"Where's Telsa?" Nnoitra asked Szayel after they agreed to wander around the beach area until they found somewhere nice and quiet to sit and talk. Maybe kiss a little.

Szayel glanced around the crowed street corner to find only the luggage. "I don't really know… he was here a minute ago. So was Aaroniero and what's his name."

"Maybe they went off somewhere together."

"Perhaps, they did…" Szayel muttered, glancing at the restaurants. "Sadly, they have no idea how bad human food tastes…"

He caught Nnoitra making a face out of the corner of his eye as he recalled the horrors of living in the human world for a whole year.

All of the food naturally tasted off or down right disgusting they discovered not soon after their arrival last year. (Or what ever time it was now.)
Meats were fine tasting, but a little off. Bland foods such as pasta, muffins and mild cheeses such cheddar were okay. Fruit was somewhat touchable, but not advised. Bland Vegetables such as cucumbers, broccoli, and spinach were fine. As were some variety of hard candies as long as they were not of the fruity variety.

Everything else not mentioned above…tasted very off to plain disgusting.

"Don't even remind me about the time that Tia made that fruit salad…" Nnoitra warned Szayel who was lost in his own horrid memories of food.

"At least human food doesn't make us sick." Szayel tried to point out the bright side. "And at least, honey tastes good."

"Yick! Nnoitra Gilgas does not like honey!"

"Suit yourself, Nnoitra." Szayel sighed and headed off to the nearest restaurant to check for the missing people in their party. Sure enough, he found Aaroniero sitting in a corner booth next to two invisible people. "Hey, Fishtank, what's up?"

"I was hungry. And I couldn't find any girls who wanted to go out with me…" He said, his voices sad and lonely. "I tried to ask a few… but then they asked for money. Which was really confusing…"

"And…?" Szayel groaned, wanting to crawl under to the table and pretend he did not know this idiot. "What?"

"Well… I didn't have any."

"Thank… who ever." The Fourth Espada put his head in his hands. "Aaroniero… Let me explain something here… This is… a beach city and…" He continued to frankly explain the rules about young women who stood on street corners dressed in most nothing. "So, don't talk to them. Even though I still don't really like you. I mean, you are not as bad as I thought all these years, but we still are not the best, best of friends… Like how me and Telsa here are friends… I still think you need to hold out for the best girl in the world and not run off and try and find one. You have eternity to live and so, don't settle for less, will you?"

"..Okay…" Aaroniero was rather shocked by what he just learned, but managed to speak. "I will…"

"Now." Szayel slid in to the booth next to him and picked up the menu. "Why don't we get something not disgusting to eat?"

"…Good idea." Aaroniero sunk back in his seat. "We are rather… embarrassed. We always make mistakes it seems…unlike you."

"Well that can't really be helped. You have too tiny heads in a glass tank. Not much brain activity, no?" Szayel muttered as he read. "The salad might be good…Or… maybe I should just get a Root Beer or-"

"Szayel-sama…" Telsa whispered across the table, noting that Aaroniero was trying not to cry. "I think that maybe-"

"That you-"

Telsa held out a hand before Rudbornn said something that made Szayel pissed. "We over here, cannot help but notice that… perhaps you may have slightly injured the feelings of Aaroniero. As, if you do not mind my saying, your words were sightly harsher than most."

"And?" Szayel was too busy to care about Fishtank. His feeling were his own and if he was so touchy, it was his fault for being so. "What do you want me to do Telsa?"

"Perhaps…" Telsa gave Rudbornn a stern look as he opened his mouth to speak. We have to tread lightly, Rud. That is how it works. "You should rephrase what you said to say something like…like, 'I know that we all make mistakes in new surroundings?' or something less… "

Szayel glanced to his right to see Aaroniero crying. "Fine… Combined, you have half of the brain power of an average Hollow. There."

"Szayel-sama!" Telsa yelled, hearing the Fifth Espada begin to sob. "Please have a little more thought in your words."

"And heart." Rudbornn added, upset how casually he insulted Aaroniero.

