Work Text:
From his perch atop a skyscraper, Venom peered down on the fire blazing through the upper stories of a nearby high rise. Light from the flames tinted his milky eyespots yellow until he shrank back into the nighttime shadows.
Earlier, Eddie had heard the emergency dispatch over his radio and for once tried his best to ignore it. Fire had never been a good idea for either of them-- especially not right now. Since getting back together, Eddie had caught occasional flickers of the Symbiote’s time with its previous host. It always shuffled its thoughts elsewhere when Eddie tried to look deeper, which did nothing to allay his concerns.
Despite his initial protests, the Symbiote had ultimately convinced to embark on tonight’s outing: what if somewhat gets hurt, and we could have stopped it?
Now, here they were, and Eddie still didn’t care for this plan in the least. One day, he swore he’d get better at telling the Symbiote “no”.
Venom was outwardly silent except for the steady rasp of his breath as smoke and ash tickled his tongue. The two minds within him resonated.
Are you sure you’re okay with this?
Will be okay, Eddie. We’re not... getting too close?
Shouldn’t need to. The firemen are already down there. We’ll just do a quick check of the highest floors.
Yes, we can get there much faster. Don’t want anyone to get hurt.
Right. We have to look out for those who need our help. Just stay focused on that. Ready?
Ready.
Venom jumped into free fall. Tendrils shot out from his hand and coiled around the railing of a fire escape on an adjacent building. He swung hard, around the corner of the building, and landed on all fours on its front wall. From this vantage point, Venom had a clear line of sight to the balconies on the burning floor.
It’s getting hotter. Don’t like it.
I know, love. Maybe it’s about time we-- wait a sec.
Was that a flicker of movement? It was difficult to tell for certain through the clouds of smoke pouring from the windows. Venom leaned as far off the wall as he dared without losing his grip. If that was movement, if that was a person--
I saw it too, Eddie.
We have to check. We have to get a little closer. Can you do that?
Have to. Can’t let innocents be hurt.
Even though he was fully merged with the Symbiote, Eddie could feel it buzzing all over his skin like an itch he couldn’t reach. His breathing grew shallow and his heart rate spiked. His head swam; he could sense an event horizon just beyond the edge of his awareness, tugging at them both.
Hold on. What are you not telling me? This really isn’t the moment for--
Venom jumped again.
There was no grace in it this time. His body twisted in the air as his arms extended in opposite directions. One flung tendrils toward the burning building, but misjudged the distance. A few strands from his other hand hit the wall he’d just leapt from and lurched him backward. The tendrils’ grip was too weak to hold for long though; moments after Venom’s body slammed into the wall, the strands broke.
The twin voices of his thoughts screamed in unison, one present, the other trapped far away. Venom flailed wildly as he plummeted and managed to catch his claws in the brick, scoring deep lines to slow his fall.
He crashed to the ground hard enough to leave his human half dazed and winded, even with the Symbiote cushioning the impact. It gave Eddie no time to recover, though; like a puppeteer, it had Venom upright and running away in seconds.
“What... the hell...” Eddie wheezed as the Symbiote slid off part of his face, leaving its jaw and tongue hanging slack to one side. Not even their first bonding had been this painful and disjointed.
Eddie fought against the Symbiote with mind and body alike, willing Venom to stop. His muscles strained and bunched under glossy ink-like skin but the Symbiote overpowered him. Not without effort, though. Venom’s gait grew lopsided and clumsy. They stumbled, weaving erratically along the empty sidewalk, nearly crashing through an emergency roadblock at one point.
The Symbiote’s presence was reduced to a jagged, shrieking haze in Eddie’s mind. Disturbing images punctuated the chaos like flashes of a TV signal breaking through static.
An inferno. Agony.
The images lit up his brain in a vivid nightmare.
Pleas. Screaming. Silence. The stench like burning meat.
Eddie’s stomach turned. The Symbiote was oblivious to his discomfort and continued to propel their combined body forward at a breakneck pace. Fighting waves of nausea, Eddie grew slack in the Symbiote’s unyielding embrace. The abyss seizing its brain yawned wider as it crawled over his skin, manic and desperate. Eddie clung at the edge of the chasm but the current of the Symbiote’s terror was too strong to resist, and he sank.
