Hi people! I'm trying to pull myself together and update regularly. I don't really have much to say at this point except thank you very much for the patience and support and I'm glad there are still people who have taken an interest in the humble fan fiction.

Oh, one small note for those of you who don't remember, Sae, Nanae's cousin, is the same girl that was with her in the hospital in the first chapter.

Disclaimer: I'm running out of ways to say that I don't own Inuyasha.

Chapter 13: His Apartment, Part II

That afternoon in Japanese and Literature, Nanae found it extremely difficult to concentrate on the essay she was supposed to be working on. It was the last lesson of the day and the ticking of her watch was getting louder and louder by the second. But it wasn't the fact that she was dwelling on that kiss Kyouji had given her earlier that morning, and it wasn't because she was dreading the journey to Sesshoumaru's home (and was she really dreading it). It wasn't any of that. She'd had a dream last night, and it was the same dream she'd been having many nights prior to this day. The woman again, the beautiful, almost ethereal woman was appearing in her dreams once more, with the same message as always. And Nanae was still unable to find out her identity. She had tried calling her uncle but he wasn't answering, so she'd called her cousin Sae but her boyfriend had picked up telling her that Sae was at work.

So here she was, tapping her pen against the blank paper, her brow creased in what looked like deep thought but was in fact concern.

The final beeps that echoed throughout the school made her jump in her seat. She remembered, with a sinking feeling, that she was supposed to go to Sesshoumaru's apartment, and she almost reluctantly stood and handed in her half finished essay with a sheepish look on her faced as the teacher tutted.

She left the classroom with the rest of the students and she searched for Kyouji, wanting to see him before she left, needing a hug or some sort of contact from him, thinking that maybe it would bring her good luck. But he was nowhere to be found, and Nanae recalled him telling her that he was meeting up with his art partner, Hojo to finish the project. Nanae felt despair. Was nothing going to go right today? Slightly disappointed, she trudged through the rapidly emptying corridors, hauling her bag into a better position on her shoulder as she made her way out of the school. She reached inside the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a folded piece of paper on which was written Sesshoumaru's address. She sighed.

She walked to the bus stop just a few minutes away from the school entrance, in time to see Sesshoumaru plus one passenger zoom past on his motorbike. Nanae felt her stomach tweak suddenly with nervousness. Sesshoumaru's apartment seemed like such an inaccessible place and the thought of her setting foot in it brought on another surge of uneasiness, but she forced herself to think of the project and its hopeful completion.

The bus arrived a short while after, and before hopping inside, Nanae took a long, deep breath.

I hope I make it out alive.

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The old demon principal, Totosai, sifted through the papers and files on his desk. There were many students who wished to attend Kokusai High, it seemed but there was one particular person Totosai was interested in. A young man named Ryuusei. Even though his memory failed him greatly, he still managed to recall in surprisingly vivid detail the interview he'd had with the boy. Ryuusei needed to complete his final year only, and the reason why he had been forced to change schools wasn't made known to Totosai. Ryuusei merely mentioned that he was parent-less and inhabiting a small solitary apartment not far from Kokusai High School.

Totosai didn't know what exactly made this handsome young man attract his attention so much, and he wasn't sure he spoke the whole truth during the interview, but the old demon felt that this youth needed to be carefully observed. That was why he had approved the transfer, because his school would be an ideal place to keep an eye on Ryuusei.

Totosai placed Ryuusei's file in the top drawer of his desk. Whoever this boy was, he was an expert actor, but he needed more than that to fool an ex- detective like Totosai. He may have been old but he knew something fishy was going on…or about to happen.

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The doorbell rang and Inuyasha shot up immediately to answer it. Wrenching the door open he found not who he was expecting (Miroku), but Kagome, looking strangely determined, as if she had a mission to complete.

"Oh, it's you. Is Miroku there with ya?" Inuyasha asked casually, searching the area of stairwell behind her.

