Three days later finds Megamind in Evil Lair, cleaning up some older blueprints for potential future use. He's finished four and is unrolling a fifth when his watch chimes and vibrates on his wrist, and then he's out of his chair and crouching down to peer into the tank at his side so fast the chair spins away behind him and falls over backwards. The huge roll of paper falls to the floor and rolls a short distance away; he barely notices.

He had set Minion's recovery tank up with a microphone and speaker in the fearful, tentative hope that—that they might prove useful. Soon. Maybe.

He studies Minion's face with his heart in his mouth. His lights are dimmer than usual, but that's normal when he's healing from an injury worse than a bruise. They might…be a little brighter now than they were? Or Megamind is just seeing what he wants to see. His watch was set to alert him if the scanning web he stretched over the top of the tank detected any changes in Minion's biosigns, and this…could be good or bad. Minion could be waking up, or he could be slipping out of his healing torpor into a true coma. Or worse.

After a few long seconds, every one an agony of desperate failing hope, Megamind rises. Turns. Awkwardly kneels beside the tank with his arm across the top, hand gripping the far edge to keep the trolley in place as he presses as much as he can of his ribcage against the glass. The next breath he pulls, he pushes into the chambers along his spine rather than into his lungs.

And he squeezes his eyes closed and sings the deepest note he can: a hollow, echoing thrum, long and steady, moving slowly back and forth through his resonance chambers.

Need. Need. Need. Need.

"Come on," he grits out, barely hearing himself over the boom of his distress call, his eyes closed against his tears and his breath catching in his lungs. "Come on."

It isn't a quiet sound. Minion has told him some of the singing peoples of their homeworld would call their roving clans together this way when they needed to, several people building a multi-voiced chord together and sending it hundreds or thousands of miles out into the sea.

Megamind can only imagine what that sounded like. He sings alone. He always has.

Need. Need. Need. He is gripping the tank with both hands.

He may be vibrating all the way down to his bones, but he is frantically attuned to the speakers on the trolley. A soft click crackles through and Megamind immediately rocks back on his heels and stares into the tank, barely breathing.

Two more long seconds pass, and then Minion's left fin twitches and he rights himself, and his eyes squint open.

"Minion?" Megamind bobs his head a little, hoping for focus. "Min-Minion? Are you back?"

Minion blinks slowly. His mouth works for a second.

"...yyyoU're rEally loUd," he rasps.

Megamind throws both arms into the air and leaps to his feet with a whoop. He's awake! Minion is awake! The singing worked, maybe! He's not out of the woods yet, but this is the best sign Megamind could have hoped for. He spins on one heel, laughing helplessly with joy and relief.

Then he drops back into a crouch by the tank and leans forward, feeling like he can finally breathe, like a weight has been lifted from his chest. "Minion," he says again, face split in a smile as he wipes his eyes on his wrist, "Minion, thank every living god. You look like shit, how do you feel?"

Minion wrinkles his face and swallows. He does look more awake than a few seconds ago. "Feel like shit, Sir. How kind of you to notice." His voice is a sort of whispery croak, and heavily-accented and slurred. It probably hurts to use all of the muscles he usually uses to vocalize in human speech, but this doesn't appear to be stopping him. "What. What does my mouth taste like."

"Nothing good, I'll bet. You haven't had anything to eat in three days."

"Tastes like…blerhhghfhl, ick." He keeps his mouth open for a moment and works his tongue, probably trying to rinse the taste of sleep out.

"Are you hungry?"

Minion appears to consider this for a moment. Finally he decides, "Yes. I could eat."

That, too, is a good sign. Megamind nods and gets to his feet. "All right, I'll bring you some salmon. The brainbots acquired it this morning, it isn't cooked. Sound good?"

"Sounds amazing, Sir."

"Do you want to come with me?"

Minion slowly weaves from side to side, then winces. "I don't wanna roll. It'll rumble on the floor."

Megamind nods and starts to turn away, but Minion calls him back.

"Sir? Is Roxanne okay?" He squints up at Megamind through the surface of the water. "Did she make it?"

"Oh! Yes. You were perfect, Minion. She suffered a concussion and a twisted knee but everything else was superficial."

Some of the tension leaves Minion's fins. "Thank goodness."

"She was—she—was the one who—helped you." Megamind's smile slips a little. "You needed stitches. Seven of them. Metro Man pulled me away too soon, he wouldn't listen."

