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Eddie couldn’t remember a time he had felt so terrible. It could’ve possibly been the stomach bug that he had been slogging through for the past three days. He should’ve really listened to Anne and not tried that new Sushi spot that had left him vomiting before he even arrived home. Once hadn’t been nearly enough and he had spent nearly all of his time camped out in the bathroom, fighting both ends of his digestive track. Finally, he had moved to the couch a day ago and hadn’t moved so much as a hair, fearful that whatever he did would send his stomach rolling.
Venom had surprisingly enough been fairly quiet. He had attempted to speak to Eddie and ask him what was happening and why he insisted on giving up perfectly good food. The explanation Eddie gave seemed to appease him for the time being, though the Symbiote was still quite disruptive every time Eddie threw up.
‘“I can fix us,” Venom announced after another hour spent of Eddie laying on the couch, shivering, with a blanket pulled all the way up to his chin.
Eddie moaned. “You can’t fix this, man. This is something that has to run it’s course. Remember, I told you that sometimes people get sick? I think that sushi may have just opened to door for a bug to get me.”
“Bug? I will squash the bug,” Venom announced, voice roaring in Eddie’s ears.
Eddie clamped both hands over his ears despite the fact that Venom was speaking inside his head. “Inside voice! We talked about this.” Eddie flopped to the side, stomach cramping even though he hadn’t managed to keep anything down for three days. “It’s not a real bug it’s a virus or a germ or something. You don’t need to fight it or destroy it. We have immune systems for a reason and I don’t want you messing with mine.”
That had been a condition of Venom sticking around. He had wanted to protect Eddie from every germ or virus that came into the vicinity. Eddie had been firm that Venom allow some of that to happen just so that he didn’t become immune compromised because of it. Venom hadn’t understood, but had respected Eddie’s wishes all the same and sat back when sickness happened. He did his best to give Eddie his space when he was sick, but he often found a way to get under Eddie’s skin both literally and figuratively.
“Eddie,” Venom murmured, a single black tentacle coming out and poking Eddie’s forehead. “Eddie, your body temperature is rising. It is unpleasant for us.”
Eddie swatted Venom’s tentacle away. “It’s not exactly a walk in the park for me either. I can’t do anything about it thought.”
“You should drink some water!”
“There’s no way I’m walking across the kitchen to pour myself some water. I’ll pass out before I get there,” Eddie confessed, arm thrown over his eyes.
That gave Venom an idea.
He stretched two long tentacles and headed into the kitchen. He opened a cabinet and found a glass, careful when he picked it up so not to drop it. Glass shattered when it fell onto the ground; Venom had learned that the hard way.
Delicately he held the glass over the sink and turned the faucet, watching as water rushed into the glass. He switched it off before the water could overflow from the glass. He carried the glass with two tentacles and retracted towards Eddie.
“Water.” Venom pressed the glass to Eddie’s lips, water spilling into his barely open mouth and choking him.
Eddie say up immediately, coughing and gasping on the water that had accidentally trickled down his trachea. “Shit, man,” Eddie snapped, turning to the side and coughing desperately, cheeks turning bright red with the effort.
Venom continued to force the glass of water toward Eddie’s mouth. “You need water, Eddie.”
Eddie snatched the glass from Venom’s grasp, sipping down a couple mouthfuls to calm the fire in his lungs. “Yeah, well, I didn’t need you to try and drown me!”
“I was helping,” Venom pointed out. “You needed water and I brought water.”
Once Eddie had drank down half the glass and no longer felt like he was drowning, he looked at the head that poked out from his shoulder, hovering in front of him with white glowing eyes and rows or sharp teeth. “And I appreciate that, okay, I do. But right now I just want to sleep until that passes. Trust me, I’ve done this multiple times.”
Venom let out a low grumble deep within Eddie. “Eddie is still too warm!”
Eddie flopped back down on the couch, setting the water down on the floor. “It’s the fever. It’ll pass; it just takes a long time. Be patient.”
“Patient,” Venom echoed, head still hovering in front of Eddie’s line of vision. “If you die, I die.”
Eddie threw his arm back over his face, groaning noisily. “I’m not going to die. It’s just a stomach illness that’s going to pass, but it’ll only take longer if you keep waking me up when I’m trying to sleep it off!”
Venom kept quiet and disappeared back into Eddie’s skin. Eddie let out a sigh of contentment and closed his eyes slowly, pillow bunched against his chest as he began to doze off once more. There was no chatter in his mind for once, or the feeling of Venom poking around curiously as he often did when he was bored inside of Eddie’s body. It was complete peace that Eddie appreciated.
It wasn’t long, however, when Eddie began to toss and turn on the couch, temperature having risen to fever dream levels. His limbs thrashed and became tangled in the blankets, a sheen of sweat coating his ghastly pale skin. Venom had ignored other aspects of Eddie’s sickness because Eddie asked him to, but this wasn’t something he could just look past.
“Eddie,” Venom began, using one of his tentacles to poke his host’s shoulder. “Eddie!”
Eddie let out an incoherent mumbled, hands stretched out feebly under the blanket.
Knowing how warm it was under Eddie’s skin, Venom could only guess how it must make Eddie feel. He had even tried to do his best to calm him and repair him from the inside, but the illness was too widespread for him to be able to do so. The most he could do was try not to make it worse.
Venom was positive that this temperature wasn’t conducive for them. There was certainly no way for him to force Eddie to take any medicine while he was asleep, but there was something else that they could try.
A couple months ago when Eddie had come down with a terrible flu, Anne had come over and placed cool compresses on his forehead and the back of his neck to help break the fever. Venom had asked Eddie about it afterwards and he had been surprisingly cagey about that information. He had still catalogued it, though, and wondered if perhaps he would ever be able to use that knowledge again.
There was no time like the present.
Venom didn’t want to risk waking Eddie by straining too far into the bathroom. Instead, two tentacles stretched into the kitchen and found two ripped wash clothes that appeared clean enough for use. Venom ran them under cool water from the faucet and even tried to wring them out to the best of his ability.
‘Why do these wet cloths help so much,’ Venom thought.
Venom ignored his own confusion and carried both of them back over to Eddie. He lifted the first one, swirling it around into the air to bunch it up. He then laid the first one on top of Eddie’s forehead while doing the same with the other on the back of his neck. It was difficult to tell if it was doing anything as Eddie continued to writhe on the couch.
“Shhh, Eddie,” Venom soothed, readjusting both dripping washcloths when Eddie turned forcefully on his back, entire body shuddering.
Eddie’s top lip trembled with a slightly hitching breath as tears began to flow.
“Don’t cry, Eddie.” Venom’s tentacle reached up to press against Eddie’s too warm cheek.
Eddie’s body began to relax into the softness of Venom’s tentacle, tears beginning to dry.
Venom feared pulling back and waking Eddie and causing him anymore discomfort. He was in Eddie’s body and knew exactly what he was feeling and how difficult the past couple days had been. If he could do anything that would make things easier on Eddie, that was what he was going to do.
“I’m here, Eddie. You will be okay. We will be okay.”