(A/N: THIS CHAPTER'S LONG AS SHIT I'M SORRY...Descriptions of torture in this chapter. Please stay safe!)

When vampires are children and their fangs are not fully developed, the servants would usually capture a human and routinely drain blood from it in order to feed them. The kids typically did not question where this blood came from, they just drank it like juice from a cup. They hardly realized it was blood at all.

Subaru knew, because Kanato had told him.

Whenever Subaru felt like he needed comforting, he would go to the tunnels underground and sit by the rushing water. No one would ever go look for him there, and he could cry openly and as loudly as he wanted. But he tried to keep his voice down, because if he was quiet, he could hear Kanato singing from the surface.

It was a light and pleasant sound that reverberated off the walls of the underground tunnels, and Subaru couldn't always make out the lyrics, but just the sound of the changing tones was enough to calm him. If it was a familiar song, he would hum along quietly, around his sniffles and sighs.

He was almost always singing, at any time of day. But it wasn't always the same day-to-day. There were times when it was lighthearted and energetic, and times when it was a slow and sorrowful drawl. There were other times where his usually angelic voice came out raspy and hoarse, as if on the verge of collapse. Like a puppet whose strings had all been cut except for one, and he was now hanging precariously on that last string as if his life depended on it. He never stopped singing, no matter how painful it sounded.

Kanato was tortured by something. Subaru did not know what, and he did not know how. But he could tell from Kanato's singing voice. Kanato had seen things, he had experienced things that Subaru could not understand. It intimidated Subaru, so he tried to avoid being around Kanato often, except for when he was listening to him sing.

It was on one of those days where Kanato's voice sounded like it was about to die out. When Subaru had finished up recovering from within the tunnels, he came back outside to head for the tower. On his way, he felt a cold hand touch his arm. He turned around to see Kanato's big, empty eyes staring at him.

"Subaru, did you know? There are humans in this place."

Subaru stiffened. That couldn't be true. He had never met a single human, in all of his years of living in this place.

His lips broke into a small yet sadistic smile. "They keep them down in the basement. Then they stick things in their skin and take out their blood. It must be incredibly painful."

Subaru whimpered. Kanato was scaring him. "No they don't. Stop lying."

"And then we drink that blood."

"Stop it!"

"It's true! You and me," Kanato's eyes were wide. "We're incredibly cruel. It's especially cruel that we didn't even know. Don't you agree?"

Subaru wanted to run away. He didn't like Kanato's hand touching him, or Kanato's eerie eye contact. He felt his shoulders shake.

"What is it? What are you thinking right now?"

Before Subaru could think about it, he answered honestly, as if Kanato had put some sort of spell on him: "I was thinking that I like you much better when you're singing."

"It's funny," Kanato responded in a monotone. "Everyone says that."

xxx

The date in which Ruri was supposed to return home was rapidly approaching. Everybody felt, in one way or another, that they might miss her at least a little bit, but Laito and Ayato were the only ones to vocalize their thoughts.

"I'm gonna be so bored," Ayato groaned. He was sprawled out on the couch in the living room, so he was taking up one and Shu was taking up the other. Laito was sitting on another chair, intently watching Ruri play. Ruri was on the floor, sorting through a deck of cards and putting them into little piles based on their suit, for some reason. "That little dork laughs at all of my jokes."

"Even the ones that aren't funny?" Laito said with a smile.

"Screw you, all my jokes are funny. Right, kid?"

"Yes, sir," Ruri responded, looking up briefly from her work. Her voice still sounded slightly off when she tried to talk, but she had rehearsed that phrase enough times to say it without a problem. Ayato offered her a goofy smile and she giggled at him. At this point, she associated Ayato's face with something funny.

Ayato looked proud of himself. "She gets it."

Seeing his brother and sister get along so well made him happy, but Laito had something that had been weighing on his mind for some time now. He sighed. "I get what you mean, though...I wish Ruri could stay here…"

"I doubt she likes it here," Shu mumbled from the other couch without opening his eyes.

Laito tilted his head, giving Shu a somewhat worried smile. "Don't be silly, she smiles all the time. Ayato's practically her favorite person ever." Ayato sat up a little straighter and grinned to himself. "She's gotta be bored out of her mind at home."

