Work Text:
They would argue anywhere, in their apartment, in the street, at Ms Chen store, at their days off, anywhere!
But they had settle one of many rules related of their disagreements, no fighting in the bed, why was that? Simple, Eddie wants to sleep a full eight hours cycle or at least try.
Ever since he had conscious of himself, he had problems sleeping, he blamed the TV on all night long, the times his father would drink to the point of crashing the bottles against the walls, his roommates welcoming random girls in the apartment at midnight, the loud neighbors' fights, Ziggy, everyone and everything.
Not even sleeping in the arms of his beloved Anne made him have a peaceful night, he'd always wake up or be half conscious through the night. He blamed his insomnia for waking him up in the worst night possible to see his ex's laptop and the e-mail.
— I could make you sleep — Venom offered, his head hovered above his and an unsettling smile was drawn on his face.
— We went through this, I don't want you to play with my brain's chemicals — Eddie sat a the border of golden gate bridge, he swang his feet foward and backward again and again and again and again.
It was past midnight, they went hunting but even the universe made fun of him, the streets were empty of crime and made it clear that Eddie should've stayed at home to begin his attempts of falling asleep.
— I won't play with them! I will just tweak them a little, it will be easy — he nudged his shoulder with the top of his head.
Eddie sighed, thas was still a no, what if he makes him sleep for a month? Or worse, make him look like an acid addict?
He looked upwards, the city lights made the sky lack of any star, it was like looking at an empty canvas. He looked downwards, the water was... Watering, it reflected all of the city lights and played with the colors with every wave, it was a mess but it was pretty at least... A pretty mess.
— Let's go back home, with some luck we might find a bad guy — he tuck his legs and used the bridge's bars to lift himself up, he shaked his ass and walked back home while Venom sank back in.
Unluckly, the city was still calm.
Next day Eddie woke up early, it wasn't meant to be but he had no choice, he tried to sleep again but the bed was stiff, hot or icky, no matter the position he moved to so he just gave up and took his cellphone to use all morning until breakfast.
"Hungry" that was his cue to get up and begin his morning routine; put on some clean clothes, go to the bathroom and then watch the insides of the fridge for a whole ten minutes until the voice in his head decided what to eat.
"Nuggets"
— Only that? —
"Bathed in chocolate syrup and sausages wrapped in bacon"
— That sounds more like you — he scratched his head, scraping his nails from his forehead to the top of his head a couple of times.
He then set in the mini oven a tray of nuggets and bacon wrapped sausages. While that was cooking, he heated up some water and prepared a cup with coffe, cream powder and sugar.
"Blegh" Venom expressed.
— You prefer the cup without cream and sugar? — Venom only grunted in disapproval — That's what I thought —
When the water was hot enough he turned off the stove and poured it in the cup, then stirring it with a spoon.
The warm of the coffe going down his throat was comforting and the sweet smoothness was welcomed. Eddie and Venom hummed in unison.
One could think Venom would take these human sensations so alien like, but this one in particular was so familiar. Back in klyntar, before leaving with riot and when he wasn't fighting for his life, he would snuggle against few of his same species and feel them. They don't produce heat but the proximity triggered a warm sensation in eachother.
They sat on their small table to enjoy the delicious aberration of chocolate and fat mixed with chiken. This day it wasn't that bad, he had eaten worse convos before.
Eddie leaned back the chair when the cup was over and the plate was being cleaned by Venom's tongue. He just waited for his partner to finish, so his mind wandered in his memories, how he had ended up with this alien tangled in his ribs, how he had thought he'd lost him, just like he lost Anne and his chance to set his future in the right path, how he had sabotaged everything good in his life, his house, his career, Anne... This goes way back when he still lived in New York, when he participated in that scholarship to that university across the country... The chance to meet new people, the chance to be himself, to start again if that meant for a while or maybe forever!... And how he had miserably failed the last stage, the one that decided who would and who wouldn't go... It was heartbreaking, why did he fail? He made his research and checked the report again and again and again and again... he put hours of his life to succeed yet deep, so deep down knew he didn't deserve it... There was this girl, with the most big and beautiful green eyes who deserved to go more than him, how he knew that? He didn't, he just thought...
He was frowning, hands clenching the denim fabric of his pants. Venom hovered slowly to face him, Eddie's eyes were lost in the spiraling array of memories. Venom was about to say a word until a feeling leaked through their bond, a need.
Venom stayed in silence, trying to figure out what this need was, he wasn't allowed in Eddie's head but his brain wasn't the only one capable of expressing feelings.
Tired.
— Eddie — Venom finally said in a whisper, this brought Eddie back to earth.
