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Eddie ducked under the awning of the bodega shopfront, shuddering at the chill that accompanied wearing a jacket that had soaked clean through to the skin. He was among a small cluster of other individuals who had sought shelter from the sudden downpour in the closest available overhang, tugging umbrellas out of their bags and calling friends to let them know they’d be late because of the rain.
Eddie hugged himself snugly, rubbing his upper arms against the chill of the breeze through his drenched jacket. Those first few grey clouds that had moved in on an otherwise beautiful summer day hadn’t seemed like much to worry about that morning, but now he was regretting the choice to leave the umbrella at home.
He watched as his fellow shelter-seekers cleared out, having opened their umbrellas and ventured back out into the downpour, or gone inside the bodega to simply wait out the rain. After a few bumped elbows with comers and goers, Eddie moved away from the storefront’s door and huddled against the building's outer wall to wait.
“Eddie.”
Eddie hummed a small acknowledgement at the symbiote’s voice rumbling through his head. People passed by under umbrellas or hunched under slick hooded jackets. Cars drove past with the smooth shhhk of tires on wet streets, throwing up little sprays of rainwater where it collected near the curb. Thunder rumbled pensively overhead and it became increasingly clear that the rain wouldn’t be letting up any time soon.
“Eddie?”
“Yeah, bud.”
Eddie took a breath and a brief look around before taking a sidestep out from under the bodega’s awning, ducking into the narrow alley next-door just as the symbiote’s substance flooded out of his skin, over his clothing, and enveloped the whole of him in slick, oily black. The sensation of the rain became muted, muffled, a trickling tap that Eddie could still feel, but in a strangely detached sort of way. Venom bent his knees before springing up onto a fire escape, which creaked and groaned under his weight, before propelling himself upward, kicking off the brick of the building next door to hoist himself up over the ledge of the rooftop.
Eddie had expected the symbiote to immediately start for home, but Venom paused there on the concrete roof, hulking form crouching as he stepped near the edge and hunkered down like some sort of gargoyle, perched protectively on the ledge. The symbiote’s opalescent eyes scanned the streets below, the headlights and taillights reflecting on glassy-wet streets, clusters of umbrellas completely hiding their holders beneath them such that they looked like bobbing little disks of colors, hustling along together.
There was a warm sensation of fondness, affection, thrumming from the symbiote’s mind. The rain began to come down harder, a grey sheet blurring the street below, filling the air with a loud hiss of water against concrete, against pavement, against gutters and downspouts and air conditioning units.
It wasn’t the first time Venom had been out in the rain, but the novelty of it still hadn’t quite worn off for him. And because of the strange and indescribable way in which their emotions intertwined, Eddie got to experience just a taste of that novelty, of that appreciative awe, of the fresh beauty of rain as it changed the whole of the city’s landscape, a blanket of its own atmosphere, a natural phenomenon of melancholy.
Eddie had barely felt Venom’s attention shift when the symbiote abruptly turned and bolted for the next rooftop, propelling them onward, a black blur moving like a phantom through the storm.
Venom swung into the open window of the apartment, landing with a thud on the hardwood floor. He gave himself a shake as he withdrew back into himself, into Eddie, black substance sinking back through Eddie’s damp clothes and once more into his body. Eddie closed the window behind them as the symbiote settled once more comfortably beneath his skin.
“Eddie,” Venom purred, “cold.”
They took a hot shower, lingering under the water a long while, til all the cold of the damp clothes and the downpour had washed away. They put on sweatpants, and an old t-shirt, and Venom plucked a hoodie from the closet that Eddie tucked himself comfortably into. The rain was still coming down hard, a constant low hiss in the background, accompanied by the louder tinks and plinks of rain on the window and the fire escape outside it.
Even as Eddie settled down into the familiar crook of the couch and turned on the TV, he could feel Venom’s quiet fascination, the awestruck mood the rain had struck in the symbiote. He turned the volume down low on the television, left it on something inconsequential (a little added ambiance to a quiet afternoon at home). He smiled to himself and shifted his weight, patting his chest lightly, two taps, with his fingertips.
Venom’s black tendrils rose up on the surface of his wrist, extending down his hand, forming into claws, into fingers, before interlacing with his own. Eddie smiled quietly, felt the pulse of affection radiate out from the symbiote, felt it press up against his own warm fondness. These moments were few and far between: moments when the symbiote could actually set aside his restlessness, his hunger, his constant need for stimulation. Eddie had come to treasure these moments, not in any specific or mentioned way, but quietly, being mindful of them, grateful for them.
Moments when both of their minds were quiet, a peaceful shared existence, co-existence.
So Eddie closed his eyes, and joined his partner, and together they listened to the rain.