I'm supposed to Disclaim? I CANT DRAW WORTH CRAP.

With my eyes closed, I started babbling incoherent garbage out of shock. Personal, death defying shock. Life changing shock. Existence ruining shock.

Tsuruga-San? Wouldn't he have told me?

Or maybe he didn't even remember me.

One eye popped open for me to restudy the world with. Unfortunately, the only thing in my line of sight happened to be Tsuruga's face. I clenched back up. It looked EXACTLY like Corn's. Or at least, what I remembered of Corn's.

But I digress.

"mogami-San, please, don't hide from me." his silky voice echoed inside my dark world. Perhaps I could stay inside my own head forever, and never deal with truth. But unfortunately, that was when he decided to MAKE me see the light.

Using his fingers, he attempted to pry open my eyes. "Mogami-San! You...need...to...open...up!"

"no!" I clenched tighter and yelled in his general direction, not too worried about where exactly that would be.

"mogami-San-"

"I'm not going to open my eyes."

I heard him sigh dramatically. "what will It take?"

I placed my fingers in my ears as I snapped, "nothing you say will change my mind."

His voice sounded foggy, but very much there as he whispered, "what did I do?"

Perhaps he was right in being concerned. After all, he used my name once and I collapsed into a heap on the floor. But I still didn't want to see their faces, the similarities. I didn't want to think about the possibility that my Sempai could have been my childhood friend who listened to my tears no matter the reason. But why?! What would have been so wrong in that?

Because I had loved my childhood friend.

I use the term love loosely. I wanted him to always be my my side, and protect me from evil Shotaro. That was his duty, in my mind. His job.

But...Tsuruga couldn't be him. Corn was a fairy.

It took a few minutes to think and recognize that, yes, corn had been playing me. He had been feeding me fables to make me feel better. But they had worked, and their magic wore on. Tsuruga couldn't do anything so wonderful.

At least, I desperately hoped not.

I opened my eye again, curious. He was turned away from me on the floor, sitting akwardly and silently. I wondered what could possibly be wrong. After all, the great Ren Tsuruga, worried?

It certainly couldn't be about me.

"Tsuruga San?" I asked ever so slightly. He didn't even glance at me. I tried again. "Tsuruga-San?" but he still couldn't hear me. In the dark recesses of my mind, my little demons were accusing me of being a horrible person, but another thought has occurred to me at the moment. Perhaps...

...he was in character?

"Cain-San?" I tried. Still nothing. I slipped on Setsu gingerly before trying, "Ni-San?" but even THAT got me nothing. Suddenly, I was worried.

I started to weed through every character he had ever played one by one, each receiving the same damned silence. It went on for 10 minutes-me addressing him, and him being silent. I had gotten to Katsuki when he suddenly spoke up. "it isn't a character, Kyoko."

I stopped dead, Katsuki's name still on my tongue. "it isn't? But, you didn't resp-"

"-I said, it's not a character."

He still hadn't turned toward me at all, so I cautiously shot back, "and Tsuruga Ren is a character?"

There was a smile in his voice. "of course. The world is a facade, don't you know?"

"we Masquerade every day." I felt myself smile too.

He chuckled a bit. This was clearly not the cleaned, primped Tsuruga Ren. But then, who was it?

"People are mean."

Oh.

"you aren't mean." I blushed. I couldn't help it. I should have known. I should have.

I should have known two years ago.

He turned, slowly at first, before turning all the way. Very little had changed, except for his eye color. The deep green eyes I remembered from a foreign boy came back with a vengeance. His features remained the same, as always, but even then, it wasn't Tsuruga-Ren.

"Kuon." I finally said it. His real name. He stood up, then held his hand down to help me up.

I stood cautiously, unsure of-really-who this man was. But since he shared Tsuruga's body, I couldn't be afraid of him. "say it again." he whispered.

"Kuon."

It took a moment, but his eyes opened up as he grinned. It took another moment to realize that I was still holding his hand.

"Kyoko." he whispered. I shivered. Perhaps Kuon was actually the emperor of the night. Every blood vessel in my body popped at once. My heart, which had been pattering rather quickly anyways, became even faster. I wanted to run away. This was wrong.

But all my locks were gone.

THUNKS TO YOU REVIEWERS! You guys make my day better by being there. Sorry for not updating: got that high school Chizz going on. Becoming a learned woman and all. Oh well.

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