Ira opted to remain silent, though this was mostly because he did not really have any comeback to her comment about him being grouchy. In some small corner of Ira’s mind, he could not help but agree with Bones though he preferred hardened or even cold over grouchy. At the end of the day, Ira was not the child he had once been, was never supposed to be by any stretch of the word a “normal” child. He had felt the backlash of his parents’ abandonment, had seen his pack mates slaughtered by an invading pack as he hid amidst the shadows. His early childhood was bloody and traumatic and that had obvious side effects upon him. Jinx was all he had, all he grudgingly allowed himself to have in this world (even so he was full of trepidation afraid that if he allowed his already affection for her to grow she, too, would leave him) though at this point if something were to happen to her, or she did leave him he would be devastated. Somehow, in the content-ness of their no affection agreement they had settled upon Ira had though he had been pushing her away, when in reality he had been unknowingly pulling her close, allowing himself his one coveted thing. “I’m more of a realist,” He corrected softly but otherwise let it drop. Bones could think what she wanted of him, he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, he didn’t need her approval.
At her next question, Ira let his icy eyes settle upon her, his gaze settled and unwavering as he peered at her through heavy lids, squinting as he contemplated her question, rolling his eyes slightly. In truth, he wasn’t exactly sure what a ‘crab’ was having never seen one, or even really heard of one. It was true that he had lived, briefly, in Horizon Ridge with Jinx until they moved but he had never ventured to the shore. Bones was grinning at him again, the stretch of her lips appearing to be easy. “As amusing for you as I’m sure that would be,” Ira began cynically, giving her a twitch of a devilish grin. “No, nothing crawled up my ass and died,”. In truth, he really didn’t want to get into his past with her. Jinx knew some of it because of Tark the stupid old fool but Ira had never actually went into details about all that he saw happen (and he’d seen quite a bit of morbid things) - it was not something that Ira designed to speak about. It didn’t much matter anymore, anyway. “I just am how I am, does there have to be a reason for it?” He demanded, though in truth, there were many reasons for it.
Obviously, Ira was not good with playing nice with others -- even when others were appropriate to his own age; but most of it was intentional, serving his desire to keep everyone an arms length away, or have everyone hate him. Hate was better than loving and then have to suffer their destruction because he was it’s harbinger, a curse. Even as he grew, planning his ascension to leadership, and further, siring of children he would not require that his own mate even love him, only that the only children she gave birth to her were his (and to be frank that did not require much time together). It was selfish, but in the same time, Ira was so convinced of what he was, what he could do, that he was thinking about others, too.