Afterglow

Bart Allen had never felt more embarrassed and ashamed in his entire, albeit short, life. He covered his eyes with one hand, the other pulling the rumpled covers up to his chin. He couldn't bear to look at Carol; what she must think of him…

"So, that was pretty much a disaster, wasn't it?" he heard himself say, and inwardly cursed every single way he knew how – which wasn't nearly enough to elucidate on his idiocy. He just had to compound the problem by talking about, didn't he?

Carol shifted and he felt her bare shoulder brush his equally bare arm. "Mmmm…I wouldn't say that," she said contemplatively.

Bart risked a look through his fingers. Carol didn't look nearly as furious as he thought she'd be. Grife, she didn't look mad at all. "What…what would you say?" he asked, and fought against chewing his lower lips off.

"I'd say that was about as well as most first times go, when both participants don't have much experience," she said, and even though she was nineteen and a sophomore at Keystone Tech, she still blushed like she had when they were younger.

Younger and infinitely more innocent. Neither of them had any experience that didn't involve the other; past first base, anyway.

But considering that he'd just made a real cock-up of stealing home…no pun intended… "You…think it went okay?" He'd been horrible, he knew, even without having any experience to base it on.

Carol giggled, eyes shining up at him. "Bart, did you honestly expect to get everything right the first time?"

Well…no. "No, but shouldn't all the books I read count for something? I mean, I know I hurt you, and I couldn't even…" Bart flushed, miserable and somehow unable to say the right words to apologize without making her feel worse.

"Not much," Carol said, her hand covering his mouth. She looked at him, her face so close he could see the outline of her contacts in her eyes. Her face was still slightly flushed from their exertions and her hair was tangled and wild around her head. The dark strands looked nothing like a halo, but Bart was sure she was an angel. "And anyway, that happens to every girl the first time. You're stretching muscles that have never been used before." She shrugged with the one shoulder that she wasn't using to prop herself up. "Bart, I know most everything wasn't perfect, but the fact that it's you and me…that is." Her eyes sparkled with something like joy and her cheeks were flushed and she looked absolutely amazing.

Bart finally knew what it was like to be floored. He was breathless and his legs felt like noodles, and he knew he couldn't run even if the Suneater came back. "Oh. I…you're perfect, too, Carol…" He rushed to turn over so they could face each other, blushing when her breasts got smushed against his chest, and very aware of how good that felt. "I'm just sorry that I, um…was-too-fast."

"I kinda expected that, too," Carol said, closing her eyes and laying her head on his shoulder. She nuzzled against his cheek, making Bart's heart speed up again; he had to consciously focus to stay at 'normal' speed. "For what it's worth, I hear that's normal the first couple times, too. And anyway, that's the whole reason we…you know…" she blushed again, and opened her eyes to look at, "tried out third base first. So that when we messed up, we'd still have good memories of being together tonight."

"Even if it was all horrible, they'd still be good memories," Bart said, tucking a few stray locks of hair behind Carol's ears. "'Cause I was with you." And, thinking back, it hadn't been that bad; true, neither of them had been able to figure out what to do their hands, and the first time Bart had tried to get inside her, he'd missed, and he just knew the faces he made when he came were weird, but the ones she'd made were too, and also sexy, and Carol…

He loved Carol. She was amazing and smart and beautiful and if he hadn't quite figured out how to please her in the bed yet, well, he was a fast learner. "So…I guess this means it'll just take time to…get it right."

Carol hmmmed softly. "Yeah. Besides…that was just our first time. And it was pretty good, all told, but…I think we can do better." A blush colored her smiling cheeks underneath her sparkling eyes, and Bart felt himself fall into that dizzying array of love/lust/friendship/need that had always knocked his thought processes for a loop when he was around her.

Licking dry lips, Bart found himself nodding like a bobblehead doll, and took a moment to be thankful that Carol loved him even when he acted like an idiot. "We probably need practice before get, y'know, good at it," he suggested, thanking every deity he'd heard of individually and by name that Carol's roommate was out of town for the weekend. At her encouraging smile, he added, "And, ah…I suppose there's no time like the present to start…on practicing, I mean."

Carol nodded, and then giggled as he playfully pounced her, running teasing fingers along her belly as their legs tangled in the covers. He pressed kisses to her throat, and tried to remember those meditation techniques he'd learned that actually did help him slow down. Bart was determined to last more than an objective two minutes and fifteen point seven seconds once he got inside her, even if she did feel like the best thing on Earth, even better than his speed.

Carol moaned into his mouth and wrapped her legs around his chest as he touched her, then making those little gasping cries that drove Bart insane when he added his tongue to his fingers. Their second time might not be much better, or the third, or the fourth, but they were together, and that was all that mattered.

They had the rest of their lives to work out the kinks.

THE END