Tangerine ~ Bullet Train

31 - Doing better

There was nothing he could do to stop it; Lemon couldn't help but laughing by the sight of his brother's behaviour. Every muscle on Tangerine's face was tense, his jaws clenched together tightly, his eyes full of concentration. His body was shaking like a leaf. He tried to hide it by clenching his hands together into fists, but Lemon noticed the stiff movement his brother made with every step. Tangerine was nervous as never before.

'My god,' Lemon said, laughing. 'We have swindled, threatened, harmed and killed before, all whilst holding our composure. Alright, what happened in our last and final job aside, that is, but we have always been able to keep our cool.' He was unable to stop laughing. 'I can't believe you're actually losing your fucking shit over a simple meeting.'

'A simple meeting?' Everything about Tangerine's voice sounded tense. His chest would rapidly go up and down whilst breathing unsteadily. 'We're going to meet the only people Yuina ever cared about. I don't want to fuck up.'

'Look at you, changed and all,' Lemon replied, grinning. 'You're so sweet.' He brought his hand to Tangerine's cheek and squeezed it, to which his brother shook his hand away, annoyed. 'We're doing really well,' Tangerine sighed. 'I don't want to lose that.' Lemon looked at the seriousness that was engraved on his brother's face and nodded, becoming serious himself. 'You won't,' he told his brother. 'You said yourself that you're doing really well together.'

'But what if they don't like me?' Although he was in a good place lately, Tangerine couldn't help but feel insecure from the moment Yuina suggested they could meet her aunt's family. He knew she valued their opinion very much, and honestly he was just afraid of losing her by the thought that they would oppose of their relationship. 'Who cares?' Lemon said, shrugging. 'You like yourself now, and you know Yuina does, also. From what she had told you about her family, they only care about her well-being. If she's happy with you, I'm sure they will be, too.' Tangerine felt a little better hearing the words come out of his brother's mouth. He would surely be right.

'And you're wrong, you know?' Lemon continued, still serious. 'We're not going to meet the only people Yuina ever cared about. You know she cares about you, too.' Tangerine almost felt a lump in his throat by hearing Lemon's heart-warming speech. His brother ensured Tangerine feeling the corners of his mouth curl upwards. 'And you, brother,' Tangerine told him. That was still new to Lemon. On the train and when they escaped it felt like they were a team, and Lemon was only trying to adjust to them being the same still. Although their start was a little rusty, he grew to like Yuina. He could see she was a good influence on his brother.

The Twins continued their way up to the path to Aya's house, where they would meet Yuina's family for diner. 'The only thing I'm worried about is introducing ourselves,' Lemon said whilst ringing the bell, grinning. 'We still haven't chosen a normal name to live by.' Tangerine felt his nerves coming back instantly. His brother was right; they hadn't decided on some every day name, so now he would be introducing himself as a fruit to the most important family of his partner. 'Just fucking great,' he mumbled to himself quietly.

As usual all Tangerine's worries disappeared instantly when his eyes would meet Yuina's face. She opened the door and looked at the brothers with a wide smile on her face, her eyes sparkling with joy. 'Hi,' she said sweetly, to which Tangerine felt his knees shaking once again. 'Hi love,' he said, bringing his hand forward gently to touch her arm swiftly. He sometimes still wasn't accustomed of her wanting to physically connect with him, and Tangerine would sometimes still find himself being surprised when she would step forward to wrap her arms around him tightly, like she was doing now. It felt great. 'Princess,' Lemon said, bowing his head to Yuina, making her laugh. 'Lemon,' she replied joyfully, giving him a hug also. 'Chosen any new names for us yet?' Lemon asked her, to which Yuina also only now realised it might be a little odd for them being named after a fruit. Ever since she met them, they had always been Tangerine and Lemon. 'Nope,' she said, slightly smiling. 'There we go,' Tangerine couldn't help but sigh, 'Hi, nice to meet you for real this time. I'm Tangerine and I'm dating your niece.'