Archive of Our Own

Eddie Brock is on his 10th drink and feels only slightly buzzed, with how loudly and enthusiastically Venom is monologuing directly into his brain, he thinks all the alcohol he’s consumed is being sucked straight through his intestines and into them. There’s music in a language that he certainly never remembered learning, but the words distantly register, from nights Venom watched foreign television shows.

Eddie splays his hands on the counter and opens his mouth, careful not to make another offensive remark that will get him kicked out because apparently the bartender isn’t pulling some elaborate joke on him, some purple guy really did wipe out half the universe and some people actually don’t appreciate insensitive jokes about their previously deceased family members. 

Eddie is pushing his drink away and standing from his little stool and Venom is exclaiming loudly about how they’ll go skinny dipping, and he really hopes they didn’t use his mouth to say that out loud- then there’s a flash of light. Eddie looks at his hands and they start glowing right before his eyes- He has no goddamn clue what’s going on, but he feels like he’s been folded inside out.

Then he’s back in his bedroom. Eddie's whole world was tilted on its axis, bile rises in his throat. He has this excruciating headache and really thinks he was folded into a neat little universe origami crane and then stomped on and folded back out, now those wrinkles can never be smoothed out. It felt as if every atom in his body had been displaced and Venom agitatedly courses underneath his skin trying to fix it. Eddie places his hands over his chest and is relieved that they are still there.

“What just happened?” Eddie blinks slowly, as if one wrong move and he’ll end up in another country.

Unbearable silence meets his words.  

“Vee.” Eddie presses again. 

I do not know. It’s projected directly into his head, the usual volume of their voice has increased tenfold and it makes his ears ring. We need a moment.

Right. A moment. Eddie paws his back pockets, the front of his tacky vacation shirt, then sees his phone on his bedside table. He scuffles over to pick it up and scrolls down the notifications without actually opening it, then scrolls back up.

There is a heaping one missed call from Anne, and a few texts, something about the police and how she’s understandably going to the hospital to get checked out.

Eddie selfishly feels bad over the fact that his disappearance only warranted one phone call, granted he did save her from being the sacrifice at a wedding for two serial killers and an extremely bloodthirsty alien, which was technically all his fault- and that was his kid by association, but Eddie wasn’t one for technicalities and also not prepared to face the intricacies of his own parenthood.

He decides to throw his phone at the wall and feels satisfied at the loud crack. At least now he knows that they’re in the right universe.

He gave Venom well over a moment and the squirming hasn’t stopped. 

“Hey, I’m gonna need you to say something, because you’re way too quiet and it’s getting weird. And we just shifted realities or something.”

Our body is doing many strange things. We are trying to fix it. They say as something is being rearranged in his gut area. They don’t deny the shifting reality part. 

“Did you even hear the last bit-?”

Venom suddenly stops. Like the blood in his veins froze, Eddie can’t move, partly out of fear, this sense of dread that claws its way up his chest and he wonders if Venom was gonna let him just die like this. They move to rest somewhere in his chest and Eddie can feel his bodily functions restabilizing and that voice slowly asks, What do you remember? 

“About what, the vacation? A lot has happened in the past day so some specificity would be appreciated-“

The hotel.  The TV. If he knew any better he’d think Venom was asking because they didn’t remember.

Eddie screws his eyes shut and tries to think despite the stirring mass that rests just beneath his ribcage, and tendrils that prod at his brain. He remembers the hotel, the fresh breeze that came in through a balcony and towels folded to look like cranes. He couldn’t recall anything remarkable about the TV, and strangely enough, he’s sure there was something playing but when he tries to think of what exactly, his mind turns up with nothing. Like there were chunks of key information missing from his brain. 

Originally, he would have blamed it on the haziness he usually feels when Venom completely overtakes his body. But this time, that wasn’t it. 

“I don’t-“ Eddie stammers for a moment, “There was no one on the TV, Vee.”

Venom roars and sends him flying back, shoulders colliding with the wall and Eddie hears another crack which could very well be the wall or his skull. He hangs his head and doesn’t bother prying himself off the wall he was slammed against. He just sighs defeatedly.

There was! The bartender-!

“That- That spider person?” 

Eddie is graciously reintroduced to the concept of gravity and drops to the floor, groaning as he rolls over to lay on his back. He stares at cracked drywall and wishes Venom would do anything but swim through his sinuses. “Aren’t you like- connected, to that massive fucking hive-mind or something?” He makes a grand gesture in the air. “Shouldn't you know who he is?” 

Silence.

“Well, alright. Since you aren’t workin’ with me,” He groans and gets back to his feet. “I’ll do this myself.” 

Eddie walks out of the room and into the living room, where can feel Venom's curiosity itching in the back of his brain and through the back of his head those eyes scope out the apartment, but he just sits himself at his desk- Which, weirdly, is in complete disarray. Every drawer is flung open and papers have been rummaged through with haste, all of his things are thrown around and have been moved in search of something more specific.

Eddie looks eye to eye with a framed photo of Anne, and an empty box which once had an engagement ring in it. He drags his hands down his face and groans, pushing it all to the side. He doesn’t have time to think about what this all means.

