"Okay, so," Roxanne said, as Megamind followed her through the balcony doorway and into her apartment.

She really wished she hadn't left the door locked that morning; when they'd landed, she'd had to have Megamind pick the lock, and that had given her adrenaline from the ride time to fade into nervousness. And then he'd flipped some sort of switch on the hover bike, making it go invisible like the car, and she'd remembered abruptly the many reasons why it would be bad for someone to look up and see his hover bike on her balcony.

At least most people would still be at the museum.

"Anyway," Roxanne continued. "We should probably talk now—we can sit on the couch. Do you want something to drink? This is weird, isn't it. It's weird."

"Ah," said Megamind, looking awkward and—unsurprised? "I could—I'll just leave—"

"No!" Roxanne said, and then, when that didn't stop him from edging towards the balcony door, reached out and grabbed his arm. He froze, eyes going wide. "I don't want you to leave."

"Okay," he said uncertainly, and allowed her to pull him towards the couch. She pushed lightly at his shoulders, mindful of the spikes, and he sat, perching nervously on the edge of the cushions.

Roxanne sat down beside him. No drinks—Megamind looked like he was ready to bolt; she'd probably come back from the kitchen to find him gone and she really did not want that.

"Have you done any of this before?" she asked. He was freaking out so hard, and he hadn't known to kiss her, earlier—

He laughed shortly.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked. "Of course I haven't done any of this before!"

He made a face.

I don't really know what we were doing, he'd said, before. Roxanne had always assumed that Megamind was into—well, the same things she was into, actually, but more—hardcore? The leather, the spikes, the constant tying her up to various pieces of weaponry—she had extrapolated, she had assumed—and the flirting! He flirted with her constantly! She'd always thought he must have experience.

"Oh," she said. "Well. You—probably have some questions."

"I—yes. A lot."

She motioned for him to go on.

"All right." He looked away from her, rubbing gloved fingertips over the material of the couch arm. It was sort of mesmerizing; the mundanity of her couch against the black leather. "So you said—you just broke up with your boyfriend today. Um. Is it—is it possible that this—" he gestured between them, still without meeting her eyes, "—is due to the fragility of your current emotional state?"

Roxanne tilted her head at him.

"That's the question you're going to go with?" she asked incredulously. "Not about—any of the other stuff?"

"It's the most important question," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, a flush spreading across his cheeks.

Roxanne suddenly found it hard to breathe. Jesus, he was worried about taking advantage of her emotional turmoil. That was apparently the big issue here, not 'Roxy, when are we going to move this to the bedroom' or 'Rox, are you really into this freaky S&M stuff' or any of the other things guys she'd brought home before had asked her.

And god, his ears were going all pink-tipped now; she wanted to bite them.

"I was never really particularly attached to Evan," Roxanne said. "I know, I know! That makes me sound like a terrible person! But when the whole city thinks you're dating someone with superpowers, your options are really limited. So no, I'm not feeling emotionally vulnerable right now."

"Ah," he said, drawing in on himself even more. "So that's what this is, then."

Roxanne frowned.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, you just said—options are limited," Megamind said, and gestured to himself.

"No," Roxanne said. "That is not what this is! I am definitely, sincerely attracted to you, Megamind."

He gives her a look of utter disbelief.

"A fact," Roxanne said, "that I probably should have figured out around the time that I started picking out outfits for kidnappings based on how sexy they were." She waved a hand at her dress.

Megamind gaped at her for a moment, and then—

"You—" he said, reaching a tentative hand towards the strap of her dress, but stopped short of actually touching it. "You wore this—for me?"

Roxanne leaned in just slightly, so that his fingertips touched her shoulder. He took a sharp breath.

"Yeah," she said, "I did." She gave him a sly look from beneath her lashes. "You like it?"

He nodded, eyes on the exposed line of her shoulders and neck, and ghosted his fingers lightly over her collarbone, towards the hollow of her throat. Roxanne shivered.

"Yes," he said, "I like it very much."

He leaned forward slightly, as though he intended to press his lips to her neck. Roxanne obligingly tilted her head back a bit; she certainly wasn't going to stop him from doing that.

But instead of kissing her neck, he stopped himself, leaned back, and took his hand away.

