In way too many fandoms

People thinking Rumi (or Zoey or Mira) is pregnant is hilarious, how do Huntrix react to the rumors? How does the public react when they find out CELINE is the one who's pregnant?

Hi @ghost-357 !!!

I imagine that Huntrix would find this both hilarious and they'd also work to keep it a secret if Celine wanted them to do so. They're rumors so the three would know that it would probably blow over in a few weeks at most meaning that there's no real need to get overly angry or anything. (Also, and this is just a headcanon of mine, but I believe that Huntrix has a hard time going against what their fans want them to do (within reason) in terms of shows, games, etc because they're really scared of doing something wrong and the fans no longer liking them).

Chapter 1!

She turned her hand once, then again, then once more. Perhaps testing whether changing the angle from which she viewed her hand would make the bite marks reappear, but they didn’t. Her hand had only small scars, practically impossible to notice from afar, and Zoey only saw them better when she brought her hand close enough to her face to identify the faint marks. She blinked a few times, incredulous, and then jumped in place as the thought of one of Rumi’s powers manifesting in her occurred to her.

Fast regeneration.

Rumi never stayed injured for too long; whenever she burned or cut herself cooking, the wounds healed in a matter of minutes. Okay, it had been a good forty-eight hours since Mira’s bites, but Zoey still remembered perfectly well that there were wounds in that area when she put the bandages on the night before. It wasn’t possible that she had healed overnight, right?

Right?

Zoey went to the nearest mirror to face the bite mark on her neck, and as soon as she was face to face with her own reflection, all she saw was a completely healed bite mark.

She gulped, a little nervous, but also quite amazed.

Wow. Everything healed.

Mira had apologized several times since the moment they put bandages on the bite marks, and Zoey had assured her again and again that everything was just fine, but Mira kept apologizing anyway. Zoey tried to reassure her girl, but it didn’t help much. Maybe now that they were healed she could forgive herself for what happened—at least Zoey hoped she would.

Perhaps Zoey was a little apprehensive about the implications of the healing—since it most likely meant that being bitten on a full moon would bring a predictable surprise on the next cycle—but she was more concerned with showing the scars to reassure Mira at the moment.

However, as soon as she went back into the room to tell Mira the news, she was bombarded with a question that sent shivers down her spine.

“Zo… How many times have you and Rumi— How many times has Rumi, um— How many times did you take her knot?”

Zoey blinked a few times, a little taken aback by the question, but certainly worried now. Uh oh. Maybe Zoey had gotten too carried away in that full moon cycle, but she couldn’t even find a shred of regret in herself. She would do it all again and again exactly the same way simply because she loved them too much to deny how good it had been to spend that full moon with them.

“Um. Well—” Zoey scratched the back of her neck, actually trying to count how many times she’d taken that knot, but nothing really came to mind. Three times? More than five? She wasn’t sure. But oh boy, she could hardly wait for the next time they’d be together. “A lot? I dunno for sure. Gosh, it didn’t even hurt. You were kinda right, her pheromones helped a lot, but I certainly didn’t have any trouble to, uh— fit it.”

Mira blushed a deep red and blinked a few times.

Zoey’s cheeks flushed a faint pink, a little embarrassed by her own honesty, but not at all regretful.

“You smelled her pheromones,” Mira stated, hands going to her hair and pulling at strands as her desperation grew. “Oh my god, you and Rumi had sex on the full moon, the same full moon I bit you— Zo, please tell me you’re up to date with your contraceptives.”

“I mean, yes, like, I have an IUD. I don’t take any pills though. Do you think human contraceptives work with Rumi? I mean… she’s a werewolf.”

Mira froze in place. Neither of them could really think of anything other than a pregnancy possibly happening even before their To-kki was born, and Zoey remembered well how quickly Mira’s belly had grown. One look in the direction of that baby bump was enough to be sure it was even bigger since the full moon two days ago.

Their baby had developed six months in a mere three months, and Zoey genuinely didn’t know what to think if she ended up pregnant at the same time as Mira, especially since their relationship was so recent.

Welp.

Blame on Zoey for spreading her legs for her wolf without thinking properly about the consequences after asking her to cum inside. But what could she do?! Rumi just messed with her too much for Zoey to care about anything other than milk her dry.

