Chapter Four

Friend

Inu Yasha sleepily lifted his eyelids as he got up and sat on his bed. He was tired. He hadn't slept much because he stayed up late talking to Shippou. His dad was too sick to bother him. He had to do dishes today or his dad would get mad and probably do some demented thing to him or another. But he was so tired. With a sigh he got out of bed and wobbled clumsily to the kitchen. Well at least there wasn't a lot of dishes because he had done them yesterday as well.

He reached out and grabbed a dish and started scrubbing it. Add soap. Lather. Rinse. He repeated it for each dish until he was finished. 'Maybe if I go back now I can get some more sleep. But then again I have to make breakfast... Guess I'll make it now.' He grabbed out some bacon from the fridge and slapped it onto a pan. 'This should suffice.' he decided and cooked it.

Setting the burner on low he sat on the floor and rolled his head in circles. His body was sore from last nights beating. 'Damned bruises.' At least, he thought, they would be gone in a day or two. Suddenly his ears averted to a noise coming from somewhere in the house. Instinctively, he scooted and cowered in the corner of the kitchen and whimpered in fear. Wait. That didn't sound like his dad... it was more like...

"Shippou?" he said in a loud whisper. He dashed over to Shippou and scooped him up in his arms, running to his room and throwing him on the bed. "What the hell were you thinking? You can NEVER exit this room unless through the window. Dont you know by now! My dads a maniac! You cant even IMAGINE the things he'll do to you if he finds you!"

"Im...sorry..." he said sniffling.

Suddenly realizing how loud he yelled he walked over to Shippou and pat him on his head. "I'm sorry for yelling... but I... I dont want things like that to happen to you. I want you to still have the ... the cleanliness of a child's mind. There are so many bad things out there. I just... kids shouldn't have to know about that kind of stuff." he played with his fingers. "But then, some people don't have a choice." he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

"S'okay. I shouldn't have done that. But I knew he was sleeping and... Well you look so upset all the time Inu Yasha. Why? I want you to be happy." His green eyes stared intensly at Inu Yasha with a curious little twitch in his eyebrow.

"I am happy. I just ... am... stressed out." he said.

"But, I saw what horrible things your dad was doing to you. How could you be happy after that?"

'Am I really happy...?' he wondered 'Why? Why can't I tell...?' "Um..." he looked for an excuse. "Oh, I gotta go to school! Here I'll leave the window open for you to get out, kay?"

"Ummmm...okay." it said, leaping onto the window sill. 'Although that doesn't answer my question...' It then leaped out, deciding it was probably not very safe in that house with out Inu Yasha anyways.

Inu Yasha walked down the side walk to his school, as he normally does, this time, he hummed a song to himself. Music had always helped keep his sprits up. And he walked until the school came into sight. Getting a running start, he leaped off the sidewalk and soared through the air into the foresty area that blocked his school and leapt through the branches enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through his face and the fresh warmth of the morning sun gently beating down on the earth.

When he was past the trees, he bounded off the last branch and shot over the fence that surrounded the school. He landed in the middle of the soccer field and looked around for his favorite tree. When he found it he dashed towards it and leapt onto one of the branches. Panting lightly, he hooked his backpack onto one of the smaller branches and decided to nap before school opened, the sound of the children coming to school would wake him up.

Soon the buses arrived and the sound of laughter, talking, and engines could be heard everywhere and he stirred from his tree. Not from that, but from a voice calling him.

"Inu Yasha!" came a girls voice.

"Hnnngh? Whuzzat...?" he stretched out his limbs 'No, it couldn't be...' He looked over and sure enough, he saw her standing there 'Whats she doing here?'

"Hi Inu Yasha!" said Kagome waving from the ground. "Wanna walk to class with me?" she yelled up the tree.

"Uh...kay." grabbing his backpack and leaping off the tree, he landed on all fours and proceeded to class with her, after all he had to go anyways and she was going the same way, so why not?

