Maybe someday there will be an epilogue or a little sequel! I do have a couple more scenes for this universe I want to write, but. I am a slowpoke, lol.
I hope you enjoyed it! Comment? Review? I love you!
Chapter 17
It'll be okay, Roxanne scolds herself, in the invisible car later. Minion said so. And everything is fine! Megamind loves you! It's a belated holiday miracle! Talk!
The interior of the car is dimly lit blue and green from the lights of the dashboard, absolutely none of which is original to the old Hudson. Its tires hiss on the wet pavement through the slush outside, but warmth from the old car's heaters curls nicely around Roxanne's fingertips when she stretches them out towards the vents. It's…quiet. Nice. She definitely still feels the effects of her months-long stress, but it's familiar, like feeling with her tongue for a missing tooth and finding only a dull ache and an empty space for something new to grow. The feeling of should-be-but-isn't, the memory of something unpleasant.
She swallows. "Feels like it's the first week of summer vacation," she says. "You remember that? That first week where you kept thinking you had something to do, but it was just adapting to not having homework?"
"Never had that feeling about homework," Megamind says, dry. "Adapting to not living in a constant state of dread, yes. But I'm not sure why you'd be feeling that way now."
"I've been worrying about this whole thing for months," she says. "I'm not worried anymore, I assume that's why."
He's quiet for a while after that. Long enough for Roxanne to wonder if something is wrong. But what she can see of his frown is contemplative, and finally he slowly says, "I suppose that makes sense. You said before, you were trying to decide how to talk to me. Of course you were stressed. Whereas I have been investing most of my energy in ensuring this conversation wouldn't happen at all."
Aha! There's her hook. "Yeah. Sort of…sort of a when versus if thing." She breathes for a moment, steels herself. "Hey, um. I want to circle back to something you said earlier."
"Reporter," Megamind replies, with a teasing note in his voice. But then he glances over at her. "Something wrong?"
Roxanne frowns out the windshield. "I…need to ask. Why Shame Box? "
He shrugs. "It was either that or Love Shack with a sad face. I thought Shame Box was funnier."
That isn't much better. The pessimism of Love Shack :( is pretty telling. Roxanne bites her lip. "But why shame? " she stresses. "Out of—out of all the reactions you could have had. I mean, was that...were you ever happy about this?"
"Of course," he replies, sounding very startled. "When you were nearby, obviously, but also thinking of you—how to arrange the plans so you would have a puzzle, trying to imagine how you might react. It wasn't all bad. If the Hanahaki wasn't so tiresome, I thought I might even be okay forever that way, loving you from afar. I have sought thee, sung thee, dreamed thee—"
"—Dulcinea," Roxanne finishes. She was the one who told him to watch Man of La Mancha, years ago after they spoke briefly about Don Quixote. She huffs a laugh through her nose, though it isn't terribly funny. "Courtly love. Right."
"...Something is wrong," Megamind says, glancing over at her again. "You're upset."
Roxanne swallows. "I'm not upset. I'm just. Worried? Sad? I—"
"Sad! Oh, don't be sad!" Megamind grabs her hand and squeezes hard for a moment before returning to the gear shift. "I wasn't ashamed of you," he exclaims. "I never meant that! I just—I don't know, I didn't think about it. It wasn't—it was not that deep. I thought it was funny. You don't have to be sad."
She doesn't reply right away. When he looks at her again, she's chewing on her lip and squinting into the middle distance; it's her thinking face. And he loves this about her—the way she makes connections, the way she sees people. But this isn't something she can do that with; there's nothing to connect, here.
Is there?
"I thought it was funny," he says again. "And—let's be real, Roxanne. I'm a supervillain. And you are—you were—someone I made a habit of kidnapping, okay; falling in love with you was inexcusably creepy! Shame Box Happy Face was—at least it was something funny, because the rest of it was very much weird! Wrong! Not okay!"
