You'll Never Be Alone [mpreg|sequel]

ix

Dan doesn't talk, he chooses not to. There's nothing to talk about, nothing to say. So he says nothing. The silence irks Riot. It gets under their skin though they deny it.  They ignore it like an elephant in the room.

Quietly, Dan stares into space with his hand pressed to his belly.  There's a heavy grief in his chest, a rock of guilt nestled in his belly.  He closes his eyes at the onslaught of tears he fails to fight back. 

If he hadn't separated from Riot his baby would still be there.  If he hadn't exposed himself to the MRI machine, his baby would've been safe.

Riot doesn't manifest to neither confirm nor deny Dan's fears.  Call them cruel, call them selfish, but Riot refuses to appear before the man.

The man who clearly didn't want them.

But the guilt, fuck the guilt!

Eventually Riot slithers after three days of painful numbness, of no eating and wasting away.

The baby wasn't lost, but if Dan continues as he does it'll be too late for all of them.

"The child is safe," Riot rumbles.

Dan blinks wide teary eyes at them.

"Did you hear me?" The symbiote demands.

Dan sniffles pitifully.

"The baby, our baby, is safe," they repeat slowly.

Dan wipes away a stray tear with a trembling hand, his other resting on his baby bump, barely noticeable, barely there.

It's his imagination.  Right?

It must be.

Riot isn't here.

He wasn't strong enough to keep his baby.

His body wasn't strong enough.

He's delusional.

He has finally lost his mind to grief, to the utter feeling of failure.

Riot is beginning to get angry.

"I am real," they sneer, "I am here."

Riot sways back and forth like a snake about to strike.  They're unsure how to approach the human.  Should they reach out.  Should they touch?

Riot sighs softly, bending in slowly until they rest their head against Dan's.  Their breaths mingle and Dan slowly realizes Riot is helping his breathing slow from the rising panic.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

"Riot?" Dan rasps.

"I am here."

Those three words snap Dan from his stupor.  There's a flicker of recognition in his eyes as he stares at the symbiote in wonder.

"... you?"

Dan reaches out slowly, cautiously.  His fingers sink into the soft slime without further hesitation.

Warm.

Real.

Riot.

The symbiote purrs at the feel.

"You're here!" Dan exclaims in wonderment.

"Hmm," Riot rumbles.

Dan bites his lip, with a softer voice he asks, "why?"

The symbiote snorts, "my perfect host, mine."

Like hell were they willing to lose yet another host.

"What about Drake?  I thought he was your perf-"

"Was.  Drake is dead.  Venom killed him," Riot growls.

Dan flinches, "he was protecting himself, he was protecting Eddie!"

Dan is overwhelmed with anger, feelings not his own.  Yet Riot doesn't act on it.

"Just as I was protecting our baby," he finishes solemnly, "but I guess you'll always consider humans weak, see us as your meal, as a passtime, and unworthy.  I know you didn't want this baby-"

"You know nothing."

Dan frowns, "I know enough."

"And exactly what is that?"

"Weren't you the one who authorized the surgery?"

"Surgery?"

"The removal of our baby."

"I didn't know you were carrying until I arrived here.  I didn't know it was possible until I saw that human with Venom's bastard on his shoulder.  Regardless, it is my spawn, mine and if I didn't want to breed with a human, I wouldn't have bonded with you again to save it."

"Save... it... you mean our baby," Dan covers his mouth in shock, his heart aching with possibility as the words finally register, "baby, our baby, you saved them?"

"Of course," Riot huffs, "the child is safe, alive, its heartbeat is loud and frankly annoying now."

Lie.  Dan doesn't know how, but he knows Riot is lying.  If the baby's heartbeat was annoying, they wouldn't have saved them!

"Oh," he breathes softly, both hands cupping the gentle swell of their child.

"Now who gave the right to kill my child?"

Dan looks up at the symbiote.  If it wasn't Riot, then who?

"I don't know," Dan whispers, "but I'm glad you're here."

Those words do something to the gruff alien.

It causes their body to fill with warmth and ... adoration?

"Thank you.  Even if you hate me, use me, abuse me, thank you for saving my baby.  I-I'll do anything to keep them, to keep him or her.  So please, just until they're born stay with me?  Then... then do what you will."

Those words, they hurt more than Riot thought possible.

As if they'll leave Dan and their child.

Not now.

Not ever.

Not again.