After a good fifteen minutes, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, and Halibel were given permission to leave their respective corners and resume playing. By this time, the Legos were being used by Stark, Wonderwice, and Zommari. Halibel decided to instead play with the Hot Wheels cars, which Noitora was still using along with some action figures.
"Hey, you can't play with cars!" Noitora said as Halibel reached for one of the toy cars. "Cars are for boys, and you are a girl!"
Halibel said nothing, but glared at the skinny Espada. For a few seconds, the two were locked in a glaring contest, and Ichimaru feared that another fight would break out. His fears were assuaged, however, when Noitora backed down and let Halibel play.
Meanwhile, Grimmjow had chosen to play with a set of dolls. Noitora threw him a few strange looks, wondering why in Hueco Mundo somebody like Grimmjow would play with dolls.
"You can never defeat me!" Grimmjow gave the male doll with unusually orange, spiky hair a slightly high-pitched voice.
"Hah hah! That's what you think!" His blue-haired doll had a deeper, tougher voice.
"Oh, save me! Help!" Grimmjow gave the female doll as high of a pitch as his voice could manage without straining himself.
The Espada then returned to the orange-haired doll, "Don't worry, I will win!"
The two males were then made to battle, the blue-haired one clearly having the upper hand as he easily knocked around his opponent. The battle lasted about thirty seconds, until the doll with orange hair was laying face up on the ground with the blue-haired male standing on top of him.
"Hah hah hah! I am King!"
A sudden intruder knocked down the victorious doll.
"No, I am King!" Barragan exclaimed, his doll standing over Grimmjow's fallen two.
Grimmjow growled, "Are not! I am! I won fair and square! You cheated!"
Noitora, who had been watching the whole thing, scoffed. "It doesn't matter if you played fair or not. Barragan beat your guy, so you lose!"
"That's not right!" Grimmjow said angrily, crossing his arms. "You don't sneak on somebody, you fight them at an equal level!"
Before another fight could break out, Ichimaru was between the bickering children. "I think it's 'bout time we all get ready for bed. It's gettin' late." Noitora stuck his long tongue out at Grimmjow, only to receive a "stop that" look from Ichimaru and back down.
"Yes, I think it is time to get ready for bed." Tousen said, standing up from his chair.
Naturally, Stark had no ojection, and promptly dropped what he was doing to go stand by Tousen. Zommari did the same, followed by a happy Wonderwice. Soon, all of the Espada were lined up and ready to go to their rooms.
"What're we gonna do? Walk 'em each to their rooms an' make sure they get ready?" Ichimaru asked, not really wanting to put each individual Espada to bed.
Yammy jumped up and down excitedly, raising his hand in the air. "Can we hear a bedtime story?"
Tousen thought for a moment. "Does anyone else want to hear a bedtime story?"
"Haaaaoooo!" Wonderwice eagerly raised his hand. Tousen chuckled. Wonderwice always did like Tousen's bedtime stories. The rest of the Espada either nodded in agreement, shrugged, or simply said nothing. With no protests, Tousen decided that he would tell them all a bedtime story. First, however, they all needed a bath.
"Ichimaru, could you find Aizen and ask if he would help us bathe the children?"
Ichimaru looked as if he'd just been asked to commit seppuku. "Can't we just send 'em off ta bed?"
Tousen shook his head. "We have to take care of them."
"They can bathe themselves when they return to normal!" The light-skinned Shinigami protested.
"We don't know how long that will take. Let me put it this way: do you want to deal with dirty children?"
Ichimaru sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll go find Aizen." With that, Ichimaru left Tousen to get everything ready while he attempted to enlist Aizen's aid. He doubted Aizen would help, seeing as he had yet to do anything other than tell Tousen and Ichimaru to keep up their good work, but it was worth a shot.
Ichimaru hadn't quite found Aizen before Aizen found him.
"Hello, Gin. How are things going?"