— Sorry buddy — Eddie quickly stood up and took the dishes to the sink — Just thinking —
— About what? — he tilted his head to the side.
— The past, just that — he sighed, for a moment he felt his body lose strength, like if he was falling asleep, but that shouldn't be, he just drank coffee — Are you moving something in my head? — he questioned incriminatory.
— I've done nothing! — Venom said offended.
Eddie had to lean on the counter, his head felt numb and his body weary, he hadn't the energy to argue back.
— Whatever — he said, then splashed water on his face, stood upright and went to his desk, he still has an article to finish for tomorrow.
For the next hours Eddie wrote something in the lines of protesters and police brutality. You'd say he's supposed to know what he's writting about, but his brain has been off since he woke up, it was uncapable of processing even his own toughts, let alone hear his back pain, his mouth dry or his eyes irritated.
But what he couldn't ignore was the symbiote.
— Hungry! — Venom yelled, his head coming from Eddie's torso and his teeth snapping just infront of his face. This pulled no reaction in Eddie, he just pushed his face to the side to see the hour in the laptop's screen.
— Yeah it's hungry time again — he breathed deeptly to the point of his chest hurting, he cracked some joints when stretching, specially his back, it cracked like a carrot.
He stood up too quickly, his head hurt and spin. He leaned on the chair for a moment, while the dizziness dissipated.
— Want me to remark what's wrong with you? — Venom questioned, a tendril formed from his host's shoulder and gently rubbed his forehead.
— I know perfectly well what's wrong with me — he sighed, the touch was... Actually relieving. The next thing he did was to make them dinner.
It really was this monotone, one would think living with a symbiote would make your life more exciting, but the truth was he usually spent his day in his aparment, writting articles, cooking, watching TV, bed roting.
Only a few days of the month were used to go out to retrieve information or food.
He was so used of the daily routine that it made him sick, was this really all his life? The way he was supposed to be living it?
At least the show made it a bit interesting, the investigations were deeper than the ones made for the articles, the scripts were a think he loved to write with his friend, recording in the streets was thrilling.
The adenaline of putting his life in danger in the name of justice.
Now he was like an old man taking care of a whiny child.
— Stop thinking louder — Venom spat pissed.
— Then don't hear — Eddie answered, not really bothering to see the twisted smile dangerously next to his head, he was too focused reading his mail, bills after bills, he had money to pay them with what the Life Foundation gave him to skip the court.
Yet the fact that he needed to pay all of this... The tought was exhausting, when was the last time he hadn't had the need to worry about these things?... Oh right, when he still had a life with Anne. She used to deal with these things...
He rubbed his face with both hands and pressed his fingertips against his forehead. He thinks of himself as a whiny baby for not wanting to be an adult, but who can blame him? He had to grow up quickly, there was no time to be young.
His father would ignore him the most he could, but not enough to call the attention of child protection services. Yet Eddie had to learn not to lean on him, to expect him to be there at any point- He wasn't even there when he had a musical presentation! He had put his head and heart to learn one of his father's favorite songs, just to be left there playing the guitar for an absent man who saw him like a burden...
No wonder why he's so fucked up.
Venom nudged his head with his, Eddie exposed his face, it was a mess. A type of chills began from his arm and traveled arround and on his side, prickling his ribs. His stomach felt wrong, like it contained something that didn't belonged there and tried again and again to push it out, his throat ached like an infected one. He was feeling like shit and he cried over things from the past. Venom wiped some of the tears with his tendrils, from the dark circles under his eyes to the contour of his jaw.
— You want to talk? — the rejection of such thing was palpable and visible, Eddie cringed backward and grimaced. Either way, Eddie's throat was tied, even if he tried to, no sound other than a whine would've come out — Lie down — Venom demanded softly, Eddie complied, laying down on the couch and trying to fill his lungs with as much air as posible.
Eddie would usually check up his chest, like cheching a kitty locked up in a box. Everytime he opened it it grew in size and it would scratch harder.
This time it was gone, the sting of pain was greater than his chest that he actually couldn't say if it hurt or if it didn't.
— Stop thinking — again demanded the symbiote, he turned off all lights and closed all windows' blinds.
They were in the darkness, some of the city lights could still go trough the blinds' cracks, revealing Venom's head shape.
The symbiote sank inside.
And numbed his host's brain.
Eddie closed his eyes, the darkness of the room becoming more present. His body weighed nothing and his skin felt the absence of fabric and pressure.
It was like floating on the air, with nothing to ground you and nothing to hold you.
He soon protested, he didn't like it, it was too much, or too little? It was worse this way! Venom stop!
Burning hot! His skin ached, he tried to move, to open his eyes but was in vain, he was helpless and under whatever Venom was doing to his brain.
