Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All Eddie can do is fall.

Fire surrounds him. The symbiote is screaming in his head, but it’s Eddie’s lungs that are raw. Venom protects him for as long as he can.

“Goodbye, Eddie…”

Eddie hits the water.

There’s nothing he can do.

He doesn’t want to fall; he wants to be whole again.

Even if he isn't sure what that means anymore.

He falls…

Eddie awoke with a strangled gasp.

His body was safe in bed, but his mind still struggled to claw its way back to reality. Saltwater lingered on his swollen tongue, his flesh burned from the rocket’s flames. Everything hurt; nothing made sense.

And he felt...empty.

His ancient mattress creaked noisily beneath him as he struggled to sit up, desperate to look around for any evidence of the symbiote, some proof he hadn’t dreamt it all.

The moment he lurched forward, however, hot needles of pain punctured what felt like every muscle in his body. He moved half an inch off the bed before giving up and sinking back into his pillow.

He stared helplessly at the ceiling.

“V-Venom...” he croaked, panic rising in his chest.

I am here.

Eddie flinched. He was never going to get used to having something talk within his head like this.

“Fuck...are you okay?!”

Are “we” okay?

Eddie frowned. Was the symbiote correcting him?

“Uh...okay fine. Are we okay?”

That is our question. We fixed our broken ribs. We healed our burned flesh. We squeezed the water from our drowned lungs. Why are we in pain?

Eddie struggled again to sit up again...and instantly regretted it. His muscles screamed at him until he forced himself to relax.

“I can’t talk to you like this, Venom. Where are you?”

A warmth gathered at Eddie’s chest as the symbiote emerged, passing through Eddie’s thin tank top without so much as disturbing the fabric. Thick, black appendages rose into the air, braiding together until it took the form of a long neck and bulbous head. A smile formed first, splitting nearly in half as rows of teeth revealed themselves, gleaming and vicious. The white tear-drop eyes formed last, stretching and curling at its tails. They widened as they focused on Eddie.

“We are here,” Venom responded aloud, although Eddie could still hear the words echo within his head. “Why is our pain everywhere? We have already fixed us.”

Eddie couldn’t manage a dry laugh from his aching chest, so instead he just growled a sarcastic remark through his teeth.

“Well...funny thing about humans. Whenever we workout at the gym, or lift heavy boxes without bending our knees, or get impaled by a giant space monster our muscles tend to ache like hell the next day. Can you do anything about it?”

“We will fix us,” Venom promised, full of determination. He dove suddenly back into Eddie’s chest and although it didn’t hurt, the quick movement made Eddie flinch, sending more sharp pains through his body.

Venom’s tendrils stretched out from Eddie’s core, creating a web that attached to the muscles that hurt...which was basically all of them.

We will fix it now.

Every muscle ignited with agony as the symbiote began to vibrate within Eddie’s body. Eddie’s body was nothing but shards of hot glass and there was no escaping it.

“Stop!”

Immediately, the pain vanished, leaving Eddie gasping for breath.

“Can you...slow the...fuck down?”

Why? We are fixing us. What else can we do?

“Just...I dunno...massage me? Slowly .”

Massage…

“Yeah, just work the tension out of the muscles through a massage. If you do it all at once its too much for me. Start with my shoulders and neck and just work your way down.”

Humans are so fragile. What would they do without a symbiote to heal them?

“Probably die,” Eddie said honestly.

He would not have lasted two seconds battling Riot on his own. He wouldn’t have survived getting hit by a car either. Or eating raw lobster for that matter...

Eddie waited for Venom to make another snarky remark, maybe call him a pussy like he was so keen on doing.

Venom didn’t say anything.

In fact, he was eerily quiet.

Then, thoughts began to bubble within Eddie’s mind. Singular words tied to emotions he didn’t feel.

Failed...Helpless...Worried...Fix...Need...Together...

“Venom,” Eddie said quietly. “I’m alright.”

We know that!

“You don’t have to worry.”

Shut up! We have to concentrate. We have to heal slooooooowly because this body is wimpy and helpless.

“Don't tell me to shut up. I-”

A heat vibrated through Eddie’s shoulders and at once, he forgot what he was going to say...

Intense, but not burning, the heat traveled slowly from one trapezius to the other and back again, melting the tension like butter on a hot steak.

“ Ohhh...fuck…”

Better, loser?

“Much better. Keep it going, buddy.”

Inch-by-inch, Eddie’s body began to relax. The symbiote’s temperature increased just to the point of scalding, but never quite reaching it. It was perfect. Anne used to complain that Eddie took “skin-melting showers”, this was as close to one as Eddie could get without having to leave his bed.

By the time Venom was done, the low vibrations around his calves and feet slowing to a stop, Eddie was drenched in sweat.

Despite never moving, the exertion of his muscles being worked to their limits in such a short time had him panting like he had run a marathon.

Perspiration beaded at his temples and along his hairline, dripping down every which way and probably soaking his pillow. He was too tired to care, and too relaxed to bother wiping it away.

He closed his eyes and he drew the first painless breath he’d had since he woke up.

We are leaking.

“I’m sweating,” Eddie corrected.

It smells of salt and wood.

“The salt’s my sweat, the wood is probably my deodorant. Woodland Escape or some bullshit like that. There’s a bunch of trees on the label.”

Eddie didn’t open his eyes, but he could feel Venom emerge from his chest again. He could feel the heat of Venom’s breath very close to his cheeks.

Eddie fell very still, unsure of what to make of the symbiote.

“It is everywhere.”

Venom sounded annoyed.

Before Eddie could dive into a semi-scientific explanation of why humans have to sweat, he felt something long and smooth glide along his forehead.

Then another something ran along his right temple...and a third something along this left.

Eddie opened his eyes wide and a pair of long, white eye-slits stared back at him.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s everywhere,” Venom repeated.

The tendrils morphed, the tips widening and flattening like squid tentacles, caressing his face, squeegeeing away the moisture with sharp flicks. Against his feverish skin, the surface of each appendage felt blissfully cool and soothing.

By the time a fourth appendage ran over his short, dark hair, Eddie felt a stirring within him, a peculiar ache that started in his gut and nagged at his chest.

This shouldn't have been a big deal. Venom was wiping away sweat, that's all.

But...Eddie didn’t get a lot of opportunity to be touched like this…in any capacity really.

Even with Anne affection was limited to scheduled date nights and those were few and far between towards the end of their relationship.

When was the last time someone just simply touched his face?

A fifth tentacle glided along his jaw.

Eddie’s breath hitched a moment…and a soft sound escaped his lips.

Immediately Venom paused.

All five tentacles pulled away suddenly and Eddie’s eyes shot open.

Venom’s wide, fanged grin and glossy white eyes were there to greet him.

“Venom…I’m…”

He didn’t know what to say...apologize? For making a sound? For enjoying how it felt?

Does he thank the alien for cleaning him up?

In the end, Eddie just said nothing, and simply stared at the symbiote dumbly. Venom stared back, his long neck billowing behind him as if suspended in water.

“We hunger.” The symbiote growled suddenly, then dove back into Eddie’s chest.

Eddie blinked, “What?”

Feed us!   Venom demanded inside Eddie's brain.

Eddie forced himself to sit up, and found it surprisingly easy to move around. In fact, he felt more limber than he had in years. He stretched and yawned, shaking off the awkwardness of...whatever that was a few seconds ago.

“Fine, but I’m making hash browns.”

No! Tater tots!

“Hashbrowns are basically smashed tater tots, buddy.”

Grr...alright. Acceptable.

----

The following weekend, Venom was thrown through a brick wall by a very large, very angry science experiment gone wrong.

Which meant Eddie was also thrown through a brick wall by a very large, very angry science experiment gone wrong.

And it was Eddie that felt the aftereffects of the encounter following morning.

Again?

“What do you mean ‘again’?” Eddie asked, staring at the ceiling because it was the only thing he could do. “We got pummeled last night.”

We fixed our broken spine, Venom argued.

“Yeah and I really appreciated that. Can you just fix this, too?”

Another Massage…?

Eddie tried not to shiver...but he did anyway.

“Y-yeah, just do your thing.”

Immediate relief warmed over Eddie’s shoulder and neck, the tendrils latched on to every tortured muscle just beneath the skin, vibrating and kneading them with an expert’s touch. It wasn’t long before Eddie was swimming in the bliss of a full body massage.

This was better than any shiatsu, or any massage from those chairs at Brookstone in the mall. Venom seemed to be getting the hang of it too.
Once Venom finished, Eddie was soaked with sweat once again. Yet, when Eddie moved to wipe his own forehead, a smooth, slick tendril slapped his hand away.

We are not finished.

Eddie’s heart pounded as again, multiple tendrils stretched out from Eddie’s chest and passed smoothly over his skin, wiping away the sweat. They glided over his forehead in slow circles, dragged along his temples, moved gently over his cheeks. At no point was Eddie’s face left without attention.

Eddie closed his eyes, and tried to draw in steady, calm, this-is-no-big-deal-and-totally-normal sorts of breaths.

This was ridiculous.

The symbiote and he shared the same body now. Venom wiping away his sweat was no different from him doing it himself.

So why did this feel so good?

Why did he not want him to stop?

But Venom did stop...and suddenly. The tendrils pulled away and were slurped back into Eddie’s chest, leaving his face drier, but woefully abandoned.

Eddie opened his eyes to greet Venom’s face once again. He tried to see himself in the glossy reflection of the symbiote’s eyes, but they seemed to swallow his image.

“Better, loser?” Venom asked once again, but this time there was a softness to it, a velvety quality Eddie had not heard before.

Eddie swallowed. “Yeah...yeah I’m good. Thanks.”

“Good. Now: Smashed Tater Tots!” Venom demanded, the velvety voice turning to sandpaper...hungry sandpaper.

As Eddie sat up, Venom passed through his chest to come out the other side, winding around to rest a far smaller version of his head on Eddie’s shoulder.

“Fine, but we’re having a smoothie with them,” Eddie asked.

“No! We will have smashed tater tots and chocolate coffee.”

“I don’t feel like a mocha. I want a smoothie.”

“We don’t know what a smoothie is and we hate it. Give us our smashed tater tots and chocolate coffee now!”