"But it wasn't," Roxanne insists. "It wasn't any of those things! And it most certainly wasn't shameful. You can't—"
"It was! Meanwhile you fell for the inhuman creature that drugged you repeatedly and threatened your life countless times," he continues, gesturing at her. "Are you honestly telling me you never once felt any kind of shame about that?"
"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying!" She throws her hands up. "I felt...sad, sometimes. And scared. Stressed, worried. And I was happy. Excited, even! At no point was shame ever part of the equation! Not even a blip on my radar! There's nothing wrong or creepy about just having feelings, oh my god."
Megamind shakes his head. "I kidnapped you," he says again. "Made demands on your time over which you had no control, threatened you with horrible deaths—"
"Yeah, well, you were entertaining and great for my career," she says, exasperated. "And—threatened with horrible deaths, my ass. Mister Faraday-cage-and-well-fed-piranhas."
"That was one time —"
"And we both know I could have made every second I was around a living hell for you if I wanted to." She gives him a very frank look. "You know I pay attention, Megamind. You think I couldn't have made you leave me alone if I really wanted to? You think I don't know how to make it hurt?"
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because I didn't want to! I—"
"You should have."
"—don't care about the damn kidnappings; fucking let it go! And that! That, right there, what you just said—I should have hurt you? Why?"
Megamind shakes his head.
"I love you," she tells him. "I am so happy it's you driving me home and not someone else. I want it to be you, I—I'm proud it's you!"
"Yes, NOW, but back then," Megamind snaps. "Back then—"
"I just said! Back then you were interesting, you were a career boost, I knew you weren't planning on hurting me. So—
"Crap, no, I'm getting off-topic," she says, switching tacks so suddenly that he physically startles. "I'm—this was not my point. I just...Megamind. It is fine if shame was in the mix for you." He glances over at her, his mouth a flat line. "It is okay if you were ashamed. I'm not upset about that. And I'm not trying to persuade you not to be! I don't agree with your reasoning but that's okay, it's fine. That's not, that's not my issue." She runs a hand through her hair. "I just—I need you to know that shame was not part of why I waited to tell you. I need you to know that."
"...Okay," he says slowly, irritation easing into confusion. "Roxanne, why…? I still don't…why is this a problem?"
"Because you made that, that beautiful declaration of love when I came home, and all I did was cry at you, but I was listening. I was." She sounds genuinely agitated. Whatever piece of this he isn't getting, he wants to, because something is wrong and Roxanne is upset, and Roxanne doesn't get upset over trifles. He frowns, trying to understand as she continues, "And, and I need you, please, to just—please think about why, when you told me you loved me, why you said—you said that if you had known I loved you, you would have—begged, begged me to have you," her voice breaks, "and then—then later with the shame box—and I just, I just need—Megamind oh my god, why would you think begging would ever, ever be necessary?" She shakes her head hard at him, sounding stricken and near to tears. "As if I could ever be anything but…just…the level of joy usually only accessible via hard drugs kind of joyful to know you love me! Ecstatic, thrilled, over-the-moon, internal Bollywood musical number with the dancing and the singing and sequiny outfits and a hundred extras! I am—oceans within oceans of happy, okay? How could I ever not be? Beg me—as if I would want to do anything but throw myself into your arms and cry on your neck and kiss you?"
He swallows. "Oh," he says. "But—that—"
—doesn't make sense , is what he's about to say, but—
—isn't that the way he feels about her? And he saw her flowers. How she had them displayed.
Then. She does feel it. The way he feels when he sees her, the beautiful leaping feeling he wanted to share with her so badly. She does feel it, when she sees him. He does give that to her.
He wasn't thinking about this that way. The—that she feels—that, for him—
"I love you," she says again, when Megamind doesn't say anything. "I just—I just needed to tell you, I wasn't ashamed. Not once. I am so happy it's you. Whatever made you label that box the way you did, I don't feel it. And I don't want you to ever think I do. Loving you is—you are not something I could ever be ashamed of."
