The first word he hears the symbiote say is his name. That is the only thing he truly remembers about the experience aside from how his eyes had shifted, milky white and not his own. Also maybe the crack of his skull against a porcelain bathtub, but the most important thing by far had been Venom's first word, his name.
He finds out a little later that his symbiote experienced it differently. They are trying to find Anne- Or really he is trying to find Anne and his other is rifling around in his head. The feel of it causes a wave of vertigo, and Eddie pauses to lean against the kitchen counter. Venom must sense his discomfort because it stops before he has to ask.
"That mark. What is it?"
Eddie supposes this was why the alien had been wriggling around in his head, but he doesn't know exactly what the Symbiote means until it pulls forth an image, Eddies reflection in the mirror only half an hour earlier.
"Tell me what it is, why do you have it? What purpose could it possibly serve?" The symbiote knows they aren't the same as scars. It's already shuffled through Eddie's memories of those marks, each especially made by damage to the skin, always so flimsy. There are other things on the host's body as well, dark inky images engraved in flesh. These are tattoos, also special with memories attached to each. This new mark is the only one he can find no evidence of acquiring.
To be such a smart man, Eddie realizes belatedly that it's referring to the freckle between his eyebrows. Fingers absentmindedly reach to touch the mark in question. Honestly he's surprised they noticed at all. It's barely there, sun bleached and faded.
"We notice everything." Venom rumbles softly, settled somewhere against his sternum. "Explain."
Eddie takes one last glance at his phone and decides it won't take long to have this conversation. Anne's not picking up anyways and he really doesn't blame her.
"Yeah, okay. So that's called a freckle. It doesn't have a purpose or anything like that. It's uh- Just a dark spot of skin that some people have. We're born with them. It's a kind of blemish." Eddie can feel the symbiote searching his brain for the meaning of that last word, an offended rustling in his gut alerting him that Venom had found his definition distasteful.
"Not a blemish. We like it. Therefore it is not a flaw." There's a short, contemplative pause, and Eddie is sure it's going through his mind again, more careful now though, as not to hurt him. "Beauty mark." It rumbles lowly, pleased by it's find. "We like this word for it better."
Eddie can't argue with that. Or well, he could but he doesn't particularly want to. Venom gives a soft hum of satisfaction, knows it's won, while Eddie goes back to dialing Anne's number.
The next time it happens he is changing out of the hospital gown they'd been given to wear for their MRI. The symbiote is silent. Eddie would have known that meant it was thinking except he was busy thinking, too. He is still hungry, but occasionally he finds bits of lobster shell between his teeth. It brings back the raw, salty tang of live crustacean, and each time Eddie grumbles about never eating again.
"Lies. You are hungry and we will eat. Tater tots as soon as we leave. " It's voice rattles in his ribcage, demanding and certain.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Eddie has bigger problems, namely the alien threading contently through his insides. A small tendril matteralizes at his chest, motioning almost casually to the freckle sitting pretty just beneath Eddie's right hip.
"This is a freckle. Our freckle."
It isn't asking, but Eddie answers anyways. "Yeah buddy, it's another freckle. Doesn't mean anything."
The symbiote makes a strange noise, a deep rumble that Eddie slowly realizes for indignation. He's somehow managed to insult his other.
"Awh come on, V. What did I do now? You gotta learn to talk, or communicate or whatever. I can't just read your mind and know everything like you can." Eddie drops the crumpled hospital gown into a nearby trash can, already tugging a shirt over his head. Venom is quiet, contemplative, and honestly Eddie doesn't care. They will eat and It will feel better, easy as that.
He doesn't expect the symbiote to stop him from pulling his pants up, a small black tendril keeping the cloth from rising past Eddie's hips, past the tiny little freckle he'd so quickly written off as unimportant.
"We like this mark Eddie, just as we liked the other one. This makes them meaningful."
Meaningful to them, maybe. Eddie doesn't think much of it.
The tendril is cool against his skin, caressing a gentle circle around the freckle in question. His symbiote touches the spot with such reverence, Eddie could almost believe it means something.
It happens again in the shower once they're home. Eddie is busy scrubbing salt water off his body, rinsing sweat and shampoo out of his hair. The symbiote has calmed considerably after being fed, and it has been quiet for so long now that Eddie wonders if it's somehow sleeping
"Don't sleep. Only thinking." The reply is instantaneous, and Eddie knows he should be more shocked by that, maybe even unnerved by the intimacy of an alien being having an all access pass to his thoughts and memories. He doesn't feel any of that though, merely grateful that he isn't alone anymore. The constant presence in his head keeps him from having any self destructive thoughts. It isn't trying. It's just there, and that's enough to keep Eddie going for the both of them.
It puts forth the word stasis and hums softly as Eddie understands.
They try to help with the conditioner, and at first they'd been doing a fine job, except Eddie forgot to mention that soap burns the eyes. Several minutes later he's splashing water on his face while the symbiote curls almost sullenly into his chest.