He googles “Spider-Man” and various news articles flash on the screen with conflicting reports- some are of high praise, he skims over the words hero and then just a little more ways down, menace and murderer . Eddie furrows his brow and clicks on one of those first articles. “Lethal Protector” doesn’t sound like such a dumb name anymore.

“Oh, I get it, you think it’s about time I get a new job. Things look promising for us, these articles are complete bullshit!”

They are not bullshit, Eddie. Venom growls, sinking back into his body. They sound a little annoyed by him, which is rich considering this news is coming from the alien that he just traveled dimensions with- forgive him from holding out on his disbelief.

“Look at this, this guy's name is Electro. ” 

Then Eddie's finger is moving on its own, clicking on another article published by The Daily Bugle , the name of which he mutters aloud- apparently they adamantly hate this Spider Kid and accuse him of being the reason for every bad thing in the world.

“ Venom , I taught you better than to listen to these sorts of news sites.”

He killed someone.

“Yeahuh.” Eddie nods as if he’s not listening. He’s focused on battling with the mouse, trying to win back his bodily autonomy. “Give it-“

Venom's head materializes in front of him, those white eyes blown open in a way that the expression could only be decipherable to him. Though every one of their jagged teeth protrude from their stretched mouth, they look disgruntled.

“He is a bad guy.” They speak out loud.

“Yeah, I don’t know if you know what we do, but we-“ He gestures from his chest to Venom's floating head and whispers harshly through gritted teeth, “-kill people too. Shit happens, especially if you’re pressured to be a hero. I doubt it was on purpose, could have been an incident out of his control.”

“We eat bad guys.” 

“Seriously? We can’t eat everyone’s head because they do one bad thing. I’m not gonna- Why would I kill this kid? I have nothing against him.”

Eddie knows he should be more careful about his use of pronouns, all these I’s and suddenly Venom is hightailing it to New York alone.

He leans closer to the screen. Not a single image result can give him an idea on what this Spider-Man’s face looks like. 

Surprisingly Venom doesn’t rip themselves away from him and slip out of the window, or decide to momentarily fail one of his organs to make him take this more seriously. They blink down at him as if there’s something Eddie just doesn’t get.

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” He tries to shove Venom away but they shift their form to weave around his hand. “Give me one good reason to go to New York.”

Eddie is suddenly being lurched out of his seat not out of conscious volition, footsteps heavy and not calculated in a human manner as he storms to the middle of the living room. He looks at the holes in the ceiling which are sealed with duct tape, pounds of chocolate and cardboard signs shoved hastily in trash bags, and the emptiness that was void of all the character Venom added to the place.

Eddie's mind reels. “What, that’s your problem? Look, I’m sorry I cleaned up the place.” He starts to ramble, “I don’t think this is the best time to have this conversation-“

Shut up . His head is forced to look elsewhere. Sometimes I think you are being willfully ignorant.

It could’ve been a trick of the eye, but Venom catches the dusty boot prints all along the wooden floor with merely the overhead light. More obviously, the lock on the front door is completely busted. Eddie stares dumbly and Venom puts the pieces together for him in his mind.

“They were already here.”

And they will be back.

There was no room to argue, at that point. That was the problem with being back in their universe, it’s the one that they aren’t actually safe in. Two alien related incidents and they both lead back to Eddie Brock.

He slams the computer screen and turns to the bedroom. Something surges through his blood, like satisfaction, but it’s not his own. He runs around the apartment frantically while Venom buries himself in the trash bags and eats through the stale floor m&m’s.

It’s a little sad how quickly he’s done, getting together everything he finds to be a necessity. There’s a few pairs of clean clothes and a pack of cigarettes in his backpack. He skims through his wallet and promptly ignores the laughably low amount of cash he had, makes sure he has his real ID, then his fake ID- because when you have a reputation like his in San Francisco, you need one. 

He stands at his front door and feels strange as he looks around. Not hesitant, which should be the first thing he feels before leaving behind everything , but they’ve been building up to this moment. Besides, it’s the thing Eddie Brock is best at- Running away.

You’re forgetting someone . Venom grumbles just before he turns and walks out.

“ Someone ?”

Two someones, actually.

-

It’s somewhere past midnight but not late enough for it to be morning when Eddie throws himself onto a public bus- Himself, his alien partner, and two chickens, to be exact.

Cher is zipped up in his backpack, head poking out from the top, and Sonny is held tight against his chest. He takes an open seat in the very back, and as soon as he does, he feels nauseous. All the emotion he’s managed to shove down in the past few hours had caught up to him at that moment. 

He fidgets nervously with one of his earbuds, only in place so he could hold a conversation with Venom and be slightly less suspicious- anxiety makes his fingertips tingle- Venom is quick to take care of it, doing something chemically to make that feeling go away but it only fixes the issue so much. They could never find the source of any emotional distress, something like that just wasn’t in their comprehension.

They had hit an ATM just before, Eddie figured he’d better cash out everything in his bank account- Being tracked because his credit card activity lined up suspiciously with the trail of headless bodies across America would just be poor planning on his part.