Minion's exhausted gaze flicks to the healing wound on the front of Megamind's throat. "I," he sighs, "am going to have words with that man."

"You'll need to wait until you're feeling a little less torn open. I'll handle the words in the meantime."

Minion nods, and Megamind crouches back down for a moment.

"Tell you what," he says. "I'll go get you something to eat, and then we should run some basic diagnostics on your neural transmitter. But then I want you to rest, yes? You need your sleep."

Minion nods. He's still pretty pale, and there are deep shadows around his brown eyes. "We should. Offer to leave Miss Ritchi alone," he mumbles. "After this. It'd be. Polite."

Megamind swallows. That is not something he wants to do, but… "Right you are, Minion," he agrees, heart squeezing hard at the thought. "I'll go…do that. Later. I have some thinking I need to do first. I think."

"Mkay." Minion nods, eyes sliding closed. "You're good at thinking. Lunch?"

"Lunch," Megamind agrees, and hurries away to the kitchen at a brisk half-trot with his feelings all in a tangle.

"You know, I still have my mother's old cane," Jo says, leaning out of her cubicle and frowning when Roxanne comes back from lunch. "Do you want I should bring it tomorrow? You could try it."

Roxanne sends her a wan smile as she eases herself into her office chair, moving her woolen skirt out fron under her legs so it won't bunch up and wrinkle. "I'm fine."

"You are limping," Jo says. "You are not fine. Did you go to the clinic? Last night? If you didn't go then I am taking you there myself today."

Roxanne groans.

"Right, we're going," Jo decides, and grabs her purse.

"No, no." Roxanne waves her back down. "Seriously, I'm okay. Listen, if it doesn't feel at least a little better by Saturday, I'll go then. Okay?"

"Promise?" Jo scowls at her. "If you don't, I am dragging you. Knees are important." She sticks out a brown hand and waits.

Finally Roxanne sighs. "Deal," she says, shaking her friend's hand. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me, just get to the doctor."

"Yeah, yeah."

Jo probably isn't wrong to be a little worried. After she got home days earlier, Roxanne unwrapped Megamind's bandage so she could take a shower, and she hasn't been able to put it back on the same way since. It hasn't been great. She probably does need to go get it looked at, it's just…she's so tired after work! She would much rather just go home and put her foot up.

Still.

"I could have Megamind look at it," she says a while later, stubborn as always.

Jo scoffs from the other side of the cubicle partition. "Ughghhhh, when are you two going to kiss."

Roxanne huffs a quiet laugh and shakes her head.

Which she didn't realize was different from her usual protestations until she catches movement out the corner of her eye and turns to find Jo Scooby-Doo-peeking around the partition.

"Oh ho?" Jo says, eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter. "You aren't scolding and whining, did something change?"

Roxanne sighs, half-laughing, herself. "No! Just…I don't know, I've been doing some thinking. About…what happened. And I think…I actually might want to?" She gives a theatrical grimace. "Which is, you know, crazy talk. A supervillain?"

"A supervillain who is so in love with you it hurts to look at," Jo says flatly. This isn't the first time she's said it; Roxanne rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "I don't think it's crazy! I think it is sweet! I'm just saying, I think he wouldn't be upset."

Roxanne is quiet for a moment, chewing her lip.

Finally she looks over at Jo. "He let me wash his face."

"Jesus Christ," says Jo, in a tone of extreme exasperation, and disappears again. "I'm just saying! Roxanne! You should say to him about this!"

"I'll…think about it," Roxanne says.

"Just go for it!"

Roxanne thanks her lucky stars that her building has solid elevators. Seventeen floors is not a good amount of stairs to climb on foot. Even going from her building's parking garage to the elevator bank is hard, and when the doors close behind her with their soft ping, she's leaning heavily on the rail inside.

She has no idea when the next kidnapping will be. Minion will need time to recover, Megamind probably is more hurt than he was letting her see…it's probably going to be a while until she sees them again. But hopefully Minion will be okay! She knows recovery isn't guaranteed, but she can't bear to think of anything else.

She goes to her door with her teeth gritted. Honestly, the pain is more annoying than anything else; it keeps grabbing her attention and distracting her and it's seriously starting to piss her off. She is trying to think about Minion, trying to think about Megamind and whether she should say anything about spending the night together the next time she sees him. Would it be weird? He's so proud, and she saw him pretty much at his worst that night. He's probably embarrassed. But just ignoring it seems…rude? The last thing she wants is for him to think she'd rather forget the whole thing. He stood for her and let her wash his face and neck while he was injured. That means something. It does.

