Updated at long last. I've rewritten it too many times, so here it is. The title is derived from...dare I say it?...a song from The Sound of Music. Sorry for the earworm!
Finding a group of citizens trapped by zombies under a highway underpass, Roxanne sent a call to Minion to bring reinforcements, and when the zombies were eliminated and the refugees were clambering onto the hovercraft, it was then that Minion, shame-faced, told her about Psycho Delic.
Roxanne rubbed her temples. "I thought you said you'd impersonated Megamind before."
"Yeah, for, you know, little stretches. Here and there." His fins drooped. "I'm really sorry, Miss Ritchi. Negotiating's hard."
Minion looked so dejected that Roxanne patted his big hairy arm.
He cleared his throat. "There's one other thing."
"What?" she asked warily.
"I think he figured out I wasn't Sir."
Minion explained, and she huffed out a long breath. "Okay. He doesn't have any proof. His word against ours."
"Could cause trouble if he spreads it around."
She nodded. She could imagine the spin Psycho Delic would put on it, the Overlord taking off who knew where, abandoning his post, and wouldn't it be a better idea to have a strong man in charge, say, someone like Psycho Delic?
Perhaps she should drive him and his thugs out immediately, before they had a chance to cause trouble, but doing such a thing seemed unfair.
They hadn't really done anything wrong, and yet, did it matter when it was Psycho Delic?
Well, shit. Just her luck she had to be a decent person, but she decided she might as well talk to the lousy bastard first. Kicking him out was almost worse than keeping him in the safe zone where they could keep an eye on him.
"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer," she muttered to herself.
"What was that, Miss Ritchi?"
"Oh, nothing. You took their weapons?"
"Absolutely, Miss Ritchi." He swam in a nervous circle. "You know what, best thing is to avoid him. Yeah. Sir'll be back soon. He can deal with him."
Roxanne put her hands on her hips and idly watched a different pack of zombies shuffling away on the other side of the freeway. Probably drawn by the scent of the soldiers at a not-too-distant barricade.
Which was fine by her. Let them get attacked by the damn zombies for once.
She said, "I'm going to have a little talk with Psycho Delic."
Minion's eyes widened, shocked. "You can't do that!"
"I don't see why not."
She brought an entourage, naturally, comandeering an electric truck for the henchmen and cops backing her up.
All three hovercraft were being used in search and rescue efforts, so she rode with Minion driving Spider-Bot.
Minion was tense and a little flustered. "Got your sidearm?"
"Yes, Minion," she said calmly.
"Keep your 'bots close. Hear that, Muybridge? Eastman?" He turned to fix the camerabots with a stern look. "Stick close to Mommy."
"Mommy?" she said, her eyebrows shooting up.
Minion cleared his throat. "Um. Yeah. The brainbots. They decided...they think...they call you Mommy now."
She stared at him, then chuckled and shook her head, gesturing at her 'bots to come closer so she could pet them. "Well, that confirms it. I'm officially the queen."
She and her hodgepodge of assorted muscle approached the rundown building at the other end of the peninsula where Psycho Delic had taken up residence. Spider-Bot crouched to let Minion disembark, and he assisted her own slightly less graceful climb down the 'bot's jointed leg.
Almost as soon as she touched the ground, she came face to face with Hal.
Startled, she took a step back, bumping into Minion.
"Hey, Roxie," Hal said with a sneer, face flushed and sunburned. "Come to beg for forgiveness, huh?"
"Hardly. Move it."
"Oh, you think you're hot shit, huh?" he said, swaying. "You think you're the goddam queen. You think you're some kinda...some kinda fuckin' queen, instead of some..."
His venomous words rapidly devolved barely comprehensible expletives, momentarily stunning her. He was clearly drunk. Or high. At least that explained his idiotic bravery, marching right up to her with Minion and the Spider-Bot towering next to her, not to mention the growling brainbots.
Fuck this. She was on her way to talk to a supervillain, not to trade insults with this scumbag.
