We Are Riot

3

"So, I know you're going to hate me for this, but I was just wondering about Eddie and Venom."
An aggravated growl like sigh escaped Riot, making Drake's insides buzz. The alien was jealous...extremely jealous of the way that Drake kept thinking about that loser and his loser symbiote! Why couldn't he think of other things?! Like, normal things?! Like Riot? Every time the man thought or spoke about those two, Riot would recoil inside and hiss silently, jealousy burning through his liquid form like a savage, untamed fire.
This again? Drop the subject, Carlton! I'm sick of hearing you speak of these two losers!
"Just hear me out, alright?" Drake said as he washed some of the dishes in the sink. "They could have turned us in. But they didn't."
And you're wondering why?
"Well, I'm just saying, after all we tried to do, that's kind of weird for them to just suddenly be...I don't know....okay with us, I guess?"
Idiot!
Drake watched as a large gray tentacle whipped out of his body and snatched the dry towel from his hand and whacked him across the head with it.
We need to stay away from them. They will only cause us harm.
Drake tried to grab for the towel, but Riot only kept it out of reach. If there was one way to get Drake's attention, it was to act flirty in the most subtle way possible. That was always Riot's plan.
And it worked.
Every.
Single.
Time.
"We don't know that," Drake replied. "Now could you kindly return me my rag?"
So you could finish washing dishes? Absolutely not!
"Riot—"
No need to get snippy, Carlton, Riot growled as sweetly as his rough voice could allow. I only wanted to finish this for you.
Drake paused and his hand hovered slightly in the air as he looked at the tentacle holding the dishrag.
"Oh." He lowered his arm, looking surprised. "Thanks, Riot."
Don't get used to it. I'm not your pet.
"Well, you're not exactly human..." Drake pointed out.
Riot snorted.
What was that?
"Nothing." Drake ducked his head when Riot whacked him again with the towel, this time a little less aggravated. It almost seemed... playful.
Drake paused.
Could symbiote's actually have feelings? Well, Venom sure did. But Riot? Drake just didn't know. He knew that the gray symbiote could understand some emotion but emotion on a human level? Could it feel sadness? Happiness? Loneliness? Depression? Did it even have feelings? Venom said that Riot didn't.
You're thoughts are very loud, Carlton. Are you alright?
Drake started for a moment, realizing that Riot had spoken to him.
"Uh, yeah...yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," Drake said.
Well, once your done with your thinking, can we get some food?
"We ate thirty minutes ago," Drake said, astounded.
Riot decided to manifest its head now and look at the man. He hovered a few good inches over the man's face, displaying his dominance. Riot couldn't help but notice how the man's big, brown eyes stared up at him. They were so beautiful. So perfect for his perfect....
"Riot?"
Riot came back into the world and noticed that Drake had spoken his name.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to get you something?" Drake asked, looking at the alien in concern.
"Meat," Riot said simply.
"But meat's expensive, I don't exactly have a job anymore and we don't have much money with us."
Riot dipped his head down until the place where he should have had a nose (but didn't) almost touched Carlton's.
"There is a simpler way to attain meat without having to purchase it," he said in a low voice.
Drake thought about it for a moment before he gasped.
"We are not going to just go out there and eat people!" he hissed, shocked and disgusted.
"Why, Carlton, why be so upset about it when you forced innocent people to die in the hands of the other symbiotes brought down to earth? What's happened to your commanding demeanor? If I didn't know better, I would think you're starting to get soft," Riot growled and a faint hint of a tentacle was placed around Drake's hips and it fucking squeezed, earning a yelp from the surprised man.
"I am not getting soft, it's just that....we can't eat other people, that's wrong."
"Oh, but killing people by the means of symbiosis is," Riot replied softly.
"I didn't know the symbiotes would kill the people! Sure, I thought that they might reject them, but not kill them!"
"That's not what you thought when you spoke with that one man Issac. You said human beings were disposable. Easily replaced," Riot hissed in his ear.
"Well, I was wrong, okay?" Drake replied a little too harshly.
"Don't raise your voice at me, Drake," Riot warned, inching closer so that their foreheads touched and the tentacle around his waist tightened more aggressively.
"What, so is this now turning into who's the dominant one here?"
Drake was swiftly thrown down onto the ground, a thud telling him he had hit the cabinets and then another thud answering the dazed question of why he was now on the floor. Riot seemed unapologetic as he looked down at the fallen man.
"It could lean that way, yes, but I think we already know who's the alpha here, don't we, Carlton?" Riot sneered, an enormous amount of saliva dripping past his fangs.
Drake looked into those large white eyes for a moment and then looked away.
"We're not eating people," he said, quieter now.
"I need brains to survive," Riot said. "Without it, I will go insane. I am already starving!"
"How could you be starving after what I just bought you!"
"It's called being a nine foot tall alien, Drake, and you had better shape up that attitude of yours before I make you," Riot replied in an icy, dark tone that made Drake involuntarily shiver. He could already feel the bruises forming where he had been roughly handled and winced.
"Okay...okay..." he whispered, shakily getting to his feet. "We...we just need to calm down and think this through."
"There is no thinking this through, Carlton, we need to eat!"
"Yes, but not humans!"
"Do you really want to know what would happen to you if you denied me access to human brains, Carlton? Do you really want to know?" Riot snapped, making the slightly petrified man take a step back.
"Don't tell me, please, I'd rather kill myself," he said, turning a little pale as the symbiote slid back inside.
At that, Riot did not answer. As Drake made his way out of the room and down the hall, Riot almost felt guilty for chewing on his liver. Almost. He pushed away the feeling and swallowed.
Mmm. Juicy.
Regenerating the man's liver, Riot hummed in satisfaction as it was repaired. But he still couldn't help but feel....guilty. That sentence that Drake had just uttered a few seconds ago was very true.
Drake wasn't going to kill himself. Riot was. Because he was feeding of of Drake's organs only to repair them again. But repairing the damage cost Drake's energy.
Drake wondered why he felt so weird all of a sudden. It was like a queasy, sick feeling in his gut. Hmm. Weird. Maybe it was something he ate. Shrugging it off, he stepped out into the street.

