Chapter Text
Roxanne wakes to morning sunlight streaming through the office's east-facing window behind her. Megamind is still wrapped around her like a starfish, holding her with both arms and his legs tangled in hers, breathing slow and steady against the curve of her shoulder.
Someday, she wants to wake up holding him like this.
She yawns. "Megamind," she murmurs, stroking his unbandaged fingers and his arm. "Megamind, hey."
He makes a complaining grumbly noise and twitches a little. Roxanne grins and keeps stroking his hand, and eventually he stirs and—hisses an odd sort of chattering buzz at her, like an angry red squirrel, and he pulls his arms in and rolls away and curls up in a little ball on his other side.
Roxanne sits up and looks down at him, amused and somewhat befuddled.
She has no idea how his hip issue works. If there's a shard of bone in the joint, then he shouldn't be so bendy, should he? He has trouble if he straightens out too quickly, but—is that all? Is he still just as bendy as he would be otherwise, he just can't stretch as quickly?
Well, he's still alive. She has time to find out.
Megamind needs his sleep, she decides, and Minion is missing from his place under the window, so she yawns again and then heads downstairs to see what's happening.
Minion is having an exceptionally strange morning.
Both of his bipeds were still asleep when his suit woke him automatically at seven, and he didn't think it would be right to wake them—they both had a long night, and Sir was openly clinging, which he wouldn't appreciate Minion seeing. Let alone Miss Ritchi, but…well, there wasn't a whole lot Minion could do about that except for a preemptive strike with the forget-me stick, and Minion was not about to use the forget-me stick on Miss Ritchi.
So. Not much he could do. So he went downstairs. And he went quietly, hoping not to wake anyone else up if he didn't have to—but there was a tall woman in the living room who could only be Rose, working on a laptop on the coffee table. The twin brainbots were snoozing on the sofa next to her, and Derya was on her play mat on the floor, knocking around with her toys. Rose looked up when Minion stepped into the dining room, and she gave him a sunny smile and waved him over, shifting her laptop aside and standing up.
She told him good morning. Said it was great to finally meet him. Shook his hand. Waved him into a chair and insisted it was okay if he broke it by accident of his weight.
And she didn't seem to mind if he had trouble figuring out how to reply. She chatted easily to him and invited him to come along on her walk with Derya so smoothly that Minion found himself nodding and turning on his disguise generator almost without even thinking about it.
She's worried about Megamind, she said, as they walked. And she sounded worried, which Minion just did not know what to do with. He can reassure Sir, and he can usually manage to be reassuring with Miss Ritchi, but anyone else—anyone else is a mystery.
But maybe she wasn't looking for reassurance? She kept talking, making her concerns known and asking simple questions. Occasionally patting Minion's arm when he responded. Occasionally pausing by stop signs to…check her phone? Send messages? Minion wasn't sure what that was about. Minion has only had a few humans speak with him this way, and while it makes sense—of course Rose would know Minion is fully sentient; of course Roxanne would have told her—it still throws him.
And when they got home, Salim and Roxanne were awake—hooray!—and Metro Man was hovering up in a corner near the ceiling. Not hooray. Not hooray at all.
But he offered up a wan sort of smile as Minion came in behind Rose, and he didn't say anything as Roxanne came to hug Minion and get him settled in his armchair again, and—most importantly—he didn't attack.
He said "good morning." In fact. Which was just the wildest thing.
And then Rose and Salim sat on the sofa next to each other, and Miss Ritchi sat in the other armchair but her body was turned to face Minion, and she said—
"Minion, I'm scared. Can I talk to you?"
And she was wearing a similar unhappy pleading face to the one Sir wears when he's in the middle of one of his downswings and hasn't slept in three days. So…
So now Minion is sitting in a strange room, with strange people and his arch-nemesis and Miss Ritchi. But Minion really only cares about one of those things, and if Miss Ritchi is this upset and nobody is attacking, then Minion can table his uncertain fears for now.
Besides, the door is just to his right, and Minion's path is totally unobstructed. That helps.
So he nods. "Yes," he says, "yes, you can talk to me. You can always talk to me, Miss Ritchi. What's wrong?"
