Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
Warnings: AU, some OOC, slash/lemon, violence, profanity, gangs, references to drug usage, minor aspects of sexual assault and a progressive love story and prison romance between the two characters. There will also be flashbacks that will be somewhat violent and graphic.
This will revolve heavily around a prison environment. Please use your head, these types of places aren't all rainbows and sunshine.
This first chapter is merely setting up the story for our characters so there won't be anything too dark yet.
I hope you enjoy.
Human.
That word was extinct. Ever since his prison sentence almost five years ago, that word became meaningless. The only thing that ever truly remained human since then was the few inches buried underneath those sky blue tresses, inside his skull. It pissed him off to no end at the fact that these bastard prison officers, treated everybody confined to this maximum security hell hole – like mindless animals.
But after spending five years in the place already, that is what the blue haired man figured him and everyone else in this shit hole to ever be. They were criminals, the lowest of the low in this socially inapt society.
Scum.
But still, after those five agonizingly painful years of being watched like a hawk or stalked like a helpless woodland animal day after day. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques' pride still remained perpetually intact. He vowed to himself from the moment he was done for all those years ago – that he would not let the system break him. For better or for worse the day Grimmjow Jaegerjaques was granted his freedom from this hell, he would ultimately walk out as the same man was convicted as, a cold hearted, amoral and destructively apathetic person.
What the very system defined him to be.
A mindless animal.
It had nearly been four months. Four months since he took up the position at the Soul Society Correctional prison.
Despite his unenthusiastic and scowling demeanour, Doctor Ichigo Kurosaki felt as if this place was his calling. Ever since he was just a child, Ichigo Kurosaki had an endless need to protect.
Not just protect, save. Save anybody who needed him – Ichigo could always determine just by looking at someone's eyes whether they were in any type of pain or sadness. As the Soul Society's Warden Doctor, the orangette prison Doctor knew he had made the right choice. Despite what his friends said back home in Karakura – "Working in a prison is no place for anybody, especially like you Ichi." He recalled instantly, Ichigo aspired to do this because he felt a type of magnetism to this type of work.
In the first few months on the job at the prison, the Warden Officer – Kensei Muguruma, said that the key to success in this place was to not show any fear. Not just fear, but any type of 'weak' emotion that the inmates could feed off.
You had to make them fear you and even though he was just a Doctor, the criminals were still violent. Ichigo like all personnel were easily prone to them especially if he turned a blind eye.
Even though Ichigo had this ability to read emotions, he'd perfected a ruthless façade that showed no mercy amongst the prisoners. The minimal security classification was no deterrence from any inmate turning violent, the confines of this place could be maddening from what he had already learnt.
The orangette Doctor was trekking down the corridor after arriving early for his shift – his standard blue coat watch indicated that it was 10:47AM.
"Hey Doc, in early today?" A voice grumbled tiredly from behind, Ichigo stopped and glanced around his right shoulder to see who it was.
"Yeah, the new inmates are coming in soon." He replied to the question, recalling that Kensei informed all of the personnel last week about a few new transfers into the Soul Society. "You didn't happen to forget did you?"
"Nah I'm just tired, finishing late today. My shift's got a bit messed up due to the new piss ants arrivin' soon." Renji responded sluggishly, his eyes and voice lidded with traces of sleep.
Renji Abarai was one of the first people Ichigo warmed up to in this place and one of the main reasons he got along with the guy so well, was because of his vibrant crimson like red hair and dark tribal tattoos. Like the Doctor's hair, Renji's had the uncanny ability to also stand out in a crowd.
Renji was 27 years old and had been a guard here for almost four years. He knew the ins and outs of the prison from the back of his hand.
The tattooed man was a rough and tough guy in here, the orangette Doctor often noticed he was crude towards most of the inmates. That was the only thing Ichigo disliked about him, but due to his dynamic personality and often playful banter they shared at times – he mostly got along quite well with the red haired giant.
"S'been a dead long morning Ichi" Renji said with a yawn, stretching his arms upwards. Tension could always run high in this place especially since the inmates could become rowdy at any time.
To work in a prison meant you had to adjust your entire body clock as a prison guard, it was shift work at its finest. Being one of only two doctors at the Soul Society, along with Doctor Retsu Unohana – both Ichigo and her were on call if needed all hours of the day, every day. Ichigo considered his position tough work, but enjoyed the challenge it bought.
