#eddie finds this out quickly to be true ofc

[eddiesnipple]

Steve got the nickname The Hair because he liked getting his hair tugged when he went down on people.

[pretty-batty]

Nancy Drew

Eddie x Judy (OFC) Pt 10 of Eldath's Priestess 2213 Words

Warnings: Mentions of death by HIV/AIDs Now on ao3 Thank you @anakinkshamer

Summary- Judy takes matters into her own hands, investigating the list of names Gillespie provided. She receives a stunning realization.

“I’m grateful that you reached out, Judy. Came all the way to Indianapolis to see lil-ol-me.” Miss. Miller said, setting a cup of tea atop a coaster, “it’s been a few years.”

“Yeah, it’s just been difficult. After Joe died I kinda…I don’t know.”

“Sunk inside yourself.” The woman said, “I know. And after Eddie…I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” Her wrinkled hands gave hers a gentle squeeze. “You know my husband Andy died last winter. I know exactly how you feel.”

Judy scrunched her face in sympathy, returning the squeeze. “I came to ask you something, about Marty.”

“Ah…” the old woman’s gaze fell away, drawing her hand back to join the other in her lap. “Yes…” It was as if the mention of her grandson revealed a hidden space in herself, “it’s not true. He was always safe with his” an automatic pause she took when speaking about Marty’s lovers. But with one nod of Judy’s head, she continued with the truth, “boyfriends. It was those dirty fucking needles that got him. It only took one.” She blinked, once, twice, then one final blink, harder than the others. She was trying to clear her eyes. “I’m not saying these other kids deserve it for not being safe, in any sense. No one deserves this. It’s just…I hated how that town talked about him. Calling him all those horrible things. It sounds terrible, but I laughed when I found out about the earthquake. Tacky bitches and their snotty brats.”

There was the Granny Miller that Judy remembered. No doubt rebranding herself when she moved with Marty in his months. Judy learned from some friends that after Marty finally passed after that last brush with pneumonia, Granny Miller joined the local group of HIV/AIDS activists and caregivers. Through them she remained connected to the queer community, gaining more grandchildren than she could have ever dreamed.

“I meant to ask about something else. When he was eleven, there was this flu that went around, got a lot of kids sick, some were worse off than others.” Judy reached into her purse, producing a folded xerox before unfolding it and handing it to the older woman. “There is a list of kids who got a treatment…”

“Don’t even have my good glasses,” She pulled the list back from her eyes, “Oh you mean when he lost his sight, and I couldn’t see him for a week?” Her lips moved in a whisper, silently reading down the names. Tapping her nail to her grandson’s name. “There he is,” her finger went down, “and there you are too. What do these markings mean?”

“It’s a part of this thing I’m doing.” Judy quickly answered, verbally yanking Granny Miller back to the topic at hand, “The lab who created the treatment has been connected to some shady shit. And because their documents are either gone or under lock and key, I have no way of knowing what they did. All I can do is find the parents or the kids, see if they remember anything about the treatment.”

“Judy, what do these markings mean?”

A pause in the narrative, teeth biting back the prepared explanation of her project. Finally, she answered. “The exes are deaths, the checks are the living and their location…the circles are the ones I don’t know about.”

“All those kids…was this…was this like what happened to that Ryan boy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why are you circled?”

“Because I don’t know.” Judy’s leg began to bounce.

Granny’s curved shoulders dropped, eyes moving from the list to Judy’s face. “Do you have a doctor?”

“That’s where I came from. Big hospital here rather than Hawkins General. Asked them to do a full blood panel. It’ll take them a week even though they rushed it.”

“The last circle, Vicky Blake…”

“She is the last piece of the puzzle. If I find out what happened to her, then maybe I can see if it’s all just a coincidence.”

Of course, getting information out of a high school acquaintance is better said than done. “No Vick, listen. You’re the oldest still alive who is willing to answer my calls. Do you remember what they did to us on that floor?”

Nothing.

“I’m sorry. But this is like…life and death.”

Silence.

“Please, I know we never talked in school but-”

“Good thing. Your boyfriend killed like…three kids. The fuck I want to talk to you for?”

“Because I think that treatment did something to us and it fucked up our immune system.”

“Shit…” Vicky hissed. “I was hoping it was just me.”

Judy stayed quiet, waiting for her to elaborate. Nothing. She continued to press, “what do you mean?”

She sighed, “I have autoimmune hepatitis. Basically, I have a swollen liver, no periods, and skin like a mustard seed. All joking aside, they have no idea where it came from. No one in my family had it. They think it might have been the flu but…” Vicky sucked her teeth, “if you’re right…shit…”

“Until I get the results back, we won’t know.”

Judy heard her sigh again, another pause before Vicky spoke again. “Listen, I know we don’t know each other well. But call me when you get them. And as for ten years ago, it wasn’t anything different. I remember this weird blond kid, eyes a little too far apart. He was there when I regained my sight. Fuck…what was his name? Anyway…he said his dad was the doctor who made the serum.” She laughed a little bit, “it’s weird he had this tattoo on his wrist.”

Her eyes widened, returning to the memory of El’s wrist. The XI. One of many. Before Vicky could comment on her silence, Judy let out a “Huh…weird.” She continued, “so, this guy brought his tatted son to a ward of contagious children.”

“Weird, tatted son. Gave me the wiggins for sure.”

Judy’s focus finally broke from Vicky’s tinned voice over the phone. Eddie’s nose directly sinking into the side of her neck. The ends of his curls tickling her nose. “Yeah…wiggins for sure.” She said, turning as Eddie drew back, mouthing “stop.”

The corners of his lips curled into a smile. Judy’s pointer finger immediately raised, letting out a voiceless warning, “no, don’t you dare.”

“I really appreciate that you were willing to talk to me. I know it’s like…a thing to dump on you. But…”

Once her eyes left his, Eddie opened his mouth and gently captured her finger in his teeth.

Vicky continued, “No yeah, it’s no problem. And if you want me to, I’ll ask my mom to find my diaries and see if she remembers anything.”

“If you could, I’d appreciate it, but don’t worry about it if you can’t.”

“Oh, of course, yeah.” Maybe it was the repetitive confirmations and negations in quick succession, as both Vicky and Judy felt the phone weigh them down. They bid each other goodbye, then Judy finally hung up the phone.

“Are you a fucking dog?” She drew her finger from his teeth.

“Do you want me to be?” Eddie asked.

“I’d like you to be normal when I’m on the phone.”

With an exasperated groan, he threw himself back into the couch. “You were gone all day, and then you get home and you’re on the phooooone.”

Judy crawled over him the best she could, her finger gently tapping in his nose. “I’m sorry, big guy.” She trailed her touch lower, stroking his bottom lip. “I feel bad trapping you here, all alone.” Her voice receded into a purr, “I missed you.”

He held her hand in place, pressing his lips against the pad of her finger. “Missed you too baby.”

“Do you want some…alone time?”

Eddie’s gaze shifted, face squishing in fake consideration. “Hmm…I’ll have to think about it. See if I have any openings in my schedule…” He took the hand from his lips, opening her palm. His finger poked various points of her skin with beeps and boops before holding her hand to his ear. “Hello, Sheila. Yeah cancel my three o-clock. Thanks dear. Looks like I’m free now.”

Three firm knocks rang from the door, followed by the bell. Judy immediately lifted off Eddie, hissing at him to “go” as he tore up the stairs as quietly as he could.

She waited until she head the click of the latch upstairs. She had hoped he would stay quiet, but the occasional thumps and occasional ‘oof’ proved to her that he was up to something.  She straightened her blouse before answering the door. A familiar tall man stood on the mat, crew cut hair peppered with gray, manila folder in hand with the seal already disturbed.

“Gillespie, I didn’t expect to see you.” Judy stepped back, “come on in.”

“They made me come all the way here to get the report. Can’t beat a formal request but they can sure drag their feet.” He took a step forward, following through. “Is it alright if I hang my coat?”

“Oh yeah, whatever you’d like. You want a pop, or I can put on a pot of coffee?”

“That’s alright, I won’t be here long.” Gillespie stopped, “living room?”

“Oh uh, sure.” Thump. Judy froze.

“The fuck was that?”

She had to lie. She sucked at lying. “I found this cat and took him home. He’s locked up in my bedroom until I can get him to the vet.”

“Mm.” Gillespie slowly sat down on the couch, furrowed gaze following Judy as she pulled her wingback chair from its spot by the window. It finally rested adjacent to him, Judy slipping herself into the seat. “I wanted you to be the first to see it.”

“It being?”

He reached into the folder under his arm, pulling out a thin stack of papers with a slight flourish. The top paper was a form, photocopied from the original.

            Roane County Medical Examiner

Judy’s lips parted, a “Holy shit” slipping past without her knowledge.

“Look at each of them.” He said, voice poorly masking his excitement.

Her eyes darted across each written line, then to the printed transposition.

Each said the same thing: “Lethal injuries caused by intense muscle spasm. One abrasion over 48 hours old (untreated). No evidence of Tdap.”

“Tdap what is Tdap?”

“Tdap is the vaccine for tetanus toxin. A tetanus infection, if left untreated, can lead to intense rigidity, muscle spasms, blocking airways. Apparently the body can contort itself into deadly configurations.” Gillespie sucked his teeth, “pre-ty nasty.”

“Tetanus? Like…step on a rusty nail tetanus?”

“Rusty nail tetanus. Your boyfriend had nothing to do with it. Just a witness to some horrible deaths.”

As Gillespie made his way out, Judy felt empty. A rush of relief from the proof of Eddie’s innocence, but also a sunken ache for what he had seen.

The turn of the doorknob was met with the growling, menacing bass of Metallica’s Orion as she opened the door. Eddie, completely nude, swayed in the low light of a single lamp. The music swelling as he rolled his hips and beckoned her closer with his claw. The heaviness in her chest subsided for a moment, a smile emerging, closing the door behind her.

His hands skirted along her skin as she leaned in for a kiss, only to be stopped, “ah-ah, no touching.”

The curl on her lips grew heavy quickly, fighting it with an “Oh, stripper rules?”

She found a spot on her bed, sitting down, arms stretching out behind her. Slowly, however, her attention was captured by the wall in front of her. Her hands slowly made their way back to herself, closing in.

