Before you start reading, here's a little notice. Anything in Italics while speaking is being spoken in Russian.

It was six am approximately as the sun slowly peeked through the small barred windows of the Draught City Jail. Cell blocks 1, 2, and 3 all were slowly feeling the heat blocked by the heavy cement walls slowly seep in. Very few inmates inside actually felt the heat of the sun, but instead felt the cold floor or cold metal of their beds. One unfortunate soul would not feel the heat of day when the wardens and guards came through on their pre-wake up rounds.

Currently, there are 1,322 inmates booked into the Draught City Jail or Draught City's Co-Ed Convicted Circus as some called it, all with sentences up to ten years. Some are only there for a few weeks, some have been rumored to spend their lives here in the dusty, dirty cells, but the stories are always the same. Most are here for sentences of murder, manslaughter, domestic violence, arson, or conspiracy for any of the before mentioned sentences. So far, the average stay here in Draught was three years, and that was if you're lucky. The guards and staff are cruel and selfish, and treated them like the scum they were put out as. Some were relatively nice, giving a break or chance here or there. The jobs for inmates still sucked big hairy balls, but it was alright. Most of the men said the nurses were nice. The food wasn't half bad, but they lived in an area where taste buds were near extinct.

The Jail also held two reputations. One was that they had the most framed or falsely convicted people. Many who were framed or wrongly convicted were out in two weeks' time, though some were left to rot. It all depended if you were lucky enough to get noticed. The other one…

The jail has not had one successful escape attempt yet. Every single person or group that has tried has been caught and put into solitary confinement and straightened out until they almost didn't remember their age. So far, there have been forty-five attempts; all failures.

Natalya slowly woke up when a tight beam of sunlight wavered over her right eye, blinding her for a few seconds as she moved out of the way of it. She groaned as she sat up, minding the bunk above her. She hated it when natural causes woke her up early before roll call. That meant she had to stay in the shadows. It also meant she had a bit of time to think before her cage mate and the others woke up. She wet her dried lips and scooted out of bed, tugging her bunched up standard issue orange shirt down. She stretched her limbs out a bit, biting her lip to keep herself silent. She didn't need to be all wound up before the fun began again. Before she sat against the other wall, she picked at the scar on her chest a bit, picking away some of the puss hardened over the scab. She would have to get it looked at again.

"Day 610 of my sentence" Natalya whispered to herself, tapping her fingers soundlessly on the wall. She knew her way around this place, and knew what made noise and what didn't. She even knew when not to eat all her food because she just knew that one of the cooks or lunch ladies did something to their food once in a while. She had the place mapped out. She was planning, and making sure she had all exits entered into her equation. She even had her partner now tied into it.

She was planning to escape.

She knew it was all too risky trying to, but she was wasting away in here. She lived in dingy old places, yes, but a jail cell isn't exactly a comfy setting. She missed her family, and her step-brother. She missed her friends. She guessed her partner did too, but he was all too carefree to tell.

"Natalya?"

"Roderich, down here. Be quiet, roll call hasn't been announced." She responded softly in Russian. Roderich silently set himself on the first level of the cell and sat near her on the spare bed they had in the cell.

Roderich joined her after his first thirty days here in jail. He stood almost no chance, and he was facing a four year sentence for a crime he did not commit. Yes, he was a poor soul that showed up at the wrong time and framed for all he was worth. He was left to rot though. He put a claim in with the head warden for being falsely accused, but he was damned to stay. Natalya found some sort of pity for the aristocratic punching bag, so she offered him her plan. He obviously agreed and joined her. She never expected to make friends with him, but they seemed to work together.

"Why the hell are you awake so early?" he sharply whispered back.

He also learned Russian for both of their sakes because no one knew what they were saying 99% of the time.

"Stupid sun woke me up…."

"Understandable. How long?"

"610 for me. 423 for you I think"

"Sounds about right"

The two of them sat in silence for a bit, hearing a few of the inmates moan out of their dreams as they slowly awoke. Natalya looked through the bars of the cell and across the hall. The empty cell across from them still looked too dark to be filled. She really wished it wouldn't be vacant any longer.

