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Venom eagerly peaked out from over Eddie’s shoulder, staring at the packed car Eddie had rented. Eddie was just storing the last of their gear in the rental car before they would be on their way for a camping trip.
Well, not a camping trip, Eddie had told them firmly. Camping involved tents, and sleeping bags, and “roughing it up in nature.” Venom wasn’t too sure what the last part meant, but it didn’t sound too bad to them.
Regardless, a month ago Eddie had said they were renting a cabin somewhere. “In the middle of butt-fuck nowhere,” was what Eddie had said, which only gave Venom even greater interest.
Butt-fuck, as it turned out, was a turn of phrase. Which was slightly disappointing to Venom until Eddie made it up to them in the best way.
“Alright, ready Vee?” Eddie asked them, jolting them from that beautiful memory.
Yes! Venom eagerly roared through their symbiotic bond. They slunk back into Eddie’s body, watching the world through their host’s eyes.
Eddie chuckled. “Alright, we’re going to stop off at a grocery store first though. A big one, to stock up.”
Won’t Mrs. Chen be angry?
“Nah, I think she’ll forgive us this time round.” Eddie said. Venom could feel Eddie’s amusement, and his excitement to be getting out of the city for the weekend. It made Venom rumble a little, pleased with his other half’s positive mood.
Venom kept themselves hidden as they drove to the grocery store. Traffic was particularly awful this weekend, and slow traffic meant a greater change of Venom being seen. When they finally got to the grocery store, which was placed within a large shopping complex with other stores, Eddie swung the car in front of a shop called Target.
What’s Target? Venom asked.
Eddie put his earbuds in to look like he wasn’t talking to himself. “A retail store, it has a lot of different kinds of things in it, way more than Mrs. Chen’s shop.”
Venom wasn’t entirely convinced. Mrs. Chen’s had everything!
But as they entered, Venom was aghast.
Target had everything. Mrs. Chen’s shop was built on lies.
Clothes, trinkets, books, cards, make-up, medicine, toys, furniture, movies, and most importantly, food.
Eddie’s body was shaking from contained chuckles.
“Shocked into silence, Vee?”
The store is adequate. Venom huffed. But yes, they were shocked.
That actually did make Eddie laugh, which Venom didn’t mind about. They loved their human after all, and Eddie’s laugh made Venom feel full.
They headed straight to the food section, and piled into their cart hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, condiments, tater tots, marshmallows (“You’ll love s’mores, Vee!”), chocolate, graham crackers, water, juice, soda, beer, ice cream, pop-tarts, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pasta salad, and so much more.
If Venom had a manifested head it would be spinning. There was so much food!
“I’m treating us Vee! This is our time away and to relax.”
Eddie are you sure? Don’t want you spending too much money.
Venom felt rather than saw Eddie’s eyes do that crinkling thing and a soft smile lift his face. “It’s for us, love. I’m positive.”
God, they loved Eddie.
They made one more stop before heading to the check-out. Noise cancelling headphones? Venom asked, perplexed with why Eddie wanted to pick up these.
“Yeah, you’ll see.”
Venom quickly forgot about them as they saw a Starbucks on their way out of the Target, and Eddie also decided to treat the two of them to coffee. A double chocolate chip frappuccino for them, and a white americano for Eddie.
With the food stored in the coolers Eddie had brought with them, they were finally off.
On the way to butt-fuck nowhere Venom was able to come out and slurp down their icey drink. Eddie turned on the radio, cracked open the window, and sped down the highway.
-
The drive was enjoyable, seeing Eddie so carefree and smiley made Venom feel full and wobbly and warm all at the same time. They enjoyed that feeling, however unsettling it was sometimes.
Eddie was smiling, enjoying the drive, and talking to Venom, telling them about the classic earth songs that came on the radio.
“No listen Vee, every human knows this song.” He said at one point, turning up the radio. “It’s by Queen, it’s called Bohemian Rhapsody, everyone we’ve ever met has heard of this song.”
“I know you believe that, but I do not.” Venom leveled him a look. “You are lying to yourself.”
Eddie laughed. “Well hey, now that you’ve listened to it you might be the first alien to know this song!”
Venom scoffed. “Untrue. I’m sure Thor has heard this song.”
“Then you admit this song is far reaching?”
Venom scowled at Eddie. “Maybe. It is catchy.”
Eddie grinned and started to sing along.
-
It was still light when they got there. And it truly was in the middle of nowhere. Down a dirt road with no one around for miles.
Venom was incredibly excited.
They got inside, and Venom helped Eddie unload the car and pack away the food. They made lunch and then went out to gather firewood. Venom had gotten a little competitive trying to find the most dried wood, but Eddie didn’t seem to mind that Venom was clearly superior at this task.
