Monday again! More cute things. With just a hint of angst sprinkled in for flavor, of course! I'm SO EXCITED about these next few chapters, y'all, it is a STRUGGLE not to just post them all at once. They're probably fine but I gotta edit them juuuust a little more first. But! Keep an eye out for a bonus fic later today - I wrote a scene about what Hal's night is like after he gets fired, but it really didn't fit with how I wanted this story to flow. So it's going up as a one-shot.
Megamind playing with Derya waters the little dark lump of earth fighting to grow in my chest.
Chapter 5
It Knows Me - Avi Kaplan
"Well, HR won't give me details, but I asked when I got in this morning if there was a history," Carl says, when Roxanne finishes explaining what happened the evening prior. He leans his elbows on his desk, frowning. "They said there's a pretty well-documented one—both your reports and some from other people. Apparently you've been having trouble with Hal for years. Roxanne, why didn't you say anything?"
She blinks, startled. What? She's—but she's never gone to HR.
"None of it was actionable," she says, covering her confusion. "Not really. Not like this. This was…" She trails off, swallows. "I honestly think he was planning to assault me. Maybe kill me, I don't know—he certainly took us to a remote enough part of town."
Carl shakes his head. "Well. I can't promise anything, but I can tell you that I won't have you working with him going forward. You'll be at your desk for now while we see who we can shuffle around as a replacement—you may have to spend some time splitting work with a different team. Becky is out on maternity beginning next week; we may have you cover some of her column."
"That's okay," Roxanne agrees, relief rinsing through her. "That's fine. Thanks, Carl."
She goes back to her desk with her mind in a whirl. HR has a history? From her? Of Hal? But she's never filed a report with them, or anything. She's sure she never did. The only person she's really talked to about any of this recently was Megamind, last night, and—
—oh.
She smiles a little, shakes her head. "Some villain you are," she murmurs, grinning as she boots up her computer. "You're evil and I'm the president of Mongolia."
Rosemary Ritchi works at Magnolia Acres Retirement Community as one of the rotational daily nurses there. A month or so after Megamind meets Derya for the first time, Rose is packing away her things after a wellness check when Mrs. Watts exclaims "Oh, look, it's the weekly special," and points with a shaky, arthritic hand at the television in the corner of her room, where Megamind is broadcasting.
Oh, goodie.
The kidnapping chair is present, bolted to the floor of some absurd, serrated contraption, but it's empty. Well, this won't be the first time Megamind has needed to get a time-sensitive plot rolling ahead of time, and it probably won't be the last, but Rose's stomach still rolls over, because it's Friday again, and today, currently, Roxanne is—
This will be interesting, she thinks distantly.
"Sir," says Minion's voice from offscreen, just before he clanks into view with Roxanne thrown over his shoulder, "we have a small problem."
"Oh no, a problem arises mid-challenge, that's new," Megamind sighs, turning around. "What is it this—oh." He freezes. Stares. "Minion," he says quietly, "is that what I think it is?"
"A baby carrier, Sir. Yes."
Megamind pops to his feet, his panicky voice rocketing up an octave. "You stole a baby?"
"She was babysitting!" Minion protests. "I couldn't just leave the kid alone, could I? Human babies are fragile!"
In the retirement home, Rose stands with her heart in her mouth, transfixed and terrified.
"Yes! They are fragile! And Minion—Minion, everything we own is covered in spikes!" Megamind waves both his hands around at Evil Lair in general, then groans and drags his palms and fingers down his face.
The microphones pick up the sound of a baby fussing somewhere in the room, and Megamind swallows. And then he sighs, and groans again, and quickly unbuckles his gloves so he can pull them off. "Please tell me you at least grabbed the diaper bag with all her things," he says flatly, and Minion nods.
"It's in the car. I'll go and get it."
"Good. Put Miss Ritchi down…um…oh, just go and drop her on the sofa, this scheme is a bust anyway.
"Good people of Metrocity!" he adds, shouting for the microphones as he yanks off his shoulder array and cape and tosses them onto his chair with his gloves so that he can bend briefly out of frame and retrieve Derya from her carrier. "Good people of Metrocity! Rejoice, for you have been granted a reprieve! For I have—unintentionally! and through no fault of my own!—acquired a baby! Which I will definitely give back as soon as possible."
