Chapter Text
She started writing letters once she realized the marks were growing when short sleeves no longer cut it. Sure Rumi had the golden honmoon to hope for in getting rid of them but who knows how long that could take or if it could happen. The letters always tucked into the same place in her closet, hidden from prying eyes and more importantly hidden from the shame of the penman. The shame that Rumi has feelings for the two others in Huntrix that she will never be able to act on.
Dear Mira,
Here’s another letter wishing I told you about everything the second you walked into my room. You always know when I’m off, when I’m shutting down and shutting you out. I have so many things to tell you, but most of all I am in love with you and have been for years. Hopefully, I’ll find it in myself to you and Zoey how I feel at some point. One day I’ll tell you about the large blue tiger who I hid and maybe we’ll laugh about it. I hope you know I only want you and Zoey to be happy and if you’re reading this I hope you know that I’ll feel peace when you are happy.
Love, Rumi
Another short letter to add to the box that never seems to collect any dust, four boxes sit stacked together in a dark forgotten corner of the closet that houses the massive amount of long sleeves that have taken over her wardrobe in the past few months. Shame courses through Rumi’s body looking at the boxes with the names written on the lids: Mira, a freshly added letter; Zoey, a letter added just this morning; Bobby, a letter added once a week religiously; and Celine, a letter added after each phone call.
Gently placing the lid of Mira’s box back, Rumi glances at the time, deciding to go to bed. Turning off the light on the closet that houses a majority of Rumi’s “shame” as she sees, but one of these days her girls will know how she feels whether she is present or not.
~~~~~~~
“I can still fix it!”
The tone rings in her head as she runs from Jinu. Where can she run to? The two people she loves most are terrified of her and raised their weapons to her. She already forgives them as she runs to the one place that houses her feelings for them before ending this nightmare.
Ripping the door of her closet open with her clawed hand and dropping to her knees she inches forward shaking from the silent sobs that escape her. The mockery of the boxes in front of her as she grips the two decorated with the names of Zoey and Mira. Gently she grabs them and the two that are meant for the woman who raised her and for the man who was more of a father than a manager.
Placing them on the foot of her bed she sees her reflection for the first time that night. A pause before a shatter wakes her up from her daydream, Rumi looks at the mirror that is now shattered as her knuckles drip blood. Shaky breaths are the only thing in the room as Rumi finally moves to her desk and she writes a final note with blood smeared on the edges.
I’m sorry. I will fix it so you never have to worry about me again.
Love, Rumi
She feels a pull and all that is left in the apartment of Rumi is the blood that’s dripped onto the floor.
~~~~~~~
Gwi-Ma is gone.
It’s over.
A sigh of relief comes from three girls as they walk into their apartment. Zoey heads to couch immediately as Mira goes to the kitchen while Rumi freezes at the door looking at both of the girls she thought would never see again. Her marks start to glow a few different colors as tears fill her eyes, she can hear Mira asking what they want to eat as Zoey responds her ears feel like she is listening underwater as she glows dark purple and blue in a violent array of colors.
The pink-haired companion sticks her head around the corner to ask Rumi as she sees how the half-demon is slowly losing herself to the emotions in her head.
“Zoey!” Mira startles the short hunter out of her stupor of sleepiness. She sets up to see Rumi clearly having a panic attack. They both approach with caution to not have Rumi panic further.
“Rumi,” Zoey gently says as she holds out her hand. Mira follows her lead as Rumi looks to them and seeing the looks of concern on their faces, the dam breaks as the first sobs tremble out. Mira pulls Rumi in before Zoey and hugs her tightly. Zoey steps behind Rumi and wraps her arms around her just as tightly.
Both whisper confirmations that they are okay, she is okay, they will be okay, and many more. No one knows how long they stood there, but the gut-wrenching sobs slowed to sniffles to exhaustive swaying. Mira feels Rumi’s breath even out as they continue to stand, she pokes Zoey to get her attention. Looking up they can both see that they both have cried alongside their sleeping companion. The black-haired girl gently moves away as Mira works to carry Rumi to bed. The two who remain awake give each other a look that says the same thing. They aren’t going anywhere as they crawl onto the bed and curl up with Rumi in between them.
~~~~~~~
Warmth is all Rumi feels as she tries to cuddle into what is providing her comfort, but pillows don’t hum in contentment or try to pull her closer. Her eyes shoot open seeing pink hair in front of her eyes, glancing down she sees two sets of hands that are not her own. She tenses as the two holding her stir slightly.
“Hey, you’re okay,” comes from a sleep heavy voice behind her. A simple glance over her shoulder as the voice moves and places a gentle kiss to Rumi’s blushing cheek.
