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The first time it happens, it's kind of scary.
Eddie wakes up from a nightmare of burning and falling, of fire consuming Venom, of everything ending.
He jolts up in his bed, in the dark, covers clinging to his sweaty skin, his heart thudding against his ribcage so hard that he feels like he can't breathe, but then, there's that feeling of something slithering inside of him, and it turns into a warmth that wraps itself beneath his sternum—and squeezes, gently.
It's scary, the way his heart stutters at that alien feeling of pressure, like some supervillain had stuck a hand inside his chest to take hold of it, even if that hold somehow feels tender. Its beat skips, once, twice, heavy thumps that make him gasp, and then settles into a steady, slower rhythm.
He falls back against the pillows, both hands pressed over his heart. His pulse is still higher than resting rate, more forceful than it should be, and he's still definitely freaking out, but at least it's different from that nightmare.
"What the hell was that?" he demands.
You were too fast. I slowed you down, Venom informs him.
That wasn't much of an explanation. "Yeah, I noticed."
Back to sleep, Eddie.
Eddie blows out a long, steadying breath. He is still tired, he has to admit. His eyes have already shut of their own accord. Maybe this was a dream, too. Not really a nightmare, though.
As he drifts off again, he thinks that if it wasn't a dream, maybe it's something he might like to revisit, some time.
******
The second time is different. The second time, he brings it on himself, and it's awesome.
Eddie's always kind of been into edge play. He's never done anything too extreme, though, and it wasn't a thing Anne wanted to explore. The most they did was a bit of choking, and she didn't enjoy that at all.
Ever since that nightmare and that thing Venom did with his heart, his mind keeps going back to it, how terrifying and how intimate that was, and he wants to feel that again. He doesn't know if Venom has realized how he feels about it; he's not had the courage to bring it up, and he's not quite sure how much of his thoughts and feelings Venom hears, let alone understands.
It's one of those lazy mornings when they don't need to go anywhere, Eddie has slept in and doesn't want to get up yet, but Venom is restless, and aims that energy at Eddie's body. He's not going to complain. He doesn't need to get up, doesn't need to lift a finger, and he can get off in a really enjoyable way.
As usual, it starts with Venom caressing his body all over, black tendrils traveling over his skin, teasing him until he's desperate with want, which is when one small tentcale finally curls itself around his cock, squeezing it in a fluid movement from base to tip. Squeezing, like—
Eddie struggles to regain enough composure to talk. "Vee," he calls out.
The symbiote stops its ministrations. Is this not good for you, Eddie?
"No, it's great, I'm loving it," Eddie says quickly, because it is. It's just that he has that idea he can't shake. "I'm just thinking. That thing you did the other night? To my heart?"
Yes?
"Could you do that again?" Eddie asks.
You liked that? Venom asks back, and Eddie can't quite figure out what this specific tone is.
He thinks Venom will probably guess his answer from the way his pulse has sped up before he says it aloud, but he does, anyway. "Kind of? I think I might really like that now."
Venom doesn't reply right away, and for a brief moment, Eddie's just squirming there, all worked up from the unfinished tentacle-job and the thought of what's to come, the uncertainty and the anticipation.
Then, he feels it again.
The warm liquid slithering beneath his ribs, the tendrils wrapping themselves around his heart, which only pumps harder with excitement, and he feels that more strongly than he normally would, with the symbiote encircling it.
The pressure around his cock returns, too, and just as it tightens, the invisible fingers inside his chest close in around his heart. He moans aloud, shivers running through his body.
Venom has him completely. He's utterly helpless.
This is incredibly scary, and he's loving this all too much.
The symbiote releases the pressure, and then grasps tighter, the tendrils around his dick and his heart perfectly coordinated. Again, and again, and—
The fourth squeeze is already too much. He comes, hard, his ears ringing with the uneven throb of his heart, with Venom still undulating around his dick, coaxing him through it.
He melts into the mattress as if his body has grown as liquid as Venom is, entirely spent and thoroughly satisfied.
You liked that! Venom says, its voice sounding even lower than usual, a purr in his ears.
"I really did," Eddie says. This was wrong on so many levels, and if he ever had to explain it to anyone, he was pretty sure they'd think he was insane, but oh boy, had he liked it.
I think I liked it too. I like how your heart feels.
Well, that's both disturbing and hot at the same time. "Just try not to eat it," Eddie warns him.
Never again, Venom swears. I know how important it is now.