A pair of cold amber eyes peered over the large restaurant menu. "I don't have a heart, Skull-Face. And Telsa, I am not in a mood to try and make amends."

"What happened? Did anything happened between you an-"

"I'm hungry. That is what. Talk to me after I eat."

"I am afraid I cannot wait that long." Telsa scooted over so Nnoitra could sit next to him and Rudbornn who was in the side seat. "I really don't want him screaming in my ears come five minutes."

"Now that you mention that…" Szayel did not want to listen to Aaroniero scream for the next five hours. "I suppose I can rephrase. Aaroniero. Every one makes mistakes. Some are just prone to them."

Telsa rolled his eyes. "Maybe a little more…"

"Okay. Fishtank, don't scream all the time because you are smarter than a toddler."

Aaroniero stopped crying immediately and looked at Szayel with wide eyes. "Really? What's a toddler?"

"A Human with a Associates degree." Szayel lied much to Telsa's dismay. "That's two long years of lots of advanced schooling. Now, shut up and let me find something edible before I give up entire-"

"I cannot believe it!" A cheerful voice cried, making everyone jump. "To think I'd run into you here of all places! I cannot… Christy, You remember Romeo."
Szayel resisted the urge to scream bloody murder as he laid his eyes on an average height joe with brown hair and a tropical shirt. Instead, he smiled at his fellow actor who, the last time they met, ended up eating Soul Candy. "Hello Ned. It is nice to see you again."

"I know! Isn't it!" He said as he and Christy, (Another fellow actor) stood at the end of the table. "We were just walking by to our table that's over there and I was like, isn't that Romeo?! From Scotland? We were in Hamlet together ages ago! I cannot believe that I'd run into you here of all places! And you're hair is pink yet again!"

"Yes." Szayel laughed along with them, "It is. So, how have you been?"

"Good! We just-oh! I forgot to tell you that after Hamlet, Christy and I started going out and now, since, well… it's been about a year and a few months, we're married."

A little quick, no? Szayel noted before saying, "How sweet."

"And she has charming kids who-" Ned glanced around the restaurant for the three that were supposed to be following him at all times. "Um…" He glanced at his wife. "I'll go get them."

"No, no. Talk it up with Romeo, I'll go." Christy told him with a peck on the cheek. "Be back in a sec."

"Thanks." Once she was gone, Ned turned back to the table where the three people were seated. "Have room in here for me? I'll pick up the tab."

"Well-"

Szayel got a glare from Telsa who knew that if they refused, it wouldn't turn out well given how determined this human was on 'catch up on old times'.

"Okay. Teresa. Come over here." After a few minutes of rearranging, Nnoitra, Szayel and Aaroniero were sharing a side of the booth and Ned the other. While Rudbornn and Telsa who could not be seen, climbed quietly over table and sat down in the booth behind the Espadas. Thankfully, like most of the booths, the seat had sinkholes in it all ready, so Telsa and Rudbornn's weight was not noticed.

I really hate Telsa… Szayel shot a look at Nnoitra who grinned sightly.

Well, that's him. Always thinking practical.

And I hate being crushed between you and Fishtank… Szayel added with a smiled. "And I suppose I forgot to introduce these two!"

"Yeah." Ned laughed as he made room for Christy after she pulled up two chairs to the end of the large table for the kids to sit. "I forget these things too."

"Well, this here." Szayel pointed at Aaroniero was was wearing a happy face that honesty made Kaien Shiba look like he stayed up for days. "Is Aaron. Good friend of mine and he works as a Museum Curator."

"Where?" Christy loved anyone who loved art. "Maybe we've run into one another."

"I don't remember…Where do you work Fish-Aaron?"

"Fish?" Ned picked up his menu.

"Oh, his nickname is Fishtank. Loves Aquariums…" Nnoitra noted with a smirk. Actually, he is a frickin' aquarium. Wanna see?

"And who are you?" Christy swore she saw this tall young man with black hair before. "Did we work on a play together?"

"Maybe." It wouldn't be a surprise if he did as near the end of the year, he worked as a hairdresser. "And I'm Theresa."

"Theresa?!" One of the kids at the table laughed, only to get a glare.