Roxanne closes the door to her apartment behind her and shrugs her coat off and onto its hook on her coat tree in almost one motion, flicks on the light, turns.

And then stops, blinking, because Megamind is waiting for her on her sofa with one leg crossed over the other and his hands folded neatly in his lap. He's wearing black, of course, but...jeans. A button-down shirt with the collar open. Blunt silver studs on his boots and his belt. No collar, no cape, no spikes.

A little flicker of warmth for him flutters through her. He's just a person, really. Supervillain or not, he's just a person.

"Hi," she says, and Megamind nods a greeting. "Is this…is this a kidnapping, or…?"

"Minion woke up today," Megamind says quietly, not looking at her. His voice isn't back to his usual smooth purr, but it sounds much better than it did. "His stitches are healing well. He isn't in very much pain—considering—and his appetite is normal. It's a good sign. We're fairly confident he'll make a full recovery." He pauses for a moment, then slowly says, "I thought…you might like to know."

Roxanne drops her keys in their bowl and drops her purse on top of them, relief rinsing through her. She limps over to the sofa and drops herself onto it a few feet away from Megamind and stretches out her leg. "Good," she whispers, since her voice doesn't seem to be working, "good. Thank you. For telling me, thank you. Yes, I've been worried sick."

Megamind huffs a breath that might be a laugh. "Yes," he agrees. "Yes, so have I. But it's...it is entirely thanks to you, really, that I have been able to worry about him at all, instead of grieve. Miss Ritchi, I could kiss you, I really could."

She blinks, startled, but he still isn't looking at her. He's looking down at his hands, folded together in his lap. He's wearing gloves, still, but spikeless ones, and when he shifts his grip, a line of blue skin flashes between the black leather and the cuff of his sleeve. The gloves are cut quite short in the wrist, it seems.

He's quiet, sitting on her sofa with his back straight and his eyebrows netted together over his eyes, his shoulders stiff, his hands in his lap. He's usually so wild, usually everywhere at once. And that comment tugged at her, considering her earlier conversation, but—

"Megamind," Roxanne says, because there are more important things. "Are you okay?"

He glances at her, finally. "You keep asking me that," he says. "I wish I had an answer for you." He shakes his head a little. "Sometimes I think I am. When I'm plotting, when I'm building, when I'm talking to you. Other times…" He hesitates, then releases a long, soft breath. "Other times, I think I haven't been okay in a very long time."

Oh, Roxanne thinks, dismayed, staring at him.

"But this afternoon," he says, frowning into the middle distance, "shortly after Minion woke up, while I was helping him run his interface diagnostics, I—I thought—I cannot keep doing this. Or else, one day it will happen for real. He'll die, or you will. And I can't—Roxanne, I—if I lost Minion, I would be—unable to function. Lost. I would have lost a limb. More than a limb, really; I could deal with that." He swallows. "I would have lost everything.

"And then I thought, oh, that's—that is almost—exactly how I feel about you, too."

That's new, she thinks, hearing her first name in his voice. And then the rest of what he said sinks in. "Oh," she says, a little dazedly.

"So I made sure he was all right," he says. "Got him into our pool where he would be more comfortable, told him to rest. And I came here.

"I have been sitting here, thinking, for…three hours? ish? Three and a half." He shakes his head. "I have a truce on with Metro Man. Your boyfriend in tights. So, I do have time to think, but…I…" He sighs. "Something needs to change."

"You do realize he isn't actually my boyfriend," she says.

"Yes, I am aware." He pauses. "Surprised to hear you acknowledge it, however."

She swallows. "It just. Seemed important," she says. "To tell you."

Megamind snorts. "I don't see what difference it could possibly make," he says flatly. "I've been sitting here thinking for three hours and I'm pretty sure my heart is yours entirely until the day it stops for good, but I have no illusions on where it falls in your personal orbit. Still," he sighs, and then blinks, and looks a little bit startled as he slumps forward, "still, I…thank you. It is. Nice. To be told." He leans his elbows on his knees, scrubs his hands down his face. "Fuck," he mumbles into his palms. "I'm—sorry. I wasn't intending to say—that. Yet. At all. Fuck."

Roxanne stares at him, her ears ringing. Tries to kick her brain into gear.