“We don’t have much to do right now, babes.” Zoey scratched the back of her neck, then moved a little closer to Mira to try and reassure her. “Try not to stress about it, okay? We’ll be fine. Maybe my IUD will actually work, maybe we’ll have another pup. Whatever happens, we’ll be fine, okay?”

Mira didn’t seem ready to believe Zoey. She still looked like she was clearly overthinking, but Zoey continued to hug and reassure her until Mira began to find some peace despite the clear worry about the imminent problem. If Rumi hadn’t managed to get Zoey pregnant this time, either the IUD was effective even though their partner was a werewolf, or Rumi wasn’t as fertile outside of her rut cycle. And if the second option proved correct, Mira imagined they would end up with a litter of half-werewolf pups in their house by the next rut now that Rumi had two mates to breed.

God help them.

Thus far: College student Zoey has been kidnapped by a cult to be a blood sacrifice to their Ancient Evil. Unwilling member of said cult Mira has gotten beaten up trying to protect her, and then protected by her in turn from said Ancient Evil. And Rumi (neither evil nor all that ancient, actually) has gotten the two very nice ladies out of the cult cavern and to this fascinating thing known as an ‘ambulance’ using a ‘phone’

She did not have enough words to even try to begin describing everything. (how could they fit so much in here?)

There were clear pliable snakes (?) and metallic switches and panels (?), things that looked more like the magic slab- er, 'phone'- than anything, and instruments that resembled some passing cousin of what the physician she remembered used but at the same time looked so sleek and shining and strange that she couldn't begin to fathom their purpose or use. And-

A sound of discomfort from Mira snapped her focus to the gurney. One of the- what had Zoey called them?- 'paramedics' was carefully looping a piece of cloth around Mira's swollen jaw and Mira was very much not liking the experience.

Rumi decided this was important enough that 'don't speak' did not apply.

"You are hurting her!" She reached over and shoved the woman's hands away.

The woman, caught off-guard, fell back against the floor of the ambulance with a hollow thud!. She blinked up at Rumi with a similar expression Bobby had when she first burst in the clearing.

Rumi ignored her. Apparently some parts of the world hadn't changed. Instead she took Mira's hand and focused on stroking her thumb back and forth across her knuckles; she...thinks she remembers this being comforting.

The tension in Mira eased; she had remembered right.

"...I need to immobilize her jaw," the paramedic said slowly after a bit. "So it doesn't get damaged further. It may be uncomfortable for her, but it will stop her from getting more hurt."

Oh. Rumi had not considered this. She looked down at Mira, eyes shut and breathing heavily. She did not look good, and her jaw looked worse. Worse than the blacksmith's when he got kicked in the face by a farmer's mule. He had never looked right or talked right again, and she very much did not want that for Mira.

Rumi nodded and shifted so the woman could reach Mira better, but kept hold of her hand and maintained her back-and-forth stroking when it tensed in her grip as the woman fashioned a sort of sling and knotted it in place. Afterwards she passed Rumi a little bag, made of material that was pliable like cloth but shiny like...she wasn't sure. "Here. You seem like you want to help; hold this to her jaw."

Rumi took it, determined to help, and-

She yelped, dropping it to the ground.

It was cold!

Before she could process that the ground lurched forward and they were moving, fast and smooth as the wind over the pond with none of the uneven jerkiness of a cart.

Pull it together Zoey! One worried look from an Ancient But Young Not-Evil Hot Being should NOT do such weird things to her stomach.

Nevertheless, Zoey had kept a reassuring smile until the first ambulance closed its door and she was shepherded onto the stretcher. She vaguely heard "Bobby" being refused entry and promising that he would be there at the hospital before the door closed and the paramedics started their examination.

She's looking into the light, drinking a much needed cup of water, answering simple questions, ensuring that she doesn't feel hurt apart from the bruised wrists and ankles where the goddamn iron shackles trapped her, and really she's feeling alright, no they don't need to call anyone from her family there is no need to bother them, they don't need to worry so much, honestly she's more wound up than—

The first sob takes her by surprise.

It shouldn't have, really. She's a crier and she knows it, but in the whirlwind of everything, she actually forgot to feel and the day was now catching up.

