Disclaimer: I do not own Lucky Star. Kyoto Animation and Bandai do.

BALSAMIC VAMPIRE

Chapter 1

Revelations

It's early on a Mid-October morning, right about 7:00 am. At the Hiiragi residence most of the Hiiragi family are up and about doing their usual morning rituals. However one member of the family, as usual, is having trouble getting up. "Tsukasa! Tsukasa it's time to get up! You have to leave for school in 30 minutes." says her mother Miki Hiiragi from the other side of the door. Tsukasa slowly stirs in her bed. She's always had trouble getting up in the morning, but today it feels different. For some reason she feels exhausted. And to make matters worse there's a beam of sunlight coming in through a gap from between her curtains and hitting her in the face.

Normally this beam of light would help her stir out of bed. But for the past couple of weeks Tsukasa's noticed that this light has become rather…. well painful. She can't explain why though. She's tried to get her curtains to block this beam but unfortunately her curtains have a blind spot that always allows it to come in. The only thing she can do is throw her covers over her head, but she soon finds that it gets too warm under there and so she has no other choice but to just get on up. As she gets out of bed she looks over at the small mirror on her desk.

Her hair is all messed up, but that's not unusual since she just got out of bed, but somehow her complexion looks a little… pale, even though she was just under warm covers. This is something she's also noticed for a past couple of weeks. As she opens her door she sees her older fraternal twin Kagami going by. Kagami stops as she sees Tsukasa coming out of her room. She gives Tsukasa a stern look. "You're just now getting up Tsukasa? You really need to hurry up and get ready. Mom's got breakfast ready….. Are you feeling ok? You've got bags under your eyes." asks Kagami. "I'm fine Onee-chan. I just haven't had a good night's sleep in a while. I don't know maybe puberty is messing with my sleep cycle again." explains Tsukasa. Kagami let's out a huff-humm. "Well. Go wash up and go eat some breakfast. That should wake you up. And use cold water. It should help more." says Kagami.

Tsukasa head's off to the bathroom and after a few minutes of washing up she enters the dinning room. Her mother has already placed a bowl of Oatmeal on the table for Tsukasa. As she sits down Tsukasa's father across from the table peers out from behind his newspaper at Tsukasa and makes a slightly concerned face. Tsukasa sits down but the washing up hasn't helped her snap out of her sleepiness. Within a matter of seconds she dozes off and plops her face right into her bowl of oatmeal. "Ah! Tsukasa!" yells her mother. Miki runs over and pulls her youngest daughter's face out of the oatmeal. Tsukasa snaps awake after feeling herself be jerked back. As such she quickly realizes what just happened. Miki looks at the clock. "Well now you won't have time to clean yourself up and eat breakfast before you leave. Go clean up and get ready and I'll have a couple of pieces of jellied toast for you when you leave." says Tsukasa's mother.

As an embarrassed Tsukasa beings to walk out of the kitchen, her father peers out from behind his newspaper. "Um… Tsukasa…" he starts. Tsukasa looks back at her father Tadao. "Um…. No. Never mind. Go up and get ready." he says. "…Ok…" says Tsukasa with a curios look. After rewashing off her face and changing into her winter uniform, Tsukasa is now slipping on her shoes in the entrance way with Kagami . As she does so her mother brings her the jelly toast sandwich. "Thanks mom and sorry again." says Tsukasa. "It's ok dear. Just have a good day at school. Both of you." says Miki. "Thanks mom. Bye!" "Bye!" says Tsukasa and Kagami.

It's just a little before 7:30 and it's about a ten minute walk to the train station. But for Tsukasa it feels like it's taking forever. She only managed to eat half her jelly toast sandwich before she just couldn't take another bite and threw it away. Kagami notices Tsukasa looking a bit uncomfortable. "You ok Tsukasa? You look like you're sweating." asks Kagami. "Does the sun feel a little bit warmer to you somehow?" asks Tsukasa. Another thing Tsukasa has been noticing lately is that the sun seems to have been getting brighter and warmer lately. "The sun? No. Not at all. It's 50*F (10*C) out here. So it feels just fine. Are you sure you're feeling ok?" asks Kagami. "Yeah. I'm ok. We just did switch to our winter uniforms not to long ago, so I must not be used to them again yet." says Tsukasa with a smile. Kagami has a bit of a worried look on her face but decides to let it go.

