Chapter Text
Tuesday was bad. Rumi had told them her stomach ached as they were eating breakfast.
Zoey was holding her instantly. "You mean...like, this food is bad, or-"
"Here." Rumi said, one hand on her lower abdomen, exactly where it had hurt when she'd been presenting before.
"How bad?" Mira asked.
"Just...a little ache." Rumi said. "Not that bad."
"Promise you'll tell us, if it gets worse." Mira said.
Rumi nodded. "I promise."
The way Rumi was moving told Mira it was getting worse, or she hadn't told them how bad it was.
Why wasn't she saying anything?
Rumi barely managed to stand up, when Celine told them lunch was ready. She ate less than half of her meal. She tried to hide that she hadn't finished.
Mira was watching Rumi from the nest. She had only been this worried once before, when Zoey and Rumi were stuck in the demon world. Something was wrong, and Mira couldn't help.
She ordered food without telling Rumi. Rumi tried to protest, when she got up to go and get it.
"Rums, I'm just getting food." Mira said. "I'm the other omega in this pack. You should let me prove I can provide for you, too."
Rumi had no argument for that. Mira went downstairs, and got the food.
Rumi barely ate.
She was clearly in a lot more pain than she'd told them. Why wasn't she asking for help?
Zoey thought they should try to help her regardless of whether she was asking for it. Mira told her that they might just make her panic, which would make it worse. If she pushed them away, they wouldn't be able to help at all.
About an hour after they ate, Rumi made a pained noise, like she was trying so hard to keep it inside, but couldn't. Zoey moved first. She got in the under-desk nest with Rumi, and held her, trying to soothe her.
"Rumi, be honest. How bad is it?" Mira asked.
"...Not that...b-bad, just...worse than before." Rumi whispered.
"Rumi...is 'before' earlier today, or-"
"First two heats." Rumi breathed. "Worse than them. I'm gonna die...aren't I?"
Mira got her phone out. "I'm calling Celine."
Celine told Mira exactly how to give Rumi the morphine, and exactly how much to give her. She explained that she'd learned to avoid the patterns when Rumi was vaccinated as a child, and that the overdose when Rumi was eleven had caused a lasting resistance to standard and oral painkillers, due to the way her demonic healing works.
Rumi fell asleep a few moments after the injection.
Celine had been telling someone to rearrange the rest of her meetings tonight. "Girls, is she awake?" She asked.
"...No, she's gone." Zoey said, still holding her close. "Breathing, just...asleep, I think."
"Better than being in pain." Mira said.
"She told me she had instincts not to tell us, that she thought we'd leave her if we knew." Zoey said.
"Oh, Rumi." Mira whispered, one hand on Rumi's shoulder. "Never. You're ours. We're yours."
"Girls, I have to go." Celine said. "Stay with her. If she's still under the desk, I'll need her out."
They moved some parts of the under-desk nest, so that Rumi was still on something comfortable when they dragged her out from under the desk. She looked so peaceful like this.
"Mira?" Zoey asked. "You...didn't get any instincts from her heat, did you?"
"No. Did you?" Mira asked.
"None at all." Zoey said. "I was just going along with what she wanted. But...I should have felt something, shouldn't I? I mean, even if she only has demon pheromones, can't we respond to those?"
"...Zoey." Mira said. "'Pheromones' are scent and taste. We can't differentiate demon bearings by scent. That's why we need to do it visually. It's probably why she doesn't taste like anything. She does, just not to us."
"But...can't I?" Zoey asked. "I'm part demon...a tiny part. Shouldn't I maybe be able to, a little bit?"
"Zo...if you didn't get instincts this week...I don't think you're gonna respond to her pheromones." Mira said, carefully. "That being said, I responded to her pheromones, when we were 14/15, you remember? Her heat induced mine." Zoey nodded. "So we can both respond to her human omega pheromones, just not the demon ones. Okay?"
Zoey nodded, looking at Rumi sadly. "I guess...it's not that important, right now, is it?" She asked. Mira hummed. "I just want her to be okay."
"She'll be okay." Mira said. "Celine will know what to do."
Celine did not know what to do. She asked them questions, then noticed that Rumi had woken up, so asked Rumi some questions.
The morphine hadn't worked properly. It hadn't made the pain stop, it had only made her sleepy.
Celine decided they were taking her to a hospital.
"Bring all of your phones, bring her blockers, bring everything you might need, in case we're staying overnight." Celine said to Zoey, as Mira took Rumi downstairs.
Mira stopped, just outside the door, staring at the silver car parked where Celine's black one usually was. "...Whose car is that?" She asked.
"That is Bobby's." Celine said, before explaining to them why one of the manager applicants had driven her home.
Okay. Sure. Whatever. Mira got in the back with Rumi, putting her barely-conscious girlfriend's head in her lap. Zoey climbed in after them, and put Rumi's curled up legs in her lap. They were determined to keep her safe.
Bobby was talking to Celine. Mira wasn't paying attention. She was too focussed on Rumi's face. Her eyes. Darting around like she was trying so hard to take everything in, but also giving her away every time she flinched in pain. Mira held her shoulder tight, keeping her safe, and stroked her hair out of her eyes with her spare hand. Bobby started driving. The ground was uneven here. Rumi whined in pain, and tried hiding her face, pressing into Mira's stomach. Mira held her close.
