Dinner Party (Venom; Gen, PG-13)
word-count: ~3,000
characters: Eddie Brock/Venom, Anne Weying, Dan Lewis
genre:gen, PG-13
warnings: humor and angst in equal parts; Venom eats a head; gore.
story summary: Anne and Dan invite Eddie over for dinner. Things don't go exactly as planned.
“Tucked or untucked?”
“Tucked.”
“Really?” Eddie turned to the side and looked in the mirror, going up on his tiptoes so he could see a bit more of his waist and below. Someday, he’d get a full length mirror. But it hadn’t been high on his priority list. He had a whole different list of priorities nowadays, most of them revolving around his new other half. “Guess you’re supposed to tuck shirts with these pants, but it just feels weird.”
“Because we hate these pants.”
“We do? Yeah, I guess we do.” Eddie frowned. “They’re cut kind of weird. But I can’t wear jeans, not tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to look nice.”
“You do look nice.”
“Thanks,” Eddie sighed. “Yeah I can’t do this.” He tugged the pants off and walked back over to his dresser, pulling carefully on the pants drawer. It always got stuck halfway lately, because he’d yanked it straight out the other week by accident and then put it back in wrong. Fixing the dresser wasn’t exactly on the top of his priority list either. But someday. For now, he picked his newest pair of jeans; they were dark blue enough that they could probably pass for business casual, whatever that meant.
He pulled the jeans on, and crouched down to pick out a different shirt.
“Excellent. These shows off our assets much better.”
Eddie snorted a laugh. “Assets, huh?”
“Yes.”
“We’re not showing anything off tonight.”
“You want to look your best. You’ve been thinking about what to wear for the last two hours. It’s getting annoying.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But it’s not about showing off, it’s just-“ Eddie took the two shirts he’d narrowed it down to out on the bed. “Which one?”
Venom slipped out from his chest, milky-white eyes narrowing as they leaned over the shirts. “This one.”
“The green? Really?”
“It brings out our eyes.”
“Good thing I’ve got you as a fashion advisor.”
“Yes, it is a good thing.” Venom picked up the rejected shirt with a tendril and threw it skillfully back in the drawer. “Seven fifteen. Time to go.”
“Shit. Okay, okay.” Eddie tugged the green Henley on, and jogged back to the mirror, running his hands through his hair one last time.
“We are a vision.”
“Pff,” Eddie said, smiling as he grabbed his motorcycle keys and jacket. He paused, hand on the doorknob. “Remember what we talked about?”
“Yes. They don’t know about us. Keep it that way.”
“Unless?”
“Unless it's a matter of life or death.”
“That’s right.” Eddie opened the door and could feel Venom’s displeasure curdling in his gut, even stronger than the ever-present hunger. “I’m sorry. We can’t tell them.”
Venom’s silence spoke volumes.
Eddie sighed. “You know why. We can’t risk it. It’s one thing when a random person spots us when we’re...fighting crime, but if we start telling people-“
“We will not let ourselves be captured.”
“It’s not just about us. It puts them in danger, too.”
Venom’s subsequent silence was more resigned, and far less angry.
#
Eddie shoved another forkful of salad in his mouth, ignoring Venom’s incessant muttering about salad being what food eats. “Wow this is really great, Annie, what’d you say was in the dressing, again?”
“Actually, Dan made it.” Anne tossed Dan a smile. “He cooked everything we’re having tonight.”
Dan winked at Eddie as he stood, then headed for the kitchen. “It’s arugula, and cranberries, with sliced almonds and shaved Parmesan, in a balsamic maple reduction.”
“Oh, wow, yeah.” Eddie swallowed. “You can really taste the reduction.”
Anne gave him a humoring smile. “You look good, Eddie. Better. Been taking care of yourself?”
“Yeah, I’ve been uh-working out.”
“Good for you, what’s your routine?” Dan called from the kitchen.
