Chapter Text
After the pain of separation, and the chaos of their fight with Riot, Eddie had been absorbed in simply holding his life together. He hadn’t had the time (or, well, the health insurance) to focus on his prescriptions.
The first prescription that Eddie had taken while bonded with his other—an antidepressant, which one of their doctors had insisted on—was met with the symbiote equivalent of !!!, and then ???.
Eddie… they started. He felt their bafflement in the back of his head. What did you eat? Not food.
Eddie paused. His first, instinctive response was defensiveness, but that was borne from a lifetime of pushing his problems into a corner and pretending they didn’t exist. With his other, he didn’t have to do that. Really, more than “didn’t,” it was that he couldn’t.
“It’s medicine,” he said. “My brain doesn’t like to… uh, make the right chemicals. The ones that let people feel positive things, like, motivation and shit.” He shrugged, a useless habit when talking with the alien that lived in his body.
His other took this in. He felt an odd tingle at the base of the neck that indicated that they were picking at bits of his memory.
You took this medicine in the past , they said, brushing a memory of about two years ago. Stopped, when you left New York. You didn’t need it?
Eddie blushed. “No, I needed it.” More than he ever needed it before, even, he thought to himself. His other, of course, felt the meat of that thought too.
They digested the information for a minute. Makes more room in our brain for serotonin , they said after a minute.
The defensive, instinctual need to fight back against the idea that he needed any help with his damn brain, thank you, fought to escape his mouth before he bit it back. He’d gotten better at shutting down the shitty, self destructive impulses that tended to react in frustration.
With his symbiote in his head, unfortunately, all that training didn’t matter. They felt the argumentative impulse as easily as if he’d screamed at them. You didn’t want to take this medicine? they asked.
He took a deep breath, deflating. Arms propped on the counter over the sink, staring out his dingy window to the brick wall across his apartment window, he felt the old wariness go out of him. “Not at first,” he admitted. “I thought that everyone thought I was broken. I’d dealt with that shit before, and I wasn’t fuckin’ having it.”
A growl reverberated through his head like a motorcycle. He felt a shifting movement at his shoulder as his other spilled out, ink-like and twinding, and formed a head to face him. “Your brain wasn’t broken,” they said, their voice rumbling through the otherwise quiet apartment. “It was fine when we bonded. Sad and stupid, but fine.”
“Gosh, thanks, babe,” Eddie drawled. A part of him felt a little offended that he’d let it get so bad that a goddamn alien had been able to tell he was fucked up; a bigger part of him felt oddly validated that they didn’t think he was a complete loss. As always, his other’s throwaway compliments made his heart flutter.
Their eyes remained narrowed, apparently fixed on all the dickheads in his past that had made him feel like shit for needing to take Prozac. When they were Venom and huge, a glare like that would be enough to make anyone run screaming. Now, with his symbiote’s face tiny and protective in front of him, it just made them look like an angry cat.
Eddie gave into the impulse to pet them. They always insisted it was pointless, but he could feel how much they appreciated his hands running over their form. It was like a purr running down his spine, a tingling hum.
“Regardless,” they continued, appeased by his show of affection, “we don’t need them anymore. I keep your brain healthy, Eddie. We don’t need medicine, already do a good job keeping you well.”
His hand froze. Moment ruined, he thought through a slight internal scream. “Love, you do a good job, but…” he trailed off. “Do you, uh, really think that’s a good idea? Can you—”
“We can do anything!” they hissed, puffing up in shiny black points. “I keep our bones together, Eddie! I know what our brain needs. We don’t need medicine, or doctors, or scans. Just us, Eddie.”
He considered it—his other did, quite literally, save their life on a day-to-day basis. They absorbed any damage they took as Venom, and after they returned from a hunt, any wounds Eddie might have had healed in minutes.
It reminded him of the same argument that had finally gotten him to take the antidepressants in the first place: was healing a mind really so different from healing a body, when you got down to it?