"I am so, so worried about you," she says, staring at him and squeezing her hands together between her knees. "I don't even know how to explain how worried I am. But, um. Rose was texting me, a little bit, earlier? While she was talking to you? And…and it sounds like…you're prepared to lose Megamind, one of these days. Or he's prepared to lose you."
Minion nods slowly and tries to get his brain in gear, tries to work out where she's going with this. "Our plans do mostly focus on me staying out of the way," he says. "But, yes, we are both aware of…risks."
Roxanne swallows. "Okay. That's…look. I need to run something by you, just…hypothetically? Sort of. Not actually hypothetically. I just, I need you to bear with me, okay?"
Minion frowns, nods.
"If," Roxanne says, keeping her eyes on his face, "if we could find a way for you and Megamind to retire from villainy safely, do you think you could be on board with that?"
He stares at her.
That's…
Minion hasn't dared consider such a thing in years. Not since Sir lost his arm and Minion tried to get him to please give this up, please, we'll find something else, we can leave Metro City and move to the coast where no one knows us. Or pull a Butch and Sundance and go to Bolivia, lose ourselves in the Amazon river basin. Or Australia. Live in the Great Barrier Reef, work on restoring the corals there. Anywhere, anywhere but here.
Megamind wouldn't have it. Very vocally and adamantly would not have it. So Minion gave up.
But, okay. Here it is again.
He flares his fins, gathers himself. "I am not sure," he says, "what the context for this is, Miss Ritchi. But I'm afraid Sir is quite set on his current path. He doesn't…it doesn't help when I ask. He only gets upset."
Roxanne bites her lip.
"What is the context for this?" Minion asks. He knows he hasn't answered her question, but it was awfully heavy, a loaded question if Minion has ever heard one, and he desperately needs some kind of explanation before he can even begin to contemplate a real response.
Roxanne sends him a smile that wobbles at the corners and doesn't reach her eyes. "The context is I'm in love with him," she says, and Minion's brain goes clunk and screeches to a grinding, sputtering halt.
What.
What. She's—
—No, okay, come on, think! Think, Minion. Think. Sir came roaring back to Evil Lair a week ago with tears in his eyes and rage in his voice and blood in his mouth from where he bit through the inside of his lip, and he wouldn't stop on the battlesuit and he wouldn't slow down and he wouldn't tell Minion what was wrong. None of which are good signs. Minion has watched Megamind self-destruct before, and this was going to be a bad one; he could tell. He wasn't surprised when Megamind didn't come back to Evil Lair after Jawbreaker fell—just terribly, terribly worried, but willing to stick it out until the agreed-upon time to start searching after no contact post-battle—but he was surprised when he found Megamind's watch at Roxanne's family's house.
But. Minion has been assuming Sir had some kind of fight with Miss Ritchi, some kind of argument. Have they made up, then? Minion already sort of noticed something like a romantic attachment happening, right? And people with romantic feelings fight sometimes; he knows this. And then they make up, sometimes. And Roxanne came to go to bed with Megamind and Megamind was clinging this morning, so. This. Is not actually a surprise, he decides. Minion just wasn't expecting to hear it right now.
"I am in love with him," Roxanne says again, and Minion realizes that he has been staring at her with his mouth open. "But I want you to know—I love you, too. Um." She bites her lip, looks down at her hands, completely unaware that Minion's brain is now just one big question mark. "Kind of a lot. Actually. In, in a—friendly way? But I've had friends before, and this, with you…um. And." She swallows hard. "And so I am scared. Really scared. Because—and I know, I know most of your battles are arranged so you stay out of the line of fire, Minion," she adds, "but it's him or you. It's only a matter of time. And no matter who goes first, it is going to break my heart. So I'm…sort of selfishly terrified, here." She's blinking hard. "And there are other ways. There are other ways to be and it sounds like maybe you know that, and I think he might actually go for them, now? But you would have to want to retire, too. We both know he'll never do it without you. So."
She bites her lips together, and she looks like she's struggling but Minion is still just…sort of staring at her and trying to figure out if his ears are working. After a moment, Roxanne looks at her sister and does something with her eyebrows.