Eddie tilted his head, catching only a small glimpse of the angry white eyes squinting at him. “Hashbrowns and a smoothie or I eat a veggie omelette instead.”

“Argh! Fine!”

-----

The next Sunday, Eddie awoke to a light bump of Venom’s smooth, slick forehead against his cheek.

“Massage again?”

Eddie opened his eyes and groggily tried to lift his head.

His neck muscles screamed for mercy before he laid his head back down.

“Please…”

“Was it because the old building fell on us after we evacuated the homeless humans trapped within?”

“Hey, give the symbiote a prize! Who knew ten tons of brick falling on me would have side effects?” Eddie tried to laugh, but it felt like the building was still balancing itself on his chest. “Can you do your thing?”

“Yes. We do…Our Thing.”

This massage felt even better than the last. Venom started with Eddie’s temples this time, massaging them while relieving the knot that formed in the back of his neck at the base of his skull. Eddie hadn’t even noticed it was tense until Venom began to rub it.

“Venom?”

What?

“Can you feel what I’m feeling?”

When we wish to.

Eddie frowned. “So you can shut it off?”

Yes. When we wish to feed on our host’s organs, we prefer to not feel the pain ourselves.

“Point taken. Can you feel what I’m feeling right now?”

Just enough to know where to move next. The pain is everywhere and annoying.

Eddie was about to tell Venom that he , in fact, was everywhere and annoying, but his thoughts grew sluggish as the deep massage continued, and soon he was practically melting into the mattress.

It was only when Venom’s massage centered around his calves that Eddie snapped out of his trance.

His stomach flipped.

Sweat trickled down his hairline.

He knew once Venom was done with his calves, he would turn his attention to Eddie’s face once again.

Eddie waited, unable to really enjoy the gentle squeeze against his pained calf muscles as anticipation rose in his chest.

The massage ceased.

Eddie didn’t move.

He felt Venom move through his body, navigating around his organs and beneath his muscles towards his chest, coiling around his heart.

Venom stayed there for several long seconds...

...and remained there.

Feeling ridiculous at just how much anticipation swelled within him, Eddie reached up to wipe the sweat away.

Only then did a tendril shoot out and smack Eddie’s hand again.

We are not done, loser. We were checking damages.

Eddie smiled. “Sorry, I guess I’m impatient.”

Really impatient. Let us do “our thing.”

The tendrils worked slower this time, stroking his temples, pushing the sweat down his face before flicking it away, only to return and caress the feverish skin even if no sweat remained. This wasn’t affection. Eddie wouldn’t allow himself to believe that. Venom was being thorough because Eddie “leaked”...that was all.

Venom reinforced this idea by mumbling to himself.

You leak so much.

A third tendril moved lazily back and forth along Eddie’s forehead, pausing and pulling away only to shake off the sweat before resuming its slow stroke.

Then two more appendages emerged, moving past Eddie’s cheeks to run through his hair. Eddie could feel soft bumps emerge from the smooth tendrils, delving past his dark locks to run against his scalp.

This was new…

This was amazing …

And it only increased the ache Eddie tried desperately to ignore.

Eddie felt himself slipping into another contented trance. His eyes grew heavy, a smile spread across his face.

And just as he closed his eyes, the tendrils withdrew.

Eddie’s eyes shot open, his heart dropped and his stomach lurched as if the symbiote had just ripped the world from beneath him.

A whimper swelled in his throat and he swallowed it back.

The loneliness was stifling.

He tried to focus on the connection he had with Venom, trying to find comfort in the symbiote wriggling inside him, shifting and moving and constantly keeping him safe.

That should have been enough.

He hated that it wasn’t.

Chocolate coffee today! We agree to gross eggs if you have chocolate coffee!

Eddie slid out of bed and shook off his ache. “Fine, but you can’t make barfing sounds while I eat.”

Unreasonable!

“That’s the deal, buddy.”

Whatever.

A single tendril shot out of Eddie’s neck and ran along his jawline.

Eddie’s heart skipped a beat.

So much leaking!

“Oh...right…” Eddie mumbled, his lifted spirits sinking... “Sorry…”

Chapter Text

Fat, icy raindrops slammed against Eddie’s hoodie as he walked home. 

No sign of the storm letting up either, Eddie thought. And tonight was going to be our night.

Saturday nights were always devoted to “the hunt.” Whether it was looking for unsavory types in the seedy parts of town or some ugly science experiment gone wrong, it didn’t matter. It always ended the same: Venom’s bloodlust was always satiated and Eddie's aching body was always rewarded with a healing massage.

The cloudburst put a cramp in their plans.

Apparently even the bad guys didn’t feel like being bad out in the rain, and after a few hours, Eddie finally gave up and walked home.

Venom and Eddie argued the entire walk back.

First, they squabbled over why Venom couldn’t eat “the delicious fluffy thing” that bolted across their path trying to get out of the rain.

“We don’t eat cats. Not even stray ones.”

But it’s a bad guy, Venom growled inside Eddie’s head.

“No it isn’t. Cats can’t be bad guys”

“What about-”

“No dogs either. They growl and bark at us because they smell you. The answer will always be no.”

Next came a heated debate on why Venom couldn't eat just one child in the gaggle huddled inside the ice cream shop.

There’s plenty of them.

“That’s not a viable argument, buddy.”

By the time Eddie told Venom that he wasn’t allowed to bite the head off the guy at the ATM, they were flat out yelling at each other, and Eddie was too tired to try and hide the fact he looked like a crazy person screaming at himself.

Just the head!

“Not ‘just the’ anything, Venom. Knock it off.”

Venom growled so loud within Eddie’s brain that it made his whole head tingle for a moment before the symbiote fell deadly silent.

“The Silent Treatment? Really?”

The lack of answer was the only response Eddie got.

For four long blocks, Eddie endured more peace within his own head than he’d had in almost two months since he and Venom bonded.

It should have been a pleasant break.

Instead, it just felt lonely.

And he didn’t even have a massage to look forward to the following morning.

Guilt poked at his conscience. He never went out looking for a fight just to get rewarded with a massage afterwards. Still, after six weeks, Eddie and Venom had found themselves in one fight after another each weekend - some fights more explosive than others; some more alien than others. He couldn’t help it if he enjoyed the way Venom healed him the next morning.

Eddie jiggled the keys in the lock a few times before hearing it click. He opened the door and immediately kicked off his damp sneakers and pulled off his soaked hoodie.

His apartment was small, the furniture was cheap, but it was a low maintenance home and something he could afford between freelance jobs. He didn’t let himself miss the comforts of Anne and his old apartment. She had made it feel like home, and he had sabotaged it. This was his living space and he was learning to love it.

There was leftover pizza half-heartedly shoved into the puny trash can beside the kitchenette and the whole living room stank of pepperoni and skunky beer. He thought about scrounging for something to eat, but he was more cold and tired than he was hungry. He retreated to the bedroom, and shrugged of his shirt. The fragrance of woodsy body spray wafting off half his clothes and the clean linen scented plug-in gave the illusion he had done laundry. He hadn’t, and he navigated around piles of dirty clothes before reaching the bed.

He threw on a clean tank top and fell onto the bed, kicking the clean clothes into a pile that was hopefully far enough away from the dirty clothes that he’d remember which was which.

He flipped onto his back and tucked his arms under his head, propping up his flat once-fluffy pillow. The ceiling was waterlogged. The long cracks bifurcated like chubby lightning bolts across the shitty plastered surface. With any luck it wouldn’t leak on his head tonight.

Eddie tried to determine where Venom was in his body. Some days it felt like he knew exactly where Venom was, other days it felt like Venom could be anywhere, maybe everywhere. Eddie wasn’t sure how long it took for the bond between them to solidify. Some days they felt so in sync, like one knew what the other was thinking.

This was not one of those days.

Venom made a slight shift somewhere near Eddie’s kidneys, then fell still, his presence fading entirely. After a few long seconds, Eddie called out to him.

“Venom…you there?”

Venom twitched somewhere around Eddie’s liver, but remained silent.

The ache of being ignored weighed heavily on his chest, so much so that Eddie forced himself to take a deep breath to ward the feeling away.

He exhaled in a forced exasperated scoff.

This was ridiculous, being alone never bothered Eddie before. He was used to being alone.

He was an only child of a mom drowning in her job as a public defender, and a dad who didn’t stick around past Eddie’s twelfth birthday.

It never bothered Eddie, he learned early on how to feed himself, clean himself, figure out the bus routes for school and the safest roads to and from the market. He read a lot and wrote a lot and that was enough to keep him entertained. Eddie was his own best friend and that was more than enough for a shy kid like him.

When Eddie met Anne, he finally had a taste of what it was like not to be alone.

She was a workaholic like his mom, a lawyer like her too, but she always made time for him. And he found he wanted to make time for her too.

They kept their promises to each other. Date nights were always honored. For the first time in Eddie’s life, he allowed someone to get close and he found himself not so alone in the world.

It was new and nice...until he fucked up.

He deserved the loneliness he felt after betraying Anne’s trust. It didn’t make it any easier to endure. When she left it was like she took the oxygen from his lungs. Family, home, stability...that was never going to be an option again. And it was his fault.

For six months he suffocated...

...and then he met Venom.

Venom, in his own ravenous, man-eating, and often fussy sort of way way, allowed Eddie to breathe again.

Six weeks they had been together, and this was the first time Venom didn’t respond when he called.

The pain in his chest worsened. He suddenly missed the sensation of a whole warehouse falling on him.

“Venom...”

The symbiote still didn't respond, but Eddie could feel him shifting slightly in his abdomen, the place he usually retreated when he sulked.

Even if Venom couldn’t feel the gesture, Eddie put a hand over his stomach and rubbed.

“C’mon, buddy. Can we talk?”

What.

“I know you're mad. I'm sorry. I can't control when the bad guys come out and when they don't.”

We know. We are not mad. We are bored. We want to hunt.

“If I could pull a bad guy outta my ass, I would for you,” Eddie said.

We are the only thing up your ass at the moment.

Eddie rolled his eyes, “I gotta stop using those kinds of expressions around you.”

It is now our favorite expression for symbiosis.

“Fantastic…”

Eddie felt the tension loosen in his chest.

The banter helped.

