COLD INTERFACE

Prologue

Habrinnia was the worst place possible to live in Japan, a country once led with some type of order. Now a completely anarchical, destroyed, and crime-filled country, those who lived amongst the disease-ridden and god-forsaken streets fended for themselves. Families were a rarity. If a person wasn't alone, they were either with one (sometimes even two) sibling or cousin. Of course, everyone knew that even if Japan had no form of government, The Factory held the most power. It was run by Gin Ichimaru, a conniving and sneaky middle-aged man. It had many workers and slaves, who were treated poorly and as if they were lower than the dirt they walked on.

Aside from protecting oneself from everyone around, one had to watch out for people from The Factory (no one even knew it's real name – it had always been referred to as 'the factory' and thus its foolish nickname was born). For there were recruiters. But they didn't go around asking for people to join. They took them by force. They captured people who seemed weak enough to be captured but strong enough to work in an environment such as The Factory.

The world was in ruins, and no one was quite sure how it got that way. It didn't happen overnight, but it sure as hell had seemingly just happened. No one tried to change it anymore. Sure, there had been fools trying to usurp the imaginary ruler's crown but everyone always failed miserably.

Habrinnia was the straight slums. Poverty, crime, disease, all things bad imaginable were housed in Habrinnia, a newly but unofficially established prefecture. Dead bodies were cascaded along the streets and it smelled terrible. Gun shots, boisterous and drunken laughter, crying, and yells were always audible no matter where one walked. There was no peace and quiet. Rukia Kuchiki, age 15, had grown up alone here. And she lived, able to fend for herself.

Chapter I – Home Away from Home

Dark violet eyes scanned the surrounding streets. It was raining heavily, and the downpour drowned out some of the city's sounds. A few rotten produce stands were sitting on the corners, closely monitored by the owners. Her eyes latched on the one selling tomatoes and oranges. Most of them looked too small and bad, but she saw a few good ones among the batches. She places her hands on the wall of the building she peered around. She had to be quick and soundless if she was not to be caught.

She'd done this so many times before that she supposed it should have been natural by now, but she still felt slightly bitter about the whole ordeal. But those thoughts were quickly shoved from her head as she rushed forward. The store owner turned his head away, and she took it as her opening. Her legs swiftly ran across the street, her dark black hair flying back. A lone lock cut across her face, her hair style odd compared to most. But it was clean, which was surprising. Rukia had found a clean river running through a forest a few miles west a few weeks ago and went there daily to clean herself. Doing so meant she had to keep her guard up more than usual, however, for men would be tempted to take a clean woman, something they were not used to seeing, over their own whores.

She slipped past the stand, grabbing two semi-ripe tomatoes and three oranges in her hands. She folded her tattered purple kimono up, using it to hold the fruits as she ran. Her face was cold and heartless, stoic as she ran around the corner, her bare feet pitter-pattering along the wet cement. The raven-haired girl heard rustling behind her, and it confused her slightly. If she had been caught, she was sure it would've been loud yelling and slopping feet behind her. But it was as if someone was trying to stalk behind her without her noticing. Too bad for them, Rukia had become adept with sensing her surroundings. One had to in Habrinnia. She smirked slightly as her pace increased, and she was sure she had lost whoever it was who was following her.

As she turned the corner, her tiny figure slammed into someone and the fruits went rolling. Her eyebrows instantly furrowed. "Would you watch where you're going?!" she spat angrily. Despite the man being twice her size, she had the attitude to compensate someone twice his size.

Two arms came from around her, squeezing Rukia's small frame to a man behind her. Her eyes stared up with anger and confusion at the man she had ran into as she began to struggle violently. She was strong for someone her size and age. The man in front of her drove a fist into her stomach, and she let out a somewhat masculine grunt before losing consciousness. The man who was restraining her tossed her onto his shoulder and walked toward the small dirty white van. It slid open from the inside and he tossed the limp girl in, shutting the door quickly after.

As the two men got in, it sped away and down the street, water slashing out from under the tires.

Rukia woke up sometime during her being carried into a large building. Smoke puffed out of the top from long metal brown tubes and she stared up, someone's shoulder digging into her stomach. It took her a moment to collect herself and remember what had happened. Instantly, she kicked her foot forward, which happened to be aligned with the man's abdomen. He locked his arm around the back of her legs and kept them to his chest so as to cease her struggling. She resorted to using her arms, but it seemed to have no effect on the tall man.

It wasn't long before they were inside and she could hear the clanging of machinery and metal objects. People yelled commands all around and it was even louder here than it was in the city. Rukia had heard stories about this place. It was The Factory, the place that made products ranging from drugs to silverware. The workers were treated like shit. No, less than shit. They were treated like nothing. But one thing Rukia didn't understand was why she had been brought here. Why her? Didn't they want big and strong men? Why would they want a teenage girl who was less than five feet tall?

