Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*6 months later*

Pov: Zoey (+0 min)

Zoey woke to the faint light spilling through the windows of the room. She flung her hand out to her side looking for Mira, but she found the sheets laid flat. Mira normally tried to escape the alleged death grip Zoey held her in while they slept. But this morning she had already gotten out of bed. Zoey groggily got up, not bothering to change or brush her hair. Mira had seen Zoey way worse off over the past few months than the bedhead and the biggest t-shirt Zoey could find, that she currently sported.

Zoey walked out into the kitchen, she found Mira already up and dressed, cooking something that smelled delicious.

Mira didn’t seem to hear her over the sound of the pan sizzling, so Zoey took a seat one of the metal stools- an addition they had gone with after breaking all of their wooden ones 6 months ago, figured metal would be a lot easier to bash demon heads in with- before quickly yelping with supplies at the cold metal hitting bare skin.

Mira startled, jumping in place before turning around with an annoyed look on her face “Shit Zo, you scared me. I thought we agreed not to do that?”

Zoey just shrugged, “Not my fault. I forgot I wasn’t wearing shorts. And somebody decided to take the ones I put on off last night.” Giving Mira a sly smile.

Mira blushed slightly at the memory of last night, before shrugging “Worth it I guess.”

Zoey giggled at that, blushing herself at the memory of last night. “I am going to go find my shorts, then come back.”

Zoey walked back to Rumi’s room and looked around for where Mira had tossed her clothes from the night before. As she lifted up the skirt of the bed, something shiny caught her eye. She looked closer and regretted it pretty much instantly. The brass casing tucked up under the bed was a hard reminder to the events of that night.

She took a deep breath, grabbed it. Then opted to just go to her room and get a new set of clothes.

She walked to her door and froze, hand on the doorknob. She hadn’t been in her room much lately. And never without Mira, the two of them almost never left each other’s side for long since that night.

“You’re a grown ass adult Zoey, and it’s a room. Your room. You can be in there alone.” She tried to hype herself up some before turning the knob and stepping in.

She was hit by a wall of cold air as she walked into the dark room. Her curtains were drawn shut, and the lights were off. She hasn’t been in here for a few weeks, so everything had a slight musty smell to it.

She quickly crossed the room, grabbing clothes blindly, then ran back out. Shutting the door behind her before walking back to Rumi’s room to change.

Zoey went in and tossed the clothes on the bed, before realizing in her haste she had grabbed two sweatshirts and no pants. The one thing she had actually gone in there for.  She weighed her options, go back to her room. Or rummage around for clothes in Rumi’s room. Which, as she looked around, she figured calling it Rumi’s room wasn’t quite accurate anymore. The evidence of Rumi’s presence in the room had faded drastically over the past few months. Not that Rumi had left much of a presence to start with. But at this point all that was left was the occasional obscenely long purple hair, the posters, and the occasional blood stain that Mira and Zoey had missed.

Zoey looked around at the piles of clothes that sat in the corners. Unable, or unwilling, to touch Rumi’s closet. The pair had opted to just commandeer a conner each and stack their clothes there. Mira’s neatly stacked in the conner, Zoey’s a messy pile adjacent to it. She figured she could just steal Mira’s clothes, and deal with the shit she would catch later. Or put on a dirty pair of hers and catch shit for it in about 5 minutes.

She stole Mira’s.

As she walked back into the kitchen where Mira was finishing plating everything, she looked up. Immediately noticing Zoey’s shifted expression from earlier.

“What’s wrong?” She sat next to Zoey, her eyes reading Zoey like a book.

Zoey always hated and loved how easier Mira could read her. On one hand it was incredibly frustrating how she could never get anything by Mira. But it was also nice to be loved so much and so well that Mira just knew when something was wrong.

“I just had to grab clothes from my room” Zoey said this, while reaching for utensil to start eating.

Mira stopped her “Zoey, don’t try to stuff your face to get out of talking. Are you ok?”

Zoey groaned, again frustrated that Mira could read her so well. Because she was 100% going to try to stuff her face then compliment Mira’s cooking to get out talking.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Just… Not my favorite place” Her voice was soft as she recalled that night.

*5 months, 2 weeks ago*

Zoey was sitting down in her bed. Notebook in hand, scribbling furiously. Thoughts and feelings and anything and everything in her brain going down on to the paper as fast as she could. Her and Mira had finally left the penthouse, basically at Bobby’s demand and threat. They decided to go to the bathhouse, figuring it could be good to relax some.

It had been nice. Hot and steamy and relaxing. That was fine, it was the walk out that had really gotten into Zoey’s head, and what had gotten her writing as much as she was.

As they left, feeling somewhat relaxed for the first time since the first Rumi related incident, they saw a trio of young girls. Mid teen’s or so, Mira just looked at Zoey, and Zoey nodded. They needed to talk to fans, bring connection after months of being gone. And now sounds like a good enough time for Zoey. She actually felt good; there was still a part missing. The part that had been dragged into hell. But she shoved those feelings down and tried to focus on the good things. Mira at her side, the bathhouse, the sun. The good. The positive.

As the approached Zoey noticed each member of the trio was holding a photo of Huntr/x. Zoey instinctively walked up to the girl holding her photo, Mira doing the same for the girl on the far end of the little line they formed.

Zoey tried to ignore the hole it formed. The missing space where their leader was supposed to be.

“Hi!!” Zoey put on a big smile, trying to push down the bad and focus on the good. She was only partially successful.

“Oh my god!!!” The girl across from Zoey practically screeched. Before bouncing in place like she had just been handed a million dollars. Yup, definitely a Zoey. The energy she radiated around her was infectious. Not unlike how Mira had described Zoey not too long ago. Zoey could feel the weight lift as she started to chat, talking about favorite songs and concerts. What had started as a somewhat orderly line formed into a group huddle.

But right before the space between Mira and Zoey could close, filling the gap. The third girl spoke, the one holding Rumi’s photo “Is Rumi doing ok? We have been so worried about her.”

Zoey froze. Right, the story. The one Bobby had told everyone and had pushed out.

Crazed fans breaking into the penthouse, attacking Rumi. Rumi got hurt, and was at an undisclosed location resting and healing until she was ready to come back to Seoul. Mira and Zoey had been out at the time, and weren’t there for any of it.

Zoey tried to calm her mind, slow her thoughts and try to come up with a response. What was she supposed to say. She didn’t know if Rumi was ok, she didn’t know if Rumi was even alive. What if she’s dead? What if she is a full demon now, Gwi-ma twisting their missing third into something they wouldn’t even recognize.

Mira’s voice pulled her out of her spiral “She’s ok, just resting. The attack really rattled her.” Her voice sounds calm and collected. But Zoey could hear the uncertainty underneath it.

The girls nodded as a group, one adding “We hope she feels better soon! We miss you all so much!”

A woman from inside a shop called for them, and with a wave they ran off, going on with their day.

And now Zoey sat in her bed, writing as fast as her hand would let her. Trying to get the spiral onto paper and out of her brain.

Zoey and Mira had opted to spend the night in their own rooms. They may be dating now, but it was still new. And Zoey wasn’t sure how to be around Mira when her brain was like this. So, she had asked to spend the night in her own room. Mira had looked hurt for a moment, before seeing something behind Zoey’s eyes and nodding. Leaving Zoey be with a “let me know if you need anything, I’m always her for you.”

Zoey stopped to take a deep breath, looking up from her notebook. She almost screamed. As she looked up, she saw Rumi, standing there. Her purple hair unmistakable. She dropped her notebook and went to lunge at her, before stopping. Something wasn’t right.

As Rumi looked at her, the uncanny valley sent off enough red flags to cover the moon. The smile was crooked, her limbs twisted oddly, her posture too stiff, but also to lose.

Zoey looked at her, trying to figure out what this was. But Rumi bared her fangs and lunged at Zoey. Demon hands outstretched, claws on full display.

Zoey screamed, and right as the claws connected with her neck, she jolted awake. Looking around she saw her notebook lying in her lap, a streak running down the page from where she had fallen asleep while writing.

She tried to get her breathing under control. It was just a dream, not real.

She heard heavy footsteps followed by Mira slamming her door open. Looking around frantically. She spotted Zoey sitting on the bed, still breathing erratically and walking over without hesitation. Sitting down next to her.

Zoey could smell the unfortunately familiar smell of bourbon on Mira. She would have to ask about that later.

Mira put her hand on Zoey’s, giving a gentle squeeze before speaking “What happened? Are you ok?”

Zoey just nodded. As her breathing slowed her brain spun faster, trying to process what she had seen. She didn’t trust herself to speak.

Mira gently brought her hand up to Zoey’s chin, lifting her face to meet her eyes. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Zoey shook her head. Tears starting to fall as everything settled.

Mira spoke again, grounding Zoey to some extent “Do you want me to stay her?”

Zoey couldn’t have nodded faster. So, Mira stayed, but so did the nightmares. Every night, waking her up multiple times a night. One night after waking up without screaming, she slipped out and slept on the couch. Only for Mira to wake up her up not to long later, giving her hell for sleeping on the couch, before dragging Zoey off to her room. But even in Mira’s room the nightmares stayed. Another week of this Zoey was found on the couch again, and Mira dragged them off to Rumi’s room.

Zoey didn’t know how that was going to help. Having nightmares of your best friend who was dragged to hell ripping your throat out didn’t seem like something you could fix by sleeping in their room. But Zoey was to tired to argue, so she just followed Mira.

And for whatever reason it worked, and Zoey got a full night’s sleep without a single nightmare. So that is where they slept. And the nightmares stayed away. So, that’s where they stayed.

It felt weird at first, sleeping in Rumi’s room. But after some time, it felt right. The writing on the wall was pretty obvious. Well, maybe not too Zoey. But Mira apparently saw it.

And with all the subtlety of rhinoceros, Mira addressed it a few nights after she had first dragged Zoey to Rumi’s room.

“You love her.” It was a statement, not a question.

Zoey just froze. Did she mean Rumi? Mira wasn’t one to refer to herself in the third person. So, she must have meant Rumi.

Zoey didn’t really know how to respond to that. It was true, but how do you say that to your girlfriend?

Mira didn’t really wait for an answer “I know Zoey, its ok. I can see it in the way you… well everything. The way you use to look at her, the way you look at her room. The way you hang up every time you have to talk about her. You love her.”

Zoey tried to pick her words carefully, something she wasn’t always great at “I mean, I don’t not love her… but im with you, I chose you Mira. I promi-”

Mira cut her off with a wave “No Zoey you don’t have to do that. It’s ok”

Mira moved closer, taking Zoey’s face in her palm. Zoey almost dissolved into a puddle at the touch.

“I am not mad, and I’m not bring this up to make you feel bad. We just… We talked about how we felt about each other, and how we weren’t going to wait for some perfect moment to be honest. And here we are because of it.”

Mira planted a soft kiss in her forehead before continuing “I spend the past 6 years shoving how I felt about you into a box, then placing it on a shelf labeled ‘Shit to deal with never’ and… Rumi sat in a matching box right next to yours. And now I might not ever get to tell Rumi how much she truly meant to me, but I can tell you.”

Zoey was stun locked. She couldn’t believe Mira was being so open. But more so that she also had… Loved Rumi? Not just as a friend. But in the same way Zoey does.

Zoey spoke after a moment “I do. Love her like that. It’s just. She’s gone Mira. And we don’t know if she’s ever coming back. And we are sitting here in her room, sleeping in her bed, cuddling and everything. In her space. Without her. That’s weird right?”

Mira thought for a moment before responding “Maybe, but I think we are including Rumi in our love in the only way we can right now. She may be gone, but parts of her life are still here. Parts we can include in any way possible. We may not have our missing third. But we can include everything she left behind. So, WHEN she makes it back to us, she knows we spent every minute wait for her to come back to us.”

Zoey nodded, it didn’t make it feel less weird. But it made sense. But one thing still nagged at her “How do you know she’s going to make it back? We don’t know that?”

Mira’s voice was sharp “She will.” She flinched at her own voice, before adding softer “I just know Zoey. She has to.”

Zoey just nodded. Wanting to believe Mira, but part of Zoey just couldn’t shake the feeling.

*present day*

“Hello, earth to Zoey” Mira snapped her fingers softly in front of Zoey.

