Teamwork is a skill we lack. (II SUPERHERO AU FIC)

2

Lightbulb sat in the park alone. Her gang was making sure no one but Paintbrush entered the park so they could have... alone time? No. That seemed too romantic of a term... time to speak? That didn't seem casual enough... So they could hang out! There's the term she was searching for. The picnic table she had picked out (stolen) was decorated with a lovely red checkered tablecloth, and a nicely sized picnic basket was placed on top, filled with things Lightbulb assumed Paintbrush would like. This didn't have to be a hero/villain thing, really, Lightbulb just wanted to take time to get to know their nemesis before anything got serious, or before their gang started pulling off actual crimes. The stuff she had been doing had mostly just been to get attention, to make people know her name and what her and her gang were capable of. But they really hadn't seen anything yet.

Really, this was a recon mission... yeah. Gathering intelligence. That sounds smart enough to be true, right? Right. That was it. Gathering intelligence.

Nothing less, nothing more.

Lightbulb finished this thought just in time for Paintbrush to arrive, landing on the ground in one of those super cool hero poses, and a look of determination on their face. Lightbulb had to hide her face briefly having blushed at this, before quickly composing herself and facing Paintbrush with a huge grin.

"Heyyy hot stuff!" She blurted out, not realizing that could've been taken as a flirt.

"A- uh um-- WHAT?" Paintbrush was taken back by this, their face turning red and promptly forgetting she must've meant that because of their fire powers.

Lightbulb seemed to take a minute to process what happened.

"OH-- OH NO I MEAN-- I JUST SAID THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE FIRE-- yeah... that's why!" Lightbulb chuckled dismissively now, hoping to quickly put this behind the both of them by gesturing to the other bench on the picnic table.

"Huh? A... picnic?" Paintbrush shook off the previous interaction quickly, now focusing on the table and the setting.

"Is this... um... this is weird. I'm sure I'm going to sit down and you'll have superglued the seat, or if it's not that you'll have poisoned the food or something..."

"Oh just sit down. I couldn't get any super glue, you're safe."

Paintbrush raised an eyebrow

"N- not that I thought of it-- Just sit down! I didn't invite you here for conflict stuff!" Lightbulb said quickly, still gesturing to the other seat. Paintbrush just sighed, and went over to sit, making sure to check for anything on the seat before doing so.

But they were finally both sitting at the picnic table, now just awkwardly sitting there, Paintbrush probably had better things to do, right? Hero stuff? Someone could be in danger--

"Soooo, what's it like being a hero?" Lightbulb finally broke the silence.

"Oh um... it's... work, I guess, just kinda... saving people, stopping crime, making sure people don't get hurt- hey, why do you want to know?" Paintbrush looked to Lightbulb now, raising an eyebrow.

Oops, was her intel collecting cover blown already??

"Oh haha, I just wanted to know is all! I've only ever been a villain, so I have no clue what it's like being good." Lightbulb smiled, as if being labeled a villain didn't bother her at all.

"So what, you've been causing nothing but pain and mischief your whole life or something? Surely you weren't always um... evil," Paintbrush asked.

"Oh well I've always liked causing mischief! It's always been so much fun!! Pain though? No. I don't hurt people. I can't stand the thought of people being hurt because of me, so I just do stuff like theft or... just really large scale pranks!"