The triplets grew up with an affinity for reading stories. They had all kinds of fables and storybooks in their family home, and Ayato always managed to spice the stories up with his own creative additions. Nobody else other than them had heard the version of Hansel and Gretel where the kids get saved by a fire-breathing lion. Nope, that was an experience that only the three of them shared.

Kanato was infatuated with stories about princesses and romance. Laito didn't really know how he felt about them. Regardless of whether he liked them or not, they did make him think. Like about the whole concept of saving someone from a tower because you love them. Laito had to think about it.

If I had to save my mother from a tower, I would do it because I love her. But I might wait a day or two so I can get some decent sleep first.

Well luckily Laito never had to make that decision while he was still a child. The time for him to make that decision came when he was a teenager, after he had much more time to think about it.

The deep rumbling of the piano set the stage. The air was thick with the sweet and enticing smell of blood, and could only be pierced with the occasional high-pitched shriek from the princess. With a sudden crash she threw open the door, and Laito watched her enter, bleeding and wheezing, while he plucked away at the keys of the piano. The soundtrack to their fairytale.

"Laito," the princess breathed. "You have to help me - Ayato is coming after me - he's trying to kill me - that-" She described Laito's brother using some language that probably would not be appropriate for a children's story. Then she reached her slender, shaking hand towards Laito. "Save me-"

With a smile on his lips, Laito stood up from the piano. The sound of the last note he played hung in the air for a moment, then faded away, lost in the strong scent of the blood from the princess's wounds. "That's okay, Mother," he said gently, like a prince. "You're safe now that you're with me."

With a twisted smile on her painted lips, the princess extended her hand to him. "Laito. You love me, don't you?"

"Of course I do, Mother." Even though the piano music was gone now, the tune kept playing in his head. He kissed the gloved hand of the princess. "Everything I do for you is out of love."

He grabbed hold of her thin wrist, and jerked her towards the window. With a violent shove, he shattered the glass and forced her over the edge. The princess fell with an equally glass-shattering scream, and landed in a twisted heap on the grass below her tower.

In the end Laito had decided to save the princess from the tower. Because he loved her. And because he loved her so much, it was a huge relief that she was gone.

When Ayato had said that people need time to heal, he was right. Yui could be a bit of a doormat sometimes so she forgave Ruri as soon as she apologized, but Ruri could tell that Yui was somewhat wary of her now. The bite marks on her neck, too, hadn't healed yet. Ruri made a silent observation that it took humans longer to heal than vampires.

Ruri thought that the answer might be to leave Yui alone for a while - that was always the solution when Subaru was upset. Shu would say, "He needs time alone." Maybe Yui did too. Still, Ruri was itching to make some sort of peace offering with her and establish herself as Yui's friend again.

They still spent time with each other. Since Yui seemed very frightened and unfamiliar with the environment she was in, Ruri took to showing her around the house to make it feel a bit more like home. When their tour extended to the library, Ruri took her time pointing out and naming all the books she had enjoyed reading. Plenty of them were in the vampire written language and Yui could not read the text at all. She seemed very impressed that Ruri could read them.

"Is this one in the vampire language too…?" she mused, picking an interesting-looking one off of the shelf. "Oh, never mind. This one's in German."

"Can you read German?" Ruri asked, hopefully. She wanted Yui to find a book that she could read too. Ruri was imagining being in a room with hundreds of books but not being able to read any of them, and she found the hypothetical situation very frustrating.

"No, I can't. But I know this book!" Yui smiled excitedly at the cover. "It's Bambi. It's a famous one so it's been translated to lots of languages. It's about a baby deer that grows up and learns how to live life in the forest."

Ruri already knew that, but Yui looked so sweet while she was explaining the plot, so Ruri nodded and listened intently.

"Can you read German, Ruri?"

She was studying it with her mother, but she didn't know very much. "Yes."

"Maybe we can read it a bit together!"

Ruri felt her cheeks go warm. "Then, I'll read it to you."

