"I really don't get paid enough for this," a frustrated teenage boy muttered under his breath as he reached down towards the ground below him. he sighed before standing straight and kicking a pebble towards the abandoned warehouse he was searching near.

some training this was. here chan was wanting to learn to become a great villain like his father, yet his supposed mentor had him searching for tree branches. how evil.

chan didn't even want to sign up for this dumb summer internship, but his mother insisted on him getting to network with other villains, as if that was going to end up being useful at all.

honestly, chan figured he could get more of an education from the branches on the ground than from his teacher. it was a real waste of time and money, because the things his boss considered as valuable villain lessons were basically common sense. chan could teach better in his sleep than his boss. actually, a rock in its sleep could teach even better than his teacher could ever, and that's saying a lot because rocks don't sleep.

chan rolled his eyes before tapping the branches laying right at his feet and then effortlessly carried them in his arms like they were nothing. chan then remained sour, scrunching his face into a frown as he walked right into the abandoned warehouse carrying the stack of firewood like mere feathers. sure the branches didn't weigh much to begin with, but there wasn't any harm in abusing the system the internship had in place.

normally, villains and heroes alike weren't really allowed to use their powers until they were of age. it was just a little similar to that harry potter crap where if harry even so much as farted magic, the ministry was up his ass.

actually it was a lot like that, except for if you were interning under the villain agency's summer program like chan was you got a free pass. interns were granted this pass during the summer so they could practice using their powers while working with active villains. the same went for heroes in training, you get the gist of it.

and as well as being granted permission to use their powers, interns were basically treated as henchmen for the summer. maybe sidekick is the better word for it.

regardless, interns like chan have one crucial job: learning from their assigned mentors. all chan was learning right now was that his bullshit threshold was much higher than he'd originally thought it to be.

"I bet neither of the other interns have to do anything this stupid. stupid samuel is probably off robbing a bank, last week he bragged all about being chased by the cops. I want to be chased like that, but here I am talking to freaking sticks." chan scoffed as he looked down at the branches in his hands. the teenager exhaled sharply before throwing the pile of weightless sticks into a larger pile of sticks.

they'd been at it for hours. chan remembered being woken up just as the sun was rising and now here it was at its highest in the sky. had it really been that long? time does pass when you're being tortured. "I want to go home. I hate this, and you."

"now now channie, what have we said about controlling that temper of yours?" the teenager huffed at his mentor who had bright red hair you couldn't miss from a mile away. "keep it up and I'm gonna minus points from you. lose enough points and you don't get ice cream this week."

chan wanted to wipe the condescending grin off of soonyoung's ugly face. okay fine, maybe soonyoung wasn't that ugly, but still.

when chan found out his parents were shipping him off for this god-awful internship, his first thought was something like screw you mom and dad.

his second thought was a bit more rational. he figured that if he was going to be sent away to follow some villain around, it'd be someone admirable like the joker or maybe even that one pink lady from harry potter who loved giving harry temporary tattoos.

but no. he really had to draw the short end of the stick here being assigned to hoshi, the world's poorest excuse of a fire villain there was. chan wouldn't have even made the connection between hoshi and the infamous kwon clan responsible for setting their entire city on fire decades ago if soonyoung hadn't exposed his true identity to him the day they met.

chan gave soonyoung the benefit of the doubt after finding out about soonyoung's superior blood relation. sure chan himself was related to a pretty well-known pair of villains (his mom and dad), but surely soonyoung being related to the kwons would mean that maybe the redhead wasn't as bad as he seemed, villain-wise.

then the internship bus dropped him off at the front door of a very old and slimy basement, throwing any ounce of optimism still left in his body out of the picture.

and then he met soonyoung; suddenly chan had no clue what optimism even was.

soonyoung was far from the villain chan pictured himself wanting to intern with. the first thing that threw him off was the bright red hair on his head. chan knew that villains loved to accessorize, but even he thought that the fiery red hair was too much. that and the ugly orange yellow leotard that soonyoung insisted on wearing out, as in out in public.

chan thanked the heavens that he got to wear a mask around his eyes to conceal his own identity, because the only thing worse than going out in public with soonyoung was being recognized with his villain persona, hoshi, in public.

honestly, soonyoung reminded him of his father, who was also a fashionista himself. chan remembered being so embarrassed as a kid having his dad show up to his school in a purple flowing cape, no matter the occasion. no, really, the old man even wore that stupid cape during his wedding. chan's mom can attest.

"I don't give a shit about your points system, or ice cream. I want to do something evil!" chan whined louder than he thought he would, acting his age for once. the way soonyoung smiled even brighter, if that was even possible, at him only to pat his head which further irritated him.

"oh to be young and naive. don't worry kid, I won't tell the ice cream man what you just said. it'd just shatter the poor man." soonyoung threw down a stick into the pile chan was standing in front of. "chan, what we're doing is textbook evil. you can't get eviler than what we're doing right now."

