Chapter Text
Roxanne uses the bathroom, and then she washes her hands, and then she holds still while Megamind re-wraps her wrists with clean white gauze. He hesitates, after, and then kisses her knuckles and squeezes the tips of her fingers.
"Bed?" he asks, looking at her through his eyelashes.
"Bed," Roxanne agrees.
And then they both jump, because Minion has just poked his head into Megamind's bedroom and said, "Dinner first!"
Megamind yelps. "Knock! Minion! Knocking!"
"Your door was standing open, Sir; I assumed it was unnecessary. Looking sharp, Miss Ritchi," he adds, giving her a quick once-over and a wink.
She laughs. "I'm sure you wore it better than I do."
"I wouldn't anymore," he says, "I'm far too big. Which means you wear it better, because you're wearing it at all! Come and have soup, I made French onion."
"Ooooh," Megamind says, perking up.
"With provolone on Miss Ritchi's instead of gruyere," he continues, and Roxanne almost falls over.
"How on earth did you know how I like my French onion soup?" she exclaims, totally thrown. "Minion, really!"
"Because I am the best at my job," he says, with another wink. Then he grins. "Actually, you told me, once. We started talking recipes when the Wheel of Misfortune blew a gasket, remember? Follow me, the kitchen is this way."
Roxanne does remember, but only vaguely. How good is Minion's memory?
"Please," he scoffs, when she asks. He jerks a thumb at Megamind. "I live with him. I have to remember all kinds of esotera. Your cheese preferences are a drop in the pond."
Still, he remembered, and he took it into consideration, and Roxanne can't help but be both impressed and touched that he would do that. "Minion," she says, "you are wonderful. I hope you know that."
"Oh, you," he demurs, flustered. "Stop. It's just cheese!"
It isn't just cheese. His idea of changing the subject is to tell Roxanne to come and find him first thing tomorrow morning so he can give her a change of clothes. "They won't fit perfectly," he warns, "but I have a good eye for size and if I use your old dress as a template, we should be fine."
"Can I have my own bat slippers?" Roxanne asks, hopeful. "If it's not too much trouble? They're awfully cute."
Far from looking put-upon, Minion seems delighted by this request. "Oh! Of course! Slippers are easy. Do Sir's fit all right? Are they too big or too small?"
"They're perfect," Roxanne says warmly. "We must be the same size. Which is good, because I fully intend to steal his shoes the first chance I get—Minion, you are a fashion wizard, I hope you know that! Megamind's platforms are the talk of my whole office."
"He's so good," Megamind says, slipping his arm through Roxanne's and grinning at her. "Obnoxious, of course, but I really don't know what I'd do without him."
"All the best minions are obnoxious," Minion says, preening. "I went to a seminar last year. It's be obnoxious or be an enabler and I really think I made the right decision."
"I think I liked you better as an enabler," Megamind says, quirking another grin up at him, but Minion just scoffs and hip-checks him.
Then he exclaims "Whoops!" and reaches down to catch Roxanne when Megamind stumbles into her and knocks her off-balance. "My apologies, Miss Ritchi!" He laughs, self-conscious. "Guess I'll have to get used to someone else on his other side."
"Sorry," she offers, but both aliens brush this away.
"Do not be sorry," Minion says, firm. Megamind just smiles sideways at her and squeezes her arm; Roxanne gets the sense that he's just along for the ride on this one. "Do not be sorry. Sir has two sides!"
"Minion is my strong left hand," Megamind tells Roxanne, still smiling, and Minion gives an earnest nod.
"Yes! I am! And the evil god below knows he needs someone on his right. I'm glad it's you."
Roxanne has to laugh at that, however weakly. "So am I," she says. And how, how has she never noticed before the way Megamind's expression brightens and relaxes and his chest swells at the indication of support? How has she never noticed before how lovesick he seems when he looks at her, his goofy grin scrunching his nose and his green eyes sparkling at her and making her heart do a little flip?
Is he just that good at hiding it?
"So am I," she says again. She looks up at Minion, finds his brown eyes sparkling down from above a slightly different goofy grin, and her heart warms and does a slightly different little flip. "And I'm very glad it's you on his left."
