-- IF YOU WERE THERE, BEWARE && [ashley]

Joshua was concentrating rather intently on the crossword puzzle, frowning at the little empty boxes. He did not notice anyone approaching the door and likely wouldn't have looked up even if he had. The supervisors generally didn't stop you from doing things like this, as long as you weren't disrupting anyone or playing with electronics like a phone or a laptop. 23 down, he thought to himself, repeating it over and over in his head as if it could help him with the clue. An eight letter word for—what the hell? Surprise intercepted his concentration and caused him to look up as someone rather loudly announced their presence. The graduate recognised the girl but in his shock it took him a couple of seconds to process the situation. Setting the pen down delicately, he frowned. "Me again," he said in an almost bored tone. "Why don't you yell a little louder? Perhaps there were a few folk that didn't hear you." He was a little irritated because he was stuck here for two hours and she'd broke his train of thought but he was not yet in the snapping, snarling rage that had possessed him during their first encounter. Maybe she'd know better than to rile him up as much this time.

Or... perhaps not, seeing as she was a bit tipsy. He was not entirely sure what to make of this situation. It was almost funny, actually, though he didn't laugh. He merely gazed at Ashley with an expression of mingled interest and exasperation. "I'm not surprised, seeing as you're drunk," Josh commented. "Are you even old enough to be drinking? Not that I care." He didn't give a shit about her and wouldn't have batted a lash even if he did. Josh had drank since he was ten years old, on and off. He was not an alcoholic and not even that much of a hardcore partier any more but he still indulged on occasion. It was nice to go and have a beer at the fancy Blackjack now that he was old enough legally to hang around that crowd. It had often made him uncomfortable when Nell was on shift and she could take notice of how intoxicated he was but there was no longer any risk of that. Still, he made a point to watch his consumption carefully. He didn't like the idea of turning the same sort of nasty he had on the first night he'd met his girlfriend. He didn't want Nell to be the recipient of such negative attention again.

Not even sure why he was bothering to give Ashley the time of day, Joshua nevertheless replied, "I got into a fight." It wasn't really surprising. He'd gotten into trouble and sent to detention for fighting this very girl in front of him before. Sometimes he loathed his temper and all of the problems it caused. He was not exactly what you could call ashamed of his actions, he never regretted decking someone that rubbed him the wrong way, he just hated being punished for it. There had to be consequences for negative actions though, he supposed. He got bitter toward the professors sometimes but at the end of the day they were just doing their jobs. "Why the hell were you drinking on school property? Legal age or not, that's pretty stupid." It might have been a harsh word to use but they were not friends and so he did not watch what he was saying. Besides, his getting into fights hadn't been the smartest decision, either. He supposed the 'smart' people were the ones that stayed out of the detention hall. I could never be that kind of smart. Too many assholes hanging around. He was very intelligent when it came to books and education but his temper hindered other things quite a lot.

Joshua did not feel nearly as enraged as he had when they had first became 'acquainted'—despite neither knowing the other's name—and so he merely scoffed his amusement at her words. It was likely due to the fact she was drunk that he was not phased, not that he would have been particularly irked by her commentary if he was sober. Drunk people were fun to mess with at times but they were hardly to be taken seriously when you were sober and they unarmed. Josh was a force to be reckoned with toward himself and others when he indulged in the alcohol because he carried a switchblade in the front pocket of his jeans and, as Nell had found out, had no problems with waving it around and making threats if you pissed him off. "This handsome and mysterious man has a girlfriend," he replied, arching an eyebrow at her. He was mostly fucking around because he figured she wasn't actually interested him, just trolling. He had nothing better to do and so he figured he might as well commit to the back and forth. "Besides, I don't know your name either." He shrugged, suggesting that he really didn't care what her name was. He did not expect for her to tell him and certainly didn't plan on giving out his own name. That would be giving in to her—he was too stubborn for that.

