Clutching at Minion's globe, Blue followed Warden, trusting the man would not lead him into a perilous situation. At least…willingly or purposely. But the chance it could wind up being so worried at Blue. So he held fast to Minion. Minion was always with him. Blue understood Warden had a job, one his fellow inmates held up to similar status as a policemen. So they said. Blue had only briefly meet actual policemen. Most times, not the greatest. Except for this one who insisted Blue call him Petey. Warden along with the other guards were not policemen, the bad guys. If situations did take a turn, they were the first to dash in to help and remove him from the situation, Warden especially.

They stopped at that room. The room of visitors. The room of especially dicey situations, from Blue or Warden's understandings. He, and Minion, recognized the obviously earlier returns of Warden for some of their visits. Even if the why somehow wasn't instantly apparent. Blue would take special note of that, running it back over in his head, his big blue head, working out why Warden came in at that time so that he could spot it in a future encounter.

"Go ahead," Warden prompted him.

Who was in there this time?

Hugging Minion close to his chest, Blue toed the cracked door farther open to see. And with wide green eyes, he took an uncertain step back, his gaze going up to Warden. Warden's mustache twitched above a smile. Amusement. Warm amusement. Warmth in Warden's face was common. Amusement came at odd times.

Blue peered back in through the opening, then to Warden, going back to the man.

Minion was moving with noted excitement in his globe. Clearly, Minion was more willing to show the feelings visibly. As usual. Blue was a bit more reserved. But he shared the same hope.

"There are others like me here?" Blue whispered up at Warden. Anticipation rolled up in Blue. He had never known, never thought there would be others. "Other littles? Other kids? Other s—"

The smile faded a bit. And Blue pulled back. Minion tight to him once more.

"Those are other kids, yes. But they don't live here like you do."

"Oh," Blue said simply. He didn't know what else to say about that fact. It was true of all visitors. This room. Why then, had he thought they were anything but visitors?

"I think you should go in there and meet them," Minion spoke up. His round little eyes were bright. It seemed Minion was still excited about this. "This could be good for you Sir."

Blue frowned, uncertain again, sucking his lower lip in.

"They're good kids," Warden said. "Good hearts, like you have. Go ahead."

And Warden's hand gently gave him a push forward. Blue leaned back.

It was uncommon. The touch. But not as uncommon as he impressed to certain kinds of visiting government officials who frowned upon it for multitudes of reasons. All their reasons caused Warden's face to go pinched and Blue didn't appreciate seeing that. Because Warden…was Warden.

There were also the kinds of visiting officials who touched and prodded him without care, which Blue hated.

Warden chuckled, soft and barely there. Then his hand shifted from Blue's back and onto a shoulder, giving a quick, yet somehow, inexplicably, a reassuring squeeze. The comforting touch left. Warden's next words were as quiet as his bit of laugh. "Go on in fellas."

Those wide green eyes looked up at Warden. "We're gunna to be hurt."

And with his shoulders going back, Blue walked into the room, Minion in his hands.

"Wait, what?" Minion finally appeared concerned.

"Don't be silly Minion. We're always treated badly and hurt in some way when Warden doesn't come in with us from the start," Blue told him. "But he'll come in later. I'm sure of it."

Not paying Minion's reaction to the obvious, Blue eyed the other littles in the room. The other kids. Two taller than him, one shorter, were doing something that involved running around and under the table, narrating their actions as something pertaining to boats and pie-rats.

All three of them reminded him of a fellow inmate whose cell was six to the left of Blue and Minion's cell. Fire Man. Dragon. Ju-Long. Red. The Asian. You long, I long. The man liked teaching him about the periodic table and chemicals and reactions and good soul music. These three before him, completely caught up in whatever they were doing, reminded Blue of Red. There was the same look. But not. General similarities hinted at.

"Always." Minion thought it over, then gave Blue a challenging look. "Always seems like a bit of an exaggeration."

"What a fantastic fish."

Screaming, Blue jumped, tripping over his own feet and yelped, fighting to keep hold of Minion in the fall, shoving his feet on the floor, pushing his rear away from the little who'd spoken close to him.