Feeling ridiculously imperious, she said, "Minion, get him out of my way."
Minion grinned wide. "With pleasure, Miss Ritchi."
Hal stumbled back an awkward step as Minion lunged for him, and made an attempt to run as others in the entourage followed Minion's lead and rushed forward to flank him. He whirled around, but Muybridge nipped his foot, making him trip. Lieutenant Hinkley pounced, twisting his arms behind his back while he screeched obscenities.
"Anybody got a gag?" Hinkley shouted over the noise. One of the henchmen handed her a rag from his pocket and she stuffed into Hal's mouth.
A burst of laughter from the entrance to the building alerted Roxanne that they had an audience.
Psycho Delic and his cronies stood within the shadows, watching the show. "Guess the Overlord's gal don't need no help." He cackled again.
He took a drag from a cigarette, and Roxanne remembered a warning regarding the villain. Sometimes Psycho Delic used cigarettes as cover for the purple smoke he could emit at will, to drug, to stupefy, to incapacitate.
He blew out a stream of smoke. "Some random chick won't do for the Overlord, right?" His lips stretched into an evil leer. "Or whoever that was."
Roxanne felt herself stiffen. Minion leaned down to her ear and said in a stage whisper. "Just give the order, we'll stuff 'em in the cells."
Roxanne waved him off, irritated with herself for hesitating so that Minion felt he had to intervene.
She stepped forward, smiling brightly as she'd done a million times before, with her camerabots zipping around her.
Just another interview. Why had she been worried? She was going to report the hell out of this, though at the first sign of purple smoke she fully planned to throw dignity aside and scream her head off.
"Walk with me," she said to Psycho Delic. "Leave your men. And put out that cigarette."
She turned to walk across the weedy yellow lawn between the building and parking lot, as if she fully expected him to follow.
She resisted the urge to look over her shoulder, although there were a few sweat-inducing moments where she wasn't sure Psycho Delic would follow along, and she'd look pretty damn stupid if she had to walk back to talk with him, but soon she heard the soft rustle of grass as someone fell into step beside her.
Psycho Delic was still smiling, and he had indeed gotten rid of the cigarette, but there was a hardness in his red eyes and insolence to his swagger, male resentment wafting off him like smoke.
Oh, he didn't like this at all, some chick telling him what to do. It was that kind of vibe. Well, she'd dealt with plenty of misogynistic assholes in her time, nothing new.
From somewhat further behind, Minion gave a little cough.
He'd followed at a discreet distance, and Roxanne couldn't fault him for caution.
They stopped short of the baking heat of the asphalt.
"So what brings you here? I'm interested in your plans." She resisted the urge to cross her arms, though in truth she missed the small protective barrier a microphone would have afforded her. She settled for hooking a thumb in her belt.
Psycho Delic's eyes glinted with equal parts amusement and malevolence. "Plans?" he said innocently.
Roxanne maintained her easy smile. The hell with being coy. "Thinking about maybe taking over or..."
Psycho Delic waved his hands. "Hold on there, sister. I ain't no Overlord. I'm more of a behind the scenes kinda guy."
He leaned close and she made herself to stay where she was though her back tightened. "You can trust me. What's really goin' on? I may not be a bona fide genius, but..." His eyes darted around in mock conspiracy, as if sharing a joke. "That wasn't Megamind who let me in."
"Really," she said. She wasn't going to be coy and deny it, especially since she didn't believe it was particularly sensitive information anyway. Megamind and Minion probably wanted to keep the news of Megamind's absence a secret merely out of long habit of being sneaky, in her opinion.
Psycho Delic straightened, his grin smug, believing he'd scored a point. "So, he get hurt? Or...worse?"
Now her nonchalance was growing a bit forced, but she continued to meet his gaze. Damned if she was going to let this villain upset her.
"I assure you, the Overlord is alive and well," she said evenly.
