Chapter Text
Mira didn't know what had possessed her. She wasn't even sure if this had been a mistake or not but she also didn't think that she regretted it. Not with the sound of the heartbeat racing beneath her ear, Rumi's flat chest beneath her head rising and falling about as quickly. Her breathing was coming in fits and starts and her skin was uncomfortably slick with sweat and the whole experience had been a lot messier than she'd expected.
But she didn't think she regretted it.
Even though her thighs ached. Other places ached. Absently, she rubbed her neck, the skin there already purple from Rumi's teeth. She was pretty sure her body looked like Rumi had used her like a chew toy but that wasn't a complaint.
She lifted her head to look at Rumi's face, moving a hand to caress along her jaw as she thought about how the lines that had been blurring between them had been completely obliterated. How it had been a long time coming. How she'd been in love with her since she first understood what this kind of love was. Before, even.
Rumi was staring at the ceiling in that way she did when her mind was folding in over itself, especially when she was feeling a way about her gender. Mira had known less than a year and was still rewiring her brain over the situation, but she'd come to understand that expression. She wasn't even the one with the conflict about it but she was Rumi's secret keeper. Her everything keeper. Supportive and kind of sort of hopelessly in love. Or whatever.
So she knew that look and also knew how to snap Rumi out of it, "Don't look so depressed, I might take it personally."
A small smile formed on Rumi's lips, "You were great, I'm just..."
"All up in your head about it?" Mira tilted hers, looking down at her.
"You know me so well." Rumi slid her fingers into Mira's hair, turning her full, intense gaze onto her.
Mira's heart did a little flip the way it always did when Rumi looked at her like that, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"It's stupid."
"It's never stupid."
"I don't even know why I'm thinking about it." Rumi searched her eyes.
"You probably started with one thing and ended up someplace else," Mira guessed.
"Yeah." Rumi cupped her face, "I guess I was just…" She gestured up and down her body like that could explain it, "And then I realized you're the only one that knows, and you still wanted to be with me which was amazing? But…"
"I really wanted you to feel wanted, because you are." Then Mira squinted at her, "Wait, you haven't told your moms yet? Rumi, you told me you were going to."
Rumi winced, "Just with the move and everything maybe now isn't the right time."
Right. Rumi was moving. Leaving her. That was what had possessed her and why she felt sticky and yet still wanted to do it again. A little selfish wish to have a piece of Rumi for herself.
Mira closed her eyes for a moment before something like resentment could simmer, "Don't you think that's the perfect time? You're going to a new place, with new friends who could see you as you want to be seen without all that…"
She waved a hand, "Baggage. Like me."
"You're not baggage Mira." Rumi lifted her head, pressing her lips against Mira's and Mira's heart did that little flip again. The same flip it had been doing for years. And still just as strong as always.
And now it felt like she'd waited too long to tell Rumi how she really felt. Although she felt like what they'd just done was a pretty big hint. She closed her eyes, nuzzling her lips against Rumi's and wishing they could stay like this forever.
Mira meant to say something profound and deep and instead what came out was a plaintive, "Why do you have to go?"
"I'm sorry…" Rumi kissed her again, "Would you… could you be there when I tell them?"
"That we had sex?!"
Rumi laughed, "No!!"
Smiling, Mira said, "Of course I'll be there. Want me to get you all made up for it?"
"I'd like that."
Thirteen Years Later
Rumi snuck up behind the smaller woman and wrapped her arms around her, "Zoey!"
Laughing, Zoey kicked her feet before Rumi set her down, then whirled around and pulled her down into a kiss. Rumi smiled against it.
"Hello to you too," Zoey said. She stepped back, eyes twinkling, "It's been like, a day. Eight hours, tops."
"Can't a woman miss her partner?" Rumi raised her eyebrows. While her girlfriend was the master of puppy eyes, she liked to think she'd gotten pretty good at it too.
Zoey's smile got positively sappy, "You can miss me all you want but you know you're the one I'm coming home to."
"How was your date?" Rumi asked, slipping an arm around her as they walked.
"Ugh." Zoey stuck her tongue out, "You know it's not going to go great when they get that dazed look in their eyes so I bailed early rather than be disappointed later."
"I'm sorry." Rumi kissed the side of her head, feeling a mixture of annoyance on Zoey's behalf and a bit of relief. When they'd met, Zoey had been dating two women, a man and a jackass at once and it had ended in an epic catastrophe. None of them had deserved a woman as wonderful as her.
