Sabs1d

Bodily harm comes with the job.

Celine made this very clear from the beginning. Fighting demons is a dangerous job. They’re ruthless beings that will stop at nothing to steal souls. They are known to be even more ruthless with Hunters themselves, and would burn the world to bring an end to them.

That’s why Rumi, Mira, and Zoey trained for ages before their debut in every martial art Celine could think of. Taekwondo. Jiujitsu. Judo. Eskrima. They trained day and night to fight demons. Once they debuted and got into a rhythm, HUNTR/X took less scrapes, bruises, and injuries home.

The training didn’t stop bad fights from happening. There were nights where Rumi, Zoey, or Mira came home needing stitches. Being the Kpop stars they are, Bobby would kill them if A) he knew what they were doing with their time off and B) he heard they walked into an emergency room because of their dangerous hobby.

Celine made sure they knew first aid before they left her care and guidance. Mira is good at stitches. Her steady hand and her uncanny ability to keep a straight face under pressure is ideal for when they take a bad slash. Zoey’s especially good with topical applications. Her gentle touch is good for the burn of antiseptic and application of numbing agents to bad bruises. She cleans wounds like nobody’s business.

Rumi is good at everything because she needed to be. When keeping her patterns to herself, being able to do all her first aid on her own was crucial. Rumi spent hours stitching herself back up after a claw nicked her deep enough in her shoulder. She knows how to reset joints from dislocating her elbow on two separate occasions. She is an expert at performing first aid one-handed, even with her non-dominant hand. Rumi can apply rubbing alcohol to a cut and not even notice it.

The bodily harm is still part of the job, and so is teamwork.

Zoey, Rumi, and Mira have jumped in front of hits for each other on countless occasions, only to be met with ridicule while being patched up by another. Sometimes it’s accidental or plain instinct. Most of the time, it’s on purpose - notably when another one of them has their back turned or has been knocked to the ground.

Rumi started noticing the latter type of self-sacrifice after they sealed the Honmoon.

Even though the Honmoon is “sealed,” for some unknown reason a few demons can still get through. The occurrences are much less frequent than before, which means HUNTR/X has to deliberately spend more time in their dojang training.

It doesn’t stop the need for the occasional self-sacrifice hits that they take for each other. When one of them is down, the other two are quick to respond.

Zoey’s shin-kals are not the best for defending. When she steps in front of Mira or Rumi she’s prone to taking hard hits.

Rumi has taken right hooks to the face to block a more dangerous hit aimed at Zoey or Mira.

Mira’s wol-do is long and lethal. When she steps in to defend Rumi or Zoey she shows no mercy.

The thing is, for Rumi, that she’s started to notice Zoey and Mira jumping in front of her more and more… even when she’s not down. She’s tried not to say anything because Mira and Zoey act like it’s normal. The balance in the group shifted for the better once Rumi came clean about her patterns - who is she to ruin such a good thing?

But then Rumi takes a blindside hit to the shoulder in a dark alley. It’s not a bad hit - it will bruise and be gone in a week - but it does come when Rumi’s head is turned in the opposite direction. The demon that dealt the blow is massive.

“RUMI!” Zoey screams. “Mira, go help her!”

Rumi sees Mira not too far away. Zoey is surrounded by several demons she’s keeping at bay with her shin-kals.

Before the demon can take a slash at Rumi, Mira slides in with her wol-do raised at it. She blocks above her head to parry the first blow, but the demon swings his other claw horizontally.

Rumi watches the demon’s claw rip through Mira. The splash of crimson on the ground will haunt Rumi’s nightmares for years to come. She tries to intervene, but Mira keeps Rumi behind her.

“Mira, stop!” Rumi yells.

Mira doesn’t even respond. She takes another cut on her forearm while blocking again - not nearly as deep, but she’s losing enough blood already. Rumi sees her knees buckle, and the demon watches her fall to the ground.

It’s the opening Rumi is looking for. She unleashes her saingeom and sinks it deep in the demon’s chest. She sees a flash of light bury in the demon’s shoulder just before it poofs into a cloud of magenta smoke.

The relief is momentary because Mira is down and groaning in pain. There’s crimson blooming across her chest and abdomen, created from the four distinct rips in her shirt. It’s a miracle none of her organs are exposed.

