TW: Not intentional abuse but physical harm in a relationship
***
"Your arm's getting pretty marked up there, bud." Lea hummed from where he sat parallel to Virgil in the cafeteria, beside Tom.

The three had come to terms with the fact that they'd all have to get along. Lea had little to no problem tolerating Virgil and sometimes even enjoying his presence, and the same went for Virgil with Lea. However, it was Tom and Virgil that had issues with each other. They could hardly tolerate each other and it was a good day when they didn't scowl at the other.

"Yeah, it's every day that Roman's been gone." Virgil mumbled, poking at the "mashed potatoes" he had in front of him.

"Are you...going to eat those?" Lea questioned, quickly moving on from the subject.

"Yes, you can have them, Lea." Virgil pushed the entire tray, including his "milk", "vegetables", and wheat bread.

"Sweet." Lea grinned and took the tray, digging in.

"You're going to starve him." Tom rolled his eyes, pushing his tray away as he was finished, flipping his pudding cup over to Lea.

The pudding cup had been the only thing that Virgil had eaten.

"You're getting doughy as well." Tom poked Lea's side.

Lea looked at him, presumably glaring under his sunglasses, before turning back to his "food" and continuing to eat it.

"He's got a point though, those are a lot of marks- don't you think it's time to just...assume that maybe he didn't make i-" Tom choked as Lea slapped him in the arm calmly.

Virgil curled in on himself, growing paler than usual with a shake of his head, "H-He can't...he couldn't be..."

"You can always ask Bri- HEY!" Tom yelped as Lea hit him harder in the stomach.

"Brian?" Virgil looked up.

"He's not someone you want to collaborate with." Lea sniffed.

"Why not?"

"Being in his debt sucks." Lea finished his "food", pushing the tray aside.

"Lea's got history with him." Tom shrugged.

Lea took his sunglasses off his face to show a glare at Tom, "I have my own reasons for hating that guy," he looked at Virgil.

Virgil flinched, Lea's eyes meant business. They had a sense of untamed emotion that could strike out at any moment, it was terrifyingly mesmerizing.

"Don't mess with him, we're already-"

"So, you two mess with him, but I can't? What, am I too...soft? I can be-" Virgil defended himself.

"Please, it's not that, don't get so defensive." Lea flicked his sunglasses back over his eyes, "I wouldn't recommend that anyone get tangled up with Brian."

"Can he help me get Roman back?" Virgil looked at Tom.

"He-" Lea began but Virgil held a finger up for silence.

"Can he?"

"Tom." Lea gave a firm shake of his head.

Tom looked between Lea and Virgil.

"Tom." Virgil's voice was filled to the brim with desperation and helplessness.

Tom winced before rolling his eyes, "In theory"

It could only be assumed that Lea looked at bit more than shocked under his sunglasses at Tom going against his wishes.

"In theory?" Virgil inquired.

"Perhaps not get him back, so to say, but, rather, tell you his location or- ...well, lack-thereof." Tom shrugged.

"That's good enough for me." Virgil perked up, "Which one is he?" He began scanning the room for the bulkiest guy there.

"He's-" Tom began to point before he felt a firm hand grab his wrist.
He looked over to see Lea grasping it firmly, staring at the ground through his glasses.

"Tom." Lea's voice was menacing, just above a whisper.

"What's your damage?" Virgil rolled his eyes, "I just want-"

"If you ask him to help you with Roman, he'll get leverage. He'll use him against you, I promise you that." Tom continued staring at the ground.

"Lea- my wrist.." Tom winced at the pain present just above his hand.

"He'll use it against you." Tom kept a firm grip while addressing Virgil.

"How do you know that? A deal's a deal, he wouldn't want anything from me after-"

"Don't fuck with Brian." Tom's grip tightened.

"Lea!" Tom yelped.

"Quite frankly, I don't care, I need to make sure that Roman is okay." Virgil's eyes narrowed.

"And then what? Let Brian take him away to use agains you?" Lea chuckled.

"I'm getting Roman back, and just because you're too scared of this Brian guy, doesn't mean I'm going to sit idly by when Roman-!"

"Roman could be dead!" Lea shot at Virgil.

"Lea!" Tom slammed his wrist, Lea attached, to the table, his hands having gone white from lack of circulation.

Lea released upon the impact, splitting a gash in the side of his hand. He sat there, blood dripping from his hand, unmoving.

Tom pinched his nose before looking up to see that Virgil was now standing up.

"I'm...going to go back to our cell." Virgil's voice was breathy and quiet.

"Okay." Tom nodded, looking at Lea, "I'll...take care of this.."

Virgil nodded back before shuffling out of the cafeteria.

Tom watched him go before turning the Lea, "What the hell was that?" He threw his hands into the air, exasperated, wrist turning purple presently, barely visible outside of the cuff of his jumpsuit.

Lea didn't respond.

Tom sighed, "Hold on." He grabbed the napkins Virgil had left on his platter that he'd given to Lea, dipping half of them into his water that he himself had had, reaching for Lea's hand.

Lea didn't object, but didn't exactly seem awake either, near dead.

Tom knew he had numb spells like this. He held up Lea's hand and began dabbing it with the wet napkin, cleaning up the blood.

"You know, this didn't have to happen if you'd have just let him learn through screwing with Brian." Tom shook his head, wiping the rest of the blood up, it at a steady trickle now that wasn't as bothersome. He then grabbed for a wad of dry napkins and pressed them gently to the cleaned-up hand.

Lea continued to stay still.

"Silent then, alright, but just so you know, you can't go running off to our cell- Virgil's in there." Tom sighed, "And I doubt he'd particularly like to see you right now."

Tom continued to blot-up the blood.

"I'm not sure who's in the wrong right now but...don't do that next time- hell, make sure that there isn't a next time, and-" Tom was cut off when he felt Lea's hand close around his, softly.

This is when Tom took time to take the glasses off of Lea's face and saw on expression of complete fear. Upon this sight, Tom sat down.

Lea began to lean into Tom but Tom quickly scooted away a few inches, "Lea, we're out in the open- not here."

Lea simply nodded before sitting back, their hands held loosely under the table.

Tom offered a small smile to Lea, "Look, at some point you need to-"

"Tom!"

The voice rang from a few tables away.

Tom went pale, completely pale, "O-oh dear god." Tom's voice was meek.

It took all of Lea's energy to look at who was calling his boyf- boy, his boy's name, spotting an oddly fit, probably should be a jock, oddly seemed their age, and...quite dashing, actually- odd that someone like him would be in prison. Then Lea winced at the feeling of Tom's hand tightening against his cut one, but said nothing.

Tom scooted closer to Lea as the boy approached.

Lea groaned quietly, still in a "tired"-daze, but mustering enough movement to put a leg in front of Tom, this being as protective as he could be right now.
The problem with him getting such as this was...only the strong emotions remained. Those being his feelings for Tom, which could lead in a good or terrible way, depending on if the scarred boy was being prissy or not, and his feeling of discard for everything, which was an odd "feeling".

"Tom!" The boy sounded more than happy to see Tom.

Lea looked over at Tom to read his expression, seeing one of pure terror.

"Roman..?"

****
////yeah so, have fun with that
The Musical opens tonight so that's going to be a hoot
I'll try and update ASAP, 'till then
Take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals—
Happy Friday!!
-Jay❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Also I lovehate memory-loss plots but I love writing them so like...sorry in advance