Bones seemed contented to keep her cheery disposition - a stark contrast to his own surly attitude and coldness. At any given moment anyone could have easily chided Ira on the fact that he was “too young” to act as he did, but he found little enjoyment in the activities that he had once enjoyed as a more …carefree child. As it was, the youth had always been insolent, determined to play the game by his own rules and his own rules alone but maliciousness, usually intentional, was a newer development. Despite that he did not always agree with the things he said, or spoke them even if he did not truly mean them, it was something he forced himself to be, though soon, it would likely become a second nature of sorts. When Bones with an air of arbitrariness declared that she liked him, and seemed to genuinely mean it as he studied her face for any signs that she was attempting to pull one over on him, the youth bulked at her. What?! echoed viciously around his head as a genuinely perplexed “Why?” Tumbled in a dubious tone from his lips. Ira could not understand why anyone would genuinely like him considering how he treated mostly everyone - Jinx being the rare and single exception.
She spoke of how Ira seemed to remind her of one of her’s back in Tortuga but Ira was still busy trying to process the ‘why’ aspect of her blurted statement. Ill-mannered, vulgarity, insolence, pride, wrath, greed …they were, all of them, undesirable traits. Traits that he had been confident would make even the friendliest of creatures despise him. Did it not matter that he was a total dick to her? Did his cruel words truly have no measure of effect upon her? These questions echoed around Ira’s mind, hollow without answers, as he blinked at her a few times, unable to help the odd, perplexed look that seemed to be stuck on his face as his ears slid back to rest at half mast atop his skull. His lips parted to tell her that she couldn’t possibly mean it, that she shouldn’t mean it, but he closed his jaw with a resounding click of his teeth. It would be pointless to argue the point, of this Ira could already see. “You shouldn’t,” Ira spoke softly, diverting his eyes from her to the creek. He wasn’t exactly arguing, merely suggesting, to get out a fair warning. Of course, perhaps liking was different than caring for, and would not cause destruction to come down upon Bones. Even so, he didn’t allow himself friends, either.
Ira did not want to feel any more pain, and did not want to accordingly be the cause of it.
I’m not worth the pain.