"That was just embarrassing."

The world came back to Erika in quiet flashes, just as it always had, the silk sheets beneath caressing her body like a gentle kiss, the light breeze of the open window brushing through her hair, and the symphony of honking cars and the shouting masses grating upon her nerves like a sin. There was a weightless in her unconscious that was nothing short of peaceful, where the symbiote that was both salvation and damnation couldn't reach her, or at least had to sense not to, where the enormity of her own selfish desire for love could no longer disgust her, it was all just so blissfully quiet and she adored it completely.

Only...there was something different about her little sanctuary of home when she woke up that morning, something almost suffocating as her skin rolled in displeasure, like there was thousands of stinging bee's buzzing beneath her skin. And that probably had something to do with the bruised arm that had been slung rather protectively around her hip, tucked up beneath her shirt so his bare palm could splay out against her ribs with his calloused thumb idly tracing little patterns even still in his slumber, and his soft little snores whispered in her ear like a secret kept.

Her heart was pounding and it was bordering on painful, far too aware of her own self as she blinked up at the ceiling and tried to swallow the bile pooling at her throat, far too aware of the noises of life outside and in surrounding her, drowning her in a haze and the awful feeling of her symbiote moving under her fucking skin that was far too sensitive in the open air that made her want to crawl out of the ruined husk of her body and claw at herself until she was raw and bleeding.

And yet she wouldn't, she couldn't, she didn't even dare to entertain the thought of moving to save herself from ruthless filth...because Peter painted such a pretty picture as he slept that she was willing to endure it all and worse if it meant he'd continue to just lay beside her. His lips were a bloodied pout, a light furrow to his brows and there was drool clinging to the corner of his mouth and probably staining her fucking pillow with it, but somehow through it all, he looked so devastatingly beautiful and peaceful that it felt like her gaze was unworthy for merely glancing in his direction as she stared up at him breathlessly.

Erika couldn't even guess just how long she stayed there, staring at him, not even daring to breathe too heavily in fear of waking him up, counting the lashes that painted shadows across his cheeks, every rare freckle scattered on his skin and cursing every bruise and wound that she could see peaking out from beneath his shirt. But she did know that by the time his eyelid began to flutter, and his gentle touch turned to mocking steel as he pulled her further into his side to nuzzle his face against her neck as she continued to stroke along his spine with her palm, the entire left side of her body had went completely and utterly numb.

It seemed to only take another minute before she felt him freeze in the embrace he'd forced upon her as he finally joined the land of the living and awoke property from his deep slumber, his long fingers flexing, kneading against her skin as if just realizing he was holding her so possesively in his unbreakable grip. And then, ever so slowly, he was pulling his body from her own and unsticking his head from where it had been trying to merge with her jaw, blinking up at her, mouth opening to no doubt apologise or something even more idiotic, only to be interrupted as she hissed.

"Do not touch me with your morning breath. You'll give me neurotypical cooties."

And, well, it seemed that her sentimental thoughts full of longing and divine devotion had only lasted a fucking minute before she was back on her usual scheduled bullshit. However, at least it finally gave her a chance, or better yet, an excuse to slip out of intimate embrace that had left her hungry and wanting, untangling herself from his grip and pretending that she couldn't see the hand that had hovered in the space between them, reluctant to be let go as she sat up amongst her sheets and stretched with her weary shoulders popping in sinful satisfaction while she moaned quietly.

"Really? No good morning? How'd you sleep? Just straight into choosing violence." Peter scoffed, cheeks burning and mouth dry as the Sahara as he glared up at the ceiling, looking far, far, far away from the sliver of bronze skin that glowed in the morning light as her shirt rode up with her and feeling very much like a victorian gentleman seeing a woman's bare ankle for the first time. Go away degenerant thoughts, go away, go away, go away.

Unaware of the inner turmoil striking her friend stupid, Erika let out another groan as she finally managed to pull herself from the twisted sheets that had wound around her like enticing pythons, constricting her with the temptation to lay amongst them and ignore the terrors of the day that awaited her...or better yet, ignore the symbiote that was being far too quiet for comfort as she stood upon weary legs. "Please, you're lucky I didn't kick you out the bed last night, twinkletoes. Have you literally ever heard of personal space? You cling to everything like a little octopus, I'm still on the verge of a sensory overload from it."

The bed creaked softly behind her, and she didn't even have to turn around to know Peter had finally sat up, able to hear it in the way he grumbled about how it always violence with her, but his complaining was swift to taper off into a hiss as he accidentally pulled at one of his many wounds. She mocked him under her breath, opening the drawer under her wardrobe and throwing a random shirt over her shoulder in his general direction before grabbing her own, and for a singular moment, debating whether it would be funny to repeat last night and just strip in front of him, just to hear that choked, duck dying squeak from the boy once more.

It was a hilarious thought, really, one of those things that made you bite your tongue to stop yourself from laughing through an awkward silence to not look like some loony strolling their way out of psychoville. However, when she turned around to tell Peter that she was going to grant him mercy and just get changed in the bathroom, only to see him sitting there in her own damn bed...shirtless and bright-eyed and bruised...it was suddenly a whole less funny to be on the receiving end as she froze like a raccoon gallivanting into headlights.