He just needed to ignore the greedy disappointment still gnawing in his chest; he could sacrifice such rewards if it meant he and Venom were talking again. If he could help it, he never wanted Venom to be silent again.

Something is wrong.

Eddie blinked. “What?”

You’re hurting. You are hurt. How can you be hurt when we haven’t fought anything?

Eddie could feel Venom’s presence stretch beneath his skin, moving around his muscles, his bones, every inch of his nerve-endings as if searching for the source of his “pain”.

“I’m fine.”

Explain then.

“What, you can’t read my mind?” Eddie said. The question should have been sarcastic, but another part of him hoped the symbiote could so he didn’t have to admit his disappointment aloud.

We can at times. It’s easier when our adrenaline is pumping. Adrenaline helps further the bonding process.

That explained why Eddie felt more in synch with Venom when they fought together. In a fight Eddie always knew exactly when to strike when Venom wanted to, and Venom knew exactly when to retreat when Eddie needed to.

It also explained why the symbiote couldn’t figure out what was ailing Eddie now.

Except telling the symbiote he was lonely and wanted a massage was about the most pathetic thing to admit to anyone, including himself.

“Nevermind.”

No, not nevermind.

“Yes, nevermind.”

No, no, no. Tell us. No secrets, Eddie!

“Christ, you’re stubborn.”

That’s not a secret. We know this. We know we are stubborn.

“Look, let’s go find something to eat.” Eddie started to sit up, hoping the promise of food would distract the insatiable alien.

The moment Eddie sat up, however, he felt warm threads shoot through his body and pull him back onto the mattress.

“Hey! What the hell, Venom?!”

Black tendrils oozed out of Eddie’s chest and soon a small, many-fanged, grinning alien was floating in front of him.

“Tell us, Eddie. We would tell you if we are in pain…”

Eddie tried to look away, but Venom immediately darted to recapture his gaze.

“I just...I dunno. I want a massage, I guess…”

Venom didn't respond.

Eddie immediately regretted his words.

We are not in pain , Venom said, finally.

“I know.”

Why do we massage muscles that do not need healing?

“Forget it.”

“We can’t forget it because you told us literally five seconds ago. Explain!”

“Christ, you’re infuriating. Look, I just wanted a damn massage, that's all.”

“But a massage is used to work out pain.”

“I know, okay?” Eddie grumbled, propping himself on his elbows. As he did so, Venom moved with him, keeping his eyes irritatingly even with Eddie’s. “I get it. I’m embarrassed enough as it is. Can we just let it go?”

Venom growled. “But why -”

“Because it feels good! I enjoy when you touch me!” Eddie snapped, his words tumbling out of his mouth like they were running down a steep hill with no hope of slowing down.. “I like the way…” Eddie winced… “I like how you make me feel...”

Venom’s wide, grinning mouth closed, his glossy white eyes shrinking to narrow slits.

Eddie’s heart sank.

After a few torturous seconds, Venom quietly withdrew back into Eddie’s chest.

“Hey...Venom wait…”

But Venom was already gone. He expected the symbiote to return to his abdomen, to sulk or contemplate how he could rid himself of this lonely, pathetic loser.

Instead, Eddie felt Venom move…

...no...not move…

Venom was spreading…

The familiar warmth of the symbiote’s presence touched every part of him, putting him at ease, mind and body. Eddie looked down, flexing his forearms and biceps trying to spot the alien tendrils beneath his skin, but saw little evidence except for an occasional twitch here and there. He pulled on the collar of his t-shirt and looked at his chest, but still couldn’t find any sign of Venom’s presence.

When Venom seemed settled in place, Eddie laid his head back, staring up at the ceiling with an eager smile, excited to feel a massage not preceded by excruciating pain.

He waited…

...and waited…

...and waited some more.

Venom poked at Eddie’s left pectoral. It twitched.

Eddie frowned.

Venom prodded at Eddie’s tricep. It also twitched.

Eddie’s frown deepened.

When Venom jabbed lightly at his abdomen, Eddie flinched.

“What are you doing?”

Why aren’t you making the sounds?

One tendril moved along Eddie’s ribs making him squirm uncomfortably. “Sounds? What sounds?”

The deep ones. The quiet, deep one. Make those sounds again.

“I didn’t know I made any-hey! Knock it off,” Eddie growled, slapping his own ribs. The tendril stilled beneath his skin.

The symbiote burst out of his chest again, his fanged mouth completely horizontal in frustration.

“This is all wrong.”

“I know,” Eddie mumbled, hot shame flooding him “This is dumb. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“We did, Eddie. We got into you.”

“Real funny.”

“We don’t know how to make you feel better when you aren’t in pain. We don’t know how to make you leak.”

Two tendrils emerged from Venom’s serpentine neck and glided along Eddie’s temples as if to illustrate just how dry Eddie’s skin was. The feelers were smooth, warm at first but rapidly cooling under the air conditioning humming overhead. Eddie’s eyes closed briefly, his skin electrified at the sudden unexpected contact.

He couldn’t help his eyes fluttering as the tendrils moved down his stubbly cheeks...nor could he stop the soft sound escaping his lips.

Suddenly the tendrils stiffened, and Venom lurched forward, his face an inch from Eddie’s.

“Almost...Almost that sound.”

Eddie swallowed hard, frozen under Venom’s penetrating stare. He could practically hear the wheels turning within that floating head as Venom tried to figure out what Eddie was too shy to just say aloud.

Not that I’m all that complicated, Eddie thought. Just fuckin’ lonely.

After a few moments, Venom’s tendrils began to move again, shifting and reshaping the tips into flat, oval feelers, a series of small nubs running along Eddie’s temples then over his forehead.

Pleasant chills ran through his head, down his body and at once the tension melted away. Relaxing into the mattress, Eddie let out a quiet sigh.

“That...that sound.” Venom’s voice was as gravely and aggressive as usual, but there was something else in his tone. Something almost...gentle. “That is what we were looking for…”

Venom’s tendrils traveled along Eddie’s jawline next.

A smile stretched across Eddie’s face. This was perfect…

The feelers hesitated for only a moment, and Eddie wondered if it was because he didn’t make any audible sounds to match his contentment. After a few moments, the symbiote shifted his attention back to Eddie’s cheeks, the very tips tracing over his cheekbones so tenderly that Eddie realized he had uttered another low sound.

“More…”

The sheer eagerness coating Venom’s voice sent thrills through Eddie and it was then that he realized Venom was still spread throughout Eddie’s muscular system. Hoping to encourage the symbiote, Eddie slid his hand behind his neck and began to massage himself, his thumb and index working the muscles in small circles. Almost immediately he could feel Venom’s tendrils come alive beneath his skin, replicating the movements, working the muscles with greater zeal than what Eddie’s own fingers could do.

And it did the trick, Eddie let out a long, luxurious moan.

“Yessss...yes, these sounds. These sounds will do. We are doing really well…”

Eddie was about to laugh at Venom’s self-congratulations, but his mirth was cut off by two new feelers emerging from Venom’s neck bypassing Eddie’s shirt to focus on his chest. The feelers ghosted over his pectorals and as they moved, so did the tendrils still coating his muscles, working in concert to summon goosebumps and delightful chills through Eddie’s body.

“Sh...shit...can you feel this?”

“Do you want us to?”

Eddie opened his eyes and saw Venom was far closer to his face than he realized. Saliva glistened against the several rows of needle-sharp teeth and his tongue lolled only briefly to recapture some spit that threatened to fall onto the human. The first time Eddie saw Venom wiggle out of his body like a grinning eel he thought he was going to faint, or puke, or both. Now, the alien’s presence was...calming.

“Yeah...feel this with me.”

Venom fell quiet, his eye-slits closing as he concentrated.

Eddie wondered if he’d ever be able to sense Venom the way Venom sensed him, or if this was some sort of one-way street. Still, he had been able to pick up Venom’s thoughts on occasion, a word here and there, a string of emotions that were hard to sort out.

Maybe one day he’d be able to control it.

At that particular moment, nothing felt different, but he could see the way Venom’s long neck shivered occasionally as he tried to attune himself to Eddie’s body.

“Lonely...needing...wanting...missing...”

Eddie winced. Hearing Venom say aloud the emotions that came with the symbiote’s attention sounded worse than just feeling them.

“Maybe uh...maybe just keep that to yourself, huh, buddy?”

Venom made an indecipherable gurgling noise, but then fell quiet.

Eddie closed his eyes too and focused on enjoying the moment, ignoring any annoying emotions that may be attached with them.

Drawing in a deep breath, Eddie let his mind relax and wander. The feelers on his forehead had slowed their movements to lazy figure-eights while those appendages caressing his cheeks stayed on his cheekbones where Eddie enjoyed it the most.

The tendrils caressing his chest began to split into long, narrow mini-feelers that almost felt like fingers.

In fact, they felt a lot like fingers - long, narrow fingers.

Annie…

He wakes up to her fingers gliding along his chest.

“You’re so fuzzy,” she says, her fingers playing with the light dusting of curly blonde chest hair.

“Don’t be jealous,” he grins, cheekily. “Not everyone can be as manly as me.”

She smacks his pec. “Says the man standing on the toilet demanding I kill a spider in the bathroom last night.”

“It was radioactive, I’m sure of it,” Eddie insists, his smile only widening.

“Well, lucky for you I’m around to protect you.” She kisses his cheek and resumes massaging his chest.

Eddie gathers her up in his arms. He’s the happiest he’s ever been. He wants to remember this moment forever. “Lucky me…”

“Luck...Lucky…”

Eddie opened his eyes. Venom was still floating over him, but his eyes were thin slits. He was mumbling to himself.

“Luck...Luck...Lucky...Lucky me…”

Venom’s eyes shot open and snatched back his tendrils as if Eddie was made of fire.

“Venom?” Eddie propped himself up on his elbows, jarred by the sudden absence of the symbiote. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Anne is not here. We are here, Eddie. Not her. We! We make us feel this way!”

Eddie’s jaw hung open.

“I...Venom...I didn’t…I thought you liked Anne.”

Venom lunged and for a split-second Eddie thought those teeth were going to snap around his head. “Anne isn’t here. We are here.”

And with that, Venom dove into Eddie’s stomach with such force Eddie reflexively drew up his knees.

