"No, absolutely out of the question." Megamind was perched on a metal scaffold, busily working on a project that currently looked like little more than a chassis frame with a lot of wires and a few bare parts. He was using something that vaguely resembled a soldering iron, making careful adjustments to mysterious components within an enforced box. Roxanne suspected it contained the power source, as every now and again something he did caused blue sparks to dance.

She watched him for a moment, appreciating the view of his intellect at work, before asking: "Never ever?"

He paused long enough to lift his protective goggles for a moment and give her an exaggerated grimace. "There is not even a fraction of a chance."

"Seriously?" Roxanne gestured with the scissors she was using to cut out sections from the day's newspapers. Megamind had explained that Ares, unlike others they had faced, would neither openly confront him nor accept a public challenge, so they would have to find him. He'd increased brainbot patrols, of course, but he'd insisted that Ares would be hard to locate, and that any odd patterns in criminal activity, or reports of suspicious events, could offer a lead. So Roxanne, eager for useful activity, and volunteered to clip articles of interest. The brainbots were hanging each one for future reference.

It felt good to help. Besides, it was nice working with him like this. It said something about Megamind that, despite knowing a passionless killer had been stalking her, she felt comfortable, safe, even relaxed here with him.

Relaxed enough, in fact, to tease. "What if someone offered you a billion dollars?" she asked after a moment. "You wouldn't even consider it?"

"Uh, I still consider Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes to be my arch-nemesis, so, NO, I would never ever kiss my greatest rival. Just the thought makes me—Ugh!" He finished with theatrical emphasis and grinned at Roxanne's laughter. "What about you?" he asked, lowering his goggles and turning back to his work.

"Oh, no, that was my question, not yours, and you didn't even do it right!"

"Oh, very well." He examined and touched up part of his work. More sparks flew. "Truth or Dare?" He asked.

"Dare," she gave him a challenging grin.

"Oooh! Living dangerously, are you?" He gave her a look she knew well—one that she'd seen often when he used to kidnap her on a regular basis—and boomed: "You have called down the lightning, now prepare for the thunder!"

Roxanne's expression shifted to wry amusement. "You're stalling."

"I am not."

"You are too."

"Am no—Oh, no, you don't," he chuckled. "I am not having a shool yard argument with you."

"Tell me your dare, then," she challenged playfully, scanning the next sheet of newsprint.

"I, um, dare you to..." he glanced around, shifted the tool to his other hand, fished in his pocket, and tossed her his cell phone. Roxanne dropped the scissors to catch it. "Call the third number on speed dial and say exactly what I tell you!"

The call was picked up on the second ring. "Warden's office."

Megamind used a stage whisper. "Tell him you'd like to report the nasty body odor surrounding his prison."

"This is Roxanne Ritchi, reporting on the deplorable sanitary conditions in the Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted, where body odors have become so bad—"

"What?" the voice on the other end of the line asked.

"…That nearby residents have started registering complaints," Roxanne finished, pressing the phone against her shoulder to free both hands for her task. She was careful not to crush the daisy she'd tucked behind one ear. It was Thursday, and the reporter had awakened in Megamind's bed that morning to find a bouquet awaiting her on the nightstand.

"And there are snakes in the showers," Megamind urged with delight.

"Sources say the shower heads have all be replaced by garden snakes."

There was a pause before the man on the phone said dryly: "Megamind put you up to this."

"He totally did, yes," Roxanne agreed.

"Hey!" Megamind shouted. "I didn't tell you to say that! Stick to the script!"

"I can hear you talking, Lee!" The warden shouted back. "Before he asks," he continued to Roxanne, "no I didn't kick his dog, no, I don't want to sign up for daily facts about cats, yes, my refrigerator is running, and no, I don't need to catch it. Now tell our city's hero to get back to work." The line went dead.

"I don't think he likes you very much," Roxanne joked, switching the scissors to her other hand and laying down the phone.

Megamind heaved a dramatic sigh. "I didn't even get to the part about exploding toilets," he said, then brightened. "Oh, well, there's always next time."

