Cold Fusion: Hallows' Eve, Ch. 14 (Part 2)
Megamind steps back into the Lair and finds Roxanne reading on the sofa. Smiling nervously, he approaches. "Hey," he greets her. "What you got there?"
Frowning, she reads aloud, "'The DAG produced by PA phosphatase is used for the synthesis of TAG and for the synthesis of PE and PC via the Kennedy pathway (4-7) (Fig.1). Moreover, both PA (e.g. activation of cell growth, membrane proliferation, transcription, and vesicular trafficking) and DAG (e.g. activation of protein kinase C) have lipid signaling functions (8-17), and PA phosphatase plays a role in controlling their cellular concentrations (2, 18).'"
Megamind bursts out laughing. "Oh, god," he groans, reaching for the papers, "where did you find that?"
"Wait, wait, it gets better!" Roxanne exclaims, holding him away from her with one hand. "'Thus, it is generally recognized that PA phosphatase is a key regulatory enzyme for controlling lipid metabolism and cell physiology (4, 7, 19-21). The biochemistry and physiological roles of PA phosphatase emanated from studies in the model eukaryote yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and latterly in mammalian cells (4, 7, 19, 21, 22).'" She looks up at Megamind as he leans on the back of the couch, still laughing. "What the hell did I just read?"
He reaches out and plucks the scientific journal out of her fingers, thumbs through it. "It's, um, it's about an enzyme that protects against fatty acid-induced toxicity in yeast."
"Well, at least I understood the words that time."
Megamind grins at her. "Feeling any better?"
"I think so." She shrugs. "Drew called about Thanksgiving - I told him I was still planning to visit."
Megamind nods. "Good, that's good."
"I also told him I was planning on borrowing your car."
Megamind's head snaps up. "What? You can't. The Invisible Car is covered in spikes!"
"I know, I know," Roxanne hurriedly assures him. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. But I have been thinking, since then, and I was wondering. Have you ever thought about having a…another car? One that isn't covered in spikes?"
Megamind frowns. "Why would I think about that?"
"Well…" Roxanne says slowly. "Well, we'll need one for the Christmas trip. I mean, unless you want to come out before we head down."
"God, no!" Megamind looks horrified.
"So we'll need a normal-looking car."
"Unless we fly down," Megamind points out. "You're assuming we'll drive."
"You don't want to drive?" Roxanne asks.
Megamind blinks, then vaults over the back of the couch to land cross-legged on the other end. "I didn't think about that, either. I guess I don't really care either way. Do you want to drive?"
"I asked what you want," Roxanne tells him.
Megamind fixes her with a Look. "I told you, I don't care. If I say I don't have a preference, it means I don't have a preference."
Roxanne smiles. "Well…I kind of would like to drive. I mean, you've never been out of Metro, not really, right? And it's been a long time since I did any road trips. It could be fun."
"It's also twenty-three hundred miles. A day and a half of driving if we take it in shifts to drive straight through." Megamind tilts his head. "Are you okay with that?"
Roxanne nods. "You forget, I've been back and forth between Metro and San Francisco a lot. I'm used to it. I kind of miss it, even. But will you be okay with going so long without intellectual stimulation?"
Megamind's whole face lights up and he bounces a little in his seat. "Or!" he exclaims. "Or, or! We could make it a real road trip, with stops and everything, and cameras, and we could go and see things! It would take longer but that would be so fun!"
He sinks his teeth into his lower lip, and how can Roxanne say 'no' to a face like that? Laughing now herself, she nods her head. "Okay! Yes, that does sound like fun-"
"And I can even have a fleet of brainbots take the car back to Metro for us, and we can take the train back home," Megamind continues excitedly. "I've never been on a train before. I bet it would be easier than driving! We could do that. Can we do that?"
"Sure we can," Roxanne agrees automatically. "But train tickets are expensive."
"Oh, don't you worry about expensive," Megamind says dismissively. "I didn't get where I am so that I could worry about expensive. We've been over this."
"Right," Roxanne smiles. "Silly me."
