Ok, here it is… the end of this story, and a little bit of Valentines Day romance to make everyone who loves this couple squeal with delight! Thanks for being patient and coming back to read this chapter, you guys are awesome!
As the late afternoon sun shone down on the couple, they finished the last of the delicious lunch that Minion had packed for them. Luckily, Roxanne had the forethought to grab a couple of extra forks and spoons at the coffee shop when she stopped for her morning latte, just in case her incredibly handsome boyfriend happened to forget to pack them.
She also wisely grabbed two plastic cups. As it turned out, Megamind, in his nervous distraction, had neglected to bring those as well. Trying to sip champagne straight from the bottle would have detracted from the romantic ambiance that he was trying to achieve.
With full stomachs, they contentedly lay back on the blanket to listen to all of Megamind's favorite music as it floated out over them from the radio station that was tuned in on the boom box. They were listening to their favorite DJ, Russell Campbell, who had the most popular radio show in town on the classic rock station, and whom the former villain had made particularly good friends with over the past year and a half.
They had met at a concert in the park the previous summer when Megamind had made an appearance to stir up the crowd with his charismatic showmanship and presentation, and the two had hit it off instantly. They had so many things in common it was almost ridiculous, but in particular they shared a common taste in music. Whenever possible, the couple spared the time to listen to his show.
Roxanne snickered quietly to herself as she lay there propped on her side, looking at this adorably funny man that she had fallen head over heels for. Most people brought their streamlined, high tech ipods when they wanted to listen to music. It was so cute that her Megs, who could easily whip up a device that would blow away all the new and coveted achievements in technology known to man, stuck with his good old, tried and true boom box.
He was so classic, which was one of the things she adored about him. From the boom box, to the music he listened to, to the tricked out Hudson that he drove; even down to the spikes and leather he wore on his hero suit that harkened back to the glory days of heavy metal, he absolutely screamed old school.
Even what he was wearing right now was a sexy throw back from the 80's; black Levi's with black leather biker boots that Minion had custom made to work comfortably with his jeans, and a gloriously tight t-shirt with ACDC, Back In Black emblazoned on the front that showed off his lean, muscular physique. And of course, never being without leather, it was necessary to have a black leather jacket, embellished in all the right places with little silver buckles and studs.
Even in his off day clothes, he looked like he belonged on stage with one of the legendary rock bands of her youth. Though he was now the hero and protector of the city she loved, and the sweetest, most gentle man she'd ever known, he would always be a bit of a bad boy at heart, and she loved that about him.
He turned to see her watching him and smiled. "What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking you're looking incredibly good in your jeans today. You know I love it when you wear those."
"Of course I do, why do you think I wore them?" he answered her in his low, silky voice with a waggle of his eyebrows, producing a giggle from Roxanne.
She laid back on the blanket and stretched, soaking up the warmth of the sunshine. This had turned out to be an unseasonably warm February so far, and the tree under which they lay was already bedecked in it's lovely spring masses of pink blossoms that showered down over them at the slightest puff of wind. The day couldn't have possibly been more perfect for this special picnic.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so full. I shouldn't have eaten so much. I think I can already feel those lemon bars trying to attach themselves to my hips!"
He propped his head on his hand and looked at her clear blue eyes. "Roxanne, you don't need to worry about that in the slightest, you know I think you're perfect. Besides, even if that's true, all it's going to do is make it that much more fun for me." With that last comment, he cast her a leering smirk.
She laughed again and rolled closer to him, reaching out to take his hand in hers and gazing into his amazing eyes. "Listen to you! Hmmm, I just can't guess what you've got on your mind this afternoon."
"Oh yes, you know better than anyone else, sweetheart. I'm sure you have me all figured out." he said, suddenly becoming slightly distracted as he glanced at his watch. She had noticed that he seemed a bit nervous that afternoon, and that watch of his seemed to be catching quite a bit of his attention.
"Megamind, what's got you so tense? Do you have to be somewhere? You keep on looking at your watch like you're late for something."
"No, no." he answered lightly with a wave of his hand. "It's just a habit I seem to have developed lately, trying to keep track of how much time it takes me to get from one call to another. You know, I want to make sure I'm improving my time to each rescue; you understand."
