"This Spiderman?" You asked the phone even though you already recognized the voice.

"Don't-" He stopped himself short with a slight sigh. "Yeah. It's Spiderman. Answer the question." Well someone was a little rude.

"I realize this might come off as a threat, it's not, but I'm on your roof." You sat comfortably on the ledge, feeling no need to activate Venom's camouflage. Spiderman needed to see that you weren't trying to be a threat, but you still had Venom coat you. No sense in giving your identity away right out of the gates. Spiderman was a dick, but there was no knowing at how much of a dick Peter Parker would be. There was silence on the other line. "I just want to talk. If you want to join me up here, that probably would be best. I can also come down there if you-"

"No, I'm on my way." He replied, and you could hear the slight echo of his voice from the phone. Must be in a hallway. "Just a talk, right? You don't want a rematch or anything?" You huffed a laugh at that. 'Rematch.' As if the last fight wasn't anything but an ass beating.

This is a mistake. We should run.

"No rematch. Earlier was just me kicking your ass for being a dick, I wasn't actually trying to, you know… Fight fight." You vaguely motioned with the phone to no one, having troubles coming up with the right words while ignoring your fight or flight alarm. The fingers you had resting on the wall casually clawed at the brick, making little scratches as the rough texture calmed your nerves. The sound of the door opening through the phone got your attention. You turned towards the doorway to the stairs in time to see it open fully, white webbing shooting out and sticking your hand to the wall.

You sighed and closed your eyes, packing down the last of your nerves before looking up towards the stairway. "Really?" You asked, but didn't move to pull your hand free. Let him take his comforts where he needs them. You hung up the phone and let a tendril pull it back into your body, and you continued to sit comfortably on the ledge. Spiderman stepped out of the doorway, closing it behind him with his foot, and he kept his arms posed and ready for more webbing.

The eyes on his mask were narrowed, and you could see him looking around on the roof for any sort of trap. You rolled your eyes and crossed your non-webbed arm casually across your chest. After a moment of nothing but night traffic noises filling the air, he finally spoke. The first thing Spiderman said in person to you chilled you to the bone. He said your full name.

He's going to betray us.

You dropped the arm, feeling your eyes widen as the rest of your body tensed up. You could feel Venom coursing over and around you, winding you up, ready to strike. It took most of your willpower to not leap at his throat right then and there. Instead, you carefully steadied your voice, and asked the only appropriate question. "What?" His white eyes locked to yours, and you could see he purposely kept his distance and kept walking on the roof.

"That's your name, right? Unless you stole someone else's phone." He clarified, and yet again you realized your mistake far too late. You gave him your actual phone number- not a burner, not a phone booth- your cell phone that you use on a daily basis. He knew who you were probably just by googling your number.

So much for keeping your identity secret.

You could feel your chest grow cold as panic seeped in. He knew your name. He would know where you work, where you lived. He probably knew who you were related to because you don't even know the last time you changed settings on Facebook. This was bad, but then again there was a chance you could use his knowledge to your advantage. You could roll with it and use it to gain his trust. Of course he would want to know your secret identity, you know his after all. It wasn't fair for you to be able to expose him without giving him the same liberty. You willed Venom to change into casual clothes, but the black tar-like substance didn't move.

Don't trust him. Can't trust him.

Venom's voice was tense, rightfully so, but you needed them to work with you. "Please." You uttered, and Venom slowly pulled back and morphed into your bar outfit again. Seemed like that was their favorite outfit for you, but you weren't going to address that right now. You looked up at Spiderman and you could see his eyes wide with shock, probably from how quickly you exposed yourself to him. Either that, or the fact you were the pizza delivery person from earlier caught him off guard. You sighed and ran you non-webbed hand through your hair, trying to ignore how fast your heart was beating.

"We need help." You said, looking away slightly embarrassed to ask for it without a disguise or mask to hide behind. Spiderman lowered his arms, not so ready to attack you when you were looking like a civilian. "Again, sorry for beating you up earlier. Venom-" You stopped, feeling like it was weird to speak about them when they were right there. "We weren't having a good morning." You didn't say the full truth. Not yet.

Spiderman eyed you suspiciously for a moment, but you could tell he was already much less on edge than he was moments ago. "What do you need my help for?" Straight to the point again.

It's no use. He won't listen.