Rumi and Zoey are at Mira’s side in a flash. The wounds are so deep that there’s not much they can do until they get back to the penthouse. They have to act fast, which is why Rumi has an idea.

“Zo, hold onto me,” Rumi tells her, gathering Mira into her arms. Mira lets herself be held, weakly grabbing Rumi’s t-shirt with a blood-soaked hand. Zoey reaches across Mira and wraps an arm around Rumi’s shoulder.

Rumi shuts her eyes, concentrates on their penthouse living room, and holds her breath.

With a quick poof, Rumi’s knees hit hardwood. She opens her eyes to see the penthouse around them, Mira still bleeding between her and Zoey. She hasn’t teleported since the night they defeated Gwi-Ma.

“We’ve got to fix this,” Rumi tells Zoey (who is absolutely bewildered), referring to the gashes in Mira’s chest.

“You just gestured to all of me,” Mira grumbles. Rumi ignores her.

Zoey silently helps Rumi cradle Mira in her arms, then helps her get to her feet.

“I can walk,” Mira mutters. She’s nearly limp in Rumi’s arms.

“No,” she tells her.

Rumi carries Mira into her bathroom, sitting her down on the floor and propped against the bathtub. She has Zoey grab the first aid kit under her sink, quite extensive and large from the years she spent doctoring herself. Zoey helps Mira out of her shirt and jacket while Rumi prepares to stitch up Mira’s gashes.

Rumi can’t look Mira in the eye as she and Zoey work. Zoey expertly cleans up the blood and keeps the area sanitary while she keeps Mira awake with small talk. Rumi works quickly with a trembling hand. She stitches up one gash at a time, using a lot of gauze to keep the other wounds at bay.

Rumi can’t even begin to think about asking Mira why she did it. Every time she starts to wonder, she sees the pool of the blood in the alleyway and it pulls her back to Mira’s stitches.

Mira, who is slumped against the side of Rumi’s bathtub and weakly gripping Zoey’s hand. This is Mira, who is always so adamant that Rumi and Zoey take care of themselves that she shoves water bottles and plates of food in their faces. Mira, who likes her personal space but lets Zoey cling to her like a koala. Mira, who can read Rumi like a damn book especially when she doesn’t want to talk about something.

Rumi places a stitch in Mira’s abdomen, and she feels the muscles tighten under her needle. Mira hisses out a breath.

“Almost done,” Zoey tells Mira, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re doing so good.”

“Thanks, Zo,” Mira tells her softly.

“Can you go get her a snack or something, Zoey?” Rumi asks. “She’s lost a bit of blood.”

“Totally,” she replies, giving Mira’s hand a squeeze. Zoey gets up and leaves the bathroom.

“So,” Rumi says without making eye contact with Mira. She continues putting stitches in her skin. “Why’d you do it?”

“Do what?”

“The fuck do you mean what?” Rumi asks, flicking her glance up to Mira’s face for only a second. “Zoey was surrounded. I only took a blunt hit to the shoulder—“

“Which I want to take a look at when we’re done here, but—“

“Mira, that’s not the point,” Rumi interrupts. She finishes up her final stitch and makes eye contact with Mira. Her eyeliner, usually so neat, is smudged. The normal straight face she wears is softened. “You jumped in front of me. Zoey was surrounded. But you jumped in front of me well before that demon was going to swing at me.”

“He blindsided you,” Mira says.

“Why’d did you do it?” Rumi presses. “Why did you jump in front of me when I could have handled him on my own?”

“Rumi—“ Mira scoffs.

“Tell me.”

Mira’s lips press together. Rumi notices the cut along her cheekbone, dry with blood but deeper than just a scratch.

“Do you remember when we found out you were part demon?” Mira asks softly, looking down at her lap.

“I try not to,” Rumi admits. “It wasn’t a fantastic night.”

“No, it wasn’t. And it keeps Zoey and I awake at night,” Mira tells her, even softer.

“What? Why?” Rumi asks.

“Ru… we raised our weapons at you.”

The room freezes over.

