Lesson 4: Sticky Buns, Laundry, and Mistletoe.

Megamind crossed one arm against his chest, resting the elbow of the other on top while he drummed his fingers against his chin in a thoughtful manner.

Minion glanced sideways at his master, wondering what was going on in that giant brain. "Are you alright sir?"

Megamind blinked, and looked around at his fishy companion. "Me? Yes, of course. I'm perfectly fine. Just thinking."

"About?" Minion slowly prompted.

"This… this who-liday." Megamind grumbled. "I've still yet to figure out why it's so important to Roxanne or why she's so adamant we celebrate with her."

Minion shrugged. "Well… I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough sir." He said gently.

Megamind groaned and tossed his hands dramatically into the air. "But I'm so used to always knowing what's going on!" He collapsed against the seat and rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers. "Trying to figure out this blasted Kroosmas Cheer is giving me a headache…"

"Chris-"

"Gah!" Megamind batted a hand at his companion. "Not now Minion!" He straightened and took a deep breath. "I just need a… a what is it? A break from all this. Just need to do something constructive."

That night, something just wouldn't function correctly in Megamind's thought process. He kept getting sidetracked, worse than he normally did. He'd be working furiously on one project one moment, then next thing he knew, he was staring off into space.

Two words: Kroos. Mas.

Megamind groaned and threw his wrench into the air, smirking half-heartedly when he heard a delighted robotic barking sound. "Minion!" He called. When there was no answer, Megamind sighed and threw his arms into the air. "Never around when I- MINION!" He yelled. "MINION, I CAN'T CONCENTRATE!"

The fish rolled his eyes as his master's loud, carrying voice reached him all the way on the other side of the lair where he was working on the Invisible Car's engine. "I'm over here sir!"

There was a series of loud crashes (his master was so fantastically clumsy) and a disgruntled yell of pain and annoyance before his master appeared around the monitor screens. "Minion, I cannot, for the life of me, concentrate." He declared.

Minion leaned against the hood, one non-existent brow quirked up in amusement. "And why is that sir?"

"I have no idea! That's why I'm down here!"

Minion grimaced. "Well… Perhaps you're tired."

"No, that can't be it." Minion rolled his eyes as Megamind turned away, one hand rubbing his chin while the other rested against his hip.

He tried spending time in his 'Thinking Area', playing with the strings, rearranging the pictures. It did help his to clear his mind some, organizing his thoughts into a workable order. But it only helped for so long before that, too, lost his interest and he found himself staring vacantly at the wall as a BrainBot continuously bumped into him, in an attempt to gain his attentions. He tried working on his HoverCycle, the BrainBots, the battle suit…

Nothing could hold his interest for more than fifteen minutes.

So it was after tinkering with BrainBot 408Gi8, or LockJaw, for about (gasp, what a surprise!) twenty minutes, he was slumped in the high-backed rolling chair in the fake observatory. An old sketch pad was stretched out on his knee.

The side of his face was cupped in one hand as he doodled with the other.

Why couldn't he concentrate? Why did he feel so restless? Why was he so bo-

Megamind's hand froze and his eyes grew wide as he looked at what he'd draw so far.

His face cracked into a positively massive grin as he launched himself from his chair and skid to a halt on the lift. "Minion! Minion!" He bent over, peering through the space between the floor and the lift as it slowly descended. "Minion, I know what's wrong!"

Roxanne woke up bright and early the next day, but she lay in her bed for a while after her eyes had opened, smiling out the window at the fresh flakes.

It was so lucky! Metro City rarely saw this much snow! Especially not these big, beautiful little puffs that stuck to everything like real snow was supposed to.

She checked her alarm clock, her toes curling delightedly as she realized two of her favorite aliens would be arriving in two hours to help her decorate. She scrambled out of bed, fetched her robe and towel, and began her routine. After a quick, warm shower, twenty minutes debating over what to wear, pulling out her box of ornaments from the top shelf of her closet, she bounced into the kitchen and headed right for the radio.

The station she flipped to was right in the middle of a Frank Sinatra Christmas special. Frank's voice instantly perked up the already perky woman, and she found herself bouncing on the tips of her toes as she danced towards the fridge.

She couldn't help herself as she pulled a can of sticky buns from the top shelf of the fridge. Soon her voice mixed with Frank's as her hips bounced and sashayed along to the upbeat music, the kitchen filling with the aroma of cinnamon and bacon. "The fire is slowly dying, and, my dear, we're still goodbying! But as long as you loooove me sooo, Let it snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!"

