This ending feels a little abrupt; I may edit it juuuust a little when I have time. But it is also a nice place to stop. Maybe I'll write an epilogue! Either way, I feel I should mention—the pomegranates are actually a Christmas thing my family does, and I think it would be funny for these two.

Thank you so much for reading! I wrote this thing in a month and a half by doing pretty much nothing else, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Hopefully, you enjoyed it, too.

CHAPTER 15

Megamind is quiet as Roxanne pilots them away from her mother's house, heading east. He doesn't look upset, when Roxanne glances at him; just sort of amazed.

"You okay?" she asks. He blinks and looks around at her.

"I am," he says, sounding completely stunned about it. "I really—I really do think I am. I was—yesterday was—I kept imagining this, the flight home, and I kept trying not to imagine it because I didn't want being sad to ruin the nice time I was having. And I didn't want to have anything to be sad about; I didn't want any of it to mean anything. Because this is what happens, I find something and it's wonderful and then I'm too much for it and I can't ever have it again.

"And, and then I thought, oh, oh no, I have to tell Roxanne—about—all my crazy neediness—I thought I wouldn't be able to see you again, I thought you would never want to see me, I thought you—you wouldn't—

"But I did that," he says, brow furrowing, "and I'm—here, now, with you, and—you love me? You do?"

She glances over at him. He's staring at her, his green eyes wide and wondering. "Yeah," she says. "I do. I love you."

"And we're dating," he says, still sounding like he's having trouble wrapping his head around this. "You love me and I—I love you and—you're my girlfriend."

"And you're my boyfriend," Roxanne tells him, smiling out at the land as they fly.

"And I'm going to maybe not be—maybe I don't need to be a supervillain," he continues. "I could—go outside. Sit in a park. Ooh!" He sounds like he's just thought of something amazing. "I could learn to ride a bike!"

"—Yeah," Roxanne says again, trying not to let on that her heart is breaking for him, for the way this all sounds like completely new possibilities to him. "Yeah, you could."

Megamind is quiet for a while. Long enough that Roxanne's thoughts start to wander away from what the fuck this man's childhood must have been like.

But then, suddenly, he says, "Roxanne something is happening and I don't like it and I think I might be dying."

Startled, she looks over at him. He's sitting with his feet on the floor and he's staring at his hands, which are shaking terribly, and he's hyperventilating. His eyes are huge.

Crap. But yeah, no, this isn't surprising.

Roxanne takes them down to hover low above a wide, shallow river, its water moving fast enough that it's still singing in spite of the freeze, and then she tugs Megamind up out of his chair and guides him stumbling over to sit on the half-moon shaped bed in the back of the hovercraft. "Come on," she says, "sit with me. I think you're panicking."

"But I'm happy," he gasps as she pulls him to lean against her, across her body with his chin hooked over her shoulder. "I don't—I don't—Roxanne I'm scared—I'm happy and I'm scared and—and now I'm embarrassed—"

"This is a lot," Roxanne says, her arms around his back, his arms around her shoulders. "It's a lot to take in. You've…some things you thought were just true about the world turned out to be really different from what you thought, huh?"

"I love you," he gasps, dragging his fingers in the back of her coat, "Roxanne I love you, I love you, every time you touch me I feel like I'm glowing, I can't—I can't—I love you, your mind and—your smile is the best thing I've ever seen in my life—I love you—and you're so, so beautiful and I'm just—gross and weird-looking and too much—I'm—everything is too much and I'm too much and—I want—"

"I want," Roxanne says, "you to stop telling me you're too much. You aren't. If you were I would tell you."

"But," he says, his voice still high and very breathy, "but Miss—but Roxanne—you said you aren't good at knowing what you're feeling—if—you might not notice if I'm—"

He isn't wrong. Roxanne has run into that in the past with certain friends. But she's pretty sure there's a difference here.

"Megamind, I know you. You're going to ask me," Roxanne says. "You'll ask, because you'll worry, and then I'll think about it. Okay? Because what usually happens is I don't even think about it; I just do everything I'm supposed to, everything I should be able to handle, and then suddenly I'm overwhelmed and I can't handle anything anymore.