“Venom? Venom, come back out.”

Not only did Venom not emerge, but he seemed to almost solidify himself like a heavy knot within Eddie’s abdomen. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it got the point across.

Venom wasn’t going to move until morning....

Great...good job, Eddie, he thought, plopping back onto his pillow. Here's Venom trying to make you feel better and all you can do is think about someone who dumped you six months ago. This kinda stuff is why people call you selfish. This is why Anne called you selfish…

Eddie rolled over on his side, the full weight of reality setting in. He drew his knees up and placed a hand on his abdomen. He could feel a small lump, like a smooth pebble buried under his skin.

Slowly, very slowly, Eddie began to massage the lump with two fingers, tracing around it, ghosting over it, rubbing it hard occasionally then softly.

He didn't know if it helped.

He didn't know if Venom could even feel it…

…but he continued to pay special attention to that sulking symbiote beneath his skin until his eyes grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

[Planet Krazz. Two Earth Years Ago…]

The skrull colony was in ruins. Where once there were dozens of thorny blue spires across a black rock wasteland, there was now nothing but smoking rubble. Flames still consumed the fields in the distance and the rivers were so very red.

Venom stood in the middle of this smoldering city, his self-satisfied smile curling around his ebon face lined with green veins.

This was his handiwork and he was proud.

Well...some of it was...that bloody river mostly. It was so red!

We helped, his host corrected.

“Yes,” Venom said, aloud, his nightmarish grin curled higher over his glossy white eyes. “We helped…”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Venom looked down at the five dead skrull at his feet.

“A pile of bodies…”

“...and a pile of heads.” Bryntar finished.

Venom shivered in delight, the blood lust warming his insides, while cool rain slicked his shiny black skin. Fresh skrull blood spattered against his fang-filled smile as he went to work organizing his beautiful piles of carnage.

You know they used to call me coward, Bryntar said quietly.

“They still call me loser.”

Venom looked down at the green skrull head in his hands. The red eyes had rolled back, showing mostly white, and a forked tongue lolled out of its mouth. Bryntar wanted this one dead specifically, and Venom didn’t need to know why.

But that’s all changed now. We aren’t losers and cowards. Now, we are Venom, right?

Venom pressed a bloodstained hand to his broad, black chest. He could feel the skrull’s heart pounding within. “Yes, we are Venom. And now they are dead.”

Soon all of them will be.

“Very soon.”

Venom’s tongue peeked out between his teeth as he carefully piled the heads in a nice neat pyramid.

Just as the final skrull head barely touched the pile, the rest of the heads tumbled away.

Venom growled, scrambling to catch them before they rolled out of reach.

Bryntar laughed in his head.

It was hard to be annoyed when Bryntar laughed. It always reminded Venom of wind chimes from that one Shi’ar world with all the soft bird people.

He used to hate how wind chimes sounded.

Now he wished he had stolen some when he had the chance.

You’re really shitty at piling heads. Bryntar chuckled. Here, let me try.

-----

It was time to leave.

The Klyntar had taken complete control of the planet, and soon they would need another planet to seize, a new race to devour.

Riot handpicked his team, and this time he chose Venom to join them.

Venom wanted to believe this time it would be different. That perhaps maybe if he had played a bigger role in taking over the planet he and Bryntar could be bonded forever.

Riot, apparently, saw it another way.

Venom approached the rocket as if approaching a firing squad. Pitch and Nuclear stood beside Riot, while the other Klyntar, free of their hosts already, slithered into the rocket.

All three Klyntar loomed over Venom, their hosts, which were practically zombified shells, had been strong warriors. Venom was no match and they knew it.

“What did you think was going to happen?” Riot laughed. “Did you think you could bring your host along? Maybe a snack for the road?”

Nuclear and Pitch snickered.

“This is why we call you a loser, Venom,” Nuclear hissed, her yellow skin tinged with ash and blood. “This bullshit right here.”

“You get so attached to your hosts,” Pitch chimed in, his blue form almost black in the moonlight. “we go through this every time.”

Riot stepped in closer, towering over Venom, his razor claws stroking Venom’s chin, forcing him to look up into Riot’s cruel, curved grin. “Let me guess,” he sneered. “You thought you two were going to be together forever .”

Beneath the roar of laughter all around him, a small voice whispered in Venom’s head.

It was fun while it lasted, V, but we both knew I was dead the moment I met you.

No, Venom replied silent. We are Venom. We will be together forever. We-

Riot grabbed Venom’s head, and lifted him high off the ground.

Desperately clawing at Riot’s thick, powerful arms did nothing; his tendrils lashing violently at his team leader did even less.

“Riot, don’t! Let us be together. We are better together. Please...”

“Listen to you,” Riot spat in disgust. “Begging for this half-dead husk. You will never be a true Klyntar until you’ve learned your role in this world. We are the parasites, Venom. We devour, and we move on. We are always in control. We are always victorious. These hosts are nothing to us . Trust us, Venom, this is better for you.”

Venom roared as Riot’s claws sank into his head, finding a fistful of his malleable flesh and squeezing. The agony was beyond anything he had ever experienced. He was being torn apart, left raw and empty and shapeless. All he could do was watch helplessly as his body was flayed, revealing a small, skinny skrull, caught in the Klyntar’s merciless grasp.

Bryntar wasn’t very tall, and he wasn’t very strong. His red eyes were large and bright, surrounded by long, thick eyelashes. His ears drooped a little, and his left ear was missing a chunk. His nose was wide and had been broken a handful of times. But his smile...Bryntar always wore a smile, whether it was bloody and tired, or brilliant and bright.

That smile shined through, even as the tears streamed down his pale green cheeks.

“It’s okay, V…” He rasped.

Venom struggled uselessly, his defenseless mass trapped within Riot’s grasp. He had no voice to respond, no vocal chords to call out to his skrull. All he could do was send out a psychic scream, heard only by the other Klyntar.

Fuck you, Riot. Fuck you! Let him go!

Riot’s jaw unhinged, his jagged maw opening wide and…

Bryn!

...in an instant, Bryntar was gone.

It was over.

Venom didn’t feel his body being flung into the rocket.

He didn’t hear the cacophonous laughter filling the cockpit as the rest of the Klyntar loaded in, discarding their own hosts as they prepared for the next invasion.

All Venom felt was a cavernous void within himself.

Bryntar was gone…

His Bryn…

“It’s okay, V…”

The words spread through Venom’s shapeless form, binding to the very molecules of his existence.

It wasn’t okay.

-----

[Earth, Six Months Later…]

Four of them survived the crash to Earth.

Three of them were imprisoned.

The scientists studied the Klyntar like children poking at an ant hill. When the poking didn’t do shit, they resorted to electrodes and painful sound frequencies.

They kept Venom and his squad in canisters, labeled them as symbiotes and tried to pair them with organisms to “bond” with.

The Klyntar were starving and they devoured every creature the scientists put in front of them. Even the animals that felt compatible were soon eaten from the inside out.

The scientists were wasting their time. Nuclear and Pitch had no interest in bonding with anything, and Venom’s bondmate was dead. All they could do was wait for Riot.

Nuclear and Pitch insisted Riot would return. They never lost hope.

To Venom hope was overrated; this planet was a shithole anyway.

A shithole full of shitty hosts.

The mind of a skrull was a sharp tool hellbent on destruction, mayhem and conquests.

Human minds were just blunt spoons pretending to be knives, stabbing wildly in the dark and missing everything; especially when they were scared. When a human was scared their minds would dull like the fluffy creatures Venom had to inhabit in his early days of the lab.

Venom hated human hosts, but, hey, at least they tasted good.

Six months laters after consuming dozens of human hosts, Venom met Maria.

Maria was not a bond mate...but Maria was different.

Like the rest of the humans, Maria was scared, but her mind wasn’t dulled by her fear. Her mind shifted with it. She was nowhere, but she was also everywhere. She drifted in and out of reality as if wading through the choppy waves of an endless sea. Her terror would rise, and then she’d dive into warm waters. Her anxiety would drown her so she rose into the light of make believe.

Venom had spent only a few hours with her before realizing this was how she always spent her time. She had always been afraid, being the host to some alien creature was no scarier than what already lurked in her mind.

She sang to herself sometimes. The others never sang.

It was nice. It made no sense, but that was nice too.

“Tambourines and elephants are playin' in the band,

Won't you take a ride on the flyin' spoon?

Doo, doo, doo...

Bother me tomorrow,

Today, I'll buy no sorrow

Doo....doo...doo….

Lookin' out my back door”

Maria was not a bond mate...but Maria calmed Venom.

They survived the first night together, and then the second.

The scientists celebrated as three days passed, and Maria and Venom still coexisted.

They filled Maria with fluids they called “nutrition”, but they never fed Venom.

Venom tried to keep his mind off the pangs of hunger by learning Maria’s song. She didn’t talk to him and he didn’t know what to say to her.

But they sang together...the quiet silly song.

“...Giants doin' cartwheels,

Statues wearin' high heels

Look at all the happy creatures,

Dancin' on the lawn…”

On the fifth day, Nuclear was dead. Pitch wasn’t going to last much longer. Venom knew he wouldn’t survive another day without eating something.

Riot wasn’t coming for them. All was lost.

On the fifth day, Venom started to feed.

He made sure Maria wouldn’t feel it.

On the sixth day, Maria stopped singing.

-----

Eddie was not a bond mate.

He was leaky and skittish and he hated heights.

He said no to eating cops, he said no to jumping off buildings...and worst of all: he said no to piling heads and bodies into their respective piles!

There were a few factors that kept Venom from voraciously devouring Eddie’s organs that first day.

When the missiles flew towards their motorcycle, Venom said “Duck!” Eddie said “Thank you.”

When Venom was starving and said “Hungry!” Eddie jumped into a water tank full of wriggling shell creatures.

And when Eddie shouted “Mask!”

Venom immediately said “Copy!”

Eddie was not Bryntar. He would never be like Bryntar, but he was something new; something exciting.

Eddie felt more emotions than Venom knew existed. And he felt them constantly.

He wore his fear like a suit of armor, unlike most humans who carried it like an anchor. He used sarcasm to fight through his anxiety and anger to fuel his drive. When they saved the world together, Venom thought they could conquer the entire planet, just the two of them!

