-June 30th, 11:49 P.M.-
The scent of the salt in the air was thick and pungent along with the moisture. She could smell smoke and sulfur, too, with every firework that they lit off into the black night sky over the ocean. A mere second after Julian set the flame of the lighter to the fuse, the explosive shot up into the sky with a whistle and erupted into a bright light, dying the ocean a bright red.
Laura laughed, feeling Julian's eyes on her. Somehow, from this, she got a rush. She could feel the warm wind pushing her skirt around her knees and tossing her hair back over her shoulders. The sand was still damp from the high tide and the rain that had just come through, and the cloudy skies and distant thunder meant that the beach was entirely empty.
Julian turned on some music, and then another light wrapped around Laura. A warm, green light, fluttering over her skin like a thousand butterflies were flying around her and wrapping around her hand, drawing her over to Julian. He took her hand and kissed the back of it and smiled at her warmly.
"May I have this dance?"
Laura smiled and squeezed his hand, then twirled into his chest like she'd seen a dancer do on television.
"You may," she whispered against his lips, and they kissed and danced straight into the next day, with her the skirt of her white sundress flying up with every spin.
-December 26th, 11:15 A.M.-
They were trying to hail a taxi so that they could get to the airport. The plan was to spend the New Years' holiday in Beverly Hills with Julian's family, so that they could meet his new girlfriend and discuss his business degree. Julian's plan was to take her to see where he grew up, all of the sights, and then take time away to go to his family's never-used timeshare in Hawaii.
She stopped in front of a bridal boutique, holding the handle of her suitcase in both hands. The pristine white fabrics attracted Laura for reasons she didn't understand; the idea of marriage as a whole was not a bad one, but the dresses all seemed difficult to move in and even more difficult to fight in, should the situation arise where she had to engage in combat.
Still, she found herself glued to the spot as she stared at a dress with a long, flowing skirt. The bodice was embroidered with a pattern of lilies and seemed to be dotted with real pearls. The mannequin that wore the dress had on long, silken gloves and a long, tulle veil had been carefully placed on its head. For a plastic doll, it was dressed very well.
"What's the hold up, beautiful?" Julian asked, and even then she couldn't tear her gaze away from the elegant gown.
"Do you think that someone like me could get married?" Laura asked timidly, the question flying from her lips before she even intended for it to. It was a foolish question, and she knew the answer immediately; no. A living weapon could never do more than dream of things like getting married.
"Of course you could. I mean, who'd stop you? If that's what you want to do, then go for it." Julian grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
Who would stop her? She didn't want to answer that question for him; she knew full and well who would stop her if she ever took the chance to settle down and possibly bring new life into the world. Laura just nodded along and let Julian put her suitcase in the trunk of the taxi with his, and held the door open for her like a gentleman so that she could slide in first.
He held her hand the entire way, even after falling asleep.
-April, ten years prior-
"Wake up, clone!"
Laura's eyes flew open just as the punch connected with her head, knocking it back sharply against the white-tiled wall. She could hear the crack of her skull and spots swam in her vision. She sunk down to the cement floor and immediately fell victim to her handler's steel toed boots, which she mercilessly drove into her ribcage over, and over, and over again.
"That's what you get for sleeping in. Were you having a good /dream/, clone?" She sneered and laughed. "What were you dreaming about? Leaving? Having a life beyond these walls?" Laura's head pounded with every word that was screamed in her direction, and she felt a heavy hand clamp onto the back of her neck. She was lifted up and flung into another wall; her arm snapped this time, at the elbow, as it buckled under the force of the blow and of her own slight weight.
"Of course you weren't. You don't know any life beyond these walls and you never, ever will." Kimura grabbed her up by the front of her pink cotton hospital gown. The collar of it was stained a dark red now from the blood that spilled from Laura's mouth with every ragged breath she took. She made weak eye contact, vibrant green meeting sickening, lab-altered amber.
The entire room spun out of focus, and Laura lost consciousness again—which she would undeniably be punished for later—but not before she heard the last words that her handler had to say to her. The mantra that would be driven into her head before long.
"You belong to me, X-23."
-October 11th, 4:40 P.M.-
"You belong to me," Julian laughed, hugging Laura close as they fell into a pile of autumn leaves. They were the best kind according to Julian, crunchy and red and gold and orange and already raked into a tall pile that was just begging to be jumped in. "I love you so much."
