Fic: Cold Fusion, Chapter 2
Fanfic: Cold Fusion, Chapter 2
Author: Dal Niente
Rating: T
Word Count: 1,569
Chapter 2
Minion is in a state. Roxanne has never seen the fish this frantic. He’s circling in his bowl, eyes huge. He has been keeping himself together long enough to make sure his master is safe, and now that he has taken care of things as much as he can, he is allowed to panic.
“Minion,” Roxanne says firmly, and waits until he looks at her. “Minion, do you like coffee?”
The fish gapes at her for a minute before her question sinks in. “No.”
“What do you like?”
Minion closes his eyes. “Right now? Right now I’d like an egg. Two, if you can spare them.”
Roxanne hadn’t expected that, but she is determined not to be surprised. “Okay. How do you want them cooked?”
The eyes blink open again, wide and confused. “I don’t,” he blurts, then shakes himself, obviously embarrassed. “I’m sorry. You probably think that’s disgusting, but after all that’s been happening I…”
Teeth, Roxanne realizes. She has only ever seen Minion eat food that he cooks, but not often enough to get a feel for his eating habits. Right. He must have teeth like that for a reason. “I think I have some raw chicken in the fridge, would that be better?”
He stares some more, looking just as tired and shell-shocked as she feels, and this time she doesn’t bother to wait for a reply. She goes to the kitchen, pours herself another cup of coffee. Then she grabs the carton of eggs and Styrofoam package of chicken out of the refrigerator - the chicken was going to be tomorrow’s dinner, but at this point, she could care less, so she puts it on a plate, tucks the eggs under her arm and picks up the mug with her other hand, and goes back out to the living room.
Minion is sitting on the floor by the sofa, gazing blankly up at the muted TV. “Why don’t they play something else?” he asks dully when she sits down next to him, then blinks at the eggs and meat she sets on the coffee table. He looks back up at her, surprised. “You were serious?”
Roxanne runs a hand through her damp hair and curls her legs under her. “Minion, it’s three AM and the only reason I’m still awake is that my brain won’t stop pinwheeling. I don’t think I could be sarcastic if I tried.”
She has the good sense not to look at Minion while he eats, but she does switch to the discovery channel while she drinks her coffee. She is sick of the news, sick of seeing Megamind thrown against that wall over and over and over again.
Minion is quiet for a while. Roxanne says nothing about the crunching of eggshells, or the fact that the chicken hasn’t been de-boned, only makes a mental note that she does not want Minion to bite her, ever.
Finally he clears his throat. “You can ask, you know.”
The questions burst out of her. Some small, rational piece of her is surprised how quickly she responds; she had thought she had more self-control than this. “What is wrong with Megamind? It’s been hours since he took you home, what’s changed? Is he going to be all right? Are you going to be all right?”
Minion heaves a heavy sigh, tackles the first question first. “After my usual body was destroyed, I was kinda out of it. I’d been shaken around a lot, you know? And the water in that fountain had all kinds of chemicals in it, so I was pretty loopy. It…” he frowns. “Actually, it probably hasn’t worked all the way out of my system yet, either. Anyway, I wasn’t as on top of things as I usually am, or I might have noticed that something was wrong.
“When we got home it was already getting dark. He brought me in, fitted me into this body, then left me to charge my power cells while he went to clean himself up and change. He told me to go to sleep. ‘Sleep, Minion. You need it.’ It’s what he always s-says.” His voice goes high at the end, and for a moment, Roxanne is afraid he might actually cry. She isn’t sure what she’ll do if that happens. She’s barely holding herself together as it is; the last thing she needs is for Minion to break down.
Luckily, he draws a deep breath, composes himself, and continues. “He didn’t come back. When I woke up it was past midnight, and I went looking for him. Found him in the detox chamber, like that. I thought at first he’d just fallen asleep in there, and then I remembered all that happened today, and he wouldn’t wake up.” Minion stops talking for a moment to drop another piece of chicken into the top of his tank. Roxanne looks tactfully away. “Thanks. Listen, this is actually standard procedure for him. He’s only been hurt like this a couple times before, but both times he’s gone into torpor.”
She blinks, looks back around at him. “Torpor? What, like hibernation?”
“Sort of like that. His body stops all unnecessary processes in order to conserve energy, and focuses everything on healing the damage. He heals amazingly quickly, you know, and he’s a lot tougher than he looks,” he adds, but he sounds insistent and defensive and Roxanne has to wonder if Minion is trying to convince her or himself of that fact. “I mean, we fell through Earth’s atmosphere and bounced and we were fine. Shaken up a little, but fine.”
Roxanne makes another mental note to ask about that later. “But why bring him here? Why not keep him in the Lair?”
“Because people were already starting to look for Evil Lair,” Minion tells her. “Some of them found it. I could hear them outside.”
“At two in the morning?”
