"Yeah, I get it. Don't be happy, don't be funny, don't do anything." This place was impossible to make friends in because no one wanted to be friends. Didn't the cops get this? How was he supposed to integrate when all anyone wanted to do is fuck him or beat him. "It's like highschool all over again except I don't get to go home at the end of the day, I'm just stuck here." Barry sighed and dropped his head in his hand. "They were just a little touchy."
"That's a bit bleak. I'm not that unhappy. Mick's usually happy as a clam. But we keep the jokes between us and other than that, we can take the guys that won't laugh." It was a simple matter of hierarchy, so highschool really wasn't that bad a comparison. "It's time to show what survival skills you have. Look at Axel and Hartley. They are more your type." Dweebs. "But they do well enough. In a manner of speaking."
"They do? Yesterday someone threatened to fuck Axel until he bled." And Barry valiantly stepped in to defend him and got himself hit. By Axel. Apparently jumping in to save him was a really dumb move and if Axel hadn't of hit him, someone bigger and stronger would have done way worse. "I was kind of hoping it'd be less deadly here, you know? Just do my time, get by, try not to piss anyone off. Everyone just seems kind of pre-pissed off and I don't know what to do. I tried to lay low, people still come at me, I tried to be nice and the same. I can't exactly pretend to be tough, I'm not and people know it."
"Well. Axel's always precarious." What else to say to that? Some guys just attracted it and ultimately Axel wasn't as good at playing the game as he thought he was. Kept falling in too deep with the wrong guys and then that got him set back, time and time again. He'd been here long enough to know the pattern by now. "Ideally what someone like you should do is find yourself some protection, even if it means selling your ass. That's how it goes."
Of course, Barry had lucked out, because Leonard had already offered him more protection than most ever got.
"I have to sell myself to someone?" That sounded gross as all hell. Barry pulled a face and gave Leonard a look, unsure what to say to that. Leonard had said he'd help him out so was this just advise and now he was on his own or did he have to sell himself to Leonard? After a few moments to debating what to do, Barry leaned over and dropped his voice to a quieter pitch. "Do I have to -- well, sell my ass to you? Is that what this is?"
"No." Leonard supposed he couldn't blame him for thinking like that though, even as he lightly hit his forehead with the book he was still holding. "Thanks for the offer, but that's not how I handle things. Or asses. But I'm giving you a heads up, because this is what people will think it is. That's how it usually worked, the way Axel can tell you all about, unless you have skills like Hartley does. He got out of just getting fucked all the time." He shrugged and looked at Barry. "Maybe you'll still show me that you can look after yourself, but for now they'll just all assume that your ass is mine.
"I have skills. Technically I'm a chemist." Which was what his little meeting was about today. Drugs. He needed to know more, see more so he offered himself up as someone who could make them. Not something he really wanted to do but if it kept him alive, it kept him alive. "I think I could do a lot worse. Getting you isn't so bad, you seem like a good guy." Yes, he had just said that about Leonard Snart. A man he previously believed to be nothing but a crook but here he was, just helping him out. Just because. "I'm not naive enough to think you might not have another motive but even so, I'm getting a better deal than most people in here."
"I'm not a good person. I just get bored. So I take on what Mick calls projects. It passes the time." He'd always done that, even outside this place. Leonard's mind was a lot smarter than he even thought himself and it constantly seemed to be underused, so it searched for new ways to occupy itself. But sometimes the projects did coincide with something a good guy would do. He balanced it out by frequently going about it in the worst way he could. "You're a chemist? Don't tell people that unless you want to deal with the consequences."
"Still, you can't be all that bad." Barry shrugged a little and then leaned forward, a playful smile on his face as he watched the other, unsure why being called good was something he'd want to deny. What was wrong with being a good guy? Even criminals had to respect that to a degree... right? "I already sort of told people. Kind of. Very minorly. More hinted than told. I'll lie and try to kill it dead." He had no idea why being a chemist sounded like such a bad idea but apparently it was.
"They'll want you to make them drugs. Doesn't matter if you can't or don't want to, that's how it goes. Everyone is after whatever reprieve they can get. That's what sells. Sex, drugs and beating others so you can feel better." Leonard didn't sound as if he was judging it per-se, mostly just stating facts. "Prostitution, rape, drug dealing, violence, that's what most of us are in for. Shouldn't be that shocking that that's what we keep doing."
"I'm not trying to do what I did on the outside, you know? Not that my heart was ever in it." Barry shrugged, it wasn't. He had to meet drug dealers on the street and buy from them so that people might recognise him in prison, it was part of his cover and he'd taken some, under control circumstances, just so he could bluff better when he was in here. He didn't like it much. He didn't get the appeal. "So what kind of thing are you in for? ... Can I ask that or is it rude?"
It seemed very difficult to believe that someone who thought these people wanted to cuddle him and who couldn't even talk to anyone without earning a punch actually had done anything criminal on the outside, but whatever. Stranger things had happened. So Leonard shrugged. "You probably shouldn't just ask anyone, but you're talking to me, so you get to ask. Thievery, robbery, cons. That's my game."
"I did a little bit of robbery. For money. I wasn't very good at it. I shut down the mains switch but they had a back up and one thing led to another and--" He'd been arrested breaking into a mansion, part of his cover and all, he didn't really try but it had been an interesting procedure to say the least. He clearly didn't have skills like Leonard Snart did. "Are you and Mick in for the same reason?"
"It's mostly a matter of experience. I started early." Leonard leaned back against the bookshelf and shook his head. "Not really, just partly. Mick hits a few boxes that I don't and vice versa. He only counts as accomplice for the heist we pulled, but he has battery and assault to add to that list, so we're even."
"You two sound like proper criminals. What do they call it? Career criminals? I guess this kind of thing is just a complication to you." Barry didn't get how anyone could live like this but apparently they could and it seemed pointless to argue with him other his own chosen lifestyle. "I was never very good at that. I don't have the sort of drive. Also I always feared this place, you know? Good deterrent."
"I'm a crook, yes. But I've also just been worse places than here." Like home. "Compared to that, this is vacation time. Besides, I usually don't stay all that long." Leonard was smirking, as if it was just a joke. Hey, he'd not admit to having an actual prison break plan to a near stranger, but he could definitely joke about it, everyone did. "But you're a good kid, Barry. Mick and I never finished high school and all I've ever done is be a crook."
"I'm not that good of a kid if I ended up here, am I?" Barry shrugged, not sure what else to say. Yes, he'd finished high school and college but that didn't make him any better or any smarter than Leonard. That was for certain. "I just hope when I get out of here, I have a chance to do better." And maybe he'll get out of here with some good info or they'd probably never get him out.
"You're definitely a good kid. Good kids end up here all the time. They just don't stay good. That's why you're my project. I'll just have to keep you from the wrong influences. Read a book instead." Leonard winked and opened his own book back up, finding where he'd left of.
"So you're going to keep me good? Away from drugs, whores and violence? Well, can't really protest." Barry laughed and got up, taking a book of his own from the shelf and doing exactly as he was told. He sat down and read the book. Like a good boy.
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Of course, Barry had lucked out, because Leonard had already offered him more protection than most ever got.
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