SEVEN
flashback.

❛ You fucking love me ❜

ఌ

YEARS EARLIER.

The first time Lemon found out that Vanessa and Tangerine were dating wasn't how either of them wanted to reveal it originally.

It was the brother's weekly ritual to drop down to Vanessa's apartment, but on one particular day, Lemon woke up in their flat by himself, his brother's bed still made up from the day previous.

He'd had a suspicion of the pair for a few weeks, because Tangerine's excuse for leaving at night would be; he's off down to the pub to clear his head, or Vanessa needs his help with something. Most of the time that was bullshit, and he was purely going to Nessa's to just be with her.

So, when Lemon entered Vanessa's apartment with their spare key, he wasn't at all surprised to see his brother in his boxer shorts stood over the kitchen counter making two mugs of tea.

Tangerine head shot up at the door closing and he whirled around to see Lemon gawking at him, "Fucking hell, Lemon. Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack, or somet?"

The bedroom door gets pulled open, and Vanessa's stepped through, still not noticing Lemon as she said, "Tan, how long does it take to make a—"

She skidded a stop at the other end of the room to Lemon with her mouth agape like his. She watched as his eyes scanned up and down her body, and then she remembered what she was wearing; her underwear set and Tangerine's white dress shirt hanging loosely over her.

Tangerine was quick to step in front of her, allowing her to silently turn around once more and enter the bedroom to change, "Could you mind stopping eye-fucking her, please, Lemon?" Tangerine snapped, not even bothered that all he had on are his boxers.

Lemon raised a finger, motioning between the closed bedroom door and his brother, "So, you two, huh?"

Tangerine turned back to the mugs of tea, humming lowly, "Not exactly how I wanted to tell you, but you have a bloody habit of ruining things."

Lemon's arms cross over his chest defensively, "Name one other time."

Tangerine glared at him, as if it was stupid to claim he couldn't remember a time, "Oh, I don't know. Let me think. . . Oh, yeah. On Vanessa's birthday last month when we both agreed on a fucking surprise in the morning. And what did you do, Lemon? You fucking stomped into her house like Santa Claus and woke her up before we had even made it to the kitchen," He snapped, "Want me to name another time, or do you think you've got the idea?"

Pursing his lips, Lemon shook his head, "No, no, I'm good. I see your point now."

Chuckling lowly at the brother's, Vanessa stepped back out with her usual pyjamas now wrapped around her body and Tangerine grumbled something under his breath lowly, clearly not liking that outfit as much as the previous.

"Congratulations," Lemon smiled.

After taking a mug of tea and rubbing Tangerine's back thankfully, Vanessa faced Lemon with a soft smile, "We aren't married, Lemon. You don't have to say congratulations."

Tangerine raised a fist to his lips, coughing out quietly, "Yet."

She delivered a smack to his chest, and he smirked over at her, bringing his mug to his lips.

ఌ

Tangerine sat on the toilet seat watching as Vanessa searched the bathroom cabinets with cinched brows. He wasn't able to catch the incoherent words passing her lips as she searched, but he could only guess that she was telling him off quietly.

"Ness—"

She shook her head, holding up a single finger in his direction as she continued to scan each shelf of the cabinets.

She had arrived home to see Tangerine staring at himself in the mirror, wincing as he ran his fingertip over the cut on his lip and blood ran down his cheek from the deep scar just below his eye.

Finally, she turned to meet his gaze, but dropped her eyes down to his lip before gently grabbing his chin to tilt his head up as she dabbed a disinfectant wipe against the cut across his lip.

He winced quietly, his hands moving up to hold her waist as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Sorry," She whispered.

"It's fine, love," He mumbled, attempting to keep his lips as still as possible, "Thank you."

She shook her head, throwing the wipe into the bin beside her feet before turning her back to him as she searched through the first aid kit once more, "You don't have to thank me."

She faced him again, carefully cupping his other cheek and turning his head towards the wall so she had a clear view of his damaged cheek. Using dry toilet roll, she wiped up the running blood before grabbing another disinfectant wipe, slowly running it across the wound below his eye.

His hands returned to her waist once more and his gripped tightened as the chemicals burned into the gash. Without making his hands drop, she grabbed a small box of strips from the side before carefully sticking them across the wound to keep it closed as it healed.

Then, she run her hand through his curls before raising his head and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He smiled against her, pulling her down onto his lap with his hands still massaging her waist.

He kissed her once more, before softly saying, "Thank you, love."

She rolled her eyes, "You're welcome. But do not start getting purposefully beat up on your missions just so I can fix you back up."

"I hadn't thought of that," He smirked, "Thank you for the idea."

ఌ

Tangerine rammed his fist into the plaster wall of Vanessa's apartment, letting out a shout of anger.

"Will you stop punching fucking holes in my flat?" She snarled from behind him her with her arms crossed calmly across her chest, "If you want to release some anger, go do it in your apartment." 

He whirled around, mainly ignoring her tuts as he met her gaze, "Am I going fucking barmy, or is Lemon just a fucking dickhead?"

She shrugged, "Honest answer, both. But in this situation, Lemon's just a fucking dickhead. Look, Tan, I doubt he purposely left you out there on your own."

"I got shot again," He grumbled, raising his hands to comb them through his hair, "Because of that stupid twat! Nessa, I don't want to keep coming back here with more and more wounds for you to fix. I can't rely on you every fucking time."

She shook her head gently, "I don't care how many times you come back here in bloody pieces. I'll happily stitch you back up every time."

"He shouldn't have fucking abandoned in the first place," He dropped down onto the sofa.

She moved over to stand in front of him, her hands grabbing his cheeks to raise her eyes to meet hers, "Have you actually spoken to him yet?"

His eyelids fluttered closed as she gently rubs her thumb over his cheek, "No."

She dropped her hands, causing his eyes to shoot back open in instant, and he glances up at her in confusion.

She jabbed her finger towards the flat door, "Tanger-fucking-ine, go talk to your bastard brother right now instead of ranting to me as if he's still abandoned you. He's probably in your flat right now hating himself."

Sighing, he rose up, rolling his shoulders back before making his way over to the door, pulling it open, "Thank you for the comforting words, love. Warming my heart like fucking usual."

She blew him a kiss, "You fucking love me."

____________________
authors note.
word count: 1293

i need to keep doing loads of flashback chapters because i don't want the book to be like ten chaps long.

not proof read 🤞

i'm right pissed atm cause i pulled my fucking hamstring for a second time at footy a week ago and now my physio has banned me from all kinds of sports for three fucking weeks