"Ah-HAH! So you're using some sort of black magic to make all these little white devils fall from the sky!"

Only years of being kidnapped at any given second by the same voice stopped her from letting out any sound of terror, though she did jump a bit and whirl around to brandish her spatula at him. "Hey, there's a door, Megamind!" She scolded.

He waved a hand dismissively at her as he shook his jacket out on the balcony, Minion behind him standing on one leg as he attempted to brush the snow out of his fur. "Pushaw. Front doors are for people without super-cool HoverBikes." He kicked off his boots and placed them just inside the door to keep from tracking the snow in as he strode into the kitchen, his nostrils flaring as he tried to identify the scent in the air. "And people who don't give a certain middle-aged doormen heart attacks every time they enter the building. Are you making cinnamon buns?"

Roxanne spun around to face him, brandishing her spatula like a sword. "Back away, space boy!" She told him.

Megamind held up his hands in surrender as Minion entered, finally snow-free (for the most part). He was carrying a box in one hand, but when Roxanne eyed it curiously, he sent her a sheepish smile and hid it behind his back. "Good morning Miss Ritchie. You look lovely this morning!"

Roxanne sent him a warm smile. "And you're looking festive." She replied, noting the Santa hat perched precariously on the top of his tank. "You guys sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, right." Minion scoffed. "The boss kept us up all night because he couldn't concentrate on any one project until he-"

"Minion." Megamind flashed the fish a warning glare and shook his head. "Just because we're the good guys now doesn't mean you can just give into her nosy reporter skills."

Roxanne rolled her eyes and transferred the skillet with the eggs from one burner to the other as the timer for the sticky buns went off. "I figured we could snack on these today while we worked." She pulled on a mitt that looked like a smiling snowman as she opened the stove and removed the sticky buns. "Mmmm… Minion?"

"Miss Ritchie?"

She turned with the tray and grabbed cutting board, which she place on the counter in front of the fish. "Could you ice these for me?" She asked, retrieving the icing from the fridge and tossing it to him. Minion nodded eagerly and set to work, carefully and evenly dribbling the icing onto the buns.

"So… is today part two of the decorating lesson then, or a new lesson?" Megamind asked as he opened the cupboard that hid the dishes. He pulled out three plates and three mugs, setting them out on the counter.

Roxanne pulled the first plate towards her and began piling it with eggs and bacon. "Decorating. The tree is dry now, so after breakfast we can start with that." She gestured with her spatula to the coffee pot. "Can you pour the coffee, Blue?"

"Are all of these from your childhood Miss Ritchie?" Minion asked, fascinated by the little baubles as he lifted them up to examine each one before handing it to his master.

Roxanne nodded, picking up a crudely made cartoon Santa. It was made of dough-based clay and had been given to her by her younger sister. "Yep. Every time one of us struck out on our own, she would go through the ornament box and find the ones that we had made or been given. She packed them up, wrapped them in colorful paper, slapped a bow on them and gave the box to us as presents when the next Christmas came around."

Megamind held up one in the shape of a rattle with 'Baby's first Christmas' painted in pink on the plastic ball. "Who is this 'Baby' this one speaks of?"

Roxanne flushed a bit when she realized what he was talking about. "Oh, that was my first Christmas ornament. It's sort of a tradition for parents to get ornaments like that whenever they have a new kid."

Megamind examined it for a moment longer, and Roxanne thought she saw something deeper flash in his eyes before his smile was back in place. He set the hook on a mid-level branch and leaned back to admire their progress so far. "I must admit," He said as Minion handed him a glass ball with shiny ribbon shaped into a pretty flower inside. "Though these traditions make little sense to me… I am having fun."

Minion and Roxanne exchanged a quick smirk, both having to work very hard to stop themselves from shouting out 'Told you so!'

Megamind either didn't notice their smug smirks or was ignoring them as he nibbled absently on his cinnamon bun, wide green eyes locked on the tree.

Getting those lights up had been one hell of an ordeal. Almost as bad as getting the thing up in the stand. He couldn't fathom why he and Minion, who worked with complicated machinery for what amounted to a living, couldn't keep themselves from getting hopelessly tangled in a few lights as they tried to wrap them around the tree.

They were almost done with the ornaments, which would leave only the tinsel and the topper. He smirked a bit at the thought before setting his bun down and turning back to the boxes and bags of both old and new ornaments.