“Oh, you know, jogging.” Eddie thought of last night, the way they’d leapt from rooftop to rooftop hunting down the last of a gun-running gang. “Cross-training,” They’d thrown one of the gun-laden vans into the East River, and flattened the other two by smashing them into each other. “Really working my core and stuff.”
“Good for you. Healthy body, healthy mind.” Dan set down two plates. One with a whole roast lamb shank, the other a heaping pile of potatoes that smelled like garlic and rosemary. It was probably rosemary. Either that or thyme, one of the small stick shaped herbs. The food smelled so good, he could feel Venom pushing against his insides, like a kid with their hands pressed against a candy-store window. It was all he could do to keep from grabbing both plates and dumping them directly into their mouth.
“Wow.” Eddie barely kept the drool from running down his chin. “This looks amazing.”
“Cooking’s kind of become a hobby, lately,” Dan said, slicing into the lamb shank with, well, surgical precision. He served all three of them one thick slice each. “Dig in.”
Eddie pointedly ignored Venom’s disappointment, because the lamb was factually delicious, even if his symbiote would’ve preferred it alive. Though after a few more bites, Venom was coming around. The potatoes they both liked, there were just far too few of them on his plate.
When Dan got up to get another bottle of wine, and Anne stepped away to start clearing the table, Venom surreptitiously flung out a tendril and grabbed the rest of the potatoes from the bowl, stuffing them into Eddie’s mouth before he could voice a protest.
His cheeks were still stuffed full when Anne came back to the table, and Eddie did his best to chew and swallow them without opening his mouth. Anne cocked an eyebrow, amused, and it was such a familiar expression, it made Eddie’s heart ache, just a little. He didn’t have any delusions about the two of them getting back together, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t still miss her sometimes.
“We’re really glad you came over tonight, Eddie,” she said, smiling up at Dan, as he brought over a bottle-not wine, but champagne. “We wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Know what?”
Anne’s smile widened and she held out her hand, waggling her fingers. A small diamond glinted from the ring finger of her right hand. “We’re engaged.”
Eddie’s heart skipped a beat. Had he just not noticed the ring earlier?
We could still eat him.
“No,” Eddie realized he’d said it out loud and hurried to correct himself. “Oh? Oh, that’s great! Congratulations!” He stood, and walked around to the other side of the table to give them both hugs.
Could crush his ribs.
No. They’re happy. They deserve it.
So do we.
Yeah, well, we’ll work on that.
“Let’s toast,” Dan said, “and have some of that chocolate mousse.”
A moose covered in chocolate?
Not that kind of moose. It’s good. You’ll like it.
Dan went back to the refrigerator.
“Wow, that’s really great,” Eddie said, Anne beaming at him from across the table. “When’s the wedding?”
“We’re thinking Spring,” Anne said. “Haven’t picked a date yet of course.”
“We’d love to have you there.” Dan set a crystal glass filled with chocolate mousse in front of him and gave another to Anne.
Smells good. Drink it now.
Not for drinking. Eddie grabbed his spoon. “I’d be honored.” He meant it, too. Even if he still missed Anne, Dan was clearly a good guy. Not only that, but he was way, way better for Anne than Eddie.
A scream.
What? Eddie saw inky black begin to creep up his fingers and stuck his hand under the table. What are you doing? We talked about this!
You said life or death. Outside there is about to be death, if we do not stop it.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta go,” Eddie said, standing, a little more abruptly than he would’ve liked.
“Eddie?” Anne looked concerned.
“You haven’t even tried the mousse!” Dan said, brow furrowed.
“Really sorry, I just remembered, I-“ Eddie headed for the door and then froze; his feet had stopped working, Venom locking him in place. "--have to go, right now." He spun on his heels, or rather, he was spun. What are you doing? Thought you wanted to leave?
The window. If we go out the door, we will be too late.
Eddie sighed, steeled himself, and tossed Anne and Dan an apologetic smile and a “Sorry,” as Venom enveloped him. Then he ran towards the window, shoving it open with a tendril just before they leapt through, bounded over the railing of the fire escape and down into the courtyard below.