“Mmm, until I say so.” He purred, gazing at her hands folded in her lap, “but I can’t give you a lap dance if you’re hands are there.” His eyes traced up to her face, finding her eyes vacant, expression dropped. “Hey, you can touch me, I was just playing.” Eddie grabbed her hands and brought them to his chest.

“It’s not that…I just…” Her left hand ran up his neck and into his hair, bringing his forehead to press against hers. “It’s finally weighing on me. All the kids. If they got out, their own bodies poisoned them. If they stayed in town too long, Vecna took them. Adding it all up, that lab didn’t just experiment on kids like El, but us too. And in doing so, exposed us to something they could not control. And I’m still here. I’m the last one left in Haw-”Judy shook her head at herself. “No, I don’t even want to think about that.” The back of her neck grew hot, spreading up her ears and across her cheeks.

A kind hand caressed hers, bringing her knuckles to his lips. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” A kiss, “never ever.” Another kiss, “you’re safe with me.”

“If I leave, I’ll end up like Vicky or Marty. I don’t wanna get sick like that, Eddie. I can’t…”

“Then we’ll get through it. C’mere.” Eddie led her back into her bed, curling himself around her until her face was tucked into his chest. “Let me carry this too, Judy.” His nose found a spot in her hair, drawing in a deep breath, “You’re not alone.”

Quite the scandal really. I hoped you enjoyed the little fluff in the end! I appreciate the time you all take to read this series.

Tag list: @loserboysandlithium @userchai @secretdryrose

[outrunningthedark]

What is your honest opinion on Ryan's chemistry with his female LI's? Obviously we've seen 2.5 seconds of Marisol so it's hard to tell but I'm curious

If a female LI is ever going to stick (in the event that Buddie never goes canon), the show needs to go back to what made Eddie and Shannon work as former/present-day lovers despite how wrong they were for each other - conflict. Every relationship faces conflict, even on tv, and Tim himself has been honest about happy couples bringing very little to the table because the story turns stagnant very quickly. Ana? Too sweet. (If you completely ignore her ableist attitude.) I think it says A LOT that the most...interesting? compelling? scenes she had were in season five when Gabrielle was able to communicate Ana's discomfort/uncertainty through facial expressions. (Which worked out for the best because ofc whenever she used Spanish or said Edmundo everybody gagged.) Marisol? Same story. Like you said, we haven't seen nearly enough of her to get a clear idea of who she's meant to be, but Ryan has pushed Eddie being happy with his relationship in season seven (to start), so it doesn't look like we'll be seeing any serious problems until it's time to start laying the groundwork for the split.

Yes, Eddie deserves to find true happiness after everything he went through with Shannon, but there's only so much Ryan can do with a script where the objective is to...smile and nod because nothing's ever going wrong.

(The fact that Tim - singling Tim out because Kristen didn't really have to write Eddie in a good relationship - doesn't even TRY to introduce conflict the same way he has for the main canon pairings tells me he just...doesn't want to. Which is great for Buddie fandom, I know, but I also don't think people understand what a disservice it is to the character and to Ryan's abilities to offer NOTHING in the hopes that someday certain people will come around to the idea of making Eddie have realizations of his own.)

[raviposting]

Okay so I’ve seen a lot of conflicting responses to Buddie this episode, from it being clear to people that they’re getting together, to thinking the writers have unintentionally messed things up to thinking it’s purely queerbait.

And I get the different responses, I do - tbh I’m somehow in two camps, where I simultaneously believe it’s a slowburn but I also think it’s bait. And those are two very different opinions to have and it got me thinking about why we have these different responses as fans to the possibility of a queer ship (namely two men who would presumably be bi/pan) being canon. 

While people talk about how it’s just people wanting two characters to kiss or entitled fans - sure, that’s existent in every fandom, but I think there’s also a very real fear from queer fans who don’t want to get their hopes up and I d on’t love how the conversation has shifted to calling queer fans stupid for having hope, so I kind of wanted to break it down into 3 aspects that I’ve noticed: 

How writers portray bi characters and why that makes fans hesitant to have hope

What queerbait actually means as a concept

How much “slowburn” has changed in procedurals

1. How writers portray bi characters

Something I’ve thought about a lot are the bi characters I’ve seen on TV - Darryl (CEG), Sara Lance (Arrow), Lucifer (Lucifer), just to name a few. These are great characters imo and I think you’d have a fun time watching but a thing to note is that all these characters were established as bi within the first season of their respective shows and they all fairly quickly fell into a clear romantic ship as well (with the exception of Sara as she spanned multiple shows). It may have taken time for them to say the word bisexual, but it was still clear these characters were queer fairly quickly on. You could maybe argue that Lucifer was a slowburn, but then (while it does not take away from him being bi/pan so do not use this as an excuse to be shitty about him) it’s a m/f ship which is still not the point of my post, to find a m/m or f/f ship that has that same treatment.

Some writers have done it - like for Valencia in CEG, or Petra in JTV - when they saw that fans read them this way, but trying to find those characters were few and far between, and when I looked at popular queerbait ships (whether or not they actually are queerbait) it’s usually ships where the characters are largely viewed as bisexual. A lot of times this also comes with pushback from both straight and to be frank, other queer fans as well. Straight fans don’t always see the signs that queer fans do, so to them a queer character who hasn’t been explicitly clear from the start comes out of nowhere. And what I’ve seen from certain queer fans are concerns that people aren’t appreciating the canon queer characters in a show - and I think there is a conversation to be had about that, but I don’t think the response should also be about then demanding less representation for people either. 

If we go back to 911, people talk a lot about how it has canon queer characters, which it definitely does - Michael, Hen, Josh, Karen, and David are all canonically gay/lesbian and that’s awesome, and we absolutely should talk about fans (white fans in particular) ignoring these characters. It also does not change the fact that none of these characters are bisexual and that is the representation people are looking for. Both of these things are true - these characters are often under appreciated in canon AND people deserve bisexual representation. They don’t contradict each other and to act like one negates the other does a huge disservice.

And even if a character was made bisexual in the canon text we don’t get that slowburn. This may be true for things like Leverage, or LOK, but there’s also a real fact of censorship that affected these shows and the fact that general audiences may not understand the queer text tjat the writers intended. It doesn’t make the writing any less wonderful or the ships any less poignant or beautiful or important, and there’s ofc shows like She Ra that made this more obvious (or the.....mess that was Supernatural that made it. Half true?) but these are still real things that should be acknowledged on why people are so hesitant to call it slowburn - because it’s something most queer fans haven’t SEEN DONE, because m/f ships will get that care for slowburn when it’s done but it’s not done for m/m or f/f ships in that same capacity.

2. What queerbait is

This one’s fun because I don’t think many people understand what it is, but queerbait is very dependent on the intentions of the writers/creators/etc. - which tbh can be hard to gauge, because a genuine intention that ended up not happening or someone baiting fans or someone trying to support all ships and not be rude all have very different intentions but to a fan who only sees bits and pieces of this person on social media, it can be hard to gauge.

Honestly with how much the 4th wall gets broken because of social media now I’d personally say we’ve probably moved into a different definition of queerbait - unintentional vs intentional - because we’re at a point where a show knows what ships are popular and at what level of excitement fans are for it - but that being said, there’s still a clear spectrum of intent. And imo? I don’t think 911 has that intent of queerbait - whether it’s a slowburn or they have a different vision for buddie that I (probably) won’t agree with remains to be seen, but this show usually treats its storylines with care. Are they perfect at it? No, definitely not, I definitely think that they’ve dropped the ball a few times (especially with just how many characters they have lmao), but they also clearly do their storylines with earnest and with genuine care for these characters.

Is 911 getting them together? I want to say yes. I don’t think this was always the plan, just something that they decided along the way, but I also don’t think that changes anything about the ship. A lot of people point to Tim Minear being vague about the ship, or the actors and their interpretations, but 1. We have no idea what they’ve been told about Buddie moving forward and 2. No show runner is going to spoil their show that much. 911 may be keeping quiet because they have a different plan for buddie, sure, but also maybe because they’re still figuring out how exactly they want to do this and/or they want to make this slowburn and don’t want to give it away.

3. Slowburn in procedurals

I feel like this is something that procedurals have started shying away from, but slowburns used to be very common - Bones, Castle, their ships didn’t get together for literal years, but that’s just not something that many shows do nowadays, even for m/f ships. Even things like Deckerstar will have the characters get together after ~3 seasons and explore the relationship onwards, whereas a few years ago, y ou’d pr obably be watching a sh ow and it’d take them 7 seasons to get together. My assumption for this is that shows are afraid  of getting canceled, but there’s been a pretty big shift in getting a couple together after say, 6 seasons to now getting them together about halfway through the show. I don’t think either one is bad or good - in good writers’ hands, either can be amazing - but that shift has made it so that a lot of younger fans in particular, I think, don’t fully recognize slowburn when they see it.

911 as a show tends to run pretty fast - it kind of has to with its depth of characters they have - but when they do have slower running storylines they really do make use of that as well. Bobby’s addiction is something that’s always going to be present in his character, May’s suicide attempt was brought up again front and center after 3 seasons, even Chim’s dynamic with the Lees was brought up again and it was reinforced again that they’re his family. There are certain storylines that have to be continuous and aren’t a one and done type of thing, and that includes Buck and Eddie, especially if you want to establish them as queer to a general audience who doesn’t think about these things.

And honestly, despite my fears, I think they are laying groundwork there. We have Buck learning to be more confident in his relationships, we have Eddie ready to date and learning to follow his own heart, we have Buck and Eddie both establishing that Buck is family and will always be there for Christopher. These are pretty big steps to do for a ship and we’ll obviously have to see how the show goes forward but they’ve already insinuated Eddie and Ana are breaking up, I’m sure Taylor and Buck may last a season and be over, but we do have to see what this next season brings. Do I think they’d say this? No, definitely not.

tl;dr: 

911 is a show with good viewership, but there’s always a possibility they can’t continue with their season and then their promises would feel like a lie. Or they may still be hammering out the details as this season hasn’t been written. Or they may just simply not want to spoil their show,  or they don’t want people criticizing a story before it’s finished, all of these could be reasons. The showrunners, writers, actors, ultimately they owe nothing to us as a fandom to potentially spoil their series, or do something, change it or their schedule for it, and get accused of bait. 