"Lee, the last guy to host Venom, is like… really bad." You started casually explaining, hoping that him seeing who you really were would help your case. You weren't the Venom he was used to, you were just… you. "I'm talking 'killed his own best friend' levels of bad. Venom saved my life twice, but thanks to me, Lee nabbed a bit of them and is super dangerous. We need to get it back and... arrest him, I guess." The quick explanation seemed to only confused Spiderman. He stood still, still trying to understand.

"And how 'bad' are you?" He asked, complete with finger quotations in the air. "How dangerous will you be if we make Venom… complete again?" That was a fair question, since you admitted to not trying to seriously hurt him during your fight and totally still won. You felt like this was a trick question, and you had to be careful with what you say. One wrong word might end up with him trying to send you to jail instead of giving you help.

We shouldn't let him talk to us like this. He is looking down at us.

"I'm no threat Mr. Man." You leaned back, and the title seemed to take Spiderman by surprise. "I'm a goddamn receptionist. I don't have military training or a vigilante complex. Venom saved my life, but I just want to do my job." You admitted, and it was mostly true. You loved the idea of eventually playing hero, but it seemed like it was a lot more personal than you thought you were okay with.

"So you having a bad day and picking a fight with me earlier was…?" Spiderman left the question open for you to fill, folding his arms and looking at you questionably. You couldn't help but notice when he leaned his weight on his feet, he kept it off of the leg you grabbed.

He's more worried about himself. He doesn't care about us.

"Like I said during the fight; I was just getting petty revenge for Venom's treatment. You hurt them pretty bad, you know." You pointed out casually, trying not to listen to Venom at the moment and quickly bounce over the subject. Throughout the conversation so far you could feel bubbles of hurt and anger building at the back of your mind, gradually increasing, but it also felt restrained. Venom was trusting you. Spiderman sputtered at your words.

"Hurt it- Excuse me? I hurt it pretty bad?" He spoke like he didn't believe what he was hearing. "You realize what it's done to me?" He brought a hand up to his chest as his eyes narrowed more. Your eyebrows lowered. You didn't like how he called Venom 'it'.

Hates us. Wants us gone. Sees us as problem.

"They tried helping you the best they could. They didn't know better and fell in love with you, and you just ripped them off." You saw Spiderman ready to argue, but you held up your hand. "But we aren't talking about that now. You deserved a quick slap so I gave you one. End of story."

He looked bewildered at your audacity to casually accuse of him, then cut his excuses off. Spiderman stumbled on his words, hands motioning like they were supposed to help express his thoughts. "I- you- what do you- ohhh you don't even know what you are dealing with!" He looked frustrated and grabbed at his mask for a moment, before pointing an accusing finger at you. "I know what it's like wearing that thing. You have no idea what you are getting into."

Hates us.

"Actually, Mr. Man," you could feel your nose crinkle in irritation as you faked the formality again. "I have lovely conversations with Venom, and they already explained pretty much everything to me. Communication is great for relationships, you should try it." The salt in your voice could season a dozen steaks alone. You could feel your own anger building up again, your mothers' complex stepping in at Spiderman once again being terrible to Venom. You could feel the slight startle in the back of your mind, and Venom grew still.

"Oh I'm so sure it told you about its violent history? The murders? The cannibalism?" He asked, motioning wide with his arm. The tone in his voice held the 'gotcha!' accusatory feel in it, as if he was outing Venom on a secret that would make you so ready to get rid of it. The thought of Spiderman thinking that exposing Venom's past would help his case made you sick to your stomach.

Hates us. Hates us.

"Yeah, and guess what? They feel bad for that shit now." You had to resist the urge to rip your hand free of the webbing and start beating his ass again. It would be so easy. You could just picture stomping over to him and grabbing his thin little throat and forcing him to apologize. "They were with terrible people, naturally they'd do terrible things! They were abused and used by people it trusted, it didn't know better!"

Now we do.

"Not knowing better makes murder okay? Well jeez, I suppose I should inform the police station-" Spiderman pulled out his phone and looked like he was about to dial a number.

"Oh! My bad, I didn't know you were the type of person to believe pit bulls were dogs that needed to be put down since all they know is fighting." You leaned back and turned your head away, as if you were just saying that aloud to yourself. You could see in your peripheral vision Spiderman freeze up and taking a moment to process what you said, waving his hands.

"What? No, I would never say-" He quickly tried to deny, but you cut him off with a violent wave of your hand.