He stared at her for a long moment as she expressed her interest in his tale, considering whether or not to disclose further information. Oh, what the hell? This was decidedly less boring than sitting and waiting for the supervisor to get back. He might have had more fun trying to solve his crossword puzzle but he doubted that the girl would pay him the courtesy of shutting up and letting him concentrate. Even if they had gotten along better, she was drunk. "Idiot thought it would be a good idea to chuck ice at me," he said. "I told him to cut it out, he didn't, so I punched him in the face and jabbed him in the gut." Joshua was not exactly one for flashy fighting techniques. If he could have his opponent down in a couple of brief hits then he'd take them and walk off. The lack of fighting back from his Fire foe had been the reason he was sent off to the headmaster's office without a second thought. If the younger boy had thrown some punches too, they may well have both been sent to detention and Josh would have been allowed to slide under the radar again. No such luck. "It's his own fault for starting shit." Josh would stick by that. He could never bring himself to regret the fights he got into. He regretted their consequences, but his pride and occasional arrogance convinced him that the wounds of his opponents were deserved.

Ashley told her own tale next and he listened with an expression of exasperated bemusement. Drunks. Even though Josh had done a lot of stupid things when he was younger, he'd always tried his best not to mix drinking with education. Mostly because he valued the latter but also because he'd feared that dreaded call home to his parents. His illegal drinking had usually been on weekends at parties but he would reluctantly power through a hangover if he caved in on a weekday. "I think you just proved my point," he said, shaking his head. She was almost funny when he couldn't take her seriously. He'd probably be at her throat if she was sober but there was something about the inebriated that amused him. "If you didn't get 'shit-faced' on school property, you wouldn't be in this predicament." It made perfect sense to him but he supposed it might be different for her. It was hard to imagine the thought process of a drunk unless you too were intoxicated.

He considered what she was saying for a moment, bemused. He really wasn't sure what to make of Ashley and her current state. She was clearly drunk and so he chalked most of her behaviour up to tipsiness but he wondered how much of this was actually coming from a point of sensibility. Probably not much, he concluded to himself. He knew from experience that his intelligence tended to be rather compromised once he'd downed enough whiskey. Beer didn't work for him, he couldn't bring himself to consume enough of it to get drunk. This usually required downing glass after glass without stopping and he'd be slightly buzzed and vomiting buckets before he was smashed enough to enjoy himself. He didn't have that problem with whiskey. Thank god it didn't make him as mean as it made some people. He was mean to begin with and so perhaps the liquor counteracted this. He was a fun drunk. "No, why would that make her a traitor?" Then he rolled his eyes a little. "Wait, you're drunk. Never mind." He figured that Ashley's own train of thought made a lot more sense to her than it would to him. Nell's not the traitor, I am. He was comfortable with this, he thought. He'd had a long enough time to accept the fact that his alliance couldn't stand him.

For the sake of being a troll and seeing how much he could confuse Ashley by explaining the little things, Josh decided to describe a bit of the politics. He knew that she was fairly new to the school even now, even though she'd been around for a few months into the new year. She might not have been a ninth grader but he figured she knew about as much as they did. Transfer students didn't often get as much of a rundown—Nell had been an example of that, though she hadn't started at the Academy until she was in her final year of high school. It was how they'd gotten better acquainted, really. He'd committed himself to helping her out. "I betrayed my alliance, not the other way around," he said. "Politics aren't always double-edged. I'm with the other side now. She's always been on it. Why would she be a traitor?" He didn't tell Ashley anything about him and Nell beyond the vaguest of things. He kept his life pretty private. Most of his friends knew he had a girlfriend and if they asked for her name he'd give it but Ashley was not a friend. He would not disclose his personal information.

This included his name and he chuckled as she asked again. "Probably not. I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot it by tomorrow anyway." It was a subtle but not exactly cruel-hearted jab at her intoxication. Josh didn't get a rise out of bullying other people but he also didn't shelter his words and comments. He didn't bother filtering himself for the sake of a person's feelings. Well, unless it was Nell or a close friend of his. His reaction when she snatched his book of crosswords was immediate—anger flashed in his gray eyes and his relaxed posture immediately tensed. "Oi!" he warned, tone dangerous. She handed it back to him soon enough and he blinked at her as if he couldn't believe her nerve. What the hell am I going to do with you? Then again, it wasn't like he had anything better to do. "I'm surprised you can hold a pen straight," he said a little sharply, but he still took his own and wrote a neat 'X' in the centre square.

