TWELVE

❛ wedding ❜

ఌ

VANESSA'S BEEN STABBED BEFORE, but never shot, let alone shot in the abdomen. With her hand clamped down over the hole in her body, she's muttering every curse word under the sun at herself, regretting ever making the decision to become an assassin.

Crouched in front of her, Tangerine is going crazy, his large hands drenched in his wife's blood as they cover hers. He can hear every blasphemous thing exiting her mouth while he too rants with worry, attempting to calm her and himself down at the same time.

Tangerine may seem like a scary, hard man in front of those who don't know him, but he's really not. He will never admit it, but he cries often at every sad movie under the sun, which is why he only ever watches TV with Vanessa. And while he stares up at his wife's gorgeous exhausted face, he can't help but feel like he's in a grade by movie himself where the most important thing in his life is dying right in front of him.

"You stupid fucking woman," He mutters, biting his lip as he attempts to keep all his tears in, "Should've just kept up at your end of the train, out of harms way."

Finally, she opens her eyes and he's able to peer into the soft brown orbs. She tilts her head, lifting her foot to kick his flexed shin, causing him to grunt and roll his jaw, but his grip on her hands never loosens.

"Don't be so fucking ungrateful," She groans, her own finger slipping inside the wound in an attempt to block it up, "You would be dead right now if I hadn't gotten shot."

He shakes his head, a few of his curls dropping free from the gel and falling in front of his eyes, "Rather me than you."

Her gaze drops to her side, watching as more blood flows through both of their hands. She throws her head back, sniffing in an attempt to keep all of her tears in.

"You're okay, you're gonna be okay," Tangerine says quietly, dropping one of his hands from her abdomen to squeeze her thigh, "Fuck. We gotta get something to stop the fucking bleeding."

"The bathroom," She grunts.

She raises up, swatting his hands away and he shoots up after her, his arms catching her waist as she stumbles slightly. She shrugs him off once more as she trudges to the bathroom, barging in and throwing open the cupboards. As she feels her body grow weaker, she allows her body to collapse to the toilet seat.

Tangerine is quick to be by her side, one of his hands cupping the side of head, "What do you need, love? Tell me what you need, and I can get you it."

She motioned towards the open cupboards with her feet, as she takes in a deep breath, grunting quietly as the small movement of her body causes more pain to flare.

"There should be a towel," She explains, as she manoeuvres slightly so she's able to lay her head back against the bathroom wall.

Yelling silently at himself, Tangerine drops down to the cupboards below the sinks, his shaky blood covered hands raking through the shelves frantically as he hears small pants escape his wife's lips beside him.

"Ness, just hold on for me, okay?" He rushes, jaw grinding as he searches and his anger begins to grow, "Are you taking the piss? Where the fuck are the fucking towels? What kind of five star fucking train doesn't have hand towels?"

Finally, right at the back of the small cupboard, his hand runs over a thick soft material. He immediately rips it out and whirls around to Vanessa, gently moving her hands and quickly pressing the fresh towel against her wound, the fabric slowly changing colour to a dark red.

Dropping her head back down, Vanessa examines her husband's concerned face while he stares at her bleeding side, praying for it to suddenly stop. Her eyes run over his pretty eyes and the bushy moustache Lemon made him shave. A small smile spreads across her lips when she feels the cold band of their wedding ring press against her bare thigh. Her gaze falls to his shaky hand, the other's grip too tight to be shaking as he clutches onto the towel. She raises her own hand, placing it over his and squeezing gently, causing his head to shoot up and his gaze to meet hers.

"What's wrong, love?" He breathes.

She raises a brow, "I have a bullet in my abdomen, for one. That feels pretty wrong."

"Yeah, well, don't worry 'cause we'll be able to get it out as soon as this fucking train stops," He curls his hand around so hers falls into his palm as he squeezes, "Gotta save your murder for James when we're back home. He's gonna be so fucking pissed," Tangerine forces a laugh, "Oh, I'm looking forward to seeing it."

Vanessa rolls her eyes, "He actually likes you, you know. He likes how you make me feel," She snorts quietly, "Our wedding day was a day to remember."

Tangerine chuckles lowly, "I'd fucking hope so. It's not like we got fucking married or 'owt."

ఌ

A FEW YEARS EARLIER.

Tangerine proposed in a pub, which was no surprise.

Then a year later, and with months of planning and arguing; they finally got married. Surprisingly, Lemon had been the one to set the whole thing up. After seeing his decorated apartment, Vanessa allowed him to design the venue, and she'd never been very good at making plans, and he seemed so passionate of the event.

