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The motorcycle engine rumbled as they pulled off of the highway. The wind rushed against Eddie’s body. His clothes rippled against his body, his jacket billowing behind him.
He and Venom were driving through Nevada, desperately trying to get to Mexico before the cops caught up with them. They had no choice, really. Eddie was not about to leave them again to have a chance at a normal life. Normalcy left him long ago. A life with Venom was what he truly wanted, even if it meant living as a fugitive and needing to flee the country.
The fast-food restaurant was barely a minute off the highway. Eddie pulled into the parking lot, parked his bike, and hopped off. His legs dully ached as he stood, sore from long hours of driving down the I10. Eddie bounced from foot to foot, trying to shake the discomfort from his muscles.
“Eddie, we can stretch later. We are starving,” Venom whined in his head.
He laughed softly. “Yeah, yeah. Just give me a second.” He reached down to touch his toes, sighing as he felt the tension leave his body.
He stood back up and walked towards the restaurant.
Eddie shoved the door open, its heft forcing him to use his weight to open it. A bell rang as he walked through the doorway, alerting the two workers behind the counter. One of them, an older Black lady, was busy talking to another customer at the counter. The other worker, a young white guy who couldn’t be older than 16, worked in the kitchen. He turned towards him at the sound of the bell, giving Eddie a fake customer service smile.
Eddie smiled back at her as he walked to stand behind the other customer at the counter. The other customer wore a backpack that was covered in pins. Eddie didn’t pay much attention to it; he focused on the menu above him and desperately tried to decide what he felt like and what would fulfill Venom’s insatiable desire for meat.
He settled on a double-patty hamburger with bacon. Venom hummed in delight, a soft warmth building in his chest.
Eddie, can we also get a chocolate milkshake? Venom asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Eddie mumbled. He hoped he was quiet enough for the people around him not to notice.
The person in front of him moved to the side of the counter, waiting for their food. Eddie stepped towards the counter and ordered their meal.
The worker walked towards the counter with a white plastic tray in her hands. “Here’s your order, sir.”
“Thank you!” He responded cheerfully as he reached out and grabbed their food. The aroma wafted through the air, making his stomach growl in anticipation.
Eddie walked to the back of the restaurant. He found a nook in the corner of it where he could essentially hide from the other patrons and the staff. He sat down on the hard red plastic chair that would undoubtedly hurt his back later and placed the tray on the small table in front of him.
“Eddie! Look at that person’s backpack!”
He looked around the restaurant and saw the same customer who had stood in front of him earlier, sitting alone. Their backpack was placed next to them facing outward, letting Eddie see all of the pins on it.
We recognize one of those pins! Venom fixed their gaze on one of the pins at the top of their backpack. It was a flag— a nine-striped flag of alternating navy blue and black stripes with a white stripe in the middle. The flag had a little red heart in the top right corner. Oh.
“How do you know what that one is?” Eddie asked incredulously.
“Saw someone wearing it while we were separated,” they replied plainly.
“What the hell did you get up to while we were apart, bud?” Eddie teased.
Venom sent the mental equivalent of a question mark through their bond. They coiled in his gut, the weight making him uncomfortable.
“Do you… do you know what that one means, or have you just seen it before?”
“Just seen it before. We don’t know what it means, but it was at the place with all the weirdos.”
“The place with all the weirdos, huh? What exactly was that?”
“A place with lots of loud music and people in funny costumes. It was— we’ll show you what it was.”
An image appeared in his mind’s eye. It was a dark room, lit by the fluorescent lights of glow sticks and strobe lights. Loud techno music roared, making it hard for them to hear the conversations around them.
“Wait a minute, you went to a rave ?” He exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
The customer with the pins turned to look at him.
Eddie quickly buried himself in his food, shoving as much of the burger as he could into his mouth.
Venom snickered. A tiny tendril snaked out of his wrist and grabbed a French fry.
“Be careful! ” Eddie cried mentally. “We need to make sure we aren’t noticed.”
“Says the man talking to himself in a restaurant.”
Their conversation devolved into bickering, with them exchanging back-and-forth jabs at each other. The discussion of the flag and the rave was forgotten.
———————
The sun was setting on the horizon, and pinks, oranges, blues, and purples were fading into each other. The sand under Eddie was warm and coarse, flowing into all the wrinkles in his clothing.
Venom’s head rested on his shoulders, their head tucked under his chin. Their black form absorbed the heat from the sun, making them feel like a gentle, warm heating pad on his shoulders.
Eddie raised a hand and began gently stroking their heads. Their purr rumbled through his body, causing Eddie to smile.
“So, V,” Eddie said. “Do you wanna talk about what you said before?”
