Eddie and Venom take Manhattan. And each other. Numerous times. After all, Eddie has to do something to stave off the brain-cravings. Sequel to Night at the Museum.
Not necessary to read Night at the Museum, though it's recommended. Go on. I'll wait. /2BwGFPF
Welcome back!
So, it's kind of mix of movie and comics with NYC stuff tossed in because I don't know San Francisco well. Marvel at Eddie eating the same noodles he eats in Venom #156! Gasp at my knowledge of New York subway lines! Dazzle at the symbiote liking the same TV shows it does in Venom #154! Bow down in wonder at my grasp of LaGuardia food vendors! Recoil in awe at my references to the movie's gray hoodie! Behold all this bounty and leave a glowing comment! Thus speaketh witchfire24.
They actually made it to the airport in time for their flight, which made their flight's cancellation all the more annoying. Though if Eddie were being entirely honest, he didn't mind the seven hours trapped at LaGuardia before they found out that there would be no flights for three days thanks to storms in the Midwest.
He didn't mind the traffic back to the city in the rain, or the struggle to get a hotel room in a city filled with thousands of stranded travelers at the height of tourist season, or the long, frustrating check-in at the fleabag motel off of Grand Street with a broken shower and a musty room the size of a shoebox specially constructed for novelty doll shoes.
It was the time after that he minded, when he sat alone (no, not alone; never alone again, he reminded himself)—when he sat in the motel room eating his Chinese takeout and trying to get the Soviet-era TV to work.
Eddie?
Eddie stopped shoveling dan dan noodles into his mouth. "Yeah, V?"
Eddie.
"Still here, buddy—" He stopped. And there was the crux of the problem, the reason he had welcomed the day's distractions. "Not buddy, I mean, but…"
….Still your buddy, Eddie…?
Dammit. "Of course, V. Just…" Just we "made love" last night and I don't know what the hell to call you now.
He kept that thought to himself, but Venom must have picked up on the sentiment behind it because the creature stayed inside Eddie as he slipped off his hoodie and jeans and stretched out on the bed to flip channels.
"Sleepy, V?" asked Eddie, trying to inject a bit of normalcy into things. The symbiote didn't need sleep, and he liked teasing it about being tired. "I thought you like watching TV through your own eyes."
Just thinking, Eddie. Slowly, Venom unspooled its head from Eddie's shoulder, bobbing gently beside him in the dim light cast by the room's one lamp.
"Anything specific you want to watch?"
"Doctor show!"
Eddie winced. The symbiote loved medical shows, but Eddie wasn't one much for the sight of blood.
"Watching surgery is like watching the Food Network for you," he grumbled. "We're trying to get away from that, remember?"
Ugh. He had been trying to avoid that exact subject all day, only to bring it up himself. As usual. Like that time he had put a red T-shirt in with the whites and blurted out a confession the second Anne walked through the door.
"Maybe there's a Scrubs rerun on, huh?" he said quickly.
"Or movie with secret lab and monsters!"
"Hey, keep it down. All I need is housekeeping banging on the door thinking I have a guest."
Don't think this place has "housekeeping," Eddie, it said inside his head. Just manager with Windex.
"Hopefully more like a barrel of bleach."
In the end, choosing from one of the TV's three channels, they watched a blurry rerun of The Bachelor.
Venom was fascinated, resting its head on the faded coverlet beside its host in an almost cat-like way.
Wouldn't go on that show, would you, Eddie? it asked as a dozen screaming women in crop tops and hot pants mobbed an aggressively mediocre man as he stepped out of a helicopter.
Eddie laughed. "You really think they'd have someone like me, V?"
Why not? Better than that man, Eddie. He never saved the world.
"Ah, flattery, V?"
Flattery?
"Telling someone something they want to hear just to suck up to them. Humans do it all the time."
It's true, Eddie. Look at him. No gray hoodie.
Eddie grinned and reached out and touched Venom's neck-stalks, just a quick brush with the crook of his finger. A shudder ran through the symbiote and Eddie turned away uneasily and pulled his laptop onto his lap in order to do something.
He shouldn't have been uneasy. He should have been relieved. Because, from the moment he had pulled his jeans back on after last night's sex, his craving for brains had completely evaporated. And the two pepperoni pretzels at LaGuardia's Auntie Anne's had held him until lunch, and the pretzels had held him until the dan dan noodles.
Venom had been right, then. The chemicals released during sex did curb the brain cravings. But only short-term, according to Venom. Which meant—
The TV dissolved into a burst of 1950s-style static. Venom reached a tendril across the room to turn it off, then turned its head to Eddie almost questioningly.
Eddie pretended not to see him, busy typing. He didn't have to do this now, he had a six-hour flight back home to type up his notes and get started on the article itself, but this was better than making eye contact with the symbiote.
Despite how warm the laptop was against his crotch. He thought of slipping a pillow under the computer but decided that would make things too obvious.
Eddie?
Eddie kept typing.
"Open the window, Eddie?" asked the symbiote, speaking out loud.
Eddie looked up. "Not in this neighborhood."
Venom tilted its head at him. It really was cute, the way it was learning to mimic human gestures. Anyone comes in and we solve our meat problem, Eddie. Not weak.
"Hard to shake lifelong instincts after a few months, V. Crack the window. It smells like a locker-room at the Superbowl in here."
Venom snaked a thick tendril over to the window and pried it open, sending a shower of doubtlessly lead-filled paint down on the carpet and letting a fresh rainy breeze into the room. Venom didn't retract the tendril, Eddie noticed, just as it hadn't retract the tendril it had used to turn off the TV with.
It was almost as if it wanted—
Not almost. You know exactly what it wants.
As do you.
Eddie squirmed at the thought and shut the laptop's lid. "I'm going to bed, V," he said, setting the computer on the bedside table. "Wake me up at six-thirty, okay?"
Haven't been up before eight since we met, Eddie.
"Keeping me honest, huh? I wanted to show you around a bit."
Venom swooped up excitedly to stare down at him. Statue of Liberty, Eddie?
"And the Empire State Building. All the classics, though I'm not going anywhere near the edge of the roof." They had spent most of the week interviewing people in their homes in the outer boroughs, and Venom's main exposure to the city itself was the subway system and the paper's east-coast office. Which, truthfully, was a pretty good encapsulation of the city, but off-key mariachi bands and marbled lobbies were not the best of New York. "Times Square, Grand Central…"
Broadway, Eddie? Phantom of the Opera! Wicked! Ever been?
