Minion didn't know what to think. While he had heard back from numerous members of the Family across America, none of them had any inkling to what the voyeur vampire had been talking about. Some had half a mind to tell him it was nothing but lies spewed by the demon in order to upset Megamind and nothing more. But the fact remained that the vampire had known specific details about the attack in the woods, and that he had mentioned the children had gotten a good few Family members worried.
Being informed to 'hang tight' until further details surface was never a good thing and on top of that Wayne hadn't come home yet, and any and all calls to his mobile had ended up going to his voice mail. The fish was full of all kinds of worry.
Hearing the front door open the fish bolted from his place in the kitchen to the entrance hall and gasped when he saw Megamind enter, his leather jacket slung over his arms and obvious tears and rips in his shirt. The fish could also see stains of blood thick on the clothing, and panic over took him.
"What on Earth happened?" he asked, reaching out and plucked the torn jacket from Megamind without question.
"Roxanne was attacked in her apartment." Megamind replied distantly, before stepping back and held his hand out the front door and Roxanne's hand took his in turn, and he helped her through the door. "It was a good thing I went there when I did."
Minion felt as though a stone had been dropped into his stomach. If he had kept the keys out of Megamind's grasp, or refused to allow him to go to see her what would have happened to her...? He pushed the 'what if' away, and focused on the young woman. "Miss. Ritchi are you all right? Here let me help you with those..." the fish bustled past her and picked up her bags, before realizing what he was carrying. "Wait. What are these?"
"Suitcases." Megamind informed him. "Duh!"
"I know they're suitcases Sir, I'm asking why are they here?" Minion asked.
"It's too dangerous for Roxanne to remain living alone unprotected. A changeling broke into her apartment, Minion! Without needing permission and it almost strangled her!" Megamind explained.
"Oh dear that... that's not good at all." Minion frowned.
"Not really. It made a mess of my apartment." Roxanne sighed.
"Are you hurt?" Minion asked.
"I'm not, but he was. I cleaned him up as best I could and bandaged the injuries..." Roxanne gestured to Megamind's shoulder and side.
"Thank you, that was nice of you." Minion complimented before closing the door behind them. "So was there any messages this time?"
"No... not really." Megamind sighed. "How about word from the Family, what are they doing?"
"Told us to sit tight and wait to see if more information comes up." reported the fish.
Megamind groaned. "In other words be sitting ducks until it's too late. Is Wayne back?"
"No not yet."
Megamind had grumbled and complained for a while before they both took Roxanne's suitcases up to the spare room she had slept in previously. It had been cleaned since then, by Minion, so there were fresh blankets and sheets awaiting her. This time Megamind showed her where the stylish old style bathroom was, and the toilet (since both were different rooms) before she settled down for the night. It had been a crazy time, for all of them...
"Megamind?"
He had just been turning to leave her be when he heard her voice call back to him from her room and he turned to see Roxanne leaning slightly on the door frame.
"I never really properly thanked you." Roxanne said quietly.
"You don't have to." he replied with a shrug.
"No, I do." she replied sternly, hand gripping the wood. "You risk your life every single night, does anyone actually really thank you?"
"Hard to when I wipe their memories of the attacks." Megamind pointed out. "I don't do this for praise, though. I do it because... well. It's the right thing to do."
She shook her head and sighed. How could he not see the impact of what he was doing? Maybe he did, but chose to ignore it, feeling that somebody like him didn't deserve any kind of thanks for doing what came natural to him. Whatever the reason, it still didn't feel right.
"Well." she pushed herself away from the door and walked briskly out into the hallway towards him and rubbed his uninjured arm. "Here I am, speaking on behalf of all the people you've rescued. Thank you, Megamind." Roxanne then moved in closer and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. "You're doing brilliant work." she grinned, playfully punched his shoulder before turning and hurrying back to her room before he'd see how red her face had turned. "Good night." she said through the door crack before shutting it behind her.
"...g… good night..." Megamind mumbled, standing as still as anything. That had just happened, hadn't it? He'd never been kissed by a girl before. A kiss on the cheek was just as important as a kiss to the lips and this... she had just... a shaky, happy smile crossed his face and he lifted his hand and touched his cheek where the skin burned from her lips.
He slowly turned, feeling as though his feet were walking a foot above the ground, and made his way from the hallway.
On the other side of the door, Roxanne pressed her back against the cool wood with her eyes shut. Why was her heart racing this fast? It was like she had just swung her baseball bat at that vampire all over again, but all she had done was show some form of gratitude to the man. Gripping against the door she considered going back out there to do or say... something but for once she had no idea what to do. This was so unlike her it was scary.
Finally she pushed herself away from the door and staggered over to her bed and sat.