Ruri tried her hardest to translate it. There were lots of parts she didn't know, and during those parts she made up things that seemed to fit with the story. Little details about Bambi's friendship with the rabbit, or the different kinds of birds Bambi saw. Little things like that made Yui smile, so Ruri added as much as possible. Yui was either completely fooled, or she was just playing along, because she let Ruri tell the story uninterrupted. They sat together on a sofa in the library and Ruri read aloud in a soft voice. She was a bit nervous reading to Yui, so her voice wavered sometimes. Yui kept Ruri's microphone around her neck, and fingered it absentmindedly while she listened - so Ruri could hear all Yui's quiet laughs and little hums. A few chapters in, Yui rested her head on Ruri's shoulder, almost lulled to sleep.

One scene in particular was somewhat gruesome, though: the hunters were attacking and had shot some of the forest animals. Bambi runs away from the hunters, and as he runs he comes across a rabbit that had been shot. The rabbit lays there, wounded and asking for help in an eerily polite way, before it dies mid-sentence. A few lines after the death of the rabbit, Ruri could hear Yui's sniffling as it was picked up by the microphone.

"Are you alright?" Ruri asked as gently as she could.

"Yes," Yui said, her voice almost a whisper. She wouldn't look right at Ruri, but she was definitely crying.

"Did it scare you?" Ruri suddenly felt terrible. The last thing she wanted to do was scare Yui again.

"It's just so sad." Yui wiped her eyes. "I feel bad for the rabbit."

Ruri felt a sudden stinging in her chest. "Yui," she whispered to her. She gently rested her head on Yui's, in the same way that Yui was resting on her shoulder. "It's all right. The rabbit's not going to get hurt anymore."

"You're right," Yui laughed breathily through her tears. "Thank you, Ruri."

Later that day, Ruri approached Reiji in the kitchen. He was in the middle of preparing the night's dinner when Ruri tugged on the back of his shirt. Reiji turned, looking confused.

"...Ruri. If you need my attention, call out to me rather than pulling on my clothes. You've done that since you were little. It's a bad habit."

Ruri reflexively signed an apology - which Reiji probably didn't appreciate as much as a he might've appreciated a verbal apology, considering the fact that he couldn't sign - and she went on with her request. "I was wondering if I could take Yui out shopping tonight."

Reiji set down the knife he was using. Ruri found it difficult to pick up what kind of emotion he was conveying. Somehow, he seemed exasperated. "You know, Ruri," he sighed. "Yui isn't exactly your average houseguest."

"I know," Ruri responded, daydreaming a bit about Yui's smiling face when she had found the Bambi book earlier.

"So you understand why I can't let you take her out."

Ruri snapped to attention. Usually, when she got a no (especially from Reiji) then she would take that no for an answer. This time, though, she genuinely didn't understand why taking Yui out of the house was such a bad thing, and she was a bit desperate to go out and do something with her.

"I'll be very careful," she promised.

"I understand, Ruri. It's not that you're neglectful or untrustworthy, that's not it. It's…" His voice trailed off. He considered his choice of words. The words "naïve" and "innocent" ran through his head. "Well, you're too young."

She wasn't ready to get up yet. "I go shopping by myself all the time."

"I know that," Reiji sighed again.

"I'll be very careful. I'll make sure she doesn't get lost. I won't hurt her again or anything like that." She was starting to talk fast.

"For goodness sake, Ruri, I'm afraid she's going to run away."

Ruri didn't have a response to that. Would Yui run away from her? Just earlier they were on the sofa together and Yui had nearly fallen asleep on her. But yes, Ruri supposed that it would be understandable if she did run away. She had hurt Yui, after all, and made her bleed and made her cry - it only made sense that Yui would want to run away.

"...Okay," Ruri said, a little quieter. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Ruri," Reiji gave her a sad look. "Don't give me that face."

Ruri wasn't really aware that she had been making a face. She could tell, though, that her voice sounded dejected. She hastily tried to appear proper for Reiji again: "I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose."

Reiji was already moved by how pitiful she seemed. "Look," he said after some deliberation. "You can go if you take someone else with you."

Ruri perked right up. "Really?"

