The Roxanne and Megamind are friends as children AU.

K+ rating

AO3 | FFN

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 | chapter 6

(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.

---

Syx and Roxanne linger outside the doorway of the classroom that day after school until everyone but Miss Anderson is gone.

As the last of their classmates disappears down the hallway, Roxanne glances over at Syx. He looks pale, but when his eyes meet hers, he nods.

Roxanne takes his hand and gives it a quick squeeze, then lets go of  him and ducks back into the classroom, leaving Syx hidden in the hall.

Miss Anderson is at her desk, sorting through papers; she looks up when Roxanne comes in.

“I just wanted,” Roxanne says, moving to Miss Anderson’s desk, “to say thank you. For letting Syx do the demonstration with the Read-Write today. At our old school…” she trails off, making a face.

“You both had a rather rough time of it there, it seems,” Miss Anderson says with a sympathetic smile.

“Yes,” Roxanne says. “Especially Syx. Miss Simmons—she didn’t treat him like a person.”

Miss Anderson frowns, her head tilting slightly; she clearly doesn’t completely understand.

“Because he doesn’t look human,” Roxanne says. “She didn’t treat him like a person because he doesn’t look human. She called him ‘it’.”

Miss Anderson sucks in a sharp breath, looking horrified. She shakes her head—a small movement, more an expression of abhorrence, rather than disbelief, Roxanne is pretty sure. For a small moment, her mouth works as though she might say something.

“And she’s not the only one,” Roxanne says, before she can. “When Syx was little, a bunch of people from a government lab tried to get him classified as non-sentient.”

Miss Anderson looks pale, and rather as if she might be sick.

“They said he was like a parrot,” Roxanne says. “Some kind of—a trained animal. They made him take tests. There was a hearing and everything before the judge finally said he was sentient.”

“I’m so sorry,” Miss Anderson says faintly.

“Yes,” Roxanne says. “Well—Syx did fine with the tests, of course, but—that’s why Syx is so worried about his brother. Because—reading and stuff like that doesn’t come easy to him, the way it does Syx, and what if he doesn’t do so good on the tests?”

“Oh,” Miss Anderson says, “but—if Syx has already been classified as sentient, then surely his brother—”

“They’re not blood relatives,” Roxanne says. “And he isn’t the same species as Syx. He looks less like humans than Syx does. That’s why he doesn’t go to school.”

“—I’m so sorry,“ Miss Anderson says again.

Roxanne swallows.

“Yeah,” she says. “Me, too. They turned in his brother’s sentience paperwork, but it’s going to take a while. And his brother really wants to go to school.”

Again, Miss Anderson seems to be trying to find the words to say. Syx, though, comes into the room now, just as he and Roxanne planned.

“Roxanne?” he says, hovering in the doorway. “The bus is going to be leaving soon.”

“Right, sorry,” Roxanne says. She puts on her backpack and starts to walk to the door. “I was just—we were talking about the Read-Write, and your brother’s paperwork.”

(it’s important that Miss Anderson knows Roxanne’s not telling her this behind Syx’s back)

Syx makes a noise of understanding, and nods.

“I hope your brother’s paperwork gets approved very soon, Syx,” Miss Anderson says. “I look forward to him joining us here at school.”

“Yes,” Syx says, and bites his lip. “If he does get to come to sh—school—would you let him use the Read-Write for class?”

Miss Anderson blinks.

“I certainly would,” she says slowly. “And—your brother…it sounds as if he has some form of dyslexia? The Read-Write is an assistive technology device. Schools are legally required to allow students with disabilities to use their assistive technology devices.”

The sheer and utter relief on Syx’s face is almost painful to look at.

“Thank you,” he breathes.

“You really should patent the device, you know, Syx,” Miss Anderson says, “it’s quite amazing; I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Syx looks as if Roxanne could knock him over with a feather. She takes his hand; he glances down at their joined hands, then up at her face.

“—ah!” he says, “I—yes, right; we should—the bus—”

Roxanne leads him to the door, and out into the hall.

“So?” she says in an undertone. “That went good, right?”

“Yes,” Syx says dazedly. “Yes, it did.”

Roxanne squeezes his hand. He gives a breathless kind of laugh, shakes his head, and squeezes back.

