Alfred walked downstairs to see Yuki in the kitchen. He took a deep breath and continued towards her.
"Hey Alfred, what happened back there?" She asked with a concerned look.
"Meh, don't worry about it," Alfred shrugged in response.
Yuki frowned, "Okay?"
Alfred sat down at the table, continuing to drink the coffee he had abandoned when he went to check on Mystery. It was a bit cold, but he drank it anyway.
A few moments later, Mystery walked down with clean clothes and a towel held in his arms.
"Well look who's finally taking a bath," Yuki gestured towards him.
"Yeah, well I don't want to smell bad when I meet up with Rexy or Goat Friend," he explained.
"Hehe, alright then," Yuki smiled, then turned to Alfred.
"Hey, who's Goat Friend?" She whispered to him.
"Oh, that's just Kao, I don't know why Mystery calls him that," Alfred replied casually, leaning against the counter.
"Oh, okay, good to know," Yuki turned away.
Mystery walked into the bathroom, turning the water on so it would be warm enough. He put the towel on the counter along with his clean clothes. Then he took off what he was wearing and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water run down his back.
"It's been a while since I took a shower..." he mumbled to himself, "and it's about time I decided to wash my hair as well."
He laughed to himself, remembering the time Alfred found an insect in his fur. The man had screamed like a little girl.
"Haha, that was pretty funny," he said, grabbing the soap to wash his hair. He tried his best to untangle the knots in it.
"Damn, this is harder than I thought," he frowned.
He could see dirt and a few insects fall to the floor of the shower.
"Huh, it really has been a long time."
He then realized that he had no more soap on his hands. He grabbed for more and scrubbed his hair one more time before finishing.
"Finally!" He sighed as he grabbed the body wash to clean the rest of his body.
"Ooh, it smells good," he said, squirting some of it into his mouth. He immediately spits it out.
"Pleh! That tastes disgusting! Why do people use this if it tastes so gross?" He tried his best to remove it all from his mouth. "Whatever."
He continued to clean his body, including his tail.
After twenty minutes, Mystery had finished cleaning himself and turned off the water. He walked out, feeling the breeze through his fur. His bare feet felt cold against the bathroom tiles. He made sure to thoroughly dry himself off.
"Ahh, feels good to be clean again!" He sighed in relief.
He put the towel on the counter and grabbed his clean clothes. He put his boxers on first, then his pants, and finally his fancy collared shirt.
As he left, he grabbed his dirty clothes and towel, dropping them into the laundry basket.
"Someone looks good today," Alfred said when Mystery walked out of the bathroom.
The cat just laughed and left for his bedroom. When he got there, he looked at himself in the mirror. He picked up his brush and attempted to get some of the tangles out of his hair. After twenty-five minutes, he finally managed to get them out, but not without a lot of complaining about how much it hurt his scalp.
He sat down on his bed and checked his phone. 3:12 pm.
"I should probably eat a snack at least," mystery whispered to himself and made his way down to the kitchen once more. He grabbed a banana once he got there.
"You really decided to clean yourself up, huh?" Yuki asked, impressed by how proper Mystery looked in his outfit.
"Mhm!"
Mystery left while eating the banana, going to his room to grab his phone. He called Kao to tell him that he was going to pick him up.
"Hi Mystery," Kao's soft voice came from the other side.
"Hey Kao, I'm going to pick you up at 4:20, so you only have eleven more minutes to get ready," the doctor told him.
"Oh shoot, I forgot!" Kao cried in a hurry, "Alright, see you!"
"Bye," Mystery said before hanging up.
Alfred was staring at the floor, thinking of Mystery and the moment they had shared earlier until Yuki tried to get his attention.
"Earth to Alfred! Hello?" She waved a hand in front of his face.
Alfred blinked, "S-sorry Yuki, what's up?"
She looked at the ground shyly, "Since Mystery is leaving to visit his friends, and we have nothing better to do... I was wondering if you wanted to go get some dinner together? We haven't done anything like that since you and Mystery started spending so much time with Rex and Kao."
Alfred nodded, "Sure."
Yuki's eyes lit up, "Really? I thought you would say no."
"I mean, it's not like I have anything else planned for tonight." Alfred shrugged.
"Oh good! We can leave at 6:20 pm," Yuki decided.
"Okay."
She walked off to her and Alfred's shared room, planning what to wear. While she was walking away, Alfred noticed Mystery leaving his own room, kissing Mago on the head and caressing him like a child.
"Bye Mago!" The doctor hugged him tightly. "Daddy is leaving to visit his Rexy Boo and Goat Friend!"
Alfred watched as Mystery grabbed the car keys and went out the door. He ran out of the house after him, as fast as he could before Mystery could even get in the car. He caught his breath, stopping the cat just before he closed the door.
"Bye Mystery! Good luck showing that collar to your 'Rexy Boo'" he snickered, "Also, remember not to crash like last time!"
Mystery just rolled his eyes and waved at him. When he got inside the car, he put on his seatbelt and drove off.
Alfred went back inside to turn on the TV. He was bored and hoped that Yuki would finish picking her outfit soon.
Mystery turned on the radio and started humming to a random song as he drove down the street. After five minutes passed, he made it to Kao's house, since they lived rather close to each other. He texted Kao that he was out front and waited for a few moments. The ram appeared shortly later, rushing towards the car and slipping inside. Mystery started driving as Kao put on his seatbelt.
"Hey, *huff* Mystery sorry to *huff* keep you waiting!" He smiled at the doctor.
"Hee hoo, it's alright, seems like you were in a rush."
"Heh yeah, I had to brush my hair and pick some clothes to wear at the last minute. I kind of forgot about this whole thing. Sorry!" Kao laughed, embarrassed.
"Don't you usually just wear that long striped shirt and those short pants?" Mystery asked.
Kao scratched his head, "Yeah, but I wanted to wear something new-" he stopped talking when he noticed the collar Mystery was wearing.
"Hey, um, why are you wearing a collar?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
Mystery blushed when the other noticed and sighed.
"I lost a bet," he said, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter.
"With who, and uh, what was it for?" Kao inquired.
Mystery stared straight ahead, "Well, the bet was from..."
"Come on, spit it out," Kao eagerly encouraged.
"It was Alfred. It all started yesterday when Freddy and I... I mean Alfred, we're hanging out together. It was fun when we were just playing on the Nintendo Switch. But umm, then we started doing bets, and I lost one of them. So now I have to wear this dumb collar for a week," Mystery informed, pointing to the collar around his neck.
"Wow," Kao giggled. "...Wait, where did Alfred even get that collar?"
"He just said... well I don't exactly remember, but I'm pretty sure he just had it in his closet for whenever a relevant situation came up."
"Weird," Kao marveled.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too," Mystery laughed.
When they finally arrived at Rex's house, Mystery carefully pulled into a parking space, not wanting to crash the car like he did that one time with Alfred... Luckily, he did it right and parked perfectly on the first try.
End of Chapter 6
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