Chapter Text
Losing Jinu had been sudden. Rumi hadn’t gotten the chance to grieve him either. Mid-battle and with the pressing issue of Gwi-Ma killing everyone, Rumi couldn’t let herself truly feel the pain of losing him.
But now, with the Honmoon steadily intact and a vibrant blue that shimmered and reflected all sorts of pretty colours (stronger than even the thick gold) and Huntrix on a brief hiatus, she had all the time she needed.
But how did one grieve someone they barely knew?
Jinu had been a conglomerate of complexities. For the first time, she hadn’t had to hide all of her patterns and she felt seen. They were on opposite sides of a budding war and all she’d wanted was her freedom. His arrival had had sprung a new sort empathy within her; an empathy towards the demon soldiers of Gwi-Ma that she still couldn’t quite comprehend. Jinu had humanised them, had shown her that demons did have feelings, and she wasn’t so far from turning into one.
But he’d lied.
He hadn’t been the innocent boy she thought she knew. No, he’d outed her secret to her best friends and practically destroyed the Honmoon. And he’d left his family behind. No matter what, Rumi knew she could never bring herself to leave Celine, Bobby or her girls behind. No matter what.
Oh, but then he’d sacrificed himself to bring Gwi-Ma down. And what did that even mean?
Rumi let out a deep sigh, flopping backwards into her bed and grabbing the nearest pillow to scream into. She lay there for a moment, letting her grip on the pillow loosen. A light knock at the door pulled her through the mess of her thoughts, grounding her for a moment.
“Rumi?” Rumi hummed back.
“Mira and I are going to eat something. Do you want to come join us?” They’d been extending similar olive branches the past few days, never failing to remind Rumi to take her time. In no time, Zoey would say something along those lines and Rumi worried her bottom lip between her teeth. She’d let herself rot in her room alone for almost a week now. And she’d missed the girls, truly. Besides, she had to get past her fear of them seeing her patterns eventually. What better time than the present?
“Give me a minute! I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” She called, chuckling to herself at the delighted squeal that escaped Zoey’s lips.
“Okay!” Her footsteps padded down the corridor and Rumi could hear her faintly calling to Mira in excitement.
Mind made, Rumi pushed herself up. She took off the hoodie currently suffocating her, adjusting the crop top underneath. She sprayed some more perfume (just in case) and dumped the hoodie on her bed. She’d just fix it later.
Rumi cracked her door open, peeking her head out and straining her ears to hear whatever conversation Mira and Zoey were having. Unfortunately, the delighted squeals had ceased and whatever they were talking about now was much more muffled.
“Right. This is fine.” Rumi muttered, clenching her fists. She took a deep breath, shaking her hands out.
“It’s Mira and Zoey,” she reminded herself, “they won’t judge you.”
With that, Rumi took a step forward. And another. And another. Until she’d walked back into their kitchen.
Zoey was monitoring the kettle while Mira was rummaging through one of their cupboards. Presumably looking for Ramyeon (and trying to get the best flavour before Zoey or Rumi had a chance to pick).
“Trying to steal the best flavour?” Rumi stated dryly, crossing her arms and smirking. To her surprise, instead of receiving one of Mira’s usual quips, Mira jumped, dropping the Ramyeon cups in her hand and slamming the cupboard door shut. Zoey simply cackled, as if she hadn’t jumped either.
“Rumi! You ca-” Mira trailed off, her eyes focusing on the flash of colours that swirled around Rumi’s entire body. Rumi flushed, her eyes darting around the room awkwardly. Right. This was definitely the first time they’d been able to see her patterns without the adrenaline of the fights (or the exhaustion after). Sure, they’d gone to the bathhouse together and her patterns were on full display but they were still running off the high of sealing the Honmoon so Rumi hadn’t overthought it. But now?
“Yes! Yes, I uh… I did.” She waved at them for a second, before pulling her hand down and internally scolding herself for the awkwardness. Mira nodded, her eyes not drawing away from their continuous fixation on Rumi’s patterns. When Rumi glanced at Zoey, it seemed like she was in a similar state. Maybe this had been a bad idea.