The questions eased, after that, and the trip passed in a blur painted with the professionally calm tone of the paramedics and the cologne smell of the blanket that Bobby had given her and that she was in the process of soaking with her tears.

She's barely cooling down when they finally arrive and refuse to let her out of the stretcher.

"Where are they? Can I see them? Please?" she is almost begging but at this point she doesn't care much. She needs to be close to the two women that shared this disaster of a day with her.

The paramedic pushing her stretcher tilts his head in front of him, pointing behind her. She heard the commotion first.

"—need to let go, miss. Do you hear me?" The tone is the unmistakable one of an aggravated nurse just trying to do her job.

The scene is almost comical. Right in front of a door clearly labeled "Authorized personnel only", lies Mira on her own stretcher, one paramedic woman ready to push it inside and the nurse trying to bar entry to and negotiate with the wall named Rumi.

Rumi who is holding Mira's hand in a vice grip and looking right in front of her like the nurse doesn't exist.

"What's happening?" asks Zoey. Rumi and Mira both reacted at the sound of her voice, Rumi's fiery eyes assessing her and searching her face, frowning at the state of her make-up.

"You their friend?" The nurse pounced on the opportunity. "Could you convince her to let go? We need to have this one get an X-Ray to assess the damage and treat her but we can't have visitors..."

Zoey hesitates. She also doesn't want to let Mira go now but… "Can we be in the same room? After? When she's alright?"

"Well I can't…"

"Please."

The nurse turns to Mira. "Is that alright with you?"

Mira raises a tired thumbs-up, to which Zoey grins. "Nice, thank you! Thank you so much!" She turns to Rumi. "Rumi, it's alright, you can let got. They'll take care of her and bring her back to us."

Rumi reluctantly nods and finally faces the nurse, her voice coming low and frankly an bit threatening. "I trust that you will be true to your word."

Unfortunately, they do not.

Embarrassed, Rumi shakes her head.

“Right.” Zoey bites her lip, and sighs, before looking down at herself and tugging at her clothes. “You notice how everyone is dressed different than you? And talks different, too?”

(Rumi noticed that they took the stars.)

She looks down at her own hanbok, jacket half-shredded from her attempts to get free of the binding, to claw it off her skin as it took shape, and she hopes this communicates her assent.

“If they decide those things, the things you say, everything about you—if they decide they mean that you’re crazy,” Zoey says, “then they can lock you up. Force you to get treatment.”

“But I am not,” Rumi points out.

“Yeah,” Zoey says quietly, pained. “I know.”

And Rumi has seen the manners in which one might attempt to treat madness, and… it must be, that for all the ways that time has passed around her, this is not one.

(They took the stars.)

So Rumi sits beside her on the strange hospital bed, and she reaches out, very carefully, to wipe at the smeared makeup around Zoey’s eyes.

If she could be gentle, just once—

“I’m okay,” Zoey says, catching her hand with a little laugh, and a small, strained smile that did funny things to Rumi’s heart. “Just a lonnnnnng night, you know? Kinda all hit me for a minute back there.”

Rumi nods, wishing she had some better assurance to give.

But Zoey ducks her head, breaking the eye contact between them. “You need to let the nurses do what they have to, okay? You can’t pick a fight with them or they’ll kick us both out, and probably get us arrested, and even if you don’t understand what they’re doing, I promise they’re trying to help. You can ask me if you’re confused about something. Just—“

Rumi raises her eyebrows.

Zoey laughs, a sound like music. “Yeah, I guess not. But you can squeeze my hand, right?”

Then she puts her hand—her soft, warm hand—back out between them.

“I am dangerous,” says Rumi.

Zoey nudges their linked hands against Rumi’s thigh. “Super duper. I’m shaking in my boots.”

Rumi frowns. “You are wearing sandals.”

Zoey’s laugh is a very pleasing sound. If only Rumi could be certain what she is doing to provoke it, so she may never cease. “And that’s why you really have to stop talking, dangerous crow girl.”

It would probably incite further admonishment to inquire about the relevance of crows. “I find it difficult,” Rumi admits. 

“Yeah? You got a lot to say?”

Does she? Perhaps not much of import, not truly. But the desire is still there. She has never known how to excise it, not effectively nor for long.

