Work Text:
Miss Chen’s eyebrows knit in concern behind the counter. “You okay?”
“Fine,” Eddie rasps across the room. He bends over to dig a hand into the freezer, before he registers he doesn't really.. need these anymore. The tater tots. They've never been his favorite anyway, he only ate them because - shit. He grabs a box and stuffs them in his basket. “Yeah. Yeah, yeah, fine. I’m,” Eddie growls in frustration when he spots the Hersheys. He sighed. “Don’t—”
“I’ll give you this lecture again if I have to,” Miss Chen’s hands are on her hips. “You've heard it before! You know he’s fine!”
“Mm,” Eddie says. He saw Venom dissipate from a vat of acid. The chances he’s survived are in hell. And Eddie would give practically anything to have his stupid, annoying voice back in his head, because he wakes up each morning with an empty mind and his hands still head for the freezer. “Right.”
“You don't have to believe me,” Miss Chen said knowingly. “But listen, I expect you to grovel when the big guy comes back!”
“Anything,” he says quietly. He puts bread, eggs, milk, whatever, on the countertop. The Hersheys and the stupid tater tots go, too, and Miss Chen squints at him with a glint in her eyes. “Sure. I hope you’re right.”
She doesn't scan the chocolate or the box, which is kind enough already. Eddie thanks her, bags his stuff and makes his way back to his apartment.
The walk is quiet, for many reasons.
The most obvious - Venom isn't here. So he has no mundane, useless, occasionally catty remarks to make about people on the sidewalk minding their own business. Eddie may or may not have chimed in every once in a while, but had to be careful he said so in his head before he got some knuckles to the face. It's fucking lonely.
It’s weird, because he went over thirty years without somebody occupying his headspace. Or even some deep dark pit of his organs that really shouldn't allow a living thing to exist between. Eddie alone with his own thoughts is so odd it's uncomfortable, because there's no Venom to chime in or talk about things or - for Christ’s sake - be here. That’s new. And painfully so.
Another is there’s nobody on the streets. It’s San Francisco, maybe a little past eleven, and it’s a ghost town. He got home from New York just a couple weeks back - and this city just seems to be getting bigger and bigger with no extra intake of people. Just Eddie becoming smaller and smaller. With no shine to his name, a career that he tries to keep afloat. Which, actually, won’t, not without Venom. He wouldn't ever admit it, but surely Venom knew anyway, that the two of them need each other. They're bigass losers without the other.
And - Eddie’s throat closes up. Christ, Eddie rubs a sweaty hand down his face. No tears fall, but God, they might as well.
“Need you, man,” Eddie croaks to an audience of none. “Never thought I would this bad, but I do.”
The officer frowned at him, pitiless. “You were never going to be able to keep him, and he wasn't going to be able to keep you. He just doesn't belong on this planet.”
And maybe it was the drugs, sitting in his hospital bed, blinking rapidly like he still couldn't understand the thoughtless cotton in his head. All he had to say - and it was the most honest thing he could possibly say, was: But I need him back.
“No you don’t,” the man said quietly. “You won't be able to have him.”
Eddie shut his eyes in his apartment. Curled his fingers in, dug into the meat of his palm, like black tendrils would seep out of his pores and hold him back.
Two weeks later, a pigeon lands on his windowsill.
No, literally. The fucking thing slams into the glass, scares the shit out of Eddie, mid coffee-pour, and wobbles silently on the brick outcropping. Eddie turns on his heel, sitting the pot down and squeaks, admirably brave, “What the fuck.”
The bird squawked impatiently. Eddie glared at it, and thought twice before unlatching the window. He peered through the glass, the bird outlining the busy skyline.
It was black. Pitch black, familiarly black, and Eddie’s stomach sinks down to his toes and through the floor before he scrambles to throw the window open for the stupid bird.
Silky sludge seeped out of the bird, and the poor thing panicked and flapped away. Eddie sputtered to not get any gross feathers in his mouth, but really couldn't care less, because before he could think he was reaching out a hand, outstretching his fingers for— Eddie stared at it with wide, unbelieving eyes. Vat of acid, he’d thought. You’ve gotta be kidding me.
Venom— or, well, it had to be Venom, because Eddie knows this symbiote. There really isn't anything else he’s more sure about.
The symbiote reaches for him like a key to a lock, wrapping comfortably around his offered hand and sinking into his skin without a second thought. It’s so, so thankfully familiar, comfortably familiar, and Eddie is gasping and planting his ass on the floor because his legs have been sapped of any strength. He can’t see it, but he can feel Venom grinning in his head. Guess who.
“Motherfucker,” Eddie breathed.
Close enough! Told you it wasn’t permanent!
“You’ve— do you know how long— Jesus Christ, man! It’s been—”
Several weeks, I know. Had to catch multiple rides. It was very irritating not having you to carry me around, but— Eddie?
Eddie stills, and Venom cuts himself off, surely because he senses Eddie’s hesitance. He sucks in his lips, tightens his fists, before he feels the unavoidable burn of tears pooling. It’s sudden enough that Eddie grits his teeth and says, “Fuck.”
Eddie.
