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Rumi was really bad at relaxing.
Like, chronically.
She had gotten so much better at other things since they defeated Gwi-ma. She was sharing a dressing room with her girls, she was visiting the bathhouse with them, she was staying up with them for movie nights and falling asleep in their arms and initiating touches and kisses more every day.
Zoey and Mira were working on Rumi's workaholic tendencies during their hiatus, and that was going better than they expected. Bobby put them on mandatory vacation for the first week after the Idol Awards, meaning no music, no lyrics, no choreography, no costumes, no social media. Mira added no demon hunting, but that had been a non-issue since they made the new Honmoon. It had been seven blissfully boring days of heartfelt talks and bathhouse trips and home cooked meals and couch cuddles.
All three of them were restless after that first week, so they started work on their next single. They resumed Hunter training, even though they weren't sure if they'd ever need it again. But even then, Mira was enforcing weekends and business hours. No work after five and no work Saturdays and Sundays, at least until their hiatus was done.
But the girl still didn't know how to take a nap.
And she needed a nap sometimes. Especially now that Celine was finally seeing a therapist.
It had taken a lot of work from all three girls to convince her she needed to talk to someone about her grief and her guilt and all the things she had passed down to Rumi without meaning to. And now that she was, Rumi was checking in with her on a weekly basis for either in-person visits (usually with the girls in tow) or video calls that often ended in Celine apologizing for her shortcomings and mistakes.
And that was great, honestly. They were healing together, slowly but surely. But it was also exhausting for Rumi. She wasn't used to feeling all of her feelings like this, it was like working out muscles she'd never used before.
And that was how Rumi ended up walking out of her bedroom on a late Sunday morning to what appeared to be an empty penthouse. She'd been on a nearly two hour FaceTime call with Celine after waking up at dawn and sneaking out of bed and into the home gym so she wouldn't disturb Zoey and Mira with her loud, anxious thoughts. It wasn't even noon and she was exhausted, emotionally and physically.
But Rumi still wasn't great at recognizing her own exhaustion, so she texted the group chat to see where her girls were as she walked into the living room. She paused when she heard a notification ding on the other side of the couch.
Zoey’s phone. She must have left it there. With a shrug, she walked around to the front of the couch to see if she could find it, and froze.
Zoey was asleep on the couch, and she looked so snuggly and warm and comfy that Rumi's heart skipped a few beats at the sight of her. She was on her side, cheek pressed into a throw pillow on one end of the couch and ankles crossed daintily on the other. She was wearing shorts, but they were almost invisible under the hem of the oversized hoodie she was wearing, a soft pink one that she and Rumi both liked to steal from Mira. She had snuggled herself into the hoodie rather dramatically, everything below her nose hidden away in the neckline and her arms wrapped around herself like she was cold.
Rumi just stood there for a few long moments, heart seeming to swell in her chest as she watched Zoey's slow, even breaths. Her cheeks were pinker than usual, whether because she was chilly or because she had cozied herself so thoroughly into Mira's hoodie that she was warm, Rumi couldn't tell. Her nose twitched and Rumi noticed her hair was down, falling in soft waves around her face. A strand had fallen and was tickling her, and Rumi crouched in front of her without thinking, tucking the hair back behind her ear as softly as she could.
But Zoey noticed anyway, lashes fluttering as her eyes opened just a crack. A warm, quiet hum slipped out of her when she saw Rumi. Her eyes crinkled in a slow smile that Rumi couldn't see inside the hoodie.
“Ru,” Zoey mumbled, her voice low and rough with sleep but still making Rumi’s name sound so soft. Rumi smiled back, tilting her head and letting her fingertips linger where she'd brushed the hair out of Zoey's face. The pink in her cheeks was warmth, not cold, and Rumi could feel it under her thumb as she stroked her cheekbone.