Eddie, I still don't like it that you let them get away, Venom huffed as the reporter walked down the street.
"Bud, could you drop the subject, please!" Eddie pleaded. "You've been at Drake and Riot ever since yesterday!"
I don't trust them, Eddie. They are bad guys!
"Listen, V, people can change. Sort of like what happened to you when you met me."
Hmm. That's true.
"And I didn't kill you when you tried to ask for forgiveness, right?"
No...
"So be like that with Drake and Riot. Maybe they'll change."
Venom laughed.
It would be a miracle so see the team leader of the symbiotes ask for forgiveness, he chuckled. After a pause, he added, Where are we going?
"Same place we always go, bud."
Let's see if she has any new chocolates!
Eddie chuckled.
"V, Mrs. Chen just got a new shipment yesterday, I doubt she'll get one today," he replied with a grin.
We could always check....
"Yeah, yeah..."

Drake trudged up the slightly slanted walkway, his footsteps heavy and off pattern. He didn't understand what was happening. It was like his body was on a severe sugar crash or something. His energy was drained and he was dizzy. Everything swam in his eyes and he tried to center himself and walk in a straight line, but his will wasn't his own.
"Riot, what is wrong with us?" he whispered, his perspiring fever-flushed face dripping and grimy.
Need food. We're weak. Need food.
"Yeah...food..."

"Will that be it, Eddie?" Mrs. Chen asked with a smile as Eddie handed her the three bags of tater-tots and a mound full of chocolates.
"Ah, you know, that's what we get every time," Eddie replied, handing her the money. "You can keep the change."
Eddie was about to reach for the bags when the door suddenly opened and a figure lurched its way inside. Mrs. Chen gasped as the man fell to his knees just a few feet inside her store, the door closing behind him.
Eddie! It's Drake! Venom snarled.
"Yeah, buddy, I know, but—"
"Please," Drake whispered desperately. "Please. We....we need...food."
Eddie!
"Look, he's probably dying! We need to help him!"
Mrs. Chen took action now.
"I can close the shop while I take him to a safe place," she said as she came out from around the counter and to the limp form on the ground. "Do you know of any place that might be able to care for him until he's better?"
Eddie! Eddie, no! Don't say it!
Eddie paused for a moment, as if taking a double-take. He looked at Drake, looking so helpless and maybe even possibly dying. He remembered something along the lines of this happening to him when he had first achieved symbiosis with Venom.
His body had thought the symbiote was some sort of virus and had tried to kill it, but of course, the symbiote remained inside with no damage done. Maybe Drake was just reacting to the symbiote attempting to bond.
But it also could mean something else...something more alarming. Something Eddie wished he could always forget....
It was when he had been in the lab and was looking at his lab reports. They had come back, saying his heart had atrophies and that his whole system had been screwed up. It wasn't until he had accepted Venom totally and completely that the fever had been broken.
And now, looking at the man who looked almost dead, possibly even dying, Eddie couldn't find it in his heart to say no.
"Yeah. I got a place." Venom howled in mixed rage and horror.
"NOOOO!"