Kagome didn't go to class the next day.

Well, to be more specific, she didn't go to his class. She avoided Sesshoumaru's classes, to be cliché, like she would catch the plague. She slept in for a change and leisurely got dressed, finding something to eat in her refrigerator. Turning on her computer, she settled herself back into her bed comfortably.

"Don't you have class, Kagome?" her room-mate asked before she left.

Kagome looked up with a smile and nodded. "Yeah. I don't feel all that great today, so I'm going to skip. Don't worry about me though, Michelle."

"Oh… I'm sorry. I hope you feel better," the other girl replied before slinging her purse over her shoulder, grabbing her books and leaving the room.

Smiling with the thought of being rebellious for a change, Kagome brought up her email after her computer ran through all of its routines. The smile dropped immediately as she read through the first email from 'Professor Inukami.' Anger sparked in her again. "Are you serious…?"

'Kagome,

I think we might have had a bit of a misunderstanding. I understand that you're angry with me. Though I am somewhat confused as to the reason why, I hope that we can ignore our past. Perhaps what I mean is not ignore, but rather discuss. I know that we were enemies in the past, and I hope that currently, as I believe I stated, that we could be friends. I would be happy to answer your question if, in turn, you might answer mine. Perhaps we might try this again. I would very much like to meet with you again, same time, same place this afternoon. I hope to see you then.

Sesshou—'

"—Maru," Kagome finished, disgusted. There was no way that she was going to meet with him. She tossed her hair out of her face, reading through her other emails. She started as her computer dinged, an instant message coming up. "Souta!" She smiled. 'How are you doing?' the message read. She quickly replied, "Pretty good. You're up late."

"Yeah. Shh. Don't tell mom." She could almost picture her brother's grin.

Chuckling aloud, she replied, "Don't worry. I won't."

"So how have you been? What about classes?" He asked.

Typing quickly, Kagome switched her webcam on when finished. "Turn your webcam on. You're in your room right? That way we can talk more easily." She stared at her computer screen a couple of minutes before a window popped up, her brother's face filling it. "Souta!" She grinned.

"Hey Kagome." He grinned back.

"Hey little brother." She leaned on her elbows, looking into the camera.

"How are you liking America? You seem a lot happier," Souta observed.

Tilting her head in thought, Kagome clucked her tongue idly. "You think so?"

"Yeah," her younger brother replied warmly. "I'm glad you're happier there. I've missed you."

Giving a low sheepish chuckle, she shook her head. "Geeze. You make it sound like I've been gone…"

Souta shrugged. "Maybe. So. Anything new going on?"

Kagome hesitated. "Well… Kind of…" She changed the screen back to the email Sesshoumaru had sent her.

"What is it?" Her brother inquired eagerly.

"Well…. You remember that professor I told you about?"

"Yeah, the Japanese one with the weird name?"

She gave a low forced laugh. "Yeah. That one."

"What about him? Stop stalling, Kagome, and just tell me!"

Looking up at the camera, Kagome nibbled at her lip. "Well,… He's kind of Sesshoumaru."

"What?!" Souta quickly covered his own mouth, looking over his shoulder at the door before whipping his head back to face the computer. "What!" he hissed quietly. "Inu Yasha's older half-brother! How do you know!"

Kagome gave him a half-grin. "He told me. He doesn't look like himself, 'cause he has some sort of enchantment or something. But it's definitely him. And he confirmed. Well, I guessed. I guess we kind of told each other. I didn't want him to know it was me, so I'd been wearing hats and perfume and stuff—"

"Oh, so that's why you changed your hair colour."

She nodded. "Mm. But he got suspicious. Or well, I got suspicious." Kagome shook her head. "I don't know. We met up in a public place and talked. He wants… He wants to be friends. Or something. I don't really know what he wants."

Her brother whistled softly. "Wow. I didn't know he'd even still be around. That's… How crazy. And to think that the two of you would meet up. What are the chances?"

