Work Text:
And when you start to look at me, a physical fatality
And you surrender to the heat, you'll know
I can put on a show, I can put on a show
Don't you see what you're finding?
This is heaven in hiding
This is heaven in hiding, oh
—Halsey, Heaven in Hiding
We want to taste you, They said suddenly as if Eddie wasn’t in the middle of writing an article about meat substitutes for his blog. (They had been absolutely disgusted with the sample that Eddie had been given, but he thought it had promise. If the producers could figure out a way to make it more accessible for the average consumer.)
“Give me like 30 minutes, Love,” he murmured.
He didn’t expect surprise to ripple along their bond. Really?
Eddie paused mid-stroke, his hands hovering above the keyboard. “Yeah? When have I ever said “no” to sex?” Which was when he realized that there had been a low thrum of anxiety at the back of his mind until They had spoken.
His Other was a swirl of emotions that Eddie couldn’t parse out before the link was shut down. The feeling was jarring enough that Eddie felt lightheaded. “What’s wrong?”
It took a few moments, and he still couldn’t get a sense of what They were feeling, but eventually Their black inky form flowed out from his chest so that they could look at each other, face-to-face. “You misunderstood.”
“What did I misunderstand, Darling?” Eddie asked, reaching up to stroke Their form. “Explain what You meant.”
“We don’t want to scare you,” They said.
Eddie raised an eyebrow, not shying away from sharing his confusion and curiosity. When They weren’t forthcoming, he continued, dropping his tone. “I don’t mind a bit of fear.”
They closed Their eyes and visibly shivered. Eddie felt it through his entire being.
“Tell me.”
“We want to taste you,” They repeated meaningfully, and their bond opened like a dike splintering apart. Eddie drowned under the onslaught of Their want. The images of Their teeth sinking into his flesh and muscles, blood staining Their mouth, swallowing strips of him, were all tinted with unwavering arousal.
It was not, as Eddie had said, ‘a bit of fear’ that he felt. He recoiled with its force, his eyes wide, his breath shaky when he could manage it. He’d known his Other for over two years, and it had been nearly that long since he’d felt fear when faced with Their desires.
He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to force some reaction from his throat. It wasn’t until Their guilt and shame flowed through his veins that he managed it. “W-why?”
“We want all of you, Eddie,” They explained.
“You have me, Love, always,” he assured Them, taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. “I just… I don’t understand what…” he floundered, irritated at himself for struggling to put words to his thoughts. It was literally his career. “ Is it pain?” He offered, grasping for explanations.
“No. Well, We like that part too,” They admitted with less guilt.
“Then…” Eddie sighed. “You know I’m Yours. You’re in every part of me, down to my cells. What would You get out of that that You don’t already have?” He tried to project his desire to understand. That he wasn’t judging Them, and that his initial fear had started to fade.
“We’re inside of you,” They agreed. “We want you inside of Us.”
“By eating me?”
Their mouth closed and Eddie heard the click of Their teeth scraping against each other. They nodded slowly. “Just a little."
Eddie let out a high pitched laugh, partially from the edge of panic that hadn’t receded yet, and partially from actual amusement. He ran a hand up through his hair and watched Their exaggerated expressions—exaggerated for his benefit. Subtlety wasn’t something Their face was capable of.
“Walk me through what You’re thinking.”
Shock joined Their shame and guilt. “What?”
“You heard me,” Eddie trudged up a smile for Them. “I assume You aren’t interested in injuring me. Well, not anything long-term, at least.”
“Never!” They exclaimed fiercely. “We will never harm you.”
Tendrils broke free from his arms, legs, and chest, circling him, holding him. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, baring his throat to his Other. “But, You want to eat me?”
“We want to swallow you,” They specified. “We want your body to become a part of Ours.”
“It’s not already?”
“Not the same."
“And my cum isn’t good enough?”
“Not the same,” They repeated. Concepts started filtering into Eddie’s mind through their bond. Metabolism, growth, strength. How everyone They ate altered Them that tiny bit—the permanence of it.
“Thought our symbiosis did the same?” Eddie asked, piecing through Their thoughts.
“It does,” They admitted. “But We want you to change Us like that, too. Not just Bad Guys. For humans, the things you eat are only a part of you for a few years,” They explained. “For Us, it’s forever.”
That was almost kind of sweet, Eddie thought. At least by Their standards. It even bordered on romantic. And, given Their nature, he supposed it wasn’t even that weird. Well, no, it still was. It was very weird. But he could kind of understand it. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around forever, not in the same way that They did.
