Now I know what you're thinking: 'Nitro where the fuck have you been all this time?' Answer; over at AO3, working on this story for the last seven months. Cause absolutely no-one has written anything with Venom and Black Cat as a couple, so as usual I have to do it myself. This takes place shortly after the Venom Inc. storyline, disregarding events of First Host and Cates' current Venom run.
The full 30 chapters are posted and ready to read over at AO3 under the same username as on here, but for the purposes of getting as many people seeing this as possible I'll be updating with one chapter a day on here, so that the whole thing will be uploaded by the end of the month.
xx
"It doesn't matter if they're on sale," Eddie insisted, "we can't afford a whole case full of Snickers."
The symbiote had been sulking the whole way home, curled up somewhere along his brainstem as it tried to tempt his mind to change. "Could always just take them," it offered.
"Absolutely not." Eddie lowered his voice as they entered their building, always cautious of who might be listening beyond the thin walls of the stairwell. "We have enough bad rep as it is. You've seen what they've been saying about us."
"Could always kill whoever opens their mouth."
"I'm gonna up the medicine dose if you keep thinking like that," Eddie warned, to the sound of a gurgling apology.
"Sorry, Eddie… just hungry." The symbiote retreated from his skull, dripping down his spine to rest in the pit of his stomach. Guilt surged up from that pit like an acid reflux. Eddie sighed as he climbed the stairs to their floor.
"I know, love. I'm sorry." He unlocked their door. "Just hold out a little longer. As soon as the cheque comes in tomorrow, we'll-" He lost track of his promise when he noticed the window was open, a cold breeze skimming across the symbiote's skin as it spilled over him in a reflex of protection.
He hadn't left it open.
He hadn't left the TV on, either. The light from it flashed over the figure lounging on his bed, who had only just noticed his arrival.
Eddie hadn't seen Black Cat since he found her lamenting over all she'd lost to the Maniac symbiote, two weeks ago by his count, long enough for her to have changed her look. She'd gone back to the white fur cuffs and collar to match her hair, but the black suit looked the same as ever; shiny latex that reflected Eddie's bewildered expression. The symbiote had half-covered him before they both realised they weren't in danger, and its black mass reflected her too. She looked bored.
"About time you got home." Felicia sounded weary as she clicked the TV off, swinging her legs down over the edge of the bed as if this was her room, and he was the one intruding on her. "Put it away, Eddie, I'm not here to cause trouble. I need your help."
Eddie kept the symbiote clinging to his arms as he clenched his fists. "And I need a lock for that window. How long were you waiting here for?!"
"Long enough to flick three times through all 15 channels on that junk box you call a TV."
"She's mocking the TV, Eddie! Kill her!"
Eddie hushed the symbiote. "How the hell do you even know where we live?"
"You're not exactly inconspicuous, you know." Felicia finally took the hint from Eddie's endless glaring and rose to her feet, padding like her namesake towards him as she reached for something behind her back. The symbiote reached for Eddie's fingers, forming them into claws as sharp as her own...
She pulled her hand back into view, and Eddie was prepared to counter whatever attack she had in mind, but it never came. She'd just unveiled a chocolate bar from somewhere in her suit. "Now, be a good boy and listen. There's candy in it for you."
"Candy? Candy!"
'Well, you changed your tone real quick,' Eddie thought as he held his other back, narrowing his eyes at the cat's offer.
"...Who told you we like chocolate?" It was hard to sound intimidating when the symbiote was making him salivate. Felicia cocked her head with a winning smile.
"Well, that rippling physique of yours might not give it away, but I happened to notice that Flash always binged it when he had that thing on him."
Eddie only got more suspicious at the mention of that self-righteous symbiote thief, but the temptation was too strong. A black-stained hand snatched the candy bar from her as he seated himself on his bed.
"You have until this bar is finished," he warned her as he peeled away the wrapper, tearing through almost half of it in one bite. Mmm, Hershey's… the symbiote spread itself along his stomach lining in anticipation.