“You think we can be classified as legally dead?” Eddie asks and every time he blinks his eyes sting. “Maybe give it enough time and they’ll give up on us.”

Are you regretting this decision, Eddie?

Venom asks, because they can feel the tears pricking his eyes, the erratic beat of his heart, every uncomfortable swallow, the whirlpool of worry stirring in his stomach. Venom felt it all and lived among it. They didn’t need to specify what made them ask that question.

Eddie scrunches his face and decides to listen to the rumbling of the bus from where he presses his ear into the cold window instead of responding. It feels like one of those massaging chairs but for his brain.

Eddie. What can we do?

He thinks that maybe, he can ignore it. Pretend that he can’t hear the questions until they give up trying to fix him. He’s done it before, but he told himself one night as he stared at his sunken eyes in the reflection of the glass and threw away plates of breakfast food that he would never do it again. He told himself when he was in an interrogation room, worried sick over where Venom could be and begging Anne to find them, that he would never do it again. Eddie Brock couldn’t handle being alone with his thoughts, and having someone else share his head doesn’t make it any easier, but he needs it more than anyone else. 

He shudders a breath. “I don’t know, Vee.”

He figures, since he has time to spare, he should get some shit over with. Eddie pulls out his burner phone and with embarrassing recollection, dials in Anne’s number. 

“Hello?” A voice answers from the other end, a bit groggy, and very exhausted. Eddie curses at himself when he sees 4:07 flash on the screen. 

“Yeah, yeah uh, it’s me.” He moves Sonny to rest right under his armpit and holds the phone with one hand.

“ Eddie ?” The tone of her voice completely shifts and it makes his heart twist. “How are you- Are you okay?”

“Yep. Mhm.” Eddie shifts uncomfortably. He didn’t think about what he was going to say. “Uh, wasn’t found or anything. They did break into my apartment, though. I’m going to New York now.”

“You’re going to New York?” Anne says incredulously, like she didn’t hear it right. She addresses it with this calmness that only someone who’s trained to could do, Eddie sees straight through it.

“Yeah, gonna track down some super hero and probably eat his head.” Eddie means it as a joke, but it falls short. He chuckles anyway.

“I need you to take this seriously.”

“I am taking this seriously!” Eddie leans farther into the seat, his words slightly slurred. “Really Anne, we can’t stay here. You know that.”

Anne could never admit that Eddie was right, so she doesn’t, and damn her for being able to think farther in a minute than he has the whole night. “Then how are you getting to New York?” 

“…Busses.”

“Busses.” She repeats. “Across the country.”

Eddie quickly flips through the couple hundred dollars he has in his wallet. “I can also hitchhike. Not like I’m not protected if I end up in the wrong car.” 

“What about your motorcycle?”

“Venom smashed it.”

“You both need better coping mechanisms for your breakups-“ Anne falls silent, like she’s slightly horrified that she let that slip, but Eddie snorts. 

“Sorry, that wasn’t even funny. At least- Let me buy you a plane ticket or something.”

Eddie hesitates for a moment, his original response getting cut off and he just makes this weird choking sound. Yeah, sure! Who even is he?

He wishes he didn’t know Anne better, that he could believe that she was doing this because she really wanted things to be easier, but if she really wanted that, she would tell Eddie that he was being stupid. But that’s not her job , and she’s smart enough to know that it wouldn’t stop him, anyway.

But he is one wrong encounter away from getting himself hauled to Area 51 to be experimented on, with all the security and scans he has to get through, it was too high risk.

Venom writhes unhappily in response to his own unease, and Eddie rolls his neck, more like a nervous tic than an actual gesture.

“I don’t need you to buy me a ticket, Anne. That’s the last thing I would do. I’ve put you through enough shit already. You’ll get in more trouble so- I don’t- want you to get hurt anymore than you already have.” He pushes out in one breath.

Anne says nothing, unimpressed by his seemingly selfless speech. Eddie is glad that he can’t see her face, or else it might be the thing to really kill him. If only that’s what it was, Eddie trying to protect her- but they both know that wasn’t possible, as long as she ever knew him, she couldn’t be  protected- He was telling her to back off .

“I really hope you’re doing the right thing, Eddie.”

And that’s it, the thing that makes him feel completely winded, like he was punched straight through the phone, which he almost drops and both of the chickens cluck loudly at his sudden movement. He doesn’t know if what he’s doing is right anymore, because he’s passed the point of right and now everything he does is for the sake of survival. For the sake of keeping him and Venom together. 

Eddie swallows.

“I’ll call you later. Probably. Bye. Say hi to Dan for me. Fuck.”

He already has the phone back in his pocket before Anne’s protests can reach his ears. He wants to chuck it out of the bus.

Watching a black tendril draw shapes into the fog on the window makes Eddie feel slightly better.

“Y’know, maybe she’s right.” He says a little too loud, voice echoing in the mostly empty bus.

Venom has a way of making him feel scrutinized from the inside, which makes everything so much more uncomfortable. “We haven’t really thought about this. She offered to buy us a plane ticket-“

There is no need . Venom daringly peeks out from under his sleeve. Sonny pecks the top of their slimy head and Eddie huffs a laugh at their squinting face. “ We are faster than any of your airplanes could ever be.”