Roxanne laughed. "You are incorrigible!"

"Uh, supervillain," Megamind gestured to himself as if it were obvious.

"Former supervillain," Roxanne corrected.

"Still pretty villainous, though," he grinned. "The world's only bad good guy! Alright, it's your turn," he added, returning his full concentration to the task at hand.

"Truth or dare?" she asked.

"Truth!"

"Who's Lee? Is that your real name?"

"Ugh! No! It was the name I was assigned when I was growing up in prison. I've always hated it."

"Lee what?" she asked.

Megamind held out a hand, and a brainbot dropped a socket wrench into it.

"Lee Vice," he admitted, his voice slightly colored by embarrassed humor.

"Lee Vice? Like Levis? As in the blue jeans? That's almost cruel!"

"And now you know why I hated it," there was a smirk in his tone. "Truth or Dare?"

"Truth," she answered, clipping out another article.

"Playing it safe now?" he tossed her a grin over his shoulder. She stuck out her tongue at him, and he chuckled. "What's the one action you regret most in your life?"

"I think… I think not being nicer to you sooner."

"Really?"

"Really. Looking back now, I realize, the whole kidnapping thing… You started that after I was there for one of your battles. You blew a hole in the lions' enclosure at the zoo with that ridiculous dinosaur robot—"

"The Destructosaur was not ridiculous!" he protested. "It was completely horrifying!"

"Megamind," her voice was full of affectionate teasing. "It looked like something someone would build after watching one too many episodes of Power Rangers."

"Hey!" he laughed. "Let's see you create your own robotic dinosaur; then you can criticize mine!"

"Okay, okay," she could feel her face glowing with humor. "Your Destructosaur was the scariest mechanical T-Rex I've ever seen!"

"It's the only one you've ever seen."

"It is not! There's that one at the mini-golf course!"

"That's my competition? It blows bubbles! Barney would be more terrifying!"

"The point still stands," she giggled. "Anyway, you showed up and tried to get the lions to run amok while I was doing some fluff-piece at the zoo. I started covering you instead, and my boss at the time called my cell and yelled at me. He didn't even wait for me to get off the air. Do you remember?"

He scowled slightly. "Oh, I remember. He was bellowing so loudly that I could hear him inside the Destructosaur, even over all the commotion. He told you that he didn't need some female hack getting herself killed trying to cover, and I quote, a story too big for you. Ha! Big! Big failure was more like it! Those were the laziest, most unambitious lions I have ever met!"

The memory made Roxanne rock with laughter. "I can still picture you waving those little T-Rex arms at them, shouting," she guffawed.

"Run! Be free! Strike fear into your oppressors!" Megamind quoted dramatically. "No, not that way! Here kitty kitty!"

Roxanne doubled over, laughing until it hurt. Megamind grinned at her, an odd pride in his expression as if he loved the fact he could bring her so much mirth.

"You are… Hilarious!" she managed between chortles. "I adore… That about you…"

"I am rather adorable."

"You are," finally managing to bring herself under control, she wiped her eyes. "And you've always been kind, even when you were a supervillain. It was maybe a week later that you kidnapped me the first time, and called out Metro Man to rescue me, giving this female hack a front-row seat to the hottest scoop in the city. All of a sudden my career took off, I got picked up by the biggest news station in Metro City, and I had my choice of all the prime stories. You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"I see what you're up to, my Nosy Reporter, but I'll give you a free answer on that one," his smile was tender. "Yes, I did it on purpose. You impressed me that day. Everyone else was running and panicking, but you were professional, calm, brave. You couldn't have been more than twenty-five, but you acted every inch the expert news correspondent. And you were beautiful. God, you were so beautiful standing there in that blue suit, an island of composure in a sea of chaos. I could hardly believe you were really there. It had been years since high shool but I recognized you immediately—"

"You remembered me?"

