Megamind found her surrounded by curious brainbots on the couch, with one clutched in her arms. Her eyes were fixed on some point past the swarm as she pet the dome of the bot on her lap, apparently ignoring the way the metal ridge was digging into her stomach. He stared for a long, confused moment before he attempted to engage her.
"If you give one of them attention," he explained slowly, "the rest of the host will expect the same. I can shoo them away if you want."
She glanced up at him, but didn't respond except to hug the brainbot tighter.
"What…" his eyes flicked over the scene again, combing for context clues, "What's wrong?"
He watched her bite her lip and compose herself for a short moment. "I…" she paused to swallow, "I recognized this one."
He felt a tingle of instinct, but not enough to go on yet. He came a hesitant step closer to see which bot it was, the swarm around them making room for him to pass. "It's… oh eight two three, nicknamed 'Keats'. That's his…" he blinked. "His second chassis."
"His second chassis, because I blew him up."
"Y-es," Megamind said delicately. "Er."
"I'm-" she hugged the bot tighter, her mouth in a tight line, and Keats made a confused whirring noise. "I'm so sorry."
He sighed, feeling his own expression tense in sympathy before he took the last few steps through the yielding swarm to sit next to her. After a moment he settled an arm around her shoulder.
"You didn't know."
"They have personalities. They have likes and dislikes and god, why do they all seem to like me? Don't they remember what I did?" She pressed herself closer to his side. "I whipped a stick of dynamite at them and- and oh my god," her eyes widened, "they must've thought I was playing fetch."
He winced. He had been hoping she wouldn't put that bit together. "You just thought they were my robotic henchmen. You didn't know, Roxanne."
"I can't believe you rebuilt one of them." Her voice had gone a little whispery, shivery. "That explosion- I can't believe there was anything left."
"I rebuilt all of them, actually," he said, sitting back so he could properly watch the way her expression changed. "Keats, Cypress, Muffin and Fred. All good as new."
Her mouth twisted without forming words for a moment or two. "You. You named one of them Fred?"
"Oh, come now! There are thousands of them, they can't all have poetic or relevant names!" He flailed for effect, watching and pleased when she hid her mouth behind a hand to obscure a small smile. "And honestly," he leaned closer to stage whisper, "You worry about Fred but you say nothing about Muffin? Minion's to blame for that incredibly un-Evil name. Disgraceful."
Her shoulders shook with muffled laughter. He reached down and untangled her arms from around Keats, lifting him to examine, humming lowly.
"No cracks in the dome, good response time, hover module functioning nominally," he smiled. "Not even scuffed. Who's a good booooot? Who is? Such a good bot!" He patted the dome and nuzzled against it, then let Keats hover off dizzily after all the attention. "No permanent harm done."
She sniffed, shuffling closer to him. "They're all okay."
"Yes."
"Why aren't they scared of me?"
"Well… they don't exactly feel pain. They remember an exciting game with running, and then fetch, and then they had shiny new chassis and daddy was lavishing attention on them. All good memories, basically."
She reached up and pet a few of the nearest bots. "That's… a relief. I'm still sorry about it, though."
"It's okay."
"Mm."
He smiled. "Would you like to go play fetch with them all anyway?"
"Yes please." She stood quickly, tugging at her clothes to un-rumple them and grabbing Megamind's hand. "Can you point out the other three to me too? Especially Muffin."
"Oh, of course."