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The world around them roared white, the air so cold it burned.
Wind buffeted the two women as they clung to each other, tearing at their winter coats with icy claws.
Rumi squinted through the onslaught of rushing snow, her cheeks burning as the snow cut through the air like a blade. The world seemed to vanish just a few meters away from her face, making the forest impossible to navigate. Zoey stood beside her, holding a gloved hand over the injury on her forehead. Red stained her once light colored gloves.
I need to take a closer look at that soon.
Zoey was in good spirits, but Rumi knew that concussions could have delayed and serious symptoms. She needed to get her back to the penthouse as soon as possible, where she could be properly treated and monitored.
Snow frosted their colorful coats in white, and dusted across their faces beneath their hoods. They’d prepared for some amount of cold given the season, but not for an unexpected blizzard in the mountains. Seoul and the surrounding region were not unfamiliar with snow, but snowfall this heavy was rare. Those seeking winter sporting opportunities typically headed northeast to the Gangwon-do province, where heavier snowfall occurred. Seoul typically didn’t get much more than 7 centimeters a year, and half of that was already coating the ground.
Right now though, Bukhansan National Park was the epicenter of an impassable, unnatural whiteout. Somewhere, lost within the massive park, were Rumi and Zoey.
Zoey leaned against Rumi, pretending to whisper in her ear conspiratorily while actually having to whisper-yell over the wind. “Did you know it never snows in Burbank?”
Rumi smiled. “I thought you wanted snow.”
“I wanted a magical dusting and to be drinking hot cocoa, not to be trudging through a blizzard.” She grabbed Rumi’s gloved hand, squeezing it. “Just think, this summer we could be sunning ourselves on a beach, and drinking margaritas! Imagine the warmth. Imagine the bikinis.”
Rumi laughed and squeezed Zoey’s hand back. “Let’s plan a visit once we get home and out of this.” For a moment, she could picture the three of them lounging on a sandy beach. It was nice to think of something warm with the cold slipping its claws into any gap in their winter clothes. “I’ll let you pick out my swimsuit.”
Zoey’s eyebrows shot up and she gave Rumi a look that made her blush. “An acceptable offering, jagiya. I’m holding you to that!”
They pushed forward, footprints quickly wiped away by the storm.
~ ~ ~
Rumi hoped it was a sign that their luck was taking a turn for the better when they managed to stumble across a niche created by an ancient crumbled structure. It wasn’t a large space, but big enough for the two of them to fit into while sheltering them from the wind and snow on three sides. This offered some protection from the elements, and a chance to try to warm up and rest. With hopefully a little more luck, this demonic snowstorm would be over shortly and they would actually be able to get a cell phone signal, figure out where they were, and head home.
Rumi maneuvered Zoey into the little nook first, ensuring she was comfortable, then pressed in against her. She was able to block a little more of the weather from hitting her injured girlfriend, and share as much warmth as possible through their thick winter coats. Rumi gave Zoey's shoulder a gentle squeeze and she looked up, slightly dazed and red-faced. Rumi took her face with a gloved hand, tilting it for a better look while Zoey squawked at the cold touch. Rumi noted with relief that her pupils appeared normal and equally sized. “Just want to make sure you didn't hit your head too hard, yeobo.”
Zoey blushed slightly and rubbed her cheek where Rumi’s gloves had left tiny, sparkling flecks of snow. “Nah, my head is way too hard to be taken out by a branch.”
“Fair point, but you were definitely unconscious for a second there so I’m keeping an eye on you.”
She felt Zoey shiver as a particularly hard gust of wind swirled snow into their resting spot, and she hunched her shoulders, face nearly disappearing within her coat. Rumi had to hold herself back from cooing over the sight. She looks like a turtle.
“Hey Zo?”
A muffled response came from deep within Zoey’s coat. “Hmm?”
“Do you want to tell me all the fun stuff we will do in California?”
Excited brown eyes popped up from under the fluffy rim of the hood. “Oh my god, yes! Okay, okay, so first of all, we immediately go to the Aquarium of the Pacific, because they have the coolest sea star exhibit. Sometimes people call them starfish, but that isn't really accurate because…”
Rumi let Zoey's excitement wash over her, a little flame of joy against the chill.
From a distance, moving slowly but unceasingly closer, Rumi felt a tug in her chest. Mira.
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Earlier that day…
The plus side of Mira being in Busan for a modeling job was that Rumi and Zoey were completely on their own. They could load up on the junk food Mira couldn’t have due to her sensitive stomach, and binge the shows she hated because they made Rumi and Zoey cry. Truthfully, Mira didn’t hate the shows as much as she said she did–she just didn’t always feel like having two emotionally distraught girlfriends hanging off her shoulders all night.
The down side of Mira being in Busan for a modeling job was that Rumi and Zoey were completely on their own. After one evening of eating American junk food and crying over dramas, they ended up having to look for any distractions they could find to take their minds off missing their partner. Pensively staring out the windows and sighing “When will my husband return from war.” became increasingly common.
It wasn’t that they didn’t appreciate time apart. They had separate interests and lives, and spent much of their daily lives away from each other working on different projects around Seoul. They regularly had individual marketing campaigns catering to each of their public personas–typically modeling for Mira, Zoey regularly was used for video game and snack related ads, and Rumi was an obvious pick when a company wanted to tie in both traditional and modern aesthetics given her ties to the Sunlight Sisters. It was just that they’d spent every evening since the Idol Awards tangled up in one of their beds, and had gotten used to the warmth of two other bodies next to them. They relished the new closeness, but now that one of them is so far away it felt like more of a loss than it had before. The new Honmoon had granted them an even deeper connection, and not having Mira physically nearby felt like missing a limb–the phantom of her felt in every space they moved, but never close enough to touch.
Early on in their training, they were never far apart from each other. Celine had insisted they stay within the same area, ideally no more than 15 minutes travel apart, as Hunters-in-training were uniquely vulnerable. Even after they debuted and began dealing with demons without Celine, they still tried to stick to that guideline as much as possible. Alone, they risked being singled out by a group of demons; a single inexperienced Hunter would be a tempting prize for any demons looking to please Gwi-Ma. As they'd gained experience and skills, they'd been more willing to travel separately for short periods but still rarely did so, preferring to spend most of their time together.
And in their defense, they were literal soulmates, so they have a right to a little codependence now and then.
It had been months since everything had nearly literally gone to hell and back. The new Honmoon was stronger and more secure, but not impenetrable. This made it safer for them to separate for solo projects like this without risk, but they still had to be cautious. Demon encounters had been rarer, but the demons themselves were more desperate. This made some of them sloppier and more likely to make mistakes, but other groups of demons had become more cautious and dangerous.
All three women were even more tightly connected to this Honmoon, with this new veil being reborn out of their love for each other. Rumi especially could feel even the most minute vibrations traveling through the protective netting, signaling demonic activity.
