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thedaemonicangel · 5 days ago

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tiger whisperer

[kpdh, polytrix, domestic fluff, Mira is derpy's unofficial trainer] AO3

"Derpy," Mira's voice is firm and tired. "Get down from the counter." He looks at Mira, stops what he's doing, and then proceeds to actually get down from the counter. They all freeze. "Mira." Rumi blinks. "Mira, he never listens to any of us." Zoey's standing in the back with her hands in her hair going: "Whoa! Holy shit! It's you! You're the demon-tiger whisperer! You're our only hope! Maybe he'll finally stop stealing my food!"

"So," Rumi drags the word out, twiddling her thumbs, nervously smiling at Mira, and then at the strange vaguely tiger-esque creature sitting in the middle of their living room, and then at Mira again. "Mira, meet Derpy."

Mira raises an eyebrow ever so slightly. It's nearly imperceptible, but enough to make Rumi sweat a little. "Derpy?"

"And Derpy," Rumi continues on, "meet Mira."

The tiger—or Derpy—just looks at her. He's so still he almost looks like a statue, but she can see the way his eerily fluorescent eyes follow Rumi around.

"What exactly is Derpy?"

Rumi's gaze shoots up towards the ceiling, and the twiddling of her thumbs doesn’t stop. She mutters something under breath too quickly, and Mira's raised eyebrow goes up further still.

"A what?"

"A demon tiger?" Rumi finally looks at her. "He's kinda cute, right? I figured he could, you know," Rumi shuffles. "Stay?"

Mira looks over Derpy. They've never really had a pet before—they were always too busy. And though things have now settled into relative ease, she just can't help but feel like they should start with something smaller, like, maybe a goldfish?

But then Derpy finally stops to really look at her—and Mira looks back. They stare at each other silently, and she tries not to laugh at the sight of Rumi fidgeting at the periphery of her vision. Then he… blinks? Winks? It happens one eye at a time, agonizingly slow, his mouth curled in a stupid smile that actually looks really sincere and—

Mira lets out a small huff of laughter through her nose. He's cute. It's ridiculous.

"What the hell," Mira shakes her head. "Why not?"

The smile that Rumi gives her is wide enough to make it worth it already.

"He can't go on the couch though."

---

To no one's surprise, Zoey falls head over heels in love with Derpy.

Zoey's been glued to his side for a solid forty-eight hours. She slept on the living room floor last night, used him as a cushion while watching TV all morning, squealed in delight when Sussy showed up ("We get a bonus pet?!"), then curled up against him while she took a small nap in the afternoon.

And now she's on the floor again, giggling at how ridiculous Derpy looked laying on his back, paws uselessly held up in the air while Zoey gave him enough belly rubs to last a lifetime.

Maybe that makes Mira feel a little jealous.

She's been watching them throughout the evening, splayed out on the couch while looking at nothing in particular on her phone. After literal hours, Zoey looks like she's finally about to get up—only for her to roll over to her other side and continue giving him pets.

Mira clicks her phone shut.

She feels really, really stupid but it makes her huff and cross her arms. Like. How many pets does a giant demon tiger really need? She's been at it all day. Zoey hasn't even made them watch a single strange animal reel today, or badgered them to put on another bad movie, or given her a hug longer than five seconds, or, or—

Her train of thought is cut off by Rumi, sitting next to her, playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie with her eyes on Zoey's back and grumbling so pitifully that Mira almost laughs at her.

Almost.

Unfortunately she shares the sentiment.

She's now fluent in Rumi-speak and the hunch of Rumi's shoulders says: Pay attention to me, please, please, please. Mira lets a lazy smile wash over her features, reaching out to hold Rumi's hand.

"Maybe if we think hard enough she'll telepathically feel our thoughts."

Rumi groans and leans her head onto Mira's shoulder, giving her hand a squeeze. "It's been two days," she says dejectedly.

"This was your own doing."

"How was I supposed to know this would happen?"

"How could you not know this would happen?"

Rumi pauses. Then, with a defeated sigh, she nods. "You're right."

Somehow, it works.

Zoey turns towards them at that very moment and sees the looks on their faces. "Oh my god," she laughs mirthfully. "Look at the pair of you!"