"I'm glad you did," she says, feeling sort of numb and concussed all over again. "I'm glad I know."

And she thinks, again—thinks of him standing between her legs with his throat nearly crushed, tipping his head back, allowing her to clean around the wound. Thinks of him allowing her to wipe soot out of the corner of his hurt eye when it was swelling shut. Thinks of him on his knees in front of her, pushing his bowed head into her hand.

Thinks, Yeah. Okay. She maybe should have thought a little harder about how extremely knee-jerk those I'm fines were, shouldn't she.

"Megamind," she says, when he doesn't move, "I'm glad you told me."

He makes a noise that sounds like a horrible scoffing laugh. "Yes," he says, "at least now you know. Keep your distance, Miss Ritchi, I can't be trusted."

Keep my…

"Knives and lasers and explosions," Megamind is muttering, voice bitter, "and now this, I really did not want to impose on you quite this far." He rubs the bridge of his nose. "I was actually planning to offer to leave you alone, if you wanted. I really do apologize, it's been…a long few days."

Frowning, Roxanne puts both her hands flat on the sofa cushion on either side of her hips, scoots slowly over close to him, her eyes on him the whole time. He doesn't move. Doesn't lift his head, doesn't look at her.

He's acting like this is something terrible, like he didn't just basically declare his undying love for her, what the hell. And no, Roxanne isn't sure she's fallen for him, not yet, but she's damn sure she's falling, and that's the next best thing to having already fallen, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't that already a kind of love, too?

She thinks of the way he looked up at her from the floor of his bedroom, bewildered and exhausted—the way he said Minion is all I have, in bed beside her—the way his hands trembled as he cleaned and closed the cut on her arm—her own blinding rage as Metro Man tried to force her to leave Minion alone at the Lair—

"Megamind," she says carefully. "When you said you could kiss me. Did you mean that?"

He still doesn't move. "I'll thank you not to make fun of me about this."

She swallows, and slowly—making sure to brush her sleeve against the side of her chest so he hears her moving, so she doesn't startle him—rests her hand on his back, on his thin shoulder.

He drops his hands and turns his head to glare balefully at her. "I," he says, his voice low and steady despite the way his eyes are glittering, "do not appreciate being toyed with, Miss Ritchi. Back. Off."

She keeps her hand on his shoulder. "Megamind," Roxanne says, their knees nearly touching, "you aren't the only one who—who's been—thinking about losing someone they care about."

(Megamind remembers her screaming last time wasn't nearly this bad and you threw him through a cinderblock wall at Metro Man, remembers the derisive rage in her voice as she said it, and—)

"How's your eye?" she asks, not backing off in the slightest. To her surprise, he doesn't press the issue again, just blinks and drops his gaze.

"—My eye," he says. "It's…well, you can see. Nearly healed. I mend quickly."

"May I?" she asks, putting out a hand. Megamind doesn't move. But he doesn't say no, and he doesn't flinch away—he just sits, and doesn't look at her again, and when Roxanne cradles his cheek in her hand, he closes his eyes.

For a self-described master of all villainy, he's not terribly villainous one-on-one like this, Roxanne thinks dizzily, carefully brushing her thumb over his fluttering eyelashes.

Megamind leans his face into her palm, his lips parting, and—

The intimacy of this moment strikes her all at once, as though she's outside herself looking at the two of them. Him, sitting on her couch with his eyes closed, his cheek tipped into her hand and all the hard lines of his face gone tired and soft; her, seated facing him with her hand on his face, touching his eyelashes, for goodness sake.

Her mind shows her: Roxanne, putting her other hand on his leg where it's six inches from her knee. Megamind, opening his eyes as she leans forward, closing them again as she kisses him—

Her heart squeezes and then does a little flip, and she thinks, huh. Okay.

"Megamind," she says, when she can speak, "I could kiss you, too, if you wanted. If, if you were serious."

He freezes. Then, slowly, his eyes slide open and he pulls away. "What," he says.

She bites her lips together for a moment. "Please kiss me," she says. "You said you could; I wish you would; please kiss me."

Megamind stares at her, eyes flicking back and forth between hers like he's trying to read her face like a book.

Finally she moves her hand to his shoulder, slowly leans closer and then pauses as he flinches his eyes shut. She truly does not want to overstep, here—

"Please," Megamind breathes.

