Survive_A_Little_Longer

And I’m just picturing Rumi spending two full years inside it, watching as Mira and Zoey spend a month searching for her until Celine comes clean and explains things to them, and they spend the next six-eight months mourning Rumi and assuming she died. They do try and find a way to get under the golden Honmoon to the demon realm where she could be, but they simply lack the means.

The Honmoon cannot hurt itself, after all.

A combination of Bobby (who thinks Rumi was kidnapped and killed, likely by some kind of crazy fan) and Celine (who knows Rumi would hate her if she let her girls wallow like this) convince them to start moving forwards. They don’t release anything during Rumi’s two years stuck inside the Honmoon, instead opting to retire and become instructors/music creators for newer artists.

They actually become fairly successful and Rumi, despite her despair at only being allowed to watch as her eternal reward for all she’s done, is happy for them.

That happiness turns bittersweet when she discovers they’ve been dating for a year, since before the sealing of the Honmoon. She can’t blame them for it, she always put that space between them, but it still hurts.

Not because they’re together.

Because she isn’t there with them.

It hurts worse when they lament about how they’d wanted her to join them.

The second year passes quickly and incredibly slowly. She watches as Mira and Zoey’s careers plateau on purpose, so they can have maximum freedom while still getting decent money. (Their richer then rich, they do it for kicks mostly.) she sees as Celine slowly spirals further and further, sobbing at Miyeongs, and now her, graves and apologizing.

Rumi can’t take it. She can’t take the quiet sadness slowly pushing itself into Mira and Zoey. She won’t let the guilt keep gnawing at Celine like this. They need to know she’s ok. So, she starts experimenting. Testing the limits of this new Honmoon.

She finds that while it can’t be broken, it can be… stretched. Pushing against it with all her might lets her affect the physical world to a degree, but not much more. She also finds that it’s slightly easier for her to manipulate around Celine, and even easier around Mira and Zoey.

She forms a theory, one that she gets to test weeks later when the three of them are in a meeting room to discuss an upcoming group. Rumi can manipulate the Honmoon even easier, enough so to grab something. Or, someone.

To say Mira is shocked would be an understatement. The pink haired woman shrieked when the Honmoon suddenly wrapped around her arm, and then clung to her in the shape of a hand.

A hand attached to a pale arm, with patterns. Mira’s eyes dart down to the face pushing against the Honmoon, dreading what kind of demon she would see that could somehow push the supposedly immutable barrier to this degree.

When she sees the patterned face of one of the women she loves, Mira is shocked, then disbelieving, then she’s moving.

She goes to grab at Rumi, but she simply shakes her head, a sad smile on her face. She didn’t do this so they could pull her out, she knows that wouldn’t work. (She’s almost certain. About 90%, give or take.) She did this so they’d know she’s ok. That she’s happy, even, getting to watch them.

As she fades back into the Honmoon, a sudden hand grasps her arm. Rumi is somehow shocked to see Zoey grasping at her, holding on tightly. Rumi goes to twist free, confused, but a second hand grabs onto her hand through the Honmoon.

Mira has both hands on hers, holding tightly to it and she’s pleading, begging Rumi to fight, to stay with them. She’s pulling, as is Zoey, but they aren’t able to get her very far.

Celine is there moments later, grasping at Rumi’s shoulder, and lifting. The Golden Honmoon is bending, twisting, maneuvering to try and keep Rumi beneath it.

Rumi hesitantly begins to push.

The impenetrable barrier bends, strains, and buckles under the four hunters efforts. With an oddly satisfying pop Rumi is torn from the Honmoon and into Mira, Zoey’s, and Celine’s arms. Rumi is too stunned to act for a moment, but the tears don’t wait for her to process her sudden freedom.

She starts crying trars of joy, laughing and grabbing all three women.

She is home.

—

I just thought it was nice. A shorter one, sure, but a nice one anyways.

But like you said, she could find someone who doesn’t leave her alone, or make her feel like she wasn’t worth choosing. (For added angst, it could very well be another polycule. That would be extra crunchy.)

So, let’s say Rumi, about a decade after everything that happened, about five years after Huntrix retired officially, and a year after the next generation debuted, finally officially retired. She fills her time by carefully taking care of admin stuff for the new group, but learned over the last couple of years how to take it easy. (Well, workaholic Rumi easy.)