"You know, you didn't have to come get me, I woulda woken up by myself if you had left me." he said on their way to class.

"I didn't do it cause I thought you would sleep through class." she said giggling softly to herself.

"Well... Then why?" He asked

"Because I wanted to see you, of course!" she said and smiled at him. He stared confusedly at her as his cheeks turned blush pink. She laughed quietly at the face he was making, even though it was quite adorable, and just as entertaining.And when he finally realized how pink his cheeks were he turned around and his face burned bright red.

The entire classroom chattered loudly amongst themselves and Kagome and Inu Yasha entered together as the conversation died down to a whisper and the class stared at them. Kagome simply smiled at them and took her seat next to him. However, today, the person sitting next to her moved her seat away when Kagome sat down. And Kagome smiled painfully.

Inu Yasha noticed this and his eyes told her how sorry he was. She was getting 'the treatment' from the other students. The same treatment Inu Yasha had gotten his whole life. Silence, neglect, ignorance. She had befriended the reject and therefor, she must pay the price of the punishment.

She looked at him and offered a smile and she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear "It's okay, Im used to it." And he nodded his head.

Their silence was broken however by a boys loud voice "Heya!" he said.

They both turned to him "Miroku, what are you doing here?" Kagome asked.

"Um, I was coming to sit with you guys... If thats okay..." he said shyly.

"Got the boot from Sango, huh?" Inu Yasha replied

"Inu Yasha!" Kagome scolded.

"Well... yes, actually..." He replied and twiddled with his fingers.

"Oh..." said Kagome. "Well, you can still sit with us if you'd like. Company is always nice." she smiled kindly at him.

"Thanks!" he said happily.

"Wow, she booted you bad, huh?"

"Be quiet!" he shouted but looked a little torn, and Inu Yasha realized he went too far.

"Sorry..." he mumbled.

"So, you really like this Sango person?" Kagome asked.

"Umm... Yes" he said and blushed slightly

"Well why don't I talk to her and see what I can do?" she suggested.

"REALLY? YOU'D DO THAT FOR ME!" He half yelled.

"Sure."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" he shouted and threw his arms around Kagome's neck still saying his 'thankyou's

"It's not that big of a deal!" she said, amused at the boy's behavior, and tugging at his shirt to get him off her. Suddenly a flying object hit him in the head. "What was that?" she looked up to see a girl with long brown hair tied in a high ponytail.

"First you say how much you love me and then you do THIS? AUUGH! YOU ARE IMPOSSIBLE!" she stamped her feet and clenched her fists.

Miroku turned around "W-wait! Sango! You don't understand!" he bent down and picked up what she had thrown at him, a shoe, and chased after the angry Sango who was currently walking away from them. "And you dropped this!"

"Huh?" she turned around and took the shoe out of his hand. "Oh, thanks?"

"Welcome!" he said cheerily.

"..." she paused "But this still doesn't mean I'll go out with you!" she said and stuck out her toungue.

"They'll be very happy together." said Kagome.

"Huh? How do you know?" Inu Yasha asked.

"Just have a feeling." she said turning around and facing him. "I always trust my intuition." she grinned.

"Oh." and they sat and waited for class to begin.

"Hello class, good morning" said a sweet voice from up front, Kikyo. This was met with a chorus of hello's, good mornings and from one of the more outgoing students, a cat whistle. She laughed softly "Nice to see you too. Now if you would be kind enough to open your text books and turn to page thirty six, that would be greatly appreciated." And she turned around and continued to teach the lesson.

Finally the bell rung and the students walked to lunch. Kagome walked alongside Inu Yasha and Miroku was off somewhere trying to talk to Sango.

"Wow, he's so... determined." Kagome said.

"Well, he's liked her since as long as I can remember." said Inu Yasha "They got along pretty well at first actually, but then on the last day of school last year, he was going to ask her out but on his way to see her he tripped and caught himself on her butt. So of course Sango got mad and stormed off, so he never got to explain himself."

