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Eddie...why do we have a doctor’s appointment?
Eddie sighed, tilting his head so he could open his eyes without getting them full of hot water. The shower steam was so thick he had no idea how Venom was snooping on his phone, but evidently, he was. It hadn’t taken Venom very long to stop listening to the ‘mundane planning chatter’ that was Eddie’s brain making appointments and keeping a schedule, but it didn’t stop the alien from nosing in when the reminders popped up on his various electronics.
“Why are you reading my notifications while I’m trying to shower?” he asked, reaching for the shampoo. “I do not take that long in the shower and I thought you liked how the hot water felt.”
Venom pulled his head and tendrils back from where he’d been bleeding off Eddie’s shoulders like a shredded, lopsided cape, and blinked once, ducking his head under the water where it beaded and streamed off.
I heard the notification, and sometimes you are very bad at keeping appointments.
“I’m not that bad,” he defended, running his fingers through his hair. He scratched at his scalp and Venom rippled along the back of his neck, also enjoying the sensation.
You are that bad. Ask Anne.
“I like that you guys are talking, but I kinda wish it was less gang up on Eddie and more…...anything else.”
Too bad. You have a lot of features we can talk about.
“Yeah. I don’t even want to know what that means.”
So?
Eddie tilted his head back, spitting out water and shaking his head as he reached for conditioner. “So?”
The doctor, Eddie. It was not Dan.
There was a hint of fear behind Venom’s tone and Eddie paused, looking at the eyes that were still watching him from his forearm.
“It’s not Dan, no. She’s a massage therapist.”
Venom blinked, his mouth cracked in a kind of lopsided thinking gesture, and then instead of asking he bumped the curtain as he shot back out to use Eddie’s phone where it was sitting on the counter. Eddie chuckled and shook his head, moving on to lathering up.
By the time he was clean, Venom had read at least fifteen articles, including the therapist’s bio.
Something about this doesn’t seem right.
Eddie hummed, taking his jacket and keys off the hook by the door. “And what about it is so disconcerting? I explained this, humans like massages because they feel good. They relieve stress, help keep our muscles in balance, even fix nerve paths that are all messed up.” He zipped up his jacket and reached for his helmet, glancing once back at the apartment before Venom helpfully clicked the light. “What’s the issue?”
Her credentials seemed...perfect. Eddie. They were too perfect.
“You know, I taught you how to do investigative research so you’d stop believing the first link you clicked on Google, not so you could vet my choice in massage therapists,” Eddie said, locking their apartment and heading down the hall. His customary Bluetooth earpiece was in place, protecting him from looking too insane while he and Venom spoke.
Why do you want to see her anyway? Venom grouched, pooling in a warm, heavy weight along Eddie’s back. I can do far more with our body than she can.
Almost lazily, he was working his way around Eddie’s ribs, as he was accustomed to doing when they went on the motorcycle. After finding out how bad motorcycle wrecks could be even outside of high speed chases and how traumatic crashes were for Eddie even just psychologically, Venom had silently begun volunteering himself as armor.
“True,” Eddie said, giving one nod as he pulled his bike up to balance and threw a leg over. “But humans need touch from other humans. It’s a brain chemical thing that you really can’t fake and ever since….well.” He cleared his throat, touching the breast pocket of his jacket where he still, rather foolishly, carried around Anne’s ring. “I need something, buddy.”
Why do we not go see Anne then? Or Dan? We could cuddle.
Eddie cracked a smile as he put his helmet on. “Anne cuddled us because she was miserable and Dan asked us to. Unfortunately most humans aren’t up for just cuddling because you asked.”
That’s idiotic, Venom said over the sound of the motorcycle rumbling to life. If you need something like touch so badly, why do humans not create avenues to fill that need without a relationship?
“Because we like to sell everything,” Eddie sighed. “We put a price on food and a place to get out of the weather too, V. If we’re going to force people to pay money they don’t have for something that literally keeps our hearts beating, then everything else is fair game to be sold too. Just the way it works right now.”
Venom was silent for the rest of the drive, and Eddie was right there with him.
Doctor Morphia practiced out of a small studio that smelled much more like oils and candles and wax burners than a doctor’s office. The lighting was relaxed and warm, the studio space decorated with stones and plants and tasteful hard wood. The massage table, oils, and heat rocks were all pristinely arranged. Just looking at it had Eddie feeling more relaxed, and he whistled as he looked up at the ceiling.
