Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

part I

Eddie Brock is hunched over the toilet for what might possibly be the sixth or seventh time this week, head spinning and back aching, when he finally decides to confront Venom. It was inevitable, really, but he had hoped that it wasn't going to come to this, that it wouldn't have to.

“That's it. I can't do this anymore. We’re going to the doctor,” he declares once he wearily staggers to his feet. 

"No, no doctor," Venom insists- as expected. "You don’t need to worry. I will fix everything."

The "I can fix it" attitude, as much as Eddie appreciates it, is starting to get a bit stale- although his ass has been saved by that neat little trick more than once. He makes his way over to the sink, reaching for his toothbrush to try and get the taste of vomit out of his mouth. “Yeah, see, you keep saying that buddy, yet every time I try to eat anything more than a bowl of soup... it doesn't end well for me."

"I told you before. With me, you will not get sick. It’s impossible for you to catch any illness while you’re bonded with me."

“Well clearly that’s not the case," Eddie argues, preparing to make his case to the alien sharing his body. A part of him is still shocked by what his life has become- it wasn't that long ago when he would've just went to the doctor if there was an issue. Now he has to get his alien parasite to agree to tag along, and Eddie has found that getting Venom to agree to anything that wasn't food-related was like pulling teeth. "I can’t keep anything down, I feel like shit almost all the time- something’s wrong, and you can’t fix it this time. I need a doctor, V.”

"No! No doctor!" Venom shouts again. "You've said so yourself. A doctor might separate us if they find out about me."

“We’ll go see Dan, then,” Eddie suggests instead, because for once he and Venom are in agreement on that- he doesn't need government officials attempting to take Venom from him, or trying to kill them. Again. “He knows our situation, and he’s an actual doctor, so he can help. He’ll make sure no one else sees you.” 

Eddie can feel Venom recoil at the idea from within him, and it makes him shudder, anger seeping across their bond. "I'd rather DIE than show weakness to Dan!"

“Yeah, well, I’d rather not die.”

Venom's revulsion finally melts into something else that Eddie can't quite place. When they first met, Venom promised Eddie that he would not die, not with him there, not while they were together. Eddie quickly learned that that's not true- at least, not completely true. Venom is strong. Resilient. Built not only to take a hit, but to deliver them as well. But he is not invincible, no matter how much he would like to think he is. 

Sometimes, Eddie forgets that as well. It's at times like this when he's given a cold, stark reminder.

"We just need time, Eddie. Give us time. I will fix us. I always fix us."

Eddie lets out a sigh, knowing that he’s already lost the argument and that he's going to end up regretting this. But he can't drag Venom kicking and screaming- not for this. “Three days,” he says. “You get three more days. And if I don’t get any better, you have to agree to see Dan. Deal?”

"Deal," Venom answers, without missing a beat. "Do not worry. You’ll be all better soon. Just need to rest. Lots of rest. And fluids. Fluids! We need water!"

Eddie jolts violently, nearly losing his footing as one of Venom’s tendrils suddenly shoots out of his back. He can hear him rooting around in the kitchen, probably making a mess, and before long the tendril returns to the bathroom, offering Eddie a glass of water. 

"Drink, Eddie. It's water. We need it."

“I know, V. I know how being sick works,” Eddie says as he takes the glass from him. “Used to get sick a lot when I was real little, ya know?” 

"I don’t. I’ve never been ‘little’," Venom teases, causing Eddie to snicker.

“You know what I mean,” he says as he slowly makes his way back to bed. It takes a little maneuvering on Venom's part- it was pitch black and he hadn't thought to get the light before running out of bed to puke his guts up. “Dad never used to know what to do with me. Rarely ever took me to the doctor, and when he did he just complained about how much of a pain it was to have to deal with me all the time.”

Venom lets out a low, growling sort of noise. "I don’t like your father. We should find him and eat his head."

“No can do. He’s dead. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”

He growls again, louder this time. Eddie can feel his disappointment. "That’s a shame. I would have liked to have been the one to end his life."

“I’m sure you would, buddy.” Eddie smirks a bit at the thought of it, allowing himself to briefly imagine the look of pure horror on that old fucker’s face upon seeing Venom, before a thought suddenly occurs to him. He sits up- and Venom, sensing his curiosity, emerges from his back. “Hey, just wondering, did you ever… I mean, when you looked around in my head, did you… see anything, about my dad? Like… memories, or something?” 

“I saw bits and pieces of your childhood. I know it was not pleasant- the feelings attached to those memories were not good feelings. But I don’t know the specifics.”

“Oh, okay. Cool,” Eddie says, unsure of how to feel about that. “Just, uh… my head’s... kinda... you know..."

Venom's grin stretches wide. "I know. It’s a dumpster fire in here.”

He can't really blame Venom for jumping at that- he practically walked right into that one. “Oh, fuck off.” He tries (and fails) to fight off a laugh as he playfully shoves him away. “I was just saying. If you do decide to poke around in there, just…” 

“You asked me not to, unless you gave me permission,” Venom reminds him. “Boundaries, Eddie.”

Ah, that. The conversation they'd had once that Eddie vowed they'd never have again unless they absolutely had to.

(That and the sex talk, which had gotten as far as the word "penis" before Venom finally chose to inform Eddie that he didn't, in fact, need to give him "the talk" at all- not when he was in his head and knew everything that Eddie knew. Eddie didn't talk to him for six whole hours after that)

“Yeah, I know, I remember the talk V, it’s just-”

“Is there something you want me to see?”

“No, no- nothing like that. Just… didn’t know how much you saw, that's all." He smirks knowingly. "Y’know, before you decided you liked me enough to stick around.”

“For the most part, I just got brief glimpses here and there. I experienced the memories more through emotions rather than actually seeing them, but if I wanted to, I could watch your life like a movie.”

That’s… a little unsettling, if Eddie’s being honest. “But you haven’t,” he points out. Or maybe he has. But he likes to think that he hasn't.

“I haven’t,” Venom affirms. “Why are you asking me all of this, Eddie? Why now?”

“I just wanted to know how much you knew,” Eddie answers honestly. “I don’t talk about stuff like that a lot. I was just wondering if, maybe when I’m asleep or something, you got bored and decided to look around. Wouldn’t really blame you if you did.”

“No, I haven’t,” Venom says again, a hint of defensiveness in his tone. “While you sleep, I watch the hospital show."

"Hospital show? You mean Grey's Anatomy?"

"Yes. It is very entertaining. But sometimes I also watch late-night cartoons on TV. And I make myself food.”

Ah. That explains why he’s been waking up to SpongeBob every day for the past two weeks. “Really?” he asks. “Huh."

Venom tilts his head, eyes narrowing. "What?" 

"Nothing. You're just... quieter than I expected you to be."

“Of course. I don’t want to wake you up. You’re bitchy when you don’t get enough sleep.”

“Oh ha-ha, you’re hilarious." Despite Venom attempting to lighten up the situation, he can tell just by looking at him that he's bothered by Eddie's prodding. "Look, I’m not asking because I don’t trust you, okay? It’s just…” He’s not completely sure why himself. He’s not even sure how this conversation came up, when just a few moments ago he was slouched over a toilet begging for the sweet release of death.

“Nevermind,” he finally decides, too tired and nauseous to think about it any longer. “I’m going to sleep.” 

Venom recedes back into Eddie, like he always does before bed. "Eddie. We can sense that you are restless. Something’s on your mind."

“It’s not important. You said that in order to feel better I should rest, right?" He waves him off, huddling further under the covers. "I wanna get some sleep.” 

"...Yes," Venom says after a moment, somewhat uneasily, "rest now. We will try to fix you while you sleep."

Eddie closes his eyes, and surprisingly, sleep comes to him relatively easily.

When he wakes up the next morning, he feels better than he did the night before- when he’d been puking everywhere- so he considers that a win in his book. 

Still though, he doesn’t want to risk it, so he holds off on eating, much to Venom’s dismay. 

“I’m sorry V,” he says as he strips down naked, “but I’m trying to be careful. I’d rather not spend all day in the bathroom again.”

Eddie’s gotten rather good at talking casually with his symbiote while naked. It was unavoidable really, seeing as Eddie had to shower. They had had a grand total of one conversation about it, but Venom didn’t seem to care, so Eddie tried to work on also not-caring. After about the fiftieth shower together he finally stopped enforcing the "look away" rule he had established early on. Even so, Eddie still can’t shake the initial awkwardness of disrobing right in front of someone's eyes in a non-sexual setting.

“You can eat though, can’t you?” he continues as he turns the water on, hoping to offer the symbiote some sort of reassurance. “Without it affecting me, I mean?” 

"No. Even if it’s just me, there’s still a chance you could get sick. We’re bonded."

“Mm,” Eddie hums with guilt as he steps into the shower. “Sorry. But hey, the good news is that I feel better today, and if I keep feeling better, eventually we can start eating actual food again.” 

"I have noticed that your state seems to have improved today," Venom notes. "Perhaps the healing is working?"

“Maybe it is,” Eddie says optimistically as he reaches for the soap. Since Venom came along, he’s gotten used to taking shorter showers to lessen the amount of time that Venom sees him naked on a daily basis. Now though, he only keeps it up because it keeps his water bill lower. “We’ll see. Make yourself useful and crank up that water a little, will ya? It's starting to get cold.”

Venom does as Eddie asks- except he turns it up way too high, causing Eddie to yelp and scramble to find the handle to turn it back down.

"Asshole," Eddie mutters through an aggravated huff. He can feel the satisfaction coming from Venom's end of their bond. If he was out right now, Eddie's sure that he'd be wearing that same shit-eating grin of his.

He finishes up relatively quickly after that (and thankfully, Venom has finally stopped offering to “help clean him”, which Eddie declined several times due to feeling like that crossed a line he didn’t think he was ready to cross).

But really, there aren’t many lines that they haven’t crossed, given that they share a body. Venom is there for everything. He’s there when Eddie has to take a piss, he's there when he’s showering- he was even there when Eddie popped a boner for the first time in front of him, though Eddie hasn’t ventured to attempt to scratch that particular itch- and frankly he’d rather not think about it.

"You don’t have to rush your showers anymore," Venom reminds him as he starts getting dressed. "I've seen every part of you several times now." 

“Comforting,” Eddie mumbles half-heartedly. “Look, it’s just- it’s a weird human thing. I’m comfortable enough now that I can shower with you without wanting to die every second, so. That’s something, right?” 

"There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just your body," Venom reasons. "I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand humans."

“Yeah, well- sometimes I don’t understand humans either, and I am one.” Eddie gives himself a once-over in the mirror and is pleasantly surprised to find that he looks good, despite feeling like he was on the brink of death less than 24 hours ago. A few of Venom’s tendrils slip out from his back to prod at his hair. Eddie, for once, doesn’t slap them away and lets Venom style it as he pleases. 

"We look good, Eddie."

“Mmhm,” Eddie mumbles half-heartedly. “Listen, I have a meeting to go to for work stuff, but after that, we’ll hit up Mrs. Chen’s on the way back. Maybe, if you’re lucky, there’ll be some bad guys in the area.” 

Excitement ripples through their bond. "Really?! But you said we couldn’t eat right now!"

“I know, but I changed my mind. I’m feeling good today. If I keep feeling good, maybe we’ll try eating something tonight.” 

"Finally!" Venom exclaims victoriously.

“But that means you have to behave during this meeting, okay? Don’t touch anything- including me- no yelling in my head- just stay quiet and stay out of sight. Can you do that for a little while?” 

Venom lets out a disappointed huff. "Yes, Eddie. We will behave."

“Good. That’s what I like to hear. Let’s go.”

Eddie expects his meeting to turn out to be a disaster, like most of his interactions with other human beings usually are. Even before Venom, he was never all that good with that sort of thing. But this time, Venom is shockingly well-behaved, just like he promised. Eddie can feel him stirring restlessly within him, and it’s admittedly a bit distracting, but he can tell that Venom is doing his best to do as he asked, and it’s the thought that counts. 

He’s not in any hurry to jump back into anything work-related- he’s still riding the waves of success (and admittedly, some controversy) from the Cletus Kasady incident- but it also isn’t a bad idea to have your future projects lined up, either- or so he thinks. 

"He was rude to you, Eddie," Venom says once they get outside of the building.

"Who was?" 

"That publisher douchebag, or whoever he was. We should go back in there and eat his brain."

Eddie looks around, checking for bystanders before he responds. “Uh, no, we will not be doing that. He signs my paychecks, so I’d like his brain to stay intact.” 