And when he finally looked up at her when that tightly wound silence stretched out, when he looked up at the bliss contorting her features into something hardly recognisable in her devout longing, there was a part of her that wanted to absolutely ruin him, to bite and scratch with human teeth, to pull at desire and yank it out through bloodied ribbons...and then, it felt like she was no longer in control, like her conscious was simply floating above her head, and watching in horror as everything unfolded...when Erika froze, then hunched her shoulders...and fucking moonwalked right on out of the room with the door swinging shut behind her.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!"

Oh look, VENOM has woken up, because obviously things can only get better from here, she though, somewhat hysterically, as still as death itself and staring at the peeling paint of her now closed door with wide unblinking eyes until they fucking burned. His face, Peter's face, did you see his fucking face? Obviously she did, she'd never actually seen someone's jaw physically drop before, she honestly thought that was something that only happened in movies, completely and utterly blank in shock with his head lurching forward...why did she do that? Why the fuck would she do that?

"I don't know. I don't know, I just- I panicked."

"YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!"

The door was opening before she could even reply to that delightful conversation, creaking softly, grating against her ears like nails upon chalk as she contemplated making a run for it down the hall to just throw herself out of the window that was shining like a golden beacon of temptation behind her. What's the worst that could happen? Really? Maybe a couple of broken bones, perhaps the reveal of the symbiote that was spending a vacation living up her ass, or hell she could even a concussion and forget that ever happened, all better options then discussing what she just did.

And since when did she even know how to moonwalk anyway?

It was his chest that Erika seen first- not that she was aiming for it or anything like some sort of deprived sex addict, no, it just happened to be in her direct line of sight, which definitely didn't make things any more awkward than they already were. But when her eyes finally shot up to meet Peters, with the back of her neck and the apples of her cheeks burning hot and flushed, it was to find he had already been looking down upon her, his gentle gaze searing her flesh with the horrifying burden of being known as he stared at her, as she stared back at him, crickets metaphorically chirping as the tense silence washed on over them.

"Why'd you do that?"

SAY SOMETHING YOU LOSER! And good God, she didn't even know anymore if that voice inside of her head belonged to herself or if it belonged to VENOM. Please just say something, say anything, I don't care if it's a lie, you can't just stand here and stare at him, no, now that was definitely her own subconscious with any alien interference...and she could tell because there was no melodramatic 'woe is my appetite' bullshit that the symbiote spewed on the fucking daily, and yet none of it was helping with the problem at hand because she didn't think she'd ever felt more awkward in her entire life.

"...I thought I saw a spider."

"I WILL FIND A NEW HOST."

"You're scared of spiders?"

"...no, not really."

"So why'd you leave?"

"...I don't know."

"LET ME OUT!!!"

Oh this was hell, this was actually hell, she'd died in her sleep and she'd went straight down to hell because of course she would. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with her today? Did she hit her head? Was she coming on her period or something?? How was that even going to work with the alien chilling inside of her body? Could she even get a period anymore? God she hoped not, if anything good came out of having a symbiote whispering in her ear about the temptation of wreaking havoc, she prayed to whatever entity that was watching the shitshow of her life that it was that she no longer had to deal with the parting of the red sea.

And poor Erika was so preoccupied desperately searching for her last scrap of sanity, that she hadn't seen Peter move before it was far too late. Because she'd barely even taken a breath before the boy was crowding her senses once more, enveloping her in his scent, in the warmth of his gaze, trapping her in his gravitational pull that called to her soul like a siren lost to sea. With the back of his hand was pressed ever so gently against her forehead, a simple caress that was careful, that was soft against the ruin of her flesh, as if she was something sacred to touch in an unworthy embrace, like she was something to cradle and not something to devour whole.

WHORE! Okay, no, that one was definitely fucking VENOM,  which was actually all manners of rude, forcing her to open the eyes that she couldn't even remember closing as she genuinely debated risking looking absolutely deranged just to tell the symbiote to shut the fuck up for once. However, before she could, she found her attention captured again as Peter pressed himself ever closer, until there was hardly a lick of space between them, and so heartbreakingly beautiful, that she barely could even hear him over the pounding of her own heart as she froze before him like sinner to saint. "You're kinda hot."

"Thanks, so are you."

"What?"

"What?...What?" 

Why did she say that? Obviously that was not what he'd fucking meant, holy shit. Why the fuck would she say that? Erika was stuck in wide-eyed horror as she registered what she's said with a start, colour draining from her bronze skin and sinking down to into eternal damnation below, hearing the godhonest shrieking of her own conscious that wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she could grasp at the sense that had forsaken her. And it didn't exactly help matters when Peter had yanked his hand back as if he'd been burned, spluttering and stuttering as he stumbled back into the safety of the doorway.

"THROW US OUT OF THE WINDOW! THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION!"

She was swift to glance down the hallway, to the window that was somehow more tempting than before as she debated her symbiotes absolutely stellar suggestion and hoping that the fall would just actually kill her instead of just being a means for escape. But by the time she'd risked a very slow and cautious step towards her possible demise, Peter had seemed to finally catch his bearings as he scratched the back of his neck. "I uh, you- I- uh, I meant that you're warm, you're- you're y'know, you're burning up, like you're sick or something. Not that you're hot like that- not that you aren't, you're very- it's uh-"

"FREE ME!!"