The smell hit their nostrils as soon as they landed, carried towards them in the breeze curving through the alley.
Blood.
Yeah. It didn’t take Eddie long to find its source: a wiry kid next to the dumpsters, being pinned to the wall by a much larger man holding a red-tinged knife.
The kid was fifteen-sixteen at most, and blood was gushing from a stab-wound in his gut. The front of his pants were wet with piss and he was whimpering, breath hitching as he pleaded. “I’m sorry, Lars, please don’t-“
“You can’t just walk away, Frankie,” Lars said, bringing the knife to the kid’s throat. “You know that. Big man says you lost his goods, so now you gotta pay with your life. Nothing personal.”
“Let him go,” Eddie said, his voice and Venom’s resonating together.
“Or what-” Lars whipped his head towards them, and his comeback got caught in his throat. “Wh-what the hell are you?”
“Hungry,” Venom said, unhinging their jaws. Tendrils lashed out, grabbing Lars by the ankles and wrists before he had a chance to run. They yanked him in close and crunched down, swallowing his head whole. The knife clattered to the ground, and Lars’s headless corpse fell beside it, blood from the neck stump gushing out until the blade was swallowed up by the still-growing puddle of red.
Frankie’s legs collapsed under him, his jaw hung open in shock, and he mouthed something that would’ve been a scream if he’d had enough left in him to form one.
“Run,” Venom told the kid.
“He can’t,” Eddie explained, as Venom began to retract, hunger sated. “Look at his leg.”
Frankie looked up at them, his eyes rolled back into his head and then he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
“Eddie?” Anne asked, voice cracking.
“Oh my god,” Dan said, running up beside her. “What the hell happened here?”
“He needs a doctor,” Eddie said, pointing to Frankie, unconscious and barely breathing.
Dan jogged over to Frankie’s side, leaving Anne and Eddie alone. Her eyes were fixed on the last of the symbiote’s inky black, seeping back into the skin of Eddie’s hands.
“How long?” Anne asked. To her credit, she sounded far less upset than Eddie was expecting.
“Night after the rocket explosion,” Eddie carded his fingers through his hair. He hated thinking about that night. The overwhelming, crushing sense of loneliness. He hadn’t been able to sleep, hadn’t been able to think of anything but Venom-found himself up on the roof, staring at the stars, feeling incredibly small, powerless and painfully aware of the void inside of him. And then, out of nowhere he’d felt it-a pull in his cells, magnetic and constant and he'd known somehow-known with bone-deep certainty that the explosion hadn’t killed them-that Venom was out there somewhere and needed his help. “I came back to the water, went for a swim. Walked right in, jeans and everything." Eddie paused, let out a huff of a laugh. "I don't know what I was thinking--I guess I wasn't really thinking at all, it was just instinct, you know?"
Anne nodded, expression somewhere between empathy and pity.
"So I swam down as far as I could, and at the bottom of the bay, there was this shark-tiny little thing-a dogfish, I think. It looked at me, swam right up and it knew me."
"Venom?"
"Yeah, but there were pieces missing. The fire'd done a lot of damage-bits broken off, scattered all over the ocean floor, good as dead. It took us a while to find all the pieces, but we did-we put ourselves back together.” He couldn’t help but smile with relief at that. It had been far more than a reunion-he'd found his other half, filled a gaping, open wound. And that’s when he’d known that he would never, ever let anyone separate them again.
“You’re happy like this?” she asked, doubt threaded through her words.
“Yeah,” Eddie said, without any doubt at all. “I am. This is who I'm-who we were meant to be.”
“Okay then, that’s-that’s good.”
“I stopped the bleeding,” Dan said, coming up behind them. “Won’t know for sure how bad it is until we get him to the hospital, but I’d say bare minimum his intestines are gonna need stitching. Ambulance is on the way.”
“Thank you, Dan,” Eddie said. “Kid’s name is Frankie. That’s what he called him, anyway-“ Eddie said, nodding towards Lars’s headless corpse.
