The Perfect Happy Marriage (probably!)

by Ulquiorra9000

Chapter 7

Ichigo felt himself starting to sweat in the cool evening as Parisians crowded past him, chattering away. What the hell?! He was so sure that he'd followed Meninas' route to the Hotel de Vries, but nope! He might as well be on the Moon! Okay, things wasn't that bad. But still...

"Damn it..." Ichigo drew out his cell phone and dialed his wife's number. He pressed the phone to his ear, but after a few tones, it went to voicemail: "Hi! You've reached Candice Kurosaki! Sorry, but I can't answer. Leave a lovely message, and I'll call you back ASAP! Promise!"

Ichigo swallowed and spoke up. "Hey, Candice, it's Ichigo. You won't believe it... I got lost! Please call me back and have Meninas guide me, all right? It's getting pretty late." He hung up.

Then again, in case Candice didn't get the voicemail, why not try and get directions from the locals, too? Shrugging, Ichigo headed into the charming bar and pushed his way through the crowd. At the same time, he got out his little phrase book and cleared his throat at the bartender. "Uh... excusez-moi. Ou est le Hotel de Vries?" He prayed his pronounciation didn't make him sound like a cat choking on a hairball.

The bartender nodded and rapidly gave directions, motioning with his hands. But Ichigo didn't catch a word. "I, uh... repetez, s'il vous plait," he said slowly, reading off his phrase book. He needed to hear that again!

But the directions were unclear even on the second go-around. Now seriously starting to freak out, Ichigo turned to the other patrons, and two girls his age smiled and giggled. "Vous-etes japonais? C'est si super!" one of them said. She had wavy brown hair and wore a parted jacket over her red blouse.

Ichigo scratched his orange hair. "Wh-what?"

"Ah, vous avez des cheveux orange? Magnifique!" the other girl, a redhead, said, and she positioned Ichigo between herself and her friend. A cheery selfie for the three of them commenced.

"Th-that's nice of you ladies," Ichigo said with a forced smile, "but I'm lost." He took a deep breath. "Ou est le Hotel de Vries?"

The first girl's eyes widened. "Oh! Suivez-moi!" She took a surprisingly strong hold on Ichigo's upper arm, and she and her friend marched him out of the bar and down a street and back down the street, where a pleasant breeze picked up.

The second girl, the redhead, tapped her heart. "Je m'appelle Marie. Et toi?"

"Oh, my name? Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Ichigo? C'est un nom japonais, oui?" the first girl said brightly. She pointed at herself. "Annette."

"Nice to meet you ladies," Ichigo said, finally relaxing a bit. With any luck, Marie and Annette would get him back in familiar territory before dawn! What a hassle this honeymoon turned out to be!

As they walked, Ichigo shared his phrase book and pointed out a few things. Once the girls gave it a look, Annette asked slowly in accented Japanese, "Are you... here for the first... time?"

Ichigo nodded. Annette's pronounciation was pretty good! But the guide book didn't have enough words to fully explain his situation... what to do? He'd have to get creative!

As the trio waited at an intersection, and a large bus rumbled past, Ichigo mimed putting his arm around a girl's waist. "Une fille pour moi," he pronounced very badly. "Avec moi. Je suis perdu." Put roughly: he was here with "a girl for him", and he was still lost.

Marie whooped and clapped. "Ta femme, Ichigo? Comment elle s'appelle?" She checked the guide and repeated: "What is... the name of your wife?"

Ichigo felt himself smile without realizing it. "Candice Kurosaki."

"What is... she like? How does... she look?" Annette asked slowly and carefully as the three of them crossed the street.

Ichigo brought out his smartphone and showed them a picture of when Candice had forced him into an awkward two-person selfie, with Candice smiling and mashing herself on a struggling Ichigo while she took the picture.

"Elle est si belle," Annette said with a sigh, swiping away Ichigo's phone in her gloved hands to study it. "She is very beautiful! Japanese, also?"

