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Bittersweet Strawberry Blood
Chapter 4
"Suspicious"
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"Dammit, Pai! Did you know that it was going to be sunny today?"

"You should ask Taruto, not me; after all, he's the one who can see the most of any future." the lavender-haired man replied calmly, bringing a cup of tea up to his lips.

"Yeah, but I'm not one to see the weather!" Tart said, bursting into the kitchen, a hand of his head.

"There you are!" Kisshu scorned. "Listen, Taruto, I need you to –"

"You know that I can't summon up a vision by will!" the younger boy snapped. "Now get out of my way, Onii-san. I'm thirsty." He walked passed his two brothers to the refrigerator where a few (stolen) bags of donated blood from the hospital sat.

"We should have brought more with us," Pai sighed. "I'm not sure I should smuggle some out first thing at my new job."

Kisshu glared at his older brother. "Why the hell not? It's not like they'd notice; and even if they do, they won't suspect you. And speaking of blood … Pai, I need to talk to you. In private."

"Oh, it's something that I can't hear?" whined the brunette, a drip of blood in the corner of his mouth.

"My, tensions sure run high on sunny days," Pai said expressionlessly as he rose from the table, donned in his white scrubs. He followed his forest green-haired sibling into the study. The door closed behind them with a soft click, and Pai said more seriously, "What's this all about, Kish-onii?"

"There's a problem at the high school," he said dryly. "And it seems like something that can't be helped, but I was hoping maybe you could prove me wrong."

"And just what is it?" Pai asked, his interest sparked. He didn't show it, but he liked it when he could prove Kisshu wrong, since sometimes the 17-year-old brat could he more right than he was, which irked him.

"A girl, a little younger than me, but in my class. Her blood tells me she's about 16. She's attractive, but in more ways than one."

Pai raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me she's in your blood preference?"

Kish scowled. "Unfortunately. And it's stronger than anything I've ever felt before. It took all I had today not to jump her and drain her veins dry."

Pai closed his eyes and cupped his chin his one hand. "This proves to be a difficulty; we're trying not to rely much on human blood after that little mistake in the States. I finally move back to my homeland and you're telling me that one girl might threaten our leaving it? I don't like the sound of that."

"I didn't say we'd have to leave," Kisshu replied, shoving his frustration at the girl down his throat. "I'm just saying that this could be dangerous. I was near her twice, and the second time I had to leave to the bathroom just to calm myself."

Pai shook his head. "This has happened to me a few times in the past … one person had blood that called to me so strongly that I could hardly sit still. I'll tell you what, Kisshu … to be safe, you can feed of some animal blood to keep back your thirst for a few days. It'll help a little, or at least enough to sit in the same room with this girl."

The teen nodded. "Yeah, I pretty much thought of that already. But Pai, what am I going to do afterwards? It's so strong … her blood, I mean. And it doesn't help she has a nice body, too," he added with a smirk.

Pai smiled vaguely, but one could hardly call it a smile. "Just try to live with it, Pervert. It'll be sunny again tomorrow, so you won't be going to school, anyway. Take that time to feed and help your vampirisms settle themselves."

Kish sighed and straightened his posture. "Fine. I just hope this doesn't end badly."

"Oh, it shouldn't," the doctor replied as he opened the study door. "Now why don't you get set on your homework?"

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What no one knew about the new family in Tokyo was that they were vampires … with their own unique powers. Taruto, the youngest, could see spots of someone's future. Pai, the oldest, could switch people's personalities for short amounts of time. Kisshu, however, could teleport to any location he wished if he's seen it before. A picture in his mind (or better yet, a name to go with it), and he could teleport to that place. Handy for a vampire, any of those gifts. But sometimes they're uncontrollable, and act on their own accounts.

For example, Taruto's visions of the future are not acted on a whim. Kisshu can sometimes accidentally teleport if he thinks about a certain place for too long. Pai, though, was the one affected this time around … Friday night, when they had moved to Tokyo, his powers acted on their own and made countless people switch personalities.

And two of those victims happened to be Ichigo and Minto; which explains that Mint was saying earlier and what was occurring.

Little problems like this happen all the time, it's nothing new. But to some people, strange, random things as such may cause suspicion.

And when it came down to little Lettuce, tiny details stuck in her head and wouldn't leave until she figured them out. And unfortunately for Lettuce (and Ichigo since they shared this quality), she was known to be superstitious as well. Ichigo believed in ghosts and spirits, where as Lettuce believed in demons, and feared them. She thought that things like witches and vampires and werewolves existed to some extent, that they were lurking in every dark corner and alleyway. Call it a childish fear if you may, but it's what she believed in. Not that she liked those things very much, but because of the ideas that were planted into her head by her bullying male cousins when she was little, she believed in them.

And when she heard the tiny details of Mint thinking she and Ichigo switched persons and that the new boy went home as soon as the sun shone, it made her wonder. She had read up on a few fairy tales in her life to see what to look for in case those demons decided to plague her, and a few of which were about vampires.

Vampires hated sunlight because the UV light drained their powers and gave them headaches, rendering them helpless like a mortal. And some vampires had special powers, and what if one of those was to switch persons?

But I have no proof that the new boy is a vampire, Lettuce reasoned to herself, trying to calm her nerves. Just that he went home when the sun came out. But that doesn't mean anything, right? He could just have gotten sick! Yeah, that's probably all it is. And Minto-san and Ichigo-san have been friends for so long that they might have just rubbed off on one another! Yeah, that's it. Nothing big.

But Lettuce was someone who was frightened easily and her imagination was known to get the best of her. Ichigo was similar in this way. And because of that their mothers had to keep reminding them: it's all in your head.

Although, sometimes … it wasn't all in your head.

But how was Lettuce supposed to know the difference?

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"Ichigo! Ichigo, honey, it's time for dinner! Come down, won't you? I bet you're on the computer again…"

"Gomen, Mom! I'll be right down!" she called happily from her bedroom upstairs. She logged off of instant messenger as soon as she had told her friends goodbye.

After thumping down the stairs, she wheeled into the kitchen, the sultry smell of curry in the air. "Your father said he's going to be late for dinner," her mother sighed as she set down a bowl of curry. "We'll just have to eat without him."

"Hai," Ichigo nodded, seating herself on one of the mats in front of their low table. "Itadakimasu!"

After eating and helping her mother clean up, Ichigo headed back up the stairs. Masha followed her up, his little tail swishing happily. "Ruff?"

She glanced down at him as she opened her bedroom door. "What?" she giggled, cocking her head.

"Ba-woof!" the dog responded, running inside and hopping on her bed.

"You sure are begging for attention tonight, Masha," she laughed, pulling her book bag onto her bed and sitting down next to him. "But I have homework to do unless I want to fail; so I can't pet you for hours on end like you like."

The dog tilted it's tiny head at her, it's bubblegum-pink tongue peaking out between a set of teeth. "Ayuuu?" it whined.

"Masha! I'm serious! Homework …"

He whines again at her. "Aruuu?"

"Well, okay, just for little bit." She smiled, not wanting to do her homework at all. She reached over and the dog immediately responded with a lick at her fingers, and then scooted closer as she began scratching behind his ear.

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A/N: You know what? This is becoming so unlike Twilight that I don't think I should say it's based off of it anymore. Really, I should say, this is just taking the idea of vampires with unique powers from it. Because almost no characters are the same and none of the relationships really will be. So … I now declared this my own idea for most everything. (Although there still is some credit not to me, least you realize this already.)