“Thank you, Eddie. That was fun.” Venom states with a happy and satisfied grin as he leaps off of the closest tallest building from Annie’s house. He lands in the small alleyway, seeps back into her as soon as their feet touch the concrete.
“No problem, love.” Eddie replies absentmindedly as she unzips her jacket and straightens out her slightly wrinkled shirt, “A dirty kiddie fiddler on the loose, only to end up in your belly. Happy birthday, V.”
‘I should have torn his dick off first.’ Venom sounds disgusted, then, just as quickly, sounds amused as he adds, ‘That would have been funny.’
Eddie can’t help smirking, shakes her head as she walks those last two blocks over to Anne’s lush house. “That would have been funny, yeah. But also probably somewhat traumatisin’ for the little girl.” She casually points out.
Venom grunts, thinks about her words before he says, ‘Maybe not, though. She had a lot of fight in her for such a delicate little thing. It was very impressive.’ His chuckle echoes in her mind as he asks, ‘Did you see how hard she kicked him in the nuts, Eddie? Or the way she clawed at his face so angrily, he bled all over himself and her? What an adorable little monster. She would make a fine host.’
Eddie scoffs out a laugh. “You scoutin’ for soldiers, too, now, V? Is that what this is?”
‘Of course not. It just felt nice to be thanked for a change. She... she hugged us, Eddie.’
Eddie smiles as she nears Anne’s street. “She did. And she wasn’t scared of you, at all. See? Not all humans are dicks... Just most.”
‘I know, Eddie. If there can be just one who is a good person, there can be many more. You and Annie taught me that.’ Venom states sincerely, then scoffs again as he tells her, ‘And we won’t need to scout for soldiers, Eddie. Even without our son, we stand a good chance. You and I, Eddie, WE could take over the hive. With you, I have the power to do it, but only with you. It’s what Knull’s really afraid of. He knows I can do it, I almost did when I almost beat him. He knows any one of my spawn could hold the power to do the same and much more. Which means Toxin will be his target, too.’
Eddie halts a few yards away from Anne’s house. “Why is he doin’ all this? Can’t we just tell him we have no interest in takin’ over his precious throne?”
‘You’re going to be pissed when I tell you the reason...’ Venom says, voice slightly low and cautious.
Eddie huffs, braces herself. “Just tell me, V.”
‘It’s the very reason he created the first ever symbiote in the first place... at the beginning of time and for a long time after, there was nothing, only darkness and silence. Eventually, when the Celestials finally came into being and got straight to work, their creations of life and light disturbed Knull’s peace and quiet...’
Eddie blinks, stares blankly at Anne’s blood red front door (appropriate for the friends she has.) “Are you actually fuckin’ kiddin’, V? That’s his big master plan for half a trillion years? To go back to fuckin’ sleep?!”
‘I did say you would be pissed when I told you.’ Venom says, voice holding some amusement.
Eddie rolls her eyes. “I need a drink. Pronto. And you better let me get shitfaced for a little while tonight. You can burn it all off once we leave.” She adds with a sweet tone and wide grin, “And you show me this surprise of yours.” She senses his own giddiness, holds back a chuckle.
‘You will love it.’ Venom says, voice fully confident, unlike his insides.
Eddie chuckles then, nods. “OK. But it better not be you askin’ for sexy time again.”
She jokes, and he sounds like he’s joking, too, but also kind of doesn’t when Venom mumbles more to himself, ‘Hm. I may have to rethink the surprise then.’
Eddie scoffs, either way, goes with him being serious, just in case. “Lame. And no. I don’t feel wooed enough yet.”
Venom chuckles at her snooty tone as she finally makes her way up to Anne’s house. ‘Joking, Eddie. Promise... Love you...’
“Uh-huh. Love you, too.” Eddie replies, clearly all too casually for him when he grumbles in her mind and she can’t help smiling fondly to herself as she finally knocks on Anne’s door.
●●●
“Eddie. Venom. Late, as always.” Patrick smirks over at her.
Eddie holds her hands up in surrender for dramatic effect. “Fashionably, though.”
Venom sprouts out from her shoulder, is snooty as he replies to the Detective. “We like to make an impressionable entrance.”
Patrick laughs, and Eddie pouts when she notices him sitting “alone.” She plops herself down on the island stool next to his, arches a brow as she asks, “Toxin not comin’ out to play tonight?”
On cue, Toxin’s little half red, half black noodle-head slowly sprouts out of his host’s shoulder. “Just waiting for the birthday person.”
Eddie smiles fondly at his toothy little grin, chuckles lightly at his words. “‘Birthday person?’”
Toxin nods. “Patrick tells me it is rude to call a lady ‘girl.’ I thought ‘person’ was the safest option.” He explains methodically, as always.
Eddie chuckles, nods her agreement. “Sound logic.”
“Oh, no, no, no.” Anne chimes in with clear disapproval, flute of fizz in one hand as Dan follows with the rest of their drinks on a fancy silver tray. “There will be no sound logic of any kind on this joyous occasion, my dears Eds. Thirty-fiiiive. Halfway to fooorty...” She states in a sweet, but clearly mocking sing-song tone.
