iIt was late at night, the wind was blowing, the trees whistled, and the moon shined bright over the institute, all were asleep except for one. Ian was sitting atop the roof of the institute, staring at the starry sky alone. Or at least he was.
" Can't sleep?" Ian asked.
Laura paused in her approach.
" How did you know?" She asked the boy.
" I could hear you, climbing over the tiles. Wasn't hard to notice. Not when it's this quiet anyway." He explained to the girl. He kept his gaze upwards not leaving the sky for a moment and this struck a string with Laura. She had gotten sloppy for just a moment. Something she wasn't used to doing. " What is it, Laura?" Ian asked once more, pulling the girl from her thoughts.
Laura pulled herself up on the roof and slinked her way over to Ian and crouched down beside him.
" What are you?" The girl asked the boy.
Ian snickered and then sat up to look at the girl.
" Where did that come from?" He asked.
" You confuse me. You say one thing then do another. You act kind and then you kill without question. How?" Laura asked the boy.
Ian sighed and leaned back again, placing his hands behind his head and crossing his leg over his knee as he looked back up to the sky.
" That is a loaded question, you know? How am I supposed to answer something like that? Or more importantly, how do you want me to answer it? I have a confused and fucked up life. But then again, look around a lot of us do." He joked. " I guess the only way to properly answer that for you, is to start from the beginning. You sure you want to know?" He asked the girl.
Laura nodded and Ian sighed.
" Alright then. My story begins about eighteen years ago When I was born, I was diagnosed with a severe illness called osteogenesis imperfecta. You probably know it as brittle bone disease. A currently uncurable disease that makes the bones in a person's body extremely brittle. Thankfully I only had to worry about it in my legs for the most part. I had it bad, but not so bad that I couldn't be mobile. I just had to be very careful. I had to always make sure I had someone around me at all times to monitor my condition, I had to make sure I moved around carefully, I was left out of a lot of things." Ian explained
" Was it hard?" Laura asked.
" Oh yeah. It was hard. Not being the same as everyone else was... Difficult." He replied.
" You felt like an outcast?" Laura asked.
" Oh yeah!" Ian laughed.
" Then how did you... Cope?" She asked.
" Well, I made a decision to not allow it to bother me. There was no point in trying to change something that not even the greatest minds on earth could change. So, instead... I decided to find my joy in other things. I started playing games, watching movies, and working on technology. I studied some of the machinations of the earth's geniuses. Stark, Richards, Pym ETC... It wasn't hard, especially since they made all of their achievements known to the world." Ian joked. "I just decided to try and find my own happiness. Whatever it ended up looking like. I had a family, and I had my machines. So, I was good for a while. And then things changed... A few years ago, I ended up becoming a mutant. In lieu of going over every single bad thing to happen I'll just give you the run down. Armed men tried to kill me, family disowned me, and then I came here. And the rest is history. I'm sure you know of the things that happened here, Magneto's attack, Cassandra Nova, The school riot, the destruction of the school. All of it. I have no idea how I survived all that. Not a single clue." He explained to the girl. " Then last year happened. Which is what I'm thinking you want to know about more than anything else... Am I right? Well, Julian happened. You see, I could not figure out how my powers worked. Nothing was safe. One mistake and I could hurt myself beyond repair, and that was something no one was ready to gamble with. But then one day, just because he's a dick, Julian blasted me and boy I broke both my legs badly. But then it happened! My power activated and my legs healed back fine, no damage or anything. In fact, they were stronger than they ever were. I could finally be like everyone else. It was amazing! Oh Yes! Finally, I was on the path of being a hero! Just like I always wanted to be, Haha! I couldn't believe after so many years of being the one on bottom, I finally had my chance! My shot at the top! I could see it clearly; my time had begun!" Ian exclaimed. He raised his right hand to the sky and smiled.
" But then something else happened." Ian spoke.
" What was it?" Laura asked.
" I fell in love." Ian stated. " She was unlike any woman I had ever seen before, or since." Ian spoke. " You'd probably know her, Rahne Sinclair. No relation."
" I know of her, yes. The New Mutant original, wolfsbane." Laura replied.
" Aye, the very same." Ian told the girl.
" What happened?" Laura asked.