"Just his legs, then. All he really needs is a brain, his eyes, an arm, and a hand to sign your checks, right? Everything else is fair game."

“Jesus.” Eddie slaps a hand over his mouth as suddenly, out of nowhere, a strong wave of nausea hits him, and it hits him hard. “Don’t talk about that right now, man. Ugh.”  

"You’re feeling sick again."

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Eddie grumbles, drawing in a breath to calm himself and his stomach. “It’s fine, it’ll pass. Just… quit talking about gross shit, okay?”

Venom falls silent as they head back home. Feeling the wind whip against his face dissipates the nausea, but Eddie can already tell that now that it’s here, it’s probably not going to go away until he takes something for it. 

As they approach Mrs. Chen’s, Eddie briefly considers dropping it and just going home, but he did sort of make Venom a promise that they would at least stop in, and he would feel bad going back on his word. 

And so, against his better judgement, he parks the bike and heads inside. 

“Hey you two,” Mrs. Chen greets. Her expression quickly shifts from warm and welcoming to concerned in seconds once she catches sight of Eddie. “What’s wrong? You look like shit again.” 

“...And good afternoon to you too, Mrs. Chen," Eddie mumbles under his breath as he walks past her. "Jesus."

Mrs. Chen doesn't let Eddie off the hook that easily. “Don’t give me that Eddie. Did something happen? Are you sick?” 

Venom suddenly emerges from his shoulder while Eddie browses the medicines. Eddie almost panics, but after a quick check is relieved to find that there's no one else in the store- at least for right now.

“Eddie is dealing with… something, right now," Venom tells her.

“It’s probably a stomach bug,” Eddie adds. “A really bad stomach bug, apparently.” 

“...Yes,” Venom agrees after a moment, nodding along. “Stomach bug.” 

Mrs. Chen folds her arms across her chest. “I thought you said that could never happen while you were bonded to Eddie?” 

“I thought the same thing. Apparently, we were both wrong,” Eddie says bluntly as he grabs a bottle of Pepto Bismol and a box of crackers. He doesn't look at Venom to see his response, but he can feel him flinch from within him.

“Are you sure something’s not wrong with Venom?" Mrs. Chen asks. She fixes Venom with an accusatory glare. “You should be able to cure Eddie, right?" 

“...I am fine,” Venom assures her. “It’s just Eddie that’s sick. But you don’t need to worry. I will fix him right up! He just needs rest and medicine in the meantime.” 

Mrs. Chen looks suspicious as she rings Eddie up, but doesn’t question it further. “Drink lots of water, Eddie,” she says. “And Venom?” 

Venom looks up at her curiously, eyes wide. 

“Don’t let him work too hard.” 

Venom raises a tentacle, mimicking a salute as Eddie bids Mrs. Chen goodbye and heads out.

'Don't let him work too hard'. Eddie almost wants to laugh at that. Venom never lets him work hard enough.

"Mrs. Chen is right, Eddie," Venom says once they get back home. "Water. Soup. Rest. The three best things to help you recover while I fix you."

“Right, yeah, I know,” Eddie says. For just a moment, he thinks that Venom sounds a bit like a doting wife, but quickly does away with that thought before Venom could see it. God only knows the kind of teasing he'd have to endure for days on end. “You know, V…” 

He can feel Venom shift within him, and he takes that as his cue to continue. 

“I've been thinkin'- a lot- about all this, and... it’s okay. If… you can’t fix me,” he says outright. “I’m not gonna be angry with you, or disappointed. I’ve been sick before, I’ll get over it on my own- the human way. Might take a little longer than you’re used to, but we’ll figure it out.” 

He hadn't meant to be offensive, but he can already tell that Venom has taken it that way, and it's too late for him to take it back. He quickly manifests before him, eyes narrowed, expression heated. “I CAN fix you!” he insists. “Like I told you. I just need time. You won’t give us time!”

“Time? Man, I’ve been throwing up for almost a week straight now, and I even agreed to give you three more days to see if you could help- and for the record, I’m not feeling all that great anymore,” Eddie points out as he settles onto the couch, the activity of today suddenly starting to catch up with him.

“You are being impatient!”

“And you are being…” Eddie’s words suddenly fail him as his brain scrambles to come up with a response, “...weird!”

“...I’m being weird," Venom says after a moment, expression unreadable.

That's not exactly what he meant to say, but Eddie's gonna roll with it anyway. “Yes! Weird! Why are you being so weird about seeing Dan, huh? I thought we liked Dan now.”

Venom pauses for a moment, considering.

“Dan is… tolerable. In small doses.” 

He knows that he shares at least some of the blame for Venom's dislike of Dan- Eddie hadn't exactly warmed up to him right away due to his lingering feelings for Anne. But he'd seen with his own two eyes that Dan loved and cared about her- hell, he'd risked his life against a creature he stood no chance against to save her and help Eddie. Once a guy goes to bat for you like that, it's kind of impossible to hate him, or so Eddie thinks. “Right. Well, small doses is all we need. Just one visit, please. He’s the only one who can help and you know that.” 

Venom lowers his head, considering. Like, actually considering, instead of being defiant and throwing a tantrum to get his way like usual. Eddie wonders for a second if it's his birthday, or if Christmas has come early.

(There's also a low, barely audible humming sound in Eddie's head, and he can't help but think that it's sort of- just a little bit cute, like that weird not-a-purr-but-totally-a-purr thing that Venom does when Eddie scratches that spot under his chin just right)

“More time," Venom finally says after a moment of deliberation, "just a little more time.” 

He sounds surprisingly sincere, and there’s something in his tone that Eddie just can’t fight against. Like he's pleading. Eddie rarely sees or hears that kind of vulnerability from him. He sighs, knowing that this probably isn’t an argument that he can win- at least not right now.

"Besides, have you forgotten who I am? Who we are? We are Venom! We can do anything! Including curing a weak human viral infection." Venom reaches out with a tentacle, gently patting Eddie's head. "I've got us, Eddie. You don't have to worry."

“Alright, bud,” he says, admitting his defeat as he lays down on the couch, making himself comfortable. “Alright. I’m gonna try to get some rest, okay? You can, uh... watch whatever you want, as long as it's quiet."

“Yes. Rest. Good.” Venom grabs the blanket sitting on the other end of the couch and pulls it over Eddie, almost like he was tucking him in. “Sleep now, Eddie.” 

Just before he fades into unconsciousness, he swears he hears the words "always got us", or something along those lines. Whether it's coming from Venom or his own sleep-deprived brain, it's still a nice reassurance nonetheless.

It doesn't take long after that for him to finally succumb to exhaustion.

When Eddie wakes up, he's not sure how long he's been out for. Could've been 30 minutes. 30 hours. Maybe even 30 days.

His kitchen is a mess though, and for some reason the TV is playing a Food Network show- and yet even so, he feels a little bit better. 

"Good! You’re awake!"

Eddie suddenly feels himself sit up without commanding his body to do so. It's a bit alarming that he's become so used to- and oddly comfortable with- Venom manipulating his body as he pleased. "How long was I out?"

"Approximately 16 hours."

"Sixteen hours?!" If Eddie wasn't awake before, he certainly is now. "What the fuck man, why didn't you wake me up? I've got shit to do! Deadlines!"

"You needed the rest," Venom says casually, like it's no big deal that Eddie just slept away valuable writing time.

He plops a piping hot bowl of soup right in Eddie's lap. "I'm glad you're awake now though. You woke up just in time for the soup. Eat up."

Eddie looks down at the soup sitting in his lap. “You… you made me soup?” he asks, like it’s the first time Venom’s ever made him food. Venom's actually turned into quite the chef, even if most of the time nothing he made was ever edible. He was getting good at the small stuff, though. He was an expert with tater tots. Anything from the freezer was pretty simple. Sandwiches were still a bit of a struggle, but maybe Venom would learn how to use a knife to spread peanut butter instead of using it to stab the bread. One day.

"It’s nothing special. Just stuff from the can. But when you’re feeling better, we should make our own soup. The cooking show I was watching has made me feel... inspired."

"Inspired, huh?" Eddie can't fight a chuckle, nor can he help the flutter of something in his chest. “Thanks,” he says, hoping that Venom can sense his sincerity. “Really. You… didn’t have to do all this.” 

"You’re welcome." Venom’s tendrils recede, sinking back into his skin. 

“What are you watching?” Eddie asks. 

"Hell’s Kitchen. I like Gordon Ramsay. He’s very motivational."

“Motivational,” Eddie repeats, chuckling a bit. “I guess that’s one word for him.” 

"Do you think his food tastes as good as he says it does?"

“I dunno, probably.” He looks down at his soup, pulling a face. Truthfully, he’s not feeling up to eating at all despite feeling like he's improved, but it’s not like whatever this is is going to get any better by not eating. 

"He is a chef. He knows how to make food taste good. I bet his brain would be delicious."

“I don’t think that’s how that works, bud.” 

"You don’t know anything." Venom suddenly appears before him once again, staring down at the bowl of soup in Eddie’s lap with large, piercing white eyes. 

“...What?” Eddie asks, almost defensively, unable to look Venom in the eye while he was staring at him so intensely.

“You’re not eating.” Venom picks up the spoon with a tentacle and lifts it to Eddie’s lips. “Eat.” 

“I am, I am,” Eddie insists. “You don’t need to feed me, I can do it myself.” 

“Can you?” Venom counters as he shoves the spoon against his closed mouth. “Eat.” 

“I got it,” Eddie says sharply as he yanks the spoon out of Venom’s tendril, cheeks flushing a bit.

Venom quickly recedes back into him, head and tendrils and all, and Eddie sighs. “Look, I know you’re just trying to help, okay? I get it. But I don’t need you to mother-hen me. I’m good, I promise.” 

"You are not ‘good’. You’ve been sick for the better part of a week now."

“I know that, thank you. I just mean- I may be sick, but I haven’t been rendered completely helpless. So don’t feel like you have to take care of me, or whatever. It’s fine. I’m fine.” 

"But I’m supposed to take care of you," Venom says. "Take care of us."

“I… I know,” Eddie says, unsure of how to respond. Venom is the first person since Anne to want to take care of him this way. It's been so long since he's had that kind of connection and he knows, deep down, that he's craving it- aching for it- more and more as the days pass. But he simply couldn't ask that of Venom, not when Venom already does so much for him. Not when Venom made him more than he ever thought he could be. 

Not when that had gone so swimmingly the last time he'd dared to try it.

And besides, he's never been good with asking for that sort of thing anyway, even setting aside everything else.

"I appreciate that, I do," he says. "But you’d know if I really needed you to do that.” 

"Just because you may not need it, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t do it,’ Venom says, like he's reading Eddie's mind- but he isn't. Eddie knows- trusts that he isn't. "I know that you are not used to being cared for. But you are my host, like it or not. This is... one of the things I’m supposed to do for a host. And if I cannot cure you like I am supposed to, then… this is the next best thing."

Eddie immediately feels himself soften at this admission. It's almost enough to get him to let Venom feed him like a baby- almost.

"Besides, I can sense that you like it, even if you won't allow yourself to have it."

Eddie smiles, despite the swirl of other emotions within him telling him to deflect, to snap at him, to do anything other than smile. He guesses that, despite Venom's promise to not go rooting around in his head without permission, some things just seep through their bond unbidden.

Still, he can't help the shame that washes over him at having been called out.

"Nothing to be ashamed of, Eddie. Between the two of us, if anyone should be ashamed, it is me." 

"What? Why you?"

"Like I said. I am not doing what I should be doing. It's been over a week and you are still sick."

“V…” he murmurs, “it’s not… your fault, that this happened, you know?” 

Venom goes abruptly silent.

“These things just… happen sometimes,” Eddie continues. “We can’t control them. Can’t do anything to stop them, most of the time. So we just have to work through it when it happens, and hope for the best. I’m used to that, and I’m not blaming you for not being able to cure a stomach bug- or whatever this is. The healing factor is pretty cool and all, but that’s not… the only reason I keep you around, you know?” 

Venom is quiet again, and for a few moments Eddie thinks that Venom’s done with the conversation, until-

"My kind are not meant to be mutually beneficial, when we take a host."

Eddie stiffens at the sudden subject change. “...Mutually beneficial?” 

"As in, we both provide something for each other. You keep me alive- by allowing me to live in your body, and feeding me. In return, I can heal you from any injury, cure you of any illness, and significantly slow down your aging process. Also I make us look super badass."

Eddie’s eyes grow comically wide. “Wait wait wait, hold on- you’re saying I haven’t aged since I’ve been bonded to you?” 

