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Eddie had some experience with taking care of sick people. Before she died, his sister had needed constant care, even though she was older than him, and he had been on fetching things duty for her practically since he could walk. Later, Anne- a model of independence and self-sufficiency otherwise- turned into the saddest husk of need when she was brought down by a cold or flu or like a really really bad hangover, and reacted to it like an injured deer: hiding in her den (the room kind, not a hole in the ground) and making as little noise as possible so that no one would know she was there. Bringing her things and helping make her comfortable without having to be asked had been one of the roughly- by his own count- eleven things Eddie had been good for.None of those had exactly been a picnic. Watching your older sister waste away from cancer was actually pretty messed up for a kid to go through, and nobody liked it when their sick girlfriend barfed on them when they came in with a plate of toast.But taking care of his recuperating symbiote after he'd dramatically burned off half his body in a fight on a space rocket had to be the worst.Eddie himself wasn't hurt. Venom had protected him from the worst of it and all he really had to show for the experience was a few good bruises. But Venom was hurt pretty bad and Eddie could feel Venom. He could feel the itch and low-key burning of Venom growing most of his body back; he could feel his own body being drained of fluids and antibodies and other shit it used to fix itself before Venom took over the job, leaving him as exhausted and vulnerable as Venom was. And all of this took fuel to keep it going, so Eddie had never been hungrier in his life, not even when he and Venom had first bonded and eating live lobster from the tank seemed like a good, not-at-all-creepy-or-weird idea.Worst of all, Venom was bored as hell, and expected Eddie to entertain him. And Venom's ideas of entertainment trended towards the very weird.Eddie, Venom hissed gruffly in his ear. I want to go back out."Christ." Eddie shoved his head under the pillows, wishing it did anything whatsoever to quiet Venom's voice when he got insistent. "We just went out. We don't need anything, there's no reason- nothing. We're not going anywhere."I want to go out, Venom said. That is a reason."Not a good reason," Eddie said. We leave when you want to go, Venom said. While his voice didn't drop from the typical deep monster register he usually spoke in, Eddie could sense the feel of a whine. He couldn't be sure, but he also thought he sensed the feel of a pout- a feat Venom couldn't actually pull when they were face to face, so that was some doing."Because I know how to drive the motorcycle and you don't," Eddie said. "And because I don't try to take you places like the trampoline gym."I was not going to suggest the trampoline gym, Venom said. There was a feeling beneath it both guilty and petulant, like Eddie had taken the fun out of it by guessing.Eddie hated it when Venom felt that way. "Oh geez," he said, rolling onto his stomach and pulling the pillow over his head again. "What is it with you and the fucking trampoline gym?"It is funny, Venom said."How?" Eddie asked, directly into the mattress. It wasn't like Venom actually needed unobstructed sound to understand what he'd said.Venom plastered the back of Eddie's eyes with an image of a dude in a red and blue unitard, jogging on a trampoline. The imaginary dude was checking something on his FitBit, then sipping water from a metal travel bottle. About the only amusing part of it Eddie could see was the sight of the dude's dick bouncing away in the spandex, like someone left a hot dog in a clothes dryer. And yet he could feel Venom's happy little chuckle, like he couldn't imagine anything funnier."I don't get it," Eddie said.What is there not to get? Venom asked."Any of it at all," Eddie said.He could feel Venom's deep, beleaguered sigh in the very marrow of his bones. Humans, Venom said, very slow, as though for an unbelievably stupid person. Running. On trampolines. He seemed to be waiting for Eddie to see the obvious joke on his own.Eddie decided not engaging with his parasite was the better part of valor. "We're not going," he said. "We're in no fucking shape to go anywhere."We could eat, Venom said, as though adding the prospect of mixing Venom with food in public was a temptation and not something Eddie was actively scheduling his life around avoiding. We could eat at the trampoline gym. Venom filled his mouth with the memory of the taste of mango to let him know he