Espada Vacation

Chapter 6: Getting Along in the Pool

AN: Hope you enjoy reading, Merry Christmas!

~S~

"I do not want to be here." Oh, but of course, I never get things my way, even though I am THE perfect being. Aizen-sama had said that we, as "brothers and sister", need to get along better. So he had asked Tousen-san to lead a quick "Friendship Program"…at the pool.

"I do not want to be here either, but Aizen-sama said we have to," said Ulquiorra as he pulled out a bottle of sun block. "Besides, hopefully Tousen will be able to teach the trash a lesson." When he said trash, he was referring to Grimmjow and Nnoitra.

Speaking of those two, they were both in the pool at the moment. They were having a war, splashing violently at each other in the deep end.

"You'll never catch me while I'm on my noble killer whale!" declared Grimmjow loudly as he used his feet to paddle the blow up plastic whale floating device around. He steered himself toward Nnoitra, probably going to run him over.

"While you're on your whale, maybe, but you don't stand a chance off of it!" With that said, Jiruga flipped the whale over, causing Grimmjow to tumble off into the water with a splash.

He flopped himself onto the whale in an awkward half on, half off position before adjusting himself.

"Imbeciles." I muttered to myself as Tia walked over to the table near the deep end. She tugged off cover and threw it with the rest of her stuff.

I flushed a bit before Tia jumped into the pool, causing a huge splash. It also scared Nnoitra off his whale.

Halibel immerged seconds later, her hair a wet mess, and gracefully jumped onto the whale.

"This is mine, bitches."

It was quite surprising to hear her say that, seeing as she isn't the type of person to say that. But the looks on the Quinta and Sexta's face was priceless as she rode away in all her triumphed glory on the plastic floating killer whale.

Turning back to Ulquiorra, he seemed to be watching the trio plus the killer whale also.

"Why don't we go for a swim, Ulquiorra?" I asked, since it was only polite to. Before he could answer, Lilynette let out her signature "WOO-HOO!" before jumping into the pool in a cannonball.

"Yeah~!" She landed on the plastic floating water bed thing and used it as a ship to steer her way around the pool.

Starrk smiled sleepily before stepping/plunging himself into the water. I was surprised that he would go in the water, but he climbed onto the other water bed that was blue. Starrk pulled on some sunglasses before closing his eyes for a nap in the pool.

Suddenly, a wave of water washed over Ulquiorra and I. Well, I thought it hit Ulquiorra, but he decided to ditch me and was currently floating on Lilynette's pink water bed express.

When I took off my glasses and peeled off my waterlogged shirt, a squirt of freezing water hit my bare chest. Looking to the pool, I saw none other than Ilforte, holding a water gun.

"ILFORTE!"

"See ya, bro!" he chirped cheerfully before going under water. I scowled. Bastard.

There were some purple goggles lying on the table, so I pulled them on and jumped into the pool. Of course, I heard protests of interrupting someone's game of water bomb catch.

Underwater, I saw Tia swimming around and Mai jumping in. Where could he be? Question asked, question answered.

Ilforte jumped into the water, landing right on me. He mouthed the words "Got you, bro!" Under water before swimming back up. Now, I didn't realize we were in the deep end, which was about eight feet, but that doesn't really matter here, so I grabbed his ankle and dragged him down. I know I can hold my breath longer. Heh, shows him, he's a stupid bull, my zanpaktou doesn't mean "to fornicate" for nothing.

Before I could try and drown my dear brother, two hands reached down and pull us out.

"Do not fight, you are BROTHERS, you are supposed to have a bond!" scolded Tousen Kaname as he dragged us over to the shallower end (barely three and a half feet). "As Aizen-sama requested, I am going to be teaching you all about justice and getting along."

Cue the groans of disagreement.

"First, we are going to be doing trust exercises." Everyone stared at him blankly. "So I made it into a fun game! You all will be doing wheelbarrow races!" Again, we just sat/floated there.

"How's that gonna work?" asked Grimmjow. Tousen smiled for once, which kind of creeped us all out.

"I'm glad you asked, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. You are all going to partner up. One will be the wheelbarrow, one will be the wheelbarrow handler." We all stared dumbfounded. "You have to trust that your partner will pull you up in time before you drown!"