“Not many places in San Francisco where you can get this kind of natural lighting,” he said, staring up at the sky through four skylights. “Not without a lot of money.”
“My mother left me a lot with this practice,” a voice said, and Eddie turned to see a woman in her early forties coming towards him, a warm smile on her face.
She had wire half-moon glasses perched on her nose and was wearing a skirt and woven tank top rather than a lab coat. Galaxy symbols swirled down her entire left arm to taper along her fingers. She reached out a hand and he clasped it, finding it impossible not to return her smile.
Venom, though, immediately rippled back up Eddie’s arm.
Eddie!
He flinched, taking the Bluetooth out of his ear and pocketing it in an almost forceful motion, a silent plea for Venom to shut up.
“Sorry about that, forgot to turn my headset off,” Eddie apologized. “You must be Doctor Morphia.”
Eddie listen to me. We have to leave. We have to get out now.
Eddie shook his head and clenched his jaw, trying hard to focus on the doctor instead of his symbiote’s agitation.
“I am, Mr. Brock. Jasmine is fine though. The Doctor part is so people spend less time calling me a new-age freak and more time actually finding my practice.”
“You can call me Eddie. Does it work?”
She glanced around with a raised eyebrow and a look of amusement in her expression. “Not at all. I know you already submitted all the boring paperwork and medical history in your online profile, so, are you ready to get started?”
NO!
Eddie forced his smile to stay a little too long and nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Yes ma’am.”
“Great. I’m going to step out of the room. What I need you to do is undress to your comfort level and cover whatever you don’t want me to see with these towels.” She pat a stack of pristine, fluffy black towels that were sitting in the middle of the bamboo planters. “That means you can go as little as shirt off, or as much as full nude. I’m comfortable with anything and will not do anything you’re not one-hundred percent okay with. When you’re ready, ring the bell,” she said, indicating. “Don’t lay down and get comfortable just yet though, I’ll be having you do some gentle stretches and movements just so I can see where on your body we really need to work. Sound good?”
Absolutely not.
“Absolutely. Jasmine, thank you.”
She smiled, bowing her dark head before leaving him in the room ‘alone.’
Once he was certain she was gone, he rounded on his symbiote. “What was that about?” he demanded.
Venom had manifested as an angry plate across most of Eddie’s torso, tendrils supporting his head holding it high enough that he could glare right back.
We need to leave, Eddie. Now.
“You keep saying that but you’re not giving me a single good reason why. I’m stressed, Venom. I want this. So if you’re dragging me out for something stupid like Kinder eggs again--”
She is not human.
Eddie blinked, finger frozen mid air. “She--really? What is she?”
She is an alien, Eddie. She is a threat.
“Wait--like she has another one of you guys?”
Venom bristled. Klyntar are not the only sentient life outside of Earth, Eddie.
“Okay, dumb thing to assume I know but I literally thought aliens were all science fiction until like…...a year ago so cut me some slack. What kind of alien is she that you’re freaking out? She doesn’t look dangerous.”
Neither do you.
“Ouch.”
It is not my fault you are statistically short for your gender.
“Alright you can stop now. Definitely gonna put a new lock on my phone because your access to Google is getting abused. Get to the bottom here. What is she and do we need to eat her before we leave or is this more a break a window and run situation?”
It is too late to run. Now she has touched you. She has your information. She can track us. She can replace us.
Eddie felt a prickle of unease and he swallowed. “What do you mean replace. What is she?”
They are called Skrull. They invade not by taking hosts, but by replacing them.
A chill poured through Eddie’s body and he felt a very strong fight or flight response flood him. Venom closed his mouth and hummed a kind of low growl.
Now you appreciate our situation.
“I think so,” Eddie said, his voice strained. “Is there something about a Skrull that we can’t handle just one?”
No. But we cannot be certain she is only one.
Eddie threw his hands up. “Great. Then what do we do?”
Surprise her. I know what she is, but it is unlikely she realizes yet that you are an us.
He glanced at the door, working his jaw as he thought. “Are you sure we have to attack her? What if she’s just…….a fugitive here. You know, she doesn’t have to be hostile. Does she?”
Venom narrowed his eyes and Eddie waved a hand.