“Yeah, about that-” Dan started.
“It’s what we do. We eat bad people.” Eddie said quietly. He could feel Venom nodding proudly inside, but pride wasn't exactly what Eddie was feeling.
“Yeah. I’m not gonna judge or condone that right now, Eddie, but you gotta get out of here,” Dan said. “Cops will show up along with the ambulance. You can't be here when they do.” He headed back down the alley, standing watch.
“Come back another night for the mousse, okay?” Anne said.
Another night? But now is the perfect time for dessert!
“Really?” Eddie asked in disbelief, ignoring Venom for the moment. “No, I-“ his cheeks heated with an intense flush of shame. “You saw what we just did, right-what I just did-”
“You killed a killer, and you saved a life,” Anne said. “And, Dan’s right-you do have to get out of here before the cops come.”
“I’ll go. But I can’t come back another night. You two should not be seen with me. You’ve got a nice, normal life now, you’re gonna get married and-and be happy.” Sirens sounded from a few blocks away. Eddie nudged Venom, mentally. Need a quick exit. The symbiote spilled out through his pores, sliding around him: armor, comfort, purpose and so much more. They threw a hand up, tendrils latching onto the fire escape of the closest building. “Goodbye, Anne.”
Anne gave him a wave and a smile, but Eddie could see the worry cloaked behind it. “Don’t be a stranger, Eddie.”
#
They traveled home in silence. Unusual for Venom, who nearly always had something to say.
“What’s on your mind?” Eddie asked, as they made the last jump, to their rooftop. The building only had a handful of tenants left. His former neighbor and nearly everyone else on his floor had hightailed it out of there after the whole incident with the Life Foundation cronies. Oddly, the landlord didn't seem to have a problem with him being there. Even when he was late with rent.
“Do you regret not having a normal life?”
“What? No. This is much better.”
“Is that sarcasm?”
Eddie sighed, and it echoed oddly, Venom retracting away from his mouth as he exhaled. “No, actually it’s not.” He looked at the rooftop exit door, but decided against it, didn’t feel like going inside just yet. Especially not if they were going to have a heart to heart. The night was warm and the moon hung full above them. He walked to the corner of the rooftop, and sat, straddling the weathered brick parapet. Heights didn’t bother him nearly as much as they used to anymore. In fact, he was starting to like them. “I meant what I said to Anne. This-us-feels right. It’s what I want.”
“More than Anne?”
“Yes.”
“More than normal?”
“Definitely. I don't want normal. I want this." Eddie brought a hand up to his shoulder and squeezed, until Venom rose out of his skin to meet him, tendrils twining with his fingers. “Thanks to you, thanks to us, I get to live a life no other human gets to have.” He considered for a moment. “Well, except for Drake, but that was-”
“Riot did not care for Drake the way I care for you, wasn't capable of it.”
“But you are.”
“You taught me compassion.”
“Maybe you had it all along.” Eddie contemplated that a bit longer. Was that why Venom was an outcast amongst their own kind? Because they cared too much?
“I...bond more completely.” Venom sounded almost embarrassed by the admission. “It was a trait once prized by our kind, but it is considered inefficient for conquest."
"How about you? You sure you don't want conquest anymore?"
"I never did."
They fell quiet, gazing up at the stars together, and Eddie wondered if Venom knew where their planet was--if they could see it from here.
"No. But it doesn't matter. This is our home now. We are home." A tendril curled out from Eddie's side, looping around his shoulders in a tight hug.
"Got that right," Eddie said, settling back into Venom's hold. "And that’s just it. That night, when you sacrificed yourself to protect me- after you were gone...I have never felt that alone in my life. I realized that, more than anything, I just wanted you back."
Venom coiled tighter around them. "We will never be apart again."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Eddie said, and a pleased warmth spread through his back, seeping into his cells and up into his brainstem. Not just Venom's thoughts, but emotions-their emotions, woven through each other, amplifying everything they felt: affection, joy, and love.