"But if you ask me, I'll ask myself. Okay?" She rubs a hand down his back and up again. "And I'll try and pay more attention to how I'm doing, too, so I'm not just relying on you to ask. Okay?"

He gulps, nods. His breathing isn't any easier.

"We can do this," Roxanne tells him. "We can do this. Say it with me."

He hauls in another gasp of air. "We can do this. I love you."

"I love you, too," Roxanne tells him. "And I'm not just saying this to help you calm down; I really do mean it. I love you and I think we can do this. We're a team."

He nods wildly on her shoulder, clenches his hands and relaxes them, clenches and relaxes.

"We're partners. We'll look after each other and," she swallows, thinks wildly about what killed her past relationships, "and we'll—we'll talk about our problems and we'll help each other look after ourselves. We can do this."

Megamind clenches his hands and does not relax at all. He's beginning to shake.

"Love, do you just need to freak out for a while?" Roxanne asks.

"—want—not to be—this—" His voice is thin, reedy.

With anyone else, Roxanne would assume he means I would prefer not to be panicking right now. Coming from Megamind, I want not to be this is a little more ambiguous, a little more concerning.

She raises her voice. "Ducky," she calls, as Megamind shivers against her. "Ducky, would you come here, please?"

There's a quiet little bowg from the mews-rail running around the dome of the hovercraft. Ducky shoves against Roxanne's back a couple seconds later, shoving in under Megamind's arm and pulling it up over Roxanne's shoulder, turning him as she comes up and over and down against his chest. The net effect is that the brainbot peels Megamind off of Roxanne, who wasn't expecting that, exactly. But—well, Ducky knows what she's doing, doesn't she? She's a comfort bot, Megamind said. Like a hot-water bottle.

Ducky shoves against Megamind's chest, thrumming and bowging softly as he rubs his splayed hands over her dome.

Roxanne looks at him, hunched over his brainbot. "Sweetheart, what do you need me to do," she asks quietly. Because, seriously, she has no idea.

He gulps, shudders. "Need—need to be alone—"

That doesn't seem right. But. Roxanne isn't going to second-guess him, even right now, even when he's panicking—if this is a test, if he's testing her, they'll cross that bridge later. She already knows all she can do is take people at their word. If she tries to do anything else, she'll go out of her head.

So—

"Okay," she whispers. "But I love you, okay? I really do. And this is a lot, for you, and I'm not surprised you're having trouble grokking all of it. It's okay, sweetheart. You're allowed to be scared." She leans over and kisses the soft dip of his temple. "I love you," she says again, and then stands and heads back to her chair to take the hovercraft back up again.

A couple minutes later she pauses and turns a little, unsure if he's speaking to her or if—

"Boron carbon nitrogen oxygen—fluorine neon sodium magnesium—aluminium—"

She snorts in spite of herself. Whatever works.

She listens to Megamind run through the periodic table, and then he starts in on something she doesn't recognize, and then he starts in on fibonacci. Roxanne loses track after 514,229 but Megamind keeps going for another few minutes before he finally heaves an enormous sigh and comes back to the front of the craft, flops into his chair.

She glances at him. "You okay?"

Megamind nods. "Better now," he says, and he certainly sounds less shell-shocked than he did before. He sighs again. "Thank you. Roxanne. That was…unpleasant, but I think…probably necessary. To reestablish equilibrium."

Roxanne smiles. "I'm glad," she says. "And," she continues, because he does seem to be much calmer now, "I know you think you're ugly, and I won't tell you that you aren't allowed to feel that way, but I want you to know, I very firmly disagree. You are seriously one of the most physically stunning people I have ever seen in my life."

Megamind sits back and wrinkles his face at her, skeptical.

"And I'm not sure why you don't think so," Roxanne says. "I mean. Look at you. Granted I had to have a friend explain the exact parameters of what hot meant, back in middle school, but—you're it. Cheekbones and jawline and your eyes, God, I could get lost in them. And I like your head, I think it's pretty, I really do. And your skin is an amazing color, I love that, too. And you move like a liquid, Megamind, your body is just—wow. Okay? Just wow."