After reaching the train station and then a ten minute train ride, the two get off near the bus stop that will take them onto school. At the bus stop they both see a familiar face. "Hey Kona-chan!" yells Tsukasa. The short blue haired girl turns her head to see the twins walking to her. "Oi Kagami. Tsukasa-chan. How ya been!?" says Konata in her usual carefree way as she waves her hand. "I've been Fine. I stayed up a bit later than usual to finish my homework while helping Tsukasa at the same time. Speaking of which did you finish yours for once?" asks Kagami. "Not completely. So would you mind if I-" "NO!" says Kagami forcefully interrupting Konata. "What!? I just want to look at them today. Just this once. Pleeeeease?" says Konata. "That's what you said last week, and the week before that, and the week before THAT! You need to learn to do your own homework for yourself for once." explains Kagami.

Tsukasa giggles a bit as she watches Konata continue to beg Kagami to let her see her work when they get to school, even at one point grabbing Kagami's arm and acting like a needy little sister. Suddenly a sweet scent whiffs across Tsuaksa's nose. Tsukasa takes a couple of sniffs. It smells really nice. "Hey do you guys smell something sweet in the air?" asks Tsukasa to the other two. Kagami and Konata stop their little feud and sniff the air themselves. "I don't smell anything." says Konata. "All I smell is the lingering odor of diesel fuel from the previous buses." answers Kagami. Tsukasa takes another curious sniff of the air but still smells something sweet. "Hmm. Maybe it's just where I'm standing then." she says

Within a few minutes the bus arrives and the three girls get on and sit down next to each other. Tsukasa however can still smell the sweet scent. She spends the next few minutes trying to figure out where the smell is coming from when it suddenly dawns on her that the smell is coming from Konata. She's about to blurt out that the sweet scent is coming from Konata when she suddenly feels herself drift into a daze. She lends in closer and sniffs at Konata. "Mmmm Konata….. you smell nice…. so sweet." says Tsukasa in an almost flirt like tone. "Huh? It's just the regular soap I use every morning…." says Konata a bit weirded out. Tsukasa leans in a little further right up next to Konata's neck and sniffs harder. "So…..sweet. I could just…." she repeats. Konata let's out her signature irritated exhale. Tsukasa can feel her body having an urge to do something when all of a sudden… "Tsukasa! What are you doing!?" yelps Kagami.

Tsukasa instantly snaps out of her daze and pulls away. "Eh!? Eh!?" she mumbles in confusion. "I-I-I-I'm sorry! It's just that Konata smelled so nice I just had to get a better whiff. I don't know what came over me." stutters Tsukasa. "Tsukasa are you SURE you're feeling alright?" says Kagami. "I'm Fine! I'm Fine! Really!" says Tsukasa franticly as she waves her arms in front of her. Kagami looks at her with a disbelieving look. "I'm fine Onee-chan. I just got caught in her smell is all." explains Tsukasa. The bus stops in front of their school and opens up its door. "Ok then. But if something really is wrong just let the teacher know ok." says Kagami. "S-Sure." answers Tsukasa.

As they stand to walk out of the bus Tsukasa thinks to herself. "What was that just now?" The sun has just started to peer over the school building when everyone gets off the bus. As Tsukasa gets off the sunlight beams her right in the face. Normally she would just hold up her hand in front of here eyes to block the light, but today she sunlight nearly bowls her over onto her back. She immediately begins to feel hot and dizzy again. She manages to shake it off and heads into the school. Tsukasa can feel something wrong, well not exactly wrong, but more strange, but she just doesn't know what it is.