She blinked “Sorry, just yeah. Don’t love it.”

And that was putting it lightly. After a week of nightmares all ending where your best friend and crush tried to kill you, its not a place you want to hangout in for to long.

Mira gave her a skeptical look, so Zoey added “I promise I’m ok Mir, just anxious. Now can I eat please.”

Mira looked at her for a second longer before nodding “Ok my love, I just don’t want you to bottle anything up”

Zoey’s face way already half full of food, but she managed to mumble out “I know” before going back to eating.

After a few minutes of eating Zoey shifted her weight and felt the cool metal she had shoved into her pocket earlier. She took out the brass casing and set it on the counter for Bobby. He really insisted they get back every casing they could find, something about reloading it or something. Zoey hadn’t heard the whole story. It was pretty tragic; she had heard enough to want to hug him for the rest of his life thought.

*5 months ago*

Pov: Mira (+0 min)

Bobby led them down into the tunnels, he was being quite today. He had just shown them a note pad that said “Don’t say anything out loud, leave your phones here. Follow me”

Mira had given him a look, but over the past month Bobby had been really fidgety every time that night came up. Specifically, about his contributions that night. So, Mira helped shush Zoey and followed Bobby. Leaving their phones on the counter next to Bobby’s.

As stopped not far in the tunnels, where Bobby swiped a card at seemingly random point in the wall, only for a slight hiss to prove Mira wrong about the random part.

Bobby ushered them in quickly before clicking a button on the inside, the door sliding back into place, then sealing in place with a hiss. Bobby let out a sigh, and Zoey started the conversation.

“So, what is with all the secrecy Bobby?”

Mira on the other hand was looking at the room they were in, monitors lined the walls, a computer server rack sat in the conner, and something that looked vaguely like a full-blown operating table sat in the corner. This room had to be at least 50 square meters. This couldn’t have been cheap. Mira was no expert, but she had spent enough time around Huntr/x’s tech department to know she was looking at at least 70 million won in tech and supplies.

Mira looked back at Bobby as he started explaining “So first, you cannot breathe a word of this outside of this room. And I don’t mean ‘don’t tell anyone who isn’t in this room’ I mean ‘you actually cannot say a single word about this when you are not standing inside this room’.”

Mira and Zoey shared matching looks of confusion but agreed. Prompting Bobby to take another deep breath “Ok, so everything you know about my life prior to being your manger is a lie fabricated by the government” He paused after saying this, like he was expecting them to say something. But they didn’t, waiting for him to continue. Which he did.

“So, like most every man, I joined the military right after high school to complete my mandatory service, and at first, I was just there cuz I had to be. But after time I got used to it, and I started to like it. Then I got good at it all, the courses, the marksmanship. I became good at what I did, so when it was time for my service to end, I was given I choice, get out, go on about my life as a nobody. I didn’t really do well in high school, didn’t really have any plans for college. My future outside of the military seemed pretty dim.”

He stopped, lost in the thoughts of the past. So Mira prompted him to keep going “And the other option was?”

“Stay” he started “Stay in the army and start moving up the ranks, making something of myself. All the things that made me bad at school are the things that seemed to make me great at combat. And so I stayed. I signed on to stay and start going thought more training. And I slowly moved up, until I was finally put up for the Black Berets”

Mira was actually taken aback by this. She didn’t know a lot about them, but her father had bragged about knowing one. Talking about how they were the best of best. The greatest, most highly trained warriors in all of Korea.

Zoey looked a little confused, so using what little knowledge of American military she added “Think like, navy seals”

Zoey’s eyes went wide as she put this together. “You were special forces?” the shock evident in her voice.

Bobby nodded “More than that. I aced the course. Top of my class, Top of the next 3 classes that came after me as well. I became one of the best that Korea had to offer when it came to soldiers.”

Zoey wasted no time asking questions “So like, did you deploy, and where? Did you get to do the badass stuff like jump out of helicopters and swim out of submarines and stuff?”

Bobby just chuckled a little “yeah, I got to do a lot of badass stuff. But that’s not the part that I need to talk about in a room waste with faraday mesh. Or well, technically all of this has been classified, so I do. But I didn’t stop there. After a while I was recruited to the NIS. American CIA” He added for Zoey.

Mira didn’t think Zoey’s eyes could get much wider, but they did. And Bobby kept talking “And that is where I learned and saw a lot of shit. Honestly, it’s a big part of why I wasn’t too surprised by the demon thing. I’ve seen a lot of shit I can’t explain. People going into a closed room, only for that room to be completely empty a few minutes later, with no way out. Others jumping off cliffs or buildings, falling dozens of meters, then getting up and running off like it was nothing. Other times people getting shot square in the forehead, only to not die.”

Mira’s mind was spinning. Bobby had been out there running hits on demons? “So, you’re saying you think you have actively hunted demons yourself, as some sort of black op’s hitman. But you didn’t know they were demons?”

“Well, I am going to assume they were demons after what I saw that night in the fight. The way their body’s twisted and moved was uncannily close to what we would see on the hits that didn’t pan out right. And if that’s true, then that night wasn’t the first time I’ve gotten into fist fights with demons.”

Zoey gasped to Mira’s left “You had fist fights with demons, and lived?”

Mira was equally stunned. She had never heard of a normal person being able to keep pace with a demon. But if what Bobby was saying was true, Bobby wasn’t a normal person by any means.

“I’m not sure. But it seemed like it. The movement’s, the ability to cover 10-20 meters in a second, the strength. It all lines up. But living is a strong word. Not everyone did. A lot didn’t actually...”

His voice trailed off as he said this. Mira knew the look. The look of loss, the look of pain.

“Bobby, what happened?” She pressed gently. This was clearly a big deal to him. He looked at her with true pain in his eyes. A look she had never seen on Bobby before. And not one she ever wanted to see again.

He looked at her, before sighing and letting his shoulders sag. He sat down in a chair, motioning for Mira and Zoey to follow suit, and they did.

“I guess its time for the real reason everything is classified. And why I am not supposed to talk about anything.” He voices heavy with sorrow. “It was the last mission I went on. It wasn’t supposed to be the last, but everything went sideways and I decided to call it. Be done. And because of what happened everything about my life was classified and hidden away. Because no one could explain what happened.”

Mira just nodded along, giving him what she hoped what was an encouraging nod.

He continued “It was a mission up north” The way he said north implied he meant a lot further north than just Seoul “We had details on a guy at a compound. Big player for them. We didn’t know if the target was a spy, weapons trafficker, or what. All we knew was a code name, Jeoseung, didn’t mean anything to us at the time. Just a strange code name. All we knew was he was a big player in their operations. Really important. A big target to take out. And that he was going to be at this compound for a meeting with some other generals.”

He paused for a moment as he thought, that pained expression deepening “We should have known something was up. It was too many important people. But it read clean enough, secure compound, deep into their lines. Armed to the teeth and secured with enough anti-everything to seem like a legit meeting. So, we planned it, bombed everything to shit. Infilled on heli’s and started moving thought. And again, we should have known something was up. There were no guards, no resistance. We thought they had all fallen back…” His voice broke. But he swallowed and kept going.

“We finally made it to the deepest point, where we thought the meeting would be. Blasted doors open and there was nothing. No generals, no gunmen. No one. Just one guy, sitting in all black at the end of a table. We didn’t waste time, we fired. Saw his head snap back and went to move on. But before anyone could react, his head snapped back up, and he moved. Faster than any of us could follow. Suddenly he was on top of us, blood in the air. Our guns all but useless. We tried anyway but he moved thought and around us with ease. 20 became 10, 10 became 5. We watched in horror as every round just… flatted against his body. Dropping to the ground useless. Kives broke and deflected against his skin. Fists were even more laughable. And it wasn’t like anyone there was new. We were the best NIS had. We were a group that was closer than anyone. I knew them like the back of my hand. And they knew me the same. We could, and had, taken on either company alone and walked away ok. But this guy was different. He moved around and thought us like we were toddlers. Kill us one by one while fucking laughing” Bobby’s voice grew tight with anger as he spoke. But he kept going.

“It was a massacre. By the time there were 5 of us left, he wasn’t even out of breath, and all of us were hurt badly. Like he was toying with us. Every one of us just, toyed with. Playing around, half assing it. Like this was nothing more than a game he had gotten good at. I don’t know why, maybe it was luck, maybe it was just skill. But the last 5 were also the best 5. And we fought like hell. I don’t know how long we went at it with him, but it must have been hours. Total mission time was 8 hours. And it had taken us less then 30 minutes to get to the room.”

At this point Bobby had tears slowly coming down his face as he spoke. A quite testimony to just how much he had lost, and just how bad he was hurting.

He took a deep breath “But no matter how good we were, or how hard we fought. He just didn’t tire. Didn’t slow down. Ammo ran dry, knives dulled. We were out of options, and bleeding out. And there were only 2 of us left. Me and my best friend.” He moved his mouth a little, trying to form the words. “His name was Han. But we all called him Suicide Bomber” Bobby gave a dry laugh as he said it “He always had a tendency to stand a little to close to his bombs when he set them off, hints the name. But for him it would ring a brutally ironic truth.”

Bobby took another pause, breathing slowly. Zoey reached out and took his hand, offering what little comfort either of them could. Mira slowly did the same. And Bobby looked up at them with a grateful expression.

“When it was just us, we knew we wouldn’t make it. That bastdered wasn’t even tried yet. I thought we were going to fight until the bitter end. Do anything we could just hurt him. Leaving him with a scar at the very least, a mark. Anything to prove that 20 of Korea’s best fighters had fought him. But Han had other plans. He grabbed me and shoved me out the door, slamming them closed with a simple order. ‘Run’. I knew what he was going to do. Part of his sick humor was always keeping a shit ton of explosives on him, to ‘Take down every last bastered in a square kilometer of me.’ I ran to the doors, but it was too late, the explosion sent me flying back. And the next thing I know I’m in hospital. Pulled out by a follow up team that was sent to try and recover bodies when we were assumed dead.”

Bobby’s voice died. Tears flowing down his face at the memories. The silence stretched for minutes before Mira spoke.

“You couldn’t have done anything. Or known. You didn’t know about demons, you didn’t know what they could do. And you certainly couldn’t have killed him. You can’t hurt demons without a Hunter’s blade. You can’t be a fault for losing a fight that you could physical never win” Her voice is as strong as she could make it.

But Bobby just shook his head. “You don’t understand-”

Zoey cut him off “No we do. You had your team, your friends. Your everything, you went into battle and lost everything because you fought something you didn’t even know-”

Bobby cut her off, his voice rising “It’s not that simple. It wasn’t just my team. It was the team I picked. I was lead; I was in charge. The calls were mine; the people were mine. Everything was my call. Every last person who went in, was there because I chose them to be there. Every time we didn’t pull out because something wasn’t right, it was because I made the final call to keep going. Every last one of them followed me, trusted me. And I got them all killed despite the feeling in my gut that something was wrong. And what did I get? To walk away. To live another day. I made every last call, every last choice. And I got everyone but myself killed. I couldn’t keep my team alive, together, safe. I failed them.”

His voice deflated, defeated in his eyes. “They were my family, and I got them all killed”

Mira just watched him trying to think of anything to say. She finally settled on something “You made your calls based on what you knew to be true. If what your saying is true. Every call you made was the right one. The people who were supposed to be there were high value people. People who you need to take out. You couldn’t have predicted they would have a one-man army in the basement. Until a month ago you didn’t even know demons were real. So you couldn’t have predicted that it would be a trap. Not like that. You made every right call, but there were forces at play less than 10 people in the world knew about at the time. You couldn’t have planned for that, you could not have known”

Mira didn’t want to be mean, but her words came out harsh, nonetheless. Trying to drill the harsh reality in that he couldn’t have made a better call. Because they couldn’t have planned to run into an opponent they could literally never have planned for.

Bobby took a deep breath. Steadying himself. “Either way. That was my last op I did. I quit after that. Left, I had my past erased because of my connections to that battle. And was hired as your manager less than a year after I recovered. That’s why I know what I do, why I can fight, and why I can have a gun in Korea. Everything I could ever need or want is always a call away. At the end of the day I have more training than most doctors, more days in combat than most of Koreas top generals, and am certified in more types of hand to hand combat then most people even know about.”