Mira and Zoey stay in contact for a while, but life catches up to all of them. Rumi gets busy with the community of Jeju, where she’s moved too. Mira and Zoey get busy with family, their two daughters growing up ridiculously fast over in Korea, probably a mid-sized town.

About five more years would pass, and Rumi would meet them. Two women, whose personality’s once reminded her of her two teammates who she had fallen in love with years ago, and slowly let that love fade in recent years. Now, those two women are their own persons in her mind, and when they both ask her to join their relationship, she said yes.

They were happy.

Mira and Zoey knew something was missing. They’d felt the edges of that hole dull over the years, but it never quite filled. They adore their kids, and love each other, but their life always felt… lacking.

They realized why about a year later, and made the move to Jeju shortly thereafter. Their kids are roughly 12-13 by then, old enough to be excited and young enough to not understand they wouldn’t be seeing their friends for a long time, if ever.

They ended up meeting up with Rumi on accident shortly after arrival. They had planned to reach out, but happenstance (and maybe some interference from the Honmoon) led to them seeing each other randomly in a market.

Mira and Zoey had their kids with them, and Rumi had her partners. (They were dating at that point, but unbeknownst to Rumi they were planning on proposing to her very soon, as they were already married.) The two couples caught up for a few minutes, but one of Zomira’s kids got upset and they had to leave.

The next few weeks Zoey and Mira spend getting to know the new Rumi. A Rumi who’s openly affectionate, speaks clearly about how they’re feeling, and is so freaking touchy. She’s constantly reaching for her partner’s, hugging them, hanging off of them.

It makes Mira and Zoey jealous, and they know it’s unfair, but the hole is still there. It’s closed somewhat, since they’re a part of Rumi’s life now, but present nonetheless. They’d talked a little about what they’d do if Rumi broke up with her partners, (and felt guilty about doing so,) but it just… didn’t happen.

Rumi was happy. They’d proposed to her a few weeks ago, and they were gonna get married next month. Celine and Bobby would be there, as would Mira, Zoey, and their kids. (They’d started referring to Rumi as their Imo, something that was adorable and broke Mira and Zoey’s hearts a little.)

For one drunken night while their kids were over at Rumi’s, Mira and Zoey talked about just making a move on Rumi. About confessing to her how they’re really feeling for her, about telling her they’re in love with her. Thankfully, they still had enough soberness to know that wouldn’t be fair, not to themselves and most definitely not to Rumi.

They’d had their chance, years ago. A drunken one night stand with Rumi, the day they’d retired. She had tried the next morning to talk to them about it, but then Bobby had come running into the apartment with Celine to celebrate a much more quiet way.

They never did get around to talking about it. And over the years it seems Rumi had forgotten about it.

But they remembered.

And oh, how it burned.

The wedding day arrived. Their girls were the flower girls, and Derpy was the ring bearer along with Sussy. Mira and Zoey were her bridesmaids, and Celine gave her away. They got to see Rumi in the beautiful gown, her patterns faintly glowing.

The ceremony was beautiful, Bobby officiated it. The after party was a gentle blur, wonderful in the ways only people in love could make it.

Mira and Zoey were hurt, but they were also glad. Rumi had found people who she could love, and who would love her.

The years kept going after that, their lives settling into a comfortable blur. The hole in their lives shrunk, until it was nearly unnoticeable. Some days, it would hurt seeing how Rumi kept those soft glances for her partners, a look they used to see directed at them.

But they grew into each other’s lives, not crossing the line to romance or anything more. They became close, certainly, neighbors who their kids could swap houses days or weeks at a time and be welcomed.

They had missed their chance to have Rumi fill that hole.

Yet, she still helped keep them from falling into it, every day she simply was there.

If you asked Rumi, she’d say her life is perfect. She has her wives, who she loves and adores with her whole heart and who return that and more. She has the littles, the girls she treats and thinks of as her own daughters.

And she has her best friends, the two people who she could say knew her just as well, if not a little better, than her wives.

—

Sometimes, letting go is what you need to be happy. Because letting go lets you grow, and change, and be something more.

And if that means you lose something, a part that you thought immovable?

Then you shouldn’t try to fill that hole, that gap, that missing piece right away. It’ll always be there, maybe painful some days, maybe peaceful on others.

But you shouldn’t let that missing piece be all you are.

You shouldn’t feel guilty for letting go. Be happy for the good, learn from the bad, and let yourself grow.

Like I said, a story where your too late makes my stomach hurt. This one has been no exception, if I’m honest.

But I think it’s a good kind of hurt this time.