Just a collection of a few fics that I really really like. None of them are mine obviously. Most of them are reader inserts unless marked otherwise. Mostly female reader inserts.
When stated 18+ DO NOT PROCEED AS A MINOR
☆ fluff, ◇ angst/sad, * smut, ♡ personal favourite (even tho most of them are my favs)
(unfinished and unedited, if a link doesn’t work tell me in the comments)
Summary: When you left to spend a weekend with your friends, Eddie did not expect himself to miss you so much, and Venom’s constant comments didn’t help either.
When you came up with the fact that you are going to leave to spend the weekend with your friends, both Eddie and Venom shivered.
Of course, Venom was the first one to voice his opinion on the matter.
You can’t leave us! We love you!
“You’ll be fine! You two can have a guys’ night, watch sports, drink beer, or watch even porn!” you said as you excitedly packed your bag. “I’ll miss you guys.” you said as you kissed them goodbye before you closed the door behind yourself. They watched from the window as your friends picked you up and off you went.
At first, Eddie enjoyed being alone…well as alone as someone can be with a symbiote in them.
He got beer, a good game on the TV, life looked to be good.
But Eddie didn’t expect to miss you so much. Maybe Venom also added to that feeling, no, not maybe, definitely.
When is she coming back? Is she safe? What is she needs our help? Eddie, let’s go after her. I don’t like this, let’s get her back.
Eddie was seriously getting annoyed with the symbiote, but he knew better than to think about that, instead he numbed his brain with alcohol and lots and lots of food.
But a day later, “Fuck I miss her.”
That’s what I said! Let’s go and see her! We need her.
Eddie didn’t argue with that but still didn’t go. He knew you needed a little peace. A little time for yourself, he could survive another day, right?
Right?
…
No.
Twenty-four hours.
Twenty-four hours of suffering.
Twenty-four hours of only hearing Venom constantly groan and comment.
Another twenty-four hours without you.
Terrible. Awful. Torture.
The worst weekend of his life!
He couldn’t even concentrate. Not even when they had to chase a burglar down the streets wasn’t Eddie thinking about you. All he could see was your face, your smile. Even if he was sure Venom made him see those pictures in his head.
They loved you. And you loved them.
Later that night, both of them were staring at the clock. It was almost seven and Eddie was going insane.
Where is she? She should be back with us!
“I don’t know. She will be back soon.” but of course, Venom was not known for his patience.
Get her back Eddie! We can’t sleep without her, we can’t eat without her! Eating people is not the same without her!
“I know. She will be back soon.” Eddie said that so many times, he started to not believe himself anymore.
What if you left? What if something happened? What if you found someone and you will never come back?
SHE LEFT WITH SOMEONE? WHO?! LET’S EAT HIM! SHE IS OURS!
“She didn’t. I’m just…overreacting. All will be okay. I’m sure it’s just the traffic. She’ll be back soon.”
And just as Eddie finished his sentence, the front door opened.
“Guys! I’m back!” they watched you enter. “Oh, there you are!” you smiled as you saw them on the couch.
Eddie stood up as you ran to give him a hug.
“I missed you.”
Both of them embraced you, Eddie with his arms, Venom with his squishy tentacles.
“We missed you too, did you have fun?”
We missed her too much, don’t let her leave again.
“Oh, yes! So much fun! We got massages, our nails done, and we had amazing cocktails!” Eddie couldn’t help but smile as he listened to you be all excited.
Imagine teasing Eddie, eventually leading to Venom’s intervention
Warnings: Smut
A/N:For the anon who asked for phone sex and @willowick13 who asked for dirty talk + bondagy. (Except I suck at dirty talk!)
I know I got a bit off track at some point and I really don’t know how I feel about what I did, but this piece had been promised, so here it is, as long as Venom’s tongue!
It had been a tough week at work. By the time you finally arrived home, you were exhausted. After throwing all your things on the sofa, you headed to the bedroom, looking forward to a much deserved rest.
“Eddie?” – A bright smile formed on your lips when you saw your fiancé; your whole face lit up with excitement, especially your eyes. Slipping your arms around his waist, you laid your face on his shoulder, suddenly interested in using the bed for something other than rest.
All at once the tightness and pain leaves you, and instead of leaving a hollow void behind, you felt utterly content. You gasped out for air you didn’t feel like you needed, bracing yourself on your hands and knees as you steadied your breathing out of habit, trying to understand what just happened.
You felt complete. Whole. Like you found something you didn’t know you were missing for all of your life.
For the first time in years, you felt at home.
Which was a strange thing to feel, surrounded by broken desks and monitors in some business building you didn’t know. And yet, you felt like you were exactly where you were meant to be, and with who you should be with, at that very moment. It was like a weight was taken off of your shoulders, knowing you finally belonged someplace without being a nuisance.
Well maybe that last bit was a stretch. You could hear shouts and loud footsteps coming towards the room, and you assumed that it probably meant you should stop sitting on the floor and get out. You quickly stood up and jumped out of the already broken window just in time for someone to shout out after you, and you let your wrists to their thing to get you away.
The almost too warm air of the midday rushed past you, and you barely registered your own limbs vanishing from view. You allowed Venom to swing you through the city, your own thoughts too stunned and stumbling at the sense of belonging you suddenly were experiencing. You’ve never felt this comfortable in your own skin before. Something changed, and you felt… contentment. That word in itself seemed taboo on your tongue; you were raised with it being treated like it after all. Just this once, however, maybe it wasn’t so bad.
You found yourself descending in your swings, eventually rolling into a landing on the sidewalk still hidden from view with your camouflage. Walking past a bus stop, Venom pulled back from your limbs and into your bar clothes, seamlessly blending you in with the busy life around you. No one around seemed to notice you suddenly joining the crowd, and you continued walking automatically.
“Where are we going?” You asked under your breath, tucking your hands into your jacket pockets and looking around at the tall buildings from the usual view. While you weren’t the one leading your motions, you were consciously allowing your other to gently direct you. You trusted them to know what was best for you in you half-stunned state.
Just walking. Was too deep in thought, did not want to risk falling. Good to slow down.
You nodded, thankful for the change in pace. The noises of the city up close felt so much more natural, more like what it should be, and helped you ground yourself a bit more from the floaty headspace you lingered in. You looked at your hand, flexing it and turning it over, seeing old childhood scars littering across it randomly but still where they belonged. You were still you. Despite the sudden… comfort you felt.
Ironically, the comfortableness was what made you the most uneasy.
Better now. Stronger. Safer.
You thought back to what they said after you smacked Spiderman out of the building. “You said we bonded earlier?” You asked, stopping and waiting for the light at an intersection. A majority of the other walkers didn’t, and weaved through the cars despite the red man on the light. Oh right, New York. “Like what that Lee guy said? He said something about not having a permanent bond, and how that made something easier for him.”
Exactly. We are one of the same now.
You tried thinking of what exactly that meant, but someone shoved past your elbow and you quickly started walking with the crowd again, now aware that the walking man turned white. Two guys were talking too loudly next to you, but you just tried to tune them out as you continued talking with your other. “Sounds like that would have been helpful a few hours ago.”
Most likely.
“Sorry it took so long.” You felt a little deflated at that, feeling yet again like it was your fault Lee took a part of Venom. There was a sense of coldness fluttering through your chest, and with it a terrible sense of something bad that made it harder to breathe. Your shirt clung just slightly tighter, more comfortably, and the guilt was suddenly reduced.
Takes emotions to bond. Takes time. Did wonderful.
The coldness lifted, replaced by a dull warmth for a moment before fading completely. You felt yourself smile at their words, despite feeling like praise you didn’t entirely deserve. Still, you accepted it, and the coldness was kept at bay.
A jackhammer startled you, going off just a couple yards away. You looked up and around the area, noticing the whole section of the road ahead seemed to be blocked off with equipment and bright colored signs. Construction workers yelled instructions to each other, and the noise was hard to ignore. You sped up your pace and turned the corner, trying to get somewhere just a little less dense. Another person shoved past you, and you felt your breathing quicken.
Chose poor place to blend. Sorry-
“I’m fine.” You uttered, pushing your hands harder into your pockets despite no more room for them to go. You kept your head bent, eyes low, trying to just keep moving and to get out of here. There was just too much noise, too many people. Someone’s hand brushed your arm as they pushed past the loud men, and you felt your fists tightening and sweat building up on the back of your neck. You were never so aware of yourself and the space you took up so much, but now it was all too, too much.
You are very distressed. Please, slow down. Help can wait.
You could feel tendrils inside of your pocket wrap between your fingers, not quite coating your hand but enough to be a presence to get your attention. A gentle squeeze of your hand helped steady you, and you realized Venom was right, you couldn’t handle it. You avoided deep city for a reason, and you weren’t ready for it yet. Especially not right now. Not when you were so aware of yourself. Glancing up from the shoes around you, storefronts looked much more welcoming than the crowds. You restrained yourself from just shoving past other walkers, gently making your way to what looked like a flower store. It was the closest one, and seemed to have no one immediately in it.
Worked for you. You opened the door, hearing a jingle of a bell with it, and was hit by the wall of cold air from the conditioner. Despite all of the lights hanging above all of the rows of flowers, they were soft enough to actually be soothing compared to the harsh sunlight outside. You closed the door behind you, hearing the bell ring once more. Rows and rows of flowers absolutely filled the shop, more dense near the windows than back towards the desk, where you also saw a welcoming seat. You needed a moment to filter your thoughts, and you carefully made your way past the dangling plants and sat in the chair.
The air, while cold, smelled wonderful and soothed the tension that was building between your shoulders. Good scents were probably expected for flower shops, but then again, you haven’t been in once since you were little. You tended to neglect plants just too much to keep them alive, including the cactus your cousin gave you out of a desperate attempt to prove you didn’t kill everything you touch. It’s not like you took it as a challenge to kill the cactus, but you proved them wrong anyway.
“Shame.” You muttered, leaning an elbow against the desk and looking at a pretty little flower next to you. It vaguely looked like a dancing fairy with a bright pink dress, and a purple poofy under skirt. You tapped the flower head with the tip of your finger, watching it bounce slightly at the interaction. The slow movement helped you float in your head just a little longer, until the hair on the back of your neck rose.
“What is?” A voice asked, starling you. You looked up and saw a lady with dark skin heavy with freckles and brilliant amber eyes looking at you. She was just walking out of a door behind the desk, holding a couple pots of other flowers you couldn’t recognize in her arms. She placed the pots on the counter without making much sound and looked at the plant you were interacting with. “That fuschia? Yeah, it hasn’t been looking too well lately. Think it needs more sun, but my storefront is just a bit too full for it.”
You blinked, still recovering from being startled. “O-oh. Yeah, I mean, I was saying it’s a shame I kill everything I touch.” You laughed, and then noticed your finger was still in its tapping position. You pulled back your hand quickly, connecting what you were saying with your action. She laughed and waved her hand lazily.
“If only I had a dollar every time I heard that, I’d have enough money to open a boutique. Oh wait.” She held up her hands in mock surprise, though quickly dropping it and leaning on her elbows to look down at you with a gentle smile. “You’ll do fine sweetie. My plants are hard to kill. I’ll give that one to you half price if you promise to put it by a window.”
Your eyes quickly went down to the price tag, seeing it was already marked at $5. It was a small thing, it could easily sit on your window sill next to your bed. That also meant it could easily be forgotten. Knowing you, you would notice it dead a month from now. You felt the tendrils wrapped between your fingers in your pocket shift, and a slight crinkle was heard as Venom placed money in your hand.
She wants you to have it.
Sighing and running a hand through your hair, you looked up at her with a half assed smile. “You realize you are signing that plant up for its deathbed, right? I killed a cactus, which is basically impossible.” That earned a look of genuine shock from her, slowly turning to a smile and then to a bubbly laugh.
“Well, maybe you just needed something more welcoming. Just a little bit of light, a little bit of attention, and that baby will flourish. I’ll give you my Camellia guarantee.” She winked, and pulled out a pad of paper and started writing on it.
Camellia is nice.
