I Saw The Devil In Your Eyes | venom fic

Oh My God, They Were Roommates

Eddie heard the expected growl from Venom after explaining to Ryan that he had a parasite.
"... Shut up." He told the symbiote before he could scold Eddie. Realizing what he said, he profusely apologized to his new neighbor.

After the awkward encounter, Eddie shut his door and locked it, groaning and cringing.

"You need to get used to me calling you a parasite, V. No ones gonna understand what a symbiote is," Eddie explained, shaking his head and heading to his storage closet to grab a broom and dustpan for the shattered plate.

"But Eddie—!" Venom argued, but Eddie wasn't having it.
"No, V. You really gotta get past the whole parasite thing. Like, seriously."

The landline phone rang and Eddie answered, pausing his and Venom's bickering.

"Hey, Eddie," Anne greeted, her phone being held between her shoulder and ear as she sorted through her belongings on her bathroom counter, "Just wanted to check up on you. Did you get home safely?"
"Aw, Anne, you don't gotta worry about me." Eddie reassured, beginning to sweep up the mess in his kitchen, "I got V with me."
"Hello, Anne!"
"He says hi."

"That's kinda what I wanna talk to you about, Eddie," Anne exhaled, her voice becoming more serious.
The shift in tone caused Eddie to get anxious.
"Wh-what about V?" He asked, voice faltering, taking a pause on his chore, "Look, if it's about the trial, I know and I'm sorry."
"Eddie—"

"It was a lot to ask for, I understand that."
"Please—"
"But I want you to know I recognize that I owe you one. Dan, too. I owe you both big time. I know dinner wasn't enough."
"Eddie, I love you, and I know you're sorry." Anne took a cotton round from it's plastic enclosing, and grabbed a bottle of coconut oil from the mirror cabinet, and dabbed a little onto the round. At this point, she was tired, physically from the afternoon trial and dinner that Eddie treated her and Dan to, as well as mentally drained from the news she had, "But I don't think you recognize how serious and how big of an issue this can be for Dan and I's careers."

There was a pause. No response coming from the other end. Anne saw this as an invitiation to continue, "I know, to you, this favor was just a one time thing," she sighed, "but I have a feeling this will happen again if you're not careful. You and Venom, that is."
No response. Anne tossed the first cotton round in the bin under her sink, now stained with brown and black smudges from her removed eye makeup.
"Eddie, are you even listening to me? Look, I'm being serious. I mean Dan and I could get into serious trouble. You had us fabricate your story in the eyes of the law? Dan had to lie about your medical documents and time of visitation to line up with your story," this time Anne sounded irritated, "This is considered malpractice, absolutely unethical. Our careers would be ruined."

"Anne," Eddie finally spoke up, exasperated, "I get it. I asked you to gaslight a whole courtroom. I'm sorry— And hey, I mean it. And this is a one time thing, trust me. We will be absolutely careful, you have our one hundred percent... Right, V?"
"I mean, give or take a few percentages..."

"V!" Eddie pushed through gritted teeth.
"Fine! Yes! I succumb to your human persuasion tactics!"

"Thank you. He said yes."

Anne let out a sigh of relief, but deep down she knew Eddie's recklessness, and with a new factor being Venom, she knew they'd be an unpredictable pair, but hearing the two express their efforts was just enough to calm her down for now.
"Great, that's good to hear," she responded as-a-matter-of-factly, "Now here's why I really called you..."
Eddie cleared his throat, not expecting this additional statement, "Sorry, what?"
"Eddie," Anne began, "I... How about I let Dan take the lead on this?"
She opened the bathroom door, Dan sitting on the foot of the bed waiting to hear from his partner, he looked up expectedly at Anne. She gestured him to come and take the phone.

"Eddie?" He spoke into the device.
"Yeah, Dan, I'm listening," Eddie assures.
"Hey, I'm gonna need you to come in for another scan when you're available."
"I— Wait, but—"
"I know. I know what happened last time," the doctor recalls, memories of the lights and MRI machine going haywire as Eddie laid in the room flashed through his mind. "I'm going to need you to come in... without, uh..." He looked to Anne for help to remember the symbiote's name.

Venom, she mouthed.

"Without Venom." He said, still getting used to this change.

Shock filled Eddie. Or was the feeling from Venom who had also heard Dan say what he just said? Either way, it took a while for Eddie to respond. "Dan, I don't think you understand what that means..." the reporter replied, feeling uneasy, "Venom can't... he can't survive in earth's atmosphere without a host. I'm sorry, but I have no idea how we could do the scan."

"I see..." Dan took a moment to think of a solution, but knowing little to none about the symbiote, he couldn't. "Well, if it's alright with you, would you be able to at least come into my office? Just to brief you on why we need a new scan? I'd rather have this conversation at the office. You can bring him with you."

Skeptical of the situation, questions ran through Eddie's head. He took a seat on his new kitchen stool. Was something wrong with him outside of the fact he had Venom with him? Where would Venom go if Eddie did have to take another scan? What was this scan needed for anyways? In the end, he knew Dan had his best interest at heart and his questions would be answered soon.

"Yeah, sure." He replied, "I can meet up with you at the hospital. When's your schedule open?"

"That's good to hear. Uh, how's next Saturday sound? 1PM?" Dan asked, satisfied to hear Eddie's compliance.

"Yeah, I can do next Saturday. Thanks for, uh, letting me know." Eddie replied.

"No problem, man. See you then. You take care, alright?"

"Yeah, you too. Goodnight, man." the reporter said, more questions racing through his mind. 

"Bye, Eddie! Goodnight!" Eddie heard Anne say before the phone hung up.

He sat on the stool wondering what was so important that they couldn't tell him on the phone. Why'd they have to meet at Dan's office? Was it that serious? Was this something even Venom couldn't fix?

Eddie was pulled away from his thoughts when he heard a blood curdling shriek from outside his window. He jumped to his feet instinctively. 

"No chicken tonight, I guess." He said to his symbiote counterpart, grabbing the tray holding a whole raw chicken and shoving it back into his fridge.

"Fine by me. The best meals are the ones who sweat with fear."

Running to the fire escape window, Eddie paused.
"No, hold on." He asserted, "No more smashing the windows. Open them, let met get out, then transform, remember? We talked about this."

"You're no fun."

The host rolled his eyes, but proceeded to do the previously mentioned. Upon transforming, Venom's large mass pushed up against the glass anyways, cracking it if not shattering the whole completely. 

Oh, come on! Seriously?

The two jumped into action, scaling to the rooftop to scope out where the commotion came from.