Roxanne woke from her nap with a delighted hum. That was nice. She turned and snuggled into her pillow, but it didn't smell right. It smelled clean, but it wasn't hers. She frowned slightly in thought, and stealthily checked her arms and legs for restraints. Not detecting any, she opened her eyes, propped herself up on her elbows and took in the dark, sparsely furnished room. There was pretty much only the queen bed she was laying on and a nightstand next to it that only held an unlit lamp. No windows, which brought up the question of how she could see with the only light being what was slipping in from under the single door.

Oh, yeah. Storage room 17B. That's right. She flopped back down on the bed and rubbed her face with her hands as she remembered why she was in the storage room in the first place. She'd changed, was aware for the first time ever, was shot with a tranquilizer dart, let Megamind examine her while unconscious, heard him admit that he liked spending time with her before he shot her with another tranquilizer dart, they had a moment after her shower, and then shared the most awkward breakfast ever.

Ok, the whys and hows of her being aware would require thought, conversation, and probably more monthly tests in the cage to see if it's repeatable. So that can be tabled for a few weeks. Or at least until she rolls out of this surprisingly comfortable bed.

She knew she should let the tranquilizer darts go, but he shot her. She was honestly expecting something similar to her usual knockout spray. Some sort of gas instead of an injection. But that was her own fault for not asking and for being surprised by anything he did.

Her hands stilled on her face as she thought about the next point. Megamind likes spending time with her. Well, that's ok. She likes spending time with him. She'd assumed they were friends for years now, even if he didn't think they were. That's why she pushed for them to hang out outside of the kidnapping chair. What else did he say? That was why he kidnapped her so often. To… to see her?

But that was always about Metro Man and taking over the city.

Wasn't it?

But now that she really thought about it… there were a few plots over the years that seemed rushed and a few others that were only flimsily held together by bubble gum and prayer. Those were the ones where she worried about his safety the most. Did he just slap something together at the time because he wanted to see her?

That was weirdly sweet. If you discounted the kidnapping part, which she did. She hadn't minded the kidnappings in years. In fact, sometimes she looked forward to them.

No.

That wasn't quite right.

Sometimes she looked forward to seeing him.

Well, of course she did! He's been her friend for years, no matter what he thinks. And, until recently, the kidnappings were the only time she got to talk to him. He was fun to talk to, and he didn't get all weird with her if she started talking about how 'dangling from that rope over the alligators last week was kind of fun, but I lost the left one of my favorite pairs of shoes.' Everyone else got hung up on the 'dangling,' the 'alligators,' or even the kidnapping part in general. But he'd correctly identify the talking point she'd brought up and ask about her shoes and if it'd be difficult to get a replacement.

The memory of his next words hit her suddenly, muted colors and all, as he spoke facing the ground, "And then there's the occasional dating bluff. To trick Metro Man. And my heart."

His heart? Why would he mention… But he's never… He does give her a lot of soft smiles when he doesn't realize she's looking though. And when she does catch them, she blushes all the way to her toes. No one is supposed to look at her like that. She's always been too sharp, too focused, or too weird for anyone to really like her. Does he… Does he like her?

That doesn't make sense though. He's never done more than flirt with her – and then only when she's tied up. He rarely touches her, and she swears he only tolerates it when she touches him.

But, then again, he's a little socially awkward. But still a total gentleman. Maybe he doesn't want to make an advance because he thinks that will make her uncomfortable. Or blur the lines between supervillain and damsel.

That thought made her unexpectedly disappointed.

Why though?

"And my heart," Megamind's voice echoed through her head on a loop.

Why did she tell Wayne they were dating anyway? Why was that what her panic-brain came up with?

And why did Wayne believe her?!

She quickly recalled every flirty smile she'd ever sent Megamind, and the bright smiles he'd return them with. Every time she cuddled up with him while watching TV on their fake-dates, and how he never protested. How he'd keep his arms around her if she put them there. And recently how he'd been hesitantly reaching for her first.

She sat up with a gasp as she realized: Oh my God! We've been dating!

Roxanne collapsed back on the bed with near hysterical giggles, trying to keep quiet so as not to draw attention to herself just yet. Their fake dates weren't fake at all! He'd been dating her because he liked her, and she'd suggested it in the first place because she…

…

…

…

Oh…

Her giggles died in her throat.

Oh, no.

…

…

…

Well.

…

…

This was a mess.

Ok.

On the plus-side, Wayne is the only one that thinks he knows. So, they have time to figure this out. Along with everything else. Oh, God.

She can ignore this for a little while, right? That box marked 'later' in her mind was there for a reason, after all. As long as he doesn't mention it, then she doesn't have to, right? Right.