Minion beams.
The french onion soup. is. fucking. delicious. Roxanne is not shy about saying so. She praises Minion profusely, both for the soup and for what is still, to her, his absolutely absurd ability to recall her preferences. He smiles at her and flutters his fins and insists again that it was nothing.
Megamind smiles, too, from across the table in the lair's incongruously cozy kitchen (brickwork floor, windows with diamond panes, gingham curtains. Chicken motif. This is Minion's domain, it must be) and Roxanne laughs at him, teases him when he gets cheese in his beard. He grumps happily at Minion for making the messiest soup imaginable.
"Look at it this way, Sir," Minion says brightly, "if she can't handle seeing you make a mess of your soup, best find that out now, right?"
Roxanne, who is blotting at a spot under her collarbone, laughs dryly. "Oh I'd be pretty hypocritical if I had a problem with that. French onion is soup on hard mode. I'm hardly going to hold that against him."
Megamind splutters. "Soup on hard mode?"
She glances up. "Am I wrong?"
"No, just..." He trails off, shakes his head, still grinning.
Roxanne shrugs and goes back to her dinner, also grinning.
She's halfway through her second bowl and on her third slice of Minion's homemade bread when she finally feels her mind slow down a little bit from its stressed-exhausted-low-blood-sugar whirling. She had some respite earlier, after...activities...but this feels more permanent, more of a refueled solution than an endorphin-borrowed rest.
She's...sitting in Megamind's kitchen. She is warm in Minion's old nightshirt, in Megamind's slippers, having the warm dinner that Minion made for them. And when she looks up and meets Megamind's gaze, she finds his eyes are warm, too.
She remembers the cloudy, dead look of his nictitating membranes and the fear from earlier echoes in her stomach, a horrible sinking swoop—
—but she pushes it away. She's fine! Megamind is fine, Minion is fine. Everything is fine. She reaches across the table and Megamind slips his fingers across her palm for her to squeeze, and the world steadies.
There, see? It's fine.
Although, judging by the oddly bewildered expression Megamind is wearing, he is also having some thoughts that might be difficult to process.
Roxanne clears her throat. "What's up?"
Megamind squeezes her hand briefly and then withdraws to steady his bowl. "Thinking," he says. "Today was...a lot."
She frowns. He isn't wrong, exactly, but...
She has known the man for years, she knows he doesn't always react to surprises well. Suddenly worried, she asks, "Not too much? I hope?"
His brow furrows. "No," he replies, "the overall problems can be summarized easily enough. Deal with Price, learn to navigate a romantic social entanglement.
"But that second one...I do not exactly have a lot of personal experience to draw from." He sends her a smile, but it looks pained. "I'm sure this is an enormous surprise to you."
Roxanne bites her lip. "Have you changed your mind?"
"What?" His eyebrows fly up. "No! No, no. I want this! I definitely want this, if you do."
Roxanne nods hard and his expression relaxes.
"I suppose I'm simply...worried," he says. "Nervous? It doesn't even really feel real. I feel like I'm dreaming."
"Yeah," she says, trying to read between the lines and extrapolate the way she usually does, and mostly just feeling tired. "Everything does feel...pretty dreamlike, right now. Surreal."
"Yes. And. You...love? me?"
She cocks her head. "...Yes?"
Megamind sort of shrugs, awkward. He opens his mouth, then closes it again. His expression pinches slightly.
"Sir," Minion says, quiet. "Gift horses."
Megamind sighs, nods, but Roxanne sits up. "No," she says, "no, don't—this isn't a gift, it's a relationship. I can't help if he doesn't tell me what's wrong." She tilts her head at Megamind, lifts her eyebrows in a silent request.
But he pauses, his shoulders tense and his brows netted together. Finally he says, slowly, "You know, I think, that I have…kept…an eye on you. At times." At her nod, he takes a deep breath and continues. "So, I…do feel as though I…know you, somewhat. Your activities outside of our professional relationship. But."
She smiles a little. "But…you are very secretive, and I don't have an army of surveillance drones at my disposal?"