"No." Kagome replied frostily, a little irritated at the hanyou's greeting. Inuyasha shrugged and stepped back to let her in.

"So where are we going to work?" Kagome asked, her cool demeanour not unnoticed by the hanyou.

"Work?"

"The English project, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that. Uhh…how 'bout the table?"

"The table's fine."

Inuyasha cleared the table of his stuff and then sat down unceremoniously onto a chair and waited for Kagome. Kagome felt slightly uncomfortable entering a home without being given a small tour first, which was something she had picked up from her mother who always insisted on knowing where the bathroom was in an unfamiliar house. And with Inuyasha refusing to show her around made it seem improper for her to look around without his 'permission'.

Inuyasha must have noticed her discomfort, or simply the fact that she was standing in the middle of the room clutching her bag indicated something was not right, because he rolled his eyes and got to his feet.

Standing a few feet before her he pointed to certain areas of the apartment,

"Bathroom there, kitchen there, living room here, my room there, Rin's room there, Sesshoumaru's room there. Got it?"

Kagome, a little surprised by his roughness, nodded.

"Great, now let's sit down and wait for Miroku."

Kagome quietly followed him to the table and took a seat opposite him. Inuyasha plonked down noisily and rested his head on his arms which he placed on the table. Kagome looked around before settling her gaze on her hands, resting in her lap. She sighed loudly. Inuyasha raised his head slightly. It was unusual for Kagome to be this silent anywhere. He knew she was bursting with questions. When Kagome sighed again (and considerably louder this time) he growled and spoke up.

"Just ask already, woman!"

Kagome didn't need to be told twice.

"You said that there was a room that was Rin's, who's Rin?"

Inuyasha lifted his head from his arms and sat back. "Some little kid that Sesshoumaru adopted or something like that."

"Adopted? Like a daughter?"

"Nah, more like a…I dunno…she's just some kid okay?" Inuyasha replied, feeling irritated. The brusqueness with which he handled her question didn't deter Kagome in the slightest.

"And who's Sesshoumaru?"

"You haven't seen him at school?" Inuyasha asked incredulously.

"Well, probably but I don't know everyone's names."

"Keh. Sesshoumaru's my older half brother."

"You have an older brother?" asked Kagome in surprise, she was convinced that Inuyasha lived alone.

"Half brother!" corrected Inuyasha fiercely.

Kagome blinked. "Fine, half brother, though it's the same thing really."

"I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I'm gonna call Miroku and see what's taking the bastard so long." Inuyasha snapped and he got up abruptly and grabbed the cordless phone from the kitchen counter. He punched in the number and listened to the rings. After the second ring he heard Miroku's oddly cheerful voice.

"Hello, this is Miroku."

"Hey you idiot, weren't you supposed to be here already?"

"Hi Inu, my man! Sorry but I ah, won't be able to make it to your place, I have…other stuff to do." Replied Miroku, not sounding the slightest bit apologetic.

"What? But you were supposed to bring Halo 3!"

"Yeah, well I won't be able to. I guess it's just you and Kagome there, huh? Yeah…well you two have fun with the English project…alone…"

"What? Are you okay, man?"

Miroku chuckled. "I'm fine. I'll send you my part of the project by email. You two enjoy yourselves now!"

Inuyasha heard the dialling tone before he could shout out anything obscene. He growled and slammed the phone onto the counter, causing Kagome to jump.

"What happened? What did he say?"

Muttering under his breath, Inuyasha joined her at the table. "The idiot can't make it."

"Oh. And where's your brother? And Rin?"

"My half brother is picking Rin up from school."

Kagome sighed. "Well, we should get started on the project then."

Inuyasha slumped forward onto the table. "Bring it on." He said dully, his voice somewhat muffled.

Just as Kagome started to get out her notes, the doorbell rang. Inuyasha made an odd frustrated sound and hauled himself out of his chair.

"I could've sworn that bastard said he wouldn't be able to make it." Grumbled Inuyasha and he opened the door.