But… what if he does. She hasn't had what she'd call a real relationship since high school! And she doesn't really count that since she was a hormonal teenager at the time. Sure, in college she had dates and experimented, but it was nothing real. She was just having a good time between classes and whatever part-time job she had at the time. After college was the same thing, but mostly work. And kidnappings. Which was a side-gig for work. She doesn't know how to navigate her feelings. That's what that imaginary box was for!

Well, one thing was for sure. She couldn't hide in here all day; even though she didn't have to go to work. Groaning to herself, she felt around on the nightstand for her phone before remembering that, one, it was in her bag, and two, it was turned off by supervillain request.

Sighing, she crawled out of bed. Time to find out what time it was and probably face the music. She made her way to the door, shielded her eyes, and then turned on the light. When her eyes were adjusted, she ran her fingers through her hair to attempt to tame it slightly and then opened the door.

Two brainbots were hovering outside, but one flew off as soon as the door opened. Probably to inform her hosts that she was awake. She wasn't supposed to be wondering around by herself, after all.

A moment later, she heard Minion clomping down the hall towards her. She turned in his direction and smiled as he turned a corner.

"Hey, Minion," she greeted her friend.

He gave her a sharp-toothed smile in return and said, "Hello, Miss Ritchi. Did you have a nice nap? And blindfold, please."

She placed her sleep mask, that she never used for sleep, over her eyes and answered, "Yeah, I did. That's a nice mattress you have in there. What time is it? I didn't sleep all day, did I?"

He placed a guiding hand on her back, and they started walking as he answered, "It's been about three hours. We were going to wake you if it looked like you were going to sleep longer than four. No need to disrupt your sleep schedule any more than you have to."

She laughed softly and replied, "Oh, please. With my job, sometimes I'm lucky to get sleep at all."

"All the more reason to get rest when you can, Miss Ritchi," he chided.

She smiled in his direction and attempted to distract him from her own flaws as she said, "I get the feeling I'm not the first person you've said this to."

"Oh gosh, no," he agreed as she successfully distracted him. "You have no idea how often I have to remind Sir to get some rest. Or to eat."

"I can only imagine. I'm pretty sure there's been some plots where he's only on his feet thanks to caffeine, adrenaline, and spite," she agreed.

"You noticed that too?" Minion muttered to himself. Or so he thought. Her hearing was still picking up everything. Damn. She'd kind of hoped that going through with her change this month would put her back to what she considered normal. Perhaps the hyper-senses would fade after a while. They didn't initially show up immediately after all.

She shrugged at Minion's comment and admitted, "Well, I think he hid it well for the cameras. But I was close enough to see the circles under his eyes and the way his shoulders slumped while we were waiting for Metro Man. Although, his dozing off in his roll-y chair was a pretty good clue too."

"Yeah… That's happened more than once," Minion admitted. He guided her to a stop, then opened a door in front of them. Once she was guided through and the door shut behind her, he said, "You can take your blindfold off, Miss Ritchi, and I'll be right back."

As he turned to leave, she removed her blindfold and spotted Megamind hunched over a desk and wearing a lab coat of all things. There was a black leather couch close by, so she sunk onto it while he finished whatever he was working on. She looked around for something to read while he was busy and found a couple discarded paperbacks on the floor nearby. Grinning, she noticed that one of the paperbacks was a romance book, if the heavily chiseled shirtless man on the cover was any indication. Her curiosity afire, she picked it up and read the back. Her amusement dropped several notches as she saw it was a paranormal romance book. Particularly one that featured werewolves.

All of her embarrassment from last night she had managed to sleep off came flooding back to her. She quickly dropped the book back onto the floor like it burned her and futilely attempted to tug her sleeves down further over her hands. Then she drew her legs up – making sure they were fully covered by her long pants – and wrapped her arms around them to make herself smaller.

"There, that should do it," Megamind's voice pulled her slightly out of her new spiral. She glanced at him to see him shucking out of the lab coat and loading something into a machine. "I just wanted to get these running before I–" he turned as he was talking, spotted her, and interrupted himself. "Roxanne? Are you alright?" he asked her worriedly.

No. Not really. She just shrugged in answer and sunk down a little further into her arms.

He approached her cautiously. Like she was a wild animal.

No. No, he wasn't afraid of her. He's trying to help her.

He edged closer and asked, "Roxanne? W-What's wrong?" She shrugged again; not sure she could answer without bursting into tears. Her emotions were starting to creep out of her mental box.

