How'd You Do That? (Venom 2018, male)

[SterlingSilver]

A/N: Yeah okay. I'm one of the people who saw Venom (2018) and I'm one of the people who liked it LOL. The whump Eddie endures, all feverish and confused and helpless, in need of protection, like a giant puppy dog.. too good not to explore haha~ And now I'm here, writing weird shit about this fandom. For any of you die-hard Marvel fans, apologies if this is OOC or inaccurate to the deeper, comic lore!

I feel compelled to mention that this is GEN. No romance in this. There is also no gore/violence. Just some snez.

WARNINGS for swear words, mentions of eating people (come on it's Venom, but nobody is actually eaten I promise!!), and descriptions of Venom moving through Eddie's body (does it count as body horror..??). If you're at all freaked out about the concept of an alien parasite that likes eating people and the whole body-sharing situation thing, this fic might not be for you.

How'd You Do That?

The first time it happens, it's been close to three weeks since he and Venom reunited.

Right now, it's touch and go for the two of them. Yeah, Eddie's glad they're back together - those moments after the rocket exploded, alone, truly alone in the churning, cold water, not really understanding what he'd lost until it was gone, had been hell - but it's not exactly easy having a roommate in his BODY. They have to share it, which results in some weird arguments between them. Nothing too major; mostly it's the food thing: Venom doesn't care for most of the junk Eddie shovels down his gullet, and Eddie's... well, Venom's idea of a good meal doesn't sit so well with him either.

But hey, they're making it work. Venom's gotten better about spooking Eddie in public, and Eddie's better at eating regularly, sleeping regularly, generally doing what he can to keep his body in good shape. They're working on the whole communication part of the relationship, so for better or worse, Venom's gotten more talkative (if that was possible). Eddie has to consciously work to keep himself sane-looking when he walks the streets. Muttering under his breath to himself, or worse, having a full-blown conversation at normal volume, looks pretty damn suspicious. He's taken to keeping an earpiece in when he's walking around town on errands or on an assignment, pretending he's on the phone. 

One day, Venom claims, they will be able to communicate through their minds alone. Eddie is doubtful.

So anyway, the first time it happens it's been close to three weeks, they're in a library digging for old news clippings, and when Eddie squats down and yanks open one of the archive drawers to peer in, a plume of dust puffs up around him. He turns his head away, blinking the grit out of his eyes, and his jaw goes slack. His wide nostrils flare out even wider, fitful, and he doesn't fight it. Just lets the tickle fill his nose to the brim, and he snaps his head toward his shoulder.

".. hh- 'DDShht!! –uhh.."

It's wet, and there's power in it. Eddie pinwheels his arms to try and keep his balance, and would have literally sneezed himself onto his ass if Venom hadn't pearled a couple tentacles out of his spine and planted them to the ground to steady him. Eddie casts a few glances just to be sure no one saw, before sniffling, pinching, rubbing, and snubbing his nose while he rolls back onto the balls of his feet and puts a hand on the drawer for balance. 

"Thanks, bud."

Venom retracts. Eddie squirms slightly as he feels Venom pool around his abdomen, then slither between the crevices of his organs. He still hadn't totally gotten used to it, and unlike the first couple days of them sharing space, Venom has grown more active. And curious. He only has Eddie to talk to when they aren't suited up, busting balls on the streets. When Eddie's concentrating on something else or in conversation with somebody else, it's common for Venom to offer commentary. It's harder to focus when Venom does that, but Eddie can't blame him. He's social, needs company, just like Eddie does.

When Venom isn't chatting or eating, he's exploring Eddie. Which... eh. Mostly he does it when Eddie's asleep, and the only reason Eddie knows this is because he once woke up twitching and laughing when Venom unintentionally found a ticklish spot somewhere inside him last week. Weird as hell, and absolute torture for Eddie who had to choke his way through an explanation as to what being ticklish was and why the sensation was horrible and why Venom should fucking stop it. They've had a few conversations like that, about the human body and all the strange, awkward, useless shit it does.

