Teens scare the s#@& out of me :Josh

[DAYONE LEO TYLER]

Leo stopped to catch his breath. He's been running for what seemed like ages now, and they were still after him. He didn't remember how he was getting chased, he did remember him running, and then him alone, being followed by the ones that ambushed the group he was in. He remembered he was in a group of earth students, just relaxing and talking, but still on the defensive encase any one tried to attack.

Unfortunately a group of thunder and fire students attacked them, surprising them for a second. That second was all they needed to gain the upper hand, the seniors and a few college students stayed back to hold them off, as the Juniors helped get the freshman to safety. Leo was in the group of Juniors and freshman, but the Thunders seemed to have been able to ambush them and chaos ensued. Leo tried helping, he really did. He threw out a few vines and some trees tripped and made students fall. They were losing, at least until some water students came to help. The ensuing battle, was marvelous and dangerous. If you were any regular human, you'd be stunned by the teens attacking with the elements. Leo turned around and saw some students try to rise a wall of earth, only for it to fall as fire shot shot it down. Leo turned again, and was thrown back by a blast of lightning. He got up as fast as he could, his ears ringing, his hearing muffled. All he knew to do know was to run, and he ran away. As fast as his legs could take him. He thought he was alone, but lightning struck again at his feet. He jumped, and turned to see his attackers, a group of six (what he assumed where thunder students) started to chase him. He ran.

Back to the present, Leo thought over what had happened. His breathing still heavy with effort. Where was he? He turned and gazed at his surroundings. He had run into the wilderness. That wasn't good, not good at all. He stood up, and and he readied himself to start running when a fire ball streaked past his face. Great there are fire students in that group. He was about to move when they showed themselves. And by they it was his bully and co. "Well Leo, I told you'd I'd get you. And now there's no one here to protect you." He said with an evil grin. Then he punched Leo in the face. He recoiled and stumbled back. Leo's eyes darted around looking for an escape. There was none, his group had him completely surrounded. Leo looked back at the bully only to be punched again. This time it was a hay maker to the stomach and it made him double over. Leo's fight or flight instinct came on, these guys would beat him to death if he didn't do anything. Flight was not an option, there was no where to fly to. So when Leo stood he leaned on a tree, feigning exhaustiveness. Really what he was doing, was getting ready for the next punch.

The bully laughed, and his friends cheered him on, he turned towards Leo and threw another punch, that's when the toothless lion struck. The tree's root grabbed at the kids leg and pulled hard, the punch was wide and the bully fell to the floor. "Why you!" The bully got up and charged Leo, Leo threw his arm back and then struck, unused to being able to fight the punch was awkward and bad, but it landed and it did do damage. Shaking his hand from the action of punching the bully fell back and was stunned. Then his eyes narrowed "Get him." The two words caused the rest of the group to start attacking.

Leo threw a punch and tried to dodge at the onslaught of attacks, but he kept getting hit, he kept missing a punch. He tossed dirt into their eyes and landed punches, only for them to get back at him seven fold. Leo was fighting a fight he had already lost.

[JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE]

Joshua and the Water graduate whom he was with were spending some time on the grounds, their status as college-level elementals providing them with some semblance of protection from the masses. College students were not as common as the high school kids and their elemental prowess was greater so it generally proved safest to stick with one or two of your fellows for the best defence. He'd attended class with the other boy that morning and they'd met up going out the door, working on silent agreement that they would be each other's back-up. As part of the older student population they knew how the Academy worked, knew how wars worked--things didn't have to be discussed to be understood. "Close call in Biology the other day," he acknowledged, referring to a fight that had nearly broke out between a Thunder elemental and his newfound ally. The boy scoffed. "He would have deserved it." Unfortunately, the professor had realised what was going on and sent the Thunder to detention for provoking a fight. His friend had to serve on a different day--sending two offenders down to the detention hall would have been giving them a free ticket to fight away from the prying eyes of the staff.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Joshua blinked and directed his attention toward where his ally was pointing, noticing what looked like the last legs of a fight going on near the forest. There were bursts of electricity and flame, torrents of water, whipping vines--it looked like one of the more serious fights that had happened over the past few days. A few people were retreating, covered by the older students for protection. He tore his gray gaze away for a moment to look at the fellow graduate. "Think we should help?" It looked like the Earth and Water side of the fighting had taken quite a thrashing, after all. It was weird to be worrying about that side of the fight rather than the injuries of the pyromaniacs but he tried not to think too much on that. Brian--the Water elemental--frowned thoughtfully. "No, I think they're finishing up," he said. Glancing back, it appeared that he was right. The crowd was dispersing and it seemed like a professor had stepped in to mediate the worst of things and put an end to it. "Oh, look," he mused. "Someone's coming."

