Work Text:
“Eddie, if we ask you a question will you be honest with us?” They had just been from Anne’s who Eddie did feel bad leaving but knew ultimately it was better before she really started to realize Venom was still alive.
“Yeah bud, I’m always honest.” They were quiet and then “You just lied to Anne.” Yeah ok so the little glob of goo had a point but still. “I didn’t lie, just withheld information. And secondly, isn't it impossible to lie with you? The ‘I know everything about you’ type stuff.”
“Yes, we know everything, see everything, but I am new to this human thing and would like to hear it from you.” Eddie could respect that in a way. This partnership or whatever this is was still new to both of them, and Eddie didn’t want to mess it up after only a couple of days.
“Why do we look at the same piece of sidewalk right before we get into the apartment building? It is like any other corner of sidewalk next to the wall and I am confused by this impulse we have to stop.” Yeah okay so Eddie really wasn’t ready to have this conversion, with Venom or anyone else.
“Do you remember your host before me?” He asked, deciding that if they were to have this conversation he would rather it be outside walking then back at the apartment. Sure people gave him weird looks talking to himself, but at this point he didn’t care.
“I have had many hosts, Eddie, but none Symbiotic. We are talking about the Life Foundation? Maria?” God it felt so good for someone else to say her name, to know she existed. Even Anne didn’t know about her. Granted Eddie had never told her but he didn’t want to cloud Anne with his barely manageable apartment and loud neighbors when she lived uptown. The nice neighborhood with police watch, each block filled with politicians or someone of influence. House parties Anne had love and Eddie had hated. All those fake people and fake smiles.
That was something that had always frustrated him about Anne. She was so naive to how people in San Francisco were living. She never understood why he needed to go to the ‘bad areas’ and interview people who had never even owned a cell phone. Leaving that nice, safe apartment for where he was now humbled him even more than he had realized.
“You know that Anne kicked me out, and she made most of the income so all I had was a few hundred dollars to my name. The guy I had connections with couldn’t get me into the apartment till Monday.” He remembers how scared he had been. His normal routine was ruined by one interview. He knows what he did to Anne wasn’t okay, even if it was for the greater good. He remembers being so angry at Drake, Anne, Life Foundation, San Francisco, everyone but himself.
“You should have bitten his head off.” Venom said, seeming to know where his thoughts were drifting. He still had so much anger within him, but that was the past, and not important anymore. “Yeah, I should have, but he was the only one in San Francisco that was willing to give me a few extra weeks on rent. I ended up getting drunk, shocker I know, and was going to demand the tenant to give me a room, and then there she was.”
“You know the free papers that print my stuff, well I was going to grab one and low and behold there she was with all of them. Charged me $10 dollars just for a paper.” He paused for a moment, smiling, remembering.
“Eddie I do not understand, why pay $10 when they were free. You are an idiot.”
“Yeah, yeah I was. Still am according to you. She asked if I had any place to go, said she knew a broken heart when she saw one. She shared her water with me, and ended up letting me sleep there with her.
“You slept with her?”
“No, god no. I uh, kinda passed out. She watched over me that night when no one else would have batted an eye.” He still never got her full response as to why she stayed and didn't completely rob him a what little he had left. It wasn’t until morning when he finally understood.
“You are Eddie Brock?” Oh god his head hurt, actually it felt like his brain was oozing out of his skull. “Yeah, yeah that’s me.” Oh my god his back was killing him. Did he really stay out here all night?
“I pictured better. Can’t say I’m surprised. Drink” She shoved water at him and he gratefully drank it all. “Who are you?” He asked between sips.
“I am your protector, your savior. I fought off five thugs wanting to rob you blind last night.” She says, that crazy look in someone's eye that told you they believe everything they just said. Eddie only looked at her suspiciously, having met many people in his time and this was nothing new to him.
“Oh okay fine it was a rat. You happy mister detective.” She said, straightening herself out as people started to move by them. Street, concrete, late night, no apartment, so so so hungover. Ah right, yah okay he knew where he was now.
“You gave me water?” he asked. Burrowing into himself as people passed too close for comfort. “Yes about that, are you still a writer?” She seemed to move so fast, jumping from one conversion to the next. It was refreshing. Someone so to the point that it made the heartache and pain feel dull in comparison.