The boy supposed he should have felt sad. That’s what people felt when someone died, right? He’d seen people cry on TV. Other kids at school looked sad when they talked about how their grandma or their dog died. But all he felt was a sense of satisfaction. He’d given himself a job to do, and he’d done it. Not perfectly, though; the bedroom window jammed and resulted in a closer call than he would have liked. No matter. The most important parts of his plan-- disabling the smoke detector systems, leaving the stove on-- had gone off without a hitch. It was inconvenient that there were so many other people inside the apartment building while it burned, as a higher body count would attract more scrutiny, but it had still been worth it to get rid of his parents. He was grateful for the smoke stinging his eyes as a somber-looking fireman approached. A few tears would make this a much easier sell...
A monstrous roar tore from Venom’s maw as they ripped apart. The Symbiote flung itself off of Eddie with enough force to pitch his weakened frame forward onto the pavement.
The sting of gravel in his knees jolted him back to full awareness. Whatever shred of higher thought remained in Venom had at least had the sense to steer them down an empty alley. Reassured that he wasn’t in immediate danger, Eddie turned his full attention to the Symbiote. When he opened his mouth to call to it, the contents of his stomach tumbled out instead. He spat and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, then forced himself to breathe deeply and focus.
Whatever had happened to Venom just now was only a... dream? Hallucination? No, it had been too real, even for that. He hadn’t felt it with his senses alone, but with his emotions. Like he was there. Like he’d actually done those things.
Realization hit Eddie with another dry heave. What Venom experienced was a memory.
Someone else’s memory. Someone else cruel and sadistic, who had ground that memory into the Symbiote’s consciousness over and over again.
“Price,” Eddie coughed, “I’ll murder the bastard.”
Lee Price was in prison, was going to remain there for a very long time, and Eddie knew he should be satisfied with that. But the fact that Lee still existed at all after what he’d done to the Symbiote made Eddie’s jaw clench with rage. Not for the first time, Eddie entertained a fantasy of choking the life out of Price with his bare hands. Alone.
The wind picked up and sent a chill through Eddie’s sweat-damp body. He was certainly alone now. A monotone hiss filled the place in his consciousness normally occupied by the Symbiote. He squinted into the shadows, scanning for any sign of movement. There was nothing beyond bits of trash flitting through the dim orange light.
Relying on sight to locate a pitch black being at night wasn’t the best strategy, but Eddie didn’t dare draw attention to himself. If anyone discovered him stumbling around naked in an alley he’d be spending the night in jail. But as his searched dragged on, peering underneath and inside dumpsters, digging through piles of trash, he found himself more and more willing to take the risk.
“Babe?” he called out softly, “Where are you? I can’t see you. Or feel you.”
That’s when Eddie heard it: a low growl punctuating the rustle of garbage. He scampered further into alleyway in the direction of the sound. There was another growl, and this time Eddie saw a glint of light off the sheen of what could only be fangs. His heart leapt when he saw the deepest shadows slither along the wall.
Something was wrong, though. The Symbiote was seething. It gnashed its fangs as its face formed, dissipated, and then re-formed in different places. Tentacles flailed out at random, one of them nearly catching Eddie across the chest.
“Hey, sweetheart, it’s me,” Eddie said. He slowed his approach and extended his hands. He had endured the Symbiote’s absolute worst moods and impulses, but this total lack of recognition was new and unsettling. The Symbiote seemed barely cognizant of its surroundings as it lashed and snapped at nothing.
Or maybe it doesn’t want me anymore. The intrusive thought took root before Eddie could stop it. This is my fault. I pushed it too far.
Eddie shook his head and forcibly ignored the hole opening in his heart. Get it together, Brock. This isn’t about you. If the Symbiote really did want to leave him when this bizarre episode passed, Eddie would find a way to keep living. He always did somehow. He’d spent years without the Symbiote, he knew he could survive-- but alone, survival was the most he could hope for. He refused to think about it. All that mattered now was alleviating the Symbiote’s obvious distress.
