ADifferentKindOfCosplay by Lucy Felthouse

Chapter One
     
    Zachary sighed at the calendar entry in his phone, which was
reminding him for the third time about Reese’s upcoming birthday. And it wasn’t
just any birthday—she was going to be thirty.
    There were perks to dating a doctor—the uniform was pretty
hot, for example—but when that doctor had no particular fondness for jewelry,
flowers or chocolates, buying her presents was nigh-on impossible. And because
of her work schedule, a surprise weekend away was out of the question. He’d
long since learned to always keep the receipts.
    Most people get their partners something to do with their
hobbies or interests. However, Reese was even awkward in that regard. Her main
hobby was so complex that Zach didn’t have the first idea what to get her to do
with it—Reese was an uber-geek. Films, graphic novels, collectibles, all that
jazz.
    Obviously he could just ask what she wanted, then go out and
get it, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise. And it was too easy—he wanted her
to know he’d really made the effort.
    Snoozing the calendar reminder once more, Zach threw the
phone onto the sofa, then walked over and started rooting through their
combined film collection for something to watch after dinner, which was almost
ready. Reese was on-shift at the hospital until silly o’clock, so he had the
house to himself and could watch whatever he liked. An action movie it was,
then.
    Running his fingers along the spines of the DVDs and
Blu-rays, he suddenly paused. Avengers Assemble leaped out at him, for
some reason. He’d seen snippets of it before, as Reese watched it pretty
frequently. The parts he’d seen hadn’t looked too bad, actually. It was
essentially an action film, he decided, but with superheroes in it.
    He pulled the case off the shelf, an idea beginning to form.
Maybe if he watched it beginning to end, he’d seen what drew Reese into that
world so much, why she was so fascinated by the films, the graphic novels and
so on. Even if he didn’t get it, though, maybe it would still give him some
inspiration for a gift. He had nothing better to do that evening, in any case,
so it was certainly worth a try.
    After putting the disc in the player, he headed into the
kitchen to see how his dinner was coming along. A meal in front of the
television was the order of the day, it seemed.
    A few minutes later, he settled onto the sofa with his
lasagna and garlic bread, a bottle of beer on the table next to him. Time for
some Avengers action.
    Within half an hour, he’d ascertained that the film wasn’t
just for geeks. In fact it was easy to see why it had such a wide appeal—the
cast was supremely attractive, whatever gender you were into, the plot was
interesting and the dialogue seriously witty. He’d already developed quite the
crush on the Black Widow, and Nick Fury’s right-hand woman had a lovely pert
backside.
    Trying to put himself in Reese’s shoes, Zach looked at the
male characters. Okay, when it came to this film, straight women clearly had
more eye candy than they knew what to do with. He vaguely remembered a bunch of
crazy stuff going around on the internet about Loki—even the villain of the
piece had sex appeal, for heaven’s sake! So much so that it had spilled over
into even Zach’s limited social media presence. He barely used Facebook, and
he’d never gotten the hang of Twitter. And yet he knew about the rabid
fangirls. That was another score for Avengers Assemble, then—truly
mass-market appeal. If only there were mass-market gift-buying options.
    Sighing, he tried to empty his mind and concentrate on the
film. The more he tried to force an idea to present itself, the less likely it
would be to happen. He’d just enjoy the entertainment and keep his fingers
crossed that his subconscious provided something useful.
    Once he’d made the decision, it wasn’t difficult to get
sucked back into the narrative. It was engaging, easy-going and fun. Zach
surprised himself by thoroughly