"Where did you come from?!"

"Hi there," Minion greeted loudly from Blue's grasp. Pleased, he swam forward and up in his globe. "Thank you. Fantastic you say?"

Blue scowled at Minion. "Hey. I say that."

"I know. But it is nice to hear it from someone else too."

"I came from over there."

The little, the kid who had taken Blue by surprise pointed to a corner chair that held a small stack of books. The three who had been playing until Blue unintentionally declared his previously unseen entrance, clustered around the one who'd spoken, fascination on their faces. Blue saw not just those three, but all four of them had the same look upon them, hints of similarities from Red's appearance. Except the one who had spoken to Blue. That one had longer hair. Not a few inches long, but inches past shoulders.

An odd one out in these group of littles? Kids.

"I didn't mean to scare you. You okay?"

"Talky fishy!"

The smallest of the kids made to come forward, hands reaching out, and Blue wrapped his arms around Minion's globe. Feet came to a stop. Eyes switched from Minion to Blue.

"No talky fishy?"

"Oh, fishy talky," spoke the tallest. "But you know better than to go and try grabbing things Delbert."

The smallest—Dellllbeeeert?—pouted and looked back to Blue.

"Please? I see talky fishy?"

Not sure about this, most who tried to grab just did it, no asking or waiting for Blue to answer. Even if Blue did, they didn't listen. No matter what Blue said or did. Then, usually, Warden stepped in. Often as they would start removing Minion from Blue's hold.

Blue looked back to the door. It remained closed. Warden wasn't coming in?

Green eyes looked back to the four kids. The smallest one especially. None of them were making a move to take Minion from him. They stood there. Waiting.

"No," Blue said.

Shoulders slumped before him. The smallest one made a face, pursing up and scowling and huffing. But Blue was noticing none of them stepping forward, ignoring him.

They listened.

Face brightening, Blue declared it again. Delighted. Relishing it. "No."

The not quite tallest one, of the three who had been involved in something when Blue came in, rolled their eyes. "We heard you the first time. Geez. You don't have to say it again." Then, that one's head ducked a bit down, curiosity filling up their expression. "How many blueberries did you have to eat to look like that?"

Blue gave that one a strange look.

"What?" Scowling and putting hands on hips, the not quite tallest glared at him. "That's what Uncle Lester says all about eating greens, that they'd turn him green. Everyone knows that's how you go green."

And the tallest one gave the scowling one a glaring look.

The attitude was not too terrible. Blue had repeated it after all. But still…this tallest one seemed to take his power position of being the tallest in enforcing good behavior. Even to Blue. Clearly not part of their formed group. An outsider. But the tallest didn't seem to have a problem with that, like Blue being an outsider didn't matter when it came to standards he held with their group. Including, accepting him?

That would be new. Blue had seen interactions like this. Between all the tallers, the adults. But him being little, a kid, and a variety of other things seemed to be reason to always treat Blue differently, not quite accepting him fully into a group.

"I'm Alfred," the tallest said. His brown eyed gaze was settled onto Blue. A hand came out and Blue hesitantly reached up, allowing the touch and handshake for this one. And then there was a tug, helping him up. "But I like Fred or Freddie better."

"Nice to meet you Mister Fred," Minion greeted cheerfully.

All four sets of eyes went wide at Minion. Blue pulled his hand back to grip a hold of Minion with both hands. Fred's mouth snapped shut, then asked, "Mister?"

"Well, you appear older than Sir."

"Sir? And I'm not an adult. Mister?"

"Ah. I was informed it was considered polite to refer to those older by Mister. That was not correct? It is only for adults?"

"You're the only one who's ever called me Mister in my whole eight years of life," Fred informed Minion.

"You are only three years older than Sir then," Minion said brightly. He turned in his globe, looking up at Blue. "Did you hear that Sir? Fred is only three years older than you are! That's the closest we've gotten to your age!"

"I heard Minion," Blue replied absently. His gaze had gone to the other kids. They had been in here together. Were the rest that young too?

"The youngest?" Fred's voice seemed surprised. "Oh, yeah, right. I guess it is going to be all adults here. But Charlotte is five too."