"That's a terrible trust game!" cried Lilynette as she pounded the closest person, which was me sadly, with her fist. "Starrk would just fall asleep and I could drown or he would if he was in the water!"

Tousen laughed. "You have to trust each other! As Espada, I do TRUST that you all are strong enough to participate in a trust game that involves life or death."

Every glanced at each other and shrugged. "Fine."

~S~

Well, since the pool was only so big, we could only have four or five teams at a time, which is almost everyone I do believe. Aizen-sama* had taken the responsibility to pick the teams, because his 'nigglywat' still hurt, he decided to sit from the balcony and scream instructions to us.

I had to be partnered up with my Aizen damned brother. Does he realize that we'll try to KILL each other? It's like the man paired up everyone who hated each other! Nnoitra and Tia and Grimmjow and Ulquiorra! The only sane enough pairing was Starrk and Lilynette! The last pairing was Ichimaru and Mai, but everyone was sure they would nearly drown each other also.

"Ready everyone?" called out Aizen from his up higher view. We all just glared up at him. "GO!" Grimmjow, Nnoitra, Lilynette, Mai, and I all went down as our partners grabbed our ankles and swam forward while we crawled.

Ilforte went quite fast, but that didn't matter since I could hold my breath longer, like I said earlier. I noticed that Nnoitra could hold his breath for a long time also. Lilynette somehow managed to make it to the six foot mark, even with Starrk's slow pace, without going up for air. I started to push up so I could go up for air, but since ILFORTE was my partner, he wouldn't let me and insisted that we kept going. I was only able to break out of my fate of drowning pathetically when he started laughing. When I emerged to the surface, I saw that we were close to the other end. The blonde had been laughing at Ulquiorra, who didn't swim up, but walked on the pool bottom, making him look like he was disappearing into the water with every step. By the time we hit the six foot mark, he had disappeared.

"Baka!" We all heard a splash and saw Nnoitra getting pushed under again. Tia roughly grabbed his ankles before continuing to go forward.

"Go down already, bro, we're at seven feet and Lilynette is beating us." I glared at him before diving down and getting to the end of the pool. After I emerged again, I pushed Ilforte down since it was his turn to be the wheelbarrow. We were going to win this!

Surprisingly, Starrk was a fast swimmer, and so was Lilynette. They were already over by the five foot mark!

Ulquiorra was now swimming, slowly actually, while Grimmjow tried to shove him to go faster. That didn't exactly work since they both weren't the best swimmers. Heck, I'm surprised they can swim at all.

A splash hit my face. Ilforte must want to go faster. So I went faster. It was insanely fast for a gigai and would've been sonido-ing if I were in my spiritual body. Glancing back, I saw that Nnoitra and Tia managed to get right on our tails. Surprisingly, Ichimaru and Mai manged to be in second place, despite their height difference.

Suddenly, Ilforte abruptly stopped, causing me to flip over him and land head first in the shallow area, also making me hit my head!

After we all emerged, we all sat on various things to catch our breath. Lilynette, Mai, and Halibel sat on the pink water bed. Starrk was sprawled out on the blue one while Nnoitra floated around at a relaxing pace on the killer whale. Grimmjow, Gin, and Ulquiorra just sat on the steps, arguing a bit about how looked stupidest. I wanted to sit also, but I didn't want to share a seat with Ilforte, or even sit anywhere near him, so I annoyed Nnoitra by riding double on the small plastic floaty.

"So, who won?" asked Grimmjow as he splashed Ulquiorra in the face. The Cuarto's response was shooting him with Ilforte's water gun.

Tousen frowned. "Do not splash each other, it is rude and unjustly. Well, unless it's for a game of water splish splash..." He turned to Tesla, who was just sitting on a chair, watching us play. "Why don't you get in the pool, Tesla? Yammy, Aaroniero, and Zommari may have chosen to go sight seeing, and Barragan can't do much physical stuff, but you can enjoy yourself!"

Tesla shook his head in response. "I don't want to. Cold water is too...cold."

We just let him be as Aizen-sama stated the winner. "The winner is~ Starrk and Lilinette! Team Primera wins!" We all chimed in with our two cents of disagreement.

"That's unfair! They're the Primera!"

"Mother Fu-!"

"Gin tried to push us! He was cheating!"

"Lilinette poked me in the eye!"

