#pre-polytrix

A significant amount of time has passed before Rumi hears the sound of doors opening and closing in the hall and the quiet pad of slippered feet on the tile. Rumi turns her head just enough to see both Mira and Zoey making themselves comfortable. They're in pajamas, all signs of stage makeup gone, revealing only a few small scrapes and bruises left over from the earlier battle. Zoey sits on the couch, far enough away from Celine and Rumi to be able to see them both clearly. Mira pulls their oversized green arm chair closer to the couch and slumps into that, weariness evident in her posture.

"So," Mira breathes out heavily. She leans forward and rests her arms on her thighs and rubs at her bare face. "Rumi's a demon." Rumi isn't entirely successful at holding back her flinch, despite the lack of heat in Mira's voice.

"Rumi isn't a demon!" Celine barks, crushing Rumi closer to her. She's almost growling with venom. Protective. A mother bear standing in front of her weird adopted tiger cub.

Mira sits up with a start, her feet more planted like she’s ready to leap forward if necessary. Mira’s eyes slide from Celine to Rumi. She is watching her with an intensity Rumi can’t parse. 

Rumi is so, so tired. "Celine." She waves her hand at the whole situation.  

Celine pushes Rumi away from her by the upper arms and looks at her like she's sprouted horns. Rumi very casually runs her hand over her forehead like she's pushing hair away from her face. Nope, nothing new growing there. "Rumi, you are not a demon." She glances between the three of them. "I understand the way it looks and why I need to explain this to Mira and Zoey,” she turns back to Rumi, “but I’m not sure why you’re questioning this.”

Rumi fights the urge to shrink under Celine’s gaze. She knows she’s not in trouble, but it also feels like she is for some reason. As a child, she was always the type to do as told and trust in Celine’s authority. She had only ever tried to protect and care for Rumi, why would she lie? How could she be wrong? But clearly she was. Rumi was very obviously covered head to toe in demon patterns. She had claws! They’re gone now, along with the purple tint to her skin, but it was there plain as day. Obviously, Celine was simply too close to the situation. She had raised Rumi from a baby and her judgement had become clouded.

Mira speaks carefully but with a suspicious tone when she says, “you don’t seem surprised by any of this.” She gestures to Rumi.

“Of course not. I admit I was startled when Rumi came to see me earlier, but I’ve known her since she was born. She isn’t a demon. Demons must consume souls. They have no need for food or drink, they can go perpetually without sustenance. Without souls they become weak and wither. I taught you this!" She releases Rumi to gesture at the three of them in frustration.

"Rumi must eat and she must drink. If she doesn't, she will starve to death just like any other person." She turns her attention fully to Mira and Zoey. "Why do demons take the souls of the living?"

Like a flashback to their early training days, Zoey bounces in her seat and shoots her hand into the air. "Oh! Because they don't have souls."

Mira gives Zoey an incredulous look that Rumi doesn’t really understand. Zoey curls in on herself with an almost grimace in Mira’s direction, like a silent apology.

"Exactly!” Celine’s usual unshakable and calm demeanor is absent in this moment. She has an almost manic edge to her expression that Rumi isn’t used to seeing. Has Celine ever looked this panicked? She can’t recall it. “Rumi has a soul. She is able to connect to the Honmoon and strengthen it, just as the two of you do. It is through the power of your connected souls that you are able to call on the souls of others through song. This is what enables you to make the weave stronger. If Rumi had no soul she would only be able to destroy the Honmoon, not make it stronger."

Rumi thinks back to the past two weeks. The two times that her voice had weakened the Honmoon. She doesn't say anything.

"And lastly," Celine pulls out the thin pen knife she carries with her at all times and flicks it open in one smooth motion, "demons don't bleed." With that comment she holds out Rumi's hand and cleanly slices across her palm. Rumi yelps, Mira and Zoey shout in anger and surprise respectively, as blood wells out of the cut.

Mira shoots to her feet and looms over them. "What the fuck, Celine!"

Zoey also jolts up with a frantic "Oh my God," and runs off to the kitchen for their nearest first aid kit.

