Madame Claw and The Mirror Mask
Chapter 2: The Aftermath
It had all been a blur after Arnold confirmed he was her masked partner, but she did remember the urgency she felt of not being able to get out of the boarding house fast enough. She had grabbed her bag and bolted out faster than she could formulate a response. Holy shit, Arnold was The Mirror Mask? Arnold? When had she fallen into this Twilight Zone episode and how was she supposed to wake up?
Gerald had sent a text along the lines of hoping she felt better, but she couldn't really recall exactly; it had been Arnold's obvious cover as to why she had bailed on them and missed out on those yummy subs. Nor could she figure out if it had really been her that had written five pages towards their report, because if someone were to ask her anything about those cultures, let alone how they viewed women, she wouldn't have been able to tell them shit.
Yet, when she had gone to school on Monday, Gerald had freaked out on her in response to her email from the night before, wondering how she had been able to do the research and knock out that much when he himself had just finished reading the first book.
She just brushed him off, telling him that she obviously was a natural at research.
School…what a nightmare that had been so far. Despite their shared classes, she had avoided Arnold like the plague. As soon as the bell rang, she bolted out of class. She took her lunch alone these last few days and in different places because, dammit, the football-headed dweeb was actually looking for her.
She avoided Mask during Tuesday and Wednesday night's patrol, too, instead keeping to the ground rather than the roofs that they were usually so fond of.
In fact, she was doing pretty well for herself…until last night with the two insignificant minions. The first had been so quick and easy to get rid of; she had been able to defeat him before Mask had even shown up. The second had been just as easy but because she was so worried about trying not to get anywhere close to Mask, she had almost royally screwed up. Before Mask could corner her, she had taken off.
And now it was Friday in the last class of the day. Helga couldn't wait to get out of there, especially since she shared it with Arnold. Then she could hole up in her room until she was needed. If she was needed. Besides that mess up the night before, there hadn't been much happening around town.
However, as much as he had tried getting her to talk to him the last few days, he hadn't even looked at her today. They had one other shared class earlier in the day and she had been too busy trying to ignore him that she didn't realize it until he sat down in his desk in front of her. No comments, no pleas or passed notes; he just sat and prepared for the class. Surely he wasn't actually mad at her? She just needed time to process all of this. She wasn't like him and didn't need to talk things out. She preferred to internalize.
It was small group discussion time about last night's reading, but she ignored everyone in favor of trying to actually do the reading that had been assigned. Normally she wasn't so flaky in her classes but she had genuinely forgotten about it. This avoiding thing was really taking its toll on her.
"Did you see the news this morning?" It was Claire speaking to Arnold. Even if they were supposed to be discussing the reading, it wasn't uncommon to talk about other things.
"About what?" Helga unconsciously perked up when Arnold responded. So he would talk to Claire instead of her, huh? So what if she had been ignoring and avoiding him all week? He was her partner and he should know that she needed to keep him at a distance but, dammit, he shouldn't ignore her! So what if that's what she'd been pretty much asked for these last few days?
"About Madame Claw and The Mirror Mask. It was kind of weird."
"What was weird?" interjected Gerald. It actually kind of freaked her out, but Gerald was a total fanboy for Claw. Not that she would have ever brought the superheroes up in front of anyone, but she always steered clear of conversation of Claw and Mask when Gerald was involved.
"The footage that they showed from last night. Madame Claw almost fell off the building and then she just left without checking on anyone or anything like she normally does. I hope she didn't get hurt."
Gerald nodded at Claire's observation. "Oh, yeah, something was definitely up with her. Like her head wasn't in the game."
Helga continued to look down at the pages, but wasn't actually reading anything. Truthfully, she was a bit surprised that Gerald and Claire had paid that enough attention. Not to mention she was almost touched at their concern. To be fair, she didn't do it for the fame and glory – it was pretty much a requirement on her end. And even if she couldn't really accept praise (thanks a lot Bob and Miriam for that screw up), it was nice to hear her peers talk about her in a positive light.
"Do you think they're having a lover's quarrel?"
She instantly thought she heard a violin screeching. A WHAT now?
Gerald sputtered. "What! No way! They're totally not together, Claire! I can't believe you're one of those people! Not to mention that she'd never go for a dork like Mask."