Habit? I've never seen him doing this before.
Megamind could see her wheels spinning as she tried to figure out the reason behind his distraction. Oh, she's entirely too smart, she'll figure this out if I don't do something. He quickly took advantage of her momentary quiet reflection to change the subject.
"So, that day, when we came here for the first time and I was disguised as Ber-naaard," he drew out the name in mimicry of the odd man whose identity he had stolen for several weeks, producing another giggle from Roxanne. "Well, not just that day, but all the times we went out when I was in disguise, did you ever suspect? You're so intelligent, I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner."
Roxanne looked away for a moment and furrowed her brows a bit as her train of thought switched to the memory of those days, long ago. She sat quietly for another moment, then looked at him with a smile and answered, "Well, I think deep down I did kind of suspect, but I was so preoccupied with everything that had happened… I just didn't entirely put two and two together."
"I knew it! You had to have at least had an inkling of what was happening."
"Yeah, I did. But I was falling for you so fast, I was too busy thinking about how much I wanted to be with you, and when I was going to see you again, that I didn't want to think any deeper than that. I just kind of pushed everything else out of my mind. I had always cared for you deep down you know, so that just made it that much easier for me to fall in love with you.
But the one thing that was always nagging at me were your eyes. No one has eyes like yours; it was just too much of a coincidence. And you know, it was those eyes that was the first thing I noticed that was so attractive about Bernard. Well, you disguised as Bernard."
All through their conversation, the boom box had been pumping out all the standard favorites; Guns and Roses, Def Leppard, Ozzy, Aerosmith, and of course, ACDC. With the transition to each new song, Roxanne noticed that her beau seemed to be becoming increasingly tense, gazing off into space and taking deep breaths, stretching and flexing his fingers a bit, as one would do in the middle of a rush of adrenaline or attack of nerves.
At the moment, their DJ friend had put on Metallica's Enter Sandman, which was one of Megamind's favorites, and always elicited an excited response from him whenever it came on. But this time, he barely even seemed to notice. He sat blankly, all conversation ceased for a moment while he breathed deeply, and then he once again glanced at his watch.
The question marks in Roxanne's mind continued to grow as she observed his odd behavior, and she frowned a little as she worriedly thought to herself What the heck is going on here?
"Oh no! Look what you did, you great big, empty headed idiot! They're ruined! Oh my gosh, he's going to kill me." Minion said in a panic.
With that, the poor fish bent down and began attempting to piece together the chunks of the broken goggles, becoming more and more dismayed as he began to realize it was no use.
"Hey now, just calm down. He's not going to kill you, he'll be… "
"No, you're right, he'll just dehydrate me, and stick me on a shelf in the back of the lair and forget about me for the next year or so, that's all. Oh no… I can't believe this!"
Minion stood up quickly and glared at Wayne, clutching the pieces of the broken prototype in his robotic hands. "This is all your fault, I can't believe I let you talk me into this."
"Wait… what? My fault? You're the one who said you wanted to see it so badly, I just came up with an idea that would make it so we could both see."
"Well, I would have never even thought of doing something like this if you hadn't come up with this plan. You're a… a bad influence on me! How ironic that the former hero with the impeccable morals turns out to be nothing but a schemer, coming up with plans that even Sir would be impressed with in the old days."
"What are you talking about? You wanted to do this as much as I did! And you're the one who wanted to bring those dumb goggles; if you would have left them back at the lair, I wouldn't have seen them and started laughing like that, and they wouldn't be broken right now. You know what? I think this whole thing is your fault; pretty amazing to think that a fish with a brain the size of a walnut could come up with such a sneaky scheme."
At that remark, Minion's eyes grew wide. He'd never been so insulted. With quivering chin he gasped and said, "I'll have you know that despite it's size, my brain is highly advanced, and I happen to be more intelligent than many of the humans we interact with every day. I'm also without a doubt more intelligent than a certain hair brained, muscle headed, retired hero that happens to come from the same galaxy we do!"