“Fuck yooouuu.” Eddie sings back, shoots her a stale grin back.
Anne simply smirks smugly back at her best friend – her sister in another timeline, she’s sure of it. She takes up the stool opposite Eddie and Venom’s adorably noodle-head hovering over her shoulder, as usual. She smiles fondly at them, watches them begin to quietly bicker with one another, as usual.
“Champagne, birthday person?” Dan asks, brow raised with amusement over how fricking bizarre this all is. He places the tray on the island and politely lifts a flute up for her and offers it out to her.
Eddie grins, nods and gratefully takes it from him. “I already feel like I’m bein’ pampered here.”
“Well, it’s your birthday. And we’ve all had a good year, for the first time in a long time, so I say we celebrate like we mean it. Nothing crazy. Just some friends, a little music, some food, a lot of alcohol, and a few birthday gifts.” Anne says with a beaming smile.
Dan offers the other flutes out, even giving one to Venom and Toxin – which, he’s not even going to try to understand how he finds their skinny little arms and inky little hands clasping the flutes just so darn adorable. He shakes his head to himself, plants himself on the stool beside Anne. “How about a toast before we all get wasted?” He suggests with a smile, holds up his own flute and waits.
Eddie nods. “Sure.”
“It better be good. Sweet. Like what you said about us being important to you because we are important to Annie. I liked that.” Venom all but demands his words, eyes narrowed as he waits.
Dan gulps audibly, and both Anne and Eddie have to hold onto their laughter. “OK... and, uh... thank you... I’m, uh, I’m glad you like that...” He nods along with the completely terrifying alien – sometimes, even he forgets this creature could tear him apart in a matter of seconds if he really wanted to.
“V, be nice, asshole.” Eddie pipes up, still holding onto her laughter as she turns to Dan. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him eat you... or do anything life-threatening to you. Promise.” She holds up her free hand, crosses her fingers for him to see.
“I might slap him, if it’s not a good toast.” Venom supplies, no taunting, just complete casual seriousness.
“No, you won’t.” Eddie slaps him upside his inky floating head.
“How dare you?” Venom sounds less outraged than his words would suggest as he then casually takes a small sip of the champagne. “Ooh, fruity!” He takes another couple of sips, ignoring Eddie’s glare on him as he turns back to the others.
“The slapping thing is fine, by the way... it’s better than him eating me... so... yeah... I can live with that...” Dan timidly pipes up after a moment of awkward silence.
Eddie takes a deep breath to calm herself, then calmly tells the Doc, “There will be no more slappin’.” Then, she shoots a brief glare over at her other half.
Venom rolls his eyes with a huff before finally relenting. “Fine.”
“OK, good, can we all just get drunk now?” Anne asks, now just looks bored. She smiles then, because at least it gets the “birthday person” to laugh and smile, gets her fiancé and Patrick to laugh, too. “I’ll take that as a yes. Dan, be a sweetie a put on Eddie’s play list?”
Dan chuckles at her already sozzled little grin, however, sweet, he can never say no to her. “Of course.” He slips off his seat, phone already plugged into the Bluetooth speakers, planted on the counter behind them. Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ comes floating out, and Dan arches a brow over at Eddie, mainly confused, no teasing in sight as he asks, “You sure this is Eddie’s play list, babe?” He chuckles, because he really hopes so, that would just be too funny to him.
Badass Eddie Brock into Taylor Swift.
Anne laughs, and Eddie rolls her eyes, but neither of them even need to answer when –
“Eddie thinks she’s too cool for the wonderfully infectious T. Swift.” Venom states with a snobbish tone, shoots his other half a clear look of disappointment.
Eddie merely rolls her eyes.
Patrick almost bursts out laughing, panics and asks Toxin to help him NOT do that, sighs silently with relief when the sweet symbiote instantly comes to his rescue and quietly takes over all motor functions of his body until Patrick is confident enough to say otherwise.
Dan would love to chuckle along with his future wife, but since the alien isn’t as soft for Dan as he is for Anne, he doesn’t dare to do such a thing, probably never will, even if he spends a lifetime knowing Venom. Instead, he simply nods, doesn’t dare to turn the song off, slowly backs away and slips back onto his stool. “Well –“ He picks up his flute again, clears his throat, looks at Eddie and says, “A toast, to Eddie – the best in her field, the silently sweetest person anybody could ever hope to meet, kind and caring, no matter how much she tries to deny it all the time, a little reckless and wild, but that’s what gives you your edge.” He grins, beams, feels rather relieved when he sees all eyes half weeping. Maybe it’s just the bubbles in the champagne, but he’s taking it as a win. “Happy birthday to our friend, our sister, our family. Happy birthday, Eddie!”
As Dan lifts his flute out to Eddie’s, the others all do the same. There’s a chorus of unevenly synced “Happy birthday, Eddie’(s) and then, for the moment, only the sound of their glasses all lightly clinking together, and after that, their quiet sips – Patrick sipping his own as he finally no longer requires emergency assistance.
Venom is the one to break the perfectly comfortable silence then. “No slaps for you, Daniel. You have outdone yourself.”