"The game," he said. "Earlier, what was that?"

"It's called roleplay," Roxanne said.

"This is a thing?" Megamind asked. "That people do?"

"Some of them, yes."

"A sex thing?"

"Yes."

"You told me to leave you tied up," he said, frowning. "Why?"

"That is—it's called bondage. It's—also a thing."

"This is also a sex thing?" he asked, looking at her with intense concentration.

"Yes," Roxanne said, flushing.

"These are both sex things that you enjoy?" Megamind asked, eyes still intent on her face.

"Yes," said Roxanne, blushing even more. "Did you not like—?"

"Of course I did," Megamind said dismissively, "but I thought—this is within the range of normal sexual expression?"

"Yes," Roxanne said, a little defensively.

"Oh, that is such a relief to hear!" Megamind sagged backwards on the couch. "I thought it was just me! I thought it was another thing wrong—" He tilted his head, mind clearly spinning off in a different direction. "How do people usually do the roleplaying?" he asked. "I mean, I'm guessing that most of them don't have a basis of regular kidnappings to work with."

"No," Roxanne said. "I'm pretty sure that's just us. It isn't exclusively a kidnapping thing, though. You can play all sorts of scenes, like—oh, alien abduction—"

"So, basically us."

Roxanne laughed.

"Pirate and captive," she continued.

"Us, except I have an eyepatch." Megamind nodded wisely.

Roxanne laughed again.

"Or—" she laughed even harder as something occurred to her. "You know, people probably do roleplay as us! I mean, as actual you and me! Oh, my god! I can't believe I never thought of that before!"

"That's—" Megamind looked thoughtful. "You really think so?"

"Yes, I really think so! I mean, we roleplayed as us!"

"…huh," said Megamind. "I—can't decide if that's weird or flattering?"

"Both, I think," Roxanne said. "Anyway, kidnapping is definitely a feature of a lot of scenarios, yes, but power imbalances are a big thing in general."

"Power imbalances?"

"Like doctor and patient—"

Megamind made a disgusted face.

"Ugh, hospitals!"

"Or—cop and criminal—"

Megamind made an even more disgusted face.

"Ugh, prison," he said.

"Or—teacher and student—"

Megamind made the most disgusted face of all.

"Ugh, shool," he said.

"Really?" Roxanne snickered. "School is worse for you than prison?"

Megamind nodded emphatically.

"So much worse! Extremely worse! All of the worse! The worst."

"All right," Roxanne said, smothering her laughter, "we won't do any of those, then. Anyway, the power imbalances thing can be separate from the role-playing, or even the bondage—power imbalance stuff is generally referred to as dominance and submission—and then there's stuff that's based on pain."

"On pain?"

"There's a whole range of pain, though," Roxanne explained. "I mean, there's light stuff, like biting and scratching and spanking, and then it goes up from there—flogging, some people like slapping or punching even—some people like to play around with knives, although that can get dangerous. I don't really get very into pain that much, personally, and playing around with your gun, earlier, is about as close to edge-play as I've ever gotten…"

"Edge-play?"

"The dangerous stuff," Roxanne said. "Like knives, or guns that, you know, aren't set to de-hydrate, or choking."

"And people…work out ahead of time what they like?"

"Sometimes," Roxanne said. "Sometimes not. Small things, people sometimes incorporate without negotiation, but major things usually have to be talked about. And safewords are important."

"Safewords," Megamind said. "Like 'stop' earlier."

"Right," said Roxanne, "but people don't usually pick a word like 'stop'. I mean, we both remember how that turned out for us! A safeword should, ideally, be something that isn't going to naturally come up in conversation. A lot of times, people just use 'safeword' as the safeword."

"What about Code: Safeword?"

Roxanne's lips twitched.

"That would…work, too." She shifted on the couch. "So."

Megamind looked at her inquiringly.

"You haven't run away, yet," Roxanne said.

Megamind smirked at her.

"Oh, Miss Ritchi," he said, "it would take a lot more than this to scare me off."

Roxanne licked her lips and edged closer to him.

"Would it," she said.

He nodded, eyes on her mouth, cocky smile still in place.

