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It was a lovely day in Metro City Park. The chirp of the birds echoed across the hills, the sun was pouring its light onto the ground below, and the sky was painted gently with soft, wide flounces of clouds that blended into the blue above their heads.
Roxanne and Bernard were on another one of their non-official dates, having a picnic in the park under a tall oak tree, providing them with a pleasant, ample shade.
"So, what do you wanna talk about?" Roxanne asked coyly, leaning over on her side to look at him, and giving her date a flirtatious jab at his chest.
Bernard looked at her with his beautiful green eyes and said, "Tell me a secret. Tell me something you've never told anyone else before."
The question caused her heart to skip a beat, and she unconsciously clutched her hand onto the fabric of the red checkered blanket beneath them. She liked Bernard and didn't want to ruin their rapport by sharing something that would create unnecessary tension, even though she knew the exact answer she would have to give if she were being honest. She wanted to tell him, but her mouth wouldn't let her speak for a moment. She was frozen in place.
Over the course of the past month, she found herself becoming increasingly smitten with the curator, each outing more intimate than the last. Something felt so familiar about him, like how the smell of a rainy day can send one back to a playful childhood memory. However, every time they spent time together, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach, like she was holding herself back from something. She wondered if it had happened too fast. She could let down her guard as if she'd known Bernard forever, but she only started talking with him the night she went to the museum to pay her respects to her colleague and friend, Wayne Scott, better known as Metro Man.
Admittedly, being with Bernard reminded her of Megamind, which was entirely counterintuitive considering they had originally come together to stop his reign of destruction in the city. She had to keep telling herself that they were total opposites: Megamind was arrogant and egotistical, while Bernard always tried to accommodate for her preferences. Megamind only fixated on one goal his entire life; Bernard had an amazing variety of interests and ambitions. Megamind was reckless and paid little attention to his surroundings, but Bernard looked at everything with wonder in his eyes. On paper, they were exceptionally contradictory. Yet, despite these differences, every time she was near him, she was reminded of the blue, bald alien who killed one of her best friends.
Granted, there was a time, up until he became a murderer, where she had a similar fondness for the extraterrestrial, but that was in the past. She was with Bernard now. She was happy with him, and he seemed to be happy being with her. She couldn’t hold a frown around Bernard even if she tried. Most of their conversations left them both laughing until their faces turned red. And the ones that didn’t were of the more emotional nature, baring their souls to the other with little reservation. She tried to remind herself that she shouldn’t have any attraction left for that monstrous villain; he was despicable after what he had done. Fortuitously, Bernard had entered her life at the exact right moment, keeping her calm when she was about to burst with rage and grief. He was the only normal thing in her crazy, upside-down life, and she didn't want to ruin that.
Yet, she was attracted to the criminal, and it was the only secret she had managed to keep buried in her heart. Some folks who knew her may have had their speculations, but she’d never told anyone, not even her closest of friends. Why did she want to trust this Bernard character so much as to tell him the only thing that she never trusted anyone with? There was no clear answer, but she decided to live in the moment. Just let it go. Tell the truth. Get it off her shoulders. Bernard wasn't one to judge people, after all. There are far worse secrets to have, she reassured herself, as she pushed forth the courage to confess her secret.
"Alright, alright. But you can't judge me!" she prefaced, laughing to hide her nervousness.
"Aw, but where's the fun in that?" her date said with a sarcastic tone. "I'm kidding, of course. There is nothing you could tell me that would change how I see you." He looked at her with sincere eyes to ensure her that he meant it. Bernard wasn't going anywhere.
This was a relief to hear and allowed for the words to finally leave her mouth. "Here it goes. Well, before he killed Metro Man, I sorta had a thing for Megamind," the reporter admitted. Her face was painted ruby from embarrassment, and Bernard's expression didn't make it better. He stared at her, slack-jawed, his eyebrows rising to his hairline in surprise.
"Wow, I don't think I saw that one coming, honestly," he quietly said. He didn't look angry or upset, just surprised, and perhaps curious. "When- what- how?" he inquired, his own words cutting off the word before it.
"Well, you know I got into the news reporting scene as my senior year internship, and being such good friends with Wayne in high school got me access to exclusive content about him. As I began to cover more stories about 'Metro Man', I naturally had to cover stories about Megamind. I think that like a lot of people, he assumed me and Wayne were dating, and, I don't know, tried to use that as bait or something? In the beginning, it was kind of scary and aggravating. My family and friends were worried about my safety, always trying to convince me to leave and get a new job somewhere out of town."
Bernard looked solemnly at the ground. "Wow I didn't realize how much of a toll that must have taken on your personal life."
"Yeah," Roxanne agreed, "but Metro City was where I was born and raised. Everyone I know and love is here, and I know the streets like the back of my hand." Bernard tilted his head and squinted to look at her hands.
"No, no! It's a figure of speech!" she said, giggling to herself when she realized he must not have been familiar with the term. "I mean that I know the area very well. And I didn't want to be the reporter that ran at the first sign of danger, either. It's not an easy job to bring the truth to the people, but someone has to do it!"
Bernard nodded, indicating he was listening, and she continued. "Well, after a while, I realized that I was never in actual danger. It was all a playful game. Minion would kidnap me and I'd wake up to Megamind's silly laugh. He'd show off all his newest inventions and give a long, drawn-out speech saying how he was going to rule over 'Metrocity' and call Metro Man to come and get me. While we waited, he'd tease and joke with me, and sometimes we even ended up having genuine conversations. Metro Man would find us and get into a theatric fight with him, and then take me back to my office or back home. It went on like that for years, and you already know that part, but after you spend so much time with someone, sometimes you find yourself wondering, y'know, 'what if'?"
