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Assistant: Title: Nightlights
        Author: PrimalInfinity PrimalInfinity 
        Chapter: 1/1 
        Summary: “That’s all demons do.” The way Jinu had looked at her had been lacerating. Furious with her for not understanding the truth, and furious with himself that it was the truth at all. “Feel.”At the time, Rumi had rebelled against the idea, and fought back. Demons were evil, pure and simple, with nothing more to it. But now, since the Honmoon was sealed, since all other demons were banished, and since Jinu sacrificed himself, she’s forced to shoulder that there isn’t a single being left on the planet who understands what it means to feel so deeply that the world frays around you.But Mira and Zoey are trying. God knows they’re trying.
        Contents: Chapter 1: Chapter 1
    

    


  

  
  
    
    Rumi felt like a poorly bound god, barely contained inside of her physical visage, as the lights went out and the roar of the crowd still resounded throughout the arena. In her sight, the Honmoon wasn’t rippling so much as it was  churning, the ground beneath her feet pulsing and sending it up into her flesh and making it sing.Every breath, every firing of her nerves inside of her body as she headed to the wings, echoed out into the universe and allowed it to sing back. And it did, god it  did,  something desperate for Rumi to not simply harmonise with, but  conduct. The moment the three of them were backstage, surrounded by their crew and Bobby chattering proudly as he went over numbers, Rumi’s focus was completely lost. Her manager’s voice was a muffled murmur, as if through churning water instead of directly at her left shoulder, and it was only muscle memory that had her nodding at the right moments and waving with a beaming smile when he escorted them to their limo and went on his own way.Crowds still flooded the streets around the stadium as fans left in a constant stream, filling taxis and pouring towards the closest metro with loud voices and still waving their lightsticks. It was a chaotic river, traffic forced to slow to a crawl, and Rumi was finding it hard to keep her breathing slow as the minutes dragged on.A hand suddenly on her knee had her jump, snapping back to herself and looking over to where Mira had a raised eyebrow and an amused smirk in the corner of her painted lips. “You’re rocking the entire car. Jesus.”Rumi flushed with embarrassment, immediately stopping in the bouncing of her leg she hadn’t even realised she was doing, and gave a sheepish shrug. “Just still riding the high, I guess. That was a good show.”A high-pitched hum of agreement from Zoey, sitting across from her in the limo and gulping from an energy drink, had Rumi’s eyes sparkle and Mira laugh at the two of them. Zoey was practically vibrating in place, her eyes wide and pupils blown, and she swallowed her drink with an exaggerated sigh and crumpled the can.“It was a  great  one! God, I could take on the world. We should have done another encore.” Zoey snapped her fingers with an excited gasp, grinning widely. “We should  totally  start doing two encores! Like, we wait until people are  just  pulling on jackets and getting ready to go, then  bam!  We-”“Woah now! Ease up.” Mira snorted, extending a leg and kicking Zoey’s foot with a smirk. “You’re both going to crash any second now, and I am  not carrying your @ss@s upstairs. So save at least a bit of pep.”Zoey pouted, but acquiesced, saluting with a harrumph and flopping back. But underneath the shorter girl’s performance high, Rumi could see the telltale signs of Zoey’s brewing exhaustion; the way her shoulders were slumped, her lipstick already pretty much entirely gone from distractedly biting and chewing her bottom lip, and she was blinking slower and more often.It was almost a certainty that one of the others would have to carry her from the car to the elevator, where she’d perk up again in a final swan song that’s sole purpose was to carry her through getting into her pajamas and flopping onto their couch.Rumi was willing to bet it was going to be her, especially as Mira’s head slumped onto her shoulder as Mira’s own high faded and she took advantage of the drive home for a quick nap.But for Rumi, the crash wasn’t going to come. The high wasn’t going to fade anytime soon. Instead it settled beneath her soul in a pulsing current, churning waters of what was meant to be a serene pond, and had her twitching and  alive to such a degree that she felt trapped within her own skin. As if the show had left her larger than the containment of her flesh.The streets and lights passing by outside the window were vibrant, shimmering with the glow of the Honmoon that only Rumi was awake enough to watch, and she gave a smile so wide her face felt stretched and uncomfortable at the sight of it.She was suffocating. She was  burning.  It felt like acid. It felt like  life.  The world pulsed between her ears in a rhythm faster than she could hum along to, as the car pulled into the secure parking structure of their tower, and she was sadly forced to dislodge Mira from her shoulder in order to open her door.Mira grumbled as she woke back up, letting out a deep breath as a sigh while stretching out her long legs and twisting her torso to crack her shoulders, before looking over at where Zoey was snoring softly, completely horizontal on her seat.Raising an eyebrow, unsurprised and fond, Mira turned to Rumi and held up her hands, and Rumi laughed before raising her own in their usual game of rock-paper-scissors. Mira would choose paper, she almost always did when she was tired, and so Rumi deliberately went rock and sighed  oh so dramatically when she lost.With careful movements, Rumi scooped Zoey up into her arms with ease, and gave a quiet nod and smile of thanks to their driver when she passed by with her friend curling up into her.Mira took a few moments to catch up, lingering behind to dismiss their driver and check with Bobby on her phone that all of the break-down after the show had gone without a hitch, and if it was okay for the three of them to  finally  toss their phones across the living room and ignore them for the next  thousand years. All she wanted was a thumbs up. No details, no badgering. And god bless that Bobby had mastered years ago how to communicate effectively with each of them, because a thumbs up and a smiley was indeed all Mira received.So, easily catching up to Rumi at the elevators, Mira turned her phone off and shoved it into her pocket. “So, three months of capital n  Nothing.  When was our last break, anyway?”Rumi frowned as she thought over it, and bit the inside of her cheek, shrugging with a single shoulder. “Before the world tour. We were  meant to, after it, but then-”“Eh. Sh@t happens, especially to us.” Mira shrugged, stepping aside when the elevator doors opened so that Rumi could squeeze past with Zoey still snoring in her arms. “We get one now, and I, for one, am going to  use it.”There was silence for a moment as the elevator silently lifted high up the tower, rocketing towards the penthouse, and Mira was content to lean against the railing and let her head fall back to find relief from the cold of the glass behind her. Shows were her lifeblood, but the headaches that sometimes came afterwards were always killer, and she grumbled when Rumi hummed in sympathy.Cradled in Rumi’s arms, Zoey stirred, opening a single eye and smiling sleepily at her two best friends. “Aww yes, no work from me required.”Rumi dropped her.On pure reflex alone, Zoey twisted in midair and landed in a crouch, cackling as she straightened up and bounced on her feet a few times to stretch out, then fired a wink to Rumi’s unimpressed scowl.The scowl was b@llsh@t, they all knew it, but it was still fun to poke, and Zoey’s wink was rewarded when Rumi stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. Zoey stuck her own tongue out right back, before giggling when Mira sighed.“God, now that the Honmoon is solid, maybe I should retire and escape this.” Mira sighed loudly, stretching out the breath as long as her impressive lung capacity could manage, then raised an eyebrow at Zoey’s wide, sad eyes and quivering lip.