Surely enough, they were soon joined by a fellow graduate--a freshman from the Earth element. She looked tired and she was shaking slightly, sinking down into the soft grass beside Brian with a sigh. "What happened back there?" inquired Josh. She explained how they'd been hanging around when the ambush had occurred and how chaos had ensued. Josh listened with a quiet frown on his face, worried about the sort of damage this had caused his side of the war. He knew from personal experience that Thunder and Fire elementals were ruthless fighters--often the causes of wars, they fought bitterly with tooth and claw. Earth elementals were generally pacifistic from what he knew so fighting must have been difficult for them. "Did everyone make it out alright?" This was Brian, sounding very concerned. Joshua was aware that the boy had a younger sister in Earth. The girl shook her head. "Some of them ran deeper into the woods, we couldn't stop them. We're not sure who they were chasing." Brian was on his feet in an instant--Joshua followed more slowly, now practically scowling. "You guys are fresh for fighting, right? Could you--?"

Her answer was solidified before she could even get the words out. Brian was already halfway down the hill and Joshua rolled his eyes. "Oi! Wait for me, idiot, it's suicide to go alone!" Brian paused reluctantly, glaring at Joshua with obvious impatience. He said a quick goodbye to their Earth friend and then followed the Water graduate into the forest. Scorched trees and footsteps through the slightly muddy ground provided a clear direction in which they would need to head in order to catch the offending group. Brian was going as fast as he possibly could without running--thankfully, Joshua, who was taller and had longer strides, did not have any trouble keeping up. They finally emerged into an area of forest where a group surrounded one single person. "It's not her," said Brian. He sounded relieved but also seemed concerned for the person who was being used as a punching bag. Jesus Christ, thought Josh. Isn't that the Leonard kid? It looked like him despite the obvious beating he was undergoing. Well, no matter who it was they were helping now. "You take the Fire bastards, I'll handle Thunder."

Thanks to the fact that they were weakened from the fighting that had already taken place, the two graduates combined were able to overpower the group. Joshua knocked one unconscious with a well-aimed whack to the side of the head and Brian drove another one off by sheer strength alone. The remaining group seemed to realise that they were outmatched and dashed in all different directions away from the scene. Panting very slightly but still in decent shape, Joshua glared disdainfully at the unconscious boy. "Someone'll need to tell the medical wing about him in case it's anything serious," he said unsympathetically. "I'll do it," offered Brian, leaving immediately. This left Joshua alone with Leo and quite uncertain about how to handle that. "Hey, man, are you going to be alright?" He obviously wasn't alright at present but Josh wondered just how serious his injuries were. "If they burned you I can do something about it but other than that you'll need to head to the Wing. Can you walk?"

[DAYONE LEO TYLER]

The group was taken by surprise by the two college students. They tried to fight back, but eventually the group dispersed running off. Leo had fallen unconscious by the barrage of attacks. Right now he suffered a lot of bad injuries. He didn't know what was happening, his mind was floating in a blank state. All he saw and heard was nothing. Everything was dark. He felt himself coming back to the world of the living. His eyelids fluttered open, the light blinding. He tried to cover his eyes with his hand, but he hissed in pain as he attempted to lift it. He looked up at one of his saviors. "I've had worse." Leo muttered as he tried to sit up. His body wouldn't respond, to hurt and tired to move. Wanting to sit up, he grabbed the end of a root he used to attack the group. The thicker part of the root moved up out of the dirt, he got it just a portion of the way out before he ran out of energy, the root however was high enough that he could rest his head on it. He kept a hold on consciousness, not wanting to slip back into the darkness.