Celine isn't the least bit cowed. She looks back to Rumi while she folds her knife up and puts it back in her pocket. Rumi is still holding her hand out as blood spills into her palm, she stares at Celine in disbelief. "Ow!" She lets a hint of anger into her tone.

"Sorry, but seeing something with your own eyes is the easiest way to prove the truth.  And you're already healing."

It's true, of course. The horribly itchy feeling of the honmoon knitting her flesh back together is becoming quite distracting. It's faster than usual. Because the wound wasn't magical? Or maybe because the Honmoon is so new?

Zoey runs back in with the first aid kit and flips it open with practiced ease. She pulls on gloves and opens an alcohol wipe. Rumi doesn't resist giving her hand over. She knows Zoey won't rest until she sees that Rumi is healed for herself. She wipes the blood off Rumi's palm and then stares at the perfectly whole flesh. She looks up at Rumi with wide eyes. "That was fast!"

"Yeah," Rumi agrees, a little stunned despite experiencing it herself. All that's left is a quickly fading pink line and a deep itch that has her fingers twitching.

Mira takes a deep breath and relaxes her posture, but she doesn't sit down. "Fine, so she's not a demon, but she still has patterns. So, what," She looks down at Rumi, an edge of hurt in her expression and tone, "you made a deal with Gwi-ma?"

Rumi snatches her hand back from Zoey and balls it into a fist. "No! I would never!"

"This doesn't make any sense!" Mira throws her hands up in the air. "How long have you had patterns?"

Rumi's brow collapses. "As long as I can remember."

"She was born with them," Celine cuts in, drawing Mira's attention.

"So you've known about them this whole time?"

"Obviously."

"You're the one, you," Mira points an accusing finger in Celine's face, "that taught us that anything with patterns had to die. But she's right here." Mira gestures at Rumi, who had been watching the back and forth like a tennis match. She ducks her head, looks at the shiny marble floor between her feet and sees her own reflection looking back.

Celine sneers at Mira and something in her cool demeanor snaps. "Have you ever had to kill a baby, Mira? Not just any baby. The newborn daughter of one of the people you love most in the world, while she bleeds out in the bathtub a half meter from you because a demon tore her open." Zoey gasps, her hand shoots out and she grips Rumi's knee. Mira's lips tighten into a thin line and she looks down. Rumi looks up, right at Celine, and sees angry tears forming in her eyes. That was more information than Rumi had ever received before.

Celine doesn't take her eyes off Mira. "Sounds so easy, doesn't it? To ignore the dying wishes of your best friend, while she pleads with you with her last breath to protect her baby." Celine smiles with pure venom. "But hey, maybe you're made of sterner stuff than I am."

Mira takes a faltering step back and sinks slowly back into her chair. Her eyes are unfocused.

Celine looks away, toward the wall of windows, and wipes her eyes with grace.

Rumi's mouth is dry. She licks her lips and says, so quietly that she feels she might not be heard, "you never told me any of that."

Celine turns to her, once more composed. "It's not exactly a pleasant topic of conversation, Rumi, for anyone involved." She closes her eyes and tilts her head back. "Our faults and fears must never be seen," she whispers, like she's talking to herself.

Mira wearily covers her face. "That's not what I-" she stops and shakes her head. "I'm sorry that happened to you. I misspoke. What I meant was, how could you teach us those things, when Rumi was there the whole time and you knew!?"

Celine is silent for a long moment. "I did what I thought was best for the Honmoon. I've realized, just this evening, that I have made quite a few mistakes along the way." She reaches out carefully and places a gentle hand on Rumi's knee, giving her plenty of time to stop her or move away.

Rumi doesn't. She does have to swallow back the nausea that rises up at the word 'mistake.' What is Celine trying to convey? That she agrees, that keeping Rumi alive was a mistake? Rumi doesn't understand. If that was the case, Celine shouldn't have hesitated. She did just explain the difficulty though. Rumi knows that Celine cares for her, she has only doubted the true strength of that care, not its existence. She supposes it would be difficult to kill the person you raised. Like having to put down a beloved pet. But some things are necessary.