"Mei still hasn't shown?" Roderich asked, noticing where Natalya was looking. That was a good point for him: knowing where she looked.

"No. It's been almost twenty days since she was taken into solitary confinement. I hope they didn't snap her"

They dropped back into comfortable silence again. The sun slowly rose higher and higher. The doors to the inside of the facility opened somewhere in the background, and Natalya and Roderich were on their feet. An alarm rang out sharp in the air, and some inmates argued with the wakeup call suddenly barraging their ears.

"Wake up call, dogs! Come and say hello to our new cage mate!"

Their guard most of the time, Tony, pressed a button and let the cell doors open, and slowly inmate after inmate dragged themselves out of their beds and dreams and stood in front of their doors. They all pulled their sleeves up and let their bar codes show themselves. Each inmate was marked by a personal bar code number. It let the staff keep track of the inmates and keep escape attempts on the high ground. Tony slowly came down the hallway, leaving his so called new 'dog' back in the doorway. He scanned over each inmate with a scowl, right up until he reached Natalya and Roderich. Suddenly a smile crossed his face. Both inmates suppressed shivers.

"Good morning, Nat and Rod. Sleep well?"

"Yes sir" Natalya droned as she lifted her wrist to the scanner in Tony's hands. Roderich did the same. They were always called Nat and Rod. It was their names to everyone. No one ever called them Natalya or Roderich besides the two of them to each other. Tony's smirk grew larger.

"Well I have some news on ol' Mei over there. She'll be coming home soon. Apparently, she's wised up on stealing meals and grabbing guns from the guards. She'll be home by tonight"

"Mhmh.." both of them grumbled. Natalya was silently glad the girl pulled through and didn't snap under the pressure.

"And…our new family member will be bunking in with you"

That got their attentions. As they started to protest against the new addition, Tony waved them silent and whistled for the man in the doorway. He moved slowly out of the shadows the walls seemed to make and revealed himself to his new home of Cell Block 3. He was tall, taller than Tony and the man was tall by many standards. He wore the same standard orange jail suit like everyone else. Blond hair all slicked back and rather lukewarm blue eyes. If Natalya and Roderich were looking right, they would look better a little colder.

"I'm really getting sick of the color orange. Why can't we do purple?" Roderich mumbled, narrowing his eyes and pressing his glasses closer to his face.

"Get used to it already. You've been in the color for more than a year now. Better to look like a fruit then a flower in this place"

"Purple is a color of a fruit" Roderich deadpanned. Tony shrugged, not really caring.

"He's huge…." One of the faceless female inmates whispered as the blond newbie walked by her.

"Looks like he could crush you with a flick of his wrist" another whispered. He snickered a minute later however.

"Shut up! Nat, Rod, meet Ludwig. Just got booked this morning. Reaaaally early this morning, I tell you. Charged with three counts of domestic violence and one count for attempted murder, he's rather…unpredictable. Luddy, meet Nat and Rod. They'll be the only people you'll probably be talking to for the next eight years"

Ludwig looked over to Tony for a moment, and the guard unlocked the cuffs on his hands. Roderich and Natalya sized Ludwig up for a moment. Natalya had to admit, something about him seemed good for her. Maybe it was the size or something, but he was okay in her book by the looks and size alone. However, he was rather…docile for someone with the charges put on him.

"Soo…..I'll let you three talk it out. The rest of you, to the mess! Breakfast and or chores await you!"

Tony slowly herded the other inmates out and toward the mess hall and left the trio to get settled in a bit. Roderich was almost sneering at the large man for a bit until Natalya seemed to break the thinning ice between them.

"So…..you're rather silent for being accused of domestic violence"

"You're rather silent for being charged with two counts of attempted manslaughter and conspiracy to murder" Ludwig shot back.

"Touché, big man. Tony tell you 'bout us, or did you get records?"

"They were going to show me records, though the girl getting them claimed they were sealed in black ink"

"Hah! So you're not trusted with anything. Just perfect" Roderich groaned, pushing his way past and walking away.