Little does he know, they're about to have another talk right now.

Eddie.

"Yeah?" he asks, yanking out a packet of yellowing paper, scanning, and shoving it back into one of the many folders again.

What was that?

"Look, it's hard to stay balanced like this." He glances down at his bowed legs, testing his posture again, clenching his core. "We'll do some yoga or somethin'."

No, growls Venom, curling through Eddie's chest cavity. Eddie reaches up to rub the area just over his lungs, clearing his throat. That feels like painless heartburn. That noise.

"Oh. I sneezed."

Sneeze.

He sniffles at the memory of it, using the cuff of his jacket to itch at his nostrils. "Some dust got up my nose and it tickled, I guess."

Venom prickles with interest. Tickle?

"NO," Eddie barks, then flashes a strained smile to the woman who had just walked over to a neighboring filing cabinet. She scowls and hurries away. Lovely. Huffing and hunching back over his drawer, he continues under his breath, "Not that kind of tickle. There will be no tickling. Don't even think about it."

Hmmm.. Venom swirls through the slats between his ribs, dangerously close to that dumb ticklish spot he'd discovered last Tuesday, but he doesn't pounce. The weight of him is soothing as he sticks comfortably to Eddie's bones. Do it again.

"I can't," Eddie says, thumbing through the files. It had to be here somewhere.. Venom flares inside him, annoyance dripping down Eddie's spine, and he shudders. "Hey, don't get pissy, I don't have to right now. Sneezing's not the kind of thing I can do on command-..ah-HA!"

He rips out the packet he's been looking for, an old medical court case from the 60s that will help substantiate his story on a crooked hospital downtown. Pushing up onto his feet and kicking the cabinet closed, Eddie shoves the papers under his arm and crosses to the photo-copier, his conversation with Venom all but forgotten.

Venom, for his part, lets it drop. But he doesn't forget.

+     +     +

Two weeks after that, Eddie's having dinner with Dan and Anne at their place. If it were up to Eddie, Dan wouldn't be here. If it were up to Venom, Dan would be a nice midnight snack. They've had a stupid amount of conversations about why it's not okay to eat Dan. Venom still doesn't totally get it, but he's agreed not to for Eddie and Anne's sake. Neither of them know Venom's back with Eddie, and Eddie has zero intention of telling them. Not right now, when he and Venom are still figuring everything out.

It's nippy outside, warm in the apartment, the air filled with the aroma of spiced meat. Venom prefers his meat alive, but they're both so hungry that this is enough. The symbiote has been chanting FOOD FOOD FOOD for the past fifteen minutes, and it's getting challenging to hear anything Anne is saying to him. He's got his chin propped up on his hand, elbow to the table, squinting at Anne, nodding as she talks with no clue what she's talking about, bouncing his leg in irritation all the while. When Dan slides the full plate of tenderloin, mashed potatoes with gravy, and buttered squash right under his nose, Eddie cannot control himself. Rather, he cannot control Venom.

He tears into it with so much vigor that Dan nearly loses his hand.

"Eddie, jeezus!" Anne jolts, reproachful and she's got that twinge of concern in her brows again, that look that has never entirely left her since the afternoon he spent getting sedated in a lobster tank.

"Sorry," Eddie slurs around bites of food, unable to stop Venom's pace but determined to play this off best he could without choking himself to death. He times his comments and keeps them short. "... so hungry.. really good!"

Dan sits down with a nervous laugh, cautioning him to slow down while Anne fretfully demands to know if he's eating enough at home. He is almost numb to the embarrassment of Venom-inspired outbursts, but he'll never get over the notion that Anne (and Dan, he reluctantly admits) give a shit about him. Both of them did their best to help before, and do the same now. He's got no idea how to thank them for it, but Eddie does his best. Tries to be polite, respectful, not to be petty and jealous whenever he sees them together. Once Venom has gotten through the first tenderloin, Eddie appeases him by immediately asking for seconds and manages to wrest control from the symbiote to eat at a slower, more civilized pace. With Venom puddling with content at the pit of Eddie's stomach, he can swear the symbiote is purring. There's a vibrating hum in his abdomen he's not going to question.

