Chapter Text
It had been a good few weeks since the Idol awards when Rumi had finally worked up the courage to explain everything to Mira and Zoey.
They of course, had been able to fit most of the puzzle together on their own though.
What with Rumi’s patterns, the discovery of her secret relationship with Jinu, the defeat of Gwi-ma, the sealing of the iris honmoon, and Rumi’s insistence that the Saja Boys stay at the Huntr/x tower while they settled back into mortal life, the two girls were able to quickly identify key points that they had previously overlooked in the ongoings of Rumi’s life.
Her aforementioned secret boyfriend, for example.
Jinu’s double crossing had been a shock to them both, of course. One moment they had been fighting for their lives against hordes of spindly black monsters on the catwalks of the arena, and the next they had both looked over their shoulders to find Rumi’s lips locked against her sworn enemy as his clawed fingers ran rampant through her wild hair.
There were certainly better ways to have broken it to them, Rumi had admitted sheepishly.
After the battle was over and the eight of them had regressed deep backstage, it had quickly delved into a large and chaotic shouting match, no one quite sure what to think or say after what had just happened.
But the jist of their problem was that they couldn’t bring themselves to kill the Saja Boys after they had helped defeat Gwi-ma, and the group was now without a manager, without legal identities, and without a home.
Mira and Zoey had both been reluctant at first to allow the demons access into their tower, the place where they ate, slept, showered, and all other manners of activities that allowed them to let their guards down, but Rumi had been persuasive, and after many long confessions and apologies from the boys, they had finally cleared out a few spare bedrooms for the five of them on the condition that they pitch in with dishes and laundry along with all the other chores.
It had been awkward at first, Rumi and Jinu being the only ones of the two groups that would go even remotely near each other, but after a lot of encouragement from both sides, they had slowly integrated the demons and the demon hunters into a somewhat normal domestic routine.
They couldn’t help but admit after a while that the Saja Boys did make for excellent company. Zoey and Mys had grown close over their time making morning coffee for each other, and Mira spent most of her time sparring with Abby and Rom in their private gym, enjoying the new challenges they put to her fighting technique.
Baby just kept to himself mostly, discovering much to Zoey’s amusement that he was quite the master mixer when it came to making cocktails in their large storeroom behind the small barstool counter in their kitchen, his addicting concoctions making for some wildly drunk game nights when none of them felt like sleeping.
And Jinu? For a man who had never enjoyed an ounce of physical touch his entire existence, he had been practically attached at the hip to Rumi since Gwi-ma’s defeat. His hands were all over her, whether it be fiddling with the end of her braid, slipping a hand into the back pocket of her jeans, or just a simple little caress of his pinky as they passed each other in the hallway.
Jinu was an absolute sucker for her attention.
Bobby had even negotiated a deal between the two bands, rehearsals running late into the night for their upcoming single, one that Jinu and Zoey had both admitted had been their proudest lyrical work so far.
Life was better than it had ever been for all eight of them.
Which brought Rumi to finally tackle the only loose end she had left between her and the girls.
One night, long after the five demons had bid their goodnights to their girls, - Jinu leaving a simmering kiss on Rumi’s forehead with a soft ‘good luck’ as he went - Rumi had timidly asked Zoey and Mira to stay back with her a little while longer, clearing a spot on the couch for them as they carefully settled beside her - like she was some sort of animal that would be frightened away at any sudden movements.
They had a nagging feeling about what was about to tell them.
“I’ve needed to talk to you guys.” Rumi said softly in the dim light, a slight shake to her voice as her eyes darted everywhere else but the two of them. “For..a while now, I think.”
“We don’t want to rush you.” Zoey said quickly, reaching out to take one of Rumi’s limp hands in hers to pull her gaze to the two of them.
This seemed to ground Rumi a little more, her eyes moving to Zoey’s as her voice became a little more firm. “No, no I’m ready. I finally know what to say. I..I practiced with Jinu last night and everything.” She giggled nervously. “Trust me, I think I’m gonna feel a lot better if I just get it all out. It’s been bottled up for a while now.”
“We’re listening.” Mira told her, pulling a pillow to her chest as she leaned towards Rumi. “We’d never judge you, and we support you, no matter what. We would never make that mistake again.”
“Thank you, Mira.” Rumi whispered, her other hand reaching for hers as the two girls held her carefully, patiently awaiting Rumi’s next words with nothing but acceptance written across their faces. “I guess I should start with my parents.”
Rumi told them everything that night. About her patterns, about Celine, about Jinu, and about the thing she had been most reclusive about her entire life.
How she felt.
Mira and Zoey listened closely, gasping occasionally as Rumi revealed secrets she had never spoken into words before. It was a credit to them how calmly they took every detail, Rumi’s inner storm calming drastically as she broke through wall after wall before them, their acceptance only fueling her desire to split herself open and bare everything to them.
It was challenging speaking badly about Celine, even after everything she had done. She still felt programmed to praise her every movement, to defend her every decision like a godly word. Her scars still ran deep, clenching into her as she finally allowed herself to talk about every insecurity Celine had forced upon her, every withering look, every time she had made Rumi hate her body and the father she had never known.
