#let me see minion being happy he has someone other than megamind to talk to and listen to whatever he has to say

[starrybobatea]

y’all have no idea how much i need content of roxanne and minion bonding and being in-laws from guide to defending your city

[true-blue-megamind]

Daylight and Dark Ch. 2 - Morning

You can find Chapter 1 or read the entire fiction on AO3 HERE.

CHAPTER RATING: Teen; FULL FICTION RATING: Explicit.  WARNINGS FOR ENTIRE WORK: violence, sex, language, references to prior domestic abuse, and rock n’ roll! CHAPTER WARNINGS: Mom Friend Minion is too damn loveable

Roxanne woke with her head pillowed on Megamind's shoulder. She blinked blearily in the bright sunlight filling the room, and stretched delightfully sore muscles. It had been too long since she'd last awoken with the afterglow of good, rough sex warming her body.

"Good morning, Beautiful," said a smooth, pleasant voice.

Roxanne smiled up into Megamind's handsome face. "Good morning," she sighed, sliding against him to kiss his mouth. She settled back beside him, nuzzling the side his neck and idly sliding one finger up and down his opposite ear. "Mmmmm, I should get up, but I'm much too comfortable."

"Then don't get up."

"But I really should."

"The Evil Overlord forbids it."

"You're not an Evil Overlord anymore."

"Well, then the Defender of Metrocity forbids it," he grinned down at her, turning to wrap both arms tightly around her. "Stay with me," he added seriously. "It's Saturday. As long as I'm not called to duty, there is no good reason why we can't spend the whole day here."

An electronic buzzing suddenly disturbed the quiet. It was quickly joined by a metallic rattling at the window. Roxanne bolted up in bed, giving a little yelp and pulling her coverlet over her chest as she realized six or seven brainbots were swarming outside the glass. Megamind's reaction was even more animated. He practically tumbled onto the floor, bringing the rumbled sheet with him and wrapping himself frantically in it. He stumbled to the window and, ignoring Roxanne's stuttering protests, threw it open to let the little flying robots in. They massed around him like worried children, bumping him with rounded glass domes and pawing him with long mechanical arms. Roxanne was sure that if they'd had tails, they would have been wagging.

Chuckling nervously, Megamind patted them. "Okay, okay, Daddy's alright. This is just Daddy's… ah… private time… So we really shouldn't be bothering Daddy. No we shouldn't." He shook a finger at them to emphasize his words, but that caused the sheet to slip a little, and he snatched it back up into place. "Look, Daddy's not leaving you behind. Daddy just needs to spend some alone time with Roxanne, okay? Daddy loves both you and Roxanne, but in very different ways…"

Roxanne nearly choked on her giggle. Of all the absurd things she had seen him do during her semi-professional Damsel-in-Distress career, none were quite as funny as Megamind giving the Daddy Has a Girlfriend speech to a hoard of cyborg drones. Her humor was stolen, however, when one of the brainbots left the happily swirling flock to hover in front of an empty section of wall. Moments later, the top minion— or rather Minion— appeared, his image projected by the brainbot's red camera eye. Roxanne blushed bright scarlet and tugged the blanket higher. She knew enough about Megamind's technological creations to realize that Minion could see them just as well as they could see him.

"Oh, sir! Thank goodness they found you! I've had the brainbots looking everywhere! Where have you been all night?!"

"Here."

"No phone call? No message? You just stay out to all hours—"

"Minion," Megamind interjected. "This really isn't the best—"

"Without a single thought of what you might be putting me through—"

"Minion—"

"...worried sick, and—"

"Minion!"

"WHAT? I mean…Ah... What, Sir?"

Megamind took a deep breath and began gathering scattered clothes from the floor with one hand, the other still clutching the sheet tight. "You're right. I should have called. I didn't think about it—"

"Didn't… didn't think about it?" Minion blustered, wide-eyed. "Sir! How could you? After all we've been through! You… You know that my sole purpose is to take care of you, and… and…"

"Oh, Minion! Stop being so dramatic! You know very well I didn't mean it that way!" Megamind threw up his free hand in exasperation, flinging his shirt above his head.

"How did you mean it, then?"

Another deep breath and Megamind collected himself. "I got a little caught up in the moment and… things…"

"Things? What things?! That's no excuse!"

"Things, Minion," Megamind said pointedly, motioning his head toward the bed. "And this seriously is not a good time."

Minion glanced where his master indicated. "Oh good morning, Miss... Ritchi..." his cordial voice grew faint as he finally took in the scene. Large aquatic eyes bulged, flitting between Roxanne and his master.

"Oh, Sir! You didn't!"

Megamind rolled his eyes and snatched one of his boots from the floor. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."

"Sir!"

"And I plan to do it again!"

"But Sir!"

"A lot!"

"SIR!"

"As often as possible!"

Minion mouthed wordlessly before shaking himself free of shock. "Well, I just hope you're being safe," he quipped in a tone that sounded entirely too matronly.

Oh, dear… thought Roxanne.

Megamind had paused instantly, mouth open to offer a retort that never came.

"Oh, sir," Minion repeated, groaning in despair. "You didn't…"

"I… didn't think… " He gathered himself visibly. "Look, Minion, it's doubtful our DNA is even similar enough to be compatible!"

"You can't know that without tests!" Minion objected, then asked hopefully: "have you run any tests?"

"It's on my to-do list!" Megamind announced defensively.

Minion clapped a mechanical hand to his fishbowl. "This is a disaster..."

At least here Roxanne could help. "It's okay, Megamind, Minion. I'm… Uh…" she shrugged, fighting the burning heat in her face. "On the pill."

The entire room seemed to sigh with relief.

"Well, thank goodness one of you has some sense!" said Minion pointedly. "Sir, I am very disappointed in you."

Megamind spoke through gritted teeth. "Could we discuss this later?"

"No, we can NOT discuss this later," Minion replied in his best parental tones. "Sir, you have a reputation to uphold now, and—What are you doing?"

Megamind had walked up behind the hovering brain bot, tucking the edges of the sheet tightly under one arm, and started fiddling with something on its back.

"I understand," he sounded bored. "Reputation. Yes."

Minion's eyes narrowed, his tone slow with barely restrained suspicion. "With all due respect, Sir, if you're doing what I think you're—"

"What was that Minion?" Megamind called loudly.

"Sir, leave that audio-visual receptor alone!"

"I can't hear you!"

"Stop that!"

"There seems to be a problem with the receptor!"

"Problem with—That's because you're messing with it!"

"Minion? Ollo? If you can hear me—"

"Of course I can hear you!"

"…I'll talk to you this afternoon when I get home!"

"Sir! Don't you dare turn off that—"

The image went blank.

Megamind heaved a great sigh and idly petted the brainbots. Then he walked to the far side of the room, where he had thrown his collection of clothing, and awkwardly held the sheet with one hand while fumbling with his leather pants. He extracted his wallet and turned back to the brainbots.

"Here," he said, holding out a twenty-dollar bill. "Daddy needs you to take this, go to the bait shop, and buy Uncle Minion something nice. Some juicy worms or maybe some minnows. No, no, no," he admonished as one of them snapped at the money. "Not for chewing. Daddy will bring you a new wrench to play with when he comes home. Now go get Uncle Minion a treat."

The little robots circled him once by way of a goodbye, the lead one obediently taking the money in a dangling claw, and flew out the window. The last one ran into the windowsill, and Megamind sighed, scooped it up, turned back on its electronic eye, and patted it. It sped out the window, chattering irately at its receding fellows. Roxanne could almost imagine a running child shouting for his friends to wait up.

"Well," Megamind said, slumping to the bed. "That certainly woke me up. Maybe it would be simpler if you stayed over at the Lair next time." He grinned suddenly, his lightning-quick thoughts leaping to a new subject. "I'm starving! Where's that lasag-na?"

"For breakfast?"

"It's nearly eleven! Besides, it's better than cereal and wine."

Roxanne laughed. "I guess I can't argue with that." She sighed and got up, pretending not to watch Megamind as he dropped the sheet and began pulling on his clothes.

Megamind, thoughtful as ever, had put the food into the refrigerator sometime during the night.  The salad Roxanne had made had wilted, but the lasagna was wonderful once reheated. Sitting on the small balcony outside the glass double doors, they enjoyed the pleasant, invigorating bite of the autumn air. Megamind ate voraciously, but then, Roxanne supposed, he had gotten quite a work out the night before.

That thought made her chuckle.

"And just what do you find so amusing, Miss Ritchi?" he teased in that heart-melting tenor of his.

She looked at him, adorably happy with his favorite food and his favorite girl. It took so little to please Megamind sometimes, and his exuberance, coupled with his persona as a dark superhero, seemed both oxymoronic and oddly fitting. It was… relaxing and somehow comforting to be around someone who was so content.

"Has anyone ever told you you're cute?" Roxanne asked, dishing out another serving of lasagna to him.

He grinned at her. "Yes, actually. An inmate in Metrocity Prison when I was a toddler. His name was Kip Kendall— or at least that's what people called him. I'm not sure if Kip was a nickname, honestly. He'd been convicted of murdering some thugs who got on his bad side, and he was very possibly the toughest, meanest brute on Cell Block A. But he was always nice to me when I was young. Around anyone else he was stern and dangerous… Around me, well, he was the closest thing to a father figure I had. He used to play pattie-cake with me, if you can believe that, and carry me around the Yard on his shoulders. No one dared to mock him for it either— not even the guards— and if anyone thought less of him for it, they were smart enough to keep it to themselves." His eyes grew distant as a sad memory ghosted behind them. "I'll never forget the day Uncle Marlow—one of the other two inmates who took the most interest in my upbringing—took me aside and explained that Uncle Kip had gone. Kip had been given consecutive life sentences by a jury too forward-thinking to give a clearly unbalanced man the death penalty, but Cancer had other ideas. I'd known he was sick— they'd had to take him to the infirmary, and the last time I visited him there he seemed so… so unlike himself— but when he went it still felt… wrong. Sudden. I remember thinking how unfair it was that he left without saying goodbye."

Roxanne reached across the table, laying her hand over his, willing him to open his soul and let the old pain dissipate like dark mist in the sunlight.

"I remember feeling that way when—" Roxanne's voice caught. She'd never actually told anyone else this before. Not even the expensive psychologist her grandparents had taken her to for years. With a deep breath, she continued. "I remember feeling that way when my mom died. I was fifteen, in my senior year of high school, and someone told me I had to go to the principal's office. I kept thinking and thinking, trying to figure out what I'd done wrong, and then I saw Principal Hartwell's face. The school counselor and my granddad were with him. And I knew. Somehow I just knew," she paused, wrapping her arms around herself and staring at the glass tabletop. "I started crying before they could even tell me, and I kept asking how. I remember someone saying something about icy roads, and dozing off at the wheel, and how it was no one's fault. I hated that person for saying that. I wanted it to be someone's fault, to be able to blame somebody. I wanted to blame the car company for not making her sedan stronger, or the hospital for making her work that stupid double shift, or my sperm donor for leaving us so that she had to work so many hours in the first place. But more than anything else," she dared to lift her eyes to his, "for a long time, I wanted to blame her for not saying goodbye."

Megamind stood up and moved beside her chair to wrap one arm around her shoulders. She leaned into his warmth, laying her hand on his.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I had already left Metrocity High School by then. If I had known... I would have been there."

Roxanne laughed a little through her sorrow. "Yeah, that would have gone well... The city's new supervillain showing up to offer a spikey shoulder to cry on." She sighed and squeezed his hand. "You know you couldn't have, no matter how much you might have wanted to."

"I would have. I loved you even then, and I would have done anything for you." He kissed the top of her head. "I'm so sorry you lost your mother that way."

"It's alright. I mean, it's not alright, not really, but… It was a long time ago. I still miss her, but I've kept going. I've built a life for myself, just like she would have wanted." Roxanne sighed, but the sound held more relief than sadness. "You know, it's kind of nice to finally talk about it."

Megamind bent to lay his cheek on top of her head. She could almost hear the gentle smile in his voice. "It's nice to finally have someone to talk about it with," he said.

[louthegreatfurrry]

Stardust

A Megamind commission for the absolutely wonderful @justafictionalthing !

Do you want to commission me? My information is here!

Every single person was once a star.

