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Venom gives the best hugs. Before they’d shown up and turned Eddie’s whole world upside down, he’d always been indifferent to hugging. Sure, it could be nice, if he was holding someone really cared about, like Anne, but nothing could have ever prepared him for how fast he would become addicted to the feeling of sinking into the symbiotes arms.
At first, their embraces were tentative, claw tipped appendages wrapping nervously around Eddie when he woke gasping and teary eyed from another nightmare where he lost Venom and never got them back, soothing him back to sleep.
Sometimes, Eddie would wake in the middle of the night, not from a nightmare, per se, but with a general uneasiness in his mind and stomach, and if Venom was there in their full form, Eddie would wrap his arms as far around them as they could go, and if he found the bed empty, he’d wrap his arms around himself, knowing Venom was in there somewhere.
Both of them started using hugs as a way to show their gratitude when the other did something nice for them, and sometimes when Eddie was cooking, Venom would sidle up behind him wrapping their arms around him from behind, resting their head on his shoulder and adding lively commentary to the proceedings.
When Eddie finally got a big break in a case he’d been investigating for an article, Venom scooped him up, twirling him around the room in his arms until Eddie was dizzy and crying from laughter.
Eddie started doing more for Venom, in hopes that he’d receive a hug in return. Sure, he could just ask and he as sure the symbiote would happily comply, but Eddie wasn’t used to needing others for things like that, so he did his best to keep the feeling tamped down, shoved away where Venom couldn’t access it.
One night, as they were watching TV, Venom slung an arm around Eddie’s shoulder, pulling him close to their side. Eddie leaned into it.
“Eddie,” they said, using a tentacle to mute the football game that they were currently watching. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” Eddie asked, his brow furrowed.
Venom leaned in impossibly closer. “That you desired my touch.”
Fuck, he must have let it slip past the mental barrier that he’d placed between them on the subject.
Eddie huffed. “I never said that.”
Venom just laughed, unmuting the game.
They didn’t talk about it again, but that night, just as Eddie was drifting off to sleep, he felt big, solid arms wrapping around him. He fell asleep with a grin on his face for the first time he could remember in a long time.