But it also doesn’t change why fans are wary of this storyline either, and I wish people would have more nuance and compassion for fans who are worried about queerbait (whether they think it’s not queerbait and dislike people worrying about it or if they do and are calling people idiots for believing it). There’s a lot of reasons why fans are wary and don’t want to have hope, and it’s not necessarily about 911 specifically as it is a pattern of writing seen in other pieces that have fans worried. These things can all coexist and I wish we as fandom in general could acknowledge that, because pretending that they don’t and criticizing each other/people’s intentions or knowledge when they have certain expectations also doesn’t do much to help.

[boogiewrites]

Reports & Repertoire 13

Characters: Eddie Brock x Venom x Candace Miller (OFC)

Word Count:  7100+

Summary:   Venom romances Candy in an attempt to seduce her to get her to sleep with them. It works.

Warnings/Tags: Explicit Sexual Content: Threesome with Venom giving oral sex. Fluff. Flirting. Seduction. Romance. Venom being very into rom-coms. Eddie being a gorgeous dumb ass. Venom’s understanding of romance is a bit cliche, but his (Eddie’s?) heart is in the right place.

Click on my icon then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. (Had to do this since Tumblr killed links, sorry.)

Candy and Venom had been taking into consideration their discussions about sex, trying to get to a place of comfort and mutual validation with each other. It gave Eddie some time to breathe as far as Venom talking constantly in his head. He'd been reading up on human relationships, what was healthy and not, as Candy liked to always say communication was the key to a healthy one. Venom knew healthy was a good thing and he wanted to have their relationship running as well as he did Eddie's body.

They had many texts while they were apart about sex. This was crucial to their, very specific situation. They talked about what they liked, what they didn't, what they had or hadn't tried before and Eddie hadn't ever been with someone who actively wanted to know about his sexual history. Candy told him she wanted to know so she could help him overcome this shyness he seemed to have about what he liked. Her openness led to deep dive discussions on taboo's, society and culture expectations and Venom was enthralled.

Once Venom felt like he had enough data to approach the situation delicately, which is what he had been told would be best, he moved onto the part he had already learned the most about. Romance. Venom liked romantic comedies. He didn't understand the appeal of the tragic ones, not understanding why people would want to feel sad while intaking entertainment, but he watched everything he could find that he could get to.

"Eddie," he says one evening, being full of human remains and just having watched an 80's rom-com. "I have realized something."

"Oh yeah?" Eddie says, eating out of the Tupperware container he'd taken of leftovers from the last time he and Candy cooked together. Or rather, the last time she tried to teach him how to cook and she and Venom had made him look like he couldn't even boil water.

"You and Candy have established your fondness, your coupling in an official capacity." he begins.

"Thought you were all about romance right now? That's the least sexy thing I've ever heard." he chuckles.

"Shut up Eddie, listen to me." he turns his hovering head to his hosts face. "I have not done that. Even though you and I...we are one, she does not see it that way. I think that I, as a singular being, need to tell her these things myself." he stares at Eddie with rounded eyes.

"Couldn't hurt." he says supportively.

"I want us to be romantic Eddie. We could woo her now. We understand making love, the emotions, the tenderness, the connection." he continues. "We could be together with her and consummate this relationship."

"Woah, bud, I know we like her but I don't think proposing is the right way to go right now." he says with a hesitant frown.

"Marriage? I did not say marriage." Venom tilts his head.

"Isn't that what consumers means?" he wonders with narrowed eyes, as if he were asking himself, and on a technical level, he was.

"Eddie. You are handsome always and dumb sometimes." he says, nuzzling against his cheek.

"Hey..." Eddie pouts.

"It is is a term not exclusively used to mean marriage." he explains.

"Alright. So you wanna ask Candy to be your girlfriend too?"

"I think it would be beneficial. Do you?"

"Worth a shot." he shrugs.

"I will need to teach you about romance Eddie." Venom says, perking up.

"I think I know what romance is, bud." he rolls his eyes.

"I am inside your brain Eddie. You do not." he informs flatly.

"Says the alien...the not human alien...to a human male who has had relationships before." he purses his lips at his friend.

"All have failed. With the exception of Candy. And I am trying to stop that from happening."

"Ouch." he says, his chin pushing into his neck.

"It's true."

"Yeah but...shit, you don't gotta come for my neck like that." he shakes his head and sighs. "So if I don't know about romance...what exactly are you plannin' on doin' then huh? Teddy bears? Flowers? Candy's a smart woman, you're gonna have to go beyond a box of chocolate."

"There will be all those things," he says, looking around the room. "But lucky for you..." he says, swooping into Eddie's face. "I pay attention...I know what she likes."

"Okay so what's the plan?" he says putting the empty container on the coffee table.

"First, we need to look at our bank account..."

"Oh jesus..." Eddie grumbles and rubs his temples. ---------------------- Candy was out a business dinner and fighting the urge to look at her phone. Not that it would help the time go by faster, but she knew Eddie was at home waiting for her and she hadn't seen him in two weeks and she was going through withdrawals. She remained vigilant, being feminine and approachable for the network higher-ups as she spoke in sound bites and vague but ambitious goals for what she wanted for the show.

She had grown up having to learn how to eat a lot of shit from men with power. Being from a small town with a mostly religious population she was used to being told to act like a lady and behave herself. She hated doing both of those things when forced, but she was thankful for the practice as she performed hyper-feminine for these monkey's in suits, telling them what they wanted to hear. With what she felt where borderline inappropriate cheek kisses, lingering too long with audible sniffs. Hands on her ribs and lower back that there certainly inappropriate enough to warrant her dropping her smile and moving away quickly. She got to watch the men leave in their chauffeured, all black gas guzzler and decline an offer to go back for drinks to their suite.

As they faded out of the distance, she sent Steph a picture of her rolling her eyes, saying she was calling an uber and getting the fuck home. She takes her foldable flats out of her purse, switching from the high strappy heels she'd been wearing and sits on a bench to change them. She puts her blazer over her tight dress before moving to text Eddie. She hears a rumble of a motorcycle and doesn't think anything of it. She's texting him that it went well and she'd be home soon.

"Hey, there gorgeous. Need a ride?" Eddie flashes her a charming smile, helmet sitting in his lap as her eyes rise to instinctively to tell whoever it was to fuck off but her face softens as soon as she sees him.

She gives him an entirely charmed closed mouth smile, rising quickly, her heels in her hands, as she rushes towards him, wrapping her arms around him and his worn leather jacket.

"Hey baby," he says in a deep voice that makes her sigh. His phone dings. "Hold on just a sec. This is probably my girlfriend, gotta get this," he says, gently pushing her away as she rolls her eyes and laughs at him. "Ah. Yep. Looks like I can't give you a ride, toots, my old lady needs me back home." he jokes and gives her a dopey smile.

"You idiot," she says with a soft giggle, leaning in to kiss him. "I missed you," she whispers against his lips. Her phone dings. She pulls away and pulls it from her purse. "Hold on. This is probably my dumb ass boyfriend." she smiles and kisses his cheek, looking to the phone to reveal a response of "k". "Oh you know I hate it when you do that." she shakes her head and narrows her eyes playfully.

"I do. But I plan on makin' up for it tonight." he shifts his brow suggestively.

"Oh you do?" she says with an impressed tone. "What's the plan Mr. Brock?"  she asks with a coy smile, taking out the helmet that was designated as hers and replacing the empty space with her heels.

"We both have a nice night planned for you." he says in a much more sincere tone.

"What have my boys been doing with that key to my place? Not messin' it up I hope." she grins and takes the flannel from the other saddle bag, Eddie watching her ass as she bends over the bike to reach it.

"Just a little." he jokes. "Nothing a few thousand in property damages won't cover." he shrugs.

She ties the flannel around her waist. "If I'd known you were coming I would've brought leggings or something."

"We wanted to surprise you."

"Well you did, good job." she gives him another kiss to the cheek, getting to smell that cologne and clean laundry combination that her brain had trained her body to react to. "Good thing I wore panties, huh?" she snickers. "Gonna try to not flash everyone. Last thing I need is a Britney and Paris a 'la 2006 flash shot getting out on the internet." she laughs, snuggling up to Eddie.

"Well they're doin' just fine now," he says supportively. "Imagine the boost in ratings!" he says with a laugh.

"Come for the pussy, stay for the news. That old saying." she snorts. "Take me home, babe, I wanna snug up with you," she says putting her hands under his jacket, feeling his warm stomach under her hands. She feels Venom move over her hands while they're concealed. "You too Venom. Get us home." she sighs happily.

---------- Eddie rolls his bike into the small space available in the garage Candy shares with the family that lives in the other half of the house she lives in. "Don't go in yet!" he calls out, shuffling out the garage, closing the door as she jingles her keys in her hand.

"You were kidding about the property damage weren't you?" she asks flatly.

"Yeah! Yeah." he nods and takes her hand, taking the keys from the other "We just wanted to surprise you." he says with that dopey smile that makes her want to kiss his big soft lips.

"Surprise me?" she questions in an unsure tone.

"Yeah, close your eyes...lemme get ya inside." he mumbles, pulling her forward and then releasing her hands. "Just a minute! Promise!" she hears his boots hitting the floor and heading into the kitchen. "Just stay right there!" she hears his voice moving, and clasps her hands together.

She takes a deep breath, wondering what on earth these two were up to.

"Kay...kay..." he mutters, moving back towards her. "Follow me. NO peaking!" Eddie says. She feels Venom cover her eyes and she places her hands over him.

"You ask me not to peak I'm not gonna." she says defensively.

"No chances." Venom's voice hits her ears. She's pulled in the direction of the living room, and Eddie places his hands on her shoulders.

"Alright." he says looking over to the symbiote. "Count of three?" he says optimistically.

"One...two...three." Venom counts slowly, nervously, as he pulls his hand like shaped goo from her eyes.

She blinks them open to find a dim room. As she adjusts, the candlelight from white pillar candles dots the room. There's every sort of romantic cliche she's ever thought of. A giant teddy bear in her reading chair, chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne on the coffee table next to a large bouquet of roses.  Eddie taps his phone screen and music starts playing throughout the house.

"Wh-" she begins, a huff of air pushed out in confusion but gratefulness. "What's all this for?" she says with a much sweeter turn to her words.