“I just don’t want to attack her if we don’t have to man. You know how I feel about that. Just because she’s an alien doesn’t mean she’s bad.”
Skrull are invaders.
“Yeah well, so were you.”
Venom was silent at that, his lips closing slowly over his teeth.
“Can we give her a shot? Reasonably?” Eddie asked. “Have her come back in here, you can cover most of me so it’ll only take a second to go full out, and we give her a chance to tell us why she’s here.”
Venom seemed to consider, before finally pulling in, slicking his way rapidly across Eddie’s shoulders. Fine. But if we die, I’m saying I told you so.
“Fair enough,” Eddie said, moving to the bell as Venom encased everything but his head. Tendrils reached up into his hairline and fringed his face, but Venom did not create their hulking form or manifest his own eyes or teeth. He merely coated Eddie in a secure layer, an extra swath of him inside jealously guarding their vital organs.
“Ready?”
Yes. We are ready.
Eddie rang the bell and held his breath.
Jasmine came back in with that kind smile, but it vanished the moment she saw them. She dropped the clipboard she’d been carrying with his medical records, turning terribly pale.
For a moment, Eddie was very worried that Venom had been wrong--but then the pale turned green and her ears elongated, her forehead and chin going craggy and prominent.
As alien as her features had become right before his eyes, the look of terror didn’t disappear. She just stood there. Frozen in place.
“You’re hosting a Klyntar,” she choked, and to Eddie’s great surprise the Skrull raised her hands, shaking uncontrollably as tears began to brim. “Please….please don’t eat me just…..I won’t tell anyone I promise I won’t…”
Venom’s own surprise rushed through Eddie’s veins and he glanced down at his symbiote, who had manifested a head from his side. “Uh...Venom? You want to--” he gestured vaguely, feeling a strong impulse to go to the weeping alien and comfort her. Even though he knew it could very well be a trick.
He didn’t think so though. Not with that reaction or Venom’s surprise.
Where is your squad? Venom asked at last, peering at the Skrull.
“Dead,” she answered quickly. “All dead. I was the last one and badly wounded. The doctor who really lived here found me, helped me. She hid me and then when some mugger killed her for the rocks around her neck I killed him and took her place. I learned everything, I’ve been leading a legitimate practice I just--” she shook her head, her breath hiccuping as she dropped her eyes and her fearful weeping increased. “I just want to live…”
“Shit,” Eddie said softly, feeling a double dose of guilt as Venom also realized his mistake. “We’re not going to kill you,” Eddie assured, moving forward with a black-coated hand outstretched. “I’m sorry...Venom got defensive and I didn’t even know your species existed until five minutes ago so I trusted his judgement.”
Venom swung his head around. No you didn’t!
“And it’s a good thing too, huh?” Eddie said through grit teeth, nodding his head towards Jasmine. “She’s hysterical, man.”
The Skrull are a dangerous foe, Venom defended, looking genuinely upset as he rippled around Eddie protectively. I was not going to give her the chance to hurt us.
“No--don’t...don’t be angry with him,” she said, pitifully trying to dry her tears on her tank top. Eddie reached out for one of the towels and leaned closer, offering it without getting too close. She reached out a hand that was still trembling and accepted it.
“Klyntar and Skrull haven’t gotten along and normally...yeah. My goal would have been to kill both of you. But I haven’t been like that in twenty years.” She sniffed, staring at her hands, her eyes puffy. “I really am a doctor now. I’ve been studying--and actually,” she gave a weak smile and looked at Eddie again. “I can work on you even better now that I know you’re a host. Full symbiosis? Am I correct? You both look very healthy.”
Eddie blinked and Venom pulled back a bit more, sinking in to sort of set his head as a blob on Eddie’s shoulder.
“You can tell how healthy Venom is by looking?”
She nodded. “To an extent.” She gestured. “See how shiny he is? How easily he covers your body? His eyes are almost perfectly color reflective and the tendrils he’s making along your nerve paths are hair thin.”
Venom actually preened at her analysis. We are the perfect match, he said proudly, adjusting in a slick ripple around Eddie’s ribs. We have been together for more than a year.
“Wow….” Jasmine sniffed, dabbing at her face once more with the towel before sighing and setting it aside. “That’s a long time for a host to survive, let alone thrive. You must be. Can--do you mind if I look?”
Eddie?