“Sorry I woke you,” Rumi whispered, and before she could second guess herself she leaned in and kissed Zoey’s forehead. Zoey hummed at the contact, and when Rumi pulled back she had comfortably closed her eyes again.
“Come,” Zoey murmured, tapping her hand where it was tucked against her ribcage a couple times.
Rumi sighed, glancing away. But before she could even start to make excuses, Zoey tilted her chin up out of the neck of her hoodie so Rumi could see her pout. She stuck her lower lip out dramatically, and Rumi had to tamp down a sudden desire to lean in and take that lip between her teeth. She flushed, embarrassed, but Zoey didn't seem to notice.
“Rumiiiiiii,” she whined softly, and Rumi's resolve crumbled. Zoey was always cute, but her personality was so big it was easy to forget how small she was. Right now though, tucked into Mira's hoodie and blinking slowly up at Rumi, she looked tiny and precious, and all Rumi wanted was to wrap her up in her arms. Maybe forever.
“Fine,” Rumi sighed, rolling her eyes like it was a huge inconvenience as she sat on the couch beside Zoey's hips. But Zoey just wiggled happily in place, cheeks turning a shade pinker. “C'mere, darling.”
Rumi laid down facing her, scooching close until their bodies were pressed together and Zoey was pinned against the back of the couch. She made room on the throw pillow for Rumi's head so they were resting nose-to-nose, and the smile that bloomed slowly across Zoey's face made Rumi's stomach do a funny little flip.
“I like when you call me darling,” Zoey whispered, rubbing her nose softly against Rumi's, and Rumi blushed. Her patterns glowed rosy pink for a moment, something Rumi was still getting used to and Zoey and Mira absolutely adored. Zoey hummed happily and shuffled a bit in place before Rumi felt her hands on her stomach. She was wearing an oversized cropped Huntrix tee from their first tour, and she shivered pleasantly when Zoey's fingers dragged across her abs.
Rumi sighed through her nose, snaking an arm under Zoey's waist to wrap around her and pull her flush. Zoey's hands were pinned between them briefly and she huffed a laugh before sliding them along Rumi's sides ticklishly. Rumi shifted to give her enough room to press her hands up against Rumi's back beneath her shirt, fingers curling against the ridges of her spine just below her bra.
Rumi's breath shuddered and she lifted her free hand to Zoey's face, finally giving in to her momentary urge from earlier and swiping her thumb softly across her lower lip. Zoey's blush deepened, dark eyes fixed on Rumi's with a sleepy kind of heat.
“I like calling you darling,” Rumi said with a grin, dragging her thumb along her jaw to make room for her lips as she pressed in for a long, achingly soft kiss. Zoey smiled into it, letting out a delighted laugh when Rumi took her lower lip briefly between her teeth.
They settled in when the kiss slowed to a stop, Zoey ending it with a series of shorter and softer pecks on Rumi's lips that left them both giggling breathlessly. Rumi tucked Zoey fully into her arms and Zoey snuggled in, pressing her nose comfortably into Rumi's neck.
“You comfy, unnie?” Zoey murmured, smiling lips brushing Rumi's pulse point. Rumi shivered pleasantly and hummed an affirmative.
“Good, ‘cause you're not moving for a while.”
Rumi barely had time to blink her eyes open in surprise at the sound of Mira's voice before Zoey's legs wrapped around her hips. Before she knew it, Zoey had flipped them both and had her pinned into the couch cushions, lying fully on top of her. And suddenly Mira was there, lying in the space Rumi had occupied just moments ago and pressing them both between her body and the back of the couch. Zoey snuggled her face happily into Rumi's neck again, giggling in triumph.
“What the-?” Rumi asked blankly, turning her head to look at Mira and immediately getting captured in a slow, heated kiss that left her panting. Mira wrapped her arms around both of them, pressing smiling kisses to Rumi's cheek and neck and jaw until she was laughing helplessly.
“We laid a trap,” Zoey cackled, and she joined Mira in peppering kisses along Rumi's neck and collarbones until she was blushing and her patterns glowed pink. “And you fell right into it! Ha!”
