Will of the Many~ Poe Dameron

Slipping into old habits

Took my last breath, like the smoke from my lips. I've lied for you, and I liked it too, but my knees are bruised, from kneelin' to you. I've had enough, but you're too hard to quit...

-Charlotte Lawrence, Joke's on You

Serena pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and ran her top two front teeth over it comfortingly. Her eyes flickered up to Kylo Ren as they stood in the elevator. The gray tint to her mask diluted everything about him into varying shades of gray, not that he would be anything else with all the black he wore. 

Her every breath fanned warm air across her cheeks until they were covered in a hot, clammy dew. 

The one solace about the mask was that she didn't have to be wary of her facial expressions, she could get away with chewing into her lip or rolling her eyes out of irritation. Her mask disguised her every emotion, it was the wall she had built between her and all the horrible things she had to do. While she hated the things she was forced into, she was thankful for the wall if she was back to doing the sinful deeds. 

Serena let her bottom lip go just as the elevator doors opened. Two Storm Troopers were waiting for the elevator, but as the doors opened they steppes aside to let Kylo Ren and her out. 

Serena quickly ran her tongue along her bottom lip to wipe any blood she may have left from chewing on her lip. But with her exhale revert back to her cheeks, she remembered they couldn't see her lip even if it was bloody. 

It seemed that although it hid her, she still had to get use to not always being looked at- or at least not seen- by everyone around her. 

She stepped off the elevator after Ren and followed him down the narrow hallway. When she fell in his shadow she cursed herself and sidestepped to skip up to his side. She pulled her shoulders back and held her head up so all who passed them could admire the mask- and let it spread that Serena was just as she was. The quicker word spread, the quicker the Resistance would know that she was okay... or at least breathing.

"My men have spotted the droid your pilot hid the map in. I expected an update by now... maybe it's time I pay them a visit." 

Serena hummed as she clasped her hands behind her back and tried to match his long strides. She looked ahead at the white halls and found that the gray tint to her lens of her mask muted the stark white to a more bearable tone. 

"He wasn't my pilot, Ren, though I do admire the spout of jealousy." She smirked into her mask as they stopped just outside of the Star Destroyer's bridge. She turned in the doorway to look up at him. 

Ren bowed his head as he looked down at her. She liked that he wasn't able to see her eyes, it hid a bit of her vulnerability. She felt slightly freer without him seeing her true face. 

"You are mine, Serena. Some human rebel pilot wasn't going to take you away."

She gulped as his tone was harsh and borderline possessive, not at all light and humorous as her's was. "I am my own person, Ren." She reminded him sternly. "You say I underestimate my worth, but I know it well enough to know I am not anyone's." Her accelerated breathing warmed her cheeks and threatened to fog her lenses despite the small fan to cool them. "I choose to be here with you," Despite the lie, the meaning behind it was true at one point. "But not as something you own, as your partner... your equal."

"You are my equal." He assured her. "But that doesn't mean I don't cherish you as something of my own." 

Serena let out a sigh as her speech fell on deaf ears. "Let's just check on the droid." She turned to end the unsettling conversation.