"So we'll need a car," Megamind mutters, tapping a finger against his lips for a moment. Then he looks at her. "You should pick it out. I don't think I'd be very responsible. Just make sure there's enough…" He cups his hands in front of him and moves them in a circle, gestures wordlessly for a moment. "…Headroom. And no minivans."
"What's wrong with minivans?" Roxanne asks, affronted. "My first car was a minivan."
"Oh, they're fine, they're just fine," Megamind assures her. "For people who aren't me. Look at me, Roxanne." He pulls himself up and cocks an eyebrow at her, tapping his chest with both hands. "Can you see me driving a minivan?"
Roxanne just grins at him. She can, but the mental image is pretty funny. "I see you in something with a little more supervillain-y."
"Ex-supervillain," Megamind corrects her, and she smirks.
"Ex-supervillain who still skirts the law a lot."
So, something with a lot of potential for maneuverability, she thinks. And horsepower, but he's bound to modify whatever I find. I'd kind of like to surprise him… "Okay," she says aloud. "What's the budget, here?"
"What do I know about buying cars?" Megamind shrugs absently. "I guess try to keep it under a hundred."
Roxanne frowns. "Dollars?"
Megamind sends her a strange look. He's thinking about something else; Roxanne can tell. "…Thousand."
"Oh!" Quite a bit of wiggle room, there. "Oh, okay. That frees it up a bit. I'll look into it."
Megamind nods. "Cool, yes, that'll be…cool."
Roxanne looks at him for a long minute. "So, where did you have to go?"
He blinks at her and pulls back into focus. "Oh, I went over to the Fortress. Had to give Wayne his watch."
"What, like…like a disguise generator watch?"
"Yeah." Megamind fiddles with the black band on his wrist. "Yeah, he seemed really excited about it."
Roxanne raises her eyebrows. "That's really nice of you to do for him."
Megamind shrugs. "Well, you know. It sucks that he can't go outside anymore. At least this way he'll be able to get some fresh air and human interaction without having to go into hyperspeed."
"I guess he would be used to human interaction," she says, prompting a little. Megamind looks troubled. "But you've always done pretty well without it."
"Yes, but Wayne isn't me," Megamind says flatly. "He's always had scads of people around to talk to. Now it's just him, alone with his thoughts, and…I think it's doing a number on him, honestly."
Roxanne opens her mouth to respond, but Megamind interrupts. "Did you know he plays the viola?"
"I-knew. Yes."
He frowns. "You hesitated."
Roxanne sighs. "I know he used to play, but I've never heard him. He doesn't like to talk about it." She shakes her head. "His parents pretty much forced it on him but for some reason he never fought it." Then she cocks her head, curious. "How did you find out?"
"He was playing when I went over," Megamind tells her, and Roxanne's eyebrows fly up.
"Really? Is he any good?"
"It's not just music, I'll tell you that." He shakes his head. "I don't get it."
Roxanne looks at him for a moment. "You want to know what I think?"
"Oh, yes, please," Megamind groans, sprawling theatrically over the back of the couch. "You know him way better than I do. Make this make sense to me. I do not understand."
"Okay." Roxanne is silent for a moment, trying to think how to phrase what she wants to say. It's complicated. "First of all. Wayne has…family problems? His parents loved him, but they've been pushing him for a long, long time."
"Pushing?"
Roxanne rolls over and throws one knee over the other. "Like…okay, here's an example. I used to go visit with the Scotts pretty regularly. I mean, they knew who Metro Man really was, and of course they wanted to meet their son's girlfriend, right? So I'd be over there, talking with Lord Scott, and we'd usually end up talking business. He'd always say things like, when Wayne is ready to take over the company, and, when I hand Scott Enterprises over to my son, but he'd only phrase it like that when Wayne was in earshot. It was like there was always this tension between them. You should have heard the fights."
Megamind frowns. "He was against Wayne being a hero? I thought he just wanted the whole Metro Man thing kept to a night job kind of deal."
"He wanted Wayne to take over SE. He wanted Wayne to put on a suit and tie and carry a briefcase. He wanted Wayne to get married and have kids. He would have been happy with a politician or a financier or a lawyer or a real estate tycoon, but no, he got a superhero. He and Lady knew what kind of son they wanted, and Wayne just…wasn't it.