"Was never a big musical guy. We'll figure it all out tomorrow. Maybe ride the Beast—"
A beast, Eddie!?
"Sorry, V, that's just a boat. I've got one credit card still working. Good night now, budd—" He stopped again. "Maybe make it seven, okay?"
Venom nodded and reached out another tendril to turn off the light, leaving it draped over the bed with the other two. Eddie turned over on his side, acutely aware of those tendrils thanks to their weight on his hip and leg and his mental connection to them through Venom.
He tried to sleep but all he could do was lie there wide-awake and stare at the flashing lights coming in from the window and listen to the traffic on the bridge. The cars and trucks and busses sounded different in the rain, soothing instead of irritating.
He tried not to think about what would happen if someone did come in through the open window.
Because, depending on how things shook out, that would mean…
Fresh brains.
He had been thinking about the satisfying crunching sound the intruder's skull would make, the hot spurt of hormone-laced brains on his and his other's tongue, for a good five minutes before he realized what he was doing.
Dammit!
He turned over on his back. Well, at least he knew how long the cravings would be curbed for. Twenty-four hours, give or take.
Spectacular.
For a moment he thought about going to the bathroom and asking Venom to stay in bed, but that was ridiculous. Venom was a part of him whether or not the symbiote's head was in the other room. It would know exactly what he was doing, and then it would want to...
…..help again…
Would have to help, if what had happened the other night was any indication. Eddie couldn't get off without his other's involvement now that they were bonded.
Eddie?
"Okay, here's the deal," said Eddie, looking over to where the symbiote's pearlescent eyes glowed in the red and blue light from the window. "I don't want to bite the head off any tour guides tomorrow, so I'm—"
You do want to bite the head off a tour guide.
"V, you know what I mean—"
Let's go out, Eddie. Drink moonlight. Eat criminals.
Eddie dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. Venom had heard the "drink moonlight" thing on some teen vampire TV show and liked pulling it out of its pocket when it was trying to make him laugh. Tonight he wasn't sure if it was trying to alleviate an awkward moment or get him in a good mood so he'd agree to go out.
"I barely got any sleep last night, V, and it's pouring rain," he said.
Don't have to be awake for it.
Eddie sat up. "You mean you can walk me around while I'm sleeping?"
Wouldn't do that, Eddie! Only one time. Two times… Three.
Eddie lay down, heart beating fast. "What are you talking about?"
After we met. Were hungry, Eddie. Had to find food. Didn't know you'd be so okay with eating people.
"I—I'm not exactly okay with it, V, I've accepted it as a necessity. But—you can't just use me as a meatsuit to run around shotgunning brains like churros at a state fair—"
Also a dog.
Eddie groaned out loud. "V, dammit, we don't run around eating people's pets!"
No collar. Checked. Also squirrel and man attacking woman in alley.
"Well, that part's fine. But—never again, okay? Not without me. Not without asking first."
Mad, Eddie?
"More like creeped out. I'm not a puppet."
Creeped out?
"Just forget it, V." Eddie pulled his covers up to his neck, feeling exposed. "Just get back inside me and let me go to sleep, all right?" He regretted his choice of words the second they left his mouth. Get back inside me. Really. Of all ways to put it!
Chastened, the symbiote lowered its head down to the level of the covers, tendrils twitching slightly. Put you to sleep, Eddie?
"Dammit, V, you can do that too?"
Venom pulled away slightly. Help you, Eddie. Slept badly before.
"I slept just fine!"
Rocket ship explosion. Metal in chest. Childhood memories. Can see your dreams, Eddie.
"I don't have nightmares—"
Had something bad, Eddie.
Eddie licked his dry lips. "V, I know you're not human, but you're on Earth now. You can't just do things like that."
Don't like to see you hurt, Eddie.
Eddie softened. "I—thanks. Really. And I'm not saying you can't help me. Just ask first. Like we discussed last night…" He stopped. Last night had been a lesson regarding bodily autonomy in regard to sex and he wanted to steer clear of that topic.
Different on my planet, Eddie, thought the symbiote. All connected.
Eddie frowned. "Like us?"
No! Not like us! But still connected. Humans are alone. Hard to know.
Eddie lay his palm on Venom's smooth black forehead. He knew he should be angrier at the symbiote, and he was royally ticked off, but the little he had been able to glean from Venom's memories had showed him just how alien its species was. At least it was open to learning and changing. "If you're unsure of something again, just ask. Anything else I should know?"
Just—we—we're hungry again, Eddie.
"I know. That's what I was saying before. If we find a bad guy we'll eat him—"
Or her, Eddie.
"…sure, or her, women can be bad 'guys' too. If we find someone like that and we'll be set for a while, but we can't rely on that. So…" He trailed off. "So I'm going to try again. Without you."
Try what, Eddie?
"Don't play dumb, V. This is awkward enough as it is already."
But why, Eddie? After last night, we thought—we thought—The symbiote broke off with a confused little mental quiver.
"Just let me try, okay, V? Just please stop talking. And stop watching me."
The symbiote obediently closed its eyes and Eddie couldn't bring himself to ask it get inside him again. Instead he reached down inside his boxers. It was hard to think of a time he had been less interested in what he was about to do, but he thought of the innocent Statue of Liberty tour guides and gripped his cock.
Nothing. Not so much as a twitch.
He tightened his grip and slid his hand down to the tip, then back up. His dry palms felt wrong on the sensitive skin, unpleasantly rough and foreign, but he didn't have lube or lotion or even shaving cream.
He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate, but the image that arose was that of him splayed out on the floor the night before.
Double dammit.
The symbiote's big opalescent eyes were open again, looking up at him in the dark.
Eddie grit his teeth worked his cock harder, willing it to harden. Despite what they had shared the night before, being watched was embarrassing—
Which was exactly what was getting him hard despite the dry roughness of his hand, he realized as his cock grew thicker and hotter. Drops of precum were starting to dribble down the side of his cock, creating a thin makeshift lube.
Fine, just keep looking at Venom, keep thinking about last night, better to get off to that than to have a repeat of—
Eddie?
"Dammit, V, I told you not to say anything—"
Heard our name, Eddie.
