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The night air rushed over Eddie’s face. He clung desperately to Venom as they jumped from building to building, wrapping his arm over their shoulder and clutching their back with all of his might.
His heart skipped a beat as they flew through the air, landing in the ground with a loud thud that echoed off of the walls around them. Eddie scrambled out their hold and onto his feet, a loud sigh escaping him as he did. Thank goodness he was on solid ground again.
Venom and Anne followed him as he raced down the stairs into the alleyway where Dan had parked.
“Hey, Dan!” Eddie called out, the words interrupted by his panting. His breaths were still short and shallow, his heart had yet to slow down.
He turned towards Anne. Venom’s form had receded back into her body. “Alright, let’s go.”
Anne paused suddenly, stumbling to a halt. “Wait— he doesn’t want to come out.”
“What do you—” Eddie began to stumble over his words. He raised his eyebrow and stared incredulously at Anne. “What do you mean, we have to leave right now ‘cuz Cletus is gonna wipe the city out.”
“So he’s looking for an apology.” She looked exasperated. Rightfully so, Eddie thought, she had just gone on a quest to find Venom for him and break him out of police custody. “Look, I know that amendments aren’t really your thing—“
“Apology?” Eddie was taken aback. His mouth fell slightly open in shock. “As in right— right now an apology?”
Anne shrugged her shoulders.
“Fine, I will be the bigger of us…“ Eddie began.
An uncomfortable silence fell over them as she listened to what Venom was telling her. God, this was so bizarre. He never realised how weird he looked to other people while Venom was talking to him. “What did he say? What is he saying?”
“He said he’s listening very sincerely,” she said, pursing her lips and giving a nod once she finished talking.
So the idea that Venom was being sincere was totally bullshit, but he had to apologize nonetheless. “Alright listen to this—” he took a breath. “I am sorry,” he said plainly, his voice lacking any emotion.
Anne shook her head, her gaze reminding him of how she would look at him when they got into fights when they were dating.
“I’m sorry,” he lowered his voice slightly and lowered his eyebrows.
Anne’s face did not change.
“I’m sorry!” Eddie emphasized every syllable, praying that Venom would believe it if he did— or at least take pity on him.
“I’m sorry!” He screamed, anger coating his voice. Fuck, this was going to take forever.
“I don’t know why you’re shouting at me.”
“Because—” Eddie sighed. “Okay, well, fine. I was a loser before I met you.” He paused. “And uhh… now I am someone. Alright you made me… special.”
“Why don’t you put a cherry on it,” she snarked.
“A cherry on that?” Eddie’s eyes widened. “Right… uhhh… I’m… I’m truly very sorry for everything that I said, and everything I did not say, everything that I did or did not… did not do.” He grimaced internally. That was a horrible way to phrase it, but he genuinely could not think of a better apology that would get Venom to come back to him. He could address the specifics later, when it was just the two of them and Anne wasn’t acting as their conduit.
“He’s thinking.”
“Cmon… cmon…” he bounced from foot to foot. His hands were interlocked at his chest, his fingers tapping against the backs of his hands.
Anne launched herself towards Eddie, causing both of them to stumble backwards. Venom’s form bubbled out of her body, rushing over her to get back to Eddie.
Eddie closed his eyes as Venom reentered his body. Their form was pleasingly cool to the touch as it crawled across his skin. They sank into it, a comfortable weight returning to his core.
“Kiss her!” Venom yelled, pushing Eddie’s face towards Anne’s.
“Are you— are you gonna kiss me or…?” Eddie asked, panicked.
“No! Oh god no— I am never doing that again,” as she spoke she rushed towards the passenger door of Dan’s car. “Or, well, maybe never— honestly it’s really fun.”
“If we save the day can we call ourselves the Lethal Protector?” Venom asked, completely out of the blue.
“That is so 80s—” Eddie scoffed. His attention shifted as he approached Dan’s rolled down driver’s side window. “Dan. Pack quickly and don’t stay, and if for any reason—”
“Fire and sound,” Anne interrupted.