Helga sunk lower in her seat and held up the book to cover her warming face. She couldn't believe they were talking like that. And ha! If only you knew, Gerald. Helga couldn't help but snicker at the thought of what Gerald would say or do if he ever found out that Arnold was Mask.
Crap, now she was thinking of The Reveal. Her stomach fell.
"What are you talking about, Gerald? It's completely obvious that they care for each other."
"Care, yeah, I can see that; they're partners. But there's no way they're dating," he argued.
Claire rolled her eyes to Arnold as she responded to Gerald. "You boys are all alike; absolutely blind to the truth of love."
"I never said I agreed with Gerald."
Helga gripped her book. Don't you dare, Football Head.
"You don't?" responded both his best friend and Claire in sync. Helga gripped her book tighter and narrowed her eyes at a random spot on the page, wishing she could shoot daggers to the boy in front of her instead.
"Yeah. In fact, I don't just think they're dating, I know they are."
There was a squeak but Helga couldn't honestly say if it was her or Claire. Her book dropped to the desk and she could feel the color that had been starting to show immediately drop down to a level that would make Snow White envious. "What!"
"Seriously, Arnold?" Claire was grinning and practically bouncing on the edge of her seat. "How do you know?"
Helga could only see half of his face, grinning that idiotic way he did when he was about to get cocky (seriously, how the hell did she not see it before?) and he didn't miss a beat. "I've seen them a couple of times while they're out patrolling since I typically hang out on my roof. Besides, a blind man can see how in sync they are with each other. How could they not be together?"
"Oh my god, Arnold, you are so full of shit." Three pairs of eyes landed on her: two round in surprise and one hooded in obvious challenge. Damn, had she really said that? Well, no turning back now. "Stop gossiping about stuff you don't know."
"Why Helga," he began, a puckish smile forming on his perfect face, "I didn't realize you cared so much about the topic. You're usually not interested in the lives of our superheroes."
"I can't stand rumors," she snapped. "And while normally I would stay out of this crap, I have a civil duty to stop it from spreading before it gets out of hand. Besides, shouldn't we be discussing last night's reading?"
Arnold shifted in his chair and rested his arm on her desk. "Why does it matter what people think? It's not harming anyone."
"Yet!" She shoved his arm off and he promptly put it back. "Before you know it, the whole town is going to act crazy. They're going to start interfering with their battles and getting hurt. I don't need my tax dollars paying for the ignorant's hospital bills!" She tried to shove it off again but he held firm. Damn, his arms really were solid. Not that she hadn't noticed on Mask before. All those times he had caught her, hugged her...
"You don't work, Helga." Helga scowled out of her revelry.
"Every time I buy an ice cream or coffee, I'm paying taxes, Football Head. I'm a contributing member to society."
"So what are your reasons for thinking they're not together?" As much as she knew Mask, Mask knew her. And to make it worse, Arnold knew Helga. It was obvious to him that she was trying to distract him with another argument and he hadn't taken the bait.
She rolled her eyes and leaned back against her seat, folding her arms across her chest. "Tons of crap. It's almost impossible to hide a relationship. People make too many mistakes when they try and Claw and Mask haven't made any of those mistakes."
Arnold's ever-widening smile made her blood boil. "Enlighten us."
She glared at him. "For one, they never touch each other."
"Oh, I have to disagree with you there, Helga." It was Claire again. Helga was momentarily startled that she was still there, having almost forgotten about her and Gerald.
"And I agree with you, Claire," was Arnold's response but continued to look at Helga. "They touch all the time. Claw is always doing that hair ruffle thing to Mask," (she does?) "he's always holding her a little bit longer than he probably should when he catches her or pulls her to safety in one dashing move or another," (Oh, god, she was instantly reminded of all the times Arnold seemed to mancrush on Mask. It made so much more sense now! Seriously, Mask, how narcissistic can you be?), "they high-five, push each other around-"
"They seem to always be holding hands!" Interrupted Claire. "And what about The Kiss?" she giggled.