Every single soul, every living creature – they were all cut from stars. The Guardian walks among them, these glowing sparks and dots, carefully picking out the ones who are ready to be given life. He carves souls from them – sometimes only one, sometimes two, sometimes more. A star dies, and souls are born.

Souls of the same star are perfect for each other. In every way, shape or form, no matter where they go, no matter what they do, they will never be complete without the other. They were created together, are several sides of the same coin, and even if they can’t remember that, some part of them will always know.

The souls are sent off to live lives all throughout the world. As family, as friends, as lovers, as pets. And they always find each other, no matter where they end up – for that is the power of the purest form of love.

The process might be boring, at times, and then they seek out the Guardian to ask for a challenge. A test, a way to see how fast and well they truly can find each other.

And now the three of them stand, so close they are almost one, the essence that is them staring up into gentle eyes.

“A test, you say?” the Guardian asks, lowering himself down to be on their level. There are galaxies in his eyes, stars brushed across his antlers, planets in his fur. “What kind are we talking about?”

“The hardest you have,” they say.

“The ultimate challenge,” another adds.

The Guardian leans back, tilting his head to give them a contemplative look. “You will not be in the same universe,” he warns. “And will not recall this occasion, nor your birth.”

“We will find each other,” they say.

They nod. “We always have.”

This, apparently, is the answer the Guardian wanted, for he hums and nods. “Very well. Say your goodbyes.”

“Farewell,” they say. “Survive long for me.”

They laugh. “And the same to you. Live well.”

“As though I can decide,” they say, and they smile.

“Nonetheless.” They smile back, then turns to the Guardian, moving away from them, from each other, until they are three clear separates and not one blur. “We are ready.”

The Guardian inclines his head and does not raise it. “Safe travels,” he says, and on his voice is the distant heartbeat of a different world.

*

Something is missing. Cat is five years old and something is missing. There’s a piece of her, gone, an empty hole where there should be something. No one mentions anything like it, but no one mentions anything different, either, and so she bottles it up and pushes it down.

She thinks it’s normal.

*

Cirrus is torn from his planet when he’s eight days old, is torn from his family, from his budding life, and when he has nightmares about black holes at four, he doesn’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary.

*

The ache grows worse as she grows older. She’s ten, eleven, twelve, watching her classmates and friends finding partners, finding best friends – and when she’s thirteen her older friend travels across half the world to meet their boyfriend. Cat watches, and she isn’t jealous, not really, but – the hole, the ache, it thuds and hurts and screams inside of her.

Then she’s fourteen, and she’s being teased for not having a boyfriend – or a girlfriend, for that matter, an exasperated friend tells her. You’re pretty, they say, sounding confused, what’s holding you back?

Cat opens her mouth, wants to reply, and shuts it again.

How can she explain that the thought of tying herself to someone feels like ripping her own heart out?

*

When he’s twelve he changes his name to Megamind. It’s a play on the bullies – on their harsh calls of mega head, or giga head, and painful remarks about his skin.

(if he embraces it and makes it part of him maybe they’ll stop maybe he’ll stop, maybe maybe maybe)

His name was never written down anywhere and so there’s nothing he needs to change. No official papers, no lawyers or courts or meetings, only a small whisper to Minion and it’s done. Never had he told anyone, never had anyone known, and now no one ever shall.

But there’s something in his heart that stays the same. Some deep part of him is locked down and unable to change. He knows – he knows – he’ll always be Cirrus, that’s never going to change. His true name, the one his parents gave him, the one only one person on this wreck of a planet knows… it’s always going to be his.

His name is Megamind. That’s what they call him, so that’s what he’s going to be.

(and through it all – he never mentions it, not to anyone, but there’s this hollow feeling in his chest – it eases, somewhat, in Minion’s presence, but never enough, never enough, and his sleep is restless and scattered with stars and black holes.)

*

Cat is in class one moment, and they’re watching a video about space –

there’s a glint, a shimmer, and in a rush she’s floating, complete, and there are stars around her and she’s complete, the ache in her chest gone, stars and darkness and safety all around her. A soft laugh, a gentle hand, the glimmer of too huge antlers, and –

someone touches her arm and she falls out of her chair, the floor cold and hard.

She lies there, staring up at the roof, and the spots dancing before her eyes has nothing to do with her fall.

(she’d been complete –)

(and she aches and aches and aches and)

*

Megamind – Cirrus – Megamind runs away from prison for the first time, having found a perfect place to settle down, and he brings Minion and goes there and tries his best to live. At the odd hours of night, he jumps out of bed and beats metal with metal, producing strange creations – robots and machines and guns.

(his heart is empty his body is empty and there’s nothing within him and he needs to fill it)

He’s seventeen when he builds the first brainbot. “Purely out of necessity,” he tells Minion, who hovers worriedly over his shoulder. “To cover more ground,” he assures Minion, and doesn’t explain why he made it sentient, why he made it feel.

(and if the brainbot, and every single brainbot after that, fills the hole – if only for a moment, if only for a day, if only until it adjusts and grows and –)

(he doesn’t mention that.)

*

Cat delves into space. Maybe, she thinks, maybe it’s just that this is her love. Maybe this is what she’s been looking for, maybe this is what will complete her, maybe this is her.

Books and articles and tv-shows and drawings and art and theories and all it does to her is make her feel nostalgic. It makes her long, and more than once she finds herself brushing knuckles across a page, across a screen, biting her cheek against the infected ache within her.

(and sometimes when she dreams, when she dreams of this place in the stars, where she is complete, where she is perfect)

(when she wakes up there’s always this short moment where everything feels wrong)

(it’s like she must teach herself to walk all over again every single time she blinks)

Sometimes there are other dreams as well. Of faces and hands and butterfly kisses, of parental and familial touches and more than that, of eyes and smirks and a happy laughter. Sometimes she sees a face on the street and spins around, an echo of completion in her chest, but the eyes are wrong or the nose is off or the hair is strange and the echo fades.

She’s nineteen, she’s lost, and she needs, she needs.

*

Megamind – Cirrus – Megamind is fretting over his brainbots. Whizzer had gotten in quite the fight the other day, and his claws are unhinged as a result. Megamind has to fix it, but Whizzer’s whirring around and complaining in his own special way, refusing to cooperate.

“Hey – hey, wait now – ” Megamind says, jumping over the couch to go after him. There’s amusement in his voice and a smile on his face – it’s just the claw, not the glass casing, so he isn’t too worried. It’s nothing fatal, and if it had been, Whizzer would be asking to be fixed. Still, he’d like to readjust it before it can develop into something worse. “Whizzer! Wait!” He laughs, grasping after the unruly bot.

He lets out a row of guffawing chuckles, ducking from Megamind’s grasp with a playful bowg.

“Angel, please!” Megamind calls, and in a flash he’s chasing a young girl wearing a nightgown around a room, laughter in his throat and hands reached after her. “Angel!” he begs, jumping over a box with wooden blocks to follow after the giggling girl. “Angel, come on, it’s bed time!”

“No!” the girl cries, in-between bouts of giggles, and her hair floats around her head like a cloud. “No, da, I want to play!”

And Megamind stands stock still in his workspace, wrench clattering to the floor, the chill of the room overwhelming.

He raises a hand to his chest. The ever-present ache twinges.

His heart beats.

“Sir?” says Minion, creeping closer, eyes worried, expression worried, everything worried.

Megamind breathes.

(the ache eases, loosens, Minion’s presence soothing as always –)

(painful, still, but better.)

“I’m fine,” he lies.

(he never is)

Whizzer hovers over, presenting his damaged claw without comment.

Megamind picks up the wrench again, forcing a wobbly smile onto his face. “Well,” he says. “Let’s see about that claw, then?”

*

She tries dating people. Mostly because she sees the way people look at each other, the way they look at another person with utter trust and devotion, love and understanding and such obvious belonging. She wants that, needs it, but every person feels wrong, and none ever work out, no matter what she tries.

(she looks up at the stars and they’re so far away, and she isn’t sure who they are)

She’s twenty-two and she looks down at her own hands and decides that enough is enough.

*

The flashes and experiences continue on like that – a word, a smell, a color, a sound – they set him off and make him remember things that never happened or have yet to exist. He’s a child, he’s an adult, he’s in love, he’s loved, he’s warm and safe and home and trusted and good and –

*

Cat takes to the library first, picking up books on love and soulmates and spirituality. The librarian who checks her out gives her a weird look, but when she offers a glare that could melt stone they hurriedly look away.

Several hours are spent scourging the books. And there’s nothing.

Well, almost nothing – a small paragraph here, a reference there, a mention or call or theory. Most of it is about spirituality, and while it can’t be directly tied to her longing for something, for someone, it can still be applied to her in some way. There’s a mention of soulmates being unable to find each other and that it causes them great pain, but not much more than that.

Cat closes the book in frustration and takes to the internet.

*

“Minion?” Megamind says, from his place in his too-big bed, staring up at the roof he’d plastered full of glow-in-the-dark stars one particularly nasty night.

Minion looks up from the sewing machine in the corner. “Sir?”

Megamind thinks of the ache in his ribs, the longing in his bones, the hope that never quite dies. He thinks of the want, of the hatred, of the desperation.

He thinks of the black hole constantly on his mind.

“Do you ever miss home?” he asks.

It isn’t what he wanted to say.

Minion stops completely. “Uh, well, sir,” he says, “I – don’t have the same memory as you, but – ” He hesitates. “Sir, my home is here with you. It’s all I’ve ever known. But from your stories – what little we know – ” Here he cuts himself off, and Megamind knows him well enough to tell that he struggles.

“That’s enough, Minion,” he whispers. “I understand.”

He turns onto his side, curling against himself, folding into a tight little ball.

(he will never feel at home here.)

*

There is more information on the web, but still not quite enough. Cat clicks and reads and reads and clicks, takes notes in a little notepad she keeps on her at all times. There are a few accounts and stories of people who never feel at ease, of people who feel wrong, of people who feel they are from a different world.

Cat is all of them, but not like they say, and never in the same way.

She discovers witchcraft, and it calls out to her in that peculiar way some things do, but it has nothing to do with her ache nor her emptiness nor the strange flashes and dreams. So she continues on, searching, scourging, looking.

A page talks about shared dreams, and it’s the only thing she’s really felt connected to, in that sense. And so, she brews that cup of tea, and buys that herb, and makes that oil, and does that little ritual, and tries that type of meditation.

And to her great relief and joy it works.

*

They’re discovered by the local police and have to run for their lives. It’s Megamind and Minion and twelve brainbots bolting with whatever they’re able to carry. The place had been perfect, just the right size, in a great spot when compared to the rest of the city… they’d even made the air-condition work after some grumbles and tinkering.

“Well,” says Megamind, his hands on his hips as he stares at the abandoned warehouse, Minion carrying a heap of clothing so tall he can barely see. “It was time to move upwards in the system anyway!”

It’s a good thing he’s always found fun in creative processes.

(he hopes trying to make a home count as a creative process)

*

The dreams aren’t – quite dreams. In the beginning there are no scenes, nothing specific, only short flashes and impressions and feelings that linger. Softness, warmth, belonging – blue and purple and something cool to the touch. Home and safe and the same feeling she’s always felt about space, about belonging. Cat wonders where her soulmate is, what they might be experiencing, if they’re looking for her.

Sometimes in the middle of the day she puts her chin in her hands and wishes for sleep – not to rest, like she usually does, but for the dreams. And even then, less for the dreams and more for the lingering sensation of home.

*

Megamind’s new place takes form slowly but surely. He builds a few more brainbots, Minion sews a few more capes and outfits, and with the help of his growing army of bots he starts painting the walls. They’re black and gray – he prefers the dim calm that settles over a room when the walls are dark colors.

He gets a smaller bed, but comfier, and Minion settles into the room across the hallway. And then, eventually, even his mind calms. His dreams turn from black holes to patience and warmth – no pictures, no scenes, only emotions and senses and half-finished thoughts squashed in between heartbeats.

When he wakes he’s calm. He’s collected. Ready to start the day.

(and he doesn’t notice it, at first, but moving has soothed his aches.)

(well. at least he thinks it’s the moving.)

*

But, however comforting the dreams are, it’s not what Cat wants. She set out to find her soulmate, or soulmates, or whatever, really. She needs to know who it is that makes her feel like this – who it is she’d follow to the depths of hell. She needs to know why they’re so familiar, why these flashbacks that aren’t quite flashbacks keep turning up.

