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[arrownomore]

"Ugh," Cissie groaned as the sun hit her eyes. She flung an arm over her eyes but it did no good. She was awake and wasn't going to fall back to sleep anytime soon so she had might as well get up and get ready to go on her morning run. First, the run then shower and breakfast and then after that? Well, she just was going to see how things went

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[slowspeedster]

Even this late in the year, it was still too hot and sticky to wear much to sleep, especially when you tended to get tangled in the sheets. Bart was only wearing a pair of sleep shorts when Cissie startled him awake, and he blinked at her owlishly.

"Wha?" he asked.

[arrownomore]

As anxious as Cissie was, she couldn't help but notice that she was seeing more of Bart than she usually did. As if that wasn't awkward enough, here she was in a thin tank top and pajama shorts. She thought she should probably be embarrassed but she had a worse situation going on right now.

"I just ran here in five seconds," she burst out, barely remembering not to shake him in time. "Five seconds and things are going really slow and I think I'm kind of in trouble and I'm starving and I don't think I can sit still and oh my god, is this what it's like for you all the time?"

[slowspeedster]

"Yes, you can sit down, and breathe," Bart said, untangling himself enough so he could pull Cissie down to sit beside him on the bed. "It's easier when you have something that helps you keep track of how fast you're going."

Except Cissie had super-speed, and he had...nothing? That was strange.

[arrownomore]

"Okay," Cissie said as she sat down, her leg pressed next to Bart's. She tried to take a few deep breaths and clear her mind but her brain just didn't seem to want to slow down. She could feel herself starting to fidget and tried another set of deep breaths.

"This is so - I don't even know how to describe it," she added, consciously making an effort to slow down. "My head is buzzing and I just feel like I have to move. I thought no powers worked here - do you feel your connection?"

[slowspeedster]

Bart ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "No, it's not the Speed Force," he said, certain of that much.

"I don't think it's quite the same. But you have to remember what it feels like to be moving at normal speed, and try to stay there. If you let the speed control you, it will use you up."

[arrownomore]

Cissie nodded, biting her lip. What Bart said made total sense and she thought she could do that, remember how to move normal and all of that, but she was afraid that she was going to forget.

Her stomach rumbled insistently again and she made a face. "I, um, don't suppose you have any fruit or something here? Because if you don't, I think I have to run to the kitchen and get something to eat like right now."

[slowspeedster]

"I live with Bob, and it's a bit of a hike to get food, so yeah," Bart said, grinning. He reached over and opened his nightstand to grab a packet of dried fruit and tossed it at Cissie, watching her reactions.

"Carbs will be the best, complex is better than simple, but it's mostly about the calories."

[arrownomore]

Cissie caught the packet easily, plucking it out of the air as if she were picking a daisy, all thoughts of trying to move at normal speed out of her head. She was hungry and the dried fruit sounded like the best thing ever and she couldn't wait any longer or her stomach might possibly eat her.

"Carbs," she said in between handfuls. "Carbs and calories. Okay. I can do this. I think."

[slowspeedster]

"Now I know how Max felt with me," Bart said, but he couldn't help chuckling. "At least this is most likely temporary, right?"

[arrownomore]

Cissie giggled at that as she finished the last of the fruit. "And I guess I'm kind of getting a feel for what it felt like for you. I just... I just never really got what all of this was like. It's a little scary... I do hope this is just some temporary island thing."

Part of it was the whole scary and feeling out of control thing but it was also that it didn't seem fair for her to have something and not Bart.

She drew her knees up to her chest to give her an excuse to move and looked at him. "Thank you. For, you know, not screaming and running away."

[slowspeedster]

Bart shifted, putting an arm around her shoulders, needing to comfort her. "It isn't the same, you know. You've been normal before this. You can use that to stay grounded. I had to learn it all," he admitted.

"For me, scary was the world outside the VR chamber, because it didn't play by the rules I knew, and I couldn't start over when I made mistakes."

[arrownomore]

Cissie leaned against Bart gratefully, taking comfort from him. All of this would be so much worse without him to support and guide her through the whole powers thing. She had imagined what having powers would be like a few times but the reality was so much different.

"That makes a lot of sense," she said quietly. "Kind of like a loss of control, that kind of thing?"

[slowspeedster]

"Yeah, fear, and having Wally chasing me didn't really help," Bart admitted. "But we can get through this. I know just how strong you are."

And he knew they'd survive. It just would be hard, and she'd have to work at staying on the right speed.

[arrownomore]

"I don't know about that," Cissie said, looking down at the floor. "I mean, if it hadn't been for you guys, I probably would have been all about the black leather and we'd be on opposite sides or something. Whatever happens, I know that I can't do it without you."

[slowspeedster]

"Forgive me my Y-chromosome as I find the idea of you in black leather very attractive," Bart teased. "Besides, if you went over to the dark side, I may have to follow."

[arrownomore]

Cissie groaned and shook her head. "I totally walked into that one, didn't I?"

"You know, you make one comment about having to go evil and wear black leather and no one lets you forget it," she added teasingly. "Maybe someday I will wear some, if I am sure that I can overcome its inherent evil or something like that."

It was totally ridiculous to be having this conversation, but it was giving her something else to focus on than the itch to run.