(A/N: I probably should have mentioned this at the beginning, but this fic contains some gender headcanons that you might not agree with. And you don't have to agree with them, but please refrain from leaving transphobic comments in the reviews. Thank you! Also this chapter contains a flashback in the first half, so it's kind of like a flashback within a flashback. It's in italics. Sorry if it's confusing!)

The Sakamaki boys didn't have much that reassured them in their childhood, even with such a large family, but Kanato's singing voice helped everyone. It allowed Cordelia to return to her youth for a brief amount of time, and it kept Subaru company when he was alone with his mother, and it calmed the rest of his brothers down. Everyone liked it when Kanato sang. So they were always asking him to sing. He was like a music box.

"Won't you sing for me some more, my songbird?"

Kanato gradually grew tired of that question, because he wasn't a music box, or a songbird; he was a person. What exactly was he singing for, anyway? He didn't dislike the act of singing, but it certainly didn't benefit him at all, and it hurt his throat if he sang too much. He wanted a break from it, but it was all he was expected to do around the house, so he couldn't exactly stop. Besides, it would make his mother angry if her little songbird lost his voice.

As the triplets settled into bed next to each other, Ayato started to complain, "I wish one of you could study in my place. I'm sick of it."

"You ought to be grateful," Laito commented. "Because Mother spends all her time on you."

"But I hate the way she treats me too," Ayato went on. "She lets you guys play and she talks to you like she loves you. With me, all she does is knock my towers over and stuff."

Laito scoffed at him. "But that isn't a big deal. They were just blocks, and it was only one time. You need to let that go."

"It wouldn't be a big deal if I knocked them over myself," Ayato huffed. "If I did it myself then it would be fine. Even if it were an accident, it would be fine. I'm mad because she did it."

"Maybe we could switch places," Kanato offered. "Because we're triplets and we look alike, we could get away with it. I could study for you."

"You can have my place," Ayato told him. "But I don't really think I would like yours. Standing around singing all day sounds just as boring. When all you do is sing, you don't have any goals, right? And anyway, I can't sing like you. I would rather have Laito's place."

Laito looked startled and then turned away to stare out the window. The curtain was drawn, though, so he couldn't see outside. "You can't have my place," he mumbled, a troubled expression on his face.

"Maybe this is useless after all," Ayato sighed. "Because even if Kanato takes my place, Kanato can't become head of the household."

Kanato grimaced. "That's stupid. You're stupid, Ayato."

"Am not! It's the truth. Even if you study hard and Father dies, you still can't be King."

"You're so stupid, Ayato!" Kanato looked ready to start choking him. "You're so stupid! Why can't I be King, huh? Why not?!"

Ayato inched away and put his hands up to defend himself. "I think you'd make a great King, honest. But you can't because other people don't think so."

"Well, what do they know?!"

"They don't know nothin', but…"

"That's right! They don't!" Kanato crossed his arms in a huff. "I can be King, easy."

Ayato frowned. "But I'm gonna be King. Mother says so."

"Well, you will be King. But if we switched places, then I could be King."

"Kanato could, if he worked hard," Laito chimed in. "Right, Ayato?"

"But…" Ayato looked uneasy. "Okay."

The fact is, the important people in the Demon World wouldn't respect Kanato as King no matter how hard he worked, or if he switched places with Ayato, or in any other case. And all three of the triplets knew that.

"Kanata, sing one more song for me."

"Shu." Subaru tugged on his older brother's sleeve. "Wake up."

Shu had been fast asleep at the table where he had been studying. He stirred and rubbed his eyes. "What is it?"

Subaru was clearly very nervous to be initiating this conversation. Usually he didn't speak unless he was spoken too. "I think you made, um, a mistake."

Shu looked at him. "Huh?"

Subaru gripped onto the hem of his shirt. "You intr-introduced me to all my brothers, but you didn't tell me that I had a sister."

Shu raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

Subaru hesitated. "Yesterday Chri-Christa took me to a dinner party - it was my first one, and it was really loud there - and someone asked me how my sister was doing. If I have a sister, I think I would like to meet her, please."

Shu blinked, still sleepy. "Oh…Those people must have been talking about Kanato."

He seemed afraid to speak up, because he was afraid that his assumption might be wrong. "Kanato's a girl?"

"No, no. Kanato is a boy." Subaru's face went red. Shu continued on, "A lot of people just don't believe that he's a boy."

"…Why?"