His injuries consisted of burns, both fire and electrical, bruises, and even a few bruised ribs. Leo had been able to unconsciously protect the softer organs by curling up so that his back gave the most surface area. His face was pretty banged up, he had a split lip, his nose was bleeding, and he was pretty sure he was going to have a black eye. All in all, he looked like shit, and rightfully so. He had worse mentally, however he was sure this was the worst of the physical abuse he had gone through. He looked up at Josh, "Thanks," he said quietly. He thanked Josh for saving him, he would have died, he didn't even mind if he died. He was alone, maybe that's why he ran, to catch someone's attention and have them beat him to death. He was quiet, shy, and now he was alone in the cold dark world. His aunt died, his parents were dead, he had no cousins, no siblings. He didn't even really have friends, well he did but he hadn't seen Nell in a few weeks. "They burnt me, but I'm not sure which burn is fire, and which is thunder." Leo looked down at his thrashed body, there where holes in his jacket and jeans, there were burns and they throbbed with pain. He hurt so much, why did he have to hurt? Why couldn't it just be over.

Leo looked down at his legs and he tried to move them, but either from extreme exhaustion (he used nearly all his energy on the fight) or just pain, he couldn't. If he could he would have shook his head at Josh's question, but he couldn't it hurt to move, he instead decided to say,"No I don't think I can.

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[JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE]

Joshua was not phased by Leonard's comment. He could honestly believe that he'd taken worse beatings because he was well schooled in just how nasty people could get. Though no one at the Academy was aware of it, Josh himself had been a victim of bullying in the past. Before he'd hit the growth spurt that would cause his height and before he had really gained enough confidence in himself to get a backbone, he'd been the target of a lot of schoolyard heckling. When he was only eight years old a group of kids that constantly messed with him actually found out where he lived and snuck into his backyard, ganging up on him and chasing him to the end of the dock. He'd been pushed into the water and nearly drowned and that had neither been the first nor the last attack he'd suffer at their hands. The difference between he and Leo, however, was that Joshua had changed. He'd met a gang who had taught him how to fight, treated him like he was the epitome of cool. Just thinking that he had a group of awesome friends that trusted and believed in him had been enough. It was almost ironic that they would later turn on him and stab him in the back. They had been the end to his bullying and then they'd become assailants themselves, using the blade they'd gave him to cut into his skin.

So he understood, in a way. He was not entirely sympathetic--Joshua was not a naturally empathetic guy and so the sight of his bruised and bloodied acquaintance didn't make his heart ache for humanity or anything else cheesy like that. Instead he only thought of the attackers as spineless cowards and wondered why Leo constantly allowed them to pick on him like that. He blinked at the thanks and then dipped his head in acceptance. He hadn't exactly came out here with the sole intentions of saving Leonard but he had still managed it and so he was content with taking the credit for that. Joshua was not someone with modesty. "Looks like we were a little late," he remarked, arching a brow at the state of the other boy. He really looked bad and Joshua was doubtful that he could make it all the way back to the school on his own. It was not terribly far to someone in fit physical shape but from what it looked like Leo could barely even sit up straight. Joshua might have been insensitive but at least he realised that he should probably stay with Leonard and make sure that he didn't pass out from a concussion or anything like that.

The part of him that enjoyed solving problems and healing injuries was tugging insistently at his conscience, wondering if he did have a concussion or if there was anything with a high risk of being infected due to dirt creeping into the wounds or something similar. He fought that back because even if there was some sort of danger there was nothing he could do about it when they were all the way out here. "Where did you get burnt?" he asked. "I'd be able to tell." He could not explain how he instantly knew what burns were electrical and which ones weren't. Intuition, he supposed, as well as the connection with his element. He could bet that a lot of the Thunder and Fire elementals could differentiate. If this was a friend or someone he knew better he would have taken the initiative and started trying to fix things right away without waiting for Leonard to tell him where the injuries were or give him the go-ahead but Joshua did not feel like imposing on personal boundaries. He would just wait and see what the Earth boy said.