"Minion," Rose says quietly, and he jumps and looks around at her. "One of these days, one of you is going to get hurt beyond what either of you can repair. And you're going to die."
Minion blinks a couple of times. "—Well, yes," he says. "Obviously. That—that is generally what happens to villains, yes." Then he frowns. "But," he adds, "I do this because he's committed. And if…if it doesn't have to be that way, then…" He looks back at Roxanne, who's gone pale under her freckles. "If you're sure, if there is another way and you think he'll go for it and you think it's possible, then…well, the last time he expressed discontent with villainy was years ago. And he was, um, not in a good place? But, but I'll…talk to him. I'm game to try, Miss Ritchi. If you're sure."
"It really does not have to be that way," Salim says, after a minute during which Miss Ritchi sits motionless and stares at him.
Rose reaches over to Minion and pats his hand. Smiles encouragingly up at him when he snaps back around in his dome to look at her. "We'll help you both figure something out. Whatever we can do. Okay?"
"I've got a couple ideas," Metro Man says, very quietly, up in his corner near the ceiling.
Minion studies him in wary silence, his eyes narrow.
"I'm…glad you're on board, Wayne," Roxanne says, apparently having found her voice. "Thank you."
Minion looks back at her, frowning in disapproval.
"Miss Ritchi…"
"I do not want him to die, Minion," she says, very sharply. "Or you. And you don't have to. I took some time off work to do some digging and I'm pretty sure I've located a couple of former supervillains leading a happy retirement on an island in the Circum-Pacific Belt."
Minion recoils and stares at her. Well, that's a revelation and no mistake! Sir will be interested to know that, for sure, if she hasn't told him already.
"You can retire," she tells him. "You both can. The main challenge here is going to be figuring out how to do it without committing pseudocide."
"But I do also have some ideas on that, if you decide you want them," Metro Man puts in, and this time it's Roxanne's turn to glare at him. He spreads his hands. "Hey, you said 'options,' I'm giving options."
Minion studies Roxanne for a moment. "We're really doing this," he says, finally. "You're…going to help us retire."
Roxanne nods and takes a deep breath. "Last night drove it home, urgency-wise, but I was already sort of thinking about it," she admits. "He mentioned a couple old wounds, once, and I realized. He has been a supervillain for fourteen years. The average for a villain is eight. And the average for a supervillain is seven, and the only reason it's that high is because Megamind's record is skewing it higher. The median is five." She shrugs, helplessness in her expression. "We're…we're down to the wire, here, Minion. You're running out the clock. So, yes, I'm going to help you retire, because—because my only other option is watching you die."
And then her expression sort of—it pinches? like Sir's sometimes does? Minion isn't sure what—
"And I will," Roxanne says, shakily, but it isn't until she gives a wet-sounding sniff and scrubs the heel of her hand over her cheek that Minion realizes this face is a crying face, oh no. "I will do that, if I have to. But I—I really love you guys, and I just—" She cuts herself off with a sort of stuttered hiccup as her face finally crumples for real.
Oh. Oh, she means that, when she says she loves them.
Minion lurches out of his seat and over to her, where he picks her right up out of her chair and into a hug. And apparently this was the correct move, because she wraps both arms around his dome and squeezes.
"You don't have to, Miss Ritchi," Minion says, patting her and trying to get his head around all this—any of this—as she breathes unsteadily against his glass. "You don't have to, probably. We'll push him. But I'll…need to talk to him, of course, first. Um. Confirm, with him, some…things? But. We can do this. I think, probably, if we both try."
Roxanne nods. Minion pats her again, his head spinning.
"And I love you, too," he adds, because it seems like the thing to say. And it's true enough, in any case. Roxanne clings tighter.
So, yeah.
Minion's morning? Deeply weird.
Megamind wakes to an empty bed. Roxanne is gone; he knows as soon as he wakes up that her warmth is missing from the bed. But that's okay. He wasn't really expecting her to stay.
Slowly, he sits up.