"Calm down." she said, "You're acting like a teenager. You're not. You're a grown woman. You haven't even known him a week, you're practically throwing yourself at him as it is! Ugh what would my mother think..." Roxanne pressed her hands against her forehead and fell backwards onto her bed and did her best not to think about how warm his skin was or how he had smelt faintly of natural musk nor how she had smelt that scent back when she was tending to his injuries.
Roxanne groaned as the image of his body suddenly appeared in her mind, standing there in her bathroom, shirtless and injured. How badly had she wanted to run her hands over his shapely stomach, his strengthened back and shoulders? She had kissed men with beards before, but she wondered how his small goatee would feel against her own chin. "No. No, no. Stop it." Roxanne opened her eyes and pushed herself back into a sitting position on the bed, and focused on sorting out her suitcases, finding her night things, and getting herself to bed as soon as possible.
~*~
"Are you going to bed now, Sir?" Minion asked as he watched Megamind come trailing down the stairs.
"Hn?" Megamind asked dolefully as he reached the end of the stairs.
"Are you going to bed? You need it, you look... well. Not too bad but you need your rest." the fish watched as his friend seemed to almost float across the floor towards the library. "Sir?"
"No." replied Megamind as he made his way through the large doors.
"No?" frowned Minion as he followed quickly. "No to what?"
"Sleep. I can't." Megamind looked around the library room which was huge, and went up three whole floors through the mansion. There were a few places to stop, further up, to stand and sit to read through a book but all the fancy furniture was on the ground floor. The only way to reach the books at the top of the shelves was to use the incredibly tall ladders that ran on wheels and were built to only move along the bookshelves. "I have to study."
"Study? At a time like this, Sir?" Minion fretted as he paused to look at a grandfather clock that told him the time was currently 11:36pm. When he turned back to look at Megamind the blue alien was already climbing the ladder up towards a section of books that were encased in a glass cabinet. "Sir! Surely you can't be meaning...!"
"I do mean." replied Megamind as he made it to the cabinet that was near the very top of the bookshelf ladder. He pulled a key out from a pocket and slowly unlocked the doors. "Things are getting serious if the children are back, and I need to know how to deal with them. Simply slashing at them with swords and stakes don't work..."
"Ohhhh..." he hurried closer and held onto the ladder as he watched Megamind pull a few old books out of the cabinet before closing it, and began his slow descent down the ladder. Minion moved out of the way once Megamind was close enough, and peered at the books that Megamind held in his hands. They were old books, the type you had to wear gloves to read, and if they were exposed to air for too long a time it might ruin the pages and old leather bindings. "Those are very old, Sir..." he mumbled.
"I know. But they detail the last war, and many others before it. All of them full of details that can help us... and to how ward off unwanted intruders." Megamind said as he moved to a table and gently set the old books upon it. He had to learn more, as much as he possibly could in order to protect the city, the people, and of course Roxanne. She mattered more to him than he would care to admit, but he had the idea that Minion understood. His fish always seemed to know those things about him.
Minion knew how his friend got when it came to books and reading. Nothing would come between him and them so he patted Megamind's back. "Try not to read too late." he told him before leaving the library and headed upstairs to check on Roxanne. Her door was shut, and when he knocked there was no answer. Very quickly he pushed the door open to see the woman sleeping on the bed, and she had her window firmly shut and locked. She had even stacked a few suitcases beneath the window so in case something did climb through they would fall over them.
The baseball bat besides her on the bed, though, surprised him.
Still, he remembered how Megamind had once slept with a stake on his pillow back when he was younger. Then it had upgraded his sword. Now though he knew the manor was protected, and vampires were unable to cross the threshold no matter how badly they would want to. Father had gone to great lengths to protect the house from the demons who would give anything to gain access to their home. He had brought holy men from practically all religions every few years to protect the building. Thus far it worked, since no vampires had dared show up on the doorstep waiting to be asked 'do you want to come in?' which was normally all it needed to let a vampire into your house.
But then why, or how, had that other vampire gotten into Roxanne's apartment? This was all looking very questionable... but, understandable at the same time. If the children were back, that meant any vampires who came in contact with them would have just that little bit more power to their abilities then usual. No wonder the Family was worried, and no wonder why Megamind was now pouring over books that were hundreds of years old in order to find a way to defeat them another time.
Minion told himself to remain calm. Wayne was more than capable of taking care of himself, and Miss. Ritchi was now safe within their walls. He could rest easy; at least until morning when Wayne gets home he would no doubt get a scolding of a life time from the fish.
And he did.
Morning came, and after Minion began his usual morning routine of opening up the curtains on the house and beginning to make breakfast he heard the front door finally open. The fish turned the heat down on the kettle and stormed from the kitchen, forgetting entirely to remove his 'Kiss the Cook' apron he wore while cooking.