To be honest, Joshua really wasn't surprised when he said that he couldn't walk. He didn't have his hopes up too high about this so he only nodded and suppressed a sigh as he realised he was probably going to be here for a while--Brian would take his time telling the medical wing about the injured and he doubted it was a wise idea for Leo to be left to fend for himself. After all, what if the others came back? The risk was pretty high that they might sneak back to see what was going on and so he resigned himself to the fact that he was staying and sat down. "Don't you ever get tired of them pushing you around?" he asked seriously.

[DAYONE LEO TYLER]

"Or a little early," Leo whispered under his breath, mostly to himself. He still wasn't sure what to do with himself. He had nothing to live for, so the rational (or irrational) thought was to just not live. Though he doubted that group would kill him, they probably would have stopped at a serious maiming incident. He didn't think they would kill him, and then just screw themselves over for the rest of their pathetic lives. "At least you came." Leo said quietly as he tried to slowly regain his energy. He still didn't want to try and move just yet didn't want to risk hurting more. Just the thought of moving made the throbbing pain seem sharper than before. So he tried to think about something else, something that would take his mind off of himself. "Are you hurt?" He asked innocently enough.

Leo looked down at himself, the burn marks apparent where they landed a direct hit. He wasn't sure which ones where electrical or not. If he was one of those investigates who figured out how fires started he'd be able to figure it out. Of course that took a few years to study and learn and all that, and he wasn't that interested in that field of work.So all he saw was burnt clothes and burned red flesh. There was a few burns scattered around on his smashed body. Not sure which was which he decided just to tell Josh where he was hurt. He informed Josh, "My arm," he nodded towards it, it had a burn on his wrist where someone grabbed one of his punches and then burnt him," My left leg," There was a burn that went perpendicular to his leg, probably from a miss or something. Then he looked at his chest, there where small burns scattered around on it, "And my chest," he finished and groaned as he pushed himself up farther. "Could you help?" He asked wondering if he could help, and not inquiring for assistance.

If he could have he would have nodded to Josh's question, but seeing as that would cause him some pain he went for the vocal answer instead. "Yes, I do, but I can't do anything about it." He said to Josh knowing full well why he couldn't. If it wasn't apparent now, well he wasn't sure what was. In all besides being a coward, he couldn't fight back even if he wanted to. His reaction time was fast, fast only because he needed to run and make snap decisions when he ran away. However his hands and muscles where unaccustomed to punching, to hitting things. His arms were tired and they were not strong, at all. So his punches didn't pack a, well punch. He could land them quickly, but still, they were weak hits that did barely anything.

[JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE]

Joshua scowled, obviously not approving of Leonard's answer. He didn't like people that spent their lives complaining about how they weren't worth living. Perhaps it was a little cruel to get so exasperated with such people but Josh didn't see the point of whining about it. He wouldn't tell someone suicidal that they should go and off themselves, he at least had enough tact to avoid that, but it didn't mean he approved. "Don't say shit like that," he said. "Just be glad you're not hospitalized and hooked up to a bunch of machines." He wasn't talking about the chronically ill but of how bad it would have gotten if Joshua and his companion had came a little later. Joshua had been beaten up and left for dead before, he knew it wasn't pretty. He remembered how panicked his parents had been but didn't point this out to Leo. He knew nothing about this guy and his friends, siblings, home life. Even if he did, Josh was no preacher. He didn't work with positivity and try to make people change for the better he just hated people that complained about themselves. It was unfair, sure, but this was Joshua. He didn't go about his life trying to make people happy.