didn't mean the gym goers, whom Eddie guessed must be too hilarious to eat. "I don't feel like getting a smoothie," Eddie said.I feel like getting a smoothie, Venom said. A smoothie and a pigeon. Visions of chugging a smoothie while they chased pigeons in Golden Gate Park danced through Eddie's head, and for a moment he wasn't sure if Venom was licking his own chops inside Eddie's skull or if he had taken over Eddie's face to do it- a habit he was trying to break Venom of, since he was definitely at some point going to do it on public transportation. Eddie's stomach gave a growl and his mouth flooded again with mango, this time with a little undertone of pigeon. "That does sound kinda good," he admitted.Venom sent a little thrill down his spinal column and started to hoist them out of bed.Eddie grabbed onto the mattress. "No, no, no- that was not you winning the argument!"Venom's petulance was back. Why not?"Because I am not fainting in the trampoline gym again!"That was only once, Venom sulked. "Yeah, well, babe, once is enough," Eddie said.Eddie, Venom said, wheedling, we need to eat, Eddie. How will we ever heal if we don't eat?Eddie wanted to point out that they just had a pound of tater tots an hour ago and even if they hadn't, there were plenty of alternatives available to them that didn't involve the trampoline gym. He didn't because his conscience was nagging him. Venom was only in this state because he had fought Riot to protect humanity in general and Eddie in particular. He deserved at least a little gratitude, if not being fed and entertained according to all of his alien whims. What was a few pigeons and a little time at the trampoline gym when it was for someone you cared about, who was so badly hurt, after being so heroic and so noble--"Hey!" Eddie turned over and scowled at the ceiling. "Are you- poking the guilt buttons in my brain?" He didn't know if that was how it worked, if brains even had such things as "guilt buttons," but Venom could definitely get his mind and body working ways they didn't when Eddie was the one driving. Plus, Eddie was pretty sure he had never described anyone as noble or heroic in his entire life.Is it working? Venom asked."Yeah, kinda," Eddie said. "Stop it. It's rude. You can guilt trip me just fine without playing around in my brain."It's more efficient this way, Venom said.Eddie wanted to make a clever and stinging joke about how all the worst people in human history prioritized efficiency over respect for the individual, but Venom was still playing with his brain and it was hard to pay attention when he could actually kind of feel that going on now that he knew to look for it. What ended up coming out was, "Efficiency is fascist."The electrical hums Eddie had just been starting to get a handle on came to a halt and he could feel Venom giving him a puzzled look. What?"Never mind," Eddie said. "How are you doing that?"I do it all the time, Venom said. How else do you think I make your primitive body obey my whims? As if to demonstrate, Venom made Eddie's left hand flail off the bed into the air and back down again. "I knew you could do that," Eddie said. "I mean... how do you do that?"Why? Venom asked. Would you like to try?Eddie's stomach rolled with something other than hunger for the first time all day. "Is that- is that, like, possible?" Eddie may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but he did know what the word "symbiote" meant, and the implications it carried of an equal and mutually beneficial relationship. Still, he had never considered the possibility that their connection might go both ways.Everything is possible, Venom said. There was a beat, and he added, I've never attempted it with another before."Oh," Eddie said. "How come?"Venom's mass teeter-tottered from side to side along Eddie's spine in a way that felt like a person hemming and hawing and shuffling their feet while they tried to come up with a non-embarrassing answer to an unexpectedly personal question. Finally, Venom said, There was never a host I liked before you."...oh." Eddie wasn't sure what to say. "Thanks?"Don't take it personally, Venom said. Symbiosis is chemical- a match of organs and hormones, nothing emotional. But there was no real feeling of dismissal behind it. Venom just felt embarrassed about reaching whatever age he was without ever having had (Eddie hesitated to think the words) a serious relationship before."It's okay there wasn't anybody else before," Eddie said, automatically leaping to reassurance. "I only really had one real, uh--" If Eddie called it a relationship, Venom would call him a pussy. "--person, before. "
Oh?