"That's right. Not Shu," he added immediately. "He's utterly useless for tasks like this. You should ask Subaru to go with you. He's been so holed up in his room lately that he might miss you visit entirely."

"Thank you." Ruri was trembling to hold back her excitement now. Reiji could tell, and a small smile appeared on his face. Ruri was usually acting so dignified around him - well, because he had practically trained her too - but it was nice seeing her with a genuine smile for once.

"And you need to be back before sunrise."

"Yes!" Ruri nodded enthusiastically, thanked Reiji again with a sign, and rushed off to Subaru's room. With a satisfied look on his face, Reiji went back to preparing dinner.

Convincing Subaru to go shopping with them as well was no easy feat, but after Reiji interjected to tell him that this was an order and not a request, Subaru accompanied the two girls on their shopping trip. Even if he did complain the whole way there.

Yui seemed very grateful to be out of the house for once. She had been stuck there for all hours of the day, except for school, after all. Ruri might have been glad that she was so happy, but she couldn't get the thought of Yui running away out of her mind.

They spent most of their time in a bookstore, searching for new books that they could read together - in a language that Yui could understand this time. Subaru had been grumbling the whole time thinking that they would be dress shopping or something inane and girly like that, so the fact that they had opted for a quiet bookstore instead shut him up. He didn't mind these types of places at all. Though he did mutter once or twice that they had a whole library of books at home so they should just read those books instead, rather than buying new ones. Well, at that point, he was just complaining for the sake of complaining. He just didn't want to be running errands.

After they spent some time there, picking out different books and flipping through others, they went to go buy them and some jewelry on a stand by the register caught Yui's eye. She examined them with wide eyes and a smile, commenting on different ones she liked. Ruri saw her eyes linger on a pair of matching necklaces, both with little rabbit charms that were facing towards each other. When they were close enough to touch, it looked like the two rabbits were kissing.

While Yui continued to the register, Ruri stayed a bit longer and stared at the necklaces on the display shelf. She grabbed them off of the display, placed them on top of her own armful of books, and went on to buy them.

The three of them, after leaving the bookstore, walked along the street looking for anything else that was still open at that time of night. Ruri and Yui walked ahead, talking excitedly, and Subaru lingered behind with his hands shoved in his pockets. He was somewhat curious about the two of them, though, so he stayed close enough to listen in on their conversation.

"I think there's a place down here that sells ice cream" Ruri offered.

"That sounds wonderful!" Yui couldn't stop smiling. "I'm sorry for troubling you like this, Ruri."

"You're not troubling me at all." She hesitated. "I like spending time with you."

"Me too! To be honest-" Yui looked up at the dark night sky. "-this was a lot more fun than any date I've been on."

Ruri heard Subaru coughing suddenly from behind them.

"Have you ever been on dates?" Ruri asked, feeling awfully strange.

"Oh, well…" Yui laughed nervously. "I've gotten dinner with boys from church before, but their parents were always there too, so I don't know if it counts. And I've gone to dances at my Catholic school too. But that's all pretty boring stuff. What about you, Ruri?"

Ruri looked back at Subaru, who had been trying to close the gap between them to hear them better. He did a double-take, embarrassed at being caught in the act. "Subaru, what constitutes a date exactly?"

"How should I know?" he spluttered. "Anyway, you've never been on one."

"I've met with potential suitors before," Ruri answered Yui. "But I guess those aren't dates."

"Suitors!" Yui repeated incredulously. "Like for marriage?"

:Yes," Ruri responded matter-of-factly, and saw Subaru cringe a bit.

Yui was very invested now. "Did you like any of them?"

"I didn't get much of a chance to know them."

Yui sighed wistfully. "When I was a little girl I dreamt about being a princess who married a prince. But now I think that it must be scary to be in an arranged marriage. You're so young, too."

"Is it a bad thing?"

"I think it would be much better to marry someone that you love, rather than someone your parents set you up with. But I guess that's not your decision, huh…"

Ruri thought about it for a while. She had never even considered the possibility of loving those boys. There were some that she had enjoyed the company of, to be sure, but none of them did she love as much as Yui or her family. Suddenly reminded, she dug her hands in her pockets to take out the rabbit necklaces.