Kanato's voice spoke up as he appeared at the staircase. "I imagine next time we see her, she won't laugh so much."

At once, the smile on Laito's face disappeared. Kanato was probably right. In fact, Laito had known from the beginning that Ruri's childish innocence wouldn't last. Karl Heinz's manor simply wasn't a good place to be a child. But he had gotten caught up in the fun of having a sister, and he had forgotten that he would more or less lose her soon.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, but naturally Ruri hadn't noticed, since things were usually borderline silent for her anyway. She gave a salute-like sign to Kanato when she saw him, and then showed him a card.

Kanato stepped a bit closer, looking unamused. He tolerated her now, but he still hadn't quite opened up to his little sister. "It's a joker. What about it?"

"What...kind?"

"Don't be stupid. There's only one kind of joker, and there's no such thing as a joker of spades or a joker of clubs. It's just a joker."

She was taking an awfully long time to think over her words. "Where…?"

Kanato sighed, and knelt down. He pointed to her different piles of cards. "You can't put it in any of these piles, because the joker is different. Make a separate pile for jokers." Ruri nodded in affirmation and placed the joker aside. Kanato went on to tell her, "There are only two jokers in a deck so it will be a small pile. And make sure you pick these up when you're done, got it?" Ruri nodded again. "If you don't, then there will be a mess, and no one likes messy kids."

"Even Kanato's being a proper big brother, huh…" Laito noticed.

Kanato chose to ignore him. "In any case, some of us will be seeing Ruri at parties and those sort of things. Since Ruri is the only daughter, I would imagine she'll attend all of them."

Laito turned pale.

"To find a suitor, right?" Ayato made a disgusted face. "I don't really understand it, but I guess I remember that sort of thing when I was younger…" Ayato was referring to how Kanato used to be the "only daughter." He remembered finding some letters addressed to his mother that detailed some wedding proposals, and he had a good laugh about it.

Kanato replicated his disgusted expression. Those were uncomfortable memories for him. "Poor thing. So young and already a trophy wife."

"No, no, no, no," Laito jumped in. "No, no. She's just a child."

"She's not just a child, she's the daughter of Karl Heinz as well as Tougo Sakamaki," Kanato reminded him. "She's worth a lot. Aren't you, Ruri?" It was a cruel question to ask a child, and Kanato knew it.

Ruri looked up at him and said "Yes, sir" exactly as she rehearsed. Even though she didn't understand what he was saying. Kanato felt a little guilty for asking her that, especially when he knew exactly how she would respond.

"No, no, she's not getting married anytime soon!" Laito insisted. "She can barely tie her own shoes. You're being ridiculous."

"I'm not saying she'll be married anytime soon, but it's only a matter of time before she's engaged-"

Laito cried out in horror. "Ruri, come here and sit with your big brother!" he pleaded to her. The microphone picked it up so she heard him, but she had some trouble figuring out where his voice was coming from for a brief moment. She glanced around the room before she finally spotted Laito and recognized his voice. Then she did as she was told and climbed on the armchair, sitting snugly next to him. "Ruri, you don't like boys, right? Don't you know that they have cooties? You're gonna stay away from them, right?" and Ruri responded "yes sir" every time.

"Even if she says that, it's that man's decision," Kanato reminded him. Laito grew even more distraught, and Ayato scoffed.

"If Ruri gets married, we'll have a brother-in-law. How gross will that be?"

"Truly gross," Kanato answered.

Shu suddenly spoke up. "That man is throwing a birthday party for her at the end of the week."

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Laito leapt out of his seat. "When's her birthday?!"

"June 12th."

"That - That's - What day is today?!"

"...Uh...The seventh, I think."

Laito looked mortified. "Then it's five days away?!"

"That's how math works, usually."

"Oh my gosh, I didn't know! Does Ruri even know? I need to get a present! Oh, geez, I'm broke - And you said there was going to be a party? Why would that creep throw a party…?!"

"You know why," Kanato commented. "To find a suitor."

"Agh! Shu, why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

Shu shrugged.

Ayato looked thoughtful and then spoke up. "Do you think we're invited…?"

