Tangerine ~ Bullet Train

19 - "Are you ready to leave the castle?"

'We need to get after that fucker,' Tangerine said whilst pacing back and forth impatiently. 'We can't let him get away with this.' He couldn't even begin to describe how he felt. There was such rage boiling inside him. That guy threatened and hurt the girl he cared about so much, any there was nothing he was able to do to stop it.

'Don't be ridiculous,' Lemon replied. 'He's got a knife and a gun now. We don't stand a chance.'

'He can't get away with this!' Tangerine yelled again. His face was all red because of the anger and him heavily worrying the past few minutes. 'Be reasonable about this!' Lemon yelled back. Lemon could understand his brother being angry and seeking for revenge, but he had to become calm again. The problem was that Lemon didn't know how to make him.

As for Yuina, she felt her legs almost giving weigh, so she slowly let herself slide against the wall onto the floor, where she would pull up her legs and wrap her arms around them. The Twins were busy arguing so she thought they wouldn't notice her being so pathetic, but she should've known that Tangerine wouldn't let her out of his sight. He stopped arguing and levelled himself with Yuina, making her feel like a little child that just bumped into something so she got hurt, whilst in reality she was being held by some stranger with a knife against her throat.

'I'm sorry,' Tangerine said, sighing and shaking his head, 'I'm so sorry, I should've been there for you instead of arguing...'

They were used to these things. They even held other people at gunpoint themselves, and who knows what else they had done. But Yuina was in shock. They didn't act like she overreacted, still she felt like it.

She wanted to yell at Tangerine for making the trade, for letting go of the one thing that could keep him alive, not knowing that for him the one thing keeping him going right now was her. She didn't yell though, because she didn't know how to speak yet.

'You're hurt,' Tangerine said depressed. She followed his eyes and looked at her shoulder, where there would be a little blood that wasn't yet dry. 'Here, let me assist you...' Tangerine pulled out his hand with a withdrawn and questioning expression on his face. He wasn't quite sure she wanted anything to do with him right now, or ever again, but he couldn't just do nothing. He wanted to make sure she would heal from this. Almost everything inside told him that she wouldn't take his hand, yet she did, surprising him. She felt a weird sensation flowing through her body when she did.

All the feelings of horror, pain and sorrow didn't immediately disappear, but she felt like she could bear it when she took his hand, when she felt his warm skin against hers. He was still the man from her drawing; her protector. Whilst he felt like he couldn't do anything when she was being held against her will, she thought the exact opposite. He did everything to make sure he would save her. He even gave up his life for that.

'I have this little first-aid kit in my suitcase,' she said whilst letting herself being pulled up by Tangerine, hiding the fact that she didn't like him breaking their physical contact when she stood up again. 'Well,' she corrected herself, 'I guess I left it on the table after...' she mumbled, but she didn't know how to finish her sentence. Lemon knew exactly what she meant. 'I'll get it,' he said before entering their wagon, looking for the kit. Yuina secretly wanted to be alone with Tangerine for a while now, but now that she was, she tried to avoid his gaze. He noticed and immediately thought the worst, not knowing the real reason why.

'Here you go,' Lemon said when he got back, reaching the thing out to her. 'Thanks,' she mumbled. She didn't just mean him getting the kit, but he knew that already. When she would walk up to the bathroom, Lemon nodded at his brother to go after her. Tangerine wasn't sure she wanted him to, though. Still he wanted to do everything he could to make it better and offer to help her. Her not slamming the door shut when entering gave him the courage to walk up to her.