Istvan - Male, age 19 (post Treatment)

Istvan, Alexander and Reynate

"Izzy! Izzy is - is a froofy poofy!" Yelled one of the teenagers who clung to the fence just beyond the school yard. Two others laughed and chanted "Queer Izzy - Queer Izzy" until Reynate turned her fierce gaze on them.

"And, you would know this because...?" She tilted her head, but before they could get another word in, the brunette stomped over to them and pulled their leader down close to her beautiful face. "Because only someone as inadequate and insecure as yourself would want him to be. You think he's so queer, why not ask me about it?"

She bared her big teeth in a very unfriendly smile. The pair of cohorts that the bully had brought along were nowhere in sight by now. A vague path through the tall grass showed their direction of hasty exit. Crossing Reynate would be deadly one day, they were sure of it.

The bully boy, a young man named Klegstrom, pushed Rey's hand off of his loose shirt and turned away from her fiery gaze. "Shut it, wench. You're just his friend."

"And who are you to guess what else?" She spat. "Go home to your toys, Klegstrom, you're nothing more than a whiny little brat without a girlfriend."

"Better off without one if they're like you, she-beast," he muttered, still not meeting her eyes, and he left the scene with Rey feeling mighty tall. Her expression changed when she saw Istvan standing limply against the fence. He didn't stare hard, just looked at her with those beautiful eyes of his.

"Van, I-" She started but Istvan hardly wanted to hear it. He put his hand in the air and she went silent, but she still went to his side.

"You didn't have to tell them that," he said, quietly.

"She couldn't resist," Alexander said, nudging Istvan's shoulder and plopping himself between his sister and their best friend. "Besides, if ol' Kleg had a taste of what you're like, he'd be bragging too."

Though he was almost embarrassed enough to blush already, Istvan turned the feeling into a smile and went with it. His friends were always able to compliment him back into a good healthy state of mind.

The fourteen year old boys and their year-older companion left the school grounds together, as usual. When they got to the big broken fence near the even bigger old tree, overlooking a fallow field, they stopped and climbed onto their all-so-typical posts, side by side. All three of them were given to reminisce, deep thoughts or sky-gazing looking for Draks in the air, so they were quiet for half an hour before anything changed.

*

Their friendship was cited by some as the perfect picture of innocence - usually by adults who didn't know the trio very well. It was cited by those who might want to sully the reputations of the Sanger and Rheinmann families, in a negative manner. Did people know what those children were doing? With each other?

Much of what was said behind closed doors about them was untrue. Contrary to any belief, Alexander had never touched his sister in an intimate manner - mostly because (the rest of the rumors were true) he was interested only in other boys. Istvan did not have that limitation on his activities, apparently.

When the Rheinmann family helped Istvan's parents move to the safety of the large township of Windresh, it was out of the goodness of their hearts. It didn't hurt that the elder Rheingold was still enfatuated with Istvan's ... father.

One didn't speak of such things in either household, while any of the women were around. Reynate seemed to be the exception to the rule - she was perfectly comfortable with whomever was there, and she knew from the start that her father and Istvan's were, well, "close".

But it hurt more when the kids at the school would start in. Coming from a poor background as they did, the Sanger family spent most of its energies in labor and works of mechanical aptitude, rather than intellectual pursuits. Istvan was a smart boy - Rey's father knew that was one reason he had to get the family out from the boondocks and frozen mountainside village where they had been, and into a proper school where his mind would be allowed to flower.

The rest of the nearby locals didn't think much of the family - other than that they did appear to appreciate when Mama Sanger would prepare their children treats and Pavel would bring home trinkets and make small mechanical toys for the younger kids. Istvan watched his father work, when he could, but his interests lay elsewhere.

Even at the age of 8, some two and a half years after coming to the city, Istvan began to build models and engineering feats out of the same scraps from the ship yard that his father could only hope to make small toys from. But at the same time, Istvan became an outcast in his own home - his older brother Pyotr had little tolerance for the attention that was doted upon Istvan, and jealously tried to get more of it whenever they were in the same house together. Fortunately that was rare - for Pyotr was 6 years older, and had a steady job working for a foundry, and didn't have much time to remain at home.

Reynate and Alexander were, convesely, extremely close siblings. Rey always had her hand in several pies at once - she wanted to read every book ever written, she wanted to become a musician, everything she'd ever tried that was fun or challenging she wanted to make a career out of it. Her keen eye for people's moods kept them safe from a variety of taunts and jibes as they grew up.

Alexander had little head for much other than abstracts. He loved music, but not the way Rey wanted to play it. The closest he'd gotten to pure ecstasy in his short life had been when Istvan promised to help him build a music-making device, one which would be able to produce a perfect set of notes on command. Alex's love of philosophy carries him through the days with his head in the clouds.

