Pretty
Eddie was tapping away on his keyboard, deep in the process of writing his article when the hem of his t-shirt was desperately clutched. It was Scream, looking up at him with mournful eyes.
“Daddy?”
“Yes darling?” He half expected this to be about a bug or a flower she found that had been squished or some other poor creature who had met an untimely but unchangeable end.
“Why aren’t I pretty?”
He stopped his tapping and looked down at her.
“What makes you say that?” He asks her.
She frowned and was quiet for a while before finally answering.
“At school some girls were playing princesses and they said I couldn’t play because I’m not pretty. They said I should be the monster.”
This happened sometimes, that didn’t make it any easier of course. The children were alien in both biology and appearance with their big, iridescent eyes, sharp fangs, talons and unnatural color schemes. The world wasn’t usually shy about reminding them of it either. Kids, however, could sometimes be crueler than most.
“Am I a monster?” She looked up at him with tears welling up in her eyes.
This was never a problem he had before having children. Venom loved being called a bone-chilling, all powerful, terrifying monster and/or superpredator but their seven year old daughter? Not so much.
“No, no, no. Of course not, honey. You’re just unique.” He tried.
“Does that mean pretty?”
“It means that there’s no one else in the whole universe like you.”
“Oh.” She looked a little disappointed at that.
“Of course you are pretty, little one. You and your sister are the prettiest girls I have have ever seen. Right Eddie?”
“Definitely!” Eddie grinned and scratched his beard.
“As pretty as Andi?” She asked.
Eddie had to stifle a small laugh that her cousin Andi was Scream’s idea of ultimate feminine beauty, he’d have to tell her of the honor.
“As pretty as Andi.” Venom assured.
“Can we give each other makeovers?” She sniffled and wiped the tears out of her eyes.
Eddie suppressed a sigh, his article wasn’t going to get finished any time soon was it?
“Sure.” He smiled.
Turns out Scream just meant she wanted to give Eddie a makeover, not the other way around. So he sat obediently on the floor as she made him over with heavy blue eyeshadow, cakey red lipstick and thick hot pink blush and then poked him in the eye several times with a mascara wand as she coated his eyelashes.
“Am I beautiful yet, V?” Eddie thought to himself as even more blush was dabbed on his cheeks.
“Always.” Venom snickered.
“Daddy, do you promise I’m pretty?” Scream asked.
“I promise you’re pretty. You’re the prettiest. But you’re also smart and talented and curious and a million other things that are more important than pretty.” He told her.
“Are fangs pretty?” She asked.
“Very.” Eddie assured her and he wasn’t lying, he really thought so.
Sleeper crawled over and insistently stretched a hand towards Eddie’s cheek, after Eddie obliged him the baby pulled his hand away and looked at it like he expected the makeup to come off onto his hand in a bright smudge (a little bit did).
“Sleeper you can’t have blush. You have holes where blush is supposed to go.” Scream chastised him but he just sort of blinked at up her and reached for the brush in her hand anyways.
“Mine! Mine!” Sleeper struggled for the makeup brush he so badly wanted.
“Fine, here.” Scream swept a thick plume of pink blush across his forehead making him clap and grin.
Scream continued making Eddie up until she got sleepier and sleepier, it was around 9pm already. Soon she fell asleep completely in his arms. They took her up to bed and then the other kids too, Eddie went to sleep without washing his face first and woke up to his white pillowcase stained pink, red and black and blue. It took twenty minutes of scrubbing but he did eventually get all the makeup off his face. They both knew this pretty thing would come up again, maybe for Scream, maybe for Agony, but it would. Eddie didn’t get it, his daughters were the most beautiful creatures in the entire universe to him- all their kids were. But how could he ever convince them? He so often wished he could make the whole world see them all through his eyes.