Ichigo hesitated; what exactly were the Quincies, anyway? Uryu and his dad Ryuken were ordinary Japanese people with Quincy powers, but the Wandenreich had existed in the shadows for a millenium... but Candice had brought herself into Ichigo's world to be with him... Ichigo cleared his throat. Heck, Candice was definitely his kind by now. "Oui. Candice est japonaise." He put his phone back in his pocket.

"Where is she?" Marie asked, her Japanese getting better by the second. Man, these girls were smart!

Ichigo shrugged, and swept his arms to encompass all of Paris.

"You should find her," Annette told him as they crossed another intersection into a marketplace. "Soon, yes?"

Ichigo nodded.

Finally, something familiar popped up: a small skyscraper with a red sign that Ichigo had seen from the windows of the Hotel de Vries! Was he close? He quickened his pace, and his long legs strode far ahead of Marie and Annette. Giggling, the girls raced to catch up. "Very tall," Marie said.

Ichigo merely grinned.

After another fifteen minutes, the trio came up to the River Seine, and they marched right across one of its bridges. "Hotel is close," Annette told Ichigo. "Find soon!"

Ichigo jumped out of his skin when his cell phone buzzed and chimed in his pocket. Nearly dropping the poor thing, he whipped out his phone and accepted the call. "Candice!"

"Darling!" came Candice's voice. "I totally missed your call! I'm sorry! But this place is noisy, and Meninas and I found this torch-juggling mime who -"

"C'est ta femme?" Marie asked slyly, pointing at Ichigo's cell phone. "Wife?"

Ichigo gave the thumbs-up. "Candice, where are you and Meninas? These two local girls brought me to this bridge over the River Seine."

Candice gasped on the line. "What?! Me too! Hang on..." She chatted with Meninas. "I'm on the Pont des Arts bridge. It's over the same river! Come find me. Hurry!"

She hung up.

Ichigo grinned again and put away his phone. "Pont des Arts," he said. "Please?"

"Oui!" Marie and Annette both took Ichigo's hands and raced across the bridge, and once on the other side, they guided him to the next bridge, sprinting past people, apologizing as they bumped into random pedestrians. Then the girls led Ichigo across the new bridge, and they stopped, pointing the way.

Ichigo bowed. "Thank you. Merci."

"It was nothing!" Annette said, and she and Marie scampered off.

Ichigo sighed with relief and shuffled across the Pont des Arts. He thought he recognized this name... but why? Where had he heard about -

"Ichigo! Darling!"

Candice threw herself onto her husband and wrapped her arms tight around him, laughing with glee. "I thought I'd lost you!" she cried.

"W-we did, technically," Ichigo choked out. Damn, Candice was strong when excited!

Candice let Ichigo loose and put her hands on her hips as Meninas waved. "Did you miss me, darling?"

Ichigo decided to answer by taking Candice's head in his hands, leaning forward, and mashing his lips on hers. He sighed through his nose, savoring the sweet taste of Candice's soft lips on his. Finally! It felt so... right.

"Goodness, darling," Candice panted when they parted. "You did miss me!" She smiled shyly and toyed with her green hair. "Or did this bridge give you the idea?"

"Bridge?" Ichigo asked blankly. His heart was still racing in his chest, his mind light with relief, being with Candice again. Who cared about some bridge?

"This is the Pont des Arts," Meninas reminded him. She walked off and motioned for the Kurosakis to follow. "Look."

Ichigo saw what she meant: along a chain-link fence were thousands of padlocks of different sizes and colors, all with names etched or written on them! A dazzling display of metal! It was actually kind of beautiful, like a work of art. "Who put all those locks there?" Ichigo asked. Now he recognized this place.

"Visitors from around the world put their and their lover's names on a lock and secure it onto this fence," Meninas told him. "And then they throw the key into the Seine."