“Camellia? Isn’t that a flower?” You asked, not knowing plants but having a gut feeling that you heard that one before. She smiled again, tapping the white rose-looking flower that was in her dark hair.
“You grow into your name, it turns out.” She finished writing on the paper and tore the slip off, and you realized it was a receipt. You didn’t recall agreeing to buy the plant, but figuring it was just a few bucks anyway you might as well. You spent more on that coffee you ended up tossing yesterday anyway. You pulled out the money Venom gave you, seeing it was a five, and pushed it across the counter for her. She made change and gave you back half of it, true to her word.
You finally stood and put the change and receipt in your pocket without looking at them, feeling them quickly vanish into the jacket itself. “Alright, promise you won’t get angry when I kill it?” You half joked, but knew it would be inevitable.
“I’ll only be mad if you kill on purpose.” She assured, crossing her heart in an X figure with her finger.
You were too socially awkward to stay here any longer, but you could feel warm flutters in the back of your head where Venom resided. “I’ll try my best. To not kill it, I mean. Thanks.” You gave a quick wave, turning around and walking out of the store with your new friend in your arm.
The warm air outside was not as welcoming as the store, but it was better than before at least. The few moments away from the busy area was just enough to completely pull you from that strange headspace, leaving you feeling a bit tired, but at the same time much better than you’ve felt in a while. You looked down at the flower again, still confused as to how you ended up buying a plant.
Will be good to have. You deserve it.
Another satisfying bubble of warmth greeted the back of your head, and you can’t help but feel like it was reverse of the time you telling Venom that they deserved the steak. You smiled, though you couldn’t help but worry if the two of you would start a loop of rewards, and you knew you wouldn’t be able to afford it for long. Even if the two of you really did deserve it.
You didn’t notice when you started walking on the streets again, though this time you were heading in a different direction. You focused on the flower that was bouncing with each of your steps, and Venom took the lead once more. Construction sounds faded from behind you, crowds thinned slightly, and eventually an unpopulated alleyway came to view. The two of you slipped in, double checking your surroundings for any wandering eyes, before letting Venom coat you once more.
Cradling the small pot like a child, you were careful of your actions to make sure you didn’t move too quickly for it, or worse, drop it. You leapt up and started swinging on webs with only one hand. While that made your heart leap into your throat each time you let go of a web before making a new one, you didn’t dare risk dropping the fuschia.
Almost home.
Venom spoke quietly, reassuringly, making sure you knew the worry wouldn’t last much longer. Sure enough, you saw your apartment appear quickly into view. Instead of going for the window as usual, you were gently lowered to street level and started walking once more. Didn’t want to try climbing one handed, you figured, and you continued to walk as your monstrous form. There was a moment of dread when you saw other people around your complex with nothing to duck behind to change quickly, but you realized Venom was just keeping you camouflaged as they aimed for the door.
You opened the door and walked past the greeting center, seeing the guy in charge of the place look up from his newspaper to look at the visitor, only to see no one. He called out a greeting and stood, and his eyes drifting around until they focused on the plant in your hands. Something, you realized, which was not currently getting camouflaged by Venom. His eyes went wide as you continued to walk, stepping through the next door and quickly heading for the stairs. You could hear a questioning voice call after you, but you ran up the three flights of stairs and to your door. Without even thinking you jammed your finger at the keyhole, Venom’s blackness gushing in and filling the lock, giving you a satisfying click sound when it unlocked. You stepped into your apartment, and felt Venom shed itself into your comfortable pajamas once more.
Home.
Venom said, and while it was obvious, it still made you laugh. “Yeah, home.” You brought the plant up to eye level, turning it around and getting a good look at it. “Seemed like a whole lot of trouble just to get a plant back here.” You commented, locking the door and walking to the bedside window. You gently placed it on the sill, angling it to have the flower pointed towards the room for you to enjoy.
It needs water.
You nodded, walking to your mini kitchen and instinctively reaching into your pocket for the daily collected trash. Venom provided you with the receipt from the flower shop and you tossed it to the waste bin, watching it bounce off the edge and land on the ground. You sighed, going over and bending down to pick it up, though this time you noticed sharpie marks on it. Unwrinkling the receipt, you saw ‘fuschia’ written in one of the bars with $2.50 written in a blue pen next to it, but at the bottom next to the store logo and website, there was a phone number written in sharpie, with Camellia’s name under it.
You blinked. Then looked at it closer. “What?” You asked, turning the wrinkled receipt over as if it would have answers hidden from you. It didn’t. Venom was shifting as your clothes, feeling like someone was giving you a humored hug.
We are cute. Must not be so shocked.
Body confidence issues aside, you were still having a hard time registering the idea of someone just giving you their number, and so cleverly as well. “She, uh, probably just wants updates on her plant.” You shrugged the mystery off, sticking the receipt to the fridge. You could feel the doubt in the back of your mind, but you ignored it and instead got a cup of water for the plant.
“Man… I don’t know how to take care of plants.” You uttered when pouring water into the pot. Hopefully it wasn’t too much for the little flower. Either it was going to die from drowning or dehydration, and you’d hate to let Camellia know her plant suffered from either of those fates. You suddenly felt a weight in one of your pockets, and when you reached in you could feel your phone, though it was slightly cracked.
Could message her. Ask for help.
Help… “Venom. We were supposed to go get help to fight Lee. Instead we bought a flower.” You sighed and rested your forehead against the glass of your window. Sure you spaced out a little earlier, but you at least expected Venom to keep you on track. You looked over the alleyway and buildings you could see, noticing that it was probably a couple hours from sundown. That didn’t seem right.
We bonded. Is very important to take care of ourselves after.
“More important than stopping Lee?” You asked in earnest. Venom seemed so scared of the fact Lee had a part of them, that Lee had a dangerous weapon he wasn’t afraid to use. Yet, here they were, allowing you to slow down and smell the flowers. You could feel conflicting emotions bubbling, but the strongest one was sureness.
Yes. Bonding in heat of battle makes us strong, but brittle. Needed time to adjust, time to recover.
Brittle. Venom possibly meant unstable, and you could see that easily happening to you earlier had Spiderman not fled. The floaty mindspace you were in after you bonded was… strange, and like nothing you experienced before. You wondered if that was what happened with other hosts. Maybe that was why there were so many deaths behind Venom’s name. “Are we good now? I’m feeling better now for sure, but I still think you are right in worrying about leaving Lee alone for too long.”
Better now. However we are hungry.
Again, you didn’t notice your hunger until Venom pointed it out. Your stomach growled almost like it was notified. “We’ll get fast food on our way over to your friend, no more steaks for today.” You stepped to your window once more.
.
The two of you were currently swinging through the darkening town, large paper bag in one hand while focusing on the other for swinging. Venom’s tendrils reached out of your body to grab the burgers one by one, feeding you as you swung closer to your destination. The first time Venom used a tendril to grab a burger it threw you off, but you found yourself quickly getting used to the convenience of having extra limbs. Damn, if only you could have more arms in regular life too. That would just make all of your reception tasks so much easier.
Eventually a building you could recognize as a the place you were aiming for could be seen in your path, and you quickly stopped your swing. It looked like a regular building to you, though the furniture you could see through the tinted windows seemed to be very fancy. Golden cat decorations, large red comfortable looking chairs, artwork on walls that undoubtedly cost more than yearly rent. Who the hell could afford any of this? You took another bite out of a burger offered to you, finishing it in one oversized chomp, before mentally questioning why you were here.
Black Cat is strong, has friends. We know her. She doesn’t know us. Not now.
“Black Cat?” You tried thinking about that name, only remembering it mentioned once in the waiting room. She was… an art thief? Venom’s memories flipped through your vision, showing you a tall woman with white flowing hair and a skin-tight black jumpsuit. Slowly she placed her hands on your shoulders, looking like maybe she was a bit more than just friends with one of the hosts.
Spiderman has history. We can pose as him to get close, then ask for help.
That actually seemed like a solid idea. You quickly finished the last of the burgers and crumbled the paper into a ball, and one of the tendrils pulled it into your suit, effectively making it vanish with no hints of it on you. You had no fucking idea how Venom worked.
Ignoring the urges to see just how much Venom could hold in itself, you quickly shook out your nerves and held out your hand to watch the change. The monstrous arm shifted and shrank, the tendrils realigning to be much closer to your normal skin. You looked at your reflection in the window, seeing that while you still could recognize your own body, it also seemed to imitate Spiderman’s angular shape a bit. It wouldn’t fool anyone for long if they got close, but if you kept yourself slightly obscured and quick to the point, it would get the job done.
You waited another moment, confused. “Why are we still black? I thought we were posing as spiderman?” You asked, looking down and seeing you were still wearing the dark suit with the white spider logo. The details of the seams and fabric were perfectly imitated, and it really looked like you were wearing a real suit, rather than being Venom.
Don’t care for his other suit. Looked better like this.
That almost made you laugh. “While that might be true, Spiderman was wearing red and blue earlier today. If Black Cat knows him, then she’d know that.” You pointed out, and you could practically feel the groaning coming from Venom. The darkness shimmered, and slowly colors pulled their way up your limbs, effectively giving you the best spiderman cosplay ever.
That was better. “Alright, let’s get to Black Cat and-” You stop speaking when you looked back at the expensive looking room and saw someone with long white hair sitting on a chair, faced away from the window. She must have came in the room when you were busy changing. She also appeared to have a visitor.
Lee also knows her.
Your stomach dropped when you recognized the same leather jacket and combed dark hair. You could see that they were talking, and you had a bad feeling in the back of your head. “We took too long getting here.” You whispered, quickly climbing up the building to be more out of their sight. “I don’t think Black Cat is going to help us now. Any other friends?” You asked, trying to keep optimistic.
My son… would be bad idea. Nevermind.
“Hold on, you have kids?” You had to suppress your surprised volume. You never expected Venom to have… offspring. Memories of red gore flashed through your mind, and it took you a moment to realize the gore had a face not entirely unlike Venom’s. Bodies that were torn to pieces and left in red pools decorated the background of the memories, looking more like a battlefield than New York.
Carnage is… a monster. Would be too dangerous.
You shook your head out of the bloody memories, glad you weren’t the one to point that out. “So… You really don’t know anyone else that could help?” You asked, the last of your hope slowly dwindling. You weren’t exactly excited at the thought of fighting Lee on your own again, he knew Venom’s weakness better than you did, never mind the fact he had a part of them now.
Not here. Not now.
“Oh boy.” You muttered, leaning against the window. Looking to the window again you saw your reflection look back, and that gave you an idea. “Huh. Venom, you know who Spiderman really is, right?” Before the question was even finished Venom was searching through memories, offering you visions of a thin looking guy with curly brown hair.
Peter Parker.
“And you know where he lives?” More flashes of memory, and there were a few apartments that came to mind. Apparently he moved around a lot. Venom focused on the most recent one. It was more into the city, close to Parker Industries. “Huh. Explains that, I suppose.” You closed your eyes and filtered your thoughts, slowly coming up with a quick plan.
“Alright, let’s get some pizza.”
.
“Why does all elevator music sound the same?” You wondered aloud, adjusting the grip on the pizza box you were holding. The elevator was a slow ride up to the level Peter lived on, giving you time to rethink your plan. Deliver pizza, say your sorry, see if he would help you out. It’s not like you were a real supervillain, you just kicked his ass a little bit. And sure, he was an asshole, but you were willing to forgive that at the moment if he was willing to help Venom. What could go wrong?
He will not help us.
“We don’t really have anyone else. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to ask.” You said, but the clothing around you shifted in disagreement. You adjusted the collar of your Venom-made pizza delivery shirt, but kept your eyes to the the electronic number that was slowly going up. Almost there.
It could hurt a little.
“We’ll be fine. We kicked his ass before, we can do it again.” Though to be fair, you literally were just trying to kick his ass, nothing more. If he thought you were a real threat, he might have fought differently. Though there was a chance he actually was just that easy to beat, in that case getting his help wouldn’t actually be that useful to you.
He has friends. Dangerous friends.