So she looks into lucid dreaming. Records her dreams, starts reading up on dream interpretations. Hangs up posters and looks at courses and reads books, going to bed early and waking even earlier just to find sleep.

Her dreams are too vague, still, to really get a grasp around – but finally, at last, they start to shape forms.

There’s a man, and green eyes, and a blue sky, and a wonderful, beautiful laugh. Blue hands against metal bolts, black silk and dolled up eyes, a theatrically evil laugh.

Cat wakes up and stares at her ceiling.

His presence in her dreams is familiar – it carries the echo of stars, the throb of a heart, the whisper of  a shared past.

And he definitely had blue hands.

“Who are you?” she asks, and the silence in her room gives no answer.

*

When the strange girl starts showing up in his dreams, Megamind isn’t quite sure what to do. She comes out of the heavy, homely haze like some sort of angel – with her pretty voice and her joyous laugh, her quiet grumbling over something that appears to be work-related, the way her hair tumbles down her back, her eyes ablaze with stars.

He shrugs it off. It’s probably just his imagination again – a particularly intense flashback that keeps coming back, most likely. He’s learned to live with them, accepted that they come every now and then and found that the best course of action is to ignore and move around them. But now they’re becoming… disruptive. Distracting. He finds his thoughts wandering to those eyes, to that smile, to that sarcastic remark more and more often. His hands still on his work, his voice halts mid-sentence, eyes flickering to things that aren’t there.

Minion notices. Of course he does. But he says nothing, because that’s the way he is. He changes in small ways, talks more, does more, buys more donuts. Megamind rarely has to ask for anything nowadays – it’s all done as soon as he can think of it.

Megamind supposes it’s because he’s worried for him. And perhaps he should be worried about himself, as well, but – well, he isn’t. How can he be worried, when the outcome is so decidedly positive?

*

And finally, Cat’s dreams become solid enough for her to start manipulating them. She twists, until the man she keeps seeing is standing beneath the stars, turns, until they’re on a hill, morphs and moves and keeps spinning things around to see him more clearly. At first it doesn’t seem like he notices his surroundings – he only sits there, or stands, staring at the sky or the hill. Cat is content to watch him, at first – at the way the stars play across his neck, the slope of his shoulders, the shades and colors of his skin.

Her content-ness doesn’t last forever, though, and during the fourth dream Cat steps forward and touches a hand to his shoulder –

and he turns, eyes meeting hers, and he sees.

*

It takes some time, but the hazy dream landscape slowly takes form into a hill, or a cliff of some sort – and the stars are spread across the sky, too close to be Earth, too far away to be his planet. He admires them, for some time, and while they are stars and this is space it doesn’t bring on that twisted echo of pain he’s always felt at the thought of planets and moons and light-sucking holes.

He wonders where the flashes went, where the woman he saw has gone, if she truly was only a figment of his imagination. Has he been to this place before, he ponders, and if not why does he remember it so clearly? Why – oh, why – does it feel so familiar?

And then there’s a hand on his shoulder.

*

Their eyes meet and Cat –

*

Megamind –

*

breathes, yet can’t breathe, memories flooding on and stopping at the same time, heart –

*

hesitating –

*

then ploughing on, the blood in her veins –

*

in his veins –

*

turning to fire, to ice, to molten lava, and –

*

he opens his mouth –

*

he opens his mouth –

*

and –

*

speaks.

*

The next morning Megamind takes a paintbrush to the black walls. When he leaves the stars are painted on them, the heavens, the hill, and her.

*

She doesn’t remember it all when she wakes up.

“My name is – Megamind,” he’d said.

(and he’d hesitated, had stopped, a flicker of something across his features, and Cat wonders what his real name is.)

He told her he liked the stars, asked where they were. When she’d replied that she didn’t know, he only hummed and nodded. “Perhaps we’ll figure it out,” he’d said, and Cat had taken his hand.

Now she’s awake, sitting bolt upright in her bed and staring at her wall.

She has to find him. How hard can it be? He’s a blue alien man – things like that aren’t exactly common, right?

Forty-seven minutes later she tips her head back and downs the rest of her by-now cold coffee. As it turns out, it’s not only uncommon, it doesn’t happen at all. There’s nothing on him. Nothing. It’s as though he’s never existed. But the clothes he’d worn were modern enough – he can’t have existed so far back in time that he’s been forgotten. But how can she dream of someone who is yet to be?

She can’t.

Has all her research been for naught? Is he not her soulmate, but only – well, a figment of her imagination? Truly?

But the feeling of – completion, of safety – it had been there.

It’s him.

*

Megamind goes to Minion the next day. “Minion,” he says, “what do you know of souls?”

And Minion gives him one of the looks that says he knows exactly what’s going on. Megamind smiles sheepishly and offers an almost-shrug. “Why didn’t you say anything, sir?” Minion asks. “I would have done something.”

“Like what?” Megamind says, crossing his arms with a raised eyebrow. He can’t quite help his small smile, though. “Celebrated?”

“Yes,” Minion says. “Who are they?”

“I… don’t know,” Megamind admits. “I didn’t get to ask her name.”

Minion hums, turning back to the frying pan with a pleased smile. “It will come in time, sir. Just you wait and see!”

*

Cat stretches across the couch, yawning as she pushes herself up. She’s just finished watching the movie Paul, the bowls with chips and fruit pastilles empty on the table before her. Reaching after the remote she turns off the DVD player, getting ready to clear out the bowls and go to bed.

The screen goes black for half a moment, then it jumps over to the channel she’d been watching before turning on the movie.

She’s half-way into the kitchen when her brain catches up to her ears. “ – genuinely scared right now! Oh, I hope no one’s seeing this!”

The bowls clatter to the floor.

Cat spins, staring at the screen.

And it’s him. A bit cartoonish, admittedly, but adorable and green eyed and blue.

“Megamind,” she whispers, and she’s back in the couch before she’s consciously aware of it herself.

*

The next night Megamind is grabbed by the shoulders almost before he can fall asleep, a frantic her in his arms, speaking a hundred miles per second. “Wait, wait,” he begs, brushing a hand through her hair, gently trying to pry her away to stare into her eyes. “Could you repeat that?”

“You didn’t tell me you’re a super villain,” she says, and Megamind’s heart freezes. Then she hesitates, tilting her head to look at the stars above them, clear as ever. “…were a supervillain?”

He swallows, and he doesn’t want to lie, but it’s such a deep ingrained part of him that the words fall out of his mouth before he can stop them. “Why do you think that?”

She looks down at him, and their gazes lock –

(and she’s everything everything everything)

He barely notices when their fingers intertwine.

“We are from different universes,” she says, and she says it so bluntly that he can’t help but believe her. “You’re a fictional character.”

Megamind blinks. “I’m a what?”

Her hands tighten around his, and she tugs him closer, closer, and he can barely breathe, he hasn’t felt this whole since – since –

“A fictional character,” she whispers, “you are – a supervillain in Metrocity but you turn good – and are welcomed with open arms – ” She breaks off, tilts her head only slightly, and they’re so close. “And Deus, you look so much better in person!”

It startles a chuckle out of him. “You think I look good?”

“Are you kidding me? You’re the most attractive man I’ve ever met.” She laughs, too, quiet and dark. She tucks her head under his chin and brings their joined hands to his chest, pressing the back of her hand against his shirt. “Can’t you feel it?” she whispers. “This – thing between us…”

Perhaps she can feel his heart quiver. There’s something heavy in the air between them, something shuddering in apprehension. “I do,” he replies, and he takes his other hand, his free hand, looping it around her back and holding her tight, tight, close. “Say, fair maiden, would you share your name with me?”

She laughs, her nose brushing against his throat. “I’m Cat,” she says. “And I’m no one special.”

Megamind speaks almost before he can stop himself, but something tells him that if she’s here, she must know. “Well, my dear Cat,” he says, “it so happens that you are the soulmate of Megamind,  incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all villainy – wouldn’t really call that ‘no one special’!”

“Oh! So you do use that!” Cat exclaims. “You say that in the movie, too!” Somehow she manages to snuggle closer. “I’m – I can’t believe I finally found you.”

She’d been looking for him.

“I’ve never been good at searching,” Megamind says, and he trails a hand through her hair, carding his fingers through soft strands. “But sensing this… I’m realizing what I’ve been looking for my entire life.” He shifts, nuzzling the top of her head. “Thank you for finding me.”

“You’ve been looking?” Cat asks. Her voice trembles, and Megamind has never been good with emotions, but there’s awe in there, and wonder, and unbelievable love.

“My darling,” he says, and again the words slip past his walls. Perhaps they are an echo from another time – perhaps their souls recognize each other. Everyone has always been a stranger to him – but Cat, in all the lives he’s known her, has never been. Never. “My soul has looked for yours in every face I’ve ever seen,” he says, and Cat shivers in his arms. “But my heart could never love another.” He doesn’t quite give her time to reply, not properly anyway, for he bends and whispers his name in her ear.

*

Cirrus.

Cat wakes up and the name rings in her ears, whispers, calls, and she doesn’t bother to fight the smile blooming on her face.

Cirrus.

It’s beautiful.

She watches the movie again that day, from the beginning this time, and if she hadn’t been convinced Megamind – Cirrus – is her soulmate, she would have known by now. The animated version holds nothing on the real deal, but it’s still wonderful and amazing and –

Cat runs a hand through her hair with a shuddery smile. She doesn’t even care to be embarrassed by acting like a lovesick teen.

Nighttime and sleep cannot come fast enough.

*

The next time they meet Megamind asks Cat about her universe. He’s curious, since she made it obvious they’re not from the same.

Turns out they’re very similar. The only major difference, it seems, is that aliens are ‘common’ in Megamind’s universe. In Cat’s, many people don’t even believe such a thing as aliens exist. Megamind can’t quite wrap his mind around it, but he supposes it makes sense.

They talk about the strangest of things. Cat’s job, at first, and then moving over to olden times. Megamind is overjoyed to find out she has similar interests to his. History is a common theme in their conversations, no matter what they originally started discussing – it always comes back to that in one way or another.

(it seems, Megamind will later ponder, that they both had sought an escape from reality in the fables of times long passed.)

Whenever the topic goes towards Megamind’s work, however, he quickly and smoothly turns the subject over to something else. He doesn’t want to talk about it, doesn’t want to discuss it, isn’t even quite sure what to do with himself.

It’s not like he doesn’t want to be Bad – he just… he just –

(wants to be loved.)

(and now that he is, he’s not sure what to do with it.)

It’s during one of their usual talks that Cat speaks openly about it for the first time. “Cirrus,” she says, her shoulder warm against his, fingers tangled between them –

(and his name, his name on her lips, that’s him)

“Yes, mia cara?”

“You aren’t evil,” she says, and Megamind’s world freezes. “You know that, right?” He doesn’t have to say anything. Cat knows him like she knows herself. “Love, you’re not a bad person. You’ve never been.”

And he wants her to be right. He needs her to be right. “But – ”

“No buts,” Cat interrupts. She sits up and tugs him with her, before leaning into a gentle peck on his lips. “You are the most wonderful person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

Megamind tightens his hold on her hand. “Yes, well,” he says, “judging by the stories you have told of your home, the bar isn’t very high.”

“Shut up,” Cat says, her eyes hard. “I have never known someone better than you. Never. In all my lives, in all the things I’ve seen…” She leans in again, lips soft and breath hot and she’s so unbelievably real. “You can be a hero. You are a hero.” Tilting her head, she presses her forehead against his. “Cirrus, I love you. So much.”

(it’s the first time she’s said it it’s the first time he’s heard it and)

(he)

(breaks)

He wants to speak, to tell her there’s nothing he wants more than be good for her, that there’s nothing he wants more than to spend his life with her, but –

She meets his gaze and it’s stronger than the first time, stronger than the second, stronger than all of them combined.

(everything everything she’s everything)

“I can see our forever in your eyes,” Cat whispers, and Megamind is frailer than he’s ever been – if she breathes too harshly, now, he might break and shatter and disappear on the breeze. “I can feel it in my bones. I’ve loved you before and I’ll love you again – this is our infinity, Cirrus – this is us.” She speaks with the voice of an oracle, with the voice of someone who knows they are right and will forever be. The hand she puts to his chest is warm and safe and home. “You. Are. Good.”

