Archive of Our Own ^beta

Rumi slid out of bed like a whisper, barely shifting the blankets. Feet firmly on the floor, she rose silently in one smooth motion. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed that both Mira and Zoey were still sound asleep. She was getting very good at slipping out of bed without waking them. Zoey in particular was a fiendishly light sleeper, roused by noise, light, or any number of things. Rumi hated waking her, no matter how much Zoey insisted it was fine and told her not to worry.

Waking Mira had never been an issue. Mira slept like the dead, quiet and unmoving. Meteors could be raining down on Seoul and Mira would sleep through it. One night, they had all fallen asleep on the couch together, and Mira had her arms wrapped around Rumi and Zoey. Sleeping like that had been delightfully comfortable. But eventually they'd had to move, to try and get up. That was when they realized that, held in Mira's arms, comfortable actually meant trapped. It had taken ten minutes for to squirm and pry their way free. The whole time, Mira didn't so much as twitch.

Rumi smiled at the memory as she moved to the bathroom. She walked on the balls of her feet, quiet and precise as a cat. Halfway there, she heard Zoey mumble something in her sleep. Rumi froze and looked back over her shoulder. Zoey was still sound asleep, bundled up in the blankets like a silkworm in its cocoon. Rumi stood stone still and counted to ten under her breath. Zoey didn't shift. Satisfied that she was, in fact, still sound asleep, Rumi moved again. She slipped into the bathroom, closing the door gently behind her.

She kept the lights off, lest any light spill under the door and wake Zoey. Seeing in the dark wasn't a problem; Rumi's night vision had always been excellent. When she was younger, she'd been able to stay up reading comics in bed with nothing but moonlight. Celine hadn't caught her, and probably hadn't even known there was something to catch.

Memories of hiding under the covers reading, turned into memories of the first time she'd shared a bed with Mira and Zoey.

They had been on tour. Their connecting flight had been cancelled, stranding them in Milan. Bobby, working who knew what black magic, had managed to secure them a hotel room, but only one. Fortunately, it had a king bed large enough for the three of them, but they hadn't realized that till they got to the room. Rumi remembered them staring at it, limbs heavy with exhaustion. They had all been nervous, and had all been thinking the same thing: "Which of these three is going to keep me up all night?" Sharing a room with someone, much less a bed, always carried the risk that incompatible sleeping habits would collide. It carried the risk that, while you slept soundly and peacefully, you were simultaneously and unknowingly making someone else's night a living hell.

In an effort to break the tension, Zoey had made a show of dropping her bags and, in her best shocked voice, exclaiming, "And there was only one bed!" It had helped break the stalemate and remind them how tired they were. Nervousness gave way to exhaustion. They'd dragged themselves through washing up and changing into pajamas, settled under the covers, and wished each other good night.

Everything had been fine. They'd slept well together. Nobody had been drooled on or kept up by snoring. Nobody had woken up to their bandmate trying to smother them with a pillow. The only occurrence of note had been Zoey waking up first to find Mira in the exact same position that she'd laid down in. Like she'd been still as stone the entire night. When she'd pointed it out, Mira had called her creepy for noticing and they'd laughed it off.

Rumi smiled at the memory as she washed up. Sleeping together might have started out of necessity, driven by travel, but it had grown into a necessity that none of them could live without. The fact was, they slept better together than apart. Rumi slept more deeply when she had Mira's steady body next to her. She got to sleep quicker when she could listen to Zoey mumbling in the dark. They had, in turn, both told Rumi that sleeping with her made them feel safer, like she was there watching over them all night.

Rumi dried off and downed a glass of water. Her needs cared for, and her mind full of pleasant memories, it was time to get back to bed. She opened the bathroom door and crept out across the bedroom.

She got three steps when she noticed that Zoey was awake. Her head poked out from her cocoon of blankets, watching Rumi with dark, sleepy eyes. How Zoey could be so unfathomably cute without trying was one of life's mysteries. It made Rumi's heart ache, and she took a detour on the way back to her side of the bed. Standing before Zoey, who now looked up at her with eyes wide, she bent down and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Sorry if I woke you Zo," she whispered. "Back to sleep now."

Zoey hummed contentedly and smiled up at Rumi. "Ru, I love the way your eyes glow at night."

Rumi paused, not sure that she'd heard Zoey correctly or that her maknae wasn't still half asleep and seeing things. "Sorry, what?"

"Your eyes glow at night." Zoey said, as it it were both obvious and wonderful. "Here," Her arms slid eel-like out of the blankets. One retrieved her phone from under her pillow, while the other took Rumi's hand and pulled her closer. Rumi let herself be guided till she was kneeling next to the bed, face to face with Zoey. Worries were starting to percolate in her mind.

Zoey kept her phone dark as she turned the screen towards Rumi and told her to look. Rumi looked. The dark glass acted like a mirror. She saw her reflection, dim and outlined by the city lights shining in from the window. But her eyes were bright. They glowed with their own light, like candle flames in the dark.

"Oh," Rumi said. Worries began to reach a boil. How had she never noticed this? Heavens above, she'd just been in the bathroom, which had a whole wall of mirrors. This was something she should have seen just a minute ago. Had she seen and not noticed? Wait, was this why she had such good night vision? That certainly made sense. Her words continued to fail her. "Oh, that's..."

"Beautiful," Zoey whispered, cutting off Rumi's thought spiral.

Zoey tucked her phone back under her pillow, but kept her gentle hold on Rumi's hand. The two of them stared at each other in the dark, quiet and hesitant. Zoey looked at Rumi with eyes full of reverence, like she was something magical, something sacred. Rumi saw her own eyes reflected there, two points of glittering amber in rich brown pools. Zoey took Rumi's face in her hands and drew her close.

Slowly, gently, they kissed, and Rumi felt herself relax. The contact grounded her. It locked Rumi into the present moment, the now, and pushed all other thoughts from her mind. There was no yesterday, no tomorrow, just the quiet night and the gentle play of soft lips against hers. Zoey's kiss was as warm and steady as a fireplace in winter. It was shelter from the storm, comfort in the cold, and proof against the darkness. It was home.

It was a long moment before they broke apart. When they did, Zoey smiled at Rumi, her face as warm and comforting as the blankets she was wrapped in. "Can I help at all?" she asked gently.

"You already have Zo," Rumi said, her heart starting to overflow. "You help just by being here."

"I'm glad. Now get some sleep, love. Tomorrow we can tell Mira and figure all this out."

"More science?" Rumi asked as she rose to her feet. Zoey's gaze followed her upwards, the smile never leaving her face.

"You know it," Zoey said with a wink.