Atlas and Kids

Atlas looked at the calendar on the wall. Today was the day. Athena was going with Milas to rob one of the city’s banks. Boss had stated that only they would be going due to their claws being able to melt safe locks. Or something like that. Atlas couldn’t remember. All he could think of was his smug and handsome face giving out those powerful orders… oh how his eyes glistened under his fedora…

Stop. Focus, Atlas. He wasn’t going on this mission. Instead, Boss had given him an even more difficult order: to watch over he and Athena’s children. 

Now Atlas wasn’t always one to be around children, him being a criminal and all. But hey, Mars and Dusk didn’t seem that bad, according to Athena at least. Well, she did mention Mars being loud and Dusk being stubborn… oh well. He better not mess up. Time to go. 

Atlas made his way to the Rocket leader’s home. Upon ringing the doorbell, he was greeted with a fangy grin. 

“Altas, dear, you’re here!” Athena exclaimed. “Come, they’re waiting for you.” She then led him inside. 

Athena led him to the kids’ room, then turned to Atlas again. 

“I’ve told them to be on their best behavior, but you let me know if any trouble arises, alrighty?”

Atlas nodded. “Of course. Though I am uh, a bit nervous…”

Athena put a paw on his shoulder. “You’ll do fine, dear. Boss wouldn’t have asked you to do this if he didn’t trust you, right?”

“I thought it was just because he doesn’t trust Maxus to do it…” 

Athena let out a laugh at that. “You get my point. Now I gotta run. Milas won’t be happy if I’m late. Good luck!” 

With that she headed out of the house. Atlas took a deep breath and opened the door to Mars and Dusk’s room. 

He was immediately met with whining. Turning his gaze to the noise, his eyes laid upon Mars tugging on Dusk’s ear playfully. The girl’s eyes were glistening with troublemaking while her younger brother tried to shove her away. Atlas giggled a little bit before heading over to them.

“Heyyyyy guys, uh, I’m here to watch you for a while. Uh if you didn’t know that already…” 

The kids stopped fighting and looked up at him. Mars let go of Dusk’s ear and walked over to Atlas with a big grin on her face. 

“Hi! You’re Mr. Atlas right? Mom told us about you! You’re like, second in command to Dad! So cool! Can you tell us what it’s like? What do you do-”

The young girl continued talking while Atlas turned to look at Dusk. He was noticeably more quiet than his sister, and didn’t seem to want to make eye contact. Poor kid. He was pretty young to be left alone with a stranger. Atlas was unsure what to do. 

“I can tell you later, Mars. Since we don’t really know each other, would you uh, wanna do some icebreakers?” 

Dusk frowned. “I’m not good at those…” 

Atlas looked at him again. “How so? I thought they were pretty easy.” 

“He doesn’t really like telling others about himself, Mr. Atlas,” Mars informed him. Ah, that made sense. Atlas may not have understood it, but he wouldn’t hold it against him. His brain rushed to think about another idea…

Oh! Oh…

“You wanna bake some cookies?”

Dusk’s ears perked up a little bit. Mars’ eyes lit up with excitement. 

“YES! C’mon, I think mom has some mix in the kitchen!”

She ran out of the room, Atlas and Dusk behind her. As they walked to the kitchen, Atlas looked down at the young boy.

“I’m theorizing you’re a shy kid?”

Dusk flattened his ears again. “So?”

“N-nothing! Nothing wrong with that! I was just trying to get to know you a little bit! I can get shy sometimes too, especially around your dad…” 

“I thought you were really close to him?”

“Eh, kinda? I’m his second, but most of our interactions are business. I don’t see him much otherwise. Wish I did.”
“Why?”

“Ummmm… let’s talk about you a lil. What do you like to do?”

Dusk gave him a suspicious glance, but nodded. 

“Uh, I like to watch cartoons a lot. I really like this one about a spacecat that gains multiform and becomes like a magical cat. She poses as an average cat during the day, but at night she becomes this hero! There’s this one episode where-” 

Just then, the two made it into the kitchen. Mars had already set up some ingredients on the counter. At least, she had tried to. 

“I don’t think broccoli goes into a cookie, does it, Mars?” 

“Whoops! I’ll put that back. Anything else?”

“Put back the onion too. Everything else looks good. Alright, uh, lemme look up the recipe…” 

It didn’t take long for Atlas to find a suitable recipe. Now came the hard part: actually following it. Atlas knew he had a tendency to freak out when things weren’t perfect, having the kids help out made that chance worse!

He took a deep breath. It’s ok. We’re just having fun. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect… right? Right right right totally right LETS MAKE SOME COOKIES!

It took some time, but they eventually made a nice looking dough. Though Atlas had to constantly remind Mars to not eat the ingredients before mixing them. Dusk seemed to be enjoying himself too, talking about how this reminded him of one of his cartoons. Atlas smiled. 

“Alright, time to put these in the oven. I’m gonna clean up the kitchen while these cook, how about you two watch a lil tv? I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

This time, Dusk ran first out of the room into the living room. Mars followed him. 

Being Atlas, it took him longer than it should have to clean. Everything had to be shiny clean before he was satisfied. Worth it. He then headed into the living room. 

The kids were watching a cartoon. Of course. It didn’t seem to be the one Dusk was talking about though. This one looked to be about a young spacecat with psychic abilities exploring the mindsets of people around him. Interesting. Atlas sat down and watched it with the kids for a while until he heard the oven beep. 

“THEY’RE READY!” Mars shouted, and ran back into the kitchen. Dusk sighed and followed his sister, Atlas right behind him. 

After stopping Mars from opening the oven, Atlas did that himself and carefully removed the cookies and set them on the counter. He then got out some icing and sprinkles. 

They were wrapping up decorating the cookies when the door opened. 

“Well what do we have going on here?” Athena asked jokingly. She had a large bag strapped to her back. Probably money from the bank she and Milas robbed. 

“Hi Mom! We’re making cookies!” Mars exclaimed. Dusk looked up and nodded at his mother. 

“Ooh, delicious! Atlas, were they any trouble?”
“Not at all! I think we had a good time, right?” 

The kids nodded. 

He got up and headed to the door. “Well, I gotta head home now. Seeya, Athena.”

“Wait!”

Atlas looked behind him to see little Dusk, holding a blue-frosted cookie. 

“It’s for you. I tried making it look like you but it’s not perfect…I’m sorry.”

Atlas gave the little boy a hug. “That doesn’t matter, I love it so much! Thank you!” 

“Y’welcome.” 

Atlas took the cookie, waved goodbye to Athena, and then headed home. He made a mental note to ask Athena about babysitting them again. It was a lot more fun than he expected!