"Yeah, it is! Do you have a problem with that you little-"

Szayel put his hand over Nnoitra's mouth just in time to muffle the next word. "Spoony…be good, shall we?" after he got a small nod, Szayel let his hand fall to the side. "And this is, my…" I think we've been together long enough… "Husband, Theresa. Don't inquire of the name. His mother was a little…" Szayel leaned across the table. "Crazy."

"Thanks…" Nnoitra muttered, trying not to scowl. "Anyhow… who are these…" He glanced at the three kids who were either on their electronic toys or staring at him with wide eyes. "Charmers."

"This one here." Ned began, a wide smile on his face as he spoke. "Is Taylor. Hon, put down your ipad please. We are at the table with friends."
Nnoitra and Szayel shared a glanced as Taylor put her device away with a huff.

Friend my foot. This is meeting just annoying.

"And I go to school." Taylor announced, knowing the drill that her dad always did when she meet one of his theatre friends. "And I'm thirteen. So, yeah."

"And this here," Ned gestured to the kid with brown hair and a painted lizard on his cheek, 'is my next youngest, Aaron! What a coincidence! Aaron, want to tell these nice people a little about yourself?"

"I'm ten and I like to play hockey and I love to goof off at school. And I love Lizards."

Aaroniero hid a snicker as he watched Szayel and Nnoitra shiver at the mention of lizards.

"And so you do…" Szayel said, not noting that the color of his hair had instinctively changed to match that of the booth as if to hide his form. "And so…what's so neat about…"

"Lizards." Nnoitra coughed out, not noting that he was half under that table. "Because… um…"

"They are all awesome! Cause they have detachable tails and are green! Green is my favorite color see? And, they eat bugs! I bet they'd eat butterflies too! My little sister Minda loves them, but I don't get it. All they do is flit around and look stupid."

"One word and…" Telsa's voice whispered in Szayel's ear. His hand over his mouth a split second later. "Just stay calm… yes… Relax…and…" He felt the Fourth Espada let out a long breath. "Good…One more… this kid doesn't mean anything and… there are no lizards who are going to eat you. You can change your hair back to pink… and you'd better do it soon before Ned looks over here…"

Rubornn who had his own hand over Nnoitra's mouth, watched as Szayel's hair slowly changed from a disgusting blue back to it's original pink.

"There…" Telsa continued in a soothing voice. "All better… Now, we will stay here and tell you want to say. Okay?"

Both of them nodded sightly.

"Good…" Rudbornn smiled under his mask. "Now, why don't you ask Ned, who that kid with Pony tails is… just so that we get to a different subject."

"So, what is the third kid you have?" Nnoitra asked after Rubornn let him go. Hand still hovering by his face. "Ned?"

"Yes! This is-" Christy gestured to the little girl who was wearing a pink dress and had ponytails. All this time, she'd been staring at the weird people at the table. "Minda."

"Hi?" She asked, "Are you a pirate?"

Nnoitra was stuck silent. He glanced at Rudbornn. What's a Pirate?!

"I have this!" Telsa cried, "A pirate is a…pirate. Bad guys that go around in boats and steal things and they have eye patches like you. Or so they do in pictures! Smile and laugh! Nicely!" He added as his Master opened his mouth to cackle evilly. "You have to act normal Master Nnoitra!"

"I can see that!" He yelled back, forgetting his surrounds for a moment. "I can see that…" He began to cover up his outburst, "You think I'm a pirate, little kid. Well, I'm not. But I do have an eye patch."

"So…" Ned finally noted that Theresa really was wearing a black bandana over his left eye. "It's for real isn't it? What happened?"

"Army!" Telsa screamed in Nnoitra's ear. "Say, you were in the army-"

"You were in the-"

"No!" Rudborrn intervened. "First person, Nnoitra-sama!"

"Firs…Yeah. It's real. I was in the Army."

"What happened?" Ned continued, gaining glares from the invisible Fraccion.

"Has he no tact?" Telsa asked of Szayel who had ben sitting there with a smile on his face for the last two minutes. "Just curiously."