“Phase two of the plan tomorrow,” he says.

“If Minion is ready,” Roxanne agrees as the very impatient bus driver motions them onto the bus.

“I wonder if you could adapt the Read-Write for other people,” Roxanne says thoughtfully, as the bus pulls out of the school driveway.

Syx looks at her questioningly.

“Like—the scan part of it, instead of having it in cursive, you could have it in bigger print, for people who have trouble seeing. Or if you added a voice to it, then it could read it out loud to you…”

Syx’s face lights up.

“Oooh, I like that!” he says. “What else?”

“Oh—” Roxanne frowns, considering. “Well, you could—”

---

The next day, Syx’s backpack looks very full again, and he puts it very carefully on his lap when he sits down next to Roxanne on the bus. Roxanne looks at him sharply and he nods.

She gulps, her stomach flipping over with nerves.

Syx tightens his hold on the backpack tightly. Roxanne puts her hand on top of his and takes a deep breath.

Okay.

Okay, they can do this.

They can do this.

---

Roxanne’s nerves wind themselves tighter and tighter; by the time the lunch bell rings, she’s almost ready to scream. And if she’s feeling like this, she can’t imagine how Syx must feel.

The other kids file out the door and into the hall; Roxanne and Syx move aside into the Science Corner and wait for them to go. Miss Anderson, seeing them waiting, looks at them questioningly.

“Miss-Anderson-may-we-please-talk-to-you-about-something-important,” Syx says, words running together.

Miss Anderson blinks.

“Yes, of course,” she says.

“Is it okay if I close the door?” Roxanne asks. “It’s—we don’t want anyone else to overhear.”

“All right,” Miss Anderson says slowly.

Roxanne closes the door and goes back to stand beside Syx.

“You remember we told you about Syx’s brother,” Roxanne says.

“Of course, yes,” Miss Anderson says.

Roxanne glances at Syx; he’s looking pale again, and clutching his backpack so tightly his knuckles have turned white.

“You remember the first day of shool,” Syx says.

(he doesn’t even try to pronounce the word correctly; Roxanne can tell he’s fighting simply to get the words out.)

“You remember—what you told me,” he says, voice tight, “about show and tell.”

Roxanne shifts her weight so that she’s closer to Syx, presses their shoulders together. He takes a quick, uneven breath and, like he’s tearing off a bandage, unzips his backpack.

“I’d like you to meet my brother,” he says. “Minion.”

Minion squints slightly when Syx takes his sphere out of the backpack—adjusting to the light after the darkness of being inside the bag. His eyes meet Roxanne’s, and she gives him the most reassuring smile she can. Minion turns towards Miss Anderson.

“um—hello,” he says, voice nervous. “It’s, uh, it’s nice to meet you.”

Miss Anderson’s eyes go very wide.

“Oh,” she says faintly, “oh.”

She swallows hard, shakes her head.

“—and I assumed you were a pet,” she says, “I am so sorry.”

Minion flutters his fins in a surprised motion..

“Oh,” he says. “That’s—thank you?”

Syx puts his ball down on the desk.

“But, really,” Minion says, “we were—I do pretend to be a pet mostly; we figured it would be safer, but—”

He hesitates, and rolls the ball so he can glance at Syx, who touches the tips of his fingers, quick and light, to the sphere. Then Minion looks again at Miss Anderson.

“—but I want to stop doing that now,” he says. “I want—I want to go to school with Sir and Miss Roxanne.”

This time, when he rolls the ball, it’s Roxanne Minion glances at. She touches her fingertips to the glass the same way Syx did.

“And we thought,” Roxanne says, “that maybe you would help us make that happen.”

Miss Anderson swallows visibly, and then she nods.

“Yes,” she says, “yes, of course, I will.”

Beside Roxanne, Syx lets out a shuddery breath, the tense line of his shoulders relaxing. Roxanne takes his hand and holds it tightly.

“Oh,” he says, sounding near tears. “Oh.”

He can’t seem to say anything else.

---

Things do get a bit—messy—after that, but, then, they always knew that was going to happen if they used the plan.

Miss Anderson has Minion rest on her desk until the end of school, and then she asks Syx to stay after school. She doesn’t ask Roxanne to stay, too, but she doesn’t seem surprised when Roxanne does.