“I’m sorry, I’ll go put on a hoodie or somethi-“ the apology was already halfway out of her mouth when Mira interrupted.
“Your patterns.” She said simply. Rumi clamped her mouth shut.
“You’re wearing them.” Zoey pushed herself forward, her eyes meeting Rumi’s. “Like, you’re not covering them up.”
Rumi laughed nervously, her hand itching the back of her neck.
“I am.” Her voice escaped, barely louder than a whisper. It was silent for a moment, Zoey and Mira just staring at Rumi’s patterns.
“They suit you, you know? You pull them off really well.” Mira said, her eyes darting back up to meet Rumi’s. Rumi blinked, stunned and certainly not expecting that.
“Yeah.” Zoey affirmed, her smile even wider than normal. “You look really pretty!”
Heat exploded across Rumi’s cheeks.
“Thank you guys.” They both shrugged, still smiling and Rumi felt her shoulder relax. Mira offered her hand to Rumi, pulling her into the kitchen. Together, the duo picked up the fallen Ramyeon cups as Zoey went to pick up the screaming kettle.
In the end, they each chose their labelled Ramyeon cups and Zoey poured the boiling water into each cup as they sat by the kitchen island and waited for them to cook properly. While they waited, Zoey launched into a ramble about the new lyrics she’d begun thinking of and (as she usually did) argued for writing a song dedicated to turtles.
“I’m just saying,” she said, ignoring the groans from Mira and Rumi, “people will think we’re more humanitarian! And it adds to our image!”
“We’re soooo humanitarian. We save human lives like, every day.” Mira muttered.
“Think about the fans! What if they are all so desperately wishing for a song about turtles! We’d be fulfilling their dreams.” At the word ‘fan’, both Rumi and Mira shot up.
“Well,” Rumi began, somewhat hesitantly, “if it’s for the fans….”
“Yes!” Zoey pumped her hand up, cheering and reaching for her cup. Mira slapped her hand away, pointing to the timer and Zoey grumbled, still buzzing with excitement over a turtle-themed comeback.
“Oh my god! We can rewrite Takedown as a diss track on plastics!” Rumi snorted.
“I mean, that’s a Takedown I can get behind.” Instantly Mira and Zoey cringed.
“Rumi, about Takedown…” Zoey began. Rumi shook her head, cutting Zoey off and offering her a weak smile.
“It’s fine guys. It was a good song.” Mira and Zoey frowned instantly.
“No!” Zoey exclaimed, standing up abruptly. “Not if… not if it hurt you.”
Zoey fell silent and Rumi sucked in a breath. The room remained silent for a moment, Zoey breaking the silence with a sniff. As Rumi looked at her, she finally noticed the tears fogging Zoey’s vision.
“Zoey...” She began. Zoey shook her head, cutting Rumi off.
“It’s not ok, Rumi. We shouldn’t have… we should’ve listened. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Her lower lip wobbled, as she sniffed again.
“I can’t believe I… I can’t believe I pulled out my Shin-kal on you. I’m so sorry.” She cut herself off with a sob and Rumi leant forward, instantly catching Zoey in a hug as her knees gave out.
“I’m so sorry Rumi.” Mira whispered. Rumi hadn’t even realised she’d piled onto the hug, but with the elder girl’s words, she felt her walls beginning to crumble.
“Words can’t describe what I felt in that moment, but I know I should’ve heard you out. I… I’ll never forgive myself for it. I’m so sorry.” Mira continued, her own onslaught of tears catching her off guard. Rumi stifled her own sob, biting her lip in an attempt to stifle the lump in her throat.
“We should’ve… we should’ve run after you. Not left you. Oh Rumi, I’m so so sorry.” Zoey sobbed, her fingers tightly grasping at Rumi’s tank. Rumi held her tighter still, her eyes squeezing shut.
“I’m sorry too.” She whispered, continuing despite both of their protests.
