A/N: Sorry sorry sorry! That was a false alarm yesterday! See, I was updating Fragments (one of my other Megamind stories) on my iPod, and what with the tininess of the screen when trying to operate on a non-mobile version of the website, I sort of… accidentally updated this story with the new Fragments chapter, and only realised afterwards the mistake I'd made. *sweat drop* Sorry again. I felt I should update ASAP, to make it up to guys. :)
.:':. .:':. .:':.
Megamind woke in his bed with no memory of how he got there. The last thing he remembered was shouting angrily at Minion. He glanced around guiltily, almost expecting the fish to be standing accusingly in the corner of the room. But he wasn't, of course.
The clock's digital display glowed in the darkness, showing the time to be 5:27 in the morning. He groaned, reaching for the lamp sitting next to the clock and wincing as its sudden brightness probed at his eyes. A few seconds later, though, they adjusted, and he stood up out of his bed. Slowly, of course; he didn't want to set off another ten-minute head rush. At least this time around, I don't feel half as tired as I did last time, he mused. He knotted the cord of his custom dressing gown cape around his neck, slid on his black bat slippers and padded over to the door, opening it and stepping into the dim interior of the Lair. Minion was powered down just behind the desk Megamind had gotten for him when he took on his secretarial duties. His gaze lingered uncomfortably on the gorilla-robot hybrid body, guiltiness crashing over him in waves. He shuddered, remembering the way he had reacted to Minion's well-intentioned queries. What was worse was that he couldn't remember what had happened afterwards. Had he calm down and apologised, or continued to vent his fury? How long had it been, even? A few seconds? A few minutes? An hour? What had he done and said in that time? It had all been lost in the fog of unconsciousness. He cast another surreptitious glance at Minion. The robotic components of his artificial body gleamed softly in the low light.
After a moment's indecision, Megamind pulled on the little string that turned on his desk lamp, illuminating the myriad pieces of paper still lying there from the night before. He nodded in satisfaction, seeing that everything on the desktop was as he had left it; he evidently hadn't thrown things around in a fit of rage, leading him to believe that he'd at least calmed down before falling asleep. Though, perhaps, he'd ranted on for a while, then collapsed out of exhaustion. He grimaced at the thought. Resolutely, he sat in his swivel chair and pulled himself towards the desk, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen to continue the speech he had been working on the previous night. With nothing else to do until Minion woke, he'd at least make up for the work time he'd lost.
His pen ran out of ink after about ten minutes. He regarded it in annoyance. It had a sleek design at fit snugly in his hand; in fact, it was his favourite pen. But it didn't have refillable ink. Sighing, he tossed it into the waste paper basket, jumping a little at the jarring clang it made when it hit the bin's metal rim. His head swivelled towards Minion, afraid that he'd woken the fish up, but the cyborg suit remained inactive. A number of pens were scattered on his desk. Several were buried under the haphazardly placed sheets of paper. The sheer number of them worked against him, though; he had to go through at least fourteen pens before he found one with a similar ink colour to the one he had just thrown out, and there were still many more lying there. In fact, he'd had to toss another three pens that didn't work. His desk was a mess, though when he fully appraised the situation, it would only take about five minutes of work to clear it up.
Soon the papers were stacked to one side, in order of relevance. A smaller pile of blank pages sat to the left of it. Three cup-shaped pen holders (he'd had to rummage through all the draws in his desk to find them) now housed his rather extensive pen collection. Honestly, he had no clue how he'd accrued that many in the first place. The various other objects on his desk – objects including the little plastic dipper bird that had now set up a permanent residency in his lab – had been neatly arranged to create more space for him to work on. Nodding with satisfaction, he sat back down in his black swivel chair, not able to resist the temptation to spin it at least once. He steadied himself on the edge of the desk and reached for his pen again, resolutely ignoring the fact that he'd most likely have his desk revert to the way it had been before he tidied it once he got really stuck into his work. The channel in his neural circuits that had inexplicably opened up the night before flowed with thoughts again, and the pile of blank pages rapidly diminished as his pen flew over the paper. Despite his earlier thoughts, the stack of papers remained more or less in one place.
