A.N.: This story is about a specific sweater that appears in Mickey and the Orbiting Nightmare in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #711 and #712.
Spring cleaning was never easy for Mickey as it usually led him to stop every so often to reminisce whenever he found an old treasure he hadn't seen in a while. The frequent trips down memory lane were worth it though as it left him with more things to write down in an autobiography, if he ever got around to it.
One such treasure that he found, left him stunned stupid for a solid half hour. He even decided to stop cleaning for the day just to marvel at this little wonder of the world. It was a mustard yellow sweater, and it was hideous. Yellow was not really a good color on him, with the sole exception of his shoes of course. Then he turned it over to see if it was just a plain sweater, but therein lies the truth that the sweater was hideous on purpose. On the back was a big pink heart embroidered with the words, "Property of Minnie!" the exclamation point was indeed included.
Minnie made him that sweater when he was going to be one of the few people to stay in a space station hotel called The Olympus. Of course he was the only average Joe amongst a slew of celebrities, thus Minnie made him that sweater to make him purposely look as unattractive as possible while simultaneously letting every girl and female celebrity know that he was taken. He had to thwart the Phantom Blot who had taken over The Olympus and had even sneakily engineered it to transform into his true likeness, too bad it was faulty since there was a problem with the budget. In the end, Mickey had to use the sweater to tie the Phantom Blot down until they could get back to Earth, but Mickey got it back once the police put him in jail.
After staring at it for about an hour now, he recalled that it was actually quite comfortable. So he put it on, knowing that he shouldn't care what anybody says about the sweater should he get criticism, and to take any compliments with pride. Ah, still as comfy as the day Minnie gave it to him, since it was a gift, he had put it on right away, even though he didn't think it'd be chilly up in the space hotel, but it was still comfy even after he realized what she had put on the back of it for her sake more so than his.
Then Mickey went down to the police station to see if there was a small case he could work on. He got quite a few compliments, though most were followed with playful jokes after they saw what was written on the back. "Minnie's got you wrapped around her little finger," was the most common one and Mickey easily countered it with the fact that Minnie made the sweater a few years ago so it's a little bit older than it looks. No smart remarks were followed by that.
There weren't any small cases for him. Not even ones that the department couldn't spare a few deputies, so Mickey ended up organizing the filing cabinets, which was easy enough. Afterwards, he decided to go see Minnie, and see her reaction to her old creation, it would be interesting to see if she even recognized it.
He found her planting new petunias in her garden, and hoped to high heavens that the warm weather would stay, instead of faking everyone out again and start another blizzard.
"Hiya, Min. The petunias are lookin' swell so far!" Mickey remarked cheerfully. The petunias did look healthy so far, but it was only a matter of time to see what the weather would do.
"Hi Mickey, and thank you, I just hope we don't get another sudden blizzard, I'm getting tired of this awful weath-!" She interrupted herself as she finally looked up at him. "What in the world are you wearing?"
He couldn't make out what her expression was so he turned around and looked at her over his shoulder to bring a little more clarity. "Ring any bells, dear?" He smirked impishly at her. He watched as the realization dawned on her, and she broke out in a fit of her melodic giggles.
"Oh my goodness! I can't believe you still have that! Where did you find it?" She asked through her giggling, taking off her gardening gloves and getting up to hug him and admire her old and purposely horrendous handiwork.
"Found it in a drawer while I was spring cleaning, figured ya'd get a good laugh at it. It still fits and it's still comfy, and even if it ain't my color I love it!" Mickey replied gleefully, returning her hug and kissing her cheek every so often to show his appreciation.
"Well, I'm flattered you still have it, still like it, and it's serving you well, silly." Minnie said returning his kisses, and still in awe that he even found the darn thing and didn't have it in him to throw it out.
Even better, after all this time he was still hers, and she would never take that for granted.