As Rumi stared out the floor-to-ceiling window of the Huntr/x tower into the horizon, she felt a pluck. A tiny, distant reverberation in the Honmoon, like a single thread of silk in a web being gently snapped. Normally a demon breaching the barrier felt more like guitar strings popping; discordant and sharp. This felt delicate, deliberate. Maybe a smaller incursion, just a lone demon? Her brows drew together.
The sound of wheels against the hard floor echoed loudly through the otherwise quiet penthouse. Rumi heard a quiet chant increasing in volume as she grew closer, eventually recognizing the word “bored” being repeated over and over. Zoey rolled towards her, pushing herself backwards in her gaming chair with her feet. She’d spent most of the day running around Seoul for small charity appearances and had already told Rumi she planned to spend the evening playing Fortnite and relaxing. She slowed to a stop beside Rumi and joined her in staring out the window for a couple of seconds before leaning back in the chair and pushing herself into a slow spin.
“Still no snow in the city.” Zoey sighed. “Maybe when Mira gets back we can go to Gangwon-do and go skiing. See some REAL snow.”
Rumi huffed a quiet laugh. “You know Mira hates skiing.”
“Yeah, but she likes a good ski resort. She can drink and enjoy the sauna, and we can hit the slopes.” She pauses her spin and considers. “And then join her in the sauna. Nothing like a good hot sweat after getting out in the snow and-”
Another tiny pluck, and a responding shimmer ran through Rumi’s patterns. “Do you feel that?”
Zoey straightened up in her chair at Rumi’s serious tone, and looked out into the distance.
The cityscape of Seoul moved below them, pulsing with activity as citizens headed home for dinner. The Honmoon shimmered over it, embracing and protective.
Zoey began to bounce one leg in her chair, tapping her fingers against her thigh.
Another tiny vibration trickled through the Honmoon and Zoey stood abruptly, sending her chair wheeling away from her. “Oh man, that's tiny. Rude timing too, I was about to order food.” She reached her arms over her head in a full body stretch. “Guess this gives us some entertainment for the evening, at least.”
Rumi wasn't sure killing demons was the ideal way to spend part of her evening, but with Mira away and restlessness gnawing at her, it was certainly a better option than moping. She couldn't help but smile at the eagerness in Zoey's eyes as she limbered up next to her. This would be a welcome distraction for both of them, and wasn’t likely to be overly dangerous based on the lack of distress from the Honmoon.
Zoey squinted back out the window, pressing her hands and face against it. “Must be really far away though, I could barely feel that.”
“Bukhansan, I think.” Rumi noted.
Zoey lit up and gasped dramatically. “The park? I think they actually got a little dusting of snow. It’ll be so pretty, let's go!” Rumi rolled her eyes and smiled as she followed Zoey in a brisk jog to the closet. Zoey briefly whined at Rumi's insistence on bringing gloves,
(‘But they get in the way of my shin-kals, these fingers demand freedom!’
‘Bring them anyway, you can just take them off when we find the demons.’)
but it wasn’t long before they were out on the snow-dusted streets of Seoul and headed towards the faintly strumming thread in the distance.
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The storm continued as the sun set, time stretching as the world darkened. All that remained was a thin gray light that reflected off the snow, providing meager visibility. Snow blanketed the air and ground outside of the remains of the crumbling stone structure they huddled under.
They had opted to both remove their winter coats, connecting them together like a modified winter blanket that could be wrapped around both of them in the center. This allowed them to hold each other, better sharing direct body heat as the temperature continued to drop.
Zoey hadn’t been thrilled when Rumi had continued to insist that Zoey sit further inside the niche, allowing Rumi to block more of the wind and snow with her own body. She'd suggested that they both swap that position regularly so that both of them got to spend time in the slightly warmer interior spot. Rumi had countered with the fact that Zoey was injured and needed warmth and rest more than she did right now, and Rumi’s demon powers could help keep them both warm. Zoey had reluctantly relented, settling in to rest against Rumi’s glowing chest.
Rumi’s ability to turn herself into a space heater had been a surprising but welcome discovery.
Prior to the most recent Idol Awards, Rumi had never considered what skills she might have gained from her demonic heritage. After many sleepless, tear-filled nights and long overdue confessions to her now girlfriends, Rumi had slowly become comfortable enough to explore her demon half. The girls had been delighted to discover that her patterns glowed and changed color with her mood–Rumi had been less enthused about becoming a living mood ring, but had started to learn to control it to some degree. She could also teleport, albeit with questionable accuracy as to where she ended up. She hated the feeling of falling back into nothing and reappearing, so she'd mostly tabled exploring that ability. She was getting very good at controlling when her claws and fangs made an appearance. Once their relationship had become fully physical, Rumi had found that the girls didn’t mind the occasional appearance of her demonic traits. Zoey treated the opalescent patterns like constellations, plotting out what they resembled and giving them silly names like ‘bear doing yoga’ and ‘spilled Baja Blast’. Mira would simply run a lingering finger down Rumi’s arm as color shimmered across her skin, before whispering a breathy “Hot,” in her ear (which never failed to make her blush all the way to her roots).
Along with those abilities came the discovery that she could raise her own body temperature and cause her patterns to put out heat, her marks glowing like little oven coils when she did so.
She’d always naturally had a higher body temperature and been resistant to heat, able to withstand temperatures that would burn others. Celine had told her it was likely due to her demonic heritage, and then reminded her that although this meant she enjoyed absolutely scalding showers, she still needed to save some hot water for everyone else. Once she’d discovered that she could put off extra body heat on request, Zoey had claimed her as a living heated blanket. The younger woman often felt cold, and would now curl up against Rumi and melt into her on movie nights.
Once, Rumi had overdone it and became slightly feverish. She'd had to slip away once the girls had fallen asleep to take a cold shower and painkillers for the heat-induced headache. After that, she was careful not to overheat to avoid the unpleasant repercussions.
Now, wrapped around Zoey and burning off as much heat as she safely could to keep them both warm, she was struggling to hold back. She didn't want to hurt herself by overdoing it, but what she was doing now felt about as effective as a candle against the bitter temperatures. It will end soon, she thought, feeling Zoey shift and shudder in her arms.
Zoey had already gone over everything they would do during their California visit (there were a shocking amount of aquariums in the state), her words slowing and slurring as the cold and her injuries sapped her. Rumi could sense the fear quivering below the surface across her connection to Zoey, and responded with a pulse of confidence and love–despite her own growing concern. It was important that they both remain positive.
Rumi cleared her dry throat. “Do you want me to tell some stories?”
Rumi had grown up learning traditional stories and folktales, along with the stories of Hunters before her. It had been important for her to understand the folklore about demons, but she had also loved the ancient tales of talking animals, heroes, deities, and magical beings that called Korea home.
When Celine had brought the girls to her, finally assembling the young team of Hunters, she’d relished sharing these stories with them. Mira was familiar with most of the tales, having grown up in Korea as well, but some were new to Zoey. She would stare wide eyed and enraptured as Rumi spoke. All three of them had spent more than a few nights under the stars around a fire, sharing stories, childhood experiences, and dreams of the future.
Zoey nodded. “Yes p-please, Unnie.”