In his arms, Derya burbles and pushes herself up against his chest with one hand, then bats inexpertly at his face with the other. "Yes, yes, I know," Megamind says distractedly, leaning down so she can try to grab his beard. "Yes, I know, I'm very handsome. And who's a little cutie? You are! Yes you are! Kunik, nose-kiss! Do you want to go visit the alligators? Shall we see the big chomp-chomps? From a safe and responsible distance!" he adds, glaring up at the camera and unconsciously curling his fingers over the back of Derya's head. "Minion, kill the broadcast, I'm only making a fool of myself at this point. Yes, you're so cute! Why are you wearing a hairband? Wherefore the hairband, when all you have up there is curly fuzz?" He pauses, apparently listening intently as Derya gurgles and gums her fist. "Oh, is that why. Oh? Oh, I see. I see. Yes.
"Okay, corazón, vamonos. Minion, is—wha—are we still rolling? Minion! Seriously, cut! Cut! Oh, for—do everything myself—" He rolls his eyes and trots offscreen, still chatting at the infant in his arms, and the broadcast cuts out, flickers back to two extremely frazzled-looking news anchors.
Rose massages her temples, relief making her knees weak. At least the plot is off for today. At least Megamind seems protective. "God, give me strength," she murmurs.
Far away, in Evil Lair, Roxanne blinks her eyes open. There's no bag over her head. And she's horizontal, that's new. And—
"Derya," she gasps, sitting up so quickly her head spins. "Derya? Where's—"
"It's okay!" Minion hurries forward, waving his big hands at her. "It's okay. She's okay. We're not doing a scheme today, Sir called it off."
Roxanne blinks, trying to parse this. Megamind's kidnapping spray wears off incredibly quickly once she regains consciousness, but—he called it off? He—
"Well, we couldn't battle Metro Man with a baby on hand, could we?" Minion says, laughing nervously.
"You brought her with you," Roxanne says, sagging with relief. "Oh. Oh good."
Minion recoils. "I couldn't just leave her alone," he says. "That's not good for babies."
"Okay," Roxanne says. She swallows. And then her worry rises again, and with it comes anger, and she looks up. "Untie me."
Minion hesitates.
"Minion, you untie me right this instant and take me to my niece," Roxanne snaps. "I cannot believe this. I cannot believe you would see a baby and kidnap me anyway! How dare you? Minion, I really expected better from you!"
Minion bites his lip and bends down to cut through Roxanne's bindings. "I didn't see her until you were already out," he says, apologetic. "And then I didn't know what to do. I couldn't leave you there unconscious, that's the same as leaving her unattended."
"What you should do is wait with me until I wake back up again," Roxanne seethes, getting to her feet and shaking her arms out. "Not steal my niece."
Minion winces. "Yes," he says. "Okay. I'm…I'm sorry."
Roxanne glares at him, then turns away. "Where is she."
"Um…right this way."
He leads her up staircases and down hallways until they reach some kind of rooftop observation deck with a massive telescope bolted to it, where he holds the door open for Roxanne. She walks out onto the roof and then—pauses.
Megamind is facing away from them, sitting on a folding chair next to a blanket, which is spread out on the rooftop under a sort of shade awning held aloft by hovering brainbots. He's clutching a phone to his ear. Derya is sitting in the shade on the blanket in front of him, sucking on some kind of blue-green glowing thing as if it's a nook and playing with several floating, multicolored spheres of various sizes that bounce slowly and refuse to pop.
"—not giving her to you, I don't care if you do know where Rose works," Megamind hisses. Roxanne can't see his face, but the scowl in his voice is distinctive. "I've seen you with babies. You're a lawsuit waiting to happen.
"Yes, I know it's a mistake," he says. He reaches down and swirls a finger above the bubbles so they twirl up into a column in the air. Derya swipes at them. "Yes, obviously. But she's here now, and I'm not letting her out of my sight. Even for you. No, this is not part of my next evil plan! If you knew anything about babies you would know they are not toys! This is why she's staying with me. Just give me the phone number.
"No, I will not 'just get it out of Roxie's phone!' I do not have a death wish! …Okay. Okay. Fantastic, was that so hard.
"Oh, go drop yourself in a lake," he snaps. "Now stop distracting me. I have an infant human to entertain." He stabs the End Call button and slides down off his chair, shuffling something out of his lap and onto the seat of the chair as he moves. Roxanne squints. That looks like…is that his de-gun? It seems to be in several pieces.
"Okay, you," Megamind sighs, lowering himself onto his stomach with a groan and propping his chin on his fist. "You like these? Yes, so do I. And I should really thank you for alerting me to a potential purpose for them; I've been operating under the assumption that they were generally useless. I suppose they do have some casual entertainment value. Can you say, thermodynamic equilibrium?"