“Then if we can win him over, they can help us too. Even better. Lee won’t know what hit him.” Venom was quiet at that. The two of you stood in silence for a few more seconds, and the doors opened to the hallway. You put on your customer service face, pulled out your sticky note, and quickly walked to the apartment number that Venom remembered.
It was the last apartment down the hall, a corner room. It probably had one hell of a view compared to your alleyway facing one. You ignored that thought and gave a couple knocks to the door, hearing no immediate response. Then you realized there was a good chance that he was out as Spiderman instead of being in his apartment. That was actually more likely, now that you thought about it. If that was the case, you would need to re-think your plan. Did you want to break in and wait for him? No, that would immediately make him see you as a threat. Maybe if you just overlooked the building until he showed up… But who knows how long he could play hero.
Before you could get too deep into your new planing thoughts, the door opened a crack.
“Yeah? Can I help you?” Spiderman’s voice asked, and when you looked into the crack you could see light brown eyes looking back. He looked down at you, seeing the pizza box and outfit, and slowly opened his door more. He was currently wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and also seemed to be nursing an already yellowing bruise on the left side of his face. You had to resist the urge to flinch at that.
“Mr… Parker?” You asked, looking at your sticky note and pretending to not know exactly who he was. His eyebrows lowered in confusion.
“That’s me, but I didn’t order pizza.” He ran a hand through his brown hair, which seemed to be currently suffering a case of hat hair. You nodded and looked down at your sticky note again.
“It’s from a, er, it just says V? Not sure if you know them or-” You glanced up and saw Peter’s face pale, and his knuckles on the hand holding the door open whitened as well. “There’s a note here for you, if you want me to read it.” You offered, acting like you didn’t notice his panic.
“Y-yeah. I mean, go ahead.” His voice shook ever so slightly at first but it quickly composed itself.
“Right, so it says ‘Hey Parker, sorry I totally kicked your ass earlier, you are a jerk. But also I need your help, and I can’t turn to anyone else. Here’s my phone number, give me a call when you are done with the pizza.’ And there is a number at the end.” You stuck the note to the box and offered it to him.
His breathing seemed incredibly controlled, and his deathgrip on the door didn’t loosen for a moment. Eventually he stood properly and accepted the pizza, jaw tight. He took a quick breath to pull him out of his thoughts and looked back up at you. “Right. Thank you. Um… Do I need to pay or…?”
“No, V paid and tipped for it already. Enjoy your pizza.” You gave him a smile and started walking away. You were half way down the hall when you heard the door finally close, and you glanced over your shoulder to make sure. Yep, he went back into his apartment, pizza included. You bolted down the rest of the hallway and into the stairwell, quickly letting Venom coat you properly and you leaped up the rest of the levels to get to the roof doorway. You wasted no time running across the roof to the corner that his apartment would be at, and intently looked down the windows. One side faced the beautiful street, the other had a fire escape that lead down to a much cleaner alleyway than the one you are used to.
He would either call, or try to run. Either way, you would be ready. And thanks to the setting sun, you would be hidden from view soon enough even without camouflage. All you had to do is wait.
And wait.
And wait.
“Jesus christ how long does it take someone to eat a pizza?” You finally grumbled after what felt like an hour. You were leaning lazily on the corner of the building with your arms dangling off the sides, struggling to keep your attention to the windows with how boring it was.
Told you he would not help.
“He’s a hero, he’s supposed to help everyone.” You protested, but you couldn’t help but feel the ‘told you so’ feeling in the back of your head.
Maybe he is plotting how to betray us. Like he always does.
“Hey if that happens, at least we can get the job done and leave before he does anything.” Being honest, that was best case scenario for you. He knew Venom was back, and the fight from earlier today probably didn’t put you in the best of lights. Even so, you couldn’t quite bring yourself to regret kicking his ass when you did. He deserved it.
We should-
You felt a vibrating come from your hip, and you quickly reached down to meet a tendril that handed you your phone. You accepted the call and put it on speaker phone.
You opened your eyes and stared at the ceiling, confused.
“Lost? What do you mean we lost?” You asked, sitting up again and dropping your arms to your sides. Your right arm felt like it was throbbing, especially by the collarbone area. When you looked over at it, you noticed where your pajamas instead took a dark and oozy look, coating your entire shoulder area in pure Venom.
Means we lost. Did not win. Lee is more dangerous now.
“How did we lose? We are here, you must have beat him, right?” You questioned, concern thick on your voice. There was a moment of silence, and that made your concern worsen. “Are you okay?”
You were hurt. We couldn’t finish Lee without losing you too. Chose you over Lee. He escaped.
“Venom, I’m not asking about Lee, I asked if you were okay.” You clarified, and their was another thoughtful pause.
Missing part of us. Was in rush to save you. Got hurt, kept going.
At that, you scrambled out of bed and nearly tripped yourself running to the bathroom so quickly. You stumbled to the sink and flicked on the light, quickly looking into the mirror. “Missing- He took a part of you!? Are you okay!? How bad is it? Are your hurting?”
Not hurting now. Not much gone. Enough to be dangerous, and Lee is already dangerous.
“But you really are okay?” You asked again, touching the mirror and looking for any hints of Venom. Your vision went black and memories flashed in the back of your mind, speeding much too quickly for you to make out anything. Venom was looking for something, and after a little while, they found it.
The scene was too bright and hazy, the colors washed out like someone didn’t know the settings of a camera, so it took you a moment to realize it was a memory of your childhood. Back when you were trying to grow your hair out longer, before changing your mind and spontaneously wanting to cut most of it off. You could see your mom- looking much younger than you last saw her- standing behind your child self. She carefully lifted your hair up and gracefully cut at it with the kitchen scissors, letting the hair fall to the tiled ground.
Time quickly reversed a few seconds, and your mom pulled at your darker than black hair, more oily than it should be, and you mom chopped it once more. The scene reset again, but this time your mother painfully yanked at your hair to get you to sit up straight, saying things that were muffled by the memory, before cutting off the thick tendrils of Venom trailing from your head.
The darkness faded from your vision and you snapped back to reality, seeing your present self blinking rapidly through the mirror.
Felt like that. Fine now.
You took a deep breath and shut your eyes tight, still trying to get used to all of the rides through memory lane Venom was giving you. “Hhh… Hair. Okay, like cutting hair.” You took another quick breath and stood up, looking into the mirror again. “So what does that mean? Are you weaker now? Should I be concerned for you?”
Should be only concerned about Lee. He is angry. He-
“I said I don’t care about him. Stay focused.” You interrupted your other and placed a hand on the shoulder Venom was covering.
… Should be fine. Was not much, just a little. Just scared.
And you could feel it. There was that underlying fear making your heart race, but if it was your fear for the safety of Venom, or fear that belonged to Venom, you couldn’t tell. You didn’t want to be seperated. You didn’t want to be used. You didn’t want to kill more innocent people.
You took a step back, realizing that you couldn’t quite tell where your thoughts were being influenced by Venom. “Calm down. I’m here with you, right? You saved me, and that means we didn’t lose yet. We can get that part of you away from him, and you won’t have to worry about that ever again. Okay?” You asked, gently rubbing the symbiote. You looked down, thoughts thinking back to the fight. “After all, it’s my fault he got that bit of you. I should have listened to you.”
Yes, but we understand. Lee was also clever, and tried to keep himself from getting exposed to others as well. Did not end up well for him either.
You bit your cheek, trying to think. “So… He’s clever, stronger, and has weapons that can hurt us. How do we beat him?”
Can’t. Not strong enough on our own. We need help.
“You got friends?” You asked, hopeful. You didn’t think Venom would be the kind of alien to make friends, but they were quick to say that you needed help.
Of sorts. Can lead us to them.
You felt your eyebrows raise in pleasant surprise, and you quickly walked out of the bathroom and headed towards the window. “Great then lets go-”
No.
“…No?” You stopped. “I thought you wanted to get that part of you back asap?”
We need to get that part of us away from Lee, yes. But you are still hurt. And hungry. We need our strength or we risk worse.
You didn’t even notice you were hungry until Venom said so. “Right, okay… Um, do you want something in particular? I can order delivery.” You sat at the couch and opened your laptop, ready to search up whatever Venom was craving, if they even prefered any food other than chocolate. You weren’t sure how much of your body was shared afterall.
Steak. Make it bloody.
You didn’t know what else you expected. “Does… Does New York deliver cooked steaks?” You questioned, quickly typing in an appropriate search for it. Lo and behold, New York delivers everything. The price made you hesitate though, loudly blowing through your lips as you looked at the unreasonable number. Movement got your attention, and you watched a dark tendril reach out of your pajamas and lay a hundred dollar bill on the computer.
“Fine, but just because you deserve a treat.” You caved, quickly typing in your address and placing the order. You felt that warm fluffy satisfaction feeling in the back of your head again, and it in turn made you smile. “Now we wait.”
You laid down onto your couch, getting the pillow comfortably under your head, and you let yourself relax. Even though your body was comfortable, your mind still hummed with thoughts and questions, and you could feel Venom slightly shifting over your shoulder.
You want to ask. Go ahead.
“I was just wondering… If you wanted to talk about what happened with Spiderman, and all of that.” You could feel Venom shrink ever so slightly at that, seeming to not like that question. “I only ask because you seemed… troubled, after that memory. And I just want to be aware of any possible triggers you might have after that so I can avoid them for you.”
We are fine.
Venom was too quick to answer, and you gently rubbed your shoulder to comfort them. “Listen, I’ve had a shitty therapist and only had like two actual therapy sessions, but even I know it’s better to talk about it than just pretend you are fine. I know you aren’t, I can feel it.” They stayed quiet. “Would you want me to hide a wound from you, if it made things easier for you?”
No. We heal, and protect.
“This is no different. Emotional damage can be worse than physical damage, especially to someone that heals from everything.” You said, and that seemed to get to Venom. Something changed in the back of your head, a need to share, but then you felt it be pulled back again. “Come on, I’m here for you. That’s what friends do.”
It’s hard.
“I get that. Let’s start slow, okay? Give me some quick general thoughts when you think ‘Spiderman’ right now.” As you finished speaking, you felt pulled back into the dark memories of Venom, clusters of emotion and experiences more than visuals this time, but you could understand.
Love. Pure, blissful love, burning so unfamiliarly within you. A need to please, to grant his every wish, to impress. You showed off, making him strong, protecting him, making his life convenient. Embracing him fully, and feeling his joy as your own. And the pain- the pain and the ringing and the-
“Slow down. You did good, take a breath.” You spoke, pulling the two of you out of those thoughts before you fell too far into the rabbit hole. It felt like you were swimming in the ocean, and at any point a wave could come crashing down a you, but you willed the two of you to stay floating in the currently calm waters.
“You loved him, but he didn’t know you were living. What happened to change that?” You prompted to continue, trying to keep Venom slow and steady.
A visit to a doctor. A doctor you’ve seen before, but couldn’t place. They studied the two of you, making Spiderman even more impressed, and you even happier to let him know you were alive. But instead of joy, or confusion, or any sort of attempt of communication, he tried pulling you off. It was an immediate decision. He did not hesitate, did not consider all that you’ve done for him, and instead he tore through you, desperate to be rid of you. You held tighter, no, no, no please, you wanted to be with him. You can help him more yet, why did he hate you? Why did he hurt you? You just wanted to hold him and let him think about what he was doing, but then the doctor interrupted, hurting the both of you with sound. A gun, not unlike the one Lee had.
You jolt out of the memory as you felt yourself be painfully torn and stripped from Spiderman, bringing you back to the couch and breathing hard. “Oh… That, that hurts…” Your skin stung from the memory like a bad sunburn for a few moments, but it quickly faded as you breathed. You slowly filtered through the memory again, at your own pace, but something threw you off. “There were no bells? I thought I heard bells last time?” You asked softly.
Was not only time.
Your eyes widened at that. “You were with him more than once?”
Escaped doctor. Needed to convince Spiderman we were good. We wanted to help. He did not want us.