He nods again. "And I do not understand how this is possible," he says, with a note in his voice she doesn't recognize. "Miss—Roxanne. You…how? Why? I don't disbelieve you," he quickly adds, big eyes round and earnest, "you were, ah, very clear, earlier." He twitches a smile that does look genuine, even if his expression is still mostly confused and oddly hesitant. "But I can't…you don't know me. We have never had a social relationship. I don't…I don't understand how you can…"
He trails off again. But ah, okay. Roxanne does know what he means. And she can't blame him for being uncertain; she had been wondering the same thing, thinking in the shower earlier. "The relationship we have had has been a lot of fun," she tells him. "I like talking with you."
"But love—"
"But I think it really started," she continues, "with Edgar Rodriguez Silva."
Minion makes a sound of shock and Megamind physically recoils, eyes going wide. "Wh—how do you—what—"
Roxanne nods. "That bill he introduced, to force insurance to pay for restorations to property damaged in hero-villain confrontations without triggering capital gains taxes on properties restored beyond their original basis. Really crucial in a city with Metro's architectural history." She sends Megamind a frank look. "That bill," she says, "you introduced, I should say."
Megamind stares at her.
"I pay attention, Megamind," Roxanne says with a shrug as she works to cut a soggy piece of bread with the side of her spoon so she doesn't drip down her chin. "I don't have brainbots, no. But I do have some extensive research skills and access to a wider array of informational sources than I think you realize. And I've been keeping an eye on you, too," she tells him, glancing up and lifting her eyebrows at him. "Suddenly here's this…unknown nobody coming out of nowhere with a bill that would fix a serious problem, and it has immediate bipartisan support despite running counter to corporate interests. Let's be real, the only way that happens is with blackmail and bribes. A lot of blackmail and bribes. And it dropped barely a month after I chewed you out about that exact problem. Remember? I yelled at you about contributing to the gentrification of the east side?"
Megamind swallows. "That's an incredible leap to conclusions, regardless," he says, still staring.
"Maybe." Roxanne shrugs. "I couldn't be sure it was you, of course. But I do remember being stunned at the timing of it, and I remember seeing a picture of Rodriguez Silva online and thinking, wow, those sure are some green eyes he's got."
Minion bursts out laughing. "Sir! Didn't I tell you? Wait until we've figured out the ocular tracking? Ha!"
Megamind groans and scrubs his hands down his face. "That's why you walked it back the next time I kidnapped you," he says. "And I—damn. I quoted—some of the phrasing I used for the bill—damn."
"You fell right into my trap," Roxanne agrees, smug, and Minion laughs harder. She grins over at him. "Anyway, that's when I started to respect you beyond villainy. And I kept paying attention! And I…saw things. How you responded on the rare occasions people got caught in the crossfire and got hurt. I noticed what happens to their families. And what kinds of crime went down over the years, what seemed to streamline, what kinds of people…went missing. And other things, over the years, and I just…" She trails off, shrugs again, suddenly embarrassed. "I guess, somewhere in there, somewhere between respect and realizing how much fun you are…yes, I learned to love you." She offers him a smile, ears burning. At least her new boyfriend's ears are also pink. He's staring fixedly down at his soup, not moving, but he's blushing hard. "And even if none of that were true, even if you weren't basically a decent person under all your spikes and armor…you build your dreams, Megamind." She pauses until he looks up at her, and then she sends him a smile. "Don't you know how absolutely incredible you are?"
He makes a very nervous high-pitched spluttering noise and goes back to his soup, pink all the way up his forehead. Roxanne decides she'll take that as a good sign.
"Honestly," she continues, "I'm just amazed I managed to catch your eye. I'm not exactly—"
Megamind snorts, chokes, breaks into a storm of uneven coughing.
Roxanne freezes, blinking at him. He appears to be having some kind of malfunction; he looks like he just barely managed to avoid blowing his bite of soup out his nose before bursting into a sound that Roxanne can't tell is either hiccupping or laughing. Off to her left, Minion rolls his eyes and gets to his feet, an amused expression on his face.
"Not-not exactly what," Megamind wheezes, nodding thanks when Minion sets a glass of water down at his elbow. "Brilliant? Insightful? Fearless?"
