Sins of the Father
“I get to go with them~! I get to go with them~! I get to go with them~!” Scream is singing boastfully as the family eats breakfast.
“You won’t being going anywhere if you’re not a good sport, Scream.” Eddie states, seeing how bummed out her siblings are that they didn’t pull the winning straw.
Today was Bring Your Child To Work Day at his news office and unlike their SHIELD gig, bringing one of their kids to that office wouldn’t pose much of a danger. Supervillians didn’t tend to crash through newsrooms looking for a fight at least.
Which of them would be the lucky guest of honor became a highly contentious argument as soon as their parents mentioned it in passing- not even regarding it as exciting at all. But a whole day with their parents and all their attention without competition? A whole day seeing what they did at work? A whole day off from school? None of their children could resist that offer!
Well, except for Carnage who had their recent (and very much a secret) hunting trip with Dad and Sleeper who could easily get all their parents’ undivided attention with some strategic teary eyes and whimpers that he was becoming more cunning with by the week.
The bragging stopped but they did catch Scream sticking her tongue out at her sister in the rearview mirror as the others were dropped off at school. Agony’s middle finger that she definitely learned from Venom was blocked from sight by Eddie closing the car door before Sleeper learns too.
The Daily Globe office building was just one of hundreds in New York City but was still annoyingly close in proximity to The Daily Bugle office where a certain awful babysitter slash Spider-Man worked. They would run into Parker sometimes if Eddie wasn’t careful because there were only so many places to get lunch or coffee around here. Sometimes they would even run into each other on the job, Eddie being a journalist and Peter being a photographer, but he liked to think they were at least professional to one another. Their respective jobs couldn’t find out about either of their extracurricular activities so as far as anyone knew, Eddie and Peter were merely just employees of rival news outlets and nothing else. They both really needed their paychecks so there was an understanding between them that Eddie was always vaguely thankful for given their history.
“Daddy! He knows Spider-Man!” Scream is running way ahead of them towards the aforementioned web slinger who was in line at the coffee shop next door.
“Scream! Don’t run off like that!”
Eddie is immediately chasing after her while Venom is more or less hogtying their daughter to immobilize her in a very gentle and caring way. The angle Eddie is holding his body prevents the coffee shop patrons from seeing Venom’s superhuman (superalien?) parenting style but one of the patrons didn’t need to see it to know.
Of course, Peter Parker still lives in constant fear that Eddie and Venom will find out about the phenomenally bad job he’d done the night he babysat for them and they already knew he’d done a poor job with Sleeper the second time around so he’s already got one strike against him. Venom- both halves- had a notoriously short fuse and would tear people in half for so much as looking at them sideways. He shuddered to think what they’d do to his fragile human body if they found out he’d let their kids rampage unchecked for hours and kinda, sorta, accidentally tortured their infant son.
Now there was one of said kids, the younger of the two girls if he recalls correctly, excitedly pointing at him and trying to wriggle out of Eddie’s arms. She had positively identified him and while he and Eddie Brock made it something of a point to politely ignore each other while on the clock she was not giving him much of a choice.
“I remember you! You were the funnest babysitter ever!!” Scream is waving her arms and grinning, showing him her mouthful of razor sharp fangs….still slightly unnerving on a cute little girl.
“More fun than Miles?” Eddie asks.
“WAY more fun!” Scream throws her hands up and holds them far apart to show “how much”.
“Um. Haha, you’ve got a wild imagination there Scream. I’m probably the most boring person out there.” Peter half laughs and prays she doesn’t elaborate.
Eddie and Scream both tilt their heads in the same exact way.
“But we had so much fun! And you know Spider-Man!” She insists.
“Oh does he?” Eddie says flatly.
Peter grins very suspiciously but it’s cut off by his boss stepping into line right behind Eddie.
“Ah! Parker! I need you to get down Madison Square Garden and do some coverage on the Ultimate Fighting Championship.” The man orders as soon as he recognizes him.
