Chapter Text
“We need to talk.”
Leader Rumi stands tall and steady, chin held high and shoulders squared as her sharp eyes scan over her audience.
Silence is her game, despite the pressing issue of the situation, because it’s in these moments where she shines, where she steps forward and begins the workings of an ingenious plan.
She expands the pointer in her hand and smacks it against the board.
“‘We need to talk.’” She reads out loud, stabbing underneath each word scribbled on the board, before she whips her pointer behind her and begins pacing back and forth.
“This is not an emergency.” She assures firmly, pausing in her path to stare at her comrades. “But we need to respond with care.”
“How is this not an emergency!” Protests a squeaky voice and Leader Rumi sighs.
“Because it is literally just four words, Anxious Rumi.”
“But, those four words could lead to twenty more! Or a hundred more!” The frazzled braid of Anxious Rumi becomes even more of a mess as she strokes at it feverishly with erratic eyes, undoing it more and more the more panicked she becomes.
“Like, what if they know about our patterns!?”
“Have you been living under a rock?” Comes the retort from Snarky Rumi, her arms crossed and her lips in a slight snarl as she lounges in her chair and groans loudly. “They know already.”
“Well, what if they forgot and, now, they’re learning it all over again!?”
“Anxious Rumi,” Leader Rumi interrupts, “you get one—” She extends a finger, “—more implausible scenario to play out.”
“What if they have patterns!?”
“Okay!” Leader Rumi claps as loudly and as best as she can with the pointer tucked into one of her armpits. “That was the last one, thank you. Moving on now.” She turns back and underlines the four words written there.
“Now, it was Mira who said this, so this has to be really important.”
“Implying if Zoey said it, it wouldn’t be?” Snarky Rumi counters with an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, we can’t imply one is more important than the other.” Awkward Rumi adds, her hands fiddling uneasily in her lap.
“That is not what I was trying to imply.” Leader Rumi argues with her nose pinched between her fingers and Snarky Rumi scoffs.
“You kinda did.”
“Anyway!” Leader Rumi states through tight lips. “We don’t know what they’re going to say so we have to think of a reasonable response to this.”
“What if they confess that they’re in love with us like we’re in love with them?” A voice whispers from the back row but its words are heard so clearly.
“That’s even more implausible than anything Anxious Rumi said.” Snarky Rumi snorts.
“I’m just being—”
“—delusional?”
“Thank you, Hopeful Rumi,” Leader Rumi cuts in, a wry smile marking her lips, “but I don’t think we’ll need you for this.”
“What?” Hopeful Rumi rasps. “But—”
“You’re dismissed.” Leader Rumi gestures to the corner, waiting with a passive expression. Hopeful Rumi sighs loudly before rising from her chair in the back, walking to the corner, and plopping down.
Leader Rumi returns her attention to the group with a sigh, her shoulders dropping slightly.
“Should we summon another Rumi?” Snarky Rumi wonders and Leader Rumi immediately straightens up.
“No no no. As I said, this is not an emergency. We don’t need all hands on deck for this— we can do this.” She gestures between all of them and the remaining Rumis exchange a look before slowly nodding.
“How about ‘okie dokie’?” Awkward Rumi suggests, prompting Snarky Rumi’s immediate groan.
“What, it shows agreement while being casual and playful!”
“We’re not eight years old!”
“We need it to be simple.” Anxious Rumi directs. “So they don’t hate us.”
“Right,” Leader Rumi agrees, “what did you have in mind?”
“Hmm…” Instead of stroking her braid, which has now completely unraveled, Anxious Rumi strokes her chin as she ponders deeply before she lights up with an idea.
“Oh! How about something like—
Okay.” Rumi murmurs, lips stretching into an awkward smile, and Zoey and Mira share a loaded look with each other before turning back to Rumi and trying to match her smile.
“We failed!” Anxious Rumi crows, smearing her hands down her face in a dramatic manner. “I knew we should’ve said ‘sure’, ‘okay’ is too nonchalant!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Leader Rumi mumbles to herself. “We just— we just have to hold.”