"Not as much as you normally would have. It's a bit difficult to explain."

“Holy shit-”

"Not the point here, Eddie."

“Right, sorry.” Eddie clears his throat. “Continue.” 

"But while we do make our hosts stronger by nature, that is not our primary purpose when we take a host. It is purely for survival. We find a host. We feast on their insides. We move on to the next once they can no longer hold us anymore," he explains. "But I’m not like the others."

“You mean like… like Riot? That's what he wanted, wasn't it?"

"Yes, like Riot. He wanted to bring our people here, take hosts, and feast on humankind. An all you can eat buffet, as well as a large selection of potential long-term hosts. But even before you, Eddie, I was never like the others. They burned through their hosts so quickly, but I didn’t want that. I was always curious. Wanted to know more about who they were before me. That kind of… interest was considered taboo on my world."

“Why are you telling me all this?” Eddie asks. “You wouldn’t just bring this up out of nowhere.” 

"Because it’s frustrating!" Venom finally confesses. "Not being able to do what I said I would always do, once you agreed to let me stay- to take care of us! It... makes me feel like a monster sometimes, like I used to be."

Eddie has never seen- or rather, heard Venom this open, this raw before now. It’s strange- an unexplored territory between them that sets Eddie on edge but also makes his heart race in the best possible way. 

“I know, V. I know it’s hard, but-” 

"No, Eddie. You don’t know. You and I… we are alike in many ways, but not in this. You have no idea what this is like!"

Eddie falls silent. 

He’s grown so used to Venom being with him, being a part of him, that somehow even he had forgotten their differences- or in the very least, they’d become such a minute detail, forgotten in the span of their time together as one. But this time, Eddie couldn’t share any similar experiences to make Venom feel less alone, and that utter helplessness was starting to get to him.

“You’re right,” he finally says. “I don’t know what that’s like, and I never will. But… it doesn’t make you… lesser, you know? You're not... you're not a monster. We’ll get through this. We’ll figure it out, like we always do. We’re different in a lot of ways, I won’t deny that, but we’re still a ‘we’, aren’t we?” 

"Yes," Venom answers, without hesitation. "It’ll always be ‘we’."

Eddie nods. “Good. That’s- that’s good, right?” 

"Yes."

“Good,” Eddie says again. “We’ll get through this, V. I promise.”

There’s what can only be described as a disturbance just around the edges of Eddie’s subconscious. Faint, but still present. 

Eddie can feel it sometimes- mostly when he’s just about to fall asleep. Every time he chalks it up to being half asleep and nothing more, but it’s been happening more and more lately. He’ll feel a stirring from deep inside that’s not Venom. He’s come to recognize how Venom moves, and he’s even gotten to the point now where not having Venom’s presence in his mind would certainly feel strange and even lonely. 

But this is not Venom, that Eddie is certain of. This is something he doesn’t know, something he hasn’t seen or heard. He can only feel it when his mind is just exhausted enough to allow him to do so, the mental barricades that he wasn’t sure were his were coming down even if only temporarily. 

He hasn’t asked Venom about it because, frankly, he just thought that it was sleep deprivation, which would make sense. 

But still, Eddie sometimes can’t help but wonder. Him being sick, and Venom’s strange, out-of-character insecurity about keeping him healthy- it surely couldn’t be a coincidence.

Eddie has come to expect it now, just before he falls asleep. It’s almost a comfort, as the ‘presence’- or whatever it is- doesn’t feel like it has bad intentions, though he doubts that he’s capable of feeling such a thing. And surely, if there was something seriously off, Venom would notice and would tell him. 

So Eddie doesn’t question it, and he doesn’t bring it up to Venom, either. It becomes a welcome part of his nightly routine.

The final straw comes late one afternoon, about three days later, when Anne decides to give Eddie a call. 

“Annie, hey,” Eddie greets her as he sets his phone down on the desk beside him. “You’re on speaker, by the way.” 

“Am I? In that case, hello to you too Venom.” 

Pleased to be included, Venom pokes his head out from Eddie's shoulder. “Hello Anne. How are you?” 

“I’m… I’m doing good, actually. For the first time in a while.” She laughs, but it lacks humor. “Anyway, I um... I called to check in on you guys. I was kind of worried, to be honest? I hadn’t heard from either of you in a while and it was starting to worry me, so I figured I’d try giving you a call first before I tracked you down.”  

“Oh, well thank God you did. This place is a mess,” Eddie says as he kicks away a soda can that happened to be lying next to his foot. God, he really needed to clean. “I, uh… I’m okay. Sort of.” 

“Sort of?”  

“It’s, uh…” 

“Eddie is sick,” Venom cuts in before he can come up with a way to explain his situation.

Eddie shoots him a look. Venom makes a motion that probably isn't a shrug, but Eddie interprets it as one.

“Sick? I thought you couldn’t get sick?”  

Eddie waves a dismissive hand, trying to calm her down before she could start worrying. “It’s a long story. I’m, uh… I’m not really sure what I have. I think it’s a stomach bug, but I’ve had it for about a week now, and uh...” 

“Jesus, Eddie-”  

“And Venom, for whatever reason, can’t really fix me, so uh… I’ve been trying to get better the old-fashioned way,” he finishes. “So, uh… yeah. That’s the deal.” 

He hears her exasperated sigh loud and clear- one he knows all too well. He'd heard it a lot during their fights, when she finally got tired of arguing and would storm off, or when Eddie did something stupid and she didn't have time to listen to his excuses.

“You mean to tell me that Venom can’t cure you, and you’ve been dealing with this for a week now, and you haven’t thought once about going to see a doctor?” 

“You know me- always hated asking for help, and medical bills are a bitch nowadays-” 

“Eddie-”  

“Alright, alright. I didn’t go because of Venom. You know they can’t find out about him or they’ll ship us both off to Area 51, and the last thing I need right now is to have the U.S. government on my ass. Again.” 

“Right, but- have you forgotten that Dan is right here, or did you just- not wanna ask?” 

Eddie shifts uncomfortably. "Ah, well, you know... Dan’s got other people to worry about...”

He can hear her footsteps against the floor- she's pacing. Again. Eddie always thought it was cute, admittedly. “Okay, I get that it’s- weird for you Eddie, considering… everything, but- Dan is the only doctor who knows about your… situation, and refusing to go to him just because of… us, is frankly really-”

“Anne," Eddie says, cutting her off, "it’s not- it’s not because of that. I’m not- I don’t hate Dan. It’s Venom that doesn’t like him, actually.” 

As expected, Venom doesn't at all attempt to deny it. “I wish to remove his head from his doctor-body and see how smart he thinks he is then.” 

Eddie laughs sheepishly before Anne can respond. “He’s uh- he’s joking. He’s… actually sort of warming up to Dan.” 

Venom hisses at him, and Eddie sticks his tongue out at him in response, like a mature adult does.

“Eddie, if Venom can’t fix you up, then this sounds like a serious problem. I think you should see Dan.” 

“And what’s Dan gonna do, huh? Send me home with a bottle of 7-Up and a pack of crackers? This is probably just a stomach flu. You don’t have to worry about me.” 

“See, that’s the thing- you’ve just given me like ten different reasons to worry about you. I can’t force you to see Dan- but I’m asking you as your friend to please go talk to him. You need to at least know what it is you’re dealing with- even if it’s only a stomach flu.” 

Eddie looks over at Venom, who is, surprise-surprise, not looking at him, pretending that he hadn’t heard the conversation, but Eddie knows better than that. 

“...Alright,” he says softly. “We’ll think about it.” 

“Good. I gotta go now, but I’ll call you later, alright? Get plenty of rest.” 

“Will do. And uh, Anne?” 

“Yeah?” 

Eddie pauses for a moment, contemplating if he should say what he wants to say-

“Thanks for looking out for me,” he finally says. 

“...Yeah, sure. You’ll always have me, Eddie.”  

The call ends and Eddie lets out a long, relieved sigh. When he looks up again, he isn’t surprised to find that Venom has retreated back within him.

"We still feel sad when we talk to Anne," Venom says from within him. He doesn't sound amused like he did before, whenever he would make these little 'observations'. Now, it's like Eddie can hear a reflection of his own turmoil in Venom's voice sometimes, and it drives him mad.

"Do we always have to talk about my history with her whenever we get done talking to Anne?" he asks, hoping he can avoid Attempt Number 355 at Mission Get Back Together With Anne.

Which was Venom's mission, by the way. Not his. That may have been the case before, but he likes to think that things are different now. 

"It's all you think about when you hear her voice," Venom argues. "It's all you feel. Just sadness." 

“Yeah, well… I don’t think I ever won’t feel a little sad,” Eddie admits. “But it’s not what you think. I’m not sad because we’re not together. It’s just… I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not that. At least, I don’t think so. Not anymore. I don't know.” 

Truth be told, Eddie hasn't thought much about Anne lately- at least not like that. She used to occupy a large space in his mind every day, their last conversation as a couple playing on loop in his head like a broken record. She's still there of course- she'll always be there- but the ache that resonates just as much in Venom as it does in him feels... different, somehow. 

"We could have gotten Anne back, at one point," Venom continues, pressing on. "Why didn’t we?"

“It’s, uh… a lot of things." Right now, Eddie really wants nothing more than to pull a Venom and hide away inside himself. This is one of the few times he's ever hated his pitiful human limitations. “But the biggest thing is that Anne is happy with Dan. She trusts him now- more than she can ever trust me.” 

"Anne trusts you. I know. I’ve been inside her."

Eddie tries valiantly not to visibly react to Venom's word choice. “But not like she trusts Dan. She would have to trust me one hundred percent to be in a relationship with me again, and the fact is that she doesn’t. Not anymore. Because... I ruined that."

It had taken Eddie a long time to come to that realization. To realize that he was wrong- and not just because he had been desperate to have Anne back, because he would've said anything to get her to change her mind, but because he was really, and truly wrong, and it was only after he realized that that he could finally man up and do the right thing.

It had been thanks to Venom that he'd even gotten the courage to apologize. It was also Venom that had pointed all of this out to him so many times before. "But there is still an ache within you, Eddie. When you think about what you had when you were with Anne."

Eddie falls silent at this, knowing that he can’t deny it, not when Venom is inside his head. 

“Yeah,” he chokes out after a moment's hesitation. “Guess so.” 

He’s not sure what the ache is, if he’s being honest. 

That ache used to be heartbreak- yearning and hope that perhaps one day Anne would give him another chance, would choose him over Dan. But those days are gone- long gone. Now, he can look at Anne without aching to hold her hand, to kiss her like he used to. He can appreciate her company as a friend and a friend alone, and not as a heartbroken ex-lover. He can look at her and Dan sharing an intimate moment without wanting to fling himself into oncoming traffic. That’s a win, or so he thinks.

He's happier, in regards to that. Genuinely.

But Venom isn’t wrong, either. There’s something else there now, something in place of that heartbreak that Eddie just can’t quite name, and he's not sure if he wants to. What would that mean, if he found a name for it? What would he even do? Continue to wallow in sadness and self-pity? He's already an expert at that.

Thankfully, Venom doesn’t press the issue further, leaving Eddie to return to his work. He gets through about all of ten minutes of it before he’s, out of the blue, rushing to the bathroom to expel the contents of his stomach. Again.

Once he’s finished, he wipes at his mouth, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. “Venom?” 

"What?"

“Tomorrow. Dan. Doctor visit. We’re going.” 

Venom, shockingly, doesn’t argue.

Chapter Text

part II

Eddie has never been fond of hospitals, but given the situation, he has never been more glad to see Dan's face.

“Anne told me what was going on,” Dan says as he shuts the door behind him. “She said you’ve been sick with a stomach bug?” 

“Yeah, something like that,” Eddie says, certain that he looks as miserable as he feels in his old worn hoodie and jeans. “I’m not sure what it is though, honestly.” 

“And Venom says he can’t fix it?” 

“He tried, but uh… no dice.” 

Venom stirs restlessly within him, almost like he wants to protest, but thankfully remains quiet.

Dan's eyes widen, and Eddie can sense that he's curious- he's probably got a million questions that Eddie doesn't have the answers to. “So uh… let's start from the beginning. When did this all start?” 

Eddie blinks once. Twice- then draws a blank. It hasn't been that long in reality, but it feels like he's been dealing with this for ages. “Uh…” 

"Pizza night, Eddie," Venom helpfully chimes in.

