Chapter 2

His heart is thrumming in his ears as the world becomes comprised of two people: him and her.

"Megamind," she breathes, her voice clouded with what he assumes is dawning realization.

And then, like a light, Roxanne–perfect Roxanne Ritchi, smiles so wide that her blue eyes crinkle. "Hey—" she drags the word, warmth pouring from her heart into the air as she reaches forward to wrap her arms around him.

This can't be happening, he thinks, but it is, her hum sounding joyous as her fingers slide across his shoulders. He stops breathing when she pulls into a tight embrace that places their hearts diagonal of the other's. Her arms squeeze the life out of him for a glorious one, two, three seconds.

It's only on the last count that Megamind remembers a proper hug requires two sets of arms so he gingerly raises his own to circle Roxanne. Tentative hands lightly touch the middle of her back as he leans a bit into her hold. If he didn't smell the spiciness of her perfume or the sweetness of the whiskey, he swears that he'd be dreaming.

But this is anything but a dream. It's real and it's happening to him.

Not to say that he's held a torch since high school for just one girl–woman?–but, he'd be lying if he said his heart isn't racing in his chest, blood singing in his veins.

One, two and she moves back, her hands slipping to grip his upper arms for a quick moment, before dropping them to hang. Megamind let his own fall to his sides and the two stand parallel of each other. Eyes at equal level meet, blue burning green with happiness, with friendliness.

In the background, the radio chirps a jingle, but to him–to the here and now–the world needs no sound. Not in this moment when he can taste nervousness and giddiness on this tongue, bubbling up from inside of him like a deep buried spring. Roxanne looks so content, cheeks red, nose red, lips redder as she grins, her smile soft and sweet. There's a fluttering under his skin while he lets seconds tick. Electricity, excitement, thrill pricking his flesh. His heart batters against his rib cage as he takes in icy air–cleansing just like mint.

This can't be real, he wants to think, but it is…

"Hi."

And–

And he wants to smack a hand to his insanely large forehead because really–that's all he can think to say? Millions of words, infinite numbers of combinations, and hi is literally what he goes with?! On the inside, he's groaning, eyes rolling and body melting into the ground, becoming one with the Earth because there's no way he can ever come back from that.

But on the outside, he's smiling too, relief noticeable in his face when she laughs and tucks a chin length piece of hair behind her ear.

"Thanks for the save," she says with a sheepish expression, eyes not looking at him, and lips tugged far apart in an awkward smile.

There's a tapping on his chest and he wonders if Roxanne can hear his heartbeat. Or see it almost popping out from where they stand so near. But he manages with minimal fumbling. "Um, of course." He can't look at her either for some reason, his skin dancing to his pulse. "You're welcome."

Roxanne rocks on her heels, her gaze towards the sky when Megamind finds it in himself to look at her again. Her hair has grown to her chin, still rich chocolate brown. Her freckle at her chin is there too, peeking and still cute.

Yet he doesn't turn quick enough when she lowers her gaze and he's caught staring. Her attention is fully on him, blue eyes sparking with curiosity and he's not sure how he feels with the directness.

But, of course, he can't help but be direct either.

"What brings you out here?" he blurts. It's almost like a yell, his mouth asking a little too big and his eyes a little too wide. His hand already when motioned in a circle, big like his mouth, wide like his eyes, before he finds it in him to speak slower, calmer, softer.

Soft like the air, calm the moment, and slow like the time he wishes will never go forward…

He clears his throat, his mouth moving with more purpose as he asks again. "Why are you out here?" And this time when he gestures to here when his arm moves gently, but his tone is serious. "It isn't the safest at this hour."

Her lips purse together and tension builds in her cheek as her mouth quirks. It looks like she's gearing up for a fight, fire igniting in her eyes, but just as quick, it's out and she heaves a sigh.

She cards a hand through her hair, musing her bangs in the process. "Yeah, I know. I just–it's pretty empty out here? And…that's nice." The punch on the word nice is crisp.

There's a pause as she goes and shuts off the radio, crouching down low and clicking the button. "I like the quiet…I guess?"

"Well, apparently not if you play really loud music," Megamind replies, humor laced in the statement as he shoves his hands in his pocket and walks over to her.

The world is hazy with the orange glow from the street lights, blurring the lines between dreamy and unreal. Their shadows are flat under them, making the world zoom only on their existences.

Her knees crack as she stands. "Ugh, I know!" she groans, her head tossed back and her hair catching the light. When she tips it back, her face twists. "What are you doing out here?"

Megamind feels like he's the one making the awkward smile this time, his lips pulled too far apart as he nods his head to the side. "I, uh, live in one of the buildings."

He tries not to laugh when he can visibly see her take out her mental notebook and jot down what he's saying. If he wasn't paying attention, he swears he could hear that cover flip open, pages rustling together as a pen would scratch the paper.

When has he never paid attention to Roxanne Ritchi?

For her benefit though, he adds, "I like to be close by my workshop."