Wayne was at his wit's end with his little friend. Hoping to use a tiny bit of intimidation to encourage him to simmer down a bit, he drew himself up and stared at the fish with a slightly menacing scowl. "What was that, fish sticks?"
To his surprise, Minion didn't back down. He drew himself up as well, and squared off with the man of super strength who happened to be as big as a brick wall, and glared at him. Wayne was just beginning to think that the shock of breaking the goggles had caused his little buddy to lose it, when suddenly Minion's expression changed.
The look of someone who was ready for a fight shifted to that of a distant, important memory rushing back with a shock. The light suddenly went on in Minion's eyes, and he looked down at his watch.
"Oh no! Wayne, it's almost time! And I can't even see or hear anything without these." he said, holding up the goggles again. "What am I supposed to do? I'm going to miss it."
Wayne looked down for a moment, thinking. When he looked back at Minion, he had a gleam in his eye that the fish wasn't entirely sure he liked the look of.
"Hold on." he said, and an instant later, the man of muscle had grabbed his friend's robotic suit, and dashed with the fish the full hundred feet across the open lawn of the park to another small clump of trees, which was situated right behind the tree under which the couple was picnicking.
To prevent anyone from seeing them, the whole process had taken no more than a second or two because Wayne had used his super speed. The trip had left Minion incredibly dizzy, and when they came to a stop, the poor fish spun and bobbed dazedly in his bowl.
Wayne leaned closer when Minion regained his balance and whispered in a low voice, "Now listen, this isn't ideal because we're close enough that they're going to hear us if we make any noise at all, so keep… quiet."
Minion wasn't sure what to think about their new position; on one hand, they could easily be discovered at the slightest sound. But on the other hand, they were well hidden behind the branches, and yet they were right up close, allowing the two sneaks to see and hear the couple quite easily from their position under the trees.
Minion decided it was all around a great place to be at this point in time, and he even decided to almost forgive his muscle bound friend for the slip up with the goggles… Oh, Megamind's going to kill me when he finds out.
"Pssst… hey, look. He's not looking too good right now, is he?" Wayne whispered with a snicker as he peered through the bushes at his little blue buddy.
Minion was suddenly roused from his thoughts by Wayne's words of concern, and leaned forward to peek at Megamind, who indeed didn't look very good at the moment. His blue complexion seemed a bit pale, although his cheeks were incredibly flushed. He appeared to be so nervous, he might leap into the branches of the tree above him at the slightest unexpected sound.
"No, you're right. He looks terrible!" Minion whispered back. The two conspirators looked at each other for a moment, and then burst into a case of the silent giggles before Minion had the presence of mind to control himself, and to shush his friend to prevent them from getting caught.
As Enter Sandman played on, Megamind's stomach was doing nervous flips, and his heart pounded furiously in his chest. He thought for sure that if Roxanne looked at him closely enough, she'd be able to see his chest move with the rhythm of his out of control heart beat.
His reclining position was becoming uncomfortable for him with his increasing level of anxiety, so he sat up quickly and took another deep breath to try and calm himself. He looked at his watch again. Three more minutes…
He was beginning to sweat, and his throat felt as parched as a desert. He reached out and grasped a water bottle, guzzling a long drink, and then slammed it down on the blanket with a pant. Oh god… I can't believe I'm really doing this.
Roxanne had been observing his sudden anxiety attack with great concern. This was not like him. Although incredibly exuberant, and given to frequent manic outbursts when he was really excited about something, he was nevertheless capable of facing extremely stressful situations in a calm and collected manner; one of the reasons he was such a fantastically successful hero. But this… she had never seen anything like this before.
She reached out and put her hand gently on his elbow, leaning close with a worried look in her lovely eyes. "Sweetheart, are you ok? What's wrong?"
He looked at her and took a deep breath. "Nothing! I'm fine, I'm just so excited to be spending this glorious Vollenteen's Day with you." he said with a nervous smile, his voice containing a panicky lilt.
She was becoming frustrated that he was so obviously hiding something from her, and she wanted to know what was going on right now.
She looked at him crossly and snapped, "Megamind, you'd better tell me what's going… "
At that moment, Enter Sandman played out it's last noisy strains, and was replaced by the sound of Russell Campbell's voice as he enthusiastically introduced the next song. Megamind's eyes snapped to the boom box, then back up to hers excitedly.