"Well I can't stay and chat for much longer Ren." Ichigo said facing back towards the corridor, he glanced down the almost dimly lit walkway. "I got a lot to do today and Kensei's been on my ass about these new inmates for almost a week now and I really need to get this stuff sorted. Cya!"
Walking off into the corridor, Renji's voice picked up behind him. "Yeah, sure. I guess we'll talk soon Ichi!" he said glumly from behind, Ichigo guessed it was because the tattooed prison office wasn't getting much of a chat out of him.
The rustic surfaces of the cement corridors echoed his foot steps as Ichigo headed towards the stairs that lead to up the Doctor's station, located on the second level of the compound. The prison itself was separated into various sections and broken up into two buildings.
In the main building, the ground floor was the mess hall of sorts. It was where the prisoners came to eat in the canteen, and on the far end of the floor were sets of stairs connecting to the upper level of the ground floor. The cells were located here. Further down from the cells were the shower rooms, the main building was a rather large considering it was a refurbished war prison from World War II. The second floor was the Guard's and Doctor's station and this is where Ichigo worked from; connected at the entrance of the main building, the Doctor's station backed onto the Guard's station and the orangette was walking there now.
Isolation was located above this on the third floor.
The second building was relatively new. Being located in front of the prison itself, both the Administration and Warden's floor were separated due to the Soul Society's security classification. The ground floor held the administration offices into the Soul Society, a gateway to the prison. Above that was the Warden's floor, this was where the Warden Officer Kensei – usually worked from.
The court yards were to the left of this, various guards were often stationed from 12:00PM to 4:00PM during prisoner release.
Ichigo made his way up the cobbled stairwell towards the Doctor's station. Being the only Doctor left on shift for the rest of the week, he unlocked the familiar white door. A sterile sanitary scent assaulted the orangette's senses.
White walls lit up when Ichigo turned the lights on, bringing the station to life. He had somewhat of a long day ahead of him due to the new transfers coming in and he hadn't found the time to fully preview their files yet. However Ichigo knew that there was a good four or so people being sent in from various prisons around the region.
This meant that the Doctor had to prepare for their admission check-ups, blood tests, urine samples.
The works.
It could often be a lengthy process and depended on the cooperation of the inmates. Kensei usually had a guard or two stationed in or outside the room depending on the prisoner's behaviour. This protection gave Ichigo some reassurance while he did the testing. It wasn't as if he couldn't defend himself though, it was just easier to let the prison officers deal with it if things became explosive.
With a sigh, Ichigo snaked his hand through his orange locks and shook them from side to side.
"Better get started then."
Doctor Kurosaki had been preparing for the inmate's arrival for some time now, his blue coat watch had just rolled over to 12:30PM. Ichigo's stomach was growling in a painful hunger and there was no time to eat since his short lived breakfast at 8:00AM, earlier this morning.
After taking nearly two hours to assemble syringes, specimen jars, cloths, trays and sanitizers. The Doctor had promptly finished the set up for the inmate's arrival in one hour's time.
Another hungered rumble sounded from his stomach. "Shit, probably working without lunch again." He said in a low defeated tone of voice, a rasp knock sounded from the door. Looking up, Ichigo began to pace his way over.
The knock became increasingly louder – the person on the other end was being impatient. "Kurosaki, open the hell up."
With a shove on the door handle, he swung it back towards himself. The Doctor took note of the large muscular male in front of him, silvery white hair gelled and messed up into an unruly amount of spikes.
"What do you want Kensei?" He asked.
"Just stopped by to remind ya that the inmates will probably be here in a short while. You taken the time to actually set up yet?" The Warden spoke in that underlying gruff baritone.
This would probably be the third or fourth time that Ichigo had mentally counted Kensei being on his case about it. The man always took his work seriously and was never one to actually be taken as a fool when it came to the fundamentals of the prison. Renji had told Ichigo that the Kensei was a former military drill sergeant back in his day. The white haired prison warden was always straight to the point, Ichigo admired this man for those reasons.