“We need to talk,” Mira states as she pulls Rumi closer to her and then grabs Zoey and pulls her flush against the purple hair that is draped between her front and Rumi’s back, “but let’s grab a shower and food then we can talk, okay?”
Zoey hums in affirmation as Rumi releases the breath she’s been holding since waking up in their arms. A barely there nod puts them into motion. They slept in Zoey’s room since it was the closest, so Rumi and Mira walk down the hall together. Pink follows purple through the penthouse as Rumi gets to her door and stalls, remembering what is awaiting her in that door.
Four boxes with a bloody note on top, a ripped apart closet door, a shattered mirror, and droplets of blood on the floor.
Mira watches Rumi stop in front of her door as her breathing escalates quicker and quicker. She walks over and steps in front of Rumi. Looking up into the taller girl’s eyes, tears begin to streak down Rumi’s face, flowing over her patterns that have darkened.
“Do you want to shower in my room?” The look in her eyes is gentle and concerned about the beautiful and damaged girl in front of her. Again a timid nod is all Mira needs to start moving, wrapping Rumi into her arms and moving her down to her room away from whatever is causing her the panic she feels in the moment. The door remaining closed.
~~~~~~~
After a quicker shower than normal, Rumi walks out to see Mira sitting on her bed with two sets of clothes beside her. Glancing up as the light from the bathroom drifts into the room, standing only in a towel still glistening with water stands a glowing Rumi. Focusing solely on the purple haired girl in front of her, no words come out as her jaw seems to be locked in place agape.
The patterns go from the iridescent color to a light pink as a blush forms on her neck moving up toward her face. Rumi clears her throat and snaps Mira back to the present.
“Oh, I- I’m sorry if I made your uncomfortable but you’re gorgeous, and I-“ the pink haired girl blushes as well and clears her throat, “I have some clothes for you.”
Rumi’s eyes widen as she opens her mouth to explain as her patterns change wildly from pink to orange to purple to blue and back through that same rotation.
“I didn’t go in your room,” Mira quickly adds. “These are some I think would fit you and you would be comfortable in. If you want I can go grab some from your-“ A hand reaches out and stops her as she begins to stand.
“No! I mean, no. I’m fine with whatever you have.” Rumi tries to play off her exclamation with a small incredibly awkward smile as her patterns start to slow down to a mix of light pink and dark purple. One of Mira’s eyebrows slowly raises as Rumi gathers the clothes into her arms and rushes back to the bathroom to change.
Looking into the mirror behind the sink Rumi takes stock of how much everything has changed already and how much more they are going to continue to change. Taking a deep breath she opens the door and hears quiet whispers between the two other women. Mira nods as Zoey has a contemplative look on her face. Mira turns and sees Rumi first and slightly smiles. Zoey follows her eyes to see the light show that is the patterns that Rumi has hidden.
Zoey runs over and stands in front of Rumi obviously wanting to touch the wildly changing colors in front of her. Rumi’s eyes widen at the thought of someone touching them and the scars that are hidden within the patterns. Mira walks over and puts a hand on Zoey’s shoulder.
“How about I take a shower now while you guys decide on food and where we are sleeping cause I won’t be able to sleep without both of you close to me,” Mira starts looking at Zoey and shifts her focus to Rumi when talking about sleeping to gauge her reaction. Rumi’s patterns seem to have slowed down thinking about how much she wants to cuddle with the two in front of her.
“Oh! We can get bulgogi and bibimbap and tteokbokki and boba!” Zoey starts listing everything on each finger as Rumi nods at Mira to go shower then grabs a hand that Zoey is holding out as she walks them to the couch.
They pass by Rumi’s closed bedroom door once again with Rumi keeping her eyes down, not looking at the room that holds all of her trauma. Zoey glances at the door and how quickly the girl who is pulling speeds up to pass it without eye contact.
~~~~~~~
After Mira joins them and the food has been delivered a slightly uncomfortable silence has taken over the trio as two of them keep their eyes switching between food and the purple haired girl whose eyes have an out of focus gaze over them. As the food slowly disappears leaving behind just wrappers and take away boxes, patterns begin to swirl with colors once again. Mira reaches over and grabs a shaking hand of Rumi as Zoey does the same.
“Whatever happened, you’re still our Rumi,” Zoey whispers. “We will understand regardless of deal you made-”
“No!” Rumi's sudden exclamation makes the other two jump. “Sorry, I just- no- I didn’t make a deal with Gwi-Ma.” Confusion crosses Zoey’s face as one of Mira’s eyebrows crawls up towards her hairline.