"Pussy." His other huffs, and if Eddie didn't know any better he might think Venom was laughing at him. It probably would have, if not for the guilty twinge Eddie feels coming off it in small waves. The conditioner dripping onto his face had been Venom's fault, after all.
Guilt is new. This is the first time he's felt it from the symbiote, wonders if the alien is aware of what it's experiencing.
Eddie himself feels worse about that poor lobster they'd eaten alive, but his symbiote has no sympathy for their food.
He's blinking the water from his eyes when he gets the sensation that something slick is caressing his lower back. The sound he makes is nothing more than a strangled yelp, his elbow cracking against the wall of his shower as he does a full 360, suddenly and irrationally afraid they aren't alone.
"Your pulse has quickened. We are distressed. Why is this?"
The symbiote is immediately on edge, gathering against his sternum, a silky black tendril creeping from his pores to carefully rub at the injured elbow. It would have bruised if not for the alien already working its way to the spot beneath his skin.
"I-It's uh, I thought someone was touching me. I felt something touching me."
"You did. It was us. We touched you." The symbiote sounds unimpressed, still keeping a close eye on their heart rate. They need Eddie to stay functional, at least for another day or two.
"Y-You did? Oh well, at least i'm not crazy. Not yet, anyways." Eddie lets out a slow shuddering breath, feels something soft wrapping around his heart, slowing it's rapid pace. "Thanks for that."
The symbiote rumbles its acknowledgement. He wonders why it had been stroking his back.
"New freckle, Eddie. Small one. We like it the most."
Oh.
"Well i'm glad you like the landscape bud. Sorry I freaked out a little there." He still isn't used to being touched by the alien but he has a feeling he could get used to it.
Several hours later-after breaking into his former workplace and dispatching the unfortunate SWAT team that had come to try and stop them- Eddie finds himself in the back of Anne's car enroute to the hospital. He'd last been there this morning, but now that feels like an eternity ago. They've been chased and hunted, and still they haven't gotten close to the rocket his other needs.
Anne is watching him from the rearview mirror, as she has a right to do considering what she just witnessed. Eddie doesn't make eye contact. She is tired and frightened. He feels for her. He really does.
"How? How do you feel for her? We are not even near her." The symbiote interjects from somewhere near his ear, so close Eddie shudders, imagining someone's breath on his neck.
"It's just a figure of speech, V." Eddie doesn't feel like explaining. The adrenaline is finally wearing off, and with it comes a frigid cold that bites at exposed skin. The symbiote got him to apologize, and even if it doesn't count for much at this point at least now If he dies maybe Anne wont hate him forever. She might not visit his grave, but she wont feel the need to spit on it either. That's enough.
Venom brings him out of dark thoughts with a prod to his chest. It's a shock to his system, coming from the inside. The symbiote must pity him because it doesn't mention Eddie's sad thoughts, doesn't even call him a pussy. Eddie knows it heard though. It's always listening.
"She is not inside you. I am. If anything, you feel me." The alien is persistent, and Eddie smiles despite the ache in his chest.
The words rattle from deep in his ribcage, a low rasping certainty that Eddie may have read as a possessive purr if not for Venom being an alien and all that. It doesn't mean the words like a human would, and Eddie doesn't bother trying to correct it.
"Hey Anne. I'm uh- I mean we're really wet. Cold. Can we uh- Can we wear this?" It feels weird asking her for things, but there is a warmth surging through him that isn't entirely his own and that's enough to cover the embarrassment of asking his ex for clothes, possibly Dan's.
He doesn't even realize that he thinks of them as 'we' now. The symbiote does though, settling content in his belly as they changed shirts. They are almost to the hospital when he feels the cool texture of Venom, seeping from the pores of his arm to materialize a hand shaped appendage, complete with claws that carefully tug at the neck of his sweatshirt. It moves the clothing to one side, and Eddie wonders what all the fuss is about.
"A new favorite."
A new favorite what? Eddie ponders curiously, reaching a hand up to investigate himself. He doesn't feel anything out of the ordinary, just the smooth skin of his neck until it reached the scruff of his jawline.
"Freckle." The symbiote supplies softly, pressing against the spot with what's surly supposed to be a finger. It feels cool to the touch, and Eddie feels a tingle travel down the length of his spine.
"Oh, so you're keeping track of them now?" Eddie feels a strange affection bubbling up in his chest, and he isn't sure which of them it belongs to.
His other vibrates pleasantly in the hollow of his throat.
Truth be told, he'd kinda been assuming that Venom planned to take over Earth, destroy it or whatever. The symbiote had dropped a few hints here and there. It is an alien, and that's just kinda part of the package. Yet somehow Eddie still finds himself shocked to learn that his symbiote has been feeding off his organs from the get go. Alien or not, he'd thought they were in this together.
Somehow, he'd never even stopped to consider the symbiote may be hurting him.
Them?
No, it's just him.