"Small," he says, "and too skinny and built wrong—my shoulders stick out too far and either my arms are too short for my height or my legs are too long, and my hips are—"

Roxanne scowls. "You are judging yourself by comparisons to an imagined ideal," she says flatly, and Megamind blinks.

"What? No I'm not."

"You are. That's what 'too' is."

He opens his mouth to argue—

—and then he closes it again, looking thoughtful. Roxanne waits, watching his eyes move as he works through this.

Finally she says, quietly, "I like that you're small. It means I can hold you in my arms like at the fire last night. I like how you're built. But you," she says, "have some idea in your lovely big head of what you should look like, and you're judging yourself for not being that."

Megamind's eyes flick to her. "How is that any different from what you do to yourself socially?" he asks, cocking an eyebrow.

Roxanne blinks. "It—it's totally different," she says, but he shakes his head.

"It is not," he says. "That's what 'should' is."

Roxanne has to stop and think about that one. But…he's…not entirely wrong, is he?

"Oh," she says. "Huh."

Then she starts laughing. "So," she says, "we're both just a couple of messes, aren't we? You never learned to appreciate yourself aesthetically—"

"And you never learned to let yourself be who you are," Megamind finishes, shaking his head and grinning. "Ah. Well…we'll just…work on those things?" He looks over at her, chagrined. "Also, I feel I should tell you, in the interest of communication, I am feeling bad about asking you to leave me alone, because I did still want—that, what you were doing, hugging me—but I couldn't. Just then. I couldn't."

Startled, Roxanne blinks at him. "Oh! Well—this chair is fairly big; do you want to see if I can hold you and fly at the same time?" she asks. "Because I will not complain, if you do. Or is that too much contact, still?"

Megamind presses his lips together around a small, embarrassed-looking smile. "I always want to be touching you," he admits. "One way or another. Even when I need space. I really am—terribly clingy, Roxanne, I warn you."

She brings the hovercraft down again, then turns toward him and holds her arms out. "Well, let's try it, then," she says. "And I suspect you might be less clingy than touch-starved. But we'll see."

He blinks. "Touch-starved," he echoes, approaching. "That's a real thing? That happens?"

"It happens to humans," she says as he curls down into her arms. "You seem like a reasonably social creature; I wouldn't be surprised if that was some of your issue."

He settles across her lap, this time, with his thighs across hers and his legs threaded through the arm of her chair, his arm around her shoulders. "Minion hugs me," he says.

"Minion is a fish," Roxanne says, "in a suit. I'm not sure that's the same as skin-to-skin contact."

"Ah. No, the skin contact I get is usually punching," Megamind agrees, and then he makes a small, startled noise when Roxanne wraps her arms around his chest and pushes her face into his shoulder.

"That is terrible." Her voice is muffled by his shirt. "Sweetheart, Megamind—that's awful."

He leans across her again, drapes his upper body against her chest, his face turned away and his cheek resting on her shoulder. Liquid, indeed.

A thought occurs. "Megamind, what's the deal with your neck?" she asks. "You said it was off-limits for touching?"

"Mm. Not anymore," he murmurs. "Back of the neck is hypersensitive to touch. Whole thing is sensitive, but there's…a lot of nerves in the back, especially."

Roxanne blinks. "Really," she says, intrigued, and takes the opportunity to press a kiss to the side of his neck, since it's right there and so beautiful and she can see his pulse fluttering under his skin. "The back of your…? Why? Good hypersensitive or bad?"

"Good," he says. "If it's you. Or Minion, but he…registers elsewhere? I guess?" He yawns. "It's a…bonding thing. I think. Minion and I aren't…he isn't like you. So he doesn't feel the same way, to me. I think."

Interesting. Roxanne turns her head and kisses him there and he sucks in a breath and twitches—oh, that is interesting—and then he sits up, yawning again and blinking at her in the sunlight.

"Miss Ritchi," he says, his complaining scowl completely ruined by the way his mouth is curling up at the corners, "that was not fair."