"...Um," says Roxanne, watching his throat as he drinks. The motion of his larynx is mesmerizing. "No? I mean, I try, but…I wouldn't have thought it would be enough to catch your attention."
"Attention caught and held," he says flatly. "Yes, most definitely. Oh, and—beautiful, also, that's a nice bonus."
"Oh." Her ears heat again. "Well. Thank you."
Megamind shakes his head. "You are everything," he says, mouth tugging in a wry half-smile. "I fully intend to prove that to you for however long you'll let me."
Oh. Well then.
...No, Roxanne, you cannot go around the table to hug him in the middle of dinner. That would be weird.
"I'm so glad," she says. "I'll hold you to that."
His eyes crinkle in a smile. And then he yelps and flails as his crock of soup moves sharply on the table and splashes into his lap—he was a little too vigorous trying to cut through a piece of cheese with the side of his spoon. Roxanne and Minion laugh at him, and he growls and pouts and grumbles, but he's hiding a smile. Roxanne can tell.
They go back to Megamind's bedroom together in a sort of friendly if awkward silence, walking side by side. Halfway there, Megamind bumps his hand gently against the back of Roxanne's, and she looks over at him. He's staring straight ahead but his long neck is very stiff.
She takes his hand and squeezes it, and a smile lifts and bursts across his blue face. It's infectious; she bites her lip around a laugh and tips her head sideways onto his shoulder for a moment with a happy hum. It's impossible to walk like that for very long; Megamind's shoulder is lower than hers. But it's nice. The thought occurs that she could probably scoop him up and carry him now that he's spikeless; this is also nice.
It seems like the kind of thing to do later in the relationship, so she refrains. But. She could.
God, she is…really wildly excited about this, isn't she? It's been an age since Roxanne has really dated anyone, even longer since she's really wanted to date someone. And maybe this is why? She realized in the shower earlier, she honestly doesn't know how long she's felt this strongly about Megamind. Right now she feels…well, still oddly panicky if she stops to think about the events of today for too long, but mostly all that is overshadowed by how excited and warm and happy she is. Megamind is in love with her, holy shit. She caught—and held, apparently—the attention of the most brilliant man on the planet, and he's a total sweetheart with the body of a very small Greek god. Roxanne wins all of the things.
She sits on the edge of his bed and watches him putter around the room for a moment, fidgeting with this or that, putting his slippers away and then ducking into his bathroom to change his soup-dampened pajama bottoms. When he comes back out a second later, he's blushing, and the expression he's wearing is one Roxanne hasn't seen on him before today: sort of soft and wondering. He looked like this at dinner, too, before his confusion set in. His big green eyes are shining and his mouth is curved in a smile that lights his face with something like shy delight.
"I'm your boyfriend," he says, marveling. "I can't—this is—"
He walks over to her, gazes down at her, still with that wondering smile.
"I want," he says, "to kiss you."
Roxanne closes her eyes and tips her face up in invitation, and Megamind still can't believe this is happening, holy shit. He leans down, gently cupping her cheeks with his long hands as she reaches up to wind her arms over his shoulders and trail her fingertips over the skin of his head. He kisses her, and then he kisses her again, and after a moment, when she teases his lips with her tongue and he carefully squeezes her bottom lip between his teeth, Roxanne moves her hands to hold the back of his skull and the side of his neck.
So he keeps kissing her, slowly pressing his lips to hers again and again, with Roxanne holding him steady—almost tugging him down, holding him like she wants him to stay there, to keep kissing her. After a moment he leans farther forward, slides a knee onto the mattress, and Roxanne scoots back but keeps kissing him. She keeps smiling and leaning in for more kisses every time Megamind withdraws, so he just…presses forward and follows her down, and somehow they're able to get into bed and under the covers without too much interruption.
And then it's not Roxanne in Megamind's shower, in his lair; it's Roxanne in his bed, between his sheets, in his arms. Relaxing against him, her head on his pillow, her eyes smiling up at him as he lays himself down beside her.
Slowly, he pulls away, and even more slowly tilts his head down to push his forehead to hers.