So she kisses him. Because what the fuck else is she supposed to do when the man she's been quietly drooling over for the last five years says please like that. She kisses him, and she licks into his mouth, and he makes a soft, shocked noise and then—

—then suddenly his hands are in her hair and he inhales and returns the kiss, mouth moving gently as he curls his tongue around hers. A moment later he starts to pull back, but Roxanne isn't finished; she wants—she wants to make him feel okay, wants this to be one of the times he talked about before, wants—if he can feel almost okay when she's there, then she wants him to feel okay—

—and no, she can't make him feel okay, can't make him feel anything, but—but by god, she can give it her best shot.

She presses against him as he starts to withdraw, puts her hand on his leg the way she wanted to before, squeezes just above his knee as she slips the hand on his shoulder up and around to hold him by the back of his head. And god, how has she not done this yet? He's everything, hungry mouth and wiry frame and right here waiting for her. Megamind makes a sound like a sob and arches his whole body forward, one arm coming down to rest around her shoulders so he can pull himself closer to her, his other hand twisting into the short strands of her hair. He kisses her like he's drowning, like he can't stop and doesn't intend to try; he moves her head and parts her lips with his tongue. Roxanne hums into him, pleased, and Megamind makes a soft sound in the back of his throat.

"Love you," he gasps, when he finally breaks away, "I love you, I love you. As long as I'm embarrassing myself, I might as well keep doing it. Unless—it—bothers you?" he adds, a questioning note in his breathless voice. He bites his lip, frowns and blinks like he's trying to focus. "Does it bother you?"

She shakes her head. "No," she says, out of breath herself and not caring about that in the slightest, "no, it's nice to hear. Do you mind? This?" and then she ducks forward and kisses him again, quickly.

"I—mind? No, I don't mind," Megamind says, voice shaking. "I don't—have any idea why I would ever mind that." He swallows, then very hesitantly says, "Why? There was—you—helped Minion, unasked, you were—gentle—with me. I—"

Just go for it. "Because I love you, too," she says, and Megamind's wary stare goes wide and shocked. "A little, at least, already. And I'm definitely interested in more, I have been for ages; we could—do you want—would you want to maybe try being my boyfriend?"

He gapes at her for a moment, looking completely dumbfounded for once, before stammering, "What? Yes, I—what? Yes?" He stares, still sort of panting. "I don't—think I understand the question, could you repeat it?"

Roxanne has to press her lips together for a moment to keep herself from laughing. "Do you want to try dating," she says. "Exclusive girlfriend-boyfriend-partners? Do you want to try?"

"Oh wow okay that's what I thought you said," he gasps out. "Yes, I—yes, very much, also—what?" He laughs a little; Roxanne has lost the fight against her own laughter. "Sorry, I just, I just went from kicking myself to over the moon in approximately 0.2 seconds and I'm wondering how I got here—"

Roxanne leans forward and kisses him again, quickly. He makes a delighted, shocked little noise as she withdraws. "Like I said, I've been thinking," she tells him. "And…I definitely do already love you, I realized I would be absolutely wrecked if anything ever happened to you, if I never got to see you again. I want to build on that with you, I—I want to know you, really know you, and I want more brainbots and I want to see Minion more, and—"

"I—but I nearly killed you, I—"

"Metro Man nearly killed me," she says. "As I said before. I do not blame you for that explosion."

"I blame me," he says, as though this is perfectly reasonable and will somehow change her mind.

"I can't help you with that," she says. "But you do at least know SOME of the blame is on ol' Lasers McStupid? Yes?"

He snorts. "Yes," he agrees, "I do. I just. I am a supervillain, I built that thing, I—well, I was a supervillain," he amends, brows netting as he looks away with his whole self still jumpy and agitated, "I don't know what else I can possibly—but I, I can't lose Minion, I can't, and," he seizes her hand in his gloved one and squeezes hard, "I cannot lose you, especially now, and—oh, god, if I keep doing this—"

"Then one of these days, it'll happen for real," Roxanne says, echoing his earlier words. Megamind makes a sound of anguish and twists away onto his feet, and she sits up to follow him. "Megamind, it's okay for now, though. We're both okay."

"You're not!" He gestures wildly at her knee, at her arm, and then he touches his shaking fingers to the side of her head. "You're not okay. You were hurt, badly! I can't—oh—"

Roxanne has just turned her head and pressed her mouth to the soft underside of his slim wrist. When she turns back to face him, he looks absolutely stricken.