Roxanne cocks her head. "What happens if someone you don't like touches you there?"

"Pain," Megamind says immediately, his eyes slipping closed and his head tipping forward to rest gently against her temple. "Pain happens. Which I thought was universal for everyone except Minion until you brushed me there while you were sleeping the other night."

Roxanne bursts out laughing. "Oh, no!" she exclaims. "Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry! You must have been so startled."

"My dear, startled doesn't begin to cover it," he mumbles, finally bending down to lean across her, again, and put his head back down on her shoulder. "I love you."

She smiles a little. "And I love you," she says, "and I'm so glad I get to touch your neck, now, because it's seriously lovely and I have wanted to lick it for years, Megamind."

"Mmm," he says. "Kay. Not now."

Roxanne smiles and shakes her head at him, and then she finally settles her hands on the controls again and takes them back up over the trees and farmland, slicing through the air, but once she's sure they've gained enough altitude not to hit anything, she turns and presses a kiss to the back of Megamind's head. He hums and stirs in her arms but doesn't really move.

Actually, he seems like he might be going to sleep. Well, that's okay. Roxanne knows where they're going, where they're headed to rendezvous with the flocking brainbots. The hovercraft is rumbling around her, and there's a low, rhythmic whirring somewhere nearby, and the brainbots are chattering quietly in the mews, and it's Christmas and her boyfriend is sort of holding her and sort of being held and, honestly, Roxanne can't think of anywhere she'd rather be right now.

It still amazes her every time she stops and thinks about it. She's dating Megamind. Or, she's going to. They haven't been on any actual dates yet. But barely four weeks ago, he was kidnapping her and tying her to a chair, and now he's going to sleep in her lap, and he's…

…purring?

She gently rests her ear against the side of his neck for a moment. Sure enough, the soft whirring is coming from Megamind, ebbing and increasing as he breathes.

Roxanne bites her lip to keep from bursting out laughing. He really is just an enormous cat, isn't he? Prickly and proud and aloof until he gets to know you, and then all he wants is a warm lap and some petting. And yes, he seems to otherwise make mostly bird and whale noises, but his eyes reflect, and apparently he purrs when he's content.

Fine by her. She's always wanted a cat, anyway.

Megamind stirs again. "What are you chuckling about," he mumbles.

She squeezes him a little. "You," she says. "Purring."

"Mmm." He shifts a little, settles again. "Happens sometimes," he sighs, and then he's gone.

Roxanne tips her chair back just a little and flies on, over field and stream glittering in the winterlight, over cities and towns, with Megamind's cool weight draped against her, his head heavy on her shoulder, his arms heavy around her neck. This is the best Christmas she's had in a while.

She wakes him shortly before they're due to rendezvous with the brainbots at the Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge. South Dakota is flat and there isn't much cover, but the brainbots have gone to ground in an old fire tower there to shelter from a winter storm. No one is out anyway because of the storm, so 87534 zips out the ventral hatch of the craft to join the flock and guide them in. It's nice not to have to worry about being seen bringing flying, glowing robots into a hole in the air, but holding the hovercraft steady against the buffeting winds screaming around the sides of the little house on its stilts takes some doing.

The brainbots are beyond glad to see Megamind. He's happy to see them, too, running his hands over their domes and fins, cooing at them and telling them what good bots they are, coming to find their daddy all by themselves.

Dream is fascinated with them. The sentiment seems to be mutual; the older, larger bots cluster around it, tactile sensors tapping gently, bowging and trilling in the back of the hovercraft.

Roxanne glances over at Megamind as she pulls the craft up into the storm. "How many of those little tentacles does Dream have?"

"Ten," he says. "It was going to be eight, but then I thought, eh, add a couple more for luck."

She bites her lip and nods, gazing out at the driving snow in front of them, keeping an eye on the hovercraft's sensors to tell where she's going. "I can't believe you built me a brainbot," she says. "I love it. And the design is just—the most adorable thing."

He smiles. "I'm glad you like it," he says.

Then he leans forward in his chair. "May I borrow your phone? I should call Hop Kee and put our order in for when we get to Metro City. Because once we reach your apartment, I am getting into my pajamas and I am not getting out until tomorrow."