"Subaru is expected to go," Shu went on. "Because he's her blood brother."

"Ahh...Subaru isn't gonna like it," Ayato sighed. "Especially if he has to go alone."

Ruri perked up at the mention of Subaru's name. She seemed to want to say something, but didn't quite have the words to express it. "Suba-aru is…"

Laito frowned. "Subaru doesn't talk to you a lot, does he?"

"No. He...is…" Ruri looked towards the staircase, and a sad look crossed her face.

"He needs a lecture from his own big bro," Ayato announced, jumping out of his chair.

"Ayato, no...You got punched in the face last time."

"It would've hurt more if Ruri had hit me," Ayato said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And if we don't force him out of his room, he's never gonna know his own sister. Then he can't protect her from the suitstors at her birthday party."

"Suitors," Shu corrected him.

"That's what I said."

Laito looked worried, but the idea of Ruri getting engaged next week was even more terrifying, so he figured it would be smart to get Subaru and Ruri to become closer. "...Okay, Ruri. Do you want to see Subaru?"

Ruri's face lifted. "Yes, sir."

Ayato didn't need to be told twice. He bolted off towards his younger brother's room. It was a matter of minutes before he returned, dragging a protesting Subaru by the arm.

Subaru glared darkly at Shu, because Ayato had made it sound like this was all Shu's fault. "What?"

Shu couldn't be bothered to explain the situation, so Laito stepped up to Subaru's other side and linked arms with him. "Hey, Subaru! If you don't leave your room every once in a while then you'll get sick, you know?"

Subaru growled, "Why are you touching me?"

"Fresh air is what you need! Right, Ayato?"

"Right, right. What he said. You can't be a hermit forever."

The two of them started dragging Subaru towards the front door. Subaru's eyes widened and he started to fight back. "Hey! Where the hell are you taking me?! Let go-!"

Ruri looked at Kanato because she didn't know what to do. Kanato pointed towards the other three and said, "Follow them. Subaru's going to take you for a walk."

Ruri nodded. "Tha-nk you," she said quickly before running towards the other three.

Ayato and Laito kicked Subaru out of the house and Ruri obediently joined him. Laito said cheerfully, "Have her home before morning or there will be consequences!" and slammed the door.

Subaru shouted some words that Ruri didn't know, shoved his hands in his pockets, and stormed away. Ruri had much smaller legs, so she had to jog to keep up with him.

It wasn't like Subaru to try to be nice to anybody, but he had known Ruri since she was an infant, so he couldn't exactly be mean to her. Besides, Christa really seemed to love her, so Subaru didn't want to take his anger out on her if he could help it. He didn't like it, but for the time being he would have to put on a big brother act after all.

"...How are you doing?" he grunted, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

He could hear her breathing quickly as she struggled to catch up. "I am well. How - How are you?"

"Peachy," he responded sarcastically.

"I - miss - you."

Subaru nearly stopped in his tracks when he heard that, but he was so frustrated that he kept on walking out of pure anger alone. His plan was to just keep walking until she got tired and gave up. After all, she's never had much exercise in her life, being cooped up with her mother and all. "You've missed me? But I've been here."

Ruri was taking a lot of time to put her sentences together. That only annoyed Subaru even more (though he could kind of relate). "Suba-aru...does not eat...w-with us."

"Because I don't want to."

"Do you - eat?"

Subaru quickened his pace. "Not usually."

"Why…" She paused to catch her breath. "...not?"

"Vampires don't need to, so it's a waste of time. You'll understand when you're older."

"Yes, sir."

For some reason, her response pissed him off. "And another thing that'll happen when you're older. You'll stop with all the stupid sentimental crap. You won't care whether or not we eat together."

"Subaru."

He ignored her and went on, taking bigger strides to widen the gap between the two of them. It was too easy to be cruel to her. Because all she said was yes sir, yes sir, like a talking doll. "But then again, you'll be with my mother. You won't give a damn about whether or not your brothers are eating at all. She'll be braiding your stupid hair all day, probably, but that's not going to last forever either."

"Subaru-"

"You just wait, you're gonna see her at her worst someday. She's gonna snap and cut all your hair off and tell you she hates you. She'll regret even giving birth to you." Subaru suddenly started to laugh, and he walked even faster. "No, I'm just kidding myself! I only wish that would happen! But she loves you too much to do that! God dammit…!"

