Friends?
Inuyasha glanced at Kagome's midriff. "She is to well fed to have been on the street long so why was she here?" He thought as he carefully sat against the wall, just out of arms reach.
Kagome caught his glance and looked down. "What wrong?" she asked. Then she saw how thin he was. She gave a little gasp. Inuyasha curiously looked down. He had never thought much about his belly 'cause it was always empty. Then he saw what made her gasp but it wasn't anything new to him. He was so thin his ribcage stuck was out and you could see his spine through the thin layer of skin covering his stomach. He looked like a skeleton.
"I guess you haven't been out here too long. If you look at the other kids you'll notice they're about as skinny as me. Anyway, what are you doing here?"
"Me and some of my friends were abused so we ran away from home. I've only been out here for a week. My friends were supposed to meet me here. We came across your... house... and decided it would be a good place to meet."
"How old are your friends?" Inuyasha asked.
"Same age as us, why?"
"Nothing" He replied, "It's just that bigger kids usually beat up the small kids around here, so I usually stay away from here."
Just then a voice called. "Kagome? Are you here?"
"Yeah," Kagome shouted back "Come on," she said to Inuyasha. "Trust me they're nice." they climbed out of his lean to and Inuyasha saw a tough looking girl and a large boy standing behind her. He shrank back against the wall.
"Who's this" the girl asked, looking quizzically at Inuyasha. "He looks half starved."
"That's because he is. Sango, Miroku, this is Inuyasha. Inuyasha these are my friends."
Sango reached out and tweaked Inuyasha's little dog ears causing him to whimper. "They're so cute!" She exclaimed.
Later when he looked back, Inuyasha never knew how they ended up sitting on the floor talking. "Is it really that bad here?" Miroku asked. Inuyasha pulled up his shirt as an answer, hoping to get the same result as before. He was not disappointed Sango gave a little gasp and began pulling items out of her bag. She shoved several boxes at Inuyasha. He sniffed them suspiciously and asked,
"What is it?"
"It's food!" Sango explained. Opening the package she revealed some chicken and rice. Inuyasha had never seen so much food in his life and gobbled it all down as fast as he possibly could.
"Whoa!" Miroku exclaimed "Slow down!"
Inuyasha gagged slightly as his stomach threatened to barf up his last meal. He forced it back down though, he couldn't afford to waste the precious food.
"What's wrong?" Kagome asked, looking slightly concerned.
After his stomach settled enough to speak he replied, "This is more food than I get in a month. I don't think my stomaches used to it!" He gagged again but swallowed it down. Smiling slightly he said weakly "It tasted a lot better the first time."
After they had all eaten Sango spread four of the most squishiest mats Inuyasha had ever seen. "What do you do with em?" he asked, bouncing slightly on one.
"You sleep in 'em of course!!!" Kagome exclaimed showing him how to unzip it and slid in. It was the most comfortable thing Inuyasha had ever felt. He should have fallen asleep right away but instead he lay awake for several hours unable to sleep. It wasn't that he wasn't comfortable he just felt strange. 'They shouldn't have given me the food' he realized with a jolt 'Once the other kids realize we have food, we're dead! Ah well, we'll run tomorrow. But where to?' He wondered. 'The river' he decided.