Zoey shivered violently and Rumi gave her a firm hug. Zoey smiled up at her, lips pale. “G-good thing you made me b-bring the gloves, right?”
It will end soon. Hesitantly, she pushed her body temperature higher. She had to risk the headache to keep Zoey’s hurt, exhausted body stable. Just a little warmer, just for a little while.
As she began weaving a tale about a tiger and persimmons, her patterns glowed a low orange, heat rising off the jagged lines.
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Earlier that day…
Zoey was right–Bukhansan really was pretty in the snow.
A light January snow had dusted through the forest, making the trees sparkle as their branches swayed in the gentle breeze. Ancient temples and pagodas dotted the trail-lined park, informational signs describing notable features. Signs at trailheads warned visitors to be cautious and stay on the marked trails to avoid getting lost. It was not the largest park in Korea, but the mountainous terrain and forests could easily disorient unwary parkgoers who decided to wander. The frigid weather had kept the tourists, as well as most locals, away. This benefited the Hunters–they didn't have to worry too much about being seen by fans, or having a demon making a sneaky meal of someone before they found them.
But with no people around, why are the demons out here? Rumi tried to push the thought to the side and focus on feeling for the subtle vibrations of the demons. It didn’t matter why the demons were here, all that mattered was that they were here.
When they first arrived, the two Hunters moved slowly through the dense mountain forest, but they picked up speed as they narrowed down on the source of the disturbance. Sprinting through the trees, they pulled on the threads of the Honmoon to boost their speed. The Honmoon obliged, strands wrapping around their feet and pushing them forward at a pace no normal human could match. Rumi looked at Zoey sprinting beside her, moving effortlessly through the brush with a gleeful grin on her face. Zoey jumped into everything she did with such unbridled joy–Rumi felt her chest tighten with a burst of love at the sight. Zoey glanced over at her, sensing the emotion bursting through the connection they shared. She winked and blew Rumi a kiss.
Rumi felt her face flush, and looked away to focus on her run. I love her so much.
They slowed as they neared the source of the disturbance. Coming to the edge of a small clearing, they both crouched in the undergrowth, keeping low to remain undetected. Peeking through the remaining leaves that hadn’t yet been stripped from the bushes in front of her, Rumi took the scene in.
A statue, so old and overgrown with mostly dead plants and debris as to be unrecognizable, lay toppled near the center of the clearing. Rumi counted 3 small Dokkaebi–these demons varied wildly in size, but these ones were about the size of a smaller adult human. It was a relief to see those rather than the more muscular, hulking variety. They stood several yards away from the shrine, glancing around nervously and shifting on their feet. She'd learned long ago not to underestimate the danger of any demon–even smaller ones like these could steal a soul just like their larger counterparts–but such a minor threat was still a breath of relief. It explained why the effect on the Honmoon had been so minimal as to barely be detectable.
Something still nagged at the back of her head, even as she pulled her saingeom from the starlight barrier and felt the ripple of Zoey’s shin-kals being drawn out beside her. Why such a small group in the middle of nowhere?
The Honmoon thrummed, rippling like a stone dropped in a pool of water away from the center of the clearing. Something moved underneath the fallen statue, and the Honmoon recoiled from it.
The hairs on the back of Rumi’s neck raised.
A demon rose from the shadows–a dark, vaguely humanoid shape, indistinct along the edges as if it was slowly melting into smoke. Multiple elongated limbs, each strangely jointed, emerged from the bulbous torso. No eyes could be seen in the dark mass of the head, just a glowing red smile lined with needle-like teeth.
Hong’aek.
It all made sense now. The plucking of the Honmoon had felt so small, so insignificant as to make a Hunter assume it would simply be a small breach.
A purposeful deception.
Instead of a tear, a demon sat like a fat spider on a web, strumming on the threads of the Honmoon to lure Hunters right to it.
The monster unfolded to its full height, scanning the forest around it, sensing the prey it had drawn in was nearby.
The Dokkaebi took a few steps away from the stronger demon, nervously watching it. It was unusual for other demons to work with a Hong’aek–usually they worked alone. A Hong’aek was a manifestation of bad luck, often just as dangerous to other demons working with them as they were to any humans around them. The lesser demons around the Hong’aek must have been desperate to have banded together with such an unpredictable monster. While Hong’aek were physically weak compared to the largest demons that towered over Hunters, their effect on the luck of those around them made them especially deadly. Thankfully, Hong’aek were incredibly rare.
Rumi had only ever seen a Hong’aek once before, when she was still a child training with Celine. She had been a formidable fighter even at the age of 12, and Celine had always seemed invincible in her eyes. They’d already faced various hordes together, and Rumi had always felt they had the upper hand. She’d felt afraid, but never felt like they could possibly lose.
That night, as the Hong’aek had loomed over her trapped form, Rumi felt death’s approach. She felt the tearing, tugging sensation on her soul, felt her body growing strangely cold, felt her heartbeat slow.
Less than a second later, Celine had exploded in front of her like an avenging goddess, severing the demon in two with a scream.
They'd spent the evening stitching each other's wounds and resetting Rumi’s dislocated shoulder, before Celine had put Rumi to bed with shaking arms. The empty bottle of wine, as well as the spilled glass on the counter, had been quietly cleaned up by Rumi before her guardian woke. It had taken days for the haunted look to disappear from Celine’s eyes when she looked at Rumi.
Zoey leaned to whisper to Rumi, breath tickling her ear. “That's the bad luck boogeyman, right?”
“Yes. Keep your distance and be careful.”
Zoey smiled, but there was an edge of uncertainty in it. Rumi knew this was a demon she'd only read about in Hunter texts, never faced. “Good thing I wore my lucky underwear.”
Rumi turned to look at her, head tilted. “What?”
“Anyway, time to drop a beat!” Zoey twirled her fingers through the Honmoon, threads humming at her touch.
As an unwritten rule, they usually didn't use Huntr/x songs for demon fighting when one of the trio was absent. Their songs were not just three-part harmonies, but extensions of the bonds that bound their souls together, and missing a voice made the songs much less effective. Luckily they had all had plenty of training fighting alone and in pairs–Celine had wanted them to be prepared for any possibility, and made sure they worked in every possible configuration. In these situations, Rumi usually called one of the traditional Hunter songs they learned during training, and that she’d sung her entire childhood. Mira was more likely to call on a current hit from one of their K-Pop peers, regularly calling on songs from TWICE, BLACKPINK, or Aespa depending on her mood. Zoey was a wildcard when she opted to pick a song, frequently picking American hip-hop or pop hits from her childhood.
It only took a moment for Rumi to recognize this one–a familiar song to hear blasting on Zoey’s workout mix.
Rumi couldn’t help but laugh as they strode into the clearing, demons bracing for a fight to the beat of Pitbull and Kesha as Zoey belted out the first lines of the song.
“It’s goin’ down, I’m yellin’ timber…”
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It wasn’t ending.
Night had truly settled in–the only light came from the glow of Rumi’s patterns, and whatever thin glow from the moon managed to penetrate the storm.