They looked back up at the stars and felt whole.
characters: Eddie Brock/Venom, Anne Weying, Dan Lewis
genre:gen, PG-13
warnings: humor and angst in equal parts; Venom eats a head; gore.
story summary: Anne and Dan invite Eddie over for dinner. Things don't go exactly as planned.
“Tucked or untucked?”
“Tucked.”
“Really?” Eddie turned to the side and looked in the mirror, going up on his tiptoes so he could see a bit more of his waist and below. Someday, he’d get a full length mirror. But it hadn’t been high on his priority list. He had a whole different list of priorities nowadays, most of them revolving around his new other half. “Guess you’re supposed to tuck shirts with these pants, but it just feels weird.”
“Because we hate these pants.”
“We do? Yeah, I guess we do.” Eddie frowned. “They’re cut kind of weird. But I can’t wear jeans, not tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to look nice.”
“You do look nice.”
“Thanks,” Eddie sighed. “Yeah I can’t do this.” He tugged the pants off and walked back over to his dresser, pulling carefully on the pants drawer. It always got stuck halfway lately, because he’d yanked it straight out the other week by accident and then put it back in wrong. Fixing the dresser wasn’t exactly on the top of his priority list either. But someday. For now, he picked his newest pair of jeans; they were dark blue enough that they could probably pass for business casual, whatever that meant.
He pulled the jeans on, and crouched down to pick out a different shirt.
“Excellent. These shows off our assets much better.”
Eddie snorted a laugh. “Assets, huh?”
“Yes.”
“We’re not showing anything off tonight.”
“You want to look your best. You’ve been thinking about what to wear for the last two hours. It’s getting annoying.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But it’s not about showing off, it’s just-“ Eddie took the two shirts he’d narrowed it down to out on the bed. “Which one?”
Venom slipped out from his chest, milky-white eyes narrowing as they leaned over the shirts. “This one.”
“The green? Really?”
“It brings out our eyes.”
“Good thing I’ve got you as a fashion advisor.”
“Yes, it is a good thing.” Venom picked up the rejected shirt with a tendril and threw it skillfully back in the drawer. “Seven fifteen. Time to go.”
“Shit. Okay, okay.” Eddie tugged the green Henley on, and jogged back to the mirror, running his hands through his hair one last time.
“We are a vision.”
“Pff,” Eddie said, smiling as he grabbed his motorcycle keys and jacket. He paused, hand on the doorknob. “Remember what we talked about?”
“Yes. They don’t know about us. Keep it that way.”
“Unless?”
“Unless it's a matter of life or death.”
“That’s right.” Eddie opened the door and could feel Venom’s displeasure curdling in his gut, even stronger than the ever-present hunger. “I’m sorry. We can’t tell them.”
Venom’s silence spoke volumes.
Eddie sighed. “You know why. We can’t risk it. It’s one thing when a random person spots us when we’re...fighting crime, but if we start telling people-“
“We will not let ourselves be captured.”
“It’s not just about us. It puts them in danger, too.”
Venom’s subsequent silence was more resigned, and far less angry.
#
Eddie shoved another forkful of salad in his mouth, ignoring Venom’s incessant muttering about salad being what food eats. “Wow this is really great, Annie, what’d you say was in the dressing, again?”
“Actually, Dan made it.” Anne tossed Dan a smile. “He cooked everything we’re having tonight.”
Dan winked at Eddie as he stood, then headed for the kitchen. “It’s arugula, and cranberries, with sliced almonds and shaved Parmesan, in a balsamic maple reduction.”
“Oh, wow, yeah.” Eddie swallowed. “You can really taste the reduction.”
Anne gave him a humoring smile. “You look good, Eddie. Better. Been taking care of yourself?”
“Yeah, I’ve been uh-working out.”
“Good for you, what’s your routine?” Dan called from the kitchen.