"How about me being the one to tie you up, then?" Roxanne asked.

Megamind's eyes fluttered, and for a moment, Roxanne was sure he'd refuse.

"All right," he said, instead.

She laced her fingers together with his gloved ones and led him upstairs.

He was looking apprehensive by the time they made it to Roxanne's bedroom, eyes a little too wide, breath coming a little too fast, so Roxanne pushed him gently against the wall and kissed him as hard as she could, until he melted against her, moaning into her mouth and tangling his hands in her hair.

Roxanne pulled back slightly so she could look at him.

"Megamind," she said. "You remember the safeword?"

"The—the safeword is Code: Safeword," he said, looking dazed and very thoroughly kissed.

"And you say it…?" Roxanne prompted.

He licked his lips, eyes on her mouth. God, how could she have ever kidded herself that she didn't think he was hot?

"If I want to stop," he said.

"Yes," Roxanne said. "If you want to stop. You say it; we stop; that's how it works. Is there anything you definitely don't want to do?"

"I—um, would rather you not hurt me that much? If that's okay? I mean, biting and scratching sounds intriguing, but the slapping and the punching doesn't really seem—but! If that's something you want to do to me—and it probably—"

Roxanne leaned forward and kissed him quickly.

"Megamind, I don't want to do anything you don't want," she said gently. "And I told you, I don't really get that into pain. Is there anything else you know you don't want to try?"

"I don't—I don't think so?"

"Okay, but if something comes up that you don't like, do not be afraid to tell me. Code: Safeword exists for a reason. Are you ready?"

A brief flicker of worry in his face, and then an expression of determination overtook his features.

"Yes," he said.

Roxanne kissed him again, running her hands down his sides, settling the right one at his waist; letting the left one wander a little lower, to the holster of his gun.

She felt the moment that he realized what she was doing, felt him tense beneath her. She felt, too, the moment that he decided to let her do it, the moment he could easily have grabbed her wrist, stopped her, said the safeword, the moment that he stayed still instead—rigid, trembling, but still.

Roxanne pulled the gun from the holster and stepped back from Megamind. She glanced swiftly down at the gun, checking the setting, making sure it was still on dehydrate. She didn't plan to put her finger on the trigger, but better to be sure.

She brought the gun up, aiming it at him, cocked her hip, and gave him the most wicked smirk she could manage.

"Holy fuck," Megamind said breathlessly in response.

Roxanne felt her smile widen. She hadn't ever heard him curse like that before. Definitely a turn-on. As was the way he was clutching at the wall as if was the only thing keeping him upright, eyes large and dark, pupils blown wide.

"Go and stand by the bed," she said, and then, when he hesitated for half a second, added sharply, "now."

His eyes were wide; he pushed himself away from the wall and went to stand in the middle of the room, at the foot of the bed.

"Kneel," Roxanne commanded, on a whim, and he went to his knees easily, fluidly, and entirely without protest.

Roxanne walked towards him, hips swaying, gun in hand, Megamind on his knees watching her every step. She felt sexier than she had in—ever, really.

"Well, well, well," she said, stopping in front of him. "The tables have turned, haven't they?" She gripped Megamind's chin in one hand, ran her thumb across his bottom lip and then over the strip of his goatee. Megamind made a soft, half-smothered sound. "I'm the one holding the gun now." She stroked the barrel of the gun down his cheek. "You know, I've always wanted one of these."

"I'll make you one," Megamind said.

Roxanne paused for a moment. Was that—was that a real offer? You can give the order; you can push the button! It probably was, wasn't it?

She was totally going to hold him to that. Hell yes, space gun! Ooh, maybe they could have a shootout the next time he kidnapped her—both guns set to dehydrate; that could be fun.

"You are worried, aren't you?" she said, filing the shootout idea away for discussion at a later time. "What should I do with you, now that I have you here, like this, completely at my mercy?"

"Whatever you want," Megamind said simply, and ducked his head to press a kiss to the wrist of the hand still gripping his chin.

Roxanne sucked in a breath.

"That's right," she said. "Whatever I want." She stepped away from him, trained the gun on him once more, and smirked—Megamind had seemed to like that the last time she'd done it. And sure enough, she saw the muscles of his throat work as he swallowed involuntarily.

