WE Are (Veddie)

Netflix And Chill

“Is this the start of our date, Eddie?”

Eddie pauses mid-chew of her chocolate and honey covered pancake, simply watches as the black inky mass grows into the hulking humanoid form of his again (the one he uses to “protect her” – pfft!) She swallows her mouthful as she watches him slowly lowering himself onto the couch beside her and tries not to laugh at how carefully he tries not to break the couch in half. “I mean, yeah, why not? Food is a pretty good place to start.” She chuckles when he grins down at her. “Try not to break any more furniture.”

“I really am trying.” Venom practically whines, slowly lowers his huge clawed hands neatly into his lap (and tries not to move so much.) It’s weird – being this shape without Eddie inside him. Not entirely unpleasant. Somehow exciting and empty all at once.

Eddie chuckles again at his slightly helpless look. “Are you even heavy, or is it just your strength you’re tryin’ to control, bud?”

“I am whatever mass my host is.” Venom explains, looks slightly intrigued as he tells her, “You are tiny, Eddie. All humans are. But there is a strength inside of you. You are resilient. What puzzles me is why you pretend to be the opposite.”

Eddie smirks. “Ah, bud, that’s ‘cause you don’t gotta hide who you really are. People see what they wanna see in each other. So, I use that to my advantage.”

Venom blinks, takes in her words, finally understands. And also, feels rather guilty. Ugh! “I’m sorry, Eddie. I didn’t mean what I said last year.”

Eddie sighs. “No, you were right. I’d still be a big fat nobody if it wasn’t for you, V.”

“Maybe.” Venom admits, meant it when he told her he could never lie to her. “But after I left you, Annie told me that you never gave up trying to fight Kasady... even when you knew I was not there to protect you. I... I underestimated you.”

Eddie narrows her eyes, but she can’t help shooting him a teasing smirk. “Hmmmm.”

“Oh, come on! I only made you suffer for Annie!” Venom stutters out.

“Bull – shit.” Eddie scoffs loudly, takes a moment to shove another bite of pancake into her mouth, takes a few more moments to chew and swallow the sweet delicious goodness. She holds back a smirk, well aware of those large pearly whites glaring daggers at her as she takes a sip of her orange juice. “What’d you wanna watch? We blasted through Russian Doll. So, what’s next on the Netflix agenda?”

Venom watches her reach for the remote, glances briefly to the screen and then back to Eddie. “Are we going to Netflix and chill?” He asks, ever bluntly in his curiosity.

“What?” Eddie chokes out a highly amused laugh. “Who the f**k taught you that? I’ve never used that phrase in all of my life.” She laughs again when he glares at her, can’t help it, it’s funny and adorable.

“I met a lot of weirdos in those nightclubs, Eddie.” Venom says gravely, eyes now wide in horror as he says, “They thought I was wearing a costume! And one of them touched my butt! I don’t know what one it was, but I felt like a piece of meat, Eddie!”

“Yeah, welcome to the world of women.” Eddie scoffs out another laugh, shovels down another forkful of pancake. “And no – no Netflix and chilling on first dates. Do you think I’m a w***e or somethin’, V?” She scoffs out, tries her best to hold back an amused smirk when his eyes widen in horror once again.

“No! Of course not!”

“Good.” Eddie grins. “Also, I’m just teasin’, so relax.”

Venom huffs, folds his arms over his chest as he glares at the screen and bites out, “Can we please watch The Umbrella Academy? The second season came out this morning. I already checked.”

Eddie nods, bites back another laugh at his ever petulant behaviour. At first, it really was annoying, now it’s just annoyingly cute.

‘Thank you.’

Eddie chuckles quietly at the slight begrudgement of his tone. “You only like watchin’ this ‘cause you got a cute little crush on Diego.”

“He is fabulous, Eddie. He appreciates violence.” Venom practically swoons, doesn’t care, because it’s true: Diego is fabulous.

“Meh. I like Luther better.” Eddie grins, because she knows exactly what Venom will have to say to that...

“NO! Luther is the worst! So whiny!”

Eddie laughs, nods her agreement. “He really is, huh?” She pulls up the first episode of the second series, places the remote onto the table and leans back. “Hey, would you grab me beer?”