"It's the same fucking idea, asshole." Your voice was loud and sharp, and you could feel your cheeks heating up the longer the argument lasted. "Venom was just a lost alien puppy, trained to fight for love. Then their shitty ass owner beat them and pawned them off to another abusive owner." You gritted your teeth, trying to keep your emotions from spilling over. "You have no fucking right to sit on your high horse when you helped make them this way." Oh, you felt a tear roll down your cheek.

Venom was quiet.

For a moment, Spiderman stood looking at you in shock, what you were saying apparently getting to him finally. He grew tense and raised a hand to speak, but instead just stood there silently for another moment before turning around, pacing. Clearly he had more argument in him, but he could tell you saw yourself in the right. Which you were. Because he was an asshole.

He quickly turned to you like he was finally about to continue his rebuttals, but changed it last second. "You know what, we'll talk about this later." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Where is- what was his name? Lee? Where is he now?" Spiderman asked, reminding you again why you even bothered trying to talk to him in the first place. He stood still and looked over the city, waiting for your response. You noticed he was actually allowing you to be out of his direct vision now.

"Last we saw him, he was with Black Cat in her fancy room." You slumped at the ledge, wiping your cheeks and feeling overheated from the argument, but trying to pull back your anger and get back on subject. The name drew Spiderman's attention. "We can assume he is friends with her, so I don't know how much of a threat she would be if we were to try and get the Venom piece back directly." You admitted. You really didn't have much of a plan at all.

"And when you get the piece back, what are your plans?" Spiderman looked back to you, voice much quieter than it was during the argument. You thought about the question, not exactly sure on the answer yourself.

We don't need it. Just can't let Lee have it.

"We don't have any plans either way." You half shrugged, keeping your eyes to the rough gravel on the rooftop. "With or without it, I'm still a receptionist. We just don't want Lee to have it. He's dangerous enough without Venom, but now… well, look at us. We're getting help even though we are basically complete. He isn't someone that should have a weapon, let alone Venom." You admitted.

Spiderman was quiet for a moment. You could practically hear the wheels in his head spinning, determining risks and rewards. Venom started boiling in the back of your mind again, making you feel antsy and needing to get the rejection over with so you could flee before Spiderman tried to turn you in. He stared at the cityscape ahead of his apartment building, thinking, before eventually sighing. "I'll get us some extra help." That genuinely surprised both you and Venom.

He's lying.

"What- really? You'll help us?" You left out the implied 'even if you hate us?' Spiderman's hands flexed into fists and back, apparently just as anxious as you at the moment.

"I'm not doing this for you." The way he said 'you' made it clear he was using it in its singular form. "You said Lee was dangerous, and now he has a weapon. I can't let him hurt people when I can stop it." Huh, the way he said that with the neon lights framing him in the background really made him look like a hero. Maybe that's what everyone saw in Spiderman. The old saying 'you should never meet your heroes' seemed to hold up even at this moment for you though.

"Fine by me. Bring whoever you want, as long as you think they can put up a good fight. Lee is an ex soldier and I got lucky last time. I… Well if I'm being honest, I'm not much of a fighter." You admitted, and Spiderman turned towards you. "Yeah, this morning I smacked you, but that was… instinctive? Felt like schoolyard fight, you know? I'm not exactly experienced with real hand-to-hand combat." You fumbled through your explanation as Spiderman looked down at you. You could only imagine what you looked like to him at the moment. A plain looking receptionist with no fighting experience, with one of his most dangerous enemies sitting just under the surface.

"I got it covered. The less you fight, the more comfortable I'd be anyway." He said. "Give me twelve hours. I'll call when my backup is ready." He crossed his arms and looked down at you, as if trying to make another decision. What else did he have to worry about? Oh, you could think of one thing.

"I don't out people, so don't worry about me knowing your identity. Even when you stab me in the back, your name dies with me." You assured, and he seemed to take notice the use of 'when.'

"That… wasn't what I was going to ask, but thank you. I hope I can trust you when you say that." He sounded honest at least, but there still was doubt in his voice. A silent moment passed, and he still looked like he was on the verge of saying something else but nothing came. It was clear to tell he was conflicted about letting you leave. You could easily figure out why; Venom, one of his most personal enemies, was sitting in front of him with knowledge of his secret identity, already half caught. But far as he knows, your only crime so far has been smacking him and a bit of property damage. Hardly worth starting a fight over.

