"Alright, Anthony. Have a good-"

I pause as I stare at his 'parents' car, blinking a couple of times to make sure I'm not seeing things. But with a man capable of mind manipulation, I could be seeing anything.

"Anthony, is that your dad?"

"..yeah?" Anthony shrugs, "Why are you being so weird about it?"

"Sorry, sorry. He's just not who I expected," I think of an excuse rather quickly, "You two hardly look alike. I'd like to talk to him, though. About school."

"Really?" He sighs, then nods, "Sure, whatever."

We both start walking over to the car, and that goddamned man looks over at us, smug look on his face. I could swear I saw shock, even if for only a moment, but he hides it well.

"Thanks for the tutoring, Aldine." Anthony says as he gets in the backseat, immediately kicking his feet up and going on his phone.

I nod in appreciation, then look at him.

El Villano.

While his name is simple, his personality and powers are anything but. My sworn nemesis, the man who attempts to end our city nearly every week.

And he's the father of one of my students.

Just as he's opening the door and getting in, I put my hand on the door, extremely cautiously. "Actually, sir, I was hoping I could speak to you about Anthony for a bit."

He looks me up and down, then smirks as he gets back out and closes the door. "Sure thing, Aldine."

His voice drips with poison; metaphorically, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if literally either. I force a smile and motion for him to come with me, and we start walking towards the school together.

As we walk, I watch him warily. He doesn't seem to care that I'm here - does he even know who I am? Of course he does, there's no way he doesn't. Why is he acting so calm?

"So, you let your students not use 'Mr'?" He asks in that all too familiar arrogant tone, "Have you lost all self respect?"

"Shut the hell up." I mutter quietly, and he just laughs.

We walk in silence until we finally get into the building, and as I close the door behind us I turn to him. "Who is Anthony's real father? This has to be some kind of... of mind trick! What'd you do to his parents, huh?"

"Relax, I'm his dad." Villano has the nerve to laugh even more, "Is it so hard to believe everyone has a personal life outside of work?"

"You don't do work, you do borderline terrorism-!"

"And that means I can't have a kid?"

"Yes!" I sigh, furrowing my eyebrows, "What's your plan? Were you going to us Anthony against me? Make him my favourite student, then... then kill me or something?!"

"Christ, I'm not playing mind tricks on you! Can you for one second wrap your head around that?"

I pause for a moment, then sigh again, pinching the bridge of my nose, "So he's really your son?"

"Yes." Villano pauses for a second, glancing through the door window at his car, then back at me. "You're really a teacher here? I mean, I knew you'd have a boring job, but not this boring."

"It's not boring. I get to help just as many people here as I do otherwise." I whisper yell at him, sighing, "Listen. I'm sorry that I... wrongly assumed you weren't Anthony's dad. I..."

Villano grins, nodding, "Yes, go on."

"I made a damn mistake, alright? Just... let's keep this as professional as possible." I sigh and lean against the wall, glaring as hard as I can at him.

He takes a deep breath in, then chuckles, "No can do, my dearest enemy. I think we might be able to benefit each other instead."

"No. I'm putting my foot down; professional, personal, and heroic life all stay different."

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast." Villano smiles widely, "You might miss out on something you want to hear. You see, Anthony is currently failing one of his classes. Maybe if he were to start passing by the end of the quarter, I wouldn't bomb city hall."

"You're planning to-?!" I stop myself, exhaling, "Okay, listen. I only teach English. Anthony is failing math. I can't-"

"Better start learning, then." Villano leans towards me, and I suddenly feel dizzy, "Tik, tok. Tik... tok."

I blink, and the dizziness fades, along with him. I hurriedly look out the door, and he's already driving away with Anthony. I sigh, thinking to myself, how could I possibly deal with this?

Before I even realise it, I'm in front of one of my colleagues classrooms. I grimace to myself, then put on a happy smile as I open the door and lean on the frame.

"Hey, Brad - can I borrow one of your math books?"

★★★

This was so incredibly fun to write. Thanks for the prompt OP! This was written on mobile so apologies for any misspellings :) hope you enjoy!