Mira and Zoey just sat there. Taking in just how much Bobby knew, and had been through. Zoey was the first to act “Can I give you a hug, please?” Her eyes rimmed with tears.

Bobby nodded and Zoey practically jumped across the space between them, wrapping her arms around Bobby.

Mria gave him a look, a silent question and he nodded. She reached across the space and gave him a hug as well.

*Present day*

Mira saw Zoey slowly pull out the brass casing and set it on the counter. Her eyes heavy as she looked at it.

“Thinking of that night?” Mira didn’t mix words.

Zoey just nodded.

“Do you want comfort? To talk? Or to be distracted?” Mira didn’t know what Zoey would need right now, it always changed so much. A lot of times mid item on the list, but Mira didn’t care. Whatever Zoey needed, Zoey got.

“Can we cuddle, and you tell me about our first date? I just want to relive a happy moment”

“Of course, Zo, Couch or bed?”

Zoey thought for a minute, her face scrunched up as she weighted her options.

“Bed, I want Rumi to be included.”

Mira nodded, grabbing her hand and leading them off to bed, mustering up some courage to say something silly to try and help make Zoey laugh. She finally settled on “To cuddle town! Population, the most bestest beautiful girlfriend in the whole wide world!”

It worked, as Zoey giggle behind her, giving her a playful shove. And Mira just smiled. Silly comments and remarks weren’t always her thing. But making Zoey laugh was all she needed to get over the weird feeling in her stomach about making them. So Mira kept making the silly comments, compliments, and funny remarks the whole way.

Finally settled into bed. Mira thought back to their first official date. Not the ones where they stayed in, not the bathhouse. But one where they went out and got food and went to a place.

*Four months, two weeks ago*

Mira took a deep breath, before pushing open the door to Rumi’s room. Finding Zoey still wrapped up in the covers, where she had been all morning. Still rotting. She hated seeing Zoey like this.

Mira never knew how Zoey was going to feel each morning. It was like a coin toss.  Some mornings she sprung out of bed with such vigor it made Mira groan. But today? It was a bad day.

“Hey Zoey, I’ve got lunch ready for you.” Mira took a slow step to the bed

“Lunch!!!” Zoey sat up suddenly, the red rimmed eyes didn’t go unnoticed “What happened to breakfast? What time is it?”

Mira picked her words carefully, she loved Zoey to death, but today was going to be a bad day, and Mira didn’t want to make it worse. “Its 1 pm. I wanted to let you sleep. So I made you breakfast incase you woke up, but I let you sleep, so now I’ve got lunch for you.”

Zoey just looked at her, tears forming in her eyes shit wrong thing. But to her shock, Zoey didn’t get mad “You made me breakfast even though I didn’t get up for it???” She started sobbing “I’m sorry I didn’t want to miss your breakfast”

“No, no, no, no baby it’s ok. I wanted you to sleep, but I didn’t want you to wake up hungry with no food.” Mira pulled her crying girlfriend into a hug.

Zoey seemed to accept this, her tears slowly dissipating. “Ok, I love you Mir, so so so so so soooooooooooooooo much”

Mire smiled “I love you too Zo” She planted a kiss on her forehead, standing up and grabbing Zoey’s hand, slowly leading her out of bed. With much protest from Zoey.

“Can’t I just eat it here, pleaseeeeeeeee” Zoey gave Mira puppy eyes, and Mira folded like a lawn chair. How was she ever supposed to say no to that.

“Sure baby.” She left and returned with lunch in hand. A plate for both of them. Mira had already eaten, But Zoey was more likely to eat enough if she thought it was Mira’s food and Mira was full. So she picked some food off and ate while Zoey vacuumed her plate clean. After Zoey was done, Mira handed her plate to her.

“Are you full already Mir?” Zoey looked worried

“I had a big breakfast babe, I’m full. Promise” Zoey’s response was to stick out her pinky, with Mira took with hers, adding “I pinky promise”

Zoey took this as enough and started digging into Mira’s (see Zoey’s second plate) with equal vigor.

As Zoey finished her plate. Mira slowly mulled over the question she had been itching to ask, but the past couple days had been bad ones so she had held off, but she needed to ask now if they were going to make it on time.

“Hey Zo, I was thinking…” Mira trailed off as Zoey looked up. Before quickly continuing “I was wondering if you would want to go on a date. Like a real one. Like, go out and eat food and do something”

Mira paused, not sure how Zoey would react. Zoey loved going out, but the last time Mira had suggested it when Zoey was having a bad day, Zoey cried for an hour.

But something about the word “date” seemed to stave off the feelings.

“What were you thinking?’ Zoey’s response was slow.

“I want it to be a surprise. But I promise you’ll love it” Zoey gave her a look, but the food, and the prospect of actually going of a real date, not just movies in their penthouse, seemed to win over.

“Promise?”

“Pinky” this time Mira held out her pinky first, which Zoey enthusiastically took.

“How should I dress?” Zoey stood up, looking around the room for clothes.

“However, you want babe. I don’t care what the world thinks tonight. I’m taking my girlfriend on a date, and she can dress however she wants. I’ll beat anyone up if they give you shit.” Mira gave Zoey a wink as Zoey started running around trying to put together an outfit. But at that comment she stopped.

“Your gonna beat up Bobby? You know he isn’t going to love it if we go out on a date while not being in disguise.”

Mira waved away her concern “Bobby has been briefed. To be honest, I planned this awhile ago. I just wanted to wait for the right time. All I have to do is give him the word and he’ll post some stuff to cover for it.”

Zoey gave her a look, but apparently the idea of being able to dress however she wanted AND go on date won over. Because Zoey didn’t pick anything remotely subtle.

Mira had been shooed out of the room so Zoey could get ready. Mira was only able to grab a couple things to get ready herself before being shoved out with a “Get out I want to surprise you!”

Mira looked down at her hands “Zoeyyyyy, I only got half of my makeup bag! I also need to get ready!”

“Suck it up, you look amazing anyway!”

So Mira just shrugged and went to her bathroom to get ready. She opted to do something maybe stupid, but it would be fine.

She pulled out some eyeliner and eye shadow, laying down the lines carefully as she worked. Before long she had managed to get it done right. Red, orange, white, pink, magenta. Eye liner bleeding up into her eyeshadow. The colors matching as best as she could. Unfortunately, this was about all she could do as Zoey had shoved her out of the room, and Mira didn’t have anything but her eye bag. So, with a little mascara Mira had to call it a day until Zoey allowed her back in.

She quickly texted Bobby, letting him know they were going bold tonight.

She got a thumbs up and a “omw”

She wanted to wait for Zoey to come out before she picked an outfit, but she figured she could make it match.

As she heard Rumi’s door open, she looked up to see Zoey. No words could do it justice.

Mira looked up and down again, trying to take it all in. The light blue dress was knee length, the fabric splitting at the waist to bring two pieces of fabric up, crossing over the chest, then pulling up into a halter neck. Leaving most of her midriff and all of her back exposed. Mira had to remind herself to breathe. Then remind herself again when Zoey did a little spin. 

“What do you think?” Zoey asked, giving a little twirl.

The most Mira could manage was something incoherent along on the lines of “pretty… not subtle… very pretty” 

Zoey just laughed, walking up and giving her a kiss. As she tried to pull away, Mira quickly pulled her closer, wrapping her arms around her waist. Kissing her again with vigor. Zoey leaned into it for a minute. But after some unknow amount of time she tried to pull away, only for Mira to keep chasing her, but Zoey managed to pull away enough to take a gasping breath before saying “Air, Mir”

At the words Mira remembers that both of them did technically need to breath. Not that Mira cared. If she died of suffocation at Zoey’s hands, she would die happy. But she did let Zoey pull back and take a few deep breaths.

“So, I guess you like it?” Zoey giggled in Mira’s arms.

Mira quickly nodded so hard she might have concussed herself.

This was met with more giggling from Zoey. “You should go get dressed too, unless you plan on wearing that, and your not subtle make up at all” Zoey’s eyebrow raised as she looked over what Mira had been able to do.

Mira blushed a little, before adding “I wasn’t trying to be subtle. I’m in my ‘fuck it we ball’ era.”

Zoey just laughed, shooing Mira back into the room before slamming the door behind her.

Mira just laughed and went to pick out a suit, she didn’t feel like wearing anything too flashy, her eyeshadow was flashy enough.

But that thought died in her mind as she walked in and found what she could only describe as the perfect outfit for this. Did it match Zoey? Not even close.

She started off normal enough, a white button down. But decided to go all out for the rest. She dawned a dark red pair of slacks and found a pink straight tie. She fumbled with the tie for a minute. “Dammed stupid things. It’s a knot! Why is this so hard?”

She could never get ties, stupid pieces of shit. After the nth try she finally got it tied and lied up right.

She picked up her orange blazer and put it on.

With her outfit complete Mira walked back out, she heard Bobby’s talking to Zoey. Explaining the plan.

Zoey looked over as Mira walked out and squealed. A high pitch noise that had had Mira and Bobby coving their ears. She ran over and grabbed Mira, looking her up and down. Her eyes running lines over Mira’s body like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Holy shit Mir, we are supposed to make it outside with you looking you like this? Your lucky I don’t shove you back into that bedroom right now!”

Mira blushed and looked back to see Bobby as equally red as Mira felt.

“That’s lovely, but um Bobby what’s the plan” Mira tried to get out from under Zoey’s very intense gaze. The mention of Bobby seemed to do it, and Zoey’s eyes went wide as she remembered they weren’t alone. Her face flashing bright red as she walked back with a muttered apology to Bobby.

Bobby ignored what happened, opting to just go on about the plan to make it look like they are not going on a date “Ok, so we are going to get a few photos, ill send them off to have some edits made. The cover is you all are taking a much-needed break, to celebrate your work on an upcoming song. So you all are going out to celebrate it.”

Zoey’s eyes narrowed at the mention of edits.

Shit Mira thought. She hoped Zoey wouldn’t catch that part. They both knew Bobby never made them photoshop what they posted on the Huntr/x page.

“What edits?” Zoey asked.

Double shit Bobby looked at Mira like “That’s your problem. I’m not getting in that”

Mira silently groaned before thinking about her words carefully. “We are going to add something to the photos to make them more believable.”

She hoped that would be enough, but she knew it wouldn’t. She really wasn’t surprised when Zoey pushed for more.

“What are we going to add?” Her voice both confused and sharp. Zoey knew when Mira was hiding something. And Mira both hated and loved that about her. She tried one last attempt to not break the news now.

“Can we talk about it later? Please?” Mira practically begged. Just wanting to have a fun night out without the inevitable reaction that would come from what they were doing.

“No, I want to do what you are going to edit.”

Damit, Mira didn’t want to do this now. But she knew Zoey wasn’t going to budge.

“We are going to photoshop Rumi into the photos. So, it looked like she is still recovering. And that’s why she’s not going to be out with us.”

Zoey paused for a long time at this. Her reaction was already better than Mira had thought. Finally, Zoey spoke “You promise we will take her out for real when she’s back?”

Mira blinked. That was definitely not what she had thought Zoey would say. But Mira wanted that too.

“Yes Zoey. If Rumi wants to, we will take her out when she gets back. I promise.”

Zoey nodded, tears forming in her eyes. “I miss her so much. I just want her to be here with us.”

Mira pulled Zoey into a hug “I know, I know. I do too. But once she is, we will never let her leave us again.”

They stayed like that for a minute.

Bobby cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to rush you, but you all need to get going.”

Mira nodded, pulling away from Zoey. Lifting her chin up to look her in the eyes. “You ready to take a couple pictures with Bobby then go?”

Zoey nodded, wiping her eyes. Shifting her gaze over to Bobby “As much as I love you, I hope you don’t mind that I would much rather Rumi be in these pictures for real.”

Bobby just laughed “Yeah, I don’t mind. I wish she was in the photos too. I know she doesn’t mean the same to me as she does to you, but she still means a lot to me.”

They nodded before getting in a selfie position with Bobby laying on the couch to fill in Rumi’s “Place” in the photo. A couple of quick snaps and then Bobby send them off to have edited. And just like that, Zoey and Mira were down the elevator and getting into Mira’s car to drive them to their date.

