aymmgreen

——

She has lived for twenty years under the Honmoon, the great barrier that kept her predecessor, Gwi-ma, and his hoards from taking souls. She dethroned him when she was still just a child, and now she rules with an iron fist.

Well, not quite Iron.

“Ruuuuuumi!” Jinu’s singsong voice came from the entrance of her study, making her glance at him for a moment.

“Hello, Jinu.” Rumi said. “What new headache do you bring me?”

Jinu scoffed in mock offense, placing his hand on his chest. “I don’t always bring a new headache! Maybe I was bringing you something to eat!”

Rumi paused, lifting her unimpressed gaze to meet Jinu’s. Jinu cracked almost immediately.

“Ok, ok, fine. I do technically have a new headache. But! It’s one that really can’t be taken care of without you!” Jinu cheerfully said.

Great. Another thing that requires her ‘complete and undivided attention’, just like always.

“And what, pray tell, might that be?” Rumi sighed.

Jinu perked up at her answer, knowing it would mean she is willing to deal with it. “Nothing much, just two mortal girls that fell into the demon realm.”

Rumi jolted hard, her ink well spilling onto one of the papers she was signing. With a glare, Rumi’s stood up, fixing the ink well without looking.

“Jinu, I swear to the Honmoon above that if you are lying I will have your tongue taken out again.” She threatened.

Jinu held up his hands, stepping back as Rumi swept from the room. “Promise! Their in the northern grove, they seem very confused.” He pauses for another moment, considering, before nodding. “They also were able to summon honmoon weapons-“

Rumi is already gone as soon as she hears the last two words, the rest of them lost in the rush of movement as she slipped between the gaps of air and dust. Stepping forwards, Rumi let her eyes open.

In front of her stood two young woman, both glaring at her with open hostility. One of them, the taller of the two with starkly pink hair, is holding a glowing gok-do. The shorter of the two is holding a shin-Kal, something that makes Rumi pause for a moment in surprise before shaking it off.

The three women watch each other for a moment, waiting to see what the other would do. Rumi breaks the silence with a loud sigh.

“Ok, why are you two in my realm?” Rumi asks.

The taller one narrowed her eyes at Rumi. “Your realm?” The disbelief is evident in her mocking tone.

Rumi tries to ignore it. “Yes, my realm. Why are you two here? The whole point of the Honmoon is to keep humans up there and demons down here.”

The shorter girls shoulders drop as she looks at Rumi in complete bafflement. “Wait, your Gwi-ma? You’re a lot prettier than I thought you’d be.” She slapped a hand over her mouth as she finished speaking with a small squeak.

A faint blush spread across Rumi’s face before she could stop it. She struggled to focus as she stammered, “Ah. Uh, ok so I’m not Gwi-ma. My name’s Rumi, can I ask your names?”

“Zoey! And this is Mira!” Zoey spoke before Mira could say something, drawing a heated look from the taller girl. Zoey withered a little under it, shrugging apologetically.

“Nice to meet you both. Now, can you please tell me how you got down here? I already have a nightmare of paperwork to deal with just because you two are down here.” Rumi’s voice drifted dangerously close to pouty, despite her best effort. Something about these woman was making it difficult for her to keep the usual mask up.

Mira speaks up this time, eyes narrowed. “We were sent here to kill Gwi-ma, to end his threat forever. Not… whatever you are.”

With a sigh, Rumi waved her hand, manifesting a small round table with snacks and three seats. The two hunters tensed up at the motion, but Rumi didn’t let her own hesitation show, instead sitting calmly in one of the seats and taking a bite out of one of the treats.

“So, you were sent here to kill the previous ruler of demons, Gwi-ma, but instead find out he’s dead. So now I want you to ask yourselves; do you want to try and kill the new one, or join her for some treats and drinks?” Rumi kept her eyes trained on the two. She was feigning nonchalance and could only hope that the two would relax at the calm air.

Zoey took a step forwards, her eyes trained on one of the cupcakes, but Mira put a hand on her shoulder. “Zo, what happens if this is like the fade realm you told me about the other day?”