"Stand up and take your clothes off," she said.

Megamind stood, and tugged his boots off swiftly, one hand on the edge of the bed for balance.

"Ah ah ah!" Roxanne said. "Slower than that."

Megamind, still leaning against the bed, looked up at her at that.

Slowly, he placed his left boot on the floor—his feet were bare now; Roxanne had never considered how endearingly vulnerable Megamind would look barefoot. He straightened up slowly, too, and then began slowly to pull off his right glove—down past his elbow, down past his forearm, revealing only another layer of leather until he pulled the glove past his wrist, finally exposing blue skin. He pulled the glove completely off and tossed it aside, then reached for his other glove, pulling it off like he had the first.

When the glove had been pulled down to his wrist, however, he hesitated this time. He tipped his head, a sudden I-have-just-had-a-clever-idea expression darting across his face. He flashed Roxanne a quick, slightly wicked smile, and then bit into the fingertip of the glove and tugged it the rest of the way off with his teeth.

He tossed the glove down and glanced up at her through his eyelashes, as though looking for approval. Roxanne gave an appreciative hum and he smiled shyly, ducking his head.

Jesus, shy wasn't something Roxanne would ever have thought to associate with Megamind, but it was really working for her.

"Holster," she said.

Obediently, he unbuckled the holster from around his thigh, his waist, and then let it fall. He reached for the buckle of his belt—god, Megamind wore a lot of clothing, didn't he?—but Roxanne said—

"Collar, Megamind."

Megamind blinked at her, startled, and then his hands to the insignia at the base of his throat, twisting the one of the lightning bolts, popping open a hidden catch. Flushing deeply and looking away from her, he pulled the edges of his leather collar apart—oh, yes, there was definitely some sort of neck thing going on, Roxanne decided. He pulled the collar the rest of the way off, spiked shoulder guards slipping from his shoulders, and then dropped the entire cape on the floor.

His hands fell to the buckle of his belt again, and an expression of apprehension clouded his face. His fingers stilled on the buckle as the look of apprehension deepened.

Fuck, he was getting nervous again, wasn't he? Were they going too fast? Too slow? He was the only one who was partially undressed—maybe that was what was freaking him out?

Bare hands, feet, and neck might not be what Roxanne would normally call almost naked, but on Megamind, who she'd never even seen without shoulder spikes before, the effect was sort of startlingly provocative. And if his species did have some kind of cultural modesty standard involving necks—or if (interesting thought) necks were an erogenous zone—then possibly telling him to take off his collar had been too much too soon? Too much focus on him, maybe?

"Megamind," Roxanne said. "Megamind."

He looked up at her at last, eyes focusing on her face.

"Come here."

He came to her, still looking pretty anxious, and stopped in front of her.

"Kiss," Roxanne said, pointing to her lips. Megamind leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, then pulled back as though he wasn't sure he had permission to do more than just that.

"Kiss," she repeated, pointing to her bare shoulder. He complied with just the barest hesitation, kissing her shoulder butterfly-light.

"Kiss," she tilted her head back and trailed one finger down the column of her throat.

Megamind drew a sharp breath, then reached for her, one hand going to cradle the back of her neck, the other trailing down Roxanne's throat, following the path of her own finger.

God, his hands on her skin. She wanted more of that; she wanted all of that.

He put his lips to her throat. Roxanne shuddered at the sensation and reached up to wrap her own hand around the back of his neck, holding him in place, pulling him to her harder. He moaned at that, and moaned again when she scratched her nails lightly down the back of his neck.

Roxanne loosened her grip and tipped her head back to look in his face.

"Unzip my dress," she said, intensely gratified at his resulting expression. She turned, giving him access to the zipper on her back. "And tell me what you find most attractive about me."

"Everything," Megamind said, pulling the zipper down.

"Now take it off of me," Roxanne instructed, "and be more specific."

"Every—I told you—you're perfect," Megamind said fervently, sliding the dress off of her arms. It fell past her hips and then to the ground.

He pressed a quick kiss between her shoulder blades.

Roxanne laughed.

"Smooth," she said. "But—'not exactly what I meant by more specific,' Megamind," Roxanne added, throwing his own words from earlier back at him.