"We wanted to do something nice for ya." Eddie says subtle shrug, motioning to Venom who was moving from behind her to in front of her.

"We wanted to woo you. You deserve it." he begins, his face showing much less angular, more human shaped with rounded eyes to make himself less look intimidating.

"Boys..." she lilts and pouts. "You didn't have to do this." she insists and lets out a soft laugh.

"You are worth the trouble." Venom states as he watches her wide eyes taking in the room.

"Besides, Venom has this thing... where he can store things inside himself so... he stole a bunch of this." Eddie rubs the back of his neck and laughs.

Candy looks to him and he nods and she lets out a warm laugh that eases his nerves. "I like your style." she nods in appreciation.

"Thank you. You like it?"

"I love it, it's entirely too sweet and adorable, seriously." she coos, moving to put her hands on either side of his face. "Thank you Venom, this was all very thoughtful of you." she strokes the side of his head lovingly and his eyes shut for a moment. He seems so harmless like this. Such a lovely body of goo and space matter, with a metaphoric heart of gold. She wondered if perhaps it was Eddie's softness that leads him to want to be so affectionate to her. She figures she should repay him. "Can I give you a kiss to thank you?" she says softly and his eyes go round like a cartoon and she chuckles at him.

"Yes. Yes." he nods. She plants her lips to his forehead and pats his cheek. The warm but quivering mass moving underneath her mouth.

"Thank you, you big sweetie." she coos.

"There is more." he says quietly. Eddie watches the interaction, feeling elated himself, as Venom had his heart fluttering at Candy's approval.  He glides a tendril out of sight and retrieves a box from within himself.

"What's that?" Eddie and Candy both ask. Eddie had told him no about buying a ring, he wanted to date her not scare her off by going too hard too fast. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed Eddie's mind, but he was trying to refrain himself from moving too fast. Which was something he had the tendency to do.

"A gift." Venom responds with a teasing tone, nudging it towards her.

"Why are you doing all this for me?" she asks with a pout.

"Because we want to romance you." he rasps out. "Eddie has had his chance to become your boyfriend," he pauses and takes the top off the small box and holds out a gold heart locket to her. "I would like to be as well. I thought if I asked you formally and showed you how I...we care for you with grand gestures you would be inclined to say yes to me. As you did Eddie. We are one...but you see me as another person and I want to show you that I care for you just as much as Eddie does." he puts the locket around her neck as he speaks, fluffing her hair back in place, gentle strokes to her cheek and neck with warm and soft limbs before he draws them away.

"Venom, sweetheart." she replies happily and reaches down to touch the gift. "You...ugh..." she lets out an exaggerated breath and moves to wrap her arms around him, he forms a more human shape, shoulders, and arms to embrace her back. "You're going for boyfriend of the year, huh?" she sighs happily. "He's really showin' you up here Eddie." she teases and kisses the side of the symbiote’s head.

"I mean I helped..." he shrugs and smiles. "What's in the other rooms was my idea though." a more mischievous look comes over his face.

"What's in there?" she asks, looking to Venom.

"Quit it Eddie. Me first. This is equally as important to the process." Venom gruffs at him.

"Process?" she asks an uncertain expression.

"Candy." he returns his voice to something softer. "Look." he says, flicking open the locket. Inside was a tiny photo of himself in one side and Eddie in the other.

"Oh my god." she laughs. "This is the cutest thing I've ever seen." she covers her mouth to hold in a laugh because the picture of venom, although tiny is well shot. The picture of Eddie looks like it was taken while Venom was bothering him, his face annoyed and smashed. "You seen this?" she asks Eddie with a grin.

"No. I had no idea about the necklace," he admits, leaning in to see. "What the hell, dude?" he says shoving Venom.

"I got it. I made the decisions." he grins and closes it gently. "She can remember me fondly."

"And I look like a pile of angry mashed potatoes?" he says with raised brows.

"If you'd gotten her something you could've picked out the picture." he sass's back and they both look at Candy as she sighs loudly, a warm smile appearing on her face.

"You two are ridiculous. I love it." she says with a shake of her head.

"He is ruining the mood." Venom says reaching out a hand to put to Candy's cheek, causing her to blink rapidly at the affectionate touch that felt almost human. "I wanted to show you we are capable of romance and worthy of being with. I thought if I did this, you might be inclined to be with us again." he mumbles the last part.

"Sexually?" she says with a deep turn of her voice and a playfully raised eyebrow before Eddie let's out a small snort in amusement.

"To be honest...yes." he admits.

"You askin' me to be your girlfriend too?" she clarifies with a polite smile.

"Yes." he nods.

"Okay..." she says thoughtfully. "This is very romantic, you did a really good job." she begins. "I've already considered myself your girlfriend. You and Eddie are a package deal right?" she shrugs.

"Told you." Eddie says with a much more supportive fist to the symbiote’s shoulder.

"But you asking means a lot. And yes. I consider you to be my partner too." she says with a hard nod. "That's why I bring you chocolate and pills when I bring Eddie beer and food," she explains. "I don't want one of you being left out." she looks to both of them. "It's been super weird and hard at times to come to terms with this. But we've come a long way." she nods enthusiastically. "I care about both of you, you know." she pats the hand that lingers on her shoulder.

Venom moves in slowly, and she does not flinch, but watches him with curiosity, not seeing fear in her eyes makes his body soften and sends a shudder through Eddie. He nuzzles against her face and neck, up under her hair and lets out a purring sound. "Thank you, Candy. I am glad you are ours. Eddie was very lucky to find you." his voice is soft and deep, not having the monstrous gravel as it used to have so heavily.

"And you were lucky to find each other." she says with a smile. "I don't have to worry about him as much with you around. I know you've got his back." the affectionate rub of her thumb against his hand makes him purr again." So let me get both by big soft boys in here, huh?" she says with a big smile, holding out her arms. "I've got two arms, c'mon. Plenty of room for both of ya." she chirps.

Venom wraps around her to her back, nuzzling over one shoulder while she wraps her arms around Eddie's neck. Venom encases them both in a warm embrace, the long tendrils stretching, wrapping and spreading around them and squeezing. "Aw, this is nice." Venom says quietly.

"Who picked the music?" she asks with a subdued laugh.

"We both kinda did." Eddie murmurs as they pull away from the embrace. "He found some 90's r & b playlists that were just a bit too...sexually forward in my opinion." he says defensively.

"Music made for having sex to makes sense to listen to when you have intentions of having sex." Venom states obviously. "You humans like to seduce each other with it."

"So you are trying to seduce me?" Candy smirks and crosses her arms.

Venom’s head moves back to her quickly after defending himself to Eddie. "Yes. The gifts act as a mood setter to show you we care for you beyond the physical. But the physical...we want that too yes." he nods.

"So...what's in the other room, huh? You plan on seducing me...next step is the bedroom right?" she says with a confident shake of her head.

"Bedroom is the third step. Let me begin the second one." Venom states as he stretches in through the bedroom door.

Candy turns to Eddie, her face at ease, eyeing him up and down. "You have anything else in there you know I like?" she asks with a tilted head and more suggestive smile as he gestures to the phone in his hands.

"Sam Cooke." he says with a charming smile.

"Mmmm." she nods approvingly.

"Marvin Gaye." he adds with a smirk.

"Oh you're lookin' for trouble, huh?" she playfully scolds and laughs, leaning in closer to him.

"Lots of 70's rock ballads. I know you like those slow jams." his voice dips lower and gives her the slightest bit of tease.

"I do love some good dad rock." she chuckles. "I'm from the country, I can't help it." she shrugs shamelessly.

"Also!" he says, with a raised finger, getting distracted by one of the gifts that were his idea. He moves towards the bedroom. "This is a new system," he says proudly. "I'll put it on your phone later." he beckons her closer with his hand. "We got these speakers and they play the same song through the whole house." she can hear music coming from her bathroom as well as the brightly colored pod on her dresser.

"It's called synced Eddie." Venom says, poking his head out from the bathroom.

"Yeah, they're synced up." he mumbles, scrolling through the playlist they'd made.

She hears the bath running and looks with a lowered brow towards the sound. "What's step two of the seduction of Candace Miller?" she smirks.

"We knew you had that meeting tonight. And you'd not been looking forward to it so I thought tonight might be a good chance for us to help you relax...put you in a better headspace y'know?" Eddie says with a subtle shrug, eyes soft and voice the same.

"We wanted to help facilitate us all being together. We know what relaxes you the most." Venom's deep voice comes as he slithers from the bathroom, a limb extended to pass through Candy's hair. "Can we help you relax Candy?" Venom asks, his head hovering near her face. She feels a slight thrill run through her at the suggestion.

"I went and got your favorite things from that fancy soap store too." Eddie begins, walking over to the bathroom door and opening it. They'd set up a romantic scene in there as well, candles carrying from the bedroom to the bathroom.

"Lush?" she asks, seeing the bubbles in the tub.

"Yeah. I know you like those fizzy things so we got some 'a them and bubble bath." he offers shyly, holding his hand to her. Venom wraps around her shoulders, a gentle push towards Eddie.

"They're called bubble bars." Venom corrects.

"Yeah." Eddie frowns at him for only a second before turning his eyes back to her. "We wanted to suggest that you have a good soak and tell us how your meeting went. Get it out of your system? So we could... y'know... maybe spend the night together?" he offers with a face that shows his hopefulness.

She takes a slow breath, looking around the pale colored room with the warm rosy tones of candles flickering. With the smell of jasmine in the air, she runs her fingers over the lip of the tub, her face indifferent and trying to let go of the reservations she'd been holding onto. She told herself she'd try anything once. She hadn't expected that to be this exactly,but here she was.

"This is about you." Venom says, appearing over her shoulder. "Whatever you want of us. We want to do that." he clarifies, an inky black hand shaped limbs rubbing up and down her arms to ease her.

"Okay." she nods and exhales in a breathy voice. "I'll get in the tub and tell you when to come in, that work?" she turns to look at the over her shoulder. "Let me get my head in the right place?"

"Yes." Venom says with enthusiasm, a slight squeeze to her arms before he pulled away.

"We'll just be in here." Eddie says as his head pulls out of sight as he pulls the door to.