"You better have a good explanation for- Uhh…who the hell are you?"

Nanae blinked rapidly and looked around at the apartment number. "Uh, does Sesshoumaru live here?"

Inuyasha finally remembered her face. "Oh, you're that girl with the art thing. Nanny or Ninny was it?"

"Uh, Nanae."

"Whatever."

Nanae immediately recognised him as the boy she had crashed into at the launderette. How could she forget those cute dog-like ears? And his rough voice only proved to identify him further as the guy who had answered the phone when she had called Sesshoumaru, or tried to.

Was he Sesshoumaru's hanyou brother? He must have been, the resemblance between the two men didn't prove otherwise.

"So this is his apartment?" she asked, rather anxiously.

"Yeah, come in then." He said, waiting for her to step through before slamming the door shut.

Nanae walked on with a mix of nerves and shyness, as she always did when she entered someone else's home. She noticed that the apartment was slightly larger than her own and much more organized. The kitchen looked tidy and the sitting room wasn't cluttered up with books and magazines, those were sitting neatly on shelves lining one of the walls. Nanae spotted another person sitting at a table situated close to the kitchen. The girl stood up and greeted her warmly.

"Hi, my name's Kagome, and he's Inuyasha. I didn't know he was expecting anyone else." Kagome said, and Nanae saw her furtively glance at the white haired boy.

"I don't know her, she's here for Sesshoumaru." Inuyasha responded, rather quickly. Kagome looked visibly relieved for some reason.

"Oh, my mistake. You're his girlfriend?"

Nanae was taken aback. "No! I mean, I'm just here to do some work."

Kagome smiled. "Oh, okay. Inuyasha? Why don't you show her around?"

"What? No, let's do the English project already!"

"Inuyashaaa-"

Sensing danger, Nanae spoke up. "It's fine really! I can look around myself if it's okay with Inuyasha."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Keh! Whatever." He sat down in his seat and ignored Kagome's angry glare.

Nanae sighed inwardly. She hoped she wouldn't have any more problems with these two, otherwise Sesshoumaru might decide to kick her out of his home. Where was Sesshoumaru anyway? She looked around, expecting him to appear.

"He ain't here."

Nanae looked at Inuyasha in surprise. He snorted with amusement.

"That crazy way you were lookin' around the whole apartment sorta gave it away."

Kagome gave him a disapproving frown and Nanae flushed a deep embarrassed red. She meekly put down her backpack on the floor and set off to explore the apartment, anything to get away from her present location. She greatly wished Kyouji had accompanied her.

Leaving the living room, she continued on through the corridor and the first room she approached was the bathroom. She only glanced around, noticing how fresh and clean it looked, with pale blue tiles and a cerulean glass encased shower. Nice.

She moved onto the next room and pushed open the door with the tips of her fingers. The sight was indeed a change, and completely different from the rest of the apartment. Clothes everywhere, papers, magazines, drawn curtains, a distinct smell of Doritos and a bed somewhere underneath all of that mess. And red. Lots and lots of red. She wouldn't even dare to believe that this was Sesshoumaru's room so it was safe to say it belonged to Inuyasha. She backed out and continued to the other rooms. She opened a door and gazed inside. This one was definitely Sesshoumaru's.

It was fascinating, not like Inuyasha's at all, no piles of clothes on any surface or tacky posters on the walls. Pale blue-grey walls and cream carpet, with blinds of that same colour. Metallic shelves on which dozens of books sat tidily and a fantastic sloping desk with a spotlight overhead. Nanae couldn't resist and she walked right in, careful not to touch anything.

He had the most amazing collection of art and history books, all of them in pristine condition; he had mountains of paints, pastels and felt pens…and Nanae stared enviously at the pack which contained those metallic markers she had wanted since forever.