Heat poured off her patterns and sweat ran down her spine, soaking into her shirt, but Rumi couldn't afford to let up. The fever she forced onto herself was barely enough to keep Zoey warm as the wind howled outside. She’d never let herself go this warm before and still, it wasn’t enough.
If Zoey knew what she was doing to herself, she’d be furious.
It was to Rumi’s benefit that Zoey’s exhaustion and injury had her mostly unconscious as the Honmoon tried to heal her, given that the side effects from over-using this power were getting hard to hide. Nausea roiled through her gut, and Rumi swallowed a mouthful of bile. Earlier she’d regretted missing dinner, but now she was glad for it.
Rumi knew her tendency towards self-sacrifice upset her partners. She’d always had a tendency to throw herself at problems without enough consideration for self-preservation. Even before everything happened at Namsan, Mira and Zoey had cornered her with discussions about her tendency to run herself too ragged in both combat and daily life. Rumi would be up all night doing paperwork so her girls could rest, would take hits meant for them and brush it off even as she bled, would heap the blame of any mistake from the trio onto herself to try to spare them the consequences. The final straw came a few weeks after the creation of the new Honmoon, when they found out what she'd tried to do when she went to Celine after the Idol Awards. That particular conversation had lasted all night, escalating into near-yelling matches.
They loved her, but they couldn't watch her self-destruct in front of them.
If she loved them, she needed to stop throwing herself on every grenade.
In the wake of everything, she’d promised them she would do better. To seek out alternatives before putting herself in the line of fire, to consider the concept of self care, to communicate with them, to remember that she deserves comfort and safety.
To not just let herself hurt because she felt she deserved it.
And here I am, hurting myself again.
She was pushing more heat through her body than was healthy. A low headache already rolled around her skull, her throat felt dry and tight.
But she was trying. Zoey currently slept fitfully against her, mumbling and twitching as she rested. Before Rumi had pressed her to rest, they’d discussed what options and ideas they had. There hadn’t been many–this wasn’t something they could have planned for.
Through the haze of the growing headache, Rumi tried to recall what ideas they’d discussed, turning them over one more time to see if there was any better option than what she was currently doing.
They could try moving again to find shelter. We are likely to just get more lost, and Zoey needs to rest. We are in a safe place right now, it’s best to stay put and wait. Every survival guide says to stop rather than wandering and wearing yourself out more.
She could teleport out. Last time I tried, I ended up in the ductwork of the mall. I can’t control it well enough, and we could end up somewhere even worse. Also, I don’t know how to bring Zoey with me, and I won’t leave her.
She could let her body temperature return to normal, and hope for the best. The storm isn’t stopping and I have no idea when it will. It's too cold, and Zoey is injured. She needs to be kept warm and I have no other way to warm her. Even if I let my body temperature drop, then we both freeze.
Guilt ate at her, but she didn’t know what else she could possibly do in this situation. From every angle she could see, there were no options that didn’t involve pain.
Either way, I suffer.
Better to have that suffering mean something–to burn for a purpose.
Every bitter gust of wind stole part of what little heat Rumi was able to create. She felt Zoey shiver against her and noted the blueish tinge to her lips. She was getting weaker–struggling to keep warm with the meager additional heat Rumi was providing.
Zoey stirred, her quiet voice breaking the darkness.
“Rumi?”
Rumi hummed in response, the reverberation rattling around her head.
“Is t-this h-hurting you?” Her voice was so quiet.
The orange glow of Rumi’s patterns illuminated Zoey’s face enough to see her half-lidded eyes glimmering in the dark.
Don’t lie.
“The snow will s-stop. Mira is coming.” Rumi promised, throat burning. Not a lie. “How about another s-story?” At least she could attribute the unsteadiness in her voice to the cold biting at them rather than her growing fever. Hopefully Zoey was still out of it enough to not notice the abrupt topic change.
Zoey nodded against Rumi’s chest, nuzzling her face in closer.
A memory drifted through Rumi’s mind–one of many old folktales Celine had shared with her. Rumi had been sitting with her outside, looking up at the moon. It had changed color, turning a strange, shadowed red. A lunar eclipse, Celine had told her first, explaining how the shadow of the Earth was cast over the moon. Celine had then told her the story she shared with Zoey now.
“Once, in the shadowy realm of Gamangnara, there was a selfish king. His land was dark and cold, with nothing to bring light to it. He grew weary of the darkness. One day he gazed into another realm, and saw the sun and the moon. On seeing the beautiful light of the sun and moon enjoyed by humans, he grew to covet them, wishing to have them for himself. Greedy, he sent one of his fiery dogs, the Bulgae, to fetch the sun. The Bulgae sprinted across the stars, latching onto the sun. He held tight, but the heat grew and grew. Eventually it was too much, and the great canine released the sun back into the sky, unable to withstand the flames. The king was furious when the dog returned without his prize. He called on another Bulgae, even more ruthless than the last, and he sent this dog out to capture the moon instead. The enormous canine raced across the sky, taking the moon in his maw. He bit down, holding as tightly as he could, but the icy chill of the moon began to freeze his mouth. This dog too was forced to drop his prize, returning the moon to its place in the sky. The king of Gamangnara refused to give up, continuing to send his Bulgae out to fetch the great sources of light he wished to have for himself. Each time he does, there is an eclipse as the dogs’ great mouths engulf the celestial discs. And each time, the Bulgae drop the sun and moon, ending the eclipse and returning the light to our world.”
As her story trailed off, she pressed Zoey closer to her chest. My little sun.
Zoey hummed, only half awake by the end of the tale, and lifted her hands to look at them. “Fin’ers hurt. Needly.”
“Let me s-see them.” Rumi took Zoey’s hands, slipping her gloves off. The fingertips were unnaturally pale. Rumi slipped the younger woman’s hands up under her shirt, pressing them against her warm belly. They were so cold they burned her skin.
I’m not doing enough.
She could feel Mira's soul, bright with worry, racing towards them but still hours away.
I need to do more.
She was risking everything if she did this.
Even if they all survived, she might not have a relationship to come back to. Would they be able to understand that she didn’t want to hurt, didn’t want to die anymore, that she had just run out of options? Would they hate her if all she left them with was a grave next to her mothers?
Did it matter if they hated her, as long as they were both alive to do so?
Please forgive me.
She reached within, and burned.
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Earlier that day…
They focused on the Dokkaebi first–they were less of a direct threat, but more of a distraction. They needed to be able to focus all their efforts on the Hong’aek.
One of the smaller demons fell almost immediately, a victim to the miasma of bad luck emanating from the monster near it. It had sprinted at Rumi with a roar, brandishing a small blade in one clawed hand. She had been prepared to dodge when the demon tripped and fell forward onto Rumi’s blade, exploding in a fine pink mist.
Rumi wasn’t sure which of them looked more surprised in the millisecond they'd made eye contact with each other as the demon stood speared on her sword.