"I have never, and will never, claim to be a perfect person. I trained you the way I was trained, the way my mentor was trained, and the way her mentor was trained before any of us were born. I believe in what I was taught, because generations of Hunters have proven it to be true. Demons are evil, they steal souls and kill humans. The easiest way to spot a demon when it's hiding is to look for its patterns. Those things are still true even if Rumi has patterns as well. And again, Rumi isn't a demon. I've reminded her of that," she turns to Rumi, "I've reminded you of that every day of your life, it feels like." Rumi nods reflexively. That is true. "Anything I say about demons has nothing to do with Rumi," Celine continues, turning back to Mira and Zoey.

Rumi can feel her brow furrowing despite her best effort to stay calm. She had always thought...well...when Celine said those things it had felt more like a desperate prayer rather than a reassurance that Celine wasn't talking about her. Like casting a spell or making a wish, something fanciful and distracting but ultimately useless because magic wasn't real (not that kind) and wishes were for children. Rumi rubs at her upper right arm distractedly, something she's done since she was young and old enough to know that her marks were to be hidden. That's where the first ones were after all.

Celine turns away from Mira again and looks back to Rumi. She sees Rumi rubbing her arm and frowns. She holds out her hand to take Rumi's but waits at the last moment, letting Rumi choose whether she wants to be touched or not. Rumi notices and halts her motion, gingerly slipping her hand into Celine's instead.

This is odd for them. Physical affection had fallen as Rumi got older. The hug before and the holding on the couch were out of the ordinary, but so is the situation Rumi supposes.

"Rumi, you are," Celine searches for a word, "an anomaly. No one like you has ever existed, believe me, I checked. I spent weeks poring over the ancient records. And I'm not just talking about your heritage. You are the youngest person that ever physically connected with the Honmoon, and you're the only Hunter that is a child of a previous Hunter. In all the hundreds of years that Hunters have been protecting and strengthening the Honmoon, that has never happened before you."

Zoey holds up her hands, drawing Rumi and Celine's attention back to her. "Wait! Wait! What? Rumi's heritage? But she's Mi-yeong's daughter, right?"

Rumi realizes suddenly that a key aspect of this conversation had been skipped over so far. "My father, he was a demon." She glances back to Celine. "I don't know anything about him. I don't even think I ever met him." Celine's hand clenches in hers.

Mira lets out a sound between a groan and a sob, slumping backwards in her chair and covering her face with both hands. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

Everyone turns to look at her in confusion but Zoey is the one that asks, "What?"

Mira throws one hand out at the situation. "All of this boils down to: Rumi's dad was an asshole and that's why she has patterns." She glares at Celine. "It's that easy! If anyone understands asshole parents, it's me." She stands abruptly and paces in a circle around her chair. "I'm so fucking angry I can't even-” she holds her hands out like she’s choking an invisible opponent. “There was no need to keep this a secret."

Celine is once again on the defensive. "I was trying to protect her!"

"We would never hurt Rumi!"

Rumi sees a flash of Mira's gok-do in her memory, held between them. She says nothing. Zoey makes pitiful eye contact with her and looks away, shame-faced. She doesn't say anything either.

"And how was I to know that?" Celine demands. "I had to take in two strangers and train them to kill demons. Not only could I not know how you would respond, but I also had to think of your welfare as well. In a fight, hesitation kills." Mira opens her mouth to rebut, but Celine powers through, "besides, you weren't the only two Hunters I had to worry about."

Rumi starts. "Halmi Insuk," she says to herself, and then to Celine, "she didn't know?"

Celine’s expression softens when she looks at Rumi. “No, Mi-, your mother didn’t want her to know, in case-” she stops and looks away. “Well, we didn’t know what she would do.”

The implication is clear and startling. The woman that Rumi had called her grandmother would have killed her if she had known about Rumi’s patterns, and Rumi, a good and obedient child had never revealed them because she had assumed that the only other Hunter she knew was in on hiding her. 