The memory comes back to him in vivid detail- courtesy of Venom. “Oh, right. Yeah. It was, uh… a little over a week ago now,” he says. “It was pizza night- V and I, we do pizza every other Friday night- and then all the sudden I got real sick. Like- really sick. Threw up all over myself trying to get to the bathroom in time. At first I thought it was just food poisoning, but… it kept happening any time I tried to eat.” 

“And this has been every day for the past week?” 

“Pretty much. Some days were better than others. I can’t eat anything heavier than a bowl of soup, and sometimes even that’s too much to handle."

Dan nods along, likely running through a list of plausible explanations in his head. “Are you having any other symptoms? Fever, headache, bodyache?” 

Eddie shakes his head. “No, not really. I mean, my back’s been hurting like a bitch, but I think that’s just from being bent over the toilet for a week straight.”

Dan folds his arms over his chest, contemplating. “Well, to be honest it sounds like classic stomach flu. But if that were the case, you’d be getting better by now, and you’re clearly not.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Eddie quips dryly.

“Stomach flu usually clears up on it’s own anywhere from two to seven days after infection. You should be well on your way to improving by now, and uh… well...”

Eddie can feel himself starting to grow anxious. He's been anxious since he arrived, but he realizes then that the anxiety he's feeling is not just his. It's Venom's. 

When an emotion is so strong that his body can barely contain it, but it comes on suddenly and feels oddly misplaced. That's how he knows.

The "feeling each other's emotions" thing was still new- and something that Eddie prefers not to try and navigate.

“I gathered that," he says, suddenly feeling insecure. He must really look a mess. "So what- what does it mean, what’s going on?” 

“Well, that means something more serious may be going on. A number of things can cause vomiting, but it’s especially hard to pin down since you don’t seem to be experiencing any other symptoms. No migraines, or anything like that? Vertigo?” 

“No, no. Nothing like that. Just the vomiting.” 

Dan nods again. “How’s your anxiety been? Vertigo, migraines, nausea- those can all be connected to anxiety sometimes.” 

“No, it’s not- it’s not anxiety,” Eddie says, unfortunately all too familiar with panic. This wasn't connected to that- it couldn't be. “I know what that feels like and it’s not that. This is different.” 

“Okay…” Dan pauses, humming quietly to himself. “Exposure to any dangerous substances lately?” 

“Not that I know of.” 

“Huh. Weird.” Dan suddenly stands up. “Any pain or tenderness on your right side? My next guess was appendicitis, but if your appendix was about to rupture, you'd be in a lot worse shape right now." He lets out a sigh- one that sounds far too much like defeat. "As much as I hate to suggest it, if there's something more serious going on, it might explain why Venom can't cure you. Maybe his healing abilities have limits."

"My healing abilities are FLAWLESS!" Venom shouts as he bursts forth from Eddie's shoulder, hissing menacingly at Dan, teeth bared and dripping with saliva. Eddie can feel him threatening to take over, tendrils curling around his upper arms, waiting for the right moment to seize control.

"Venom, Jesus, relax! No one was questioning your... capabilities," Eddie says, trying his best to pull Venom away from Dan, grabbing the tendrils closest to his shoulder to rein him in.

"Okay, alright, yup, totally believe you," Dan squeaks out, voice rising much higher than Eddie has ever heard it.

Venom lets out one last growl that can only be perceived as a warning before reluctantly retreating back inside Eddie.

"Sorry," Eddie says, far more casually than he meant to, "he's uh... he takes that stuff really personally, so maybe don't... don't mention that." 

"Right. Sensitive." Dan nods. "Cool. Totally get it. Um..." He takes a few calming breaths, likely trying to gather his bearings after almost having his face ripped off. "Are you experiencing any other digestive issues? Like diarrhea?"

“No, no, that’s- no. Not an issue.” 

“Constipation?”

“No, Dan, I- I’m shitting normally.” 

“Okay, okay, I’m just checking. It’s important." Dan takes a few steps closer- but still maintains a safe distance. "I, uh... listen, Eddie, I'm just gonna be straightforward here: the only way we're going to figure out what's going on is if we get a look inside, and with Venom in you, that... is gonna be a challenge." 

"What is he saying?"

"What do you mean? I know Venom is sensitive to certain things, but there's gotta be something you can do, right?"

"Well, if you insist on staying bonded, then that really narrows our options here, man. No CT scans, no MRI. Your blood may be tainted, so that could impact any bloodwork we do-" 

"TAINTED?!"

Eddie frantically shushes Dan- more for his safety rather than to protect Venom's delicate sensibilities. "'Tainted' is uh- that's kind of offensive." 

"I'm sorry, but it's true, and you know it's true," Dan presses. "Separating would probably be the best way to go."

"He wants us to WHAT?!"

Eddie winces at the volume of Venom’s voice in his head, trying his best to block him out. Unfortunately, his internal communication skills were nowhere near on par with Venom's. “U-Uh, why would we..?”

"Because it'll be the best way to determine what's going on. And, we also lessen the risk of potentially hurting Venom. If we find that a regular Earth illness is causing the vomiting, then that means you just caught something Venom couldn't fix. If the results are inconclusive, and we can't visibly see anything wrong with you, then we know... that maybe there's another cause. One that's... not so Earthly."

"I am going to kill him dead."

Panic rising in his chest, Eddie scoots back further onto the examination table in an attempt to put more space between himself and Dan. "NO, you are not going to kill Dan, do you understand me?" 

Dan's eyes nearly pop out of his skull as he starts inching towards the door, preparing to make a run for it. "Should I- should I leave the room? Am I in danger?" he chokes out.

"YES!"

"No, he's just- he's just being a drama queen, you know how he is," Eddie laughs nervously, trying to brush off the murderous intent he feels bubbling up from within him- within Venom. "So, you... you think we should separate?" 

"Temporarily, just long enough for us to get a look at what's going on." 

"But he'll die without a host," Eddie argues. 

"I know. That's why I was thinking that maybe we could ask Anne if she'd be willing to let Venom stick with her while you're being tested. We know she's compatible, so there's no risk of her getting hurt."

Oh. 

Now that Eddie's starting to put some actual thought into this- maybe that's not such a bad idea. This would be a good way to determine what all this is coming from, and he knows that Venom would be safe with Anne. 

The one thing he knows for sure right now is that if he declines, he walks out with less of a chance of ever finding out what's really going on. The first step to getting better is figuring out what the problem is to begin with.

"It's the best way," he says in his head, hoping that Venom would feel his reassurance through their bond.

"Just for a day?" he asks aloud.

"Eddie. What are you doing? You can't seriously be considering this!"

"Less than that. For a CT scan, we'll have you in and out in about a half hour."

"You're going to let Dan split us up again?!"

"I'll do it," Eddie says, ignoring Venom's protests. "I'm in."

"...Okay," Dan nods. "I’ll talk to Anne about it, and hopefully I can get you in for tomorrow. In the meantime, you go home. Get some rest.” He claps a hand on his shoulder. “Alright?” 

“Yeah,” Eddie says, nodding. “Sure. Thanks again, man.”

Venom doesn't even let Eddie get them back to the apartment before he's seizing control of Eddie's legs, briskly walking them over to an alleyway.

"Wait a second V, this isn't-" 

Eddie is cut off by Venom securing him to the wall, his wrists bound together with a single black tendril. "How DARE you! You think you can speak for me, make decisions for me?!"

Eddie looks around for a moment, checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone walking by, before he speaks again. "I know you don't like Dan. I know I share some of the blame for that. But Dan's not trying to hurt us, he just wants to help. If I trust him, why can't you?" 

"You trust Dan with your life so easily. Yet it took you so long to extend that same trust to us."

"Oh, we're going there? Well, forgive me for not immediately trusting some alien who was originally dead set on trying to exterminate the human race!"

"I changed my mind!"

"Yes, you did. And I appreciate your change of heart, I really do. But Dan is a doctor, this is what he does. He helps sick people. And we," he points vaguely at himself to the best of his ability with his bound hands, "in case you haven't noticed, are sick!"

He can't physically see Venom at the moment, but he can feel him- he can always feel him- and he can feel how Venom reacts to those words, the way he almost seems to flinch away even while inside his body.

"But if Dan decides that I am not helping, he might try to keep us apart, like before. And then I will have no choice but to use Annie to eat his head."

"Okay, first of all- you are not going to eat Dan's head. Anne would hate you- and me- forever. Do you want that?" 

"She doesn't have to know."

"Pretty sure she would know, bud." Eddie breathes out a long, exasperated sigh. "Look, Dan is not going to keep us separated, because I'm the one who gets to choose what to do with my body, and if I decide I want to share it with you, then Dan can't say shit about it and neither can anyone else. But I can guarantee he's not going to do that. He only wants to help."

He can feel the tiniest bit of relief flowing through their bond from Venom's end, and Eddie hopes that Venom can feel that he's trying, in his own way, to be understanding of his feelings.

"And you are certain that this is what is best?"

Eddie nods. "Yeah. This way, we have a better chance of figuring out for sure what's going on." 

"But what if-"

Venom abruptly pauses, silence suddenly settling between them.

Just as Eddie is about to ask Venom what he meant, Venom speaks again.

"Hypothetically speaking, what if I really was what was making you sick? And I just didn't know it?" he asks. 

Puzzled, Eddie narrows his eyes. "How would you not know, exactly?"

"Hypothetical, Eddie."

"Okay, okay. Hypothetically, if that were the case, then we'd try to figure it out. Maybe that means you're the one who's sick. There's gotta be doctors in space. Maybe NASA will let us borrow a rocket." 

"I am being serious."

"So am I," Eddie insists. "I'm not just gonna get rid of you, if that's what you're worried about. There's gotta be something causing it, right? It's not incompatibility, because we know we're a good match. So in that situation, we'd just have to figure out what it was. Which is... easier said than done, now that I think about it. Why are you asking?"

"No reason," Venom says quickly. "But you are right. We are a good match. The best match. That is why I do not want to risk being separated from you."

Eddie feels himself deflate a little at those words. "Oh... right. Yeah. I'm uh... the best match for you. Physically." 

"Yes."

Eddie nods again, trying to shake this heavy feeling that won't go away. "I get it, V. I get why you're worried. But I'm asking you to trust me for now, okay? Can you do that?"

"...Yes, Eddie. We trust you."

"Good."

Venom is oddly silent for the rest of the evening, even after they arrive home, seemingly only speaking when spoken to. Eddie wants to ask why, but he can sense Venom's unease, and the last thing he wants is to get into another argument, so he decides, at least for now, to drop it. 

Eddie decides instead to take Venom's uncharacteristic silence as an opportunity to get some writing done, but in the end, he doesn't get through much before his eyelids are threatening to close against his will. The last thing he needs right now is for his work to become a victim of sloppy grammar mistakes made from exhaustion.

"I'm gonna hit the hay," Eddie says out-loud. "You can, uh... do whatever it is you do while I sleep, I guess. Just be quiet about it. And don't start any fires. Again."

Venom, again, doesn't respond. 

"Okay, fine, be pissy then. Goodnight."

No response. Eddie fights the urge to roll his eyes before he heads off to bed.

Fucking typical.

Eddie’s not sure what causes it, but a sensation he can’t place finally stirs him awake. 

He squints in the darkness of the room, his eyes adjusting, and he’s awake for all of about ten seconds before he realizes that he’s alone, in every sense of the term. 

Venom is gone. 

And Eddie knows Venom’s gone, knows it for sure, because when you have a symbiote inside you you can feel it, and you grow accustomed to having that presence with you at all times, so much so that being without it leaves an odd sort of emptiness- emptiness that a human who has never been bonded with a symbiote couldn't possibly begin to understand. 

Venom is gone.

“Shit,” Eddie chokes out as he scrambles out of bed, frantically searching his apartment for a mass of black goop. He looks everywhere- in his cabinets, under his couch, in his fucking shower- and by the time he finishes scouring every inch, his apartment is in shambles and Venom is still nowhere to be seen. 

Don’t panic. Don’t panic, he tells himself. In that moment, alone and anxious and fighting an oncoming migraine, Eddie is about to start looking for his shoes to search the city, when suddenly his phone rings.

He almost drops it in all his effort to get it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. Sorry for calling so late, but... it's sort of urgent."

Anne's voice brings him an oddly calming sensation- which he appreciates even if it doesn't help much. "No no it's fine, I was uh- I was gonna call, actually, I was-" Eddie pauses to catch his breath, heart pounding hard against his ribcage, "I was wondering if maybe you had seen Venom? Anywhere? 'Cause he's not here and I'm really starting to freak out-"

"He's here, with me. I uh... I think you should get over here, Eddie."