"I'm—I didn't mean it, I'm just—"
Need me, Eddie? A pause. Want me, Eddie?
Eddie swallowed hard, cock aching. "I'm good."
Won't work alone, Eddie.
"Maybe—a bit of lube. Just a bit." Eddie reached out his hand to Venom, and the symbiote licked his palm, closing its eyes halfway as it relished the taste of Eddie's precum.
Eddie started to tremble with frustrated arousal at the sight. Venom, sensing this, quickly produced enough saliva to thoroughly coat Eddie's hand and moved away like a dog who had performed a trick and was stepping back to catch a treat.
Eddie grabbed his cock again, sighing at the slid of his wet hand on his oversensitive skin, Venom's thick saliva providing the perfect amount of slip as he desperately tugged at what seemed to be a wholly defective cock.
Told you, Eddie! Like last night—
Tears of frustration rose in Eddie's eyes. "Just—just your hand over mine, okay? No tongue, no freakiness. Nothing inside me. Just your hand. Promise?"
Promise, Eddie! Promise!
Moving rapidly, the symbiote absorbed back into Eddie's arm, leaving only an elbow-length black gauntlet. Seizing control of Eddie's arm, it wrapped its clawed black fingers around its host's cock and began to stroke it in gentle upward strokes.
Eddie mmmed with pleasure, humiliated at the knowledge that he had given in not twenty-four hours after the last time.
"Harder," he whispered, bending his knees and digging his heels into the sheets. "Harder!"
The symbiote was being coy.What harder, Eddie?
"Fuck me harder!"
Not a real "fuck," Eddie.
"Shut up and touch me! This isn't the time for semantics!"
Was joking, Eddie.
"You rotten parasite, if you don't start moving your hand I am going to freak the fuck out—"
Parasite? Vice-like, Venom clamped down on his cock with it hot slick hand, and Eddie screamed.
Want people to come, Eddie? To see? A tentacle snaked out of Eddie's shoulder, slapping down over Eddie' mouth and nose before Eddie could even begin to fantasize about being watched.
Can't breathe, V! I can't breathe—
Or make noise. Not a sound!
V, I can't—
Don't need to breathe anymore, Eddie! Have us.
Eddie thrashed, his body rebelling against the lack of air despite not needing it anymore, and a half-dozen tentacles snaked out of him and strapped him to the bed frame.
Eddie was going into panic mode, the instinctive reaction of a drowning animal, his entire body lighting up with nerves and awash with hormones not experienced since almost burn-slash-drowning to death at the rocket launch. Sweating and writhing, he tried to scream but Venom forced the tentacle into his mouth—
The symbiote dug a finger into the leaking slit on top of his cock and Eddie exploded, ejaculating over his own chest and face. Still fighting, he twisted and strained against the thick black tentacles as Venom milked him through his orgasm, biting down hard on the tentacle in his mouth and finally flopping down to the mattress in a sweaty sticky mess.
Venom released him, extending its head from his shoulder and bumping his nose. Okay, Eddie?
Eddie struggled to catch his breath. "I'm—fine."
Good, Eddie?
Eddie reached up a trembling hand to rest it on the creature's neck stalk. "Very good."
The symbiote made a pleased little sound and moved to clean him up, licking the splattered cum off his chest and face with almost dainty little licks.
This was fine. This he could live with.
Venom dried Eddie's chest and face with the blanket and settled down beside him on the pillow.
"You can do what you did before," he said after a few minutes spent listening to the soothing sound of the rain. "With the tentacle. If you want."
Like this, Eddie? A fat black tentacle reached of his waist, tightening slightly, heavy and comforting. Do you…miss Anne, Eddie?
"We see Anne and Dan all the time, V."
Mean…miss her like this.
Eddie squeezed Venom's makeshift arm under his elbow, not quite knowing how to put his feelings into words, how to explain that he missed certain things about her, yes, despite being a complete and total screw-up when it came to anything relationshipy, but that he had Venom now. Especially given the fact that he was still trying to come to terms with whatever the hell this was. Right now he would just take pleasure in the warmth under his arm, the gentle pressure on his side.
"Goodnight, V," he said. "Seven o'clock."
He was up at nine, of course, and took another hour to get the ancient shower to work and grab breakfast and find his missing sock. It was 10:05 when they finally left the hotel only to find that B, D, and 6 trains were only running into Brooklyn due to "signal malfunctions" and the 6 was out of commission entirely due to a "sick passenger" who hadn't sense enough no to get on the train in the first place. It was nearly noon before they got to South Ferry and hopped the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.
The observation deck was open again, but Eddie steered clear.
Probably survive the fall, Eddie!
"You're really not helping," he grimaced.
Saw MTV show on base jumping. Fun, Eddie!
"Not fun. Decidedly unfun."
The bachelor would go base jumping.
"The bachelor would also have twenty other symbiotes vying for his attention, so let's not go looking at reality stars for life advice, okay?"
No matter how sharp their suits?
"Hey, you said you liked my hoodie!"
Eddie was worried about the sound of the ship's motor, but they rode the Beast with no problem and spent the rest of the day bumming around downtown and SoHo, Eddie showing Venom his favorite old haunts and doing whatever they could that was free. They had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place, Eddie wanting to save what little money had for tomorrow's tour of midtown. It was getting late when they headed for the Park Place subway station in the Woolworth Building.
Want to go up, Eddie!
"The last place I want to go."
Please, Eddie! Want to see city. Can put you to sleep till we get to the top.
Eddie winced. "Not sure I like that that's the first option you come up."
Will be good for you, Eddie. Can't be afraid of heights whole life.
"I made it this far like being like that."
Not really something to brag about, is it, Eddie?
"Oh, shut up."
Wimp.
"Fine. Fine! Do your worst. But I'm keeping my eyes shut."
His eyes remained firmly shut as Venom enveloped him with solid muscle and sinew and ran up the side of the Woolworth Building. He had impressed the need for minimal property damage on the symbiote, and the creature confined itself to gripping windowsills and trim. Downtown there were less lifeless splinters of steels and glass jabbing at the sky and more old buildings with personality-filled brick and trim and even gargoyle-like projections. The Woolworth Building gave a breathtaking view of the city and triggered Eddie's fear of heights so that he immediately scrambled backward as soon as the symbiote released him.
Really, Eddie?