Rumi went completely limp less than two minutes after they set off. Mira moved her onto her back, and checked her breathing and pulse. Both were more or less normal.
"She's passed out." Mira said. "Breathing and heart rate seem fine. I'll keep monitoring her."
Celine nodded. "Thank you, Mira."
"Okay. Don't freak out, Bobby, it's fine." Mira heard Bobby whisper, eyes locked on the road. "Straight to the hospital. She'll be fine."
Mira smiled. "Is this your first time?" She asked. "You seem nervous."
"You seem awfully not nervous, considering your bandmate is unconscious." Bobby said, definitely nervous.
"Rumi's tough, she'll pull through." Mira said. "She always does."
"...Sorry, sorry, I just worry." Bobby said. "She was in so much pain, and now she's...oh gosh, this is awful, you're teenagers, you shouldn't have to deal with anything like this."
Rumi made a little noise in her sleep, pulling Mira out of the conversation with Bobby, to check her mate's vitals again. "I think...her blood pressure just dropped. Her pulse is kinda weak." Mira said. "Celine, can you...call the hospital, and tell them we're going?"
"I've already contacted them." Celine said. "Dr Yin is waiting for us. They saw Rumi for the...roof incident, when she was nine, and...something else, when she was six. I don't think Rumi remembers either."
That meant Dr Yin probably already knew about Rumi's patterns. One less thing to explain.
They got to the hospital, a smaller, private one, about twenty minutes after they set off, which was pretty fast, even for this late at night. It helped that Bobby never slowed below the speed limit, and sped up to get through traffic lights that were about to change.
Dr Yin was waiting for them with a stretcher, when they pulled into the emergency parking bay. "We're short-staffed, today, so it's just me, and a nurse, until the on-call surgeon is here." Dr Yin said, as soon as Celine opened her door. "You said in your messages that you gave her painkillers. What were they?"
"Morphine. She lost consciousness fifteen minutes ago." Celine said, opening Mira's door. Mira hastily unfastened her seat belt, and carried Rumi out, laying her down on the stretcher.
"And...these are..." Dr Yin asked, glancing between Zoey and Mira.
"We're Rumi's mates." Mira said. "Fated."
"They were with her as her symptoms developed. I wasn't." Celine said. "Girls, stay with Bobby. I have to go with Rumi. Bobby, again, thank you so much for agreeing to this."
"Of course, it's no problem at all." Bobby said.
"If it's alright, girls, I'll have someone ask you some questions about her condition, while I'm examining her." Dr Yin said.
Zoey was holding Mira tightly. "Yeah, we'll answer anything." Zoey said.
Bobby took them into a waiting room, after parking his car somewhere else. "Okay, girls, I know you only just met me today, but Celine can't leave you unsupervised, so she's asked me to stay with you." He said, sitting down in the almost empty waiting room. "I'm going to be here for you, anything you need, anything at all."
Mira sat down opposite him, and nodded. Zoey climbed into Mira's lap, and hugged her.
"...We need quiet? Okay, I can do quiet." Bobby said.
There was awkward silence for a few moments, save for Zoey quietly crying into Mira's chest.
"You're here with...Ryu Rumi, aren't you?" A nurse asked, standing at the head of the tiny coffee table between Mira and Bobby. Mira looked up at her, and nodded. "I'm Ha-eun, I'm the nurse assigned to Ms Ryu, and Dr Yin told me to ask you a few questions about her condition."
"Yeah, of course, anything." Mira said, gently ushering Zoey out of her lap, and into the seat next to her.
"Has anything like this ever happened before?" Ha-eun asked, holding a pen and clipboard, ready to take notes.
"When she first presented, she got the same abdominal pain, or very similar, and that's why she's on blockers." Mira said.
"...Presentation issues?" Ha-eun asked.
"Uh...mixed instincts. We're pretty sure she's an omega, but she has had claiming instincts and providing instincts, and she's got bigger fangs than Zoey." Mira said. "I know fang size is kinda...variable, but it's pretty rare for omegas to have fangs that big. She also, uh...bled...down there, when she...presented. Both times."
"The second time was when she was fifteen, I'd guess?" Ha-eun asked.
"Yeah." Mira said. "Same mixed instincts, same bleeding, same pain. Celine got her back on the blockers."
"Do you know...any potential causes?" Ha-eun asked.
"I'm...inter-bearing, and we're fated." Zoey said, quietly. "And...Rumi's Mom's fated were both inter-bearing, too. I-I don't know if she was, but..."
"Genetic cause. Makes sense." Ha-eun said. "What instincts did she get, when she presented?"
"Nesting, gathering scent items, scenting us, she had a soft drop, when I went to the bathroom, the first time, uh...at some point, something changed, she tried to bite me, she growled at me when I resisted, um...and she's stronger than me, now, so the second time, Zoey had to tackle her to the ground to get her to stop." Mira said.
"What was her scent like?" Ha-eun asked. "I...know that's a very personal question, but it would help-"
"Vanilla and...tabasco sauce." Mira said. "I...hadn't presented, when she did, the first time, and...that was the only way I could...recognise it."