She finally gets up, a light spring in her step, and walks closer towards them. Zoey settles in the space in between them on the couch, and immediately Rumi's arms are around her waist and she's curling up around Zoey to breathe her in like fresh air on a humid day—and when Zoey turns to pepper kisses along Mira's temple, nose, cheeks, Mira realizes that maybe she can find it in her heart to forgive Derpy for what he's stolen from them for the past two days.

---

A few days later, early in the morning during breakfast, they make a breakthrough.

"Derpy," Mira's voice is firm and tired. "Get down from the counter."

He looks at Mira, stops what he's doing, and then proceeds to actually get down from the counter.

They all freeze.

"Mira." Rumi blinks. "Mira, he never listens to any of us."

Zoey's standing in the back with her hands in her hair going: "Whoa! Holy shit! It's you! You're the demon-tiger whisperer! You're our only hope! Maybe he'll finally stop stealing my food!"

---

It turns into a whole thing. They buy training snacks. They consider a whistle but Rumi vetoes it. Zoey buys a laser pointer but has yet to try it out.

Mira holds her hand up to catch Derpy's attention, points to a spot on the floor, and commands him: "Sit."

He just stares at her. It's a work in progress.

Zoey, however, looks up from her phone. "Have you ever, maybe, like, thought of using that tone of voice for reasons unrelated to training our giant pet demon tiger?"

"What?" Mira blinks.

"What?"

"You said—?"

"I didn't say anything."

---

Derpy sits, stays, and then holds up his paw for Mira to shake.

"That's crazy." Rumi says in disbelief, crouched on her haunches with Mira and Derpy out on their balcony on a lazy afternoon.

Mira can't help the self-satisfied laugh. "God. I'm good."

She lets go of Derpy's (giant, over-sized) paw and moves closer to scratch behind his ear. He leans in, easy and comfortable, purring low in contentment. It's sweet, and makes her chest tighten around a feeling that one could possibly, maybe, call pride.

Rumi hugs her knees, looks at both of them tenderly, and says: "He looks up to you."

"That'd be a first," Mira laughs absentmindedly.

There's a pause.

"What does that mean?"

She doesn't really think she means anything by it. Maybe just a force of habit. Growing up with a golden child of an older brother does that to a person, Mira thinks. Especially when you don’t exactly have the social finesse to make up for it. And honestly, she was fine. She's about to wave the question away and tell her it was nothing, but when she turns to Rumi, she sees that she's frowning at her. Like Mira had just said something that hurt her.

"Um," Mira stammers, startled by her demeanor. "I didn't really—I think I was just saying whatever."

"I look up to you." Rumi says firmly, brows knitting together. "And so does Zoey."

Mira just blinks at her.

Rumi sees the confusion on her face and scoots closer beside her. She reaches up to tuck a lock of hair behind Mira's ear. "There's so many reasons to. You're you."

The simplicity of it all is what gets to her—the sharp clarity of hearing words she never knew she needed to hear.

Mira breathes them in slowly, and then chases the warmth of Rumi's hand along her face. She wants to say something witty to wash away the vulnerable tension in the air—but her mouth stays pressed together.

Rumi rubs her thumb softly against her cheek and says: "Just you," she smiles. "Perfect you. Beautiful you. Hot-headed when she's hungry in the morning you. I'm pretty sure Derpy feels the same."

Mira smirks, finally finding her voice again. "And Sussy?"

Rumi grins. "I don't think Sussy likes anyone."

They laugh, pressing their shoulders into each other, and Mira lets her head fall softly on top of Rumi's.

---

Mira gets to know Derpy. Somewhere down the line, Derpy gets to know her too.

He rubs against her leg in the morning because he knows she likes it, and quietly sits next to her to keep her company when she's having tea.

He follows her around whenever she waters the plants in Rumi's tropical rainforest of a balcony, and joins Zoey when she goes on night patrols on her own—because he knows it makes Mira feel better.

One dreadfully rainy evening that Zoey and Rumi need to be away, he lounges on the floor next to the couch.