"Yeah first thing I did when I actually got up here. Don't worry, we're almost good to go." Ichigo said reassuringly, he didn't want to go through another lecture from Kensei again. The orangette figured he'd been working here long enough to understand the procedures of the place, Doctor Unohana was a very helpful tutor.
Ichigo noticed the larger man before him quickly scan around the Doctor's station with those hawkish brown eyes, they flashed side to side.
"Right! Have ya taken the time to actually look over the files yet? We've got some rough one's coming in, an ex gang lord and a man convicted of aggravated sexual assault. Both of them have been transferred here due to the conditions of their sentencing, ya think you're gonna be okay?"
If it was one thing, the man was always mindful of his personnel working under him at the prison. It made the place somewhat safer when Ichigo knew the higher ups were actually looking out for everyone.
Including the inmates at times.
With a nod and a low key yes, Kensei thanked Ichigo and walked off. 'Better get a move on with those records then.'
Closing the door behind him, the Doctor walked over to the desk propped in the corner. The station wasn't relatively big and the room itself was cubic with a bathroom connected through a doorway on the left wall. The room was also separated by a curtain divider in which the bed rests and testing area was located. Other than that, there were drawers and shelves poised all around the room holding various medical paraphernalia and work implements.
All shelves and cupboards were locked by a key for extra precaution.
Moving over to the desk, Ichigo sifted through the various sheets of paper until he came across the folder labelled 'transferees'. Opening it up, the first thing that caught his attention were the names of some of the arrivals.
"Vega Ggio, Ogichi Shirosaki and Jaegerjaques Grimmjow." He read out, mentally concluding that all but one of these names were obviously foreign and not to mention quite a mouthful to think about, let alone to say.
"Vega, Ggio. Aged 24, charged for armed robbery and assault." He continued reading aloud, it was nothing too dire – a common occurrence amongst most of the inmates in the Soul Society prison.
However, the criminal record of the next man caught his eye. "Ogichi, Shirosaki." The orange haired Doctor said with a shuddering chill to the name. Ichigo took note of the man's pale complexion in the photo provided; demonic black sclera and piercing golden eyes with a marble white figure and snow dyed hair. The man, despite him being albino – looked like a true night terror, something you'd find in a childhood nightmare. The orangette stopped and thought for a second, this name sounded familiar.
"Ogichi, Shirosaki. Aged 29, was charged for aggravated sexual assault against a female victim five years ago. Shirosaki, commonly referred to as Shiro – is serving a six year sentence for his conviction and due to the conditions of his sentencing and is being moved to minimal security prison as a result of the 'good behaviour bond' assigned during the sentencing procedure."
Ichigo's head shot up to the window at the other end of the room. He knew of this man, Shirosaki, he was charged for rape when Ichigo was in his second year of medical studies. The man claimed he was set up on the news, no one believed him due to his mundane record of being violent.
'Seems like this man is the monster everybody claimed him to be…' He said to himself in deep thought, scanning over the rest of the file including his medical details. The Doctor turned the page over.
"Jaegerjaques – Grimmjow." Ichigo read out from the file again, the name combined with the picture to the right held more of a deafening weight over him. More so than any other prisoner he'd ever been in contact with.
Sharp facial features, leering sapphire eyes and an unremorseful grin, he looked about 23 or 24 at the time of when the photo was actually taken. If a picture could tell a thousand words, it was quite clear in that moment that Ichigo truly recognized the danger this man could posses.
His eyes followed along the typed writing. "Jaegerjaques – Grimmjow, ex Espada gang-lord, currently aged 28. Up until the second year of his sentence, Grimmjow Jaegerjaques was one of the most violent and volatile criminals within custody. The man being the Sexta Espada of wanted criminal Sosuke Aizen's crime organization – was previously charged for offences such as: Violent assault, drug offences, battery, homicide, obstruction of justice, pyrotechnics and organized crime. It was rumoured that this man had also murdered various people in cold blood due to the nature of the gang 'the Hollows'."
Ichigo stopped and contemplated for a moment. 'This man, dubbed to be the most violent gang criminal was being moved from his maximum security prison into a low key prison? Soul Society of all places?'