Megamind feels that like a spike to the heart. Fuck, this woman is brilliant. "Stop," he bursts out, voice breaking and making her jump. "Oh—please. Stop, I can't—I can't—"
She turns and looks over at him, surprised. He looks like he's barely keeping it together; his teeth are gritted and his shoulders are pulled up nearly to his ears and he's glaring out through the windshield at the road.
"You okay?"
"I'm just—fuck, I can't—wasn't expecting that to hit like it did—" He swipes at his eyes with his sleeve and another muffled curse. "Need another red light," he manages with a damp laugh.
"Pull into the 7-11," she says, pointing at the parking lot of the convenience store on their left. "Just—pull over for a minute, pull over. I want to hug you, I'm so sick of not touching you—"
He spins the wheel and fishtails into the parking lot, slams the car into park, and fumbles for his seat belt, in tears and still half-laughing at himself.
"Come here," Roxanne says, unbuckling as well and sort of dizzy with the realization that she can't actually wait, she's frantic to hold onto him. She's never felt that way towards anyone before, no matter how upset they were. "Here, let me—let me just—" Megamind claws himself free, and Roxanne scoots herself across the seat to meet him as he turns and reaches for her.
"Hey, no," she whispers, awkwardly gripping his shoulders for a moment, wondering how to do this, wondering what kind of comfort he'll accept or welcome or spurn. Megamind has shed a few tears already this evening but he hasn't actually cried, not in front of her, and this…is this a good sign or a bad one? Either way, she'll do what she can, what she wanted to do so badly at Christmas and the day after his birthday. Awkward or not, she is so incredibly fucking done with holding herself back. "Hey. It's okay."
"It's really—you're so—I love—"
Roxanne leans back and cups his jaw in both hands and kisses his mouth despite how he's gasping, and Megamind twists his fingers gently into her hair to keep her close.
He catches himself before he accidentally knocks stress in his subvoice, but...oh, fuck it, she touched his gills and he's going home with her and everything is fine, he'll be fine. So he relaxes. Lets the clunking happen, lets it flow into the deeper whirring thrum of uncertainty. He feels Roxanne move a little as she notices, but she doesn't pull away immediately, and when she does, it's only a little bit.
"Is that…good?" she asks, resting a hand on his chest and frowning down at it for a moment. "You did that when we were doing your gills, is it…"
"Stress," he says, and shakes his head, trying to clear his mind a little. "It's just stress. I'm okay. I'm…I'm fine." He swallows hard, breathes for a moment. "And I do know you love me," he says. "I know. I haven't forgotten that—sparkle—thing. I just." He sighs and Roxanne hesitates for a moment before cupping his cheek. He leans into it, admits, "There was. A moment. Before I…saw. Your room. Oh—I apologize, by the way," he adds. "For intruding. I…"
Her mouth tugs into a little smile. "We'll call it extenuating circumstances," she says dryly. "I think you're excused." Then she tilts her head. "There was a moment?"
Curse her for staying focused. He grimaces and she sweeps her thumb over his cheekbone. "There was—I thought—I worried. That you might—be. The thing you said. So, so—hearing you say—that—" He shakes his head again and laughs a little, sniffs. Exhales.
"Oh. Oh, love." Roxanne twists towards him a little more on the seat of the car, curling one leg under her so she can hug him better. Megamind's arms slide around her back and he buries his long nose in the collar of her winter coat and heaves a very shuddery sigh, and Roxanne feels some of the tension leave him.
"Can't believe I'm allowed to do this now," he mumbles.
"I wanted to do this so bad a couple months ago." She doesn't let go. "It was awful, I couldn't think of anything that might help. Except trying to give you an out, and maybe a distraction."