"You were a pretty girl, so intelligent that you'd skipped two grades and still been placed in advanced classes. And you were always too kind to laugh at me like everyone else did. So, yes, I remembered you." His expression grew hard. "To hear that— that bastard yelling at you... It's a good thing I spent that night in jail, or there's a pretty good chance I would have hunted him down. Anyway, I felt like you deserved a break, and I wanted to be the one who gave it to you. I started planning your kidnap as soon as I broke out of prison the next morning."

"I knew it. And that's why I wish I was nicer to you sooner. You'd had nothing but hard knocks in life—enough to turn anyone else cold and sour—but you still gave me this incredible gift. When I realized you'd calibrated your flamethrower to avoid hurting me, I should have understood what you were up to. I owe my success to you."

"You do not! Honestly! You're an excellent reporter, not to mention fiery and determined in all the right ways. You would have succeeded sooner or later without my help. I only expedited the process."

"You're sweet. You really are. And I really wish I'd treated you better from the start."

"You were never unkind. I still remember all those flirtatious comments you used to slip into our banter, Temptress," he tossed her another grin. "The intelligent conversations we had, the way I could watch your mind puzzling out my plan, you have no idea how much I loved all of it."

"Mmmm, but all this time we could have done so much more than flirt."

"Careful, Roxanne, or you'll distract me and I'll never get this done," he chuckled.

"Okay, okay. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

She thought for a moment and then felt a wicked smile tug her lips. "Who did you fantasize about the first time you ever… polished the blue rocket?"

"Polished the blue…? Oh, that's just wrong!"

"Well, who was it?"

"I am not answering that!"

"You know what the consequences are!"

"Remember that whole 'don't distract Megamind' thing we literally just discussed?"

"You're not getting out of this that easily!" she laughed. "Answer the question or else!"

"What's your answer, then?" he challenged.

"Oh, I don't need to fantasize about anyone when I rub your—"

"Oh ho ho! You know very well that is not what I meant, Miss Ritchi! Who was it?"

"It is not your turn." She crossed her arms, smiling another challenge at him. "Well?"

"No. We are not discussing this."

"Okay," she warned. "If you won't answer the truth, then you'll have to take the dare!"

Megamind put on his best supervillain voice. "You think you can frighten ME?! Do your worst!" He gave her an evil laugh, then added in his regular tones: "Not something that makes me stop what I'm doing, though."

"Hey, you don't get to set restrictions!"

He smirked. "Do you want this new hoverbike or not?"

"Fine," she pouted in mock peevishness.

He glanced at her again. "God, you look sexy when you do that."

"Stop it! Now you're distracting me!"

"My apologies," he didn't look apologetic at all. "Well? Have you thought of something? Remember, I'm judging you according to the standards of a formerly evil genius." He shot her a grin. "No pressure."

"Jerk." She laughed. "Alright, I've got it. I want you to perform something from Shakespeare."

"Shakespeare? You're kidding, right?"

She crossed her arms and cocked one hip. "Uh, no, I am not." She smiled crookedly. "Shakespeare. Right now."

"What makes you think I even know any Shakespeare?"

"With your flair for the dramatic? Of course you know Shakespeare!"

"Oooh!" He chortled. "Ouch!"

"I'm waiting!" Roxanne's attempt at irritated impatience was ruined by the smile she could feel at the corners of her lips.

"Alright, alright," pausing, Megamind motioned for a brainbot to bring over a small screwdriver and take back the wrench. He picked back up the odd electronic tool and reached deeper into the power box before he cleared his throat.

"Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury," he began, his voice smooth and sonorous, each syllable ringing through the room. "Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I. Lady, dart thy skill at me!" Even the brainbots had stopped to listen, hovering in place, though, to be fair, Roxanne wasn't certain whether they were enjoying the show or trying to decipher the command.

"Bruise me with scorn," Megamind continued in dulcet tones. "Confound me with a flout; thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance; cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; and I will wish thee never more to dance, nor never more in Russian habit wait. O," his tone soared in deep and poignant emotion. "Never will I trust to speeches penn'd, nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue, nor never come in vizard to my friend, nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song! Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, figures pedantical; these summer-flies have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forswear them!" His declaration echoed like thunder. "And I here protest, by this white glove— how white the hand, God knows!— henceforth," he dropped to a purr that managed to throb with both adoration and sincerity. "My wooing mind shall be express'd in russet yeas and honest kersey noes: and, to begin—so God help me, la!—my love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw."