She takes in the ambiance, and they really had done a wonderful job. She hears the music switch, some mood setting rock and she grins. They were a bit eager, but then again, if her racing heart was any indication, so was she. She settles into the tub, her hair piled and pinned on top of her head messily. With painted toes wiggling on the rim, hands slow and pushing about mountains of bubbles she sighs and rests her head back. "C'mon in." she calls out.

They both appear, Eddie now in just a thin t-shirt as he'd stripped away some layers. Venom a soft blob on his shoulder.

"Hello boys." she greets with them her chin in the water, hiding an evocative smile.

Eddie gives her a soft look, one side of his lips tugging back farther than the other with those soft hooded eyes at ease at the sight of her wide-eyed in the bathtub. "I figure, Venom can get your feet, I saw those heels you were wearin' before I pulled up at the restaurant, I know you won't turn down a foot rub." he grins,  moving to the end of the tub behind her.

"You'd be right." she smiles, watching Venom settle at the other end, opposite Eddie.

"I read about how to do this." he says, tube-like extremities now picking up and moving her feet, starting to touch and manipulate them, the pressure growing firmer each time, a pleasant weight as the soft nubs at the end of his arms rub circles into the balls of her feet.

"Yes you have." she exhales contently, moving her arms to the rim of the tub. "What'd you doin' back there babe?" she asks Eddie, turning her head to the side to get a glimpse of him.

"Well I'm gonna take the top half here." he says in an amused way as his hands move to her shoulders.

She sits silently, having never had the attention of two people at once before, it makes her feel powerful. A faint flush across her face from the heat of the water and her thoughts becoming indecent. Two guys were supposed to be like a 'thing' right? She thought. As her neck and feet got rubbed simultaneously she was starting to see why.

"So how did the meeting go?" Eddie suggests, his wide, square-tipped fingers rubbing at the caps of her shoulders.

"It was fine." she sighs out, shutting her eyes and letting her head all forward. "The rating are good. Steady. They like my direction, want to focus on the younger demographic, political trends, protests...that sorta thing." her words aren't articulate as usual.

"How do you feel about that?" Eddie asks, hunching over on the footstool, his mouth now close enough to her ears she could feel his breath over her.

"You my therapist or you tryin' to fuck me?" she gets out before she laughs, the bubbles jiggling with her body in the water.

He blows out a raspberry and kisses her head. "Sorry for showin' interest in ya feelin's. We won't' do all this extra stuff and lovin' on you first next time." he chuckles.

"You know I'm just bein' stupid." she smiles and hums.

"Yeah I know." he mumbles into her hair.

"I gave them vague answers. I'm gonna keep trying for expose''s. You know that stuff really butters my biscuit." her shoulders heave slightly with a silent laugh.

"Does this?" Venom asks, fingers still working away, turning her ankles and swiping up her calves. It reminded her of getting a massage with a pedicure, her legs getting added in on the treatment.

"Yes, god yes, boys, this is..." she nods and lets out a groan. "You're gonna spoil me with this." opens her eyes slowly and gives him a smile.

"Do you recall me telling you about how this sexual encounter would work?" Venom asks, both still working away at her damp skin, Eddie rubbing the back of her neck with his thumbs, making her grunt.

"Remind me." she sighs out, lolling her head to the side.

"He said you wouldn't have to worry about him. Remember babe?" Eddie whispers and the sound of his voice low and suggesting anything sexual started a familiar ache between her thighs. "Me 'n you can just... be together like we used to." he rests his cheek against the side of her head, his hands moving slowly from her neck to her collar bones. "You do remember that don't ya, Candy?" his voice stays breathy and even, making her take a deep inhale.

She hums contently. "Yes I do." she smiles, shutting her eyes again, taking in the softness of his voice she loved, the way it never sounded harsh when it spoke to her like this.

He finds himself getting distracted, the low light bouncing off her chest, her nipples just visible, pinked and hard at the surface of the water. He runs his hand down her breasts, her thighs shifting as he did so, an audible exhale as he cupped them in his hands. "We can... touch and... kiss..." he adds placing one to her exposed neck. "Just like we used to." he clarifies, the water lapping against her as his thumbs move to brush across her nipples, drawing a soft moan from her.

"I will be there to bring us closer together." Venom chimes in, making her eyes flutter open to see him with a slightly parted mouth, a monstrous tongue peeking from behind teeth that were starting to gather drool in their anticipation, taking in the feelings Eddie was having as he touched her, watching every sign of arousal come across her face that he'd read about. "I want to add to the pleasure." he elaborates. "With me..." his voice becomes more rumbly, a hiss at the end of his words as he mimicked the heavier breaths of Eddie in her ear, his nose tracing the outline of her ear as Venom spoke to her. They communicated as one, executing their plan as discussed, able to tell each other what they wanted to do next to her. "We can all three experience things we otherwise couldn't." His eyes close just slightly, that long tongue unfurling out of his mouth, a slap lap against her feet that she didn't expect.

She'd had her toes sucked on before, but only in the middle of fucking and she'd never paid much attention to it. There was a warmth that was pleasurable about it. And with his agile and precise tongue, the way it lapped at her lovingly, as if he was enjoying it himself, she was finding herself not minding it in the least. His tongue started to venture away from her feet and with Eddie as his accomplice, her body didn't leave her with much of an option but to give over to it. Her mind fired on all cylinders with this new experience, it didn't read into her eyes as Eddie's plush lips moved across her neck and shoulder, thumb and index fingers rubbing her nipples between them she let out her first truly audible moan.

"He and I.... we both know how to work as a team now, babe." Eddie explains between kisses. "I know what turns you on... he knows what turns you on too." his voice is quiet, the pops of his lips catching against her skin as he spoke. "We'll be gentle. We want you to enjoy this, remember?"

"We want you to want us as much as we want you." Venom adds, face rubbing affectionately against her ankles. "I would not hurt you, Candy." he purrs out with a slow blink of his opal eyes.

"I wanna show you what it's like," Eddie whispers directly in her ear. "We wanna make you feel so good." he rasps out, causing her to shudder. "It's been so long, Candy." he groans. "You miss me as much as I miss you?" he kisses the shell of her ear before moving back to her neck.

She whines and her lashes flutter. She'd never felt so thoroughly seduced before. Every mans' talk had never led to anything that would make her not call them a liar afterward. But they really could give her something no one else could. And she wanted it. She reaches one hand out of the water, clumps of bubbles on her wet skin as she gently caresses the side of Eddie's head.  "I've missed you so bad, babe." she whispers, causing him to moan against her skin, hands tightening on her chest.

"Candy?" Venom hisses. The black web-like body of him moving in waves from her feet where it had been settled, slow and steady as it traveled up her calves, disappearing into the water. "May we taste you?"

She feels his body moving across her thighs, making her muscles twitch with anticipation. She nods before her mouth opens, half-lidded eyes connect to the symbiotes as it's chin rests in the water. "Yeah." she manages to whisper out as her fingers card through Eddie's hair, his thick lips still against her skin.

Venom disappears beneath the bubbles and she is left with only his touch to guide her as to what is happening under the surface. He parts her legs with gentle pressure. "Open up for him, babe." Eddie asks for him, hands wandering to her stomach, fingertips gripping into the soft pliant flesh of her body as he and Venom's hunger feeds off each other. She puts her ankles on the rim of the tub, feeling the tickle from Venom's body moving over the back of her thighs.

He begins with slowly oozing forward up her inner thighs, touching into places she wasn't used to being touched, seeping into every crevice, the crease of her thighs, against her lips, then between them as she feels something pressing against her thick lips. With a brief touch, her breath catches as he grazes over her clit. With Eddie taking in her reactions above the water, Venom knows what to repeat under it. Another flick, before she feels pressure push against her. It wasn't like Eddie going down on her, there weren't the luscious lips to create delicious suction, a busied little pink tongue wearing itself out against her. This was like a toy, she equated it to. And if he was to be an addition to the sex between her and Eddie, then the association seemed entirely reasonable.

He works against her, a hard but giving body against hers, flicks against her clit, circles and brushes and tugs that make her thighs tense and her back arch. She feels a more familiar texture, his tongue start moving against her, lower, taking in the wetness her body was giving him.

"You taste so good, Candy." Eddie groans against her throat. She moans and lets her eyes roll back at the words. His fingers hold tight and fast to her nipples, a firmer grasp against them as Venom teases around her entrance. "You ready for him?" he asks, her hand gripping into his hair.

"Yeah." she whimpers out, breathing fast and her other hand gripping the edge of the tub. He was gentle, as promised. The slender tip of his tongue sliding into her, giving way to a thicker and thicker stretch as he inched inside her. With a stuttered gasp, she grips Eddie's hair, fingers slipping on the edge of the tub from the water. Eddie watches as her head falls back, a moan leaving her mouth as his hand strokes upwards on her chest, slick against her neck as he kissed her cheek. She can feel the pressure of him inside her. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, such a foreign sensation of having a muscle capable of so much delicate movement inside her. She could feel him fill her up, the pressure of his face against her inner thighs as he explored her, bubbles escaping to the top of the water.

Eddie watches her face, looking her over, letting Venom see what he was doing to her. He hisses and hummed and groaned into Eddie's mind. A new experience for all three of them. He tells Eddie how wet she is, how ready she is for them both. How he can feel the pulse of her against him as he envelopes her clit, massaging away at the area around it, direct attention given to it in gentle laps just as he'd seen in Eddie's head before. He tests her willingness to try something she hadn't with Eddie before, a brief stroke over her lower puckered hole with his reaching tentacle-like growths. She tenses and hums, a brief stop to the moans that he could hear from beneath the water. He adds gentle pressure slowly, keeping his promise to not hurt her. He feels her swell beneath him, the blood gathering between her thighs, beneath the skin to make every sensitive and tight. Her clit hard and her insides swollen with arousal as he begins to hone in on the spot that wasn't elusive to him and his shapeshifting form.

Above the water Candy grows desperate, Eddie's hard, pressing against his jeans, watching her pant and swear, her sounds of need growing louder and more familiar, recognizing the patterns with Venom's help. "Eddie," she whines, her lips trembling and turning her head to his. He asks her without words, a simple glance to her lips with those blue eyes gone dark and dilated under their heavy hoods what she needs. "Kiss me," she whispers, pulling him closer to her. "I'm close." she confesses in a heavy exhale against his lips before they meet for a harsh and hungry kiss. He lets his own noises battle against hers, moans as they hold each others heads, neck muscles tense and stretching as they work quickly against each other.