"Yui," she said, stopping in her tracks. She unclipped one of the necklaces. "I want you to wear this."

Yui stood with her mouth agape for her moment. "Oh, Ruri! The ones we saw in the bookstore!"

"Um-" Ruri took a deep breath. She was a person who almost always knew what to say, but in this situation she couldn't quite figure it out. She really didn't want to get it wrong and scare Yui away. "When I first met you I thought that you must be a really special person. I thought that you were very beautiful and…" She paused. "My...my mind's going blank."

Yui laughed in the same way a fairy might laugh, and she reached out and held Ruri's hands while looking her in the face. "Go on."

"I loved spending time with you and looking at you and hearing your voice, and after a while I realized that I love you." The words were just spilling out. "It gets difficult to think because I love you so much. And I hurt you because I wasn't thinking. I regret it; I've spent every day since regretting it. I hurt someone that I love."

"Oh, Ruri…"

"I don't think I deserve you. I would understand if you hated me or if you ran away right now. But I don't want it." Ruri felt emotion welling up in her chest. "I'm selfish, because I want you to stay and I want you to love me too, even after I hurt you. I'm sorry. Even if you leave me eventually, I desperately want you to stay by my side a little longer." With hands shaking because they could hardly contain all the love she had, Ruri clipped the rabbit necklace around Yui's neck.

Yui had her mouth parted slightly from the surprise of Ruri's sudden confession. She shivered when Ruri's fingers touched her neck. Wordlessly (because she couldn't even offer a word to respond to Ruri's sincerity), she took the matching necklace from Ruri, and fastened it around Ruri's neck in the same manner that Ruri had done for her. She smiled angelically at Ruri - her face seemed to radiate as much light as the moon in the sky.

That was all. They had no need for any more conversation. The two girls intertwined their fingers together, and Ruri looked back towards her brother.

"Subaru, let's go home."

Subaru was dumbfounded. He had just witnessed what was probably the most intimate moment that his sister has had in her whole life, right in front of his face. She poured her entire heart out right in front of this girl and Subaru just stood there and watched it. Subaru was completely, absolutely speechless.

"I...uh, yeah." He could not produce any words other than that. He couldn't say something like that out loud, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he was wishing his sister happiness.

The three of them walked home, Ruri and Yui holding hands all the way. Ruri and Yui chatted excitedly about the books that they bought, and which ones they were going to read first. When they reached the door, Yui stopped and looked at Subaru.

"Um...If it's okay-" she said meekly. "-I just want to talk with Ruri in the rose garden for a little bit. But, um, alone, if that's all right."

Subaru noticed that Yui was blushing. He started blushing a bit himself, and nodded stiffly before hurrying back into the house to give the two their moment. When he shut the door, he let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had finally separated himself from all of that emotional atmosphere.

That didn't last long, though, because Laito had been there in the living room, hovering near the door with a paper in his hands. His eyes were misty and red.

"Su - Suba- Subaru," he choked out. Tears started rolling down his cheeks right away. He clutched the paper close to his chest.

Once again, Subaru was shocked by the sudden display of emotion in front of him. "What? What the hell are you snivelling about?"

With a sudden ugly sob, Laito lunged forward and threw his arms around Subaru in a big hug. Crying loudly, he buried his face in Subaru's shoulder and kept repeating his name: "Subaru, Subaru-"

"What the fuck, Laito!" Subaru yelped, feeling his whole body tense up from being hugged all of a sudden. "Jesus, you're getting my shirt all wet." He grabbed Laito's shoulders and forced him away. "What the hell happened?"

Laito sniffled and took in a shaky breath. He was gripping the paper so tightly that Subaru thought it might tear in half. "It's a le-letter from th-tha-that man," Laito said through his tears.

"And? What does the old man want?" Subaru snatched the letter away and observed it, but it was so crumpled and stained from Laito's crying fit that he could barely read it.

With all the anguish in the world in his voice, as if the very force of misfortune were weighing itself down on Laito's back: "Ruri is engaged."