Psycho Delic chuckled. "Uh-huh. Now, I know how it is. You're doing your best to keep it together while the blue man is, uh, indisposed, shall we say?" He paused as he drew a battered cigarette package out of an inner pocket.
"I didn't give you permission to smoke," she said. Out of the corner of her eye Minion took half a step closer.
He cocked his head, studying her, glanced at Minion, then tucked the package away again with a mocking bow. "I do beg your pardon. Habit. It must be hard, being a little lady in charge all alone."
To her utter horror, he patted her shoulder.
She reacted immediately, smacking his arm away. Her view of the villain was blocked as Minion, growling, got between them.
She clenched her fists, resisted the urge to scrub at the spot where he touched her. His chemicals could penetrate skin. Could they get through the fabric of her t-shirt?
Minion turned sideways to regard her with a worried frown. "You all right? Where did he...?"
"Here," she murmured, tapping her shoulder. The purple man's fingers hadn't brushed against her bare neck, though she shuddered at the thought. Minion's tense expression eased, and she relaxed too as he murmured that she'd be all right. If anyone knew how Psycho Delic's concoctions worked, it would be Minion, and Megamind.
Anger rising, she pushed past Minion to face the villain again, fists clenched.
Psycho Delic blinked innocently at her, as if he couldn't believe anyone would think badly of him. "Now, I don't like to make trouble, but don't people deserve to know the truth?"
"And you'll keep quiet in exchange for...?" She left the question hang in the air unfinished.
"Extra food, some booze, maybe a few gals what ain't too picky. I'm a simple man, Miss Ritchi."
"I see. Is that all?"
"Who knows. Might want to start up my old businesses again. Real discreet, like. Long as the local fuzz looks the other way once in a while. You'd be okay with that, right?"
Was he kidding? Did he really think she would be cowed so easily? Her anger turned cold as she drew herself up.
"Minion, grab his arm."
Both of them stared at her in surprise. Minion recovered first, lunging at Psycho Delic as the villain backpedaled, to haul him in again.
Minion shot her a warning look, and she took a few paces back, hopefully far enough to be able to escape any purple smoke coming her way. It also helped that the wind was at her back. It'd be tough for Psycho Delic to smoke her upwind.
"What the fuck?" Psycho Delic spat, hat askew, mouth twisted in fury.
"Break one of his fingers," she said, and was amazed that she sounded so calm.
Minion was less surprised this time. "Which one?" he asked, with a very disturbing smile.
"A-any. Doesn't matter." She swallowed, angry at the nervous stutter, determined not to let it happen again. Power coursed through her veins, along with the unsettling knowledge that Minion must have done this before, or something like it.
No backing down now.
Psycho Delic must have seen the hardness in her eyes, because his snarling face changed to alarm. "Wait a minute, wait a minute!" he screeched, clawing at Minion's unyielding grip. Purple smoke puffed out of sleeves, but erratically, fuelled by fear rather than purpose.
Roxanne raised her hand and Minion paused, keeping hold of one purple pinkie.
Psycho Delic licked his lips. "I might've...misspoke."
"About what?"
He grimaced. "I won't be no trouble."
"Be more precise," she said, her voice cold.
He squirmed, and at last said, as if his voice were being squeezed along with his hand, "No drugs, won't recruit no girls."
"Or guys. Hal one of yours?"
A cagey look came over him as he grimaced and shrugged, maybe not sure if he'd be held responsible for Hal's verbal attack. She didn't particularly care about Hal, but she supposed she cared a little bit that he'd gotten sucked into this villain's gang, if only because a doped-up Hal would be an even bigger pain to deal with.
"No more recruiting," she said. "You're gang's big enough."
She studied him a little longer. "Go ahead and tell everybody in the safe zone Megamind is out. I really don't care, because he will be back. Very shortly. You'll get your rations, you and your men can stay, but the Overlord, I'm sure, will find better uses for you than running prostitution rings or selling drugs. And don't forget, you're responsible for anything your henchmen do. Clear?"
