Surprise, it's finally here, 18000 years later, since I take forever to write anything, apparently. And I have the immune system of a pea and get sick around 13 times a year, and with that I'm not even exaggerating.

Things have been hectic (for the good, but mostly for the bad) in my life lately, so I sincerely apologize for the major delay in publishing this chapter. It's a big year since I'm starting my application to vet school, on top of classes and caring for a very needy kitten. I've also gotten sick over the past 3 days so I apologize for that as well. I've taken every cold medication under the sun, and even that didn't help me this time.

I apologize for any typos and mistakes, I'm heavily under the influence of several kinds of cold medication.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Inuyasha's progress in both his speech and his overall social skills advanced smoothly. Ahead of schedule actually. This elated Kagome for the sake of both her subject and her project. This meant that all the effort and faith she put into it would finally be able to pay off in the end.

When she turned over to check the time on her bedside clock, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and the crinkling of her duvet cover alerted her room companion that she'd awakened.

The clock read 5:00 AM.

Today was the big day.

It was the big day where Inuyasha could come to school with her. She had to teach a single lecture on Wednesdays, so it was the perfect opportunity to test how well he'd do in a semi-public environment where he couldn't rely on her. She'd be present, yes, but he had to rely on himself to fit in with the rest. And since this was a first-year class, and it was so large, people wouldn't notice the extra presence in the room.

They'd gone out together in public countless times, but he'd always trail behind her, just like a lost duckling following its mother. Kagome wanted him to learn to fend off for himself little by little, so this opportunity would be a great time to test him.

She wouldn't let the white-haired half-demon be like little Albert; becoming an adult without being desensitized to something they feared. Except in Inuyasha's case, it was the humans themselves he was wary of, not snow colored rabbits.

"n-'Gome, is it time to get up yet?" the raspy male voice echoed in the silent bedroom for the exception of the humming of the celling fan.

The soft snores of his only human companion answered his question as she'd fallen back asleep within mere seconds of being awake.

Sheesh, Kagome really had to learn to be more wary of her surroundings. Inuyasha was certain that one day, her ease to fall asleep would be her downfall. That girl could sleep anywhere and it didn't take long for her to snooze off either!

He could sleep in for another hour he guessed from the lack of light that usually filtered through the blinds by the time they had to wake up. Not that he'd be able to get much more though, with the speed at which his heart was pounding through his chest.

Never in a million years would he admit that he was nervous for such a mundane thing such as going to school though. If humans could go through the routine of waking up every weekday to go to work or school, so could he.

How in the world had he let Kagome pep talk him into this in the first place?

He'd never admit he'd developed a soft spot for the petite professor either though. Nothing angered him more than when she'd come home with the stench of that mangy wolf professor who worked with her. Or when she talked about all those amazing projects she worked on with other people in her department. Why couldn't they do these fun things together, huh? Was he such a drag that they didn't get to spend some 'quality time' together, like she liked to call it? At least by going to school with her, he could monitor that stupid canine demon and make sure he kept his filthy claws off of her.

Plus whatever other loser that tried to make her day hell. Kagome was so trusting that it worried him to no ends.

He stretched out his limbs to shake off his grogginess and to start his new morning routine. After a few more minutes of stretching, the muscular man got up, folded up his futon in the room's corner and exited the room as quietly as possible, making sure not to slam the door on his way out.

The soft padding of clawed feet on barren floor rang through the empty halls.

Inuyasha strolled towards the kitchen, turned on the switch of the kettle to prepare himself and Kagome a cup of tea. The woman was really not a morning person, so he figured he could help her out a bit, especially with what she'd been doing for him. He swears, she had to have the patience of a saint. Especially since she had to work with a wolf demon every day.

Plus, she fed him delicious food every day, and honestly, that was more than anyone had ever done for him. Of course he did his share by helping her prepare it, but Inuyasha still remembered his days before his new cozy life where he'd have to scavenge and hunt for food, never certain on when the next time he could eat would be.

Yet, Kagome fed him, housed him, and spent most of her time with him. What was up with that? What made her so different from the other humans? Why didn't she run away in fear when she first met him? Why him?

Inuyasha shook his head trying to free his head from the countless questions that had started tormenting him again.

While he waited for the familiar whistle and click of the kettle to announce that the water had successfully boiled, he went in the bathroom to brush out the few strands of his white silky hair that had gotten tangled while he slept.

