(A/N: Hey kids~ I'm ditching the "diaboys as kids" part of the chapter from here on out. From now on, it's Ruri's story. Please cheer her on ^^ I hope this chapter was okay.)

A few days after receiving the news, Ruri was scheduled to leave for the Gottfried residence when the sun set. The night before, though, she secretly asked Reiji to take her earlier, when the sun was still in the sky. He asked why, and Ruri responded that she thought it would be a difficult goodbye, so she wanted to leave while everyone was still asleep.

"It's not like you'll never see us again, Ruri," Reiji had said. But the look on his face proved that he wasn't reassured by his own words.

Still, he agreed to take her earlier. And that morning - the morning before her departure - Ruri crept into Yui's room. She thought Yui was asleep, and so she silently slipped into bed next to her. To her surprise, though, she heard Yui laugh.

"Did I wake you up? I'm sorry," she said quickly, embarrassed.

"No. I couldn't sleep." Yui pulled the blanket so it covered Ruri too, and snuggled up closer to her. "I'm glad you came to my room. I was going to go to yours, but I was too afraid for some reason."

"I couldn't sleep either," Ruri admitted. "I kept packing and unpacking. I feel restless."

Yui was looking at Ruri with a smile. But it wasn't a happy smile. It hurt Ruri to see her looking like that. She put her arm around Yui's waist under the covers, encouraging her to go to sleep.

Yui shut her eyes. Her eyelashes looked delicate and beautiful. "I think this is the first time," she said, her voice weighed down with sleepiness. "That I've had my heart broken."

"I'm so sorry," Ruri whispered. The silence hung in the air. "Maybe it would have been better if we never met."

"If I never met you," she said. "Then I would live my whole life feeling like a part of my heart was missing."

Yui drifted off to sleep. After a long struggle to hold back her tears, Ruri did too. She woke up early, as planned, and kissed Yui's head so as not to wake her, and left to go grab her things.

The person waiting for her downstairs was not Reiji, but Shu. Under the pretense of being quiet so she could sneak out undetected, she spoke to him in sign.

"Where's Reiji?"

"He slept in," he signed back.

"That doesn't sound like Reiji."

Shu half-smiled. "It sure doesn't."

They both both stepped outside and loaded the limo together. The sun had nearly set, and the sky was a heavy red-orange. The sound of the car starting up sounded far away to Ruri. And then she felt the limo moving, pushing her back against her seat. Even when they were on the road, safely out of earshot of the others, they kept using sign language.

"Are you scared?"

Ruri shook her head. "Are you?"

Shu laughed, to her surprise. "I'm terrified."

After some hesitation, she signed, "I'm a little angry."

"Who are you angry at?"

"I'm a little angry at my father, for getting me engaged without my permission. And I'm a little angry at myself, for not being true to myself sooner."

"We're mad at our father too." And then, "Do you remember meeting Lucius Gottfried?"

"No. I must have, but I met so many boys."

"If he's a jerk, then call us." Shu smiled again. "You have six big brothers who can set him straight."

For the first time she had gotten the news, Ruri felt happy. She signed thank you. Then she suddenly perked up like she had just remembered something, and she started rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a box, all wrapped up in a purple cloth, and she presented it to Shu.

"It's Reiji's present," she signed. "Because it's his birthday tomorrow."

Shu looked dumbfounded. It was almost physically difficult to raise his hands to sign again. "He's definitely going to cry when he sees this."

"That's not what I wanted. I wanted him to be happy when he opened it."

"He'll be happy," Shu assured her. "Reiji doesn't show it often, but he treasures you."

Eventually the limo had reached the Gottfried mansion. It would probably be unfair to describe it as an intimidating place, because the Sakamaki house probably would have seemed just as scary to an outsider. But to Ruri, the Sakamaki mansion was her second home. This place, however, looked cold and bleak and dead, and infinitely tall and wide, and reminded Ruri very much of a prison. Even though Ruri had always spent her nights with her mother up in the tower, with all the bars made of iron and the windows bolted shut, this place gave off a stronger feeling of being trapped. Just looking at it was enough to fill her with apathy - to make her feel resigned to her fate.

Shu got out of the car first and held the door open for her. The sun was down now, and a dark curtain had closed over the sky. The cold wind hit her as soon as she got out, and she wanted to get back in the car right away. She hung close to Shu - maybe it was because of the cold night air or maybe it was because she wanted to stay with her brother.