...Or save it...Eddie preferred to save it, one bad guy at a time. And that worked for Venom too.

For the first time since finding that lonely, cowardly skrull on Krazz, Venom felt like he was home.

“Venom?”

Venom broke away from his thoughts as Eddie’s fingers glided over the lump the Klyntar had formed in his host’s solar plexus. Even though Venom couldn’t feel the contact directly, he knew what Eddie was trying to do.

He almost moved away, almost shot a tendril out to smack Eddie’s hand so he could sulk. He did neither, he just sat there and feel the subtle, apologetic caress from his host.

Venom wasn’t jealous. Jealousy was a human trait and fucking stupid.

But it was also fucking stupid that Eddie was thinking about Anne when it was Venom who was caressing his face, who massaged his muscles, who got him to make those quiet, satisfying sounds.

Eddie thinking of Anne didn’t hurt Venom.

What hurt Venom was that while Eddie thought about Anne...Venom wasn’t thinking about Bryn.

Venom hadn’t thought about Bryn in weeks.

Not since they saved Earth.

Not since Venom found a home here.

Bryntar would never have asked for the sort of attention Eddie wanted.

“What the kreeshit are you doing, V?”

“You had blood on your cheek. I was going to-”

“Just leave it. We look braver when we’re bloody.”

Bryn and Venom were going to be together forever.

Venom was so sure of it.

“It’s okay, V…”

Eddie's hand slid sluggishly off of the resentful lump on his abdomen. Quiet snoring soon followed. After a few minutes, Venom oozed out of Eddie’s stomach and wormed his way up to watch his host sleep. A single tendril emerged from Venom's long neck, reaching towards the small droplet of sweat collecting at Eddie's brow.

He hesitated, then withdrew.

With a quiet hiss Venom resigned to float towards Eddie's neck. He wriggled his way under Eddie's chin, bumping it slightly to give himself more room. Eddie snorted, but didn't wake, lazily putting a hand on Venom's face and for a moment the Klyntar expected to be pushed away.

Instead, Eddie's hand just rested there, half covering Venom’s face and head. His palm was so warm, it radiated heat that warded away the chill in the air, and Venom shrank his head slightly to fit more of him beneath Eddie’s hand.

Venom didn’t know what to say…

...but he wanted to say something.

“Eddie,” Venom called quietly.

“It's okay, buddy,” Eddie yawned, patting Venom’s head blindly, nearly poking him in the eye.

Venom flinched, but didn’t pull away, instead burying himself further under Eddie’s chin.

It wasn’t okay…

...but maybe for tonight he could pretend it was.

Chapter Text

A burning stench ripped Venom out of a deep sleep.

He didn’t know where he was.

He didn’t know what was on fire.

Venom opened one eye-slit...then the other.

He wasn’t snuggled beneath Eddie’s chin anymore, and they weren’t even in the bedroom.

They were in the kitchen, Venom draped across Eddie’s shoulders like a shawl while his host hovered over a grease-stained stove.

The moment Venom lifted his head from Eddie’s shoulder, Eddie brought a hand up to give him a blind pat on the face. “Hey buddy, welcome back to the Land of the Living.”

Venom tolerated the pats with a soft, sleepy gurgle.

The stove light was glaring, casting a putrid yellow glow over a pan of scrambled egg whites, and another pan of browning smashed tots. Venom squinted at the harsh light, then at the windows where it was still dark outside.

“Why are we up?”

“Just wanted to get an early start to the day.”

Venom eyed the clock on the stove, then at Eddie.

“It is 3am, Eddie.”

Eddie shrugged, poking at the eggs without much commitment. “A real early start, okay? I dunno, I couldn’t sleep.”

Venom floated between Eddie and the eggs, demanding full attention  when they spoke.

“You hate when we wake us up at 3am.”

“That’s because you wake me up by screwing around in the kitchen at 3am and make a mess for me to clean up.”

Eddie tilted his head to the left.

Venom moved left.

Eddie tilted his head to the right.

Venom swiftly shifted right and floated closer to Eddie’s face.

“That reminds us. We need to move the fridge three feet to the left.”

“Nope. Not happening,” Eddie replied, pushing Venom’s face away with one hand to toss a handful of green and red vegetables into the scramble.

“We did not explain our reason!”

“You want it closer to the bedroom so you can dig through it and eat all the tots while I sleep.”

“ And drink all the chocolate syrup!” Venom argued. “The smashedbrowns are burning.”

“They’re called hashbrow-Oh shit!” Eddie grabbed the spatula and shoved it under the dark brown mass, flipping it over to reveal an even darker side. “Thanks, buddy. Go settle in. This is almost done, and I already set up your mocha.”

Venom whipped his head towards the counter.

“Chocolate coffee?!”

Two coffee mugs sat on a pair of cracked bamboo placements: Eddie’s usual “World’s Okayest Journalist” mug, and another a blue, purple and pink striped mug. Venom hovered over his drink, salivating. Unlike Eddie’s black drink, Venom’s was the color of dirt...no, wait, not dirt...the color of Crunch bars.

He was about to plop his long tongue into the sweet drink when he heard the toaster oven ding.

Confused, he snapped his head back to the kitchen.

Excitement quickly turned to suspicion.

“You….made tots, too.”

Eddie pulled out a heap of tater tots and dumped them on a plate.

“I sure did, buddy. Half-burnt just how you like them.”

The mountain of black and brown tater tots rolled around on the plate as it was set in front of Venom. Venom just stared down at them, licking his drool-slicked mouth, thoughtfully.

Eddie carried his own plate out of the kitchen, pulling up a stool to sit beside Venom at the counter. Eddie wasn’t looking at Venom, he wasn’t even looking at his own plate. His mind seemed distracted. Small pangs of strong feelings pulsed through Eddie’s body, and sent pulses of similar emotions into Venom.

Sick...sour...guilt...hurt…

Venom bristled. He didn’t know what was going on. He hated not knowing what was going on.

“Why are we up? Why are we eating my favorite things?”

“Ah, ya know,” Eddie replied, scratching at his scruffy beard, and still not looking at Venom. “ I just thought it'd be nice. It’s Sunday and we haven't had a sit down breakfast all week and-”

Venom growled and shot forward, floating mere inches from Eddie’s face for optimal scrutiny of his host’s face.

Eddie yelped, his stool teetering dangerously before sticky black tendrils burst from Eddie’s legs to anchor it to the counter.

“No lies, Eddie,” Venom hissed. “We feel something is wrong. We know something is wrong. Explain!”

“Because I feel like shit, okay?” Eddie snapped. “I was shitty to you last night and I felt bad. So I wanted to do something nice. I just, I don’t know.” He rubbed his face and when he looked at Venom again his eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. “I was a jerk. You did something nice for me and all I could do was think of Anne. This is the only way I could think of to-oh shit, wait! I forgot something. Hold on, don’t eat yet.”

Venom watched Eddie run to the fridge, his body lowering in the air as if weighed down by guilt.

“Eddie, we were not mad at you. We were mad at other things. Things you do not know. Things we never told y- is that ketchup?!”

A scarlet plastic bottle with a large tomato on the label was plopped in front of the Klyntar and Venom was sure his eye-slits had grown to the side of his whole head. If they could sparkle, they would have.

“For us? For us to use, Eddie?!”

“For you to use,” Eddie affirmed.

Eddie had only let Venom use ketchup once, and it resulted in a tomato-y bloodbath all over Venom’s plate and counter. It was glorious, but Eddie was pissed.

With a gurgled squeal Venom dove for the bottle, wrapping a tendril around it and flipping it over his plate.

He squeezed and squeezed until there was a thick scarlet blob on his plate, sluggishly spreading. He plucked the first potato-victim from the pile and plunged it into the ketchup.

“Arrrrgh, my leggggs,” Venom said in a high-pitched voice. He paused for only a moment to gauge Eddie’s reaction, to ensure this truly was alright.

Eddie had a weird smile on his face, one Venom didn’t recognize, but he liked it.

Venom’s own grin spread and curled enthusiastically.

“Noooo, Venom,”  Venom squeaked. Flecks of ketchup fell onto the counter as the tater tot trembled in fear . “Do not eat meeee.”

“Oh, but I will,” Venom vowed to the “bleeding” tot. “You are mine to devour.”

Venom cackled gleefully and ate each “mutilated” tater tot, forgetting entirely what he and Eddie were talking about.

It was probably nothing.

Everything was fine, again.

And this time, Eddie wasn’t pissed about the ketchupy mess.

-----

By noon it had stopped raining.

The air was crisp and misty, and although Venom was tempted to feel the cool weather against his smooth skin, he promised Eddie that, while they walked to Mrs. Chen’s market, he would remain hidden.

So, rather than enjoy the glorious weather, Venom was trapped inside his host who was shivering and sniveling, disappearing further and further into his thin gray hoodie to ward off the cold.

Exasperation could only be expressed through occasional twitches of Venom’s pliant body as the Klyntar spread himself through Eddie’s insides, looking for ways to produce heat without boiling Eddie’s blood

Skrull were much easier to maintain. Bryntar’s clan had combined their genes with a cold-blooded species and Venom needed to do very little to regulate Bryn’s body temperature.

Eddie, however, was fragile and helpless, shivering or sweating at the slightest change in weather.

How the hell did you humans conquer this planet, when all it takes is a slightly cold breeze to defeat you? Venom huffed inside Eddie’s head.

Eddie stutter-stepped in front of Mrs. Chen’s and pulled out his earbud from his pocket as if talking on the phone.

“I dunno if we actually did conquer this planet,” Eddie replied, walking in and grabbing a small basket. “I think there just got to be so many of us there wasn’t much room for any other creatures to take over besides us. Plus, we’re smarter than the other creatures.”

Venom snorted.

“We are ,” Eddie insisted, grabbing cans and packets of food Venom had no interest in.

“I’ve seen smarter.” Venom boasted.

“I wouldn’t know, I’m not the alien from outer space who knows sooooo much about the universe.”

I do know a lot! And I’m not the alien! You’re the alien!

“Raise your hand if you came from outer space.”

I was found on a meteor after our spaceship crashed!