And then the phone calls start—first Miss Anderson calls the office and has the superintendent, principal, and the school’s special education teacher all come to her classroom, and then she calls the Warden and Dr. Kelley, and they both come down to the school.

The Warden is glowering and gnawing at his mustache, and Dr. Kelley looks—well, Roxanne always thought that hopping mad was just a weird thing that people said, but Dr. Kelley looks mad enough to start hopping at any moment.

The adults all send Syx, Minion, and Roxanne out into the hall, close the door, and argue. Luckily, the classroom door is thin enough that when Roxanne tries to eavesdrop, this time she’s able to hear some of it.

“—even without citizenship and sentience documentation—”

“—legally required not to share that information about our students, Dr. Kelley; they’d have to have a warrant—”

“—called an Individualized Education Program; all children who receive special education will—”

“—wanting to speak to you concerning Syx as well; he’s very gifted; an IEP for him would—”

Roxanne doesn’t hear who it is who decides to call her dad, and she’s not completely sure if he’s there as her dad or as a lawyer.

By then, the whole thing’s gone on long enough that it’s almost time for Roxanne’s mother to be home from work, so Roxanne’s dad calls her, and she comes down to the school, too, and joins in the—by now very heated—discussion. Roxanne’s still out in the hall with Syx and Minion, but they can all hear the upraised voices.

Eventually, it’s over, and the adults all come out into the hall. Roxanne’s mother takes her wrist in a very tight grip.

“Does Minion get to go to school?” Roxanne blurts out, as he mother starts to walk quickly down the hall.

Her mother doesn’t answer, so she glances back at the rest of them. She catches Miss Anderson’s eye, and Miss Anderson gives her a very small nod.

Roxanne grins and lets her mother pull her the rest of the way down the hallway.

Not even her mother’s angry lecture, after they get home, about respecting authority figures and not interfering with Syx and Minion’s parents, can’t dampen Roxanne’s spirits. She doesn’t even try to argue, but just lets her mother go on until she’s finished.

Even when her mother insists that she write the Warden and Dr. Kelley each an apology note, Roxanne doesn’t argue.

The notes she writes are as full of lies as the apology note her parents once made her write to Miss Simmons, but she writes them with a light heart.

The next day, Minion, wearing his robotic suit, stands at the front of the classroom and introduces himself.

Miss Anderson writes his name on the board—in print, first, and then after that she writes it again in cursive.

And then Minion sits down at his own desk.

“I’m grounded for a month,” Roxanne tells Syx, grinning.

“Oh, us, too!” Syx says happily, and Roxanne laughs.

Her mother drives her to the prison after she gets home from work, and marches Roxanne up to the Warden’s office. She hovers angrily in the doorway as Roxanne hands the apology note to him.

His eyebrows go up when he takes it, and his mustache moves thoughtfully, as if he might speak. Finally, though, he just nods.

So Roxanne takes that as her cue to leave, and to let her mother march her down to Dr. Kelley’s office.

Dr. Kelley’s eyebrows snap down when he takes the letter, and he actually reads the whole thing in front of her.

Then he looks up at her, wearing that expression of sardonic amusement.

“You,” he says, “didn’t mean a damn word of this, did you?”

Roxanne hesitates only a moment.

“No,” she says honestly, “I didn’t.”

Behind her, in the doorway, her mother makes an angry noise.

Dr. Kelley glowers at her silently for a long moment.

Then lips twitch, and, to Roxanne’s surprise, he suddenly bursts out laughing.

“Oh, go away, you awful child!” Dr. Kelley covers his face with one hand and  waves her out the door.

---

After Roxanne, Syx, and Minion are all finally un-grounded, Roxanne helps Syx work on creating additional assistive technology features for the Read-Write.

When Syx patents it two months later, he puts her name down on the form as co-creator, and refuses to listen when she tries to convince him to take it off.

---

Minion does get one of those things the adults were talking about, an IEP. He’s still able to stay in their classroom with them most of the time, but sometimes he goes to see the special education teacher for help with reading and writing. And he’s allowed to use the Read-Write, which really is helpful.

Syx gets one of the IEP things, too; him being allowed to work on other things after he’s finished with his classroom work is one of the things that gets written into his.