Minion shrugs. “I didn’t invite them, they invited themselves. No sense of propriety, these kids. Anyway, I don’t want him being disturbed while he’s…recovering. I can’t take him to a hospital, they wouldn’t know what to do with him and they’d call the government and if he can’t defend himself-” Minion cuts himself off, takes a deep breath, and presses on before Roxanne can ask. “All he needs is a bed, I think, in a safe place where no one can find him. The prison has beds, but he’s still technically got 88 life sentences to his name and I can’t risk taking him there until we’ve sorted everything out. And you’re the only person I could think of who might help us, since you’ve known us so long. And he seems…fond of you.”
Is it her imagination, or does Minion sound a little hesitant?
“Minion?”
He looks at her guiltily. “Please try to understand, Miss Ritchi. The villain never gets the girl. My job -”
She cuts him off. “Wait, you told him that?”
“Everyone told him that. He said it himself,” Minion points out. “It’s true enough.”
“It is not.”
“Really?” Minion raises an eyebrow at her, and she actually squirms. “What, exactly, did you say to him, then, that made him turn himself in?”
She looks away. “I was still trying to wrap my mind around the notion that he might actually want the girl,” she mutters. To her astonishment, Minion half-smiles.
“Of course he wants the girl, Miss Ritchi.” In his bowl, the fish looks tired, and Roxanne is abruptly aware of just how late it is and just how long she’s been awake. “He just doesn’t think he can have her. He doesn’t think he can have anybody. Goodness, you should have heard the fights we used to have. I stopped trying to convince him that not everybody hates him years ago. Now I mostly just focus on trying to keep him out of harm’s way. For all the good that does.” He pauses, looks her up and down. “You’re very tired and you need to go to sleep, but before you do, I want to know what your intentions are towards him.”
Roxanne’s head snaps up. “What?”
“Please tell me what you want from him,” says Minion, sounding apologetic. “He isn’t easy to deal with, and he tends to overthink some things and overlook others, but he has his moments and I think he’s more fragile than he lets on where you’re concerned.”
Roxanne is perfectly capable of reading between lines. “Minion, you don’t have to worry.” She scrubs at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t know exactly where I stand with him, but he is my friend. At this point, I owe him that much.”
I think I might love him, she doesn’t say. I just don’t know if I should.
“I’m going to try to get some sleep,” she says aloud. She has no idea if she will be able to fall asleep, but it’s worth a shot. “Is there anything in particular you need?”
Minion shakes his head, and the lights on his suit go out as, to Roxanne’s amusement, a fake castle rises out of the base of his tank. Minion squeezes into it.
She turns out the lights, then flops down on the sofa and shuts her eyes. Her feet are cold but she’ll deal with it. She isn’t moving.
Minion’s voice floats out of the darkness. “Miss Ritchi?”
“Mm.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Author: Dal Niente
Rating: T
Word Count: 1,569
Chapter 2
Minion is in a state. Roxanne has never seen the fish this frantic. He’s circling in his bowl, eyes huge. He has been keeping himself together long enough to make sure his master is safe, and now that he has taken care of things as much as he can, he is allowed to panic.
“Minion,” Roxanne says firmly, and waits until he looks at her. “Minion, do you like coffee?”
The fish gapes at her for a minute before her question sinks in. “No.”
“What do you like?”
Minion closes his eyes. “Right now? Right now I’d like an egg. Two, if you can spare them.”
Roxanne hadn’t expected that, but she is determined not to be surprised. “Okay. How do you want them cooked?”
The eyes blink open again, wide and confused. “I don’t,” he blurts, then shakes himself, obviously embarrassed. “I’m sorry. You probably think that’s disgusting, but after all that’s been happening I…”
Teeth, Roxanne realizes. She has only ever seen Minion eat food that he cooks, but not often enough to get a feel for his eating habits. Right. He must have teeth like that for a reason. “I think I have some raw chicken in the fridge, would that be better?”
He stares some more, looking just as tired and shell-shocked as she feels, and this time she doesn’t bother to wait for a reply. She goes to the kitchen, pours herself another cup of coffee. Then she grabs the carton of eggs and Styrofoam package of chicken out of the refrigerator - the chicken was going to be tomorrow’s dinner, but at this point, she could care less, so she puts it on a plate, tucks the eggs under her arm and picks up the mug with her other hand, and goes back out to the living room.
Minion is sitting on the floor by the sofa, gazing blankly up at the muted TV. “Why don’t they play something else?” he asks dully when she sits down next to him, then blinks at the eggs and meat she sets on the coffee table. He looks back up at her, surprised. “You were serious?”
Roxanne runs a hand through her damp hair and curls her legs under her. “Minion, it’s three AM and the only reason I’m still awake is that my brain won’t stop pinwheeling. I don’t think I could be sarcastic if I tried.”
She has the good sense not to look at Minion while he eats, but she does switch to the discovery channel while she drinks her coffee. She is sick of the news, sick of seeing Megamind thrown against that wall over and over and over again.
Minion is quiet for a while. Roxanne says nothing about the crunching of eggshells, or the fact that the chicken hasn’t been de-boned, only makes a mental note that she does not want Minion to bite her, ever.
Finally he clears his throat. “You can ask, you know.”
