golden (mileven au)

she can speak

Around four, the dogs' schedule showed it was time for their afternoon walk. So, like he had done that morning, he scrambled around to get the leashes on each of them. It went better that time, since he'd remembered which dog was which.

He carefully made his way down the stairs, attempting to not trip over any of their leashes.

Once he made it to the bottom, he took the dogs over to a grass area at the side of the apartment building. He walked them around the decent sized area for a little bit, making sure they each went to the bathroom while he had them out there.

Just as Mike was getting ready to take them all back inside, he saw the girl from the apartment across from his getting out of her car and heading toward the stairs. 

Having gotten a little too distracted by her, one of the leashes was tugged on a little too roughly and he accidentally let it go. The dog went running away from him, while the others started barking incessantly.

"Coco! Get back here!" Mike called out, immediately starting to panic. He watched as she ran a couple of circles in the grass, then headed toward the parking lot.

"Hey, shut up with the barking, would you?" Mike snapped at the rest of them, but of course, his command did nothing.

He immediately gave up on that and took off running as fast as he could, but having three dogs with him made that a bit tough to do.

"Coco!" He hollered out again, making the dog turn back, only she didn't run toward him. She ran the opposite direction and stopped right in front of her.

"Oh, great." Mike mumbled under his breath. "Time for another pointless interaction." 

Mike sighed, then started to walk over to them. The girl was now crouched down, playing with the dog, while it jumped around in front of her.

"Aw! Hi there buddy!" Mike heard her say, in that typical tone of voice that people use with dogs.

Whoa, so she can speak.

She continued to pet the dog, as Mike finally approached her. He smiled politely, as he had done toward the girl many times, but this time she returned one nearly identical to his.

"Sorry about her." Mike apologized, feeling bad that the dog had been crazily jumping all over her.

"Oh no, it's fine! I love dogs!" She quickly assured him, her voice sounding much sweeter than he'd imagined. "What did you say her name was? Coco?"

Mike was taken aback by the fact that she was actually speaking to him, but thankfully recovered from the moment of shock before he started to look like a weirdo. 

"Yeah, Coco. Believe it or not she's not the wildest out of the four." Mike told the girl, getting a short, but oh so sweet sounding laugh out of her.

It only took seconds for him to decide that he loved the sound of it, even more than he loved the sound of her voice.

"What are the rest of their names?"

"Oliver, Ziggy and Thor." He listed off, but wasn't exactly sure if all those names were right. They all looked exactly alike, apart from their different colored collars. How was he supposed to be able to remember anything about them?

"At least, I think those are their names."

"You don't even know your own dogs' names?" She asked, her golden eyes full of amusement.

Mike shook his head at her. "Oh, they're not mine, they're my sister's."

"Ah, that explains why they don't seem to want to listen to you." She commented while glancing back up at him, a knowing smile slowly finding its way onto her face.

Mike scoffed. "Yeah, they definitely don't listen to me."

The girl continued to pet Coco, along with all the other dogs who were now crowded around her. It didn't seem to bother her all that much, but Mike didn't want to push his luck.

He had finally gotten her to speak to him. If that got messed up now, he'd really hate himself for it.

"Well, I need to get them all back inside before another one gets loose and runs out in front of a car or something." He claimed, but really, the excuse had some truth to it. It was a miracle that Coco hadn't actually ran out into the parking lot, so he did need to get them back inside.

The girl finally stood from her crouched position and adjusted her purse strap that had fallen off of her shoulder. "That's probably a good idea."

Her eyes were now on him and only him and he honestly didn't know how to feel. This had never happened before. He had never had her full attention, but he was sure glad he did.

"My sister would probably murder me if something happened to one of them. These things are like her children."

The sweet sound of her laughter returned and Mike couldn't help but revel in the sound of it all over again. "I guess I should say good luck then."

"Thanks, I need it." He chuckled, smiling softly at her.

The girl smiled back at him, much different than she ever had before. This smile was genuine and warm, a very different contrast to the quick, forced ones he usually got from her.

Mike suddenly didn't want that smile to ever leave his sight but she had eventually went on her way, leaving him standing there with four rowdy dogs whose leashes were now tangled around his legs.

The dogs were forgotten for the time being though. The only thing he could possibly focus on was the image of the beautiful girl still fresh in his mind, actually having a conversation with him.

Sure, the conversation only lasted for a minute or two, but it's all he needed in order to decide that this girl was simply amazing.

He could only hope that what just happened wouldn't be the last time she spoke to him.