"We should do that too!" Candice said eagerly. "Let's go get a lock."

Meninas shook her head. "Candi, didn't you see the sign when we got here? Look." She pointed at a blue and white sign with a message in black latters. Meninas translated: "Visitors may not place locks onto the bridge, or else will be fined. Stay clear whenever Paris city crews are at work removing the locks."

Candice pouted. "Minnie, that's outrageous! I wanted to put a lock on it! How else can my darling and I announce our love?"

Meninas shrugged. "We can buy a lock, but we'll have to take it back to Karakura Town or something."

"Yes!" Candie clapped her hands together. "We'll put our names on it and find a special place to put it." She wrapped her arms around Ichigo again and nuzzled his cheek. "I can't wait, Ichigo."

"Yeah," Ichigo said automatically, but it did raise a question in his mind. Candice had been a fun girlfriend at times, and heck, this marriage was starting to come together as well. But... "announce our love", as Candice said. Did Ichigo love her? Where did he stand? What would it mean for him, and his future?! This honeymoon helped him appreciate his wife... but something was still missing. Did he just need more time? Or another push?

Candice tapped her finger on Ichigo's nose. "Darling, you have your thundercloud face again..."

Ichigo blinked. "I'm just tired. Candice, hon, we should all get to bed. It's late."

"Bed, huh?" Candice let out an excited zap.

Ichigo jumped. "J-just for sleep! I've had a long day." But his heart was racing excitedly once again.

Meninas smiled and started off. "Follow me, Kurosakis."

*o*o*o*o*

Both Isshin and Giselle Gewelle were already waiting at the Tokyo airport when Ichigo, Candice, and Meninas stepped off their return flight and into the terminal's crowds. Giselle glomped Candice and Meninas while Isshin grinned and thumped his son on the back. "Have a good honeymoon, champ?"

"I'm not champ," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes. "And it was fine."

"Just fine, huh?" Isshin crossed his beefy arms.

"Well..." Ichigo glanced over at the three Sternritter girls giggling over the pictures on Candice's smartphone. "Dad, I want to keep my marriage to Candice -"

"I KNEW IT!" Isshin squished Ichigo into pulp as he bear-hugged his son.

Ichigo somehow escaped Isshin's grip, his face red. "But I need to figure out some other.. stuff," he said defensively. "Okay? And no interfering! This is my problem to fix."

"Ichigo, my boy..." Isshin put his fists on his hips and glanced over at the Sternritters. "Candice is a great gal. Whatever's bothering you, you'll fix it."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Still, on the drive back to Karakura Town, Ichigo got out his soul pager and sent a message. To: Renji A. Renji! Come meet me in the world of the living, will you? You're a pretty slick guy, right? I mean, you can handle Rukia and everything. so you know your stuff. I could use a little guidance.

Renji's message popped up a minute later. Jeez, fine. But I've got duties here for Squad 6, and Captain Kuchiki doesn't make a lot of allowances, you know.

Ichigo tapped in his response. Just make it down here, all right? Call it a favor.

Fine, whatever, Renji typed back. Oh, hey. Looks like Squad 7 needs my help with something. I'll open up a senkaimon gate when I'm done. See you.

Ichigo read the message and nodded. The sooner he figured this whole thing out, the better!

*o*o*o*o*

"Woo hoo! Home!" Candice threw open the rented house's front door and waltzed up the stairs to her and Ichigo's bedroom. "Come on, darling. Let's make out on the bed."

"Give me a minute. I'm having someone over," Ichigo called up. "I'll see you a bit later, okay? I promise."

"Okie dokie!" Candice called down, and she gently closed the bedroom door.

Just in time, there was a knock on the front door. Good timing, Renji, Ichigo thought, and he gratefully swung the door open.

"Chin up, Kurosaki. At least look like a real man."

Ichigo stumbled back. He recognized that yakuza-like haircut and stylish pair of shades! "Lieutenant Iba?!"