“Alright,” he said slowly. “No Prozac, then. But, if anything, uh, up there starts to look weird, or if we start feeling like shit all the time…”
The symbiote purred, rubbing back against his hands. “Of course, Eddie,” they responded, pleasure running through their rumbling voice. “You trust us. You trust me to take care of us.”
“Of course, baby,” he answered. At least that much he didn’t even need to question. He could count of his other like he could count on the sun rising, without question.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later, once they’d settled into their new place, that he’d finally remembered his other prescription. With the settlement he’d gotten from the Life Foundation, he could actually afford it again.
His other hadn’t questioned when he’d grabbed his prescription at the pharmacy. Maybe they’d assumed it was more meds for his depression, but whatever they’d been expecting, it wasn’t the needle Eddie started filling.
At the sight of the syringe, filled with the same old yellowish fluid Eddie had remembered from his college years, the symbiote curdled in his body uneasily.
Eddie… they began, tone nervous, Why do you have that?
Eddie tapped at the needle to check for air bubbles, aware that he hadn’t given his other any kind of explanation about the medication. About his status being trans.
Maybe somewhat naively, he’d hoped that the subject would pass by the symbiote unaware, or at least unacknowledged. After all, his symbiote had no gender at all—when Eddie had asked about whether he should use ‘they’ or ‘he’ when talking about them, the other’s endless amusement at the concept had shut him up.
My race are all symbiotes, and nothing else , they had said simply. He could feel their good humor bubbling up in him like fizzy soda. Stupid idea. I am not male or female.
And that had been that. Eddie hadn’t brought up the concept of gender since. Now, with his other projecting nerves and concern from inside him, he figured he needed to suck it up.
“It’s medicine too,” he began, “like the Prozac. This one is different, though. You have to, uh, inject it into the body directly...”
He trailed off, his symbiote’s emotions leaking over. “Baby, what’s up? I know it’s weird, but it only hurts for a second.”
They were quiet for a moment, and then responded by pulling up a memory to the front of both of their minds. The memory was disorienting, for a moment, because the people surrounding them seemed to tower, faceless and huge, over where they huddled in a cramped, dark space.
But the people weren’t giant at all, he realized. His other was just very small, crammed into one of the sealed pods the scientists had held them in. One of said scientists walked by, chattering in a language his other didn’t yet understand, and gleaming in their hands was a wicked-looking, long silver needle.
Eddie blinked as the memory faded out. His other had pooled in front of him, draping across his bare legs in distress.
“Oh, love,” he whispered, running a hand over their form in his lap. “No, it’s nothing like that. Those idiots didn’t give a damn about if they hurt you. This is tiny, and well, I need it…”
Their form quivered slightly under his touch, looking like black sludge, and they bared their sharp teeth at the needle he had set aside. “Why do we need that? I’ve been watching our brain, Eddie. We’ve been feeling good.”
Eddie nodded. “We have, but this isn’t for my brain. I need it to - to be a guy.”
At this, he felt his other falter. Their incomprehension was obvious.
“Don’t understand. Eddie already is a guy,” the symbiote stated. Eddie felt them churning slightly in their agitation. It was a feeling not unlike menstrual cramps, or constipation. Emotional constipation , Eddie thought to himself, and smirked.
The symbiote growled in his lap, but they were always attached, so the sound rattled in his guts. “Not funny when I don’t understand,” they complained.
“You’re right,” Eddie said, apologetic. He splayed back on the couch and stared at the needle abandoned on the side table. “I wasn’t laughing at you, love.”
It was just, wasn’t it ironic, that the actual alien he’d only known a few months was the one to accept him as he was without doubt. His own father, long out of the picture, in denial til the end; other past relationships flashed through his head, each politely accommodating him and trying to see past his body.
But his other, they had never even thought to question. It was this that drove him to want to make them understand: maybe they didn’t have anything like gender, but this was important to him, and so, because he loved them, he wanted it to be important to them.