Dan is talking, Venom is talking over him, and Eddie is listening except really he isn't. He doesn't want to believe the only friend he still has in the world is using him as fuel in the tank. He shouldn't be shocked though. Venom told him from the start, he is their ride. That is his function.
The worst of it is that Eddie really doesn't mind being it's ride. So what if the symbiote has been feeding off his organs? Big whoop. He hadn't been planning on using them after Anne left him anyways.
No, its the betrayal that ignites a flame in Eddie's chest. Betrayal and embarrassment, because he thought they were we when really it was just him, being lonely and grasping at straws. Alien straws at that.
And even now, the thought of forcing Venom out never occurs to him. Angry as he is, feeling the frantic rumble in his gut is enough to make him pause.
Dan is telling him he needs to be admitted, Venom is vehemently denying it. Anne is talking, too. Eddie can't distinguish anything they are saying. His heart has dropped into his stomach. There's a hole in his chest, a quivering in his gut, and he doesn't realize he's caught Dan by the throat until Anne screams.
He doesn't fool himself into thinking that maybe the symbiote hadn't known. Of course it had, it knows everything.
And now Venom would rather break the man's neck than have him say more, make this worse by confirming Eddie's fears.
They are killing the good doctor, and Eddie knows it. He also knows that Anne is right to turn the MRI machine on, but knowing doesn't stop the sudden feeling of loss that consumes him as the Symbiote is ripped away, violently forced from it's home.
Not a home, Eddie reminds himself sullenly. A host. A meal to hold it off til the next poor sap comes alone. He looks back in time to watch the glass doors close behind him. There is no one in his head to stop the bitterness from rising like bile in his throat, though he figures the symbiote would have tried, considering how quickly it latches onto the glass doors, desperate to make it back to him.
He can almost hear the sound of it, roaring for him to stay, don't go.
They could fix it.
Anne is at his side immediately, more worried about the toll it had taken on his body than that of his heart "Are you alright? I had to get him out of you!"
She didn't have to, but she did and that's probably for the best. At least in Dan's case. Probably even his own.
Jesus, he has to get out of here. Far away, so far he knows he can't come back for it. Otherwise he might be tempted.
Eddie rounds on the glass door. He means to be hateful, but his face is scrunched in something akin to despair.
"You were killing me?" Eddie is level with the alien, staring it down despite how his voice wobbles. "What happened to we?"
He thinks of frozen tater tots and milky chocolate, the feel of cool tendrils against his skin and the way his freckles hadn't been his own.
Eddie thinks of it all, and blinks the wetness out of his eyes as he says, with every bit of finality he can muster, "We're done."
He turns on his heels after that, retreating like the pussy he is because he knows it would be all too easy to change his mind, press a simple button and open those doors back up.
Anne calls after him, wonders where he could possibly be going.
Eddie, without any real answers for her, says exactly what he means
"Anywhere but here."
Of course, 'Anywhere but here' wound up meaning out in the woods on his knees, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. Eddie isn't scared, not really. Not for himself anyways. He worries about the symbiote they are so desperately after.
His symbiote.
Eddie tells them nothing, and wouldn't no matter the case. He guesses that Carlton Drake already knows that. They don''t waste any time trying to torture the information out of him. Not that anything they possibly did to him would be scarier than the other symbiote, the larger one, who isn't so sleek as Venom, who spits when it talks and would have flayed Eddie alive if it had felt the want for it.
Dead leaves crunch under the weight of his knees, wet earth seeping slowly into the denim of his pants. It would be easy to dig a hole out here, even despite the canopy of trees surrounding them.
At least he can die knowing it wasn't without a fight. He is a little shit to the last second, trying to catch a specially trained soldier off guard enough to grab his gun. Venom would have been embarrassed for him, how easily he's deflected.
Eddie's lucky he doesnt catch a bullet to his skull right then and there. He would have missed seeing the moonlight reflect oddly off broad shoulders, a creature stalking them in the night.
The men around him disappear one by one, until there is only a single gun aimed at him.
Karma really is a bitch, or so Eddie guesses as he watches Venom materialize from the shadows. It chomps the man's head off with little care, milky white eyes never leaving Eddie's stricken face.
He doesn't get up from the ground. Eddie stays on his knees, hands raised and uncertain. He had left the creature alone at the hospital after all, swearing they were done. It has the right to gobble him up if it feels the urge. Eddie would understand.
"Hello, Eddie." It's voice has taken on a more feminine drip to it, but it's that same low growl he's become accustomed to. Eddie would recognize the sound anywhere, no matter the change in vocal chords.
Venom is coming for him, standing so close that Eddie can see how it's teeth gleam in the light of the moon, long shocks of pearly white against the pink of its mouth.
And despite his better judgement, Eddie finds himself thinking it's beautiful. Not in a normal sense, a human sense. It just is.
Those teeth are nearing his face now. He is staring into the abyss, refusing to flinch.
The abyss stares back. When teeth finally come, they are joined by something wet and wicked, soft as it slides long his bottom lip.