"I guess," he muttered.
"Yes, ma'am," she prompted.
His expression turned murderous, but Minion must have tightened his hold because he grimaced and shut his eyes. "Yes, ma'am," he ground out through his teeth.
She nodded at Minion and the henchfish let go of him.
Psycho Delic hugged his hand to his chest, sullen and breathing hard, his eyes shooting daggers at her.
She smiled sweetly. "Megamind's going to hear that you laid hands on me. The last man who did that regretted it."
With satisfaction she watched Psycho Delic's scowl take on overtones of worry as his eyes darted to the side, half expecting the Overlord to materialize out of thin air.
Which he could very well do, eventually, she reminded herself firmly, if he came to confront Psycho Delic in the invisible car.
He was coming back. She refused to think of any alternative.
She strode back to where Spider-Bot and her entrouage faced off against Psycho Delic's shabby little gang, Minion a reassuring presence at her side.
As much as Roxanne would've liked a breather after the encounter with Psycho Delic, the demands of the day escalated, becoming considerably more lively than the previous three combined.
Tree branches had blown down across several streets during the last storm that needed to be removed to allow foot traffic and vehicles to travel to and from the green and yellow zones.
More refugees filtered in, needing food, gas for their cars, tools, weapons, medical attention, diapers, flashlights, batteries, and countless other necessities.
Some begged for help in rescuing relatives and neighbors who were incapable of making the trek, or for ways to make their homes safer. Minion sent a crew of brainbots to audit the local hardware and home improvement centers for fencing and reinforced doors.
A woman gave birth in a broken down van just outside the yellow zone, fortuitously rescued by firefighters from zombies drawn by the smell of blood and other fluids. Two more women had babies in more favorable circumstances at the clinic/MASH unit.
No one seemed to have time to do a proper inventory of the medicines on hand, and there still was no insulin. Twelve more diabetics were dehydrated and carefully stored away, three of them children, and Roxanne hoped Megamind got his hands on a supply.
The family quarantined with typhus were on the road to recovery, at least.
The wall continued to go up steadily around the peninsula, made of a hodge podge of chain link fences, girders, broken concrete meticulously fitted together by the tireless 'bots. Barbed wire lined the top to snag any zombies that managed to make the climb.
As she watched Doris's grandkids and a gaggle of other youngsters milling about a section of chainlink fence, chucking rocks through the links to see who could hit the waves lapping the shore, Roxanne regretted the necessity cutting off the peninsula from the lake.
Still plenty of open shoreline, though, along the rest of the city.
The safe zone was gradually filling up as people took over empty buildings, or put up their own tents and shacks. Whenever a group of people insisted on going back to their homes rather than stay, Roxanne was secretly relieved.
Roxanne eyed their dwindling supplies and gave instructions to scout for as yet untapped grocery stores, warehouses, gas stations, and empty houses, with stern reminders that there was to be no strongarming of survivors.
And people brought their pets, too, dogs and cats and parrots, and two very rambunctious ferrets, adding to the general chaos.
Roxanne, head filled with nightmare visions of frightened, overstressed animals accidentally biting people, and not wanting the spectre of rabies to complicate the situation, insisted on enforcing leash laws and brought cages from a humane society for the cats and ferrets, feeling like a monster caging up innocent creatures.
As unfair as it was, she didn't let any more pets into the Lair. Taffy the cat calmly continued to reign supreme, the sole pet allowed to roam free.
In one memorable case, a man in a dirty but expensive three-piece suit arrived to demand a security detail to guard his mansion and invaluable art collection.
Roxanne got into a fruitless hour-long argument over the matter, making her head hurt and her arm ache all the way up to her shoulder, until she ended the matter by ordering Tony and Rupert to kick him out.