"Oh my God," Eddie says through a long exhale. "Stay put, both of you. I'm on my way."

ONE HOUR EARLIER

When Anne notices a black, inky mass tapping on her window out of the corner of her eye, at first she thinks she might be hallucinating. She’s tired, she’s been working all night, and it’s entirely possible that her brain is deciding to fuck with her just for the fun of it. It wouldn't be the first time.

But the tapping doesn’t stop, and the mass doesn’t go away no matter how many times she rubs her eyes, so she gets up and flips on the light, and that’s when it clicks. 

“Venom?” she blurts out. “Jesus, what the hell are you doing here?” 

And that’s when she realizes that she won’t get an answer until Venom is… well, inside her. It makes her shiver a little to think about it, but Venom wouldn’t come to her unless it was an emergency, so naturally, her next thought is fuck, Eddie’s in trouble again.

She opens her window and reaches her hand out, offering. “It's okay. You can come in,” she says, and that’s all it takes. She cringes a bit at the sensation of Venom crawling up her arm before spreading out over her chest, then sinking deep into her skin.

“Show yourself,” she orders, and Venom does just that, manifesting just his- her?- head, protruding from the back of her left shoulder.

But Venom doesn’t immediately start spitting out an explanation, so Anne asks the most pressing thing on her mind at the moment. “Is Eddie okay?” 

“Eddie is fine. He’s back home, resting.” 

Anne breathes out a sigh of relief. It's a bit jarring to hear Venom's voice change- from the usual deep, masculine voice she's used to hearing, to something far more feminine- more akin to her own voice. "What’s going on, then? Did you and Eddie get into another fight or something?” 

“No. We did not fight. Much.” 

Well now Anne’s really confused. It's not like Venom to pay friendly visits like this- at least, not without Eddie. “Okay, so… Eddie’s not in trouble, and you two aren’t fighting… so why are you here?” 

“I came because I cannot be with Eddie right now.” 

“Oh, you mean because of the procedure tomorrow? Yeah, Dan told me about it. I was just gonna stop by tomorrow morning and pick you up, you didn’t have to come this early.”

“It is not that.”

Anne frowns, puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

“It is not easy to tell you this. I know that as soon as I tell you, you will tell Eddie. And then…”

“And then what?” Anne prompts. “I’m guessing it’s about Eddie, since you don’t want him to know.” 

“It’s not… necessarily about Eddie. But he does play a part in it.”

“Play a part? Is this about him being sick?” Anne asks, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “Do you… do you know something about it?” 

Venom goes quiet, and that’s all the confirmation she needs. 

“You know what’s wrong with him," she says, as if it's a fact. "You've known this whole time. And you won't tell him."

“You don’t understand. It’s not that simple.”

“It seems pretty simple to me,” Anne argues, tempted to get Eddie on the phone. “What is it then, if you’re not going to tell Eddie?” 

“Annie-” 

“Don’t ‘Annie’ me right now Venom, this is serious! Eddie could really have something going on and you won’t tell him! Don’t you think he deserves to know? I thought- I thought you cared about him. I told you to take care of him."

“...I do,” Venom's voice if soft- softer than she’d ever heard it before, “I care about Eddie more than you’ll ever know." 

“Then go back home, and tell him!” 

“You do NOT understand!” Venom says again, louder this time. “Eddie is not- he’s not sick.”

Floored by this admission, Anne’s eyes go wide. “Eddie’s not sick?" She lets out a dry, humorless laugh. "He’s been throwing up for over a week straight, is that- is that not ‘sick’ to you?” 

“He does not have an illness,” Venom clarifies, as if that makes it better.

“You sure about that?” 

“I’m in his body. If he was sick, I would know, and I would take care of it.” 

Anne rubs her exhausted eyes. “Okay. Enough with the bullshit. I’m tired. It’s either you tell me first, or you tell Eddie first. Either way, he's going to find out.” 

Venom locks eyes with her, gaze unblinking (does Venom even blink?), her inhuman eyes wide and almost soft-looking.

“It’s me. I am the cause of Eddie’s sickness. Because I’m going to spawn soon.” 

Anne blinks absently a few times, her face blank as she processes this- before her eyebrows suddenly shoot up to the top of her face in an almost cartoonish look of shock, her mouth falling open.

“You’re-” she chokes out, like she got the wind knocked out of her, “you’re joking.” 

“This is not a joke. I would not joke about this.” 

“Holy shit,” Anne says through a breath. “I… you’re pregnant?” 

“Not in the same way a human would be, but… yes. Essentially.” 

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” 

“You understand now. Why I didn’t want to tell Eddie.”

“No! I mean- yes, in a way-” Frustrated, Anne sighs as she starts pacing- a habit she’d never managed to break. “Look, I'm not even going to pretend that I understand aliens and how they... reproduce, but I get why you were scared now- it can be scary telling people you’re pregnant. But you can’t hide it forever, I mean- what did you think was going to happen? Did you think Eddie wasn’t going to notice when there was suddenly a... a baby symbiote?” 

Venom shies away, suddenly looking unusually small. “I was hoping that Eddie would be able to feel it. But he didn’t.”

“Wait-" Anne holds up a hand, "is the baby… a symbiote?"

“If you’re asking if Eddie is the father, then no. Not biologically, anyway. The child is Klyntar. We don’t… we don’t reproduce that way.” 

Anne’s not sure why she expected an alien to reproduce the same way humans did, but she quickly puts a stop to that train of thought before she can start thinking about all of the other possible ways. “Oh. So, all the vomiting was actually just… morning sickness?”

“Yes.” 

“Holy shit. Sorry, it’s just- this is a lot to process all at once. I’m trying.” 

“Take your time.”

“Okay,” Anne says, catching her breath. “So. You’re pregnant. You’re scared of telling Eddie, so scared that you felt like you had to tell me before him. Why?” 

“A lot of reasons,” Venom says. “I can sense that Eddie longs for a family. Longs for connection like that. But he is also holding back so many things. So many thoughts, feelings, things that he thinks I don't notice. Keeps them all inside, tucked away, and asks me not to look. But sometimes things slip out." 

"You're right about that," Anne agrees, "if there is one thing Eddie's good at, it's keeping how he really feels behind a thousand locked doors."

"And it is only after I discovered I was about to spawn that I realized just how different our worlds are. Eddie comes from a world where children are loved. Raised. Protected. But  on my world, spawning isn’t like it is here. We have no concept of ‘parenting’. After we reach maturity, we spawn several times throughout various periods of our lifetime. We cannot control when it happens, nor can we control how many times it happens. Our spawn gestates inside us for a certain period of time, and then after they are born, they reach full maturity after about three months, in Earth time.”

“Sorry, did you just say several times?” 

Venom looks away, as if ashamed.

“Oh my God. You have a-"

“Had,” Venom corrects. “You remember Carnage. From when he kidnapped you. And tried to kill you."

“Carnage?!" Anne blurts out, loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, "Carnage was your-" 

“Yes.” 

A grim realization dawns on her once she puts two and two together. “You killed your own-” 

“I did what had to be done," Venom interrupts. "Carnage could not be saved. He had bonded so deeply with Cletus Kasady that there was barely any distinction between him and Cletus. Carnage hated me, and would always hate me, and would never, ever stop trying to kill me. And he would go after you, and Eddie, and Dan until you were all dead.”

“Still,” Anne says, horrified. “That was still your child.” 

“Parent and child relationships on my world aren’t like they are here. We don’t love our offspring. The offspring doesn't love their parents, either. I didn’t even know that I had spawned- it just happened, and by the time I realized it, it was too late.” 

“Oh my God. You…”

“Carnage is one of the other reasons,” Venom continues. “I’ve been here on Earth long enough now to know that the way things were done on my world is wrong. I’ve come to appreciate the way humans raise their spawn. But I was afraid that, if I had another spawn, it would turn out like Carnage." She gently curls a dark tendril around Anne's fingers. "I don’t want the little one to be another monster, Annie.”

“Venom…” Anne murmurs softly, “that’s not… that won’t happen. Not if you raise it right.”

"Eddie would be good for the offspring. He could teach them human morals. And how to be an incredible hero like me!"

"So then what are you so afraid of?" Anne asks, smiling. "I mean, don't get me wrong- I totally get being scared, but with the way you're talking, it sounds like you're really excited about this."

"...I want to be. But I do not know what it means to be a parent- or at least the Earthly definition of one. All I know is that I cannot allow what happened to Carnage to happen to any of my other spawn."

"Well, what I'm gathering is that this all just comes down to you being afraid," Anne says, pointing an accusatory finger at her. "Afraid of rejection, afraid that Eddie might get rid of you- and then you and your baby wouldn't have anywhere to go."

“What should I do?” Venom asks- no, pleads.

“You’re really asking me for help?” 

“I have no one else to turn to. You are the only one I can ask. And you are my friend. I trust your judgment.”

She finds herself more touched than she thought she'd be upon hearing Venom name her as a friend- probably her only friend, with the exception of Eddie. “Well, I can’t say I know for sure what the best thing to do is. I’ve never been pregnant. I’ve never really wanted kids- nothing against them, they just weren’t for me,” she says- and it's the most honest she's been with anyone that wasn't Dan in a while. “But I think you already know what I’m going to say.” 

“Yes,” Venom says. “You are going to say I should tell Eddie the truth.”

“Look, I can’t speak for him, but I don’t think you have to worry about Eddie rejecting you,” Anne says earnestly. “When he asked me to come find you while you two were separated, I’d never seen him look so desperate. He was worried sick about you. It wasn’t just about fighting Carnage.” 

Venom is silent for a moment- but she can hear a faint humming sound coming from within her head that she's certain isn't her doing.

"Yes. I could sense that. When we bonded again. Eddie was in pain. Over the thought of losing me."

"Yes, he was. I know Eddie. Maybe not as well as you- since you literally share a body with him- but pretty close. And I know that even if Eddie is… surprised, or upset, the thing he’s going to be the most hurt over is the fact that you felt like you had to keep this a secret from him,” Anne says. "Because you're still scared of rejection."

“It’s not that I wanted to keep it a secret. It was many things. I've been... rejected. A lot. By former hosts. By my own people. After finding Eddie, who was an ideal match in every way, I did not want to risk losing him. I tried to make him happy." Venom looks up at her, gaze almost accusatory. "You made him happy, once."

Anne flushes, a wave of guilt washing over her. It had taken her a long, long time to come to terms with the fact that she had made the right choice, and that even if it hurt Eddie, it was what had to be done. "That was a long time ago."

"That is why I wanted you to be with Eddie again," Venom presses on. "Why I made you two kiss that night in the woods."

"Uh-huh," she says, a smirk spreading across her face, "and weren't you the one who gave me some bullshit story about how transmission would go faster orally, all so you could have an excuse to kiss Eddie?" 

"Irrelevant."

"Right." She grins knowingly. "This isn't about me and Eddie at all, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop deflecting. This is about you and your baby. And the fact is that it's coming, whether you like it or not. So it's better to be honest with Eddie now, before it gets here, because if you wait then you'll have an even bigger mess."

Venom looks away again, and through their bond, Anne can feel anxiety, fear. Venom's fear. Fear of rejection, fear of parenthood, fear of what the child will become.

“It’ll be okay,” she says reassuringly. “Just… be honest, please.”

“Honest,” Venom repeats.

“Honest,” Anne says back, voice firm. “It’s important. Humans really value that sort of thing.” 

“...I understand.” 

“Good.” Her mind made up, Anne suddenly reaches for her phone.

“What are you doing?” 

“I’m calling Eddie. We’re going to settle this, right now.” 

“Right now?! Can’t it wait till morning?” 

“No, it really can’t.” 

NOW

“Um, do you guys wanna tell me what the hell is going on here?” Eddie asks, panicked and just about out of breath. “Here I am panicking thinking something’s wrong, that someone’s got you and Venom held hostage or something- but apparently you two are having a sleepover or something?" 

“That’s not it,” Anne says, her tone oddly stern. “Venom has something... very important to tell you. But first…” She walks over and places a hand on his shoulder, and Eddie feels Venom slip from her fingertips and seep into his chest, behind his skin. 

“Thanks. And I’m uh- I’m sorry about this. I’m gonna take him back home before he decides to interrupt anyone else’s sleep.” 

“Eddie,” Anne says sharply, "before you get mad at him, just... listen to him. Hear him out.” 

Eddie shoots her a confused look over his shoulder. “Um… alright. Thanks again Annie.” 

