Chapter Text
Rumi had thought that embracing her demonic side would bring her some manner of peace. That, by finally embracing herself, she might finally be free of it.
And, while she was definitely free of the guilt that came with hiding it, she has come to realize that it comes with a whole host of new things to contend with. Some of them were good. She felt her strength and durability increase tenfold. Shots that would have sent her reeling, before, instead glance of her with only a slight twinge of pain. She's become better at tracking demons that have escaped through the Hunmoon. Her voice has returned stronger than ever, perhaps even stronger now that she's bolstered by this freedom in her soul. She was more confident than she’d ever been before, able to actually go to a bathhouse with her girls without feeling terrified something would be seen.
But, there were definitely... downsides.
She can feel herself getting a lot more aggressive in fights. Not enough to lose control of herself, but enough that she notices it. She's more protective of her girls, her innate desire to keep them safe amplified to a degree that she will barrel herself into much greater danger just to do so. Her appetite has become much more voracious, as her body burns up calories so much faster with the sheer effort of being her. With this newfound appetite comes a new sense of smell, which has it's own upsides and downsides. Bad smells can really affect her, while good smells... well, more on that later.
The biggest thing that came with this was the fact that her body... transforms when she's highly emotional. It can happen with any emotional extreme, she's finding. She always has fangs, now. But, when emotional or flustered or heated, she's found that horns, claws, and a nasty-looking tail can make themselves known.
This brings her back to the whole smell thing. It mingles with her desire to protect, making her so much more receptive to her bandmates individual scents. But, recently, it hasn't been dying down. It's in her head all the time, making daily life almost impossible. She frequently wants to lose herself in it. Lose herself in them. Wants to just pick the shorter Zoey up and smoosh her face into her neck until she can't think of anything else. Wants to tackle Mira to the ground when she makes a cool, sarcastic little quip to someone and sink her teeth into her.
Yeah, maybe she'd always had a little crush on her teammates. But, this demon thing was making it so much harder to just accept it as that. It was bordering on something stronger, something insatiable.
Tonight was especially hard. Tonight, they had a meet and greet with fans. Especially after just coming off a concert the previous night, she was exhausted. She already had a headache, patterns on her skin seeming to throb with irritation. And, as much as she loved their fans, the general loudness of the venue wasn't helping any of it. It didn't help that she could smell Mira's perfume from down the table or feel the pleasant, buzzing energy of Zoey as she greeted people coming up to her.
Worst of all, she's finding herself... bristling any time one of the girls gets touched. Her demonic side seethes quietly every time a hand touches one of theirs, despite most being just excited and friendly. It keeps distracting her, though. Keeps drawing her eyes over to the point of connection, something hungry and jealous churning deep within.
Jealous… for what? It’s not like they were even together. They were just all close. What was there for her to be this jealous about? She’s being ridiculous about this. She’s just got weird new things about her demon side going on and she’s letting this get all in her head.
She blinks slowly, then looks up at a fan who's giving her a quizzical look. She flushes, annoyed with herself for getting sidetracked again. Who cares if fans touch them? As long as Zoey and Mira are fine with shaking hands and such, she should be too. They can handle themselves just fine, even if they weren't. She clears her throat and offers a tired smile to the person in front of her.
"Ah. Sorry. Who am I making this out to?"
The fan doesn’t seem to mind her momentary lapse in attention, happily telling her who to sign this for. And, as many fans do, start talking about the different songs they like and how big a fan they are of Huntr/x. While they’re talking and while she’s signing, she regrettably finds her attention drifting again. The voices start to become nothing but warbling hums as her eyes slide over to Zoey.
The other girl has just finished up an interaction with a grateful girl, leaning up to give her a hug before she sits back down. Her eyes then slip over to look at Rumi, widen a bit when she finds herself meeting the woman’s rather intense gaze, then saying something that Rumi can barely hear over the rushing of blood in her ears. She tries to focus on it, but all she can do is gaze down at Zoey’s lips. Watch as they form each word. She feels the heat spreading all the way to her ears, pictures covering it with her own mouth, sinking her fangs into her bottom lip, mine mine mine-
“-okay?”
Rumi blinks her eyes again, now finding Zoey’s brow lightly creased with concern. “Mm?”
“I said, are you okay? You’re kinda, uh… ruining that print, there.”
Rumi looks down and finds that her signature has turned into a stream of gibberish and curls. The very patient fan is looking at her with a slight bit of unease, eyes looking up between their print and their idol. Instantly, she feels so embarrassed she could let the ground swallow her up. She rubs the heel of her palm across her eyes, then slipping it back to massage into her temple. She lets her voice tumble out in a tired mumble. “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Rumi?” Zoey says quietly, gently placing her hand on one of the girl’s arms. Mira, who has now noticed something going on between the two, looks over with a questioning expression to them both. The embarrassment comes all the harder now that both of them are looking at her like that.
