Summary:Eddie and Betty make a choice. Log Info:Storyteller: {$storyteller} |
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Eddie sent a text ahead to let Betty know he'd be swinging by, making sure she was home. For once, he's not going in through the window, actually stopping by and grabbing some sandwiches at a nearby deli and bringing along a bottle of wine.
He knocks on the door, clad in a pair of simple jeans and sneakers along with a white t-shirt stretched over his heavy musculature. Of course, all of that's just the symbiote playing disguise, but Venom rather likes toying around with fashion appearances. Once the door is answered, he smiles sheepishly, "Sorry it's been so long. Guess things are always gonna be complicated with me from now on."
Betty Brant smiles, meeting the man at the door. Opening it, allowing him in, she closes it again and sets the system of locks once he's safely within the living area. "You've always been complicated, Eddie." She reminds him, giving a smooth brush of her hair back and out of the way. She was in simple attire herself - shorts, a tanktop. Her eyes bounce toward the wine and sandwiches. It pulls a smirk on her face and a dimple into her cheek.
"So, uh…did you want to just get this over with or pretend it's a check-up slash social meeting?"
He raises an eyebrow, "No, let's…get down to business," he says. Although he feels like things are okay between them, the intensity of her phrasing makes him concerned. He felt like he understood her messages, but he also…well, a combination of not wanting to get his hopes up and not relying on his own ability to interpret Betty's behavior.
He takes a seat, "You wanted to talk to me. Sit. Talk," he says, leaving the food and drinks aside for now.
Nodding, she pads around to sit with him on the sofa. The last few times this happened, they talked about his life, that think living in his body. Shifting on the seat, she makes herself comfortable and hugs around her knees, loosely, pulling them up and against her chest. Her painted toes give a nervous wiggle and the scene itself seems to be one that mirrored a few 'talks' they tried to have when in high-school.
"I'm a mess." She admits calmly. "I had a talk with a friend of mine the other day and I just…It was about all those things you think about later in life. Where you are, what makes you happy. Things that should be easy to answer but aren't."
Venom remembers those talks well, although he's a bit more sober this time than he was for a lot of those. At least they don't have to worry about her mother coming in and catching them with a pair of joints badly shoved under the bed.
"I don't know if there's ever a time when people don't think about those things. Everybody stops now and again to…take stock. I've had plenty of reason to do it in recent days for…obvious reasons," he says. "Tell me."
"Yeah? What have you been thinking about?" It was classic Betty - get others to talk so she didn't have to deal with feeling uneasy. Words were her playground and when that playground was cluttered up, she was rather nervous. Distraction, she'd always go for a distraction tactic. "I mean, I know when I messaged you it was about you. Us. And I know the first time you came around and were feeling more steady, I talked to you about Kate and all that." Her toes curl and relax. She sighs, "I need to talk to her. I like her a lot, she's a great woman, but I just…I know what I like more, y'know? I had that 'you almost died' thing and it needs to stop being an excuse for my actions."
Lip thin, then filling back out, she watches over Eddie's face for a moment in silence. "I never stopped thinking about you, Eddie. I wish I told you how I felt before I moved away back then. And during college when we…Then you came back and here you are."
Eddie crosses his legs and runs a hand back through his hair, "I'm not sure I'll ever be a hundred percent steady again. Part of what we…what I…am now is instability, is chaos, is…madness," he admits. "Even before Venom, I wasn't very stable, Betty. I tried to hide it from you, but I know you could tell. I was - am - a damaged person," he says.
"But, of course, you've always…been there. Part of me. I can't imagine that not being so. Even when I was away, I…peeked on you when I could. I wanted to come to you, long before I got up the guts to do it," he admits. "And it's okay if you like this Kate. I don't…I have no expectations, no demands. But if you want me still, despite everything I am, everything I've become…I think you're a little nuts, but I'm in."
"Damaged can be worked on. I'm not exactly steady like I thought I was before, either." She huffs, lowering her head and listening. She nods, and nods, eye to eye and attentive. "No, I know. That's not the point, though. I don't…I don't think I want to just sleep around and get my jollies anymore. It's fun, sure, and y'know…whatever. Just when I was asked by my friend what makes me happy, I thought about you and my mom." Pause, "I just have you now. I-I think I want to try settling. Maybe trying to nail something down."
"I, well, I hope I can do something that would allow both of you to do that with me."
Venom reaches out and takes her hand carefully, "I don't think it's anything you have to do. I admit, I'm scared of…I don't trust myself. I don't trust…him," he admits, "I'm not sure I ever will. Not with you. I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want to hurt you. He likes you, but it's…it's hard to explain what Venom is like. It's not…human. In any way. And liking you doesn't mean you're safe from it," he admits.
"But…I am…selfish enough that I want you, in spite of all that. I shouldn't. I should go away to protect you from it. But I'm too weak and I can't. So here I am."
"You're not fucking weak for being here. You were such an asshole for leaving the first time with a note. It's not…I don't need protection like that, especially not now. You're different and stronger. /I'm/ different and stronger now." Glaring, then relaxing, she turns her hand around, gripping with a firm grip. "We'll work with likes me and go from there. I'll try to understand him and you both. You're one in the same now, I get that…"
A brush, a rub across the back of his hand, she sighs and shifts closer before wrapping her arms around the man's shoulders. "Be with me again. If something happens, if you can't…don't just leave. Talk to me, please. I don't-I don't want anyone else anymore. I just want the man I've loved since I knew what that word even meant."
Eddie looks down and there's a moment there where his shoulders shake. This isn't something he ever expected to have a chance at again. After his breakdown, after he ran away, after everything he's become…the mere fact that Betty even talked to him still amazed him. That she wanted more, that she wanted to find a way forward, together, it was…quite a bit for him to take. In a good way, but still…
He grips her wrist firmly and pulls her hand up, kissing her knuckles almost blindly, "I want you, too. I won't…I won't leave again," he says. Then he does look a bit more serious as he looks up, "Don't underestimate it. I know you're tough, I know you can handle yourself, but it's…we're a monster, Betty."
"No you're not." She tells him, pulling back enough to see his face clearly. Cupping his cheek, she cants her head, searching his expression before speaking, not only to him, but to the thing within his body. "You're something more than that. Maybe we can work together. Do something great for this city, something bigger than the both of us. Maybe you-you and I can work together again. Just…be together again."
There's a pause now, only for a moment. She'd heard him, of course she did, but there's a hint of hesitation on her face, a pouting to her lips. "You sure about this? You're, I mean…you've been back and doing your thing for awhile now. If me wanting this is going to ruin anything you have in your life, tell me. I don't watn to do that to you."
Venom shakes his head, "You could never ruin anything," he says. "I've had…flings here and there, but nothing serious. Nothing like us," he says.
He gives a shiver as he feels Venom shifting within him, the presence of that other mind shivering against his consciousness, until he speaks with the thing's voice, "You seem to be good for Eddie. Keeping Eddie content makes us content. So long as you do that, you will have our happy cooperation. Plus, we might…enjoy you a bit ourselves," the monster admits.
"I'll tell you what I told you the first time I met you," she begins, face forward and intent clear for the alien. "If you hurt him, and yes I understand your relationship, but if you lead him into some danger and harm him, I /will/ find a way to rip you out of him. I'll find a way to defeat you." A breath in and out, she smiles. "I don't meant that as a threat, more of a promise. I agree to cooperate with the purpose of making Eddie happy." Sitting back now, she offers the 'thing' her hand to shake in agreement. "Take the night off. I'd like Eddie for myself tonight." She requests.
There's a moment of darkness swimming in Eddie's eyes, as the symbiote immediately considers trying to assert itself, its dominance, its control of Eddie. Much as Eddie may often try to use it as a force for good, there is a deep malevolence within the symbiote itself, caring for little but its own appetite.
But, for now, Eddie's head nods in agreement and the darkness clears from his eyes. "He's never entirely gone, you know," Eddie says.