“I wasn’t seen as one, always,” he started. “Check back through my memories, when I was a kid. Everyone was calling me Elizabeth, y’know?”
They nodded, shaping upwards from his lap. “I thought they were just very stupid,” they said.
He barked a laugh. “I mean, a lot of them were, but that’s not why. I was born Elizabeth, but I realized it didn’t fit, so I picked Eddie. Then, uh, the medicine—that’s testosterone.”
There was a sensation in his blood like the feeling of an IV drip, a cool chill racing along the veins. “You don’t have a lot of testosterone,” they said, matter-of-fact.
Eddie winced. “Yeah” he said, “I’d been too broke and depressed to bother with it last year. But it helps me look more male, and feel more male, so…”
His other seemed to consider this information, then said, considering, “You have felt ashamed about this.”
A part of him wanted to deny it, but it was true enough. He’d dealt with too much shit to not have felt any shame. “Not as much anyone,” he argued. He passed all the time, and when he’d been a well-known reporter, everyone had just known him as Eddie Brock.
“For the most part I, y’know, look male. So it’s not really a problem much anymore.”
“Most part?” they questioned. Gleaming black, their form bubbled higher in front of him. More of their upper body formed as their mass gathered together around him. “Look like most human males to me. But obviously Eddie is better looking than all the others.”
“Darling,” Eddie protested, feeling his face heat. He meant to follow that up with something about how his other was biased in that claim, but the blunt way they said something so flattering left him unable to think of anything to say.
Sometimes, his symbiote would say something so thoughtlessly affirming that it left him reeling. It was like a college crush, his stomach fluttering and a blush creeping down his neck.
Black arms curled around Eddie’s chest, his other’s grin audible in their voice. “You’re embarrassed,” they teased. Their good humor filled his body with warm, fuzzy joy. “I can feel the blood rush to your face. Don’t need to be shy, Eddie.”
Statements like that just made him more embarrassed. “I can’t fucking stop myself from blushing, when you say shit like that.”
The arms around him tightened, and a growl rumbled close to his ears. From the corner of his vision, his other’s sharp teeth glinted in the light. “Not shit. You are perfect for me, and so you’re the most attractive to me, too.”
Eddie bit his lip, self conscious despite it all. It was just… “But, my body, it’s more similar to. To, like, Anne’s body. Than other men’s. So, to me, that makes it less attractive as a guy’s body, because I don’t have the right parts.”
His symbiote made a sound of disdain. “You are an upright biped without fur or feathers. Ocular navigation, weak sense of smell. Your body is like most human bodies.” Liquid and dense, his other’s form rushed past his ears as they gathered in front of him.
Their upper body was completely formed now, massive and gleaming, but weightless where they formed from his lap. Even when shifting around, they kept their arms around Eddie—ever since they had watched couples hugging on TV, they had been adamant about doing it themself.
As always, Eddie felt dwarfed by them. He wasn’t small himself, especially since he’d gone back to weightlifting, but his other was liquid black strength. It had been a while since Eddie had been with a guy, and even if they were a genderless alien, the familiar sight of the symbiote curled over him still sent a shiver down his back.
Their eyes glinted diamond in the dim lighting, narrowed on Eddie’s body inquisitively. “Only a few parts are different from other males I’ve been in,” they said. Eddie was about to insist on the societal importance of those parts, when he felt a curling heat gather in his groin. He gasped, hands flying up to the symbiote’s shoulders instinctively.
“Just these parts,” they said, and then, at their shared body’s immediate reaction, “Oh! Eddie, that was…” Eddie felt an answering shock run through their own vast form, a full-body shimmer that echoed his own.
“Love, you can’t just - just grab that out of the blue. It’s, uhh.” The heat that had gathered in his gut seemed to be affecting his head. “That’s. Sexual.”
They still seemed caught up in the feeling that had chased through their bond. “Eddie, you hate those parts? We just felt them. So many nerve endings, Eddie, I like these parts of you.
