it's in my nature {Tangerine | Bullet Train}

three. the scorpion. the frog denies his fable.

Turmoil is a word Clementine is trying to stay away from when looking for ways to describe her current mental state. Turmoil, she believes, downplays the absolute clusterfuck of confused, startled, blinding rage she's feeling right in this very moment.

The absolute last person she wants to see in this exact moment would be that rat-fuck Son of the White Death. Yet here he is, of course, still calling her Clementine and Scorpion, like he has any right to either! Both are names he is responsible for in one way or another, both of which she absolutely hates him for! That stupid little frog! After everything he's done!

Unfortunately for Clementine, there is also a non-zero chance that he is in some way part of this whole ordeal, probably some last challenge or punishment before she's out of this godforsaken family's clutches; if anyone would know where her cash bonus would be, it's him. 

But he's not the issue, he's easy to deal with after all the time she's known him, it's his babysitters who throw a real spanner into the works. Guards alone would be an issue considering she has know way of knowing how much they know about the situation, if anything, but The Twins, Lemon and Tangerine, present a unique challenge that of course only she would end up facing. She'd closed her book with The Twins in New York, in a very permanent way, a way that would be messy to even attempt to reopen.

Messy. That's a word for it. Messy, deceitful history with the twins. Messy, definitive end to their time together. Messy, tumultuous clusterfuck in this exact moment.

The jig is up. Tangerine and Lemon are both looking at her, Lemon like he's seen a ghost, while Tangerine who's already powered through that particular revelation was quietly glowering at her like he was still trying to figure the rest of her out. Or like he's about ready to kill, which Clementine knows she absolutely deserves. It's also Tangerine who moves first, looking to Lemon with that same, burning intensity. She'll let them have their moment, instead turning her attention to The Son. He's regarded her warily, which Clementine had to admit, did feel rather good. Had he been his usual arrogant self she doesn't know if she could have stopped herself from mauling him. 

Except in the next moment his eyes as grazing down her attire. Leering? Perhaps. Usually at least a little. But when he meets her gaze again there's noticeable tension in his jaw. It's a subtle shift, but Clementine knows the moment The Son stops regarding her as a threat to himself; perhaps it's the reproachful look in his eyes, or the way he slouches further into his seat, but some of that arrogance is back. It's never far away. Frog. 

Clementine's chameleonic prowess is more than familiar to him, using it to his full advantage when she'd been assigned his security detail in the past, so of course The Son can see his sister's fingerprints all over Clementine's current aesthetic -

Ah. Right. Damn it, The Prince, four cars down and completely untrustworthy at the best of times. Whatever brief feelings of affection she'd had for the girl, thinking she may have been trying to help Clementine as some sort of final, kind gesture, have evaporated. 

She hates every single part of this family and she'll be so glad to be rid of them after today -

Again it's Tangerine moves first, but this time he isn't the only one. Clementine may be watching him slide from his seat, but in her peripheries Lemon is fidgeting with something she can't see. But she has her guesses; The Twins were never unarmed if they could help it. Now beside her, Tangerine gestures to the window seat with a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. Still in his suit jacket, she can see both his hands; gun still probably holstered knowing him, not that she should underestimate him. An attempt at misdirection? Maybe, but probably more for the sake of the passengers around them than Clementine herself.