Eddie opens his mouth, then closes it. He felt inclined to deny, they can’t be seen running around like that, especially not out in the open- and then he reconsidered it. Why not do it? Then- But why do it? Was finding Spider-Man an urgent thing? Did they really need to go?  

Truth was it didn’t matter if they needed to find him or not. It was just an excuse he could use to avoid accountability. 

“You haven’t really been anywhere outside of San Fran have you?” Eddie adjusts himself so his feet are on the seat, his back against the window.

Your eyes could not even begin to register the complexity of the things I have seen. 

“There’s some places that are just flat land. No animals, or people, or anything. Sometimes you can actually see the stars in the sky, though. Stars are nice-“

Eddie.

“Babe, please, last time you said something like that we got sent to another universe. My stomach can’t handle that. I’m happy with the stuff on earth. Happy with you.”

So you didn’t mean it.

“What?”

I wish I never met you? Venom's voice recalls in complete monotone.

Eddie blinks. Then he remembers.

“You think I-? Oh, god. I’m an asshole.” He closes his eyes. “You deserve to have an apology. A good apology. And I don’t have one. Not yet. Not now . But you’re the best thing that’s happened to me, alright? I didn’t lie about anything I said back there.”

We can be patient. We have a lot to handle.

A tendril sneaks around his fingers and the pad of Eddie's thumb rubs against it. He looks down and stares at it for a long time.

“That’s cute.” He says so he doesn’t start bawling.

And no, I have not been anywhere else. San Francisco is the only place I have inhabited on your Earth. Other than our vacation. 

“Then this’ll be good. This city sucks.”

We would like to be able to run. 

“Once we’re out, we’ll run the whole way.”

We will miss Ms. Chen.

“She wasn’t that nice.”

I was inside of her once .

“You- Okay. Great, now we’re obligated to visit on the holidays.”

-

Ever since getting to New York, Eddie had to admit that they should have come sooner . A city 6 times the size, with a history of supervillains and superheroes- neither of which Eddie could say with confidence they fit into, but it made it a lot easier to act careless. 

The better part of their trip had been spent tearing and running through empty land, taking whatever bus would let them on and using the power of two thumbs and kind strangers without any sense of direction until they somehow ended up in New York. The better part of the night had been spent jumping across rooftops, until voices stopped them in their tracks. A cold reminder of the things Eddie had been trying to avoid.

Venom sinks back into Eddie only for him to drop the backpack from his shoulders, and leaves Sonny and Cher to the rooftop as he hesitantly walks closer to the edge of a building, where voices get louder. He doesn’t fight it when Venom takes over.

“Bad guy?” Venom asks aloud as their gaze fixated at the commotion going on at the bottom of that alley. A sea of red covers the alley floor and more is sprayed as a bullet rings through the air, blood painting the nearest wall. There aren’t many people, maybe a dozen, but they do put up a fight.

Eddie's breath catches in his throat at the sight and it’s too late for any rational decision, not when this hunger courses through their veins, just a smell of everything that Venom had been deprived of for the last week and it has them salivating. 

Bad guy , he confirms.

Venom launches them off the ceiling and drags them down, their weight shaking the building and claws tearing apart the brick as they land with a thud. Heads that didn’t have a bullet in them turn to stare, and there is a cacophony of horrified screams. They were delirious from the fear they could smell on the men that watched around them.

“Well hello ,” A man whistled from underneath a bright red mask, white eyes circled by black leather. He looked up at Venom, and the second of faltering was the perfect opening for a guy to lodge a pocket knife directly into his thigh. Only mildly inconvenienced, masked-man planted a bullet into his skull and ripped the knife out. “Manners, New York just doesn’t have ‘em!”

Venom tilts their head slightly, taking in the sight of the man before them.

Spider-man!

No way, that’s not him.  Eddie says.

Bullet holes travel all along his abdomen, but he doesn’t seem to be bleeding, even where there are tears in his suit. No web pattern, no blue, and he was most certainly not as young as the news said. A blade is lodged in his calf, another in the back of his skull, which he yanks out to throw at a man charging at him. He shakes the pain off.

“I’m Deadpool, but you? You can call me Wade,” He holds out his hand. “I must be having déjà vu, you look really familiar. But who…”

A grin that had far too many teeth to be human stretches across Venom's face. For some reason, the guy is still talking, but not to them. He waves a gun in the air and paces around like he was having a conversation with himself.

“Bingo! This is why you’re my favorite.” He snaps his fingers and redirects his attention back to Venom. “I saw what they pulled in those post-credit scenes. Ridiculous right? Don’t feel too bad- Who needs to be part of the cinematic universe anyway?”

“What the hell is he talking about?!” 

“Who the hell are you talking to?” Deadpool suddenly unleashes a hail of bullets, which would have been lethal if not for the fact that it was impossible to shoot something whose physical state is more like a liquid than anything else. As dozens are unloaded directly into places that would have killed Eddie in an instant- His chest, neck, and right between the eyes- Venom either forms holes for the bullets to fly straight past, which stick themselves into those who were unlucky enough to be standing behind them, or absorbs the bullets into their skin. The empty cases are spat back out, like a rain of metal falling from the sky. 

