The First Date

The first date of Roxanne Ritchi and Wayne Scott would go down in history as one of the most boring and possibly worst first dates in the history of first dates.

At 7 pm sharp he showed up at her door. Roxanne was surprised to find that instead of his normal hero attire he had dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a cream colored sweater. He greeted her with a single red rose and a large smile. As they walked down the hall the lights caught his sweater and she had to do a double take.

For in the sweater, almost too hard to see if you weren't looking properly, were gold pinstripes.

Well, he managed to keep the white and gold in there…

Roxanne herself had torn through her closet earlier that day. She didn't want to look as if she was trying too hard, but she also didn't want to look as if she didn't care. She had finally settled on a simple black pencil skirt and a white top paired with her black heels.

As she had expected they flew to their destination; and their destination just so happened to be a rather fancy 5-star restaurant set in the heart of the city. Already Roxanne was expecting a dinner full of stares, comments and photographs.

"Ah yes, your normal table then?" the maître d' asked as the muscled man approached him. Metro Man nodded his head in the affirmative.

"You got it." He said.

Roxanne soon found herself on the rooftop, where there was a table set with full silverware and a candle.

"This is our table?" she asked. She wondered if he was trying to impress her or if this was how it always was for him.

"It's more private than down inside. And the boys here are always happy to serve my dinner up here, isn't that right?" Metro Man directed his question to the older man who had led them upstairs.

"Always a pleasure sir."

As their drinks and entrees were served quicker than Roxanne had ever had before she vaguely thought that maybe there were a few perks to going on a date with a super hero.

At least, that was until that super hero began talking.

About himself.

In the course of their dinner he talked about himself; about his wealthy summer trips with his parents, about his childhood, about the crazy fan mail that he had received over the years, on and on he went. All the while Roxanne could only think "spoiled; boring; spoiled." He had finally paused to take a drink and she took the opportunity to jump in. She found it very strange to be out to dinner with someone whose name she did not know.

"So…Metro Man? Is there a real name that comes with that moniker?" she asked.

"Well of course there is." He laughed. "I can't believe I didn't tell you sooner! Wayne Scott." He smiled proudly, as if the name itself was golden.

"Don't most heroes keep their names a secret?" Roxanne pressed, raising an eyebrow.

"Well sure, but I figure; what's the point? I've lived here all my life, people knew my real name when I was a kid; I just grew into a new one! No one would ever call me Wayne anyway." He smirked, as if he was proud at the thought of being known as a label instead of a person.

"So how'd this all start then? The hero business?" she asked. It was something that she actually was curious about.

"I'm not sure I remember really." He scratched his neck. "Guess I just sort of fell into it all. I mean, I was sorta meant to be a hero wasn't I? The flying and the lasers…"

"So you became a hero because you can fly?"

"Hah, well no, I guess that's not it. Someone had to protect the city and I was the man for the job." He said. They'd barely touched the desserts that had been set down in front of them, clearly now too involved in their conversation.

"So wait; you've been protecting the city since you were a kid?" she found that very hard to believe. He'd already explained briefly that he'd had a lot of friends as a child and that the teacher loved him and he'd always use his flight for little things like changing the light bulbs, getting cats down from trees. He however had not explained how everything had started between him and Megamind; only that it'd been "going on for years."

"Heck no. Blue just sorta…well the kid was always different. He chose his path and I chose mine; that's all." He took a large bite then of the chocolate cake in front of him. Since she started driving the conversation he'd been steered into answering things that he hadn't wanted to and now he had to get out of it.

"I think I've done a pretty good job of it though; clean up the city, protect the citizens, put the villain in jail. Everyone loves me and at the end of every day I'm their hero." He smiled again.

"It doesn't seem like you're doing a very good job if he keeps escaping" she said pointedly. Wayne looked at her a moment before breaking into a laugh.

"The thing of it is Roxie; it's all in good fun. Keeps me in a job anyway."

"So you let him keep escaping to stay in a job? Couldn't you be doing other things?"

"Like what?"

"Well attending to other crimes! What about that break in at the jewelry department last week?"

"That's what the police are for. They need work too Rox." He said. He was baffled as to why she was so confused over everything.

"So that's how it goes then? You fight Megamind, create messes that can be just as much your fault as his, drop him back in jail, lather, rinse, repeat?"

"Hey now, I don't make all of those messes, and anything that happens I pay for to get fixed!" he defended himself.

"Oh yes, we can't forget about the spoiled little boy's money!" she sat back and crossed her arms and he stared back. "You know, I'm actually kind of tired, I think that I'd like to go home now."

As luck would have it, no sooner did the pair step onto the sidewalk outside of the building and they were instantly swarmed by the media. Wayne smiled at them and politely excused himself and Roxanne, stating that it was late and he needed to "be a gentleman and make sure that she got home safely" before he flew away with her in his arms.

The damage however had been done. For the next morning, plastered across every newspaper and tabloid, was a picture of Metro Man and Roxanne Ritchie flying off and the titles all shared the same suggestion.

"Hero and Reporter romance?"; "Metro Man and Roxanne Ritchi Dating?"; "New Romance blossoms in Metro City!"

When Roxanne sat down at her desk that morning at work she sunk her head down and wished that she could crawl into a hole. That was, however, until Richard ran up to her and babbled on about how high their ratings had gotten and sent her off to report on the latest Megamind vs Metro Man battle.

Well, I can't avoid him forever...at least I won't have to talk to him for long this time. she thought to herself. At that particular time she wasn't fond with Wayne Scott at all, and would prefer to avoid him at all costs; but a job was a job, and bad date or no, she had to do that job. Besides; how does anyone avoid a man who can see through lead?