Thankfully Leo's asking about his own well-being distracted him. "Me? No." It was a little white lie, nothing too terrible. Not that Joshua ever felt really bad about lying to acquaintances anyway. Friends, yes, but he hadn't known Leonard long enough for that yet. Besides, Josh wasn't too hurt. He'd taken a couple punches and he could feel a hot sort of pain on his forearm but it was tolerable. It stung but he could take it. Joshua was made of pretty tough material thanks to all of the things he'd been through. He wasn't immune to pain and he'd be showing signs of it if it were worse but the burn was mild and the punches hadn't been too fierce. The group had expended most of their energy on Leo, clearly. "Worry about yourself." It wasn't said gently, more a statement of a fact. However, it was not rough and cold either. It was more... neutral. He might not have cared as much about Leonard's well-being as he did Nell's, his sisters, Harlow's, Lark's... any of his friends, really. But that didn't mean he hated him either. He'd still help, obviously, else he wouldn't be here.

He simply nodded when Leo asked him for help. He had said that he would be able to assist him and so he wasn't going to go back on that offer. "Hold still," he suggested, not that there was much need for that. It didn't look like Leonard could go anywhere even if he wanted to but Josh just wanted to make sure. It was a lot easier to focus on healing an injury when the patient was completely still. Kneeling down so that he could get better access to where the Earth boy was injured he took his scarred left hand and passed it slowly over the points of injury. He focused on the burn marks that seemed to come from flame and thought hard about the theory he'd read and the experiences he had with healing burns. At first nothing happened but as he continued to train his attention on the wounds and imagine them reversing their damage, that was exactly what they did. It was like watching a movie in rewind as the burns shrank in on themselves and started to clear up. The skin was still red and irritated as the usual side effect but after several long minutes Joshua pulled his hand away and drew a deep breath. He could feel the energy being sucked from him as healing took more out of a person than a lot of other things but it wasn't too bad. "That's it?" he asked, to clarify.

He scoffed when Leo gave some excuse (at least, it was an excuse in Joshua's mind) about being unable to fight back. "Bullshit," he said. "Against a group, maybe, but you never stand up for yourself from what I've seen." He had learned to defend himself from a less than trustworthy source but hell, in Josh's mind that didn't matter. He had still learned and now he wasn't as much of a pushover as he had been when he was young. He wasn't going to give Leo a sob story about how he had been weak and gotten stronger, Josh wasn't that type of person. But he also wasn't going to accept 'I can't' as a valid answer. "Why can't you?" he challenged. "What's stopping you?"

[DAYONE LEO TYLER]

Leo didn't say anything to Josh's sentence. He didn't have much to say about it. He wasn't going to deny that he might not want to live because there was nothing to live for. But he didn't want to tell Josh that he was right, and that he was glad. Sure he was fine with being able to stand up (though he couldn't at the moment) but he still thought maybe being in a coma was better. At least in the coma he wouldn't be worried about being attacked, he'd just be dreaming. Well that's what he thought coma's where like, he had actually never read about coma's much and what he had read he hadn't really memorized. So he was just going on imagination on what being in a coma was like. So Leo stayed silent, acknowledging the sentence, but not speaking about it, he didn't want to answer it in fear of angering Josh more.

"That's good," Leo said to the older student. He was sure that Josh must have been bruised or scratched around somewhere, no one came out of a fight scratch less not even Bruce Lee, okay maybe Bruce Lee. But since Josh wasn't Bruce Lee and he doubted he was trained by the martial arts master either, than he had to have a few booboos on him. Small things weren't so bad, Leo was used to it, he was used to the beatings which came with a package deal of bruises, cuts, scratches, and black eyes. This, however, was a little more, serious. The burns where bad, and so where the bruises. He hoped he didn't have any internal bleeding, or damage to his organs. "I have been," Leo said stating the fact not meaning to flare up any anger in Josh. He had been worrying, even if he didn't feel like living, while he was still alive he might as well worry. It's what made him run, it's what made him try to fight back, worry. That's all his Aunt did with him, worry that he wasn't social, worry that he might hurt himself. She worried all the time, it was funny and because she worried about him he didn't have to. Now that she was gone, however, he was the only one left to worry about himself, no one else would do it for him. He didn't even care about that foster family they were trying to get him into, he would be gone in a few years, why worry about it?