"I can't," he says again, sounding near to tears. "I can't. But I—Roxanne—what else can I possibly do?"

She grips his hand and uses it to pull herself to her feet, then catches Megamind's shoulder when he automatically falters back a step.

"You," she says, moving into his space and placing his hands on her waist for him when he freezes, "can rest. And you can wait. And," she puts her own hands on his shoulders and looks into his face, "you can do what you do best."

His forehead rumples in confusion. "What do I do best?"

"You dream the impossible dream," Roxanne tells him, "and then you make it happen. Whether it's a doomsday device, or an artificial intelligence, or a safer future…you'll build it. You will."

"Oh," he says, and tips his head forward to thunk gently against hers. "Okay."

"I'll help," she offers. "If you need me," and Megamind huffs a laugh.

"You're being very nice to me," he says, low. "It's…I like it." Then he lifts his head. "But," he says, "you've been nice to me for a while, haven't you? It's been a long time since you last kicked me in the shins."

"It's been a long time since I felt you deserved it," Roxanne returns, grinning, and he laughs again, a little. "But, yes. I guess it's been a while, huh?"

He shakes his head. "Where on earth did this come from."

Her smile slips a few notches. "When…um. When the brainbots were setting things up," she says, "and I thought Minion was going to—die—I thought of you. Of what you would do, how you would feel. If." Megamind blanches, and she takes a breath. "Yeah," she says, "yeah, the face you're making right now. And I couldn't…I would miss Minion for his own sake, you know I would have saved him anyway even if i couldn't stand you, but you…god, he means more to you than…"

"Anything," he says quietly. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Trust me, I get it. My point is," she takes a deep breath, "imagining that, and just…I…and afterwards, these past couple days, thinking about how you were with me. How you've…always been, with me. I really do care about you way more than I ever realized. I love you." She leans her head forwards, brushes his nose with hers. His breath is cool on her face. "So," she concludes, quiet, "yes. I want to be nice to you."

He swallows. "I am not exactly most people's first choice," he warns, but she shakes her head.

"I don't care. Sordid history, supervillain, alien…whatever. We'll figure it out. I want to be with you."

He makes a soft sound and kisses her, lips soft and careful.

"Okay," he whispers, when they break apart. "Yes, please."

Roxanne smiles at him for a moment, then steps back and asks, "So, can your first act as my boyfriend be showing me how to wrap my knee? I can't get it right and my leg is killing me."

Megamind blinks once, then snorts a laugh and nods. "Yes," he says, sounding sort of amused and still looking sort of like he's been smacked in the face with a pan, "yes, I can do that. Let me see—here—"

He goes to his knees again in front of her and unwinds the bandage, and then he rewraps it for her, narrating as he goes, explaining what he's doing and why. What pressure needs to go where, and how to achieve that using the stretchy material. She needs to keep her leg as straight as possible without locking her knee and cutting off blood flow, and—

He falters as he finishes pinning the bandage in place. Roxanne has just laid her hand on his head, again, and Megamind stills. He doesn't look up.

"You don't have to do that," he says, his voice quiet. Concerned, Roxanne lifts her hand away—but the way Megamind's shoulders twitch looks almost like a flinch, and he bows his head a little, and—

—does he think she doesn't want to? Roxanne smooths her palm gently over the dome of his cranium, cups her other hand over the place where it swells away behind his temple. "It's okay," she tells him. "I want to, I like it. This—does this feel okay to you? I don't…"

Megamind nods, and tips forward to rest his forehead against her thigh.

Then he snaps away so hard he almost topples over. He has to catch himself on his hands. "Ugh," he says, in a tone of horrified disgust, "your skirt is terrible! How can you wear that?"

Roxanne bursts into laughter. Megamind gets to his feet, smiling uncertainly but still looking faintly appalled. "It's lined," Roxanne manages. "It's lined and I'm wearing a slip; the wool isn't touching my skin. Not a fan, I take it?"

Megamind shudders. "That's the worst thing I've ever felt," he says. "Nasty shock, very unpleasant."

Roxanne shakes her head, smiling at him. "But…this?" she asks, reaching up to brush the backs of her fingers over the side of his head. "This was okay?"

He nods, pinkish color blooming across his sharp cheekbones. Roxanne smiles and rests her palm against him there.