There wasn’t any stopping the rush of embarrassment and arousal that hit at those words. Spoken so unfiltered, it was both one of the most alien compliments his other had given him and one of the most affirming. “Thought you weren’t interested in that, darling. Remember?”
He had broached the topic of sex before, reluctantly and with all the shame his Catholic upbringing could give him. Although they had solidified their relationship, Eddie still had certain impulses. The first and only time he’d actually talked about looking for sex, the displeasure that had radiated from the other’s side of the bond had been unmistakable.
“Klyntar reproduce asexually. I watched your memories of sex”—and at that statement Eddie had spluttered in delayed selfconsciousness—“and found it underwhelming. We don’t need to reproduce like that.”
They hadn’t needed to revisit the topic any time since, Eddie’s depression having killed his libido. But maybe, now.
“Still not interested in other humans,” they argued now. “We don’t want sex with other people. Just us,” they finished. Any chance Eddie could have responded was ruined when, a second after that, he felt that same stroking heat below his waist. His other’s mouth curled, showing all of their bright teeth.
“And your memories didn’t show us how it felt. Eddie, this part of your body is so good.” A pause. “And you like it, Eddie. We like it.”
Eddie couldn’t seem to find words. With his symbiote formed in front of him, stroking him from the inside, his head felt like it was full of warm fuzz. “Ah, baby,” he stuttered, breath coming short. “You know I like how it feels. I just don’t, uh, like how other people think about it.”
A deep, angry growl rattled from their chest. His other’s arms loosened briefly from around him, as the symbiote placed their hands on Eddie’s waist. With the difference in their sizes, their fingers wrapped all the way around.
“Other people don’t matter,” they hissed. “I don’t care what other people think, about Eddie or about us . Just love you, and want you to feel good.”
And that had been true, hadn’t it? From talking to himself in public, to feasting on the living bodies of the filth of the streets, he and his other had moved beyond what others felt the need to limit them by. His other had never made him doubt himself as Eddie, as a man . Hell, they had never even thought of their body in gendered terms.
They were beyond that, as a symbiote and as a Them. Throughout his last couple of relationships, Eddie had been slow to trust his partners with his body, but with his other, ever since becoming Venom, he had been fast to trust them with everything.
Everything, so far, except this.
Eddie shifted his hands from their position on the other’s shoulders, sliding his grip down to rest his palms on their chest. He could feel, to his surprise, a slight heartbeat from deep inside the form of his other. “Our heart…” he mumbled. The pulse he could feel beneath his hands mirrored his own.
“Eddie’s heart is our heart.”
If he hadn’t already decided on trusting his other with this, that would have done it. Leaning forward, he angled his head upward and pressed his lips carefully to his other’s closed teeth.
Recognizing the invitation for what it was, the symbiote carefully parted their mouth. Their tongue slid forward and licked along his closed lips until he opened for them. They filled his mouth slowly, giving him time to adjust and check his breathing, until he moaned his acceptance for them to give him more. Carefully, steadily, he felt his other explore his mouth and tease at his throat.
The two of them had kissed this way before, after some experimentation; his other could cover their teeth, but they weren’t able to kiss in the traditional sense. The cover they could form wasn’t quite the same as lips, so this was their own way of kissing.
It was deep, and consuming physically and mentally, and Eddie was very glad he had finally decided on moving forward with his love, because the feeling of their tongue overwhelming his mouth made him throb in his boxers. It was just similar enough to giving a blowjob that Eddie’s body lit right up.
Normally, this is where he’d slow to a stop, but he allowed himself to give in. He tilted his head back further, taking more of his other’s tongue into his throat and moaning around the intrusion. When he felt himself close to gagging, they pulled themself back.
“You’re doing good, babe,” he murmured, voice slightly rough after their kiss. His hands traveled other the symbiote’s form, not lingering anywhere in particular. “You, you do make me feel good. You can touch me there again if you want.”
“You know I want to,” they said. “But I want to touch you this way, too.” One of their hands moved from its position on his waist, sliding down his stomach to cup him between his legs.
