NO ONE SAID THIS WOULD BE EASY ,, JOSH ,,

Joshua was lounging around in the dungeon common room, completely unabashed at the moment by the snide comments he could hear muttered about himself. They were not trying to drop their voices so that he would not hear them--in fact, he thought they might be doing the opposite to try and provoke him into action. But he had decided that petty things like this shouldn't matter to him any more. He loved his girlfriend, what did it matter if they didn't approve of his dating an Earth girl? As for the other rumours, it was nothing that Josh wasn't used to. A lot of people in the school spread rumours and they could be about just anyone. He had his laptop lying across his chest and was lazily editing a Biology assignment as he listened to their half-whispered conversations. Sure enough, the topic of their resident traitor didn't entertain them for long and it seemed as if they had exhausted the subject on previous occasions anyway. It'll all blow over eventually, he thought to himself, not as bothered as he once was. He listened as they bashed a Water girl, calling her a slut and wondering how long she'd last with her current flame. This made him uncomfortable for a moment--he knew people sometimes made snide remarks about him and Nell thanks to his 'commitment' issues in the past. He did not have issues. Just because he had never wanted a relationship--but no, Joshua was determined not to let it bother him any more. Water under the bridge, he coached himself. We'll just have to see who's laughing when we're still together years from now. Did he really think that he and Nell would last? After all, they'd been going out for months now and had never done anything past kissing and the like. But he tried not to dwell on that. He was optimistic about their relationship at present, even with the trial looming out of the shadows.

He was just about to tune them out and start to focus more seriously on editing the assignment--it was due tomorrow--when a name caught his attention. Though he and Harley had not spoken since their rather explosive argument in the dormitory, he couldn't help but wonder what they were saying. His fingers paused in their typing but the girls, intent on their discussion, did not seem to notice. "Harley Johnson?" one of them clarified, then gave a high-pitched but cold laugh. "Knew they wouldn't last. Samson's probably moved on to better territory." Joshua hadn't even been aware that she'd had a boyfriend. Who was Samson, anyway? It made his gut twist uncomfortably, knowing that if they'd stayed friends they would have both had new romances to reminisce about. He'd used to joke around with her about how there were, 'plenty of fish in the sea, but those fish seem to avoid the two of us like we're sharks or something'. Of course, Joshua had only been kidding around back then. He'd told Harley that he didn't care for the relationship scene. But now times had changed, and apparently they had for Harley as well. He felt a bit of inexplicable anger toward this Samson guy, but tried to push it away. You're not her friend any more. He still couldn't decide how he felt about that. He gave another half-hearted attempt at resuming the edits, but then more words drifted to him. "Heard from her roommate that she's been crying like a little bitch. Serves her right, the traitor."

He didn't know what made him do it--all Joshua knew was that in the next minute he was on his feet, the laptop laying abandoned on the couch as he stared down the girls. They seemed alarmed for a moment, but when he didn't immediately speak or act, the boldest of them managed a sneer. "What, Dale?" she asked. "Does that word bother you?" But unbeknownst to them, it wasn't the fact that they'd called her a traitor that had made him react. It was the 'bitch' part that had caused a stir. Unfortunately for Joshua, they'd been friends once. Though he was half-convinced he'd never speak to her again, certain habits (like defending his friends) had not yet been shaking. He pressed his lips together but decided not to say anything to them after all, packing up his laptop. He would finish the work later tonight--his mind wasn't on it at all right now. As he was just fixing to leave the dormitories after replacing the computer in his own dorm, he heard one of the girls speak, "She went out into the dungeons. Probably afraid of us." Her tone was smug. I doubt it's fear she's feeling, Josh thought, and there were those out-of-place emotions of sympathy again. Damn it, why'd she have to be a former friend? And before he'd really registered that he was going to find her, Joshua was already out in the hall.