"I have something for you too. Nothing special." Shu produced a little pink bag, and offered it to her casually, looking somewhat embarrassed. "These were your favorite when you were little."

Ruri took it in her hands. It was a bag of strawberry marshmallow snacks, with bright pink patterns on the packaging. It made her heart light up just looking at it. She looked up and smiled at Shu. "They're still my favorite."

"Ruri-" Shu had started speaking out loud instead of signing. "I grew up with those five as brothers. All of us - myself included - we were pretty messed up. We didn't like each other and we didn't like ourselves." His eyes were steady, staring directly at Ruri's face. "When you were around, though, we all tried a little harder. We weren't perfect siblings by any means, but you know, we really did try. Nobody wanted to fight around you, nobody wanted to show you our ugly sides...We knew that your childhood wouldn't last forever and we wanted you to have a good one."

"Shu…"

"Since you've been around," Shu went on. "I've seen my brothers going out of their way to do nice things for someone else. They've been misguided - I've been misguided too - but I could see that they all really wanted you to like them. I saw my brothers loving a member of their family. I never thought-" Shu took a deep breath, trying to stifle a sudden rush of emotion. "I never thought I'd get to see that."

Ruri clutched the marshmallows close to her heart. She was looking at Shu like he was the most important person in the whole world.

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is...thank you, Ruri." Shu couldn't seem to get the next few words out of his mouth. So, with his hands moving slowly and deliberately, he signed it instead: "Thank you for being born."

Ruri threw her arms around Shu and hugged him tightly, and he did the same to her. The two of them wanted to freeze time there, in that moment where all seemed right in the world. But Ruri had to go now. She told Shu that she loved him, and to please tell the others that she loved them too. Shu offered to walk her to the front door but Ruri refused, saying she would be fine on her own. She had to be fine on her own, starting now.

As the two of them parted, Ruri felt a little less angry and Shu felt a little less scared.

When Shu returned home, everyone was awake and everyone seemed depressed. He had been a little concerned that they would all be angry with him for taking Ruri early and thus denying them their right to see her off, but nobody seemed to have the energy to be angry with him. Subaru wasn't even out of his room yet; Shu guessed that he had the same "goodbyes are hard" philosophy as Ruri had, so he was sleeping in on purpose. Kanato was lazily thumbing through a deck of cards, and placing them in four piles according to their suit. The joker was in a separate pile.

"What are you doing?" Shu asked.

"Playing solitaire," Kanato mumbled. He clearly wasn't.

"Where's Laito?"

"Went to go find a woman."

"Huh…"

Shu had seen all of his other brothers in such a closed-off state before, but seeing Ayato like this was new to him. Shu's energetic, usually annoying younger brother was silent, curled up on the couch, and fiddling pointlessly with his shoelaces. Typically he would cope with feeling sad or stressed out by looking for games to play or some physical activity to do. But this time he didn't seem up to it.

"Ayato?"

"Why'd you take her so soon, Shu?" he asked weakly. It was a vulnerable voice that Shu had never heard before. "I wanted to give her a hug before she had to go."

"She wanted to go early. She was too sad to say goodbye." Shu looked at Ayato. "She told me to tell you that she loved you."

Ayato grabbed a pillow off of the sofa and buried his face in it.

"Poor guy," Kanato mused, putting a 7 of hearts down on its proper pile. "Ruri was practically your best friend."

"It's just-" Ayato whimpered, looking absolutely pathetic. Shu was surprised to see that he was openly crying. "I don't know. I wanted to see her face one last time before…"

"Before she changes?" Kanato finished.

He sniffled, letting out a shaky breath. He was hugging the pillow tightly. "Now it really feels like my little sister is gone. Maybe next time she sees me she won't hug me, or smile at me, or laugh, or...an...anything…"

Shu looked down at the purple package in his hands. "...Ruri is stronger than that. This is a challenge for her, and she's going to win it."

Ayato thought about that for a second. "...Yeah...I mean-" He sniffled again. "I taught her everything I know, y'know. She's gotta be as strong as me at least. Well, maybe not quite as strong as me, but still way stronger than Lucky Godfield or whatever…"

There he was. The Ayato that Shu knew was back.