"So why him? Why not Metro Man, especially considering you were so close growing up like you said? I thought the two of you were-" he asked.
"Everyone did! But Wayne and I aren't each other's type. We tried to go out back in high school, but it didn't work out, and then we grew up and realized what we genuinely desire in a partner, and yeah, we were just not each other's type."
"You weren't his type? Does he not like beautiful and intelligent women?" Bernard asked with a laugh, flattering her.
"That's sweet. And no, he doesn't, actually," she quickly responded.
Bernard squinted his eyebrows and asked, "What?"
"Please, please, please just keep this between us, but Wayne was gay."
All her date uttered was a simple, quiet, "Oh."
"Yeah. I mean, the whole arrangement worked out in his favor because with me at his side all the time, people didn't suspect anything, and he wasn't ready to tell anyone."
"Wow, and I thought I was the expert on him!" he said, with a soft chuckle. "But that doesn't really answer the question of 'why Megamind?'"
"It's hard to think about it now, considering everything that's happened. But back then, things felt different. He is wildly intelligent, which seems obvious, but really, his mind is incredible. He would explain all of his gadgets and gizmos to me and I played it off to tease him, but the ones he legitimately puts his effort into are astounding. He's clever with his words, too, and has such an animated and entertaining stage presence; it's hard to look away from him. And we'd always go back and forth teasing each other, riffing off what the other said. He's just so fun to be around and strangely charming. Even though it was technically 'kidnapping', after the first few times, it felt like more of an excuse to hang out with each other. And he'd never supersede any real boundaries." She took a breath. "When I was grieving the loss my grandmother, he put off his charades for nearly two months. In front of everyone, he claimed it was because he was 'cooking up something big', but I knew it wasn't. I got an anonymous card in the mail around the time sending me condolences for my loss, and my friends and family wondered who it could have been from, but I know Megamind's handwriting when I see it."
Bernard gently gazed at her, his eyes tentatively looking in her direction every moment as she told her story.
Roxanne continued, "And it all felt so… oh, what's the right word?"
"Whimsical?" he suggested with a twinkle in his eye.
"That's it exactly. Whimsical," she said with a sad smile. "He was the most interesting thing in my life at the time. And I knew that it wouldn't – couldn't – happen, but… that was part of the fun: wanting something that you can't have. It was so puzzling and frustrating and yet it only made me want to be there more. And – well, all this to tell you that, yes, my deep dark secret," she said in a mockingly deep voice before continuing on, "is that I had a little crush on Megamind."
"Really? A little crush?" he disputed, the witty sarcasm clear in his voice.
"Well okay," she said, flustered from knowing her previous expression wasn't entirely accurate, especially given her long-winded explanation. "I had some considerable feelings towards him, I suppose. But, I want to assure you that that was in the past!" she added, hoping to defend her current affections towards Bernard.
He gave her a glare and a raised eyebrow to that, which spoke for itself. "So far in the past!" he teased ironically.
"Okay, so it was a month ago," she replied, "But so much has changed since then. Like, c'mon, back then I didn't know he was capable of murder!" she said, finding herself feeling surprisingly sensitive in the moment.
A troubled look wiped the smile from Bernard's normal, jubilant face, and Roxanne worried that she had somehow upset him. Leaning closer to him, she touched his upper arm and asked gently, "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," he answered, swiftly shifting from the gloomy demeanor he displayed just moments ago, back to his usual attentive grin.
"Alright, now you tell me something," Roxanne transitioned, attempting to move the conversation away from her embarrassing admission. With a flirty smirk, she brought her fingers to his chest and walked them over his heart and whispered, "Something you've never told anyone," before booping him on the nose.
"Well, you know how I'm an expert on all things Megamind, right?" he asked. She validated his remark with a nod of her head before Bernard moved on. "Well, he definitely had a crush on you, too. Just saying," he spoke.
She laughed at his statement with an embellished volume. "C'mon, tell me something I don't know!" she retorted playfully.
Bernard's facial expression went from sincere to shocked to amused within a matter of seconds. "I mean, he really had a crush on you."
"You know that everyone in Metro City knows that, so stop making fun of me," she said, giving him a teasing shove from their picnic blanket to the grass.
He glanced to the side with his silly grin and looked back at Roxanne. "Alright, alright. But truth be told, I don't think he was actually that bad either. A lot of people here assume he is this innately malicious monster, but when I look at him, I just think he's very… lonely. He doesn't deal with it in the way he probably should, but I think even he knows that. Maybe this is a rather controversial take, but I don't think he meant to kill Metro Man. You can even replay the footage; it seemed like another prank that accidentally went way too far. And as you pointed out the other day, he's brought the art back to the museums and helped clean up the streets… I think he probably feels a little guilty."
"Yeah, I think that too," she sighed.
"I know I sound like I'm defending him, but he wasn't really that bad of a guy." Then he boldly added, "If I didn't already have a crush on you, I'd tell you to go after him. But, you know… Under the circumstances…" he trailed off, glaring at her with an enticing simper.
Roxanne blushed. "Aww. You really have a crush on me?"
"Of course I do! Who wouldn't? And that is something you didn't know!" he exclaimed, proudly announcing his answer with the rise of his index finger pointed upwards.
"Oh, trust me, I knew," she said, after grabbing his hand and holding it with hers. "And I have a crush on you, too."
She smiled at him with a new closeness; the nervous pit in her stomach was gradually melting away, knowing her secrets could be safe with him and that it wasn't going to change anything. She cuddled up next to him and held his hand as they looked up at the sun beginning to set and peacefully listened to the rest of the world around them. For the first time in a long time, Roxanne was truly content.