Work Text:
Eddie, Eddie, wake up!
“I wazzn’t sleepin’,” Eddie protested, which was a lie and a damn lie.
He probably shouldn’t lie in church, even if he wasn’t a believer. It seemed rude. For that matter, sleeping in church was pretty rude, too. There were a lot of things that Eddie was and a lot of things that Eddie did that didn’t mesh well with the whole be on your best behavior for God schtick.
Not that, really, sleeping wasn’t part of Eddie’s best behaviors. If he was sleeping, then he wasn’t causing trouble, and God should probably give him extra credit for that.
Eddie, there is a bad man in the church, Venom told him.
Eddie scrunched further into the pew, putting his hands in his hoodie pockets. “How do we know he’s a bad man?” He could feel Venom inside him, giving him a little squeeze, like a hug. Keeping Eddie from sliding right down onto the floor, which was good, because Eddie’s legs were still completely off in slumberland, and scooching down in the pew almost dumped him off the damn thing entirely.
Shouldn’t swear in church, Eddie, Venom said, and there was that greenish tone in his voice that let Eddie know that Venom was amused. And we know he is a bad man because he is wearing a mask. You said--
“Yeah, I know, I said you could eat bad guys,” Eddie said, keeping his voice low. “Where’s the bad man?”
He went into one of the little wooden rooms.
“The bad guy went to confession?” Eddie hissed. He sat up straighter, twisted around in his seat, searching the church.
It was a huge church, but very empty. Even devout Catholics usually weren’t at church on Tuesday afternoons, Eddie guessed. He wouldn’t know, he wasn’t a devout anything. He’d managed to brush off the priest who came to see if he needed help about an hour ago, and since then, the church had been empty.
He was supposed to be meeting a contact here, a source. Information that was supposed to revive his flagging reporter career.
I don’t know what that means, Venom complained.
“Confession?” Eddie said. “It’s where people go to confess their sins, so they can be forgiven. There’s a little routine for it, the priest gives you pennance to do, and then everything’s all fresh and clean with God.” A dozen or more movie scenes flickered through his active memory, colored with Eddie’s mental go ahead, you can look.
They’d come to that agreement pretty soon after the whole incident with Anne. Eddie would answer any questions that Venom had; in exchange, Venom would stop rifling through his memory like it was an old fashioned card catalog.
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned, Venom said thoughtfully. I have eaten a whole fuckton of people. They were not all bad men. But they were all very tasty.
Okay, laughing in church was decidedly rude. Cackling like a madman probably the height of rudeness. Eddie bit down on his arm to stop the guffaws, and there were tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. He was seriously going to need to pee if he didn’t get it under control sometime soon.
“Eddie Brock?”
Eddie looked up to see a young man, neat and professional, wearing red sunglasses and a suit. “Yeah?”
“I’m… here to talk to you about Wilson Fisk,” the man said. “My name’s Matt Murdock, attorney at law.”
Eddie. Eddie.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Murdock,” Eddie said.
What, Vee?
That’s the man in the mask.
The man’s hand clasped on his, dry, and calloused. “Nice to meet you, too, Eddie Brock.” There was a long, significant pause. “Venom.”
Eddie, can I eat him now?
“How the hell do--”
“I think we have a lot to talk about, Mr. Brock,” Murdock said.
“I think we do, too,” Eddie said. Keeping the whole eating option on the table, Eddie thought. If he does anything--
I will not let anything happen to you. Even if we must go to confession after.