Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Megamind and have no affiliation with Dreamworks. I'm just borrowing their characters for my amusement and posting it for yours.
Chapter 6
Megamind hopped out of the car just as soon as Minion put it in park and opened the door to the backseat. "You can take those goggles off now, my dear Roxanne. We're here," he told the ex-reporter.
"Oh, thank goodness," she replied while reaching up to remove the motorcycle helmet and the goggles she had been wearing for hours. "My neck was starting to get sore from all that extra weight." She slid out of the car with one hand resting on the back of her neck.
Minion spoke up, "Sir, if you don't need me, I'll rehydrate these cubes in the training room so Miss Ritchi can sort through them and locate her belongings in the morning. You will be staying with us tonight, right, Miss Ritchi?"
"If you guys don't mind… I don't think I have the energy to get a hotel room this late at night," she answered.
"No worries! We have a room ready for you," Minion chirped as he took the bag of dehydrated cubes they collected from each of the robbers' apartments before heading out of the garage portion of the lair.
"This way, my dear Roxanne," Megamind prompted and held out an elbow for her to take. She rested her hand inside the bend of his arm, and he started leading her towards the bedroom Minion prepared. He felt himself flush slightly at the still new sensations of her being willingly this close to him. He swallowed heavily and quietly offered, "If my presence in your bedroom won't offend you, I could massage your neck and shoulders."
She rolled her head from side to side and replied, "That would be lovely, Megamind. Thank you."
"Well, I figured that you're not used to a hard day of villainy and you might require some stress release," he teased.
She chuckled, "You're right about that. I don't seem to recall three separate robberies being in the initial plans. And how did the police not show up while you were doing that little dominance display?"
He smirked proudly, "We were merely holding up our side of the bargain, Roxanne. Payback and the recovery of your stolen items. If we grabbed a little bit extra in our haste, well, you can't really blame us for that, can you? As for the police, I'm betting that they had fallen for our ruse and thought we were somewhere near the warehouse fire. Also, we were clear well before their typical response time for the area. If we had continued too much longer, the brainbots had orders to barricade both ends of the street to prevent untimely interruptions."
Roxanne hummed a little in thought but didn't comment. She looked thoughtful but stayed silent the rest of the way to her room. He opened the door for her and gestured grandly at her temporary accommodations. "You'll find some of your clothes in the dresser and there is a connecting bath through that door," he pointed out.
"Great!" she said. "Stay here while I change. I don't know how you can wear this day in and day out," she told him as she went to the dresser. She looked through the drawers until she found a change of clothes.
"It's all about presentation, Miss Ritchi," he replied haughtily.
"Oh please. I know about presentation. Reporter, remember? Sometimes it has to be about comfort though," she replied as she went to the bathroom to change.
He smirked as he thought of his own pajamas that he would slip into soon. He didn't need as much sleep as humans, but he didn't get any the previous night, so he was looking forward to crashing for four or five hours. Truthfully, he would normally already be headed that way, but Roxanne was going to give him the opportunity to massage her shoulders and he wasn't going to pass that up. He looked down at his gloved hands and wondered if he should remove the gloves or not. Keeping them on was definitely safer. What if she was disgusted by his touch? At least the leather kept a barrier between the two of them. But she had touched him earlier. Kissed him even! Maybe she wouldn't mind him touching her… What if she said something? His fingers were slightly longer than a human's with more pronounced webbing between the fingers, but the gloves hid all that.
He grit his teeth and quickly removed his gloves. It wouldn't be the first or last time he faced a situation with false bravado. And he had to admit that his reasons were selfish. He wanted to touch her, and if she was going to willingly allow it, he was going to take advantage of it. Maybe he would get a chance to run his fingers through her hair during the massage.
He heard the click as the door knob to the bathroom turned to open. Out of habit, his now ungloved hands went behind his back as he saw Roxanne emerge in a tank top and pajama bottoms. She glanced at him as she walked towards the bed. She sat down cross-legged in the middle and said, "Well, come on. And loose that cape-thing. I'm not going to get all relaxed and possibly slump back just to impale myself on those spikes of yours."
