Birthday
Sleeper was already teething (much, much sooner than either of them expected at only three weeks old) so he was very upset, grumpy, in pain and didn't fully understand why. They had also discovered he had the ability to emit pheromones and that some of his pheromones were empathogenic. The empathogens made them all feel the emotions he wanted them to feel- now being far too small to know what he wanted others to feel they really just felt what he felt, which was mostly upset at the moment. He was also too young to control his abilities and they had a feeling he didn't want to do this to them all on purpose so they couldn't even be mad at the little guy. The emotional havoc was definitely taking a toll though, the kids were constantly bickering and fighting with each other if they got too close to Sleeper whose abilities seemed to be at least partially dependent on proximity. They were picking up on the fact that he didn't emit the empathogenic pheromones until he was feeling somewhat intense emotions and according to Dr. Steve he would eventually learn to control the emissions as he got older.
Running his finger over Sleeper's gums Eddie could definitely feel some fangs coming in. Venom and all the kids had rows of sharp teeth so Eddie just prayed to whoever was listening that this would go quickly. Carnage's teething phase wasn't that bad and the other children had skipped it entirely due to their unconventional developmental progress. Eddie did the dishes in the kitchen as the kids watched a movie in the living room, Sleeper was in the kitchen with them sitting dejectedly in his highchair with a teething ring that came highly recommended from Dan. Being in the other room gave the kids a break from the emotional roller-coaster their little brother was accidentally inflicting on the family.
Eddie noticed that he felt much sadder then he had an hour ago and not just a surface sadness but a heavy, deep depression. Then he realized that it wasn't his sudden intense sadness, it was Venom's.
“Sleeper getting to you, darling?”
But Venom didn't reply, they just sunk further into Eddie as if they were avoiding the question.
“Ven?” Eddie set the dish he was scrubbing down in the sink.
“Don't want to talk about it.” Venom finally said.
“Okay honey.” Eddie knew better than to push it, if Venom wanted to talk they would.
They cleaned in silence as the sound from the kids' Star Wars movie spilled in from the other room. Eddie was putting a plate into the cupboard when he was overcome with nausea, he dropped the plate and it shattered on the floor as his mind was assaulted with flashes of images. Labs, syringes, incubators, men in white, painfully bright lights. All in terrifying succession. Eddie was out of breath and on his knees.
“W-was that you? Or me?” He gasped.
Venom was tightly coiled in his chest but quiet.
“Darling please.” Eddie pressed, needing to know what was happening to them.
“It's nothing Eddie.”
“It's clearly not nothing.”
“Just thinking. About the kids.”
“Sleeps will be fine, he's just teething.” Eddie reassured.
“Not the baby. Not Carnage. The others. Their birthday.”
Then he understood. This was an off-limits subject for Venom, not even Eddie was allowed to bring it up. Eddie held out his palm, Venom wrapping a tendril around it. The circumstances surrounding Agony, Phage, Lasher and Scream's spawning were unusual and difficult. After it had all happened Venom never wanted to discuss it again. Eddie remembered it all clearly as well though he wishes he didn't. Carnage was only four at the time and had been with Anne and Dan that night. They were patrolling the south side of the city when they'd found a woman being attacked, upon intervening they were assaulted with sonics forcing them to separate. The woman had been an agent of the Life Foundation and her attacker a hired thug, luring them into a trap.
They were taken to a Life Foundation facility in the Mojave Desert and seperated. Eddie was mostly a prisoner but they tortured Venom. Extensive and painful experimentation, the Life Foundation trying to understand the symbiote species. Strictly speaking they were only supposed to have two children- Carnage and Sleeper- but the events of that capture determined otherwise. The Life Foundation preformed an invasive and immoral procedure, forcibly extracting four reproductive samples from his other. After extracting the samples the doctors of the Life Foundation exposed them to artificial acceleration procedures which aged them more rapidly to be immediately used for hosts as weapons.
It was true that feelings of sadness often made you think of other things that made you sad but Eddie hadn't realized that this pheromone thing could bring up traumatic memories too. That event was always pushed back deep into their subconscious for fear of its reemergence and that pain it would inevitably bring with it. Venom's pain of the incident itself and Eddie's pain of not being able to stop it. He could still remember his panic as he was running though the facility, the glass shards crunching under his shoes after breaking open his other's containment cell. They re-bonded and Eddie had intentions of escaping as soon as possible but then Venom told him what happened, what the Life Foundation had stolen from them. It didn't matter that they didn't plan for them and hadn't met them, neither of them could leave any innocent child at the mercy of these people and no matter what he couldn't deny that those children were theirs. They found them in their own cell on a lower level of the facility. They say that a parent falls in love with their child as soon as they see them and in Venom and Eddie's case that was completely true. The concept of parental connection and love was non-existent on Venom's home world but they'd always proven to be different. The cell was bare and lit too brightly, the small children were sitting against the back wall with their knees hugged to their chests. They were already chronologically, physically and developmentally three years old, only a year younger than Carnage, some of their most formative years so callously taken from them.
The following months were an adjustment to say the least, suddenly having four new and traumatized children to take care of. There were a lot of nightmares and sleepless nights those first few months. They were afraid and cautious of their new surroundings, only having known torment in their young lives- flinching at the slightest sudden movement or elevated sound. Carnage always hesitant and unsure of how to approach or interact with their suddenly acquired siblings. Eddie and Venom both felt anger and despair looking back on those months.
The first moment of trust between them and their new children was during the third month of having them home. Though they had the ability appropriate to their age the children didn't talk much and they mainly only talked to each other, not them or Carnage. Eddie had been working on an important article when he felt his other pull his attention to his side where Phage was walking towards them with a picture book. Phage looked at the book and then at his parents and held the book up towards them wordlessly.
“You want a story?” Venom asked, the two of them read to them all the time but they'd never been asked to before.
Phage nodded silently. Eddie abandoned his work without a second thought and sat on the floor next to Phage, taking the book from him and opening it. Phage, without warning, crawled under his arm and into their lap and then pointed insistently at the pictures on the page. To say they were shocked would be an understatement. Across the living room Lasher, Scream and Agony watched them longingly to which they responded by waving them over. After some encouragement the other young children crossed the room, Carnage jumping off the couch and following as not to be left out and they suddenly had a lap full of toddlers waiting for a story. After that it all got much easier, the younger children opening up more easily and conversing more and more every day. Pretty soon they were more than eager to be apart of the family.
Under his skin he could feel Venom tingle at the warm memory that had played out in Eddie's mind. The event itself was horrific but everything that came as a result, everything that came after was more than they could ever ask for. Venom seeped out of him and manifested their own humanoid form, a skill they'd picked up after a visit to their home world, before pulling him in and hugging him for a long time, Eddie hugging back with his face resting on their chest.
“They all fell asleep.” Carnage announced as they opened the fridge for a juice box, they hadn't even heard them walk in.
“Did they?”
“Yeah, they're babies.” They shrugged as if that totally explained it.
“You're only a year older, Carnage.” Venom pointed out.
“But I'm not a baby.” The seven year old replied because seven was certainly not a baby age.
“Hm.” Eddie nodded at the clearly air-tight logic.
They cleaned up the broken plate and put Sleeper to bed, noticing that he must be feeling a little better because he wasn't radiating any harsh emotions at the moment. They went back downstairs, scooped the kids off the couch and carried them up to bed too.