“I guess you can talk to me, if we’re quiet, and you don’t threaten any more nurses,” says Zoey. “I want to hear what you have to say.”

Given permission, Rumi finds herself struck dumb.

“I think,” Zoey says gently, “you’ve been locked away for a long time.”

“The sky,” Rumi stammers. “Do you know—about the stars?”

“Oh! I’m more of a marine wildlife kinda girl myself, but I know a bit, sure.”

“But you cannot see them,” Rumi says helplessly. Has she only heard stories? That is immensely sad.

“Oh, shit, Rumi,” Zoey says. “Yeah. It’s the light pollution. The cities—settlements got so big and bright, we’re literally, I guess, literally blotting out the stars.”

Rumi bows her head. She would like to say she is used to evil she can fight, but that would not be strictly true. It would in fact be demonstrably false; it had been her inability to fight true evil that had brought her here, after all.

This feels yet bigger and more insurmountable, and the tools at her disposal laughably unsuited to the task.

Zoey squeezes one such tool in her hand. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’d be sad too, to lose something so beautiful.”

How shameful, for Zoey to feel the need to offer comfort to Rumi, whose pain is but a crumb to Zoey’s feast. “No greater beauty than that of the constellations upon your cheeks, fair lady,” Rumi redirects expertly.

On the other hand, there are two people waiting for her when they show her back to her room. So Mira’s kind of okay with the fact that one of her molars is still loose.

The doctor says… something to her, but it goes in one ear and out the other. Mira is too busy taking in the view.

Zoey’s eyebrows are a little creased with concern now, like she’s listening to everything Mira’s just nodding along with—it’s fine, they know they drugged her up, they’ll repeat it later—and the sight is so much more comforting than anything she’s ever had that—

Rumi makes a soft sound in the back of her throat. She’s looking at Mira in that way she does, like nothing else matters but what she’s seeing.

It’s too much, far too much for Mira, not on a night that has already been as irrevocably fucked as this one has, and she just wants her stupid fucking brother here to refuse to look at her directly.

Someone gives her a tissue, and Mira hiccups, already frustrated by the constraint of the wires. She tries to wipe her face off and nearly smacks herself in the eye.

“Hey, here, let me help,” Zoey says, and she’s so sweet, and that just makes it worse, because Mira isn’t the kind of person who deserves good things and they always go wrong in the end.

But Mira still finds her fingers are knotted in the loose fabric at the bottom of Zoey’s shirt anyway, holding her tight.

“May I speak to the one who made her cry?” Rumi asks, very close and entirely earnest in her soft, threatening question.

Mira hates her.

Blindly, she reaches out to fist her other hand in Rumi’s clothing, as if something so small might anchor her here, right beside Mira, keep her from ever leaving and throwing her life even further off course than she already has.

She gets the sense Zoey spent the bulk of the past- hour? two?- explaining the twenty-first century; she's wishes she could have been there. Not because she wants to explain the psychological aftereffects of anesthesia, but because...it would have meant spending time with them, hearing Zoey's bubbly giggle, seeing Rumi tilt her head in that way that made her look like a confused puppy, feeling the warmth of their bodies pressed close to hers...

Wow, they must have given her some powerful stuff...

She focuses on the conversation before her thoughts can careen further in that direction. Rumi is peering at her with a softness that reminds her of carnation petals.

Yup, the extra good stuff.

"Are you feeling better, Mira?"

She grunts, limply seesaws her hand, and watches as Rumi's eyes go from carnation petals to Venus flytraps as she whips towards Zoey.

"They did not fix Mira! She is still unable to speak! The physician has wronged her!" She jolts to her feet, and Mira grips her shirt tighter. "He will face consequences!"

She was also with-it enough to know that Rumi will be shoved in a psych ward if they let her go rampaging about unsupervised, and...she doesn't want that.

"Nononononono Rumi!" Zoey scrambles to Rumi's side of Mira's bed and grips her arm. "She's supposed to be like that!"

Rumi scrunches her brow. "...That is a strange idea of 'fixed.'"