[Well, that clearly isn’t gonna work]

Deadpool slips the guns back into their holster and reaches behind him, “Thanks smart-ass.”

He unsheathes two katanas, blades so sharp Venom can see their reflection in them, because there’s only two things Wade really takes care of- the second being his guns. He slices through the air a few times as Venom launches forward, and a blade slices cleanly through their forearm.

The symbiote roars as their arm falls to the floor with a heavy thunk, which does nothing but make them more pissed- the pain actually goes straight to Eddie, who is slightly freaking out. Up until this point, no one has actually tried hurting them with anything but high frequency sounds and bullets, and only one could harm the actual symbiote carrying this meat body around- but still, a weirdo with a katana managed to slice their arm straight off and- Fuck! My arm was sliced off!  

Venom was already stitching the limb back onto their body, tendrils weaving together into a fist that was now colliding with his cheek at a high speed.

They slam him to the ground and go skidding a few feet back, looming over his body. Drool catches on the corners of their mouth which drips down on his face.

“I don’t know if you know this, but being eaten on the first date is totally one of my turn ons. You should meet my ex-wife, you’d get along! The one that’s a succubus, not-“ He’s cut off by something that Venom can’t quite hear. He holds up a finger and they pause, only because Eddie is still screaming in their head.

[Is this really how we’re going to die?]

[With a tongue like that? This is his wet dream come true.]

“Shame on you, my wet dreams are at least 10 times more freaky than this. When did you become so vanilla? ” Deadpool sounds offended in his response to no one in particular.

The heel of his boot is colliding with the underside of Venom’s jaw, there’s a wet crunch and the force sends them back. Deadpool flips back up and rolls his shoulders. “Damn, you’re strong. And huge. I think I’m unmatched.”

[You think?]

“I know another form of catharsis with a lot less casualties!” He yells out loud.

[Just let him die.]

Deadpool charges forward and both of his blades lodge themselves in Venom's gut. The blade begins to get absorbed through their skin, the oozing matter of their form eats away at the steel, sinking further into the black mass of tendrils until those red gloves held nothing but the handles of the swords. Which ends up clattering to the floor, because a giant black claw closes around Wade’s throat and he’s choking, his feet dangling below him as he’s lifted off the ground. Wade claws at the top of their hand, thrashing and kicking their chest. Venom's tongue rolls out of their mouth, obscenely wrapping around his head.

“I know that this is Hell’s Kitchen, but not the Gordon Ramsey kind! I didn’t think I would be the main course this evening, but I’m flattered, truly.” They speak, muffled by the muscle that constricts tighter around him.

Those are his last words before Venom's teeth snap shut around his neck and with a crunch, a skull is being shattered in their jaw. The warm, filling feeling of blood and brain spills out of those cracks and bursts in their gullet, but a pungent taste fills their mouth.

Almost immediately, Venom is recoiling, the body is carelessly dropped to the floor and they make an alarming, guttural sound from their throat. 

With a splat, the half digested head is thrown up and falls to the floor in a slimy regurgitated mess. Through the shredded mask- which only slightly hides the horrors beneath it- brain bits leak from each hole. Venom sinks back into Eddie, the force of it almost pulling him away.

“Eugh, what the fuck. What the fuck?!” He staggers backwards, trying to avoid eye contact with the extremely mangled head on the floor. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

His head tasted disgusting. Eddie, why did it taste like that?

“I have no idea. We shouldn’t have messed with him, he had like, 6 knives in him and wasn’t even phased.”

Getting closer to the alley floor than any reasonable human ever should , Eddie crouches next to the corpse and peels back the fabric around his neck to take a closer look at the once breathing body.

His breath hitches as he catches sight of extremely scarred skin, covered in holes that let him see the shift of muscle and the pull of flesh from under them. 

Eddie quickly stands back up, looking around him frantically. Everyone else that was once here had ran off, but he has a feeling no one would be reporting their sight.

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, he steps over the corpse, hoping to never step into that alley again.

-

Eddie Brock should know by now, that things always come to bite him back in the ass.

“What do you think would’ve happened if you didn’t chew my head up and leave it on the floor like a piece of bubble gum? Would my head grow a body, or my body grow a head? Would there be two of me?” 

“ What ?” 

Eddie was walking the streets of New York and Venom was nowhere to be seen, and his earbuds secure where they always were- So surely, it couldn’t be him that this person was talking to. No, Eddie had been on the downlow since the alley incident just a week ago. 

Pedestrians on the sidewalk shove past when he stops dead in his tracks. From the depths of an alley, he hears that voice like sandpaper, that unmistakable, gravelly sound. 

Eddie swallows loudly and turns to look into the alley, sweat on his forehead. White eyes wink at him from the shadows, red hands are reaching out and pulling him away from the public eye. Venom stirs under his skin and waits just at the surface, but surprisingly waits, letting him get shoved against a wall.

“Eddie Brock, right? Found your wallet on the floor.” He looks down at his palm where his wallet was placed, and looks up to see none other than Deadpool. “You make my job a lot easier.”