Derya gurgles at him and swats wildly at one of the semi-floating balls in the air.
Roxanne relaxes, relief swirling through her and staying this time. Her niece looks perfectly happy.
"Well, don't feel bad. Neither could I, at your age." Megamind ducks forward and clunks the side of his head gently against Derya's. "How's the binky? Do you like the binky? I'm going to need that back, you know. You can't keep it. Oh, well done!" Derya has just managed to hit one of the larger balls. "Good job! You hit it; I am very proud of you! What? What is it, what do you want?" He rolls onto his back and grins at Derya upside-down from the ground, and she crows and slaps both hands repeatedly on his forehead.
"Bah bab ba bah!" says Derya, dropping the glowing nook out of her mouth so it bounces off his head. He laughs.
Minion clears his throat. "Um," he says, and Roxanne jumps. "Sir? Miss Ritchi is awake."
"She's what? Oh! She's awake!" Megamind sits up, blinking and suddenly looking very worried. "Miss Ritchi!" he exclaims, apparently unaware of the line of baby drool on his forehead. "Um. This, ah, this isn't what it looks like?"
She sends him a very flat expression. "It looks like you're playing with a baby."
"…Okay! So, it is what it looks like. Um—I, I can explain—"
Roxanne sighs and shakes her head. "No need. Minion already covered it. So," she sighs, coming forward with Minion trailing behind her. "You wound up on babysitting duty, huh?"
"Yes!" Megamind exclaims, his eyebrows up and his big eyes full of sparkling, nervous enthusiasm. "Yes! And! I successfully changed a diaper, all by myself! And I definitely did not put the clean one on backwards and have to start over when I realized the teddy bears were not facing front."
Roxanne snorts in spite of herself. "You didn't, huh?"
"Absolutely not," Megamind says, eyeing her carefully and fidgeting as she sits down on the folding chair. She scoops the pieces of the de-gun into her lap. "I was perfect right from the go-get."
She sighs. "Okay," she murmurs. She slumps, puts her elbows on her knees. Okay. Everything is okay. Megamind called off the evil plot. Derya is okay.
Next to her, faintly, she hears the telltale bloops of a phone being dialed. And then Megamind says, very quickly, "Rose this is Megamind I have your baby and she's fine."
Rose's response is unintelligible, but Roxanne can hear from her tone that she isn't happy.
"No—no. No, this was not the plan, I didn't—we didn't realize—I see that, yes, you're—absolutely right. I. Apologize.
"Keep it from—oh! Um. I, I suppose we could—ah—keep a closer eye on Miss Ritchi's schedule? Going forward?
"Oh!" He sits up a little. "Oh. Every Friday? Ah! Jum'ah! I see. That does clear things up a bit. Um. Thank…s? Thanks?"
It's funny, watching him talk on the phone. He sounds more or less normal, if extremely stressed, but his expression is stuck in a kind of extended, flinching wince.
Roxanne clears her throat and holds out her hand for the phone. Megamind blinks, then says, "Oh, here," and passes it over without any kind of warning.
Roxanne sighs. "Hey, Rose, it's me."
"—and you—what? Annie? What?" Rose sounds extremely taken aback at the abrupt change in conversational partner.
"Yeah, sorry. You okay?"
Rose huffs a sigh into the receiver. "Yes, I'm okay. Still kind of shaky, but I'm okay. Is Derya really fine?"
Roxanne looks down at her niece. "She looks fine to me. She's slobbering on some kind of floaty ball. I assume those are non-toxic?" she adds, looking at Megamind, who sends her an affronted expression.
"Of course, what do you take me for?"
"Good. Anyway, yes, she appears to be having a grand old time."
"Can I talk to her?"
Roxanne blinks, but holds the phone down next to Derya's ear. Rose's voice says something.
"Bbbbbbb!" says Derya, turning and grabbing for the little rectangle, which Roxanne quickly pulls back out of range. Derya looks perplexed at this.
"No, sweetie, I wasn't offering it to you," Roxanne tells her. "See?" she says to Rose, as Megamind pulls Derya's attention back to the array of floating balls. "She's okay."
"Look," Megamind is saying, holding Derya's hands, showing her how to direct the balls. "If you move like this—like this—see—they move this way with the air flow. Do you see? Like this. Yes! Ye—oh, well, sort of. Sort of! Good job. Okay."
Roxanne snorts. "Well," she says, "I'll go ahead and get her home. You still coming to pick her up at six?"
"You'll have her home by then?"
