In the hurry he had been in to get to the airport within a reasonable time, Steven realized he didn't quite pack for any occasion rather than perhaps sleeping or going to the nearest store. He did his best to make himself as presentable as possible, but there was only so much a collared patterned shirt could do to save the state of his hair, by the far the most obvious lost cause. Thankfully, there were two things which went for the better: the dark circles dimmed after that surprisingly good sleep he had had and he did make it to the restaurant he texted Clara the location of, in time, if not even a little early.

He wasn't a fan of eating fish... or any meat, for that matter, so Steven could not phantom any reason for thinking this was a good idea, other than the fact that he really wanted to go on a formal outing with Clara.

Jonathan was right in every way to not believe Steven that he caught the interest of such an amazing woman and now that his memory problems have returned as well, a few moments of deep thinking had made Steven realize that perhaps he should start showing Clara, while he still has the chance, that he likes her and not just as the crumb of pleasantries, but rather as perhaps the closest he'd felt to a safe love.

A restaurant with a gaze at the beach and the ocean, even if at night, when the breeze was a bit colder than usual, was the most romantic, on spot thing he could think of.

While he waited, these past few days flashed before his eyes in a melancholic replay. Surely, he must have looked like a true fool to anyone casting their gaze to the ocean only to see a man sitting alone at a table for two, smiling at the menu he wasn't even reading because the only vegan things he had spotted on it were the drinks and the bread.

Without exaggeration, Steven could call these days since Clara first started making him feel like the luckiest man on Earth, the very best days of his life. It was that why he was sort of counting on her presence to cast away this little bad spot of his memory issues striking him not once, but twice already. He believed, with all his naive nature, that she was keeping him sane.

Then the clock got to 9 PM.

Ten minutes after that decided time and the seat across from him was still empty.

It would have been enough to make anyone feel bad, but Steven would not be losing hope, not yet. He remembered clearly that Clara said it might be nine and a half...

It was 9:57 PM.

"She said she was working..." He had to speak out loud now, even if mainly in whispers, in order to convince himself that there was still room for hoping. Five minutes after that, he got his phone out and placed it on the table, next to the flowers he stopped to get and were already dying, much like the spark of hope in him. Steven held onto it throughout getting a look at his phone. There were no new messages worth getting his glasses out for because Clara did not text him about being late.

With a condescending sigh, he decided on the spot to give her the benefit of doubt and just call. The dial was short because it immediately sounded that her phone was not in service.

It wasn't long after that he left his seat at the restaurant, with apologies to the waiter who kept on coming over to check on him. He left the flowers there and since returning to the hotel meant going uphill, it was a genuine need of his to just reroute to heading towards the docks opened to tourists instead. Perhaps being besides the sea would cure that emptiness in his chest, a sadness which choked him and left him bare all the same. The ache was not yet pointed towards betrayal and it was not that why he felt he was holding back tears while dragging a slow walk down the street, but rather because deep down, Steven felt he had a voice telling him he didn't deserve a love story anyhow.

Walking on the right side of the road, quite unaware of his surroundings, only knowing that the street was empty, quiet and the pavement under his feet was carrying him with the allowance of his mind getting loud, the moment the wall of the building he was about to pass by crumbled, his whole reality followed.

It looked and sounded like a wrecking ball smashed through it. But if it was a ball to begin with, then it fell on the middle of the street and separated into a green monster, slightly bigger than how the Hulk looked on the Missing Posters issued by FBI, and one as dark as the night, with only those piercing white eyes and the the shine of thousands of teeth helping it stand out.

The latter was taking all the hits.

Debris from the collapsing building has been sent in all directions, including towards Steven. It wasn't until a black tentacle from the losing monster detached and caught a boulder from killing him where he froze that Steven blinked out of his shock and took one trembling step back.

"Steven!"

Steven turned towards the voice, similar to his, calling him from the immediate right. In the slightly cracked glass of a closed shop, he saw his reflection standing and looking at him in a completely different position than he was.

"It's time you go to sleep." Marc nodded to his scared personality, because unlike him, he knew exactly who was losing the fight.

The beginning of the fight Clara was losing had a line which would have honestly been a relief in another context, "This isn't HYDRA." But, of course, neither she nor Morbius had that sort of luck in life to call it early and apparently, each time they tried to be the good guys, things went wrong... Abomination wrong, apparently.