Everything in his body hurts, a low, dull ache. Minion brought his spare prosthetic and helped him into it with his pajamas last night when he came in, so at least his hand isn't twitching and sending little jolts of Ouch up to the stump of his arm anymore, but yes, Rose's hit by a bus assessment feels pretty accurate. What all even happened, last night? He thinks back, tries to remember.
He remembers—he remembers the suit going down, catching his glove and ripping it away as it threw him; he remembers picking himself up off the street and stumbling away into an alley before the cops could catch up with him after he split his head open on the curb. He remembers realizing where he was, what part of town. He remembers thinking—
He wasn't thinking at all when he staggered the two blocks to Rose and Salim's house. He remembers—Rose opening the door, and he remembers Rose helping him—bathe, god—helping him dress, bandaging his head—and he remembers Salim giving him clothes—remembers Salim giving him warm honey water—and—he remembers Roxanne, Roxanne at his side, Roxanne calling him friend again, Roxanne's head pressed to his as he cried in her arms like a child, and Derya falling asleep on his shoulder after shocking him out of his dissociative episode by babbling something that sounded like a very heavily-accented approximation of comfort-affection at him.
Well. This is embarrassing.
The door swings open and he looks up to see Roxanne standing in the doorway, wearing her rumpled clothes from yesterday.
"Oh good, you're awake," she says. "Breakfast should be ready in a little while."
Megamind nods fractionally and scrubs his hand over the side of his blue face as Roxanne steps inside and pulls the door mostly closed behind her. "Do you think," he says, his voice still rough with sleep and lingering exhaustion, "if I go out the window, skip town, and change my name, everyone will forget last night?"
She blinks. "I'm not sure we would want to," she says, coming over to him and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Last night seems like the kind of thing we need to talk about."
Megamind groans and flops onto his back and yanks the blanket up over his face. "No," he says, muffled. "I live here, now."
Roxanne chuckles but doesn't say anything, and Megamind lies still for a moment and breathes.
How is he going to do this.
Well, she came and got into bed with him, and she tried to text him after their fight, and it really does sound like Megamind cannot possibly mess this up any worse than he already has—which may not be at all, shockingly—so. He sighs and pushes the blanket down to his chest and closes his eyes.
"Listen," he says. "Roxanne. Listen. I…I was upset, last night, and—people say things, sometimes, when they're upset."
(I was tired, he almost says, I didn't know what I was saying; I was overwhelmed and in pain; I didn't mean it)
"But—what you said," he says, fighting to hold himself steady, "about—growing old, watching Derya graduate—I do want it. Even if I can't imagine it." His voice cracks, starts to break again. "It sounds nice. It sounds nice and I want it." He sniffs, blinks hard, feels the corners of his mouth turn down. "I want it a lot," he admits, and pulls a shaky breath. Turns his face away, embarrassed all over again.
Roxanne crawls the rest of the way onto the bed and sits by his hips, facing him with one leg curled under her. "We're going to make it happen," she tells him. "Okay? I promise. We'll do better."
Megamind slowly pushes himself to sit back up into a slouch. "I don't see how," he says, as the blanket falls around his waist. And oh, oh good, Miss Ritchi gets to see his pajamas! Wonderful. Another embarrassment. Add it to the pile. Megamind is really batting a thousand, this morning.
"I know," Roxanne says. "That's okay. Just…hey, turn that thing off, would you? The projection." She smiles a little. "Turn it off, let me look at you."
He eyes her skeptically, but he does adjust his watch so the illusion flickers and dissipates. "I'm not sure how this is something you want to look at."
"It's your face," Roxanne says, clearly appalled at this. "Of course I want to look at it."
"The underlay is also my face," he points out. Roxanne gives him a Look.
"The underlay was your face," she says flatly. "You've lived since then. It's okay to wear your life."
"And show everyone how easily I can be hurt," he returns. "Oh, yes, good plan. That will turn out well for me."
Roxanne's expression softens. "Hiding doesn't seem to have worked out terribly well for you anyway, Megamind," she says, and he looks away. She reaches up to brush her knuckles over the side of his head above the metal plate and Megamind jerks back on reflex, and Roxanne jumps, starts to stammer an apology. Megamind waves at her, shaking his head.