Harley was not hard to locate. The torches flared up in an adjoining corridor and he turned down it, hesitating. She had not yet seen him. It would be safe to turn around and forego this stupid and hardly thought-out plan. He was probably making a mistake, especially since they might just end up shouting at one another again. I'm getting better with my anger, he told himself stubbornly. It was... somewhat true. In living with Nell, he was trying not to let stupid things bug him because he didn't want his girlfriend to become victim of his ire. Harley, however, always seemed to know what to say to irk him. But she's hurting. That much seemed obvious. Shaking his head sharply, he took a breath and approached. "I heard about Samson." It was a little brash, a little blunt. He blinked, noticing this. He had never been good at comforting people and this seemed to only be another reason that approach had been a bad idea. "I'm sorry." He wasn't apologising for his tone--no, Josh didn't do those sorts of apologies--but for the fact that her boyfriend or whatever-the-hell Samson had been had left her. Feeling awkward now that he'd gotten that out of the way, he cast his gray gaze toward her for a moment. "Do you want to... talk, or something?" Not about them. Not about their stupid and childish problems. He had not forgotten about the fact that Harley had said some nasty things to him, but she was grieving and... and, well, she used to be his friend. That counted for something.

Josh really wasn't sure how to handle the emotions of the girl sitting in front of him. They had always been the sort of friends that could laugh and joke around with one another but who never really opened up on a personal level. Not knowing personal stuff about Josh didn't mean that he didn't like you as a person, it just meant that he wasn't ready to take things to the next level of trust and friendship. He'd never really opened up to anyone besides Nell before and that was solely because she'd seen what the gang had done to him first-hand and so he hadn't been able to pass the many scars off as simple accidents. Not that they looked like accidents in the first place, but it would have been much easier to ignore things like that if she hadn't been there. Harley was different. She didn't know anything about him and he was uncomfortably realising that he knew just as little about her as an actual person. Was it safe to try and be comforting when she was in this sort of emotional state or would that just send her into a temper?

Harley, however, didn't seem to be in the mood to fight. He was relieved by this but it also made him feel bad when she spoke those simple words. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? He and his girlfriend were still going pretty strong after several months together now and so it wasn't like he could relate to Harley with breaking up. All he could do was be a friend, and that was proving to be much harder than he'd thought. He did, however, understand what it was like to love someone. And he knew what it had felt like when he was apart from Nell and avoiding her. So on some level, he could understand that breaking up would be very, very hard. "Yeah," he said quietly, nodding his head for further assent. "I do." He did understand that this Samson kid, whoever he was, must have meant a lot to Harley. She hadn't asked him if he understood what it meant to break up, after all, she'd asked whether or not he understood that she'd loved them. And he could relate to love now. It was just sad that hers had to come to an end.

He shook his head when she apologised. "It's okay," he said, albeit a little awkwardly. He hadn't expected them to talk about the elephant in the room so quickly into the conversation. He didn't think he could talk about it. He wanted to put it behind him, wanted things to be like they used to. He never really pined over the loss of friendships before, but then again... he'd never really lost any friends like Harley. Most of his ravaged friendships had been short-lived and broken because the person didn't realise what he was like. She knew about his temper and he'd known about hers, it was just unfortunate that they'd had to clash in such a terrible way. "We were both wrong. I was an idiot, too. Let's just..." He was going to say 'forget about it', but knew that neither of them could really just obliterate the memory. Shaking his head a second time, more forcefully this time around, Joshua drew a breath. "You're more important right now." He found it very hard to care about their petty and childish arguments when Harley was grieving. It just wasn't in her nature. Sitting down beside her, he asked, "What happened?" Then, soon after, "You don't have to say. But... if you want to, I'll listen." Joshua didn't do apologies. 'I'm sorry' never sounded genuine enough. So his apology would be his support through this.

Though Harley was regretting being the first to admit that she'd been wrong, it likely was for the best. Joshua was as stubborn as he was proud and it might have meant forever abandoning their friendship if someone hadn't sucked it up and admitted defeat. He refused to allow himself to think it but she'd actually been the better one in the situation. Still, as he'd said aloud, that wasn't what was most important right now. He may have been stubborn but when it all came down to it Joshua was willing to push aside or drop an issue for the sake of something more important. He didn't usually make up with people but it was different the longer you'd been friends with him. He'd known Harley for years now and to just let their friendship go had been hard on them both. He was secretly glad that this meant they might not be fighting any more--it just sucked that one of them had to get dumped in order for them to see sense.