"Subaru, I c...can't hear you." She ran to catch up, and tugged on the hem of his shirt. He looked down and realized she was holding the rectangular box she wore around her neck up to him. "Please w-wear this around your neck."

Subaru stared at it for a while, and then very slowly took it out of her hands.

As he was putting it on, Ruri was going through some more lines she had rehearsed. They sounded mechanical and she wasn't used to the pronunciation yet. "I am hard of hearing and that mi- mi-...microphone...helps me to understand you. Can you please repeat what you said?"

Subaru blinked at her, and then looked away. "No. It wasn't important."

They were both silent after that, and Subaru walked at a much slower pace that Ruri could easily keep up with. After a while, he asked, "Do you miss home?"

Ruri had apparently thought about it before, because she responded immediately. "Yes, sir."

"I'm not a sir," Subaru mumbled.

"...Yes ma'am…?"

"Just Subaru is fine." He went on. "What do you think of us?"

Subaru feared that that may have been too abstract of a question for a child like her, but she responded fairly well. "I think you are all n-nice."

"But you miss home?"

There was a brief silence, and then Ruri's voice rose to a whimper. "I miss Mother."

Subaru had a few things he could tell her, but he held his tongue. Somehow his words held more weight now that he was speaking into a microphone. "Me too," he said, sounding a bit uncomfortable. He had never said something like that out loud before.

It was too late to console her. "I r-really...miss her." She balled her hands into fists.

"Don't you dare start crying. I'll leave you here."

"No! Don't…!" She was already crying.

Subaru sighed and waited for her to cry it out. Ruri was a quiet crier (much the opposite of Subaru), so at least he didn't have a screaming kid on his hands. As she sniffled, he started to rummage around in his pockets for a tissue.

"A-A-And," Ruri went on through sniffles and hiccups. She was finding it difficult to cry and talk at the same time. "It - It is scary...t-to sleep in a big bed."

Subaru stopped walking and forced the tissue into her hands. Ruri blew her nose. "...This is the first time you've slept alone, huh," he observed in a low voice. "If you were scared, why didn't you tell someone?"

"T-Tell...who?"

That was a good point. Subaru hesitated, then awkwardly patted her head. "Tell you what. If you're very quiet, tonight you can sleep in my room." He was embarrassed to say stupid stuff like that, but he wanted her to stop crying already. "And then you'll see Mother in just a few days."

"I th-thought she left me forever…"

"No way. She went on vacation. She'll be back before your birthday." He had figured that someone would have explained that to her already, but he had apparently figured wrong. Even if she had hearing aids now, they still had a lot of work to do on communication.

"Rea-lly?" She sniffled.

"Yeah. So quit crying."

Ruri very hesitantly took hold of Subaru's hand. Subaru wanted to yank his hand away on instinct, but he figured he could sacrifice his pride for just a little longer. As long as his brothers didn't see.

She had more or less stopped crying. "When are we going on vacation?"

"I dunno...Whenever the old man decides we should go somewhere."

"Where do you...want to go?"

"Nowhere, really. I would rather just stay home."

"Okay," she responded simply.

Subaru raised an eyebrow. "What about you?"

"Um...Nowhere. I would rather just-"

"Don't just copy what I said," Subaru interrupted. Ruri stopped talking, because that was exactly what she was going to do.

The two of them wrapped up their walk and headed home. Subaru made sure to release Ruri's hand before their brothers got a chance to see him doing something so girly. And, like he promised, he let Ruri sleep in his room. The whole ordeal was torture, but he would feel even worse if he kicked her out of his room, so he would just have to deal with it. Besides, she was very careful to be quiet so she wouldn't bother him. Subaru figured he didn't really mind having her around.

When daytime rolled around, Subaru fell asleep, but Ruri was a bit restless due to being in a new place. She thought she might get up to explore Subaru's room a bit, so she grabbed her hearing aids and turned the microphone back on. She heard a quiet clinking of metal, and a voice she didn't recognize, but she couldn't quite make out what it was saying. She snuck out to investigate.