He acquiesced to her request and removed his mantle from his shoulders. He also removed his spiked boots since he was just about to get on a bed. He felt like yet another layer had been stripped from him. How was it that Roxanne could literally disarm him so? He placed his discarded clothing on the floor near the door and positioned himself on the bed to sit behind her. Remembering that his body temperature ran slightly cooler than humans, he quickly rubbed his hands together to allow the friction to warm them.
He gently placed his hands on her very nearly bare shoulders and waited for her to flinch. When that didn't happen, he began to gently knead her tired muscles relishing in the feel of her silky skin under his bare hands. He had read about this massage technique and had tried to apply it to himself but could never get the leverage needed. He found a spot with his thumb that seemed tighter than the surrounding muscle and pressed harder into it to attempt to release the tension. Suddenly, Roxanne moaned.
He jerked his hands away quickly and stammered, "D…Did I hurt you? I didn't mean… sorry-"
Roxanne quickly turned to face him and interrupted, "Megamind! It's ok. That was a good moan. Don't stop. Please?"
"You're sure?" he asked. She just nodded as she turned back around and offered her shoulders to him. He tentatively placed his hands on her shoulders again. He lightly ran his hands along her skin before applying pressure. As he continued to work loose some tight muscles she moaned occasionally. It was odd. He could feel her relax under his touch. He was also touched by the amount of trust she seemed to be placing in him. Until yesterday, their only contact was when he kidnapped her and placed her life in danger to provoke a fight with Metro Man. That should do the opposite of gaining trust.
His hands moved up to her neck and her head dropped forward to give him better access. Once he finished, he remembered her reasoning for having him remove his mantle. He suspected that meant she wouldn't mind leaning against him momentarily, so he gently pulled her shoulders back until she was resting against him. He supported her head against one of his shoulders.
"Is that better?" he asked quietly, purposefully keeping the question a little vague. He took a chance and brought one of his hands down on top of hers and threaded their fingers together.
She smiled slightly and looked over at him with heavily lidded eyes. "Mm-hmm," she mumbled as she nodded and gently squeezed his hand.
"I'm glad," he whispered to her. They stayed that way for a minute then Roxanne found his unoccupied hand with hers and intertwined their fingers together. Then she moved both his arms so that they met in the middle of her body, effectively hugging her to him. He tightened the hug so she knew he appreciated it. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head then rested his cheek there. They were snuggling! If today all turned out to be a dream, he didn't know what he was going to do. Even if everything went back to normal tomorrow, he would always have these memories. And that was the main reason he didn't want to let her go. He just didn't know what tomorrow was going to hold.
A minute later and he realized that her breathing had evened out. Roxanne had fallen asleep in his arms! With a sigh, he realized that his time was up. There was no way that she would sleep comfortably in this position and he needed sleep too. He gently disengaged from her hold and carefully guided her down to the pillows behind her. He kept her on top of the comforter and just folded the unused side up over her. Then he quietly gathered his stuff, hit the light, and left the room.
If he wasn't dreaming already, then he should have good dreams tonight.
- /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ -
Roxanne slowly woke up. She felt warm, rested, and relaxed. She smiled as she fondly recalled everything that happened between her and Megamind. She had to admit, to herself at least, that she was falling hard and fast for the local supervillain. Not for his "Megamind, the greatest villain ever" act; but the sweet, shy person she had seen more and more of yesterday. Heck, last night she was going to ask him to stay but she dozed off too quickly. He didn't know it, but he had passed one of her tests. If she felt comfortable with someone it was easy to fall asleep in their presence. If she didn't, she could not go to sleep no matter how tired she was or how much she tried. Huh… That was actually the second time she did that. Maybe they could make this work if they wanted to try.
After she showered and dressed for the day, she left her room. A television was playing in the distance, so she headed that direction. She entered the viewing room and saw Megamind and Minion watching three of the televisions. It appeared to be footage from the fire they instigated yesterday.