Mira could hardly contain her excitement. When she saw that the new aquarium in Seoul was doing Sea Turtle interactions? She booked it so fast she was surprised she didn’t break her screen with how hard she hit the buttons on the screen. She didn’t even ask Zoey if she wanted to go. Mira just booked it. One thought in her brain Zoey would love this. Then it was done. Their reservation booked. Now she just had to tell Zoey. Zoey had been crying that morning, and the next. And the next couple of days after that.

She had had a rough week. So Mira had waited, but Zoey just hadn’t been in a good mood all week. Crying herself to sleep in Mira’s arms, waking up in tears. Feelings Mira couldn’t understand. Sadness to a level Mira didn’t understand. She had cried while sad before. But never this long, never this much. She cried if she had to, got everything out, then just moved on. She couldn’t really relate to this permanent sadness Zoey seemed to be going though. So she tried to wait, be there to hug and comfort Zoey, and just do whatever seemed to help the most. And it seemed to help.

Especially now that Zoey was looking around at every landmark and every building trying to figure out where they were going. Practically vibrating with excitement. Mira reached out and grabbed her hand.

“Breath Zoey, its not going anywhere and I want you to enjoy it, Something you can’t do if your hyperventilation the whole time”

Mira caught a sheepish look out of the conner of her eye.

“Sorry, just really excited. I have been hoping we would go on a date date for a while. But I never knew when to ask. Or when felt like a right time.”

“I know sweetheart. But we are now, so lets just breath, and enjoy it.”

This feel on deaf ears as Zoey finally realized where they were going as Mira pulled into the parking lot.

Zoey’s shriek was loud, only made worse by the car echoing the sound around.

“Ow Zoey”

“Sorry I just really love turtles and aquariums have turtles, right?” Zoey was already unbuckled before Mira even put the car in park.

“Oh don’t worry, we are going to see plenty of turtles Zo”

Zoey looked ready to explode.

“Come on, lets go. It starts soon.”

“What starts soon?” Zoey followed Mira, right on her heels, and having to turn around and come back every time she ran ahead.

“You’ll see.” Mira laughed softly at Zoey’s excitement. This was exactly what she was hoping it would be like. A part of her heart ached for their missing third. The one who they both wanted. But couldn’t be here.

But the other part filled over with pure joy and contentment at this. Finally having this. Something she had tried to hide and shove away. But she just accepted it now she was the happiest she could be. And she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

They got inside and joined the line. They got a lot of looks, a lot of stares, and some requests for pictures. They declined for the night. They didn’t want their night to become nothing but photos with fans, but they still talked and chatted in line.

Even this little bit of interaction and they could feel the Honmoon ripple with joy at the way the fans reacted.

As they got to the front of the line Mira opened the tickets on her phone.

The lady behind the counter eye’s went wide as she saw them.

“Hi, we have the reservation for Huntr/x” Mira turned her phone around so the lady could scan the QR code. The lady just blinked at her for a minute before remembering she was supposed to doing something, not just standing there gawking at them.

“Um, yes of course miss. Will it just be the two of you this afternoon?” Her voice laced with a mix of nerves and curiosity.

Mira bristle, and she felt Zoey go stiff beside her. “yes, just the two of us.” Mira kept her voice clipped and short.

The lady looked slightly embarrassed as she quickly scanned their QR code.

“Your good to go! Enjoy the turtles!”

“Turtles???” Zoey’s voice suddenly extra bright “Are we doing nothing but turtles the whole time?!?!?”

“You’ll see” Mira was a little upset at that lady comment. She was hoping it would be a 100% surprise until the last second. But all hopes of that vanished as they walked under an archway and were meet with a huge ass sign that read

“Sea Turtle Interactive event! Get your tickets now!”

Zoey’s breath caught “Mira is that it” She said pointing “Please tell that is what we are doing, please please please.”

“Yes it is, Zo” Zoey practically charged ahead.

Mira felt her phone buzz and checked the notification

Mira and Zoey of Huntr/x spotted at Local Aquarium. Recent Huntr/x post states it is a celebration of Song work, but Mira’s…

Mira didn’t read the rest. She knew what she was doing when her makeup. She could already feel the Honmoon surging with the excitement of fans from all over at the prospect. Zoey may have forgotten the trick, but Mira hadn’t. The more the fans talked about them, and speculated, the more the Honmoon surged. And like most things with this new Honmoon, it was built upon exponentially.

It was nothing compared to even a small concert. But it was the best they could do.

“Zoey hold up, come back here!” Mira followed up after putting her phone away.

“But turtles!!!”

“I know, it doesn’t start for another 10 minutes, and we have the vip seats. Your not going to miss anything.”

Zoey still dragged her along, talking about all the different kind of turtles. Wondering what kind they would get to see, and if they would get to touch any.

They found their seats in the front of the auditorium, one of the large tanks of water in front of them.

The speaker, a marine biologist, came out a few minutes later and began talking about the turtles that they kept.

“All of our turtles are ones that we rescued from the wild. Sick or injured ones that we found and brought here for recovery. This one here-” she gestures to the turtle that she had lured up to the surface of the water with a treat “-is named Jake, because I was told Jerk was an inappropriate name. No matter how fitting.”

She continued to talk about how Jake had been snappy and rather mean at the start of his recovery.

Mira looked over at Zoey, and she was beaming from ear to ear. Taking in everything that was being said.

The presentation was short, but it was what came after that Mira had really planned for.

“And that concludes our turtle talk! Thank you all for coming and listening to turtles! We hop to see you again!”

Zoey stood up, and started walking out, already talking about all the other things she wanted to see.

“Where do you think your going?” Mira called, grabbing her hand.

“To go look at the rest of the aquarium?” Zoey gave her a confused look

“No, no. We still have to go meet Jake. If you want.” Mira laughed as Zoey’s eyes lit up.

“Meet Jake!! We get to meet Jake!? OMG OMG OMG” Zoey looked ready to explode.

Mira led her up to the front of the tank, and showed their tickets to the presenter, Ha-yoon.

“Oh! Thank you so much for coming…” She looked down at the tickets again to read their names, then her jaw went a little slack. “Mira and Zoey”

Her voice had gotten a lot smaller as she looked up at them again.

“It’s lovely to meet you to! I love Jake. He is so cute!” Zoey held out her hand to shake, and Ha-yoon took it slowly. Her eyes still a little wide before she shook her head.

“Sorry, my deepest apologies. I am just… a little shocked. I never thought I would ever get to be in the same room as you-”

“Mommy! Mommy! That was amazing!”

Mira looked up to see a little kid that couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 running down the stairs. Two older girls followed behind her sisters by the look of it. The oldest looked to be around Mira’s age. The other looked to be in her mid-teens.

“Hey, what did we say about interrupting people when they are talking to each other?” Ha-yoon looked at the youngest, who quickly dawned an embarrassed look.

“Not to, I’m sorry”

“You ok! I thought she did amazing too!” Zoey tossed in. Much to Ha-yoon’s mortification.

At Zoey’s voice the oldest stiffed, then quickly started making a lot of fast gestures with her hands. It took Mira a second to realize it was Sign Language.

As the eldest looked at them, Mira and Zoey both repeated a greeting they had learned a while ago. The movements were slow and choppy. Her eyes went wide. Then started signing to her mother for a second.

Ha-yoon spoke, “These are my daughters, Yun-Seo, Min-Seo and Soo-ah.” She gestured to each of them. Eldest to youngest. “They are big fans, but Yun-Seo, why don’t you take your sisters to get something to eat. I am going to try to convince Jake to come back up here for the meet and greet.”

Yun-seo nodded, motioning for her sisters to follow her. The two of them talking in excited whispers as they walked off.

“I am sorry about that; they like to come in and watch some of my presentations whenever they can. And are also huge fans of you.”

“That’s ok, we love to meet fans!” Zoey spoke up

Mira quickly remembered the look on Yun-seo’s face while she had signed, and thought back to what she had been taught about signing and non-manual makers “If I may ask, it looked like Yun-Seo asked a question, was there anything she wanted to ask us?”

Ha-yoon looked a little stunned, but smiled after a second “You all know sign?”

“No, not really. We just have done some fan events and learned some greetings and picked up on a little bit of the expressions.” Mira remembered how embarrassed she had been trying to stumble thought a greeting. But despite grammar and pronunciation that must have been on par with a 2 year old, the kids been ecstatic.

Ha-yoon nodded “Ok, um. I’ll text her here in a little if you don’t mind answering some questions. She loves listening to your all’s music.’

“Listening?” Zoey asked before Mira could stop her

“Oh, yes.” Ha-yoon seemed to click where the confusion lay “She is mute, not deaf. So, she loves listening to your music. She actually does some sign covers sometimes.”

Mira nodded. She figured she should have at least been able to guess that, considering Yun-Seo had recognized them by Zoey’s voice.

“Yeah, we would love to answer some questions. We don’t have forever, but we always have time for fans.” Mira comment.

Jake finally came back to surface, and Zoey practically fainted up close.

“Can I pet him?” Zoey asked quickly.

“Unfortunately not today” Ha-yoon said, much to Zoey’s dismay “Unfortunately we primarily take in injured or ill sea turtles, which means very few people are allowed to touch them or their food, to help make sure they stay safe.”

“Ok, that makes sense. I don’t want to get him sick again” Zoey couldn’t really hide her disappointment

“But! There is normally a couple weeks after they have been cleared for release, but before the date that they are scheduled to be released, that we will allow them to be fed by people. Jake here is pretty close to that point, which is why he is in our show. His right fin was cut up pretty bad by a boat a few months ago, but he is almost healed, and we felt he was recovered enough to come here and participate without being stressed out. Sometime in the next few weeks he is expected to be healed enough to be released. And if you can come back in that time you would be able to feed him”

Zoey’s eyes lit up “yes we will have to!”

They kept talking for a little, while Mira watched with amusement. Zoey marveled over every little detail Ha-yoon pointed out about Jake the jerk.

Their 10 minutes had long since been up by the time Ha-yoon’s daughters came back. But Ha-yoon didn’t seem to mind.

Mira looked at the three of them. The eldest two held something in their hands, while the youngest looked like someone had injected caffeine straight into her blood steam.

“What do you all have there, if I may ask?” Mira started, drawing Zoey’s attention.

Yun-Seo started signing, and her mother began to interpret “It is a photo card, I was wondering if you would be willing to sign it.”

Mira smiled, and Zoey was already looking for a pen. After a few seconds of looking they found a pen and signed the cards that they had.

Yun-seo had one of Rumi, which made Mira’s chest go tight for a second.

“Rumi was always my favorite; I wanted to be able to sing like her when I was older. But your choreography has been my new favorite thing to learn.” Ha-yoon interpreter for her daughter.

Mira gave her a look, and Yun-seo quickly followed up.

“I wasn’t always mute. There was an accident a few years ago when I was doing an exchange student program. Caustic chemicals damaged my vocal cords and lungs.”

Zoey and Mira, both gave her a look, condolences already started when she cut them off.

“It’s ok. I made a choice, and I would make it again.”

Their looks of confusion prompted her to gesture at her mother.

“She was a part of an exchange student program to go to America for a year. While she was over there, there was a caustic chemical spill near a school bus while she was out with friends after school. The school bus had a bunch of 6-to-9-year old’s on it. She ran in and helped get the kids out and away from the fumes and everything, but her prolonged exposure ended up giving her cancer in her voice box. The sliver lining, if you could call it that, was that it didn’t spread, and didn’t develop anywhere else. But they had to cut a large part of her voice box out, and what is still there is heavily damaged.”

Mira spoke first after hearing the story “That was very brave of you. I only hope I could be half as brave as you in I was put in the same spot.”

And she meant it. Mira may fight demons, but she was trained for that. She had weapons.

Runing into the danger zone of a chemical spill with no training? Mira wasn’t sure if she would do that.

Yun-seo signed something again, but this time her mother paused before starting to speak for her “I just did what I knew Rumi would do. I’ve seen videos of you guys helping people, standing up to creeps, or running around helping grab people out of flooded areas. I wanted to be just like Rumi when I was older, So I started there. Helping the first people I saw who needed it, and I don’t regret it.”

Zoey had tears running down her face, and Mira felt her eyes water with guilt. They had training. Resources. Sure, Mira had personally introduced more than a few creepy dudes to the concrete. But she had hunter training, fighting normal, incredibly drunk creeps was easy. Something you could hardly call dangerous.