Megamind draws a trembling breath. “For you, my love, I will be anything.”

Cat smiles, a small shaky thing, and Megamind covers her hand with his. “You aren’t doing this because of me,” she says. “You can’t change your core.”

(it slips into place everything slips into place and he’s whole and she’s right.)

Megamind – Cirrus – smiles back. “Nor do I wish to.”

*

Cirrus tells her a week later he’s dropped the ‘villain’ career. He doesn’t say anything, and Cat doesn’t question him, but she can see the light in his eyes has grown stronger.

She doesn’t say ‘told you so’, but Cirrus can surely read it on her, for he gives her a dry look and says, “Oh, yes, you are a genius” in that teasing, wry voice of his.

The world makes sense when he’s there. She hopes he knows.

(judging by the way he smiles when she looks at him the feeling is mutual.)

A few days later Cirrus isn’t alone when Cat arrives. Minion is with him, a nervous smile on his face and hand poised to wave. Cat doesn’t give him time for that, instead throwing herself at him with a squeal.

(she knows what it means, that he’s here, and she isn’t surprised, not really.)

*

Eventually, after tons of practice and struggling on both sides, they’re able to manifest by the other’s side during the day, as well. Not quite enough to breach the wall separating their universes, but enough to notice the other’s presence. Enough to be seen, to be heard, to be felt.

Megamind goes to Cat more often than she comes to him, but they’re together, and they’re there. They laugh, and they love, and they go through day after day until life feels worth living, until the old and familiar ache of being broken fades into a mere memory.

They marry, despite it all, because while they both know they will never separate, it’s nice to have it official and on paper. And in their still-shared dreams they press close together, hands against hands, skin against skin, hearts beating as one.

(Megamind never dreams of black holes again, and when he dreams of space, he dreams of stars.)

*

Life is good, and long, and despite the distance separating them Cat has never been happier with anyone else. There’s laughter and happiness and warmth, and home and safety and content.

And when all three of them one day, far down the line, pass quietly together, their souls mingle and twist and complete.

“Well,” says the Guardian, his eyes warm and wise as ever as he looks down at them. “Was it worth it?”

And they and they and they look at each other, whole and complete and together, and know that nothing has really changed.

“Yes,” they say, as one, and their forever is held in their hands.

[armada-of-ships-against-antis]

Gush about some of your favorite ships please

Sorry for the long wait, but I think I might be ready for this now. (and before anybody wonders, of course it is in the middle of the night and I should go to bed now! Cause it’s the best time to gush over your ships!)

Okay lets begin with Spirk - man I was raised being a Trekkie and to be honest I never saw the great appeal of Kirk, cause my fucking younger than 10 year old heart already belonged to that vulcan! And I bailed my eyes out when he died! But after Kirk and the crew did everything to bring him back, I was like: Okay Kirk is a good one, okay! Nobody will ever be able to seperate them, only over my dead body. Back then it was more about the friendship but I’ll be dammned if I didn’t become a Spirk shipper some 10 years later when rewatching it. But why stop there, get Bones into the fun, too! Try to provoke that human side of Spock, trigger some unlogical feelings, try to beat him in 3d chess!

Okay bear with me there are three other Star Trek ships I wanna gush about!  I pretty much watched the series in the order they came out, so next was TNG that I saw, and although I loved data to every bit and byte of his android being, I was at a loss for a love interest for him. Okay there is always Geordie I guess or Picard, but TNG never hold a deep appeal for me in that field. So on to DS9. When I saw it as a kid, is was boring shit with all that politics and religion. I was around 18 when I rewatched and then in only the fourth episode I became suddenly aware of how motherfucking much Garak flirted with Julian Bashir! And I fell so deeply in love for their weird dynamic of a young and easily impressible human doctor with a mysterious cardassian spy tailor. I ran around showing scenes with them to people who were not shippers and they agreed, that there was tension. And right there was my first time finding background informations about my ship. It was there! I didn’t just interpret too much!  Andrew Robinson, the actor said himself he thought of Elim Garak as an omnisexual character who had a certain interest in Julian. It was absolutely mindblowing to me (also I started to google what omnisexual meant and found about pansexuality, so this is kinda part of finding my own identity, thanks to the closeted representation of a queer alien in sci-fi show from the 90s)

Okay two more and I’m done with Star Trek. But both are from Voyager. Throughout the series I loved the chemistry between Janeway and Chakotay. The slightly forbidden, the pressure, the loneliness of being captain of a ship so far away she probably would never see her husband again. Tragic shit and so perfect set up.  And then came Seven of Nine and manged to shake things up. Suddenly I was a multi shipper, because I couldn’t decide if she or Chakotay should be with Kathryn. The one was loving, supporting and the other was awkward, learning new things about finding humanity again. One was frowned upon because of their ranks and the other because Seven was still more borg than human in how she behaved. So pretty cold, while also confused a ton of times and Janeway ALWAYS had the time and nerves to explain it to her. Just like the doctor (who speaking between us is also a solid shipping option for Seven!)

Damn I tricked you by forgetting myself, that I did develop a shipping crush on Q x Picard. Damn have you ever seen those two interacting. The cockiness in the room, the mocking tone, the resistance. Have you seen those scenes you could perfectly take out of context and already have a “morning after sex” scenario?

Good now let’s take a deep breath and come to the Harry Potter fandom. Or in my case Severus Snape’s playground to be shipped to literally everybody! If it had Snape in it, I would read Everything during that time. Snarry was my most favourite, followed by Snape x Lucius, Remus, Sirius. But I also was looking into x Hermione, Draco, Lily, James, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Ron, Neville (Oh what a small and angsty ship), Bellatrix, Voldemort, Narcissa, Tonks, hell I even read one with Hagrid! (Okay I admit I didn’t enjoy that). Snape was my shipping bitch. Beside that I was of course loving Sirius x Remus.

Okay we move a tiny bit backwards in my life timeline, because before I started to excessively ship my ship bitch with everybody that was breathing, I had a rare ship in Final Fantasy (VII to be more precisely). Hojo x Vincent. You know just your ordinary crazy, mentally instable old (as in probably 60 years old) mad scientist having his way with a young agent from a special task force who canonly had a love interest in his wife… yeah. You know the totally normal stuff you ship every day!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

I mean I also had the regular Cloud x Sephiroth, Cid x Vincent, Cloud x Tifa, Tifa x Aeris, Reno x Rude or Rufus and so on, but hell yeah I wrote one of my longest fanfictions with most of my OCs for Hojo and Vincent and someone commented on it. That person became my fucking best friend for now over 13 years who went with me through so much shit but is still my shipping partner in crime till now.

Together we discovered the movie Megamind and watched it more than 10 times in one week! We were so instantly on board with Megamind x Roxanne that it nearly hurt. And when we started an rpg, we shipped the fuck out of them, gave Minion a mermaid to love and that was the most perfect and sweet shit. They are just adorable! He’s such a goofball, sick with love only hold back because of his supervillain image.

I also met my second girlfriend via fanfiction comment. I had written a smut one shot about Tarrant Hightopp, the mad Hatter with ‘his’ Alice. That was also the first one I attempted to translate into English. When we met for the first time, we also watched Alice in Wonderland around 10 times together and we were in love with the lovely dynamic. We were frustrated when we found out, there was even a kiss in the script that never made it to the fucking screen! It was outrageous! I started to learn how to write a scottish accent and strew in some scottish words in our rpg to make it more authentic.

(And after that I managed to pull her into the pit of the Harry Potter fandom, hell I even pulled her into the pit of shipping mlm which she didn’t like until Snupin. But our main ship was suddenly Snape with her OC and we wrote a lot. Like between 2-8k word for one single post in our rpg! In the end we had enough to fill two books. We did even cosplay as them.)

Let’s get back to the Final Fantasy fandom a bit and let me gush over the other ships I had over the years. I’m still a huge Squall x Quistis shipper from part 8 and Laguna x Kiros! I also have an eye on Cifer x Fu-Jin (hah one eye, cause she has a an eyepatch, urgh I know that was a bad joke). And while I started as a big Auron x Tidus shipper, it shifted more to Auron x Rikku. I shipped them when I was about 15 (her age) and I thought I wasn’t allowed to do that, so I made a whole fucking AU where she was older and it developed into a totally original story of my own, which I have never ever written down even one page). With X-2 I satisfied myself with Paine x Rikku, they were such cute opposites of each other, I couldn’t resist! Only some years ago I played FF 15 and damn it was a shipping paradise again for me. Like all of the four protagonists are a match for each other! And then Ardyn appeared and made me weak in the knees. So Ardyn x Noctis but also just because those the truly most favorite characters: Ardyn x Ignis. Not exactly the fluffy happy stuff, I can tell you that. Manipulation, angst, abuse it had it all.

I can’t talk about Final Fantasy and leave Kingdom Hearts out, so yeah I started as a typical Sora x Riku (not Rikku from FF 10) fangirl and with part 2 I also feel for Axel x Roxas. I know, I know but at least with Organisation 13 you had a whole bunch of shippable characters. Just make one or two of them your shipping bitch, in my case Xemnas and Xigbar and ship the shit out those guys with everybody you can think of in the organisation.

And when we are already talking about Kingdom Hearts, I just jump into Disney a bit. Like every girls dream was to find their prince, ect and I was like: yeah Mulan and Shan Yu seem to fit nicely… Frollo is a fucking ass creep, but damn that scene in the cathedral when he sniffs Esmeraldas hair… Jasemine you look good in that red slave outfit for Jafar to be honest and dear Adam, you should have stayed a beast for Belle. Happy ruining your childhood. You’re welcome. :D Not that I shiped those during seeing those movies the first time, but you know I rewatch stuff!

Good okay let’s check the watch… good 1 hour later…. I’m not gonna finish this any time soon…. I’m sorry. I just tried to make a list of ships that seem important to me and I would probably write another hour or two. I just hope this satisfies you for the moment ;)

If you or anybody else wants to hear about more video game, movies or series ships and me writing an essay about that shit… feel free to ask I guess LMAO

Good Night dear people (or maybe not I see 15 messages on my dash)

[setepenre-set]

Safe If We Stand Close Together: Safety Instructions Not Included (chapter 3)

The Roxanne and Megamind are friends as children AU.

K+ rating

AO3 | FFN | chapter 1 | chapter 2

(Follows Safe If We Stand Close Together and Happy Returns.)

There aren’t any guidelines for being best friends with an alien, no map key, no index, no safety instructions.

Roxanne tries, so very hard, to get it right in spite of this.

“Okay,” Roxanne says, trying to sound as confident as possible. “So—if we’re going to come up with a plan, I need to understand some things.”

“What things?” Syx asks.

“Well—I mean, I know that Minion isn’t anything like your pet, and I know he isn’t a servant, but—Minion, you always call Syx ‘sir’, and I don’t completely understand what you guys are to each other.”

“Oh!” Syx says, “it’s—”

He frowns and looks over at Minion, who is also frowning.

“—I’m not sure how to describe it,” Syx finishes slowly.

“Family?” Roxanne says.

“Family, definitely,” Syx says.

“Brothers? Cousins?” Roxanne asks.

“Something like that, but not exactly,” Minion says. “I—help Sir. I look after him.”

“…like—a babysitter?” Roxanne asks hesitantly, sure that can’t be right, but still not understanding.

“Oh, no!” Minion says. “It’s a lifelong thing. Sir and I are bonded.”

“Bonded?”

“Yes, it’s a kind of—pheromonal, emotional—link between a M’ega and a Mnyn,” Syx says.

“A Mnyn,” Roxanne repeats the word. “That’s what Minion is? Why—” she cuts herself off, shaking her head.

“What?” Syx asks.

“I—” Roxanne hesitates, “—well, I mean—why is his name Minion, then? That would be like—naming me ‘Human’ or Syx ‘Mega’.”

Their reaction isn’t as negative as she feared, though; Syx laughs and Minion makes a scoffing sound.

“Bipeds,” Minion says, rolling his eyes. “You and your—morbid insistence on names!”

“Morbid?” Roxanne says, “Wait—the—Mnyn—don’t have names?”