"Ahh Roxanne!" Megamind exclaimed cheerfully. "Come join us. We're watching brainbot footage from the warehouse." She smiled and sat down next to him. "Look, Minion! It worked!" he yelled and pointed at one of the screens. Metro Man was clearly visible as he helped battle the flames.
"Excellent distraction, Boss!" Minion exclaimed.
"Of course it was, Min-yon! And nice smoke. I think that added that sheer artist's touch."
Roxanne smiled slightly as they tossed compliments back and forth still clearly excited about their success last night. Suddenly a brainbot was hovering in front of her with a steaming mug of coffee in its grip. She took it and drank some. She set it down on the coffee table and continued to watch the fire with them.
After a moment, she realized that Megamind had left off his gloves when he dressed in his villain outfit this morning. She reached out to hold his hand but jumped when he visibly started and drew away when she contacted him.
A hint of purple touched his cheeks as he put his hand back where it was and muttered, "Sorry… wasn't expecting that…"
"Sorry," she muttered back. "Can I…" she trailed off as she saw him give a slight nod.
She slowly and gently took his hand in hers. She noticed him watching her while she did so. She gently squeezed his hand, and he gave her a small smile before turning his attention back to the footage. She started rubbing her thumb in circles on the back of his hand. Eventually she intertwined her fingers with his as she settled back to watch the TV again.
When the brainbot footage ended, Minion asked, "Do you want to see the news footage, Sir?"
"Of course! Let's see what rumors and stories that originated last night. Roxanne, how does it feel to be the only reporter in Metrocity that knows the truth?" Megamind asked.
She smiled sadly and replied, "Not much of a reporter when I can't actually report. But this is one exclusive I'm glad to have." She felt Megamind squeeze her hand.
"Here we go, Sir. Miss Ritchi," Minion said as he finished playing with no less than three remotes. Roxanne looked up at the screen and saw a news report just starting. She settled back to watch. She enjoyed the bantering between the two villains as they commented on the news and joined in herself.
And then it was time to watch Channel 8's live coverage. And who did they have as their field reporter other than Joselyn James? They thought she could handle a live broadcast?! She grit her teeth as the recording played and heard her replacement report on the fire and the possible connection to Megamind. Apparently, she had arrived late, and the fire was already out, just smoldering slightly. She felt a twinge of satisfaction that her replacement had nearly missed the story. She hoped Hal creeped on Joselyn more than he ever did to her. Of course, she might enjoy the attention, the little tart.
As she was stewing, they saw Metro Man land next to Joselyn and say, "Rox… Oh. Where's Roxie?"
"Did he think I was blonde all of a sudden? We look nothing alike, even from a distance!" Roxanne said scathingly.
"You…you didn't tell him?" Megamind asked her in surprise.
"You're the only ones I've told, and I wouldn't have done that if my apartment hadn't been broken into. I wasn't ready to spread the news just yet." She was keeping an ear on the news report and heard Joselyn basically say she wasn't working there anymore. "Great! And now everybody knows! Doesn't she know that's confidential information? And she just said it on live TV! Can I sue for that? I need to call my lawyer. Oh my god, my phone! I probably have a hundred messages from my mom alone!"
A brainbot was suddenly in front of her with her purse and she grabbed it while thanking the cyborg. She noticed that the news report was paused while she dug out her phone. She flipped it open and saw that she had thirty-two messages and forty-seven missed calls. She frowned and showed Megamind the screen with the amounts on it. His hand started to rub her back and she felt herself calming and leaning into him slightly.
"Sorry guys, give me a few minutes to check these messages?"
"No problem, Miss Ritchi. I'll just go start on lunch, none of us had a great breakfast," Minion said as he left the room.
"You don't seriously make poor Minion make every meal, do you?" she asked, not really wanting to listen to the messages.
"Of course not. He ran me out of the kitchen after the second time I set out a cold can of beans for supper. Said he would take care of it himself. And I'm usually tied up in the workshop with some plan or another, so it works out," Megamind answered easily.