"I know!" Kagome exclaimed in frustration. "Why, of all places, does he have to be the same place that I am!"

Souta shrugged. "Maybe it's not such a bad thing."

Kagome glared at him. "I blew him off and then I got an email saying—" She switched screens again. "—blah, blah, he understands that I'm angry with him, but doesn't understand, and he wants to meet up and be friends. It's weird."

"Wow, that is pretty weird," Souta agreed. "But maybe… Maybe he's looking for someone to talk to, you know? He's probably lonely. He doesn't have anybody here, I'm assuming. He's probably all alone, and just wants to, you know, reminisce, about the past. Or something like that."

Kagome smiled warmly at her brother. "You're pretty smart after all, aren't you?"

Souta blushed. "Whatever!" He cleared his throat. "So what are you going to do about it? He knows who you are now too, right?"

"Yeah…" Kagome sighed. "I don't know what to do about it. I just don't feel comfortable being 'friends' with Sesshoumaru, taiyoukai, ice-man." She made a face.

Grinning, Souta wagged a finger at her. "Come on, nee-san. Don't be so close-minded. You're not like that. Plus, knowing you, you're probably terribly curious about him. I doubt he's going to try and hurt you."

"Well, yeah," Kagome admitted sheepishly. "I am. A bit. But not enough to meet up with him. Plus," she protested, "he's a professor and I'm a student! That wouldn't be appropriate."

Souta shrugged. "From what you've told me, it's pretty relaxed over there. I don't think that people would really care."

Giving an unintelligible grunt, Kagome sent him a martyred look. "Really? You think so? When he's the most sought-after bachelor on campus, it tends to take a different turn. He's got every single female bewitched by merely his pheromones. One look and they're blushing like they've never seen a man before…"

Souta laughed out loud, quickly stifling the noise. "Sounds like you're jealous."

"Really?" She fixed an eye on him blandly, arching an eyebrow. "Not in the slightest. He's my enemy, Souta."

Souta shook his head mildly. "Whatever you say. I still say that you should meet up with him. My bet is that it won't be so bad. You'll probably have more to talk about than you'd think." He threw a glance over his shoulder. "Well. Anyway. I should probably go to bed. I'll talk to you soon. Let me know how it goes." He gave her one last grin and then signed off.

Grimacing, Kagome sighed and turned her webcam off as well. "Geeze… One would never think that this would be so difficult." She leaned back against the pile of pillows, thinking. After a moment, she sighed turned her computer off, getting ready for her next class. She would make Sesshoumaru wait a couple of days, avoiding his class, before giving him an answer.

With all the free time Kagome had, ditching three classes, she wandered the town the college was set in. There were a variety of small cafés and quaint restaurants. She found several good Asian restaurants, a particularly good burger joint, and a smoothie place that was tasty and cheap. It had been four days since she'd decided that she would meet up with Sesshoumaru, so her seemingly aimless wandering served more than the single purpose. She was scouting out discreet places that they could possibly meet while familiarizing herself with the campus town. It was a really nice place.

As she returned from her latest adventure, she gave the obligatory niceties to Katy and nodded to her room-mate who, she felt, didn't really like her very much. But that didn't matter. She sat down and turned her computer on, waiting impatiently for it to boot up. After she signed in and waited some more, all the while drumming her fingers on her desk, she brought up her email.

Kagome brought up Sesshoumaru's email to her and clicked the 'reply' button.

"Sesshoumaru,

I will meet with you. How about next Saturday morning, 10:00, at Jacob's Burgers? Let me know. Thank you.

Kagome"

Her nerves hummed as her mouse hovered over the 'send' button. Taking a deep breath, she pressed send and then quickly closed her email to take away the temptation of sitting and staring at it with baited breath for it to announce a new message.

"You okay over there?" Her room-mate half-turned in her chair.

Kagome looked over at her, suddenly grinning. "Yeah. Actually, thank you. I'm just great!"