"Really." He pressed himself against the base of the building's tower. There was a small, pleasant rooftop garden on the narrow path surrounding the oversized Gothic tower, with a row of trees and large raised planters. "Can we go now?"
The symbiote came out to bob beside him, gleaming black in the city's lights. "Enjoy it, Eddie."
"Enjoy feeling like the floor just disappeared and I'm going to plummet to my death as soon as gravity kicks in?"
"Like when we sat on roof of network."
"And almost fell to our deaths." Eddie sat down against a planter, feeling slightly steadier with the feel of the roof under his butt and hands.
"Night really bonded, Eddie."
"Night we almost got killed by a SWAT team."
"Didn't get killed, Eddie! Saved us."
"Nearly ate a police officer."
Venom sounded proud. "But didn't!"
"Yeah, I'll give you that much."
"Want a better view, Eddie. Can barely see from here."
"Well, I'll google you a picture of the city when I get someplace with actual wifi." He looked up at the moon through the trees. It was almost full, not that it made much difference in the city. He wondered what Venom's old planet had looked like but didn't want to ask and remind it of a life before Earth.
"Something wrong, Eddie?"
"Everything's fine."
"Don't feel fine."
"It's just—being back here. Those people in the paper's New York office. I knew what they were all thinking. About what happened."
"Sin-Eater? Not your fault, Eddie."
"It was my fault. I should have done better fact-checking before going to press. I screwed up reporting 101. Reliving all that was not number one on my to-do list."
"New job, Eddie. Carlton Drake expose. Hero."
"Doesn't change the fact that I cost the old paper a fortune. I don't blame them for firing me." He had dreaded this trip for this very reason. He had been hired by a new paper, but his old paper was a subsidiary and he'd had to go down there upon arrival for some paperwork.
"Bet they're kicking themselves now, Eddie. Let you get away."
"I doubt it. You saw how Mr. Hartney wouldn't even shake my hand, and he was just a vice president when it all happened."
"You were twitchy, Eddie. Off-putting."
"That wasn't why. And I'm not off-putting!"
"So can we—"
"No, we cannot eat Mr. Hartney! He's a smoker, anyway. Like gristle, not Boar's Head," he added when the symbiote seemed a bit too excited about that.
"Wouldn't have met if you stayed in New York, Eddie," said the symbiote, disappointed about the Mr. Harney revelation but powering though it.
Eddie patted its neck stalk. "I never thought about it that way."
"Should start thinking about things better, Eddie."
Eddie laughed. "Thinking better?"
"What you're doing doesn't work too well."
"Alright, alright. Let's get off the roof."
"Buy chocolate, Eddie?"
"I just had two slices of pizza."
"Three."
"That last slice was for you. Why, you hungry again?"
The symbiote twisted shyly around a slender tree trunk. "Already know, Eddie."
Eddie's pulse quickened. He had been hoping Venom wouldn't take what had happened last night as an unspoken pact to continue whatever this was. Hell, he had thanked the symbiote the night before. What was he thinking?
"If I get you a better view of the city, will you agree to just go home and let me sleep in peace?"
The symbiote didn't reply, so Eddie got up and forced himself to the rail. The city was beautiful, spread out before them like a rhinestone-studded black velvet, for all he appreciated it. The busy street below gave a lurch and he felt the rooftop physically move beneath his feet, but he didn't throw up or fall over, which was progress.
"There, you happy, parasite? Can we go?"
"Parasite?" Black tentacles sprouted from his wrists, welding them to the stone rail. "Parasite?"
Eddie's entire body throbbed with a sudden surge of anticipation and dread so intense he nearly passed out. "You heard me."
"Say it again!"
"Parasite!"
A tentacle whipped around his throat as a dozen smaller tendrils came out of his ankles and fused his feet to the flagstone rooftop.
"Apologize and we can go home!"
"Parasite," said Eddie, and a tentacle forced itself down his throat. He was slammed forward, chest pressing against the rail, and a wave of terror overwhelmed him at the sight of nearly 800-foot drop. He tried to scream but the tentacle was thick and throbbing against the back of his throat, almost cutting off his air.
"Warned you, Eddie!"
A hot slippery tentacle extended out of his back and reached down inside his jeans, sliding between his butt cheeks.
Eddie jerked. Not inside!
The tentacle hesitated, then began stroking his entrance, tongue-like, making sure to stay outside him. Eddie shuddered at the surprisingly pleasurable sensation, every pulse intensified by the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
Two thin tendrils snaked up from his legs, brushing ever-so-gently against his swollen cock before making their way up to his nipples and proceeding to rub back-and-forth.
Hurry up, V, just do it already—
Another tentacle formed a ring around his cock, squeezing it gently, with the tentacle around his throat pulsing in time.
Eddie sobbed in frustrated lust, choking on the tentacle in his throat, body lit up like the Chrysler Building.
Please, V—
A tentacle flicked across the top of his weeping cockhead. "No begging, Eddie!"
Eddie sobbed. "V, please—"
The tentacle squeezed his balls so hard it hurt. "Said no begging, Eddie!"
Please, tell me when to come!
The symbiote hadn't expected that, and he could feel its surprised pleasure. It moved him forward, leaning further over the street as it started working his cock in earnest, and he almost blacked out with the overwhelmingly potent combination of pleasure and terror.
Eddie's mind was completely submerged in an animal haze of sex and fear hormones when the symbiote commanded him to come, so deep inside a mindless red mist that Venom had to stop touching him to snap him out of it.
"No!" Eddie cried as the tentacle slid out of his mouth, half-hysterical at the sudden lack of stimulation. "Don't stop—"
A twist of his cock, a brushing against his ass, a press against his lips, and Eddie's back was arching like a woman's. He shrieked at the moon as the orgasm tore through him, splurting wetly into his pants, his other making him produce so much cum it ran down his leg in a hot sticky mess.
The symbiote lowered him gently down under the trees.
"Now we can go home."
Thanks to train delays, it took them almost an hour to get to midtown the next day.
Not too late to eat the MTA, Eddie. Just tell us.
Eddie grinned to himself. "If we ever do go off the deep end, we'll start with them. You have my word. And no jury would convict us."
Aside from the symbiote's passing comments on the other passengers, they didn't talk much the rest of the way, but Eddie felt the symbiote in his mind, there if he should need it. It wasn't like the other night, where it had been hesitant and unsure of their status after making love. It was a comfortable, companionable silence that Eddie appreciated more than a simple stream of amusing chatter.