“I should’ve told you the truth. Celine said… she thought you wouldn’t understand. I should’ve trusted you.” Both Mira and Zoey’s grip got tighter.
“Celine knew?” Mira asked, her voice suddenly very quiet. Rumi sniffed, nodding.
“Is she who you went to?” Zoey’s voice piped up softly. “Did she tell you to keep fighting?”
None of the girls spoke for another moment, Rumi gathering herself and Zoey and Mira moving back just enough to give her space but to still remain close enough that Rumi felt comforted.
“First I ran into Jinu.” Rumi said quietly, pretending not to notice as both Zoey and Mira stiffened.
“He… he was the one who orchestrated that whole thing he… he made my biggest fear come true and-“ Rumi cut herself off, squeezing her eyes shut.
“It killed me.” She whispered. “I thought I lost everyone. Lost everything. So I went back to the only thing I knew.”
A sense of dread began to creep over the other girls. It snaked through their chests, tightening its grip over their hearts and Mira opened her mouth to speak, to speak before it closed off her lungs too but Rumi continued.
“I went back to Celine and asked her — no begged her — to kill me. To finish what she should have a long time ago.” The dread melted into horror, suffocating and stifling its hosts. All they could do was stare, eyes beginning to cloud over themselves, as Rumi continued.
“But,” Rumi chuckled to herself, “she couldn’t even do that.”
Rumi pushed herself up, startling the girls. She began to pace, hands going to her hair, tugging at the braid.
“I asked her for one thing my entire life and she can’t even do that? Nothing? I even… I even asked her if she loved me, if she had ever loved me and you know what? She couldn’t even look at me.” Rumi stopped pacing and Mira and Zoey slowly stood up, slowly inching towards her. Rumi looked up, her eyes teary and her lips wobbling and all of it simply crushing their hearts.
“She… she never even loved me.” Mira didn’t waste a second, pulling Rumi into a hug as she finally let the tears run down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry we weren’t there.” Mira whispered, hugging her tighter. Zoey pressed herself next to them, squeezing into her reserved place in their hug — because she always fit in right next to them.
“I’m so sorry that our actions let you there.” Rumi tried to shake her head but they soothed her, each pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head.
“We have you now," Mira promised, as Zoey nodded along, "and we'll never let you down like that again."
Rumi let out another sob, letting the duo comfort her once more.
It was about an hour later when the tears finally ran dry and the girls huddled on the couch, watching Rumi's favourite type of show: cooking competitions. Rumi sat in the middle, Zoey curled into her left as Mira sat on her right, an arm thrown around Rumi's shoulder. Mira's hand absent mindedly traced shapes over Rumi's bare shoulder while Zoey's eyes often drifted to where her hand was connected with Rumi's, letting her thumb rub over the patterns. It was... nice. Normal, even. Rumi hadn't exactly thought they'd completely despise her patterns, but she never expected such a casual acceptance. As if they were nothing but a part of her skin. Which, in a way, weren't they?
That night, Mira and Zoey pulled her into Mira's room before Rumi could make an excuse.
"You have nothing to hide now. C'mon! It'll be fun!" Zoey insisted. Rumi didn't argue, a small smile of her face as they dragged her down the hall and away from her room.
Zoey briefly stopped at her own room, taking her childhood stuffed toy from the massive piles of soft toys on her bed (the real reason they never had sleepovers in her bed). The three girls got comfortable on Mira's bed, Rumi being pushed to the middle again.
"You literally just tried to die a few days ago. We're keeping an eye on you." Mira said as Rumi tried to protest, her tone leaving no space for argument. Grumbling externally but internally pleased, Rumi settled in the middle. Mira tucked Rumi into her side while Zoey basically lay over the top of them. It really didn't seem too comfortable. But somehow, in that weird combination of positions, Rumi fell asleep faster than she ever had before. And for the first time in possibly years, her mind didn't torment her with nightmares. Beside Mira and Zoey, all the noise faded to quiet. And Rumi found herself wishing she could spend every night so peacefully.