“Can I give you a hug?” Zoey asked

Yun-seo froze for a few minutes. Mira could almost see the load circle over her head as she processed the request. Before nodding slowly.

Zoey rushed forward and wrapped her arms around her.

After minute Zoey pulled back “That was a really brave thing you did, and I am so proud to be able to call you a fan. And I am so sorry that it cost you something you loved.”

The rest of their conversation wasn’t awkward, but was a little short, and Ha-yoon had to go. And her daughters left with a bow and farwells.

“I wish I was half as brave as her, Mira” Zoey lamented as they walked off.

“Yeah, me too Zoey, me too.”

*Present Day*

“Omg you sly mother fucker. That’s why you painted your eyes with the fucking lesbian flag on your eyes? Fan service?”

“It wasn’t the only reason. It wasn’t even the main one.” She rolled her eyes at Zoey, still snuggled up into her lap, but had leaned back to look at her and playful shove her chest. “It was all the makeup I had been able to grab before you shoved me out of the room to get ready and I just decided to roll with it. And anyway! It took me to tell you to figure that out? I wasn’t exactly subtle. I am pretty sure Bobby still has a migraine from all the pictures of my suit”

“Ok sure Mir, and I hate turtles” Zoey rolled her eyes, laying down an incredibly thick layer of sarcasm. “But I was too busy drinking in how absolutely stunning and sexy you looked to take in exactly what it meant.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Mira just rolled her eyes at Zoey’s dramatics “It’s getting to be lunch time, and we are supposed to go have that meeting with Celine today”

POV: Zoey (+0 min)

Fuck, they had to go meet Celine today didn’t they. It was six months to the day since that night. They had decided to wait 6 months before starting to hold auditions for a new member, saying that it was looking like Rumi would be unable to return to Huntr/x, and that they wanted to start to get a feel for who might mesh with them if Rumi wasn’t comfortable returning.

“Oh, yeah. Right” Zoey tried to keep her voice measured, but Mira wasn’t letting it slide. She gently hooked her finger under her chin and lifted her head up.

“Hey Zo, its ok. Let’s just start with getting up and going to get lunch. We can worry about the rest of that afterwards. Her voice was calm. Working its way into Zoey’s mind leaving no room for question. Not in the bad way, but in the comforting way that made everything easier. They slowly untangled and stood up, getting casually dressed for the day.

They went down the elevator and to Mira’s car, loading up and heading to a local noddle shop. They didn’t want to eat too much, as Celine normally had something prepared.

Well used to have something prepared. It was a gamble now a days. Celine was hit hard by the ordeal. Celine and Mira both went through feelings in a way Zoey couldn’t understand. But they seemed to experience them close enough to the same that Mira was able to talk to Celine and pass on the vibe to Zoey.

And honestly. Zoey felt for Celine. She was still mad at her for how she treated Rumi, but after the first day that they had seen her, and the details Mira had filled in afterwards? Zoey hadn’t forgiven her, but she had definitely started to understand.

*four months ago*

They were having a good day, really. Zoey was happy, cuddling up into Mira on the couch. Some rom-com on as background noise while they made out. Because what else was a couple to do in their place other than try to make out and fuck on every surface available? Zoey sure couldn’t think of a better thing to be doing.

Zoey was sitting on the couch, Mira in her lap. Well, technically Mira was straddling her. But Zoey liked to imagine she was in charge. (She was very much not). Her hands wrapped around Mira pulling her closer, one hand snaking around her waist, the other up her back to the base of Mira’s neck.

The phone rang dam it to hell. Mira pulled back and Zoey chased her lips, trying to pull her back into a kiss “Come hereeeee don’t worry about that.”

“My love, as much as I want to. You know we need to answer calls from Bobby. He might have new for us ever since he put out the word to keep an eye out for Rumi.”

Zoey paused at the words. Bobby had agreed to ask some… Friends… to keep an eye out for Rumi, or any Rumi looking people running around.

Zoey let Mira go and grab her phone, answering with their normal “Hi Bobby!”

Bobby’s voice crackled thought the speakers “Hi! How are you all doing!”

“We are good” Mira said

“I was doing better” Zoey muttered to herself. Mira just gave her a shove.

“Hey so, Celine got ahold of me and asked if you all would be willing to come over and talk with her. She apparently has some stuff she wants to talk to you all about.”

Mira and Zoey froze. Looking at each other. They hadn’t heard from Celine since that night. Just some cleaning up the next morning then she was gone with a word of needing some time to think to herself. Zoey and Mira didn’t fully understand what she needed to think about, so they assumed process.

Mira raised her eyebrows at Zoey, asking the silent question. Do you want to do that?

Zoey held her arms out, inviting Mira to come closer, to which she did. As Mira folded into Zoey’s body, Zoey planted her face into Mira’s neck. Taking a deep breath. She gave Mira a nod without lifting her head.

“Yeah we can, should we head over now?” Mira spoke into the phone, running her hand up and down Zoey’s back.

“Yeah, she said as soon as you all were available. I’ll let her know you’re heading that way now?” They looked at each other at Bobbys question.

Did they want to go now? They were kind of in the middle of something Zoey very much did want to interrupt with that.

But Mira spoke “Yeah we will head that way shortly.”

“Ok! I’ve got to go! Let me know how it goes?” Bobby had already started half talking to someone else as he spoke.

“We will!”

The click signaled that they call had ended.

“Miraaaaa, we were kinda in the middle of something.” Zoey winned, already dreading having to get up and dressed.

“I said we would leave shortly, not now” Mira’s voice was low as she switched her legs around to straddle Zoey.

30 minutes later they were in the car, pulling out onto the roads of Seoul. Zoey was already picking at the hem of her shirt. Dispite everything Mira had done to… help… her not stress about meeting Celine again, the thoughts came back.

What could she want?

Did she find Rumi?

Is she going to try and force a new person on them?

Was she going to blame them?

Mira reached over and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “You’re ok, we have each other. And soon we will all be together again, then everything will be as it should. No matter what Celine thinks.”

Zoey gave a soft laugh at how easy Mira seemed to read her mind. “You always know just what to say.”

“Because I know you.” Mira took her hand back to merge over, then just as quickly brought it back to Zoey’s hand.

“I just miss her, y’know? I just want her back. No one else, nothing else.” Zoey tried to put determination in her voice, but it still shook.

“I know, I do too. We aren’t going to replace her. No matter what.” Mira’s voice was firm, but Zoey could hear the uncertainty of it. They had only recently realized how little they truly knew about Celine.

They knew she was always pretty stern, but they thought it was just pushing them to be better hunters. Your faults and fears must never be seen. Zoey always thought that meant from the world. Not from each other. Not that she was instilling such a deep fear in Rumi that she wasn’t willing to talk to her only friends. Because they really were her only friends, weren’t they? Rumi talked to a total of 3 people with any level of consistency. Zoey, Mira, Bobby.

Mira’s voice cut thought Zoey’s thoughts. “We’re here”

She had zoned out for a while.

As they pulled up into the driveway everything felt off. Nothing was crazy out of place. It was just small things. The flowers in the landscaping were wilting, the porch had leaves on it, and scenes of just general clutter and untidiness that Celine never let happen. Insisting on doing most of it herself.

As they got out of the car and walked up to the door, Mira gave a slight almost whistle as she took in all the small things.

“She’s clearly not taking her own advice- Ow” Mira’s voice started out smug, but went high pitch as Zoey jammed her elbow into her ribs.

“I am not a big fan of her either right now, but clearly, she’s going thought some shit. Let’s at least see if she’s gotten less shitty before we judge her too much” Zoey had to resist the urge to at her own remark. Opting to try and keep an open mind. If Celine was letting her house fall into visible disarray she had clearly gone thought something.

Mira knocked on the door and waited. No one answered, so Mira knocked again louder.

“Come in”

Celine’s voice called, it sounded strained and tried. Another thing that was very unlike Celine. Always keeping her voice calm and collect. Never letting how she felt bleed into her voice.

Mira grabbed the door and opened it, and that’s when it also clicked to Zoey. Celine never left her door unlocked. The list was really starting to stack up of weird things.

Zoey was half tempted to summon her Sinkal just in case. It was starting to feel like whatever was inside this building wasn’t Celine and hadn’t been for a while. As they stepped in they saw it was even worse on the inside, takeout boxes strewn about, blankets and pillows left half folded and stacked on the furniture.

More weird things, Celine never ate takeout. Not once in the 7 plus years had Zoey known her. According to Rumi, Celine hadn’t eaten takeout since one time she allegedly got sick and couldn’t cook, back when Rumi was still too young to cook. And the blanket and pillows were never for use, they were for show. But they had clearly been used, wrinkled and even dirty.

Celine sat on armchair in the corner of the living room. Well, sat was a little bit of a strong word. More like did something akin to what Zoey liked to call “The lesbian sprawl” gaining its name after all the very unique ways that Mira opted to sit in every chair around the penthouse. In other words, never sitting the way they were supposed to be sat in.

And Celine was definitely giving Mira a run for her money in “Weird ass ways to sit in a chair” department. She sat with her left leg thrown over the back of the chair, hooking around to its back, her right leg sat cross body over the arm rest, twisting her hips into a position that couldn’t be comfortable. The footrest was propped out, and Celine laid her back on it, pushing the footrest halfway back into the closed positions. Her arms left to just flop above her head. Her hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in a month.

To say she looked like shit would be insulting to shit.

Zoey caught Mira’s expression soften in the corner of her eye. Mira clearly seemed to be running the same mental math as Zoey. This wasn’t the Celine they were expecting. Or knew. Whoever sat in room was a broken shell of who they used to be. And they needed to move with caution.

They walked in slowly, Celine looking up and quickly trying to shift herself around to look less… Well, everything she looked like.

Smoothing out her shirt and fixing her hair she started “Hi, girls. How are you?”

Their response was instant “We are good Celine”

“How are you?” Zoey added

It was trained and practice from years of it being the only acceptable answer. But Celine only added to the surprise and oddities for the say when her response came “Horrible frankly, and I figure you all are closer to the same boat. Would you like some tea?”

She could feel the blink from Mira to her left, and Zoey had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t going crazy.

Celine was… admitting a fault? Being honest? This had to be a demon, right? But as Zoey looked into her eyes she saw something behind them. She couldn’t but her finger on what, but it was something that couldn’t be faked. A soft glow deep down that you couldn’t fake, something that only a Hunter could have.

Mira’s voice brought her out of her thoughts “Yes please, tea would be nice.”

Celine gave a nod, then walked off the kitchen, filling up a kettle and starting it. Before starting to rummage around. Another strange thing. Celine never had to look for tea; she already had it out when she had guests over.

“Is Ginger Peach tea ok? I think its all I have left”

“Yes that works” Zoey called out, before turning to Mira and bring her voice to a really low whisper “All she has left? What the hell is going on?”

Mira’s response was equally quite “I think your right, she is clearly going thought some shit. Maybe she finally got a few very needed lessons through her skull”

Zoey just nodded. It really did seem like Celine had been thought a lot the past couple months.

Celine walked back in, mugs in hand.

“Here, and please take a seat” She moved some pillows onto the floor, gesturing for them to take a seat.

They did, and Celine started the conversation without much more pleasantries “Have you been able to find anything out about Rumi?”

Zoey almost choked on her tea, Mira’s jaw looked like it was trying to marry the floor. Not because she was asking about Rumi, but because Celine sounded genuinely worried. There was no… anything really. Just true, raw concern.

Mira managed to speak first “Why are you asking?”

Zoey tried to shove her elbow into Mira’s side, but Celine spoke faster “Because I know I haven’t earned the right to just be informed about it if you have.”

The rolls were switched this time, Mira choked on the tea, and Zoey was trying to convince her jaw to stay attached to her face.

Celine didn’t comment on their reaction, just kept going “I haven’t’ been a good… Anything really. Mentor, mother, trainer. Pick your adjective. Whatever it is, I know I haven’t been a good one. Or even a decent one. There is no reason I should expect you to volunteer any information you have. So I asked”

“What brought on this change in attitude” Mira seemed to have her brain the most put together between the two of them, so Zoey let her lead and ask questions. Zoey wouldn’t focus on breathing.