After hours of searching empty docks for their lead, it dawned on them that this looked more like a long-term planned trap. HYDRA wasn't smart enough nor properly equipped anymore to pull this off and seeing Abomination climb out from under docks looking for a fight proved it. Last he had been seen, Hulk shamed him on live TV, but that was decades ago. She was a child when that fight was broadcasting and even if she didn't watch it all, it managed to scare her.

Now she was one of the big guys too, apparently, it shouldn't have caused her panic to see Abomination in all its dirty green glory. But it did.

Especially as Dr. Morbius was treated as a twig easy to be broken by him. In order for her work friend to not get stomped into the afterlife after he was knocked out, Clara let the Venom suit out and so started her absolutely awful night, in which the last of her worries was her dating life. Surviving was prioritized.

At least until Abomination pushed Venom through a building and she caught a glimpse of Steven on the sidewalk. Then, without even a second of hesitation, even as their back hit the concrete and cracked it, they put the energy in catching the boulder about to crush their friend. Of course, once caught, Venom smashed that rock into Abomination's head.

They've been holding their own for half an hour, the whole side of the docks they were coming from was wrecked because of it. Now, Venom and Clara both were growing tired and it showed, because they started taking triple the hits they actually landed.

Clara couldn't catch another glance at Steven because Abomination picked Venom up by the waist and threw them down the street until they crash landed close to another docking area, with far fewer fishing boats.

Venom shook his head, dazed, but he regained half lucidity to step back. Abomination hit his chest and with a growl, jumped from up the street. In the air, he raised his fists up, about to rain them on Venom. He stepped back to pick up the nearest boat, be it small or not, and use it for defense. Abomination didn't manage to land like he had planned because of it because from the air, Venom smacked the boat into the jaw of the monster, destroying the boat but barely landing a scratch on the thing who stumbled, but landed nevertheless, a step away, still in range.

Because he was still in range, Abomination landed a hit which finally brought Venom to the point of no return: his knees started buckling.

Clara was feeling every shred of pain and though that resistance may have gone up over the years, she was still mostly human and she perceived the impacts much stronger than her symbiote. Yet, she didn't just let him handle everything. She put up all her will into actually reacting, into at least trying to keep them balanced on their feet.

Punch after punch from Abomination suddenly made standing up the hardest thing Clara has ever attempted while in the Venom suit.

"Venom...," she called, choking. Venom was rendered rather helpless in front of the momentum Abomination gained.

The Abomination stopped. He felt a tickle at the back of his neck. Though his perception and intelligence was down by a ton since the mutations he underwent, he understood as much as the fact that no one should be touching him.

When the attack stopped, Venom dropped on one knee, to catch his breath. Through his mouth, he felt Clara's blood, because busy with keeping them alive, he had very little energy to heal her too.

Abomination turned around and saw a... He tilted his head at the tiny man dressed all in white just catching an even smaller curved knife from the air.

Marc took control of the body and let the Moon Knight out as fast as he could, even though any gram of reason amongst the clouds of his judgment would have insisted to remind him that Abomination was thrice his size and Clara's monster was at least twice too. If he had learnt anything from being the Fist of Khonshu so far was that if he had a quest from his God, nothing, not even death, would be able to end it for him. Just then, Marc was pretty sure Khonshu needed Clara alive.

He had thrown the moon-shaped blade at the back of the monster's head in hopes that it either distracted it enough to get Clara fighting back, or, if all was truly going to end bloody, at least draw the fight away from her. Abomination turned to him while the blade returned like a boomerang in his white gloved hand.

It growled, it puffed and behind that thing, Moon Knight saw Venom knelt, heavily breathing, barely holding together from falling over completely. That settled it. The bright white eyes of the warrior with a divine purpose pointed his glare. Abomination took it personally in an instant and charged towards him with a single leap.

The odds were not in his favor and Marc was more than aware he was about to get hurt, however, that did not make him want to run away.

Abomination yelped.

In Moon Knight's eyes, widening while his fight stance relaxed confused, Venom's mouth grew bigger until it bit from the back of Abomination's head at least two layers of skin, if not some of the actual flesh too. He spit it right out with hatred while his right arm clawed over the green monster's front, leaving gashes, which though superficial, anchored Venom's hand just about well enough to have a death grip on the thing.