She hated the person Celine had pressed around her like molding clay, trying to form her into a nothing more than an agreeable plastic doll with patternless porcelain skin.
And Mira and Zoey just listened, never once looking away.
“Celine?” Mira gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. “But you were like a daughter to her! Why would she ever tell you those things?”
“It’s not like they were your fault!” Zoey argued, eyes narrowed as she gripped Rumi’s hand tighter. “You didn’t choose to have them.”
“They weren’t and she knew that.” Rumi said quickly. “But it never stopped the prejudice, the one she had been taught her entire life. Half of me was evil to her, and whether she meant to or not, she had taught me to think the same.”
Rumi closed her eyes tightly, a single tear slipping through her tightly closed walls.
“Back when we were trainee’s, I had asked her almost weekly to reconsider keeping it a secret from you too. Every time you left for the bathhouse, or when you went to the lake house in the summer, I wanted so badly to come with you. Celine made me stay, picked out the turtlenecks and the long sleeved shirts that would hide my patterns from you. She told me…she told me you would kill me without hesitation if you ever found out.”
Mira was standing up in an instant, pacing the living room with her fists clenched at the sides of her polar bear nightdress. “I can’t believe I looked up to her for so long.” She growled, her eyes flashing blue with the honmoon’s magic as though itching to summon her gleaming scythe to hand. “Rumi, what she did to you.. That’s not right. She made her love conditional for you.”
“It..It wasn’t that serious.” Rumi stuttered out, as if not even believing the words herself as she spoke them.
“Wasn’t that serious?” Zoey repeated slowly. “She kept you from us for years! It would have been a shock, it was a shock when we found out, but we would have gotten around to it almost instantly with a good long discussion about it!”
“I always just thought she was hard on you because you were our leader.” Zoe said guilty, her voice warbling slightly as she looked at her feet in shame.
“It was partly because of that.” Rumi confirmed. “Back when we were building up towards the golden honmoon, Celine promised me that when we closed the gate to the demon world for good, my patterns would vanish alongside them.” Rumi looked bitterly across the room, her voice slightly muffled by her sleeve. “I think she wanted them gone more than I did, and so she projected a lot until I craved it as much as her.”
“Rumi..” Mira signed, reaching across the small expanse between them to pull Rumi to her chest, hugging her deeply as Zoey settled in beside them. “You were perfect, with or without patterns.”
“You have no idea how much that means to me.” Rumi signed gratefully, the big lump in her chest smoothing out as she was finally able to take a deep breath again.
They hugged, they cried, they held each other in steel-locked grasps as the city below them quickly drifted off to sleep, the sounds of the cars and the distant music fading to a steady hum as the night quickly shifted to the witching hour.
But Rumi didn’t care that her eyes were red or puffy, or that the three of them were going to be absolutely wiped during tomorrow's rehearsal for their upcoming music video, or even that she had absolutely ruined her shirt with her running mascara. Nothing mattered.
Mira and Zoey were finally beside her. No more secrets stood between the trio, no more lies to split them apart in times of desperation, and no more doubt about whether or not she had the support they offered when push came to shove.
They were with her. All of her.
They had decided unanimously that they all needed to distance themselves from Celine in the meantime, none of them even knowing how to begin handling the situation.
They didn’t even know if this was something they would able to repair.
After they had all bid each other goodnight, Rumi had snuck back down the hallway to her bedroom, cracking the door open as quietly as she could to avoid waking up Jinu.
She slipped into the bathroom, washing her face and brushing her teeth through drooping eyelids, and lazily pulling out her braid in long violet ropes until it hung loosely by her ankles, wrapping around her and her black pajamas like a flowy veil.
Then, carefully as her socked feet could manage, she settled into the bed as lightly as she could, knowing Jinu was one of the most insanely light sleepers in the world.
“Hmm, that you?” A drowsily-laced voice echoed lowly from behind her as Rumi settled into a distant spooning position.
“Damn it, you just can’t sleep through anything, can you?” Rumi sighed playfully, rolling her eyes and spinning around to face the sleepy demon on the other side of the pillows.
Jinu’s chocolate brown eyes just beamed up at her through his mass of shiny black hair, hanging down over his forehead like an onyx cloud as he sat up a little further, the sheets slipping down his bare chest to reveal a pair of men's choo choo train pajama pants.
She had never thought she could love a person more than the day he proudly ripped open his Amazon package to present them to her, claiming that they matched now.
“You’re starting to look like Mys.” Rumi giggled, playfully ruffling her fingers through the tuft on the front of his head until it laid a little more how he usually styled it.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Jinu teased, his hands traversing across the mattress between them until they were wrapping carefully around Rumi’s waist, pulling her across the seven inch expanse until they were resting chest to chest, foreheads pressed together as their voices dropped to a whisper. “You’ve said it yourself, Mys looks good with that haircut.”