Joshua was amused by her attempts to piece together and make sense of his situation with Nell. He usually wouldn't utter a word about it but it was rather funny discussing it with someone who was a bit tipsy. Besides, he was bored. Even if she'd been sober she might have gotten a couple words out of him, though they'd have been a lot less pleasant ones. Joshua suffered from ennui just like the next person. He could usually find some way to occupy himself (like his crossword puzzles, for example, or some form of studying) but it was a lot harder when you were essentially trapped in a classroom for the next two hours with a drunk girl who seemed intent on conversation. "I wasn't dating her when I betrayed the alliance, that's why," he said quite honestly. One of the reasons he was more comfortable with discussing the bare basics of his relationship was that they could be found out through the grapevine by those who really wanted to know. Anyone concerned with him or the subject of the first war of last year could have told Ashley that he and Nell hadn't gotten together until a while after the war's conclusion and so keeping such information from her was a bit pointless. As was concealing his name, but that was more for the hell of it and to pull her leg. "You know, you're awfully philosophical for a drunk person." He smirked at the thought, joking again. He hardly ever laughed or smiled when he joked with people he wasn't friends with and so it could sometimes be difficult to tell whether he was really kidding at all.

Nevertheless, inebriated as she was he still considered her questions and ponderings for a moment. He had led the Fire element and been an integral part of it for a time and so despite his current treachery was well aware of how they operated. "I don't know if they'd ever accept an outsider," he said at last, shrugging. "They might, I suppose. Not that most Earth or Waters would want to join their ranks." He suppressed a sigh at the thought, embittered by the fact that it was he that had to give up his friends and endanger his rank in the alliance. He was not bitter toward Nell for she had not asked him to do anything, more toward his situation. He'd accepted it as a necessity and was mostly unbothered by the insults of the other side but sometimes he felt ostracised in his new community. They were not like him. They didn't understand his bouts of violence or his explosive rage like the Fires had, didn't have that fierce loyalty toward him like his own kind once did. Alright, so maybe he missed them sometimes. He'd grown up in a family of proud Fires and it felt weird to have shifted from that.

He smirked at Ashley. "I think I like the mystery," he said in a conspiratorial tone. In reality he just liked messing with her. He did not really care who won or lost the game nor if they tied and so her next information barely phased him. "If it is, it is. If it isn't, it isn't." After expressing his opinion, he once more penned a neat little 'X', this time in the bottom left corner, two spots below where Ashley had stuck her O. "Your go," he said unnecessarily.

He blinked in mild confusion as she sighed, not realising that she found what he had done admirable in any way. He thought about asking but decided against it seeing as it could have just been a heavy expulsion of air from her lungs that he interpreted to have more meaning than it did. Not everyone sighed because they were wistful or sad and besides, what would she be sad about? She was drunk! Of course, Josh knew there was still a strong possibility of feeling blue when you were intoxicated, it all depended on what you drank and how much of it. He always tried for whiskey no matter what he was doing but he'd drink a hell of a lot more than just a round of shots if he wanted to get shitfaced. He'd down almost the entire bottle and black out by the end of the night, usually waking up with a stranger and no memories of the previous night. He had stopped doing that lately, not only because he had Nell (and thus a reason to avoid bedding strangers) but because she made him happy enough that he didn't need to drown his sorrows. It didn't mean that he was immune to bouts of sadness but they were easier to fight off now that he had someone to share his life with. He liked being in a relationship a lot more than he'd always assumed he would. Commitment used to intimidate him but now he was glad for it. The only thing he didn't like was the abstinence. It had been a hell of a long time since he'd slept with anyone.

