Aw, crap.

He probably should've thought about it. Okay, he definitely should've thought about it, like...way before inviting Venom to basically move in with him and everything. But he didn't, so a couple days after the whole thing with Drake and the rocket, he woke up with a boner and immediately panicked.

Eddie. This isn't a medical condition.

It was halfway between a statement and a question, and unfortunately Eddie literally, professionally could not leave well enough alone. "C'mon, you told me you can see everything. You gotta know what it means."

It can be a medical condition. The symbiote showed him a fuzzy memory of...a Viagra commercial. Right.

"That's for old people, man. I don't...this is just natural causes."

Should we get Anne?

"No, no, no, absolutely not. It's fine, I'll just think of really weird, gross stuff." And not of the way Venom had curled around him, its tongue out.

Silence. Then: Our body is not gross, Eddie.

Good thing it didn't understand boner cause and effect yet. Eddie screwed his eyes shut and concentrated on the one time he'd sat down in a wet subway seat.

I think we should just do it.

"Okay, sure, thank you, Nike. Absolutely not."

Douchebag!

"Yeah, yeah. Up yours." Eddie rolled over and thought about food poisoning. About yarfing all over his best shoes after high school graduation. About really really old, wrinkly balls.

Eventually, his boner stopped being so obvious. He got out of bed, brushed his teeth, did all the usual stuff, and Venom stayed very, very quiet. Didn't say shit till they were walking down the sidewalk.

We would be better than before.

"Sure, buddy, sure, that's great. Not gonna happen."

And the thing was, Venom thought it was slick. Maybe on its home planet they just didn't know how to do subtlety, maybe something was getting lost in translation since Eddie was just a dumb human. But when it decided to try to influence him, it was really fuckin obvious. So Eddie knew exactly what was going on when it said, Don't you get hungry, Eddie?

Eddie ducked into a cafe. Having a job was nice, meant he could afford the good stuff, like caffeine that didn't taste like a boiled shoe. "Not in public, I don't."

Liar. It nudged him, sending old memories of his time with Anne, his ex-boyfriend Jake, his college hookups. All kinds of crap.

"You're not very good at this, you know." Eddie smiled awkwardly at the lady who stopped to side-eye him. "I know what you're trying to do. You wanna get off, do it on your own time."

It is our time now, Eddie.

"Sure. And in 'our time', I'm not gonna -" Shit, he couldn't actually say it out loud while he stood in line for a coffee. "You know." Another sidelong glance. He really oughta get one of those douchebag phone attachments so people would stop thinking he was crazy.

If you think you can go your whole life without 'tickling the pickle', you are crazy, Eddie.

"No one says that. No one."

Spanking the bank.

"Not quite."

Pleasuring us. Spreading us wide, making us feel good, letting me make you feel good. Wet, and warm, and just us, Eddie.

He had to pay for the mugs he broke tripping over his own fucking feet after that. "For the record," he said, on the way to the bookstore for his usual Saturday browse, "making me spend money on dumb shit? Not the way to get me horny."

But that was his mistake. He thought it was just a sweet comeback, till that night, on his couch. He was watching some show on Netflix that his coworkers liked, not following the plot too close. Venom had been quiet since the coffee shop, which suited him just fine. Dick.

I've been learning, Eddie.

He almost spilled his beer. "Jesus fuck."

You wanted me to think about how to get you horny.

"No, no, I absolutely did not. That's not what I said. I'm not -"

We're together now, Eddie. You are mine.

- like a lightning bolt, straight through him, fucked-up and exactly what he wanted to hear.

Do you think I'll let us go elsewhere? Find someone else? Do you think I'll leave just so you can be...satisfied?

No, Eddie wasn't a moron, so he didn't think that. But it was weird! Really weird, and should've been a total boner-killer.

I will always make you happy, Eddie. I can do whatever you want. Be whatever we need.

The screen faded to asking him if he was still watching, and he wasn't, he fucking wasn't. Every nerve in his body was focused on Venom, just beneath his skin.

Everywhere, Venom hissed, and Eddie felt the now-familiar firm press against his legs.

"Whoa, whoa." But he went with it. He let Venom splay his legs, pin them to the sides of the couch. He set his beer on the coffee table, and it wasn't a surprise at all when his arms moved, too, pressing down against the cushions.

It hadn't materialized. It didn't need to. Eddie thought maybe he could fight it, if he had to, get control of his own limbs back, but -

You won't fight this, Eddie. You want it.

Fucking...yeah. He did.

He'd been hard since this bullshit started and he got harder just sitting there, as Venom rifled through his memories and pulled up his weirdest fantasies. "You know I dreamed about this."

We dreamed about it, and oh shit, it sounded smug about that.

We're good together, Eddie. The best. Let's enjoy it. It pricked out of his skin, a thin tendril that got thicker as it touched his neck, his lips, his pecs. Exploring, Eddie thought half-hysterically, like it hadn't showered with him, literally slept with him.

It wasn't like this.

"No. I know. You're deep in my head now, how's that work?"