"Yeah, we'll be heading out soon," Roxanne says, sending a stern stare at Megamind so he doesn't argue about keeping her. He grimaces again, his ears turning pink. "I'll text you when we get there so you know. Sorry about all this."
She wraps up the phone call and hands Megamind's phone back.
"So," she says. "You're going to pay a little bit closer attention to my schedule."
Megamind and Minion both nod.
"So you don't kidnap me while I'm babysitting again."
They nod.
She takes a deep breath. "And maybe you also don't kidnap me when I have an important meeting scheduled?" This has been a major gripe of hers, over the years, and it still pisses her off when she runs into it and has to reschedule something.
Slowly, they look at each other.
"I think," Minion says, after a moment, "I think…at this point. I think that's…reasonable? Sir?"
Megamind hesitates, then nods. "Yes. Yes, I think that is fair. As long as we're already checking your calendar, we might as well take…ah…additional considerations."
Roxanne exhales and does her best not to let her surprise show on her face. "Thank you."
Megamind scowls at her and opens his mouth, then jumps and looks down—Derya has just put both hands on his leg and is sort of bouncing herself on her arms. His face relaxes, his lips twitch. "Okay, mi vida," he says, "yes, yes, my attention, it's all yours."
She grabs the binky when he offers it to her. Shoves it in her mouth and gums it with enthusiasm.
"What is that thing?" Roxanne asks.
"It's my old binky," Megamind says. "From when I was small."
"Huh." She looks around. "And why is your gun in four pieces?"
"The binky is its power source." He glances up. "I sterilized it first, don't worry."
A pair of brainbots drift down and extend ventral tendrils like long, slender tentacles towards the baby. Roxanne stiffens, leans forward, but Megamind waves at her. "Wait, wait," he says. "I want to see how this goes."
At second glance, Roxanne realizes these brainbots must be new—these are a little more oblong than usual, their edges rounded. Their chasses are completely smooth, unadorned with the usual jagged fins and spikes the rest of the host festoons themselves with as their personalities develop. They do seem to have fins, but they're part of their glass braincases, which are spun up to have bubbly-smooth dorsal ridges like the sail of a portuguese man o' war. And—Roxanne leans forward, squints—yes, even their ventral surfaces are totally smooth; the metallic tendrils they're letting Derya pull on appear to be welded or soldered in place at the base rather than attached by potentially pinchy hinges. It's a nice solder job, too; the metal is pressed flush with either piece of the brainbot in gentle ripples. Each brainbot has six of these smooth metallic arms: three roughly a yard long, and three shorter ones spaced between them, with silicone grips along the lower halves of the long arms and all the way up the short ones.
"Those are new," she says.
"Hmm? Oh, yes." Megamind nods, turning his head towards her a little without taking his eyes off the baby and the brainbots. "Yes, the twins. Deimos and Phobos. They're for your sister. Well, and Derya."
Roxanne blinks. He—
Holy smokes, he actually built Rose a brainbot? Two brainbots? And judging from how careful they're being, he programmed them to be child-safe. A few years ago, Roxanne would have been nervous about allowing any kind of AI near a baby, regardless of programming, but she knows at this point that Megamind's little drones can be trusted. These two don't have sharp jaws for biting, and they don't make the usual bowging sound. Instead, they emit soft, crooning hums, and musical whirrs and clicks.
"They're beautiful," she says, entirely honestly. "They—are these cyborgs, too? They look—"
"Their neural base is a combination of octopus and pigeon," Megamind says. "Yes."
"Octopus," Roxanne echoes, startled. "Where on earth did you get an octopus brain?"
Megamind flushes. "I…several years ago, Minion and I tried to keep one. We hoped—well, linguistically, we were hoping it would be a learning experience. And it was! But they're…extremely sensitive creatures."
"It died?"
Megamind nods. "I—um. Minion. Felt awful. So I kept it on ice. Waste not, you know? I was saving it for, um, a special occasion, and there wound up being enough viable tissue for two neuromorphic motherboards, so…
"I don't know why I'm telling you this," he adds, sitting up suddenly and then slowly getting to his feet, frowning down at the baby. "You should get her home, Miss Ritchi. The twins will go with you; they've already bonded quite strongly to Derya. I was hopeful that they would."
Blinking, Roxanne rises. He's not wrong, she really should be going, but she still feels vaguely hurt at being dismissed so abruptly. "Yes," she says. "I suppose you're right."