Leo blinked at Josh as he gave him the order. That was something he was good at, doing as he was told. He did what he was told, he didn't have a rebellious bone in his body, and if he did well that bone was buried pretty deep inside of him. Maybe something, some event, would make that bone show up, or maybe he'd find his lion's heart. Maybe, someday hopefully, he would find his courage, like that lion in the wizard of OZ, maybe he was looking for something that he already had, maybe he just needed to realize it. There was a lot of maybes, but hopefully one of those maybes would become a fact. Leo tried to watch as Josh worked his powers on him. He watched some of the burns disappear, but he could only catch a fleeting glimpse every now and then, the angle wasn't in his favor. There was still the burn on his leg and a few on his chest, but the others disappeared and he only felt an itching feeling where they used to be. "Yea, I think so," Leo said giving Josh a nod, "Thank you, again," he said as he tried to push himself up, some energy back.

Leo leaned back against the tree, finally able to sit up straight, the root his head was resting on quickly hid back into the safe embrace of Gaia. Leo bowed his head as Josh gave him his lecture. Leo listened the question and he thought on it, "I can't fight, for one," Leo said stating the obvious. I deserve this, I deserve the pain, I deserve being hurt, I deserve all of it, unload your anger, your hate, your frustration on me, I deserve it all. I could have saved my mother, I could have stopped my father from pulling that trigger. I deserve it, I was a coward, I will always be a coward, I am despicable, I deserve the pain. I'll take the pain that would have gone to others, to make up for the pain I caused my family. That's what he wanted to say, what he wished he could say, but he couldn't he didn't want to give Josh his sob story. Josh would find someway to shoot down that story, that reason. Leo avoided Josh's eye's he looked down at the dirt, at the tree that had been burnt in places, his voice carried out a whisper, so quiet it was hard to hear, but it was important.

"I'm a coward."

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[JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE]

The silence was not awkward, at least to Joshua. He didn't know that Leonard was still moping internally and thus had no reason to make further comment, instead turning his full attention to the wounds and trying to figure out which burns were from the touch of flame and which were not. He went into a quiet state of concentration as his powers responded to him. It felt so natural how the fire responded, as if it were an extra limb rather than a mental ability which had been learned over the years. The ease with which the fire whispered to him now was something that he couldn't remember living without. He remembered not having his powers at all but it was hard to recall the feeling of frustration and loss when the flames would spark and then die just as quickly. Ah, to be a ninth grader. He didn't envy the freshmen. His thoughts wandered as he worked, soothing the anger and irritation slightly over the time period which it took to heal all of the burns he could. He was still a little bit on edge by the time he was done but wasn't as volatile as before. This was a good thing for Leo, seeing as a volatile Josh often amounted to a violent Josh as well. He tried his best to keep his anger from becoming too great but that wasn't always so easy for a guy with temper problems.

He nodded curtly at the thanks but offered nothing else verbally, instead looking dour and serious as he regarded the Earth elemental. He was naturally an unsmiling person but the austere expression really did make it noticeable. He arched an eyebrow as Leonard said he couldn't fight, then silently accepted this as the truth. Obviously he couldn't or else the group would have thought twice to mess with them. However, this was obviously not a good enough explanation for Joshua. The Fire graduate waited, waited, and then the frown deepened into a scowl when Leonard admitted cowardice. Joshua didn't really like cowards, but he had to admit this was a special case. It wasn't like Leo created problems and then ran from them, he ran from the problems that pursued him relentlessly. Having been bullied a lot in his past Joshua could not sneer at cowardice in this form. He stayed like this for a long moment, working out what he would say. "Change that, then," he decided at last, shrugging as if there was nothing to it. It might have been unfair to just assume that Leo could drop everything that had ever happened to him and start fighting back but it seemed simply in theory to Joshua.

