all i ever wanted, josh

Joshua did not like living with his younger brother. It was reminiscent of when they were kids, except instead of having parents around to mediate when things got heated, they were alone and Joshua was powerless. "Good morning, Joshy," Bryce greeted in an almost sing-song voice when Joshua entered the kitchen that morning, glowering immediately at the nineteen year old. Bryce was situated at the kitchen island and there were a couple pop tarts in the toaster, a would-be normal scene if not for the fact that they both knew that Bryce was an unwelcome presence. Josh ignored the pseudo-friendly greeting and deadpanned, "Did you take your meds?" The pills that his brother was on to control his psychotic episodes helped, to the extent that they'd released him back into the world with a promise that they would stave off the intense and uncontrollable rage. And they did, the only problem was the fact that his brother did not take them the majority of the time. "They make me feel off," Bryce had said when Joshua had confronted him about the reason why. Joshua had merely scowled. "Don't you trust me, big bro?" He knew that the 'big bro' was meant as more of an insult than anything else. "No, I don't." He wasn't ashamed to admit it. It might have been a little pathetic that he could not claim to trust his own flesh and blood but Bryce had tried to cut his throat. That sort of violence did not go unforgiven. "I took them," Bryce muttered, and Joshua opened the freezer to get out the ice cream.

Working his jaw, he turned around to see his brother wearing a Cheshire grin. Fuck you, he thought quite plainly, and he meant the anger behind it. "You ate my fucking ice cream, didn't you?" This should not have bothered him as much as it did. He should have let it go. But after a couple strained weeks of dealing with Bryce's presence in his home, Josh felt like he was about the snap. Enter the straw that broke the camel's back. "I'm not sorry." The smirk on his brother's lips provoked him more than most things would. "Oh, I know you're not," Josh growled. "While you're living under my roof, though, don't you think it's common sense that you should leave my shit alone?" He slammed his hand down on the counter for emphasis but his brother did not seem phased. The medication mellowed him out and the smirk returned, spreading slow and lazily across his features. "What would I want with your shit? That's gross." He should have known that Bryce was trying to rile him up but unfortunately for Josh it was working. "I'm being serious!" Out of instinct he grabbed a kitchen knife that was lying on the counter near the hand he'd just slammed down. He didn't plan on using it, no, but arming oneself had become a habit with Bryce. His brother's eyes glimmered. "Careful, careful," he hummed. "Maybe you should just go out and get some more. It was really good, by the way." Joshua hated that he could not argue, hated that his brother had a constant upper hand. Scowling, he dropped the knife back onto the counter and stormed out of the house.

There were a few perks to being a Fire elemental and one of those perks was the resistance to the cold. A few seconds after the bitter chill biting his skin his body heat adjusted and suddenly he was warm again. Not that it mattered, for he took his car down to the parlour anyway. They sold ice cream by the tub if you didn't just want a single cone and it was really high quality so he was all for it. He'd brought a cooler along so that the ice cream would keep cold during the drive home and not melt. While he was loading two tubs (one mint chocolate chip, the other dark chocolate) into his car he spotted a familiar face leaning against the parlour wall. Shutting the lid of the cooler, he pressed the button to close the car doors and wandered over. "Yo, Jensen," he said, Josh's typical casual and friendly greeting. "Apparently I'm not the only nutcase who thinks ice cream in winter is a good plan. Nice choice." He gestured at the mint chocolate chip for it was one of his two favourite flavours. It reminded him of Bryce eating his, though, and he scowled. He doesn't even like mint. Asshole. His expression cleared after a moment and he didn't explain the random sour face, just said, "So, 'sup? Haven't spoke in a bit." He'd been busy with finals, then holidays, then adapting to the first month of senior year, during which time he'd sort of talked less to his less close friends. It wasn't meant to offend, it was simply how he hoped with an incredibly tight schedule.

He had never quite understood the necessity of eating cold foods in warm weather and vice versa. Well, alright, soup or hot chocolate in winter could warm you up and ice cream in the heat could cool you down (if it didn't melt before it got the chance) but he didn't get why it was taboo to eat it in any season other than the one deemed 'appropriate'. If he wanted ice cream in winter he was having his ice cream. He'd never cared much for social norms, because who said anything was normal any more? People should be allowed to do what they want without having to worry about what everyone else thought. So he didn't worry about it, he did do what he wanted, and he was probably a lot happier than he'd be if he continuously tried to impress everyone else. He'd already went through that phase of trying to do what everyone else wanted, trying to fit in. He'd hung around the gang in his youth because he'd thought they were cool, they were so much better than he was, and look at how that had worked out for him. Now he did what it was that he thought was right. He'd come out of it with a fiancée, a house, a circle of friends, and a future he was fixing up to love. And his damn ice cream in the season that he wanted to eat that ice cream. "Well, fuck them," he shrugged. "Never understood that. Ice cream is ice cream. It's good. What more do they want from you?" He rolled his eyes and shook his head. People were crazy sometimes. They needed to learn to leave well enough alone and let everyone else do the same.

It was nice to know that Jensen was understanding of how busy he actually was. Some people weren't able to grasp how much Josh actually studied. He wasn't your average English major who took a few nights out of his week to get in some studying hours. He was a double major who wanted to get into a competitive MD-PhD program so that he could become a physician-scientist, or a 'badass doctor' as he'd called it when his sister had questioned what it meant. He had a real explanation saved up for anyone that actually cared but usually he just joked about it, made light of it so that he didn't have to spend the next little while going over what everything meant. "Yeah. Senior year and all. Are you feeling the heat, too?" He supposed it probably wasn't as bad for a senior in high school as it was for a senior in college, at least. Especially not when that college senior was incredibly determined to maintain a perfect GPA. His MCAT score had been above average and he wanted his GPA to shine as well. Then he'd be eligible for top-tier schools but he wouldn't choose them, instead he'd apply to UMH and hope they took him seriously and didn't ask too many questions about why he wasn't aiming as high as he could go. "Thinking of quitting my job flat out, though. Fuck, it's way harder to juggle senior year and work hours than I thought. 'Sides, it's not like I need one." He'd had it long enough that he could still put them down as credit on his applications and mention them in interviews. He was sure his boss would understand. He loved his job but he also loved sleep and perfect grades. He was reaching that point where he had to decide which thing he wanted to sacrifice.

Ah, savate. He knew of her hobby like everyone that knew the girl did but it wasn't like he knew all that much about it. He allowed his friends to have their passions without feeling the need to be all critical about it all the time. If they didn't question why he was the world's biggest dork then he wouldn't question them, even if he didn't really understand what was so awesome about what they did. "When you say 'on the side' do you literally mean 'on the side' or do you mean 'near-daily'?" He smirked at her, his tone a little teasing. He was getting better at remembering to let people know when he was joking around but he still slipped up on occasion. At least he no longer wore a consistent and confusing mask of stoicism. That was what it had been like two years ago, what poor Nell had to go through when getting to know him. "I feel like it would be an appropriate time to remind you that I am against murder in all forms but that I might amend those morals if you prank me this year," he said. He still sounded amused but he was a little more serious this time around. Joshua hated being pranked and most of the Waters that knew him or knew of him were aware of this. "I need to be on my best academic behaviour this year and I will happily strangle you and mount your head on a stick like Vlad the fucking Impaler if you get in the way of that." He smiled at her, gray eyes glittering with a mixture of humour, malice and warning. Vlad was a pretty fucked up guy. "Now that that's out of the way, got any plans? I'm pretty bored, I'm playing the fucking ice cream fairy for the household but they can wait." Bryce had eaten all of his damned ice cream so Josh was going to take his time restocking the supply.