It was finally the day of the wedding. The rehearsal the day before had gone smoothly and everyone was confident. Akio had been busy with preparations all day, leaving Mari to panic by herself as her hair and makeup were being done and by the time she was ready, she could feel her heart racing in her chest. Everything about this felt so, so wrong. She shouldn't be marrying Haruki; he wasn't the one she loved but what choice did she have? She approached the room where the ceremony would be held, taking a deep breath, with a few of her female clan members standing behind her, feverish expressions on their faces as the doors opened for her and she felt a nervousness come over her as she stepped inside, gazing around at all the people. Akio was leaning against a window in the corner and he smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up and she took another deep breath, lifting her chin and clenching the fan in her hand tightly. This was it.
Haruki was standing at a table, where the san-san-kudo cups were prepared and she approached, her heart beating so loudly she was sure the people around her could hear it. Before she could reach the table, she heard a gasp from the guests and the sound of swords clashing behind her and she slowly turned her head. Although he wore a ski mask, Mari knew that was Ikkaku and he was taking on both guards at once. She heard another clash and she faced forward again to see that Akio was also taking care of the guards in the back. The people were panicking and Mari saw a flash from the window when suddenly, a third person appeared before her and she recognized those lavender eyes instantly, even with that amazed expression on his face as he gazed at her, seeming to forget why he had come there to begin with. As he remembered, he looked away from her, scooping her into his arms and doing flash step back outside. As they leaped out the window, Mari peered over his shoulder to see Byakuya standing at the window, a serene expression on his face as his gaze followed them, almost as if he didn't care that the wedding had turned out to be chaotic.
He set her down on her feet once they'd arrived at his home and he knelt down in front of her pulling off his mask. "We did it... we really did it." He lifted his gaze to her. "Mari, you look absolutely beautiful. I knew you'd be a gorgeous bride but I didn't think you'd look so pretty that I would freeze up the moment I saw you." Mari pouted and she lifted her hand holding the fan, smacking him in the head and he rubbed the red mark. "What was that for?"
"Are you three insane? They'll kill you this time for sure! Ikkaku and Akio are surely going to get caught and be thrown in jail and once they find you, they'll kill you! You couldn't have waited until after the wedding to pull a stupid suicide mission like this? Do you know how much I've been stressing about the wedding the past couple of days? I was upset about it, yes, but I was just so glad that I talked you out of letting them kill you and then you go and pull a stunt like this. God damn it, Yumichika, you just love driving me crazy, don't you?"
Yumichika sighed, leaning against the table. "Mari, I did it for you. We never actually got to say goodbye and I couldn't stand the way we ended. Mari... I'm so, so sorry for hurting you the way I did, I don't know what came over me. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I really don't want to lose you but since I have to, I at least want to properly say goodbye." He chuckled, burying his face into his hands. "I probably look so pathetic to you right now. Look at me, expecting you to still love me after what I did to you. I never deserved you to begin with. It was a miracle that you stayed with me before. Maybe I'm asking for too much."
Mari knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly. "No, Yumichika, that's not why I'm upset. I just don't want you to get hurt. It caught me by surprise. Of course I still love you with everything I have and I know that what happened wasn't your fault at all. It was that guy's spell or whatever he did to you to make you do that. I know you would never hurt me." She tilted her head up and touched his chin so he turned to look at her and she gently kissed him, taking in the feel of his soft lips. "I missed the way your kisses taste." She moved closer to him and kissed him harder, letting him hold her tightly in his arms. Once they parted lips, she sat in his lap, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder.
"You really do make a beautiful bride, Mari. If only you could be my bride."
Mari giggled, shaking her head. "If it makes you feel better, Haruki is nice but he's a real stick in the mud. All he ever talks about is having a family and 'love at first sight', whatever that means. I feel bad for myself because I'm going to have to spend so much time with him."
"Don't have a family with him," Yumichika interrupted, "Please, just don't have a family with him."
Mari lifted her gaze to him. "You know that's the only reason they want me to marry him, right? To have children."
Yumichika shook his head. "Mari, picturing you in bed with him is driving me crazy. Please don't sleep with him."
"Okay," Mari answered, "I promise I won't." She put a hand on his chest, resting her head on his his shoulder again. "I wish I could have your children instead. Maybe one day, I'll come visit you and you can knock me up and I'll convince everyone that it's Haruki's baby."
He chuckled, poking her cheek. "Yeah, maybe one day."
Mari closed her eyes, inhaling his scent as she lifted her hand and traced his lips gently before sliding her hand down to his neck, where she stroked his soft skin. "It's not fair," she whispered, "It's like some kind of sick joke that I met you just a few months before I would be forced to marry someone else."