"Well, if that's all…" You audibly sighed and stood up, Venom coating your hand just slightly to assist you in easily tearing it from the webbing. Spiderman jumped back and readied his arms again, but you pretended to not take notice. "I had a long day and need to hit the hay, but I'll be waiting on that call. I appreciate the help, Mr. Man."

"Please stop calling me that." Spiderman's eyes looked just slightly perturbed, and you couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of satisfaction from it. "And I told you I'm not doing this for you." You turned away from him and stepped up onto the ledge of the building, feeling the nighttime air rush up at you from below. There was a slight clicking sound you heard from behind you, almost masked by the sound of gravel crunching under Spiderman's feet. Turning back to face him you couldn't determine the source of the click, so instead you held your arms up in a shrug, slowly stepping back into the open air.

"Guess you aren't my hero then." You faked a pout and fell backwards off of the building. Warm tendrils coiled across your body within seconds, covering your vision for just a moment before you felt the full body embrace of Venom. You could see Spiderman's head look over the edge of the building just in time for your wrists to whip webbing out, nabbing purchase on another tower, catching you and starting your swinging.

You pulled yourself upright on the web as the sidewalk and civilians wooshed under you just yards away. A bit closer than you would have normally liked, but you knew Venom would never let anything bad happen to you. You could feel Venom's embrace warm slightly around you, confirming your thoughts, and you pulled and launched yourself high into the air.

You felt your heart soar once more at the absolute freedom you felt when the two of you were like this, perfectly combined, perfectly in sync, you nearly forgot why you were even in this part of the city. Your sense of belonging has been hanging with you since your earlier encounter with Spiderman, but it only seemed to swell with how much you lost yourself in traveling with Venom. You didn't even bother to check if the two of you were camouflaged or not, you didn't care either way. Venom would take care of you, from heights, from prying eyes, from Spiderman himself when it came down to it.

So brave. So clever.

Venom's soft voice uttered, and you could feel them wrapping tighter with pride. Their words made you smile and relax within them, flutters in your chest making you feel even lighter as you practically flew through the air. "Why do you say that?" You asked. "I haven't done anything brave yet." You hardly consider asking for help an act of bravery. Instead of answering, Venom just kept quiet and continued bubbling proud feelings in the back of your head.

The two of you turned down countless intersections, and you were getting hopelessly lost in the massive late night grid of New York. You were sure Venom wasn't doing it on purpose, they were likely just finding the most enjoyable route home, but you couldn't help but notice it was much more serpentine than it probably needed to be. Maybe Venom was paranoid that Spiderman would be following? Before you could question your other about the chosen path, your vision focused on a group of shady individuals gathering in an alleyway next to a store and you slowed your swings as you felt your heart start to race with excitement, though you couldn't tell if it was your own.

They had large mostly-empty looking military bags on their backs, wore dark hats, and no easily identifiable pieces of clothing. While that wasn't usually enough to absolutely confirm something was up, the way the four of them clustered and talked, eyeing what looked like a closed jewelry shop- yeah it was obvious. Honestly it surprise you that anyone still thought it was a good idea to try and do petty robberies in the city at this point, with how many heroes you heard were around the state at least. Though these amateurs must have had the right idea, seeing as you were the only super nearby to handle them. You sighed and jumped to the ground far enough away that they wouldn't notice you yet.

Venom, ever aware of your thought process and feeling that you wanted to try and deescalate the situation before it became one, quickly changed into your bar clothes yet again. You hesitated and looked in a dark window to see your reflection, tapping your cheek. "Lets… not look so good. Casual comfort. Maybe a mask?" You asked quietly, and Venom quickly pulled and expanded, becoming baggy sweats with a hoodie, along with a medical mask to cover your mouth and nose. You needed to give an A+ to Venom for their costume work later, but now you needed to deal with baddies.

You started jogging down the sidewalk in their direction, acting like you were on a casual night time jog, if people actually do that in this city. Probably not, but ah well. You made sure your steps were loud as you approached, gradually slowing down at the alleyway entrance the amateurs were in. Stopping at the corner, you started stretching out your legs and looking around casually, and you could see them staring at you. The men (and a woman, now that you were close enough to make out details) seemed to have stopped their conversation, and were patiently waiting for you to continue your jog.

They continued to wait in deathly silence as you performed even more stretches. Ones for arms, then more for legs… by the time you started repeating earlier ones you could easily see the amateurs were growing impatient. Finally after what felt like a solid few minutes of just nonsense stretches, one of the guys ripped his hat down over his face- oh, it was a ski mask- and pulled out a gun towards you.