Now this—oh, this feels—doing this without context or prompting feels terribly frightening, dangerous, risky—if Roxanne pulls away he thinks he might shatter. But he needs, he needs to do this.
And. She did touch his head before; has been touching it when she kisses him; she kissed him there as she—as she made love to him earlier—said she loves him, she loves him, she said so—
—It's okay? This is okay? This is okay; he can do this; he can let himself drown in her. Roxanne won't choke him off. She'll let him breathe.
Roxanne blinks, startled at the gesture, but after a moment, she lifts a hand to the back of his head again and presses her palm and her fingers to the slope of it, sweeping her thumb slowly back and forth over his skin. Megamind makes a soft, almost hurt sound in his throat and huddles closer, squeezing his eyes closed and nodding gently.
This means something, Roxanne wants to ask, but it doesn't seem like the time.
"Sorry," Megamind finally says, his voice low. "I'm. Thank you."
"Don't be sorry," she protests, surprised. "You don't have anything to be sorry for."
"Still," he whispers, finally pulling back to look at her.
"Megamind," Roxanne says, "everything is wonderful. Why are you sorry?"
He studies her face for a moment, his expression pained. "I don't know," he says, finally. "I don't know. I just. Am."
Roxanne shakes her head. Megamind rolls away and rolls over so he can reach to turn off the light, but then he stays like that in the dark. So after a moment, Roxanne follows. She curls against his back and turns her head to push her face down between his pillow and the curve of his neck, almost the way she did before in the lake, hugging his body with her arm as she pushes her other arm under his pillow to try and get comfortable. Megamind seems to freeze and sort of hesitates, at that, but finally he relaxes.
His bedroom is exceptionally dim. Roxanne's bedroom at home tends to be pretty bright even at night, since she usually just leaves her long curtains open. Megamind has two windows but they're horizontal and very narrow, up near the ceiling, and it seems his bedroom must face the lake; no street lights shine in. Holding him here, in the dark…he almost doesn't feel real. She's back to that dreamlike feeling, and—
—Megamind. It strikes her suddenly, the same way it did at dinner and again in the hallway after: she's dating Megamind, had sex and then dinner with Megamind, is about to go to sleep in Megamind's bed, in his home.
Weird. And weird that it didn't feel weird at all until he turned off the lights.
Slowly, a long-fingered hand comes up to touch Roxanne's arm around his chest. The contact is hesitant, light. Megamind is a firestorm of ideas, an unstoppable force of raw intellectual energy, the personification of go big or go home…but here in the dark, with the cool length of his body pressed to hers, he isn't nearly so bold.
He touches her arm, then drops his hand.
"I love you," he murmurs.
Roxanne catches her breath. Because. This may be new and unfamiliar and sudden, the gray light of his bedroom and the weight of his body, but Megamind's low voice in the dark is a thing she's heard before many times.
But never those words. And never after she came so close to losing him entirely.
"Tell me again?" she asks, wistful.
"I love you."
She swallows. "Again?"
He sounds just a little confused, hesitates for just a second, but he says, "I love you."
"—Again," she whispers, squeezing herself against his back, squeezing her eyes closed against the memory of him in pain, clawing at his throat as he gasped water. So much has changed in the span of an afternoon and she knows she'll need time to process…but later, later. "Again. Please?"
Megamind hesitates, then rolls towards her instead of speaking. He rolls onto his back and slowly lifts his arm, and this is so very new that it takes Roxanne a moment to realize—oh, she can duck under his elbow, tuck herself to his side and half-cover him with her body—
—and then oh, oh his arm is around her and he's cradling the back of her neck and tugging her down for a deep kiss, his spine arching up and his mouth moving under hers. That's good. That's so good.
"—I do love you, Roxanne," he says again, when he breaks the kiss.
And then it's his turn to catch his breath, because Roxanne has just copied his move from earlier and pressed her forehead to his. She doesn't know what it means, but she is coming to know Megamind, and this was nice and she's pretty sure he pulled away long before he wanted to when he initiated this before. Maybe he even rolled away to keep himself from doing it again. And lying here, listening to his gentle tenor telling her he loves her—
"I love you, too," she says, holding herself up on her elbows and gripping his huge, beautiful head in her hands. She's been saying it a lot, but she's willing to bet he hasn't heard it nearly enough, in his life. Or been allowed to say it very much, himself. Sure enough, Megamind whines and slides his hand up, twists his fingers into her hair.
