Mandarin Orange, Kotatsu, And A Found Cat

“Then, can I ask one thing of you?”

Mashiro asked with a smile on her face, a complete change from her reserved look.

“Yeah, anything you want.”

Since I joined the workforce, I’ve been conservative with my spending, so I have a certain amount of money saved.
As has been the case since she was a cat, I’ll spare nothing for her. Come on, I’ll give you anything—

“So, can I use your kitchen and refrigerator?”
“…Eh?”
“Since I used them today without saying a word, I’d appreciate it if I could get Satou-san’s formal permission.”

It was the first time I had heard what she wanted me to do directly from her mouth, but to be honest, it was anticlimactic.
I was expecting her to want something specific, but the right to use the kitchen was completely unexpected.

“No, if it’s something like that, you don’t have to ask, but you can do it freely…”
“Are you sure? Thank you very much.”

Mashiro politely bowed and thanked me.
When Mashiro was in cat form, of course, I consciously avoided having her in the kitchen because of the many dangers, but now there weren’t any problems.

Kitchen… While I’m at work, she prepared her own meals…She didn’t really need to ask for permission to do that, but I won’t say anything.
Well, I guess you could say that’s typical of Mashiro’s personality…

“Isn’t it about time for you to go to work?”
“Eh? Ah, that’s right.”

I was caught off guard by the fact that Mashiro had prepared breakfast for me, but I was so engrossed in conversation with her that I completely lost track of time.
I ate the rest of my breakfast and thanked Mashiro properly before changing my clothes.
…By the way, I couldn’t change in front of Mashiro now, so I took my clothes into the bathroom and changed.

“You don’t have to worry about me, you know. I’m used to it.”
“No, I mind…”

I’ve been changing my clothes in my room with or without Mashiro, but I don’t have the mental capacity to change my clothes in the presence of a girl without hesitation.

Or rather, please don’t tell me that you’re used to it. If I thought about it, ever since I picked up Mashiro, I’d been seen half naked every day.
I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment.

“Okay, I’m off then.”

To escape the embarrassment, I headed for the door and told Mashiro so.
After all this time, it has been quite a while since I’ve had someone see me off like this when I leave the house.

In the past, I’ve always told Mashiro that I was leaving for work, but it felt different to have a girl standing in front of me like this.

“Okay, have a good day. Satou-san.”

It was the first time Mashiro had said those words to me, and I walked out the door, biting down on the joy in a small corner of my heart.

As I arrived at the office and went about my work, I thought back to this morning.

Mashiro had woken up earlier than me and made breakfast for me, something I never dreamed of.
It was the first time since I was at home that I woke up to find breakfast ready for me.

On top of that, the breakfast meal was exactly the same as the one I eat every morning.
To top it all off, even the thickness of the cocoa and the degree of browning of the bread had been completely replicated.

Of course, I’m very happy for what she did for me, and I want to accept her feelings honestly.
However, I hadn’t expected her to approach me like this after we had just decided last night to keep our relationship with each other the same.

“Did something good happen to you today?”
“Well…”

Sakakibara, sitting at the desk next to me, looked at me and asked, I replied, picturing the morning scene.

“It’s about Mashiro-chan anyway, isn’t it, Satou?”
“What do you mean by ‘anyway’? Well, you’re right.”

It was no wonder he could easily figure it out if I kept talking about Mashiro every day.
However, even though I was dealing with Sakakibara, my best friend, it would not be a good idea to simply tell him that Mashiro had taken human form.

It didn’t mean that I don’t trust Sakakibara, it was just a question of what Mashiro thought about it.
I apologized to Mashiro in my heart, but she has become quite famous in this department.
And the reason for this was none other than my own fault, as I’ve been bragging about how cute Mashiro was to everyone around me.

“Let me know if you have any new pictures.”
“Ah, yeah. I will.”

Sakakibara said this in a light-hearted manner, and I replied with a slightly awkward smile.
In the past, I’d always taken pictures of Mashiro whenever I had a chance, but I don’t think that will happen anymore.

Of course, I can’t take pictures of her when she’s in human form, and I suppose I could take pictures of her as a cat, like I did last night, but that would be completely voyeuristic now.
I mean, of course she knew that I’ve been taking pictures of her so far. I wonder what she thought about that…

“You need to work hard, don’t slack off too much, okay?”
“No, I’m not slacking off.”

Sakakibara nailed me in a whisper.
It was not that I’m slacking off.
It was a part of my job to increase my concentration on my work by looking at my camera roll with Mashiro’s photos.

As I looked at the photos, I kept thinking that I’d like to take a picture of Mashiro in her human form, too.