It takes Eddie an embarrassing amount of time to realize it's Venom's tongue, and he's already parted his lips to let it pass without so much as a second thought. The teeth he'd been so afraid of were doing no more than scraping gently across his cheek and chin.
It ends before Eddie is ready to let go, his chest feeling full and tight with emotion. He doesn't even know Anne is there until her tiny hands are digging into his chest, effectively shoving him away.
She is stunned out of her mind. She just ate a guys head off. Eddie pretends he's shocked by that too, but honestly he's still thinking about the kiss.
Venom is quick to set him back on track, reminding him that Carlton Drake has his own symbiote now. A team leader that will be hell bent on getting the swarm back to Earth.
It doesn't say as much, but Eddie feels a strange twinge of fear in his stomach, knows that Venom is thinking of what will happen if the team leader succeeds.
They wind up leaving Anne in the woods. Eddie complains and his other ignores, taking care to get them through the maze of trees, back towards the Life Foundation where surely Riot and Drake will be waiting.
"We kissed you."
Eddie would have stumbled, had he been the one in control of their body at the time.
"Yeah you did bud, you uh, you sure did." He feels dazed just thinking about it.
"Found a new one, Eddie. Next to our lips."
A new what exactly? A freckle? Eddie's mind wanders absently, more focused on the constant tingling at his lips.
"Yes." Venom trills in agreement, and it causes warmth to blossom at their sternum.
A new freckle, huh? "How haven't you noticed that one before?"
"Don't get to look at you enough."
His symbiote had warned him that Riot possesses an arsenal of shit he'd never seen before, probably stuff his puny human mind wouldn't comprehend.
Fuck, had it been right.
Riot's got shit he's never seen, never even dreamt of in his wildest nightmares.
And yet somehow, they manage to hold their own for a while. Those moments are short lived though. Venom is surrounding him, encasing him, fighting for them. Eddie is just trying to give them the strength to do it, a strong host to feed off of. He is almost fooled into thinking they have the upper hand when Riot catches them by the neck. It's savage in the way it tears at them, pulling Venom from his body no matter how desperately the dark tendrils struggle to hold on. The symbiote is wrapped like thick rope around Eddie's torso until it isn't. It's body gives with a sickening shudder, Eddie finds himself being tossed carelessly to the side. Riot roars to show dominance, even as it brings Venom to the nasty slash of its mouth.
Eddie won't stand for that.
He doesn't remember moving this fast in his life, at least not without his symbiote to help him do it. Eddie lunges on pure instinct, and by miracle he makes it, hand stretched just far enough that a single tendril could reach. It isn't until they are whole again that Eddie realizes he'd been hollow, his chest aching and empty where Venom should always be.
He whispers a prayer, doesn't ever want them to be separated again.
Turns out fate is a cruel mistress and there isn't shit Eddie can do to stop it from happening.
They get back into the fight, full of piss and vinegar, a new wave of determination. Riot still manages to over power them, makes it seem easy, even.
Team captain, his symbiote had said. Eddie can understand why.
They struggle the entire time they are being absorbed, but its fruitless work. There is nothing they can do to stop it.
Anne's always been so much smarter than him though. He knows its her doing when a switch gets flipped, sending the shrilliest sound Eddie has ever heard over powerful speakers.
It hurts Venom, therefore it hurts him too.
Eddie is grateful for it anyways, even as the sound bounces around his skull. He can feel Riot letting them go, it's sickly wet mass trembling against the sound. Eddie shudders as the tendrils finally give way, and gravity takes hold.
The fall is rough, rougher still when the landing knocks his symbiote away. Eddie feels it skitter across the floor, hopes they survive easy enough. Bones creak when he moves but nothing is broken, he should be grateful for that too, but he doesn't have the time for it. Carlton Drake is up before him, celebrates by driving his fist into Eddie's jaw.
Fuckin' bastard.
Eddie feels his lip bust under the pressure, but he's more concerned about his symbiote and how it fared after their fall, all the noise that had come before it. He doesn't understand how noise affect them, but knows that sounds at 4 to 6,000 hertz could be lethal.
It's surprisingly easy to turn the fight around on Drake. The man might be a scientist but he's no fighter, not really.
Eddie's whole life has been an uphill battle. This one is no different.
He lands a nasty hit on Drake's cheek, knows the man is going down before he actually crumples. And somehow the bastard is still talking,
So Eddie does the reasonable thing, and kicks him backwards off the platform.
His symbiote would be proud.
Eddie doesn't stick around to see where Drake has fallen. He's only got one thing on his mind now.
Finding his other before Riot does.
As it turns out, Riot isn't looking for Venom. They'd found Drake instead. It was team captain after all. Eddie should've known it wouldn't be defeated so easy.
It's only after the overly large blade has pierced his middle that he realizes he's made a mistake in turning his back on Drake. The impact of being impaled sweeps him off his feet. Eddie is dropped only seconds later, his body making a wet squelch as it crashes bonelessly to the platform. It isn't enough to run him through. The alien comes closer, and Eddie feels sticky fingers enclose on his skull with more pressure than necessary. It's breath is sour when it says, "You are nothing."
