Happy early Halloween! Featuring my favorite MCU villains from 2018! (Or the costume party versions

Happy early Halloween! Featuring my favorite MCU villains from 2018! (Or the costume party versions anyway) Be safe, have fun, and enjoy a short story scene!

His head was down and the party was so crowded that he didn’t notice the large shape looming before him until he walked right into it. The smartphone bobbled in his hands but he caught it at the last moment.

“Whoa! I’m so sorry about that!” Said a deep voice from over his head.

Eric looked up and blinked. His face had already begun to burn from the embarrassment of bumping into someone, although from the look of this particular fellow, he wasn’t worried about hurting him any.

“No, it was my fault, I was looking at my phone, not, uh, paying attention. Sorry.” Said Eric.

“No harm done! And hey, really great Killmonger costume!” Said the large bald man.

“Yeah? Thanks a lot, I was worried people wouldn’t know who it was.”

“No way, it’s great! Is that your real hair?” Asked the other man, nodding to Eric’s head.

“Yup, all me. I’ve been wanting to redo my hair in dreads again, and this seemed like the perfect reason. Oh! And great Thanos costume too!” Eric added.

The big fellow smirked under his bushy, purple-dyed beard. “Well, it’s just okay compared to yours.”

“Better than okay, you even have the gauntlet!”

“I just bought it online, though I had to alter it a little cuz it was too small.”

“Don’t remember Thanos with a beard though.” Eric commented.

The bald man laughed. “To be honest, I haven’t seen my face fully shaved in fifteen years. I’m too scared to see what’s under there.”

They both laughed, and Eric began to feel more comfortable.

“Well, if I had a beard as nice as yours, I wouldn’t mess with it either.”

“Hey, you got a nice one!”

“Thanks.” Said Eric.

“I’m Bill by the way.” Said the imposing fellow, sticking out his non-gloved hand.

“Eric, nice to meet you.”

The mad titan raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I know your first name is Erik… Killmonger…?”

Eric laughed again. “No really! My first name is Eric, with a ‘c’, I swear.”

Bill smiled warmly. “Okay, alright, I’ll try to believe you. That does make it easy to remember.”

They both chuckled and then fell quiet, not really knowing how to continue the dialog between them.

“Do you think I could uh, get a selfie with you?” Asked Bill suddenly. “We super villains have to stick together right?”

“Oh, yeah sure!” Said Eric.

Bill moved to stand beside the shorter man, and wrapped one of his big arms around his shoulders. Eric couldn’t help noticing the other man’s warmth and strength. Despite his heart beginning to beat faster, it made him feel good.

“Okay, do we want to smile, or in true super villain fashion be all scary?” Asked the bald man.

“One of each?”

“Sounds good, alright, scary first!”

They scowled at Bill’s smartphone as he snapped the pic.

“Okay, and we’re smiling…” He said as he took another.

Eric was held more tightly for the second picture and he wondered if it was intentional.

“Hey these are great!” Said the large fellow as he looked over the recently-taken images. “Check ‘em out!”

“Hey, not bad, you actually got a real smile out of me.” Said Eric as he saw for himself.

“You want me to send them to you?”

“Um, yeah, that would be great!” Eric said and nodded.

“Can I, uh, get your number then?” Asked Bill, his voice seemed to become softer, almost timid.

“You want my number huh?”

Eric had expected Bill to laugh, or roll his eyes, and he did laugh, but not in the way he was expecting. He figured the big guy would just think it was a joke, which it was, but Bill laughed sort of nervously. If it wasn’t for the purple facepaint, Eric wondered if he might even be blushing.

Eric gave him the phone number, and a few moments later he had a new text from Bill with the pictures.

“Thanks a lot for these, we make quite a pair, huh?” Said Eric as he pushed some of the short dreadlocks to the side of his forehead.

“Heh, yeah, glad you bumped into me.”

“I am too. And hey, would you, um, want me to get us a couple beers?” Eric asked.

“I don’t really drink anymore.” Said Bill. “But, I’d really like to keep talking with you if that’s cool?”

“Yeah, I’d be into that.” Said Eric and he smiled.