"Life is so complicated..." she said, lightly snickering. They had made their way to the lunchroom and took their seats. "Here I brought this for you." she said and handed him a thing of cup noodles.

"Th-thanks, I didn't bring lunch." he said

"Do you ever have lunch?" she asked and stared into his eyes

"Um... I'm gonna go heat this up!" and he dashed off towards the school microwave to prepare the cup noodles. Kagome gazed after him sadly. She would have to remind her mom to get a LOT more cup noodles later on. She sat down and started on her lunch while she waited. Suddenly a girl came and sat next to her.

"Hello, I'm Sango." she said and offered a smile to Kagome.

"Oh, hello." she said and smiled back

"Well Miroku said that I should talk to you so..."

"Oh yeah!" Kagome said and turned away from her lunch. "Well if you want my opinion you should give him a second chance. I mean do you even know what caused last years incident?"

"Well... He's a pervert and just wanted to get a good feel out of me ...?" she said and shrugged.

"It might have been an accident, you know? Like what if he...tripped?" she said knowingly. "He really likes you though."

"R-really?" she said turning crimson pink and bringing her hands up to cover her excited smile.

"Yup." she said and nodded to exaggerate her point. And then Inu Yasha returned. "Oh, hi Inu Yasha." she waved to him.

"Hey. Sango, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"She was just talking to me." said Kagome and introduced them to eachother.

"Um, I should probably go back to my table." she said and swirved her legs to the other side of the table. "But thank you anyways, Kagome!"

"Okay, bye." she waved Sango off. "You seem to be at a loss for words Inu Yasha."

"Im eating." he said and stuffed another spoonful of ramen into his mouth and quickly swallowed it.

"Hungry, huh?" she asked, although she already knew the answer. He said nothing and kept eating. About a minute later he had finished his ramen.

"That was good, thank you." he said slurping up the last noodle. She offered him the remainder of her lunch and he ate it hungrily.

He leapt from the school grounds to the soccer field where he soared to his favorite tree and sat in its branches. This was his favorite place in the world, often times he considered just living there. It was always so quiet and shady and relaxing there. He took in a deep breath and that was when it hit him. Today was grocery day. He had been in such a hurry to go to school that he had forgotten to take the money his dad left near the phone for him to get food after school with. "Shit!" he yelled and leapt off the tree, grabbing his bag as he went.

'Maybe if I am quiet enough I can sneak in and get the money and go before he relizes it.' He contented himself with this thought as he made a mad dash for his house. He landed on the doorstep and slowly opened the door. It creaked slightly as he opened it and he cringed. He took slow steps towards the kitchen and recoiled in shock when he found his father standing in front of the opening that led to the kitchen. Silence settled between them as the man's lip started to twitch.

"So, did you get them?" he said crossly

Inu Yasha's hand started to shake and his lip trembled as he stuttered, "Wh-what?" Wrong answer.

The man swung his arm back and cracked it forwards slapping him hard across his face, and it burned painfully. He brought his hand up and clenched it over his stinging cheek. "I-I'm sorry, I f-forgot." he said, terrified.

"Theres no room for forgetting here, dog shit." he said sternly as his eyes narrowed and he landed another slap across his face, sending the boy recoiling backwards with the force. He reached into his pockets and threw some money at him. "Be quick, I'm hungry." and he turned around and walked back into the kitchen, belching as he did so. Inu Yasha lay sprawled across the tile, the slaps still tingling on his face as he let out a slight wimper.

Author Notes

Anyways, as you may have noticed, this chapter is slightly less dramatic and angsty as the others are. With the exception of the end this was a very happy chappy! And look! I just rhymed! Yay for me!

Please review! I swear those things are like drugs... Even if this story is finished and you still have thirty more chapters to read just leave a teeny message every chapter to make Inu Kun feel special. Because she loves you.

Inu Kun