"Vanilla is typically an omega scent, but most other spices, especially varieties of chilli pepper, are exclusively alpha scents." Ha-eun said.
"You think she might be inter-bearing?" Zoey asked. "But...she wasn't acting like she was in rut at all."
"She did call us hers, but...I'm an omega, and I do that, too." Mira said. "And she still does that when she's on blockers."
"This time, was she on the blockers, or not?" Ha-eun asked.
"Yes, she was. Still is." Mira said. "She insisted that she had to keep taking them, even though it looked like she was in heat. We think they're failing. She had her vanilla scent, this time, but just that."
"Was she bleeding?" Ha-eun asked.
"No. We checked." Mira said. "And her instincts were a bit more...defined? She was...um..."
Ha-eun waited a few seconds, but Mira wasn't sure how much she should say. "If there's any chance that knowing what instincts she had this time will get us closer to an answer, please tell me what they were." Ha-eun said.
"She was nesting. We woke up on Saturday, and she'd started building the nest around us." Zoey said. "And she was aware enough to know she shouldn't be in heat, because she'd taken her blockers every morning, and she could prove it. Then...Mira went to tell Celine, and they came back with food. Rumi took the food, pulled Mira into the room, and growled at Celine, but not like...how I was, when I was in rut, it was more like she was just trying to get Mira away from Celine, than trying to fight Celine for Mira."
"She put us in her nest, and she was all...rigid about it." Mira said. "My 'spot' was soft and comfortable, and Zoey's 'spot' was warm, and we had to stay there, unless we needed to use the bathroom."
"Hmm." Ha-eun said. "A rigid adherence to one's perception of the 'correct' way to present is common in people whose cycles have been medically suppressed. You had specified locations in the nest. Where was Rumi's?"
"...Uh." Mira said.
"She was...kinda...she insisted it'd be safer..." Zoey tried.
"Girls. I need to know." Ha-eun said.
"Under the desk, opposite the door, where she'd be the first to see if anyone tried coming in." Mira said. "To...protect us."
"...I see." Ha-eun said. "That kind of thing is...rare for omegas, but has been associated with medical suppression in teenagers, particularly with repeated attempts at letting someone present, and having them go back on the blockers if something goes wrong. In her mind, the chance to be with you properly has been torn away from her twice."
"...Properly?" Zoey asked.
"The way she feels she's supposed to be with you." Ha-eun said. "I'm not trying to suggest that she's not with you in a meaningful way, I'm simply saying that her instincts to be protective of you are likely a product of her previous failed presentations. If Celine was the person to give her the blockers, she might be subconsciously blaming Celine, which could be why she wanted to keep you safe from her."
That made a lot of sense. "She could leave the nest, and she refused to let us go and get food." Mira said. "She said...'they stay, they're mine, I get food, they stay safe here, in their nest', when Celine tried to tell one of us to go downstairs to get lunch."
"So there was a disconnection between her part of the nest, and yours?" Ha-eun asked.
"Yeah, but she came in with us if we asked her to." Mira said. "She always...went back to the under-desk nest after...an hour or so, but she wasn't keeping herself completely separate from us until today."
"And...the abdominal pain. When did that start?" Ha-eun asked.
"This morning. She told us during breakfast." Zoey said. "We made her promise to tell us if it got worse, because it got worse the last two times, but she didn't tell us, because her instincts told her we'd leave her if we knew."
"...As though she thought it was her fault?" Ha-eun asked.
"No, like...when she was talking about her instincts, she kept saying she was doing all of this stuff for us to prove she was worthy." Zoey said. "It was like she thought we might think there was something wrong with her, if we knew she was in pain, and that would make us not want her."
"That's...very interesting." Ha-eun said. "Omegas don't usually try to prove their worth to their mates, it's usually the other way around-"
Zoey saw Celine, and climbed over Mira to get out of the corner. "Celine!" She called, dragging Mira along with her.
And there was Rumi. Barely conscious, on a bed, being wheeled towards a door marked OR3. Operating Room 3. That meant she was having surgery. That meant there was something that needed fixing, or removing, that Celine didn't think Rumi's natural healing could fix. Or...maybe this was a temporary solution? Mira did not know.
"Celine, please tell me they're not taking her where I think they're taking her." Zoey said, squeezing Mira's hand, definitely trying not to panic. "Rumi, are you okay? How are you feeling, baby?"
Rumi groaned. Celine tried to stammer out an answer that didn't end up amounting to much.
"Can you tell us anything?" Mira asked. "Literally anything. We're so fucking worried."
Celine opened her mouth to speak, and no sound came out.
"...'M pregnant." Rumi mumbled, definitely still in pain.
"What!?" Zoey and Mira both said at once.
Did they hear that right?
Rumi was delirious in pain, they could not have heard that right.
Mira was frozen.
Zoey was panicking.
That panic, that absolute reasoning that Rumi definitely could not be pregnant, pulled Mira back, and she grabbed Zoey's hand. "Zoey. Breathe." She said, firmly. Zoey did. Mira looked at the doctor. "Why is it hurting her like this?"
"If it's a pregnancy, it's ectopic." The doctor said, tapping lightly on the door, and motioning through the window for someone to come out. "It implanted in the wrong place, and it's grown large enough to cause severe pain. They're prepping the OR now."