Tsukasa keeps her distance from Konata so as to not weird her out again. But Konata's lingering scent is still messing with her head a bit. She keeps wondering what it is about Konata's scent that is causing her body to react so… so…. mysteriously. As she enters the room several seconds after Konata she sees Konata and Miyuki already talking to each other. Having failed to get Kagami to let her look at her work Konata is now asking Miyuki for help. Being the helpful and kind person she is Miyuki agrees to allow Konata to "review" her work. Unfortunately for Tsukasa the sunlight in the morning hours streams right in through the windows.

Class time doesn't go much better for her. Though she sits away from the windows near the center of the room, the sunlight that is coming through is still making her feel dizzy. And making matters worse is that she still gets a whiff of Konata's scent every so often, and every time she does she can feel herself drift into a daze. When she eventually snaps out of them she notices several minutes have passed by. At one point Nanako even threw a piece of chalk into Tsukasa's head to get her to snap out of a daze to answer a question, which Tsukasa promptly answers wrong to. And it goes without saying that Tsukasa misses most of the notes to write down.

But Tsukasa's troubles don't end there. As usual after English class ends gym is up next. And what's worse is that it takes place right in the middle of the day at noon when the sun is at its peak. Needless to say Tsukasa is not looking forward to it. As they begin to walk to the girl's locker room she can already feel herself beginning to sweat again. "Are you ok Tsukasa-chan? You're sweating." comes a voice from beside her. Tsukasa turns her head to see Miyuki looking at her with a concerned look. "I-I'm fine Miyuki-san. I guess even the thought of hard physical activity is enough to make me sweat. Aheh heh heh. " says Tsukasa with a forced laugh. But Tsukasa knows she's not fine. She can feel something stirring deep inside her. Something that's keeping her attention on Konata.

When they reach the locker room everyone splits off to their own lockers to change into their gym uniforms. The locker room has three aisles in which the door opens up to the middle one. It doesn't take long for most of the girls to change and head on outside. But Tsukasa and Miyuki linger a bit longer in the locker room. "Tsukasa have you seen Konata? Gym is about to start. I didn't see her leave. Did you?" asks Miyuki. "No I haven't and I didn't see her leave either. You don't suppose she's trying to skip gym do you?" says Tsukasa. "No I don't think so. I did see her come in here. Maybe she's in one of the other aisles." says Miyuki. "Maybe." says Tsukasa. "I'll take the one over to the right of the door, you take the left one ok." says Miyuki. "Ok." answers Tsukasa.

The aisle Miyuki goes to cheek still has some girls in it so she has to head down it to find Konata. However the aisle Tsukasa looks down in empty except for, you guessed it, Konata. What Tsukasa sees is a bit comedic. Konata has her back turned to Tsukasa, her hair draped over her chest, and she's struggling to get her bra hooked back together in the back after it accidentally came undone. Tsukasa hears Konata mumble. "Argh! Hmmff! Ahh you'd think that having a flat chest would make hooking a bra back together easier." says Konata. Tsukasa is about to giggle when she suddenly gets a strong whiff of Konata's scent again. This is the strongest whiff she's gotten yet; probably due to the fact that Konata isn't wearing a shirt.

Tsukasa can feel herself getting dizzy again, but for some reason her eye sight stays clear. Her sight suddenly clears to a higher definition and seems to zoom in on Konata's neck; that soft, meaty, but thin bare neck. Her sight also turns a little red. Tsukasa loses all track of thought and slowly begins walking silently toward Konata. Her shoes don't even make a squeak as she slowly takes steps toward Konata. Tsukasa is memorized at the sight of Konata's bare neck. Along with her scent it's stirring up something deep within her. "I must…" Something primitive. "I Must…" Something natural. "I MUST…" Something instinctive. "I MUST…" Something…. that feels so right….. "I MUST…BITE!"

Tsukasa's brain registers a tingling in her gums, but she herself doesn't notice. Whatever remnants of common sense there is still in her brain is yelling at her to stop, something is wrong with this feeling. But it's as if that yell was no more than just a whisper. Her instincts finally make out what this feeling is. It's hunger. Not just any hunger, but a deep longing hunger. A hunger which demands overpoweringly to be satisfied. It will not stop until it gets what it wants. And right now it wants one thing….. BLOOD of a blue haired otaku. With every step Tsukasa can feel herself lose more and more control of her actions.

