Notes: For Flufftober Alternate Prompt - Slow Dancing
Follow My Lead
Nora sighed in despair and collapsed onto the couch. "What was I thinking? I can't dance. I've got two left feet. I step on my partner's feet when I follow and I bump into everyone around me when I lead. I've got a date with the most beautiful girl ever and I can't dance. What was I thinking? I shouldn't have asked her and just let Lia go with someone who can actually show her a good time."
"Is this a pity party for one, or can anyone join?" asked Nora's mom.
Iris West-Allen was beautiful, poised, and perfect in every way. For one thing, she could dance. Nora had seen her mom dancing with her dad plenty of times.
"It's a pity party for terrible dancers. Pretty sure that's not you," Nora retorted. "Didn't I used to be good at ballet?"
"Well... you weren't bad at it, but you didn't enjoy it. Which kinda showed."
"Mo~om," Nora groaned. "You aren't helping."
"Lia agreed to go to the dance with you because she wants to spend time with you. And if that means that you two spend the whole time by the buffet, then she'll still be happy because you're there with her." Iris patted her daughter on the shoulder. "And she's going to be here in fifteen minutes, so you'd better get dressed."
"What?!" Nora launched herself off the couch, wild eyed and looking at her retro watch. "But I've got a whole hour until..." she looked up at the old mantle clock that was a good forty-five minutes ahead of her watch. "My watch stopped! The battery died."
"Yeah, Wally's always complaining his powers drain his watch batteries quick for some reason," Iris mused.
"Oh, now she tells me," Nora griped, pouting at her mom. "Be right back."
She slipped into flash time and rushed to her room, hurrying out of her clothes and into the cute black dress with a purple flower pattern she'd picked out for the dance. With that went a pair of fancy purple flats - Nora wanted comfort if she was going to be on her feet all night - and then she did her make up before hurrying back down to rejoin her mom.
"How do I look?" Nora asked, spinning around.
"Very cute. Let me grab one of my handbags for you to borrow. Black one, gold chain?"
Nora beamed. "Please and thank you."
With the purse in hand, Nora stuck her phone and keys in there while her mom touched up Nora's hair. And then the doorbell rang.
"She's here!" Nora exclaimed with a yelp. She rushed to the door and Lia, dressed in a white pantsuit with purple shirt under her blazer, held out a bouquet of red roses once Nora let her in.
"These are beautiful." Nora blushed, taking a moment to inhale the pretty flower scent. "Thank you."
"They're not as pretty as you are," Lia muttered, blushing.
"How about I put these in water," Iris offered, taking the bouquet from Nora.
"I got you something too," Nora blurted out and then retrieved from the coffee table a series of paper craft flowers she'd made. It was one of the few hobbies that took delicacy and focus that Nora actually had patience for. Too much like her dad, she supposed. But the romantic stuff she wasn't too bad at, apparently.
Lia beamed. "Oh, wow. They look so real."
"But unlike the real things, these'll give you a paper cut if you aren't careful. So, uh, maybe don't run your thumb along the petals like that?" Nora cautioned anxiously.
Nodding, Lia set the flowers aside. "I'll have to remember to take them with me after the dance."
"Pictures!" Iris called. "Your dad," she kissed Nora on the cheek, "was so upset when he got called into work, knowing he was going to miss this moment. So you two have to take lots of pictures before you go."
Nora nodded and posed with Lia in various places before, finally, they headed out to Lia's car and to the school dance.
"I-I can't dance," Nora finally admitted after the third time Lia had asked her to dance. "I'm a multiple left footed disaster."
Lia chuckled. "You'll be fine." She held out her hand and smiled. "Just follow my lead, okay?"
Blushing, Nora took Lia's hand. "Okay."
Leading Nora out onto the dance floor, Lia guided Nora to place her hands on Lia's shoulders. Then Lia's own hands went about Nora's waist, drawing her close. Then, slowly, they began to sway.
Nora's feet barely needed to move at all, really. And she didn't step on Lia's feet a single time during that song. Or the one after that. Or any of them, slow dancing even to the fast songs. It felt like the world was just the two of them.
It was the perfect night, really. And Nora realized her mom was right. Just like there wasn't anyone else Nora wanted to have this first school dance with... Lia clearly didn't want to be there with anyone but her either.