"Ahh, the 'ol' screw up the task so badly you get forbidden from doing it again' routine. That's a good one. I approve."
"Do I hear the sound of experience? What could you possibly do that would be less than perfect?"
"I've heard that I'm a terrible screamer." Megamind let out a short bark of laughter at that. "That's how I got out of dishes as a teenager. My growth spurts made me unbearably clumsy. All knees and elbows, you know," she confessed with a conspiratorial smile.
She sighed and looked at the phone in her hand. She leaned back against Megamind and pulled one of his arms around her. She said, "Settle in. This might be a long one." She turned her phone on speaker and listened to the first of many messages.
/\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\ - /\/\
"Yes, Mother," Roxanne said with heavy exasperation into the phone. "Look I said I was sorry for not calling you sooner, but I was in shock and trying to hold my life together."
"And what am I supposed to tell the girls, hmm? Not only are you unmarried, but now you're unemployed!" her mother griped on the other end of the phone.
"Well, gee. I'm sorry that losing my job has interfered with your life so much."
"And I suppose you'll want to be moving back in. You know I don't have the room-"
"Oh no," Roxanne interrupted. "Believe me; I won't move back in with you no matter what happens."
"I knew this would happen. I always told Ralph he shouldn't encourage you, and-"
"Well," she said coldly, "I'm glad I lived up to your expectations then. Goodbye." She hung up with a snap of the phone and a sigh.
"I swear that woman only talks with me because she gave birth to me," she complained as she leaned back against Megamind and rubbed the bridge of her nose to attempt to ward off a headache. He had taken off his spiked 'mantle' (as he insisted it was called, and not 'cape-thing') and he was surprisingly nice to cuddle into. "I'm sorry you had to hear some of the drama. If I ever have children, I will never treat them the way she treats me. I don't care how mad I get at them." He put his arms around her and gave her a hug. He dropped a kiss into her hair, and she felt herself smile. "Thanks. Can you be a dear and just hang around when I have to talk to her?"
"That doesn't sound very ee-vil at all, my dear Roxanne," he playfully protested.
"Ok, can you hang around and be menacing when I have to talk to her? Then hug me when no one can see you being not-terribly-evil?"
"That sounds like a reasonable compromise," he agreed.
"Megamind? I… have something I need to confess before I make the next call."
"Roxanne! You have secrets from me?" he asked in fake shock. She chuckled and reached up to lightly hit his arm.
"Says the guy with a secret hideout. But yes, I have secrets. And here's one: I'm single," she admitted.
"You don't say, Miss Ritchi?" he drawled.
"No, I mean I'm not in a relationship. And I haven't been for a very long time."
"But…but Metro-" Megamind spluttered, and she interrupted him.
"Everyone thought that, but there's not an ounce of truth to it. I got a couple of exclusives because I was a hungry young reporter, you started kidnapping me, Metro Man saved me; I got another exclusive, rinse and repeat. Occasionally I'd be a plus one for him if I wanted to get into some place or another to catch wind of a story or if he didn't want to go stag. Heck, I think I've talked more with you in the kidnapping chair than I have with him. Of course, I wasn't very cordial in the kidnapping chair…" she admitted.
"As you have every right not to be. It's doesn't set the right tone if the victim is chattering away like it's Sunday brunch. Although I still want to register a complaint about the lack of screaming," he teased her.
She smiled a devious little smile and lifted an eyebrow suggestively, "I bet you could teach me to scream."
"Miss Ritchi!" he said in shock. She glanced up at him and saw his face was a bright purple.
"Nope. When you scream my name, it'd better be Roxanne," she teased some more in a husky voice as she turned around in his arms.
His mouth was opening and closing like a fish. She took pity on him and reached up to kiss his lips. That seemed to snap him out of it as he returned her kiss. They pulled back for air for just a moment, then came hungrily back together. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and ran it along his. She felt him shiver as they both moaned. One of his hands came up to the back of her head and ran through her hair. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She pulled back for air, then dove right back in. After a moment she realized she was leaning backward and pulling him on top of her.