"Yeah," Eddie said. "Anne, then you. So you know, I get it."Venom said nothing."I don't think it makes you a loser," Eddie said. "At least, not more than your trampoline gym hangup does."Venom picked up Eddie's hand and made him smack himself with it."Oof," Eddie said. "Okay, I deserve that."Venom curled around Eddie's shoulders, below the skin. It was like wearing a scarf that loved him, only even weirder than it sounded."So," Eddie said, "where did we land? On the, uh, brain weirdness things."You may not be able to learn, Venom said. There was a sniffy feeling to it, like he was partway warning him about something that could really happen and partway implying things about Eddie's level of intelligence. "Yeah, well," Eddie said, "you never know until you try."Venom gave him a conceding sort of feeling and settled further into Eddie's body, where they were too bonded together for Eddie to feel where he was. Some lights began winking in and out of Eddie's vision, though, which he thought meant that Venom was probably in his nervous system. Eddie fidgeted a little. "So how does this work? Like, can you give me the cliffnotes somehow?"There was a silence while Venom probably tried to look up what cliffnotes were in Eddie's memory. If you insist.The walls of Eddie's bedroom seemed to cloud over while more lights twinkled at the corners. A few threads faded in, looking kind of like the cables that lights and bridges were suspended from- strong, supportive, but still with some flex and give to them- but curiously organic at the same time. Like what he was looking at was something made of flesh and blood, that would respond to him if he touched it. He could see light inside of them, and pale yellow arcs of electricity. It was like the control center of a mad scientist's lab in a volcano, exposed to the sky."Is that really what it looks like in there?" Eddie asked.No, Venom said. Just a model I thought you could understand."I dunno if I understand it," Eddie said. "It's kinda pretty, though."Thank you, Venom said. Eddie couldn't remember Venom thanking him for anything before. Then again, he couldn't remember telling Venom anything he did was pretty before, either.Black tendrils of Venom slid into view. Eddie reached up towards his face to feel- they weren't there. This was for demonstration purposes only. Venom waited, uncharacteristically polite, for Eddie to put his fool hands back down.Every signal that passes through your mind is like a note of music, Venom said.Eddie smiled and couldn't help teasing him, "Oh yeah? So why make it a light show, then?"A real tendril of Venom popped out of Eddie's collarbone to flick him on the ear. It felt like getting whacked with a tiny whip. Eddie laughed, even though it did hurt, and rubbed at it.No jokes, Venom said, so stern it almost made Eddie laugh again. Venom must have been able to feel that, because the tendril was getting thicker, like he was preparing to deliver a really good whack. "Okay, okay," Eddie said, still kinda laughing under his breath. "No jokes."Good, Venom said. The real tentacle slid back under Eddie's skin. The ones in Eddie's not-exactly-imagination thickened and stretched, like Venom was cracking his knuckles.Each one is like a note of music, Venom said again, that I can conduct. One of them reached out to one of the many organic shimmers in Eddie's vision and touched it lightly, with a tenderness Eddie had not imagined Venom was capable of. At his touch, the electrical arc changed to a light pink and the line became illuminated from within. Eddie's fingers twitched on the bed. They did it so subtly, he felt the need to ask, "Was that you?"Yes, Venom said."I'm kinda surprised," Eddie said. "All that for one little twitch?"
Would you like to see more?
Something about the way Venom said it gave Eddie a pleasant shiver down his spine. "Yeah," he said. "Go for it."More tentacles filled Eddie's vision, reaching out together for what Eddie realized were nerves. It was like a symphony, with Venom playing the entire string section all by himself. He reached for several at once, plucking one here, caressing one there, all of them lighting up in different colors. Completely without his input, his hand lifted up, rested on his chest, and stroked down a few inches to the top of his belly. The skin beneath his fingertips was warm and tingling, and Eddie wasn't sure if it was a reaction to Venom touching him or if it was one of the strings Venom was playing on. He was surprised to find he didn't really care. "Mm."You like that, Venom said, with the faintest air of a question."'S nice," Eddie said.Hm. The vision in Eddie's head slowly changed to one that it took him a minute to recognize. It was as though he had split into two beings, one that had stepped outside of his body, and one that burrowed further in. He was looking at himself from both inside and out, through a pair of eyes that were not his own. This is closer to how I see, Venom said.Eddie's throat felt a little raw. Where he could pick out the details about himself he didn't like, like the tattoo he regretted and the places where he was fatter or hairier than he wanted to be, none of that jumped out at Venom. Through Venom's eyes, he was entirely alien- and actually sort of beautiful. "Is that, uh, really what I look like to you?" he asked, once he found his voice.Yes, Venom said. In his mind's eye, Eddie saw Venom stroke a tentacle down the center of his chest. In his real life, his hand did the same. I like it, Eddie.Eddie was positive that the shiver this time was all him. He concentrated on the vision, frowning hard at Venom's tentacles, trying to make them bigger, more detailed, to visualize Venom's entire mass in his body. Maybe it worked or maybe Venom could tell what he was trying to do and did it for him, but slowly the red of Eddie's muscles filled in with black, thin tendrils of Venom running all through his body. Venom had tentacles in almost every crack and crevice he could find, wrapped around bones like vines of ivy, picked out in muscle like flowers. "Wow," Eddie said. "You're everywhere." Venom took control of his hand again, running it down his thigh. So many strange parts, he said. So many ways to stimulate them. Eddie's breath caught in his throat. "Oh," he said, quiet, under his breath, "I guess this is about to happen...."Inside his head, Venom let out a devious little chuckle that was way more of a turn-on than it should've been, and then he felt it- Venom playing the strings, setting off harmonies in his body once more. It felt like a tingling in his fingers and toes, like several hands stroking through his hair, like blood rushing so fast for his fucking dick that Eddie thought he might pass out. In his vision of their criss-crossing bodies, he could see Venom touching him from the inside, gentle, loving. His tentacles are winding their way around Eddie's dick, just below the surface, touching every nerve. He could feel pressing, twisting movement, like getting a handjob with no hands, and Jesus fuck, he did not know it was possible for him to get that hard. You like this, Venom said, pressing against his cock a little harder. "Yes," Eddie said, coming out like a gasp. In the vision, he could see one tentacle creeping away from his cock, seeking backwards, down. Pressing into his ass. Do you like this?He couldn't help it. Eddie bucked against nothing. "Yes."