“You’d never! Not when every day is a fun day now!” Zoey squeaked in dismay, grabbing both of Mira’s shoulders in desperation.Mira managed a dry stare for only a few seconds before crumbling, and she pressed a quick kiss to Zoey’s forehead with a grin. “Fine, I guess we can keep this up a while longer.”The elevator doors opened, and Zoey immediately turned on her foot and bounced out, skipping happily down the hall and into their massive living room, already unbuckling the jacket she’d worn for the show. Mira was right behind her, every step heavier than the last as the exhaustion finally won, and the couch looked like a particular brand of heaven.But Rumi lingered, resting her back against the elevator handrail and frowning at the floor in thought. Under her jacket and the thick black leather and buckles, her skin  burned  without sweat, her eyes tingled with every blink, and her breaths came hard and fast without any reason, and yet…Zoey was  right. There was no danger left.No fight coming, no more reason to conjure her blade or keep an eye and ear on the Honmoon multiple times a day to look for any rips or tears. Nothing left but the shows, and the rest that came between them.It was everything they’d been raised to want and believe in, the goal and ambition of four hundred years of hunters. The rhythm of the world, its very cadence, was at  peace. Gwi-Ma certainly wasn’t dead, at least not forever, but the Honmoon now felt different to all three of them. Stronger, more assured. Balanced.Rumi’s skin felt scorched. Every nerve ending squirming inside of her muscles like flowers attempting to bud and reach the sunlight.She finally managed to move, releasing the handrail and following the other two into their home, and by the time she reached the living room Mira and Zoey were both already in their robes and flopped onto the couch. Somehow Zoey had even already had the time to remove her makeup, but Mira wasn’t quite that fast.The television was on, something pointless and mind numbing playing for now while the three of them decompressed, and it was Mira’s turn to pick a movie while Zoey was at the wheel of choosing their dinner. So Rumi was free to walk past and down the hall to her bedroom, affectionately trailing her fingers along the back of Mira’s shoulders as she went when Mira shot her a concerned look.As soon as her bedroom door was closed behind her, Rumi sucked in a deep breath to brace herself, her fingers going to the buckles of her jacket and undoing each of them with tentative twists. Each step towards her bathroom was daunting, each buckle undone a danger, and her fingers hesitated on the zipper once she was in front of her massive mirror.With her shoulders tense, and her bottom lip between her teeth, Rumi gradually pulled down the zipper, and let her jacket slide down her arms to drop to the tiles with a heavy thump.“Oh  Jesus.”  Rumi breathed, her eyes wide and her gut twisting, as she studied herself in the mirror.Specifically, her patterns.Because underneath the thick, black leather, hidden by the high collar of the crop shirt she was known for, the marks along her skin were scorching bright, with purples and whites swirling together so vibrantly that they cast a glow on the rest of her skin. It was more than just a glimmer, it was  radiance rippling across her form with enough light it danced off the walls and tiles, making her hair sparkle.They weren’t spread quite as far as they had in the past, not reaching her wrists and thus safely hidden by the jacket sleeves she had been wearing, and they stopped just above her waist and below her collarbone. But they were  luminous. Rumi tentatively reached up and ran her fingers along the glowing pattern on her bicep, and her eyes widened at how hot they were to the touch, and she hissed and jerked her hand away. They were  sensitive,  just her fingers had felt like blades, the lightest sensation  painful. With years of practice and an only recently discovered and grown ease, Rumi slowed her breathing, closing her eyes to focus and  listen  to herself in the way only a hunter can hear.Inside of every living thing, there is a song. Instrumental, and glorious. Every instrument, every note, every tune unique and  theirs. More special and individual than a fingerprint, it was more like DNA, an orchestral mark to be left within the Honmoon just from passing it.Every person had one. But Rumi…had  two. Always clashing, playing against each other, never in harmony and instead in warring conflict to dominate, to bellow out of her chest and echo across the universe. They had played against each other her entire life, a discordant clash she’d been forced to conduct for as long as she’d been able to  hear them.But what had once been an act of pure effort, powered by shame, desperation, and duty, was now something that had Rumi put her hands on the sink and rest her weight as she kept her eyes shut gently. Every breath slowed the rhythm, her thoughts trying to calm, and she felt the warmth across her skin begin to settle and cool.Once the softer song of her soul, the one blessed by piano and flute and happy endings, was the one dancing beneath her skin and behind her eyes, Rumi opened them again and looked down at her arms to make sure the glow had faded, sighing in relief when she saw they had lowered to a gentle shimmer.But she was still…agitated. Uncomfortable. The thought of sitting still, of falling into a mountain of soft pillows and basking in a few weeks of  Pointlessness,  felt like purgatory instead of relief. The very idea of being  still  right now had her fingers twitch as if to clench into fists. Her heart stung for a moment as it began to accelerate once more, her legs quivering in the need to bounce, or run, or kick. The very thought of trying to be and do  nothing  right now…was poison. Was hell. Was wrong wrong  wrong- She needed air. More space than her bathroom provided.Rumi quickly changed out of her show outfit, still disciplined enough to fold it all neatly and leave it in its usual place to be taken out for cleaning tomorrow, then opened her closet to grab out some of her workout gear. Going for shorts and a tank top instead of anything that might cover her up and suffocate her further, she pulled on her gym sneakers with more force than necessary, and power walked out of her room again.The other two immediately perked up as she passed by, Zoey’s face tightening in concern while Mira raised her own curious eyebrow. Even though the television wasn’t making much noise, Mira still grabbed the remote to mute it before turning to look at Rumi again with thin lips.“You okay? What’s going on?”“Just going for a workout. Burn off the last of the adrenaline.” Rumi forced a smile as she grabbed one of her water bottles from the cupboard to fill up in the kitchen.Behind her, Mira made a noise of concerned acceptance, her eyes still narrowed at Rumi’s back. Meanwhile Zoey swung her legs off and bounced to her feet, forcing her exhaustion to take a back seat as she instead made her way over to Rumi and placed a hand on her back, making sure to stick to the fabric of her top and avoid touching skin.Rumi had always flinched whenever either of them had touched her skin, the few times any of it was ever exposed. Even though they now knew the reason why, the years of habit, of  comfort, remained, so Zoey kept her hand squarely in the middle of Rumi’s top as she rubbed in concern.It was strange to be so close to Rumi while Rumi was wearing so little on her upper half. The times Rumi had been sleeveless around them were rare, certainly in the single digits despite the years by each other’s side. She had even always worked out and trained in baggy hoodies and sweatpants.Sometimes she wore shorts, mainly for performances since her legs were widely regarded as one of her best features according to the internet, and crop tops and jackets that showed her toned midriff were as standard for her as they were for the others. But not once since the Idol Awards, when every single inch of her had been invaded and then exposed, from her hairline to her ankles.The marks had taken a lot of getting used to, and Zoey couldn’t help but follow the ornate, elegant lines across Rumi’s biceps and up underneath her top. They were never the toxic purple they’d been the first time they’d been exposed to her and Mira, instead most of the time they were almost as pale as skin and nondescript as scars or birthmarks. But right now they shimmered like stained glass under the kitchen lights, and seemed to ripple as Zoey’s breath washed over them.Rumi initially stiffened under the touch, but quickly relaxed, letting out a weary sigh and turning to give Zoey a gentle smile, reassuring and kind. “I promise I’m okay. Just…pent up, I guess. I don’t know. I won’t be down there long. An hour, maybe.”Scrunching up the corner of her mouth, Zoey hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arms around her and pulling her in tight, resting her forehead on Rumi’s shoulder and squeezing. “Okay. But, we’re here. We’ve got all the time in the world now, and we’d happily give an eon or ten to you.” Quickly placing her bottle down on the counter, Rumi hugged Zoey back just as tightly, humming in a soft happiness as she rested her chin on top of Zoey’s head and basked in the touch. Zoey always hugged  tightly, she held onto you as if you might turn to water and slip away at any moment. She hugged you as if to anchor you to the planet. Like her love alone could overpower a reversal of gravity. Sometimes it was too much.But other times, it was nice to be anchored.However, when Zoey lifted up on her toes to press a soft kiss to Rumi’s cheek, Rumi stiffened in place and her eyes shot open wide at the  feel  of it, sparks of electricity rippling through her face and raising goosebumps down her neck. Then they hit her marks lingering on her collarbone, and her knee almost buckled as lightning struck water and  scattered. Zoey immediately let go and stepped back, her eyes wide in horror and her face rushing dark red. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to surprise you. Was that okay? I just…thought it would reassure you. Or something. You seem more fine with us touching you now, and-”Rumi shook her head hurriedly, and she cleared her throat. “No! No, that was okay. Just, yeah, a surprise. It was nice.”From the couch, Mira raised an eyebrow again as she watched, but didn’t say anything, simply crossing one leg over the other as she regarded her bandmates. When Rumi met her eye, silently asking for help because she clearly had  no  idea how to reassure a still mortified Zoey, Mira shrugged, and smirked when Rumi gave her a silent  ‘you’re no help’ scowl.Rumi looked back down at Zoey and smiled, placing her hand on her shoulder and squeezing as only one idea occurred to her. Bracing herself, and surprised when she had to suck in a deep breath in order to do so, Rumi didn’t let herself overthink it before quickly leaning down and pressing a kiss to Zoey’s cheek.It was the first time she’d ever done such a thing, and she was surprised at just how  soft Zoey’s skin was under her lips, the faintest lingering scent of her perfume mixing with something spicy and real. The contact ended in a heartbeat, the lightest touch, a ghost, but it was still enough for Zoey to go rigid in surprise.Zoey immediately went as still as a statue, not even breathing for a second after Rumi’s lips left her skin, before she  deflated in relief and gave Rumi a blinding smile. “So it’s cool?”“Sure. I’m not glass, I promise. It’s just very…” Rumi tilted her head as she scrounged for the right word, grabbing up her bottle as she did so, and shrugged. “New, I guess.”Suitably reassured, Zoey hopped back so she was no longer effectively trapping Rumi against the counter, and shoved her hands into the pockets of her robe. “We’ll order dinner when you get back? Mira and I can just snack until then.”“Sounds good. I won’t be long, I imagine. Once the crash comes, I’ll need to come pass out with you both.” Rumi nodded with a smile, and headed out of the kitchen and to the front door, giving both of her friends a reassuring hum and wave.Mira’s eyes were still concerned, a glimmer of disbelief and doubt in her stare, but there was clearly enough trust underneath that it won out over her suspicion, and she gave her own smile and a nod. “Don’t make us wait too long, or we’ll come find you.”“I’m going to the gym, not off to war.” Rumi rolled her eyes, the smile still on her lips, and she waved once more before heading to the elevator to hit the b@tton for the entire floor of the tower dedicated to their gym.The doors of the elevator closed, sealing Rumi from sight, but Mira’s eyes lingered on the spot even though the subject of her thoughts was gone. She thinned her lips, only coming out of her thoughts when Zoey flopped back down next to her.When Mira didn’t react to her presence, Zoey tilted her head and nudged her. “What’s up? You’ve got your  ‘face’ on.”“As opposed to someone else’s face?”“You know what I mean. But seriously, what’s going on?” Zoey shuffled so she could follow Mira’s stare, raising her eyebrows when she realized what Mira was now brooding over. “So, you think something’s going on with Rumi too, huh?”Mira grunted, drumming painted nails on the backrest of their couch, before finally slumping and rolling so she was facing the television again. When Zoey offered her a block of chocolate, she took it with an approving hum, and didn’t speak until she had already eaten half and passed it back to Zoey for her own share.“You didn’t look at the Honmoon when you touched her, did you? Or in the car after the show?”“Well, I was a bit distracted wanting to sink into the floor. God, I should have asked permission. Just because she’s, I don’t know,  ‘out’ to us now doesn’t mean the boundaries automatically change. Sh@t.” Zoey sighed, sliding down into a slump and taking a bite out of the block directly, her face dejected and quietly mortified. “Why? What are you getting at?”Instead of answering, Mira shrugged once more, and grabbed up the remote to turn it off mute and return the background noise. Begrudgingly, Zoey tolerated the dismissal as being the end of the conversation, and rolled onto her side so she could watch as they took turns flipping through channels to find something suitably pointless.But Rumi’s normal spot on the couch was empty, the balance of the ritual thrown off, and neither of them would fully relax until things were the way they should be.  The training gym took up an entire floor of the tower, as large as the penthouse that the three of them called home. Numerous rooms were dedicated to different purposes, from a swathe of strength machines, to a sparring pit with racks of numerous weapons. Every external wall was simply massive windows, providing a three-sixty view of the city no matter where they were and what they were working on, and Rumi was thankful for the view as she pounded her feet into the treadmill at a speed that any regular person would find intimidating.But with music blaring loudly from the speakers embedded into the corners of the ceiling, the bass pounding through her body and giving her something to sing along to, her body shimmered with a song that made the sprint so easy to maintain that she was barely even breathing heavily.She wasn’t sure how long she’d been pushing herself, rotating between cardio and strength over and over again, desperate to sweat out the lightning lingering in her muscles and nerves. The tips of her fingers were tingling, her skin blistering hot, and no matter what she did she couldn’t  make it stop. Rumi growled and hit the stop on the treadmill, hopping off before it even fully stopped, and stormed to a different room to flop back down onto her usual bench press and crack her knuckles. The bar almost bent under the weight of the number of plates she’d stacked on each side, but all it wrought from her was a grunt and a satisfied hiss as she lifted it and began to count.And yet, even as sweat finally began to pour down her face and under her top, sticking the fabric to her skin, her count passed well into the double digits without her needing a rest. Instead she bounced her foot to the music screaming out from the speakers and almost rattling the windows and mirrors, the Honmoon rippling with every press of her foot and musical sound from her lips.Nothing was  f@ck@ng working. Rumi swore under her breath in a constant stream, frustration making the agitation and energy inside of her body even worse as it added a new type of fuel to the nuclear reactor that seemed to be soaking her flesh in radiation. It certainly felt like her cells were being ripped apart, spliced and then glued back together, fission in the rawest form in time with the music’s beat.When the music stopped out of nowhere, it caught her enough by surprise that she almost dropped the bar, her eyes flashing open in alarm just in time to steady it and quickly put it up into safety.As soon as she was able, she sat up, and blinked at where Mira was standing and staring at her with a raised eyebrow, the speaker remote still in her hand as she tapped it on her cheek in thought.