Roxanne laughs and fishes her phone out of her purse, tosses it to him. "That sounds good," she says as he dials without needing to look anything up. "Pajama Christmas with a late lunch, early dinner sounds amazing."

They land on top of Hop Kee's building at around three in the afternoon, right on time, and the brainbots carry them down. Dream does its best to help; mostly what it does is hold Roxanne's hand in three of its tentacles. Once they're on the ground, Roxanne guides Dream up to hover over her right shoulder, then praises the little bot, telling it that's a good place for it to come back to.

Midafternoon on Christmas day, and Hop Kee has several patrons sitting at scattered tables who look up, blinking, when Roxanne and Megamind walk in with their small army of brainbots, none of whom had wanted to stay in the hovercraft on the roof. But no one screams and no one calls the police or shouts for Metro Man, so that's something.

Roxanne heads up to the counter where Biming is waving at her. "Hey," she says. "How are you? Business is good?"

"Always good on Christmas," Biming says. "Yes, busy day, busiest day of the year for us here. Ah—your littlest one is—"

Roxanne turns. Dream is cooing and flitting around a high chair with a baby in it. The baby seems happy enough, smiling and reaching for the little bot, but the child's father looks like he has some concerns. "Dream," Roxanne says. "Ah-ah. No. Leave the baby alone. Go look at the fish with daddy.

"Thank you so much," she continues, turning back to the counter and starting to gather up the bag and their receipt. "I appreciate it."

"Yes, and you have a merry Christmas," Biming tells her. "You tell Minion hello from me? I'm off in an hour, he doesn't come in until six. Oh—look, who is under the mistletoe."

Roxanne blinks, then turns. Megamind is still waiting by the door, studying the restaurant's goldfish in their tank. And above him…

She hadn't noticed any holiday decorations in the place, but it turns out Hop Kee has made a small nod to the season: there's a sprig of fake mistletoe hanging on the door close mechanism.

That's cheesy, but—

(Megamind, sticking his hands in his pockets as soon as they hit the street, Megamind, keeping a noticeable distance between them, Megamind, hanging back by the door, far away from her)

She glances at Biming, who wiggles her eyebrows at her and grins.

Roxanne puts the bag of takeout back on the counter and heads back over to Megamind. "They're pretty fish," she says.

"Mm," he replies, not looking at her. "I like them."

"You're awfully distracted," she observes. And then, when he finally looks up, wearing a quizzical little frown, she points upward.

Megamind looks up, then flushes. "You don't have to do that," he says quickly. "I—my standing here was entirely unintentional, I assure you."

Roxanne cocks her head at him. He swallows. "I know what you said," he says, very quietly. "About—dating, and not hiding, but there's a difference between not hiding and—"

"Megamind, I am proud to be seen with you," Roxanne says. She raises her eyebrows at him. "I want to be seen with you, I want people to see us together."

"Oh," he says.

"And I would like to kiss you now," she says. "Any excuse, really." She glances up at the mistletoe again.

"Well, if you're sure," Megamind says, uncertain. "I won't complain. I just…don't want you to do something you're going to regret."

Roxanne looks him up and down. "How much do you weigh?"

He blinks. "One eighty. Why?"

"Wondering if I can dip you. Probably not." She quirks a grin at him. "Not yet, anyway. Oh, well."

She touches Megamind's face, splays her fingertips over the line of his jaw as she pets his goatee with her thumb. The restaurant goes absolutely silent. "This will just have to do," she murmurs, "oh no, what a hardship," and presses her lips to his. A moment later, Megamind's hands settle on her back. They're shaking rather badly, but—he is kissing her, too, pressing his whole body forward the way he has every time. And after another second or two, he relaxes a little and slides one of them up to thread into her hair.

Roxanne smiles at him as she breaks the kiss, and Megamind sinks his teeth into his lip, eyes sparkling at her. He's wearing that soft expression again, the gently marveling one that tugs at Roxanne's heart.