It looked like they had prepped the OR, and they were just waiting for Rumi to be there. "How long does it take for it to get that big?" Mira asked, because as far as she knew, this could only be from eight days ago, and it couldn't be very big, there was no way.
"I'd estimate two to three months."
"That's not it, then. The first time they had sex was last week." Mira said.
Celine looked uncomfortable. Rumi was clearly still in pain.
"...I see. Well, it could be from a previous partner-"
"No." Rumi mumbled. "Only them."
Mira was suddenly hit with a horrible thought. Rumi was so hesitant to be intimate with them in certain ways. She was sick when Zoey and Mira had sex, and she was sick after she and Zoey had sex. The way she didn't seem to react until it looked and sounded like it hurt, the way she tried to squirm away when Mira had touched her through clothes...it was all pointing to the possibility that someone hurt their girl.
The doctor had been talking, but Mira had not been paying attention at all. Rumi was writhing in pain again. Another doctor...Mira guessed he was a doctor, put a mask on Rumi's face, attached to a tube, and a small gas canister, while the first doctor held her still. "Rumi, breathe in for me." The first doctor said. Rumi did, sucking in a few shaky breaths. She went limp after a few moments, sinking back into the bed, losing consciousness again, but this time in a way the doctors could control.
The second doctor took Rumi into the operating room.
"It's a simple procedure." The first doctor said, mostly to Zoey and Mira. "It should take less than an hour. She's in good hands."
They stepped into the room, and shut the door, leaving Celine, Zoey, and Mira standing in the hallway, worried as all Hell.
Mira couldn't breathe. This was the second time this year she was supposed to sit there doing nothing, while one or both of her mates was in severe danger. Rumi was going to be fine, though. They knew where she was, this time. They were going to figure out if...if some monster hurt her.
Mira's vision blurred. She wasn't really aware of what was going on around her. None of it mattered. Not when she was facing the potential reality that someone had hurt their Rumi.
A firm hand on one side of her neck. The command to breathe. Mira obeyed. She breathed for the first time in...a while. Why had she...stopped?
Celine was pulling Mira into her lap. Mira didn't fight it.
"You're allowed to be upset, little one." Celine said, voice soft. "This is difficult. Let yourself feel it. Let yourself break. It won't make you any less."
But Mira refused to break down like this. She pulled out of Celine's arms, and stumbled away from them.
She'd taken the charging cable that Zoey had stuffed in their bag, because her phone was nearly dead. The hospital's free wifi was...kinda shit, but she was using it anyway. She'd curled up on the floor, next to a vending machine, with her phone plugged in, and she was googling some stuff she thought might be relevant, like PTSD symptoms.
She did try to figure out when it could have happened. Rumi...didn't seem to remember it at all...if it happened. She was avoiding what Mira guessed would be triggers. But then...they'd already figured out that Rumi probably wasn't into sex, a long time before this could have happened. It had to be...when they were in America, and...sometime when Zoey and Mira both weren't with her, because no-one had been to the temple except them, the previous Hunters, and their tutors, but Zoey and Mira would have remembered if either of them had been there.
The only brief interval Mira could think of was...when Rumi was asleep, in that deep, cat in a sunbeam, sleep state, and she'd looked so incredibly calm, so they'd...left her there, on her own, and got lunch without her. Fifteen minutes, at most.
Mira felt disgusting.
They'd let this happen.
This was their fault.
"Hi, Mira." Bobby's voice, gentle, patient. "Just getting myself a drink from this vending machine. Do you want anything?"
Mira didn't respond. She couldn't. She didn't deserve anything. It was all her fault.
"You want some water?" Bobby asked. "I'll get you some water."
There was a clunk, as a bottle of something was dropped to the bottom of the machine. A few seconds later, there was another.
And then Bobby was sitting down next to her, on the floor. "I heard what happened. You kinda seemed to tune out, after Dr Yin said how long ago they thought it happened." He said, choosing his words very carefully. "I see you're researching PTSD. You think she might not remember?"
Mira turned her phone off, and hid her face in her knees, refusing to engage with him.
"You know, Celine thinks it's more likely to be a cyst or a tumour." Bobby said. "That means it's no-one's fault. It's just...a thing that happens sometimes."
"Why the fuck are you still here?" Mira asked, maybe a little harshly.
"Because Celine asked for help." Bobby said. "And because you guys don't have a car. And I'd never want to see you stranded and alone."
Mira still refused to look at him.
"Do you want some water?" Bobby asked.
"No." Mira said.
"That's okay. I'll just leave it here-"
"I don't want it." Mira said. "If I drink it, I'll have to go to the bathroom, and I hate the bathrooms in hospitals. They feel so unsanitary."
"...Oh. Um...there's a supermarket not far from here, and they've got a restroom you can use." Bobby said. "I can drive you there, if you need."
Mira...genuinely was not expecting that. She made the mistake of looking at him.
"There she is." Bobby said, smiling softly. "Can I lure you back to some actual chairs, if I tell you it's really the mango soda Zoey says Celine doesn't buy for you, and both bottles are really for you and Zoey?"
Mira looked at the two bottles Bobby had got from the vending machine. Mango soda. Mira stared at them.