******
There is a third time and a fourth and a fifth. It becomes a thing they do, among many others in their playbook, most of which is weird stuff that wouldn't make sense to anyone who doesn't share a body with an alien symbiote. None of the other things feel quite as special to Eddie. Although Venom has full control of him anyway and can make him do whatever—have him perform acrobatic stunts he could never come up with himself, or give him a back rub from the inside out—nothing is quite the same as the idea that Venom can literally take hold of his heart.
Even though he feels it's special, he still doesn't guess how important it'll end up being, until there is one time that's almost the last.
They've had a really bad month. Eddie's been drowning in work, pulling all-nighters, driving around the state, and on top of that, there's been some asshole on their tail through all of it, sending people with guns after them.
Most of their meals have been fast-food on the run. A few times, Venom's forced them to stop for something more substantial, but Eddie knows it hasn't been enough. They're tired, running on fumes, and eventually they will crash.
When the fall comes, it's a doozy. The bad guy catches them in a major ambush, a proper shooting war. On a good day, they'd brush off something like this without breaking a sweat, but this isn't a good day, and these enemies are smarter than most, hiding in their armored cars and shooting with weapons that pack a punch.
They don't tend to run from fights. Today, they do, because although they've upended three cars, someone's still shooting at them, and they can't even eat the bad guys because they're too sheltered. Eddie's bleeding from bullet holes that Venom is no longer able to patch up, the blood loss and the low energy levels of their hellish month overwhelming their shared body.
"I'm sorry about this," he slurs at Venom as they hurry away at the fastest pace Venom can keep up.
I'm sorry too, Venom says. We should've eaten them.
"It's okay."
They don't make it all the way home. Eddie's starting to lose grip on consciousness, the world that he sees through Venom's eyes fading to shades of gray. They fall down on the doorstep of some gas station, and Venom lets go to crawl back under his skin. The clothes that are revealed are covered in blood, and Eddie shivers with a cold that seems to come from within. The last thing he knows before he passes out is a frightening, fluttering ache in his chest.
When he wakes up again, he's in the hospital, feeling like he's been run over by a truck. He can tell right away that there are no longer any bullet holes in him, but Venom is suspiciously quiet.
"Hey," he says weakly, but there's no answer.
He's not too worried. The symbiote can't be gone. Eddie knows how that feels, and that's different, that's an emptiness beyond mere fatigue. He's not feeling like that now.
Dan shows up soon, his expression serious and wary. "Are you going to behave?" he asks, looking around like he's expecting Venom to burst out and start breaking things.
"Look, I swear I was going to tell you—oh, no. We didn't eat any nurses on the way here, did we?" Eddie asks back. He doesn't remember anything after the gas station, but clearly the doctor has figured out he's not as alone as he's been pretendeding to be, and he has no idea how Venom has revealed its presence while Eddie's been out.
"No, no, you've been unconscious and perfectly harmless all along," Dan reassures him.
"Wait, how did you guess, then?" Eddie asks, confused. "Can't have been an MRI." They wouldn't have been well-behaved and harmless through that, for sure.
Dan gives a slight shudder and shakes his head. "No, I won't take you into that room again. Seeing that thing once was enough. It wasn't anything like that," he explains. "I wouldn't have suspected anything at all if not for this one weird thing. The EMTs told me that when they picked you up, your ECG was completely erratic, but somehow, you still had a steady pulse."
"Oh," Eddie says. "Huh."
He can guess how that might've happened.
"The fast-healing gunshot wounds were a bit of a giveaway, too. You should thank your friend. I think it—he—whatever—saved your life," Dan adds.
"I will," Eddie says. "Is there anything to eat around here? I'm starving."
"I'll go ask a nurse to bring you something," Dan says, and heads out.
As sad as the hospital meal that they bring him turns out to be, he starts to feel a little more lively once he's worked his way through it, and he feels something stir under his skin.
"Vee?" he tries again.
Tired. Hungry, comes the answer in a voice that's no louder than a whisper.
"I know, I know. I'm trying to fix that," Eddie says apologetically. "And thanks."
I was scared, Eddie, Venom says.
"Tell me about it," Eddie says. "I was afraid you might need to find a new host."
Never, Venom's voice grows stronger with indignation.
There's that familiar feeling in his chest again, a gentle caress underneath his sternum, like a warm breeze against his heart. In the background, there's a brief delay between two beeps of the heart monitor.
Eddie rests his hand on his chest and thinks of what lies beneath, of black, alien tendrils twined around fragile human muscle.
It should be a startling image—disgusting, even—but it's not.
I won't let go. I've got you. Your heart is mine, Venom says.
"Yeah. It is," Eddie says.