“Fire and sound— what is that, a band?” Dan raised his eyebrows and turned to look at her
“No, it's what kills them.”
“Yeah.” Eddie nodded along awkwardly.
“Okay, look, man—” Dan turned back to look at him. “I’ve got her.”
Eddie reached in through the window to shake Dan’s hand. Venom grabbed control of his other hand and punched him in the face.
“God, I am so sorry,” Eddie apologized as he turned and bolted away. He walked further into the alleyway, his footsteps echoing off the walls around them.
“We are not done having that conversation, Venom,” he said sternly.
The symbiote stirred, an uncomfortable twisting in his stomach.
Eddie stumbled out of the alleyway. He shoved his hands into his pockets, fingers tapping against the material. His eyes scanned the road, ensuring it was clear before exiting the alleyway and walking down the sidewalk.
“Look— just because I messed up doesn’t mean you were a saint and did nothing wrong,” Eddie stated. His heart pounded in his ears, but they could not continue living with each other without fully addressing their fight.
“We—”
“You broke my nose! You trashed my apartment— threw a perfectly good TV out of the window and destroyed my brand new Ducati—”
“We were worried you would try to hurt yourself with it. Like you did when Annie told you she was engaged.”
“That doesn’t justify you ruining it!” Eddie shouted, his eyebrows furrowed. He took a deep breath, focusing on the sound of his shoes slapping against the pavement. Yelling wasn’t going to solve anything. Hell, it might lead to another massive fight like it had before.
“Look, Venom, I…” he paused and thought about how to phrase his words. “…understand that destroying my bike was a means of you trying to protect me,” Eddie spoke slowly, his pace measured. He forced himself to take another deep breath, focusing on the sensation of his diaphragm expanding. “But it’s still not the appropriate way to handle that. That bike cost me— cost us thousands of dollars. That TV too was expensive too! We bought it once we finally had the money from the LIFE foundation story so we would both be able to enjoy it. You can’t just throw all of that away because you were mad.”
A deep silence settled over them. Venom’s emotions swirled on the edge of his mind, enough to be noticed but far enough away that Eddie could not distinguish their meaning.
“Not even mentioning the physical stuff. I wasn’t joking when I called that behaviour abusive, Venom,” he glared off into the distance, wishing he could look them in the eyes. “You literally broke my nose and pinned me to the ceiling because you were angry at me. Just because some of that anger was justifiable doesn’t mean the way you acted on it was.”
“We are sorry for that. We were blinded by our rage, our pent up anger and frustrations, and we took it out onto you.”
“And…?”
“And we recognize that that is not an acceptable way to deal with those emotions. We will not act on our frustrations in that way again.”
“That’s what I’m looking for.” Eddie’s lips twitched into a small smile, slightly gleeful that he had gotten a slight jab back at them. He had to after the way they made him beg for him to come back.
“I know I messed up too, V,” Eddie stated. “I didn’t let you eat in the way you needed to and I didn’t give you the experiences or the freedom you need to be fulfilled.”
“You did. You tried to make us subside on chicken brains, Eddie. Chickens hardly have brains,” they drawled, sending him the mental equivalent of an eye roll.
Eddie huffed a laugh. “And that is all on me— trust me, bud, I recognize that. But you also consistently ignored my needs and mistreated me. You interrupted me while I was trying to work and could not compromise.”
“We are sorry for that, Eddie.”
“I understand that you want to be helpful. And I appreciate the sentiment, I really do— but almost eating a detective because he said some things you didn’t like? Causing me to act out in public— especially while we’re at work— because I have to respond and placate your demands despite what the people around me will think? That actively hurts my image, my career, and our livelihood, bud.”
Eddie continued walking. He paused at an intersection, glancing both ways before stepping onto the road. No one was out at this hour, especially with the curfew the mayor had put in place, so there was no reason for him to wait for the lights to change.
“We both know we want each other back. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have found our ways back to each other. But… we have got to work on some things, okay? Not just me, us.”
“We will work on things. Together,” Venom declared, a new strength surging through Eddie. They were one again.
“Together,” Eddie affirmed. “Now, let's go stop Carnage.”