"Roddy!" Natalya cried out. Roderich gave her the finger and continued walking.

"I'm not missing breakfast Nat. I'm also not going to get comfy with a UTCA. You can do that"

As soon as Roderich disappeared around the corner and left, Ludwig let out his breath.

"Well he's…..excited about me" Natalya gave him a sideways glance and motioned him to follow her. Both of them walked calmly down the hall.

"Give Rod some time, he'll warm up to you. He did to me"

"What's UTCA stand for?"

"Untrusted Criminal Asshole. You have a lot to learn, newbie. This place will chew you up and then kick your ass until you're grey matter. Since you'll be staying with us in B3, I guess I'll be helping you get nice and comfy into the family. Just for the record, try anything on me and I'll castrate you"

"No worries there anyway"

Natalya looked weirdly at him for a moment and stopped him. Ludwig kept a calm eye on the jailbird, though something in him told him he wasn't going to like what she was going to say next.

"You bent?" Ludwig flinched a bit at the use of her blunt words but collected himself easily.

"Got a problem with it?"

Natalya smirked. "Not at all, just be careful how loose your tongue is and how trusting you are of others. They'll do worse things to you if they find out you're gay. Well, Roderich has kept his butt safe here literally so I think you'll survive"

They continued walking down the long hallway, and finally passed Cell Block 2. Some of more deranged inmates were housed there, and they shouted at them as they passed.

"Roderich's….'bent' too?" Ludwig would take a while to get used to the jail's slang. Natalya smiled at the man's progress. He was a quick learner. That could just save his life here.

"Indeed. So….you framed or true?"

Ludwig easily understood that one. "Framed. Completely framed. Some a-hole on the police force did something to my family and was somehow able to bring up evidence that tied me to the torture they went through. I found them actually after the guy got away and the police were arriving. Never gave me a chance in explaining even though I told them my side of the story"

"Wrong place, wrong time…."

"Finally…..someone understands"

"It's understandable. Me and Roddy are the same. We were framed and tossed in here. This place will sometimes let you out if you're framed, though we were left to rot even though we were obviously framed. Must be bad to be automatically barred out of being able to claim fraud. Eight years though…..that's rough. Police with evidence…..no way to get out"

"How long are you here?" Ludwig asked, picking at the hem of his jail shirt.

"Same as you, eight long stupid years. Almost served two years of it so far. Roderich's served a little over one year of his four year sentence"

"Hm…..anything else I should know before we get to the mess hall?" Ludwig asked, honestly worried. Natalya laughed and pushed open the double doors to her side. Loud laughter and shouting found them quickly.

"Yes but for now…..Welcome to Draught City's Co-Ed Convicted Circus"

The duo walked in to the chaotic scene of the mess hall. Inmates of all sizes, shapes, and genders roamed and walked around. Some hefted around their trays of what Natalya always assumed was 'food', some threw it and those who did were put to cleaning or kitchen duty. Currently, if Natalya was keeping tabs on how many of these people were wearing neon green bracelets, Cell Block 1 and 3 were in here right now. Risky, but it was better than being with Cell Block 2, or worse by themselves. Almost everyone in her block had bad blood with someone else in there.

"Come on, newbie. Welcome to Mess 101, and listen carefully, I won't repeat it. I may give pointers ever so often, but no repeats. You'll usually be woken up at approximately six thirty every morning excluding Sundays. You'll be put into here and told to behave. There are guards posted in here, so be careful"

"Alright"

They slowly made their way through the activity-filled room. Natalya saved Ludwig quickly from a high-flying pile of cold, mashed hash browns flung by someone who disregarded the rules and then pointed their way to the start of the line. Ludwig grabbed a tray and handed one to Natalya.