"Oh, listen Roxanne. I wonder what he's going to play next?"
"… and in the spirit of Valentine's day, this song is going out to everyone in Metro City who has someone special to celebrate with tonight, and in particular to a blue buddy of mine, and his 'someone special'. Go get 'er, Megs!"
As Roxanne listened to Russell's intro, her eyes grew wide with surprise, and she looked up to see her beau gazing at her. The panic from a moment before seemed to have disappeared, and in it's place was a calm and adoring expression in his bright green eyes.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place in her mind. Yes, it was plainly obvious now that this was the reason for his nervousness all afternoon; he had this whole thing planned out all along.
The music that began to play wasn't his typical style, much gentler than she was used to hearing him listen to. Not that he wasn't able to enjoy this type of music, she had just become so used to him always listening to his loud rock albums, she was slightly surprised at the fact that he had willingly picked out such a mellow song.
The music sounded incredibly familiar, though she couldn't quite place it yet. She listened excitedly as the lyrics began to play, and it slowly dawned on her exactly which song she was hearing. Oh, she hadn't heard this one in years…
"You know our love was meant to be. The kind of love to last forever. And I need you here with me, From tonight until the end of time. You should know, everywhere I go, You're always on my mind, In my heart, In my soul, baby. You're the meaning in my life, You're the inspiration. You bring feeling to my life, You're the inspiration. Wanna have you near me, I wanna have you hear me sayin', No one needs you more than I need you"
She brought her hand to her mouth and stared at him, utterly speechless at this unbelievably romantic surprise he had set up for her.
"I can't imagine a more perfect song to describe how I feel about you." he said adoringly as he took her hands in his and held them gently. Immediately the next set of verses began, and he became quiet again, but never took his eyes away from hers for a moment.
"And I know, yes I know that it's plain to see, We're so in love when we're together. And I know that I need you here with me, From tonight until the end of time. You should know, everywhere I go, You're always on my mind, In my heart, In my soul, baby. You're the meaning in my life, You're the inspiration. You bring feeling to my life, You're the inspiration. Wanna have you near me, I wanna have you hear me sayin', No one needs you more than I need you"
As the instrumental portion of the song began to play, Megamind was shocked at how calm he felt. All of the nervousness, anxiety, cold sweats, heart palpitations, and near hyperventilation was gone, and replaced by the knowledge that more than anything he had ever wanted, he longed to spend his life with her.
"Roxanne, you are my inspiration. Without you, I'd still be marching around terrorizing the city. But you made me realize who and what I was always meant to be. You believed in me, and you gave me the strength to achieve that. I love you, more than I ever imagined I could love anyone, and I always want to be with you… "
Letting go of her hand, he looked down for a moment and fiddled with something that Roxanne couldn't see… her eyes were too busy misting up for her to catch that.
When he looked back at her, he wore an expression of complete hope and utter love, and he said, "Sweetheart, will you marry me?"
As he spoke, he placed a small velvet box in her hands. She looked down, and was astonished at the beautiful ring that was tucked inside. It was white gold, with a glittering diamond that was nestled in the midst of tiny sapphires, very simple and beautiful. It was exactly what she would have picked out had she been there with him, and been given free run of the jewelry shop to choose whatever she wanted.
"Oh… Megs, I can't believe it." She looked up, and her smile beamed radiantly at him. "Yes, with all my heart, I'll marry you."
With that, she threw her arms around him and kissed him as though he would disappear if she tried to let go. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her onto his lap, drawing her close, and they held each other for a long time as the sweetest song either of them had ever heard finished playing. They were too happy to care that the city's sassy top reporter, and the Protector of Metro City were currently a sappy mess of joyful tears and sniffles.
When they finally pulled it together, they backed away from each other just enough to gaze into one another's eyes. Roxanne wiped away a stray tear and asked, "So how long have you been planning this?"
Megamind sniffed and said, "Oh, months! And it was so hard for me to keep it a secret; I was so excited I almost broke down several times and just asked you then and there."