Sleeping. That was something that he'd never been able to do before he started living with Kagome. He'd had to sleep with one eye open like a cat his entire life so far because he hadn't been able to trust anyone so far in his life.

Did that mean he trusted Kagome?

No way. That was impossible. The great Inuyasha trusted no one in this world because anyone he'd even remotely cared for had stabbed him in the back in the long run.

Inuyasha sighed and put his brush away after looking in his reflection from every angle in the mirror to make sure he'd gotten all the tangles. His ears perked up as he heard the distant whistle and click of the kettle, indicating that he needed to return to the kitchen to pour out his cup morning green tea in his usual mug.

The mug that Kagome had picked out for him. God, he hated the stupid thing, but he didn't have the heart to tell her he wouldn't use it. It was a red mug with little dog paws and white dogs running around it as its print. She'd gotten it for him when he first started living with her and he'd been using it ever since.

As he started preparing his breakfast, he heard the hammering noise of his female companion running out of her room at lightning speed towards the washroom. She was running late for work, once again. It was nothing he wasn't used to by now though, as Kagome was the last thing to a morning person. This had become routine by now. Inuyasha would wake up, get ready, and help Kagome out by preparing her coffee and breakfast on most mornings.

That was his sign to pour her a cup of tea and place her two pieces of bread in the toaster. As if on cue, she ran into the kitchen area, gasping for breath. Kagome had gotten skilled over the years at running the last minute morning marathon, if she admitted so herself.

And Inuyasha wouldn't be caught dead doing anyone favours like some dog in the presence of anyone else. Preparing Kagome a cup of tea with an audience? Fuck no.

"Thanks Inuyasha," Kagome replied as she hastily grabbed one of the pipping toasts that popped up. She nearly dropped it as she didn't realise how hot it was before she crammed it into her mouth all whilst she messily tied up her long raven hair into a ponytail.

"Morning," Inuyasha replied nonchalantly, used to her hastiness in the mornings.

Kagome chewed the bread she had stuffed into her mouth before asking, still with her mouth full, "You ready for today, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha nodded, pretending not to care one bit about the fact he'd have to come with her to campus. Why in the world did she want him to come with her, anyway? She hadn't really explained it to him, other than with some vague 'you need to make other friends than me Inuyasha' excuse. Something about exposing him to humans? Hadn't he seen and been mistreated by them enough, anyway? Keh.

Why should he even care? His thundering heartbeat and his high blood pressure would say otherwise though, betraying his tough-man actions and replies.

Indifferently, the white-haired man got up to leave after he took the remaining gulp out of his tea, which had reached room temperature. He grimaced when the lukewarm liquid made its way down his esophagus. Knowing he shouldn't leave his mug out, he placed it gently in the sink and sauntered towards the stairs.

Kagome observed him exit the room quietly. He'd made so much progress. Heck, he had not only learned to express himself but also started to learn how to conduct himself around others. And how to be a decent human being.

He seemed almost human. Too human. That kind of freaked her out.

That and she started to suspect every single one of her coworkers and students of being a demon. They'd be peaceful demons like Miroku had said, right? They'd have no other reason to go to school for otherwise, Kagome tried to convince herself.

The professor sat at the table to enjoy her remaining few bites of toast and sips of her tea before they got cold. And before her hectic day would start.

Maybe she had doubted her abilities to study Inuyasha and help him get rehabilitated. She'd have to thank Sango for all her help and support though, Kagome wasn't certain how she would have survived these past few months without her best friend.

Inuyasha returned a few minutes later, dressed in a plain white T-shirt, a burgundy cardigan and a pair of dark jeans that accented his features well. Well enough that Kagome noticed that her test subject wasn't just any plain man. He was a very handsome man.

"Ya ready to leave now?" he questioned, interrupting her train of thoughts as he took a seat across from her.

"Almost. Do you have the bag and notebooks I gave you?"

"Yea, they're both by the door."

"Good. Then we should be about ready to leave then," she exclaimed as she rose from her chair, also putting her dishes in the sink. They could deal with them when they got home tonight.

As she saw him starting to put on his black sneakers, she couldn't stop thinking about everything they'd accomplished so far as a pair.