Following the sounds was tough and she ended up going in circles for a while, but eventually she arrived at a big door that seemed to be the source of the clinking sound. She pushed it open with some difficulty and found a flight of stairs heading downwards. It was dark and she was a bit frightened of what might be down there, but her curiosity got the better of her so she ventured downwards.

The basement of the house would have been stiflingly dark for a human, but luckily Ruri was gifted with night vision and she could easily see that she was in some sort of medieval-style dungeon. There were a variety of tools around her that she didn't recognize, but they looked pretty dangerous so she decided to keep her hands off. As for what she could hear, the microphone around her neck picked up the sound of rushing water from somewhere further downwards, and...the sound of somebody breathing?

Just past some larger instruments of torture (mostly covered by tarps and thick layers of dust) she found a human being chained to the wall. Or at least, Ruri assumed it was a human being because it was vampire-shaped, but it smelled nothing like a vampire. The smell was...ethereally delicious. Ruri's mouth started watering. The human was female, and it was just as pale as Subaru, and its body language suggested that it was crying but unable to produce any tears.

"Please go away," she was sobbing, over and over. Apparently she had heard Ruri's footsteps and assumed it meant danger. "I can't handle it. I feel like I'm going to die. Please let me go."

Ruri cautiously approached. The human girl fixed her eyes on the shadow of Ruri's body, and strained to see her in the dark. Ruri examined the girl from a distance; she seemed to be (as far as Ruri could guess) a young adult around the age of 19 or 20, a brunette, with large gashes down her neck and smaller cuts on her forearms. The blood had dried, but the girl still looked as if she were on the verge of collapse. Despite this, Ruri couldn't help but think that she was a beautiful girl, and that she smelled heavenly.

"I'm seeing things," the girl kept crying. Apparently she had decided that the eerily quiet child in front of her was a hallucination. "I'm seeing things. Oh, I want to go home...Mom, Dad…"

So she wanted to see her mother too. Ruri suddenly turned around and dashed off, leaving the girl to continue moaning to herself. Ruri poked around the table full of strange tools and she found some big iron scissors (the word is "pliers" but Ruri didn't know that word) and she grabbed them, brushed the dust off, and headed back to the girl.

The girl took one look at the pliers and broke into hysterics, thinking that Ruri was going to remove her teeth with them or something. But instead, Ruri knelt down next to her and got to work trying to break the chains. It took a few tries, but eventually Ruri heard a snap followed by the clatter of chains falling to the ground. The girl's left arm was free. With a small, victorious smile, Ruri moved on to the girl's left foot.

The girl, still delirious from blood loss, became vaguely aware that one arm was free. She stared at her shaking left hand and looked more closely at Ruri, who apparently wasn't a hallucination. "Who are you?"

While Ruri worked, she recited the introduction that Reiji had taught her: "My name is Ruri Sakamaki. I am the daughter of Tougo Sakamaki. It is a pleasure to meet your acqu...aintance." Reiji taught her to look up and smile when she said that, but Ruri was distracted at the moment. Another snap, and the girl's left leg was free. Halfway there. Ruri moved over to her right side.

The girl looked bewildered. "Why are you doing this…?"

"To help you get home." Snap. Ruri had gotten the hang of this and she was working much faster now. "To see your mother."

"Thank you, Ruri," the girl sobbed. "Thank you."

Ruri managed to get the girl completely free, and though she was weak, she managed to stand and make her way out of the dark basement with Ruri's help. She had her arm around Ruri's shoulder, and Ruri was supporting her weight the best she could. They were at the front door and could see the sunlight streaming in past the curtains, and Ruri had to ask: "Is it true that humans sleep at nighttime?"

"What do you mean?"

"My mother told me that humans are awake during the day and that they sleep at nighttime. That's when we sleep. Doesn't the sunlight hurt your eyes?"

"What are you?" the girl asked in a trembling voice.

Ruri looked confused. "We're vampires," she said simply, staring up at the girl with her dull red eyes.

The girl cautiously took her hand off of Ruri's shoulder. "Thank you for saving me, Ruri," she stuttered. Then she turned her back to her and ran like hell out the door, and that was the last that Ruri ever saw of her.

She wondered what had spooked her so badly.