“And there was also Kimmy,” Celine continues. “She knew your father as I did, but when all the scans showed you developing normally, and since your father used to be human, we all thought that you would be…it feels wrong to say normal but that was the thought at the time. When she saw you had patterns-” she cuts herself off again and shakes her head, lips pressed together so tightly that they go a little pale. Rumi knows that expression well, and has seen it directed at many a board member. Disappointment. “Let’s just say we didn’t agree on a course of action.”

Zoey, eyes wide and hand hovering over her mouth, whispers. “She wanted to kill Rumi?” She looks devastated by this information. Rumi smiles sadly. What’s that old saying? Never meet your idols? Or in this case, never learn that your idol wanted to kill your best friend.

Celine says nothing, but the look on her face is confirmation enough.

Rumi is far more interested in this tidbit about her father. "So my father made a deal with Gwi-ma when he was alive and then became a demon, just like Jinu and the Saja Boys."

"That new boy band? They were all demons?"

"Gwi-ma sent them to steal our fans."

"They almost succeeded too."

Rumi flinches at Mira's statement, full of venom. though she isn't looking at Rumi when she says it, it feels like a barb under her skin. She pivots the conversation back where she wants it, unable to handle the implicit blame at the moment. There’s something else that’s been bothering her for far longer. "You never wanted to talk about him, I could tell that it upset you when I would bring him up, but Celine, I have to know. Did my father...did he-" she grits her teeth, unable to spit it out, the fear that she's lived with for years tightening in her throat. She needs to know, but she also doesn't want to. Celine is staring at her, apparently uncomprehending, her brows raised in question. Rumi glances over at Zoey and Mira, both looking for help and also wishing they weren't there. Maybe if they weren't it would be easier to ask. Mira makes eye contact with her in understanding.

"Do you want me to say it?" she asks. Despite her very reasonable anger at Rumi, seven years of friendship is still there shining through. Mira has always been able to do the hard things. Rumi nods. Mira looks to Celine. "Did Rumi's dad rape Mi-yeong?"

Celine looks very much like the question reached out and slapped her across the face. Her usually composed features slacked in surprise. Her hand grips tightly around Rumi's. "Oh, Rumi, no. No. That's not what-"

It's Rumi's turn to stand, the frantic lack of understanding transforming into a need to move. "Then how? Why? How could a Hunter," she pauses here, feeling her face get hot. She can't say the words so she makes a vague hand gesture. "With a demon?"

Celine is looking up at her but it's clear she's mentally years in the past. Silent tears run unchecked down her cheeks. After a moment she gives a sort of half laugh and tosses her hands up. "She loved him. She was in love." Her voice cracks at the end and she has to clear her throat. "He hung the moon as far as she was concerned." She swipes at her dripping eyes far less elegantly than before.

Zoey scoots closer to Celine and lays a hand on her knee. "Did you also...?"

Celine scoffs. "God no. I couldn't stand him. He was so arrogant and he was such a peacock." She rolls her eyes. "He was incredibly handsome, otherworldly really, and he was very intelligent, and there wasn't a single second that he would let you forget it." She laughs, humorless, "his name was Jun, by the way. Because of course it was."

Handsome. Talented. Pure. Obedient. Depending on the spelling.

“Did you not know he was a demon?”

"Not at first. Among his many faults, he was an excellent liar. We didn't realize he was a demon for weeks. He was very good at disguising himself and he was a new demon, apparently. He's only been taken by Gwi-ma in the late 80s so he was very good at blending in. At least, that’s what he told Mi-yeong."

Rumi feels a sick little curl of shame curl in her stomach. Her father was a liar. Is that where she got it from?

“By the time we realized the damage was done. Mi-yeong was convinced that she could…I don’t know, fix him I guess. She started sneaking out to see him most nights. It was a difficult time. He didn’t dare show his face to Kimmy or I, but we weren’t stupid. We knew what Mi-yeong was up to. We tried following her a few times but she was always the slipperiest.” Celine shrugs. “Anyway, one day she came to us, told us everything, and that she was pregnant with you.” Celine’s smile at Rumi is full of a sort of sadness that Rumi is used to seeing.