The closet was metallic also, but it was closed and therefore out of bounds. The bed was pushed up against a wall, and it was neatly made, with grey and blue sheets. Nanae stood in the centre of the room shaking her head. She couldn't decide whether she hated Sesshoumaru more or less, now that she had seen his bedroom and his collections. She looked at his desk again. She'd wanted one of those for ages but she never had time to go and look for one. She felt a burning curiosity as she gazed at the drawers beneath it. Was that where he kept his sketchbooks? She knew he was a talented artist but she hadn't seen nearly as much of his work as she would have liked. Glancing behind her she listened hard. Inuyasha and Kagome were busy arguing about something. Nanae gazed back at the desk. Slowly she walked towards it and bent down to open the first drawer. It was full of blank paper. Nanae closed it and moved on to the next one, and this time she got lucky. The first picture she saw was of a little girl, of around seven or eight, with warm eyes and cutely tousled hair and a sweet smile. Nanae was definitely stunned, not only at the realism of the sketch but of what it represented. This was a human girl. Why on earth would Sesshoumaru draw a human girl? Was she a real person? Nanae put the piece of paper down and had a look at the others. The piece she picked up was undecipherable, just a bunch of continuous angry lines and scribbles all over the paper, pressed in so hard that the traces were palpable on the other side of the page. Nanae instantly felt like she had intruded on something private, realizing that what an artist decided to hide was entirely private and she would feel the same. She quickly put the pieces she had seen back in the drawer and left the room, hoping Sesshoumaru wouldn't notice her presence. She remembered with a frightening jolt that demons had an extremely keen sense of smell. Her fate was sealed. She just prayed he wouldn't enter his room any time soon.

She made her way to the living room and quietly sat down on the couch, placing her hands on her lap. Inuyasha and Kagome were still quarrelling over the English project. Nanae sighed, and almost hoped Sesshoumaru would arrive soon so that she could do her work and leave. She gazed around the living room, at the large TV, at the rapidly darkening sky visible through the windows and lastly at the vast shelves of books and magazines. She spotted a couple of picture frames on those shelves, and looking around to check if the two behind her were too busy to notice, she got up and went over to satisfy her curiosity. She peered closely at one of the smaller frames, recognising Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru instantly, even though they looked half the age they were now. Sesshoumaru's hair was shorter in the photo but there was no mistaking the crescent moon or the indifferent stare. Inuyasha of course had his ears, but in the picture he was grinning widely and clutching the hand that was on his shoulder, a hand that belonged to the most beautiful woman Nanae had ever seen. And she was unquestionably human. Standing beside her and with a hand on Sesshoumaru's shoulder was a man (or more precisely, demon) who Nanae could only assume to be Sesshoumaru's father, a handsome demon with dark stripes running along his cheeks and the exact same silvery hair as his sons.

It was the Taiyoukai family, together and content (well most of them) but Nanae couldn't explain the presence of the human woman. She obviously wasn't Sesshoumaru's mother because he was full demon. Was she Inuyasha's? What happened to Sesshoumaru's real mother? Or more importantly, why was it only Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha living in the apartment? Had they left home?

Nanae moved on to the next frame, this time the photo was of their father, Shaking the hand of someone who was of obvious importance and wearing some kind of uniform…

Oh! It's a police uniform! But its not of a simple officer, it looks like he's been promoted or something. Nanae thought, and that feeling of having heard the name Taiyoukai before returned. She could have sworn that surname was familiar to her even before entering Kokusai High and meeting Sesshoumaru.

The other photos were of the same human girl whose portrait Nanae had come across in Sesshoumaru's room. So she was a real person.

Just then, the sound of keys in the front door greeted her ears, along with that of a child's laughter. She rapidly resumed her place on the couch and tried to look as casual and less anxious as possible.

The door swung open and in burst a little girl of around eight years who energetically plonked her back pack onto a vacant chair and zoomed around to greet Inuyasha with a big hug. Kagome was unable to hide her amusement.

"Inuyasha-chan!"

Inuyasha made a funny wheezing sound and shook her off.