Megamind sits back a little. He looks different than he usually does, Roxanne thinks. It must be the lighting. The half-light of the gas station parking lot halogens that comes through the windows is very yellow; it's not a color Megamind typically uses to light his plots. He also isn't wearing his mantle; that's unfamiliar, too.
Wind kicks dry snow across the hood of the car, their little bubble of warmth.
"I wanted to say yes." His smile is wry. "But I knew. If I did…everything I never wanted to say was going to just fall out of my face."
"That's why you were so quiet at Christmas?"
He nods. "Yes. And you," he taps her forehead with two fingertips, "are entirely too smart, by the way. Putting all this together."
Her smile firms and she colors under her freckles. "Well, I know you." She kisses him again, quickly, then cheerfully says, "And I am going to find whoever, whatever it was that made you think I'd be ashamed of loving you, and I'm going to beat them to death with a shovel."
That gets a laugh. It's quiet and a little bit wet, but it's a laugh. "I will come visit you in prison."
"Just visit?" She pouts. "You're not going to break me out?"
"I'd teach you to break yourself out," he says. "Give a reporter a fish, eeteecee."
"Teach a reporter to fish, and she'll use that knowledge to obtain information illegally." She grins at him. "Hmm, but I guess I should be a little nicer with what I do with it, now that we're dating. Did you ever manage to find another bank after I stole First Metro out from under you?"
He yanks his head back and stares at her, mouth opening in shocked affront. "You—wait. Did you do that just to piss me off?"
"No, I did that because I was curious how far your involvement went. I wasn't actually after you, that time. Pissing you off was a nice bonus."
Megamind wrinkles his face at her. "Rude."
"You love me." She grips one of his hands and squeezes it. "And I'll make it up to you. I have something to give you before we go to bed."
His tired eyes light. "More kisses? Presents?"
"Obviously more kisses." She laughs. "But I meant something else, yeah. A present. The...other reason why I was waiting to tell you."
Megamind blinks at her and cocks his head, but he also shifts away and shuffles himself around; apparently 'presents' piqued his interest enough to get him back behind the wheel. "Oh? And this is something you can give me? Something as good as being able to interfere with the foundations of a new bank?"
"You have to wait and see!" she exclaims as he puts the car in gear to head back toward the road. Her seat belt is…ah, there. She's been unconscious and unbelted in the car countless times, but Megamind drives like a maniac and being awake for it is both thrilling and terrifying. "If I tell you too much, you'll guess what it is."
He makes a grumbly noise. "But I'm tired of waitinggg," he whines. "I've waited two yeeeeears and my gills hurrrrrt."
"That's your own fault for not speaking up sooner. So! How do you manage to dehydrate gallons of water? I'm very happy not to have to haul six gallons of water up the stairs with us, but how does that work?"
"Oh! Oh, that's actually quite simple—"
Roxanne rehydrates the jugs in her bathtub for the next morning, not wanting to leave them dehydrated for too long if they're as unstable as Megamind says. But they're still stable, he tells her, laughing at her concern. Just somewhat less stable than something dry. It isn't as though he won't be able to rinse with them. It'll be fine. But Roxanne insists, and when she turns and straightens from rehydrating them, she finds Megamind wearing an expression of amused fondness that she had no idea she would ever want to kiss as badly as she does.
But. She holds off. They're in her bathroom getting ready for bed, and they've only been together for a few hours. Kissing him the way she wants to right now…well. She doesn't want to give him the wrong impression of her expectations for the evening.
Instead, she gives him a clean toothbrush from her medicine cabinet, and a set of fluffy lavender towels on the rack next to hers in case he wants a full shower in the morning after they do his gills. And then they have to switch places at the sink, because Megamind brushes with his arm almost perpendicular to his body and very nearly stabs Roxanne in the eye with his sharp elbow at their first attempt.
"It's funny," Roxanne says, blinking at him in the mirror for a moment, "I don't think I let my last boyfriend see me brushing my teeth for…at least a month, probably." She goes back to brushing.
