Forevermore

Acceptance for Difference

The next few days were calm, which was good. The days consisted of (M/N) and Tony hanging out whether it was in the living room or the lab. Tony finally got Venom to let him do a little test to see what he was made of, (M/N) was checked over by a pediatrician, and a few walls were knocked, built, and (M/N)'s room was put together. 

It all had been simple really, and Tony was thankful. He and (M/N) got along great, and the kid was starting to call him Dad every once and while. Every time it happened his heart felt as if it had stopped, but it wasn't fear to jab at him, it was happiness. 

Pepper, who had noticed that he was increasingly happy around (M/N), started to put together little things they could do together, like little walks around the central park, a couple of educational things, but overall it was fun. 

(M/N) was bright, extremely intelligent and ready to learn anything, but he seemed to have a special place in his heart for anything about the ocean. For hours the two of them would binge Animal Planet and shows about animals, Venom coming out to question if he could eat some of the things on TV, Tony also wondering if he could. But this is how things slowly cracked a bit before it restored itself stronger than ever.

It had been a cold morning, or at least it was cold to Tony. (M/N) was gone, probably in the bathroom, but Tony'd become used to the mass amount of heat the young boy put off now that he was eating normally. With blurry eyes Tony looked over to the clock, finding that it was around 7 AM, far earlier than (M/N) normally got up even for the bathroom.

Confused, and a tad bit tense, Tony pulled himself from the bed, pulling a hoodie over his cold frame. The floor was still dark, quiet, all things you would expect from a horror movie around a jump scare. Peeking out of the room Tony found that the hallway was also dark, the only light coming from the living room, which looked to be the light from the TV.

Him and (M/N) had already had this talk, about how he couldn't just watch TV all day, but he'd never really seemed to want to watch it by himself. Shuffling along the cold floor Tony walked into the living room, finding that (M/N) was actually asleep, cocooned in a mass of blankets and Venom. Said alien was the one watching the TV.

It was still Animal planet, this episode about lions or something of the like, big cats Tony guessed. Moving to stand next to Venom and (M/N) he watched as the black mass rippled around, like water, Venom's head right next to (M/N)'s. It was sort of cute if you can call a mass of black goop and sharp teeth cute. 

"What are you doing up so early?" Tony asked, moving to sit next to his son and alien. Venom rippled a bit more before a bit of him slipped off, moving to wrap around one of Tony's hands. This was normal now, the Symbiote liked to hold hands, and Tony thought it was sweet so he let the alien.

"I was hungry," Venom growled out, but he sounded almost apologetic... Looking away from the TV Tony found that Venom was looking at the ground as if he was apologetic. "The chocolate isn't enough, I need more phenethylamine," Venom continued, and Tony could practically see that he didn't really want to talk about this.

"What do you mean," Tony asked softly, "how much more do you need?" He watched the black mass ripple as if it was shrugging. "A lot more," Venom said, and it was soft, soft in a way you would speak as if expecting rejection.

"Chocolate is not a good source of phenethylamine," the alien continued, "but people are." The world around them seemed to freeze at those words, but Venom just kept on pushing forward. "I only eat bad people, (M/N) would get mad if I ate people that didn't deserve it, and I make sure they deserve it."

Confused, Tony rubbed at his forehead, he'd only been up for about 20 minutes and this was already a train wreck. He knew Venom was afraid he'd freak out, considering one of their very first true conversations were about the fact that (M/N) was happy here and he didn't want to fuck it up for the young boy.