In reality, it really was unfair. If Josh were to seriously consider the compromise he'd needed to make in order to gain his fighting spirit, the Fire graduate probably wouldn't have made the same choices that he had. Sure, the gang had taught him the basics of self defence on the street and they'd, through their false friendships, lent him confidence as well. What did he have to pay for it? His innocence. He had fallen easily into a life of drinking and parties, he'd committed petty crimes, he'd lost the trust and respect of his family. He had done a lot of things that he wasn't proud of and that to this day he wouldn't admit to most of the people he knew. He could hardly turn around and ask Leo if he was willing to give up everything that made him a decent person in order to have a backbone. Hell, though, maybe there was another way. Maybe he didn't have to get violent. Self defence was just that, right? You weren't causing problems, you were stopping the problems from causing you serious injury. He considered this as he remained silent. Leonard might have been irritated with his stony quietude but he was going to have to deal with it. Eventually, Josh spoke. "If they think you can fight back, they won't start shit in the first place." It was one of the first lessons he'd learned. It didn't always apply but it was a useful rule. People didn't rush at skunks because they knew of the spray as a defensive mechanism. It worked the same with fighters. People feared a fighting spirit.

Not really knowing why he was even bothering to try and help the guy, Joshua suppressed a sigh. This was probably helpless. He was sitting here and talking to an Earthie. If most of his friends and acquaintances in the soft-hearted element were any indication, they didn't usually like to fight. I'm not asking him to fight, though Josh rationally. This is defending. It's different, right? Eh, he didn't feel like wasting his breath on a long explanation. Instead, he said, "Of course, if you don't know how to fight, I don't know what else to say," he shrugged, standing up and leaning against a tree. He was a bit dizzy from the exertion of the healing but other than that he felt alright. Thank god for college, thought Joshua. He didn't believe in God, it was just something he'd picked up from the rest of the planet using it as a go-to phrase.

[DAYONE LEO TYLER]

The silence was nice, he hadn't had much silence in the few days, hell none in the past few minutes. So the silence was welcomed. He sighed as he dug his fingers into the cool earth, the only comfort he could have, it made him feel connected to everyone, to everything. From dust we came and to dust we will return, and the earth was the dust that everything was connected too. Maybe it was because of him just being a natural earthy, or it was just the thought that he could feel everything that once was. He didn't know, but he knew that whatever it was it gave him a sort of peace. Especially now, now when his last connection to his family was here in the earth (though not in this exact spot). He thought he could feel his parents, his Aunt and everyone he thought of though there wasn't. He watched Josh work, and was jealous and amazed at the way he used his powers, it seemed so easy, so effortless, he wanted to be able to do that. Maybe that was another thing that kept him from just drifting away from life and into the dark embrace of death. The want to be able to effortlessly able to use the power that he was gifted with.

It was a simple statement, and the answer he would give was simple and yet complicated. Simple in one word, simple in only three letters, and yet what it brought up was complicated, many people said this to other statements. We want to go to the moon. How. We want to fly like the birds. How. We want to make a vehicle. How. We want to have lights that don't use candles. How. That one word brought up so many complications and yet it was so necessary, "How?" Leo asked it seriously, wanting to know how, how to change it, how to make him fight back. Something that made him want to know, a question that he needed answered if he wanted to become the animal of his namesake and all that came with it.

Leo considered his words, unsure of how to respond. It was basic psychology, make something appear big and menacing and no one will fight against it. Simple, but when you were a toothless lion how could you seem intimidating. Not bare your teeth and yet still snarl? How could he do that? A lion without teeth is just a cat. It was something he didn't know how to do, or if it was even possible to do. How would he do it? How could he do it? There it was again that question, how. He didn't like to not know, not now how to do something. There was no book on this subject, or none that he had ever read. How could he work with what he had and somehow turn into a menacing creature that shouldn't be fucked with? And if he succeeded in that what if they found that it was just a mask, and it wasn't true. They would attack him worse, and worse. But then a gain, even a toothless lion is still a lion.