Rumi’s knees feel weak but she also has a crawling feeling under her skin that tells her that if she’s touched in that moment she’ll lose her mind, so she sinks to the floor and hugs her knees to her chest. This is a lot of information. More than she ever thought she would receive. She had never pushed Celine to talk more when she was a child because she could tell that it upset her, and she didn’t want her…guardian to be upset. 

“Okay,” Zoey claps her hands on her thighs and stands up to move back to the couch. “So, Rumi didn’t make a deal with Gwi-ma, she was born with patterns because her father was a demon. She hid it her whole life for her own safety so she wouldn’t be killed,” her voice takes on a slightly hysterical edge, “and she hid it from us because she thought we wouldn’t understand and would also kill her.” She takes a steadying breath. “Does that about cover it?”

Rumi ducks her face against her knees. “I’m sorry,” she says into the darkness. Tears burn in her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I just…you were my first friends, my only friends. I love you both so much and I was terrified of losing you. And the longer it went on the harder it was, both to keep lying and to rationalize it. I don’t have any other excuse. I was afraid.” She glances up to see Zoey biting down harshly on her lower lip and Mira looking off to the side, her eyes rimmed in red.

"I just need a minute," Mira announces. "I'm going to- going to go boil some water. Just-" she cuts herself off, spins on her heel and marches away to the kitchen.

Rumi looks at Zoey and Celine and then follows.

The water is shut off just as Rumi makes it into the kitchen. Mira is fiddling with the lid of the electric kettle. They need to get a new one, this one always tries to settle crooked. Rumi has been resistant though, she has a weird habit of becoming attached to inanimate objects. Toy Story really fucked her up as a kid.

Mira stiffens when she sees Rumi out of the corner of her eye and fully turns her back to her. She swipes at her face quickly, and Rumi can see now the subtle hitching of her shoulders and the redness of her cheeks. She's crying, silently, alone. Rumi thinks about turning around and walking right back out. It would be the polite thing to do, but she also doesn't want to leave Mira like this.

"Mira, I..." she trails off. She doesn't even know what's appropriate to say. An apology doesn't seem good enough.

Mira sets the kettle on the counter and pushes the power button. She braces both hands on the counter and hands her head low between her shoulders. She breathes out heavily. "Rumi, I'm so sorry."

"What?" Rumi approaches. That's all wrong. Mira doesn't have anything to be sorry for. She's not the liar. She's not a  coward. She's not the mistake.

Mira rounds on her swiftly and grabs Rumi in a bone crushing hug. Rumi actually squeaks in surprise at the suddenness. She honestly hadn't expected for Mira to ever want to touch her again and for a moment she lets her hands flail, unsure what to do with them. Mira is hugging her so tightly that it actually hurts a little and makes it hard to breathe. She's ducked her head to Rumi's shoulder and her own shoulders are shaking again as she sobs quietly.     

"Mira," Rumi manages finally, wrapping her arms around Mira's waist, "please don't cry. You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one that's sorry. I shouldn't have...there's too much honestly."

Mira shakes her head.

“I know what it's like to lie to the people that are supposed to love you because you're scared of what they'll do or say or...I'm just so sorry. I never wanted you to feel that way so whatever it was that I did, I just, please, can you forgive me? Tell me what it was and I'll fix it. I love you so much. I don't want you to be afraid of me. Please. Please. Let me fix it.” Mira is openly sobbing on Rumi’s shoulder by the time she trails off into wordless cries and Rumi doesn’t know what to do. She'd never thought of it like that before though. Mira really can understand her, knows what she went through all those years of hiding because she went through the same thing.

She pulls them both to the ground slowly and folds Mira's impossible limbs into a comfortable position so that she can rock her best friend and hold her in her lap. "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one that's messed up. You heard Celine, I'm an anomaly. I shouldn't even exist. I'm a mistake. She should have let Kimmy kill me, since she couldn't do it."

This just makes Mira clutch at her tighter. "No," she moans through her tears. "No, what would I do without you? You and Zoey are all I have. I need you."

Rumi tucks her cheek against the top of Mira's head. "I need you too."

