A/N: Some things are probably off here, but I've been putting this off for too long, and I just wanted to get this up here. I also admit that it's a little rushed, but you know what? I'm not going to spend anymore time toiling away with this.

...I'm not responsible for any mind-scarring that might result from the mental image of a certain fraccion.

The beach. The beach. They had to be kidding.

Specifically, Harribel had to be kidding. And then Nnoitra had to be kidding, and then Szayel, and then Charlotte and Findor.

It would've been fine if it had just been Harribel. She had decided to take her fraccion to the beach in the human world. That was just fine and dandy. They could do what they wanted.

Then Nnoitra decided he'd tag along to harass them. Naturally, his partner in crime, Tesla, had to follow after, which was also perfectly fine.

And, while disturbing, it was perfectly fine for Szayel to want to tag along. Maybe not for anyone else, but it was fine for Szayel. He could sit under an umbrella for as long as he wanted and he could take notes on beach behaviour for as long as he wanted. Preferably, he could also get as much sunburn as he wanted, but that was another rant for another time.

It was not fine when Charlotte Cuuhlhourne decided Barragan and his merry men should also go on a trip to the beach. It was even more not fine when Findor's eyes lit up and he agreed in the calmest manner he could.

Thus, there sat Ggio, sitting on a small beach towel, feeling rather irritable. He also had another beach towel over his head. Below that towel, he was pouting. He was in a gigai, and he didn't have his hollow mask, and he felt funny without it, and the beach was weird, and good god, Barragan should not be wearing a speedo. It was almost enough to make him see the light on how stupid it was to follow Barragan like a lost puppy—ahem, kitten—but not quite. So instead, he had a towel over his head.

Szayel was watching Ggio for a good while. The boy looked absolutely miserable, and Barragan looked busy flaunting what he shouldn't, so this was the perfect time to harass some kittens. He glanced at the small screen he had with him. Lab was fine. He put it down on the beach chair and slowly stepped over towards Ggio.

"Something wrong, kitten?" Szayel cooed. Ggio jumped, nearly smacking Szayel in the face. Fortunately, he'd been smart enough to move back a bit after he spoke.

Ggio slowly pulled the towel up over his head, just long enough to confirm that it was Szayel bothering him, as if there was really any question. Who else called him kitten? He pulled the towel back over his head and looked away before Szayel could make a comment on how ridiculous kitten looks without his mask. Or before anyone else could make a comment on it, anyway.

"No. Nothing is wrong," Ggio answered in the calmest voice he could manage. It was hard to be calm when he felt tempted to go drown himself, but he pulled it off.

"Really? Nothing~?" Szayel asked. He almost wanted to poke Ggio in the back of the head, but for now it was enough to bother him verbally.

"Really. Nothing."

Szayel glanced down at Ggio. He looked like a shy kindergartener hiding under the blanket on the school field trip. He could bother him later, perhaps when he decided to come out from hiding.

And so Szayel wandered off to go hide in the shade once more.

Meanwhile, some more arrancar were beginning to step onto the beach. Not everyone had changed yet or felt comfortable with their gigai, which meant quite a few of them were hiding in nearby bathrooms until they felt comfortable in their own skin.

Tesla was one of these. He didn't like this bathing suit. Too much skin exposed; Nnoitra-sama might not approve. It made him think of another fraccion that he did not care to think about, but was inevitably hogging a lot of thinking space as Tesla gradually worked up the courage to slink towards the beach. At least it was sandy. Hueco Mundo had sand, too, so it was familiar…

And speak of the devil. Tesla had just laid out a towel for himself behind the towel that belonged to Nnoitra, who was presently standing rather far out in the water and yelling at some fish.

But one again, speak of the devil. Sunglasses went on and some more umbrellas went up as Charlotte Cuuhlhourne stepped onto the beach.

Tesla shuddered. This was even worse than he'd imagined it would be. He really thought he'd be able to go without sunglasses for the day, but they'd be oh-so-helpful right now. He glanced back at Nnoitra's towel, and then next to the towel. Under their umbrella—creatively decorated with a series of 5s all over it—was a small bag of necessities that Tesla had packed for Nnoitra.

Tesla could list off every single item in that bag and where it was relative to every other item in the bag. In that bag, he knew, was a pair of sunglasses. Specifically, it was a pair of Nnoitra-sama's sunglasses.

"Maybe… Maybe he doesn't need them. He's… He's big and strong and stuff. He could eat the sun if he wanted to. I'm just a weak little fraccion and I'll burn up and that'd be inconvenient for him… Oh, he'd hate it if I burned up. Who would bring him tea? Maybe I could borrow the sunglasses. He's not using them…," Tesla rambled on quietly. He looked out at the water. Nnoitra was standing in the water. He didn't look like he was about to come back. Tesla gulped and reached for the bag. He unzipped it, moved to take the sunglasses…

"Shit, shit, shit, I don't know if I can do this… What if he gets mad?" he asked himself, his voice going even lower. "No, I can't be an inconvenience by hurting my eyes with the sun. Maybe he'll understand. Maybe some more coolness will rub off on me, too."

After at least five more minutes of quiet rambling, he managed to take out the sunglasses and put them on. He smiled, feeling much more protected from both the sun and Charlotte now.

He surveyed the scene playing out before him. Harribel seemed content sun tanning. Her fraccion were trying to follow her actions. Sun-sun was managing to do this just fine, though Tesla couldn't help but wonder how red she'd be by the end of this. She was probably the palest one in the bunch. Apache and Mila Rose were arguing with each other about Aizen-knows-what. Eventually one of them shut up first (he couldn't tell who), leaving Mila Rose to begin actually sun tanning and Apache to sit cross-legged, looking frustrated about something. Eventually, she too gave in and tried to follow her Espada's actions.

Tesla was glad he was Nnoitra's only fraccion. Fighting with a fellow fraccion over nothing seemed irritating. He was happy being a sort of only child.

Looking around some more, he noticed Ggio was slowly crawling out from under his beach towel. Curious, Tesla watched on as Ggio slowly stood up, looked around, stepped towards the water… and quickly ran in the other direction.

Tesla couldn't help but wonder how Ggio managed to honestly fight against the nickname kitten. He was scared of water. Wait, no. He wasn't running from the water. He was… building a sand castle? Wait, no, he was just kicking sand. Nevermind. Weird.

"Hey, Tesla, what the fuck are you doing with my sunglasses?"

Shit. Shit. Shit. Tesla thought of ways he could run far away, but all of them ended in a very painful death.

And so he ran. Very fast, which did get him somewhere for a moment, because Nnoitra tripped over his own feet. Tesla knew he was going to regret this, but he wanted to prolong the suffering a little longer, and he felt cool in these shades.

Ggio stared as Tesla ran to his death. He was glad he at least didn't have to look at Charlotte, but he knew Szayel would probably be popping up to bother him soon since he'd poked out of his towel-shell…