“Oh, you know, jogging.” Eddie thought of last night, the way they’d leapt from rooftop to rooftop hunting down the last of a gun-running gang. “Cross-training,” They’d thrown one of the gun-laden vans into the East River, and flattened the other two by smashing them into each other. “Really working my core and stuff.”
“Good for you. Healthy body, healthy mind.” Dan set down two plates. One with a whole roast lamb shank, the other a heaping pile of potatoes that smelled like garlic and rosemary. It was probably rosemary. Either that or thyme, one of the small stick shaped herbs. The food smelled so good, he could feel Venom pushing against his insides, like a kid with their hands pressed against a candy-store window. It was all he could do to keep from grabbing both plates and dumping them directly into their mouth.
“Wow.” Eddie barely kept the drool from running down his chin. “This looks amazing.”
“Cooking’s kind of become a hobby, lately,” Dan said, slicing into the lamb shank with, well, surgical precision. He served all three of them one thick slice each. “Dig in.”
Eddie pointedly ignored Venom’s disappointment, because the lamb was factually delicious, even if his symbiote would’ve preferred it alive. Though after a few more bites, Venom was coming around. The potatoes they both liked, there were just far too few of them on his plate.
When Dan got up to get another bottle of wine, and Anne stepped away to start clearing the table, Venom surreptitiously flung out a tendril and grabbed the rest of the potatoes from the bowl, stuffing them into Eddie’s mouth before he could voice a protest.
His cheeks were still stuffed full when Anne came back to the table, and Eddie did his best to chew and swallow them without opening his mouth. Anne cocked an eyebrow, amused, and it was such a familiar expression, it made Eddie’s heart ache, just a little. He didn’t have any delusions about the two of them getting back together, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t still miss her sometimes.
“We’re really glad you came over tonight, Eddie,” she said, smiling up at Dan, as he brought over a bottle-not wine, but champagne. “We wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Know what?”
Anne’s smile widened and she held out her hand, waggling her fingers. A small diamond glinted from the ring finger of her right hand. “We’re engaged.”
Eddie’s heart skipped a beat. Had he just not noticed the ring earlier?
We could still eat him.
“No,” Eddie realized he’d said it out loud and hurried to correct himself. “Oh? Oh, that’s great! Congratulations!” He stood, and walked around to the other side of the table to give them both hugs.
Could crush his ribs.
No. They’re happy. They deserve it.
So do we.
Yeah, well, we’ll work on that.
“Let’s toast,” Dan said, “and have some of that chocolate mousse.”
A moose covered in chocolate?
Not that kind of moose. It’s good. You’ll like it.
Dan went back to the refrigerator.
“Wow, that’s really great,” Eddie said, Anne beaming at him from across the table. “When’s the wedding?”
“We’re thinking Spring,” Anne said. “Haven’t picked a date yet of course.”
“We’d love to have you there.” Dan set a crystal glass filled with chocolate mousse in front of him and gave another to Anne.
Smells good. Drink it now.
Not for drinking. Eddie grabbed his spoon. “I’d be honored.” He meant it, too. Even if he still missed Anne, Dan was clearly a good guy. Not only that, but he was way, way better for Anne than Eddie.
A scream.
What? Eddie saw inky black begin to creep up his fingers and stuck his hand under the table. What are you doing? We talked about this!
You said life or death. Outside there is about to be death, if we do not stop it.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta go,” Eddie said, standing, a little more abruptly than he would’ve liked.
“Eddie?” Anne looked concerned.
“You haven’t even tried the mousse!” Dan said, brow furrowed.
“Really sorry, I just remembered, I-“ Eddie headed for the door and then froze; his feet had stopped working, Venom locking him in place. "--have to go, right now." He spun on his heels, or rather, he was spun. What are you doing? Thought you wanted to leave?
The window. If we go out the door, we will be too late.
Eddie sighed, steeled himself, and tossed Anne and Dan an apologetic smile and a “Sorry,” as Venom enveloped him. Then he ran towards the window, shoving it open with a tendril just before they leapt through, bounded over the railing of the fire escape and down into the courtyard below.
