Work Text:
Rumi had always known that there was something wrong with her.
Celine always seemed just a bit distant. She didn't let Rumi call her mom or any fun nicknames, just Celine.
All Rumi wanted was to be like other kids but Celine never allowed it.
She would never forget the shame that burned when Celine saw her and said she acted like her demon father.
That was when the patterns first started appearing, though she never made the connection between that first flush of shame and the first little tendrils of the patterns that told the world she was part demon, if she let anyone see them.
Rumi learned to hide them. To hide everything.
The more she watched Celine, trying to be just like her, the more she realized that Celine was only going through the motions, fulfilling her obligations to Rumi's mother.
When Rumi's voice turned out to be perfect to be a hunter, Celine was delighted and started training her properly.
That was the first time Celine ever seemed to actually want her around.
Rumi was determined to make her proud, but Celine was only ever engaged during the training sessions, and even then...
Even then Rumi wondered.
Celine pushed her hard, but it was necessary, if she wanted to be a good hunter who could protect people from demons, with or without songs, though Rumi found freedom in singing.
Even her talent at singing wasn't enough for Celine's approval, but that didn't stop Rumi from singing when she was alone and just enjoying the feeling of letting loose through song.
The best moments were at night, when she could sneak out and stare at the stars, watch the constellations, and sing to herself at the same time.
As her patterns grew, she realized that they were starting to look like constellations of her own.
It was almost pretty... if they didn't represent the fact that she was half demon, her patterns would be lovely.
Rumi looked at them from time to time, wondering what life would be like if they were different, but she didn't let those thoughts linger.
Celine was clear: they were flaws that had to be hidden until they could seal the Honmoon and turn it golden.
Rumi got a new perspective when they found the two who would train with Rumi and become the newest iteration of hunters.
She helped them catch up, and soon they were doing most of their training together, though she was still more advanced by years so she did need separate training from them.
But... it quickly became clear that they were being trained in a nicer way than Rumi had been.
Celine connected with them more than she had Rumi, though she still kept her distance because Hunters needed to have voices strong, fears and faults not seen at all.
Rumi found herself retreating to watch the stars more often when she could get away with it.
Zoey and Mira were good friends, enough so that Rumi wanted to tell them the truth but Celine kept saying it was a bad idea.
She was probably right.
At least Rumi had good friends now, so she wasn't alone any longer. She could be imperfect with them, to some degree, though it was weird at first.
They were used to not being perfect and helped her relax, and they all grew closer for it, though all three of them knew better than to let Celine see it.
She would be so mad that they weren't following the rules, and do another harsh lesson about keeping it all in.
Rumi thought sometimes it was just because Celine had been trained in the same exact way and she couldn't fathom doing anything else.
It made her wonder if Celine had ever been as close to the other Sunlight sisters as Rumi already was to Zoey and Mira.
But all too soon the other two had to go.
To start with, they were only staying under the pretense that not only were they there to be Rumi's friends, but they had talent to make it too, and Celine was nurturing it.
Since they were still just kids, they did have to return to their parents for periods of time. They couldn't stay around too long.
Rumi watched them go and missed them already.
She didn't say anything, because she was certain Celine would give her a lecture about that never being seen. Again.
She didn't need to hear it again.
That night, any warmness Celien had while the other two were around was gone.
Rumi had to force herself to eat. Once she was done, she excused herself and took care of her dishes before retreating to her room.
She had a feeling that Celine was going to be a lot harsher on her to make up for how lenient she was while training the other two.
Even with the more intense training that she put Rumi through, she still didn't match the energy she usually had when it came to Rumi.
Rumi's break was at an end until the next time Zoey and Mira were there for training.
It could be a while.
They were still young, too young to be idols, so too young to be away from family much, though Zoey had a hard time with her parents' divorce and Mira felt like the odd one out in her family and didn't want to be around them.
Unfortunately their families still wanted them around so they wouldn't be available until they actually decided to record their first song and get started.
Celine already had a plan for the timeline on that, so they were all ready for following through in a few years, but until then...
Rumi was alone.
