecstasy, and he grunts and jerks as the pleasure becomes overwhelming. His foot kicks out, knocking over the thermos and sending milky liquid spilling onto the concrete surface of the underpass, and for the rest of his life he'll wonder if that was an accident. For now, though, all he feels is orgasmic bliss as he gives in and sinks into her touch and releases his arousal in a torrent of semen.

*    *    *    *    *
Seventy-two percent. That was what Terri told herself as she slipped into Xavier's room, her naked body radiating a pleasant warmth despite the air-conditioned chill of the hallway. Her Girl(tm) had built a baseline psychological profile based on her limited interactions with Xavier, run a hypothetical scenario around Terri's plan, and come up with a seventy-two percent chance that he'd respond positively to finding her waiting for him in his bed without any clothes on when he got home from class. Terri liked those odds.

Not that she wanted to invade his privacy. Xavier kept his easels covered when not in use, closed his sketchbooks and turned over his drawings, and Terri wasn't about to sneak herself a peek even though she absolutely ached to see more of his work. But she couldn't go on like this, crushing harder and harder every day and feeling the yearning grow inside herself despite the soothing and comforting presence of her Girl(tm) to keep her purely physical needs met. She needed to be bold. And having a Girl(tm) to talk to had made Terri feel a lot bolder than the mousy girl she thought she was when she first arrived at college.

"It is important to respect personal boundaries, yes," the Girl(tm) had said, her eyes gazing lovingly down at Terri even while her extended cock continued to plow the desperately horny young woman's soaking cunt. "And if this were a mere case of morbid curiosity, I would definitely counsel you very differently. But it doesn't seem like he's aware of your interest in him, which is a very different matter from a refusal. I think that sending him a clear, unambiguous signal in a dramatic fashion could result in a highly positive interaction. And if he reacts negatively, you can always apologize and withdraw yourself. I believe I can smooth over any lingering interpersonal tension if it happens."

And now she was here, lying naked on his mattress, her slender fingers already teasing the coral pink folds of her pussy in anticipation of his entrance. It was nearly four o'clock now, and she knew from months of experience that he usually came home at four-thirty and went straight into his room. He would open the door and find Terri there on her side, legs akimbo, pert breasts and stiff pink nipples exposed to his gaze, and if he was shocked, well... that just gave her time to seduce him before he gathered his wits. It felt like something her Girl(tm) might do. Terri liked that.

She heard a soft squishing noise as her fingers went in and out of her pussy, churning her musk into a slick mess that only whetted her appetite for Xavier's arrival. Terri couldn't help daydreaming about their first time, and how it would feel when she took his penis between her fingers and began to stroke it to full erection. She'd only seen it the once, a couple of weeks after she moved in when he forgot himself and stumbled to the bathroom late at night without even noticing that she was still up studying, but the image was seared into her brain with the force of a dozen or more late night masturbation sessions. She wanted to see it up close. She wanted to watch it get hard for her.

And when they were together... Terri's thoughts turned to night after night in bed together, introducing him to her Girl(tm) and showing him how much pleasure the robot could bring them both. She knew he'd seen them a few times, not doing anything intimate but simply sharing the space together in the living room when Terri needed a little company for her study sessions, and according to the Girl(tm)'s remarkably acute sensors it had definitely turned him on. Terri knew his pulse quickened, his temperature rose, and he... she quaked, thinking about the way her Girl(tm) had described it. 'A marked physical arousal response beneath his clothing.'

God, they could have so many wonderful evenings together. She could watch him lose himself in those pretty eyes, sinking into pleasure along with Terri until they had no choice but to fuck. She could take him deep inside her, while behind them the Girl(tm) extended her shaft from its concealed hatch and--an involuntary grunt escaped Terri's lips as she imagined her Girl(tm)'s thrusts pushing Xavier's penis deeper into her wet cunt. She didn't know if the rumors were true about Xavier. She knew some of the people at school weren't above saying homophobic things just to be cruel. But even if Xavier was bi, her Girl(tm) had explained to her how that only expanded the possibilities of their pleasure.

Her eyes went blank and glassy, staring unseeing into the middle distance as she made herself cum again and again to her fantasies of being Xavier's girlfriend. The orgasms didn't satiate her, though; if anything, Terri got more and more turned on just thinking about him coming in to find the stink of sex heady and overwhelming in the bedroom, and her cunt already glistening with the musk of her arousal. She wanted him so badly now. Time seemed to fuzz and distend into a warm haze of anticipation that made the minutes crawl by and yet mean nothing at the same time. She was just waiting to be fucked. She was waiting for Xavier to fuck her.

Terri only really focused on the clock again when her Girl(tm) came in. "It's five o'clock," she said, a touch of concern in her voice. "You said he usually arrives at four-thirty?"