“Christ,” Eddie gasped. Even through his boxers, their touch felt like it was setting off electric sparks—kind of surprising, given they were connected to him. If anything, his closeness to his other had him feeling hotter than he could ever remember with past partners, the knowledge that it was them, the being that loved him despite every dangerous, shitty thing they’d been through, touching him overwhelming the physical touch.
He reached up, shrugging out of his shirt, hearing his other purr in agreement. “Don’t like your clothes anyway, Eddie,” they murmured, “You know I can cover you better.” From between his legs, he felt them begin to explore. They spread their fingers, covering as much of his mound as possible, before narrowing their touch to the line of him, giving a long, careful stroke.
Eddie groaned. “Watch the claws, darling,” he mumbled, hazy. He could feel himself already beginning to soak into his boxers. The feel of their tendril pressing into his slit, firm but slow, moved up to his clit, and he moaned.
They made an excited trill in response. “You’ve never let me touch you here,” they said. “You know I wanted to. Wanted to feel all of you.” Their touched moved to the top of his boxers, and they tugged in annoyance. “No more clothes. Okay, Eddie?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. With his agreement, strands of his other reached out, lifting him and steadying him, propping him up. They pulled his only remaining clothing off, dropping it to the ground unceremoniously, but didn’t let Eddie back down. For a moment, he hung there, suspended by thick black tendrils, while his other stared right into his groin.
“Ah, love…” he began, but their focus was firmly on his pussy. Hilariously enough, it was this intense interest in his genitals, and not the actual, literal tentacles currently wrapped around his chest, that really hit home that his love was completely alien.
Finally they blinked, lowering him back down. Underneath him, they rapidly formed a lower body, legs assuming the position Eddie had the minute before. They sat Eddie in their lap, his legs held open, wide, by their own large waist.
“Lovely Eddie…” they cooed, tendrils tightening around his chest. Eddie felt his breathing grow a bit strained at the hold. The strands of his other wrapped around his chest shifted, stretching across his nipples, and he felt his breath coming even rougher. “Lots of nerves here, too. Your body is lovely, perfect for us,” they said firmly.
With that statement, their hand returned to his crotch. Eddie’s brain felt like it was going to melt out of his head. Their fingers stroked along his slit, from his cunt to his clit, where they rubbed gently.
“Shit, holy shit,” he gasped. He tried to ground down into their touch, felt like he would go insane from needing more, but the tentacle around his chest held firmly.
“Let me touch you,” his symbiote growled. The deep reverberations of their voice traveled up Eddie’s body, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “I want to touch you like this first.”
The tendril rubbing at his clit slid down to his opening. His other rumbled in approval, “You’re very wet here, Eddie.” Their touch circled his cunt, where Eddie could feel himself literally dripping onto his partner.
“Because you make me feel so good, love,” he mumbled. Maybe with any human partner he would be embarrassed at how quickly he could get riled up, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to care. He tried shifting in their grip again, finding it still didn’t allow him any give. “Ah, you’re teasing me,” he gasped. “I need. Either some, ah, pressure or. Or you could, inside.”
“I am always inside you,” they said, but they knew what he meant. Slowly, their tendrils slipped inside his hole. It was an easy slide, with how damn wet Eddie was, but their fingers were still wider than any of his own. Just their hand and he was already feeling a stretch.
His other stared at where they entered his body with that same fascination. “Your body opens for me so easily,” they murmured. He felt them flex and curl experimentally inside his cunt, and he moaned at the feeling. At the sound, they leaned down closer to his crotch. “You’re so soft inside, Eddie. Warm and wet, like fresh organs.”
Eddie made a face at that comparison. “I don’t know how I feel about you comparing my genitals to the bodies we eat,” he complained.
“It is a compliment,” they argued. They stared fixedly at where their tendrils were stretching Eddie open. With their gaze firmly on his hole, they pulled out of him. “I want to taste you, Eddie.”