A finger pointed to the first one who'd spoken at him, the one with long hair. Charlotte smiled at Blue. "Hi! Again. Sorry about surprising you. So…that's Minion right? And your name is…Sir?"

Blue fidgeted, frowning. "My name? Nooo. That's just what Minion calls me."

"I'm not calling you sir," the not quite tallest declared mutinously. Then with Fred turning toward him, quickly added on, "Unless we're playing knights."

Fred sighed. "This one with all the attitude is Bailey. He's a year younger than me, seven. And it's just Bailey. He hates it when people try to shorten his name."

"Baileee," Blue drew the name out. Then eyed Bailey, confused and curious. "How do you play the night? It's just the time when all the lights go off."

Bailey rolled his eyes. "It's playing knights, not night, the opposite of day. Duh. Sword fights and fighting dragons and riding horses and saving the damsel in distress."

"Talky fishy in mote," asked Delbert excitedly. "Be a gator or shark or the, the um, the rana thing?"

Bailey's attention and attitude swung over to the smallest. "The what thing?"

"I think Bert means a piranha," Charlotte said. "You kind of do look like one. But with a much cuter face."

Minion spun in a tight little circle in his globe, happy.

"I wanna be the King," Delbert proclaimed. "Can I, can I? And talky fishy can protect the castle and he can protect the people. He can be my sir knight."

At the tiny hand and finger pointing at him with that, Blue blinked, startled. "I…I've never played…knights before."

"Oh! And Bailey can be the dragon," the smallest one went on brightly. Bailey glared at this. Perhaps the dragon was not a good one to play as when playing knights? Fred nodded though and Delbert gave a little hop. "And you can be other knight, fight the dragon together! Charlotte can be the princess to save from the dragon!"

Save from the dragon? So it was a play of good versus bad? Blue was even less sure about playing this now. Maybe the knight was less like a policeman and more like the guards or Warden?

Charlotte let out a long sigh. "I'd rather read my books than sit there until the knights save me."

Reminded of that, Blue looked back to the corner of the room where the small pile of books sat. "What are you reading?"

After all, the prison library was a place Blue enjoyed spending hours inside. Even if he was only allowed the newspaper and magazines and the ones referred to as educational type books. He personally loved the educational ones, particularly the science and mechanical ones. Blue had managed to get his hands on one he wasn't supposed to have at some point and failed to see the appeal.

"You can come see," Charlotte invited him.

"Awww." Blue turned back to look at the other three. The smallest was pouting again. "But I wanted to play knights with him and talky fishy. Can you read me the dog one again?"

"Sure."

"Yay!"

With that, little feet quickly dashed over to the corner to dig through the stack of books.

"That one again?" Blue turned at Bailey's complaint. It seemed as though that one was not a fan of any kind of repeat thing. "I'm tired of hearing it."

Delbert's jaw quivered, the chosen book lowering. "But…I can't read. I only know a few words. Not like you. The rest of you get to go to shool already. Lucky."

"School," said Fred. "And Bailey's not mad. He's just being Bailey."

At the look directed at him, Bailey shuffled his feet.

Fred looked back to Delbert. "Besides, you get to be lucky enough to go to school soon too. Preschool starts up next month. Remember?"

The smallest one perked up at that. "Oh yeah! Is a month soon? I can't wait to go to shool!"

"It's school," Bailey snapped out. Then appeared to instantly regret it. He winced. He sighed. "Sorry Delbert. I'm still mad I couldn't go play ball with Derek and Jason today."

"I fagive you."

"What is shool?"

Delbert spun to look at Blue, a big beaming smile on his face. "Shool is awesome! You gets to learn all sorts of things!"

Blue brightened in interest. "Learn things? Like different maths and chemical compounds and building things?"

Delbert gave him huge head nods.

"You like building things too?" Fred said suddenly, brown eyes bright in his own interest. "We should make something together."

"That sounds like a great place Sir," Minion pipped up brightly. "You like learning."

"How do you get to go to shool?"