“Oh, uh. Yeah. Thanks.”

Idiot! Why are you thanking him? Venom makes him convulse, their body tearing away from gloved hands.

“Vee goddammit -“

Eddie hears a click and feels the cold edge of a gun nestling right against his jugular, comfortable in the junction just under his chin. His voice dies in his throat and he looks at Deadpool with wide eyes, heart jumping in his throat.

“ That. I’m gonna need you to explain to me what the fuck is inside of you, and not in the sexy way. You’ve probably heard of the Avengers, yeah? Well I don’t roll like them.” A red finger twitches over the trigger.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing.” Eddie grits his teeth, curling his fingers into fists. “Who the hell are the Avengers?”

Deadpool laughs. He throws his head back and downright cackles, it’s a sound that rattles in his chest and struggles to come out properly through the scarred tissue of his vocal chords. Eddie shifts, and his hold on the gun falters.

“Not even this universe? Well, I gave you the easy way out,” Deadpool shrugs, and jabs that muzzle so hard against his throat it could bruise.

Before he can ask what that means, an ear splitting bang rings through the air. Eddie realizes it was by sheer proximity that it shook him down to his core, loud enough for Venom to be just a second too late to prevent their carotid artery from being blown open. His fingers raise to his neck, and when he pulls them back, they’re coated in thick, viscous blood. Specks of black dotted his vision, which fades in and out, and his consciousness slips as everything around him- even his own bones- begin to feel like static. The pain hasn’t settled in yet, because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins which are quickly spilling all over the front of his shirt.

Then, he crumples to his knees, and the pain hits hard . His nerves were on fire, and everything burned as Venom cauterized his skin. If Eddie could remember to scream or was capable of doing so over the excruciating pain, he would. 

I need you to come out right now, Vee. Holy shit, I think I’m dying.

Before the job can even be done, Venom is taking over his body, ropes of black swallowing his arms, then his chest, and rows of teeth bigger than Wade's fingers curling over his head.

And even quicker, his arm is shooting forward. They puncture the center of Wade’s chest, claws slowly twisting in his lungs, excruciating and meticulous. Weeping gouges of blood seep into the dark red of his suit, and more choking sounds come from Wades' hung open mouth, blood filling his airways. There was a squelching of his organs as Venom blended them to mush faster than his healing factor could work. Their jaw is unhinging-

Do not eat his head again! Eddie shouts as best as he can inside. 

“He tried hurting you. No one hurts Eddie unless they have a death wish.”

“Yeah, because I have you. I know you won’t let anything happen to me, just stop for now-“ They pull their arm out of Wade and slowly retreat back into Eddie. He sighs “Thank you.”

There’s a few seconds of silence before Wade's lungs are reconstructed enough for him to be able to speak. “That sure is nothing. ” He rasps, desperate for air.

“You shot me!” Blood is rising up his throat and he gargles as it pours from his bottom lip.

“Do you know what mercenaries do?”

Eddie's eyes basically bulge out of his head. A week had passed and they already had a bounty on their head? “Are you getting paid to do this?”

How much? 

Not the right question , Eddie thinks, but is also curious.

“This is more of a personal mission.”

“Fine. You wanna know? I have a,” Eddie coughs and gestures vaguely to himself, looking around like he was searching for the right word. “…blood disease. Cancer.”  Which wasn’t entirely a lie. To some level, Venom has to be mutating his cells. 

“Oh, yeah, I totally get it! Cancer, me too!” Wade slowly gets up with a wince, moving his hand away from the giant gash, and finally he can see the hole that Venom had drilled into his chest.

Eddie lifted his leg and kicked, driving the tip of his sneaker into his gut, and Wade was knocked back down, shoulders hitting the brick hard. He groaned. “Dude-“

“Show me your face.” 

“Alright.”

“Wh- alright? Just like that?”

“Yeah? It’s not really a secret identity, everyone knows Deadpool,” His fingers curl around the edges of the mask. “Everyone also wishes they didn’t ask.” He yanks it off.

He looks exactly what Eddie expected from someone who was reconstructed from half chewed pieces of skin. The intensity of those scars is more prominent now that his face was properly exposed, his sunken eyes framed by tattered skin and pulled taut over muscle that was exposed at the cheeks.

“You should see the other guy,” His grin is shark-like. An expression of insecurity flickers over his features before pulling the mask over his chin. “But really, you eat someone’s head, at least have the courtesy not to look at him like that .”

“Right. My bad.”

“Seriously, this is Ryan Reynolds' face you’re insulting here.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Eddie makes a face similar to wincing as he studies him from under the mask. “You sure?”

“Oh yeah. He’s a solid 10/10.”

“He’s more like… a 7, maybe.”

Wade gasps loudly as his hands come up to touch his cheeks. “ That is a gay response.”

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, then finally shakes his head and with a scoff, turns on his heel and starts to stumble away. Wade smirks to himself and starts to stand, hand resting over his gut. “It’s fine, I’m used to being objectified!” He yells down the alley, then looks at himself with a sigh. “That’s what the suit is for.”

Wade manages to jog up to Eddie, who slows once he realizes he can’t get very far looking the way he does. They turn a corner into another alley in complete silence.