"Do you want it?" Bobby asked, turning one of the bottles around slowly, before picking them both up, and standing up. "Come on. Let's go and sit on some chairs. Zoey found some charging points closer to where we were." He started heading back towards the other side of the waiting room. Mira got up, and followed him, without thinking.
Zoey was clinging to Celine. She had definitely been crying. Mira hesitantly sat down in the seat next to them.
"...Zo, I...I'm sorry...for leaving you on your own." Mira said, softly. "I got overwhelmed. And I panicked."
Silence for a few seconds. Mira couldn't look at her mate. She definitely couldn't face Celine.
"It's...okay." Zoey whispered. "...I-I got overwhelmed, too."
Mira leaned against her, and put one hand protectively on her back.
"My head kinda...jumped to the worst case scenario, and...Celine's spent the last fifteen minutes trying to convince me it's not that." Zoey said.
"...I think I kinda did the same." Mira said. "I...uh, you remember...when I was in heat, and she didn't sleep the night I had a seizure, so we let her sleep through lunch, but we didn't eat in our room?"
"You thought the same thing I did, that it was the only time in the last five months we'd left her on her own, so that could be when someone...raped her." Zoey whispered. Mira nodded. "No-one could have got in. We were in the dining room, with the door to the hallway open, we would have seen anyone who came in through the door, and the windows in our bedroom and bathroom were all open, but they were also way too small for anyone to climb through, and completely inaccessible to everyone except window cleaners."
Mira breathed, nuzzled into Zoey's neck, then checked how far away Bobby was. Enough that he wouldn't hear them whispering. "...What if it was a demon?" She asked, hopefully quietly enough.
"I would have felt it." Zoey said. "Mir, you know I can feel it, when we miss a breach, even just one demon, and you know the Honmoon tells me, urgently, if someone's in danger."
"But...Zo, there's no way it's yours." Mira whispered. "The condom didn't tear. I checked. You know I always check. And it hasn't even been long enough. There's no way."
"Mira." Celine said. "Based on everything you two have told me, and what Rumi told me last week, I think it's much more likely to be a tumour or a cyst. The instincts she's had since Saturday are...concerning, but she hasn't had any other early pregnancy symptoms. Mi-yeong's were...very obvious, even early on."
"But Rumi had instincts." Mira said. "Don't some omegas...build a nest for the baby, before it's born?"
"Yes. In the third trimester, not the first." Celine said.
"...What if it's different for her?" Zoey asked. "Isn't it...different...for some fated packs?"
"Yours would be in the 'chosen by an omniscient force' category, so no, it's not different for her." Celine said. "It's probably a tumour that produced the right hormones to trick her body into nesting."
That...made a lot of sense.
...Wait a minute.
"The Honmoon is omniscient? As in 'all knowing'?" Mira asked. "...Should I...ask it?"
Zoey pulled away from Celine's shoulder for the first time since Mira came back. She looked at Mira, then back at Celine, eyes questioning.
"...Bobby, can we have some privacy, please?" Celine asked, loud enough that he'd hear it.
"Yep, of course, I'll just go and, uh...check out the bathrooms, see if they're unsanitary, like you were worried about, Mira, is that okay?" Bobby asked. Mira nodded. "Okay, perfect. I'll be, uh...a while, then."
"Ten minutes should be enough, I just need to ask the girls some very personal questions." Celine said.
"Got it." Bobby said, getting up, and heading towards the hallway where the nearest bathrooms were.
Celine waited until they couldn't see him. "Okay. Mira, go ahead."
Mira moved back into her seat properly, and hummed the opening of Phoenix. She grabbed a strand of the Honmoon, when it appeared to them. "Do you know what was hurting Rumi?" She asked.
The Honmoon answered immediately. Green.
"Yes. Okay." Mira said. "Can you tell me what, if I link the possibilities we know of to a colour I know you can do?"
Again, the answer was immediate. Green.
"Perfect." Mira said. "Can you tell me, green for a cyst, yellow for a tumour, or orange for an ectopic pregnancy? Uh...don't respond if the real cause wasn't an option."
Nothing. Mira waited a few seconds. Still nothing.
"Was that...something else?" Mira asked.
Green.
"Fuck." Mira said. "So...so is she...or, I guess, was she pregnant?"
Orange.
"Okay. Good." Mira said. "She wasn't raped, then?"
Green.
"You're...agreeing when you answer like that, right?" Mira asked. It had been a while since she'd done this.
Green.
"Is it...a demon thing?" Mira asked.
Green.
"Is it the same thing that hurt her the first two times she presented?" Mira asked.
Green.
"Mira, we can't see it, you need to relay the answers." Zoey said.
"Oh, shit, sorry." Mira said. "Um...it didn't respond when I gave it three options, then said green when I asked to confirm it was something else, green is a positive answer. Orange, negative, when I asked if she was pregnant, green, she wasn't raped, I had to make sure it was agreeing with the negative, um...it's a demon thing, and it's the same as the first two times she presented."
"Ask if the blockers are failing." Celine said.
"Are Rumi's blockers failing?" Mira asked.
Orange.
"No, they're not." Mira relayed. "So...is she in heat?"
Orange.
"...She's not in heat." Mira said. "Do you know...why...she was getting heat symptoms?"
Green.
