Reports & Repertoire

12 Hesitancy to Residency

Things had been different between Eddie and Candy since the unveiling of Venom. There was a degree of uncomfortableness from Candy, but Eddie couldn't blame her. It hurt Venom's feelings but he remained hidden around her more than he wanted to so she would be less reserved. After waking up that next morning to his large and terrifying face, mouth open, enormous tongue lolling over her as he watched her sleep, she screamed and fell out of bed. If Eddie had been awake he would've laughed, so it was probably best he was too tired to notice what was going on until she got back in bed, catching her breath as she and Venom stared at each other. She had a look of uncertainty, his usual slanted eyes now more round with surprise as he closed his mouth and hovered.

"Sorry." he says quietly.

"Wuh-huh?" Eddie grumbles, raising his head from his sleeping position of on his stomach.

"I scared her." Venom says shrinking in size.

"Oh." Eddie rubs his face.

"Could you not like...stare at me so closely when I sleep? I find it unsettling."

"I have not been able to get a close look at you before. I wanted to experience you sleeping because Eddie likes it so much. Should he stop too?" he asks, turning to look at Eddie.

"You watch me sleep?" she turns to Eddie who's rubbing his face and rolling over to his back. Her voice is less tense now. Once again, Venom's honesty checking her hesitation.

"I..uh.." he shrugs. "I mean...sometimes. Yeah." he nods and lays back and shuts his eyes.

Her lips pout, looking over at her established boyfriend and Venom still hovering on the other side of him. She sighs and looks around the room, wanting to feel at ease again with the underlying sweetness of the confession. But it was like there was another person forced into the relationship now and she didn't know them very well and on top of that they weren't even humn. She realizes she hasn't wrapped her head fully around any of this yet. It had only been about twelve hours since Venom's existence had been revealed, so she tries not to be so hard on herself, or the symbiote. She knew he had Eddie's emotions to run off of, and Eddie liked her so he did as well and he was only acting on a less filtered compulsion than Eddie was. So it was sweet...in a very unconventional way.

She swings her head back over to the two boys, if a symbiote could be anything at all, another question for another time, she thinks. She sees venom's head resting on Eddie's stomach, and Eddie yawn, his laugh lines going deep as smacked his lips and looked over at her with his forearm behind his head.

"This is going to take some getting used to....okay?" she addresses them both. "I don't want to seem like I don't like you, but I don't really know you, Venom. And you know a lot about me, so I don't want to like...hurt your feelings or anything. It's not that I don't like you, I just don't know you so I'm not as comfortable as you are with me? Okay?" she says with a hesitant face, Eddie watching her swallow audibly.

He could tell she wasn't having the easiest time with it and he hadn't either at the beginning. "It'll take some getting used to okay, bud? She can't hear you or feel you like I can so it's even weirder for her." he chimes in, looking to Candy to make sure he was understanding what she was trying to say.

"Yeah." she nods, rubbing the back of her neck. "Just a few hours ago I wasn't sure aliens existed and now my boyfriend has one that's bonded with him. That's...my understanding of the universe and my relationship have been turned upside down very suddenly so give me some to process all this and I promise I won't seem as grumpy. Eventually." she shrugs and gives him a cautiously optimistic smile.

"Yeah just give her space man, I know you're excited. But we have to take others feelings into consideration, remember?" Candy watches him so casually lay his hand on the extension of himself, patting it as if it were a common house cat. She wasn't sure if it was endearing or unsettling to her yet. Maybe a little bit of both.