He's mumbling and shrugging his way through an explanation of his latest freelance assignment when he feels it. Gotta sneeze. He tucks a fist under his nose, staving off the urge long enough to swivel from the table. Venom perks up and the sensation of him bubbling up into Eddie's chest, cuddling against his lungs, is enough to stay the tickle in its tracks for a moment. It still itches him, his expression weak, watery eyes peeling open as his nostrils pulse insistently against his forefinger.

"Eddie?" Anne prompts.

"Jussa sec," he breathes, welling his eyes shut as he feels the tickle crawl deeper into his nose. His lungs spasm with an aborted exhale. ".. uhh.."

Eddie? Venom this time, inching up higher inside his chest, spreading out against the muscles roping his shoulder blades. They tense. Sneeze?

He nods, helpless, and crunches in on himself as he directs it away from the table. "..h'JJSHHT! –uh.." It feels so good, but it’s not enough. The tingling aftermath swells, the tide dragging the tickle up the length of his nose until Eddie can't stand it. He buckles. "..h'JJZSSST'uhh!!"

The vocalization of the end is born from the weary strength he always puts into his sneezes; the sound is relieved, sighing, and heavy as he blinks open his eyes. He feels better for them, if a little winded, and whatever caused them is gone. Dan holds out an extra cloth napkin, which Eddie declines, preferring instead to sniffle up whatever he needs to while Anne eyes him.

"Bless you, Eddie."

"Whew, somethin' got up my nose just then," he says, knuckling his nostrils and scooting his chair back up to the table. Then he pauses when he feels Venom traveling a little higher than he usually does. At least, higher than he does when they aren't planning on suiting up and tearing their way through some bad guys. The symbiote has spidered and seeped up the back of his neck now, creeping around, as if looking for something. Eddie feels it so keenly he shivers, rubbing a palm along his nape like it’s sore.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, just slept on my neck weird last night."

Anne sighs, giving him the patented what am I going to do with you expression he used to get back when they were engaged. He aches seeing it here with Dan right next to her, giving him an expression that almost feels similar. If Dan didn't make her as happy as he does, if Dan wasn't as good a person as he is, Eddie thinks he might try harder to win her back. But that's not how things are. He shoves the past out of his head, pastes on a smile, and scoops up another spoonful of peas. 

"Any crazy cases in the ER today, doc?"

Dan takes off on a thrilling play-by-play of his day at the hospital; that is to say, he cheerfully regales them on some old lady’s bypass that went particularly well and leaves out all the invasive, bloody details. He’s like a preschool teacher, Eddie thinks, half-listening, shoveling bites of juicy, juicy tenderloin down his gullet on auto-pilot. Annie could chew this guy up and spit him out if she ever wanted to. She’s got a master’s degree in heart-stomping, as Eddie has painfully learned.

Venom’s still tooling away at the back of his head. His presence trickles up around his temples, just beneath the thin skin there, and Eddie sinks more heavily into his chair. Damn, that actually feels kind of good. A dinner-and-a-half’s worth of food in him coupled with the fact his body exerts enough energy to support two lifeforms yields predictable results: he’s sleepy. But Eddie shifts in his seat, frowns to himself, nods to Dan’s stories or Anne’s occasional add-ons, and wills his eyes not to close for too long.

It’s.. nice. Weird sometimes, but nice. It’s going on a year since Anne broke it off, and while it still stings to see her so happy without him, their friendship feels more and more natural by the day. One day, he thinks, it might feel comfortable.

Eddie comes to complete and startling awareness a moment later when he feels Venom surf up the lining of his throat. It feels like choking on food, even if it only lasted a fleeting moment, and Eddie drops his fork with a clatter. He snatches a napkin and holds it to his mouth, succumbing to a fit of harsh coughing. Please don’t gag, please don’t gag, shit, don’t gag!! Eddie manages not to gag, but he’s red-faced and teary-eyed when he’s finished.