"Do you regret meeting me?" he murmured, holding her tightly.
"Of course not but I do regret missing the meeting that I had where I could decide whether or not I could marry him." She opened her eyes, lifting her gaze to him. "Yumichika, I'm gonna go back tomorrow morning, so... right now, I want you to do something for me."
"What's that?" he murmured.
"I want you to have me, and... I don't want you to stop until the sun comes up."
He smiled, kissing her tenderly. "Your tasks for me are too easy."
Mari awoke the next morning at the feel of Yumichika moving around beside her and she still felt so tired, only having slept a couple of hours. She opened her eyes to see that he was sitting up, a hand to his forehead and his eyes were wide and suddenly, she could feel it too; the feel of someone's immense spiritual pressure nearby. She propped herself up on her elbows. "Yumichika... who is that?"
Yumichika held out his arm in front of her before getting to his feet and fixing his Shihakushō before grasping his zanpakuto and running outside. Mari quickly got to her feet as well, taking out one of the yukata that she had left at his house before hurriedly putting it on and she rushed outside, glancing left and right; Yumichika was nowhere in sight. Just as she was about to call his name, someone lifted her up and did flash step too quickly to be seen by anybody and they only stopped outside the Suzuki house, where Mari quickly noticed a crowd had gathered and tossed nearby was a zanpakuto which Mari quickly recognized as Yumichika's. The person set her down and she rushed over to see that two of the guards were holding tightly on to Yumichika by his arms and he was visibly weak and trembling as if they had been hurting him.
"Miss Mari," one of her servants greeted happily, "We caught your kidnapper! We caught him! They're going to kill him."
Mari shook her head quickly. "Don't any of you dare lay a finger on him!" She stepped towards him and two other soul reapers held Mari back. "Are any of you listening to me? Unhand me! I order you all to stop!"
"We can't let you do that, Miss Mari," one of the men holding her back told her.
Mari clenched her jaw, forcibly pushing the two of them away from her long enough to grasp her zanpakuto. "Storm, Sukai Mizu!"
One of the men put his sword to Yumichika's throat. "Put your sword away, milady."
The water only thickened around Mari's own neck and she let the water transform into a blade attached to her hilt and she held it to her stomach. "If you kill him, I won't be afraid to do it. Release him unharmed and we will have the wedding again and this time it will go uninterrupted. I will make sure of that." The man let his guard down just for a second and Mari knocked his sword out of his hand before aiming the tip of her blade at Yumichika. "If he does something like this again, I'll be the one to kill him." Yumichika lifted his gaze to her and she locked gazes with him, her strong, irritated expression unfazed. "All of you seem to be forgetting that you take orders from me. It's not the other way around. I may be young but I am not weak. Where have Akio and the other one who barged into the wedding gone?"
"They've been arrested," one of her servants answered her.
"Alright, then arrest this one as well," Mari ordered, "Don't release any of them until I give you permission."
One of the guards stepped forward. "But Miss Mari, the proper punishment for kidnapping a noble, especially during such an important ceremony, is execution."
"Have I ordered you to execute him?" Mari lifted her sword to her side. "Everybody back up. Two of the guards can take him down to the cells underground. Make sure you seal his spirit energy." Everybody backed up except for two of the guards and they began to carry him away and Mari put her sword away, fighting off the extreme lack of energy she felt at using her shikai. "I'll go check on them tonight and if I see so much of a scratch on him, you'll be the one who is executed." She took a deep breath before turning to another one of the guards. "My wedding dress is still at his house. Go get it. Don't touch anything else. Don't look through his things. Don't disobey my orders. Go."
"Yes, ma'am," he said obediently before disappearing and she walked slowly to her home, going inside and straight to her bedroom, pulling the blanket over her head.
"I hate this room," she whispered to herself, "I hate this place. I hate everybody here." She turned to her side, squeezing her eyes closed as she held a hand to her chest. "But at least I know he'll be near me for a while."
Mari ended up sleeping until the next morning, and she bathed before letting her servants fix her hair and makeup the way she always used to before she met Yumichika and they made her look like the rich noble that she was before she put on a kimono. She slipped her feet into some shoes before she stepped outside and she approached the place the elders stayed, taking off her shoes as she entered and she sat down before them.
"I'm glad you're not hurt, Mari," one of them greeted her, "Did he make you do something you didn't want to?"
Mari shook her head, which wasn't a lie. When they slept together, she had asked him to so it wasn't something she didn't want to. "I wasn't hurt at all. That wasn't what I came here to talk about."
