This song is Masterpiece Theatre 1 by Marianas Trench

I'd like to thank ruthrod97, Winter-Freak, soulevans31, GinaRogers, ArtemisJones, . , umbuby, PainInSilence, animelife211, Gryphon44, Sorcha Annysia, DarkImpulse-One, Idea-explosion, roseangel013, MarburyBlur, jofitz1, Kira Sema, Thewickedmusician, K-chan's Kisses, SoulReaperOfTheInnocent, ThePurpleDragoness, martepumpkin, IamBlackCanary, Kam1Kaz3, 1827alouette6927, Fives32, and Healer-of-self for favouriting and following.

Sairey13: Yes, I have a feeling that they could really help each other if they would let themselves.

FudoTwin17: Oh, shucks! You're making me blush! Thanks. And I actually loved Travis's character in the comics, and I'm glad you like it too! I was actually inspired to write the relationship with this link (just remove spaces): www. Deviantart art/ A-Hero-can-be-Anyone- 419496477

Warhawk'42: Thanks! :D

Guest: I know that in canon Dick isn't gay, but for my story he is. So, sorry that part isn't going to change. Also, why can't people have relationships with people of the same sex? What's wrong with that?

roseangel0: Yeah, I haven't decided if the story will end with Dick/Travis, Birdflash, or Dick/nobody. It all depends on the twists in the story and people's thoughts.

Chapter 5: The Mask I Hide Behind

First it comes on quiet, creeping slow
Clever words and phrases only stain
I remain so lost and buried under everything that I need
When all I want is you

Wally ran normal speed up his steps and burst into his house. He had seen the car gone and that meant his father would be off with his drinking pals to empty the nearest bar of every drop of alcohol that the staff would let them. That meant that his father wasn't home right now and he had the place to himself.

He didn't have to worry about being perfect.

...Now if he could only remember how to not worry- and to not be perfect. He wasn't sure how to anymore; the lies and the façade were so ingrained in his head that he wasn't sure what was Wally and what was Wally. He didn't know.

His shoes got kicked off his feet and his backpack dumped on the front mat. He had a couple hours before Rob arrived and they would hang before heading to the Cave. He knew what his plans were before that, though. He would watch tv and not clean up until the last minute. And he would use his super-speed to clean up. He was sixteen and he would be Wally for these couple hours. He had to- no, needed to- reclaim some of himself before it was lost forever.

He had almost made it to the living room before something made him turn around. His shoes and his backpack made quite the mess- didn't it? He had messed up that perfect foyer- it was like a tornado of destruction had gone through there. He was that tornado of destruction.

What if his father came home early...what if he saw the huge mess he had made...such a mess...

He had to clean it up, it had to be clean, the whole house needed to be clean.

He raced around the house- in the foyer, kitchen, his room, bathroom- scrubbing and tidying and washing dishes and straightening and dusting every inch that he could see.

An hour later everything was perfect again. Now his father might...that was delusional. His father would never make the mistake of thinking him perfect- that was silly. But he might see that the house was perfect and some of those feelings might rub off on him. Yes, that could happen.

All that was left to clean was the living room.

I've been here so very long
And every word is calculated
Never questioned or debated
All these practiced poses
I could wreck it if i had to
But I'm the wreck so what would that do?
My masterpiece will fall apart
It was over before the start

All remaining hope of being able to relax and catch up on his tv shows disappeared and shattered into billions of tiny, tiny pieces. He knew what he had to do during his remaining hour; he just hoped he could fix things enough before he left.

He could just imagine every possible horror that his dad could scheme and plan and do if he saw this right here.

Mom...

His mom was sprawled on the couch, the living room in dissaray around her. Lamps were overturned and dragged across the rooms. The carpet was bunched up and herded in a corner against a wall. Every drawer and container was overspilled and scattered across the room. Dubious liquids were smattered on the walls, the glass that used to contain them was strewn on the floor below the smears of liquid. It was clear that his mother had been throwing and raging for who knew how long.

And that wasn't even the worse part.

His mother's legs were splayed wide open and her only piece of clothing- a bath robe tied together half-hazardly- hardly kept her decent. Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. A tear would slip down her pale, pale cheeks every so often and she would sniff in a half-stiffled sob.

The worst part was the joint dangling from her limp fingers.

"Mom," Wally whispered, his breath practically choking him. How could you turn to that of all things, anything but that, Mom.

"Wally?" His mom hoarsely called out. She turned to face her son, and Wally could now see the glazed eyes that seemed to stare right through him.

She got a sleepy smile on her face, "Oh, my. You sound just like my Rudolph. You sound just like what my son Wally would sound like now..." she giggled and the laugh went on for a couple minutes before she could stop herself. "He's a baby now of course, but he'll be so handsome when he's older. He's got Rudolph's red hair, you know. Cute as a button now; I'm sure he'll be a heart-breaker, my little heart-breaker."

Wally let tears drip down his cheeks. She didn't even see him. She thought he was someone else, and he had no idea who.

Mary West's face changed from happy to horrified in a second. "I can't find him though! I'm looking for my baby boy and he ran away from me! He went and hid somewhere and I can't find him."

"I'm-" Wally's voice cracked and he took a deep breath before trying again, "I'm right here, Mom."

"Iris, help me find my baby boy. I can't lose him. I can't let him grow up. He's got to be my baby boy forever." She shakily sat up and started to search underneath the couch cushions.

Wally could only watch with sorrow as his mother tore the couch apart looking for her baby boy. After several minutes she collapsed beside the couch and took several deep breaths from her joint.