One of the twins—Deimos, Roxanne is pretty sure—gently takes the binky away from Derya while Phobos hovers close and offers a nook. Derya frowns and makes a grab for the glowing binky, and Roxanne picks her up. Phobos rises with her, still proffering the nook.
Megamind presses his lips together. "I did tell you," he says, taking the binky from Deimos and drying it off on the corner of his cape. "I did tell you, you can't keep it. I need this back. You need to take your nook. That's it, that's good! Yes, that's your nook." He gathers up the pieces of his de-gun and swiftly reassembles it. Lord knows where he was hiding the tiny screwdriver; Roxanne is sure he wasn't holding it a minute ago.
He extends his arm and tilts his head, sights down the length of the gun, then straightens and holsters it at his thigh. "Well," he says, brusque. The twins are gathering up Derya's things, packing them away in the diaper bag. "This was fun. Let's not do it again."
Roxanne nods. "Sounds good. And hey—" She turns, bumps her elbow against his arm. "Text me, okay? Seriously! I don't have your phone number! I can't reach out first."
Megamind nods.
Roxanne hesitates, suddenly glad she's holding Derya because she can't give in to the absurd urge to pull him into a friendly hug. "I would like to hear from you," she offers, feeling weirdly embarrassed about admitting it, but Megamind just smiles tightly and ushers them both inside.
"It's my fault," Minion says as he fires up the invisible car. "I'm sorry, Miss Ritchi. I panicked."
She sighs. "It's okay. I'm sorry I yelled at you," she tells him. "I was worried. But I shouldn't have snapped like that; you told me she was fine and there was no evil plot involved today." She sends him a smile in the rearview mirror. "At least you saw her! And you did bring her with you. After just sitting with us at my apartment, that was the second-most correct move you could have made."
He nods, and Roxanne closes her eyes so she doesn't see where they are in town as they leave Evil Lair.
"Really," she says, after a while. "You did good."
"I don't know if I'd say it was good," Minion says. "Not as bad as it could have been, I suppose."
"Still. I'm…" She trails off, bites her lip. "Minion, is it weird if I say I'm proud of you?"
There's a pause. Finally Minion says, sounding very taken aback, "Well, I—maybe? Sort of? Why on earth are you proud of me?"
"It's just, you and Megamind always say you're terrible and evil and socially inept, but when it really counts…you guys pretty reliably do the right thing. Or a right thing, at least. You, even more than him." She shrugs. "It's not always a…well, a normal right thing, but it works."
Someone honks, and she opens her eyes. The city is going past outside. They appear to be heading away from the harbor, but that's not surprising; Roxanne has known Evil Lair was tucked away somewhere in those storage units and warehouses and manufacturing facilities for years.
"It's just," she says, when Minion doesn't say anything. "We were talking at Waffle House, a couple weeks ago. He mentioned thinking about what kind of evil he wanted to be, back in the beginning, and…I mean, I know you both have standards, but it was the first time he acknowledged that they were intentional."
"When did you go to Waffle House?" Minion asks, his startled gaze flicking to her in the mirror. She pauses.
"Sorry, I—thought he would have said," she says slowly. "Um. Yeah, he…I ran into some trouble with Hal, and Megamind helped me out. And I was pretty shaken up and I hadn't eaten all day, so he took me to Waffle House."
Minion makes a pained noise. "Ohhh I told him he should have emailed you about that man," he frets. "I told him! Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Roxanne assures him. She has to wonder why Megamind wouldn't fill Minion in on that evening, but she's touched that Minion would be so concerned. "Don't worry. I'd rather not go into details, but I'm not working with Hal anymore."
"Is he still with KCMP?"
"Unfortunately." She sighs. "My boss can keep him away from me, but he doesn't have the authority to actually fire someone in another department."
"Hmmm," Minion says, but that's all. "And—work is good, otherwise? Is it better now that he's away from you?"
"It's better," she confirms. "I don't dread going to work, now, which is nice. I didn't even realize that was mostly Hal's doing. And he's easy enough to avoid in the lunchroom. Usually." She pauses, then admits, "The daily grind still does feel like a grind, though. I miss finding stories, not just covering them. They keep telling me I'm lucky to still be in front of a camera at all, at my age, but honestly, Minion, between you and me? I could take it or leave it."
"Start with Hal's boss," Minion suggests. "He doesn't want to fire a known creep. Maybe there's a reason."
Roxanne snorts. "Who, Trey? There's no story there. Trey's one of Hal's friends, I think that's how he got the job at KCMP in the first place."
"Hmmm," Minion says again.