Bailey's slowly growing red face finally burst, his mouth popping open from holding it in. "It's school! And every kid has to go by the time they're five! Which you are dumdum! You'd be the same grade as Charlotte."

Sighing, Fred reached over and swiped the top of Bailey's head.

"What? Every kid knows that!"

"So I get to go to this place?" Blue asked in excited interest.

This did not sound at all like the two times he went to a place other than here. Neither one went well. He had made sure to make it known, done things, to stay here. The prison was safe. Safer than those two other places he had been taken to. It was home.

But a place that was like the prison library Blue could spend hours in, focusing on the things he most enjoyed reading? Sign him up for this place!

"You should," Fred said.

A knock sounded on the door.

Blue turned. And stared at the closed door. No one knocked. Not unless they wanted to peeve someone off. Everyone here just entered. Blue stared and tried to work out who it could be, running various people who knocked and pounded to annoy. Except…most of them shouldn't be in this area.

"Who is it?"

Well, that was one way to go about figuring it out.

"It's your mother Alfred."

Mother?

"Come in," Fred called out.

The door opened. An adult. With hair to their shoulders. Not as long as Charlotte's hair, but longer than Blue was used to seeing. Fred's mother had a large chest. That also caught Blue's attention. This mother must work out a lot. Was that typical? The only thing he knew was mothers were supposed to take care of you. There was mixed responses to what kind of care that was around here, but that was about all Blue knew about mothers. That and he figured he had one. For about eight days. Not long enough to really know a lot about mothers. Other than they were referred to as 'she' and 'her' and other words related to being female.

Blue carefully studied her. In all his time living here, he had lived it surrounded by men. He knew it was only half the population in the world, but the same was not true for his home.

She seemed to have the same similar kind of appearance as Red.

"Mom!"

Delbert burst over in a sprint, latching tiny arms around the mother's legs.

Right. Mothers could also be called that too. Which meant… Fred's mother, Delbert's mother. They had the same mother. Brothers. Blue peered back at Bailey and Charlotte. Their mother too?

"I trust you were all behaving and getting along in here."

"Of course," Fred said. Blue watched Bailey as he shuffled his feet, wrinkling his nose as he glanced away from the mother. "Are we leaving soon then?"

Leaving? They were going to leave? Blue's head moved between all four of them, aghast at seeing Charlotte picking up the stack of books. But, they hadn't been here all that long. And…he wanted to ask them questions about the learning place for kids.

"It was only a quick visit today. But it's nice to hear you all were getting along. Won't that be nice Bailey?" The mother's gaze went to Bailey, who stiffened at the call out. "It looks as though you'll be able to play ball after all."

Cheeks pinking, Bailey looked to his feet and mumbled. "I guess."

Blue stiffened next, Minion's globe pulled tight to himself once again. The mother was looking right at him now. The smile seemed…nice enough. "Sorry it was such a short visit. But it's nice to officially meet you. And Minion. You go by Blue most the time, right?" Hesitant, he dipped his chin downward slightly, keeping his sight on the mother who apparently knew him despite Blue knowing he had never met this person before. The smile widened. "I'm Olivia Kimble and these four are my kids. You can call me Missus Kimble if you like, but I like Oh better myself."

Kimble?

"It's nice to meet you too, Missus Oh!" Minion chimed out brightly. "What kind of respect is the Missus for? I've not heard that one before. Only Mister before a last name for adults."

Why did that last name ring a bell?

"Perhaps for male adults."

"Female! Forgive me. Sir and I have been surrounded by men in all our time here, I didn't realize!"

She laughed a little, hand going up to wave Minion's worry off. "That's fine." Her eyes went up from Minion to Blue. "I think it'd be nice to see you again. Even if for a short time before you ditch the adult to play with my kids instead. I won't hold it against you."

"Play?" Fred muttered to himself. Then the tallest shot Blue a grin. "I'm more looking forward to taking apart a toaster with you."

Blue frowned. "A toaster?"

Delbert turned from where he still hugged their mother's legs, eyes wide and gasping. "No! Not the toaster!"

"And get between your tantrum if you don't get buttered toast in the morning?" Bailey shook his head. "You're bad enough when we run out of bread."