They tilted their head. Venom’s confession flashed in his mind, projected through their bond.
Eddie’s face reddened as he fought back the memory. They would talk more about that later, once he had psyched himself up to handle it. “Not that! The uhh… the rave thing you mentioned back in Nevada.”
Venom deflated, their form sagging a bit further down from where they initially hovered. “What about it?”
“Well, you said you liked how people didn’t care or comment on your appearance. How you were just accepted openly and without question. And I uhh… I just wanted to ask if you know about pride?”
Venom’s confusion trickled through to Eddie’s side of the bond.
“Gay pride. The social movement with the parades.”
“Oh. We know a bit about it. Your memories gave us a select amount of information on it. Nothing about the meanings but snapshots of the event. Your memories are tinged with joy.”
“Yeah, I was happy when I was there,” he smiled fondly. “But is that all you know about it, dear?” The pet name just slipped out. Eddie blushed and prayed they wouldn’t comment on it.
If Venom noticed, they did not say anything about it.
They unsnaked their body from around Eddie’s shoulders and moved further away to look at him properly. “That is all. Your memories are pleasant, but it is hard to get information from them.” Their head bowed slightly, almost as if they were embarrassed about their lack of knowledge.
“It’s okay, V. You’re new to Earth, and it’s hard to get caught up with every social movement in a year.”
“Pride is a celebration of authenticity— of living as your true self and loving who you love. For a long time, society demonized anything that wasn’t considered ‘normal’. If you liked someone of the same gender or felt like your sex assigned at birth didn’t match your gender, you were ostracized. We were essentially removed from society— you would be arrested if you were caught having gay sex, police would raid gay bars and violate people they thought were cross-dressing, and transgender people’s deadnames would be the ones written on their tombstones.
Queer people fought repeatedly for our identities to be respected. The modern pride movement kicked off with the Stonewall riots after police raided a gay bar in New York. They treated the people as subhuman. The queer people, sick of all the bullshit the cops were putting them through, finally fought back. We fought back before Stonewall, of course, but it really kicked off the organization of activist groups. It’s actually why pride is celebrated in June cuz it was when we started fighting for our rights.
A lotta things are better now, but that doesn’t mean everything’s all fine and dandy. We might have legal protections, but that doesn’t mean people respect us. There are still lots of people who think we’re unnatural and call for us to be eradicated. And even the legal protections are thin— the fuckin’ Republicans keep trying to peel back trans healthcare since that’s the newest culture war.”
Eddie’s breath hitched in his throat. He squirmed, fighting back the emotions bubbling in his throat.
Venom gently nuzzled against his face. A small tendril twined around his arm and curled up in his palm. Eddie squeezed them, and they pulsed back, a gentle wave of affection flooding through their bond.
“That’s why we still have pride. We wouldn’t really need it if we were fully treated as equals since we wouldn’t have to prove that “we’re here and we’re queer” or whatever. So we keep organizing, coming together to affirm our community and identity, and fighting for our rights. We have
“You keep saying ‘us’ and ‘we’,” Venom questioned.
Eddie huffed. His gaze fell to the sandy beach beneath him. “Yeah, I do. Kinda thought you would’ve realized why by now, but I guess you wouldn’t be able to figure out that without knowing much about humans.”
“I’m, uhh, trans,” he confessed. He felt silly– they were a pile of amorphous goop with no societal hang-ups about queer people, but he still was scared to come out to them. He didn’t want to lose the relationship they had.
Venom sent another pulse of affection before wrapping around his shoulders again, curling up as close to his skin as possible. Venom stayed silent but began gently massaging his palm. He brought the hand Venom held closer to his chest and held them tight.
“I uhh… thought you would’ve figured that out before given…” he gestured to his chest.
Venom titled their head. “Your scars?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I had surgery to remove my tits. Cisgender guys don’t have to do that.”
“Those are no different from the rest of the differences between you and other people. Your scars here,” a tendril danced over his top surgery scars. “Are no different from the scars on Maria’s knee. Every facet of your body differs from others; your intestines are larger than Annie’s, and you’ve got a whole organ Maria didn’t have. Why would your body’s differences make you any less of a man?”
Eddie was damn near about to cry. “It shouldn’t, but people see it that way. People think I’ll always be a woman 'cause I was born with a vagina.”
“They are just wrong, though,” Venom stated. “You are different here,” a caress of his frontal lobe, “from women. Your body does not change that.”
Eddie smiled and buried his face in their form. Venom’s tendrils bubbled against his skin, his lips, and caressed his face. “Thanks, dear.”
Venom sent waves of affection through their bond, oxytocin and phenethylamine flooding through his brain.