Later, after her temper cooled, she tracked down two cops who weren't too exhausted from searching for survivors to go take a look at the guy's mansion, figuring she would find out how much food he had squirreled away. She sternly reminded herself of her own 'no strongarming of survivors' rule, but she would make some pointed remarks to the man about sharing with the community, perhaps in exchange for a few brainbots to patrol his grounds once in a while.
She liked art. Was perfectly willing to preserve the cultural aspects of the city. She would, however, prefer not to have a pompous ass throw demands in her face about the importance of protecting his personal collection.
She'd been wanting to take a closer look at the city's libraries and museums to see what sort of shape they were in, maybe even find a way to staff them so people would at least have a few options for leisure, if it could be managed to secure them from zombies and looters.
Pastor Mike was pushing for a talent show or a movie night, no matter how silly, as relief from the terror that ruled their days. It seemed ridiculous when he first brought it up, but she was beginning to wish for some distractions herself, some relief from the anxiety over Megamind, which she pushed to the back of her mind out of self preservation and so she could function without hiding in bed all day curled up around a pillow.
It was always there, a tightness in her stomach and an anxious background hum in her thoughts. Was he getting any sleep at all? Enough to eat? Or was he being hounded by soldiers, police, and superheroes, unable to find a safe place to lay his head?
When he got back she was going to tie him to the bed if need be, to get him some rest.
Midnight came.
Megamind didn't.
No messages from a brainbot, nothing.
Roxanne spent a sleepless night on the roof, Pilar and Agnes waiting with her. She told them to go back down into the Lair to get some sleep, but instead they fetched blankets and made themselves as comfortable, or as comfortable as anyone could get on a hard roof. Roxanne eventually lay down too, and dozed off just before dawn.
Minion was grim and silent, but, more used to the uncertainty of Megamind's coming and going, and, perhaps more wisely, he was unwilling to let himself be consumed by worry, he left occasionally to see that all was secure and to attend to other matters.
Roxanne eventually lay down next to her friends and dozed off just before dawn.
She stood, stretching out the kinks and feeling slightly bruised from lying on the hard roof, and groggily looked out at the lake.
Pilar was just coming back up the elevator. She brought three plastic cups.
"Tea," she muttered, eyes puffy from poor sleep, and handed them to Roxanne and Agnes.
She watched the sunlight dappling the waves for a while, too tired to feel much of anything, and at last steeled herself to go downstairs and face the demands of another day.
A flash of light in the blue distance caught her eye.
Many flashes.
She leaned against the roof's wall, shading her eyes.
Far away a dark mass surged across the water, surrounded by a flock of...
Could have been seagulls around that ship, but not glittering in the sun like that.
A cloud of brainbots, tiny with distance, darted and soared around the ship. It was a huge ship, too, charging through the line of coast guard boats, tossing them aside like toys.
Fierce joy propelled her downstairs, her friends excitedly chattering.
The freighter was too big for any of the docks around the peninsula, and Roxanne, Minion and a growing crowd hurried out of the safe zone and down the shore to the nearest port that could handle the ship.
For a time Roxanne was too busy shouting at some of the first responders to keep an eye out for zombies before she shoved her way to the front of the crowd.
It took a long time for the freighter to slow down, especially at the speed it had been going, and to ponderously ease into port.
The brainbots were going nuts, more and more of them gathering to mingle with the 'bots that had gone with Daddy on the mission, to make one enormous flock swooping and soaring around the ship.
Roxanne shaded her hand against the sun and peered upward, but while others in the salvage mission shouted and waved from the deck at the people on shore, she didn't see Megamind among them.
After about fifty years by Roxanne's count the brutebots got the freighter tethered securely with ropes thicker than Roxanne's body and the gangplank lowered.
A great noise rose from the crowd, more of a roar than a cheer that made Roxanne's hair stand on end, but fortunately Minion anticipated there might be some overexcitement, and more brutebots lumbered into position, keeping people from rushing the gangplank.
Minion shouted at people to leave it to the salvage crews to find out exactly what supplies were on the ship, and then he would need volunteers to get them loaded on the trucks to bring to the safe zone.