“You guys, your new Honmoon, just everything about that night Gwi-ma managed to break into our world. Then managed to mount an attack at the core of Honmoon. I very quickly and unpleasantly realized I wasn’t right. That what I had been taught, and preached back, was not right. That wasn’t what really worked. Because if it did, everything wouldn’t have happened. But it did. So, someone had to be wrong. And as seeing you all staved off a demon apocalypse, it very clearly wasn’t you.”

Zoey was still trying to process this. This was unfiltered honesty she didn’t think Celine was even capable of. What the hell had happened the past 2 months.

“Ok, why now? Why reach out to us now?” Mira kept pressing Celine for more answers, Zoey could tell her tone was meant to break her. See if she would snap and change stories.

“Because I want to find Rumi, I owe her every apology that could ever be said and then some.” Tears started to form at the corner of Celine’s eyes.

It seemed Mira was finally at a loss for words. This was not the Celine they knew or were expecting to find here. They were expecting to find a Celine who told them to suck it up and move on. Not one crying over her failures and looking to apology.

After minute of silence and Celine blinking back the tears, she spoke again “I owe you an apology as well.”

They just started stupidly at her, waiting for her to continue.

“I taught you what I was taught” This didn’t sound like an apology to Zoey, but she let her keep going “I heard ‘all demons are evil’ and ‘we kill all demons’, and I never stopped to question it. No matter what happened, at ever turn I put blind trust into those that came before me. Figuring they must be right. I should have questioned it when Mi-Yeong told me the truth about Rumi’s father” Celine’s voice caught on the names, ever so slightly “I should have questioned it when I watched him dive headfirst into battle against demons to protect Mi-Yeong. I should have questioned it when Rumi was born, and I saw the patterns of demon on an innocent child.”

Celine took a death breath before continuing, and all Zoey could think was fucking lore drop???

“But I didn’t, and I am sorry. I should have questioned it so many times. When time and time again for years and years I watched the evidence against what I had been taught grow up. But I never did. And I am sorry. I taught you a fallacy. Blindly following the teachings of generations before me and passing it along. And it hurt you, and it hurt Rumi.” Her voice started to break “It hurt Rumi so much. And I never knew how much until the night Gwi-ma managed to make it to our world… God I was so stupid…”

Her voice trailed off, like that last part was meant for herself more than anything.

Mira surprised Zoey by making the first move, standing up to walk over to Celine. Sitting down next to her.

Mira’s voice was short and clipped when she spoke. It wasn’t necessarily mean, just to the point “At least you pulled your head out of your ass. Now you have two options. Sit here and wallow about how much you failed and how you should have done everything different. Or help us figure out how to get Rumi back, and how we keep the Honmoon strong in the meantime.”

Celine nodded.

The rest of their day was a blur that Zoey didn’t fully remember. Lots of talk about everything Celine knew about the demon realm. Bits of information she wasn’t sure about but thought could be true. One part of that conversation stood out to her.

“If the words of Rumi’s father are to be trusted, which in hindsight they probably should be, time seems to move a lot slower? Faster? in the demon realm. I’m not sure which way you would describe it. Either way, he would leave and come back , claiming hours had passed, even when he had only been gone for 30 minutes.’

That was faster, Zoey was pretty sure it was faster at least. If that was true, then how long had the past 2 months felt to Rumi? How long had she been trapped down there from her perspective. Did she think they had given up on her? Zoey tried to shake that thought away. She hoped Rumi knew they would never give up on her.

Some more logistics filled the topic, and Zoey tuned out again until she heard Mira and Celine take a deep breath.

“Hey Zoey, can you be here for this conversation?” Mira’s voice was soft.

Zoey looked up, tuning back into. The look on Mira’s face pretty much instantly made Zoey worried.

Mira took another deep breath “I know your gonna be mad, I know you’re not going to want to. But me and Celine were just talking about how we need to decide what we want to do if, and big emphasis if, we don’t find Rumi. Don’t give me that look, you know I don’t want to but… you also know it was already getting close to time to start talking about our successor plan, and this makes it even more important. Just in case… What did I say about giving me that look?”

Zoey was looking at Mira with something between bewilderment and anger. As much as deep down she knew Mira was right, they should be smart, they should plan ahead. Even if its for the worse possible scenario. But that wasn’t going to stop her from being upset that Mira would even suggest they talk about that now. But before Zoey could try and get mad, Mira followed up.

“How about this, we plan our just in case plan now, then we will plan the party for Rumi when she gets back?”

Zoey’s eyes lit up at that, a party. For Rumi. Once she gets back. When she gets back. Zoey nodded “Fine, but I am not happy about planning for the worst-case scenario.”

So that’s what they talked about. They planned out how they would go about it. They would start auditions after the 6 month mark, but wait to officially add someone to the group until a year. Zoey did like it. Not at all.

But she enjoyed planning out the “Rumi’s back” party they were going to throw. And they were definitely going to throw it.

*Present day*

The noodles were good. They ate lightly and quickly and got on to Celine’s. They still had a little bit of a drive ahead of them.

It was largely uneventful. Zoey sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window, making wishes on just about everything she could see that Rumi would come back to them today. and this time she would stay.

“What are you thinking about?” Mira gave a glance over at Zoey. Zoey could lie and say nothing. But Mira knew her better than that.

Zoey just sighed “Just that night 3 months ago”

Mira’s breath caught. She didn’t have to ask which night. Zoey knew she didn’t. That night had been burned into their minds.

*three months ago*

They had started going over to Celine’s once a week to go over anything of consequence. New things Celine might have found in her books and books of information about the demon world. Things Mira and Zoey had noticed with any of their demon fights. Even Bobby tagged along a lot.

He wasn’t tagging along with all of their hunts, but his increased time and additions to their lives meant he had been on a fair number of hunts. And he did not play when it came to demons.

Zoey thought he was a badass when he was just playing defense. Trying to protect Rumi’s room. But Bobby turned into a whole different beast when he got to play offence. He couldn’t quite keep up with Zoey and Mira. Their connection to the Honmoon gave them strength and stamina Bobby couldn’t hope to match. And the lack of a weapon that could actually kill a demon meant he could never fully do anything without them.

But Zoey had seen Bobby on more than once occasion take full advantage of the fact he couldn’t kill them. Slamming the butt of his rifle into a demons face so hard, so many time, the concrete underneath them cracked.

His voice harsh and low, demands that Mira and Zoey didn’t always here, but caught parts “Where… Rumi… So help you god…”

It was always met with a cackle from the demon. Sometimes a sly remark about “trapped on the kings alter”. Which normally promoted Bobby to slam the muzzle into the demon, because pointer? Zoey didn’t really see the point because it couldn’t really hurt them.

That was until a particularly cocky demon started taunting Zoey. Promoting Zoey just start punching him over and over until Bobby handed her the rifle, and she started bashing his head in with that. It was a lot easier on her fist. And a lot more sustainable.

She quite enjoyed it, the demon, and the brick wall behind the demon on the other hand, did not find it quite as enjoyable.

Another fun discovery was that Mira and Zoey could actually cause demons physical pain if they were the ones using a non Honmoon base weapon.

That discovery had led to the topic of today’s meeting.

“So yeah” Mira wrapped up the background to how they had learned this new information “we learned that if we are wielding a weapon, it can actually hurt a demon. Which… strongly encouraged him to divulge some information about Rumi’s tearabouts in the demon realm.”

Celine’s eyes lit up as she sat up, giving them a look to keep going.

Bobby added from his chair, “I’ve been keeping notes of everything we have heard. Here”

He handed over a notebook filled with notes of everything that had heard demons say that even sounded related to Rumi.

“The best we have been able to piece together is that Gwi-ma had been keeping her with him. Trapped in some kind of loop or something. We don’t know what kind of loop. But it feels safe to assume it’s some kind of loop of her worst memories. Like he is trying to break her.”

Celine nodded as she flipped thought the notebook. Reading the quotes and everything the 3 had made.

Bobby continued “Until yesterday morning. I went with them on a hunt yesterday at 0215. Following our new SOP we managed to get one stuck on this side of the Honmoon for us to interrogate and we managed to find out that she had apparently broken free. The exact quote was-”

“‘Your bitch broke free and she’s not here? Guess she gave up on you after all!’” Celine read from the notebook. Her voice tight “So Rumi managed to get out of Gwi-ma’s grasp.”

A hint of pride in Celine’s voice.

“Yes. So, we think now she is running around the demon realm looking for a way out. We have been brainstorming ways to try and help. But we haven’t come up with much.” Bobby finished off

Zoey spoke up now “We were hoping you might have some ideas from any of your reading.”

Celine nodded “I can’t think of anything smart to do. I will go back over my books. But the best I can think of now is to let the Honmoon weaken so it’s easier for Rumi to get thought. But that’s not really smart. No matter how bad we might want her back.”

Zoey would have been taken aback at this, but it wasn’t the first time Celine had mentioned it. Just a couple weeks ago Celine had proposed letting it weaken so they could try and pass thought it and mount an invasion.

A marked and shocking change in Celine over the past few months. She went from protecting the Honmoon at all costs. To being willing tearing it down just to get a chance at trying to make amends.

Zoey wasn’t sure if that was a good thing yet, but it seemed better than the ‘hide everything at all cost” Celine.

“Yeah, but wouldn’t she be strong enough to claw her way out on her own? From what little we got to talk about, it seems like Rumi was easily able to outclass the Saja Boys when she was in good health. So, I would reason she would be able to get back thought without much issue on her own.” Mira added this on, mostly talking to herself. But Zoey had to agree.

Rumi was strong. Very strong, outclassing the Saja Boys, and both of them.

“I bet she is just trying to recover her strength. That’s why she isn’t back yet. It’s been at least 3 months, and she just now broke free? She is probably tired and weak. She just needs time to recover.” Zoey tried to be rational. Everyone else was being rational. But the fear crept in. What if that demon is right, and she doesn’t want to see us. What if she thinks we gave up on her?

But as if to silence her thoughts, they felt a pull on the Honmoon. It felt like a pull, not a push. A strange difference that took the three hunters present a second to figure out.

Then it pulled again.

“What? What do you all feel?” Bobby’s voice cut thought. He had long since been accustomed to seeing them all freeze at random points. Normally followed by information of where they need to go. The worry in his voice made it clear they all had a very different look on his face.

“It feels…” Zoey started

“Like a pull?” Mira finished

“Out by the tree?” Celine added “They haven’t tried to break into these grounds since you all first were brought onto be Hunters, and before that it was two decades before.”

They all rushed outside to look, and sure enough. The Honmoon was being pulled down, rather than split apart.

They all stood there looking in weird fascination.

Mira was the only one who half drew her weapon. The stands of the Honmoon swirling slightly around her but never taking full form.

Then there was Bobby. Who couldn’t see any of this and just watched them with minor confusion.

Then they all gasped, even Bobby. Because even he can see what was crawling out of the ground now.

Zoey watched as a thick purple braid began to rise out of the ground, quickly followed by a clawed hand, then one normal one, planting on the ground.

Rumi

It was all Zoey could think, she rushed forward as a head popped out of the Honmoon.

Rumi’s face was streaked with tears, and frankly she looked like shit. Her braid was pulled apart; her arms were scratched up. Her left eye glowed bright gold. And the patterns on her head, arms, and upper chest glowed red.

Zoey could hear Mira run forward as well, Celine and Bobby not far behind.

Rumi seemed to struggle to stay up, like something was pulling on her from underneath the Honmoon.

Rumi looked up at them as they all ran forward. Zoey already had her arms out to try and grab Rumi and pull her into her. Never let her go again.

Rumi opened her mouth, her voice horse and stained like she could barely speak “Help”

Zoey didn’t even get to respond before suddenly, right before Zoey and Mira managed to grab Rumi’s arms, they saw Abbys upper body fly out of the Honmoon.

“You’re not getting away that easy, little girl.” His voice was nothing less than a snarl. He grabbed Rumi by the head, his fingers wrapping around her ear too her face. As he dropped suddenly, taking Rumi back with him.

And just like that.

Rumi was gone again.

Zoey froze, hands outreached. Just inches away from grabbing her. She was so close.

A rage filled scream cut thought the air, and Zoey looked over to see Mira.

Pov: Mira (+0 min)

Mira let out a scream in rage. She was so close to getting Rumi back.