Roxanne nods, her brows bunching together as she turns slowly around, almost as if she's trying to pinpoint exactly where lives. She peers over his shoulder, sweeping the layout, before she settles her sights back on him. Megamind wants to squirm.

"Do you own a warehouse or something?"

"Or something," he smirks while looking away, pretending that something is more interesting over her shoulder instead.

In the distance, a car honks loudly. Water laps the concrete ledges of the river, soothing and calm. The air is humid and cold, perfect for freezing a moment forever in his mind. A memory of something worth keeping, worthy tucking on the days that seem bleak.

That one time someone greeted me like an old friend.

But every moment has an end and what goes up, must come down too.

When he gives her his full attention, there's only a small smile left on his lips. "Should I call you a cab?"

They aren't the words he wants to say, but he says them anyway.

Because they have been walking a moment caught between dreamy and unreal and unlikely and once in a million. And Megamind has long used him his once in a lifetime chances by the very fact that he's alive and breathing.

Getting another one just doesn't seem like a possibility.

(His life will constantly be fraught with things he doesn't think he deserves because he's alive and that's something more than not living. And so he does the math and tells himself lies, because if you say it enough times it must, be true, right?

So, I don't care or I don't need anyone often spills from his lips in the years to come, lying and lying and saying what he never wants to truly say because words have meanings and while he doesn't believe in magic, he can't ignore fact.

Roxanne could never love me is the largest lie though that he tells himself in the mirror. What he truly means to say is that Roxanne will never love meagain, but if he just asked, despite everything, she never stopped loving him in the first place. If only he'd ask. If only he'd talk to her. If only).

At his words, slipping forward and reaching her ears, Megamind sees how the drunken haze of freedom and inhibitions fade away. In one breath, her world shifts back and he knows that the lines are stark black, not blue.

Dainty hands go to her mouth almost to warm them, but she stifles a yawn. "A cab?"

The last few minutes repeat on loop in the back of his mind. Her fingers grazing his shoulders, his back. The brush of her hair against his cheek. The way she held him as if he was something worth holding. The familiarity, the equalness, the everything.

Reaching into his jacket, Megamind nods though and pulls out a brick of a cell phone. He wags it from side to side, grateful to Minion once again. "Yeah, it's getting pretty late and you should get home."

He ignores the way she chews her bottom lip as his fingers fiddle with the buttons looking for the address book. To him, the world is still dreamy, still unreal, still perfect, but he knows that there is only so long that someone can stand the company of someone not exactly human.

(He doesn't know though that in this moment, the world is still dreamy, still perfect for Roxanne too. That tonight started with the ambition for adventure and finding one's fate, and here before her, her world is getting lined in blue. After all, chance might as well be her middle name).

He clicks the button for the local taxi company, the rings heard as he starts to bring it up to ear, when there's a tug on his sleeve, her thumb and forefinger ghosting his inner wrist.

Megamind relies on involuntary brain activity to remember how to breathe.

A man's voice echoes from the phone's speaker, but time has slowed again, stretched out, as a symphony spills from Roxanne's lips.

"Do you think you can walk me home?" she starts, eyes cast low before glancing up and scorching him with one look. "It's not too far, if that's okay."

His thumb reflexively hangs up the call, and Megamind finds words to work again in this throat after a swallow or two. "Um, it's completely fine. If that's what you want." He asks this more slowly. "That's what you want, right? For me–for me walk you home–that is."

Roxanne lets out a breath and grins so big her cheeks look particularly full. "Yeah," she finishes with a laugh and grabs the handle of the radio before heading off towards the local university.

Megamind stands there for a moment, unable to move because this is really happening. He's walking a girl home and there wasn't even a date? Just. has stopped working. Error! Error!

But then she pauses, one foot barely in front of the other until she brings them together. Looking over her shoulder as if this is always how it's been, she smiles for a second before furrowing her brows. "Aren't you coming or…?"

Or do you not want to, she doesn't say and he can just tell because she's kind of frowning and she must be thinking he's changing his mind because well–he's Megamind.

He blinks and she's still there and a gentle breeze pushes him forward, one leg moving after the other until he jogs up right beside her. "Sorry–I was just thinking."

They start moving in tandem, steps lined with the other while she glances over at him, blue eyes twinkling. "Do you ever stop thinking?" Her brows move, almost teasing when she motions his head.

He scoffs and rolls his eyes, enjoying the way that the path in front of them is bright. "Of course," he tells her. "Like when I'm sleeping–or–or…," he starts to spurt. "Or when things catch me off guard."

Their footfalls clink against the sidewalk as she hums. "Like what?"

Looking up at the stars, the far and few between because of all the light pollution, he remembers how bright they were up close. "When I see beautiful things," he admits honestly with a low voice. "Or new things–like you, I suspect," he ventures trying to joke, but it comes out softer, like the air, like the atmosphere.

"I never said you weren't."

And the way she says it, her voice is threaded between humor and seriousness and it makes Megamind wants to zip up his mouth, his face, his skin because what if what he said was…wrong? He sucks in a breath and holds it because if he lets it out, he's just going to say more bad things.