She was set down, but two men came around her, holding her upper arms and walking her forward. She frowned bitterly and started planning which man she could take down more easily. Before she could execute said plan, a long strip of cells were before her. Each was about ten feet wide by ten feet long. There was hay and dirt on the ground, and the bars were black and slick, but thick. One tall and dark man unlocked one of the cells, and she was thrust inside. Whipping around, she glared as the barred door was quickly re-locked. Her right fist tightened at her side in anger, but she soon let out a sigh and her body untensed. Hell, not much she could do about it now. She'd have to wait until she was out. Just for measure, she gripped one of the vertical bars and tugged. 'Damn. No chance in budging.'

"Hey. Who're you?" called a voice from behind her, and Rukia twisted around in shock.

She hadn't realized it before, but there were two men sitting against the back walls in the shadows. The only thing she could really make out about them was their hair color, however. The one who seemed to have asked the question had spiky orange hair. The other man, whose face was turned to the side, who seemed very angry, had aqua blue hair, slightly longer than the other boy's. "Who wants to know?" she asked defensively.

The orange-headed boy stood up, having pushed off of the ground. He stepped into the light and looked down at the short girl. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki." He stared at her for a moment. "Which district did they bring you from?"

Rukia took in his face. He was young, her age, and had a handsome face covered by what seemed to be a permanent scowl. But he was in this cell and she assumed he was in the same position she was – a slave. "Rukia Kuchiki. I come from Habrinnia."

That seemed to spark the interest of the other man who remained sitting. He looked over. "Habrinnia? The fuck they doing bringing some girl from there?"

"Dunno," Ichigo responded. "Guess you've got questions, eh? Not like there's anything to do right now, so go ahead." Their shift had ended only half an hour ago and wouldn't start until the morning; same with Rukia's.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "How long have you two been here?"

Ichigo scratched the back of his head as he stared past her, thinking. "Uhh… Probably a year. Grimmjow's been here longer. 'Bout a year an a half I think."

Rukia blinked. They had been here that long? "Haven't you tried to escape?" she inquired skeptically.

The blue-haired man laughed from the corner and stared up at her. "Listen woman. You don't escape some place like this."

"Sounds to me like you just haven't tried."

Grimmjow got up, his eyebrows drawn together. He pushed past Ichigo and stared down at her. "Don't fuckin' come in here telling us what to do like you're our fuckin' boss, bitch. If you wanna try and escape, be my goddamn guest."

'Someone's touchy. Then again, he's been here for almost two years… I suppose I would be, too,' Rukia conceded. She turned around and stared out the bars, seeing nothing but people working at machines and carrying objects from station to station. Meanwhile, guards and obviously wealthy men stood at their posts, commanding the workers or guarding certain items and utilities. Her stomach rumbled, and she forgot all about the fruit she had stolen and dropped.

Grimmjow let out a scoff and went back to the wall, sitting down and closing his eyes.

Ichigo only stared down at her again. "Won't get food for another hour, but I think Grimmjow saved some bread from lunch."

Grimmjow looked baffled at Ichigo. "The hell?! You must be pretty fucking retarded if you think she's getting my food," he growled.

Ichigo looked back over his shoulder. "You stole it from that one guard and you're not even hungry. Just give 'er some."

"No, it's fine. I don't need food from him." She didn't like accepting help from anyone, anyway.

"Jeeze you two are stubborn."

Grimmjow yelled "And you aren't?!" simultaneously when Rukia spat "Who're you calling stubborn?!"

Ichigo twisted a pinky finger in his ear as he closed his right eye reflexively from all the yelling. "Great, that's just what we needed. Another loud mouth."

"Trust me, the feeling's mutual," Rukia replied.

"Well you're going to be here a while, girl, so get used to it." Grimmjow stared at her with no sympathy what-so-ever.

Ichigo only glanced away and sat back down at the wall while Rukia stared out the bars again. Tonight had all happened so fast. She had been doing her nightly business and getting some food, and now she was in a cage with two men who seemed to have attitude-problems, one more than the other. And she was going to 'be here for a while.' She closed her eyes and rested a hand on one of the bars. She didn't know about these two dopes, but there was no way in hell she was staying in a place like this for much longer. But Rukia had never been here. She didn't know what it was like.

She would find out come tomorrow morning.

Chapter Note: Hey guys! New story. I'm not trying to make this a surprise pairing story, so I'll tell you right off the bat it will be mainly Grimmjow & Rukia. However, there WILL be obvious IchiRuki moments and whatnot. Just know that a triangle is a possibility, but there will be a definite pairing when the story progresses.

I've been planning this plot for a while now and have most of the story mapped out in my head, but I'm always open to suggestions. I don't think there will be any OCs in here. I'll mainly be filling in characters with Bleach canon characters. Anyone you'd like included – just let me know (:

-Ami