With most guys she'd been with, she knew, the answer that question would either be your eyes or your ass, depending on whether or not they were lying, but she'd bet money on Megamind's answer being your neck.

"Your intelligence," he said, placing his hands lightly on her bare shoulders, just his fingertips touching skin.

Roxanne looked sharply over her shoulder at him. Something in her expression must have been alarming to him, because his eyebrows drew together and he pulled his hands back from her shoulders.

"Sorry," he said, "is that a bad answer? I just—I love the way your mind works. It's incredible. Very, very sexy. Um. Why—why are you looking at me like that?"

Roxanne spun around and shoved him so that the backs of his knees hit the edge of the mattress and he toppled back onto the bed with a startled noise. She climbed into his lap, knees on either side of his narrow hips, pushed him down into the mattress with one hand in the center of his chest, and leaned down to kiss him hard and fast, her breasts pressed against his leather-clad chest. He made another startled noise.

Her intelligence—he thought her mind was sexy—this, coming from fucking Megamind, who was so brilliant that it sort of defied description, had to be the best compliment Roxanne had ever been given.

She set the gun down with a clatter on her bedside table; possibly knocking something else off, if the sound was anything to judge by—she really couldn't bring herself to care—and then reached down and unbuckled Megamind's belt, blind and one-handed and more than a little rough. He made that startled sound again; but really, how the hell could he say something like that and expect Roxanne not to want to tear off his clothes?

She sat up, one hand still planted on his chest, pressing him down.

"Clothes need to be off, now," she said, and then, deciding it was best to lead by example, swung herself off of his lap to remove her panties.

"Yes," Megamind said, both hands going behind his back to unzip his shirt—ooh, he was flexible, "but. Well. It occurs to me that—"

Jesus, was he wearing another shirt underneath his first shirt?

"Why the hell do you wear so many goddamn layers?" Roxanne asked in exasperation. She wanted to touch him, damn it, and all these stupid clothes of his were getting in her way.

"I don't like my body very—I mean—there are several reasons—special fabric—functions as armor—but—"

He lifted his hips to unzip the back of his pants and pulled them off and hell fucking no, the undershirt thing was an entire undersuit? Was he ever going to be naked?

"But that's not really—you see, there's something—"

He began to pull his arms out of the undersuit; Roxanne, without looking away, jerked the drawer of her bedside table open and reached inside, fingers roaming over the contents of the drawer until she found her handcuffs.

"—something that I just feel that I should mention—" His eyes fell on the cuffs in her hands. "Uhh—"

"Put your hands over your head," Roxanne said, reaching over him to loop the cuffs through the top bar of her headboard. He was still not naked—he had pulled the undersuit down to his waist but no further—but Roxanne was tired of waiting. Besides, she rather thought she might enjoy undressing him the rest of the way once his hands were secure.

"I—" Megamind swallowed and put his hands over his head; Roxanne snapped the cuffs on his wrists. "Um. What was I—right, yes—the thing that I really feel that I should mention—"

Roxanne ran a single fingertip down the side of his throat. He arched up into the pressure, eyes going unfocused, stuttering into silence.

"So I was right," Roxanne said smugly. "About the neck thing."

"The—the neck thing?"

"The high collars," Roxanne said. "They're not just a cultural norm."

"Wha—"

"This—" she leaned down and licked a stripe up his neck, then whispered in his ear, "—is an erogenous zone." She punctuated the words with a nip to his ear.

Megamind whined.

Roxanne sat up enough to look into his face.

"Your ears, too?" she asked.

"Nerve endings—whole area—"

"Really?" Roxanne asked delightedly. "How far up does it go? How far down does it go?"

"Um, down to my—my collarbones and shoulders—all of my ears and—up to the lamboid suture of my skull—ah!"

He cut himself off as Roxanne, who only vaguely remembered the anatomy class she took back in high school, and who, even had she been able to recall the location of the lamboid suture on a human skull, wouldn't really have known how to translate this location to Megamind's larger, differently-shaped head, made a guess based on the general shape of Megamind's head—there, she thought, right there, where it curved like it was meant to fit perfectly into her palms—and slid her hands beneath his head, cupping it.