"Green." Mira said. "So, there's nothing wrong with the blockers, but-"
Orange.
"...No?" Mira relayed, confused. "You're...disagreeing that there's nothing wrong with the blockers?"
Green.
"So, there is something wrong with Rumi's blockers?" Mira asked.
Green.
Mira groaned. "Ugh, this is where I have to guess, isn't it?" She muttered. "Celine, help? There's something wrong with Rumi's blockers, and the Honmoon can only answer in colour code."
"Three options?" Celine asked. Mira nodded. "Ask if it's dosage, resistance, or a demonic hormone."
"Can you give me green if she's on the wrong dose, yellow if she's resistant to it, or orange if there's a demon hormone the drug isn't affecting?" Mira asked.
The Honmoon didn't respond.
"...None of those?" Mira asked.
Green.
"It's none of those." Mira said.
"Wait. Wait!" Zoey said, suddenly. "Ask if she's on the wrong pills."
"...Is Rumi on the...wrong pills?" Mira asked, hesitantly.
Green.
"Holy fuck." Mira said. "Green. Yes. She's on the wrong pills. H-how did you guess that, Zo?"
Zoey shrugged. "The box has always been blue and white, always, but that new prescription she got when we got back was in a pink and white box." She said, grabbing their bag to try and find the box. "...Here. Pink. I didn't question it, 'cause I figured they'd just switched the brand, or something, they wouldn't give her something totally different, and it says the same drug as the blocker part, but...if it's not the wrong dose, or anything else Celine said, it must be that the rest is wrong."
Mira took the box. Four month supply, 120 pills, same as normal, but it was the wrong colour. Mira pulled out her phone. She knew she had a photo of the old box somewhere, when she'd been frantically researching it when Rumi was first on them. "Found it. They're the same brand, but the blue is...15mg of the blocker, and 3mg of the stabiliser, and pink is just...10mg of the same blocker, and...none of the stabiliser. So...the lower dose is fine, but...she needs the stabiliser."
Green.
"The Honmoon agrees." Mira said. "We get her back on the blue pills, this won't happen again."
"...The only thing the stabiliser should be doing is preventing ovulation." Celine muttered. "But...her meds shouldn't have been changed without my knowledge. Mira, ask if the mass is an egg."
"...What? Like...a chicken's egg?" Mira asked, incredulously. "What the fuck, Celine?"
"No-one knows how demons reproduce." Celine said. "They only bear young in the demon world, the process has only been documented by one Hunter who died over a century ago, and from what she could gather, it was an incredibly private and sacred process that she was unable to directly observe. Rumi is half demon, but she was born through Mi-yeong's human reproductive anatomy, and therefore the process was almost entirely human. We don't know if a demon omega would bear live young, or lay eggs."
Mira blinked at her. She had never even considered that as a possibility. "...Is the mass an egg?" She asked.
Green.
"...Demons lay eggs." Mira whispered. "It's an egg. Um...unfertilised?"
Green.
"Okay. So...just a really big gamete, that, what? Got stuck?" Mira asked.
Green.
"Huh." Mira said.
"...Mira?" Celine asked. "We can't see it responding."
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, it's an egg, and it just got stuck, because it was too big." Mira said. "So, is that because Rumi's underdeveloped inside?"
Green.
"Green. Okay." Mira said. "The first two, from her other heats, did they get stuck, too?"
Green.
"They did." Mira said. "Did they get as big as this one?"
Orange.
"No. So...what happened to them?" Mira asked. "They weren't removed, and...she would have said, if they'd...come out the natural way. Were they...reabsorbed?"
Green.
"Would this one have been reabsorbed?" Mira asked.
Yellow.
"You don't know?" Mira said. "That's fine. I guess you only know what's happened, and what's current, huh?"
Green.
"Is Rumi okay right now?" Mira asked.
Orange.
Mira had been smiling, due to her finally figuring out what questions to ask. She wasn't smiling any more. "...She's not okay. W-what do you mean, she's not okay?"
No response. Of course there was no response. That wasn't a question the Honmoon could answer. Mira was starting to panic.
And then Zoey was holding her. "Breathe, Mira." She said, firm, but not a command. Mira obeyed regardless. "Of course it thinks she's not okay right now. She's still in surgery. The Honmoon is ancient magic, it doesn't understand what surgery is, it can just see a bunch of doctors stabbing her. She'll be okay."
The Honmoon flashed orange. It had never responded to something someone other than Mira had said. It was disagreeing with Zoey. Mira ignored it.
"You're right, Zo." Mira said. "Sorry, I...I shouldn't have asked it that."
Orange again. Flickering. Maybe more panicked? Mira closed her eyes, and ignored it.
Rumi was fine.
Bobby came back a few minutes later, with the news that the bathrooms actually looked pretty clean, had a regular cleaning schedule which he'd asked about, and had hand sanitizer outside the door to use after leaving.
"Were you really worried about that?" Zoey asked, still holding Mira close.
"Yes." Mira said. "My brother was ill when I was twelve, like, really ill, he was in hospital for two weeks, and I got some stupid...I don't even remember what infection it was, but I'm sure it was from the bathroom there. I was throwing up for nearly a week. Mom was so mad at me for being ill while Minho was ill. Like it was my fault, the stupid bitch."