Zoey pauses, giving Mira a strange look, one Rumi unintentionally mirrors. “Wait, do you mean the fay realm? Mira, this is nothing even close to the Fay realm beyond the beautiful and definitely dangerous woman.”

Rumi couldn’t hide the way her patterns tinged pink at the compliment, and she pointedly looked away as Mira looked at her.

Hopefully she didn’t notice.

(She absolutely noticed.)

After a moment Rumi turned back, meeting Mira’s gaze. “So, tea and treats, or do you want to try to fight me?”

Zoey had her back to Rumi, but whatever she did drew Mira’s attention. Mira immediately flinched, like she’d been hit, but the way her cheeks were slowly coloring was a bit telling as to how effective Zoey’s strategy was.

“Fine! One drink, and you have to explain how you killed the king of demons.” Mira sat down, eyeing the drink warily before taking a small sip. She hummed, seemingly unconsciously, in approval.

Zoey sat down next to her, taking a big bite out of the cupcake she was eyeing earlier. Then, much to Rumi’s horror, she began to speak. “So! How exactly did you beat the king of demons? And are you the reason demon attacks have become so rare?”

Rumi took a moment to collect herself, fighting down the odd mix of revulsion and fascination that seeing the younger girl devour the cupcake gave rise to. “I ate him.”

Both girls choked at the same time.

“WHAT?!”

——

I dunno this popped into my head and I thought it was a fun idea. Rumi, not knowing she’s a half demon and managing to kill Gwi-ma, becomes the new demon king.

Mira and Zoey are hunters who never found their third, and were tasked with killing Gwi-ma in his “obviously weakened” state since the breach’s are so rare and only have a couple demons leaving them.

inspired by this meme:

Zoey nearly tips herself off balance with how quickly she jerks herself upright, but by the time she’s reaching for Rumi’s hand, the other girl has bowed instead. For a moment, Zoey is left staring at the top of her head, at the way her braid hangs off her shoulder like it was arranged purposefully.

And then Rumi straightens, eyes looking as wide as Zoey’s feel. A pause. A breath. And then the corner of her mouth tilts upward, her eyes crinkle, and she puts her hand on her stomach as she laughs.

Zoey knows the sound of people laughing at her; that’s not what this is, and the sound tosses aside all her nerves until she finds herself giggling along with the other girl.

“Sorry, sorry!” Rumi apologizes, laughter still escaping her despite her obvious attempts to swallow it back. “Start over?”

“Why?” Zoey asks. “I think that was the best intro we could’ve had.”

“I’d like to, though,” Rumi says, her voice sounding almost… wistful. “Can we?” She holds out her hand again, and okay, okay, refusing and crushing Rumi’s hopeful little smile would make Zoey feel like a monster.

So she takes Rumi’s hand in hers, and gasps as color blooms between them. Starts at their hands, Rumi’s skin paler than her own, and rolls outward, over the black sleeve of Rumi’s jacket, up to her warm brown eyes and then her—

“Your hair’s purple!” Zoey delights, before noting the way that Rumi’s eyes have squinted.

“And your shirt is… very bright,” her soulmate responds, and Zoey looks down and laughs again because yeah, apparently her favorite shirt from a local conservation group is a striking neon green. And then she remembers what Celine had said, just before she left the room. “We have the whole day now? To get to know each other?”

(Later on in the week, Zoey will remember that again and wonder at it. Almost like Celine knew what would happen as soon as they touched.)

At Rumi’s nod, Zoey tugs her eagerly toward the door. “Can we go to the zoo? Or the aquarium? Walk, talk, eat ice cream, see all the animals in color for the first time?”

“Do we have time for both?” Rumi asks, her head tilted to the side, matching that crooked smile that Zoey already melts at. All the anxiety of this meeting — her? They wanted Zoey? For a K-pop group? Really???? — dissolves like mist in the morning sun.

“If we hurry,” she says, picking up the pace and half-dragging Rumi with her until the other girl laughs and half jogs to keep up with her. “No waffling over ice cream flavors, no dawdling at the baby animals, only thirty minutes at the turtle exhibit!”