Megamind pauses. "Oh. Did you want to do this separately? I don't—"
"No no, 's fine!" She spits. "It's not exactly the most attractive bathroom activity, that's all. But I don't mind. This is nice. Domestic."
Megamind wrinkles his nose. Most of the rest of his thin face as well. "There are attractive bathroom activities?"
"Showering." She grins; Megamind just went pink and his eyes got very round. "Anyway. I'm just surprised at myself; usually I'm a little higher-strung than this. Presentation, again. Um. Finish, finish brushing your teeth? And get changed? I need to get your...present. Ready."
He brightens immediately at the reminder that she has something for him, and nods. Roxanne dithers for a moment, then swiftly kisses his shoulder and ducks out of the bathroom before she can say anything else, her ears red.
Megamind does change into his pajamas in her bathroom. They may be moving quickly in some respects, but this is all definitely too new for getting undressed in front of each other. But that's okay; it allows Roxanne the opportunity to retrieve Admiral Algae's cryogenic storage container from its home under her reading table and push it over to the bed, almost to the end of its extension cord. Then she turns out the overhead light and sits on her bedspread, lighting one of the lamps on its nightstand to hopefully create a softer environment, gold and inviting, with the few silverfire flowers shining from their vases around her room.
Megamind steps out of the bathroom and pauses, blinking at her and straightening his pajama top. And oh, he's cute like this, all big nervous eyes and fluttery smile and soft-looking flannel jammies with hazmat symbols all over them and—pfff, and a high collar built in, because of course he would have that. He hesitates, but he takes a deep breath before Roxanne can ask if something is the matter and then he comes and slowly sits down on the edge of her mattress.
Roxanne opens her mouth to ask him to maybe sleep on the other side, but he pops back onto his feet almost before he's even fully seated. "Nope," he announces, "not happening," and skips around to the other side of the bed without being asked.
Where he stops, his attention immediately drawn to the silver cylinder on the floor. "What's this?"
She raises her eyebrows at him. "You okay?"
"Hm? Yes, fine. I need to be on the side closest to the door. Why do you have a…" He stops. His expression goes from confused to alarmed. "Have you been sleeping with that thing in your room?"
That wasn't one of the questions she was expecting. "Yes…?"
"Do you have a personal oxygen monitor?"
Roxanne squints at him, confused. Megamind stands up straight and goes to plant his hands on his hips, looking appalled, but then he winces and drops his arms instead.
"If that thing—ow. That is full of nitrogen, yes?" At her nod, he says, "If it malfunctions and leaks into your bedroom, it will kill you in your sleep! We are not sleeping with that in here. Is that my present? Why do you have a cryogenic—why would you—"
He stops again, mouth still open. Looks around at the flowers in her room with dawning comprehension.
"Roxanne," he whispers.
She takes a deep breath and nods, rests her hand on the lid by the control panel there as she looks up at him. "Yeah," she says. "This is the other reason why I wanted to wait for a while."
She disengages the vacuum seal and adjusts the settings so the container will let her open it, then slides her hands into the protective gloves she bought online for this. Megamind starts when he sees them, green eyes going wide and brows lowering with interest and something that looks like worry as he looks at the gloves, at the container.
(At Roxanne's lack of protective apron or mask. He loves her beyond comprehension, but this is not acceptable! Gloves alone are not enough!)
(She wears them well, though.)
(Very well, in fact.)
There's a hiss of escaping gas as the vacuum releases. Chilly nitrogen fog falls and rolls across Roxanne's floor as she pulls a rack of rattling containers up and out of cold storage to show him.
"I got the equipment from Admiral Algae a couple weeks ago," she says. Megamind recoils and opens his mouth, but Roxanne quickly continues, "That's a long story. The point is…after I learned your flowers were so endangered, I knew I couldn't just let them rot after I told you how I felt. Because I really was going to tell you, Megamind," she adds, nervous and determined and lit from below by the green indicator lights of the machine in her room. "That was always the plan. I didn't know how, and I was scared and I was putting it off. But I was going to tell you. And then I learned…that…and I knew, I knew I needed to have whole flowers first. Not just petals.