"Um… huh…" Szayel confirmed his suspicions. "And so, it is all a really interesting, but rather gruesome tale that I don't think you want to hear over dinner."

"Lunch, Szayel-sama!"

"Lunch. Oh, I can never tell the time of day…"

Ned was about to say something when the waiter came over to the table to take their order.

"Okay!" the Fraccions went into action as their Masters had no clue what to order it seemed. "Get salad!"

"All around?" Rubornn wondered if they should mix it up. "Maybe Aaroniero should get this, the fish with garlic and onion…"

Our dinner is doomed… Szayel thought, hearing them all speak of human food that would be horrible to try and eat. But they are right…we can't all order salads… It would just be weird… I could just order pasta without the things I don't want and-too late.. Ned is already ordering for us. Great guy… I should ring his neck.

"I thought since you were all staring into space, I should order for you." Ned said after the waitress left. "I've been here before and so, I know the menu. So, I just ordered you guys the best dishes."

"And what a-" Szayel began, only to hear Telsa say, "Don't ask…you'd be better off if you didn't."

"What are you doing lately?" Szayel finished his sentence. "Ned, that is. Anymore theatre?"

"Not much. I've had kids to raise you know! Christy on the other hand got a professional gig in London in the Drowsy Chaperone. It starts right when we get back."

"That's wonderful." Because we won't have to see you ever again…

"And I get to be a stay at home dad. Which I don't mind, because I really wanted to spend more time with my charming kids anyhow. So, you two. Thinking of adopting any of your own?"

The result was swift.

Telsa and Rudbornn clamped their hands over Nnoitra and Szayel's mouths, praying to anything that would hear that Ned would walk away alive.

Aaroniero stared in shock for a moment before beginning to laugh so hard, he cried.

Szayel was speechless. "Um… what?" his muffled voice gasped. Had he heard what he thought he did? If he did, Ned was a dead man. "Hear that Telsa? Dead!"

"Don't you dare!" The younger Arancarr whispered back over Aaroniero's laughing. "One move and I won't hesitate to rip your pink hair right out of you head."

"I was asking if you two ever thought of adopting a few kids in the future. I mean, you two seem nice enough."

"Wait until I get my hands on that-"

"Don't even think it." Rudbornn warned Nnoitra, table knife ready to go right through his only eye. "If you do, then I will show them a new magic trick that ends with you being soundly humiliated."

"And?" Nnoitra whispered, not threatened one bit by Skull-face."Whatcha gonna do?"

"I got my hands on a video of you crying your eyes out… and this place has thirty six televisions… do you really want it to play?"

Nnoitra cursed to himself and brought himself back to the present moment where Aaroniero was suffocating himself with laughter and Szayel was silent.

"Ah, well…" Nnoitra began before the laughter went on too long. "It never crossed our minds much. We aren't the kinda people who are great with kids. Sure we can stand 'em for like dinner. But we don't really want any."

"I felt that way myself for a long time." Ned admitted as the waitress came over and set the dishes of food on the table. "But, kids really are a person to person thing. I hear you, man."

"And um…" Szayel tried not to make a face as a disgusting sent waft up from the dish in front of him. "We are just so busy anyhow. Me with my work and Teresa here with his own. He still has an Army desk job."

"Not to bored are you?" Christy frowned at Mlinda who turned her nose up at the grilled cheese on her plate. "With a desk job?'

"Yea. Bored as-helck. K."

"Sorry about the boring job, Theresa. So are you still acting?" Ned picked up his knife and fork to begin eating. "Or do you have a different job, Romeo?"

"I do have…" Szayel sighed as he realized that Aaroniero was still laughing loudly. "Hey, it's not that funny, Aaron."

"But…" Aaroniero choked out, trying to breathe. "It is… I mean,… he.. Hehe… He hask… if.. Yah… ahaha….if you want kids!"

"Well, you can stop laughing now." Szayel's voice became slightly colder.

"But.. It… it … Hah…" Aaroniero let his face finally hit the table with a loud thud. "So… fun… funn-"

A loud cracking sound echoed across the restaurant as a few of Aaroniero's ribs broke in half.

