Marvel And Melanated Imagines (ongoing)

chocolate | eddie brock/ venom

Different building, different apartment – not as old or rundown as the previous residence but definitely not new either. He couldn't afford new, but he could at the very least afford a place that did not have that 'worst week of my life' feel to it.

"Worst? Up to the self-loathing again Eddie?"

"Yes, worst," Eddie muttered, knowing full well the words would be a cause for complaint on the part of his passenger. Sure enough, an irritated growl sounded out at the back of his mind. Shifting his grip on the hand truck, he cast a cautious glance down the access hall – empty for now. 

"Did you forget we almost died?"

"Yes. No.--No, right?"

That response sounded so sullen he couldn't help but picture the other pouting, the imagery prompting an involuntary chuckle.

"It's not funny."

"Kinda is."

Another grumbled complaint from the back of his head. Eddie managed to fight down any further laughter, though he knew he couldn't hide his continued amusement from the symbiote.

 As such, the disgruntlement persisted even as the elevator chimed and the door slid open. It took several seconds of awkward maneuvering and some unhelpful snickering to actually get in. The hand truck – piled high with a number of worldly possessions salvaged from the old place – only just barely managed to fit.

He had already hit the button for floor five when the footsteps reached his ears. No doubt Venom had heard them well before he had, but had deliberately decided not to warn him. The symbiote could be rather petty whenever it got upset at him for teasing.

The door was sliding shut as he pressed the button to hold it open, taking just long enough to reverse course that he began to wonder if it had even worked. The owner of the footsteps reached the elevator just as it decided to creak back open again. Shifting the hand truck aside as best he could despite the lack of room, Eddie put on an apologetic smile over the lack of space.

He caught a glimpse of black curls over the top of some brightly colored reusable shopping bags as the woman shuffled in with a mumbled 'thank you'.

 A face full of soft brown skin emerged around the side of the bags after a few seconds of rustling rearrangement, brown eyes flicking to check the button panel. Evidently, she was headed to the same floor they were, as she made no attempt to press a button herself or ask him to press one for her. Instead she leaned against the wall, resting an elbow on the side rail.

The door closed without further incident and the elevator groaned upwards.

Slow.

Eddie nodded shallowly in agreement, hoping the motion wouldn't be taken as too strange by the elevator's other passenger. He trained his gaze on the little placard bolted below the button panel, which declared a service date well within the safety range. This did nothing to quell the underlying worry at each and every creak. Usually elevators weren't a problem, but usually they didn't make this much noise. The indignant grumbling of Venom at the back of his head didn't help much either – no matter how much the symbiote insisted, that fear of heights was not going away any time soon.

"It's just the roller guides."

He glanced back up – the woman had shifted her bags to lean more on the rail as she dug out some keys from the back pocket of her shorts. They were dark blue ripped denim and altogether too bright against the black fishnets beneath them.

"Sorry?"

"The roller guides," she repeated with a head tilt towards the wall. "The things that go on the track outside the cab. They fixed 'em a couple months back with ones from a slightly different model, that's why it's making a weird noise, you seem scared."