Shu couldn't think of an easy way to explain it to a child. He could get technical, but he was afraid of what would happen if Subaru started treating Kanato like a girl. "It's complicated. All you need to know is that Kanato is a boy."

"Because," Subaru stared at the ground. "A lot of times, when I was in the tower, I could hear Kanato singing from down below. I heard him before I met him, too. And before I met him I thought it was a girl that was singing. So maybe the people at the party thought the same thing." He started to wonder if what he was saying was mean, so he added, "I really like his singing."

"I like his singing too," Shu said, ignoring everything else that Subaru had said.

"Do you think, if we told those people at the party that Kanato is a boy, then that would fix things? They would be embarrassed, but it would be worse if they kept calling him a girl."

"I don't think they would stop, Subaru."

Subaru tilted his head. "Why?"

Shu shook his head. "It's complicated."

"Oh." Subaru started to look elsewhere. He wanted to know why, but he was very aware that he wouldn't understand complicated things. So he let it go.

"Will you cut my hair, please?" Kanato asked Laito, handing him a pair of scissors.

Laito blinked. "I just cut your hair a few days ago. Did I do a bad job?"

Kanato sat down so Laito could easily access his hair. "I want to cut all of it off."

"Huh?"

"Make my hair as short as yours, and then even shorter."

"But Kanata, you worked so hard to grow your hair out long. And Mother always says she loves your long hair." Laito ran his fingers through Kanato's hair. "Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure about it, and I don't really like the name Kanata."

"You don't?"

"No, I wish you'd call me Kanato instead."

"That's a boy's name."

"Are you going to start cutting my hair or not?"

Laito looked startled. "I understand that you want short hair, but if…if Mother finds out that I cut all your hair off, she'll be furious with me."

That was an understandable reason to be hesitant. "I'll just tell her I cut it myself. But I need you to do it, because if I really do cut it myself, then it won't look good."

"But then she'll be furious with you instead. I don't want that to happen, either…"

"I don't want long hair," Kanato said plainly. Laito sighed and started cutting. When his long locks of hair fell to the floor, Kanato felt a weight lift from his body, both literally and metaphorically. He grinned when he felt at the bare back of his neck.

"Is it okay, Kanata?"

"Kanato," he corrected him.

"Oh, right, sorry. Is it okay, Kanato?"

"I like it." He turned to Laito and smiled wide. Laito still wasn't so sure about this (specifically about how their mother would react), but since Kanato looked so happy about it, he smiled back at him.

"It does suit you."

"Don't tell me I look beautiful," Kanato warned him. "I'm tired of hearing that word."

"I was going to say you look handsome."

"Oh! That's good." Kanato looked even more pleased with himself now.

"Want to borrow some of my clothes for a while?"

"Can I? Do you have any that will fit me?"

"We can fix them so they fit. I'll teach you to sew."

So everything more or less worked out. Kanato got the haircut he wanted, and a bunch of new clothes, and he learned how to sew, which was a skill he would definitely put to use in the future.

Cordelia was, as expected, furious with Kanato. As a suitable punishment, she nailed Kanato's bangs to the wall, and Kanato had to stand on his tiptoes till all the feeling left his legs and he collapsed and it ripped out a big chunk of his hair. So, in the end, Kanato didn't really get the haircut he wanted. And it actually hurt a lot. But everything else was okay.

xxx

During her stay at the Sakamaki mansion, Ruri learned from Reiji who she was supposed to stay away from. She learned that she was supposed to stay away from Shu, Ayato, Laito, Kanato, Subaru and anybody else she didn't know. That was pretty much everyone except for Reiji and her tutor (and if Reiji had it his way, he would be the one to replace her tutor). And even Reiji told her to stay away from him if he was busy, which was frequently. So Ruri was mostly studying the whole time.

When she needed something, she headed for Subaru first, which not only irritated Subaru but also worried him. He didn't want to be a role model. He was definitely not cut out for that.

And it was also annoying how Ruri would never knock, just try to open the door. This wasn't a problem because Subaru's room was always locked (it concerned Shu that this was a fire hazard, but he never spoke up about it, and Subaru wouldn't feel comfortable leaving his room unlocked anyway), but it still bothered him that Ruri wasn't knocking.

He would open the door for her and ask slowly and carefully, "Can't you knock? Like this?" He tapped his knuckles against the door to show her. "This means you're asking for permission to come in. Understand?"

Ruri did not show any signs of affirmation. It worried Subaru, but he figured Reiji would be drilling manners into her head anyway so she would learn one way or another.