Especially as he didn't quite know how he felt after—
No, screw that. He wasn't going to go into another mini tailspin again. Whatever they had done the other night on the roof, that had been Venom's need to feed. It was that simple.
Eddie made it all the way up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, though not even Venom could make him go near the rail. Last night's immersion therapy had not done much to help his fear of heights.
They headed to Times Square, snagging last-minute Phantom tickets at the TKTS vendor on 7th Ave. Venom was fascinated by blazing neon lit streets of Times Square, somewhere Eddie had rarely gone even while living in New York.
"Too many tourists," he explained as he and Venom sat in the sitting area set up in middle of what had used to be a street but was now a touristy pavilion filled with chairs and benches designed by a mad cubist with too much creative freedom and exhibitions of what was evidently supposed to be art. "Plus it's like Madison Ave and Hollywood had a baby and that baby vomited all over the place."
Tourists bad, Eddie?
"Well, good for the city, but bad for people who like to use the sidewalk."
We're tourists too.
"I am not a tourist!" To accuse a New Yorker of being a tourist was the worst kind of blasphemy. "You're kind of a tourist, but you're with me so that doesn't count. See, like that," he added once they made their way to Grand Central. "Do they really have to plant themselves four in a row outside the building to take pictures of the Chrysler Building with their off-brand iPads?"
Like it when you're crotchety, Eddie. Like Grumpy Old Men.
Eddie pushed the heavy brass door open and headed into the station. "Crotchety? Where'd you learn that word? Wheel of Fortune?"
Anne to Dan about you. You were napping. Snoring. Mouth open. The usual.
"I am not crotchety! And I don't snore."
Snore a lot, Eddie. Like broken subway car. And Anne is always right.
"Just keep rubbing that in, parasite, why don't you."
Parasite?
"I looked up the technical definition. You fit the description exactly." The bickering felt good, a return to their old rhythms before they'd…made love. And then had sex twice. "Tell me how you're not a parasite and I'll stop calling you that."
Loser!
"At least I don't go around eating livers when I get peckish!"
Ate a man two weeks ago.
"Well, that was different."
The symbiote snorted. Short memory, Eddie.
"Hey, not all of us have an alien hive memory to fall back on." He pretended not to notice the odd look he was getting from a man who was undoubtedly A Tourist, something he would have known even without the gargantuan camera hanging from his neck. No New Yorker would bat an eyelash at someone talking to themselves, especially not in Grand Central. "Look up, V. No, not at the Apple Store eyesore—don't get me started about that. Look up!"
He felt a slight tickle under his ear as Venom did an Killroy-was-here impression above the neck of his hoodie. The symbiote drank in the constellations shining in the vast teal ceiling of the historic landmark's main concourse. Aquarius, Gemini, Orion.
"What's wrong, V? You feel…" Eddie twisted his head to look down at his other. Light from the stories-tall windows gleamed off its black-goo head and filled its pearly white eyes. "V?"
Are fine, Eddie.
"Reminds you home, doesn't it." Eddie reached up and closed his hand around the symbiote's head, cupping it gently. "Come on. Let's grab dinner. The show starts at seven."
They headed down to the food court through wide stone hallways that Eddie, though never a very fanciful child, had imagined were part of a fairytale castle during his childhood trip to New York. They ate at a restaurant nice enough to have actual tablecloths, with Eddie ordering Venom an extra-large, extra-rare steak to cheer the symbiote up. On a day he hadn't been coming off a week-long chocolate binge he would have ordered the double fudge chocolate brownie cake lava explosion to make them both feel better, because Eddie, despite himself, was just a touch hurt that Venom was still homesick, but he had forced down a Hershey's Park-worth of chocolate over the past few days in an attempt to sate the symbiote.
Who, apparently, felt a lack.
It wasn't as if the creature had fit in back home, whatever that meant on a planet of alien snot monsters with a hive mind. A loser, it had called itself.
Wasn't all this…enough for it?
The corner phone-charger-and-framed-photos-of-street-signs vendors were just packing up as they made their way through to crowded streets to the Majestic Theater. The bustling streets were always a good antidote to dark thoughts. When he lived in New York he used to take a nightly walk just to clear his head.
They got their ticked scanned at the door and slipped into their seat at 6:55. The Majestic was a grand old theater, and their seats gave them an excellent view of the domed ceiling and gold frame of the stage. They were sitting in the second row all the way off to the side of the stage, the seats nobody wanted to buy but gave a great view of the stage for cheap.
Now, remember, there's no yelling at the stage, okay? No suggestions to the Phantom to eat anybody. No booing Raoul.
Venom sounded ticked off. That why never took us to a movie even, Eddie? Think will yell at the actors? Not a child, Eddie.
Of course not. You how busy I've been with the new job. And broke, after using all of his savings and then some to keep body and soul together during the six months following his getting booted from the network. This trip was going to set him back a bit, but it had been worth it. Revealing in ways he wasn't sure he liked, but worth it.
The lights dimmed, the elderly Raoul was wheeled onto stage, and the auctioneer character went into his spiel.
Not a lot of people at the auction, Eddie. Bad advertising?
"Shhh!"
"…perhaps we might frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination! Gentlemen…"
The iconic opening notes of the Phantom Overture filled the theater, the chandelier lit up like a yacht and swept up over the audience, and the actors came onto stage.
This wasn't his thing, but he was enjoying the symbiote's pleasure and the rich spectacle of it all despite himself when Carlotta the Diva opened her mouth, sending a familiar sensation shivering over his skin.
"…from the enslaving fooooorce of Roooo-oooooo-ooooome!"
Carlotta hit a high note, and the symbiote went berserk.
That was the only way Eddie could put it into words after. Berserk. Eddie shrieked in agony as Venom screamed inside his head, struggling to free itself from its host in a liquefying, primal panic. Worse than the MRI machine, as bad as the loudspeakers at the rocket launch, completely catching Eddie off guard and sending his head slamming forward into the seat in front of him.
Blind with pain, brain scrambled by the symbiote's mindless panic, Eddie shoved his way down the row of the seats and stumbled down the aisle, seeing only a glowing red blur above what he hoped was a door—
He fell onto all fours on what was thankfully 44th Street. Comparatively quiet, non-brain-shredding 44th Street. He knelt there on the sidewalk, struggling to regain his composure as every nerve in his body stopped sparking.