Venom knows from the twitch in her muscles before  Eddie's brain relays the information back to him that he's about to make her come. He amps up his movements, more pressure, faster speed as he rumbles against her, eager to please. Her toes squeak against the tub as they curl, her legs starting to shake. "Oh fuck," she whispers, barely audible. "Eddie," she whines and he moans at the sound. "I'm gonna come." she nods against him, voice weak and small, not the usual roar he was accustomed to. But he understood the intensity that Venom brought with him, he would've been surprised if he hadn't rendered her almost speechless.

Eddie feels her body start to tremble, holding her face to kiss her through it as he knows she prefers his face close to her when she comes. She breaks away to take a sharp inhale, moving to kiss the corner of her mouth as her lips part and her mouth drops open. A broken whimper grows into squeaks, her body convulsing in the tub, Venom drawing an intense orgasm from her greedily. Eddie's eyes roll back to match hers, hearing her, feeling her, the taste of her in his mouth again makes him painfully aware of how hard he is against the rough fabric of his jeans. He sees her face go from tight and looking pained to wide, gasping and full of surprise, knowing the peak had passed. As she was about to ask him to stop, growing far too sensitive to keep going at such an intense pace, Venom ghosts away from her. The small rapid movements stop, a slow slither away and off of her remains gentle afterward, a slow retreat of his tongue from her body, leaving her legs to sink back into the tub, thigh clenched together and jerking with aftershocks.

He rises out of the water, reminding her of old Godzilla movies, water falling off of a fearsome face. His eyes were slanted and looked aggressive, his tongue still slithering back into his mouth as Eddie panted next to her, lips pressed to her head as he watches Venom appear through piles of bubbles that still remain through their weak thrashing. Venom sees her damp and sparkling, pink, kiss-swollen lips that rest open and wanting, her chest heaving, the light dancing across it, making her looks delicious.

Without grace, the ability to conjure up any other response, or just the lack of there being an appropriate response to such a thing, she groans out, "Holy shit." as the muscles in her face begin to work again, moving from slack to engaged.

"Really is something else, isn't it?" Eddie says with a huff of breath that makes the corner of her mouth tug back into a smile.

"Yeah...is it." she nods, words still breathy as she caught her breathing back to normal.

"Candy." Venom rumbles, parting the sea of bubbles to move near her face, body moving behind him in the water like some sort of shredded sea monster. "Would you like to do that again?" he inquires,  smoothly moving from the water, disappearing into Eddie's back, only his head remaining as she looked up to them both.

"But with me this time?" she can see the need in Eddie's face as he asks politely.

"With us." Venom clarifies, a smiles that shows his teeth growing. She wonders how he hadn't bitten her in the process of going down on her.

She blinks up at them, glistening with drops of sweat and a veil of steam settled onto her skin. She nods and swallows noisily. "Yeah." a breathy response with a slow nod. "In the bedroom?" she asks, an enthusiastic smile growing across her face, glowing post orgasm.

Venom moves, thick tendrils into the tub, moving under her and slowly lifting her as she squeaks and reaches around Eddie's neck as he rises. "We got you babe, don't worry." he chuckles lightly against her neck.

"After that..." she gulps and nods, arms tight around him. "I'd say you certainly do." she says with a soft smile, meeting his eyes so they can both be sure to know the sentiment behind the words.

@hardygal69 @marvelgirl7 @emerald-bijou @negansdirtygirl22 @brianaisasongbird @vale0413 @izzy-the-ginger @chortletortoise @onomatopoetic-aesthetic @anrm1 @jademox @nightcraver @venomous-possibiities @tinastarkandco @chipster-21

[icannott]

Talent (Bill Denbrough x Reader)

Requested: yes!! by anon “ofc you listen to dodie (your she fic was fab btw), so could i have an awkward duet with bill? thanks”

Pairing(s): Bill Denbrough x Reader

Warnings: swearing, sexual innuendos (richie will be richie), flufffff, includes a song called an awkward duet by dodie clark and jon cozart, more specifically based on this video of them performing, also more modern

A/N: day 12 for Christmas Fic Countdown!!!!!

edit: i made a part two to this!! showtime!!!

Gif Credit belongs to @imultifandomstuff

The losers were becoming curious. All week, Bill would eat lunch with them in the cafeteria, then spew some lame excuse and rush off.

“What if someone’s forcing him into something?” Beverly suggested after Bill ran off again.

“Like drugs?” Eddie questioned, his face paling at the thought.

“Not specifically,” Bev sighed. “But maybe something like that.”

Stan rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far. It could just be something exceedingly simple.”

“Yeah,” Ben agreed. “Like... the talent show is soon! Maybe he’s doing something in it.”

Richie laughed. “I’d pay money to see that happen.” Ben rolled his eyes. “No, seriously. Bill’s too anxious for any of that. He’d freak out.”

The losers muttered in solemn agreement.

“Why don’t we just find out, then?” Beverly sighed. “Tomorrow, we follow him. See what’s up.”

They all agreed. And that’s exactly what they did.

At lunch the next day, Bill stood and said, “I-I’m going to th-the n-nurse.”

They pretended to barely acknowledge his scurrying away, but once he was out of the lunch room, they all stood and silently followed after him. They exited the cafeteria just in time to see him talking to two people by the music room. They recognized one of them as you, a girl in some of their classes who was quiet and kind, but still amusing and cool nonetheless. The other was obviously the music teacher. The three walked into the music room, and the losers waited a few minutes before peeking into the doorway of said room.

Fortunately, your backs were to them, so only the music teacher saw them standing in the doorway, and decided not to make their presences known. They gazed at you and Bill standing in the center of the room, you holding a ukulele. They had a feeling of what was coming.

Bill slowly counted you off, careful not to stutter, and you smiled before starting to play. You played the beginning chords before nodding to Bill before his cue, so he had time to take a breath and then start, “Do you want to go first? ‘Cause I’m happy to wait, I practiced really hard.” He took a breath and you slowed down a bit as he sang, “But I’m finding it strange to start with you.”

You smiled at him, nodding in encouragement and sped up a bit. Bill picked up a small cup on the stool next to him and sipped from the straw as you sang, “So how does it go? I’ve forgotten the tune, I haven’t warmed up today, so I might sound a bit strange... Yes, I do.”

You slowed down a bit more and gave another encouraging nod to Bill, who put his drink down and took a deep breath. You sang, “’Cause I-”

He continued, “Can-”

“Sing-”

“I-”

“Swear it’s true,” you both chorused. “I’m just a little nervous when I’m with you.”

Bill took another breath and gave you a smile. “So, who’s on the third? I think I’m better at mel-o-dy. Oh, I’m going to get it wrong. Sh-should we try another song?” He cringed at his slight stutter, but continued. “No? O-Okay.”

You smiled at him brightly. He barely stuttered this time! He took another sip of his drink and you couldn’t control the giddiness in your voice as you sang, “Let’s just go for a take, and see how we sound. My heart is beating fast. Oh vocal chords, please last. Here we go.” Bill gaped as you hit every note perfectly, and the straw to his drink fell from his mouth and onto the ground, making you cease your playing and laugh lightly. His face flushed as he continued to gape before he started laughing too, and suddenly you were both hysterically laughing, the song forgotten.

When your laughter died, the losers noticed the obvious blush covering your face. You and Bill smiled at each other. He leaned closer and quietly counted you off while grinning.

You took breath and smiled when you started playing and sang, “’Cause I-”

“Can-”

“Sing-”

“I-”

“Swear it’s true...”

The music teacher smiled at you both singing and the losers scooted out of the room silently. Richie slipped a ten dollar bill into Ben’s awaiting hand.

When they were far enough away, Eddie took a huff from his inhaler. “That was... impressive.” They nodded in agreement.

Bev squealed, “Did you see the way he looked at her? Bill totally has a crush!”

But Ben shook his head, looking off somewhere in the distance. “No, I don’t think that’s his crush.”

Bev rolled her eyes. “It totally is!”

Ben shook his head harder this time. “No.” He pointed a finger down the hallway, toward the music room. “Look.”

From the distance they were at, they could still partially see into the room. When they looked, they saw you and Bill. He had one arm curved around your waist, the other leading up to where his hand was caressing your cheek. You had your arms loosely draped around his neck, your hands lightly playing with his hair. You were both grinning like love-sick idiots, talking quietly and looking into each other’s eyes. Your faces were bright red. 

“Not his crush, anymore, that is,” Stan commented. The losers grinned as the bell rang.

Bill quickly pressed a kiss to your lips before grabbing his bag and rushing off to class. You simply packed up your ukulele and took a seat on one of the many chairs in the room as the music teacher came back in.

After school, the losers all grinned and pretended not to notice when Bill stopped at your locker to give you another quick kiss before approaching them.

“Wh-What?” he questioned when he saw their grins.

“Nothing,” Beverly hummed.

xtra-

“No, Richie, you can’t tease him, he doesn’t know that we know.”

“What better way to let him know than a sex joke? Come guys, I’d be fucking funny-”

“After the talent show.”

[boogiewrites]

Reports & Repertoire 16

Characters: Eddie Brock x Venom x Candace Miller (OFC)

Summary: Candy tries to keep things professional but the media seems more interested in her personal life than her professional offerings. After a night out goes wrong, Candy tries to handle it the mature way but finds that she prefers good old fashion, cold-blooded revenge when it comes to being pushed aside by those in power because of their money. 

Warnings/Tags: Fluff. Angst. Drink getting drugged. The “man” being a real prick. Revenge plots. Protective Eddie and Venom.

Click on my icon then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. (Had to do this since Tumblr killed links, sorry.)

After a date night that carried on long after the movie was over, Candy wakes up to to the snoring of Eddie in her ear. As usual, he's wrapped around her, his head by hers, nuzzled into her neck with her arms loosely around the big baby's body. He was blissfully unaware of the vibrating phone on the edge of the bed, but Candy was not.

"Nngh." she grunts, moving and slapping her hand on the bed to get the phone. Venom emerges slowly, like cold molasses as he taps the phone for snooze. "'fanks." she mumbles, as Eddie stirs, his arms moving in to hold her tighter to him, his face rubbed into the pillow before mushing his lips against her face.

