Black Panther Shorts

You're My Favorite Pt. 2

Erik sat through the whole movie silently. You personally didn't want him to watch it all the way through. But you knew that he needed to.

His eyes watched the screen with a burning intensity. The only time he moved was when he flinched away during the scene between his father and uncle. Angry tears slid down his brown checks but he made no sound.

When the movie was over, he still did not move from his spot on the floor. You stood up to gather the DVD and put it back in its case.

"Who are you?" The raspiness in his voice hinted at the crying he'd done.

"My name is Nyah." You turned back towards him.

"Nyah?" You nodded your head and smiled at him as he tasted your name.

He stood up and grabbed his wallet and keys off of the foyer table.

"Hey!" You called after him; he looked back at you with the saddest eyes. Your voice softened, "Where are you going?"

He shrugged and stared at his keys for a long time.

"Will you... will you come with me?" He spoke softly. The rasp in his voice hinted at the crying he'd done. You nodded and stood up to follow him out his door.

****

The car ride was silent; you nodded softly to the song that played in your head. You watched the scenery change from city views to more trees and open road.

"Nyah, how did you get here?" He glanced at you with an eyebrow raised. You shrugged, your lips turned down.

"I'm not sure. I could be dreaming for all I know. I remember sitting at my laptop working on some coursework, the movie was playing in the background. It was raining pretty badly outside; I'd been saving my work every ten minutes. The storm was picking up when the lightning struck the tree by my dorm room, and then the power went out. When it came back on, I was here." Your memory of what occurred was pretty fuzzy, but you were sure the storm had something to do with it.

"How you know where here was?" He questioned, his focus remained on the road.

"Well when the power came back on, I was still in my dorm room, so I thought nothing of it. But then my mom called to check on me, and mentioned something about an 'Avenger' sighting near my school. She wanted to know if I'd seen it." You smiled fondly. "I thought she was joking at first. But when I turned on the news, the Avengers had definitely just ripped through my city with the 'Civil War' nonsense. That's when I began to put everything together. And I realized that I could save you, I could help you. It just took me a LONG time to find your elusive ass."

Erik pulled up to a Greyhound bus stop and thrusted a roll of money at you. You stared at him confused. He sighed as he realized that you wouldn't be budging without an explanation.

"Look, I'm not really sure how you can help me. So maybe it's best that you go home. I have big plans and now that you've shown me this, I can change the way I do things."

"No. You need to let this rage inside of you go N'dajaka." You pleaded.

"Stop calling me that please." He stared at you the pain evident in his eyes. "It just hurts when you say it. It reminds me of what I've lost."

You silently nodded your head agreeing to his terms.

"Listen if we continue on the path that you are on. We will lose. You can't harbor this grief, guilt and pain forever."

"There is no WE! Get that through your pretty ass skull. I'm the one with everything on the line!" You jumped back at the tone he used with you.

"I know you're stubborn, you're my favorite for a reason. But damn I wasn't aware you'd be an idiot too." His head whipped around to look at you.