More memories drifted through your mind. Escaping the glass prison they made for you. Tricking Spiderman to be close and put you on, only to try and surprise him and communicate. You came all this way just for him, but he did not even try to listen. He tried running for the doctor again, but you pulled and struggled against him, trying to keep him from the pain, from hurting you again. You just wanted to help. You just wanted to be with him.
But he found himself at church bells, and yelled at you. He screamed, hitting the bells, over and over, yelling how he would rather die than be with you. You couldn’t hold onto him, the pain being too much, and you fell away. You expected him to kick you, to run and flee, to do something now that he was free of you. But instead he collapsed. The bells were too much even for him, and as much as the bells hurt, seeing him like that hurt worse. You pulled, and struggled, and carried him away from the bells, your love for him overriding the betrayal, if for a short while.
He did not seem to know you saved him, or if he did, he did not care. Much later when you found someone else to be with, to share and protect, he did the same to them. First the gun, then the bells, then the doctor. Other jumps in the memory flashed by, other betrayals Spiderman had done. Traps he had set up, offering himself to you as bait. The double crosses he led, even after giving you his word and after you helped him. Again and again, he broke promises and lied to you. Hurting you every time without fail.
The memories sped up and faded, giving you the impression that those were different memories for a later time. You cleared your throat and blinked, seeing your apartment around you once more. “Fuck man…” Your voice cracked ever so slightly, and you realized your face felt hot. You sniffed, brushing the back of your hand against your cheek and seeing that you must have been crying during the memories.
Sorry. We did not mean-
“Fuck Spiderman.” You interrupted, feeling angry and letting the tears continue to their own volition. You weren’t much of a crier, so you couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Venom’s emotions were manifesting. “He fucking… he doesn’t deserve you, after all you done for him. How could he just do that to you?” You took a deep shaky breath, cutting it short when you heard the door knock.
Food is here?
“Yeah.” You sniffed again, rubbing at your eyes and making your way to the door. You opened the door and saw a cute ginger wearing the logo of the website you bought the steak off of, and she looked cheery until she saw your most likely red teary face.
“Are… are you okay?” She asked, quickly looking back at the sticky note in her hand and to your door number, as if to make sure she had the right door.
“Yeah. Ex troubles. Sorry, I hope you got change.” You wiped at your eyes again with one hand while passing her the hundred, and she quickly dug into her pocket to make change. She said some number that you didn’t bother to listen to, and you gave her and extra ten for the trouble before taking the bag and uttering a quick thank you. The door closed slightly louder than you intended, but you dropped the bag onto the table next to your couch, and you sat heavily on the cushions.
Do you hate Spiderman, for what he did to you?
Venom asked, shocking you at that question. “For what he done to me? No, the worst thing he’s done to me is not notice me. That is disappointing as hell, seeing how I would have died without you, but that… I can’t be angry at him for that. If that was the case, then I might as well be angry at every hero for not noticing me when I was dying.” You ran a hand through your hair and leaned back, thinking and feeling the confusion in the back of your head.
“No, I fucking hate him for what he did to you. ” You ground your teeth. You could feel Venom’s surprise at that, but they grew quiet and still in your thoughts. Eventually the smell of the steak seeped through the bag, getting your attention. “Enough of that asshole, let’s eat.” You quickly pulled out the delivered food, pleasantly surprised at the surplus of fries they gave you along with your rare steak.
You started eating, the flavor of everything was wonderful. The steak practically melted in your mouth, a hint of honey tickling your senses as you swallowed. Venom seemed to like it as well, satisfaction hanging in your mind almost like a haze as you ate. The fries were just the right crispness, no ketchup needed with their delicious salted flavor.
You reached for more of the fries, to suddenly notice they were all gone. You blinked out of your haze, and apparently the steak was gone already as well. “Aw.” You uttered, shoulders dropping ever so slightly. “No leftovers.” That did surprise you slightly, seeing how much food you had, and how it felt you only had a few bites.
Was very good.
“It was. Shame this place is so expensive, else I’d say we could do this like as a weekly thing…” You considered a moment, but shook your head. “I’ll see if I can make you some steaks myself later on. I’m not much of a cook, but you probably like that more than you would my usual meals.” You looked at the empty tupperware with longing eyes before shutting it up, stuffing it back in the bag, and dropping it into the trash.
You stood in the quiet room, looking around for a moment. You didn’t really know what else to do, and you yawned, apparently sleepy from the meal. That wouldn’t do, you didn’t want to ruin your sleep cycle even more than it already was. You gently slapped the sides of your face, pulled your arms up in a stretch, and swayed side to side to wake yourself up more. Bending down, you touched your toes much easier than usual, and you stood up again and just swung your arms around.
Then you noticed that you arm was no longer hurting.
“Huh?” You asked, looking at your shoulder. Venom was no longer making that area dark and sticky looking, instead it was just your plain pajamas. “Oh, are we better now?” You asked, rubbing the area and not feeling any soreness.
Was better by the time food showed up.
“You can heal that quickly?” You asked, amazed. You gently pulled back the collar of your pajama shirt, looking at your perfectly normal looking skin. Not even a scar where you were stabbed.
Was small wound. Easy.
“Oh listen to you. ‘It was just a stab wound. No big deal.’ Do you have any idea how long it takes for people to heal normally? Once I stepped on a nail and my foot was messed up for like a month.” You laughed, not enjoying the memory of basically needing to hop everywhere in the house.
That long?
“Yeah, like, I don’t know how these heroes do it. They get stabbed or shot, then the next day they are back at it. I mean, I get that a lot of them have armor or advanced healing, but I am surprised more of them aren’t out of commission every time villains show up, you know?” You shook your head.
Don’t need to worry for us any more. No out of commission. Just small rests and will be fine.
“And there you go, being more amazing.” You smiled and motioned to the window. “But anyway, now that we are better, should we go out and meet you friend?”
Yes, my… friend.
“Way to make them sound ominous, dude.” You commented. “But yeah, let’s go. We need to get that bit of you back.” You stepped towards the window, and felt Venom’s tendrils swirl around and embrace you completely. It was starting to feel like a full body hug more than anything at this point, and you resisted the urge to try and hug them back.
Instead you climbed out of the window with more grace than the first time you tried, watched as your limbs vanished from your sight, and again, leaped into the air. You let out your webs and swung, smiling happily as you felt truly free traveling across the city.
“So… your friend.” You started, looking towards the direction you had a vague feeling in. “You didn’t really tell me about them. I assume they are a villain, you sure they are going to help us?”
… Hopefully.
“Oh that’s a good sign.” You said with playful sarcasm. “That’s alright, I trust your decisions. Whatever you need me to, I’ll try my best for you.” You said, and you thought you felt confusion in the back of your mind. The two of you swung quietly through the buildings, enjoying the rushing air, the sounds of the city, the gradual increase of traffic as most people started leaving their jobs. You had no idea where you were heading, yet you could just feel a pulling in a direction. You hoped that was Venom’s “friend,” even if you were a little concerned about meeting a friend that needed quotation marks.
You wondered if they were a regular supervillain, or an alien too? What if they were just a regular person Venom genuinely liked as a friend? You found that thought hilarious. They were probably some little girl in a tutu, and she had a pet dinosaur. You laughed out loud, thinking of hypotheticals.
Your laughter was cut short when you saw someone else swinging past the buildings and catch your eye. You changed course and sped up, just in time to make out Spiderman casually swinging down another street. Your anger immediately boiled your blood, and you couldn’t wait to give him what he deserves.
Mustn’t kill Spiderman!
“I would never kill him! Doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve a punch to the face for what he done to you!” You smiled, pulling on your webs with a new goal and launching yourself feet first at the moving red and blue target. “Or maybe a kick would do!” You shouted, adrenaline flooding your system.
“Did I just hear someone-” Spiderman mid-swing turned to face your direction, just in time for your camouflaged foot to connect to his jaw. The kick sent him flying down, crash landing in someone’s rooftop garden. You laughed and quickly corrected your course, sending a web to nab the corner of a taller building so you could grab ahold of the bricks. You felt the camouflage drop as you looked down at Spiderman, who was slowly picking himself out of the dirt, seeming very confused.
“That’s for breaking my friend’s fucking heart!” You yelled down at him, unable to help the absolute satisfaction from kicking the jerk in the face. He shook his head, scattering dirt to the ground, and looked up to see who shouted. Apparently he wasn’t expecting Venom, as he jumped ever so slightly, hands widening at his sides.
“I’m guessing that isn’t Flash, but that didn’t sound like the new guy either!” Spiderman called up. You could see him nervously looking side to side, probably assessing damage control. He looked back to you, seeing you still posed and ready at the corner of the tower, and he was apparently somewhat confused at the fact you weren’t attacking him more. “Did… did you want something? Or was this… it?” He made sure to keep his voice loud enough to make it to you.
“Are you in a rush for something? Burning building? Girlfriend in trouble?” You asked, just wanting to make sure you weren’t endangering more people with getting some petty revenge.
“Not… not that I know of.” Spiderman held up his hands, even more visibly confused now.
“Good.” You shouted, jumping from the corner and landing heavily on the flowerbed a few yards from Spiderman. “Didn’t want to waste your time.” You laughed and looked down at him. He… seemed taller on tv. He half readied his arms now that you decided to get close, but you could tell he was too busy trying to calculate what exactly to do. Did no villains hold a casual conversation before a fight?
“Wasting time… on what, might I ask?” The whites of his eyes squinted in a way that suggested a raised eyebrow. You flexed your fingers, getting ready to act, and you became very much aware at the lack of influence your actions had. Venom was quiet in the back of your mind, waiting.
“Oh you know, justice for a friend, kicking your ass, that sort of thing.” You casually said, but before you gave him enough time to react, you reached out and webbed a metal table from the roof, swinging it at him. He easily jumped and flipped over it, landing on some fencing gracefully. His arms reached out, and you instinctivly ducked and turned, just nearly doging two streaks of webs flying past.
“Listen! I don’t know who your friend is, but that suit of yours is alive!” He said, jumping and firing more webs at your feet, but you sidestepped and pulled the table back in time to take two of the shots. “You need to get it off of you!”
“And what, try to abandon it like you did?” You kicked the back of the table, launching it in his direction. He barely ducked out of the way, making the metal table burry itself halfway into the brick wall behind him. Damn, you kicked that hard. But maybe that was because you were getting angrier the more you talked to Spiderman. “You didn’t even give it a chance to explain itself!” You half growled through teeth, webbing a bag of fertilizer and acting like a trebuchet, launching it at him.
“Whoa!” He jumped to the side, turning his head to watch as the bag literally exploded into dust against the bricks, the residue falling to the streets below. “Not good.” You heard him mutter. He jumped off of the building, web flying to another building, and he started to quickly swing away.
“Hey! I didn’t kick your ass yet! Get back here!” You shouted, quickly following behind. The two of you weaved between buildings, Spiderman taking the lead and turning corners every chance he got, and you just barely noticed him checking over his shoulder as he did so.
He is leading us to Bad Place.
“Fuck you Spiderman! You hurt my friend, and now you are manipulating us again!?” You shouted, taking an extra second to calculate where to web, and taking the shot. The web barely latched onto Spiderman’s foot, but it was enough, and you pulled. He yelped as he lost grip on his own web, swinging to your will as you yanked it.
Glass shattered as you swung him into some business building, and you could hear shouts of people. Whoops. Oh well, corporations were paid too much anyway. You jumped down and webbed a window, gracefully arching and swinging into the broken opening, apparently perfectly in time to kick Spiderman as he was picking himself up again. He was punted back, crashing into a support pillar. Damn! You had some serious firepower out of nowhere!
You felt good. Real good.
There were a few people in this what appeared to be an office space, but they were quickly running to the exists, no one seemed to be hurt from you hurling a body through a window. Good. Spiderman struggled to pull himself out of the plaster of the support pillar, crumpling to the ground and coughing.
“Hm. I didn’t go overboard, did I?” You asked, glancing around at the destruction of the small area momentarily. You noticed a few computers on a desk nearby that must have belonged to security, due to the fact that cameras of different views were cycling through the screens. You were about to look away, interest being sated, when one of the screens turned to the room you were currently in, and you felt taken back. Why the fuck did you seem… so much bigger?