“You’ll heal me, right?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
Their tendrils caressed his throat. “Always.”
He cracked one eye open at Their hesitance. Their mouth was hanging open slightly, an entirely human reaction to surprise.
“Will you let me come?” He felt the rush of arousal that pulsed between them, working itself into a feedback loop of promised pleasure.
“Eddie,” They growled, arching up so that Eddie was forced to tip his head further back to watch Them loom over him. “You’re sure?”
“No,” Eddie answered honestly. “But I—I’m willing to try. To see how it goes.” He smiled as They tightened Their grip everywhere They touched. “You’ve never pushed me further than I could take yet. I don’t think You’ll start now.”
There was nothing like having an immortal eldritch being look at him in awe. Their love and possessiveness was all-consuming, far more so than his human brain was capable of comprehending.
“Now?” They asked breathlessly. Which was ridiculous, given that they didn’t breathe.
Technically, he still needed to finish his article. But he knew a lost cause when he saw one—plus he’d never be able to separate meat substitute and Their request in his mind again.
Still, “Not now. Sorry, I’m still…” He trailed off. He was still shaken, his nerves still fried, his fear and panic still too close to the surface. “Tomorrow, maybe?”
“Ok, Eddie," They agreed readily. “Whenever you’re ready.” Their tendrils didn’t sink back into his skin, but they did loosen their hold. “We love you.” They brushed their face against his.
“I love You too,” he kissed the side of Their face when it passed by his mouth.
Realizing that Eddie was willing to give up on work for the day, They proceeded to show just how much They loved him. They started by relaxing on the couch while watching a show that They didn’t understand but knew that Eddie loved. Then, the moment that the sun set, They set out to hunt as Venom. They knew, despite Eddie’s complaints to the contrary, that he loved the hunt and the chase as much as They did.
Three Bad Guys later, Venom’s adrenaline was coursing through Their body, Their hunger and bloodlust slated for the moment. A fourth target presented itself, and They weren’t one to turn down a chance to remove Evil from Their planet.
Venom shook as They headed back to Their apartment. They didn’t become two again until They were safely home. As soon as they did, Eddie dropped to his knees. His body trembled from the overload of adrenaline and norepinephrine and who knew what other chemicals that flooded his brain so fast that even They couldn’t quite keep up.
Oh, Eddie, They purred in his mind as They helped him stand and stumble to the couch so that he could lay down.
“M’ok,” he said wearily, blindly reaching out, needing to touch Them.
We have you, Darling Eddie, They formed a hand for Eddie to hold tightly in his own. Our amazing Eddie, They continued. Perfect.
Eddie let himself be held, entirely surrounded by Them, in a way that was entirely unlike being Venom. He closed his eyes and let Them work as They diverted and metabolized all the chemicals that threatened to break him apart.
It was only once his shaking had subsided that They encouraged him up again, and into the shower. Usually, he preferred to wash himself, to let the routine movements ground him in a moment of normalcy. But right then, he was willing to let Them take care of him and relaxed as gentle soap cleaned away the sweat and dead skin of the day. Even when Their tongue started following the soap, the rasp of it was soothing.
When the tip of Their tongue passed over his ass, Eddie whimpered. “Love, no, I can’t.”
Shh, They hushed him gently. We know, Dearest. Just relax for Us.
He did his best, and They hummed warmly at his obedience. True to Their word, they made no attempt for anything sexual and instead reserved Their touch around his groin and ass for cleaning. They even kept Their tongue away from his dick, which was… appreciated, he supposed. But after having it brush against every other part of his body, it felt like a loss.
Their amusement bubbled in his chest at his ambivalence.
“Shut up,” he grumbled as They rinsed him off.
We didn’t say anything.
He rolled his eyes and stepped out of the shower to towel himself off. They allowed that long enough to let him rub the towel against his hair before taking that over as well.
Be good, They chided at his huff.
“Thirty minutes ago, You said I was perfect,” he teased.
You are. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a brat.
Eddie snorted, raising his arms to let Them towel off his sides. “I’m forty.”
And?
“And, I’m too old to be a brat.”
They felt unimpressed. Disagree.
“Disagree all You like, it’s still true.”
A moment later, They formed from his shoulder to give him Their best annoyed expression.
“I love You,” he offered, kissing them on the forehead.
“We know. We can feel it. Here.” Eddie could feel the part of his brain They were referencing. He frowned despite himself because he wasn’t supposed to be able to feel his brain. It didn’t hurt, but it was unsettling and never failed to make him nauseated. “Sorry, Eddie,” They said quickly, soothing him.