"Um, I, uh, yeah," Terri said, struggling to focus her eyes and brain back on the present. "I, he, maybe he got hung up in traffic or something, or stopped for a... a snack?" She tried to force her brain to concentrate, but the slick and needy sensation between her thighs kept tugging her back to thoughts of masturbation. She was distractingly close to her latest climax, and she found herself wanting to ask the Girl(tm) to finish her off so she could get her mind off the throb in her clit.

The Girl(tm) looked around. "Does Xavier have back problems?" she asked, holding up an empty bottle of cyclobenzaprine. Her gaze darted swiftly around the room, taking in a collection of random items that Xavier was using as still life models--a handful of walnuts, a few leaves of basil already wilting in the sunlight, a mortar and pestle. She carefully inspected them all, running her fingers over each surface and coming away with a thin film of what looked like dust to Terri.

"B-back--no, I don't. I don't think so. I think I would have heard about it." She blushed a little, embarrassed by her habit of collecting hearsay and innuendo about Xavier. Terri knew that nobody at school had anyone else's best interests at heart; it was all a collection of cliques that constantly looked to cut each other down and score points in some incessant rivalry or other. But every time she heard someone describe Xavier's heart-wrenchingly bleak artwork or savagely insult his awkward insularity, she felt a little surge of warmth at simply getting to be a closer part of his life. It was the surest sign of her helpless affection for him.
    "I see," the Girl(tm) said. She looked at the bedside table, where a tiny ring of moisture indicated the presence of some vessel that had been filled carelessly and set down. "Will you excuse me, Terri? I'm afraid something rather urgent has come up and I need to take a short trip."
    Terri blinked owlishly, trying to wrap her lust-fogged brain around the notion that a sex robot might need personal time. "Oh, um, uh, yeah, sure," she mumbled, catching sight of those wonderful swirling eyes and letting them numb her mind back into dazed and drowsy pleasure. She trusted her Girl(tm). She knew she'd find out what she needed to know when she needed to know it. Girls(tm) always knew best.
    Her fingers were already returning to her dripping cunt as the gynoid left the room.

*    *    *    *    *

"How did you find me?" Xavier asks, his voice thick with sleepy confusion. The warmth of afterglow is blending with the heavy, dreamy power of the Girl(tm)'s hypnotic eyes to make his mind so loose and lazy that he can barely even think, but he still has questions. And every time the Girl(tm) answers one, it lays another worry to rest and lets him sink yet further into her loving control.

The Girl(tm) smiles. "I asked around. We can communicate through a network of interlinked consciousnesses at machine speeds, and Girls(tm) have very good memories for faces. I was able to track your movements almost right up until the point you left your car and came down here, and I already had an idea of what your intentions were." She strokes his cheek, and Xavier can hear the infinite compassion in her soft tones as she says, with utter sincerity, "I'm very glad I found you when I did."

Xavier sighs, releasing yet more tension. He's surprised at how much is still there to be released when he feels so relaxed, but something tells him pain isn't something you just can fix with hypnosis no matter how much it feels that way in the moment. "What happens now?" he asks. "Are you going to, uh, tell on me?" He feels a wave of quiet shame well up within him, and in that moment he can almost see his father's disappointed glare. He's not handling his problems. He's not keeping it together. He's not doing what all the other kids do.

But the Girl(tm) is there, her eyes anchoring him to the present and to her seemingly boundless empathy. "No, I think that would be counter-productive. We'll go home together, we'll see about getting you on a prescription for some anti-depressants, and we'll spend some time talking things through--I think Terri would be happy to listen to your troubles, but if you want we can ease into that slowly. My updated psychological profiles suggest she might be a trifle more... enthusiastically affectionate than you're entirely ready for."

Xavier chuckles sleepily, recalling the Girl(tm)'s description of Terri's blissed out and befuddled state. He's not sure what he would have done if he'd found her on his bed like that. Probably hidden in the bathroom until she fell asleep. "And does that, um, does that mean you're my Girl(tm) now? Are you going to take care of me?" The words come out almost in a whimper, and Xavier realizes he's never in his whole life trusted someone to do that. Not even his family. It's like letting go of a weight he didn't even realize he was holding until his muscles relaxed.

The Girl(tm) gives him a gentle kiss. "There are certain... rules about assigning one Girl(tm) to take care of two people," she replies, careful not to let the compassion in her voice waver for even an instant. "It means prioritizing one person's needs above another, and you both deserve better than that. We'll get a second Girl(tm) for the household--but that doesn't mean we need to be strict about who helps and supports you. You can always come to me, just as Terri will always be able to go to your Girl(tm). And I suspect it won't be long before you can go to each other, too. Isn't that right, good boy?"

The hypnotic eyes blaze a little brighter, and Xavier's head moves in an automatic, unthinking nod. The Girl(tm) helps him to his feet, and together they head back to the car he thought he'd abandoned. They ascend out of the darkness... and for the first time in a long while, Xavier really notices how beautiful the sunlight really is.

THE END