“I’m also bisexual, but I didn’t know if you would’ve picked up on that. Like, I don’t know how much you’ve flipped through my memories, but if you ever looked at my past relationships, you’d see I dated both guys and girls. That’s not standard for most people.”
Venom paused. “We noticed that, but we never compared your memories to others. Didn’t realize that wasn't typical for humans.”
“It’s probably a bit absurd, given your alien perspective. I don’t even know how much you guys communicate with each other, but we humans really love to label things and find communities around those labels. It helps us figure ourselves out.”
Eddie swallowed before continuing. “Pride is uhh… really special to me. It’s the first time I truly felt accepted for who I am. My father treated me like an abomination. He thought some sort of demonic power was influencing me, that no godly person would ever be so ‘confused’ as to who they were. I left that house the second I turned 18, but the baggage was still there, ya know? It took a lot of time for me to be okay with myself, and pride was a big part of that. Knowing I wasn’t alone, that what I felt was okay.
My father also drilled it into me that love could only be between a man and a woman. It took me a long time to realize I was bi because I thought everyone felt attracted to both, and we were just supposed to choose to only love one. Being trans kinda exposed me to more of the community, and learning that what I felt had a specific word, that was nice. Made me feel seen,” Eddie sighed. It was nice to talk about this with Venom, to make sure they understood him and who he was.
“What I’m tryna say is… I think you would enjoy pride. Since you talked about how you felt accepted and that the people at the rave treated you kindly without judgement. Pride’s all about that.”
Venom hummed thoughtfully. “That does sound nice. Being understood after being outcasted…” They gazed off into the distance, letting their sentence trail off.
“Maybe we can attend a parade while we’re here,” Eddie mused. “We’ll look into it when we get back to our room, okay?”
Venom nodded. They fell into silence, just holding each other close and enjoying their company.
The sunset had never looked so beautiful.
——————
Eddie had looked into the pride events in Mexico. He found one close to their little hotel, and made a plan for him and Venom to attend.
He would take precautions to go unrecognized, of course, but he would not hide. That’s what pride was about, after all.
The parade didn’t start until later in the afternoon.
Eddie and Venom spent the day in their hotel, with hands and tendrils entwined and two becoming one. Eddie was dazed and slightly sweaty when Venom interrupted his thoughts.
“Eddie, we need to get ready to leave. It is almost 4 p.m.”
“What?” He blinked rapidly as he tried to pull himself back to reality. “Oh, shit!”
Eddie pulled himself to his feet, running to the bathroom. He was a mess; his hair was sweaty and dishevelled, and his clothes were certainly not something he would want to be seen outside in: a grey San Fran t-shirt, a Hawaiian print that Venom insisted was giving the vibes of “the average white dad on vacation,” and a pair of beige khakis that desperately needed to be washed.
“Shit,” he mumbled. “What the fuck am I going to wear?”
“We could help with that.”
“What did you like… steal some clothes from another person staying here or…?”
Venom snorted. “No, Eddie. We have not stolen from anyone. Just trust us, okay?”
Eddie sighed. “Okay. Do your worst.”
Venom huffed another laugh as their hand materialized. Their claws sliced through his shirt and jeans. The shredded pieces of his clothing fell to the floor around him in a heap.
“Hey! What are you—“
Tendrils began wrapping around his torso and legs. They knitted themselves together, tightening around his torso, his biceps, and his thighs. When the movement stopped, Eddie looked in the mirror.
Venom had formed themselves into an outfit for him. He was now wearing a black crop top with a rainbow running across the chest, a black motorcycle vest, and a pair of comfortable black jorts. He blushed. He hadn’t worn a crop top in years. He looked nice.
They walked out of their room, down the hallway of their hotel and to the elevator. Eddie kept nervously glancing at the people around him, trying to reassure himself that no one was staring at him.
“Do not worry about it, Eddie. We look amazing. If people are staring at you, it is because of how absolutely delicious you look.”
Eddie’s face was as red as a tomato as he walked into the elevator. The door closed behind him. He pressed the button for the ground floor, and the ratchety old elevator began to move, making ominous squeaking noises as it lowered them to the ground level.
The elevator dinged as they reached their destination. The doors opened, and Eddie walked out of the elevator, past the reception desk, and onto the road outside.
He stood by the road, waiting. A few minutes later, a taxi emerged from around the corner downtown. He waved it down and told the driver where he was headed.
“Are you nervous, Eddie?” Venom questioned.
“A bit, yeah,” Eddie responded aloud. The taxi driver glanced at him through the mirror. Eddie quickly quieted and pursed his lips together.
