Mandarin Orange, Kotatsu, And A Found Cat

After I gave Mashiro my apology, I took a break from reading until the program with the nature images was over, and then resumed.

Mashiro didn’t seem particularly interested in the TV after the nature images one was over, and curled up on the sofa with a big yawn.
I turned off the TV, thinking that it would disturb her sleep, and read in silence.

The book I was reading now was not one I had read before, but one I had recently bought.
It had been a while since I’d been in a bookstore, so I had browsed around and laughed to myself when I realized that my body was drifting towards books about cats.

I bought a few books that I found on the cat bookshelves, and I’m currently reading one of them.
I had bought cat books of different genres, but the one like a novel felt right to me.

The story focused on so-called shelter cats, who are in a similar situation to Mashiro, and I found myself sympathizing with them.
It may seem unthinkable, but even the most common pets, like dogs or cats, are often abandoned or killed for one reason or another.

When I think about and read books like this, I am glad that I picked up Mashiro.
At first, I was worried about picking up Mashiro, but as far as I could see, she was sleeping peacefully on the sofa.

If you ask me if Mashiro’s anxiety is gone now, I can’t say for sure, because only Mashiro herself knows if she is truly happy here.
But at the very least, this apartment must have been a more comfortable place than that snowy cardboard box.

As I was absorbed in the world of the book, a third person put the brakes on my thoughts and brought my consciousness back to reality.
The cause of this was none other than Mashiro, who was standing right beside me.

A few minutes ago, Mashiro had been sleeping soundly, but now she was peeking out from under my arm and looking at the book in my hand.

“After TV, do you read books?”

I smiled at Mashiro’s interest in everything, and turned the book to her so that she could see it better.
She smelled it for a while, looked at my face, and then started to stare at the text.

I thought she just came up to me on a whim to see something different, but surprisingly, she seemed to be taking it seriously.
There was no way that a cat could understand what was being said, but it made me smile. It was like a child trying to decipher a difficult book.

From then, I read the rest of the book while trying to make it visible to Mashiro.
The combination of the book itself and Mashiro peeking into it from the side made the corners of my mouth rise.

As I read, I found myself absorbed in the book for quite a while.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was well past my usual bedtime.

Even though tomorrow was a day off, I had indeed read too much. It seems that nothing has changed from the time I was a book lover.
I hadn’t even taken a bath yet, so I said to Mashiro, “That’s it for today.” I put the book on the desk and went to heat up the bath.

I quickly cleaned the bathtub as usual and turned it on.
I was about to go back to the living room when I heard the sound of something falling over.

It wasn’t a hollow sound, but I wondered if Mashiro had knocked over some small object.
I went back to the living room without any sense of danger, and what I saw was a fallen mug, spilled cocoa, and a cocoa covered Mashiro.

“Mashiro!”
I immediately ran over to Mashiro. Her normally pure white fur was covered with cocoa, and it had turned brown.
Fortunately, the cocoa had almost completely cooled down. I don’t think she was hurt, but her beautiful figure was ruined.

Since there wasn’t a lot of spilled cocoa, there was only a little stain on the carpet and on the desk.
The phone and the book on the desk had been splashed, but that was a small matter compared to Mashiro.

“Are you okay, Mashiro?”

Mashiro, who had been covered with cocoa, froze as if she was shocked.
She didn’t show any signs of agitation, so I quickly wiped it off with a tissue, but it didn’t come off completely.

Mashiro’s beautiful whiteness made it stand out even more, which made me feel bad.
It was because I had left the cocoa on the table. I thought I had been careful about such things in the past, but it was completely out of my mind.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought about what would have happened if the cocoa had been freshly brewed.

There was no point in regretting now. I had to do something about Mashiro.
I have to get rid of the stain quickly and clean her up.
For that purpose…well, there’s only one way.

“…Okay, let’s take a bath together.”

I smiled at Mashiro as I said this, thinking it was a good idea.

[TLN: I’m so lazy I want to TL yuri…]