"But I do have two hundred petals," she continues, gesturing at the rack she's holding. It contains rows of sealed trays with compartments to hold individual samples. "And something like fifty buds. And I have thirty-four silverfoil flowers in here, and two silverfire." She swallows hard. Megamind hasn't taken his eyes off her, and he doesn't look away as he slowly sits down on the edge of her bed. "There's room for a couple more, I think. I thought…I don't know what you want to do with these flowers," she tells him, "or even if you want to do anything with them! Maybe, maybe you don't want them, I don't know. I don't even know if preserving them like this was…welcome, or not. But. I thought, I thought maybe you could learn something from them? Resurrect the species somehow, maybe. I don't know. I just wanted to make sure you would have options before they started to decay." She shakes her head and slides the racks back down into their freezer, biting her lip to try and keep from talking just to fill the silence.
She seals the machine and starts to take off the heavy gloves, but Megamind's hand flashes out and grips her arm hard. Startled, she stills, blinking at him. "Megamind?"
"Let—me—get this—straight," he manages, with something like hesitation and something like horror in his eyes. "You were trying to decide how to tell me about—your—feelings. Back when you were in the petal stage of your Hanahaki. And. You decided to wait. Through the buds. All the way to flowers, these flowers, these—colossally huge! very uncomfortable! flowers—so that I would have options."
She nods.
Megamind continues to stare at her, his mouth open. After a very long moment, he exclaims, "O-okay! So! Three things. One. You are not allowed to give me shit about my gills ever again."
Roxanne snorts and relaxes a little.
"Two." He gulps, still staring at her. "If—I—tackled you down—right now, and kissed you a lot, would that be—out of bounds?"
She feels her eyebrows disappear under her bangs. "No?"
"Good," he says, fervent, and dives forward.
This is the second time he's knocked Roxanne over and pinned her under him, covered her up with his skinny body and his hands near her head and a breathless note in his voice. But this time is so much better, because this time his mouth is on hers and she can scrape her teeth over his lip, and her hands are free to cradle the back of his head and urge him closer, lick into his mouth and tease his tongue into hers, make him gasp and then growl when she strokes her other hand down his neck to hold him around his shoulders.
And there's no shrapnel. Always a plus.
She shifts under him for a more comfortable angle and Megamind moves to accommodate, is apparently bold enough to kiss up her jaw to her ear. Roxanne catches her breath and does NOT whine at him.
"Good," Megamind pants, and kisses her ear, "because, three, you are insanely sexy in protective labwear and that is something I think I'd like to explore further with you."
Roxanne has to laugh at that. "Oh," she gasps, breathy and playful, "you want me to come help you in the lab? Play mad scientist?"
"Want you to—" He splutters abruptly and yanks himself back, sits bolt upright with his ears going scarlet as he falters and blinks down at her.
Befuddled, Roxanne raises her eyebrows. "You want me to…"
"See—my—fancy—" He sounds sort of strangled. "—beakers?"
Roxanne bursts out laughing. "What? Megamind—"
"They're! Very fancy! Very nice beakers. I'm—"
"That is not what you were going to say," she accuses good-naturedly, sitting up as well and leaning back on her hands, grinning at him with her eyelids lowered and her mouth flushed with kissing and a high flush of pink over her cheeks, under her freckles. "Come on, I told you what I was thinking earlier, it's your turn."
He stares at her for a moment longer, then blurts, "I want. ToMakeYouComeInTheLab." His blush deepens to a really interesting shade of lavender pink, and okay, yeah, it's a good thing Roxanne isn't still under him or she might be in trouble. "Um. But, but also…yes, come help me there, too," he adds. "That sounds nice."