"Oh, the wedding," another of them recalled, "Don't worry, we can try again tomorrow."
"Okay," she answered, "I will be ready."
"That's good," the same one answered, "Now go prepare yourself."
Mari nodded, getting to her feet and bowing to them before hurrying outside, slipping on her shoes. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, thinking to herself, 'I hate them the most.' She made her way to the staircase that led to the prison below and she descended the stairs slowly, turning on the light. "It's so dark in here."
"Mari!" she heard Akio exclaim.
Mari chuckled, taking down the keys from the wall beside her and she began approaching his cell, passing Ikkaku's and Yumichika's, which were across from each other. "Don't worry, Akio, I haven't forgotten about you." She unlocked his cell and let him out and he stepped out, holding out his bound hands and she unlocked those as well.
"Are you going to let out Ikkaku and Yumichika as well?" he asked her, rubbing his red wrists and Mari shook her head, returning the keys to the hook they were on before kneeling down in front of Yumichika's cell. He was in the back corner, gazing down at his lap and his hair covered his face. Mari couldn't help but giggling.
"Yumichika, come here," she called and he lifted his gaze to her before shaking his head and she felt as if he had punched her in the stomach instead; it was the first time he'd refused her. "Why not?"
"Because you had a choice. You could have let me and Ikkaku go free but you didn't. I should be the one asking you why."
Mari pouted, taking two bars of his cell and pressing her face in between them. "But Yumichika, I'm not going to keep you guys here permanently. I only wanted to keep you here so that I would have an excuse to see you every day, even when I do get married." She touched a finger to her chin. "Hey, you took me against my will once just because you wanted to spend more time with me. I guess now we're even."
"Even?" he had an irritated expression on his face, "I had you in my house, not locked in a prison cell. You even slept in my own bed, but all I get to sleep on here is that stupid excuse for a bed over there. It feels like sleeping on the ground."
Mari giggled, shaking her head. "I could have had them execute you instead." She smiled, leaning her head against the bars. "Trust me, I would let you sleep in my bed if I could. Would it make you feel better if I slept down here with you? I could sneak down here late at night and spend the night with you."
"If you're going to do that, why don't you let Ikkaku go?"
"If I let him go but not you that would be suspicious. Letting Akio go is reasonable though because I need him to help me with just about everything and everybody here knows that." She reached into the bars and waved him over but he simply turned away from her. She lifted her gaze to Akio beside her and he handed her the keys so that she could unlock Yumichika's cell and she shut it behind her, approaching him and kneeling down beside him.
"You threatened to kill me yesterday."
"You really think I could kill you?" she giggled, touching his shoulder, "I only said that so that I didn't look weak. If they found out what we've really been doing, they might start disobeying me again and they could kill you for real this time." She wrapped her arms around his, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm an underage princess who is engaged. I'm supposed to be a virgin, you know."
"Then through your fiancé's eyes, you'll be a virgin forever."
She laughed, kissing the crane of his neck. "Thank you, Yumichika."
He lifted his gaze to her. "For what?"
"Because you made me realize a lot of things. You made me realize how unimportant I am to my family and you made me realize how much fun life can really be if you spend it with the right people and you made me realize how much Akio cares about me, even though he was the one with the big realization when it came to that, and you made me realize that love really does exist. You also made me feel really, really pretty, but I don't think that has anything to do with what I'm telling you." She sighed, dropping her gaze. "Meanwhile, all I've done for you is ruin things. If I hadn't come along, you and Ikkaku would still be back with your squad, happily doing your job like you're supposed to be. I wouldn't blame you if you regret falling for me. I'm not worth all of this, right? On top of all that, I locked you both in a cell just to keep you close to me because I'm selfish."
He turned to her, putting his hands on either side of her face gently as if she were a precious artifact and he leaned forward, kissing her hard although she was blushing from being in open view of Ikkaku and Akio and she continued blushing, even when they parted lips. "Mari, you've done the opposite of ruin my life. You've made it so much better. You've given it meaning. You did the impossible, Mari; you made me fall in love and that's something I didn't think anybody could do. That's why I keep telling you that you're the love of my life." He pulled her into his lap and kissed her again, tracing her jawline and this time when they parted lips, he gave her a smile. "I won't be mad at you if you let Ikkaku go. Tell them that... I did something worse than what he did so I need more punishment and you let him go because you let Akio go and you wanted to be fair."
Mari nodded. "Okay. I'll bring you some food down in a bit, okay?" She got to her feet and left his cell, shutting it behind her before turning to Ikkaku's cell and unlocking it. "Thank you so much, Ikkaku. I don't know who came up with the stupid stunt you guys pulled," she paused to giggle before continuing, "but I'm grateful that you went as far as getting yourself locked up and risking getting killed just for me and Yumichika's relationship so thank you very much."