"Sir? Are you all right?" One of the ushers stood peering out at him from the door. "Do you need help?"
"I'm—I'm fine." He rose shakily, feeling like he had just been electrocuted. "Just forgot to take my meds this morning."
The woman looked concerned. "Are you sure? I can call someone."
"Really, I'm good. Thanks." He gave a little wave and headed down the street, sinking down on the first bench he could find. He rested his face on his palms, mind too scrambled to remember they had been pressed against a filthy street not five minutes before.
Dammit. He should have known this might happen. But the airplane and subway and boats had all been mostly okay—
"V?" he said after about ten minutes of just sitting there and trying to come back to himself. "V, I'm sorry. That was totally on me. V?" he said again, louder, when the symbiote didn't respond. "V?" he practically yelled, drawing looks from the nearby crowd that had gathered for a street performance that for the past ten minutes had been about to begin any second if only people just kept gathering—that's right, ladies and gentlemen, just form a circle, make room for those in back. "V! Say something!"
Nothing.
He felt the symbiote deep inside his mind, thank heaven!, but it was silent, terrified and trembling.
Feeling sick, he rose and started walking again, just to do something. He was tempted to go to Max Brenner and buy out the chocolate section, but the theater tickets had maxed out his last credit card. Instead he bought a the biggest Nestlé crunch they had and bottle of Nesquik with the loose change in his pocket and forced himself to eat the candy bar, though he nearly threw up at the first sip of the chocolate milk and had to tuck it in his pocket.
Venom remained silent all the way home.
Eddie took a shower, trying to calm himself. In the past the symbiote liked to come out during showers, enjoying the blast of the steaming water on its goo, but it remained hidden. The water was more cold than hot, true, but Eddie felt the cramping anxiety in his stomach grow worse.
Eddie closed the windows against the street noise and pulled the curtains, trying to make the room as peaceful and quiet as possible, and sat on the edge of the bed in his boxers. He set the chocolate milk down on the rickety little bedside table and took a deep breath.
"Come on, V," he said, willing the panic out in his voice. "Come on, buddy. We've been through much worse than a diva screaming in our face."
Silence.
The quashing-down-the-rising-fear thing was not going so well. "This it, then? After everything?"
Something quivered deep inside his chest, but Venom's voice was gone.
"Say something, buddy. Call me a loser."
More silence.
"Parasite?"
Not even that got a reaction.
Hands shaking, he unscrewed the top of the Nesquik and stuck a plastic straw inside. "V, you're really scaring me here," he said. The sound of his own voice making him feel less alone, he kept talking. "You know I always jump to the worst possible conclusion, and right now all I can think about is what would happen if you—if you stay this way—if I did this to you. I'd never forgive myself."
Another quiver.
"And—and I don't know what I'd do without you." He had never said anything like that out loud to anyone, not even Anne. But Venom had access to his memories, his emotions. Saying it out loud was almost like thinking it to himself. "I can't be alone again. Not after knowing what it's like to have you."
True, he had yet to admit it to himself, but if the rock currently resting where his stomach was was any indication, he would completely fall apart if Venom stayed tucked away deep inside his mind, silent and as good as gone.
This was worse than after the rocket launch, in those heart-stopping hours before Venom's voice had returned.
He had done this to his other. All his fault. All this fault—
Eddie squeezed his eyes shut and took a sip of chocolate milk, feeling like he was going to retch, and something tickled his side.
"Venom!" He almost fell off the bed with relief. "Venom!"
Venom was much smaller and thinner than usual, head only about the size of a small dog's, neck stalk no thicker than Eddie's arm.
Eddie grabbed the chocolate milk and brought the straw up to Venom's face. "Don't say anything, just drink!"
He stroked the back of Venom's head as the symbiote drained the chocolate milk. Eddie had no idea where the liquid was going—something to ask Dan about. Venom settled down on the bed, growing to almost usual size as it grew stronger.
Eddie bent down and kissed the symbiote's head, not something he had ever done before, but it felt right. "Do you have any idea how worried I was, you blasted parasite?"
Worse—worse than the rocket, Eddie. Didn't expect it.
Eddie swallowed. "I know. The play, I was just trying to…I don't like stuff like that, but I wanted to make you happy."
The symbiote was silent, but it allowed Eddie a rare glimpse into its feelings.
Eddie rested his hand on Venom's head. "Is that true? Nobody has ever done something special just for you?"
The symbiote gave a little nod.
"That's ridiculous. I do stuff for you all the time."
Felt different, Eddie. Don't ask why. Just was.
Eddie lay down beside the creature. He knew why. It wasn't just maxing out his credit card to buy the tickets, it was his panic afterward.
"I know your life on your old planet didn't have all the things you have here," he said, unsure how to put his response into words. "The good things, I mean. Probably had its share of the bad. But I felt you, today in Grand Central. You were…" Homesick.
Don't mean to hurt you, Eddie. Can't help it.
"I know. And it wasn't as strong as when we saw ET, but…"
Saw, Eddie. Know. Know you missed your father the summer you went to camp. Sometimes miss things don't want, aren't good for you. Things that make you unhappy. Doesn't mean thing is better, Eddie.
"You're wise for a parasite."
The symbiote turned and bumped his arm tattoos in protest of the "parasite."
"I'm really sorry about the show being ruined," Eddie said. "I knew you were looking forward to it. I'd like to…make it up to you."
The symbiote rose up off the bed, looking down at Eddie. How, Eddie?
"What do you want? I never asked you that, the last few times. Anne was right, I can be selfish, though I'm more used to being told what to do in bed than…" He trailed off. "Do you…like anything?"
Mean—
"Yeah." Eddie cleared his throat. "A hundred percent. Kind of like bringing coals to Newcastle, but I'm told I'm good with my tongue."
A flash of amusement. Think will lose us again if don't, Eddie?
"No! Of course not. Besides, we can always just eat chocolate and muggers. But…" He hadn't blushed in years, but his face was on fire now. "I just realized that aside from anything else, losing you would mean no more of what we've been doing, and I've been kind of fighting what we've been doing, and if I was afraid of losing it then maybe I shouldn't be fighting it—going to just throw myself in, like therapists do for people with phobias—not that this is at all the same thing…does that make sense?"
