Chapter Text
Eddie..
It was a late night on Saturday. One of those cozy rainy nights where Eddie just stayed in his bed browsing on his phone, while Venom laid on his chest. Though this time Venom had been rather, weird lately. He had been acting strange for a few days now, he rarely materialized his head anymore and was awfully quiet. This was the first time he had talked in a few hours.
"Yes, love?"
We have been hiding something from you, Eddie.
Oh no, Eddie thought. What's wrong now? Why would he feel the need to hide something from him? Immediately, Eddie felt his stomach flip upside down anxiously. What could possibly be bothering him so much that he couldn't talk to him? Did he want to find a new host? Or just break up? Or suddenly want to eat his brains?
Nothing like that, Eddie.
Shit, he forgot he could read his mind when he wanted to. "O..Oh, okay... What's wrong love? You can tell me anything, you know that." Eddie sat up, knowing this is serious and put his phone down, and watched as Venom appeared from out of his shoulder and came in front of him. This was the first time since yesterday that he took on this form. "Are you okay?"
It is hard to explain, Eddie. But, when you found us, we left something behind. Something important to us.
"Why? What did we leave behind?"
In the Life Foundation, we was forced to give birth. Five Symbiotes. Riot, Lasher, Phage, Agony, and Scream. Took my seeds, Eddie. Hatched them in the lab and used them. Despite the fact Venom wasn't the most facially expressive, Eddie could see that he was upset. They really must have meant a lot to him. We want to find them, Eddie. We know they are alive in there. We must find them.
This was a lot of information to take in on a Saturday night, but Eddie could understand how much this meant to Venom, losing his children for so long and being away from them all this time. Eddie sat there and thought, how are they gonna do this? Surely the Life Foundation was in bits and pieces, right? How would he even get in? Would those little Symbiotes even be alive in there after all this time?
We will take care of breaking and entering, Eddie. We will get inside, no matter. They are alive, we can feel it.
"Alright, alright. Let's go, I just hope you know what you're doing." Just as Eddie was about to get up and change to leave, Venom stopped him for a brief moment.
Before we find them, we must adopt cats, Eddie. Cats are good hosts, good symbiosis for them.
Shit shit shit, Eddie wasn't the biggest fan of cats, he was more of a dog kinda guy after Mr. Belvedere didn't take a particular liking to him. But dogs would be even more hard to handle, right? Cats can just be left to their devices in an apartment, just feed them, make sure they have a place to do their duty, give them a few pets and they'll be okay. Then again, Eddie knew this meant a lot to Venom, so he nodded in agreement.
-
After successfully adopting five damn kittens at the dead of night - totally not sketchy, all by Venom's colour choice seen as it didn't matter so much to Eddie, he kept them safely in a carrier and debated for a minute or so whether he should keep them safely at Anne's for the time being. Surely it was too dangerous to bring five kittens inside of the Life Foundation. But Venom wasn't taking his time, he was autopiloting and taking control of Eddie's legs straight towards the Life Foundation while holding a carrier of meowing kittens. While Venom was autopiloting, Eddie took a peek at the kittens. One had fluffy orange fur, another smaller one was grey, one was black, another was a paler shade of orange, like sand, and the last was white. Cute kittens.
They reached the Life Foundation, and Venom quickly took over Eddie's body and made a leap up into the highest window that was smashed in, like the rest of them. They landed inside safely, along with the kittens who were now meowing a little louder, most likely in fright. Eddie didn't blame them. This place looked like a dump, pretty much everywhere they looked there was a dead body, but the thing that made him even more curious was the fact they looked fresh. "Hey, Venom, are those bodies fresh?" Eddie quietly asked, noticing that neither of them had their heads either.
Yes Eddie, freshly eaten. They are here. Must be here. Look around.
Eddie looked around carefully with his phone flashlight, stepping over the bodies scattered on the floor, peering into the human experimentation pits that he once found Maria in, but all he could see was dead bodies, blood and some more blood. The farther they searched, Eddie felt his nose sting with the stench of very fresh blood, and Venom hurried him forward to peek inside of one of the pits where somebody was rocking back and forth against the wall. Whoever it was, they didn't notice Eddie standing there staring in both terror and confusion. One step on the glass though, and the person looked up faster than normal, and backed against the wall hissing at him.
Eddie jumped out of his skin, literally, because Venom took over and crouched into the pit, and started purring. The person, who looked like a teenager, stopped their hissing and sat still, staring intently at Venom who was now fronted and coming slowly closer to the person. Venom sniffed.
It is safe, we are here. You can come out.
After a few seconds, the body of the teenager toppled to the side, dead still, and out of their chest came an orange goop that slid towards him slowly. Venom stayed crouched and outstretched a hand towards the orange goop, stroking it gently. His baby was alive after all this time.
My babies are here, Eddie. After all this time.
Eddie smiled, and Venom slowly sheathed back inside of him but materialized a head, tendrils emerging to feel the Symbiote and make sure they were okay. At the sound of his voice, a bucket in the corner of the room started to rattle and suddenly fell over, and pooling out of it was many colours of goop, that separated and squelched over to Venom's voice. Eddie watched the goop come closer, the rest of his Symbiotes. "Riot, Lasher, Phage, Agony and Scream... One, two three, four... Five! All of them are here!" He could feel his other's relief as the Symbiotes squirmed their way over and started pooling at Eddie' feet, as if they were desperate for something. Eddie glanced to the teenager body that laid there now, dead, and thought for a minute. "Have you guys been sharing a body all this time?" He murmured and looked down at the pile of Symbabies at his feet, hesitantly letting a hand down and stroked one of them, but they shrank away very quickly. "Sorry, sorry... Won't do that again. Here, look, you may feel better in one of these."
Eddie placed the carrier of kittens down, and opened it. The kittens, cluelessly wandered out of the carriers and sniffed around the pit they were in. The Symbabies were watching them, as their pile of goop, and crept over to one of the kittens they took a particular liking to. "Which Symbiote is who, Venom?"
Phage is the orange, Riot is the grey one, Lasher is the green, Agony is purple and Scream is yellow.
It made sense, because Phage had squirmed over to the fluffy orange kitty and sunk into it's fur, starting the bonding process with the clueless kitten. Riot made their way over to the grey kitten, Lasher went towards the black one and clambered into it's skin, Agony made their way over to the white one and Scream went to the sandy kitten. Eddie and Venom watched carefully as the Symbabies began their bonding process with the clueless kittens, and noticed when the kittens eyes rolled over completely white that they had successfully bonded with their new host. Phage came over first, and rubbed against Eddie's leg.
Thank you, Eddie. Without you, we would have never found them again.
Eddie gently nuzzled the side of his head against Venom's, a little smile on his face. He watched as the rest of the Symbabies finished their bonding process and meowed, coming over to Eddie in a pile of kittens and rubbed against his legs. He stood up, hesitantly stroking their heads for a brief moment and ushered them into the carrier. They were unsure, until Venom made a deep rumbling sound, almost like a purr, and climbed into the carrier together in a pile, curled in the back. "Let's get you little babies back home and fed, hm? Sharing a body to feed on a bunch of these people must have been rough."
-
Back home, Eddie opened the carrier and let the kittens run free. Agony and Scream seemed to be a well-coordinated pair, they walked side-by-side most of the time they were together around the apartment. Phage and Riot were wrestling on his carpet in the living room, while Lasher sat comfortably on the kitchen counter. This was their home now, and Eddie had to get used to having six Symbiotes around.