Work Text:
You call me parasite.
Eddie hums, coffee piled with chocolate, sugar, and whipped cream. It’s a compromise, as awful as it tastes. He looks up from the paper when Venom doesn’t defend their beloved chocolate.
“Yeah, I do, bud. Why?”
A long silence passes; Eddie feels the symbiote shift, their bond betraying their restlessness.
I’m not a parasite. They pause, sinking down the spaces between their ribs to slip behind their left kidney. They’re hiding, nervous.
“It’s a nickname, V. Like darling, or sweetheart.”
It’s not the same as parasite, they mumble.
“It isn’t?” Eddie sets down his paper and takes another gulp of his too-sweet coffee for them. Venom doesn’t reply, bundling into a tighter ball of goo and maintaining his silence.
“Talk to me, dude, what’s wrong?”
Venom idly pokes their kidney and twists tighter in on themself.
I take care of us.
“Mhm.”
I’m not... I’m not a parasite. I take care of us.
Fuck. “Oh, buddy.” He hadn’t realized the connotations— as if Venom had been using them, using him. “It’s not that, V. Can you come out here?” A tiny blob of black situates itself on his palm, milky eyes blinking up at him miserably. “I was being silly, sweetheart. I didn’t mean it like that.” Impossibly, more of the blob retreats into his body, hiding from him.
What did you mean? Their growl is so timid, voice so unsure. Eddie— maybe you’re better on your own. And the last of the blob bubbles back into his palm, pooling at the back of his inner arm. Should leave.
Panic is very sudden to grip him. Eddie feels his stomach lurch, the thought of being away from his symbiote painful to think about. “You take such good care of us,” he says finally. “I’m sorry, don’t go— fuck. I need you. Stay. With me.” There is no Eddie without them, and there is no them without Venom.
He balls their hand into a fist, wishing he could see his symbiote again. He feels Venom climbing up the rings of his ribs and settling at the best of his sternum, unsure.
Promise? Don’t want to be parasite.
“You’re not. You’re my most important—” and Eddie finds that he has no word to finish that sentence. “Everything. My most important everything, V.”
Venom says nothing, likely has no words to use, but slips down into his heart; their contentment is answer enough. Eddie takes another sip of their coffee, one hand rubbing over the left side of his chest. Venom basks in the warmth.
Needs more chocolate.
Eddie laughs and adds more chocolate. He turns his paper to the next page and doesn’t stop rubbing over his heart.