Anything, anything that gets him away from Eddie Brock and his daughter.
“Yessir!” Peter agrees, grabs his coffee and zips out of the shop in record time.
After getting his own coffee and a hot chocolate for Scream and two brownies for Venom, Eddie finally makes it to his office. But as soon as he’s firing up his desktop his own boss in his doorway.
“Brock, I need you at Madison Square Garden for that Ultimate Fighting thing. Our sportswriter is on vacation and I’d rather die than go to that. You work out and lift weights and stuff, right?” She tells him.
“Uh, sort of. But I have my daughter today…Bring Your Kid to Work Day? You insisted on it?” He reminds her.
“Bring her with, it’s a total puff piece.” She says smiling at Scream but not giving him a choice.
Eddie looks at Scream too and her grin is blinding- she didn’t think she’d actually get to go out on a story with Daddy! This day is getting better and better!
“...Okay, fine. But we’re getting lunch on the company account.” Eddie concedes and Scream cheers.
The three of them arrive at the crowded Madison Square Garden and find their way to the press box. Eddie immediately groans and bristles up when he sees the only empty chair left is next to Parker.
“Be nice, Eddie.” Venom chides.
“Don’t worry. I won’t bully your precious boyfriend.” Eddie rolls his eyes.
“I would not mock a spouse that can make you shit your pants on command.”
“That’s fair.” Eddie admits.
When they sit down Scream takes it upon herself to stand on his knees to see the action but it completely blocks his own view.
“Scream, honey Daddy can’t see.”
“I’ll tell you if something happens!” She assures him and he just holds her hands to keep her from falling.
“This pseudo sport probably is more interesting through alien eyes.” Peter seems to agree.
“Venom is the alien. Scream is only half and she was born here.” Eddie corrects him.
“I meant she can probably see colors and stuff we can’t.” Peter leans hard on his science background but Eddie doesn’t bite.
“I don’t think she can….Maybe Sleeper?” Eddie trails off in thought.
“Oh yeah, how is the little puppetmaster?” Peter smirks at them.
Eddie ignores Peter’s only somewhat playful jab at his baby to ramble on about Sleeper’s recent gymnastics as he becomes more able to move around- each day getting a little closer to his highly anticipated first real steps. He starts talking about all the cute words Sleeper can sort of say and how much the baby loves trying to communicate with them in new ways and the impressive range of words he’s understanding these days.
“Daddy I think he knows Sleeper is smart.” Scream finally cuts off her father’s animated babbling.
Eddie turns red suddenly, he didn’t realize how excited he got talking about his kids.
“Oh I know the kid is smart…” Peter has to bite his tongue to not incriminate himself.
“But…I um….I actually don’t mind hearing about your kids.”
That surprised Eddie and he could feel Venom warm up in his chest with the same pride they both always felt whenever they got to brag about their children.
“Dad, make me taller please!” Scream loudly requests of Venom when the referee appears to start the event.
“Don’t lose your balance, jellybean.” Venom reminds her as they boost her up.
“Still so weird to hear the carnivorous apex predator that hunted me for sport lovingly call their daughter ‘jellybean’.” Peter shakes his head.
“No one ever hunted you for sport.” Eddie rolls his eyes. “It was for revenge.”
“Besides, almost all of V’s pet names are some kind of food.” He finishes smiling.
“My favorite is New York Strip.” Venom hums in his head and sends heat to his crotch making him choke and cough abruptly.
He shakes his head quickly, shooing Venom away from there.
“You’re more talkative than usual today, Parker. You usually take any excuse not to see us….like how you ran out of the coffee shop this morning like your ass was on fire.” Eddie points out that Peter’s exit was not the smooth transition he thought it was.
“I mean, can you blame me?” Peter can’t help but laugh which makes Eddie break out laughing too.
“I guess not.” Eddie is still laughing as he rearranges Scream a bit so she can see passed the person that just took a seat in front of them.