Venom couldn’t see Eddie’s grin, but he could feel it! The nerve!

“You’re just proving my point, buddy.”

Asshole.

“Alien.”

Eddie poked at his own chest, and a small tendril peeked out and smacked his finger.

“Ouch, little bastard. Okay pick out your candy.”

Eddie didn’t have time to stop in front of the candy rack before Venom’s tendril shot out at the king sized crunch bar.

“You don’t want to try anything else?”

Do the other chocolates make crunching sounds like soft bones?

“I...don’t think so. You might want to call Nestle for that great sales pitch though: ‘Eat Crunch, They Make Bone-Crunching Sounds’.”

Who is Nest Lee? Will they give me more Crunch?

“Probably not.”

Venom grabbed two more Crunch bars as they left the aisle. Eddie only put one of them back, and grabbed a kit kat for himself.

Mrs. Chen was quietly cursing in Mandarin at her phone when Eddie started unloading the cans, noodle packets and junk food onto the counter.

“You alright there, Mrs. C?”

Mrs. Chen didn’t look up. “What is the point of buying twenty dollars worth of Leaf Tickets if all I get from Isabelle’s Cafe Cookies are Isabelle’s Kettle?!”

Venom had no idea what any of those words meant, but Eddie seemed to know what to say.

“Ah, yeah, you really shouldn’t spend real money on those mobile games. It’s always a rip-off.”

“Do not tell me my Pocket Camp business, Eddie. I will spend my money how I want!”

Eddie threw up his hands in surrender. “Alright, fine, don’t take my financial advice.”

With a huff, Mrs. Chen set down her phone and rang up their food. “You still have not accepted my friend request.”

“Yeah, I don’t really like those games. I never keep up with them.”

“That’s because you lack commitment, Eddie.”

“I commit just fine, just not to ‘free’ games that are set up to swindle money out of you to enjoy it.”

Mrs. Chen held up the Crunch bars n9and frowned at them, adjusting her glasses. The subtle wrinkles on her face deepened, then smoothed out.

“These are free.” She scooted them back towards Eddie.

If Venom had a mouth he would have beamed brightly at Mrs. Chen.

“Yeah? Hey, thanks!” Eddie started reaching for the kit kat too, but Mrs. Chen swatted his hand.

“No, you’ll still pay for the kit kat. The Crunch bars are for Venom. His candy is always free.”

“What? Hey, that’s not fair.”

“Venom ate that asshole who was squeezing protection money from me. When you start eating people who harass me, then your kit kats will be free.”

Despite Eddie’s insistence that Venom stay out of sight while in public, Venom peeked out of Eddie’s chest, his head barely larger than a grape. He blinked up at Mrs. Chen and gave her the most pleasant, fang-filled smile he could make with such a small face.

Mrs. Chen’s eyes fell on Venom and although her face was hard and stoic, she gave Venom a wink, the twinkle in her dark eyes unmistakable.

-----

As soon as Eddie and Venom left the market, their alien debate erupted once again.

Venom, of course, was winning because Eddie was the alien.

You are the alien. A weird alien! You have many dents and protrusions that do not make sense. Like that small hole in the middle of your stomach? What does it do? And these bumps on your chest. What are their purpose?

To emphasize his very good point, Venom popped two tendrils out of Eddie’s chest and poked at Eddie’s nipples over his shirt. Eddie nearly dropped his bag of groceries and smacked himself in the chest.

“Gah! Knock it off! I dunno, I guess it has something to do with genes? I’m a journalist not a scientist.”

Ridiculous. You should know why your body is weird.

“Okay, smart guy,” Eddie retorted. “Then why is your body all sludgy and shapeless.”

I have shapes!

“No, I have shapes. You are just a pile of goo.”

I’ll show you goo! Venom’s tongue shot out of Eddie’s neck and licked a long stripe across Eddie’s cheek.

“Ew! Freakin’ alien,” Eddie growled, smacking his sticky neck.

“Eddie?”

Eddie whirled around so quickly, Venom actually slammed against Eddie’s chest cavity with a soundless splat. Venom shifted, ready to emerge and eat whoever it was that interrupted their very important debate.

“Annie? H-hey.”

Anne was wrapped up in a scarf that half-hid her face, a small colorful beanie on her head and a big coat with large wooden buttons. Her black leggings had little black dogs on them, the kind that Eddie wouldn’t let Venom eat. Her button nose was red from the cold, yet another reminder that humans should not have been able to conquer this planet.

Eddie swung the plastic bag of groceries from side-to-side and rocked a bit on his heels. “How, uh...how are you? You good? You n’ Dan doing good? I mean, I hope you are. I don’t mean like ‘hey, you n’ Dan still together?’ Cuz I’m not checking up on you, I just-”

Eddie!

Eddie relaxed a little. “Sorry. How are you?”

Annie smiled that soft smile that she only seemed to give to Eddie, a smile that hovered somewhere between warmth and sadness.

“I’m good! I was on my way to see you, actually.”

“Oh yeah?”

Venom hated how quickly Eddie’s pulse raced. It was unhealthy. No host should have a standing heart rate this fast when they barely walked a block.  

“Dan and I...we set a date.” Her hand came up and a ring sparkled despite it being a cloudy day.

Venom felt Eddie’s pulse drop, his body cool, and the blood drain from his face. Frantically, Venom searched Eddie’s mind and emotions trying to grasp the term “set a date.” What did it mean?

Then he heard the briefest whisper of Eddie’s thoughts.

Date...Marriage...Big Day...She Chose Dan…

“Oh, that’s...that’s great, Annie. Congratulations.”

“I thought you’d want to hear this from me rather than from someone else.”

Eddie looked at his feet, looked at the air, then looked literally everywhere except Anne.

“No, that’s great. Yeah, sure. Of course. Thanks for telling me and hey congratulations.”

Eddie, you already told her congratulations.

“I know,” Eddie said, looking down at his chest. “I’m telling her again.”

“Was that Venom?” Anne asked, bending down until she was a few inches from Eddie’s chest. “Hi, Venom. How are you?”

Venom extended a single tendril from Eddie’s chest, curled the end of it and gave her a gentle boop on the nose.

Anne’s face scrunched up in a laugh.

Venom really did like Anne.

“Stay out of trouble, okay,” she said, straightening up. “Both of you.”

“Sure, okay. I should get Venom home.”

That’s okay, Eddie, Venom chirped. We prefer to be out.

“Right, of course! Bye, Eddie.” Anne leaned down a little again and waved at Eddie’s chest. “Bye, Venom.”

Eddie walked three blocks in silence.

You’re the alien, Venom said after the fourth block.

“Yeah…”

No! You’re supposed to tell me I’m wrong!

Eddie shrugged and didn’t say much more.

When they returned to the apartment, Eddie half-heartedly put away some of the groceries, leaving the chocolate on the counter and tossing some of the bags of snacks and noodle packets into the cupboards, while leaving the rest in the bags for later.

He seemed more preoccupied with going to the fridge. Venom looked longingly at the mostly empty ketchup bottle on the middle rack as it was shoved away to access the six pack of beer was labeled for someone named “Samuel Adams”.

Eddie grabbed a bottle and sat on his stool. He pushed away the empty breakfast plates, bloody streaks of ketchup smearing the counter as they went.

Venom wormed his way out of Eddie’s back and stared him in the face.

“You are upset,” Venom observed.

“Yep,” Eddie said, twisting open the bottle and taking a sip of Samuel’s beer...a long sip...a chug.

Venom bristled with frustration.

Eddie should have known this was coming. Venom already knew!

Though, Venom did have an advantage as Anne was a temporary host for him. He was in her head long enough to know that although she cared deeply for Eddie, they would never be together. It had been decided during that kiss in the woods.

As Venom pressed his and Anne’s lips against Eddie’s, their single act produced two very different thoughts: Venom thought only of Eddie, but Anne was thinking of Dan.

Eddie finished half his beer, without taking a breath, then plopped the bottle hard on the table. A small buzz permeated off of Eddie’s body, and Venom shook it away with a small molecular shift.

“Do you wish to speak of this?”

Eddie buried his head in his palms. “Nope.”

Venom floated around Eddie’s hidden face, his fist-sized head trying to peek at Eddie’s expression.

“Are you going to just sulk? Or are you going to sleep?”

Eddie’s reply was more of a pitiful groan.

This was unacceptable. Eddie was Venom’s host, and he was in pain. It was Venom’s responsibility to take care of his host. He needed to fix this...the only way he knew how.

A tendril flew out of Venom’s long neck and wrapped around the half-full bottle of Samuel’s beer.

He poured the entire contents over Eddie’s head.

Eddie lurched.

“Venom! What the hell, man?”

Frothy liquid pouring down his face and shoulders, musky brew filling the air.

In an instant, Venom took action.

Four tendrils shot forward, shaping themselves into textured feelers with flattened tips. Two tendrils held Eddie’s cheeks, while the others brushed along his forehead, wicking away the beer before it reached his eyes. Another two emerged and stroked at his hair, slowly, but efficiently wiping away the froth as best he could.

“You are not leaking, so we have to improvise.”

Eddie stared at Venom with his mouth hanging open.

Venom took this as a good sign. Obviously, it felt so good that Eddie was at a loss for words.

After a few quiet moments, Venom had wiped away all of the beer, and returned all but two of his feelers back to his serpentine body.

Venom was about to withdraw the final pair of tendrils when he noticed two new droplets drip down Eddie’s cheeks.

Venom tilted his head. Did he miss some of the beer? What were these new wet stains?

Oh...

Venom wiped the tears from Eddie’s cheeks, but did not remove his feelers entirely. He wasn’t ready to remove them...not yet...

...just in case more leaking came from Eddie’s eyes.

“I’m alright, buddy,” Eddie sniffed, wiping his nose, but doing so without disturbing Venom’s tendrils.

“You are not.”

“I am,” Eddie insisted, but made no move to pull away. “I’m happy for them. I mean I’m not happy , but I’m happy that Annie’s with Dan. I like him. It’s just hard because he’s also a constant reminder of what I am and what he isn’t.”

Venom nodded, sagaciously. “A loser. ”

Eddie choked out a laugh. “Thanks...”

“So what, Eddie? I’m a loser. You’re a loser. We do a lot of cool shit that Dan cannot do. Like bite people’s heads off.”