"Ah, I actually wanted to ask ya something. Tousen would like ta know if you'd help bathe the Espada."
Much to Ichimaru's surprise, Aizen nodded. "Yes, I imagine it will be difficult for just the two of you."
Ichimaru grinned. It was about time something good happened!
When Aizen and Ichimaru made their way back to the Espada's playroom, Tousen was trying to keep the very impatient Espada waiting just a little while longer.
Before anybody could say anything, a small, female Arrancar hopped into the room. "I'm here!"
"Ah, Lilinette. Are the others coming?" Aizen asked, ignoring the confused look on Ichimaru's face.
Stark's fraccion nodded. "So, what did you need us for?"
At her question, Aizen motioned to the ten young Espada, some of whom looked like they were going to take off any moment. Lilinett's eyes widened.
"Oh...my...goodness! They are so cute!" In the blink of an eye, she was lifting an annoyed Stark into the air. "Awww, little Starky! You are just too cute!" She didn't even bother to question what was going on, just accepting what she saw and giggling over the five-year-old Espada.
"M-M-Master Noitora?!"
Tesla stood in the doorway, looking absolutely horrified at the scene before him. "Master Noitora! What happened? Why are you- oh no. No, no, no." The fifth Espada's fraccion shook his head in disbelief. "How did this happen? Master Noitora...I'm sorry, I wasn't there to help you, and now..." He fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands. "Master Noitora, if you wish it, I will gladly commit seppuku for failing you!"
Noitora raised an eyebrow at the over-dramatic Tesla. "What the hell are you talking about? What's seppuku?"
"Tesla, if you wish to help Noitora," Aizen cut in, grabbing the fraccion's attention, "then you should care for him until he returns to his adult form."
Tesla nodded. "Yes, of course. I'll do anything you need me to, Master Noitora."
Noitora grinned mischievously, clearly happy with the idea of having somebody to wait on his every whim.
Ichimaru turned to Aizen. "Did you call all of the fraccion?"
"I called the ones that would be fit for the task of caring for the Espada. Gin, I would like you to take care of Aaroniero. Kaname, please take care of Yammy. I'll take care of Zommari."
"What about Szayel?" Ichimaru asked. The scientist's fraccion were certainly not suitable for caring for a child.
"I have asked Ilforte to take care of him. Loli and Menoly are also going to take care of Ulquiorra."
By this time, all of the fraccion had taken their respective masters to their rooms where they could bathe and get ready for bed. Lilinette happily carried Stark away, Tousen managed to get Yammy to follow him, Zommari followed Aizen without question, Ichimaru had no trouble getting Aaroniero to go with him, Loli and Menoly took Ulquiorra to his room, Szayel followed his brother, Shawlong took care of Grimmjow, Halibel was escorted by Apache, Mila-Rose and Sun Sun, Findor carried Barragan away via piggyback after Barragan protested about not being carried away like a noble, and Tesla still acted as more of a subordinate than a caretaker to Noitora.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Lilinette laughed, ignoring the annoyed look on Stark's face. When they arrived at his room, Lilinette searched around for bath supplies. Finding a clean towel was near impossible, but eventually she found one stuffed in the corner of the closet that looked and smelled clean. She went through several empty bottles before finding any still containing shampoo, conditioner or soap. Having found bath supplies, Lilinette began filling up Stark's bathtub. She had wanted to give him a bubble bath, but there was no bubble solution around, seeing as, normally, Stark was a grown man.
Stark looked at the water as the tub filled, then turned to Lilinette. "Can't I just go to bed?"
"No, you need to get clean first. Now undress so we can get you washed up."
The Espada frowned. "I can wash myself."
Lilinette shook her head. "You won't do it right. I know you, you will just get yourself wet and say you cleaned up. Besides, it will be fun!"