"Thanks. Alright, food wise. There is a lot to know, but it's mostly on watching the servers and the cooks. Looks like Bob's cooking the majority of it, so today we're clear for the usual cold, scrambled hash brown and over peppered eggs. Don't go for the milk, Todd is up for serving drinks. He likes to put surprise prizes in the milk"

"That's gross…..and unsanitary"

"So are the breakfast weenies. Don't touch them" Natalya warned as she drew away Ludwig's hand from the vat of breakfast sausages. She saw Eddie back there, so she knew he would slip gum wrappers and chewed gum into them. She tugged him along and both asked for orange juice when asked. It wasn't really orange juice, but more just a lot of pulp and a little warm juice. Natalya quickly moved them along before Todd could slip a bottle cap candy into Ludwig's drink.

"How the hell does this count as food?" Ludwig asked, looking at the food. His eggs looked more grey then yellow.

"We're in jail, not a hotel. Well…..we're not in Latvia, so be happy"

Natalya though froze as they started to look around for a spot. Ludwig nearly ran into her but kept his food and drink balanced without spilling anything.

"You alright?"

"Mei's over with Rod. Come on!"

Mei noticed Natalya run over before Roderich noticed Ludwig following Nat. Mei stood up and high fived Nat as she sat down.

"Mei, you survived? Colors?"

"Grey and Pink"

"Gross" Natalya groaned, sticking her tongue out. There was no way they could snap her with grey, much less pink. "Oh, we got a new member. Ludwig, this is Xiao Mei, she's in the cell 'cross from us"

"Hello Ludwig" Mei greeted, shaking Ludwig's outstretched hand. Ludwig took a seat next to Natalya and picked up his plastic fork.

"Hallo"

"You speak German?" Roderich asked sharply, stabbing his hash browns with a fork. Ludwig nodded quickly and dug into his hash browns.

"Juuuust perfect, just brilliant" Roderich mumbled. Ludwig turned his confused looked to Natalya. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and swallowed her mouthful of food.

"We both know Russian, for security sake. He knows German too. Mei knows Taiwanese and Chinese, including Mandarin, even a bit of Japanese. I know a bit of Chinese and German thanks to them both"

"That's sounds oddly normal for here" Ludwig said, poking at his eggs and forking them into his mouth.

"It is at least for us" Mei commented. "What do you know?"

"Besides German?"

"Yep" Natalya added, keeping a hold of her glass as a rushing inmate stormed by her.

"Italian and a little bit of Japanese and French"

"That's sooo interesting" Roderich enthusiastically said, waving his hands in mock shock. Natalya waved a hand his way.

"Look Roderich, get used to it, he's staying with us. Sorry for him, Ludwig. He's currently in 'stick up my ass mode'!"

"It's alright. I've had my share of people like him before" Ludwig said between bites of his eggs. Mei giggled and pawed at the air near him.

"You're doing good so far! Plus you know Italian and a bit of Japanese, that's awesome!" Mei cheered.

"He's still a newbie but he'll survive his first day I think. Already intimidating a few people to boot" Natalya said, gulping down her small cup of mini, squishy strawberries.

"So Ludwig…." Roderich put in, setting his glass of juice down. "How's our Circus to you so far?"

The three of his soon friends leaned in to hear his answer. Natalya knew it was a trick question, and the answer always changed and varied. Most of the time, they answered it like something simple. If they answered it funny or not literally, the person was set.

Ludwig thought for a moment. "Well….I'm not dead yet and haven't seen anything from TV happen in here besides sabotaging the food so….."

"Stop there Ludwig" Natalya pressed, grabbing his arm. "No more"

"The guy has what he needs" Mei commented. Natalya smirked, and quickly Ludwig smirked back at her.

"You're now an official member of the Draught City's Co-Ed Convicted Circus, Cell Block 3. We welcome you with this" Natalya announced, raising her glass. Mei and Roderich followed suit.

The three of them leaned over Ludwig and poured what was left of their drinks over his head. Although he wasn't exactly happy with the fact that now his bangs were loose and that he smelled of slightly fermented oranges, he laughed anyway with them. If he was going to be in this hellhole for eight wrongly given year, he might as well have some security in what few friends he would get.

Just a short little story to try and take away my writer's block away. It'll be less then five chapters, but enjoy it while it's still going.