“Thanks,” he said, settling under the covers of their bed. A moment later, They were covering him as well, pressing him down against the bed until he relaxed. Until he felt safe.
The next day dragged on, excitement and anxiety warring in Eddie in turns. As much as They wanted to—they both wanted to—he couldn’t just fall into bed with his lover for the entire day. No, he had a job, one that he needed if he planned to keep a roof over their heads and food in their kitchen.
Which meant he had to sit down and wrangle his thoughts back together to finish his article about meat substitutes. He knew, thirty years from now, he’d be at the market and find a package, and he wouldn’t be able to think of anything but Their desire to consume him.
Their lust at the way his mind kept wandering echoed through him. “You’re not helping,” he complained.
“It didn’t taste like meat at all, the end.” They grumbled.
“Maybe not exactly—”
“Not at all.”
“Bud, I have to finish this. I’d have been done a good twenty minutes ago if You let me concentrate.”
“It’s boring.”
“You find plenty of things I write about boring.”
“But We usually aren’t waiting to fuck you,” They pointed out.
Eddie sighed. “How’d You manage to survive thousands of years without learning a lick of patience?”
“Slowly,” They answered.
“Twenty minutes,” he stated. “Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be done.”
They leaned closer to his laptop, glancing over the words he’d written. “What about editing?”
“Twenty-two minutes. So I can email it to my editor.”
“Twenty-two minutes,” They agreed, sinking back under his skin. They entertained themselves tracing the veins through his lungs. It was less distracting than Their constant commentary had been.
He hit send with five minutes to spare.
“There! See?”
Why are you acting like We’re the only one feeling impatient? They asked.
“Because I’m trying to keep myself from freaking out,” Eddie admitted as he closed his laptop. He closed his eyes. “Just because I’m willing doesn’t mean I’m not afraid.”
The force of Their guilt startled him before They managed to reign in the worst of it. “We don’t want you to be afraid, Eddie.”
“Don’t really see a way around that, Love.”
“We won’t do it, then.”
“Yeah, we will,” Eddie corrected. He stood and stretched before making his way back to their bedroom.
His body froze as They locked down his muscles. They protruded from his chest and leveled a growl at him. “Not if you’re afraid.”
“Darling, we’ve done too many things that scared me for that to be a deterrent.”
That didn’t seem to make Them feel any better. “When?"
“When we met?” He offered. “The first time We ate someone. The first time You fucked me. When I realized how much You love me. Every time you choke me.”
“That frightens you?”
“You can’t tell?”
They gave Their best approximation of a frown. “We didn’t realize,” They explained slowly. “It doesn’t feel like normal fear.”
He’d have shrugged if he could have. “Because it’s a fun kind of fear.”
“This fear feels like normal fear.” They told him.
“There’s fun fear in there too, I promise. I want to do this.”
“Liar.”
“I want to make You happy,” he corrected. “And even if I don’t love the method, I like how You described it. Letting me change You. Knowing I’ll be a part of You long after I’m—”
They released his muscles, and Eddie stumbled forward. “Don’t say it.”
“Ok,” he agreed softly, petting where their bodies met. “I forgot, You’re never gonna let anything happen to me, are You?”
“Never,” They promised, squinting Their eyes in pleasure. “Mine, Eddie,” They reminded him.
“Yep. Yours.”
They soothed the worse symptoms of his anxiety as Eddie stripped and dropped down onto the bed. He settled as well as he could, looking up at Their bright milky eyes. “So,” he started. “Where are you planning to bite me?”
“Would you prefer Our teeth?” They asked, tilting Their head.
“Er. As opposed to what?”
More of Their hulking form grew over him, including two thick arms with razor-sharp claws at the ends.
“Oh.” His stomach dropped.
“We want to be precise,” They explained.
His next breath was a wheeze. He nodded. “Alright,” he agreed, eyes glued to Their claws. “Where are you planning to, uh... claw me?”
They watched his reactions, cataloging them one by one. They were proud of him. “Here,” They tapped the inside of his right thigh. They never stopped watching his face as They dragged a claw down the sensitive skin, barely hard enough to leave a mark. He swallowed and glanced down to see that They’d made an outline of a several inch long rectangle.
“There are a lot of important veins there.”
“We know.”
“H-How deep?”
They held Their claws a little bit apart. He hazarded the distance at about a quarter of an inch. Which was… deep. For what They were planning.
It took more will than he’d even realized he possessed to do no more than shake at the idea. He didn’t even close his legs together, although it was a near thing.