Eddie thinks maybe it's right.
They shove his head back to the floor, gone before he can take in one last shuddering breath. Eddie thinks about his symbiote and hopes it does better than he did. His last view is of the ring on his finger, how it glints against the spotlights. There's a freckle on his hand, just above where the gold band sits. Eddie sees it and thinks again of his symbiote, how it wrabled with excitement after every new find. He wonders if it ever noticed that one.
Maybe it's new host would have freckles, too.
"Eddie."
Eddie comes back to the sound of frantic hissing.
He is too weak to respond but that's fine because he doesn't need to. Venom is here and they are taking care of it, encasing Eddie like a loving suit of armor, stitching him back together again.
"You are not going to die. We will fix it."
The hole in his belly closes, and he feels rather than hears the outraged shriek they make. It rattles all around him, and Eddie is suddenly acutely aware of residual fear pooling in his gut.
It had been afraid for him, it's perfect host. Eddie feels himself getting choked up about it, but there's no time for feelings. Riot is taking off and they are after him.
Eddie loses time after that. He knows they get really high, and they see Riot through a window. It calls them a traitor.
"Have a nice life."
The next thing he knows they are falling, and the wind whipping through sweat soaked curls should make him cold but it doesn't. Eddie watches through a blurred gaze as the rocket explodes above them, unleashing a heatwave that feels more like hellfire.
It burns. They are burning.
But at least they're together for it. This won't be like bleeding out back at the life foundation, alone and cold to the bone, thinking they'd lost.
Miraculously they'd won, but in the end it won't be enough to save them. Eddie wants to feel okay about that, if only so Venom would stop trying so desperately to stitch them back together. Not that it's doing such a good job anyways, This is much worse than a few broken bones, or even being impaled back at the station. Those are things Venom could help. Fire may as well be considered its kryptonite. But still it persists, trying to save them. Eddie feels a wave of fondness, even as the fire catches at his clothing, searing skin.
The ground is getting closer now. A second, larger explosion sends another massive wall of flames after them.
Eddie closes his eyes and accepts his fate, but finds himself willing for the symbiote to come back inside, hide from the flames if it can. Maybe one of them could survive this after all. Venom would live to find a new host, maybe someone who doesn't mind the implications of biting off a head or two.
"Silly."
The sound is jagged in his head, and he knows that Venom is feeling the heat too, knows that they are suffering together.
"This world is not worth saving without Eddie in it."
He feels the symbiote caress against organs, a tendril wrapping carefully around his heart. It gives the gentlest of squeezes, and Eddie doesn't see it as the goodbye that it is until venom is seeping out of his skin, forming a parachute to help break their fall.
His fall.
"Goodbye Eddie."
He tries to hold on, but Venom slips like ink through his fingers.
Eddie screams after it. The sound is fleeting and desperate, swallowed up by the water as it catches his singed body.
They say he broke four ribs and fractured his clavicle. Said it should've been worse considering how far he fell. Eddie stares at the wall and doesn't tell them that Venom died to save him, to make sure he didn't break his neck or his spine. He knows though, and that's enough. It has to be.
Anne is the one who found him. She cradles his head in her lap and scolds him for being so reckless. He guesses she'd already called the police, and probably Dan too because he's waiting for them in the back of an ambulance.
He only remembers bits and pieces. Everything is scattered after he hit the water. Lungs on fire, liquid hot and sour in his mouth. Eddie had sputtered and struggled and he'd almost drown because getting to shore had been a lesser priority. He'd tried to find Venom, or what might be left of the symbiote. He can't recall most of it, only at one point he'd seen inky blackness and swam towards it.
Turns out it had only been oils leaking out from falling debris. It had slipped through his fingers just as his other had, slick and black and mocking him.
Eddie doesn't remember making it to shore. Just knows he opens his eyes to the feeling of rocks cutting into raw flesh, waves lapping almost peacefully at his feet. There's the sensation of cool water on blistered skin, fractures in bone, but his head is empty. Somehow that is the worst of it.
He spends a few weeks in the hospital with Dan as his doctor. He supposes he'd been lucky in that aspect. Dan is good at his job and he doesn't charge what another doctor would. Dan takes care of him as a favor to Anne. A month or two ago that would have left Eddie sick with embarrassment. Today he's too numb for such feelings.
Turns out there isn't really much they can do for the broken bones, but at the very least they debride his burns twice a day,
He loses weight. They don't serve tater tots and chocolate at the hospital, and the food they do serve might as well be cardboard. That's his excuse, at least until Anne sneaks a chocolate bar in for him. She is so kind, and smiles so sweet. Eddie eats it to console her but it doesn't taste the same. She still has worry lines creasing her brow when she leaves.