God, imagine how I'd feel if it had been Nell who... He didn't like to entertain the idea of breaking up with her. She'd accused him of cheating once but they'd gotten past that, talked--or, erm, shouted--it out. According to Harley, her (ex-)boyfriend had just left her there. That wasn't a very honourable thing to do. He understood getting angry about something like that but why wouldn't you confront the person about it? I'd confront Nell, he thought contemptuously, his respect for Samson dropping steadily as the seconds ticked by. He'd never even met the younger boy and he already didn't like him. What element was the asshole in, anyway? He knew that it probably wasn't Earth or Water seeing as the Fire elementals had seemed to be on his side, and it couldn't be Fire or else he'd at least have seen him somewhere so... Thunder or Wind? He made a mental note to figure out who the guy was, since he didn't want to grill Harley too much on the love she'd just lost. Even Josh wasn't that insensitive.

"From the sounds of it cheating was the last thing on your mind," he remarked. It seemed like Harley really liked this Samson guy and it made Joshua want to punch him. He would resist the urge unless by special request from the girl herself, though. If she really loved him Joshua doubted she'd approve of finding him strangled somewhere. He could suppress his violent urges for the sake of that. "Have you tried to run into him after that?" Some people would avoid confrontation because it was too painful but he somehow didn't think Harley would just drop the guy that easily. If it made someone like Harley cry, it must have been a pretty serious relationship. If he were more of an asshole he might have made a remark on the tears and the out of character personality but she was his friend. They'd just... well, they'd hit a rough patch in the friendship. They could get over that, right?

I thought you weren't going to think on that, he chided himself, putting it out of mind once more in time to hear Harley go on. "Do you know who it was?" he asked. "The texter, I mean." It had been a text message that had nearly broken him up with Nell, albeit one on his own phone that she'd misinterpreted. Technology seemed to like a decline in happy couples. He wondered what the person could have said to make someone turn on their girlfriend so quickly but didn't ask, for if Harley had known she probably would have said rather than just speculated. He wasn't really sure what else to say and so he just stayed there with her, hoping that his presence was enough to remind her that she didn't have to suffer this alone. He doubted the assholes in their element would be of much help at the moment. They were an entire group of people he had little respect for right now.

He nodded when Harley insisted that she was not a cheater. As someone who'd had a less than respectable history in romance himself, Joshua was one of the last people you might expect to have morales in a relationship. However, he had managed to go this long without cheating on her and they were not even really taking it to the next level yet. If he could last this long then he definitely had a lot of faith in Harley there. Just because they had fought and hit a rough patch in their friendship did not mean that he would forever see her as some bitter harpy who could never be a good friend or lover to anyone. He might have held grudges on some people but Harley was not one of them and besides, Josh wasn't a Thunder elemental. He was not as vindictive and bent on revenge and repaying his enemies as they were. Samson was Thunder, he mused. He was bitter toward him, but that was only because this was one of his good friends that the guy had left in the dust. You did not mess with Joshua's friends. He might not get along with the Fire elementals but he had their trait of loyalty. He had a lot more of it than most. It was a twisted loyalty to some, a respectable one to others, and it could even be sweet in some cases. It all depended who you were.

With Harley, it was a loyalty that had developed slowly over time. It took a while to gain Josh's trust and friendship so once you'd known him for long enough and he finally accepted you to be a person worthy of his friendship he would definitely return that with a sense of trust and loyalty. Harley had managed to earn that. He might not have told her his deepest, darkest secrets--or, erm, any of them really--but that was not a sign of bad friendship. It was just a sign that Joshua did not tell people these things, did not burden others with his problems. He didn't know much about her either but that was okay. You didn't need to know everything about someone to be their friend. Of course, as he remembered that he'd gotten closer to his own girlfriend through being her best friend and confidant that could have a positive effect on their relationship. He'd supported her through a war, he'd stuck with her through a murder confession, and now he was going to stick with her through the murder trial as well. It helped.