The smell hit their nostrils as soon as they landed, carried towards them in the breeze curving through the alley.
Blood.
Yeah. It didn’t take Eddie long to find its source: a wiry kid next to the dumpsters, being pinned to the wall by a much larger man holding a red-tinged knife.
The kid was fifteen-sixteen at most, and blood was gushing from a stab-wound in his gut. The front of his pants were wet with piss and he was whimpering, breath hitching as he pleaded. “I’m sorry, Lars, please don’t-“
“You can’t just walk away, Frankie,” Lars said, bringing the knife to the kid’s throat. “You know that. Big man says you lost his goods, so now you gotta pay with your life. Nothing personal.”
“Let him go,” Eddie said, his voice and Venom’s resonating together.
“Or what-” Lars whipped his head towards them, and his comeback got caught in his throat. “Wh-what the hell are you?”
“Hungry,” Venom said, unhinging their jaws. Tendrils lashed out, grabbing Lars by the ankles and wrists before he had a chance to run. They yanked him in close and crunched down, swallowing his head whole. The knife clattered to the ground, and Lars’s headless corpse fell beside it, blood from the neck stump gushing out until the blade was swallowed up by the still-growing puddle of red.
Frankie’s legs collapsed under him, his jaw hung open in shock, and he mouthed something that would’ve been a scream if he’d had enough left in him to form one.
“Run,” Venom told the kid.
“He can’t,” Eddie explained, as Venom began to retract, hunger sated. “Look at his leg.”
Frankie looked up at them, his eyes rolled back into his head and then he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
“Eddie?” Anne asked, voice cracking.
“Oh my god,” Dan said, running up beside her. “What the hell happened here?”
“He needs a doctor,” Eddie said, pointing to Frankie, unconscious and barely breathing.
Dan jogged over to Frankie’s side, leaving Anne and Eddie alone. Her eyes were fixed on the last of the symbiote’s inky black, seeping back into the skin of Eddie’s hands.
“How long?” Anne asked. To her credit, she sounded far less upset than Eddie was expecting.
“Night after the rocket explosion,” Eddie carded his fingers through his hair. He hated thinking about that night. The overwhelming, crushing sense of loneliness. He hadn’t been able to sleep, hadn’t been able to think of anything but Venom-found himself up on the roof, staring at the stars, feeling incredibly small, powerless and painfully aware of the void inside of him. And then, out of nowhere he’d felt it-a pull in his cells, magnetic and constant and he'd known somehow-known with bone-deep certainty that the explosion hadn’t killed them-that Venom was out there somewhere and needed his help. “I came back to the water, went for a swim. Walked right in, jeans and everything." Eddie paused, let out a huff of a laugh. "I don't know what I was thinking--I guess I wasn't really thinking at all, it was just instinct, you know?"
Anne nodded, expression somewhere between empathy and pity.
"So I swam down as far as I could, and at the bottom of the bay, there was this shark-tiny little thing-a dogfish, I think. It looked at me, swam right up and it knew me."
"Venom?"
"Yeah, but there were pieces missing. The fire'd done a lot of damage-bits broken off, scattered all over the ocean floor, good as dead. It took us a while to find all the pieces, but we did-we put ourselves back together.” He couldn’t help but smile with relief at that. It had been far more than a reunion-he'd found his other half, filled a gaping, open wound. And that’s when he’d known that he would never, ever let anyone separate them again.
“You’re happy like this?” she asked, doubt threaded through her words.
“Yeah,” Eddie said, without any doubt at all. “I am. This is who I'm-who we were meant to be.”
“Okay then, that’s-that’s good.”
“I stopped the bleeding,” Dan said, coming up behind them. “Won’t know for sure how bad it is until we get him to the hospital, but I’d say bare minimum his intestines are gonna need stitching. Ambulance is on the way.”
“Thank you, Dan,” Eddie said. “Kid’s name is Frankie. That’s what he called him, anyway-“ Eddie said, nodding towards Lars’s headless corpse.