Felicia could only hear him moan at how good her bargaining ploy tasted, and she knew she'd have plenty of time to explain. "You remember what you said to me, after the whole mess with Lee Price?"
He grunted around the mouthful of chocolate, too busy savouring it to be wary of what came next. The symbiote was having a field day as it absorbed its fair share.
"Well… you were right." Felicia shrugged in her own private defeat of the mind, seating herself on the other chair- well, not sitting down so much as spreading herself over the top of it. Her boots on the armrest kept her rooted.
"Being a boss was nice while it lasted, and I don't regret any of it… but I know I'm better than that. I don't need rats off the street doing all my dirty work for me just so I can keep my claws clean. So, I'm going back to my roots. Even got my old suit back, the one thing that survived that wreck." She tugged at the white fur that exploded around her neck and lead the usual eye down to her exposed cleavage.
Eddie, for all his unique talents and otherworldly experience, still had the eyes of a normal man. Now that he knew he wasn't in danger, even he couldn't stop himself glancing down at the obvious.
"Uh huh. It, uh… still looks good on you." He gulped the rest of the chocolate down, so he could change the subject before Felicia picked up on and mentioned his hesitation in admitting that. The symbiote wouldn't help him here. She'd bribed it with its least painful weakness, and now it was in her debt. In her pocket. At least until the sugar high wore off.
"So, you come here just to sell your inspirational autobiography?"
Felicia smiled again, lips curved like scimitars. "Actually, I have a proposition. So far you've been in the vigilante business longer than I have. And since this was your idea," she pointed a clawed glove towards him, "you owe me some help in getting back into it."
"Don't like that look on her face, Eddie… don't feel so hungry anymore." The symbiote retreated to the base of his spine, forsaking its claim on his stomach to guard itself against the cat's grin. Eddie scowled as he shoved the accusing hand away.
"What happened to you being 'your own thing'?" He flexed his fingers around the skeptical quote. Just because they'd teamed up those few weeks ago to take down Maniac in the first place didn't mean he was a hero-for-hire, or blackmail, or whatever she really had in mind.
"A girl can change her mind when it suits her," Felicia answered with a shrug. "And I think this could suit both of us quite well."
Eddie scoffed at her confidence. "You might think so, but we don't."
She only seemed more amused at his reluctance to play along. "Really? Cause it just so happens I know I'm not the only one going back to basics. Didn't you have to go back to reporting just to pay rent?"
"...Your point being?"
Under her mask, Felicia rolled her eyes and flashed their lashes with a weary sigh. "And here I hoped your biceps weren't bigger than your brain. It's simple, Eddie. You help me track down the syndicates still lurking around, and you'll get first dibs on all the details. The fallout alone will keep you writing for months."
She looked very proud of her logic, and so she should have been. Eddie was almost convinced right then, the old habit of leaping at any semblance of opportunity starting to creep back up on him. However, the symbiote was faster. It prickled on his skin, a sharp bite to keep his senses sharper.
"...Let me get this straight," he said. "You want us…. to tell you, the former crime boss, where all your old buddies are camping out."
"They all went underground since the Maniac incident," she explained, as if speaking to a child. "And, even if I still had contact with them, I don't trust my chances alone against them. Especially not if some of them are working together."
"So then just how do you expect to track them down?" he asked.
That smile was back, along with all of Eddie's misgivings about her. "I'm one of the only people in this city who knows who they are. The people behind the scenes. And, as far as they all know, I'm still on their side. They won't suspect a thing."
"If you can keep that up," he said.
"That's where you come in." Felicia finally sat in the chair like a normal human being- well, as close to normal as anyone in this city could get. "I'll tell you where the targets are, and you'll be the one to take them out. Since you already have a reputation for it, none of them will suspect that you're targeting them. They'll just think it's a string of bad luck."
"Bad luck is exactly what you're known for," he pointed out, but she was more invested in examining the claws on her gloves than listening to him.
