Half a month into the new semester and Inuyasha was already sick of hearing the same questions from students. Why couldn't they rent a book that was for only for sale? Why did the books cost so damn much? Why was such and such required if the course was primarily online? Why the hell were they expected to shell out a hundred dollars for a cardboard folder with a 25-digit code?
He still didn't understand that one, and he'd been working in the campus bookstore since his sophomore year. For going on his fourth year he'd dealt with listening to the griping of his peers as they paid out the ass for textbooks and materials, and three of those he'd willingly done so for a paycheck. Not that it was a big one by any stretch, but it helped to keep him fed and covered what he needed. And since he didn't live on campus – a perk of having earned his house from high school savings and summer jobs – his expenses were limited to getting stuck with textbooks that were deemed out-of-date by the semester's end.
There were other perks to having to listen to students gripe at the start and end of the semester. Throughout the day, once the masses had gotten their lists filled, it was quiet. Except for around Christmas, in which he'd started to tally just how many times the DJ could fit "Feliz Navidad" into an hour without repeating it back to back. He'd gotten to seven in the previous year, and the DJ had been cutting it close by playing it before and after the commercial break. There was also people watching. When the days drug in the middle of a semester he could watch students browse the store and imagine what they were majoring in, what they were coming in for, and did they enjoy their path. It had become a game that he'd gotten particularly good at, but when a student showed blatant displeasure on their face it made it too easy.
There was also her.
Kagome Higurashi.
He'd only known her by her last name for the last couple years. She was a year behind him, and to this day he could still remember the first time he'd seen her when she stepped in the bookstore. She was withdrawn into herself, looking so small among the tall shelves she stood before. Her dark hair was pulled back in a simple plait, and she wore a long sundress that stopped at her knees. Bright blue eyes flicked around the store and back up at the tall shelf as she clutched a slip of paper in her hand.
She was adorable, and before he realized it he was walking towards her, asking her if he could help her.
He never approached people unless he was called upon specifically. Inuyasha was content to let others approach him, given his appearance. The silver hair, dog ears, and amber colored eyes could have been off-putting to some people. Even being a half demon he was still regarded as a full demon to some humans. It was just easier that way. But this woman, this tiny woman, had managed to get him to approach her without a second thought. She'd looked up at him, and he had briefly noticed that she'd have fit easily under his chin in an embrace, before she'd spoken and his heart had soared.
Fuck, he was in trouble. Her voice was so soft he might not have heard it if it weren't for his demon senses. She was a freshmen, and she was new to the area. She didn't know anyone, had no friends. She was doing the college thing on her own in a new town with no support to fall back on.
That was the moment he knew he was in some shit.
He'd taken her list, which was really a slip of notebook paper with her classes written down, and led her to the counter. With only her last name and student number to go by in the records, he'd pulled up and printed a class list for her first semester. He then led her around the store, pulling books from the high shelves and carrying them for her while she collected any other supplies she might need. There were some items he discreetly told her that she could get for less at the office supply store a block over that was a fraction of the cost. He had to lean in towards her, and it hadn't escaped his notice that her breath had hitched at the proximity.
Or that her scent hadn't changed to something akin to fear or repulsion. Instinctively he knew what it had changed to, but he wasn't about to get his hopes up. It was obvious what he was, and his past relationships had never lasted long because of it.
The smile that she'd given him as he rang up her purchases was one he looked forward to every time she stepped in the bookstore from then on out. She was grateful for his help and with each time she came back in that year, she sought him out with her eyes. By the start of her second year and his third, she was asking for him. Not by name, because he'd been too gob smacked by her presence to offer her his name, and she'd never asked outright. She was too shy still, but he didn't mind. It was an endearing quality on her.
It was just as well that she didn't know his name. If she'd have known before he stepped in the door of the classroom that first night, she'd have been asking questions. What happened to his ears? Why was his hair dark? She knew from looking at him that he was a half demon, but never asked what so many did with their stares.
So when he was presented with the experimental demonic appearance suppression medicine by Dr. Mushin, he jumped at the chance to try it. After all, what could it hurt? It was developed by the head of the department himself, so he didn't have to worry about a student accidentally purifying him. There were no side effects to his demon blood, it merely gave him his human appearance on new moon nights. It was just the thing he could play with and pluck up the courage to speak to the shy woman he was enamored with. The fact that she was a student in the class he'd volunteered his nights to model for was a shock.