Another one of those weird, long silences. I'm not sure. I didn't pay much attention in biology class.

That was just a translation thing, Eddie knew, there was no way those blobs hung out behind old-timey desks, like the image Venom was presenting him with now. But it still made him laugh, and then blush, thinking about Venom forgetting the basics of its own body, like Eddie knew he would too.

We're a match, Eddie. The tendril snaked up his chest again, resting against his jaw. Let me kiss you.

It wasn't a question, it wasn't a request. The tendril moved around his lips, then inside, wet and weird and so fucking good Eddie could barely believe it. He clenched his hands against the pressure holding him still, trying and failing to get any kind of friction where he needed it.

Eddie, Eddie, don't worry. I'll take care of us both. Venom left his mouth, crawling down his body again, one tendril splitting off into two, three, four. They curled around him in a weird embrace, and when they grabbed both his nipples and tugged, Eddie found himself half-laughing, choking on a gasp.

"Where'd you dig this fantasy up, huh?"

I'm creative. Spread your legs for me.

The pressure on his legs let up just enough to let him move - but not in, no. Wider. Splayed wide on his own fucking couch for his parasite, as it crept over his thighs and down, studiously avoiding his cock.

I could keep us here all night. You would beg me to let you go.

Eddie groaned, his cock twitching. "Babe, please."

He felt the shiver of delight at the endearment. Whatever Venom's people did for sex, it wasn't this - but it liked it. Loved it.

Want some more of it!

"Jesus." But his chagrin was swept away as he felt his skin shiver. Venom slid out and over, warm and cool at the same time, sending tingles all through his body as it covered him.

It felt kind of like having a person in his lap, with an edge of wrongness that shouldn't have made him even harder. It still wasn't touching his dick, parted around it like water around a fucking rock. But even as he opened his mouth to start begging for real, it kissed him again and ran one thin tendril around his balls and then down, down -

He gasped as it pressed inside. It slipped inside his mouth, too, growing thicker on both ends, heavier. He strained against the invisible force holding his arms still, desperate to reach out, to touch -

It slapped him, then shot out tight around his neck. No, Eddie.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. He kissed it back, sucking when it dipped back into his mouth, moaning helplessly when it grabbed his hair and tugged. He could feel it rooting through his memories for anything and everything related to sex, looking for what would press his buttons, turning him inside out mentally even as it kept fucking him.

So warm. So...breakable. We feel perfect, Eddie. It squeezed him, pinched his nipples, and Eddie slammed his head back into the couch as it found his prostate.

The others were good. We are better.

"Jealous? Fucking obnoxious."

Just telling the truth. You're mine, Eddie. All mine.

And he would've argued - could've - he liked his exes generally, he didn't want to get into some weird domestic while he had a tentacle up his ass. But then it showed him them.

They looked filthy. There was no other word for it. Eddie didn't even know his legs could bend that wide. Maybe they couldn't, and Venom was planning on putting him back when this was all over. But fuck, he was wet, the tip of his cock and long slimy trails up and down his chest. His lips and his nipples were bright red, he was flushed all over and sweating, and his ass -

Venom held the image in their head as it fucked him again, hard and rough, the thing inside him changing to be more textured, just on the edge of painful. Eddie screamed and watched himself scream.

Eddie...you are perfect. We are perfect.

It came through him all in a rush, shame and need and pathetic gratefulness. He couldn't hide it from Venom, and he didn't even try. He let Venom wiggle into his mind, exploit his brain, fuck him senseless. He lost track of everything after awhile, even his own fucking body, until he realized he was talking: "Please, please, please, Venom, baby, please." He ached, he'd be bruised as fuck tomorrow, he just needed -

Warm. Wet. Surrounding his cock and squeezing, milking him for all he was worth.

Eddie, I want to see. Come now, Eddie.

What else could he do? He obeyed. It felt like being hit by a fucking freight train.

The pressure let up on his limbs. He collapsed, absolutely boneless, head hitting the arm of the couch with a crack. It stayed with him, half-materialized, wrapped around him like a combo sweatsuit/blanket. He should be hurting, but he wasn't. He felt fucking amazing.

I can keep you from hurting, Eddie. When we're together, nothing hurts.

Which, okay, turn-on. But - "Sometimes it feels good. You know, feeling it the next day." He sent it a memory, sitting on the train in Brooklyn, his ass aching from his and Anne's fun the night before.

Venom considered it. I can do that.

"Good. Thanks, pal."

I can do it better, actually.

Christ. "Yeah, I know." Something was happening to him. Eddie knew it, it was pretty obvious. Something probably bad, with the eating people, the antisocial Saturday nights.

We are social.

"I know, babe." He was never alone. He couldn't imagine it. Even now, he had something growing in him, need and care all wrapped up.

It felt amazing.

Sleep, Eddie. It rippled over him again, sinking into his skin. He felt so heavy and warm. His bed wasn't far off, but -

Sleep, Venom hissed again.

Nothing felt as good as obeying.