They made quick work of those, and then it was time for tinsel, Roxanne showed them how to put the shimmery silver strings up, by taking one or two and simply tossing them onto the branches. Somehow, that had ended up with the three of them running around the living room, laughing wildly as they tossed the tinsel at one another until Roxanne, trying to avoid a handful of the silvery mess aimed at her from Minion, tripped and crashed head-long into Megamind.

They toppled to the ground, still laughing, until it wound up with Roxanne half on top of the alien, their noses almost touching.

Their laughs ceased and they quickly scrambled up, trying to hide their blush as Minion chuckled behind his hand.

So, after the task of picking up each little silver string and placing it onto the tree, they collapsed onto the couch for a quick breather before they headed outside to hang up the icicle lights.

Roxanne quirked a brow at the HoverBike, parked mid-air, parallel to her railing.

How had a sight like that become a regular thing?

She shook her head and scurried over to the rail, brushing the snow off as she examined the outer face. "Well," She said, running her hands along the top of the rail. "We can just wrap it around a bit in certain places."

So they did just that, carefully weaving the white rubber strand in neat little loops around the spokes and top rail, from one wall, around, and to the other. They then unrolled the icicle strands and ran the short extension cord from the end of the strand to the outdoor plugin just to the left of the windows.

The lights blinked into life, dazzling them as they smiled at their handiwork.

Then they had the lights to hang up around the windows, the garlands to wrap around the decorative posts that lead from her living room to the rest of the apartment, candles and other decorative knick-knack to put up.

The last thing to do was hang up the stocking holder on the wall, and when they reached this step, Roxanne frowned. "Oh… I forgot about the stockings…"

Megamind examined the knit woolen sock she'd just hung up. It was green with little bits of fluff sewn on to be like snow. There was the face of a reindeer stitched on, smiling insanely up at him. Its nose was a bright red, which made Megamind wonder if the creature was sick.

Or radioactive.

"Roxie?" He asked.

Roxanne glanced away from the sock to him. "Yes?"

Megamind frowned. "Why are you hanging your laundry on the wall?"

Roxanne just stared at him for a moment, as though trying to see if he was being serious before she blinked and began to crack up, one hand against her face as the other wrapped around her stomach.

Megamind let out a huffy breath, wondering exactly what was so funny about the question as he waited for her laughter to cease. When it did, she surprised him by leaning over to peck his cheek. "It's not my laundry, Blue. It's a stocking. It's another tradition."

"And what does this one entail?"

She slipped her hand into his and led him back to the couch where Minion sat, busily tearing yet another sticky bun into little bits to drop into the top of his tank. He already knew what a stocking was.

"Well, see… the stocking is like… The first thing Santa fills. He puts candies and little toys and things into them for children before he puts the presents under the tree. The legend is that way back when, before he was the magical Santa Claus, he would go down the chimney of someone's house, so he could leave things for the children. But he didn't just want to leave them lying around, he wanted it to be a special surprise for the kids. Well, he saw their socks pinned up along the fireplace to dry, and thought that would be a good place to hide the presents."

Megamind just stared at her incredulously, having heard so many things wrong with the story he was surprised she could talk about it with such a dreamy expression. Namely the fact that a fat man in a red suit had squeezed himself down a chimeny to get into people's houses and raid small children's laundry. He looked quickly up at Minion, but the fish was too busy happily munching on the bun to help. He shook his head, deciding he would file all the questions that bag of worms just spewed away for later. "So… Minion and I are to bring our socks over to hang on you wall?" He glanced over as Minion lifted one robotic gorilla foot, the toes wiggling comically. The aliens exchanged raised brows before looking back at Roxanne. "He doesn't wear socks."

"We could borrow one of the feet from one of my other suits. Some of them have hollow joints…"

Roxanne chuckled. "Don't worry. We still have time. I'll take care of it." She sighed and flopped sideways to lie against Megamind's chest. The alien jumped a bit, instinctively leaning away a bit. After a tense moment and a quick glance at Minion (who was pointedly ignoring him, though Megamind swore he could see a smirk on the fish's face) he relaxed and draped his arm over Roxanne's shoulder. Roxanne shifted a bit closer. "Guess we'll have to go look for a tree topper tomorrow…"

Megamind coughed and leaned back against the couch as Minion snickered. "Or you could open that box."

Roxanne blinked a few times, frowning between the aliens before something clicked in her brain. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a little 'oh' of realization as she scrambled off the couch and retrieved the box Megamind had brought in.