Mira has to admit: she's impressed by how Zoey breaks down the intricacies of wiring someone's jaw shut, effortlessly infusing it with enough humor and optimism that Mira almost- almost- doesn't groan at how she'll be relegated to liquids and meal replacement shakes for the next few weeks (damn, she already missed food)

She shouldn't be surprised, though; she was quickly finding out that Zoey was one of those people she hadn't thought existed, who were practically made of sunshine and couldn't help brightening people's days, saying things like "But! Think of all the silly straws you'll get to use!" and "You'll get to have milkshakes for breakfast if you want, you lucky duck!"

And her family was going to murder her...her family who were maybe murdered themselves...

Rumi's talking again, and she focuses on that instead of her conflicted thoughts. "And they will keep her here and feed her these 'shakes?'"

"Well, maybe for, like, a day or two." Zoey shrugs. "Then they'll discharge her to- wait." She turns wide eyes on Mira. "Where are you gonna go?"

“Girl, gender neutral!” Zoey exclaims. “Not anymore, you don't!!”

Rumi frowns. “Only upon my death shall the land be distributed to the people.”

“Gonna take a wild guess it's been distributed plenty!”

Rumi huffs. “Then I shall build it anew. A day or two will pose a challenge, but they will have to suffice.”

“Rumi, Mira is not going to be recovering from a serious injury in a shack in the woods with no running water.”

“I will run and fetch her as much fresh spring water as she requires.”

“I don't doubt you will! But you're both coming with me, fucking obviously!!”

Rumi smiles at her so warmly it's giving Mira second-hand heart palpitations. “Generous as a king. How grievously would we strain your resources?”

“Calling me a peasant, are you? I'll have you know my roommate is visiting her boyfriend in Gwangju, so we shall have two beds.”

As absolutely fucking adorable as this conversation is, there's no way Mira can allow herself to become a burden to these two women, who seem to own exactly zero earthly possessions between them, and also have both been basically kidnapped by her family. She makes as loud a noise of protest as she can. Which is not very. 

It's enough for both impoverished women to glare at her fiercely, though. 

“And that's enough out of you. I don't need two rich assholes calling me a pauper,” Zoey tells her loftily. 

“We shall accept no objections on the matter til you are hale and whole,” the traitorous ancient hero immediately backs her up. 

Mira gives them a look she hopes conveys something like ‘The only reason I'm not saying something so insightful and utterly convincing that you will lose the argument immediately is that I literally can't speak.’

Zoey is not willing to lose the argument immediately on the strength of a look. “Thank you,” she says. “Your feedback is important to us. Please allow up to five business days for our support team to review your request and get back to you.”

Rumi leans closer to Zoey. “A fortnight or two, to be safe?” she whispers. 

"Rest, my lady, I shall keep watch."

Zoey blinks rapidly and yawns in a way that reminds Rumi of the kittens that used to take residence under the bridge. She grabs Rumi's hand and squeezes, a serious frown on her face. "Promise t'not threaten 'ny more doctor?"

Rumi feels like her threats were well deserved but decides to placate the girl for now. "I promise. I will honor the trust you place on them. Rest now."

"Wake me if y'need t'be sure."

Rumi doesn't have time to object before Zoey's eyes close completely and her breathing depends, her hand still trapping Rumi's.

Somehow, Rumi is glad to have those two girls to watch over. She always did best with a task at hand, and she's glad for the purpose distracting her from the torrent of everything new.

"I think you’ve been locked away for a long time." had said Zoey. She tries not to dwell on it. She watches Mira's chest rise and fall, and tries not to think of horse-less carriages, weirdly common sorcery and incompetent physicians. She takes in Zoey's freckled face, frowning in her sleep, and forgets for a moment how the stars disappeared from the sky and the forest have gone silent.

At some point, the door to their room opens. Rumi glares a little at the intrusion but recognize the nurse that stopped her from accompanying Mira. The nurse startles and Rumi forces her face to relax. She promised Zoey, after all.

"I'm just watching the vitals," explains the nurse. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to Rumi but she stays silent, opting to simply observe the woman as she reads the glowing instruments and writes some numbers down on a paper before placing it back at the foot of Mira's bed.

She points at the empty bed next to Zoey. "You can lay down too." That would mean releasing Zoey's hand, so Rumi simply shakes her head.