Aizen-sama didn't want to hear it of course. He just decided to let Tousen go on to the next activity.

"I want you all to observe each other." We all stared at each other in a creepy way, wanting to see who would crack first. "You are all different from one another. As the Espada, your goals, ideals, and beliefs are all different. You all come from all over the world and hold different positions." We kept staring at each other. "But that does not give you the right to make fun of each other."

Oh, damn.

"We are going to be doing a bit of role playing, but first, think back to when you first met each other," said Tousen as he started wading around.

I thought back to when I first met this group of Espada. Starrk was sleepy, Barragan just stared at me, and Tia had commented on my pink hair, trying to be nice. I remember that Ulquiorra called me pathetic pink trash when I showed him one of my experiments, and that Grimmjow and Nnoitra decided to follow me and mess up my hair all day. Aaroniero and I fought for a while, since we never liked each other, and Yammy had told me to go make him a sandwich. Zommari didn't even bother with trying to meet me, but he gave me a speech about crap on how perfection was difficult and that is anyone were perfect, it wouldn't be me. Gin even went out of his way and switched the halls around. He had invited all the other Espada to come to the control room and watch me wander around aimlessly, looking stupid.

"I'm sure you were all VERY kind to each other." A bunch of us snorted. "Now, get into two groups." Grimmjow, Nnoitra, Lilynette, and I all were in one group. The other group consisted of Starrk, Tia, Ulquiorra, Mai, and Gin.

"Now, I want Grimmjow's group to be the bullies."

Nnoitra glanced at his light blue haired friend and grinned. "Gladly."

"Gin will be the teacher," instructed Tousen.

Ichimaru smiled (like usual) and went to stand in front of everyone.

"And Mai, you can be the new girl. Ulquiorra will be your brother that has an inner conflict on weather to assist his sister or not."

The younger Cifer stared dumbfoundly between Tousen and Ulquiorra.

"The rest of you are students," said Tousen to the two most powerful Espada in the pool...oh, and Ilforte. He's such an idiot I almost didn't see him if it weren't for his stupid hair. "Let's say that Mai is being made fun of by the bullies." He glanced at Nnoitra's group. "What would Ilforte, Ulquiorra, Starrk, and Tia say to defend her? No, you cannot try and murder each other."

We all just stood there for a while. Tousen sighed before trying to suggest a situation. "Okay...what would you say or do to someone being bullied or the bully? Anyone?"

I thought for a bit before Nnoitra spoke up. "I would join the bullies 'cause the new girl IS a freak."

"Something HELPFUL, Nnoitra Jiruga."

"Tell them to"Shut up and go die in a hole**?" suggested Grimmjow as he glanced over at Mai. Lilinette giggled.

"That's...a start..."

"For Aizen's sake, let's just try role playing."

~S~

"Woah, you're the new girl, ain't ya?" Nnoitra asked Mai for our role play in the pool. She nodded slightly. He squinted at her before breaking into song and failed danging. "Yer a FREAK! She's a super freak! Super freak!"

Mai burtsted out laughing so hard that she nearly fell and drowned herself.

"No, Mai, this isn't supposed to be funny!" scolded Tousen.

"Fine, fine, sorry!" she called before turning back to Nnoitra with a half serious look. "I'm not a freak!"

"Oi, Nnoitra!" Grimmjow waded over. "New girl, eh? Hmm..." He stroked an imaginary goatee.

Lilynette laughed out loud. "Nnoi-tora! She's such a freaky freak! Freaky freak! Super freaky freak~!"

Mai suppressed a laugh.

"You look weird. I mean, sky blue hair and turquoise eyes? How much freakier can you GET?" he said with a mean smirk.

"Tsk, says the one with light blue hair," I said as I pushed up my not really there glasses.

She frowned. "How do you know my exact hair and eye color?"

Grimmjow flushed a bit before getting "in character" again. "You don't tell me to shut up!"

"Yeah! Tell her, Grimmjow!" cheered Nnoitra.

"Pretty good for an idiot!" chimed in Lilinette.

"Baka," was all I added.

"You look weird, you dress weird, you smell weird." He took a step closer. "You should just leave and go back to Freakyo!"

Our group laughed...until Grimmjow messed up.