"Oh, he tried to be," Roxanne hastens to add when Megamind scowls and opens his mouth to argue. "He definitely wanted to be. Like with the music thing. He wanted to sing with them, but he's pretty much tone-deaf when it comes to vocal music. And then he wanted to play music, but his first choice would reflect poorly on the Scott name or some bullshit like that. He didn't want to run the business-he's not good at business-what he was good at was being a hero."
"I'm not seeing the problem, here," Megamind complains. "All I'm getting is that Wayne's dad wasn't happy about his career path."
Roxanne takes a deep breath. "Okay, then I'm not explaining this properly. Think about it this way: Wayne has been trying really, really hard to be the kind of son his parents wanted, which is why Metro Man kept his identity a secret-but the problem is, he's always fallen short of the mark. His parents want grandchildren and a daughter-in-law; Wayne is gay. His parents want a professional violist who can entertain at social functions; Wayne wants to play the guitar. His parents want a politician-slash-lawyer-slash-CEO; Wayne wants to do rock 'n' roll and sing the blues. And the city wants him to be a hero, which is the one thing he actually is, but he couldn't make his father proud of him no matter how many lives he saved.
"Who Wayne Scott is and who his parents want him to be will never reconcile." She shrugs helplessly. "He's a failure, in his mind."
Megamind frowns harder. "That makes even less sense! I mean, all the things he's done, look what he's accomplished-"
"Not what he's done," Roxanne says gently. "Who he is. Is a failure."
Megamind is silent for a long moment. Roxanne watches his face change-his eyebrows flatten and draw together, his lips thin and turn down at the corners. "Ah," he says after a while. "I see."
"I could be wrong," Roxanne begins, but Megamind silences her with a wave.
"No," he says. "No, I don't think you're wrong. So he became a hero," he murmurs, and shakes his head. "…I don't believe this."
Roxanne frowns. "What is it?"
"I just-" Megamind pauses for a split second, then forges ahead. "I mentioned to him that I might end up being a hero. He lost it. Seemed to think I'd end up killing myself if that happened. Apparently there have been others who tried to leave the hero business-an ex-hero called Neuronaut went out that way. Another one went mad, and another's an alcoholic, and another just straight-up disappeared. Not a lot of good examples to follow, right?"
Then he snarls and slams his head back against the back of the couch, making Roxanne jump. "Damn it," he hisses. "The worst part is, I know exactly how to fix this; I just don't know how to set it in motion. He needs a catalyst. I've been where he is, and believe me, Roxanne, it is possible to get so low that you break through the other side-you come out angry at everything, and you've got a will to live like you wouldn't believe. I hit that point back in high school, but Wayne's still throwing himself against the wall trying. He needs to something to push him over the edge, make him go, No, you know what? Fuck this. We do things my way, now. He needs to get angry.
"I'd do it, if I knew what to do," he grumbles. "I owe him a lot. Any other hero might have tried to stop me for good, but I got lucky. I got Metro Man. I don't think he even realizes how much he's done for me, and now he's just…just stuck in this awful place in his mind, and I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help!" He makes vague strangling motions for a minute. "I just…I want him to be happy again. No, you know what? I want him to have what I have. I told Minion the other night: I'm finally happy. I'm so scared of losing that, and I'm so glad I finally have it. All I've ever wanted is to just be happy, and now I am, and it's glorious and everything is finally-finally-finally going right-and then I look at him. And I just…" He trails off and looks helplessly at Roxanne. "You know?"
She nods. She actually can't bring herself to speak for a couple of seconds, because hearing Megamind talk about how he's happier than he's ever been in his life and wants the person who more or less screwed him over as a child to be happy, too, is almost too much.
But she manages to nod, and then she manages to say, "Yeah. I know. It's not fair."
Megamind huffs quietly and slumps, rubbing his forehead. "Life isn't fair."
"But you want it to be," Roxanne says softly, and he looks at her again, then down at his hands. "Don't you? That's why you made the watch."