"what are we even doing-"

"just watch." soonyoung's face scrunched up into a cunning smirk. the redhead took one last glance at chan before laughing obnoxiously. "watch and learn channie, watch and learn."

chan sighed out loud for what was probably the tenth time that day, and it was barely even noon. he sat himself down on the ground, at the foot of a nearby oak tree as he watched soonyoung proceed with an arrogant bounce towards the abandoned warehouse surrounded by sticks.

chan had to admit that while it was boring to see his boss dance around like a horse with three legs, things did get interesting when soonyoung's already red hair began to glow with an orangey red tint that complemented his leotard costume.

the teenager took his hand off of where he rested his chin on it, eyes lighting up with the reflection of the fire that was now blazing on soonyoung's head.

chan opened his mouth widely as he got a chance to witness firsthand what the infamous kwon blaze looked like. the teenager knew that soonyoung had belonged to a family of villains, dating back to his grandpa who was practically a legend among all evildoers, but this was the first time soonyoung really glowed with the power his heritage granted him.

even though he was sitting a great distance of maybe twenty feet away from soonyoung, chan could feel an harsh heat wave brush over his face. it was already hot enough as it was. soonyoung only intensified the summer heat chan was feeling, the teenager gasped as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. that was when soonyoung let out a sharp, and very unnecessary, shout that nearly paralyzed chan on the spot. "KWON FIRE!!"

the black haired teenager then observed as soonyoung, who was now entirely covered in an orange colored glow, pushed out fire from the palms of his hands. soonyoung smirked proudly as he turned to see chan watching him with an open mouth. maybe soonyoung wasn't as useless as chan intially thought. maybe.

"pretty cool huh? I know I am, you don't have to mention it at all channie." soonyoung confidently said as he walked towards the teenager. he made a show out of blowing out the flames still lingering on his hands and brushing them off together before plummeting right down onto the ground next to where chan sat. "and now we wait."

"wait?" chan raised an eyebrow at his boss who started to stare down at his cuticles.

"what do you think about getting matching manicures? my cuticles look like shit right now, maybe I'll get them painted too." soonyoung chatted casually as the warehouse started to burn down in front of them. chan raised a curious eyebrow at soonyoung.

"what? painting them is too much? maybe... but I'd want to try it at least once you know. I'd paint them something fiery for sure. I wonder if they could spell out kwon fire on my nails?"

"are you serious?! what the hell dude, that's it? that's the genius plot that took you a week to think up?" chan asked, baffled while the warehouse literally suffered in front of them. man, one day you're just a regular abandoned warehouse and the next thing you know, someone lights you on fire. talk about rude.

"damn right it is." soonyoung perked up. "once the fire from the branches catch onto the building, it'll be a matter of seconds before the whole thing blows and minutes before it reaches the forest! do you know the amount of air pollution it'll cause?"

chan buried his face into the palm of his right hand as soonyoung stood up and began to cackle as he explained his plot. "kids twenty years from now will know our names as the ones who cursed the earth's ozone layer with smoke! it isn't just evil, it's diabolical!"

"you have fire powers." chan deadpanned. the lack of enthusiasm from his intern caused soonyoung to sigh disappointedly only to turn around.

"duh, did you just notice?" soonyoung opened his right hand to demonstrate how he could easily light his whole hand on fire. not to brag but soonyoung could even light the candles on a birthday cake without even moving a muscle, and that was practically an impossible feat to acheive. "and minghao says I'm slow. clearly he hasn't met you."

soonyoung shook his head at his intern. clearly chan still had a lot to learn. thank god he arrived at his secret base when he did, because chan would have been lost without soonyoung otherwise.

"why didn't you just set the building on fire to begin with?"

"why didn't I...?" soonyoung paused and widened his eyes before meeting chan's annoyed glare. he thought about it for a moment before opening his mouth widely at the great revelation.

"you're telling me that it didn't occur to you at all that we could have avoided wasting the entire morning if you just shot fire at the warehouse to begin with?"

"no?"

"again, I don't get paid enough for this shit." chan bitterly pouted as he buried himself deeper where he sat on the ground. the intern glared at the warehouse whose roof was now blazing with orange flames, smoke rising quickly into the earth's atmosphere.

"shut up chan, you don't get paid at all." soonyoung, finally annoyed with chan's bad attitude, scolded the intern as he sat back down on the ground.

the two sat in silence, waiting for what? chan had no idea what they were waiting for. all he knew was that he hated his boss, and he hated the splinter he got from those stupid twigs.

chan groaned out loud as he pulled out the splinter, throwing it on the ground beside a pile of rocks. touching the rocks one by one, chan proceeded to pick them up as if they were weightless and then threw them around to pass the time. he wanted to throw a rock right at soonyoung.

"you didn't answer my question about the manicures though." soonyoung poked at his cuticles again. chan looked at his mentor again to find soonyoung staring at him longingly, like a cold, stray puppy begging to be let into a warm house.

"I'd rather die than get a manicure with you." chan scooted over to his left, away from soonyoung. it proved to be a useless attempt to get away from the villain though, since soonyoung only inched towards him with an eager grin.

"I'll book us for next thursday then." chan crossed his arms and stared at the suffocating warehouse fire as soonyoung ruffled his short black bangs out of place. it took him all morning to get them styled perfectly too, only for them to be ruined with a single touch.

this internship was going to be the end of chan, and he wasn't even getting paid for it either. how sick.

= = =
i was going for a fun, light vibe with this chapter. hopefully it came across that way!