He’d been sarcastic in the moment, largely due to how the fuck did he end up here and could you believe this guy had changed sides so fast? He wasn’t so inclined to feel sarcastic now, sitting here on the couch with a cup of tea (because coffee ‘is bad for us at night’ or something) in his palms and a smooth darkness draped around his neck and shoulders like a warm scarf. Combine the forces of the domestic moments he had spent with Venom recently with the high-paced thrill from the night they had decided to go against Riot: bam.
You. You did, Eddie, he remembered.
A pleasant shiver passed through him. He tightened his grip on the mug of tea. That had been when they had truly started acting as one.
The hair is standing up. Eddie blinked.
He furrowed a brow, but smiled. “What?” He patted his head. “No, it’s not.”
Not there. All over. The arm hair, for example.
“Goosebumps,” Eddie realized.
Geese? There was alarm and hunger. They remembered that time in the park, which had been thrilling for Venom and mildly traumatizing for Eddie.
“It has to do with how the skin looks like, like a plucked goose.”
Why are we like a plucked goose? Eddie picked up on the other’s amusement.
“I guess…sometimes humans get the shivers when they think of something really nice. Not just when it’s something scary.”
Excitement, Venom concluded. So the hair sticks up like a cat’s.
“I guess so.”
You are excited because you are mine.
“Wh- N-nooo. I’m just… uh.”
You are.
“…I’d say happy,” Eddie said slowly, “That we are to- That sounds weird. That you and I are…?” A thought hit him out of left field. “Wait, how did you know that cats puff out like that?”
Together, Venom said smugly, wallowing in the feeling.
“Did you eat a cat when I wasn’t paying attention? When did you get time to eat a cat?”
Now the excitement’s taste has changed?
“Never mind my brain chemicals! What cat? Or cats? Oh no… don’t tell me it was several?”
Eddie, the chocolate bar we forgot to finish is over there! It will be very calming. And tasty.
It was more like a slab that they had gotten in bulk. And Eddie had not forgotten; he had paced himself. But there were more important concerns right now. “V, tell me about the cat.”
We must get more chocolate now. Very busy. Can’t talk.
“Damn it, Venom!”
- - - - - - -
It was not like this time, Venom said.
“Mm-hm?” When was the last time he had changed his toothbrush? It was time for a drugstore run. He slipped the towel off the rack and touseled his hair.
Listen, Eddie.
“Yeah, I’m listening! What’s not like this time?”
When you are cold, you get geesebumps.
Eddie smirked. He bent the tube to get the last of the toothpaste onto his toothbrush.
But it wasn’t like earlier. Our heart sped up. And then you shivered, and it tasted good.
Eddie coughed, toothpaste spattering over the mirror.
Make us taste it again, Venom purred. Okay, that was definitely on purpose.
Eddie frowned at his reflection. “Uh, that’s not something I can just turn on and off.” Toilet paper made toothpaste smear, apparently.
Can we try?
“With what, a towel?“
Try to get the bumps again.
“It’s not something you should mess with either,” Eddie said, “I mean, directly. Not until you know about human brain chemistry.”
You are safe, Eddie.
“I know. I just don’t want you to mess with that, okay?”
Okay…
"Hey,” Eddie said in the most comforting voice he could muster, “I’m not saying we can’t try other ways.”
That cheered Venom up.
- - - - - - -
Pizza is good, but it has never given us the geese.
“Fine, I get it,” Eddie begged, “I’ll never tease you about your grammar ever again. Just, please. Stop saying ‘give us the geese’. Now shut up so I can make this phone call.”
Maybe a new topping will-
“Pizza Pizza, may I take your order?”
-give us the geese.
“Shh! Oh, hi. My order? We want two extra large pizzas.”
Three!
“Actually, make that three.”
Four!
“Th-three pizzas with stuffed crusts.”
Stuffed cheese. Stuffed geese. Ghees?
“Same toppings on all of them. For toppings we want all the types of meat on the menu. Whatever you’ve got.”
“Are anchovies okay?”
Yes!
“Y- no. No.”
Yes, anchovies.
“Okay, okay. Anchovies on one of them. Also, uh, peppers-”
Geese peppers.
“What kind of peppers?”
Give geese ghost peppers.
“What?”
Tingly geesey ghosty.
“What kind of peppers would you like?”
“Well, uh, what kind you got?”
Tingly peppers.
“We have dried red peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos-”
Jalapenos will give us the tingles?
“Jalapenos will not give us the tingles!”
There was an awkward silence, but not from the symbiote. Why…? Oh. Oh, shit. “Shit,” he said aloud, “Sorry, talking to my… sy-” Symbiote? No.“ my, uh, peh-” Venom growled at the thought ‘pet’. “Spuh? MY SPOUSE.” That worked. “My spouse, who really likes new foods because, uh, because, because he has… synesthesia?”
“Right. No problem, dude. What kind of peppers would you like?”
“Green peppers?” Eddie said in a tiny voice. Venom was, thankfully, silent.
“Anything else?”
If there was, he had forgotten. “Nope, that’s it.”