"Kids?" he repeated curiously, unable to help himself. His thoughts immediately went to small children and he wondered what the context for her statement was. He thought first of his little sister and how when they were younger she used to bring friends over for birthday parties and sleepovers. Once, a girl had insisted on trying to rope him into their childish games and he had not been having it. He liked children but he did not like playing with dolls, which was what the merry gang of five year olds had been intent on doing. Then he thought of Nell and how she worked at the daycare. Ashley didn't look old enough to have children of her own but maybe she had little siblings or a babysitting job or something? He couldn't think of any other situation that would involve getting kids to behave. Unless she's talking about the Academy students? The thought highly amused him. They certainly act like oversized children sometimes. Not all of them, but some. "I guess it depends on your tolerance and how much you drink." A beer or two didn't do much for Josh. A meagre and short-lived buzz at best. Whiskey was amazing.

Fuck it, now I want to drink. He had self-control however and knew that he would not give in to the desire. Living with Nell had helped him with even the little cravings. He'd never had the workings of an alcoholic—Joshua didn't have an addictive personality. He was capable of quitting things cold turkey. He knew in theory it would be a lot harder to come off smoking or heavy drugs but he'd never taken them and so had never possessed the need to try. Josh quite valued his lungs and his brain cells. He also valued his liver, so he supposed cutting back his drinking early was good for more than one reason. He accepted the book back from her and signed the 'X' in the final unoccupied top square, sandwiched between her two O's.

Josh was admittedly quite surprised to hear that Ashley adored children. He knew that alcoholics and even drug addicts often had kids and still loved them despite their addictions but he never really connected a drunken teenager to a lover of children. It was also dangerous to drink around them and set a bad example but he kept his mouth shut about that, not one to interfere. Josh was relatively laid back when it came to his opinions on the personal lives of others—if they didn't try to tell him what to do, he'd extend the same courtesy, especially when he wasn't friends with them to begin with. So instead of mentioning how he thought it was a bad idea to drink around young kids, Joshua just nodded to show that he was listening. "I don't mind children," he said, just so that they were clear on that. He didn't want anyone thinking he was one of the nasty teenagers that would threaten any kid that came within five feet of him. Josh had a little sister and he'd practically helped raise her, he didn't think he could hate kids if he tried. He was a kid once, everyone was.

The graduate arched an eyebrow at her when she spoke. He wasn't sure what to make of the words, whether she was being silently bitter toward him for not answering her in the first place or whether she genuinely wanted to know and didn't know who else to ask. He also considered not telling her at all even though he could definitely answer at least one of those questions but Josh figured there was no point in being an asshole. He didn't hold grudges. They were not friends and he didn't really care about this girl but she was not trying to start fights with him so he figured he may as well extend the same courtesy. "I'm in college," he pointed out. "They've probably got optional electives in high school but I never took them in my time so I wouldn't know." He had been more interested in Biology, Psychology, History, English. Besides, he didn't figure he needed any parenting classes. He didn't plan on adopting a kid or getting anyone pregnant and besides, he'd had experience when it came to his sister. "A daycare, though, I'm pretty sure there's a few. Why?" He was adamant that he wouldn't give her the address or name of the one Nell worked at, though. Relaxed or not, he was still wary.

Again she mentioned drinking in conjunction with children, and that just solidified the wariness. He didn't like the idea of anyone getting drunk around kids. He'd always came home in the dead hours of the morning when his baby sister was asleep if he was drunk and fell into bed, trying not to let on that anything was wrong in the morning when he was hungover. His parents had always known and Donovan had smacked him around a bit for it a few times but he was sure that Annabel's opinion on his drinking was still pretty much clueless. "I can drink a lot," he said off-handedly. He had good tolerance and he was tall, so he could drink quite a bit. Josh glanced at the clock and yawned. "I've been here about fifteen minutes, I'd say about ten for you. I'm stuck for two hours. Didn't they tell you?" He knew it was customary to inform someone on how long they were trapped for—longer times for worse offences and all that.