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Rumi was having a no good, very bad day. Just this morning she had woken up determined to work hard on her vocal exercises so she could make sure her voice was back in tip top shape for the Idol Awards but as soon as she had gotten up and brushed her teeth, she had ended up with a mouthful of loose bristles after trying to brush fangs she didn’t know she had. Because that was a thing she had now.
Fangs.
Fantastic.
Because the ever spreading patterns weren’t bad enough.
Everything was Fine.
And now she was here having some couch time with her girls trying to figure out how to bring up including gloves in all her outfits without sounding insane, because of course the patterns were up to her wrists now, when something Zoey said to Mira finally registered in her distracted brain.
“-Yeah but the fangs make him hot.”
All thoughts in Rumi’s head halted as she suddenly focused all her attention on her bandmates.
“Zoey, no, that’s a demon,” Mira groaned, sinking further back into the couch, away from the phone that she had been watching in Zoey’s hand that was playing a clip from a recent interview the Saja Boys had done. The editor of the video had zoomed in trying to see Mystery’s face but all the girls had noticed was a fang poking out from his mouth.
“Okay, okay,” Zoey started gesturing wildly with her hands, “but hear me out if they weren’t, you know like evil and stealing souls and stuff, it would be fine right? You were staring at Abby’s abs, don’t lie. You get it, right Rumi? Even objectively they are pretty attractive, that’s how they got so popular so fast. I'm sure of it."
Zoey turned to the side to try and involve Rumi in this conversation but all Rumi could manage was a solid, “uh…….”
Thankfully, Mira spoke and took Zoey’s attention away from the leader of the group.
“I mean, I guess. Until one of them opens their mouth and says something that makes me just want to punch that stupid smirk off their snarky faces.”
Rumi wasn’t exactly sure what kind of face she was making but it must have looked concerning because Mira caught sight of her and spoke up again, “Rumi? You good?”
“But they have patterns…” Rumi knew she should stop while she was ahead but couldn’t help asking, “that doesn’t bother you? You don’t find them disgusting?”
Something about the tone of her voice had Zoey and Mira glancing at each other before Zoey spoke up.
“Not really? I mean, I know Celine taught us to hate everything about demons but they are just a way to identify demons, right?”
Nodding, Mira chimed in, “they would make a badass tattoo.”
Somewhere far outside the city, a certain ex-hunter could feel a disturbing shift in the air as soon as Rumi opened her mouth without really thinking about it.
“I don’t think I can sing Takedown for the Idol Awards. Or, ever, really.”
One perfectly trimmed eyebrow rose high in the air as Mira said, “oh…kay? That was random. But the Idol Awards are so close we can’t change the song now.”
“Yeah, is it something about the lyrics? We have time to change them. I think. I have even more notebooks full of demon insults ready to go now.”
“No, well maybe. It’s…” She shouldn’t do it. She knew she shouldn’t. But maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be as bad as Celine thought.
Or it could be so much worse.
But she was so tired of hiding.
So instead, she started to sing.
“~ When your patterns start to show ~” Rumi moved her left hand to her right sleeve and knowing she had their full attention, pushed the sleeve up that was just barely covering the patterns that had spread rapidly since the Saja Boys had shown up. “ ~ I see a pain that lies below ~”
“You… have patterns?” Zoey was the first to say something while Mira stared intently at the purple lines on Rumi’s wrist. But to their credit, neither pulled away from where they were all sitting very closely on the couch with Zoey in the middle.
“Uh huh, born with them. My dad was a demon apparently," Rumi managed to get out even though her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.
“Oh.”
And now things were awkward. Of course they were. Why did she ever think anything would be different just because they said they didn’t hate patterns on other demons? Of course it would be different finding out the one you have been living with has been hiding they were a demon all along. Celine was right, she never should have-
“Sick.” Mira was still staring at her wrist but it almost seemed like she was inspecting a piece of art?
“Oh, oh my god that explains why there was never any media coverage about your dad! I’ve been following the Sunlight Sisters for yeeeears and even after meeting you I always wondered about who your mom got with but I never wanted to pry and Celine always got really weird when we tried to talk to her about it,” Zoey was in full ramble mode now, leaning towards Rumi as she talked. “But if he was a demon I could see why she never wanted to talk about it so that makes you what, half demon, right? Then oh… Takedown.”
Mira seemed to realized at the same time as Zoey.
“God, Rumi, no. No wonder you weren’t vibing with the song.”
Rumi, who had been silent through Zoey’s ramble, finally found her voice again.
“You are both taking this, uh, really well? Aren’t you mad? Afraid? You’ve been living with a demon this whole time. You know, the things we hunt?”
“Rumi, we aren’t dumb. We both knew you were hiding something pretty big from us but for me, as much as I hate lies, it was just a part of you that I got used to. It sucks you didn’t trust us enough to tell us though but better late than never, right?”
Rumi felt a hint of a smile on her face as Mira told her the same thing she usually said whenever she was running late to practice even though they usually practiced in their own studio that was only a few floors down and had no excuse for being late.
It was familiar. Soothing, in a way.
And then Zoey’s high pitch scream cut through the air sending Rumi’s heartrate sky rocketing again.
“Wait! Is this why you wouldn’t go to the bathhouse with us?? Can we finally go to the bathhouse with Rumi?? Please say yes. Please please. I will totally forgive the fact you lied to us about this if you finally go to the bathhouse with us.”
The puppy dog eyes were in full force and really, how could she ever say no to her anyway?
“If you really want to go with me, yeah we can go. But um,” Rumi twisted her hands nervously in her lap before just going for it and taking her hoodie off, revealing just a sports bra underneath.
“The patterns aren’t just on my arms though they are all over now. So. Uh. Yeah."
The silence that followed was awkward again, making Rumi think that maybe this was too much for them but then she finally looked at their faces.
Their very red faces.
“Uh, guys?”
“Holy Honmoon, Rumi, warn a girl next time,” Mira said, still staring at all the muscles that they hadn’t seen in years since Rumi started covering up more.
“Oh. Sorry, I can put it back on just-”
“No!”
Both girls shouted, stopping a very confused Rumi from grabbing her hoodie from where it had slipped off the couch.
“That’s not what I meant. You don’t have to cover up. Not with us.”
“Then-”
“What she means is you and your patterns are extremely hot and we are not straight enough for you to suddenly take off your clothes like that.”
Now it was Rumi’s turn to turn red while Mira shook her head with a fond smile at Zoey’s bluntness.
“Yeah. What she said. Anyway, so Takedown has to go, obviously. We can sing Golden, it's the story of us. That’s sure to bring down those nasty dem- er, I mean Saja Boys for good. So I say we scrap the recordings and all our lyrics for it and then head out to the bathhouse for the day.”
Mira looked at the both of them to see if they would go along with her idea and got an enthusiastic nodding of the head from Zoey as she jumped up from the couch and then held her hands out for both of them to take so she could pull them up.
“Yeeesss! Bathhouse! Bathhouse!”
The smile that spread across Rumi’s lips as she took Zoey’s hand was the first real smile she could remember having in the last couple weeks since all this trouble with her voice had started.
Celine was going to have a heart attack when she found out they knew now but that was a problem for future Rumi. For now, she had something else to deal with.
For example, Zoey catching sight of a fang sticking out of her smile.
“Oh my god, Mira look, she has fangs! You should totally bite me. For, uh, science!”
“Zoey!”