"Alright," concedes the nurse before leaving.

The process repeats several times through the night. Sometimes with the same nurse, sometimes with others. In the end, Rumi must admit that their calm demeanor and precise movements make for a reassuring sight.

At one point near morning, however, Rumi rises up before the door opens.

The man behind the door is dressed like the other nurses, but he doesn't smell like them. More importantly, he carries with him a modicum of power. Nothing impressive, but one that reminds Rumi of last night's ritual.

(Mira tried talking in spite of her wiring, and found that the sounds she could make weren’t worth it, but they luckily had a pen and paper already in the room. On the other hand, Rumi needed several tangents to help her understand the state of modern law enforcement and why they wouldn’t just explain things.

She remained very confused by the idea that what was going on around her wasn’t sorcery, which, fair, Zoey would probably assume that too if everyone hadn’t spent her whole life normalizing and explaining it.)

(Can’t really say it was just an accident, huh? Mira wrote, and that made Zoey feel too many things to say anything.)

To her surprise, though, the first people who find them after she managed to pry Rumi away from Mira’s side with the promise that it was temporary aren’t police officers: the guys from last night are both in the waiting room.

The tall guy shakes awake the short guy—his name is something with a B, something American, Zoey always remembers names like hers, fuck, Billy?—pointing their way, and short Billy practically leaps up to rush over.

“You’re okay!” he says. Then, slightly embarrassed, takes a half-step back and adds, “I mean, uh, hi, I’m Bobby, I called the ambulance last night?”

“We remember you,” Rumi says, in that grave way of hers, bowing deeply. “Thank you for your aid, Bobby-nim. And yours, Ji-hoon-nim.”

Tall guy goes bright red and mumbles something unintelligent, looking away.

“Just doing the right thing,” Bobby says, chuckling. “Is, um, the other woman, Mira, do you know…?”

“Mira’s fine!” Zoey says, waving her hands through the air like she can brush off his worries. “She’s probably staying a few days, but she’s gotten her jaw all set and everything, thanks to you. We’re just getting Rumi some new clothes before—“

It is at this point that Zoey realizes she’s fucked.

She checks her pockets, like she didn’t just get her things back from the personal effects bag.

Zoey says maybe three words about not having any money on her and it's enough for Bobby to insist on accompanying them to the nearest mall and buy Rumi some clothes.

"If our job has but one advantage, is that it pays alright. Trust me, working in the entertainment industry is not as fun as it may seem."

Rumi’s stomach bottomed out as she realized, sickeningly, that she had failed Mira—let herself linger in the strange shops full of readymade, stretchy clothing with the beautifully even stitching and utterly horrible seams, then getting silly drinks and thinking about the taste of apples—

What kind of fool does such a thing, leaving one she has sworn to protect?

She breathes in slowly, and addresses the… secretary(? The woman was certainly some form of powerful bureaucrat, to hold so much information at her fingertips) as respectfully as she can. “Please, is there anything more you could tell us of what has happened to her? It is very important, and you would have our deepest gratitude.”

“I’m sorry, but that would be an invasion of her privacy,” the woman answers, gentle but firm.

Rumi wants to scream.

She has enough sense not to do such a thing, of course, and Zoey squeezes her hand warningly besides. But she wants to.

She bows deeply instead, thanking the woman for her time, and sweeps out. She will find Mira by her own ways, then. Even in this time of constant sound and awful smells and—and light pollution that stole the stars, Rumi is not incapable of action.

She cannot be incapable of action.

She cannot fail Mira, not after—

She cannot.

She should have destroyed them all in that cavern. Killed the monsters before they could come back for Mira and hurt her further. But she hadn’t, because—

Zoey grabs her arm. “Rumi!”

Rumi does not know what 'John Wick' is, but if Zoey means anything akin to what Rumi did in the cavern- what she should have done- then she is wrong; that cult may have warded her to try and stem her power, but, to put things simply, there had been a reason they'd resorted to cowardly tricks.

But she doesn't dislodge Zoey's hands; it is not her fault that the world is cruel or that Rumi failed to properly dispatch her enemies.

The memory of her failure rears again, turning her voice short. "Mira is gone. I have failed her and must make amends by delivering her from the harm that has befallen her."