“What’s got  you all worked up?”Rumi sighed and shook her head, then grabbed her towel from the carpet and wiped her face and arms to get rid of the sweat, only to freeze at the sight of her patterns. They were glowing again, bright and rippling as if she hadn’t managed to soothe them at all in the bathroom earlier, and she immediately looked up at Mira in fear.Easily able to guess what Rumi was suddenly anxious about, Mira shrugged with an indifferent hum, but her eyes flicked down to the glowing lines across her friend’s skin regardless.They didn’t glow very often, if ever. In fact, the last time Mira could remember them  truly shining had been the Idol Awards, as ever since then the most they’d given off had been a soft silver during rehearsals occasionally. But now, the full spectrum of purple hues rippled and swirled within her friend’s form, glowing as bright as neon.Mira tilted her head in fascination as she let herself study them for a few moments, before shrugging again and looking back at Rumi’s face, smiling softly when Rumi’s anxiety spiked again.“They’re kinda cool, y’know.”Rumi blinked at Mira’s slow, casual words, and her mouth dropped open uselessly as her anxiety blew out like a candle from surprise. But Mira looked completely serious, nothing deceitful in her tone or eyes.Neither her or Zoey had said anything about them since the night they’d found out about them, but it hadn’t ever felt like the topic was being  avoided. It had felt more like they were trying to normalize it by simply never bringing attention to them. There had been moments Rumi had caught them looking, and they always turned away in a flash when caught.So for Mira to be openly admiring the aesthetic of them, without judgement or disgust, had Rumi shuffle shyly and look away, standing from the bench and wiping it down as an excuse to turn her back. “...never thought they’d be described  that way.”“Plenty of people would  kill for glowing tattoos.” Mira smirked, pleased when Rumi finally laughed. With Rumi’s shoulders finally untensing, Mira put the remote back on the shelf where it lived, and crossed her arms. “Alright, what’s going on? You’ve been down here for way too long.”Rumi put her towel over her shoulder as she took a drink from her bottle, and sighed in satisfaction at the cool wash, soothing the sweat still lingering on her skin. “What time is it? Dinner time?”“Oh we’re  past dinner time. It’s three in the morning.”“What?! Sh@t! I’m so sorry!” Rumi coughed, her head whipping over to the clock on one of the walls, and her eyes widened as she saw Mira was right. Which meant she’d been killing her body for four hours.Yet it felt like she’d only just finished her warm-up, from how her body was pulsing and hot.Mira hummed in confirmation, but waved it off, instead stepping over so she could study Rumi properly in concern. “It’s all good, Zoey’s passed out on the couch anyway, snacks were enough for her. But seriously, first you run out after the sort of show that normally leaves you as zombified as us, and then I come down  four hours later to find you all…”Unable to find the right words, Mira simply gestured over Rumi’s body, from her pulsing, wide awake eyes, to the bright patterns over her entire form. The patterns on her arms never faded entirely, but faint lines had appeared on her midriff as well, which hadn’t been there since the Idol Awards.It hadn’t been a lie earlier; as far as Mira was concerned, they  did  look insanely cool. Sure, it had taken some…  adjusting, but Rumi was Rumi, and she was beautiful no matter what she was. So of course she’d find a way to make the mark of the underworld look like a flawless aesthetic choice.But it was certainly surprising to see them out so vibrantly.At Mira’s concerned frown and scrutiny, Rumi sighed and shrugged in frustration, tossing her towel back onto the bench and spreading her hands. A month or so ago, her instinct would have been to lie, to say she was just buzzing after the show. But they didn’t do that anymore,  she didn’t do that anymore. She’d promised. They all had.So, she groaned in annoyance. “I don’t know. I’m just  not calming down.  I’m so awake and pent up that I’m  burning.  I’ve never felt so  powerful in my life and it’s got my head dizzy and my heart racing. Mira, I haven’t even taken the edge off down here. It’s like the world has climbed inside of my skin, people and all. I’m so…so…”“Alive?” Mira raised an eyebrow, a small smile ticking up in the corner of her lips, and she hummed when Rumi nodded helplessly. Quickly checking the time and rolling her own shoulders, flexing each muscle in her body one at a time to see what energy she had in herself, Mira beckoned for Rumi to follow. “Alright, come on.”Rumi fell in step beside Mira as they passed through the main rooms of the gymnasium and through to their training room, and the large padded sparring arena, and Rumi’s eyebrows shot up when Mira untied her dressing gown and tossed it aside, leaving her in just her pajama pants and one of the baggy shirts she wore to bed. Mira grabbed one of her wooden training woldos off a rack and began to spin it in her grip to stretch out her arms and wrists.When Rumi simply blinked at her, Mira flicked her woldo and hit one of Rumi’s wooden saingeoms off its hooks and into the air, and a quick follow-up swipe sent it arcing over for Rumi to catch.Without any more words spoken between either of them, Mira took her own place in the padded arena, and waited with intense eyes and a smirk that showed teeth as Rumi hesitantly took her own.But even despite the apprehension in her movements, Rumi’s eyes were pulsing and bright,  eager as she slid into her stance, her body vibrating, and as soon as Mira was ready she was more than happy to start it.Rumi shot over to Mira like an arrow, in fact she was almost as fast as one, and Mira raised an eyebrow as she was forced on the defensive from the very beginning, bringing her woldo up in a cross block to catch Rumi’s blade. But the difference from how things had used to be was immediately obvious, and Mira’s eyes widened as she was hit by an impact so powerful that she slid back across the mat a solid five feet.Between the two of them, Mira had  always possessed more raw strength, that was simply part of being a dancer and wielding her choice in heavier weapon. Rumi had always been the middle ground between Mira’s power and Zoey’s speed, fighting her was like trying to hit water, all smooth movements and precision. But right now, Mira’s breath was knocked from her lungs as Rumi smiled and pushed again.The last time any of them had been in a fight had been the Idol Awards, they hadn’t even sparred since then, with there no longer being any need. They still worked out, the gym saw  plenty of use from all three of them. But with no need to fight anymore, they’d felt safe to take a break from it.But years of training and fighting for their lives meant that it sat in their bodies and minds with the same ease as remembering to breathe, and as soon as Mira adjusted to Rumi’s strength she was able to adapt. If raw clashes with Rumi were different now, then she simply had to skirt around Rumi’s defense and wait for her moment.To an outside observer, they were both  fast, far faster than a normal person would be able to move, each footstep a drumbeat and their weapons singing through the air and clashing. Beneath their feet, the Honmoon rippled and pulsed with each song of the fight, echoing out.It had always been beautiful to Mira how the Honmoon seemed to ripple in response to dancing. It was different to how it strengthened and pulsed when they sang, it wasn’t like the Honmoon was  enhanced  by dancing in the same way. But if Mira had to guess what a spiritual shield was feeling, she’d tentatively say that it  enjoyed it when they danced. A loving audience, and so it danced along.Mira and Rumi grinned at each other as Mira’s woldo cracked into Rumi’s ribs the first time, sending Rumi tumbling and forced to land in a roll to recover, and Rumi threw her saingeom in a blurring spin that Mira knocked out of the air just in time for Rumi’s hand to grab the butt of her woldo to push her off balance. Under the powerful momentum of Rumi’s twist, Mira leapt along with it, side flipping through the air to prevent Rumi from twisting her weapon out of her grip and disarming her.But Rumi followed Mira’s flip with a twirl of her own, bending forward with her impressive flexibility to slide between Mira’s legs right as she landed, and she pulled up to force Mira to jump back into her so her legs weren’t knocked out from under her with her own weapon. It meant they ended up with Rumi behind the slightly taller girl as the