“We have use-names!” Minion says, “Nicknames. Given to us by people we spend time with! But we don’t have fixed names until after we die and we’re added to the History Song.”

“That’s what I meant,” Syx says, “about written language being completely foreign to Minion’s physical, social, and intellectual structure. They didn’t even use writing; their history was oral and gestural.”

“Names,” Minion mutters, giving a shudder, “so creepy! I don’t know which is worse, getting a fixed name assigned to you as an infant, the way that humans do it, or making people choose their own, the way the M’ega did it.”

“You chose your own name, Syx?” Roxanne asks.

“Not yet,” Syx says, shaking his head. “I’ll do that when I hit adol-e—adolescence.”

“So…‘Syx' isn’t—your real name?”

“It’s what my parents called me,” he says. “It means—‘my love’ or ‘my dear’.

“—that’s why you call him ‘Sir’!” Roxanne says, understanding striking. “And that’s why you call me ‘Miss Roxanne’! Because you think using our real names would be morbid!”

Minion makes a face.

“Talking about you like you’ve already died,” he says.

“So you don’t ever use people’s names?” Roxanne asks.

“Well—you can,” Minion says, waving a fin. “But it would be—almost like profanity.”

“That,” Roxanne says, “is so interesting! Do you think it’s weird that humans get names when they’re born, Syx?”

“I—honestly, yes,” Syx says. “Like—telling someone what their favorite color has to be! It doesn’t seem fair.”

“…huh,” Roxanne says, “yeah. I never thought of it like that. It is kind of unfair. But—” she shakes her head and waves a hand, “—the bond thing. That’s—what the Mnyn and the M’ega do? When you’re born, you get assigned to someone? That seems even more unfair than choosing someone’s name for them.”

“No, no!” Syx says, gesturing, “No, it’s—the bond doesn’t work unless the Mnyn and the M’ega both want it to. You couldn’t ever force a bond.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Roxanne says. “But what if—what if you never find the right person to bond with? Would you guys be stuck wandering around alone forever, unbonded?”

Syx frowns.

“Well, I mean—most people were unbonded.”

Roxanne tips her head curiously.

“Only some Mnyn want to bond with a M’ega,” Minion says. “It’s a calling. Others do other things.”

“And only some M’ega are bonded?”

“Yes,” Minion says, “the ones who are—”

“—different,” Syx says, just as Minion says, “—special.”

“Different how?”

“Exceptional intelligence,” Minion says.

“Difficulty caring for themselves,” Syx says, voice quiet. “In—one way or another.”

“You’re smart even for your species,” Roxanne says, eyes going wide. “Wow.”

Syx gives her a look that’s half embarrassment and half shy pleasure.

“Yes, he is,” Minion says proudly.

“…yes,” Syx says, “but—it wasn’t just—I mean, I was very small when my parents sent me in the escape pod; they knew I’d need a caretaker then, but also—oh, you know!”

He makes a distressed face and gestures, both hands fluttering agitatedly before falling into his lap.

The fact that she doesn’t actually know what it is he thinks she knows must show in Roxanne’s expression because he winces, looking off towards the bookshelves.

“I don’t exactly—function at maximum efficiency,” he says. “People—social things—emotional—you know. That’s not—that’s not because of me being M’ega. It’s because I’m—me.”

“And Minion helps you with that,” Roxanne says.

“Yes.”

Roxanne bites her lip, frowning at the bookshelf in front of her without really seeing it. For a long moment the three of them are silent.

“—have you thought of a plan?” Syx asks.

She blinks and turns back to him and to Minion.

They’re both watching her; even Minion looks a little hopeful, now.

Her stomach turns over with sudden nerves at the realization that they’re both counting on her to come up with something.

“Maybe,” she says, “I’m—I’ve got a couple ideas—I don’t know if they’ll work, though; I don’t want to get your hopes up if—I need to think some more.”

“Okay,” Syx says. “Do you want to—”

Minion clears his throat.

“I think,” he says, “that the planning can be postponed slightly. You and Miss Roxanne both need to eat.”

“Oh,” Roxanne blinks, realizing, for the first time, that she’s hungry. “I mean—we could still—”

“—we could skip—” Syx begins.

“It’s time for lunch now,” Minion says firmly. “Planning can wait until after school.”

Syx and Roxanne exchange a look of frustration.

“After shool, then,” Syx says begrudgingly.

“Yes,” Roxanne says, almost as begrudgingly as Syx, “yes, after school.”

Technically speaking, Roxanne is actually supposed to go to home after school. Her mother isn’t home from work yet, but Roxanne has a house key. She’s supposed to get off the bus, let herself in, and start working on her homework.

But she needs to be with Syx and Minion so they can talk this over, and the Warden is waiting at the prison for the two of them to come home; he’ll notice if they don’t.

So Roxanne stays on the bus when her stop comes up, and waits to get off with Syx and Minion.

Hopefully she’ll be able to get a ride home from the Warden or Dr. Kelley and she won’t have to tell her mother about this—but even if she does end up getting in trouble—this is necessary.

Syx and Minion’s room is an actual prison cell, which is…well, neither of them have ever said anything about it bothering them, but it’s always struck Roxanne as—wrong.

Unfair.

It’s definitely inconvenient; there isn’t any real privacy. Syx turns on some music, though, something without any lyrics but with lots of everything else, especially electric guitar. He doesn’t turn it up really loud, but it’s loud enough to cover the sounds of their voices.

And the three of them make a quick blanket fort—they take the mattress off of the cot and prop it up on its side, one end resting against the wall, the other end leaning against the cot, so that they’re enclosed in a three-sided space. Then they drape the blanket over the top and prop the pillow up under the cot, blocking the last opening.

They sit in a rough circle; Minion’s ball in front of the mattress; Syx sitting crosslegged next to the edge of the cot and the pillow, and Roxanne’s back to the cold concrete wall.

It’s dim under the blanket; Syx takes the power source binky out from the dehydration gun he made last week and puts it in the middle of the circle.

“All right,” Roxanne says in a low voice, under cover of the music, and in the safety of the blanket fort. “I’ve got a couple of ideas.”

Syx and Minion nod, their gazes focused on her face.

“I thought of the first idea,” Roxanne says, “after you said that Minion—that part of what he does, part of what he’s meant to do for you, Syx, is help you with—social things and emotional things. And that you’re—” she swallows, “—that most people of your species wouldn’t need that. So—”

She looks between the two of them, wondering which of them is most likely to be hurt by the suggestion she has to make.

“So I know Minion isn’t anything like a pet,” she says, “and he’s a person, he’s not an animal. And Syx, you’re—but—but what if we explained it like Minion was something like—not like a seeing-eye dog, but one of those—dogs that people get to help them—remember medication and things like that, and stay calm while they’re panicking? That way Minion could still be there at school, even if he couldn’t be a student.”

“That…doesn’t sound so bad,” Minion says.

Syx nods slowly.

“I’d need a doctor’s note,” he says. “And a—a diagnosis. I don’t know—I don’t know what they would call—whatever it is that’s wrong with me, but—”

Roxanne’s breath hisses though her teeth. Whatever it is that’s wrong with him. This is exactly what she was afraid of, making this suggestion!

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she says forcefully.

Syx blinks, then frowns.

“—but there is,” he says, “I told you. I’m weird even for my—”

“—Sir—”

“Different,” Roxanne says. “You’re different, but different isn’t bad, Syx—”

Syx makes a dismissive noise, waves a hand.

“Anyway,” he says. “we could get that from Dr. Kelley. This is absolutely a workable plan! Why didn’t you think this plan would work?”

“I do think it would work,” Roxanne says. “It’s just—I’ve got another plan that I think would be better. But I don’t—I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“I’m not going to like it?” Syx asks, “Or Minion isn’t going to like it?”

“—I don’t think either of you are going to like it,” Roxanne says. “But I—I really, really think it’s a better plan.”

She looks uncertainly at them both.

“You can tell us, Miss Roxanne,” Minion says, voice soothing.

“I just—” she hesitates, “I don’t want you to feel like I’m being—like I’m acting like it wasn’t a big deal for you, because I know it was, Syx,” she says in a rush, “but I think we should have the Warden and Dr. Kelley turn in the paperwork for Minion, to get him declared sentient. And I think we should try to get the school to enroll him as a student.”

Syx jerks back as if she’s shoved him.

“Wh—but I told you how dangerous that would be!” he says, voice rising in agitation. “We told you! If Minion starts talking to people, if people start noticing Minion, he’s going to be in danger! He’s going to be in danger of them taking him away like they tried to do to me—”

“I know,” Roxanne says, “but, Syx—he already is in danger.”

She gestures, quick and sharp and distressed.

“If he’s not legally sentient, if he’s not legally a person—then they could come and try to take him away at any time. And if you keep things that way, if you never file the paperwork, never make people see him as a person—then he’s always going to be in danger of that. Always, forever, for—for the rest of our lives. He’s never going to be safe.”

Syx looks at her with wide, stricken eyes, his breathing shallow. Minion rolls his ball closer to Syx; Roxanne can’t tell if he’s trying to give comfort, or needing it himself.

“Later,” Syx whispers. “We can—we can do it later—when it’s safer—”

“Syx,” Roxanne says, fingers twisting together in her lap, “it’s never going to be safer if we don’t do something about this. And—I’m sorry. But I think we are going to have to do it sooner or later. And doing it now—getting them to admit he’s a person now, at the school at least, even if the paperwork hasn’t gone through, even if he hasn’t—been officially declared sentient—getting the school to recognize him as sentient will—set a precedent.”

She moves her hands, remembering the way her father explained the concept to her.

“It—when something happens once,” she says, “it makes it easier for it to happen again. If we let the school treat Minion like an animal, it makes it easier for other people to treat him like an animal. If we make the school treat him like a person, the next time we make people to treat him like a person, it’ll be easier. If—if he has to have a hearing, him being in school is going to help make people see people that he’s sentient.”

There are tears in Syx’s eyes, but he gulps and doesn’t actually cry.

“A precedent,” he repeats. “You—you really think so?”

“Yes,” Roxanne says, “yes, I do, and—and I actually think—that maybe your sentience hearing set a precedent, too, Syx. Even—even if you don’t get the same judge. It’s still on record. It’s still a precedent. There’s a precedent for aliens being ruled sentient.”

Syx bites his lip hard; Roxanne swallows. Her fingers twitch in her lap—she wants to reach for him, wants to reach for Minion, but doesn’t know if she should.

She sees Syx’s fingers twitch, too, and she takes a sharp breath, reaching for his hand. He lets her take it, laces his fingers tightly with hers. Syx touches the top of Minion’s orb with the fingertips of his other hand.

Roxanne reaches out for Minion, too, but doesn’t quite touch the ball, not sure if Minion will want her to.

Minion rolls the ball just slightly, so that her fingertips rest on it as well.

She takes a steadying breath.

“So,” she says, “what—what do you guys think?”

“Sir?”

Minion looks up at Syx, who swallows and shakes his head.

“I—I can’t make this choice for you, Minion,” he says. “It—you have—you have the right to decide for yourself.”

Roxanne squeezes his hand.

Minion flutters his fins in an agitated way and rolls his ball from beneath their hands—rolls it back and forth, back and forth, as if he’s pacing.

He’s silent for several minutes; they all are. Then he stops rolling, looks at both of them.

“I still can’t really read,” he says.

Roxanne’s heart gives a hard thud against the inside of her ribcage.

“We’ll work with you,” she says.

She glances over at Syx, whose face is pale.

“Yes,” he says, “and—I’ll—build you another body, too. Something our size—if you look more like the humans, they’ll—be more likely to accept you as a person.”

Minion nods, his sharp-toothed mouth set and determined.

“—are we doing this, then?” Roxanne asks.

“Yes,” Minion says. “Let’s do this.”

Syx lets out a shuddery breath.

“We—we should go talk to Dr. Kelley and the Warden about the paperwork, then,” he says.

...to be continued.

This is day five of my Nine Days of Megamind; I hope you are enjoying the them!

And I very much hope you all like the update to this story.

[candy-corps]

Down Where It’s Wetter

Minion belongs to dark-blue-mondays

Minion hadn’t really known what to expect when he arrived at the beach at dawn.  Yes, Nica had agreed to the swim, but it had been so long since he’d swam with another fish.  Unless you counted the ones he hunted in his tank….  But there she was, nervously swimming in circles in the shallows waiting for him.  His face lit up with a toothy grin.  