The questions burst out of her. Some small, rational piece of her is surprised how quickly she responds; she had thought she had more self-control than this. “What is wrong with Megamind? It’s been hours since he took you home, what’s changed? Is he going to be all right? Are you going to be all right?”
Minion heaves a heavy sigh, tackles the first question first. “After my usual body was destroyed, I was kinda out of it. I’d been shaken around a lot, you know? And the water in that fountain had all kinds of chemicals in it, so I was pretty loopy. It…” he frowns. “Actually, it probably hasn’t worked all the way out of my system yet, either. Anyway, I wasn’t as on top of things as I usually am, or I might have noticed that something was wrong.
“When we got home it was already getting dark. He brought me in, fitted me into this body, then left me to charge my power cells while he went to clean himself up and change. He told me to go to sleep. ‘Sleep, Minion. You need it.’ It’s what he always s-says.” His voice goes high at the end, and for a moment, Roxanne is afraid he might actually cry. She isn’t sure what she’ll do if that happens. She’s barely holding herself together as it is; the last thing she needs is for Minion to break down.
Luckily, he draws a deep breath, composes himself, and continues. “He didn’t come back. When I woke up it was past midnight, and I went looking for him. Found him in the detox chamber, like that. I thought at first he’d just fallen asleep in there, and then I remembered all that happened today, and he wouldn’t wake up.” Minion stops talking for a moment to drop another piece of chicken into the top of his tank. Roxanne looks tactfully away. “Thanks. Listen, this is actually standard procedure for him. He’s only been hurt like this a couple times before, but both times he’s gone into torpor.”
She blinks, looks back around at him. “Torpor? What, like hibernation?”
“Sort of like that. His body stops all unnecessary processes in order to conserve energy, and focuses everything on healing the damage. He heals amazingly quickly, you know, and he’s a lot tougher than he looks,” he adds, but he sounds insistent and defensive and Roxanne has to wonder if Minion is trying to convince her or himself of that fact. “I mean, we fell through Earth’s atmosphere and bounced and we were fine. Shaken up a little, but fine.”
Roxanne makes another mental note to ask about that later. “But why bring him here? Why not keep him in the Lair?”
“Because people were already starting to look for Evil Lair,” Minion tells her. “Some of them found it. I could hear them outside.”
“At two in the morning?”
Minion shrugs. “I didn’t invite them, they invited themselves. No sense of propriety, these kids. Anyway, I don’t want him being disturbed while he’s…recovering. I can’t take him to a hospital, they wouldn’t know what to do with him and they’d call the government and if he can’t defend himself-” Minion cuts himself off, takes a deep breath, and presses on before Roxanne can ask. “All he needs is a bed, I think, in a safe place where no one can find him. The prison has beds, but he’s still technically got 88 life sentences to his name and I can’t risk taking him there until we’ve sorted everything out. And you’re the only person I could think of who might help us, since you’ve known us so long. And he seems…fond of you.”
Is it her imagination, or does Minion sound a little hesitant?
“Minion?”
He looks at her guiltily. “Please try to understand, Miss Ritchi. The villain never gets the girl. My job -”
She cuts him off. “Wait, you told him that?”
“Everyone told him that. He said it himself,” Minion points out. “It’s true enough.”
“It is not.”
“Really?” Minion raises an eyebrow at her, and she actually squirms. “What, exactly, did you say to him, then, that made him turn himself in?”
She looks away. “I was still trying to wrap my mind around the notion that he might actually want the girl,” she mutters. To her astonishment, Minion half-smiles.
“Of course he wants the girl, Miss Ritchi.” In his bowl, the fish looks tired, and Roxanne is abruptly aware of just how late it is and just how long she’s been awake. “He just doesn’t think he can have her. He doesn’t think he can have anybody. Goodness, you should have heard the fights we used to have. I stopped trying to convince him that not everybody hates him years ago. Now I mostly just focus on trying to keep him out of harm’s way. For all the good that does.” He pauses, looks her up and down. “You’re very tired and you need to go to sleep, but before you do, I want to know what your intentions are towards him.”
Roxanne’s head snaps up. “What?”
“Please tell me what you want from him,” says Minion, sounding apologetic. “He isn’t easy to deal with, and he tends to overthink some things and overlook others, but he has his moments and I think he’s more fragile than he lets on where you’re concerned.”
Roxanne is perfectly capable of reading between lines. “Minion, you don’t have to worry.” She scrubs at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t know exactly where I stand with him, but he is my friend. At this point, I owe him that much.”
I think I might love him, she doesn’t say. I just don’t know if I should.
“I’m going to try to get some sleep,” she says aloud. She has no idea if she will be able to fall asleep, but it’s worth a shot. “Is there anything in particular you need?”
Minion shakes his head, and the lights on his suit go out as, to Roxanne’s amusement, a fake castle rises out of the base of his tank. Minion squeezes into it.
She turns out the lights, then flops down on the sofa and shuts her eyes. Her feet are cold but she’ll deal with it. She isn’t moving.
Minion’s voice floats out of the darkness. “Miss Ritchi?”
“Mm.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter 1
Chapter 3