Roxanne laughs again; she can't help it. "It does sound nice," she tells him; "I love you," and leans in to catch his mouth in another brief kiss, her fingertips on his cheek.
"Love you," he echoes, blinking at her and looking rather dazed as she withdraws.
"Come on," she says, moving away across the bed and smiling at him as she crawls under her covers. "Let's go to bed."
"I. Have to. Um. I'll—be right back," he tells her, ears burning, and he hurries away to the bathroom and closes the door behind him.
And leans against it, breathless and beaming at nothing.
She put his flowers on ice for him. Petals buds and blossoms. A calculated act, because of course it was calculated; it was Roxanne. She went to another villain for the equipment rather than a mundane human, and quite probably Admiral Algae asked for samples in exchange; it's the sort of thing that one would do. But that's okay, that's fine—the fact that these samples exist at all, frozen before decay could even begin to set in, defies anything he could have imagined Roxanne might do. This is—just—the most—the absolute most incredible thing Megamind has ever dreamed of, and he has a lot of dreams.
Actually no, maybe there is something more incredible, because holy shit. Holy SHIT she really reacted well to his slip-up about—aHAHAaha, ha—activities—in the lab? She was serious, earlier, then. About sex, someday, with him. And! She loves him! There's a good chance he's never not going to be stunned at that. He keeps re-re-re-remembering and his heart does a little flip every time. Same little flip whenever Roxanne tells him again out loud. And she was so gentle with him earlier, and so lovely about dinner with Minion and inviting him to come over tomorrow for talking. He still can't imagine this will really work, but Roxanne certainly seems to, and Roxanne's plans typically go much better than his own. They'll figure it out. Minion will come over tomorrow and they'll all figure it out. Megamind's skittish heart can't overtake his joy tonight, not after Roxanne showed him the absolute absurd lengths she went to to give him something from his homeworld, not after she let him push her down and kiss her like that. He has to spin a few little spins on his heels in her bathroom with his lower lip between his teeth to get some of his happy out and stop feeling like a balloon full of fireworks or fizzy soda bubbles.
And now—
And now he's going to sleep with her, in her bed, the bed he has thought of and wondered about so many times. Because she wants him to. Wants to hold him, wants him to hold her. He could sing. He really could sing, too; his breathing is uneven now with silent laughter but there's no pain, no Hanahaki to tickle and catch in his throat, no dahlia petals like blood in his mouth.
He flushes the toilet and washes his hands so Roxanne won't think he's weird for going into the bathroom and doing nothing. And then he takes a deep breath and opens the door and steps out. Roxanne shifts in the bed, looks up at him with her mouth still curved happily for him, and Megamind feels his face relax into an answering smile, helpless.
"I am probably going to bleed on your sheets," he warns as he approaches, sheepish. "Possibly all the way through to your mattress."
Roxanne shrugs, apparently unbothered. "The mattress is in a protector and these sheets have seen worse, I promise. It'll be fine. Come to bed."
Megamind goes around the bed and pauses, glancing around, looking for the storage container so he'll be able to give the brainbots its exact location when they come to pick it up and move it…hmmm…
"I'm summoning brainbots to take the frozen samples downstairs," he says slowly, looking up from the holographic controls projecting into the air from the face of his watch. "But it occurs to me, I could have them move the whole thing back to Evil Lair."
"If you feel okay with what's in there, and don't want to add anything else," she tells him. "Did you want to actually see the samples?"
He shakes his head, speaking as he types. "What you described sounded more than sufficient. I can't believe you held out for me this long. To give me this. I love you."
"I love you," she returns.
The keyboard flickers out and his watch goes dark, and Megamind slowly unbuckles it and places it on Roxanne's nightstand. The lamp there clicks gently when he turns it off, and Roxanne's bedroom falls into silvery half-darkness, bright enough to see by the light of his flowers and his city through Roxanne's window.