And now she was gone again. Her vision tented red as she dropped to her knees and started tearing at the dirt.

There was no plan. There was nothing that even came close to it. She didn’t care. She was doing to dig her way into the demon realm if she had to.

She just had to get Rumi back.

Her vision clouded with tears and a violent red as she tore at the dirt.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away. She couldn’t be distracted. Not until she had Rumi back. Not when she was so close to getting her back. Only to lose Rumi because she had frozen for a second to long. If she had been a couple seconds faster, hadn’t paused for that half second. She could have grabbed Rumi.

She felt another pull on her shoulder “WHAT” she spun around, her voice hot with her anger. Now spilling out uncontrollably.

But she froze as she saw Zoey standing there. The tear streaks on her cheeks.

Mira felt her rage fade into something less all consuming, something more controlled.

She quickly pulled Zoey into a hug as she tried to steady her own breathing. She still shook slightly as she tried to breathe “Follow my breathing Zoey” She prompted the young one folded into her arms.

“Four in” She took breath in “Hold… 2… 3… 4…, Out…2… 3… 4…”

Zoey followed her breathing as they went the cycle they did for warms ups, in four, hold four, out 4, repeat out 8, repeat out 12, repeat out 16. All the way until they hit out 32.

They took one last deep breath as they finished. Neither of them had really calmed down, just got their emotions under control enough to do something other than scream and cry.

Mira had made up her mind, she had never been too keen on the idea of just pounding on demons after they were down couldn’t really fight back. It was one thing to smash their face in with a kettle or pan or chair to try and weaken or stun them. But beating them down, and to keep hounding on them after they could just dispatch them with her Waldo? That always sat uneasy with her. It never felt right. But as she spoke there was no hesitancy or uncertainty in her voice.

“I swear to anything that claims to be holy in this world. I am going to beat the next demon we find until it tells us where the fuck Rumi is”

Zoey looked up at her with something that Mira couldn’t quite pin down. But Mira knew she hated being looked at that way. Almost, just almost, as much as she hated not knowing where Rumi was.

*Present Day*

Mira cringed at the memories of that night. She hated how hateful she had been.

“Sorry again Zo. I know you said its ok, I know you told me it was fine. But… Just the way you looked at me when I said that I hated it.”

Zoey was silent for a few moments, letting go of Mira’s hand to twist the rings on her fingers.

Mira felt her heart drop like a stone as Zoey broke the contact. Something Zoey only ever did if something really bothered her.

The silence was loud for a few kilometers as they drove before Zoey finally spoke.

“I know… I know I said it was ok, and it is. But… but it was still… scary to see you that fueled by hate. It wasn’t even what you said. It was more so watching you act upon your words that sacred me- Don’t get me wrong it was hella hot” Zoey gave a soft laugh as Mira rolled her eyes slightly at that comment “But it was also scary, in the moment, you were always so calm and collected in combat. Even more so when it was just the two of us. It was weird, and scary, to see rage take the reins.”

She took a deep breath before continuing, her voice rushed as she added this last part “But I don’t blame you, or hate you for it. It was just weird. But it got information. And it helped. It is still just a little weird to think about, yknow?”

Mira nodded. She had gotten the chance to make good on her promise about a month later. And it defiantly wasn’t her proudest moment. No matter what they had learned from it.

*2 months ago*

The rain was heavy as they fought. The woodland camo colored poncho spinning with Mira in a wide arc. Wobbies Bobby had called them.

“I know what you’re going to say. Just wear it. I was skeptical too at first. But the devil dogs insisted there was something different about their’s. And I don’t know. There is definitely something up with them.”

“This looks like it should be considered a fashion crime.” Mira commented as she looked over the oversized poncho. The greens, blacks, and browns clashed with just about everything Mira and Zoey had ever worn.

“What is it supposed to do?” Zoey asked, holding up her own, even more oversized poncho.

“Its to keep you warm and keep the rain off of you.” Bobby commented, already dawning his, strapping the heavily modified armor vest over it.

“Our normal ponchos do that just fine” Mira commented.

But Bobby had insisted “Just try it once. We don’t have much else laying around. I promise you’ll see what I mean after you try it.

So, they had reluctantly dawned their wobbies and ran off to kill some demons.

Mira would never admit it, but someone it did feel different than the normal ponchos and rain jacket she wore. Nothing about it really made much sense. The colors clashes with everything around her, the spare fabric twisted around her, catching the air and pulling on her in weird ways as she tried to fight.

But at the same time. Demons seemed to hesitate as she ran at them. Their claws never quite connecting.

Logic said it was the excess fabric mixed with the color patterns obscuring her form. Making her harder to see and pinpoint down.

But it still didn’t feel that way. Despite the weird tugs from the air, the occasional snag on her Waldo, and almost tripping on it a couple times. She felt more fluid, more deadly. And it spurred her on.

As she landed on the ground, Waldo piercing a demon square thought the chest. The wobbie fanned out around her, pulling up with her form almost like cape. Is this what batman feels like? She shook the thought away as she scanned the crowd of demons. Looking for whatever one looked most important. She had some very pointed questions to ask.

Her eyes locked onto a tall, lanky Dokkaebi near the back. The demons rarely had battle plans. But their smartest (better put as the least stupid) normally hung back to try and launch mini ambushes.

Mira ran right for him. She cut clean thought their lines, surprising all the demons at her decision to charge rather than contain. Their surprise didn’t last long, as Zoey wasn’t far behind her. Sinkal finding their way into the demons that Mira brushed past. And Bobby knocked the few that tried to run off down, stalling them long enough for Zoey to send a Sinkal into their back.

She stunned the demons even more when she let her Waldo disappear, pulling a short fixed blade she had “borrowed” from Bobby. It wasn’t much. About 13 centimeters from the base of the hilt to tip, the grip being a little longer, closer to 15 centimeters. They had all trained with hundreds of different types of blades. Size, shape, all of it.

But this was by far the smallest blade she had ever wielded. But she could get the feel for it, even if the reach was shorter. Which was good, because as red tined her vision she knew she wanted to be close.

As she closed the distance, she dropped into a slide. Popping up behind her target. Mixing the ambush and stealth tactics Bobby had been teaching them with the aggressive offense that she had long since mastered.

Bobbys voice echoed in her head.

“Ok, now you want to pop up like this” He showed them how he popped up from a prone position. Making so little noise Mira wouldn’t have believed he had stood up unless she had watched him with her own eyes.

“Ugh, Bobby. Why do we need to learn this? We never play stealth like this. We almost always having to fight for containment” Zoey groaned from Mira’s right.

“Because with how the demons have been acting there is an increasing chance that you might have to play stealth. Especially if we ever figure out how to get to the demon realm.”

Mira knew he was right. But it still felt weird to be learning how to fight again after mastering so many forms of combat years ago.

Mira gave Bobby silent thanks for making them practice, because it came in handy now.

“You want to clamp your free hand over their mouth like this”

Mira copied the motion, her left-hand clamping over the demon’s jaw and mouth.

“Then take the blade around, and through the throat like so”

Mira copied the motion Bobby had made them practice. The blade split the demon’s neck apart.

“The pull it straight out like this”

Mira again mimicked the motion as Bobby walked her through over and over. The blade ripped thought the demon’s neck, leaving a large gapping wound as the demon’s head flopped back to look at her, hanging on by a sliver of flesh-adjacent materials. But just liked Mira hoped. He didn’t disintegrate. Didn’t disappear.

She quickly dropped the demon, whose hands flew up to righten its head. She could already see the skin start to knit it’s self-back together. She had to be quick.

She looked up to see Zoey staring at her.

“What the actual fu-” Zoey started, but Mira cut her off.

“Later. Finish the rest.” She summoned her Waldo, and they made quick work of the rest.

“That was crazy good use of what I taught you Mira” Bobby commented as he climbed down from the roof. But Mira didn’t really hear him.

She pulled the demon up-right right as his neck finished pulling itself back together. Just in time for Mira to plant the knife back in its neck. A strangled gasp came from both in front of her and behind her.

“Mira, what the fuck!” Zoey’s voice cut thought the sound of the rain. It had started to rain harder since the start of the battle, and the noise grew louder as they stood.

Mira looked over her shoulder to see Zoey standing there. Looking at her with that same look she wore a month ago. A small part of Mira, deep deep down cringed at the sight. But it was flooded out by the rage she felt, the red in her vison growing stronger.

“I made a dam promise, and I am going to keep it.” She turned her attention to the demon she had pinned to the wall. Its hands clawed at its neck, trying to free the knife that Mira keep pinned there. “I have some questions from you. And the sooner you answer. The sooner this is over? You understand?”

Her voice was tight, hot. Seething with her rage.

The demon tried to nod, to little success. But Mira could still see the slight shift.

She pulled the blade free. The skin started to heal over, and after a few seconds the demons started talking “You don’t have to threaten us, we love to tau-”

His words were cut off by his screech as Mira jammed the blade into his cheek, feeling the Skeletal structure give way.

“Mira!” She ignored Zoey’s voice.

“I didn’t ask a fucking question. You only answer what you’re asked. Got it?”

She pulled the knife free, and the demon nodded as she kept the blade close to his eye, her plane to shove it there next clear.

“Where the fuck is Rumi?”

“We don’t kn- Ahhh” his answer was cut short as Mira jammed the knife deep into his eye.

“Wrong answer” she growled.

“I swear we don’t know!” He practically screamed “The night she broke into the human world was the last time Gwi-Ma saw her!”

Mira pulled the knife free of his eye, confusion overtaking the anger “what do you mean? She’s not here. Where else could she be.”

“She’s in Gwi-ma’s realm. We just don’t know where!”

Mira kept the blade close to his face “You have to be lying to me”

“No, I swear. If she was still in Gwi-ma’s flames I would tell you. I would love to tell you she is still burning in his fir-ahhh fuck”

She jammed the blade back into his eye, not even a few seconds after it finished healing over.

“Why would I trust you.” She leaned closely as she spoke, driving the blade deeper.

“Because Gwi-ma ordered us too!” His voice high as he spoke over the pain “It’s been his rule over since they managed to drag her. Any chance we get we are supposed to taunt you about it.”

“And why would he do that?”

“Because Gwi-ma revels in your angu- ahhh fuck I’m answering your questions!” he screamed as Mira yanked the knife out and jammed it back into his face.

“Yeah, But I don’t like your answers.”

“It’s just Gwi-ma’s rule I swear! I would tell you this even if you didn’t stab me. Gwi-ma punishes those who fail to say something when given the opportunity greatly.”

Mira almost paused, but her anger kept her going “Then where is Rumi!”

“I told you, we don’t know. She was freed awhile ago-” His jaw clamped shut as he seemed to realize he said something he shouldn’t have.

“Freed? What do you mean Freed?”

Suddenly a twisted smile overtook the demon’s face. His poster stiffed and he opened his mouth, but it wasn’t the voice they had been speaking with that came out.

“This pathetic pawn shared a little more than he was supposed to. But don’t worry about what he said” Gwi-ma voice echoed out of the body. Mira started stabbing at the throat to try and shut that voice up “All you need to know is that your little half-demon is running around my realm somewhere. And it has been for a while. But hasn’t even tried to come back to you since.”

Mira tried to cut the voice off, but the demon body she held no longer seemed to abide by the rules it had a few moments ago.

“I think it finally gave up on you all, accepted what it actually is.”

Mira’s scream came out loud and unfiltered. She punched the demon square in the jaw, still not silencing the voice.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m hungry, and this demon has just earned it’s place as my next meal.”

Mira was confused for just a moment, before she felt the body heat up, glowing purple and pink from the inside. She took a step back as the demon started screaming. The raw screams that came out were that of pure pain. Like nothing Mira had caused moments ago.

Fire began to break out from underneath the skin as Mira could hear Gwi-ma’s low laugh echo around them.

Suddenly the Honmoon was pulled down and the demon slipped thought. It’s scream still echoing in Mira’s ears long after the demon was gone.

*Present day*

Mira shivered as she recalled the screams of the demon as Gwi-ma pulled it back down to its realm.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But I’m not really proud of it. It still haunts me.”

“But at least we know Rumi isn’t being tortured by Gwi-ma.” Zoey tried to put a little lighter tone in her voice. But Mira could hear the uneasiness underneath it.