Eyes
Lungs
Pancreas
His symbiote seemed to like these parts the most. This is what Eddie thinks about as Dan tells him his lungs are partially damaged from smoke inhalation, writes him a prescription and finally sends him home. He thinks about his other organs, how they'd appeared fine aside from the soot in his lungs. It was Venom's doing of course, fixing any hurt they caused before being burned alive.
Eddie thinks about his other suffering all the way back to the apartment they'd shared, pulse spiking and throat closing up the more thought he put into it. He winds up sitting in the shower with all his clothes, the hot water turned on high. He isn't the one who burned up, but he feels like he should've been.
He falls asleep in wet clothes, without enough energy to make it all the way into his room. He doesn't suspect his bed would comfort him much anyways.
It's still dark when he wakes to the feeling of something sliding along his knuckles, soft and slick, wrapping warmly around his palm. Eddie thinks he is dreaming. He always dreams like this, of black mass and muscle, milky white eyes and the low rumbling voice that vibrates throughout his entire being.
"You dream of us." The words reverberate pleasantly in his ribcage, so quiet he can't even feel it with his broken bones.
Shock is what sends Eddie bolting upright against concrete walls encasing the shower, that and the nagging idea that he's finally gone insane. Arms close instinctively around his middle, fingers dig into raw skin.
He did hear that, didn't he? Eddie takes a deep shuddering breath, hopes he hasn't lost the last few shreds of his sanity.
"V-Venom?" His voice hitches, the word almost catching in his throat. He feels that strange warmth again, silky across his hand. Upon further investigation he finds an inky back tendril rubbing soothing circles against his knuckles. "O-Oh god, it is you. You came home."
"We never left."
Eddie blinks absently at that revelation, thinking back to all the nights spent sobbing away in his shower, talking back to his t.v and sitting despondent over cheap take out and hospital food. He feels embarrassment coloring his face, and cringes because now he knows Venom experienced the misery with him, even while it was trying so hard to recuperate.
The symbiote senses his distress, quells it with a croon so soft and slow it seems to be purring. "We got us. We are here. There is no more need for the tears...Pussy." It adds the last word gently, like a term of endearment instead of an insult.
"M' not a pussy." He is, but he denies it all the same, even as he feels wetness clouding his vision. Venom must feel it, too. It recognizes the tremors in their chest, understands that the dam is about to break if they do nothing to stop it.
"You are, but it is beside the point. Together we are strong, No reason to cry anymore. We are together. You are mine again."
A silky tendril flicks their tears away, and Eddie can actually feel the symbiote thinking, surely of something it could say to stop his water works.
Of course it comes back to the freckles.
"Found another one, when we fought with Riot." Eddie knows the one it's talking about, even before the tendril slides back down to his hand, tapping the knuckle just above the golden ring on his finger. He remembers wondering if the symbiote had ever noticed that one, should've known it never misses them.
"We did miss that one though, Eddie. Didn't see it until you were hurt. Couldn't tell you about it then, had to focus."
The symbiote has his own memories of that fight, watching helplessly, just out of reach as their team leader sends a blade through Eddie, their most precious host.
It had cried out, but no one heard the sound. Riot had already gone, and his Eddie was bleeding out.
There was no light left in his eyes when they got there. The symbiote had soaked in through Eddie's hand, taking stock of the new found freckle even as it wrapped itself tenderly around their heart- Eddie's heart, pumping until the organ fluttered to life.
"I can't believe you had time to notice something so small as a freckle on my finger." Eddie's voice is still scratchy with grief, but he isn't actively crying. in fact, this is the best he's felt in months, and despite being bone cold and soaking wet, all Eddie feels is warm.
"We always notice." The symbiote hesitates. Eddie can feel it curling into his chest, around the organ pumping life into his veins. "We worried Eddie would not know we noticed this one." They had not told him of it. There had been no time, too much fire.
"Oh yeah? I actually did wonder about that." Eddie laughs it off but the symbiote knows, it had been through those memories already. Eddie should have thought of himself or Anne. He was dying. It was logical. Instead his heart had stopped on a thought about Venom and it's love of freckles.
They don't know how to process such devotion, never imagined they could have this from a host. Nothing has ever cared for them like Eddie does.
Several weeks later they have fallen back into a routine of sorts. Eddie has gotten a few job offers since the story about Drake came out, proved to be true despite everything done to silence them. He doesn't feel quite ready for work yet but he takes the jobs anyways. Money makes the world go round, especially now that he's eating for the two of them. These days they even have a little extra to spend, useful for when his symbiote finds a new food it wants to try. So far tater tots are still the crowd pleaser, and they keep a supply of chocolate on hand. They go through takeout like nobody's business, and just recently Venom's started asking about other types of seafood.
They sleep more than they used to, or really Eddie sleeps and his other watches corny late night television shows. The symbiote has been less active lately, and Eddie is sure it's because they are still healing from the rocket fire.
Its summer in San Francisco. The heat is muggy and suffocating. Eddie's given up on sleeping in shirts and pajama pants. Now he lies almost naked aside from the darkly colored boxers stretched across his hips. Venom had liked black for the color. It matches them, the symbiote had argued when Eddie went for a brighter color.