In Clara's perception, she had to shout the reminder that Abomination's flesh was radiated in order for Venom to actually stop chewing on the contaminated skin and spit it out. She was wounded enough without radiation killing off her cells. Of course, that terrifying act Venom indulged with was going to cost them some strength, hence why she directed him to anchor the claws in the flesh, first superficially, then focus on turning them into bigger and bigger spikes, even if that redirected some of Venom to slide off her shoulders.

Abomination squirmed. Five spikes were driving through his chest, his head was hurting, and on top of all of that, his ears rang with a pitched sound which Venom also picked up on. It came from inside Abomination, so he half already let go, the black substance dispersing away from Clara's skin bit by bit because of the high frequency, when Abomination rawred, spun around, and threw Venom off of him to run back into the ocean from which it came.

Venom landed once again on one knee, beside Moon Knight and both their guards dropped momentarily, especially after a splash of Abomination disappearing, retreating. Moon Knight reached his left hand out to pat Venom's hand but only feeling the air movement, Venom turned his head towards the white-caped man and growled.

It didn't last, that little instinct of hatefulness, because Venom retracted right back under Clara's skin, defeated, save, of course, for the left arm which she raised. Her hand stopped on the neck of Michael Morbius, who, in his Vampire look, was about to assume Moon Knight was there to start a fight. Fortunately, for both of them, he was not.

"He's with us," Clara sighed and put Michael back on the ground. Finally, all the Venom was back inside of her and she could finally feel the entirety of the pressure casted on her weakened body.

"With us?" Michael's vampiric features faded away while he casted a concerned glance at Moon Knight, before focusing that concern on analyzing the wounds Clara just got. Once a doctor, always a doctor. Right before he reached out to try and help her at least stand straight, Moon Knight was gone and just Marc was left behind those retracting pieces of the ceremonial suit.

Marc approached her quicker and Clara immediately shook his hand off of her, "We can walk alone."

"Wait, is he the one you were going on a date with?"

"Partially," she mumbled back the answer to Michael's inquiry, while Marc had an answer of his own, that being waving the vampiric man and catching up to the woman limping up the road.

"I'll see ya tomorrow, Morbius, don't you dare think I'll forget to punch you about this mess." Even her threats were shaking. Hence, Marc's ex-military nerve flared its presence and waited no longer for her approval to pick up her left arm and fling it over her shoulders.

"Why isn't your monster healing you now?"

"His name is Venom, and he's too tired to heal me right now."

"Well, we can't have you walking back into the restaurant like a car just ran you over thrice."

If she didn't know better, Clara would say Marc sounded like he actually cared. But she did know better, especially after such a long, shitty day. He wanted her back at that damn restaurant so he could protect Steven, once more, from learning the ugly truths. It was still all about him.

Marc felt the need to exhale gradually, "What else does Venom eat, apart from humans, to get his energy back?" It was odd enough that he jumped right in to save the one who just about a week ago he also beat the shit out of, but it was even odder the fact that he was helping her walk in the prospect of going back to that restaurant Steven left heartbroken.

Heartache. That was exactly why Marc was hesitant of relationships, for himself or for his alters. Because no matter how good a person seems, stuff always gets in the way and if it is not the God of the Moon, then it could always be their mental health or the person's very real human-eating alien.

"Chocolate," Clara answered rather bluntly and it was not until they got to a table in the restaurant, almost the same one Steven left behind, minus the flowers which the waiter had definitely thrown out, that she spoke again, this time to correct Marc's placed order. "Make the second pancake as close to a vegan alternative as you can, please."

It earned Marc's confusion, so, once the waiter left them, rather hurriedly, Clara sighed, leaning back in her seat, "Steven's vegan."

"Really?" Marc raised his eyebrows. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, that pretty much explains why sleep isn't enough to feel rested anymore."

"Thank you," Clara finally mumbled.

"Why are we thanking him?" Venom groaned inside her head.

"Because if he didn't show up, we would have been pretty dead, buddy."

Hearing that out loud addition made it pretty obvious to Marc that Venom must have commented something. It made him smile, "You're welcome, but I didn't do much. Just distracted that thing a little."

"Doesn't change the fact that we were losing the fight," a faint smile was also tugging on Clara's lips, as carefully as she could, because that part of her face had been bruised and cut.

"We need to stop losing fights before Marc assumes we are weak," Venom pouted audibly.

"What was that about anyway? Do you usually try to ditch your dates for close death encounters?"