Soon his arms were under her supporting the both of them and his comforting weight had settled on top of her. His kisses were somehow both sweet and demanding and she couldn't get enough. She moved one of her hands to the back of his head, but he gasped and pulled away slightly. She moved the hand to his cheek and said, "Sorry. Too much?" She had noticed his reactions to touch but was breathing too hard to get more than that out right now.
He shook his head, "Fine. Wasn't expecting it," he gasped out. She nodded and trailed her hand back to the back of his head and ran her hand along it. Then she applied pressure and brought his mouth back down to meet hers. There was a cool touch of leather on her lower back, and she realized that her shirt had ridden up a bit. She took her hand away from his back and moved it behind her to find his. She encouraged it to slip up under her shirt so that he touched her skin. She brought her hand back to his back as he started caressing hers. She moaned happily and pulled back again for air.
She maneuvered her forehead so that it was resting against his as they caught their breath. She noticed that he was flushed, and she figured she was just as pink as he was purple. She became slightly embarrassed when she realized that her ankles had locked around his lower legs effectively pinning him against her. She continued to slowly move her hand on the back of his head, and he kept up with the movements on her back under her shirt.
She moaned and gave him a gentle kiss. "I have a phone call to make," she whispered against his lips.
"Make it later," he breathed before he reached down to kiss her again.
"It's late. I need to call Metro Man so he doesn't come looking for me," she said softly.
"That's true," he said and kissed her again. "That's one person that I don't want to interrupt us," he continued, followed by another kiss.
She sat them both up and looked into his eyes. "I was thinking… what if you took me off the singles' market? We do the whole exclusive dating thing?" she made sure to clarify. If not, he would probably run her to the altar tonight to make her his 'evil queen.'
His intense green eyes widened in his expressive blue face. "Roxanne," he breathed reverently. "Are you sure? I mean," he gestured at himself, "Supervillain. Bad publicity. Very probably alienate-shion… Your job…"
She placed her hands on his chest and looked into his eyes, "I'm sure I want to try." She leaned forward and kissed him passionately again. Just as their arms wrapped around each other, they heard dishes break and a gasping scream behind them causing them to jump apart in surprise.
"Sorry! Sorry, Sir! I'll just go and… yeah go," they heard Minion stutter from behind them.
"No, it's ok, Minion," Roxanne told him as she discreetly straightened her shirt. "I have to make a phone call anyway."
"Right. I'll just go and fix a couple more plates again. Sorry about that, Sir. I'll send in a brainbot to clean up the mess," Minion babbled as he hurriedly left the room.
Roxanne giggled and looked up at Megamind, "Oops." He just smiled at her.
"Ok, Operation: Call Metro Man," she said with a business-like tone. "We can't let him know I'm here or he'll think the worst. Megamind, can you clear out all the brainbots from the area? You can stay, but you can't say anything. I'm afraid Minion will have to stay away. He'd be able to hear the suit. Can you put one of these TVs on a local channel? And is there a radio in here? That needs to be playing softly on a radio station."
Megamind pressed a button on his watch while she fiddled with a remote, "Minion, Code: stay in the kitchen until further notice."
Minion's voice came from Megamind's watch, "Code: yes, Sir." He dropped his hand and took the remote from her. He turned on one of the idle televisions and tuned it to a movie. Using the same remote, an additional audio system came on. He set it to a radio station and turned the volume down like it was just background noise. Then he walked over to a computer that she honestly hadn't noticed before and quickly typed something on it.
Megamind then turned and grandly gestured to her, "The stage is set, my little actress."
Roxanne smiled and picked up her forgotten cup of long-cold coffee. Grimacing, she took a couple gulps. She hated cold coffee. It always coated her mouth something fierce. Which is exactly what she wanted at the moment. She looked at Megamind and put a finger over her lips to let him know she was about to call. Then she lay down on the couch and called Wayne. As the phone was ringing, she threw an arm over her eyes to help her acting.