Roxanne was dimly aware that she really ought to help take charge of some of these details, she was being horribly derelict in her duty, but all she could do was crane her neck, searching for the one person she didn't see at the rail of the deck.
She pushed forward, barely aware of a henchman shoving people out of her way, determined to search the entire ship if need be, but Minion seized her shoulder, gently yet implacably stopping her advance.
"Wait, there he is," he said breathlessly.
And there was Megamind, coming down the gangplank, grinning broadly and with four days' stubble making him look too damn roguish by far, cape missing, and as he staggered ashore Roxanne had her arms around him, and he embraced her in return, his wiry body leaning against her, and a sob that had been kept inside for far too long broke out of her.
She clung to him, and truthfully he seriously needed a shower, the odor of burnt metal and ozone mingled with his sweat stung her nostrils, but damned if she was going to let go of him anytime soon, with his hands flat on her back and the feel of his chest rising and falling.
He was the one to pull back slightly, to dreamily smile upon her fondly and said...
...something in a completely unfamiliar language.
Minion placed a large hand on Megamind's shoulder and leaned down to speak into his ear. "Sir, that's Russian."
Megamind stared up at Minion, and Roxanne could swear she could see thoughts flickering through his eyes like flashes of light.
Megamind blinked. "So I am," he said, frowning. "Wow. That was. Just. WOW!"
Laughing hysterically, he staggered off to the side, grinning maniacally. "That was just. Just WEIRD."
He staggered sideways in the opposite direction to run into Minion's chest, and sagged against him. "Wasn't that weird, Minion? Just like that one time Psycho Delic shot me full of whatchacallit. Smoke. Drugs. Thing. Hell of a thing, Roxanne, I was switching languages, back, forth, back, forth, Spanish, Polish, Cantonese, Russian! Think he's somewhere nearby, Minion?"
Luke piped up. "But boss, don't you remember? Psycho Delic is..."
Roxanne's savage glare shut him up and Luke stood there blinking and confused.
She turned her silent fury on the crowd around her, effectively shutting down any more attempts to start up lengthy conversations.
Uncle Lenny and Uncle Sid and a number of others looked like they had questions, but they stepped back under the force of her determination.
Megamind began to turn to Luke with a puzzled frown, clearly about to ask for clarification.
"What are your orders, Sir?" Minion asked loudly, capturing Megamind's attention again.
"Food supplies owed to Metrocity stores are below decks. Medicines. Insulin. The barrels with the chemicals for the sewage plant are stowed away separately in the prow. Unload the lot. I ordered solar arrays for five buildings from Syntech Industries, be ready to send 'bots to pick them up from Detroit."
"Not Chicago?"
Megamind laughed merrily. "Chicago's not too friendly at the moment." His face curled into a sneer. "League of Heroes my ass. Ha!" He made a rude gesture out at the lake. "Brainbots! Brutebots! Quit screwing around and set up patrols half a mile offshore."
Minion frowned, pivoting in his containment unit. "Uh oh. Expecting trouble?"
Megamind flapped his arm dismissively. "Merely a precaution. Stratego, Silver Knight, and Powerhouse are helping enforce the quarantine."
"Not to worry, filet mignon," Megamind said, teeth flashing in a triumphant grin. "I took the starter motor out of their superjet. They won't be following anytime soon, if they even have the nerve to break the quarantine."
"Come with me," Roxanne said, in a tone that brooked no argument.
People were pushing closer in their excitement, and the wife of one of Megamind's secret scavenging crew flung herself at her husband as he shakily came down the gangplank.
As greetings flew back and forth, Roxanne knew it was a matter of time before certain people began to ask inconvenient questions about where, exactly, the Overlord had been the last few days, and if he was off in Chicago yesterday then who let Psycho Delic in?
The police lieutenant, Hinkley, looked particularly suspicious, but Roxanne wasn't going to answer inconvenient questions right now, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let Megamind get trapped in question-and-answer session, either.
