A/N: Here you go, fresh off the press. Enjoy. :)

The chapter title was taken from some of the lyrics of "Evil Angel" by Breaking Benjamin. That's one of my most favorite songs of all time; if you like hard rock, check it out.

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Bittersweet Strawberry Blood
Chapter 21
"Spreading the Cancer"
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Sick to his stomach, Kisshu paced the room. How could he do that to Ichigo, to his beloved koneko-chan?

The door downstairs slammed open and he could hear Taruto's voice, but oddly not Pai's. He could smell Pai, though, so he knew he was in the house. I wonder if mister doctor is going to give me a real lecture and a worse punishment now that he's had time to think things over a little more… Kish sighed in his mind.

"Kish-nii?" Taruto calls, walking up the stairs. "You up there?"

"Hn," he grumbles in response.

His door opens slightly and the brunette sticks his shaggy head in. "How are you?"

"That's a weird question to ask," he retorts, plopping down on the bed.

"I know; it's just that… I thought you weren't going to…"

"Yeah, well, I did, and I hate myself. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"No."

"Humph," Kisshu says, trying not to act as shaken up as he felt. Realization was finally settling in, and it shook him to the bone. How could he do that to her…?

"Kisshu," Tart says lowly, sitting down on the bed next to his adopted brother. "It's not easy. If anyone, I know that as much as you. Being what we are… it sucks. But it's what we chose –"

"What you chose, you mean! I never asked to be this – this – this demon. But I am, and I'm paying for it.… Because maybe, deep down, this is just what I am! Some blood thirsty guy who preys on the ones he loves. How sick is that?" Sometimes I feel like this is all I ever was… some overly passionate character who would kill to get what he wants, no matter what it is. But is that really me? Am I really some pathetic, sordid guy?

He looked like he was going to either cry or explode. His face was tinted pink, which rarely happens for one of the undead. His palms were on his head, his fingernails scratching his scalp. He looked strange to Taruto, completely feeble and scrunched up, soaking in his regret. And suddenly, this made him mad. " Kish!" he barks, "Get up, get up! Right now! I'm getting you out of this weird mood. Come on, let's go straighten things out."

Golden eyes flash upwards and connect with a honey brown, utterly confused versus utterly determined. "Straighten out with who? And how? …What?!"

Tart shook his head. "With Ichigo and Pudding, and by lending them a little visit. Pai doesn't have to know, and it may help patch up your feelings. So are you with me?"

"Why Pudding? I didn't do anything to her."

"But I did… I kind of ran off when I was walking home with her," he sweat drops.

Kisshu almost laughs, but in the end can only muster up a smile. "That's a bad thing for a boyfriend to do."

"Well, she probably thinks I'm sick, since I had a vision right before I ran off…"

"Oh."

There was a pause, but then Taruto slapped the green-haired boy on the back. "So are we going or not?"

Kish's gold eyes dart back and forth for a minute while me mauls over the possibilities, but soon he's looking up at his younger brother and a faint smile comes to his lips. "What are we waiting for?"

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Ichigo yawned, her eyes peaking open. For a second fear seeped into her stomach as she glanced around, confused as to where she was. It was then she settled and realized she was in her own bedroom, out of the hospital, safe and sound. Gently she rolled her head to one side and then the other, feeling the tenderness in her neck. Her limbs felt heavy, as if she was too weak to move them. Is this what blood draining experiences do to you?

Speaking of which, why am I still not bubbling with hate? The strawberry girl muses, and for a moment Kisshu's grinning (and yet not smirking) face flashes across her mind's eye, and her heart jumps a beat. A blush came over her face and she shook her head, turning over onto her side (the wounded part of her neck facing the ceiling).

"Why do I have to love you?" she mutters, slipping gradually back into sleep.

And it was at that moment that Kish had teleported into the room, leaving Tart back on Pudding's lawn. Funny he should appear at that moment, and funny he should be rendered completely motionless while those words process in his mind. She's never said it before; she never told him she loved him. And without thinking, he blurts (but in a whisper so her parents couldn't hear): "Do you mean that?"

She's startled and for a moment, scared out of her wits. But then Kisshu's voice is recognized in her brain and she automatically smiles, sitting up in bed. "Kisshu-kun?!" came her excited whisper, and he unfreezes.

"I came to… uh… apologize. And see how you were feeling. And, um, Ichigo –"

While trying to move near her but not watching where he was going (even with his night-enhanced vision), he bumps into her stereo, which currently held a CD of all English music, which has been her recent obsession.

The vocals of the very talented Goo Goo Dolls filled the room, which had been forgotten to be on 'pause' this whole time. "You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't want to go home right now..."

Shit, Kisshu thinks. That's ironically just how I feel about her. And sort of what I want to say to her, to make up for what I did. He angrily hits the power button on the boom box, shutting out the rest of the song. Lamely, he adds in his mind as a afterthought: good taste in music on her part, though; 'Iris' may be a little slow for me, but it's a nice song.

He was just about to say something, but Ichigo gets out of her bed, her pink pajamas draped over her thin frame in a loose manner, the strawberry buttons cutely lines up her front, the lower button missing. Her hair was down and hung around her face in thick raspberry curtains, and her cheeks were warm with a blush. He swallowed whatever words he was going to say, simply loving how she looked, although he grimaced at the bandage on her neck.