Zoey grabs Rumi’s hand, lacing their fingers together while Mira wraps an arm around her shoulders and steers the three of them towards the couch.
She’s seated between the two of them, something she’d normally love if not for the fact that she feels trapped now with whatever lies on the other side of this talk.
There’s another conversation Mira and Zoey have with their eyes, one Rumi can’t understand even as she whips her head back and forth between them to look at them.
Eventually…
“Rumi.” Zoey starts, voice gentle.
“Oh my God, they’re gonna kill us.”
“What the fuck?” Leader Rumi exasperates at Anxious Rumi. “Why would you say that!?”
“Listen to how she said our name!” Comes the protest. “That’s how you say it before you put down a dog!”
“We have to move spots.” Awkward Rumi whines. “We can’t be between them, it’s too weird!”
“What are we supposed to do? Clearly they did it because they knew we would want to run.” Snarky Rumi reasons and Anxious Rumi whines louder.
“We’re gonna die!”
“At least it’ll be by them.” Awkward Rumi sighs.
“Everyone, shut up!” Leader Rumi bellows and obedience gives way. “We have to listen to what they say no matter what. Okay?”
Anxious Rumi squirms in her seat, Awkward Rumi stares at the ground, and Snarky Rumi huffs petulantly, but Leader Rumi receives no protest.
“Okay, then.” She confirms.
A silence stretches long enough that Rumi realizes the two of them are waiting for her to say something.
“Wait— no way they expect us to say something!” Snarky Rumi exclaims. “What are we supposed to say to that!?”
“Maybe, we’re supposed to show we’re listening?” Leader Rumi tries. “Or that we’re ready for what they’re going to say or something.”
“But we don’t even know what they’re going to say!” Anxious Rumi groans.
“Whatever!” Snarky Rumi shouts. “We need to move this along or Anxious Rumi will combust. Just say—
—Yes?”
“This isn’t anything bad.” Mira assures on her left, placing a hand over Rumi’s from where she was picking at her pants, and the patterns visible on her arm cool to lily white from where they were flaring bright red.
“Fucking patterns!” Leader Rumi yells irritably.
“Fucking patterns.” The other Rumis echo in varying tones, before Snarky Rumi remarks, “Okay, we have to play it cool.”
“Pull the sleeves down!” Awkward Rumi suggests.
Rumi stares straight forward as she tries to subtly pull her sleeves down, but she can see from the corner of her eyes the way Zoey’s eyes follow the action and the down turn of Mira’s lips.
“Fuck.” Snarky Rumi groans, but Anxious Rumi assures, “It’s okay, we had to do it.”
“Ignore it!” Awkward Rumi demands. “Pretend we didn’t do it— we have to move on!”
“Alright. What did you guys want to talk about?” Rumi asks nonchalantly, fingers fiddling with the inside of her sleeves and Zoey’s eyes take a moment to pull away from this.
“Rumi…” Zoey starts, letting her name linger in the air for longer than necessary, “we love you.”
“Why did she dramatically pause?” A voice croaks and Awkward Rumi hisses, “Shut up, Hopeful Rumi!”
“I love you guys, too.” Rumi immediately responds, a bright crooked smile naturally making its way onto her face. It falters, though, at the sight of Zoey slightly frowning and glancing behind Rumi.
“Rumi…” It’s Mira’s turn to say, causing Rumi to crane her neck to face her. Mira’s face is crafted into its usual calm demeanor, save for the slight furrow of her brows that gives away her nerves.
“We really love you.”
“I… really love you guys, too.”
“What the fuck is happening?” Snarky Rumi exasperates and Awkward Rumi cries, “I don’t know!”
“Okay, it’s fine,” Leader Rumi soothes, “we can— we can go along with this.”
“I’m so so grateful that… for some reason, you guys were able to look past my patterns. That you see me as…” Rumi pauses, blinks as she reigns in the swarm of words ready to tumble out of her mouth. Instead, she waves a flippant hand, gives a wry smile and a shake of her head.
