HUNGRY.
“Fuck you.”
LET’S EAT.
“It’s fucking...2am.”
SO? I’M FUCKING HUNGRY.
Eddie is always hungry now. His stomach is never quite full. Well. He supposes that it’s their stomach now. He’s gotten used to Venom in his head-- unsettlingly used to it-- but it’s still weird to really think about it, that their body is one, that their minds (does Venom have a mind?) are melded together, all that crap.
GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND EAT.
“Ugh. Fine, fine, let’s go.”
Eddie gets up from his tiny desk-- it’s been a long day of research, of chasing down leads and....other things, like that office asshole who spit at a homeless woman. Would anyone really miss a piece of shit like that? Eddie doesn’t think so. Venom certainly doesn’t think so.
Eddie makes popcorn.
WHAT’S THIS?
“You haven’t had popcorn? Oh man--” Eddie smiles for the first time in hours-- “You’re gonna love it.”
No voice this time, just an unearthly grunt.
Eddie’s immune to most horror movies now. He’d get so scared when he was a kid, his sisters had to cover his eyes, and Anne laughed whenever he jumped at creaking noises in the apartment. Even Scooby-Doo gave him nightmares. Maybe that’s one of the reasons he became a journalist: he gets to investigate the real monsters. He gets to yank off their suit-and-tie masks. (Or, in that office asshole’s case, just eat him whole, suit, tie, and all.)
It’s different now. No evil axe murderer or ghost or possessed doll can measure up to the voice in his head. The voice that’s his now, in a way, just as his body is also Venom’s.
The little microwave beeps. Eddie shakes his head-- what the fuck am I thinking? --and the popcorn smells slightly burnt, but not too bad.
EAT.
“Jesus, I’m getting it ready! Wait a few minutes, will ya?”
WHEN CAN WE EAT JONES?
“As soon as we get evidence that he’s definitely fucking over certain voting populations with his bullshit local laws.” Eddie grimaces just thinking about the asshole. “He’s definitely doing it. I just need enough proof.”
AND THEN WE’LL EAT HIM?
“Yes.” Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose as he gets a bowl out of the cupboard. “Then we’ll eat him.”
GOOD. ANYONE NAMED CHET DESERVES TO BE EATEN.
“The fuck?” Eddie wheezes out a laugh as he pours the popcorn. “What does that mean?”
BEFORE YOU, THERE WAS INTAN. OLD AND STRONG. I LIKED HER-- SHE TALKED TO ME, BEFORE I HAD TO LEAVE. A pause. SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON I DIDN’T WANT TO KILL. WE WERE IN THE MARKET ONCE, AND THIS TOURIST LOOKED AT OUR MAMAK STALL. HE TRIED TO BARGAIN WITH US. WE REFUSED-- WE GAVE A FAIR PRICE, AND HE WORE A POLO SHIRT WITH SALMON SHORTS AND LOAFERS. HE SCREAMED AND SCREAMED LIKE A LITTLE HUMAN BABY, SAID, ‘I’M CHET BRADFORD, GIVE IT TO ME CHEAP.’ WE ATE HIM.
Eddie snorts. “Makes sense.” He’s shaking the kernels out of the bag. Maybe Venom will like them, who knows. They’re crunchy like bone. “If you liked Intan so much, why’d you leave her?”
I DIDN’T WANT TO. Venom’s voice is always booming, but-- Eddie frowns-- now he sounds almost subdued. SHE TOLD ME TO GO. SHE SAID THAT SHE WAS TOO OLD, AND THAT I SHOULD BE WITH SOMEONE YOUNG AND SPRY. A loud, hissing cackle rattles Eddie’s skull. SHE ALSO SAID SHE WANTED HER SPACE.
“I can relate. So did you leave and kill her then?”
WHAT? NO. I LEFT HER AND SHE WAS FINE. I MADE SURE OF IT. I TOLD YOU: OLD AND STRONG.
“Huh. That’s….kind of nice of you.”
There’s butter and salt on his fingers now, from picking out the lone kernels from the bottom of the bag. Eddie licks his fingers, because duh, and he’s too lazy to find a napkin, and-- he shivers. Venom is growling in approval, low and deep, and Eddie sighs unthinkingly.
What the fuck.
POPCORN IS GOOD.
…Jesus Christ.
Eddie gets napkins. He flops onto the flimsy yard-sale couch and turns the TV on.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Eddie shrugs, carefully wiping his hands. “We’re gonna see a movie.”
Venom rolls his eyes. Eddie can’t tell you how he knows this, it’s just a feeling that he has, and knows it to be true.