"No, no, it's okay." He's laughing in spite of himself. "Sorry. It's fine. I'm just. Jumpy. And, and the underlay—well, it allows some tactile input to come through. Pressure. Temperature. But it's not perfect." He flushes. "So, touching is, ah. Feels new."
She studies him for a moment, and then she slowly places her hand on his cheek, the way she did after his eye got stuck, and Megamind—allows himself to lean into her palm, allows his eyes to slip closed.
"Mmm." He sighs. Then he sighs again and murmurs, as he did last night, "What are you doing."
"Holding you," Roxanne tells him, as she did before. And this is fine; Megamind is not about to look this gift horse in the mouth. Not yet. He isn't sure where all the touching is coming from but he is not about to complain. Especially not with the underlay off—he feels pulled to her hand like he's holding himself straight in a strong current, held steady by the rush of the water around him. There's power, there, that could hurt him, but Megamind knows his currents and he knows Roxanne and he knows he's safe.
Eventually, Megamind straightens and opens his eyes. Roxanne's cheeks are pink, but she doesn't meet his gaze as she drops her hand.
"I've been talking with Minion and Rose and Salim all morning," she says, before Megamind can say anything else or figure out how to ask any of the questions burning in his mind. She looks down, plucking at a fold in the blanket. "And Wayne. He keeps insisting he owes me for the years I spent bearding for him, and I'm calling in that favor. The current plan is to have him retire, too, at the same time as you. Same press conference. Pending your go-ahead, of course," she adds, glancing up. "And probably with some kind of initial transition period. Ease into it, a little."
Megamind swallows. "Together," he says, uncertain and momentarily distracted. "Oh, that…that could…maybe work?" There's no precedent for a solo pair of declared arches stepping down simultaneously in a metropolitan territory. Then again, there are no other solo arches in a metropolitan territory the size of Metro. And the Scott family's lawyers are ruthless; if Wayne really does support this and they can figure out how to make it pull through…
"He has some ideas," Roxanne says. "You should hear them from him, but he has a few that I really do think might work. And you wouldn't have to spend the rest of your life in jail or anything like that."
"I probably should," he admits. "I've done my best but…well. I do have blood on my hands. I can't pretend I don't."
"You have always done your due diligence to make sure people get out of your way," Roxanne says flatly. "No, it hasn't always worked perfectly, and yes, that's a tragedy, but you have tried. And you take care of the people directly affected by your messes and you take care of their families."
"'Yes, your honor, I killed him, but I didn't mean to!' 'Oh, well, if you didn't mean to then it's fine.'" Megamind rolls his eyes. "Please."
Roxanne flicks his knee. "So do better," she tells him. "You can't take it back, so do better. Use the brainbots to defend and help out around the city instead of attacking it, leverage that for a full pardon while everyone is freaking out about Metro Man stepping down. And I know you, you old villain," she adds, grinning suddenly. "I am sure you can make yourself difficult for the people running this town by legitimate means, too."
Megamind scoffs and wrinkles his nose at her, but he doesn't argue.
"And I'll help," Roxanne adds, smiling at him with soft eyes. "Of course I'll help."
He smiles back but can't bring himself to reply, and after a moment, Roxanne cocks her head.
"This is all very important," he says, taking a deep breath. "But. I'm. Having trouble focusing on it? I'm…I don't know how to ask you this."
She frowns. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, just…" He pauses, heart aching. As much as he doesn't want to ask, doesn't want to disrupt this beautiful place where Roxanne wants him to hold her and is comfortable sleeping in bed with him and wants to touch his face—wants to hold him, too, despite their history and all his scars and mistakes—well, Roxanne said it already, didn't she? Last night is something they need to talk about.
Slowly, he moves his hand so it rests just above her bent knee at his side. He keeps his eyes on her face the whole time, his expression wary as he curls his fingers over her leg.
Roxanne holds very still.
Megamind swallows. Breathes. She didn't pull away; Megamind has his hand on her leg and she isn't pulling away; he can do this.