"Upon arrest, Grimmjow pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of his crime. Despite having a murder conviction against his name, no actual evidence was substantially presented to convict him otherwise. Grimmjow was sentenced to six years imprisonment for these offences and was awarded conditional parole if the man could agree to the terms of rehabilitation and counselling within prison. Grimmjow was to spend the second last year of his conviction in a low key prison before the conditions of parole were awarded." Ichigo read, feeling partially informed of the criminal Grimmjow.
The orangette Doctor for the most part, was overshadowed. 'A man this dangerous was being transferred due to being guilty on charge? It seems a little corrupt for what he was accused of.'
Continuing down the file, Ichigo took note of the blue haired criminal's medical history.
"During the first year of imprisonment, Grimmjow was rehabilitated for a cocaine addiction. The man hasn't suffered any previous terminal affects of the drug, however went into physical and emotional withdrawals for some time. The man has been in varying conditions of health due to the first few years of rough prison housing – however the prisoner is currently on a clean bill of health."
The orange haired Doctor sighed again. 'At least this makes things a little easier to work with.' He concluded positively.
The two prisoners; 'Shiro' and 'Grimmjow' – seemed dangerous. From just their profiles, both of them seemed animalistic and ruthless. It distilled a sense of instinctual worry inside of Ichigo. He'd never truly feared a person before, but the current thought of these two men sent deathly chills rippling throughout his body.
It seemed as if he was going to have a particularly interesting day ahead of him.
The first prisoner, Ggio, was somewhat difficult, Renji said the man hadn't spoken to anyone upon his arrival. Motioning him from the seat near Renji, Ichigo noticed the man to be somewhat aggressive in a silent way. He refused to speak to anyone, so the orange haired Doctor was somewhat confused as to whether he should approach the man with a needle to draw his blood– in fear he could become enraged.
"Ggio." Ichigo said somewhat brokenly, the prisoner continued to stare at the floor – shifting nervously on the seat. "I am going to take your blood now, could you please hold out your arm?"
The man responded very badly to that, chucking a fit and firing profanities off at Ichigo. "At least he's finally talking." Renji boomed from behind, pulling past the curtain divider to restrain the violently tempered man. It wasn't unusual for a guard to hold a criminal down if they started an uproar, with Renji's strength and the man's smaller form – the red head had no trouble restraining him at all.
It took another thirty minutes to actually calm the prisoner down enough to proceed onto further testing. After forceful kicks, thrashes and struggling – Ggio gave up his loosing battle.
Sending him out with an officer escort, Renji began to coax his orange haired friend. "Seem a little stressed Ichi, not having too much trouble are ya?"
After that performance, Ichigo wasn't in the mood for any more shit especially when it came from Renji. It was stressful enough dealing with some inmates, then to have the tattooed dick goad him.
"Fuck off, you try taking blood from a patient who is thrashing around. Send in the next one." Ichigo demanded harshly.
"Yeah, whatever." He smiled. "The next one looks like hell by the way, already hate 'im"
After Renji walked off closing the divider behind him, Ichigo observed a leaner more slender silhouette walking towards him. The curtain made a rattle as it was swung to the side by a pale arm.
"Well, what do we have 'ere?" A voice protruded almost demoniacally. It sent ice prickling shivers down Ichigo's spine, he knew this to be the rapist 'Shiro'. Gazing upwards, the orangette Doctor took in the man's deathly complex. In person, Shirosaki Ogichi did truly look like hell – the man radiated a dangerous aura, like he would cut loose at any second.
"Name's Doctor Kurosaki. Take a seat please." Ichigo said with a sense of caution in his tone.
"Aw, loosen up Doc. Seems like yer a lil' angsty from the guy before. I promise ta be on my best behaviour. " The pale criminal said almost excitedly, he probably got a kick out of the struggle.
Some of these men were simply inhuman. At first glance though, the man seemed artificially savage. Ichigo tried to pay half a mind to his crippling form.
"Alright, we're going to start with a blood test." He said, pulling a clean syringe from the drawer praying to God that Shiro would stick to his word and co-operate. The pale man outstretched his right arm, turning it over so Ichigo could get a better angle at his vein. Grabbing the leather strap, Ichigo wrapped it around the joint between his arm and elbow, bulging the vein out for easier access.
"I'll try to make it painless alright?" He reassured the inmate.