Michelle gave her a small almost reluctant grin and turned around. "Great…"

_______________

She wasn't in class today, Sesshoumaru noted, slightly disappointed. It had always seemed (from his perspective) that Kagome had been one to face problems, not run away from them. Yet here she was, avoiding him. He hesitated as he reached her name on the attendance sheet, his pen hovering over the box. He sniffed to himself and marked her there anyway. It was partly his fault that she wasn't attending anyway. Hopefully she was alright and was just ignoring him. He should get this sorted out, though. He'd send her an email, Sesshoumaru decided, going about the motions of teaching class.

Glancing at the clock, he nearly growled in frustration. This was ridiculous. He was getting way too worked up over the girl. He did want to rectify things though. "Alright, you guys are dismissed. Go ahead," he said, shutting his book and sitting back on the desk. He turned, beginning to pack his own things, the students whispers about getting out early (an event that never happened) not going unnoticed. Hurrying, Sesshoumaru packed his things and left, making his way to his office to type up the email to Kagome.

After he settled himself, Sesshoumaru frowned at the blank email. A salutation would seem the best place to start.

'Dear Kagome, I wanted to—'

No. That didn't work.

'Kagome,'

Better.

'I think we might have had a bit of a misunderstanding. I understand that you're angry with me. That really wasn't my intent.'

That sounds stupid.

'Kagome, I think we might have had a bit of a misunderstanding. I understand that you're angry with me. Though I am somewhat confused as to the reason why, I hope that we can ignore our past. Perhaps what I mean is not ignore,—'

He didn't want to ignore their past together. As much as he might not want to admit it to anyone, including himself, Sesshoumaru was an alienated being in this world. The youkai were very few and far between. He rarely ever ran into one to which he could relate. Kagome was a tie to his past. He was a being to whom he could relate. He didn't quite understand her being here, but it must mean something.

'—but rather discuss. I know that we were enemies in the past, and I hope that currently, as I believe I stated, that we could be friends.'

He wanted someone who knew what he had been through. He wanted to talk to someone with whom he could be himself. No pretenses. The burden weighed heavily sometimes, and it would be a relief to not have that pressure of pretense.

'I would be happy to answer your question if, in turn, you might answer mine. Perhaps we might try this again. I would very much like to meet with you again, same time, same place this afternoon. I hope to see you then. Sesshoumaru'

He reread his email and quickly pressed the 'send' button before he changed his mind. Closing his computer, Sesshoumaru sighed, willing himself to relax and prepare for his next class.

As he willed the clock to go faster, he ended his classes early, hurrying to the café where they had met the last time, ordering a coffee and sitting down in a conspicuous place to wait. At first, he sat and twiddled his thumbs uncharacteristically as he drank the brew and waited for Kagome to show up. After a half hour, he sat back and took out some papers to grade, waiting for the girl. He missed dinner. Unless you counted a brownie he got for free by smiling at the cashier. It was a quarter after seven by the time he finally left. Disappointment set in as he walked to his car and drove home. True, he'd gotten the papers graded, but Kagome never showed.

Irritated, Sesshoumaru decided that it was a nice night for another run.

He kept marking her as present.

The email didn't come until four days later. He'd just about given up hope when he saw her email in his inbox. He straightened in expectation as he opened the email.

"Sesshoumaru,

I will meet with you. How about next Saturday morning, 10:00, at Jacob's Burgers? Let me know. Thank you.

Kagome"

Jacob's Burgers? Where was that? He looked up, leaning towards the woman whose desk was near his. "Kathy, do you know where Jacob's Burgers is?"

The woman looked up as if surprised that he was talking to her. "Jacob's? Yes… It's on Mulrose Street, next to Sasha's and the Starbucks."

"Ah, thank you." He went back to his computer and quickly hit reply and sent back the message: 'Kagome, I would love to meet with you on Saturday. That sounds just fine. I look forward to it. Sesshoumaru'