Helga groaned and rubbed her forehead with her left hand. "It wasn't a kiss, Claire. It was obviously photoshopped." Of course she would be referring to that stupid tabloid picture that popped up a couple of months ago. It had taken weeks for that to die down, even if it was blatantly altered.
"No, no. Not that one. When The Mirror Mask was attacked by The Galloping Knight." Oh. That had been a super nasty fight. But there hadn't been anything remotely close to what could have been assumed as a kiss. Helga frowned, trying hard to remember the play-by-play.
"Oooh, riiight!" Arnold was grinning at her again. "He was cornered, probably thinking he was on his final lance when Knight stabbed him just as Claw swooped in. If I recall correctly, which I most certainly do, she fought particularly harder than normal."
Helga scoffed. "That proves nothing. Her partner was hurt. Of course she had to save his tail." Arnold's grin widened even more and she suddenly realized the pun. Helga flushed and slammed her hand on the desk, completely ignoring her stunned classmates. "Dammit, that doesn't count! It wasn't intentional!"
He didn't respond to her outburst but she knew just how giddy he was over that. Dammit.
"So he's laying there, bleeding, and Claw defeats the minion. She rushes to his side, perhaps thinking he's dead…" he trails off, his grin still wide, instantly knowing she would remember what happened next.
That wasn't fair, though. She really thought he had been injured pretty bad. So what if her emotions got the better of her that one time? It had been scary, thinking that he had been seriously hurt. And there had been so much blood. It had been a no brainer for her to rush back to him, to make sure the minion hadn't punctured something important. And of course she had been relieved to find out he was ok and, still emotionally charged, she had hugged him and kissed his cheek.
Her face warmed a touch more, but she brushed it off with a roll of her eyes. "A kiss on the cheek means nothing. Especially after that kind of fight."
"Yeah. Timberly kisses me all the time, especially when she thinks I get hurt," Gerald finally contributed, insinuating about his sports games.
"Claw and Mask aren't siblings, though." Helga paused a moment when Gerald gave her a 'are you kidding me? I thought you were on my side!' look and mentally kicked herself for giving more fuel to Arnold and Claire. She should have just kept her big mouth shut from the beginning. "Anyway," she continued, hoping to correct her error, "friends always give cheek kisses. That screams friendship, not dating."
Arnold couldn't have been happier if he was a pig in mud and he had the laugh to show it. She glared at him again for good measure. "See, Helga? You're on the MirrorClaw ship whether you realize it or not."
"Shove it, football face. They are not together. Never have been nor will they ever be. They have a strictly business relationship and that is all it will ever be. She respects him too much."
Her face, once again, turned a shade of pink at that slip up, especially since his grin got even wider with a raise of an eyebrow that was elegantly arched up. She could just feel his arrogance oozing off of him in waves, the jerk.
"You guys are crazy." Although she heard Gerald, she continued to glare at Arnold as he grinned back at her. "I can't believe we're even talking about this. Arnold, I love you bro, but you're whack to think anything will ever come of your shipper fantasy."
Arnold turned to smirk at his best friend. "So you can have a go with her? And ruin your chance with a certain someone else?"
Any other time, Helga would have given Gerald a hard time about how his face turned redder than the shirt he was wearing, but the bell rang and Helga had to get out of there. Even if they had a têt-à-têt just a moment ago, she really didn't want to have to deal with Arnold alone.
Not even bothering with putting her book away, Helga grabbed her bag with her other free hand and ran out.
In fact, she ran all the way home, not even stopping at her locker or to walk with Phoebe to the bus stop. She'd text an apology later. The most important thing is to get away from school. And it looks like it was a good thing she had ran because she beat the bus by a good twenty minutes.
With Bob gone until dinner and Miriam suspiciously, but blessedly absent, Helga leapt up the stairs with ease and ran to her room. Success! It was officially the weekend! No more dodging Arnold in the hallways and classes, no more sitting on edge whenever she spotted him coming towards her, and no confrontation. Now if only she could get through the weekend without seeing Mask and –
Helga let out a started scream as she skidded to a stop at her doorway. There, standing in the middle of her room with his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face was none other than the football-headed jerk himself.
She slammed the door behind her and barely reminded herself to gently put down her bag as her beloved sprite was hiding out in there, the very being that made her Madame Claw. "What are you doing in my room?" she yelled, advancing onto him. "In fact, how did you even get in here? And how did you beat me from school?"