" Phew! Josh happened." He replied. " We met by accident in a music store in town, I remember the moment I laid eyes on her. She was like an angel in black. Her shining green eyes, her wild red hair, her soft smile. It might sound cheesy to say, but it was love at first sight, for me at least. We immediately hit it off, so much so that I forgot to grab the CD I was there to get. I remember laughing at myself like an idiot when I got back to the mansion. I laughed even more so when we had our first date, we talked for hours at the diner. And after that, things just took off. It was like a rollercoaster that I didn't want to end. Well, anyway, we soon hit our first roadblock, when we found out how old each other were. I was seventeen at the time and she was nineteen. Now normally that might seem bad. But in New York, the age of consent law is seventeen, so I was just barely legal. But even then, a lot of people see relationships like that as kind of weird. Of course, I didn't care what other people thought, I've been ridiculed my whole life, what's a few more bad words gonna do? Anyways, we managed to make things work out. And then that night, it happened. I was kidnapped by the people who made you." Ian told the girl.
Laura's eyes hung low and she seemed saddened.
" Oh, don't worry about it. Those idiotic bastards have caused me plenty of trouble, but it all ended up being a blessing in disguise. Through being tortured and experimented on, my body grew stronger. Now longer can you hurt me with just about any basic human weapons. Guns, useless, most knives, grenades, pretty much anything that a normal could get his hands on isn't gonna hurt me. Eventually, I escaped and well... I'm sure you saw or at least heard about the mess that happened in California a while back. I ended up in jail for a while because of all that. I thought maybe once I got home things would eventually return to normal. Boy was I wrong. After I was released and all charges were dropped, I returned home to a welcome back party, thrown by the pretty much everyone. I won't say it, but it was a nice change of pace for once. But what made that night more beautiful than anything was when Rahne and I first made love to one another. It was magical. I couldn't explain it very well, but it was like something inside of me awoke. Like a part of her feral instincts just took hold of me. I could feel her in every way imaginable. I could feel her mood, when she was happy or upset. It was like I could read her mind and she mine. It was... special."
" It sounds like you two were very close. What happened?" Laura asked.
" Jealous Josh did. Josh wanted Rahne all to himself and when he couldn't have her, he told summers and Frost about us. And they ambushed Rahne while I was out. I came back to the school to find out she was gone. And I was livid. I attacked Scott and would have killed Josh too. But I decided to look for her first. It just seemed more important. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find her. I still don't know where she is. For a while, I could still feel her with me, wherever she was. But then, as if the universe wanted to drive the point home, the connection we shared suddenly just disappeared. And it hurt. It felt like a piece of my own heart and soul was ripped right out of my body, leaving nothing but a void in its place. She just left without saying a thing. All I got was a note. You know, it's funny. Had she come to me about this before leaving, you and I probably wouldn't know each other. I would have followed her anywhere. That's how much she meant to me."
" I see. You must hate Josh. But then why do you act the way you do? I don't understand it. Should you not hate everyone and everything in this school?" Laura asked.
" There are times when you have to be able to put your aner aside, Laura. After everything that's happened to everyone in the past few months, holding any kind of grudge, especially while we're on the brink of extinction, just doesn't seem like the right thing to do from a personal standpoint and from a professional one. I can do what I need to do and help the others, while at the same time not speaking with them or liking them. But you're right about one thing, I hate Josh. I hate him more than anyone else. And while I can look past a lot of what other people do. Him, I can never forgive." Ian told the girl. " But I think he's gotten his karma. More than enough of it. Losing Laurie was something I wished on him. I wanted him to hurt like I did. But I never wanted Laurie to get hurt, let alone for her to die. I just... Don't see much of a reason to seek out conflict with him anymore." Ian explained.
" I have one last question." Laura spoke up.
" Hm?" Ian looked over at her with one of his eyebrows raised. He was curious to know what it was that such a quiet girl like Laura could want. He wasn't used to her coming to him for such intense and serious conversations. Most of the time they looked at each other, grunted and continued to just sit in silence.
" What is your purpose? What is it you wish to do?" Laura asked.
" Survive." Ian replied bluntly. " Nothing else matters as much as that anymore."
" What would you do to survive?" Laura asked.
" That's the wrong question, Laura. You should instead ask me what I wouldn't do to survive." Ian told the girl. " As long as it means we can live in peace and try to enjoy the messed-up lives we got, I'll just about anything." Ian told the girl.
" Would you die?" Laura asked.
Ian looked at the girl and smirked.
" If it meant you would be happy. Without question." Ian replied. He then looked back up at the sky and took in the sight.
Meanwhile, Laura sat in silence, trying to process what she had heard. She was making an honest attempt at trying to understand the man. She was struggling to comprehend the enigma in front of her. But at least she tried.
Ian and Laura ended up sitting in silence for a little while longer before, Ian fell asleep on the roof. Laura stayed up and watched over him for the night, until she eventually fell asleep too.