Knowing he had no choice, Stark slipped out of his uniform. No sooner had he gotten undressed than Lilinette plopped him in the tub. After pouring some shampoo in her small hand, Lilinette began working it into a lather in Stark's hair. Something bumped into Stark's arm that wasn't the girl cleaning him. Moving his arm so he could see, Stark realized Lilinette had put three rubber ducks into the bathtub, presumably for him to play with. Seeing as he had nothing else to do while he was being washed, he pushed the ducks through the water, which made Lilinette giggle. Stark wondered if anybody else had to get washed by an adult.
--
"Hey, Tesla, what's taking so long?!" Young Noitra asked as his assigned guardian scurried about looking for bath supplies.
"The bottle of conditioner is empty, Master Noitora."
"So get me more. I need some of that stuff if I want my hair nice." Noitora had long hair, and without conditioner, it was a pain to take care of. Besides, he liked how it felt when it was soft.
Tesla bowed his head. "Yes, right away!"
While Tesla ran off to get another bottle of conditioner, Noitora turned on the water, trying to adjust it to the right temperature. Too cold. Too hot. Still too hot. Now it's too cold. "Forget it! Tesla can do it for me!" Noitora yelled, giving up on trying to find the right water temperature.
"Master Noitora, I found some!" Tesla's voice rang out before he stepped into the room, waving a bottle of conditioner.
Noitora grinned. "Good. Now, fix the water for me."
Getting down on his knees, Tesla turned the two knobs, adjusting the water temperature until it was lukewarm and comfortable. "How is that?"
The Espada stuck his bony hand under the stream of water coming from the faucet. "Good. Now let me bathe alone. Wait outside the door in case I need you again."
With a silent nod, Tesla got back to his feet and left the room for Noitora to bathe. In the meantime, he busied himself by cleaning up Noitora's room.
--
After Halibel's bath, her three fraccion sat her down and got her ready for bed. Sun-sun was brushing Halibel's hair while Apache cleaned up
"What scent should we use?" Mila-Rose asked the other two fraccion, looking through bottles of lotion.
"It doesn't matter, just grab one." Apache said, draining the bathtub of it's dirty water. "She's just going to bed, we don't need her to smell pretty."
"And why not? What's wrong with smelling good?"
Apache sighed. "There's nothing wrong with it, but she is going to go to sleep. Nobody is going to smell it."
"She's going to smell it!"
"She is going to be asleep!"
"She'll smell it before she falls asleep!"
"Will you two cut it out?!" Sun-sun snapped, stopping the two in the middle of their argument. "All we need is to keep her skin soft, not for her to smell like a bed of roses. Now just give her a lotion so she can put it on and we can bring her back to Tousen."
--
Ironically enough, Tousen was the last one to arrive in the room Aizen had chosen for the Espada to sit in while Tousen told his story. It was all set up for them to sleep in, since the goal was to lull them to sleep. Plus, it would be easier to keep track of them all in one room.
Ichimaru tried to hold back laughter as Tousen walked in with Yammy, his hair and clothes wet.
"I thought you were supposed ta give Yammy a bath, not take one yourself."
"He wouldn't stop splashing." Tousen sighed.
With the rest of the children already settled into the makeshift beds (which consisted of blankets on the floor for them to lay on, blankets for them to cover up with, and a pillow each) Yammy headed over to the last available spot. Stark was already half asleep, clutching the teddy bear Lilinette had provided him with. Ilforte had made sure to get Szayel his favorite pink blanket and matching pillow. Oddly enough, two small teddy bear ears were poking out from under Ulquiorra's blanket. Grimmjow spotted them, and went to say something, but abruptly turned away when Ulquiorra's eyes fell to the bulge under the blankets in Grimmjow's arms.
"It's just the blankets!" Grimmjow said without any accusation from Ulquiorra.
The fourth Espada said nothing and turned his attention back to Tousen as the Shinigami cleared his throat, signaling for the children to quiet down, and began his story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: I know I only talked about some of the Espada's bath adventures, but I think you'd agree that talking about 10 separate bathing sessions would be repetitive and boring, so I only included the few I thought would be most interesting. Next chapter, Tousen will begin his bedtime story.