In the silence that followed, Nnoitra grinned. "I dropped my silverware on the floor!" He reached under the table to pick 'the silverware.' "That was loud. Didn't know they would make that much sound."

"And one sound from you…" Szayel whispered to Aaroniero while smiling. "I will elbow you again. Harder."

"And now!" Nnoitra held up his knife and fork, a triumphant grin on his face. "We can all eat."

"Good idea." Christy agreed and everyone began to eat.

Rudbornn tried not to laugh as he watched Nnoitra nearly choke on the first bite of fish. "Does it really taste that bad?"

Nnoitra nodded. "Wow.. The flavor is really…"

"I told you that you would like it." Ned said between bites. "So, what do you think of the Soup, Romeo?"

"I haven't tried it yet." He stared at the weird assortment of vegetables in the broth. "It is a little hot at the moment, but I suppose I should."…Get this over with because this is going to completely disgusting… Szayel picked up his spoon and dipped it in his soup. "It smells very nice and…" He almost gagged.

The soup tasted like…

Szayel could not think of anything he'd ever tasted that was this foul.

"So what are you three doing in Los Angles?" Christy asked, enjoying this luncheon.

"We are here for fun." Nnoitra told her, "Found us a nice hotel to stay at too."

"You found a hotel?" Szayel gasped, almost dropped his spoon. "When? I left you for two minutes to get a table! Where?!"

"I just took all of our luggage and traipsed around the corner. Literally. And there it was. A nice hotel that over looks the ocean. Thanks for leaving me with all our stuff and your suitcases." Nnoitra really hated caring that dripping suitcase through the lobby in his nice coat. "Next time, you take it."

"Sorry." Szayel muttered, glancing at the runaways behind him. "If…"

"I know. What ever. Anyhow," Nnoitra turned his attention back to the annoyances across the table. "How long will you be in town?"

"A week. We've had two days left here." Christy took a sip of her water as she spoke. "How about your three?"

"A few days until the fifteen of January of Two-thousand ten.." Nnoitra heard a collective sigh from the other Arrancars as they had not be shot into the past like last time the came to the human world. "And…" He was not sure if he eyes deceived him when he saw Yammy's face on a poster across the street from the hotel." Have you heard of Yammy Llargo?"

"Who hasn't?!" Ned cried. "He's Hollywood's hottest thing right now! He fights invisible things and dominates the boxing ring like no one's business."

"What invisible things?" Aaroniero asked before Szayel could.

"I'm not sure. I think it's ghosts."

The three Espadas shared a look. There is where all the Hollows in Los Angeles went…

Good thing I brought Lumina…

Aw! I won't have anything to eat! I'll become a Giant Menos Grande!

Yammy as a boxer? That's the stupid.

"Any idea where he lives?" Nnoitra continued, assured that Ned was some kind of Yammy Expert. And an Expert they could surely use.

"In L.A. That's why we are here." Christy said, "We all love him. So funny and -"

"Stupid." Szayel finished, gaining shocked looks from Ned's whole family.

"Szayel-sama!" Telsa whispered, making him jump. "They don't know we know Yammy! And we can't tell them we do or when he disappears, they might link it back to us. I would not underestimate humans at a time like this."

True…

"Stupidly funny, that is." Szayel corrected himself. "I find him quite amusing."

And the luncheon was back on course and with the help of the invisible Fraccions, the rest of the meal went well besides the fact that the food tasted worse by the bite.

Author's Note: Telsa and Rudbornn to the rescue again! Damn, they do so much. Thank goodness Telsa doesn't have to do all of the work himself for a while.

Yes. Nnoitra quoted Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.

Dear Ned... He's so lucky to be alive... and yes, there are those people who order for their guests. Dear Aaroniero... don't pay people money! Bad Fishtank!

Anyhow, this was a fun chapter to write. I highly doubt we will be seeing Ned again this story. I just thought of them running into him of all people. (And yes, he doesn't remember a thing. Thankfully.) As for Szayel's hair, butterflies can blend into nature when they need to. So, I thought it would be interesting if he could do the same. Being a butterfly.