He’d left the suit on the beach and enthusiastically jumped into the lake. It too a minute to get used to real lake water in his gills instead of the filtered stuff.  He didn’t have tastebuds or a nose but the sense of real complex flavorful water across his gills was like a human taking a deep breath of fresh mountain air. Immediately he had the urge to chase Nica, to nibble on her scales.  But he was a polite fish above all, and so he simply swam lazily to where she waited.

She looked nervous and said something about the beach being dirty, but he assured her that he was fine.  And he followed her out into deeper waters, curious to see where his prospective mate spent her time.  

“And this is the … boulder” Nica explained, pointing at a random rock as she showed him around. “I use it for navigation” she went straight ahead, swimming to it and turning around. “Like - … Like - here is the … - Um, Azlariel’s place. He will not eat you“ she assured him right away, her fin moving up and then down in a calming motion. “And there’s my … “ Well … Home.

Minion swam behind her, careful to let her lead the way in the expanse of open water.  It felt good to swim like this, away from tank walls and

“It is a lovely nest Miss Nica,” Minion said earnestly.  “Well protected under the boat.  I bet it keeps away predators”  He looked up and saw the chandelier hanging from the bottom of the boat and flashed a toothy smile.  He’d already seen the fish table in her heap of treasure and he assumed the diamond encrusted coin was nearby.  It made him feel good that she had accepted his gifts.  All morning he had been wanting to chase her through the water, perhaps nip a few of her flaking scales from her back….. but he was trying not to be too forward.  

“Ahem, are there good hunting grounds nearby?” he asked, trying to cover his lustful thoughts.  

Lovely. Oh thank, thank goodness. Nica sank in a pile of coins nearby, too relieved to stay upright.

“It’s open sea, silly - everything is hunting grounds. Well maybe not from that point … till over there” she admit, her eyes moving to one end of the pile to the other. She hated dead bits on her coins. “The rest’s off.”

Minion swam up and started doing lazy loop-de-loop circles in the water.  He was showing off a little, but he thought it was better than just staring at her.  “Well we could hunt anywhere, but I bet you know where all the best schools are,” Minion said, trying once more to flatter her.  

She did know, Nica thought, glowing brighter. He was trusting her judgement. And swimming not bad for a landlubber fish -

“Weeeell … “ she admit, lifting off the ground again. They could try at a place she had in mind.

This turned out so much different from how she’d thought of. Minion wasn’t overly disappointed at her - at least he didn’t look like it … and it was so nice to swim with someone talkative. Sure there was Azlariel, but with him she was the one to do most talking, too.

“We could try over there” she guessed, again taking the lead and swimming away.

Minion swam excitedly after her.  Soon they found a large school of perch and the pair occupied most of the rest of the hour hunting both alone and as a pair.  He even got that chance to nip her a few times, though mostly under the guise of lunging for a fish that scampered away at just the right moment.  

He couldn’t help but marvel at her.  Clearly she spent much more time out in the wild than he did.  Most of the fish he hunted lived in his relatively small tank so it took him a while to adjust to hunting in open water where he couldn’t corner them into a glass tank wall.  But she was magnificent, her sharp teeth flashing as she bit and raced with savage grace.  Soon his belly was fully and he was watching her chase down her last bites with half-lidded lovesick eyes.

So that was enough, huh? At least she was full. Nica grinned wide, very happy with their combo attack. They were being like sharks! Just … slower … and more chubby, too. “Better than the fishflakes home?” she couldn’t help but tease him, knowing well that both knew better. Minion could have any fish he wanted … when he wanted. Nica swam down to him and turned once around, her mood a little lighter. Hunting always cheered her up.

And made Minion … sleepy? She blinked once in slight confusion, his eyelids pretty low.

“Absolutely!” Minion replied, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.  He was just having such a wonderful time and she was such a wonderful fish.  They made a wonderful hunting pair.  Just wonderful.  

“Miss Nica?” he asked, high off the fish equivalent of endorphins, “Could I… I mean… if it’s not to forward…. I would like to make you a nest.  In the sand.”  And he started swimming in circles, forming the intricate layers and lines in the sand.  It was a formal gesture; he didn’t actually expect her to lay eggs in it right then and now.  But his instincts were driving him to show her that he would be a good mate that would make a suitable place for their young.

He what - ! Like … Was he really sure that was the time? Nica swam after Minion, panicking a little while he was drawing patterns in the sand. Oooooooh. What to say.

Did she feel flattered? Yes. Did she feel stressed? Maybe. Was she ready for any of that …

Probably not.

The pink fish sank down and watched from a sand dune while Minion was working. He was so enthusiastic that she didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop, though it was most certainly wrong of her not to. Where was the line here?

Minion took his time, making a careful and quite good-looking nest.  When he was done he swam over to Nica, the pride apparent on his face.  He was silent but his expression was eager to know what she thought.  

Nica had looked carefully, smirking a bit as she saw the patterns emerge. Pretty. Not sparkly, but …

“Is anything you do not fantastic?” she had to wonder, swimming up to him to see the structure better from above.  “Wow.”

Minion fluttered his fins bashfully.  “I…. I don’t do everything fantastic,” he says humbly.  “You should see me try to do our 10Q filings with the SEC….”  He makes a face.  He likes to help with keeping all the financials for Megamind Inc neat and tidy, but he’s not a fan of dealing with government bureaucracy.  “Anyway, I’m glad you like it,” he adds sheepishly, unsure what to say next.  

Well she didn’t even know what it was, and so it hardly counted. “I like it” she affirmed. Wasn’t that an equivalent of getting flowers - she could look at it and get to bite every creature that got close enough to harm it. Yeah …

Nica swam further towards it, keeping the height, and turned to face Minion. ”And I think you’re pretty great.” Her esca flared up, but then dimmed right after. She had to think about how disappointed he’d be in her when he’d know at what she was all bad at.

The tips of Minion’s bothra began to glow in soft warm pulses and he fluttered his fins with dizzy excitement.  “T-thank you Miss Nica,” he sputtered.  “I think you’re pretty great too.  You’re an excellent hunter,” he added. “Much better than me.”

“ … That may be true” she admit after a while, keeping her body askance as she still peeked to the side. Her own body glowed brighter, but she still wasn’t convinced.

Because at the end of the day, wasn’t Minion a worse hunter because he spend so much time taking care of his companion. She did not. She wasn’t hip enough to be with Bruce because she wasn’t half seagull or something. Nica began to swim off, her fins moving slowly.

Minion’s heart sank when she started to swim away, but he mustered up his courage and quickly swam to catch up with her.  She was glowing so he was pretty sure she wasn’t mad.  “You have lovely scales Miss Nica,” Minion blurted out, unsure what else to say.  And Harrison had told him that flattery was the key to wooing mammalian women….

Yes, that too, Nica thought, swimming askance again and then turning around herself one time - still swimming. Now that Minion followed though she raised the tempo She didn’t mean to swim away at all - just swim. She actually did a circle around the nest Minion’s been making.

“You and Harrison are real gret pals, eh” she wondered, peeking back at him.

Minion relaxed considerably when he realized she was just circling the nest, not trying to get away from him.  “Oh yes, Harrison and I are bonded.  We’re family,” he says proudly as he catches up.  

“We came to this planet together and someone has to look after him.  Sometimes he tries to survive on nothing but donuts and alcohol and he’s not very good with the financial details of the company.  I make sure everything runs in ship shop shape,” he boasts, doing loop de loops to show off as he swims alongside her.  “Have you found family here on this planet Miss Nica?”

“Well … ” First of all it always let her loose her trail of thought when he was calling her ‘Miss’ Nica. But it made her feel like a lady, which she liked, admittedly.

“There’s Azlariel… and Bruce .. Makkazzar … and Pandora” she listed. All the people close to her she really cared about. Next to the puppies, of course.

“Makkazzar is teaching my Harrison Sir self-defense,” Minion said proudly, now swimming around her in excited circles.  He loves talking about the people he loves and assumes she will want to do the same.  “My Sir says he might dress like he’s still a hobo, but he has a good heart.  I don’t know the others however.  Is Bruce a bat?  I believe Wayne Sir once mentioned a Bruce that was a bat….”

“Eh - Uh, yeah of … sorts! We call him, uh … super bat” she remembered, chuckling. He liked that. It was just hard now to keep looking at Minion when he swam around her, but it didn’t stop Nica to try and swim against the swirl Minion was creating.

“You know, because …. there’s micro bats. And mega bats and … Well it fit” she finished, just talking when she could see him.

Minion couldn’t help but grin.  Nica seemed to want to look at him and he figured that was a good sign.  His fins fluttered with excitement.  “Of course!” he says, eager to agree with her.  “Family is very important.  I have my Sir – Harrison – and his mate Wayne Sir and their spawn once he’s born.”  There is no mistaking the pride in his voice.  “And the cats, Helen and Bella.  Have you ever met a cat Miss Nica?”

“Ehhh sure” she replied. She didn’t, like, land on Earth just yesterday. “The captain - eh, Makkazzar - he has a nice one. Maurice.” Yeah, this was the one cat she got along with. All else would get eaten for looking at her for a second too long.

It was kinda strange, swimming like that and facing another - she’s never met a fish in the wild who’d done for so long. She floated closer to him and pulled her right fin flat to her side - the one closer towards him.

Minion was also relishing the experience of swimming alongside another fish. He’d swum among other fish of course, but none with which he could have a conversation.   “I’m not entirely fond of them myself,” Minion confessed, “but one of the cats, Bella, is some kind of magical cat.  And she’s considerably more intelligent.  She never looks at me as though I might be fun to bat out of a bowl.”

His little ichthyoid heart began to race as she came closer, almost as though she wanted to touch.  He tucked his corresponding fin against his own body and let their sides bump.  His sharp-toothed grin grew even wider.  “H-how are you enjoying your swim?” he asked nervously, hoping she was having as much fun as him.  

Was she enjoying it? It was safe to say that coming here was his best present he got her. Nica passed with what little impulse she got and a swam in a circle back around to meet Minion.

“Is great” she replied, just as if her smile and glow wasn’t telling him that yet.

“Oh,” Minion replied bashfully, suddenly unsure of what to say.  “Well, we, uhhh, we can do this again sometime.  Not just swimming but I could show you some places around the city…” he babbled, fidgeting his fins.  Things were going so well and he had no idea what to do without Harrison to advise him.  

“We could do that” Nica affirmed, swimming around Minion for once. “Though … it’s kinda nice to swim along.” When they were ashore, they’d be in their own suits again. Which yes, made her feel safe, but also detached … somehow.

“Well, um, actually, I was thinking we could go see a movie?” Minion asked, fins fluttering nervously.  “There’s one coming out soon about a fish you see, Finding Dori.  It’s actually a sequel to Finding Nemo which is about another fish and it always makes me blubber like a guppy.  So…. perhaps you could accompany me to see it?”

Nica laughed. “Yeah, I‘d wanna see that.” More Minion crying than the movie, really, but that too may be nice. “I don’t think I saw it.” Naaah … didn’t ring a bell. She leaned to her side as she kept thinking about it. But … no.

“P-perhaps you could come over and we could have a movie night?” Minion asked shyly.  Harrison and Wayne often watched movies together as part of their mammalian mate bonding.  “We could watch it up in my Sirs penthouse or you could visit my tank.  I have all sorts of waterproof screens in the water,” he says with a certain amount of pride.  “I usually use them for work not movies but then we could swim together. And I have some delightful dried prawns that make excellent movie snacks.”

Free food. How could she say no. And why should she, really.

“Uuuuuuuuum okay. Should I bring something? I tried to do a movie night with Azlariel before. He didn’t like Pandoras human food too much but it was fun. And traumatizing.” They were watching some shark movie. The sharks didn’t win.

Minion quickly swims in front of her, facing her and blocking her from swimming forward.  “I promise it won’t be traumatic Miss Nica,” he says solemnly.  “And you can bring whatever you’d like.” 

[lampyridae92]

Silver and Black - Chapter 17/Epilogue

Two weeks after the battle

 An old red schoolhouse was standing alone, the paint old and the wood worn away by the weather that had come for several decades.

