‘Why do you bother, Eddie?’ Venom is genuinely curious, no teasing or taunting.
Still, Eddie is left slightly confused. “With...?” She asks, keeps her voice to a low mumble – pretends to look like she’s talking to herself as she types away and hopes to be ignored by everyone... except for the bartender, of course.
‘With these meaningless side articles. Why do you bother with the little jobs? You are Eddie Brock! You’re almost as famous as the Lethal Protector now!’
He sounds proud, which warms Eddie’s heart. However, she still hears the light taunt in his tone, feels it through their bond. “It’s good practice. And I can’t be biased. Makes me feel like a pompous asshole if I refuse a story. And after Drake almost destroyin’ my career, it’s made me a lot more grateful for anythin’ I can get... no matter how famous I become.” She explains as she pauses to lift her half drunk beer bottle to her lips.
‘Very noble.’
He sounds serious enough, but Eddie still scoffs quietly. “Besides, this –“ She points the neck of her beer bottle at her laptop screen (at her half written article.) ”– isn’t what I would call a side article. John was even more vile than Kasady. At least Kasady didn’t pray on young girls. He was just disgustingly in love.” She says with a wrinkle of her nose.
Venom would be frowning if he wasn’t tucked so warmly inside her every cell right now. ‘Do you think being in love is disgusting, Eddie?’ He hates how stupidly insecure he feels as he asks, but he also feels he has to ask.
Eddie smiles softly, slowly places her now empty beer bottle back onto the bar. “No, V. That’s not what I meant.” She chuckles over how sweetly unsure he sounds. “I just meant those two in particular were disgusting.”
Venom hums in agreement, immediately feels at ease by her words. ‘I don’t blame my spawn for hating that awful woman. Literally the worst luck of a symbiote to connect with a host who’s in love with someone that can instantly vaporise them.’ He shivers, and knows Eddie feels it when she shivers, too. Then, he simply can’t help purring a little when she lets him hear that pretty little laugh of hers (no matter how quiet, he can always hear it.) ‘She was very creepy, Eddie... I am glad you love me the most.’
Eddie chuckles, shakes her head. “Me, too, actually. Even before I met you, I’d already sworn off men forever. No more psychotic boyfriends for me, thank you. Gimme a human brain lusting alien over any of that old shit any day of the week.” She sighs, grins triumphantly as she adds, “Havin’ you also means Anne tries less and less to set me up with any more weirdos and borin’ old farts.”
‘Todd wasn’t so bad. A little twitchy, and yes, quite boring. But he was nice.’ And Venom really means that.
Still... he wishes with all his soul (if he even has one) to be the only one who belongs to her.
Eddie would be surprised by his words. Instead, she chuckles, because – “You only liked Todd ‘cause of the chocolate desserts he used bring us.”
‘He was so rich, Eddie. He could have bought us our own chocolate shop! And OK – he didn’t exactly fuck like a sailor, but –“
“He literally just used to rub himself against us like a stiff corpse!” Eddie exclaims, eyes rolling at the group of men looking her way from the other end of the bar. She turns her attention away from them quickly, wants to stay ignored. She glares at her laptop screen when she hears Venom laughing his stupid ass off. “You’re a fucktwat.” She grumbles, grabbing her second, untouched beer and gulping down half the bottle.
Venom doesn’t have time to reply with a witty comeback when he notices them starting to slowly move closer. ‘Incoming, Eddie.’
Eddie side glances long enough to see two of the group of five men making their way over to her. “Oh, for fuck sake.” She mutters, clearly exasperated as she tips her head back with a sigh. She quickly presses the save button and closes her laptop. Though, she keeps her beer in hand, takes a few leisurely sips as she waits. ‘Don’t make a scene, V. This is the cheapest place for beer and I would like to return.’
‘Very well.’ Venom agrees, then, sounds devilishly excited as he asks her, ‘Want me to show you how to fight now, Eddie?’
‘Yes, please... just... let them start it, or we’ll still be gettin’ barred afterwards.’
‘Done.’
“Whoa.” Eddie suddenly sees the men in her mind, attacking her, then, swiftly followed by seeing images of various ways to counter their attacks.
“‘Whoa’ is exactly right, baby doll, ‘cause you are definitely the prettiest thing in here. How ‘bout my friends and me take you for a wild ride, sugar tits? Maybe we can test out that pretty little mouth of yours?”
Venom scoffs, almost laughs. ‘Is he serious? Eddie... is he serious right now?’
Eddie also fights back the urge to laugh at both the man and the alien’s words. “That is literally the gayest thing I have ever heard.” Eddie knows a homophobic racist piece of shit when she sees one. Good, she thinks, it’ll be way easier to piss them off than she had hoped.
“I ain’t no fag.” The guy huffs out after sharing a glare with his idiot friend.
Eddie scoffs as she turns her head to face him. “Then, why do you talk like someone who loves gettin’ blown by guys in prison?”
He stares between Eddie and his friend, both men looking rather shock (what a shocker, Eddie thinks.) He then, glares murderously at her before angrily growling out, “You smartass little whore!”
Venom didn’t know how satisfying it could be to watch Eddie be so violent... he definitely would have suggested it a whole lot sooner... mainly because she seems to enjoy it almost as much as he does.
Eddie head-butts the guy as he lurches forward to grab her – it’s one of her favourite moves, symbiote, or not, though, it hurts a whole lot less when you’re almost indestructible. He stumbles back with a pain groaned just as his friend shoots her a shocked look and then lunges for her, too. Eddie swiftly glides out of her chair, grabs him by the back of the neck and uses his forward motion to slam his head into the bar.