Someone’s rubbing his back. After scrubbing his face against his shoulder and clearing his throat, he turns and realizes with a sinking disappointment that it’s not Anne doing it. Now he’s just embarrassed.

“Whoa, Eddie, easy,” Dan’s saying, smoothing his hand to gently grip Eddie’s shoulder. “I told you to slow down.”

“Yeah, uh..” Eddie flashes a bashful grin when his voice sort of squeaks, still tight and a little hoarse from all the coughing. “Went down the wrong pipe.”

This is the worst time to attempt a conversation with Venom, but Eddie grits his teeth and hopes the symbiote can feel how annoyed he is. If he wants to do some deep-dive exploring, he can do it later when Eddie has the freedom to walk him through it. He waits for some kind of response and gets none. Venom has abandoned his throat entirely, huddled somewhere between his ears. He can’t really tell. But yeah, the radio silence isn’t a good sign; it means Venom’s thinking pretty hard about something.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asks Anne, with that slight pinch between her brows. Eddie grabs up his fork and uses it to wave her off.

“I’m doin’ just fine, look at me!” They look at him, and do not seem convinced. He doubles down. “I’m eatin’ a warm meal with a pair of great people, what could..”

Eddie stalls out like a bad engine, suddenly aware of a pressurized sensation sloshing into the cavities of his sinuses. It’s Venom, that hitchhiking, body-snatching dumbass who’s really got no business investigating the recesses of Eddie’s mucus sacs. Why the hell would he even want to? Venom is generally honest about all the things Eddie’s body does that disgust him – which is a surprising amount of things – and his sinuses check the boxes to be one of them. The presence of Venom’s weight filling his sinus cavities starts to irritate the lining. Very quickly, Eddie can feel his face start to ache. Fucking fantastic.

Dan and Anne are still staring at him, both wide-eyed. Annie’s lips part on the beginning of a word, but Eddie doesn’t let her get that far.

“ - what could be better?!” he finishes with a vigor that makes them jump, as if he’d only been on pause and had picked up right where he left off. “Seriously, you guys feed u-uh.. me so good, I look forward to this dinner all month.”

Whoops. Worry paints both their faces, as if on cue. Eddie backtracks.

“N-Not that I don’t eat good usually! I mean, hah, wow, that came out weird, what I just said..”

There’s a headache brewing behind his eyes, courtesy of the Venom soup currently clogging his sinuses. His nose is clear, but the thick feeling behind and under his eyes prompts him to sniff on instinct. He can hear that his voice is gradually losing its resonance, duller and duller as he speaks. What the hell is Venom DOING in there?!

“Yeah, look, I got jobs lined up for years, everybody wants a piece of Eddie Brock nowadays, I can afford fancy food, I just, well, cooking isn’t my thing, ya know..”

He stalls again, catching himself on a swallow when he feels Venom threading delicate tendrils out from his sinuses and into the inside of his nose. While he has no way of knowing it for sure, that’s the only thing it could be. He hadn’t walked in here with a cold and a sudden allergy to Mr. Belvedere is unlikely. That is Venom in there, dripping himself through the sensitive, nerve-riddled openings of his maxillary sinuses. And it tickles like hell.

Eddie, as Eddie is wont to do, takes it in stride, buckles down, and soldiers on.

“Anyway, all I’m tryin’ to say is I’m fine, you two wohh.. worry too much.”

He blinks fast, wrinkling his nose, sniffling hard and feeling the air suction against the thin strings of Venom’s body. They waver, teasing against the intensely sensitive area between his sinuses and the bridge of his nose, and it nearly takes his breath away. What the fuck is his life. He can’t fathom what Venom is getting out of this, other than trying to sabotage a perfectly good dinner. No more meat and definitely no dessert if he keeps this up. Surely even a symbiote this dense could figure that out.

“I don’t know,” Dan says, neatly slicing a bite-sized piece off his steak. “After everything that’s.. happened, we just want to make sure you’re doing all right. Eating well, getting sleep..”