"Jesus Christ! Get lost, Freak! Can't you see we're busy?!" He yelled, and the others were startled and pulled down their masks quickly as well. You stood straight and held up your hands, but you had no fear in your mind; only amusement.

"You don't gotta do this man. I'm giving you a chance to back out of that decision." You said, and it seemed to catch the four of them off guard. Your voice was steady, and your confidence was boosted to the max. That being said, your heart was pounding with exhilaration. You wanted them to not go down this path, sure, but you also really wanted him to take the shot so you could teach him a lesson. Just the idea of fighting again as Venom made you swallow the excess spit building in your mouth.

"The fuck you talking about? I'm telling you to fuck off!" He adjusted the grip he had on the gun, clearly not expecting you to react like this. When you made no move to run he seemed to get angrier, and the others didn't quite know what to do and looked at each other. Apparently they didn't plan on encountering strange strangers during their robbery. The guy's hands were unsteady for a moment, and he quickly aimed the gun at your feet and fired.

The concrete a few inches away from your shoe took the bullet, making a small crater and sending a scatter of broken concrete bits skittering to the road behind you. You looked down at the bullet hole on the sidewalk and looked back up to the guy, feigning a surprise on your face while still not moving. His eyes were wide with panic as you refused to run away, and you could tell he couldn't take the real shot. He slowly lowered his gun. You were proud of him for being unwilling to take a life, but at the same time you couldn't help your disappointment in not needing to bring out Venom.

"Come on, one fucking creep isn't going to stand between me and lifetime luxury." Another shot went off, and you felt your shoulder shoved backwards at the impact.

The original gun pointer gasped and turned towards the others, and you saw another man holding a gun level to you with angry eyes. The others all started speaking at once, mixture of anger and panic and the order to be quick- before shutting up as you only casually rotated your shoulder and stepped back to how you were. The bullet dropped from your shoulder and clanked onto the ground, and from where it originally hit Venom slowly coursed into their natural form. The dark tendrils pulled out of your clothing and coated you, making you feel the euphoria and strength that Venom made you feel when like this. Your vision blacked out for just a second as Venom's tendrils covered your face, and when you could see again, you could see how horrified the would-be robbers looked up at you and your new height, frozen in fear.

Lesson time.

You raised a monstrous finger and pointed it at the original gun pointer.

"You… may leave." You felt your lips pull back in a toothy smile as the man yelled and stumbled back, quickly scrambling further down the alleyway and running off. The others quickly turned to run as well, but you weren't about to let all of them leave. You made a fist and threw a blob of Venom at the one that actually shot you and it splattered onto his back, sending him crashing to the ground. Two of the others screamed and stopped running to look back to him, but were hesitant to try and help with you slowly walking up to him.

The blob of Venom had stuck around the man's rib cage and arms, leaving his legs free to kick and struggle on the ground. After getting his bearings he managed to bring himself to his knees, but before he could stand you placed your foot to his back and slammed him back down into the concrete. He grunted, the air being forced out of his lungs at your weight. You heard a small crack followed by a yell come from him, and you quickly lessened how heavily you held him down. Shit. You hoped that crack wasn't anything important. You had to remind yourself you didn't want to kill him. Punish, yes, but not kill.

Multiple gunshots rang out beside you to your irritation, and you could see the woman robber stepping up and unloading her gun at you, but the bullets were simply spat out by Venom a second later. You felt your anger build at how dumb she was being. She couldn't have just run away and let this guy take his proper punishment? Your hand reached out to her, a web snagging the front of her jacket, and you yanked it hard. She didn't have time to brace for the pull and was sent flying at you, and your hand closed around her throat. Her eyes widened as you lifted her up and she dropped the gun to wrap her hands around your monstrous arm.

"Lady, you were free to go. Why the fuck did you think it was a good idea to shoot us?" You asked, irritated and annoyed at the lack of self-preservation she seemed to have. She gasped out and struggled under your hand, eyes darting to the man you had pinned under your foot. "For real? You risk yourself for this ass? You need better choice in partners." You muttered, resisting the sudden urge to squeeze. The woman's struggling efforts lessened as she closed her eyes, and you noticed her lips growing pale.

