Could Have Been A Villain Origin Story

20260610

Prompt from “pridemonthprompts” 2025 list.

“Remember our first kiss?”
Verity rolled onto her side, propping her head on one hand. “Of course. On the swings, waiting after school play. Your lips tasted like strawberry ice cream.”
“No, that…” Lila paused, then thoughtfully amended “Well, I guess you could call that our first kiss. Our first proper kiss, at least.”
“Huh? What were you thinking of?”
“Um. Maybe you don’t remember.” Lila twiddled her fingers. “Way back in kindergarten, Jon Mills bet you to kiss me in front of everyone, and…”
Lila froze. Eyes widening, brows furrowing, mind frantically flicking through old, dusty files… then she cringed and groaned “Oh god I think I blocked that from my mind I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“It was gross of me! And didn’t people tease you for ages?”
“Yeah. I was ‘cootie girl’ for what felt like forever.” Lila rolled her eyes at the ceiling, her expression sour. “Nasty little shits. But anyway. Because you came out soon after, I, um… for years I worried that cooties were real and I’d somehow turned you into a girl. How stupid is that?”
“Pfffff oh god I shouldn’t laugh!” Verity desperately fanned her face. “I mean, of course you didn’t understand, you were a little kid…”
“Yeah. But with our one-year anniversary of actually dating coming up, I got thinking about our timeline together, and…”
“What a horrifically awkward first kiss story.”
“Uh-huh.” Lila was just about pulling off wincing and grinning at the same time. “Let’s go with your one. For, I dunno, our official timeline or whatever. Twilit strawberry kisses while both dressed as fairy godmothers is so much better.”
“I mean…” Verity twirled her hair, fumbling for how to put this, then mumbled “I feel like I should be saying something like ‘if anyone could turn a guy full lesbian with a kiss it’d be you’, or whatever, but I dunno that’s basically talking about inflicting dysmorphia on people which would totally be a villain superpower, not…”
“I could be a villain!”
Verity valiantly tried to stifle her snort.
Lila stuck her tongue out. “Ok, I would be terrible at it, and apologise to people all the time, but I could be a villain.”
“It’d be cooler if you, I don’t know, gave people perfect introspection about their gender. They kiss you and BAM! They know exactly who they are and feel comfortable with it.”
“Oo, yeah, now that would be a superpower.” Lila sat up and grabbed her tablet, her face scrunched up in that adorable ‘already working on the concept art stage’ expression. “But not activated by kissing. Hilariously awkward backstory aside, no way I’d want loads of strangers smooching me. Maybe make it so I kiss them, like on the forehead or something…”
“Hmm, what superpower would I have to go with?”
Without hesitation Lila said “Oh, you’d make it so they look like how they feel they should, now they have clarity on that.”
“That would be sweet.”
“And it fits with the origin story, we say that kiss gave you perfect clarity and then when you went to sleep your power kicked in and…”
Verity wryly reflected that it sounded like the super-awkward unofficial first kiss was in fact being added to the official dating timeline. At least in one adorable super-hero comic.

Prompt was “First Kiss”.