"Here?" she asked sweetly as Megamind pressed back into her hands, eyes fluttering closed, mouth falling open.

"Yes, yes there, exactly there oh god," Megamind said.

Roxanne pressed her thumbs a little harder into his skin and then used her hands on the back of his head to tip his face up for a kiss.

And he just let her, let her tilt his head precisely as she wanted, let her thrust her tongue into his mouth.

She smoothed her hands down from his head over his neck to his shoulders. The way that his hands were cuffed meant she didn't have full access to his shoulders, but he said collarbones, too, didn't he? Roxanne moved down from kissing his mouth to bite his collarbone. He jerked beneath her, cuffs rattling, so she did it again, harder this time, sucking at the skin.

"You're going—going to leave a mark if you keep doing that," Megamind said, sounding breathless and sort of shocked.

Roxanne bit down one more time and then stopped to look at his face.

"Yeah," she said, "That's kind of the point."

Megamind's expression definitely went shocked at that.

"But someone could see," he said, eyes wide, and ah, here was the cultural modesty standard thing again. This was going to be fun.

"Not here, they won't," Roxanne said, tracing the little purple mark her mouth had left on his collarbone. "The shoulder guards will cover that. And here—" (she bit the side of his neck and Megamind hissed and jerked in his restraints) "—your collar will cover that. Nobody will be able to see them." She trailed her fingers up from the first mark to the second one. "But I'll know they're there. And you'll know that they're there. Won't you? Every time you turn your head or move your shoulders you're going to remember that they're there; going to remember how you got them, how I handcuffed you to my bed and marked you."

Megamind's breathing had gone shallow, his eyes dark.

"Oh," he said.

"Now if I put a mark—" (she leaned down until her mouth was hovering just above the base of his throat, stayed there for a long moment, and then pressed a quick, teasing kiss to the skin there) "—here—well. Your suit doesn't cover there, does it? Everyone would be able to see it if I marked you there." She kissed the same spot again, placing her mouth on his skin and holding herself there.

"Oh," Megamind said again, the sound of his voice vibrating underneath her mouth.

She let her lips part, pressed an open mouthed kiss with a hint of teeth to his throat. Megamind made a soft, needy sound and pushed up into the kiss. Roxanne bit him obligingly, sucking his skin hard until he cried out, and then sat up to admire her handiwork.

There were three marks now; three violet prints of Roxanne's mouth on the blue of Megamind's skin.

"There," Roxanne whispered, touching each mark in turn, ending with the one at the base of his throat, right above where the silver clasp of his M logo always lay. "Now everyone will know who you belong to."

She traced the shape of an R over the kiss-shaped bruise.

"Yes, yes, god, yes," Megamind babbled. "Miss Ritchi—"

Roxanne frowned. Miss Ritchi. That was—well, the sort of power dynamic that she would normally be encouraging in these sort of circumstances, but he always called her that. She wanted—

"I want you to say my name, Megamind," she said.

"Miss—"

"No. My name."

A slow look of wonder dawned on Megamind's face.

"Roxanne," he said, as though it were the most beautiful word he'd ever spoken.

"Just like that," she said, and ran the palm of her hand down the long line of his throat, over his sternum, down over his stomach to where that damn undersuit was still hiding the rest of his body from her.

"Ngh," Megamind, "Uh! The! The thing! That I was going to say before and which is very important and Miss—I—Roxanne—" Roxanne paused, hand flat against his lower abdomen, feeling the muscles quivering beneath her touch. Megamind jerked against the cuffs, straining at them, making them rattle. "Possibly I could just—call time out—for a moment?" he managed to say.

Roxanne took her hand away from his stomach.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Did you forget the safeword? Is it the handcuffs, are they a problem…? I could tie you up instead?"

"I—what? Handcuffs?" Megamind looks utterly confused. "Why would they be a problem? These are nice handcuffs; much more comfortable than ordinary ones!"

"Well—when we were talking about roleplaying," Roxanne said, "you said you didn't want to do anything with cop and criminal, so I didn't know if—"

"That's because prison is boring," Megamind said. "Not because I've got some sort of fear of handcuffs!"

"Why did you call time out, then?" Roxanne asked.