When the kettle starts to whistle, neither of them move. Zoey finds them like that a moment later. She flicks the kettle off and then pushes herself into their pile of tangled arms and legs. She sighs so deeply that it triggers a sigh in Rumi and Mira too.

Rumi groans at a sudden realization and flips her head back against the cabinet doors. "I'm just like my mother," she whines. "Getting taken in by a demon."

Zoey sits up suddenly, eyes panicked. "Rumi, you're not pregnant are you?"

Mira also jolts up at that, puffy red eyes filled with fear.

"No!" Rumi shouts, too loudly. "God no, I held his hand like one time and it was for like two seconds."

Zoey collapses back against her in relief.

"Why did you tell him and not us?" Mira's voice is rough from crying, but she sounds small and Rumi hates it.

"I didn't! I swear. He saw my patterns when we fought in the bathhouse and then later he contacted me and asked to meet. I went to kill him. But then he started talking. After that first meeting I thought maybe I could get him to turn on Gwi-ma, he seemed to hate him so much. I thought I could use him to help us. I thought maybe I could help him get his soul back." Rumi laughs at her arrogance. "I thought I was sneakier than the literal king of demons."

They're quiet for a moment before Mira says, "you must have done something right."

"Hmm?"

"He protected you, at the end. Something you did must have gotten through to him."

Rumi's shoulders slump, tension draining out of her. "Yeah." She doesn't know what else there is to say really.

"It's not surprising really," Zoey comments. "Rumi is really easy to love."

Rumi huffs. "I'm a literal demon."

"Celine very dramatically proved that you're not though," Zoey argues, hugging Rumi's nearest arm to her chest. “You just have demon bits.”

"So much about you makes sense now," Mira chimes in.

Zoey nods in eager agreement. "So much."

“What are you even talking about?”     

Mira slaps her thigh. “Like the fact that you eat plain ass hardboiled eggs whole, or the way you can swallow down a whole roll of kimbap like a snake eating a rat.”

Zoey cackles. “I was going to say always wearing long sleeves even when it's the height of summer, but you’re not wrong.”

“What! I- no, that’s a perfectly normal way to eat. Boiled eggs are delicious!”

Zoey and Mira both say no at the same time. “You barely even salt the water!” Mira adds, offended on the behalf of seasoning.

Zoey throws her arms around Rumi’s neck and smooshes their faces together. “Aww, it’s alright if you eat weird. I love you anyway.” She gives Rumi’s cheek a big smacking kiss that has Rumi trying to wiggle out of her grasp with a shriek.

It’s in that desperate struggle to extricate herself that she catches sight of Celine watching them with a sad smile lingering at her lips. She makes eye contact with Rumi, nods at her, and then steps away back towards the living room.

Mira joins in with Zoey at the last second and they both wrestle her down into a grumpy hug.

"You believe us, right?" Zoey asks. "That we love you."

"Yes." And she does believe that they feel that way, she just doesn't understand how or why.

Mira hums a disbelieving noise.

"I really do," Rumi insists. "I just don't see how you could."

"That's something we'll need to work on, I think. I know we’re not done talking about all of this,” Mira gestures vaguely to the whole situation, “but it’s really late. None of us are hurt, we’re all safe. I think we should go to bed and talk more in the morning.” She shifts awkwardly on the tile. “Also my ass is asleep from sitting like this and I have to move.”

Zoey groans. “Ugh, same.” She bounces to her feet in one smooth movement and reaches out to pull Rumi up. Then tries the same with Mira. Mira winks at Rumi behind Zoey’s back and doesn’t budge a centimeter even with Zoey pulling at her arm with full strength. “Mira,” Zoey whines when she sees her smug grin.

Mira laughs and finally allows Zoey to help her up.

They find Celine standing in front of the floor to ceiling windows looking out at the brand new Honmoon shimmering over the city, undulating like a wave on the ocean. She turns when she hears them approach and smiles. “You girls did a good job.” She looks back out. “It’s beautiful.”

“Do you think it’ll hold?” Rumi asks, sidling closer.