Before you could question that in more detail, your vision went white as web sprayed your face, and you recoiled. “I hope you liked those few shots, because that’s all I’m giving you!” Spiderman shouted, and you felt something heavy collide with you. Whatever it was broke as it hit you, but still made you stumble backwards, and your back hit the desk and knocked over some of the monitors.
You quickly pulled the web off of your face, anger building. “Not even close! You need one more solid smack to the face before I’m through with you!” You shouted, grabbing the desk with your hands to throw at him, but his webs sprayed out, sticking your hands to the desk. You gritted your teeth, using its weight to your advantage and tried to just crush him with it instead. He ducked between your legs as the desk shattered against the ground, and more webbing shot onto your hands. You realized your mistake a moment too late, when he pulled and you fell forward, flipping hard onto your back on top of the wreckage.
“Could you really smack a face like this?” He asked, hovering his masked face above yours. You growled and tried to grab him, but his webs were faster, covering your face and hands and making you lose him in the moment. You yelled and felt your fists expand, bursting through the webbing as you tore it from your face, and you jumped to your feet.
“With what you’ve done? Easily!” You swiped at him, but he seemed too lithe to get near as he flipped and ducked out of your attacks. “You hurt my friend!” Swipe. “You lied to them!” Miss. “You manipulated them!” Duck. “And when they were happy, you couldn’t leave them alone!”
Spiderman jumped onto the ceiling, and paused. “Wait, this might be a stretch here, but is you friend the symbiote?” You took advantage of the still target, grabbing his leg before he could react. You held him in front of you and he quickly struggled in your crushing grip.
“Yes. ” You hissed between your teeth, smacking him hard with the back of your other hand, sending him crashing through another window.
You watched him fall out of view, only for him to appear a few seconds later, quickly webbing away down the streets. You didn’t give chase though, and instead took a moment to breath while surrounded by all of the destruction. It was then, that you could feel how tight Venom felt. They felt less like a second skin, and more of a too small wetsuit. It hurt, just slightly, and made you stagger and lean against part of a broken desk.
“H…hey. Is everything okay?” You asked, feeling the drowning sensation even more now. You started to feel the edges of fear, but not so much for yourself, but for your other. Did something happen with it? Was this too much for it?
Everything is better than okay. We’ve had hosts that were angry with Spiderman before, and that anger made us stronger, but this is different.
“How so?” You asked, instinctively trying to swallow the drowning sensation away to no avail. It was warm, too warm.
We never had someone angry for us before.
The tightness seeped into your skin, and you had troubles determining where exactly you were suppose end and Venom begin. “A… And? What does… what does that mean?” You felt short of breath, your vision shaking ever so slightly as your world rang louder and louder, drowning out everything. The sound of your heavy breathing, the sound of the desk collapsing under your weight, the sound of you hitting the ground, all being drown out by the ringing.
You sat in the dark apartment with your face in your hands for a minute, gut turning from anxiety of everything that was happening. Today you survived an explosion thanks to an alien, but now it turned out that alien was a villain. A murdering, cannibalistic, brain-hungry vilain.
We aren’t like that anymore. We changed.
The voice was quiet, sounding not unlike how you picture a guilty dog to sound like. If the dog was guilty of literal dozens of news reports worth of slaughters. You rubbed your forehead, a headache building.
You are very tired.
You were too deep in your own thoughts to listen to Venom. How could this happen to you? You are a receptionist! You lived an entirely normal life up until this point. The only interactions you’ve ever had with anyone considered superhuman were by watching them through tv. You never even seen Spiderman in person until earlier today, when you were under half of the wall and about to die.
Please rest.
You were so distracted by your thoughts, you didn’t notice yourself stand up and climb into bed, pulling the blanket up to your chin. The thoughts racing in your head slowed down just in time for you to notice your actions weren’t your own, but when you attempted to sit up the darkness pulled you under.
.
Immediately, you could recognize you were in a dream. You weren’t usually one for lucid dreaming, but something was different, and you could feel it. You were sitting at your work desk, hands ready at the computer, staring at the black screen, listening to the silence of the room. Glancing out the window, you saw no one else. Empty streets, turned off tvs, and a slight fog sitting above the swaying yellow grass between the buildings. Your legs itched, and you assume it was from all of the wheat growing from the floor around you.
Again, you could tell that it was a dream, but you couldn’t exactly put your finger on it.
The door slammed open, causing you to jump in your seat and look to the visitor. A massive dark mass glanced into the business a moment before looking back and closing the door as it stepped in, details forming the closer it came. It was Venom, but they were much larger than what you saw in the mirror. Their muscles and height easily outmatched what you had previously, looking more dangerous in every way. You could feel your chest hammering from the bells ringing in your head, but you bit down your thoughts and stood up at the desk, placing a well practiced smile on your face.
“Hello, how can I help you?” You risked a looking towards the computer, seeing that it was still off. Venom parted the wheat as they stepped further the room with the barest hint of a limp, and you could see dark liquid sticking to all of the yellow blades as they passed. The darkness slowly dripped, seeming to gradually coat the surrounding wheat one by one.
Venom stepped more into the room, the floorboards under the wheat creaking from the weight. They glanced at the window past you, before leaning onto the counter.
“Hello .” The voice caused you to freeze, a unnatural sounding mix between the creep from yesterday and the Venom from your head. They smiled with his angler fish-like teeth, leaning more casually onto the desk. “ Don’t worry. We will save you from him. ” They smiled even wider than you thought was possible and reached over the counter. Before you could pull back, they grabbed your wrist and pulled it closer to them. They gently placed their other hand on top of yours, staring intently at you with their massive white eyes.
There was a moment of deafening silence as you held your breath, afraid to react with a predator watching your every movement. You could see from the corners of your vision the yellow of the wheat all slowly be consumed by the blackness, working its way around the room, and only slowing when nearing you. The silence ended when the wall next to you exploded, as did Venom. The darkness sprayed into the air before rapidly being pulled around you, a self contained cyclone of the blackness coating you just in time for the shower of bricks to harmlessly bounce off of you.
Instead this time, it seemed like the whole building decided to crash down around you as well. There was absolute silence other than the sound of the blades of wheat being crushed by debris as you watched the supports fall from the ceiling and crash next to you, piles of wood and sheetrock and wires all crumbling into the black grass, which slowly grew and covered the wreckage.
You stood alone in an open field of black wheat, and when you looked up, you could see the galaxy. The entire color spectrum could be found in the mess of stars and space dust, taking your breath as you stood and stared.
It was beautiful.
.
You blinked awake, hearing the small radio on your nightstand quietly playing some old song that you heard before probably a dozen times but you still didn’t know the lyrics to. Continuing to just lay in bed with the comforter close to your face, you breathed deeply to gently wake yourself up more, but it felt… off. Humid. Like you were on the verge of choking on your own spit, but not quite at the point of being forced to cough. Confusion only grew when you sat up and swallowed, and the feeling didn’t go away.
It was like you were drowning, with no water to be seen.
You leaned forward and tried breathing deeply again, yet you didn’t feel your lungs fill like they were suppose to. You weren’t suffocating, you seemed to be getting enough oxygen, yet the sensation of drowning gently made itself known. It was horrifying , but then, it wasn’t. You found yourself swallowing once more, just to make sure, and then deciding to move on with your life.
You lazily got out of bed and turned the radio off, stumbling towards your bathroom for your morning routine. You brushed your teeth and smiled in the mirror, happy that the fluoride-rich toothpaste seemed to be finally working to whiten your teeth like your dentist said.
It’s the little victories.
You turned on the shower and stuck your hand in flow, waiting for the water to get warm. The mirrors quickly fogged up at the heat as usual, but for some reason your usual setting seemed… uncomfortably hot. You brought it down to much cooler than you usually like, and it was perfect. Shrugging to yourself you started to pull at your pajamas, only to yelp when they liquified in your hands, turning to darkness and vanishing within a moment.
You stepped backwards too fast and slammed your back into the wall, staring down horrified at your -now nude- body. “Oh god… It… It wasn’t a dream.”
It was not.
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?!” You asked, looking up to the mirror and quickly covering your privates with your hands at realizing you were with company.
Didn’t have anything to say.
“Didn’t have anything- are you kidding me?” You slid down the wall and sat onto the tiled floor. “You- you- you are an alien possessing a body of a receptionist and you have nothing to say?”
Don’t like that word.
“What, ‘alien’? That’s what you are, isn’t it?” You felt confused, but in the back of your mind you could feel… sadness. Maybe disappointment.
Possessing. We don’t possess. We share. We protect.
The words were strained, ever so slightly, and you felt a bit guilty for using such a harsh word. You remembered getting shot at yesterday, and the fact you didn’t know you were the target until Venom spit out the bullets for you. “…Okay. I… I’ll avoid that word in the future. But you need to understand that all of this-” You vaguely motioned to all of you in the mirror, “is… I don’t even know where to begin with this.” You sighed and rested your head back on the wall. A moment of silence followed.
You are different from the others.
“Others? You mean the other hosts? No shit. I’m not a wanted murderer.” You sarcastically said, and you felt bad for being so hostile. At the same time, you were not having a good morning so far. Memories flashed in your mind once more, but they were different, they didn’t belong to Venom. They belonged to the other hosts. They were more cloudy, hazy, and unfocused than the other shared memories.
You were sitting in a church, thinking about writing articles, and a divorce. Getting fired. Getting yelled at by your father. A gun was in your hand. You brought it to your head, only to be saved by the tendrils of darkness.
The world spun, and now you were an army man, still sitting. You sat in a wheelchair, no legs to be seen. The bitter taste of rum still hung in your breath, and you felt hope as you looked at a tube where the dark mass floated. You smiled, welcoming its embrace, but then continuously silencing it whenever it spoke out.
You were yanked to your feet as you stood in an alleyway, a deal going sour as the other party raised their guns. Your instincts kicking in to survive as the army had taught you, looking rapidly for a weapon. Instead the weapon found you.
And then there you were. Much smaller, much simpler than the other hosts. No military or physical training. No desperate situations. No last options of survival. Just a plain, stable life, that would have been snuffed out without anyone taking notice.
We are better now.
You blinked, clearing your head of the flashes of memories quickly. “What?” You asked, and you became aware of the sound of running water. The shower was still on.
No more brains. No more hurting. No more being used. Better now. Just us.
The phrasing made you think. Venom… is better now . Meaning they were better before something- or someone- messed them up. The first memory of being used was with Spiderman, the first person they gave their entire being to, only to be torn to pieces and ripped off. That’s bad enough, but then the next host was apparently someone who was suicidal. Then people that literally used them as an object, rather than a living thing.
But here you were, talking with it, getting ready for your regular life. No intentions of using it, well, at least after last night’s adventure. Not that you were against trying to be a hero- but you weren’t exactly sold on the idea of killing baddies yet. And killing seemed to come all too naturally when you were with Venom.
“I need to go to work today.” You said, quickly backing out of those thoughts.
Then we will go.
“Can I though?” You asked, standing and looking into the mirror intensely. “You won’t make me look like… that , will you?”
Only if we need protection.
“We won’t need protection. No hero work today, okay? I’m just going to be a plain receptionist. Then after work… We have some free time to get to know each other a little better.” You felt relief wash over you, despite you not being the one feeling tense. Standing in silence for a moment, you listened the water hit the bathtub. Would… these kind of things be awkward with an alien sharing your body?
It does not matter to us. Do not worry.
Deciding to take that at face value and to not waste any more time, you quickly got into the shower and did your usual routine while trying to ignore the fact Venom was… well, with you. You would already be running late for your work as it was, you tended to have your alarm set to the last possible minute- and you just wasted a good few reliving memories.
We can still make it. We only need to jump.
“I don’t think going to work as a monster is exactly… lowkey.” You mumbled, quickly finishing up and grabbing a towel to dry off.
Will be fine. We have camouflage.