Megamind chews his lip for a moment, then his shoulders give a funny spasm that's probably supposed to be a shrug. "I had to do something."
Roxanne looks at him, skinny frame slouching tiredly, blue features rumpled in irritated contemplation. Without the cape and shoulder array, he looks very different-more accessible, more down-to-earth. "I love you," she says. She had meant it to sound like a declaration, but it comes out as more of an observation.
Megamind blinks at her, and some of his worry clears. "I…love you too."
Roxanne grins at him. Maybe it's just the day she's been having cannot possibly get any better or any worse, but she feels absolutely stupid-happy right now in spite of Megamind's obvious distress and Wayne's emotional turmoil. She hadn't really thought she'd ever say those words again-not and mean them the way she does-and of all the people she could have ended up saying them to, she's glad she ended up with Megamind.
"So what should we do about Wayne?" she asks.
Megamind gives another hopeless shrug. "I don't know. I suppose all we can do is make sure he knows we'll always stand with him. He'll catch a lot of flak if he ever comes out of hiding; I know I don't give much of a crap what the critics say, but I'm used to people hating me and Minion. He said he knows that, but mentioned that you aren’t accustomed to it."
Roxanne rolls her eyes. "Oh, like it'll really matter. What did you tell him?"
"I said you were a stubborn bitch when you wanted to be, and you'd stick by him, too." Megamind grins at her. Roxanne blinks back at him, shocked speechless, and his smile slips a few notches. "…What?"
"You called me a bitch?"
She hadn't meant to sound like that, but it's too late now. Megamind's eyes go wide and he pales, teetering on the edge of panic. "I didn't-I didn't mean it-I'm sorry!"
Roxanne scrambles across the sofa and squeezes him into a hug. "I'm so proud of you!" she exclaims, and pulls back to look at him, beaming. That was too fast, she thinks, slightly alarmed. He's more upset about everything than he's letting on, to go downhill so quickly like that.
Megamind, so full of angry tension a few seconds ago, now looks like he's just narrowly avoided being hit by a bus. He must be scared; he's holding his hands away as though he's afraid to touch her. "I, you, what? I didn't. What?"
Roxanne laughs in what she hopes is a reassuring manner and flattens her hands on his chest. "Honey, if you are so comfortable with me that you can good-naturedly call me a bitch behind my back, I think we're doing pretty well. I'm not saying I hope that becomes a regular thing, but I know you didn't mean it like that, really."
"Oh. Oh, okay. It's okay, then? We're okay?"
His heart is really racing, Roxanne realizes, and sobers. She puts a hand on the side of his neck, feels his pulse flutter under her palm. "Megamind, calm down." She strokes the pad of her thumb against the soft skin under his jaw. "We're fine."
"I know! I'm sorry!" He gulps, wild-eyed but trying to smile for her anyway. "Adrenaline is a harsh mistress but I have to learn to work with her!"
She can't help but laugh at that. Megamind laughs too, but it's shaky. Roxanne leans into his shoulder and picks up his hand, feels around his wrist for a pulse. She can't explain why, but that triple-beat is fascinating.
"I'm," he says, "um. Can I hug you?"
Roxanne nods and starts to turn, then lets out a startled oof! when he drags her sideways and clutches her to his chest. She blinks. She can't reciprocate; she's facing the wrong way.
"I don't know what's wrong with me today," Megamind mumbles, burying his nose in the hair above her ear.
Roxanne blinks but pats his leg. "I think you're just having a really, really bad day."
"Not as bad as the day you're having. Or the day Wayne is having."
"Oh, I think it is," Roxanne tells him. "I think it might be worse, because you're worrying about us and all the problems in your personal life. Sweetie, listen-sometimes, you can't help. Don't take it so hard. Sometimes there really isn't anything you can do except be there for people." She hooks a hand over his arm, rubs back and forth. "Okay?"
"…Okay." Megamind lets out a puff of laughter, cool against her skin. "By that logic, Minion must be having the worst day of all because he's worried about all of us." He pauses. "We should do something for him. Give him the night off, or something."