Still scowling, he pointed to her mirror. She kept herself from smacking her forehead, not believing he had used his powers to get the upper hand.
Oh, shit, he could have done that all week…
She'd think about it later.
"You've been avoiding me."
She scoffed. "You're imagining things. Now get out of here."
"No. Not until we talk."
"There's nothing to talk about!"
He frowned and lowered his arms. "Why are you so upset that I'm Mask? Do you hate me that much?"
Helga was taken aback by that, wondering where he had put that together. Besides the typical insults and teasing here and there, she and Arnold had actually gotten along pretty well in high school. They were civil in the worst of times and almost pals in the best. Not in the level of hey-I'm-bored-let's-hang-out type, but if they saw each other alone while they were out, which was pretty frequent, they would keep company for a bit.
"What? I don't hate you."
"Then why are you angry?"
"Why aren't you?" she cried, throwing her arms up in the air. "There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, we were never supposed to know each other's identity, let alone actually know each other in civilian form. Do you know how dangerous this is now?"
"So…you're upset because of that and not because it's me?" The relief that showed on his face and in his tone took Helga by surprise and stopped her retort. To be honest, she had been so consumed with the fact that Mask was Arnoldthat she hadn't really thought about Arnold being Mask. And what freaked her out the most was that she had just started to accept her feelings for Mask and, low and behold, he turns out to be the one other guy she had ever had feelings for. And that was putting it lightly.
It was for purely selfish reasons why she had freaked out. And she was still uncomfortable with it: her getting over Arnold, Mask constantly making his feelings known for Claw, her new feelings for Mask, finding out that both boys were one and the same…it had just been too much. And if she didn't let go of that, her own insecurities would have taken over and crush her.
Helga wasn't Claw. Helga was crass, rude, tomboyish, and definitely not someone anyone would want to be with. In fact, she had been so sure that if Mask would ever find out who she really was, he would be so disgusted with himself that he would bail out on her and hang up his superhero gig for good just to get away from her.
And now that this confrontation was happening, her fears were surely about to become reality: she was going to lose him.
But, then he had asked if she had been upset that it was him. The anger that she had lashed out towards him just moments ago drained, sucking out most of her energy.
"Of course I'm not upset it's you, Arnold. Yeah, I was surprised, just as you were, but…it's just..."
She couldn't continue and looked away, not wanting to show any weakness in front of him. She had only shown Mask insecurity a couple of times, and those had been in moments of weakness for both of them, but right now she was in front of Arnold. It was still weird.
Arnold reached out and took a hold of her left hand. It had been scratching her arm, as she was wont to do when she was nervous, and she looked back up at him with a frown. There was that familiar twinkle in his eyes as he gave her a crooked grin and squeezed her hand.
"You don't have to feel guilty, Helga. If I wanted revenge against you for all the years of torment, I would have done that when I first discovered my powers."
She blinked up at him, confused at first before rolling her eyes and punching him in his shoulder, freeing her hand from his grasp. She was relieved that he had taken the comedic way out of that instead of getting her upset with trying to talk. He really did know her.
"Yeah, right. You're a goody-goody both in and out of the mask, Arnoldo. There's no away you could beat me up, anyway. I'd kick your butt any time, any where."
"Is that a promise?"
Helga brushed passed him with a roll of her eyes, heading to her closet (which had thankfully be sans shrines for years now), and hung up her jacket. "Call it whatever you want, Lotte, it's all the same to me."
When she turned back to him with a smirk, closing the closet behind her, she was taken aback by the look on his face. It wasn't something that she could immediately identify because she had never seen it on Arnold before. Maybe…tenderness?
"For the record, Helga, I'm glad you're Claw. I feel stupid and blind for not seeing it before, but out of all the girls I know, I'm glad you're her."
It didn't go unnoticed by Helga that he had referred to her being Claw and not Claw being her. It was telling and it hit something deep inside, causing her stomach to do a funny flop. "Oh yeah? Was that before or after you blew chunks realizing that you'd been flirting with the devil?" She smirked, feeling a stab in her gut. She took his cue from earlier and stuck with humor even though she knew that any minute now he was going to do a one-eighty and reveal just how disgusted he was and leave her, even if it would be out of character for either of his identities.