"Kish-kun," she mutters, "What happened today?"

He fumbles at this, words coming up to the back of his throat and getting gulped down. Finally he said, "I bit you."

"I know that, baka," she says with a fake angry frown. "I meant: why?"

Again he fumbles, but less so this time. "I just… I mean… Ichigo, I'm so sorry."

She frowns, because in his fumbling, it all came out in English. And she hardly knows any English.

Mentally he bonks himself on the head, feeling like this whole visit was a stupid mistake and a waste of time; not to mention it could get him in even more trouble with Pai. He clears his throat and avoids her eyes, and rephrases what he said, choosing his words carefully (and in Japanese): "Ichigo, gomenasai. I swear I didn't mean to; but you were so close to me, and I could feel your heart beating, and I loved you so much… wanted you so badly… that I guess, in the end, my vampire senses overtook me."

She could hear all the remorse in his voice, and noticed the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously. He really cares about me, even if he can be a little… sadistic sometimes. "Kisshu…" she murmurs, coming closer to lay her head on his chest. She briefly felt his surprise but ignored it. "I don't mind that you bit me; it makes sense, and it's not like you killed me or anything, or were going to. I know you'd protect me from everything else –"

"D-demo… I couldn't protect you from myself…" he mumbles, drifting off. She nods, wrapping her arms around his abdomen, the firmness of his body not surprising her, since she heard once that the kyuuketsuki have refined muscles. "Daisukininaru," she tells him, her warm breath hitting her face as it bounds off his clothes.

Knowing Japanese phrases like that, especially from animes, Kish knew just what she said. Whenever someone tells you that, it basically means "I've come to like you a lot," or "I've come to fall in love with you," and knowing Momomiya Ichigo, she meant the latter.

Trying to laugh it off a little, a breathless chuckle escapes his lips. "Well, you already know that I've felt that way for a long time…"

She looks up from his chest, her eyes searching the darkness for his eyes. She found them in the low lightly from the street, although she couldn't see their color. "You don't seem surprised…?"

He wasn't sure if she was mad at him or not, but he didn't like talking to her eyes; it was too hard. So he puts his hands up, lightly forcing her head back to his chest while he stroked her hair (vaguely enjoying it's scent). "To be honest, I am surprised. I just… didn't know how to take it."

He could feel her smile and her eye lashes fall as she closed her eyes, and her warm body on his told him she exhaled, an amused sigh. "Boys… they just need everything to be spelled out for them, don't they?"

He smiles, too, and soaks up her warmth; without blood to circulate his body, it always left him feeling so cool. It seems he doesn't need to worry about that feeling anymore.

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A ways away from Ichigo's moment, Taruto was having one of his own; although this one not so welcoming. He frowned to himself as he watched Pudding's sleeping form breathe through her bedroom window.

"Baka Kish… he should've teleported me inside her room! Now how am I going to apologize? I can't do it at school, it'd be too embarrassing!" he grumbles to himself, kicking at the tree branch nearest to him. Call him a Peeping Tom if you want, but he technically wasn't doing anything bad. Just wishing he could talk to her, and glancing at her curled up body a few meters away. But now he had been there too long, so he jumps down and starts for home.

Although, when he got there, he had to sneak in through a window; Pai didn't see them leave, since Kisshu teleported them out. He had to, seeing as how the doctor wasn't going to lift his punishment at the blink of an eye.

Discontentedly Tart turned on a video game, something he was good at and could take his mind of things.

But in the process he forgot to cover up for Kisshu.

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Lettuce hardly felt at ease. She should feel fine, since Ichigo was able to go home from the hospital and spend the night in the comfort of her own home, having nothing but a bite on her neck. But just what kind of bite it was bothered the spectacled girl.

She can deny it to her parents, but to Ichigo and herself it was unavoidable: it was the mark of a vampire on her friend's neck, and nothing else. Kish had dared to seek his teeth into her, and now everyone is left with this mess.

And what a mess it was, the way it made Lettuce shake, her knees knocking together where she stood. Monsters of the night are real, it seems, and they're blood thirsty. What's going to happen now? She thinks in her distress. Will Ichigo be alright? Will she turn into one of them? Will the group of brothers slowly pick off one girl at a time until they've bitten every girl in Tokyo? I bet that's what they do; they seduce young girl's hearts and then drink their blood. I can't believe I let myself like…

Her thoughts drifted off from there as she lay down and closed her eyes, her fear making her weary. Lettuce wasn't cut out for something like this; she just wasn't.

And neither was Pai.

For across town the doctor paced his study, his brow in a permanent frown. How dare he go against what he said – no, what he promised – and bite that helpless girl. After all we went through in America, he had to go and go it again, the bastard. No self control, none at all! Why can't he just control himself like Taruto and I? We're practically the examples of a model, refined vampire, and what is he? – The opposite, that's what; he deserves to be locked up for endangerment to others.

The doctor shook his head, his purple locks shivering. He slipped off the reading glasses he'd been wearing, pinching the bridge of his nose for the umpteenth time that night. Sometimes he asks himself, 'Why was I meant to find him and take him in? Why me, and why Kish?'

He'll never get his answer to those questions, but he can make a decision: Pai will rid Kisshu of his little problem once and for all.