"Hey, you can't play with cars!" Noitora said as Halibel reached for one of the toy cars. "Cars are for boys, and you are a girl!"
Halibel said nothing, but glared at the skinny Espada. For a few seconds, the two were locked in a glaring contest, and Ichimaru feared that another fight would break out. His fears were assuaged, however, when Noitora backed down and let Halibel play.
Meanwhile, Grimmjow had chosen to play with a set of dolls. Noitora threw him a few strange looks, wondering why in Hueco Mundo somebody like Grimmjow would play with dolls.
"You can never defeat me!" Grimmjow gave the male doll with unusually orange, spiky hair a slightly high-pitched voice.
"Hah hah! That's what you think!" His blue-haired doll had a deeper, tougher voice.
"Oh, save me! Help!" Grimmjow gave the female doll as high of a pitch as his voice could manage without straining himself.
The Espada then returned to the orange-haired doll, "Don't worry, I will win!"
The two males were then made to battle, the blue-haired one clearly having the upper hand as he easily knocked around his opponent. The battle lasted about thirty seconds, until the doll with orange hair was laying face up on the ground with the blue-haired male standing on top of him.
"Hah hah hah! I am King!"
A sudden intruder knocked down the victorious doll.
"No, I am King!" Barragan exclaimed, his doll standing over Grimmjow's fallen two.
Grimmjow growled, "Are not! I am! I won fair and square! You cheated!"
Noitora, who had been watching the whole thing, scoffed. "It doesn't matter if you played fair or not. Barragan beat your guy, so you lose!"
"That's not right!" Grimmjow said angrily, crossing his arms. "You don't sneak on somebody, you fight them at an equal level!"
Before another fight could break out, Ichimaru was between the bickering children. "I think it's 'bout time we all get ready for bed. It's gettin' late." Noitora stuck his long tongue out at Grimmjow, only to receive a "stop that" look from Ichimaru and back down.
"Yes, I think it is time to get ready for bed." Tousen said, standing up from his chair.
Naturally, Stark had no ojection, and promptly dropped what he was doing to go stand by Tousen. Zommari did the same, followed by a happy Wonderwice. Soon, all of the Espada were lined up and ready to go to their rooms.
"What're we gonna do? Walk 'em each to their rooms an' make sure they get ready?" Ichimaru asked, not really wanting to put each individual Espada to bed.
Yammy jumped up and down excitedly, raising his hand in the air. "Can we hear a bedtime story?"
Tousen thought for a moment. "Does anyone else want to hear a bedtime story?"
"Haaaaoooo!" Wonderwice eagerly raised his hand. Tousen chuckled. Wonderwice always did like Tousen's bedtime stories. The rest of the Espada either nodded in agreement, shrugged, or simply said nothing. With no protests, Tousen decided that he would tell them all a bedtime story. First, however, they all needed a bath.
"Ichimaru, could you find Aizen and ask if he would help us bathe the children?"
Ichimaru looked as if he'd just been asked to commit seppuku. "Can't we just send 'em off ta bed?"
Tousen shook his head. "We have to take care of them."
"They can bathe themselves when they return to normal!" The light-skinned Shinigami protested.
"We don't know how long that will take. Let me put it this way: do you want to deal with dirty children?"
Ichimaru sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll go find Aizen." With that, Ichimaru left Tousen to get everything ready while he attempted to enlist Aizen's aid. He doubted Aizen would help, seeing as he had yet to do anything other than tell Tousen and Ichimaru to keep up their good work, but it was worth a shot.
Ichimaru hadn't quite found Aizen before Aizen found him.
"Hello, Gin. How are things going?"
"Ah, I actually wanted to ask ya something. Tousen would like ta know if you'd help bathe the Espada."