"Anyway, Shu, what are you holding?" Kanato asked, referring to the parcel that Shu had been staring at.

"It's Reiji's birthday present from Ruri."

"Reiji's birthday?" Ayato frantically wiped his eyes, and then leapt off the couch. "Is that today?"

"It is."

"Don't give him Ruri's present yet!"

"Uh…?"

Without any explanation, though, Ayato dashed off.

Reiji was in the kitchen, cooking. Even though Shu just saw him from behind, he thought that Reiji looked as if he had a storm cloud over his head. He was cooking as if his limbs were too heavy to move properly, passionlessly.

Before Shu could say anything, though, Ayato barged in front of him. "Reiji, happy birthday!"

Apparently Reiji had been very on-edge, because Shu saw him flinch dramatically and drop the knife he was holding onto the counter. "Ayato," he said, exasperated. "Don't suddenly shout like that."

Ayato stood up straight, held his head high, and presented Reiji with a short stack of notecards. "Here's your present."

Reiji adjusted his glasses. The situation was only just now starting to sink in. "...Today's my birthday?"

"Did you forget? Stu-pid. Take your present already."

"You? Got me a present? Is everything all right?"

"I wasn't gonna," Ayato admitted. "But Ruri told me that she got you something, and I can't just let that little snot one-up me like that. So take 'em!"

Reiji took the cards, and squinted at them through his glasses. "...What are these?"

"Chore coupons," Ayato said proudly. "Each one is good for making me do one chore. The only condition is that I absolutely won't do toilets, and I'll only do my own laundry. That's just for my own safety." He was so smug about this whole ordeal that you would think he handed Reiji gold bars.

Reiji was dumbfounded. "...I'm speechless. I don't know what to say."

"There's one more thing," Ayato said, a little less proudly now. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked off in the direction of all the pots and pans on the counter. "I'm sorry about that one time. When I called you a bitch."

Cautiously, Reiji asked, "Did you hit your head?"

"No! I was just thinking…" His gaze dropped to the floor now. "I already had to let my sister go. I don't want to be fighting with my brother at the same time."

Reiji was stunned into silence for a few moments, before he answered in an unusually gentle voice. "Ayato, thank you. Really." He slipped the coupons into his pocket. "...And I should apologize as well. I was, in fairness, acting like a...b-word."

"Please don't say 'b-word.'"

"Believe me when I say," Reiji sighed. "I was just as frustrated with myself as you were, if not even more. I understand why you were upset. I was upset too." Upon realizing that Shu had just watched this whole scene unfold, Reiji coughed awkwardly. "Shu, what do you want?"

Shu showed him the purple package. "This is from Ruri."

Reiji's eyes widened a bit, and he took that package much more gently than he had taken Ayato's. He placed it gingerly on the counter, and Shu and Ayato both crowded around on either side of him to see what it was. Reiji unwrapped the cloth around it as if he were performing surgery.

Inside the box was a white teacup and a matching saucer. They were decorated with pastel blue roses, sprouting from green vines and leaves. Many of the roses were still in their buds, while the others had unfurled in soft brushstrokes, stretching their petals like they had just been exposed to the morning sun. The artwork was not professional. Reiji guessed that Ruri had painted it herself.

Reiji picked up the cup, and turned it around in his fingers. He only held it a short distance over the box it came in, because his hands were shaking and he didn't trust himself not to drop it. Shu noticed that Reiji was blinking rapidly, and holding his breath.

"There's a letter under it!" Ayato noticed, grabbing it and attempting to open it immediately. Reiji might have scolded him, telling him not to touch other people's things, but he couldn't take his eyes off of the teacup. So Ayato read the letter out loud. Thankfully, Ruri didn't write in very difficult characters, so he had no problem reading it.

To my big brother Reiji,

I hope you've been well. I am excited to join you for your birthday for another year. I've been talking about it with my mother every day. She wishes you a happy birthday, too.

I am thankful that I have had you for so many years of my life. You have taught me so much, and you have been welcoming and hospitable to me every time I come visit. I always look forward to eating your home cooking again.