Leo looked down at the soil by his hand. He dug a small hole and then placed the back of his palm in it, letting the cool earth give relief to his hand. He breathed in, the scent of the scorched earth and trees still there, but it was fleeting, like everything it would eventually disappear. Nature would replace it, and so would whatever came after that. He would disappear, and so would Josh, and so would everyone else, only to be replaced by something new, would any of this really matter? Would anyone come here to this tree and say, Leo and Josh leaned against that tree. No, no one would remember them, or Leo at least. He was just a drop in the ocean of humanity, a single hair on a lion's mane. He was just a grain of sand in the shore of time. That was Leo, nothing important to anyone. "Teach me," he said quietly as he let soil fall from his hands, "Teach me how to defend myself," It was a decision he decided to make because this grain of single lion, wanted to show the world, he was no toothless house cat, but a lion with a lion's heart.

[JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE]

A lot of the differences between Leonard and Joshua had to do with a sense of self-worth. Leo was not confident, he saw himself as worthless and useless. He wanted to die, according to what he'd said, and he didn't think that the world was going to be any different without him in it. Joshua was much different than that. The Fire graduate was confident but he also had ambitions. He wanted to do something that he would be remembered for in the world, something that he could be proud of and that other people would know him for. Josh didn't want to necessarily change something in the world for the sake of being a better person but instead for the recognition it would bring. If he found a cure for something or else just became well-known in his field, that would be enough for him. He would have done himself proud. He had a reason to strive for the highest goals he could and that reason was confidence. It was something that Leo lacked and that Joshua really wasn't sure how to help him with. He couldn't just wave a magic wand and hand over some of his own self-worth to the Earth elemental. Why am I always stuck with this sort? he thought sarcastically. Nell didn't think highly of herself, either, but he was at least pretty sure she didn't want to die. He hoped not. That would be a hell of a burden to deal with.

He did not know immediately how to answer Leo when he asked him that simple question. How? How indeed. Joshua knew what had changed him and he acknowledged that but he was not going to share the dark parts of his past in order to reassure Leonard that this was possible. Josh was a selfish person. He didn't care that opening up about himself might have helped this situation, he was not going to do it that way because it was not a part of his personality. "The answer's different for everyone," he said vaguely. Not very helpful, he knew, but then again, was he trying to be helpful? No. Not exactly. He was just implying that change was possible, not that he was going to hold the hand of the boy and help him through it. If this had been Nell begging him to help her grow a spine and stand up for herself then he'd have reacted instantly. Of course, Joshua did not see Nell as a spineless coward. She's a pacifist. Coward was an insult. He didn't make a habit of insulting his girlfriend, no matter whether it was out loud or just in his own head like it was now.

The request surprised him. It showed not in his expression but in a very brief flicker of emotion in his gray eyes. It was so fast that it was probably unnoticeable to Leonard himself, especially since the boy did not know Joshua well. His expression remained neutral save for the fact that his frown deepened slightly. Though it might have appeared by this that Joshua was displeased in some way, the frown was just a sign of his thinking. He'd scowl at you if he were really upset and unlike most of his emotions, anger was usually very apparent. Joshua had anger problems and so hiding his rage when it started to bubble and boil was not as easy as concealing something like sadness or, in this case, shock. He wants to learn how to fight? It was not something he had expected from an Earth elemental. He'd actually been internally asking himself why he even bothered to try talking to Leonard about this considering his kind were not fighters by nature. Their leaders can fight, he mused. That was true. They usually picked the sort of elementals that would hold their own in a fight to lead. After all, no one wanted a weakling twig to represent their element, especially not when it came to times of war.

Now there was only one question left--would he be willing to do it? Joshua did not consider himself to be someone who taught things like that. He was surprisingly good at passing on skills and helping others learn to study but fighting had always been something he just did for survival. I fight because I have to, not because I want to. Then again, this was self defence. It was a different brand of fighting. He would be teaching Leo how to block a hit rather than dish one out. He wasn't sure how well this was going to work out, but... "Alright." It was a simple word and he offered nothing else but to raise an eyebrow and see how Leo reacted to this. Was he even serious? There was still that part of him that doubted Leo had really wanted to learn at all. Maybe he'd just been bluffing. I'll teach you, but only if you're willing to learn, he thought to himself. Finally he opened his mouth to speak again. "Self defence," he said. "That's what you want, right?" Offence wasn't usually the department of the Earth elementals and even though he preferred to be the violent one in a fight, he supposed he could accept that.