“Face down, booty up, that’s the way we like the what…”
Rumi swung at the Hong’aek, but a loose patch of rocks shifted under her foot and threw her off balance. The spectral demon ducked and skittered away on unnaturally long legs. Its head twisted around to keep that leering grin facing her like some kind of Eldritch owl.
“I’m slicker than an oil spill, she says she won’t but I bet she will…”
One demon fell to Zoey's shin-kals, another avoided a shot that inexplicably went wide with a strong gust of wind. Zoey cursed, parkouring off the trees to send a wave of knives from different angles at the Hong’aek as the demon dodged and screeched.
“One more shot, another round, end of the night it’s goin’ down…”
As the last Dokkaebi exploded into glitter in front of Rumi, sniped from behind by one of Zoey’s knives, the Hong’aek slipped away into the forest.
They raced after it. Rumi was barely able to keep it in sight as they flew through the trees and undergrowth. She felt Zoey pull on the threads of the Honmoon, boosting herself up into the tree branches to run along the canopy. Shin-kals shot through the air from above, cutting off and slowing the demon as it moved. Rumi kept up on the ground, sailing over fallen trees and ducking under branches.
The demon was losing energy, stumbling against trees as it ran. She watched it slam a shoulder into one tree, grunting as loose bark burst around it. It would have to stop soon.
Rumi gripped her saingeom, ready to strike. The demon dug its claws into a tree as it swept by, gouging deep into the wood. As Rumi whipped past, she saw a smear of inky black ripple upward from the mark.
“I’ll be the one you won’t fo-”
Rumi heard a shark crack from behind her, and a cut off scream split the air.
Zoey!
The Hong’aek continued to grin at her as she skidded to a stop–a soulless, smiling red pit in a cloud of black.
Rumi spun on her feet and sprinted back towards Zoey, the Honmoon vibrating with worry.
+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×
Rumi burned in the night.
Her thoughts drifted in and away like ashes.
She tried to swallow, but her throat was coated in fire.
Had the Bulgae felt like this? Had the sun in their mouths burned, sending streams of flame dripping down the back of their throats? Had bile bubbled at the back of their gullets?
The Honmoon was begging her to stop, sending bolts of panic through her body.
She ignored it.
Her vision sparkled, dimming along the edges. The shimmers looked like stars. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Was she sprinting through the night sky, sun in her mouth?
Rumi stared at her sun Zoey leaning against her. Her partner's exhausted face was highlighted in the flicking red-orange of Rumi’s patterns. She was in a deeper sleep now–a real, healing one, rather than the fitful unconsciousness of before. She just needed the heat. A fire. With her body kept warm, her enhanced Hunter healing was better able to help her. Rumi counted every puff of breath against her cheek, thankful for all of them.
Zoey rested, and Rumi burned.
I can't stop.
Her jaws closed tighter.
The long sleeved shirt she’d picked out this morning was plastered to her skin with sweat.
It was getting so hard to think.
She knew stopping meant death. Even though the storm had lessened, darkness and exhaustion left them stranded and lost. Her heat was the only thing keeping them, keeping Zoey, alive.
She knew her moon Mira was racing to them as fast as she could, closer every second. Mira’s fear for them pulsed through the soul bond. Rumi tried to soothe it, but everything she meant to convey through the bond felt discordant and wrong and only seemed to increase Mira’s concern.
The icy teeth of the wind still bit through their coat barrier, numbing whatever flesh it could reach. Rumi had Zoey carefully tucked away from those teeth, safe and warm she's MINE.
Rumi feared Mira wouldn't make it in time. Her sun, falling from her drooling jaws, gone forever.
Her ears were ringing, an echoing sound that made it difficult to hear anything else. Made it that much more difficult to think, when her thoughts already kept floating in and out like embers off a campfire.
She ran a shaky hand through Zoey’s hair as a pulse of terror seized her.
Mira won't get here in time.
She pictured what Mira would find. Two frozen corpses curled around each other in the snow.
Mira, left like Celine had been left.
She remembered Celine sitting by two stone graves. Alone.
Alone.
Rumi delved deeper into herself, pulling, pulling. Heat billowed out of her core. She just had to make sure Mira came back to one of them.
I can't let that happen to you. Either of you. Hot tears streamed down her face. I'm so sorry.
Rumi burned.
+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×
Earlier that day…
Rumi stood in a guard position in front of Zoey, balanced on her toes and ready to move as she scanned the woods around them. Zoey leaned against the tree she'd fallen from, holding her head as she tried to get her bearings.
The Hong’aek's magic had done its job. A branch had broken as Zoey had jumped on it and she’d fallen, hitting her head on the way down. She’d been unconscious when Rumi had first spotted her but had groaned, waking as soon Rumi touched her. Zoey insisted she was fine, but Rumi knew better. She saw the grimace of pain on her girlfriend's face as she grabbed her forehead, the blood dripping between her fingers to land wetly in the thin layer of snow. Rumi need to take a look at it–head wounds could get very serious very fast. However, the rapidly approaching sound of the Hong’aek through the undergrowth meant Rumi had to focus on fighting over first aid for now.
She saw a flash of darkness moving through the brush and held steady, refusing to be baited into striking before she was ready.
Movement.
On the right.
Rumi pivoted, then corrected as a dark form shot out at her left. Her sword glanced against the demon, enough to injure but not kill, and it shrieked in pain.
The Hong’aek dove away from her and paused, facing her. Red mist leaked from its arm, disappearing before it hit the snow. The red grin twisted, curling in on itself at the edges before splitting wide open. A deafening, tri-tone screech pierced the evening air.
Rumi winced at the sound, and felt the atmosphere shift around her. For a moment, the world went unnaturally silent.
Then a distant roar, like an approaching train.
With a rush of sound and pressure, the world went white.
Brutal wind and snow bore down on them, blinding Rumi. She was knocked off balance by the force of it, widening her stance to stay upright. She squinted through the onslaught, twisting around to watch her sides and back as best she could, keeping Zoey behind her.
Zoey braced against the tree as she pulled a couple of shin-kal from the air. “What the fuck is this?!”
“Really bad luck!” Rumi yelled in response, struggling to be heard over the roar of the wind.
A smear of black moved through the white, and Rumi braced herself.
The demon flitted in and out of the whiteout, a mocking red grin dancing in and out of her range. Rumi swung her sword in an arc towards it–missed. Another swing caught nothing but snow. Celine's voice echoed in the back of her mind, ‘You're letting yourself be baited! Don't just react–you are smarter than that.’
The wind howled around her like laughter.
She needed to end this now–neither of them were prepared for weather like this, and the bitter temperature would start affecting them soon.
She took a deep breath, nearly choking on the painfully cold air.
Watch. Wait. Stay a step ahead of them.
A trace of demon dust sparkled in the next gust of wind.
Rumi's eyes followed the trail back to the source, obscured in the thick snow. In an instant she lunged forward, saingeom leading the strike.
Her blade connected–a thick, wet sound.
The stunned face of the Hong’aek appeared through the snow for just a moment, sword through its chest, before blowing away in a cloud of glittering ash.