And indeed Reiji did try to teach her manners, but while she imitated his movements closely, she was still unresponsive verbally.

"She's selectively mute," Reiji said, as if he were giving a diagnosis. He waited for someone to ask what that meant.

Subaru gave in, even though he thought that it should have been obvious that he didn't know. "What's that mean?"

"She's afraid because she's in a new environment full of strangers. She won't speak to anyone that she doesn't trust. I believe she'll be speaking to me once the week is over." He said that rather proudly. Ruri was his new experiment, and he had high hopes for this project.

Well, Ruri learned perfect posture and dining habits but she did not open her mouth once. Not for Reiji or anybody. And Reiji left her with bruised arms for being so disobedient.

That being said, nobody went out of their way to speak to her either, except for Reiji. Occasionally Shu would ask her if everything's okay, but Shu wasn't much for conversation anymore. Laito especially kept out of her way.

Actually, it was quite a while before Laito even saw his younger sister. He had promised himself that he would avoid her like the plague, because getting attached to her was dangerous. Her life wasn't guaranteed here, and the God that he didn't believe in already proved that he wasn't afraid to kill little sisters. So he decided to never meet her. But he did, because Laito was so horribly bored being stuck in his room all day, so he eventually went down to the living room to play cards, and he saw her in the hallway.

He kept his eyes glued to the ground in order to avoid looking at her at all, and he kept mentally reminding himself that she would die eventually. But even as he was averting his eyes, he could see that she was small; oh God, she was so small. He could feel her staring at him, which was only natural because he was a stranger, but she didn't make any attempt to get his attention.

When he couldn't take it anymore and he looked at her, he caught sight of her just in time to watch her trip over her dress and fall face-first. The terrible thought that she might start crying sunk in and Laito sprung into action.

He was kneeling at her side in an instant, helping her up. "Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" He took her arm and looked over her elbows for scrape marks. He was absolutely frantic. "That was a nasty fall. Well, no wonder - your dress is so long, the hem is covering up your feet. Of course you're going to trip if your dress is this long. We can't have you walking around in a dress that doesn't fit you! Don't worry, I can sew; I'll shorten it for you - oh, but instead of shortening all your dresses, we'll have to buy you some new ones. Yes, we'll buy you some new clothes that fit you better, and they'll be new and they'll look nicer, and you can pick them out yourself. But if we get you a shorter dress then you'll need new socks. We can't have you showing your ankles - and the socks you're wearing right now are all worn down, so we'll have to buy socks too…"

So much for trying to avoid her. The second he met her, he was already spoiling her.

The word "no" was not exactly in Ruri's (extremely limited) vocabulary, so she ended up with lots of nice new dresses, and socks, and shoes, and sunhats, and things of that nature. Not that she needed sunhats, because she was a vampire and she couldn't go out in the sun in the first place. But Laito didn't see her as a vampire, he saw her as a little girl. And he bought that little girl anything she laid her eyes on, until all of his allowance money had disappeared.

When Laito saw Ruri all dressed up in her new clothes (which fitted her much better and had a more feminine touch to them), he took a sharp, emotional intake of breath. "I think you look beautiful. Do you like them?"

Ruri did not answer. She was too busy inspecting the dress. She touched the tiny flowers around her waist with her fingers, and she stared in awe at the pale pink color of her socks and the shininess of her shoes. She smiled wide, and laughed gleefully, and spun around to feel the dress flowing around her legs. Laito's chest tightened and he almost had to avert his eyes to keep his emotions in check. "I guess you like it," he laughed as a shade of pink crossed over his face. Ruri responded by enthusiastically holding his hand in both of her much smaller ones, and looking at him expectantly so they could go to the next store. She looked happy.

Just like that, Laito had abandoned his former plan of leaving his sister alone, and he was practically her best friend now. Later, the triplets were playing a game of old maid and Ruri was sitting in Laito's lap. When Ayato presented his hand to Laito, Laito would ask, "Ruri, which card should I pick?"

Ruri had to watch Laito do it a few times to understand, but after a few rounds she understood that she had to pick one card out of Ayato's hand. She would think about it for a long time, and then point to a random card somewhere in the middle, and Laito would take that card.

"This is ridiculous," Ayato snapped after Ruri had just narrowly missed the joker. "She can't play. She takes too long."

"You're just mad because she's beating you." Laito patted Ruri's head, and she beamed at the praise.

"No, it's because only we're allowed to play."