“Realistically, I know nothing is gonna happen, but it’s hard not to still have that anxious feeling in your gut, you know?”
A gentle wave of reassurance spread from his chest. “We understand, Eddie. You do not need to be afraid, we are here with you. You are not alone.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Thanks, V.”
The cab pulled up to the block where the parade started. Eddie thanked the driver, gave him a tip for his fare, and awkwardly scooted out of the cab.
He walked towards the crowd, a sense of ease beginning to wash over him as he saw other people walking with him toward the venue.
“These people are like the weirdos from the rave!” Venom exclaimed, an excitement that wasn’t his own making his stomach flutter.
“Yeah, they are, buddy,” Eddie replied with a smile.
To their left, a drag queen was giving a speech to a group of people. Eddie couldn’t understand it. It was in Spanish, and he knew only the basics and whatever random phrases Duolingo had taught him. He sent a mental nudge to Venom, asking them what she was giving a speech on.
Venom sent the mental equivalent of a shrug back to him. “Our Spanish is only a little bit better than yours, Eddie. We can help you out with talking to people, but not translating a whole speech.”
“Fair enough,” Eddie replied as he weaved his way through the crowd, trying his best not to dump into anyone or block people’s view. “If you can pick out anything interesting from the speakers we pass, just tell me. We can stop and go listen to them.”
He continued walking down the road towards the centre of the festival.
They continued to wade through the crowds, working their way towards the centre of the crowd. Music blared from the speakers, and Eddie found himself bopping his head along with the rhythm. The people surrounding them were so diverse: drag queens, people in kink and fetish gear, people in costumes Eddie could not fathom having the skill to create. Most of the people wore regular clothes, though they held pride flags or had rainbows on their shirts.
“We should make our way somewhere to watch the parade from, huh,” Eddie said aloud, figuring the people around them were too caught up in their own conversations to notice a guy talking to himself.
“We should. We wouldn’t want to miss the show,” Venom took control of his legs, guiding them further into the crowd. Eddie’s eyes darted around for a place to watch the show from as they walked.
He made his way to a part of the road with steps behind it. Venom sent a question mark through their bond as Eddie stopped. “I’m getting old, V, I probably won’t be able to stand for all of the parade without my knees killing me. We can sit down for a bit back there—“ He gestured with his head to the steps. “If we need to.”
“We would never let your knees kill you,” Venom retorted.
Eddie huffed. “Didn’t mean it literally, Ven. But thank you for the sentiment.”
The parade was phenomenal. The floats were beautiful, with music, performers, and people in costumes. The flags waved, and people walked alongside them and waved to the others on the side.
Venom was absolutely enthralled with the entire parade. Their wonder at the displays made Eddie’s heart swell. He was glad they got to experience this together, that they could take a break from hiding and be themselves with people who understood them.
As the last of the floats passed and the crowds began to dissipate, Eddie stayed on the steps and mulled over what they experienced.
“Eddie!” Venom exclaimed. “Can we look at that table?”
Eddie’s head turned without him telling it to. His eyes focused involuntarily, and he found himself staring at a table covered in button pins. Above the table hung rainbow flags, and a sign said something he couldn’t read.
“Yeah, sure, V. Let’s go see what’s there.”
They walked towards the stand.
“Hola!” The person running the stand said, welcoming them. They waved, a bright smile on their face.
“Hi!” Eddie replied awkwardly. “Probably gonna need your help with this conversation, V,” he thought to them. He directed his attention back towards the person running the stand. “Sorry. I, uh, don’t speak much Spanish.”
“It’s all good, man. I speak English.”
A weight was lifted off of Eddie’s chest. “So uhh… what’s this stand about?”
“It’s all about these pins. We made some for this event, so we’re giving them out while we have them. They’re all different pride flags.”
Venom’s interest was piqued. They took control of Eddie’s hand, guiding them towards a variety of different pins.
The person running the stand turned to talk with another person.
Their conversation faded to the background as Eddie gazed at the different pins, letting him and Venom take in the variety. Eddie’s hand hovered over the lesbian pride pin. “Dear, that one does not apply to us.”
“But the colours are very pretty! It’s like the sunset on the beach at our hotel.”
“That flag is for women who like women. I don’t think either of us are women, babe.”
Venom sighed dramatically.
Eddie chuckled to himself. “Some of the ones that suit us are very pretty as well. I’m sure we’ll find something that suits your taste.”
He took control of his hand, guiding it towards the gay male flag. “See? This one also has a nice colour gradient to it, and it applies more to us. It’s for men who like men. Not sure if you identify as a guy, but this one also applies to genderqueer people.”
Venom hummed thoughtfully. Eddie’s fingers clasped around it and brought it to their best, pinning it to the left chest pocket.