Rumi let out a breath of relief, then turned to Zoey and dismissed her sword. “Zoey!” She pulled her lover into a tight hug before grabbing her face between her hands to check her injury. “Let me see. Are you okay? Any dizziness? Nausea?”
“I'm fine, I promise!” Zoey had to nearly shout to be heard over the demon-summoned storm. She was smiling, but Rumi could see pain in the set of her jaw. They needed to get back to the penthouse as soon as possible to monitor her head injury and patch her up. Honmoon healing was a great help, but being out in a blizzard was likely to hamper its effectiveness.
Rumi pulled Zoey in to lean against her and looked around. Everything was… white. The ground already had a layer of show that obscured any familiarity they might have had with the mountainous area.
She had no idea where they were, and no idea how to get back. Fumbling, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket. No signal. Figures. The storm was probably blocking any chance of a signal, especially out in the middle of a huge national park.
She had to hope they either managed to stumble into one of the buildings dotting the mountain, or hope the storm ended quickly. Wandering blindly around a mountain forest in the snow felt like a bad idea. They weren't wearing the proper winter gear to deal with something this extreme.
“This probably won't last long with the demon gone, right?” Zoey looked at her hopefully as she struggled to put her gloves back on over slightly damp fingers.
Probably not?
With the demon dead, surely the storm would clear any moment. They just needed to buy a little time. They could find a spot to stay warm-ish for a few minutes, and then once this blew over they could make their way back to the park entrance.
“Let’s at least find a spot to wait it out,” Rumi offered. “Then we can get home.”
“Kimchi-jjigae for dinner?” Zoey smiled hopefully. “And the hottest tea we can find?”
“Absolutely.” Rumi leaned in, meeting Zoey in a brief but warming kiss. “Here, let me help.” Rumi pulled Zoey in to lean against her, and they walked into the whiteout together.
+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×
She was an inferno, a blazing constellation surrounded by numbing darkness.
The sun burned in her mouth, wreaths of flame wrapped around her muzzle. Her hold never wavered.
The cold no longer meant anything to her or the precious form curled underneath her. She wrapped her vast form around them–eternally protective.
The moon, cool and loving, raced towards them. It left a wake across the night sky as it moved, stars shattering before it.
She couldn’t remember why she was afraid before–the fire licking underneath her skin was loving and gentle. Her body screamed at the touch of it, but the fire was life.
Her sun was so beautiful and so, so afraid. Why is she afraid? She would never drop her–she was no weak dog groveling for some dark master. She had destroyed the dark king–she was the sky, the stars, the fury, the promise.
“Rumi?”
Smoke billowed out of her lungs as she panted. She wished she could speak, to comfort her sun. Her throat was made of coal and embers. Ash choked her and she gasped around it.
The moon's soul beat against her own, achingly close. Searching. A beam of light pushing through the dark.
She whined at the pulsing of her head. Blood poured from her nose–a comet of crimson heat down her chin. It splattered in dark spots over her pelt, her sun, the sky, the snow.
“Rumi, please!”
Still she held, jaws unyielding. Still she burned and howled against the cold night. The sun was hers.
Protectprotectprotect.
She would not fail–she would burn and burn and burn.
The moon; searching, focused, closer.
“You have to stop, please!”
Something was shaking her and she struggled to focus, the world twisting and spinning around her. Her sun’s mouth was moving, but all she could hear was the crackling of fire. She smiled and tried to say something reassuring.
Protecthercomfortherholdher.
She wasn't sure what she said. Words were hard to hold in a muzzle full of flames and blood, her mind drifting before each word escaped.
Her sun looked even more terrified, so she smiled reassuringly at her; there was nothing to be afraid of. A solar flare burst from her skull, exploding behind her eyes.
Why is my sun crying?
Were her eyes melting? Was that why her cheeks were wet and her vision boiled?
Her heart was racing toofasttoofasttoofast. A hand clutched against her chest, clinging and shaking her. She thought she heard begging.
A beam of light across the horizon.
The moon returned like the tide. Endless, unstoppable.
“Mira! Over here!”
Her sun–her soul–pulled away from her. She flung out her massive paws, grasping for her with claws and teeth. Don't leave me, I have to save you!
She tried to rise, to stand among her fellow stars. Instead, her body lurched forward, falling from the sky. Her face slammed into ice and snow, smearing blood across it.
She howled. The air around her harmonized, rippling like a stone dropped in water.
I HAVE TO SAVE HER SAVEHERSAVEH-
Hands pulled at her, lifting her from the blanket of darkness. She gazed up at the sky above her.
Her sun. Her moon.
They were here. They were safe. She'd held on.
She'd done it.
She was done.
She could let go.
Gently, so gently, her jaws loosened, releasing her sun.
Her nerves snapped like lightning, back arching into the pain. Her throat spasmed, cutting off her gasping attempts to take a breath.
The terrified faces above her disappeared as darkness in the edge of her vision crept in.
Hands grabbed and pulled at her. Vomit spilled from her mouth, mixing with saliva and blood, running down her chin.
She flared again, a dying star going supernova.
Fire. Heat. Light.
Then
nothing.
~ ~ ~
Fragments drifted in. They brushed against her consciousness, then fell away like flakes of ash.
Her head held to the side as vomit poured from her mouth. Her eyes rolling back as she choked anyway.
A comforting pressure in front of and behind her. Beneath her, the movement of enormous muscles under thick fur.
“Please… don’t… hurry… get… ”
Her clothes being pulled, and an old fear seizing her chest. Her body too sluggish to fight them off. Tears pouring down her cheeks and another face pressed to hers, whispering and weeping. The hands didn't stop.
A machine screeching, footsteps, her body out of her control. Her soul, a candle flickering in the wind,
and going out.
“Don’t you fucking do this to us, Rumi!”
Pain radiating through her chest, her soul reigniting.
“Rumirumirumirumi…”
Something cool running up her arm, spreading through her body. Something clipped below her nose, pushing air up her nostrils.
“We love you so much, you idiot.”
Trying to fight the tide of darkness only to be pulled down again.
“Your girls need you.”
A cool, wet cloth cleaning her face. A voice calling her daughter, ttal.
“Love you…”
She floated, cradled by the same glowing strands that had welcomed her into the world, an ancient lullaby humming through her bones.
~~~
The world came back in pieces at first.
The smell of antiseptics.
Her tongue, tacky and thick in her mouth.
As her awareness surfaced, she heard humming and quiet beeping next to her.
Medical equipment.
The world coalesced, coming into focus as she cracked open her eyes. She squinted and blinked against the light as they adjusted.
The inside of the HUNTR/X Tower’s infirmary was a familiar sight. She’d never spent time in one of the beds–not when she had so many secrets written across her skin. After a bad fight, she would help patch her girls up, then slip away to her own room to do the best she could with her own injuries. She’d become quite skilled at caring for most wounds, but her back was a canvas of scars she’d not been able to reach to properly treat. Hiding her patterns had taken priority over her health.