For the second time in eight hours Minion found a suitcase sitting inside the hallway. After a moment he wondered if it was Roxanne's, but it wasn't red nor did it match the others that Roxanne ahd brought. It was black, and just as he got closer Bernard came walking through the door.
"Mr. Dunning?" Minion asked, blinking in surprise.
"Oh uh. Hey, Minion." Bernard nodded his head in greeting. "Morning."
"Good morning. What are you-Wayne!" the fish put his fists to his hips as Wayne walked in after Bernard, carrying another suitcase. "Just where were you last night? Do you have any idea how worried I was? You know how important everything is now, that we know that everyone's safe!"
"Are you his mother?" Bernard asked.
"No but I might as well be his mother by this point." Minion scowled before turning to Wayne again. "Well?"
"I'm sorry, Minion." Wayne apologized. "I really didn't mean to make you worry. That was wrong of me. Thing is, something big kind of came up-" he pointedly ignored thet snort Bernard made and continued, "-and I had to check in with Bernard."
"Let me guess." Minion said, looking from Bernard to Wayne. "In order to keep him safe you've offered him a place to stay here?"
"Wow, yes. That's exactly... how did you guess?" Wayne asked, honestly impressed.
"Because Sir did the same thing last night with Miss. Ritchi. She's upstairs in the guest room." Minion pointed up the stairs.
"Roxanne's here?" Bernard asked, eyes widening with surprise before grabbing both his suitcases from Wayne. "What happened?"
"Oh nothing much outside a changeling managing to break into her apartment while he was there." Minion replied sarcastically. "So I guess since she could break in without needing permission to enter that's a sign alone that things are heating up. It's a good thing you brought Bernard here, Wayne. We really can ensure his safety now."
"Not that useless." muttered Bernard as he pointed upstairs. "Should I put these in your room?" he asked Wayne.
"Huh? Oh sure yeah. Go right ahead. Is Megamind up?" Wayne asked.
Minion at first looked confused, before he was over come with a big, happy smile. "Wayne did you finally-"
"Yes, yes. Shhh." reaching out, Wayne pressed his hand over the glass dome where Minion's mouth would be located. "That's why I was out all night last night."
"Ho ho ho. Got a lil' action did we?" Minion asked, grinning.
Wayne, flushing red, ignored the question. "Is Megamind awake?"
"He's in the library. He was reading those old books until late, despite me telling him not to, but I covered him with a blanket around five o'clock. He was asleep by then but at least he had put the books back away since last thing we need is him drooling on four hundred year old book pages." Minion sighed. "He's been taking on a lot of responsibility lately and I'm worried. Tell Mr. Dunning not to come down too hard on him today?" Minion asked.
"I will." Wayne promised before sniffing the air. "Are we having burnt toast for breakfast?"
"MY TOAST!" Minion squawked before rushing off.
"Home sweet home." Wayne smiled before shutting the front door. He was just making his way up the stairs when he saw Roxanne walking into view wearing a dressing gown. He smiled. "Hey Roxy!" he greeted. "Heard you've moved in?"
"Only temporarily." she explained with a small smile. "Morning Wayne. Had a late night out?"
"Just got in to be honest." he said, leaning on the banister as she approached. "With Bernard."
"With Bernard? I thought I heard his voice..." Roxanne trailed off in thought before smiling at him. "Still, I hope I don't get underfoot."
"Oh I doubt you will. We've all got work to do so I think we'll only really see each other at meals that Minion ensures we all sit in for. Family meals mean alot 'round here, so no running off. All right?" Wayne asked. "Or else you'll face the wrath of an angry fish and Minion is not to be toyed with when he's like that."
"I'll bare that in mind thanks. So by, with Bernard, what did you mean?" Roxanne asked.
Wayne turned red again. "I mean with. He's actually going to be staying here with us for a while too, since things are becoming too dangerous out there."
"With us, or with you?" she grinned.
"Am I that readable?" Wayne asked.
"Like a novel." Bernard answered as he walked out the same door way Roxanne had come from. "Yes, Roxanne, it finally happened. You can stop giving me tips."
"Tips?" Wayne asked.
"Oh my God really?" Roxanne, oblivious to Wayne's question, perked up entirely. "Thank God! What happened, tell me everything." she rushed over to her friend.
"Not everything!" Wayne said.
"Hush you." smiled Bernard, eyeing Wayne. "This is private friend talk. Go check on your brother, he's probably got a sore neck." he made 'shoo' motions with his hand before he and Roxanne walked to the end of the stairs and he began to lead her off, no doubt telling her pretty much everything.
Wayne stood there momentarily, before chewing at his bottom lip. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." he mumbled before heading off to the library to check on Megamind. Last time he had fallen asleep in there he had woken up with the stiffest neck in the city and it took a good massage from himself to crack it back into place, and no matter how much fun it was to hear bones popping and snapping, hearing your brother groan like that was never a nice thing.
To be continued