They get back home relatively quickly after that. Eddie remains silent, if only for the sake of not getting strange looks. And oddly enough, Venom also stays quiet.

“What the hell was that little stunt?” Eddie asks as soon as they walk in the door, slamming it shut behind him. “You can’t just run off like that without telling me! What were you even doing over there anyway? What was so important that you felt like you had to leave me in the middle of the night?” 

"You are upset."

“Yes! I’m upset! Here I am thinking someone kidnapped you, or that you fucking died or something, but no. You just… you just left,” Eddie chokes out, a combination of frustration and worry and other emotions he'd rather not name all welling up inside his chest. “Don’t do that to me, man. You can’t just leave like that. I didn’t know where you were, I thought…"

"You were worried about me."

“For the love of- yes, okay? I was worried, is that what you wanna hear? I was worried about you. Can you really blame me? Seems like there’s always someone out there that wants you dead.” 

"Can’t help that I have so many fans."

Despite his visible frustration, a smile breaks out across Eddie’s face. “Fuck you,” he says through poorly concealed laughter. “Don’t make me laugh right now. I’m trying to be pissed off at you.” 

"I missed you too, Eddie."

“Fuck off,” Eddie says, with little to no malice. He looks down at his feet for a moment, trying to resist the urge to break out into a run, his heart beating just a little bit faster. There had to be a reason that Venom ran off, and Eddie will certainly be asking about that, but right now, he can't find it within himself to keep dwelling on the subject.

“Listen, V. I’ve been… thinking. A lot, recently. About a lot of things. And uh… I just wanted to say... I’m sorry,” he says. "I can't believe I'm the one apologizing after you left without telling me, but... here we are. Truth is, I uh... I never really found the right words to say before. But since I’ve been sick, you’ve just been trying to help. Trying to take care of me, and I... didn't react like I should have. Because I don’t- I’m not used to that. The whole... you know..." He makes a vague hand gesture, hoping that it conveys his point.

"Being cared for?"

"Yes. That." He pauses to take a breath, unsure of how to continue. “I know I can make it... hard to care about me. But you… you’ve always been there, you know? I mean, not- not always, but since- since you came back after the rocket anyway, and-"

"Eddie."

"And I- I’ve spent so much time just… being hung up on Anne, being upset about my job and losing my show, that I just… I took some of that out on you, and that wasn’t fair."

"Eddie-"

"So, I’m sorry. For everything up until now. I just… I guess I just never learned how to handle this shit. But you’ve tried to help, you've been... surprisingly good about not trying to bite people's heads off while I've been sick, and... I guess I just don’t wanna shut you out anymore. So, uh… the next time you have a problem so bad that you feel like you need to leave, just… tell me next time. Please.” 

"Eddie-"

"...Whoa. I think that's the best apology I think I've ever given to anyone in my life-"

"I’m going to spawn."

Eddie freezes.

Completely, to-the-bone, freezes. His brain might have even stopped firing off signals.

“...What?” he asks in a tiny voice, wanting to be sure he heard correctly.

"I’m going to spawn," Venom repeats. "The vomiting. It’s not an illness. You are experiencing what you humans refer to as morning sickness."

“You-” Eddie pauses, chuckling nervously, heart starting to pound a mile a minute. “That’s- can you repeat that? I think I misheard. It’s funny, 'cause it sounded like you just said you were going to spawn, and that I was experiencing morning sickness.” 

"That’s exactly what I said."

Eddie’s fairly certain that, for at least five seconds, his heart stops beating- after it had just been galloping in his chest like a race horse- then starts back up again. Just like that, over and over again, on loop. For a moment he fears that he’ll be sick again, but strangely enough, his stomach isn't churning. For the first time in a while.

“Show yourself,” Eddie says, voice cracking. “You can’t- you can’t just drop a bombshell like that and hide from me.”

Venom does as Eddie asks, although with a lot of hesitancy that Eddie can feel through their bond. He opens his mouth to ask a question, but there’s so much going through his head, and so fast, that he’s not sure what to ask first, where he should even begin.

“I already gave the whole spiel to Anne. I can give you a summarized version, if you’d like.”

“You told Anne before you told me? Jesus Christ,” Eddie runs his hand through his hair. 

“It is not like that, Eddie. I wanted to tell you. It wasn’t you- it was my own fear that held me back.”

Eddie’s trying- he’s really trying to acknowledge what Venom’s saying- but there’s so much spinning around in his head that he can’t keep track of it all. He feels like he's going to fucking faint. “I mean, how did- how did you even- we’ve never-”

“We do not reproduce like humans do. It just… happens. We can’t control it.”

Eddie draws in a long, deep breath. “Okay. Okay. Let me just- summarize here. So you’re… you’re pregnant.” 

“Yes.”

“With a symbiote. One of your kind.” 

“Yes.”

“And that’s why I’ve been sick all this time.” 

“Mmhm.”

“And you-” Eddie’s eyes widen as the realization dawns on him. “You were going to let me go through a medical procedure that I really didn’t need to go through because you were too scared to tell me the truth."

“Well, now you’re making it sound really bad.”

“That’s because it is bad!” Eddie snaps, his patience all but worn out at this point. “Jesus Christ. Jesus fucking Christ-”  

“Eddie-”

“Don’t ‘Eddie’ me right now, man! You can't just lie to me about my own body, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Venom visibly jolts backwards. "I was going to tell you. Eventually. I just wasn't sure how to say it. How you would react. You don't understand what this is like."

Red. Everything looks red and he's trying, he's trying so hard to keep calm, because the one thing that he feels more than anger or betrayal right now is the pure, unfiltered shock. "Right. Yeah. Well, I’m so sorry. It must have been so horrible for you, huh? Lying to me, letting me worry about having a fucking disease, letting me worry about you-”

“About me?”

“Yes! How many times do I have to say it? You seemed so fucking miserable over not being able to do anything about it, and the whole time I was the one trying to comfort you and make you feel better, but you knew!” Eddie shouts, pointing an accusatory finger at Venom. “You knew, and you wouldn’t tell me…”

“That was real,” Venom insists. “I really thought that I could cure you, that I could shield you from the side effects. But I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do. I was frustrated. I didn’t want to watch you suffer.” 

“But you did. I know it was only a week, but how much longer would you have let this go on?” 

“Not much longer. It wasn’t just fear of separation that kept me from telling you. It was more.” 

“Oh yeah? What was it then?” 

“Carnage didn’t just come out of nowhere, Eddie.” 

The color quickly drains from Eddie's face. “What did you just say?” 

“He didn’t call us ‘father’ for no reason,” Venom continues. “At the time, I did not know I was about to spawn. If I did, I never would have let Cletus bite us. Carnage was born inside of him, bonded to him on a level that not even you and I are on. They were almost the same entity.” 

“Carnage was your-” 

“Like I told Anne, parent and child relationships on my world are not like they are here. We do not love our offspring, we do not raise them. Carnage could not be saved. He would never, ever stop going after us. He had to be dealt with.” 

He guesses it shouldn't come as that much of a shock- Carnage did seem to come out of nowhere, rather than on a rocket like Riot and Venom himself. And although he's still reeling, Eddie recognizes that he can’t expect an alien to have the same kind of moral code about children that humans have.

Besides, from what he could tell, Venom was right about Carnage. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy you could reason with. 

“But I want to do things differently this time,” Venom insists. “Don't you see, Eddie? We have a choice now. I want to try raising my next offspring the human way. So that they will not turn out like Carnage. And I wanted… I wanted you to raise them with me. I just didn’t know how to tell you that.” 

And just like that, Eddie’s red-hot anger melts. Suddenly he feels so terribly small standing before Venom, vulnerable and exposed, like Venom just stripped him of any and all of his defenses.

All he can bring himself to say is, “why me?”

“Because you are the best person I know. You taught me how to be good. How to be a hero. When we are Venom, we save people, but I never would have become what we are now if you hadn’t taught me about what it means to be a good person. I want my offspring to learn from you, the same way I did. Learn from us.”

“I-” Eddie can’t bring himself to say anything, completely and utterly overwhelmed. Venom’s sincerity strikes deep inside him, piercing like a knife, but the only pain that Eddie feels is the sharp sting brought on by Venom keeping this secret from him. “That’s not… come on, you don’t mean that.” 

“After I lied, I know you might have a hard time believing me. But I am telling the truth. I was afraid to put a burden like this on your shoulders."

"You were never afraid of that before."

"Things are different now. This is my spawn. And I understand that here, raising a child is... what you would call a big deal. It is not something that you can force on a person.”

“So you were just… this whole time, you…” Eddie looks away, blinking away tears. “Look, I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me. I’m still pissed at you for keeping this from me. But I know that I haven’t exactly been the easiest to live with, either.” 

“No, you haven’t,” Venom says bluntly. “But this time, it is not your fault, Eddie. It’s mine, and mine alone. I... should not have lied. And I am sorry.” 

“It’s alright,” Eddie says, the words slipping past his lips unbidden. “It’s alright.” 

Silence passes between them for a few moments as Eddie contemplates what to do next. His head feels so heavy that he fears it’ll start to ache. He’s not sure where they go from here, if they can go anywhere, and neither is Venom. 

“I think I just… need you to go away for a little while,” he says somberly. “Can you… can you do that?” 

Without another word, Venom sinks back into him. Eddie lets out a long, exhausted sigh as he flops onto the couch. 

He tries, and tries, and tries, but sleep never comes.

The first thing Eddie does the next morning is call Dan.

“Yeah, Anne just told me about what happened,” Dan says. “That’s… that’s really wild, man. How are you holding up?” 

“Oh, you know. I'm hangin' in there."

Dan doesn't laugh, but Eddie can tell that he wants to. “Well, to be honest, I know Venom lied to you and all and he shouldn’t have done that, but I’m glad that it’s this, and not something worse. At least now we know what's going on. Aside from the morning sickness, you're completely healthy."

“...Yeah,” Eddie says, still uneasy, "guess so."

“ So, uh, listen- I don’t have to go in until later today. Are you feeling up to breakfast? It’ll be our treat.” 

Despite generally feeling like shit from the lack of sleep, Eddie finds that today, his seemingly constant nausea seems to have subsided- for now. “You uh,  you want me to be a third wheel?” 

This time, Dan does laugh a little. “If you think it’d be too weird, I get it. But the offer stands.” 

Now, Eddie knows, deep down, that Dan is just trying to be nice, but there’s a nasty, bitter part of him, rearing its ugly head from deep inside, that insists that Dan and Anne almost see him like their pet, like their responsibility that they always have to check up on and take care of, and that thought alone is enough to make him nauseous. 

“Hey V, what do you think about breakfast?” he asks in an attempt to take some of the pressure off of himself. 

Unsurprisingly, Venom doesn’t answer. After their argument last night, Eddie imagines that he’ll be getting the silent treatment for a while. 

He sighs. “Look, I don’t want you to feel like you have to bring me along. You guys go and enjoy yourselves. I’ll be fine.” 

“We’re not forcing ourselves to invite you out to breakfast, Eddie,” Anne cuts in, frustration evident in her tone. “You know me, and you know that if I didn’t want you to come, I wouldn’t invite you. Are you coming or not?”  

He should have guessed. Anne was always able to see right through him. Just one of her many talents. “...Okay,” he says, against his better judgment. “Yeah. I’m in.” 

“Great. We’ll pick you up in twenty minutes.”  

After the call ends, he drops his phone onto the couch. “So this is how it’s gonna be now? You’re not gonna talk to me?” 

Silence, again. 

“I guess you won’t have any input on what I decide to get for breakfast.” 

Still nothing. 

“Hm. What about you, Venom Junior? Any chance you'll talk to me?"

When not even that manages to a get a reaction out of him, Eddie comes to the realization that today, he's truly on his own.

“I know you don’t wanna risk it, but it’s important to eat. Not eating isn’t going to help,” Dan tells him. “Maybe get something light? Eggs are good for an upset stomach. Toast. Maybe some hashbrowns if you’re in the mood for them.”

“I don’t know," Eddie replies as he starts to skim through the menu. "It’s been a while since I’ve had anything that isn’t soup and crackers. I’m… kind of terrified,” he admits. 

“Have you been having any cravings?” Anne suddenly blurts out.

Both Eddie and Dan look up at her in shock, and after recognizing what she seemed to say, she quickly leans back against the booth, face flushing red. “Sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn’t- I don’t know why I asked that.” 

Eddie awkwardly clears his throat. “...Well, to uh, answer your question… no, not really. I haven’t thought much about eating."