Memories of your first night with Venom flashed in your mind, of the pale face of the shooter, the blank stare- you immediately dropped the woman. No. Not dealing with that again. Not tonight. She collapsed to the ground and grabbed at her throat, gasping out for air. You blinked and shook your head, leaving the haze of the euphoria, wondering what the hell you were doing. You… You needed sleep, you finally determined, and got off of the man completely. He groaned and took a breath of air with a wince of pain, and you realized that it was probably a rib that cracked earlier. Trying not to think of what you almost did, you grabbed both him and the woman by the shoulders and threw them at the alleyway wall, flicking out your wrist and webbing them to it. Both of them were dazed and hurt, but they weren't struggling against the webbing at least. You looked down both ways of the alleyway, seeing no one else around. At least the others were smart enough to keep running.

Venom provided your cell phone at a thought, and you quickly called up the police. They spoke quickly asked what you were calling for, and you barely registered the question as you continued to stare at the robbers. The phone operator asked again, and you stammered at realizing they were waiting for you to respond. "Uh- ah- yes hi, I'm here." Venom pulled from your mouth as you spoke, making sure you sounded normal for the police. "I saw some people that looked like robbers down the street a bit, and I think- ah… Spiderman was fighting them? It was dark and I didn't want to get closer." You were lucky lying came like second nature to you. You couldn't focus on anything other than the robbers faces as they twisted in discomfort under their masks. The operator quickly asked for more details, so you told them the store they were close to and the street you were on in a rush. Your head felt too cloudy to listen to anything else they were saying so you hung up, hoping it was enough information but you couldn't stand to speak any longer. Your chest felt too cold, your throat was too tight, and you felt sick standing there staring at the webbed up robbers.

Without thinking you turned and leaped into the air, wrists quickly sending webs to other buildings and you let the air rush past you. The gentle swaying motion helped ease the sick feeling, but it was still there, hanging over you, and you felt like you were on the verge of collapsing despite how assuredly your webs found their mark as you swung through the streets. Venom tightened around you, making more aware of yourself more than the overwhelming everything else.

Did right thing. Stopped bad people.

You wanted to believe Venom, you thought you believed that yourself, but why did you feel so wrong? You prevented a robbery. You gave two people to the cops. By all means you should be feeling proud of yourself for helping the city, but instead you felt sick and cold and wrong and all sorts of lost-

Was so smart under pressure. Did so good.

Venom continued the praise, making your negative thoughts stumble and scatter momentarily. You noticed that the path you were taking was much more direct, your webs only making you turn corners when it seemed necessary. You felt thankful, wanting to collapse in bed as soon as physically possible and to let whatever was going on in your brain run its course. You tried ignoring the nagging thought wondering why Venom didn't take a direct path right away, and you quieted the thoughts telling you how it wasn't your excitement you felt when you first saw the baddies. Everything was fine now. You just wanted your bed. You just needed to sleep and stop thinking so much.

You blinked, and suddenly you were climbing in your apartment window. The whole half the city you must have traveled completely missing from your memory, and you felt a slight surge of panic at that. Venom quickly shed themself and turned into your other comfortable pajamas as you looked down at yourself, but you then felt warm pressures against the back of your neck and the base of your head, halting your panic. Dark tendrils danced in the edges of your vision as they coiled along your jaw and gently pressed.

Relax.

Confusion was your first response, not understanding what Venom was trying to do, but the tendrils moved slowly, and you felt all of your tension nearly completely vanish in an instant. You shuttered and leaned against your counter as Venom appeared to massage along your neck, seeming to know all of the exact location of all of your pressure points. It was strange getting massaged by… well, something not human, but you couldn't bring yourself to care about the strangeness of all of the extra contact. It felt amazing, and it helped lifted the last of the bad sick feeling that was coiled in your stomach. Instead you felt that calming warmth in your chest once more, and found yourself leaning into Venom's embrace behind you- despite knowing there wasn't anyone actually back there.

All too soon the mini massage ended, waking you up enough for the confusion to come back. You looked around behind you as if to speak with Venom face-to-face before remembering yourself. "What… What was all of that?" You asked, now consciously aware that the sick feeling was gone- and the fact you were feeling it earlier. You couldn't exactly identify it, but something about the… sick feeling, felt familiar. Familiar in the very bad sense.

Answer later. Water now.

You found yourself trying to figure what question to ask as you felt like you were on autopilot, turning towards your fridge. You made it as far as grabbing your water pitcher before stopping, blinking and taking stock of yourself. "Venom." Your voice had a hint of warning. You didn't know what they were doing, but you felt your gut twist when you realized they were influencing your actions while you were outside the full suit.

