You're Not the One for Me
Notes: Warning for... non-explicit sex. And violence. And trauma. This does star The Void, after all.
"Bob?"
Norman Osborn stood in the empty Watchtower, though it really was just that - empty. The bed Lindy Reynolds used to sleep on was immaculate, though most of the other furniture had been quickly rearranged, unceremoniously stacked in one of the room's corners. It looked ransacked.
"Are you here?"
He looked to the left, and saw the Sentry hovering in the air outside the window. Bob opened it and reentered.
"Norman," he said, carefully - mildly evasively. "What are you doing in my house?"
"I thought I'd see how you were doing." Norman looked at him, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets. "You've been distant lately. More so, I mean. Nothing is the matter, I hope."
"Everything's the matter," Bob said, looking away from Norman. "I have nothing to…" He opened his hands. "To live for."
"Frankly," said Norman, "I would say quite the opposite. You have everything to live for, Bob. Particularly now. Perhaps your wife committed suicide - a tragedy, don't get me wrong - but what had she done recently to help you? Did she support you? Did she love you? Did she even fuck you?"
Bob's mouth twitched.
"That's enough," he said quietly.
"Think of it this way, Bob. The world is your oyster now. You've seen the people who cheer for us when we fly by, haven't you? There are dozens of other women out there just like her. More lively at that, I'm sure."
Norman sneered and touched his hand to Bob's arm. Bob whipped it away.
"You don't understand! He's here! I can feel him! Without, without, w-with Lindy gone there's nuh-nothing to keep him from, Norman I can't-"
"Can't," Norman said briskly, "or don't want to?"
A tear slid down Bob's cheek, and Norman brushed it away.
"Thought so." He lowered his voice. "I want to see him."
Bob's face darkened, eyes standing out like lit coals. He bowled Norman over onto the bed, hair flowing from his face as if alive. Norman gasped for air, hand gripping his bruised sternum. He had to drop his gaze; staring into the Void's brilliant eyes was like staring into the face of the sun itself.
"You know I never needed you," the Void hissed, swooping closer. Its body gave off heat in waves. "So much ego, and yet all you are is human. What does your intelligence get you when I can kill you with a thought?"
"Bob," said Norman, his forehead damp from sweat. "You're human. Don't kid yourself. You may be more powerful than me, but you have always needed me."
He could feel anger peel off the Void and sizzle in the air. The whole room lost light, sky outside clouding over with thick dark storm clouds. "Never," the Void insisted. Shadows swam in the shape of tentacles from its back, one tendril stabbing through the air, through Norman's chest.
Norman froze, skin whitening, veins standing out starkly. His pupils dilated.
"How is it, remembering how powerless you are? Remembering-"
Norman saw his father, felt his punches, saw the twisted noose that snapped his neck.
"-Weaknesses-"
Emily's death. The blinding sting of his glider piercing his chest. Harry. Kolina. The blank face of a man Norman once knew but did no longer.
"-Distress, failure, there's so much of it-"
Norman's legs kicked out, eyes unglazing as the tendril slid out of him. He panted, staring upward before he closed his eyes against the bright glare of the Void's eyes.
"What would you see?" He wondered aloud, breathing slowly. His fingers gripped tightly to Bob's sheets. "Who did you used to be, Bob? Before. Would you see what came before the Sentry, or what came after?"
The Void recoiled as if struck and Norman sneered.
"Admit it," he continued. "You know you need me. I give you the things you need that you can't get for yourself. I'm what keeps you alive and makes you stronger." He cherished the brief look of confusion that crossed Bob's face, the look that was indisputably Bob's and not the Void's. It only lasted a moment.
"Your fearlessness won't keep you alive forever."
"But it won't be you that kills me." Norman sat up, stroking the Void's cold face. He stole a kiss that burned his lips. "Of course I'm not afraid of you. You're beautiful."
For a creature - a man - made of mostly shadow, the Void's body was incredibly solid against Norman, oily beneath his touch. It caught his tie between its teeth. Norman inhaled slowly, hands flying to undo his shirt buttons. The fabric clung to his skin, damp from the Void's radial heat though its skin was still ice cold to the touch. All the same, Norman yanked at the dark expanse that was its cape covetously. He mouthed "Mine" to the air, not daring speak it aloud no matter how arrogant he was. There was arrogance and there was stupidity.
Instead he simply said, "Give it to me." His arms gripped, his legs wrapping around what would be Bob's waist. "All of it."
"You wouldn't survive all of me," sneered the Void, touching its hands across Norman's thighs, his hips. The air in the room was incredibly heavy; no matter where Norman looked he couldn't see past the creature that looked just like the Sentry, the brilliant light it and the snake-like shadows that licked the air like flames. It was like being in an oven. Still, Norman looked at that face, dug his teeth into his lips greedily. The Void tore his pants from him.
"I want all of your power," he breathed. "That darkness. All that I can take. Now." He was lost in it, eyes goggling madly. The sweep of fresh sweat dampened his forehead, his chest, his palms, but the closer they got the more comfortable he felt. The stronger. He thought of power and he thought of murder and he thought of blood.
The Void stabbed him with it. Norman jerked violently, skin paling enough to make his veins roadmap up his arms and neck once more. The amount of force that surged through him at once made him unable to speak beyond inarticulate, jumbled syllables.
"You've always needed me more."
Norman couldn't breathe. Every touch of the Void's hand seemed to rip and tear at his skin, though he grit his teeth and carried on.
"Who wouldn't?" He murmured, as loudly as his voice could allow. "You were created to be needed, weren't you? To share such - oh - perfection."
Darkness wisped over him, thick and smoky, trying to strangle and cloud his vision. It glided across Norman harmlessly, unable to penetrate him any deeper than he had already been years ago. He exhaled.
"You can kill me, but you can't touch me. I'm incorruptible." His eyes flashed. "Darling."
He was thrust onto his back by another surge of heat, flesh tingling. Looking up, he saw the Sentry and not the Void between his thighs. How aghast his expression must have been to earn the look of startled distress Bob gave him.
"Norman-" he breathed, reaching to touch Norman's face. Norman let him, digging his heel against Bob's muscular back and kissing his knuckles.
"Bob," he cooed, putting his hand over the one cupping his cheek. His eyes narrowed dangerously, thrust back into the blinding, appalling light of day.
Then they softened, closed, and he stroked Bob's hair with his other hand.
"Did I hurt you-" He kissed Norman's mouth gently, several times, moving his hands to Norman's hips. Norman bit down on Bob's lower lip, returning the kiss fervently.
"Finish what you started," he commanded softly. He was cautious, with his tone. Triggering the Void now would likely be infinitely more dangerous than it had been before. "You remember, don't you?"
"N-" Bob exhaled against Norman's mouth. He feared what it meant that he didn't. "Yes." His hands grasped Norman more tightly and he kissed him once more. "You do make me stronger."
Norman's eyes widened.