There was a silence broken only by the buzzing of robotic drones returning busily to their work.

"Wow," Roxanne sighed. "Megamind. That was… Wow."

"Did I inspire you?" he teased.

"You inspired something," her voice mingled tantalizing suggestion with playful humor. "If you had monologued like that all these years I would have told Metro Man to pack off and give us some privacy!"

"My, my, I will have to keep that in mind!" He moved to begin connecting the wiring harness to the power source. "Now I believe it's my turn." She could hear the mischief in his voice. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," she answered automatically before she could think, and instantly regretted it.

"Same question," his grin was wicked.

"What?"

"I want to ask you the same question. Who did you think about the first time you ever—?"

"That's not fair! You can't ask me the same question I asked you!"

"You never stated that in the rules."

"That's because everybody knows it," She rolled her eyes and returned to her work, cutting out a small paragraph about a home invasion. It was a long shot, but nothing had been stolen so it was at least unusual. "It's like an unspoken rule."

"Oh, no," he countered with warm humor in his voice. "Unspoken rules don't count! Either it's a rule or it isn't."

"Ugh! You're impossible!"

"But I'm also right."

"Megamind!"

"Oh, very well, then. Tell me who your first crush was."

"But—"

He switched both tools to one hand long enough to shake a gloved finger at her. "That's more than fair, Miss Ritchi."

Roxanne sighed. "Fine. I… It was..." she mumbled something.

"Come again? I can't hear you!" Megamind teased in a singsong voice.

"It was Sherlock Holmes, okay?!"

He turned slowly, deliberately, pushing his goggles atop his large head and lifting disbelieving eyebrows. "Sherlock… Holmes?"

Roxanne cast her eyes to the ceiling and made an exasperated sound.

"Sherlock Holmes?" Megamind asked again, practically glowing with glee. "The book character?!"

"Hey, at least I gave you an honest answer," she protested with an embarrassed laugh, walking toward the waiting pile of local newspapers.

"Oh, no, no, no," he moved along the metal scaffold to keep her in sight. "I want to hear more about this!"

Roxanne's face was fire hot as she brought the next stack of print to the work table, but she crossed her arms defiantly as she leaned against the table's edge and smirked up at him. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm something of a sapiosexual. Smart guys always turn me on."

"And here I thought you only loved me for my glorious blue body," he teased.

"Ha ha. Okay, my turn. Truth or dare."

"Will a dare mean I have to stop working?" he'd turned back to the complex series of wires.

"Probably."

"Truth, then."

She grinned pointedly at him and deliberately used his own words. "Same question."

"That's hardly fair! You just said we couldn't ask a question twice!"

"And you said that rule didn't count."

"And you made me change my question!"

"I didn't make you do anything!" she grinned triumphantly.

"Fine," he finished with the screwdriver and tossed it aside. A brainbot caught it before it hit the ground and darted over to the large tool chest. Megamind turned to face his lover and pushed his goggles onto his forehead again. "Dare."

Roxanne put a warm purr into her voice. "I dare you to come down here and kiss me."

It was his turn to grin and, hooking a nearby crowbar over one of the support cables holding his project in place, he zip-chorded down. Landing on his feet, running a few steps to absorb the impact, Megamind stopped inches away from her. In one fluid movement, he swung her around, tipped her back, and kissed her soundly.

They broke the kiss, but Megamind didn't pull away. "Truth or Dare?" he rumbled, his warm breath tickling her lips. She could smell a blend of minty toothpaste and strong coffee.

"Dare," she breathed.

Megamind tugged at the edge of her shirt. "I dare you to take this off."

She did, pulling her white sleeveless top over her head to reveal a black satin bra trimmed in red embroidery.

"And to kiss me back," he added.

Cupping his face, Roxanne brought his lips down to hers and complied with dedicated thoroughness.

