Axel, surprisingly, was the one who pulled Larsun back. They grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back into the crowd of family, giving a death glare to their own great granddmother.
Normally, his child might have been reprimanded for that, but Dowan had actually been about to do that himself, as well as pretty much everyone else there. The teenager just happened to be closest.
Luonim shot her mother a Look that clearly conveyed to everyone exactly what telepathic message she was sending to Larsun.
Speaking of, Luonim was on Leigha's bed, sitting next to and hugging Leigha to her shoulder. Leigha seemed to have frozen in her arms, her arms were tensed.
Luonim sent a telepathic message to all of them at once.
The problem with multi-target telepathy is that the more people there are, the more the message is divided. A long winded message will result in different people receiving different parts of the message. With a shorter message everyone will receive it, but it's like hearing someone talk by putting your ears to the wall and listening through it. It would take a second to figure out.
Which is why the entire family stared at Luonim for a full ten seconds, at least, before getting the message "Know I was he? Think Leigha is he. We need word."
Translating that into a logical thought took even more time, though connecting it with Leigha's shout a moment ago helped. "We need word" probably just meant they needed to make up a word for something they didn't have, in this case likely a soul's gender not matching the body.
Dowan was thinking about the word part so he could stall time to think about his second child being the other way around from his mother.
Axel preempted him, again. They walked into the room, sat down on the bed, and said to Leigha, "Hi."
They waited for Leigha to answer, and Dowan figured out why. Leigha was tensed out of surprise and Axel would wait until... they wanted to talk. Lets stick to neutral words for now.
No one else stepped into the room, for the same reason they were mad Larsun slammed the door open. His mother had literally invented locks because she didn't like having her door opened unexpectedly, and she had done this as a teenager. Leigha still hadn't said anything, so no one was going in, except Axel apparently.
Leigha, not looking up from Luonim's shoulders, said "Hi."
Axel asked "are you okay?"
Leigha nodded. Luonim shook her head.
Luonim sent another thought to all of them Leigha hides soul. Don't know why.
During the time it took for Dowan to parse the thought, he finally realized what Leigha was wearing. Is that my old tunic? he sent to his father.
Aye, and your old shoes from the same time are on the floor.
Dowan also finally noticed that he couldn't see the rest of Leigha's hair not because Luonim's arms were covering it but because it was cut short, almost exactly to his own hair's length.
Okay, so the might be a he thought had some evidence to it.
Finally, Dowan parsed Luonim's thought fully, and remembered why she'd thought it. Leigha was not okay, but was pretending to be when Axel, their own sibling, asked. Shit.
Nyra tightened her fingers around his hand. He hadn't realized she was holding it.
Axel was honestly the best big sibling anyone could have. They looked hurt for a second, but eventually responded, "If you're not okay, no one will be mad at you."
Axel really had raised Leigha almost as much as they had, at this point. They knew what Leigha wanted when no one else did, could understand Leigha's reasoning when no one else did, and loved Leigha as well as well as everyone else did.
Leigha's arms tensed again, but unwound after a moment. Tentatively, almost like it was forced out, they said "No."
Luonim and Axel were clearly talking telepathically, since Axel was actually in the room they needed the specifics more than anyone else did. They would all be caught up with whatever had happened today, but Leigha needed the help now, and only Axel and Luonim were able to give it at the moment.
Axel eventually said "Do you like being a girl?"
Leigha's entire body stiffened, arms and legs around Luonim. They still hadn't raised their head up. Telepathically, they could all sense sadness from Leigha's soul, and... self loathing? What? Nyra's fingers tightened even more, and he could feel his family's worry surround him.
Eventually, Leigha shook their head.
Luonim picked up, "What would you want to be?"
Leigha forced out the word "boy" before going silent again.
Axel nodded. "Do you like clothes like boys wear? Like the tunic you stole?"
Leigha hiccuped a small laugh at that last part, but nodded.