"Oh," he says, sounding choked now and breathless, no longer smooth. "Oh—I love you too. I love you, too, Roxanne, oh my god."
Whatever is making him sound like this, Roxanne needs to find it and burn it out of him. "I'm so glad you're okay," she whispers.
"Roxanne," Megamind says, his voice breaking, both syllables of her name wrecked and glimmering, "Roxanne, you—I love you, too, I love you—thank you, this is—god, I love you—um—can, can we—if I lie like this—"
He rolls to face her again, finally, and Roxanne shoves her pillow into a position that will let her lie comfortably with her head tipped against Megamind's and his breath ghosting over her lips. She takes one of his legs between her knees and folds one arm over his ribs, and Megamind mirrors her, draping his arm over her waist under the covers and taking Roxanne's hand where their other arms are folded between them.
"...I would," he says quietly, there in the dark. "I would die for you, Roxanne. If I had to."
She swallows hard, trying to hide the ice that sears down her spine at the serious note in his voice as he says it. "I know," she says, netting their fingers and squeezing, drawing his knuckles to her lips. "But I would so much rather you live for me."
He makes a soft sound.
"Seriously, I'm so glad you're alive. I'm…" She trails off, presses her lips together. Kisses his hand to hide the fact that her eyes just filled up again. Goddammit. And evidently she didn't hide it well enough, because Megamind's fingers go a bit stiff and hesitate and then move to touch her face. Roxanne forces a laugh, shakes her head a little. "Sorry. I'm…I swear, I am not usually this easy to rattle! I don't know what's wrong with me tonight." She swallows. "But I'm okay. Really."
Megamind huffs a wry laugh. "You…sound like me," he says, "the first time I ever accidentally killed someone. It's not okay. Don't push it away."
"But everything is fine, I'm fine—"
"You," he says, "are not fine. You are better than you were, certainly. And you'll feel even better with sleep. But you are not fine."
"I am, though! I'm—"
"You thought you were going to die," he says, voice low and gentle, and Roxanne bites her lip. Carefully, Megamind touches her hair, smooths her bangs. "You fought for your life, and you lost. That, alone, is more than enough to rattle most people all the way to lasting psychological ramifications. But on top of this, you thought a friend was going to die in significant emotional distress—Minion—and that another was dying for you while you watched, so, really, between the guilt and the fear and the almost-drowning, I do not think you are okay, Roxanne."
She swallows hard. "Well," she whispers, stomach churning. "When you put it that way…"
"And that's okay," he continues, sounding terribly earnest. Roxanne stops, and Megamind falters a bit but he keeps going. "That's…anything I can do, anything you might need…I don't know what it might be, I am very bad at…this sort of thing. But. I am…here. For you."
Roxanne stares at him in the dark.
"Because you aren't okay. And that's okay! You don't have to be okay. I'm here."
He's—
She feels her face scrunch but she can't help it, she can't help it. She hadn't even realized how much hearing something like that would mean to her.
"Thanks," she manages, and pulls herself close to him, lifts and turns her body so she can give him a lying-down hug, awkward but fierce and grateful. She squeezes him hard, gives a damp sniff. "That. Really, really means a lot."
"I mean it," he tells her, hugging her back. "It's more or less what my uncles told me, back then. It helped. And it's true." He blinks at Roxanne as she settles back, open concern in what she can see of his expression in the dark. "So I thought, I thought I should say it."
She sends him a wobbly smile. "I'm glad you did. How old were you? Can I ask?"
"Seventeen." He sighs. "I'd rather not go into detail. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, and when I heard…well."
"I'm so sorry."
She reaches for him, and Megamind closes his eyes as she lays her palm on the gentle swell of his skull above his temple. She sweeps her thumb over his skin and his lips part on an exhale.
"Oh," he whispers. Roxanne rubs in a circle and he nods a little. "Oh. Thank you."
Then he says, "I just told you I've killed someone. And you're…petting me?"