It was also the perfect opportunity.
Was it cheating because he wasn't being forthcoming? Probably? But the look she'd given him when he sat down across from her that first night had made it worth it. He'd seen – and smelled – that she liked what she saw and he had learned her first name. That alone had been more than he'd gotten out of her in the last two years of helping her get her books.
Three nights out of the week after the book store closed, he'd drive back to his house, eat a quick bite and take the suppression pill. With a nicer outfit than the college's screen-printed tees and worn jeans, he'd head back to campus and head for the humanities wing where the one classroom was lit up. He hadn't understood why this instructor had chosen to set her class to this late in the day…at least not until she had approached him with the offer. It had been her only reason, because she had wanted him to be the sole model for the term. She'd deliberately chosen to wait until the bookstore closed so that he could accept the offer without having to prioritize.
Kikyo didn't act as scatterbrained as she dressed, it seemed.
By the end of the first full month of the semester, Kagome's art class had learned that there was an "exclusive" volunteer model and attendance had picked back up. Of course there were still students who chose to skip out when Kikyo was late, but those who had an interest in the class chose to stick around.
Kagome knew better, of course.
It was him. He was the reason they weren't bailing as soon as the fifteen minute mark passed. Not that she could blame them. He was gorgeous. Even a blind man could tell.
Inuyasha appeared in the classroom on time, sometimes even earlier than she did, and she was usually one of the first students seated. She'd find him sitting at the instructor's desk, or he'd be walking about looking at the art on display from the previous term that students had left behind. Kikyo had even taken to putting up beginning sketches of the current class's work, though Kagome had been embarrassed that for the first week her initial portrait of Inuyasha had been the first and only new addition.
Course it wasn't her fault everyone had bailed that first night.
He'd seen it at the end of the class period that first night, but she'd seen him linger on it more than once as it hung on the wall. He'd been surprised by her skill, even telling her so, and his compliments had made her stomach flip. She should have been affronted by his comment, but the look in his eyes as she presented the sketch pad to him was something else. There was no backhanded tone that she would have heard from others as she'd been subjected to in the past; he was really taken aback by the portrait. It had fascinated him, like he had never seen anyone sketch him before.
That…was peculiar. Surely he knew he was handsome; he had to know that he had garnered the gazes of both sexes in the class. Kagome tried not to think too deeply into it, but the fact that as more current work was posted on the walls, he still kept returning to hers. Whether it was intentional or not, she was starting to notice that the rest of the class was picking up on the fact that he was favoring her artwork over the others.
Furthermore, he never disclosed his name to anyone else after that first night. When students rolled in for the second class and saw this specimen of a man reclined in the instructor's desk chair, they were more than put out that he wouldn't tell them his name. Inuyasha would ask for their names, repeating them so he could make sure they were pronounced right, and that was that. Multiple people had tried to sweettalk him into giving his name each night, but each time he would say, "You should have been here the first night I was."
If only he'd stop looking at her every time he said it with a knowing smirk.
It was bad enough that when he did that her insides squirmed in delight, but after a week of this response a few students had clued in that she knew his name and tried to weasel it out of her. Inuyasha had never told her that she couldn't tell them his name, but…she actually liked the rest of the class not knowing. It was like a special secret between the two of them. The first time she'd been approached, she'd bit her lip as she glanced his way, only to see him give a small shrug.
It was her choice.
She chose not to.
The smile he sent her way when she shook her head and replied "You should have been here when I was" made her heart skip a beat.
Hell yes, if he continued to smile at her like that, she'd even tell the Pope that she wouldn't share Inuyasha's name.
It was a treat, just for her to know, and she was going to enjoy it. If that meant that she all but sprinted across campus to get to class extra early in the hopes of seeing him, so be it. It meant all the more time that she got to talk to him and use his name, and Kagome liked using his name. When she greeted him, he gave her a smile that she never saw when others were around. It made her feel special.
Shit.
She did not have it bad.
She did not.
Shit.