You paused half way through drying your hair. “What now?” You asked the mirror, already getting into the habit of speaking to Venom through your reflection. Dark tendrils appeared at one of your hands, and you quickly pull it in front of you to watch as the darkness tangled and traveled just past your elbow, turning your arm into a gnarled monstrous one with claws.
The reflections from the ooze shimmered, and all at once the details on the hand got… fuzzy, and hard to see. You blinked and tried to focus, only to watch as it looked like your arm faded from existence.
“We can fucking turn invisible!?” You half shouted, waving your arm around. You could just make out the edges of your form where you could see seams to your bathroom wall not quite matching up. You turned yourself around to have the light shining against it, and while very dull, you could only make out the barest hints of where the light was hitting you.
Not invisible. Camouflage.
“Holy fucking shit! ” You exclaimed, continuing to wave your arm around. “This is a dream come true. Do you even know how badly I wanted to be invisible when I was a kid? And now we can just do this shit?!” You couldn’t help your joyful smile and you squished your arm with your other hand, watching as the world deformed behind it ever so slightly.
Camouflage.
“Okay, okay, camouflage. But like, this is a top tier camo job. When I hear camouflage I think blocky army print, not-” You waved your hand in front of your face, feeling the air rush past. “-this! This is outstanding!” You looked at your reflection, slowly calming down after that exciting discovery. Your smile softened, and you dropped the towel. “You… are amazing. I’m not sure you’ve been told that before.”
Once or twice.
“Good, because even though the news doesn’t paint you a pretty picture, and even though you have a somewhat… fuzzy definition of being a hero…” You vaguely motioned with your invisible hand, trying to get the right words. “You are out of this world.”
Alien.
“No. I mean, yes, you are, but I mean that in the metaphorical way as well. Everything you are doing is straight out of my dreams.” You could feel Venom reacting in the back of your thoughts, a warm fluffy feeling almost. Satisfaction of a sort.
A second song started playing from your bedroom, and it startled you out of the conversation. “We gotta go.” Before you turned away from the mirror fully, you saw dark tendrils wrap around your body and change colors, quickly becoming your usual work clothes.
These ones, correct?
You exhaled a laugh, running a hand through your hair. “Yes, perfect. Okay, lets-” You turned to the door, but felt a pulling in the other direction.
Window is faster. Do not want to be late.
“Right, of course.” You quickly turned around and walked to the window, feeling the tendrils expand and travel across your body, blocking your vision for just a moment. You felt embraced in the darkness, and by the time you were pulling yourself out of the window you had a hard time making out your own hands. You could still see yourself much easier than in the bathroom, but you assume that was because you were fully covered now and was seeing through Venom’s eyes.
You looked down at the alleyway three stories below you, took a breath, and leapt.
And once again, you felt the joy of being launched into the air.
Your giggles escaped as your arms automatically reached out and started the process of traveling by web, butterflies fluttering in your stomach as you felt the freedom and rush of soaring above the traffic, hearing the chatter and honking below you.
Glancing down part way through an arc, you could see an accident along your usual road you take, and you couldn’t help but laugh. “Pfft, goodbye traffic! Goodbye honking! I ain’t never dealing with you again!” You cheered loudly, your yells echoing back to you ever so slightly.
Camouflage does not mask sound.
“Its fine! Everyone in New York is crazy for living here anyway!” You laughed again, changing direction. The buildings got shorter, making you swing low before rolling into a landing on a roof. You took a running leap, easily jumping another couple buildings before you recognized your work building up ahead, and you slowed down. Stepping to the edge of an alleyway, you made sure no one else was in the general area before jumping down, Venom taking the full impact of the landing for you.
You stood up and dusted yourself off as Venom pulled itself back, quickly morphing into your work clothes that you had approved of earlier. Looking at the reflection from one of the dark windows, you saw your usual tuesday self. It should almost be scary how quickly you were able to change from monster to receptionist, but you only smiled and felt yourself filled with glee.
“Okay, okay, work face on.” You shook out your excitement and calmed down, looking at your reflection, and you placed your usual smile on. Perfect.
You quickly walked out of the alleyway and headed to your work, and half stumbled in your step when you saw it from eye level.
The wall remaining on the public side was blackened, while most of it was straight up missing. There was a large truck backed up poorly against the curb that was filled with scorched bricks, and a man sitting on the passenger’s side was talking to your boss as another man continued placing more bricks into the truck. As you approached, your boss noticed you and called out your name, quickly dropping the conversation and walking up to meet you.
“Thank goodness you are okay!” She said loudly, not quite able to run in her heels but walking up to you briskly. “I was a couple blocks away when it happened, by the time I got back to work you were gone, along with most of the building.” She was exaggerating, obviously. It was only the front wall that was mostly missing. “I tried calling you but it went straight to voicemail, are you okay?” She grabbed your hands and looked you over, and you felt awkward with her being so close.
“Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” You took your hands back, not used to the attention. “I- ah, I was on my way to the restroom when it happened, and then the ringing? I don’t really remember much after the explosion. I think I was in shock.” You quickly came up with a plausible sounding lie.
Well done.
“Did you check in with a hospital? You might have a concussion.” She placed a hand on your forehead and you quickly took a step back, awkwardly laughing, definitely not liking all of the touching but trying your best not to offend her.
“No, no I’m fine. I didn’t hit my head or anything. I think it was just the sound and everything that happened that must have set me on auto pilot or something. The only thing I remember next is waking up at home this morning.” You shrugged casually, which must have been the wrong thing to do because your boss seemed to grow even more concerned.
“I really think you should go see a doctor, just to make sure.” She made a face, and you decided to go with it.
Don’t like doctors.
“Okay, I’ll call sometime later today. But I really am fine.” You smiled, but she didn’t buy it at all. “You don’t need to worry about me, I’m in tip-top shape. No supervillains can keep me from coming to work.” You joked, and your boss’s face dropped ever so slightly.
“Ah… about that.”
Uh oh. Bad words.
“Hmm?” You ignored Venom, feeling your stomach drop from anxiety for what your boss was about to say.
“We won’t be needing a receptionist for about… probably a week or so.” She said, half attempting at a comforting smile but failing. You felt your blood go cold but you kept your expression frozen in the awkward smile. “I need to be making repairs to the shop and will be keeping the other girls on massage duty, so I don’t really… have a place for you while repairs are going.”
“Ah.” You blinked, trying to keep your heart from pounding so much.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, it’s just I will be in the front desk area anyway, so I don’t want you sitting there listening to all of the construction with nothing to do. If you had a massage license I would put you to work in the back rooms, but…” She left the sentence hanging but you got the idea.
“Okay, yeah no, I get it.” You quickly said, waving a hand and trying to play it off. “Like a week you said? No problem.”
“Yeah? Okay great!” She smiled, apparently happy you took the news so well. “It shouldn’t be much longer than a week, maybe a few days more at most. You can just consider this an early vacation! You deserve it. You have been working real hard lately so I want you to really treat yourself and relax now, okay?” She smiled so genuinely, it was only kind to try and return it. “And please do check in with a doctor.” She added.
“Right. I’ll do my best.” You nodded calmly, despite your racing thoughts. “Ah, is it okay if I look around to see if I can find my phone though? It wasn’t at home this morning.” You asked, and she quickly stepped to the side.
“Of course. Take your time. I need to finish speaking with those men over there, so if you don’t find it just stop by in a week to see how everything is going. I’ll try to keep you updated as much as possible.” She pat and rubbed your arm in a comforting manner, and you just smiled and nodded and quickly walked to the building, rubbing your arm where she did.
We have free time now.
Venom spoke up when you stepped into the building, seeing the remaining bricks scattered about the ground and the thick layer of dust showing the most recent foot traffic. “Yeah… a bit more than I expected.” You carefully stepped around the bricks to get to the counter, not seeing your phone anywhere. You did a quick look-through to see if it was in any of your usual places in back, but no such luck.
What do we do now?
“I… don’t know. I don’t get much free time, and I spend most of it just reading or playing games if I’m being honest. That feels like a waste with you around though.” You admitted. You were still new to the area, your closest real life friends were your co-workers, and that was stretching the definition of ‘friends.’ “Uh, what do you want to do?”
Chocolate.
Venom spoke quickly, nearly cutting off your question. “What?” You asked, stopping mid-search at the seemingly random interjection. You glanced around, and saw a small bowl holding the kisses next to the computer. Not the glass one, you noted, but it was roughly the same size. “You like chocolate?” You questioned, grabbing one and quickly pulling it out of its wrapper.
Phenethylamine.
There was that big word again. You could only assume it was a chemical in chocolate. Hell, if chocolate was the reason Venom no longer ate brains, you weren’t about to question it. You put the unwrapped kiss in your mouth and grabbed a handful to shove in your pocket. The sweetness covered your tongue, and you felt absolute satisfaction with the small treat.
Man, aliens are weird.
Humans are weird.
Fair enough.
Taking a moment to lean against the counter with your eyes closed as you sorted through your thoughts. You had all day to do whatever you wanted, for at least a week, while sharing a body with an alien from space. You slowly opened your eyes and stood up, nodding.
“Yeah… okay Venom, you know something I always wanted to do?”
Many things.
“You aren’t wrong, but I think the one I want to tackle tonight is… just walking at night in New York.” Once you said it out loud, it felt like a stupid thing to want. “It just seems so pretty at night, but you know… It’s New York. And I’m, well, me. But now I got you.” Venom was silent for a moment before responding.
Just walking?
“Yeah. Like, I want to wear one of my good outfits, maybe hit up a bar without the whole thought of being alone scaring me out too early, and then just strolling the streets when it’s super dark out.” You knotted your hands together, some reason anxious about what Venom thought of one of your deepest desires.
Sounds fun. What should we wear?
Huh, you didn’t think about that. You did have a few good outfits at home, but then again, Venom could easily make anything you could ever want. That gave you an idea for how to spend the rest of the day.
“Let’s go shopping.”
.
You weren’t a huge shopper normally, rarely going anywhere other than work and home- and the occasional restaurant as a monthly treat, of course. So finding out that most of New York seemed to be shops came more of a pleasant surprise than it probably should have been for someone living here. Sure, most places were set up for tourists, but that didn’t make it any less fun.
Your first idea on the walk was to have Venom make a bluetooth set for your ear, so you could talk freely to them without people thinking you were too crazy, not that you were all that concerned with judgemental looks from people in New York. They’ve seen crazier, not even including the super folk.
Second idea was to finally try some of that expensive city coffee at the local chain. You were more of a tea person by nature, but you decided to at least give it a chance, mostly thanks to the extra cash you found in your pocket. Strangely enough when you were waiting in line, a familiar ringtone played, and you quickly patted your pockets for your phone before remembering you didn’t have it. You never been here before, otherwise you would have looked around the shop… You wouldn’t think too many people had the same ringtone as yours but then again New York had a lot of people. You quickly forgot about the phone once your name was called and you grabbed the warm cup with the incorrect spelling of your name.
Shame most of the cup ended up being tossed. Coffee, even chocolate flavored fancy-named coffee, still tastes like coffee.
It did give you enough of a rush to continue your walk around, allowing you to mentally take note of some bars you planned on looking at later in the evening, before you finally found a nice clothing store.
You spent a good few hours looking at things, taking them to the fitting room to “try on,” and letting Venom just change into them while you looked in the mirror and critiqued everything. It was a lot of fun, you never could afford to be so picky before, and you never would normally touch shirts as expensive as this. Hell, you are pretty sure one of the pants you “tried on” was as expensive as your weekly paycheck, but you quickly reminded yourself that you didn’t need to look at price tags any more.
Too much blue.
Venom commented, quickly changing the blue striped shirt you were currently ‘wearing’ to be more of a greenish color, and it immediately was nicer on the eyes. “What about red?” You offered, and it quickly clouded up with darkness before pulling back into red. “That looks pretty snazzy.” You shrugged, posing in the mirror.
Draws attention. Good or bad.
They had a point. You wanted to wander the streets after the bar, maybe you didn’t want to attract that much attention. “Alright, we’ll go with that one nice grey shirt that paired with that short leather jacket, and maybe the black pants? Simple bar look?” You offered, and your outfit quickly changed to the clothes you tried on earlier.