Still, Eddie feels Venom’s curiosity prick behind his eyes, too, as he surfs channels before landing on something that seems somewhat interesting. Distracting is what he needs, and he flips to something blue with whimsical piano, and he figures that will distract him enough.
Venom either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care what Eddie’s thinking about right now. Instead he’s oddly quiet. Eddie breathes a sigh of relief.
They watch the movie.
It’s ok-- Eddie usually likes stuff like Die Hard (who doesn’t have a crush on Bruce Willis) and Mad Max (the ending makes him cry) and Clueless (his sisters made him watch it, but it’s also one of his favorite all time movies, and who doesn’t have a crush on Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy), but this movie’s alright so far.
Then:
“Holy shit…”
THEY HAVE AN ALIEN?
Then:
IS SHE GONNA FUCK THE FISH MAN?
“I-- stop it! Shut up and watch!”
I WOULD.
“Shhh! Shut the fuck up!”
EAT MORE POPCORN AND I WILL.
Eddie shoves so much popcorn into his mouth that he almost chokes.
Venom growls again. Eddie was right: he likes the kernels.
Eddie watches the movie as he furiously chews popcorn.
Not gonna lie, Sally Hawkins is adorable, and the fish man/alien/whatever is...kind of cute, and no, it’s not just the beer talking.
Venom’s talking too, but he’s muted enough so that they can both watch the movie in relative peace.
Eddie is finding it harder and harder to distract himself, when the fish man/alien/whatever is so touched to receive Elisa’s hard-boiled eggs. Eddie feels his palms getting sweaty. His leg starts to bounce. He shoves more popcorn into his mouth, bites into every kernel. He tastes the salt on his tongue.
Then Elisa signs, and Giles speaks her words aloud: “When he looks at me, the way he looks at me... He does not know, what I lack... Or - how - I am incomplete. He sees me, for what I - am, as I am. He's happy - to see me. Every time. Every day.”
YOU’RE BLUSHING.
Eddie almost chokes on a stray bit of popcorn. “No-- no I’m not.”
I FEEL EVERYTHING YOU FEEL, EDDIE. That hissing cackle again-- Eddie winces-- EVERYTHING.
“You don’t know shit.”
Venom laughs, making Eddie shake.
When Elisa floods her apartment, Venom’s voice is alight with glee: FINALLY-- WAIT WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
“Gotta take a piss.”
FUCK YOU.
“Fuck you.”
They get back to the movie, and they both laugh when Elisa mimes what the fish dick looks like.
“This movie is nuts.”
IT’S TRUE LOVE.
“What, and you would know?”
...YES.
Eddie gulps down the rest of his stale beer, and doesn’t say a word.
In Elisa’s mind, Elisa and the fish man dance. It’s black and white like the old movies, and Elisa sings, holding this being in her arms and smiling, and--
YOU’RE CRYING.
“Yeah.” Eddie wipes his eyes. “It’s true love.”
Things go as expected-- the asshole capitalist pig is dead, and Elisa and her fish man can be together.
Giles speaks at the end of the movie: “Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love. It humbles my heart, for You are everywhere.”
There’s a lump in Eddie’s throat. He’s burning all over. Venom is very quiet.
INTAN TOLD ME TO FIND SOMEONE WHO COULD SHOW ME THE WORLD.
“Yeah?” Eddie huffs out a laugh, wipes his hands on his pants. “Did you?”
YES.
Eddie doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, what the fuck is happening, why he’s feeling this way for a fucking alien that eats people and who lives inside of him at all times, what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck--
WANNA DANCE?
“...Yeah. Yeah, ok.”
Intan was a skilled ballroom dancer in her youth-- THAT’S HOW SHE PICKED UP GIRLS-- and as long as Venom is attached to Eddie somehow, he can be basically fully-formed. He’s a good dancer. Eddie tries not to step on his...feet? Would Venom eat him if he did?
IDIOT.
“Parasite.”
APOLOGIZE.
“It’s a term of endearment.”
Suddenly they’re closer. They’re always close--they’re literally the same being, and Eddie feels this sense of loss in his whole body, like something’s gone missing in the back of his brain and he’s itching to find it again-- but this feels different.
IDIOT.
They breathe the same air.
“Shut up.”
IT’S A TERM OF ENDEARMENT.
Venom is very, very close. They’re touching foreheads. And then, then, Venom is in him again, and yes, fine, it’s a fucking euphemism, whatever, Eddie’s embraced it at this point, and it’s almost like--it’s almost like Venom embraces him.
It’s a slow slide in.
Eddie feels himself expanding as Venom enters his consciousness, his whole body, and it’s ridiculous, but it’s also fucking hot, sue him or whatever--
Venom laughs, and the sound is inside of him and all around him, and Eddie smiles.