Celine hums in thought. Standing so close, Rumi can feel Celine reaching out with her soul and she can feel the Honmoon react. “It feels strong. But also…different.” She shrugs. “There’s no way for us to know though. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Zoey steps closer on Rumi's other side. "If it's anything like the old Honmoon, as long as we keep working together in harmony it'll keep getting stronger." The Honmoon, hearing this or feeling it (who's to say how it knows, it simply does) surges around Zoey in a wave of iridescent sparkles that has her giggling with joy. She gasps. "Oh, it's you!" She holds her hands out and the light brushes over her palms like an affectionate cat.

Rumi can feel it too, the surge of emotion and also a buzz of nearly electric energy tickling at her senses. It feels the same as before but maybe more...fresh. Like when you wake up from a particularly satisfying nap.

She looks over at Mira and sees that she's having a similar interaction, swirling the Honmoon around her feet like a warm bath.

The Honmoon oscillates between its many colors humming in the sound of its own sort of joy as it touches and wraps itself around them. Its feelings are made clear in this moment as it feels that together is the only state to be. 

The shine of the Honmoon is all the brighter for the darkness outside the window. It’s very late now, verging on very early. 

Rumi lets the Honmoon go and it settles around her like a blanket as she turns back to Celine. "We were thinking it was time to go to bed. Save anything else for tomorrow when we've had some time to rest and think."

"Absolutely."

Zoey gasps at a sudden thought, hands covering her mouth. "Oh, Celine, we need to get you a hotel or something."

Celine laughs and it's the first time that evening that she seems unburdened. "Zoey, that is so sweet of you to think about. I have an apartment here in town. I'll be fine."

Zoey goes a little pink in the cheeks and smacks her own forehead. "Duh," she says to herself.

"I'll walk you out?" Rumi offers.

Celine collects her light jacket from the back of the couch and a small duffle bag that Rumi had failed to notice and allows herself to be led to the foyer. They both notice the way Zoey and Mira hover a respectful distance away, clearly not wanting to let Rumi out of their sight.

"Are you ok with me leaving?" Celine asks quietly. "I could sleep on the couch."

Rumi smiles at the offer. It's not that she's never found Celine asleep on a couch before, but the usual image Celine puts off is incongruous with the thought. "It's ok. But you'll come back tomorrow right?" She twists her fingers around each other in an awkward fidget.

"With breakfast," Celine promises, stilling Rumi's hands with a gentle touch to the back of her wrist. Her expression grows serious. "You won't do anything foolish?"

Rumi's expression must show her naked confusion.

Celine's speech is hesitant. "With what you asked of me earlier, it's clear that I failed you at some point. Probably at multiple points. And I hope that you can forgive me, but I'd also like to know what it was that I did." Rumi opens her mouth, not to answer but to argue, but Celine waves her down. "Not right now. I think we're both too raw at the moment."

Rumi lets her mouth click shut. She ducks her head.

Celine cups Rumi’s face in her hands, tilting it back up. “You’re safe, that’s more important than anything else to me. I want you to stay that way.”

Rumi can’t help the relieved tears that slip out. She just leans into Celine's hold and enjoys it for a moment. "I won't do anything foolish," she promises, understanding now.

Celine hums. She swipes at the tears on Rumi's cheeks and then leans forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Good." She looks over Rumi's shoulders to where Mira and Zoey are doing a poor job pretending not to pay attention to them. "You all take care of each other."

"Yes ma'am!" Zoey flashes two thumbs up.

"Obviously." Mira's usual deadpan tone does nothing to hide her seriousness.

Celine leaves with one more fond backward glance and then the three of them are alone. For one tense moment, Rumi isn’t sure that she made the right choice in letting Celine leave. She’s scared to turn around and see the same thing she saw on stage at the Idol Awards, the faces of her dearest friends bent into evil rictus grins.

But when she turns that’s not what she sees at all. Zoey and Mira are waiting there for her, both with a hand out to take hers. She’s led silently up the stairs and down the hallway. She expects to be led to her room, but they all pass it without comment and go to Mira’s door.

“Stay with me tonight,” Mira says, not as a question or a demand, but something soft and a little desperate.