He nodded, getting to his feet and as she unlocked the spirit energy seal on his wrists, he responded, "Don't mention it." He waved at Yumichika before climbing the stairs and Mari turned to Akio.
"Akio, go walk him out. I don't want any of the stupid guardsmen trying to start something with him." Akio nodded and obeyed, running to catch up with Ikkaku, only stopping at a cabinet on the wall to retrieve his and Ikkaku's zanpakuto, and Mari turned to Yumichika. "I'll be back later, Yumichika."
He nodded. "I'll be waiting for you."
She turned away, smiling to herself as she hung up the keys and she climbed the stairs, gazing around before returning to her home and she began to prepare a breakfast for two; of course she wouldn't let anybody else here feed him whatever awful food they'd been feeding Ikkaku and Akio. She felt for them that they'd had to go through it but she wouldn't let Yumichika go through it too. After she finished cooking, she put everything on a tray and she approached the prison door but upon reaching it, she noticed it was open. She hid behind the wall beside it and leaned towards it, listening.
She could hear one of the guards shout, "Where are the other two prisoners? Who let them out?" When there was silence and then she heard a bang as if he had kicked something. "Don't ignore me, damn it, I know you can hear me!"
She could hear Yumichika sigh with annoyance before he muttered, "The princess let them out. Didn't she say that nobody could let any of us out without her permission anyway?"
"Why didn't she let you out? I don't like your attitude."
"Well, I don't like your face but I can't do anything about that either." Mari giggled to herself at that note.
"Insult me one more time, I dare you. I could kill you right here, right now, and nobody will care because you're the felon who kidnapped the princess."
Yumichika laughed at his response. "What was that? Nobody will care? 'If I see so much as a scratch on him, you'll be executed'. Does that sound familiar? It probably doesn't sound familiar to you since you don't look very smart, but that was what the princess said as you brutes were dragging me away."
"Well if you wanna know the truth, pretty boy, Miss Mari isn't strong at all. She's hardly even considered head to any of us, since all of her responsibilities are placed on Akio. She's just an irresponsible, arrogant, selfish, spoiled little brat with a lot of money for my pay check. I have no respect for her at all."
Mari clenched her jaw, gently setting down the tray she'd prepared and she began descending the stairs, taking a deep breath with her mouth open, preparing for a scolding but she gasped upon seeing Yumichika with his bound hands through the bars, clenching the guard's neck firmly. At the sound of her gasp, Yumichika let go of his neck, letting him fall to the floor unconscious before turning to Mari as if he'd done nothing wrong.
"Is he dead?" she exclaimed, rushing over to the guard to check if he was breathing.
"Who cares?" Yumichika answered, returning to the corner of his cell where he was in the morning.
"I'm glad he's not dead! If the other guards had found out you killed him, they would be mad at you!"
He rolled his eyes, turning away. "They can't touch me. Besides, he was badmouthing you. He's better off dead."
Mari attempted to drag the guard up the stairs and groaned at his weight. "Akio."
Akio appeared beside her, gasping at the sight of the guard. "What happened?"
Mari chuckled sheepishly. "Well, he was saying stuff about me that Yumichika didn't like so he kind of... choked him out. Anyway, I can't lift him up by myself, so can you help me?" Akio nodded and they carried the guard outside together. Mari took the tray downstairs, setting it down on the floor before taking the keys and unlocking his cell and she took the tray inside.
Yumichika held out his bound hands. "I can't eat without my hands."
Mari grinned at him. "That's okay." She set down the keys, lifting her chopsticks in one hand and picking up some rice with it before holding it to his lips. "Open wide." He blushed at her request before doing as she said and she continued to feed him until he was full before she ate what was left herself, setting down her tray. "Wow, I'm so full now."
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "It was delicious, princess."
Mari blushed, looking away. "It's weird that you're calling me that."
He chuckled. "Why? That's what you are, isn't it?"
"Yeah but it's weird hearing you say it. You've never called me princess like that before and I know it's not like how everyone else calls me princess, it's affectionate. It's weird."
"Do you want me to stop calling you that?"
Mari shook her head. "No, you can call me that if you want to."
He chuckled at her expression. "You're so weird."
Mari blushed even more and he took her by her shoulder, kissing her tenderly. "What was that for?"
"Just because you're cute."
Mari looked away, her cheeks bright pink just as she heard someone descending the stairs. "Mari," Akio's voice sounded, "you need to hurry back out here. Haruki's here."