"That's ridiculous." Zoey said. "It wasn't your fault."
"I know." Mira said.
"I hate your Mom." Zoey said.
Bobby looked genuinely concerned. "Whoa, guys, isn't 'hate' a kinda strong word?"
"No, we hate my parents." Mira said. "Emotionally abusive, trying to push me towards 'perfect', trying to control me, trying to 'fix' me, then writing me off as useless because I was struggling so much in school, and I'm pretty sure they fucked up my eyesight by making me wear glasses I don't think I ever actually needed. I have dyslexia. I struggled to learn to read. And then I...struggled with everything that came after that, because I couldn't read. I had to teach myself when I was, like, eight."
"...Yeah, okay, that warrants hate." Bobby said, quietly. "I'm so sorry you went through that. You didn't deserve it. No child deserves anything like that."
"I know." Mira said.
Ha-eun came back after Rumi had been in surgery for about an hour, to tell them that she was being moved to a recovery room, and they could be with her when she woke up.
Zoey went into the recovery room first. Mira followed close behind her. There was Rumi, asleep, looking so calm. Zoey gently took hold of one of her hands. Mira went around the bed, and held her other one.
The doctor was telling them that the anaesthesia would be wearing off soon, so she'd start to wake up, and she might be confused, so they should be patient with her.
And then Rumi opened her eyes.
Mira noticed first. "Whoa. She's awake?" She asked. "That was quick."
"She won't be fully aware for a while." The doctor said, as though Rumi wasn't right there, as though she wouldn't understand. "Give her time. Try not to overwhelm-"
"Cut me open, don't...fucking...make sure I can't...feel it, though." Rumi mumbled, quietly, kinda hard to understand. Mira looked at Zoey, who looked really confused. "She...won't be aware? I wish...I wasn't."
"...Rumi?" Zoey asked, hesitantly.
"My throat hurts." Rumi said. "...Among...other things. What, are we...short of painkillers?"
She was in pain. She'd been...aware? She hadn't been okay. The Honmoon was right. Why hadn't Mira listened?
The doctor tried to talk to Rumi. "Ms Ryu-"
"-Is dead. I'm...her daughter." Rumi said. "Wanna poke me with...two sharp...poke-y things?"
"Rumi. Breathe." Mira said. "Are you saying you were conscious-"
"They cut me open, Mira." Rumi whispered. "I had to lie there, and...let it happen. I tried...so many times...to tell them. I couldn't move. I could breathe, I was just...trying to get them to stop, and...they made me breathe."
Mira was trembling. She'd been told that Rumi wasn't okay. She'd known. She could have helped. She could have made them stop, and she hadn't. She had done nothing, nothing at all, while her mate was half conscious and suffering, with no way to communicate. Mira hated this. How could she have left Rumi alone like that? How could she ignore the Honmoon when it outright told her Rumi wasn't okay?
She only realised she'd completely tuned out of the conversation when the doctor left them on their own.
It took her nearly a minute to focus properly on what her girls were saying.
Rumi seemed more aware, and she was finding her words more easily. Zoey's voice was full of concern, with a little bit of regret tainting her scent. Mira could hear them both. She didn't dare look at either of them properly. She knew she'd break if she did.
"How are you feeling, Ru?" Zoey asked.
Rumi took a few moments to respond. "I feel...a little better." She muttered. "Kinda floaty. It...doesn't hurt, anymore. There's just...the stitches. I can feel them. They're...closer together than...Celine's. I don't like it. Feels tight."
"They can probably remove them soon." Zoey said.
Rumi shook her head. "They said they'd dissolve." She whispered. "Two weeks."
"You heal faster than that." Zoey said. Rumi nodded. "What are we gonna do?"
"Celine can remove them, when they get itchy." Rumi said. "If we leave them too long, my immune system starts to attack them, causing pain and inflammation. But...I'll be okay. They used surgical glue for the...inside bits, and that...doesn't last long, with my healing...it's usually fine. Well...when Celine does it, it's fine."
"...Okay. Good." Zoey said.
"You...look tired." Rumi said. "What time is it?"
"Just...nearly midnight." Zoey said.
"You should get some rest." Rumi said. "I'm okay."
Zoey hummed, and leaned back in her chair.
"...Mira?" Rumi asked. Mira flinched. Rumi squeezed her hand. "Look at me. I'm okay."
Mira shook her head. "I...I can't."
"Talk to me." Rumi said. "What's wrong?"
"...I'm sorry, I just...have a lot to think about." Mira said, too quickly. "I'm here, just...let me process it? I'll talk to you, I promise, I just...need to figure it out first. Please?"
"...Okay." Rumi said. "Just...it was no-one's fault. That I was aware, I mean. And I don't know what it was, or...why I had it, but...it definitely wasn't your fault that I was hurting, Mira. No matter what it was, it's not your fault. Get some rest. Process it. I'll be right here, ready to listen, whenever you're ready to talk."
"Fuck, why are you the one reassuring me?" Mira asked.
"I had an hour to process it, you've only had a few minutes." Rumi said. "Go to sleep, love. I'm okay."
Despite everything, Mira did not struggle to get to sleep. She was exhausted from days of worrying about Rumi, of sleeping in the nest without Rumi in with them, and from asking the Honmoon so many questions.