Minion is very popular with the other kids—and with the parents of the other kids, too, although it usually takes the adults a little longer to get past the whole fish-and-prosthetic-suit thing than it did the kids.

A month after Minion joins their class, Gary tells them excitedly at lunch that his parents finally are going to let him be in special ed for math.

“They said they didn’t want me getting made fun of,” Gary says, waving a french fry, “but I told them Minion is in special ed, and nobody makes fun of Minion!”

Gary and Minion also join a extra tutoring group for children with learning disabilities at the community center.

When Syx and Roxanne make several more Read-Writes with various experimental features, Minion gives them to the other members of the group so that they can test the devices and suggest improvements.

---

Minion’s sentience and citizenship paperwork is approved that summer.

Nobody even attempts to contest his sentience.

Roxanne, wearing a nice dress and new shoes that pinch her feet, sits beside Syx during the hearing, holding his hand tightly. When the judge signs the papers, they both jump to their feet excitedly, bouncing up and down and hugging each other.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Roxanne says, as Syx laughs joyfully.

“Sir! Miss Roxanne!”

Minion, robotic suit clanking, moves swiftly towards them, and the two of them pull him into the hug.

---

the end.

---

HAPPY DAY NINE OF MY NINE DAYS OF MEGAMIND!!! o<{}( :D~

A big thank you to @siadea for giving me information about special education (during the holidays too!) 

Thank you for continuing to read, like, reblog, and comment; I’m so glad to have you guys as my readers! I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to Safety Instructions Not Included!

The Safe If We Stand Close Together universe will continue! The next story in the series is the already-published Terms of Endearment. Following that will be a story called Changing Times (yet to be published as of 12/25/17). While waiting for that fic, you can re-read my story Given Names, which serves as a prequel to it (as well as to Code: Safeword)!

(I plan to continue the Safe If We Stand Close Together universe after that as well; my current outline has it going on through their high school years and into their first year in college!)

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR READING! ❤

The Roxanne and Megamind are friends as children AU.

K+ rating

AO3 | FFN

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

(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.

---

They don’t put the plan into effect right away; even Minion sees the necessity of making sure he’s reading first. And he seems calmer, now that they do have a definite plan.

The next weekend, Roxanne goes over to the prison every day and they work on Minion’s reading. He’s progressed during the week; Syx goes through the alphabet formations ten times on Friday after school, and Minion doesn’t miss a single letter.

Syx wants to move on to spelling out words for Minion to read in the tank, but Roxanne says they’d better make sure Minion can write the letters, too.

Using a pencil throws Minion off; he says it’s the ‘short dry strokes’ that confuse and distract him. He has better luck when he switches to a pen; and even better luck when Syx gives him a paintbrush and paint. The fluidity of the movements with the paintbrush makes it easier for him to focus.

Syx included the letter blends in his swimming alphabet—ch, th, sh, and so on—he really is right; they do make their own unique sounds distinct from their component letters. Roxanne remembers learning how to read, how hard the letter blends were to understand. Minion definitely catches on to them much faster this way, because he sees ‘ch’ as a pattern completely distinct from ‘c’ and ‘h’.

They move on to Syx swimming simple words for Minion the next day; Minion catches onto that impressively quickly. When Syx comes out of the tank, though, and they try having Minion read the same simple words from a written page, Minion is unable to do it. He says, frustrated, that the letters stay too still on the page—like they’re dead—is how he puts it.

None of them can think of a way around it, so on Sunday, Syx swims numbers for Minion, instead of trying reading again.

Minion doesn’t actually have trouble with the math part of math at all; the only thing he struggles with is reading out the numbers themselves.

“Minion’s excellent at math,” Syx says, “If you say a problem out loud, he comes up with the answer quickly, and he’s really fantastic at geometry; he has amazing spatial awareness!”

“Swimming in schools,” Minion says, with a gesture of his fins, “and in open water. You have to.”

Roxanne makes an impressed noise.

Their next weekend, they work on cursive; Minion picks up cursive quicker and easier than print because of the way the letters all flow together in cursive.

He writes it fairly easily and is able to read it, although slowly and very uncertainly.

Interestingly, he actually tends to read words better as Syx and Roxanne are writing them, rather than after they’ve finished writing. He says the words are more alive that way.