“And taking a day off when you need it,” Anne interjects, fork in hand but no food on the tines. “You have a habit of overworking yourself. You always have and still do.”

Dimly, Eddie recognizes that he’s truly lucky to have these two in his life to look after him. Without them, there would really be nobody but Venom. He doesn’t have friends, his coworkers are never quite sure of how to take him, and it isn’t like he’s in a relationship. Without Anne and Dan, he’d feel like something deep inside was missing.

Venom is special to him too, of course, even when he was being an absolute shithead. Eddie’s sure of it now. He can’t be making this up. The symbiote is threading silken strands of his ectoplasm down through Eddie’s sinuses, trickling into his nasal cavity. He can swear they’re skating against his septum, the touch of them so delicate and ghostly. But that makes it all the more torturous. The sensation is so foreign and irritating, causing his nostrils to spasm uncontrollably in revolt, that Eddie can’t focus on anything but that feeling.

Eddie. Venom finally speaks into his mind, stroking a feather-light touch deep in his nose. Eddie’s breath shivers, his eyelashes shuttering. Sneeze?

“Eddie?”

Somebody shakes his arm, stirring him out of his stupor. He sniffles, wrinkling his nose and wincing at the intense, wing-fluttering tickle it causes. Giving his head a shake, he pinches and scrubs at the tip of his nose to distract himself from Venom.

“Sorry, yeah? Yes?”

Anne immediately cups a hand to his cheek. His heart stops, eyes widening as he watches her quietly, freezing every muscle in place as if a little bird had perched on him. Venom, not one to be ignored, secretes more of his tiny feelers into Eddie’s nose and begins to explore. Eddie grits his jaw so tight he can swear he feels a tooth crack.

“Well, you don’t feel feverish,” she hedges, moving her hand down to his neck. Eddie huffs a shaky chuckle, not trusting himself to speak. “You’re spacey though. Dan?”

Eddie. It tickles?

Whatever Venom is doing, it tickles something awful. It’s all Eddie can do not to let his expression grow slack with need. From what he can tell, Venom is now using multiple strands of his ectoplasm to tease along the edges of Eddie’s sensitive membranes. They’re growing more irritated by the second, assaulted from all sides. His nose now feels heavy, stuffy as Venom eases more of himself through the opening of his sinuses. Eddie snuffles in reflex, regretting it as the strands vibrate and Venom recoils. The shifts in the plasm stimulate his nerves into a frenzy. Eddie catches a weak sound at the back of his throat.

“Are you feeling woozy?” Dan asks. Eddie cracks open his eyes, not sure when he closed them, and sees the man now sitting in front of him with his dinner forgotten. Aw shit. “If you haven’t been eating enough protein, it could be anemia..”

I get enough protein all right, Eddie thinks deliriously. That’s not the problem.

Tickles a lot, Eddie.

THIS is his problem. This stupid mass of black goo on a quest for the most vulnerable area of Eddie’s nose. As if Venom isn’t satisfied enough with Eddie’s breath and expression in pieces, he’s now determined to find the spot that will totally do him in. Eddie doesn’t even know if he has one of those. Guess they’ll find out.

“Eddie,” Dan says, and now he sounds stern. This is his We’re going to the hospital if you don’t answer me voice. Eddie has heard it before. “Are you going to faint? Can you hear me?”

First he shakes his head, then nods, unsure of which to answer first. Mostly he blinks back tears and gives up on his dignity. “Dno, s’.. s’juss’..”

Here?

Venom curls a thread against the side of his septum wall, and Eddie bristles.

Hmm.. maybe..

A string dangles just at the opening of his sinuses, skirting maddeningly against the damp, quivering walls. Feels like his entire nose is alight, tingling and burning with intent.

“Anne, can you grab the blood pressure monitor from the closet?”

“Is dnot-.. jus’have t-..” Eddie valiantly fights against the hitches in his throat and forces his bleary eyes open, seeing Dan’s worried face. His nostrils have flared into hard-edges, and have been holding strong in anticipation for a few long seconds now. “.. tickles so bahh..”