Venom moved his hand back towards the table, reaching down to grasp a flag Eddie didn’t recognize. It had black, grey, and white stripes with a light green stripe in the middle.
“What’s that one for, dear?”
“Agender. It’s when you don’t have any gender identity.” Venom pinned it to his jacket. “Found out about it while we were looking through your phone last night.”
“Oh, interesting! Glad you found something for yourself.” Eddie paused. “And Vee? Thanks for telling me that’s how you feel.”
“Of course, Eddie. We would’ve told you sooner, we just didn’t know this word existed. It’s fascinating that you humans have words that can describe us,” Venom mused. “We get what you were saying before, Eddie. This term made us feel seen.”
Eddie beamed. He sent a gentle wave of affection towards Venom. “I’m glad you can get the same joy from them that I do.”
Eddie looked down at the wide array of pins. “Any other ones you want?”
“Yes.” Venom moved their hand back down. They fumbled through the bowl, trying to find the pin they wanted.
“Aha! That’s the one.” Venom pulled out the pansexual pride flag, adding it to Eddie’s growing collection on his vest.
Eddie regained control of his hand. He looked through the pin collection, grabbing the transgender and bisexual pride flag. He added them to his collection before thanking the person running the stand and walking away.
Eddie approached a cluster of stands for face paint. He was continuing to walk past it when Venom forced his legs to stop moving.
“Huh?”
“We want to do this,” they said. “It looks very pretty.”
Eddie paused. He definitely didn’t want to stand in line and was slightly put off by the idea of having paint on his face for the next several hours.
“Please?” Venom begged, somehow doing puppy dog eyes mentally.
Eddie sighed. “Fine. We’ll do the face paint.”
Venom purred happily and twisted delightfully in Eddie’s chest.
The line passed faster than Eddie expected. Before he knew it, he stood before the open chair and the woman holding the brush. The lady’s face was decorated with a beautiful rainbow butterfly.
“Hi!” she said, her voice jovial. “Just take a seat on the chair and we’ll get started.”
He sat down on the chair. The woman held a sheet full of designs out towards him.
Eddie relinquished control of his hand, letting Venom select the design they wanted. They chose a rainbow that went mostly straight from his forehead over his eye and to his cheek.
The paint was wet and uncomfortable as it was painted onto his skin. Eddie closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, reminding himself why he was doing this. It was Venom’s first pride, they wanted to experience everything, and he would be damned if he stood in the way of that.
“Nice pins, by the way,” she remarked as she placed the paint brush onto his cheek.
Eddie glanced down at the pins on his jacket. They were all still there, except there was one new one.
“Venom!” He mentally shouted, moving his hand to grab at the lesbian pride pin he had not noticed was there. “I thought I told you not to get that one.”
“It was pretty! Besides, it goes with your other ones.”
Eddie sighed and turned his attention back towards the lady. “Thanks,” he replied to her earlier comment.
When it was done, the lady pulled out a mirror and held it in front of Eddie’s face. It looked better on him than he expected.
“It looks great,” Eddie said to the woman. He stood up, his joints cracking as he did.
“Thank you!” He called as he walked away.
He continued walking until he found a quieter area where he could talk to Venom without worry.
“So, what’d ya’ think?” Eddie asked Venom. “Did you enjoy pride?”
“It was beautiful,” Venom said. “Wish we could’ve done what all the people around us were doing, though.”
“What?”
Venom showed Eddie the memories they were referring to. The couples around them shared soft kisses with each other whenever they felt so inclined, holding hands and sharing in each other’s joy.
Eddie’s face flushed.
Venom took control of his head, forcing him to look around his surroundings. “There’s no one around us, Eddie.”
Eddie swallowed.
Venom’s head bubbled out of his chest, their tendrils interweaving to form their ‘neck’ and face. Their eyes blinked into existence, and a fanged maw emerged from the inky sludge of his Other. They were stunning.
Eddie placed his hand on their cheek. Tendrils grasped his hand, holding it against their face.
He leaned forward.
Venom met him halfway.
The kiss didn’t feel as uncomfortable as Eddie expected. It felt right as he leaned further into the kiss, grasping Venom’s head with his other hand and holding them close.
Venom’s form rippled as the kiss deepened, sending shivers down Eddie’s spine. They purred oh so lovingly and held him with dozens of tendrils caressing every inch of his form. Their bond opened fully, one’s emotions flooding and mixing with the other’s. An infinite feedback loop of affection and care and love .
Eddie pulled away from the kiss, out of breath and slightly dazed. He looked up at Venom, a wide smile on his face. “Happy pride, darling.”