"I am not!"

The mother, Missus Oh, let out a sigh and bemused shake of her head. "How about a toaster you save up enough allowance money to buy and not the one we use at home?"

"Of course." Fred nodded, brown eyes sparking in excitement. "Can we stop at a thrift shop today then?"

"We've got time," she said.

The tallest boy grinned, then grinned over at Blue. Uncertain of what a toaster was, he nodded slowly, thinking that maybe it was similar to him taking apart a calculator and figuring out different things he could build out of it. At least it seemed as though Fred wanted to return. Blue could ask more questions relating to the place of education then.

"But we should get going. Got all your books Charlotte?"

"Yeah, but… I've already read them all. If we're coming back, can I just leave them for him to read? He wanted to know what I was reading."

"Sure, that should be fine. They're not due soon, are they?"

"Nope. Here."

Still holding Minion's globe, Blue wasn't sure on how to take the offered pile. He didn't think he could if he hadn't been holding Minion. Wide green eyes wider, Blue stared at Charlotte.

"Oh, right, you're holding onto your fantastic fish." Minion spun in a tight excited circle at the repeated phrase from Charlotte. Blue huffed. Like he never said that at all to Minion. "I'll just leave them on the chair for you then. See you next time!"

"Buh bye sir knight and talky fishy!" Delbert waved a hand, the one he didn't have tucked inside his mother's hand. Baffled and stunned, Blue lifted fingers off of Minion's globe in return and the smallest one beamed.

Bailey lingered, scuffing his shoes on the floor a bit. His nose wrinkled. "Later."

"I'll be sure to bring a toaster for us next time," Fred said. Promised. Blue stared back at the tallest. The excitement was palpable. "No one else has wanted to join me in taking things apart and putting them back together before."

"Oh dear, I'm sure we'll have to keep a good eye on the two of you. Let's get going."

With that, the mother and her four kids were gone, the door shut. Blue stared at it. The door stayed closed.

"Well, that turned out much better than predicted, didn't it Sir?" Minion asked. "I like them. Kids close to your age should be good for you. And Fred and you appear to share a common interest. That's good, right? Right Sir?"

Blue kept staring at the door. It had been a lot, but it had been a short time. And it wasn't like other times. That it went badly in some way. Even if he didn't realize until Warden came back inside the room obviously much earlier than visitors expected. Warden didn't come in this time. Blue was not all together sure of how to take that. Had this gone…well? He wasn't sure.

"And the school place they mentioned, that seems worth looking into. I know we have had bad experiences in the few times outside of these walls, but it does seem to be an exciting idea, does it not Sir? Perhaps a few questions to Warden won't be amiss in seeing if it is possible for you to attend and learn from more books and more people. In a place that's built solely for the purpose of learning and education!"

The door swung open. Warden. Blue blinked and his wide green eyes went wider for yet another time today. And in such short time. He quickly cast his eyes down to where he held Minion. Not really looking at Minion, but lost in speedy thoughts flitting about in his head.

Warden waved Blue to follow, picking up the stack of small books on the chair near the door.

Silently, Blue followed, Minion with him.

"Looked to go well in there fellas."

"I think it did," Minion chirped out brightly. "Sir? You're awfully quiet Sir."

Blue pulled his gaze upward and moved his feet a bit quicker, stepping slightly in front of Warden. It was hard to see from down here. The placement wasn't…

Green eyes meet blue above the always present mustache.

"Your last name is Kimble. Like her. She knew the most common one to call me, Blue. That was your wife. And kids. That's…"

Blue trailed off, knowing perfectly well what was said on the matter of Warden or the guards here getting too personally involved with the inmates. Especially him. A family. An outside family. Bringing his personal life into the prison and to set up such a visit… Even if Warden's face pinched in dislike about any of the government officials visiting who touched on that topic, Warden had never done anything quite so…so…

Blue stared up at Warden, any loud vocal reactions from Minion at this going largely ignored.

"Why?"

It came out pleading. Confused. Baffled. Concerned for Warden in doing this for him.