It was just that Zoey had a terrible track record in picking people to date who actually respected her or liked her. Rumi seemed to be the first, an outlier, which she didn't really understand. Still, she'd known going in that she'd never have Zoey fully to herself even as she fell hard and fast for her.
If Rumi was honest with herself a part of her heart was missing too, so she was okay with that.
So Zoey kept looking for whatever missing piece of herself she needed and Rumi was content to let her even if she didn't think any of them were good enough for Zoey. It didn't help that she hadn't met a single one she'd liked as a person, though Zoey had mentioned one she was into but hadn't gotten the nerve to ask out.
"It's all right." Zoey looked back up at her, "I've got the best baddie in the world. Even if she is painfully monogamous."
"Hey! We've talked about that." Rumi squeezed her, "I'm open but… I want connection. And someone who gets along with you because they'll just have to accept I love you."
Zoey scrunched up her face, "You haven't liked any of the people I've hooked up with have you?"
"Not even a little bit." Rumi tilted her head, "Anyone who zones out when you're talking deserves to be thrown through a window."
Silent for a moment, Zoey continued to walk with her. She was processing™ and Rumi let her. Finally, Zoey admitted, "It's like a shotgun spread, I'm … hitting everything I can because I'm scared I'm running out of time."
"Explain?"
"It's really kind of stupid."
Rumi stopped them, taking her hand and squeezing it, "Nothing you do or think is ever stupid. Except maybe the time you tried to skateboard vertically."
"Yeah that was really stupid." Zoey smiled lopsidedly, "I have this recurring dream. Like I knew I'd meet you before I met you. And I know there's someone else out there and they're supposed to be in our lives. I guess I'm afraid I'll never find them and then they'll be sad and alone which makes me sad."
"Zoey, aein, it's okay if the thought makes you sad too."
"I know, but it just makes me really want to find them!"
"So you … date every eligible adult in a thirty kilometer radius?"
Zoey shoved at her, "I'm not that bad!"
"True, that would be Rin." Rumi giggled, then squeezed Zoey's hand. "Okay. But I don't think this shotgun approach is working. I think what you're looking for is a connection too and I think the only way to find that kind of connection is through … luck I think. Just like how we met."
"How we met was destiny," Zoey replied.
"What about Ji-min's dance instructor?" Rumi asked, as they started to walk again. "You've mentioned her a few times."
"Oh! Yeah…" Zoey smiled, "Legs for days, that woman. A low rumbly voice. Moves like living art. Dyes her hair this stunning pink, it's really bitching."
Rumi had heard this before and wanted to meet this woman. Legs for days and a deep voice was her type right alongside 'short and sweet and made of sunshine' even if she knew it wasn't healthy to project her teenage sweetheart onto a perfect stranger.
"Is she good with him?"
"She's amazing with our son." Zoey bounced giddily as they turned towards the dance studio, "With all the kids too, actually."
"Maybe I'll ask her out if you're too chicken to." Smirking, Rumi held the door for her.
"I saw her first! You haven't even met her." Zoey stuck her tongue out as she passed Rumi inside, "She was even receptive to my flirting!"
"I feel like I know her from the way you talked about her the first time you met her," Rumi pointed out. "I've known you eight years and you've never gushed about anyone like that. Except me, if your mom is to be believed."
Zoey gave her a knowing look then grabbed her hand and tugged her along. Grinning at her, Rumi let herself be tugged along.
It was obvious classes had ended, as parents were escorting their children away, but Zoey beelined towards one room and Rumi followed her inside. She spotted Ji-min immediately, with a sunburst grin just like his mom and freckles all over his cheeks.
"Eomma!"
She swept him up into her arms, "Did you have fun, sweetheart?"
She turned around towards the only other adults still in the room. The teacher really did have legs for days, long and muscular and Rumi's mouth dried out a little at the way they looked in the tight leggings the woman was wearing. But that wasn't what stole the breath from her lungs.
It was the sharp lines of her jaw, the warm brown eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses, the tiny little scar just above her lip from an unfortunate encounter with a bookshelf when they'd been ten and roughhousing.
Rumi would have recognized Mira anywhere and she was so taken aback—god she was beautiful— that she was only half listening to her son talk about his day.
Mira looked over at her with a smile she hadn't seen in thirteen years and then went perfectly still. Her eyes narrowed slightly, then widened as recognition flashed in them.
How, Rumi didn't know. She didn't look all that much like she had when she'd last seen her before she'd moved away. Her face was softer, she'd gained curves, her hair was longer than Mira's had been back then and dyed purple now.