“Zoey’s so cute when she sleeps, we knew you wouldn't be able to resist,” Mira added smugly, slipping a hand under Zoey's hoodie and pinching her hip until she squirmed away giggling.
“Why did you need to trap me?” Rumi laughed, already getting warm and sleepy under Zoey's weight and Mira's arms.
“Why did you sneak out of bed this morning?” Mira replied easily, and her tone was still light and teasing but her eyes were searching when Rumi met them again. Rumi sighed, wrinkling her nose as she seemed to realize what she'd done and swallowing hard when she felt Zoey pressing kisses to her shirt right over her heartbeat.
“I… I woke up feeling anxious and couldn't fall back to sleep,” Rumi said slowly, saying the words out loud as much for her own benefit as for her girls. She slipped a hand up into Zoey's hair, carding her fingers through the soft curls left behind by taking her braids out. Zoey hummed, face still tucked against Rumi's heartbeat. Mira just smiled at her patiently, dark eyes soft in a way only Rumi and Zoey knew they could be. “And I didn't want to bother you guys, so I snuck out to deal with it by myself.”
“What could you have done instead?” Mira asked quietly, slipping a hand up between them to brush her thumb along the patterns glowing pink on Rumi's face. Her eyes fluttered shut comfortably at the touch, slowly moving around her face, pattern by pattern.
“I could have stayed,” Rumi sighed, and Zoey's arms around her waist squeezed tighter for a second. “And waited for you to wake up. Or… woken you up to talk about it?”
“Yep, full points,” Mira said with a smile that Rumi shyly mirrored. “You never have to sit there alone in your own head, Rumi.”
“We want all of you,” Zoey added, propping her chin up on Rumi's collarbone so she could look up at her. “Not just the Rumi everyone gets to see. The hard parts and the scary parts too.”
Tears stung at Rumi's eyes even though they had said nearly this exact thing to her at least a dozen times in the weeks since the Idol Awards. She closed her eyes and nodded, more to herself than anything, before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She did this a couple times, smiling at the feeling of both her girls breathing in sync with her.
They were getting better at this. All of them, together. Coaxing each other gently through the scary stuff and holding each other close on the other side.
Rumi's patterns faded back to normal, lines of opalescent silver on her skin that Mira was now tracing down her neck reverently with her fingertips.
“I'll wake you up next time,” Rumi said quietly, shy but earnest as she met Mira's eyes again. She slid her gaze to Zoey, who was still smiling at her from her chest, and thought for sure Zoey would be able to feel her heart fluttering like a hummingbird behind her ribs. “Both of you.”
“Good,” Zoey whispered, and she scooted up enough to press a few kisses to Rumi's lips, short but lingering. As soon as she was done, Mira turned Rumi's face gently back toward her and did the same, stealing Rumi's breath away with warm little kisses while Zoey watched, cheeks pink and eyes sparkling.
“Good,” Mira agreed, and Rumi was blushing again by the time they all snuggled back in together. Zoey's warm weight was on top of her, legs wrapped snug around her hips and arms even snugger around her waist, face buried in the space between Rumi's neck and shoulder. Mira pressed into her side, one arm under Zoey's hoodie, the other under Rumi's tee, a palm pressed to the small of the back of each of her girls. Her nose and mouth were in Rumi's hair, lingering from where she'd pressed a kiss to her temple.
Rumi was still running her fingers slowly through Zoey's hair, and she managed to sneak her other arm under Mira to do the same to her. She eventually settled with her arms looped loosely around both of their shoulders, lulled to sleep by their soft breaths and slow heartbeats.
They slept for a couple of hours, all snuggly and soft together on the couch. Rumi jokingly lamented the loss of precious daylight, and the girls refused to let her up from the couch until dinner time as punishment.
They'd done what they set out to do with great success.
Rumi had taken a nap.