“Well, anyway. Was that it?” She looks between the two of them as she laughs. “You guys didn’t need to make this seem like such a big deal, jeez. Trying to give me a heart attack.” Rumi’s itching to leave but notes the way that Mira and Zoey look at each other with varying expressions of exasperation on their faces.
Her head starts getting dizzy with the way she whips it back and forth between them again, but she doesn’t stop until Zoey clamps a hand on her shoulder and pushes her back so she’s laying on the couch with the two of them within frame.
“No, Rumi.” Zoey groans— almost growls from some sort of frustration she’s experiencing. “Mira and I, we’re in l—”
“—dating.”
Silence has never stretched so long before and it’s Anxious Rumi who has to break it.
“Leader Rumi?”
“Huh?” She says, has to blink rapidly before she realizes she’s been staring at the last couple of words for who knows how long.
“That says ‘dating’, right?”
“Yeah.” Snarky Rumi answers quietly and Leader Rumi stares at the word for a moment, like if she does it hard enough it’ll disappear, before she slowly turns around to face the other Rumis.
“Um… I don’t…” Is all Leader Rumi mutters before she glances at the corner and croaks, “Where’s Hopeful Rumi?” She then looks at Snarky Rumi, who looks at Awkward Rumi, who looks at Anxious Rumi, who won’t look at anyone. This wouldn’t be unusual, if not for the fact that Anxious Rumi looks… rounder than usual.
“Anxious Rumi…” Leader Rumi starts and Anxious Rumi immediately tenses up, wrapping her arms around herself and pushing back into her chair as if she could shrink.
“Did you fucking eat Hopeful Rumi?” Snarky Rumi questions, edged with a laugh. Finally, that brings Anxious Rumi’s gaze up and she glances at them with obvious guilt on her face.
“We needed her!” Leader Rumi exclaims.
“You sent her away!”
“I didn’t expect you to eat her!”
“Guys, what do we do?” Awkward Rumi wails and Snarky Rumi waves an exasperated hand.
“Did we even say anything to them yet?”
“Oh.”
“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you guys!” Rumi cooes, lunging forward to wrap her arms around their necks to drag them down to the couch. She squeezes them tight, tucks them further into the crooks of her neck so that they can’t see the way her patterns flash pitch black for a moment.
“Rumi, we can’t breathe.”
“Good.” Snarky Rumi grumbles.
“I can’t believe they’re dating.” Anxious Rumi cries out, dropping her head into her hands. “And I say that with happiness!”
“Do you?” Snarky Rumi challenges. “Must be Hopeful Rumi coming back up.”
“Shut up!”
“I can’t believe we thought we had a chance with both of them.” Awkward Rumi murmurs. “Or even either of them.”
“How greedy of us.” Snarky Rumi sighs and then there’s nothing more they say for a while.
“But we can be okay with this, right?” Anxious Rumi speaks up eventually, eyes bouncing between the other Rumis.
“We may not deserve them,” Awkward Rumi utters before she tilts her chin up with what is supposed to be a determined look, “but they deserve each other.” Any other time, the voice crack at the end would’ve had the other Rumis rolling their eyes and chuckling, but this time, they nod crisply as determination seeps into them.
“Right.” Leader Rumi affirms. “We’ll always be there for them, even if…” It takes a while for her sad smile to sharpen, but it does and then she’s staring each Rumi in the eyes with a determined look.
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll be okay.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Rumi laughs through a tight smile, releasing them with a lingering caress of their shoulders. They don’t move too far, though, still touch her in some way that makes Rumi squirm, as it normally does, but now with a touch of guilt and shame.
They glance at each other—
“Look at them… How did we ever think we could get between them?”
—before looking at Rumi so intensely she squirms even more in place.
“You’re… fine with this?” Mira tests slowly and Rumi barks out a high-pitched laugh.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be? I love you guys and I want you to be happy and of course that would be with each other. Of course, it’s okay.”