"I realized that I should—probably warn you about—the fact that—I have NonStandardForAHumanGenitalia," he said in a rush, "because I didn't want it to be just like 'Surprise! Tentacles!'"

Roxanne blinked at him.

"You have tentacles?"

Megamind flinched and flushed deeply.

"Surprise," he muttered, turning his head to look away from her."Sorry. You can unlock the cuffs and I'll just go."

"What?" Roxanne asked, bewildered. "Why?"

He looked at her, eyebrows drawing together.

"Because," he said, "you know—tentacles."

He made a face.

"Are—are the tentacles a big problem?" Roxanne asked, still mystified and, okay, yes, a bit caught off guard by Megamind blurting out that he had tentacles. "Do they—I don't know—have like poisonous suction cups or something?"

"What?" Megamind asked, sounding baffled. "What are you—no—why would there be suction cups? Why would they be poisonous? Under what bizarre evolutionary circumstances would poisonous suction cups on genitalia ever be an adaptational advantage?"

"I don't know!" Roxanne said, "You just seemed to be freaking out an awful lot, so I thought maybe the problem was that we were physically incompatible or something and poisonous suction cups were the most insurmountable tentacle-related difficulty I could think of!"

"The tentacles are the insurmountable difficulty!" Megamind exclaimed. "The problem is that my body looks like something people see in their fucking nightmares, and not something you could ever, ever want!" He closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath. "Please just take the handcuffs off and let me go," he said in a small, defeated voice.

Fucking hell, that was a lot of self-loathing.

Oh god, what had he said earlier, when she'd asked him about wearing so many layers? He'd cut himself off before he could finish, and Roxanne hadn't been asking to get an answer, had mostly just been complaining, so she hadn't really listened at the time, but—I don't like my body very much. Jesus. And before that, downstairs, when she'd told him she liked bondage and roleplaying and he'd been so relieved that he wasn't the only one—he'd cut himself off that time, too, but—I thought it was another thing wrong with me. And he'd said options are limited and so that's what this is and—

"Megamind," Roxanne said. "Megamind, look at me."

He looked at her, an expression of misery in his eyes.

"Are you saying the safeword?" Roxanne asked, speaking slowly and clearly. "Because I very much still want this to happen, so if you want to stop then you need to say the safeword. Otherwise—" she kissed the mark that she'd put on his throat, "—I'm not going to stop."

"Wh—what?" Megamind asked, the word shaking around the edges and cracking down the middle.

"Do you remember the safeword?" Roxanne asked. He nodded, slowly, hesitatingly. "Do you want to say the safeword?" He shook his head, eyes on hers, as though he was trying desperately not to let himself hope.

"Good," Roxanne said fiercely, and kissed him.

She'd thought, back at the lair, that Megamind kissed like the world was ending. She thought again how apt that description was.

He kissed her like this was his only chance to do so; like he was certain that this was all some sort of mistake, never to be repeated. His kiss was all need and desperation, and although it was electrifying, knowing that he wanted her so much, the despair lurking underneath the obvious desire made Roxanne's chest ache.

Megamind shouldn't have to feel like that, shouldn't have to feel as though he wasn't worth kissing, shouldn't have to feel as though he wasn't worth lov—

Roxanne broke the kiss with a gasp.

—loving. Shouldn't have to feel as though he wasn't worth loving.

But that was just. Theoretical. Right. Because while she might have a—a fondness for him, this was still Megamind she was thinking about.

Megamind, who kidnapped her and threatened her and tried to take over the city on a regular basis.

Megamind, who had offered to use his death ray on her ex-boyfriend, who built a swarm of spike-covered flying robots and then played fetch with them, who had once lost a battle because he'd been too busy keeping his giant robot suit from stepping on a stray cat to pay attention to his fight with Metro Man. Megamind had tried to play it off afterwards like that wasn't what happened, but Roxanne had been right there watching, tied to a telephone pole, and such things cannot be unseen.

Megamind, who said you're perfect like he meant it, who said I love the way your mind works, who, beneath the supervillain facade was actually shockingly sweet and weirdly, unexpectedly funny—

Fuck.

Oh, fuck.

(tbc)