And she would have to suffer through Celine's lessons to be sure she never slipped up and never became like her father.
Rumi couldn't sleep. She was too worried about what Celine would do after the break from the usual training regime, knowing that Celine was already back to treating her the same way she always had.
After a while, she gave up and went to stargaze, picking out constellations, the real ones and the ones she had made up.
She stayed up most the night, eventually dozing off and jolting awake to drag herself to bed.
Only two hours after that, Celine woke her up by tossing her onto the floor.
"Not aware enough," Celine commented as she walked out. "You know the routine."
Rumi did know the routine. It was only the same one she had used basically since she started training. Some things had been added and it had gotten harder.
Even before training she had something of a similar routine.
Before long, she was through the before breakfast routine and was eating the food put in front of her.
She still didn't have much of an appetite, but she also didn't want to deal with Celine's lecture about making sure her body was properly fueled for fighting, which was a delicate balance between looking good for society's standards while also actually getting what she needed to be able to fight.
After breakfast, it was onto warm ups for the day's training.
After the morning review, making sure she hadn't fallen behind (fortunately, she had actually improved), they had lunch, and then it was time to practice her singing.
Then, finally, she was set on her school lessons. She only got all day three days a week, so she had to really focus to make sure she learned everything she needed to learn, especially in the two hours between singing and dinner on the days she didn't have school lessons.
Celine cared more about her being a hunter and preparing for a career as an idol than school, but Rumi wanted to learn more, and wanted to be able to keep up with Zoey and Mira. They had been telling her about so much they had been learning that she hadn't known and she was determined not to he left behind now that she was back at her lessons.
After dinner was free time, though she was expected to make sure she went to bed on time, took care of any injuries, and did anything else she needed to do, as she didn't really have time for that during the day.
Rumi wanted Celine to love her, to treat her like she treated MIra and Zoey, but no matter what she did, nothing was ever good enough.
Just one week after Mira and Zoey returned home, Celine decided that Rumi needed some new training.
She did not inform Rumi of this.
Instead, she ambushed Rumi during her warm ups and dragged her to an area Rumi wasn't familiar with as she didn't much like playing in it when she was younger and had more time to play.
Rumi tried to fight back, suspecting one of Celine's surprise lessons, but it was no use. She still wasn't big enough to really be able to defeat Celine yet.
Celine pulled out bedsheets and tied Rumi up, and then tied her to a tree.
"Your job today is to get out of that and return to the house. I have already laid some traps and I will lay some more. You will not know where I am."
Rumi breathed heavily, eyes wide with suppressed panic, and nodded, wishing Celine hadn't been so thorough she had ben gagged, but then, she wasn't sure Celine liked it when she talked, just when she sang.
Finally, Celine disappeared.
Rumi closed her eyes and breathed, trying to shove aside the panic enough to think.
Celine had ambushed her for a fight in the past, and had even done that with Zoey and Mira towards the end, because they never knew when demons might strike.
But she had never done anything more than strike when they weren't expecting it.
This? Being tied up and told to escape felt like more of a betrayal.
And yet... and yet Rumi wasn't surprised.
Celine was doing everything she could to prepare Rumi for life as a hunter, making sure she was trained against everything.
But that was only because she was the one training the next generation.
Rumi wondered often what it would have been like if her own mom had been the one teaching her, or if the third Sunlight Sister had raised her.
How different would it be?
Would she be loved?
Rumi wiggled around, figuring out how it felt and how much she could move.
She experimented a bit, then her fingers broke through the fabric, finding a gap.
She pushed her hand through a bit more.
Even with her hands behind her back, that was enough to summon the sword she had recently been able to manifest finally.
That gave her something to cut with, though that wouldn't solve all problems and she'd have to be careful not to cut herself.
It took her a bit, and cutting here and there, but she finally got enough to be able to tear the rest of the bedsheets, and then she was free.
She took a moment to regain her bearings, and then it was off to figure out the next part of the training.
She made it back just in time for lunch, injured and tired, but pleased with herself for making it so quickly despite the traps.
She had even noticed some of the traps!
Others she didn't see and that was how she got hurt.