---

On Monday, Syx gets on the bus with an unusually full backpack and an excited gleam in his eye.

“New invention?” Roxanne asks, as soon as he sits down.

He grins at her.

“Yes,” he says, “and it’s brilliant! I’ll show you in the science corner when we get to shool!”

They’ve moved on to chapter books in reading class; they’re reading a book called The Witches together. Miss Anderson has them read paragraphs out loud in turn each day, and then they fill out a worksheet by themselves to make sure they’ve understood the chapter. After everyone’s finished with their worksheets, Miss Anderson leads them in a discussion about the chapter, going over the answers to the worksheet questions.

Syx finishes the worksheet first today, of course; when Roxanne, finishing second, turns her worksheet over and goes to the science corner, he’s already there and has gotten the new invention out of his backpack.

It looks a little bit like a computer, but only a little bit. It’s much smaller and lighter—basically just a keyboard attached to a screen, with a few strange instruments wired to the keyboard. The keyboard is different from a normal keyboard; it’s black instead of grayish white, the keys are bigger than normal keys, and the letters on them are written in cursive, with extra keys for each of the letter blends.

“What is it?” Roxanne asks, careful to keep her voice down so Miss Anderson won’t think they’re being too distracting to the other kids.

“I don’t have a name for it yet,” Syx whispers back, “but it’s for Minion! To help him read and write. Look!”

He presses the power button and the screen lights up, blank and white. The keys light up, too, their letters starting to glow—but the glow moves on each key, brightness following the outline of the letters.

“Writing them!” Roxanne says, understanding hitting her, “So the letters aren’t dead for him!”

Syx types, pressing the glowing keys quickly, letters appearing on the screen in cursive:

exactly

“And watch—” Syx says.

A clipboard is mounted to the right side of the keyboard, with extra clips added on each side of the board, and on the bottom of the board. Syx takes a notebook from his backpack, tears out a blank sheet of notebook paper and clips the paper into place on the clipboard.

There’s something almost like a little folded arm on the right side of the keyboard, too; Syx unfolds this. It terminates in a kind of metal grip; Syx puts a pencil in this and tightens it so that it’s held securely in place.

On the left side of the computer, a thin black thing that’s shaped like a paintbrush is plugged into the keyboard; Syx picks it up and presses a button on the brush-less end.

Roxanne jumps a little in surprise as the metal arm moves, turning the pencil point-down and placing it at the top of the page, against the paper, as if poised to write.

Using the paintbrush thing, Syx writes in cursive on the screen:

you can write in cursive here and it appears in print on the paper.

Roxanne gasps, delighted, as the metal arm moves, writing the words in print on the sheet of notepaper.

Syx taps the paintbrush on the top edge of the screen, as if it’s a magic wand, and the letters on the cursive side begin to glow and move like the letters on the keyboard, glow following each word in turn. He reaches up to the screen and wipes out the word ‘and’ with the tip of his finger. On the screen, the word disappears as if his fingertip is an eraser.

The metal arm moves up, turns the pencil around so that the eraser is pointed down, moves to the word ‘and’ on the page, and erases it in three firm strokes. Then it moves up, spins again, so that the lead tip is downwards again.

Syx rewrites the word ‘and’ in its place on the screen again, and the metal arm rewrites the word on the page in print. Then he moves down on the screen and writes:

You see?

On the notepage, the metal arm writes the same thing in print.

“That’s amazing,” Roxanne breathes.

Syx looks at her sidelong, a small smile starting to curl the edges of his mouth.

Then he clicks the paintbrush again.

This time when he moves the paintbrush over the screen, he writes in cursive:

And look what else it can do!

The metal arm writes the same thing on the next line of the notepaper in cursive, too.

Roxanne gives a breathless laugh of amazement and Syx, really smiling now, clicks the paintbrush once more and sets it down.

“It’s in his handwriting, too!” he says, “Even the print! I had him write the letters for me and programmed the shapes into it!”

He takes the pencil from the metal arm and folds the arm down.

“And it does one more thing,” he says. “Hand me a book!”

Roxanne hands him the extra copy of The Witches that Miss Anderson keeps on her bookshelf. He opens it to the first page, then picks up the last of the mysterious instruments wired to the keyboard.