We like this look.
“Indeed we do.” You agreed, turning and looking yourself over as much as you could in the mirror. You nodded and motioned in a circle with your hand, and your outfit quickly changed back to your work clothes. “Thank you.” You smiled to yourself before grabbing the perfectly untouched hanging clothes, and bringing them back out to the man behind the desk. Carl, his nametag said, but he didn’t much look like a Carl.
“Any winners?” He asked, using a customer voice on you. You laughed casually and shook your head.
“So close, but so far. Thanks anyway.” You shrugged and walked out, smiling to yourself.
.
Outfit shopping took up most of the day making it close enough to a reasonable drinking time, and you switched outfits in a restroom and gradually made your way back to the less dense part of town to decide on a bar. You never been to a bar without friends before, so you felt a little rush of excitement when thinking about it. Such a simple thing to get excited about.
Danger.
“What?” You blinked out of your thoughts, caught off guard at your other’s urgent voice.
Someone is following us. Someone dangerous.
You had a hard time keeping up the same pace, but you quickly tried to continue to pretend everything was normal. “How long?” You whispered under your breath.
Don’t know. Need to run. Get out of here.
If Venom sounded that scared, it was with good reason. You slightly quickened your pace and aimed for the next alleyway, quickly turning the corner and picking up in a run, ready to leap away-
Your ringtone rang out from behind you, followed by a masculine voice calling out. “Hey receptionist!” You stopped, confused.
Run. Run. Run.
Every inch of your body wanted to keep running, but your curiosity got the better of you and you turned around. Just a few yards down at the entrance of the alleyway was the guy from yesterday, right before the explosion. He looked worse for wear, but still wearing the leather jacket and kept his hair nice. He was holding your phone in his hand up next to him, and he smiled. “This yours?”
Lee. We need to leave. Get out of here. Run.
You could feel the nervous energy Venom was giving off and it was nearly overwhelming, but you didn’t want to expose yourself as Venom to strangers. “Uh.” Your thoughts were too busy trying to calm Venom enough to think of something to say. “I think you are mistaken, sorry man.” You shrugged very visibly, and felt distressed when he stepped further into the alleyway.
“Can’t be, this looks just like you.” He spoke, swiping his thumb to the side and the screen showed one of your rare selfies. You were having troubles being clever.
Can’t be clever with Lee. Lee is clever. Need to run.
“Huh, yeah would you look at that.” You took a few steps back as he approached, and you held out a hand. “Look man, I don’t know what your mom told you about approaching strangers in dark alleyways, but you’re making me nervous here. I don’t need my phone back that bad.” You laughed nervously and he stopped walking, making you feel instantly relieved.
Until he dropped the phone pulled a large and weirdly shaped gun out from his jacket.
It didn’t look like any military gun you’ve seen before, especially for the fact it had a very weirdly shaped… silencer? You never seen a silencer shaped like that before, and you’ve played plenty of games. “I’m here for what’s mine.”
“Whoa wha- who- yo Lee calm down! I don’t have anything of yours! I only got like two hundred cash on me, but it’s all yours man!” You immediately hold out both of your hands and take a few steps back, panic coursing through your veins.
Uh oh.
Uh oh? What’s uh oh?
Lee smiled again, tilting his head ever so slightly. “Never did end up telling you my name.” You realized your mistake, and immediately turn to jump. You could feel Venom coursing over your body, quickly embracing you and-
A deafening ringing sound knocked you down, causing you to scream as you felt Venom splatter around you. You could feel how cold the air was, making you suddenly very aware of how exposed you were. The ringing vanished and you gasped out for breath, pulling yourself up instinctively and seeing Lee stepping calmly forward, keeping the end of the strangely shaped gun in your direction.
The gun was the source of the sound then, and it really fucking hurt. You stood and brought your hands forward to attack him, but you saw mostly skin. Dark liquid was running in thin rivets along your arms, and most of your body now that you looked down. You could feel Venom pulling itself back together slowly around your feet, but they were quiet. You could feel how hard you were breathing, and you found yourself very, very afraid. You slowly looked back up at Lee, who was just feet from you now.
He was showing teeth, but it couldn’t be called a smile. “Look at that, you two aren’t even permanently bonded yet. That just makes this easier.” His finger tightened, and you didn’t know if another one of those sounds would kill Venom. You let yourself stop thinking so much.
You yelled and jumped at Lee, apparently catching him off guard as his shot went wide, blowing out nearby windows. It was a very stupid thing, and no sane person would willingly jump at an armed man when mostly nude. But here you were, managing to tackle him and knock him to the ground. The shock wore out quickly though, and he quickly grabbed your arm and twisted in a way you never experienced before, pulling your elbow above your head, and you quickly found yourself pinned under him hard pressed into the pavement. There was a tense moment, before a sicking POP rattled through your body, and you screamed out as it felt like your arm was just torn off. Your arm flopped down next to you, still connected, confirming he probably just dislocated it, but that didn’t stop you from yelling and trying to kick him from the pain it was giving you.
“Oh shut up.” You felt him adjust his weight over you and you heard the sound of metal scraping. Something sharp quickly met your neck, but it suddenly jerked and stabbed next to your collarbone instead as his weight was thrown off of you. You cried out, trying to pull yourself up with your good arm but every movement sent pain shooting throughout your body. You pushed and sat on your knees, looking over to see a knife sticking out of you close to your shoulder.
Continuing your not-so-smart streak, you reached up with your good hand and quickly pulled the knife out, before remembering you aren’t supposed to do that. “Oh god.” You voice was horse as you watched the wound quickly fill with blood and spill over your mostly nude form. This was bad. You quickly looked over and saw Lee struggling with Venom as the dark mass appeared to be smothering him.
You wanted to cheer Venom on, yeah! Get that guy! But god you were in pain. You noticed your phone close by, and you thought maybe calling 911 would be good right about now. Before you could commit to that thought process however, Lee reached out and blindly grabbed the gun again. Without even thinking what you were doing you leapt at the gun to tackle it away from your friend. Forgetting about your lame arm, of course, and you hit the ground much harder than you intended. White pain shot throughout your mind and vision, and you decided that just laying on the gun hopefully was enough.
As Lee’s struggles quieted, the rest of the world followed suit.
And thankfully, the pain did as well.
.
The same ol’ song woke you up once more, in your own bed, in your own apartment. This time though, no missing memories.
“Venom?” You asked, voice higher pitched than you meant. A moment of silence followed, and you felt your panic rise. You quickly sat up, much too quickly, your arm complained. It wasn’t hurting as bad as it was moments ago, but it felt incredibly sore. “Venom?” You asked again, unable to hide the fear in your voice.
We are here.
“Oh thank god.” You sighed with relief and fell back into your bed. You wrapped your arms around yourself, the closest you would be able to hugging Venom. “What happened?” You asked, keeping your eyes closed and just focusing on feeling the alien’s feelings.
You turned this way and that, looking at your new body through the mirror. The tendrils surrounding you seemed to defy gravity and float around even more aggressively at your words. You could feel in the dark corners of your brain hints of excitement different to your own. It made you smile, and you quickly turned to the door to your apartment.
No door. Window.
That made you pause. “The… Window?”
We don’t need door. Just jump! We will be safe.
You sucked air through your teeth, feeling your concern rising as you turned towards the window. Memories that belonged to your other flashed in your mind, leaping between buildings, traveling like Spiderman, falling but never seeming to get hurt. It was comforting, and you slowly opened your window and stuck your head out. “I don’t know about this. Shouldn’t we learn to walk before trying to run?” Your apartment wasn’t incredibly high compared to the others surrounding it, just three stories, but you knew most humans probably wouldn’t survive a jump from it.
Already walked. Time to jump. Trust in us.
Taking a breath to steady yourself against the window sill, you calmed your nerves and thoughts. Trust. You did trust them, even though you just met. You could feel how closely they embraced you, how you knew they would never let anything bad happen to you. But were you really ready to just sign off your life to an extraterrestrial being, no questions asked? You nodded, figuring yes, you really don’t have much else to do anyway, and carefully angled your -now much larger- shoulders through the frame. You grabbed on the brick ledge outside the window, allowing yourself to just go with what felt natural.
You pulled yourself up and out, turning your back to the alleyway and stepping onto the window sill with your feet, before turning and facing the surrounding buildings. The air blew up at you, the sounds of late night traffic coming with it. You looked up to the cloudy sky, seeing the light pollution bounce back to be not as dark as your old home. “… Alright. Let’s do this.” You looked back down to the alleyway, heart beating harder, and you jumped.
The window sill under your feet cracked as you felt yourself launched into the night air, higher and further than anything as big as you had any right to. The breath in your lungs got caught in your throat as you seemed to fly, before you started to fall. You let out a slight yell as the rooftops rushed at you, but your arms on their own command reached out, and a dark web shot out of the back of your wrist and stuck to a nearby building. Your other hand instinctively grabbed it, and like an oversized pendulum, you swung.
Your yells turned into laughs of delight as you wooshed past the buildings, letting your body work on autopilot as it rode the webbing through the city. It was like the most accelerating roller coaster you’ve ever been on.
See? We are doing better than running.
“Yeah we are!” You cheered, laughing as your arms pulled extra hard on one swing, launching you even higher. “This is amazing! Is this what Spiderman feels all the time?” You asked probably louder than you needed to, but the sound of air rushing by made you feel like you had to speak up. Memories flashed in your mind of being with Spiderman, swinging with him, feeling the casual enjoyment of the rush- the tolling of the bells.
The last memory was violent, jutting into the others and startling you out of the memories and causing you to flinch. Your hand missed the next webbing. You shrieked as you fell a couple feet before your arms quickly reached out and created another web to grab, this time you caught it. You rode the web to its peak before jumping onto the corner of a building, digging your nails into the bricks and catching your breath. “Sorry.” You whispered, trying to calm your heart from the panic of falling. “I didn’t mean-”
We slipped.
You hung to the edge of the building a moment, concerned for your other. “Are… Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?” There was a long silent pause, and you wondered if you asked loud enough.
No time for talk. Time for being heroes.
Before you could ask anything more, you felt your grip loosen on the edge of the building. You fell back a moment before your wrist whipped out, and you swung closer to the ground. You realized you weren’t so much on autopilot, rather your other just was taking control of your limbs themselves.
Is that alright?
The question shocked you, realizing that your other could indeed hear your thoughts. You quickly nodded, taking care to watch the actions your limbs were making. “Oh, yeah completely. You are the one used to doing this, I have no idea what all we can do.” More memories started to flash in your mind, but you shook your head to clear them. “No, no… That’s enough memories for tonight. You can take the lead for now, I’ll watch and learn. Maybe later you can show me more-” Excitement bubbled in the back of your brain, and you felt your movements change course.
There! Baddies!
You looked down the alleyway you were just about to pass, and saw two men pinning another against the brick wall. Alright, you’ll deal with this and then talk with your other about… whatever that episode was. You were down to help it through anything, but you needed to know you weren’t about to fall to your death because of some bad ptsd.
Your hand let go of the web and you fell for a moment, jumping off of the edge of the building, and landing loudly a few yards away from the men. They jumped back, one keeping a gun to the stranger’s face, and the other pulled out a gun towards you as you slowly stood up. You clinched your fists and suddenly realized how conscious of your actions you were. You thought your other was going to be showing you the basics before setting you loose. You still didn’t have the hang of… all this.
“Is that fucking Venom?” One of them hissed under his breath.
You glanced over your shoulder, looking for who he was talking about. “Venom? Oh, us. Right.” You quickly corrected yourself and face them, pulling your shoulders back and trying to look intimidating. It seemed to be easy enough, as the one holding the gun your way was clearly shaking and shuffling his feet back.
The other one didn’t seem as convinced. “That ain’t Venom. Haven’t you seen the newspapers? He’s supposed to be way more buff than that.” He scoffed and waved the gun in your direction. “Piss off, poser. We’re busy.”