"We don't know- okay, yeah, that's probably accurate. But rampaging through the city is only going to get the cops sicced on us."

Rumi thinks for a moment. "Then this shall be a stealth mission. We shall infiltrate." (not her strength, but her abilities are vast).

Zoey nodded. "Yeah, something like-"

"And then slaughter."

Zoey frees a hand to run it through her hair, buns half undone and strands straggling down her back. "Well, not anyone innocent, but If that cult is involved- which, let's be real, duh- go to town, Cujo."

"...I am Rumi."

In spite of everything, Zoey laughs and swings her hand to and fro. "Yeah you are!" She lets out a long breath and starts chewing her lip as she looks up and down the street, eyes like a rabbit's that caught wind of a fox. "Now...where to start?"

Rumi looks around, considering. The city they are in is strange. She does not know these sounds; she does not know these smells; she does not understand...so much.

But Zoey's been a good teacher, so she understands some. And maybe-

"Can we ask a 'phone?'"

And, like, Zoey knows that just rolling with the most confident person in the room is how people get scammed, but in her defense: Rumi.

Of all the worries that occur to her, the first and only one she lets herself voice, after some three blocks of marching after the storm in human skin, is “Ugh, I should’ve borrowed Ji-hoon’s phone to cancel my card. My mom’s going to kill me if one of those freaks starts running up a bill.”

She doubts Rumi understands that statement at all, but. Marching. Woman takes one look at a map and suddenly decides she understands all of Seoul.

And here Zoey is, following after her.

Not that she could turn around—there’s no way, not when it’s Mira. There’s something about her that just clicked into place in Zoey’s soul. Maybe it’s the trauma, seeing Mira get beaten, saving her life, holding her in that hospital room, but whatever it is, it’s real.

(Of course, Zoey was always the retriever of broken-winged baby birds, the kid who tried to fend bullies off and only ended up making it worse for herself and whatever other kid was getting harassed. She’s get a bleeding heart, her dad would say.)

Okay,” Zoey says, wishing for a notebook, “we need a plan. What do we do if she isn’t there? Did you see any of the other clinics?”

“All of them,” Rumi says.

Somehow, Zoey doesn’t doubt it. She’d so get scammed. “Okay, okay, okay, that’s good, we’re good. If she is at one of them, what do we do?”

“We retrieve her,” Rumi says.

“And if they don’t let us in?” Zoey asks.

“We retrieve her,” Rumi repeats, like it’s that simple. John Wick mode: active.

“…And what if she isn’t at any of them?” Zoey asks.

Rumi’s foot falters on the edge of the curb. Her jaw tightens.

“Back to the beginning,” Zoey offers quickly, even if maybe it’s stupid, too much. “We go back to the beginning and check the cave.”

It was, Zoey felt, like reading a bunch of fanfics all rooted in the same trope: the trappings slightly different but the end result the same. Her and Rumi would march in to a clinic, Rumi would ask to see their good friend Mira, Zoey would nearly choke on her heart as her brain chronically misheard 'good' as 'girl' (was there an auditory version of a Freudian Slip?), the receptionist would say there wasn't a single 'Mira' in their care, and they'd leave a little more dejected and a lot more desperate.

(after the first time, it occurred to Zoey that they really shouldn't get confidential patient information so easily; she remarked this to Rumi, who just bowed her head and said something about "she is not proud of that ability.")

(which: huh???)

(anyway: finding Mira)

Now they were marching (Rumi's preferred way of moving, apparently) back through the wilderness to a place...Zoey would really rather not revisit.

Judging by the look on Rumi's face when the cave looms into view, so would she.

It's the most still she's seen her since she burst out of the cavern floor, somber as a cemetery statue, and there's something- not ancient, but old about her eyes.

It dawns on Zoey that the last time Rumi stepped into that cave...it was centuries before she stepped out again.

Had there been other girls who she smiled at? Other hands she held in the dark? Brown eyes and worriedly wringing hands that stood at the mouth of the cave and wondered when she'd come back?

That died not knowing what happened? Or worse, knowing but being helpless?

Zoey reaches out and takes her hand, the motion easy and familiar now. "Hey. We're in this together, remember? I am sticking to you like glue."