“But I don’t want Mys!” Rumi giggled as his fingers slipped underneath her old tour shirt and traced lazy designs in the skin on her lower back and made her shiver with tickles. She retaliated by bringing her own hands around to stroke the length of his jaw, bringing his lips a mere breath away from hers. “I want you.”
She kissed him lazily, allowing Jinu to prop her up onto his shoulder as her lips moved impossibly in sync with his. She felt the prod of two warm objects running along her bottom lip, and opened her eyes slightly, seeing that Jinu had shifted over to his demon form while they had been wrapped up in each other. His forked tongue ran the length of his upper and lower lips simultaneously, patterns awakening hers as they spread across her body in bright purple flashes.
“If you wanted to see my patterns, you could have just asked.” Rumi said, breaking apart from Jinu to pull his hands from her shirt, pinning them down above his head as her hips shifted to straddle his pelvis.
He looked dazed, daresay high. Like he had been whacked across the head with a concerning amount of force.
His pupils were blown wide, trailing up and down her body like she was some sort of ethereal creature, his lips parted slightly as his forked tongue flicked wantonly across the corner of his mouth.
The things this man did.
“God, Rumi. You’re so beautiful.” He gasped, his eyes meeting hers with nothing but a lifetime's promise of devotion echoed across his face. “So beautiful. I could spend the rest of my life like this, trapped underneath you as the moon paints your face like that.”
“You’re so sappy.” Rumi groaned, swooping down to peck his lips and then popping back up, gauging his reaction to her words. “And cheesy.” Peck. “And old.” Peck.
“You know, where I come from, it’s extremely looked down upon to disrespect your elders.” Jinu whined, easily slipping out of her hold and cradling her body as he wrapped his legs around her, turning them both back over into their original position.
“Where I come from, you’re still young as fuck.” Rumi quipped back as her fingers threaded through his, her claws brushing against his as their skin blotted purple together, two ink stains over satin sheets. “You had to ask me to change a set of batteries for you yesterday.”
“Well I didn’t know you were supposed to use a screwdriver for that silly little chunk of metal.” Jinu said bitterly, the word screwdriver still unfamiliar on his two-pronged tongue, having not existed at the same time as the little tool.
“It’s okay.” Rumi said, finally relenting their little teasing game as she pushed herself up against him with all her might, his warm skin pressing into her nose as she inhaled him deeply, the very smell of him bringing her to euphoria as she curled herself around him. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“Lucky me.” He smiled, letting his leg fall over her waist as he let his claws sink back into his human hands, ridding himself of the sharp points as he let his hands roam across Rumi’s body with a fervent possessiveness, as if he were defending her body from the very darkness itself. “How did it go with Mira and Zoey?”
“Really well, actually.” Rumi told him. “Thank you for practicing with me last night, it really helped me be able to get through all that.”
“Of course.” Jinu said quickly. “Anything, Rumi. Anything you need.”
“I need to get to sleep.” Rumi yawned, even just the thought of tomorrow’s early morning making her groan out loud. “And I need a goodnight kiss.”
“I can provide for both of those.” Jinu said with a certain level of smugness in his tone. He captured her lips with his, pressing the full weight of his devotion into their connection as both of their patterns pulsed happily, lighting up the room in dazzling lavender clouds.
Jinu pulled Rumi to his chest again, almost blanketing her with his body as strong shoulders closed in from both sides, his head coming to rest above hers with his chin tucking her safely into the crook of her neck.
“Did you ever wonder why I’m a light sleeper?” Jinu suddenly asked as Rumi was finally able to close her eyes, letting the light of their bodies fade into black as her nose nuzzled into his skin.
“Mmnm.” Rumi hummed into his skin.
“Back when I was alive,” Jinu said, his voice barely above a whisper as soft fingers ran across her scalp. “My bipa was my livelihood, my only way to earn the next day's meal. I defended it with my life, learning very early on that anything that wasn’t secured down was pickpocketed into thin air.”
Rumi listened intently, not daring to break this rare moment of a glance into Jinu’s past.
“So every night, I would hold my bipa, just like this.” He said, gripping Rumi tightly against him to emphasize his point. “And when I felt passing fingers on the street reach for its neck, I’d be able to wake up quickly enough to take it back.”
Jinu’s hug grew tender, as though bracing for Rumi to suddenly be ripped from him the same way as his bipa had almost been all those years ago. “I know it’s not going to come true.” He said softly. “But if anything ever happens to you, I’ll be here, and I’ll be able to feel it and to help you. Whether you’re sick, or cramping, or you just need me to grab your toothbrush or something.”
His hand slipped over Rumi’s, holding her fingers steady. “I’ll always be here for you.”
Not able to fight her closed eyelids back open, Rumi just pressed open-mouthed kisses against the divot of muscle between his shoulders and his smooth pectorals. “I love you, Jinu.” She was able to move her sleepy lips just enough to say.
“I love you too, Rumi.” He breathed. “Sleep. I’ve got you.”
And Rumi drifted into a warm, dreamless sleep.