Kanato backed him up. "Yeah, it's for family only. That's why we don't let Reiji play."

"But she's family," Laito objected. On a protective impulse, he started to fix her braids. "And she isn't doing any harm. She's little and she wants to play too."

"That's just the thing! She's little. I don't want to play with babies."

"I wish you two wouldn't talk about her while she's right here. She can hear you."

"She never had a problem with it," Kanato insisted. He was growing more and more bitter towards this girl. "She must be too stupid to figure it out."

Laito covered her ears. "Stop it! I don't want her to hear things like that." He hesitated before saying, "You sound like Mother when you say things like that."

Kanato slammed his hands against the table in a fit of rage. "So?! How dare you bring Mother into this! The fact is that this thing is so stupid that it can't even talk!"

Ayato laughed, enjoying their argument, and relishing the fact that he had been the one to start it. He took the joker out of his hand and showed Ruri. "Hey, kid, look at this. It's Kanato!" He laughed at his own joke. Ruri didn't really understand, but she saw Ayato laughing, so she laughed too.

"I heard that! I'll kill you-!"

"Calm down, calm down! It's awful to get angry in front of a lady!" Laito scolded him.

"There's no lady here!" Kanato's face was red now. "Only a pathetic little monster! There's no lady in this house at all!" Tears came to his eyes, and he got up and stomped out of the room. Ruri watched him go, bewildered.

Laito went back to fixing her hair. "Don't worry, Ruri," he said softly. "Kanato gets mad all the time. But he's a good person. He doesn't mean what he said."

"Why don't you ever say anything?" Ayato asked her suddenly.

"Ayato, that's not really something a child can answer."

"Well clearly she can't answer it because she's not saying anything. She's setectively mute, or whatever Reiji said."

"Selectively mute," Laito corrected. But he was starting to doubt what Reiji said, because Ruri was more than comfortable around Laito and she still wasn't saying a word to him.

Ayato continued to ask her questions. "Can't you nod yes or no? Can't you do anything? Kanato wouldn't get so mad if you responded at least a little. Then Reiji would stop punishing you, too."

Ruri folded her hands in her lap and stared at Ayato.

"I wish you would do something," Ayato sighed. "You're the most useless baby I've ever seen."

Laito didn't appreciate his choice of words, but he was starting to agree with the sentiment that it would be better if Ruri could communicate a little. "Ruri, maybe we could start off small. Maybe you could just say hello."

Ruri didn't even seem to be aware of the fact that Laito was talking.

"Hold up three fingers," Ayato ordered.

Ruri hesitantly did as she was told. She held up three fingers.

"Now say 'hello.'"

Nothing.

"Laito, you try."

"Ruri, can you say hello?"

Ruri was starting to look a little scared.

"Here, why don't we start with your name? Your name is nice and easy. It's Ruri. Ru-ri. Can you try saying Ruri?"

Now she looked really scared.

"Laito, you're doing it all wrong," Ayato snapped. "Let me try. Hey, kid, can't you say your own name? It should be easy, right?"

Ruri made a whimpering noise and covered her face with her hands. She started to cry quietly.

"Look what you made her do! She's crying now because of you!"

"Me?! What did I do? Gah! I hate kids after all."

Laito hugged Ruri from behind. "It's okay, Ruri. You don't have to do it. You can talk when you're ready." Ruri sniffled and tried to wipe her face with her hands.

"Maybe we...Maybe we got her name wrong," Ayato considered.

"I don't think so…Reiji and Subaru definitely said Ruri."

"Maybe…nobody calls her Ruri at home?"

"But that doesn't explain why she can't say anything else!"

"Maybe…maybe…I don't know. Maybe all girls are like this. I've never had a sister before."

Laito lifted his eyes and stared at Ayato for a moment. He released Ruri and stood up, setting her on the chair. "I'm going to talk to Kanato. Don't do anything mean to her."

"Wha-? Don't leave me with the baby!"

"She isn't a baby. Try to cheer her up while I'm gone. Try to make her laugh."

Laito left, and Ayato stared at the crying kid in front of him. Try to make her laugh, huh…

When Kanato stormed away, he headed up to his room, tears streaming down his face. He felt as if his clothes were restricting him, since his chest felt tight, so he started to take them off as soon as he closed the door. He removed the ribbon from around his neck, his vest, his shirt, his binder, and finally his shoes, and then he climbed onto his bed. He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, hugging Teddy to his bare chest, and wiping the tears off his face.