“Really, Eddie?” Venom doesn’t look impressed. “It’s 8:30 in the morning.”

“So, what? I can’t die with you latched onto me, and you’re not my mother. So, suck it.” Eddie snootily replies.

Venom huffs, shakes his head, but snips out, “Fine.” He doesn’t bother rising from the couch (is a little afraid Eddie may go flying out of her own seat if he does), instead, he sends out a tendril just big enough to open the fridge and pull out a bottle of beer. He branches another out from the tendril wrapped around the bottle, uses it to pop the top off and onto the kitchen counter.

“Sweet. Cheers, V.” Eddie grabs the bottle and shoots him a grin.

“I really did like your apology, Eddie...” Venom says after a few minutes of comfortable silence. He turns his head, stares down at her just as she stares back up at him and Cher decides that now is a good time to flap up into his lap and settle herself there. He shoots Eddie a grin when she laughs at the sight before her. “I just needed to know that you really did want me...”

“Yeah, I know, V.”

Venom feels a little flutter of something somewhere when she gives him that favourite smile of his. And this time, he does care, because it’s suddenly overwhelming. So, of course, he quickly brushes off their tender moment and says, “And also because I wanted you to emotionally embarrass yourself in front of Annie and Dan... after you emotionally hurt me first, of course.”

“Oh, ‘course.” Eddie nods, bites back an amused smirk when he narrows his eyes in suspicion.

[The Next Day.]

‘OK, V, try not to make me look like a crazy person. I only wanna hear you talkin’ if it’s helpful to whatever bullshit this guy is inevitably gonna be spewin’ out.’

‘Understood.’ Venom replies, tries to sound professional. He really does love solving cases with Eddie (in spite of his mildly hateful feelings towards the Detective.)

“Great.” Eddie mumbles out in time with the prison officer telling her she can finally step into the room. He closes the door behind her, but she counts two officers in each of the three corners of the room, the forth and farthest corner being where the thick glass boxed cell sits. She takes the chair left for her in the middle of the room, walks over to the thick yellow line painted on the ground (marking three feet away from the cell) and sits the chair down before slowly sitting down herself. She takes her time with pulling out her pen and notepad, then, finally looks up into the glass cell, her eyes finally resting on the dark and scarily empty eyes of the man.

He sits on a small wooden stool, just a foot away from the edge of his prison, leans down and peaks at her through one of the small air holes. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Edith.” He leans back, stares at her through the glass with a sadistic little grin. “I knew you’d be lovely to look at in the flesh... well...” His southern accent is as thick and intense as the crazed look in his unhinged eyes as raises both hands slowly to motion at the glass around him. “Almost anyway.”

“Is that the only reason you asked me here? To look at me?” Eddie tries not to sound so unimpressed, mainly just to keep herself professional (she can do it sometimes!)

‘Lying to yourself, Eddie? Really?’ Venom somehow sounds least impressed of all.

Eddie grits her teeth. ‘V –“

‘Yes, yes. Not unless helpful, blah, blah, blah.’ Venom huffs loudly, but otherwise, keeps quiet.

“It’s one reason. I’m sure you’ve done your homework on me.”

Eddie tries not to recoil at his sick grin. The bastard isn’t even trying to hide who is, is damn proud of it, by the looks of things.

‘We could come back later, and you could let me eat him.’ Venom says, though, this time, it’s personal, because he really does not like the way this guy is looking at Eddie.

‘V!’ Eddie snaps.

‘That WAS helpful!’ Venom snaps back.

‘Tonight is Halloween, remember? Is that not enough? We had a deal!’

Venom groans, grits out another, ‘Fine!’ In all honesty, he really does love trick or treating. Mainly because of all the chocolate, of course, but also because he gets to scare people into giving him that chocolate. Which just riles him up for the day after Halloween (part of the deal, chocolate one day, and heads the next.)

“Of course.” Eddie nods. “So, John – may I call you John?” Eddie feigns politeness, doesn’t know if he’s really good at acting or if he really does buy it. Probably the former.