Sesshoumaru entered shortly afterwards tossing his keys onto the counter. His cool gaze immediately landed on Nanae, sitting quietly on the couch. He shook off his jacket and placed it on the back of a vacant seat, while Nanae stood to her feet, accidentally knocking a cushion onto the floor. Flushing, she stooped down to pick it up and dropped it clumsily back on the couch.

Meanwhile, Rin was excitedly greeting Kagome with a warm hug. Kagome looked pleasantly surprised and hugged the child back.

"Your hair smells nice!" exclaimed Rin as she let go, and for some reason, Inuyasha turned a deep shade of red, however only Nanae seemed to notice it, since Kagome was laughing at Rin's comment and Sesshoumaru was staring unwaveringly at Nanae herself. Which was starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"Are you Inuyasha-chan's girlfriend?" asked Rin. Kagome's eyebrows shot up sky high and Inuyasha spluttered and covered Rin's entire face with his hand and pushed her back.

"Hahaha, funny kid, how 'bout we finish that project now?" Inuyasha said quickly. Kagome nodded, her face practically crimson.

Sesshoumaru sent Rin to her room to change out of her school uniform and the child happily obliged, skipping down the corridor. Nanae remained standing, her hands fidgeting anxiously. Sesshoumaru took a few steps closer to the couch that was acting as a barrier.

"Well, we might as well get started with our project then. Human."

He could have at least learnt my name already. Thought Nanae, a little indignantly. Since the only work place (which was the table) had already been taken, Nanae assumed that she and Sesshoumaru would use the couch so she sat down. Sesshoumaru left for a moment and came back holding a sleek black laptop, and Nanae eyed it longingly. She had wanted to save up to buy one for sometime now but she always ended up spending what little money she had on art materials. And Makis was worse, wasting her savings on clothes and raves.

Sesshoumaru sat himself in an armchair, a few feet away from Nanae. She felt a little humiliated at the measures he took just to put distance between them. Did she smell that bad? The couch was big enough for the both of them…or on second thought, it was probably better this way, as it was less awkward.

Nanae gathered her senses and took out the question sheet of the project along with information and notes she had made herself.

She cleared her throat. "Okay, so I've answered up to question five already and I've got information for questions nine, ten and thirteen. For the practical part, I was thinking of maybe Boticelli or even Rafael but I'm not sure if we're supposed to copy their work or draw something original using their style. Since its renaissance, it'll be a little difficult to find the materials but you have paints that are similar…"

She trailed off. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sesshoumaru shift in his seat, placing an ankle over his knee. When he spoke his voice displayed no emotion whatsoever.

"And just how would you know I possess paints that are similar?" He said, the end of the sentence lightly inflected to suggest a question. His eyes were burning through her.

Nanae swallowed and clutched her papers tightly. Was she in trouble now?

"Hmph." He said. He would certainly have a word with Inuyasha later. The idea of a human sniffing around among his belongings was simply despicable.

"Never go in my room, human. Is that clear?" his tone was cold and warning. Nanae stiffened and nodded. His face was unreadable.

"Now," he began, opening his laptop and starting it up, his amber gaze never leaving Nanae. "I've answered all of the questions apart from number five. As for the practical, I have some sketches already."

Nanae burned with embarrassment. She had been convinced that Sesshoumaru hadn't done a thing about the project. And she had clearly been mistaken, since it was painfully clear that he had done more than her. She wanted to leave that apartment right then and there, but it was impossible. She sunk down into her seat meekly, wishing he would stop staring at her.

Despite his irritation at knowing she had been in his room, Sesshoumaru felt that this evening would not be a complete waste. He could at least amuse himself awhile with the human. She was so easily manipulated, so gullible, and so easily flustered, he would have absolutely no problem confusing her. You can't simply enter a demon's room and get away with it. Plus, she was so extremely shy; he decided it had been this reason that had caught his attention in the first place. Her submissiveness. Most humans were.

He would enjoy himself tonight. And she wouldn't even know it.

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A/N: There! The next chapter will be fun. Please comment and tell me what you think.