Much as anything you ever say does, Eddie.
"Not that sex is what I would miss most, but it did pop up in my mind, and—well—I have no idea what the hell I'm saying. Except that I don't care that you're a weird alien goo monster."
Goo monster? Goo monster?!
"I mean, I do care, but not enough for it to get in the way, if you know what I mean."
Not very articulate for writer, Eddie.
"Shut up, V. I want to try something. Close your mouth and get down here. Closer."
Almost hesitantly, the symbiote came down to Eddie, stopping a few inches away. Eddie raised himself up and kissed the symbiote on its lipless mouth. It was too warm and slick to be human, even if he closed his eyes and pretended, but a tingle ran through him despite it.
Or perhaps because of it.
The symbiote froze. Don't have to, Eddie. Had chocolate tonight—
"That's what I was trying to say, you parasite. I want to."
Stop with "parasite"!
Eddie dug his fingers into the shimmering black strands of goo connecting the symbiote to his body. They were soft and slippery, pulsing slightly with life. "Make me."
All right, then. With a shiver of happiness, the symbiote extended thick black goo tentacles and bound Eddie's ankles to the bed, leaving his hands free, bonds on his ankles a tad too tight to be comfortable.
Eddie reached up and drew the symbiote's face closer to his. The neck stalk had thickened, solidified, almost like a very muscular human's. He kissed the black goo near one of the beautiful mother-of-pearl eyes, rubbing his nose against the patch of black the symbiote's nose should have been, brushing his lips over the symbiote's lipless mouth.
The symbiote opened its jaw again licked his face, grazing his lips with its almost prehensile tongue. Like that, Eddie?
"A decent start. That's better," Eddie added as he felt a tendril reaching down and tugging at his boxers. They got caught on his bound ankles, and the symbiote tore them in half. "Hey, that was our last clean pair!"
Venom's eyes shrank into amused slits. Washed them in sink last night, Eddie. Not "clean."
Eddie's pulse was racing along several miles per hour past safe. "You going to make fun of me or actually do something?"
Can do both Eddie. Tentacles reached out of his stomach, wrapping around his muscular thighs and prying them apart so that Eddie was completely exposed. They stayed there, holding his legs in place, the stretch in his inner thigh just on this side of bearable.
"Can you—can you—"
Do whatever you want, Eddie!
"Can you—" He couldn't say it out loud. Can you look—look like you do when we're both Venom. Like in the museum.
The symbiote pulled back, tightening its grip on his thighs as it moved away. Really, Eddie?
"You can hold it for a short time, right? I just…want to see you. If we're going to do this, I want to be thrown in the deep end."
Don't sound sure, Eddie.
"Please, Venom." The sound of his own voice saying please sparked the nerves in his groin, already stirred by the humiliation of having Venom's tentacles pry his legs apart and leave him open for the taking.
"My taking."
Eddie's cock wasn't fully hard yet, but he almost came on the spot at the sound of the symbiote's resonant voice saying that, using My. "Yes. Yes. Do—anything. Anything you want."
With excruciating slowness the symbiote expanded out of Eddie, rising up to kneel on the sheets in front of him. It wasn't as disqualified-for-steroids-use as when he was wearing it as a suit, but it was still imposing, the filtered light from the window gleaming off its perfectly-sculpted black muscles.
Eddie swallowed. Definitely not a human woman. With a flash of panic he tried thinking of Anne, but that made him feel dirty, not in a good way. Anne was with Dan, and he and the symbiote—he and the symbiote—
He loved the symbiote, that's what.
And it wanted it on him, around him and—heaven help him—in him.
Eddie dragged its face down to his, pressing his forehead to the symbiote's fangs. Venom extended its tongue down to Eddie's mouth, pushing against his lips, ghosting a tendril over his cock.
Eddie mmmed in anticipation and the symbiote came to life, a thick cock-like projection sprouting from between its legs.
Eddie drew his breath in sharply, cock swelling even as his chest twisted.
Too big, Eddie?
"No. I'm just…not used to having that in my face."
Will go slow, Eddie!
"Don't want slow. Want to—want to drown in it."
Venom smiled, fangs spreading across its face, tongue lolling. Its hand had begun to move up and down Eddie's hot red cockshaft, claws dragging over the skin just enough to make Eddie quiver. Drown, Eddie?
"Shove me under and don't let me come up till it's through."
Venom took him literally, slammed down on his chest so that the air was knocked out of his lungs and he was pressed into the mattress. Eddie cried out in surprise but a tentacle wrapped itself around his face, cutting it off.
Venom pried his legs painfully far apart, lifting up Eddie's torso slightly with another set of tentacles so that Eddie's hole was exposed.
Eddie clenched instinctively, and Venom, still grinning, gripped his cock so tightly he thought it would squeeze the cum straight out like someone icing a cake. Eddie groaned loudly through his gag, and Venom placed its clawed hand on his chest tattoo and dug its claws into his skin, breaking his skin.
"Now, Eddie," said Venom, speaking in a low voice that made its voice even deeper and making Eddie writhed at the rich bass, "make noise and we don't let you come."
Eddie whimpered.
"Not listening, Eddie!" Venom was working his cock again, but a thin tendril was wrapped around its base, a makeshift organic cock ring. Eddie grabbed the sheets, struggling to keep himself together. "Stays here till you listen, Eddie."
Do it, V, do something, I'm ready—
Venom slipped a self-lubricating tentacle into Eddie's ass, and Eddie released a high-pitched squeal. Excited, the symbiote didn't stop to admonish him this time. It pressed deeper into Eddie's core, working him open.
Does—does that feel good for you too?
"Didn't say can speak, Eddie!" It dragged its claws down Eddie's chest, leaving red lines down his front. It removed the gag from Eddie's mouth. "Apologize, Eddie!"
"I'm—I'm sorry!" A shudder passed through Eddie as the word Sorry left his lips. His cock was weeping in earnest now, his entire body burning and trembling. "I'm sorry—" he said again, embracing the way the word felt on his tongue, and Venom removed its tentacle from his ass.
"No!"
"Just no?"
"Please! Please—"
Venom leaned down to lick the blood rising from Eddie's chest. "Please what?"
"In me—not just a tentacle—you, want you—"
"To—?"
