The Tale of a Century \\ SoraMafu

> Nine <

He felt a warmth beside him. Something he hadn't felt for a while. Soraru's arm was still around Mafu, who was snuggled comfortably up against him. Opening his eyes, Soraru was greeted with Mafu's innocent sleeping face. What a sight to see first thing in the morning.

Soraru checked the digital clock on the nightstand to find that it was 8:23. His parents should be out by now. He looked back down at Mafu, sleeping soundly. His white locks framed his face, and the faint light filtering through the blinds gave him a sort of glow.

He does looks cute, Soraru thought, hand reaching up to brush Mafu's hair out of his face. Upon contact, Mafu let out a groan and shifted around. Without thinking, Soraru pulled Mafu closer to his chest. He watched as Mafu's eyes cracked open and as he reached up to rub them.

"You awake?" Soraru asked quietly.

Mafu nodded slowly. "What time is it?" he said groggily.

"It's 8:30 now..." Soraru trailed off. It was only now that he realized how dark it was for eight in the morning. No matter how much he didn't want to separate from Mafu, it was going to happen eventually, so he inches out of the blanket and rounded towards the window.

The blinds were still somewhat open from last night. Soraru opened them all the way. Outside, it was snowing. Fat snowflakes drifting down from the sky. However, it wasn't a calm snow nor was it rough enough to be a blizzard. "Mafu-kun, it's snowing," Soraru said, looking back at Mafu. During the time that Soraru had gone to the window, Mafu had changed his position to lying on his back, letting his head loll to the side. He sat up to look through the glass. "It is," he replied to Soraru's remark.

Soraru pressed his hand against the window, contemplating. Suddenly, an idea popped up in his mind.

"Since we're both up, how about we get ready for the day?" Soraru suggested.

Mafu agreed, his feet landing softly on the floor. "You can go first, I'll wait here," Soraru said. Heading out, Mafu disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Soraru felt horrible to be deceiving him, but there was something he needed to do. When he was sure that Mafu was distracted, Soraru picked up the journal from the table. There was a crack in between the thick pages where something was hidden. He quickly opened the book to that page and when he saw what was between the page, he inhaled softly and smiled sadly.

What was there was exactly what he had expected.