“Hey man I was gonna be on a table mostly naked in front of her ten minutes ago. You were the one freaking out.”
Fair enough.
Venom pulled back, still laying as a thick blanket across Eddie’s back and shoulders but leaving the rest of him exposed.
“I, uh. Still didn’t manage to get undressed,” Eddie said, really feeling guilty as Jasmine got closer. She was studying him with much more fascination than terror now, but her red-rimmed eyes didn’t go away even as her human disguise bled back.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, looking down at her hands as the flesh tones and false tattooing re-appeared. “I’m...more comfortable like this. Especially with the windows.”
She gestured over their heads and Eddie nodded. “I get it.”
“So I know this seems like a funny thing to ask now--but can I touch you?”
Eddie gave a short laugh but he nodded. “Yeah. Uh. That’s fine. Mind if I ask you questions? Starting with, this doesn’t cancel my appointment does it?”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. Especially if you both still want it. Opening up the tightness in your muscles will make your Klyntar feel more at home too. A massage is just as good for the Klyntar as it is for the host.”
She reached up and gently touched his head, framing it with her warm fingers as she brushed along his temple. “Incredible,” she murmured, looking so long into his eyes that Eddie felt the urge to blink and avert his gaze. “Your cognitive reactions, everything….perfectly intact. Even after a year.”
“That’s not normal?” Eddie asked, feeling a tingle of uncertainty. How much was this woman about to tell him and did he want to know? “Even for a good host?”
That was the reporter in him then, apparently. He was bound to ask questions even against his own sanity.
“Oh no. Most Klyntar either lobotomize a host they stay in for this long or something inside just…..snaps. Too much terror, too much wrong.” She shook her head. “But your neurological integrity is thriving.”
“You can tell all that from looking at my eyes?”
“I can tell all that from talking to you and seeing how perfectly you react to outside stimuli. Even the most careful Klyntar damage host nerves getting the personality to go dark. Your pupils are reactive, your eyes follow me normally, your physical reaction time is excellent. And you can hold full, rational conversations with your Klyntar. That’s not something I think I’ve ever seen.”
“Okay yikes,” Eddie muttered, glancing down at Venom’s head. Venom closed his mouth and made a shrugging gesture with part of his mass, but didn’t try to defend the analysis.
I take care of Eddie. He is much more than my ride.
“I’m seeing that,” she said, and though the statement could have been mocking, it wasn’t. It was actually almost wistful. “I’m glad neither of you are alone.”
Her hand dropped to the side of Eddie’s neck, gently feeling around the glands in his throat before resting her fingers in the notch of his pulse. “Perfect cardiovascular symbiosis as well,” she said, looking down at Venom with an impressed expression. “You really have been taking care of him.”
“What tells you that?” Eddie asked, feeling his voice vibrate strangely against her fingers.
“The regularity and rate, for one. Your heart beats incredibly slow on the human scale of things, but the warmth and color of your skin along with your cognitive awareness tells me you’re having no trouble with oxygen perfusion.”
She dropped her hand and then gently touched his fingers, prompting him to bring his hand up so she could turn it over and study his palm and forearm. He watched her, intensely curious about what else she was going to tell him. He’d had Dan look at him, had Venom describe in gory detail what his liver looked like when he was hung over, but he’d never met someone who could see he and Venom as one. Venom was like a blind spot in Dan’s scans, and Eddie’s body was a different world to Venom. What Jasmine was able to see was unique.
“See?” she asked, feeling gently along Eddie’s wrist and smoothing a thumb across the tendons. “Any pain?”
Eddie shook his head. “Should there be?”
“Well, you are a reporter. Lots of typing I imagine. Do you remember being in pain before Venom came along?”
He snorted. “Yeah there were a few things beating me up about that job.”
“Including your wrists, I imagine. Venom saved you spending money on carpal tunnel surgery--I’m almost certain of it.”
I lined the tendons myself for three weeks while Eddie’s body recovered, Venom said, with the air of someone showing off a house they’d remodeled. We do not have scars from childhood on our bones any longer either.
Eddie felt a pang, and was grateful when Jasmine let go of his hand and reached towards his chest. “Do you mind if I feel around a little? Heart and lung integrity are the hardest to maintain in a host, especially long term. I’ve never seen a species like yours hold up this well for this long.”