He sleeps now, sprawled across the bed in a way that would leave no room for another. His other is flexible though. The symbiote doesn't require extra room considering it has plenty of space in the hollow of Eddie's chest.
Grey's anatomy is on, late reruns from an early season. Venom watches curiously, taking stock of all the helpful information it provides about humans and how they function.
Eddie whimpers softly into the heavy night air, and Venom can feel their knee jerk. Eddie must be running from something in his dreams. Like a pussy.
They can fix it.
The symbiote slides up to his head, taking special care not to hurt the frail mass of brain that stores all of Eddie's thoughts and memories. They curl protectively around the organ, tentacles prodding from the brain stem to the cortex, massaging until it feels Eddie relax completely around them.
Satisfied, and maybe even a little proud, the symbiote slides back to it's nest in Eddie's chest. Someone is operating on the television. Venom rumbles with interest.
Eddie's legs are still splayed open at a strange angle. The symbiote slips down as though to shift them into a more comfortable position. They only manage to fix one leg though. What they find on the other has them pooling into Eddie's torso, so delighted at their special find that Eddie feels it, too. A pleasant shiver travels up his spine, warm and powerful enough to make the man stir, eyes squinting open against the harsh light of the television. He feels safe, content. He is almost back asleep when alarm jolts him into full consciousness.
"What the fuck is touching us?" Eddie had thrown his blanket off long ago. He looks down to see his bare legs, and a hand-like appendage curled almost tenderly around his upper thigh.
"Oh. Oh no fucking way. You did not find another one." Eddie lets himself fall back to the mattress, a soft groan hitting the air on impact. The silky hand seems to have claws of some sort. He can feel them trailing across the sensitive skin of his inner thigh, tries not to squirm. The touch is so featherlight it tickles, sends goosebumps rising across delicate flesh.
"It is darker than the others." The symbiote squeezes his thigh, and Eddie gasps as he feels something wet sliding along his leg, uncomfortably close to his groin. "We like this one."
Eddie sputters, resisting the urge to scoot away from the slithering heat. "Ayy! Wait jus' a second, you can't just go licking down there!" His first instinct is to reach for the wet muscle sliding along his leg, but instead he stops short of that, his hand finding the silky mass of Venom's head.
"Why not, Eddie?"
They sound almost hesitant in the wake of being scolded, but they don't sink back into his skin. Eddie can see now that the symbiote isn't fully formed, just a hand and shoulder, head and neck, the tongue across his skin. It looks disturbingly close to the aliens from a movie Eddie watched as a kid. He's never been afraid of it though, not really. And at some point he even stopped thinking of it as alien.
The symbiote is part of him, possibly the best part.
"Well, I mean...I just."
"Why not?" The symbiote prods at him, a humanlike finger pressing against the freckle they've found.
He should have a plethora of answer for that, but nothing actually comes to mind. Anne is with Dan now, so happy that Eddie gave up hope of getting her back long ago. And why else is there? Because it's still technically an alien? Hell yeah, and it lives inside him, consuming brain chemicals and keeping him stitched together. The symbiote already does everything with him, for him. Right now it's just trying to explore it's home. Who is Eddie to refuse them?
"Look, I guess you can but how about a little warning next time, okay? Its kinda sensitive down there. You need..." Eddie tails off, lost on the subtle nuances of explaining consent to the symbiote curled around his torso. "It's like this okay, I might not want to be touched there right now, and if that were the case then you shouldn't do it. You feel me?"
"We always feel you Eddie. We are trying to understand." The symbiote doesn't leave him, but it moves, shifts, and soon Eddie can see bursts of light, memories flashing before his eyes. Venom is going through all the times anyone has ever touched him below the belt, learning about the things Eddie couldn't fully explain.
Eventually it settles, withdrawing back to its place between Eddie's open thighs. He realizes Venom is looking at him then, pearls of color against the dark of its face.
"Do we make you uncomfortable, Eddie." It's resting its head against his thigh now, and Eddie huffs at the surge of affection he feels for it.
"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to." The symbiote is always aware of his discomfort. It dawns on him a moment later that Venom isn't asking for itself. They are trying to get verbal consent, something he's certain it's seen in his memories. He's always been such a careful lover.
"Yes. Eddie is good at this. We want to be good at it, too."
Eddie still hesitates, not out of discomfort. It's uncertainty still weighing him down. "Is this just because of the freckle's though?"
The rumbling in his chest can only be described as laughter.
"We like our freckles because they are part of Eddie." The symbiote doesn't breathe but Eddie knows it's mouth is close to skin. "We like everything that is part of Eddie." Moments later he feels teeth trailing across the soft flesh of his inner thigh. He should probably be more concerned about that, he's seen what those teeth can do after all. Eddie trusts his other though, knows it will be careful about his fragile meat bag body.