"Last night," he says, "the future you described. The one where I…live." He bites his lip. "You were there, in that future. I don't know if that was just to help me visualize, but you were there. With me. You called us—" He dares, very gently, to push his fingertips against her skin. "You called us a couple, you said our family, and—and I asked if you could want that with me, and you said I do but let's talk in the morning. And." He takes another deep breath, holds it for a moment.
"Megamind—"
"And as I said," he continues, "we were both upset, and tired, and—but I, I told you already: I definitely want it, everything. I meant that. I meant every word, Roxanne. And—and you said you wanted it, too, but—"
"I meant it," Roxanne says, putting her hand over his, her gaze flicking back and forth between his eyes. "I meant it, too. I want all that, too, someday. For now," she picks up his hand and runs her fingers over his silicone skin as he slowly wraps his long fingers around hers, "I want to see you more often. More than just texting; I want—I want to go on some real dates, with you, if you want to. I want to see more of you.
"And I want you to know that I really do love you," she says, and Megamind feels his breath catch. He knows his eyebrows went up at 'dates' but he wasn't—expecting— "I meant that, too, when I said it. I realized weeks ago. At the lake, when you let me hug you. You put your arms around me and I could smell you and I just…you're so sweet, and funny, and—and certainly very striking, physically. Um." She blushes. Shakes her head. "Anyway. I love you."
Megamind is staring, he knows, but he can't—he can't—
"What?" he breathes. "I thought—but I thought you were just referencing the time you fell asleep in Evil Lair, I thought—"
"I mean, I was," Roxanne says. "But I did also mean it. And it's okay if you only responded in kind because you were upset, or you were finishing the reference," she says quickly. "I get that, Megamind, truly." She squeezes his hand again, offers him a nervous-looking smile. "If all you want is a friend, you've definitely got one. But, if you want more, then I am—so, so very into that."
So—wait, she's—this thing, this thing Megamind realized was sinking silver claws into his heart when he thought everything was ruined—Roxanne is with him, in this thing? This is not something that spun out of Megamind's empty life on its own, not something he has to try to break or burn out of himself, this is—this is something they built together? accidentally? it sounds like? And she means it, she does; he can see in her face that she means it and he knows, he knows she won't lie to him.
"Oh," he says, finally, feeling at once like he's going to sing and he's going to shatter. "Oh, you—but I'm—" He touches his arm, the side of his face.
She smiles a little, then leans forward and reaches up to brush her fingertips forward over the sides of his head and down so she can cup his face and stroke her thumbs over his cheeks. "I wish you weren't hurt," she tells him. "But for what it's worth, you do wear the scars well. You are ridiculously handsome, truly."
Megamind swallows as she leans in. Wait, does she want—is she serious—even without the underlay? "Roxanne, you don't have to—"
She pauses, their mouths an inch apart, and Megamind flinches his eyes closed and hears himself make a soft, pleading noise. "I just told you," she murmurs. "I want all of that with you. Everything. I love you, Megamind; please let me kiss you."
Megamind sways forward and kisses her. Presses his lips to hers for a second and then—he tries to withdraw but he can't, he just can't, so he kisses her again instead and feels her lips curve into a smile against his mouth. After a moment, Roxanne cups the edge of his jaw in one hand and the back of his head in her other and holds him that way, keeps him close, so Megamind stops trying to make himself lean back and just goes with it, allows himself to be led. Roxanne brushes her lips over his and presses their mouths together and kisses him again—and again—and again, and he can feel her taking care to avoid the wound on his lower lip, can feel how she doesn't shy away from the uneven dip of scar tissue under her mouth, and he can barely think of anything except yes and Roxanne and perfect perfect perfect love you yes yes yes.
He's just barely managing to dizzily wonder if she'll let him deepen this or maybe even let him push her down onto her back so he can wrap himself around her again, when she carefully, softly eases away to send him the most brilliant smile he's ever seen in his life. Megamind hasn't seen her look like that since she got the news about Derya and he never, he never expected to see her look like that again, let alone because of him.