“So what, you just- can’t die?” He finally stammers.

“Buddy, I planted at least 10 magazines worth of bullets into your chest and you didn’t even bleed, can you die?”

Eddie stammers, because he isn’t sure of the answer either. “You don’t have the courtesy to ask me questions after you shot my throat.”

“I can ask as many questions as I want-“

Without warning, Eddie grows about 5 feet, and Wade is standing face to face with the same thing that ate his head just a week ago.

“We cannot die. I will not let it happen.”

“There’s the big guy! Thought you would keep hiding from me.”

“Not a guy,” They lean closer, and suddenly their jaw shifts to make room for a lot more teeth than before.

“WE. ARE VENOM.”

“Oh wow, I’m being so ignorant today. I’m all for that. You and I are more similar than I thought, yknow?” A gloved hand comes up to rest on Venom's shoulder, who stares at him blankly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. How about tacos?”

Naturally, Eddie agreed. For the sake of someone’s head.

A taco stand is probably the only place that they would have been allowed to even be near , because Eddie was still coated in his own blood. It ran down his chin and was caked in the front of his shirt, when he moved it crunched , from just how much there was. Wade was still leaking from the hole in his chest that had yet to heal up, and Eddie just wanted to get to this place so he could stop having to listen about how he wishes a different hole of his was leaking. The smell that Wade emitted was awful, unwashed laundry and body sweat, gun oil and alcohol. He could even smell the copper from both of them.

They were a walking health hazard.

“You know Spider Man?” Eddie asks through a bite of his taco with steak that was as raw as it could be served legally, adding more blood to the mess on his chin. He struggled to swallow, and was more so choking down the food, but Venom seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.

Wade seems caught off guard by the question, and the way his mouth twists. “What? No. Never heard of him. Why? Are you trying to eat his head too?”

“For fucks- No, does everyone just have it out for this guy?” Eddie scoots away from him and says weakly, “Please don’t shoot my throat again.”

“Usually, the villains around here opt for more grand entrances-“

“I ate your head.”

“-and they definitely don’t say please.” Wade considers it fine for him to focus on his tacos again, because Eddie is pretty pathetic. “So why do you want Spider-Man?”

He throws his arms out and shrugs. “Honestly I have no clue-“

Venom’s head manifests itself from his chest, and shoves itself directly into Wade's face. “He is the reason we got sent to another universe!”

“We don’t know that,” Eddie cuts them off, wheezing slightly. “Vee, someone’s gonna see you-“

“No one ever shows up back here. But if he sees you could just eat the taco stand guys head-“

“We aren’t going to eat the taco guy.” Eddie repeats. “-Or Spider-Man.”

“It would be a shame, these are good tacos.” Wade looks between them, and seems to be contemplating something. Finally, he says “Yeah, I know Spider-Man.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Wade snorts. “If I knew where he was, I’d actually be able to get some tongue down my throat.”

“That’s… disgusting.”

“Tell me about it. He doesn’t know how to kiss at all - Wait, is that intolerance I hear? 

“So you’ve seen his face.” Eddie cuts him off, increasingly more stressed out by the direction of this conversation. There was a shred of hope in this situation. 

“That’s the problem,” Wade points at him with a taco, and a chunk of lettuce falls on his jeans. “I could have sworn to you that I have. In fact I’ve seen much more than a face, but I just can’t remember it”

[Maybe the memory issues are just worse than you thought . ]

“Are you dating Spider-Man?” Eddie asks because, really, what other explanation is there? His eyes widen and blink, turning slowly to look at Venom's still floating head. “You ate Spider-Man’s boyfriends head-“

“Actually we ate-“

“Yeah, but you didn’t hear that from me. I use the title liberally.” Wade whispers.

“…Oookay-“

“Anyway, I’m sure it would be convenient to know Spider-Man’s true identity! Too bad, it’s almost like the whole world’s memory of who he was was wiped!” Wade looks off and stares intently at one spot, giving a knowing look.

Eddie and Venom exchange a less knowing look. “What are you-“

“Well, I’m stuffed!” Wade suddenly pats his knees and stands. “Now, we could wait around for my third movie, because I’ve got a tingling feeling that I’m gonna be on set with a Garfield that’s not a lasagna eating cat,” He holds out his hand. “Or we could go look for him ourselves right now. Whatddya say?”

“Oh, what the hell,” He takes Wade's hand and uses it to help himself stand. “Let’s go-“

“Let’s go find Spiderman-Man!” Venom cuts in with a threatening grin, making them both jump.

-

If Wade had an actual apartment, Eddie wouldn’t know of it. 

He didn’t mind being in one of his safe houses, even if it was bottom-of-the-barrel shitty, he felt safer there than anywhere else, and he didn’t have to have his name recorded in some hotel log book.

He’s out on the rooftop with Wade. He sits on the ledge and dangles his legs in the air, he mumbles to himself or whoever it is he usually talks to, paying no mind to Eddie who stands with his arms folded over his chest, standing as close to the ledge as he could muster the courage to do so.