Roxanne laughed, "Well, I'm glad you decided to stick with the plan. This was unbelievable! I'm such a lucky girl to have caught myself the most romantic man in the city."
"Did you have any idea what was going on? I was so worried you were figuring it out. You're just too smart for your own good, you know."
"Well, I could tell you were up to something, but I had no idea that you had all this cooked up! And I'm going to have to personally go over there and give Russell a big hug to thank him for helping out with this."
Megamind's smile fell ever so slightly, and he said, "Thanking him goes without saying, but I don't really think you need to hug him, do you?"
Just as Roxanne began to giggle, the two heard a rustle in the bushes behind them. When they turned toward the sound, they noticed another odd sound to go with it; a wet, snuffling sort of sound.
Megamind stood up and took Roxanne's hand, and they approached the source of the mystery noise. As he reached out to pull the branches aside, the couple were shocked to see Minion and Wayne, sitting huddled next to each other on the ground amongst the leaves and weeds, sniffling like giant babies.
"What the… Minion, what are you doing here?" Megamind asked in astonishment. He turned to Wayne, and with narrowed eyes he demanded, "And what are YOU doing here?"
Through his fishy tears, Minion answered, "First, I just want to say how happy I am for you both, I just can't believe how wonderful this is. And I'm sorry Sir, but I was so excited, and Wayne had this idea… "
Wayne sniffed and quickly responded, "What? My idea? We came up with it together, it's just as much your fault as… "
"Ughhhh… just stop! You're like naughty kids tattling on the playground." Megamind snapped with a huff.
All the while, Roxanne had been holding back the urge to laugh at the sight of the spacefish in his giant mechasuit, and the strongest man on earth, sitting grubby faced and crying in the bushes. When Megamind mentioned tattling on the playground, it was more than she could bear, and she collapsed on her new fiancé's shoulder, laughing until she cried.
At Roxanne's loss of control, Megamind's exasperated face cracked into a smirk. He could certainly see the humor in this situation too, but best of all, he was going to have a blast ribbing these two about this for a long time.
He began to laugh and said, "Oh, come on. Let's go and… " His eyes dropped down to minion's lap; something familiar seemed to be clutched in his hands. Wait a minute, is that my…
"MINION! My new goggles, you ruined them!"
"I'm sorry Sir! It was an accident." squeaked the fish.
Wayne looked around sheepishly in the other direction, the expression on his face seeming to say "It wasn't me".
Megamind was livid. "I can't believe you took those out of the lair, Minion. And not only that, but you… "
Just as he was in mid-lecture, Roxanne reached out and slid her arms around him, turning him to face her. With lidded eyes, she smiled at him, and pulled him into a sweet, smoldering kiss that momentarily blew away all memory of what he had been so upset about to begin with.
When she pulled away from him, she rested her forehead against his and said gently, "Hey now, let's not get upset. You know, if anyone can fix those goggles, it's you sweetheart. I'll just bet you'll have them up and running again in no time."
The only answer she was able to elicit from her handsome blue genius was a very distracted, "Huh?"
She giggled at her fiancé, and then turned to call back to the two conspirators who were still sitting in the bushes, looking immensely guilty.
With a smile, she said affectionately, "Come on, you two sneaks. Since you were so keen on spying on us and interrupting our date, you can clean this mess up for us so we can get out of here. Hurry up, we all have a lot of celebrating to do tonight!"
There, the end! Hope you all liked it! I got this idea last week while listening to the radio; I heard this song for the first time in so many years, I had completely forgotten all about it. (Just in case you don't know which one it is, it's You're My Inspiration by Chicago, and I think it's one of the most romantic songs EVER!) As it played, I immediately thought, "OMG, that is EXACTLY what Megamind would be thinking about Rox!" It didn't take long for this story to shape itself right up in my obsessed little brain.
If you have a minute, you should look the song up and have a listen. It's definitely worth the time, and will give you a much better idea of the lovely sweetness of Megamind's surprise for Roxanne.
Thanks again for reading! Pretty please let me know what you think; reviews absolutely make my day... it's so nice to know that someone out there is enjoying the stories I write! It's very inspiring for me to hear from you! :)