With his throat still a little tight, Eddie more grunted his consent, trying to relax the sudden tension mention of his childhood instilled. Venom moved across his shoulders in an unconscious reaction meant to soothe.
Jasmine pressed gently into Eddie’s sternum, turning her hands and feeling around the center of his chest towards the bottom of his sternum and then over. “Have you integrated with his heart and intercostal muscles?” she asked, laying a warm palm fully across Eddie’s heart. He wondered how much she could feel without it pounding, but evidently it was enough.
Venom dipped his head once as ‘yes’.
“That’s also unusual…” Jasmine murmured, shaking her head and letting her hand slip from Eddie’s chest. “Eddie, you got very lucky with Venom. Most hosts Klyntar take, they do not take care of and they certainly don’t help. Your life expectancy should have been cut down to maybe three years after full bonding, but instead Venom is taking some of the workload off of your heart and lungs all without weakening them. Your lifespan is probably going to be longer than most humans, as long as nothing happens to Venom.”
Eddie blinked. “Wait…..really?”
“Definitely,” she nodded. “Venom, you’re taking beautiful care of this body. Do you mind if I work some of my skills into Eddie’s muscles? I promise I won’t hurt him or you.”
You may proceed.
Eddie snorted. “Sometimes you’re really pompous. Did I ever tell you that?”
Take two on her giving them privacy and this time they were in a towel by the time she came back. She had Eddie do some basic movements and stretches, and she watched how his muscles moved and where there were issues.
“Okay I have your session figured out now, go ahead and lay down. On your chest first, please. I’m going to get that tension around your spine. Venom,” she said, pouring and rubbing a warm oil between her hands as Eddie got settled. “I want you to blanket yourself evenly through the muscles. I’ll press hard enough for you both to feel it--the key for you will be to resist the urge to push back. If at any moment I hurt you, just say something and I’ll stop, but I’m going to use more strength on you than I would a regular patient.”
Eddie grunted and felt Venom spread out.
Ten minutes in, Jasmine no longer needed to remind Venom to hold still. Venom was so relaxed Eddie swore he could almost feel him dripping through the tiny crevices in his muscles. Which would have been unnerving except for the fact that Eddie himself was far too relaxed to care. To his mild embarrassment, he’d fallen asleep by the time Jasmine finished working on his back.
“Hey guys, I need you to turn over,” she’d said softly, amusement in her voice. Grumbling a little, his body feeling like warm, wet sand, he turned over and sighed, eyes immediately going back to shut. He heard Jasmine chuckle and pour some more oil out before she started working again.
“Twelve,” she murmured, her voice filtering through the fog of bliss Eddie’s body was floating in. He hummed a kind of inquisitive sound in the back of his throat, but didn’t even try to move or open his eyes. Her fingers glided back up his ribs and smoothed out a tender spot as she answered. “Your heart. It’s only pumped twelve times in the last minute. Just means both me and Venom are doing our jobs well.”
Eddie heard the smile in her voice, but still felt too relaxed to bother cracking an eyelid to see it.
That was outstanding. We need to go again.
Eddie rolled his eyes, pulling his shirt over his head as he gave a lopsided smile. “Told you. And we’ll definitely come back. Not many places we can go where I don’t have to pretend I’m talking to myself.”
And I told you something was wrong.
“Yeah well, we were both right, weren’t we?”
Yes. A beat. Your body has much more room now.
Eddie snorted. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Your veins were starting to look like the headphones we left in our pocket for two days. Your muscles were all pressed together and now they glide. The pressure was nice...we never experienced nice pressure before.
“Massage does open up blood flow and release muscle tension. That’s a big part of the point. I don’t know why you’re still so shocked I wanted to do this. I know you were just--” Eddie gestured, “drowning yourself in the endorphins. Like some addict.”
He glanced back as they headed towards the motorcycle, returning Jasmine’s wave as she watched them from her balcony. She looked much happier than when they’d first walked in. Eddie supposed that even being a different species, having Venom around was probably a great balm on the loneliness Jasmine had been feeling for a long time. He was looking forward to going to see her again.
I like brain chemicals, Eddie. So do you, or you wouldn’t seek out things like massages and bad movies.
“Hey! I thought you liked my movie selections!”
Your tastes have fallen lately. It’s my turn to pick.
“Fine. But we are not watching Planet of the Apes again.”
Spoilsport.