He couldn’t stare at Wade, continued to wear his mask, for reasons he didn’t know and wasn’t going to ask. Even if he had seen his face already, back when he asked in the alley. He hadn’t seen as much as a sliver of his neck since then. 

So instead he stares out at the city, and the lights, and listens to the cars honking below them.

Eddie had been itching to ask questions, he isn’t subtle about it either. He would continuously sneak glances at Wade, who stared forward and avoided meeting his gaze, hopefully to prevent whatever words he plans on letting out from actually coming out.

Maybe it was out of habit, he couldn’t help how his brain kicked into gear at any opportunity to pry, any situation where he knew there was more under the surface. Partly, it was with Venom's help, their eye for detail so much more thorough than his own. 

“You mentioned your job.” Eddie spoke and the other man sighs.

“Still disappointed that I’m not spidey? If you get past the fact I kill people for money, you can close your eyes and pretend.”

Wade knew he wasn’t an investigator, which was probably why he answered with such ease. Journalism was much less glorious. Eddie would be surprised if he didn’t dig into every piece of information available. Wade Wilson knows things about him he doesn’t even know about himself.

“Bad guys?” Eddie asks. “Or just, anyone?”

Wade looks taken aback by his language, it makes him grin crookedly. Bad guys , like he’d heard from kids who got saved by superheroes. Bad guys, which implied there had to be good guys out there too.

“There’s lots of bad guys. I make sure that they can’t hurt anyone else for good .” He starts. Not to justify himself, and not as an explanation, but as a state of fact. Like that was his moral code, his reason for it all.

“I get that, really.” Eddie nods quickly. “There’s sick people out there. I lost my job for exposing a guy who was using people as lab rats. Homeless people, anyone vulnerable.”

Wade's face shifts through various expressions, eyebrow twitching and Eddie was watching him closely. He settles on a frown but doesn’t voice how he feels about it, even if it was clear he felt a lot.

“It’s not like I’m a good guy,” He pauses. “But I’m not bad. Maybe that makes me selfish, but it also makes me realistic, because I know throwing them in jail doesn’t guarantee anything. You can pick out the assholes from the bad guys. From the rapists, traffickers, abusers. It’s not that complicated, and it’s your choice to ignore it. I chose to kill the bad guys.” 

Eddie knew as soon as his mouth shut, he put a cork in the conversation, and wasn’t looking to revisit the topic.

I like him, Eddie.

“You know, I’ve been wondering. How are the rave scenes in San Francisco?”

“What?” Eddie straightened his back. He was glad for the change of subject, but was confused. “I don’t think that’s my kind of-“

“They are incredible!” Venom shows up for the first time that night. 

“ …What ?” Eddie repeats, his jaw dropping. 

“San Francisco is very accepting. They loved me. When I was out of the Eddie closet-“

Wade snorted and Eddie practically recoiled from shock.

“Don’t call it that. Don’t say those words in that order ever again-“ He then veered his head over to Venom. “When we fought you went partying ?”

“I got to go out as my true self, Eddie!”

Wade's shoulders shook as he attempted to hide his laughter.

“I don’t even know you anymore.”

“I can't believe you have an alien that makes you look that sexy and you don’t go partying. You could be a stripper. I’ve done it!”

“You want me to exploit my partner?” Eddie raised an eyebrow, but he smirked, which seemed to brush off some of the stiffness Wade had. 

“ Exploit sounds bad. Making full use of your power sounds better. And New York’s got a thing for costumes.” 

The two of them laughed.

“So, the chickens. Are they also aliens? I probably should’ve asked that before letting them in my house.”

“Oh. Uh,” Eddie slowly turns behind him, watching the chickens idle around, pecking at the ground. “Sonny and Cher? Just chickens. They’re Venoms, actually. Calls them best friends. Couldn’t just leave them behind in San Francisco, that would’ve been a dick move.”

Wade raises an eyebrow and looks over Eddie's shoulder. “Sonny and Cher.” He repeats, just to be sure. Eddie nods.

Wade suddenly stands, the heel of his boots lined up with the ledge. “ They say we’re young and we don’t know …”

“What are you doing?” He narrows his eyes at him, who sways his hips with a mischievous look on his face. It’s hard to pinpoint what he’s doing as singing at first, given how out-of-tune it is, but the lyrics are unmistakable. Venom is suddenly much more focused on the conversation.

“ We won’t find out until we grow… ” 

“Stop it. Stop- No, goddammit. I’m not listening.” He clasps his hands over his ears but that doesn’t stop Venom's head from forming just above his shoulder, branching over to where Wade was. He grabs helplessly at the tendrils, trying to pull them back. 

“ Well I don’t know if that’s all true- ”

“‘Cause you got me, and baby, I got you!” Venom’s booming voice makes Eddie flinch, and for a second he’s afraid Wade was going to tumble off the roof and fall to the ground. The expression on his face is nothing short of pure ecstasy.

“Babe.”

“This is ridiculous-“

“I got you babe!”

Wade holds his fist out between them to serve the purpose of a faux microphone.

“I got you babe!”

Eddie places his face in his hands to hide the smile that grows on his face as he listens to those two voices singing aloud, and feels a little less regretful about going to New York