"Rumi?" Mira asked, causing Zoey to start in confusion.
"Mira." Rumi managed a tentative, nervous smile as her heart did a little flipflop, "Hi."
Zoey had known about Mira. How could she not? Mira had obviously been the person of Rumi's that had gotten away and had been the one person Zoey was pretty sure Rumi would go for in their open relationship—even the jerkface Jinu hadn't been enough for her to try more than one date with and they'd had some chemistry.
She looked between them. Rumi was frozen in place, unsure, a far cry from the confident woman who'd swept Zoey off her feet.
That this Mira was Rumi's Mira had never actually clicked into place but in Zoey's defense she wasn't on a first name basis yet, though she'd been trying. Mira was kind of intimidating in that hot way but Zoey hadn't been able to stop thinking about her. she'd been trying to figure out how to introduce them because she thought they could be friends and if she was going to make a move, having them be friends would make things easier. As she'd been learning.
And honestly, Zoey knew Rumi could use more friends in her life in general.
Right now, though, Mira was clearly struggling to maintain her composure, which told Zoey that Mira still had complicated-at-best feelings for Rumi.
Ji-min squirmed until Rumi set him down and he ran over and hugged her leg. Resting a hand on his head, Zoey grinned, "I think Ms. Kang and Eomma know each other."
Mira blinked, head jerking as if she'd come back to the present. She looked at Zoey, then at Rumi, then down at Ji-min, "You're his —We do. It's just been a really long time."
"Too long." Rumi rubbed the back of her neck, "I love what you've done with your hair."
"I love yours," Mira countered, looking at her again. Her eyes had gone unreadable to Zoey and she'd plastered a polite smile onto her face, "I'm glad to finally meet Ji-min's other mom."
"Zoey keeps gushing about you," Rumi replied. Her eyes locked onto Mira's face and she smiled warmly, "And now I understand why."
Pink flushed across Mira's cheeks and she shifted on her feet, "Ah. Thanks." She shifted from foot to foot and Rumi looked like she did when she wanted to hug someone but didn't know if it was allowed. Not all that common of an occurrence in Zoey's experience, but she remembered it clearly from their early days.
Mira stopped her shuffling and held her arms up. After only a half a second of hesitation, Rumi hugged her.
The beginnings of a plan started to form in Zoey's brain and she blurted out, "Would you like to join us for lunch? Jiji is going to spend the night with his halmeonis so we'd need to drop him off first. But we were going to eat afterwards!"
She ignored the look that Rumi shot her as she pulled back from Mira, and simply gave Mira her biggest, most convincing smile.
It worked, Mira's shoulders relaxing as she nodded, "Okay. I have somewhere to be at six, but I can meet you somewhere for lunch."
"I'll text you the address," Rumi said. "I'll just need your number."
"It's really nice to see you again," Mira said in an almost steady voice, somehow managing to be both an open book and closed off at the same time. It was kind of fascinating to Zoey.
Once they were outside on the street, Jiji between them and swinging on their hands, Zoey grinned at Rumi, "I'll just need your number? That was freaking smooth, baby. Did you have that much game when you saw her last?"
"I had negative game," Rumi replied, groaning.
"Yeah, well, I think we have a pretty good shot at more than lunch with Ms. Kang." Zoey flashed her a smile, "Or at least being friends. I swear she wanted to hug you more than you wanted to hug her."
"Yeah…" Rumi exhaled, "I can't believe that's her. It's really her."
Zoey smirked, "Mmhmm."
"What?"
"You're still in love with her."
Rumi shook her head, "What? No! No. I'm not."
"Rumi, Mira has haunted your narrative since we met," Zoey said. "If I wasn't already predisposed towards sharing and also immediately and irrevocably and super madly in love with you, I might actually be jealous."
"I can't still be in love with her because—" Rumi shrugged, "I was never in love with her to begin with."
"How dare you lie like that in front of our son."
Jiji looked between them, not understanding their conversation but just enjoying his eommas talking.
Rumi squinted at her and Zoey squinted back, narrowing her eyes until a crack appeared on Rumi's face and she started to laugh. They stopped at a light and Zoey patiently waited for Rumi to admit the truth.
"Okay. Maybe I did have feelings for her. Maybe she was kind of my first sweetheart. I can't believe it…"
"Your first everything?"
Sighing, Rumi didn't disagree. Instead, she led them across the street, "Anyway you're explaining to Celine why we're not staying for lunch."
"Like she'll object to babysitting her precious Jiji?"
Rumi laughed, "Never in a million years."