Eddie gave his address and other details as quickly as he could manage, grateful that Venom had shut up.
“Remember to let us in at the ground floor. Bye.”
“Okay, bye. Love you.” He hung up. "Shit. I just said 'I love you’ to the pizza place.“
Pizza is very good. Lovable.
Eddie snorted. "No thanks to you. Anchovies? Seriously?”
- - - - - - -
The delivery man was good-humored about it. Apparently, the people in the kitchen talked to the delivery people.
“Before I forget.” He held out a closed sauce container. “For your spouse.”
“My…?” Right. His spouse.
Eddie is a lovely spouse.
Eddie blushed, took the container, and looked through the plastic lid. There were dark green rings with white seeds. “Thanks. You didn’t have to. We were just joking about the jalapenos.”
“Synesthesia, huh? My cousin’s second child has synesthesia.”
“Uh, yeah. I don’t know much about it. It’s not like I’ve experienced it myself, haha,” Eddie said, shifting from foot to foot.
“You what can help you experience synesthesia?”
Eddie half expected him to say 'shrooms’. “What?”
“ASMR videos.”
“Like what you see on YouTube where people make slime and talk in soothing voices for the aesthetic or something?” Those were Anne’s guilty pleasure, although she would never admit to it. Eddie hadn’t never seen the appeal.
“No, dude, ASMR isn’t just about calm voices and calm vibes. It’s about getting an autonomous sensory meridian response.”
“Autonomous… Huh. That’s what it stands for?”
“Yeah. Basically, it like a staticky feeling that starts at your scalp and runs down your spine.”
Eddie’s eyes widened. “Like when you get gee- goosebumps.”
“Yeah, dude. Exactly like that.”
“Huh.”
Eddie paid him in a bit of a reverie and took all three boxes of pizza (and a slidey plastic container on top) up the stairs.
Give the geese. Give the geese. Give the geese,Venom chanted in the background, making happy loops around Eddie’s torso, hidden beneath his jacket.
- - - - - - -
Eddie plucked the earbuds out and slumped against the couch. “If it hadn’t given me goosebumps before, it wasn’t likely to do so again.”
No geese, Venom agreed sadly. Now we are sleepy.
“Those videos are just as quiet as I remember.” Venom piloted his body for him, shutting down the laptop and going through their nighttime routine.
He got under the covers. Venom manifested a torso, as was their habit before Eddie fell asleep.
“I need to go to the store tomorrow. We had to brush with water only just now.”
And chocolate.
“Yeah, remind me of what we need.”
Also, eat the defrosted tater tots for breakfast. Now go to sleep.
“Okay, 'night. Luh- Um…” Eddie felt speechless for a moment. “Goodnight, V,” he murmured.
Goodnight. We will eat all the bed bugs before they bite.
“Heh. I’m sure…” He closed his eyes.
- - - - - - -
Eddie got his toothbrush and toothpaste the first chance he could.
“For my favorite customer,” Mrs. Chen said when he went up to the checkout. “Free of charge.”
“Whoa, tha-” Eddie said.
“Not you.”
Venom became a blob with teeth and a tongue and popped out from under Eddie’s collar. “Thank you, Mrs. Chen,” he said.
“Get back before someone sees you,” Eddie hissed, and wrapped his arms around the tub of double chocolate ice cream. “Thanks Mrs. Chen. See you later!”
She shouted something familiar in Chinese at his retreating back.
Halfway to the apartment, he wondered if the gift was a double-edged sword of some kind. For some reason, Venom received the brunt of Mrs. Chen’s doting. The only surprising thing was that she was willing to give something for free. Even the slab of chocolate had cost something. But maybe, just maybe, the cost of this giant tub of ice cream was some sick pleasure Mrs. Chen would be getting right now from imagining him struggling to carry it all on his own. Maybe this was a character-building exercise or bullshit like that? He had to carry the tub of ice cream under his arm and hold the grocery bag with his opposite hand. It was freezing. Armpits were not meant to withstand Arctic winters. Also, the tub was made out of smooth plastic, and Mrs. Chen had not put it in a bag.
Finally, they reached the apartment. Safe and sound,Venom said.
“Ha! Take that! I do have character. We’re awesome, V.” He looked around and then casually leaned against the door. Venom slipped a tendril around the handle, they pulled together, Eddie stuck his foot into the space and then squeezed through.
They entered the building. Four things happened at once as they crossed the threshold.
The warm air enveloped them.
Love you, Venom said.
Eddie shivered.
The tub slipped.
- - - - - - -
There was an agitated blanket of black goo around the tub Eddie hadn’t managed to catch. His heart thumped wildly. Venom soothed the pain in Eddie’s butt.
“We’re counting that! No more geese giving,” was the first thought that popped out of his mouth. “There’s shivers and a fast heart, so it counts.” And then: “…I love you, too.” It was about time he admitted it. He should have a long time ago, really.
We are spouses.
Eddie grinned and picked up the tub and his bag. Venom dipped back into their skin. “No. You can’t be spouses without a wedding. It’s a law or something.”