Just when she's a couple of steps away and she feels that's she's about to strike…. "Tsukasa? Did you find Konata?" comes Miyuki's voice from behind her. Tsukasa instantly snaps back to reality. For a few seconds Tsukasa is as little confused and dazed after snapping back. But when Tsukasa looks into a small mirror on the front of a locker next to her, what she sees horrifies her. In the reflection she can see herself, but yet not herself, or at least she thinks so. What she sees is herself with reddish narrow eyes and long fangs. Her K9s are about double their length, maybe a little more. Tsukasa shivers as she sees the reflection. She shakes her head and looks at the mirror again. But her eyes and teeth have gone back to normal again.

"Tsukasa?' says Miyuki a little louder. This time both Tsukasa and Konata hear her. Tsukasa and Konata turn to Miyuki. "Oh….um… yeah. I found her. She was having trouble with her bra so I thought I'd go over and give her a hand." says Tsukasa with a forced smile. Miyuki notices Tsukasa with a slightly pale look. But she brushes it off as just having been surprised. "Ok then. Hurry it up. Nanako-sensei won't be happy if you two are late." says Miyuki. "We wouldn't be if this dumb bra would just hook up already. Tsukasa could you please?" complains Konata. "Oh uh S-Sure." stutters Tsukasa a bit. Tsukasa walks over to Konata. "Well I'll be waiting outside for you two." says Miyuki as she steps away. "Ok see you out there." says Konata.

Tsukasa swallows hard as she grabs Konata's bra straps. Being this close, seeing her neck and smelling her sweet scent is causing her to become dizzy again. She quickly hooks the bra straps together and quickly runs out of the locker room. After the door shuts Tsukasa lens up against the wall and takes some badly needed but shaky breaths. Thankfully no one is around to see her. That whole ordeal has left her exhausted. "What the hell was that just now? I could swear I had grown fangs. And why the hell did I have the urge to bite Konata all of a sudden? Am I hallucinating? Am I sick?" says Tsukasa with a shiver. Tsukasa feels under her lip at her K9s. They're their normal length… as if nothing had happened.

Tsukasa stands there for a minute contemplating what just happened when she hears someone coming. She shakes her head trying to clear her mind of those disturbing thoughts. She figures going outside and doing some exercises should help. She just prays that it's clouded up since class time. Unfortunately when she gets outside it's the exact opposite. Not only has it not clouded up, there's not even one cloud in the sky, parse from one or two contrails from a couple of airliners. As Tsukasa steps out into the sun it feels like she standing just a few feet away from a large spotlight.

What's worse is that Nanako-sensei is having them run several laps around the running track. Seven to be exact as apposed the guys who have to run ten. Tsukasa from the very start is having trouble keeping up, but after only two laps she really begins to slow up. Her legs are aching and she's all out of breath. That ordeal with Konata in the locker room and feeling miserable all day has left her body strained. Her stomach is also growling loudly. Having that mysterious deep hunger in the locker room has caused her to become very hungry. Now Tsukasa wishes she had finished eating that jelly toast sandwich. But worst of all is the sun. It may be in the 50s but it might as well be in the 100s with a very high humidity level. Tsukasa is sweating heavily. Her shirt is soaked through and she chaffing in her gym shorts. She's also feeling very lightheaded and it's only getting worse.

*BRRIIIIIIIIIIP* "Oi! Hiiragi-chan! Pick up the pace! You've only done two laps. Come on! Even I know you can do better!" calls out Nanako-sensei after blowing her whistle. Tsukasa tries her best but can only manage running another half a lap before she has to stop to catch her breath. But now she feeling even more lightheaded and the color seems to be fading from the objects around her; not to mention blurrier. Konata, who had been way ahead of everyone, is about to pass Tsukasa when she sees her friend is having trouble. She stops next to her. "Tsukasa-chan are you alright?" she asks. Tsukasa instantly gets a strong whiff of Konata's scent again. It's even more pronounced now that Konata is also sweating. And she can swear she can hear Konata's heartbeat in her ears over her own.