‘Of course is. He wants something from you. This guy is another mutant, right? Ask him what he would like you to tell Magneto. Bet he would love to escape. Just like all the other bad guys.’

‘He’s usin’ me as a messenger? Lame.’ Eddie bites back a huff as John grins and nods.

“You may. I want us to feel like we can talk openly to each other. Y’know... one mutant to another and all.”

Eddie stares blankly at him. “I’m not a mutant. I have –“

‘Don’t say it!’

”– a –“

‘I AM NOT A –“

“– parasite.”

‘Just wait until we get home, Eddie...’ Venom grumbles out his warning.

Eddie blinks, doesn’t know where the hell the sudden arousal comes from, but is definitely not thrilled about it this time. Venom doesn’t say anything else, but she knows the i***t can feels her cheeks flushing along the stupid throbbing between her thighs. “Let’s just cut to the chase here –“ She says, anything to distract herself. “– are you or have you ever been a part of the Brotherhood Of Mutants? That’s the only part you seem to have left out in those colourful stories you painted for everybody.”

“Colourful?” John glares at her, no longer holding that sickening thing he thinks it charm over his half wrinkled face.

Eddie shoots him a pleasant smile, because she read his profile, and she knows exactly how to handle men who think so highly of themselves. She’s also enjoying the fact that being spoken to by a woman the way he is right now is something he obviously isn’t used to (she’s petty, she knows.)

‘Not petty if they barely hold humanity in the first place...’ Venom slips that little note in quietly. As if trying to subliminally persuade her to agree. “As if” – he definitely is.

‘No need for persuasion, V. I already know I’m petty, remember?’ Eddie bites back a smile at his little huff brushing through her mind. “Well, I mean, guys like you like to embellish... actually, guys in general like to do that.” She holds back on the snootiness, keeps her tone calm and casual.

John lets out a breathy chuckle, as if he can’t believe what he’s hearing. “Oh, I just know that talking isn’t what that pretty mouth of yours does best. Isn’t that right... sweet, sweet baby...” He grins when he sees the haunted look instantly appear in those pretty blue eyes. “That’s right, Eddie... You’re not the only that did their homework.”

[20 Minutes Later.]

‘What happened, Eddie? Talk to me, please. What’s wrong? I –‘ Venom let her have her time to recover as she quickly made her exit and all but scrambled back onto the motorcycle. But as they finally reach their front door, he can no longer take the horrid silence. And it is silent. For once, he can’t find what’s bothering her (it’s like it’s locked away somewhere he can’t reach... he hates it, hates not knowing what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling.)

“Don’t!” Eddie yells out in warning, holding a finger up at his annoyingly adorable floating head (she fondly calls it “the noodle.”) She winces when he shrinks back, eyes wide as he stares blankly back at her. She slams the door shut behind them with a loud huff and guilt tugging at her stupid heart. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I’m not upset with you.”

“But you are upset, Eddie.”

“Obviously. So what? It’s nothing new. I’ll get over it.” Eddie says, desperately trying to move the topic along (desperately trying to keep the memories buried where they damn well belong.)

“Well, I don’t know that! And I don’t like not knowing what you are thinking, Eddie! How are you even doing this?!” Venom demands, floating right up to her face and glaring into her forehead (as if he can read her mind that way instead.)

Eddie huffs. “Look, V, I understand you wanna help, and I’m very grateful for that, but my father sexually abusin’ me is not something I ever wanna think about again and oh, my fuckin’ God, I can’t believe I just blurted it out like that after all these years...” She laughs at that, actually feels the weight lifting from her heart at finally admitting it happened. “Wow... I’ve never told anybody... not even Anne.” Eddie arches a brow when Venom’s eyes narrow and he suddenly floats over to her laptop on the kitchen counter. “Uh, what’re you doin’? I’m pourin’ my stupid heart out here.” She scoffs out, glaring at him as she walks over and watches him typing and pulling up f*******:.

“What is his name?”

“What? Who? My dad’s?”

“Yes.” Venom hisses out, glares at the stupid website as he waits for her answer.

“He’s dead, V. Had a heart attack 8 years ago.” Eddie chuckles, can’t help reaching out to pat him gently on the head.

“NO!”