Zoey took Mira’s hand again, and Mira let out a little sigh of relief.

“Do you think Celine found anything in those books she said she was going to dig into?” Zoey broke the small silence that had built.

“I hope so, but I doubt it. There isn’t a lot that is known, and I doubt some 400-year-old book is going to know.” Mira really did hope that those books Celine had mentioned were going to be able to yield something. But she tried not to hold out too much hope. Celine had hoped a lot of books would give some answers, but none ever did.

*one month ago*

A loud thud startled Mira from her tea. She looked up to see Celine, who just set a stack of books easily 50 centimeters tall on the table.

“I’ve read thought every book I could ever find that even sort of related to the Hunter Legacy” Celine sounded frustrated “and nothing.”

“What do you mean nothing?!” Zoey sat her tea down with a little more force than necessary “that stack is like, 2 ft tall how is there nothing in there we could use?”

“Like I just said. I read thought all of them. Nothing about the demon world. Nothing about Humans in the demon world, and defiantly not anything that related to a half-demon hunter getting kidnapped and taken to the demon world by former members of a demon boy band.”

Mira snorted at the overly specific run down of their situation. If it had been anyone other than Celine, she wouldn’t have really found it funny. But something about the way Celine had grown to start copying some of their mannerized was so incredibly funny to Mira it actually got a reaction out of her.

She quickly composed herself before adding “Well what about before the hunters right? You always said there was a time before us, and Gwi-ma was around then. Is there maybe a history book, or a diary, or anything that might exist from before the Hunter Legacy?”

Celine hung her head “Probably, but its not something we would have held onto. So they would be hard to track down, most likely in museums and such. Places that – as influential as Huntr/x and Sunlight Sisters may be – we could have a hard time getting our hands on for in depth study.”

Mira just nodded “If you can track them down, let us know. Bobby can probably arrange it”

Celine paused. Right. Bobby had told Celine a little bit about his… eventfully and well-connected past. But not the full story. Not yet at least.

“Are you sure? Anything like that would be a major favor to pull. And Bobby has been seeming to pull a lot of major favors lately.”

Mira just nodded “If he can take care of it, he will. Trust us, he’s not short on them. To be honest I don’t think the last 9 months have even put a dent in what he can pull.”

There was a slight hesitancy in Celine’s look as she nodded. And Mira couldn’t really blame her. Celine hadn’t even heard all the things Bobby had pulled, but what she did know about had been pretty big things.

“Ok, I will go and try to find anything that might help and let you know if I need help getting it.” Celine paused for a moment before adding “Has there been anymore demon attacks?”

“Not really, we have felt a couple pushes. But nothing ever makes it thought. It’s been really weird” Zoey started

“Yeah. By the time we get there the Honmoon as already gone back to normal. It makes me wonder if something is going on down there that is keeping the demons busy.” Mira added.

She had put a lot of thought into why they weren’t pushing into the human world. She was grateful. But also concerned, it was rare demons started to push without even breaking thought. In the past it only happened when the Honmoon was strong then the demons thought, and they couldn’t break through.

“Whatever it is, I am glad. The fewer number of demons in this world the more time we can spend trying to get Rumi back.” Celine was looking at photos on the wall, pictures of Rumi she had hung up recently. Some old, from years ago. Before Mira and Zoey knew her. Others more recent.

“Yeah, hopefully we will be able to figure out something soon” Zoey finished her tea.

“yeah” Celines response was pretty absent minded, like an afterthought. Suddenly she perked up “Would you like to play this board game I saw was fun?”

Mira wasn’t sure she heard her right, and a glance at Zoey told her that Zoey wasn’t sure either.

“Um, a board game?” Mira repeated the words. They felt foreign. Not because she hadn’t played board games, just that those words didn’t seem to belong in this place.

“Yeah, I um, I saw that board games are like, a good way to spend time with people. So I got this one that I saw people liked” Celine was shifting foot to foot. It took Mira a second to realize Celine was nervous. The two Hunters had seen it on Celine more lately, but it still was a little strange to see.

Mira gave a look over to Zoey, who just shrugged in response.

“Sure, what’s the game?”

“um, I think it’s called monopoly?”

Mira could already feel Zoey grinning to her side, and Mira gave a small smile. This was going to be interesting.

*Present day*

“Yeah, but at least we could maybe play Monopoly again?”

Mira laughed at the memoir of Celine getting demolished in the storm that was Capitalist Zoey. It was all fun and games until well, the games came out. Then Mira stopped be Zoey’s girlfriend, and starting being another person standing the way of victory. Thankfully she was incredibly cute when she got competitive, else Mira’s feelings might have been hurt.

“Yeah maybe, but after what you did last time, I’m not sure she will ever touch that game again.” Mira teased

“Hey! It’s not my fault you all are bad negotiators!” Zoey feigned offence.

“I can’t be held responsible for poor business decisions when you give me that look”

“What this one?” Zoey gave her the little pout, her lip curling out ever so slightly. Eyebrows raised just a little, her eyes wide.

“That one! God, you have to stop that! I’m about to lean over and kiss you while driving” Mira gave a playful shove, turning Zoey’s head away before she had to lean over and kiss her stupidly cute, kissable, face.

“Fine fine, but you owe me at least one when get back to the Penthouse tonight.” Zoey giggled a little.

“Just one?” Mira raised her eyebrows at that.

“Or more, if you want” Zoey laughed as Mira gave an approving hum.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Zoey changed the playlist.

They pulled up to the house. Celine had started taking care of it again of the past few months, Flowers bloomed in the landscaping. The lawn was carefully taken care of. And they could hear Celine singing inside as the smell of food came out from an open window.

Zoey raised an eyebrow. Celine hadn’t sung a lot, until recently. Like she had found herself again after the past few months. It was still strange. But a welcome kind of strange.

They knocked on the door, “Come in!” Celine’s voice called back. Her door being unlocked had become common now.

As the walked in the saw a large spread of food over the dining room table. And a stack on Uno cards on the coffee table in the living room.

Celine smiled at them as she walked in “Hey! How are you guys?”

“We’re good, you seem in a really good mood!” Mira took note of the way Celine smiled extra wide at them.

“I am! I managed to find something in one of those books! I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s something. A start. Please sit down, eat. And ill tell you about it while I eat.”

“Yay! I’m glad you found something!” Zoey cheered from Mira’s side.

Mira just stood there for a moment, her head spinning with the fact they weren’t at square zero anymore. There was something. Anything.

They sat and Celine started to explain what she found “Ok. So, I don’t know what to make of it. But it was a journal from a doctor in 1586. In his notes he described a patient who had markings like a demon. Not that he called the patient a demon, but he noted purple patterns and large fangs. He spoke about how the patient would ramble on about a girl with purple hair and a sword of light.”

Mira froze, and Zoey stopped chewing. Celine kept going, her voice getting a little more excited “In it, the doctor called him crazy. And in recent years doctors have believed that this particular patient was schizophrenic, but they just didn’t really have a word for it yet. But when you read everything, the doctor noted about what the patient said, it adds up to sound more and more like Rumi.”

Celine showed them photocopies of the journal.

                The patient speaks of a woman laced in purple marks (when asked, confirmed that the marks were like the ones he has as well). And carrying a sword of light that would split the fire. She has apparently crawled out of hell with a vengeance for “the fire” which seems to be a considered a sentient entity to the patient.

                I believe the patient has come in contact with a…

Mira stopped reading. “So, what does this mean? It sounds like Rumi, but it was over 400 years ago.”

“If this is right, whatever this demon was. They saw from a time after Rumi is back. It means Rumi finds her way back to earth. I am still looking for any other doctors that might have seen this patient for more notes. But if that was a demon who somehow could have seen the future, then it means Rumi finds her way back.” Celine looked hopefully. “I know its not a lot, but it’s the first thing we have found.”

Zoey nodded “Yeah. It’s better than nothing. I hope this pans out into something solid. I want Rumi back so bad.”

Celine nodded, letting silence fall over them.

They might just get Rumi back. Mira didn’t know what to think. On one hand. It wasn’t a lot. But on the other hand, it was more than anything they had been able to get. So, she would take it. And pray that there was more.

After they finished Celine took up their plates and put the rest of the food away.

As she came back, she looked towards the living room “Would you all like to hang out for a while? I saw the Uno is apparently a popular game, if your interested?”

Mira looked over at Zoey, who just shrugged.

“Sure” Zoey stood up to walk to the couch.

Mira followed as Celine went to make them some more tea.

An hour later Mira was pretty sure Celine hated this game.

“Uno!” Zoey screeched as she placed a skip card. Skipping Celine for the 5^th time this game.

Celine looked frustrated “That’s not fair, I haven’t gotten to play a card for like, 10 turns!”

Mira just chuckled, Celine looked like she was in the ‘Do a thing or drawl 25’ meme, holding a large stack of cards in her hands, she had long since given up on fanning them out, and instead oping to just hold them in a stack.

“Them the rules! Mira it’s your turn!” Zoey was laughing, and she only laughed more as she saw Mira reach to start drawing cards.

She finally drew a green, laying it down. Quickly followed by Zoey happily placing her last card on top, a wildcard.

“So, you were gonna win no matter what hun?” Mira raised an eyebrow at her, and Zoey just cackled before abruptly stopping. Sitting up straight, her face dropping into a serious expression. Mira felt it half a second later.

In a second all three of them were out the door. Sprinting towards the woods in the distance. The Honmonn rippled violently now, waves pulsing out from deep inside the woods.

Mira had never been this deep into the forest before, but the light from the Honmoon guided them deeper.

Celine jumped suddenly and Mira saw it a split second too late. Her foot snagged on a root, and she went down. Hitting the dirt hard.

“Keep going, ill catch up. I’m going to call Bobby!” She called as she pulled herself up. Her ankle hurt, she rolled it and winced.

Zoey gave her one last look, and Mira nodded. Zoey ran off after Celine.

She quickly pulled out her phone and dialed Bobby’s number as the pain in her ankle already dulled.

“Hey Mira! How is it at Celine’s?”

“No time Bobby, demons, forest. It feels like a kilometer deep, north by northwest. It’s big, we are gonna need all the help we can get.”

“Got it, on my way. I’m going to be 30 minutes out minimum.”

The click signaled that Bobby had hung up. She once again found herself thanking Bobby for drilling land nav skills into their heads.

She took off again, her ankle gave her some fits, but she pushed thought it, quickly finding her stride again.

She caught up fast enough; the tear wasn’t too much deeper into the woods.

She saw the pink glow of the tear, and she summoned her Waldo.

She broke thought the tree line, Waldo braced for a fight. She skidded to a stop and took in the scene before her.

There was the faint pink tear in the Honmoon, glowing from the side of a small rise in the ground where a rock face was exposed. Celine stood there, hand over her mouth. Shock in her eyes and tear on her face. Zoey was knelt down in front of her, her hand outstretched like she was encouraging a scared animal to come closer. In front of her, a rather large figure was silhouetted by the pink light. It looked vaguely humanoid, but it was hunched down on all fours. It’s front legs? Arms? It was hard to tell, carefully placed like it was walking forward slowly, its back legs similarly positioned, the muscle groups were hard to make out, Mira could tell that it wasn’t the structure of a typical quadrupedal creature. But the back legs also had the sharp bent at feet that was common.

Mira took a slow step forward, snapping a small branch under her feet. Then a lot of things happened all at once.

Zoey’s head snapped over to see Mira, her eyes fixing on the Waldo still in her hands. Instantly yelling “Mira NO!” Her voice laced with urgency.

The creature snapped its head over with equal speed. With the movement Mira saw the long braid the trailed along her back fall over the shoulder, the glowing left eye, the face. Mira knew it in an instant Rumi.

Mira’s breath caught, her throat shrunk and her chest turning into a ball of rock-hard steel as she threw her Waldo away from her. But it was too late.

Rumi’s face contorted into one of pure fear, her stance shifted rapidly as she shifted her weight and lunged up and away from the trio. Clearing the 5-meter-tall rock face with room to spare.

As Mira’s eyes followed the form, she caught on the unfortunately familiar pink hair as it clawed out of the tear in the Honmoon.

She picked her Waldo back up and growled as the 4 very punch-a-ble and stab-a-ble faces stood in front of them.

Good she thought I needed something to hit.