“Fuck you, man,” Eddie rubs at his eyes. “Dramatic-ass way to go and you just waltz back in here? Really?” His voice cracked. The tears won't end, so Eddie just opts to dig his teeth into his lip.
I am sorry, Eddie. Venom’s mood is surely marred by Eddie’s grief. He showed up happy, and now he’s restless and shivering in the back of his brain.
Venom does sound apologetic. He’s gone very quiet. Eddie sits there, miserable. And, again- his misery must be affecting Venom, too, who seems to be registering that Eddie has been grieving. His skin tugs, then with little effort Venom’s head floats before him, attached by vein-like strings that connect back to his shoulder blades. Seeing his face is like a waterfall of relief down his back.
His teeth glint. Eddie swallows a thick round of tears.
Venom presses their foreheads together. His skin - er, not even skin. It’s like rubbery plastic. The whites of his eyes are milky and wide. Tendrils link around Eddie’s wrists, ankles, waist. Some trail up his neck, messing with his hair. He’s like a hairless cat, nuzzling his neck and would mold even further into him if Venom wasn't already.
“I missed you,” Eddie admits weakly. Venom knows, but he feels the need to say it aloud anyway.
I also missed you.
He settles back in like he never left. Eddie shuts the window, Venom filling him in on what happened while he was gone - took control of things ranging from an alley cat to a cockroach. Eddie nods along. Lady Liberty was too far for me. My best guess was finding you back home.
“I went and saw it,” Eddie tells him quickly. He swallows. “I should've waited for you.”
She was prettier in person. Tall, almost monstrously so, but that's what Liberty deserved. Eddie sat on the edge over the Upper New York Bay and stared at her over the water’s white tips. He had wondered at the time what Venom would think, what he’d say. If he’d agree that she was certainly a sight to see.
Venom must be flipping back through his memories to see her for himself. Nonsense! If you went and saw her, I can- ahh. There she is! It’s like I’m there too! We should go back sometime.
“Yeah, love.”
A pause. Venom must be going further back. He must've landed on something back in Vegas when he crows, You look very sexy here!
“Thanks,” Eddie says mildly. Only a little flattered, because he’s heard this before.
I miss that suit. Why didn't we keep it? A flaw on your part.
Eddie rolled his eyes, but really doesn't have it in himself to make fun of Venom - anytime soon, so he just muffles a smile. “That wasn't my choice. I was kidnapped by the US military.”
Fuck! Whatever. Oh, by the way, Eddie, I need—
“I got you.” Eddie (and now it's really coming in handy) stands and grabs the piling boxes of chocolate he’s unwillingly been stocking up on. Hersheys, Reese’s, whatever Eddie got his hands on, and Venom shrieks like he’s been given several human beings to behead. Eddie never really got used to that part.
Holy shit!
“Yeah, I’m-”
Venom puppeteers him, if only for a little while, and maybe a half the boxes have suddenly disappeared. Eddie stares at them. “Did you just feed us six boxes of Hershey chocolate?”
Mm, Venom purrs, sated. His voice is particularly strong after a meal. Especially this time around, going so long without a proper dinner. Tasty.
It’s hard to describe how lonely he’d been. Especially without Venom’s company - his apartment was empty, his mind was free of his symbiote - it just.. nothing sat right. He’d write about the newest story he could find and when he waited for Venom’s input, none would come. Grief was odd like that - you won’t cry at the funeral, but you’ll bawl when you’re perusing aisles in a store and think They would’ve liked this. And maybe you'll buy it just ‘cause it’s a reminder.
A dark tendril curled around his neck like a collar. Were you waiting for me, Eddie?
“Venom,” Eddie says.
I feel what you feel, you know.
“I’m not stupid,” Eddie scowled. “Yeah, yeah, you can read my mind and sap emotions into me. I know, babe.”
Ooh! That’s a new one!
Not actually. Eddie calls him that all the time, but it kinda just comes out and Venom never bothered to comment on it. Maybe it was because Venom was off on a tirade and didn't register it. Either way, Eddie snorted and said dryly: “Not really.”
Don’t lie, Eddie. I’m positive of this! You’ve never called me that before.
Eddie laid back in his recliner. Venom’s.. tentacle-arms were off in their kitchen doing whoever the hell knows what. Probably making him dinner. As long as the fire alarm doesn't go off, or somebody dies, it’s fine. Eddie can just lean his head back and close his eyes and rest. And—even better—it's not quiet. Venom is singing some song, slurring the lyrics to an embarrassing degree. They’re here, though. Eddie is almost upset at himself for not trusting Venom to take care of themselves. It’s-
You’re thinking very loud, you know!
“I’m fine,” Eddie said to the ceiling. “Just.. happy you’re back.”
Yeah, Eddie. I told you already! I missed you also. But I am not dead! Don’t act like we died. We beat the shit out of them.
A pressure around his waist, tugging. The same for his hands. Eddie sighed, relaxing into his pillows. Even if the feeling was always the same, having Venom curl around him felt oddly like a human hug. Or, an alien's version of it. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”
Venom tightened around him. Eddie fought off the flush of his cheeks. “Thank you. For.. for coming home.”