They didn't entirely live off tater tots. For one, it wasn't breakfast food, and since both host and symbiote had grown versed in the ways of this world, they knew breakfast was the most important meal of the day. They'd read so on the box of breakfast cereal.
Brightly coloured lumps of sugar and marshmallow overflowed the bowl and rattled all over the table. Eddie chased scattered pieces with his fingers and tossed them into his mouth dry. Venom grabbed the milk, pouring generously to help wash the cereal down. Eddie spluttered as he tried to pull his face out from under the white deluge and shoved Venom's tentacle in the direction of the bowl instead. Venom kept on pouring, cereal on one side and milk on the other, and Eddie shoveled it into his mouth as fast as it came.
According the the box, this cereal had almost every kind of nutrient known to humans, so it was technically healthy. Sugar was a special added nutrient, an essential one. Anyway, Venom liked the warm, happy feeling it gave Eddie and the way it sent neurotransmitters bouncing all over the place, and that was the same thing.
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"Hungry." They could both feel it. There was no point in pretending they didn't.
"Okay, how about we stop for coffee?"
"Coffee isn't a meal," Venom grumbled. It had been hours since the cereal. They hadn't even eaten the whole box.
"What do you want, then? You wanna go for ice cream?"
"No! Coffee and ice cream isn't a meal. You need food. It gets ugly in here when you don't eat. I have to live here too, you know."
Venom squirmed around inside Eddie to check the weird sack humans had for a stomach, but it only told what they both already knew: running on empty. Venom made a tentacle and prodded Eddie's belly on the outside to be sure. The squish of fat over hard muscle was amusing enough to do it again.
"Ow! Cut that out, will you?"
Venom poked him a third time, harder.
"Okay, I get it, will you stop already. What do you want to eat?"
"Brains! The human kind."
"Alright, wrong question. What do you want me to eat?"
"There are rats in the sewer here. They're right underneath us, Eddie, live ones with fat bellies that burst open when you squeeze, ones that try to crawl away as you chew and try to bite you back with their little jaws." There were likely spiders around too, ready to dance over the tongue with all their funny little legs.
"Yeah. No."
Venom never could have worked out the self-contradiction in that statement if not for the disgust writhing through Eddie's entire body to curl his toes, and knot his stomach, and tense his neck. Eddie refused to give up some of his more unpleasant human habits, like eating cooked meats, hot and dead and befouled with seasoning.
"Then pick an animal you like to eat."
"Okay, a live chicken for you, a cooked chicken for me. There's probably a store around here."
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Maybe they did live off tater tots.
According to the media humans laughably called "medical science" this diet was "bad". According to the food commercials, the greasy glisten and salty crunch particular to tater tots made up an essential part of well-being.
Venom tried flipping a few so they would roll around artfully, like they did on the television. They hit the ceiling and then plopped to the floor. Eddie didn't notice when they were snuck back on the plate. He was too busy sticking food in his face, as he should be. The heat seared his mouth and throat, and made his chest throb as the food went down. They could hardly taste the next mouthful through the pain. Venom fused with Eddie's throat and mouth, healing him instantly. Eddie chomped another tater tot, burning himself again.
Before either of them noticed, Eddie was chasing crumbs around the empty plate with this fingers, searching for more. He dug into the freezer next, eating tater tots straight out of the bag. Venom set another tray to cook, feeling very helpful. Sometimes Eddie forgot that step.
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"Finally," Venom said, stretching out of Eddie's shoulder.
The single most important part of the day was about to happen. After all this time, Eddie was giving someone else a turn to eat. Venom had certainly waited long enough.
Eddie tore open the chocolate bar, and Venom snapped it up in one bite. Eddie's fingers worked another wrapper, and Venom reared up. The lunge was interrupted by the firm snap of chocolate in another mouth, and sensation bursting over a tongue made for sweetness.
"That's mine!" Venom protested.
"What are you going to do, steal it back?" Eddie challenged, his cheeks still bulging and chocolate melting between his flat little teeth.
Venom growled, and slammed face first into Eddie's mouth, driving tongue between lips.
"Argh!" Eddie yelped, sounds slurring together around food and tongue, around shock and amusement.
Venom coated him, seizing control of the body to make sure Eddie couldn't steal another piece.
"All right. Fine. It can be like that if that's how you want it to be. But maybe from now on we can both see I'm not the one who gets ugly when I haven't eaten." Eddie taunted from inside their minds.
Venom would show him. Maybe Eddie wouldn't be getting control of the body back until some brains showed up on the table, pulpy and alive and screaming. Maybe. In the mean time, Venom snatched up another chocolate bar.