She'd prepared him as much as she could over the course of a week. She'd trimmed him nails, which no matter the amount of times she cut, remained slightly sharp, which had just resulted in her giving up with their shape. Kagome had gotten them to a relatively normal human size though, which she considered a success. The petite woman had also gotten him a black and red baseball cap to hide his most obvious inhuman feature- his pointy fluffy ears that stood proudly above his head. The final touch of her preparations had been showing him various ways to style his hair. It had taken the man a few times practicing the intricate but gentle hand motions, but he'd gotten the hang of it in no time flat.

And with that, the two of them walked towards the university.

It wasn't until they reached the campus grounds that they realised that today would not be a regular day.

Something felt off.

They made their way towards the main area of the path which joined up with the main entrance of the campus. However, today, it wasn't filled with students walking frantically in every direction, trying to make it in time for their next class.

Police vehicles and a handful of officers filled the entrance by walking around the barricaded area surrounded with yellow do-not-cross tape.

Being the curious woman that she was, Kagome approached an officer who she deemed looked nice enough that she could squeeze some information out of.

Using the sweetest voice possible, she approached the brown-haired officer adorned with a gentle baby face, "Hum, Officer? My name's Kagome Higurashi and I'm a professor at the University. Would you mind telling me what's going on here? I have a class in half an hour, but I'm worried about my students' safety."

"Oh? You're a professor? Then maybe I can say a little," he muttered to himself, under his breath, but still loud enough for both Inuyasha and Kagome to hear, "There's been an incident. I can't give you the exact details of it, but we believe it's related to the earlier incidences of disappearance over the past school year. At the moment however, we don't suspect that the campus is dangerous as we speak."

Well, that was disappointing, Kagome thought. She'd only got him to spill a bit of the beans, which didn't satiate her curiosity in the least.

"Thank you so much Officer-" she asked, pausing at the end, still trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Hojo. Officer Hojo, Miss Higurashi."

Kagome beamed at him and thanked him for his time. Inuyasha wanted to heave. He heard the poor lad's heart beat rise and his scent spike as soon as she had smiled at him. Sheesh, Kagome was a terrifying woman. It almost felt as if she had everyone wrapped around the tip of her fingers.

The two parted ways with the commotion and started making their way towards their destination, the building where she'd host today's lecture. She had noticed that the furthest into the campus they went and the thicker the student population became, the closer her companion was walking towards her. He was so close to her that he was practically glued to her back.

"Inuyasha? Are you feeling all right?"

"Ngh," was the only sound she received as a reply.

Thankfully, they had almost reached the lecture hall and wouldn't have to walk much further. She felt the urge to reassure him, hug him and try to take the fear away from him. But by this point in her experiment with him, she knew that it would only make him more distant with her. He'd try to run away from her.

She'd learned that his emotions were like a big ball of toilet paper shoved down a clogged toilet, and he'd have to open up to her at his own pace. Flushing it would only make it flood, having to clean up the mess, only to be right back where they started. His progress had been slow, but it had also been steady.

When they arrived at the lecture hall which had already started getting filled as the class was about to start in the next few minutes, Inuyasha knew that he'd have to separate himself from her.

He glanced around nervously for open seats as close to her as possible, just like they had talked about before his time on campus. Thankfully, there were still a few open seats in the front row, but they all had people flanking them on both sides. Inuyasha swallowed loudly as he weaved his way through the row of sitting students to get to an empty spot.

He was on edge and Kagome could tell from her place at the podium from his severe expression.

Inuyasha tried his best to not touch any of the adjacent students, but that was never something possible in a crammed lecture hall. He accidentally elbowed the female student sitting to his right as he leaned over to place his bag beside him and flinched, bracing himself for the hit he was expecting to receive for having touched someone.

She didn't even look at him.

That made no sense.

Every instinct in his core had told him to prepare himself against the beating he was about to receive from the humans for his actions.

Yet, nothing happened. The girl simply kept chatting with her friend sitting beside her.

Quickly gathering up his nerves, he mumbled, "Sorry," as he unzipped his bag and removed the green notebook Kagome had purchased for him. He reached in for the bag that contained the pens, pencils and erasers.

Pencil case? Was that what she'd called it before? He'd have to ask her tonight about it to double check.

His ears under his hat had perked up when the female voice in the microphone started resonating throughout the classroom.

As he looked up towards Kagome, the slides she had been working on during the previous evening were projected on the large screens behind her. He'd seen nothing like it before.

"For today's lecture, we'll be looking at several therapies that exist for psychological disorders."

The class had ended with no disturbances. Inuyasha had patiently waited for her at his seat until the line of students that had gone to talk to her after her class had ended dwindled.