The dock was crowded with gawking refugees, forcing her to slow down despite her efforts. It made her want to scream. She kept a tight grip on Megamind's elbow and kept walking, but progress was slowed by the mass of people.
Minion barked out a sharp order that she didn't quite hear, and a brutebot descended right in front of her. People leapt aside with yelps.
It drifted inexorably toward the Lair and Roxanne followed hard behind, with Minion, two cops, and a henchman flanking her and Megamind.
"Tomorrow at 11 pm pronto, go to these coordinates," Megamind said to Minion, hauling on Roxanne's arm as he feverishly tapped on a holographic screen emanating from his wrist comm. "By county road 127, Granite Drive exit, grey pole shed, meet our new army contact, Corporal Chadwick, who has promised two thousand yards of fiber optic cable, fifty folding cots, a case of hand-rechargeable flashlights, and a partridge in a pear tree.
He paused. "I'm kidding about the partridge. I already paid him, so if he tries to squeeze any more money out of you, you have my permission to blow his head off, the greedy bastard."
He stopped walking abruptly, planting his heels so Roxanne was yanked back, and he twisted to shout at everyone within earshot, "Do not eat the chickens."
"Chickens?" Minion said weakly. "Real live chickens?"
"Egg-layers. In the wheelhouse. Build some coops or put 'em on leashes or whatever you do with chickens."
He frowned and scratched his head. "Wait a minute. Was it Chadwick or Chessbaum? Been meeting so many new people lately I..."
Roxanne seized his face with both hands. "Megamind," she said sharply.
He stared at her, startled, and she took a breath, resisting the almost unbearable urge to stroke his cheeks and run her hands all over his gorgeous head and neck, and went on in a calmer voice. "Megamind, everything's taken care of. You need to come with me, now."
He blinked, nodded, and to her relief walked away from the crowded docks with her without any more shouting or instructions.
There was a short wait while Minion summoned a hovercraft to bring them back to the Lair.
Roxanne kept a tight hold on Megamind, marching directly for their bedroom, not stopping when her mother called to her.
Megamind obligingly went with her without a peep of protest, banter, or witticism about how desperately Roxanne must want to get him alone, which convinced her more than anything else about how weary he must be.
Sure enough, as soon as she closed the door, she turned to see him fall face first onto the bed, asleep, she was certain, before his head hit the pillow.
She realized two tears were running down her cheeks. Angrily she swiped them away, drew a shuddering breath, and went to the bed, having some idea of getting the spiked mantle and belt off, but there didn't seem to be any way to do it without disturbing him and her hands were all thumbs, and she fidgeted uselessly with the blankets, until she felt a soft touch on her shoulder.
Minion gently pushed her aside. "I got this, Miss Ritchi," he whispered.
She watched dully, hugging her elbows, then flushed and turned away when she realized he intended to strip Megamind completely.
She was unable to keep from watching from the corner of her eye, though, as Minion carefully lifted Megamind's arms, moved his legs, turned him to one side then the other as he searched for injuries, but apart from the scrape across his ribs the Overlord appeared to be unharmed.
Megamind slept through it, and Roxanne got the sense that Minion had conducted such examinations before.
She left when Minion called for a brainbot to bring soap and water, and she hovered outside the room during the sponge bath, until Minion announced she could come back in.
Megamind was decently covered in a t-shirt and pajama pants, and she felt no shame in immediately going to him to crawl into the bed and curl herself around him, her arms snaking in around his chest so she could rest her cheek between his shoulderblades.
Minion went out, but soon returned carrying an enclosed fishbowl, and Roxanne watched as an opening appeared in it and Minion hopped out of his robot suit and into the smaller containment unit with a small splash. The robot hands lowered Minion into Megamind's arms, and then stood silent and vigilant next to the bed.
Megamind tucked one of his arms around the containment unit and Minion let out a little shuddering sigh.
The three of them lay curled up, together again at last.