Slowly, carefully, Megamind steps close to her. Slowly, carefully, he slips his arm around her waist, cups the side of her neck with his other hand, and draws her into a kiss. Roxanne hums approval and settles her arms around his shoulders, content.

"Holy shit," Megamind murmurs, when he finally breaks away. He rubs his thumb along Roxanne's jaw. "I'm allowed to kiss you."

Roxanne grins. "You are encouraged to kiss me," she says, bumping her nose to his again.

"Holy shit," Megamind says again, and flashes a smile at her. It's brief and sort of shocked, but it lights up his thin face in a different way than his smiles usually do and Roxanne decides right then and there that she's going to make it her mission to make Megamind smile like that as often as possible.

"Shall we go talk to Minion, do you think?" she says. Megamind cocks his head at her. "I've been worried about him. I'd like to see him."

Megamind nods. "That's a good idea," he says. "He's not likely to believe me if I tell him you and I are…um. Dating. Oh," he realizes with a scowl, as Roxanne releases him to go put her shoes and her coat back on, "and I need to text Metro Man. Tell him Minion's awake."

Roxanne blinks over at him, startled. "Why?"

"He thinks I'm going to kill him," Megamind says, stretching. "Granted he thinks so because I told him I would, but I should let him know he's off the hook."

Roxanne cocks her head. "How often do you two interact, outside of scheme days?" she asks.

"Not often." Megamind huffs a sigh. "I don't like talking to him. He's an irritating goody-two shoes with a stick up his ass. Just no fun at all." Roxanne makes a noise like she's trying not to laugh, and Megamind rolls his eyes. "Still," he admits, "we coordinate with enough frequency that now he wants my help on something. Won't that be exciting."

"You sound so thrilled," Roxanne says dryly.

"Well, he is annoying!" Megamind exclaims. "I don't like talking to him. He's—it's complicated. He's screwed me over more times than I can count but he's also saved my life a couple times, and I—am—territorial," he sighs, "which is also annoying. He's. Mine. Like the city is mine, you know?"

She doesn't, but Roxanne probably just needs to turn that over in her head for a while. "Territorial," she echoes, buttoning her coat over her scarf. "Am I yours?"

Megamind hesitates.

"You're an alien," Roxanne says. "I do know there will be…differences. I'm just trying to see where the parameters are. Is this possessive, or…?"

He blinks. "What? No. No, it's not—possessive, it's just—a thing. I feel. It's just a thing I feel about certain people and places. It's the opposite of…of what I imagine you're thinking of." He flushes, rose-lavender blooming across his high cheekbones and up to the tips of his slightly pointed ears. "It's like belonging to, but…reversed."

"In what way?"

He takes a deep breath. "Less you belonging to me, more me belonging to you? I think. But it isn't something you need to do anything about! I am more than happy with whatever you feel for me. I was fully expecting you to tell me you never wanted me anywhere near you ever again, when I came here today. Love? Wanting to date me?" He laughs shortly and shakes his head. "Beyond unreal."

She smiles a little. "May I try something?"

He nods.

Slowly, she limps forward and slides her arms around his thin back. Tucks her head down, resting her forehead on his bony shoulder and the side of his neck. Megamind goes still.

"You smell good," Roxanne mumbles. "This is good."

Slowly, he rests his hands on her back.

"It is good," he replies. "What is this called? Is this a hoog?"

Roxanne lifts her head and squints at him. Megamind maintains his expression of confusion for approximately one and a half seconds before he breaks and snorts into laughter.

"You ass," Roxanne says, fond, and shakes her head. "I know you know what hugging is."

"Yes, but how many times am I going to have the opportunity to pretend I don't?" he returns, eyes sparkling. "I had to at least try."

She rolls her eyes. "You hugged me in your bathroom before, remember?"

"I remember. I wasn't sure you would, though; you were fairly out of it."

"I was. I get to enjoy it now, though. You dork." She pulls him into another hug with a happy sigh. Things are okay with the world again. Her knee hurts less than it has since she left Evil Lair three days ago. And she's holding Megamind, who's laughing in her arms, and his heart is hers. And Minion is going to be okay, and so will they.

He pulls back just enough to aim a grin at her. "You love me."

"I do," she agrees, smiling against his mouth when he ducks forward and presses his lips to hers. "I really do. Let's go see Minion."

He nods.

As they're leaving, he says, "We're stopping at the walk-in clinic first so you can get your knee looked at by a professional."

"Noooo—"