"Wherever they are, they'll keep themselves well hidden," she went on. "For all I know, you could have gotten to some of them already." She leaned forward, threading her clawed fingers together under her chin. Despite the fur that must have tickled her cheeks, she looked completely serious. "But once we know where to start, everything else will fall into place. All I need are some clues, and I can piece together what they're all up to. All you need to do is let me tag along on your little patrols, and I'll point them all out to you."
Eddie knew he was running out of excuses to get out of this, at least ways that wouldn't end with his apartment wrecked. The symbiote was still hissing along his nerves, agitated with nowhere else to go but racing up and down his spine.
"Don't trust her, Eddie. She knows him. She's helped him."
Spider-Man. Just because they had a truce didn't mean Eddie had forgiven him, or ever would. And anyone allied with him was just as suspicious.
"I'm still not buying it. Why don't you get your spider friend to do it for you?" he asked, crossing his arms and daring her to lie about it. Her expression didn't budge, though. If anything, it only solidified into a scowl.
"He's not my friend," she told him. "Even if he was, he doesn't… approve of my methods. And I'm not about to be held back again by a boy scout in spandex. If I'm going to be one of the good guys again, I'll be my own kind."
If she was telling the truth, Eddie had to agree with that. And why would she lie?
...Well, for several hundred reasons.
"What if we don't trust you're only out to bring the scum down?" he accused. "Whenever you say one thing, you're always been up to something else." He'd heard more than enough about her other 'alliances' to know this wouldn't be nearly as simple as she made it out to be. Hell, he still remembered the first time she showed up in the Bugle so long ago (and how it took those morons a whole year to trace a prison breakout from before she'd gone public back to her). One second she'd be fleeing the spider, the next she'd be caught fighting alongside him. She was as dark a horse, well, a cat, as you could get.
And her persistent grin only made her look darker. "Put it this way, Eddie. I could have just followed you every night without you knowing and got what I want that way. At least this way you know I'm being honest."
On one hand he hated the suggestion that he wouldn't have noticed being tailed by someone else in a skintight suit. On the other… she had a point. Not even the symbiote could find fault with that.
"So, you get your revenge on the other bosses and get to be a hero again. What else is in it for us, other than this 'story' you're promising?"
Felicia shrugged, plumes of white burying her neck briefly. "A sense of moral righteousness and justice. I know you symbiote types are big on that. And there's more candy where that came from."
"More candy, Eddie!" the symbiote squealed.
'You just said you didn't trust her!'
"Candy takes no sides," it assured. "Candy would never betray us."
Lesson learned- Klyntar were terrible at negotiations.
As Eddie argued silently with his other, Felicia made one last bid. "If you're reluctant because you're scared I'll steal your glory, rest assured that you'll still be the one doing all the heavy lifting." She leapt to her feet, shamelessly showing off when she could have just stood up and now standing next to him, "In fact, that's why you were my first choice for this little scheme. Unless, of course, these muscles are just for show…" She touched him, the very edge of her claw tracing one of the lines between his bicep muscles. He froze, more surprised than threatened by his personal space bubble being pierced so easily. The symbiote didn't push her away either. She'd reached the inside of his elbow by the time he realised she was waiting for him to speak.
"...We'll think about it."
Finally satisfied, Felicia let him ago. As soon as her finger retreated he exhaled, not realising he'd been holding his breath the whole time.
"I'll be back same time tomorrow," she promised over her shoulder as she stalked towards the incriminatingly open window.
"I'll have a window lock by then," he warned.
"Don't bother." She crouched on the windowsill to look back at him. "I'll just break it." She fell back into the night, and it swallowed her whole.
Eddie stared after her, at the empty air where she'd hung for just a second, wondering if he could see plumes of white fur being carried on the wind. He sighed as he closed it before she could come barging in again.
"Well, you were helpful," he said sarcastically to the symbiote hanging on his shoulder.
"If you'd bought a Snickers like I said, I wouldn't have been so hungry," it protested.