"I love you, too." Laura kissed him, and she squirmed away from him so that she could climb up onto a fallen tree branch and comb the dry, dead foliage out of her hair. When she'd tackled him into the pile, she'd scuffed her boot, and it miffed her a bit, with the pair being brand-new.
"Hey, Laura, you should come with me this Christmas. To see my family. It's beautiful in California, you know. And I think my brother will like you."
"Okay," she agreed without question, her attention turning to a group of little kids in a pumpkin patch. A particular pair of children caught her eye, about five years old each, holding hands timidly as they went to pick their prize.
-April 5, 12:13 P.M., fifteen years prior-
She had no idea how far she'd gone; her little legs ached. They'd carried her very far already, from some desert into this area, this well-built neighborhood with gated driveways and giant houses. Nearby, she heard children playing. They seemed to be her age. Would it be okay for her to interact with them? She had never met other people her size before, and wasn't even sure that she could find the words to use with them.
"I'm the king of the playground!" a boy in a red cape shouted from the top of what appeared to be a tower. "So none of you had better get in my way!"
Laura hid herself behind a bench and peered out from behind it to watch him. He was fascinating and full of life, this boy, with his bright blue eyes and messy black hair. He was only a little bit bigger than her, but he already seemed to have such control. She thought that only grown-ups like Dr. Rice could be in control.
Suddenly, he trained his sights on her, pointing what appeared to be a recyclable cardboard cylinder in her direction. "Damsel!" he cried, and suddenly slid down a yellow-painted metal pole and then raced over to her to take her hands. He gave her a big grin; he was missing a tooth.
"Wanna be my Queen?" He asked her, and she was unsure. A Queen, she had been taught, was a position of high power in a monarchy, and a role that she was unequipped for. However, she gave him just a tiny nod, and that was enough for him to drag her off back into the tower. He placed his paper crown on her head and draped his cape over her shoulders.
She felt very important.
"Here, you can play with Cyclops. He's my favorite and I don't let anyone touch him but we're married now so it's okay," Julian handed her the action figure, and she examined it, while he rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a figure that she knew to be Angel. She had read his file.
"So, come on, let's play fight!" He made Angel swoop around at different angles, and it took Laura a moment to realize that by pressing the button on Cyclops' back, she could turn on the LED light underneath the plastic visor. She turned the lit-up figure toward his Angel, whom he promptly dropped and sent crashing to the ground.
"Eeeeeeaawwwwkkkkraassshhh!" He added his own sound effects, complete with Angel whining in pain that his wing had been singed. "You're a natural at this!" he informed Laura, who was unaware that she had even been aiming the tiny LED lights at the plastic figure's wing.
-December 28th, 10:10 A.M.-
While Julian was speaking with his parents, Laura had been given the opportunity to sift through Julian's childhood bedroom and learn more about him. At first, she sat demurely on the bed and glanced around at the old posters tacked to the walls and the odd assortment of comic books and video games that took up a large shelf. Curiosity got the better of her, however and she opened up his closet and peered in past the clothes that were hung up there.
Far in the back corner was a cardboard box, marked 'Old Toys' in Julian's neat handwriting. They smelled familiar, so she tugged the box out and opened it to find an assortment of loose superhero figures. There, near the top, was the X-Man Angel with his dirt-covered wings and Cyclops, whose battery powered eyes no longer posed any imaginary threat.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Julian peeked in through his doorway and craned his neck, allowing him a good view of Laura, kneeling on the floor with a toy in each hand.
"I remember these." She murmured. "I played with a boy who had these toys. Once. Before I was captured again."
-April 5, 12:45 P.M., fifteen years prior-
"I'm gonna have to go for lunch soon," the boy smiled at her. "You should come with me if it's okay with your parents. My nanny's really nice."
"I..." Laura tried to find the words, but stopped speaking altogether when she saw the black SUV pull up to the playground. She saw Kimura through the windshield, looking like a cat that had just caught a mouse. Dr. Kinney was the one who got out of the car, though, wearing something other than a white coat. The shirt was purple and looked soft and nice.
"There you are," she breathed, looking relieved. Her heart was racing in her chest, Laura could hear, and she knew that she was in trouble. A lot of trouble. "Come here, Laura."
Laura? What was that name? She'd never heard Dr. Kinney use it before. Quietly, she handed the Cyclops figure back to the boy.
"I have to go. I am sorry." She whispered, and started to take off the paper crown and cape.
"Nah, you keep those. I've got more at home." he put the crown back on her head. "Is that your mom? She's really pretty. Come back and play soon, okay?"
