Work Text:
Flarkin' Klyntar.
The fight against Knull was wearing on Rocket's already limited patience, and the hulking great symbiote wasn't helping matters either. Venom lingered near him at all times, breathing down his neck, those fangs as long as Rocket's arm always too close for comfort. Rocket doubled down, focusing intently on the Nega-Energy Replicator board he'd spent the greater part of the day tinkering with, but in the already tight confines of the Milano, Venom's presence was impossible to ignore.
"Listen, I know personal space ain't exactly in the symbiote lexicon," he said, when he'd finally had enough of that foot long tongue whipping around his ears close enough to hear the air sheering around it, "But crowdin' me ain't gonna make this go any faster."
Venom stared at him, or at least Rocket thought he did. It was hard to tell when he didn't really have eyes to judge by, but he felt the weight of Venom's attention on him and as the moment stretched onward, Rocket's skin prickled, his fur standing on end.
"We like watching you work," Venom said, after a too-long pause.
Rocket scowled and turned back to his workbench, pulling a magnifying monocle over his right eye. "Yeah, well, I don't like bein' watched. Back off, slimeball."
He hadn't really expected it to work — Venom didn't seem like the type to follow orders — but to his surprise Venom stepped back, lumbering away to the other side of the room and taking a seat on a bench that was much too small for him. It wasn't a great distance, no more than six feet between them now, but it gave Rocket enough space to breathe. The tension in his narrow shoulders eased a little, and he turned his focus back to the circuit board in front of him.
The rest of the team were out on the planet's surface, bringing the fight to those symbiotes still loyal to Knull (or at least too afraid of him to resist). It made no sense that Venom wasn't out there with them, not when the mere mention of Knull inspired such vitriolic hatred in him. And yet still he lingered, following Rocket wherever he went.
It had been like this ever since that symbiote dragon had almost killed him.
Near-death experiences weren't anything new for Rocket, but that didn't make them any easy to deal with. Accepting that everything was over; realising that his fate wasn't in his own hands anymore; giving his goodbyes to Wanda to deliver in his absence — these were the sorts of things that shook a person up, even someone as unshakeable as him. If that little symbiote hadn't come along when it had, he'd be nothing more than a sack of cold, dead meat right now.
But he'd lived, thanks to that thing, and the price he had to pay for his life was Venom's sudden, inexplicable clinginess.
In the grand scheme of things, maybe that wasn't so bad.
He glanced at Venom out of the corner of his eye. His massive form quivered and spasmed, the symbiote rippling with that constant threat of violence. Anyone would be justified in being uncomfortable with Venom's presence, but it wasn't fear that motivated Rocket's prickling unease.
The memory of the symbiote invading his wounds, seeping into his body, covering and filling every part of him, rose in his mind. He pushed it down viciously — that had been an act of mercy. A necessity to save his life.
So why did he keep wondering what it would feel like to be enveloped like that by Venom?
His skinned burned beneath his fur and he shook his head, physically trying to dispel the question that plagued him every time he looked at that damn symbiote. This wasn't going to help him get the Nega-Energy Replicator finished, and they were on a time-crunch. He needed to focus.
"We feel your distress," Venom said, clasping his gigantic, claws hands in his lap. Just one of those would be enough to wrap around Rocket's entire body, and Rocket bit back a snarl at the unwelcome thought. "We can help."
"No, you flarkin' can't," Rocket snapped, throwing the tool he'd been using down on the workbench. It clattered against the anti-slip mat, too close to the circuit board for comfort. "You're the reason I'm all worked up, can't you flarkin' see that?"
Venom considered him for a long, quiet moment before slowly rising to his feet. Rocket's heart leapt at the thought he might be finally about to leave, and then sank at the same possibility he'd finally driven Venom away. But instead, Venom approached him, each step sending tremors through the hull of the Milano. Rocket's mouth felt suddenly dry, his body paralysed with confusion, and when Venom's hand closed around his waist, Rocket felt himself relent long before the symbiote spreading across his body could have induced his submission.
The truth was that he wanted this, no matter how much he tried to fight it.
As the symbiote spread across his body, enclosing him as completely as the other symbiote had, Rocket felt a strange sense of calm wash through him. The pressure and darkness within the symbiote was oddly comforting, and he felt his earlier erratic energy dissipate as the symbiote pulsed and undulated against his body. The hand around his waist felt different now, smaller and more human — a stark reminder of Eddie Brock's presence as the other half of Venom, buried somewhere within the darkness of this body alongside him.
"We will protect you," Venom said, his voice less an audible thing now and more like an extension of Rocket's own thoughts. "Work."
Turning his attention back to the circuit board, Rocket at last settled in to put the last finishing touches on their secret weapon. Maybe this ain't so weird, he thought, the words running through his mind before he could stop them, helplessly aware that Venom now knew everything he was thinking. I've had stranger hookups before. That's normal with intergalactic travel, right?
No, trust me, a voice that he realised must belong to Eddie said, It's weird. But that's half the fun of it.