Nothing too serious but that didn't mean the cuts didn't hurt.
Not as much as learning that Celine would go so far to teach her important lessons... without actually teaching her how to escape.
Rumi resolved to start figuring out escapes at night, when Celine was asleep, so she didn't know Rumi was working on it.
She didn't want Celine to make it harder until she had proven to herself that she could do it.
She did some research on other ways someone could be restrained, and learned how to escape all the common ones. Once she had learned the common ones without requiring her sword, she started on the more creative ones.
She didn't know if she would ever be kidnapped by a demon- that was more likely to be a rabid fan or someone looking for money once she was famous, but that didn't mean it wasn't useful to know.
It also meant that she wouldn't experience panic like that again, not if she knew how to escape restraints, and even had an idea of where to start for the more creative ones.
She also started studying the traps that Celine set in the training session and started using more regularly so she could see them before she triggered them.
Eventually she moved onto dismantling them.
When Zoey and Mira needed to learn those skills, Celine set Rumi to teaching them for a week, with the expectation they could put it to the test at the end of the week.
And she did it without the ambush, as many injuries, and without scaring Mira and Zoey because they knew what was happening the whole way.
That was only one example of how much training sucked for Rumi so long as Mira and Zoey weren't around, and eventually, they were all finally ready, with Mira and Zoey almost to Rumi's level without the same intensity Rumi had faced to achieve it, and Rumi able to defeat Celine in a fight, even when Celine put restrictions on Rumi.
That was good, it gave her an edge on demons.
But the way she had achieved that...
Sometimes Rumi would have rathered a more loving guardian, especially since Zoey and Mira were close to her level despite not spending their life training and without the fear and panic Rumi experienced from time to time, and with gentler teaching.
But once they were out singing and touring and connecting with people for the first time, Rumi was able to put it out of her mind.
It was exhilarating, connecting with people, watching it charge the Honmoon, and quite satisfying to defeat the demons before they could take souls.
As the years passed, their fame only grew, and they even got to tour the world. Seeing the world was amazing.
Then it all came crashing down just when they released Golden, so close to turning the Honmoon gold. So close that they saw gold at a concert, and just before Jinu used his plan at the idol awards, the Honmoon was golden.
Going half demon, fully realizing she wasn't human for the first time, feeling the shame and the fear, knowing others saw it, knowing that Zoey and Mira had turned their backs on her...
Scared of the fact the Honmoon was falling apart...
But not ready to hide away again, surprised by how natural her form felt, though she much preferred human hands to the claws.
Rumi made her decision.
She went to Celine.
Celine was more concerned about the Honmoon and holding onto hiding her feelings, than about anything Rumi had to say.
She wanted to hide the patterns.
The only point in her favor was that she refused to kill Rumi.
"Why couldn't you love me?"
"I do, I do love you."
“ALL OF ME!”
Celine freaked out about the way the Honmoon reacted and didn't respond to Rumi.
Rumi knew it. She had always seen right through Celine and her fakeness.
She decided she was done following Celine's rules and left.
As she considered the next steps- she had to do something about Gwi-Ma, apologize to Zoey and mira, and hopefully they could sing something to stop the demons and make a new Honmoon.
It was all the plan she had
As she went to find Zoey and Mira, she couldn't help but think about how much she had seen through Celine.
How ultimately, Celine's reaction was not surprising at all. It just confirmed what Rumi already knew.
For a long time, Rumi wished that she hadn't seen through Celine. That she could have been oblivious and believed that Celine loved her aside from the patterns and demon side, that she could have grown up mostly normal and oblivious to how Celine felt.
But now...
Now she knew that growing up oblivious would have just meant being blindsided when this happened, and it was far better for it to be a confirmation of something she already knew rather than anything else.
Rumi stopped outside the stadium, still no plan in mind.
She'd just have to rely on her instincts.
They had never been wrong. They were all she had growing up, after all.
Rumi lifted her head to look up at the night sky, at what few constellations she could see in the light of the city.
She breathed in and out, and headed in.
It was time to forget everything Celine taught them, and forge something new.