“Right, yeah, of course. Sorry. I know this is weird for you.” She clears her throat and picks up her menu, pretending to browse it. “Should we talk about something else? Let’s talk about something else.” 

“It’s okay,” Eddie reassures her. “It’s fine, it’s uh… crazy. Weird. So I get being curious. I still don’t know all the details myself.”

“Venom hasn’t told you anything?” Dan asks. 

“No, he’s uh…” Eddie looks down at the menu again, “not talking to me right now.” 

“What? Why?” both Dan and Anne ask simultaneously.

If it weren’t for the overwhelming discomfort of the situation, Eddie might’ve laughed. “I asked him if I could be alone for a little while last night. Now he’s just straight up ignoring me. Not even breakfast was enough to get him talking. He usually loves breakfast.” 

“Did you two fight?” Anne leans in, frowning. “I told you to go easy on him."

Eddie shoots her an icy glare. “I tried, but he did lie to me for over a week straight and almost let me get a medical procedure that I didn’t need all because he was scared to talk to me. I think I have the right to be a little pissed off.” 

“Eddie is kind of right,” Dan cuts in. “Lying to someone about their own body is never okay. That’d be like me hiding things from my patients.” 

"Thank you Dan," Eddie says graciously before returning his attention back to the menu.

“I know, I’m not saying it’s okay,” Anne argues, “he was wrong, no doubt about it. But it’s not as black and white as you think. He had a lot of reasons to be afraid.” 

“I think I’m going to get the ‘classic breakfast’,” Eddie suddenly declares as he closes his menu. “Eggs. Toast. Hashbrowns. Sausage. Sounds good. Really good. Suddenly I’m starving. Famished, actually. What are you guys getting?” 

Before either Anne or Dan could argue further, thankfully the waitress chooses that moment to come by and get their orders. After she leaves, silence falls between them as Eddie idly plays with his straw, absently stirring his drink. 

“Um…” Dan says after a moment, “I know you don’t wanna think about this right now Eddie, but you sort of have to think about… the future.”

“I know we do Dan, but-” 

“Obstetrics isn’t my field of expertise,” Dan continues, like Eddie hadn't said anything at all, “and I don’t know if I’ll be much help since Venom isn’t human. But… if you want, I can try to help. When the baby’s ready to be born. I don’t specialize in pregnancy and childbirth, but… gotta be better than nothing, right?” 

“No, yeah, that’s… you’re right.” Eddie looks up at him, meeting his gaze. “We could use your help. Thank you," he says, voice tight.

Dan smiles. “No problem. I’d be happy to help.” 

Throughout the rest of their meal, after their food arrives, Eddie subtly tries to get Venom’s attention, hoping he can at least goad him into stealing some food off his plate, but Venom still won’t so much as acknowledge his presence. 

Eddie thought once, well over a year ago now, that not having Venom constantly yammering on, both inside and outside his head, would bring him some peace and quiet. Once that actually ended up happening, he’d quickly discovered that he hated the quiet more than he ever had before Venom came along. 

Unrelenting silence somehow hurts his ears more than a nagging little voice in his head, pestering him to buy chocolate or hunt bad guys.

It’s downright unbearable- knowing that Venom is there but won't talk to him. Eddie doesn't even manage a full 24 hours on his own before he finally cracks.

“Venom. C’mere. I wanna see you.” 

No dice.

“Venom,” he says again, softer this time, “please. Come here. I wanna talk to you.” 

He feels Venom stir from within him. It's the first reaction he's gotten from him all day.

“I know you hear me,” he continues. “Please. Would you just talk to me? Just for a minute?"

Relief floods through him as Venom manifests before him. Strangely enough, it had felt like they'd been apart for decades. “What was all that, huh? Ignoring me all day like that?” 

“You're the one who asked to be alone.” 

“But that doesn’t mean you get to ignore me when I talk to you. What would’ve happened if we were in danger and I needed you?” 

“I would have protected us."

Eddie sighs in frustration. “You know what? It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re talking now.” 

“Eddie. You do not need to say anything. I can sense that you’re frustrated. Tired. Angry.” 

“No, it’s…” Eddie runs a hand through his hair, half-tempted to pull it out. “This is… a lot to process, okay? I’m not gonna pretend it’s not- there’d be no point in doing that anyway. But I don’t… hate you. I’m not mad at you because you’re having a kid. I think that’s… I think that’s great, actually. I was mad because you didn’t tell me, because you lied to me, but... I get it now, I think. Why you were so afraid."

Venom looks up at him tentatively, opalescent eyes meeting his. Eddie can see his own reflection in them if he looks long enough, but he'd never dared to before. Now, he sees himself. Worn out. Conflicted. Still a little bit angry.

"More than anything, throughout all of this, I think I was just confused.” 

Venom tilts his head. “Confused?” 

“Yeah, I just… you know, all that stuff you said about how I could be a good role model for this kid. For years I… I was terrified of the thought of… of having kids of my own, because I was so afraid I’d become like my dad. I couldn’t imagine that. Scared me so bad that I just… didn’t have any. Annie was the only person that ever made me think about changing my mind, but she never wanted kids. And I was okay with that.” 

Venom goes quiet, but Eddie can tell that he's listening.

“V,” he chokes out, forcing himself to look Venom in the eyes. “I need you to tell me if you meant all that stuff you said. And don’t you dare fucking lie to me about this.” 

“I meant every word,” Venom says, and something inside Eddie breaks. Something that needed to be broken for a long time now.

He nods, trembling ever so slightly. “Okay.” 

And then he does something monumentally stupid.

He reaches up, gently brings Venom down to eye level with both hands- and plants a kiss on the side of his face.

Venom makes a noise that Eddie has never heard him make before- a strange mix between a gasp and a distorted squeal. He immediately jumps back as if just the touch of him was scorching, eyes wide and round, like a deer caught in headlights. 

Eddie feels his entire fucking universe collapsing around him, his heart falling deep into the pit of his stomach as the weight of his colossal fuck-up crashes down on top of him. “Oh. Oh fuck.”

“Eddie-”

It was only a matter of time before he inevitably fucked things up again, right? “No, it’s cool, I- I completely misread this. Wow. Okay. That was embarrassing." 

“No, you didn’t!” 

Eddie looks up at him, confused. “I don’t…”

“Of course I want to kiss you," Venom says, like he hadn't just pulled away from his opportunity to kiss him. "Annie wasn't the only one kissing you in the woods that night, you know. It was me, too. Mostly me, actually- at least at first. You don't kiss people that you just like as friends. Even I know that.” 

If Venom could roll his eyes, Eddie feels like he'd be doing just that right now. And so, he makes a mental note to stop assuming that Venom is blind to all things relating to Earth culture. Clearly, he pays more attention than he originally thought.

“Oh,” he says dumbly. “Um. Okay. I’m, uh… kinda getting some mixed signals here, buddy.”

"You... may be hesitant. To trust me again."

"I... well, I mean... any normal person wouldn't trust you. But, clearly I'm not a normal person.” Eddie draws in a long, deep breath, trying to re-gather his thoughts. "Come on, can't you sense it? How I feel? Can't you tell that I... want to?"

"I could sense your base desires, of course. You dreamed of our kiss in the woods for months. Vividly. But there were things... so many things you wanted to keep hidden. So many feelings locked away- though sometimes I could feel traces of them through our bond. Even how you felt towards me. So many conflicting emotions. It was almost like you wouldn't let yourself feel any of them to their full extent, because you were afraid I'd see."

Eddies flushes red with guilt, knowing that he can't deny it. He tries to think of something to say next, a way to communicate his feelings clearly-

And that's when it hits him.

His mouth is clearly failing to do what he needs- so maybe his mind can fill in the blanks.

Eddie can sense Venom looking at him with curiosity. He already knows his genius plan before he can spit it out.

“You said before that you try not to poke around in my mind, right? Because of privacy and all that?” 

“Yes."

“You said that you wouldn’t look into my head unless you had my permission. Well this is me, giving you my permission.” 

“You’re certain?"

Eddie nods. “Yeah. I’m… I’m not very good at saying how I feel. And I know I need to get better at that- I will. But right now I want you to- I want you to go into my head and just. Just look. You can look at everything if you want, my entire fucking life story. I’m an open book. I trust you.” 

Eddie can feel the way Venom practically swells with joy. He wonders for a moment if maybe this kind of connection is something Venom's been missing since making Earth his home. “Very well. But you will want to sit down for this. This can be… intense.”

“Oh, uh… okay, sure.” Eddie does as Venom asks, seating himself on the couch. 

“And just so you know, Eddie, our bond works both ways. While I am inside your head, you will be able to see everything of mine as well. My thoughts. My feelings. Everything that I feel about you.”

“Seriously?” 

“Yes. I will also be “an open book”, as you put it.” 

Eddie suddenly feels two tendrils pressing gently against his temples. 

“Now close your eyes. Relax.” 

He's not sure how he’s going to be able to relax right now of all times, but he does as best as he possibly can, drawing in deep breaths to calm his breathing and ease his racing heart.

“Let me in. Let us in.” 

Eddie winces as he feels it- a light pushing sensation all around his head. It doesn’t exactly feel unpleasant, but it’s foreign. Nevertheless, he keeps his calm and doesn't fight against it, trying to keep his mind blank. 

Venom searches for a little longer, and then there’s another, more forceful push- before the floodgates finally open. 

He sees brief flashes of what must be Venom’s life before Earth- but he's seeing it through Venom's eyes. It’s dark and he's not sure where he is, and there’s an aura of danger around these memories, but more than anything is the overwhelming feeling of loneliness. It grips him tight, icy and sharp, enough to make him shiver. He’s unfortunately not unfamiliar with the feeling, but feeling it to this degree, to this level of intensity, is new for him.

Venom was always alone. There wasn’t even a sense of camaraderie when he was among those of his own kind. He'd really meant it when he said he was an outcast. On his world, though, being a reject seemed to have far more damning consequences than it did on Earth.

Eddie has never felt emotion like this, so raw and so vicious, striking at his center and reverberating throughout every square inch of his body. Any more and eventually he feels like he’ll burst.

He doesn't exactly see who or what Venom bonded with before him, but he knows for sure that he is not the first. He can feel the sensation of jumping from host to host, with none of them ever being quite the right fit. Harsh, bitter rejection claws at him. It's a miserable, bone-deep ache- the feeling of never belonging. 

It's hopelessness, he realizes.

But then, almost as quickly as it had come, the feeling slowly begins to subside as a new wave of emotions settles in. Again Eddie sees more flashes, only this time things look a little- no, a lot more familiar. 

Earth. A new planet- new to Venom, anyway. A new place to call home. It was only supposed to be temporary in all actuality, but Eddie can sense how quickly all of that fell apart the moment he tasted the food here, saw the tall skyscrapers and the city lights at night. 

Once he met the people here. 

It was his new beginning. A chance to be more.

All the sudden it’s like he’s looking at a slideshow of just him. Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. He sees himself laughing, smiling, indulging in quiet, brief moments of tenderness with Venom when he had been certain Venom wasn’t paying attention, like stroking his head or shifting closer to him. 

But he was. Of course he was. 

He's always paying attention. Always looking out for him. Always protecting him. A new wave of fresh emotion settles inside him, chasing out the remnants of loneliness and sorrow, and Eddie recognizes it as pure, unadulterated, radiant warmth. Safety. Security. 

It’s love, in its truest form. 

It’s unfamiliar territory for the symbiote. Eddie can sense flickers of hesitation, wondering how Eddie would feel if he were to find out. Of what his people would say if they could see him now.

Ah, but then again, he'd never liked them much anyway.

Those feelings are fleeting- miniscule in comparison to the swells of love inside him. For the first time, Eddie can see- or rather, feel- that Venom would never really want to be anywhere else, despite their fights, despite it all. Eddie is not just his host. He’s his home.

His everything.

Venom abruptly cuts their link. 

Everything goes black for a second, but Eddie eventually manages to get his vision back, chest heaving, tears streaming down his reddened cheeks. 

“You-” he chokes out through heavy breaths, but then he stops. 

He doesn’t need to ask. He’d just seen all of it for himself. 

“Yes,” Venom says anyway. “I saw the depths of your feelings as well, Eddie. I felt your agony from when we were separated. You were happy when we reunited. Very happy."

"Guilty," he says through tears, smiling widely.

"Your trust in us has not been broken. You want us. And now... you want to want us."

Here he is, admitting to things he's not sure he could've admitted to ten minutes ago. He feels like Venom has just sliced him open and pulled his guts out. It's raw, and it's exhilarating, and he's so fucking glad he suggested this. Everything feels crystal clear. How could he ever have been so uncertain? "Yeah," he says. "I do. Never stood a chance."