This is causing her to become dizzy again. VERY dizzy. "No… not again." thinks Tsukasa. Tsukasa's head is spinning. She can't even think straight. Everything around seems to be spinning wildly and won't stop. She can't seem to maintain her balance. She tries to take a step back onto the track to try and get away from Konata, but only sees the ground coming up fast. Tsukasa doesn't even feel herself falling over. She hits the ground with a thud. "AH TSUKASA! NANAKO-CHAN! TSUKASA'S COLLAPSED!" cries out Konata. Konata rolls Tsukasa over onto her back. Tsukasa can only see a blurred hazy version of Konata and then more blurred people surrounding her. She notices several of the burrs getting shoved to one side as Nanako-sensei arrives and begins looking over her. "Tsukasa-chan! Hang on!......Hang on!" says Konata. Tsukasa can barely hear her say that when suddenly everything goes black.

"…..der when she'll wake up?……" "……t for seven hours….." "….up! Please wake up…." Tsukasa suddenly bolts awake and sits up fast. She blinks a couple of times trying her get her senses back when, "Tsukasa!" comes a familiar woman's voice. Tsukasa then feels herself get embraced. "Thank God you're alright!" says the woman again. Tsukasa's brain catches up and finally recognizes the voice. "Mom?" says Tsukasa. Tsukasa takes a couple of seconds to look around at her surroundings. It doesn't take her long to realize that she's in a hospital bed with a gown on. A small prickly feeling causes her to look at her left elbow. She sees a needle sticking into it with a tube. She traces the tube back to a bag halfway full with blood. She's getting a blood transfusion.

"Mom? Wait what happened? Why am I in the hospital? And why am I getting a blood transfusion?" asks Tsukasa almost franticly. "You Idiot!" comes another voice. Tsukasa looks over and sees Kagami next to her mom staring her right in the face with an upset look. But she has a couple of tears in her eyes as well. It's the first time Tsukasa notices that all her family is there. All three of her sisters and even her father. "You collapsed during your P.E. class! You were taken to the nurse's office but Amahara-san found you were having irregular heartbeats so she had you immediately taken to the hospital. We were all worried sick about you. I said if you didn't feel well to tell the teachers but you didn't!" yells Kagami at her younger fraternal twin with tears falling from her eyes.

"Calm down Kagami dear. I know you're upset but you shouldn't yell at Tsukasa like that. She just woke up." says Miki. "I'm sorry Onee-chan… I didn't mean to upset you and everyone else." says Tsukasa with a downed look. Kagami looks slightly away. "S-Sorry Tsukasa. I shouldn't have yelled like that. I was just overwhelmed." says Kagami. There's an awkward silence for a minute before Tsukasa speaks up. "Um… so… why am I getting a blood transfusion?" she asks. "Oh. When you were brought to the hospital the doctor said you had a severe acute anemia attack. So he had you hooked up to a couple bags of blood. I told him that you've never had anemia before so he said this was probably just a one time occurrence. Usually when a healthy person has an anemia attack it can be quit severe he said. He also told us if you woke up that you should be fine to go home tomorrow." explains Miki.

Tsukasa looks down again. "I must have really given you all quite a scare didn't I." says Tsukasa. "That's for sure." says Inori the oldest sister. "I bet Kona-chan and Miyuki-chan are worried sick as well. After all I did collapse in front of them." says Tsukasa. "Ah! Konata! Miyuki! I forgot! I promised to call them as soon as you woke up." says Kagami. Kagami digs into her pocket and pulls out her cell phone and flips it open. "Oh… no bars. Guess there's too much metal plumbing in the way. I'll just step outsi- *grooowwl* hech!" Kagami's stomach interrupts her mid-sentence. Kagami blushes slightly. "Well that should be expected. We've been so worried about Tsukasa that we haven't had time to think about anything else. Now that Tsuaksa's ok our brains can focus on other things. It's has been more than ten hours since most of us last ate and we all skipped lunch, so why don't we all go to the cafeteria and get something to eat." suggests Miki.