 But even though it would look deserted at first, a few things clearly told someone lived there. Usually it would be the footsteps in the dirt outside the door, or the lack of spider webs.

 Today it was a bit more visible than that, because today there was a bunch of people outside. And not normal people.

 Megamind tried to watch the barbeque over Roxanne’s shoulder. “You know, we could use the dea-”

 “No.” She turned and pointed the fork she’d used at him. “We tried that once, remember? You blew up Sophia’s tree house!”

 Pouting and crossing his arms, Megamind mumbled, “How was I supposed to know the ray had rusted. But I’ve fixed it!”

 Roxanne smiled and shook her head. “The answer’s still no.” Her eyes caught someone else, and with a nod in this one’s direction, she suggested, “How about you go and talk to Jonathan. See how he’s doing.”

 Turning, Megamind could see the fifteen year old over at one of the tables, placing knives and forks by the plates. Roxanne’s suggestion was a good one. The arrangements around Jonathan had been his idea, so it was only fair that he took the time to see how things were going.

 “So...” Megamind walked up to him, grabbed a bunch of paper napkins and began placing them in the glasses. “How do you like living here?”

 Jonathan smiled; still a tad shy, but more open than he had been in the beginning. “It’s great, actually.”

 “Wayne’s not bossing you around then?” With a frown, Megamind asked, “He hasn’t forced you to listen to his songs, has he?”

 “No, he hasn’t. But he’s teaching me to play guitar!” Glancing over at the boy, he could see that Jonathan was honest. He was actually happy here. “I mean, I know it’s only for a few years,” Jonathan continued. “Until I’m old enough to get a place of my own, but I think I’ll like living here.”

 “Good! I’d hate to think I’d arranged for you to live somewhere you hated! Just some advice though.” Megamind lowered his voice and stage whispered, “If he begins singing, just interrupt and say he’s got talent, otherwise he’ll just keep singing until you do.”

 “Hey! I heard that!”

 The two looked up sheepishly, spying Wayne standing over at another table, where Minion was busy preparing the food for the barbeque. “And don’t you take everything the blue guy says too serious either, John!”

 “I won’t!” Jonathan called back before keeping on his work.

 Megamind tilted his head. “New nickname? Won’t you miss being called Jonah?”

 Shrugging, Jonathan couldn’t help but smile. “Actually, no. I don’t think I will. It was only Julian and sometimes Jennifer who used it anyway.” With a glance at the hero, he explained, “New beginnings, you know.”

 He knew that feeling, all right. The feeling of suddenly standing on the edge of something and knowing you’d been given a second chance.

 And speaking of that.

 “Did the prison contact you today?”

 Jonathan looked away, an amused little smile playing over his lips. “Yes, they did actually.”

“They told me they haven’t seen an escape like that since my time.” Leaning slightly towards the boy with a curious look, he went straight to the subject. “Jennifer didn’t mention anything to you about her plans for the break out, did she?”

 Placing another knife next to a plate, Jonathan avoided his eyes, but they both knew it was all an act when he said, “No... No I don’t think she did.” But a little lower, and with a glance at the hero, he added, “Though she might have mentioned something about a secret lab out of state and research in medicine and other non-evil things when I visited her in prison.”

 The two smiled, leaving it with that.

 Which was a relief for Jonathan. Somewhere out there was his sister; safe and ready if he ever needed her.

 For now he had people here. Right here. Two of those people suddenly grabbed his hands as he finished setting the table.

 “Come on, John!” Lila grinned as she and Sophia dragged him with them. “We’re taking a picture!”

 “A... A picture?”

 “We need a group picture of the three of us!” Sophia explained and threw her mother a camera. “Mom, take it, would you?”

 Roxanne smiled and turned on the camera. “OK, sit down and smile.”

 The girls pulled Jonathan down on the grass by the wall of the schoolhouse and smiled at the camera. But he was still a bit startled by the sudden idea, glancing nervously over at Roxanne.

 Click

 Of course it didn’t go unnoticed by Lila. “Sophia! Jonathan isn’t smiling!”

 Both turned to him.

 Click

 “Jonathan! You have to smile!” Sophia whined.

 The curly head rolled her eyes and crawled until she was behind him. “I’ll fix it!”

 “Wait, wh-”

 Pulling the corners of his lips out in a wide smile with her fingers, Lila grinned.

 Click

 ‘This is a keeper’ thought Roxanne, reminding herself to frame it later.

 “If you don’t smile,” Sophia smirked, “We’ll have to force you!”

 Laughing, Jonathan gave Lila her cue to let him go.

 “Will you smile on your own now?”

 “I’ll smile! I’ll smile, OK!” he laughed.

 Click

 “Good,” Sophia said, and they all turned back to her mother and the camera with heartfelt smiles.

 Click

 A passing Megamind was pulled to the ground by his daughter. “Dad! You’re gonna be in on a picture!”

 Click

 “If I have to be in the pictures, then the others should as well!” her dad decided.

 “Yes! Minion, Wayne, get over here! Mom, put the camera on auto and place it on the table.”

 Roxanne frowned, and searched through the camera. “How do I-”

 “Geez, moms and cameras.” Sophia got up and took the camera from her mother, pressed a few buttons and placed it on the table. “OK, are everyone ready?”

 With Roxanne, Minion and Wayne placed and smiling, Sophia started the countdown and hurried over.

 “5...4...” Sitting down, she was pulled into a hug by her parents. “3...2...”

 Click

 -

 Sixteen months later

 And frozen forever.

 A thumb with blue nail polish gently touched the smiling faces on the picture, careful not to leave a mark. The girl sniffed a little, the green eyes fixated on the two happy faces of her parents, hugging her and forever smiling.

 “Miss Sophia?”

 She jumped and quickly dried away a tear. “Minion!”

 “Miss, what are you doing up here?” The fish sat down on the Lair’s roof next to her, pretending that he hadn’t seen the picture she was hiding under her jacket.

 “Oh, you know. Cosy up here. The light from the city, the moon...”

 Minion sighed and nodded. People dealt with death in different ways. “Are you sure about this, Miss? Moving in here?”

 Straightening up slightly, Sophia made sure to look at the moon instead of Minion. “Yes. It makes it much easier. There will probably be a lot to do from now on; some villains might think of this as their chance, now that...” She took a shuttering breath before continuing, “Now that dad’s gone.”

 The two fell into a moment of silence, just letting the sounds from the sleeping city fill the air between them.

 After a while, Sophia coughed. “Lila and Jonathan... they said they wanted to help. You know, be a team. And I thought maybe I could call up Tim and ask if he wanted to be my informant.”

 Minion looked down at the girl hidden under the long, black hair. With a weak smile he placed a robotic hand on her shoulder. “It’s good to have some friends to help you.”

 Nodding, Sophia took out the picture again, watching the smiling faces. “Everything is better together.”

 The next thing she knew she was being pulled into a furry hug.

 Don’t worry, sometimes things seem dark. But every cloud has a silver lining.

[lampyridae92]

Silver and Black - Chapter 11

Silver and Black – Chapter 11

 Silence.

 Jonathan peered up to take a quick look at his siblings before turning back to his dinner.

 More silence.

 There was no denying it; he wondered what dinner was like at Sophia’s or Lila’s homes.

 Complete silence.

 Maybe they were talking about their days and having quality time around the table?

 Pressing silence.

 Before...

 “Oh, I have great news!” Jennifer laid her spoon in the soup and straightened up. “I think we’re ready to take the experiments further.”

 Jonathan’s hand stopped for a millisecond on its way up. Then he quickly continued the movement before anyone could notice. Why was it he suddenly wished the silence had continued?

 Julian grinned and turned to his sister, the excitement painted all over him. “Really?”

 “Yes; the last chimpanzee I infused is doing fine. It has ignited six times already, but it doesn’t seem to have done it any damage. Also it seems it’s now able to control the ignitions. Quite spectacular, I think. It has only been conscious for a day and a half! I believe the fire infusion is easier to handle than ours, considering we used several months before being able to stop our body from transforming on its own.”

  The corners of her thin lips had stretched out to a rare tiny smile, showing the pride of her work. With a “Hah!” Julian clapped his hands. “So what does this mean exactly?”

 “This means,” she said with a voice dripping of pride, “we’re ready to infuse a human being.”

 “Ouch!”

 The older siblings turned to their little brother, who was holding a hand against his cheek and a pained expression on his face. “Bit my tongue,” he whispered and with a shrug, they turned back to the main topic.

 “Maybe we should take the cleaning lady. I’m afraid she’s getting a tad nosy. Found her in the basement the other day, even though I’ve told her not to go down there,” Jennifer mused.

 “Maybe. We’ll see when she comes over on Thursday. Until then, I suggest we go and rent a movie to celebrate!” Julian announced, the grin on his face spread wide in joy. “There’s a new horror out.”

 But Jonathan pushed his chair from the table, avoiding their eyes. “May I be excused? I’m not feeling well.”

 Jennifer tilted her head. “You’ve been looking rather pale, brother. You’re not going to be sick, are you?”

 “Maybe.”

 “Then go to your room, we won’t disturb,” Julian said.

 The two oldest followed him with their eyes as he left the dining room. When the door closed, they kept looking at it for a while until his footsteps were fainting.

 “Hope he’s not sick. It would be a shame if he couldn’t participate when we’re finally ready to put our dreams to life.”

 Jennifer turned back to her soup. “It would take more than a few days to make enough mutants for an army anyways. He’ll be better by then.”

 “If you say so, Jen. After all, you’re the smart one here.” He hit his sister teasingly on the arm, but she pushed him away.

 “Clearly I am, Julian.” Glancing upwards to where she knew her youngest brother’s bedroom was, she repeated, “Clearly I am.”

 -

 Jonathan closed the door to his room silently, not letting the noise interrupt his thoughts.

 Someone saying it would be OK.

 He sat down on the bay window, leaning against the wall with his arms around his knees.

 A man with grey hair holding something.

 They were going to do this to a person?

 Arms holding him to the chair.

 The thought of animals meeting their death in the basement had been hard to digest, but the thought of a human down there made him downright sick.

 A brown haired girl with a ponytail gave the man a tiny bottle, filled with what looked like silver liquid.

 He lifted a hand and watched as the skin turned into hard, cold metal. They were going to do what had been done to him to someone else.

 A promise of a safe future, power and abilities beyond his dreams.

 And they wouldn’t even care that someone’s life would be destroyed; ripped apart and sewn together again unnaturally.

 The needle piercing his thin skin and enter the tightened muscle under.

 “That’s it!”

 With a jump he got back up on his feet. That was it. He couldn’t let them do this! It had gone too far! While opening the windows, he felt his body shiver as every part of him changed, making him a silver statue in normal clothing.

 The twilight was a soft darkness over the hills, mixed together with the light from the city. Placing a foot on the windowsill he pushed himself out into the air flew through the evening.

He had to do something before things got out of hands.

 -

 Lila paid the driver and got out of the cab, looking up at the mansion. Oh, she hoped he wouldn’t be mad that she’d shown up without asking first. Opening the gates, she walked up the driveway. He really had a fancy home. Such a big place to live when there were only three people!

 Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself before pushing the button of the doorbell.

 What if he really was sick? What should she do then? The cab had gone and her parents were out of town. Maybe his brother or sister could drive her home? From inside there was a sound of someone approaching the door, followed by the handle being pushed down. In the doorway, a woman in her very early twenties stood, dressed in a jacked as if she was about to go out.

 “Yes?”

 “Hi, I’m Lila. I’m a friend of Jonathan. He’s been looking so bad the past couple of days that I wanted to come and see if he was OK.”

  Jennifer blinked a few times before the corner of her lips just tilted a bit upwards.

 “How nice of you, Lila. He’s in his room, but I’m sure he’s up for a visitor.” Backing away a bit, she made room for the girl to enter the door. “Please, come in.”

 “Thank you,” Lila said and walked past her.

 As the door closed, Jennifer’s tiny smile stretched out a bit more.

 So easy.

 -

 “Minion, is there anything you can’t make?” Sophia praised as she finished her second plate. There was something about Minion’s cooking skills that made her wish she had a second stomach.

 The fish would have blushed, and he opened his mouth to say something, but both Roxanne and Megamind interrupted him before he got the chance.

 “Don’t say it!”

 “You know you’re a great cook!” Roxanne complimented.