Inuyasha had surprised himself by writing bits and pieces of her lecture in his notebook, mostly just to practice his motor skills. Despite his newly developed reading skills, writing still proved to be rather difficult as he just didn't seem to have the trick to form the various Japanese characters. He'd still get confused about their orders and his hands were still relatively shaky when it came to jotting them down.

"Sorry Inuyasha," she said as she unplugged her computer from the podium projector and stuffed it in her black over the shoulder bag, "Are you ready to go now?"

"Yeah, what's next for the day?"

"Would you mind hanging out a bit at the library? I have to fill out a few reports and mark a few assignments in my office before I can leave for the day. I know a few spots that are relatively quiet."

She instructed him on how to get there when he reluctantly agreed to get separated from her in the large campus. Despite him not having a cell-phone though, she knew that he could find her by scent alone since he'd proven capable of doing so time and time again these past months on their various shopping trips and downtown walks.

Kagome finally got to her office, sighed when she sank down into her office chair and took a few seconds to recollect herself. Despite her relatively quiet morning, she just felt so drained. The professor knew that she'd only have a few hours to work on what she had to do since Inuyasha was the type of person to get bored fast, especially when not given anything to do.

She'd given him a wallet with a bit of cash inside if he'd wanted to go exploring, although she highly doubted that, which was the main reason she'd instructed for him to go to the library though. But hey, who knows, he was a stubborn guy and only listened to her half of the time.

The woman bent over and removed her laptop from her bag, opened it up and started working.

She hadn't even been able to tell the amount of time that had elapsed since she last checked it. It wasn't until she felt a pressure on her shoulder that she snapped back to reality.

"Kagome?" the gruff voice asked as he squeezed her left shoulder.

She turned to face the source of the voice, the darker-toned male with his long black hair tied in his signature pony-tail, "Yes Kouga?"

The psychology professor tried her best not to squirm under his unwanted touch.

"Have you heard?"

She had no idea what he was going on about in the slightest. So, she shook her head in response, the confusion clear on her face from the question he asked her.

"About the student. Apparently it's the third disappearance this year, and all of them are female students. And to make matters worse, they found the remains of the first victim at the spot where the third student presumably disappeared at," he continued, anger lacing his voice from the disturbing events.

Oh. That would explain the police presence this morning.

"Do you know if they have any leads?" Kagome asked, inquisitively.

"Nah, I'm not sure honestly. I just wanted to warn you, that's all. They officially deemed the madman doing this a serial killer, so security on campus will get tighter," the male professor answered, directly gazing into her eyes.

"Oh, okay, thanks for letting me know Kouga," she nervously replied as she felt the man getting closer to her, having grazed her other shoulder with his hand now.

His tall frame towered over her petite one, especially since she was sitting down, making her several heads shorter than him. She felt pinned down. As if he was a hungry predator, and she was a cowering prey. She squirmed under the gaze of his icy-blue piercing eyes.

She tried her best to keep calm and not let her fear bubble up. No one had ever made her feel that uncomfortable before. Not even Inuyasha when she first met him.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" a booming voice barked from the other side of the room.

Kouga's hands were off of her shoulders in a flash. She had heard a low rumbling sound. Could it be a growl?

It was emanating from the professor that was now a few feet away from her as he faced the room's intruder.

"And what in the world do you want, you sad excuse for a mongrel?" Kouga snapped back at the man standing at the doorway.

"I should ask you the same thing, you mangy wolf!" the voice boomed as the figure disappeared as quickly as she had seen it appear.

There stood Inuyasha, acting as if he was a flesh barrier between her and the other professor. He had his claws extended, his back arched and completely blocking her from view from the wolf demon.

A growl erupted from the dog demon's throat as Kouga lunged at him with all of his force. Inuyasha had no difficulties fighting back, easily deflecting his kicks and strike back with a few claw swipes of his own.

"She's mine you damn fucking dog," Kouga huffed in between the blows being exchanged.

"In your dreams, you scrappy wolf! Kagome can decide that for herself," he countered as he pushed the wolf demon into another professor's desk.

The crunching sound of the wood snapping echoed throughout the nearly empty room. Dust and papers flew in every direction as the body of the wolf demon made contact with the piece of furniture.

"Inuyasha, stop! That's enough," Kagome cried out as she stumbled in his direction trying to avoid the piles of papers, binders and cups that had made their way onto the floor from the rumble.