“Preying on the innocent….” Your voice spoke without permission, and you stepped forward. A gunshot went off and you reached out to the stranger, thinking you were too slow, only to realize that it was the gun in your direction that went off. You felt confusion for a moment, before the blackness in your chest built and spit out the bullet at the thugs feet. He fucking shot at you! And… and you didn’t feel a thing. You smiled, feeling the burning of your anger ready to act.
“Holy shit- it is fucking Ven-hmn!” The guy facing you started to shout, but your fist swung at him releasing a huge glob of the blackness onto his face. He fell back and grabbed at the ooze as his shouts muffled, and the other man yelled and started firing his gun at you, allowing the guy they had pinned against the wall to escape.
You casually watched the stranger run out of the alley way as the thug fired all of his bullets at you, and you slowly turned your gaze back to the now empty gun. “Innocent saved.” The sound of bits of metal dropping to the concrete let you know Venom spit the bullets back out, and you stepped forward. The man yelled and turned to flee, but you wouldn’t be having that. You reached forward, thick tendrils of blackness extending from your fingertips and coiling around the man before he could make it more than a couple feet. You yanked back and he fell hard on his face before being slowly pulled in your direction.
“Nononono! Come on man! Don’t eat my brains! I’ll never do this shit again I swear!” He cried as he thrashed in your grip. You pulled him up face to face to get a good look at the trash so ready to unload a clip into some innocent- then what he said finally registered in your mind.
“We… don’t eat brains.” You quickly said, but there was a hint of doubt in your voice. “Right?” You added aside, quieter and higher pitched than you meant.
No brains. Not anymore.
“Yeah no, we don’t do that anymore.” You said, shaking your head. The man didn’t seem convinced, but you tossed the guy onto your shoulder. “Now let’s get you and your buddy to-” You looked over to the other thug and noticed he was sitting against the wall completely still with the blob still covering his face. “Wait, oh no.” You dropped the guy on your shoulder to the ground as you ran up to the other one, effortlessly tearing the blackness from his face.
His glossy eyes were still open, and he wasn’t breathing.
“We killed him.” You felt your eyes widen, realizing your mistake. “Venom, we killed him.”
He was not innocent.
“We didn’t know how guilty he was though! We didn’t need to- Oh no this isn’t good.” You brought a hand to your mouth, feeling a bit sick.
We did good. We saved the innocent.
“Okay, okay we are going to need to do a serious talk- hurp!” You covered your mouth as you felt your gag, and you quickly stepped away from the body before promptly emptying your stomach against the wall. You didn’t feel the usual burn in your throat when you did, but you did feel something in the back of your mind you couldn’t identify.
He is trying to escape.
You looked back, seeing the thug still wrapped up in the dark tendrils struggling until he noticed you watching him. You honestly didn’t know what to do, you just assisted in killing a man. Weren’t you supposed to be a hero now? You don’t remember reading any news articles about heroes actually killing anyone, at most they get blamed for failing to save people. This seemed wrong.
The man seemed to sweat more the longer you stared at him lost in your thoughts, anxious about being the next victim. You noticed his expression getting increasingly more worried, and you quickly stood up straight. He flinched as you walked over and picked him up, bringing him eye level once more.
“We are going to drop you off at the police station now. You will tell them you are a bad person and you need to be locked up, and if I see you on the streets again, you are going to wish you were your friend right now.” You snarled at the man, and he nodded as he whimpered, agreeing to everything you were saying. You rolled your eyes, not sure if he could see it or not, and threw him onto your shoulder again. Venom was quiet.
Okay, so you killed a guy. Sure, he was a thug, but if you kill a killer, doesn’t the amount of killers in the world stay the same? Maybe if you killed a lot of killers, the numbers would be better. …No, wait, you are thinking too much on this. Focus on the bad guy you have right now, and you will figure everything else out later.
You walked to the streets, watching a few cars drive by even though it was so late. Well… You assumed it was late. You realized you haven’t seen the time since you woke up. You’ve never seen New York so quiet before, so one could assume. You started heading deeper in the city, almost enjoying the quiet. There was a few people walking together on the sidewalk in your direction, but once they saw you coming they immediately jaywalked to get to the other side and continued minding their own business. Smart.
After walking a block in silence other than the man grunting every time you adjusted him on your shoulder, you realized you had no idea where the police station would be in this part of New York. You stopped walking and you could feel the man tense up in your grip. “Hmmm…” You hummed, looking down the streets, looking for any hint of a direction. “Hey thug. You know where the cops are?” You felt him shake his head. He could easily be lying, but you didn’t feel like trying to interrogate him for just a location.
While looking for signs for the police station, you noticed some payphones built into one of the sides of a building, and that would be good enough. You walked up to them and threw the man down next to them, who let out a ooph at the impact. You quickly tapped the receiver on the phone to see if there was any extra change still in it, but no such luck.
“You have a quarter?” You nudged the man with your foot, rolling him to his back. You saw him staring up at you with the most bewildered face.
“…What kind of fuckin monster are you?” He asked, and you suppose yeah that was fair.
“The new kind, not from here.” You bent close to him and started digging through his pockets as he started to struggle against the tendrils again, but they seemed to be much stronger than they looked. Your massive hands were too big for his pockets, only managing to reach in with just your finger and thumb. Lets see… a bag of weed, wallet, extra clip, loose bullets. No change. “What, you never heard of a cell phone?” You grumbled, making sure his pockets were empty.
“Haven’t you?” He snapped back, not enjoying the pat down. You huffed and opened the wallet, seeing an id along with two hundred dollar bills and a few twenties. You felt your eyes widen looking at the cash, unbelieving that someone would be holding more than half of your weekly paycheck just on their person. You pulled it out and instinctively brought it close to your chest, meeting a dark tendril to pull it into the darkness of your body.
That is handy, and also gave you an idea. You tossed the empty wallet onto the thug’s face and got close to the payphone, jabbing a finger in the pay slot. You could feel Venom’s tendrils gush through the opening and search out change. When you pulled your finger back, a quarter followed. Very handy. You put the quarter in the payphone and called the number you knew for the police.
It rang twice before someone answered. “New York City Police, 6th Precinct. How may I assist?”
You cleared your throat and hunched into the phone. “Yeah hey. I uh, caught a bad guy. I’m new to town so I’m just going to leave him by these payphones. Cool?” You heard the person on the other side of the phone react.
“Sorry, what was that?” They asked, voice slightly louder.
“There was a guy trying to shoot someone else, so I stopped him. You are welcome.” You looked down at the thug, and he was back to struggling against the bindings. “I’m getting tired though, so like, I don’t want to keep looking around to find the station, so I’ll just be leaving him at these payphones. Don’t worry, I’ll knock out the guy for you.” The thug looked up at you at that. “Lets see… I’m at… Wait where am I?” You looked back at the corners of the streets, seeing the signs down the road a bit. You surprised yourself at the fact you were able to make out the details. “Right so that’s ah…. Gones- Ganesvroot. Gansevoort? Whatever- street. And W 13. Oh, west 13, yeah. Those streets.” There was a moment of silence before they spoke up again.
“Someone is on their way. Please stay-”
“Nah.” You hung up. “Alright thug, gonna knock you out now. Be good with the police and all that.” You grabbed the man by his collar again and held him up, and he started thrashing again. “Come on, don’t be like that. You were bad and now you are getting your just desserts.” You tried comforting him, but he spat at you instead. You sighed. Hey, at least you tried.
Your fist cracked against his cheekbone, and he stopped struggling. You held him a moment and looked closer, worried for a second that you might have killed him. Holding a hand in front of his nose you barely felt his breath, which was better than nothing. “Nice.” You propped him up against the payphones, struggling to keep him from just ragdolling onto the ground every time you let go. “Not nice. Come on, work with me here.” You continued trying to place him properly for a few minutes until the flash of red and blue appeared behind you, and you saw a police car silently driving in your direction. You expected sirens, so you weren’t looking out for them.
Letting the body fall to its own accord, you quickly leapt up and webbed away from the scene as you heard a shout call out from behind you.
The speed and excitement from swinging between the buildings still made you smile, though this time you weren’t cheering out loud. You had a lot on your mind, and you had trouble organizing your thoughts at the moment. You also had no idea where you were going.
Home.
Venom’s voice offered, and you were thankful that they knew where the two of you were going. You never seen New York at this perspective, and you were still new enough here that you relied on your phone’s gps for nearly everything at this point. Though eventually buildings started to look familiar, and your apartment complex came into view.
You leapt into the air, turning gracefully and jumping onto the brick wall. You dug your nails in and quickly climbed up to your window, noticing the crack on the sill, and slipped in. You took a deep breath as you stood in your apartment, looking around before bringing a hand to run through your hair.
You blinked, noticing that you actually felt your hair now.
Looking at your hands, you saw the blackness pull away from your limbs and slowly form into your pajamas once more, immediately making you feel warm and comfortable once more. You took a step and felt a slight crinkle in your pocket, and when you reached in the money from earlier was in it.
We did good tonight.
“Yeah, okay, about that.” You turned around in your room with a raised finger, as if trying to talk to someone else. You needed a face to talk to, unfortunately there wasn’t exactly any posters hanging in your room anymore. You notice your reflection on the glass of your turned off tv. Good enough. “We need to talk about killing that guy. Not cool.”
He was not an innocent.
“I get that, but really we don’t know for sure how grey he was, you know? He wasn’t evil, that’s for damn sure. He was just… mugging that guy? I guess? Holy shit we didn’t even ask what they were doing.” You realized, bringing a hand to your head. Heroes in tv shows made everything seem so much easier than real life.
He was ready to kill. Punishment fit the crime.
“He had a gun, doesn’t necessarily mean he was going to use it.” You pointed a finger at your reflection. “It might have just been there for intimidation for all we know.”
He shot us.
Ah, you forgot about that. You dropped the finger and stared at the reflection. “Okay… Yeah I get that. …Huh. You kinda got a point there.” You vaguely motioned with your hands and walked around the room, deep in thought. “He was super antsy and had that itchy trigger finger. If anyone else tried interrupting that scene they would have probably been shot and possibly killed as well.” You reasoned aloud. “Therefore… punishment fit the crime. Huh. Okay Venom, I’ll give that to you. Point one for you.”
Part of your mind felt like it was screaming, still trying to comprehend you killing someone tonight- and the fact that you were rationalizing it. The other part, and honestly the larger of the two however, agreed with Venom. In the end, it probably was the right thing to do. You might have not been a tv show’s definition of “heroic” tonight, but you saved possible innocent lives of getting mixed up in that situation, and that was something.
You stopped walking around. “What was that about eating brains earlier?” You asked, feeling your eyebrows lower slightly.
Didn’t know better. Needed the Phenethylamine.
The long word had no meaning to you. It did shock you that Venom said it, seeing as they seemed to have been keeping their language pretty simple so far. “But… You did eat brains at some point?”
We ate a few, tried not to. Eddie got angry. Don’t like making Eddie angry.
Eddie? You walked over to your laptop and quickly opened it, searching up news relating to Venom. It’s been a while since you’ve looked at actual news, as it used to make you feel too insignificant too often. The only reason you’ve learned about so many heroes and villains around New York was because of small talk in the reception room.
So when Venom popped up as a cannibalistic villain, it hit you like a brick to the head.
That was old us.
Your eyes raced against the words on the screen, reading about Eddie Brock, once a disgraced newspaper writer, turning into a monstrous villain that plagued the city, leaving corpses in his wake.
We got better.
You read about his arrest from years ago, and the list of charges released to the press.
Please.
You scrolled further, seeing more hideous photos of forms of Venom you weren’t shown in the memories.
That isn’t us.
You closed your laptop breathing hard, trying to fully comprehend exactly what you got yourself into. You were really regretting not paying more attention to the news.
They don’t know about the good we did. The innocents we saved.
Maybe not, but how much good did one have to do to clean up that much blood? You brought your face to your hands, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. There was fear of the alien that was attached to you now, sure, but there was a much worse fear turning in your gut.
You just tasted power for the first time in your life, and you knew you wouldn’t be able to give it up.