woldo trapped Mira to her, her impressive power pulling Mira back so they were practically glued together. Mira’s hands were trapped on the shaft of her woldo and unable to release it from her wrists being trapped back, so all she could do was push back against the rock that was Rumi, while fighting the other girl’s strength so she wasn’t suffocated by her own weapon across her chest.They trembled in place as they fought against each other’s power, the woldo shaking in place as it was trapped between unstoppable force and immovable object, and Mira growled low as she ground a foot into the mat. In response, Rumi growled as well, a chuckle in the depths of it, and  squeezed. The wood of the shaft creaked and cracked as it started to bend and give way, threatening to snap as neither could overpower the other, and Mira looked over her shoulder to where Rumi was staring at her, with eyes pulsing and her patterns almost  blinding. Mira couldn’t help but grin at the sight, her heart pounding, and Rumi’s own lips curved into a smile. With a final strain from them both, the weapon broke, the tension releasing. As soon as the woldo snapped clean in half, Mira was no longer trapped, and she drove her elbow back into Rumi’s core as she slid her foot back to wrap around Rumi’s ankle.They tumbled backwards, crashing to the mat and landing heavily, both of them laughing as they flopped and stared up at the roof, Mira’s eyes sparkling as she rolled her head to look at her friend. Rumi’s own eyes were closed as she giggled, her patterns alight with pink and white, and sweat beading on her skin.It had been a long time since Rumi had laughed, and Mira’s entire body warmed at the sound. Beneath them the Honmoon seemed just as delighted at the return of it as Mira herself was, rippling from the music in each of Rumi’s delighted breaths.Rumi’s giggles gradually subsided, and she rolled onto her side, opening her eyes again, and met Mira’s look with a grateful smile, fond and deep. “Thank you. I needed that.”“Well, anytime. Just get better at asking.” Mira lifted up with a groan so she could prop her elbow and rest her chin on her palm, looking down at her friend. “Did it help?”As some of Mira’s long hair fell free onto Rumi’s face, Rumi brushed it free with a scrunch of her nose at the tickle and smiled. When Mira smiled back, Rumi softly brushed Mira’s hair back behind her ear.Mira hummed in approval, before her attention was captured by the glowing marks now close to her face, and she slowly reached for Rumi’s wrist with her free hand, giving Rumi plenty of time to reject it. And Rumi clearly considered it for a moment, nervousness flashing across her face, but she didn’t pull away as Mira took Rumi’s wrist in her hand gently and rolled over properly so she could study Rumi’s patterns from up close.The way they glowed in steady pulses, bright and solid, rippling from intense violets to darker, richer indigos. Gentle lines of silver and white were threaded throughout, none wider than a hair, as fine as spiderwebs. Further enhancing the appearance of stained glass.As Mira studied the patterns with a fascinated expression, something deeply admiring in her eyes, Rumi could hardly breathe as her heart hammered at the intensity in Mira’s scrutiny. Because it wasn’t the way a doctor examined an injury, it was the admiration of an artist studying a painting at a gallery, and Rumi would have squirmed under the attention if she’d been able to move a muscle at all. Instead she was completely frozen in place, her blood stopping in her veins as her friend’s attention didn’t just linger on what had been her lifelong shame, but instead  indulged in looking at them.Every muscle in her body still felt hot, her nerves firing and writhing underneath her skin. Her heart was pounding so heavily she could feel it behind her eyes, her mouth dry from rapid, shallow breaths. The world was swimming inside of her soul, the same way it had been ever since the show.Nothing had been working to get it out; not meditation, nor exercise, or listening to her usual music. She was just too full, her reservoir overflowing, filling her beyond her body’s capacity to process the energy and  life. If it was possible to feel something, it was churning inside of her, broiling and mixing in a cocktail that had the edges of her shape straining not to breach.When she went to warn Mira that she wasn’t sure what was causing them to glow, her ability to verbalize  anything shattered like glass when Mira’s fingertips ghosted along the marks on her inner wrist for the first time.Under her own study in the bathroom, it had been an overstimulated agony to touch them, painful and raw. But her entire body rippled under her friend’s touch and it drove her mind white as somehow,  somehow, her existence found room to drink in Mira’s attention and admiration. The world pulsed to brighter contrast in her vision, and her lips parted in a strangled gasp at the powerful sensation across her entire being from just a few inches of her marks being touched.Mira’s head whipped to Rumi with wide eyes at the sound that could only be described as a  whine, and she froze at the slight ring of white that appeared around Rumi’s irises for the slightest moment before they faded just as fast as they had appeared. “Rumi…? You okay?”When she didn’t get a response at first, with Rumi instead staring up at her in uncomprehending surprise, Mira went to pull away, only for the white rings around Rumi’s eyes to vanish and her hand grabbed Mira’s firmly but not painfully. The expression suddenly on Rumi’s face as the incomprehension shattered and melted, was something so hungry and overwhelmed that Mira’s heart lurched.It wasn’t possible for a person to look so  drowned in an emotion, but this was the third time that Mira had seen it in Rumi’s eyes. The first had been Rumi’s pain after being exposed at the Idol Awards, when Mira had given into fear and confusion for the briefest instant and raised her wondo at her best friend. The second had been the euphoria on her face as the Honmoon had healed, and they’d stood holding hands as the world was saved for good.Rumi’s entire body shimmered as her marks erupted in white and pink as they stared into each other’s eyes, Rumi’s eyes screaming some emotion that escaped words from its enormity, while Mira could only stare at the rising tidal wave.Wordlessly, Mira reached back down, and placed her hand on Rumi’s arm lightly, her fingers giving the lightest stroke to the wider, more vibrant patterns along Rumi’s bicep and leading up into her top. Under Mira’s touch, the color shifted, leaving streaks of white and pink along the soft purple, like ripples in the ocean, and Rumi trembled as Mira allowed herself to stare in wonder.Mira’s voice was a low murmur as she spoke, her eyes following the patterns and the streaks of color she was leaving behind in her touch. “Does it hurt…? Do  they ever hurt?”“No. Yes. Sometimes. It’s hard to explain.” clearing her dry throat and her tongue flicking out to wet her lips, Rumi shivered again as Mira’s hand resumed its tracing. “They always got sensitive after shows. But never like-”A particular trace of Mira’s fingers, a slight scratch of her nails as she reached Rumi’s shoulder, had Rumi’s breath stutter and her voice fail her with a fluttering of her eyelids and her head falling back onto the mat.Once again, Mira’s touch stopped, and she drew her hand away. This time, when Rumi reached, Mira didn’t give in, and Rumi opened her eyes only to frown at the wide-eyed  awe on Mira’s face as she stared down at her. When Rumi lifted her head and looked at herself, she understood why.Pure lines and lights of pink and white rippled along her body, curving in elegant swirls like cursive brush strokes, as her patterns had spread further. No longer contained to just her arms, they had lit up on her midriff and under her shorts, with thick, vibrant curves along her thighs and calves.There were no signs of the toxic purple that had haunted her for her entire life, or the orange that had seared her when she’d gotten so close to giving in on the worst night of her life. Instead there was only white, and a particular shade of pink that Mira was staring at with the lightest dusting of a blush on her cheeks.Mira cleared her own throat, reaching down with a shaking hand and placing it on Rumi’s lower thigh, and gasping as the white patterns directly under her touch rippled pink as if she’d thrown a stone into a pond. The light travelled down to her foot, but also up, and Rumi threw her head back with a gasp and a squirm. The world blacked out as a match was struck and dropped inside of the infinite reservoir inside of her soul.Under Rumi’s body, the Honmoon  flashed, the echo blasting out along the weaving pattern in all directions and past the boundaries of the room, and it was as if a shockwave went through Mira’s body as the floor beneath her shimmered and made her own skin hum.When Mira’s hand jerked back and she scooted back entirely, Mira looked as confused as she did enchanted, and she tapped Rumi on the shoulder in concern. “Uhh, you okay? Sh@t. I got-”“No! No, it’s okay. Sorry.” Rumi shook her head emphatically, and pushed herself to sit up, giving Mira a reassuring smile. But she was trembling, the white rings around her eyes returning but with the faintest hint of light pink to them. “They’re never this sensitive. And the only time they’ve done something like  that has been…bad, the bad type.”