"No, you're just special like that." It was so easy answering with a little grinned sarcasm while he too tried to bring the same sweet-sourness to the table. "Michael and I prefer feeding off of bad people where possible and we thought we had a lead on a HYDRA regrouping in the port. However, it seems like it was some sort of trap."

"You two fight HYDRA?" Marc was taken aback. It has been heard so much about it at some point that now, the organization the Avengers warned everyone about seemed more of a myth. At least to him.

"Or just about any bitch who thinks they're above the law."

"Sounds familiar, doesn't it, Marc?" Khonshu's voice made him look a little past Clara's shoulder, his gaze unfocusing lightly as he glanced at the Moon God, standing in the far end of the restaurant.

"You okay?" Clara tilted her head to the side, pretty much getting in his view and making him blink back to reality. Since she had noticed him palling, Clara took a moment to look back as well, hoping that she won't see anything concerning to further ruin her day.

Of course, even if Marc knew Khonshu was still there, Clara returned to sitting properly because she saw nothing. "I'm okay," Marc confirmed for her. "But I think I should probably tell you that I didn't come all the way to San Francisco just to give you back your phone."

"That much was obvious," she confirmed. "You may be pretty crazy, but you don't strike me as the obsessive type. None of you do actually." After a small break in which she had hoped for a visible reaction of Marc's to her words, a hope shattered by noticing how unreadable his gaze was to her still, Clara continued, "So why the sudden interest in me? Am I getting a full-time nanny job for Steven now?"

"Please, no," Venom sighed.

Marc huffed a little laugh, "I'm pretty sure you're going to get him to marry you if I leave you two alone for too long again, so no."

"Ouch," Clara grimaced, "why would I do that to poor Steven?"

In the midst of their light amusement blocked by years worth of defenses made on both sides, the waiter returned with two pancakes, one rather simple, placed before Marc, and one filled with chocolate, placed before Clara.

"There's a lot to explain," Marc didn't move to touch his own dessert, content with just watching in real time how after each bite into the chocolate, Clara had even less need of sitting scrunched or visibly holding her ribs under the table, because they've been hurting just about enough to be obvious some bones were broken in there.

Chocolate may not have been as good, nutrient-wise, as brains or lungs or livers, but it did the trick for now, helping Venom heal his host. Cuts were sealing, bruises were trying to disappear, those bones pieced back together. Whatever was left behind unhealed was minor: like a little redness under her right eye.

"And I'll have to let Steven take control now to calm him down..."

Though Clara wanted to point out that these lies were a very troubling way to handle things between his personalities, she didn't wish to chew faster, nor interrupt the man.

"So can we please meet tomorrow again?"

"You're asking me on a second date after this disaster?"

"Not a date," Marc immediately blurted out. "But I just need to explain everything to you and I need you to listen this time, not just punch me."

"You deserved the punch."

"Maybe, but not the second hit."

"If you're waiting for apologies, you're not getting them."

Frankly, he wouldn't have expected anything less from Clara.

"Alright," she finally nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow and I promise we will try to listen to your crazy reasoning to nag me this much." Though she had no idea what exactly were his reasons, Clara could only assume they were as crazy as they got. After all, that's how both of them seemed to be rolling: in the spiral of madness.

He noticed she was a fast eater. Her plate was almost clean. Finally, he studied her face, assessing that she looked presentable enough to not cause Steven any worry-centered distress. Finally, he knew it could be safe to let his alter take over and fix the unexpected turn of events on his own. But, no matter how safe it would have been to assume nothing shocked Clara about him anymore, after having met all his sides in such a short span of days -something she took remarkably well-, Marc still felt uneasy to surrender control while she's watching him.

"Can you please look away for a moment?"

Clara heard his voice grow quieter on that question. It sealed the deal for her to turn her head to the side and pretend she's looking at all the people in the restaurant, trying to spot the waiter.

"Clara?"

She turned her head back to him and the change was so obvious. Unreadable features turned much softer, much more malleable too. Steven was looking back at her now and she knew she had to act like their date has never gone wrong. "Yes?"

author's note:    has anyone noticed hulk's been missing in this universe since age of destruction act i took place in the timeline? 👀 that was fun to mention heh..

also, all the love to -firestar, thank you for this cute moodboard:

& all thanks to Kolinda007 for this beautiful one as well: