#and eddies just so used to venom's appendages coming out of him and moving around and brushing against him

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS I A VENOMOUS INTERLUDE

Did y'all know symbrock is canon? Well, now you do. Reader's favourite deadbeat surrogate uncle is in town and he brought a... Friend. No warnings, just a boatload of crack and fluff, as usual. Reader being mouthy. Takes place a little bit into the future - around after chapter 32: spoiler alert is useless because we already know a tonybrucestrange/reader quartet is the endgame. 💖💝✨

"What," I had to pause for a second for my brain to catch up with my eyes. "The fuck?!"

It was truly a miracle I could say anything out loud, at all. Words weren't valid enough to describe my shock and confusion. The scene unfolding in front of me resembled and unholy cross between a B-rated horror movies about demonic possession and some deep-sea Eldritch monstrosity.

The eight-feet tall black, oozing dude in front of me? Yes, you, with the teeth. Ctulhu called, he wants his tentacles back.

The creature honest to god rippled, like some nightmare-fuel goth Jell-O, rapidly shrinking in size within seconds. As more of the black tar-like substance receded, a much more human form started to appear under it. Worn jeans, leather jacket, ungroomed beard and the look of a biker gang member coming off a serious bender.

"Uh, Princess?"

"Eddie. Fucking. Brock. Uncle Idiot." I punctuated each word with an increasing widening of my eyes. The world was fucking nuts. Two and two did not compute - Eddie might have looked threatening to some people - like white suburban Karens - even without the... Gooey squid-on-steroids thing he had going on. The man was built like a fucking brick shithouse, but I knew him way too well. Eddie couldn't be that badass to save a life.

"You two know each other?" Tony shrieked indignantly, a coarseness in his voice that indicated only one thing: my boo was well into his third drink. Hell, I didn't blame him - that gaping toothy maw was fucking gnarly.

Hands on my hips, I caught myself slipping into a mute rage, storming over to the 200lbs worth of pure dumbass and knocking him right in the face. "You! Didn't tell! ME!" A black tendril wrapped around my wrist, carefully but firmly securing it and preventing me from causing my non-related uncle any more physical damage. Although I must admit, my knuckles probably were more affected than his jaw. "You! Are! A MUTANT!!! HOW COULD YOU?! How could you NOT tell ME?"

I trusted the man with my soul and most embarrassing drinking stories. Hell, I called Eddie in a stoned haze the very same night I lost my v-card. I just thought we were bros, you know? I saw his whole fucking life implode more than once and personally flew to California to ice his injuries and his hurt ego countless times. I was done dirty in the worst way.

"I'm not-" Eddie's sigh was long-suffering. "I, uh, I have a parasite..." He sounded meek, in the same way he used to describe his drunkenly misconduct when I made our family driver bail out his ass outta jail in the morning.

"TAKE THAT BACK!" A deep gravelly voice thundered, seemingly coming out of his chest?

"Okay, okay," Eddie smiled. It was strangely soft and un-eddie-like. The only person he smiled like that was... used to be Anne. "This is Venom. They're an alien and we're, uh, a thing. It's a recent development." The tentacle unwrapped itself from me as I took an involuntary step back.

Even barring the fact that Eddie was dating an alien, this was way too fucking weird for 3 o'clock on a Sunday. I always knew the reporter was, for the lack of a better word, a little weird but he really took it to new heights. With Thor and Loki looking... Like that, I could see a human dating some sort of a hot alien. But with Ctulhu looking the way he did just minutes ago? Did Eddie seriously let all of those teeth in close proximity of his dick?

I had a "ERROR 404, common sense not found" hanging over me for the longest time. The others were quiet behind me, too, even Tony - one of my boyfriends, the most likely to cause utter chaos, was hanging back and expecting me to do something.

"Venom," I clarified, just to fill the silence with some noise while my brain processors re-synced.

"WE ARE VENOM." The tentacle that was sleek and black now had two completely white eyes and a smaller-scale version of the toothy grin that had drooled all over the common room carpet. Their voice had an interesting effect: it was so deep, the air around them vibrated slightly when they spoke.

I tilted my head examining the appendage. It was considerably less terrifying when it wasn't five times my size. "What are you?" And most importantly, are you a threat to my favourite non-related family member? I left that statement unspoken although it was obvious I was ready to fight it? Them? If need be.

"A SYMBIOTE," They replied, swaying the head-tentacle slowly. "WE LOVE EDDIE AND KEEP HIM ALIVE AND HEALTHY." So, they understood the actual question.

"Which is fucked up because Klyntar usually behave in the opposite way." Hearing Thor swear was, perhaps, even more unsettling than finding out about the symbiote-alien-boyfriend thing my uncle had going on. The thunderer himself was nursing a jug of golden liquid. The good Asgardian stuff, he must've been really fucking bamboozled.

"Okay. So anybody wanna fill me on the details before I beat up my favourite idiot?" I sighed, pointedly looking at Tony.

"I thought I was your favourite idiot!" He immediately retorted, hurt, but nonetheless opened his arms to give me a grounding embrace. We may have sucked face for a few seconds, because why the hell not, Tony was an amazing kisser and his tongue down my throat was very calming.

"Hold up, what the fuck?" Now it was Eddie's turn to act all offended. "Aren't you a little too young for him?"

"You and your most likely carnivorous goth space pudding can fuck right off if you're not going to be supportive of my very inappropriate, very polyamorous relationship with three incredibly hot boomers," I shot back, slipping into some resemblance of normalcy. Me and Eddie go way, way back and shitting on each other's bad life decisions was the founding stone of our bromance. Hell, he was the guy who showed me the wonders of sarcasm at an early age! Wonderbaum!

"There's three of them?" Eddie's voice pitched and he gaped, palming his face.

"SHE HAS A POINT, EDDIE. WE EAT PEOPLE. BEING UNSUPPORTIVE WOULD MAKE US LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE." Eddie's buddy stated, sounding almost fed up. So, they were sentient enough to recognize how much of a pain in the ass Eddie could be. I could work with that, disregarding the cannibalism comment, of course. What the fuck was up with that?

"Yes, Eddie, I also periodically bump uglies and trade disgustingly sweet text messages with the Hulk and a badass wizard," I rolled my eyes at the reporter's following gasp and angry muttering. "Venom, I like you."

"WE RETURN THE SENTIMENT. YOUR CHOICE IN MATES IS VERY WISE, CONSIDERING YOU ARE A WEAK MORSEL. THEY CAN PROTECT YOU."

"Shut up, Squid. I'll still kick your motherfucking ass if you hurt Eddie."

The emo space goo laughed, a terse scratching noise, showing way, way too many teeth for me to feel comfortable but I allowed myself to be placed on the couch between Tony and Eddie nonetheless. The initial shock of seeing a talking octopod with fangs passed quickly - I've seen Stephen's "trophies" he brought from his otherworldly journeys and Lovecraftian horrors were, honestly, pretty low on the gross/creepy scale.

"Both of you, explain. For the love of fuck," Tony sighed, emotionally exhausted and drained of his usual bravado.

"Eddie was my dad's friend until he moved to Cali, I've know him for fifteen years, give or take. He taught me how to ride a bike and bake the best pot brownies," I shrugged. There wasn't much to say. "I visited him whenever I could but you know, with school and then you guys, there wasn't that much time to iron out the details." I have Eddie a death glare, pointing to Venom's floaty head with my eyes.

Eddie nodded. "What she said..." And then launched an elaborate tale about some company called Life Foundation, some evil dude named Drake and his own alien pudding named Carnage, who was one ugly motherfucker judging by Eddie's and Venom's combined "ew" face, their aching need for human brains to survive and other, more trivial things, like mental breakdowns in a lobster tank and getting dumped by a fiancé and eating their way through a HYDRA base after being captured and tortured. What a wild fucking ride.

"Sounds like you had a rough year," Everybody's dumbfounded silence was ended by Tony who took a slow swig of his whiskey before speaking.

"Yeah, no shit," Eddie muttered, twisting his black coated fingers in elaborate but frankly pretty shapes. His alien wrapped around his neck like a tube scarf and additional tentacles appeared between Eddie's hands, gently prying them open and enveloping them in a sort of a hug? It was hard to compute, the black mass appeared to be totally amorphous.

"How's your anxiety?" I asked, damn well knowing Eddie's mind tended to run like Tony's: zero to sixty in point five with no clear destination. Having an alien inside of him must've really thrown Eddie for a loop.

"It's, uh, better. Venom helps," The reporter admitted, still staring at his hands but the crease between his brows had disappeared and the expression he wore was kind of fond.

"Good. You know, Venom," I thoughtfully addressed the definitely sentient creature. "Eddie is a bigger dumbass than me, which is saying something. You ought to keep a really close eye on him. If not for me, he'd probably be dead from alcohol poisoning, like, years ago."

"WE ARE AWARE. WE CAN ACCESS EDDIE'S MEMORIES." A head manifested itself on a thicker tentacle, floating over to look me in the face but maintaining a respectful distance and staying out of my personal space bubble. "AND WE ARE THANKFUL. EDDIE IS THE PERFECT HOST. WE LOVE EDDIE."

I felt the corner of my mouth tilt upwards at the alien's proclamation. It was child-like in its blunt honesty but carried a certain weight with it. It told me whoever tries to separate those two in any way would get eaten faster than they could say "SIKE!". And honestly? I would help Venom hide the evidence.

"I literally had you for thirty minutes but I would kill everybody and then myself if you two got hurt. This is too soft, I can't." I snorted, extending a curious hand towards Venom. They looked so shiny. I had to touch them.

And they let me. Venom butted their head into my palm and let me gently run my fingers over their slightly cool, slippery flesh. It felt like putting my hands on a surprisingly sturdy yet bouncy piece of flubber. I purposely avoided the small maw and the endless rows of sharp teeth but managed to accidentally brush against something rough and scratchy - as it turned out, the Symbiote had a very long, very dexterous tongue. And didn't that give me a bunch of interesting mental images.

"Oh my God, NO!" Wanda moaned from somewhere, the voice mortified and disgusted.

"Why are you touching the people-eating alien?" Bruce yelped, entering the room with several people in tow. The scientist looked worried, a little bit green around the edges. The tablet in his hands beeped periodically, signifying the ongoing sciencing bender he was in process of.

"WE WOULD NOT EAT THIS HUMAN. WE ARE FOND OF THE MORSEL." Venom defended, well, venomously. Eddie wisely choose to stay silent, trading a knowing look with Tony.

Stephen Strange sighed, briefly closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with a jagged movement. "One day, Princess, one day you will stop collecting people that are obviously bad for your health and your future. That, or space in the tower will simply run out." With a deeper, calmer sigh, the sorcerer landed in front of me on the floor, sitting cross-legged and subtly begging for a head scratch. Which meant just placing his always neatly trimmed curls under my free hand. His jealousy was about as subtle as a foot in the face.

"I'll just ask Tony to build more floors, duh," I rolled my eyes with force at the obvious solution, giving into Steph's demands, beginning to card through his hair. It was calming both of us, really.

Bruce came over to give me a kiss and my other boyfriends didn't even grumble about the scientist placing himself in my lap, crawling over both Tony and Stephen to get comfortable.

Our dynamic was unconventional and more than a little weird, but it worked for us and the rest of the team most certainly didn't complain about the vast decrease in conflict that came with the territory. Come to think of it, all of us were more tactile than just a group of friends sharing a house and I was very much on board with that. None of us except select few (looking at you, mister doctor) were hugged enough as children and we were making up for it in spades right fucking now.

"Girl has a type," Wanda remarked, like the messy little shit she was. I stuck out my tongue in retaliation.

The Avengers' brain trust began talking about Venom's slightly inconvenient diet that directly resulted in multiple felonies for one Edward Brock, and as much as I tried to follow the flow and make my own, however feeble, contributions to the scientific side of the conversation, the new life form was much more interesting. I asked Venom several questions and they deemed them acceptable enough to answer - which evolved on both of us absolutely geeking out over the differences in our physiology. The space pudding didn't hold back one bit, insulting the inferior human biology with gleeful gusto.

"They need a chemical called phenethylamine," Bruce sighed, having deduced it through discussion since Venom and Eddie both protested aggressively against any kind of invasive testing. "I can synthesize it. No more head-chomping, no more murder."

It made perfect sense. Except it didn't. "Brucie-bear, you're a brilliant fucking scientist but a shit psychologist." I interrupted whatever came next. "Venom is a person, like me and you and, yes, even Hulk. Tell me this: if you found a way to get rid of Hulk, would you stop sciencing in the gamma radiation field?" I looked my boyfriend straight in the eyes, hoping for a spark of common sense. "Do you see my point? You science, Tony engineers, Steve draws and Clint bakes. Venom hunts. It's who they are, you can't give them a pill to make it go away."

The weight of my word landed in the room like lead, heavy. The only source of sound was the TV, playing the news quietly in the background for the longest time. Those few minutes felt like hours until Thor expectantly turned towards Eddie/Venom.

"IT IS SO. WE ARE AFRAID WE CANNOT INFLUENCE OUR INSTINCT TO HUNT PREY. KLYNTAR ARE APEX PREDATORS." The little black goop sounded almost apologetic. It was hard to hear undertones with their voice being so deep and grating. "BUT WE CAN TRY." Okay, I could totally hear the hope. Finding out the Eldritch horror could make puppy eyes was... Terrifying, to be honest, because they fucking worked.

"Got any better ideas?" Tony asked me sarcastically.

"I do, actually." I leveled a look with Natasha. She understood. "HYDRA goons. The aliens that, for some reason, keep invading New York every month or so. Stephen's adventures in Hell. Do I need to continue?"

"Wait, hold on," Steve raised his palms. "We don't kill HYDRA, we deposit them in SHIELD custody."

I snorted at the naïve Captain. "And what do you think happens to them there? Did you honestly think they just let torturing, murdering, world-domination planning psychos back on the streets?"

Steve frowned in confusion. "They go to prison?"

Natasha choose that moment to step up. "It's not uncommon for them to possess certain enhancements to be deemed too dangerous to be released back into society. Some of them are low-tier mutants and inhumans. Trust me, Steve, the lethal injection is a much more humane treatment than solitary life imprisonment in a ultra-high security prison." Romanoff stated with a trace of compassion. "And some mutants, we can't contain for prolonged periods of time." She added quietly, looking away.

Rogers was staring blankly into the wall, mulling over the information in his head. His intensive thought process was plainly visible on his face. I heard about some kind of fiasco with HYDRA agents suicide-bombing a city in Europe few years ago and Steve was there, along with Wanda and Sam.

"Venom is a whole person, and even if they look like they could be the main character in Call of Ctulhu video game, we can't just disregard them like they are some kind of badly behaving pet. They're my honorary uncle's boyf-sorry-significant other, for fuck's sake," I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "Y'all should know I don't fuck with people who give shit to one of my own. Don't disappoint me like that." I finished, feeling more tired than I had in months. I didn't regret giving into the found family dynamic, however I didn't exactly sign up for hard choices like them vs my long lost uncle, y'know?

Great, now I had a headache and three very concerned boyfriends glaring at me for unknown reasons. The urge to pace always manifested strongly within me as the emotional atmosphere rose in the room. With Bruce dangling off my lap, I couldn't do even that and I felt the restlessness blossom into irritation more and more with each passing second of my existence.

Eddie remained silent, looking down. Venom had mostly receded into the reporter's body, save for a few tentacles tightly wrapped around Eddie's palm.

"Alright," Steve suddenly said. "We can work with that."

"Princess, you look like you're either going to cry or yell any second," Bruce said softly, squeezing my shoulder and pulling me closer.

I immediately hid my face in his chest, taking several deep, shaky breaths. "Eddie is family. Y'all are family. It's terrifying to have to choose between the two." I said, after a brief moment of hesitation.

The reporter made some sort of a choked gasp, quickly masking it with a cough - I knew him way too well to miss the way he was fighting back tears of his own. Bruce understood, he really did understand me - hopped off my lap and let me hug Eddie properly, my happy-sad tears soaking through the collar of his tee.

"You're, uh, welcome to stay. I'll have a guest room prepared." Tony cleared his throat, passing his half-finished glass to Stephen who swallowed the liquid in one gulp. My boyfriends were so fucking emotionally illiterate. Disaster humans.

Huh, I really did have a type.

Later that night, I made the mistake of barging into Eddie's room with a bottle of really fancy whiskey I liberated from Tony's overstocked liquor cabinet. Visiting my uncle and boozing and smoking on the balcony, for old times sake, was my plan and...

I failed the mission successfully.

I didn't bother knocking. As soon as I saw a pair of bare feet, my eyes traveled further up on the couch on their own volition. There were so many tentacles, a writhing, oozing silky black mass and Eddie was making sounds, unmistakable noises-

"UNSEE. UNSEE. OH MY GOD, UNSEE, UNSEE." I stumbled back into the common room shivering.

"What happened, is everything okay?" Bucky stood up as soon as he saw me enter the doorway with my face scrunched in a grimace of regret. I felt like I've gone through the five stages of grief in the shortest time possible for a human being.

Somwhere, I heard Wanda's sudden moan full of pain and misery. "Please, stop THINKING about it!"

"Brain bleach, oh my God," I cringed. "Where's the Clorox?! I have decided I don't need my eyeballs-"

"Oooh," Tony's proverbial lightbulb lit up. The engineer sounded like he was about five seconds away from building a space ship and permanently moving to another planet. "They're together-together..." Tony intercepted me nonetheless, doing the most effective thing to make me stop speaking and thinking bullshit. He kissed me. With lots of tongue.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95

#party favours #bun writes #tony stark x reader #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #eddie brock #venom #stephen strange x y/n #tony stark x y/n #bruce banner x y/n #tony stark x you #bruce banner x you #stephen strange x you #venom is babey fight me

[not-close-to-straight]

More Than Words (Thirteen)

Ho-ho-holy long chapter, guys. The boys work through their newest level of intimacy with their patented brand of disaster flirting, Peter learns more about Wade’s past/ Vanessa/ Eddie and Venom and makes a sort of sweet confession to his Alpha, then we top it all off with some fluffy goodness. I love love demisexual!Pete. 

Generic TW for mentions of violence related to Wade’s past and Eddie/Venom. Violence/gore to some extent is canon to both those characters, but it’s just mentioned and moved on from in this chapter. Eddie/Venom’s story is heartbreaking in this verse, so mind the additional warnings in chapter. 

MTW MASTERLIST HERE

********************* “Go back to sleep, Pete.” Wade mumbled. “S’too fuckin’ early for you to be looking at me so much. I can feel you staring.” 

“The hell you can.” Came the pert reply. “Your eyes are closed, you don’t know what I’m doing.” 

“How are you this sassy this early in the morning?” Wade rolled to his back and opened his eyes purposefully wide. “There, now my eyes are open and would you look at that? You’re staring at me. Go back to sleep.” 

“Can’t sleep.” Peter pillowed his chin onto Wade’s chest, but when the Alpha’s gaze flickered in concern, he corrected, “I don’t want to sleep. I’ve only been awake a few minutes, though. I slept last night, don’t worry.” 

“Glad you slept, baby boy.” Wade let his arm rest over the Omega’s shoulders, holding Peter comfortably close. “So why are you staring at me?” 

“Cos you’re gorgeous.” Peter shrugged as if the reply made all the sense in the world , and turned his head so his ear lay over his mate’s heart. “Why wouldn’t I stare?” 

“Sure, Pete.” The Alpha chuckled quietly and closed his eyes again. “Whatever you say. I’m surprised you’re even coherent right now, hard as you went under for me last night.” 

“I was pretty far gone, wasn't I?” Newly acquired habit had Peter tracing the still raised scars at Wade’s side where the mountain lion had ripped into him. “Felt good, though. Felt like coming home after being gone for a long time, like-- like settling. Diving into the ocean and not being afraid of drowning even though I can’t breathe. I dunno, it’s hard to explain.” 

“Thought you said it felt like flying.” Wade rubbed his thumb over the Omega’s bonding spot, moving carefully over the bruised bite mark. “What’s with all the different descriptions now?” 

“Are you saying I can’t describe how you make me feel in two different ways?” Peter pinched at Wade’s side in playful exasperation. “I’m a journalist, Alpha. A writer. I’ve got a hundred different ways to describe any given circumstance, so don’t test me cos I’ll unleash them all.” 

“Don’t test you.” Wade chuckled again. “Brat.” 

The Omega leaned into another pass at his bonding spot and trilled encouragingly when Wade lingered over the bite. “Doesn’t hurt, you know. Just feels good.” 

“You’re lying.” Wade felt gingerly around the twin punctures. “That has to hurt, sweetheart. I bit you real hard and outta heat you don’t get all the hormones to take the pain away. You’re gonna be black and blue for a few days.” 

“It doesn’t hurt.” Peter maintained and he meant every word. “Just feels good, just feels like…” he hesitated. “...you. Worth the bruising.” 

“Worth the bruising, huh?” The Alpha dropped his free hand to Pete’s butt and used it as leverage to haul his mate up along his body. The moment they were face to face, he planted a firm kiss on Peter’s lips and asked, “Does that mean I can bite you some more?” 

It was a deceptively loaded question-- a quiet check on the bounds of their new enough, a not subtle request to do everything about last night all over again, an acknowledgement that maybe last night was further than either had planned to go, and the chance to talk about what happened before the day intruded and conversation was shelved for later. 

A deceptively loaded question and Peter smiled when he read all the extras in his mate’s eyes. 

“A thousand steps, right?” He smoothed his index finger along Wade’s jawline, tapped lightly at the Alpha’s nose. “Between knowing we are meant to be together and actually bonding.” 

“That’s right.” The Alpha turned his nose into Peter’s palm and left a tiny kiss on his fingers. “A thousand steps.” 

“MJ would never let me live this down.” Peter’s cheeks went pink with anticipation. “But yes Alpha, please bite me some more.” 

Wade growled right on cue, flashing his hooked fangs and making the Omega shriek in surprise and then laugh out loud at him. “Oooh, scary vicious Alpha. Please bite me.” 

“Maybe once you’re healed up and not so sore.” Wade licked over the sharp points, then tugged Peter in for another quick kiss. “Why would MJ never let you live something like that down? What’s wrong with admitting you like your mate to bite you?” 

“Ugh, it’s stupid.” Peter settled back onto Wade’s broad chest, nuzzling at the Alpha’s throat and leaving a tiny bite of his own. “The day before I went to meet Cable, MJ was swooning over the Alpha in my romance novel. He’s fanged and has entirely too many muscles and awkwardly prominent nipples--” 

Wade snorted a laugh and the Omega grinned. “--and she was saying how much fun it would be to reduce an Alpha to their basest instincts and have them push you up against a door and you know… grrrr.” 

“Fuck, your growl is so sweet.” The Alpha’s hips lifted helplessly in an instant, interested reaction to the noise from his mate and Peter ground back into him for a few seconds, breath stuttering as he felt Wade thicken beneath him. “Do it again and then keep talking.” 

“I think if I give my ultra scary growl again, there won’t be much talking at all.” Peter decided and Wade shrugged in unrepentant agreement. “Anyway, she said all that, I accused her of just being a horny Omega in need of a good knotting--” 

“--and here you are wanting to be bitten.” Wade finished, and even though he couldn’t see the Omega’s face at the moment, he knew from experience that Peter’s blush had darkened. “Does this mean I can call you a horny Omega and accuse you of needing a good knotting?”

“Do that and you might get bit where you don’t wanna get bit.” Peter threatened. “Let’s see how much of that particular appendage grows back!” 

The Alpha made a high pitched, hilariously girly noise of outright fear, promptly letting go of his mate to cover more sensitive areas while the Omega all but cackled in delight at having won the upper hand in the conversation. 

Wade muttered and grumbled at being threatened in his own house, but eventually he settled down and after receiving a conciliatory kiss on the cheek, even turned them in bed so they were tangled up together, nose to nose and forehead to forehead. 

For a while all was quiet in the cabin, Alpha and Omega content to lie together in the early morning stillness and bask in the newness of their new normal. It was a relief to be laughing together again, comforting to hold each other all night long. There was an undercurrent of arousal lingering in their scents after the previous evening, but despite the nudity and occasional kisses, both lay relaxed and at ease together. 

Wade lifted his chin to leave a kiss on Peter’s forehead and to breathe in his mate’s changing scent, possessiveness flashing through his core when he scented lines of cedar again. Peter’s scent was changing to resemble Wade’s own earthier tones and when the Omega made a surprised noise and cuddled closer over Wade’s bonding spot, he knew Peter had discovered the sweetness winding through the usual dark of licorice as well.

“You smell good today, my mate.” The Omega left an open mouthed kiss over Wade’s pulse. “Stay in bed a little longer with me.” 

Wade didn’t answer, not out loud at least, but Peter hummed happily when the Alpha’s grip tightened at his side and Wade’s scent mellowed in contentment. 

He felt as if he could read everything from his Alpha today, every heart beat more clear and each breath more defined than Peter had ever noticed before. Every inch of Wade seemed important, from the length of Wade’s legs to the span of his chest, the callouses on the Alpha’s palms and the oddly familiar texture to the Alpha’s skin. 

Peter’s neck was throbbing from the bites and even the bit of pain twisted into awareness of his mate-- the curve of fangs and prick of dangerous edges, hazel eyes flashing red and a growl that got deeper the more Wade wanted. 

That line of thought sent warmth skittering down the Omega’s spine, spreading into his core and settling as an ache between his legs, and the Alpha shifted next to him, murmuring, “Easy, my mate.” when Peter’s scent hazed in desire. “What are you thinking about?” 

“N-nothing.” Peter bit his lip to quiet a little gasp, and tried for a more offended tone, “My thoughts are none of your business, nosy Alpha.” 

“Ridiculous.” Wade left a quick swat on Peter’s rear and the Omega giggled. “Tell me why you scent so sweet.” 

“I wasn’t really thinking about anything.” Peter admitted after a moment. “Just about how much I can feel from you this morning. Last night you asked me if I could feel you, and I thought it would be the same as before, but it’s more this morning. I can feel so much of you.” 

“I can feel a lot from you too.” Wade slid his hand up Peter’s back to tangle in his hair. “And you don’t need to tell me everything you’re thinking, there’s only one reason your scent changes like that. Settle before you make me crazy, alright?” 

“I’m settling.” Peter promised, and this time when his scent changed it was with a swell of wonder at the strength of their still growing bond. 

For most of his life, Peter always assumed a bond was just a bite and a knot, the necessary physical joining of bodies to consummate a legal union. He’d known some couples who had never bonded at all, rings sparkling on their fingers but no silvered mating bite at their throats, and he hadn’t seen a difference between those relationships and others marked with teeth. 

In a world where scent matching didn’t exist, and biologies were muted with suppressants and blockers, Peter had decided mating was completely unnecessary for a successful, long term relationship. There was no valid reason for someone to wear a mark of ownership other than a ring, what was the point of an Omega willingly giving an Alpha the chance to influence so much of their hormones and emotions and day to day life? 

Marriage gave plenty of that, there didn’t need to be a biological component as well. 

And perhaps that was still true for some people-- mating less necessary than marriage, perhaps neither set of vows necessary at all. Peter hadn’t planned to do either of those things but here he was snuggled in bed with Wade his Alpha his mate, and Peter had never been so sure this was exactly what he wanted. 

These few months with Wade had made it plainly obvious to the Omega that mating was more than a simple bite and a knot. It was making room for that person in every aspect of life, it was feeling thoughts align and heartbeats sync and scents combine, it was wanting to know everything about them and more importantly, being allowed to know everything. 

Bonding meant that questions were answered and the searching was over, that the pang of empty would be filled, bonding meant safety and security, bonding meant knowing and being known and even without a silver mark at his throat, even without having experienced the weight of his Alpha’s knot--

“This is exactly what I want. What I was searching for my whole life. I can’t believe I finally found you.” 

Peter didn’t mean to say the words out loud, but the Alpha heard the barely there whisper anyway and his entire being surged in happiness.

“My mate.” he answered in the same, nearly inaudible whisper and because there wasn’t any words to do the moment justice, Wade simply pressed Peter back into the pillows and fit his teeth over his Omega’s bonding spot, re-breaking skin and tasting blood all over again. 

It hurt but the pain turned to drugging pleasure within a breath, and both Alpha and Omega moaned at the spark that resonated through their bodies. Last night Peter had arched into the bite and begged for more but this morning he went pliant and submissive beneath his Alpha, slim fingers gentle at Wade’s scalp as quiet permission to stay, one long leg hooked around Wade’s knee as a silent plea to never let go. 

I love you. 

My mate. 

Mine. 

“I’m sorry about using an Alpha command on you by the way.” Wade said later, after they’d dragged themselves from bed and got ready for the day. “I um-- I don’t like that sorta thing and to be honest, nowadays you get in a lotta trouble for forcin’ an Omega’s biology against them like that. You know I didn’t mean any harm and I’m real glad it all worked out, but I’m sorry all the same. I won't do it again.” 

“I know you didn’t mean any harm.” Peter answered promptly, pushing aside his questions about what sort of trouble Alpha’s got into for using commands, and reassuring his mate, “And you’re right, it all worked out. I settled and hushed and last night was amazing. It’s fine.” 

“I won’t do it again.” the Alpha repeated. “I promise.” 

“Well-l-l-l--” Peter buttoned his coat and shrugged. “Here’s something I never thought I would say. But I don’t mind if you tell me what to do sometimes, Alpha. You’d never hurt me.

“No.” Wade said immediately. “I sure wouldn’t. But Pete, I won’t--”

“I’m not saying you have to.” Peter stepped close to his mate and stood on his toes to kiss Wade sweetly. “I’m saying I trust you not to hurt me. Now come on. That goat’s gonna headbutt me half down the mountain if we don’t get in there and milk her.” 

“Fine.” Wade hooked an arm around Peter’s waist and yanked him close for another kiss, bruising the Omega’s bottom lip with his fangs. “But then we should--” 

His eyes widened when Peter’s scent rocked with arousal. “P-Pete? What’s up?” 

“Chores.” Peter squeaked and turned on his heel, practically running out the door to the barn and leaving one confused and halfway to turned on Alpha behind in the cabin. 

“Uhhhh… wow.” 

*************

*************

“This is nice.” The next afternoon, Peter knelt and ran his hand over a fur rug that definitely hadn’t been on the floor that morning, and looked up at his mate curiously. “Where did you get this? Do you have more storage I don’t know about? I feel like I would have noticed a big bearskin rug before now.” 

“I keep it wrapped up and boxed in the lean to.” Wade passed his flask to Peter, watching with a smirk as his mate took a very tiny, very cautious sip of the moonshine. “Few years ago I helped some trappers that got caught up in a storm, let them hunker down in the cabin for a few days. They didn’t have much by way of supplies so I shared mine, and in return, they gave me this rug. It’s worth all sorts’a money down in the city, but I kept it instead. The money doesn’t do me a whole lot of good since I never leave Haven, and now it fits just right in the cabin.” 

“Huh.” The Omega said a quiet prayer of relief that the rug wasn’t one with head and teeth and claws included, and turned a corner over to look at the stitching on the other side. “Well why’d you bring it in now?” 

“Is this gonna bother you like dealing with the chickens bothered you?” 

Peter smiled at the reminder of how panicked he’d been-- how close to veganism he’d been-- those first few days and shook his head. “No. I never felt any certain way about fur products. I never used them because I’d look frankly ridiculous in a fur coat, and taxidermy makes me uncomfortable but this rug doesn’t have eyes so no worries.” 

Wade grunted in approval, and the Omega repeated, “Why did you bring it out now? It’s been cold for weeks, why the sudden need for a bear skin rug?” 

“You spent a whole week staring at that spot.” Wade nodded towards the now covered area in front of the fire where he’d died. “And you don’t stare at it a whole lot now but I caught you looking at it last night and you uh--” the Alpha shook his head. “--you looked so sad, Pete. Figured it was about time I did something about it.” 

“You’ve done plenty about me being sad.” Peter’s hand went automatically to his neck, to the still fresh bruise from yesterday morning. “I don’t need a rug--” 

“I don’t want you to look at anything in here and feel sad.” Wade interrupted. “So we got a new rug and now we can sit here at night and talk and kiss and hold each other, maybe you’ll go all soft and floaty for me and we’ll get some good memories right in this spot, alright?” 

Oh. 

“My Alpha, you’re so sweet.” Peter jumped up and kissed his Alpha soundly. “Thank you. I have an idea how we can start on all that right away.” 

“Oh yeah?” Wade raised his eyebrows, hazel eyes sparking red in anticipation. Even with their new enough, nothing more than kisses had happened in a few days, and the Alpha was beyond ready for more. “What did you have in mind?” 

The Omega held up a small tub of lotion in one hand and oh Wade’s heart rate tripled--

--and then Peter held up his notebook in his other hand and announced, “I have a million questions about you and your healing and your past!” 

Cockblocked by curiosity. That’s a new one. Wade’s heart rate went back to normal, but his smile stayed fond. “Yeah alright sweetheart. What’s the lotion for, though?” 

“You bought it for me for my hands in Haven.” Peter explained. “Aloe lotion for when they get chapped from twisting hay or dealing with the animals, and I thought it would feel good on your skin. 

The Omega pressed gingerly at a scar at Wade’s forearm. “I can work on your shoulders and back and ask questions? I know you’re still sore and I’ve been known to give pretty great back rubs.” 

“You want to ask me a bunch of questions while rubbing me down with lotion?” Wade asked faux suspiciously. “That seems counterproductive, Pete. You get your hands on me and my brain sorta stops working.” 

Peter’s lavender scent spiced abruptly, just like it had the other day and the Omega made a visible, concentrated effort to move past the moment while Wade watched in both amusement and curiosity. 

What was going on with his wacky mate? If Pete wanted a kiss or something, all he had to do was take one.

“You alright, Pete?” 

“Fine.” Peter was nearly scarlet, but he still shook his head and motioned towards the rug. “Assume the position, Alpha. Face down, ass up.” 

Wade was too busy laughing at the outrageous expression to think anymore about why Peter had scented so vividly interested out of the blue, and once he was on the rug with his mate rubbing the soothing lotion all over his skin, the Alpha put it from his mind and let himself melt beneath his Omega’s hands. 

“Feel good, Pete.” he mumbled, and the Omega nipped lightly at his bonding spot, whispering, “Oh Alpha, you feel good too.” 

Wade blew out a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrated on the cool aloe cream ad the warmth of Peter’s fingers as they skated carefully over the newer scars, then kneaded more purposefully into the older ones, breaking up knots and working at tense lines. 

The Alpha didn’t know the last time anyone had really touched him at all, much less touched him to help relax overworked muscles or to calm his always irritated skin. The act of service from his mate had the Alpha almost purring in delight, and the quiet approving kisses Peter left on his shoulders and each sore spot had him loopy, just about floating really. 

It had been a long time since Wade had been taken care of. 

“My mate?” Wade ha been quiet for a long time when Peter put his lips to the Alpha’s ear and hummed softly. “Where are you? With me?” 

“I’m here, Pete.” Just barely. “You ready to ask some questions?” 

“I don’t have to.” Wade’s scent was soaked with longing and something needy, cedar and licorice and the hint of sweetness ringed with contentment and the Omega loved every bit of it. “Just relax, my mate.” 

“Ask me questions.” Wade tried to sound reassuring. “S’fine Pete. Go on, you know you want to.” 

Peter did want to, but he kept his voice soft and hands comforting so his Alpha wouldn’t slip out of near euphoria, and asked, “Will you tell me about growing up? About your mutation?” 

“Hmm.” the Alpha sighed, shifted, but nodded into the rug. “Sure baby boy, what do you want to know first?” 

“Just start from the beginning.” A gentle kiss at a still fresh scar. “Please?” 

{{Author’s Note: It’s Deadpool canon that Thomas Wilson was an abusive piece of shit. TW for brief mentions of domestic violence}}

“At the beginning.” Another nod, drowsy this time. “Alright. I uh-- I dunno when I was born exactly, but I was old enough that the neighbors called me the man of the house. I remember my Pa coming home from fightin’ the English for independence and life got real shitty, real quick after that. He stopped hittin’ redcoats and started hittin’ us instead. Dunno if he was a mutant but I’m pretty sure my Ma was mutant, or at least a bonafide angel.” 

Peter’s hands stilled for a moment, eyes closing in quiet grief before asking, “Why do you say that?” 

“Cos she made sure Pa never laid a hand on me.” Wade said flatly. “And the day she was gone, all that protection went away.” 

“I-- I’m sorry, Alpha.” 

“It was a fever.” Wade grimaced over a particularly sore spot and Peter gentled his touch. “Got me and Ma real bad, and when I finally woke up she was gone. I think that’s when my mutation kicked in, cos there was no way I should have survived. She was gone and everything got worse between me and Pa.” 

“When did you know for sure your mutation had been triggered?” 

“Right about the time I presented as an Alpha?” the Alpha hazarded a guess. “It was only a year or so after Ma passed. Pa said I was getting too cocky, swaggerin’ around the place like I was top Alpha so he decided to put me in my place and broke my arm in a few different places.” 

“He what?” 

“S’alright, my mate.” Wade rumbled comfortingly when the Omega whined in distress. “Bones were all healed before I made it out of the cabin, so I just kept right on walking. Figured if Pa couldn’t kill me, there wasn’t much out there that could and I was old enough to make my way in the world.”

“So what did you do after that?” Peter scooted down till he was sitting on Wade’s rear and could dig his fingers into the base of his Alpha’s back. “You were just a kid when you presented right? Fourteen, maybe fifteen?” 

“That’s practically grown, Pete. Or at least old enough to hold a gun.” the Alpha grunted. “Funny thing about healing from everything is that you get real fearless, and being fearless leads right into a knack for killing whether from talent or sheer recklessness. I tried the militia, but found better money as a mercenary.” 

“You--” Peter’s hands faltered again. “You killed people for money?” 

“Every war needs soldiers, Pete.” Wade hadn’t thought about his time as a mercenary in years, and his scent soured in remembrance of all the blood he’d spilled.

“Every war needs soldiers.” he repeated. “And on this continent, there is always a war. I was good at it. The fight kept me away from home, away from the cabin and all the memories of Ma, kept me from wanting to settle down too quickly or giving in to how lonely I was all the time. Collected my paycheck and collected my scars and kept right on going.” 

“You were lonely.” 

“Every day.” 

“Well, what convinced you to stop?” 

“...Vanessa.” A picture of long dark hair and wickedly bright eyes flitted through the Alpha’s mind, delicately curved fangs and a growl to rival Wade’s own ringing as memory in his ears. “Vanessa convinced me to stop.” 

**************

**************

“I think I know Doctor Banner.” Peter paused in tossing hay into Arthur’s stall and leaned against the pitchfork to peer down at his Alpha on the barn floor. “He looks familiar for some reason.” 

“I’m sure there’s lots of doctors with hilarious hair and big glasses, Pete.” Wade countered nonchalantly. “Think it’s a rule or something for them.” 

“Thank you for that.” Peter scowled and kicked a tuft of hay down at his mate. “But I’m serious, I really think I know him. Or you know, not know him. But I think I read about him in one of my science classes before I switched degrees. He’s not from this time either, is he?” 

“Nope.” Wade patted at the goat and sent her away, then scooped out some oats for Bea. “I don’t know when the Doc is from exactly but he’s been here since before the last big war. Cable brought him to Haven, introduced him around and Banner’s been here ever since. Long time, I guess.”

“What’s a long time to you?” Peter moved over to Bea’s stall to give her fresh hay. “Twenty years? Fifty? When you’re over a hundred years old, what’s a ‘long time’ for you?”

“Couldn’t tell you, sweetheart.” Wade confessed. “No real reason to keep track of time when nothing much changes, you know? Especially here. Most of us in Haven either age real slow or don’t age at all and since I live up here, winter sticks around for so long I can’t even measure a year by the seasons, not accurately anyway. I can go an entire winter without seeing anyone else, but how long is that? Five months? Eight months? I’ve got no idea.” 

“Right.” Something sad tugged at Peter’s heart over his Alpha’s words. “Time is irrelevant when you live forever.” 

“Sorry, Omega.” the Alpha apologized. “I’ve got no idea how long Doc has been around, but I bet Eddie could tell you though, bet he could tell you to the exact day.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“Eddie is the whole reason Doc is in Haven.” Wade trilled to Arthur, patting at the old war horse’s nose. “Cable brought Banner around to keep Eddie under control.” 

“Under control.” The Omega echoed, with more than a twinge of uneasiness. “Why? Is that because of whatever is inside of Eddie? What happened?” 

“Shit, Pete, that’s not a good story.” Wade finished in Arthur’s stall and coaxed the horse back inside onto the clean hay. “You don’t wanna ask questions about that one.”

“No?” Peter challenged. “I asked Clint if he used feathers for his nest. You think I don’t want to know about Eddie?” 

{{Author’s Note: TW for mentions of kidnapping, implied assault, and Eddie/Venom canon typical violence}}

“Yeah, you did ask Clint about a nest.” Wade chuckled. “Alright um-- I guess it’s been long enough now it won’t hurt to talk about it. The shorter, less bloody story is that one day Eddie’s mate Anne went missing. Turns out she was snatched by a contingent of soldiers from the fort a few valleys over, and they took her back to the post.” 

Peter set the pitchfork aside and furrowed his brow as he thought over everything he’d studied about this area before meeting Cable. “I didn’t know there was a fort up here.” 

“There isn’t anymore.” The Alpha set his jaw, eyes flickering red with unease. “There used to be, but there isn’t anymore.” 

“Shit.” 

We told Eddie to stay behind in Haven and we’d go bring Annie home but he didn’t listen. Can’t blame the guy, no one would keep me from going to rescue my mate either but when Eddie saw what they’d done to Anne, he let that thing inside him out into the open and there--” Wade swallowed hard. “There was nothing we could do, Pete. We couldn’t stop him. We didn’t stand a chance.” 

“So what did you do?” Peter whispered. “Afterwards.”

“We cleaned up.” he said flatly. “After that thing was finished and it was just Eddie again, we cleaned up. Burned anything left standing and buried anything that didn’t burn. It only took a few hours because he-- they-- had destroyed everything.” 

“Eddie was broken after that.” the Alpha continued, softer now. “He was ruined. We used to fight and laugh and drink together, he was one of my friends, right along with Clint and Logan and after that he was just ruined. Tried to die a few times but whatever that thing is, kept it from happening, kept Eddie from getting some fuckin’ peace. Nobody should have to live after that, but that thing wouldn’t let him go.” 

“What did you do? How did Bruce get here?” 

“A mutant from Westchester came up to Haven.” Wade motioned for Peter to jump down from the loft, and caught his mate easily, handling Peter’s slight weight without even grimacing. “His name was Charles and he was a real powerful telepath. He put some sort of blanket effect over the area, ended up convincing everyone that there wasn’t a fort, that nothing had happened, that Eddie was fine. That sort of thing doesn’t work on me and Logan though, but who would we tell? Who would believe us?” 

“Charles spent weeks holed up with Eddie putting blocks in his mind so he wouldn’t remember what happened to Anne and what he’d done afterwards and then Cable showed up with Doc Banner a while after that, and it’s just the way things are now.” 

“So no one outside of Haven knows what happened?” Peter picked up the basket of eggs and followed his Alpha towards the door. “A fort and all the soldiers just disappeared and no one knows?” 

“Eventually someone will come along who knows there’s supposed to be a fort up here.” Wade acknowledged. “But they won’t find anything.” 

“And Eddie is stuck like this?” Peter thought back to the way Eddie had seemed only half coherent, how the thing inside him--them-- was so horrible. “Halfway between himself and a monster? He could barely put a sentence together when I met him.” 

“He isn’t always that bad.” Wade said grimly. “Being half alive like this is better than how he was after Anne. Sometimes I think that thing is the worst thing to ever happen to Eddie, sometimes I know it’s the only thing saving my friend from tearing himself apart at the seams.” 

“And Bruce?” 

“Cable said that whatever Eddie has isn’t a match for whatever Doc has.” Wade grabbed the milk bucket and reached for his Omega’s hand, squeezing lightly. “They balance each other out, or maybe cancel each other out, I dunno. Apparently Doc knows a lot about losing out to monsters, but none of us have seen his mutation. He scents off like Eddie does, so maybe he’s got one of those things too. Maybe Cable brought him to Haven cos Doc handles it all better and can take care of Eddie.  Whatever the reason is, he and Eddie trust each other. They keep each other safe, which means the rest of us are safe too.” 

“That’s so sad.” Peter hunched close to Wade’s shoulder when they stepped back out into the cold. “I can’t imagine losing a mate to something so horrible, but to rage out like that? To need the evidence burned and for blocks to be put in people’s minds? That seems...” he shook his head. “I can’t imagine.” 

“Oh I can.” Wade pushed Peter ahead into the cabin and shut the door behind them, prodding his mate towards the fire to get warm. “If someone tried to take my mate away from me, I’d unleash hell Pete.” 

“Well sure you’d be upset but--” 

“They used to call me Deadpool.” Wade’s eyes flickered bloody red in the firelight, fangs glinting when he snarled. “When I was a mercenary, they called me Deadpool. I carried a rifle and a pistol and two swords on my back. Wore red so no one would see me bleed and since I couldn’t die, all they ever knew was that I never stopped walking towards them. I got rid of all that after Vanessa but if anyone had tried to take her away from me, or if anyone ever hurt you like they hurt Anne, there wouldn’t be a corner of this fuckin’ world I wouldn’t cover in carnage.” 

“Alpha.” 

“I saw what Eddie did to those men” The words were nothing more than a growl. “And I’d do the same thing two times over. No one will ever hurt my mate. Ever.” 

*************

“My mate?” Peter hadn’t said much since their talk the previous afternoon when Wade had announced so viciously what he would do if anyone tried to hurt his mate, but this morning the omega pushed aside his breakfast and reached for his mate’s hand. “You said time doesn’t mean anything to you.” 

“Not really.” Wade lifted the Omega’s fingers to his mouth for a kiss. “Is that weird for you? You used to complain that you never knew what day it was when you wrote in your notebooks. Is it weird that I don’t mark that sort of thing?” 

“How--” Peter worried at the inside of his cheek. “How long have I been here, Alpha? How long have you known me?” 

“You’ve been here seventy six days.” Wade didn’t even hesitate to answer. “Seventy five since you woke up, but seventy three altogether. Why?” 

“No reason.” Peter flushed in pleasure, lavender and honeysuckle rolling sweet with elation. “I was just curious.” 

“Seventy six days.” Wade leaned over the table and kissed his mate for a long time. “Time matters for the important things, Pete. It matters for you. Every single day I get with you matters. I will always know exactly how long you’ve been mine.” 

****************

****************

“Tell me about Vanessa.” Peter stretched out on the bear skin rug and folded his hands behind his head, turning his head so he could see his Alpha whittling. “Your first mate. Was she a soldier?” 

“Why do you want to hear about Vanessa, Pete?” Wade scraped the tip of his blade along the roly poly body of a soon to be bumble bee to create one of the signature stripes on the insect. “Why curious all the sudden?” 

“I'm curious about everything” Peter reminded him. “I had my notebook and a million questions, remember?” 

“I vividly remember the million questions.” The Alpha laughed quietly and nudged his foot out until it rested at his mate’s side. “Why Vanessa though?” 

“Well you don’t have to talk about her if you don’t want.” Peter propped himself up on his elbow and breathed in deep to check the Alpha’s scent for any insecurity or anger. “But it doesn’t bother me.” 

“It doesn’t bother you to talk about my first mate.” 

“Does it bother you?” The Omega returned. “It doesn’t bother me, Alpha. Vanessa was a whole lifetime ago and I don’t doubt that you--” love me. “-- want me as yours. I’d like to know about her because she was important to you. She was part of you and I want to know that part of you too. I want to know everything about you, Alpha.” 

“Oh yeah?” Wade focused on carving another stripe on the bee so it wasn’t quite as obvious how affected he was by the simple sentence. 

I want to know everything about you, Alpha. 

Sometimes Wade forgot about little moments like these, moments where mates learned to know each other. So often a bond was complete before the knowing even began, the physical mating  rushed through to soothe the itch beneath their skin and then in the years that followed, a pair would have to learn and grow and find all the ways they completed each other. 

But it was different with Peter, some would say backwards even. He and Wade spent hours just talking, mornings cooking together and afternoons figuring out how to make the other laugh, evenings mapping each others bodies above and under clothes. There was no silver bite at Peter’s throat but Wade thought he knew the Omega completely without it, and though their kisses were heated, the Alpha still reveled in the freedom to count Peter’s freckles and to understand the different smiles and to recognize every single dip and lift of his mate’s scent. 

Little moments like these were when mates became one in all the beautiful ways, and Wade had forgotten just how amazing the little moments could be. 

“Alpha?” Peter sat up and wrapped his hand around Wade's ankle, squeezing lightly. “Where’d you go? If you don’t want to talk about her, it’s alright, I just thought--” 

“She would have liked you.” Wade kept his eyes trained on the bumble bee taking shape on the toy. “Vanessa’s life had made her hard, harder than other Alpha’s because she was female and she was gorgeous and somehow that means she had to be twice as tough as anyone. But she would have liked you, would have been soft with you like she was soft with me.”

“Oh.” The Omega scrunched his nose in open delight. “You think so?” 

“I know so.” Wade put the toy down only long enough to pull Peter up to his lap, then went back to carving. “Vanessa wasn’t a soldier, I paid for her company the first night we met. I was coming off a job and she was working in the bar and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I offered her every bit of money in my pocket to spend the night with me, she told me I could have an hour, I argued that we’d just be getting started in an hour and Vanessa--” 

The Alpha chuckled. “Vanessa laughed until she fell off the bar stool at the idea that anyone could make it an hour in bed with her. She told me I’d either be up and done and deflating before she finished undressing, or I’d be begging for mercy before the half hour mark.” 

“Wait.” Peter laughed at his mate. “Wait. You promised her an hour of good times, and she said you were either a quick draw or a quitter?” 

“Yep. That’s right.” 

“And you still wanted to sleep with her?!” 

“Oh it gets better.” Wade tucked the Omega tighter to his chest. “My healing factor means I can be ready over and over all night long--” 

“What?! I didn’t know about that!” 

“--well, you were due to find out eventually. Anyway, when Vanessa didn’t wear me out in that first half hour, she took it as a challenge and we ended up spending the night together.” 

“So what.” Peter was still stuck on the whole all night long thing. “You guys had marathon sex and when no one won, you just fell asleep? Then what happened?” 

“I rolled out of bed in the morning and tried to get dressed.” Wade turned the toy over and started on the other side. “Vanessa laughed at me and told me I was stupid if I thought I was walking away now. We mated right then and there, packed her stuff and walked out the door together.” 

“You knew that fast? That she was meant to be yours?” 

“That fast.” The Alpha confirmed. “She stopped working the cat house, I stopped the mercenary work, we built a cabin and lived our life. She was fierce and funny and if I hadn’t loved her so much, I’d be insecure that she was a scarier Alpha than me. Everything was a contest and she almost always won.”

Peter muffled a laugh over the idea of a pretty female being scarier than his mate. “Are you serious?” 

“To be fair, she cheated.” Wade countered. “Anytime she’d thought she would lose anything, she’d just take her top off. Have you ever seen a woman shoot a gun topless, Pete? I didn’t stand a chance.”

“That sounds very unfair.” Peter laughed up at him again. “Poor Alpha.” 

“Yeah well, I’d never been happier to lose a contest in my life.” Wade’s scent dulled towards melancholy, and the Omega on his lap went very still. “Vanessa got sick one year and never quite shook it. I’d gone so long healing from everything, and she was so fearless that I forgot the people I loved could even get hurt. But she got sick and I lost her, and after I lost her, I lost myself.” 

“You went back to war.” 

“I went back to killing.” The Alpha corrected. “Picked up my swords again and went back to killing and that’s just what I did until Logan found me. He dragged me up here to Haven, helped me build the cabin and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Did you have any children?” Peter smoothed careful fingers over the toy, his heart clenching thinking of his Alpha carving gifts for his and Vanessa’s children, rambunctious boys and smart mouthed little girls who would be delighted to have their Papa make trinkets to play with. “Or-- or try for children?” 

“No.” Wade’s steady carving faltered for a second. “No children. My mutation means I hover somewhere between living and dead and that’s not the sort of biology that allows for kids. We were happy just the two of us, and after she passed, I think maybe I was relieved to not have a couple brats running around. I lost myself after Vanessa, and kiddos would have suffered for it and that just isn’t right. S’what my Pa did to me and the lifestyle’s gotta end sometime, right? Ending terrible cycles?” 

“Right.” The Omega twined his fingers over Wade’s and pressed comfortingly at him. “But it makes me sad that you’ve been alone all this time.” 

“I’m not alone anymore.” Wade leaned his cheek into Peter’s hair and closed his eyes. “You want kids, Pete?” 

“I never imagined I’d have any.” Peter answered honestly. “But I never imagined I’d want a mate either so…” 

He let the sentence trail off, and Wade nodded against his temple, gathered his courage and asked softly, “Well, can you settle for just a mate? Just-- just this? Just me and you?” 

“Alpha my Alpha.” Peter took the toy and knife from his mate, then wriggled sideways on Wade’s lap and drew gentle fingers over the Alpha’s brow, down his cheek to rest at Wade’s mouth. “What makes you think I’m settling?” 

***************

***************

Something was going on with Peter.

The Omega was fidgety in bed, restless and unable to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time. Sometimes he glommed on to Wade's body and other times Peter acted as if he didn't want to touch the Alpha at all. 

Peter talked a lot, which wasn’t really anything was nothing new, but now it seemed like he was chatting just to fill the silence, words forming rapid fire from the Omega every time Wade paused in conversation, Peter’s voice almost too loud in moments that deserved quiet. 

Wade caught Peter staring at off moments, biting at his lip and clenching his fist while his scent swelled hot and other times, the Omega snapped his head around to look at the wall when Wade undressed. Lingering kisses were cut off abruptly, perfunctory passing kisses made the Omega whine and Wade was confused. 

He was just outright confused. 

At first the Alpha thought Peter was still working through some lingering angst from The Incident, but as the days went on, Wade had to think his mate was being more affected by their often serious talks than Peter wanted to admit. 

And that-- that was understandable. Sure it had been almost therapeutic for Wade to open up about his past and tell those stories without fear of judgment or disgust from his beautiful mate, but it couldn’t be easy for Peter to hear about how awful Thomas Wilson had been to Wade growing up. It was most likely uncomfortable to talk about dangerous mutants like Eddie and the blood soaked ground they had left behind, and despite Peter’s quiet reassurance, it had to be unsettling or maybe even upsetting to spend hours talking about Vanessa. 

Peter struggling with all of that was understandable, so Wade tried to give his mate space to work through the conflicting feelings and tried to just be patient until Peter was ready to talk. 

But after several days with no change in sight, the Alpha gave up trying to tip toe through the conflicting signals and confronted Peter about it over lunch.

“My mate.” He waited until Peter looked up from his sandwich. “What is going on with you?”

“Nothing.” Peter said quickly, too quickly. “Nothing’s wrong, Alpha. Why? What’s going on with you?” 

“Nothing.” Wade folded his arms and squinted at his Omega. “But something is going on with you. You’re clingy and then not clingy, you’ve been wanting to talk about all sorta things and say it doesn’t bother you then you can’t talk to me after. Some days you look at me like you wanna tear my clothes off, but then you pull away from kisses like I’ve burned you or something. What’s going on?” 

“Wade--” 

“I can’t read your mind, Pete.” the Alpha interrupted bluntly. “And I know after the lion you had a real hard time so I was being patient, but this is enough. Tell me what’s wrong and what I can do to fix it so I can stop worrying.”

“No really, nothing’s wrong, I just--” Lavender and honeysuckle twisted anxious and Wade automatically rumbled low in an attempt to calm his mate. “I just um--” 

“Talk to me, sweetheart.” 

“Holy shit, I’m so bad at this.” Peter dug his fingers into his hair and groaned out loud. “I’m sorry Alpha, I didn’t mean to stress you out. I’m so bad at this.” 

“So bad at what, Pete?” 

“At this!” The Omega burst out. “At being sexy with you!” 

“...being sexy with me.” It was only the anxious rapidly turning to frustration in his mate’s scent that kept Wade from laughing. “This is-- you are--” he cleared his throat to quiet a burble of incredulous laughter and tried again. “What do you mean, trying to be sexy? Can you explain that?” 

“I have never needed an Alpha outside the last possible moment of my heat.” Peter explained to the top of the table, too embarrassed to meet his Alpha’s gaze. “Never even wanted an Alpha really. So I have no idea how to--” the Omega made a broad gesture that meant exactly nothing. “-- you know?” 

“Um--” the Alpha pursed his lips. “Nope. Gonna need more than that.” 

“We’ve been talking about some really serious things lately.” Peter pointed out. “And it’s been really great to connect with you like that. I already felt like I knew you, but now I feel like I really know you and it's incredible.” 

“It's been good for me too, Omega. But if it’s starting to stress you out--” 

“Not stressing me out.” Peter denied. “Sort of the opposite actually.” 

Wade waited with raised eyebrows and after another minute the Omega admitted, “We sorta crossed a big line a few days ago, Wade. A big one. But we’ve been so busy talking that we haven’t um-- revisited?-- that line and I don’t know-- I mean, is there a nice way to ask you to pin me down and get me off, or….?” 

The Alpha didn’t mean for his eyes to about pop from his head, neither did he mean for his jaw to practically dislocate when his mouth dropped open, and he certainly didn’t mean to shout “What?!” out loud but honestly, out of all the ways he’d thought this conversation would go, his Omega wanting to know if there was a nice way to ask for an orgasm hadn’t made the list. 

“Is there a nice way to what?!” 

“Never mind, I shouldn’t have said anything. This is so stupid.” There were real tears in Peter’s eyes as he got to his feet with a huff and stomped away, slamming the door behind him as he went. “Leave it alone, Alpha!” 

Wade left it alone for all of five minutes, then went to find his mate and try for a real conversation again, not willing to let it go when Peter was so weirdly upset by it, and certainly not willing to let it go when the talk could end with his Omega naked. 

He found the Omega in the barn brushing Arthur, and he leaned against the stall door to watch for several minutes before finally asking, “Pete. Are you telling me you’ve been weird lately cos you’re horny?”

Peter grit his teeth, worked studiously at a spot in Arthur’s coat and muttered, “I’m not good at this, Alpha. We are mates and that makes the emotional stuff all okay. I know in my heart and my soul that we’re supposed to be together so whatever I’m feeling is fine, and usually I’m okay with saying it to you too but...”

Wade swooped in and smacked a kiss on his mates cheek, and Peter blinked at him in confusion.

“Keep talking.” The Alpha went back to leaning on the stall door. “I just love when you say things like that, about us being mates and meant to be. Keep talking.” 

“Oh.” Peter’s smile was a little shy, and he continued in a softer tone, “I feel like I’ve told you this before, but I’ve never had a serious relationship. I’ve never even hooked up with people outside of heat. I used to get made fun of for it, called Pete the Virgin or Pete the Prude or about a thousand other things from people who thought sex was the most important thing in the world. Everyone I knew was hooking up in high school and college outside of heat, and I never did. I never did. I never wanted to and I had too much going on to waste time on relationships I knew weren’t going anywhere.” 

“Keep talking.” Wade said again and the Omega sighed, shoulders hunching self consciously. “I’ve never had an Alpha outside of heat. I don’t even know what to do with one. I don’t know how to act--” another one of those broad gestures. “-- or you know--” yet another gesture that meant absolutely nothing. “Right? I don’t know how to do that. How to kiss you and-- and all that.” 

“You’ve never been shy about kissing me.” Wade disagreed, latching on to the one part of Peter’s less than stellar explanation he understood. “You almost ate my face this morning, remember?”

“I did almost eat your face.” Peter conceded and the Alpha flashed his fangs in a teasing, encouraging smile. “And when kissing was enough for us then it was fine but now our enough is different, isn’t it? We aren’t just kissing anymore.”

“We aren’t just kissing anymore.” Wade agreed slowly, still trying and failing to figure out where Peter was going with it all. “Is that a problem?” 

“It's only a problem because I’m making myself anxious about it.” Peter switched to working at Arthur’s mane so he wouldn’t have to look at his mate. “That’s why I’ve been weird. It’s like I’ve built this moment up in my head so much and now I don’t know how to just start it. Trying for a second time didn’t seem like a big deal after we were in bed that one night, but then we spent so much time talking about serious things and I started worrying about timing, because It's unsexy to talk about what happened to Eddie or Bruce or with your Pa.”

“...unsexy…?” 

“And it's definitely weird to bring it up after we’ve sat and talked about your other mate? That’s not the right time. Then I thought about just creating a mood, but I don’t know how to do that. No experience with how to create a mood or what to say to create the mood. And then, what would I do if you didn’t want to do anything because I’d ruined the mood with all my questions and --” 

“Pete.” Wade finally held up his hand to stop the rambling. “What are you talking about? What moment? What mood?” 

“Okay, um.” Peter rubbed at the back of his neck and blushed bright red. “Alpha, I dunno how to take the conversation from how many eggs the chickens are laying, to asking if you’d like to eat me out till I come on your face. I feel like there’s no tactful way to do that, especially in light of everything we’ve been talking about. But that’s exactly what I want, and since I can’t seem to figure out the most reasonable time to bring it up, you can see why I’ve been awkward, right?”

“...right, Alpha?” he repeated when Wade didn’t answer. “You understand?” 

Arthur startled in his stall when the Alpha practically roared with laughter, and when Peter scowled angrily, Wade only laughed louder, clutching at his side and full on guffawing at his mates ridiculousness.

“You know what?” The brush bounced off Wade’s head when Peter winged it at the obnoxious Alpha. “Comment withdrawn. Opportunity lost. Leave me alone, I have chores to do.”

Wade was still cackling something about “tactful” and “middle of the day” when Peter stalked back to the cabin, and the Omega briefly considered barring the door and making his mate sleep outside for the night.

“Idiot Alpha.” He muttered. “I’ll get myself off. Who needs him?”

************

Peter was still embarrassed a full hour later when Wade finished some work on the barn and came to knock at the cabin door, calling through the thick wood-- “My Omega. Let me in so we can talk.” 

“The door’s unlocked.” Peter turned his back on the door and tucked further into bed. “And it’s your cabin, you don’t have to ask to come in.” 

“Yeah, I know.” the Alpha slipped inside and shut the door gently. “But I thought I’d give you the option of kicking me out if that’s what you wanted.” 

Silence from the Omega shaped lump beneath the blankets, and Wade went to get one of the chairs from the fireplace, dragging it over to the bedside. 

“I shouldn’t have laughed at you.” he started first. “But you sorta caught me off guard with all that. I was really worrying that you were still having a hard time with me dying and I was trying to figure out how to fix it. I really wasn’t expectin’ you to say you were horny.” 

“I didn’t say I was horny.” the blankets said crossly. “I said I was--” 

“Anxious.” The Alpha cut in. “Right. Which is worse cos I hate that you’d be anxious about anything with us, sweetheart. Whether you’ve done this before with another Alpha or not, this is me Pete. It’s us. The first day we met, you asked to see my butt. You initiated our first kiss. I guess I don’t understand why it’s suddenly so hard for you to be with me.” 

“It’s not hard to be with you.” Peter popped up in a split second, hair hilariously askew but eyes shining bright and earnest. “It’s not hard to be with you, Alpha.” 

“Then why--” 

“It’s me.” the Omega interrupted. “It’s me. I’ve never done this. Heat sex doesn’t count for anything cos it’s all biology and instinct at that point but this right here? Outside of heat? I don’t know how to do it. And I want you, Alpha I want you like I am in heat. That’s what it feels like. I can’t deal with wanting you like I’m in heat. It’s just--” 

Peter's nose flared when Wade’s scent jolted with arousal, the Alpha’s eyes flickering red. “Oh holy shit, what was that?” 

“You used the sentence wanting you like I’m in heat.” Wade rumbled. “Did’ja think I could sit still through that?” 

“... you want me like I want you.” Peter muttered, and Wade didn’t bother answering. Of course he wanted Peter, they needed each other and that had been proven over and over in the last few months. “But you’ve had a mate before so you know how to do this. How to deal with needing each other and still going about a normal day. I’m having a hard time dealing with it. Can’t seem to find the right time to ask you to take me back to bed, and even if I found the right time between chores and all the damn questions I’ve been asking, I don’t have the right words to ask. I’ve never had to find words to get from this particular point A to that particular point B.” 

Wade rubbed his hands together slowly, thinking his answer through before deciding on, “Is that point A for ass and point B for butt?” 

“Oh my god, Wade.” Peter went to dive back down beneath the covers but the Alpha reached out and snagged him before he could disappear, and Peter couldn’t do much more than squawk in indignation as he was pulled gently but steadily from under the blankets and right off the bed onto his mate’s lap. 

“First of all.” Wade wrestled Peter around until the Omega was straddling his lap, Peter’s knees wedged onto either side of the Alpha’s waist. “First of all, just because I’ve had a mate before doesn’t mean this is easy or familiar or that I know what the hell I’m doing, alright? The only thing familiar about having a mate again is how fuckin’ happy I am, but even that’s different. Everything about you and I is different from Vanessa and I and I would never compare you. Not ever. Do you understand?” 

“I--” Peter hadn’t meant to imply Wade compared he and Vanessa, but the reassurance calmed something in him all the same. “I understand.” 

“Second of all.” Wade swept his hands up Peter’s back to tangle in his bed rumpled hair. “You want me, baby boy? Tell me. Use your words, or use your hands, or get your scent all sweet and addicting and bat your eyelashes at me. Leave me a note, drag me away from chores, I don’t care. Just look at me. Look at me and smile and I-- I’m gone. I’m yours, Omega. Nothing to it. Any time of day or night.” 

“But what if--” 

“Any time of day or night.” the Alpha repeated. “I’ve got a hundred years of patience on you Pete, that’s the only reason I’m not all over you all the time. We’ve been talking a lot, you have questions and nothing’s worse than having conversation pushed away cos someone’s tryna get naked, right?” 

“I guess.” Peter pushed his nose into Wade’s throat and inhaled shakily. “I’m sorry I’ve been so crazy. I should have just talked to you.”

“Maybe. But then again, should I maybe apologize for trying to give you space to figure it out?” Wade settled one hand at the base of Peter’s neck and palmed low over the Omega’s rear with the other. “Did I do the right thing giving you a few days or should I have thrown you in bed the first time you looked like you wanted to take a bite out of me?” 

“Wade.” Peter finally smiled. “You’re ridiculous.” 

“To be fair, you just had a meltdown cos you want me to get you off, my mate. Which one of us is more ridiculous right now?” 

“To be fair.” he threw the Alpha’s words right back at him. “It was more of a meltdown cos I don’t know how to suggest that sort of thing, not for-- not for the other reason.” 

“Is it really that big of a deal, Pete?” Wade coaxed his Omega’s head to the side and nipped at the soft skin just behind Peter’s ear. “To not have had an Alpha outside heat?” 

“The older I got, the more it seemed like a big deal.” Peter confessed quietly. “It felt like this big thing I’d have to admit to on a date and then maybe the Alpha wouldn’t want to bother with someone inexperienced or worse they’d take it as a challenge and I don’t-- I don’t want to feel like a conquest, like a notch on some Alpha’s belt. And I never even really wanted to try. I always felt like I’d need to be in love before I wanted an Alpha and I never met anyone I thought would be willing to wait.” 

“So the other night when we were together--” 

“My first.” the Omega confirmed. “My first outside of heat and even then, heat isn’t--” 

“--intimate.” Wade finished and Peter nodded, grateful that his Alpha finally understood. “Heat isn’t intimate, it’s just bodies. Just parts fitting into other parts where neither person is coherent enough to really care what happens. You needed more than that before you were ready to be with anyone, so you’re...shy ... about bringing it up with me. You think your inexperience is something to worry about.” 

“Isn’t it?” 

“Do I seem real worried, Pete?”

“No.” The Omega tugged at Wade’s shirt and lifted it free, slipping his hands beneath to press at the Alpha’s abdomen, smiling to himself when Wade sighed and relaxed beneath the touch. “No you don’t. Thank you.”

They sat in comfortable quiet for a moment, then Peter whispered, “Was there a third point? First of all, you don’t compare me and Vanessa, second of all, if I want you I just need to tell you. Was there a third?” 

“Third.” the Alpha tightened his grip at Peter’s narrow hips, then with one quick movement, threw the Omega back onto the bed and lunged forward to cover Peter’s surprised screech with a messy kiss. “Third, I think it’s fuckin’ beautiful that you kept waiting for someone but you didn’t think you had to wait with me. I love that, Pete. I love that you know we are right, and meant to be and that means you worry about being too horny, instead of worrying about not being horny enough like you did with other people.” 

“I hate how you describe that.” Peter decided, but their next kiss was packed full of adoration. “But I love that you said it. Thank you.” 

“That was my third point.” Wade sucked at Peter’s tongue when it ventured into his mouth. “And here’s my fourth.” 

“Oh my god, there’s a fourth?” 

“Fourth point-- I should be suffocating between your thighs right now, don’t you think?!” 

“Wade!” Peter screamed in laughter when Wade started yanking at his pants. “Alpha, oh my god!” 

“Use your words, Pete!” Wade goaded, stripping the trousers right off and tossing them over his shoulder and getting to work on Peter’s underwear as well. “Let’s hear you ask me to eat you out!” 

“ALPHA!” The Omega could have died of mortification, but the feeling was abruptly squashed in favor of a startled moan when Wade shoved his knees open and buried his face right into the vee of Peter’s hip. “Ohhh-oh oh oh Alpha--” 

“Smell good, Pete.” Wade’s growl was low and filthy, the teasing and laughter erased once he got up close to his mate. “Fuck, you smell good.” 

“Wade.” Peter’s back arched at the first warm swipe of Wade’s tongue over his cock, and he could have sobbed when the pressure was only fleeting, there and gone again. “Wade, please.” 

“Please what?” Another light lick, this time further down over nearly hairless skin and still too far from where Peter needed him to be. “Use your words, Omega.” 

“Please, I--” Need you. Want you. I’m empty. “--Wade please--” 

“Pete.” A rumble and only the barest pressure at the Omega’s rim. “Tell me what you want.”

“There aren’t any words.” Peter choked out and the Alpha paused to listen. ‘There aren’t any words, my Alpha. This is more than-- than whatever I can say or-- or ask for. I just need you, I need you, I need--” 

“I’ve got you.” A kiss at his navel so tender it brought tears to Peter’s eyes. “My mate. I need you too.” 

***************

Afterwards, when Peter was still gasping for air, still shivering and trying to clench his knees together to keep from spilling more slick onto the bed, he managed a shaky, “Will it always be like this? Will you always be able to take me apart so easily? Is it cos I’m practically pure or--” 

“It’s cos you’re mine.” Wade didn’t lift his head from Peter’s stomach, closing his eyes and breathing in time to the rise and fall of the Omega’s breath. “How we are together? It’s cos you’re mine, baby boy. We’re mates. You’re made to need me and I’m made to be hopelessly addicted drunk on the way you taste.” 

The Alpha licked at the wet still on his lips, and Peter keened helplessly when Wade’s big hands squeezed tighter at his waist. “You taste so good, my mate.” 

“Would you like me to um--” Peter hesitated, shy again. “I’ve never gone down on anyone and I feel like you’re probably too big to fit in my mouth but I’d love to try for you.” 

“Some other time, baby boy.” Wade eased off the Omega and rolled onto his back, tugging at the front of his pants meaningfully. “Been there, done that, need to do laundry.” 

“You already…?” Peter propped up on his elbow and glanced down, then up at his Alpha in shock. “Really? Just from listening to me?” 

“From feelin’ you come on my tongue and my fingers.” the Alpha corrected, and Peter blushed prettily. “Hearing you scream my name. Tastin’ how sweet you get gushing like that. Getting to hold you up against my mouth and have those long legs around my neck. I was only teasing about you suffocating me between your thighs, you know. I guess its a good thing I can hold my breath so long.”

“Wade!” 

“Gorgeous.” Wade pushed the Omega’s hands away when Peter tried to hide and leaned in to bump their noses together. “Can I kiss you?” 

“Of course, why would you even ask?” Peter murmured and pressed their mouths together, whimpering when his mate immediately bit at his lip, and then sighing into the soothing lick Wade gave afterwards. “Alpha if you want to bite me--” 

“I want to eat you whole.” Wade groaned and the Omega laughed softly into their next kiss. “But more than that, I want to hold you so let me get cleaned up first.” 

“Okay, my mate.” Peter fell back onto the blankets, naked and unabashed, one knee bent and the other leg stretched out, arms above his head and entire body on full display. He wasn’t floating but he sure felt like flying, his entire being humming with lingering sparks from his Alpha’s fingers and tongue. 

Peter almost wanted to laugh at how anxious he’d been just that morning, tongue tied and awkward and unable to tell his Alpha what he wanted. He knew-- he knew a bond was more than just sex, but the Omega also knew that the soul deep, core shaking need to be together was central to preserving a bond. Physical touch, physical affection, even just platonic skin to skin contact was essential for mates to remain settled and centered and beautifully, almost spiritually, in tune with one another. 

Sex wasn't necessary, but physical affection was and Peter was nearly euphoric over the combination of a shattering orgasm and the knowledge that his mate had been the one to bring such pleasure. 

My mate.

The Omega was suddenly grateful he’d never been one to hook up, to chase casual interactions. Why would he possibly want empty moments with strangers when he could feel like this?

“My mate.” The bed dipped when Wade came back, and Peter hummed happily when the Alpha’s rough hands skated over his bare skin and their lips met in another lingering kiss. “You smell perfect right now.” 

“Mmmm, hows that?” Peter rolled onto his side and tucked into Wade’s arms, snuggling into his chest. “What do I smell like?” 

“Like us.” Wade’s voice dropped and the inflection made Peter shudder. “Like me and like you, like you’re about as happy as you’ve ever been. What are you thinking about?” 

“I’m thinking…” the Omega licked at a drop of sweat on his mate’s collarbone and wound their legs together. “I’m thinking I’ll never get over how good your skin feels against mine. I love being naked with you.” 

The Alpha’s scent bumped with joy and Peter budged closer. “And I’m thinking I’m suddenly glad I never hooked up with anyone else. It used to be embarrassing that I’d never experienced anything other than a last minute knot in the worst part of my heat but now I-- I sort of love it. You’re the first Alpha to ever know me like this.” Wade growled and Peter huffed a quiet laugh. “What, you’re gonna be possessive over me now that you know you’re my first?” 

“I'd be possessive over you even if I was your one hundredth Alpha.” Wade countered. “Numbers don’t matter, my mate. I only care that you’re with me now.” 

“Numbers don’t matter?” Peter scraped his teeth along Wade’s throat and predictably, the Alpha’s cock twitched against his stomach. “That sounds like something someone would say if they’ve had hundreds of partners.” 

“Outside of a rut, I’ve only been with two people, Pete.” 

“But you’ve been around over a hundred years.” 

“Yep.” The Alpha nodded. “And other than the occasional rut before Vanessa, I never needed to be with anyone that wasn’t my mate, anyone I didn’t love. After Vanessa I wasn’t with anyone even in a rut. You are my mate, the first person I’ve wanted since losing Vanessa, which brings my grand total of real partners up to two with you being the first in...sixty years. Try not to be intimidated by my vast years of prowess and experience, hm?”

“I’ll try.” Peter said solemnly, and Wade laughed, gave him another quick kiss. 

The conversation shifted to something more mundane, but Peter’s mind was stuck in a cycle, repeating Wade’s words over and over in his head. 

I never needed to be with anyone that wasn’t my mate, anyone I didn’t love.  

Oh, he loves me. 

Oh my god, I love him too.

**************

The next morning Peter popped out of bed with a smile on his face, sated from spending the night with his Alpha, thrilled with how their talk had gone yesterday afternoon. The entire week had been full of surprising revelations and heart rending truths, small moments of beautiful intimacy and larger instances of trust and oh yes impossible pleasure that Peter knew-- he knew still wasn’t as intense as being fully mated. 

But after Wade had inadvertently admitted to loving Peter, the Omega was ready to put into action a plan that had been forming all week long, a plan that included courting his Alpha much the same way Wade tried to court him-- with gentle touches and unfailing understanding and small gestures throughout their day that showed love, whether it was taking over a chore so Wade wouldn’t have to do it, or working at the Alpha’s shoulders while he whittled at night, and -- if Peter could work up the courage-- gifting his mate with the same sort of attention Wade had given him yesterday. 

Courting, because his Alpha deserved to be spoiled too and Peter was determined to give it a try. 

I’m here for you. I want you. My mate. 

“You look like you’re busy thinking already.” Wade teased from over the rim of his cup. “What could possibly be on your mind before you’ve had your coffee?” 

“I was thinking I’d feed the animals today so you could--” Peter stopped in his tracks when he saw a new notebook on the table, and a handful of sharpened pencils. “What’s that?” 

“No no, finish your thought.” the Alpha protested. “Are you going to do my chores today so I have the energy necessary to get you screaming again? Have I been regulated to an Alpha of carnal delights only?” 

“Wade.” 

“I humbly accept the position. I’ll require three meals a day and a lack of clothing allowance.”

“Oh my god.” Peter tossed one of the pencils at his mate in exasperation. “Seriously, what is this?” 

“Did you think I only bought you one notebook in town?” the Alpha nodded towards the new one. “Feel like that would’ve been foolish on my part, right? Especially since you’re already writing along th’edges with your old one. And I know you got at least a dozen pens in your pack, but I thought a few pencils wouldn’t hurt.” 

“Thank you.” Peter thought he could cry as he picked up the new notebook. Who knew such simple gifts could mean so much. “I um-- I didn’t--” he shook his head. “Thank you, my mate.” 

“Anything for you, baby boy.” Wade leaned over the table to give him a kiss. “Ready for coffee?” 

“Yes please.” Peter sat down and picked up one of the sharpened pencils, turning it over in his hand a few times before opening the notebook to the first blank page and starting to write. “I filled the other one up with everything we talked about the last few days. Eddie and Vanessa and your Pa. All of that.” 

“It’s your notebook, Pete. Fill it up with whatever you want.” 

“Well maybe I’ll stop writing about all that stuff and just start writing about us.” Peter commented, and when Wade looked up in interest, he added slyly, “Turning an Alpha into the sort of drooling mess that comes in his pants is definitely an event for the history books, don’t you think?” 

“Nah.” the Alpha disagreed with a snort. “It’s no surprise to anyone that I couldn’t resist you making those sort of noises and begging real pretty for me. No Alpha in the world could resist that, least of all your mate. Don’t get cocky, Pete. Making me spill in my pants iss definitely not a superpower.” 

“Oh, I think it very well is.” Peter flung back. “Whether I use these powers for good or for evil is the real question!” 

“Mouthy mate.” Wade muttered, and Peter retorted, “Slutty Alpha!” 

“Slutty Alpha!?” Wade thunked the coffee down on the table and snatched Peter right off the seat, throwing the Omega over his shoulder and heading for the bed. “Slutty Alpha says the one who about soaked through his pants just thinking about what my tongue can do!” 

Peter laughed and laughed and laughed when Wade wrestled him into the blankets, when only recently acquired clothes were torn right back off. He’d been so worried yesterday about broaching the topic of more and again with his mate but this morning it was the easiest thing in the world, the most right thing in the world and Peter delighted in every reassurance from the Alpha that Wade wanted and needed just as badly as he did. 

The coffee on the table grew cold long before the bonded pair had finished, and the notebook lay open and forgotten on that first page. 

And if Wade could read the Omega’s chicken scratch penmanship, the short entry would have would have ensured he didn’t let his mate leave the bed for days.

I never thought I wanted a bond but now I know I’m ready.

I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love my Alpha.  

***************

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER!

****************

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#ncts personal #spideypool #peter parker #wade wilson #abo dynamics #demisexual peter #alpha wade wilson #omega peter parker #time travel au #soulmate au

[mc-dude]

symbrock for the whump thing? with the shaking hands please?

D2 - shaking hands

There is a strange feeling in Eddie’s intestinal tract.

Usually, the causes of Eddie’s various nerves firing are obvious. If he is careless while removing the hair from his face Venom will encourage the blood cells to clot, to scab, to rebuild. If Eddie is nauseous, all it takes is a subtle nudge to block serotonin production, until the cause of the nausea passes. They know Eddie’s body inside and out, have studied and catalogued every cell, have memorized actions and reactions until most responses are automatic; a gentle shift of a dream towards something more pleasant, a steadying tendril when they lose their balance, an unknotting of muscles along their spine after sitting too long. Eddie is theirs, and they will protect him. But this-

Venom takes another pass along the inside of Eddie’s stomach, along the interior of his esophagus and back down into his intestines. There is nothing out of place, nothing to heal, nothing to fix-

Eddie’s stomach clenches tight- but it does not. But it does. Venom growls in frustration.

Explain.

Eddie jumps a little in his seat. His coffee cup wobbles precariously on the edge of the desk. Venom nudges it back on. Clumsy Eddie.

“You’re gonna have to, uh,” Eddie glances around, always checking for prying eyes, “elaborate on that.”

Venom emerges enough to perform an outside inspection, curling around Eddie’s stomach under his shirt and pressing into the yielding flesh, searching for an explanation for this feeling. It is like something is pressing into their stomach, weighing them down, making them feel restless, on edge. They do not like it.

Eddie is rigid in his chair. He gently swats at Venom’s appendages.

“Would you-” Venom squeezes tighter, expanding their reach down towards Eddie’s thighs “- jesus.” Another feeling now- something similar to adrenaline, but different. Hmm. The sinking feeling is still there. Not good, not good. Something is wrong and they don’t know what.

“Would you calm down,” Eddie whispers at him, muscles taught as he whacks at Venom’s prodding again until they slink back inside his skin. “What’s gotten into you?”

Bad feeling, but nothing is hurt.

“Oh.” Eddie feels guilt now, and the sinking sensation increases in its intensity. Venom wraps themselves around Eddie’s stomach, just in case. Human bodies can be.. unpredictable.

Eddie sighs, slumping further in his chair. Venom gently nudges his back into a better posture. The bad feeling is getting worse, spreading from his stomach up into his rib cage. A pathogen? Disease? They give Eddie a full ten seconds before pinching the skin on the back of his neck to get his attention.

Eddie, explain. How do we fix it?

A feeling of restlessness settles over them, twisting into Eddie’s limbs and sticking like a stubborn tater tot on the pan. Eddie raises his hand to rub at his temple. Venom checks for any head aches, but finds none.

“You can’t fix it, buddy,” Eddie begins, his fingers tapping against his thigh in an uneven rhythm. Venom growls in annoyance.

We can fix anything.

That makes Eddie’s lips quick in a small smile. He pats his thigh absentmindedly. “Not this. This is just- anxiety.”

Anxiety. Venom does not know the word. They reach for Eddie’s memories, flipping through them like pages of a magazine, but the term remains illusive.

Do not like anxiety. How do we kill it?

Eddie glances at the screen on his desk, reaching to the circular wheel on the mouse to move the words. Venom can feel him swallow, can feel the way sweat starts to form under his collarbone.

“You can’t kill it,” Eddie says, eyes flickering over the words without really paying attention. Venom shifts to get a better glimpse of the screen. “Life is very good at making people anxious.”

They can make out the words now. Dollar signs, something about money being overdue. Bills, then. Eddie has already explained the concept of payment for goods and services, like chocolate and Netflix. They bristle around Eddie’s ribcage protectively.

If this screen is causing anxiety we will eat it.

“No-” Eddie puts his hand on his chest, right above where Venom is resting. It pleases them that Eddie can detect them so easily now. “Don’t do that. It’s not the computer, it’s just-“ Eddie sighs, running a hand through his hair. He gestures around them vaguely. “Life.”

The feeling deepens, seeping up into Eddie’s lungs and causing his breaths to become too short. A feeling, not a disease. Emotions are something Venom has only started to understand. Human brains make certain chemicals that correspond to different feelings. Things like happy and sad, hungry and full; these are easy to comprehend. Some are more tricky, more hidden. If they can just find the right one, can turn it off-

Eddie rubs at the back of his neck. “V, it’s okay. You don’t have to-” they brush over a stray memory, something about a rooftop, a cold breeze, and a feeling of indecisiveness. Eddie shudders. “You don’t have to poke around in my brain. It’ll go away as soon as I can find something to distract myself with.”

Not if I kill it first. Venom swirls around the inside of Eddie’s skull, gently encouraging his brain to produce more serotonin. They can’t grow it themselves, and the human body is slow and easily confused. What kind of organism tricks itself into feeling bad when there is no injury? Stupid.

When they surface again Eddie is hunched over his desk, head in his hands. His fingers tremble, but they are not cold. Confusing. They reach outward from Eddie’s elbow to inspect the tiny appendages, tendrils softly weaving between the digits. They like Eddie’s fingers, all long and thin. Perfect for hitting the microwave buttons when making potatoes, or for feeding them chocolate from the box.

Eddie jumps a little in his chair, the support squeaking as he settles. He is.. surprised? But not a bad surprise. Pleasant surprise. Venom stretches his tendrils more firmly around Eddie’s hand. A good surprise: another feeling they like. They will have to think of ways to make Eddie feel good-surprised again. Eddie’s fingers begin to settle. Venom pets the back of his hand in encouragement.

Something else, also.

Anxiety is dying, they say smugly. Told you we could fix it. If all Eddie needs to not be anxious is for them to hold his fingers, it will be easy to manage in the future. Maybe more good surprises will make the anxiety not happen at all. They will have to do research, later when Eddie is sleeping. Eddie types questions into his little screen and it gives him answers; there’s no reason they can’t do the same.

Eddie snorts, pushing his head out of his hands and flexing his fingers curiously. Venom doesn’t let go. What if the anxiety comes back? Too risky.

“Well look at that,” Eddie says weakly, shoving his hand into his hoodie pocket to hide his hands from the other humans. “Guess you did.”

Should not doubt us, Venom purrs, stretching themselves to rest protectively over Eddie’s heart. We will always protect us.

Eddie’s fingers flex around them, and finally the anxiety is gone. Something else takes its place- a warm feeling. Like happy feeling, but softer. They like this feeling, too. Eddie smiles.

“Yeah, we will.”

#symbrock #veddie #this is my first time writing these two so........ pls give me c&c #venom #anyways ..... here's this #i love em #writin

[soulflamesketches]

Unexpected Guitar Solo (Eddie Brock/Venom x Reader)

(An imagine based off ‘Imagine being Eddie’s girlfriend, he’s trying to hide Venom from you but you’re trying to hide your own symbiote’ I thought I should try to write one of my own imagines. SO I shall apologise in advance if it sucks and I wasted my time)

Eddie had been pacing in his apartment for the past half an hour, bribing the symbiote, mostly with chocolate, into staying silent when you did arrive for your movie night date. But Venom was sick of it.

“How long do you plan to keep hiding us from her, Edster? She’s a clever morsel, she will begin to notice that something is off with you”

“I don’t know, okay.” Was Eddie’s annoyed response to the voice in his head. Annie and himself didn’t work out and she went on to marry someone else. Eddie was happy for her, but he had been feeling a deep lonely-ness for himself.

“It’s not easy to tell someone you’re dating you have a god damn parasite in you! Especially one that eats people!” Eddie snapped more to himself than to anyone else. “I’m not a parasite! Apologise!” Venom snapped back in his head “Would she not understand your intentions?”

“I doubt she would get past the fact that you are still eating people!”

The pair were going back and forth on the matter. Unknowing to the fact that you were having the exact same argument with Shard; the symbiote that had bonded with you quite a few months ago. Her dark oily ‘skin’ was tinted blue and true to her name; most of her appendages would form into shard-like blades if she needed to protect you.

You had an easier time with your symbiote because of your level of understanding and you were slightly morally ambiguous at times; especially when someone wrongs you.

Shard had been the lovely company at the best of times, but you had still wished for a romantic life with another human being, and it seemed that God had heard your prayers and presented you with Eddie Brock.

Being with Eddie had been the best time of your life and you couldn’t, nor would you, ask for anyone better. But you still kept Shard under wraps, much to her dismay. “You will never know unless you try, (Y/n)” she was trying to tell you, but you never seemed to take it in. “You mean to scare off some who has literally been the best to me?” You said sarcastically as you were walking towards Eddie’s apartment.

“Is he really worth your time if you believe he’d run off because of me? Don’t you already go on about wanting someone who understands?” Her deep but soothing voice echoed in your head. “Pretty fucking hard to find someone who understands being the host to an alien.” You sighed, questioning your own thoughts as to why you needed a god damn voice in your head to honest with yourself.

“This god damn voice in your head can hear what you’re thinking! We share everything, (Y/n)! and believe it or not, I do want you to be happy. You’ve taken me in without much protest, it’s how I wish to repay you.”

You stayed silent as you reached the apartment building, travelling up the stairs to Eddie’s door and knocking on the wood once you reached it. The door opened quickly and Eddie’s arms enveloped you in a warm hug while kissing you on the cheek. “Hey Babe, how was work?” You could’ve sworn you felt a familiar substance touch your cheek, but you chalked it up to Shard messing with you.

“Ah, same old, same old. How about you? I’m surprised that you hadn’t taken the chance to write about 'The Demon of San Francisco'” You responded, giving Eddie a peck on the lips before placing your bag, which was filled with confectionary products for tonight on the floor. The scent immediately noticed by both symbiotes immediately.

“Nah, everyone’s already doing that. It gives me a break to spend time with you” Eddie said with a shrug, trying to dismiss his nervousness about the subject around you. The couple now started to set up their snacks, movie, blankets, pillows, all of the necessities! Especially for you two (or should I say four). You had brought over 'The Road to El Dorado’, a nostalgic favourite of yours that you would quote daily to get a chuckle out of those around you, especially Eddie.

You two curled up under a largely shared blanket together while the movie played. Your head was on Eddie’s shoulder, eyes glued to the screen while Eddie would offer you some of the sweets by holding a piece in front of your mouth and you would just take it there with your mouth. It was something Venom loved to see for some reason, while Shard would just tease you about it talking about a 'different kind of hunger’ you had in mind.

Stop it, you scolded Shard in your head, only to have her chuckle echo as a response.

You guys where about half-way through the movie when the sudden horrifying noise of an electric guitar made the both of you jump out of your skin. Eddie immediately showed how disgruntled he was. The previous neighbour had done the same thing until he moved out (probably scared of Eddie), but the new guy was just as much of a metal head as the last guy.

Fear filled your veins as you knew what would come next and you quickly ran to the bathroom to hide your pain from Eddie, leaving him there shocked and confused “Babe!? Are you alright?” He called out to you, but then his own pain set in, causing him to hold his head. The guitar had the right frequency to make any symbiote squeal in pain. But your scream of pain was able to distract Eddie for a moment; long enough to gain his senses back.

“FuCK!” You scream went down a few notes for a moment as both you and Shard suffered from the sound.

Eddie marched out of the apartment and banged on his neighbour’s door to get him to turn the fucking music down. “What?” was the neighbour’s rude greeting to the rugged Eddie in front of his door. “Hey man, could you turn down the music? My girlfriend has a headache” Eddie said, trying to stay calm, but his hands were shaking from Venom’s rage; from the noise itself and from hearing your pained scream. “Get fucked.” came another rude response, only for Venom to voice his rage for a split second before marching back to the apartment, closing the door behind him

“Will you shut up, Shard! I get it!” They could hear you yelling at someone, but the boys didn’t know who. “Are you sure about that? you still want to walk back out? I’m sure he has many questions now” a deeper feminine stated in a concerned but firm voice “And you’re not helping me feel any better about this!” You snapped “I could just say that the music just scared me... enough to relieve myself..?” your voice trailed off

“Good idea. But keeping thinking sweetie” The deep voice spoke sarcastically

“Excuse me, it’s your damn biology that caused this!”

“And you think I have control of that!?”

“Open the door.” Venom demanded. Eddie hesitated, honestly becoming scared for what he would walk in on “OPEN THE DOOR!” Venom snapped.

Eddie then opened the door a little too hard, causing you to yelp before looking at your boyfriend in shock. Eddie’s expression mirrored yours as he noticed the blue tinted oily head connected to your arm.

“Uhhh.....”

“You have this one covered,” the head said disappearing into your skin “W-Wait Shard! No, I don’t have this!” You had desperately tried to not be left metaphorically alone in this. But Shard had resigned you to your fate.

“I.. u-uh... I can explain...”

//End\\

I needed to stop there. If you want me to write another part, I would love some ideas for reactions/scenarios and other stuff. I just stopped there because I didn’t think I could write that.

#venom x reader #venom #venom movie #venom 2018 #eddie brock #eddie brock x reader #eddie brock x you #eddie brock x y/n #venom x you #symbiote host #symbiote host reader #female reader #venom x y/n #imagine #venom imagine #eddie brock imagine #venom x reader imagine #eddir brock x reader imagine #sucky writing #more symbiotes #gif imagines

[chalabrun]

between the dirt & desperation, ch. 2

Word count: 2,420 Pairings: Symbrock Rating: T Warnings: Animal death, non-sexual vore, violence Summary:  Sequel to “Angry & Half in Love with You”, it’s been well over a month since Eddie moved away from San Francisco to start over in his hometown of Manhattan. Yet, it’s difficult to return to a normal life when what you were once addicted to becomes addicted to you. A/N: This is a crossover between Venom (2018) and Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy (2002-07)

( READ ON AO3 ) 

The symbiote was relentlessly starved when they finally made some sort of harbor a dark place where grime crawled deeper and lower than the rats Venom gorged itself upon, being generous, ginger. It withdrew from coating the whole of Eddie’s body and instead emerged like a serpent, slithering and bobbing as it devoured what it could while Eddie watched on apathetically. Not because he didn’t care, but because it held less horror for him than it should. Those few days together—had it been less? Whatever it was, there had been no time to slow down and think. Here and now, in the deafening silence, there was.

Without having to be told, he knew that it’d known Maria. They had been together for a time, and it let him access that trust through the hum of tension. The hum that sometimes growled. A pigeon panicked and squawked when Venom lunged and crushed the bird in its jaws in a sickening crunch of finality, feathers and thin talons sticking from its jaws before swallowing it down whole. Then, more rats. More crunching and devouring and sick noises instead of what hung in the air like a noose.

Eddie squatted on a crushed cardboard box while it ate, unwilling to shut his eyes lest he saw what Venom did. The blood, the viscera, a taste that would make him retch if he let himself. His skin felt clammy. Oh, he’d been sweating. His clothes clung to his body unpleasantly, almost like he’d been dipped in water. Was it him, or Venom? He couldn’t tell anymore.

All he did know was, in the silence, there wasn’t any censor. While Venom feigned like it was fully absorbed in foraging for prey, everything passed between them. Every badly suppressed sensation, emotion. The cautious relief, the tension, the anxiety—those were Venom’s, he thinks. Or was it both? All Eddie really knew was his own caution, the tension, the suspicion, the—oh. So, there was some overlap. Did he fear it? Suddenly, everything he’d done came in sharp relief and the last month had felt like withdrawal. This…it was like taking a hit but getting none of the high.

Being too fucking aware to drown in the weird colors, to smell sound.

“So, how long are we gonna hole down here and pretend what happened didn’t, Ven?” It’s asked suddenly, tiredly, and now Venom flinches. He can feel it all the way up the appendage. Like a shiver down a spine. His spine, Venom’s? Or theirs. Regardless, Eddie sounded tired, frustrated. Probably not the most inviting front.

Venom slurps down the last rat. It’s morbid seeing it slide down his throat, and he can’t stand to watch. He pressed a finger to his temple, expelling a weary and terse sigh.

“…We’re sorry, Eddie. There’s just so much we didn’t understand—”

He can feel it. Like Venom is going to crumble, like he’d blow away if he didn’t clamor towards Eddie and twist around him for dear life. Eddie wants it, too. He wants it so much he can feel his fingers twitching, biceps tense like they’d open up at the slightest insistence and seize the symbiote in a crushing embrace. But, they can’t. Not yet. Not when Eddie doesn’t trust it. Even if he can feel its fragility, its heart that throbbed painfully.

Not when he can’t distinguish what belongs to whom.

“…Could’ve asked me. I wouldn’t have minded, y’know. Just sat down and watched some fuckin’ boring documentary about… I dunno, goddamn Plato for somethin’. Freud. Those guys. Knew all about how humanity ticks.” Eddie dropped his face in his hand, digging into the hair at his hairline as he watched a trickle of water run past to a storm sewer. He wanted to sleep. But, he couldn’t just leave things hanging like this.

A drop on his forehead. Who…? Nah, it was just beginning to rain. He forgot how cold and dreary Manhattan could be. Glancing towards Venom, the symbiote looking like the alien equivalent of a kicked puppy, the downpour starting.

“Com’mere. I don’t want ya gettin’ all soaked like that.” Putting his hood up, Venom retracted some back into his body, like ink soaking up parchment. The part that remained hung on the hoodie’s collar and tucked itself beneath his chin, warm and pliant beneath his stubble. Meekly did Venom rub himself against his chin, which admittedly tickled. Eddie broke out in a quick grin and chuffed softly, which earned a relieved pause from Venom as it continued to nuzzle into his jawline.

It was a start, at least.

“…We don’t want to end up like last time. We missed you, Eddie. …We want a second chance.” Venom’s words were quiet and admissive, and totally vulnerable. He could feel a tightness in his chest that wasn’t his own.

Eddie nodded, a thoughtful silence descending even as he got soaked, rain dripping from the lip of his hood. “I wanna trust you, Ven. I do, it’s just— …Funny. How people all over the world lead these fuckin’ lonely lives. Top brass. Lowest scum. And everyone in between who doesn’t have anyone to understand them. Not in the way they wish they could. Boy, if they knew the damn cost of it all.” Venom filled a side of Eddie’s hoodie, nuzzling yearningly into the blond’s cheek and rubbing affectionately. Absently, he grazed his lips against the symbiote that began purring deeply. “And now, I got it. Y’think it wouldn’t be this fuckin’ complicated, sharing headspace an’ all.”

Venom breathed softly against Eddie’s neck, pressing into his pulse. “You were kind to her. We saw it through her eyes. You were a good friend.”

Eddie swallowed thickly. “Yeah,” he agreed hoarsely, voice cracking huskily, feeling his eyes mist wetly. “Too bad she ain’t here to say so. Fuck—”

“You’re a real hard guy to track down, Brock. Guess I’m lucky you didn’t get very far.”

Eddie reared to stand and upset whatever water had been accumulating on him, like a statue suddenly come to life, perched over a gloomy autumn fountain and under a funeral shroud sky. There was the red. Red he remembered. But somehow shouldn’t but did. Spiderman. He’d seen him before in the papers, but that red looked different in person. Realer. Too vivid for a dark city.

“Spiderman? Th’ hell’re you doin’ here?” Eddie asked in surprise, Venom having vanished at the right time.

“Enough of the talk. You’ve got the symbiote, Brock. A lot of people are gonna get hurt if you don’t give it up.”

“What, is there a crime against loiterin’ in alleyways? Or are ya suddenly an avenger for fuckin’ vermin?” the blond demanded incredulously, those inscrutable opaque lenses making it impossible to tell what the vigilante was thinking. He could feel Vernom’s trepidation evolve into something malicious, tenebrous shadow building behind him like a nascent forest fire.

“Spiderman!” Venom seethed menacingly, claws curling and fangs bared menacingly. Its eyes narrowed to slits, Eddie feeling its inky substance creep up his skin and over his clothes. So, it was really coming to that? That they’d be the villains jumping innocent people in dark alleyways?

Spiderman poised himself to attack, reflexively wheeling a step back when Venom’s form grew like a cloud, sucking Eddie into that familiar black mist. “Wait—you two know each other?”

“Boy, I wish it was just a mutual acquaintanceship, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know what a threat that thing is, Brock. And you’re in danger if you keep using it!” Spiderman proclaimed in a truer accusation. “You have no idea what this thing is really capable of.”

The cogs in Eddie’s brain began turning. “Wait—so you were the schmuck who handed Ven over to those exploitive creeps?!” Anger. There it was. Like finding a pilot light beneath a tank of petrol and lighting it. There was an emotion he didn’t mind sharing for once. And it was symbiotic between them.

A rumbling noise interrupted what the two were saying. “I bonded with him temporarily, Eddie. Because…I missed it. I missed us. Spiderman treated us like another suit. It lasted for a few days before a Dr. Richard Reeds parted us.” The hiss it uttered was low and banal, burgeoning with resentment. And now, of course Spiderman wanted to do the right thing and put them on the slaughterhouse floor they liked to call justice. “We’re a monster to him, Eddie.”

Whatever had gone on between them suddenly didn’t matter. Spiderman acted on impulse and slung his webbing on two dumpsters and hauled them back manfully, both metal cannisters careening and bouncing roughly on concrete before Venom enveloped him completely, like drowning in those 20,000 leagues under the sea without a submarine. It was familiar, like a womb. They were one again.

“YOU HURT US!” Venom roared as it caught one of the dumpsters and pitched it at Spiderman who reflexively leaped over it. “And now—you threatened to hurt Eddie! We’ll never forgive you!” It was less heartbreak here and more a possessive and righteous anger. At least, righteous to them. Here, in the darkness, everything felt right. Only Spiderman was wrong. He would never part them!

“Brock, if you’re in here, listen to me: I know how it feels! It feels great, at first. But this…this thing, it’s leeching on everything wrong! It makes it worse and—” Venom roared indignantly and tore the other dumpster in two, leaping to bear the weight on its blow that Spiderman barely avoided, vaulting into the air several feet up and racing up the side of the building. “—It’s going to ruin you if you keep this up!”

“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” Venom roared furiously, its own webbing soaring its body into the sky as it gave chase to Spiderman who took off in hot pursuit of a place predictably further away from civilians. “We won’t let you or anyone else separate us ever again!” Rage. The white-hot, poetic rage that would make the stars tremble. A romantic rage of tortured poets who saw the futility of gray skies and death. It was here, raw and maligned. Except towards Eddie. Despite everything, nothing could make it hurt Eddie.

His Eddie.

Spiderman landed squarely against the side of a warehouse, practically soundless. He couldn’t let innocent people get hurt, but inside no one was there in the charge of shifts. Maybe it’d cause damage, but all he cared about was the preservation of life. Not lost assets.

Adroitly did he use his webbing to open a narrow enough window near the roof and catapult his way through it, assessing his surroundings in the blink of an eye. The stacks were at least a few stories high, enough to provide ammunition against the symbiote. And—speakers!

Venom rocketed through the same window with a loud violence, struggling to squeeze through compared to the slender Spider. Glass shards rained as it landed heavily, a shake in the air as its tongue tasted the air. “We can hear you, little spider! Climbing higher up the water spout, ha!” the symbiote taunted, arrogance rife in its very veins. It stalked the long avenues of boxes and paraphernalia, Spiderman high aloft and studying its movements.

Wait—were those exhaust vents? And tankards of gas.

That gave him an idea.

“Hey, ugly! Over here!” The jeer got Venom’s attention, the symbiote snarling as it propelled itself upwards and swung through the rafters, just rows away from Spiderman. The masked arachnid dropped down when Venom barreled through and came too close, landing deftly on his feet before he found the exhaust vents. It was natural gas—perfect!

Venom waited for a brief moment, scenting the air for Peter. Quietly, and as swiftly as he could, he knocked off the spouts of two of the two natural gas tanks and a high pennywhistle of air pitched and already the stench of natural gas flooded the room. Booking it from the narrow office, he stood before and where Venom could see him. Luckily, the office’s doors looked sturdy and all but one entrance were locked, as there was only one way in or out.

“Looking for me? Guess we’re like the tortoise and the hare here, aren’t we, big guy?”

Already with a thin pride as it was, Venom snapped and devolved into a galloping morass of oily sludge as it raced towards him, Peter running headlong towards it as if embracing death. Except, he wasn’t. The smell of gasoline was acrid and likely set to implode at any minute.

At the last second did Peter dive aside while Venom barreled heedlessly into the office, ramming into several desks and overturning them in the process. Papers upset by the collision created a hail of white, obscuring their view while Peter locked the office shut with the fumes pent up inside, using his webbing to topple a row of shelving that landed cacophonously and shed its merchandise to effectively lock the pair inside, hauling it with inhuman strength to barricade the windowless room shut.

Feeling the very air shimmer with heat, Peter launched himself skyward and propelled himself by slinging through the skylight, willing that he was right and no one else was around to get hurt. He raced away as fast as his webs could take him, several blocks so before an explosion rocked the air and he was sundered to skid to a stop on a sidewalk, the silent night brightening hellishly as an inferno erupted and plumes of smoke roiled enormously and black into that grey sky, dying it sable.

Peter coughed and groaned softly, rolling on his back as he slowly got himself back on his feet, wiping away a skid mark of dirt on his mask.

Police and fire engines raced past, a cold breeze of their speeding coloring the night that same, vivid red. So different from the violence several blocks away, the vigilante’s heart heavy with a deep regret.

He didn’t like it when people died. Especially people who didn’t know what they’d gotten themselves into, but what choice did he have? Peter watched on as people slowly emerged from their homes, bundling themselves in coats and shawls as they gossiped worriedly for the flames licking the sky.

Peter bowed his head.

He had to get home. His Aunt May would be wondering where he was. Especially after all of this.

#eddie brock #venom #symbrock #veddie #peter parker #crossover #vore cw #kinda #if this doesn't make the fandom hate me idk what will :'D #angst gremlin here with more angst woop woop