Venom presses his forehead against his, eyes drifting closed. “I love you, Eddie.” 

More tears spill out. He hasn't heard those words directed at him in a long time, and honestly, he's not sure how many more emotional revelations his body can take today.

“Yeah,” he says. “Me too. But- you, I mean. I love you too.” 

He can feel Venom’s joy through their bond, and it’s downright infectious. He smiles again because he just can't help it.

And God, he loves that feeling. 

Venom leans in, nuzzling affectionately against Eddie’s cheek. “I want to kiss you now,” he says. "I've been waiting a very long time to do it again. It was impolite of you to keep me waiting."

Eddie ducks his head, grin widening. “C'mon, you saw what was in my head. I don't know why the fuck we're still talking."

But Venom doesn’t kiss him- not yet, anyway. He pulls back for a moment, and Eddie looks up just in time to see him shift into a more humanoid form. It’s just an upper body, but he’s suddenly much, much bigger than Eddie’s used to seeing him- with thick arms and a broad chest, attached at Eddie’s hip.

“Whoa,” Eddie blurts out, unbidden. “I mean, uh… you… sorry."

Clearly pleased with his reaction, Venom cups the side of Eddie’s head with one massive hand, thumb brushing over his lip. “Much better kissing like this."

Eddie knows that Venom can feel his face heating beneath his touch, and that only makes his face heat up more. “I didn’t even know you could take that form without taking over completely.” 

“It’s not as strong as it normally would be when taking over your body, and I’m using up a lot more of our energy to hold this form, but it’ll do just fine, even if it makes us a little tired. Besides, we know you like it,” Venom says teasingly as he leans in. “No more talking. Now we kiss.” 

Eddie’s smile stretches across his face as he places his hand on Venom’s chest, slowly sliding up his neck, drawing closer and closer until-

His phone rings. 

Eddie lets out an annoyed groan, reaching to check and see who it was- only for Venom to grab the phone with a tentacle and chuck it in the direction of Eddie’s bed. Unfortunately it misses, making a loud cracking noise that, in turn, makes Eddie let out a high-pitched yelp. 

“What the hell? That was a nice phone!” 

“We will buy another one. No interruptions."

And with that, Venom doesn’t give him another chance to argue, and once he’s got Venom’s tongue in his mouth, he can’t really bring himself to care anymore. It feels like that night in the forest, but this time there’s a weight to it that wasn’t there before. This time, Anne wasn’t a participant. It was just them, them and them alone, and that thought alone is enough to push Eddie to pull Venom even closer. They’re closer than it’s possible for any two humans to be, and it’s everything and not enough all at the same time.

It’s perfect, it's a mess, it’s both exactly and nothing at all like Eddie imagined, until- 

“Mm. Mmph.”  

“Eddie?” Venom pulls away, concerned. “What is it?” 

Eddie's stomach starts to churn in a way that he's learned to recognize as 'not good'. “Breakfast. Catching up with me. Bathroom, now.”  

Luckily, Venom is able to get him to the bathroom before he can ruin his clothes. Of course. He should have figured. Not even true love is enough to cure morning sickness.

“Not even thirty seconds after our first kiss and you’re throwing up? That’s mean, Eddie.”

“Shut up, you know that’s not why,” Eddie says through a pained groan as he wipes his mouth. “Ugh. We really do have to get this under control, though. Any chance you could tell the kiddo to tone it down a little?” 

“No need. The child is going to be born soon. I can feel it.” 

“Shit, seriously?” Eddie staggers to his feet, flushing the toilet. “That's uh... really quick. How soon are we talking?” 

“Days. A week, at most.” 

Eddie’s face lights up with joy. “Fuck. Holy fucking shit. You’re- we’re- we’re gonna be parents.” 

“Parents,” Venom repeats, before pulling Eddie into a tight embrace. “Parents, Eddie!” 

"Oh God," Eddie says as the realization dawns on him, slightly less enthused. "We're gonna be parents."

"Eddie," Venom says, sensing his building anxiety, "it will be fine." 

"God, shit, what do we do- fuck. Oh my God."

"Eddie-"

"Do symbiote babies need, like- a crib? What do they need to eat? Do we need to find brains for this kid too? A host? Oh God, fuck- we are so unprepared-"

"Eddie." Venom grabs his hands, attempting to soothe him. "It'll be fine. You are overthinking this, as usual." 

"I... I am?"

"The spawn is not like human children. They will reach maturity much faster than a regular human child. As they grow, all they need is to be kept safe. Then, we will worry about a host."

"...Okay," Eddie says after catching his breath, nodding. "But you're sure there's nothing we need? Does it need to be bottle-fed or something?"

"No, Eddie. The alien spawn from a world thousands of lightyears away does not, in fact, need to be bottle-fed."

"Shut up," Eddie grumbles, despite his laughter. "I don't know what I'm doing here, like, at all, man. I think we're in way over our fucking heads."

Venom hums again, pulling Eddie closer. "We're always in way over our fucking heads. Things always seem to turn out in the end."

Eddie lets himself relax in Venom's arms. He did have a point- the odds for anything that they did, big or small, never really seemed to be in their favor.

Suddenly, just as quickly as he was pulled in, he's being gently shoved away. “...Brush. I love you, but you smell like vomit.” 

“Oh. Right. Yeah. Sorry.”

The baby is born three days later, at around 9:43 P.M.

Although Venom had been vehemently against it at first, ultimately they agreed that it would be best to separate during the birthing process, due to uncertainty over whether Eddie would be able to handle the pain. But Eddie never left his side- not once. He would've even offered a hand to hold, but Dan had advised against it- Venom's strength unchecked would've been enough to shatter every bone in his hand in less than a second, and both he and Dan figured that given the pain Venom was in, he wasn't thinking much about keeping his strength under control.

And Dan, in the end, hadn’t been much help either, as Venom had mostly handled it all on his own- but having a doctor there did make the whole thing feel all the more… human, even if the spawn was the furthest thing from it.

In fact, the baby is no more than a little puddle of dark gray goo, barely able to fill up the space in Eddie’s cupped hands.

“Congratulations,” Dan says, somewhat awkwardly despite the smile on his face. “It’s very… active, so I guess that’s a good sign. It looks as healthy as a pile of sentient goo can look.”

The spawn shifts in Eddie’s hands. A tiny tendril suddenly forms from the small mass, and tightly curls around Eddie’s thumb. 

And that’s it. That’s all it takes. Eddie Brock can and would lay down his life for this little gooey alien in his hands in a heartbeat, no questions asked. 

“Sorry I’m late,” Anne says as she hurriedly rushes inside the room, quickly shutting the door behind her. “Is the baby here yet?” 

Eddie can't speak, because if he tries, he knows it'll just come out as a nonsensical, incoherent sobbing mess. Instead, he walks over to show her the baby. He thinks for a second that she might be disturbed or put off given that it’s nothing like a human baby, but she doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest when he opens his hands.

“Aww,” she coos, smiling, “it's like a cuter, smaller version of Venom."

“Oh I don't know, I think they've got my eyes,” Eddie jokes, his voice hoarse. 

Anne rolls her eyes, but her megawatt smile betrays her. “So, have you decided on a name yet?” 

Eddie’s eyes widen. Oh fuck. A name. This whole time Venom’s been about to spawn and neither of them thought once about what they would name the baby once it got here. 

Speaking of Venom…

Eddie rushes over to where Venom was lying. His wriggly movements were slow and sluggish, but he was very much alive. 

“Dan, could you maybe take the baby for a sec?” 

“Uh- yeah, sure. Of course.”

Eddie gently plops the baby into Dan’s open hands before reaching out to Venom. They re-bond relatively quickly, without hesitation. He can sense now that Venom is exhausted and he would probably need lots of chocolate (and maybe a brain or two) to recover, but he was happy. Thrilled, even. 

“We did it, Eddie.” 

“More like you did it,” Eddie says with a chuckle. “I’m so proud of you, V. You did so good.” 

Although it takes a lot of effort to do so, Venom emerges from Eddie’s back, searching for the spawn. “Where is it? I want to see the baby.” 

“Here,” Eddie says, walking back over to Dan, who immediately places the spawn back into Eddie’s hands. 

“Let’s give them a minute,” Anne whispers to Dan, who nods and follows her out the door. 

Venom leans in close, affectionately nuzzling the spawn. Eddie can hear a low, content rumbling sound coming from Venom. “Beautiful." 

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, because fuck- it doesn’t matter if it’s human or not- that’s his baby. More like Venom's baby technically- he didn't have much to do with the creation or the birth- but still. Venom is in his body, so he has a baby. He has a baby. Him, of all people. “But we need- we need to give them a name. I know we didn’t talk about names before so we’re kind of in a hurry, but… ” 

“Klyntar are not given names. We choose them. The offspring will choose a name when they’re ready, and then they will reveal that name to us.” 

“You mean it'll tell us?” 

“I will be able to tell.” 

“So what do we call them in the meantime?”

“Baby. Spawn. Offspring.” Venom nuzzles them again. “The little one. Our little one.” 

Eddie smiles tenderly. The tears that had been threatening to fall earlier finally slip out. Venom is quick to wrap a few tentacles around him, mimicking a hug.

“Family. We have a family."

"Yeah," Eddie says. "We do."

Most days, the child sleeps.

(Venom insists that it's not actually "sleeping" and is instead a "rest state", but Eddie fails to see the difference)

They keep the kid in a makeshift nest of Venom's own design- a huddle full of blankets and pillows, propped up right next to Eddie's bed. Every night, the spawn curls up under a purple throw blanket- one that Eddie’s had for years. It's cuter than it has any right to be. 

But when the child is active, they have a tendency to explore. They like to climb up the walls a lot, so Eddie has to keep an eye on them while they "play" so that they don't accidentally start a fire or knock something over.

The spawn also, notably, doesn't need to eat yet, either- though Venom claims that that time will come soon. 

"How long until the kid is fully grown?" Eddie asks one afternoon while he's holding them.

"Another month or so," Venom answers. "Then, we will need to begin the search for a host."

"Are you sure I can't just be their host?" Eddie asks.

"No. You are already my host. Your body would be unable to handle the stress of two Klyntar. You would die."

Ah. Comforting. "Well, hopefully the baby finds a good host. Someone they connect with."

"They will.”

But then Venom abruptly tenses up from within him, and Eddie sits up, concerned. "V?"

"The child's name," Venom says. "They have chosen a name."

Eddie's face lights up with joy. "What is it?"

"Sleeper."

“Sleeper, huh?” Eddie says as he brings the spawn to eye level. Of course it wouldn't have been a human name. “The name certainly fits.” 

“I told you before Eddie, it is not ‘sleep’, it’s-”  

“A rest period, yeah yeah, I got it.” Eddie prods gently at them. “Hi Sleeper. You like your new name? It’s gotta be better than ‘kid’.” 

Sleeper rubs up against Eddie’s thumb, and Eddie melts all over again. The more time he spends with them, even just holding them and observing them, the more he starts to feel like maybe he’s up for this parenting thing after all. It's not parenting in the traditional sense, but he figures he should try to savor it while it lasts, considering that by next month Sleeper will be all grown up and won't need Eddie to look out for them anymore.

Sadness settles over him at the thought of that. Before he can wallow in it for too long, though, Venom emerges from Eddie’s back, gingerly guiding the wayward symbiote back into Eddie’s hands with a tentacle. “Do not think too much about the future. We are Sleeper's family. No matter how old they get, that will never change."

"I know. Guess I just have to adapt to having a kid that's not human."

"Does it bother you?"

"No, of course not. But before Sleeper runs off looking for a host- or tries to eat anybody's brain- I want to keep them here. Teach them about the world, you know?"

"Of course." Venom lifts a tentacle, making a vague fist-like shape at the tip of it. "We will teach them everything about how to be a great hero, like us!"

Before he can ponder too much on what the world will look like with two symbiotes running around on it, Eddie decides to ask about something that's been on his mind- ever since he first found out Venom was going to spawn. “So, um… just out of curiosity… how many more of these little guys are you gonna have?” 

Venom’s eyes go wide. “Um…” 

Eddie blanches, nearly dropping Sleeper in his shock. “Venom-”

“Oh, would you look at the time? It’s way past Sleeper’s bedtime. Time to take them to bed.” Venom then takes control of Eddie’s legs, marching them back to the little den they’d created.

“Hey! We are not done talking about this!”