Much to Ichimaru's surprise, Aizen nodded. "Yes, I imagine it will be difficult for just the two of you."
Ichimaru grinned. It was about time something good happened!
When Aizen and Ichimaru made their way back to the Espada's playroom, Tousen was trying to keep the very impatient Espada waiting just a little while longer.
Before anybody could say anything, a small, female Arrancar hopped into the room. "I'm here!"
"Ah, Lilinette. Are the others coming?" Aizen asked, ignoring the confused look on Ichimaru's face.
Stark's fraccion nodded. "So, what did you need us for?"
At her question, Aizen motioned to the ten young Espada, some of whom looked like they were going to take off any moment. Lilinett's eyes widened.
"Oh...my...goodness! They are so cute!" In the blink of an eye, she was lifting an annoyed Stark into the air. "Awww, little Starky! You are just too cute!" She didn't even bother to question what was going on, just accepting what she saw and giggling over the five-year-old Espada.
"M-M-Master Noitora?!"
Tesla stood in the doorway, looking absolutely horrified at the scene before him. "Master Noitora! What happened? Why are you- oh no. No, no, no." The fifth Espada's fraccion shook his head in disbelief. "How did this happen? Master Noitora...I'm sorry, I wasn't there to help you, and now..." He fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands. "Master Noitora, if you wish it, I will gladly commit seppuku for failing you!"
Noitora raised an eyebrow at the over-dramatic Tesla. "What the hell are you talking about? What's seppuku?"
"Tesla, if you wish to help Noitora," Aizen cut in, grabbing the fraccion's attention, "then you should care for him until he returns to his adult form."
Tesla nodded. "Yes, of course. I'll do anything you need me to, Master Noitora."
Noitora grinned mischievously, clearly happy with the idea of having somebody to wait on his every whim.
Ichimaru turned to Aizen. "Did you call all of the fraccion?"
"I called the ones that would be fit for the task of caring for the Espada. Gin, I would like you to take care of Aaroniero. Kaname, please take care of Yammy. I'll take care of Zommari."
"What about Szayel?" Ichimaru asked. The scientist's fraccion were certainly not suitable for caring for a child.
"I have asked Ilforte to take care of him. Loli and Menoly are also going to take care of Ulquiorra."
By this time, all of the fraccion had taken their respective masters to their rooms where they could bathe and get ready for bed. Lilinette happily carried Stark away, Tousen managed to get Yammy to follow him, Zommari followed Aizen without question, Ichimaru had no trouble getting Aaroniero to go with him, Loli and Menoly took Ulquiorra to his room, Szayel followed his brother, Shawlong took care of Grimmjow, Halibel was escorted by Apache, Mila-Rose and Sun Sun, Findor carried Barragan away via piggyback after Barragan protested about not being carried away like a noble, and Tesla still acted as more of a subordinate than a caretaker to Noitora.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Lilinette laughed, ignoring the annoyed look on Stark's face. When they arrived at his room, Lilinette searched around for bath supplies. Finding a clean towel was near impossible, but eventually she found one stuffed in the corner of the closet that looked and smelled clean. She went through several empty bottles before finding any still containing shampoo, conditioner or soap. Having found bath supplies, Lilinette began filling up Stark's bathtub. She had wanted to give him a bubble bath, but there was no bubble solution around, seeing as, normally, Stark was a grown man.
Stark looked at the water as the tub filled, then turned to Lilinette. "Can't I just go to bed?"
"No, you need to get clean first. Now undress so we can get you washed up."
The Espada frowned. "I can wash myself."
Lilinette shook her head. "You won't do it right. I know you, you will just get yourself wet and say you cleaned up. Besides, it will be fun!"