"I love you, too," he gasps, because he has to, because he can't keep it in anymore. "I love—I love you, too, I—I'm so sorry, I didn't even know it until you left and I thought—I thought that was it and we were done and—you said, you said—and later I realized, oh, that's why." He swallows and gathers himself, twitches a smile at her as he lifts his hand to gently touch her hair with the tips of his splinted fingers. "And, and can I just say," he adds, with something a little like laughter and a little like tears in his voice, "watch me do both was a fantastic parting shot and I was very impressed?"
Roxanne laughs, her expression rueful. "Yeah," she says, scooting a bit closer to him so she can—Megamind isn't sure what, actually; side-by-side and facing each other is not optimal for cuddles or even hugging, but he's not going to complain about having her closer. "But you didn't see me crying afterwards, so." She touches his far shoulder, then slides her hand up to cup the side of his long neck, brush her thumb up the line of his jaw, and all of Megamind's skin tingles and goes hot.
He just shrugs, though, studying her face with one wide green eye and one wider white and silver one. "You didn't see me, either," he says. "So we're even."
"I'm sorry," Roxanne whispers, but Megamind shakes his head.
"No," he says, finally reaching for her as well, touching her shoulders, her hair, the curve of her cheek, "you were right. I was…less right?"
Roxanne chokes off a laugh and takes his chin in her hand, pets the soft line of his facial hair. "The word you want is wrong, Megamind."
He kisses her thumb. "If you want," he says. "Anyway. You were right. Villainy is fine, but I will die if I keep this up, and I don't actually want that. I haven't for a while," he adds, "but…I thought, for a long time, I still didn't care. If I lived or died." He sighs and leans forward and sideways to rest his forehead against Roxanne's, taking her hands in his and trying again to come up with some kind of picture in his head of the glimmering future she laid out for him, where they're old and together and happy. "But I do care. I'm tired of trying not to, I'm tired of trying to be okay. And I love you. So, if you're sure I can do something else…then I'll try to figure it out."
Roxanne smiles. "Thank you," she says, squeezing his hands. "For agreeing to try. I know it's a lot to ask."
He shrugs again and tries not to chafe at being thanked. "It's something new," he says. "I just…I don't know how to…not do this? What I've been doing?" He frowns, then glances up at her. "And I love you, by the way; I'm not sure if I've made that—clear—" He ducks forward and kisses her again, heart soaring when she makes a pleased sound and kisses him back.
Then she pulls away, and surprises him when she turns around and lies down on one elbow. "Here," she says, reaching up for him with her other hand. "Come here, lie down. Can you lie on your back? My knee is cramping up sitting like that and I'm sick of not hugging you."
Megamind follows where she guides him, down onto his back with his arm away from his side so Roxanne can settle next to him and pillow her head on his chest, hug her arm around his narrow body. And oh, this…this is lovely. Holding her last night was also wonderful, was absolutely amazing, but this feels less restrictive. Less like he's holding her captive and more like she's there by choice. She did ask, he knows; she asked him to hold her like that, he just…feels less uncertain about it, this way.
"So," Roxanne says. "We have to get breakfast, soon, but…here's what I'm thinking. You can't see much in your future. So, for now, we're not going to look at the future outside of concrete plans that exist. We can make any additional plans we want, but other than that…don't worry about the uncertainty. Just take time as it comes. Is that something you can do?"
He hesitates, wrapping his arm up around her waist and sifting the fingers of his other hand through her hair. The tactile sensors in his prosthetic are far from perfect, especially for soft textures, but he can at least feel the drag of her strands between his fingers. "Maybe?" he hazards. "Can I have an example?"
"We'll go back to the park this weekend," Roxanne says. "You can look forward to that. But don't think about tomorrow; for now, just get through today. Pick small, easy things to do. Play with the brainbots. Play with Derya."
"I don't know," Megamind says, doubt in his voice. "I don't…small things are good, but…it gets worse when I don't have something big to think about? In the background?"
"That's what we're going to talk to Wayne about, today," Roxanne says. "The big stuff. We'll get you a project, don't worry."
Megamind hums, uncertain.
"Okay," Roxanne says, in the tone of someone who's just had an idea, "I'll tell you what. You've got a niece, now, right? And you want to give her a good world to raise her kids in, if she has them? Solve global warming."