Unfortunately, this only reminded him of the fact that he could barely relate to Harley right now. He somewhat wished he had experience in these matters of break-ups so he'd know what to say to make her feel better but the only relationship he'd even been in was smooth sailing at the moment. Joshua was glad he was not fighting with Nell but he'd never even helped a friend through a break up before. He supposed that most of his friends didn't see him as someone that could be trusted with sensitive matters of the heart. That stung a bit--he was a good guy despite bad first impressions, for the most part. It wasn't his fault that his tough exterior and temper problems marked him as untrustworthy. He'd carry a secret to the grave if need be. And he certainly wasn't going to say anything about Harley's emotional state to anyone. If a friend was in need he would be there for them, simple as that, and he wouldn't blab about their business to the rest of the school. He'd even have enough respect to keep it from Nell. "That makes sense," he concluded. He didn't know what else to add but it did seem logical that she wouldn't seek him out seeing as she was still hurt. "And even so, he should have confronted you rather than just walking off."

A prickling of anger in his stomach was felt when Harley spoke of the culprit. She apparently didn't know who it was and that it was anonymous made it all the more worse. He was not angry at Harley but at the gall of this person. "Count me in if you need back-up," he frowned. Aforementioned, you just didn't mess with the friends of Joshua Dale. He didn't give a shit if the person he was going up against could kick his ass, he'd probably still give it his best shot. He was reckless when it came to the people he loved and/or trusted. He had been fully prepared to go up against a full-fledged Water elemental in order to protect his girlfriend. Thankfully Jane had only given him a taste of how much stronger she was before backing off else he would have been seriously in for it. That did not matter to Joshua. He'd attack her again if he had to. He never learned when it came to his temperament. "Do you have any enemies that would do that kind of thing to you?"

Joshua blinked, his lips pressing tightly together for a moment as Harley burst out laughing. He was not too thrilled with the idea of her being humoured at his expense, especially not when he had absolutely no idea what it was that she'd found so funny. Still, he was at least trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and control his anger issues. As two Fire elementals who'd just recently had a falling out over their temper problems he knew that maintaining a friendship for the future was going to mean making the occasion sacrifice by holding his tongue or forcing himself to think the comment or action through a little more. Maybe, just perhaps, there was something he was missing. He took a deep breath whilst she was still trying to compose herself and managed a neutral expression as he raised a brow at her and waited for her to speak. Samson was... mute? His forced placid expression faltered for a moment as surprise flitted across his features. Oh. He hadn't been aware of that. "I've never met Samson," he pointed out. He'd never really heard of him, either, not until the rumours and facts about the break-up had reached his ears. "Well obviously you communicate somehow," Josh said. Even if he just wrote stuff down on paper he could have asked her about it somehow.

It almost seemed ridiculous that Joshua Dale was looking down on someone for dishonourable behaviour in a relationship. Harley knew better than most people from being his friend that he was not exactly the best of guys when it came to commitment and kindness. Hell, people had joked with him before that he would die alone because no girl would want to hang around a guy with his sort of loose personality. He'd actually believed it and it had never bothered him before. The rumours hadn't bugged him, either, not until Nell had came along and he suddenly had a reason to be conscious of them. However, he was better about it than even he'd thought he was going to be. He'd never cheated, he'd never backstabbed, hardly ever lied about anything important. And so he felt like he had the right to disrespect Samson over this. Harley's better off without that asshole. He refrained from saying such a thing out loud. He knew that if things broke off with Nell he probably still wouldn't appreciate people calling her names to make him feel better or to voice their opinions. If Nell and I broke up it would probably be my fault. That thought was bitter but he pushed it aside.

Though he wished Harley had realised what he meant so that he didn't have to clarify Josh concluded that it had been rather easy to misinterpret the words. He got angry over a lot of things but he was at least trying to cut back on the trivial ones that usually set him off. It was unfair to Harley to have to deal with an irritated Joshua when she was already going through so much. He was not empathetic or kind by nature but if you earned his trust and his friendship then you usually got a little more of his consideration on the side. Kind of like bonus content. "No," he said, shaking his head. "I know that, but... is there anyone that really stands out?" Joshua knew as well as anyone what it was like to have a whole load of enemies but out of his own there were only a select few that would go out of their way to make him miserable. The alliance hated him and didn't really approve of his choice in Nell but he had to hand it to them, they hadn't tried to split the two up yet. On the other hand he had people that had tried to literally take his life on his list of enemies.