— Venom! — rage ran through his veins, his eyes quickly darted to the one responsable — YOU! — he cried, he took him by the collar of his neck and shoved him agains the wall, his father cried in pain.
Eddie's blood boiled, he was shaking, he wanted to scream, yell and cry but as his fists knew better, he began to beat his face, again and again and again and again, blood went out of Drake's face, staining the stupid suit he loved to use to pretend to be a big boy.
His knuckles ached with every blow, but he deserved it, he deserved it for taking Anne away from him, Dan deserve... it? Dan... Does Dan deserve his hate?
He blinked.
His face!... His face... was tree times larger than his own body, he was gigantic — Venom? — Eddie asked wary, the symbiote wasn't near to be happy. Rage streamed from his body to his partner's — Sorry — he apologized, concerned about his other's feelings.
Finally some kindness, Eddie gently stretched a hand on Venom's upper lip and rub it, it worked somehow to ease the anger because Venom finally wrapped some tendrils arround him, so gently, teeth trying not to touch the fragile naked skin.
— Eddie — echoed the symbiote's voice, cold took the place of the burning rage, it made Eddie so numb again, it was so cold, so unpleasant.
— V-Venom — Eddie whimpered while trying to wrap himself in Venom's mater, searching heat.
Venom opened his jaw and welcomed Eddie in.
The goo was enough to keep him warm, the tendrils were so... Gentle.
— Poor Eddie — Venom began — You had to tell me — the mater massaged the human's back, arms, legs, torso, even neck — You had to let me in — a tendril wrapped arround his chest, grounding him.
Eddie denied — I don't need... Anybody — he confessed half asleep. The touch was comfortable and the gentle rubs were... So good, such as to make him close his eyes.
— We need eachother — Venom materialized a hand to hold Eddie's face.
Eddie quickly rejected the gesture, this wasn't right, this wasn't welcoming, he whined.
— Oh Eddie, is a human hand so alien to you? Yet you are okay with my body wrapping arround you. Are you this disappointed of humans? — Venom teased, holding his face steady and rubbing his brow with his thumb, being careful with the talon.
Was Eddie disappointed? Of course he was, he was disappointed of his father, of his roommates, of his neighbors, specially Ziggy.
But he was more disappointed in himself, the only human he knew that has let down so many people and caused so much pain again and again and again and again...
IF ONLY HE HAD THE BALLS TO DO IT THE DAY HE HAD THE FUCKING CHANCE, USE THE ROPE AS NECKLACE, EAT PILLS LIKE CANDY, JUMP HIGH HIGH IN THE AIR! BUT HE'S A COWARD, A LOSER, HE'S NOTHING AND FUCKING NO ONE-
— If you had done it, we would've never met, Eddie — Venom cooed.
Yeah, that's true, this symbiosis would've never had happened, Venom would have died inside that cold cell in an empty body, without fulfilling his only wish and Eddie would have died without finally feeling so cared for.
Venom purred, soothing Eddie to sleep.
The symbiote was getting familiar with the life at earth and the simplistic use of symbols to represent something way more complicated that themselves, like the stars from the sky, the moon in the space and his favorite, hearts.
Hearts were complicated, they had the perfect shape and the perfect size with the exact amount of muscle to pump blood through veins. It had such an unappealing look yet humans found a simplistic form consisting of two curves conecting in two pointy ends.
Venom knew this simbol, alongside the heart, were strongly related to love, care and significance. Such poor words to describe what he really felt for Eddie, his Eddie... But back in klintar they hadn't any symbol to express feelings at all, they only had one and it represented the exact opposite...
So, the symbiote left a bunch of heart scribbles on Eddie's skin, all made by his matter.
Why was he doing this? No reason other than to express his feelings, like what humans do when they kiss eachother... Yes, these hearts were like little kisses, all over his body, because he love it, it was his home after all, it kept him alive and fed, it gave him what he needed and more, it gave him... A new purpose.
Morning lights penetrated through the cracks stronger than the night lights, a sunbeam hit Eddie's eyes, making him feel uncomfortable. He opened them, squinting at the light, so he moved his head to the side, only to find a puddle of black goo on his pillow.
But the goo wasn't only there, it was everywhere on his body, tangled, fused, curled up and stretched.
"Sleep, Eddie" Venom whispered in his head.
Yeah, going back to sleep was a great idea, specially because Eddie was still sleepy. He snuggled his cheek against Venom and pulled a pillow close to hug, he sighed relaxed and let himself drift back to the dream's realm.
Next time he woke up it was past five in the afternoon, Eddie was two hours late the article's due time.