"Not yet." he grumbles, his plea making a sleepy smile spread across Candy's face.

"I've got the thing this mornin' babe." she replies before her voice cracks and she clears her throat.

"No thing." is his brilliant retort.

"She's filming at the shelter today Eddie." Venom informs him, his voice the same as always.

"And you have a meeting don't you?" she says in a scolding tone, not making any attempt to move yet, her fingers combing through his warm and soft messy hair.

"Shit." he groans out,  planting his face into the pillow.

"I'll take that as a yes." she chuckles, kissing his temple. Neither make any attempt to actually leave the soft, warm confines of the comforter they were nestled under together. After a night out, followed by a rather rambunctious night in they were both longing to keep up the idea that they could stay snuggled up forever. But alas, it was a weekday and they both had to get back to their less inviting responsibilities.

-------

Candy stands in her three-piece skirt suit on the portable platform in front of the shelter. The press was there, along with a lot of the usual faces of employees and volunteers to celebrate the donation of the network and the full day of talking heads and interviews they'd be shooting. As the character head of the show, it having her name on it after all, she was doing the Press Release and the talking. After the formalities and cover story shots have been done, the questions begin. At first, it's all business as usual, who's idea, who donated the money, why this shelter? But as the head of a gossip mag popped up amidst the more formally sanctioned journalists Candy hides her frown.

"Is it true that you and the former host of this show, Eddie Brock are dating?" she asks without missing a beat and no shame in her face.

"Those questions aren't really appropriate for this event. This is about the people, the shelter, not my personal life."

"You two have been spotted around the city together. With the photos of you two canoodling out, do you still have no comment?" she presses.

Candy sighs, looking over to the producer who shrugs and motions her forward.

"For the sake of transparency, we are dating. But to bring the attention back to shelter, perhaps you'd prefer to know that we have both volunteered here before?" she offers, trying to reign in the follow-up questions. There's a general disinterest as notes are scribbled onto notepads. "Because we have." she offers with a tone of disappointment at the lack of interest.

"How long have you been dating?" another person chirps up.

Candy breathes through her nose and remains composed, but her eyes give away her annoyance otherwise. "I don't want to talk about the specifics of my personal life." she barely gets out before another voice chimes in.

"Were you dating before you took over the show? Is it a conflict of interests to have someone Eddie Brock was dating take over his show?" a man asks, looking to start trouble already.

"We were not dating at the time no." Candy flatly states.

"He thanked you in his awards speech though did he not?"

"He did, but we were not romantically involved."

"Was the speech what made you fall for him?" one of the more fashion-centered local magazines asks. They had given a four out of five star rating to Candy's look for that awards ceremony.

"No, but it didn't hurt." Candy says with a smile, a slight laugh from the crowd at her response and more light-hearted answer. "We worked together before I took over the show and that's how we knew each other. And it was sometime after the awards show that we began dating in an official capacity. That should clear up any further questions on that."

"Is there any animosity with you taking over what used to be his show?"

"No. He turned it down and suggested me for the job."

"How did he feel about getting fired from it before?" a follow-up question is quickly shouted out.

"Okay." Candy purses her lips. "I've indulged the questions enough. If you want to know more about Eddie Brock, ask Eddie Brock. If you want to know more about us from my perspective, book me for that specifically and we'll talk. Otherwise, any more questions about the work here today? This isn't about me. It's about the people here who are far more important than I am." she says motioning to the owners in the crowd.

The day passes, the gossip magazines and local feminist publications having a field day with the new information. As she expected, because she was dating a, to them, straight white man she had lost some sort of points it seemed in their eyes. Her work assistant kept her up to date as the alerts went off on her phone about her and Eddie. She knew it was all bound to happen and she was prepared for it. But being able to be with him openly was worth all the nonsense they could throw at her.

At the suggestion of one of the PA's, they all go out after a long day for drinks. She texts Eddie, letting him know his inbox might be blowing up and letting him know where and what she was up to. A quickly snapped photo of her at the bar, girls on either side of her as the haze of tech bros lurking in the background doesn't go unnoticed by him.

"Why there?" he asks, a wrinkled face at his phone in question.

"One of the PA's suggested it. I regret it already." she laughs and sends.

"Don't let those bastardized Steve Jobs wannabe's get near you. I don't know how to debug any virus they might give you." he jokes. Venom grins at Eddie's attempts to make a joke.

"Nice." he gives a nod of approval over his shoulder as they sit on Candy's couch.

Candy snorts and smiles, wanting to skip the social drinking and just go home.

"Aren't you that girl from tv?" a guy in neon sneakers that probably cost more than she made in a month slides obnoxiously between Candy and her assistant, acting like she didn't exist.

"Aren't you that guy with no social skills?" she asks, eyeballing him up and down, taking a sip of her drink.

"You tv types are always up your own asses." he says, still not moving.

"I don't like guys who roll up between me and my associate here like she doesn't exist. We were in the middle of a conversation."

"How else am I supposed to talk to you?" he asks with a shake of his head.

"Ask if you can interject? Or just... dont." she responds flatly. "You didn't even know my name so you aren't a fan, why would you even bother talking to me?"

"Because I wanted to fuck you?" he says obviously.

"Ugh. Gross." she says out of gut instinct. "Just... go away." she says, holding up a hand to his face.

"Whatever." he says with a roll of his eyes, his obliviousness something he wore proudly.

"Ew. Guys are so gross nowadays." her friend says with a wrinkle of her nose.

"Tell me about it." she rolls her eyes.

"You're lucky to have found someone who's nice."

"Don't I know it." she says with large eyes.

"Hey. Excuse me." a guy interrupts with apologetic body language. "You're Candy Miller right?" he asks with an outstretched hand.

Candy looks down at his hand before twitching her lips in consideration of taking it. "Yeah."

"I'm afraid I might be responsible for that guy giving you a hard time. I'm Mark. That was Seth, he's... well he's a bit of a dick most of the time."

"Yeah he was." she answers plainly, leaving him hanging.

"I mentioned there was a chick from tv here and he just kinda... swooped in." he says with a laugh, trying to break the ice.

She gives him a nod, still not giving over to his apparent politeness.

He withdraws his hand with a frown. "I wanted to apologize on his behalf. I've actually watched your show. It's good. You're good in front of the camera."

"Thanks." she says with a less angry inflection. "For that and the apology." she adds, trying to be a bit more personable.

"No problem. Can I buy you a drink or something to make up for it?" he asks, no sleazy delivery to be heard.

"No thanks." you say with a shake of your head.

"What about you?" he turns and asks her friend. "He just shoved in front of you too." he gives her a smile.

"Yeah, sure." she says with a small shrug.

The guy hangs around for a little while, small talk, nothing of much substance. Candy gets swept away other people, some better than her first encounter of the night and some just the same.  She moves back over to her assistant and has her hand her her drink as she's in the middle of being chatted up by some guy. Candy downs it, the period to the end of the sentence that is her time at this bar for the night. She stands against the wall and makes polite transition out of the conversation. It doesn't take her long to start feeling the effects of the drink. She shakes her head and excuses herself. By the time she's in the back hallway, slamming into the women's bathroom door she knows something's gone wrong.

She sinks into the floor behind a locked bathroom stall door. Her head was spinning in cycles. She rested her head against the cold tile wall as she fumbled with her phone, holding it up and dropping it a few times before finally tapping furiously at the little picture of Eddie in her contacts.

"Eds." she says with a  groan.

"Candy?  Babe you have too much to drink?" he says with a smile, expecting her to just be a bit tipsy and telling him to come to get her.

"No. Something. I think I got the wrong drink." she says, trying to recall the night's events.

"You sick?" he asks, both he and Venom more on alert at the sound of her slurred voice.

"I think she handed me her drink. Or something... someone put something in it." she gets out, her brow furrowed as she presses her back against the wall.

"Shit." he says, already standing and moving to the door to get his shoes and coat. "Are you okay? Are you in a safe place?"

"Girl's bathroom. Same bar." she says, her palm pressed to her forehead.

"I'm coming to get you, Candy. You stay there. Lock the door, alright?" he says, opening up the garage door and rolling out his bike. Venom was rolling through Eddie's brain, learning what he could about what was happening to Candy. He only really knew Eddie was very worried.

"Mmmm kay." she says as he hangs up. She knocks her hand against the door and it doesn't budge so she figures she got it secured. She props herself up against the wall, her feet against the other side of the stall, the walls going all the way down to the floor in each one.  Things got fuzzy after some time passes, she tries to stay awake, but finds herself dozing off.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Eddie asks Candy's assistant as she picks up on the third call.

"Uh yeah?" she says with a clearly unaware tone.

"Someone is putting stuff in the drinks there. Candy is in the bathroom right now. I need you to go check on her. I'm on my way." he says with a more certain and deep tone than she'd ever heard from him. She was used to the boyish and playful Eddie. But this Eddie meant business.

"Oh shit. Okay." she says, eyes wide and a hint of panic in her voice.

"Don't tell me you've been taking drinks from someone besides the bar tender. You're not that stupid." he says as his eyes dart past the cars on the road, knowing Venom was paying attention even if he wasn't.

"No. Uh. I got bought a drink but I hadn't touched it yet." she says. "Wait. Shit."

"Yeah?" Eddie presses.

"Me and Candy were drinking the same thing. I must've given her the new one and not the one she'd had. Fuck." she says as he hears movement in the background. "Hey..." he hears her say softly. "I got her. Well, I see her in there anyway."

"I'm just a few minutes away. Stay with her." he orders and hangs up.

------

After a very long night and having to lose half a day to feeling like absolute garbage Candy recovers. After taking her to the ER with the help of her assistant it wasn't long until the culprit of her sickness was identified and she was given something to keep it spreading and making her worse. Steph sat and held back her hair as she gagged and Eddie sat in the sterile room chewing his nails. He was furious.

After she's cleared, they both take her back home, getting her in bed where Eddie's exhausted body lies next to hers, propped up on a pile of pillows and pulling her to his chest. Steph gets the clear to leave, knowing she's in good hands now.

"Sorry." she mumbles for the thousandth time that day.

"You don't gotta apologize you didn't do nothin'." he says as he has every time. "You got handed the wrong drink. You didn't do anything wrong. It could've been a lot worse. For you or her both."