Warden's mouth pursed for a moment, then the man crouched down to look Blue, and Minion, in the eyes. "Because between myself, Dave and Ben in there."

Blue quickly glanced over to see Dave and Ben as the guards in the watch room set up for the visitor's room. Minion waved a fin to them. Dave only smiled, but Ben waved back. Blue looked back to Warden. The older man continued.

"We have been in agreement for a while you should be treated like you are, a kid, not an inmate. Even if this is your home. There may not be a lot we can do with some of the other more…rule abiding guards, but most little things can be brushed over. Like the flashcards, the crayons and paper, the star themed blanket rather than the regulation one, extra time in the recreational areas."

"Those are because of you?" Minion's eyes were wide, stunned and pleased and thankful.

"Most kids have playdates set up with other kids during growing up. Becoming social and learning from each other, how to get along and solve the smaller problems that arise between them, figuring out life before they become older and problems aren't so small anymore. Dave and his wife don't have any kids yet. Ben is very much single. He suggested a school group on a field trip, but that would have too many eyes and mouths that would and could speak about it. Not the best idea considering. I've talked about you a bit to my wife and she insisted on bringing our kids up to 'visit their dad at work'."

Blue watched Warden, taking all this in with wide green eyes.

"Between the three of us, we can have them come up to visit you again. Longer. Today was more of a short meeting to see how it would go. What do you say fellas? Up for it?"

"That sounds like a great idea! And how you and Dave and Ben all put the thought and care behind this, planning it, even though it's technically a bit frowned upon… Those little things have always meant so much to us! I never knew it was you behind it Warden!"

Minion splashed up toward the top of his globe.

"What do you say Sir? Oh, say yes, say yes!"

Swallowing, head turned down and away from looking either Minion or Warden straight in the eye, Blue stared at the floor. He could feel his jaw trembling a bit. But enough that he knew. Knew that he may start crying. Why? This was…nice. A good thing. Warden had always been Warden. This was just more so. And it wasn't painful, didn't hurt, clearly not bad. Why did he feel tears welling up and his throat getting tight?

"I…"

Blue swallowed again.

"Thank you," he whispered out.


AN:
No, I did not get distracted this weekend with writing a whole one shot, possibly something that could be more, in a fandom I've never written in before. Sighs. Yes, yes I did. And figured after whipping the whole thing out, I might as well post it up, do something with it.

Thought process to names.
As far as I know, there is no name for Megamind other than him declaring himself that name when him and Metro Man (Wayne Scott) start battling it out as superhero and supervillain. With him being so clearly an alien and found in such a place, unlike the place Metro found himself in while looking very human despite superhuman powers, I'm going along the idea that Megamind never had an official name given to him. There wasn't one mentioned from the planet he left from. (Perhaps they wait a few days before naming or something, who knows, but this baby could recall he'd been alive 8 days and things that happened, so I would think he'd remember a name if there was one. I went with, no name at the time.) Anyway, a clear alien, let's keep our distance and not get to personal? I'm guessing no one gave him an official name growing up. It'd be a variety of nicknames. Like fellow inmate 'Red' our tiny little blue alien mentions. So, I went with he's called many things and answers to all of them, but Blue tends to be a top thing to call out in getting his attention.
Minion was 'named' from the start. Even if Minion isn't really a typical name. To us Earthlings. But also, there has to be some sort of tie with the planets Megamind and Metro Man come from. Human like appearance and speaking human? (Thinking too much, I know, of course everyone speaks the same language in a family friendly animated movie, but still) But what looks to be Megamind's parents at the start, they handed him the aquatic guy and declared it, declared that name. So, Minion gets to still be Minion in his name, like the movie. Unlike Megamind.
And Warden. It's used like a name. And well, everyone there seems to call the guy that. So, yeah, Warden. I did a nod back to the voice actor for him with giving him the 'real' last name of Kimble.

Er, yeah. Anyway, I whipped this up over the course of the weekend. So, yep. Posting it up. Despite never writing in this fandom before. And now I've opened myself up to it. I feel like I asked for trouble in that. But hey, I wrote it, so I might as well do something with it, right?