Knowing he had no choice, Stark slipped out of his uniform. No sooner had he gotten undressed than Lilinette plopped him in the tub. After pouring some shampoo in her small hand, Lilinette began working it into a lather in Stark's hair. Something bumped into Stark's arm that wasn't the girl cleaning him. Moving his arm so he could see, Stark realized Lilinette had put three rubber ducks into the bathtub, presumably for him to play with. Seeing as he had nothing else to do while he was being washed, he pushed the ducks through the water, which made Lilinette giggle. Stark wondered if anybody else had to get washed by an adult.
--
"Hey, Tesla, what's taking so long?!" Young Noitra asked as his assigned guardian scurried about looking for bath supplies.
"The bottle of conditioner is empty, Master Noitora."
"So get me more. I need some of that stuff if I want my hair nice." Noitora had long hair, and without conditioner, it was a pain to take care of. Besides, he liked how it felt when it was soft.
Tesla bowed his head. "Yes, right away!"
While Tesla ran off to get another bottle of conditioner, Noitora turned on the water, trying to adjust it to the right temperature. Too cold. Too hot. Still too hot. Now it's too cold. "Forget it! Tesla can do it for me!" Noitora yelled, giving up on trying to find the right water temperature.
"Master Noitora, I found some!" Tesla's voice rang out before he stepped into the room, waving a bottle of conditioner.
Noitora grinned. "Good. Now, fix the water for me."
Getting down on his knees, Tesla turned the two knobs, adjusting the water temperature until it was lukewarm and comfortable. "How is that?"
The Espada stuck his bony hand under the stream of water coming from the faucet. "Good. Now let me bathe alone. Wait outside the door in case I need you again."
With a silent nod, Tesla got back to his feet and left the room for Noitora to bathe. In the meantime, he busied himself by cleaning up Noitora's room.
--
After Halibel's bath, her three fraccion sat her down and got her ready for bed. Sun-sun was brushing Halibel's hair while Apache cleaned up
"What scent should we use?" Mila-Rose asked the other two fraccion, looking through bottles of lotion.
"It doesn't matter, just grab one." Apache said, draining the bathtub of it's dirty water. "She's just going to bed, we don't need her to smell pretty."
"And why not? What's wrong with smelling good?"
Apache sighed. "There's nothing wrong with it, but she is going to go to sleep. Nobody is going to smell it."
"She's going to smell it!"
"She is going to be asleep!"
"She'll smell it before she falls asleep!"
"Will you two cut it out?!" Sun-sun snapped, stopping the two in the middle of their argument. "All we need is to keep her skin soft, not for her to smell like a bed of roses. Now just give her a lotion so she can put it on and we can bring her back to Tousen."
--
Ironically enough, Tousen was the last one to arrive in the room Aizen had chosen for the Espada to sit in while Tousen told his story. It was all set up for them to sleep in, since the goal was to lull them to sleep. Plus, it would be easier to keep track of them all in one room.
Ichimaru tried to hold back laughter as Tousen walked in with Yammy, his hair and clothes wet.
"I thought you were supposed ta give Yammy a bath, not take one yourself."
"He wouldn't stop splashing." Tousen sighed.
With the rest of the children already settled into the makeshift beds (which consisted of blankets on the floor for them to lay on, blankets for them to cover up with, and a pillow each) Yammy headed over to the last available spot. Stark was already half asleep, clutching the teddy bear Lilinette had provided him with. Ilforte had made sure to get Szayel his favorite pink blanket and matching pillow. Oddly enough, two small teddy bear ears were poking out from under Ulquiorra's blanket. Grimmjow spotted them, and went to say something, but abruptly turned away when Ulquiorra's eyes fell to the bulge under the blankets in Grimmjow's arms.
"It's just the blankets!" Grimmjow said without any accusation from Ulquiorra.
The fourth Espada said nothing and turned his attention back to Tousen as the Shinigami cleared his throat, signaling for the children to quiet down, and began his story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: I know I only talked about some of the Espada's bath adventures, but I think you'd agree that talking about 10 separate bathing sessions would be repetitive and boring, so I only included the few I thought would be most interesting. Next chapter, Tousen will begin his bedtime story.