"I feel so bad." she murmurs against him.

"Go to sleep. Let's go to sleep and we can leave this fuckin' terrible night behind alright?" he says kissing her head, having her rest between his legs, his arms around her.

"'Kay." she whispers, her face nuzzling into the softness of his t-shirt, knowing that for now the worst for over. ------- "Eddie you can't just go out and eat people when someone goes wrong." Candy says exasperatedly with her hands out at her sides in defeat.

"After what they did to you? You don't wanna go out and get revenge?" he asks with a drawn face, leaning in close and speaking in a heavy accent as his anger showed through for the situation.

"I do! But I'm going to try to do an expose on it instead. I'm gonna talk to the network about it and see what I can do. I can do a lot more good that way than just eating some rich pricks."

"I wonder if they taste better or worse." Venom wonders out loud.

"You aren't helping." Candy frowns at the head that hangs above Eddie's shoulder.

"I am on Eddie's side. I want to hurt those who hurt you."

Candy sighs and shuts her eyes a moment, her shoulders slumping. "Listen. I'm trying to go about this the smart way, okay? I'm still worried about people seeing you. In that part of town, there are cameras everywhere. We... all three of us have to be smart about this. We can't go out like a bunch of damn cowboys, guns a blazin' and shoot up the bad guys." she says with a whine.

"But what they tried to do to you..." Eddie says again, his voice breaking with emotion, shaking his head back and forth, turning to pace the floor again.

"I know, babe, I know." she says, moving forward with a huff, turning him back towards her and putting her hands on his face. "But I'm okay. And I'm gonna do something about it alright? Just because we aren't doing something right this minute, doesn't mean we're just letting them get away with it."

He lets out an aggravated exhale.

"I know," she says again slower. "I'm mad too. But we can't act recklessly. We have too much to lose. Right? I don't want to lose you, we don't want to lose Venom. That's what'll happen if you're found out. So let's take it slow, alright? Let me see if there's something I can do first." she says with a pleading tone.

"Kay." he agrees,  his lips tight.

"Thank you. I can't lose you boys. We have to stay together. That means making decisions that don't make all of us happy." she stroke his stubble covered cheeks with her thumbs, leaning in to give him a gentle kiss. "I've got chocolate and beer and food. I can keep you boys distracted tonight. Tomorrow it's back to work and we can go from there alright?"

"Alright." he mumbles.

She mushes his cheeks, pooching out his lips as she smiles up at him. "Thank you." she kisses him again. "Now let's go get some junk food into you." ------- After a thoughtful and heartfelt pitch for an investigative piece on the dangers of drink spiking in the tech community, Candy felt good about the possibilities of shining a light on the particular problem in her city. She waited patiently through the day, all signs from her producer pointing to there not being a problem with doing the piece, as there hadn't been any before.

As Candy washes her hands, checking her hair in the mirror before she leaves work for the day, doing a final touch up to go home to Eddie, her producer walks into the bathroom, her eyes landing on Candy immediately.

"I got word on the piece you wanted to know about." she says, her body language not giving Candy much hope as she walked towards her, her hip against the sink counter as her face stayed indifferent.

"Yeah?" Candy responds with a furrowed brow, crossing her arms over her chest, ready to put up a wall of disappointment.

"The executives don't wanna do it." she says slowly,  her head subtly shaking back and forth.

"Okay?" Candy says, taking a big inhale and exhale, processing the defeat.

"Yeah." the other woman drags out the word, her eyes moving away from Candy's.

"Did they give any reason?" Candy asks with a motion out of her hand.

"They said it would be too graphic."

Candy lets out a loud half mad laugh. "Too graphic?" she pauses, her chin and neck now moving with attitude at the asinine excuse. "On a show where we report murder, sexual assault and violence every week? Too graphic?" she says, leaning forward, her arms back over her chest as her eyes were wide, shaking her head back and forth, her mouth open in astonishment.

"That's the reason they gave." she says with an apologetic smile frown and a sigh. "But..." she begins, then bending over to see if anyone else was in the bathroom that could overhear. She lowers her voice to a whisper, leaning in closer. "I was outside their office while they were discussing it." she says with her eyes shifted up to meet Candy's. "And the truth is that they have donors that are  in the tech scene in town. So they didn't want you causing a scene and getting any of them caught up in it."

"Because any of them that have enough money to donate to a network in their interests are probably pieces of shit too." Candy says with a knowing nod, her face fallen but her mind still racing behind her eyes.

"Yeah I know." she says with the same sad smile, patting Candy's arm. "I'm really sorry about what happened to you. I wish we could do something but..." she shrugs and points upwards.

"Yeah." Candy nods and straightens her posture back out. "Yeah, I know. Thanks. I'm not mad at you just... the whole sitution."

"You filed a report and everything though right?"

"Yeah, when we went to the hospital." she says while her eyes move across the busily tiled floor.

"Maybe something will come of it."

"Even if it does they'll buy their way out like they always do." she shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "Sorry, I know you're trying to be helpful I'm just... pissed." she says with a broad gesture of both her hands.

"I get it. You headed home now?" she asks, pushing herself away from the counter.

"Yeah. At least I got Eddie to take my aggression out on." she gives a half-hearted laugh.

"Lucky man." she smiles and says before leaving Candy alone.

She lets out a loud and angry sigh, her hands resting on the wet and speckled countertop, her hair hanging over her face. "Shit." she whispers out. "UGH!" she lets out from her gut, face towards the ceiling. "Such BULLSHIT!" she lets out loudly, her hands pushing her hair out of her face and kicking a garbage bin nearby.

----------

Every movement is followed through with a punctuation of anger. Her feet hit the ground heavier, she slams the car door to get some form of satisfaction as she gets in the car to head home.

"Something is wrong." Venom says, his previously blobby and lax head sitting next to Eddie's on his shoulder as they watched tv to wait for their girlfriend to come home.

"Huh?" Eddie grunts, his posture straightening as he snaps out of the daze he'd fallen into while staring at the television but thinking about something else.

"Candy." he states, as he moves to face the doorway.

As soon as the door shuts with a heavy and hard bang, Eddie's eyes go a bit wide and he catches on to what Venom is bringing his attention to. She stomps into the archway between the living room and the hallway, her worn ballet flats angry against the fake hardwood floors.

She takes a deep breath, her shoulders squared and fists balled at her sides before looking back and forth between the curious sets of eyes that looked her way. "We'll do it your way." she says, her eyes moving to the floor in failure.

"Do what?" Eddie asks, his mouth hanging ajar slightly.

"The tech guys. Let's just...fuckin kill them." she says with her hands thrown into the air in an outburst of all the negative emotions pent up inside her.

"Woah. Wait, why?" he says, body now engaged and rising from the couch as his brow furrows in question.

"I tried doing it the "right" way." she says with a response filled with attitude and annoyance, her fingers doing air quotes. "And they shut me down. So..." she sighs and shakes her head, her shoulders slumping.

"They won't do the story?" he asks, his voice cracking in his turn of high pitch. He moves towards his girlfriend cautiously as if she really might hurt him, even though he knew she never would.

"They have money invested in the network.  I was told it was too graphic of an issue to cover, but that's just a lie to cover up that they don't want their little free reign interrupted."

"Ah." Eddie nods slowly.

"But you would not let us eat them previously." Venom's voice is full of questions.

"I know that. I was trying to not jump straight to murder, you know?" she says with a slack jaw and delivery full of bitterness. "If I could've had the bigger platform I could've..." she stops mid-sentence and sighs. "Doesn't matter now." she shakes her head as if she were swinging the thoughts directly out her mind. "They want to try to hide behind their money. I want them to know their money can't save them." her face is held in almost wide-eyed innocence, full of vengeful intent with a good reason behind it.

"Eat the rich." Venom says, raising up like he was moving to his haunches, now a more fully embodied head and neck over Eddie's body.

"Where'd you learn that?" she asks, clearly impressed.

"We were learning about capitalism." Eddie says, his eyes wandering around the room in thought.

Candy would find an alien lifeform learning about the complex oppressive structures of governments on earth to be rather amusing if she hadn't felt so angry and betrayed. "I guess that means you know what a guillotine is then huh?" Eddie sees her eyes dark as they look past him to his symbiote.

"Yes. Viva La Revolucion!" Venom says with a large toothy smile.

"You want to be the guillotine for those assholes who tried to drug me?" she asks, looking directly at Venom. He begins to snake towards her and she steps closer to him, leaving Eddie to feel like a bystander in his own body.

"I do. I want to eat their heads separate from their bodies. I want to pile them up and see them, count them before we devour them for means beyond energy." Venom quivers with excitement as he sees nothing but approval in Candy's eyes. He and Eddie both have never seen her look so wild before. Venom loved it, but Eddie was hesitant. He knew she was angry, and rightfully so, as was he. But he found himself hesitant to bring her into his buried guilt with killing people. They did it to only those that deserved it but he wasn't sure how Candy would react once she got into the grit with them. The idea of killing someone is far different than actually doing it.

"And I want to be there when you do it." she says with eyes that beam fearless and bold into Venom's large opalescent ones. He breathes loudly, mouth opening and revealing his tongue, dripping with drool in his excitement much like a dog's.

"Let us do this for you Candy. Our sweet, previous Candy." he says, a tentacle-like appendage reaching out and caressing the side of her face tenderly. "We will kill anyone who dares to hurt you. We shall start with these men. You will be avenged." his thundering rumble of a voice is soothing as it vibrated across her skin.

Eddie felt the affection in Venom's words despite their dark promises. "We'll get 'em for ya babe. But are you sure you wanna be around for it?" Eddie asks, his hand reaching out and taking Candy's attention from Venom's looming face, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, I do. If we're going to be in this together, I want to be a part of this." her voice is softer now as she nods subtly, lacing her fingers through his as she stands toe to toe with him. "I want to know every dark and grimy part of the world as you see it. We're in this together. I'd kill for you two too you know." she says, her eyes still dark but her face set in a soft feminine expression that makes his heart thump in adoration for it. "Let's do this together, Eddie." she whispers, giving him an affirming nod.

He wets his lips, a series of small nods as his eyes move away from her for a moment before returning to her open and honest face. "Yeah. Together. For you." he says softly, lowering his chin to her before she leans up to confirm their plan with a kiss.

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