"Sure, I believe ya." The man said, piercing gold eyes and wide grin bore into Ichigo's thoughts. He shuddered a little, the man was even more disconcerting up close. "Though I might have ta hurt ya back if ya lie to me."
Ichigo's stifled his movements, the man looked completely serious. Shaking off the current feeling of anxiety, Shiro's grin widened.
The Doctor couldn't make heads of tails of this, so he proceeded in caution of the man's words – trying to make it as painless as possible.
Moving the needle down onto the man's vein, the albino flinched a bit. Ichigo pushed in as gently with caution Drawing the rustic liquid with ease, he extracted the needle and set it down on the tray. "Looks like I won' have ta punish ya at all, nice work Doc!"
Ichigo was left relieved yet, still a little off balance from the albino prisoner's words. So much for not letting the prisoner's get to him.
With a sharp intake of breathe, the orange haired doctor began handing the specimen jar to the albino. "Take this in there, I'm sure you know what to do." He ordered with a simple gesture to the bathroom.
"What, you wan' me to jack off in it or somethin'?" The albino question with a serious look on his face – Ichigo was taken aback at the pale man's lack of shame.
Exhaling an agitated sigh, Ichigo began to call for Renji. Cut off by the albino man shooting up and stalking over to the bathroom – he coaxed from the doorway. "N'aw, don't worry. Just messin' with ya, you're an easy Doc to wind up ya know?" His voice rang childishly, drowning out to the slight slam of the bathroom door.
Ichigo stopped in reflection, waiting for the man to finish his business. He was a convicted criminal and death defiantly heart stopping, in a very negative way. He couldn't afford to let these overwhelming feelings get to him. It was the first time after all the he'd truly ever treated a criminal of this calibre.
After the pale man Shiro was whisked off by the prisoner guard escort, he had one patient left. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques.
Looking over the man's file again, the orange haired Doctor didn't quite know what to expect. The man was coined highly dangerous and violent, those eyes from the picture he was provided with seemed distant, cold and clouded. It extracted a lot of fear from Ichigo.
He was called for by Renji. The man's shadow was quite large, the record didn't indicate his height, if the Doctor was to make a guess from the silhouette he could see – Grimmjow was probably 6'3" or 6'4" tall.
Massive for a regular guy.
A pastel tanned hand pulled back the curtain divider, Renji had warned him few hours earlier about this particular inmate. According to what Kensei had said, he could be highly aggressive if his buttons were pushed, snapping out of control at anybody – Ichigo definitely didn't want any trouble or violence.
He began to take note of the prisoner's features; the man was wearing a worn black tank top, exposing large tanned biceps, broad shoulders and a tall figure. Ichigo felt quite intimidated, especially by those imprisoning deep sapphire blue orbs and sky blue hair. He wore torn grey slacks and tattered shoes that looked like they'd gone through hell and back, twice.
At this point, the orange haired Doctor felt a sense of true fear. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques would definitely hold a candle to the old saying if 'looks could kill'. His entire form was ungodly animalistic.
The blue haired inmate walked towards the chair a few centimetres in front of him, with a sense of pride the prisoner coasted downwards. Ichigo got the feeling this man felt no true remorse.
With a sigh and half assed attempt to negate the obvious fear in his emotions, Ichigo decided to get this show on the road – it was already 3:00PM. This was taking much longer than he originally planned.
The atmosphere between the criminal and doctor was filled with a foreboding sense of faint-heartedness.
"Name's Doctor Kurosaki, how are you?" Ichigo tried to break the ice.
The blunette inmate slowly made eye contact with orangette doctor who was leaning over a steel stray. He felt his entire body tremble from the man's predatory movements . It was one thing to read up on a criminal, but to stand in the very room of a highly dangerous one with leering frigid eyes stirred deep feelings of anxiety from Ichigo.
"Name's Grimmjow fucking Jaegerjaques." He said with a petrifying deep voice, flashing a callous smirk. The orange haired Doctor was completely frozen in primordial fear. Ichigo felt the atmosphere darken around him.
"I'm gonna give it to ya straight Doc. Hurt me and I will break every bone in your fuckin' body." He threatened with an animalistic temperament, the man seemed true enough to his word.
This is another long running idea I've had for awhile. A prison romance is one thing I haven't ever read on this site, review and tell me what you think!
I hope you enjoyed.