 The blue alien nodded in agreement. “Don’t try to deny it, Minion. You’re well aware that I would have starved several decades years ago if it wasn’t for you.”

 “Thank you, Sir,” Minion said, a bit embarrassed, but mostly proud.

 The conversation was interrupted by a sound from the driveway, and they all stretched to look out the window.

 “Wait, is that-?” Megamind began, and Sophia got up to peer outside.

 “It’s Jonathan,” she said. “Oh, he should have said he was coming so that I could have programmed the security not to attack him. I’ll go turn it off.”

 On her way to the front door, she quickly pressed a few buttons on a control device in the hall. Better make sure nothing actually fired on her friend! Outside Jonathan stood frozen to the ground, staring into the barrel of a machine gun that had suddenly appeared. Sophia couldn’t help but smile; at least now he knew they had security.

 “I’m sorry, Jonathan! I’ve turned it off!”

 He jumped by the sound of her voice, so deep into his own fear that her sudden appearance in the front door startled him. After a couple of seconds, he got his mind straight again.

 “Is Megamind in?”

 “Yes, Dad’s ri-” she began, but Jonathan had already hurried inside, not having the time to hear the full sentence.

 Everyone around the kitchen table looked up when he came in, noticing how panicked the young boy seemed. The silvery eyes immediately found the hero and locked themselves to him as everything came out in one breath:

 “It’s-us-you-want-we’re-the-silver-villains-and-you-have-to-hurry-and-come-before-my-sister-infuses-an-innocent-person!”

 No one moved; just kept staring in confusion at him.

 “Could... Could you repeat all that?” Megamind asked in the end.

 Jonathan groaned. There was no time for explanations! Someone had to do something now!

‘Here goes nothing!’ he thought and changed.

 Peach skin turned into shiny metal, the pupils disappeared and his hair went from coloured black and red into treads of silver. The tension in the air could have made the windows shatter into a million pieces. Everyone’s jaw dropped as they all tried to understand what was going on. Jonathan took the opportunity the shocked condition of the family to say everything a bit slower.

 “It’s us you want, me and my family. We’re the silver villains and it’s my brother and sister who committed the robberies. Now, you have to come with me right now and do something, anything, because they want to take an innocent person and use him or her in an experiment which is both dangerous and painful.”

 His voice was dripping from so much guilt and determination that Megamind finally got up from his chair and walked towards the silver boy.

 “When will this possibly happen, Jonathan?”

 “I don’t know. They were talking about using our cleaning lady when she comes on Thursday, but they might just pick up someone when they go out tonight.”

 A gasp from behind Jonathan made them look at the girl who was still in the hall. She’d hid her face behind her hands, just peeking out between the fingers.

 “Lila.”

 “What about Miss Lila?” Minion asked.

 “Lila wanted to go and see you,” Sophia whispered to Jonathan, “to see if you felt better. She said she wanted to take a cab and drive off to visit you tonight.”

 There was suddenly no time to lose. Jonathan grabbed Megamind’s arm and dragged the hero with him. “Then we have to hurry, before it’s too late!”

 Megamind was pulled out of the house before he managed to wriggle out of the tight grip. “I’ll take the old hover bike!”

Sophia, Roxanne and Minion came after them and Sophia, scared for what might be happening with her friend said, “I’m coming with you!”

 “NO!” both Megamind and Jonathan hissed.

 “You’re staying here! Minion, you stay too and make sure she doesn’t follow us!”

 “Sir!” Minion cried, not happy about letting his master take off without him, but Megamind had decided.

 “Please, Minion.”

 Sophia looked from the fish to her father. “Don’t you trust me to do as you say?”

 But Roxanne placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, sweetie. But you do have a tendency of ending up in trouble. We want you to be safe.”

Roxanne gave her man a look, telling him to make sure he would be safe as well.

 “I will,” he mouthed.

 “Can we go now?” Jonathan whined.

 “Yes! Yes, I’ll just get the bike! Um...” Stopping, Megamind frowned. “How did you get-”

 “I flied, OK! I’ll go now and you come after as quick as you can!”

 And with that, Jonathan kicked off the ground, flying out into the air while gaining enough speed to fly so fast that no one could see him. Sophia sighed and stared at her feet. It was so much to take in and so much to worry about. An arm laid itself around her waist and a heavy hand was placed on her shoulder. She looked up at her mother and Minion.

 “They’ll be fine,” Roxanne promised, knowing she wasn’t only calming down her daughter, but also herself and the fish.

 “Let’s go inside and wait,” Minion said, and they did so, hoping that Roxanne’s promise would be held.

 -

 The wind brushed against his cheeks as Jonathan flew through the twilight in full speed. Even as metal, he was reminded that he still was partly human. That he still could feel.

 The cry as the serum was pressed into is tightened flesh.

 He hoped he wasn’t too late. Maybe Lila had decided to stay home? Maybe she was still in the cab on her way to the mansion?

 A feeling reminding him of needles on his skin, spreading slowly.

 Only seconds later, he arrived. But he changed back into human the moment he landed, causing the energy the flight had build up to make him lose his balance, and Jonathan was thrown along the gravel of the driveway. The pain at the side of his forehead and his hands told him that the hard stones had pierced his skin, making several messy cuts. But there was no time to worry about that. With lines of blood running down his face, Jonathan got back up at his feet and ripped open the front door.

 The hands trying to hold him still when he fought to get lose, the pain now all over his arm.

 He stood still in the hallway, uncertain of what to do next. Through his heavy breathing he noticed a sound; faint and far away. The sound of someone screaming.

 Muscles beginning to spasm, the pinching feeling now spreading through his upper body.

 “Basement,” he decided and began to run.

 The hands leaving him, and he knew they’d left him to deal with it on his own.

 In the second stair, he lost connection to the steps and fell down the rest of them, hitting his already bleeding wound against the last step. Ignoring his own pain, he once again got up to get to the last stair that would lead him to the basement.

 Ringing in his ears.

 The sound became louder and louder as he approached the door that would lead him to his sister’s lab. Maybe he still could do something? Anything! He ripped open this door as well, revealing the sterile room filled with machines and bottles with liquid. Behind a glass was a room with primates. They looked up at him with drugged eyes, but he didn’t have time to feel sorry for them. The room was filled with the screams, but they were still muffled by another door.

 Stinging in his eyes as blue turned silver.

 Without bothering to prepare himself, Jonathan opened the last door.

 And was met by a wall of sound.

 On the floor of an empty white room, her body twisted in spasms, was Lila. Her eyes were shut, but not her mouth. Several hairpins had already fallen out of her hair, letting some of it escape from the neatly made ponytail to stand straight out of her head. The face was flushing and her back arched as a new wave of pain floated through it.

 “Lila!”

 How long had he screamed?

 Jonathan fell down next to her and wrapped an arm around her to drag the body up on his lap. “Lila, can you hear me?”

 There was no answer; only more screams.

  Pain.

 With an effort, he managed to open up one of her eyes. Already a sun of raven was spreading from the centre, slowly replacing the hazel.

 “No, no, no, no...”

 Her body was radiating, making the air around her dance.

 He wrapped his arms around her, sad to know she wasn’t aware he was there.

 And then welcomed darkness.

 Under the sound of her screams, he didn’t hear the other arrive until Megamind was on the floor next to him, breathing heavily.

 “How is she?” he yelled to be heard. “What can we do?”

 “We can’t do anything,” Jonathan cried. “It’s too late! By this time I’d already-” The sound suddenly stopped, and Lila lay still in his arms, only a weak breath as a proof that she was still alive. The silence following the screams was almost suffocating.  “-fainted.”

 He stared at the now relaxed face, noticing how it glowed; orange lines danced over her cheeks like embers over coal. Too late. Way too late.

 But not too late to save her!

 “Here!” he said and pushed the limp body into Megamind’s lap. “You have to get out!”

 “W-what?”

 But Jonathan pushed the man out of the lab and up the stairs.

 “You have to take Lila and get the hell out of here!”

 “But wait! What about the others? What about you?”

 “I’ll deal with Julian and Jennifer! I’ll be fine!”

 They were finally back up in the hall, and Jonathan gave the thin back a last push in the right direction. Megamind turned with the lifeless girl in his arms.

 “Jonathan, I can’t just leave you here! I have to do something. Arrest someone.”

 “Call the police and tell them anything you want, but I have to stay.”

 He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t turn his back against his family, no matter what. Maybe if he could make them listen to him, he could convince them to leave. They could move somewhere, maybe even to Europe or Australia! Anywhere!

 Megamind opened his mouth to disagree, but Jonathan took a step back.

 “I’ll deal with my brother and sister. But you have to take Lila and get away quickly before they come home! Keep her somewhere where she can’t put anything on fire and she’ll probably be better in a few days.”

 “On fire?”

 “Just go!”

 Before leaving, Megamind sent the boy one last, strict look. “Are you sure you’re not coming?”

 Jonathan let his eyes fall to his feet, backing away further into the shadows.

 “I’m sure,” he whispered.

 Then the door closed and left him alone in the hall, alone in the dark.

 -

 The volume of the music in his ears was low, allowing him to listen to his siblings’ arrival. It was better to know what was going on, and then pretend he hadn’t been listening later.

 “If you can’t stand the way this place is, take yourself to higher places.”

 Downstairs the front door opened.

“Break! Away from everybody!”

  Someone said something in a cheer tone, looking forward to something.

  “Break! Away from everything!”

A strange silence as one of them headed to the lower parts of the mansion. Then-

 “If you can’t stand the way this place is, take yourself to higher places.”

 Confused yelling.

“Oh, oh, higher places!”

 The sound of someone running up the stairs

“Oh oh, to higher places!”

 Angry, heavy footsteps in the hall.

 “Oh oh, higher places!”

 He squeezed his eyes shut and whispered to the song: “Take yourself to higher places.”

 The door to Jonathan’s bedroom was ripped open and a silver coloured Julian walked over to him, breathing heavily in anger.

 “What did you do?”

 Jonathan managed to put up a confused and curious expression. “What happened?”

 But Julian wasn’t fooled; he simply grabbed the front of his little brother’s T-shirt and got him up on his feet.

 “Did you let her go? Did you help her?”

 “Who?”

 Jennifer appeared in the door with her arms crossed, not yelling, but her voice was calm and cold. “Answer your brother, Jonah.”

 “I don’t know what-”

 “You were the only one home! You were the only one who could have done it!” the silver man growled.

 “I haven’t...”

 “Don’t you lie to me, Jonah!”

 Jonathan stared scared into his brother’s eyes, wincing under his harsh voice.

 “I-”

 “Don’t you love your family?”

 “I... Of course I...”

 “Then stop lying!”

 “I haven’t done...”

 “Liar!”

 And with that, Julian threw Jonathan over to the sister at the door, not bothering about him falling to the floor.

 “Jen, take Jonah to the cellar! And make sure it won’t be pleasant! Maybe he’ll want to tell us tomorrow.”

 “Yes, brother.”

 Jennifer grabbed the thin upper arm of her little brother and dragged him with her down the halls. On the way, she glanced over at the messy bandage on his forehead.

 “How did you get that wound?”

 Jonathan made sure not to look her in the eyes; it wouldn’t be as easy lying to her.

“I fell down the stairs,” he whispered. At least it was half true.

 Back in the cellar again, Jennifer opened the thick door to the wine cellar and threw her brother in. Jonathan turned, expecting to see her shut the door, but instead he found her on her knees and hands on the floor. On the floor next to...

 “You didn’t think I knew?” she asked, and held up the music player he’d hidden behind the wine bottle. Then she got back up and walked out the room, stopping right outside the in the hall.

 “I’ll come and get you when you’re ready to tell us the truth. I hope you know what you’ve done. Now we’ll have to prepare to take over the city as soon as possible, since there’s no doubt Megamind will know what’s going on here. It might ruin everything, Jonathan, but-”

Moving her hand to the light switch, she turned off the light in the windowless room. “Maybe you don’t care?”

 Trying to stop her, Jonathan threw himself at the door, at least to beg her to turn the lights back on, but she’d already closed and locked it, so he only managed to run into it. The darkness pressed against his eyes and ears, telling him how alone and trapped he was.  With a sob he slid down the door and ended up on the floor where he crawled over to a corner.

 There he curled up into a ball and allowed the tears to flow down his cheeks.