He wanted to say something—anything—to assure Them that he wasn’t too scared to continue. Instead, all that escaped was a whimper.
“We don’t have to go so deep,” They offered. “We could just take off a few layers of skin. You wouldn’t even bleed.”
For reasons that Eddie would be sure to question for years, he hated the idea of that. So he shook his head. Maybe it was because he’d seen Their fantasies and knew how much They were compromising already. Perhaps he was more of a masochist than he’d thought. Maybe he’d had a stroke and temporarily lost the ability to recognize a terrible idea when he saw one.
“It’s fine,” he stammered. “You can… It’s fine.”
Their eyes narrowed. “Stop lying to Us.”
“I’m not.” He said firmly. “I’m scared, and I know it’s gonna hurt, but if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.” Then, before his Other could try to backtrack again, he added, “And We’re doing it.”
Letting his stubbornness guide his movement, he reached up and took Their wrist, bringing it up to his throat.
“Eddie…”
He was never going to tire of the low growl They turned his name into. “C’mon, Darling,” he crooned through his shudders. “Take me down.”
Their eyes widened, and Their expression turned to something akin to a grin. They curved down, running Their tongue along the side of his face. “Delicious,” They licked him again.
Eddie was never really sure how to feel about that—and even less so now. Rather than concern himself with it, he turned his head to the side so that They could rub Their tongue along his pulse.
Thin tendrils appeared, wrapping themselves around Eddie with no discernible pattern. They shifted his body, moving him how They wanted him. His legs were spread until the muscles burned in complaint at the stretch, and his arms were pulled high above his head. More tendrils were stroking his skin, lighting up his nerves until he let out a pleased gasp. He was so open, so helpless.
“That’s right, Eddie. We’ll take care of you.”
He moaned when They nudged the tip of Their tongue against his lips. He didn’t react quickly enough for Them, though, and Their tongue pushed into his mouth before he could process wanting to open it. Eddie jerked back from the intrusion, which only made the tendrils tighten around his limbs. Their tongue pressed deeper until it was hovering at the back of his throat.
Eddie did his best to lick along Their tongue and suck gently as it shifted inside his mouth.
Good boy.
He was much too aware, and the fact that They knew that did nothing to ease the hot spark of anxiety that settled in his guts. What if he couldn’t go down?
Then we’ll try again another time, They assured him, thrusting Their tongue in his mouth.
Ok, he settled, closing his eyes. He relaxed his throat as Their tongue started snaking its way down it. He jolted the moment he felt the way it cut off his oxygen and whined in instinctual fear.
Settle, They commanded, not slowing Their movement down his throat in the least.
Technically he wasn’t in any actual danger, and he knew that. They had perfect control over the oxygen that flowed through his body. That didn’t keep his lungs from burning, or his throat from constricting or his body trying desperately to force Them out.
His cock twitched to life as he wrestled with his panic. That probably said something troubling about Their effect on his sexuality, but Eddie had other things to worry about. Like the two tendrils that were wrapping around his nipples, cutting off their blood flow. Barely a minute passed before they started to ache, and he squirmed against it.
For several long torturous minutes, every touch had him writhing and overstimulated. One of Their tendrils wrapped firmly around the base of his dick, making it clear that orgasm was nowhere in his near future.
They didn’t stop, though. They kept touching and stroking everywhere. A thick tentacle eased its way into his ass, making him try to arch off the bed, but he had nowhere to go. He whimpered and whined and struggled, even while his mind was screaming, More, more, more, fuck, please.
It felt like his whole body was on fire, each pleasure and discomfort bleeding together until he stops being able to tell one from the other. He felt dizzy and floaty, and it might have alarmed him if he could have strung two thoughts together.
Eddie was vaguely aware that he’d stopped making noise. Even when They released his nipples and blood resumed its flow in a rush. He was dimly aware of the sharp pain from it, but even a grunt felt too far beyond him.
Our perfect Eddie, They praised softly, staying at the edges of his mind. But he could feel Their love and Their pride and Their lust.
A sharp claw tapped against his thigh, and Eddie’s brow furrowed. That was important, he was pretty sure. He made a questioning noise.
You’re alright, They assured him. We’re going to cut you now.
He blinked up at Their face. Forgetting that he could just think his compliance, he sucked on Their tongue as well as he could.
Then Their claw dug into his leg, and he screamed around the intrusion. The warmth and safety he’d been cocooned in vanishing in an instant. Their tendrils were holding him still, not letting him struggle like he wanted. He choked as his body fought to sob, his lungs burning as his chest convulsed.