The first guy grabs a fistful of her hair, yanks her head back just as Eddie grabs the empty beer bottle and smacks it into his face. He scrambles away from her with a scream and then, the other three men are all suddenly flocking towards her. She grabs the second one behind her when he grabs onto her shoulders, latches her hands onto his arms and easily swirls him around. She slams him into the first two charging at her, sucker punches him in the stomach when the two behind him just barely manage to catch him. The three of them all go flying back and Eddie feels her blood pumping with adrenaline and excitement.
The one still picking glass out of his face charges at her, while the last one just looks on in pure horror at her. Eddie grabs “glass face” by the crotch (literally) squeezes so very painfully hard as he freezes and lets out a disgruntled yelp. She squeezes even harder and he wails. She feels something warm and wet, doesn’t know if it’s piss or blood... or both.
Eddie takes a moment to glance around at the other three men all groaning loudly in pain and practically rolling around on the floor in pathetic little heaps. She glances around the people watching, some shocked and others she can actually see laughing and smirking with satisfaction. Thankfully – she thinks – this old pub is mainly full of over 30s, which means nobody’s filming her on their phones.
‘Outstanding, Eddie!’ Comes Venom’s exceedingly proud voice.
‘Meh. A 5 year old could take these morons.’
Venom hopes the challenge he hears in her voice means that she’ll want to do this again sometime... hopefully really soon, because he is quite aroused right now...
“Wasn’t this you and your boys’ plan all along? Get me to touch your teeny weeny little peenys?” Eddie smirks as she squeezes just that little bit harder and he groans loudly in utter pain fuelled horror.
“OK! We’re fucking sorry! Please, just stop! FUCK!” He yells out even louder when she squeezes even harder, almost enough to fucking pop something VERY important.
‘Pathetic.’
“Pathetic.”
Eddie lets him go, watches with a small smirk as he grabs his poor crotch and shuffles off as fast as he can. She turns back to the bar, grabs her laptop and shoves it quickly into her bag. However, she’s instantly freezing when the whole bar suddenly erupts into claps and cheers, some turning to woops and mocking laughter as the other four men all go rushing out with shameful looks on their faces.
Venom is so very proud right now... and still aroused... stupid Eddie.
“Oh, fuck...” Eddie mutters as she turns to face them with a sheepish smile and a stupid salute. She quickly turns back to the bar to get her bag when the cheers and clapping finally dies down.
‘WHERE are you going? They love you!’ Venom hisses in her thoughts, both outraged and confused.
‘We don’t need that kind of attention.’ Eddie realises how pathetic it sounds, knows Venom does, too, even before he scoffs.
‘I’m sure you would have thought of that BEFORE you literally struck them all down like ugly little bowling pins.’
‘I deeply regret teachin’ you about sarcasm.’
Venom simply hums nonchalantly.
Eddie glances at the sudden beer being presented to her. Her eyes swiftly lift to see the pretty blonde bartender smiling sweetly at her.
“On the house.” She grins when Eddie shoots her a confused look. “Those assholes have been making trouble in here for months. Us girls don’t feel safe around here with sleaze balls like that. So... thank you.”
“Oh...” And here Eddie was thinking she was about to get barred from the only place she’s ever liked hanging out in (that isn’t her apartment... Venom’s right, she really is a hermit.)
‘You really are. But it’s cute.’
Eddie ignores his teasing as she answers the bartender. “Well... no problem... idiots like that need to learn boundaries.”
The bartender shoots her another sweet smile as she’s being called over by another customer.
‘Let’s follow them home and eat them!’
“Now you’re just bein’ greedy, V. I let you eat THREE people last night! I’m not stupid! I know that’s enough to sustain for at least two weeks!” Eddie mutters, narrows her eyes as she swipes up the beer and takes a sip.
Venom huffs, but mutters, ‘Fine.’
●●●
Later that night, Eddie is on the verge of falling asleep in bed, while Venom’s noodle-head floats above the end of her bed – where her laptop is perched for him to watch his favourite shows.
Just like she told Venom – she doesn’t really know where these questions or ideas revolving around him seem to come from, only knows they just come to her, “off the cuff.” She cracks her eyes open, smiles when hears him chuckling quietly as he watches whatever episode of Friends he’s got playing on the lowest volume (bless him, she knows he has sensitive hearing, but also knows he keeps the volume down just for her – because they’ve tried all kinds of headphones for him and none seem to stay on properly or comfortably.)
“V?”
Venom turns his floating head to face her, suppresses a shiver at her adorably sleepy voice. “Hm?” He hums softly back, knows she’s half asleep.
Eddie turns onto her side to look at him, eyes a little more open as she presses her cheek into her warm pillow. “Would you let me do an article on you?” She knows she sounds nervous, doesn’t know what his reaction will be, but she still manages to continue. “I'd have to leave out the part about you needin’ a host, for both our safety, of course, but I just...” She smiles when she sees he looks slightly surprised. “I want people to know you like I do... and not just as some big scary monster that eats people... you’re anythin’ but a monster, Venom...”
Venom slowly floats closer, floats down beside her so that she doesn’t have to move at all. “You want to write about me?” He somehow saves his voice from almost cracking. He feels... touched? Is that the word?
Eddie smiles softly at that deep look of insecurity written so clearly over such an alien face (though, no longer alien to her, anything but.) She nods, replies with, “I do, yeah. There’s still so much I don’t even know about you... thought this would be a good way to start... y’know... if you want?”
Venom cannot help the stupid grin that spreads across his face. And even if it means going through memories he would rather just forget, he’s still excited over her wanting to know more about him. “I would like that very much, Eddie.”