Then he realised something--she was not the only half of this puzzle. There were other pieces on Samson's side that needed to be considered if they were going to figure out who to blame. Unfortunately Samson was someone Josh was not acquainted with at all. He almost wanted to keep this sudden realisation to himself so as to avoid talking about her ex around Harley but he thought it might be worth it to point out. "What about Samson? Maybe an ex-girlfriend that doesn't approve, or something?" Little did he know that Jolene wasn't exactly an ex and that he was heading in the wrong direction but Joshua was grasping at straws. This had all happened during a time when he was not really in close contact with Harley and so he hadn't gotten to know her boyfriend at all. He did not approve of Samson, obviously, thanks to how it had ended, but Joshua believed friends had no place in choosing who their friends went out with. They could share their opinions all they wanted but in the end it was the discretion of the individual.

Though he was glad that she was able to laugh and wasn't sobbing over the loss of her ex or anything like that, he wasn't so amused that the laughter was at his own expense. Joshua had to fight his anger back fiercely and remind himself that sometimes people got into these fits of amusement. He was not one of said people, not unless he was drunk, but he tried to see it from Harley's point of view. "I'm glad I amuse you," he said a little dryly when Harley apologised, though it didn't have any trace of the real irritation he had felt. Josh was at least making an effort to keep the two of them on good terms. Though he hated admitting it even to himself, those few months when they had not been on speaking terms had been rough. At least he had Nell to cheer him up during those times but still. It wasn't easy to hate a former friend, especially for Joshua who did not befriend people easily. "Ah," he said, thinking about that for a moment. The rational part of him reasoned that angrily texting out a confrontation wouldn't be the easiest thing to do but that didn't mean he liked Samson any better.

He frowned and stayed quiet whilst Harley was considering who might have targeted her, not wanting to interrupt a train of thought. Unfortunately Joshua did not keep tabs on the enemies of his friends unless they were very obvious and so he could not be of much help. He blinked and considered her question for a moment before shaking his head. "First I heard about Samson was the news of what happened." He didn't want to vocalise the break-up because he knew that it was hard on his friend but there really was no way around it. Until today he hadn't a clue who the hell Samson Fisher was. It was rather ironic that the other male hated him and Joshua was blissfully unaware of this, not that he'd have cared if he found out. If the Thunder had moved on, and Josh would consider him even more of an asshole if that were the case, Joshua certainly had heard nothing about it. What was it the Fires had said? 'Probably moved on', hadn't it been? So they don't know for sure, mused Josh, disappointed by this. He wanted to be of more help to his friend but there was nothing he could really do.

"Oh?" Joshua raised his dark brows in surprise and mild interest when Harley let loose an expletive. Though she had not made it clear what she was talking about he assumed that she was onto something by her tone. Joshua waited, and sure enough she produced a name from him. "I've heard of her," he said slowly, thinking. He'd never actually met the girl and didn't know what she looked like and thus could not attest for whether or not he'd seen her around the dorms. "What about her?" Though he asked for good measure, Joshua had a feeling that this would be about Jolene and Samson. If the 'little bitch' that Harley had been indicating was this girl, the signs pointed to something bad. If this girl had wronged Harley and Samson in some way then he wanted to know who she was so they could "chat". You didn't mess with his friends like that and if Harley wanted to beat the shit out of this chick and needed backup, well, the offer still stood.