The only thing that helped to calm him was the awareness that They were watching him. Metaphorically holding Their breath, ready to pull back and away in an instant if his panic was too bad, or if the pain was too much.
Eddie collapsed, eyes wide as he watched Them observe him in ways so much deeper than Eddie could sense.
Keep going, he managed fuzzily.
Eddie.
Keep going, he repeated. You’ll know if I can’t handle it anymore.
We will, They agreed as They resumed dragging Their claw through his leg, even as he screamed again.
But his cock hadn’t softened in the least, and Eddie became acutely aware of that when one of Their tendrils started jerking him off.
Fuck, he laughed into their bond. Apparently, he was too overwhelmed to do anything but laugh alongside his cries of pain.
Then Their tongue was pulling itself free from his throat and mouth, and Eddie mourned the loss.
He took several choked breaths as soon as the air was available to him.
Their tongue wrapped around Their claw, cleaning it of his blood.
That it? He thought blearily.
“No,” They told him. “But the next part will hurt worse.”
Worse? He believed Them, but it was hard to imagine how that could be possible.
They provided him with images of Their plan. How They were going to peel the strip of muscle and skin away from the rest of his body.
His stomach clenched painfully.
“Yes or no?” They asked.
Why would You ask? He complained, panic rising in his throat.
“We don’t want to do anything you don’t want.”
He stared past Their face and instead focused on the shadows that played across the ceiling. Of course, he didn’t want a chunk of his leg removed. Especially with the knowledge that the worst of the pain was yet to come. But they’d already come so far, and he knew that he’d felt far, far worse than anything They would do to him.
He swallowed and forced down his fear. “Go fast,” he managed.
Eddie hadn’t expected Their tongue to wrap around his cock, and he shouted in surprise. For several seconds his mind was just noise as They worked him, pulling him to the edge of orgasm so quickly that he was certain that They’d tweaked something in him to allow it.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, he chanted as heat coursed along his spine and pressure built so fast that it hurt. Love, Darling, please, I’m—
“Come.” They ordered as if Eddie could even think about disobeying. He howled with the force that his soul pulsed out of his cock.
And then the pain in his leg quadrupled as They tore the rectangle of his body away from the rest. He screamed and kept coming. They had to have done something to him for that to happen.
The next thing he was aware of was… waking up? He opened his eyes and found that he couldn’t focus, and everything was just splotches of color. He closed them again and instead paid attention to the warmth of his leg as They knit him back together.
Sweetheart?
We’re here, They rumbled. You’re safe.
K.
He floated in and out of consciousness until his pain bled into nothingness.
When he opened his eyes again, he could see Them still hovering over him, but the bulk of Their body had vanished. Instead, it was just Their head and a tendril holding—Holy shit! They were holding the piece of him They’d removed.
“Wanted you to be here,” They said in explanation.
He tried to speak but found his throat wasn’t up to it yet. So I can watch?
They smiled. “So, you can feel.”
Eddie wasn’t sure he wanted to feel his own flesh being swallowed, but he nodded all the same.
He offered his appreciation when They didn’t share the taste or texture of it with him. The rest, though, was a strange buzzing, and Eddie suspected his brain didn’t know how to interpret what They were feeling as They metabolized and absorbed him into Their body.
But he could feel other things. Awe, love, pleasure, trust, devotion, desire, possession. They closed Their eyes, and although Eddie wasn’t sure what it felt like to let someone else become part of him like that, he was confident that was what They were feeling. They felt vulnerable, but not scared. Not even nervous. They just accepted the sensation. And They felt Eddie’s own awe reflecting back at Them.
Thank you, Eddie, They nuzzled his face.
You’re welcome. It didn’t seem like a strong enough reaction, but he couldn’t figure out what else to say.
Sleep, Love.
Am I going into shock? He asked as he closed his eyes.
No, you’re just tired.
Promise?
Promise.
It took a few days before Eddie was feeling back to normal. He’d struggled to admit that he never wanted to repeat what they’d done, even though he knew They wouldn’t be upset.
“There’s no reason to,” They assured him. “We’ll never do it again.”
“You did enjoy it, though, right?” He asked.
Their soft laughter calmed him. “Very much, Eddie. Although We wish it hadn’t hurt you so much. And that you hadn’t been so afraid.”
He reached over and dragged his fingers through Their form. “I could have done without the last two, too.” He leaned back in his chair, staring at his laptop without seeing it. “But I’m glad You got… whatever it is that You got out of it.”
“You, Eddie,” They hummed. “We got you.”