It hurt, though he wouldn't let anyone know that. They were too used to thinking of him as the clown, the one that everyone could always look to for a good joke. Never serious. The jester, that was him.

But underneath the happy-go-lucky playboy skirt-chaser was a young man with feelings just like any other, he just didn't let things reach that far down very often. Usually, bad things hit his cheerful personality and burned up like a bug on a lightbulb, but this was different somehow.

Because he was the joker, most people considered him a fair weather friend. Nice to have around for parties and joke sessions, but not a real friend. What she had offered had been true friendship, the kind that doesn't go away when one of the friends is sad or angry. But now...

The fox-coyote played with a strand of neon-green grass, then picked up a pair of scissors and cut out the word 'Ruu' with them. The cut grass clippings started crying, so he picked them up and pitched them into the air where they turned into butterflies and drifted off. Such things were normal in this particular part of the Umbra. It was a pocket Shard Domain he'd found and modified to suit his own tastes. As far as he knew, no one else ever went there, including his Nuwisha cousins.

Komaine stared at the name for a moment, then flopped backwards into the grass. Overhead an enormous yellow sun, complete with sunglasses, grinned at him from the impossibly blue sky. He waved at it and then covered his eyes with one arm, blocking out the cartoon land.

She'd seemed so different from other girls. Oh, he'd flirted and teased her at first, just like usual, but she hadn't responded like normal girls. Usually they either smacked him, glared at him, or flirted back. Ruu did... nothing. He wasn't used to being ignored, so he teased her a little more mercilessly than usual.

Then they'd brought her in that morning, Figment dragging him out of a nice warm bed to come see. He'd felt like someone had poured a gallon of ice water over him when he saw her, bruised and bloody. He'd begged her to open her eyes, say something. She did, telling him to get away, and he'd complied. He didn't know what else to do.

Later, unable to deal with his own confusion and sensing that she was likely in a far more messy state of mind than he himself, he'd gone up to her room to see if she'd talk to him. She'd told him to go away, of course, but he hadn't been deterred. Figuring she wouldn't want to see any men at that time, he'd done something he rarely ever did and went full animal form.

They'd talked a bit, with him offering to hunt down Ruu's assailant for her. He'd even gotten her to scratch his ears, much to his pleasure. The animal form was so awkward, and they itched, so getting them scratched was pure bliss. It hadn't hurt she was cute.

After fetching some food (Cheeeezzzeeeee....) they'd decided that being friends wouldn't be all that bad. From the way she reacted, he'd guessed she hadn't had many friends before. Like him.

Komaine sighed, rolling over and pulling flowers out of the ground. He pitched them over his shoulder where they grew legs and danced around. Friends. He figured she was the first one he thought he could really call a friend, and then... then...

It'd been during the Valentine game. He'd teamed up with two other equally insane persons and gone around giving out valentines and other goodies to the folks at the hotel. They'd each had their favorites, of course, and he's made sure to make sure Ruu got some pretty flowers with her candy. Then he'd run into her in the lobby while playing with Figment, and went over to chat with her.

She didn't know him. Or thought she didn't. She didn't remember them promising to be friends, or talking, or anything. Even when he showed her a little video clip on his Instant Recall camera (sound on the fritz too) she'd denied ever having said she'd be his friend. Then she'd tried to tell him that he must have been talking with someone else posing as her.

That just didn't make sense! Ruu was.. unique. Ko couldn't think of anyone that would be able to properly emulate her without giving themself away within fifteen minutes. She was just special that way. Thus, she had to have been her, but now she couldn't remember.

Komaine's ears flattened as he stared at the bright green cartoon grass. He'd heard of amnesiatic shock victims before, but that didn't really fit either. He just couldn't understand.

A few cartoon bunnies and one buxom bunny-girl looked at him with a mixture of sadness and curiosity, but he waved them away and went back to picking blades of grass. Usually his private little pocket of the Umbra never failed to cheer him up, but this time it just wasn't working. He'd come here to make her happy, to keep out of her life so he wouldn't confuse and upset her anymore. He could do that much at least. But he couldn't stop thinking about it, confused, unable to understand.

He hoped Figment would remember to deliver the rose to her on Valentine's Day. The birdbrain was so flakey that asking him to do anything was pressing your luck, but CLAMP no Miko was even worse. He'd gone with the best of two evils and prayed for the best.

They should be able to handle it. After all, the three of them had done pretty well up to the point when he left. He thought the little miko had looked surprised. Well, Umbral walking wasn't something he did very often either. The coyote side of him was often neglected, but he seemed to be making up for it of late.

Behind him his tail swished back and forth idly, prompting a few bright blue cartoon birds to try to catch it as it went sailing by. He didn't even notice them, lost in thought as he was. In fact, he could have remained lost in thought indefinately until an unfamiliar voice hollered, "...Muuutt... oh mutt where are you..?"

If there was one thing Ko hated, it was being called a mutt. The word was synonymous with 'halfbreed' which he seemed to get called a lot. He was not a halfbreed or a mutt, thankyouverymuch, he was a full blooded fox-coyote. And this particular fox-coyote was on his own turf too. So, he twisted a little thread of Umbral magic and dropped an anvil on the intruder. He had no idea who the guy was or how he'd gotten in, and the weirdo never gave his name, but what he said turned out to be very important. Ruu had sent him. She wanted to see him.

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