Drink. Please.

You hesitated, but the 'please' got to you. Grabbing the pitcher and a glass, you quickly poured yourself half a cup and downed it in one go, just trying to please Venom so they would talk. At least that was the plan, but then you became aware of how good the water felt when you drank it. Damn, okay, so you really were thirsty. You poured yourself some more and drank it slower, but you also leaned on the counter and waited expectantly.

Feeling better?

Venom didn't need to ask, you knew that much. They were aware of everything you were thinking, why would feelings be any different? "Yeah." You admitted despite your thoughts. Maybe Venom just wanted to talk. If that was the case… You appreciated it. "Yeah, I feel better. More like… well, before. What was that? Why did I feel so sick right then?" You asked, sipping on more water.

Being hero is hard. Does not come naturally to you.

To you. Your mind echoed what Venom said, and you knew Venom's words held more weight than they usually suggested. That sent a chill down your spine and made you pause. You held the glass to your lips a moment before lowering it. "What?" Sure, you weren't the most heroic person around… but you weren't bad. You would never be a villain-

No. Not villain. Not hero either. Just civilian.

You tried focusing on what Venom was saying, and how… how much worse that sounded. You weren't good, or bad, or anyone special. Just a civilian. Someone in the background. A nobody that wouldn't be missed if a wall fell on them and no one was there to notice.

Hey.

You looked down at your hands, watching the water in the glass shake ever so slightly. As much as you hated what Venom said, they were right. You were born a nobody and raised to exist without drawing attention. Your one and only job at work is to make sure everyone else can do their function without expressly making yourself known. You work behind the scenes to the point that no one realizes you exist. Hell, look at you. Apparently the act of making a difference made you sick to your stomach it was so against your nature. How could you ever-

Enough of that.

Before your mind could send you spiraling down any further, Venom's darkness pressed over your mouth like a hand keeping you from speaking. It somehow helped shut up your thoughts and brought you back to your present, holding you still for a few seconds. You became aware at how hard your heart was beating, how shaky your breath was though your nose. The sleeve of your pajama top darkened and coiled down your arm, and a chocolate kiss was gently placed in the palm of your hand. The mass over your mouth disappeared.

Eat.

The command was gentle, more of an urging than an order, so you brought the kiss in front of you and started fumbling with the wrapping. Despite knowing that it probably was important if Venom was telling you to eat chocolate, you still needed to get the wrapper off whole. You carefully struggled with the kiss until you found two corners of the foil to finally pull at. When the kiss was finally freed you popped the piece of chocolate into your mouth and crushed it with your tongue. You let the chocolate melt in your mouth, the sticky sweetness coating your tongue before you swallowed, and you… actually felt a bit better.

One more.

You looked at your palm and noticed another kiss sitting in its grasp, so you repeated the process. The second kiss was faster to free and bite into, and your chest gave flutters of satisfaction with it. You never had this reaction to chocolate before, sure it's sweet and tastes good, but you haven't loved it like this since you were a child. You had a feeling it had something to do with that Phen… Phonetian… The long P-word chemical that Venom told you about.

Phenethylamine.

Yeah that.

You stood and looked down at the two squares of foil, silently staring at them for a moment before using the side of your hand to flatten the wrinkles out of one of them. It was hard to keep your thoughts quiet. You kept mentally jumping back to your conversation with Spiderman, and you almost dreaded the phone call for tomorrow. Sure, it meant that you would have help to get back that Venom piece, but it also meant that you would need to be working with Spiderman. That thought almost soured your mouth despite the lingering sweetness in it. You also wondered at who he was planning on bringing. Someone good at fighting, like your suggestion probably, which meant that it would be even harder for you to escape if- when he turned against you.

Rest now, worry later.

"I guess we'll burn that bridge when we get to it." You muttered lamely, but ultimately agreeing with Venom. You were tired as hell, both physically and emotionally, and you felt like you needed the sleep. Placing your glass in the sink to deal with tomorrow, you quickly did your nightly routine and made your way to your bed. You crawled between the soft sheets and quickly sank to the comfortable coziness your bed provided, pulling the blankets up to your cheeks.