At this point, Eddie was thinking entirely with his pussy. He nodded, head entirely empty. “Yeah, you can taste me. That’s, um, that’s called eating someone out.”
He felt their body shake with a deep laugh. “Not going to eat you,” they said playfully, as though they didn’t eat other people alive twice a week. “Just lick you, deep inside.”
When they said shit like that, Eddie would probably be willing to get eaten just so they’d do it. “It’s just a phrase,” he said breathlessly. “But yeah, it feels good. Really good.” His thoughts raced past old encounters, quick flashes of memory of past partners, and his symbiote hissed.
“Stop thinking of others,” they growled, tendrils wrapped around his chest tightening. Their hands moved away from his pussy to his thighs, which they spread even further across their lap, to the point where he couldn’t go any further. Then, gaze still sharp on his hole, they opened their fangs wide and dipped their tongue along his slit.
It was a good thing they held his thighs open, because at the feeling of that massive tongue licking up along his cunt, Eddie instantly collapsed against their chest. “God, holy shit,” he choked. Their tongue lapped at his clit, and he gripped his other’s shoulders to keep from collapsing to the floor.
They shivered underneath him, and with their tongue occupied, their voice echoed in his head. Eddie, they started, sounding taken aback, Eddie, we feel so good. We should have been having sex this whole time. Their tongue licked a long stripe from the back of his pussy to his clit, and their pleasure magnified Eddie’s own.
Tongue still at work between his legs, his symbiote noted, This is where your taste is strongest, and dipped their tongue to circle his hole. Eddie’s breath caught in anticipation, his whole body on edge. His other licked over his hole a few more times, and then, without warning, slid in.
“Fuck,” Eddie gasped. Their tongue stroked inside his pussy, thick and textured, and it felt better than any fucking toy he’d ever used. It was like being eaten out by a prehensile vibrator.
With an unmistakable, wet slurping sound, his symbiote withdrew from his hole. “Eddie,” they crooned, “You taste as good as chocolate. So many good chemicals inside you.” The tip of their tongue flicked down against his clit, and Eddie cried out, his cunt dripping onto his other’s lap. “We feel so good, and you taste so good. We should do this every day, Eddie.”
If they did this every day, Eddie would never want to leave his house. Their tongue slid back into his hole, licking up all the slick he’d leaked out, and lapped against his walls.
The texture of their tongue—slightly rough, ridged—on the inside of his body, writhing, was sending constant shocks of pleasure through Eddie’s body. His other was eating him out like they couldn’t get enough of it. He wondered what kind of chemical shit, exactly, his pussy apparently had in common with decapitated heads.
“God, darling, yes,” he panted. His hands gripped them tightly. He could feel his gut tightening, heating—“I’m close, love,” he warned.
Close to what? they asked. Don’t want to stop.
“We- we don’t have to stop, but I’m, uh, I’m gonna come,” he said. He brought a few thoughts of what that entailed to the front of his mind, and the other seemed to flip through them.
“Oh,” they said out loud, deep voice reverberating, carried through that tongue, and making Eddie cry out as it hummed through his cunt. “Oh, yes, we want that.” The movement of their tongue picked up, aggressively curling into his body, and Eddie clenched his legs tight against their waist.
“Fuck, I,” he choked, and he felt his whole body go tense as he came. His breath stuttered out, and his cunt clenched down on the tongue pushing into his body. A deep groan cut through the haze in his head.
His other had paused in their ministrations, eyes wide and drool dripping from their open maw onto the couch. Their form seemed to shiver violently, bubbling at the edges, and some of their body melted back into black goo.
Without warning, they gave one last, long slurp into his body, making him cry out in overstimulation. He felt them withdraw, slowly, tongue licking softly at his walls as it left. When the tip of their tongue emerged from his hole, Eddie lamented how empty his cunt felt without them in it.