They couldn't even be with each other. Zoey's gone off to a two-day shoot in one end of Korea, and Rumi's getting filmed for an advertisement in another. Mira's in her fuzzy bear sweater, curled up on the couch and looking for something to keep her entertained. She stares at her phone and decides against sending Rumi and Zoey yet another pitiful rendition of I-miss-you and decides to put on a movie.

There's the low rumble of thunder outside, and then Mira sees Derpy's oversized paw lift up into the air, and then plop down onto her face.

"Derpy," she scrunches her nose and pushes it away. "What are you doing?"

He turns on his side so that he could reach her up on the couch better—and she realizes that he's doing it because he's banned from climbing up to join her. He throws his paw over Mira's arm this time—and the soft weight of it somehow comforts her. She leans forward to take a look at him, and notices that he's looking down onto a spot on the floor, and looks back up again to the far end of the couch.

Zoey and Rumi's spots in the living room.

I miss them, too.

Mira sighs, gets up from the couch, and sits down on the floor beside him. She leans onto his side the way Zoey does and opens her phone so she could look at her lockscreen.

It's a photo of all three of them.

"It's okay," she gives him a pat on the head. "They'll be back first thing tomorrow morning."

---

Mira dreams of piping hot ramyeon and a giant, fluffy couch that could walk. Somehow, through the haze of sleep, she could hear bits and pieces of Rumi and Zoey's voices.

'She's so cute!' There's a whispered giggle. 'I can't believe she fell asleep like that.'

And then, a steady: 'I'll carry her to bed.'

She feels something soft and warm press against her temple. Then she feels another sensation—featherlight kisses peppering the crown of her head—before she’s jostled awake by arms behind her knees and across her back, and the disorienting feeling of getting lifted up.

She's too drowsy to be embarrassed about it. When her eyes flutter open, she sees the iridescent marks meandering lazily along Rumi's neck. 'Close your eyes.' Mira feels another kiss on her temple, 'Just sleep.'

Distantly, she hears Zoey cooing at their tiger: 'Thanks for taking care of our Mira.'

"Mira?"

Zoey's looking at her with her big, brown eyes and perfectly practiced pout and she doesn't even really need to do that anymore—

"Yes?'"

"Derpy's trying to eat my notebook again."

Mira stands up and kisses the crown of Zoey's head as she walks by, "I gotcha."

---

"Mira!"

This time, Zoey's shouting from the living room—and when Mira walks in, she sees Derpy splayed out on top of Zoey, who's starting to go blue in the face. Rumi's trying to yank Derpy off her by the tail (which can't end well), and Derpy looks like he’s having the time of his life.

She lets her have a minute to laugh at them.

"A little help!" Zoey wails.

Mira whistles. "Uppies!"

Derpy gets up on all fours, Zoey finally gets to breathe, and Rumi stares at her incredulously and goes: "Uppies?"

Mira burns red in the ears. "It's what worked."

---

"Mira?"

Zoey's peeking through the crack of Mira's door left ajar, a pitiful look on her face.

"Yeah?" Mira looks up. She's sitting by the side of her bed, folding her clothes.

"I know I'm always bothering you about it, but Derpy broke into my room again and I think he's about to send one half of all my socks into the spiritual ether and my socks will have to live forever partner-less and that sounds horrible to me so we really need to tell him to stop—"

It's so ridiculous that it makes Mira lean forward with her hand on her stomach and laugh.

Zoey pouts. "Hey! It's the sockpocalpyse for me! This isn't a laughing matter!"

"You two have become so needy ever since Derpy came around." Mira wipes at her eyes.

Zoey tilts her head at her. "Do you mind that?"

"What?" Mira looks at her through her glasses. "Of course not."

"Good!" Zoey beams, her initial timidness forgotten as she walks into Mira's room just to drag her out of it. "And we've been like this way before Derpy."

Mira laughs. "You're not wrong."

"Besides," Zoey threads their hands together and pulls Mira along down the hallway. "I like it."

"You like what?"

"That we need you." Zoey opens the door to her bedroom, her hand still holding onto Mira's. "I like needing you."

She says it so casually, like it didn't fluster Mira. "Oh."

"I hope you know I'm going to need you forever," Zoey says it like a threat but it's the most wonderful thing Mira's ever heard in her life.