He sat on the couch next to her and asked, "Can I touch you? Would a hug help?" She shrugged again. He sighed and said, "I really need a yes or no for an answer, Roxanne." She looked up again into his openly concerned face, blue skin slightly wrinkled into worry lines above his eyebrows. This time she nodded and unfolded herself. He quickly took the opportunity to move closer and gently wrapped his arms around her.

She couldn't help it. She threw her arms around him and started sobbing where she buried her face where his shoulder met his neck, glad that he hadn't been wearing his spiked mantle under that lab coat. He shuddered when she touched his neck, but pulled her closer and held her tight as she sobbed, the spikes on his gloves digging into her back.

He muttered calming phrases to her, with a "Not now, Minion," thrown in the middle as he let her wind herself down.

Eventually her sobs lessened to the occasional sniffle, but he still held her tight. That was nice. And was probably really bothering him with his touch aversion, even though he offered the hug in the first place. Deciding that she'd probably pushed his personal boundaries enough for one day, she loosened her arms and leaned back. He unlocked his arms from behind her and allowed her to pull back, but then he gently placed his hands on her upper arms to keep her from completely withdrawing.

His worried eyes flickered between both of hers and he asked, "Roxanne, what happened? What's wrong?"

"I-" she gasped out, but then felt her eyes well up again. He released one of her arms and reached behind him, then came back with a box of tissues. He held them out to her and she took a few before blotting her face with them. He gently rubbed her arm he was still holding while she took a few breaths.

"Better?" he asked after a moment.

She wetly laughed at that and managed to choke out, "A little. I guess."

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked, still looking worried.

"Oh god," she covered her face with her hands. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough to be seen during the full moon, now he saw her having a god damn breakdown from looking at a fucking book. She peeked through her fingers and saw he was still watching her intently. She sighed and dropped her hands, her eyes following them as they landed in her lap. She rolled the damp tissue through her hands and admitted with her eyes still averted, "I'm still embarrassed from last night... No, that's not right… Mortified. I'm absolutely mortified that you saw me last night. I picked up your romance novel and it all rushed back."

"There's no reason to be embarrassed, Roxanne. You've trusted me with your issue, you've allowed me to witness you change before and I am actively attempting to help you with it," he replied calmly.

"I know!" she agreed vehemently. "Maybe because I was aware of it this time? I mean, I'm always a little emotional the day after, but I've never dealt with mood swings this bad before."

There was a momentary silence and then Megamind suggested, "Or perhaps the mood swings are a side effect of the pain killer concoction. This was our first true test of the effectiveness of it and the dosage was, frankly, higher than I'm entirely comfortable with, particularly with two doses administered so close together. And while the sedative has proven safe in smaller doses for the knockout spray, that doesn't mean that the amount used last night didn't interact with the pain killers in an unforeseen manner. I'm afraid that you're our only test subject for this, Roxanne."

Her gaze had drifted back up to his face as he explained, and she quickly quirked her lips momentarily at being called a test subject. "Really?" she asked. "You think it's the medication?"

"I think it's a possibility that we shouldn't dismiss," he answered.

She nodded as she accepted that. And even if it wasn't, then it was as good an excuse as anything else. "Villainous clutches?" she asked. She'd been teasing him when they cuddled on her couch while watching movies by saying that he finally had her in his villainous clutches, and he always seemed amused by it.

He smirked at her and said silkily, "You're in my Evil Lair, Miss Ritchi. Of course, you're in my villainous clutches."

She smiled at him as best as she could after a crying fit, and said, "Oh, good." She turned so she could lean into and curl up against him.

"Evil," he primly corrected her.

She shrugged and teased, "If you say so."

"I do," he stated with finality, which just caused her to smile again.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, with one of his arms curled around her to hold her in place at his side. Eventually, she broke it by saying, "You don't have to always ask, you know. You can touch me. I'm fine with it." Then she remembered something he'd alluded to in passing and she added, "I'm comfortable with you, Megamind."

He inhaled sharply at that admission, but then said cautiously, "I was worried you were having panic attacks. I wasn't sure how you would want me to help you handle those."

"Ahh, ok," she said understandably as she adjusted her leg to keep it from cramping under her. They fell silent again and she laid her head against his shoulder, glad that he hadn't had a chance to put his spikes on.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and said quickly, "You, uh, you have permission too."

She raised her head and turned to look at his face. "Oh, yeah?" she asked as she saw he was blushing and looking away from her, and that just made her smile. Even if she had been trying to get him used to touch for months now, it was nice to hear that he didn't mind. Since she was so close, he just gave her permission, and he wasn't looking directly at her, she leaned over and quickly kissed his cheek. She cuddled back into him before he could turn his wide eyes back to her in shock.

They were dating after all.

She might even let him know about it on their next date.