My big brother Reiji is always looking out for me. When I was smaller you taught me how to be a proper young lady. I know that I was a difficult child, because I don't think I quite fit what a "proper young lady" was supposed to be. I worry sometimes that fitting in at those ballroom parties simply isn't in my nature. But you didn't give up on me. And I didn't know it back when I was smaller, but I know now that Reiji was trying to protect me by teaching me all these things. It's a bit of a somber topic for a birthday card but my mother told me once, when she didn't feel good, that I might've been thrown away by our father if he knew that I was hard of hearing, or if he found me behaving oddly in the public eye. You were trying to protect me from that, weren't you? It's because of you that I was able to get hearing aids, too. Even basic things, like being able to speak well and how to act politely—I learned these things because of Reiji. I know I must have caused you trouble. I'm very grateful to be born with you as a big brother. Thank you for always protecting me.

Even now, though I'm writing this weeks before your birthday, I've already packed. It's because I want to come see you so badly already. I treasure every moment I spend at your house, with all my brothers. So, I've decided that I'm going to come early. I know I'll be causing you unnecessary trouble, and I'm very sorry. But I love Reiji, so I don't want to be separate for so long. To the Reiji in the future, who is reading this on his birthday—I hope I behaved well.

I'm thankful that I get to celebrate with you. Thank you for being born, big brother. And thank you for supporting me since I was born too. I'll act properly in the future, not to impress anyone or to keep myself safe, but because I don't want to let you down.

Your sister,

Ruri Sakamaki.

Shu had been completely correct when he told Ruri that Reiji would cry when he received his present. He was fighting tears as hard as he could, but the letter was enough to make it a losing battle.

Shu hesitated, but then put a hand on Reiji's shaking shoulder. "You were trying to keep her safe. Ruri understands that. There's nothing for you to feel guilty about."

"God damn it," Reiji cursed, wiping his eyes underneath his glasses. "But in the end...I sacrificed her happiness to do it."

Reiji carefully placed the teacup back in the box, while Ayato was still staring at the letter with his eyes filled to the brim with emotion. All he could think about was how desperately he wished his little sister were here right now. His voice came out as a whimper. "...Reiji…"

"I know," Reiji said with sudden conviction. He slammed his hands down on the counter, startling both Shu and Ayato. "You were right, Ayato. We can't let this engagement happen."

"...Really?!" Ayato's back suddenly straightened. "So we're gonna go get her? Let's go right now!"

"Not so fast, Ayato." Reiji's eyes, though red and tearful, were determined. "We need a plan first. We can't treat our little sister's life so carelessly."

Shu found himself smiling.

Ruri wished that she had worn a jacket. She got left out in the cold for quite a while. She ended up doing something that Reiji and her mother had previously told her not to do, which was fidgeting. She swayed back and forth, bounced on the balls of her feet a bit, and exhaled hot air onto her hands to keep her warm. She knocked once, twice, three times, fidgeting all the while in between. No answer for quite a while.

She was very tempted to just turn around and leave. But every time she even turned her head around, she saw the great big moon over her head. A bright round reminder of what she was capable of. A comforting reminder that she would persevere. The thought of Yui. Ruri looked up at it, and made up her mind. She would not run away, she would not give in. She would do her duty as Karl Heinz's daughter diligently, and she would keep the person that she really was in her heart. Even if she had to hide it, she would never stop loving her brothers, and she would never stop loving Yui Komori. She turned around and lifted up her fist, with all the strength and determination in her body, to knock again.

Before she could, though, the door opened. The person who had answered it stared at her like she was a crazy person, so Ruri quickly put her hands behind her back and stood up straight again.

"It's you."

Ruri was face to face with a woman. No, that wasn't exactly correct. She was around Ruri's age, maybe 17 physically, so it would be more accurate to call her a girl, or at the very least a young woman. But her height, the mature leer of her face, the fullness of her lips, the curvature of her body...they all suggested an adult. She had dark makeup on her face: her eyelids were painted a thick black, to match the glossy black of her long, wavy hair. Ruri's eyes went to the hand that the young woman kept on the door. Her fingers were long and slender, her nails a dark purple. Ruri had spent her whole life liking girls, pretty much every girl, but she was able to tell right away that this was a particularly beautiful face.

And this was a very familiar face. A too familiar face. A very familiar voice that seemed to be dripping with all the venom and hatred in the world. Just by looking at her, Ruri felt as if she had been slapped in the face.

Her voice cracked. "Angelica?"

The moon shone on behind her.