“I guess...But I don’t think that’s what people are looking for in a relationship. Unless you’re a symb-”

“You stink,” Venom blurted suddenly.

“What? Oh...right. Well, that’s what happens when some alien pours beer on my head.” Eddie playfully pushed at Venom’s face. Venom twisted away and made a chomping noise at Eddie’s face. Eddie didn’t so much as flinch and bopped Venom on the head. “C’mon, little alien, we’re showering, so I don’t stink anymore. And by the way, the next time you want my attention, don’t waste my beer over it, okay?”

“I am not an alien!”

“Would you prefer para-”
“Don’t you dare!”

A tendril burst out of Venom’s neck towards Eddie’s nose.

“Alien!”

Eddie parried, and swat at Venom’s head.

“Parasite!”

But another tendril came forth and deflected Eddie’s hand.

“Soft shell!”

“I’m not soft, you chompy worm!”

“Worm’s don’t have teeth!”

They swatted and smacked and slapped each other all the way to the bathroom.

When Eddie pulled open the shower curtain and began to undress, Venom went about his usual routine. He closed the door with one tendril, flipped on the vent with another, and the third plucked Eddie’s phone from his pocket.

“Just turn Spotify on to whatever,” Eddie said, cranking the water up until it hot steam filled the air.

“We want a playlist,” Venom complained, looking Eddie’s collection of “Indie” music with weird, nonsensical album covers.

“You don’t know any songs.”

“Actually we do! We know one!”

Focusing hard on the phone, Venom narrowed a single tendril to the width of a pencil and tapped out several letters carefully.

He set the phone in a small ceramic bowl on the edge of the sink where Eddie insisted the “acoustics” would be better, though Venom couldn’t tell the difference.

The drums began to pop.

The twang of guitar followed.

A gruff, but cheerful voice belted out the words:

“Just got home from Illinois,

Locked the front door, oh boy!

Got to sit down and take a rest on the porch!”

Venom bounced his head excitedly and joined in, loud and gurgly and completely off-key:

“Imagination sets in,

Pretty soon I am singing,

Doo, doo, doo,

I am looking out my back door!”

Suddenly, the music stopped.

“What the fuck .”

Venom looked back to the phone and found Eddie tapping furiously, shards of anger shooting from Eddie straight through his own long body.

“What?”

Venom had seen Eddie angry before. He’d seen frustrated anger, annoyed anger, and  stop-making-a-mess-with-the-ketchup anger.

This was so much different. Anger coated in pain. Sorrow spiced with rage.

Venom shrank a little.

“But it’s Maria’s song.”

“Stop. I don’t want to hear it. I’m not-” Eddie stopped himself and drew in a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. In a calmer, quieter voice he said: “I’m not ready to think about that right now. I’ll pick something else. Just drop it, okay?”

Eddie pressed a few buttons and another song played. It was slow and somber and the singer sounded like a ghost.

“On the way to God don't know,

My brain's the burger, and my heart's the coal,

I'm trying to get my head clear,

I push things out through my mouth, I get refilled through my ears.”

Venom hated this music. He didn’t understand it. Venom wanted Maria’s song. Maria’s song made sense. It soothed him.

While Eddie quietly showered, Venom remained quiet too, knotting himself up in Eddie’s abdomen.

He decided Maria sang the song much better.

He still wished he could hear it one more time.

Chapter Text

Eddie had almost walked right by the woman sitting cross-legged against the concrete wall just outside Mrs. Chen’s store had she not chirped cheerfully at him first.

“Hey there!”

Yesterday, that space had been empty except for a couple of bags of trash, which, Eddie just realized had been shoved to the other side of the store.

The way the woman had set up her space it looked like she’d been living there for years.  Several sheets of torn cardboard were stacked beneath her as a makeshift cushion and she was surrounded by a colorful nest of blankets, flowy skirts and floral blouses.

Beside her was a red hardshell suitcase that had obviously seen a lot of travel, a well-used umbrella and a floppy sun hat. She was dressed in a long blue skirt with green, leafy vines and a cream shirt half-covered by a sloppily knitted shawl.

Something about her screamed “old school hippie” and it reminded Eddie of young photos of his own mother.

He smiled. “Hey, yourself!”

The hippie tucked her long, brown hair behind her ears and showed Eddie a sunny smile. “You look like you could use a newspaper!”

Eddie actually did want a paper, and reflexively he looked over at the newspaper bins to find they were all empty.

When he looked back to her, the hippie revealed a stack of newspapers hidden beneath her blanket.

“Hot off the press! I’m having a special deal today just for you!”

Eddie leaned against the wall beside her, still grinning. “A better deal than a free paper, huh?”

“An even better deal,” she promised.

Eddie rubbed his hands together. “Well, that’s all the convincing I need. What do you have for me?”

The hippie wiggled around her nest, rustling noisily as she looked for this amazing deal. A faint scent of sandalwood and skunky weed wafted off her as she moved.

“Here we go!” She pulled out two newspapers from the pile. “For the low price of five dollars, you get two papers: the Chronicle, the Examiner , and this!”

Hidden inside the Examiner was a thick braided cord that ended in a clasp made from a bent paperclip. It was blue with little pieces of green peeking through the braids. Eddie looked at her skirt and realized there were long tears in the fabric.

“A splash of color for a guy who loves bracelets!”

Eddie looked down at his wrist and she wasn’t wrong. Most of his bracelets were dark colors and the only thing that broke up the monotony was the dark wood prayer beads Mrs. Chen had given him.

“I guess I could use something to liven up my wrist, huh?” He said, reaching for his wallet.

The hippie’s warm brown eyes glittered. “You do! You’re my very first customer since I’ve moved to San Francisco and I can tell you no one else will get a deal like this!”

She plucked the bracelet from the newspaper and held it out like it was the legendary sword, Excalibur.

Eddie lowered his wrist, his own bracelets sliding and shifting as the hippie carefully hooked the new bracelet around his wrist.

“It does look pretty sweet,” Eddie said, and it was true, he dug the colors. “Here’s ten for the two papers, and ten more to promise me you won’t tear up anymore of your nice clothes for jewelry. I can get you some fabrics around the corner tomorrow, cool?”

Maria’s smile faltered only slightly, her lips tightening and her warm eyes glazed for a moment.

“Y-yeah,” she said, and her light tone took on a new level of warmth. “Yeah, very cool. Thank you so much.”

“I’m Eddie,” he said, extending his hand.

Maria wiped her hand on her skirt and shook his. “I’m Maria.”

Then her eyes widened.
“A song!” She announced, sitting up a bit straighter, her hands in her lap. “You deserve a song!”

“What? No, that’s not-”

It was too late, Maria was already belting out some Creedence that was just a bit out of tune and loud enough for the whole block to hear.

“Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch…”

Eddie awkwardly smiled and waved at startled passerbys.

“... Imagination sets in, pretty soon I'm singin'
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door”
And then...she started clapping, off-beat and accompanied by the rustling of newspapers.

She ended the song with a slow clap and jazz hands.

“Bother me tomorrow, today, I'll buy no sorrow
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door”

Eddie’s cheeks hurt from smiling.

That performance deserved a standing ovation and Eddie pushed himself off the wall to give her a proper one.

“It was good meeting you, Maria. Catch you later?”

Maria threw him a peace sign. “Catch you later, Eddie!”

-----

Eddie half-heartedly dried himself off with the towel, lazily leaving his back wet and his hair more-or-less drippy, then dropped it to the floor as usual.

For half a beat he waited for Venom to hand him his sweatpants before remembering the uncomfortable knot in his gut where Venom hid.

He quietly slipped on his sweat pants and went to the sink. He didn’t bother wiping the steam away from the mirror, he knew what he looked like, but still he looked at that foggy image of himself, his mind returning to Maria throwing him a peace sign and saying things like “righteous” and “far out”.

He never grieved for her.

So what if he had been infected by a symbiote, had to save the world, and then almost die?

Maria was his friend and until Venom had sung her damn song, he had almost forgot she was just...gone.

How can I fix this? How can I make this better? Christ, I don’t know anything about her. Did she have a family that would be looking for her? He didn’t even know her last name.

Kinkade.

“What?”

That was her fourth name, Eddie. She has four names like you. You are Eddie Charles Allan Brock and she was Anna Marie Elizabeth Kinkade.

Something about her name made his heart ache. He wondered if she was from a Catholic upbringing like he was. His own mom had always called herself a jack Catholic, even when they went to church every Sunday and prayed before the few meals they shared together.

Maybe her household was stricter.

Maybe I left because they were suffocating.

Eddie blinked. “What? That wasn’t…”

It didn’t sound like his thoughts…

“Venom? Did you do that?”

You wanted to know who she was. I can show you. Do you want to see, Eddie? I can show you what I know. It isn’t much, but I can.

The eagerness in Venom’s voice inside Eddie’s head was more than just a hope to please him. He knew there was guilt there. Of course Venom didn’t mean to kill her. He was a scared lab specimen like she was.

He was about to apologize for snapping at Venom and his song when-

She is Anna Marie Elizabeth Kinkade running through a vineyard of her parent’s estate in Sonoma, California. Her hair is done in thick braids and there’s a box of cookies under her chubby arms. She eats them among the budding flowers until she gets sick. Worth it.

Eddie could feel the cold, dewy soil beneath his bare feet and even the nausea from way too many Oreos...

It’s twelve years later and she insists on being called Marie. She’s smoking her first cigarette and nearly burns down the whole vineyard when she tries to put it out before her mom shows up. She shoves gum in her mouth and lies to her mom’s face. The gum should have worked, but she’s grounded anyway!

Eddie clutched his head, feeling a clear nicotine buzz that he hasn’t felt since high school.

“How...how are you doing this, Venom?”

My host’s memories become my memories. They are our memories now.

She calls herself Mary when she runs away from boarding school at sixteen with her best friend. They live in a loft that smells like turpentine and piss. They sell art they craft out of scraps from the nearby dump. It pays for their meals and their shitty apartment. They are masters of their own destinies.

Eddie was only dimly aware that he was shivering in the cold bathroom, stray water he didn’t quite catch with his towel dripped down his back, and yet he was warmed from sunshine through the skylight of “Mary’s” apartment in sunny La Jolla.