"You know I really don't mean this, Mai. You don't look weird at all. And we're all in swimsuits, but I think the purple looks good on you. And you definitely don't smell weird. Your vanilla shampoo always smells great," he paused for a moment as we all stared at him. "I mean, not that I know it's vanilla! It just kinda smells like vanilla and all... It's not like I take notice of what shampoo you have when I'm taking a shower, since you know we share a room and bathroom and the headquarters in general and all..." He flushed before continuing to ramble. "I mean we need to figure out a bathroom schedule once we get back to Las Noches because that one time I almost walked in on you was kinda-"

"ENOUGH!" screeched Lilinette. "We all know you have a creepy stalker crush on Mai-chan! We don't need to know what happens in that room of yours!"

"Let's just get on with the next part," said Tousen with a frustrated sigh.

"Wait, you almost walked in on me when I was in the shower? !" demanded Mai with an embarrassed blush.

"So that's why he was all red in the face and nearly had a nosebleed..." said Ilforte with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I-I didn't know you were in there! And you left the door unlocked!" accused Grimmjow as he splashed Ilforte for his unhelpness.

"You told me there was a three hour Espada meeting! And the door was CLOSED!" she yelled back as Tousen sighed another frustrated sigh.

"Hey! At least I realized you were in there before I decided to take a showe-!" he was cut off with a whack to the face from Ulquiorra.

"I don't want to know." Everyone else agreed with him.

"Told ya that ya shouldn't share a room wit' him 'til ya were eighteen in Livin' Years, Mai-chan," said Gin as I chuckled a bit.

"Stick to the scrip." Tousen said.

"What scrip?" Tia shoved Grimmjow underwater once he said that.

"Don't make fun of her, baka neko," she said. It didn't really sound like she was trying, but oh well.

"Yeah! Shut up and go die in a hole!" yelled Nnoitra unhelpfully.

"Wrong side, bro," said Ilforte. He seemed thoughtful for a bit before speaking up again. "Let's say I'm the popular one."

Everyone snorted, but didn't say anything. I seriously wanted to kill his face.

Ilforte waded over to Mai and took her wrist, pulling her to his side. "Hey, you dipshits shouldn't make fun of her, got that?"

Tousen sighed again before pointing out that we weren't allowed to use bad words with Lilinette present. (since she was a "child") We didn't bother to tell him that half of the modern expressions we know like "this is mine, bitch", or "STFU" were taught to us by Lilinette in the first place.

"When I say this, Tousen-san, I say on behalf o all o us," said Ichimaru as he waded into the middle of our group. The blind man turned to him. "STFU."

We all laughed at Gin's statement, even though I don't really see why it's funny. But I was just thinking STFU... Sometimes I swear Gin could read minds. Once, just once, I would like to catch him off guard and knock him out so I can analyze his brain. If he gets killed, I'll gladly research more about Shinigami, just for the fun of it. Maybe I'll even create a program for science! Speaking of which, this program didn't turn out well at all...

"Um, Gin?" Tousen had a slight confused look on his face. "What does STFU stand for...?"

"Eh...pardon my French, but-"

"You're not speaking French though."

"It's an expression...it means dat I'm 'bout ta say a bad word, so it tells ya ta pardon it," explained Gin as he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh...okay...I guess I'll pardon you since you're younger and don't know better," said Tousen as he "looked" toward Gin. (He was "looking" at Ulquiorra instead) "But do not say it too much, Gin, it is unjustly to do so."

"Um...it means shut de fuck up..." said Gin in a quieter voice. Tousen looked startled.

Then he passed out. So it was our job to carry him out of the pool and onto a bed. Looks like the program is over.

"WOO! THE PROGRAM'S OVER~!" shouted half of the group gleefully.

I sighed. Let the water wars commence.

END CHAPTER

*It's just so fun to write Aizen as OOC please don't mind^^

**We have an anti-bullying program at my school, and I actually suggested that to my friends. The guys we were partnered up with were all like "how is this funny in ANY way?" and I'm thinkin' "urusai, BA~KA(s) you're always saying stupid things and practically dying in you chair from laughter anyways!"

Merry Christmas! I meant to post this yesterday, but we went sledding...and I think I nearly snapped my neck/had a concussion XDDD

Please review if you have the time/desire to (we all know you do =3)

Sightseeing at night, drive, THEN the cruise! WOO! XDD

~Amaterasu Ai