He panted softly, still recovering from the mind-melting orgasm, as his other gently licked around his labia. His whole weight leaned on their chest. After a minute of careful licks, his other seemed satisfied with their efforts, and they withdrew their tongue back behind their teeth.
“Thanks, love,” he mumbled. Whether they were purposefully cleaning him or just chasing the last of his taste, he didn’t care. He felt fucked-out in the best of ways. But — “Ah, can I. Do anything, for you?” He attempted to prop himself back, hands running down their chest, looking for any kind of sign to reciprocate, some sort of genitalia.
They shook their head, hands moving up from Eddie’s waist to cup his face. “I share your pleasure, Eddie,” they said, voice quieter than usual. “When Eddie feels good, we feel good.” Teeth pressed against the top of Eddie’s head in their version of a kiss. “And we felt very good.”
Eddie smiled, leaning back and up to press his lips back to their teeth. “You make me feel amazing,” he mumbled.
At his praise, a rush of familiar joy fluttered through from his other’s side of their bond. I want to always make you feel amazing, they said, So, we should have sex all the time, Eddie .
Snorting, Eddie replied, “Uh, not sure I could keep a roof over our head if you eat me out like that every day.” He ran his hands gently over their form, feeling it shift and condense as his other began sinking back inside him. “I’d never want to leave the apartment.”
Even with their form shrinking and melting steadily back into his skin, his other’s smug satisfaction was obvious. Because I am very good at sex.
“Very, very good,” he agreed. He sat up on the couch, stretching. Cool air chilled against his skin, sweaty and hot from their activities. He shivered. “Ah, love, could you…?”
Always, Eddie, they replied. Black tendrils raced across his skin, shifting, coalescing into a black shirt and pants as his symbiote covered him. The ‘clothes’ they formed were warm, as soft as air, and always fit perfectly to his skin.
“Thank you, darling.”
Eddie eyed the tiny bottle and the syringe that still sat on the table next to where they’d been, uh, busy. “Hm, pretty sure that’s not sterile any more,” he muttered. After so long being unable use it regularly, he didn’t want to just throw it out, though. With his shit luck with jobs, it seemed like a damn waste.
He recapped the needle, a pang of disappointment running through him. Sensing his frustration and disappointment, his other breached the silence.
Don’t really need it, Eddie, they said, a bit hesitant.
Eddie frowned. “We just talked about that, love,” he argued. “I know you don’t really get it, but this is important to me.”
They stirred, uncertain, before offering, Know it’s important, now. But you don’t need to take the medicine—the men we eat, they have plenty. I can make the testosterone for you, Eddie.
Eddie stood still, stunned as always at his symbiote’s casual display of their capabilities. If they could regrow a limb, or heal shattered bone, obviously they could make a lot of complicated shit inside his body. He had never really considered… “You mean, I don’t need to inject it anymore? You’ll just make it in my body?”
Yes.
He considered this for a moment: a part of him was set enough in old routine that he didn’t want to ‘mess up’ his transition. It was the insecure, stubborn part of him, that had refused to return any of Carl Brock’s calls until he used his damn name. It was the part of him that had refused to admit to himself that he fucked up with the Sin Eater scandal until he was too deep into his revenge.
But the other part of him was greater: it was the part of him that trusted his other with his whole heart. The part that had let love overcome anger, and settled into a routine with his partner that he held dear.
“Alright,” he agreed. “That would save me a lot of trouble. You know what you’re doing with it, dear?”
I do! they exclaimed. We’ve eaten many men. Know how much is good. I will give you all the chemicals you need, Eddie, even the ones your body won’t make.
Eddie smiled, placing a hand over his heart. “Thank you,” he murmured, feeling his other pool under his ribcage. “You’re so good to me, my love.”
Love you, always. Love us.
He trashed the syringe they’d left out, shoving the rest of his meds into their bag. With his other, he was blessed to not need them anymore, but there were plenty of others who could use them. In fact…
“Well, since I won’t need this anymore,” he began, “how about we do some good? I’ll even let you grab a bite on the way back…”