"Okay," she repeated without really knowing what it meant, and climbed down out of the tower over to Dr. Kinney. It was Kimura's hand that reached out from the back and grabbed her into the backseat of the SUV, however, leaving Dr. Kinney to climb in quietly. The driver began to take them back, and Laura watched out of the window until the boy was no longer visible.
That was when Kimura wrapped the fabric of the cape around her hand and yanked, forcing the knot against her windpipe. She choked and struggled for air, gasping and flailing and trying her best to free herself from the constricting fabric, but it was a losing battle and the whole world around her went black before she could free herself.
-December 28th, 10:17 A.M.-
Julian watched her with tears in his eyes and he held her close, tightly against his chest so that she could feel the fabric of his shirt against her cheek.
"You've never talked about what they did to you before." he whispered into her hair, covering the top of her head with kisses that trailed down the side of her face until his lips finally met hers. "How did you survive?"
"I healed," Laura whispered in reply. "I always healed. And you are healing me even faster, I think." she said, and snuggled close to him, not wanting to let him go even for a second.
-January 1st, 12:11 A.M.-
"What do you mean, you were attacked?" Julian shouted and grabbed Laura firmly by her shoulders, gripping them tightly and making her want to push him way just to get him to let go. He took her half-packed bag and tossed it aside onto the floor so that the clothes inside fell everywhere. "Why does this mean we have to break up? Laura, answer me!" His voice rose louder and louder with every sentence as he tried to pry an answer from her.
"You would not understand," she said quickly, shoving her things back into the bag and throwing it over her shoulder. Laura could feel her heart racing in her chest, beating against her ribcage so hard that it threatened to beat straight out of it. "Just know that you are in danger, and this is the easiest solution."
"No, it's not!" Julian argued, grabbing her bag away with his telekinesis and flinging it into a chair as she grabbed for the quilt that she had earlier carried from their bedroom onto the couch so that she could curl up in it. "Laura, you've seen how strong I am, you've seen that I can take care of myself. For Christ's sake, I was on the recruiting list for the damned X-Men!"
Laura stopped in the middle of shoving the quilt over her clothes, and turned to look at him while she digested what he was telling her.
"You refused it." she whispered. Julian ran his hands back through his hair in frustration, making it messy.
"Because they wouldn't let you come with me." he said quietly.
"That was your dream." Laura recalled the posters of the X-Men on his wall, how he practiced every day with his telekinesis and also kept up his physical strength and intelligence, so that on the off chance that a recruiter came by, he was in the peak of his health and they had no reason to say no.
"Not anymore." Julian leaned against a wall and she felt him watching her, with those eyes that showed every single bit of emotion that he had. She couldn't bear to look at them. "You are."
Again, she was frozen for a moment. Did she really mean that much to him? That he would give up his life-long dream of joining the ranks of the X-Men to spend his life with her, a person who could offer him nothing?
It wasn't worth the risk. Laura zipped the bag shut and pushed past him out into the hall.
"You are an idiot," she huffed, and took off down the hall. She could hear him bounding after her, but where he was built for physical strength, she was built for speed, and so she was easily able to outrun him. This only made him angrier.
"You know what? Maybe I am! Maybe I was an idiot to give up the thing that I wanted for years and years to be with the girl that doesn't even have enough faith in me to keep her safe! Maybe we should break it off, Laura! Maybe we should just fucking forget everything!"
It clenched at her heart and brought tears to her eyes to hear him shout such heartless things. Laura felt much like she did when Kimura choked her; she couldn't breathe and tears filled her eyes as she got onto the street.
By the time the tears had begun to roll down her cheeks, she heard the engine of his car and knew that he would pull up beside her before he did.
"Laura!" he shouted after rolling down the car window. "Laura, I'm sorry. Come on, please, just get in the car. I'll drive you back, and we can talk about this... Laura!"
"Go away, Julian!" her voice broke when she yelled at him. Didn't he understand that she was doing this to keep him safe? Because she loved him? That this was the only way to keep him out of those evil hands?
"No! I'm not going away! I'm not leaving you alone."
Seeing an opportunity, Laura turned onto a street with a barricade set up for cars so that they could repair a burst water pipe. She heard his car screech to a stop as he avoided hitting the barricade, then the honking of another car's horn from behind him.
She glanced back just in time to see him lay his head on the steering wheel and begin to weep, though her eyes fell more on the two gouges she'd left in the car door with her claws, from her confrontation with Kimura just a half an hour before.