“Yeah, about that-” Dan started.
“It’s what we do. We eat bad people.” Eddie said quietly. He could feel Venom nodding proudly inside, but pride wasn't exactly what Eddie was feeling.
“Yeah. I’m not gonna judge or condone that right now, Eddie, but you gotta get out of here,” Dan said. “Cops will show up along with the ambulance. You can't be here when they do.” He headed back down the alley, standing watch.
“Come back another night for the mousse, okay?” Anne said.
Another night? But now is the perfect time for dessert!
“Really?” Eddie asked in disbelief, ignoring Venom for the moment. “No, I-“ his cheeks heated with an intense flush of shame. “You saw what we just did, right-what I just did-”
“You killed a killer, and you saved a life,” Anne said. “And, Dan’s right-you do have to get out of here before the cops come.”
“I’ll go. But I can’t come back another night. You two should not be seen with me. You’ve got a nice, normal life now, you’re gonna get married and-and be happy.” Sirens sounded from a few blocks away. Eddie nudged Venom, mentally. Need a quick exit. The symbiote spilled out through his pores, sliding around him: armor, comfort, purpose and so much more. They threw a hand up, tendrils latching onto the fire escape of the closest building. “Goodbye, Anne.”
Anne gave him a wave and a smile, but Eddie could see the worry cloaked behind it. “Don’t be a stranger, Eddie.”
#
They traveled home in silence. Unusual for Venom, who nearly always had something to say.
“What’s on your mind?” Eddie asked, as they made the last jump, to their rooftop. The building only had a handful of tenants left. His former neighbor and nearly everyone else on his floor had hightailed it out of there after the whole incident with the Life Foundation cronies. Oddly, the landlord didn't seem to have a problem with him being there. Even when he was late with rent.
“Do you regret not having a normal life?”
“What? No. This is much better.”
“Is that sarcasm?”
Eddie sighed, and it echoed oddly, Venom retracting away from his mouth as he exhaled. “No, actually it’s not.” He looked at the rooftop exit door, but decided against it, didn’t feel like going inside just yet. Especially not if they were going to have a heart to heart. The night was warm and the moon hung full above them. He walked to the corner of the rooftop, and sat, straddling the weathered brick parapet. Heights didn’t bother him nearly as much as they used to anymore. In fact, he was starting to like them. “I meant what I said to Anne. This-us-feels right. It’s what I want.”
“More than Anne?”
“Yes.”
“More than normal?”
“Definitely. I don't want normal. I want this." Eddie brought a hand up to his shoulder and squeezed, until Venom rose out of his skin to meet him, tendrils twining with his fingers. “Thanks to you, thanks to us, I get to live a life no other human gets to have.” He considered for a moment. “Well, except for Drake, but that was-”
“Riot did not care for Drake the way I care for you, wasn't capable of it.”
“But you are.”
“You taught me compassion.”
“Maybe you had it all along.” Eddie contemplated that a bit longer. Was that why Venom was an outcast amongst their own kind? Because they cared too much?
“I...bond more completely.” Venom sounded almost embarrassed by the admission. “It was a trait once prized by our kind, but it is considered inefficient for conquest."
"How about you? You sure you don't want conquest anymore?"
"I never did."
They fell quiet, gazing up at the stars together, and Eddie wondered if Venom knew where their planet was--if they could see it from here.
"No. But it doesn't matter. This is our home now. We are home." A tendril curled out from Eddie's side, looping around his shoulders in a tight hug.
"Got that right," Eddie said, settling back into Venom's hold. "And that’s just it. That night, when you sacrificed yourself to protect me- after you were gone...I have never felt that alone in my life. I realized that, more than anything, I just wanted you back."
Venom coiled tighter around them. "We will never be apart again."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Eddie said, and a pleased warmth spread through his back, seeping into his cells and up into his brainstem. Not just Venom's thoughts, but emotions-their emotions, woven through each other, amplifying everything they felt: affection, joy, and love.
They looked back up at the stars and felt whole.