The morning dawned bright and cheerful. The birds were chirping in innocent delight at the new day's first light. Ever now and then a car rolled past carrying its passengers to their early morning destinations. Slowly the bright orb that humans dubbed "the sun" rose higher into the air. A dog barked at a passing school student and a cat lay out on a wall to bask. It was quite honestly a beautiful day. It was a day on which you would hate to get on detention. But unfortunately for one Ichigo Kurosaki his usual alarm clock was locked up in a solitary confinement cell with three cold-blooded killers. Lazily he stretched and glanced over at the clock on his wall.

"Shoot!!" He leapt out of bed and started his speed dressing-packing-eating-and running out the door trick.

"Bye Ichigo!" Yuzu called cheerfully.

Meanwhile Ichigo sprinted his way to school, quietly cursing Keigo for being mysteriously absent.

And Keigo was also cursing. But not so quietly. He had woken up to find himself half on top of the annoying emo kid, and had completely freaked. Now he found himself hanging upside-down, held in the air by two very disgruntled Espada.

"What's the big deal, trash?" Ulquiorra snapped

"I…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to wake anyone up…"

"Didn't mean to?!" Nnoitra hollered in the unfortunate boy's ear.

"Yeah!" Grimmjow punched Keigo in the stomach, which he could do since Keigo didn't have enough legs for them all to hold.

"What did you think was going to happen if you yelled in my ear!?"

Keigo looked as sheepish as someone defying gravity could.

"I'm really sorry…"

His stomach lurched as Nnoitra let go of his leg.

"Yeah, well, now I'm gonna be pissed off all day cos I didn't get enough sleep." Grimmjow kicked a wall angrily.

"I think you'll find that you're always pissed off Grimmjow." Ulquiorra commented dryly as he dumped Keigo on the bed. Grimmjow growled.

"Why you favouring the kid?" He asked, "Nnoitra was happy to drop him, why didn't you."

Ulquiorra looked witheringly at his inferior.

"Obviously if I did that he would lose all the limited mental capacity that he has, and he would be just like you. I couldn't stand another thing like you being in this cell."

Nnoitra chuckled and Grimmjow immediately took this opportunity to try and start a fight.

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" Keigo ventured timidly.

Grimmjow stared at him. Then shrugged.

"I'm up now, aren't I?"

Nnoitra went and banged angrily on the cell door.

"Hello, I've well and truly learnt my lesson… Can I come out yet?"

The other side of the door was silent. Then Stark's face filled up the small window in the door.

"What the-" Nnoitra jerked away from the door and fell over Grimmjow's nicely placed foot.

"He's asleep." Keigo commented.

The three Espada looked at each other.

"Crap!!"

"Quick, wake him up!"

"We can't fit someone else in here!"

"Kid! Come over here!"

"Grimmjow, what are you doing? Get your foot off me!"

"ARGH!! Aizen's coming!!"

Keigo watched the chaos in bemusement.

"What's going on?"

Aizen walked calmly down the corridor to check up on his prisoners. He had noticed a significant improvement in the noise level of his castle now that he had locked up numbers 4, 5 and 6… Especially 5 and 6. He had placed his best Espada on guard duty while Ichimaru had a break. However, when he heard the ruckus that was going on down the hall, he decided that it had probably not been a good idea.

The unfortunate Espada within the cell had, at the last minute, succeeded in waking Stark up. Confused and sleepy, he promptly proceeded to obliterate the cell door in revenge for being woken. This was when Aizen chose to show up.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He hollered.

The silence which followed would have put a mouse to shame. The last door hinge finally gave way and the door toppled to the ground and the four ashen faced Espada prepared to be severely punished. Keigo sat on the bed in the cell and suppressed the urge to burst out laughing. Grimmjow, who had been closest to the door when it fell, suddenly found a cloud of sawdust wafting into his face. He started sneezing, but Aizen's icy glare was more then enough to cause him to ignore his itching nose.

"Well Stark… would you care to explain?"

Stark shook his head.

Aizen sighed. "I'm very disappointed in you boys." He began, "Stark, you especially, I thought I could trust you to look after these trouble makers, but instead you cause the most trouble of all of them."

The Espada looked everywhere but Aizen's face.

"Now… I notice that this confinement cell is a bit crowded, so luckily for you…"

The original inhabitants of the cell sighed in relief that another would not be added to their number.

"Luckily for you" Aizen continued in a louder voice "I have instructed Szayel to construct a second confinement cell!"

Keigo, who had been suitably lost for quite a while now, decided to speak up.

"Can I go home yet?"

Aizen considered this.

"Yes!" He decided. "I will send Szayel to escort you home shortly."

Keigo brightened up considerably.

"How do you think we should split these four up then?"

"Huh?"

Aizen grinned evilly.

"Solitary confinement is quite obviously no punishment for any of these rebels. In your personal opinion which pairings do you think would irk each other most?"

Keigo stood and surveyed the group.

"I think the emo hates the cat the most, so the spoon and the random guy can hang out by default!"

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes.

"What do you think you're saying, trash!? I stood up for you in there and this is how you repay me!?"

Keigo started guiltily.

"Um, you know, on second thoughts… I definitely think the spoon and the cat hate each other even more, you know they spent hours bashing each other up the other day and-"

"Silence!" Aizen commanded "It's too late for a second opinion! Szayel, come and escort this child home."

Szayel appeared in a puff of pink sparkles.

Keigo stared in horror.

"It's…it's so…gay!!"

Szayel somehow managed to smile offendedly.

"How awfully rude!"

"Shut up and get rid of him!" Aizen snapped.

And that was how Keigo found himself standing on the side of a road looking bemusedly at the sky and wondering if he'd ever see that emo thing again.

"Hey! Keigo!"

Keigo turned around and came face to face with one of his best friends.

"Oh…hi Ichigo…"

"Where have you been?!" Ichigo was worried by Keigo's face…he looked so…lost.

Keigo looked in vain at the sky.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He murmured.

Ichigo was horrified. Keigo never murmured!!

"Come on, try me." He said, escorting his friend down the road towards his home.

Ulquiorra was having it tough. Since the human had left he had suddenly discovered just how annoying Grimmjow could be when he was tired and bored. It was a deadly combination. Apart from mindless physical violence, Grimmjow seemed to delight in making rude and snide comments about Keigo. He seemed to think it would bother Ulquiorra. There was one instance when Ulquiorra was tempted to stoop to the trash's level and fight him, but reasoned that the more they fought, the longer it would take before he could leave. He could tell that Nnoitra and Stark were getting along well next door, as he could hear nothing but snoring. Grimmjow, however, could not be persuaded to leave Ulquiorra alone.

"Oi! Emo cheeks! Come over here!"

Ulquiorra sighed.

"Shut up Grimmjow."

Grimmjow shrugged.

"Whatever, I just thought that you'd want to escape, that's all…" His voice trailed away as he grinned at Ulquiorra's immediate appearance next to him.

"Escape?"

Grimmjow nodded.

"Tell me more."