Sin and Sinner

30

~Darlina's POV~

On Tuesday morning, I waited patiently in the living room after I had spent the morning getting ready, dressed in a powder blue dress with frills along the skirt and a pair of white ankle high boots. Atlas and I were supposed to go to Dina's seeing as I had to work today, but he was taking a little bit longer than usual, leaving me to wait in the living room.

Eventually Atlas came walking into the living room, running his fingers through his damp, dark hair. He'd left it in its natural state instead of styling it this time, which I admittedly liked more than when it was styled. It looked nice.

"You ready to go?" I asked him, fiddling with my keys while I stood beside the front door. He glanced up and nodded his head, following me out of the apartment. My eyes flicked to him as we quietly made our way to the elevator, a small frown forming on my lips while I examined the side of his handsome face. "Do you want to stop somewhere to get breakfast? Neither of us have eaten." I said, cocking my head slightly.

He didn't look my way, but still shrugged his shoulders as if he couldn't care less. "I'm fine either way. I don't really give a shit." He responded, leaning against the elevator wall. I bit the inside of my cheek, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "Well, I'm hungry. Does iHop sound okay?" I asked hopefully, really wanting some pancakes. A heavy sigh left him and he turned his head to peer down at me, an annoyed look on his face that quickly made me purse my lips, realizing that I was bothering him. "Sorry." I whispered.

The elevator doors opened and I skittered out first, embarrassed. We headed out to my car and I started up the engine after buckling my seatbelt, pulling out of the parking lot afterwards. There was an awkward, tense silence that hung in the air before Atlas glanced over at me. "I'm fine with iHop." He murmured, causing me to peek his way, but he was already looking out the window.

A grin formed on my lips. "Yay!" I cheered, quickly turning down the street to the nearby iHop.

I carried the bag of food into Dina's after Atlas and I arrived, having ordered to go so that we wouldn't be late. Atlas followed in after me, lingering by the front desk when I placed the bag down on the desk. "I'll be back. I need to go let the dogs outside." I told him, already making my way to the dogs. I made sure to leave the large door open as I opened the gates to their separate spaces, allowing them to run out after they did their usual excited sniffs of my legs.

Once they were all let outside to use the bathroom and run around a little bit, I joined Atlas back at the reception desk, hopping up into the chair behind it. Atlas, who was standing beside me, glanced down at my legs when he noticed my feet dangling above the floor, and an amused smirk tugged at his lips.

It was rather apparent to me that he was likely finding amusement in the fact that I was too short for my feet to even touch the floor, but I just huffed and grabbed the bag of our food, not mentioning it. Stomach growling, I dug out my strawberry banana pancakes and the two bowls of fruit that I had ordered, pushing my orange juice out of the way so I wouldn't accidentally knock it over.

After I dumped a few packs of syrup over my pancakes, I happily began to eat, a content hum leaving me while Atlas grabbed his own food as he stood to my left. While I had ordered the pancakes, he, on the other hand, had gotten hashbrowns, three sausage links and something called a bacon temptation omelette. He pulled a chair up beside me and joined me to eat in a comfortable silence, my feet absentmindedly kicking while I ate. Like an idiot, I completely forgot about having let the dogs out and was only reminded of this when I heard the gentle sound of scratching at the door.

Torpedo was at the door when I glanced over my shoulder, causing me to gasp and hop off my chair, realizing that I'd forgotten about them. "Sorry, babies!" I cooed as I quickly opened the door and a handful of the dogs came rushing inside, excitedly running circles around me before booking it towards Atlas when they noticed his presence. 

I made sure none of the other animals wanted to come inside before I returned to my seat beside Atlas, continuing to eat my food. To my surprise, Atlas was already almost done eating when I sat back down, causing my eyes to widen in surprise.

"Wow." I said, pushing up onto my seat again. "You eat fast." I remarked, causing him to look up as he ate the omelette he'd ordered. It must've been pretty good because he looked like he was enjoying it.

"I'm hungry." He muttered after he swallowed the bite of food in his mouth, his tongue flicking across his bottom lip. My eyes lingered on his lips at the action, where I noticed a bit of sauce on the corner of his mouth, and I pointed at it. "You've got some sauce there." I told him quietly, grabbing my orange juice to sip from the straw.

He wiped his mouth but on the wrong side, causing me to smile in amusement. "Wrong side, dummy." I snickered, grinning. I grabbed a napkin from the empty iHop bag and reached over, quickly swiping against the corner of his mouth, which caused him to jerk away in surprise. His eyes stared at me for a moment before he cleared his throat, gently knocking my arm away. "You didn't have to do that." He stated, taking a bite of his omelette again.

A little unsure what the big deal was with what I'd done, I tilted my head to the side. I bit my cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear when it fell into my face. "Did I make you uncomfortable?" I asked, frowning. He looked up, running a hand through his hair after he set his plastic fork down. "Pretty sure the last thing you could do is make me uncomfortable, Darlina." He responded simply. Though I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, honestly.

"O-Oh.." I stammered, deciding to take that as a compliment. "Thank you." I smiled. It wasn't as if I wanted to make him uncomfortable, after all.

Atlas snorted, an amused smile tugging at his full lips. "Your food's gonna get cold." He said in response as he kept eating, gesturing to my still rather full container of pancakes. I hummed in agreement and began eating again, a comfortable silence falling between us.

After I finished eating, which of course was well after Atlas had finished eating, I threw away my trash and let in the rest of the animals. My eyes flicked down to all the dogs and I smiled, watching as Buddy ran over to Atlas in hopes for attention. A large, tattooed hand reached out to rub Buddy's head, who happily leaned into his touch. 

"We need to bathe the dogs." I told him as I approached, causing him to look up at me, alarmed at my words. "Bathe them?" He echoed, like he didn't know what I meant. I nodded, leaning against the reception desk beside where he was still sat. "Mhm." I hummed in affirmation. "I was hoping you could help me this time." I said, tilting my head back to look at him when he rose from his chair with a sigh.

"I dunno. I'm not very good with handling dogs." He mumbled with uncertainty, which earned a look of doubt from me. "What do you mean? All the dogs love you, especially Buddy. He likes you even more than me." I pointed out, admittedly slightly jealous of that fact. Buddy liked me too, sure, but he liked Atlas more and had also grown to like him faster.

All he did was grunt in response, shrugging slightly, in a way that made it obvious he was still unsure if he would be of any help. "Please?" I begged, stepping a little bit closer to grab his wrist when he turned away. He glanced down at me and groaned when I stared up at him pleadingly, knowing I would need the assistance. It was hard enough washing the dogs with two people, so I knew it'd be ten times harder if I tried to do it on my own.

"Fine." He relented, causing a thrilled smile to grow on my face. "Great!" I chirped, already tugging him in the direction of the back of the building, where we bathed them at. For the bigger dogs there was a walk in tub sort of stall which had a door to make sure they couldn't run away, whereas we had another, smaller area which we gave the smaller dogs baths in. Most of the animals were pretty good, but the ones that didn't like being bathed really didn't like it. 

Followed by the dogs, who often would follow us around inside, we entered the room and I made sure the door was shut before I ran Atlas through the process of the bathing so he could best help.

"Okay," I grinned, turning to him with a pair of latex gloves in my hands. "Let's get to work."