It anchors her—makes her feel secure.

"You're stuck with us, Mira." Zoey's looking at her with a serious expression. And then it slowly breaks into a grin. "Rumi can barely tell left from right and I'm twenty-four years old and can't follow a recipe book."

Makes her feel like there's somewhere she belongs.

"I'm doomed," Mira deadpans, but the corners of her mouth curl up. She lets go of Zoey's hand to curl an arm around her waist.

"Do you know that whenever you're away," Zoey throws her arms around her shoulders. She's grinning. "Rumi and Derpy have a little whining contest about it?"

That gets a laugh out of her.

"So, yeah." Zoey giggles and brings her hands up to cup Mira's face. "We're needy. Deal with it."

Mira smiles, then leans downwards to plant a kiss on Zoey's forehead. "I think I'll manage."

"Now go get my socks!"

---

"It's cold," Zoey whines into Mira's shoulder while they watch another rerun on the TV.

"We have blankets," Mira replies flatly.

"It really is though." Rumi huddles closer on her other side.

To be fair, it's the middle of January and snowing outside. Not even Rumi, their unofficial furnace, was warm enough to keep the cold at bay, and her toes have started to feel uncomfortably chilly.

"I'll put the thermostat higher," Mira begins to get up—but two pairs of arms circle around her like they couldn't bear the thought of Mira dislodging herself from their pile.

"If you get up I'll cry," Zoey says, and Mira knows she means it too.

"Don't make Zoey cry," Rumi leans back to stare at her, but she laughs when Mira just rolls her eyes.

"Well either I get up or we freeze to death."

"Or we let Derpy up on the couch." Zoey giggles.

"No."

"He is pretty warm," Rumi hums.

"No giant tigers on our very nice couch."

"He doesn't even shed!" Zoey pouts. "His fur dissolves into… spirit dust, or some shit!"

"It's the principle of the thing," Mira shakes her head.

"Now you're just being bull-headed," Rumi elbows her side.

Mira looks over to Zoey, drowning under her hoodie, and sweater, and blankets—and then to Rumi, who looks more relaxed than Mira has ever seen before.

They’re both pouting at her.

She can almost physically feel herself give in. Her shoulders sag, and she sighs while she says: "Fine. Derpy, uppies?"

His eyes slowly pop up from the side of the couch, and he quickly—at least, quick in terms of Derpy—brings his two front paws on top of their laps and awkwardly starts climbing up.

"Oh, shit—" Zoey laughs, "That tickles!"

"I think we're going to die—oof!" Rumi gets a solid paw in the stomach.

"Derpy your breath stinks!" Mira scrunches her nose, trying to turn away from his excited attention.

It's a bit of a mess—like a bad physics problem. He turns around this way and that, poking, prodding, and accidentally kicking one of them in the face with his hindleg, but eventually Derpy finds a way to lay down comfortably for both him and all three women on the couch. They hear a flap of wings and see that Sussy has decided to grace them with their presence. They settle onto Derpy's head, causing Derpy's ear to twitch this way and that.

"See?" Zoey says, straining through the weight against her chest. She's smiling though. "This is why we paid for this expensive-ass couch. It fits our whole family!"

Mira freezes.

Rumi just laughs. "I'll put the show back on then. Can you see over Derpy's fur, Mira?"

There's no response.

Rumi turns back after Mira's silence. Zoey lifts her head so she could look, too.

"Mira?"

"Don't look," Mira begs pitifully. Her arms are trapped around them both and she can't hide behind them.

But of course they'll still look—they always will.

They'll always see her.

Mira feels the tears sting at the corner of her eyes—and then she starts laughing a little because, wow, isn’t this just the most ridiculous thing to cry about? The fact that their couch was big enough to fit her whole world? To fit her heart.

Her family.

fin

A/N:

I just think Mira being the unofficial tiger whisperer would be funny and sweet. This is a gift to @princington who makes amazing art! Thank you so much for sharing your art, it gives us all such joy! Thank you to @nosiidam - who I love deeply - for beta-reading! Finally, this fic is inspired by a comment left by AO3 user Cryoforge - full credit to you! Thank you!

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