“Scream, would you mind taking some really good pictures for me?” Peter asks the seven year old as he holds out his camera to her.
“I can do that!!” Scream so excitedly accepts his offer to do his work for him.
“So what’s the deal? People don’t usually forgive being…what did you say? Hunted for sport?” Eddie raises an eyebrow at Peter.
“Eddie Brock, ever the investigator…” Peter sighs but he’s still smiling. “MJ and I just had her twenty-week ultrasound….we’re having a girl. Seeing you two with your daughter just makes me so excited. Nervous…nauseatingly nervous. But mostly excited.”
“Yeah.” Eddie nods in total understanding. “There’s something about daughters that makes you feel….I don’t know….strong?” He smiles softly as he rakes some of Scream’s wild hair out of her face.
“Well, I’m sure it must help to be able to become a nine-foot tall brick house with chainsaw teeth.” Peter snorts.
Eddie just laughs and shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. You guys have a name for that spider spawn?”
“May, after my aunt.” Peter is practically buzzing.
“May…” Eddie hesitates. “That’s a nice name.”
Peter thought he was being teased by the blonde he’s always viewed as the meathead jock to his own science nerd.
“Well, it’s no Agony.”
Eddie lowers his eyes in a way that tells Peter that, no he was not trying to be mean, and then it hits Peter like a freight train that this is in no way the first time he’s misread Eddie Brock.
“I always kind of assumed you were being ironic with those names.” Peter mumbles and realizes suddenly and shamefully that despite all the changes they’ve made, he still assumes the worst of Eddie and Venom.
Venom makes a sound in the back of his head that Eddie doesn't think he’s ever heard before. It was so alien, in every sense of the word. If he could relate it to any kind of sound he could reference it was something like a metal plate ricocheting off of thick crystal.
“For you to be able to make that sound, I would have to braid your vocal chords.”
Eddie didn’t need to be able to make that sound to understand what it meant- Venom was very hurt. Eddie felt he sensed offense as well but he definitely sensed hurt the strongest.
Peter could see the two of them communicating silently with each other. He’s seen them do it a million times and he recalls his own conversations with the symbiote a lifetime ago. He knows he’s hurt them with his comment about their children's names. Any parent would be hurt but he’s got the added bonus of treating them both like dirt under his shoe for years despite the fact that they’ve more than left him alone for the last eight of those years. Even helped him on occasion.
Flash, Felicia, Liz, MJ…everyone seems to have forgiven Eddie and Venom and moved on like normal, healthy adults. Everyone but him apparently.
“Eddie, Venom…I’m so sorry. I haven’t been fair to either of you. I’ve held a grudge for a long time and convinced myself it was the moral, righteous thing to do. Neither of you is the Venom I’ve been sanctimoniously judging and cutting down these last few years. Flash is always saying how much fun he has with you and Felicia’s started saying the same thing…I just assumed they were messing with me. You’re good parents and you’re good heroes. I’ve been an asshole to both of you and I’m sorry.” Peter can’t bring himself to look them in the eye so he’s looking at a sticky spot under the seats.
Eddie short circuits because he’s never, ever in his life, thought Peter Parker would apologize to them for all his crap. Now that he is…Eddie doesn’t know how to react.
“Be nice, Eddie.”
Eddie smiles to himself, a little breathless at Venom’s overjoyed vindication.
“Don’t worry. I won’t bully your precious boyfriend.” Eddie thinks to them warmly.
“Yes, you have been an asshole.” Eddie says out loud and Venom mentally smacks him.
“But we accept your apology…Venom more than me.” He states cheekily.
“Daddies, will you please stop moving!” Scream admonishes them as she continues taking endless photos.
“Sorry, jellybean.” Eddie leans in a bit to see the camera’s viewfinder.
“You know, I think some of these might actually be salvageable.” He tells Peter who just smiles at them with a lot more kindness and a little more understanding than this morning.