[crow]

If he could have gotten away with getting more of them without the pretense of buying them from gift shops, he would have. Especially the ones they released for Valentine’s Day… It really was a pity.

Peach had talked about multiple trips, but after fitting in as many things as he could into the bin she’d given him, Neo thought that two trips was probably going to be enough. He really didn’t own that much. The rest was all clothes, and he didn’t have a lot of those. The two heavy jackets he could just drape over his shoulders to carry.

[crow]

He took them off the hooks from which they hung, and after a moment’s thought, draped the thinner of the two around himself. Then he layered the thicker one on top of it.

The resulting arrangement felt surprisingly heavy on Neo, and not all that stable, but he only had to make it as far as the new bedroom. He bent down carefully to pick up his tub of belongings, then straightened slowly, and made his way out of the closet and towards the room.

[crow]

Peach was just coming out of her own room as he moved out, and the sight of him stopped her in her tracks. “I-Is something the matter?” said Neo, pausing under her scrutiny. But to his surprise, Peach simply burst out laughing.

“What’s with that get-up? Oh, wait, you’re just trying to carry more things, aren’t you?” she said, catching her breath. “That’s not a bad idea, you just look a little…” She had to stifle another giggle while Neo gave her a questioning look.

[crow]

“You’re so tall, it makes you look like a coat hanger,” Peach said as an explanation. Which… well, considering the fact that it was in fact coats hanging off of him… Maybe that was what he was, at the moment.

Neo deflated, looking a little put-out. “Come on, Peach, don’t be mean,” he said plaintively.

Peach patted him on the shoulder. “My bad, my bad. Your things are on the bedside table in my room. I’ll help you move your… what do you have left? Just clothes?”

[crow]

She peered into the closet as Neo nodded. “Great, I’ll take care of those then. You go on ahead.” She passed him and headed into the closet, and Neo resumed his journey to his new bedroom.

As little credit as Peach might have given him, he got there without incident, though he had to keep his eyes fixed firmly on his goal. It wasn’t so much to prevent him from tripping or anything like that, but to escape the temptation of looking at Confetti. He was pretty sure Confetti wouldn’t have had anything nice to say about his current fashion choices either.

[crow]

Luckily for Neo, if Confetti noticed, he declined to comment, either out of some sense of politeness or because he was occupied with other things. Neo would take his breaks where he could get them. He placed the tub down and shrugged off the two jackets.

He looked for a place to put them, and his eyes lit upon the closet door. A closet! What luxury. Nevermind having a closet, his last bedroom was a closet, but now he had one of his own, just like a real person and everything.

[crow]

Or... well, he had had of one, anyway. He still had to share it with Confetti, who was going to take up at least half. Maybe more than half, actually. He didn't have any clothes of his own yet, except the ones he'd come out with, but he looked like the fashionable type, so Neo suspected Confetti was going to want more than half the closet soon enough.

For the moment though, the whole thing was his, since Confetti didn't have any clothes of his own just yet.

[crow]

It was pre-stocked with hangers too, probably courtesy of Peach... or maybe they'd just been leftovers from the last time this was a normal room for Ferdinand. Neo took down two of them and hung his jackets from them, then returned them to the closet. Already it looked more lived-in, just from having two articles of clothing in it.

Neo felt himself smiling; it was kind of a dumb thing to get excited about, but he couldn't help it. His own room! It was a big deal for him, anyway.

[crow]

He hurried to put the rest of his things away, emptying the tub. The books he stuck on a little shelf, and the stuffed animals... Oh, he was going to have to set up his futon properly, wasn't he? It was still in disarray from having been moved in by Peach, so he took one and tidied it up, folding it up again properly.

Once that was done, he settled his stuffed animals carefully on top, then stepped back to admire his handiwork. It didn't look professional or anything, but at least it was neat.

[crow]

He could be satisfied with that. It didn't have to look too good anyway, since it was just him living here with Ferdinand and the other cakes. It wasn't like they had people over or anything, since Ferdy wasn't very social, and the rest of them didn't know how much they could let someone in because of what they were.

Plus he was just going to have to spread it out when he went to sleep too, and fold it back up again in the morning, so it was going to be a little lumpy anyway.

[crow]

Since he'd folded his own futon, Neo figured he might as well fold Confetti's too. He wasn't so petty as to insist that Confetti had to do it himself since it was his. Neo was already here, after all, and Peach always said that as a family, they had to help each other out.

He knew that Peach watched out for him a lot of the time, and in his heart he'd always wanted to be able to take care of someone else in return. It was just that... he couldn't really help Peach all that much.

[crow]

Confetti popping up like this was sort of like getting a little brother. Peach didn't seem excited about it, but Neo thought it could be a fun change of pace from him being the hapless youngest. And even though he'd heard some not too nice things about being a middle child... he just wasn't going to think about that! It might not come true anyway.

He set to work folding Confetti's futon. It wasn't hard work, or even all that time consuming, and in short order he had both futons tidied up.

[crow]

As he stepped back to look at it, he thought at first that it was nice that the room was so neat... but the longer he looked, the more it felt like the whole place was just empty. His good mood wilted a bit at that. All he had left to move for himself were clothes, which would go in the closet, and his more fragile souvenirs, which would probably join his books on the bookshelf.

Well, maybe it would look more filled out when they spread out the futons for the night.

[crow]

It would have been nice if they'd had real beds, to be honest, but those were expensive. It was more likely that they'd get other furniture before that, since it wasn't like they didn't have a place to sleep already.

He sighed. He ought to just finish moving his things. Peach was going to scold him if he spent too long staring into space. He picked the plastic bin up off the floor and headed out of his room again, back into the closet that had been his room before.

[crow]

Most of his clothes were already folded, so it didn't take him long to put them in the tub. The ones that weren't folded, he folded right now. Once everything was loaded up, he picked up the tub and bustled back into the bedroom. It was lighter this time; apparently his clothes didn't weigh as much as the books and stuffed animals put together.

With everything folded up and stacked as neatly as it was, it was just a matter of sliding it onto one of the closet's shelves.