“That was too many ‘of course’s, they’ll know something’s off!”
They look at each other again— which now marks the sixth time they’ve done it, but, this time, Zoey looks irritated with Mira.
It’s confusing, especially when Zoey licks her lips like she’s hesitating on speaking—
“Zoey never hesitates to speak!”
—and Mira finally glances at her with a firm look that has Zoey challenging it.
“Whatever this is, we have to leave now.”
Rumi smiles wide—
“Too wide!”
—before rearranging her face to seem more at ease as she splits between the two of them to stand up.
“Wait, Rumi—” Zoey says, clamping onto her hand before she can figure out placating words to part with. Zoey looks up at her with open eyes and a soft shy smile, her fingers tapping some sort of rhythm against Rumi’s hand.
“We were supposed to watch Frozen together.”
“Remember?” Mira murmurs, her hand coming to rest gently behind Rumi’s knee. “We were gonna make a checklist of all the similarities between you and Elsa.”
“We’re not that similar.” Rumi grumbles petulantly and it has Mira squeezing her knee with a sly smile.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
“I can get us paper and pens!” Zoey starts to rise, excitement zipping through her when Rumi acts quickly, ripping herself from both of their holds.
“No, it’s okay.” She smiles again when she realizes it’s somehow fallen at some point. “You guys can use this as a date night.” They share a glance at each other, eyebrows furrowed in concern and Rumi wants to hiss—
“Stop that!”
—but she keeps her lips stretched into her smile as they look back at her and shift closer to her on the edge of the couch.
“But—”
“Really, it’s fine.” Rumi assures them, risks patting Zoey’s head and squeezing Mira’s shoulder.
“Anyways, I have to go—
—To the bathroom!”
—To sleep!”
“No no no. It has to be—
—For a run!”
“Isn’t it kind of late for that?” Mira questions with an eyebrow raise.
“We used to fight demons in the middle of the night.” Rumi retorts, allows a playful roll of her eyes. “Plus, when is it ever too late to exercise?” It’s a typical witty response from her that shouldn’t have Mira and Zoey still looking at her the way that they are.
She shuffles slightly in place, feels like she’ll combust from the weirdness of the whole situation, so she blurts out, “Bye!” and practically runs away.
“We could’ve handled that exit more gracefully.” Awkward Rumi grumbles and Snarky Rumi nods her head.
“Yeah, we really could’ve.”
“We’re out of there.” Anxious Rumi states with a sigh. “That’s what matters.”
Rumi flops onto her bed and stares up at the ceiling.
“We’ll be fine.” Leader Rumi tries, nodding her head like it makes it more true. “We’ll be fine.”
“As long as we keep going.” Anxious Rumi adds in a murmur.
Rumi blinks and doesn’t move. She blinks and the ceiling doesn’t change. She blinks and hasn’t traveled back in time.
“How long,” Leader Rumi croaks, her eyes taking time to focus on Anxious Rumi, “till Hopeful Rumi comes back?”
Rumi blinks and wonders why she’s still here.
“I... I don’t know.”
There’s a song playing in her headphones— she doesn’t know which— that tunes out Zoey and Mira’s goodbye as she strolls through the kitchen in her workout clothes and makes a beeline for the elevator.
The moment the doors close, she takes a deep breath and feels herself sag with exhaustion.
“Not yet.”
She taps her foot rapidly, desperately trying to keep everything in as the elevator slowly descends.
“Not yet.” She mumbles, even after the elevator ding sets her barreling through the lobby.
“Not yet.” She huffs as her feet slam against the pavement, taking her further and further away from Mira and Zoey.
She latches onto the side of a building and grips and flips her way up, before she stands on the rooftop for a moment, looking out over the city illuminated by the moonlight.
Then, she takes a deep breath and leaps.
She races across the next rooftop and then the next and the next— and then it isn’t long before Rumi bursts into a kaleidoscope of colors— blue, black, pink, purple— shimmering off of her skin and reflecting in the tears that finally stream down her face.