“Yeah. I know. I was there.” Mira frowned apologetically when Rumi flinched at the reminder, then shuffled back and tucked  her legs to the side so she could rest comfortably. Also to keep her hands to herself, regardless of how curious and fascinated she still was. “But that didn’t damage the Honmoon, just then. At all. We’d know.”Rumi shook her head, and no possible explanation came. Her mind was still scattered, her body too large and too small all at once, the pink fading from her patterns but none of the brightness fading from the white. A fuse burned, hissing low, and something was howling.The light in the room increased even further as patterns shimmered into being along Rumi’s neck, stopping halfway to her jaw, and Mira’s eyes went to them. Unable to help herself, she began to reach out, her touch drawn to them like a moth to flame, but she managed to stop with a few inches to spare.In response to Mira’s hesitation, Rumi smiled and shuffled closer, and shyly tilted her head to bare her neck properly. “It’s okay, if you’re still curious. They’re sensitive, but you won’t hurt me.”“I’d never want to. God, neither of us would ever hurt you.” Mira’s face darkened guiltily as she heard her own words, and she looked away with a scowl, even as her fingers stroked along Rumi’s glowing neck.Rumi shuffled closer with a frown, and put her hands on Mira’s shoulders to ground her and bring her attention back, while also leaning into the touch on her neck that was delicately avoiding her marks for the moment yet lingering all the same. “Hey. Mira, we’ve talked about it. I forgive you. I’m just sorry that I hid it all from you two.”Shaking her head, Mira looked back at Rumi with a stern frown, and put her free hand on Rumi’s shoulder as well when Rumi’s face turned guilty. “No. Stop that. I’m serious. It wasn’t your choice. It was Celine, you know that. We all drank her Kool-Aid.”The thought of her childhood guardian, her mentor, had Rumi flinch and her head drop sadly, the patterns rippling their old toxic purple for the briefest moment and the white starting to dim as the usual lump of guilt and regret formed in her chest.Before it could grow too bad, and any shame or guilt could truly take hold, Mira gently pulled Rumi into a hug, wrapping her arms around her and squeezing her close with a protective growl. “We know better, now. It took us time, sure, but…we know better.”“Yeah. We do. God, I’m still so  angry.” Rumi growled as she burrowed into Mira’s embrace, closing her eyes and resting her forehead on Mira’s shoulder.Mira snorted in agreement, her jaw clenching and her eyes narrowing as she thought of their mentor, and her fingers dug into Rumi’s back. “Me too. But hey, with the Honmoon solid, we don’t need her anymore.”Even though Rumi chuckled, the sound was strangled, coming out poisoned and dark, and she squeezed her eyes shut as Mira adjusted so that they could hug more comfortably.When Mira’s hand came up and cupped the back of her neck, Rumi shivered, and relaxed into it. “I should have trusted you.”“Not so easy after being raised to think that you were what we were meant to kill, and that your secret made you some ugly and evil thing. It wasn’t your fault.” Mira chuckled, releasing Rumi enough that she could lean back and raise a playful eyebrow, fierce and loyal. “And for what it’s worth? You’re  beautiful, and anything but evil. I’ll never forgive her.”Rumi rolled her eyes and smiled, but when she went to shuffle back and get up, she was suddenly trapped as Mira wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her steady, the taller girl’s expression suddenly stern and deathly serious. The pressure suddenly on the bare skin of her torso, pressing into the patterns still shimmering there, had Rumi bite her lip to clamp down on the shockwave that rippled through her body.A ripple of intense pink light washed out from every single point of contact, tracing luminance along her spine and reaching her neck and tailbone, the rebounding wave making her eyes slam shut as she wrapped a hand around it inside of herself and gripped it tight.The match in her soul was close to striking a bottomless well of gasoline, desperate to go  somewhere  and release into the universe just so the pressure would finally be at peace. A battery with no circuit. A storm cloud waiting for its thunder. Every inch of her body felt  stiflingly hot, but Mira didn’t complain or even seem to register it as she glared.“I mean it.”Rumi’s eyes fluttered open, and she managed to meet Mira’s gaze even through the way the world was swimming. Her friend’s stare was  intense, even compared to Mira’s usual, and Mira only relaxed her tight grip on Rumi’s waist when she saw that she had Rumi’s complete attention again.“I’ll say it as many times as I have to, until you believe it. And I’ll tell Zoey to do the same. Don’t doubt it.” Mira slowly,  painfully  slowly, reached up and finally cupped Rumi’s neck properly, her fingers brushing the bottom of her jawline. “You’re beautiful, you’re not evil, and I’m  never forgiving Celine for making you think you might be.”“Say it again.”Mira sucked in a breath at Rumi’s demand, and how Rumi’s eyes had fluttered closed as she said it. The way Rumi had reached up to take hold of Mira’s wrist and stop any chance of the touch on her neck breaking. Rumi was actively baring her neck to the touch, and Mira’s eyes widened at just how  vulnerable she seemed.Everyone  knew that Rumi was beautiful. The internet never shut up about it, network television raved about it, and she was plastered across enough billboards worldwide that it was something that couldn’t be questioned by anyone with eyes.But Mira suddenly had a hard time remembering a single time that someone whose opinion Rumi cared about had actually  told her that. Said it to her face. No, Celine had only apparently ever told her the opposite. Compliments that were about her, and not just her talent, had been as rare as physical affection. “Please Mira.” Rumi whined, her hands taking grip of Mira’s shirt in pleading need, and she somehow grew even hotter to the touch, her patterns shifting to an all too recognizable purple hue that had Mira’s heart lurch, and they had finally lit up along her cheeks.Purple meant shame, and fear.So how could she deny her? After all, since physical touch was something Rumi was able to get used to now, it made sense to try to catch up on the rest. So, Mira carefully readjusted so that she was able to look straight into Rumi’s eyes, and waited for Rumi to open them.Rumi was trembling, her eyes filled to beyond capacity with something so  total  and  absolute that it washed over Mira just to see it. She softly cupped Rumi’s cheek, careful to avoid touching the sensitive marks, and held her stare without blinking.“Rumi…you’re beautiful. You could  never  be evil. And I’ll never forgive Celine for making you think you weren’t the best of us. Zoey and I are going to spend the rest of our lives making you see it. And if Celine, or anyone, tries to get in the way of that, I’ll  break them before they get within a hundred feet of you. And Zoey’s got longer range than me.”As Rumi’s eyes widened and her breathing completely stopped, Mira softly leaned in and pressed a light kiss to Rumi’s cheek, her lips squarely on one of the glowing purple marks.Fire hit gasoline, and Rumi lurched forward as her marks scorched to a radiant white, down to her bones and then deeper, further,  realer. The infinite, bottomless well of  something  inside her finally able to  go somewhere, a gravity able to pull it and guide it.
