Moving
Moving was hard. Moving with children was very hard. Moving with six children was very, very hard.
After everything that happened with The Life Foundation they didn’t know how many other people or organizations Eddie’s father had given their location to. It was a serious risk hanging over all their heads. Plus with Sleeper getting old enough to sleep on his own they needed another room anyways. So they hit the internet hard and went on a house hunt.
“Eddie this one has a basement! We can hide down there and scare the kids!”
“Venom! No!”
“This one has a deck! You’ve always wanted a deck!”
“I have never wanted a deck.”
With the extra money they were making at SHIELD springing for one more bedroom actually wasn’t gonna kill them. It was agreeing on a place that was turning out to be the hard part. They had toured over eight houses so far there was always something that was a no-go for one of them. Whether it didn’t have a second bathroom, the backyard was too small, there wasn’t a dishwasher, old lead paint, leaky pipes- the list of things they never thought they’d care about seemed to keep growing. The two of them could live anywhere- Hell they had lived in some of the shittiest places in all of both New York and San Francisco- but they wanted their family to have the perfect place. The kids deserved a big backyard to play in and bedrooms to decorate and a place to eat breakfast and everything else. On top of all their fantasies about the perfect place, Venom had been binging HGTV which was not helping at all.
“Okay this is the last one for today. Don’t freak out the realtor.” Eddie instructed as they walked in the front door.
They both knew as soon as they walked in that this was the place.
It. Was. Perfect.
“Hello, you must be Eddie Brock. Feel free to look around.” The realtor greeted him (them).
The floors were hardwood but they could put down a few rugs to soften them up for the inevitable trips and falls that came with kids running all over the place. The kitchen was big enough to have a table to eat at and the living room was huge (with vaulted ceilings according to Venom’s now vast HGTV knowledge). A bathroom on both floors and an enormous backyard covered in soft green grass. Big windows everywhere but what the best feature was upstairs, all four bedrooms had huge skylight windows in the ceilings. You could see the sky all day and night and they were sure their kids would love that the most. On top of all that it was close to school, the playground, their friends and in their price range.
The move itself was easy. Never having moved anywhere before kids were out of their minds with excitement, they even did most of the packing while Eddie and Venom did all the lifting. It was their first night in their new home and the kids had been decorating their rooms since they arrived. Phage, Lasher and Carnage shared one, Agony and Scream shared another and the last was the nursery. Phage and Lasher were bound and determined to make their side better than Carnage’s side but Carnage had made it very clear that their side was their side.
“Whatcha doin’ up there, Phage?” Eddie asked as he brought another box into their room.
Phage was sticking to the large ceiling skylight window with a marker in hand.
“I’m circling Dad’s planet so we know which one it is.” The six year old answered.
It was nighttime so you could see the moon and stars in the dark sky above their house.
“You should draw an arrow too.” He suggested.
“Okay!” Phage grinned widely.
“Is that your planet, V?” Eddie asked silently inside his head.
“No, I believe that is just a star.”
“Can you see your planet from here?”
“You can not. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Nope.” Eddie smiled.
Before they knew it, it was time to put Sleeper to bed. This was a very delicate situation, it was the first time he’d be sleeping in his own room. They had to do everything perfectly. He could fall asleep by himself but they weren’t really sure what would happen when he realized they wouldn’t be coming back until morning. They gave him a bubble bath, they read him a story, they fed him (unfortunately Eddie got bit), they rocked him- they did stuff that was even starting to make Eddie sleepy.
Maybe if they were really, really lucky he’d snooze all night not even notice.
But they weren’t lucky.
Sleeper noticed that things were amiss around 10pm. First he just woke up and patiently waited for them. Then he started to get annoyed with their lasting absence. Anne and Dan had gifted them a fancy baby monitor with a camera so they could check on him on a little portable screen- they never had to use it before tonight. Eddie paced around their bedroom with his eyes glued to the screen, unable to tear his eyes away from his increasingly unhappy youngest child.
“Eddie, he will fall asleep soon. Let’s go to bed.”
“I just want to make sure.” he mumbled back distracted with the live video feed.
Despite Venom’s assurances Sleeper progressed in the opposite direction.
“Mamamama….” Sleeper babbled out; that was enough to get Mama’s attention.
But Mama didn’t come. Mama never didn’t come. Maybe they couldn’t hear him, maybe if he was louder?
“Mama!”
Still nothing. Sleeper’s eyes filled with tears and he started sniffling.
“Mamaaaaa!!” Sleeper was even louder that time.
Meanwhile Eddie was struggling to open their bedroom door which Venom was adamantly holding closed.
“Venom! Let go!”
“No! He has to get used to his own room.”
“He needs us!”
“You’re going to spoil him!”
Sleeper was starting to panic. What if Mama never came? What if he did something bad? He did bite Mama before but it was an accident! He was sorry! What if Mama was mad at him? What if Mama hated him now?
“Paaaaapaaaa!” If Mama wouldn’t come then Papa would. Papa loved him. Papa wouldn’t let him be sad and all alone.
But Papa didn’t come either. What if Papa hated him now too?
Sleeper was crying harder now, he cried and cried but nobody came.
Well, someone was trying to at least. Eddie was being forcibly restrained to the bed by Venom who under no tantrum throwing circumstances would let Eddie turn their precious, sweet, perfect little boy into a spoiled brat who got everything he wanted all the time and wouldn’t even be away from them long enough to go to sleep.
Carnage didn’t have a hard time with this, if anything they seemed happy to have their own room even as an infant. Sleeper was getting more upset by the minute and it was agonizing Eddie.
“Maaamaaaa!! Paaapaaaa!!” Sleeper kept sobbing their names.
“Sleepeeeeeer.” Eddie whined into the pillow.
“Maaaaaaaaa….!” He was sobbing and rubbing his eyes, tears staining his little face.
“Paaaaapaaaa…!” He was hiccuping and trembling.
This was it. No more hugs. No more kisses. No more playing. No more stories. No more cuddles. He would be alone forever and ever and no one would ever love him again.
Venom’s willpower on this far outlasted Eddie’s but Sleeper was so sad that Venom just couldn’t stand it anymore.
“...Fine. Let’s go get him.”
They’d try this again another night.