They went back to the cabin and started to chop onions and tomatoes for their burgers. The cabin came with a stove, and Eddie put on some tater tots (they had bought a lot of tater tots) to cook. But the burgers went on the grill outside, with plenty of cheese on top.
After a yummy dinner and with it getting steadily darker Eddie started building a fire in the fire pit. Although fire wasn’t Venom’s favorite, Eddie assured them that the flames wouldn’t hurt them and that they would both sit far enough away to only feel its warmth.
Venom trusted Eddie. So they didn’t think much about letting Eddie make the fire. Especially since he was using firewood from Venom’s big piles.
Plus, it was time for s’mores.
Venom was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Ok love, this requires some patience. You need to hold the marshmallow over the fire like this, and rotate it until it gets all melty.”
This process did nothing to stifle their excitement, but did increase Venom’s impatience.
“Eddie,” they whined, “this is taking too long.”
“The perfect s’more takes time.” Eddie said, staring at his marshmallow on the stick.
Venom grumbled. But rotated their stick diligently.
That is, until they accidentally-on-purpose let their stick slip down into the flames, igniting the marshmallow.
“Vee!” Eddie cried.
“Blow it out, Eddie!”
Eddie blew it out and then quickly grabbed a paper plate to stop the white glob from falling to the ground.
“I think it’s done Eddie.” Venom said innocently.
Eddie huffed, but Venom could tell he was amused. “Yeah, that’s another way to do it. Doesn’t taste as good though.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Eddie showed Venom how to assemble his smore, then went back to toasting his own marshmallow.
As it turns out, s’mores were fucking delicious. Burnt bits and all.
“Mmmm, Eddie, we should make s’mores everyday.”
“We can’t make them properly without a campfire, but remind me to get some marshmallow fluff and I’ll show you a good home alternative.”
Venom could live with this. They put another marshmallow on the stick and promptly dunked it in the fire before waving it around to try and extinguish it.
“Here, let me. I know you can’t blow it out without getting too close to the fire.” Eddie carefully guided the stick to him and blew it out for Venom. Venom refused to admit they were touched by this. Although that warm wobbly feeling inside them was hard to ignore.
Later as Venom was on his tenth s’more while Eddie was only on his third (“See, my way is better, Eddie.”) Venom was thinking about their earlier trip to Target, the care Eddie put into the trip. The glorious amount of food he bought, and the headphones. Those random headphones.
“Eddie, why did you buy headphones?” Venom asked as they slid a slab of chocolate onto a cracker.
Eddie blushed. “Oh, well you know what weekend it is, right?”
“Our weekend away?”
“Well yes, but it’s Independence Day, you know, the Fourth of July?”
Venom ate their s’more in one bite. “So?”
“Do you remember the fireworks from New Years?”
Oh. Yes. Venom did remember that. They had not reacted very well to the loud noise.
That was actually an understatement, they’d plastered themself and Eddie to the ceiling and nearly ripped off the plaster from the walls.
“Well,” Eddie pressed on. “Fireworks are also a thing on the Fourth of July. So I decided to get us out here to the middle of nowhere so that we wouldn’t have to hear them this year. But I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure that there won’t be any close by, so just in case I bought sound cancelling headphones.”
Venom blinked their misty eyes at Eddie.
“Just because,” Eddie quickly said, “well, I know that you can still hear stuff yourself when you’re inside me, but I figured if I blocked out the noise with my ears, that might help you too? You could focus on what I hear, and hopefully that would help distract you from the fireworks.”
“It was a precaution, for me?” Venom asked.
“Yeah, it was. I know you hate loud noises.”
That warm wobbly feeling was back. It was recurring a lot today.
Not that Venom minded at all.
“Thank you, Eddie.” Venom crooned. They arranged themselves to hug around Eddie’s neck, and rub their face to his.
They felt Eddie flush, and endorphins flush through him. Venom liked being physically close to Eddie externally, and they knew that Eddie felt the same.
“Thank you for doing all of this for me.” Venom said.
“For us,” Eddie corrected, as he nuzzled into Venom. “I also selfishly wanted to have a nice weekend with my partner.”
“It’s the best weekend,” Venom said as they turned Eddie’s face to give him a kiss, which Eddie was more than happy to reciprocate. “Love you, Eddie.” they said, with the warm feeling inside them to back up the sentiment.
“I love you too.” Eddie smiled, giving them another small kiss. “You taste like burnt sugar though.”
Venom chuckled, and kissed Eddie again for good measure.
-
In the end the headphones mercifully weren’t needed. But Venom was sure they would come in handy in the future.
But if they went missing every June, forcing them to go to butt-fuck nowhere next year, well, Venom wouldn’t have any issues with that.