His eyes sliver closed just as he catches the confused look on Dan’s face. Venom lightly grazes some spot, somewhere tucked along the bridge of Eddie’s nose, and his breath catches loudly in his throat. He breathes like it’s coming, certain he’ll do it, and then the sensation stalls out. He’s going to fucking lose his mind-

Found it, Eddie.

Venom wriggles a strand against that spot and Eddie can’t hope to hold back. The sensation crests over him in one big moment. He throws his head down to his lap and lets it come with all the indulgent abandon of a man who’s been held on the brink for far, far too long.

“EH’DDZZSS'hoo-!”

Oh, it’s wet. Hilariously, he feels the force of it blow Venom out of his sinuses and through his nostrils. He slaps a hand over his nose just before he feels the edges of him dip past the rims. Serves the fucker right, if he’s going to be playing around in there. Venom tries to scramble back up his nose, and the frantic crawling along his hysterical nerves only summons another monstrous sneeze.

“EH’TTZSSCHS'HOO-!”

This one is even stronger. Again, Venom is blasted down against Eddie’s hands (which he keeps cupped over his face) and again he makes a mad dash up toward Eddie’s sinuses. It’s one of the most infuriating, hair-trigger feelings he’s ever felt inside of his nose. Try as he may, Eddie is helpless to it.

“EH’JJZSSS'HOO-!” He rocks forward on his seat, sitting back with a wild, weak gasp. Then he topples forward again. “EH’JJZSSS'HOO-!”

Fuck knows what Anne and Dan are doing. Hopefully not calling an ambulance. How embarrassing would that would be. He can imagine the front page tomorrow: Local Man Sneezes Brain Out of Head, Brain Appears Rotted into Black Goo, No One Surprised.

“C-hhh.. can’d st-.. HEH’DDZSSC'HOO-!” He snuffles out of reflex, slurping Venom halfway up his nasal cavity before breathily cursing himself. “T-Tihh..Tickles too bmuhh.. HIH’DDZSSS'HOO-!”

Whether Venom finally understands the problem and takes mercy on him or if he just chooses the route of self-preservation, Eddie doesn’t care. Whatever the reason, Venom escapes by sinking through his skin and bones into his mouth (extremely gross, but it happens so fast Eddie can barely sense it) before skating down Eddie’s throat like a puddle of slimy honey. It’s awful, but Eddie will take it over the incessant sneezing. He has yet to stop.

With Venom out of the way, he’s now in gentler territory. Every inch of his nose is pissed all hell, but at least the sneezing is scratching the itch properly now. He heaves through a flurry of them, each coming over him as their own force, giving him just enough time to catch his breath for the next.

“.. hh-!...JZSsch’hoo!!” A slow gathering storm, so potent he can’t even open his eyes. “.. heh-!...DSSsch’huh!” Rinse and repeat.

Eddie just keeps his head down, hiding his face and the evidence of his incredible sneezing fit in the palms of his hands. It isn’t until the inside of his nose burns and prickles in grouchy relief that he can finally sniffle without triggering another urge. He hesitantly lifts his head, blinking tears out of his eyes. From the way his face feels, he’s been leaking from nearly all his orifices for a considerable amount of time.

“I’d say bless you,” Dan tells him as he holds out a freshly opened box of tissues, “but I don’t think that would cover it.”

Eddie pants through some winded laughter as he cups a handful of tissues to his nose and tries to blow as quietly as he can. Now that he’s cognizant enough, he’s almost too embarrassed to look at them. Venom shrivels in his gut, causing Eddie the faintest twinge of nausea on top of everything else. He groans into the tissues, scrubbing at his nostrils in a bid to banish what lingers of the tickle. Dan braces a hand on his shoulder, ducking to meet Eddie’s eyes as soon as he finishes up.

“Can I take a quick peek?”

At first, Eddie has no idea what he means. He squints in wordless, stuffy confusion before realization hits. His hand flashes up to his nose.