Would you like more?
He was teasing him, Eddie realized. Venom was fucking teasing him, maybe even in spitting distance of mocking, and he absolutely one hundred percent did not care as long as he kept doing that. "Yes," Eddie said, clenching his teeth. "Yes, you alien fucker."Venom made the tentacle in his ass bigger- and pushed.Eddie writhed against the bed, trying to arch into it, trying to pull him deeper. Venom responded by getting bigger, harder, and pushing again, deeper this time, and gave his cock another squeeze. Eddie almost wanted to fucking scream.Venom took control of his jaws and held them together. Let's not alarm the neighbors, he said.A part of Eddie wanted to laugh, because since when did Venom give a shit about alarming anyone, but another part, a much hungrier part, just wanted them to keep going. "Do it again," he said. "Please." His breathing was starting to get away from him. "Keep going."Venom seemed to bloom inside him, taking over every nerve, filling Eddie's visual of their bodies with him, hitting him with every sensation that he could at once- like his cock was being sucked and stroked, his nipples licked, a thick tentacle pounding his ass while a wet tongue circled his asshole.Eddie turned onto his stomach to thrust against the mattress, into Venom's illusion of a wet mouth, gripping the sheets so tight he could see his knuckles going pale even in the dark. "Is this real?" Eddie panted, pressing hard into the mattress. How would real be different? Venom asked."Out here," Eddie choked out. "With me." He clenched his teeth, trying not to come yet. "I want to touch you."All of the sensations stopped.Eddie clung to the bed, trying not to burst into tears from the gear shift from overwhelmed to abandoned, from being inches away from blasting all over his Goddamn sheets to being more frustrated than he could remember ever being in his life. Slowly, oh so very slowly, Venom pooled at his chest, forming into a humanish shape underneath him.Venom wasn't as big as he had been the last time he'd been on the outside. He was also plugged into Eddie in more points than usual when they were face to face- tendrils sticking out of Eddie's chest, shoulders, groin, and belly, keeping them connected, keeping Venom safe out here in the air. He hadn't fully recovered yet.Eddie still felt drained, bereft, but he could spare a thought for his symbiote and that thought was pretty much, I love you.He buried his face in the shifting mass of Venom's and kissed him.Their bodies slowly formed together, Venom wrapping his arms around Eddie's back, entwining a tentacle around his cock while another creeped towards his ass. Eddie tried to make good on his promise to lure him out: he ran his fingers over Venom, through Venom, grabbing and stroking and kissing and holding on as tight as he could.I love you, he thought again. I love you, you bastard.When Eddie came, it nearly knocked him clean off the bed. He lay halfway off, panting and sweating, half in a pool of come and half in a pool of Venom. He'd stretched himself out to keep Eddie from falling.Eddie stroked the side of Venom's face. "Thanks," he said quietly.Think nothing of it, Venom replied. Eddie climbed back into the bed and wrapped himself as much as he could around Venom. Venom ditched human form so he could cover over ninety percent of Eddie in a layer of him.Eddie petted him again. "Feel better, buddy?" he asked.Venom shifted over his skin, like he was trying to hold him tight. Yes, he said. Much."Good," he said, closing his eyes, ready to drift off into the warmth of Venom. His lover. His friend. "That's... really, really good."
Goodnight, Eddie.
"Goodnight, babe."