He'd just about finished all the speeches when Minion powered on. Another two emptied pens had made their way into the waste paper basket, their tips poking out of the holes in the black wire mesh. Minion eyed the stacked pages with interest; though he was surprised to see Megamind up already, he could tell the blue-skinned hero was on a roll, and decided not to disturb the his work. Instead, he completed an internal maintenance check, despite the fact that he knew it was unnecessary. He'd had his tank cleaned out and suit serviced by the brain bots. Still, he thought, it's a good idea to make sure, just in case. He found nothing wrong, however, so tried to move to the door that led to the kitchen as unobtrusively as was possible for a half-tonne fusion of a robotic gorilla and an aquarium. Of course, he was bound to make the odd creak as the hinges of his body shifted, but Megamind was too absorbed in his work to even notice them. He quietly clicked the door shut behind him, but knew he was free to make as much noise as he wanted once inside, since every room in the Lair had been soundproofed many years ago, to prevent distraction while Megamind tinkered away with whatever new invention would 'surely bring Metroman to his knees'. Minion smiled fondly at the recollection of his boss' former antics. Of course, they were the good guys now, and happy enough with it, but it didn't mean he couldn't look upon those past events with some nostalgia. It had been fun in its own way, too.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, he quickly set about making pancakes. The kitchen was surprisingly modern; all the appliances shone with a stainless steel finish. Even though Minion had been bound in servitude to Megamind, it was borne willingly. They had more than an employer-employee relationship – putting aside the fact that they weren't technically employer and employee – they had a friendship that made sure that each looked after the other, though Minion was fairly firm in making sure that he did most of the looking after himself; after all, that was duty assigned to him by Megamind's parents.
Megamind had known of Minion's love for cooking and had gifted him with the state-of-the-art kitchen. True, this had been during a time when the blue alien was still a villain, so the money to pay for it had obviously been stolen, but it was the thought that counted. The fish cyborg had thanked him profusely, then proceeded to further prove his gratitude by preparing an extravagant meal for him.
He grinned at the memory as he whisked the contents of the bowl, the induction stove behind him heating the pan. Deftly, he melted some butter in the pan and poured some of the mix onto it once it was ready. Little bubbles of air popped on the surface as the air inside the batter expanded. He turned the pancake over until it was golden brown on both sides, then flipped the finished pancake out of the pan so that it landed neatly in the centre of the waiting plate, kept warm by one of the other heated pads of the stove. That was one of the best things about the induction stoves, Minion thought – you could heat a plate on it without worrying about soot marks on the bottom, like you would with a gas cooker. He flipped another four pancakes onto the plate in rapid succession before turning off the stove and reaching for the maple syrup bottle in the pantry above his head. He drizzled a generous amount over the top of the stacked cakes, then dug the vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and added a large scoop right in the middle of the top pancake. Knowing that the ice cream would already be starting to melt, he quickly replaced the container in the freezer and grabbed a handful of blueberries from the fridge, scattering them on top and at the base of the pancake tower. He backed carefully out of the kitchen, plate on one hand, the appropriate cutlery in the other.
"Good morning, sir!" he cried cheerily. Megamind's head snapped up in confusion. His gaze flickered from where Minion had rested the previous night to where he was now, a worried expression on his face as he turned back to the cyborg fish. Minion's smile dropped a little. "What is it, sir? Is something wrong?"
"Minion," he asked softly, almost pleadingly, "after I yelled at you last night… What happened? I can't remember."
"Well… you fell asleep pretty soon after that, so that explains why you don't remember it. But you'd kind of exploded at me, then you went all sad and apologised, and made sure I knew we were friends." He smiled a little. "You finally agreed to let me take a little more of your workload."
"What? No. You already do enough for me," he insisted, though he was clearly glad the way things had panned out. At least he hadn't continued to unfairly berate Minion after his initial outburst.
Now the grin was plastered across his face. "That's exactly what you said last night."
"Was it?" he asked distractedly, then noticed the plate of pancakes in Minion's hand. "You made me pancakes!"He brightened visibly, reaching eagerly for them like a child. Minion glanced down, realising with consternation that the ice cream was now half melted.
"Oh yeah. Here you are, sir." He put the plate and cutlery on an open space on the desktop. Personally, he had never understood why Megamind enjoyed eating the little indigo fruit so much. He would have thought it would remind him of the taunting names he'd been called as a child. He eyed Megamind, now wolfing down his breakfast with abandon. Minion couldn't help but grin. Apparently not.
.:':. .:':. .:':.
A/N: I know it's a bit of an awkward place to stop, I'm sorry. The paragraphs are just so long… D: At least until the end.
Well, they were for me, anyway. I mean, I normally have a lot more shorter paragraphs scattered through a chapter than I did in this one. *shrugs* Maybe that's why it seemed a little shorter than usual, despite the fact it's actually longer. Also that it's almost completely pointless and doesn't really progress the plot much more.
I have no idea how much Minion's suit would actually weigh, but it'd be pretty heavy, and I just had to put the phrase 'half-tonne fusion of a robotic gorilla and an aquarium' in there as soon as I thought of it.
So, hope you enjoyed, review please and all that jazz.
Oh, and merry New Year's Eve day, everyone! :P
-pixie.