"We don't have many for you right now. Are you okay wearing this, until we do?" Axel said this, while putting a hand of Leigha's shoulder.
Leigha nodded, and finally Luonim asked the question they'd all wanted to but didn't want to interrupt. "Do you want everyone else to come in here, or just me and Axel?"
Leigha stiffened entirely again.
Dowan's head hurt. She He didn't want his family with him. He hides his soul, mom had said.
Eventually, with a weak voice full of reluctance, Leigha said "yes."
before anyone came in, Axel said "If you really don't want them to, they'll stay out, you know."
Leigha shook his head immediately, then, "No, I want them. All."
Finally, he actually seemed genuine. It hurt that he might not have wanted to, and it hurt even more that he might be accepting them because he feels like has to, but now at least it seemed real. They walked in and found their spaces, Berloin and Larsun on the opposite sides of the room, Vlorindul and Nrolin standing next to Luonim, and Nyra and Dowan sitting down on the bed behind them.
From where they were now sitting, Leigha could see Nyra and Dowan. He stared at them.
Luonim sent to both Nyra and Dowan at once several memories. They saw Leigha sobbing after a slightly bumped head, they saw Leigha refuse to leave the room while crying, they saw the smile after seeing his cut hair, and most importantly, they saw Leigha's shock that anyone else in their family could cry.
Nyra and Dowan reached out and took one each of Leigha's hands. Luonim was still rubbing one hand up and down Leigha's back. Leigha smiled a bit.
Nyra had tears right now. Not properly crying, but there were tears. Dowan noticed he did too.
Leigha saw them. He looked surprised, but didn't say anything.
Dowan spoke first. "Leigha, anything that makes you sad, mad, unhappy, or anything like that, you can tell us. We can help, any of us."
Leigha stopped smiling. His eyebrows furrowed.
Nyra continued, though. "We won't make fun of you, or get mad at you. Sometimes we won't be able to help, but we'll try, and we'll try to get someone who can."
Leigha very obviously did not believe them. His mouth was opening and closing, like he was looking for words.
Dowan sent a thought to his wife.
I don't know when it happened, but somewhere we showed him that going to us for help was a bad idea.
She nodded, and he felt the guilt from her soul, mirroring his own.
Everyone else in the family was standing around awkwardly, not knowing what to do with themselves. They couldn't all talk to Leigha at once without him being overwhelmed.
Eventually, Leigha found the words. "But when I tell you there's a problem, you say it's okay."
Dowan responded without even thinking, "because we'll try to make it okay, even if it isn't yet."
Leigha nodded, and tried again for a bit to speak. Eventually, "But when I say there's a problem, you act like there's not."
Dowan shook his head and was about to deny it, before Nyra squeezed his hand for a moment. She spoke instead, "If we did, we didn't know it. When did we?"
Leigha looked angry now, instead of sad. He let go of their hands and lifted himself up a bit on Luonim, who grunted. "When I said there's a monster, you laugh and say no! When I said it's too dark, you laugh and say it's right! And then I didn't know any of you cry, so I thought I just wasn't good enough, and that's- that's why I- I cried when you did- di- didn't!" He started crying, during that sentence, and it got worse now he was done. His face flew back into Luonim's shoulder.
Guilt was emanating from every soul in the room. Most of them were stunned speechless. Not even Axel had seen any of that from Leigha.
Luonim spoke first.
"We didn't know that, Leigha. I'm sorry." Leigha hugged tighter, and while the sobbing continued, the anger didn't. He probably knew before she even said that that they hadn't meant to.
Dowan and Nyra again took a hand each. Dowan found his voice first. "Then we'll listen now, okay? We'll listen every time anything makes you sad, no matter how small."
Nyra interrupted, "but you have to always tell us, okay? We'll never be mad, and we'll always listen, if you tell us."
Leigha nodded, and the crying slowed down.
Now that they knew this, Leigha could be happier in a way Dowan now realized he probably hadn't been in a long time.