He hesitated for a moment, not sure whether or not Harley actually wanted an opinion or whether she was just talking for the sake of frustration. Deciding that he would offer his two cents either way, he said, "Did she know him? Samson?" Things like this really changed up the situation, but the fact that Jolene was even considered as an option meant that she probably did. Scowling, Joshua was liking this girl less and less by the second. "Do they have any sort of history or did she have a crush on him?" He knew that some girls had a reputation for being really catty with one another and fighting over guys. He'd never really had girls fight over him before but that was likely because he'd never had a relationship that needed breaking up before now. He shoved aside thoughts of his own life--Harley was the one they were discussing now, he didn't want to risk blurring the lines. "Maybe we should try and... figure some of this out." Yes, he was outright suggesting they try and figure out whether or not Jolene and Sam were seeing one another. No one said they had to be honest about their attempts, right?

Joshua listened intently to what Harley was saying as she filled him in about Jolene, not wanting to miss anything important. If he let a key detail fly over his head then he was going to have to ask Harley to repeat herself and that would be much too painful in her current state. He understand what it was like to be fighting with a loved one, even if it wasn't his girlfriend. It was still painful to speak of the family that disowned him and even if Nell, who knew, asked about them it might have been hard to talk about. From what he gathered, Jolene had been a friend of Harley's for a short time and had shown an unhealthy interest in her current flame, Samson. That set off alarm bells immediately but he supposed he could also understand how Harley hadn't noticed. Some people liked to talk about the person they were in a relationship and how great they were so maybe she just thought the girl had been trying to be a friend? Josh wasn't sure. He didn't like to ramble on about Nell too much as he was a private person but he did understand that not everyone was the same. His gray eyes were unreadable as he processed this information in his head, trying to think of how he should respond.

After a long moment of silence, Joshua spoke. "Her interest in Samson seems strange." It was stating the obvious of course but it was also leading into something else that Joshua wanted to ask. He hated making his friend relive things but hell, he wanted to get to the bottom of this. He was sure that she did, too. "What sort of things did she want to know?" Innocent things could perhaps be alright but from the way Harley was talking it sounded like Jolene's interest in her boyfriend at the time had been nothing but innocent. Joshua recalled Angelica and how possessive she'd sometimes gotten, calling him her boyfriend even though she was really just hounding him for money thanks to a pregnancy that wasn't even real. I won't fall for that again, he thought grimly. Not like he was planning to cheat on Nell, anyway, and they weren't even having sex so pregnancy on her part wasn't possible. It felt treacherous to think of his successful relationship when they were trying to patch up Harley's failed one but hell, at least the Fire girl couldn't read minds. Especially since thinking of Nell usually led his mind into less appropriate places.

Gray eyes met green and dark brows raised. "A certain someone..." He knew exactly what she meant. "Hmm." He was not considering whether or not he would do this for Harley but whether or not he was capable of it. Joshua was not an easy person to get along with and wasn't easy to befriend if you actually wanted to get close to him. He'd never really had to offer himself up for a false friendship in order to gain information before. He was a confident guy, though. After a moments deliberation and the deepening of his frown, he gave a quiet nod. "Alright," he said. "I'll do it." He didn't say 'I'll try' because that sounded too vague, left room for failure. If he screwed this up then it was possible that Jolene would find out what they were trying to do and turn Samson further against Harley and even Joshua as well. Of course, Josh wasn't aware of the fact that Sam already knew of and hated him. His blissful ignorance of this did not make him hate Samson any less. Fisher had hurt one of his closest friends and he was going to pay for that. Dearly.

He could easily pretend that he still hated Harley. He had done enough of actually disliking her lately that he was pretty sure he had that in the bag. Joshua could be a good actor when he needed to be and he supposed that this was one of those moments. "How do you reckon I should approach her?" As he did not know Jolene and Harley did, Joshua figured that a former friend of the bitch would know her better. There was the fact that Joshua was a traitorous Fire elemental to consider, however. How would a Fire such as Jolene react to him? From what Harley says, it sounds like all she cares about is Samson, he thought dryly. "Will she care about my affiliations?" His reputation was not a small one and the scar on his face left little room for doubt as to who he was. It was how people usually described him, actually. 'Dark hair, gray eyes. Pretty tall, scar on his face. You can't miss him.' You really couldn't and when you were trying to avoid your reputation it was difficult. "Perhaps the fact that I allegedly 'hate' you will blind her to everything else..."

[Should we actually do that/thread it? xD]