The Words and What they Meant: Masks
Author: serafina19
Title: The Words and What they Meant: Masks
Rating: PG
Summary: Halloween, masquerades, it isn’t the only time that masks are worn, especially in their lives.
Previous Words: Wow Grey Insecurity Infinity
Sera’s Scribbles: Not quite Halloween, and it’s a bit of a rush job, but it’ll have to do. This is an extension for a short drabble I wrote for a trick-or-treat meme for nienna87last year.
Masks
A covering for all or part of the face: worn as a disguise or as part of a costume. A respirator used to filter inhaled air.
Halloween, masquerades, it isn’t the only time that masks are worn, especially in their lives. At some point, everyone wears a mask. Sometimes it’s worn to hide a person’s struggle from the world, or to hide who someone really is. Sometimes, that mask develops layers, builds into a persona, losing the person inside, causing someone to forget his or her own identity.
That was the stage where Chloe was at, she just didn’t know it. Her mask had built walls, an armour to keep people from getting in, a painless prison where inside her emotions lay. She thought it was better this way, to rely on the job to get by, instead of getting hurt again.
It gave her a necessary amount of air to breathe, to survive, but her life, it wasn’t a life at all. It was days and nights of going through the same motions, until her cousin told her to put down her electronics for one night. Her intentions didn’t go as planned that night, as her proposed ‘fun’ took an unexpected turn for the worse. Yet, somehow, things took another turn as she walked into the place she referred to as a safe haven.
He was a comfortable presence, a reliable friend and ally, and target practice was normal. By all accounts, it was a normal night. Except when they got to talking, they were reminded of the struggle they had been facing. So, likely to lighten the mood, he offered to teach her how to shoot an arrow for herself.
Pulling back the string, feeling the light tension in her fingers, there was nowhere she could hide as she stood there and he stood behind her, whispering words that applied more to their lives than the arrow in her hands.
Because the target wasn’t the only thing pierced by firing the arrow that fateful night. Her walls, while thought to be impenetrable, had finally started to crack, and while it would take much more than one shot or gesture to bring them down, her mask would lift one day. She would love again, feel alive again, not because of a misguided mission, or an unrequited hope, but because her heart would allow her to, and this time, it wouldn't go unnoticed.
For he too wore a mask, although being accused of hiding who he was had stung a little, especially considering the source. Oliver was a leader, a friend, but he had to admit the bird brain was right. Connections like that, they took time, they took shedding everything he had to truly let someone into his life.
To this day, he wasn’t sure why he offered her the shot. Maybe it was because it was something that helped him relax, and Chloe wasn’t exactly the best at taking care of herself. But neither was he. In fact, it was her who pulled Oliver out of his funk, reminding him of the hero he was.
It had been months since she had ripped his mask off his face, destroying the playboy facade that he relied on to get by, all to tell him that his life had value. Then suddenly, he found himself returning the favour, re-igniting the confident woman beneath the distant shell. Whether it was physical or emotional support, he was there, helping her, and he could tell that he was breaking through.
He just didn’t plan on not being there when she spoke those little words into a walkie talkie, showing the moment when she finally let herself believe that who she was... was good enough.
However, he would see her again, her mask taken off completely, leaving the woman he fell in love with. There were bumps and surprises ahead, but that’s a typical story... and they paled in comparison to the struggle they had faced to get to this point.
Sure, the media may see them as a rich playboy and a nobody who got lucky, but they just see each other as Mr. and Mrs. Queen. And no matter what happens, they know who they are.
~End~