When Celine woke them up, she still couldn't believe she'd ignored the most important answer. Rumi had been in pain, suffering, and she'd done nothing.
The doctor showed up with the test results after they had eaten. Ectopic ovarian teratoma. That...kinda made sense. They weren't going to try to figure out if it was just an egg, because humans didn't have eggs that big. As far as they knew, Rumi was human.
"Can we go home now?" Rumi asked. "I wanna sleep in my bed."
Bed. Not nest. Rumi's instincts were gone. She really hadn't been in heat.
There was some paperwork that Rumi had to sign, and written instructions on how to take care of the wounds, and what to be careful of. Rumi had to sign something to agree to it, then Celine had to sign something to confirm she'd take care of Rumi, if Rumi couldn't, etc, etc, it took them about half an hour to be getting in the car.
Rumi clearly didn't know what to think of Bobby, the literal stranger who had stayed overnight in the hospital with them, just because Celine had asked for help, and he'd been in the interview with her when Mira had called Celine. Mira trusted him. Zoey definitely liked him. Rumi...was quiet all the way back to the temple, and refused to answer any questions he asked, mostly variations of 'are you okay?'
When they got home, they figured out why. Rumi dragged Zoey and Mira upstairs, and immediately crashed on their bed. She'd pulled Mira onto the bed with her, and the grip on her hand was firm, so Mira had no choice but to lie down beside her.
"...Was she awake when you woke up?" Mira asked.
Zoey nodded. "She was talking to Ha-eun. I don't know if she was already awake, or not."
"Chance she didn't sleep?" Mira asked, watching her mate sleep.
"Definitely not." Zoey said, gently moving Rumi onto the bed properly, under the blankets. "She...hasn't taken her blockers yet. I think Celine has them."
"Isn't Celine going to the pharmacy to threaten legal action, or something?" Mira asked. "They can't change Rumi's meds without telling Celine, and they did, and Rumi got a fucking tumour because of it."
"It was an egg." Zoey said.
"Officially, it was a tumour." Mira said. "Either way, it only happened because she wasn't on the stabilisers. Teratomas can form from unfertilised egg cells. She shouldn't have been ovulating at all."
Zoey bit her lip. "We should...let Celine handle that." She said. "Let's take care of our girl?"
Mira nodded. "Keep her safe."
"...Baby, are you okay?" Zoey asked. "You're...Mira, you're shaking."
"I'm fine." Mira said.
"Mira, please tell me you're not blaming yourself for believing me instead of the Honmoon." Zoey said. "Celine told us the Honmoon doesn't understand that we have the technology to keep people alive through presentation sickness, how was I supposed to know it knows what surgery is?"
Zoey had climbed onto the bed, and was hugging Mira. "It's never responded to anyone except me before." Mira whispered, still watching Rumi. "It used to only respond to me at all when I was alone, but I guess my bond with it is stronger now. Last night, when I asked if she was okay, and it told me orange, and I started to panic, so you talked me down, it disagreed with you. And then it did that...panicky flashy thing it did when we were...making out on your birthday, and you asked if I wanted to have sex. I still ignored it. She was in pain. I could have done something. Literally fucking anything. And I didn't."
Zoey squeezed her. "Mira, the Honmoon has been wrong in the past."
"Celine said it was omniscient. All knowing." Mira said. "It said she wasn't okay."
"Yeah. It also said we'd both be mixed presentations, and you're not." Zoey said. "You're seventeen, Mira, betas can't present past sixteen. If you're not already a beta, you're not gonna present as one. The Honmoon can be wrong. You're proof of that."
Mira let go of Rumi's hand (pried her hand out of Rumi's grip), and rolled over to curl up in Zoey's arms. "Why didn't I believe it, Zo?" Mira breathed. "Why didn't I say something? Do something? Anything?"
"You did say something, baby." Zoey said. "You said she wasn't okay, and I talked you out of believing it. That's not your fault."
Mira whined.
"Okay. How about we make a new rule?" Zoey asked. "The Honmoon tells you something, anything, and we investigate, just in case. Does that sound good?"
"...Yeah." Mira said.
"Good." Zoey said. "We'll take care of her, and when she's awake and fed, we'll tell her it was an egg, not a tumour. For now, let me hold you."
Being awake and aware while Rumi was asleep felt...wrong. Zoey and Mira were tidying the nest stuff away, keeping all of the blankets in their room in case Rumi needed them, but fully aware that she was probably fully out of those instincts. She'd seemed mostly okay, since the surgery. Not counting...that she was awake during the surgery. And that she was awake through the night. And that she'd literally collapsed the second she was on their bed.
Mira stopped for a few seconds, and took a breath. Other things Zoey had been quick to remind her each time she started to panic were that Rumi had told them the pain wasn't as bad as when she'd had the...egg, that Rumi had been half conscious for the entire surgery, not just the last fifteen minutes after the Honmoon had told Mira, and that it was as much Zoey's and Celine's fault as it was Mira's. She tried to focus on those, instead. She tried to remind herself that being there for Rumi now was incredibly important.
"Are you breathing, baby?" Zoey asked, voice gentle, hands on Mira's wrists.
Mira nodded. "I'm okay." She said.