He chuckled at her instead, prompting a frown from her. "Are you kidding? I couldn't have asked for a better person or partner than you."
"What?"
He flashed her a genuine smile and stepped towards her, but not enough to close the distance. She mentally applauded his instincts because if he had come any closer, she would have struck out. She was tightly on guard, ready to spring again, especially since she was cornered in her room. If there was one thing she couldn't do, it was handle any sort of praise.
"I'm glad it's you because if it had been anyone else, they wouldn't be able to handle both worlds. You're strong, smart, funny when you're not trying to act like a bitch –"
"Hey!"
He grinned wider. "You aren't the same bully-in-hiding that you used to be when you were a kid. You've always had a good side to you and you were always so afraid to show it. You're actually pretty compassionate when you want to be. I feel like now you finally get to be the person who you've always been inside. I've always known she was in there and she's finally been coming out these last few years." That was true, at least. He had been telling her that she was good since the first grade and she had been pretty chill since freshman year. Even more so since she became Madame Claw. Maybe it was because the long nights were making her too tired to be a brat to everyone like the years prior. "We all get to see who Helga Pataki really is; the one I've always known about.
"And then with Claw… Hillwood gets a superhero and a positive, female role model to kids. Which," he cut her off when she was about to protest, "is very much the case, Helga. Whether you want to admit it or not, she's done a lot of good for this town. And there aren't a lot of good, female superheroes out there. They're all guys."
"They're all in movies and books, too, Football Head…" she trailed off, instantly regretting what she said as it just helped to prove his point. She hated when she did that and it happened almost too often.
It seemed as if he was expecting it, because his grin was triumphant. She rolled her eyes away from him and glanced towards her bookshelf to keep from looking up at him.
Really, she didn't know what to say. While Arnold had always insisted she was good growing up, she didn't realize how deeply he believed that until now. He always looked on the bright side of things but to see it in her was just crazy. And even if what he did say made sense to her, especially with the positive things about Claw, it was still hard for her to accept it. She was mean ol' Helga deep down. Not this great thing he obviously believed her to be.
But even despite that, she knew that he saw her for who she was, and not some unattainable figure that she joked with Mask about whenever he flirted with her.
Oh god…how could he want to stay with her knowing who she really was?
"Helga." She looked up at him, blinking back the tears she didn't realize were forming. "You're overthinking things."
She scoffed at him and folded her arms. "I'm not."
"Yes you are, because I did and kind of am still doing it, too."
She sighed then, knowing that was probably true. He had always been good at reading her, just as she was good at reading him. At least, that was the case during battles. It's one of the things that made – make – them such a great team.
"Claw wouldn't be anywhere without Mask, you know. If you were to say that you couldn't do this anymore with me…" she trailed off and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. She couldn't do this alone.
Before she realized what had happened, she found herself enveloped in his arms. She tensed, prepared to push him away but found that she really didn't have the energy to. "Chasca…the only way that I would leave would be if you told me to. You're my partner. I would never leave you willingly and never on my own."
Helga closed her eyes, the lump in her throat growing larger. It finally clicked for her that Arnold wasn't Mask, and Mask wasn't Arnold. They were both one and the same and, just how she would never give up on Mask or Arnold, he would never give up on her. Neither side of her. It was a surreal feeling, one that, even if she recognized it, she would probably not be able to full grasp for some time. But now, standing here in his embrace, she realized that it was something she would eventually come to accept.
There would be no Madame Claw without The Mirror Mask, just as there would be no Helga without Arnold. And even if the latter had distanced themselves over the years, they had always really been together. This, she realized, just solidified it and made it factual. Together, Mask and Claw had been one hell of a force. And now, together in both worlds, they would be unstoppable.
As long as they were together, they would be undefeatable. Dark Matter didn't stand a chance.
AN: Welp. I guess I couldn't let this story go.
Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed Part 1. I was surprised to see the response I received from it, both in reviews and PM, and it kind of inspired me to do a follow-up.
Also, thank you to Arnold's Lover for giving me the push I needed.