As they were born to richer parents, in a more well-to-do way, they had always enjoyed more of a pampered lifestyle than their peers - but they remained more than civil, to those who liked them. Of course, liking them meant they had to like Rey's intensity as well as Alex's propensity to drift during conversation.

It was clearly a healthy match for the two of them to strike up a friendship with their father's buddy's kid. Why not? Everyone their age was stuck up or rude or stupid - in their eyes. Istvan was none of those things. Well, he was vain and a total perfectionist, but he was far easier to deal with because they could talk to him, and he'd talk back instead of starting a fist fight.

So the three of them grew up together. Trusting one another with secrets and gossip that they could share with no one else. They supported each other unconditionally - though they would not lie for each other, they'd even made a pact not to do things stupid enough that they'd have to cover for one another with a pack of lies.

Reynate grew into a beautiful young woman quickly, Istvan shot up to almost 6 feet tall within a year of his twelfth birthday. Alexander followed their maturity a little slower, losing his childhood plumpness in trade for his healthy form at the behest of Istvan. Chasing the quick raven-haired youth was pointless for even Alex, as Istvan was both intelligent and athletic. As Rey matured, her brother became keenly aware of the other boys in the area - staring at her, they made fools of themselves. But he shortly realized that the other girls in the area were growing just as pretty - and he wasn't interested in any of them in the slightest.

So when they were sent to the more advanced school, one that would teach them maths and history and sciences, the trio realized that they were fantastically well suited to any activity they could imagine. When they imagined finding a girl or boyfriend (in any of their cases) they couldn't find anyone who possibly fit the bill.

It was in this manner that they managed to lose their collective virginity to each other (siblings excluded, of course) with the last month. In the midst of this experimentation, they maintained their studies, excelling at their preferred subjects (people, philosophy, and physics), and kept their friendship without losing anything in the process.

All this from a group of young teenagers.

*

Istvan watched his friends, with a kind of distance that they could never quite defeat. They were true to him - the truest things he could ever have, in fact. But they were going to have to learn sooner or later...

He drew in a breath, and said, quietly, "my parents have found a place that will teach me."

"But," Alex said, after a moment, "you're going to school here. What's wrong with our school?"

"Nothing," Istvan said. "But... They got... I don't know - There's something else going on, that they aren't telling me. They talked to someone. You remember," Istvan looked at Alex, "about two weeks ago, you know how they were on that trip?"

"I remember," Alex said, grinning. Of course, he'd never forget that day. Reynate sensed her brother about to distract the conversation into some discussion about sex, and cleared her throat to keep him on course. He surprisingly obeyed. "Well, what were they doing, then?"

Istvan slid down off his perch on the wooden fence post. The grasses up on this part of the hill had grown wilder and long, turning pale tan. He shuffled back and forth until Rey stuck out her leg and stopped him. "What?" She said, flatly but with concern on her eyes.

"Apparently they were arranging to send me to this place, where I'd be in some," he shook his head, unsure, "experiment or something. They said they needed me, I'd been showing promise or something." He looked away, gazing at the field which only last season had been the site of the local harvest's bonfire.

Concerned, and suddenly catching a flutter of his heart, Alexander dropped to the ground. "Experiment? What kind of experiment?"

"Something about intelligence," Istvan said, and drew in a breath. "I thought I had enough of that, but apparently there's more where that came from..."

Only Rey gave a bit of a chuckle at Istvan's slight attempt at a joke. He was obviously distrssed about this development. "When, Van?" She asked.

"Next month," Istvan said, with a faint, vacant smile on his thin lips. His eyes though, were red. "I never wanted to leave here..."

"We could try and convince them not to-" Alex started to say, but Istvan spun.

"You don't think I already tried? They act like it's the best thing that's ever happened to them - getting rid of me!" At that, the tan-skinned boy sped off down the hill into the dry field, where his friends watched for only a moment before setting off after him.

It would take them half an hour to reach him, once his energy finally gave out. His strong legs and healthy lungs brought him more than four miles away from the fields, out near the river and stone bridge. Alex and Rey found him below it, arms tight around his knees and face buried between them.

Reynate approached, put her hand out on his shoulder and he was too tired to shrug it off. "Van, they don't hate you. You know that."

"Then why else would they send me away?" He moaned, muffled by his arms. "Pyotr probably suggested it. He's always muttering about how he can't keep up with me."

"Van, no one can keep up with you," Alex said, sitting down on the damp moss next to his friend. "Not even me. Maybe there's some information about this place they're sending you, and we could look it up?"

"I won't have time for that," Istvan said, raising his head. "I'm supposed to finish the school quarter and go."

"In a month? But school's just st-" Rey said, interrupted by Istvan's hard, "I know!"

The pair of siblings leaned over their precious, fragile friend, and sobbed with him.

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