"Fuck me, just fuck me, Venom, dammit—"
Pinning his shoulders to the bed, Venom slid his massive cock-like appendage into Eddie's ass, thicker and hotter than the tentacle, fusing their hips together so that when Eddie looked down he moaned at the unfamiliar sight. He was used to being on his back, but not as seeing a hulking black form above him—
Venom started to move, thrusting hard and fast, and Eddie gave a little cry that made Venom reach down and close its hand around his throat.
Eddie grabbed the symbiote's arm and squeezed it with all his strength, needing something to hold onto as it pummeled him. A red haze was rising up around him, clouding the corners of his vision, as if he were affected by the lack of air.
The tendril was back on his engorged red cock, swiping up hard and fast and almost painfully, smearing his pearls of precum up and down so it glistened in the faint light.
"Harder—" he tried to choke out. "I need more—"
The symbiote was like a rabid dog humping a bitch in heat, slamming into him so hard and fast he would have suffered real damage had the symbiote not been inside his bones and muscles, protecting him. Eddie writhed and moaned and keened his way through the pounding, daring the symbiote to stop.
"Don't listen, Eddie," said the symbiote at the filthy sounds, releasing his bruised throat. "Need to teach you—"
It leaned forward, chest radiating heat against Eddie's blood-smeared skin, and stuck its tongue down Eddie's throat.
Eddie gagged at the intrusion, the tongue thicker and hotter and slicker than he'd imagined (oh, heaven, he had imagined it, no use denying it now), closing off the back of his throat so he couldn't make a sound.
Venom made a growling sound as it continued to fuck into Eddie, pinning Eddie's arms to the bed, and the vibrations traveled down into Eddie's mouth.
Harder—make it hurt—
The symbiote thrust deep into him, hot and slick, stretching his hole as it thickened, pressing into that newly-discovered little bundle of nerves inside him, the slap of alien goo on skin and the wet squelching sound almost deafening—
Venom removed the tentacle cock ring.
Eddie thrashed violently as his orgasm tore free with a frightening intensity, choking on Venom's tongue as his cock emptied itself in jerking spurts over both their chests, squirting out enough cum to fill a custard pie.
It wasn't just the symbiote's restorative powers extending his climax, it was something else, something he had briefly felt in the museum, a mirroring of his own pleasure, that made him pry his arm free of Venom's loosened grip and rest his hand on the symbiote's cum-sticky chest.
Venom withdrew slowly, first lowering Eddie back to the bed, then sliding itself out of him with a wet pop and releasing his cock and other arm.
It started to move its head away from Eddie but Eddie reached up and held his other's face still, its tongue still down his throat. Centimeter by centimeter, Eddie raised his head towards Venom's, then down again, then up, fucking his own face with Venom's tongue. It felt good in his throat even as his gag reflex made his throat clamp down around it.
Venom growled, and Eddie moved faster. He had been right.
Is your tongue always this sensitive? he asked, lazily, still moving his head and flexing his throat. Or just at times like this?
The symbiote pulled away, tongue sliding free of Eddie's mouth. Just with you, Eddie. Just when you're excited. Not running around with it out like pervert!
Eddie sat up, still loose and shaky after his orgasm. "Good," he said. "Don't want to share you. But I felt you when I came. You were just reflecting my own orgasm back to me. I thought that this might be a way to…" He didn't know how to explain that he was more used to giving in bed than taking, how he needed to give back.
To what, Eddie?
"Give you something of your own."
Give me enough, Eddie. Every day. The symbiote leaned back on its powerful haunches, suddenly nervous, and absorbed back into Eddie's body, leaving only its face floating at chest-height.
Eddie gripped the symbiote's head with both hands and leaned forward. His heart had never stopped pounding from the sex, but now it was about to burst through the scratches on his chest.
He licked the symbiote's tongue. Its head shuddered beneath his palms.
"Easy, V," he said, bending forward. "Slip it in—"
Venom's tongue eased up past his lips and down into his welcoming throat. Eddie bobbed his head up and down on the creature's thick hot tongue, feeling it stretch his mouth so that the corners of his lips burned, filling his throat so thoroughly that Eddie had to fight the sensation of choking.
He couldn't help gagging, though, despite the fact that he was enjoying the obscene sensation of the symbiote's tongue down his throat, the gagging making his throat contract in waves around the appendage, and something happened.
It wasn't as if the symbiote came, exactly, but a sudden wave of pleasure as alien to an orgasm as an orgasm was to the sensory pleasures of music or a rich pudding washed through him, and he knew the symbiote was feeling it too.
It seemed to go on for hours, Eddie choking on the symbiote's tongue, mmming desperately as he worked to milk the last drops of pleasure from his other, the creature trembling under his hands, writhing inside him, connected to him by the their mutual ecstasy.
And then it was over, Eddie falling exhausted to the bed, gasping for breath and staring up at the sagging ceiling in a daze.
Venom fell beside him, at a complete loss for words for the first time since they had met.
Eventually Eddie turned over on his side, looking down at the symbiote. It had grown slightly, a thick torso-like stalk connecting them.
Thank you, Eddie.
Eddie rested his hand on Venom's head. "Thank you."
They were silent for a space, soaking in the afterglow. It had begun to rain again, the gentle patter wrapping the room in a cozy warm intimacy.
Venom stirred slightly beneath his hand.
I've got a mixed past with this city, Eddie transmitted in a jumble of fragmented mental pulses, not sure how to express himself in actual words. But being here with you, it's been…
Better memories now, Eddie?
Eddie nodded.
Can do that for more things, Eddie. Make bad good.
Eddie swallowed. "I know, V."
Together.
"Yeah, I got that, V."
Not always sure with you.
"All right, all right." Eddie rolled his eyes and pressed his forehead to Venom's. It closed its eyes, rubbing its face against his gently. "Goodnight, parasite."
Goodnight, Eddie.
Notes:
In case you're wondering, "drink moonlight" is from the comics too, as is Sin-Eater. Tell your friends!
I don't think the Woolworth Building has a garden, but I took a bit of artistic license.
"Immersion therapy" is more commonly known as "exposure therapy," but I like how "immersion therapy" sounds better. What Eddie claims he's trying is actually more accurately termed "flooding." It's a controversial desensitizing technique designed to allow a person to move past phobias and trauma by exposing them to the very thing they fear. (Cue me be thrown into a sealed room full of Adult Responsibilities.)