   Mira. Zoey. 
Rumi’s hold on Mira’s shirt tightened, both hands gripping tight as the corners of her eyes beaded with tears.  “Mira…I…I don’t know how to…” The way Rumi was trembling under her touch, eyes wide, desperate, and so  overwhelmed, was enough for Mira to pull her closer once more, refusing to comment or react to the sheer amount of heat Rumi was radiating. Underneath them, the Honmoon glistened and rippled, lapping at their bodies like ocean waters, always there for them but never making it clear what it was it wanted.Even the air around Rumi felt radioactive, the sheer intensity of whatever was happening inside of her releasing pulsing vibrations that had Mira’s skin tingling and her vision swimming slightly as she held Rumi’s desperate gaze with a firm, assuring look of her own.“You’re my family, Rumi. You and Zoey.”Rumi’s grip tightened, her bottom lip held so tightly between her teeth that she was surely able to taste iron. The unnatural white rings around her eyes shifted hues, touched by pink. “...Mira…I…I can feel…”The words slipped away from Rumi right as all other rational thoughts did, blown away in the wind when Mira rested their foreheads together, her breath washing over Rumi’s neck and making her patterns shimmer pink. All there was left was the  feeling inside of Rumi’s song.The crescendo was deafening, desperate to escape her foundations, every string too tight but unable to snap. It had her skin screaming as loudly as her chest, the world blurry around the edges but for Mira’s face and the way she wasn’t blinking. The way she wasn’t pulling away, or disgusted, or put off. How she was here, and staying, and  ‘You’re my family, Rumi. You’re beautiful. You’re not evil. We’ll protect you.’  and there was nowhere for that to  go, the pressure was breaking, and Rumi wasn’t sure what would happen if--“We love you, Rumi. We’ll all look after each other.” Mira breathed, smiling in the corners of her mouth, before she was knocked back as an impact hit her right in the chest.Suddenly laying on her back, Mira looked up at where Rumi was leaning over her, a hand on either side of Mira’s head to hold herself up and looking down at her. Their noses were almost close enough to brush, Rumi’s eyes wide and her pupils blown as she struggled to breathe normally.They stared at each other in silence. Rumi was as stunned by their position as Mira was, before she wet her lips. “...say it again.  Please, say it again.” The world around them rippled as Rumi’s voice came out layered, rippling with its own chorus of demonic growl and angelic chime that washed over Mira with its power, and the Honmoon under Mira shimmered vibrant white and pink as Rumi’s song struck it and fit into its symphony.Mira managed to swallow, her throat dry but not out of fear. “We love you.”In front of her eyes, the last of Rumi’s patterns lit up, with elegant lines curling along the sides of her face to connect to her eyes, and even her purple hair seeming to glisten due to the white light coming from the rest of her.But before Mira could comment or get too lost in admiring it, the pressure inside Rumi broke, and she dropped down onto Mira to crash their lips together. Only needing one hand to support her weight, her other went to bunch up Mira’s shirt again, and she whined.Mira’s eyes stayed open in shock for a few seconds before they closed, and she couldn’t help but return the kiss with everything she had, wrapping her arms around Rumi’s neck to pull her down properly.
   ‘It’s okay. It’s okay. God, this is so f@ck@ng okay, Rumi…I’m here. I’m never going anywhere, ever. None of us are.’ 
Mira smiled into the kiss when Rumi whined again needily, something so f@ck@ng desperate in the sound that Mira’s chest ached from the pain of it. The kiss was rough and clumsy, Rumi having no idea what she was doing but just knowing she  needed  it, because nothing else was working or helping, but Mira  always helped, Zoey did too.As Mira’s hands cupped her cheeks softly, Rumi melted into it, always in harmony with her bandmates and so understanding what was being asked of her. Under Mira’s more experienced touch and guidance, the kiss deepened in a way that had Rumi moaning into her mouth and pressing down more, and Mira sighed happily at the weight and feel of Rumi’s strong, toned form molding to hers.Under Mira’s guidance, it didn’t matter how much Rumi dished out or how desperately she kept grabbing for more, none of it was too much. Mira was an infinite wellspring to take what Rumi couldn’t help but pour out, giving almost as good as she was getting as she raked the nails of one hand along the marks on Rumi’s arm, grinning happily when Rumi let out a moan so caught in her breath that it was almost a sob.There were no rational thoughts in Rumi’s head, nothing but the pressure, the  need  and the  feeling of it, endless and escaping definition and burning her so hot that it had started hurting. But Mira, stoic and sassy and loving Mira, drank it and came back for more, teasing Rumi’s lips with the tip of her tongue in a request that Rumi wasn’t aware enough to be insecure about her inexperience with, instead opening her mouth with a loud moan, pure and devoted.Under Rumi’s hand, Mira’s chest grew warm to the touch, pulsing ebbs sending the Honmoon swirling and rippling as a gentle blue light emerged from Mira’s heart and  shined, the pure glow of her own song touching Rumi’s patterns and turning them from pure silver to a serene, sunset pink.When the elevator doors slid open, both girls broke apart in surprise, and their heads whipped to the doorway, where Zoey was standing with wide eyes, bundled up in her dressing gown and looking barely awake.“Oh! Oh. Uhh. Right!” Zoey blinked, her face flushing a deep red as she rapidly looked between Rumi and Mira. “...uhh…that’s new!”Rumi immediately scrambled off Mira and stood up, mortified, and her patterns rushed back to their poisonous purple as she clamped her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry! Sh@t, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why I…oh god, I’m so sorry. Sh@t. Sh@t. I should…I’m sorry. I can’t believe I just did that. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry!”Before Mira had even finished standing, with Zoey’s mouth still open uselessly as the ability to think of  anything intelligent to say was still rebooting, Rumi squeezed her eyes shut, wrapped her arms around herself as if to hold her insides together, and vanished in a cloud of silver fog.“Wait!” Zoey called out, extending a hand as if to grab Rumi and pull her back, but it was too late. So instead she simply stared at the now empty space where Rumi had been standing, and shook her head in wide-eyed confusion. “I… sh@t,  where did she go?? I didn’t know she could do that! Is that new?! Was…  that, new?”Zoey indicated between Mira and the spot she and Rumi had been sprawled out, and Mira bit her lip as she took her attention from where Rumi had vanished from. At the helpless confusion on Zoey’s face, Mira couldn’t help but laugh, but she also looked away sheepishly and sighed.“...I wasn’t exactly expecting it.”“But you’re certainly not complaining, huh? Now come on!” Zoey manically beckoned for Mira to follow, and sprinted back to the elevator, rapidly pressing the button a number of times even though it was already on the right floor. “She didn’t have her phone on her, so finding her is going to be a b@tch. God, I hope she didn’t go too far.”Humming in agreement, Mira’s head was still slightly reeling, and she stayed in the same lost daze until the elevator trip was over and they were back in the penthouse, so they could put on clothes.As Zoey ran down the hall, Mira called out after her even as she ran into her own room to get changed. “How did you even know?? Weren’t you asleep??”“I was, until the Honmoon started  singing at me! Woke me up!” Zoey shouted back from her room as she quickly changed out of her pajamas, and threw on a basic pair of jeans and a short-sleeved shirt. “Singing at you??” Mira chose her easiest boots to buckle up, and rejoined Zoey in the hall, pulling on a leather jacket to zip up.Zoey nodded emphatically, her eyebrows up, and she shoved her phone into her pocket before leading the way back out. “Oh god yeah. It felt like Namsan Tower all over again, except…more intimate. Personal. Not a song about the world…just about us.”There was nothing to say that wouldn't sound either too sappy or too dismissive, so Mira elected to say nothing at all, instead already wracking her brain for ideas of where Rumi would go in order to hide.Before everything had happened, the safest assumption would be that she went to Celine. But that bridge was truly burned, Mira and Zoey had destroyed it themselves after Rumi had told her the darker parts of the way Celine had raised her.So they were left with zero ideas of where to start, in a city of nine million people. Rumi was one of the most famous music personalities in the world, but everyone is a ghost at four in the morning.They weren't going to let that stop them, so they both filed into the elevator again and hit the button for the underground parking lot.Mira was perfectly content to take the trip in awkward silence. Zoey was not.“So… that happened.”“Yes. Yes it did.” Mira stayed looking straight ahead, keeping her voice measured and calm.Zoey shuffled awkwardly, her hands in her pockets, as she watched Mira's face, familiarity easily penetrating the blank facade. “Was it…I dunno, nice?”