Rumi smiles, a flicker of light, then turns back to the cave. "You...may stay out here, if you wish. I know there are...unpleasant memories within."

"Eh, they all got balanced out by watching you whoop cultist ass." Zoey shrugs flippantly and offers Rumi a crooked grin that (she hopes) hides the traumatic memories she's reliving).

Rumi returns it, then creeps, heel-toe, heel-toe, into the cave.

It looks much the way Zoey remembered: weird symbols on the floor (which...huh, match some of the ones on Rumi), gigantic fissure in the stone, incense scattered like sand, her wallet-

Hey!

"Sweet!" Zoey darts forward and scoops up her wallet like she's racing against a pack of pickpockets. "I thought this was gone for- THOSE LITTLE-!"

"What?" Rumi jumped up from where she was examining a candle stub (hmph; her candles used to turn out better than this). "Have you found a trace of Mira?"

Zoey's peering into her newly reclaimed wallet. "They didn't just take my money, they took my metro pass! Even though they have a car!" She puffs out her cheeks and harrumphs. Honestly! "They really are evil. Good thing we're getting Mira away from them."

That wallet is, unfortunately, the only useful thing they find in the cavern; soon they're sitting outside it, trying to think what to do next.

"I really don't wanna call the cops..." she sighed. "But- Rumi?" She slid from the boulder she was sitting atop of. "What are you looking at?"

"That way." Rumi speaks with iron certainty as she stares down the deer trail. "They went that way."

Zoey blinks, confused; the path looks as undisturbed as Eden. "Are you sure?"

Part four

Part five

Part six

Part seven

Part eight

Part nine

my initial thought was that it’s just A Thing some demons do, like, some random percentage of the population has that instinct and it’s impossible to tell who. now that i’m thinking about it, though, i feel like it would make more sense as an age thing?

within a pack of demons, there is always A Baby. it’s always the youngest member. it doesn’t matter how old they are, they are The Baby and will continue to be The Baby until there’s a new one. it’s instinctual and based on wacky magic demon pheromones, there’s no way around it. The Baby can be scruffed. if an older pack member grabs the back of their neck, demon brain goes “ah, a more experienced demon is trying to move me. i can infer that it is to a safer location, because pack. okay, baby time” and they go limp. it’s very useful for about a month when fresh demons are still getting used to the underworld, but the fact that it doesn’t fade like it does in cats is… annoying, to say the least.

jinu’s actually fairly old for a jeoseung saja, but he exclusively hangs out with senior citizens, so he’s still The Baby. he fucking hates it. the others don’t scruff him in public because they know he has a reputation to maintain, but if he’s being a shit behind closed doors? ohohoho it’s scruffing time babey. baby’s the biggest offender, by far.

mystery can be scruffed also. it’s not an instinctual thing for him, abby spent the better part of two centuries subtly pavlov-ing him into it to make it easier to restrain him when needed (he’s long and wiggly and a pain in the ass to wrestle with). it only works for abby though, which baby and romance find very unfair.

this rumi’s patterns didn’t spread so much because she didn’t grow up constantly ashamed of being half demon (also i saw a post saying that someone, either maggie kang or one of the artists, confirmed that her patterns started from her chest but idk how true that is? anyway boob patterns)

compared to canon!rumi she’s a little more confident, a lot more relaxed, and much, much better at ragebaiting. 4/5 saja boys are in the habit of carrying on full conversations during a fight for the sole purpose of pissing off their opponent and they passed it on to her

(more under the cut. this got a bit long)

au where celine’s love for miyeong doesn’t quite outweigh her hatred of demons. she can’t bring herself to kill baby rumi but she knows she won’t be able to raise her either, so she leaves rumi with the only person she can think of: her dad’s weird coworker

rumi grows up in the demon realm until she’s sixteen or so, when her hunter powers become too strong to hide from gwi-ma in his own house. at that point the saja boys smuggle her up to the surface and leave her with her Cool Aunt celine. this fixes a shocking number of the psychological problems she has in canon

(lore under the cut)

i feel like realistically they would’ve at least known the other existed but. this is funnier

this is… better? somewhat?

saja cuddle pile + jinu’s weird cat (spiritual successor to this post)

extra hc doodles under the cut