"You have permission then I guess. Just- don't go doing it because of me." His voice comes strangled this time. Eddie worries that the symbiote is only doing this for his pleasure. That would make him feel dirty.
This is supposed to be a partnership.
"It is, Eddie."
There is a tendril curling slow and teasing around his hardening member. Eddie is almost shocked to find himself so stiff. He hadn't realized all his blood was pooling down there, but honestly he's not surprised with Venom sitting sleek and beautiful between his legs.
"Do not worry, Eddie. We want to do this. Your pleasure is ours."
Well, when they put it like that...
The tongue is back a moment later, and this time Eddie arches into it.
It turns out that Venom might possibly be the perfect lover. It is a part of them after all, so it knows what feels good, what feels better, and what they should avoid completely. Eddie expected he'd feel weird after doing something so intimate with an alien but no. All he feels is content, maybe even a little blissful. His symbiote seems pleased about it, no doubt consuming the excess chemicals, and that's great. Eddie figures if Venom wasn't eating up all that extra love his chest might actually burst open with it.
The symbiote is listening to him think. Eddie knows because it rattles, makes a noise akin to purring
"We like the love feelings."
"I know you do darling." He flips onto his stomach, face buried deep into the single pillow he uses to sleep with. The symbiote isn't bothered by the move. They rearrange until settled into the small of Eddie's back, able to see the television. He knows they must rest too, sometimes. It's not like how humans rest though, and they call it stasis. Eddie figures his other will catch a few more episodes of it's show, maybe even a few infomercials, and then maybe it too would rest a little. They've surely earned it.
"I'm kinda tired love. I might sleep some more." The clock only reads 2:30 am, he still has time.
"Love. Darling. We like these new names." Venom is already watching the television, seemingly invested in the surgery taking place.
Eddie hums softly against his pillow. "Yeah, more terms of endearment." He feels the symbiote bristle, remembering earlier conversations, it's host claiming the word parasite was also a term of endearment. They'd had to agree to disagree on that one.
"Like these words better." A tendril caresses the expanse of his shoulders, dipping slowly towards his lower back. Eddie supposes it's exploring some more, maybe even looking for the freckle it had found all those weeks ago.
He is just starting to doze off when Venom finds it. The sound it makes is a grief stricken shriek. Eddie is up immediately, throwing his legs over side of the bed and trying desperately to twist, see what on his back could possibly be so devastating that the alien would make such a sound.
He doesn't see anything except his symbiote. It's half materialized, a whole torso that seems to pour from Eddie's hip. They are touching him with both hands, and he shudders at the feeling of a tendril curling around his middle.
"What's wrong V?" He himself doesn't feel like anything is wrong, so it can't possible be anything to do with him or how his body is functioning. This can only mean the symbiote itself is in some sort of pain, but Eddie doesn't really feel that either. He just feels hurt, a deep seated ache in his chest that gnaws closer to his heart by the minute. "How can I help you darling?"
"It did not heal right. We did not fix it properly." The hands are smooth, encircling a part of Eddie's lower back as if to protect it, maybe try to mend it.
But what in the hell was it mending? There was nothing wrong, not physically anyways, not that Eddie knows of.
"Something is wrong, Eddie. Our freckle is split." There had been a scar from where Riot run him through that night, but it had faded over time. He supposed it happened as Venom regained its strength. They had taken to healing any lingering aliments from their battle. As far as he knew, the scar was gone.
But the freckle was still split.
"Oh love, it's not a big deal. It's just a freckle, we have plenty more!"
This was the wrong thing to say, Eddie knows that when he feels the symbiote growl against the nape of his neck. It's low and distraught, a sound that makes Eddie's stomach bottom out.
"Big deal to us. We love them all." Each one has some special meaning to the symbiote, a memory they have together with Eddie.
"I didn't mean to hurt you darling, I only wanted to help." Eddie is quick to soothe the ache he's caused, fingers sliding along the symbiotes neck as if to comfort them. "We can still look at it this way though, now we have two half freckles on our back yeah? More for you to love."
This seems to settle them a little bit, like salve over a burning blister. They still feel bothered by it, maybe even a little guilty, but the longer Eddie strokes his hand across the smooth mass of it's shoulders the more it seems to calm. Finally it looks at him, long tongue whipping out to gently trail down Eddie's cheek in a sloppy kiss.
"We just think it wrong to have damaged our favorite freckle." They sound almost tired, resigned to the idea of their freckle being different.
Eddie snorts, presses a kiss to the bottom of It's jaw. "They're all your favorite freckle! I'm sure you'll even find another one eventually."
It definitely feels guilty now, lets out a low rumbling whine as though it's been scolded. "You are right, Eddie." The symbiote pushes him back down to the mattress, obviously giving the freckle another critical examination. "We will find more of them."
it sounds determined, as though its host has issued a challenge.
Eddie falls asleep to the sensation of silk on his back, Venom caressing the ruined freckle until it is able to accept that different is okay. They are changing together. And as Eddie said, this just gives them more to love.