Eddie barely had time to time duck as another tentacle whipped by his head. “Easy, easy...” he murmured, inching closer to the Symbiote. When it was finally in reach, he stretched out a hand to touch its smooth, squirming form.
The Symbiote abruptly froze and turned its face toward Eddie. The static hiss in his mind flickered once more. Empty eyes and hot rage, looming, threatening. A fist drawing back...
Before Eddie could process what he’d seen, the Symbiote lunged and sank its fangs into his bicep.
The fangs were so sharp that Eddie only felt pressure at first. It wasn’t until the Symbiote bit deeper and pulled that his face contorted in pain. He didn’t dare move; the Symbiote was much stronger and any attempt to free his arm would only result in more tissue damage. So he willed himself to stand still, breathe slowly, and speak gently. Anger would serve him even worse than usual here. Even though his connection with the Symbiote felt fragile, it wasn’t worth the risk of riling it up in a spiral of their combined rage. Especially not when part of his body was in its mouth.
“Okay. That’s my arm. You wanna let go?” Eddie said through gritted teeth. Blood pooled up around the Symbiote’s fangs. “Please.”
The only answer was an even louder growl. In his peripheral vision, Eddie caught a pair of tentacles coiling up on either side of him, preparing to strike. This certainly wasn’t how he expected to die, but he supposed it wasn’t the worst way to go either. Better than suicide. Better than cancer. If the Symbiote killed him, he’d never have to worry about living without it again.
But the moment dragged on and no killing blow came. The pain in Eddie’s arm faded to a steady throb, even though blood continued to flow freely. A few stray drops pattered onto the pavement, but most of it trickled into the Symbiote’s mouth, where a unique cocktail of hemoglobins washed over its tongue.
“Eddie?”
The tentacles receded and its jaw relaxed.
“I’m here, love,” Eddie said, and nearly tumbled backward as the Symbiote leapt onto his chest. Tentacles wrapped around his back to hold him close in a many-limbed embrace.
“I hurt you even though I promised I wouldn’t anymore,” the Symbiote said. It lapped at the punctures in Eddie’s arm, cleaning away the blood. “I thought you were-- I saw-- I’m sorry.”
“I saw it too. You were trapped with him again. Why did you tell me you were okay when--” Eddie cut himself off. Now was not the time to provoke another argument about this. “I shouldn’t have let-- Whatever. What matters is that you’re back with me now.”
“Wanted to protect you. I never wanted you to see those things.” The Symbiote sounded miserable.
“Hey. Listen,” Eddie said. He cradled its monstrous face in his hand and planted kisses across its bloody fangs. “We’re a team and a team only works if both people pull their weight. That’s a heavy burden you’re carrying. So don’t shut me out. Let me help you.”
Eddie pushed a little harder at the mental bond between himself and the Symbiote. If this is going to work, we have to stop hiding from each other.
The shadowy mass on his chest trembled, and the dam broke. Lee’s residual memories, along with the Symbiote’s pain and despair and hatred, flooded Eddie’s mind in a boiling rush.
“Jesus,” he said, voice trembling, “What he did to you-- that’s--”
“I don’t want to hurt you anymore,” the Symbiote repeated.
“I can handle it,” Eddie said, sounding more confident than he felt, “We’ll figure this out together, okay?”
“I want to, Eddie. Want to be better for you,” the Symbiote purred and nuzzled into the crook of his neck.
“You’re perfect how you are, love,” Eddie said. “Now, how’s about you take me home? It’s got to be single digit hours of the morning by now. All your favorite shows are on. And I should probably do something about... that.” He cocked his head toward his injured arm.
“I’ll take care of you, always,” the Symbiote whispered with a playful lick of his cheek, “Just don’t sell the TV.”
Eddie gave a quiet snort of laughter. “Oh, I see how it is.”
The Symbiote mouthed at his face in its strange toothy version of a kiss. Its tongue lingered across Eddie’s lips until his own stretched out to meet it. From there, it took its time melting across the rest of his skin, then filling his mouth and eyes and ears as they surrendered to the bliss of their union.
Venom rose to his full height and lolled his tongue out to taste the breeze. He launched himself vertically up the wall, across the rooftops, soaring through the night air on pure adrenaline. Home. With you.