Underwear Not Included

"Noa, it's cold…"

"Hold on, I'm finding something for you to wear."

The rabbit girl is crouched in the bathroom doorway with nothing but a towel. Needless to say, I don't have any clothes that she can easily switch into once her dress becomes soiled. 

"This will just have to do…"

I send Mira back into the bathroom with one of my T-shirts. Even I don't carry more than a week and a half worth of clothes, so we're in desperate need of a laundry machine. 

The door opens and Mira walks out with a much oversized blue T-shirt. The neck just fits atop her shoulders, but the shirt is too big to show more of her figure than slight hills at the chest and rear. Her flushed thighs are mostly visible below the edge of the fabric.

"At least I can look at you properly now."

To say I can look at her comfortably is an overstatement, but this is an order of magnitude easier than seeing her completely naked. I wonder if she would even wear clothes if she didn't get cold. The end of winter may be the death of me.

Mira stands in the middle of the room examining herself.

"This thing is very roomy."

"It is my shirt after all. If I had anything that fit you, the police would probably be at my door."

Walking past Mira, I head into the bathroom and grab her clothes. The accessories probably have to be hand washed, but the dress is a mystery. No matter how hard I look, I can't find a tag anywhere with washing instructions. I'll just have to improvise. 

After throwing both her clothes and mine into the hamper, I head to the hall closet to grab laundry supplies.

"Noa, look at this!"

I make the mistake of turning back towards the rabbit girl.

Mira does a little twirl and allows the impromptu gown to spin with her. It's halfway through this twirl that I realise the problem here. As the ends of the shirt flap upwards, I'm flashed by parts that absolutely should not be visible. My brain that had thought itself to be in the clear immediately stops working. The box of dryer sheets in my hand fall to the floor as her small feet complete their rotations.

"This is the first time I've worn something this short! It feels so breezy!"

"W-Why aren't you wearing underwear!?"

Even though the parts are now covered, I still avert my gaze. Meanwhile, I see Mira tilt her head in the corner of my eye.

"Underwear?"

"Yes! Panties, bra, something to cover yourself underneath!?"

Mira pulls the shirt up to look at herself beneath the fabric. Thank goodness I was prepared.

"I don't see anything?"

"Of course not! You aren't wearing any!"

I frantically begin digging through the dirty clothes in search of the missing garments.

"T-This can't be…"

They aren't in the pile with her dress. 

"Surely they just got mixed in, right!"

I dig out every last article of clothing in desperation. The two pairs of pants I wore this week, the seven shirts, the seven pairs of underwear, the seven pairs of socks, Mira's jacket and dress, that was all I found.

It felt like I was buying a calculator from the internet. The package is all fancy and shows all of the fun things that it's capable of. A lot of times, you can even find videos to show the device in action, a full package. Yet when shipped to you, it arrives without batteries. Nothing is physically wrong with the device, it's just missing one detail that it requires to run. You have to supply that part for yourself. The issue is, I don't have a way of getting these particular batteries.

Mira steps to the edge of the ring of clothes around my feet.

"Did you lose something?"

"I guess you can say something is missing…"

"Do you need help looking?"

I turn my distraught face to see the smiling girl wearing one of my shirts. She doesn't even know what's missing and she offers to help. Such a nice girl.

"No, it's fine. It was never here to begin with."

Her face was enough to calm me down and prevent me from having a crisis. Mira isn't at fault for the situation. She can't be, she's a literal rabbit. The only ones I can curse are the gods of rabbit/human transformations for sending a girl over without undergarments included.

I gather back all of the clothes on the floor.

"Alright, I'm heading downstairs to do the laundry. Stay here."

I pick up the basket of dirty clothes, a detergent bottle, and a foldable basket for clean clothes. 

"You're leaving?"

"I'll just be downstairs, but it'll take a few hours for everything to finish."

When I try to walk towards the door, I feel something gripping against the end of my shirt. Turning around, I see Mira looking up at me with expectant eyes. For the first time, this girl looks timid and even a little afraid. Her large blue eyes seem like they could burst into tears at any moment. The gap between her previous behaviour and now makes my heart skip a beat.

"Don't leave without me."

"I mean, you can't exactly leave looking like that…"

"But I don't want you to leave…"

My body refuses to move. My brain knows that the request is a little unreasonable. This girl is planning on walking out into a public space with nothing but a shirt on. Even if we make it to the laundromat, somebody will likely report us for public indecency or worse. On the other end, some creep might come around and take photos or even start stalking her. I can't let Mira put herself on display like that.

"Please don't leave me alone…"

It might be unreasonable, but my heart feels pain seeing her like this. From the moment she arrived, she's almost always been at my side. The one time I left her, she felt the need to consume anything and everything. 

"Haaahhh…"

I put down the items that I'm carrying.

"Let me find you something to cover up with."

"Really?"

"I can't have you tearing the place up while I'm gone."

Mira's face immediately brightens up at my words. Are rabbits usually this clingy? I have no idea what I'm going to do once I have to go to school on Monday. 

Regardless, I rummage through the closet before pulling out a long coat. It will drag on the floor if she wears it and it may be too warm, but this is the only option we have.

"You can come with me if you wear this."

"It looks heavy…"

Mira scrunches up her face for a moment before reaching out to grab the coat. She fiddles with it for a while before she eventually finds a way to fit her arms inside. Due to the size difference between us, her hands can't reach out of the sleeves.

"It is heavy…"

Mira struggles to keep the coat from sliding down and off her shoulders. Without her hands, she can't even button it closed.

"Hold still, I'll get it."

I bend down and help her button the coat shut. As I do, Mira giggles to herself.

"Thank you, Noa!"

I see her smile for a second before I focus my gaze on the coat. How am I supposed to not be embarrassed as she makes that face.

"I don't know why you're thanking me. Come on, we have to get our clothes clean."

I start grabbing the items I had placed down earlier, cramming things I can't fit in my hands into my arms. I try to awkwardly move to the door before I feel a tug on the detergent bottle.

"I'll take this one!"

"Sorry, but thanks."

"Hehehe!"

I don't know why she looks so happy carrying laundry soap, but I won't complain. 

The two of us head down to the public laundromat in the apartments.