Your mind was still just a bit too active to let sleep take you away just yet, but you were patient. Thoughts came and went, and eventually your perfectly comfortable position in bed wasn't as comfortable as you thought it was, and you tossed and turned to find that sweet spot once more. Your thoughts still didn't shut up though, and your position was even less comfortable than the last one. You turned again and hugged a pillow, feeling a bit or irritation. Comeon, sleep! Oh god, now you were aware of how hard it was to sleep, and that always made it so much worse.

"Vennnnom." You muttered into the pillow.

Yes?

"Can you do that… massage thing again? Just for a while?" You asked, looking up at nothing as if talking to someone in the general direction. You could feel warmth immediately seep up against your neck and along the back of your head, gently pressing against you and immediately releasing tension.

Of course. Sleep well.

Your last waking thought was the slight concern of having sugar right before bed, and hoping that it wouldn't give you nightmares.

.

You walked alone in the abandoned streets of someplace that wasn't quite New York, and not quite your old home town. It looked like a hodgepodge of the two, frankensteined together at random places on the roads and half way through entire buildings. Small houses somehow mashed into massive business towers, reminding you of when when you were a child you would pound non-fitting puzzle pieces together and end up with a distorted picture in the end.

The echoes of your footsteps bounced back to you before your actual steps, but you were too preoccupied looking around for anyone. The fog was growing thicker, and you couldn't stop the dread of being lost here much longer. You called out, asking if anyone was around, but you couldn't hear your voice, only the echo. Turning quickly and running down the patchwork roads, you looked more desperately. You felt yourself yelp, stopping all of a sudden when your hair was yanked back.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Echos became before your mother's voice, and you turned to see her looking down at you. Very down, you notice, as it seemed to be she was a good few feet taller than you. She tilted her head, and you had a sick feeling in the back of your mouth as she spoke again. She wasn't your mom. Her wrinkles along her eyes didn't look right, and her lips were just a bit too red. "Come on inside. We've been waiting for you." She motioned to a doorway next to the two of you, and her grip in your hair tightened.

Your feet stumbled forward into the room, and you could see dozens of people in celebration surrounding you. They had faces, but when you tried focusing on anyone, nothing stood out. Soon as you looked away from them, you forgot what they looked like. Every couple steps you took one of them laughed and reached down, giving you a shake on your shoulder and congratulating you. You didn't know why. You didn't want to know. You wanted to leave.

The grip on your hair directed you to the center of the room before finally releasing. A glass was shoved into your small hands, and you stared at the black sludge churning in it. You looked up to see everyone standing in a circle around you, your mother smiling and saying words that were muffled as if it was being heard through a wall. The air was suddenly harder to breathe, and you could feel your lungs drowning in the lack of oxygen.

"Venom…" Your voice was quiet and sluggish, struggling to complete the simple word.

Your mother continued her muffled speech, holding up her own glass of the black fluid. Echoes of the other's cheers called out as they brought their own glasses up, and one by one they downed the glass. The scene played in halftime, and you could hear the heartbeat in your ears contest the slow music playing in the background.

"...please…" The syllable dragged on for an eternity as you stared in horror at the people around you.

One of the guests dropped his empty glass, hands ever so slowly reaching for his throat as he seemed to choke on the fluid. Another guest fell to her knees, coughing desperately on the ground. The rest of them started falling and choking, all grabbing at their throats and collapsing in succession. The room spun around you as you watched your mother's mouth split wide with a smile with too many teeth, before she collapsed onto the ground as well.

"...Help." You uttered, the glass in your hand slipping out of your grip and shattering onto the ground. Immediately a pulse shockwaved through the room, black wheat bursting out of the ground around you and coating everything you could see. All of the bodies and furniture were overtaken, the floors and walls burst into dust, and the air became breathable again. You looked up, seeing the dust has littered the darkened sky into a colorful nebula with countless stars above you.

All at once the nightmarish party room of strangers has become a serene, blackened wheat field, with the most beautiful sky hanging overhead.

You breathed deeply, listening to the calming sound of the wheat brushing against itself in the wind around you, and felt a rush of warm nighttime air brush past you. The distant atmospheric sounds of the city could be heard from where you were, but there was nothing but flat openness around you, and the beautiful sky above. The longer you looked at the sky, the more colors you could see. Staring at the colors and the lights made the nightmare fade quietly, and you carefully sat onto the soft ground. The wheat towered over you but didn't completely block your view of the stars, so you laid back and watched the gently swaying black blades surrounded you, framing the beautiful night sky.

You let yourself get lost in the stars.