And then he—reaches down. Turns the covers back. And slides himself down between the sheets, slides into bed with Roxanne and approaches her, hoping she can't see how his hands shake. She makes a soft, contented sound, and she—lifts herself up and away a little, gives him room to settle into the lovely warm place she's made with her body. Just as he had imagined she might. His throat is tight and his heart is full, but his voice is steady when he says, "I…like your bed. It's. Soft."
"It is," she agrees. "Though actually, that's the feather bed on top of a foam pad. The mattress itself is kinda stiff."
"Support is also benefisial," he says lightly, wiggling until he's in a good spot with the pillows and then subsiding.
"I like the feather bed because it kind of turns into a warm cup," Roxanne says as she snuggles down at his side. "Which might not be the best for tandem sleeping in the long term, but—oh, fuck, this feels good." She settles with her head on his thin chest and her arm around him, and Megamind's arm around her back. "Is this okay on your gills? Not hurting?"
"Not hurting," he says, soft. Her body heat actually feels really nice against them, and the pressure of her other arm curled between their chests is oddly reassuring. "No, this is fine. Do you know," he says, deciding to just go for broke and tell her, "I've imagined this with you. Here, like this."
Her face moves against his chest. Smiling?
Yes, smiling; he can hear it in her voice when she says, "So have I. This is better," she adds, as his heart leaps with joyful amazement. She thought of this, too! "This is better. I kept getting hung up on what your heartbeat would sound like, I could never imagine it properly."
That's reasonable. Megamind's diving heart is not built like a human's; if he had to compare it to anything he would say it was more crocodilian than anything. "What does it sound like to you?"
"Comforting." She pauses for a moment. "And sort of fluttery? I'd like to hear it better, sometime."
He makes a grumbly noise in his throat. "I suppose we'll see if I can handle a stethoscope," he says, and Roxanne snorts, then laughs.
"Sorry," she says, between tired giggles, "sorry. I don't mean to laugh at you, I'm sorry, just—you were so mad about the glove thing—"
"Well I had no idea! I do not like having no idea, Miss Ritchi! It does make sense; it's always been either me or Minion to handle my gills, so of course I wouldn't know—but really, honestly! That was it? That was the hangup? The fucking gloves? " He's laughing, too, unable to help himself. "Not you putting your hands where you could kill me if you sneezed! No! Just the gloves! Ridiculous."
"You are ridiculous," she agrees, lifting herself up on her elbow for a moment and leaning down for a kiss. She touches his lips with the tips of her fingers for a moment when she eases back, and Megamind catches her hand in his and kisses them, then presses her palm over his heart.
Roxanne leaves it there when she lies back down. "This is better," she murmurs again as she settles against him. "You, here with me. So much better."
They talk for a while after that, laughing occasionally, their aching, battered hearts slowly relaxing into the healing joy of love returned. But finally they're both yawning and the time between responses is lengthening, and eventually, Roxanne makes a soft little sound and her breathing smooths and lengthens. Megamind shifts a little under her, enjoying the warmth of her bed and the weight of her body at his side and the lack of flowers in his chest. It really is so much better than he ever imagined, being here with her. Her head is heavy. She's warm. Falling asleep in his arms and happy there, trusting him.
Roxanne coughs gently, then clears her throat and puffs one last sigh of amusement across his chest. "No flowers, woooo," she mumbles, and Megamind laughs softly.
"No flowers, woohoo," he agrees. He bends his head and kisses her hair and she stirs, hums, nuzzles his chest and relaxes again. Have to put an atrium in the lair, he thinks, just before sleep swells over him and sweeps him away with the tide. Plant dahlias. Have a little pond with some water lilies. Won't that be nice...
Megamind sighs and relaxes, closes his eyes. His head is on Roxanne's pillow. It smells like her hair.
He is safe. Warm. With Roxanne. No pain.
These things are real this time, they are true, and they are so good.
