Our cute, little demon

21

Lucy barreled into her as soon as she saw her, screaming at the top of her lungs about how much she missed her. Shuri smiled as she made her way over more calmly than her daughter: "We're so glad to see you again; thank you so much for saving us from that horrible place."

"Of course."

They grabbed her bag and showed her where she would stay until the traders came. Her heart was breaking. She thought of all the good times the three of them had and how Jimin would cook for them and shyly offered each bite to make sure it was to their liking. She shook her head. Addy, you can't think of them; otherwise, this was for nothing.

Thankfully, the heartbreak of leaving her soulmates was enough not to have her thinking of happy thoughts. Because happy thoughts would lead to her thinking about how great they were and how much she wanted to run back into their arms. She couldn't. She couldn't let them die like that; she couldn't let her child potentially become an orphan.

The traders came, and Addy immediately knew which were from the witch's village. They just gave off that magical energy. They didn't want to take Addy at first; she had no magic and, therefore, was useless to them. But the couple caved when she told them that her father sold her to an abusive man who stole her maidenhood and got her pregnant. As soon as the baby was big enough, they would cut it out and do it repeatedly over and over again.

That seemed to seal the deal for them; they'd been trying to conceive for years, so the thought that someone would kill her baby on purpose was enough to push them to help. Addy hated lying about her soulmates and their child, but it had to happen. She'd become the villain if it meant that her soulmates could be together and happy.

The journey to their village was long and arduous. It was so far away that it was a wonder they even wanted to make the trek to trade. They usually hit several villages on the way to and from, but they just took the fastest route home since they had her with them. The head chief welcomed her and promised her that she would be safe there and that if she never wanted to marry, that was fine. They had lots of single parents.

One that she got close to too quickly was a man named Jin. His wife died in childbirth, and he was left with a little boy named Jungkook. The toddler was adorable and cuddly; he had the cutest bunny smile and endless energy. Jin was the village's healer and never forgave himself for being unable to save his wife. His best friend, Joon, was in charge of the records; he always smelled of paper and ink.

Jimin carried the bowl of broth over to his soulmate. Tae was taking Addy's leaving really hard. So was Jimin, but he had to be the strong one since Tae was practically catatonic. All he did was lay in bed and cry. Addy had taken her blanket and her favorite books. She basically erased every single sign of herself from the cave. She had even moved the things Jimin had made for her by the waterfall.

It took him nearly a month to figure out what she'd done with them. She'd dragged them to one of the holes in the cave and pushed them in. It was bright, and he knew why she had done it. If there were no traces of her, they could move on faster. But it was silly of her to think that they could ever move on. He walked back into Tae's painting room; she had destroyed all of the paintings Tae had done of her, and that first day, he tried to do one, but it didn't come out right.

Mainly because he was crying too hard. He kept sobbing that he couldn't even remember her face, and it had only been a few hours. Jimin had to drug him that night to get him to rest, and that's where he'd been ever since.

"Come on, love, you need to drink this."

Nothing, no reaction, as usual. So Jimin lifted him up and laid the younger against his chest as he brought the bowl to his lips. Getting the liquid to stay in the human's mouth was a hassle, but he refused to let Tae waste away. It was selfish, but he couldn't die, and he'd already lost one soulmate; he couldn't lose the other one. It wasn't until he nicked Tae's shaving, and it healed instantly, that he realized Tae was like him now.

They both cried that night, holding each other tightly as they sobbed into each other's necks. Jimin closed his eyes, if she would have just stayed, he would have had all the time in the world to make her fall in love with him.

"Jungkook," his father yelled as he chased after the precocious toddler determined to reach his Addy. "Leave Addy alone; she needs to rest."

"No, Appa," Jungkook yelled as he struggled to reach the handle of Addy's door. "My Addy," he whined.

Jin kneeled and hugged his son. "Kook, we talked about this. Addy has a baby in her tummy and needs lots of rest. You can play with her after she wakes up. Maybe you can go with her to see Joonie. How does that sound?"

The toddler slumped against his father's broad chest since he knew he wasn't going to get his way, "fine," he grumbled with the cutest pout on his face.

Jin kissed his cheeks and then blew raspberries onto his son's tummy to make him giggle. "Come on, little bunny, let's go get some food for when Addy wakes up."

Addy smiled. She wasn't actually sleeping. She was reading. Joon didn't mind her reading scrolls, but when she first asked about a demon that was cursed 1,000 years ago, he got all closed off and said that it wasn't any of her concern. So she started stealing scrolls to bring home and read during her naps. Then she'd bring them back and hope he didn't notice. So far, he hadn't. While the man was brilliant but a tad over the place, his brain could never shut up.

So far, all she had learned was that Jimin, whom they named the beautiful one, was cursed because he killed a witch's mate. This didn't make sense; Jimin had never killed anyone, and it didn't match up with what Jimin had told them. She didn't think he'd lie about it, not something like that. They were soulmates, and he was a demon; there was no need to lie. So, something wasn't adding up, and she needed to get to the bottom of it.

But first, she had to get these scrolls back to Joonie, and she would use that little bun as a distraction. Joon was a sucker for his what he called his 'nephew,' so anytime she had to do something bad, she always roped Kook into helping.