Inviting family was difficult. Tangerine invited his mum and nan and obviously Lemon, who was his best man. He also ended up inviting most of his close school mates, who made the whole thing carnage during the speeches. Vanessa invited all of her siblings, including James even though he frequently shared his distaste for her husband. Her sisters were her bridesmaids, which none of them particularly enjoyed. And after debating it for months, Nessa also invited Cain, who had a new woman attached to his hip. She knew it would be a bad idea, but he did have some part in her childhood.

The wedding was far from traditional. It wasn't in a church, or a hotel, or an office. Tangerine was the one who decided it would be held in his hometown's pub. Yes, the local pub. The community was tight, and at the end of the evening, half of the area were having drinks in celebration for their marriage.

It went smoothly for the first hour, but after the soppy speeches and toasts, everything went to total shit. Vanessa and her siblings, except James, ended up getting black out drunk together, dancing and singing in the centre of the room while Tangerine watched with a smile, as Lemon sat beside him downing pint after ping in hopes to forget the night. Cain started several arguments with James, and after the fourth, his misses took him home.

Hours later, and into the early hours of the morning, people finally started leaving. Tangerine, Vanessa, James and Lemon stayed back, helping the landlords clear up the carnage. Well, Nessa tried to help, but when you're black out drunk, it's hard to even walk, let alone tidy up a pub. So, she laid across a few interconnected chairs, her head hanging off the edge as she snores quietly, sometimes awaking to pull her dress down.

As James placed another few pint glasses down behind the bar, he looked over at Tangerine who was wiping down the sticky surface with a wet bar cloth.

"She loves you, you know," James says quietly, his head nodding over to his snoring sister, "Never thought I'd see the day she married someone."

Tangerine hummed, "She said the exact same bloody thing," He glances up, "Tar for not being such a bastard tonight like you usually are. Ness was worrying about you a few days ago."

James rolled his eyes, "And I turned out to be the only one out of the family not to be black out drunk. I can't even remember the last time I was drunk."

"Well, going to a posh priv does that to you, I've heard," Tangerine grumbled, "Posh pricks never really know how to drink properly."

Sighing, James stopped his movements and turned his body fully to face Tangerine with agitation, "Does Nessa really talk bad about me that much?"

Tangerine snorted, shaking his head, "Fuck no. I'm just not blind. There's a reason you ain't married yet, mate. Everyone can tell that you're a fucking torie. The loafers on your feet give it away."

James scoffed, "Fuck off."

"Ah!" Tangerine gasped, "He swears."

Running a hand over his face, James shook his head, "Jesus christ. You two really are made for each other."

"Like two fucking puzzle pieces," Tangerine snapped in annoyance, turning on his heel and walking over to beside Lemon, who was throwing rubbish into a bin bag, "He's a prick."

Lemon hummed in agreement, "Tell me about it. He waffled on about his watch for thirty minutes to our nan tonight," He lazily threw the full black bin bag to the floor by the door before opening another, "I don't think he realised but she fell asleep after five bloody minutes. I didn't have the heart to tell him that she had basically died from boredom."

Tangerine laughed lowly, leaning back against a table as his eyes floated over to his sleeping wife. He sucked in a deep breath, tapping his fingers against the edge of the table, "I'm fucking married. . . to her."

Lemon hummed, standing beside his brother and glancing over at his new sister in law with a small smile, "Yeah, you lucky bastard. How'd you do that?"

Nudging his elbow roughly into his brother's side, Tangerine rolled his eyes, causing the two of them to let out laughs.

"I should probably get her home," Tangerine sighed, pushing away from the table and turning to face Lemon, "Thank you for tonight, mate. You're girly decorating skills finally became fucking useful."

Lemon scowled, "It isn't girly."

Patting his shoulder, Tangerine chuckled, "I'll see you tomorrow, that's if Ness actually wakes up in the morning," He turned on his heel once more and begins to make his way over to his wife, calling her name gently, "Ness? Love?" He bent over slightly, gently grabbing her arms and helping her sit up right so her neck was supported by the back of the chairs. He tapped her cheek gently, "Oi! Vanessa."

Groaning, she wafted her hand in his direction without even bothering to open her eyes. He smiled, carefully brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear and from her face, "I'm gonna take you home."

She hummed enthusiastically, throwing her arms forward and they landed conveniently on his shoulders, "Home."

"Fucking christ, love," He tutted, moving slightly closer as he curls his hands under her thighs, lifting her from the chair as she unconsciously wraps her legs around his waist and circles her arms around his neck, dropping her head to his shoulder.

"I love you," She mumbled into his shoulder, tilting her head slightly to peck a kiss to the side of his head.

"I love you too," He replied, nodding a goodbye to Lemon before nudging the door open and stepping out into the dark car park.

__________________
authors note.

not proof read as per 🤞
fluffy chapter before more angst

if you couldn't tell, i'm a pub child and spend quite literally my whole life in pubs with my brothers ☠️