Just Like Snow

Chapter Three

      "Here, put this on," Soraru said while tossing MafuMafu a pile of clothes he had picked out. "I don't think it'll be the best fit, but it's better than nothing."

"Alright," MafuMafu smiled gratefully and hugged the clothes to his chest, before leaving the room to go change.

Once he was gone, Soraru collapsed onto his bed with a groan. How had he managed to get himself into this mess? For a moment, he thought that it might've been better if he'd just left the cat, but thinking this made him feel guilty. No, leaving MafuMafu (was he really thinking of the cat as MafuMafu now?) out there would've made Soraru just as bad as the person who abandoned him. Plus, the sight of MafuMafu's elated face when he first saw Soraru in the morning was just so innocent, like an overjoyed little kid. There was no doubt in Soraru's mind that MafuMafu wanted someone to help him, so, for now at least, Soraru couldn't say he regretted that decision.

"Still..." Soraru muttered to himself, looking over at the doorway as MafuMafu came bounding in.

The clothes were much too large for him, as Soraru had expected. The white collared shirt was buttoned all the way up, but it had the appearance of leaving two buttons open, and the end of the white shirt could be seen protruding from the bottom of the sweater on top of it. The dark gray sweater that went over the white shirt didn't fit any better, hanging loosely around MafuMafu's body with sleeves that were so long they almost covered his hands entirely. Soraru was glad that the pants seemed to at least be a decent fit, looking only slightly too long. He was lucky to have found those pants that he'd had since high school tucked away in the back of a drawer.

"I finished changing~" MafuMafu announced in a singsong voice.

He was carrying the light blue blanket he had previously been using as a cover in his arms, and Soraru couldn't help but notice that MafuMafu had gone through the trouble to fold it as neatly as possible.

"Better now?" Soraru asked.

MafuMafu nodded with a bright smile. "Yeah, this is a lot better! Soraru-san's clothes are really comfy, too."

Soraru merely hummed in response. He tried to think of a time when he'd let someone else borrow his clothes before, but he couldn't come up with anything.

"Oh, that's right!" MafuMafu suddenly said, drawing Soraru out of his thoughts. MafuMafu walked over and held out the blanket to Soraru while bowing slightly. "Here's you blanket back. Thank you for letting me use it."

"It's, um, fine... You can keep it, actually," Soraru stated slowly, looking at the blanket as if it had just come from the trash. He had liked that blanket, before the thought of MafuMafu using it as clothing with nothing else on ruined it.

MafuMafu raised his head to fix Soraru with a surprised gaze. "Eh? Really?"

"Yeah, it's fine with me," Soraru replied simply.

MafuMafu grinned and hugged the blanket to his chest like he had with the clothes. "Okay, then!" Then, his grin faltered a little and he looked down at the blanket as if thinking about something. "I feel kind of bad, though..."

"Why?" Soraru asked, confused.

"Well, you've already done so much for me, Soraru-san, but I haven't done anything in return. I don't know how to thank you..." MafuMafu mumbled quietly.

"I think cleaning up that mess you made in the kitchen would be a good place to start," Soraru pointed out.

"Huh?" MafuMafu blinked, as if he didn't understand for a moment, before a more distraught expression formed on his face. "Aahhh, that's right! I need to go do that now!"