Rumi couldn’t remember what had happened to her, but she was starting to think she’d been hit by a bus based on how she felt. She wasn't sure there was any part of her that didn't ache. Her eyes shifted and saw an IV line snaking up her arm, hooked to a steadily dripping bag of clear fluid.
Another sound registered in her fuzzy mind–the even breathing of someone sleeping.
Exhaustion still pulled at her as her gaze drifted to the mess of pink hair draped over her legs like a blanket.
Mira sat in a chair but slumped forward across Rumi’s bed. Despite her back being bent at nearly a right angle, she was sound asleep. That’s gonna hurt later. Heavy bags hung beneath her eyes, leaving the skin looking nearly bruised. Even in sleep, her brow was pinched.
Rumi's hand shook with the monumental effort of lifting her arm. She reached out, smoothing the worried divot on her lover's forehead before cupping her face. Mira pressed into her palm as she roused, grumbling softly. Rumi ran a thumb over her cheek, and felt Mira stiffen before jolting upright. Her wide brown eyes locked on Rumi, and the rest of the world fell away.
“Rumi.” She whispered, a prayer.
Rumi tried to respond but found the only sound she could make was a dry croak. Her throat felt like she'd been gargling broken glass.
“Shh, hey, let me get you some water, jagiya.”
Mira moved across the room, grabbing a water bottle from the mini-fridge along with a straw. At the same time, she pulled out her phone, quickly tapped something out before placing the water by Rumi’s face, bending the straw to her dry lips.
“Slowly. Good girl.”
The relief of cool water running down her throat was heavenly–she was certain she’d never tasted water so good before and she struggled not to drink too quickly. Mira smiled softly as she sipped, and a quiet peace seeped into the room. Memories of what happened began to tease the edge of her mind.
(A demon in the snow.)
The infirmary door slammed against the wall hard enough to rattle the cabinets on the walls, and Rumi sprayed a mouthful of water into Mira’s face.
“RUMI?!” Zoey sobbed, throwing herself over Rumi before she could apologize to Mira for the impromptu face wash. The pressure of Zoey pressing on her chest sent a jolt of pain through her body. She tried to hide her flinch but felt Zoey pull back, moving to her side and babbling apologies through her tears.
Rumi tried to reassure her, rubbing her back as she shook. Zoey pressed her face into her shoulder. Rumi felt a rapidly growing wet spot spreading as the tears soaked through the thin hospital gown. She was still uncertain what exactly had happened, but it must have been bad for her to be this upset.
(A demon in the snow. A scream and the smell of blood.)
Rumi looked over Zoey’s head. In the doorway stood Bobby and Celine, their faces a mix of concern and relief. They clearly hadn’t been sleeping well either.
Bobby smiled and gave a little finger wave. His skin looked dry, and his fingernails were chewed to stubs. “Heya tough girl, just wanted to check in since you're finally awake.” Bobby slipped into the room around Celine, grabbing a towel from one of the cabinets along the walls and handing it to Mira as she removed her dripping glasses.
Celine stood frozen in the doorway, staring at Rumi. Some emotion ghosted across her face too fast for Rumi’s foggy mind to grasp. It seemed to break her free from whatever held her at the door, and she moved closer to the bed.
Rumi licked her dry lips before attempting to speak again. “Hey.” Her voice was hoarse and weak. Zoey lifted her face, red-rimmed eyes joining the others as they all focused on her. Somehow this felt like even more eyes on her than in a stadium filled with fans–she felt herself drowning under the weight of silent attention.
She had to break the tension of their stares, and decided to aim for levity. “You should see the other guy.”
Zoey wailed, pressing her face back down into Rumi’s shoulder. Mira frowned, gaze darkening.
Wrong move, apparently.
“You managed to do more damage to yourself than the ‘other guy’ did.” Mira’s tone was clipped.
“I don't remem-” Rumi began to shake her head, but her body screamed in protest at the movement and she hissed in pain.
Zoey wrapped her arms tightly around her.
Pressure.
Warmth
A stream of half-delirious memories cascaded through her, a waterfall of feelings and images.
(A demon in the snow. A scream and the smell of blood. A niche in the stones. Bodies pressing close for warmth. Her body, a torch. The Honmoon screaming. The sun and the moon tearing through the sky as she chased them. Her soul, made of stars. Burning and burning and burning.)
She stiffened in realization as the fragmented memories pieced together.
“Oh.”
Mira's eyes narrowed, jaw so tense Rumi worried she would crack a tooth. “Yeah, oh. I take it you remember.”
Despite the phrasing, it wasn't a question–the truth showed in the anxious purple swirls of Rumi’s patterns. Parts were hazy and disjointed, but she remembered enough to know why Mira and Zoey were undoubtedly furious with her.
(Zoey, injured and freezing and terrified.)
Rumi tried to lift herself onto her elbows. “Zoey, are you oka-” Her voice cracked into a dry cough that wracked her body and she fell back into the bed as she tried to catch her breath. Mira placed a hand on her chest, preventing her from attempting to rise again.
“Drink.” The dancer tipped the straw back to Rumi's mouth. “Zoey is doing fine now physically, and I think we are all feeling a bit fucked mentally. Which we need to talk about.”
Tension filled the space, seeping into every crevice as Zoey hiccuped wetly into Rumi’s chest.
Bobby, long an expert on when to give his girls space, clapped his hands together and smiled awkwardly. “Well I'm gonna go update the socials then! Don't worry, we told the fans you're recovering from the flu, and they all send their best wishes.” He edged backwards out the door, waving as he went. “Love you, girls!”
A quiet chorus of “Love you too, Bobby” followed him out.
Celine stood like a shadow in the room, shifting uncomfortably on her feet. It was startling for Rumi to see her looking so uncertain. Throughout her childhood, Celine had always been so solid, so unwavering. Their relationship blew wide open on the night of the Idol Award, exposing the raw nerves that ran through their bond. They’d been working through it, healing, but it seemed like Rumi had managed to mess things up again.
Rumi noted with some alarm that Celine had a black eye–an ugly yellow around the edges, just started to heal. Rumi reached toward her own eye. “Celine, what…”
“Not now.” The older woman stated, eye twitching.
Rumi fell silent, too tired to push.
After defeating Gwi-Ma and remaking the Honmoon, the three Hunters had managed to slip away from the confused crowds, retreating to lick their wounds. Celine had been waiting in their penthouse, feral with worry. She'd pulled Rumi into a crushing embrace and keened, rocking as she held her. Once they had both calmed down enough to separate, she'd reluctantly left–but begged Rumi to come talk to her when she was able. It had taken a couple of weeks before Rumi had been ready to face Celine again and deal with the emotional fallout of asking her guardian, her mother in all but DNA, to end her life. They'd talked through a lot of things, Celine apologizing and begging for forgiveness. Old wounds had begun to heal, but they were still tender and prone to reopening.
“Rumi, I… I'm so glad you're okay. I'll be here if you need anything.” A pause. “I love you.”
Rumi smiled, eyes bright and wet. “I love you too.”
Celine nodded, her eyes still locked on Rumi as if she expected her to disappear, before turning and shutting the door behind her.