He watched her warily, fidgeting with the collar of his shirt as she broke the tape holding the lid of the box down, and pulled its contents out.

Roxanne stared down in awe at the crystal-like, glowing blue star. It was lighter than it looked, weighing maybe as much as a stack of papers. It was made of some sort of durable, clear, smooth plastic of some sorts, twisted and distorted to give it a 'frosted' look. There was the outline of a star attached by a few fishing-line thin pipes to the smaller star in the center. It was from this that the blue light radiated, sending pulses of white-blue light through the entire structure.

"Oh Megamind… Did you make this?"

The alien, excited by her breathless tone and pleased smile nodded eagerly. "Minion helped. He's better at the aesthetics than I am."

Roxanne jumped to her feet and hurried to the tree. "Let's put it on! But how-?"

Minion stuck his hand into the air as he bounced up to his feet. "I can help, Miss Ritchie!" She smiled up at him as he took the star and extended his arms, carefully placing it on the top of the tree. When his arms had retracted to their normal length, she threw her arms up around his tank and kissed the glass. "It's looks beautiful!" She released him to capture Megamind in a bear-hug, making his master wince and grin at the same time. "You guys did a fantastic job! Thank you!"

Megamind glanced to his left, where his partner in crime- er… heroics was fast asleep, snoring noisily at the bottom of his tank. His eyes fell to the woman curled up on his chest, one hand draped tiredly across his stomach.

As much as he enjoyed the contact, he knew she might be peeved when she woke up in the morning with a stiff back and neck.

He gripped her shoulder and gave Roxanne a light shake. "Roxie."

The reporter blinked a few times before lifting her head off the thin chest to gaze around, confused, before she lifted her eyes to Megamind. "'Wh'time zit?" She murmured.

Megamind lifted his arm to check his watch. "Nearly midnight."

Roxanne let out a low, tired groan and flopped back against his chest, her lips pursed slightly. "Should prob'ly got to bed…" She murmured.

"Yes. Minion and I ought to be-"

Roxanne shifted, and her fist wound itself into the front of his shirt. "Mmm. Snowy. Late. Y'guys can jus'sleep here again…"

Megamind chuckled. Her half-conscious mumblings were quite amusing. "Alright, sleepy beauty." He said, carefully extracting himself from her grip. When he'd made it to his feet, he hauled her up, slipping one arm around her waist as he helped her down the hall. "Let's get you in bed."

"Sleeping Beauty." She murmured. "How d'you know that movie when y'don't even know about stockings?" She teased.

Megamind blinked as they made their way down the hall. "There's a movie called Sleepy Beauty?"

Roxanne just giggled as she leaned against him. "You'll have to remind me… show you. Good movie."

Megamind chuckled, glancing up curiously at something hanging from the doorway. They passed through it before he could determine it as more than a simple decoration, and another few feet placed them at her door. He opened it for her, but paused when his eyes, by chance, drifted upwards. "Roxanne…"

The groggy reporter blinked, slightly worried by his tone, wondering if something was wrong. "Hmm?"

"There are weeds, growing in your walls…"

Roxanne blinked and her gaze shot up to follow his frowning gaze to the doorframe. There, above their heads, were a few green leaves and a little cluster of berries.

Roxanne chuckled, turning with a sly smile to her alien. "No, Minion must've hung them up. It's mistletoe."

Megamind shifted from one foot to the other. "Let me guess… is this another Kroosmas tradition?"

Roxanne nodded and leaned against him until he stared down at her with that surprised, flushed look as his back hit the doorframe. "One of my favorites…"

"They're all your favorites."

"This one is particularly special." She wound her hand into the front of his shirt and pulled him down, brushing her lips against his.

Megamind's eyes were wide with shock and surprise as Roxanne pressed her lips to his again, a little harder this time, trying to coax him out of the startled daze she knew he was in. His green eyes slowly crossed just a bit before their lids slid closed, followed by the wrapping of his arms around her waist.

They broke apart too soon for either of their likings, faces flushed and breathing irregular as Roxanne sent him a sly smile. "So, what do you think of this 'silly tradition'?" She teased.

Megamind chuckled weakly. "I'm beginning to see the appeal of the who-liday." He told her. He leaned in to peck her on the lips once more. "Get some sleep."

Yes, he thought, as Roxanne retreated into her room and he glanced back up at the Mistletoe. There is definitely something to this season.

AUGH! I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS ONE WAS SO HARD TO WRITE, BUT IT WAS!

Blegh.

Anyway.

Next chapter will be playing in the snow.