And then, as he did when they were skating, he jumps and looks around at the room—

Biming says something that Roxanne can't understand. She catches 'Metro Man' and that's about it, but it makes Megamind go pink and exclaim something indignant, gesturing wildly around at the restaurant's five or so patrons, the mistletoe, and Roxanne. A couple of the patrons laugh, and one of them says something to Megamind that has him drawing himself up and squaring his shoulders, glaring and sharp as he replies over Biming's ongoing diatribe—and then suddenly he's trying to carry on two conversations at once—

Finally he turns to Roxanne, still blushing furiously. "I am being instructed to give you a proper kiss," he says stiffly. "Because, apparently, that one wasn't up to," he raises his voice, "some people's abnormally high personal standards!"

She grins. This is far from the first time someone has demanded her high-profile and immediately recognizable boyfriend give her more than a peck on the lips, but it is the first time she's actually been dating said boyfriend. It's the first time said boyfriend has actually been willing. And Megamind isn't the only one used to the spotlight. "Well, then, lay it on me," she says. "Come on, Mr. Melodrama, hit me with your best—"

He steps forward and ducks a shoulder under her arm, settles his other hand on her waist. Roxanne knows exactly what he's going for; she's the one who suggested it, and trusting Megamind isn't so much a decision as a state in which Roxanne exists, so she grips his shoulders as he dips her deeply backwards over his leg and cleaves his mouth to hers.

The kiss probably looks more impressive than it feels. Being in it is exhilarating, but it doesn't feel terribly romantic. Mostly what it feels like is being upside-down.

But Megamind's arms are strong, and his mouth is cool and he makes a noise when she draws his tongue into her mouth and sucks gently—that's going to become one of her favorite things to do, she can already tell—and Roxanne has no complaints. She's surprisingly relaxed about the whole thing, and no wonder; Megamind is supporting all of her weight.

"Mmm," she hums when he brings her back up to standing. "That was lovely, thank you."

"Melodramatic enough for you?" he growls, glaring at her, but then his lips twitch and he sort of leans down into her shoulder, turning his head to hide his face, all of him shaking with embarrassed laughter.

Chuckling, Roxanne pats his back a few times and smooths her hand over the back of his head. "My love, I need to get the food," she says as he twines his arms around her waist. He mumbles something and she bends her head down. Their audience appears to be losing interest, thank goodness. "What?"

"I have wanted to do that for so long," he says, still half-laughing, as he lifts his head and clunks it gently against hers.

Roxanne flushes. "I'm glad you finally got the chance," she says, smiling at him, and then she finally extracts herself and heads back to the counter to grab their takeout, rolling her eyes at Biming as she approaches. "Thanks for that," she says dryly, and Biming laughs.

She says something to Megamind over Roxanne's shoulder and he splutters, and then she winks at Roxanne. "We cater your wedding," she says, grinning. "Give you a discount."

Roxanne laughs and nods on autopilot, responding more to tone than the words. It's been a long day. But, she thinks as she turns and waves while Megamind opens the door for her, there could be worse catering choices than the best Cantonese cuisine in the city.

Roxanne lands the hovercraft on the roof of her building, then leads Megamind down a maintenance staircase to the main floors so they can take the elevator down to her apartment. They don't have to go very far.

And then they're home and inside. Megamind sets the bag of takeout on Roxanne's kitchen counter, and then—he turns and tips his head at her, big green eyes watching her carefully as he moves toward her and into her space.

"Thank you," he says, "for allowing me to nap on you, earlier. I—honestly don't remember when I last took a nap."

She smiles. "It was nice. You don't get enough sleep, love."

Megamind keeps his eyes on her face as he leans toward her, tentatively presses his mouth to hers. Yes, he's kissed her before, earlier, but—that was different. They weren't alone, earlier, not really. Not like this. Not in her home, alone with each other. Maybe she doesn't—does she need to be alone at all? She hasn't—is she—

Her hands come up to cradle the swell of his head and tilt his face so she can kiss him more deeply, and he relaxes. Okay. She does still want him, then.