Roxanne thinks for a moment. "How about this? You set something to automatically shut down whatever needs to be shut down for Wayne to visit his mom, and then we go back to my place for the night. All three of us. We order takeout and eat off of paper plates so Minion can't try to wash anything, rent a pile of movies, turn off our cell phones and other electronic devices, and have a quiet night in somewhere that isn't the Lair." She twists around and looks up at Megamind. "How does that sound?"
She knows what his answer is going to be even before he opens his mouth. The sheer relief shining out of his face speaks volumes, and she can already feel him relaxing a little bit. "That sounds…that sounds fantastic. But don't you have to work? It's Tuesday. You haven't gone into work in…four days?"
Roxanne smiles. "I was going to," she admits, "even if it was just to get some filing done, but honestly? You're more important."
Megamind frowns. "I don't want to pull you down."
She rolls her eyes. "Okay, what I mean to say is-I called the office while you were out earlier, after Drew hung up. Or," she amends, "the office called me. Jo was wondering where I've been. I told her I'd be coming in later, but then I made the mistake of telling her what went down this morning." She feels Megamind hide a smile against her scalp. "You can probably guess what her response was."
"So you're not allowed to go in to work today."
"I think she may kill me if I try," Roxanne laughs. "She even told our boss what was going on, and Carl agreed with her. So no, I'm not allowed in today."
Megamind shakes his head. "Your friend Jo," he says, "is a control freak." Then his arms tighten around Roxanne. "I'm so glad."
"Really?" Roxanne leans back against him, pushes him back against the sofa. It's the closest she can come to hugging him when he's holding her like this. "I'm so happy."
Megamind grins. "Yeah," he murmurs. "Me, too. Finally."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Sunrise finds Megamind in a thin line on his girlfriend's sofa, one arm flopped across Roxanne's waist and the other curled against his chest. The glass of Minion's bowl is smooth pressure against the back of his head, and Roxanne is soft against his face and her arm is warm around his back where she's hugging him.
Sunrise finds Roxanne on her back on the couch, Megamind wedged against her side. Minion's bowl is surprisingly warm against her ear. Her arm is asleep but she can't free herself without waking Megamind, so instead she snugs him closer and wiggles away from the edge of the sofa, tilts her face to make sure Minion doesn't roll away.
Megamind hums and shifts around for a moment, and Roxanne realizes that he's probably awake. He mutters something like 'razzumfrazzum' and hoists himself up, sits up a little and looks blearily around.
"You okay?" Roxanne asks softly, and he sniffs and tangles his hand in the throw blanket Roxanne keeps on the back of the sofa.
"Izza blankit," he mumbles, pulling it down and shaking it out with weak, sleepy movements. "Izza warm." He throws one end down the couch, then pulls the other end up over his head as he crawls fully on top of Roxanne and scoots down to put his head on her chest. He kicks with his feet until he catches the edge of the blanket under his toes, then subsides with a little sigh.
Then he stirs again, lifts his head a little. "Minnnn?"
"He's sleeping, Megamind."
"Wants'a Minnn."
Roxanne can't help but grin. She reaches up and eases Minion's bowl down on the soft suede, being careful not to slosh the sleeping fish, until she's able to tuck him under her arm. Megamind turns his face towards the back of the couch and wraps his arm up around the glass sphere.
Roxanne absently rubs her free hand up and down Megamind's back for a while, until he grumbles something and paws at her arm.
"Nnstoppit," he says. "Y'crazy. Crazy reporter lady. Mm tryin' t'sleep."
Roxanne chuckles and grabs his hand with hers. "Okay," she says. "Okay, hon. You sleep."
"'N' you sleep too," he insists, bending his neck and nuzzling his face down in between Roxanne's chest and Minion's bowl. "You sleep too. Got ever'body right here. 'S perfect." He lets out a small, happy sigh and nuzzles deeper. "Didn't know sleep could be so perfect," he whispers, and then his breathing lengthens and evens out and he's asleep again.
Neither had Roxanne, but Megamind is right. This is perfect. No matter what hells yesterday might have brought or tomorrow may bring, life cannot possibly be better than it is when she's waking up slowly in the early morning with her boys.
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