"I mean, you're a supervillain," she murmurs. "And like I told you, I've been paying attention over the years; I know that doesn't happen peacefully. And it didn't sound like you enjoyed it."
He makes a soft sound in his throat. "I never enjoy it. It's not exactly a challenge. But accidentally…I especially do not like collateral damage. I take a lot of pride in not killing people collaterally."
"I know you do."
He opens his eyes. "You do?"
"Yeah." She smiles a little. "But it's nice to hear out loud."
He sighs. "Anyway. My point is. You don't have to make yourself be okay."
It's amazing how much less frantic she feels at simply knowing that. She really was not expecting Megamind, of all people, to say anything like that.
She leans in, slots her mouth to his and kisses him as hard and as deeply as she can. She's too tired to want to start anything, and Megamind has to be worn out beyond belief from the day's exertions, but he so obviously needs to be kissed and Roxanne is so very sick of not kissing him.
"—Ah," he breathes as they part. And then, "Ah?" when Roxanne rolls over to face away from him.
"Like this," she says, scooting backwards until she's flush against his chest. "Will this work?"
"I—think so? Hold on—"
He wiggles a bit until he's able to get his arms around her, then settles with one arm under the curve of her neck and the other curled over her ribs. "There," he says. "How's that?"
"Perfect," she says. She rests her arm atop his and threads her fingers into the spaces between his, curls her fingertips into his palm and squeezes. "You're perfect."
He hesitates for a moment and then nudges his nose against her hair. "Good."
"I love you," she ventures, hopeful, and feels his arms tighten around her ever so slightly.
"I love you, too."
But he swallows after he says it, frowning into the darkness. He knows Roxanne is still seeking comfort, looking for some kind of firm indication that things are okay. The trouble is, he isn't sure what kinds of reassurance would actually be helpful. She sounded calm enough a second ago but now he can feel her beginning to grow tense again, can feel her pulse picking up slightly. That isn't good. She needs sleep—they both do.
He remembers that she relaxed before when he said he loved her. That doesn't seem to have had the same effect, this time. Is that because she said it first and he responded? Is it something else?
There are too many variables and he's so, so tired. He wants to sleep so badly. But Roxanne is not relaxing, and Megamind knows the first few hours after something like today are vitally important, psychologically, and he just…
He is not good at knowing what to do for other people. Trying to help, reaching out, offering...this sort of thing has always backfired.
But he has to try. He wants to try. And Roxanne asked, before when she was crying, to hear his subvoice. Megamind does not sing that way around humans, knows to expect open scorn or ridicule or violence at worst and disquiet at best, but...Roxanne did ask, didn't she? And she asked again later, pinned under his weight. And he doesn't seem to have messed up too badly, so far.
The emotive ebb-flow of air along the complex chords that run the length of his spine costs almost no energy. He sings in his sleep on occasion, when he's either bone-tired or shallow napping. So he gathers himself and hums soft and low in his chest, sings comfort, comfort. The vibration in his bones is a comfort to him as well.
And Roxanne exhales and—settles—backwards in his arms, against his chest and against all reason.
He gulps again, stunned at his luck and exhausted. "You are safe," he tells her, murmuring over the thrum of his subvoice. "And so am I, and Minion. Nothing is lost. No one is hurt. ...Is this helping?"
"Yeah," she whispers. "Keep going?"
He nods. "Close your eyes. Feel the pillow. Breathe in slowly…pause…exhale slowly…good. Keep breathing that way. You are safe, I'm right here. You can sleep. Everything is quiet and everyone is safe."
She's slowly going boneless in his arms, her grip on his hand loosening.
"There's nothing else you need to be doing. I have you, I'm right here. You can sleep. Everything will feel better in the morning."
She makes a small, soft sound and shifts a little, lets go of his hand and—
"You have me," he says softly, fighting off sleep only with great effort, "my heart, my body, my mind, all the work of my hands. I am here, right here, I am yours and I'm here. You are safe. You can sleep."
—her breathing stays smooth and even, her heartbeat stays slow and calm. She's out.
Thank god. Megamind closes his eyes with a sigh, and he's asleep before he inhales again.