As the four girls get up to leave Miki turns back to Tsukasa. "We'll tell the doctor that you've awakened and to bring you something to eat as well." she says. Tsukasa grins. "Thanks mom." says Tsukasa. As Miki turn to leave she notices her husband not getting up. "Uh, Dear aren't you coming?" she asks. Tadao looks up. "Oh. Uh. No. I want to stay here and talk with Tsukasa for a little while. If that's ok with you. You guys can just bring me back something." he responds. "Ok Then. We'll see you in a little while." says Miki as she waves to the two. As the door closes Tsukasa glances at her father and then looks down at her sheets. "I'm sorry if I've made you mad father when I didn't tell anyone I wasn't feeling well…." says Tsukasa.

"That's not it Tsukasa. I'm not mad at you at all. But that's not the reason why I wanted to talk with you. What I need to know is what kind of symptoms you were having. And did anything unusual happen to you?" asks Tadao. "Why do you need to know?" asks Tsukasa. "It's VERY important Tsukasa. I must know. Tell me everything." says Tadao. Tsukasa is a bit taken back by her father's insistfulness. She looks down again. "I don't know what's wrong with me. First it started out that my complexion started to look pal in the mirror every morning. Then the sun's light started to feel hotter and hotter everyday to the point it was painful and making me lightheaded and sweaty. I can't seem eat much. But the oddest thing is, is that just today I could…. smell something very sweet. And this smell was coming from Kona-chan. For some reason I just had to get closer and closer to her to get a better smell of it. It's as if I was drawn to her by her smell." explains Tsukasa.

Tears whelp up in Tsukasa eyes and they begin to trickle down her cheeks. "But then… while we were in the locker room changing cloths. Something came over me. It was like I was no longer in control of my body. Something was drawing me to Kona-chan." she continues. Tears are now streaming down her face. "I could feel something inside of me. Something…. foreign yet felt natural. I can't describe it. But it had me focused on…on… on Kona-chan's neck. It was telling me to BITE her! To bite my best friend's neck and suck. I couldn't control it. If Miyuki hadn't been there to snap me out of it then… then…then…." Tsukasa can't even finish her sentence. She manages to gather herself a bit and continues. "But the most frightening thing of all was when I was snapped out of…whatever it was, I happened to look in a mirror beside me and…. it wasn't the normal me. I had scary reddish narrow eyes, and…. fangs! It scared me. I had turned into this… monster! But after I closed my eyes and shock my head, the red eyes and fangs were gone. As if I was hallucinating." Tears are pouring down her face as she looks at the palms of her hands. "What the hell is wrong with me!? Am I losing my mind!? Am I going insane!?" Tsukasa finally breaks and starts crying.

Tadao leans over and let's out a sigh. "No, not quite Tsukasa. But it is as I feared." he says. Tsukasa stops crying and looks up at her father. "Damnit! I was hoping that it would have been bred out by know. I was hoping I was the last one!" he curses. "Dad? What is it? You know what's wrong with me don't you?" asks Tsukasa nervously. "Yes I do Tsukasa. And it's something I was hoping would have ended with me. But it seems you inherited the blood." says Tadao. "The blood? What blood?" asks Tsukasa. Her father stays silent for a moment before speaking back up. "You see Tsukasa, you and I…. are VAMPIRES."

End of Chapter 1

To be continued in Chapter 2: Family History

Author Note: And so beings my 1st Lucky Star fanfic. This story came to me during Halloween and I spent the next couple of months refining it a bit to make a good story. Things will pick up very soon in the next couple of chapters and more secrets about who Tsukasa really is will be revealed. This will all lead to a climax I'm sure you will all love.

Story Note: Tsukasa has just found out that she is a vampire! But how can this be? How did this all happen? Will Tsukasa accept her other side or will she try to deny it? And what does her father mean by bred out? Stay tuned for the next chapter of Balsamic Vampire to find out more! See you next Chapter!