“Ah, jeez, it’s not..”

“You’ve been off all night,” is Anne’s firm declaration. “Let him have a look, Eddie.”

He can’t deny Anne anything. Venom stirs, barely anything Eddie can track, seeping deeper into his body to a place he can’t feel. Stupid symbiote is sulking now. With a huffing sigh, Eddie adjusts in his chair to face Dan head on.

“Well, I’d be a moron to wave off a free check-up, huh?”

They go through the motions. Dan whips out an otoscope, something he apparently just keeps on his person, and cups a hand against Eddie’s neck to ease his head back. It’s all he can do not to squirm. He does like Dan, the dude’s all right, but Eddie’s never been all that jazzed about doctors. Even before Venom, he’d drag his feet on check ups and try to wait out injuries or illnesses to see if they would clear up on their own. Dan squints up his nose, does a quick one-two glance in his ears, and then sets his instrument aside to press both hands just under Eddie’s jaw. He gently massages the nodes there before sitting back on his heels. Anne hovers nearby, glancing between them. Eddie tries to break the tension.

“What’s the prognosis, doc? Am I gonna live?”

Dan quirks a smile, clapping Eddie’s shoulder a few times. “I think you’ll pull through.”

He uses Eddie as leverage to stand, and the press of his hand to Eddie’s shoulder feels warm. Anne pulls a face at Dan, leaning into Eddie’s space afterward to do her own sort of checkup. It takes all Eddie has in him not to lean backward (or forward, for that matter). He blinks at her and once she realizes how close she’s gotten, she’s turning away too quickly for Eddie to properly catch her eyes.

“Your nose looks thoroughly irritated,” Dan is saying as he starts collecting plates from the table. “It could be a developing allergy, or maybe just something in the air that isn’t agreeing with you. No other symptoms, right?”

“Nope!” Eddie chirps, and he chokes down the rest of his food in a hurry. “Just a really bad tickle. S’gone now.”

Deep inside him, he feels the twinge of shame from Venom. Some petulance too, if he isn’t mistaken. Yeah well, the symbiote can keep sulking. It’s his fault they had to go through that just now, no Eddie’s. Anne still has a critical eye on the two of them, but she doesn’t offer any rebuttal. Seems like Eddie’s in the clear.

But as he helps the two of them clean up dinner, watching them both rinse plates together in the kitchen as Eddie’ wipes the table off, he can’t help but feel full inside with more than just the meal. It sucks sometimes to know Annie’s gone, but seeing her with Dan, well… he can’t hate it. And now it feels like he has not one, but two people looking out for him.

There’s a pinch in his guts, and Eddie grins.

Three.  

/fin!

[SneezyHolmes]

Oh, this was awesome! I'm still a total sucker for Eddie and his space goo menace! I love that Venom is so hellbent on making him sneeze! He's such a little shit!

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by SneezyHolmes

[SweaterWeather]

Ooooh this was absolutely delightful to read! I'll admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of the movie when I first watched it, but after re-watching and reading this fic? A love for the universe has definitely been kindled. 

Also the way Venom absolutely teases Eddie's brains out is so weirdly adorable?? He's just a curious puppy who wants his host to make that kind-of-odd-kind-of-nice feeling happen again, at the worst possible time XD Ugh, and don't even get me started on:

15 hours ago, BlackScatter said:

His wide nostrils flare out even wider, fitful, and he doesn't fight it

Listen. Nostril descriptions just DO something to me, and imagining this was even more than I ever could have loved about this fic already.

And I love Eddie's earbud solution to having conversations with him - that's big brain hours lol. 

[SterlingSilver]

@SneezyHolmes, thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed  I am also a huge fan of the "Venom is a little shit" dynamic hahaha~

@Grey on a Sunday, that is such a kind compliment, thank youuuu ❤️ Hearing that this fic fostered a bit of love for the movie (even though it was kind of objectively trash LMAO) is so sweet >w< I really appreciate it!! And thank you for such thoughtful comments too! I'm just so glad you liked it haha