Keep your eyes on the road and just don't say anything and get her home.

Roxanne feels the silence quickly though, her words rushed so fast. "I don't think you're that different than me."

It isn't until he realizes that he has to turn around that he notices that Roxanne stopped walking beside him. When he faces her, the few steps between them feel like miles, and all he sees is her frantic expression, fingers grasping the hem of her red coat.

"You and me," she states, her eyes locked on him. "We're just people."

And he feels like he's being burned again, her stare like fire and her words absolute.

We're just people and the word people rings in his mind because being apeople means being a person and–and, Roxanne thinks he's a person.

So, his mind goes blank because that's what happens when new things catch him off guard because right here, right now, someone thinks he's a person and it's so innocent and she probably doesn't know how much weight her words have and–it's beautiful.

"I mean, I only freaked out a little earlier because I thought you had hypothermia!" she exclaims, her hands going up in the air (because he doesn't know that he just keeps staring at her like she has two heads).

And all thoughts are thrown out the window as he goes over the symptoms of hypothermia in his mind because he guesses seeing someone blue out of the blue can cause that connection. His laughter breaks out of him, pouring out like rushing water as he bends over and tries to gasp for air. Because, this tonight, right now, is totally ridiculous.

"Hypo–" he tries to say, but he just laughs more and his sides are starting to ache.

Roxanne huffs and crosses her arms. "I thought you literally froze to death…"

He takes one more big gasp of air and rubs his eyes to make sure there are no tears. "Because I'm blue?"

"…yes…"

And he loses it all again, doubled over, knee slapping laughter punching him right in the face.

It's wonderful and perfect and totally understandable when Roxanne pouts and stalks off towards the university again.

To that, he composes himself and chases after her. "Wait, wait. I'm sorry," he tries to keep the joy out of his voice.

Though they are walking in time again, she doesn't look at him when she mutters. "You better," but he can see the little grin she's buried into her scarf.

Idle chit-chat about silly things has never felt so nice.

("What's the 999th number of Pi?")

(He smirks. "9.")

A sign for the dormitories comes into view and a part of him is hoping that she lives somewhere else, but then she slows her pace until she halts. That awkward smile is back as she turns to face him.

"Well," she drawls. "This is my stop…"

Megamind nods, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Well, then," he trails because he doesn't know what to say.

Moments tick between them again, spun up in laughter and joy and new things and he prays Roxanne knows what to do next.

She opens her mouth, about to say something, her cheeks pink as she catches his gaze. "I–"

But bad luck is as essential as breathing for Megamind and her words are drowned out when a voice booms. "Roxie, babe!"

Both Megamind and Roxanne jump as they look towards the sky.

What goes up, must come down and Metro Dude is descending, a hand on his chest as he lets out a relieved sigh. "Oh thank god you're okay. I was so worried about you, darlin'."

Roxanne rubs the back of neck, a blush crawling up her flesh, embarrassment apparent. "Uh, sorry?"

Metro Dude smiles and it's perfect as usual and Megamind's stomach twists. "It's okay. You just usually call when you get home."

Of course. Of course, of course, of course! He's not stupid, he can put two and two together.

By now, Roxanne is standing straighter, more sure and she smiles. "I'm fine. Megamind walked me home."

To that, icy blue eyes look over at him and Megamind is already preparing a scathing remark on his tongue don't worry, I didn't lay a hand on your girlfriend when he says. "Thanks for taking care of my best buddy, Blue."

Ignoring the fact that the bane of his existence just called him a primary color as his only name, all Megamind can fumble is asking, "…buddy?"

Green eyes look between them and Roxanne laughs when she sees him trying to add them together in an equation. "Oh, yeah. Wayne's just my friend."

Just. My. Friend.

"Um."

"Roxie, don't you have to get up early?"

And Roxanne gasps, looking between both aliens and just runs her hands in her hair. "Oh my god, I totally forgot. Fuck."

(Megamind also ignores how hearing her swear is a lot hotter than he anticipated.)

She twirls to Wayne, "Can you get me to my room real quick?"

He nods.

Then she spins to Megamind. "I'm totally sorry about everything tonight," and before Megamind can actually say anything in return. "Um, my email is roxanneritchi at hotmail dot com if you want to keep in touch, okay?"

"Uh, yeah?" he asks like a question because right now not a lot is making sense.

"Okay, good. Um, goodnight and thank you and…yeah."

How did everything get so awkward?

"Goodnight," he bids and waves and she nods and waves.

And before he knows, it–they're gone, leaving him alone with his thoughts that are only looping, and for once, logic is failing.

It feels almost right.

Keep in touch, okay?

"…fuck…"

Maybe he means confusing.

Because that actually makes sense.

(And soon it will make sense that they'll be here with him as friends, as loved ones. But that's only for a little while because just like he's standing right now, it'll be him against them.)


A/N: I hope you enjoyed the fluff bomb!

Also, i'm so sorry the email bit came out weird. lol. hates me