"What are you thinking?" Roxanne asks, as Minion pulls into the alley behind her building.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing important," Minion says lightly. "You have a good rest of your day, Miss Ritchi. I hope work gets more interesting for you, soon."
Hal is fired three days later. A very tearful, very loud woman at a very public photoshoot screams, and then screams at him, sobbing and insisting that he grabbed her and how dare he and what's his name, who is his boss, she wants to talk to his manager. Hal is caught on camera shouting back at her, telling her she has a face like a truck and he doesn't go for mannish fat chicks.
What a nice guy.
Roxanne watches the video with her hand clamped over her mouth so she doesn't accidentally laugh, but it's a struggle. The woman in the video is tall and built like a linebacker, with curly blonde hair and a lovely purple dress with white polka dots, and she is definitely, unquestionably, without a doubt, Minion. With that underbite? And this timing? There's nobody else she can be.
Besides, Roxanne knows that when Minion says hmmm in a certain tone of voice, things tend to happen pretty quickly. And Megamind did say he was 'working on something' that would allow him to walk Roxanne up to her apartment. He must have been referring to a disguise of some kind. Roxanne has to hand it to him: it really is one hell of a disguise.
Man. She should have complained to Minion about Hal years ago.
She gets home from work that night in the best mood she's had in months. Hal is gone, Roxanne has good friends, and to top it all off, she received a text that afternoon from an unknown number that simply said, "is he gone or do we need to escalate? :) " and really, three guesses as to who that was.
He's gone, she sent back, grinning. Apparently 'someone' sent that video to one of the VPs w/ subject line 'what kind of circus are you running and who is this clown' in all caps
oh wow. you don't say. I wonder who could have done that.
A mystery for sure ;)
He was quiet for a while, and then Roxanne's phone lit up again.
just kidding it was us
Now she sighs, leaning on the low wall that runs around the outside of her balcony, resting her weight on her forearms on the tarnished brass rail set into the top of it as she gazes into the sunset.
Can there be a third time? he asked, back at the restaurant, weeks ago.
She bites her lip. Megamind may have trouble thinking back on good times without feeling melancholy, but melancholy is better than sad, right?
Roxanne wants to give him a third time. Him and Minion both, if possible—a good memory, something they can hold onto against the darkness she's beginning to recognize clouds Megamind's mega-mind sometimes. But what can she do? For as long as she's been involved with the man, she's really only just beginning to really get to know him. There's still a lot she doesn't know.
Well, but she knows a little. She knows about his strange supplementary diet of sugar and poison.
She pinches her lips together. Minion mentioned cyanide, specifically; lima beans and almonds are one thing, but Roxanne is not sure she wants to know the details of how Megamind learned hydrogen cyanide is something he can safely ingest. But the more she does get to know Megamind, the more certain she is that she can probably guess. It makes her heart ache.
She shakes herself. Okay, no. Focus. What does she know about Megamind? She knows what he's like, and she knows his diet, a little about his morals, his standards…she knows he spends a lot of time in the water; he as good as told her that. He said he spent most of his first eight days in water, and she knows he kept an octopus, and she knows Minion is definitely fully aquatic. And Megamind is built like a swimmer: wide shoulders for his skinny frame, and extremely narrow hips.
And—
She stands up as a thought occurs. She knows about those creatures on his homeworld. The little floating glowing things. Points of light, he said. And she thinks—
Oooh, hey. I can work with that.
Now, there's an idea. And Roxanne isn't sure, can't be sure, but it feels like a good idea and she wants to do it. She—
Should she wait? Ask?
No. If she waits, she'll just talk herself into hanging back. This is too personal, too—not intimate, but—too important. She can already feel herself hesitating.
Roxanne is done hesitating. No way is she talking herself out of this.
She goes inside and gets her phone out of her purse before she can second-guess herself again, then calls Jo, her coworker and friend. The call goes to voicemail, but that's okay.
"Hey, Jo, it's Roxie," says Roxanne, sitting down on the edge of her sofa. She's already starting to form part of a plan. "I'm going to need to borrow your car…"
Notes: Monday again! More cute things. With just a hint of angst sprinkled in for flavor, of course! I'm SO EXCITED about these next few chapters, y'all, it is a STRUGGLE not to just post them all at once. They're probably fine but I gotta edit them juuuust a little more first. But! Keep an eye out for a bonus fic later today - I wrote a scene about what Hal's night is like after he gets fired, but it really didn't fit with how I wanted this story to flow. Megamind playing with Derya waters the little dark lump of earth fighting to grow in my chest.
