The next morning, Eddie woke up to the gentle nudging of something soft and slightly cold. He groaned in protest and batted it away from his face, only to have it return a few moments later petting his face.

"Eddie. Wake up. Need more chocolate."

The human opened his eyes and sleepily stared at his bedside clock. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and lay back down. "It's 7:00 in the morning, buddy. I think you'll be okay for at least another hour." He said while he closed his eyes again.

The tendril poked his side. "Get up. Hungry! We want food!"

Eddie sighed in annoyance and regretfully threw back the blankets and rose from his bed. "It's always want, want, want with you, isn't it? 'We want food, Eddie, we want this or that.' It gets to be a bit much sometimes, you know that?"

"We are not sorry for it." Venom said defiantly. "Besides, you're hungry, too."

Eddie opened his mouth to say something snarky, when seemingly on cue his stomach growled. He closed his mouth and decided against it.

"Told you." Venom said, sounding pleased that he had been on point. "You are starving like us."

"Alright, fine. You win." Eddie gave in and conceded defeat. "You'll get your stupid chocolate."

"Chocolate is not stupid, Eddie! It is delicious!" Venom argued pointlessly. "It is good for us!"

"It might be good for you, but it certainly is not good for me, especially with the amount that you eat." Eddie said as he put on a clean set of clothes and grabbed his shoes to slip them onto his feet.

Sometime later, Eddie was lying on the ground in his backyard, gazing up at the stars because Venom had insisted that they spend time together, away from judging human eyes. The night was a peaceful one, a soft breeze blowing through the air and scattering dead leaves that had begun to fall from the branches of the surrounding trees.

"This is just what we needed, isn't it, Eddie?" Venom asked in a gentle tone, one of his tendrils draped lazily across his friend's chest. "It is very peaceful tonight, and this is one of the things I love about your planet."

"You like Fall?" Eddie asked with a smile, gently petting the symbiote's tendril. He had to admit that Venom was right about it being peaceful. It was actually really nice. Therapeutic, even.

"Yes. I enjoy it very much." Venom responded, a hint of joy in his voice.

"What do you like most about it?"

"We think you should be asking us a different question," Venom said as a tendril snaked up to rub against Eddie's face, sliding down his throat, to wrap itself around his chest, squeezing gently. "More specifically, how we feel about you."

His host shrugged in answer, giving a small smile. "Okay, how do I make you feel?"

Another tendril cupped his chin, its grasp almost tender and gentle. Venom's face appeared in front of him. "Eddie makes us feel… good." He stroked his friend's face lovingly, affectionately. The human nuzzled the tendril.

"You make us feel…" The symbiote fell silent while he thought of a word to describe the emotion he felt. "…Safe. Like we belong. Like we are home."

Venom retreated back into Eddie's body, the tendrils with it. Eddie felt a small pang of loneliness then, he wanted Venom's body around him, he wanted to feel the symbiote's touch.

"Now tell us how we make you feel." Venom said from within his mind, moving beneath Eddie's bones.

Eddie stared up at the stars as he thought over his answer. He sighed, running a hand through his hair in consideration. Crickets chirped around them, the only light being that of a full moon, shining brightly in the night sky. "Well, I like when you cuddle with me, for starters,"

"You mean like this?" Venom asked, emerging to rest his head on Eddie's chest, his tendrils holding the human tight and safe, wrapping themselves around his torso again.

Eddie blushed, and he found himself sinking into the the symbiote's gentle embrace. He sighed. "Yes, like this," he said softly. "Just like this."

Venom nuzzled his face, licking his cheek to show his affection. "We love our Eddie," he whispered, his tendrils rubbing the human's stomach and face. "We would buy him presents if we could to show how much we love him."

Eddie relaxed further, pointing up at the sky. "Do you see any constellations?" He asked, feeling at peace now. "I only know a few, and I'm not seeing them."

"We see our home world," Venom sauid, using Eddie's arm to point to the left of their position. "It is over there, one of the brightest stars."

Eddie squinted, trying to make out what Venom was seeing. Finally, he spotted it and grinned. "Oh, that one, that's your home planet? It's pretty bright."

"The brightest." The symbiote said proudly, hugging his friend close to him and licking his mouth. "Do we have anymore chocolate?"

"I don't know, buddy," Eddie responded, shaking his head. "Wanna go check?"

"Like you even need to ask such a stupid question," Venom scoffed. "The answer to that question will always be yes."

"Okay, let's go see if we have any more for you." They got up and headed towards the house, Venom's head lying on his shoulder.