“Yeah, and before you ask, I'm not investigating anyone anymore. Not that anyone would want to talk to me.” She seemed to stare at him for a moment, just a moment before she smiled. “Well then, it’s your lucky day. I want you to write a piece about me on your blog, you’ll get thousands of people interested.” He doubted that. Much of what he wrote anyway got maybe a few hundred views, but it wasn’t like he had anything else to write other than Eddie Brock: Failure at life . He supposed it couldn’t hurt him.
“So did you do it. Write about her?” Venom asked, seemingly very interested in the story of tired, sad, lonely Eddie.
“Yeah I did. She didn’t want to give me her name but I eventually got it after promising not to put it online.” She knew so little of online culture, never had a phone, had only seen the news through windows, and surprisingly she was content that way. And she knew even more about politics and people than I did.”
“What did she tell you?”
She had told him so much that day. How she had originally lived in Oregon, had a husband and kids. He was abusive, which led her to leave. It was hard for her with nothing, but everywhere she went there seemed to be good luck around the corner. She had such an attitude about life that Eddie could never really understand. Her own son blamed her for leaving, only to see her again, knowing her situation, and leaving her to rot on the street.
“I cannot change what has happened, so why dwell and get mad.” She could see his anger, something he had been losing more and more as he had been with Anne and now he was back to square one.
“The people in our lives we most expect not to betray us do, and we have to move on. Find a new path and hope they do as well.” He hadn’t told her anything about his ‘heartbreak’ with Anne, but it seemed she knew. He remembers how he had brushed off her sentiment, always walking by their old house that Anne still lived in and looking at the stupid cat in the window.
“Don’t you already know all of this? You were in her brain or whatever, you know before you killed her.” It was a low blow, but one that needed saying. He knew that it was her choice to leave with the Life foundation, as if she really had a choice.
That is not fair. You know we were not symbiotic, not like us. I did not want to hurt her…….You were there, in her mind. A bright spot.”
“Bright spot?”
“Happy memory. She had few, but you were there. I think that is why I felt safe with you when I had changed hosts. Normally the process is tense if the symbiote is threatened or scared. I had seen you and therefore was not scared.”
Eddie didn’t really know what to do with that. He regrets so many things. Like letting her refuse to not stay with him, not warning her about the Life Foundation, not doing more for the community she had been a part of years before he even thought of moving to San Francisco.
“You blame yourself. Why? I do not understand this human emotion of blame. You blame yourself even though it is not your fault.” It still amazed him after all this time that a being millions of years old learned so quickly about emotions and how the world revolved around them.
“That’s just how humans cope sometimes buddy. I could have done more, and I didn’t. She was a good woman, and no one even knew she existed.” That was the real kicker. She was the only normal he saw everyday. No matter how shitty he looked, how drunk he was, she always looked at him with that same smile.
“You saw her as your mother. I do not understand this. She did not raise you?” It still kind of scared him how easily Venom could pick up on stray thoughts and emotions. He really needed to get used to that, and soon.
“No, no she didn’t. Sometimes a person who looks out for you that has no relation to you can be seen as a parental figure, or family. It’s dumb Venom. You know how I am.” He wasn’t going to get into his own parental issues tonight. God knows they really did need to have that conversation but this atleast was a step. He hoped he didn’t come to regret it.
“I am sorry I wasn’t compatible with her.” Venom said as they continued to walk back to the apartment. Eddie appreciated the sentiment, but decided to just stay silent. There were still so many things that they needed to talk about, ground rules and such. He wondered how comfortable he would be talking ‘technically’ to himself but it felt good to speak to someone who wouldn’t judge.
“It’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you. I don’t blame her either. I’m glad you brought her up.” He said, feeling genuine. He could feel venom ripple through him in agreement which Eddie took as a win.
They had soon made it home, but before they continued to the front of the apartment building, Venom had stopped them by the corner. Eddie was about to say something until Venom’s head manifested beside his own, a tendril sticking out holding a flower.
“Where did you-” Another inky tendril flew out, covering his mouth. He watched as Venom put the flower down in the corner and then seeped back into his skin. Venom said nothing, and Eddie decided not to either. The gesture meant more than words anyway.
And that truly, was all that mattered.