He stayed in there for a while and eventually he quit being mad and started to feel a little sorry for saying that stuff in front of a little girl. Not that he was planning on apologizing, because he was still sure that everything he said was true.

He heard a knock on his door, and he immediately sprang up and scrambled to grab his shirt. "Who is it?" he asked irritably.

To his relief, Laito was the one that answered. "Just me. Can I come in?"

Kanato sighed. He could be a little more comfortable around Laito, for one reason or another. He grabbed his shirt and put it on anyway, and he threw his binder under the bed before he told Laito he could come in.

As soon as Laito entered, he sat down on the floor with his back against Kanato's bed. "Do you hate Ruri?"

"Yes," Kanato answered simply. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"Why?"

"Teddy hates her too," Kanato explained, hugging Teddy tighter. "And Teddy's a good judge of character. Teddy doesn't understand why she's here, because we're not babysitters."

"Okay, but why do you hate Ruri?"

Kanato's breathing was shaky. "I just don't like looking at her."

"Because she's a little girl?"

"Little girls make me so anxious," Kanato admitted. "They're so sensitive and pathetic. And they cry all the time. And what are they even good for? They look pretty and that's it. It pisses me off." His eyes were watering again.

Laito glanced up at him for a second, but quickly looked away because he knew Kanato didn't want to be looked at right now. "I think I understand what you're saying." That is, Laito understood why Kanato was saying that.

"Right? I bet Christa didn't even want a girl. Because, when you think about it, there's no chance of Subaru getting married, and Subaru is Christa's only chance of passing on the family name."

Laito laughed a little. Poor Subaru. "I think you should try to be a little nicer to her. It's not her fault she can't pass on the family name."

"But she's taking up space." Kanato hiccupped and tried to wipe away the tears again, but they wouldn't stop. "This is a house full of boys that have futures and they're gonna end up successful people. One of us is gonna be the Vampire King someday. All she's doing is taking up space. It's not like she can be King. She's a girl."

Laito spoke gently. "But she's a person, and she can work hard and be successful too. She just needs a little time. She isn't a waste of space."

"She is, she is! She's just like a wind-up doll. Or a music box." Kanato spoke gravely, but it was hard to keep his voice steady while he was crying. "She's gonna look pretty and she's gonna do pretty things, and that's all. Nothing else."

Laito turned and propped his elbows up on the bed, looking into Kanato's face. "I doubt she's content with only looking pretty. So let's teach her to do something different." Kanato stared at him with wide eyes. "If we can teach her something else then she won't be a waste of space, right?"

"I guess."

"And if it takes her a little while to learn, then you can try to be patient with her, right?"

Kanato hesitated. "…I guess," he said again.

"Because sometimes it takes people a little time to work themselves out."

"I know," Kanato said miserably.

Laito smiled at him. "You'll give her a chance?"

"I suppose so. Teddy says you ought to get out of my room now, before I change my mind."

Laito grinned and stood up. "I'm sure she'll love you, Kanato!"

Kanato narrowed his teary eyes at him. "It doesn't make a difference whether she loves me or not…I just want her to have a future as something other than a toy." He realized that he spoke too honestly. "Didn't I tell you to get out?"

Laito finally complied, leaving Kanato alone. Kanato spoke softly. "Teddy…What do you think of sentimental people like that?" Kanato waited a while for Teddy to respond, and then he laughed airily. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm even more sentimental."

Laito returned to see how Ayato was doing with Ruri. Ruri was clutching a tissue in her hands, which he presumed she had been using to wipe her face, but she was smiling. Ayato noticed Laito enter and he grinned excitedly at him.

"Did you make her laugh?" Laito asked.

"Yeah! We tried making a house of cards, but I knocked it over. But that's okay, because she thought it was hilarious when it fell over. So we built it up again and kept knocking it down."

Laito laughed. "That's so…" He paused, and noticed Ayato's proud smile. "That's so nice."

"Heh, yeah. What can I say? Kids love me," Ayato bragged.

Laito laughed, and cast a glance towards the hallway that led to Kanato's room. Things seemed to be going pretty well.

(A/N: That was longer than I expected it to be, lmao…If you plan on continuing to read this story after finding out that Kanato is a trans boy, thank you so much! And if you don't, that's okay, just please don't leave any hateful comments. (/_\) I planned on only hinting at the fact that Kanato is a trans boy, but I ended up making it super obvious lol…Next chapter, we'll find out why Ruri doesn't talk. And it'll be a Reiji/Shu chapter. Till next time!)