This instrument looks like one of the price scanner guns that they use at the grocery store. He aims this at the first page of the book and presses the trigger.

There’s a quiet click, and then the words of the books first page start slowly to appear on the screen in cursive, as if someone’s writing them.

A Note About Witches: In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they…

Syx puts down the scanner and looks at Roxanne.

“What do you think?” he asks.

Roxanne, grinning, puts her hands on his shoulders and gives him a light, delighted shake.

“It’s fantastic!” she says, hugging him quickly. “Syx, you’re so smart; you’re a genius! Has Minion tried it out yet?”

“Not yet,” Syx says, grinning widely at her. “I just finished it this morning and I wanted to show it to you. We’re going to test it out when I get back home today!”

“I wish I could be there,” Roxanne says.

“So do I,” he says. “Really, though—you think it’s going to be useful?”

“Definitely,” Roxanne says.

“Do you think I should change anything?”

“I—” Roxanne pauses, thinking.

“You’ll need to add a way,” she says, “to adjust the speed of the words when he’s using it to read. He might need it slower for now, and later he’ll be able to read faster.”

“Oooh, yes,” Syx says, “speed adjustment; I hadn’t thought of that!”

He begins to pack the device away again into his backpack.

“The Read-Write,” Roxanne says suddenly.

Syx, zipping his backpack, looks at her inquiringly.

“That’s what you should call it,” she says.

“The Read-Write,” Syx says, eyes lighting up as he gets the pun. “The Read-Right; ahahaha, yes! I love it!”

Roxanne laughs, too.

“All right, class,” Miss Anderson says, “is everyone finished with their worksheets?”

Syx and Roxanne go to sit again at their desks, and join in the discussion.

Afterwards, as they’re getting out their social studies books, one of the other kids, Dwayne, raises his hand.

“Dwayne?” Miss Anderson says.

“Can Syx and Roxanne show us the thing they were using?”

Roxanne glances over at Syx; he’s wide-eyed with surprise, looking at Dwayne.

“Syx?” Miss Anderson says. “Roxanne? Would you like to give the class a demonstration?”

Syx’s eyes go even wider as he looks at Miss Anderson. Roxanne looks at her, too; she’s smiling.

Roxanne glances back at Syx, who’s already looking at her, a question in his eyes. She nods decisively.

This wasn’t originally in her plan, but it will definitely be useful.

“Um,” Syx says, “yes. I—you’ll all be able to see easier if everyone comes over to the science corner?”

He glances uncertainly at Miss Anderson, who nods encouragingly at him.

Roxanne and Syx lead the way over to the table in the science corner and Syx starts to set the device back up again.

“This is the Read-Write,” Roxanne says, raising her voice slightly so that everyone can hear. “Syx made it. It’s for his—”

She hesitates, looking over at Syx, not sure what relationship word approximation he would prefer to use.

“Brother,” he says, looking at Miss Anderson. “It’s for my brother.”

“He has trouble reading and writing,” Roxanne says, “Syx made the Read-Write to help him.”

“He understands movement best,” Syx says, warming to his theme, beginning to gesture excitedly. “We figured out that he can understand written language if the letters and words appear as movements, rather than static, unmoving symbols!”

He turns on the Read-Write with a flourish.

“You see?” he says, pointing to the glowing keys. “Movements!”

“Why are the letters cursive?” Gary asks.

“Cursive is clearer for him than print,” Syx says. “The movement is more fluid; it feels more natural to him that way. Now—” he begins to set up the arm of the Read-Write again, putting a pencil into the grip, “—I’ll show you how it works.”

Everyone seems really interested in the Read-Write, Miss Anderson included. They all lean forward to watch as Syx continues the demonstration, answering their questions, explaining things. Roxanne helps, jumping in from time to time to break Syx’s explanations down into simpler words when they get too complicated for their classmates to understand.

Syx gets more confident as the demonstration goes on, his gestures and expressions growing gradually more and more animated, until he’s practically glowing with happiness, his hands dancing in the air as he talks.

Roxanne, watching him, smiles so hard that her face hurts.

---

…to be continued.

---

HAPPY DAY EIGHT OF MY NINE DAYS OF MEGAMIND! Thank you all for continuing to read, like, reblog, and comment; it makes me so happy. I hope the new chapter makes you happy, too!