   “Nice?!” 
“Kissing Rumi! I don’t know!” Zoey spread her hands helplessly, waving them nervously as she spun on her foot to face Mira directly. “I didn't know you  wanted to.”Mira thinned her lips, her eyes narrowing as she looked up at the roof and sighed. The past twenty minutes played over in her head from start to finish, every second studied, and as she reached the moment Rumi had been on top of her she felt her cheeks warm. She couldn’t help but shrug, just as lost as Zoey was. “I…didn't know I did either, until about ten minutes ago.”The answer was absolutely useless, but seemed to mollify Zoey regardless, the girl frowning and nodding to accept it and finally looking away again, but still shuffling on her feet.Just as Mira thought the conversation was only going to be that short and simple, for now at least, Zoey spoke again in a quiet, concerned murmur. “Was that her first kiss?”That exact question had occurred to Mira as well, even while it had been happening, with the way Rumi had been grabbing at her and drunk on hunger without any precision. Especially if it was only in recent days that Rumi was comfortable being touched at all.Dating wasn’t exactly easy for celebrities of their caliber, but Mira and Zoey had done a bit of it over the years. Some had been discovered and plastered all over the internet and magazines, forced to suffer the public’s scrutiny, but thankfully most had managed to go under the radar.But Rumi had never even shown  interest in dating anyone, whether in secret or publicly. Mira and Zoey had never put much thought into it or questioned it, because if Rumi was happy then that was all that mattered.Except, she  hadn’t  been happy, had she? She’d been alone. Untouchable. In fact, the only person she’d shown any kind of open interest in, or pursued, ever, had been a g@dd@mn demon. And that had gone extraordinarily well, hadn’t it? The dude had died in front of her.“I think it was. Unless she and Jinu ever…” Mira trailed off, only able to shrug with a sigh. Rumi had been incredibly tight-lipped about whatever her connection with Jinu had been. And considering how it had ended, Mira and Zoey had absolutely been willing to let her hold it close to herself. So there was no way of knowing  any of it for sure.God, there had been so many secrets, and Rumi had kept them all just to protect herself, because she’d been raised to believe she had no other choice.Mira’s hand tightened into a loose fist at her side, her jaw clenching as guilt and anger twisted into a knot inside of her mind. But she pushed it aside for now, this wasn’t the time to get p@ss@d at Celine  again. They had a far, far higher priority.Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Mira clamped down on a spike of anxiety when she pictured what Rumi’s face had been right before she’d vanished. And since when could she open portals, anyway? That was a demon’s power, except Rumi’s fog had been silver instead of crimson, and it hadn’t left a hole in the Honmoon behind.No answers would come just from thinking about it, and Mira shook her head to push it aside for now, and looked over at where Zoey was being conspicuously silent. But when she saw the small frown on Zoey’s brow, along with a tightening of her eyes and what Mira could only describe as a  pout, Mira raised her eyebrows.“Wait, Zoey, are you  jealous??” Zoey jumped, the expression immediately vanishing, and she looked over at Mira in alarm, squeaking.“No! Of course not!” Zoey shook her head wildly, but when Mira simply stared at her, waiting for her to fold, Zoey did with a confused whine. She shrugged, shoving her hands back into her pockets, and looked away with reddening cheeks and a self-judging scowl. “Okay, maybe a bit. Which is dumb. I don’t know, being someone’s first kiss is special, y’know?”“I didn't know you wanted to.” Mira said quietly, keeping her voice gentle and slow.Zoey laughed dryly, closing her eyes and taking in a shaky breath, as if she was the lightest nudge from crying, and furious with herself for it. Always too emotional, in wild and unpredictable ways that she had trouble catching until after the fact. Always feeling too much, but never expressing it right. But she wouldn’t get upset about this, she didn’t have any right to. It wasn’t hers to feel  anything about, wasn’t it?Besides…“Neither did I, until about five minutes ago.”Mira hummed low in her throat as she watched Zoey crumple, and she reached over to pull Zoey into a hug, resting her chin on top of the much shorter girl’s head and humming again in approval when Zoey hugged her back tightly.With her expression hidden, Mira closed her eyes and took a breath. “I didn’t exactly plan on doing it. But, no, you were right earlier. I’m not complaining, which surprises me just as much as it does you,  trust me. I just hope I didn't mess her up. She’s gone through enough.”Zoey shook her head, still basking in the warmth of the hug. “I'm sure you didn't, Mira. But what happened? Not in an  ‘I want saucy details’  way, but in a  ‘hey, why was the Honmoon singing and turning white at four in the morning?’  type of way.”The elevator doors opened before Mira could reply, and they released each other and stepped out, looking around as they decided which car to take. They both briefly considered splitting up, but the very idea of that felt like poison the moment it passed through their minds, and they cringed at the same moment.Instead, Zoey pointed to one of their more nondescript cars, and Mira nodded and walked over to the locked cupboard where they kept all the keys. “I’ll explain on the way. But it’s…weird. Something’s really going on with her, and the Honmoon certainly seems to have its own opinions. The shows have really been doing a number on her.”“I’ll drive, you talk?”“You wish. I’ll drive and talk, you think of where the hell to even check.” Mira grabbed the right keys and locked the cupboard again, raising an eyebrow when Zoey pouted, and ran the back of her fingers down the other girl’s cheek as she passed by and pressed the fob to unlock the car.Both of them looked at each other anxiously one last time, Zoey’s mind racing through possible places to look for their missing friend, and Mira trying to dissect and word what the hell had happened and what might have caused it. She had her own theory, but it was one she had to chew over before there was any way she’d run it by Rumi herself, and Zoey was a great soundboard; brilliant and intuitive. So it was worth a shot.With a silent nod to each other, they opened the car doors and slid in, buckling up their seatbelts and Mira gunning the engine while Zoey already brought up a map on her phone to start picking places.They were not going to lose Rumi again. Never, ever again.No more letting her be alone.Rumi was never alone.'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
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