She kisses him. And then she skates a hand down to hold him gently by the back of the neck, which turns out to be an interesting decision, indeed, because Megamind shivers and presses back into her hand, lifting his chin. Which means Roxanne can lean forward and do something she's wanted to do for a long time: find out what noise Megamind makes when she licks from the hollow at the base of his throat all the way up and around to his ear.

Turns out, the answer is 'multiple noises, all of which are encouraging' as he sort of staggers forward against her, pinning her back against the door in a movement that, hilariously, Roxanne is pretty sure is unintentional.

And then there's—a vaguely intriguing period of time that culminates in Megamind bracing himself, barely, against the door while Roxanne bites and kisses gently up and down the long column of his throat, her nails scratching along his spine, one thumb pressing into the shadow just under his skull. Eventually he's got the top of his head shoved against the door next to her shoulder, and he has four purple bruises rising under his skin near his shoulder, and he's shivering and gasping and making cut-off breathless helpless noises until finally Roxanne murmurs, "My love, sweetheart, dearest, my darling, if we are going to make out like this, perhaps we should do it while lying down…?"

At which point Megamind sort of gulps and nods, and does his best to find his knees so he can follow her away to somewhere more comfortable for such things.

Later, when they're curled up on the sofa together and Roxanne is finishing her beef chow fun, both of them in their pajamas, Megamind sets his empty takeout tray aside and cocks his head at her and asks, "Roxanne, what was in that paper bag your mother gave you?"

"Oh!" Roxanne laughs, then shakes her head. "It's stupid. Old family tradition. Rose and I used to get oranges in our Christmas stockings until one year Mom gave us pomegranates instead, and we decided we preferred those. We don't do stockings anymore, but—" She jostles him forward so she can get up and go to the paper bag poking out of the top of her purse. She rustles it open and pulls out a vaguely spherical red fruit. "—we do still do pomegranates. Here, catch."

Megamind catches it, and then he stares down at it in silence as Roxanne comes back to the couch. The expression on his face when he looks up at her is intensely bewildered. "Your mother…gave you…a pomegranate."

"Mm-hm," she says, standing between his knees and rubbing her thumb up the edge of his jaw just because she can. She sweeps her other palm up over the swell of his skull, smiling at the smooth-silk feel of it against her skin. "Something wrong?"

He shakes his head. "No, it's…um. And, and she told you to share this…with me? Specifically?"

"Yes, why?"

He wets his lips, then stands up and walks over to his bag. "Nothing," he says, in an odd tone of voice as he rummages through it, "but I have, um, another gift for you. Sort of."

While he looks for whatever it is he's looking for, Roxanne sets about clearing the dinner dishes off the coffee table and packing the leftovers into her refrigerator. By the time she returns to sit down, Megamind has curled back down onto the sofa, wedging himself back into the corner of the red sectional. He has the pomegranate in one hand—he's still kind of staring at it like he's never seen one before—and his other hand is clutched around something in…Roxanne squints. Black tissue paper, it looks like.

"Another present?" she asks. "For me?"

Megamind swallows. "It's…well, it was for me, sort of. But I made it because of you." He takes a deep breath. "This was a few years back. I was…not in a good place. And. I needed to…find a way to reconcile my feelings for you with my…kidnappings? And…anyway. I made this. I never intended to actually give it to you, I just…needed to make it."

He passes her the bundle of—tissue paper, yep. She blinks down at it, uncertain. "Did it help?"

"It did. I think." He squeezes his eyes closed. "In any case, I think I do want you to have it. After all."

There's a pause, a gentle rustling, and then a quiet, "Oh, wow," from Roxanne. Megamind swallows. Then, after a moment during which she says nothing, he risks peeking at her face.

She's smiling down at the pendant. It's quite large, more than an inch across, and hangs on a sturdy rope chain. It's half a pomegranate cast in silver and bronze, with thirty-six garnet cabochons as its many small seeds. "So," Roxanne says, smiling at Megamind as she fastens the chain around her neck and settles the pendant against her sternum. "That Hades and Persephone comment I made earlier was a little on the nose, huh?"