In such a small voice that if Zoey and Mira weren’t sitting right next to her they would have missed, “I was born with them. I’m a half-demon. My dad was a demon and my mom was a hunter.” A few beats of silence settle between them as Rumi starts to try to close in on herself. Before she is able to fully pull her knees up to her chest she is tackled from one side causing her to fall into Mira with a small squeak.
Feeling the long arms wrap around her from underneath, “we shouldn’t have raised our weapons at you. I should have listened to you.” Rumi feels Mira’s chest shake as she tries to stop herself from crying as Zoey continues to cry into Rumi’s side.
“No you guys were doing what you were trained to do,” Rumi shakes her head, “I probably would have done the same thing in your position if I saw that.”
“Rumi, we shouldn't have done that at all,” Mira says as she pulls Rumi’s head back so their eyes can connect. “You tried to tell us and we all know that you are just diminishing what happened tonight so you can save our feelings but yours are just as important. Personally I think they are more important right now.” Hearing and seeing how sincere Mira’s words are makes the tears that were starting to well begin to track down her face as she throws her face back into the crook of her neck.
After a few minutes of crying all three have calmed down and sat back up on the couch as Zoey asks, “Do you want to talk about what happened the rest of the night? I mean you saved us while we were trapped under Gwi-Ma’s influence, but we walked there. I’m guessing you saw Jinu, but what else? You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to but if that’s all that happened then Mira and I can get back to apologizing and groveling.” A small smile graces Rumi’s lips that slips away just as quickly as it appeared as she remembers where she stopped first after her confrontation with Jinu. Glancing back to her room, the memory of what happened in there feels her senses.
“Uh, I went and saw Celine.” Mira clocks the shift of her eyes and decides not to comment on it, instead she nods and squeezes Rumi’s hand as Zoey looks to be doing the same. “She tried to cover up my patterns saying that we could convince you guys that it was an illusion from Gwi-Ma.”
Zoey’s face twists into a sad pained expression as Mira’s was angry, extremely angry. “We aren’t going to talk to her until she apologizes,” Zoey says with a definitive tone in her voice. Mira stays staring at Rumi, knowing there’s more than just that. Rumi can feel her eyes burning into the side of her face.
“Please don’t make me say it,” the broken voice that comes from their normally strong leader causes Zoey to wrap her arms around Rumi’s waist as Mira continues to stare.
“We need to know everything that happened Rumi,” all of the freshly dried eyes are wet again as tears form in the corners.
“I asked her to end it.” Instead of that sentence coming out steady it comes out as a soul wrenching sob as Mira grabs both of the smaller girls that begin to cry and sob.
~~~~~~~
Now laying bed both Zoey and Rumi who fell asleep after crying themselves to sleep, Mira carried both of them and is now restless. She feels like sleep would only evade her and she would accidentally wake up both of the sleeping girls. Instead now she stands outside of the one room that has not been opened since they came home. The cautionary glances that Rumi has given this door all night is causing Mira an uneasy feeling. Taking a breath she grabs the doorknob and pushes into the room.
Upon first glance her eyes go to the broken mirror with a puddle of blood on the ground nearby, a closet door that’s been ripped to shreds and boxes that have been placed on the bed. Mira walks towards them slowly, a note that is covered in blood is laying on the box that has her name etched on it. Reading the note, she understands that Rumi didn’t think she would be walking back into this place as Mira’s chest begins to ache.
She looks at each box. One for her, one for Zoey, one for Bobby, and one for Celine. Bobby’s and Celine’s each seem to have similar contents in them compared to the bulging boxes of Mira’s and Zoey’s. Listening for any movement behind her for a moment, she opens the box with Bobby’s name.
His box is meticulously arranged with what looks like important documents from before they even debuted. How long has Rumi had these boxes for them? One grouping of papers is in a plastic sleeve that has a note attached that says: Bobby, this is my will and you are the executor of my estate. Everything is labeled out and has been approved by several lawyers. Don’t worry their NDAs are in here as well. Make sure they are taken care of.
Carefully pulling out the documents and scanning over them, only Mira and Zoey are mentioned, nothing about Sunlight or Celine or Bobby. Tears well in the eyes as she slides the will back into place and shuts the box. Bile rises in her throat as she looks at the other boxes as she tries to place everything the way it was before she walked in here. Every feeling, every look, every smile, every rejected notion of going out, everything about how Rumi acted to them makes her sick every second of thinking about it. Retreating from the room and closing the door, she walks back to her room where there are two bodies still curled into each other.
She slides in behind the mass of purple hair and presses into her back, wrapping her arms around her, placing a delicate kiss behind an ear with a gentle whisper, “I love you, Rumi. I’m so happy you’re still here with us.” Mira closes her eyes and listens to the breaths of the two girls she’s loved for years and falls asleep.