"Roxie! I was starting to get worried about you!" she heard Wayne answer the phone.
"Yeah, I figured that out with the fifteen missed calls. What's going on?" she asked while purposely sounding groggy and her mouth making involuntary smacking noises while trying to get that coffee film off her teeth.
"It looks like Megamind was up to something last night and it blew up in his face. When I saw you weren't with the news crew, I thought he might have you somewhere."
Her response was just a grunt of acknowledgement that she heard him. She couldn't reply to that without lying, so she didn't. Wayne could typically tell when someone straight-up lied, so you had to be clever about it.
"The new reporter for KMCP said that you were fired? I'm sorry, Roxie."
"Yeah," she agreed. "Totally unfair."
"You ok? You don't sound too good."
"I will be. M'place got robbed. Staying with friends for a few days. We might have overdone it last night. Tha's why I jus' got your message."
"Your place got robbed? Need me to do anything?"
"Naw, they got caught. Made a stupid mistake." She made a choked sound in the back of her throat then said in a slightly panicky voice, "Look, I gotta go." She started to get up from the couch.
"Alright, Roxie. Call me if you need anything."
"Alright. See ya. Bye." She hung up the phone and smirked at Megamind.
Megamind raised an eyebrow and gave her a few slow claps, "Very nicely done, Roxanne. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn that you were hung over."
She huffed on her fingernails and buffed them on her shirt. Then she replied, "That was the idea."
"Think he bought it?"
"Sounded like it. It's not like I lied or anything."
"Oh, but you did. You let your performance lie for you. It was sheer artistry."
"Well, you're the expert in all things evil. Now I believe Minion mentioned lunch?"
Megamind lifted his watch, touched it and said, "Minion, Code: All Clear." Minion's voice answered in the affirmative and he lowered the watch again.
"So, what's that?" Roxanne asked curiously. "A watch with a two-way radio?" Megamind looked at the watch for a long moment and glanced up at her a couple times. She could see he was conflicted about telling her. "Look, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I know you have top-secret stuff everywhere."
"I was just pondering for a moment. No matter! Yes, they can be used as a communicate-shion device, but that is not their primary function. We're still testing them, but they are holographic disguise watches," he said proudly.
"Really? How does that work?"
He smiled, apparently excited to show off his invention. "Well first it needs a template to copy," he said as he brought the watch up to his eye level again and pressed a button. A grid of blue light came from the watch and traveled from her head down to her feet. "Add a voiceprint, twist the dial and voila!" Suddenly, Megamind's image seemed to glitch in the air and then Roxanne was staring at a copy of herself. "Well, what do you think?" he asked, sounding just like her.
Roxanne's jaw dropped just a little, "Megamind, that's amazing." She walked around him and looked over her own image. "Oh, you kept your own eye color. It's weird to see myself though. If I touch you, would I feel what you're wearing, or would I feel what I'm seeing?"
"It's supposed to produce a hard-light holographic structure, so you should only feel what you see," he told her and extended his arm. "Want to help gather empirical data, Roxanne? I need to finish testing before I declare them field worthy." She took his hand in both of hers and ran one hand up his arm trying to feel where his leather suit started. All she felt was skin until she got to the image of her shirt sleeve. Curious, she brought her hand back down to his, closed her eyes and tried again. Same thing.
"I feel what your watch is projecting," she told him. "What about you?"
"I felt what is actually there. It's not designed to fool the wearer's senses after all, just the observer."
"Knock, knock, Sir. Is it safe to come in?" Minion's voice drifted in from the hallway.
"Yes, yes. Come in. We're decent," Megamind told his henchfish. Minion came in carrying a tray of delicious smelling food, pausing when he saw two identical Roxannes.
"Miss Ritchi, what do you think about the watch?" he asked as he brought the tray to the coffee table. Megamind turned the watch off and came over to the couch.
"It's amazing. But not as amazing as the aroma from that tray! I'm starving," she complimented as she sat on the couch and grabbed a plate. After they were all settled, they began watching the news reports from last night again.