He lets out a startled laugh. "Global warming," he says, incredulous, "really?"
"Hey, it's the biggest thing I can think of, and you've got a personal stake in it, now." She is also sort of laughing, but Megamind knows her well enough to be able to tell when she's only half-joking. "And I know for a fact you want to give Derya the world, so do it. Stabilize the arctic for her. Figure out sustainable fishing and figure out how to get everyone on board with it. There's a ton of humans who'll help. They've got networks and resources already; they just need a systems guy to coordinate their efforts across multiple fronts and put pressure where it's needed."
Megamind turns this over in his head for a few seconds. It's not a bad idea. If he's going to live in this world, he might as well fix it up while he's here, right? It's his planet, anyway. He found it, sort of. So it's his. Finders, keepers.
"I suppose," he says. "Yes. I could…maybe do something with that. I'm good at pressure."
Roxanne laughs. "I'll say. I received a surprisingly comprehensive apology letter from Hal, last week." She's grinning, he can hear it, but the name still pricks at his good mood. "Handwritten. Is there anything you want to tell me?"
"That depends," he says, disgruntled. "What did it say?"
"Well, I have no idea if he actually meant any of it," she says. "Knowing Hal, I doubt it. He was quite specific, but he was also insistent that his grandmother was making him write to me under duress, despite his concerns about…keeping his fingernails? I think?" She laughs a little. "It was in messy cursive and kind of difficult to read, but I'm pretty sure it said fingernails. He seemed very worried."
"Goodness," says Megamind, deadpan. "I wonder why that could be."
Roxanne lifts herself up on her arm and frowns down at him, but her lips are twitching. "Megamind, did you threaten Hal with some unknown terrible fate and then inflict him on his poor grandmother?"
He wrinkles his nose. "Absolutely not," he says, affronted. "I threatened him with a very specific terrible fate and suggested, tactfully, that his grandmother might appreciate a visit."
Roxanne gives a bright laugh, and Megamind's heart flutters. "I shouldn't find that as sweet as I do," she says, gazing down at him with amusement and fondness in her eyes, "but I do. But leave him alone, okay? He's not worth it."
Megamind's eyes narrow. "It's important to follow through on threats," he says.
"Megamind."
He rolls his eyes. "Oh, all right. I will consider letting him have this one. Maybe."
She ducks her head and kisses him. "Thank you. That's all I want. And—oh." Megamind has just leaned up and tilted his head for another kiss, lips parted and eyes half-lidded, and Roxanne is only too happy to oblige. She lingers on this one, kissing him until he hums, and when she lifts her head and looks at him she finds that all the sharp lines of his years-older face have gone soft and relaxed.
He is somehow even more attractive now, which is something Roxanne had not realized could be possible. He aged incredibly well. And lying here with her, gazing up at her with gentle eyes and a wondering smile, lifting his hand to stroke her cheek and then carefully draw her back down for another kiss—opening his mouth under hers with a gasp when she teases his lips with her tongue—
Roxanne wins so hard. She knows she's got a rough road ahead, but Megamind is more than worth it. She wins so hard.
"Okay seriously," she finally says, breaking the kiss and sitting up with no small amount of regret, "we should go downstairs and have breakfast. Salim is making lamb sausage and it smells incredible and I am so hungry."
Megamind sits up, too, already missing the warmth of her. Really? Already? He's about to flip his life on its head; can't he just stay in bed and let it happen?
Apparently not. Apparently turning his life around requires him to get up and do things, ugh.
Roxanne climbs off the bed and holds out her hands to help him to his feet, but Megamind surprises himself and puts his hands on her waist, instead, and pulls her gently to stand between his knees. And then he leans forward and wraps his arms around her, hides his face against her stomach.
"Thank you," he says, muffled, "for not saying 'I told you so.'"
"Minion may not be so gracious," she warns, with a smile in her voice and her hands petting gently over the skin of his head.
Megamind withdraws, scowling again. "Minion never is," he grumbles.
Roxanne laughs and bends to kiss his crown, then goes over to the duffel Minion brought, which is sitting on the office's swivel chair. "Come on, love," she says. "Let's get you dressed and put some food in you."