Soon she was giggling again and smiling and Wally with happiness. "My baby boy has such beautiful eyes...such beautiful eyes...such green eyes..." Mary West voice drifted off into silence.

Wally, watching her stare into nothing, felt the sharpest of pains in his chest. The pains would strike over and over and over. He could almost hear the cracks that his chest would have made if anything was actually wrong.

It seemed like something was actually wrong. To think that an emotional problem couldn't have any repucussions to the body was just...impossible, right? That's how he thought it should be, but then again, the world was never as he thought it should be. It was always against.

He knew now that the pain in his chest was his heart breaking.

If I burn out and slip away
But this is just a part I portray
And this is just a part I portray
You're beautiful, can I hide in you awhile?
But this is just a part I portray
And this is just a part I portray

He had carried his passed out mother up the stairs and into her room, cleaned her up and covered her in blankets so that she would be warm.

Next was the daunting task of cleaning the living room.

He zoomed all over the room and he did his best to make sure that everything was in the place that it had been when he went to school. His father may not notice when he was stone drunk; he probably wouldn't even notice if the house had been bulldozed based on how drunk he had been past times. But in the morning...Wally had better hope that he fixed every stain, every crease of fabric, or there'd be hell to pay.

Wally always hoped. He hoped until it was all he was. But he knew better, it never went that way. Never.

His stomach gurgled and he felt the hunger throughout he entire body.

They keep mostly to themselves
Don't make a sound in case they hear you
It only hurts me to be near you
Keep those tired eyes closed
Careful, follow my instruction
And I will show you self-destruction
This masterpiece is only mine
Entirely guilty by design

Suddenly the world spun and his vision darkened.

Soon as it came it was gone. Wally was sure it had only been for a second, just a bit of nausea or something similar. But then why was he on the floor?

...Did he actually pass out?

He got his answer when he felt a trickle of warmth inch its way down his cheek. He reached a hand to the trickle, and when he came brought it back down there was a streak of red staining his palm. A quick look around showed a small spot of blood on the edge of the coffee table.

Why on earth would he pass out? And out of nowhere too?

He slowly stood up and got a wet cloth from the kitchen, making sure to hug the walls and lean against furniture in case another dizzy spell caught him. Thinking on what the problem could be, he cleaned up the mess he had made. Hopefully the blood wouldn't stain the wood and his father wouldn't notice.

He stood up once the table was cleaned, and once again he got his answer to his questions. His stomach gurgled and he felt the hunger throughout his entire body. His bones ached with it, and he could just imagine his stomach eating him alive to try and feed his bottomless pit of a metabolism.

Stupid, stupid stomach! Shut up!

He couldn't just go and get some food from the fridge. He didn't have permission from either of his parents, and anyway, permission from his mother wasn't really permission. His father would just get upset at his mother for feeding him and they'd both be in trouble then. And his father wouldn't be allowing him food anytime soon.

He sure hoped Rob would be willing to buy him some food.

I just can't let it, let it out
No I just can't let it out
I just can't let it, let it out
No I just can't let it out
I just can't let it, let it out
No I just can't let it out
I just can't let it, let it out
No I just can't let it out

Dong.

Speak of the bird. That must be Rob now. A quick check in the mirror showed that his incident with the coffee table was all nicely healed up. Rob would start getting suspicious; he knew Rob would, detective-in-training that he was.

And Bats were paranoid. They tended to see problems where there weren't any. And Wally was fine. He didn't need any help, didn't want any.

"Hey," Wally opened the door to a smirking bird.

"Ready to go?" was all Robin said, still smirking that infuriating smirk of his.

Wally just shoved his hands into his pockets and closed the door behind him as he stepped out onto his porch. "Go where?"

"There's a fair in Gotham right now." Robin started to lead the way towards the Central City zeta tube. "I want to go."

"Ew. The circus? Really?" Wally scrunched up his nose and made a silly face. He was playing it cool, but really he was frantically racking his brain for something awesome that Kid Flash would say. "Don't you have someone else you can go with? A girlfriend or something? That seems like something you would take a girlfriend to."

Robin's mouth twisted into something that almost seemed like sadness, but it changed back to his customary smirk so fast that Wally was sure that he had imagined it. "Don't have one...and can you really see Batman going with me as a fatherly bonding thing?"

That made Wally's blood curdle, Batman as a fair. Ew. "Yeah, that'd be just wrong. I can see him beating up all the clowns though." A pause. "Hey, why does Gotham let fairs in, with the Joker running around blowing everybody up?"

"Cause everyone wants a bit of happiness, and sometimes you have to take a bit of risk to get it, I guess."

Yeah...

"Fine, I'll go to this stupid fair with you." Wally grinned at Robin, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Yep. But only if you buy me some hotdogs."

"Oh come on, you're going to end up eating twenty or some obscene amount!"

"You don't care. Batman's loaded."

"How do you know that?"

"Of course! He's actually some random guy that stole a batsuit from a Halloweeen shop!"

"Hey! Don't insult the batsuit!"

"Whatever Boy Blunder."

Yeah, Wally would continue to pretend to be Kid Flash. He couldn't give up his bit of happiness, no matter the risks.

But this is just a part I portray
You're beautiful, can I hide in you awhile?
You're beautiful
If this is just a part I portray
If this is just a part I portray
I don't know how it got this way

That took forever to write, but I'm happy with how Wally turned out. I tried to make him have some sort of paranoia concerning his father, and a kind of OCD about being perfect and living up to people's expectations.

Tell me how you think I did with Wally's characterization, and please review! It really helps motivate me to write! :)