“Just a headache. It’ll go away.” She replies in an attempt to quell her teammates’ concerns. After all, they’ve had to spend long enough worrying about her. She doesn’t want them to have to, anymore. She can handle this. She can definitely handle this. She just has to get through this meet and greet. Then, she can go home and take a long, scalding shower, take some headache medicine, and stuff her face into her pillows. Just a little longer, that’s all.
Luckily for her, the rest of the time seems to go by as smoothly as can, given the circumstances. The looks on Mira and Zoey’s face say that they don’t really believe it’s all just fine. But, they more or less have to accept it given their current environment. Rumi makes sure not to look at them, lest she get distracted again. Even though she can still feel them close. Still smell them.She makes sure to give the fan whose print she ruined something extra to take with them, then soldiers on through the next hour.
She usually loves these but, by the time it’s wrapped up, she is so ready to leave that she nearly leaps out of her chair to go backstage. Her forehead is getting itchy, her patterns feeling much the same as they shift between something like a dark purple and their usual blue. By the time Mira and Zoey get back, she’s leaned up on the wall of their dressing room and taking slow, deep breaths. She’s taken off her jacket, which seems far too hot right now, and tossed it over a chair.
Mira approaches first. She doesn’t touch Rumi, but gets as reasonably close as she can. The proximity of her warmth makes her dizzy. The perfume still smells just as strongly as it did at the table, amplified ten times by their proximity to each other. “Okay, something’s up. This isn’t just a headache, is it? Your patterns are…”
“Changing color. Yes. I can see it. I think I can feel my horns coming in, too.” Rumi answers, chewing her lip as her eyes dart around from Mira’s firm gaze. She’s always been the more confrontational of all of them. The direct challenge in her eyes just begs to be met. Makes her mind drift to how her eyes might look if she was pinned to a wall. “I, ah... think it’s… side effects? Of my demon side. I just feel off. Bad off. I think I just need to get home. All this is a lot, right now. Too much stress.”
Technically not a lie. But, she can’t really just come out and say ‘you two are setting my demon side off something fierce and I want to kiss you both like crazy’, can she?
Mira face softens a touch and she takes a half step back. She immediately misses the warmth. “Okay. We’ll get around and go quick, then. Come on, Zo.”
Zoey nods, still hitting Rumi with that sympathetic expression. It makes her face prickle with heat. If they only knew the thoughts that were running through her mind, they wouldn’t look at her like that. She doesn’t know how they’d look, honestly. And, that’s the scariest part.
They give her space as they go to change into something more casual for the streets, which lets Rumi make some attempts to calm herself down. It works, for the most part, though it doesn’t completely die down. For some reason, she just can’t shake it today. And, when they get close together like they might usually do, the fog drifts around her brain all the more prominently. She feels stifling, even dressed casually as she is. Zoey’s arms wrapping around one of hers floods her eyes with the narrow slits of her demonic half. Nice as that might be, it’s not helping. Now she can smell her scent much more potently, sweat mingling with that fruity two-in-one that Mira tells her not to use.
But, she can withstand. At least out to their car.
And, then, the worst possible thing that could happen occurs.
Huntr/x doesn’t generally have rude fans. For the most part, they’re all very pleasant and good to be around. Sometimes a little too excitable, but that came with the territory. However, as is inevitable with any fandom that gets large enough, you’re going to have the people who are real unpleasant. There are people who get way to pushy with trying to get signatures, who try and ambush them after shows and get them to sign a whole bunch of stuff.
‘Probably to sell them online’, she remembers Mira saying with a scoff.
And, of all the times for someone to try and pull that, why now?
The moment they come around the corner, a guy is waiting for them. He’s got an obscenely numerous amount of things bulging in his arms. His voice is immediately loud and grating to Rumi’s already fraying nerves as he approaches. It’s striking enough that she doesn’t really hear what he says, it just becoming a shrill ringing in her ears. He wants autographs, that’s about all she can make out. She can hear Mira getting annoyed, likely out of concern for the rather horrible night Rumi seems to be having.
She sorta wishes they’d left with some kind of security, but the threat of her horns sprouting out in front of one of them was too big a risk. The patterns were easy enough to explain away as tattoos, but actual horns… it would make too much hassle.
She hears the guy get louder. Pushier. Zoey is speaking now, quick and insistent as she lets go of Rumi to take a position in front of her. Mira’s voice warbles past as everything becomes hot, the taller woman stepping right up to the guy to tell him off.
And, then… he lays a hand on her.
She’s not sure what he was doing. What his intentions were. It doesn’t matter.
She lunges out from between her girls. Her body hits the guy like a freight train, sending the both of them spilling to the ground ten feet from where he’d been previously standing. She ends up on top, feeling her horns jut out of her head and her patterns burn with fury. Her voice comes out in an echoing snarl as her clawed hands rip into the collar of his shirt to drag him closer.
“Hands off! She’s MINE-”
That’s when her version goes dark.