Megamind flushes and wraps both his long hands around the pomegranate—the real one—in his lap. "You know me too well, Miss Ritchi," he says dryly. He glances at the pendant resting on her chest, allows his eye to linger there for a moment while he feels his color deepen. "It suits you. Red always was your color."

Then he glances down, drumming his fingers on the fruit he's holding. "It's just—your mother is—she worries. Constantly. About you. And there's a parallel there that renders this particular gift rather hilarious, because—"

Roxanne bursts out laughing.

"Am I wrong?" he exclaims. "I am not wrong!"

She nods, still laughing. "I'm no Kore," she says, grinning over at him. "My mom knows this. She forgets, sometimes—often—but she does know this. She isn't going to pitch any harvest goddess hissy fits about you."

Megamind frowns. "I don't know if I would call dooming the earth to eternal winter pitching a hissy fit."

"A temper tantrum, then. Either way, you were invited back for Easter; she's okay with you.

"Thank you," she adds, "for the necklace." She leans sideways, against his shoulder. "If you and I can balance each other half as well as Hades and Persephone, I think this relationship will turn out just fine. Kiss me."

Megamind smiles and shifts so his arm is around her, and then he draws her in with his hand on her jaw.

He wakes the next morning without dreaming. And he wakes up sort of on his stomach and sort of on his side, with his head pillowed on Roxanne's shoulder, her arms around him. Her heartbeat under his ear is steady and slow, and the sunlight through his eyelids is bright purplish red.

But Roxanne's voice is what woke him, because she just murmured, "Get out of my room, Wayne."

"Sorry!" someone whispers. It's hard to identify voices when they're whispering, but Megamind knows perfectly well who Wayne is. The only reason he doesn't go stiff with anticipation of pain is—he's in Roxanne's arms. Nothing bad can happen when she's holding him. He's safe. She's a safe place, a quiet place. "Sorry! Okay! I just—Minion said—you came back early, and I didn't believe him, and—I wanted to ask if—"

"Get out. of. my room. Wayne." Roxanne sounds sleepy. Also disgruntled.

"Yes! Sorry! Leaving now!"

Megamind lifts his head a little. "Be quiet," he complains. "I am trying to sleep."

"Right!" Wayne says. "Yep! Bye now! Talk later!"

"Yes, yes, talking later," Megamind mumbles, laying his head back down and flicking his fingers in the direction of the whispering. "Talking later, retiring from villainy later, be a good nemesis and set up a press conference for me at nine on Monday morning. Steps of City Hall."

"...can I get a please?"

"Fuck off, Wayne," Roxanne and Megamind chorus, in two different irritated voices, and Wayne, wisely, fucks off.

Roxanne rolls onto her side, her arms around her boyfriend, and kisses the top of his giant blue head. Feels him smile against her chest, feels him give a contented little hum.

"Good morning," she murmurs. "I love you."

"Mmm," he hums, and scritches his fingertips sleepily, slowly against her back. "I love you, too. So, so much." Then he chuckles. "Minion," he murmurs. "That little—he planned this."

Roxanne blinks and tries to focus on his words, instead of the weight of Megamind—Megamind! her boyfriend!—in her arms, in her bed, lying quietly beside her like it's the only place he ever wants to be. "Hm? Minion planned what?"

"This," he says again, rousing a little to bring himself up and blink down at her. "This, us. Why else would he be texting Metro Man about us coming back early?"

There's clearly some kind of thought process behind those two dots that Roxanne is missing, but that's okay. She strokes her hand up and down Megamind's back, his spine, and he hums at her and settles back down with his head on her pillow, brushes the backs of his cool fingers over her cheek.

"And you don't need to talk to him about quitting?" she says.

"Are you kidding? He will be thrilled. ...Kiss me?" he adds, almost shyly, and Roxanne kisses him. The corners of his mouth, the point of his sharp chin, the tip of his nose—until he finally makes a grumpy, demanding noise and rolls her onto her back, and then she takes him by the chin and pulls him down into a proper kiss, smiling against his lips. The kiss tastes mostly of sleep mouth, this soon after waking up, but neither of them has any complaints. Their hearts are strong, and they are warm and sleepy and together under the blankets in the morning, in love.