She dubs herself Marvelous the first time she tries PCP. She sees roses in everyone’s eyes, then throws up on her favorite calfskin boots. She had just stolen those yesterday!

Eddie, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt her. I liked her. I never wanted to-

She’s now Marla and in love with a street magician who teaches her how to live “off the grid” properly. She laughs when he pulls quarters out of her ears, and laughs harder when he fucks up his card tricks. Even after they drift apart, she knows she’ll never love anyone else, and Maria will be her name from now on.

“I know you didn’t, buddy...I know...”

She’s seen all of Southern California and is bored. She catches a bus to San Francisco and that’s where she’ll stay until it’s time to move on again. Maybe she’ll end up in Oregon eventually, who knows? She sells her first bracelet to a sweet boy named Eddie. She already knows she’ll love it here.

The moment the towel draped around Eddie’s shoulder, the world started to come back into focus. Tendrils slid the stiff terra cloth across his shoulders and clumsily patted at his damp hair. Smaller appendages touched his cheeks and dutifully wiped away water and tears.

We didn't want to make you cry.

“Nah, I needed to cry,” Eddie sniffled, leaning into the cool, slick tentacles gliding across his cheeks. “I’m sorry about her song, V. We can play it in the future if you want.”

The tendrils froze against Eddie’s face.

What did you call me?

“What? V? I dunno, I figured since-”

“It was fun while it lasted, V, but we both knew I was dead the moment I met you.”

The voice inside Eddie’s head wasn’t Venom’s, but it wasn’t Maria’s either. It was low and quiet, shy...tired...sad…

“Who is that?”

No one!

The older skrull students surround Bryntar, taking turns pushing him and laughing when he cries for them to stop. It's too easy for them and too impossible to fight back. Bryntar wishes he could shapeshift into a bird, but he can't shapeshift into anything.

And so he's pushed and pushed and…cheers erupt as a fist flies towards his face…

Eddie hissed in pain...until he realized he wasn’t in pain. Still, he touched his lip to make sure it wasn’t bleeding.

Stop doing this.

“I don't even know what I'm doing! Who is he? What’s a skrull?”

Everyone’s afraid to go near the rocket that landed in the center of the city, but not Bryntar!  They call him coward, but he will show them all what bravery is when he meets these newcomers! He can’t fight, he can’t shapeshift, he is sick all the time, but Bryntar is determined and that’s what will make him a hero.

The rocket is filled with several pods of weird, colorful goo. He doesn’t know why he walks towards the black one first, but he does.

The pod opens and Bryntar touches it.

The goo touches back.

Then everything goes dark.

Although Eddie’s eyes were wide open, he couldn’t see a thing.

“Venom!”

He thought Venom said something to him, but whatever he was saying was drowned out by the roar of wind and the boom of distant thunder...or were those explosions?

Bryntar has never felt so free. Venom has changed his life, saved his life, made his life one worth living. They move together as one being, racing across the rooftops of a dying city. With Venom’s fellow aliens they tear everything down that Bryntar hates, and Bryntar hates the skrull. He is glad to see it all destroyed. He laughs as those who called him “coward” now run in terror from him.

Eddie gripped the edges of the sink, desperate to pull himself out of the jarring memories. Despite this “Bryntar’s” unbridled joy, there were shards of sadness in every memory.

Eddie didn’t realize fresh tears streaked down his face.

Eddie, stop it. We don’t want to look. We don’t want to remember.

Bryntar laughs when Venom tries to pile the heads neatly on top of each other. They roll away and don’t cooperate.

Venom sometimes topples them on purpose just to hear his Bryn laugh.

“Venom, what happened to him? Why can’t we…”

The answer sliced through Eddie’s mind.

“Let me guess,” Riot sneers and Bryn knows that the sneer was meant to scare him. “You thought you two were going to be together forever.”

Bryn wasn’t as scared as he thought he’d be though. Venom had taught him how to be brave and he needed to be brave for them both now.

“It was fun while it lasted, V…”

We are Venom. We will be together forever. We-

“Oh god…Venom...I’m so sorry...Riot...he-”

“Stop!”

As Eddie heard Venom’s voice outside of his head, he shot his hands blindly out in front of him to find Venom’s face. He desperately tried to blink away the image of Riot laughing.

He didn’t want to remember.

He didn’t want Venom to remember.

“Venom…I can’t…”

He could still hear Riot’s laugh.

“We couldn’t…”

Bryntar is gone. Venom slams his viscous body against the glass of the rocket again and again, but it does nothing. Bryntar’s emerald face is pale, there’s a peace on his face that Venom doesn’t share. He’ll never find peace, not without his Bryn. They were going to be together forever.

“We couldn’t…”

“...Save them…”

Eddie didn’t know when he fell, but he found himself on his knees in the middle of the bathroom, staring at Venom’s face in his hands.

He couldn’t tell if Venom was shaking or if it was his hands.

He tried to calm them both by bringing Venom’s face towards his. Venom’s slick skin was cool against his feverish forehead. It grounded him, calmed him.

“We couldn’t save Maria…” Venom growled softly.

“...we couldn’t save Bryntar either,” Eddie replied, his thumbs gently running along the downturned curls of Venom’s nightmarish mouth.

A single memory bubbled to the surface, and somehow Eddie knew that this was one Venom chose to reveal voluntarily.

Bryn sits alone in the ruins of the city he and Venom destroyed together, a hand over his chest and black tendrils coiling around his arm.

“We don’t want this to ever end, Venom. You’re a part of me, and I’m a part of you. Never leave me, okay?”

Even when Venom says “okay” they both know it was a lie. The last towers were falling. The end was near.

“When Riot separated us,” Eddie said, “it felt like a part of me died. I never want to feel that again, Venom. I never want us to be a part, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure we stay together. I promise.”

“We promise, Eddie.” Tendrils emerged from Venom’s neck to coil around Eddie’s fingers, a single promise wrapped around each finger. “We will be together forever.”

“Okay.”

When Eddie said okay, both of them knew it was the truth.

And they would hold each other to it.

-------

Epilogue: One week later...

“Come here.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to try something.”

“No.”

“Come on, asshole. Let me try...” Too comfortable to lift his head off the pillow, Eddie swiped lazily at Venom’s head floating over him. The symbiote rose with ease then lowered himself closer to Eddie’s face.

“No way!” Venom’s grin nearly split his face in half.

“Fine! I guess I won’t massage you, then.”

“You give up too easily, Loser.”

Venom wiggled his tentacles towards Eddie, nestling himself comfortably between his host’s awaiting hands.

“Don’t bite me,” Eddie said just as Venom’s teeth hovered over his thumb.

For a full two seconds, Venom seemed to be debating how serious Eddie was, but finally he withdrew.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Liar. Okay, tell me how this feels.”

Eddie drew up his knees to rest his hands against them, cradling Venom’s head. After a moment of pondering where to start, Eddie decided to start along Venom’s jawline, his thumbs running along the black skin slick with saliva.

Venom’s tear drop eyes thinned a little, and Eddie couldn’t tell if that was a good squint or a bad squint.

So, he dropped his thumbs under Venom’s chin and began to stroke the braids of tendrils that connected the symbiote’s head to Eddie’s chest.

The noise Venom made sounded like a gurgle...or maybe a purr...something in between.

“That good for ya?” Eddie asked, his fingers coming down to thread between the tendrils, stroking the smaller ones first, then running along the thicker appendages.

“Yes. We like this. We want more of this. We should always have this after fights.”

“Well, if you keep fixing me back up after each fight like ya do, I’ll do this back to you. How’s that sound, buddy?”

“No.”

Eddie blinked. “What?”

“We do not like ‘buddy’. We do not feel like a ‘buddy’.”

Eddie tilted his head and stopped caressing Venom’s tendrils...at least until Venom let out a sharp hiss which encouraged Eddie to keep going.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. ‘Buddy’, doesn’t really feel right.”

“ Find another name for me, loser. Buddy is dumb.”

“Alright, well what do you want to be called, then?”

“Love. Call me love. You love me.”

“What?”

Eddie sat up so suddenly that Venom nearly slipped through his fingers. He cupped Venom’s head quickly and brought him closer to his face.

Venom’s grin thinned a little, then brightened. “You love me! You said you want us to be together forever. It’s because you love me.”

Eddie felt the air leave his lungs.

“What’s wrong, Eddie? Why did you stop breathing? Start breathing then tell me you love me.”

“I…but...well...”

“No secrets!”

“No, I know,” Eddie said, rubbing the back of his neck, which was burning hot. “I just never thought about it like that. I mean, you are a part of me. You and I are bonded beyond anything I could ever have with a human.”

The more Eddie talked, the more he began to understand, and the more the words came out effortlessly.

“You are a part of me, Venom, and I’m a part of you. So much so that I don’t think I could ever truly be whole without you. It’s not just the massages and the late night fights saving the city. It’s...I dunno...everything. You’re everything.”

Venom looked at Eddie quietly for a moment, tendrils lazily floating in the air as if submerged in water.

Then he gurgled a laugh.

“Hah! So sappy! I am everything. I am everything ! I’m also hungry! Let’s get food. Can we eat someone now?”

Raw embarrassment reddened Eddie’s face. It wasn’t every day he was that frank about his feelings, and Venom seemed to think it was all a big joke.

“Yeah...okay.”

Venom dove into Eddie’s chest and Eddie waited for him to reemerge to his usual station across his shoulders just beneath his trapezius muscles.

He didn’t.

Instead, Venom coiled up around Eddie’s heart, tendrils seeping out just enough to form a thick shell around the area where Riot had skewered him.

Venom whispered inside Eddie’s mind.

You are better than liver…

“What?”

I love eating liver, so juicy and wiggly. It’s slippery on the tongue.

Eddie felt himself turn a little green.

I love liver...and you are better than liver.

Eddie smiled and ran a hand across the black rubbery armor across his chest that wasn’t quite slimy, but not quite hard. “I love you too, love.”

Love...I like this.

“What about me? What are you going to call me now?”

“You’re still ‘Loser’.”

Eddie laughed, “Okay, fine, just as long as I’m your loser.”

“Forever my loser, Eddie.”