It was the one thing Rumi had always feared about telling Zoey and Mira about her patterns. She’d always been terrified they would turn on her. As the years went on, it got harder to want to tell them. It got to the point where they were so close to a golden Honmoon that it made no sense to tell them when they could be gone so easily. Everything was ruined when the Saja Boys came around and destroyed everything they spent years working for.

Rumi might have been part demon… but they raised their weapons.

“I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same if I were you,” Rumi tells her. “Our training—“

“That’s bullshit,” Mira says. “Don’t blame our training. We are family, Rumi. Family doesn’t do that.”

“Mira…”

“No, listen to me,” Mira mutters. “I thought you were hiding something. I didn’t think it was about you being a demon, but I could tell you were keeping something from us.”

Rumi grabs the remainder of the gauze from her medical kit and works to wrap her wounds while Mira talks.

“I hate that my first reaction was to pull my wol-do out,” Mira admits. Rumi sees her jaw tick. “You’ve only ever wanted the best for us, and I turned on you. I turned my weapon on you, Rumi. Zoey followed me. It’s so fucked up.”

Something in Mira’s brow twitches. Rumi hasn’t seen Mira so vulnerable since Rumi told her about when she went to Celine and asked her to kill her.

“I can’t… I can’t watch anyone else raise a weapon in your face, Rumi,” Mira admits, her voice breaking as she says it. Rumi stops working. “They don’t get to do that and walk away unscathed.”

“Mira,” Rumi whispers, cupping Mira’s face in her hand. “You should have talked to me about this.”

“The thing is, I don’t care how hurt I get,” Mira tells her, bringing up a hand to hold Rumi’s wrist. “If I can keep you from getting hurt, it’s worth it.”

“You can’t take every hit for me, Mir.”

“Watch me,” Mira tells her, dead serious. “I would take a thousand hits before I let someone else raise a weapon at you.”

Rumi feels tears prick her eyes when Mira looks over her face.

“You didn’t deserve it,” she tells Rumi. “We should never have reacted like that. I’m sorry, Rumi.”

Rumi doesn’t know what to say. She leans in, wrapping her arms around Mira’s back to hug her. Rumi is careful not to disturb her fresh stitches, but Mira is the one that pulls her closer by draping her arms around Rumi’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Mira whispers. “I love you.”

Rumi clenches her eyes shut to keep her tears at bay and tightens her arms around Mira.

“I love you too,” she replies.

Rumi doesn’t know who pulls away from the hug first. Before she knows it, she’s back to wrapping Mira’s stitches in gauze. Zoey comes back with a pile of snacks for Mira to munch on while Rumi finishes.

They doctor themselves up slowly (now that the most life threatening of all has been taken care of). Rumi lets Mira take a look at her shoulder after she insists. Zoey bandages the cut on Mira’s cheekbone and grabs an ice pack for the darkening bruise on Rumi’s shoulder. Rumi cleans up the gash on Mira’s arm. Mira covers Zoey’s scratches with bandaids.

Once Mira’s regained more color in her face, Rumi and Zoey each take a side and get her to her feet. She’s taller than both of them, so Mira puts most of her weight on their shoulders while they lead her to her bed. They get her settled pretty easily.

Mira takes up a fraction of the bed, lying on her side near the edge. Rumi sits in front of her hips. Mira’s bandaged hand is clutched in both of Rumi’s.

“Where’s Zoey?” Mira asks.

Rumi turns her head, seeing Zoey asleep and sprawled across Mira’s bed.

“She’s starfishing behind you,” Rumi chuckles.

“What a bed hog,” Mira yawns. “Stay with me for a little bit?” she asks softly, her eyes beginning to close.

“Of course, Mir.” Rumi uses her fingers to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Get some sleep.”

“I’ll try.” Mira’s eyes flutter closed and she sighs deeply.

As Rumi watches Mira drift to sleep, she feels as Mira’s hand relaxes and melts between hers. The expression on her face softens and her breathing slows.

Rumi has no idea how long she’s sat there. Mira and Zoey trade soft snores - it’s the only sound in the room.

When Rumi finally lays down behind Mira and laces an arm around her waist, the tears finally come. She’s so tired and so floored by Mira’s words.

Mira loves her so much that she would spend every day crushing those that would harm her. She loves her so much that she would grind their bones so Rumi would never have to see another weapon pointed at her again. She would take hit after hit for her.