They were both hot and breathless when they finally parted. The hero began nibbling a path between his lover's ear and shoulder, the tickle of his goatee and teeth making her squirm in delight.

"Megamind?" she panted, running one hand up the front of his black leather shirt.

"Hmmmm?" he said against the skin of her neck

"I dare you to undress."

He grinned and threw aside his cloak and collar. Reaching behind himself— God, he was flexible!— he unzipped his leather shirt partway. Roxanne helped him undo it completely, and he pulled it over his head.

Several moments of nearly frantic kissing and movement followed, and their clothes ended up in a pile on the floor.

"Turn around, Miss Ritchi," there was something about Megamind's voice... It was the same tone that had made her secretly shiver back when he was a supervillain.

An electric thrill of delight ran through Roxanne. She loved the way he could switch from charming playfulness to raw sexuality in a single moment. Her lover had grown immensely in confidence since their first night together, and he liked taking the lead, but he had never done anything quite this close to role-playing their old kidnapping dynamic before. The very thought made pulse race. She could definitely go along with this.

"Whatever are you going to do to me?" she asked breathlessly.

"What am I going to do to you?" his voice was smooth and dark. "Something I have wanted to do to you for far, far too long."

He moved suddenly, one arm sweeping aside stacks of newsprint. The scissors clattered to the floor. Megamind flipped her around, pressing against her backside, letting her feel his hard length. He snaked one arm around to massage one breast, pinch her nipple. Roxanne whimpered as he leaned his back against hers, warm and solid, and moved his other hand to her other breast. His lips and teeth traveled across her bare shoulder, up her neck, leaving trailing heat in their wake. He paused to nip her ear while his thumbnail flicked gently across the peak of her breast.

"Bend forward for me." His words rumbled against her back, caressed her ear.

Roxanne obediently pressed herself against the cool surface of the desk.

"Reach for the other side," he commanded.

She did. The table was positioned lengthways against the wall, so her hands could just barely grasp the far edge.

"Now, hold on tight," he purred, an edge of almost mocking playfulness in his tone. "Don't let go. We wouldn't want you to fall, now would we?"

He ran his hands slowly, almost idly, up her back, across her breasts, down her sides... then grabbed her hips with sudden force.

"Oh, Megamind, please," she begged.

"Please what, Miss Ritchi?"

"I'll do anything you ask..."

"Mmmm," he pressed his erection a little harder against her. "You are hardly in a position to negotiate."

As if to prove the point, he bit her neck and sucked until she gasped. One hand moved around to grasp his own shaft, and he nudged her legs further apart with one knee, tilted his narrow hips just enough to press the tip against her clit. Rocking gently, he used his hand to guide the movements, sliding that wonderfully textured flesh against her bundles of nerves just so...

That was Roxanne's breaking point. "Please," she said again, almost desperate. "Please, please, fuck me."

He chuckled with wicked self-satisfaction, adjusted his angle to press himself against her opening. "As you wish," he purred, and claimed her in one deep thrust.

"Yes! Megamind! Oh, God, yes!"

Her lover pounded into her womanhood hard enough to shake the sturdy furniture. He shifted his hips to rub the ridge on the underside of his swollen member harder against her g-spot, and she keened.

"I think I like this position!" he half-shouted, voice rising with pleasure as his hips thrust even hard. "Oh, damn, I really like this position!"

He took her savagely, hammering her until she saw sparks. Her entire body tensed and shook as she came, screaming his name. His rhythm became erratic, and he slammed into her hard one final time as his orgasm tore a roar of mingled ecstasy and triumph from his lips.

He leaned against her back, dropping soft kisses along her neck, before untangling himself and gently helping her find her balance. Then he spread his cloak across the floor, settled himself on it, and reached a hand up to her. She wasn't surprised to see his erection hardening again; whether because of years of isolation or some evolutionary development of his species, Megamind was rarely sated by just one orgasm.

"Come here, Sweetheart," he encouraged. "You've been such a good little captive. Come here and let me reward you."

Roxanne was perfectly happy to obey.