Exhaustion pulled at Rumi, but she couldn't rest. Not yet–not with Mira and Zoey staring at her, waiting for her to explain, waiting for her to fix it. Old anxieties bubbled up, spilling over.
You've ruined it, fix it fix it fix it fix it fi-
Take a deep breath.
Hold.
Release.
A breathing exercise Zoey had taught her to use after she’d found her having a panic attack–something Zoey was already all too familiar with.
Zoey had managed to slow her crying to just errant sniffles, and watched Rumi with watery eyes. Mira stared intently at a spot on the wall next to Rumi, sighing heavily before meeting her gaze. Her expression was flat, guarded.
Rumi tried not to flinch. “I’m sor-”
“Don’t say it, just… don’t. I just… ” Mira scrubbed at her eyes, then ran a hand through her hair. Zoey climbed onto the bed, sitting cross-legged at the end so that they could all meet each other's eyes.
She knew it was serious when Zoey needed that distance, needed to be able to see both of their faces.
This kind of talk, then. Rumi waited, heart in her throat as she braced. This is it. I deserve whatever comes.
“I was so fucking angry with you. I am still angry. Of course I am, you are such a self-sacrificing idiot sometimes and like,” Mira set down the bottle of water with a thud and gestured wildly.
“Did you even think, hey, maybe Mira can feel you killing yourself and maybe that feels awful?”
She put a finger up to Rumi's lips as she opened her mouth to try to apologize again. “Nope, Mira talking time first.”
She leaned forward, staring Rumi hard in the eyes. “I could feel the Honmoon screaming at me to save you. I could feel you dying, and I'm stuck on a train trying to get back and can't do anything.”
While Mira talked, Zoey took one of her hands. She rested the other over Rumi’s foot, a comforting weight.
“So yeah, I'm angry. I guess that's not new for me. Once we knew you were going to be okay, I was so ready to absolutely tear you a new asshole.” Pain flickered across her face, and she looked away. Rumi followed her eyes to the window, where the moon hung silently among the stars. “Part of me just wanted to…”
Rumi’s heart dropped, filling in the blanks. I failed them. She’s going to leave me, they both are. I’m a mistake, a-
Mira sighed, closing her eyes before looking back at Rumi again. “But I had a talk with Celine.”
Rumi’s eyes widened at the admission.
Mira and Zoey had been icy towards their former mentor after learning about her role in hiding Rumi’s secret. Previously, they’d seen her as a role-model–Zoey had idolized her. Then they’d learned that Celine had told Rumi that they would kill her if they discovered her secret. She didn't think they'd exchanged more than a handful of words since the creation of the new Honmoon, and all of them had been business related.
Mira saw her surprise and chuckled, her face softening. “Yeah, well turns out that she might actually have some decent ideas when she takes her head out of her ass.” Zoey snorted, and Rumi felt a spark of hope as some of the heaviness dissipated from the room.
“She pointed a few things out to me, and I realized that even though I hate when you do this stuff, some of it is just who you are.” A pause. “She also let me spar with her, and punching her in the face a couple of times really helped my mood.”
Rumi gasped “Mira!”, and Zoey suddenly found a spot on the ceiling to be extremely interesting.
“But anyway,”
And Rumi was absolutely going to be having a discussion with both of them about that later… once she didn't feel like she was a few minutes away from being non-optionally unconscious again.
“I need to know, Rumi…” Mira’s eyes flicked to Rumi’s bare arms. “Do you regret hiding your patterns?”
This was not the question Rumi had expected.
“Yes,” she answered, slowly but honestly.
Mira’s gaze intensified, a thousand emotions boiling beneath the surface of her dark eyes. “Do you regret what you did at Bukhansan?”
“No.” Immediate, certain.
She’d done what she had to. She kept Zoey alive and she wouldn’t regret that, she couldn’t.
Mira stared for a moment, then nodded, her expression easing by just a fraction. Rumi wasn't sure what the test was, but she seemed to have passed.
“I know you did everything you could think of to not hurt us, or yourself. Zoey told me you even talked about it, you tried to come up with a plan. A better plan.” Mira clutched at her chest, tears beading in the corners of her eyes. “It still hurt, a lot. But even if it hurts sometimes, I'm still going to pick that hurt over not having you.” Tears spilled down her face–matching tears ran down Zoey and Rumi’s cheeks. Mira placed a shaking hand over Rumi’s. “Just promise me you'll always do everything you can to come back to us, to not hurt.”
“Oh my god, I just managed to stop crying, Mira!” Zoey grumbled.
Rumi held both of their gazes even through the tears. “I promise, I swear, I didn't mean to… I didn’t want…”
Mira tilted forward first, and they fell together like gravity. They collapsed into each other on the small bed, clinging to each other with whispered love and promises between the sobs. The Honmoon rippled in a prism of colors as three souls swirled together.
Rumi knew this wasn't the end of the conversation.
Things were never that simple–never just wrapped up with a neat twenty minute conversation and some tears. They would have more to discuss later–but this was another step forward, another part of building their relationship into something even stronger. Faults and fears out on the table, and better because of it.
For now, this was enough.
She lay there, encompassed by the warmth and life of her soulmates as the tears slowed and dried.
All too soon however, Rumi felt her arms grow leaden. Darkness pulled at her edges, calling at her to rest, to sleep, to heal.
Her partners gently eased her back onto her pillows, pulling away reluctantly. Mira leaned down, her lips soft against Rumi’s. “Alright pretty girl, time for bed.” Zoey popped up to her feet, grabbing a stuffed animal that had been sitting on top of a piece of medical equipment and waggling it in front of Rumi’s face. “And look, Whale-liam is here to nap with you!” She tucked the palm sized plush whale shark into the crook of Rumi's arm, giving it a pat on the head. As Rumi fought to keep her eyes open, her lovers fussed with her bedding and the IV attached to her.
Rumi felt her heart constrict–she didn’t want them to leave.
Patting the bed on either side of her, she looked imploringly at them. “Stay?”
Mira arched her brow. “Starlight, there is no way we are cramming three grown people in that tiny ass bed.”
Rumi let out a tiny whimper, purposefully widening her eyes and letting her lower lip pout out just a touch. Zoey gasped at the sound, and Mira grunted like Rumi had punched her in the gut.
They had absolutely no chance.
Mira sighed heavily as Zoey’s eyes began to water yet again. “Fine. But we go right to sleep, you need it.”
“You need it too,” noted Rumi.
Mira didn't argue, she just dimmed the lights as Zoey crawled into bed. Mira joined them on the other side carefully placing Rumi’s arm over her waist so that she didn’t compress the IV line.
“Alright, bed time.”
Zoey tapped Rumi’s forehead with her fingers, stating “Sleep now!” before snuggling into her side.
Rumi’s eyes drifted shut, even as she still fought against it. She just wanted to spend a little more time with them.
As darkness, warm and comforting, closed in around her, one more memory surfaced. “Zo?” She asked, voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah Ruru?”
“Do you really have lucky underwear?"
